What Is Food Diary ?

The Nutrition Journal (Food Diary) Method

Tom Venuto, author of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle, mentioned in his book another way to track your nutrition intake is to keep a nutrition journal or food diary, either on paper or with an electronic device, software or website. This is more like “calorie counting” in the traditional sense. Throughout the day, after each meal, you log in what you just ate, or at the end of the day, you log in all your food for the entire day. The former is the best option, since people seem to get really bad cases of "eating amnesia" if they wait too long before writing it down.

I recommend counting calories and keeping a nutrition journal at least once in your life for at least 4-12 consecutive weeks or until you achieve unconscious competence. At that point, it becomes optional because habit and intuition take over.

You can come back to your meal-planning and journaling any time in the future if you slip back or if you have a very important goal you want to work on. It’s a tool that will always be there for you if you need it.

Tips on Meal Plan

The only sure-fire way to reach that hallowed place of unconscious competence where eating the right foods in the right amounts becomes automatic and you truly understand YOUR body is by going through the nutrition education process. You can gey the details in Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program

The Meal Plan method

Using software or a spreadsheet, create a menu plan meal by meal, with calories, macronutrients and serving sizes calculated properly for your goals and your energy needs. You can create 2 or more menu plans if you want the variety. Then, follow your menu plan every day. You simply weigh and measure your food portions to make sure your actual intake matches your written plan.
With this method, you really only need to "count calories" once when you create your menus. This is a method I use and you can get the details in Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program

In the next post I will discuss more on nutrition journal

Tips To Become Calorie Competent From Calorie Clueless

Calorie counting & food journaling are research-proven, effective tools for nutrition awareness.

You could choose not to count calories and eat what you “feel” your body is asking for, but if you do, that’s called guessing. If you guess correctly and eat the right amount, you lose weight. I would call that luck! Would you rather roll the nutritional dice or bet on a sure thing?

Nutrition journaling and menu planning replace guesswork with precision.

Here are stages of the learning process

Stage 1: Unconscious incompetence - you are eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts and you’re not even aware of it. (You don’t know what you’re doing and you don’t know that you don’t know what you’re doing)

Stage 2: Conscious incompetence - you are eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts, but for some reason, you now become aware of it. This is often because of a “hitting bottom” experience or an “I’m not gonna live like this anymore” epiphany. (You don’t know what you’re doing and now you know that you don’t know what you’re doing!)

Stage 3: Conscious competence - you educate yourself and begin to eat the right foods, but it takes a lot of thought and effort to eat the right things in the right amounts. (You know what you’re doing, but you have to think about it and work very hard to make it happen because you’re using willpower and still learning)
Stage 4: Unconscious competence - you’ve made the conscious effort to eat the right foods in the right amounts and you’ve counted calories and kept a nutrition journal for long enough and with enough repetition that these behaviors become habits and a part of your lifestyle. (You know what you’re doing and you do it easily and automatically without having to think about it).

I think the concept of intuitive eating has merit. If we listened to our body’s true signals, I believe that our appetite, our activity and our body weight would properly regulate themselves. The problem is, in technologically-advanced culture with an obesogenic environment, a sedentary lifestyle, social pressure and food cues tempting us at every turn, our intuitive bodily wisdom constantly gets short-circuited.
In our modern society, being able to eat by instinct and successfully guesstimate your nutrition or trust your feelings of hunger and satiety are not things that come naturally or easily.

In the next post, I will discuss on two simple ways to count calories and get this nutrition education you need are the meal plan method and the nutrition journal method.

Rowing Machine Workout Benefits

Benefits of rowing machines

Exercise with rowing maching strengthens ab, Improves Cardiovascular function , it conditions upper & lower body

Rowing is one of the best exercises for developing aerobic fitness. Unlike cardio machines such as treadmills, exercise bikes and stair climbing equipment, a rowing machine exercises your upper body as well as your lower body. The rowing stroke when using an indoor rower is composed of 65-75% leg work and 25-35% upper body work.
Other benefits of indoor rowing are getting a full body aerobic workout with one machine, and the lack of impact that is experienced when compared to other aerobic activities. When you're jogging outdoors or using a treadmill machine, there is orthopedic trauma placed on your body every time you take a step. This is not the case with indoor rowers.

visit the link to know Why I Think kettler kadett rowing machine is Best Rowing Exercise Machine

3 Ways To Burn Stomach Flab .

men and women who only have 45 minutes, 3 times per week for exercise just can’t depend on slow cardio workouts to burn belly fat.

