20 Fat Loss Tips and Tricks

As I'm still going through a "bad phase" where I'm chronically fatigued, in constant pain, and just feeling lousy overall, my brother-in-law, The Gym Maniac, has once again agreed to a follow up post for me. I'm incredibly grateful since my health is poor at the moment. I do have posts that I will get to soon. I still have to edit the pictures and write the post. Hope I can bring myself to get to them soon. Until then, enjoy these weight loss tips to help get you into summer shape.

So with summer rolling on in I decided I would help my readers out with some fat loss tips.

Tip #1 Take the Stairs – The basic concept behind losing weight is to burn more calories than you consume. When you do this it forces the body to search for alternate sources of fuel, such as your body’s fat stores. The bigger your calorie deficit, the more weight you will lose, and a little goes a long way when added up. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, stand instead of sit, walk instead of drive, park in the back of the parking lot, or just get to the gym.

Tip #2 Eat Smaller Meals more often – Contrary to popular belief when you diet you want to eat more! You need to help get your metabolism revved up in order to burn more calories. In order to do this you need to eat meals more often, such as five to six meals a day. The meals won’t be big,you are going to want to eat smaller meals. If your body is constantly ingesting and digesting food it will speed up your metabolism to keep up with the demand, and a faster metabolism means more calories burned!

Tip #3 Cardio in the Morning – Doing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is the optimum time for burning fat. Basically your body hasn’t eaten in so many hours and your glycogen levels are depleted. The body uses glycogen as its first source of energy, before it goes into burning fat. With your glycogen stores are depleted the body can immediately start burning fat. Working out on an empty stomach will allow you to burn 300% more fat.

Women's Summer Weight Loss Workouts

Today is another non food post. My brother-in-law is a huge fitness buff and has a blogThe Maniac's Gym where he shares health and fitness information. Since swimsuit season is right around the corner, I asked him to guest post a workout to help get you in shape for summer. There are three stages to the workout, this is Stage 1. If you like the workout, the links to the other two stages are listed at the bottom of the post, or you can visit his blog which is a wealth of fitness and health information.


Summer Workout for Women: Stage 1

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE MEN'S WORKOUT!

As I’m sure you’re very aware it's almost summer. Some of you may be frantically thinking of ways to get into bathing suit shape, while others haven’t even gave it a second thought. Don’t worry my faithful readers; because today I will be blogging a 9 week workout program, I designed myself, to whip you into tip-top shape for that two piece bikini.

The workout I have designed will be divided into three stages. Stage 1 will be to strengthen your body. You will be doing heavy compound movements to strengthen your major muscle groups. With the amount of stimulation put on your muscles by doing these compound movements your body will be burning many calories and your metabolism will be sped up.

Stage 2 will be for cutting fat. You will be doing more complex movements that will require a little more muscle stability designed to melt the fat away. Cardio will be increased to as your body will be adapting to the routine from Stage 1 as well as abdominal workouts will increase in difficulty.

Stage 3 will be to tighten up and tone your sexy swim suit body. The exercises will require a lot of stability forcing you to use all those muscles you never thought you had putting the final touches on your newly sculpted body.

For more great info click 20 Tips for a Bikini-Ready Body. This is an article I found on Bodybuilding.com with great ideas that will have you looking your best.

She's Crafty

This Saturday has caused a dilemma; it’s both cinco de mayo and the Kentucky Derby. Which event do I choose as my party theme? After deliberating I decided on both.

I’ve decided to serve both margaritas and mint juleps. I’m going to experiment with flavored margaritas in addition to having traditional ones.

To add an element of fun and whimsy I decided to make these umbrella stirrers. I saw them on Martha Stewart’s website. It’s an article from Martha Stewart Living. When I tried to click on the link today I got an error message. Luckily, these are very easy to make.