Friday, November 16, 2007

Weight Loss - The Number One Weight Loss Mistake

The number one weight loss mistake that dieters and emotional overeaters make has nothing to do with food--but it flavors everything. The number one mistake people make when they are trying to gain control of emotional overeating is that they get mad at themselves and beat themselves up emotionally when things don't go as planned, when they have a slip,or when they overeat. Self-critical judgment is a dead-end place. When you are judging yourself, you may tell yourself you're "wrong" or "bad" or "hopeless." You tell yourself that you "screwed up" and you'll have to "do better tomorrow."

Like children, adults don't thrive with punishment and negative words. Think about it. How often is the moment that you decide you've "blown it again" the very same moment you decide to go ahead and finish the bag of chips or the cookie dough or the what-ever-it-was you just got mad at yourself for eating? Judgment and self blame are negative, closed, dead-end places.They do nothing to encourage creative problem solving, optimism, resourcefulness--the very things needed to move forward in your emotional eating journey. In fact, when we pile on the self-blame and the guilt, we're more likely to want to go to bed and pull the covers up over our head than we are to want to keep moving forward.

Curiosity is the opposite of judgment. Curiosity is the tool of problem solvers. Curiosity is one of the most powerful tools you can learn to use in making peace with food. Curiosity provides the power to ask questions that will open doors and propel you forward in a journey to take the power back from food and diet. Curiosity allows you to see options and opportunity and new solutions. It's the avenue for learning how to "do it differently."

It's impossible to be absolutely curious and full of self-judgment at the same time.

It might be hard to imagine changing old habits of self blame and that feeling that you "deserve" to be hard on yourself, but my clients are amazed at how powerful that shift feels when they learn how to make it--and how much momentum it provides.

Three ways to engage your curiosity:

Next time you are struggling with your eating / weight / relationship with food, try on the following questions. Work to suspend judgment and approach the questions and your answers with curiosity:

1. What do I know about what made today (this afternoon, this week) so difficult for me? What contributed to my struggles?

2. How was today (a difficult day) different from yesterday which was a little bit better? Is there anything I could learn from the difference that I might incorporate into my life or routine?

3. What was going on for me before I overate? What could I have done instead of eating?

Learning how to let go of self-blame and embrace a curious mindset is a necessary and powerful step in charting a successful weight loss journey. In fact, it's the first step I have my weight loss clients tackle, and I cover it in depth in my Emotional Eating Toolbox (TM) 28-day self study program.

Melissa McCreery, Ph.D. is a Psychologist and Life and Wellness Coach who helps her clients create and live their very best lives. She is also the creator of the Emotional Eating Toolbox, a 28-Day, Self-Guided Program for Taking Control and Moving Beyond Dieting. Get more information and subscribe to her free newsletter, Mindspa, at her website: http://www.enduringchange.com

Copyright 2007 - Melissa McCreery, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Monday, November 12, 2007

Weight Loss - 7 Day Fat Loss Workout Program

Here's a 7 day workout program to help you burn fat and gain muscle. You will do fat burning exercises in short workouts to get maximum results in minimum time.

You should be taking time to plan and prepare your fitness and fat loss nutrition and exercise program for the rest of the week. But if you haven't, here is a 7 day workout program to help you burn fat.

You should also be on your way out to the grocery store to shop and prepare for your meals for the next 7 days, and planning your next 7 days of fitness according to these guidelines.

Monday

Do a strength and interval cardio workout, of course.

Do a bodyweight warmup to start.

Then superset a single leg exercise, like split squats, and dumbell chest presses. Do 3 sets of 8.

Then superset stability ball leg curls with dumbell rows. Do 3 sets of 12.

Finish the workout with interval cardio. It only takes 20 minutes to burn fat.

Tuesday

Get 30 minutes of enjoyable exercise. It could be traditional cardio, running errands, housework, manual labor, or your favorite sport. Just make sure to be active everyday. Finish your activity with some sort of relaxation techniques. It could be deep breathing, some easy yoga postures, or some visualization methods. Whatever you do, give yourself a few extra minutes to relax and remove the stress of your workday.

Wednesday

Do another strength and interval cardio workout - very similar to Monday's workout. Sandwich your workout between two high-protein snacks to give your muscles the nutrients they need to recover and re-build.

Thursday

30 minutes of activity. Review your vegetable intake. You should be getting at least 5 servings per day, but try to get up to 8 or even 10 servings per day. Focus on leafy, green vegetables.

Friday

Your final workout of the week.

Bodyweight training is hot right now, and it's quickly becoming the (busy) people's choice as the training method to help them get the lean, sleek, sexy physique that they've always wanted. Plus, at this time of the year, you'll probably want to spend less and less time in the gym, and more time outdoors.

So do only bodyweight exercises today.

Start with a superset of bulgarian split squats and chinups.

The second superset can be pushups and forward lunges.

If you want, for fun, do some biceps and triceps exercises to finish off.

Then do interval cardio for 20 minutes.

Saturday

30 minutes of activity. Connect with your social support group. And call another friend and invite them to get commited to losing fat and improving their health. Help them out and compare solutions to the obstacles that prevent you from eating properly or exercising.

Sunday

30 minutes of activity followed by your weekly plan, shop, and prepare routine. Review your nutrition and make sure that you are keeping all sources of trans-fats out of your diet. Get rid of all the snack foods that contain trans-fats and other ingredients that you can't pronounce. Focus on fresh produce, and minimize the pre-packaged foods on your list.

Enjoy your strength and cardio intervals for the 7 day fat burning workout program.

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked fat burning workout program have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Use the daily workout programs to help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's bodyweight programs for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info.

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Weight Loss - Simply Weight Loss - Do Not Panic - Its So Easy

What is the solution to the problem of being over-weight?

