Atkins and Appetite Suppression

The most common, and surprising, effects of following the Atkins diet is appetite suppression. A lot of plan followers reported the meal hunger pangs they used to experience disappear very quickly. This makes it easier to go on with the diet and continue to lose weight a lot. While some other diets have their followers starving, the Atkins diet offers relief from continues hunger. The Atkins diet is a specific combination of foods and ingredients, has a very powerful appetite suppressing effects towards human.

The first important key stuff is the amount of protein in the Atkins diet. Protein, compare to carbohydrates, has the power to satiate hunger better. If you’ve ever consume a crab heavy meal and still feel hungry later, you understands that carbohydrates do not have a lot staying power. Protein, when mixed with small amount of healthy fats, can actually keep you feeling full without having to eat something for long periods of time.

Another powerful appetite suppressing foods listed on the Atkins diet is egg. Egg is a good form of fast and simple protein. A recent study or report showed that having eggs for breakfast in the morning can actually stave off hunger pangs through the rest of the day. The report or research are done concerned two groups of women in a country. One group just have eggs for breakfast and the other only had bagels for breakfast with cream cheese. The total calorie count for both breakfasts was exactly the same. The subjects kept track of what they eat the rest of the day and answered some questions about their levels of hunger and satisfaction throughout the whole day. The results actually showed that the women who eat the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the whole day. They eat less at each meal compare to the women who were in the bagel group.

Egg contain about 6 grams of protein. This actually helps to even out blood sugar and produces a feeling of satisfaction in a human being. Both of these factors really helps to curb cravings. Egg yolks is also another food that contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been shown to have incredible effects on eye health. So it’s important to eat the whole egg, and not just the white in order to get the best results. Eggs contain choline that is very important in brain functioning and memory which helps to keep up with daily work. These nutrients are just an added benefit to the appetite suppressing qualities.

Another food are broccoli and cauliflower, both are acceptable vegetables on the Atkins program, also have appetite-suppressing effects in diets. These vegetables are very bulky and they help make your stomach feel full easily. When your stomach feels full, it will actually create a chemical response in your body to tell you stop eating. Your body will than reduce its appetite because it believes that your stomach is full of high calorie food. This happens regardless of what is in your stomach. You can also achieve the same results with water and psyllium husk fiber. Both broccoli and cauliflower provide bulk in your diet and are essential vegetables on the Atkins plan.

The Atkins diet generally focuses on eating small protein balanced meals a few times per day. This actually helps keep blood sugar stabilized and avoid carbohydrate cravings. With a high carbohydrate diets, you can riding the wave of carbohydrate highs. You will feel great and full. Few hours later you will come crashing down hungrier than you were previous to eating the carbohydrate. This cycle keeps continues and, over time, eventually you will eat more and gain weight. The protein, fat and vegetable meals of the Atkins plan helps put your blood sugar back in balance. They provide enough type of food, with the right proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables). The vegetables provide fast and quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal staying power. This combination helps suppress your appetite effectively.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control diet that helps suppress appetite. If you have had problems with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating can help control those cravings. The more you eat on following the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet effectively.

Why Is Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle The Best Selling E-Book In Internet History, With Thousands Of Satisfied (And Now Fat-Free) Users In 133 Countrie

Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is the #1 best selling diet and fitness ebook in the history of the Internet. In fact, it's one of the best selling e-books on ANY subject in the history of the Internet -... And there's a reason why...

It's because thousands of women and men of every age are burning off BODY FAT - not muscle or water weight - and they're doing it naturally, without supplements, pills or "magic potions," simply by using the proven, scientifically-accurate and common-sense advice found inside this amazing diet and fitness guidebook.

Tom Venuto, a respected fat loss expert, natural bodybuilder, and personal trainer, has not just pumped out yet another "diet program" into an already over-saturated market. Tom's Burn the Fat can be more accurately described as a "Fat Loss Bible." It is quite simply one of the most complete, detailed, and precise guides to fat loss you will ever read. What makes it so much different than other weight loss publications on the market?

Well first of all, it's not a "weight loss" program, it's a "fat" loss program. This may seem like semantics or wordplay at first, but once you've read just the first three chapters, there will be no doubt in your mind that pursuing "weight loss" is not only the wrong goal, it may be the reason that you've failed to reach and maintain your ideal body weight. Burn The Fat shows you exactly why it's fat you must lose, not "weight" (which includes muscle, water and other lean tissue) and then goes on to show you exactly how to do it.

Secondly, what makes Burn The Fat different is the amount of attention that is paid to each and every element of successful, healthy, permanent fat loss. Burn The Fat not only thoroughly dispels the lies, myths and fallacies surrounding a very confusing subject, it is simply the most detailed book about fat loss ever written. By reading Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, (or better yet, "studying it"), you will learn more about fat loss than you could from an entire semester of nutrition classes or from an entire shelf of maintstream diet publications at your local bookstore.

