The problem many of us have in losing body fat is that we’re usually more efficient in wishing for a slimmer physique than actually attaining one. Most of us actually try too hard, going to extremes that are either ineffective or detrimental to our progress. Here’s a piece of advice from one who has witnessed many folks succeed in becoming one of the successful “losers”: Take it easy.
The extra weight you may currently be carrying is likely the result of many small behavioral actions, like eating between meals or driving to places that you could easily walk to instead. Losing the fat may really be as simple as adding some extra activity, as well as some small clever activities, into your day. These activities include actions taken in your diet, exercise and attitude levels.
The addition of several of these examples into your day will do nothing more for you than help you to obtain your fat loss goals sooner than you had previously planned. By themselves they are not very powerful. However, bunched together they add up to a giant supplement on the road to success. Give them a shot and watch what happens.
1. Fidgeting. Those who habitually squirm, toe-tap or play the drums on their desks burn, according to some studies, up to 800 calories a day. That’s like running several miles! If you’re not a naturally fidgety person, don’t try to become one. You’ll only succeed in frustrating yourself. Instead, try doing things that make you move more, like changing the channels on the television manually or parking at the opposite end of the lot from your destination.
2. Sharing. Most restaurant portion sizes are HUGE. Try cutting down by sharing. And if the thought of eliminating deserts is simply impossible, at least share them with someone, or several someone’s.
3. Write down everything you eat and drink...and be honest. Instead of wondering why you are gaining or not losing weight, it will soon become evident. If you want a little more incentive to watch what you ingest, get a friend or family member to agree to hold you accountable and to check your "food journal" once a week. And while we’re at it, water is what flows in rivers; not soda. That’s why you should drink water. Often.
4. Don’t eat foods from their original containers. It’s easy to fool yourself into believing you’re having “just a tad”, but you’re not as smart as you look. Measure out what it is you want and let that be the end of it. The best bet is to keep “weakness” foods out of the house altogether.
5. Go grocery shopping on a full stomach. Nacho chips, donuts, cookies and pies don’t have half the allure they normally do when you go grocery “hunting” on a full stomach. You can enhance the experience by strictly shopping from a list and allowing yourself only one purchase that is not pre-planned.
6. Make mealtime smarter, not harder. Before you sit down to dinner, put the amount of food that you would like to eat on your plate and put the rest in the refrigerator. This will discourage you from going back for seconds.
7. Take only a limited amount of money. This is simply insurance against impulse or reactionary purchases. It also helps you to develop discipline.
8. Swear off elevators and escalators. Stairs are built for walking. They are your friends. Use them.
9. Police your speed of eating. Put your fork down between bites and enjoy the moment. The more slowly and thoroughly you chew your food when you eat, the faster you’ll feel satisfied and full. If you still feel like seconds, use the “10 minute rule.” Wait ten minutes. The feeling will probably pass.
10. Establish a time-out routine. Take a time out half-way through your meal. Sit back and just breathe for a few moments. Here’s a trick: put a pot of water on the stove to boil. It will take about ten minutes. When it does, get up, fix a cup of herbal tea. When you get back to the table, you probably won’t feel like eating much more.
Lord bless you,
Steve
Friday, February 16, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
10 Nutrition Tips to Ensure Your Success in Losing Body Fat
1. Eat breakfast. Your mom was right. Breakfast is critically important to your success. A properly proportioned breakfast will help you to regulate your blood sugar levels, help you to control and balance your energy level, and help you to manage those afternoon and evening cravings for processed junk, like chips and sweets.
2. Eat small meals and snacks throughout the day. By eating small meals and snacks throughout the day you avoid the typical spikes and dips in energy levels that may lead to “quick fix” eating, which is usually junk, just to get something in you. This type of plan also helps you to avoid eating that giant meal in the evening.
3. Start with protein. Too many of us eat too little protein during the day and then try to make up for it in the evening with a 16 ounce T-bone. Build your meals around a healthy portion of a protein source and your body and overall health will thank you.
4. Load your plate with color. Fruits and veggies. Grow up and eat them. A lot.
5. Make fat your friend. If what you want to purchase has the term “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” as one of the contents, put it back on the shelf. Healthy fats, like those that come from avocados, olives, eggs, salmon, lean beef and such are very good for you and will actually assist you in losing excess fat.
