Tip #1

Cut out liquid carbs/calories and replace all drinks with water or sugarless teas.

     When I first became concerned with my weight, the summer before my first year of College, I asked a friend to help me get into shape. I started lifting with him, though irregularly, and slowly changed my diet. One thing he said to me that I had a hard time believing was that I should cut out all liquid carbs. Water is what hydrates you, he said, and Tea gives you something different when you are cold or bored.  What else do you need?

     After about two months of only drinking water and green tea (and maybe milk before or after my lifting session) I noticed an amazing change. With even this small change to my diet and the irregular training I was still seeing progress. 
     I was no longer drinking pop at lunch or juice in the morning, and I didn't have a hot chocolate or ice cap every time I went out to coffee with friends, and I wasn't drinking any sugary alcohol.  I felt better and, even more importantly, I looked noticeably better as well, quickly dropping some of the weight I had put during the previous year or two.

A pound of fat contains 3500 calories.

The AVERAGE Beer has approx. 100 calories per glass (12 oz) and approx. 10 grams of carbohydrates (depending on brand of course)

1 Cup of Apple Juice has approx 117 calories. And unsweetened Apple Juice has 59 grams of carbohydrates. 

1 Can of Pop has around 170 calories.

Did you know that a 16 ounce Frappucino can contain 500 calories or more! That’s 1/3 of a typical female’s daily calorie intake for a fat loss program. -Tom Venuto

     What does all of this mean?  If you have a glass of juice in the morning, a can of pop at lunch, and a fancy coffee drink with friends in the afternoon or a beer in the evening, you are consuming around 400-800 empty calories a day!  That means about a pound of fat a week can be added or dropped just by NOT drinking those.

     Cut down on liquid calories, or cut them out all together and you will see a positive improvement to your physical state. This will not get you your desired body, you won't be able to see your abs, but it will bring you one step closer to achieving your ultimate goal.

     Nowhere in our history have our ancestors had access to large amounts of liquid calories. Alcohol may have been around as far back as several thousand years BC, but even that is a blip on the evolutionary calendar of humanity.
     As a result, our genetic code has never developed the physiological mechanisms to properly register the caloric content in liquids the way it does when you eat, chew and swallow whole foods. -Tom Venuto

Watch how much you normally drink per day, do you have a juice in the morning, a pop at lunch or a frappucino when you are out with your friends? Can you substitute all of these drinks with water or tea (with no added sugar)?  You will be better off if you do.