8 Ways to Fall In Love with Fitness

No, it's not impossible. You can fall in love with exercise instead of having that dreaded feeling every time you lace up your sneakers. The trick to falling in love with fitness is finding something you love to do, and trying new things because you may discover a dormant passion for line dancing, snow shoeing, or even something as exotic as fencing. It's time to uncover your inner athlete and fall in love all over again!

Balls, Bosu and Barrels ? If you were the kid who was always climbing the monkey bars and ropes at the park, you'll have tons of fun getting fit with these fitness tools. Exercise balls can be used for all kinds of abdominal exercises, a Bosu is a neat device for balance training and core stability exercises, and you can use a small barrel for practicing Pilates ? all in the comfort of your own home. So next time your at the park with your kids, they'll be chasing you on the monkey bars!

Square Dancing ? This energetic style of dance may look strange to you ? but it's great exercise ? and great fun! This folk dancing tradition has existed in Canada for hundreds of years and has maintained its popularity as a social activity often deemed friendship set to music. Now this form of dance is even more popular as people are doh-si-dohing their way to being fit! Don't knock IT before you try it! You may forget you're getting fit because you're having so much fun!

Snowshoeing ? Snowshoes are thousands of years old, and Native Canadians used to use snowshoes as a form of transport. Only in the last century has snowshoeing become a recreational sport. Now, Canadians across the country are strapping on their snowshoes and heading for the trails to spend some time outdoors, at one with nature, while boosting cardiovascular fitness and toning their backsides. Today's modern snowshoes are typically lightweight, aluminum frames with fabric decks and strap bindings as opposed to the classic bent-wood frames crisscrossed with rawhide strips. In recent years, many celebrities have talked about the physical benefits of snowshoeing, especially when it comes to toning your glutes and quads.

Snowshoes are inexpensive compared to skis and snowboards, and snowshoeing is not a difficult sport, but don't let that fool you into thinking you are not getting a good workout. Using poles, whether specially designed for snowshoeing or made for cross-country skiing, they will help you maintain balance and give your upper body a good workout too, especially when you're doing some intense climbing.

Buddy Up! ? It's no secret that having a fitness buddy helps get you going. Let's face it, when your doorbell rings at 6 a.m., you're not going to hide under the covers and ignore your buddy. Or, when your work buddy grabs you for your daily lunchtime power walk, you're less likely to sit at your desk and graze. A workout buddy provides a little extra incentive to get you going, and a little less response time to say no to exercise!

Feel Good in Fun Clothes! ? Remember the old adage about how when you look good, you feel better? This goes for the gym too. If you buy yourself some fun fitness clothes that you feel good in, you are more likely to have more confidence in yourself and as a result, push yourself harder at the gym. Stores like Winners and The Bay offer great deals on workout clothes that are able to stand up to any fitness test. Remember, if you look the part, you're more likely to feel the part!

Bring the Outdoors Inside ? So what if the temperature is way below zero and the wind chill is making you shake like a leaf. Quit lamenting warm days gone by, and bring your beloved outdoor sports indoors. Shed all your layers, and find an indoor rollerblading rink, grab your tennis partner and hit your local tennis club, climb the rock wall at your local YMCA, hit a spinning class, or throw on your bathing suit and swim laps at your local pool. Create your own warmth, and you won't be missing those days any longer.

Position Yourself Properly ? Sometimes watching others can give you just the boost you need to get going at the gym. Look around you and position yourself next to someone who inspires you and watch yourself take off! You'll soon be running to keep up with them...

Take Your Toddler With You? Most mothers never know when they'll be able to squeeze in a little exercise time while running their kids around all day. Nowadays, many gyms have daycares, but if you don't want to leave your children, you can exercise with them! Of course, you can run around outside all together, play in the snow, and build snowmen. But, if it's too cold, why not try a kid-friendly Pilates video? Most companies which sell Pilates videos have kid-friendly ones too. Your kids will have a blast getting fit with you while trying all those fun exercises!

Richard Moore is the Founder an President of Everything Health and Beauty! For Men and Women Our WebMall is quickly becoming one of the most trusted and easy to use collection of shopping stores to create a fun and relaxing online shopping experience...and we are constantly searching for other stores with quality products, great prices and top notch customer service. If there is a shop you like...please tell us about it and we will do our best to put it on our site. Our goal is to have everything you need for your Health, Beauty, Fitness and Wellness needs... all in one place.

