The path to getting a great looking body is neither short nor easy. This accomplishment is only achieved after a lot of long, hard, and consistent work.

Too bad that you can’t get there with pills or quick fix machines. Did you know that the government busted a scam that peddled electric abdominal belts and other contraptions?

These schemers harvested over millions of dollars from customers by selling them that junk. One day I saw what used to be a nearby vacant lot.

Now when I look at it I see a huge building with hundreds of condos in it.
Just looking at it, it’s a pretty impressive building.

But I saw them building this thing, something very interesting to watch.

I saw the workers coming every day to do their part of the work. From one day to the next the construction site didn’t seem to change much.

But over a long period of time the building started to take shape.

It’s about the same way when you see a person with a great body. It probably didn’t always look like that.

It took a lot of work, a lot of planning, and a lot of dedication.

If you were at the gym, you probably could have seen that person every day.

You probably never even would have noticed any difference in appearance. But after a long time of steady work, here’s a person who looks very impressive.

Don’t get discouraged if you’re working out and doing everything right but just don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Think of each day as a brick, some foundation work, or site preparation. If you keep working according to your blueprint, you’ll become an awesome looking structure one day!

Why is it that opportunists are always waiting to make a buck on the next scientific discovery concerning body fat? They make a huge profit from all the hype and all the gullible consumers who pay good money for their scams. Seems like as soon as the news gets out that the fraudulent claims are on infomercials and magazine ads. They rake in the cash until the feds shut them down and then they move on to the next thing.

Seems like people are always ready to spend their money on the quick fix, regardless of how shady it seems. A good example is how scammers tried to exploit the relationship between cortisol and abdominal fat.

All you have to do is search the web about cortisol and you’ll be amazed at what you see.
According to the entrepreneurs, cortisol makes you fat, causes stress, and hinders muscle growth.

When people hear the advertising that is supposed to be based on science, they believe it and buy the products.

There are also key words like stress to make an emotional appeal that some people can’t resist. The only problem is that most of the announced claims are just lies with a sprinkling of truth.

You need to be aware of cortisol if you are going to optimize you health and fitness program.

You need to be careful too, because if you don’t get accurate information, you too could become a victim. Here are a few brief answers to common questions about cortisol.

- What is cortisol?

Cortisol is a naturally produced hormone that is made in the adrenal glands. It effects the level of glucose in the blood.

– What is the purpose of cortisol?

Cortisol has to do with the body’ reaction to stress. The more stress you have, the more cortisol you will have. – How does it work? As part of the human fight or flight reaction process, cortisol is released at stressful or traumatic times. You can get tested to see what your cortisol level is. Too much of a good thing can hurt you. You gain weight from eating too much, not from exccess amounts of cortisol. You will always do better by developing an effective nutrition and exercise program than by taking any supplement.

You’d be amazed at the holiday traditions that are in my family. My mom makes a three-layer cake for Christmas from a light vanilla cake mix After baking it she puts on layers of whipped cream followed by red and green Jell-O for frosting. Red and green sprinkles top off the cake along with candy canes.

Even a body builder like me has trouble saying no to things like this on Christmas! In spite of how much I want to eat that cake, I manage to limit myself to one small piece.

After that, the next morning you’ll find me on the Stairmaster keeping up with my normal workout schedule, and keeping up my nutrition.

The next week on New Year’s Eve, I’m out eating bad food and toasting in the New Year. You won’t find me hung over and groggy the next morning: I’ll be in the gym working out.

I’m here to tell you that it’s OK to enjoy being with family and friends and having some fun for the holidays. You can even have some things to eat that you know aren’t good for you.

But also, there’s no reason why you can’t do all this and stay healthy and fit.

Here are some tips that will help you stay on your diet and survive the holiday season in good shape.

1. Plan on keeping your health and fitness training over the holidays. If you don’t make plans to stay faithful, you probably won’t. If you expect to gain weight and get off your schedule, you probably will.

2. Schedule exercise times and routines ahead of schedule. Put a copy on the wall where you will see it and be reminded of what you expect from yourself.

3. Make some challenging goals to achieve over the holidays. You don’t have to be part of the crowd that gains weight and loses momentum for Christmas.

One thing that’s hard to have when you’ve got serious fat issues is patience. It’s normal to want that fat gone and to want it gone as soon as possible. After all, you see all the ads that promise miracle weight loss, and you see people losing weight rapidly. Even television shows reward people for getting rid of lots of pounds in little time.

So, it’s almost universal for people to want to have fast results in weight loss. You need to realize, however, that you can develop major issues by forcing yourself to lose weight faster than you should.

One problem is that when you lose weight, you are losing muscle along with the fat: this kills your metabolism.
Furthermore, weight that is lost fast comes back fast. That’s the way it is.

Come to think of it, most of the weight problems are problems with keeping it off, rather than with losing it.

You can make your weight loss permanently and healthily by targeting about two pounds every week. Even one pound a week isn’t too bad. This is what almost any nutrition specialist will tell you. The same thing goes for professional fitness groups.

