Reduce Body Fat Without Losing Body Weight

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Question from A.N. – “Once I reach my goal on my weight loss, how do I lose body fat without losing body weight?”

Reaching your weight loss goal is a huge accomplishment. When it comes to sculpting your body, eating healthy food and proper training is key. Once you reach your weight loss goal, keeping your body weight can be tricky when you’re still trying to burn fat. Keep in mind that muscles weigh more than fat.

* The first step is simply not to consume fat. Make sure you eliminate saturated fat from your diet, which can be found in foods such as hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken, chips, processed food or fatty meat. When you buy products from the grocery store be sure to read the labels and make sure that it contains zero (0) saturated fat.

* You can lose fat by increasing your metabolism by eating frequently and smaller portions. Instead of eating 3 regular meals a day, eat 6 smaller portions a day. You’re still consuming the same amount of calories except you’re spreading it throughout the day. Your smaller portion should be about the size of your palm.

* The next step is working out with weights, which will increase your muscle mass while burning your fat. Weight training will increase your metabolic rate. You will lose weight by doing cardio but doing cardio alone may not transform your body in a way that weight training does. Many women use the excuse that they don’t work out with weights because they don’t want to get big. Unfortunately, it’s usually the ones that are overweight that need to train the most use this as an excuse not to do any weight training. Unless you’re training vigorously with heavy weights as a career, you won’t get muscular. You’ll burn the fat and get fit!

* Always keep your body hydrated by drinking at least 8 glasses of water. Keep hydrated as muscles are made up of approximately 70% of water. If your water intake is low, you will lose strength and feel tired. I also recommend drinking 2-3 cup of green tea a day as green tea contains Catechin antioxidants which helps reduce your body fat.

If you follow theses guideline, I’m sure you’ll have no problem keeping your weight while still trimming the fat away.

For more fitness info: www.LindaVuArtist.com

The Benefits Of Meditation

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Question from C.R. – What’s your meditation routine?

Many people use meditation to achieve conscious relaxation and reduce their daily stress. Through meditation, you can reduce negative emotions, increase self-awareness and help your mind focus on the positive aspects of your life.

I reduce my stress mainly by working out, although I do meditate for 10-20 minutes nightly before I go to bed. I find that it helps me to fall asleep faster. Do what works best for you. You can meditate anytime, anywhere and whenever you feel the need. If you don’t know where to start, I suggest 10-20 minutes once in the morning and once before you go to bed. That way, you’ll start your day with a positive outlook and end you night by releasing all tensions, troubles and anxiety collected though out the day.

Meditation is a great relaxation technique, as it will help to cleanse your mind of negative thoughts and focus on the positives.

For more fitness info: www.LindaVuArtist.com

The Top 10 Ab Exercises That Will Trim, Tone & Sculpt Your Abs!

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Question from E. Q. – What is the best exercise for abs? I really like your body, that’s why I’m so curious to know the techniques to have a great and perfect body.

In my opinion, having a lean and well-defined core is the foundation of a sexy body. Therefore, I don’t mind putting in the time and effort to achieve great abs. The only way to get nice abs is to loose the fat around your waist. And the only way to do that is by eating healthy, exercising, doing cardio along with a variety of abdominal exercises.

I’m going to share with you my personal top 10 ab exercises that I do to get my results. On my daily routine I would pick 5 ab exercises and do 100 each totaling 500 ab exercises. I know for many of you its sounds crazy and unreal but it is possible. Most people dread doing ab exercises, but I’m telling you, it works! And after a short time you’ll look forward to doing them as the results are well worth it.

If you’re just starting out, I suggest that you start slowly and work your way up. It’s not a race and it’s not the number that counts. It’s the correct form or quality of each exercise that really matters, so please go at your own pace. As long as you’re doing it, you’re off to a great start. And just think how great you’ll look and feel when you are consistently doing 100 ab exercises a day!

Be sure to check your form to get the maximum result!

My top 10 ab exercises:

1. Basic Crunch – Start by laying face up with your knees bent, your feet flat on the floor with your heels together and your abs engaged. Place your fingertips behind your head, keeping your elbows out. Now, Lift your shoulders towards your knees and bring your shoulders back down.

2. Reverse Crunch – Lay flat with your hands behind your hips forming a cup as this will allow you to roll back and forth on. Extend your legs out parallel to the floor with a slight bend and together at the knees. Tighten your abs and bring your legs towards your chest, bringing your hips off the ground. Lower your leg with a control movement back to the starting position and do not let your legs drop. Repeat.

3. Abdominal Leg Raise – Lie on your back with your legs extended above the hips and your arms flat on your sides. Keep your back flat and slowly lower your legs to an inch above the floor. Then return to starting position. Exhale as you go up, inhale down. Try to keep you legs together and straight as possible.

