Sure I’ve spent a month off of sugar, eating pretty much only vegetables and fruit lowering carbohydrates – and yes I lost a few pounds, but I knew this was not a weight loss diet that I would be able to follow long term. 

But, there are some changes that have actually improved my eating habits, resulted in more than 10lbs of weight loss AND were dead-simple changes to make because I actually like these changes and would have made them had I lost weight or not!

Let’s see what you think of these 3 weight loss foods — wouldn’t these changes be simple to make in your diet?

1.Substitute Almonds and Almond Butter for Peanut Butter. I started this change years ago when I had my first taste of Almond Butter.  I used to be a big eater of peanut butter, jam, butter and various other spreads on bread and crackers – sometimes even caramel or chocolate spreads would find their way into my diet.  But, as you probably know butter and peanut butter are extremely fattening – and depending on the type of peanut butter, it can be laced with other hydrogenated oils as well as extra sugars and sodium.  At first, almond butter cost about 3-times more than peanut butter, but now I get a huge jar from Costco for $6, only slightly higher than what I pay for the same size peanut butter and I swap bad fats for good fats.  It seems that almonds are also high in alpha-lineolic acids which has been shown to actually speed metabolism – other studies have shown that those who eat between 12 and 18 almonds each day have a substantially lower body fat. 

2. Coffee and Green Tea instead of milk, juice or soft drinks.  I made two changes that had the most dramatic effect on weight loss of any dietary changes ever — I stopped drinking soft drinks and drastically lowered my intake of high sugar fruit juices instead substituting water, coffee and green tea.  Keeping your system hydrated is essential to remove toxins and keep your cells operating at peak capacity while studies have shown that both coffee and green tea increase your metabolism resulting in extra calories being burned, you can actually shed a few pounds and lose fat using this technique alone

3. Homemade fruit smoothies with real fruit and healthy for your gut yogurt.  Instead of packaged, suger-laden store bought fruit smoothies or juices, we make our own fruit smoothies at least a few times each week – this can often save hundreds of calories, dozens of grams of sugar and can help you burn fat making them a great tasting weight loss food.  One of the great smoothie recipes I like to make is:

• 2 Cups of Enriched Rice Milk
• 1 cup of plain, non-sweetened natural yogurt
• 1 banana
• 2 cups of blueberries (wild if you can get them) – frozen are definitely ok
• 1 cup of strawberries
• 1 tablespoon of either honey or maple syrup

I blend that on high for several minutes and viola, you have a terrific, healthy fruit smoothing – the yogurt helps maintain a heallthy digestive system which means that it works optimally to process foods and not store anymore fat than is absolutely necessary. 

As you can see, crazy diets are not necessary when it comes to losing weight – sensible methods are available using weight loss foods that are both great tasting and highly effective in either lowering the amount of fat or sugar while increasing your metabolism so your body naturally burns more fat. 

Do you have any other great foods you like to use to help lose or maintain your weight?

The question is, can we do anything to get those abs back and what can we do to lose weight fast?

If asked, most of us would say that we are carrying an extra 10 pounds that we would like to knock off and in doing so, we would like to tone our muscles enough to see our abs again. 

Can we do both?

Here are 3 tips and and exercise to lose weight fast AND improve the look of your abs

1. It all starts with diet.  We don’t need to do anything radical like use dangerous diet pills or stoop to crazy diets like the cabbage soup diet (do you really see yourself eating cabbage for the rest of your life!) , but we do need to cut out binge eating, make sure we substitute water for soft drinks and juices, incorporate enough fibre into our diet and eat more, but smaller meals to help us level out the sugar highs and lows that keep us in a constant state of craving throughout the day.  In short, we need to be committed to smart eating without being so extreme that we won’t stick to our weight loss plan.

2. We need to detox.  We are all carrying tremendous amounts of toxic material in our fat cells and many of us right now are in such a state of toxicity that we are not digesting food properly, have surpressed immune systems and put such a load on our organs that we can’t expect to be healthy for very much longer.  Again here we must be smart, not tearing off into off-the-shelf detox programs that are dangerous, subject our body to massive amounts of toxins as we kill off and eliminate – we suggest you work through a Naturopath that can tailor a detox program to your current health situation so it is both safe and effective.  But do take this seriously, without detox, using diet and exercise will be like spinning your tires and getting nowhere. 

