Thousands of people are joining gyms nationwide this month. Consumers should choose their workout facility carefully — hundreds go out of business each year and customers who’ve paid membership fees upfront wind up losing out.

That’s why it’s important for consumers to make sure their gym is properly bonded and licensed. Surety bonds are three-party agreements that basically give consumers a way to recoup losses if they’re financially harmed by a business.

Many states require health and fitness clubs to post a bond with the state’s attorney general’s office. The bond is basically a guarantee, backed by an insurance firm or surety company. If the gym winds up going out of business, customers can file a claim against that surety bond and feel secure that the bond issuer and the state Attorney General will ensure pre-paid fees are refunded.

Gyms that purchase a surety bond offer consumers a degree of financial protection and peace of mind. Facilities without surety bonds may shutter their doors without notice and leave customers in the lurch. At that point, you’re talking about lawsuits and lawyer fees to get your money back.

Starting a gym membership is a great way to make good on those New Year’s resolutions. Before inking a contract, though, consumers should do some homework and make sure their prospective health and fitness club has the proper licensing and bonding.

Check with the Better Business Bureau or your state’s Consumer Protection or Attorney General’s office to learn more about a particular facility.

The National Association of Attorneys General has an interactive state map on their home page if you have trouble finding contact information.

Chris Birk is a principal at SuretyBonds.com and a former newspaper and magazine writer. You can reach him at chris@suretybonds.com.

img credit: Danny Key

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It seems like eating fast food is the easiest and cheapest way to eat. Now almost every fast food place has a dollar menu, which means you can drive through and pick up a greasy burger, French fries and a large drink for three dollars or less. Another obstacle is that with most people having to work to make ends meet, it is hard to find the time to go to the grocery, pick out healthy foods and prepare them with enough time to complete other responsibilities.

Since it is so easy to get side tracked when trying to provide and nourish ourselves and our family with good foods it is important to realize that it doesn’t have to be hard to eat healthy. There are many ways to eat healthy in a cheap and quick way. Don’t let all the negative things get in your way when it comes to eating healthy. Your mind, body and soul will all benefit from eating good food, so stay positive.

One great way to save time and money is to prepare a few of your favorite dishes on a slower day and then freeze them in containers for the rest of the week. When you want the meal then just thaw the food in the container, warm it in the microwave or stove and then you’ve got a great meal in less than a half an hour!

Other great foods you don’t have to prepare to eat are fruits and vegetables such as celery, carrots, lettuce salads, oranges, apples, bananas, etc. Fish and legumes are also great choices that take little time to prepare.

Eating healthy is just like anything else you try to do there will be lots of easy ways out and it will seem tempting and easier just to give up and eat junk food but if you stick to eating healthy you will reap great benefits and feel great too!

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One thing that most fitness experts will agree on though, is the incredible weight loss benefits of eating 6 meals a day as opposed to eating 3. By breaking up your meals into 6 small meals you are speeding up your metabolism, which means the food you do eat is broken down more quickly.

Just as important, if not even more important, is the fact that you will very rarely be hungry since you are eating so frequently. This means you won’t get those incredible urges to eat until you’re stuffed, which slows down your metabolism even more than its normal 3 meal a day speed.

To add on to it, since large meals cause most people to be sluggish and sit/lay around, you may very well be more active, which obviously means even more calories burnt!

When it comes down to it you’re eating the same amount of food, you’re just eating smaller portions. It may seem hard to believe that you can lose weight by eating the same amount of food just spreading it out throughout the day, but it’s proven and very true!

Go ahead, give it a shot. Whether you’re just trying to shed a couple extra pounds or you have lots of fat to lose, 6 meals a day works!

img credit: Kanaka

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That was until I came across a picture of myself that was about 7 or 8 months old at the time. It seemed like I looked fatter and less tone, so I compared it to a recent picture and I was AMAZED! I couldn’t BELIEVE the difference!

It made me realize a few things that I believe to be VERY important for anyone who is just starting a fitness regiment.

1. Muscle weighs more than fat! – If you’re doing ANY amount of increased activity including exercise, chances are you’re building muscle, whether you realize it or not. This means that if you weigh yourself frequently you may not lose any weight at all (the confidence killer.) Wouldn’t it be horrible if you quit because of that? MANY people do!

In some cases you may actually GAIN weight. BUT that’s not necessarily a bad thing! There are several benefits to increased lean body mass (muscle.) The more muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn and the better you will look (in most cases anyway, you get the point I think.)

2. Take “before and after” photos! – I say this primarily due to #1 and because it’s hard to see a difference when you see yourself in the mirror every day. The same goes for people around you. They see you everyday, so it’s hard for them to see a difference, when in fact, there could be a big change!)