4. Crunch with Leg extension – Lay flat on your back with hands behind your head, contracting your abs. Lift your shoulders off the floor, bringing one knee towards your chest with your eyes looking over your knees. Extend your leg out and bring your shoulders back down to the starting position.

5. Crisscross Crunch – Start by laying face up, your knees bent at 90 degrees with feet lifted and your hands behind your head. Extend your left leg at 45 degrees to the floor while bring your right knee towards the chest. Next lift your head, neck and shoulders, rotating your left shoulders towards the right knee. Switch sides by extending your right leg, bringing the right shoulder toward your left knee.

6. Leg Split – Start by laying face up on the floor with your abs engaged, your legs extended and place your hands under your buttocks. Keeping your shoulders flat on the floor and thighs together, lift your legs about 6 inches of the floor. Then move your legs out to the sides for a count of 4, keeping your legs as far as possible without arching your back. Bring your legs together slowly, lower and repeat.

7. Oblique Twist – Lay flat on your back with hands behind your head. Feet flat on the floor and knees hip width apart. Alternate by bringing the opposite shoulder across your knee, keeping the opposite shoulder for support. Return to starting position and rotate the opposite shoulder to the other side. This exercise focuses on the torso.

8. Toe Dips – Lay flat on your back. Lift your feet off the floor and knees together, bent are 90 degrees angle. Contract you abdominals. Hands unclasp behind your head. Lift your shoulders blades off the ground. Lower one toe to the ground, lift you toes back to start. Then alternate. Inhale toe down, exhale returning to start position.

9. Plank with Leg Lift – Start with a plank position with your wrist directly under your shoulders. Keep your back straight, lift one leg to hip height. Bring your leg back down and alternate to the other leg.

10. Ab Flattener – Sit on the floor with your legs bent, feet flat on the floor with your hands down by your hips. Engage your abs and crunch your upper body and knees toward each other. Then straighten your body by lowing your legs and back just above the floor. Your hands on the sides are for support but try to focus on your abs.

For more information, my Power Abs DVD is available at www.LindaVuArtist.com.

Tips To Looking Ageless

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Society is obsessed by youth and I think it’s highly overrated. I’ve noticed that as we get older, some people will go to great lengths to try and hide their age, especially women. In my opinion, age is defined by your spirit and not by the date on your driver’s license.

No matter what my age, I’ll always be young at heart. I don’t follow the trend telling me what I should look or dress like for my age. If anything, I break just about every rule. I don’t hide my age, but rather surprise people by looking younger because I stay fit and eat healthy. With each year passing, I gain more wisdom, knowledge and success. And I would never trade that for anything.

I’m not embarrassed telling anyone that I’m 38 years old. I’m often asked how do I keep looking so young. I stay young by being active and choosing healthier food. I exercise any chance I get. I would rather spend 2 hours at the gym than at a beauty or nail salon because being fit will make me look and feel naturally young and beautiful.

I take pride being an all natural trainer and woman. I would never have plastic surgery to look better nor would I ever inject Botox to make myself look young. I embrace the wrinkles I have because it tells people that I’ve lived a full life.

Besides being fit, having a nice complexion is the key to looking youthful. There are foods that you can eat that are good for your skin to prevent cell structure damage that can lead to wrinkles, fine lines and loss of firmness. I recommend half a cup of blueberries daily, as it will help smooth fine lines. One of my favorite vegetables that also help me look younger is spinach. Spinach contains beta-carotene and lutein nutrients that have been proven to improve elasticity to help firm your skin. I suggest that you serve yourself three cups per week.

Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you should let yourself go. I wake up everyday finding ways to challenge myself, mentally and physically. Look youthful by eating the right food and staying active!

For more information: www.LindaVuArtist.com

Overcoming Your Weaknesses

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The one thing that builds your character the most is having the ability to overcome your weaknesses. Everybody has qualities of all sorts, both strengths and weaknesses. Only you know what they are. Some people choose to shy away at the things they are not great at because they’re afraid to fail. You only fail if you don’t try. If you do it enough and work hard at anything, you will succeed. You can turn your weakness into your strongest quality.

Doing things that you are great at may be enjoyable but you must challenge yourself by working on your weaknesses. I choose to work on my weakness to challenge myself until that weakness becomes one my strongest qualities.

Growing up, I watched my mom deal with the difficulty of having asthma and other health issues. My mom was overweight and did very little exercise. She often had to fight to catch her breath when she was just walking. Lucky for me, I am the only one in the family who inherited asthma from my mom. As a child, I knew I didn’t want to be unhealthy like her.

I developed my own eating habits and exercise routine. I didn’t make excuses for myself for not having perfect lungs and I make sure to stay active and jog often. I jogged everyday to build up my endurance and my breathing. Up to this day, I have no problem running 4 miles daily even with asthma. However, if you’re just starting out, be sure to consult your physician before any new exercise program.

