boost your fitness results

5 Tips for Better Workout Results

I’ve got a list of 5 simple things you can do to get better results from your workouts.

By “results,” I mean noticeable changes in your stamina, strength, energy, and overall fitness.

Before I get into the tips, I want you to remember one thing that will help drive all of those results:

YOU ARE AN ATHLETE in training, no matter how young or old you are, or your current fitness or activity level.

You are training for your BEST LIFE.

Having a fit, strong, and healthy body that can help you make the MOST of every single day is something worth fighting for!

My hope is that these tips will help you save time and get super focused so that the time you spend working to improve your health and fitness creates the results you want!

Tips To Improve Your Workout Results

5 Ways To Boost Your Workout Results

 

1: Set your priorities

In other words: Get excited about a goal! Want to be able to do 10 push-ups or pull-ups? Run 3 miles without stopping? Add distance to your golf drive?

As adults, we often write off those goals as silly or frivolous. They aren’t! They can add a fun factor to your routine (and also a clear purpose).

Setting priorities gives you focus and a purpose.

 

2: Have a plan

Now that you have a priority, create an intentional workout program – and make sure to include the RIGHT kinds of exercises to hit your goals.

Example: if you want to be able to do 10 push-ups, running 3 days a week won’t help you with that. But building your strength (especially core and upper body) will.

 

3: Periodize for progress

This is related to creating a plan … it’s making sure your routine grows and changes as you get more fit. Trainers call this “periodization.”

If you always do the same exercises the same way, eventually you’ll plateau.

Your workouts should challenge you just enough to move you closer to your goals, but not so much that you feel drained, overly sore, or get injured. This is where having an experienced coach can help — we know how to keep the progress going and continually challenge you safely!

 

4: Eat to support your goal

First: Make sure you’re eating a high-quality diet, filled with nutrient-dense food in the right portions for your activity level.

Then: Come up with a snack strategy to refuel right after your workout. Aim for a carb-protein mini-meal to give your muscles a jump start on recovery.

 

5: Reset, Recover & Rest

Your workouts create stress in your body (it’s good stress, but it’s still stress).

That’s why it’s so important to give yourself time to reset, recover, and rest afterward.

Not only will it help you get the best results from the workout you just did, but it helps your body get ready for your NEXT workout.

On a practical level, this means taking 24-48 hours between strength workouts to let your muscles repair and rebuild.

It also means getting 7-9 hours of quality sleep every night so your body can restore your immune function, balance your hormones, and remove waste.

 

 

So there you have it!

These five tips will help you take your workouts to the NEXT LEVEL and help you hit your workout goals faster.

 

 Committed to your success,
 
Coach Becky
 
 

Feeling like you don’t know what to do or where to start to improve your workout results? It might be time to hire a professional coach!  We can take the guesswork out of what to do, how to do it and how to manage your nutrition to get the results you desire. Coaching can take you where you want to go in less time than you can get there on your own!

 Want to chat?  Fill in the form below and we’ll set up a time for a 30-minute complimentary strategy session to help get you going in the right direction!

The Best Way to Get Fit

Talk to 10 people and you’ll get 10 different opinions on the best way to get fit.





One will tell you to attend an aerobics class. Another will swear by jogging. Yet another will tell you that dance and biking worked for them.





The truth is, there are lots of ways to improve your fitness. I’m slightly biased here, but I’m going to tell you that one of the best ways to get fit and improve your fitness (whether your goal is weight loss, improved strength, or less pain from arthritis) is to do strength training exercises regularly. 

 



Before I get into the details, it’s important that we agree on the definition of ‘fit’.

WHAT IS FIT?

 

Far too often, “thin” is mistaken for fit, and that’s not what you should strive for.

 

When someone is thin but has very little muscle tissue, they aren’t truly fit in my opinion! And I’ve trained some “skinny fat” people in my day ;-).

 

Here’s why thin doesn’t equal fit:

  • Their body fat percentage will be higher than ideal—even though you won’t see a lot of fat on them, if their muscle percentage is low, fat percentage will be higher.
  • Their resting metabolism will be low, since little muscle is present to burn calories at rest.
  • Their body won’t be functionally strong, which will lead to injuries, frustrations and likely more pain from arthritis.

