Having hit middle-age, we almost accept that weight is much easier to put on and much tougher to take off don’t we…but does it have to be that way?

That’s the question I struggled with over the last few years. Even though I ate better than I ever have, exercised far more frequently and tried to lower the stress in my life, it constantly felt like I was hitting a brick wall. That no matter how much exercise or how “good” I was being with my eating, I was still losing ground in the fat burning war.

Working with my alternative health care practitioners though, it all came together and lately I could actually feel the fat melting away.

For instance, I discovered my blood sugar level was completely messed up leading to huge peaks and valleys resulting in chemical reactions in my body that were sustaining fat levels. It’s like an engine trying to run with the wrong type of fuel. No matter how well you take care of your engine, if you feed it the wrong fuel, it gets gummed up and won’t work optimally.

Other findings included an overgrowth in candida in my digestive tract due to a recent dose of antibiotics…again until this is addressed, it doesn’t matter what you eat or how much you exercise, your body is a mess and will show it.

Here’s an overview from Awakening Potential’s blog that shows why you just can’t lose weight, even though you are trying hard.

So, as we all consider our health and weight loss goals in this New Year, consider factors other than diet and exercise must be dealt with first so that we get the most out of being “good”

Diet programs that force us to radically change our eating habits, what we eat or how much we eat are pretty much doomed to failure, they rarely result in losing weight and can often lead to a rebound effect where we lose a little and gain back more fat than before.

But did you know that we average 2-3 lbs of fat each week simply based on our drinking habits?

Take a look at the sugar and fat content in the soft drinks, juices, health drinks, dairy and special coffees that we treat ourselves with – in some cases daily.

You can average anywhere from 110 calories for a small soft drink to several hundred calories in a specialty coffee…by just cutting down (or cutting them out altogether) replacing them with water or club soda we can lose at least a pound each week.

Here are 3 ways to lose that pound starting now!

1. Get rid of soft drinks altogether. I used to drink anywhere from 12 to 24 soft drinks a week when I was a teen and into my twenties, but nearly 10-years ago now I cut them out altogether and even now may have one or two a month if at all. The crazy thing is that I don’t miss them at all and feel so much better not having the sugar rush and crash associated with soft drinks. They really are empty calories and are the leading cause of obesity in Western society today.

2. Dramatically reduce your intake of juices. Many people still believe that fruit juices are healthy, full of vitamins and that you can’t go wrong drinking fruit juices…nothing could be further from the truth. Fruit juices often contain very little real fruit, are loaded with sugar, artificial coloring, often contain traces of mold since the skins are often squeezed into the juice as well and contain significant calories that add fat to your body each time you take a drink. In many cases these juices are significantly devoid of any vitamins as well. Try removing that morning glass of orange juice replacing it with water. If you are concerned about Vitamin C, then take a quality C supplement, but do away with the juice. My only exceptions now are home made smoothies where I add my own fruit and base.

3. Substitute cream in your coffee for milk. For those of you who consume 3-4 cups of coffee each day you are adding more fat into your body than you realize by pouring an ounce or two of half-and-half or coffee cream – instead opt for whole milk, or even better, skim milk. You may need a little more and may have a small adjustment to make with the flavor, but don’t worry – you will get used to it quickly and just think about that 1-2 lbs of fat you can burn without dramatically altering your diet or having to do extra exercise.

This really is one of the easiest adjustments to make in your daily routine to burn fat faster – and it really does work, so give it a try.

Already we are faced with the prospect of wearning shorts, t-shirts and tank tops – thighs and arm fat are suddenly out in the open for all to see, not to mention the extra belly fat we are carrying from our winter indulgences.

But we all know what is really coming…the dreaded bathing suit season where suddenly our hips and belly are visible…so what is the best way to lose fat?

