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    Exercise to STOP Smoking, Drinking, Stressing... And Lose Weight

    By | Healthy Living – Fri, Jan 13, 2012 8:42 PM EST

    by QuickieChick Laurel House.
    Running on the Beach
    More than helping to fulfill both the intentions of "Getting Fit" and "Losing Weight," exercise can help you quit smoking, minimize your alcohol consumption, stress less, and increase your energy. How?

    1. Lose Weight
    Exercise is known to help you Lose Weight and Get Fit by improving cardio function (translation: strengthening your heart), toning your muscles, and improving your health as a whole.

    2. Increase Your Energy
    Exercise can Increase Your Energy. Odd but true, exhausting yourself during a "good" workout, the kind that leaves you wet with sweat and your muscles sore in the morning, actually energizes both your body and mind. Yes, people who workout tend to have more energy throughout the day, even if they had to wake up early in the morning to slip those 60-minutes of sweating in, then those who snooze instead.



    3. Quit Smoking
    Exercise can help you to Quit Smoking. How? You realize that you have a hard time breathing while working out, illuminating the real effect that smoking has on your body. It's like a wake-up call.

    4. Drink Less Alcohol
    Exercise can help you to Drink Less Alcohol. After a late night out, the next morning, will be hard to wrangle yourself out of bed and into your sneakers. Your head may still be foggy. Your body may beg for you to turn back and get back in bed. But you will push yourself to continue- you made it this far so you may as well keep it up. Ten minutes into it, as you elevate your heart rate, move blood into your muscles and begin to break a sweat, the stench of the booze from the night before will emanate from your pores- you are detoxing that nastiness out… it's a good thing. After an hour your body will be more awake than you've felt in a long time (which is often an odd feeling if your mind is still half asleep… which happens sometimes). Loving the feeling of the natural high and seeing your body start to slim down and your muscles tone up, you will be less likely to let yourself go so party-hardy at night knowing that you have a hard workout ahead of you the next am. You will learn how good it feels to feel good (and not hungover and bloated).
    Sipping a martini
    5. Minimize Stress
    More than that euphoric feeling from knowing that you are working to better yourself, increasing your self-esteem, and achieving mini-goals with every completed session; working out chemically calms you. When you exercise, your blood starts pumping faster through your veins, you take deeper, more cleansing and detoxifying breaths, and your brain releases endorphins- your body's natural "feel good" chemicals. It's those same chemicals that some refer to as "runner's high." In fact, "runner's high" can last much longer than the duration of your actual exercise routine. Some exercisers experience a lightened mood for up to 48 hours after the workout session ends.

    In the end, it's up to you to stick with your New Year's Resolutions. Let's face it; cheating is only lying to yourself. Stop standing in the way of your own success just because you're afraid of failure. The only person you are competing with is you. Prove to yourself that you can do this. Because you can.

    xx
    Laurel House is a Fit Living Expert, 3x published author, and believer in living a life of balance. See more of her "Quickie Tips" on her website QuickieChick.com. Her 4th book- "QuickieChick's Cheat Sheet to Life, Love, Food, Fitness, Fashion and Finance on a Less than Fabulous Budget" (St. Martin's, May 2012) is available NOW for PRE-ORDER.