For most of us, the #1 challenge in the quest to stay in shape and/or lose weight is not exercising itself but being able to actually fit an exercise program into our busy schedules.

So how do you do it? How do you balance the demands of family, career, important errands, relationships, organizational responsibilities, and working out? I have found that there are five keys that will help you to be able to fit a consistent workout plan into your already hectic life.

1. Commit to a specific schedule

   When you fail to plan you plan to fail. Don’t try to haphazardly fit your workouts into your schedule without any rhyme or reason. Don’t think you’re guilty? If you’ve ever told yourself “I’ll workout as soon as I get some time”,
   you were in direct violation of this key principle.

   In order to set yourself up for success, you will need to take the time to literally write your workouts into your weekly schedule. In order to be effective, you will want to be following your exercise program at least 3 days per week. Anything less would be kidding yourself.

   Therefore, right in the midst of all of your appointments, “to-do” lists, etc., should be a written plan for your weekly workout routine, so that
   you will never be in the dark as to when you committed to yourself to go.

2. Utilize the weekend

   Take advantage of the fact that it only takes 3-5 days per week to put together an effective, results-producing workout. One trick to help you pull it all off is to workout on the weekends. One of the benefits to this course of action is that your schedule is more flexible and under your control during this time.

   What is also means is that when the hectic weekdays roll back around, you will only be responsible for working out 1-3 days during the work week.

3. Keep your workouts as a high priority

   One of the biggest mistakes that even many people who have scheduled a workout program into their schedule make is allowing it to be bumped off of their schedule to easily.

   Although things will occassionally come up that will cause you to have to reschedule the workout you had planned, you must be vigilant in making sure that only the most important emergencies are allowed to temporarily take you off of your plan.

   In the event that one of those important emergencies does happen and you can’t make it to your workout, reschedule with yourself to make it up on the next possible day that you are available to do so. If your own health, fitness, and efforts to lose weight are not a priority to you, they certainly won’t be so to anyone else.

4. Enroll others in your goals

   Don’t go at this alone. Let the important people in your life know what you are up to. Your spouse or love interest, parents, children, co-workers, and close friends will often pitch in and help you to meet your fitness or weight loss commitment to yourself if you make them aware and ask for their support.

   Leverage these relationships to delegate some of your normal responsibilities
   or even allow you to shift appointments that you have with them as you restructure your schedule for your workout. If any of them are into exercise or trying to lose weight themselves, don’t hesitate to form a buddy system with them as you move forward with your program.

5. Don’t beat yourself up

   No matter who you are, there will be times in your workout program that you just aren’t able to keep it up as you would like due to outside demands. Don’t be too tough on yourself when that happens.

   Remember that it is what you do consistently over a long period of time, not what you do in spurts, that truly counts. Just make sure that you get back on the horse full force as soon as you can and continue to press forward, doing your best to avoid slacking off again.

No matter what goals you have for health, fitness, or weight loss, you CAN fit an effective exercise program into that hectic schedule of yours and be amazingly successful at getting the exact results that you want!

To Your Best Body,

Lawrence Cole
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
YourbestbodyNOW.com

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The Nutrition Calorie

Nutritionists measure the energy content of food in “calories” (sometimes capitalized and abbreviated as Cal or sometimes C, or abbreviated kcal as if small calories were being used), where each food calorie represents 4,186 joules. This is equivalent to 1000 of the calories used in chemistry, and thus the food Calorie would be called a kilocalorie if small calories were being used. However, in chemistry calories have been deprecated as a scientific unit of measure in favor of joules, and therefore in common modern usage the word “calorie” usually refers to a food calorie.

This situation provides two ways of talking about the amount of calories in food which look quite different but that express the exact same amount of energy. One may say that dietary fat has nine kilocalories (kcal) per gram, while proteins and carbohydrates have four kcal per gram, or, one may say that fat has nine Calories per gram while carbohydrates and proteins have four Calories per gram.

The amount of food energy in a particular food is measured by completely burning the food in a bomb calorimeter, a method known as direct calorimetry. Dieticians recommend counting calories to avoid obesity. The government of the United Kingdom recommends consumption of no more than 2000 Calories (2000 kcal) by women each day and 2500 Calories (2500 kcal) by men each day.

The Physics and chemistry calorie

In physics or chemistry, a calorie (abbreviated cal) is a unit of energy that equals the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1 degree Celsius, at a pressure of 1 atm. This amount of heat depends somewhat on the initial temperature of the water, which results in various different units sharing the name of “calorie” but having slightly different energy values:

* the 15 °C calorie,
* the 4 °C calorie,da
* the mean 0 °C to 100 °C calorie,
* the International Steam Table calorie,
* the thermochemical calorie,

The slight variations in these units can be seen if you convert them to joules. For example, one 15 °C calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of 1 g of water from 14.5 °C to 15.5 °C. This is approximately equal to 4.1855 J or 3.968×10-3 Btu. The International Steam Table calorie is approximately equal to 4.1868 J and the thermochemical calorie 4.184 J.
Of these various units, what is most commonly meant by calorie in cntemporary English text is the 15 °C calorie.

The nutritional Calorie represents 1000 of these 15 °C calories. Since this could be a source of confusion and error, these units are now deprecated. The International System of Units (SI) unit for heat (and for all other forms of energy) is the joule (J), while the (obsolete) cgs (centimeter gram second system of units) system uses the erg (unit of energy and mechanical work in the centimeter-gram-second system) – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Before start losing weight and counting calories you must first calculate the number of calories your body needs everyday, because this amount changes from person to person, depending on sex, age, weight, muscle content or height. Averages are situated around 2000 calories for women and 2500 for men. An easy, but not so accurate calculation is that for every 500 less than your normal amount of calories eaten every day you will lose up to one pound (453,6g) per week.

Counting calories must be included as part of your diet, because when you loss weight is best to know how many calories your food has, and so ensuring that the amount of calories burned each day is more than the amount stored. All nutritionists agree that a healthy low fat diet without counting calories could not exists, so take your time and solve that problem with various calorie calculators.

By knowing all the time the amount of calories consumed you can control how much you can eat and how it will affect your body. When dieting and counting the calories you can eat almost anything as long as you do not exceed the number of calories burned every day.

When you eat fewer calories, your body is forced to consume the fat stored to make up the deficit in your calorie count. Nutritionist’s advice is that you must combine psychical exercises with healthy eating in order to create some calorie deficit.

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Aging is an inevitable process for all of us. However, you don’t have to take it “lying down”. As a matter of fact, you can literally manage the whole ordeal and either hang on to your body’s prime condition or regain that which has been lost for years following a few very basic principles.

Eating Habits

The first and most important aspect of your prime maintenance program has to do with what you allow to enter your body via your eating habits. You know what they say—”garbage in, garbage out”—and it couldn’t be more true than when it applies to your longevity and how good or bad you will age over the next few decades.

One thing that you will want to start doing immediately is to wean your body off of its cravings for and dependence on sugar. Sugar has a very insidious way of speeding up the aging process by weakening your body in a number of ways. In fact, Nancy Appleton, Ph.D., and author of “Lick the Sugar Habit” outlines the following detriments of sugar intake:

• immune system suppression
• upsets the body’s mineral relationships
• can raise the body’s triglycerides
• reduces the body’s ability to defend itself against bacterial infection
• causes a loss of body tissue elasticity and function
• contributes to copper deficiency
• interferes with calcium and magnesium absorption
• can weaken the eye sight
• can cause general premature aging
• causes tooth decay
• contributes to obesity
• can cause gallstones
• can cause heart disease
• can cause appendicitis
• can cause M.S. (multiple sclerosis)
• can cause varicose veins
• can lower vitamin E levels in the blood
• increases cholesterol and systolic blood pressure
• can cause cataracts
• deregulates bowel movements
• can cause myopia (near sightedness)
• can compromise the lining of the capillaries
• can make the tendons brittle
• can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease
• can lead to the formation of kidney stones
• feeds cancer
• the body changes sugar into 2-5 times more fat than it does starch
• may induce cell death

Need I say more about sugar?

