For many people, losing weight is hard. It can be a challenge, due to a number of reasons. Some of us just love food, while others hate exercise. No matter what your excuse is, it is actually simple to lose weight to get the body you want. Now, rock-hard abs and a super-toned body are a different story, but that’s something we’ll leave for a future post. But getting into good shape is possible with some simple lifestyle changes to your diet, exercise, and your supplement intake.

A new blog by the name of DietSpy.com just recently launched, and they are giving away The Simple Weight Loss Guide, a short yet sweet e-book that can help the majority of people lose weight. It comes in at under 30 pages, which is a pretty quick read.

I’ve read the book and it is full of great, no-nonsense information. It includes some simple diet changes, like what you should eat and what you should not eat, what to do for exercise, and which supplements to take to accelerate your weight loss. Then it gives you 7 tips that you can implement into your life. My personal favorite is the Goal Setting tip, which is something that you can apply to other areas of your life, not just weight loss.

The best part is that it’s free. So download The Simple Weight Loss Guide to start changing your life today!

It’s often said that we fail at our goals because we don’t track what we do. If we don’t know where we are, how do we know where we’re going? If you want to lose weight, you have to keep a close eye on what you’re eating. If you “guess” that you’re eating 2,000 calories a day, or you only eat when you feel hungry, you could be over-eating or under-eating. If you keep your healthy calorie intake (healthy calories coming from lean meats, fruits, and vegetables) to a certain range, it starts to get really easy to lose weight.

70% of losing weight is about diet. Don’t think that you can spend 2 hours in the gym, working your ass off, and then rewarding yourself with two value meals from Burger King. You’ll never lose weight this way.

That said, you should definitely try out FitDay.com for tracking your progress. At the very least, use it as a tool to track the amount of calories you eat. That way, you can be completely honest with yourself. After a few days you’ll begin to see why what you’re eating is working, or not working.

Also, apologies for not updating this website too often. I am working on a book that I will give out for free to everyone who wants to lose weight. Basically it condenses down all the basics you need to know about losing weight into a handy, short book. Should be in the next week or so.

If you’ve watched TV for any amount of time, you probably know that a lot of athletes love NutriSystem. From Dan Marino to John Kruk to Don Shula, retired athletes are lining up to promote NutriSystem to get rid of that permanent post-season weight they’ve put on over the past few years. Is Nutri-System really the solution to weight loss that grown men have been looking for?

Well, let’s break it down. What is NutriSystem? It’s a pre-packaged diet plan designed to help you lose weight by providing you with the meals you’ll eat for however long you’re on the program. Food comes delivered to your door, and your daily diet will consist of 3 meals plus snacks.

NutriSystem will average out to about $10 bucks a day, so that’s probably cheaper than what you’re paying now for food.

Why does NutriSystem work?

There are two underlying philosophies behind NutriSystem that allows it to work well for most people. Portion control and the glycemic index.

Portion Control – Regular-Size Me

Everybody knows Americans are fat. The rest of the world is getting fatter right along with us. Everything from viruses to genetics to financial income has been blamed. Truth is that there are a lot of things to blame. But in my humble opinion, portion control is one of the main causes of obesity.

Portions are out of control everywhere we go. Your average “Value Meal” at any fast food joint will run 500-1,000 calories. With the recommended daily value of calories being 2,000 for the average person, you can see why we’re on the brink of 3 out of 4 Americans being overweight.

The NutriSystem diet plan gives you controlled portions. All you have to do is add yogurts, salads, cheeses, or other low GI carbs, depending on the meal of the day. Even by adding your own food, your portions should remain controlled, yet sufficient.

By training you for even a month of portion controlled eating, you should pick up of the habit of staying in control of your diet. And that’s a fundamental fact of eating healthy, no matter what your diet consists of.

Glycemic index – Good Carbs and Bad Carbs

The Glycemic Index measures the quality of the carbohydrates you eat and their impact on your blood sugar levels. Foods low on the GI scale break down into insulin slowly and keep your blood sugar relatively level. Avoiding high GI foods, like simple sugars (candy, anything with a lot of high-fructose corn syrup), will keep you from experiencing routine insulin spikes.

Now if you’re a moderately educated athlete, you know the occasional insulin spike is good for you. If its right when you wake up, or right after a workout, then a properly timed insulin spike will bring glucose to your muscle cells and allow for greater uptake of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

The problem comes in when you have insulin spikes many times throughout the day by eating simple carbs and sugars. More fat is stored when it shouldn’t be, and some studies show that you can feel hungry even though you’ve just ate.

