1. Don’t Drink Your Calories Soda and fruit-flavored drinks can really add up quick. Some have up to 250 calories per 10-12 ounces. Juice drinks, you know the fruit cocktail drinks with names like cranberry cocktail, or pomegranate raspberry, sound healthy but can actually contain more calories per ounce than soda.Even 100% fruit juices, be it orange, apple, etc., all count as calories.Unlike a whole piece of real fruit, fruit juice is very concentrated in sugar, which makes it high in calories. Sugar is sugar, don’t drink it. Only Drink Water, Green Tea & Black Coffee (sweeten with Stevia is ok).
2. “You Can’t Out-Train A Bad Diet”
So ignore the fact that most people eat healthy foods so that they can look good for a minute, what about your health? Nutrition is the biggest factor. You can exercise all you want but if you do not provide your body with the fuel it needs, your performance, health and appearance all suffer. Our bodies need certain nutrients to function and when all you eat are empty calories, everything is impacted. Real foods is what our bodies crave and what we are meant to eat. If you are looking to lose weight, get healthy and perform to your full potential, give your body the nutrients it needs.
3. Take Fish Oil
The benefits are HUGE for fat loss, anti-inflammation and more. Fish oil contains Omega 3 fatty acids, particularly EPA, have a very positive effect on your inflammatory response. Fish oils also help to lower cholesterol, triglycerides, bad LDL cholesterol and blood pressure, while at the same time increasing good HDL cholesterol. This adds years to your life expectancy. As an added bonus fish oils will help burn fat and prevent fat gain. They improve serotonin levels (mood), make it easier to move nutrients in and out of cell walls, decrease the amount of sugar your body will absorb, improves blood pressure and decrease insulin output when taken with a meal.
4. Have Most Of Your Carbohydrates Around Your Training
If fat loss is your goal, hold off on the carbohydrates until you have completed your training session. This will allow your body’s hyped-up metabolism to keep burning fat as fuel. You will still have a window of opportunity to load the carbohydrates back into the muscle cells.
5. If You Can Split Your Cardio & Weight Training Sessions Do It
You cannot give the same intensity when you do your cardio and weight training at the same sessions. First, let’s be clear when I say cardio, I’m not referring to walking on a treadmill for an hour. Our cardio is short, high intensity interval training; Sled pushes, battling ropes, sprints, etc. When you perform these activities to your max effort, you will not be able to give your weight training the same intensity. It is better to wait and do your weight training in a separate session.
6. “You Are What You Eat”
Eating the right foods provides your body with adequate nutrition to perform everyday tasks as well as improve your performance during training. Remember Garbage In = Garbage Out.If you eat crap, you cannot expect to feel good and train to your full potential. Healthy, nutrient rich foods can fend off serious diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease; fortify your immune system; protect and smooth your skin; and help you lose weight or stay slim.
7. Set Monthly Goals & Monitor Them
Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts.Breaking a big goal into smaller, realistic goals can help you both mentally and physically. Keep track of what your goals are and them at the end of each month, evaluate if you have reached them. Perhaps the most important component of setting an effective and realistic fitness goal is celebrating your victories, even the small ones! From buying yourself a new magazine to read, enjoying a long bath, or buying a new pair of workout shorts, the reward should be a time where you compliment yourself for your hard work and revel in your success.
8. Have a GOOD PLAN for Fat Loss
Don’t go by what you think you know if you are not a fat loss expert.Don’t re-invent the wheel. Fat loss is not a new phenomena. There is plenty of information out there, so find an expert, pick a plan and follow through.
9. Get Your Workouts Done Faster
Less rest time with faster paced workouts work very well for fat loss.There are many benefits to completing workouts at a faster pace. First is the increased heart rate, which in turn increase fat burning. But you’ll also see local muscular development and increased definition in existing muscles.
10. Ditch The Steady State Cardio & Go With Metabolic or Interval Training
Slower paced steady state cardio is a great way to clear your mind, relax and unwind.But for fat loss workouts consists of alternating short periods of intense exercise with short periods of rest. For a given time investment, interval training leads to a greater fat loss and this occurs despite a smaller calorie burn during activity. Not everybody has the time to devote to an hour (or more) of aerobic training per day.A properly set up interval workout may only take about 30 minutes. As well be sure to focus on lifting weights for fat loss along with HIIT Cardio.
11. Have Protein With Every Meal
Every time you go to eat ask “Where’s The Beef” in your brain. Protein is more satisfying than carbohydrates or fats. Getting enough protein helps preserve muscle mass and encourages fat burning while keeping you feeling full.The key to all this is to make sure that the protein you eat is of the highest quality and contains the most amino acids as possible. Animal-derived protein — beef, fish, poultry, almond milk, and eggs — contain not only better quality but also complete protein and they have more amino acids per gram of protein.
12. Limit Fruit
Fruit is great but try to limit it to usually pre/post weight training. Too much carbohydrate from fruit can prevent weight loss. However from a nutrition standpoint, fruit is a great source of fiber, potassium, vitamin C and folate, nutrients that help guard against disease. The key is to time your fruit intake properly. After the workout is the other time to take in simple carbs: this is critical because it starts the whole recovery/muscle growth process.
13. Treat Yourself (When You Do Things Right 90% Of The Time)
Have a good week, 90% compliant with your plan, then treat yourself to ONE Cheat Meal. Everyone has a list of favorite foods that don’t score too high on the nutrient value scale, but we love them all the same. What happens when you deprive yourself of something you crave for too long? You binge. You break down, eat the food and then spend the rest of the day (week) beating yourself up and feeling guilty.FACT: Eating small amounts of cheats in moderation can be part of an overall healthy diet. The key is moderation.
14. Get an Accountability Partner
It works wonders for motivation & training results and is mandatory in our Transformation Challenge. An accountability partner is someone who can help you stay on track toward reaching your goals.
15. Keep a Training & Nutrition Log
If aren’t doing it you are missing out big time. WRITE IT DOWN.Think of the journal as a road map. It’s going to show you the route, help you avoid sidetracking and keep your final destination in focus. Lost your direction? Consult your journal. Can’t remember where or why you started? Your journal knows.The best thing about it is that it is first-hand knowledge from your body; it soon becomes a reference so you can avoid pitfalls and find shortcuts designed for you. It is encouraging to see the pages fill and accurately measure how far you have come.
16. Read Nutrition Labels
No matter what the food check the LABEL. This means the nutritional profile and ingredient list, not the marketing claims that are made on the package.There is a BIG difference between the two. Learning how to read and understand food labels can help you make healthier choices. The Nutrition Facts food label gives you information about which nutrients are in the food.Real food, such as fresh vegetables and fruits, do not have a nutritional label on them.Packaged (usually processed) foods have labels. Keep it simple and try to purchase fresh, local, organic foods when possible. Then you don’t have to worry about if it’s fat free, low calorie, or whatever the latest claim is; you know it’s just good, healthy food that your body needs.
17. Take Responsibility
You are where you are fitness wise because of your CHOICES. Man up, make the right choices more often and you will be in the best shape of your life. Every time you do something ask yourself “Is this taking me closer to or further away from my goal?”No one is going to force feed you pizza and beer. That is your choice.You choose to eat foods that fuel your goals or you choose to eat crap, either way IT’S YOUR CHOICE.
18. GET STARTED NOW
Bottom line is information is useless without action. The best way to get results is to get started.If you are looking for a great program to start I recommend our 14-Day Trial.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post and if you did please “Like” & “Share”
Thanks! Kosta