The Third Step

 

Start an exercise regimen and stick to it 

Try running or using the treadmill a set number of days a week, gradually increasing in intensity and/or length of exercise. You could also try purchasing a book that schedule workouts for you, like Five Factor Fitness. Though you should try to tailor your workouts to your own style as much as possible, the two areas of fitness that everyone should address are strength training and cardio:

• Building muscle through strength-training will not only increase your strength and tone, but also increase your metabolism, as muscular people have been shown to burn more calories even when they’re at rest.^[1] If going to the gym isn’t for you, try strength-training at home.
• Cardio workouts improve circulation and endurance. Good cardiovascular health is not only good for heart health and blood pressure, it has even been linked to a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s Disease.^[2] Doing interval training (i.e. alternating between low- and high-intensity activity) has been shown to be a an especially fast and effective way to improve heart health and endurance.^[3]
• Note: anyone over the age of 60 or who has heart disease, high blood pressure, or arthritis should consult a doctor before attempting interval training.

The Second Step

Incorporate more physical exercise into your daily routine. By regularly challenging yourself, you keep your physical self "tuned up." If getting fit means losing weight, this will help the pounds melt away—and stay away! If you're training for endurance, this is the way ensure steady improvement.

• Take the subway or bike to work/school instead of driving. If that's not possible, park several blocks away from your office building to force yourself into two 15-minute walks every day. When you go to the grocery store, hardware store, movies, or mall—park at the end of the lot instead of wrangling for a spot near the front door. These small changes definitely make a long-term impact in your fitness.
• Clean your house vigorously. You'd be surprised how physically taxing housework is: dusting your shelves, cleaning your toilets, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, and cleaning the garage will definitely give you a workout. Making yourself and your family clean parts of your house on a regular basis (i.e., every week or every other week) will not only create a better environment for you to live in, but also make burning calories, staying flexible, and keeping in shape a much simpler process.

The First Step

 

Develop the right attitude. The mind may not be a muscle, but it's still incredibly strong, and can make the difference between succeeding and failing at your goal. Being fit is a marathon, not a sprint, and it requires making changes to your entire lifestyle.

Don't approach this with the mindset that you can abandon the changes you make as soon as you reach your ideal fitness goal, or you risk slipping into your bad habits again. Being fit should be incorporating things into your life that you can eventually do by second nature—by habit

 

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If you’re trying to drop a few pounds, don’t start off by trying to overhaul all your eating and exercise habits. You’re better off finding several simple things you can do on a daily basis—along with following the cardinal rules of eating more vegetables and less fat and getting more physical activity. Together, they should send the scale numbers in the right direction: down.

1. Indulge in fat releasing foods. They should help keep you from feeling deprived and binging on higher-calorie foods. For instance:

• Honey. Just 64 fat releasing calories in one tablespoon. Drizzle on fresh fruit.
• Eggs. Just 70 calories in one hard-boiled egg, loaded with fat releasing protein. Sprinkle with chives for an even more elegant treat.
• Part-skim ricotta cheese. Just 39 calories in one ounce of this food, packed with fat releasing calcium. Dollop over a bowl of fresh fruit for dessert.
• Dark chocolate. About 168 calories in a one-ounce square, but it’s packed with fat releasing fiber.
• Shrimp. Just 60 calories in 12 large.

