The first fat loss

I thought I’d tell you guys a small story about the very first time a saw success with losing extra fat. I had been doing lots of steady state cardio for with about 500 reps of different ab exercises a day and some very light bench press. Trust me, I didn’t lose 1 pound and my “trainer” had the nerve to say – ‘That’s just your body type. You can’t get lean.’ I just wanted to kill that guy. At this point, I started doing my own research. Although, the research was very incomplete, it helped. This is routine I was given by the trainer.

1 hour on the treadmill at intensity at 60% of my max heart rate
500 reps of my choice of ab exercises
3 x 30 bench press with 5 pound weights

Now does that look sensible? Anyways, after I did all my research, I created my own diet and exercise plan. My diet included milk, egg whites, chicken, yogurt, salad, whole meal bread and fruit. I avoided all carbs after 7pm. Took 7 small meals a day and drank lots of water. Now comes the fun part. This was my exercise routine.

Monday
Chest, shoulders and Triceps followed by HIIT for 15 minutes on a stationary bike

Wednesday
Back and biceps followed by HIIT for 15 minutes on a stationary bike

Friday
Lower body followed by HIIT for 15 minutes on a stationary bike

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
10 minutes on the stepper
15 pushups
15 squats
15 pushups
15 squats
15 pushups
15 squats
15 pushups
15 squats

A set of ab exercise routines (upper, lower and obliques without any rest alternating between upper lower and then each side of the obliques)
10 minutes on the treadmill

I followed the above routine for about 3 weeks an lost like 5 kilos and started to see some definition in my abs region. I also lost 2 and a half inches off my waist. It was so cool to through it in that trainers face. The funny thing is…he had 16 years of experience. I don’t know what kind of experience he was getting but he knew squat. I’m afraid there are a lot more trainers like that around as and we follow them blindly, hoping to see results. I’ll be posting some very interesting stuff very soon so stay tuned :).

Ana + Cata = Meta

Every where you go, you will hear people talking about their metabolism, I have a high metabolism, I am increasing my metabolism, metabolism this, metabolism that. But what exactly is metabolism? If we can understand what metabolism is and how it affects our body, we can train and eat in a manner that effects the metabolism exactly like we want to it be.

In very simple terms – it is a set of chemical reactions to keep us alive. It is broken down into two major parts – Anabolism and Catabolism. When food/nutrients go into our body, two things happen. They get used as energy or they get stored for future use (if the food intake is more than required).

Anabolism is the series of reactions that helps create new molecules. Now these molecules can be anything, can be fat, can be muscle, can be bones etc. Catabolism on the other hand breaks down molecules for energy. Both anabolism and catabolism are taking place all the time. However, depending on our age, sex, time of day, food and physical activity one may be more dominant than the other. So at any given point, your body will be in either an anabolic state or catabolism state. For example, if you take a meal, you body will be an anabolic state and if you are starving yourself, then you will be in a catabolic state.

If we can control our metabolism to the extent that we build muscle during the anabolic state and lose fat during the catabolic state, then we can achieve the Burn fat ‘n’ Build muscle goal.

There are a lot more details on how we can control our metabolism and use it to our advantage e.g. there are a number of hormones that we need to control to direct our metabolism towards one source of energy and keep it away from others. Read the ‘No sweat burning method’ article which outlines what you can do to manipulate your metabolism in giving you what you want. If you are interested in fitness, then understanding metabolism should be the first thing you understand in detail.

The World's Largest Biceps - Is it worth it??

Guys, just watch this video. It is really disturbing yet informative. I read about Gregg ages ago and was impressed with his training, workouts and the diet he promoted. After a few years a saw this video and was completely shocked.

Valuable lesson – STAY AWAY FROM STERIODS (unless you are absolutely 110% sure about what you are doing).

Body building is an excellent sport, but sometimes people take things a bit too far. Like my friend Gregg here. He was so eager to get the world’s largest biceps that he ended up losing a good chunk of his arm. Hope you all understand where I’m coming from.

Low GI for fat loss and muscle building

There are a number of different kinds of carbs – simple, complex, fibrous, low GI, high GI etc. What do these mean? If you are not sure, please read my previous post here.

A number of articles are pointing out that LOW GI carbs are lean friendly. What does this exactly mean? Does it mean that carbs help us burn fat or do they helps us gain muscle mass?

