Posts Tagged ‘Diet’

When you think of your ideal body you are not simply dreaming of big muscles, you are thinking about cut defined lines and a six pack. Most guys want the lean and muscular body of a fighter or gymnast. Yet how to get ripped muscles is a mystery for most guys.

How to get ripped muscles is to combine lots of muscle on your frame with a very low body fat percentage . I know you may be thinking, these are seemingly two goals that are very far apart from each other. When we are out to gain size we eat tons of food, minimize activities like cardio and lift serous weight.

Then we switch our focus to a “cutting phase” when we are training to keep as much muscle as possible not build muscle while we change our diet and do tons of cardio to drop our body fat %.

  Usually these two phases, growth and cutting are typically kept devided and spaced out over several months. The bulking phase consists of lifting and eating a ton and little or no cardio work. Inevitably they will pack on a few pounds of fat with their muscle gains because of their high calorie diets that are necessary to gain muscle in combination with a minimum of activity outside of lifting. Needless to say, this is not how to get ripped muscles!

In the cutting phases workouts become higher paced with reduced rest periods, super setting opposing muscle groups and include cardio after lifting and even on days between lifting.

I’m betting you would rather build muscle and get cut at the same time rather than takingtons of time to do them seperatly.  If you’re like 99% of the guys out there you don’t want to look like a body builder you want the ripped lean muscle of a mma fighter, Olympic sprinter or a gymnast. Those athletes and models who achieve these kinds of results don’t use the long slow method to get the bodies they need or want. Hell NO! On top of that you sure don’t want to walk around for 6 months looking fat and taking another several months to get the ripped look you want. On top of all this, usingthe traditional approach you will likley lose some of your hard earned size and strength.

I’m about to show you how to get ripped muscles the way real men do it! When building strength I suggest using techniques like shortened rest times, super sets, or linear circuits in your regular workouts. This will not only allow you to get more done in your workouts in less time but burn fat and build stamina. Not to mention building a level of athletecism that traditional strenght training will not give you. Do this and ensure your gains are lean mass only and you stay lean and meanthrougout your training cycle.

As for “cardio” leave that stuff to your girlfriend and the nancy boys. If you want to know how to get ripped muscles like a man incorporate conditioning drills through out or at the end of your liftingprogram or days in between lifting days. Some examples of great conditioning exercises are kettle bell complexes, sprint work (especailly up hills), high intensity interval training, sled pushing and pull, tire flipping, sledge hammers, and plyometric complexes, and jump rope.

To recap how to get ripped muscles, make your strength training sessions take on an element of intensity and endurance, then use conditioning drills and circuits to build muscle, burn fat and become a lean mean machine with the ripped body you really want.To give you a nice neat wrap up of the ideas behind how to get ripped muscles I suggest making your strength training sessions brisk and take on an element of stamina, then use conditioning circuits instead of traditional cardio to build more muscle while burning fat faster.

One of the most terrific things about arriving at a honest commitment to improving your weakly, scrawny framed body into the solid, ripped, powerful version of your ideal self is the impact that this journey will have on your entire life. For the better I might add. Nothing we do, say, or think in this world acts in isolation from the rest of our life story. Everything is affiliated and intertwined and has a ripple impression that moves outward-bound into other arenas of our life and even further beyond the limits of our own lives.

For instance if you set out by creating uncomplicated modifications to your diet in an attempt to eat healthier, more nourishing and muscle building foods, this shift will also effect: the way you feel (i.e. your emotional state), your daily energy levels (i.e. your vitality), your interaction with others (i.e. your relationships), your ability to work, focus, and get things done (i.e. your career) and so on.

Besides that, people will take notice and see the improvement that this effect is having on your life, which could lead them to make more conscious dietary decisions themselves. To put it differently, you have become a positive example to others merely by making the decision to transform your body, and this choice is having an impact not only on your own life but also in the lives of others.

When you choose the commitment to change  your body, you are, in effect, making the choice to radically improve every aspect of your life.

The WHY is MORE Significant than the HOW

Now I recognize that the reason most people want to make a body transformation is not for such a noble cause, but instead to appear good naked and to attract the opposite sex… or as the case may be, the same sex (I will allow you to make that choice yourself.)

There is nothing wrong with wanting to look good naked, I mean once you ponder it who doesn’t prefer to look good naked? Furthermore, who doesn’t want to pull in the attention of the women or men we find appealing? Most of us do.

But is “appearing good naked” or “pulling in hotties” a strong enough, and obligating enough reason to drag your butt to the gym and put yourself through intense, punishing workouts daily?

Is it a powerful enough reason to totally change your dietary habits and consume tons of food spread out across 5-7 meals a day, every 3-4 hours?

Is it a compelling enough reason to make sacrifices, go to bed early, give up bad habits, and do all the things that are needed to make a transformation of this magnitude?

Is it a strong enough reason to dust yourself off after you’ve failed or injured yourself once, twice, or more times, to alter your plan and give it another go?

