Lean Body Diet & Workout

It's January and everyone is looking to clean up their act; by act I mean diet and exercise regime.
I get asked all the time how to get leaner (lose body fat). My first response is to clean up your diet (1), my second piece of advice is to encourage moving more and in a variety of ways (2).

1.) Eat real food. DO NOT start a juice cleanse or "diet." Both of those may "work" in the short term, but if you're really ready to see your body change you have to think long term. Start by making small sustainable changes, adding more vegetables to your diet to crowd out the bad, then start cutting added sugars, maybe then look at your protein consumption and quality of the sources. There are so many thing you can do to improve you diet that it can be over whelming. Give yourself a week to feel comfortable and confident in each change you make. You'll also be able to use this time to key in to the way your body feels....some changes have drastic affects on the way we look and feel, so listen to your body!

What is real food? Avoid processed foods, even ones advertised as good for you. (diet soda, cold cereal, bars, etc) Focus on veggies, protein, high quality fats, fruit and water.

2.) Moving could be taking your dog for a walk, cleaning the house, or actually setting aside time for a workout.

If you're already doing all those things and still struggling to lose body fat you may need to examine the type of exercise your doing and what it does to your hormones. Hormones play a key role in body composition and we want our bodies to have a healthy ratio of muscle to fat. To burn more fat we need to build/maintain muscle mass through exercise and diet so let's look at a couple things that we can do help us burn more fat.

- Strength Training (Think core lifts, dead lifts, squats, pressing etc) (encourages growth hormone & testosterone for healthy muscle growth... the more muscle you have the more calories your body will burn, even at rest.)

- Interval Training (aka HIIT) (elicits increase in caloric burn and EPOC)

- More Sleep (essential in hormone regulation)

- Consuming balanced, high quality meals at the appropriate time. (Long periods of time without food can lead to overeating. Eat your meals throughout the day to maintain energy and satiety.)

- Prioritizing WATER, FIBER, HEALTHY FAT and adequate PROTEIN consumption for your body weight and activity level.

If you're doing all of these and still struggling let's talk!