1. Cut down on your overall calorie intake. This doesn’t mean STOP eating…it just means that if you are eating large meals or snacking between meals, either cut those out or substituate low calorie foods. Try substituting carrot sticks for chips or 2 rice cakes for cookies, low fat yogurt for pudding or bread. By getting smarter about your calorie intake, you can set the stage to lose fat fast

2. Get Moving! Fit more movement into your day. Usually you hear that you need to exercise to lose fat — but really what you need to do is move, your body will take care of the rest. So, get up an extra 30-minutes earlier and go out for a brisk walk before your day starts. Go for a walk or job at lunchtime. Fit a game of tennis in twice this week, go out for a bike ride with your kids, or even walk up and down your stairs a few dozen times while you have a spare 15-minutes in the house or at work. Not only do these activities burn fat, they enhance the overall function of your metabolism resulting in fat loss at rest as well as while you move.

3. Drink more water. Not only do our cells require fresh, clear and pure water to function enhancing overall health and vitality, water also fends off the crappy feelings associated with de-hydration such as headaches that keep us from being more active AND they help flush toxins out of our system that impact the digestive system resulting in more fat accumulation.

4. Manage Stress – we all have stress in our lives and stress have been proven to contribute to weight gain – so learning to manage stress results in fat loss. Physiologically, when we are under chronic stress our system actually produces more sugar which gets stored as fat. So, the same person who eats 2500 calories a day with the exact same foods but has more stress will gain weight over someone else who eats the same, but knows how to manage stress.

5. Be consistent – small changes in your diet (cutting out or substituting snacks), adding more movement to your daily routine and periodic meditaton to help manage stress will work to lose fat quickly, but you must be willing to apply them consistently. Doing this for 3-days will not give you the fat loss results you seek. Stick with it for a few weeks and you will begin to see very visible and real differences though.

Remember – these 5 ways to lose fat quickly do not interfere with your lifestyle and therefore should be easy to keep up consistently which is the mark of a truly successful weight loss and fat burning system.

If you have found a way to lose fat that works for you – leave us a comment and we’ll make sure that others can benefit from it too.

Fast Weight Loss Through Sleeping

When you think of how to lose weight fast you think of cutting down calories, trying the latest diet program (or at least being more careful about what you eat), fitting in 30-45 minutes of exercise each day and perhaps even trying to get yourself in better mental shape by using yoga or meditation.

Yes, these are certainly valid tips to lose weight, but there is another breakthrough that is under careful study these days – and I bet you are going to like this one!

What do you think of sleep as an effective weight loss technique?

Here’s how it works.

There are at least 3 reasons why sleep helps in safe weight loss:

1. You actually do burn calories when you sleep. That’s right, most people (including me) had thought that you don’t really burn any significant calories during sleep.  Depending on your current weight, sex and metabolism you can expect to burn anywhere between 500 up to 700 calories for a typical 8-hour night’s sleep.  As an aside, throw in sex before heading to sleep and you can add another 100 or so calories to that total…guys, there’s some ammunition you can use with your significant other.

So yes, when someone asks you how to lose weight fast, you can reference getting a good night’s sleep as part of your overall weight loss plan.

2. When you sleep your body’s metabolism slows, it goes into “regeneration and healing” mode and you do not intake food.  So, while your body burns calories, it does so with a metabolism that takes less energy and of course, you don’t eat while you are sleeping. In short, your body is more efficient while you sleep.  If you are only getting 6.5 hours each night (or less) or if you are variable in your sleeping patterns then you are not operating as efficiently from a weight loss perspective as you could be.

3. There is enough research linking eating habits, weight loss and our ability to breakdown food leading to more efficient digestion to stress management that we take this as a given – there is a link between how to lose weight fast and managing stress in our lives.  There is also a very strong link between getting 7.5-8-hours of consistent, quality, deep REM sleep and stress management.

In short, if you want to give yourself the best opportunity for weight control and healthy weight loss, then improving your sleep habits will improve your ability to manage stress (along with exercises such as yoga and meditation) leading ultimately to both a physiological and emotional improvement in your ability to deal with the challenges you face each day in your life.

You know the feeling well, you haven’t had good sleep for a few nights and suddenly everything is blown out of proportion, you can’t seem to control your emotions, you are flipping out of the littlest things – and in many cases, that leads to overeating, under-exercising and poor digestion which results in weight gain.

So now when someone asks how to lose weight fast, we know that nutrition, exercise, life balance AND sleeping are all factors that we can employ to help us finally win the battle of the bulge!

