Tag nutrition

There’s nothing quite as frustrating as that stubborn belly fat that sits around your waist, makes your pants tight and destroys your confidence.

If you have belly fat to lose, then chances are great that you are harboring one or more of these 5 habits that cause belly fat.

Read the 5 Belly Fat Habits below to identify the reason why your stubborn belly fat won’t budge…

Belly Fat Habit #1: Too Much Sugar

Sugar is found in many of the foods that you eat daily. From breakfast cereals, to coffee drinks, to protein bars, to energy drinks…more items in your daily diet contain sugar than you’re probably aware of. All of these sugar calories add up quickly and translate into many pounds gained.

Make it a habit to read the ingredients and the sugar count in the foods you are eating. Pay special attention to breakfast items, yogurts, protein bars and any item that is packaged. Avoid eating foods that contain added sugars as a part of your daily diet.

Belly Fat Habit #2: Daily Dessert

There used to be a time and place when desserts were reserved for Sunday evenings and special occasions. Not anymore! These days dessert has become a daily occurrence. Much like the first Belly Fat Habit, having dessert is another form of having too much sugar, and all those sugar calories rapidly turn to fat.

Forget eating dessert every day. Save desserts for cheat days and special occasions, and stick with fresh fruit as your daily after-meal sweet – if you must.

Belly Fat Habit #3: Bad Snacking

In recent years snacking has been named one of the best ways to maintain your metabolism, in order to burn fat all day long; and while there is some truth to eating small, high protein-high fiber meals frequently, for the most part all of this snacking has done nothing better than make us fat.

Most snack items are crunchy and salty, (two qualities that you’ll rarely find in a healthy snack) and contain loads of simple carbohydrates and, you guessed it, more sugar. In order to avoid belly fat, you’re better off avoiding all traditional snack foods, and to fall out of the habit of ‘snacking’ entirely.

If you’re hungry between meals then eat a small amount of protein and fiber, such as a hard-boiled egg with cucumber, or a packet of tuna with celery.

Belly Fat Habit #4: Daily Alcohol

Having that drink with dinner (or two, or three…) can quickly become a fast and steady habit. It’s easy to justify the drinks because you had a long, hard day and you deserve it. The alcohol takes your mind off of your troubles and loosens you up for a good time. However, all those alcohol calories are basically sugar, and all that sugar is going straight to your belly. (Beer belly, anyone?)

Breaking your daily alcohol habit is tough, I’ll give you that, however it may motivate you to know that it’s nearly impossible to lose fat on a day when you’re drinking alcohol. Alcohol = fat storage mode. Also it’s great to know that once you’ve allocated alcohol to cheat days and special occasions, you’ll lose fat quicker and easier than ever before.

Belly Fat Habit #5: Lack of Exercise

This one is kind of a no-brainer, right? If you aren’t moving your body in a consistent, challenging way then you’re going to store body fat, plain and simple. An effective, invigorating exercise routine is the ticket you need to dump that fat for good.

I’m here to help you simply and easily lose all of your unwanted belly fat. There’s no time like the present to begin an exercise program that really works – and my programs have been proven to be very effective, so let’s get going!

Call me today, or schedule an appointment to ditch that belly fat forever.

I believe the right balance of exercise and nutrition is the secret weapon to a happier life. It’s that simple. Once a healthy equilibrium of these two elements exist in your life, you will quickly see other areas of your life improve as well.

As I have worked with clients over the years, and when I made the decision myself over 20 years ago to get physically fit and improve my nutrition habits, areas of improvement encompassed better mental clarity; more energy; improvements in hair, skin and nails; decreased headache and digestive issues, improved sleep, boost in immunity and overall health, better mood, increased motivation, and decreased cravings for junk food – just to name a few.

Chances are you’ve heard some of the following five tips for improving your eating habits, but have you TRIED them? The key is going from ‘knowing’ to ‘doing’. OK, so maybe doing all these things today might be asking a lot. Just start with one for a week, adding a new habit each week, and, I promise, you will be surprised at the transformation.

