Posted by Judi Lake

You need to eat lean meats (chicken, fish, turkey, lean beef) , low gi fruits (apples, bananas, pineapple, oranges), green veggies (broccoli, celery, green lettuce, spinach), only whole wheat breads (look on the package and see if the first ingredient is whole wheat flour, if it is it should be good unless it has high fructose corn syrup like Mrs Bairds does). Jillian Michaels from biggest loser has a great quote, “before you eat your food ask yourself, does it have a momma or did it come from the ground? If not don’t eat it.” Eat 5 - 6 small meals a day, this will increase your metabolism and help you to not feel so hungry in between meals. It’s all about portion and calorie control regardless of what food you are eating, but remember cleaning up your diet and eating X amount of calories of lean good healthy foods instead of X amount of calories of candy bars (I know you are probably not eating 4 candy bars a day but its just an example) will help you lose it faster. The leaner you are eating the faster you will lose it, and you will get a toned healthy look instead of a skinny jiggly look. You also need to drink at least 8 glasses (8oz) of water a day. Sometimes hunger is mistaken for thirst so if you are hungry drink 8 oz of water and wait 30 minutes, if you are still hungry then eat a light healthy snack. Water also helps you feel fuller longer and helps flush out toxins that may prevent fat loss. Also allow your self a cheat day (but don’t go over board and eat everything in sight or like 5 cakes in that day). Allowing yourself a cheat day once a week will help cut out cravings… Think of it like a reward if you did well with your diet and exercise that week have a piece of pie… If not just stick with you healthy food. You can find recipes for decent tasting healthy foods on sights like bodyforlife.com and bodybuilding.com and also on recipe sights like allrecipes.com, foodfit.com, cookinglight.com and foodnetwork.com

You need to do a good mix of both cardio and strength training, strength training is not going to make you look like Arnold, I promise (unless you are taking test). Toning and building muscle strength will help you lose fat quicker as you will be burning calories all day to feed your muscle tone instead of just while you doing cardio activity and it increases metabolism. Running, walking, rollerblading, swimming are good cardio work outs. You can also get some at home videos. I personally like Gilad’s Kick boxing, ten minute solutions videos (ten minute solutions are good because they have 5 ten minute segments and you can do one or all five or three or what ever you want to do at the time and they have a variety, like dance, pilates, yoga, etc.), shape and woman’s health videos. Get your self some 5 pound dumbbells or a gym member ship and do bicep curls, push ups, sit ups, squats, dead lifts, lunges, tricep over head extensions, chest presses, shoulder presses, etc. You can do most of this on your own if you just go and buy some free weights, but a gym membership is helpful as well. If you do end up getting a gym membership I would consult a personal trainer (most memberships come with a free session) they can show you what to do and come up with a meal plan for you… You can find the videos I mentioned on the web at collagevideo.com, or at ross (cheap cheap at ross) or walmart or any other place that sells dvds.

Lastly, don’t get discouraged, it takes time… you should be losing 2 pounds of fat a week safely, more is not typically safe. but you could gain weight especially if you are gaining muscle. So if you get on the scale and it says you’ve gain two pounds don’t freak out… just look in the mirror and go by how your clothes look and feel on you.