You may be wondering, "Is this a low carb diet? A high protein diet? A high fat diet? what type of program IS it???" The truth is that Burn the Fat is neither a high protein diet, or a low carb diet. That's because with the information in this book, you will be able to easily determine your own ideal protein, carbs and fats ratio. You will be able to analyze your body type (are you an endomorph, ectomorph, or mesomorph?), you will determine your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, or the amount of "maintenance" calories your body requires every day), and you will find out whether you are carb tolerant or carb intolerant.

This personalized approach makes perfect sense because each of us is a unique individual and no two people are exactly alike in terms of body physiology and personal goals.

One of the most powerful chapters in the book is the first one called, "How To Set Powerful, Compelling Goals That Will Propel You Forward and Charge You Up with Unstoppable Motivation." In this chapter, you will learn what is probably the ultimate secret to burning fat and getting in shape... and it has nothing to do with diets, supplements or training programs. There's also a great quote in this chapter from the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi...

"The dictionary is the only place success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must all pay for success." That line does a nice job of expressing the "no quick fix" philosophy behind the entire book. In the rest of the book, you'll learn the complete and exact mechanics of fat loss - explained on both a scientific and a practical level (which you can easily apply in your own daily life in terms of what to eat and how to exercise to burn fat).

If there is any drawback to the Burn The Fat ebook, it's that it contains so much information, that some readers may find it a bit overwhelming. Those who are looking for a "cliff's Note's" quick start type of fat loss program, might be a bit intimated at first. The good part however, is that even these types of readers can feel confident and assured that it will be worth the effort because this will literally be the last book they ever have to buy on the subject.

Who will benefit most from Burn the Fat?

In the broadest sense, anyone and everyone who needs to lose weight will benefit from Burn The Fat. Men, women, bodybuilders, fitness enthusiasts, and especially motivated individuals and avid readers will love this book. Although it was written by a bodybuilder, this book is certainly NOT just for bodybuilders.

You will find no "30 lbs. in 30 days" miracles at work here. It's all about intelligent eating choices, planning, hard work and lifestyle change. As Burn The Fat author Tom Venuto says,...

"Burn the Fat is simple, but it's not easy."

In terms of graphic design, Burn the Fat is a clean and professionally formatted PDF e-book. It's a little on the plain side, being just text, but that makes it ideal for printing and reading in the comfort of a favorite chair. Because of it's size, it does require a robust printer and a good stack of paper.

Initially, some people thought that Burn the Fat was priced a little on the high side because $39 might seem like a fair chunk of money for an ebook download. However, after they saw the amount of information contained within Burn The Fat's 340 pages, along with the special bonus ebooks and reports that come with it, they said it was not only worth the $39, but many times that amount.

As with any how-to publication, you're not really paying for the materials used to compile the document, but for what the information can do for you, and clearly, this publication has changed many lives and the hundreds of testimonials and success stories found on the Burn The Fat website are proof of that (I recommend you take a look at that "testimonials" page on the Burn The Fat website because some of the before and after transformations are simply incredible - as well as inspiring).

The Bottom line?

Anyone looking for a quick fix solution to fat loss, anyone looking to be told fairy-tales, and anyone looking for a "magic bullet" offered by the likes of body wraps, fat burning pills, diet shakes, or "fat-burning" creams and gels might be best advised to steer clear of Burn the Fat.

On the other hand, anyone tired of "spinning their wheels" going nowhere, who wants the truth about fat loss and who is ready and willing to put in the hard work and discipline and make the lifestyle changes necessary to get a fat free body, will find Burn The fat to be one of the best investments they ever made in their lives. Click here to learn more about Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat

"The Incredible Shrinking Fat Cell"...What Really Happens When Body Fat is Burned? By Tom Venuto

Earlier this week someone in our discussion forum wrote, "I haven't "LOST" any fat... I know EXACTLY where it went! I got a chuckle out of that because I "got" the joke, but truth is, most people really don't know how fat cells work, how the fat burning process takes place or where the fat goes when it's burned. It's actually quite a complex biochemical process, but I'll explain it as simply as possible, so by the end of this article, you'll be a "fat burning" expert!

When you "lose" body fat, the fat cell (also called an adipocyte) does not go anywhere or "move into the muscle cell to be burned. The fat cell itself, (unfortunately) stays right where it was - under the skin in your thighs, stomach, hips, arms, etc., and on top of the muscles - which is why you can't see muscle "definition" when your body fat is high.

