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”

There you have the problem…both gaining fat AND losing muscle mass is the worst possible scneario because you not only packing on weight for extra calories and fat-laden foods, but your body also slows down burning calories as your muscles wither away. The result…

• I felt incredible tired, low energy
• Had a noticeable gut having gained the most belly fat I had ever packed on
• Had trouble bending over to put on socks and tie my shoes (now that is NOT a good feeling)
• Zero stamina, I couldn’t keep up with the kids any longer
• Noticed the muscles in my arms and legs were decreasing
• Suddenly had trouble sleeping, up many nights with indigestion

November hit and I became fed up.  That’s when I put the following plan into action and lost more than 10lbs in less than 30-days (and have regained more muscle mass than I had earlier this year which means my body continues to burn calories at a higher rate – even when I am at rest)

1. Had a check-up with my local alternative doctor to make sure my digestive tract and blood sugar were in balance.  Of course they were not, and that fact leads to terrible cravings for carbs and sugar foods.  With some adjustments and Candacin for digestive yeast overgrowth, I was back on track within a week

2. Went from a normal breakfast of 2pcs of toast, lots of cereal and orange juice to 1-piece of wheat toast, 1/2 tsp of almond butter, large glass of water and yogurt with 2-days a week a breakfast of eggs with 1-piece of toast. 

3. Made sure I exercised at least 30-minutes 5-days of the week.  At least 3 of those days needed to be cardio where I jogged, treadmill or eliptical to keep my heart rate up for 25-30-minutes followed by various core strengthening exercises 3-days a week for 20-minutes (to build muscle, tone and increase metabolism). The other two days of the week or if I couldn’t fit cardio in I went for a fast-paced, 45-minute walk

4. Lunch – I simply changed my normal lunch of processed meat and white bread sandwiches to either salad with protein such as cottage cheese, chicken or tuna or soup and a piece of fruit (apple, banana or peach were my main staples) .  Another large glass of water instead of juice or soft-drinks

5. I found with these lunches my craving for afternoon snacks pretty much went away – but if I did have a craving I made myself a smoothie or ate an protein bar if I was on the run

6. Dinners I pretty much kept the same except making sure I was getting enough protein so that I wasn’t tempted to gorge myself again before bed.

That’s it – a very simple, effective way to continually drop 10-lbs over a 30-day period.  I am already down another 5 heading into December.  Now the challenge will be to keep relatively true to this system over the Holidays…but I feel so great right now there is every motivation to stick to the plan.

The best part of this entire weight loss process is that I lost most of the visible belly fat, I have regained the size in my bicepts and legs, have strengthened my core, have healthy skin and feel like a million bucks.  Are you up for it?

Often it starts with love handles, and for a while, we can keep that under control but then we notice more weight being gained on the front, our belly begins to stick out and even hang over our pants or belt.

Now this doesn’t always mean changing our size in clothes, but that doesn’t matter since it is the look and health impact of having fat building on our belly that is the big negative.

So what can we do about it?

1. Sensible Foods (Not A Diet) – the first key is to understand that belly fat is not JUST caused by more calories or by the fat in the wrong foods, it is MORE to do with how foods (as well as other factors) with your blood sugar levels to stress your pancreas and further mess with your blood sugar which impacts insulin levels that impact how your body burns (or does not burn fat).

Avoiding processed foods, heavy carbs, sugars, and even whole grains while adding more meat, fish, vegetables, nuts and eggs can help to regulate blood sugar making your system more efficient at burning fat – without doing anything extra

2. Cleanse your system. Temporary food allergies, an overloaded liver, a stressed pancreas and lymphatic system, a swollen digestive tract are extremely common among people today…it doesn’t matter how much you exercise or diet, if your system is toxic, stressed or out of balance you will not burn fat efficiently – period! Read Attracting Greatness for tips on how to bring your system into total balance, this will work wonders for burning fat, improving energy and stamina and changing the results you get in your life.

3. Regular mix of aerobic and strength exercise.  Once you get your body back in balance, maintain a decent diet that helps your body STAY in balance, then you can begin to bring moderate exercise into your regime for fat burning.  I have found that 30-40 minutes of exercise that keeps your heart rate elevated does wonders for both reducing stress (which helps keep blood sugar levels stable) AND keeps your metabolism healthy.