6. Eat it like God made it. We need vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, enzymes and more from our food. The best sources, bar none, come from naturally occurring foods that are fresh from the ground, off the vine, plucked from the tree, right out of the air, water or on the hoof. As close to their natural state as possible, just like God made it. Why would the flour in breads need to be enriched from its original version?
7. Yumm, fiber! Cheeto’s don’t have it. Neither do Twinkies. You need it. It comes from whole food sources (See #4 and #6) so get it in you. The effect of too little? Well, let’s say it makes sitting in the smallest room in the house very uncomfortable.
8. Post workout nutrition is smart. Progress from your workout sessions takes place during recovery. In order to recover you must replenish what is lost during the workout. A protein/carb combo shake or meal is a great place to start and will boost your way to success and transformation.
9. Plan your meal, eat your plan. Every diver knows this mantra: “Plan your dive and dive your plan.” Our days and meals should be as well thought out. Plan your meals ahead of time and then stick to the plan. When you plan ahead, your grocery shopping experience can become an opportunity to break bad nutritional choices.
10. Smarter snacks. Most pre-processed and packaged snacks contain all sorts of horrid fillers and such, of which one of the worst is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). If you’re serious about losing fat, avoid this stuff like the plague. How? If it comes in a box, bag, sack, container or has had the “hand of man” process or prepare it in any way, don’t put it in your mouth. This goes for liquids as well. There’s a reason God made rivers of flowing water and not soda.
Thanks and Lord bless,
Steve
www.firestormfitness.com
2. Eat small meals and snacks throughout the day. By eating small meals and snacks throughout the day you avoid the typical spikes and dips in energy levels that may lead to “quick fix” eating, which is usually junk, just to get something in you. This type of plan also helps you to avoid eating that giant meal in the evening.
3. Start with protein. Too many of us eat too little protein during the day and then try to make up for it in the evening with a 16 ounce T-bone. Build your meals around a healthy portion of a protein source and your body and overall health will thank you.
4. Load your plate with color. Fruits and veggies. Grow up and eat them. A lot.
5. Make fat your friend. If what you want to purchase has the term “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” as one of the contents, put it back on the shelf. Healthy fats, like those that come from avocados, olives, eggs, salmon, lean beef and such are very good for you and will actually assist you in losing excess fat.
6. Eat it like God made it. We need vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, enzymes and more from our food. The best sources, bar none, come from naturally occurring foods that are fresh from the ground, off the vine, plucked from the tree, right out of the air, water or on the hoof. As close to their natural state as possible, just like God made it. Why would the flour in breads need to be enriched from its original version?
7. Yumm, fiber! Cheeto’s don’t have it. Neither do Twinkies. You need it. It comes from whole food sources (See #4 and #6) so get it in you. The effect of too little? Well, let’s say it makes sitting in the smallest room in the house very uncomfortable.
8. Post workout nutrition is smart. Progress from your workout sessions takes place during recovery. In order to recover you must replenish what is lost during the workout. A protein/carb combo shake or meal is a great place to start and will boost your way to success and transformation.
9. Plan your meal, eat your plan. Every diver knows this mantra: “Plan your dive and dive your plan.” Our days and meals should be as well thought out. Plan your meals ahead of time and then stick to the plan. When you plan ahead, your grocery shopping experience can become an opportunity to break bad nutritional choices.
10. Smarter snacks. Most pre-processed and packaged snacks contain all sorts of horrid fillers and such, of which one of the worst is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). If you’re serious about losing fat, avoid this stuff like the plague. How? If it comes in a box, bag, sack, container or has had the “hand of man” process or prepare it in any way, don’t put it in your mouth. This goes for liquids as well. There’s a reason God made rivers of flowing water and not soda.
Thanks and Lord bless,
Steve
www.firestormfitness.com
Monday, February 5, 2007
10 Mental Tips to Ensure Your Success in Losing Body Fat
1. Figure out where you want to be. We do this by establishing specific, definite goals with deadlines for their attainment. We’ve all heard the phrase, “If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?” By specifically determining what you want to look like and what you want to accomplish in the coming months you increase your likelihood of success. However, this is not the end of the process. You must work backwards from your deadline and conclude what you must to do this month, this week, and especially today to reach your long-term goals. Use daily goals like stepping stones en route to your long-term goals. The more specific the better. Clarity creates clear vision.