Possibly it will be and possibly it won’t be. To some it can be very motivating. To be truthful, that is one of the reasons I began lifting weights and it’s still one of the reasons I train. It’s a perfectly valid reason and it does have some motivational measure to it, but it is not by any means my only reason. And if you’re to win at this, it should not be your only reason either. You need a reason so big and powerful that it will propel you towards success.

The number one secret to transform your body and thus your life is to have a burning wish to do so and in order to feed this burning desire you have to show a meanful enough purpoes to convince yourself it is worth making this body transformation.

Confronting the Reality of Your Mission

As an ectomorph you have your work cut out for you. The last thing I’m going to tell you is that changing  your body or your life is as easy as 1-2-3, because it’s not. It requires commitment, dedication, persistence, discipline, purpose, passion, and confidence.

Now don’t worry if you are deficient any of these character values, because that’s one of the awesome benefits of weight training. As you: (1.) Acquire your power through stable training, (2.) Make the necessary dietary changes required to nourish your body and build muscle , (3.) Abandon bad habits and delay gratification to acquire the body and life you GENUINELY want… you are constructing and forging these values and furthermore, this whole transformation process acts as the catalyst for the emergence of such values naturally.

This is what I mean when I say that improving your body will transform your life. It has a spill over effect into all other aspects of your being. As you are disciplining your body and your mind through intense physical training, you are forging a stronger character like a blacksmith uses fire to forge the resilient Katana sword of the Samurai.

Thus, like a Samurai, you must be willing to face the harsh reality of your mission and your goals in life. You must be willing to face the truth about what your journey will demand of you and you must ask yourself these tough questions:

-”Why do I want to transform my body and my life?”

-”What is it going to take for me to transform my body?”

-”What are the steps I must take to realize this goal?”

-”Am I willing to amply commit myself to obtaining this goal?”

-”Am I willing to read, study, and learn what it takes and then to apply what I learn?”

-”How should I be training for my body type?”

-”Where can I make improvements in my nutrition?”

-”What must I give up in order to get what I want? What must I sacrifice?”

-”Do I truly believe that I can make this transformation my reality?”

-”How can I guarantee the success of this goal?”

Remember, you’ve got to have forceful, convincing, and undeniable reasons, and a purpose for realizing this mission. You must put in the time to develop this and document it to paper. You must look at it daily or even twice a day to remind yourself why you are doing all of this. This  comes by asking your self these tough questions, by coming up with the answers, and doing other introspective soul searching to create and develop a burning desire and commitment to improving your body.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking this is easy and that you’ll add 50 pounds of mass in a month or two or even six months without even trying. Thousands of people sign up for new gym memberships every day (people with better muscle-building genetics than you), and within less than four weeks they’ve already thrown in the towel, never to step foot in that gym again. Don’t be like them, set your self up to be successful.

I’m not trying to discourage you, I want you to succeed and to believe in yourself and to realize that you can and will improve your life, and you’ll do it by first transforming your body, one step at a time. My brother and I, as well as, Vince Delmonte, Sean Nalewanyj, and Jason Ferruggia are all here to help you and make sure you have the tools you need to complete your mission, but it is YOU who will necessarily bring forth the change you seek by taking focused, disciplined action.

We just want you to realize that this requires a conscious pursuit of both physical, mental, and even spiritual growth. You will be pushed and challenged every day. You will want to give in, give up, and run out on this goal before you have achieved it, but only the true warriors will be able to find the strength and courage within themselves to persevere and follow this path to where it leads… to the strong, confident, muscular being that lies dormant within each and every one of us.

*Cultivating the Enlightened Warrior Mindset*

I want you to become a true warrior, not a individual who is out fighting wars and killing people, but an Enlightened Warrior; someone who stands up for what they believe in and gives their life for the greater cause. I want you to become a man or a woman who has a higher purpose and a mission for their life and never settles for mediocrity or complacency. You may not know what your purpose is right now, but have the confidence and courage and the heart to believe that you have one. Know that at any moment your mission will be revealed to you.

Yet keep in mind that our purpose is not something we discover in life, but rather it is something we create for ourselves.

The Enlightened Warrior accepts full responsibility for the success or failure of his or her life and makes personal growth and development a conscious part of their everyday experience.

Weight training, cardio, nutrition, meditation, etc. are all a part your growth experience and development into a highly conscious being. And that’s what it means to be human: to be fully conscious, to continually evolve in our awareness, to seek the truth and purpose behind our existence, and to strive for what we believe is truth. And when I say fight, I mean to be the example of.

The Enlightened Warrior does NOT need, nor want the blessing of other men or women. The only approval she needs is her own self approval. The Enlightened Warrior is strong, wise, grateful, purposeful, radiant, confident, powerful, compassionate, and a leader to the men and women in his or her life. He leads by his example and by how he carries himself in this world. He speaks by actions not by words.

To Your Success in Training and in Life,

Brandon Cook

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About the Author:

Brandon Cook is creator of The Enlightened Warrior Blog, and co-creator of HardgainerMuscleBuilding.com, a website specifically designed to teach the hardgainer the secrets and scientific principles for building a classic, muscular physique.

