Setting Goals When Dieting

 

As with most things in life, setting goals is very important when dieting. When you look at things truthfully and objectively you should notice that most of the things you’ve accomplished in life have been accomplished because you not only had a goal but also had a clearly planned and well thought out process for achieving that goal. That being said, why is goal setting so important when it comes to dieting?

First of all, it is difficult to achieve a goal if you do not have a clearly defined goal. There are times in life when it is almost impossible to tell whether you are succeeding or failing because you aren’t certain exactly what the desired outcome should be. Identifying your dieting goals before you begin eliminates this particular possibility.

Second, having dieting goals gives you a measuring stick by which you can judge your process. This is important so that you know when your efforts are failing behind and when you’re moving along schedule or ahead of schedule. In other words, you will know when to celebrate and when to give yourself a swift kick to the rear.

Now that we know why we set weight loss goals, let’s discuss how we should go about setting those goals that are so important for dieting success. You want to set goals that are aggressive without being impossible to achieve. If you set goals that are beyond your reach you will find that frustration will be your dieting partner until you reach the point where you give up all together. In order to avoid this you should take great care to insure that your goals are possible for you to achieve.

When it comes to weight loss be specific when setting your goals. Rather than setting a total goal of 40 or 60 pounds start with a specific goal such as 10 pounds in one month. Then you can extend the goal to the next month until you’ve reached the overall goal of 40 or 60 pounds. It is much easier to lose 10 pounds four times than it is to lose 40 pounds at once. It’s a trick of the mind but it works. Ten pounds sounds simple and achievable. Forty pounds sounds like an insurmountable obstacle.

Another thing about goals is that you want to hold yourself accountable but you shouldn’t call the whole thing off if you only lose 9 pounds instead of 10. Instead, find out where you dropped the ball for the final pound and set your 10-pound goal for the next month.

You should also take great care that you are working with your personal goals and not the goals that someone else is pushing on you. The truth is that if it’s personal to you, it will be much more rewarding than if you are doing this for someone else. If your heart isn’t in it, there are very few goals that are going to motivate you properly.

Finally, you should establish small (non-food) rewards for accomplishing your dieting goals. Perhaps your reward will be a new accessory for your new (or new old) wardrobe or a pedicure for your new look. Make your reward something fun and frivolous and teach yourself that accomplishing your goals can be accomplished by something other than food. This is a key to dieting successfully.

How To Build Muscle And Lose Fat While Traveling

 

As a bodybuilder travelling is one of the most testing times, as travelling and bodybuilding don’t go hand in hand. As the majority of people have to travel at some point, whether it’s for business or pleasure, even if you are in the minority of professional bodybuilders you’ll still have to travel between competitions. Travelling can create some serious problems for bodybuilders as it can very difficult to travel and maintain your discipline and training while travelling. While it’s difficult to continue training and sticking to your diet, with a bit of discipline you can keep pumped and lean all year round even if you are a regular traveller.

Go to the gym before…

Whenever you are about to travel, get down the gym the day before or on in the morning before you leave. Ideally try and stay somewhere with a weight room, however more than likely if there is a weight room the opening hours will be varied and the equipment limited. If there isn’t a weight room or the equipment is lacking there is no reason why you can not do plenty of cardio training, such as running. If you do a heavy weight session before you leave your body will have some time to recover while you travel, ideally try and schedule your travel so that they coincide with your normal rest days.

Pack your protein shakes and healthy snacks

One of the biggest challenges which bodybuilders have during travel is having the right nutrition and eating the right foods. Always aim to eat healthy and if you can stick to the foods you eat normally, don’t let yourself be tempted into eating junk foods it’s not worth it. If you are faced with a long flight make sure that you pack healthy snacks and protein shakes so that you your nutritional needs are met, as airplane food is not designed for bodybuilders, make up a packed meal if necessary. Remember always to take a bottle or two of water when you fly as it’s easy to be come dehydrated on flights and paying for drinks can quickly become expensive.

