Helping You Lose Weight and Eat Better, The Awesome Way!
Every post on Pretty Awesome Fitness, newest first: fitness, nutrition, self-improvement, free fat burning workouts and Bet On Yourself.
What if your diet came with real money on the line? A small industry has grown up around exactly that idea. You stake cash on your own weight loss, and you either win it back with a profit or lose it. Here is how the three best-known options work, who they suit, and the traps to avoid. Most of us…
Poker does not look like a sport. Nobody runs, nobody sweats. Yet ask anyone who has played deep into a major tournament and they will tell you that the last hours are as much a test of stamina as of skill. That is why more and more serious players treat fitness as part of their game. The best-known example is…
Losing $50 feels worse than winning $50 feels good. That simple quirk of human psychology explains why casino players chase their losses, why people keep paying for gyms they never visit, and why putting money on the line can be one of the most effective diet tools there is. In 1979, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky published prospect theory…
"Low-carb dieters were twice as likely to succeed." "This food cuts your risk by 30 percent." Health headlines are full of odds and percentages, and they are easy to misread. The clearest way to understand them is to borrow the maths every casino runs on. Probability is the chance something happens, from 0 to 1 (or 0 to 100 percent)…
Las Vegas is built to keep you up late, eating well and sitting at the tables. It is also, surprisingly, one of the easiest cities in America to stay active in, if you know how. Here is how to enjoy the casinos, shows and buffets and still come home feeling good. The Las Vegas Strip runs for roughly 4.2 miles…
Every office has one: the colleague who announces a step challenge in January, a whiteboard full of names, and a five-dollar pot that somehow becomes the most talked-about thing in the building. Done well, workplace fitness challenges with small friendly stakes get people moving. Done badly, they cause injuries, resentment and awkward conversations about weight. Two forces do the heavy…
Since the US Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting in 2018, legal sportsbooks have opened in most US states, and betting apps have put live odds on millions of phones. For many fans that means more games watched, more hours on the sofa and more snacks. It does not have to. An American football broadcast typically…
The all-you-can-eat buffet is as much a part of Las Vegas legend as the slot machine. For anyone trying to eat well, it is also the ultimate test: unlimited food, one fixed price and a little voice saying "get your money's worth". Here is how to enjoy it and still feel good afterwards. The Las Vegas buffet is usually traced…
Diets. The dreaded D word. It is the thing we start when we feel a little heavy, a little bloated and a little out of shape. But before you spend money and months on a plan, it helps to know whether that plan is any good. It is frustrating to follow a programme rigidly and get mediocre results, and even…
Welcome to the second PAF Free Fat Burning Workout. This one is short and sweet, but it works your whole body. Seven moves, 30 seconds each, for 15 minutes. Warm up first. Set an interval timer for 30 seconds of work. Go through the seven moves in order, rest as much as you need between rounds, and keep going until…
Welcome to the first PAF Free Fat Burning Workout. Each workout in this series takes 30 minutes or less, so there is no excuse not to move a little more. Workout 1 looks simple, but looks can be deceiving. All you need is 20 minutes, a pair of dumbbells (or two filled water bottles) and these four moves. Warm up…
Irregular mealtimes, food eaten on the bus, lunch wolfed down between meetings. Many of us eat fast without noticing. Slowing down is one of the simplest, cheapest habits for better digestion and easier weight control. We live in a rushed, distracted world. It is easy to finish a meal in five minutes: one bite, a few chews, swallow, repeat. The…
Cold mornings, dark evenings, snow, deadlines. Showing up is the hardest part of any workout. Motivation comes and goes, so instead of relying on it, it pays to understand how habits actually form. Turning up to every workout is really a new habit replacing an old one ("I usually skip at least one session a week"). Neuroscientists link well-worn habits…
Nurses, paramedics, factory workers, airline crews, hospitality staff and casino dealers keep the world running around the clock. Shift work also makes it harder to sleep, eat well and exercise, and long-term night work is linked with higher risks of weight gain, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The good news: some practical habits make a real difference. Before fixing…
One of the most common questions we receive goes like this: "I want to lose weight fast. Which is better, low carb or low fat?" It is a fair question, and the answer is more interesting than either camp usually admits. We do not like one-size-fits-all plans, because people have different needs, health conditions and preferences. But we can look…
Warming up is a love-hate affair. Sometimes we do it, sometimes we skip it, and most of the time we do it because we have heard it is good for us rather than because we know why. Here is why it matters, and five simple dynamic stretches to get you moving. Think of a warm-up in two parts, taking about…
"I'm busy, but I really want to start exercising." If that is you, between work, family and everything else, here is the good news: you can make a real start with seven minutes a day. In 2013, exercise physiologists Brett Klika and Chris Jordan of the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Florida, described a high-intensity circuit in the ACSM's Health…
Imagine training every day, preparing for a half marathon, eating sensibly, and still feeling heavier. A body composition check shows your body fat has gone up. It sounds impossible, but it happens, and one possible culprit is doing too much with too little recovery. Most people struggle to exercise enough. A smaller group has the opposite problem: they train so…
"I'm trying to lose fat. Is it okay to cheat once a week? Will it undo all my work?" It is one of the most common questions in weight loss, and the honest answer is: it depends on you. Many people start a diet with six strict days and one free-for-all day. It feels great at first. Then, as the…
Protein has an image problem. Some people still worry that eating more of it will make them "bulky". In reality protein is one of the most useful tools for losing fat while keeping muscle, and most people trying to lose weight benefit from a little more of it. Proteins are large molecules made from chains of amino acids, often called…
"No carbs for me, I'm trying to lose weight." Sound familiar? Carbohydrates are probably the most feared macronutrient in the diet world. The truth is less dramatic: carbs are not bad. The type and the amount make all the difference. Carbohydrates are one of the three macronutrients, alongside protein and fat. Chemically they are saccharides (from the Greek word for…
Fat loss, fat loss, fat loss. Everyone wants it. But is it better to run for 30 minutes four times a week, lift weights, or sprint up a hill? Let's put the three main training methods head to head. The golden rule first: for weight loss, what you eat matters more than which workout you choose. You cannot easily out-train…
Calories get a bad reputation. Counting them can be a hassle, and nobody really knows how many are in that slice of salami. But calories are not the enemy. You need energy to breathe, think, digest and move, and understanding how your body uses it makes every other nutrition decision easier. You do not have to count calories forever to…
Ask a trainer which body parts people most want to change and you will hear the same three answers: belly, thighs and backside. Spot reduction does not exist, but there is one exercise that trains almost your whole lower body and core at once and burns plenty of energy doing it: the squat. Like the push-up, the squat recruits a…
Push-ups are one of the best exercises ever invented. You need no equipment, you can do them anywhere, they train your chest, shoulders, arms and core at once, and there are dozens of variations. But plenty of people do them wrong, which wastes effort and can strain your shoulders or lower back. A push-up is a bodyweight pressing exercise. It…
You started strong, the first kilos came off, and now the scale has not moved for weeks. Plateaus are frustrating, but they are normal, and there is usually a reason. Here are five of the most common, and what to do about them. A magazine promises abs in three weeks. It sounds great, so you start. By day 20 there…