HargainerMuscleBuilding features a free email class covering the basic principles of training naturally, eating a nutritious, muscle-building diet, and understanding the truth about supplements. The website is filled with free articles, videos, and the programs you need to create your ideal body.

Football (or soccer as the ‘non-Brits’ refer to it as) is the most popular sport in the World. Millions of people play, at various levels, every single day. Most  people play for fun, others professionally, however the aim of the game is almost always the same – WIN! During the course of the article I am going to suggest ways to becoming a better footballer (and thus increasing your and your teams chances of winning matches). All the suggestions made will result in improvements in your game, however some will take longer than others to ‘flourish’. Here goes:-

FITNESS:

Watch the top footballers and you will notice that they produce a lot of movement during the 90 minutes, often running 10-15km in the process. To do this requires high levels of cardiovascular fitness. To gain such fitness requires dedication and discipline. Another sport where participants have very high levels of fitness, probably more so than footballers, is boxing (maybe not always the heavyweights!). Therefore, my suggestion to improve your fitness would be train like a boxer! Not in sparring etc, but by rising early (ideally between 5-6am) and putting in a session. This should ideally include a distance run followed by cardiovascular activities such as skipping, star jumps etc. Add to that push-ups, crunchies and sit-ups and your fitness will begin to improve significantly. Ideally I would suggest your session should be no less than 1 hour, at least 4-5 times a week. Training so early will kick-start your metabolism for the day plus psychologically it will give you a sense achievement which should motivate you day ahead.

GOAL!:  Rise at 5.30am, 5 times a week and complete a 4-5Km run followed by 5 x 20 push-ups, 5 x 20 crunchies, 5 x 40 star jumps, 5 x 20 burpees, then hold the PLANK POSITION for as long as possible.

TIP: This will seem difficult at first, but once you are into a routine it becomes easy. Have training clothes next to your bed and focus your mind so that you get out of bed immediately when your alarm goes off. Don’t think about what your about to do, JUST DO IT!

DIET:

You are what you eat / drink. You wouldn’t put the incorrect fuel into your car, so why put it into your body? Your performance will be effected by what you eat / drink – in the short term and in the long term. Therefore, your overall diet should be well balanced with large potions of green vegetables and salad. Avoid junk food which you know to be detrimental to you – I don’t need to list these foods, you know them already, but they just taste too good! Right? ‘Garbabge’ – they taste good at time of consumption, but how do you feel afterwards once your taste buds have returned to state – I’m guessing it’s not great! Improving at anything requires discipline and often sacrifice. Give up the junk food and the benefits which follow will be far in excess of the ‘quick fix’ pleasure these foods provide.

Your water intake should be high – you should never actually feel thirsty as this is an early sign of dehydration. Replace consumption of fizzy drinks, tea and coffee with water. Drink a minimum of 2 litres and maximum of 5 litres (dependant on body size and intensity of exercise(s) performed) each day. Carry water with you at all-times, don’t leave dehydration any invitations into your body!

GOAL!:  Drink 2-5 litres of water everyday , whilst avoiding fizzy drinks, tea and coffee. Eat portion(s) of green vegetables / salad or fruit with every meal. Snack every 2-4 hours on fruit / salad / vegetables or nuts. Eliminate junk food from your diet completely.

TIP: Discipline and dedication are again the key. You don’t become an extraordinary footballer by doing ordinary things!

TEMPERAMENT AND FOCUS:

Temperament and focus before, during and after a match is a key ingredient to making a footballer better. Before a match you should  focus on what the overall aim is. That focus must remain strong and constant throughout. This should not make you fearful or nervous, but ultimately guide you  towards achievement. If you make an error or wastes an opportunity, this should not affect your focus as your goal is still the same. It is unlikely that your overall aim was to score at that particular moment or not to make that error at that exact time. Therefore, concentrate on what you can achieve in the remaining time, there will be plenty of time to review performance after the match has finished.

Finally, once the match has ended focus on winning or losing with dignity. This will not just make you a better footballer, but a better person.

GOAL!:  Before a match spend 15-30 minutes focusing on what you actually want to achieve. Be clear of your outcome. So often people fail because they don’t know exactly what they are wanting to achieve.  

DO THE SIMPLY THINGS WELL AND OFTEN:

Not every footballer can do the things Cristiano Ronaldo, Zindine Zidane or Lionel Messi can do. But, all footballers can learn to do the simply skills often and well. I’m not wanting to banish ‘flare’ and extravagant skill, rather dilute it. Learning to play short passes accurately and directly 100% is an enormous advantage to any player. Great players such as Paul Scholes and Claude Makele are experts at doing the easy things well. This is something all players adopt.

 GOAL!:  Practice short passes, correct positioning, striking off the ball, tackling etc often and for a long period of time. Many players believe because they have mastered a technique they don’t have to practice it any more – when in fact mastery and improvement comes from repeatedly practising an already learned skill. This sort of dedication and commitment ensures that in the crucial moments of a game when performing a skill or technique is vital you will be prepared.