Good. Let’s move on.

Another thing that you’ll want to get a handle on is alcohol. Not such a bad thing in moderation, excessive alcohol consumption inhibits the youthfulness and vibrance of the body by making it more susceptible to a number of diseases and infections which debilitate its ability to function.

Of course, some of the same diet intake strategies that are affective in weight loss help to maintain prime condition as well. Not making a habit of eating late or consuming a lot of dairy and animal fat products will help to both keep you trim and preserve the functioning of your arteries in order to help your body keep control of its blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well, measure which will protect you from developing heart problems.

In addition to things that you will want to restrict from you diet, there are several that you will want to make sure to supplement it with or at least make sure that you get plenty of in your regular intake.

First on this list is water. Cliche as it may sound, there wouldn’t be enough room to discuss all of the things that it does to keep the body’s systems clean and operable. Not to mention the aesthetic benefit that it has on the clarity of the skin.

Antioxidants will definitely need to be a part of your daily food regimen. These substances fight the aging effects of free-radical damage to the body. Some of the more popular antioxidants include:

• Green Tea
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Selenium
• Soy and Isoflavones
• zinc

Two of the easiest ways to add anti-oxidants to your diet are to drink green tea daily and to use soy milk with added isoflavones in the place of where you would use regular milk or cream.

Body Tone and Mobility

You may or may not be currently putting your body through regular resistance training. However, doing so get more and more important as you get older. Once past the age of 35, our bodies lose approximately 1% of their muscle mass annually. Since it is this muscle mass that gives your body its shape, form, and much of its strength, you will want to use resistance training to prevent atrophy and preserve as much of the actual muscle tissue as possible.

A second way in which resistance train helps you is that it keeps the bones strong and able to take abnormal amounts of pressure. This “practice” for the bones will come in handy in keeping them away from breaks and fractures that are very common as well as debilitating in older people.

Even more important than resistance training is your body’s flexibility. Nothing contributes more to optimal mobility than having flexible joints and muscles.

What’s more is that a regular stretching routine not only adds to mobility but also helps to guard against 3 of the most common injuries—those to your back, knees, and hip area. Many of these injuries are the result of a rigid body being twisted into positions beyond its strength capacity or its range of flexibility to the point that something “snaps”. Once any of these areas suffers major damage, it is generally never the same again.

The third major ingredient in preserving prime body tone and conditioning is cardiovascular activity. The benefits of such activity are obvious: a stronger, healthier heart and minimized body fat, the latter of the two helping the body maintain its most attractive shape and tone.

Preserving What You Have

When someone said “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, boy were they on target.

Taking the best care of your body’s condition before it begins to give you problems is the absolute most important part of any strategy to regain—or maintain—your prime.

Much of what has already been discussed has dealt with taking care of yourself through diet and exercise. However, there are additional things that demand attention cosmetically in order to “put the icing on the cake” in all of this.

Getting the proper rest so that your body may recuperate properly is of the utmost importance. Sufficient rest alone does a great deal to retard at least the appearance of aging. You’ll feel a heck of a lot better as well.

Other things can be done include staying out of the sun to avoid excessive skin damage, and following at least a basic washing and moisturizing regimen to keep the face clean and fresh. Good grooming also goes a long way as well with looking and feeling your absolute best.

The Final Word

Finally, it is imperative that you keep at least a once-a-year appointment with your doctor for an annual checkup. This is the best way to catch any deficiencies that may slip through the cracks with everything that you’ve got going on to keep yourself in peak condition.

Even with lots of effort being put into your body’s maintenance, a few things are bound to slip through due to your
individual lifestyle, habits, and genetic predispositions. Therefore, keeping tabs on your vital signs and being on the lookout for common killers like heart problems, cancers, and auto-immune deficiencies are paramount to your success.

Keeping all of these things in mind AND in practice will not only help to restore and retain your prime, but will help you to enjoy the absolute best overall quality of life that you possibly can.

To Your Best Body,

Lawrence Cole
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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Perhaps the most appealing benefit of using a patch is that it is so easy to use. No pills to remember to take, no special diets, no required exercise routine. Naturally, sticking to a healthy diet and exercise program is best for your overall health, but if that is difficult for you to adhere to all of the time, the patch may be a solution that works for you.

A weight loss patch that you place on your body will deliver the active ingredients by transdermal delivery, meaning through the skin. The patch ingredients will go directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system and liver. Simply apply the patch to a smooth area of your skin and change it every 3 days. That is all of the maintenance that is required.

A patch can even be used occasionally when you are traveling and know you will be eating out a lot, or for those times you are too busy to cook the proper foods. A patch that suppresses your appetite will help you develop good eating habits that will help you maintain your ideal weight in the future ~ no more yo-yo figures.

2. Appetite Suppressant Pills

Curbing your appetite to stop the influx of calories in the first place seems to be the logical way to lose and maintain your weight. However, we are so bombarded by confusing claims everywhere for appetite suppressant pills ~ in print, on the radio, on television, even on billboards when driving, that it is difficult to know which diet pill will really help take off those pounds ~ and keep them off..

Some diet pills will cause your heart to race, your hands to shake, or an overall “wired” feeling. To avoid these problem, stay away from products that contain Ephedra, Ma Huang, and Ephedrine.

One herbal diet pill that has gotten a lot of publicity lately is Hoodia Gordonii The authentic plant comes from the Kalahari desert in South Aftrica. Respectable television shows like 60 Minutes, the Today Show, BBC, and even Oprah’s “O” magazine have given it rave reviews for its fast acting appetite suppressing qualities. While it can take one to two weeks to work fully, many users report a decline in their appetite with the first pill.

In fact, Hoodia has had so many positive reports that there are now a lot of knock-off products being marketed to the uninformed ~ especially on the Internet. The real Hoodia is very rare because it takes up to 7 years for the Hoodia plant to mature to a point where it provides appetite suppressant qualities. In addition, the African government is now limiting the amount of Hoodia it exports, meaning only a few suppliers have the real thing. Because Hoodia is so rare, you can expect it to be a little more expensive than other diet pills.

Another diet pill that helps shed pounds is Herbal Phentermine. This is a non-prescription appetite suppressant that is scientifically designed to produce similar effects of a popular Rx version of phentermine.

The good news is that the Herbal version contains only natural ingredients so you don’t have to be worried about side effects. Plus, you can avoid the time, expense, and embarrassment of a doctor’s visit.

Herbal Phentermine will not only suppress your appetite, but it will also increase your metabolism so you burn more calories and have more energy.

3). Carbohydrate Blockers

Perhaps you prefer not to have your appetite suppressed, but instead would like to eat all of the pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes you want. If this sounds more like your style, then you might want to try a carbohydrate blocker.

Scientists have discovered, and thoroughly tested a method to allow us to eat the foods we love and not gain weight. We can now stop the normal conversion of starchy foods to sugar before it can pass through our digestive system and store as fat on our hips, thighs, buttocks and stomach. Derived from white kidney beans, the resulting carb blockers, (starch neutralizers), are a completely natural product. They work by neutralizing the Alpha amylase enzyme that digests starch.

By neutralizing this digestive enzyme, the starch from our food does not get digested. Instead, it remains intact and does not convert to sugar. It simply passes through the body undigested and acts as a fiber ~ which is a very good thing. We get more fiber going through our intestines while avoiding the conversion to sugar and the resulting fat storage ~ a definite win-win situation.