3. Exercise.  If you do the first two items properly then you will not have to go to extremes to both lose weight and tone your abs.  By losing weight through detox and smarter eating, your existing abdominal muscles will begin to show through naturally, with a few extra minutes of excercise 3-4 times each week you can help tone them so they are ready for prime time once that layer of fat begins to melt away.  Here are two of the most effective ab exercsises, try for 15-20 reps of these twice – doing both of these should take you no more than 10-minutes 3-4 times each week. 

• Moderate crunches to tone your abs:  Lie flat on your back with some padding under your back.   Bend your knees so they are on approximately a 45-degree angle and without putting your hands behind your head (instead have them by your side), lift your head, neck and chest at the same time to a 45-degree angle, then slowly ease back down to the floor and immediately repeat.  Moderate crunches will be easier for you to do than a full situp and are just as effective in toning your ab muscles as well as helping to raise your heart rate and lose weight
• Crunch with a twist:  In this exercise you want to begin lying flat on your back on the floor, knees bent at the same 45-degree angle, but instead of coming straight up, you want to raise your back, shoulders and head looking in a 45-degree angle to the left so that your body twists slightly to the left – you’ll feel this hit the entire left side of your abs.  Return to the lying position and do the same thing to the right, then repeat 10-15 times each time bringing your chest to a 45-degree angle twisting to the right or left

Believe it or not these 2 simple abs exercise to lose weight fast & improve your abdominal muscle tone will begin to show in just 7-14-days.  Keep this regime of exercise, diet and pay attention to your toxicity level for just 1-month and you will notice a massive difference in both your weight and abs…now what are you waiting for?

I have found that the best fast loss programs are often the simplest. Fat burning techniques that can be understood clearly and can be fit easily into your schedule on a weekly basis give us the best chance of not only seeing quick fat loss results, but also sticking with the techniques that work so that we can sustain our weight loss beyond the initial phase.

Here are 5 everyday fat burning tips you can work into your schedule immediately:

1. Relaxation and Meditation:  Study after study has shown the link between weight gain and stress in our lives.   In fact, the story is even worse, not only does stress have direct implications on weight gain, it also leads to the worst kind of fat – visceral belly fat.  Stress can directly impact insulin levels and also indirectly impact our emotional state leading to poor discipline, bad choices of food and an overall depression that keeps us from getting out and enjoying life.  In other words, if you don’t deal with stress, often we fall into a ‘spiral’ of unhealthy behaviors.  Head over to this Peak Achievement Site and download your free 20-point guide to meditation and relaxation.  As someone who tried and failed at meditation for almost 10-years but then FINALLY got it and uses it everyday – I can tell you it is the most impactful thing you can do for yourself period!
2. Work activity into your day:  Exercise (both aerobic and strength training) are important to weight loss, yet everyone immediately assumes they have to go take out a $60/month gym membership or start to pay a personal trainer a couple hundred dollars a month to lose weight.  The fact is that you can work enough activity into your schedule so that you don’t have to go to a gym.  Here some ideas:  Rapid walking for 20-minutes when you first get up in the morning or after dinner, take 15-minutes out of your day if you work in an office building and go up and down the stairs, jog on the spot while you watch your favorite evening television show, or fit in 20-30 sit-ups and push-ups into a free 10-minutes here and there.   You will be amazed at how you can fit the required activity into your daily schedule with little to know interruption
3. Cleanse your system:  The majority of us are walking around with digestive, lymphatic and nervous systems that are out of whack.  I regularly visit our good friends over at Awakening Potentials to help keep a healthy gut, keep our immune systems and body filtration filters working properly.  We are all susceptible to parasites, bacteria and enzyme imbalances – when these occur it can be nearly impossible to lose weight
4. Cut down on sugar:  For most people it is not necessary to go on some crazy diet plan that you would normally not stick to anyway – in fact recent research has shown that the rollercoaster impact of losing weight fast and then gaining it back again can be harmful to your body.  So, focus on one simple change in your diet – cut out as much sugar as you can.  For instance, drinking water instead of juice, milk (there are other ways to get your calcium) and soft drinks will dramatically cut the sugar in your diet.  Do this and you can still have the odd desert indulgence and still see a big change in your overall fat burning goals
5. Discipline daily routine:  Look, we all lead crazy lives and at times we lose control of our schedule, but the more consistent we can be with our sleep (at least 6.5 hours each night), meals, meditation or other stress reduction techniques and activity the quicker and more widespread we will see our weight loss objectives be

Now, doesn’t seem so hard does it? 