What is Fat Loss 4 idiots program on "calorie shifting" for weight loss?

What are the diet secrets?

What is the art of shifting calories?

All these questions stuck your mind when you search for fat loss secrets on the internet.

You would be thinking that what is so special about this SHIFTING CALORIE THEORY of Fat Loss 4 Idiots. The thing is that your metabolism is unaware of how much food you will eat tomorrow or the next day because those days have not happened yet.

In this technique, your body is given different types of calories each day which as a result makes your metabolism confused thereby forcing FASTER fat loss to happen.

Here is one more thing that you will need for this dieting technique to work, FAT BURNING COMPATIBLE. This technique will rate the foods you must eat because the foods you eat must be easy to burn to help your metabolism to burn them entirely and then switch to burning your fat tissue after that.

But how can I trust that CALORIE SHIFTING will help me reach my target?

Has anyone tried this calorie shifting diet and how does it work?

The reply to all your questions is that anything and everything is possible if you bring a bit of changes in you. What this means is that how can you get slimmer without CHANGING YOUR EATING HABITS, something which you have never tried before.

Another advantage of Fat Loss 4 Idiots is the variety put into its daily meal plans with no repetition which will encourage your body to burn more calories and fat.

The best part of this metabolic weight loss program is that despite a diet plan you can still enjoy the pleasurable things like you can relish an ice-cream, watch television without any restrictions and sit around when in the mood of relaxing.

Nothing comes to you until you wake up and make efforts for it. You will have to take the initiative if you want to get slimmer.

Fat loss 4 Idiots has proved itself to be the most effective healthy way to lose abdominal fat, lose ugly belly fat and gain muscle only by using this secret diet plan called as "Calorie Shifting".

This 11 Day Diet System at Fat Loss 4 Idiots will continue to work time after time, and this is the sole reason for it being so valuable. ...After 11 Days you can keep using it again and again to lose as much weight as you wish.

Navneet Brar compares the topmost 5 weight loss products along with their live traffic ranking, user reviews n user ratings. To get more information on weight loss products & programs, you can visit my website www.top54u.com

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Weight Loss - Key to the Ultimate Muscle Building - Fat Loss - Fitness - Success Mindset

A few years ago, I regularly had those brief but friendly verbal exchanges with a fellow gym member upon arriving at the facility each day for my muscle building workouts. You know the kind of interaction I'm referring to; just some small talk and friendly joking with someone you never get to know outside of that one specific setting. I recall having a conversation with him on one particular day that went something like this:

"Hey Scott... how's the training going?" "It's going great, Mike", I answered. "But I'm feeling a bit tired today." "Well... ", he said almost perfunctorily. " At least you're in here. You showed up for your workout and that's better than a lot of people"

Interestingly, I cringed a bit at the sound of those words. 'At least I'm in here?' What if the muscles I had come to work that day were in dire need of one more day's rest? What if working them prior to that rest would be the catalyst that sends them down a spiral of over-training and inadequate recuperation? If that were the case, then showing up would be about the most counterproductive thing (in regard to bodybuilding) I could do that day.

Although Mike's point made sense within a specific circumstantial context, I detected traces of a mentality that's all too common among us and all too subtly damaging to human potential. This mindset rears its ugly head in every life context. It resides within each of us in varying degrees, depending on the life setting and circumstances. I will refer to it here as simply - the Motive-Driven Mentality.

The motive-driven mentality sits in direct contrast to the Outcome-Driven Mentality. The outcome-driven mentality is concerned with objectively measurable outcomes that result from our actions. By contrast, the motive-driven mentality is displayed when we congratulate ourselves for our intentions rather than concerning ourselves with the effects of our actions. When we hurt another person's feelings and the first thing out of our mouths is "I didn't mean it", we are (in that moment) saying: "judge me for my motives and forget about the actions".

Unfortunately, the tendency to be driven by motives is especially prevalent in the contexts of bodybuilding, fat loss, and fitness. It's displayed when gym members drift from one piece of workout equipment to another with no objective other than to "get a good workout". With such an ambiguous short-term goal, it's transparently revealed why the very same people will congratulate us for simply showing up at the gym. If we're not driven by the consequences of our actions, we end up patting ourselves and others on the backs for activity - no matter how blind that activity might be.

The best mindset for success in life is to be as outcome oriented as possible. This is vitally important in all life contexts where more success is sought, regardless of how we define that success. When frustration sets in due to our current lack of understanding of what strategies will bring forth the outcomes we desire, we must rein ourselves in before that flustered state leads us to letting our intentions feed our egos. If that happens, we've been bitten by the motive-driven mentality.

Reining ourselves in is mostly a matter of how we set and pursue goals. Those goals need to be specific and accompanied by measurable steps that beat a path to their achievement. For example: When I enter the gym, I know precisely what my objective is and what I need to do in order to meet it. I know how that objective sits within the path to my long-term goal and I know upon leaving the gym whether I've met that objective. The rewards of this mindset, accompanied by an effective workout strategy, have far exceeded any fleeting pleasure I once derived from workout spontaneity. In other words, the results from an outcome-driven mentality in bodybuilding have made those of the motive-driven ones pale by comparison.

So much of success in life depends on our mental approach. Therefore, it's important for us to honestly assess our mental strategies and discover how they affect our outer ones. Above all, when we detect that we've succumbed to a tendency to be self-congratulatory for our terrific motives rather than the consequences of our actions, it's probably time to psycho-evaluate ourselves within the context in question. This can lead to an outcome oriented mentality, which provides a foundation for the ultimate success mindset.

Scott Abbett is the author of HardBody Success: 28 Principles to Create Your Ultimate Body and Shape Your Mind for Incredible Success. To see his personal transformation, visit www.hardbodysuccess.com

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