Over the past several years, there have been many positive studies to determine the effectiveness of carb blockers and their ability to help lose weight. One study was performed at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, over an eight week time period.

It reported that participants saw an average weight loss of 200% more than those taking a placebo, and lost an average of 1.5 inches around their waists. This was 43 % more than those taking the placebo. Plus they reported having 13% more energy, even though it is not a stimulant.

Whether you choose patches or pills, prefer to eat starchy foods, or use carb blockers, some things to look for when buying diet products are that they:

1) Contain all natural ingredients
2) Do not have harmful side effects
3) Offer a 100% money back guarantee

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One of the things that makes people not get the weight loss results that they want is that they may occassionally be starving their bodies.

There are two basic ways that this can happen. One is for it to be done inadvertently—like when you just get busy and forget to eat.

Another is when you purpose deprive your body of food to try and “speed up” your results.

Regardless of how it happens, either scenario in this case is equally damaging. Although you will decrease the calories that you take in which may lead to some short-term weight loss, the kicker here is that you will be slowing down your metabolism.

What this means is that after the starving is over, your body will hold onto the next meal you eat for dear life, expecting be be starved again.

If you allow starvation to become a habit, you will actually be contributing to your own weight gain in the future.

Therefore, make sure that you are keeping your meals no more than 4 hours apart. As long as you do this, you will be supporting the healthy metabolism that you’ll need to lose the kind of weight that you’ve committed to.

To Your Best Body,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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Well I’ve got a challenge for you.

I am literally daring you to make your weight loss goals the single, overriding objective to which you will make other things bend this month.

Am I asking you to put your weight loss absolutely first? Before Family? Before Work?

Certainly not!

Of course there will always be things in your life that will be more important to you than this.

However, I do believe that the list of things more important than your own weight loss and fitness is a short one. I also believe that even many things that are more important can be modified to help accommodate this part of your life.

There’s also a point to be made that without your health, nothing else matters anyway.

I mean think about it. Obesity is either a root cause or an aid in almost every major deadly disease and condition. I think that calls for your fitness and weight loss program to be just a bit of a top priority.

Wouldn’t you agree?

I thought so.

Now if you haven’t been prioritizing your program I don’t want you to go beating up on yourself. That’s not what this is about.

Instead of dwelling on what you may not have done, put in some extra effort this month to find ways to make SURE that you are making the time and resources available to yourself that you need to stay in shape.

1. Schedule Your Exercising, Keeping it Simple and Easy

   This sounds oh, so simple. But you wouldn’t believe how many people I talk to who “try” to get a workout in “if they can get around to it”, and never do.

   Look, the reality is that most busy people these days will not be able to get to the gym or even be able to workout at home every day. And the good news is that you don’t have to.

   Get out your planner and really take a hard look at your schedule. If nothing else, you will need to find 3 to 5 days in a week that you can set aside at least 30 minutes for some cardio. Of course you will get better results with 5 days, but it is more important that you are doing something than doing a lot.

   Try to plan activities that are easily accessible and even fun if you can. A cardio funk class at a gym that’s near by. Jogging while you walk the dog around the neighborhood. Sticking your favorite cardio DVD into the player and “working it out”.

   Do whatever is easy, simple, and hopefully fun. You want to set yourself up for success, so don’t try and complicate the issue.

2. Plan Your Grocery Shopping for Weight Loss

   Create a “master list” of all of the healthy foods that you’ll need to get through the week eating healthy. Go and get them all at once and them stock them at home.

   This way, you will always have healthy food options that will help you in your weight loss goals.

   You also won’t be caught off guard with the “munchies” and nothing to snack on in the house but your children’s (or significant other’s!) junk food. You can also plan to take certain snacks to work with you that can help you stay away from the temptations of doughnut-and-pizza-peddling co-workers.

3. Take Advantage of Weekend Time

   The fact of the matter is that for most people, the weekend is the only time when they have complete control over what they do during the day. Why not take advantage of this time to make sure you get in a little jog or some aerobics or even biking in the morning or afternoon when you are having some down time?

   Look at it this way: you’ll be knocking out 2 days of workouts before the week even begins. Then, based on your personal program, you will only have to worry about doing it again 1,2, or 3 days.

   This will go a long way to take some pressure off of you so that you won’t feel like you failed just because you got busy for a day or two and truly just could not get around to doing anything for your body.

   Using this tactics will go along way in making sure that you are able to stick with your program and not quit—even during times when your schedule is hectic and keeping up is rough.

4. One Day at a Time

   Most people won’t tell you this, but having the discipline to stay in shape—especially in the eating department—is something that usually is gradual and takes some time.

   And I know this from personal experience.

   It actually took me a year or two before I could really stick to a diet and exercise plan without fouling it all up. And to be honest, it is still a challenge even for me.

   Therefore, there is absolutely no reason why should feel defeated if you mess up on any given day. Just get back on the horse and commit to yourself that you’ll get it the right the next; and then the next; and then the next. And when you slip up again. Get over it quickly and do better the next day.

I know this all sounds pretty simplistic. That’s because it really is simple.

What makes it so challenging is that ugly four-syllabal word called C-O-N-S-I-S-T-E-N-C-Y. Its what separate people who achieve from those who don’t in virtually any endeavor.

But the bottom line of it all is that if the days that you do the right things far out way the days you do the wrong things, you will be truly successful in the end.

And yes, it really is that simple.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach

Read this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com.

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But no sooner had I stepped into my gym a week or two ago than I was sharply reminded of it.

Reminded of what?, you may ask.

The New Year’s Resolution crowd.

They come every year like snowbirds to Florida; they’re so predictable, that I can literally set my watch by them at the stroke of midnight each New Year’s Eve.

And they’re so easy to tell from everyone else, too. They show up in January in flocks and droves so thick that there is literally a line in front of every piece of equipment at the gym.

Then around mid to late March they start disappearing one by one like game birds being picked off by hunters. By April, they’re pretty much all gone.

These seasonal “birds” are the joke of the gym every hunting season.

The question is, will YOU be one of them?

Because you certainly don’t have to be. Everyone who’s in shape now was once someone who was just getting started or getting back on the horse after “letting themselves go” a bit. So getting a fresh start is nothing to be ashamed about.

In fact, it should be applauded. Getting started new and fresh means that you have stepped up to the plate to do something that so many people at home just are not willing to do for themselves.

The trick is not to let it all end just as quickly as it started.

I’ll give you the secret to being the last man or woman standing when everyone else has “flown back north” because they couldn’t hack it.

Set your weight loss and fitness goals NOW. Make them as specific as possible. The dress or waist size you want, your perfect weight, the outfit you want to wear, the reaction you want to get. Write it all out.

Studies have shown that written goals are more than twice as likely to become reality than those that are not.

Then when you go in the gym, forget about everybody else. You heard me right—EVERYBODY.

Don’t pay any attention to those toned physiques that look like they must have taken years to put together. Pay no mind to the show-off in the corner doing some fancy upside-down exercise with chains, ropes, and 2 machines. They aren’t your concern.

Its all about you.

Your body. Your goals. Your workout. Your results.

Go ahead and take that “before” picture. Look at it everyday as you work away from the old and toward the new you.

If you can just make it through the first few months you’ve greatly increased your chances of being around for the long haul.

Don’t cheat yourself by being on of this year’s gym casulties.

…And if you can’t make it to a gym, that’s all the better. Do the YourBestBodyNOW 15 Minute Workout at home and find a place close to home to get in your cardio.

The only thing that can keep you away from your goals is you.

Don’t allow that to happen.

Start this year strong and dig as deep as you can to make sure that you keep it up until you get exactly what you want. You can do it, I know you can.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach

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I could try and tell you how to not eat anything but lettuce and fruit while the rest of the family is enjoying succulent hams, delicious cakes, and scrumptious pies; but that would be a waste of time, wouldn’t it?