Look – there are always those of us on the extreme, where a complete lifestyle change (7-days at the gym) will be the right decision, but for most of us that is not who we are, so focusing on these 5 fat burning tips will help to peel off the fat, give you more energy, improve how you look and have dramatic impact on what you can achieve in your life.

It turns out that there are nastier forms of fat that are related even more to these fat related health problems and you guessed it – first on the list is deep belly fat, otherwise known as visceral fat.

Indeed, many of these diet plans are targeted toward that “nasty” fat so that you can not only look and feel great but you can experience the health benefits of losing visceral belly fat as well.

In a recent studies outlined here, we see a group of conflicting studies on people that are considered obese (with a Body Mass Index of more than 30) further segmented into “healthy” fat people who have normal ranges of cholesterol, insulin, etc… and those that are off the charts where their fat certainly is part of a broader set of health issues. Though the studies are inconclusive, it does seem that..

I think it is only positive that we are now seeing a new range of fat burning studies to help understand the ongoing relationship between fat, weight loss and impact on health in our bodies

If you are trying to lose body fat fast, maybe lose lower belly fat or lose fat on your thighs — then try this eating technique as a way to be more satisfied with regular portions and nutritional food without binging, overeating and heading toward foods you know will hurt in your fat loss campaign.

1. First, each day start off by saying this simple affirmation to yourself (I like to do this as I’m getting ready for the day) “My body is a sacred temple, a fat burning machine and today I am only offering my body the best food, liquid and treatment and I will feel more energetic and healthy by the end of the day”

The idea here of course is to keep your mind focused on how powerful and well your body really can be if you allow it to be in it’s natural state. Your body really will become a fat burning engine if you just treat it right.

2. Next – commit to really paying attention (with all of your senses) to the food that you do eat each day. For breakfast, you may cereal high in fiber, some yogurt and strawberries (or other fruit). Before you begin eating, study your food, notice how amazing your fruit looks, imagine the vitamins just waiting to hit your body. Notice the sweet smell of the strawberries. When you take a bite, notice how the texture of the food feels in your mouth and make sure you chew it enough to notice how the food tastes as it hits different taste areas of your tongue.

3. After you have eaten your portion, simply say to yourself “I am fully satisfied with the awesome power of the food I just ate to power my body, my muscles and burn fat through the day”

This approach to lose body fat may sound silly, but by simply taking more notice and giving your mind positive reinforcement about eating right, you will notice that you binge eat less, you are more satisfied with the food you do eat and look forward to eating healthy meals instead of dreading it.

Give it a try and let us know how that works for you…I feel completely different over the last few weeks of practicing this and notice I don’t snack as much between meals and have lost 5 lbs as a result.

Especially when it comes to someone who has a high BMI (Body Mass Index) – where they are approaching or already classified as obese – losing weight has to be a great thing right?

Apparently it is not that simple.

I came across a recent research study that analyzed various races and ages across a spectrum of body mass indexes and found something quite shocking…that after 50, weight loss of more than 15% was associated with an increased mortality rate NOT the other way around.

In fact, if someone was already living with a very unhealthy weight – say they were obese – they were STILL more likely to outlive the person (assuming they were both over 50) that lost more weight…seems odd doesn’t it?

Three things immediately come to mind when I read this research…

1. We don’t yet fully understand the link between weight, weight loss and overall health – we get better each decade, but we are still largely in the dark

2. A question I had from the study was over what time period did they take into account the weight loss…follow me here, people over 50 have a much higher risk of various diseases including cancer, diabetes, etc..which may very well result in an unnatural weight loss that is certainly more than 15% of your current weight.  So it could just be that the study was simply measuring the propensity for weight loss in older people at extreme levels is associated with illness and thus, mortality?

3. In any case, we know it is not healthy to be obese.  We know that healthy and lasting weight loss needs to incorporate moderate exercise, stress management, a controlled diet and some smarter nutritional choices in addition to maintenance of muscle tone.  Weight lost following this balanced approach is much different that losing 20lbs by using one method alone.  In other words, our health will depend as much on HOW we lose our weight as on HOW MUCH weight we lose.

To get 20 of the top, most healthy and balanced weight loss tips – grab them from the right by submitting your name and email, these techniques work, are fast and painless AND they last.

What do you think, is weight loss associated to being more healthy?