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The Mirror of Beauty

The probe of human mind has marked every inch of success but the art of drawing parallels for what beauty is, has remained a great mystery. For some philosophers, beauty is the degree of attraction and admiration, provoked in an observer. But it is argued that the same beauty does not affect everyone the same way. It varies dramatically. A few think thanks have defined it as a degree of perfection, but perfection in one field may not be of any interest to an observer. So beauty is very difficult to explain fully, but it may be said that it is a game of comparison. Suppose there is only one woman in the world, now question is whether she is beautiful or not. The answer unambiguously is that you can?t say anything because you don?t have another woman to compare with.

But sailing beyond the ocean of imagination, one realizes that there is a factor that determines the degree of beauty, i.e. a personal dictionary, which translates the mortals and assigns degree of beauty. The holy words of human history will peep out from the gale of truth and will strongly proclaim that Juliet was a goddess for a Romeo a god for her and rest, the particles of dust. Heer for ranjha was enough, and he for her, to lead whole their life together with few straws of love. But remember, if all the lovers of the world of the world are invited to a party to ask who amongst all is the most beautiful, they certainly shall stamp the claim of beauty on the hearts and souls of their own beloved which indeed is not their narrow-mindedness but a natural fact that ?beauty lies in the eyes of beholder?.

One day a great historian whispered in my ears a story? ?once upon a time there was king so fond of beauty that he called his most loyal and faithful negro slave and ordered him to go from east to west and from north to south and fetch him such a paragon of beauty that neither moon would have risen with such splendors nor the oysters of ocean would have given birth to such magnificent pearls; neither ladies of paradise would have looked so charming not the preachers of beauty would have been able to give such bewitching example, neither any artist would have created such mind blowing portrait nor a poet from the depth of his imagination would have been able to compose such riveting verse; neither any dove would have its pinion soar such marvelously not the Aphrodite would have marked such excellence. And if I say for her that she is the most beautiful spirit God ever created, then the claimants of beauty should have said:? we are like lumps of coal in a mine and she a diamond among us.? So, go my man whose head crown of my faith rests, on whose shoulders stars of firm belief shine and on whose chest medals of sure obedience are stamped. Go and present me the beauty that should be praised and witnessed by the twinkling stars.?

The negro servant bowed down and went away calmly to the peaks from where the sun pierced its shining fingers into the dark curtains of night, from where Shakespeare and Shelley enjoyed drinks of inspiration, from where the portrait of Mona Liza was found and from where moon extracts its gleaming light; and thus he went through plains to mountains, through valleys to deserts, through unfathomable cares to celestial cities and through each and every inch of this world where life seemed breathing.

After indefatigable efforts, he went to the king, presented him what seemed the goddess of beauty to him, his Negro daughter. At this, the king asked, ?did you not find any soul more beautiful than this??

He kept silent for a while, then raised his head and said: ?Your Excellency, my blood shall be showered in your feet if I speak but the truth. You asked me to bring Aphrodite but I brought my Negro daughter; the reason was my loyalty. Your Excellency, for you her black complexion may seem coal in the dark but for me it is as beautiful as back rose or a diamond. To you her dry hair may look like that of a witch of some old myth dancing in woods but for me her hair is no less than the curtains of paradise. To you her wrinkled hands may seem as a deserted sight of this land but to me they seem as gods, to cope up the world?s fate in it has sketched these lines on it. To you her eyes may seem as those of angels when embodying eyes have mistaken but to me success. To you her wide nose may seem as dark, unfathomable caves of stone ages but to me it is no less than Noah?s Ark. Therefore, Your Excellency, my obedience and loyalty to you compelled me to bring my daughter to you.?

Then the historian smiled and said, ?Yes! Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder.?

In quest of defining and explaining the beauty, two schools of thought have emerged so far. One proclaims importance of inner beauty and the other preaches the pleasure presented by worldly beauties. But in fact all beautiful things are not necessarily good, charming and attractive but all good and true things are always beautiful. Therefore, it is well said by Keats:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, That?s all ye know on earth And all ye need to know.?