See how this 48 year old woman transformed from skinny fat to fit by 50 here

So how does one get truly fit? Here’s my one-stop shopping answer:

RESISTANCE TRAINING

 

Resistance training is when resistance is used to challenge your muscles in order to gain strength and endurance. You could do this with traditional weights, exercise bands, medicine balls, cable machines, sandbags, kettlebells or even just using your own body weight.

 

Consistent resistance training has the following side effects…

 

  • Strength and muscle tone
  • Cardiovascular capacity
  • Speed, Agility and Flexibility
  • Resistance to injury and disease

 

If that’s not enough to convince you that resistance training is one of the top ways to improve overall fitness, read on…

If that’s not enough to convince you that resistance training is one of the top ways to improve overall fitness, read on…

TOP 9 BENEFITS TO RESISTANCE TRAINING:

 

To Build Muscle and Gain Strength: Don’t worry, ladies. This does NOT mean that you’re going to ‘bulk up’ or look too masculine. What will happen is that your arms, belly and legs will become tighter, leaner and more defined.

 

To Lose Fat: When it comes to losing size, all that you want to see go is fat, not muscle. Strength training ensures that you maintain and grow those muscles and only lose fat.

 

To Build Strong Bones: The older we get, the more important our bone density is. A good strength training program is one of your best defenses when it comes to osteoporosis.

 

To Alleviate Anxiety, Stress and Depression: Sure there are plenty of pills out there that claim to give these benefits, but you and I both know that strength training is a more wholesome and effective way. And besides, who really wants all those pharmaceutical side effects?

 

To Sleep Better: Here’s another pill you can stop taking once you start strength training. Study after study has proven that strength training improves sleep.

 

To Improve Chronic Back Pain: If you are one of the millions across the globe who suffer from back pain, you’ll love the benefit of decreased pain.

 

To Improve Insulin Sensitivity: Today diabetes is a huge threat. Minimize your risk by improving insulin sensitivity through regular, challenging strength training.

 

To Improve Your Good to Bad Cholesterol Ratio: Here is yet another pill that you could potentially stop taking while on a strength training routine. Blood pressure and heart health are of utmost concern, so why not give yourself the advantage of a strength training routine?

 

To Raise Your Metabolism: This helps to reduce body fat and to keep that body fat off, even on the days that you aren’t able to exercise. Pretty awesome, right?

TAKEAWAY

A solid resistance training routine will tone your legs, strengthen your core and will result in inches and pounds lost!

So, if you’re looking for the best way to get fit and only have a limited amount of time to work on your health, strength training is your “go to” for the best overall results.

Check out these other blog posts for more exercise tips and advice:

stuck when trying to lose weight

Are You Eating Enough to Lose Weight?

When people are trying to lose excess weight, they usually put a few things into action to make it happen – like ramping up their exercise or changing what they eat. This is a good approach and it will work… but sometimes it backfires when done incorrectly. In this situation, many people think that to get the results they want they need to eat less than they usually do. BUT, are you really eating enough to lose any weight at all?

 

Here’s the main takeaway: Cutting too many calories may actually have the opposite effect you’re looking for when trying to lose weight!

 

A minion from the movie Despicable Me saying

 

You see, your body is very good at monitoring how many calories you’re eating and burning. Eat too many calories, and it stores the excess as fat. Eat too little over an extended period of time… and your body rebels. When this happens, your body may send signals to your brain to stimulate your appetite and can actually encourage you to eat. Or it may down-regulate your metabolism – making it harder to burn stubborn fat and lose weight. 

Why this happens

When your calorie intake is too low for an extended time, your body tends to conserve fat and burn muscle for energy – leading to a slower metabolism and higher body fat levels.

 

This is why it’s so important to maintain the right amount of calories (eating enough) to continue to fuel your weight loss.

 

Anything less than 1200-1500 calories for females or around 2000 calories for males may not be enough to fuel your activity and the different metabolic processes going on inside your body.

 

If you’re looking to lose weight and you think cutting your calories even lower than they already are will work, there’s a good chance you’re going to be frustrated with your results.

What to do

Instead of tracking the amount of calories you eat, always include a lean protein, an easily digestible carb and some healthy fats with each meal. Concentrate on eating good, whole, healthy foods at each meal. Watch your portions, but don’t starve yourself or skip meals. Doing so will help you maintain a healthy calorie level (therefore encouraging more fat loss) and will help keep cravings and hunger feelings away.