In very simple terms, Low GI carbs are the carbs that get absorbed into our system very slowly and at a low rate. GI (glycemic index) determines how quickly a particular carbohydrate increases the blood sugar level. The lower the GI, the slower the rise in blood sugar levels. You may ask the question – Why do we need slow absorbing carbs? Well, basically when the carbs get absorbed very quickly, the amount of sugar is increased quite a lot. Your body tries to lower the carbs, as it doesn’t require that many carbs. The body releases a hormone called insulin which does three things:

- Lowers the carbs
- Stores them as fat
- Tells the body that ‘we already have too many carbs, don’t use the fats for energy’.

The above are not good for you. Insulin is very useful for you right after a workout (as you tend to use most of the carbs and the insulin helps you build muscle), it should not be spiked at any other time of the day. The LOW GI carbohydrates give your body constant energy at a steady rate so that you don’t get too many or too little carbs in your system and you avoid turning carbs into fats. But remember, if you take too much of any kind of carbs (even LOW GI), you increase the chances of converting them to fat.

Tom Venuto once wrote that it doesn’t matter whether individual items in a meal are low or high GI. You should make sure that the overall meal is low GI. E.g. potato on its own is high GI, but if you eat it with a chicken steak, it becomes low GI after mixing with proteins that gets absorbed at a very slow rate. Hope this makes sense.

If you stick to low GI for a fat loss program, you will minimize the chances of converting carbs to fat and also burn extra fat. If you want to build muscle – again, stick to low GI throughout the day, but take High GI with half an hour of a vigorous workout. I hope this has helped you understand what kind of carbs you should eat. Ohh, one more thing. Try not to take carbs after 6 – 7pm or keep them low in the evening/night. This again may increase chances of your storing carbs as fats over night because your metabolic rate slows down at night and if you don’t use up the carbs (or any other macro-nutrient), it will convert to fat.

Right!! I think that’s all for today…stay tuned. I will shortly start posting some workout routines and also a HOW TO guide. See ya!!

The jump rope workout

One of the best and most affordable exercise equipments around is the jump rope. Athletes ranging from swimmers, to boxers, to martial artists use it for total conditioning. It is no longer a 6 year old girl’s toy. You can get an amazing heart pumping, fat burning, BMR raising, stamina building, muscle conditioning, strength increasing, co-ordination improving workout in a matter of minutes. You don’t even have to do it every day. Do it 3 – 4 days a week and that is it. The jump rope is an excellent addition to any weight loss/fat loss or muscle building program. You may have seen a number of Muhammad Ali’s workout clips where he is just skipping. Here’s one:



Here’s another video of a boxer skipping away.



Now, I don’t expect you to do what the guy above is doing, but you should be able to do the following.

Stretch your calves and legs, grab a jump rope and start skipping at a normal pace (you define what is normal for you). Skip for about 30 seconds then start walking in one place with knees as high as your waist and arms moving as well. Walk for 1 minute at a reasonably high speed then start skipping. Skip for 30 seconds at a higher speed. If the rope gets stuck in your feet, no worries…just adjust the rope and start jumping again. Repeat the above 6-8 times and you’re done. If this starts to get easy for you, start alternating between fast and slow skips rather than skips and walk. You will surely see benefits in you stamina, body fat percentage, speed and co-ordination.

There are some safety precautions that you should take. Make sure you are wearing proper shoes and are not skipping on a concrete or very hard floor. Don’t hold your breath while skipping and keep your back straight. One tends to start slouching while skipping which can be bad for your back and posture.

If you want to include skipping in your workout, you can replace the cardio with skipping. That should do for now...take care guys...see you soon.

Is ice cream healthy for you?

I bet many of you just came to this post because you want to prove to yourself that ice cream is healthy, that ice cream can help you lose fat and help you build muscle? Well, there is good news for half of you and no so good for the other half. Research shows that the best kind protein is Whey protein. Whey is a by-product of the cheese making process and is present in dairy products It is now being used all over to world in form of Whey protein shakes and other supplements. The good news is - ice cream has lots of it. If you read some of my previous posts, you will find that if you are trying to build muscle, you should take-in high GI carbohydrates with fast absorbing proteins right after a workout. You get both of them from ice cream - sugar and whey. If you can buy a low fat brand of ice cream, it is possibly the BEST post workout small meal that you can take. Mind you, this is for people wanting to build msucle. If your aim is to lose body fat and you take ice cream, you won't get fat but chances are that you will slow down your fat burning ability. Reason being the amount of carbs that you will take in. It is advised to keep carbs quite low in a fat loss program. However, if you can find low fat and low sugar ice cream (of the diabetic ice cream), you can take it right after a vigerous workout. The good thing about a post workout meal is whether your aim is fat loss or muscle gain - the food you take in after a workout will get used up - atleast most of it. So even if you are on a fat loss plan, you can have ice cream right after a workout.