Don’t limit or make excuses for yourself. Whatever your weaknesses are, you’ve got to fight to improve yourself. It may not be easy but it’ll make you stronger and better. I’m constantly trying to improve myself and I can never learn too much. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, life is an evolution and I believe that we can always be better. I’m truly confident that you can do anything if you put your mind into it. I challenge you to challenge yourself by overcoming your weaknesses – mentally and physically.

For more information: www.LindaVuArtist.com

Liquid Diets

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Question from P.N. – “I am thinking of going on a liquid diet for a week to jump-start my weight loss program. What’s your take on a liquid diet?”

It’s great to want to jump-start your weight loss plan. However, there are advantages as well as disadvantage with liquid diets. In my opinion, it’s fine to replace 1 meal a day with an all-natural fruit/vegetable juice or a smoothie. But it has to be the kind you put in the blender or juicer and not the kind of juice you buy in the store. You have to be careful, many fruit drinks are labeled “healthy” but there is fructose in a lot of them.

I’m not a big fan of supplements but a protein powder or shake can be another alternative if you want to replace a meal.

Although liquid diets will result in a faster weight loss, my main concern is protein deficiency. Liquid diets are also less than 1000 calories per day, which will slow down your metabolism to conserve energy. In turn, you will gain the weight back quickly when you’re off your liquid diet.

I don’t recommend a temporary full on liquid diet (3 or 4 times a day). However, there’s nothing wrong with replacing 1 meal a day with liquids and eat 2 regular healthy meals. You may not lose the weight as fast but your weight loss will be consistent and safe. I don’t recommend any diets that I consider a temporary fix, it must to be a lifestyle change.

If you want to try a full week of liquid diet, please be aware of the nutritional content and it’s always best to be supervised by a physician to be safe.

www.LindaVuArtist.com

A Nutritional Plan That Will Help Break Through Your Fitness Plateau

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Question from C.R. – “What are you eating? Do you have a set meal plan? I’m down 45 pounds, but hitting a plateau.”

Reaching a plateau can be frustrating especially if you have been doing so well trying to lose weight. Your body goes through a lot of changes when you lose weight. Therefore, when you reach a plateau, you need a new routine. Change your diet or exercise routine, maybe both.

I personally don’t have a set meal plan. I’m very active and burn a lot of calories throughout the day and find myself eating more to maintain my weight. I’m not complaining, it’s a good problem to have. Although I can eat anything I desire, I tend to eat fairly healthy and control my meal portions. Your body is like a sports car, you have to give it the right fuel for the best performance. Food is 80% responsible for your weight loss or gain.

I recommend following the menu below until you’ve reached your goal. When you have reached your goal, then you can eat whatever you like but keep in mind the amount of calories you’re eating along with exercise. The logic of losing weight is plain and simple. Don’t consume more calories than you can burn off. Until you are able to learn how to control your weight pound by pound, stick with this low calorie menu below.

BREAKFAST

Pick one main dish:
1) 2-4 egg whites
2) 1-2 eggs
3) Egg beater veggie omelet
5) Oatmeal mixed w/berries (instead of using any sugar)

Pick one side dish:
1) Rice cake
2) Wheat toast
3) Whole wheat English muffin
4) 1/2 Bagel

LUNCH & DINNER

Pick one main dish:
1) 6-8 oz. broiled/grilled fish
2) 6-8 oz. broiled/grilled skinless chicken breast
3) 6-8 oz. turkey breast
4) Tofu
5) Salad w/fat free vinaigrette dressing

Pick one side dish:
1) Vegetable dish
2) Dry baked potatoes or yam
3) Rice

OTHERS

Drinks:
1) Water
2) All natural fruit juice (with no corn syrup or fructose)
3) Coffee black or with non-fat milk
4) Green tea

Snacks (small portion):
1) Fruits
2) Popsicle (Use all natural juice and make your own)
3) Yogurt (non-fat)
4) Beef jerky (all natural)
5) Nuts

Meal Substitutes:
1) 8-10oz. of non-fat cottage cheese
2) Fruit smoothie (made with all natural fruit, w/non fat yogurt, fruit juice with no corn syrup or fructose)

Only use this weight loss menu as a guideline. This weight loss menu contains approximately 1500 calories. I also recommend drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

If you reach a plateau, give my weight loss menu a try. Otherwise, cut your meal portions or perhaps change your work out routine by doing more cardio exercises. I promise combining with exercise, this nutritional plan will work!

Sculpting The Perfect Abs

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Questions from R.F. – “So is working out your abs a good idea to do everyday or every other day and how long is good for a work out? Just wondering if they need time to rest like arms and legs do with weights.”