Besides, if you’ve been “good” all year with your eating habits (haven’t you?), why shouldn’t you get to enjoy some of that wonderful holiday food?

But what about your weight?

Your waistline?

I can show you how to manage that. The trick is to not get so carried away with all that food that all your weight loss and fitness efforts go down the tube.

How is that done?

It’s pretty simple, actually. Just like any successful undertaking in life, it all comes down to a few rules that are geared toward helping you reach your goal. Keeping yourself together after sampling a veritable feast is no different.

In this case, there are just a few things you need to keep in mind and follow:

1) Don’t munch yourself into a coma day after day. Choose 3 or 4 designated days through the REST of the season to “do your thing” at the table, and practice restraint on the rest.

2) On your big eating days, plan a morning cardio workout that is about an hour long. Why an hour? Sixty minutes of cardiovascular activity at the start of your day will keep your metabolism elevated well into the afternoon. It doesn’t matter what you do—the gym, walking around the block, jogging with the dog—whatever. Just plan to do an hour of SOMETHING on each of those mornings.

3) Don’t eat anything before your workouts. Just jump right into them with a bottle of water and don’t allow yourself to be too interrupted until you are done. This will help you to get the most out of shedding some of the fat that is already stored on your body to give you a “head start” on the day’s festivities.

4) This one is optional, but can make a difference if you stick to it. If you know that you just aren’t going to be able to resist all those wonderful cakes and pies, try eating them with your entree’s and pass on all or most of the starchy sides.

Remember, the goal here is not so much to lose weight, but to BREAK EVEN.

All you want to do is SURVIVE so that you don’t blow up like a house and derail all of the work that you may have done up unto this point.

If you have any questions, feel free to email them to me at lawrence@yourbestbodynow.com

Happy Holidays!

To Your Best Body,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach

See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com.

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Were you alone? And if not, who were you with?

More than likely, you were pigging out with the same person or group of people that you have no doubt done this with on more than one if not many occassions.

One of the things that I teach in the Your Best Body NOW Weight Loss Program is that a regular “treat” is actually a healthy thing to keep you mentally in the game of weight loss.

At the same time, we can all tend to go overboard with this when we are in “certain company”. Whether that company be friends, a significant other, or co-workers, it can be difficult to not give into the pressure and go along with whatever fattening food they may want you to indulge in with them.

Can you remember the last few times you completely gorged on food that you KNEW was making you fat?

Were you alone? And if not, who were you with?

More than likely, you were pigging out with the same person or group of people that you have no doubt done this with on more than one if not many occassions.

One of the things that I teach in the Your Best Body NOW Weight Loss Program is that a regular “treat” is actually a healthy thing to keep you mentally in the game of weight loss.

At the same time, we can all tend to go overboard with this when we are in “certain company”. Whether that company be friends, a significant other, or co-workers, it can be difficult to not give into the pressure and go along with whatever fattening food they may want you to indulge in with them.

So how can you get a grip on the situation?

One word—CONTROL.

Now, when I mention this “control”, I’m not talking about the strict, cast-iron stomach type that has you to stick to your celery and fruit even in the midst of your favorite pizza or pastry. If you had THAT, you wouldn’t be pigging out in the first place, right?

What I’m referring to is much easier, because you don’t have to do it all alone.

This type of control is not just over yourself, but is exercised on your environment. It works by simply letting everyone around you know that you are participating in weight loss—not just for aesthetics, but for your health, and sincerely ask for their help.

Some people in your life will be resistant to your change at first. However, with time and consistency you will see them develop a respect for you that will make them want to HELP you eat the right thing so that you reach your weight loss goals.

This doesn’t mean that you’ll never enjoy your favorite decadant food with friends or loved ones again, but it does help you to not fall into a revolving door of poor food choices by giving in to every bad-for-you treat that is placed before you.

Then, when you do get around to indulging, you can do so guiltlessly because you’ve exercised the CONTROL to stay on the weight loss straight and narrow—most of the time.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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One of the health benefits you should be aiming for as you lose weight should be getting a good daily dosage of antioxidants while on your weight loss plan and even afterward while in maintainence mode.

Just a few short years ago, the average person had never even heard of an antioxidant, let alone could actually tell you what one was.

Now, antioxidants are one of the biggest buzz words in health and fitness. Nearly every other product on the market claims to be chuck full of them. So what are they? REALLY? And what’s so darn good about them that it creates such hoopla?

Simply put, antioxidants fight to help eliminate the body of one of its most dangerous internal enemies—free radicals. “Free Radical” is the layman’s term for an oxygen atom that has been split in half so that it only has one electron as opposed to the two that it is supposed to have.

These split particles are constantly being made in the body, and if they are left unchecked, they can cause a myriad of problems. One such problem is to bump into and damage the internal tissues of the body’s organs and systems.

A second problem is to attached themselves to molecules within the body and throw of the chemical balance within us, setting off chemical chain reactions and causing health problems while multiplying more and more new free radical particles from these reactions.

Damage from free radicals has been proven to contribute to such common and deadly illnesses as atherosclerosis, cancer, quickening the aging process, and eye cataracts.

There are currently 3 vitamins and 2 minerals that have been identified to have antioxidant properties:

Vitamins:

• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• beta carotene

Minerals:

• Sulfur
• Selenium

As you embark on your weight loss program, remember that your goal is not only to lose weight, but to gain optimum health. Weight loss itself is just an added benefit of being a wholistically healthy person.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article YourBestBodyNOW.com

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How does waist-to hip ratio (WHR) work? Well, if your waist and hips are exactly the same circumference, you have a ration of 1 to 1 (1:1).

If your waist is smaller than your hips, the ratio will go down. For example, if your waist is only half as big around as your hips, the it changes to 1 to 2, or 1:2.

If the opposite is true, and your waist is twice as big as your hip area, the ratio goes up to 2 to 1, or 2:1.

Apparently, having a waist to hip ratio of 1:1 or more greatly increases your chances of suffering from a potentially fatal dysfunction of the heart.

A recent global study has come to some pretty alarming conclusions about the link between your waist-to-hip ratio and the risk of suffering from a heart attack.

How does waist-to hip ratio (WHR) work? Well, if your waist and hips are exactly the same circumference, you have a ration of 1 to 1 (1:1).

If your waist is smaller than your hips, the ratio will go down. For example, if your waist is only half as big around as your hips, the it changes to 1 to 2, or 1:2.

If the opposite is true, and your waist is twice as big as your hip area, the ratio goes up to 2 to 1, or 2:1.

Apparently, having a waist to hip ratio of 1:1 or more greatly increases your chances of suffering from a potentially fatal dysfunction of the heart.

Check your waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)

Being in a state of obesity makes the threat many times worse. Currently there are more than 300 million obese people worldwide.

An obese person is generally regarded as somewhat with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more.

Find out your body mass index (BMI)

What makes this issue so tricky is that some people will have a natural advantage with their WHR based on their genetic body type and shape.

Women with small waists and curvy hips will have the easiest time managing this ratio, while both men and women who have large midsections will have the most difficult time managing it.

Regardless of sex or body type, what is important for you to know is that you must do everything you can to keep your waist size down, down, DOWN!

In addition to heart attack, the WHR has been linked to determining your general risk of developing chronic diseases. It represents one of the many reasons why weight loss has so much more to offer you than a just a sexy body (all though it does come with that!)

The Your Best Body NOW Weight Loss Program teaches you not just how to lose weight but how to improve your entire lifestyle to make weight control and WAIST control simple and easy.