There are the crazy schedules that have you choosing from the often unhealthy food options at airports, strange locations that make it tough to find healthy food or access places to workout or exercise.  Then, you have the necessity of sometimes meeting with clients and friends for networking – go for a few drinks and then hit a steakhouse where you can pack on a pound or two just by walking in the front door.

But…you can’t let these irregularities in your schedule interfere with losing weight or you will have lost the battle completely.

Here are 3 tips I use to help me stick to my weight loss goals when traveling:

1. Discipline…we tend to “treat” ourselves and break out of disciplined behavior when we are stressed.  Travel is stressful, lets realize this up-front and learn to expect that stress with a mindset that we will not break our eating or exercise habits.

2. Before and after…it is inevitable at times that we will have a day of interruption in our quest for losing weight – that we may eat something we didn’t want to or miss exercising.  Before I leave for a business trip I make sure to work out extra hard in anticipation that this will happen.  When I get back, I hit the gym hard and fit in an extra aerobic workout – after staying locked up in a hotel for 3 or 4 days, I’m ready to take full advantage of the outdoors and get back on track.

3. Get started with a healthy breakfast.  I find, more than anytime, if I can start my morning with fruit, yogurt, perhaps some hot oatmeal – then I not only eat better during the day, by have more energy and stick to my weight loss objectives that much better.   But…relying on a Continental breakfast of pastries, toast and coffee doesn’t only interfere with losing weight, it means that my energy bottoms out at key points in the day. 

If you travel frequently, then it is essential that you plan carefully when your goal is losing weight, otherwise you will find that a month’s worth of effort at home may be erased within just a few days of being on the road. 

Each time, the exercise of fast weight loss followed by an almost immediate rebound back to where I was before had me believing that I was destined to always be 20lbs heavier than where my ideal weight lay. 

It was like a pendulum – no matter what the weight loss method, I would end up back where I started. 

I don’t know about you, but feeling that you can’t lose weight – that you don’t have control over your own body is frustrating, demeaning, embarassing and more than a little hit on your own self confidence and self-esteem.

I remember late one night kicking myself over why, no matter what fat loss method I used  – whether it be dieting, exercise, diet pills or a combination of all 3 – there was no lasting ability to lose weight quick and keep it off.

That’s when it hit me…isn’t there a mental and emotional aspect to everything we do?

Just as you don’t work well at a job you hate, or no matter how hard you try, you can’t be great at a subject that you just don’t do well at school – weight management also includes a mental aspect – something that we don’t talk about very much.

That’s when I came across this Think Yourself Thin program, and within a few short weeks I had an amazing experience.

One of the biggest weaknesses I’ve had since as far back as I can remember is a tendancy to eat before I jump into bed at night – no matter what weight loss program I would try, I just couldn’t (and wouldn’t) break that bad habit. 

Within 2 weeks of following the Think Thin Program - I no longer craved foods before bed.

I was stunned!  For 35-years I have had to have toast, crackers, cookies, chips or some other “substantial” food before heading to bed – but now, suddenly I no longer craved that comfort food and within days began to lose weight quick. 

I’m happy to say I have lost 10 of the most stubborn pounds that I’ve been unable to shed in the last 6-years — and that’s only after 3 weeks of finding out about this program.

The best part of all this is that the Think Thin program is based on a very simple, yet powerful method of automatic suggestion based on the highly scientific, proven method of Binaural Frequency Harmonics. 

Without getting into the gory details, because it’s really not necessary to make this work for you too, by listening to specially constructed music and sounds your brain is automatically programmed to overcome major weight loss obstacles resulting in lifestyle changes that allow you to lose weight quick but also keep your weight off for a lifetime. 

It only makes sense that if we’ve tried everything else to lose weight fast, yet we keep returning to the bad habits that prevent us from achieving this goal, we need to change the thoughts that guide our behavior, only then can we experience effortless, lasting results in our quest to lose weight quick. 

This system is highly effective, very quick and very low cost – the best part is there is no pain, no long-term investment in diets, nutritionals or even exercise equipment – just a relaxing, satisfying, enjoyable experience that will improve your quality of life forever. 

You can find out more about this leading-edge Think Thin method here.