That being said, President Obama has said in many of his speeches that change has come to America.  That got me thinking with the new year in full swing now, will change come to your body?

How do you change your body?  Some say it will change with diet.  Some say it will change with more exercise.  Still others say that it will change with a change in mental state.  Guess what?  It takes a combonation of all three to make this everlasting change.  Let’s take a look at all three indvidually.

Change will come if you change your diet.  That’s true.  What does changing your diet actually mean?  Are you willing to give up all the junk and poison you put into your body?  Will you make the necessary changes in your daily routine to lose weight?  Changing your diet is hard.  Years of poor nutrtion habits are what makes it so hard.  That’s why so many gain more weight back when they quit dieting.  They revert back to their old habits and the viscious cycle starts over. 

Change will come if you exercise more.  Ok, exercising more might mean walking up a flight of stairs more than once of day.  You are not going to get any results from that.  I see so many in the gym day after day wasting their time with goofy exercises, and pointless cookie cutter routines they read in a magazine.  The only real changes will come from understanding and applying the principles of exercise science to a well thought out and designed fitness routine. 

Change will come from a change in mental attitude.  This, by far, is the most important of all.  I stress this to my clients over and over again.  I give a change in mental attitude the credit for having so much success with my clients.  How you see things inside will be in direction to exactly how things are on the outside.  You must have a shift in your mental state.  You must see your body in a crystal clear picture of exactly how you want to be.  When you do this, you will make the needed diet changes and you will seek out the proper way to exercise.  You can’t go to the gym dreading another workout.  You must go in with the mindset that you are there to accomplish something tangible, to get results.  Remember, your mind can be your greatest asset or your worst enemy.  It is up to you to decide how you want to use and what you will use it for. 

Remember, change happens to your body in three ways: change in diet, change in exercise habits, and, above all, change in your mental attitude.  If you diligently and daily work on these things, you will become unstoppable over time. Now, go out there, have courage, and take action moving toward what you want!

If you liked this, why don’t you run over to http://www.fatlossforwomenonly.com where you can grab a free fat loss success guide and learn about how I can coach you through this with results that are 150% guaranteed!

After training, consulting, and speaking with hundreds of clients over the years, I have found that there are three key characteristics that will separate the successful from the unsuccessful. Many people want to lose weight or burn fat, but a rare percentage are actually successful. Furthermore, the small percentage that actually loses the weight, many will gain the weight back.

When I first began personal training, I often wondered why this was so. But, many years later, I’ve discovered what it takes to lose the weight and keep it off. I am going to share with you those three essential keys below that are necessary for long term weight loss.

1. Attitude and Enthusiasm

If your attitude sucks and you have no enthusiasm for what you are doing, you will never be successful. Probably one of the hardest things I have to get a client to overcome is a resistance to change.

Change can be scary. Forget that BS. It’s not in this case. You need to take the attitude you are going to the gym to kick but and change your life and body forever. It beats going to the gym with attitude; “Oh no, not another that is hard, not another exercise that is hard.” Who do you think is going to have more success? You should be tenaciously and ferociously pursuing the body you want. Throw caution into the wind and what other people think into the garbage. Seriously, the only thought are those of those and what you think of yourself.

2. Changing “I want” or “I need”

When I first meet with a client, probably 99.9% of the time I hear, “I want to lose weight”, or “I need to lose weight.” I congratulate them on recognizing this fact. However, this not even close to being enough. Many people say this, but few actually make it a reality. Why is this. It is because of an improper mindset.

Keep saying you want or you need to and that’s all that will ever happen. It will be a never ending cycle of wanting and needing. However, you can shift your mindset to say I am. It’s a proven fact that saying I am has a tremendous impact on your conscious and unconscious mind. You fill find a way. When you say I am, you will be more likely to do what it takes to get the weight off and keep it off. Try changing your mindset and look at things from a slightly different perspective and watch what happens.