Fat is stored inside the fat cell in the form of triaglycerol. The fat is not burned right there in the fat cell, it must be liberated from the fat cell through somewhat complex hormonal/enzymatic pathways. When stimulated to do so, the fat cell simply releases its contents (triaglycerol) into the bloodstream as free fatty acids (FFA's), and they are transported through the blood to the tissues where the energy is needed.

A typical young male adult stores about 60,000 to 100,000 calories of energy in body fat cells. What triggers the release of all these stored fatty acids from the fat cell? Simple: When your body needs energy because you're consuming fewer calories than you are burning (an energy deficit), then your body releases hormones and enzymes that signal your fat cells to release your fat reserves instead of keeping them in storage.

For stored fat to be liberated from the fat cell, hydrolysis (lipolysis or fat breakdown), splits the molecule of triaglycerol into glycerol and three fatty acids. An important enzyme called hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) is the catalyst for this reaction. The stored fat (energy) gets released into the bloodstream as FFA's and they are shuttled off to the muscles where the energy is needed. As blood flow increases to the active muscles, more FFA's are delivered to the muscles that need them.

An important enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL), then helps the FFA's get inside the mitochondria of the muscle cell, where the FFA's can be burned for energy. If you've ever taken a biology class, then you've probably heard of the mitochondria. This is the "cellular powerhouse" where energy production takes place and this is where the FFA's go to be burned for energy.

When the FFA's are released from the fat cell, the fat cell shrinks and that's why you look leaner when you lose body fat - because the fat cell is now smaller. A small or "empty" fat cell is what you're after if you want the lean, defined look.

It was once believed that the number of fat cells could not increase after adulthood, only the size of the fat cells could increase (or decrease). We now know that fat cells can indeed increase both in size (hypertrophy) and in number (hyperplasia) and that they are more likely to increase in number at certain times and under certain circumstances, such as 1) during late childhood and early puberty, 2) During pregnancy, and 3) During adulthood when extreme amounts of weight are gained

Some people are genetically predisposed to have more fat cells than others and women have more fat cells than men. An infant usually has about 5 - 6 billion fat cells. This number increases during early childhood and puberty, and a healthy adult with normal body composition has about 25 to 30 billion fat cells. A typical overweight adult has around 75 billion fat cells. But in the case of severe obesity, this number can be as high as 250 to 300 billion!

The average size (weight) of an adult fat cell is about 0.6 micrograms, but they can vary in size from 0.2 micograms to 0.9 micrograms. An overweight person's fat cells can be up to three times larger than a person with ideal body composition.

Remember, body fat is basically just a reserve source of energy and fat cells are the like the storage tanks. Unlike a gas tank in your car which is fixed in size, however, fat cells can expand or shrink in size depending on how "filled" they are.

Picture a balloon that is not inflated: It's tiny when not filled with air - maybe the size of your thumb. When you blow it up with air, it can expand 10 or 12 times it's normal size, because it simply fills up. That's what happens to fat cells: They start as nearly empty fat storage "tanks" (when you are lean), and when energy intake exceeds your needs, your fat cells "fill up" and "stretch out" like balloons filling up with jelly (not a pretty picture, is it?)

So you don't actually "lose" fat cells, you "shrink" or "empty out" fat cells.

Take-home lessons:

1. Calories count!The signal that triggers your body to release adipose from fat cells is an energy deficit... you have to burn more than you eat.

2. Cut calories conservatively. Starving yourself may cause quick weightloss at first, but never works long term because it actually decreases the activity of fat burning enzymes that release fat from the cells. to avoid this "starvation mode" use exercise to BURN THE FAT, not very low calorie crash diets.

3. Get control of your weight now. If you are gaining weight, and especially if your weight is climbing upwards out of control, make a decision to STOP RIGHT NOW. Your fat cells might be multiplying, making it more difficult to burn fat in the future. NOW is the time!

4. If you've already lost weight, you must be forever diligent. Your fat cells are not gone, they have merely "shrunk" or "emptied out." Fitness is not a 12 week program, its a lifestyle. To stay lean you have to eat clean and stay active

5. Genetics are only a minor factor. You may not have control over how many fat cells you were born with, but you do control the major factors that determine how much fat you store: lifestyle, exercise, nutrition, mental attitude.

Genetics are not an excuse. The past is not an excuse. Your present condition is not an excuse. You can either make excuses or get results, but you can't do both.

So keep educating yourself about the science, read these newsletters, take action every day and go out there and make it happen!

If you need more help, Burn The Fat is the eating plan that turned it all around for thousands of others... why not you? visit:

www.burnthefat.com

The Law Of Attraction And Weight Loss: Can You Think Yourself Thin? By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

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Metaphysics & Brain science merge and prove that positive thinking and goal setting literally create your body and your entire life experience
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On recently broadcast special edition of CNN's Larry King Live, Mr. King interviewed a panel of "mind experts" about how the thoughts you think literally turn into the events you experience, the material things you possess... AND even the health of your body.

