Diet For A Toned and Sculpted Body

The reality is no matter how much exercise you are doing or how much you’ve spent on the workout equipments; you’ll never achieve that ripped look and without the proper diet to go along with your workouts.

Here are 3 diet guidelines that can help:

1- Eat small meals roughly 6 times every day instead of 3 large meals. Make your meals a mix of good carbs, protein and good fats. The small, frequent meals can increase your metabolism while at the same time, help you build lean muscle mass.

2- Consume lean protein, like tuna fish; scrambled or boiled egg-whites; and cooked, broiled or boiled chicken.  And avoid using sauces or high-fat condiments. To be more efficient, you should start using a diet journal so you can keep track of unhealthy diet habits.

3- Eat some carbs, but make sure they are good carbs, such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, fruits and vegetables. You can use the glycemic index to further help you make wise diet decisions.

Bonus Tip:

  Combine this diet along with exercises, such as crunches, sit-ups,  hanging leg raise, squats and leg lifts, and you'll be on your way to having the chiselled abs you want without the expense of those pricey machines.

Core Muscles Training Explained

When working out, it’s very important to do core muscle strengthening exercises as a part of your training program. The core muscles are the muscle groups of the back and the abdominal muscles. These muscles groups bear the spine and keep your body well-balanced and supported.

 Whenever you work on developing and strengthening these muscle groups, you will improve your physical appeal, enhance your fitness level and may even put an end to lower back pain.

Here 3 tips to help you with your core workouts.

1- Do more of the exercises that target your body’s 29 core muscles. Four of the main workouts that will tone and strengthen the core muscle area are the bridge, abdominal crunch or sit up, plank and quadruped. In addition, choose workout routines that will simultaneously work the core muscles of your body. This will have a much better effect on strengthening your body, instead of doing exercises that isolate each set of muscles.

2- Whenever doing core muscle exercises, you should take in slow and deep breaths. This type of breathing can help you reduce fatigue and ensure constant delivery of oxygen to your working muscles. Therefore, you improve training performance and enjoyment levels.

3- Give your core muscle and body enough rest and recovery—at least one day in order to recover from the hard work-load of training. Overworking your core muscle will only leave you injured, fatigued and discouraged.

Strenght Training and Recovery : The Forgotten Link

The secrets to efficient weight training are consistent exercise and plenty of recovery. If you’re pushing yourself hard at the gym but you aren’t allowing for sufficient rest, then you won’t reach much muscle mass building results.

In reality, you’ll just increase the chances of injury and burnout. Poor recovery negatively affects your immune system as well. And that isn't the ideal and most efficient approach for building muscles.

Real growth takes place during the recovery period; not during the workout. Your body solely builds muscles whenever you’re not weight training. Put another way, you simply can build muscle mass while sleeping and resting, not while you’re at the gym, Period.

 Hence, if you pump iron and don’t get enough sleep and rest, then building muscle is a near impossibility.

For that reason, make sure to schedule your off days and make sure to unwind and forget about the tension of training.

You can do this by spacing out your 3 workout with a recovery day; if taking a full day a rest isn't an option, you can opt for a cross-training activity for instance running or swimming. However, make sure to never put extra strain on your muscle. And get as much sleep as you possibly can.

 If you’re sleep deprived, then you should catch up on your sleep. This will ensure you get your mind and body fresh for the upcoming workouts.

Training Journals : Things to Keep Track Of

If you want to achieve staggering progress with your fitness and health goals then you should start using a training journal. This will help you keep track of your workout details and progress.

Reviewing out with your training journal before a workout gives your mind a clear set of guidelines and directions to follow. 

This takes place on an unconscious level so you don’t even need to think about it. hence it’s strongly recommended to keep your health and fitness goals clearly inscribed on your training journal so anytime you plan for a workout, you get a quick peek at the reasons why you’re doing what you’re doing. This certainly enhances motivation and fuels performance.

Below are a few of the few things you have to plan with your training journal before: 

- What type of workout is on agenda;
- The duration of the workout;
- Do you've any soreness or pains from the last workout? If that's the case you may have to pace yourself or perhaps take the day off if it is an option;
- What is your energy level? If you began the day feeling totally depleted, this either means that you haven’t fully recovered from past workouts or you’re lacking energy intake.
- Your health and fitness goals and progress.

Of course don’t feel the need to follow the above guidelines verbatim. Use some common sense and only keep track of what seems mandatory and of significance to your fitness goals.

Lose The Weight, Not The Muscle - Cardio Vs. Strength Traininig

 Losing the extra weight without losing the muscle can be a bit of a challenge. This is especially true if you’re squeeze in strength and cardio training into the same fitness program. The latter one has a notorious reputation for burning muscle mass, however, here is a training tip that can help you lose the weight and spare the muscle.

Separate Cardio and Strength Training Into 2 Sessions

If you don’t want to get rid of your cardio session then you ought to do the strength and cardio training on separate days and keep switching between them. Hence, making sure that your body has properly recovered and is able to take on the challenge without increasing the chances of burnout or muscle mass loss.

Nonetheless, if you tend to be more like me and simply one workout a day isn’t enough, then you ought to opt for the more advanced option and do both trainings on the same day. Yet, you should at the very least split the two workout routines by more than 8 hours and make sure that your energy tanks are full and ready to sustain the intense exercise. Increasing your carbohydrates intake during such training days can prevent the protein breakdown—which is the main cause of muscle mass loss.

And when it comes to what training comes first, for me personally, I am inclined to doing the strength in the morning, then aerobic exercise afterwards in the evening. Usually after cardio training, the body is drained and can no longer perform at a peak level. However, I have met other people who may preach otherwise. However, it’s your decision to make. No suit fits all.