Think strategically

Once you arrive in your destination, think strategically. Speak to your reception and find out where the nearest supermarket or grocery store is and buy in some good, nutritious healthy food, and then find out about your hotel’s gym facilities or local what gyms there are locally if your hotel doesn’t have one.



If you eat out don’t over indulge, as you bodybuilder you should know what foods are good for you and which are bad, try to stick to your diet plan and if you do over indulge, put in some extra cardio work to burn it off. In conclusion if plan ahead, be disciplined and do everything you can to ensure that you stick to your training and diet plan, there is no reason why you cannot travel and maintain the body of your dreams.

How Many Calories To Eat A Day

    One of the main reasons why so many people have become overweight in the West is due to their eating too many calories. The consumption of more calories than are burned each day means that the body stores the extra calories as fat. The modern diet certainly allows a person to eat well beyond the calories they need to maintain their weight.

    It is very informative to compare our consumption of calories with that of 100 years ago. In those days, the average person consumed 3,500 calories a day, which is approximately the same as we eat now. However, whereas in the early 1900’s, most of the calories consumed were carbohydrates, and there was considerably less fat, modern fast food meals consist of almost 50% fat, and fat is a big part of the modern diet. In addition, the 1900’s folk did a lot of exercise. They were more active in their work, and their hobbies also made them exercise more. In contrast, modern work environments encourage sedentary habits, and their hobbies tend to revolve around computers and television. As a consequence, while the 1900’s people’s calories were burned as fuel that day, most of our calorie consumption ends up being stored as fat. Even exercise can only go so far if calorie consumption remains at previous levels, without the general level of activity.

   As our working habits have changed, so have our calorie requirements. The average person now needs around 2000-2500 calories a day to keep them at their present weight. The best way to work out exactly how much you should be eating to maintain your present waistline is by using a bmr, which is the basal metabolic rate – the amount of calories you burn every day, even if you sleep for 24 hours. People who weigh more actually have a larger BMR than those who look slimmer, and a reduction in their calorie intake, even if the calories still total more than that eaten by a thinner person, will help them lose weight. This is the method used in most dietician’s and doctors clinics.

   The important factor to remember when considering how many calories you need to eat each day is that is does not matter so much what you eat, quite so much as how much you eat. Of course, anyone who eats a diet solely of fat will not get slim, no matter what some diet books tell you. However, neither is one cupcake going to sink your entire weight-loss plan. Sensible dieting – that is, a diet in which all of the food groups are eaten in appropriate quantities – lasts much longer than starvation diets and fad diets. Going on to a very low-calorie diet for long periods of time will cause your metabolism to slow down – the opposite of what you want. If you find that you reach a weight, and cannot loose any more, then you will need to amend your diet.

   On a diet, you will find that your BMR will fall, so that a calorie intake that once helped you to lose weight is now keeping you from losing any more. Rather than just do more exercise (which has a limit on how much more you can do), you need to alter again the amount of calories you are consuming. A diet with limited calories will work for a short period, but the body will adjust to the new diet, and stop losing weight. A sensible diet, worked out using BMR index, and a gradual reduction in food intake, is the best way of managing weight loss.

Easy Weight Loss With Healthier Meals

    Meals at home and with family do not have to be fat-laden affairs. Nor do they have to be boring, tasteless times of celery mashing around the table. A few subtle adjustments in your food choices will make a big difference on the scales.

Think Lean Meat

Don’t give up meat, just make smarter choices in buying it. Meat is much leaner today than it has been due to trimming efforts on the part of meatpackers. Beef labeled as “loin”, “round” and “extra lean” are your best choices.

According to The Wisconsin Beef Council, cuts like top round, tenderloin or sirloin qualify as lean, healthy selections.

Roasting, baking, grilling, braising and broiling are healthy meat-cooking methods. Use non-stick pans and choose cooking sprays over oil or butter during preparation. Another way to reduce fat is to strain cooked ground beef and rinse it with hot water. Drain it well before you continue the recipe.

