Thursday, December 24, 2009

Flat Abs Diet When Exercise Alone Isn’t Working!

The flat abs diet has six core principles that will help you to lose belly fat and have a sleeker body all around. Even if you can’t get rid of your gut through endless crunches, you should see success with this flat abs diet. That is because new research has show that what you eat may be just as important as how much you exercise.

The first important step is to eat more fiber. You should eat at least 25 grams of fiber a day. The reason is that bulk fiber is like a sponge which, when combined with water, moves the fat through your body more quickly.

The best high fiber foods are fruits and vegetables. In addition to having a lot of fiber naturally, fruits and vegetables are very low in calories. Whole grains are preferable to processed flours for the same reason.

Part of what makes natural food so good for you is the “chew” factor. It takes longer to eat these foods, so your brain has time to get the signals that your stomach is sending that it is full. Researchers have found that eating high fiber plant food with any meal reduces the average amount of calories by 100.

The next step is to opt for a sensible amount of high quality carbs. The flat abs diet does not require that you dramatically limit your carbohydrates the way the Adkins or South Beach plans do. However, if you want to lose your belly fat, you will have to control your carb intake.

Again, fruits and vegetables provide the highest quality carbs available. They are the foods least likely to promote bloat. Because they are composed of a lot of water, they have fewer calories and carbs for their volume.

You should have no more than 65 percent of your diet in carbs. That means that on an 1800 calorie diet, you will have between 200 and 300 grams of carbs. On the Adkins diet, you can have no more than 35 grams of carbs, so as you can see the flat abs diet is more generous.

Next, you want to drink lots of water – at least eight 8-ounce glasses a day.

Many people think that drinking water will make them bloat when the opposite is actually true. Water washes away the sodium in the body and thus reduces bloat.

If you are having trouble consuming that much water, try these variations:

· Drink 2 glasses of lukewarm water twice a day. It is easier to consume lots of water in a single setting if it is not ice cold.
· If you like cold water, freeze fruit or small pieces of fruit and float it in your water. It will keep the water cold and add a nice flavor to it.
· Use small amounts of fruit juice or other extracts such as mint to flavor the water.

Along those lines, tip number 4 on the flat abs diet is to avoid sodium wherever possible. A woman needs 500 mg. of sodium to keep her body functioning regularly but the average American woman gets between 3000 and 6000 mg. daily. If you eat a typical meal at a Chinese restaurant, you will get about 3000 mg. of sodium. The body responds to this sodium intake by retaining water. The next day, you will see the result on the scale and in the mirror. It’s not that the Chinese food added too many calories – it’s that it has so much sodium.

The next bit of advice is to not eat too much at night. When you put food in your body less than three hours before going to sleep, it causes you to bloat. Plan to shut down the kitchen after a light to moderate dinner. If you must eat, consider limiting it to a snack of 100 calories or less. A cup of tea can often satisfy your need for food after dinner.

Finally, the last bit of advice on our flat abs diet has nothing to do with food at all. Instead, you will want to work on reducing stress.

Stress triggers the hormone cortisol which turns up your appetite and directs your body to deposit fat around your abdomen. One way to eliminate stress (and lose weight) is to exercise. You should also practice ways of relaxing when you get into a stressful situation.

So, there you have it. When exercise alone isn’t working to remove your belly fat, try the flat abs diet.


Make it a great day!

Chris Walker

Kitchener's Weight Loss expert!

Chris Walker has helped thousands obtain " permanent weight loss, quick and easy everytime!" To download a free copy of "Why Can't I Lose Weight? How to lose 10 pounds in 30 days visit http://www.chriswalkersfitness.com/

Monday, December 21, 2009

Two Healthy Eating Facts You Shouldnt Ignore!

There are certain healthy eating facts that don’t change no matter what kind of a diet you follow, or what kind of lifestyle you have. Whether you’re sedentary or active, too much saturated fat isn’t good for you. Whether you eat 1600 calories a day or 2500, depending on your activity level, trans fats are unhealthy, for example. And whether you’re trying to lose weight quickly or jump start a long-term weight loss program, fasting isn’t a good choice for your body.

