1. A cappuccino with 1 sugar can range from 200-300 calories. Drinks such as these which contain high amounts of sugar and calories should be consumed rarely when fat loss is the goal as the extra calories they contain are readily stored as fat. If you are having 2-3 of these a day this is a quick and simple way to make instant progress by cutting these out or just switching to green tea or even straight black coffee.
2. Make sure you take time to sleep, relax and de-stress. If you are always rundown and tired, your hormones will be out of whack and this can make it very hard when you are trying to lose weight, your body just will not want to drop body fat. Aim to get at least 8 hours sleep per night, and take some time to de-stress regularly. Remember, all things being equal, a healthier body will get faster and better results.
3. If you work in an office environment, buy a big fruit bowl for your desk, a couple of big bags of nuts, and a container of protein powder to keep in the office. This is your back up – now you’ll never be stuck with nothing to eat!
4. Eating small meals every 2-3 waking hours will increase your metabolism, regulate blood sugar and reduce fat storage. Make sure that these are healthy meals containing balanced amounts of protein, the right carbohydrates and healthy fats.
5. Its important to do exercises that incorporate compound movements rather than simple ones. A compound movement is one which uses multiple joints & muscle groups at the same time (think: ring row vs. a bicep curl). This will not only help in burning more calories, but will also build and tone more muscle at once! A few good compound movement exercises include: squats, deadlifts, push ups, lunges, rowing variations, or a combination of these movements could be made into one exercise.
6. Make it a habit to eat some fruit or vegetables every time you eat a meal, this is a great way to ensure you get enough servings each day to meet your ‘quota’ ,it will also help you lose body fat, give you more energy, help you feel better and make you a lot healthier.
7. Fat free foods, when eaten in excess, can still be stored as fat! Fat free cookies, yoghurt and crackers are made up of a whole lot of SUGAR and processed carbs! Yep, sugar is just as fattening of a substance as fat itself, when eaten in excess.
8. Did you know that 1kg of muscle burns 60-100 calories per day, while 1kg of fat only burns about 8-18 calories per day? And if you were to place 1kg of muscle next to 1kg of fat, the fat would take up more space – as muscle is much denser.The more muscle your body contains the more calories you burn each day at rest, and the leaner you will look (if you took up less space, it means you are smaller!). So if you could choose what your bum is made of out of the two tissues below which would it be? (And they weigh the same!)
9. Exercises involving the use of machines are generally not as effective for functional strength, performance,fat loss, or muscle gains. The reason being is they stabilise your body for you, and have you move through a predetermined ‘fixed’ line of movement, so you don’t use all the intricate ‘stabiliser’ muscles in your body when training.
10. Buy a magic bullet blender or something similar, you can get them pretty easily from Kmart, Myer etc. These things make it so easy for you to make healthy super shakes with lots of healthy ingredients in only a few minutes, with hardly any cleaning involved!
11. Exercises like front and side planks, anti rotation holds, 1 arm presses, 1 arm loaded lunges will strengthen and engage your ‘core’ in a functional manner – your cores main role is stabilisation. Exercises like sit ups place a lot of strain on the discs in your lower back, exasberate common postural issues (as most people sit down for alot of the day, its really not ideal to go to the gym and round out your spine for hundreds of reps on top of this), and they also have little carryover to functional strength or fat loss.
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