 

So, yes, it may seem counterintuitive, but you do need to EAT to lose weight. The trick is finding the right balance for you – eating enough to fuel your body, but not so much that your body stores excess calories.

 

 

Today we talked about how cutting too many calories can have the opposite effect you’re looking for when trying to lose weight. Yes! You do need to make sure you eat enough to fuel your body for the day. Next week, we’ll be sticking to this topic, debunking a common myth that many people have about calories.

Want to read more about how you can improve your nutrition?

Check out our other blog posts below –
 

How to Lose Weight with Seasonal Vegetables

Nutrition Habits – Dr. Mike’s 6 Pillars of Nutrition

 
 

6 Tips To Improve Your Sleep

A good night’s sleep can be elusive to many people. The bad news is—lack of sleep may be sabotaging your weight loss efforts!

How does poor sleep affect weight loss?

If you are sleep deprived, your metabolism will not function properly (your hormones may be out of whack).

The two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat. When you are sleep-deprived, your body excretes more ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating. When you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin OR you are more resistant to it (researchers aren’t sure). High circulating ghrelin plus a lack of (or resistance to) leptin is a recipe for disaster!

To add to the “hormones out of whack” issue, the more sleep-deprived you are, the more your adrenal glands excrete cortisol. Cortisol stokes your appetite :-(.

Hormones aside, when you’re tired, you’re more likely to make food choices based on whatever is easiest and will make you feel better in that moment.

Hormones that are out of whack combined with a tired brain that can’t make good decisions spells disaster for someone trying to eat better!

So, one thing I tell my San Jose personal training clients is that if they want to have better weight loss results, they MUST take note of their sleep–both quality and quantity.

Here are my top 6 tips for getting better sleep:

1). Support your body’s natural rhythms
-Be careful of napping too long (stick with about 30 minutes)
-Avoid sleeping in too long on weekends
-Attempt to get to bed at the same time each night

2). Control your exposure to light
-Expose yourself to natural light as soon as you can in the morning
-If you work indoors, try to work near natural light
-If you work indoors, get outdoors a few times a day
-Avoid electronic devices right before bed. The LED light interupts melatonin production
-When it is time to sleep, make sure your room is DARK (watch out for LED clocks!)

3). Get regular exercise
-The more vigorous the exercise, the more sleep promoting it is
-Exercise too close to bedtime can interfere with some people’s sleep

4). Be mindful of what you eat and drink
-Be careful about afternoon caffeine
-Avoid big meals late at night
-Figure out if evening alcohol disrupts your sleep in the middle of the night
-Avoid too many liquids in the hour before you go to bed

5). Improve your sleep environment
-Optimal room temperature is 63-67 degrees
-Dim the lights in the 30 minutes leading up to bed
-Keep noise down
-Experiment with pillows, mattress toppers, etc. to find the best bed/pillow combination

6). Wind down/clear your head
-Create bed-time ritual (yoga, stretching, meditation, reading , aromatherapy)
-Create a to-do list for tomorrow…….and then let all the “head chatter” go

If you can improve your sleep/sleep habits over time, you may just start to see excess pounds drop off just a little bit easier!

“I would argue that sleep is probably the most important thing a person can do if they’re ready to lose weight,” –Michael Breus, PhD, sleep specialist

Image credit: www.flickr.com/table4_9

The body you want is not going to happen overnight

There is no question that we all wish we could look like the models on the magazines, or the toned and ripped athletes that we see on TV and the movies. The problem is that a lot of people seem to want everything to happen fast and they expect to get huge rewards from very little efforts. This is something that we can see happening in all areas of life. Individuals looking to become wealthy by working a few months on a new idea, or people hoping to achieve the body that Brad Pit had in Troy, by going to a gym for a couple of months and eating energy bars every night.

The real world works quite different from what we see on TV and the movies. The only way to be able to reach your goals in life, is to work hard to obtain them. If achieving a perfect body was something easy to do, we would not be seeing so many overweight people out there. Let’s get through some important information that you need to consider before you start to work on changing your appearance.

Educate yourself on proper nutrition
You could hit the gym every single day for many hours and you would never be able to achieve the kind of body that you want if your diet is not good. Eating junk food with soft drinks is not going to provide your body with the required nutrition that you need in order to burn fat and build muscle.