One of the healthy eating facts that we didn’t have to worry about years ago is that trans fats are unhealthy. Some trans fats occur naturally in food, but those aren’t the same as the man-made trans fats that make up margarine and shortening, and are found in almost every commercially produced baked good you can find. Trans fats are also often included in boxed mixes that you prepare at home, and things like instant cocoa, because of its long shelf-life.

Hydrogenated fats like margarine and shortening became available in 1911. Before then trans fats weren’t something the average consumer had to worry about. Now, though, hydrogenated oils or trans fats are present in almost every type of food you can think of. The hydrogenation process keeps fats from going rancid for a longer period of time. But the link between hydrogenated oils and heart health is clear—it’s worse for you than saturated fat.

This is one of the healthy eating facts that has prompted the government to step in. They’ve insisted that fast-food restaurants reduce the amount of trans fats in their food. Food manufacturers also have to include the amount of trans fats on their food labels, too. Carefully read food labels so that you’re at least aware of what you’re eating. Anything that says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated is a trans fat, and something you want to avoid as much as possible. Eliminate these trans fats from your diet completely if you can.

Another one of the healthy eating facts that not too many people think about is how bad regular soft drinks are for your health. A can of regular soft drink contains about 9 teaspoons of sugar. And how often do you drink more than one soda in a day? Some people drink several sodas per day, preferring soda to beverages like water or tea.

Everyone’s going to eat sugar in some form, but moderation is called for. And when one soda provides you with 9 teaspoons of sugar, that’s pretty much the sugar limit for the day—that we don’t need refined sugar at all is one of the most ignored healthy eating facts. But most people have sugar in other forms, too, raising their daily total of sugar intake much higher.

Considering the rising rates of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related illnesses, cutting back on trans fat and soda in our diets is important. These healthy eating facts can make a huge difference in our weight and overall health if we don’t ignore them.


Make it a great day!

Chris Walker

Kitchener's Weight Loss expert!

Chris Walker has helped thousands obtain " permanent weight loss, quick and easy everytime!" To download a free copy of "Why Can't I Lose Weight? How to lose 10 pounds in 30 days visit http://www.chriswalkersfitness.com/

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Today WAS Your Future, Yesterday!

If you find yourself dreaming of great things to come, stop wasting time and do something to achieve them now. A person can spend their whole life dreaming, while missing every single opportunity which presents itself.

I read an interesting book by Richard Wiseman, called "Did you spot the gorilla?" The book is written to inspire anybody who has their eyes closed to the multitude of opportunities presented to them each day on a silver platter.

The title of the book comes from an experiment in which a group of people are shown a short video clip of a basketball game. They are told to count how many times the ball is passed from one player to the other. At the end of the clip, the group are asked if they noticed anything strange, they did not. The experiment ends when the group are shown the video again and are asked "Did you spot the gorilla?" During the clip, a man in a gorilla suit walks onto the screen, beats his chest and then walks off again. The study showed that very few people noticed the gorilla.

The purpose of the experiment is to show that when the mind is preoccupied with a task (in this case, counting the number of times the ball is passed,) it is very rare that we notice anything else. This phenomenon is sometimes known as tunnel vision.

When we take a step back, we are able to look at things with a different perspective. With this different perspective, opportunities may present themselves - those of us who sieze upon these opportunities are bound for success. I am not going to look back in 50 years time and regret failing to grasp an opportunity with both hands, are you?

Stop living in the future, forget about the past. Today WAS your future, yesterday... what did you do about it then? Live each and every day to the fullest. There is no time like the present.


Make it a great day!

Chris Walker

Kitchener's Weight Loss expert!

Chris Walker has helped thousands obtain " permanent weight loss, quick and easy everytime!" To download a free copy of "Why Can't I Lose Weight? How to lose 10 pounds in 30 days visit http://www.chriswalkersfitness.com/

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

What To Do If You Can t Lose Weight!