You only get one chance at life. Take care of it by living healthy and fit.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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Although there are numerous ways in which exercising safely is beneficial to you, one of the most important and the least observed is concerning the spine and lower back.

There is nothing inherently wrong with spinal movement. However, problems tend to arise over time as a result of holding static positions such as sitting or standing with bad posture or not using proper body mechanics for lifting objects over a period of months and/or years.

Due to the above factors, a very large portion of the population eventually develops one form or another of complications with their lower spine and back.

Here are some ways that you can protect your lower back and spine area from injury and strain while exercising to tone up and lose weight:

• Avoid bending over and lifting objects with your back muscles

  This is a common habit that wears down on the spine and lower back area by placing more tension on the area than it should be handling. As an alternative, bend fully at the kness when picking up objects of any significant weight and use the power of your larger, much stronger leg muscles to carry the majority of the weight load and give your lower back and spine a break.

• Strengthen your abdominal muscles for additional back support

  The abdominal muscles are antagonist to the lower back, meaning that they stabilize movement at the back by providing a force in the opposite direction. They also have the potential to significantly reduce or even stop a force made on the back if they are strong enough.

Either way you slice it watching out for your spine is a crucial part of your weight loss program in that it keeps your body in good enough condition to continue your plan to help you tone and lose weight effectively.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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But now, experts are saying that those of us who have 1-2 drinks a few times a week are less likely to become obese than non drinkers.

Finally! A Weight Loss “Do and Don’t” that we can have some fun with!

Not too much fun though.

Those of us who consume 4 or more drinks daily are a whopping 46% more likely to be obese, research says. The connection between moderate drinking and avoiding heart disease is pretty much old news to most of us at this point.

This new information was based on a study of over 8,000 people conducted by Dr. James Rohrer of the Mayo Clinic and Dr. Ahmed Arif, from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

“We don’t want to give people the wrong impression”…says Rohrer…”We certainly don’t want to recommend that nondrinkers become drinkers just to control their weight”.

If you’re a non-drinker—don’t panic.

The odds for moderate drinkers are only .73% better than nondrinkers for staying thin. The main message here is that a few drinks consumed socially isn’t anything to worry about if that’s your M.O.

Some experts don’t completely agree with these findings. Dr. David L. Katz, Director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, says that the slight reduciton in obesity risk may very well be attributed to additional healthy behaviors unrelated to drinking.

“Many health-conscious people have a daily drink because of the widely touted health benefits; it may be a constellation of behaviors in such people that lead to weight control”…says Katz…”This would produce the appearance of a weight-control benefit from moderate drinking, but it would be illusory.”

Well here’s my 2 cents on the matter:

As mentioned above, I feel that the primary takeaway from this research is that responsible, moderate drinkers need not be alarmed at the implications of drinking on their weight loss.

Though the overall trend presented here makes sense to me, I am a slight bit skeptical of the percentages given for risk levels.

My suspiscion comes from the fact that body mass index, or BMI, was used as a measure of obesity. As I mention in my program, BMI is not the best determination of true obesity. Its measurements, though useful, are not accurate enough to be followed to the letter—certainly not for coming up with percentages in a medical research study.

So if you choose to drink, do it moderately and responsibly. And if you don’t choose to do so, that’s o.k. too. WHATEVER you choose to do, make sure you’re eating right and exercising daily!

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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At the same time, if you do ultimately decide to hire trainer at some point, I want to make sure that you are going about it in a way that will bring you the absolute maximum benefit. I wouldn’t be a good fitness coach if I did anything less.

There’s no doubt that getting a good personal trainer has many benefits, including but no limited to:

• Speeding up the learning curve
• Great source of motivation
• Getting increased results
• Having a training partner to hold you accountable

At the same time, it is a HUGE mistake to simply rely on any old trainer to help you to consistently get the results that you desire. I can’t tell you how many people pay tons of money for expensive personal trainers and get little to no results after months and months of working with these people.

To keep as many people as possible from this horrific fate, I’ve put together a little check list to help you in choosing a trainer that is worth your money, time, and efforts.

1. All trainers are not created equal, so you do the picking

   There are a lot of gyms and health clubs who will literally assign you a trainer when you sign up for the 1 on 1 option. Don’t fall for this. With the time, effort, and discipline that it takes to get great results for your body—even with a trainer—you want to make sure that you are getting someone that you are going to be both happy and comfortable with.

   You will want to meet several trainers, and may even want to ask a couple of them for a trial session to get a feel for their coaching style, depth of knowledge, and motivational skills. It also would not be a bad idea to talk to some of the members of the gym who are already in great shape and ask them which trainer or trainers they think knows what he or she is doing. You’ll
   be surprised at the quality of information that you will get.

2. Don’t Listen to a trainer who does not look
   any better than you do

   I literally gasp for air everytime I walk into a gym and see a trainer with a
   client and noticing that the trainer is in no better—if not worse shape than the person who is paying them to improve their health and physique.

   I mean really, do the math on this one. How can someone who has not achieved what you want to accomplish possibly help you how to get there?

   You wouldn’t take investment advice from someone who was broke; you
   wouldn’t pay for piano lessons from somoene who’s tone def; and you certainly wouldn’t ask for tutoring from the class dunce and then pay him to do it. So why in the world would you pay someone to help you have the body
   you want who has not already accomplished it for themself?

3. One Size Does Not Fit All

   Just like you tend to wear clothes that compliment your particular body composition, there are numerous aspects of working out and dieting that will cater to making the best out of your very unique body type and its characteristics.

   Make sure that whatever trainer you use is not only knowledgeable of this fact but makes it a part of your program to evaluate specifically what should be done to best enhance your body type, not someone else’s.

4. Expect the Unmagical

   Rome was not built in a day, and neither will your best physique be. It is not what you do in spurts, but what you do consistently or a long period of time that determines what your body will look like and how well it will function.

   Hiring a personal trainer may slightly accelerate your results, and will most definitely focus them. Nevertheless, a trainer is not the end-all to your development, and getting what you want out of this will take just as much if not more work than you would have to put out anyway.

   Think of your trainer as a guide and a coach—not the silver bullet to Your Best Body in 30 days or less. Just know that as long as you are consistent, your results will gradually take care of themselves.

5. Be a Good Student

   Once you’ve picked a good personal trainer who you feel comfortable with and confident in, LISTEN to them! Make sure to really take advantage of not only the precious time that you have with them during your workouts but also to their wealth of knowledge regarding your health and fitness that you can apply to your life outside of the gym.

   Many of the information and techniques that you learn from a good trainer can serve you well for much of your life as you constantly improve your overall health and well being.

Whether you are a fitness newbie, or a seasoned exercise buff looking to take your workout program to the next level, a well selected personal trainer can be a HUGE benefit to the attainment of your fitness goals. Just make sure that you are shrewd in your selection of them and that you sponge all of the good information that you can for yourself. If you truly take on the task of doing it right, I assure you that you won’t regret it.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach

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Nevertheless, there still is a very clear divide between those people who become successful and losing weight and/or staying fit and those who do not.

Why is that? And what can you do to improve your chances of being in the successful minority as opposed to the unsuccessful majority?

When it comes to the world of weight loss and being fit, there are generally two areas that help to determine what you can expect for your efforts.

1)Genetic Factors
2)Psychological Factors

Most of the information out there is geared around the Genetic factors and how to compensate for any natural shortcomings with a certain amount of physical activity and dieting.

One of the most popular topics along the lines of genetics is that of Body Type.

Anatomical body type is generally broken down into 3 basic groups: Ectomorphic, Mesomorphic, and Endomorphic.

Ectomorphic types are characterized as people with thin, up and down body frames who have the easiesttime keeping their weight under control. Basketball players and runway models will often fit into this category.