LEARN FROM THE BEST:

Why re-invent the wheel? If you want to become a top footballer, benchmark a top footballer. They may have natural skill, but to get to the level they have achieved is not by chance. If you want to get to the level of a certain player(s) copy what they do on a regular basis (the beauty of benchmarking is you can take the positives and eliminate any negative routines the player may have!). With footballers living their life in the media spotlight and all sorts of data being openly available on the internet, it’s never been easier to benchmark.

GOAL!:  Chose a World Class player(s)  you admire both on and off the pitch. Collect information regarding their diet, training methods and fitness ideas. Study their movement and all-round play in a number of games. Record games which they have played extremely well and analyse their qualities. Possibly contact them directly for advice and hints – if done elegantly, with your reasons for contacting them clearly stated,  they should be more than happy to oblige.

Combine all the above with belief and you will most definitely become a better footballer

Although most people know that they can’t live without the liver, few are aware of the important role that this organ plays in weight loss. Your survival is dependent on the liver’s ability to detoxify various chemicals – the most familiar one being alcohol, but weight control is also dependent on a healthy liver. That’s because the liver either produces or activates ALL of the hormones in the body that are necessary for fat-burning. Without optimal liver function, natural weight loss becomes a very difficult goal to achieve.

Due to chronic abuse of the liver through things like heavy alcohol use, using medications and drugs, and bad eating habits, especially an overconsumption of fats and heavy animal-based proteins, the liver can become overloaded and irritation can result. This results in an inflammatory response in the abominal cavity, which results in an accumulation of fluid (called ascites). As the retained fluids collect in the stomach area, the stomach will often begin to protrude outward, producing the appearance that is sometimes called a “beer belly”. In women, the problem can get bad enough that the protruding belly makes them look pregnant when they are not. For people with this water weight deposition, weight loss can be frustrating because exercise will not “burn it off” – because it’s not fat. Since natural weight loss approaches fail to get results in these situations, some people resort to diet drugs, which may work at first, but ultimately harm the liver even more and create even more abdominal water retention.

Ironically, with water weight gain associated with liver dysfunction, some diet plans and weight loss products can actually make the situation worse and lead to even more fluid retention. The Atkin’s diet, because it is so high in protein and fat, tends to be hard on the liver and will often lead to even more retaining of fluid. Certain products sold to help with weight loss may have ingredients that further stress and irritate the liver and result in even more water retention in the long-run.

In addition to the water retention issue, good liver function is necessary for the proper production and/or activation of the hormones that stimulate fat burning. For instance, the liver is needed to convert the inactive form of thyroid hormone (T4) to the active form (T3). When the liver is overworked and cannot do the hormone conversions efficiently, the body cannot burn fat efficiently, no matter how much exercise you may do or what other natural weight loss steps you take.

In addition to activating fat-burning hormones as with thyroid hormone, the liver produces insulin-like growth factor (IGF), which is another fat-burning hormone. IGF controls blood sugar during the relatively long-period that you go without eating during sleep. When you are asleep at night, your blood sugar levels fall and the liver generates IGF to cause the fat tissues to burn fat to boost blood sugar. Again, if liver function is not as good as it should be, this hormone is not produced efficiently and you don’t burn as much fat. The other thing that occurs is that your blood sugar will go lower than it should and you wake up in the morning feeling very fatigued and irritable.

At this point you may be wondering what steps you need to take to help improve liver function to help alleviate abdominal water retention and to help better activate your fat burning hormones to stimulate natural weight loss? To begin with, it is important to reduce the detoxification load on the liver. Drastically reducing alcohol consumption and avoiding all but those medications that are absolutely necessary is an important step. If possible, I recommend avoiding alcohol and non-essential medications entirely for at least a few weeks to give the liver an opportunity to recover.

The next step is to clean up you diet to make things as easy as possible on the liver. Probably the simplest and most effective approach is to eat pretty much a vegetarian diet for 14 to 21 days, sticking to mostly fresh vegetables and fresh fruit and using beans, seeds, nuts, and nut and seed butters as your main protein sources. If you can’t do that, it is advisable to at least cut out fried and greasy foods and high-fat meats for a while. The better your diet, the faster you’ll lose the retained water in the abdomen and the faster you’ll make real progress on losing weight.

There are various “liver de-tox” products on the market that contain some combination of herbs and/or nutrients that are reputed to be beneficial for the liver. These can be useful in more extreme cases or for those who simply aren’t willing to take the dietary and other lifestyle measures just described. In my opinion, changing the diet and implementing the other natural weight loss lifestyle factors is a much more effective way to go, but using a liver detoxification product is probably better than doing nothing. Because some of these products contain herbs that can interact with certain prescription medications, it is strongly recommended that you consult with a physician or a pharmacist before using any of these products if you are on prescription drugs.

In addition to weight loss, as liver function improves, your skin usually becomes clearer and your mood and energy level will typically improve, especially in the morning. People with chronic headaches often notice that the headaches become less frequent and may go away altogether. In addition, pains in the right shoulder and shoulder blade area can be referred from the liver and some people experience relief of these pains as the health of the liver improves.

