Some Good Advice For A Happier, Healthier New You

To help you jump-start your new Fitness, Health & Wellness Lifestyle change, here are some simple nutritional ideas that can help to trim some of those unwanted pounds that will not only help you to look and feel better in a safe and manageable way, but can actually help to create a healthier, happier new YOU!

Incorporate healthy choices into your daily nutritional plan. Try eating what we call “Fat Burning Foods”. Some great choices are:

• Lean Beef, Chicken, Turkey & Pork – It takes more energy for your body to digest the protein in meat than it does for it to digest carbohydrates or fat. Simply put, increases your metabolism.
• Milk, Whole Grain Cereal & Oats – Complex carbohydrates and fiber pump up metabolism by keeping insulin levels low after you eat. Low levels of insulin are good, because spikes in the production of insulin send a signal to the body that it’s time to start storing fat. When your body starts to stockpile fat, your metabolism gradually slows, thus causing you to burn fewer calories. The calcium in milk is a metabolic trigger.
• Salmon, Tuna & Sardines – The Omega-3 Fatty Acids help by lowering levels of a hormone called leptin in your body. Research suggests that leptin directly influences your metabolism, determining whether you burn calories or store them as fat.
• MUFAs, which stand for monounsaturated fatty acids, are plant-based fats. These, described as “Good-For-You” fats are known to enhance heart health and protect against chronic disease. Research shows that they may even target fat. Some examples of MUFAs are:
  • Nuts – Almonds, Brazil nuts, natural peanut butter, dry-roasted cashews, dry-roasted peanuts, dry-roasted sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, roasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts.
  • Oils – Canola oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil, peanut oil, pesto sauce, safflower oil, sesame oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, walnut oil.
  • Avocados
  • Olives – Black olives, black olive tapenade, green olives, green olive tapenade.
  • Dark Chocolate

NEVER, and I do mean never, skip meals! Did you know that the absolute, most important meal of the day is breakfast? And did you know that it is probably one of the most skipped meals of the day? What makes breakfast so important? Let’s take a logical look at a real-world situation. Typically, you eat dinner around 7:00 or so. Let’s say you finish around 8:00. You skip breakfast the next morning, either because you don’t have time or you think it will help you to lose some weight. You now eat lunch around 12:00. Do the math here. That’s basically 16 hours since you last ate, since you last fed your body the necessary fuel that it needs in order to function properly. Do you ever find yourself getting tired, cranky, or not thinking so sharp at the end of the morning? Your entire body needs proper fuel (food) in order to operate efficiently, and that also includes your brain. Without this the body starts to suffer. That’s the logical side of it. Now let’s look at the scientific side of it. Your body is built for survival, having its own internal “Survival Kit”. Part of that survival kit are your muscle and fat. Muscle & fat can both be used for energy. Generally speaking, the more lean muscle that you have the higher your metabolism functions. Your body is built for survival, having its own internal “Survival Kit”. Part of that survival kit are your muscle and fat. Muscle & fat can both be used for energy. Generally speaking, the more lean muscle that you have the higher your metabolism functions. When you starve your body of the fuel (food) it requires, it goes into what we call “Survival Mode”! Your body will automatically start storing the fat and burning your muscle for energy. Now, you’re helping to create the worst case scenario for your weight loss plans. You’re now losing muscle mass because your body needs it for energy, and the fat you have is being stored until the body runs out of the energy it is getting from burning the muscle. In this scenario, your body will begrudgingly allow the fat to be used for energy. Starving yourself doesn’t seem so smart now, does it? You need to feed or fuel your body at least 3-5 times a day, with about a 3 hour interval in between meals. During that 3 hour interval, your body will work (which increases your metabolism) to properly burn that food, distributing it the best way possible. After that 3 hour period, you should now be hungry again, and you start the process all over again. Now we could’ve used some real big scientific terms here to describe the above process, but we figured it made more sense to use every-day language. The best way to help keep yourself alert, energized, sharp and strong throughout the day is to implement a daily nutritional plan which consists of Breakfast – Snack – Lunch – Snack – Dinner. For help with this please see our Nutritional section under the heading of Recipes and 7-Day Menu.

There are two main reasons that people fail when it comes to healthy eating. First, they make too drastic of a change in their overall nutritional plan. For example, they go from eating 4,000 calories in a day to 1,500. Now that’s a drastic change! Food is habit forming for lots of people. Do you typically change or create a new habit overnight? Usually not! What we recommend is that you spend a little time to examine exactly how much you eat during your day, week and month. This will require a little work from you. Get yourself a log book, and write down everything you eat and drink during the day. Then, find yourself a web site that can help you to calculate your calories from that day. A web site I have found to be extremely helpful is www.CalorieKing.com. Please remember
to be honest with yourself when doing this. The only one you’re going to help/hurt is YOU. At the end of the week add up the calories for each day. Let’s say that you’ve consumed about 28,000 calories for the week, or an average of 4,000 per day. What you want to do here is cut out about 500 calories per day, or 3,500 calories for the week. For every 3,500 calories per week you cut out, that equals one (1) pound of weight loss. Now that may not sound like a lot at first, but over a period of time that can definitely add up. Not to be forgotten in all of this is incorporating an exercise program in your lifestyle change. Starting out you can realistically burn an additional 200 to 300 calories during each exercise session. That could potentially burn another pound during the week. It’s important to remember that you didn’t get this way overnight, so please don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ll lose it overnight.

There are two main reasons that people fail when it comes to healthy eating. First, they make too drastic of a change in their overall nutritional plan.

Other helpful tips during this would be to cut down on your sugar, sodium and simple carbs. Replace sugar with things like Stevia, limit your sodium (salt) intake to roughly a teaspoon of table salt per day, and concentrate on eating more complex carbs. When it comes to table salt, a teaspoon per day might be too much for a smaller individual. By changing those three things, you will realistically lose another pound during the week, if not more. Now that you’ve accomplished this during your first 2-4 weeks, it’s time to repeat the same process of eliminating 500 more calories from your daily consumption. Continue this until you get yourself to the recommended daily caloric intake for your size and shape. A safe weight loss goal would be about 1/2 to 2 pounds per week. For more information on this, please look in our Nutritional section under the heading of Keeping It Simple.

Most people fail when it comes to dieting! That is a proven fact. The problem here is that most people don’t really know why they fail. They spend their time and their money hopelessly looking at which seems like a never-ending number of programs which they hope will be the right one for them. With that in mind, the second, and we feel is probably the most important factor in helping/hurting people achieve their Fitness, Health & Wellness goals is their mindset. I have a saying that I live and breathe by, it simply states that “When Your Mind Is Right, The Body Will Follow”! Now think about that for a moment. If your mind is not prepared, you’re simply lengthening and confusing the process. I strongly believe that you can accomplish anything and everything you want in life if you overcome your own “Limiting Beliefs and Habits”! That all starts with your mindset! As I mentioned in the opening video, you found a way to unlock that Tiger that was hidden in you before. The Tiger that just wouldn’t let you fail! Don’t you think it’s time to find that Tiger again? To help you accomplish this, we’ve already provided you with some downloads of our When Your Mind Is Right worksheets. If you haven’t done so yet, we strongly recommend that you go through and complete them. These are life-changing worksheets that if you will embrace them, and implement them into your daily life, you will never look back or have any regrets. They can help you to create your own Life Blueprint that will enable you to live the Life Of Your Dreams!

Now it’s time to break down your own personal roadblocks, rid yourself of your own Limiting Beliefs and Habits, Get Your Mind Right, unleash your Hidden Tiger and create the Dream Life that you desire!

With the Right Attitude you can Accomplish Anything!!!