2. Treat high-calorie foods as jewels in the crown. Make a spoonful of ice cream the jewel and a bowl of fruit the crown. Cut down on the chips by pairing each bite with lots of chunky, filling fresh salsa, suggests Jeff Novick, director of nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Florida. Balance a little cheese with a lot of salad.
3. After breakfast, make water your primary drink. At breakfast, go ahead and drink orange juice. But throughout the rest of the day, focus on water instead of juice or soda. The average American consumes an extra 245 calories a day from soft drinks. That’s nearly 90,000 calories a year — or 25 pounds! And research shows that despite the calories, sugary drinks don’t trigger a sense of fullness the way that food does.
4. Carry a palm-size notebook everywhere you go for one week. Write down every single morsel that enters your lips—even water. Studies have found that people who maintain food diaries wind up eating about 15 percent less food than those who don’t.
5. Buy a pedometer, clip it to your belt, and aim for an extra 1,000 steps a day. On average, sedentary people take only 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day. Adding 2,000 steps will help you maintain your current weight and stop gaining weight; adding more than that will help you lose weight.
6. Add 10 percent to the amount of daily calories you think you’re eating, then adjust your eating habits accordingly. If you think you’re consuming 1,700 calories a day and don’t understand why you’re not losing weight, add another 170 calories to your guesstimate. Chances are, the new number is more accurate.
7. Eat five or six small meals or snacks a day instead of three large meals. A 1999 South African study found that when men ate parts of their morning meal at intervals over five hours, they consumed almost 30 percent fewer calories at lunch than when they ate a single breakfast. Other studies show that even if you eat the same number of calories distributed this way, your body releases less insulin, which keeps blood sugar steady and helps control hunger.
8. Walk for 45 minutes a day. The reason we’re suggesting 45 minutes instead of the typical 30 is that a Duke University study found that while 30 minutes of daily walking is enough to prevent weight gain in most relatively sedentary people, exercise beyond 30 minutes results in weight and fat loss. Burning an additional 300 calories a day with three miles of brisk walking (45 minutes should do it) could help you lose 30 pounds in a year without even changing how much you’re eating.
9. Find an online weight-loss buddy. A University of Vermont study found that online weight-loss buddies help you keep the weight off. The researchers followed volunteers for 18 months. Those assigned to an Internet-based weight maintenance program sustained their weight loss better than those who met face-to-face in a support group.
10. Bring the color blue into your life more often. There’s a good reason you won’t see many fast-food restaurants decorated in blue: Believe it or not, the color blue functions as an appetite suppressant. So serve up dinner on blue plates, dress in blue while you eat, and cover your table with a blue tablecloth. Conversely, avoid red, yellow, and orange in your dining areas. Studies find they encourage eating.
 
 source : http://www.rd.com/health/diet-weight-loss/easy-ways-to-lose-weight-50-ideas

 

 How Much Fats Do You Need For Better Health and Fat Loss?

• Add 2 teaspoons of olive oil per meal in your vegetables or to your meat when you cook it.



• Do not add oil to a meal if you are eating a fatty fish like salmon which is rich in good fats.



• If you do not like olive oil or oily fish, eat your grilled meats and your natural vegetables but do not forget to add another source of good fats. What you can do in this case is to consume 15-20 grams of almonds or walnuts twice a day with any meal.

I recommend that you try as hard as possible to get your good fats from these natural sources. If you have issues consuming your good fats from food, I recommend an Essential Fatty Acids supplement like Labrada's EFA Lean which contains a variety of good fats. I suggest a dose of 3 capsules in 2 of your fat free meals.

Now that we have covered the myth that in order to lose fat you need to stop eating fats, let's talk about the sort of food that you can eat in order to promote fat loss.



Foods That Promote Fat Loss

When we start a diet, the first thing to do is to make the right food choices. I will eliminate all of the confusion on what to eat by detailing exactly what foods help to promote fat loss:

1. Choose the right carbohydrates like whole grain pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, potatoes, peas, corn (and yes, these are vegetables but in the category of starchy carbohydrates). Forget processed carbohydrates that come from candy, cakes, processed breads, cereals and breading as these will get you fat.



2. Choosing the right proteins like chicken (knowing that the chicken breast is much less fatty than other parts such as the thigh or the wings), white fish and salmon (yes, salmon is a fatty fish but the fats are GOOD fats loaded with Omega 3s), 90% lean steaks, egg whites (with 1-2 egg yolks as these also contain good fats), and turkey. Avoid pork (because it is high in saturated fats) and reconstituted meats such as chicken nuggets, Cordon Bleu, deli meats and fast foods that contain lots of fat.



3. Don't forget to eat your vegetables. The best vegetables you can eat are: green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, spinach, asparagus, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, garlic, and onions. You can have a desert, but it has to be a healthy one.



4. Concentrate on low calorie desserts like Sugar Free Jello and you can also have a piece of fruit with it. Samples of good fruits are: apple, kiwi, peach, strawberry, pear, pineapple, watermelon. All these fruits are good for health but like all fruits, they contain fructose. Thus, for the best fat loss, do not eat more than 2 of these fruits per day when on a fat loss diet. Note: Take a look at Hugo's article on Why Fruits Need to be Limited During a Fat Loss Diet?



5. For good fats, concentrate on getting them from the following sources: extra virgin olive oil, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts. Eliminate butter, cheese and other sauces that come already prepared as they usually contain added sugars and the wrong kind of fats!

Putting It All Together and Creating Your Balanced Diet

With all these food choices, it is now easy to compose a balanced meal without bad fats. What is a balanced bodybuilding diet you may ask? One that consists of 5-6 small meals a day consisting of 40% carbs, 40% proteins and 20% fats as laid out in Hugo's Characteristics of a Good Nutrition Program.

A normal man needs 2000 to 2500 calories a day. Thus, at 40% Carbs/40% Proteins/20% Fats he will need around 200-250 grams of carbs, 200-250 grams of protein and 45-55 grams of good fats per day divided over 5-6 meals. (Note: 1 gram of carbs = 4 calories, 1 gram of protein = 4 calories and 1 gram of fat = 9 calories).