It should be noted that as the liver recovers and the body stops retaining water in the abdomen, you will typically lose weight very rapidly (it could be 5 pounds or more per day!) and you will need to urinate frequently (that’s how the body gets rid of the excess water). Once the extra water is gone, the weight loss will slow down. If you continue on a natural weight loss program, a reasonable expectation after you have lost the water weight is about 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Chronic weight gain, particulary when it the excess weight is distributed all over the body, is a common symptom of poor thyroid function, and this is no surprise because of the thyroid’s effects on metabolism. Even though the thyroid gland itself can be the source of slow metabolism, other aspects of the thyroid system are more often to blame. Many of these problems can actually be corrected naturally with diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes. Let’s begin by looking at the thyroid hormone system as a whole as it pertains to metabolism and body weight issues.

The stimulation of metabolism actually begins in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus – the master hormone controller. The hypothalmus senses the need for more or less thyroid hormone production and when more is needed, it signals the pituitary gland to produce a hormone called TSH (you may have seen this hormone listed on a blood test for thyroid function). Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) does what it’s name suggests – it stimulates the thyroid gland to produce the inactive T4 hormone. When the inactive T4 hormone levels increase, it is taken up by the liver and converted to the active form of thyroid hormone, known as T3. The T3 hormone then acts on receptor sites on the cells of the body and causes the cells to produce more mitochondria, which can be thought of a microscopic power plants inside the cells. The mitochondria create energy for the cells (which when combined from millions of cells creates energy for the body as a whole) by burning stored sugar and fat.

When something goes wrong in the thyroid system, the body does not burn fat and sugar as much, so there is a tendency for weight gain. As the cells of the body are not procuding as much energy, a common symptom that develops is chronic fatigue. And because there is not sufficient energy for certain cellular functions, healing and tissue regeneration may be depressed – this is most commonly noticed as hair loss and brittle nails.

There are several possible reasons why the thyroid system might not work as well as it should. First, there may not be sufficient stimulation of the body to cause the hypothalamus to start the process. The primary stimulator of the thyroid system is exercise – primarily short bursts of intense exercise. In other words, for healthy thyroid function, it is more effective to do interval training in which you do repetetive bursts of intense activity with rest in between, than it is to do long periods of low-intensity exercise, but any form of exercise is helpful.

An additional potential problem is damage to the thyroid gland itself, which is most commonly due to infection or sometimes by radiation exposure. Radiation exposure could come from accidental or long-term occupational contact, or in some individuals, may have been intentional as a part of cancer treatment. In the case of actual thyroid damage, some type of thyroid medication will usually be necessary to compensate.

Yet another possible problem in the thyroid system is poor conversion of the inactive T4 hormone to the active T3 hormone by the liver. This typically occurs with poor lifestyle – excessive alcohol and/or drug use, and/or bad diet (especially a diet high in fats and animal proteins). The functioning of the liver can usually be greatly enhanced through dietary approaches, and improved liver function will translate to more efficient activation of thyroid hormone.

The active T3 hormone can actually be blocked at the receptor sites on the body’s cells and cannot send the signal for the cells to build additional mitochondria, and metabolism becomes sluggish. This is a common side-effect of estrogen and estrogen-like chemicals. The most common sources of estrogen interference with thyroid hormone are birth control medications and estrogen replacement therapy. If you have experienced weight gain and other thyroid-related symptoms since starting on birth control or hormone replacement, you may wish to consult with your physician about other options.

Finally, the formation of mitochondria can be interfered with by the presence of certain chemicals. Sodium benzoate, a preservative found in many processed foods and beverages (especially soft-drinks) can damage the genetic material within the cells needed for mitochondrial formation. Here again, cleaning up the diet can be very beneficial to overall thyroid hormone function and the ultimate goal of weight control.

To sum things up, there are steps you can take to maximize the metabolism-stimulating effects of the thyroid. First, regular exercise is important, and interval-training is the most effective for thyroid stimulation. Next, avoid excessive alcohol consumption, avoid drugs and medications except for those that are absolutely necessary, and keep fat and protein intake to a moderate level so as not to overwork the liver. In addition, you may wish to consult with your doctor if you are using any kind of birth control or hormone replacement medication containing estrogen. Finally, avoid the preservative sodium benzoate in order to avoid interfering with the production of your cellular “power plants”, the mitochondria. The majority of the time, these measures will slowly help to correct thyroid hormone activity weight loss will follow naturally as your metabolism speeds up. In a few cases, medical treatment for thyroid damage may be needed, but simple lifestyle changes are often the most effective means of improving metabolism.

While it is tempting to believe that a magic pill or potion is all that you need to achieve natural weight loss, the hard truth is that losing weight is just not that simple in most cases. For the vast majority of people, a combination of exercise, changes in eating habits, and perhaps the use of appropriate natural weight loss aids will be needed in order to lose weight long-term.