For years, "positive thinking" and goal-setting were often criticized as "pollyanna" and "the law of attraction" was relegated into the category of "new age" fluff.

On the recent Larry King show, panel experts Bob Proctor, John Assaraf and others who were featured in the movie 'The Secret' explained that recent breakthroughs in neuroscience along with understanding mental laws, reveal why goal setting, the "law of attraction" and "positive thinking" all work, regardless of whether you look at them from a metaphysical or a scientific perspective.

Scientists have even identified specific parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system (RAS), which works with the visual parts of our brain to call our conscious attention to things that are important to reaching our goals and to filter out those things that are unimportant.

The RAS is activated by "programming" goals into our sub-conscious minds. Our sub concscious mind is the "power center" and THIS is the mechanism that explains why goal setting and positive thinking are now being accepted as scientific methods for change.

We are discovering that our brain is cybernetic in nature, which means that it is literally like a computer, waiting for a program to be installed.

Here's the kicker - the subconcsious is completely neutral and impartial - it will carry out any instructions you give it.

Unfortunately, many of us are still running negative programs we picked up from others as children when our non-conscious minds were totally open and impressionable, or which we developed over the years as a result of repetition of our own negative thinking.

As it turns out, our own thoughts, repeated daily, are one of the primary ways that our "mental computer" is programmed on a sub-conscious level, which is the level of beliefs, habits and automatic behavior.

To change your results, you must overwrite old negative programming and install positive new programming into your subconscious.

This can be achived through such techniques as written goal setting, positive self-talk (affirmations), and mental imagery (visualization).

In the 1970's, the Soviets and East Germans were the first to formally use structured mental rehearsal, and at that time, they dominated in several olympic sports. This was reported in great detail in Charles Garfield's landmark book, "Peak Performance." Today, virtually all elite athletes use visualization extensively, as we now know that the brain cannot differentiate between real practice and practice that is vividly imagined.

If you are getting more of the same negative results in your life - such as the same health problems, or the same body fat continues to return even after you lose it, then you have probably been un-consciously running old negative programs and re-inforcing them with negative thought patterns.

You can begin the positive mental reprogramming process by writing down your goals, changing your internal dialogue and taking a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind and perform a session of visualization or mental rehearsal every day (seeing yourself in your "mind's eye" not as you currently are, but as you ideally would like to be).

These methods, repeated often enough, will begin to program the non- conscious portion of the mind, which is the same part of the mind that controls your heart beat, digestion and new cell production, all on "automatic pilot."

In the last decade, neuroscientists discovered that you have the capacity to create an almost infinite number of new neural connections in your brain when you run new thought patterns.

The Old neural pathways are like grooves in a record, and if you are struggling with your health related behaviors or behaviors in any other area of your life, you have been playing the "old records" over and over again.

If you were to carve a new groove into that record, it would never play the same way again. the old pattern would weaken and the new one would take over. Brand new, positive thoughts, feelings and images begin to create new neural patterns.

Psychologists estimate that it takes 21 to 30 days to establish a new pattern in your brain. During this time, the focus on sticking with your practice and repeating your new thought patterns is critical.

Is this easy? For most people, no it's not. In fact, controlling your thinking and keeping it constructive may be one of the most difficult challenges you have ever faced. Fortunately, writing goals and reading affirmations can help get you started.

You can take some of the pressure off yourself by simply accepting that negative thoughts and self criticisms will pop up from time to time. Just observe them, without mulling over them or adding to them, and change the polarity of the thought by quickly repeating one of your positive affirmations or by changing your mental pictures.

So is there something to this whole "positive thinking" thing?

The philosophers and theologians have been saying yes for the entire span of recorded history: "As you think, so shall you be." Variations on this proverb can be found in every spiritual and philosophical tradition.

But... if you are the left-brained, "prove-it-to-me" type, you dont have to go on faith anymore. Scientists are beginning to prove more and more convincingly that thoughts are powerful things. Even Larry King seemed impressed with what his panel of "mind mentors" had to say.

So how soon are you going to begin your mental training right alongside your physical training? When are you going to learn how to harness this power locked up inside your mind?

Guess what? You're already using this force every day because you cannot turn it off. Whatever you are thinking and picturing in your mind repeatedly on a daily basis is already on it's way to you, so it's simply a matter of HOW you are using it, not IF you are using it.

What do you say to yourself every day? Do you say, "I am becoming leaner, healthier and more muscular every day?"... or do you say "I am a fat person - Ive tried everything, nothing ever works?"

