Many people have difficulty losing their fat belly, nothing is more frustrating than to get your motivation up, find the perfect diet and exercise program for you and then not lose and ounce. Some people may actually have a metabolic issue that makes it virtually impossible to lose weight, but not many.

For most of us the harsh reality is that we are just not being as good as we think we are. There are a few simple things you can do that will help keep you honest in your weight loss journey.

For one thing, it’s amazingly easy to lie about what we have eaten in any given day. There have been times when I would have sworn I was good, until my spouse will remind me of that pastry I had at lunch or all the cream and sugar I put in my coffee. We do not mean to lie to ourselves, we just are so busy we do not pay attention.

To keep yourself on track, simply keep a food journal. This is a very real way to keep tabs on yourself. For the next fourteen days, write down every single thing that you eat or drink. You have to be honest and you have to write down every last bit. Even that second glass of soda at lunch and the two pats of margarine you put on your toast.

If you do this for two weeks, you will quickly be able to spot the times of the day and the areas in your diet where you always screw up. Once you pinpoint the reasons you have difficulty losing your fat belly you can make changes that will help you achieve your goals much more quickly.

The same principle can apply to when you work out. Again, it is easy to think that you are working harder than you really are. Just like the food journal, keep a workout journal so it is harder to convince yourself that you have done something you really haven’t. Not only can you track the number of times you go to the gym but you can also track how long you spent on the treadmill or rode the stationary bike. Write down how many exercises you did for your upper body, how many you did for your lower body, etc.

You can also keep track of how much weight you used for each exercise. Ideally, you should increase your weight after every few workouts. It is important to challenge yourself so you do not get bored. By changing up the weights you lift as well as the exercises you do, you will keep your body guessing. This will help you get better results in a shorter time frame.

Working all of the major muscle groups with more than one exercise is ideal. By mixing up the exercises you do for each group you are keeping your toning efforts in high gear. Another benefit is that the different exercises will target each muscle group in a slightly different way which can also decrease many of the repetitive motion types of injuries to your body.

I don’t mean to be the bearer of bad news, but usually when someone has difficulty losing their fat belly it really is more about what they are doing, or not doing, than about any metabolic issue with their body.

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Ugh! If you have spent any amount of time looking into losing weight, then you are probably sick and tried of seeing so many fad diets. Sure, they all sound great! They promise to shed pounds quickly, and all you have to do is follow their “secret” plan. The real secret is that all of the plans that work only work because you take in fewer calories than you burn. That’s the only way to do it. But what fad diets like to do is add some sort of gimmick. This gimmick is meant to distract you from what’s really causing you to lose weight. Unfortunately, it’s the gimmick that makes a so-called healthy eating weight loss plan so hard to stick to.

Maybe you have tried more than your fair share of these kinds of diets and you feel as though you couldn’t try another one if your life depended on it. Listen up! Your life may actually depend on it. But the good news is that you don’t have to rely on some sort of wacky fad diet to start eating healthy.

A lot of people that sell their special diets are going to be mad, but here goes…you don’t need them! You really don’t. However, there are a few good diets out there, you just need to have a good idea of what you’re looking for. And what that is, is a healthy eating plan.

So, while you may be thrilled with the idea of being able to eat all of the greasy double cheeseburgers or cabbage soup that you like, the reality of such diets is different. First, healthy eating means balance. Fad diets that focus on one type of food, or eliminate whole groups of foods (low-carb diets, for example) do not provide the balance your body needs. Second, while these diets sound good and may feel great at first, the harsh reality is that the novelty will wear off much more quickly than you expect.

What all of this means is that you will never look at new diets the same way again. Instead of judging them on their crazy claims, you will be able to judge them on how healthy they are. After all, you are unique, and what works for one author may not work for you. That doesn’t make that particular diet bad, it just means you may need to alter it slightly to fit in with your health goals. When you stop and think about it, this is a much more realistic approach. It also means that you will be much more likely to stick to the diet because you have made it your own.

Don’t misunderstand, though, you can still try new diets. But as you are trying them, remember that you are trying to turn it into your own personal healthy eating weight loss plan. It’s pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it. Plus, once you start seeing how much better and long-lasting the results are, you’ll be glad you took the time to do it.

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There is no doubt that the market place is filled with countless programs that claim to be the last word in healthy eating diets. One plan may allow you to eat all of the whole grains and vegetables you want, while the next may all but eliminate them. The problem is that there is no way they can all be right, and not all of them can be wrong; this leads to confusion, and this confusion is often all the excuse people need to not try any healthy diet at all. How are you supposed to tell which ones are good or bad; and which ones should be avoided versus which ones are worth trying?

What may surprise you is that some of the most popular diets are not necessarily the most healthy. The truth is that a lot of them are based around a gimmick of some kind, and the rest of the diet relies on some basic principles found in all healthy eating diets. This creates the illusion that the gimmick makes it work, but the harsh reality is that the gimmick is often the least healthy aspect of such diets.

Still, it’s hard to convince people that a certain diet doesn’t work. There is a lot of psychology that goes along with it, but the simple explanation is that these people are invested in believing their diet of choice works, and that the gimmicky portion is the secret. However, there are many people who don’t resort to fad diets to get healthy. Instead, they develop a well-balanced plan of their own by taking the best elements from several healthy eating diets.

One of the fad diets to make a big splash recently was the low-carb diet. These diets really did work for a good number of people. How they worked, and whether they’re a good long-term option remains debatable, but they did work. The catch is that there are very few people that should b restricting carbohydrate intake to this degree. Sure, it’s a good idea to get rid of the “bad” carbs found in white flour, white rice and sugar, but it’s not a good idea to give up the “good” carbs which are high in fiber and loaded with nutrients that can’t be found anywhere else.

So, a low-carb diet may help somebody to lose weight, but it can’t really be counted among healthy eating diets because it falls short on fiber as well as various important nutrients. But, somebody can take a part of the typical low-carb diet and use it to create some of their own specific plan.

Of course there are tons of other diets that say you should do this or do that, or not to do it at all. But healthy eating plans don’t have to rely on gimmicks, they simply rely on common sense. Instead, it’s just a matter of eating a variety of wholesome foods and keeping them on balance, and in this day and age, that may be the biggest gimmick of all.

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