10 Habits of Women Who Keep a Lean Body

10 Habits of Women Who Keep a Lean Body:
Shape your lean body and keep it that way with consistent daily habits. The main flaw with quick weight loss programs is that you can’t continue those programs for very long. So, you will likely gain the weight back.

Here are 10 habits that lean-bodied women keep on most days:
1. A positive attitude. Everything goes better for you when you are optimistic each day. A positive attitude does wonders for your health. Make your best days even better and make your bad days better by adjusting your attitude.
2. Get a healthy, managed meal plan and comply with it at least 90% of the time. If you are trying to burn fat and lose weight, nutrition is critical. Eat mainly whole, natural foods that have one ingredient–the food itself. For example, fruits and vegetables have one ingredient.
I don’t ever encourage any diet that significantly omits one of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins). Your body’s metabolism needs all 3 macronutrients to operate properly. So, diets that are very low in carbohydrates or fats will not help your body in the long-term.
Also, what you eat plays an important role in brain function.
3. Unless your daily nutrition is perfect, you need to take dietary supplements. Multivitamins, fish oil and vitamin D3 are examples of common supplements that people take. Consult with your doctor before taking dietary supplements.
For sure, you don’t need fat burner supplements and weight loss pills. They don’t work long-term. Spend your hard-earned money to buy whole, natural foods for your meal plan.
4. Drink plenty of water. This will help you limit sugary drinks that pack on belly fat. Your body is about two-thirds water. Drink water and unsweetened drinks (like tea) most of the time. It will help you eat less and help your body function better.
Drink about half your weight in water every day. So, if you weigh 140 pounds, drink 70 ounces of water each day.
Remember, certain foods contain large amounts of water. This counts toward your water intake. For instance watermelon is about 90% water and lettuce has about 95% water. Some meats contain as much as 70% water.
Water also helps your body flex muscles, remove wastes, cushion joints, carry nutrients and oxygen to your cells and helps convert food into energy (although water doesn’t provide energy).
You may be experiencing dehydration if you have dry lips/mouth, dizziness, headache, nausea or muscle cramps. When you exercise, drink about a cup of water every 15 minutes.
5. Regular exercise is critical. Physical exercise helps you burn fat, manage body weight, regulate stress and is necessary for maintaining good blood circulation to the body and brain. It also can significantly reduce the risk diseases such as heart attack, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
I recommend weight training 3 days a week and short, interval cardio sessions 2-3 days a week.
6. Staying active as much as possible is very under-rated. It helps relieve stress, improves bloodflow and improves breathing. Sedentary lifestyles are a huge problem in society. We’ve gone from being physically active laborers (such as farmers) to sit-down jobs. So, if you have a “sit-down” job, I would recommend that you move more. When you sit, your fat-burning enzymes basically shut down.
Try to stand as much as you can during the day and take walking breaks to activate your fat-burning enzymes. Any activity is good to go along with your regular workouts. All movement burns calories.
7. Learn something every day to help you live a balanced life. I love fitness. But, there are experts in health, business, medicine, and other life disciplines who help me in other parts of my life. Read books, go to a seminar, listen in on webinars/teleconferences, follow experts on Twitter and Facebook, etc. There is really no excuse for not helping yourself improve.
8. Limit prolonged stress in your life. A certain amount of stress is good for us to live efficiently. Too much stress…well, you know the answer. In a Mayo Clinic article, “Stress Basics,” it states:
“When your brain perceives a threat, it signals your body to release a burst of hormones to fuel your capacity for a response. This has been labeled the “fight-or-flight” response.
Once the threat is gone, your body is meant to return to a normal relaxed state. Unfortunately, the nonstop stress of modern life means that your alarm system rarely shuts off. Without stress management, all too often your body is always on high alert. Over time, high levels of stress lead to serious health problems.”
My recommendations for helping control stress:
–regular exercise

–laugh often and don’t take yourself too seriously

–learn to relax by using tools such as music, deep breathing, walking, massage, meditation, etc.