A normal woman with average activity who is weight training and looking for fat loss needs 1200 to 1500 calories per day. That comes out to 120-150 grams of carbs, 120-150 grams of protein and 26-33 grams of good fats per day divided over 5-6 meals.

Conclusion

There you have it! Now you have a very good base to design your diet and get started on your way to fat loss. The power is within you!

About the Author

Cecile Bayeul was born in France in 1982 in a firefighter family. She wanted to become a firefighter and passed the tough professional firefighter tests which included various physically demanding feats. However, she decided to keep a more peaceful job (as her family wanted her to) so she became a nurse.

As a registered nurse she ended up studying various diet protocols for patients with special nutritional requirements due to their sicknesses.

In order to relieve stress from her job and to heal from an anorexia caused by a difficult divorce she picked up natural bodybuilding. Through bodybuilding she learned to regain her confidence and to be happy with her body.

Her passion for fitness led her to start conducting personal training not only for women but for men as well. She teaches that by embarking into a fitness program you can achieve any body that you want; something that builds up faith in oneself and develops the valuable skill of goal setting; things that at the end of the day improve every single aspect of your life!

When people think of bodybuilding, the first thing that comes to mind is big arms. How many bodybuilders, me included, just started by doing some biceps curls? After all, one of the most common requests bodybuilders get is to flex their arms. And while a great physique is much more than big arms, nobody can argue that all great physiques have equally great arms!

Since I have gotten a lot of requests lately to publish a new arm routine to get the arms ready for summer, I decided to publish one of the latest bodybuilding routines that I have been using to train my arms.

In order to use this routine you will need to incorporate it into a split routine that works both biceps and triceps on the same day. This routine is for intermediate to advanced trainees. If you are an absolute beginner, please refer to the bodybuilding routine presented on my getting started in bodybuilding guide.

Gain Up To An Inch In Your Arms With This Bodybuilding Arms Workout

Without much further ado, here is your bodybuilding workout for great arms over the summer. You will be using trisets and supersets. A triset is composed of three exercises that get performed one after the other with no rest in between. Only after you perform the last exercise on the triset you can rest for the recommended amount of time and start over.

A superset is the same as a triset, except that it is composed of only two exercises.

For more advanced techniques like these ones, please take a look at my article on Advanced Bodybuilding Training Techniques To Break Plateaus.

As you will see, I am offering you three workouts below. I want you to rotate these workouts. So one day you will do Workout (A), another day Workout (B) and another day Workout (C).

Workout (A)

Triset:
Triceps Pushdowns 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
Concentration Curls 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
Overhead Triceps Extensions 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
(Rest 1 minute between trisets)

Triset:
Incline Dumbbell Curls 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps
Hammer Curls 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
(Rest 1 minute between trisets)

Superset:
Wrist Curls 2 sets of 25-50 reps
Reverse Wrist Curls 2 sets of 25-50 reps
(Rest 30 seconds between superset)

Workout (B)

Triset:
Triceps Kickbacks 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps
Barbell Curls 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
Triceps Pushdowns with Straight Bar 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
(Rest 1 minute between trisets)

Triset:
Concentration Curls 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
Triceps Dips on Bench 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps reps
Reverse Barbell Curls 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
(Rest 1 minute between trisets)

Superset:
Reverse Wrist Curls 2 sets of 25-50 reps
One Arm Dumbbell Wrist Curls 2 sets of 25-50 reps
(Rest 30 seconds between superset)

Workout (C)

Superset:
Preacher Curls 10 sets of 10 reps
Parallel Bar Dips 10 sets of 10 reps
(Rest 1 minute between supersets)

Triset:
Cable Curls 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Rope Triceps Pushdowns 3 sets of 15-20 reps reps
Barbell Wrist Curls 3 sets of 25-50 reps
(Rest 1 minute between trisets)

Bonus Abdominals' Routine

As a bonus, here is a nice abs routine that you can do before the arms workout:

Triset:
Leg Raises 3 sets to failure
Bicycle Crunches 3 sets to failure
Crunches 3 sets to failure


This abdominals' routine took me less than 15 minutes to perform and it proved to be not only a great abdominal workout but also an awesome way to warm-up the body and get it ready for some arm work.

Conclusion

Try out the arms routine above and let me know how it worked out for you. You'll probably have as much fun as I did and will get a great pump as well. The whole thing, counting abs, should take you around 50 minutes, give or take 10.

