Metabolism is your body’s ability to burn the food you eat and use it as energy to fuel your body throughout the day.

Unfortunately, due to age, genetics, lack of physical activity and poor nutrition, a lot of us have “slower” metabolisms. This means that our body takes [...]]]> Burn more calories and fat by boosting your metabolism

Metabolism is your body’s ability to burn the food you eat and use it as energy to fuel your body throughout the day.

Unfortunately, due to age, genetics, lack of physical activity and poor nutrition, a lot of us have “slower” metabolisms. This means that our body takes longer to burn the same amount of calories than someone with a “higher” metabolism. In reality, your metabolism doesn’t work according to speed, but rather to efficiency.

Thankfully, boosting your metabolism and making it more efficient is possible. In fact, there are many different ways you can give it a kick start. Here are just a few:

1. Increase your muscle mass – Muscles burn calories more efficiently than fat. You don’t have to become a bodybuilder, but adding some strength training to your routine each week will help your metabolism function better. If you already do strength training, try increasing the number of workouts each week, or increase the duration and/or intensity to build even more muscle.
2. Eat breakfast – Starting your day out with a healthy breakfast will tell your body to start burning calories instead of storing what you eat later as fat. Going for a long time between meals will make your body store what little food it gets because it doesn’t know when to expect more food.
3. Continue to eat throughout the day – In addition to eating breakfast in the morning, it’s important to keep eating healthy meals as the day progresses. Skipping meals can send your body into “starvation mode” which will cause it to store calories instead of burning them. Trust me. I’ve tried it. It doesn’t work.
4. Eat small meals – Instead of eating three large meals each day, you should be eating smaller meals more frequently to keep your blood sugar stabilized. This ensures your metabolism will be running more efficiently all day long. Not only that, but your energy levels will become more steady which also contributes to extra calories burned.
5. Stay hydrated – Your body can’t function properly without water, so why would it be any different for your metabolism? A dehydrated body leads to a sluggish metabolism, so make sure you get enough.

Burn The Fat is a program that will whip your metabolism into shape. If you’re the type of person that needs to know the “Why” and “How” along with the “What” then you’ll want to grab a copy of this book. Not only that, but I find that reading Burn The Fat is one of the best ways to motivate myself when I’m feeling less than energetic.

I wish I would have started watching it when the show first began four years ago. I’ve realized that this show is [...]]]> I’ve never been a huge fan of all the new reality TV series they’ve been running for the past few years, but this year I decided to start watching The Biggest Loser on NBC.

I wish I would have started watching it when the show first began four years ago. I’ve realized that this show is a huge motivational booster. While the results that contestants have on the show aren’t typical, it’s still an important reminder that anybody can lose weight and change their life forever.

Since watching the series premiere, I’ve been exercising a lot more and paying even closer attention to the foods I eat. I also love to see what the ‘kicked off’ contestants are up to and how much they’ve changed since leaving the show. Their success stories are another big motivational booster that I think everyone can benefit from. They’ve learned the tools they needed to lose weight, then they went home and put them to use and continued to be ‘big losers’.

All of these people are regular folks just like you and me, which means if they can do it, so can we. If you haven’t started watching it, you should think about it. It’s educational entertainment, and it just might help you change your life!

When this happens we tend to let it get us down and we end up throwing away our goals and motivations to lose weight and get healthy. This could be temporarily or [...]]]> I don’t know of a single person who hasn’t strayed from their regular exercise routine, or who hasn’t snuck a chocolate bar or two.

When this happens we tend to let it get us down and we end up throwing away our goals and motivations to lose weight and get healthy. This could be temporarily or indefinitely.

The important thing to remember is that nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, even the slimmest of the slim and the strongest of the strong.

Once you realize that you’re only human and you can’t be perfect every day, then you can get over any past mistakes and keep moving forward.

So what if you stuffed your face with a whole chocolate cake today? Don’t let it get you down. Instead, use that as motivation to go an extra mile on your treadmill, or a few extra minutes at the gym.