In addition, you want to do some basic resistance training on leg, abs and upper body with especially focused attention on your core to keep your body efficiently burning fat throughout the day.

Use these 3 methods and you will burn more belly fat than by going on any radical diet, massive exercise regime or other intense methods.  This has worked for us and can work for you too.

• Your diet & nutrition
• Your ability to manage stress
• A combination of modest and moderate exercise
• And Keeping your digestive tract healthy

When it comes to diet, we tend to think that 1) We need to cut out all fats and sugars and 2) We must cut back to the calories to the point where we are dying from hunger – but are these really the key diet and nutrition secrets to achieve true weight loss and fat burning?

EXERCISE IS NOT ENOUGH
I remember a time in my life when I thought I could go on eating poorly and just exercise myself out of the despicable love handles that used to persist no matter what I did. 

So I would spend weeks in the gym, getting up extra early to run, work out like a maniac, overload my muscles with weight building exercises…to the point where I was spending hours each day on activity and yes, I did drop some weight, but the tough stomach fat stayed…cleary I needed to do more.

That’s when I started to get smarter with my eating.  Within days of continued exercise but with a renewed focus on these fat burning foods I finally noticed a huge difference – after years of trying different diets and exercise programs.

What were the 10 burn the fat foods? 

10 FAT BURNING SUPERFOODS

1. Beans And Lentils:  I noticed that my intake of beans and lentils was poor – less than twice a month when it should be twice to three times a week (or even more).  Not only do beans and lentils offer monstrous fiber intake to keep your system healthy, but they also are rich in vitamins, low in fat and are low on the glycemic index – and they also do a great job of making you feel full, unlike many healthy foods where they leave you wanting more

2. Fish – you will hear from some people that certain fish types are better than others for fat burning, but bottom line is get more fish into your diet and because many people are picky about their fish choice, just find some that you like and look at alternate ways of cooking it such as baked, grilled or steamed/poached.  I was never a big fish fan, but mild fish like haddock or sole, salmon and tuna are now favorites of mine.  Don’t forget sardines too…these little guys pack a wallop of good essential fatty acids for your system

3. Water – ok technically water is not a food, but you WILL be amazed at how much fat you can burn by substituting water for juices, soft drinks or other unhealthy, suger-laced drinks.  I used to drink juice by the gallon and sports energy drinks until I realized how much sugar they contained – now my first choice is always water and it is much easier to lose weight because I’m not always fighting the sugar high’s associated with other drink choices

4.  Eggs – I’m not sure if you are like me and heard that eggs were BAD because of their cholesteral?  But really, unless you are struggling mightily with cholesteral, eggs are a terrific source of protein, contain B-12 for fat burning and should be part of your weekly diet

5. Nuts – especially Almonds.  One of the first moves I made back when I started losing weight was to bring Almonds into my diet and substitute a good deal of my peanut butter craving with almond butter – with more fiber, more vitamins, less mould and more omega fats, almonds turned out to be a superfood in many ways, including burning fat

6. Oatmeal – I start off most mornings with oatmeal mainly because it is a great source of fiber and has a low glycemic index value, this means that I get less cravings through the day, especially in the morning after eating oatmeal.   If I eat processed breakfast cereal instead, I find my blood sugar rides a rollercoaster ride all morning making it tough to exercise properly and to prevent binge eating

7. Yogurt – preferably a low sugar (but stay away from sugar substitutes) plain variety which you can spice up with fresh or dried fruit or whole grain toppings is mainly good for adding friendly bacteria to your digestive tract keeping it healthy so that it digests other complex foods properly and absorbs nutrients as it should.  As is pointed out in Attracting Greatness – the majority of us suffer from an unbalanced digestive tract which negatively affects food absorption making fat burning impossible

8. Fresh Vegetables – especially carrots, tomatoes, and broccoli, these 3 super foods add fiber, pure water source, critical vitamins and nutrients to your diet.  If you aren’t into snacking on vegetables or eating salads consider salsa, shredded broccoli cabbage or sliced carrots with a natural yogurt dip

9. Warm lemon and cayenne pepper drink – a big part of why we continue to pack on stomach fat, love handles and other seemingly impossible fat stores is because our system is – to an extent – toxic, where our cells are clogged, our lymphatic system overrun and our blood carrying compounds that it shouldn’t.  What I have found a tremendous natural liver detox is 3-times a week, in the morning before eating breakfast, boil water and squeeze a half a lemon along with a few shakes of cayenne pepper and sip this tasty detox drink

10. Blueberries:  One of the richest foods in the world with abundent anti-oxidents, fiber and a near perfect rich taste.  Blueberries can be used to spice up oatmeal, added to cold salads, blended for a powerful fat burning smoothie or just eaten as they are. 