After 15 minutes of resistance training, finish with 15-20 minutes of interval training. Use a warmup, then do a few intervals, and then cool-down. You don’t need a lot of intervals to get great fat burning results.
With that workout schedule, you’ll be in and out of the gym in 45 minutes, three times per week.

The best way to lose stomach fat is to use the following three exercise methods.

1) Bodyweight circuit training to warm-up the body

2) Resistance training supersets to boost the metabolism

3) Interval training to burn belly fat

Put those three, short exercise methods together into one great belly fat burning workout if you want to lose stomach fat fast!

You can read The Truth About Six Pack Abs - A Case Study By Celebrity Fitness Expert Rita for more information.

4 Quick Fat Loss Success Secrets

Here are 4 slimming tips that worked for many ex fat men & women like you.

1. Don't weigh yourself every day because it fluctuates. Set a target weekly target and just checks once in a week.

2. Check online or n the local Barnes & Noble or at the library for some great diet or simple fat burning diet or exercises. Just I was motivated for quick fat loss after reading Ana's success story on fatburningfurnace.

3. Take vegetables (like asparagus, broccoli, and cauliflower) instead of pasta in dishes. It fills you up for way fewer calories and adds more fiber to your diet. I found an article on negative calorie diet.

4. Only buy groceries that are on the sides of the supermarket. I learned this in a foods-and-nutrition class, and it really works.

5. Wear tight clothes to just have a constant reminder of your weight-loss goals.

6. Drink plenty because it keeps you full and gives you flawless skin.

To know more on different fat loss products, I found fat loss review site is very helpful.

Atkins Diet - New Avtar

A study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found insufficient evidence linking saturated fat intake to cardiovascular disease or coronary heart disease.

Riding high on the wave of saturated fat's rehabilitation, the famous Atkins Diet has been revamped with an eye toward making it easier to understand and maintain. "The New Atkins for a New You" (Fireside, 2010) allows dieters to eat more vegetables than the old version did. But the diet's core concept -- that carbohydrates, not saturated fat, are what makes us fat -- remains intact.

Atkins old and new aim to rejigger metabolisms so people burn their fat, including stored body fat, instead of carbs. Atkins followers are encouraged not to count calories and are told that their cravings for carbs will swiftly diminish.

n this new book, which remains true to the core concepts of Dr. Atkins' previous books, authors Dr's Westman, Volek, and Phinney have laid out the cumulative body of scientific evidence supporting the low-carb approach, most of which has accumulated after the death of Dr. Atkins in 1994.

See this link to the Washington Post story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR2010030202091.html

3 Tips Saddlebags Fast and Easy

Here are 3 targeted exercises that you can do daily in the comfort of your home to get rtid of saddlebag apart from proper diet.

The squat: Starting with your feet shoulder-width apart, bend your knees and lower into a squat while keeping knees straight in line with your toes and back completely straight. Get down to a nearly seated position and push back up until you are at the starting position. Keep arms out forward and stare up towards the ceiling to help keep yourself in line. Repeat 10-15 times.

Lunges: Stand with one leg 3 feet in front of the other. Bend the knees and lower your back knee toward the floor, keeping the front heel down and the knee directly over the center of your foot. Keep your abs in and push yourself back to the starting position without locking your knees. Repeat 10-15 times, then alternate.

Butt Lift: On your hands and knees, extend the right leg straight out behind you with toes resting on the floor. Lift leg to hip level while squeezing your butt. Hold position and slowly lift your left arm to shoulder height using ab muscles to keep you upright. Hold for 5 seconds while squeezing. Repeat 5 times each leg.

You can read several fat loss exercises here

ab exercise ball - Is It Effective?

One of the most popular tool for ab exercise is the Swiss ball. Other day I asked Milos Pesic, a professional fitness trainer , fitness trainer in Gold gym regarding the benefits of the Swiss ball abdominal exercise.

1. Effective Abdominal Workout - The Swiss ball abdominal exercise, when done correctly and carefully will help to strengthen abdominal muscles by directly targeting them. Yes, they work to directly affect the core muscles of the abdomen.