Just because you skipped your exercises in the morning and ate more than you wanted to doesn’t mean you can’t end the day off well. Have a glass of water instead of another bag of chips. Or do some pilates or yoga instead of laying on the couch until bedtime.

You’ll feel better about yourself if you do. If you don’t, you could end up starting a vicious cycle that’s hard to get out of.

Each time I see them, I get a [...]]]> Do you have an outfit that you used to wear but now you can’t breathe in it? I have quite a few outfits that I loved but now can’t even get around my hips. What I’ve done is kept those favorite items in plain view in my closet.

Each time I see them, I get a surge of motivation to lose weight. I’ll do some exercise, or plan a healthy meal, or decide not to eat a bowl of ice cream. It really works.

Every once in awhile, I try an outfit on and get even more motivation to lose some more pounds. I know it sounds a little material, but if it works, why not do it?

Losing weight should ultimately be about getting healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. But it sure would be nice to fit into those pre-pregnancy jeans again and feel good in them! Are you with me?

“Nothing tastes better than thin feels.”

Now, ask yourself these 5 questions:

This is an excellent question, but sometimes difficult to answer because everyone is so different. What motivates me may not motivate you and vice versa.

Ultimately, your biggest motivation should be reaching for the end result - [...]]]> One of the questions I’m asked most often in emails is how to stay motivated when trying to lose weight.

This is an excellent question, but sometimes difficult to answer because everyone is so different. What motivates me may not motivate you and vice versa.

Ultimately, your biggest motivation should be reaching for the end result - a healthier you. Without motivation, your weight loss efforts will most likely go down the drain.

Motivation is what keeps us from pigging out on a whole bag of chips when we’re sad or frustrated. It’s what picks us up off the couch to go for a run. It’s what helps us make healthy choices when we’re grocery shopping.

It’s important to come up with some kind of ‘motivation plan’. Throughout your weight loss journey, you may need to add or change some things on your list of motivations to ensure that you don’t ever lose your drive to lose weight.

Here are just some motivational ideas for you to think about.

• Keep your goals realistic so you won’t lose interest if you feel like you can’t reach them.

• As you lose weight, use that success as motivation to keep going.

• Have a little healthy competition with a friend or family member.

• Read or listen to other people about their success with weight loss.

• Ask family and friends to keep supporting and encouraging you to stick with your goals.

• Add variety to your physical activity to keep it interesting.

• Join a community or online support group to stay accountable for yourself and others.

• Remind yourself of the unhealthy consequences of being overweight such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

• And don’t forget to have some fun. Losing weight doesn’t have to be so serious. If you have fun along the way, it won’t feel so much like work but more like a happy and fun lifestyle.

Quote:
“You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She’s 97 today and we don’t know where the hell she is.”

- Ellen Degeneres

These small rewards may keep you working hard towards the next one, but have you thought about rewarding yourself when you finally reach your ultimate weight goal?

I’ve heard people say that they would like to take a trip once they’ve [...]]]> I’ve talked a little before about treating yourself with small rewards after certain weight loss milestones.

These small rewards may keep you working hard towards the next one, but have you thought about rewarding yourself when you finally reach your ultimate weight goal?

I’ve heard people say that they would like to take a trip once they’ve reached a certain weight. Couples working to lose weight together may want to buy a new set of wedding rings to fit on their newly slimmed fingers. Others may want to splurge on a brand new wardrobe for their thinner figure.

It doesn’t matter which reward you choose for yourself. What matters is that you are looking ahead into the future. You see your healthier self down the road and realize you need to strive for that. If adding some perks to that, like trips or jewelry, helps you stay on track, then by all means do that. Hopefully, having a healthier and slimmer body will help you to enjoy them more.

You’ve been doing everything right, and now you want to see how much weight you’ve lost. You [...]]]> So you’ve decided to lose weight. You’re now eating healthier and exercising daily. You’ve thrown out all the junk food from the cupboards, and you’ve been using every opportunity you have to get your heart pumping and calories burning.

You’ve been doing everything right, and now you want to see how much weight you’ve lost. You step on the scale, expecting to see at least 5 pounds banished. But wait, are your eyes playing tricks on you? The scale isn’t showing any difference from last week? Is it broken? You run over to a friend’s house and ask to use their scale. It’s showing the same thing!