Who would have thought, ice cream - good for you :-). That's what I'm here to do. Make the impossible, possible :-). I recommend that you make a post workout shake with 2 scoops of ice cream. I have posted some recipes here. Feel free to try them.

I just though that I would write a small YET useful post to the point this time. Hope you liked it. Till next time guys. See ya.

A smooth diet or a smoothie diet?

We all know what a smoothie is, (if not then please read about it here) and how it can keep us stay healthy and fit. There are a number of smoothie diets around and are quite well balanced from a nutrition and health point of view. These diets get you to drink a number of different kinds of smoothies ranging from energizers to filler (keeping you feeling full for longer) to system flushers and much more. The down side to this is that you get tired of drinking stuff all the time and trust me; you will get tired of it, not in a matter of months or weeks, but in days. Although, you can get all the macro-nutrients and good amounts of vitamins and minerals without spending much cash on supplements, you would finally want to get some solid food. Why not concentrate on a diet that is not ALL smoothies but smooth :-). That is very easy…just get rid of the ‘ies’ at the end…hehe!

I think we should use smoothie as snacks every single day and even include it in your breakfast if you want. Take your normal meals and for every snack, take a smoothie. Here is a SMOOTH diets that I followed for some time just to see how it works.

Option 1:

Breakfast: 1 bowl of Bran flakes cereal with skimmed milk and an apple

Snack 1: Peach and mango smoothie with 1 tbsp of olive oil

Lunch: Chicken breast with steamed mixed vegetables

Snack 2: Strawberry smoothie in low fat yogurt

Post workout: Banana smoothie with low fat yogurt and 20 grams of skimmed milk powder

Dinner: Tuna sandwich

Option 2:

Breakfast: Mixed fruit smoothie with 2 tbsp of oats and 1 tbsp of natural peanut butter

Snack 1: 1 pear and 10 almonds

Lunch: Brown rice with chicken

Snack 2: Plum and banana smoothie with an apple base

Dinner: Whole wheat tortilla wrap

These are just a couple of example of what I followed and it was very satisfying. I suggest that you try to take at least one smoothie a day as a snack. This is a very easy snack option and will save you a lot of time and effort. Hope this was useful for you, till next time guys…stay healthy.

Want a smooth path to healthy living? Grab a Smoothie!!

For those of you who don’t know, a smoothie is a blended drink of fruit juices/yogurt and ice. The way it is prepared is that you have either a fruit juice or yogurt/milk base and you add a variety of fruits (ideally frozen) and lots of ice to it (to give it texture). First of all, it is VERY tasty, secondly there is no set recipe – you make what you want and last but not the least, it is very healthy. I usually use a base of low fat yogurt to get enough protein and some carbs, add low GI fruits and some ice. You can also use green tea extract (even though I am not the biggest fat of green team – I will discuss this later on), whey powder, multi-vitamin tablets and other supplements. Here are some recipes that you might want to try.

Orange-Pineapple Smoothie
1 cup orange juice
2 cups pineapple chunks packed in their own juice
1 banana
1/4 cup skim milk
1 Tbsp. honey
4-5 ice cubes

Tropical Smoothie
1 tub (150-200 g) Low Fat Yoghurt
1 cup Hi-Lo Milk
½ cup Orange juice*
1 Tbsp. Honey
1 cup Frozen fruit**
1 ½ cups Crushed ice

Banana Blackberry smoothie
1 medium banana, peeled
1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup ice cubes

Supergirl summer smoothie
2 bananas, broken into chunks
1 cup cubed papaya (optional)
1 cup cubed fresh pineapple
1 cup cubed honeydew
3 cubes ice cubes
2 (6 ounce) containers fruit flavored yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice, or as needed

The Any Smoothie
Any 100% fruit juice, yogurt or milk
Any fruit you like
Any kind of ice
Blend in Any blender :-)

Here are a few more tips:
· Use frozen fruit (bananas and strawberries work well).
· Avoid sweetened frozen fruits.
· If it’s too thick, add more milk, 100 percent fruit juice or soymilk.
· If it’s too thin, add more fruit, ice cubes, yogurt (fresh or frozen) or tofu.
· It it’s too tart, add honey.
· If it’s too sweet, add lemonade or a small spoonful of lemon juice.