Lean Chicken Choices

When we think lean we often look to chicken. Be smart. Many of us turn a potentially diet-friendly staple into something considerably less than healthy. Say no to fried patties,

chicken fingers, nuggets and franks. Switch to broiling, roasting, baking or steaming fresh chicken. Use a non-stick pan with cooking spray, broth or wine.

Keep in mind that poultry dark meat contains about twice as much fat as white meat. Also, the skin is full of fat. You can remove the skin before cooking or choose skinless varieties. Simply make a rule or take off the skin before you eat it.

Lean Turkey Is A Smart Choice

If you’re preparing a turkey, why not cook the stuffing separately? You will reduce its fat content by preventing the turkey fat from soaking into the dressing. Try to use less butter or margarine when preparing the stuffing. Don’t forget to skim the fat off of the gravy with a gravy separator or by

refrigerating it. Leave the drumsticks for the kids. As with chicken, choose light meat over dark and you’ll save quite a few calories.

Guide Helps You Choose Low Carb Foods

      Want to learn how to avoid products full of added sugar and other nutrient-deficient refined carbohydrates (as well as harmful trans fats) while grocery shopping?

Countless people worldwide are following the Atkins Nutritional Approach. Now, a new book called “The Atkins Shopping Guide” (Avon Books/ an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) arms you with the skills you need to navigate your grocery store so you can stock your low-carb kitchen.

The guide contains everything you must know to choose the right foods to do Atkins correctly. It also provides useful pointers for shopping at “super stores” and natural food retailers, all in a handy format perfect to carry in your pocket or purse.

Forget measuring, weighing and counting fat grams and calories. This book takes you aisle-by-aisle through the grocery store, helping you select the right foods to correctly follow a controlled-carb lifestyle, including vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry and meat, cheese, and other dairy products. There are also extensive sections on packaged foods.

The No. 1 New York Times bestseller, “Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution,” forever changed the way Americans eat by offering a healthy, nutritious approach to weight loss and weight maintenance, while revealing that the typical American diet, which is high in carbohydrates, has contributed to the nation’s obesity epidemic.

Whether you’re just beginning to do Atkins or have used it for years to maintain your weight, “The Atkins Shopping Guide” will show you how to read food labels and compare different products in a product category such as tomato sauce or peanut butter.

Weight Training

For those that would like a more vigorous workout plan, weight training is a viable option that can combine building muscle tone and working the cardiovascular system. Weight training tones your muscles and raises your metabolism, which helps your body burn more calories not only when exercising, but also while you sleep. Weight training reverses the natural decline in your metabolism, which begins around age 30; therefore this is something to think about for all those who have reached that age. Working with weights can produce a great deal of energy, and a full workout works almost all of the 650 muscles in your body. Looking toward long-term benefits, weight training strengthens bones, which can reduce your risk of developing osteoporosis. This of course is of very big concern amongst women, since osteoporosis afflicts women much more than men. 

Many women worry that weight training will make them muscular and bulky like a mans; yet you must keep in mind that men and women have different muscular structures, therefore weight training will not develop big muscles on women, just toned muscles. Not only is weight training a routine that makes you strong, it is a routine that trains the body to build muscle instead of fat, takes stress off key areas of the body such as the lower back, making you less prone to injury in that area. Since high blood pressure or hypertension is a big concern with those who are obese, it is welcome news that weight training decreases your resting blood pressure. Weight training has also been proven to increase your blood level of HDL cholesterol, which is commonly referred to as good cholesterol. Overall health is definitely improved through weight training.