The only exception is that if you are massively overweight, you can lose slightly more than two pounds per week.

Let’s get more specific: the rule is that you can lose 1% of your weight in a seven day period: the limit would be 3 pounds if you weighed 300. There is a caveat: the importance in weight loss is losing fat: you don’t want to lose muscle tissue.

See, your weight includes fat and lean tissue. There are also your internal organs and water.

If weight loss was so important, we could just saw off one of your arms or legs, right?

Approach weight loss the right way: that way it will be gone for good.

There is a lot of research being touted about that claims that new research proves that obesity is caused by hereditary. The message of most of this is that it’s not your fault if you are fat: it’s biology and the environment. I’m sure that genes have a part to play in the big picture, but I also think it’s dangerous to start believing that you have to be fat. I don’t like emphasizing the heredity aspect because it is does not empower you to become whatever you’d like to be: you are still in control!

Sure, you might have problematic genes, but the only way you are going to get a healthy body is if you take personal responsibility for yourself and for your body. I’m not being insensitive: I understand that weight loss might be more difficult for some people because of heredity.

This body type you have is largely inherited just like your eyes and hair. At first, none of us gets to choose our body make up. In fact, a psychology has developed a system to classify body types in the following categories: ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs.

The ectomorphs are thin and usually don’t have weight problems even if they eat a lot.

Mesomorphs are the ones who are naturally inclined to athletics: they can build muscle and lose fat almost at their will. Then the ones with the round bodies and the big bones are the endomorphs who retain fat and struggle with weight and exercise.

Part of the endomorphic problem is that they have metabolic issues with carbohydrates, producing too much insulin.

The condition they develop is a resistance to insulin, resulting in weight gain. So while you may have a legitimate health issue, you need to find ways to overcome it rather than let yourself be limited by it.

There are always stories about how people act boneheaded when working out. You hear them over and over again, and the same things keep happening. There are stories about using weights that are too heavy, skipping stretching, failure to warm up, etc. When you think about what some people do, you have no choice but to call the really bad mistakes boneheaded, stupid, ignorant… whatever.

Sure, when people do them they might seem real bad, but upon analysis, they are terrible. It’s easy to point fingers when people make a mistake, but the goal is to help people avoid dangerous errors in the gym.

Here are a few of the most significant mistakes I see on a regular basis. 1. Failure to plan. People show up to work out and decide on the fly what to do. This tends to be very ineffective.

2. Doing the same thing over and over again without making them harder.

Eventually, the body acclimates to a certain amount of stress so you have to add weight or repetitions to increase intensity. Muscles get adjusted to a routine and after a while they aren’t even challenged.

So regularly increase the demands you place on your body.

3. Failure to eat properly. What’s the sense of working out if you’re going to keep eating junk food?

Creating a calorie deficit means you need to keep tabs of what you eat as well as what you do so you’ll lose weight.

4. Impatience. People want a great body and they want it now.

5. Inconsistency. You’ve got to keep at your workout and dietary program. Every workout takes you closer to the weight and look you desire.

If you keep pushing yourself, you will develop the discipline you need: after a while working out will come naturally.

You’ll find some people who say that nutrition is more important than training. Then there are others who think the opposite who will argue that training is the most important. The answer to the debate is that nutrition and training are both vital: they depend on each other. I’ll go so far as to say that a balance must exist between cardio, strength training, and nutrition.

To neglect one in favor of the other is going to leave your body and your efforts off balance. Of course, if your knowledge in one area is deficient, you have to pay close attention to it.

For example if you are still eating processed foods, you’ve got to take care of that problem. But still, you need to work to make sure your nutrition is constantly improving while you’re getting the most out of your strength and aerobic workouts. You will get better results from a better diet and from better exercise.

Generally speaking, however, beginners will get the most benefit from addressing nutrition. But then again, beginners will profit from training too: see what I mean?

For those who have been around for a while, they have mastered nutrition and have learned advanced training principles. If you need to make a call on whether diet or exercise is more important to a healthy lifestyle, we’d have to listen to some experts who’ve been in the business for a very long time. While they emphasize a balance between the two, most will come down on the side of nutrition.

One strength coach says that an advanced weight trainer might use up to 300 exercise variations to adapt to a routine within a couple weeks.

Nutrition on the other hand takes a lot longer to take hold in a lifestyle, so if attention to it lapses, it could take months to recover.

So while diet and training are both important, the most essential is nutrition.

Many reports have been produced that show the relationship of protein to muscle health, but still no one knows how much protein is best for the development of muscle mass. One thing that we do know is that protein is confirmed to have an effect on suppressing appetite. Protein satisfies hunger more than carbohydrates and fats do. A recent research group studied people for four weeks showed that people taking in more protein are more effective at weight maintenance.

This study compared people on controlled diets, one of protein and the other of a control group. Besides the protein eaten, the diet of both groups was identical. Both groups had controlled food intake.

The best results for weight were found in the group with the most protein.
Scientists have shown us that protein boosts metabolism, in a process called dietary thermogenesis.

This had a positive result on body composition because the people with the most protein gained muscle tissue while losing fat.