I hope you can see that many fat burning foods are not only easy to buy but actually taste very good and can easily be added to your existing diet without compromising the hurried lifestyle we live.

Alter your diet so that you are focusing more on these 10 super fat burning foods, combine that with daily exercise and stress management techniques like yoga or meditation and you wil have the secret to finally losing that last 5-10 lbs, kissing those love handles goodbye forever and getting rid of the unhealthy visceral fat that plagues most of our population.

So that means I spend ALLOT of time researching and trying different techniques of diet, exercise, supplements and even psychological techniques to help turn around many of those bad habits with the ultimate goal of finding the main changes that are easiest to make but have the biggest impact in terms of weight loss. 

I’m no different than anyone else – radical shifts in behavior are not likely to stick (unless you have had a major, near-death life experience), so we are left with having to make ongoing, smaller tweaks to our behavior that don’t seem that far off where we are today while at the same time making sure to maximize the impact on our ability to burn more fat.

Watching the calories we eat is one way, adding more moderate exercise to our routine is another…paying attention to stress management is still another. 

But one technique I’ve been paying more attention to lately is increasing the amount of protein in my diet while watching my intake of carbohydrates (one of those nasty bad habits that I used to get away with). 

For me, it was not so much a matter of increasing protein intake once or twice, but making sure the amount was consistently higher each day.  One day I may have above average with fish, chicken, tofu, nuts and other protein rich foods, but another day I may get just a few mg’s of protein – all in all it is too little and too inconsistent.

So, I started to look into more information about muscle building and maintenance as another main pillar of increasing metabolism and burning fat faster throughout the day and the role that protein plays in a muscle building plan is pretty significant. 

Over the last month I’ve been substituting protein shakes and protein bars for snacks or smaller meals and I have to say that I feel terrific!  

Along with my normal workouts 3-times a week, cutting back on carbohydrates (especially lunchtime sandwiches and before-bed toast attacks) I have lost 5-lbs and notice that I don’t go through the same hunger points during the day where I just had to have something to eat, where more often than not it was something that wasn’t good for me. 

These protein bars are great to have on hand – they contain more than 30 grams of protein – including Advanced Hydrolyzed Whey Protein Isolate – and they taste great, making it simpler to substitute that afternoon snack or lunch where you are rushed with a healthy, filling and tastey protein bar.  Believe me, when you have these on hand, you will not need to raid the refridgerator or hit the snack machines and you will lose weight.

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?

But what about some basic tactics that help us achieve our weight loss goals using psychology? 

Stress relief is a big one…but so is making healthy choices about what food you have around you making sure that you don’t surround yourself with unhealthy foods. 

Here’s a terrific guest article by Tom Venuto – brilliant health & nutritionalist as well as author of “Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle” 

The See-Food, Reach-Food Diet
By Tom Venuto
www.burnthefat.com 

You’ve heard of the “See-Food” diet haven’t you? No, that’s not the diet where you load up on fish, lobster, crab and mussels. The See-Food Diet is the one that so many of us crack jokes about – it’s the diet where you eat everything in sight! But don’t laugh too hard. Scientists at Cornell University and other research institutions have proven that you actually WILL eat more food if you see food more. In fact, if you can see it and it’s within arm’s reach, you could eat yourself obese within a few years and not even know what hit you because the eating happens unconsciously.

It should be common sense that when you’re constantly surrounded by food, you tend to eat more.

But one thing that hasn’t been clear until recently was how seeing food (visibility) and having it within reach (proximity) could influence unconscious eating (and how it influences what I call “eating amnesia”).

Developmental psychologists tell us that the more effort or time you invest in a unique activity, the more likely you’ll be to remember it.

In other words, if you have to go out of your way to get food, you’ll remember eating it. If the food is right there within arms reach, you’ll munch away and more easily forget it.