You come to the realization that you just can’t lose weight. After all the hard work, and not a bit of difference! What’s the point in eating healthy and exercising if you’re not dropping the pounds?

Unfortunately, too many people only see weight loss as the needle on the scale going down. Obviously, we all want to see those numbers dropping, but you’re not looking at the physical results. Maybe you haven’t lost any body weight, but have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?

If you’re eating healthy and exercising, you are losing fat, but you’re also gaining muscle. Because muscle weighs more than fat, it only makes sense that replacing fat with muscle will balance your weight for awhile, making you think you’ve hit a plateau. Don’t let this get you down. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Soon, you will start seeing results on the scale.

But before you get on the scale, and even before you start losing weight, take a tape measure and measure your arms, hips, waist, and thighs. If you don’t have a tape measure, use a belt or a string instead.

Instead of looking at your actual weight for results, keep measuring yourself every week to see the true results. Make sure you measure yourself in the mornings before you eat. And don’t discourage yourself by doing it more than once each week.

If you’re only using the scale to measure your success, you may give up early and get back to old habits. By tracking your measurements, you’re staying motivated when you see the physical results each week.

If you feel like you’ve eventually reached a plateau, don’t see that as a reason to quit eating right and exercising. This should be a part of everyone’s daily life, whether they are trying to lose weight, maintain their weight, or even gain weight.

You want to look good on the outside, but it’s even more important how healthy you are on the inside.

Have you ever walked in front of a full-length mirror in the mall or at a friends house and realized just how much weight you’ve gained? For many people, this is the main event that leads them to reality sinking in and then to successful weight loss.

Seeing yourself [...]]]> How Can Digital Photography Help You Lose Weight?

Have you ever walked in front of a full-length mirror in the mall or at a friends house and realized just how much weight you’ve gained? For many people, this is the main event that leads them to reality sinking in and then to successful weight loss.

Seeing yourself from a different angle can really motivate you to get on the weight loss bandwagon. I often hear people say, “I just didn’t realize how big I was until I saw myself from another perspective”, or, “The weight just snuck up on me.”

What I find really helps in sticking with healthy lifestyle changes is to see the results of your efforts. Seeing yourself in the mirror can be the starting point, and keeping track of your success with visual proof will keep the weight coming off. How do we do this?

With your digital camera of course. With digital photos, you can keep the weight from sneaking up on you.

Many years ago, when my mother was trying to lose weight, she would take pictures of herself with her camera. However, it was not digital and she would have to wait until the film was used up to develop it. Meanwhile, she wasn’t seeing the results of her weight loss efforts right away. This can be detrimental for some people.

So many of us start a new weight loss program or diet and give up too soon because we can’t see the results.

With a digital camera, you can upload the photos onto your computer and see the results instantly. Every week, get your partner or friend to photograph you in the same outfit, or take a picture of your reflection in the mirror. Upload the pictures and compare it to the previous weeks.

Each week, the changes will be subtle, but as they progress and you compare each new photo with the first one taken, you’ll see big results. What better kind of motivation could you ask for than before and after pictures?

Is it the fact that you may – extend your life? Improve your health? Fit into the same jeans you wore [...]]]> Motivation is important to have when trying to lose weight. It’s what drives us to accomplish our goals. Without it, your weight loss quest may be a short-lived one. The question is, what motivates you?

Is it the fact that you may – extend your life? Improve your health? Fit into the same jeans you wore in high school? Or is it fear of being publicly humiliated if you don’t succeed?

On ABC’s “Primetime”, five overweight people were scared into losing weight. They each agreed that they would lose 15 pounds in two months or else “Primetime” would show photos of them wearing tiny bathing suits on TV and the internet. Read “Lose the Weight, or Wear the Bikini on TV“.

These people got off their butts and lost weight because they didn’t want their rolls shown on national television. But if you had told them that they would develop heart disease in the next 20 years if they did not lose the weight, would they have lost the weight just as fast? Would would you do?