The fact is - you can think yourself thin and healthy or you can think yourself obese and ill. Maybe not in the literal sense...but most certainly as the critical part in the chain of causation...

You see, there's a lot of talk these days in the personal improvement world about law of attraction, manifesting, intention, visualization, affirmations and of course, positive thinking.

Without understanding that there is an orderly, scientific basis underneath all of these things, many people will simply remain skeptics, while on the opposite extreme, others may get the idea that you can sit around meditating and visualizing, then expect a mystical "law of attraction" to kick in and then "poof!" a great body materializes out of thin air... along with the perfect relationship, a nice bank account and fantastic career success.

What really happens is "Positive thinking" and related methods quite literally re-program your brain, which in turn creates new behaviors that move you physically toward whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on.

So success is achieved through positive thinking + positive doing.... attraction + action. There are two sides to the coin. Without paying attention to both, you may continue to struggle... often against nothing but yourself.

If you want to transform your body or any other aspect of your life, then you have to change on the inside (the mind) first and then everything else will follow.

This process of *scientific* goal setting and mental reconditioning through emotionally charged mental imagery (visualization) and internal mental dialogue (affirmations) is the very first thing I have always taught my clients and the first thing I wrote about in my book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle You can learn all of these techniques in detail in chapter 1. Learn more about the psychology of body transormation inside the Burn The Fat ebook:

www.burnthefat.com

How To Turn Super Sizing, Dietary Displacement and Portion Distortion To Your Advantage! By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

Ever since the independent film, Super Size Me was released, research on the relationship between increasing obesity and increasing portion sizes has skyrocketed and the results have been virtually unanimous.

There have been numerous well-designed studies published just in the last several years which confirmed exactly what we suspected (and much of what the movie suggested):

* Portion sizes have increased in restaurants and fast food venues on a major scale over the last several decades

* We self-serve ourselves larger portions in the home than we used to

* When more food is put in front of us, we almost always eat more

* most people underestimate how many calories they are eating

* All of these factors have contributed to the growing obesity problem and the related health problems that come along with it

The obvious solution would seem to be to decrease portion sizes across the board, and indeed awareness of and control over portion sizes in general is important.

However, research has demonstrated that perhaps an even better solution is to keep the portion sizes generous, but decrease the energy density (calories per unit of volume) in the foods you put on your plate.

Several studies revealed that eating more low calorie density foods, especially green vegetables, salad vegetables and other fibrous carbs, as well as very lean proteins, maintains a feeling of fullness while reducing energy intake.

In other words, large portions of highly nutritious, low calorie foods displaced the less nutritious, calorie-dense foods! Most people allow the bad foods to push out the good foods, but you can actually do the same in reverse!

In a study published in the Journal of The American Dietetic Association, researchers fed one group a compulsory first course salad which was kept low in energy density by using very low calorie dressing with no high calorie toppings no bacon, cheese or croutons, etc).

After the salad, the subjects were allowed to eat as much pasta as they wanted.

A second group was also allowed to eat as much pasta as they wanted but was not given a compulsory salad to eat beforehand.

The results: As you might guess, eating a low energy density first course enhanced satiety (fullness) and reduced the overall amount of calories that were eaten during the whole meal.

Since the research has repeatedly discovered that almost everyone will eat more when served larger portions from a larger plate or container, and there is obviously a serious issue of "portion distortion" occurring, another group of scientists and psychologists decided to test this even further by providing larger plates or containers of low energy density, high nutrient density foods before the main course and or in between meals.

When more of the low energy density foods were made available first, the subjects ate even more of these healthy foods, which filled them up even more and decreased the amount of high calorie density foods eaten in the main course.

Reporting their findings in the Journal of Nutrition Education And Behavior, the researchers said that there is a silver lining to all the negative findings about super sized portions and overeating that we have discoverd inrecent years:

That is, although we eat more when more is put in front of us, We can use this phenomenon in reverse by serving large plates, bowls or containers of healthy, low energy density foods like fruits, salads and raw vegetables as snacks and first courses.

"While a small bowl of raw carrots might make for a good afternoon snack", said one of the researchers, "a large bowl might even be better."

You can learn more about calorie density, low energy density foods (thermogenic foods), and choosing your portion and meal sizes with precision inside the Burn The Fat ebook. For more information, visit: www.burnthefat.com

Tom Venuto's Top 10 Travel Fitness Tips, Part 1 By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

I recently read two articles about travel fitness. One said that while you're traveling, you should keep up with 50% of your normal training and the other said you should keep up with only one-third. Both were written by well known fitness professionals and both said that you should NOT expect to keep up your regular exercise program while you are traveling. That struck me as kind of "lame" and I said to myself, “Why the heck not? Why do people have such low standards and demand so little of themselves? Why do they let themselves off the hook and scale back?”