–have a grateful attitude

–focus on positives and not negatives

–disassociate yourself from negative energy vampires in your life
9. Get enough sleep–every night if possible. Lack of sleep affects memory, concentration and health. Your metabolism won’t work properly if you don’t sleep enough. Your workouts will also suffer. In a Medical News Today article, “Getting A Good Night’s Sleep,” the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM), reports that sleep problems add up to a global epidemic that affects 45% of the world’s population.
“Insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), restless legs syndrome (RLS), and sleep deprivation significantly impact physical, mental and emotional health, in addition to affecting work performance and personal relationships,” WASM said.
10. Get professional advice if needed. When’s the last time you had a full physical exam? If you can’t remember, its been too long. Are your fat loss and weight loss efforts failing again and again? You may need a personal trainer to help you visualize success and individualize your fat loss and nutrition program.
Its hard to change your body all by your yourself. Research proves that you have a better chance to succeed if you have social support. That could be a trainer, spouse or friend.
Are you depressed? Although regular exercise will help you feel better, that won’t be enough to deal with serious depression. Get professional help.

Are You a Habitual Starvation Dieter?

Are You a Habitual Starvation Dieter?:

hope you’re not a long-time user of starvation diets just to lose weight. If you are, you might find yourself struggling with some of these habits listed below. You end up having what you’re trying to avoid–weight gain.
If you’ve never tried a starvation diet, you’re not missing anything except misery. Food is meant to nourish and energize your body and it should be enjoyed in the right portions.

Here are 10 common habits of those who just want quick weight loss using various starvation diets or methods:

1. You never make a commitment to a lifetime of fitness and health. You are too concerned with pounds on the weigh scale. Those who have succeeded at transforming their bodies from fat to lean have health and fitness practices that they do on most days. It becomes a sustainable lifestyle.

2. Starvation diets rule again and again. The less food you eat, the more weight you’ll lose, right? Sorry, but it just doesn’t work this way in the long-run. If your idea of the perfect diet plan for weight loss is popping crackers and diuretics, you’re headed for disaster.
Starvation slows the fat-burning process. Your body relies on the nutrients in whole, natural foods for fuel. When you starve yourself, it senses the downward shift in your caloric intake and kicks into starvation mode. When this happens, your metabolism will slow down and your body will hold on to stored fat in order to conserve energy.
Muscle mass needs more energy to function than fat. Basically, the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn. If you continue to starve yourself, your body will feed on your muscle tissue and make it even harder for you to lose weight.
Obviously, if you starve yourself long enough, you’ll have no choice but to lose weight. But the weight loss won’t be healthy, and it will show in your appearance. You’ll become emaciated and your body will start to look like an old bag of bones.
The weight lost from starvation diets almost always comes back. Starvation slows your metabolism down. And it can take months for it to return to normal. As soon as you start eating again, you’ll likely gain all of the weight you lost back, and more. In the end, you’ll wind up bigger than you were before you started starving.

3. Chronic starvation dieters end up with damaged health. If you are eating 900 calories a day, that is not enough food to even support your basal metabolic rate.
When you go without food, you don’t get any of the essential nutrients needed for good health. This can result in fatigue, kidney failure, heart failure, gallstones, ulcers, hair loss, muscle weakness and osteoporosis. This is just a short list of the physical problems a starvation diet can cause. We haven’t even touched on the mental stuff.
It’s not uncommon for extremely calorie-restrictive dieters to struggle with depression, anger, indifference, memory loss, poor concentration, hallucinations and mood swings. Starvation can also increase your chances of suffering with eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia.
In essence, your health will be a mess if you try to lose weight by starving. The worst part about it is that some of the health issues that arise from starvation diets can cause irreversible damage to your body and require long-term hospitalization or lifelong medical care.
If you plan to turn starvation dieting into a lifestyle, you’ll end up in a body bag way before your time. No amount of skinny is worth your life. Don’t let the desperation to lose weight push you to go on a starvation diet.