2. Create a strong enough “why.” In order to be successful in losing body fat you need to establish why you MUST achieve success. This goes deeper than decision making and action. It is the real reason, the absolute “why” you are going for it and sticking with it. “I want to lose weight” is a rationale. “I want to lose 40 pounds of body fat so that I don’t die at an early age like my father and so that my children have a positive role model for their lives” is a reason with a powerful “why.”
3. Develop your sense of self-awareness. In order to achieve success and satisfaction in any endeavor a noteworthy first step is to improve ones self-awareness, regardless of the skill, goal or endeavor wanted. The requirement to better understand yourself and how you tend to act, respond, think, and feel in response to various stimuli will enable you to enhance or improve yourself and your eventual performance and outcome. Make every effort to become more fully aware of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally so that adjustments in your attitude and approach to situations can be anticipated and adapted readily.
4. Be kind to yourself. As our minds progress throughout our day, it is estimated that we think roughly 70,000 thoughts. Of those, it is predicted that almost 75% of them are negative in nature. Taking responsibility and control over our “self-talk” enables us direct the path in which our conscious minds lead our powerful sub-conscious mind. Negative self-talk and “limiting belief systems” do us no justice and lead us to nowhere. Talk to yourself in an encouraging, uplifting manner in every situation. How would you talk to your best friend? That’s how you should talk to yourself.
5. The power of “Now.” Plan for the future, but be here now. Life happens one moment at a time, so work toward your goals on what you can do now. It is quite easy to become embroiled in the past, to relive past mistakes. The land of “shoulda, woulda, coulda” does not exist, except in our minds. It’s a place I do not recommend visiting. There is no changing the past; learn the lessons from it and move on. It is also easy to be distracted by what might be. “If I lose this weight; what if I cannot reach my goal; will they accept me?” There is no crystal ball for predicting the future. What you can control is your attitude and actions right now. Your thoughts, attitude, behavior and actions are what you have control and authority over right now. Therefore, point your physical and mental energy in that direction.
6. Practice the “as if” principle. If you expect to be 20 pounds leaner then begin to act as if you are there already. How differently will you walk when you reach your goal? How will you talk? Breathe? How will you dress? If you expect to reach your fat loss goal then acting “as if” creates an expectant attitude and gives your subconscious mind a pattern of behavior to follow. If you expect to train in the gym with focus and intensity, you need to practice with focus and intensity while there. If you are going to expect yourself to overcome obstacles to your progress, practice overcoming obstacles. If you are going to expect yourself to deal with mistakes in reaching for your goals, use practice to figure out how to physically and mentally deal with mistakes. I’m sure you follow the thought pattern. Therefore, train the mind and body as they both work in unity as you strive to attain your goals.
7. Never cease the learning process. Frequently evaluate and learn from your experiences on a regular basis. It can be after each meal, training session, end of the day or week. It doesn’t really matter as long as you are consistent as well as persistent. The goal here is to identify what you are doing well and then continuing to do it. Learn from strong performances, not so strong performances and from bad performances and then apply these lessons to future endeavors.
8. Be aware of the price of your goals. Setting goals properly is relatively simple compared to measuring the cost of their attainment. Everything has a price tag; whether it is measured in time, money, a change in relationships, behavior or lifestyle. Weighing the cost of attaining a particular goal is crucial to following through to the end the necessary steps to its achievement. What is the cost of your goal? Honestly answer that question and you can decide before you embark on the journey to reach it whether the cost is too high, if another goal is in order or if you need to re-evaluate the importance of the goal.
9. You must be willing to pay the price. Having a goal and daring to reach for it are commendable in and of themselves. But they are not enough to obtain one. In order to do that, this rule walks side by side with the previously mentioned rule. Knowing the price of a goal, and being one of the few willing to pay for it are two distinctly different matters. I believe it is why most books are never completely read, many marriages never succeed, contracts are broken and goals are not reached. Daily, sometimes hourly, consistent action taken toward the obtainment of the goal is what will see you through to its fruition. This mentality is akin to renting a home verses buying a home; the only way to build equity and receive a return on your investment is to pay the price to the end. Vince Lombardi’s goal was to build the best team in the NFL. He did so several times with a lifetime coaching record of 105 wins and just 35 losses. He put it this way, “You’ve got to pay the price.”
