Eliminate Negative Influences: Getting away for those negative influences in your life is a huge part of getting lean. This bad influence could be anyone, brother, husband, wife, best friends, etc. I am not saying that you should completely block them out of your life, but resist the negative statements, comments or actions that they may have towards your fitness goals. If your particular negative influence is not a loved one, try to eliminate hanging around them all together, at least for the first few months of starting this program. Remember, a person that does not care about getting lean and physically fit, is prone to drag others down with them. Do not let anyone, or anything sideline you. Stay focused on your goals!

Cardiovascular Exercise: (Running, Walking, Stepper, Treadmill, Bike, etc.) Consistently performing cardiovascular exercises is essential to speeding up your metabolism and effective in burning away fat, as well as strengthening the heart. Your card exercise is best done when blood sugar is low. First thing in the morning or after you workouts, are the best and most effective times to do your cardio. You need to do at least 20 min. and no more than an hour per session. In order for cardio to be effective, it must be done no less than three times weekly. It needs to be somewhat difficult, really working hard but not to the point to where you can’t talk or hold a conversation (don’t go so fast that you are gasping for your breath) but get moving!

Keep your pulse rate at your target heart range (Take 220 minus your age), then work at 60-75% of that for the endurance of your session. For Example: If you are 40 years old (220-40=180) to get your maximum working heart rate. Then 180 multiplied by .75=135 Beats per min. 135 beats per minute being your target heart rate, and needs to be maintained during you cardio session. Oh yeah, vary your cardio exercises, maybe do the stepper for 15min. and then the treadmill for 15. Variation may prevent burnout, and shock your muscles, but remember to sustain 60-75% of your maximum heart rate. Maintaining a certain amount of intensity during your cardiovascular exercise will help ensure that your metabolism speeds up.

Recovery: Your body will need rest to achieve your fitness goals. Never workout more than 4 days a week and be sure to get 6-8 hours of sleep nightly. One of the most common mistakes among gym patrons is over training! Don’t fall victim to over training. Too much of a good thing can be bad. Consistency: is the most important thing of all, in both your eating habits as well as your weight training and cardiovascular exercise. You must perform at least three days of each in order to see results! Less than three days a week just doesn’t cut it for most. Remember that in order to keep fat off permanently, you must speed up your metabolism. A faster metabolism will result in more calories being burned during the day. Your metabolic rate will not speed up unless you are consistent in your cardio and weight training efforts.

Multivitamin/mineral and Protein supplements: As your diet may be lacking in the essential vitamins and minerals, it is a good idea to get a time-released multivitamin. Get something a little better than Centrum. Most gym and health food stores offer a variety of good and effective vitamin formulas. A power/shake mix is another useful aid in your quest for a faster, more efficient metabolism. It is an easy way to get in a quick meal replacement, but don’t make these the bulk of your diet.

Try to limit yourself to around two liquid meals daily with the other 2-4 meals being solid meals. The shakes contain high quality protein; some even contain carbohydrates, so pick one you like and use it in conjunction with your food. Supplement shakes are a quick alternative to eating a meal. A shake can be blended up on the run, quickly and efficiently. Meal Frequency: Meals need to be eaten more frequently and in smaller portions, three to four hours apart. Frequent meals are important in helping to speed up your metabolism. Speeding up your metabolism is the only way to permanently lose body fat and obtain lean muscle mass. When you begin eating your meals more frequently your body will begin to burn energy at a faster rate.

A faster metabolism will result in more calories being burned during the day, as well as giving you higher levels of energy. Eat 4-6 small meals each day! The Cooler Plan: Avoid eating out at all cost! This may be extremely hard for some and easier for others. Restaurant food simply is not going to be low in fat. If a restaurant does serve some lean dishes, you are probably not going to be lucky enough to have ordered it. The bottom line is you don’t always know what you are getting. It is amazing how it always taste better at the restaurant.

We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States — enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over — has a downside. Our overefficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more — more food, more often, and in larger portions — no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being.

Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is very big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view. Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences.

She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics — not science, not common sense, and certainly not health. No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this pathbreaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.

Preliminary recommendations from the joint assessment and surveys included: Increase the general food distribution to a standard ration of not less than 1,900Kcal/person/day (this figure was calculated using the demographic profile of the population which has a high proportion of young children). Ensure that the ration includes a food basket of cereals, pulses and oil. This ration should not be provided to those receiving regular income from the Government of Indonesia (UNHCR must determine who is eligible before the distributions start and introduce a ration card system).

Implement a blanket dry-supplementary feeding program for all children under-five. Organize selective/targeted feeding program for other vulnerable groups including moderately malnourished children. Establish a nutrition and food basket monitoring system This report is issued on the general responsibility of the Secretariat of the U.N.’s ACC/Subcommittee on Nutrition; the material it contains should not be regarded as necessarily endorsed by, or reflecting the official positions of the ACC/SCN and its U.N. member agencies. Funding support is gratefully acknowledged from CIDA, DFA (Ireland), NORAD, UNHCR and WFP.

This report was made possible through the support provided to the Food and Nutrition Assistance (FANta) Project by the Office of Health and Nutrition Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and Research at the U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. HNE-A- awarded to the Academy for Educational Development (AED). The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development.