Sometimes, of course, traveling is purely for a vacation – including a vacation from training. Occasional time off from intense training is beneficial and necessary to let your body recover and rejuvenate completely from chronic training stress, just as time off from the office is needed to disengage your mind for a while. It’s also true that it really doesn’t take much to maintain fitness once it is developed, and an abbreviated, but still effective, workout routine could certainly be used, if you choose, when you’re on the road.

However, you still have healthy eating to think about and just because you’re traveling doesn’t mean you can’t follow your regular exercise regimen. Why settle? If you want to continue to improve your physique while on the road, you can! Here are 10 ways that I did it on my last extended business trip that you may find helpful as well. It begins with a simple decision.

1. Decide to improve while you’re traveling and to come home in better shape than when you left

Nearly every time I travel (the exception being if it’s a complete rest and relaxation vacation), I set a goal to come home in better shape than when I left. The only reason most people usually come home with lower fitness and a few extra pounds than when they left is because they didn’t make a decision to do otherwise. In fact, many people hold a belief that it’s “impossible” to stay on their eating and exercise program while they are traveling! Why not get in better shape no matter where you are? The truth is, all it takes is a decision and some planning. I find it a fun and exhilarating challenge to improve myself no matter where I am in the world.

2. Write out your workout schedule in advance

There’s nothing like writing your goals down on paper to keep your mind focused and keep yourself motivated. In addition to writing out goals regularly, preferably every day, you should also commit your training schedule to paper and especially when you are traveling. Write down the days, the time of the day and the exact workout you plan to do and you will be amazed at how easy you will find it is to get to the gym and have great workouts.

3. Get a hotel with a kitchen

The single most important part of my travel arrangements was to book a hotel with a kitchen. For me, not having a kitchen is not an option. If you don’t have kitchen, you will be much more likely to skip meals, it’s very difficult to eat 5 or 6 times a day (as required by any good fat burning or muscle building nutrition program), and you may end up at the mercy of restaurant, hotel or convenience store food. For my most recent trip, I stayed at Homestead Studio Suites, one of several national hotel chains in the USA which includes a full kitchen including a refrigerator, microwave, stove – the whole works. Exteneded Stay America and Marriot Residence Inn offer similar accomodations

On previous trips, if there wasn’t such a hotel with a kitchen in the vicinity, I searched the internet for apartments for short term rental. You may be surprised at the type of lodging you can find and often you will be pleased with price as compared to hotels. I once booked a luxury condo for 7 days and it ended up costing less than the hotel I was first considering, and the hotel didn’t even have a kitchen. Nothing beats a full kitchen, but you may also find that many hotels will provide you with a microwave and mini-refrigerator if you ask for them.

4. Go food shopping immediately after checking in

The FIRST thing I did after checking in was to make a beeline straight to the local grocery store. I took a shopping list with me because on past trips I found that I nearly always seemed to forget one or two small items if I didn’t have the written grocery list. Once you have a fully stocked refrigerator and kitchen, your meal planning and preparation is NO DIFFERENT than it is when you are home.

5. check the local restaurant locations and menus and commit in advance to making healthy choices when dining out

Since I had a kitchen at my disposal, the majority of my meals were just business as usual. I cooked them right in my hotel room and brought them along with me wherever I went. However, when traveling, it’s likely that you will probably be having quite a few restaurant meals.

I make it a habit to scope out the local restaurants in advance and even check their websites. Most have their menus online these days. I make a decision in advance whether it will be a regular meal or a “cheat meal.” If it’s a cheat meal, I enjoy whatever I want, but I always keep portion sizes in mind. For example, last time, I split a slice of cheesecake with a friend. Was I guilty? Heck no, it was my planned cheat day, I only ate half a slice and it was the first cheesecake I had in 12 months!

If you walk into a restaurant without having made a decision in advance whether you are staying on your regular meals or having a cheat meal, you are much more likely to have a “diet accident” and make a poor choice on impulse, especially if you’re influenced by non-healthy-eating companions (don’t under estimate the negative peer pressure factor). All it takes is one unplanned cheat meal and that can often lead to guilt. Then “all or none thinking” tends to set in and you may tell yourself, “Well, I blew it,” so the next meal and then the rest of the week tends to completely fall apart as well.

Continued in Part 2

Tom Venuto's Top 10 Travel Fitness Tips, Part 2 By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

6. Cook portable foods and bring meal replacements or healthy snacks for drives, flights and day trips

I love to drive, so for my trip last month I packed everything up in my car and hit the road. Naturally, I cooked for the road trip and my food came with me! I’ve learned how to make a variety of portable foods including several different types of oatmeal pancakes, tuna burgers and healthy sandwiches. Some of these “portable foods” can be even eaten with your hands while you are in a car, on a plane or sitting in a seminar room.