2. Developing Core Strength - The muscles involved in this workout are the ones that work to stabilize and support your body throughout the practice. And, since the ball supports your body, all range of motion will be made smoother then, which in turn will lead to stronger core points.

3. Proper Alignment - When proper Swiss ball abdominal exercises are performed, the body will make use of its core muscle groups to support the entire system. As a result, motor reflexes will be enhanced as all the muscle groups are forced to function while keeping balance intact. As balancing improves, the body alignment is also enhanced.

4. Improves Endurance - Because of the fact that the Swiss ball abdominal exercises work to target the core muscles, improvement in the level of bodily strength and overall endurance can be felt. Yes, the exercises itself will assist your body through building strength. Other than, it helps your back to become stronger and flexible, then eliminating all sorts of back aches and strains.

5. Promotes Weight Loss - The Swiss ball abdominal exercise will finally hell promote weight loss by first lowering all the abdominal fats. The best results can be obtained though once the exercises are coupled with proper diet, the reason that those who are opting for this aim are highly recommended to observe proper dieting.

As you can see, the benefits that a Swiss ball abdominal exercise can offer are all worth considering. So if you want to benefit from it, start doing the right exercises as early as possible.

Visit the link to know how to reduce belly fat

Do You Know Why You Have Belly Fat?

If you are overweight, before you start fat loss exercise and diet, you should know top 6 common causes for belly fat.

1. Ladies generally gain weight after menopause: You can control it yoga and proper diet.

2. Genetics

There are two common body types: apple and pear.

If you gain and store fat in lower parts of your body then you would be considered pear-shaped. If you’re the kind of person that stores more fat in your stomach and middle section than anywhere else then you would be considered apple-shaped.

You can do less if your body by dafault stores fat in abdomen.

3. Stress

When you are under stress, your body releases the hormone cortisol.In turn, this hormone causes your liver to make excess sugar that your body doesn’t really need. As a result, you begin to feel hungrier and begin to eat more. I foung mediation is best to get rid of this problem

4. Improper Digestion

Improper digestion may cause several kinds of gastrointestinal problems leaving you gassy and bloated.

Many people who complain about persistent belly fat often times have gas which causes the bloating effect.

5. Slow Metabolism

A slower metabolism can also result in extra storage of fat…particularly around the middle.This is the reason people gain weight with age.

6. Eating Late at Night

Going to bed with a full stomach puts you at greater risk for fat storage around the middle area. If you are going to munch late at night, eat something healthy like a banana or a small handful of almonds.

Other day I was talking about Ana Dotan's review on fat burning furnace diet in a seminar, some people asked about healthy snacks.

I found an interesting article by Lisa on "Healthy Snacks for Your Tummy" where she mentioned that dieting is not about starving yourself and going hungry, it's about choosing the right foods.

She recommended following healthy snack foods.

Popcorn

As long as you don't saturate it in butter and/or salt (a.k.a. movie theatre popcorn) this is a very healthy snack. It's very high in fiber and low in calories.

Almonds and Other Nuts

You've heard the old phrase "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Well now people are saying the same thing about a handful of nuts.The biggest weapon contained in nuts is the monosaturated fat. This kind of fat is actually good for you and can even help clear your arteries. Nuts help fill you up and are also high in Vitamin E, fiber and magnesium. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that helps fight diseases such as cancer, asthma, osteoperosis and a host of other inflammations.

Sunflower seeds are like a cousin to the nut and contain a lot of the same good characteristics.

If you choose to eat these, be sure to choose the ones with low or no salt.

Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is a delicious member of the legume family. It has a lot of the same good qualities as regular nuts, and is great because it will fill you up quickly.

You can also add it to your fruit, crackers, or even a smoothie. It makes a great healthy snack.

Watch your consumption of it, however. Despite the protein, peanut butter is considered a high-calorie food. So be sure you don't overdo it.

Smoothies

Fruit smoothies can actually be used as a meal replacement if you pack them with enough ingredients. Depending upon what you put in them, they can contain anywhere between 400 and 600 calories which will keep you full for hours.

Visit the link to know more about negative calorie diet

Resources :

1. Healthy Snacks for Your Tummy By Lisa