Fitness Tips
1. You burn the highest % of calories from fat while at rest. Forget the fat burning zone & instead focus on total calories burned.
2. Use seasonings on your food instead of sauces. The calories you save can translate into fat loss.
3. Consistency is the key to success. A workout here or there is going to get you nowhere. Lay out a plan & execute it every single time.
4. Cook your meals in advance. It makes it easier to stick to your diet plan when you only have to reheat and eat.
5. Add lemon, lime, orange, or cucumber to your water. It adds flavor but keeps your drinks low calorie.
6. Learn to eat for fuel, not for pleasure. Food is meant to be nourishment for your body and mind. Find a more productive way to achieve gratification other than eating.
7. There are 1000 reasons why you can’t start a fitness program. Put the excuses away, drop the word can’t, and start focusing on reasons for why you should.
8. Don’t waste your calories on drinks. Drink water instead, and save your calories for nutrient dense foods.
9. No time to workout? Set your alarm to wake you up 30 minutes earlier. Make exercise a priority and part of your everyday routine.
10. The best time to workout is at a time you will always do it. Whether it’s morning, afternoon or night, choose a time that will keep your workouts consistent.
11. When you start a fitness program, the people around you will either support you or tear you down. Ignore their negativity. Remember that your goal is to be healthy. If someone has a problem with that, then that’s their own problem.
12. Bad genetics are not to blame for your lack of results. You are not big boned or naturally thick. Nor do you have a slow metabolism. Your problem is a poor mentality. Don’t make excuses. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, can have the body they want – if they would just knock down the walls they’ve built around themselves.
13. Don’t be afraid to eat carbs. Carbohydrates are used to metabolize fat. They are the brain’s primary source of fuel, and your body’s energy source for high intensity exercise. Focus on eating low glycemic carbs for a slow and steady release of glucose.
14. Set goals. Don’t just wing it. Decide on a realistic amount of weight to lose in a particular time (1-2) pounds per week. First, decide on a big goal (lose 30lbs in 4 months). Then, divide that up into several smaller goals (lose 8 pounds this month). Each time you reach your smaller goal, it gives you the motivation and confidence to continue on. Start small, and eventually the weight loss will add up.
15. Need a healthy carb to add to your meals? Try some cinnamon sweet potato fries. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take 3 whole sweet potatoes. Slice them up into fries. Place fries in a large bowl, add 2 tbsp of olive oil, and add cinnamon spice liberally. Shake it all together. Lay out fries on a large baking sheet (fries will be stacked on top of each other). Bake for 20 minutes. Remove and flip/stir fries. Bake for another 20 minutes. This should be enough fries to have once a day for 7 days. Take what you’re going to eat for the day and place the rest in a tubberwear container and freeze. Tomorrow, when you need some more, take what you need out of the freezer and reheat.
16. Your first meal after you workout is your most important. Make the most of it by giving your muscles all they need to rebuild bigger and stronger. For this meal, eat the majority of the day’s allotment of carbohydrates in order to replenish muscle glycogen stores, and also try to get at least 1/4th of your body weight in protein grams.
17. For your workouts, start with your most difficult compound exercise first. A compound exercise recruits a high number of muscle fibers at one time, and should be a priority in every workout. Make sure you are doing at least one of them in every workout. Examples include – bench press, squats, deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, and variations thereof.
18. On food labels, look beyond the total calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein of the food product. Start focusing a little further down on the area titled “ingredients”. If you start reading the ingredients and there’s a word in there you don’t know, don’t buy the product. Odds are, it’s a processed food. Make sure you know what you’re putting into your mouth.
19. It doesn’t matter who’s faster or stronger than you are. This isn’t a competition. All that matters is that YOU are faster and stronger than the previous you. Don’t worry about other people. Focus on setting and breaking your own records.
20. Need a healthy snack idea? Try some protein balls. Ingredients: 2 tbsp natural crunchy peanut butter, 2 tbsp raw agave nectar, 1-2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 scoop whey protein powder. Mix all ingredients together and form into 3 balls. They aren’t a replacement for a meal though, but they can be a great alternative for a snack when you go to see a move or go to a party.
21. Avoid artificial sweeteners. Anything other than water that has 0 calories shouldn’t be put into your mouth.
22. Losing weight is a mental challenge, not a physical one. If you can take control of your mind and body, the weight loss will follow.
23. Diet, exercise, and recovery are the 3 cornerstones to a well thought out fitness program. An equal importance should be placed on all 3 of them.
24. Eat as many meals as you can at home. Self preparation gives you complete control of everything that goes into your mouth.
25. If wanting to be healthy isn’t enough motivation for you to start a fitness program, think about the pain your loved ones will endure when they have to see you laying in a hospital bed as a result of a poor lifestyle. Your choices affect all those around you. Think beyond yourself.