4. You experience weight loss and weight regain many times.
According to a Medicinenet.com article, “Weight Cycling…Facts About “Yo-Yo” Dieting,”
“Weight cycling is the repeated loss and regain of body weight. When weight cycling is the result of dieting, it is often called “yo-yo” dieting. A weight cycle can range from small weight losses and gains (5-10 lbs. per cycle) to large changes in weight (50 lbs. or more per cycle).”
“Some research links weight cycling with certain health risks. To avoid potential risks, most experts recommend that obese adults adopt healthy eating and regular physical activity habits to achieve and maintain a healthier weight for life. Non-obese adults should try to maintain their weight through healthy eating and regular physical activity.”
“Some studies suggest that weight cycling may increase the risk for certain health problems. These include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and gallbladder disease.”

5. Starvation dieters are not concerned with burning body fat. You MUST change your body’s composition. You must increase muscle mass to become a “fat-burning machine.” This keeps the weight off your body for good. You don’t need to be a body builder but you need to replace the fat (to an acceptable body fat percentage) on your body with muscle mass. This will give you the lean, healthy body you need.
You must do more than cardio exercise to change your body’s composition. “Cardio only” will not lean out your body. Too much cardio will waste away your muscle mass.
Make a commitment to full-body strength training. Among other things, it builds muscle mass, speeds up your metabolism (the body has to work harder to maintain muscle) and helps improve your bone density. And, you’ll look great.

6. There are many lies about fat loss and weight loss out there—and many people believe them. Why? Businesses are trying to make money off of you and they’ll lie, tell half-truths or present unproven facts to get it. You have to make a choice to believe or not believe those lies.
Fad dieters are always looking for the next pill, diet or fat blocker to change their bodies. The dream never comes true. Doctors, dieticians, and fitness experts agree that the best way to burn fat and lose weight is to eat higher quality calories, exercise regularly and increase your daily activity. Don’t look for shortcuts.

7. Starvation dieters lose water weight. Burn body fat and lose weight.
If you lose 20 pounds in 10 days using severe calorie restriction with no exercise (you probably won’t have the energy to exercise), just about all of that weight loss will be due to lost muscle mass and water weight.
The problem is further compounded if you gained weight without exercise. The composition of this weight gain is mainly fat and water retention. I have seen individuals with up to 70% body fat.
One big cause of water retention is too much salt consumption (sodium). If you eat many processed foods and not many whole, natural foods, your sodium consumption is too high—and you will take on more water weight.
So, you find yourself regaining this weight quickly when you begin to eat the carbohydrates, proteins and fats that your body needs. Why? Because you will also replenish water stores in your body’s cells.

8. Veteran starvation dieters are frequent users. The typical dieter tries a new plan four times a year. “We have this mentality that a diet is something to go on and then get off as quickly as possible,” says FITNESS advisory board member Madelyn Fernstrom, PhD, founding director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Weight Management Center. “But lasting weight loss requires making lifestyle changes that will work long-term.”

9. Quick weight loss veterans deal with slowed metabolism, a weaker immune system, hormonal imbalances, loss of lean mass, increased body fat, decreased energy levels and disrupted sleep patterns. Is that worth it? 

10. Your confidence takes a hit with each weight loss and weight regain episode. “The more times you go through the gain-lose-gain cycle, the less convinced you become that you can break free from the constant ups and downs,” says Keri Gans, RD, a dietitian in private practice in New York City. “No one wants to diet forever; it’s hard work.”
Stop starving yourself, start eating right and start building your body the right way. Its worth the effort.

7 Reasons to Change Your Body to Lean and Toned

7 Reasons to Change Your Body to Lean and Toned:
What do you want to achieve for yourself in health and fitness for the rest of 2012 and beyond? You need to sharpen your focus and you will accomplish more.

Research has proven that you will reach more major goals if you focus on one goal at a time.
A good overall fitness goal would be for you to change your body’s composition to lean and toned. Why?
Here are 7 good reasons to “lean out” your body: