It’s All in Your Mind

A lot of the reasons that losing weight is hard to do are psychological.  This doesn’t mean they’re easy to overcome or that it’s all your fault you can’t lose belly fat.  These are real weight loss hurdles, but you can beat them.  You just need to know how to recognize them first.

Set Realistic Goals

One of the most common reasons people fail to lose weight is that they set inappropriate goals for themselves.  When your goals are too lofty, you will almost certainly fail to attain them.  Since you failed, you give up thinking you probably just don’t have what it takes to lose weight.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  You just need to know how to set realistic goals.  This is not something that most fad diets or exercise plans promote, however.

You’ll hear all kinds of things about plans that can help you lose 30 pounds in 30 days or something to that effect.  That sounds pretty good, right?  Even if you’re not buying into one of these plans particularly, you’ll probably be influenced by the time line they advertise.  Herein lies the problem.

It’s completely unrealistic to expect to lose 30 pounds in 30 days and even if you did do it, you’d be extremely unhealthy at the end.  That’s because a reasonable rate of weight loss is one to three pounds per week.  So, in 30 days, maybe you’d lose eight pounds – and you’d think you’d failed.  In reality though, eight pounds is a lot and you were doing great.  It’s easy to see how unrealistic expectations can doom a fitness plan to failure.

Every Little Choice

You won’t be able to lose fat and keep it off unless you’re able to make some real changes in the way you eat.  That doesn’t mean just cutting out pizza or fast food.  It means taking a good, long look at the foods you eat and what they’re made of.  A lot of the ingredients in our foods that make it hard to lose weight are not the ones that jump right out at you.  You need to revamp your diet to make it healthy overall.

That means making smart choices about particular products, not just types of foods.  It also means eating as many fresh foods as you can.  Staying away from processed foods is the quickest way to cut unnecessary calories and the bad kinds of fat from your diet.  You can lose belly fat and keep it off.  You just need to know what you’re trying to do.  And you need to know that it’s okay that it’s hard.

We see them in the tabloids and on the red carpet.  Female celebrities in skimpy bikinis and slinky evening dresses showing off their great looking abs.  Most women do not have abs that look like this.  So, how do women get great celebrity abs?  Surprisingly enough not from doing hundreds of crunches, taking “fat burner” pills, useless gadgets like ab belts, or boring cardio workouts.  Let’s be honest.  Losing belly fat is the only way to reveal the abs hidden underneath.  In fact, ab specific exercises do not work as well as full body workouts which increase metabolism and the body’s fat-burning hormone levels to help get rid of stubborn belly fat.  Exercise combined with proper nutrition is the answer to the question, how do women get great celebrity abs.

For good nutrition, follow this simple diet plan that includes quality protein and lots of high fiber foods like vegetables, fruit, and unrefined grains.  Cutting fat completely out of your diet is not a good idea.  Sources of good fat are olive oil, avocados, eggs, and nuts.  Foods to avoid are refined sugars and grains such as white sugar and refined flour.  Also, stay away from artificial trans-fats found in hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup that is used as a sweetener.  One of the most important rules to follow to insure proper nutrition is avoid processed foods.  Your body doesn’t need all the additives and preservatives contained in processed food.  Enjoy food in its natural state the way it was meant to be eaten and you will feel better, be healthier, and develop those great looking celebrity abs we all want. 

Additional Resources for Women Who Want Celebrity Abs:

Your Most Stubborn Belly Fat, Gone!

Get Celebrity Abs with these Workout, Nutrition and Lifestyle Secrets

The following article contributed by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, gives you the recipe to his killer salad. Some key points to watch for in this article are: how to scale portions for calorie goals; how this salad helps you lose fat; and how the “fat” included in this salad makes it one of the healthiest salads you will ever eat.

This article also incorporates some of the same principles that you will find in “The Fat Burning Kitchen” the new program published by Mike Geary and Catherine Ebeling. The program includes the downloadable e-book, Video Tutorials, and an Advanced Nutritional Fat Burning Blueprint for accelerated fat loss over 3 to 4 weeks.

All of that said, here’s the article, enjoy the salad. It’s Killer good!

The Ultimate Muscle Meal Plan
By Mike Geary

With this article, I just wanted to share with you one of my special muscle meal plans that I love. Surprisingly, it actually comes in the form of a salad, but it is killer!

I know the ladies will love this idea, but for all of you guys out there that think eating a salad makes you less of a man… Well, you haven’t tried my ultimate “salad on roids” yet!

Keep in mind that this salad is not low in calories. It’s not low in fat. It’s not low in carbs.

And guess what…that’s the whole point! It’s not low in anything, but it sure as hell is HIGH in everything under the sun that’s good for your body… just about every vitamin, mineral, antioxidant, and phytonutrient on the planet! And that means your body will receive all the nutrition it needs to maintain optimal hormonal balance, function at it’s highest capacity, keep your appetite satisfied for hours, and prevent any unwanted cravings.

Keep in mind that last point… when you fill your body with all of the nutrients it needs on a daily basis, you pretty much totally eliminate cravings! This happens because your body is satisfied and doesn’t need to crave any more food, because it has all of the nutrients it needs.

I’ve experienced this myself. Years ago, I used to crave sweets ALL THE TIME. But now that I eat the balanced diet that I do these days, I can’t say that I’ve had a craving in at least 5 years! No joke.

Alright, here’s the special muscle meal plan recipe:

The Ultimate Muscle Salad

approx 1-2 cups spinach leaves

approx 1-2 cups mixed leaf lettuce

shredded carrots

1/2 of a ripe avocado, diced

2 hard boiled eggs, diced (preferrably organic, cage free)

3 Tbsp chopped pecans

1/4 cup dried cranberries

top with homemade dressing made of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo’s Choice Oil Blend (3/4 of total liquid should come from the vinegar)

Mix it all together and you’ve got one delicious and ridiculously nutritious salad. For an extra shot of antioxidants, wash it all down with some homemade iced green/white/oolong tea lightly sweetened with the natural sweetener Stevia or a little touch of raw honey.

Alright, now let’s look at the approx macronutrient breakdown:

Prot: 23 g., Carbs: 48 g., Fiber: 12 g., Fat: 45 g., Calories: 650

Now before you throw your arms up in disgust and call me crazy for recommending such a high fat, high calorie meal, keep in mind to scale back the portion sizes for your own caloric goal. The portions above are simply the portions that I use considering that my maintenance caloric intake is around 3000 calories/day. If your maintenance is 2000 calories/day, then scale back the portions accordingly.

Also, I don’t care about the high fat content of this meal… because every last gram of the fat in this meal is VERY healthy… from the pecans, the olive oil, the Udo’s oil, the fresh avocado… and yes, even the fat from the eggs is good for you!

How about the carbs? Well, out of a total of 48 grams, you’ve got 12 grams of fiber. That’s a pretty good ratio. Also, the healthy fats and protein in this meal will slow down the carbohydrate digestion, giving you a healthy glycemic response and steady controlled blood sugar.

Alright, so you’re probably also wondering why there isn’t a larger amount of protein. After all, protein is all the rage with bodybuilders, right. Well, actually 23 grams isn’t too shabby, especially considering 14 grams of that comes from the highly bioavailable protein from the hard boiled eggs. Also consider that this meal has a whole lot of healthy fats, which increases the utilization of your protein. This happens because your body does not need to use your protein for energy, and can instead use it for muscle building or maintenance, and all of the other various functions that amino acids are needed for in the body.

Overall, with this meal plan, you’ve got a great mix of healthy fats, good fibrous carbs, quality protein, and a huge diversity of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other trace nutrients.

Follow this link for more ideas on killer fat loss and muscle building programs.

Michael Geary (CPT) is a recognized Fitness Expert, owner of http://BusyManFitness.com, contributing writer for Muscle & Fitness Magazine, and author of the internationally-selling book, The Truth about 6-Pack Abs ©2004-2006.

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