1. Set a Realistic Goal. Healthy weight loss is typically about a half to two pounds a week.  Don’t be disappointed if someone else lost more their first week.
2. Initial Assessment. It is important to know where you are starting.  Take photos from all angles in tight fitting clothes (work out gear is best).  Take your measurements.  Have your body fat tested and calculate your BMI.  Keep records.
3. Track your progress. Keep notes in a journal of what you are eating, how often you eat, the exercise you are getting and how you are feeling.  Dieters who keep track of everything they eat lose twice as much weight as those who don’t, research shows.
4. Behavior Shifts. Don’t expect to lose weight if you keep doing what you were doing.  Reduce calories from foods like mayonnaise, butter, cheese, bacon, unhealthy oils, processed foods, sugars, enriched flour, high fructose corn syrup and sweets.  Get on a meal plan and stick to it.  Meal replacement plans work great and help to reduce calories.
5. Accountability. First and foremost, you are doing this for YOU.  Don’t quit on yourself!!  It’s always a great idea to get the support from family, friends, neighbors or co-workers to keep you accountable, or to join the Challenge with you!
6. Motivation. Promise yourself a reward for achieving your weight loss or fitness goal. Maybe a shopping spree, a trip to the Day Spa, a Round of Golf, etc.  Give yourself something to look forward to and put a picture of your reward somewhere you will see it often.
7. Cut out liquid calories. This is simple. Eliminate soda and sugary drinks such as sweetened iced tea, coffee ,sports drinks and alcoholic beverages. Drink water and herbal teas. Liven up the taste of water by adding lemon, lime, cucumber or mint.
8. Get your ZZZ’s. Scientists have found that sleep deprivation increases levels of a hunger hormone and decreases levels of a hormone that makes you feel full. The effects may lead to overeating and weight gain. Not good.
9. Weigh yourself often. Some. like me, do it daily (a little obsessive!), some do it weekly.  You will have something to look forward to if you do it weekly and won’t get discouraged on days you don’t lose.  Remember, healthy weight loss is only .5-2 #’s a week!
10. Put the food to bed early. Do not eat after 8pm.  No midnight snacking.
11. Move and Shake. Get out and exercise.  Walking, jogging, elliptical, running, swimming, biking, hiking, etc.  Research shows that people who do physical activities such as walking or biking for two to four hours a week during weight-loss efforts lose an extra 3 to 5 pounds over a year.
12. I’ll have water with that. Drinking 16 ounces, or two glasses, of water before meals may help you eat less.
13. No more Supersize. Using smaller versions of your serving ware will help you eat less food naturally.  Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.  People tend to fill whatever they have, so reach for smaller plates, cups and bowls.
14. Snack Healthy. Keep plenty of Nuts, Celery, Carrots, Apples, and other cut up veggies on you, if you feel like grazing.  Put down the chips.  Step away from the ice cream.  The more colorful, the more healthy.
15. Treat yourself occasionally. This does not mean every couple hours!  This means a small treat once a day. If you are eating out, make healthier choices.  Many states now require the calories to be on the menu (Hooray for that!!)

1. Plan ahead for the time you will be gone from home

2. The lack of a gym is no excuse, exercise in your room.

3. Schedule your workouts early in the AM in the case something comes up. At least your workout is in and you didn’t miss it.

4. Remember to pack your necessary equipment, dvd’s, bands, apparel, shoes.

5. Remember to pack your meal replacement drink, post recovery drink and supplements.

6. Pack your water container.

Here is an article I read a while back that I would like to share. Keep in mind that this group was testing the effects of exercise on blood sugar levels. Diet can also be an effective way of controlling your blood sugar levels!
People with Type 2 diabetes should mix aerobics with weight training to get the best results in lowering blood sugar, a new study suggests.

The combination worked best for weight loss too, compared to aerobics or weight training alone.
Blood sugar is fuel to muscles, and more sugar is burned during aerobic activity. Weight training builds more muscle, and both activities change muscle proteins in ways that enhance the process.
“It’s clear that doing both aerobic and strength training is superior to either alone,” said lead author Dr. Tim Church of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. “It’s almost like taking two different drugs.”

Patients in the study, published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, achieved the results over nine months, exercising three days a week for about 45 minutes each session.
“People can manage this amount of exercise,” said Laurie Goodyear, of Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, who wasn’t involved in the new study but does similar research. “They didn’t have to go on a diet. This was purely an exercise effect.”
3 programs tested
The researchers’ goal was to test three exercise programs that doctors could realistically recommend and patients could stick with. They compared aerobics alone, weight training alone and a combination. U.S. guidelines recommend aerobics and weight training combined for all adults.

All three groups worked out for about the same amount of time. A fourth group was offered only weekly stretching and relaxation classes for further comparison. The study was completed by 245 people with Type 2 diabetes.

Led by trainers, patients walked on a treadmill that raised the uphill grade by two per cent every two minutes for the aerobics.

Weight training, also supervised, was done on machines that worked muscles in the upper body and legs, with more weight added as participants increased their strength.

“It gave me a lot more energy. That was one of the first things I noticed,” said Deidra Atkins-Ball, 44, a biology professor diagnosed with diabetes a year before she joined the aerobics-weights group.

A distant aunt with diabetes lost both legs and her vision to the disease. Too much blood sugar can damage nerves, eyes, the heart and blood vessels.

“I remember as a kid having to do things for her, going to the store for her,” Atkins-Ball said. “It really scared me.”

The researchers found that only the group that combined aerobics and weights both lowered their blood sugar and lost weight, although all three fitness groups reduced their waist sizes.

Fewer patients in the combo group started taking new diabetes drugs than in the other groups. Decisions on medications were left up to the patients’ regular doctors during the study.

Forty-one per cent of the patients in the combo group either decreased their diabetes medications or lowered their average blood sugar as measured by a common blood test, compared to 26 per cent for weights only, 29 per cent for aerobics only and 22 per cent in the non-exercise group.

The blood sugar reduction achieved by the combo group was enough to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other complications, the researchers wrote, citing earlier studies.

See we have a Killer at Large in this nation and within 10 years 50% of school age children will become insulin dependent. This is what is killing this nation. We get repetitive messages each day while on the computer, watching TV, listening to the radio and driving down the street to eat eat eat. We can go anywhere at any time to buy a soda, bag of chips or a candy bar. We have access to cheap foods that have zero nutritional value at all everywhere we look.

IF you would like to understand the bigger picture, watch this video.

If you are moved by the video and want to know what you can do for yourself or to help this fight our Country is fighting, then get with me by emailing me @ BeachbodyCoachDevin@gmail.com, call me @ 317-721-6624 of join me @ Join Devin