The school of thought preaching inner beauty bore these words on the preface of its textbook:

?History is evident that the world has given birth to many worldly beauties which only could help to quench the thirst of people and awake beast in them. Many beauties passed by without any notice but the beauty of soul and conscience has claimed triumph over hearts of millions and marked its eternal existence. The people blessed with purity of soul, truthfulness of their conscience, goodness of their deeds and firmness of their faith have succeeded to scratch their name on the forehead of this earth and lead their nation to the peals of glory. And thus they are still breathing in the hearts of many mortals. Nobody asks whether Aristotle was handsome or not, whether Alexander was strong tall in stature or not and whether Anarkali when buried alive inside the walls posed like a queen or not. People do not ask such questions, but everybody does ask that how they climbed to success inch by inch. The open secret of their success, in fact, is their character, behavior, determination, zeal and enthusiasm which contributed towards their success and inner beauty.?

On the contrary, the school of thought preaching worldly beauty is thanking his God in these words:

?Thanks my God, for you have blessed us such beauties, whose single glance shuns off our day-long tiredness, whose heart may prove as a place of eternal peace to our souls, whose sight reminds us of your Excellence. Thanks my God, you have bestowed upon us such beauty, the wish to achieve, which proves a source of fuel for our body, mind and soul. This beauty has decorated this terrifying and worthless world; and it cheers us up when we are cooped in the cells of gloom, worries and misfortunes. Oh God! Really the beauty that you have blessed us with is a source of living in this frightful world.?

In fact, since the creation of this universe, beauty has been neglected and stigmas of frailty have been marked on its forehead. Beauty seems to be an emblem of nothing but thirst rubbing machine. Those who dwell in this world have been really mistaken in understanding the true beauty. When the beauty reigns its lost crown these mortals will see with their eyes open and sense smelling the truth that worldly beauty was just a mirage. Praise be to the Lord, who gifted us these praiseworthy inner beauties which indeed enabled mankind to kindle flames of love even in the dark. And, therefore, we must stop lauding the beauty only. We should also extol its creator, the Almighty GOD.

NAVEED AHMED CHANDIO, A person with bundles of knots to untie. The thinking fuel for him has been love, beauty and the inner rebelion. Most of the times, he would prefere to let the things be interwoven for the beauty of life remains in having some reason to fulfil. He is a fairly good student of Nature and feels proud of it. The unthoughtfulness, cruelity, trachery and hatred are few things that he never liked or perhaps he never got aware of. Naveed chandio lives in karachi, Pakistan.

Make An Easy Lotion For Your Skin

Years ago I found out how incredible easy it is to make lotion. It is so inexpensive and organic that I wondered why anyone would even consider spending a dime on the chemical rich lotions on the market.

Besides I had an added incentive, I have eczema, so I am extremely sensitive to what I put on my skin. Making my own lotion was a great alternative for me.

To begin, for a lotion base all you need is water, oil and an emulsifier. An emulsifier is simply an ingredient that blends the water and oil together. Here is the base that I begin with to make my lotion:

? cup distilled water
? cup oil (I usually use olive, almond, macadamia nut, or grape seed)
1 TBS liquid lecithin

You can experiment from here by adding essential oils, combining other oils; you can steep beneficial herbs into your water before you add your oil, etc?

Here is a nice winter lotion to get you started:

? cup distilled water
? cup olive oil
1 TBS lecithin
6-8 drops of geranium oil
2-4 drops Myrrh oil
400 IU Vitamin E oil (1-2 open capsules)

Geranium oil is good for supporting balance and rejuvenating dry skin conditions and for wrinkled and matured skin. Myrrh is a gentle oil that is effective in replenishing moisture.

Vitamin E oil is an excellent antioxidant and helps to protect the skin as well as a nice preservative.

Blend all ingredients in the blender either on whip or cream. You will have a nice creamy firm lotion. Add more water to make a lighter lotion. Store in the refrigerator in hot climates or store in a cool place. Shake well before use.

Enjoy your lotion. Hopefully this little recipe will inspire you to become creative!

About The Author

Danielle Sims explored her library of alternative health, herbal books, and aromatherapy books and created a blueprint for making her own body wrap formulas at home. Now she offers this information in an e-book entitled Wrap Yourself Slim: Body Wrap Exposed. Monthly newsletter is also available at her web site. for more information go to http://www.wrapyourselfslim.com

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