You’ve dieted, you’ve exercised, and you feel like no matter what you do you can t lose weight. Many people say that no matter what they’ve tried they can’t seem to drop any of their unwanted pounds. Though the problem is the same, the reasons for having so much difficulty losing weight usually vary from person to person. Just like the same way of eating might not work as well for some people as it does for others, the problems associated with weight loss are bound to be different for many different people, too.

If you’ve been following a diet plan and still can t lose weight, you need to look very carefully at the diet and see if it’s really one that can work. You’ll need to look at things like how many calories you eat a day on the plan, and whether your diet seems to be heavier in things like fat or dairy products, or whether it leans the other way and focuses mostly on fruits and vegetables.

If the amount of calories you’re eating every day seems reasonable—enough to keep you healthy but low enough to let you burn fat—yet you can t lose weight while eating this way, it’s likely that the type of diet just doesn’t suit your metabolism. If the diet is calorie-focused and allows things like white bread, flour, potatoes, pasta and sugar, trying cutting down on those items. Maybe the diet is too high in carbohydrates for you and that’s sabotaging your efforts. Experiment to see if you start losing weight.

If the diet is already low carb and you can t lose weight on it, then maybe it’s gone too far in the other direction. Are you eating lots of red meat, fried foods, oil and other fats like butter? Some low-carb diets claim you can eat these foods in almost unlimited amounts, but that’s simply not true. All that fat adds up to hundreds of calories, and no matter how few carbs you eat, a calorie is still a calorie. It can be very easy to eat too many calories per day if you’re eating fatty meats, nuts or if you have lots of oil in your diet.

If your diet really seems healthy, with lean meats, lots of vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables, some diary and little sugar or flour and you still can t lose weight, then you could be eating too few calories and causing your metabolism to slow. Or you’re eating much more food than you think you are. Look at all the little snacks you have throughout the day, no matter how healthy they are.

Try keeping a journal and writing down everything you eat each day, including anything you drink that has calories in it like soda or coffee with cream. If you can t lose weight because you’re eating more than you think, a week or so of logging the details of your diet should start to show you where those extra calories are sneaking in.

Make it a great day!

Chris Walker

Kitchener's Weight Loss expert!

Chris Walker has helped thousands obtain " permanent weight loss, quick and easy everytime!" To download a free copy of "Why Can't I Lose Weight? How to lose 10 pounds in 30 days visit http://www.chriswalkersfitness.com/

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Experience 15 Pound Weight Loss Permanently!

You and I both know that with a little self-control, exercise and eating healthy we can experience a fifteen pound weight loss fairly quickly. The real challenge comes from keeping it off permanently and staying healthy in the process. We also know it's easier to say it than it is to do it.

What you may not know is you may have some preconceived ideas about how to do it and the fact is those ideas are false. It's not your fault you believe them, because they have been preached for so many years, by so many people. These legends have taken on a life of their own, when in fact they need to die and be buried forever. This article will give you the true way to shed the extra fat and keep it off.

1. Legend--Skip Breakfast to lose weight: Not a good idea!
In order for you to lose weight quickly and safely you must eat breakfast. This is what will kick your metabolism into high gear for the day after resting all night. Skipping it also means your body will draw the energy from lean muscle not the excess fat.

2. Legend: Low carbohydrate diets will make it easy to keep off the weight: Partly true, but because your body needs carbohydrates for your energy and the building of muscles you may cause more damage to your overall health. In other words you could negate the good you have done with the weight loss.

3. Legend: Eating what you want when you want it as long as you exercise: Not True! Just because you’re exercising to burn the calories does not mean you can go carte blanch when you eat. It's important for you to eat the right foods such as veggies, fruits and lean meats. When you practice the right diet you will keep the weight off naturally and safely.

4. Legend: Restrict your calories to keep weight loss down: Partly true again. You and I both know that true weight loss comes when we reduce the amount of calories we eat. Calories we won't burn! But if you reduce your calorie intake way under what you need, for your body to function properly, you are asking for trouble. It's important for you to know how many calories your body needs to stay healthy.

