Fitness Fridays| Little changes equal big changes

Image taken from We Heart It

So a few of the past Fitness Friday articles may have been a little daunting or a too big of a challenge for some of my lovely readers and followers. Therefore today I am offering some advice on the little changes that everyone can make that will make a big change to your life and health, so here we go;

1. Eat before you exercise- research shows that your body burns the same amount of fat whether you eat before exercise or not. However exercising on an empty stomach means you exhaust your supply of glycogen (this is glucose you store for energy). If you do this you will end up burning more your muscle instead of building it... not good girls!
2. Combine your strength exercises- do not just lift your arms weights while standing still. If you are doing arms lifts with your free weights, combine these movements with squats, as the more muscles you use at the same time the more calories you will burn. Don't over do it though! 
3. Beware of mini-sized snacks- you may think eating snack size treats is being good, however studies have shown that it is easy to overeat these. This is because it makes it harder to stick to one portion, your silly little mind believes that because the calorie count is so low on these snacks, you convince yourself that its OK to have seconds. Its OK if you have the iron will and will power, but just be careful girls! 
4. Reduce your rest time- The fewer rests you do mean you do the same amount of work, but in less time, therefore reducing your workout time, or meaning you can do twice as much work in the same amount of time. In a study, it was found that people who waited 35 seconds between exercise sets lost 27% more body fat than those who rested for three minutes.
5. Eat protein at every meal- Please please so this girls! This will dramatically change your diet for the better, so if you make one change do this! You will fell fuller for longer, which prevents you from snacking. The best sources are eggs, lean meat and fish, and nuts.