Smoothies are a very good addition to a weight loss, fat burn or even a muscle building program. You can treat them as a snack or an actual meal. They are healthy enough to even be used as breakfast. I highly recommend getting into the smoothie trend coz I’m telling you right now, this will be one of the best decisions you will ever make. I will be posting about the smoothie diet next time, so stay tuned :-).

Burn fat in an hour..........A WEEK!!

What is the most common excuse that people have for not working out? It's that they don’t have time to workout. An average person works for about 8 - 10 hours everyday, comes home and either crashes on the bed, in front of the TV or runs to the fridge. Usually the people are so tired that they find time to do anything but workout. There are a number of reasons for that, revolving mainly around their diet and the type of work that they do. Instead of getting them to change their job or get disciplined in their eating habits (which they don't want - trust me), we can look for an alternative. Never fear - Usman is here :). I have designed a workout plan that is only an hour long. An hour you say, that is just another workout. Actually, no it isn't. I did not say an hour a day, I am saying - AN HOUR A WEEK. Is that good or is that good. 10 minutes a day for 6 days a week in the morning and you will be melting fat instead of burning it. Just think about it, 10 minutes a day, 1 hour a week, 4 hours a month, 48 HOURS A YEAR. That is easy...isn't it? NO, it isn't. The workouts are short but highly intense. It should be done before you breakfast when glycogen stores are at their minimum and if a need is created, the maximum energy will come from fats. You can multiply you effects if you take an all protein breakfast as you will increase your growth hormone (it help you burn fat) to dramatic levels for a couple of hours and then take the carbs. So if you have an all protein breakfast at 8, you can take a snack with carbs at 11 or 11:30. However, this is not necessary.

Ok then, here is the workout:

Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Warm up (1 minute)
10 squats
10 pushups
30 jumping jacks

Strength (5 minutes)
10 pushups – Very slow – 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down, but do not rest.

10 pullups or rows – The concentric movement (coming back to the start position) should be very slow i.e. 5 minutes. If you cannot complete 10 pullups/rows, jump to do the pullup but come back to the start position very slowly.

10 Upright rows – Grab something heavy (a bucket of water would do just fine), stand straight and the bucket towards your chest. Remember the 5 second rule.

12 jump squats – squat and jump as high as you can

Internal Cardio (4 minutes)
15 burpees
30 jumping jacks
15 burpees
30 jumping jacks
15 burpees
30 jumping jacks
15 burpees
30 jumping jacks

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

Warm up (1 minute)

The idea is now to have sudden burst of high intensity movements. Imagine there is someone right in front of you and you have to beat him/her up REAL BAD. Here’s what you do:

1 minutes jump rope or jumping jacks
30 seconds just go wild kicking and punching as fast and hard as you can. You want to mutilate the other (non-existent) guy.

Repeat this 8 times and you’re done. Pretty simple, isn’t it? Try this with a healthy diet i.e. drink lots of water, take sufficient low GI carbs and proteins with low carbs at dinner and a few portions of fruits and you’ll be surprised. Trust me! I’ve got lots more to tell you guys so stay tuned.

Cycle your carbohydrates – Burn fat fast

Did I just say CYCLING? Yes, I did. Cycling your carbs sounds funny doesn’t it? But let me tell you…it is one of the most power techniques of dropping a few pounds of fat very quickly. It has been used by professional body builders for a long long time near the competition season. Just look at those natural body builders a couple of months before competition and then on the actual day of competition. You won’t be able to see even a bit of body fat on them. How do they do it? Obviously, there is the workout and muscle mass factor but, they have that all year round as well so how come they do not stay LEAN throughout the year? It’s because of CARB CYCLING.

The idea of carb cycling is alternating between either high and low/no carbs or starchy and fibrous carbs. There are a number of different theories about what the best way to do this. Some say that you should have 5 days of low carbs and 2 days of high carbs, some say the best approach is replace starchy carbs with fiberous carbs for 3 days and then go back to starchy carbs for 3 days (with a cheating day), then we have experts taking the zig zag approach and taking high carbs during the major muscle group days and low/no carbs on other days. There is a lot of stuff out there, so we will discuss what should we be doing.