There are many more legends or myths that need to be buried, but it’s beyond the scope of this article. Losing weight the right and healthy way doesn’t take an IQ of 160 to figure it out. Nor is it difficult once you set your mind to it.

Look, let's face it! There is only one way to lose 15 pounds and keep it off permanently. You and I both know what it is. It is a combination of self-control, eating healthy and exercise. Weight loss is not a game, for some of us; it's a matter of life and death. Which one is it going to be for you?

Make it a great day!

Chris Walker

Kitchener's Weight Loss expert!

Chris Walker has helped thousands obtain " permanent weight loss, quick and easy everytime!" To download a free copy of "Why Can't I Lose Weight? How to lose 10 pounds in 30 days visit http://www.chriswalkersfitness.com/

Monday, December 7, 2009

5 Great Tips On Losing Weight!

Everyone you talk to seems to have dozens of tips on losing weight. Some are good common sense tips, but some seem to come out of left field. Even people who can’t seem to successfully lose weight and keep it off, seem happy to offer up tips and advice to other people. That’s a pretty good indication that many of us know the best advice and tips on losing weight, but we just don’t follow them very well. Here are some tips which, if you use them in your daily journey toward losing weight, can help you.

Use smaller plates. This is one of those tips on losing weight that often makes people roll their eyes. It has nothing to do with eating or exercise, but it really does trick your mind into thinking you’re eating more food. A smaller plate will look fuller than a large plate if they have the same amount of food on them. You might even naturally put less food on the smaller plate, to keep it from looking so loaded down. It’s a mental trick, but you should try it because it works for many people.

Eat slowly. This is one of the oldest and most popular tips on losing weight. Have you ever watched a speed-eating contest? Imagine someone eating the same amount of food as the winner, but imagine them eating it slowly. The champion may have scarfed down 20 pies in very little time. Could you actually sit down with a fork and slowly eat 20 pies? It’s not likely.

The speed eater ate so fast, his body didn’t even have time to scream, “STOP, I’M FULL!” And if it had, he was only focused on putting more and more food in, just as we are when we’re “starving” and we gulp down our food. Eat slowly and you’ll reach a pleasant feeling of fullness rather than the one that means you’ve eaten too much too fast.

Watch your portion sizes. If fried chicken is your favorite, you might start out with 2 or 3 pieces on your plate. Try grabbing one small piece instead, and filling up on salad or green veggies to replace those missing pieces of chicken. Try to keep a portion of food about the size of your fist. Those mashed potatoes that you don’t want to give up? Still eat them, but stop after one small portion, instead of piling a mountain on your plate.

Don’t clear your plate. Of all the tips on losing weight, this one is often the hardest. As children we were taught not to turn down food because other people were starving. We might have even gotten punished for “wasting food” and forced to eat it.

You’re not starving, and you can’t send that food to those who are, so do yourself a favor and don’t eat it. To avoid the guilt of wasting food, use another one of the good tips on losing weight and simply start out with less food on your plate next time.


Make it a great day!

Chris Walker

Kitchener's Weight Loss expert!

Chris Walker has helped thousands obtain " permanent weight loss, quick and easy everytime!" To download a free copy of "Why Can't I Lose Weight? How to lose 10 pounds in 30 days visit http://www.chriswalkersfitness.com/

Who the hell is Chris Walker?

My photo
Chris Walker is the founder of Fitnesstrainingformenandwomen.com located in Kitchener, Ontario. Chris manages several certified trainers, (CFT) within his organization and actively works with medical doctors and health care professionals in helping their patients to reduce bodyfat restore musculoskeletal strength and gain control over their blood sugar readings, good and bad blood fats and blood pressure readings, among other critical fitness issues. Chris has helped people to get in shape for their wedding day as well as people battling severe obesity. Chris likes to focus on functional training and likes to incorporate his martial arts background into his programs. Chris is a firm believer of a strong mind and guarantees results for those who don't mind a little hard work. Chris is a member of International Sports Sciences Association, (ISSA) and Canfitpro Organization. Chris has made media appearances on Global Television, Rogers Daytime, The Record News Paper and is a published author of many health and fitness related articles and books.