There are many natural weight loss products available and additional ones come out all the time. Each promises to be nearly miraculous in it’s effects and people buy the latest and greatest weight loss aid with eager anticipation, hoping that it will finally be the answer to their weight problems. They want to believe that a pill, or a patch, or a tea, etc.. will be all they need to lose weight and that diet and exercise won’t be necessary (because dieting and exercising are difficult). Even though deep down they probably know that the latest weight loss miracle being hyped is no better than all the things they’ve tried before, they want to believe it will work, and so they buy it, only to be disappointed again.

Now this is not to say that natural weight loss aids are all completely worthless. The truth is, a lot of weight loss aids actually have the effects that their prooters claim. For example, hoodia gordonii (at least the real stuff) does seem to be a very effective appetite suppressant. So, if the main reason that you have trouble losing weight is because you have out of control hunger that makes you eat excssively, hoodia may be a big help. The problem is that most people are not overeating out of actual hunger. They may eat out of boredom, out of habit, out of a need to satisfy a craving, or out of a need to soothe some emotional issue they are dealing with, but they don’t eat out of hunger. Hoodia is not going to help you if you aren’t eating out of hunger.

Other natural weight loss aids may work by increasing the metabolic effects of diet and exercise. It kind of stands to reason that if you fail to incorporate diet and exercise the effects of these products will be pretty minor.

Some natural weight loss aids block the absorption of fat by the digestive tract and thereby lower the calories you absorb from each meal. While this does tend to help with weight loss, unless you stop eating everything except fat (which is not a good idea), you still are taking in other calories that, in excess, will be converted to fat AFTER they are absorbed from the digestive tract. For optimum results, again we see that a good eating plan and exercise are necessary.

At this point, you may have guessed that one of the primary points I am trying to make is that lsting natural weight loss, absolutely requires a healthy eating plan and regular exercise. No weight loss aid, natural or otherwise will by itself make you lose weight and keep it off. In fact, the ads for weight loss aids will usually state this very thing, even though it is in microscopic print at the bottom of the ad.

What it comes down to is that natural weight loss is built on a foundation of sensible diet and exercise. With a good diet and exercise program in place, you may get additional benefits from using one or more of the natural weight loss products on the market. But do your research to find a product that serves your particular needs. In other words, if you’re not overeating out of hunger, don’t buy an appetite suppressant. If you’re already minimizing your fat intake, don’t waste your money on a fat blocker.

Now, once you have your weight loss plan in place with your diet, exercise program, and whatever natural weight loss aids you choose to use, there’s one little thing that needs to happen for you to successfully lose weight. You have to stick to the program! If there’s one thing that renders the vast majority of natural weight loss efforts ineffective, it’s a lack of follow-through.

It has been my experience that very few people stick to a natural weight loss program consistently for more than two weeks at a time. Of course, some people may intermittently follow a weight loss program for months or years, but they get sidetracked over and over again and really are not consistent for more than one or two weeks in a row, so they never get any momentum and achieve their goals.

A new study that tested the relative effectiveness of several popular diet plans revealed a fascinating finding. The overall success rates of most of the currently popular diet programs were about the same. The success or failure of any given diet had little to do with what the approach was. In other words, low carb, low fat, calorie restriction, eating for blood type, etc., really didn’t matter. The thing that actually mattered was if the person consistently followed the program! To sum it up, it doesn’t matter so much what you do to lose weight (within reason), as much as it matters that you do it consistenty long-term!

To be able to stick to your natural weight loss program, it is critical that you take charge of your thoughts and emotions. A lot of different ways exist to get control over your own mind, and different ways have varying degrees of effectiveness from one person to the next. You can get a lot of help in this area with products from Anthony Robbins, Dr. Phil, and others, as well as through technologies like hypnosis, the Sedona Method and Emotional Freedom Technique. You may need to try several methods to find what works well for you.

Regardless of the approach you use, the true key to effective natural weight loss really has very little relationship to the hottest weight loss aid on the market, or the most recent diet book being promoted. The real secret is to choose a reasonable approach that includes diet, exercise (choose an exercise you are physically capable of doing – starting with advanced kickboxing if you’ve been a couch potato your whole life is not going to work!), and possibly one or more weight loss aids and then make that program a part of your daily life forever. And the way to make that happen is to take control of your mind and get your brain working with you rather than against you. Good luck!

Numerous effective, safe, natural weight loss systems are around that give sound diet and exercise advice and perhaps also give recommendations on natural weight loss aids. All of the good programs (and for that matter, even some of the bad ones) have their share of supporters and successful weight loss stories. But if there are good weight loss systems out there, what causes so many people to fail in their attempts to lose weight? How is it that some people get dramatic success in losing weight, yet the majority of others using the plan just can’t seem to make it work?

The main difference is whether or not the person follows-through on the program. It doesn’t matter how effective a weight loss program may be if you don’t follow-through on it for the long-term. Many who begin a natural weight loss plan will begin with high levels of motivation, but most lose focus quickly and cannot stay motivated for more than a couple of weeks and can’t seem to stick to the plan.

So what happens? Why does someone who has finally convinced him or herself that now is the time and they are going to do whatever it takes to lose weight and nothing is going to get in the way of accomplishing their weight loss goals, lose their motivation so quickly?