The NutriSystem plan gets rid of those unintentional insulin spikes by providing you with “good carbs,” or foods low on the GI scale. Some of you will ask, “but I thought carbs were bad for you?” Well, if you’ve ever been on the Atkins diet, you know that you need carbohydrates to function properly. NutriSystem has simply figured out which foods to provide you by basing them their glycemic index load. While it’s far from perfect, it’s better than 98% of diets you’ll read about.

Why try NutriSystem now?

NutriSystem isn’t a permanent diet plan. It just wouldn’t be practical to eat NutriSystem food for an extended period of time (like a year.) But if used as a tool to get you to “jump-start” getting into shape, there probably isn’t anything better out there for you.

Many people have reported success with NutriSystem, and that’s good because it’s not a diet that requires you to make any major sacrifices. It’s also great for those busy folks who just don’t have time to cook.

Right now, NutriSystem is running a pretty good deal by giving away 2 weeks of food free with your order. That should be enough reason to at least give it a try if you’re looking for a sure-fire way stick with a diet.

Have you tried Nutri-System? We’d like to hear you comments. Drop us a line below:

I’ve been meaning to add this section for many months, but just never had a chance. Now, it’s finally here. This section is all about the no bull, no nonsense weight loss and fitness products out there. Trust us, it’s hard to sift through all the crap that doesn’t work to find out what does. And there’s a lot of crap out there so it makes the job really hard!

First Product Spotlight – Hot-Rox Extreme by BioTest

Hot-Rox is a product I hold dear to my heart. One summer I used it and lost over 50 pounds. That was about 3 years ago and it was a good few months! Since then, I’ve slacked off and lost focus. But the truth is, it did work and it will work for anyone that takes it seriously. Read about Hot-Rox Extreme here

Learn About and Train for Your Specific Body Type

Everyone and their mother obviously know that training and exercise is beneficial to anyone and everyone. Why people don’t train on a regular basis is beyond me, but that’s a different story. This article is dedicated toward body types. What? Well, in a nutshell, everyone’s body, technically, is different. There are three different kinds of body types, and I will discuss each one in detail and how training and nutrition are different for each. That’s right folks, not everyone is the same, and despite what the personal trainer at Bally’s will have you believe, the same style of training does not apply, or work, for all people.

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Losing it all with Carbohydrates.

Been really busy for a while, but now I’m back in action with some articles, and what better way to make a come-back than an article on the worst diet known to man – the Atkins Diet. Too bad Dr. Atkins is dead, because if he wasn’t, I’m sure there are plenty of athletes that would wanna lay a smack-down on his head. Why the hell is this country obsessed with the Atkins diet? I knew about this diet long before it became mainstream in America, and always asked myself who would be stupid enough to utilize a diet that makes you lose 80% water as a final result? I don’t even know what to say, because this is supposed to be professional writing, so I can’t write truly how I feel about these peeps that are all about the Atkins diet crap. That said, on with the facts.

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Writing the Blueprint for Fitness

By now you have browsed through the contents of Laying the Foundation Part 1 and you have committed the basic rules of eating healthy to memory. If not, go ahead and do that now because “knowing is half the battle”. You must be ready to understand the basics of nutrition before getting started. Once you get in the habit, it should be easy as pie. A fat-free pie of course. For a quick refresher, let me summarize:

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How I Stopped Dieting and Started Changing My Lifestyle Eating Habits

When you look into the mirror what do you see? Perhaps you see a cupcake with a head and a couple extra appendages. Perhaps you see a pear that can talk. Or perhaps you see walking toothpick. No matter your aesthetic malady, if it can be fixed with diet and exercise, we can fix it here at Better Body Journal. Undertaking a new “diet” or exercise program should not be taken lightly. If you are severely overweight, severely underweight, and/or have any medical conditions, you should always consult your physician prior to drastically changing your eating habits and performing significant weight bearing tasks.

Now I would like to outline a number of basic rules for building the foundation of your new dietary plan.

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The Traditional Cheat Day Only Hurts You

A lot of fitness gurus and books recommend that if you are on a diet, you need a cheat day every week to keep you sane. What could be so bad about that? You’ve worked hard all week and you need to reward yourself! You did those extra sprints on Friday and have lost 4 lbs this week because of your hard work! You can’t take dieting anymore and that cheat day will let you devour the foods you have been avoiding all week! What a great idea!

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What They Are, What They Do, and How to Get Them

Maybe some of you have heard of insulin spikes after your workouts, maybe some of you haven’t; regardless if you’ve heard of it or not, I’m going to write a rundown of what an insulin spike exactly is and why it is beneficial for the athlete. This won’t be too long of an article, it’ll just describe all the essentials that you need to know about post workout insulin spikes.

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