How can I lose weight?

This is one question I get asked a lot by people, when they find out that I am a personal trainer.

There is no single best answer I can give them or you, but as a trainer, there are several things I consider when I plan for my clients' weight loss goals:

1. Tweak your nutrition

Nutrition plays a key role in your success in your weight loss. No matter how hard you exercise, if you lag in the nutrition department, you will miss your weight loss targets.

I am not saying you should be on a strict chicken and Quinoa diet for the rest of your life. I treat my clients like human-beings. I help them come up with nutrition plans that fits their likes and dislikes, their lifestyle and their taste.

Here are some tips to clean up your meals:

1. Stick to "Brown rice", "Quinoa", "Whole Grain Breads" and "Whole Wheat Pasta" more often.

This ensures during the digestion process, the food will be converted into fats at a much slower rate, so you will add less fat to your body

2. Stick to "Extra lean" and "Lean" cuts of meat

Less fatty meats means less fat in your body, and under your skin. Your waistline will love you for it, so will your heart. arteries and internal organs.

3. Do NOT forget healthy fats

The single biggest mistake I see people do is they avoid all fats. Your body needs healthy fats to function. Consume your healthy fats:nuts, seeds, Olives, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Avocado oil, Avocadoes, etc.

4. ALWAYS eat a big salad BEFORE your meals

Yup, this is what saves you from putting on fat and in fact this helps you lose the fat.

Vegetables have a lot of fiber, this slows down how fast foods digest in the body. The slower the digestion, the slower the food will convert to fats and is stored under the skin.

Not only do vegetables slow down digestion, they also help you lose weight, even while you sleep or watch TV! what more could you ask for? Digestion of fiber is a very lengthy process for the body and requires a lot of processing and energy. The energy for breaking down and digesting fiber comes from the fats.

Keep in mind, "You cannot out-exercise a bad diet"

2. Add more smart movements to your day

I know that everybody says add more physical activity to your days, take the stairs, work standing up, etc. Yes, I know some of them sound very ridiculous. Hence, I am not going to tell you what everybody else does.

In fact, I want you to stop taking the stairs, especially going down. It is hard on your knees, and it does not burn as many calories as you think it does. Going up the stairs is a safer alternative, and it burns more calories than going down. Only do this if you do not have existing ankle, knee, hip or lower back injuries.

Alternatively, what I suggest to all of my clients is to get up and walk around every 1 hour at work, for 5 minutes. Every hour of work, sitting down, typing away on your computer, just get up, go to the kitchen, bathroom, or just walk around in the office. In 8 hours of a business day, it adds up to 40 minutes of activity!! Just like that!

One of the activities that you may enjoy is to picnic. Just pick up your stuff, grab a bunch of friends go out to a park or somewhere nice, set up and do some BBQ and get some movement going. The whole act of getting your picnic stuff from the storage, loading and unloading, setting up, walking to a site you want to set up, all of that add up to a good number of minutes of activity. Much better than sitting on the couch, ordering pizza and napping all day, no?

3. Up your water intake

Water is a critical component of health. Our muscles are over 60% water. Water is a crucial part of every chemical reaction in the body and plays a key role in nutritient transportation inside and outside the cells in the body.If you get dehydrated, many of the body's functions will slow down.

Water helps the blood be more fluid and not as sticky and thick. This helps the heart work more efficiently and less forcefully. Water lubricates the joints, eyes, etc. helps the body regular temperature and regulates energy level and mood.

We lose water constantly from our body through urine, sweating, breathing, etc. It is of utmost importance to replenish the lost water. Drink about 8-10 glasses of water (8 ounce glasses). This is equal to almost 2-liters or half a galon a day.

4. Don't skip out on good night sleep

Sleep is the time during which body recovers from daily activities, muscles, tissues, cells repair and regenerate. It is a critical time of the day for the body. Recovery, growth and regeneration occures most efficiently during sleep. If we skip out on a good night's sleep, we interfere with the body's regulation mechanism to repair itself.

Long term sleep deprevation has been linked to over-eating, obesity, diabetes and many other health issues.

Get your 7.5-9 hours of sleep at night for most optimal recovery and highest levels of energy to tackle the day ahead.

5. Slow and Steady...is the key

One of the reasons we are often unsuccessful at making changes is that always rush things, and want to push for the most amount of change in the shortest time possible. This is a strategy that will lead to failure, almost 100% of the time.

The name of the game is "Slow and Steady".

Never Eliminate - Always reduce

Try to slowly cut back on things you should cut back on, like, potato chips, chocolate, cakes, hot dogs, bacon, etc. If you for example eat a whole chips bag a day, cut that back to only 3/4 of a bag a day for say a week, then slowly bring it down to half a bag a day, then to a quarter, then to a few chips a day. You see what is going on here? You are not trying to cut things out immediately. You are trying to satisfy your brain, your appetite while cutting back. This way, you enjoy what you enjoy, in a more responsible way, and you are on your way to successfully gaining control over it.

6. Focus on the positives

I have had many clients that lost 2-3lb in two to three weeks after they started, and they were discouraged. But why? Isn't 2-3lb less weight better than the starting point? Yes, 2-3lb every 2-3 weeks is lower than what many of us want to accept, but it is a successful weight loss nonetheless!

You have to understand, the human body takes a while to adjust to a new routine, to a new regiment, to a new way of life. It takes a while before it sees the reduction in calories, a reduction in junk food is indeed a sustainable way of life. Body is a naturally conservative, starvation paranoid machine. It needs to "learn" that the new way of life is sustainable and that it is not stranded on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere.

Give your body some time to learn, to adjust and to make changes. In the meantime, every change is a positive change.

BE HAPPY, CELEBRATE EVERY POSITIVE CHANGE.