26. Start your diet today – not tomorrow, not Monday. Don’t rationalize your bad eating habits. Today is going to be a great day. Say goodbye to unhealthy food and start right now.
27. Your workouts should take no more than 45 minutes to complete. The longer your workout goes, the greater the increase in negative side effects. Use an interval timer to keep your rest time in check.
28. The majority of diets fail in the first 48 hours. If you can stick it out through the first couple days, your success rate increases several fold.
29. Put shredded spinach in your omelet. You can’t taste it, it has the consistency of cheese, and it gives you added fiber and nutrients.
30. The less experienced you are as a weight lifter, the fewer exercises you should be using. Isolation exercises should be kept to a minimum until you’ve built a solid muscular foundation.
31. Choose fitness activities that you enjoy. Your heart knows no difference between basketball or running. It only knows perceived stress. Get your heart rate up any way you can.
32. Your lifestyle is highly influenced by the people close to you. To be fit, surround yourself with fit people.
33. Take before, during, and after pictures of your progress. The scale can be deceiving. Body fat calipers can be inaccurate. But pictures never lie.
34. Change your workout routine every few months. Your nervous system adapts quickly to different stimuli. Always keep things new to continue progressing.
35. You can either:
- (A) Binge eat – be happy now that you’re eating delicious food, but feel bad later after the guilt sets in.
- (B) Eat a healthy snack instead – be sad now because you feel deprived, but feel happy about your good decision later.
Either way, you are going to be both happy and sad about your decision. But if you choose option (B), you’re going to look better tomorrow. Choose wisely.
36. Buy a heart rate monitor. Use it when you workout. When you finish a set of an exercise, watch your heart rate. As it starts to come down, begin your next set at a predetermined heart rate (60% – 75% of your Max Heart Rate). Begin all your sets at this same heart rate. Use this method for interval training instead of keeping time. It’s a good way to add consistency and variety to your workouts.
37. Eat based on predetermined meal times instead of when you’re hungry. When your body knows it will be getting food soon, it’s less likely to send you hunger signals.
38. Keep your house empty of bad food. If you want to lose weight, don’t tempt fate by filling your pantry with unhealthy food. If you buy it, chances are you’ll eat it. Don’t buy it in the first place.
39. Your body becomes its function. Do the activities you want your body to adapt to. If you sprint, you’ll become a better sprinter by losing fat and gaining muscle. If you eat pizza and watch TV, you’ll become a better TV watching pizza eater.
40. Don’t grocery shop on an empty stomach. You’ll be more likely to buy bad food. Unless you’re attempting the “see food diet”, get your groceries after eating a meal.
41. Don’t start a diet that has an expiration date. Focus on forming a lifestyle that will last forever.
42. The more carbohydrates you burn during exercise, the more fat you will burn the rest of the day. Work on boosting your intensity in the gym.
43. People are always hopping from diet to diet. The problem isn’t the diet you’re trying, it’s that you’re trying another diet.
About Coach Calorie
And what would some of these low glycemic carb foods be???
you can go to http://www.glycemicindex.com to see a list of foods and their place on the GI scale. Foods that are low glycemic are whole, natural foods. Foods like beans, fruits, and vegetables.
Are all these tips posted by yourself daily on your Twitter account? Or should I say tweeted on your page?
Yes they are E. Rod
These are FANTASTIC tips! Thanks so much for posting!
I just retweeted!
Thanks for the comment Mo. Glad you like them
Jumping mindlessly into a fitness program will not only lead you to failure but will also lead you to discouragement.
You guys got some great articles and tips. Thank you so much!
Great tips. I am so glad I found your website. I’d love to win your Amazon giveaway and that is what brought me here but I think it was really divine appointment to get me serious about losing weight. I need to lose about 50 pounds and your posts are very motivating! I wasn’t going to subscribe but now that I’ve read your tips I am going to subscribe as well. Thanks for such great content!
Glad the giveaway got you over here
I’ve really started to focus lately on how much of all this is mental instead of physical. My body can do it; it is my mind that sometimes thinks it can’t. And I love those moments when I push through anyway.
So much of fitness is mental. Most people see the physical changes and assume that it’s a physical transformation. What they don’t realize is how much getting fit changes you mentally.
Forget the fat burning zone. You start things off right. It troubles so much when people get out the heart rate monitor and talk about their fat burning zone. It bothers me even more when you have fitness people telling people about it. Great post
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Thanks Jason. People look at their monitor and see they’re working out too hard and back off the intensity. Why? If you want to burn a higher percentage of calories from fat, go for a walk. Better yet – go to bed.
i agree don’t waste your calories on drinking liquids like soda. instead have a healthy 120 calorie snack in stead
I definitely follow #4 Cook your meals in advance. It makes it easier to stick to your diet plan when you only have to reheat and eat. SO TRUE and tomorrow I am going to start #5. Add lemon, lime, orange, or cucumber to your water. It adds flavor but keeps your drinks low calorie.