Get plenty of sleep
We know that you are probably wondering when we are going to start to talk about the best muscle building and fat burning exercises, but proper dieting and getting enough rest are more important than the kind of exercise that you do. The ideal amount of time for sleep is at least 8 hours a day, but some people claim that they can get more than enough rest from 6 to 7 hours of sleep per day. Just make sure that you feel rested when you wake up and that should be good enough. The reason why this is so important is because muscles don’t grow when you hit the gym, they grow when you rest after your workouts.

Include cardio and weight training in your workouts
If you want to have a toned body, you need to be able to get plenty of cardio, but you also need to lift weights to promote muscle growth while you burn fat. We recommend that you look for a professional trainer that will give you the best kind of workout routine for your needs.

Know your genetic limitations
Anyone can achieve a fit and toned body, but you cannot expect to look exactly like any guy that has a toned and muscular body. There are certain parts of your body that are never going to get bigger than their genetic makeup allows. This is the case with your ankles and your wrists. Find out if you are an ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph and this will give you a good idea of the kind of body you can achieve.

Conclusion
Being consistent and understanding that it takes years to build a good body is essential for success. The reason why so many men fail to transform their bodies, is because they quit after a couple of months. They expected to get huge results in just a few months, but they only see very small gains. What they fail to realize is that it takes years to build a great body and those little gains will eventually lead to the body they always wanted.

For more articles go to http://lifesportfitness.lifestyleezine.com

Sitting disease

SItting DiseaseTim Cook, the CEO at Apple, reportedly said yesterday at a conference that “a lot of doctors believe sitting is the new cancer.” And people still wonder why standing desks were innovated? Here is the reason why; Tim Cook, CEO at Apple, reportedly announced at a conference that several doctors believe sitting is like the new cancer. Not only is sitting the new disease, but is also related to the increased cancer risks.

Sitting disease is on the rise and is associated with myriads of health issues regardless of whether you workout or not. Another ensuing research revealed that the inactive lifestyle can distraught an individual’s mental health, breathing, and also increase risk of cancer. However, are these assumptions about sitting disease true or false?

Marc Hamilton, Ph.D. professor at the Inactivity Physiology Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, who has decades of experience in conducting researches of the effects of inactivity on the body, claims that he has conducted over 1,000 studies on the sitting disease since the year 2004. Mr. Hamilton compares the sitting cancer to smoking habits. He says that people used to smoke without knowing its health risks.

According to Marc’s research, sitting too much does not compare to very minimal exercise. He believes that every hour of the day is very significant to human physiology; therefore you can not only depend on the few hours you exercise. Marc’s most recent research indicates that the most inactive people have two times probability of contracting diseases such as diabetes, compared to the most active people throughout the day. The risk is even higher than people who consume a lot of sugar.

The bottom line is, Tim Cook and the rest are simply trying to make people realize the danger they put themselves in when they spend the better part of their day just seated- be it at home or in the office, and it is high time people start dealing with this issue. Exercise is great, but for some reasons such as enhances blood flow, builds muscle, slows aging and great health in general. Light activity on the other hand is different from exercise, but it too has its benefits, which exercising cannot cater for.

Same case scenario; you can’t miss working out simply because you are eating healthy, or indulge in unhealthy eating simply because you work out. The good thing is that the problem has been discovered, and the next thing after establishing the problem factor is finding a way to solve it or manage it. Just like before when people used to smoke and weren’t aware of the dangers they were exposing themselves to. Now that people know what smoking can do to one’s health, those who still do are fully aware of the health problems they may likely incur as a result of smoking.

With the same mind set, we now know what the sitting cancer can do to oneself. So what do you do about it in order to avoid incurring diabetes or mental issues? The answer is simple; Stay active

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Low Carb Diet May Be the Way to Go

In the recent past, the principle of low carb diet has been trending in the area of weight loss. However, there has been a lot of conflicting information on nutrition and weight loss making it difficult for the average person to understand how it works and how to apply it.

In respect to that, we shall clear the air on the same by looking at some of the facts backed by pure science on how the human body actually metabolizes food.

The low carb approach


This approach has fetched high popularity due to several reasons. People have finally realized that the low fat/high carb approach that has been promoted for years doesn’t work very well. In fact, it not only leaves us fatter but it has been blamed for several illnesses and health complications.

