Fight The Jiggle

[Missy]

Fight the Jiggle
By Missy Wagner

I decided to name the article Fight the Jiggle because that is the name of my website that I have made which is following me along my journey. But, the article at hand is pretty much just about ways you can prevent loose skin while you are busy losing all this weight. First of all there are many ways to go about making sure you don’t end up with that drooping sagging skin after you lose the weight, but from anything I have seen or heard in the past, the key to this is to lose weight slowly and not lose huge amounts of weight in short periods of time.

One of the first things you can do is make sure you are losing weight slowly. I know how hard it can be to fathom this idea because you just want the extra padding off of you, but you have to remember that “slow and steady wins the race.” I guess the theory behind this is pretty simple. The slower you lose weight, the better your skin will be able to keep up with you and your new changes. Skin has a lot of elasticity, so with the cardio and weight training workouts you should see that skin toning up along with you. On the other hand, if you drop huge amounts of weight over a short period of time, your skin will take a lot longer to adjust to all the changes of your body.

Another pretty simple thing you can do it to eat very nutrient rich foods. Basically if all you are eating is junk food and fast foods, your body is not getting the proper nutrition to keep your skin nourished, strong and healthy. Make sure you pick foods that contain a lot of vitamins and minerals in them, but make sure they are low in sugar, and saturated fats. Include foods high in essential fatty acids such as avocados, olives, oily fish, nuts and seeds and oils made from these. Also make sure you are getting the proper amount of lean proteins each day.

Build up your muscle tone. Basically people who don’t lift any weights, but are still dropping a huge amount of weight by just doing cardio, usually find they are more prone to saggy droopy skin because there is no muscle underneath to fill up the extra space where the fat used to be stored. A lot of women fear that they will “bulk” up or get huge muscles if they lift weights. This is a myth. It’s not true at all. I have discussed this issue with my trainer and he explained to me that you need testosterone in order to make your muscles pump up that big. That’s why men are more likely to put on bulk, but women never will, unless they use some form of steroids. He also told me that I can lift as much weight as I want and I won’t end up looking like a man. So start lifting those weights!

Another very important key is to keep your body hydrated. Water is a good way to have healthy, younger looking skin. It also improves the elasticity of the skin. If you drink wall to wall fizzy drinks, coffee and tea skin suffers because these drinks cause you to be more dehydrated than ever. And diet drinks full of additives do not help your skin no matter how few calories they contain. Only water and pure herbal teas will do the trick. The usual recommendation for daily water intake is about 2 litres a day, that comes out to about 8 glasses, but it’s always better to drink more than that. I usually have between 10-12 glasses of water everyday. If you don’t like the taste of water, you could always squeeze some lemon or lime into your water. I don’t recommend using any of those water flavouring products like Crystal Light. They contain aspartame, which leads to serious health problems as you will note from another article I have written. Lastly, I was told that if your urine isn’t clear…you are not getting enough water!

The last key I have to offer you about preventing loose saggy skin, is to loose weight sooner than later. The older you get, the less elasticity you have in your skin. It’s better to start your weight loss program as soon as you can, so you don’t get that problem of sagging skin. Don’t put yourself onto a yo-yo type diet either where your weight is constantly fluctuating up and down because this is terrible for your skin, and your skin will be less likely to tone up.