These are just small changes to your lifestyle adn eventually it’ll be second nature I am hoping to lose 12lbs by March. I’ve always failed at diets cuz it’s so hard to change your lifestlye that drastically but making subtle changes daily it will add up
imnotarunner at gmail dot com
Great tips, the only one I am having a problem with is tip #6- food is a very important aspect of my culture and the enjoyment of food, not just as a source of nutrition, is very important. I don’t believe in over-indulgence but certainly in enjoying food beyond just nourishment. Just my 2 cents.
Hi Coach,
I would like for you to add a 44th fitness tip!!! GEt YOUR SLEEP! It needs to be included as part of the overall fitness regimine!
I really enjoy reading your site! Brillant tips! I am a 55 year old menopausal woman ( who had a thyroidectomy due to a cancererous nodule at the age of 30). I have had to always battle 20-25 exta pounds! One of biggest reasons, I attibute to weighing 120 lbs standing five feet four (along with many of your above tips) is for anyone, any age ” GET ENOUGH SLEEP”!!! Sleep restores everything!!! With lack of sleep, your other hormones take over to compensate…we eat more especially high caloric and non-nutritutional foods..really throws your workout routine (If you can get off the couch from a lack of rest hang over due to blood sugar surge, then plummets,…then, energy stores get further depleted!! I make better choices in food selection and fitness regimen. .
I suggest meditation/ restorative yoga moves if you are having difficulty falling asleep. Make sure you catching your ZZZ’s!!
Thank you for letting me share. I hope you and all the other viewers have a Happy and Healthy 2012!!
Hi coach,
In regards to no.23, is where the sleep should enter in. Adding it to the recovery process then. Agreed, that the three cornerstones Diet, Exercise and Recovery are essential in living a healthy lifestyle!
Hi Coach,
These are very helpful tips! Very timely for me this new year. I’m trying to make changes and find what works for me. I love you #43 tip. It is so true. If we can just stick with one thing, then we will see some changes.
Hey Evelyn. This is very true. Nearly every “diet” works if you stick with it long enough. The problem is people usually give it a go for a week and their big expectations weren’t met. Patience!
7. There are 1000 reasons why you can’t start a fitness program. Put the excuses away, drop the word can’t, and start focusing on reasons for why you should
This was me. I had 1000′s of excuses not to do it, why I “couldn’t” do it. but just before Xmas I sat and thought about it and realized, I can do it, there i nothing holding me back> I have done it before, I can do it again. So I joined a gym, paid in full so I have no excuse not to go. So far so good (I know it’s only been a week, but I am determined that this is the year I will get fit, lose weight and get healthy
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Good for you Nadine for self reflecting and finding the source of your problem. You are way ahead of the pack!
This is what I’m trying to do is dedicate at least 30 minutes or more each day to exercise via walking or doing my walking exercises per my walk away the pounds dvd’s. I’m also drinking lots and lots of water daily.
Both sound like good plans Janice!
#6 is my biggest downfall, i eat because i love it and then i eat too much of the wrong stuff since i’m stuck at home almost all day every day
That’s a tough one for a lot of people. Food can be good too, you just have to learn to make it enjoyable and healthy at the same time.
I’m glad to see I’m following most of these, but I need to work on a few (specifically 1, 3, 9 and 10.). Working out has been my hardest thing, but now that I’ve lost a lot of weight and had my knee replacement I’m planning to really make exercise a priority this year
Consistency is a hard one, but it’s necessary for long term results. I’m glad your healthy enough to get healthy
Twitter: sodahoney
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I loved the spinach in egg tip. I add spinach to everything, potatoes, oatmeal, salads, eggs every casserole, soup and stew etc. And you are right if you add a little you don’t taste it. (of course if you add a cup of spinach to 1 egg you are going to taste it.)
You definitely will then! I also add it to my protein shakes. I grab a handful and blend it in with my frozen fruit.
Most diets are not a quick weight loss solution. In fact, you don’t want to lose weight too quickly or else you will gain it back right away. While you may be impressed by success stories of people losing 10 pounds in two weeks, understand that for some people, two pounds a week is good news.
Twitter: LifeFoodStore
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These are such great tips. Each time I read the list, it seems like I see new ideas each time!
~ Tiffany
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Twitter: lertnostraining
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Great post Tony. I find that the way that I get the best results is scheduling my routines. Winging it never works. If you can get into a challenge or contest this will also help you stay focused on your goal.
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