A Few Simple Steps to Fat Loss cont'd

Sorry for the delay, but between my brothers bachelor party weekend, driving back down to VA for class last night and the USA's dramatic victory this morning, I've been swamped!

But as promised, here is the second installment of Simple Steps to Fat Loss...

5. Eat breakfast every day
This can't be emphasized enough. Breakfast does a number of things to promote fat loss. First, its starts off your metabolism early in the morning. Second, it will help you feel more full later in the day, which should decrease the chance of over eating at later meals. A lot of people say they just aren't hungry in the morning. I understand that, but force yourself to have something. Then there are people who say they don't have time. To those people I say that they are not committed to changing their body. When you don't eat breakfast, your metabolism slows down and you will end up stuffing yourself at lunch and dinner. You know what that sounds like to me? A sumo wrestlers diet. They train in the morning only to eat piles of food for over an hour in order to gain weight and slow down their metabolism. Do you want to look like a sumo wrestler? Didn't think so. So eat breakfast.

6. Small meals throughout the day
Much like starting the day with a meal, you want to keep your metabolism working all day long. You never want to feel starved because that's when your prone to over eat and/or grab something from the vending machine. The only way you can do this is by preparing yourself each day to do so. Bring fresh fruit with you to work. Drink a shake in between small meals. I'm not saying this is easy to do, but it can work wonders for fat loss because you never allow yourself to get extremely hungry or extremely full.

7. Fibrous foods first
Start lunch and dinner off with a salad, or make it lunch and dinner as you get used to eating smaller meals. Salads are great because they are low in calories, provide a feeling a fullness and most of us don't eat nearly enough vegetables anyway. And be creative with what you put in your salad. Mix it up from week to week. Fresh vegetables are great this time of year so go out and try some new things and try them in your salad. As great an idea as salads are, don't ruin them with heavy, creamy dressings. Use a splash of olive oil and vinegar and the real flavor of your salad will come out.

8. Water only
This is what I tell people to start out with when attempting to lose fat. Get rid of the empty calories in sugary drinks. I allow myself coffee in the morning with milk and sugar and a post-workout shake, but other than that, it's water throughout the day. Most of us don't drink the recommended amount of water anyway, so I recommend keeping a bottle on you all day long. Get a water filter and use water fountains at work to fill up and try to avoid buying bottled water daily. There have been studies done on the harmful affects of drinking from plastic water bottles. But by drinking only water throughout the day you can cut as many at 500 calories! So drop the soda and energy drinks and stick to water!

This has been a short list and the things you can do to lose weight are endless. But I feel that taken one at a time, these can help jump start your goal of fat loss and a healthier lifestyle. Remember, building the body you want does not happen overnight, but can happen by being consistent and disciplined in what you do on a daily basis.

Because this post came later in the week, look for another one very soon!