1)    Eat breakfast! The sooner you eat each day, the sooner you jump start your metabolism, which equates to burning more calories more efficiently throughout the day. Select a combination of protein, complex carbs and healthy fats. This combination will help keep you satiated until lunch, help with mental focus, and provide the necessary energy for the first part of your day.

2)    Choose sugar free or low sugar products over low fat or fat free foods. Sugar free foods are generally lower in calories. Less sugar in the diet also helps eliminate the ‘crave and crash’ cycle of being hungry, eating a sugary snack, which provides a quick boost of energy, then crashing low blood sugar which makes you feel hungry again.

3) Not all salads are created equal. Green doesn’t always mean ‘lean’. The term ‘dressed to kill’ really comes into play here. A typical Caesar salad has more and calories than a Big Mac because of the dressing, croutons and cheese. When ordering or making a salad select low fat and low sugar dressings, preferably vinaigrettes; dark greens like romaine, spinach and kale versus iceberg lettuce; and vegetables versus fruits or croutons. Try adding some lean protein to your salad like grilled salmon or chicken to make it a stand-alone meal.

4)    Eat four to six small meals a day, instead of the traditional three big meals. Smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day speeds up your metabolism and shrinks the stomach so you get full quicker. This way of eating, sometimes called grazing, also provides necessary energy throughout the day, and helps avoid the 2:00 slump or crash that many people experience after lunch during a typical workday.

5)    Shop on the outskirts or perimeter of the grocery store; produce, lean meats and dairy. Processed and high sugar foods located in the middle aisles are much lower in nutritional value, and will not keep you satiated as long.(spinach)

Combining good nutrition is a great start to getting healthy. Combined with regular exercise and a fitness routine that works with your schedule will have you on the path to health in no time.

Nutrition and Fitness Go Together

Congratulations!  You’ve just decided to get started on a fitness regime.  You’ve taken an important step toward improving your health and quality of life. But there is another step that is equally important – proper nutrition! 

Like an automobile, you must take care of the ‘whole package’ for maximum performance and functioning.  Even if a car’s motor is tuned up, it’s not going anywhere without the right gas in the tank.  Can you imagine putting dirty water from your dishes in your car’s gas tank?  Of course not!  It’s not the right fuel, and in fact would be destructive.  It’s the same with our bodies. We can do sit ups all day, but a steady diet of cheeseburgers won’t get you very far. Proper fuel promotes peak performance.

When I begin to work with a new client, they are often afraid of the ‘diet’ portion of the program. They fear what they will have to give up, or must live without – ‘forever’ (in their mind.) It’s just not that way. Proper nutrition is not a ‘diet’ in the way most Americans think about it; i.e. low carb diets, no-sugar diets, South Beach diet, etc. Proper nutrition is feeding our bodies the essential elements it needs for proper functioning. Good nutrition is like a health insurance policy, and guess what – it tastes really good!

Once you enter the fun and challenge of a personal fitness regime, you begin to invest time and energy into one of your greatest gifts and assets – your body. It’s uniquely yours, and it’s yours forever, so it only makes sense to take the absolute best care of it possible. A customized fitness program demands expending a lot of energy, which will naturally put your focus on the best way to ‘get’ energy. The answer lies in good food with the proper vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

Foods high in sugar, fat and sodium provide a short-term fix of immediate gratification, but often leave us wanting more, which is a difficult cycle to break. In the words of Dr. Joel Fuhrman, a physician specializing in nutrition-based treatments for obesity and chronic disease, “most Americans don’t even know what true hunger feels like.” Instead of living to eat, the focus should be on eating to live a fun, happy and pleasurable life. Foods with proper nutrition give us the energy we need, and feed us fuel to accomplish the tasks of life, and best of all to feel good!

At Full Spectrum Fitness, I can help you develop a specific plan tailored for your goals.  My plans focus on making sure you have the energy you need in the form of complex carbs prior to exercise to maintain stamina during a challenging workout, and protein afterward to help rebuild strained muscle tissue. Once you start, you will be surprised at how easy and naturally the rest will follow.

Please schedule time with me to develop your nutrition plan today!