Easy and Realistic Tips for Weight Loss

This week I'm featuring a guest blog post by my friend and colleague Steve Long. He is the owner of Complete Fitness Results in Brentwood, MO. Check out what he has to say on weight loss.



I’m going to be real blunt in this post about fat loss. Losing weight does not have to be a battle. There are so many different diets and weight loss plans out there that it can become confusing on what you are supposed to do. I would like to explain a few basic weight loss tips that can make your weight loss plan easy and less time consuming.

Don’t Eat Like Your Overweight

People ask me everyday what is the best advice I can give them for weight loss. I almost always say simply “don’t eat like a fat person”. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Don’t over eat. Don’t eat candy and sugar laden foods. Don’t eat deep fried things etc. You know what you can and can not eat. The key is to not eat these things often, you can still have fried chicken, just not everyday. You have to make 90% of your meals in a week healthy.

Realize Food Is Not God or Crack

So many of the population treat food as though it is god or a drug. It’s just food. It’s fuel for your body, or tool to make you look the way you want. You would not use a hammer to unscrew a screw, you would use a screwdriver. Don’t use the wrong tool for weight loss, and don’t glorify food as something more than it is.

Not every meal that you eat is going to be the best meal you have ever had. It is not your last meal. You will live to eat another delicious meal, so don’t be hung up on every single meal you eat being the best and most tasty meal you have ever had. Eat for results not happiness.

If you were a recovering crack user it would be best to stay away from a crack house right? So if you have problems saying no to bad foods stay away. Don’t buy junk at the grocery store, stay out of bars, and don’t even set foot inside a chinese buffet. Once you build up a little more willpower and realize that healthy food is what you really want, because it brings the results you really want, it will be much easier to be around it. Until then, stay away.

Structure Your Diet

Its best to have some sort of meal guideline to stick to so you can stay focused. The easiest way for me to make sure my meals are in check is my following a simple formula.

My specific formula is that all my meals must have 20 percent protein, have around 400 calories, should include at least one veggie, fruit, or nuts, and I must eat at 5-6 times per day. That is 2000 – 2400 calories per day which is exactly what I need for weight loss. If I follow that I know I’m going to be fine.

Plan Your Tomorrow Today

The most important thing you can do is to be prepared and plan. Every night before I go to bed I think about where I’m going to be the next day and what I’m going to eat. I plan my workout time and stick to it. If I’m going to be somewhere that I will not have a food option that sticks to my plan I’ll bring a small cooler or protein bar. I will not have an excuse to eat bad if I am prepared for the worst.

Exercise The Right Way For Weight Loss

I see a lot of people in the gym trying to lose weight by working out like a bodybuilder or barely working out at all.

If you are the doing a split routine or slowly walking on a treadmill to lose weight, you are wasting your time! Full body resistance training mixed with high intensity cardio is the way to go. I could talk for days on the benefits of resistance training and the benefits of cardio, but the point is that you have to do both. Just make sure your weights are challenging and you are pushing yourself with the cardio. If all that you can do at this point is walk, walk as fast as you can. Workout hard for 20-30 minutes instead of working out for hours. That way your workouts are not such a big deal. Its just a small part of your day.

These are just a few basic tips. Please leave any tips you have for weight loss in the comments section below.

Recipe of The Week

This is seriously one of my favorite recipes. My mom sent this to me quite a while back and I eat it about once a month! I usually pair it with some couscous and it makes for a rather delicious meal.


Chicken with Prosciutto and Mushrooms



8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 2 to 2 ½ lbs.

2 tbsp olive oil

8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced

2 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil or ¾ tsp dried basil

1 glove garlic, minced

2 oz. prosciutto, coarsely chopped

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/3 cup shredded asiago or parmesan cheese



1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Season chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, half at a time; brown 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to 3-quart rectangular baking dish; bake, uncovered, 20 minutes or until done.



2. Meanwhile, in same skillet cook mushrooms, basil and garlic, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender; remove from heat. Stir in prosciutto and tomatoes.



3. Remove chicken from over; spoon mushroom mixture over each breast. Sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven; bake 5 minutes more.



4. Serves 4.



5. 211 calories, 2g carbohydrate, 29g protein, 9g fat (38% calories from fat), 1 g fiber, 81 mg cholesterol, 244 mg sodium.

An Experience in The Grocery.

I was getting ready to check out at my local grocery just the other day when I decided to analyze what the couple in front of me was purchasing. I think my initial curiosity was due to the fact that both the husband and wife were significantly overweight. The child they had in tow was probably not obese yet, but the years of bad eating had already taken a noticeable toll on the child's weight as well.

In looking over the conveyor belt full of food the first thing I noticed was the only legitimate source of protein was bacon. Now anyone who knows me well enough knows I love me some bacon from time to time, but seriously of all the choices of protein we all know bacon is not at the top of the list.

I was also compelled to look at the total cost of their grocery trip which was almost $300, mostly which consisted of muffins, white bread, pop tarts, and any other type of refined carbohydrate imaginable. The kicker was the so called diet foods I noticed like 100 calorie packs and light dressing, which usually just give people a false sense of healthy eating.

Now I don't have any idea if they were purchasing groceries for more than one child, or when exactly they would return to the grocery for another such trip. However, I do know that I shopped for a week's worth of food for myself and spent approximately $35.

Many people say that it's expensive to eat healthy and I'll agree to some extent that healthy foods can be a little more expensive, but if your smart, resourceful, and dedicated to improving your health you can make it work.

The bottom line is that if you're serious about getting healthy and losing weight you've got to be ready to commit 100% to the task at hand!

Leave me a comment if you've had a similar experience.

Exercise of The Week

Dumbbell Pullover

Recipe of The Week

This week's recipe is compliments of my good friend Steve Payne who runs the hottest boot camp in Houston Texas. Check out his blog here


Salmon Risotto Salad


2-1/2 c. risotto
3 Knorr fish cubes
6 c. water
4 cloves minced garlic
¼ c. white wine
2 T. olive oil

Sauté risotto and garlic in olive oil until nicely coated. Heat water; dissolve fish cubes in it; add white wine. Slowly add to risotto, ½ at a time, cooking and stirring until all is absorbed. Cool.

Add:

1 lb. cooked salmon (smoked is great
½ red onion, minced
3 celery stalks, minced
1 T. dry dill
3-4 T. drained capers
½ English cucumber, diced
3 T. whole-grain mustard
½ c. mayo
3 chopped fresh tomatoes

Gently blend; chill.