Actually, a lot of things can happen. Temptations arise. Other people can interfere. They run out of time and/or energy to eat right and exercise. Or, maybe they simply lose sight of the reasons they decided to try to lose weight in the first place.

One key to staying focused is to frequently think about your weight loss goals and what losing weight will mean to you. Most people don’t just decide they want to lose weight. There’s almost always some underlying motivation to try lose weight. Maybe it’s because they’re worried about their health. Maybe it’s because they can’t find clothes they like that fit them. Maybe it’s because they want to find a romantic partner and think that it will be easier if they look better. Perhaps they have grown tired of the fat jokes and people talking about their weight problems. There are probably as many reasons for wanting to lose weight as there are people who want to lose weight. The more clear you can get as to your real motivating factors to lose weight, the greater your chances are to stay motivated, floow-through, and be successful.

By focusing on the reason you want to lose weight on a consistent basis, you will tend to stay more motivated. I recommend writing down your underlying reason(s) for wanting to lose weight, but writing it in a way that it will boost your motivation. The most effective way for most people is to write yourself a negative to avoid and the associated positive to go after. For example, if you would like to wear nice clothes, but you have a lot of difficulty finding clothes you want to wear in your size, you could write something along the lines of, “I am highly motivated to do the things necessary to lose my excess weight so that I will not be restricted to wearing large-size clothing.”. I am thrilled to be getting my weight to where I can wear stylish, sexy clothes!”

Once you have your written motivation statement(s), place it someplace you’ll see it several times per day. Make sure to stop an read it each time you see it and really take the time to think about what you are reading – don’t just read the words, FEEL them!

As was discussed earlier, there are a lot of things that can get you off-track from your weight loss program, and there are many techniques for dealing with each of these influences. By figuring out what really motivates you to lose weight, and then making sure to remind yourself of your motivating factor(s) frequently, you’ll be better equipped to handle ALL of the interfering factors that might tend to prevent you from following-through. Natural weight loss is within your reach if you can get your mind working with you to achieve your goals!

Although drastic measures like prescription weight loss drugs and gastric bypass surgery do offer good chances for losing weight, the inherent dangers and radical lifestyle changes that these methods entail tend to make nore natural weight loss approaches much more attractive to many overweight individuals. Despite the ongoing search of many people for safe and effective weight loss, the goal of natural, lasting weight loss remains difficult to achieve for the majority of those who are overweight.

Ultimately, natural weight loss comes down to some combination of diet and exercise. Although many approaches favor one or the other, the reality is that both diet and exercise are equally important and weight loss occurs much more rapidly with a combined approach. Many weight loss aids, including some reasonably safe natural weight loss products, can improve the overall effects of diet and exercise, but they really cannot be considered a substitute for changing your eating habits and engaging in more physical activity.

There is much debate as to what works and what doesn’t. On the diet front, some will proclaim Atkin’s and other low or no carbohydrate approaches to be the only effective diet strategy. Different experts promote the concept of overall calorie reduction. Still others may insist on the low-fat approach. The fact of the matter is that all of these diet systems work at least some of the time.

As with diet, there is considerable debate as to what exercise approach works best for weight loss. Some say you have to do high intensity “interval training”. Some weight-loss gurus insist that the only effective form of exercise for weight loss is long periods of relatively low intensity aerobic exercise. Still others say any increase in any kind of physical activity works just fine. Again, all of these appoaches work at least for some people.

Various recent research studies into the vast array of weight loss approaches has come to a rather interesting conclusion: All weight loss approaches that are based on physiologically-sound principles seem to have about the same statistical success rate. Some recent studies have shown that the biggest determining factor in the success or failure of any weight loss program is… whether or not the person sticks to the program long-term.

It has been my experience in clinical practice that very few people stick to ANY weight loss plan (at least natural weight loss plans – not some type of weight loss drug) for more than about two weeks straight. Yes, some may stay on a weight loss plan for several months, but most are not consistent over that period of time. The majority of those trying to lose weight will start off well for the first few days, but then something will come up and they get off track for a few (or more) days, and then continue going through and on again, off again cycle. The times when they are off the program largely negate whatever progress they make while they are on the program.

Based on my experience with people trying to lose weight, the biggest factor in losing weight is not the diet or exercise the person is doing, it’s the person’s consistency with whatever he or she is doing. The ability to be consistent with a natural weight loss program comes down to motivation and will-power. In other words, if you’re going to lose weight and keep it off, you MUST get control of your mind so that you can have sufficient motivation and will-power to stick to the weight loss plan.

Developing motivation and will-power requires more than just deciding to lose weight. It is necessary for you to be able to resist any temptations that would pull you off course and interfere with your follow-through on whatever weight loss program you choose to do. Sadly, the majority of people are lacking an innate capacity to effectively avoid temptation and it is far too easy for many people who try to lose weight to quickly lose momentum and stray from their weight loss plans. Because the workings of the mind are so critical to one being able to actually stay on a weight loss program, I suggest working with one or more mental conditioning / motivation technologies prior to beginning any diet and exercise program. By preparing the mind in advance, one is far more able to resist temptation and stay sufficiently motivated to stick to the plan.

