How Quick Fire Tips For Weight Loss: Can Help You Improve Your Health.

Drink a full glass of water before each meal

You will feel full faster and eat less.

Eat your protein before your carbs and fat

Protein is very satiating and will fill you up fast.

Eat a bit of healthy fat 15 minutes before each meal

Fat curbs appetite and triggers the release of hormones that let you know when you are full. You can kickstart these hormones by nibbling on some nuts or dark chocolate before the your meals.

Eat hot and hearty soups and stews

Soups and stews are filling. Hot food will force you to eat slow and thus eat less, curb insulin spikes, and get full faster. Notice a trend?

Sprint

Fast, intense, full-body exercise like all-out sprinting has insane thermogenic and EPOC effects on the body. Basically, it turns your body into a calorie-burning furnace. Sprinting also builds massive muscle (compare a pic of a sprinter to a marathon runner...scary).

Make things difficult for yourself (on purpose)

Why would you ever do this? So you can MOVE more..DUH!

The more movement you perform the more calories you burn. Instead of searching for the easiest route try this: grit your damn pussy willow lip and get moving.

Buy some Chuck Taylors or Oly shoes

You will lift more. The more weight you move, the more calories you burn.

Drink green tea

Full of antioxidants and a bit of caffeine, both good for fat burning.

Chew a few extra chews each mouthful

Chewing has been linked to improvement in digestion and breakdown of food (duh) through extra release of the salvia enzymes amylase (starch breakdown) and lipase (fat breakdown). All from the physical act of chewing (weird huh).

Drink black coffee (in moderation)

Coffee offers many benefits to the body, one of which is fat burning, but there are some caveats. You should drink black (yummy) and organic if possible. Coffee beans are one of the most heavily sprayed (pesticides) crops in the world. No bueno.

Take a digestive enzyme, probiotic, and/or eat fermented food regularly

These products improve gut health and digestion. The better you digest your food the better it

is utilized in the body and the less likely it is to be converted into adipose tissue. Adipose tissue is FAT ladies and gentlemen...the jiggley, cellulitely, unpleasant kind of fat.

Perform heavy, complex, functional movements

Anything that trains the whole body is going to eat up calories for fuel. If you are in 'isolation-land' I implore you to start picking up, carrying, and moving heavy shit on a regular basis.

Avoid liquid food

Yes boys and girls, that means protein shakes. If you want to lose weight you should avoid liquid calories in any form. We already discussed how drinking calories produces a larger insulin spike because of the liquid, fast digesting form of the calories.

There is a BUT here though: If you drink a shake in lieu of eating a meal then I say it's not that bad as long as you keep it simple and low-calorie. Avoid the 500-calorie oat, peanut butter, or fruit smoothie concoctions (those are for weight gain). If it keeps you from eating shit then stick with water and whey (gross I know) and avoid chugging them.

Skip the condiments

How did I lose 5 pounds and finally carve out my abs after 2 years of frustration? Dropping ketchup (I also nixed milk so that helped a bit). I used to drown my chicken breasts in ketchup so eliminating it was huge for my results.

Store bought condiments are filled with sugar and other processed crap. Stick with organic mustard or homemade ketchup.

Drink lots of water

I don't think we need to drink as much water as the pundits would have us believe, but for reducing cravings and making us feel full more often, water can be useful.

Think hard - Use your brain

Your brain's primary fuel source is glucose so it is beneficial to use as much of it as possible so there isn't any extra that can be stored as fat.

Perform Tabata intervals

A Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. Pick a movement, Air squat for example, and start a timer. Perform as many air squats in 20 seconds as possible then rest. After 10 seconds of rest go again. Repeat until 4 minutes is up or 8 rounds have been completed. Brutal, simple fat-burning exercise.

Replace soda, juice, sweet tea with a soda water and lime (sparkling and seltzer also work)

This is how my sister and I weaned off soda (long time ago mind you) and we are still able to satisfy that craving for carbonation when eating out. You can even fake it at the club with a soda water and lime (totally looks like you are a hip alcohol-drinking-baller-shot-caller).

Do NOTHING

Relieve stress by turning off your brain and letting your body lay around like a fat-lazy Jabba the Hutt. This is something some of us do perfectly (too much) and others do terribly (never relax). Examples of doing nothing include: watching mindless TV, movies, people watching, laying on the beach, napping.

 Take naps

Sleep is one of the top 5 techniques to living a healthy life. Naps consist of sleep. Thus naps do a body good (milk does not).

Get social

We are social creatures and have thrived as a species by staying together. The benefits of enjoying time with friends and family are enormous. Anything that improves your happiness can help you lose weight by reducing stress.

Fast before you train and/or after you train

The longer you go without food in your body the more your metabolism will burn stored fat. Training increases your body's need for fuel and as a result will burn more fat.

There are a ton of benefits to not eating food even after your training window.

Watch your carb intake

This includes sugar, rice, potatoes, fruit, grains (hopefully not). Even 'good' carbs can become 'bad' by eating too much.

Take ZMA before bed (Zinc, Magnesium & Vitamin B-6)

This is hands down my favorite supplement. Not only does magnesium aid in weight loss and a list of other body functions, but it improves your sleep at night as well. You will sleep deeper, fuller, and longer. It also improves recovery a TON.

This should be a standard supplement in everyone's program.

Do CrossFit

Seriously...everyone can and should do some form of CrossFit.

Utilize active-rest days

Days where you can barely walk and your back feels like a giant bruise (I love that feeling) are days that you should avoid training hard or heavy. This is the perfect time for an active rest day.

An active rest day looks like this:

work mobility, do some light rowing and jogging, work on Oly technique with an empty barbell, foam roll, stretch, etc.

Do it all at a slow and easy, yet deliberate, pace.