Most Americans for instance are known of eating too much carbs and are deficient in the healthy dietary fats. With the new low carb approach, many of them are now cutting carbs and avoiding them completely. This is disastrous health wise.

In the past, people have tried the low carb approach and noticed significant weight loss. Scientifically, dieting on low carbs will reduce weight but not body fat. To explain this further, it’s vital to know that the human body holds 2.4gms of water for every gram of carbohydrates consumed. Lowering carb intake thereby means holding less water in the body but the fat content remains relatively high. As much as we go low carbs, the component should not be avoided completely.

Extremely low carb diets have been blamed for several health complications. A low carb diet depletes the muscles of glycogen leaving one with sluggishness after an active workout. The brain uses carbs for energy and thus the brain will not function properly with low carb diet.
French and Canadian researchers have found that consuming carbohydrate does not inhibit fat burning for individuals not exercising.

However, another researcher called Jeff Volek, a professor of nutrition argues that a low carb diet enhances the body’s ability to burn fat for fuel instead of glycogen-a byproduct of carbohydrate stored in the liver and muscles. According to professor Volek:-

  1. One should not be afraid in eating food such as chicken skin, marbled meat, butter, cream and saturated fat. All these are used as fuel but they are not stored as fat in the body. They don’t accumulate in the blood vessels.
  2. Scheduling of sweat days – these are the days in which the workout should help in burning out fat. Lifting heavyweights for around an hour helps to burn out fat in the body.
  3. Fighting soreness with omega 3-s. Research shows that taking a gram of fish oil every day may improve heart health, ease inflammation and relieve delayed muscle soreness after an exercise. Glucosamine and chon-droitin relieve achy joints if taken daily.
  4. Mastering of a low carb meal improves the body fitness. This is a mixture of mushrooms, sausage, cream, cheddar and brown meat in relative quantities.

Carbs are fine if consumed in small to moderate amounts and on days you do exercise, carbs are stored in the muscles and not as fat.

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Walk Fit

Walking is a great addition to your current workout routine. It has a plethora of benefits and is a universal exercise. You can do it anywhere, and mostly anyone can do it, it’s free, it doesn’t require special equipment, and you can do it any time of day. By just adding 30 minutes of walking into your daily workout routine, you can change you! The benefits are countless.

It lowers blood pressure that can also be good for your cholesterol levels, and in turn reduces the risk of obesity. Walking is not only one of the best activities for your health and mental well-being, it can help you lose weight and keep it off. It will help your heart become more efficient and every day activities will become easier. You’ll sleep better, have more energy, and benefit from a little Vitamin D from getting outside.

Benefits of Walking:

  • It strengthens your heart. Regular walking reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke.
  • It lowers disease risk. It slashes your risks of type 2 diabetes, asthma and some cancers.
  • It keeps weight in check. It helps you lose weight and keep it off.
  • It can help prevent dementia.
  • It can help prevent osteoporosis. As a weight-bearing activity, it helps strengthen bones.
  • It tones. A good walk help shape and tone your legs, giving definition to calves, hamstrings and lifting your glutes.
  • It tones your arms. All the regular movement you experience in your arms while walking will help tone your arms, shoulders and even upper back.
  • It boosts your vitamin D levels. A little bit of sunshine outside each day will put you in a great mood and help your bone health and immunity.
  • It gives you energy. A brisk walk with help boost your circulation and increase oxygen supply to every cell in your body.
  • It makes you happy. Regular moderate-intensity exercise is a great antidepressant. It helps reduce stress and anxiety. It can also be done with friends while enjoying a nice chat.

Even though you are already in a regular workout routine at the gym several times a week, doesn’t mean walking isn’t for you. The key to overall fitness is cross training, or participating in various activities, and walking is the perfect complement to any training regimen. By adding walking to your routine, you end up training opposing muscle groups and end up balancing out your strength and reducing the chance of injury. Also, if you are used to high impact activities, your body could benefit from taking it down a notch once in awhile and walking. You’ll get all the benefits of exercise without the wear and tear and giving your muscles time to recoup.

Add a walk to your daily workout routine. You’ll be able to cash in on all the additional benefits it has. Speak with your trainer and see when the best time for you would be to work that walk into your schedule. Sometimes, to get you moving during the day, first thing in the morning may be best for you. Or, if you feel a little sluggish and tired by mid-day, head out for a walk on your lunch. Start walking towards a healthier you!