It’s not arrogant to want to look good. Instead of weighing yourself, take a picture of yourself when you first start your fitness kick. Then take another picture every month or two and compare (the confidence builder.) There’s a good chance you’ll see a difference, which will give you even more confidence and motivation to make next month’s photo even more drastic!

photo credit: AndyNoise.com

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So how do we do it? Obviously eating right and exercising are very important, but if you don’t work on increasing your metabolism it could take longer than expected!

In other words, if you want to burn fat, you need to speed up your metabolism! Fortunately there are several things you can do, which help do that very thing:

Eat more frequently, but reduce the quantity
This is something that is getting more and more press these days and for good reason! It’s recommend that you eat every 3 hours, but less volume. So, one plan could be to eat breakfast as normal (you heard right, it really is the most important meal of the day,) but split your lunch and dinner each into 2 half portions, equaling 4 small meals (5 counting breakfast.) Eating smaller portions more frequently causes your metabolism to work almost constantly, so it actually tricks it into burning more!

Consume more Protein
Protein isn’t just for body builders! Protein is mostly made of Amino Acids, which are harder for your body to burn than carbohydrates and fat. Because of that, your body burns more calories breaking down those amino acids. So go to GNC, or wherever, and get a big tub of protein and start drinking protein shakes after every workout, whether you’re trying to build muscle or not, but ESPECIALLY if you’re trying to build muscle mass!

Lift Weights
Speaking of building muscle, it’s said that one pound of muscle burns almost 10 times as many calories as one pound of fat! When you strength train your metabolism goes into overdrive and it settles back down hours after your workout. Protein increases metabolism on it’s own and it also helps improve overall muscle gain, so protein and strength endurance combined will really increase your metabolism and strength! And the more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism will get.

Eat spicy stuff
I know some people hate spicy foods, I was one of those people until I started having a really odd craving for spicy foods a few months back. Jalapeno and Cayenne peppers contain a compound called Capsaicin, which research has shown temporarily increases the rate of your resting metabolism.

Interval Workouts
People who do repetitions of high-energy cardio bursts can lose twice as much weight as those who do steady workouts. Going from aerobic (low intensity) to anaerobic (high intensity) combines the best of both worlds. During the aerobic phrase of the workout you’re burning optimal fat. During the anaerobic phrase you’re improving your overall cardio and making your body work harder. So doing different types of interval training, like circuits etc. are a great way to increase your metabolism and improve your overall fitness.

Drink Cold Water
Drinking water in general is an essential part of health in general, but it’s very important in weight loss believe it or not! Not drinking enough water can and most likely will slow down your metabolism and digestion. It will also cause a decrease in energy, which 99% of the time will mean less activity and less activity means less calories being burned!

Drink at LEAST 64 ounces of water every single day and the colder the better! Research has proven that cold water can actually burn more calories than room temp. water!

img credit: Fuschia Foot

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But did you know that lower body training can and will actually improve your upper body results and vise versa? Yep, it’s true!

You see, Your legs are full of muscle. This muscle is comprised of LOTS of muscle fiber, even more than your upper body. When you do any weight training lots of different hormones are released into the body. These hormones play an important part in building lean muscle mass!

Think of the muscle fibers in your body as release mechanisms. When you subject them to heavy weight, they release testosterone, growth hormone etc. which in turn helps the other muscles in your body (your upper body) grow!

Is Running Good Enough? – No, it helps, but to really get optimal hormone release you need to subject your lower body to deep, somewhat strenuous repetitions.

So, to make a long story short, working your lower body helps your upper body grow as well and vise versa!

And of course there are the other obvious reason to work your lower body like improved balance (balance is very important in regards to overall fitness,) injury prevention and ensuring you don’t have a unbalanced body in general (big upper body, small lower body.)

img credit: orionoir

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But, what if you just can’t physically do them? The answer, without a doubt, is assisted pull-ups!

Just like we crawl before we walk, some of us need assistance to get to that walking stage (resistance for the running stage) and you would be surprised how quickly you can go from 0 pull-ups to 5, 10 or more just by starting off with assistance!

Most modern gyms have assisted pull-up/chin-up machines that are perfect for this. These machines usually have bars for assisted dips too, which is always an excellent exercise, but if you don’t have access to this equipment, all you need is a workout partner. They’ll just grab your legs and help you up, but only what you need! You should still be working HARD to pull yourself up there. The workout partner is only there to ensure you do get up there!

I personally went from 1 pull-up unassisted, to 10 pull-ups unassisted after only 2 weeks on the assisted pull-up machine! It’s extremely effective and you’ll be amazed how much muscle mass you can and will develop by integrating pull-ups and chin-ups into your regular work-out routine!

img source: Brinas mom

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