The effect on tissue builds upon that because muscle itself takes more calories to maintain. As far as calories go, they are always going to be key when discussing fat loss, but body builders know that they are more than just fat.

Protein has just as much to do with body composition as calories do, especially when taken relative to carbohydrates.

The amount of protein that made a different for people in the studies is just about 30 grams. When you consider that many power diets employed these days call for up to 40% of total calories per day to be protein, it makes you wonder if increased protein will be proven to be even more effective in improving body composition.

Still, the lesson we have learned is clear: lowering carbohydrate intake and increasing protein intake can significantly reduce appetite and burn fat.

How To Lose Weight Fast With Organic Foods… Is It Expensive?

Did you ever wonder how to lose weight fast naturally at home? Well, the answer is simple. Add organic foods to your diet. I’m not talking about a lot of the processed junk food that they label as organic at the stores. (These can get expensive) I’m talking about grass fed organic beef, wild caught fish, free range poultry and organic raw fruits and vegetables. ( Much cheaper if you know how to buy them.)

For people wondering what I meant about grass fed beef, I really do mean the healthy, natural, lean meat found at places like Whole Foods or local farms. . Whole Foods is a great place to get foods that are unprocessed and organic. One of the most common objections to Whole Foods is that the food costs so much more there. Organic natural foods really aren’t much more expensive: that’s a fact. You just need to know how to shop for them and what to buy. Whole foods is simply a great place to buy  organic natural foods and if you want to learn how to lose weight fast then you will have to understand what whole foods are.

Why Organic Foods Are Better To Lose Weight Fast

The question of whether that kind of food is worthy of the cost needs to be addressed. The answer, of course, is “Yes,” and you probably know that if you are honest about it. I have confirmed this through my own experimentation. Organic foods have 10x more nutrients than conventional foods. This is because the fruits and veggies are vine ripened, have better soil, and are not covered in pesticides. This ensures the highest amount of nutrition. As for the meat, grass fed animals create their own omega 3 fatty acids which makes the meat healthier. They are also not full of hormones and antibiotics. These dangerous chemicals are linked to health problems if you eat enough of it.  Eating organic is an essential tip if you really want to know how to lose weight fast.

Is It Better To Pay A Little More For Organic Food Now, Or Pay For Poor Health Later?

Think about having a very expensive sports car: would you put the cheapest gas in it? If you are going to spend the money on an expensive car, you probably should use decent gas in it. This is the same for your body. If you are investing the time on how to lose weight fast, why would you not do everything possible to succeed? Only your body is worth more than a car: it’s you! So, it’s best not to stuff your body with all that bad food.

You’ll spend a lot less on healthy food than you would on all the medical bills you will have down the road from eating processed food. To get the best results on how to lose weight fast you have to get grass fed beef. Notwithstanding arguments from vegetarians, I believe that it’s important to keep track of what is in our meat. Just think about all that’s missing from the processed foods  we are eating (like nutrients) and all that is added into our food (like chemicals). Some reports indicate that as many as 3,000 different chemicals are added to our food and that over a billion pounds of pesticides are used to grow it.

What Is The Right Decision For You?

The answer is to research the matter and become educated about how food is produced: I am confident that you will become convinced that the organic / whole food  approach is the way to go if you are looking at how to lose weight fast naturally at home. Feed your body with healthy foods now, and as you age, you will look younger, feel better, have more energy to exercise and be healthier overall. Remember that the nutrients in organic foods are 10X more potent than what is found in conventional food. Plus they aren’t full of toxic, cancer causing pesticides, hormones, anti-biotics, etc. Small amounts of toxins will add up in your body and lodge in your fat cells, making it much more difficult to lose weight fast.

Sometimes sad stories will be in the news that talk about people diving into water without checking to see how deep it is first. Equally sad are people who plunge into fad diets without investigating their ramifications. You may notice that most popular diet plans use scientific terminology like metabolic switching to get you started in a phase of induction. Sometimes these diets will kick off by fasting on an all liquid diet or cleansing phase.

Most experts see these inductions as a gimmick that is designed to get some weight of quickly so you’ll stick with the plan. I agree with those naysayers because I know that fad diets are going to increase your risk of failure.If you want to learn how to lose weight fast, then keep reading.

The phenomenon known as rebound weight will nab you almost every time by doing an induction phase. The best way to look at induction phases is as a politically correct crash diet.

Because people have been conditioned to expect immediate results, diet sellers design their plans to accommodate them.

The truth is that a meaningful diet will require significant changes in habit and behavior over the long term in order to be successful. What I am talking about is not always a quick fix.

The goal for dieting should not be to take off weight rapidly: it should be to attain permanent weight loss.

Here are a few rules to follow: don’t crash diet, don’t get in weight emergencies, and don’t take shortcuts. You are always going to be better off if you take the time making an effort to build new foundations for your life so you don’t relapse.

While you can induce, the induction should be the application of sound health practices.

For example, slowly reduce your carbs until you reach your optimum level.

Rather than getting sucked into a dangerous fad, make up your mind that you will change your life and your weight.