10. Have fun. I don’t really need to elaborate on this one, do I?
Until next time, God bless,
Steve
www.firestormfitness.com
2. Create a strong enough “why.” In order to be successful in losing body fat you need to establish why you MUST achieve success. This goes deeper than decision making and action. It is the real reason, the absolute “why” you are going for it and sticking with it. “I want to lose weight” is a rationale. “I want to lose 40 pounds of body fat so that I don’t die at an early age like my father and so that my children have a positive role model for their lives” is a reason with a powerful “why.”
3. Develop your sense of self-awareness. In order to achieve success and satisfaction in any endeavor a noteworthy first step is to improve ones self-awareness, regardless of the skill, goal or endeavor wanted. The requirement to better understand yourself and how you tend to act, respond, think, and feel in response to various stimuli will enable you to enhance or improve yourself and your eventual performance and outcome. Make every effort to become more fully aware of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally so that adjustments in your attitude and approach to situations can be anticipated and adapted readily.
4. Be kind to yourself. As our minds progress throughout our day, it is estimated that we think roughly 70,000 thoughts. Of those, it is predicted that almost 75% of them are negative in nature. Taking responsibility and control over our “self-talk” enables us direct the path in which our conscious minds lead our powerful sub-conscious mind. Negative self-talk and “limiting belief systems” do us no justice and lead us to nowhere. Talk to yourself in an encouraging, uplifting manner in every situation. How would you talk to your best friend? That’s how you should talk to yourself.
5. The power of “Now.” Plan for the future, but be here now. Life happens one moment at a time, so work toward your goals on what you can do now. It is quite easy to become embroiled in the past, to relive past mistakes. The land of “shoulda, woulda, coulda” does not exist, except in our minds. It’s a place I do not recommend visiting. There is no changing the past; learn the lessons from it and move on. It is also easy to be distracted by what might be. “If I lose this weight; what if I cannot reach my goal; will they accept me?” There is no crystal ball for predicting the future. What you can control is your attitude and actions right now. Your thoughts, attitude, behavior and actions are what you have control and authority over right now. Therefore, point your physical and mental energy in that direction.
6. Practice the “as if” principle. If you expect to be 20 pounds leaner then begin to act as if you are there already. How differently will you walk when you reach your goal? How will you talk? Breathe? How will you dress? If you expect to reach your fat loss goal then acting “as if” creates an expectant attitude and gives your subconscious mind a pattern of behavior to follow. If you expect to train in the gym with focus and intensity, you need to practice with focus and intensity while there. If you are going to expect yourself to overcome obstacles to your progress, practice overcoming obstacles. If you are going to expect yourself to deal with mistakes in reaching for your goals, use practice to figure out how to physically and mentally deal with mistakes. I’m sure you follow the thought pattern. Therefore, train the mind and body as they both work in unity as you strive to attain your goals.
7. Never cease the learning process. Frequently evaluate and learn from your experiences on a regular basis. It can be after each meal, training session, end of the day or week. It doesn’t really matter as long as you are consistent as well as persistent. The goal here is to identify what you are doing well and then continuing to do it. Learn from strong performances, not so strong performances and from bad performances and then apply these lessons to future endeavors.
8. Be aware of the price of your goals. Setting goals properly is relatively simple compared to measuring the cost of their attainment. Everything has a price tag; whether it is measured in time, money, a change in relationships, behavior or lifestyle. Weighing the cost of attaining a particular goal is crucial to following through to the end the necessary steps to its achievement. What is the cost of your goal? Honestly answer that question and you can decide before you embark on the journey to reach it whether the cost is too high, if another goal is in order or if you need to re-evaluate the importance of the goal.
9. You must be willing to pay the price. Having a goal and daring to reach for it are commendable in and of themselves. But they are not enough to obtain one. In order to do that, this rule walks side by side with the previously mentioned rule. Knowing the price of a goal, and being one of the few willing to pay for it are two distinctly different matters. I believe it is why most books are never completely read, many marriages never succeed, contracts are broken and goals are not reached. Daily, sometimes hourly, consistent action taken toward the obtainment of the goal is what will see you through to its fruition. This mentality is akin to renting a home verses buying a home; the only way to build equity and receive a return on your investment is to pay the price to the end. Vince Lombardi’s goal was to build the best team in the NFL. He did so several times with a lifetime coaching record of 105 wins and just 35 losses. He put it this way, “You’ve got to pay the price.”
10. Have fun. I don’t really need to elaborate on this one, do I?
Until next time, God bless,
Steve
www.firestormfitness.com
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