On my recent trip, I knew I had a long drive, so I calculated the number of hours on the road and the number of meals I would need and simply brought them all with me. For two of my on-the-road meals I had oatmeal-egg white-apple-cinnamon pancakes and one of my “meals” was simply a high protein meal replacement shake and fresh fruit. It’s not difficult at all when you plan and pack food in advance.

7. Choose your gym or check your hotel fitness facilities in advance

Many people work out right in their hotel rooms with a body weight exercise program or even portable equipment. Since I’m a bodybuilder, I refuse to go without a fully equipped gym. Unfortunately, on-site Hotel gyms are notorious for sounding great in the advertisements and then when you arrive, you find that the “gym” is a room about the size of a walk in closet, with a few pieces of (mostly broken) archaic equipment from the 1970’s. There are a few exceptions, but having learned my lesson a couple times, I now use the Internet to locate a gym prior to my trip. Call in advance and ask if there are daily or weekly rates.

You can also ask if your hotel has an affiliation with a local health club. During my last trip, the hotel was affiliated with a Bally Total Fitness Center that was just a 10 minute drive away and use of the Bally’s was included with the price of my room. It turned out to be an excellent club, so I was a happy camper.

If you are already a member of a gym in your local area, check to see if your gym has an affiliation with other clubs around the country or if they belong to an organization such as IHRSA (international Health, Racque & Sportsclub Association). Some clubs are part of a network which allows you to train at other clubs when youre traveling - all you have to do is show your membership card and you will get access to train at other clubs that are part of the network. IHRSA has more than 6,500 clubs in 67 countries in its network.

8. Pack your workout gear and plenty of workout clothes

When you pack hastily at the last minute, things can easily be forgotten and left behind, so be sure to pack plenty of workout clothes with you and bring any other gym gear you might need (belt, lifting straps, etc). For extended trips, inquire with your hotel to see if they have laundry facilities. (The hotel where I recently stayed had an onsite laundry room, which came in handy with my 2.5 week stay).

9. Change up your workouts as you change up your gym

Some people get accustomed to their hometown gym and they’re upset or disappointed when they don’t have access to the same equipment when they travel. They feel that it cramps their style or hinders their results. However, this can really be a blessing in disguise. Your body adapts to any workout, often in just a matter of weeks. We tend to be victims of our own habit patterns in life and that includes our workouts. You might want to take advantage of it when you have new and different equipment at your disposal.

After “scoping out” the gym’s facilities, design an entirely new workout program for a change. Do something 100% different. Sometimes a simple change of exercises is enough to stimulate new progress. The club I trained at during my last trip had a full line of “Strive” machines which are not available at my hometown gym. These machines allow you to choose three different resistance curves on each exercise. Very cool. Since I had access to this equipment, I did a totally new routine and used more machines than usual. Although most fitness experts these days generally advise you to use more free weights than machines (and I agree for the most part), using these machines was a great change up and I could feel and see the difference.

10. Walk, bike or make physical recreation part of your travel plans

Personally, as I am already in very good shape, I usually don’t count casual walking as part of my “formal” workout (cardio) program, although it certainly might count for other people. However, it never hurts to get some extra activity and all physical activity burns calories and provides some health benefits. I’ve found that more often than not, when I am on the road, whether for business or pleasure, there are plenty of opportunities to get some physical recreation and see the sights by foot.

On a trip last year, I spent an entire afternoon hiking in the hills of a beautiful national park. On another trip, I rented a bike and rode for miles along a beachside bike path. On my recent trip, I spent an entire day walking through museums and then sightseeing. I walked for hours. I also couldn’t help but notice other people (mostly conspicuously unfit people), tooling around outside on those stand-up scooters. Funny thing too, because right next door to the motorized scooter rental was a bike rental. Which would you choose – foot, bike, or “lazy-person’s chariot?”

Brain Science And New Year's Resolutions By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

Motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said, "I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps it's because escape is easier than change."

Success psychologists say that 95% - 97% of the people in the world do NOT have written goals and fail, while 3-5% have written goals and succeed.

If these statistics are correct, then Mr Rohn's observation really IS quite fascinating isn't it?

Unfortunately for most people, the odds for success are actually even lower, because out of the few people who do set goals, most don't take goal setting seriously, they don't do it scientifically and they only do it once a year.

Goal setting is so important, that I always teach goal setting and mind dynamics first, and only THEN, do I teach nutrition and training second.

It doesnt matter how much you know about nutrition or exercise. Until specialized fitness knowledge is linked with goals and directions, the knowledge is useless and you won't accomplish very much or keep the changes long term.