It is best to start with a plan, which may be joining a gym where you can regularly go to get a full workout, or purchasing a home workout system that uses resistance instead of weights but produces similar results. You must assess what type of person you are, and make the appropriate decision from there. If you like the idea of going out somewhere daily for your workout, welcoming the change of scenery and benefiting from the comradery of others who are also training, then you may want to opt for a gym membership. However, if you know you are the type that enjoys working alone and will not work out unless its in the convenience of your home where you do not have to get dressed and go out, then the home gym system option is for you. Only you can make this assessment of yourself. Some popular home gym systems include CrossBarTM and BowFlexTM. Many quality home workout systems exist, but of course none work when not used, so be sure that you remain focused and dedicated to your plan.

Whatever exercise plan you choose, it is best to exercise first thing in the morning, every morning. Our bodies were made to be active daily, and when exercise is performed in the morning, people are more successful at exercising consistently. Make your exercise as enjoyable as possible. Consider utilizing music, a book on tape, or watching television during your workout, depending on the type and location of your workout. If you’re a walker for example, you may want to get a good CD player to listen to music or books on tape. If you’re exercising inside, you may want to setup a television set or a stereo so that you can watch or listen while exercising. Whatever you do, make your exercise experience one you look forward to each day.

 

Why Detox

 

For most of my life I considered myself fairly healthy. I was not overweight, very slim infact. I usually ate two to three meals per day, not a lot of junky type foods, so I thought. I was about to learn the hard way that my life style and eating habits were not healthy at all.

My diet was like most of North Americas diet, a lot of processed food, soda, drinks, not real juice but man made sugary drinks, fast food and lots of fat! I also smoked 2 packs a day of menthol cigarettes. I also became less active as time went on.

I considered my lifestyle and eating habits perfectly normal. This is how I observed most people living their life. What I did not realize was all the dyes, preservatives and hydrogenated oils I was consuming, not to mention exhaust fumes, solvents, chemicals pesticides and heavy metals in our environment.

We spray our homes with chemicals to kill off nasty little critters. We walk outside on the grass that has just been sprayed with more chemicals. We put chlorine in our pools and we can’t go outside at any time without being exposed to the exhaust fumes from cars, planes etc.

Some of our food supply is deficient in nutrients. We do not eat the way our grandparents and great grandparents ate. Their food was richer in nutrients. We, over a long period of time have depleted our soil and the constant deluge of chemicals used to obtain a larger yield of crops is what gets in our system.

What does this all mean? We live in a highly toxic environment!

There are various types of detox methods that help your body rid itself of its toxic overload.

Colon cleansing is one of them! The majority of people have some difficulty with their colon, constipation being a one of the big ones. Colon cleansing can be done naturally with eating foods high in fiber or taking fiber supplements. A diet that includes vegetables and fruits such as raspberries or blueberries are a great source of fiber. In fact, 1 cup of these fruits has as much fiber as eating 10 bran muffins. Imagine the carb count of 10 bran muffins! It is also a must that you consume a lot of water. This helps hydrate and nourish your body and flush toxins and fecal matter out of your system.

Diet is so important! Where possible eat organic. We have enough chemicals and pesticides and processed foods to deal with. Just use your common sense and eat real all natural foods just as Mother Nature intended. Instead of that candy bar for quick energy, eat a piece of fruit instead.



Fasting is still a valid therapy for detoxing. When you eat, the body spends many hours processing the food through digestion, nourishing the cells and elimination. When you stop eating and drink a lot of fluids, the body can then concentrate on eliminating toxins and healing the body. Fasting can be 1 to 3 days or as much as 10 days if done properly and under the care of a licensed practitioner. Also a visit to a licensed nutritionist can help you with vitamin and herbal supplement selection that suit your particular needs.

You can also get spa detox footbaths or detox foot patches. These are awesome because they draw toxins out through your feet. I personally know what these detox baths can do. You would be amazed as to how mucked up the water looks after 30 minutes. The color the water turns is directly related to where you are detoxing from such as the gallbladder, liver, lymphatic system etc.

Our current environment calls for taking action in caring for our bodies. Detoxing is a great way to alleviate toxic build up. You’ll feel great and have energy to spare.

Detox for vitality is the name of the game. I hope this helps.