You can exercise 1-2 hours everyday but never lose weight or even gain weight if you are not careful about your diet.

By gaining awareness of the nutritional content of the foods that you consume on a daily basis, you take control of your health and fitness.

Food is meant to fuel your body as a machine and allow it to perform optimally. Yes, you can indulge every once in a while on "not so good for you" food.

The key is to indulge rarely and to commonly eat foods that will give you energy and help your body be at its best.

Here are some great articles about "not so good" foods that are readily available:

• Deadly Fast Food #1
• Deadly Fast Food #2
• Deadly Fast Food #3
• Caloric Foods
  

Remember this => GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE OUT

Stay healthy,

Randy

Have you ever noticed your body is little puffy after eating a salty meal like Enchilada or Sashimi?  Or Ladies, have you ever noticed that your pants fit a little tighter before or during that time of the month? 

Consuming sodium in excess (mmm, yummy nachos) or hormones can cause the body to retain water and make you feel bigger than you really are.  Of course, everyone retains water...we are in fact 60% water. There are also some other causes of water retention: Dehydration, low calorie diets, some medicines and histamines. 

We cannot make our bodies stop retaining water BUT we can minimize the amount of water retention. 

Here are some ways to take to shed excess water from your body:

1. Lower your sodium intake. 
   
2. Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day.  Add some lemon juice for a kick.  
3. Consume Diuretic Beverages like Coffee, Green Tea and Cranberry juice.  Why?  I am not a big tea drinker, but with a little lemon and some ice, it is not so bad.  For the last 2 months, I have committed to drinking 2 glasses of green tea a day  I am happy to report that I am seeing a dramatic decrease in the amount of water I am retaining and my ankles do not look like Ms. Piggy's ankles . 
   
4. Consume High Potassium Fruits and Veggies. Some fruits are melons, bananas, lemons, oranges and grapefruits.  Some veggies are leafy greens, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber and onions. Potasium helps to keep your fluid levels in balance.
5. Caffeine...in moderation.  Consuming too much caffeine can lead to dehydration and that will cause water retention.
6. Eat small, frequent meals.

Try some of the above for a month and see if you can average out the amount of water you are retaining.   Good luck!

Disclaimer : Talk with your doctor if you feel that you are retaining more water than you think is "normal" for you.

In order to do anything successfully, you must first understand why you are doing it. This *Why* will be your fuel to carry you towards your goal. Without this fuel, it will be impossible to keep up your motivation.

We have so many distractions in our everyday lives that making a committment to do anything takes a lot of coordination. Who is going to watch the kids? Will I be able to keep the committment for longer than a couple of weeks? How much time out of my day is the committment going to take? If you start with a solid *Why*, distractions are much more manageable.

Take a few moments and think about why you want to get fit. Feel free to share your reason and inspire others!