In fact, I devoted the entire first chapter of my book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (www.burnthefat.com) to the subject of goals and constructive "mind programming" for successful, permanent behavior change.

I've also studied neuro linguistic programming (NLP) for many years and more recently spent many months researching the latest information about neuroscience to see just how much of the traditional self help and goal setting wisdom is actually backed by brain research.

As you start thinking about your goals for 2007 right Now, I'd like to help you start the year off right by sharing two very valuable, science based tips on acheiving your goals:

SCIENTIFIC GOAL SETTING TIP #1: Repetition is an effective way to "plant" a goal in the non-conscious mind

Why don't most resolutions stick? Psychology and neuroscience today are giving us the answers.

Thanks to new technologies in brain imaging, such as PET scans, SPECT scans and functional MRI's, we can now actually see your thoughts as electrochemical impulses and we can see the formation of new neural connections in real time right before our eyes.

We can also see where, geographically, in your brain, a particular type of thought is occuring.

most importantly, we can see how long it takes to form strong neural patterns and what types of stimuli cause the patterns to form more quickly

Here's what we've discovered:

Setting a goal once is a conscious activity. Willpower is also a conscious activity. But research has shown that at least 5/6 of your brain power is in the non conscious mind and that the information and instructions that reach the non conscious mind are responsible for your automatic behavior.

Some pyschologists believe that 95% of our behaviors are unconscious and automatic... more commonly known as habits.

Long term behavior changes don't take place when you set goals one time as with most new years resolutions. There's an old saying in "self help" circles that it takes at least 21-30 days to form a habit. This has now been proven to be fairly accurate on a neurological basis.

New neural patterns begin to form only after they've been repeated enough times. They continue to strengthen with further repetition. If you make resolutions on January 1st and you don't continue to repeat and reinforce your desire for those "goals," no new neural connection is formed, no new habits are formed, no new behaviors are formed....

Your resolutions wither away and die and any results obtained through willpower (trying to force the new behaviors through conscious effort), are quickly lost when you slip back to your old ways.

What you repeat over and over again is programmed into the subconscious mind and begins to take root. On a practical level, this means RE-writing your goals everyday and thinking about them in positive terms and in mental pictures, every day, repeatedly until the habit is formed and turned over to "auto-piliot."

In 1956, when Earl Nightingale wrote "The Strangest Secret is that we become what we think about most of the time," we didnt know what we know now about the brain.

Nevetheless, Earl was right.

You don't change your body by trying to change your body. You change your body by creating new habitual patterns of thinking and visualizing.

Trying to force new behaviors with willpower while continuing with your old ways of thinking will always fail because your automatic behavior is mostly under non-conscious control.

Its not the resolution you set once... its the goals (mental thoughts and images) you focus on all day long that create the long term (and automatic) behavioral change... when you change your behaviors, you change your body and your life...

SCIENTIFIC GOAL SETTING TIP #2: Emotion is a goal-turbocharger

Is there any way around this tedious process of "mental programming" through repetition? Not really. The fields of NLP and hypnosis have given us some tools for creating more rapid changes, but ultimately you have to begin to "run your own brain" and change your habitual way of thinking. No one else can do it for you and there's no way around it.

there is however, a scientifically proven way to to speed up the process and that is with the use of strong emotion.

Since modern imaging technology can see activity in the brain and scientists have located the seat of emotions in the brain, we know that the strength and number of neural connections associated with a thought or behavior are increased when you're in a highly emotional state.

The neuron connections are also stronger, longer lasting and it takes longer to lose a neural connection when it was formed with great emotion.

With this knowledge, we see another reason why new years resolutions fail: They are set casually with no emotion and no strong emotional "reason why" that gives you the leverage to you need to make a change permanent.

On January 1st, you may think you're setting "real" goals, but if you're like most people, you're not only doing it a mere once a year and then losing focus, you're also likely to be making flimsy, wishy-washy, emotion-less "resolutions."

Zig Ziglar once said that, "A goal casually set and lightly taken will be freely abandoned at the first obstacle."

You might want to back up and read that quote again, maybe even write it down or print it out, because this one hits the bull's-eye!

This truly explains why New Year's resolutions almost never work, and why so few people can keep off the pounds after they get rid of them.

Goal setting should not be casual or lightly taken. Goal setting is an important and serious matter. This is not a game - this is your life, and you only have one life to live.

Goal setting is also not a one time event - it is an ongoing process of literally "re-wiring your brain." With the discovery of brain plasticity, we now know that this is science fact, not self-help fiction.

Make the time to set REAL goals, today! Take it seriously, do it scientifically, re-write your goals every day, think about them constantly, and then take massive action

Do it and this will be the most successful year of your life!