Mesomorphic body types are characterized as people with athletic frames and generally muscular, well-proportioned bodies. Bodybuilders and dancers will often fit in here.

Endomorphic body types tend to be generally round figures and will often have the most trouble in keeping unwanted weight off of their bodies.

Most of us are combinations of two or more of these types with one being more dominant than the others.

One important note about these anatomical types is that while they may give some insight to how you look on the outside, they can deceive us as to how healthy you are internally. Many people who may be “thin” are literally decaying inside due to bad habits (poor diet, smoking, lack of exercise).

By contrast, there are many people who are not stereotypically thin, but are pictures of healthy due to healthy lifestyles (proper nutrition, physical activity).

The general role of knowing your body type is to get an explanation of how your body will tend to respond to your diet and lifestyle in terms of how easy or challenging it may be for you to “hold it together” in certain areas. Another way of classifying your body is by which of your hormone-producing glands dominates the way you process nutrients in the food you eat.

These Glandular (“metabolic”) types will fall into one of 4 categories: Adrenal, Thyroidal, Pituitary, or Gonadal. The explanation of each is very similar to that of the anatomical body types above. The adrenal type tends to correspond with the mesomorphic anatomical type. The thyroidal is similar to the ectomorphic, and the pituitary to the endomorphic.

The gonadal type is a women-only classification that is a hybrid of being slender on the top but somewhat larger below the waist with a greater amount of body fat. The gonadal body type among women is more commonly referred to as being “pear shaped”.

There is a third type of body classification that you may come across that originated in Ancient India. It has to do with “Doshas” – how the energy fields of the earth and your physical mass interact to influence how you feel.

This is not directly related to the physical aspect of weight loss but tends to give you an idea on how what psychological advantages or challenges you may have when it comes to getting and staying fit.

This brings me to a major point of clarity in this article:

As valuable as all of the body type information may be to learning your body, it is not the “end all” that it is often marketed to be.

You are neither “guaranteed” to look and feel great nor “doomed” to be overweight and unhealthy simply based on your genetics and body classification. Body types should only be used to give you insight on what advantages or challenges that you may have in your quest for life-long fitness—not a life or death sentence that limits what you can achieve.

In reality, the Psychological factors related to how you look and feel are really where the rubber meets the road in weight loss and staying healthy and fit.

It is here that you will find the tools to overcome whatever physical challenges that you are faced with. Therefore, it is here where you absolutely focus the MAJORITY of your energy if you are become and stay successful with your health and fitness goals.

One thing that many people do not consider is how the knowledge of their “body type” and what that means affects their psychological outlook in the first place.

Many “fit” people who look great because they eat right and exercise do so because they already believe that they’ve “got something” that is valuable and maintained. Therefore, their healthy lifestyle is just a matter of course.

The importance of the effect that your outlook on your results cannot be ignored. To put it plainly, your outLOOK directly affects your outPUT.

If you don’t happen to be one of those people who seem to “naturally” have it together when it comes to your body (or you have been before but have since lost the “magic”), then what you will need to do is simply tap into the strength of your own psyche to push you toward success.

There are 5 Key Steps that you need to follow in order to take advantage of your own reservoirs of power, drive, and confidence.

1. Self Acceptance

   In order for ANY of this to work, you will want to either have or develop of certain level of self acceptance for your body and all of its great points as well as its weaknesses.

   This doesn’t mean that you have to be satisfied with yourself when you may be out of shape. What is DOES mean, however, is that you have to be “ok” with having YOUR “best body”—not someone else’s.

2. Find the Keys to Your Own Motivation

   Different things work for different people. While there may be 4 or 5 body types, there are even more different personality types. You may want to try several different types of motivational tools to see which one you respond to best for the results you want. Here are a few ideas of things to try:

   • Having a workout/diet buddy (or buddies)
   • Motivational books and tapes
   • Imagining how you will look and feel when you reach YOUR personal best
   • Thinking of the quality of life benefits of being healthy and fit

   And there are tons more.

3. Setting Attainable Goals after You’ve Gotten #1 and #2 Firmly Under Your Belt

   Most people try to simply pull random goals out of the sky. This can often lead to first failure then disappointment when issues with self acceptance are combined with a lack of understanding what motivates you.

4. Drown Yourself in Those Things that Motivate You

   Once you’ve figured out what works for you, DROWN yourself in it! If it works, then work IT. Take full advantage of the #1 factor in successfully achieving weight loss and maintaining physical fitness.

5. Maintain Your Progress by Making Fitness a Lifestyle

   As many of you know by now, I am NOT a fan of traditional diets. They simply do not work. More than anything else, it is your day-to-day lifestyle that will determine what results you get, and your psychological outlook is what either drives you to or pulls you away from the activities that form that lifestyle.

There is simply no reason on earth that you cannot be one of the “Successful” people when it comes to weight loss and fitness.

Educate yourself on your body’s strengths and weaknesses, then develop a winning attitude by provided your psyche with effective motivation that it will respond to. That’s the hardest part. And its very doable with the right information and coaching, which is why I came up with the YourBestBodyNOW web site and weight loss program for people just like you. The rest, as they say, is will be a cinch.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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You’re sick and tired of being sick and tired and are once and for all hell bent on losing weight.

Well, let me be the first to warn you of a very grim fact:

Millions have tried before you and most of them have failed miserably at reaching their weight loss and diet goals.

Therefore, I’ve put together a little beginner’s guide to help make sure that you are one of the few that actually ends up being successful at this.

1. Get an accurate picture of where you are now

   Many people just go and hop on a diet or weight loss program without knowing exactly where they are from the start. This is dangerous because along the way there WILL be numerous times where you will be tempted to simply quit altogether. Without knowing where you started, you won’t be able to accurately gauge your progress. Not being able too see that progress put you at an extremely high risk of quitting down the road when the going gets tough.

2. Set specific, realistic goals for your weight loss, and WRITE THEM DOWN.

   This is one of the most ill-executed steps in the entire process of losing weight. Most people will passively quote some random amount of weight that they “hope” to lose.

   “I need to lose 30 lbs.”

   “I’m trying to get back down to a size X”

   “If I can just fit back into Y, I’ll be fine”

   That is the exact WRONG way to go about your weight loss. All above the above are hopes. Wishes. Desires. And none does a thinner body make.

   What you need are detailed, definite goals that are written and time bound (e.g. “over the next 3 months”) to hold yourself accountable to doing what you said you were going to do by the time you said you were going to do it.

   Adopt a step-by-step course of action to get you there

   In order for this to work there needs to be a concrete method to your weight loss madness. To this end, you need to chose a weight loss plan that will lead you step-by-step through what to eat (and what not to eat), how and when to exercise, and every other imaginable aspect of losing weight. The reason for this is that goals have a much better chance of becoming reality when they are being attained as a result of a plan or system of action.

   Get started IMMEDIATELY

   Most flunkies know how to study. Most broke people know how wealth is generated. Most overweight people how to lose weight. However, what separates all of these very knowledgeable, yet unsuccessful people from the results they desire is action. Don’t let that be your fate.

   Once you have written specific goals and chosen a plan of action, don’t delay in getting right on track to weight loss. The cheesecake, burgers, chocolate, and pastries aren’t going anywhere. You can snack on them moderately once you’ve achieved your goals. Don’t get caught into the trap of holding off having Your Best Body any longer. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be done.

   Be Prepared for the emotional roller coaster

   Nearly everyone who has tried to lose weight has had some level of success at one time or another. For those who have not been able to sustain desirable results, being knocked out by the emotional roller coaster is most likely to blame.

   Look, losing weight is very simple, but not easy. If it were, there wouldn’t be so many people trying to get it right. The #1 skill that you will need to develop in order to make it through is surviving the roller coaster of emotions. One day you’ll feel as if you’re getting great results. A week later, you may actually feel that you are moving backwards. Either way, just know that as long as you consistently follow the weight loss principles, you will ALWAYS move forward, even if it does not feel like it.