It is indeed a mandatory requirement for sports-persons to keep a check on what they eat as what they eat ultimately reflects in their performance. A healthy blend of all the required nutrients helps them gain endurance and energy to sustain in their game for long. Though different kinds of sports-persons have different kinds of requirements in accordance with the sports they are involved into, there is a basic criterion of healthy eating that suits them all. As a sportsperson, one must avoid junk and aerated food and try to savor as much healthy and fresh food as possible. The diet of an active sportsperson should revolve around energy derivation and prevention of injuries caused due to nutritional deficiencies. Rich carbohydrates, moderate proteins, vegetables, iron and balanced blend of minerals with other vital elements is necessary for a healthy sports diet. Eating only one type of food can also lead to serious nutritional deficiencies in their body.

Healthy Sports Nutrition Diet

Carbohydrates

• For snacking purpose, you can opt for pasta, macaroni, spaghetti, noodles and ravioli. You can either have them plain or slather some sauce; it is entirely your call.
• If you are a rice eater, you can consume rice but it is preferable to eat it along with a low fat sauce which is not too spicy. To try out something different, you can opt for soy sauce flavoring.
• Indian cooking generally makes extensive usage of potatoes. You can eat boiled, mashed and baked potatoes but avoid grabbing French fries. Limit your intake of butter, gravy and sour cream.
• From the list of starchy vegetables, peas, carrots and sweet potatoes are your best bet.
• Some people are under the misconception that breads do not form part of sports nutrition food. But, there is nothing like that and you can consume breads, rolls, muffins, bagels etc. Prefer going in for nutritious low fat bread products like multi-grain or whole-wheat bread.
• As far as cereal intake is concerned, avoid consuming cereals which have very high sugar content.
• It is not advisable to consume high fat milk products, especially before your sports performance.
• What you should ideally look out for is a diet that leads to the process called 'carbo-overloading' right before the event or the game. This will ensure the build and maintenance of muscle mass in the body. Foods such as oatmeal, bread, potatoes, maize grit, fruit juice, sweet corn, bananas and special foods with extra carbohydrate content in them are ideal if carb-overload is what you are looking for.
• A high carbohydrate intake is especially beneficial for those who are about to participate in a high-intensity exercise or any sport that extends for more than 90 minutes. Marathons, cricket and football are high-intensity activities and require large amounts of carbohydrate storage for the particular day to maintain and replenish the lost glycogen at the end of the day.

Proteins

• Proteins are another essential component that cannot be missed. They are officially known as the 'building blocks of the body' and should essentially be consumed by athletes to build or repair muscle that has been affected or broken down during sport or exercise. Apart from their basic function, proteins, in form of amino acids, aid growth and strength that are vital to the performance of an athlete.
• Sportsmen need nearly twice the amount of protein intake than the average adult. Protein rich foods come in the form of eggs, meats such as turkey, fish and chicken, tofu, cheese, peanut butter and lentils.

Iron, Vitamins & Minerals

• Being a sportsperson does not give the flexibility to have only a rich supply of carbohydrates and proteins. The trick is to have a balanced diet on all occasions to ensure the proper functioning of the body. Therefore, it necessary to get all the greens stocked on the plate before that big game or workout!
• Vegetables and fruits are high in vitamins and minerals. These are the basic roots of a balanced diet and the ACE studies confirm that a high intake of vegetables and fruits could fuel sufficient iron, calcium, carbohydrate and protein into the system.
• The best thing about vegetables and fruits is that large quantities or consumption does not hinder or affect health rather helps to work towards building a better lifestyle.
• All vegetables, especially the green ones such as spinach, lettuce, leeks, broccoli, asparagus, peas, cabbage and beans, are high in minerals, calcium, iron and vitamins. These do not only ensure proper circulation of oxygen all through the body but also ensure the production of new blood cells, keeping the system healthy overall.

Water

• Finally, it is imperative to understand that water is the source of all health and life in any living being. Large quantities of water go a long way in maintaining an athlete's or sportsman's health. Water ensures that the toxins are flushed out of the system and also replenishes oxygen supply around the body, providing the necessary minerals required to balance the diet.
• An athlete should drink plenty of water, twice the normal amount advised for the average human being, and should make sure he or she has a lot of water one hour prior to the sport or exercise. Too much water right before the start of the sport or exercise, can lead to the formation of cramps in the abdomen or in the gastric pit.
• Water also replenishes the potassium lost from the body while sweating heavily. Therefore, a full bottle of water should be consumed an hour before the high-endurance sport/work out.

Eating only one type of food can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies in an athlete's body. So, always make sure that, except for pregame meal, the diet consumed by a sportsperson is enriched and balanced with vitamins, minerals, proteins and fats to ensure best health and better performance on field.