The good news is that instead of cutting out all sweets, carbohydrates and other foods you love, by mixing in some moderate exercise, some natural stress relief and some other positive habits in your life, your fat loss plan doesn’t need to be painful and can occur very quickly.

For example…

1. By simply reducing the snacking you are doing each day by 1 or 2 (let’s say you used to have a mid-morning, afternoon and before bed snack) AND eating smaller portions of carbohydrates or sugary deserts you can set the stage for substantial fat burning

2. Next, make sure you are getting at least 3 periods of rather intense cardio exercise during the week. This could be jogging, swimming for 30-minutes, playing tennis for 45-minutes, playing soccer, running on a treadmill or walking rapidly for 60-minutes – the secret here is to make sure the activity you choose is something you like.

Some people find it easier to plan these activities with friends, while others prefer to do it alone. Whatever the choice, you have to plan that activity into your life…this is something you need to do for months, not just a few weeks.

3. Learn to meditate and/or learn yoga…you will magically find after a few weeks that you are able to handle stress like it was nothing — suddenly you get more perspective and peace in your life and eating doesn’t become your method of relaxation PLUS you have more energy to work on daily activities.

It’s strange – but have you ever come across a person that meditates or does yoga regularly that has a weight problem?

No – and it is mainly because stress is the #1 cause of over-eating AND lowering energy and our immune systems so we don’t feel well enough to exercise.

So, fat burning can be so much easier and less painful if we balance eating 20% better with exercising 20% more and meditating a few times during the week.

There you have the #1 most effective fat burning plan that really works, is extremely easy to follow and really gets you lasting fat loss results. Give it a try!

Let us know what challenges you have with your weight loss goals…and be sure to get your 20-tips for burning fat fast over to the right…it builds on the material we share here.

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!

My take was that olive oil was a good substitute for vegetable oils and the animal fat found in meat — even if she was going a little heavy on the olive oil.

I have yet to come across a study that does not tout the benefits of olive oil, but recent research I came across while studying The Health Sanctuary seems to support the notion that olive oil and vegetables together can not only drastically improve your weight loss goals, it can make you live longer.

Perhaps more than anything else as we age we become more open to the possibilities of “the fountain of youth” or anything that buys us a year or two onto what is quickly approach the last half or last portion of our time here on earth.

These are things I never paid much attention to when I was in my 20’s or 30’s, but start to think about as I enter my 40’s.

Certainly weight loss becomes a big issue as it gets easier and easier to pack on the pounds and harder and harder to take that weight off. 

Now, it seems that studies of Greeks spanning nearly 10-years have proven that extra helpings of vegetables combined with olive oil is the ticket to longevity – at least in their study.  Even more interesting was the fact that just leaving meat out of your diet was not enough – it had to be more vegetables and more olive oil to really make the difference.

So, back to my mother in law.  If olive oil is something that helps her add more vegetables and less meat to her diet, then according to this study, she certainly could be heading for a longer, healthier and more fulfilling life. 

Get the latest weight loss and health tips and articles over at the Health Sanctuary…lose weight and live longer.

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. 

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 know I wasn’t – at least not regularly. Sure, one day I would pay particularly close attention to what I was eating, if I was lucky, I would count the calories, but that was far from a daily routine. In fact, some days I would deliberatlely avoid counting calories because I intuitively knew I was WAY over.

Then I came across this article on keeping a weight loss diary and wham, it hit me when they said that research has shown those who regularly keep a food diary tended to lose twice the weight over those that do not – and they kept it off longer.

Now, it does make sense since our ability to lose weight and overall weight loss goals have so much to do with our mental outlook – and if you are comitted to keeping a daily calorie count and food diary then you have made a stronger comittment to yourself to keep your weight loss goals.

I started this last week and let me tell you – I was blown away by some of my calorie counts. Certain days I was way over my count before 2PM in the afternoon while other days I was not eating enough — in other words, I was on a rollercoaster diet.

Niether case is optimal, especially when you are training and working out as part of your weight loss routine, you need calories to feed the muscle building efforts from the resistance training.

Try it for a week, you will find some surprises and you will find that by keeping a closer eye on your calorie intake you will keep your weight loss objectives more in mind and tend to be more conscious at every meal.

The challenge, as many of you also know, is keeping that 20-lbs off. Eventually it begins to creep up again and suddenly I’m right back where I started from. While there is some comfort in knowing that I can reach my weight loss goals anytime I please, there is also an element of frustration in that I can’t take my eye off the goal or else it seems to magically reappear!

Much of that has to do with eating habits.

When I’m in fat burning mode I keep close watch on my meals – making sure to fit at least one meal of salad in, hold off on sugars (including the hidden sugars in drinks, cereals, etc…) and generally keep close tabs on everything that I ingest.

That’s when I read about this study outlining double the fat burning effectiveness of those who keep a formal food diary.

Makes sense, after all, that’s what I was doing when I’m in fat burning mode, just that I keep it in my head.

So, starting last week, I began writing down everything I eat from the time I get up in the morning to the time I rest my head on my pillow at night.

I’ll share more of my experience with you in a few weeks, but right now I can tell you that keeping track of what you eat by writing it down in a food diary is an excellent motivator to being extra careful and will lead to fat burning.

Have you ever used this technique in your fat burning?

It happens without really knowing it until you get out into the parking lot with 4 bags of potatoe chips, a big bottle of your favorite soft-drink, a box of cookies (they were on sale after all) two loaves of homemade white bread (yummy…it was even hot!) and…oh yes, you just had to pick out that candy bar since you need something to tide you over until you get home right?

No doubt about it, the supermarket can be a very dangerous place when you have even the slightest hunger – so here are a few tips on how to avoid ruining your weight loss program by losing control at the grocery store:

1. Eat something healthy before you go – ideally with protein so that you curb your cravings through the 1-hour or so it may take you to get through your grocery buying pilgrimage

2. Head to the grocery store with a well thought out list (without the chips and chocoloate of course) and stick to your list.

3. If you need something to consume as soon as you are done at the grocery store, pick up a piece of fruit, a protein bar or a fruit smoothie drink that most grocery stores carry these days. 

4. Make your grocery shopping the first stop on your errand run instead of the last so that you don’t end up getting there on an empty stomach running low on fuel making you more susceptible to buying unhealthy food not in line with your weight loss goals.

5. Do you shopping at healthier grocery stores where you can.  I typically head to our local Farm Boy which specializes in produce, fresh fruite and vegetables, organic foods, whole grain breads, fresh salsa.  The ration of good food to bad is much higher than in typical grocery chains. 

Most of all…understand that a trip to your grocery store is not an excuse to avoid your weight loss goals, you must practice the same discipline you would planning your daily meals.  

Try this, think back to all of the exercise, effort and energy you have put into losing weight so far, put yourself in the place you were after your last exhausting run or exercise session – now, is it really worth blowing it all for a 5-minute breakdown in discipline on a Saturday morning at your grocery store?

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