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.

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. 

We all know that the best way to accomplish weight loss is to combine eating healthy, cutting back on calories from fat and increasing our exercise as well as toning muscle to help improve our metabolism so we can burn even more fat.

Yet there are very few specific guidelines that help us understand how much activity we need to do in order to burn fat and really make a difference in the way we look and feel.

So, a good first target is to burn 400 calories at least 4-times a week – and here are some combinations that can get you there…

Assuming you are a 180-lb male, then you would have to…

• Bicycle at a leisurely pace for 1-hour, that will burn about 250 calories – pick up the pace or hit a course with some hills for half your ride and you will have easily burned your 400 calories
• Go and have a game of bowling for 1-hour and you will have reached half of your target – add to that another hour of moderate walking (30-minutes before work in the morning, and another 30-minutes at lunch or later at night) and you will have burned your extra 400 calories for the day
• Running is a great way to burn extra calories – a 5mph run for 30-minutes will burn about 280 calories, then you can add in a brisk walk, some Tai Chi, a quick game of tennis or 9-holes of golf to reach the 400 calories burned mark.

The point is that you can make weight loss fun – instaed of forcing yourself to run everday when you really don’t enjoy it (or you have gotten bored), then throw in other activities like walking, bowling, golf, tennis, or play some basketball. 

The more you vary your exercise routine, the simpler and more effective your quest to lose weight and keep it off will be.

It’s sometimes tough to stay focused on things like healthy weight loss when we hear each day about another natural disaster, food infection or other major challenge that threatens us in the short term.

A recent study that appeared over at The Sanctuary highlights a study first published in the Sept 17th edition of the British Medical Journal highlights the single biggest advantage is to those who lead an overall healthy lifestyle where they were 55% less likely to die as early as those who participated in all of the risk factors such as smoking and being overweight.

Another factor though that makes the advantages of healthy weight loss that much more real is the discovery that 14% of the improvement could be isolated to weight loss alone. Only smoking was higher at 28%, so obviously a healthy diet and learning how to lose weight are critical to overall longevity.

So, whether you choose to take on a rapid weight loss program where you commit to rigorous exercise and dieting or settle for a moderate approach to healthy weight loss such as ensuring that you get 30-minutes of moderate exercise each day (fast walking, swimming, cycling, jogging, tennis, or other exercise), the benefits can be very real in terms of avoiding common diseases such as cancer and especially heart disease.

Most recently, a weight loss study from Purdue University discovered that men who ingested more protein food such as eggs and lean bacon felt more full for longer and tended to eat less later in the day.

This does make sense, and it likely has more to do with the balancing act protein can have on your insulin production over the course of a day. Since a binging of carbohydrates at the expense of protein foods can cause insulin spikes and make you crave more food, it stands to reason that balancing your meals (especially early in the day) with protein either from food or from protein supplements like whey protein or nutritional bars, will go through less of a rollercoaster ride during the day and thus not crave as much food.

Not only will a higher protein diet make you feel fuller, it will also help to balance your cravings and balance your insulin production over the course of day – all of this is positive to your weight loss program.

I’m not sure about you, but for me, Monday’s are always the toughest to get back into my weight loss routine…somehow I always stray just enough on the weekend to break the successful weight loss habits of the week before.

Getting Off Track

And…if I get off track on Monday, it’s usually Wednesday when I suddenly look at my week and figure out – “if I don’t quickly get my butt moving this week will be a total right-off” – ahhhh….my Wednesday then becomes my Monday!

Of course, the right answer is to maintain your weight loss and exercise routine right through 7-days a week so that you don’t have to worry about getting back into positive habits – but for many of us, that is not the way this whole weight loss exercise will go, especially if you are committed to long-term fitness and health.

It’s the summer, and over the weekend we had some friends over, had a few beers, some wine, a barbecue and ate some foods I typically don’t eat including an ice cream with the kids.

Ok, I had been incredibly good with my weight loss goals all week – so cheating ** a little ** would not have been such a bad thing – but it went a bit too far.

So, Monday morning comes around and every ounce of my being was screaming to delay my workout today. But I’m proud to say I fought that urge and convinced myself that even though I didn’t feel energetic, that my stomach didn’t feel great and I had the start of a headache – I would just start my 5Km jog anyway.

Quitting is NOT An Option

When I first turned on the radio in the morning I heard a Tiger Woods commercial for a watch I think, in there he uttered the words – “quitting is NOT an option”.

Coming off of an inspirational British Open run by 53-year old Greg Norman (easily my favorite player past and present) – I was ready to be inspired and all through the run I kept saying to myself “quitting is NOT an option”

Guess what happened!

I finished my run in a record time, burst through all of the bad feelings from the weekend and then came in and did 30-minutes of weights and felt AMAZING!!

I actually exceeded my weight loss objectives for the day by a great deal – quitting is NOT an option.

Try it yourself. If you have trouble getting motivated one day, repeat to yourself “quitting is not an option” and picture in your mind someone who has achieved something extraordinary that you really respect and admire.

You’ll be amazed at the extra weight loss motivation you get from using this simple, but powerful technique.

Would you feel that was an infringement on your private right to run your own life or would you be thankful that your doctor is letting you know before you get too far overweight and actually works with you to help you understand how to tackle your weight problem early?