This shift in mindset extends well beyond weight loss. When you go into any situation saying I am instead of I want or need, I promise you, you will be amazed at the results. This mindset does not happen overnight. It must be practiced day in and day out for it to be a successful habit.

3. Getting the Right Help

The third and final key is to get the right help. What do I mean by getting the right help? For instance, when I graduated college with my degree in exercise physiology, I had no idea how to market my services. What did I do? I read every marketing book I could get my hands on. I consulted successful personal trainers on how they did it. Before long, I was successful also.

What does that have to do with weight loss? You go to a dentist for your teeth. You go to a car mechanic to get your car fixed. You go to a lawyer to get legal help. The point here is if you need to lose weight, seek the right professional help.

Seek out a qualified personal trainer. What if you don’t think you can afford? Nonsense! Trainers offer several packages for you to take advantage of. Give online personal training a try which costs a fraction of what in personal training costs. Think about all the money you waste every month and save that money for a personal trainer. Pay now or pay later. You can continue to have no energy, feel like crap, and have low self esteem because of your body image or you can make a sacrifice and shell out some money and change your life forever. Not to mention, what will you pay later on in life? I’m talking about all those years of carrying around extra weight. How about: diabetes, joint replacement, arthritis, heart disease. Not a pretty picture when you can change it now.

Now, here’s the thing. Seek out a highly qualified personal trainer. Personally, I would not hire a trainer unless they had a degree or had been training for at least five years. The reason is because the test to become a certified personal trainer is a joke. You can become a “certified” personal trainer in one weekend. This is definitely not the qualifications you are looking for.

Conclusion

I hope this article has inspired and motivated you to get off the couch and take action now. If you apply these three simple, yet profound principles, there is no way you cannot lose weight and keep it off for the rest of your life! Take action now or live a life full of regret! Which path will you choose?

Now run over to my website and take a free fitness analysis and grab your free fat loss success guide.

 As a trainer, probably the most common questions I deal with are how to lose fat or burn fat. Even though burning fat can sometimes be tricky, there are simple, yet effective, ways to lose fat. Applying these principles will help shed some of those unwanted pounds for you.

1. Cut Out Unnecessary Calories.

 This one is simple. Think about all the excess and unnecessary calories you take in on a daily basis. Soda, chips, sweets are a few. Let’s say you take in a total of 500 calories a day of this garbage. That’s 3500 calories every seven days. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture where I’m going with this. Not to mention, all this junk provides no nutritional value. Also, it will spike your insulin level which makes your body store more fat. Eat for optimal health, and you will start to lose fat in no time.

2. Eat More Fiber.

 What does eating fiber have to do with losing fat? It’s a proven fact that diets high in fiber help control hunger. Fiber also regulates your digestion, and helps lower the risk of certain diseases. Here are some foods high in fiber:

 a. Fruits: apples, pears, strawberries, and raspberries.

 b. Grains: brown rice, whole-wheat spaghetti, and popcorn.

c. Veggies: artichoke, peas, and broccoli.

 By no means is this a comprehensive list of foods high in fiber, but the above foods are highest in fiber by grams per serving. Give these a try, and you won’t be as hungry.

3. Snack All Day Long and Eat Less as the Day Goes On.

This is the one where we have it totally backwards. We tend to skip breakfast, eat a big lunch and a big dinner with nothing in between. You know the feeling of having no energy around 10 or 11 in the morning and then how you want to take a nap after lunch. Instead, eat smaller portions at each meal and have a healthy snack in between. This serves two benefits. One, your insulin level will stay at a constant level keeping your body from storing excess fat. Two, you will not overeat at regular meals, reducing the total amount of calories you take in. Now, you are on your way to losing fat!

4. Drink More Water.

How can drinking more water help you lose fat? It’s quite simple, without water, it is hard for your body to metabolize (burn) body fat. Water is also a natural appetite suppressant. Recent research is suggesting that hunger is a sign that you are dehydrated. Next time you are hungry, drink a glass of water and watch what happens. You will be amazed. What else does water do for you? Oh, it removes toxins from your body, helps with proper digestion, and improves brain function. In other words, water helps your body function optimally and helps you lose fat quickly. Conclusion You can see these strategies are simple. However, you cannot overlook at how effective they are at losing fat.