   Don’t stop until your goal is reached, no matter WHAT

   So many times people come to a screeching halt in their efforts to lose weight and diet because they get discouraged a portion of the way through OR after they reach a certain benchmark they allow themselves to be satisfied and quit the program even though their goal has not been reached.

   DON’T DO IT.

   There was a specific reason that you set your initial goal. Do not sell yourself short by settling for anything less. Stick it out until the very end, and your sense of accomplishment will be irreplaceable.

   Once you’ve reached your goal, never, EVER let yourself blow up
   again

   This is the last and final barrier to ultimate success in your efforts to lose weight.

   Make sure not to allow yourself to relapse while you are in maintenance mode. I recommend sticking to the same general principles that helped you lose the weight and then occasionally indulging in some of the foods that you love. This balance is the best way to keep the body that you’ve worked for and not feel over-restricted.

Make this the first and last time that you ever have to go through a weight loss program. Remember that if you can just get it right one good time, you can literally maintain it forever with little effort.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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During her journey to lose 40lbs in 16 weeks, my good friend Kim faced some pretty serious challenges with regards to her level of motivation.

Another friend of mine, Antonio Goodwin, who lost 4 inches from his waistline in 9 weeks with my program, faced the same frustration.

The problem was that at several times during their weight loss, they both felt as if they were not losing much weight and were not seeing results.

Now, a look at either of their before and after photos on my web sites shows that each of them made quite a substantial improvement in their bodies.

So what would make someone who’s losing weight each week feel as if they were not?

I’ll tell you exactly what. Its referred to as the emotional roller coaster.

This is how it usually goes:

You start a new diet or weight loss program. You’re all excited to be doing something great for your health and the way you look, and you’re sticking
to the program, step by step.

Consistent action pays off and after a short while you start getting compliments about the pounds you’re losing week by week.

Then all of a sudden, it all seems to stop. You can no longer see the physical changes in your body, and maybe you even have a moment of weaknesand cheat a bit on your diet plan. So now you’re frustrated and mildly depressed. You feel as if true weight loss may NEVER happen for you, no matter what you do.

TIME OUT.

The trick here is to not get stuck in your own frustration.

Now this is a tough one, because everyone and I do mean EVERYONE goes through this stage. Whenever I need to trim down for a photo shoot, I go through it as well.

One of the things that you must understand about the body is that for as long as you are doing the right things on a consistent basis it WILL respond with results.

The Jedi Mind Trick is that oftentimes the progress is subtle, or may be primarily taking place in an area that you cannot see as well.

For instance, my friend Kim loses weight in her back the fastest. Her frustration came because she did not see the fat loss on her stomach the way she would have liked to. Little did she know that from behind she looked like a completely different person.

Listen, the emotional roller coaster is an inevitable aspect of any worthy undertaking that we take on in life. Remember getting through college? Or maybe waiting for puberty to set in? How about paying off your debts? The mental battle while attempting to diet and/or achieve weight loss is no different.

So make a conscious decision to stick to your guns. Let it play out. Victory lies in having the strength to make it through the rough spots without cracking under the pressure and losing all that you’ve worked for. If you can just master getting past the point of frustration, before you know it you’ll be seeing results again and getting more compliments.

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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I say it’s “weird” because the results people get when they do this for just 10 days are astounding, but the whole process is really simple to do. And everything you need can be picked up at the grocery store for a couple dollars.

Normally I would say the whole thing sounds too good to be true, but this system has been around for close to 60 years, and today it’s more popular then ever!

It’s even being used by Hollywood stars who have to look good all the time because the cameras always on them. The last thing they want is an unflattering photo of them looking sickly and out of shape on the front page of the tabloids.

Using this 10 day system keeps them looking great, and it can do the same for you.

If you’re even a little bit curious about this 10 day system you should go to http://jpboxer27.xhmtl.hop.clickbank.net . That website will tell you all about the 10 day system.

PS. You might be wondering what exactly this system does. Going to the website will tell you all about it, and list all the things this system can do for you. I think you’ll be surprised at the results you can get in 10 days.

Here’s that website again http://jpboxer27.xhmtl.hop.clickbank.net

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The plot thickens for women in particular due to the fact that their bodies regularly lose iron during menstruation. Therefore, eating a low-calorie, low-iron diet in an effort to lose weight only makes the problem more severe.

It is generally suggested that women supplement their diets with an iron supplement such as the Vitality multivitamin offered by Melaleuca, the Wellness Company. This is particularly important during periods of heavy exercise and training that are typical aspects of any weight loss program or general effort to lose weight even when a special program is not in use.

One thing to be on guard for, however, is excessive iron supplementation by iron-deficient (non-anemic) women. There is a disorder known as hemosiderosis which results from large deposits of iron made in the liver that causes a glitch in the proper metabolism of the iron itself. Avoiding prolonged large doses will eliminate the risk of this particular disorder.

Below are a few recommendations from the American Council on Exercise (ACE) that will help you to make sure you get the adequate amount of iron intake in your daily diet, whether on a program to lose weight or not:

• Eat foods with a high vitamin C content with all meals. Vitamin C aids in the absorption of iron. (examples: salsa; chili peppers; oranges)
• Include dark meat chick and/or turkey in the training diet. Both of these are rich in iron
• Vegetable proteins such as split pea soup or chili beans with lean meat help the iron in those meats to properly absorb
• When eating starchy carbohydrates such as cereals, breads, and pastas, gravitate to those labeled “enriched” or “fortified” for their higher iron content.

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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There are actually 3 primary factors that may put someone at risk for osteoporosis—women in particular:

• lack of calcium
• hormonal deficiency (estrogen in particular)
• lack of physical activity

So in addition to exercise and hormonal factors, a woman’s diet is extremely important in guarding off this very debilitating condition.

One of the reason’s why we do not recommend most traditional diet plans and programs is because the over-restrictive eating guidelines often eliminate or seriously limit the consumption of some very necessary vitamins and minerals that keep the body healthy and strong.

You never want to get to a point where you are sacrificing health merely to lose weight. In fact, any weight loss program
worth half its salt will make sure that the recommendations made for your daily diet intake are well balanced and full of all the nutrients that you need.

The most important time to get an appropriate amount of calcium is between the ages of 14 and 24, when peak bone mass is obtained. Then after that bone continues to develop until about age 35 to 40, at which time the bone mass that a woman has will strongly determine how much at risk she may be
for bone fractures in her later years.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends that women intake 1,000 mg (1g) of calcium daily, and then increase their daily dosage to 1,500 mg (1.5g) post menopause.

Sadly, only an estimated 25% of women in any age group consume the recommended daily amount of calcium to guard against osteoporosis. And when they go on diets and weight loss programs, they tend to consume even less.

Lowfat dairy prodcuts such as milk (skim milk is a better option), yogurt, and cottage cheese are all excellent sources of dietary calcium. For those who are lactose intolerant or who wish to generally stay away from dairy products, non-dairy alternatives fortified with calcium will do as long as they contined the recommended daily allowance (RDA). The nondairy product Lactaid added to lowfat and nonfat milk may also work to help you meet your desired goal.

In your efforts to lose weight, make sure that the weight loss program that you use includes calcium-rich food choices. And if it does, you will need to add them yourself. No matter what weight loss program you are on or what other means you use to lose weight, here are some good ideas recommended by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) that you may add to your daily diet in order to get the amount of calcium you need while you lose the weight.