Mini Goals: The Path To Permanent Weight Loss

Setting realistic health and fitness goals - including weight, exercise, diet and motivation goals - before you embark on the weight loss path is essential step to a successful program. Therefore, here is one tip which can help you set goals more effiecienlty.

Set Mini Goals

Start with setting a few tiny daily goals. Your weight goal might be to lose 1 pound every week. If you hardly exercised in the past, you might want to go walking for 30 minutes every day. A good diet goal may be to cut back your fat intake or to use small dinner plates.

Whenever you set your main goal and have a time-plan for reaching it, break it down into a number of mini goals to accomplish as you go along. Setting a big goal can seem a little intimidating. Nonetheless, breaking it down into smaller goals helps you to focus on your first mini goal and gives you a feeling of accomplishment once you reach that target. Then just proceed to the next mini goal until you get to your big goal. And so on.

Losing The Last 10 Pounds - Calorie Intake Needs

Losing those last 10 pounds might be the final thing that sets you apart from being totally satisfied with your body weight, and I’m not exaggerating here. 10 pounds isn't a huge number, but for most people who are on the weight loss journey, these pounds acquire much of a symbolic meaning— especially after months of being  faithful and disciplined to daunting and draining weight loss strategies.
Therefore, here is one strategy you can use immediately to help you to get rid of those 10 pounds for good.

Re-evaluate your calorie consumption

As outlined by Susan Moores, R.D., and spokesperson for The American Dietetic Association, with each pound you lose, you should deduct your calorie intake needs by roughly 8 calories. Hence, the more excess pounds you get rid of, the less calorie intake you need, except if you’re training intensity is soaring or on the rise.

8 calories doesn’t look that much, nonetheless it does mount up. Assuming you have lost thirty pounds, then you definitely should reduce the quantity of calories you consume by over 240 calories to keep losing weight. Once the body weighs less, it usually needs less calorie burn to move around and function properly. Hence the lighter you weigh, the less your calorie intake needs tend to be.

Diet for Building muscle Mass – Protein and Building Muscles

The reason number one for muscle mass loss can be found in the lack of protein intake. Protein is essential for recovery and other vital bodily functions. The muscle renewal process relies on protein to restore and strengthen the muscle fibers and supply them with the necessary building blocks for recovery and growth. 

 Therefore, if you don’t take enough protein into your body, the recovery and rebuilding process will be granted a halt, therefore, you’ll have poor recovery, and be susceptible to infections and frequent injuries.

 As a result, you should consume moderate amounts of protein, both before and after the workout. Here are some common sources of protein:

• Beef;

• Chicken;

• Fish;

• Pork;

• Eggs and Dairy;

• Beans (including soy);

• Nuts and Seeds; etc.

Of course, in case of extreme protein deprivation, you can use supplements to sustain your muscle growth and make sure to lose weight instead of losing muscle mass.

How to Achieve Staggering Consistency With Your Workout Program

If you want to achieve staggering consistency with your workout program, then try out these 3 simple tricks:

Build a ritual: 

People are creatures of habits; we tend to reiterate the same physical and mental patterns on a daily basis and what permits us to do so are the rituals we practiced over time. Therefore, if you turn your workout program into a ritual, you'll make it a part of your daily routine, therefore you won’t have to think much in order to do it--it will just happen on auto-pilot. You can do this by committing to a precise time and place for the exercise, regardless of your circumstances, for at least four weeks.

Use Positive Anchors: 

Anchoring is linking an exterior stimulus to an external experience or mental condition. Through associative conditioning, you can train your brain to correlate an outside trigger for a mental state that’s most suited for the exercise. For instance, I never go out for a run without my cap, and as soon as I wear it, my body responds instantly and knows that is time for working out. Of course, this happens with practice and time, but it’s definitely worth the hard work.

Mastermind Group

You’re the people you surround yourself with. If you blend with healthy and productive individuals, you're more likely to get what you look for, and the other way around. Therefore, be aware of those who you spend time with and do your foremost to mix with more balanced and successful people.

How to Prepare For the Morning Workout

The morning workout will help you to trim down, ramp up metabolism levels long after the exercise has been finished, and have a better frame of mind afterwards. Furthermore, exercisers who tend to work out in the morning are not as likely to get interrupted, or to be inconsistent.

Consequently, here are the 3 strategies you have to implement in order to work out efficiently in the morning.


1- Prepare yourself the night before the workout

you don’t typically have, early in the day, plenty of time to waste in doing mundane activities. Consequently, the simplest way to prepare for your morning workout is to lay out the clothes, and training apparels just before you get to sleep. If you knew that all things are ready and just waiting for your signal, then you'll be motivated and looking forward to leap out of bed and start the workout. Furthermore, if you’re living with a spouse, he or she will be grateful for not being annoyed.

2- Get Adequate Sleep

If you like to stay up most of the night and watch television or surf the Internet before going to bed, and since you’re planning on waking up for an early workout, you certainly need to alter your nightly schedule. To be prepared and energized for the morning workout, you have to get adequate high quality sleep during the night; or else you won’t have the energy or the desire to climb out of the bed when the alarm clock goes off. Early to bed, early to rise as my parents used to preach.

3- Drink some water.

Following 7 or 8 hours of sleep, you're most expected to awaken dried out. As a result, make sure you drink at least 6 to 8 ounces of water prior to the workout. Or otherwise, you’ll suffer dehydration while working out and therefore, your exercise performance and delight will suffer greatly. You could also eat something light and provide your blood sugar levels a prompt by eating  half a banana, drinking a cup of juice or something similar a quarter-hour just before the exercise..