Japan has just come out with government standards aimed at fat burning that demands people aged 40 to 74 have their waist size taken and recorded…those that exceed government guidelines will be given 3-months to lose the weight after which they get extra guidance for a further 6-months followed by more guidance if their fat burning is not successful in bringing them below the guidelines.

States and private companies are responsible for taking the waist measurements which has come under some criticism as a method of the Japanese government offloading the cost of enforcing these weight loss guidelines onto private organizations.

Is this really a good idea?

Oddly enough, it may be a better idea for us here in North America where the average waist size exceeds the Japanese by several inches and where disease and health care costs associated with obesity and being overweight could certainly justify more rigorous attention being paid to fat burning programs.

In North America we have done a good job tackling the issue of smoking along with its impact on the health care system, is fat burning the next big area governments will focus in our bid to become a healthier, less costly society?

I for one look forward to the day when such a program exists…while they’re at it, why not begin to regulate and cover other legitimate forms of alternative health care that can go a long way to preventing disease, lowering stress, achieve lower levels of belly fat and improve the health of our society.

We’re up here in Canada wher the winters are pretty snowy, quite dark and yes…pretty frosty!  So, we head down South to Florida, Arizona, Mexico and sometimes to the Caribbean when we can to make the winter seem a little shorter…BUT yikes…that means a bathing suit, swimming and suddenly loose fitting sweaters won’t hide the extra 10-pounds gained since the fall.

Things were pretty hectic in my business back in late February though – there were some major campaigns I was running for my own business so it wasn’t like I had loads of spare time.

But…each day I did one of 3 things:  Every second day I jogged for 35-minutes and then worked out with weights, the other days I either walked for 45-minutes or worked out in my basement at home.

In addition, I decided to eat at least 3 salads for lunch each week replacing what would have normally been a high carbohydrate lunch of pasta, breaded fish or some other high calorie, high fat food.  One other dietary change, cut back on desert and cut out late night snacks.

This was all possible even though I was busy leading up to the trip.  How did this persistant weight loss routine work out?

I had lost 5-pounds before leaving for the trip – that was 2-weeks after starting the program.  But here’s the really neat part…

Despite overeating and not exercising when on our 10-day vacation I didn’t gain ANY of the weight back and still was 5-pounds lighter when I got home.  That gave me the motivation to keep up this persistant action.  Even though I have missed the odd walk day, I’ve been able to stick with the workouts and have lost an additional 5-pounds.

So far, the energy and emotional lift from the way I look and feel is a big boost.  The lesson for me has been persistant weight loss action…not necessarily radical action…is what gets longer term results. 

If you are struggling with your weight today and have had numerous experiences of dieting and exercise only to gain the weight back again…try just one small change and keep it up for a few weeks.  Change your diet in one small way, begin walking 30-minutes 3-times each week or fill in an extra workout or two…but the key is to keep it up. 

Begin your persistant weight loss program today…and watch the weight melt off over the next few weeks.

Jeff

There are so many factors that come into play when trying to focus on a diet in any weight loss program…

• So much information, where do I start?
• Situations in my life I can’t control make me eat?
• Availability of good food – if you travel, you know what I mean?
• Society influences are mostly around BAD foods (parties, peers, TV, etc…)
• Lots of mis-information that focus on other goals such as muscle building at the expense of good nutrition and weight loss goals

Give that there is so much confusing information, so much debate over what is good for you and not and differing emphasis placed on the role of diet and nutrition to weight loss programs, the more we can simplify your dietary “must-have’s” in terms of weight loss foods, the more likely we all will be to follow and see our fat burn off.

Let’s stick with 1pf the most powerful weight loss foods:

1. Fibre

 Fibre is beneficial in many ways to our body – reducing heart disease, controlling blood sugar and seems to help in weight loss.

Specifically, soluable fibre tends to gel together in your system and collect sugars and starch slowing the absorption of these fat causing compounds lowering the probability that they will turn into weight in our bodies.

In addition – it’s been shown that eating the recommended amount of fibre helps give us that “full” feeling while not adding empty calories of carbohydrates or sugars.

First, how much should we be getting?  Fibre intake for a man ages 19 to 55 should come in around 38 grams in one day which can come from a variety of sources including whole grains and fruit.

For example, here are typical fibre quantities in popular foods…

a)  You will get approximately 3-grams of fibre from eating an apple, most of that coming from the skin (so you won’t get the same fibre from eating a peeled apple or drinking apple juice)

b) Now ceareals are really interesting…many of us assume that you get a substantial amount of fibre from any cereal we eat right?  WRONG!  The difference is rather remarkable and can play a huge difference in your fibre intake daily.  In fact, you can get nearly half of the recomended fibre intake for your entire day with as little as one serving of a high fibre cereal – from a weight loss perspective this makes sticking to your fibre intake goals especially easy. 

Let’s look at a few popular cereals in terms of fibre listed:

• Kellogs Rice Krispies – 0 grams
• Rasin Bran – 6 grams per 1 Cup serving
• Fibre-1 Cereal – 14 grams per 1-1/4 serving
• Nabisco Shreddies – 6 grams per 1-Cup serving

Notice that many popular ceareals have zero or barely a touch of fibre where others you can get over half of your daily fibre intake from as little as 1-cup. 

By choosing to eat just 1-cup of ceareal each morning high in fibre you can substantially increase your fibre intake, reduce your exposure to disease and help in your quest for weight loss.

Jeff