• Prepare canned soup with skim milk instead of water
• Add nonfat dry milk to soups, stews, and casseroles
• Add grated lowfat cheese to salads, tacos, and pasta dishes
• Eat yogurt as a snack, or use it to make low-calorie dressings
• Choose calcium-rich desserts, suhc as lowfat cheese and fruit, frozen nonfat or lowfat yogurt, and puddings made with skim milk
• Drink hot chocolate in the winter made with skim milk

To YourBestBody,

Lawrence Cole

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

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But then, like a bad dream you wake up from, your muscles suddenly wasn’t growing like what it used to do. Your muscles stop responding to your heavy workout no matter how intensely you’ve been training. So you said to yourself, now I will train harder. So now you put in three hours a session and but even as you upped your gym dosage, horrors of horrors, your muscles are actually shrinking.

Ahhhhh, the Gym Plateau. It afflicts all of us and few of us ever gotten out of it. In fact, most people don’t even know that they have hit the dreaded plateau and thought that their muscles can only grow so much due to inherent genetic factors. Not to worry though, if you read the following fitness tips, and follow these tips to the latter, I can assure you that your muscles will start growing again and grow bigger they will.

Here are your free fitness tips.

Fitness Tip #1
Take A Break

This tip is easy to comply for most of us but very difficult for some gym rats. Simply take a break from your workout. Do not step into the gym or do any workout for 2 weeks. Its time to let your body recover from the punishments you are dishing out to your muscles. Some bodybuilders may find this difficult to do because working out is addictive. You produce endorphin when you workout and endorphin is also known as happy hormone. The same hormone you produce when having sex.

Professional bodybuilders take a break after every 4-5 months of hard training and when they are back in the gym, they shock their well rested but complacent muscles back into massive muscle gain.

Fitness Tip #2
Are you training too often?

If your exercises are intense enough, you need only to train each muscle group once or twice a week. Your training schedule shouldn’t repeat muscle groups in the same week. Every time you train, you do your muscles damage. Muscles need time to repair and it does so in the after your training when you are resting. This means that if you lift weights on consecutive days, there isn’t sufficient time for the body to recover. Try to have one day rest between each weight lifting day.

If your routine requires intensive weight training, remember not to prolong your gym time longer than an hour. This is because your cortisol, a muscle eating hormone level will be elevated and thus will be counter productive to your efforts. It eats your muscles.

Most of all, you must sleep! Eight hours or even better, go for ten hours. Muscles do not grow in the gym; they grow when you sleep. When you sleep, you are secreting growth hormones for many bodily functions and one of those functions is to build muscles. That is why they called it beauty sleep!

Fitness Tip #3
Are you using the correct weight lifting techniques?

If your technique or form is incorrect, not only is your training retarded, you are also inviting injury. Don’t laugh. But when you exercise you must think and focus, instead of mindlessly repeating the motions, do take note of how you perform each exercise and rep. Do so with deliberation and at the beginning and end of every lift, pause and squeeze the muscles you are exercising. Mind and muscle must connect! Never never use momentum of the swing to lift the weights and let gravity pull the weight down. That is why you must lift slowly and lower slowly feeling the tension in your muscles and resisting the load all the time.

In order for muscles to want to grow, you have to stress them to the maximum, and then further. Do enough repetitions until you feel you cannot go any further using good form. You must then either increase the weight or the number of repetitions at the next session. This is called progressive overload, and progressive overload is what forces your muscles to grow. As a general guide, if you can lift more than 12 reps the weight is probably too light and it is too heavy if your muscles fail you in less than 5 reps. You may wish to consult your physical fitness trainer on the correct form and technique for each exercise.

Fitness Tip #4
Are you using free weights?

Most machines do not involve as much of the synergistic muscles (supporting muscles) as free weights do. And, therefore, do not build as much muscle mass. Synergistic muscles are the smaller muscles that aid the main muscles in balance and strength in each lift. Machines has its uses, but for beginners and for smashing plateaus, use free weights.

Fitness Tip#5
Workout with compound exercises

Compound exercises are exercises that involve 2 or more joint movements and thereby employing bigger muscles and more synergistic muscles . Bench presses, dead lifts, squats, and barbell curls amongst others are fantastic compound exercises . For example, when you squat , all the muscles in your lower body get a workout and that alone is about 60 percent of your overall musculature . Squat also works your back and abs too. Using more muscles at one go means that you get a better overall workout. To add icing to the cake, because of the massive utilization of your muscles , you will pant, huff and sweat more. That means your routine also has a cardio effect and you will burn calories even hours after you stepped out of the gym .

Fitness Tip#6
Are you working out your legs?

Your body is programmed to grow proportionately with only slight variations. If you do not train your legs, your upper body mass will stop growing before it becomes large. Surely, you’ve heard of chicken legs! Just because leg training can be brutal, it doesn’t give you reason to hide your legs in your pants. To get that super hero X-frame, pepper your routine with squats . A word of caution though: compound exercises such as dead lifts, squats, and bench presses must be done in excellent form and a spotter is highly recommended. This is where your physical fitness trainer will come in handy as your spotter. If not, injuries are bound to happen and that may put you permanently out of the gym.

Fitness Tip#7
What are you eating?

Muscle building requires protein – the more, the better. Meat, especially red meats and fish, are the best source. It is in your food that your body will draw nutrients from, for strength and necessary fats for joint and organ protection.

To have massive muscle gain and help in muscle preservation , you need about 2-3 grams of good protein per kilogram of your body weight . If you want to get serious about muscles , you may need to supplement them with protein shakes . Eating a meal and having a protein shake immediately after your workout also maximizes the window for rapid absorption of nutrients. This is important as you need to feed the muscles now that you have damaged them. You should also 6 small meals a day so your muscles are constantly fed throughout the day. This will help rev up your metabolism to burn fat too. This will tremendously help you in your build muscle lose weight program. Remember to take your protein shake half an hour before you workout too.

Fitness Tip#8
How about Carbs?

Glycogen is the main energy source for any muscle-building exercise. The body stores whatever carbohydrates you eat as glycogen and muscles use it to give you energy during your workout. After an intense workout, do consume carbohydrates immediately to replace the used glycogen. You can even indulge in high glycemic carbs such as ice creams and white bread as these will turn into insulin and shuttles nutrients such as protein to your muscle cells quickly.

Fitness Tip #9
And Fats?

Yes, your body do need do need fats . But try to avoid saturated fats such as animal fats or worse, trans fats which are artificial fats found in pastries, confectionaries and preserved food. Consume healthy unsaturated fats such as olive oil, canola oil, fish oils, flax seed oil.

Fitness Tip#10
Water Water is essential.

Water is essential. It is the most underrated macronutrient. You need at least eight glasses of water every day but when you exercise , you lose even more water because of the sweating. So drink before, during and after your workout. Weigh yourself before and after the workout, and compensate for the loss by drinking at least 16 ounces of fluid for every pound or half a kg lost.

Fitness Tip#11
Creatine

While meats are the best source for creatine, which is a nutrient that helps speed up muscle gain and power you up during workouts, those who do not get enough from their regular diet must be supplemented. Creatine puts volume into your muscle cells and gives you that muscle pump thus your muscles feels tighter, look bigger and overall illusion of superb muscularity . It also helps to prevent muscle breakdown.

Fitness Tip#12
Glutamine

When supplemented, it may help bodybuilders reduce the amount of muscle wasting away or used up as energy. It also helps in muscle recovery.

Fitness Tip #13
Do you change your routine?

The human body is fantastic at adaptation. So whatever routine you are on, your body will get used to it. So do change your routine every 6-8 weeks. For example, instead of working out your chest muscles at the start of your workout, work your back muscles instead. You can reverse your whole routine or change the variations of your exercises or add new ones and take away some old ones. By changing your routines, you not only shock your muscles to new growth, it will also prevent boredom by doing the same thing all the time.

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