 Now, this will not help you lose all the weight you want. But, if you do the small things right, they add up and pay off big! Good luck with your fat loss!

 Now run over to http://www.fatlossforwomenonly.com and grab a free fat loss guide and a free fitness analysis.

The BodyBugg Tells You To Eat What You Want.

That’s great if you eat a clean diet.  What if you eat poorly?  Let’s say you eat foods all the time in saturated fat.  Bring on the high blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart attacks!  Let’s say you eat a high sugar diet.  Your insulin spikes making it easier to store fat.  There are so many more things the BodyBugg cannot tell you.  Be careful when you, “eat what you want.”

It does not take into account to building lean muscle mass.

Sure, you might lose some weight using this thing, but will you build any lean muscle mass?  There are so many benefits to building leaning muscle mass: a tone body, faster metabolism, more energy.  The BodyBugg does not help you build lean muscle mass at all.

Would You Want to Wear This Thing 24/7 

To be completely accurate, assuming that it is accurate, you would have to wear this thing 24/7/365 to get the best benefits. Not hardly.

Price

It comes down to this.  The most expensive I saw was $348.00 and the cheapest I saw was for $99.00 which was for the website access only.  Each one only had 6 months of access to the website, then you would be charged for further access.  You only get one phone coaching session with this also. 

Conclusion

I think the concept behind the BodyBugg is promising, but for that kind of money and the limited features you are offered, you are completely wasting a lot of money.  If you are too lazy to write down what you eat for the day, then you will never be successful at losing weight anyway.  Furthermore, there are several free programs on the internet that will calculate how many calories you burn in a day with fairly good accuracy. 

Final Thought

Run over to my website http://www.fatlossforwomeonly.com and check out the free fat loss success guide.  Then, check out all the things you are offered for a low monthly price: your own private personal trainer, over 1000 exercise videos, and I’ll keep the rest a suprise so go check it out!

Following these simple steps will help you get started on your journey to a tone and firm body. 

1. Set aside 20 minutes a day to focus on exactly what you want your body to look like three, six, and nine months from now.  Focus on feeling what it will be like in that body.  Think of how you feel, how people will look at you, and what people will say to you. 
2. Set 5 specific goals you want to accomplish every 12 weeks.  Set specific deadlines with date and times.  For instance;  I will fit into size 6 jeans by February 9th, 2009. 
3. Plan ahead for when you will workout.  You must make weight loss a priority to be successful.  You may need to rearrange your schedule or break your workout into small parts to get accomplished what you want.
4. Educate yourself.  Do not buy into all this lame hype about how you can lose 30 pounds a week etc.  We have all seen these ads.  Here’s the thing, if all these pills and diet programs actually worked, do you think the number of overweight and obese people would still be on the increase?  I think not.  Consult a qualified personal trainer. There are many excellent books out there to educate you on nutrition and fitness programming.
5. Start building a strong support group.  Tell people that you are going to be losing weight this year.  Make yourself accountable.  Give a copy of your goals to those closest to you.  You will be responsible.

Following these five simple steps will put you way ahead of the curve when you start off this new year.  I also encourage you to run over to my site http://www.fatlossforwomenonly.com and grab your free copy of an ebook I wrote which is called;  “Dangerous Curves Ahead: A Woman’s Guide to Successful Fat Loss.”

That was 38 years ago to the day.  Although I was not born, the crash has a special significance in my heart and life.  I was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia.  Many people I know were on the scene of that crash.  I have attended 100′s of Marshall football games. 

I just watched the rememberance ceremony which takes place this day every year in Huntington on the campus of Marshall University.  The Memorial Fountain at the student center is turned off. That got me thinking, on this day of sorrow, what lessons can we learn about life and weight loss?