This is a technique where you can burn fat and build muscle. Let’s say if you are following the 3 day high and 4 day low carb. For the first three days, you do compound exercises and take in high carbs. During this time, you will be promoting muscle gain. For the next few days, you take in low carbs (but the same amount of fats and protein) and do some fat loss exercises i.e. full body workouts and HIIT. This will promote fat loss. You can also workout one day, rest the other. In the same way, you take in high carbs on the workout day and low/no carbs on the resting day. There are a lot of techniques out there. The idea is to get maximum gains in muscle with minimizing fat gain (or even losing it).

My personal recommendation is ‘any of the above’. You can try any of these techniques as all of them have proven to work. My routine is as follows:

Mon – Chest and Thighs with high carbs mainly around the workout

Tue – Triceps and calves with no carbs

Wed – Back and shoulders with high carbs

Thur – Biceps and forearms with no carbs

Fri – HIIT with high carbs

Sat – Abs and lower back with low carbs

Sun – Cheat day

On days when I need the energy and am trying to build muscle, I take in high carbs and on other days I take lower carbs with moderate exercise. Hope this has been useful for you. Please comments if you want to know more and I will write another post in greater detail. Till next time – stay tuned for lots more.

Best Fat Burning Exercise

There are more than 100,000 articles, blogs and websites on the internet that talk about the best fat burning exercise. Some say it is walking, some are of the opinion that cycling or rowing burn the most fat, then you also have a category of people who promote weight training as the best fat burner. Each one has arguments for their exercises. The thing is that in order to make this decision we cannot only rely on the exercise. It is the exercise, intensity and the method of training that counts. For example, bench press is one of the best chest exercises and to achieve the final goal, you need to consider the intensity and method as well. If you use 2 lbs dumbbells and do 25 reps for 2 sets of bench press, you will never gain muscle. So the exercise alone is not enough to make this decision. Let’s analyze each of these aspects and try to draw a conclusion.

The best fat burning exercise should work all of your major muscle groups. These include the glutes, thighs, back, chest and shoulders. Simply put, the more/larger the muscle, the more calories you burn and the bigger the EPOC effect. So any exercise that works all of these muscle groups is a good fat burner. Exercises that do actually work the entire body or the major muscle groups are running, skipping, burpees, clean and jerk, high jumps, kettle bell swings etc. You get the idea. So which one is the best? In my personal view, anaerobic exercises are better than aerobic for fat loss. Many experts may at this point be like – ‘This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about’ as it is a general notion that aerobic exercise is for fat burning. But we fail to realize that anaerobic exercise gives us the EPOC (Excess Post-workout Oxygen Consumption) effect for a lot longer as compared to aerobic exercises. This helps you raise your metabolism, increase your oxygen intake and in effect, burn more fat. I would say that the best exercise for a full body workout is clean and jerks or kettle bell swings. Don’t get me wrong, running is excellent, but there is A LOT of risk for injury. If you do the clean jerks or swings as a controlled movement at a medium to high intensity, you would be a lot safer.

As pointed out earlier, it is not only the exercise that determines whether it is the best burner or not. It is also important to note in what method the exercise is being done. As many others, I support HIIT as being the best method for burning fat, but majority of the trainers look at HIIT as alternating between low intensity and high intensity cardio. I think slightly differently. I prefer strength training workouts alternated with resting periods. For example, do 15 reps of clean and jerk followed by a resting period for about 1 – 2 minutes. Repeat this 5 – 8 times and you’re done. All the HIIT essentials are there – EPOC, carb and fat usage, cardio workouts, mass gaining workout, release of HGH and testosterone and lots more. It’s actually the same HIIT concept, with minor changes.

Ok, so the conclusion is that a full body workout like clean and jerk or kettle bell swings with medium to high intensity in an HIIT fashion is the best kind of fat burner. Stay tuned for a lot more hints and tips for BURN FAT AND BUILD MUSCLE.

To gym or not to gym...that is the question...or is it!!

On the one hand there are people who look forward to going to the gym and on the other hand there are those who want to workout at home and avoid the gym completely. Which one is better for you? Can you do every workout at home? Is there any reason for you to go to a gym? Does it matter whether you go to the gym or workout at home?

In my case, I feel right at home when I’m at the gym, but there are people who do not feel comfortable there. It is usually the over-weight bunch who don’t want people to look at them whilst working out. Lack of confidence? Probably. Then there are others who don’t like the music or being around the sweaty and smelly people. They would much rather workout at home or not workout at all.