For years, Dr. Brian Wansink of the Food and Brand Laboratory at Cornell University has been conducting fascinating experiments to find out what really makes you eat more food than you need.

Some of his previous studies revealed that taste, palatability, mood, stress, social context, role models (parental influence), visual cues, visibility and convenience can all influence how much you eat (Eating behavior is environmentally and psychologically influenced – appetite is not just biological).

To explore the influence of food proximity and visibility on eating behavior, Wansink set up an experiment using 40 female staff members from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain. The subjects were not told it was a weight loss or calorie-related study. They were told that they would be given a free candy dish filled with chocolates (candy “kisses”) and they’d be contacted and surveyed about their candy preferences. They were also told not to share the candies, take them home or move the dish.

Participants were divided into four groups:

1) Proximate and visible (can see and reach)
2) Proximate and non-visible (can reach but not see)
3) Less proximate and visible (can see but can’t reach)
4) Less proximate and non visible (can’t see, and can’t reach)

During each day of the four week study, 30 chocolates were placed in 20 clear containers and 20 opaque containers and delivered to the 40 subjects. The containers were replenished every afternoon. They were kept in the same location for 4 straight business days and then rotated on the following week. Researchers kept a daily record of the number of chocolates eaten from each container and comparisons were made from the data collected.

At the end of each week, each subject was given a questionnaire which asked them how much they thought they had eaten over the entire week and asked them about their perceptions regarding the chocolates (such as “it was difficult to stop eating them,” “I thought of eating the chocolates often,” etc).

When the results were tabulated, here’s what Dr. Wansink and his research team discovered:

The visibility and proximity of the candy dish also influenced the subject’s perceptions. Regardless of whether participants could actually see the chocolates, if the candies were sitting on the desk (as opposed to being a mere 2 meters away), they were rated as more attention-attracting and difficult to resist. Candies in the clear containers were also rated as more difficult to resist and more attention attracting.

Most interesting of all, this study confirmed that when food is close by and visible, you’ll not only eat more, you’ll also be likely to forget that you ate them and therefore, underestimate how much you’ve eaten (I like to call that “eating amnesia.”)

Is a few extra candies a day really a big deal?

If it becomes habitual it sure is! Over a year, the difference between the candy dish placement would mean 125 calories per day which adds up to 12 extra pounds of body fat over a year.

When given the advice to keep junk food out of the house and office, I often hear complaints that it’s “impossible” to do because the rest of the family would have a fit, or simply not allow it. As for the office, one of the biggest excuses I’ve heard for diet failure is that the temptations are always there and it’s out of your control to change. Invariably someone else brings doughnuts or candy to the office.

Now you know what to do to reduce temptation and successfully stick with your program more effectively:

If you can’t keep it out of your office or house, keep it out of sight and out of arm’s reach. That alone is enough to reduce consumption.

At home, if your significant other or family is not willing to remove all offending foods from the premises, then get their agreement that their food is not to remain in plain sight – it goes in the back of a refrigerator drawer and not on the shelf at eye level, or if non-perishable, it goes inside a cupboard that is exclusively the domain of the other person.

At work, tell your office pals to keep the candy, doughnuts and other temptations off your desk, at a distance and out of sight. If they put any unhealthy snacks on your desk, promptly remove them!

Environmental cues can trigger you to eat impulsively. If you can see it and reach it, you’ll eat more of it, and you’ll forget how much you ate. So get the junk out of your home and office now and if you can’t, then get it out of your sight. If you can’t do that, get it out of arms reach.

Better yet, setup an “environment for success” with a lifestyle program like my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle system.

Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Founder & CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who achieved an astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements. Discover how to increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out which foods burn fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat loss report and mini course by visiting Tom’s site at: Burn The Fat.com

But that’s how we have been trained right?

Work your biceps, take a break…work your abs, take a break…work your thighs and legs, take a break…wait a minute!

Wouldn’t it make more sense if you knew about a set of total body flow movements that worked out all your muscles AND raises your heart rate AND continues to burn fat 24-hours AFTER you stopped – and all of this could literally take minutes instead of the 40-60 minutes you take today.

This just makes way too much sense…but don’t take my word for it, watch this amazing video…

Burn Fat 10 Time Faster…VIDEO

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.