The biggest lesson we can learn is how to overcome adversity.  Against all odds, the Marshall University football team was rebuilt and went on to become national champions time and again.  What adversity are you facing with your weight loss and life?  It can be overcome.  You have to start somewhere, and sometime.  That somewhere is here, and that sometime is NOW.  You can’t do it alone.  It took the help of 1000′s of people to help rebuild the team to reach the pinnacle of it’s success.  You can overcome, but you need a strong support group also. 

It also teaches us about not giving up.  Never quit, and never give in to anything.  You will have the naysayers and the energy vampires try to bring you down.  The same was true with the football team.  The thought it would be impossible to rebuild.  We proved them wrong.  You can as well.  Day in and day out, give your all.  Keep doing the little things right. Keep pushing yourself in the gym.   Then one day, everything will fall into place. 

The crash also teaches us about the enduring nature of the human spirit.  No matter how devistating something may be, it can be overcome.  In the darkness,  all you need is one ray of light.  You can be beat down, broken, and hopeless.  Let’s not forget, we can overcome, we can change, and we can make a better life and a better body.

What have we learned?  Nobody how hard it is, never give up on your weight loss goals.    You are going to be faced with adversity.  Overcome it, go around it, jump over it, dig a hole under it.  Lastly, your spirtit is indestructable.  No matter what you face today, your spirit is stronger than anything that can come against u.

I hope you guys enjoyed this very personal post.  I would love your comments and feedback. Also, I have attached a video of Nate Ruffin and his letter to the team.  I hope you enjoy it. 

1. Strength Train
First of all, do not worry about bulking up.  You lack the proper hormones to pack on big muscles.  Muscle tissue is much more metabolically active than fat.  In other words, it takes more energy to maintain muscle than it does fat.  Muscle is more compact than fat.  Hence, you look smaller.
 
What kind of strength training exercises should you do?  Forget the boring machines.  Perform compound exercises.  Compound exercises require more than one muscle group to work at once.  For instance, let’s look at the squat.  Squatting requires you to use your glutes, quads, and hamstrings.  Compare squatting with a leg extension.  The benefit is you are using more energy which results in greater muscle gain and faster weight loss.

2. Get off the treadmill
Spending time on the treadmill is boring and counterproductive.  If you are dieting with restricted calories, performing long time or long distance cardio is detrimental to your weight loss efforts.  First, it messes up your adrenal glands.  I do not have time here to go into the specifics, but basically you are releasing more fat storing enzymes than fat burning enzymes. Second, endurance exercise uses muscle tissue for energy.  The less muscle tissue you have, the easier it is for your body to store fat.

Am I saying do not do cardio at all? No way!  I recommend doing short bursts of highly intense cardio.  If you go to my website, http://www.fatlossforwomenonly.com, I have a free eBook covering this in more detail.

3.  Quit Dieting
Ladies, forget the diet you are on.  More than likely you are depriving yourself of essential nutrients and minerals for optimal health.  Instead, focus on eating for optimal health.  Dieting slows down your metabolism which will cause your body to store more fat. 

Analyze your diet.  Find out the what and why of your current eating habits.  Find out what you are eating, in the sense of nutrient intake, fat intake, fiber and so on.   You will be surprised at the results let me assure you.  Secondly, find out why you are eating.  It could be: a social gathering, emotional eating, or social pressure.  Analyze each one of these and find out the reasons behind these and come up with solutions for dealing with each. 
Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed these 3 simple yet effective methods for losing weight quickly.  Apply these principles consistently and you will be losing weight in no time at all.  I invite you to come to http://www.fatlossforwomeonly.com where I have a free eBook waiting for you called; “A Woman’s Guide to Fat Loss Success”.  Hopefully, by the time you read this, I will still have my lifetime membership available.  Stay strong and do not let anything stand in the way of accomplishing your goals!

People, please bear with me on this blog.  I promise to make it a kick ass blog while I learn as I go.  I always appreciate your comments and feedback.