Then there are others who can’t live without going to the gym. They get into their car and drive to the gym; just to run on a treadmill or get on the stationary bike for 30 to 45 minutes or use machines/free weights. Why don’t they just run on the road side or ride their bike out doors or simply just buy a pair of dumbbells or a home gym (one off payment)? It would be A LOT cheaper and you will get the results as well. What is it that gets the people to spend their hard earned money every month and go to the gym? Is it the environment? The environment can provide you with the motivation to workout. When you see people working out, you want to do the same. You see this girl who has been running on a treadmill for 30 minutes, you would want to test yourself and see if you can do it too - Am I right? I know I am :-). You may get motivated if you see a guy with the physique that you want to achieve or you may just get a rush by just listening to the music. All these may help you get motivated and get you to workout. However, you can get the music, physique etc. at home as well. Put on the ROCKY exercise videos and you’re good to go. The question shouldn’t be; whether you need to go to a gym or not. The question should be – what will get you off the couch and start working out either at the gym or at home. The answer is HOPE and RESULTS. You start workouts with HOPES to achieve results and you continue with workouts if you get the desired RESULTS.

If you want to become a professional body builder then you should go to the gym (reasons might take too long). But if your ultimate goal is fitness, then you don’t need to go to a gym. You need the right guidance to give yourself HOPE and effective workouts for RESULTS. You can get the guidance from authentic websites, online personal trainers or BLOG (*wink wink*) and stick to the workout and diet routines. You can do every kind of workout at home in a matter of minutes.

Moral of the story – gym or no gym, all you need is to start working outs. You can send me an e-mail at ups1984@hotmail.com if you are interested in online personal training or need some guidance. You can get complete home workout diet and workout routines customized for you. See you next time :-).

Motivate to Burn Fat 'n' Build Muscle

It’s really hard to find time to exercise with our busy schedules but at the same time, we want to stay fit, burn fat, lose weight and build muscle. If you don’t have any motivation, chances are you will never even try to make time for a workout session. If your workouts are short, interesting, dynamic and you are getting results then there is no reason for you not to be motivated…RIGHT? The two main aspects are that you should enjoy the workouts and secondly, you should be getting results. There is no point in running on treadmill for 45 minutes if you absolutely hate it, because sooner or later, you will quit. Here are some hints and tips that you can try to keep your motivation high.

Make a plan and try to stick to it: You need to invest some time in this one but it is well worth it. The first thing you need to do is take a pad and on the very first page/cover, write “My Workout Plan” in big block letters. Every Sunday (or your off day) sit down, take a cup of no-dairy, no-sugar, no-fat and no-taste hot chocolate (just kidding :)), take the pad and plan out what you should be doing the next week. I don’t mean to say that you should be changing your workouts every week, but make sure you are doing things that you are enjoying.

Track Progress: You don’t only track progress using the weighing machine or measuring tape. You can do it with workouts. Say e.g. you started off with 3 sets of 8 push-ups. But the following week, you were able to do 10 and then 12 and so on. This is also showing progress. It means that you are either getting lighter (burning fat) or getting stronger (building muscle). If you plan carefully, you can actually do both in the period of one week. Take away lesson; keep a track of what you are doing and how you are improving at it.

Workout in the morning: This is a suggestion because just like you wash your face, brush your teeth and have breakfast, you can workout for 10 – 30 minutes in the morning. Basically, you are already following a routine of getting from a sleepy head to Mr. I have a job. All you need is to add the workout in it. Simple!

Look forward to the workout: This actually goes hand in hand with tracking your progress. If you are working out in the evening, think about the workout before hand and set a small goal. ‘8 pushups were slightly easy for me yesterday, I’ll try and do 10 today’ – Something along these lines would do great. If you are workingout in the morning, think about the workout before you go to bed. GET YOURSELF EXCITED!

Look at pictures of people you admire: If you like the Jessica Alba’s body, look at her picture and tell yourself that this is where you want to be. This actually does a lot of good for me. It just gets to you stand and start working out there and then.

Eat right so you have enough energy: Make sure you are following a diet plan so that you have enough fuel in your body to actually do the workout. You may have read my posts on nutrition and you should know that nutrition is more important that the exercises regardless of your goal.

Visualize yourself as you want to be: Last but not the least. You need to visualize what you want to be. I would say, everyday before you come out of bed or fall asleep, visualize yourself with that body you want and how happy it will make you feel.

There are a number of other methods that one can follow but these are the ones I use and have found success in them. Taking time out for yourself should be very important for you and these are just some hints and tips that will help you manage the time more effectively and get the motivation levels high. See you guys soon.