Why You Can't Skip a Meal & Lose Weight

            The body reacts to weight loss as if it were starving,                 and in response, slows its metabolism.

When your metabolism slows, you burn fewer calories -even at rest. So it makes it almost impossible to lose weight.

If you continue to take in fewer calories, you will either stop losing weight as quickly as you have been, or you'll stop losing weight altogether.

After starvation diets, eating under 1400 calorie per day diets, when you increase your calorie consumption, you may actually gain weight more quickly than you have in the past.

The solution is to increase your physical activity & eat 5 small nutritious meals a day. (Skip sugar, white flour and empty calories that don't fuel your body & help you to stay healthy)

Doing so will counteract the metabolic slowdown caused by reducing calories. A regular schedule of exercise raises not only your energy expenditure while you are exercising but also your resting energy expenditure -- the rate at which you burn calories even when the workout is over and you are resting.

10 easy tips to help weight loss

Never Skip your Breakfast - This is the most important meal of the day, and try to incorporate fresh fruit, unsweetened fruit juice, cereal with rice milk, oat and whole wheat breads in your breakfast. Cut your intake of syrups, whip cream and butter to half if possible.

Order Smaller Portions - It's not forbidden to eat out, but try to go for smaller portions or share dishes with friends, even eat a big salad before your real meal. Also limit high-fat, high-calorie toppings and condiments, such as bacon, cheese, mayonnaise, sauces and dressings.

Space out Your Meals - Its very important to eat regular meals. Skipping meals can lead to out-of-control hunger, often resulting in over-eating. When you're very hungry, it's also tempting to forget about good nutrition. Have at least 4-5 meals a day and divide your calorie intake between them.

Enjoy Your Food - Sounds silly, but this is really important. Science has proved that it takes at least 20 minutes for the brain to register that you have eaten enough and it sends out "I am full" messages. So chew your food instead of gulping it down; relax and enjoy your meal as it can even psychologically elevate your moods.

Choose Broiled or Grilled over Fried - This option cuts out so much fat and calories with just a little compromise on the taste. And with proper seasonings and sauces, you might not even know the difference!

Choose Lean Meat and Green Salads - Salads are healthy, but they can become high-calorie because of the dressings and other additions. Load your plate with fresh fruits and vegetables, or healthy lean meats like turkey or chicken. Choose low-fat or fat-free dressings and limit cheese, eggs and croutons.

Beware of Sauces and Condiments - You'd be surprised at how many calories are loaded in mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, sauces and condiments, and they have a very high sodium content!. Avoid these or go for lighter options when possible.

Choose Lighter Desserts - It's perfectly ok to celebrate an occasion with chocolate and cheesecake, but for most of your sweet-tooth cravings, settle for fresh fruits drizzled with honey or light whip cream.

Switch to Olive Oil - Even when you are sauteeing your veggies, use wine or olive oil or canola oil instead of regular vegetable oil. Use nonstick cookware or cooking sprays to eliminate the need for oil or butter.

Create Variety in Food - The last, but not the least, its imperative that you include different types of nutrient-rich food in your meals. Eating the same thing everyday is boring and unhealthy; Your daily food selection should include bread and other whole-grain products, fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish and other protein foods. Also fill up on fiber as that helps control your cravings. I like freezing fruit like bananas and grapes.

What weight loss tips do you use everyday?

What Motivates You?

Hey everybody! Hope you’re doing well. I had a hard time motivating myself to go to the gym today. That’s what gave me the idea for this blog post.

The hardest part about getting back in shape isn’t the workout or the nutrition (although resisting these absolutely delicious chocolate can be tough!). It’s motivation. You can have the best workouts in place and the best recipes for a clean diet, if you are not motivated enough you will never have the endurance to achieve your goals. So here are a few things that keep ME motivated:

1. I always break down my long term goals to achievable short term goals. You want to lose 25 pounds? Instead of focusing on these 25 pounds make it your goal to lose 1-2 pounds per week! This way you get a sense of achievement every week!

2. I have a workout partner. She keeps me accountable and makes me feel guilty if I cancel a session with her. Find somebody who has similar goals or get a personal trainer (even I use a personal trainer from time to time) join fitness or boot camp classes. Workout is more fun when you have somebody who suffers with you ;)

3. As mentioned before I am a real chocolate junkie and I can get pretty cranky if I can’t have it. So make sure that you have a cheat meal (or even a whole cheat day if you follow a strict nutritional program the rest of the week) once a week. You have something to look forward to and it’ll make it a lot easier to eat clean for the rest of the week.

4. Music is a BIG part of my life. While I horribly failed learning to play an instrument (tried the piano and that didn't last long. Anyways, I loooove to listen to music. The great thing about have a gym in my basement is I can blast the music so loud and that really get me and my clients motivated. Also, thats whats so great about taking a class. Music has the power to bring you in a totally different mindset from one second to the other. You don’t feel like working out? Plug your IPod in and listen to your favorite genre of music. A great program is pandora you can mix it up and get all your music for free, its just like a radio. I guarantee you got a pair of dumbbells in your hands before you even realize it!

5. I ALWAYS have a plan. Okay, I have to admit that I am pretty OCD when it comes to making to-do-lists. I’ve always been that way. But in small doses plans are good to keep you accountable. Make a schedule for the week and write down when you will do your workouts and what you will eat.
I would love to hear what your tricks are to stay motivated. Leave a comment below with your favorite motivation technique.

BTW: I used trick number 4 today ;)

Dish on Kourtney Kardashians Body Transformation

As you all may have seen in last weeks OK magazine, Kourtney Kardashians transformation looks unbelievable! She is one of my favorite reality celebs and she is definitely a motivated one. As, losing weight for her may not be so hard compared to many of us, she was small to begin with and always seemed to have a great body. A lot of celebrity diets are complete trash and for the average person would never be able to stick to it more than a day or two. I tried the Master Cleanse that Beyonce was claimed to have lost 21 lbs on. I was determined to do it for one whole week and possibly 2. Well after just 5 hours I was craving a friggen hamburger! I DO NOT EAT HAMBURGERS. It was awful! Not only that, most people that do such drastic diets end up losing weight, but when they go back to eating regularly (like they think they can) they gain all the weight back plus some. So I wanted to talk about this because this is a REAL plan she actually implemented.

After a kid it is not the easiest thing to get your body back. Breast feeding can burn up to 500 calories a day. But there is a down side. Because your body is producing so much milk it starts to crave food more than usual. So some may end up gaining instead of losing. So make sure you are still monitoring what you are eating in a portion controlled environment. On top of that, maintaining a healthy meal plan of up to 6 small meals a day will absolutely help the weight melt off. Remember calories in and calories out. Having your favorite junk food is okay! Just remember 2 is enough! You do not need the whole thing. And I promise you, you will eat again. So stop acting like its gonna be the end of the world if you don't eat the whole thing today.

As far as working out, this is HUGE! I repeat HUGE, people don't understand the benefits of working out. Cardio if great for your heart and some sort of strength training is good for your good cholesterol as well as your bad. We all have it! On top of all this as we get older out skin stretches and does not stay firm like it used to, which is how we get cellulite (many more reasons as well). All of this helps to it, so I am sure she is getting a good amount of working out and has a trainer (DUH!!)

Here is the actual article from the magazine, thought you all would enjoy and learn something!

BAM!