Among the most useful techniques I have found for this purpose include Neuro-Linguistic Progamming, Neuro-Associative Conditioning (developed by Anthony Robbins), various forms of self-hypnosis, the Sedona Method, Emotional Freedom Technique, and simply taking the time to clearly identify one’s reasons for wanting to lose weight in the first place. By using any or all of these methods, temptation can be largely eliminated and one is able to stick with his or her diet and/or exercise program long-term, which allows for consistent weight loss and maintenance of one’s weight once the goal is achieved.

Although most dieters have heard that it’s a good idea to avoid carbohydrates (especially sweets, bread, pasta, cereal, etc.) when trying to lose weight, many not understand why carb avoidance is so necessary for losing weight. Even doctors may make the claim that calories are calories and to lose weight all you have to do is eat fewer calories than you burn through your activities. The thing is, hormonal factors can influence how easy or hard calories from a given type of food are to burn. With a little investigation, it becomes obvious that a high intake of carbohydrates, regardless of one’s total calorie intake, will make the body prone to depositing fat.

At the heart of the matter is the hormone insulin. The function of insulin is to stimulate the cells to take up sugar from the bloodstream (when blood sugar is high, as it typically is shortly after eating) and store it for reserve energy.

The surplus of sugar in the bloodstream is initially stored in the tissues of the liver and large muscles in the form of glycogen. Glycogen can be quickly converted back to blood sugar when needed for energy to fuel sudden bursts of activity. The available storage space for glycogen is pretty limited, and when insulin has caused the glycogen storage to be filled up, the remaining excess blood sugar is stored as fat.

There is considerably more storage space in the body for fat than there is for glycogen. There are billions of fat cells in the body, each of which can enlarge to over 100 times it’s original size to accomodate extra fat storage. As an aside, this is why it is possible to get fat again after liposuction – even if you remove many of the body’s fat cells, those that remain can enlarge considerably to store fat.

Insulin is extremely powerful in its fat storage effects. In fact, not only does it stimulate fat storage, high levels of insulin block the effects of the body’s fat burning mechanisms. It is for this reason that minimizing the intake of high-carb foods is so important.

High carbohydrate intake (and it really doesn’t need to be very high) stimulates the release of large quantities of insulin. Large amounts of circulating insulin will strongly inhibit the body from being able to burn fat for a period of 1 to 2 days! In fact, a single meal containing 20 to 25 grams of refined carbohydrates (about the amount in a slice of sandwich bread) can completely block your ability to burn fat for 1 to 2 days – regardless of what you eat and how much or how hard you may exercise during that time.

Some people mayhave doubts about that last statement as it is certainly possible to eat a lot of carbs and lose weight – for a while anyway. Notice that I said that high carbohydrate intake causes high insulin production that blocks FAT burning. It is still possible to eliminate retained water (which will produce weight loss), and it is still possible to burn calories, but the calories you do burn will not be from fat, they will be from glycogen and your lean body tissue, primarily your large muscles. As you may be aware, lean body tissue (muscle) is highly metabolically active, and if you burn that tissue, ultimately your metabolism will slow down, making it harder and harder to lose weight.

Because of the effects of insulin, minimizing carbohydrate intake is strongly recommended for sustainable fat burning and the most efficient and lasting natural weight loss. Now, not every person will do well to go on the Atkins diet and eat only protein and fat. Excessive protein intake can create its own problems that can ultimately interfere with ongoing weight loss due to detrimental effects on the liver. For the majority of people, the most effective diet is one that is high in fresh or frozen vegetables, nuts, seeds, moderate quantities of fresh fruit, and some protein from eggs, dairy, lean meat, fish, and poultry. The carbohydrates you do consume are best obtained in high-fiber forms from vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts, rather than from refined grains.

A few diet plans will recommend a low carbohydrate intake, yet suggest allowing yourself a “reward” of some high-carbohydrate food like a cookie or other sweet as often as once per week. I disagree with this recommendation as it can sabotage your natural weight loss program on two levels. First, as we’ve been discussing, the carbs will trigger a high insulin release which will shut off your ability to burn fat for up to two days. So, at once per week, you could lose as much as 8 days per month of potential fat burning – decreasing the effectiveness of your diet by as much as 25%! The other problem is that eating carbs tends to set you up for carb cravings. At the very least, such cravings will test your will-power, and they could cause you to cheat on your diet repeatedly. This could ultimately doom your diet to total failure. I recommend that you refrain from eating refined carbs except on special occasions (parties, holidays, etc.) and this ideally would be at a frequency of at most, once every 4 to 6 weeks.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of why high carbohydrate consumption is so damaging to a natural weight loss plan. If you commit to a healthy diet and avoid the carbs for 2 to 3 weeks, you will likely find that you don’t really miss them after that period of time and so avoiding them becomes much easier. With a little extra effort early on, you’ll find that eating a healthy diet becomes natural to you and you’ll be able to reach your long-term weight goals.