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Snacking, Choose Wisely

There is nothing worse than that hungry feeling in between meals. You don’t want to ruin all the hard work in your weight loss program by eating snacks throughout the day. You don’t have to have that feeling, there are lots of healthy snacks for weight loss that are delicious and still nutritious.

A good rule to follow when looking for healthy snack foods is to make sure you look for snacks that are high in protein and contain complex carbohydrates. Protein is critical because it is a primary component of every cell in the human body. The body uses protein to make and mend tissue as well as to reproduce bone, muscle, hair, nail, skin and blood cells. Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy and come in two forms, simple and complex. Complex carbohydrates are your better choice, such as whole grains. However, you can choose simple carbohydrates as long as you choose “good” simple carbohydrates, like the ones found in fresh fruits.

It is important to try to keep your snack foods within the range of approximately 100 to 150 calories and not to have them in an amount that would take you over your daily calories count. If you are allowed 1600 calories per day then it is reasonable to have three meals of about 400 calories each and two to three snacks of approximately 100-150 calories each. This should keep you within a calorie count to lose weight and remain on a healthy diet eating plan.

In addition to selecting snacks containing high protein and low carbohydrates, making sure to snack regularly in between meals is vital. It’s a great idea to get in tune with your internal hunger clock; don’t wait until your stomach starts talking to you. Practicing portion control will make snacking more effective for you. Instead of grabbing an entire bag of nuts from the kitchen cabinet, try measuring out the appropriate serving size ahead of time.

Here is a list of some good snack choices.

  • Apple slices
  • Whole grain bread sticks
  • Unsalted rice cakes
  • Baked tortilla chips
  • Nuts (1 ounce or less)
  • Whole grain cereal
  • Fresh fruit
  • Unsweetened canned fruit
  • Baked apple
  • Raisins
  • Frozen grapes
  • Celery
  • Dark chocolate
  • Air popped popcorn
  • Low-fat/fat free fruit yogurt

Eating healthy snack foods is just one part of a health maintenance strategy that should incorporate eating healthy and being active. Talk with your trainer and plan out your meal plan and workout routine.

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Calorie Cutter

Cutting your calorie intake daily will help you lose the extra weight you may be carrying around. In order to lose weight, you need to burn more calories in a day through your activities than you consumed that day. If you’ve tried to accomplish this, you know it can be difficult. Dramatic changes to your diet may seem unreasonable, undoable and unfathomable. Simple every day choices, that really don’t change the menu too much can seem almost effortless but can make a big enough difference. Cutting 50 calories a day can equal a ½ a pound a month. Or try 100 calories a day to lose a full pound each month. That may not seem like much, but when you add exercise to that, it can make a huge difference in weight loss.

Here are 10 simple ways to cut calories:

  1. Invest in some good quality cooking utensils to help reduce the amount of fat needed in cooking. Try heavy non-stick frying pans and heavy baking tray.
  2. Throw away any high fat items and replace them with healthier low calorie options.
  3. Use cooking oil spray instead of pouring oil in the pan when frying or browning foods.
  4. Skip the butter. Use low calorie peanut butter or jam on toast or a light mayonnaise on your sandwiches instead.
  5. Grill, steam, bake or poach. Eliminate the frying as much as possible.
  6. Add natural seasonings to your foods. Try herbs, spices, citrus juices, vinegar and low calories sauces like Worcester and Soy.
  7. Make sure you have plenty of variety in your diet so that you don’t become bored and give into unhealthy cravings.
  8. Don’t shop when you’re hungry. If you feel hungry when you shop, you are more likely to give into temptation and buy something that is high in fat and calories to satisfy your immediate cravings.
  9. Eat smaller portions of high-fat foods (meats, cheeses) and larger portions of vegetables, salad, fruit and very low-fat protein foods (yogurt, skim milk).
  10. Stop drinking soda and juice. Choose water instead. Water is a great to help you feel full longer and helps curb your cravings.

Remember that slow and steady is the way to lose weight and keep it off. Using these simple calorie cutting ideas does not require you to drastically change your lifestyle. With healthy substitutions and cutting out a few things from our diet, we can make some big changes on our waist line. Talk to your dietician or personal trainer, they can get you on the right track as well and offer some other helpful suggestions. Get cutting!

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