When it comes to abs, there’s no right or wrong way to work out. It all depends on your goal. Whether your goal is to have a runner’s lean abs or a muscular bodybuilder’s abs, it requires doing a lot of cardio exercises and a healthy diet. Doing ab exercises alone may not be enough to give you the sexy abs you desire. It requires work and consistency.

I enjoy running and I used to jog 4 miles daily for my choice of cardio exercise but I had to find a balance because I was losing too much weight. Now, I jog 4 miles every other day to maintain my weight. I eat fairly healthy and I don’t feel the need to eat more just so I can jog daily.

If you want a lean runner’s abs, you can do a shorter weightless ab workout everyday or every other day. If you’re just starting out, start slowly and work your way up. My suggestion to start is 3 sets of 12 sit-ups (5 minutes).

But if you want a muscular abs like the bodybuilders, then it requires an intense 1 hour of ab workout with heavy weights once or twice a week. Ab muscles are like any other muscles in your body, it needs time to rest.

I personally do 500 (5 different ab exercises @ 100 reps) weightless ab exercises daily at least 5 days a week. My ab workout takes me about 45 minutes and is not for everybody. When it comes to abs, as a woman, I think it’s more complicated than a man. I like my abs to be somewhere in between a runner’s and a bodybuilder’s abs with some definitions, just enough ab muscles to find it sexy but not too much to considered masculine.

There’s no right or wrong way to sculpt your perfect abs. The choice is yours. Whatever time and effort you put in will be the result.

Losing The Last 10 lbs.

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Questions from P.N. – “I’ve gained 10 lbs and I’m now chubby. Is it best to work out when I wake up which is usually around 1pm or before I go to bed, which is around 6am. How often do I need to do cardio per week? Is it alright to just eat 1 big meal per day?”

Whether you just started to gain or are trying to loss the last 10lbs., 10 seems to be the ultimate number. It may not sound like it’s a lot but I applaud anyone keeping track or staying conscious of their body. If you’re like me, 10 pounds would be quite a dramatic physical change because of my height. I think finding the time to work out anytime of the day is fantastic! If you have a choice, I recommend working out in the in the morning. It’ll jump start your metabolism for the day and burn stored fat instead of the food you’ve just eaten. Before bedtime might not be a good idea because it will raise your energy level and may make it harder for you to fall asleep.

Cardio exercises are best for losing weight. I recommend 1 hour per day at least 5 days a week until you reached your fitness goal. If you’re just starting out, I recommend walking because it’s low impact and you can do it practically anywhere. As you get more comfortable with your choice of cardio exercises, pick up the pace to burn even more calories!

I say it often and I’ll say it again. Food is 80% responsible for your weight loss or gain, therefore eating healthy and cutting your meal portion is best. I don’t recommend eating 1 meal per day because you’ll end up eating more than what you need. Your body will then store the extra fat, which will make you gain even more weight. If you choose to skip a meal, replace it with a healthy smoothie but don’t starve yourself to loss weight. I recommend eating a regular healthy meal 3 times a day and carry a healthy snack throughout the day if you’re still hungry. That means no fast food, sodas or alcohol. Drinks a lot of water (8 glasses per day is recommended).

The key is to break your daily routine and try something different. You can’t expect to get results doing the same thing. The concept to losing weight is quite simple, eat less and work out more! Follow these guidelines and you’ll loss that 10lbs. in less time and effortlessly.

A Gift Of Life

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The holidays are here and no matter what traditions you celebrate, I hope you received everything you wished for. For me, it’s not about the material things because I already have the greatest gift. If you’re reading this, then you too, have the most precious gift of all. It’s called life and many of us take it for granted. Although it’s wonderful to have family, friends or loved ones to share the holidays with but not everybody is as fortunate.

Recently, I lost a good friend to depression. He took his own life because he thought that dying was a better alternative than the life he was living. He had a troubled past and felt that he’s couldn’t start over. Even for myself, I’ve made mistakes in the past but it never stopped me from creating my future. In life, we all make mistakes but it’s the lessons we learn that define who we are.

Life is about balance. It’s about learning how to balance our life and taking control of our mind and body. I believe each and every one of us have a special gift and have a purpose in life. No matter what you’ve been through, you can always start over. Life is an evolution. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to reach out because there are many people who do care because life is sacred.

The holidays are supposed to be a time of celebration and the year is coming to an end. It’s been a tough and challenging time for most and some of you may feel that you don’t have anything to celebrate. We all have something to celebrate! It’s called life. It’s common to experience loneliness during this time of year and feel disconnected if you don’t have close family, friends or loved ones to share it with. It’s important to put things in perspective. There’s no need to be alone, you can always volunteer your time to those who are even less fortunate.

I try to live everyday like there’s no tomorrow and empower myself by the lessons I’ve learned from past mistakes. Alone or not, holiday or no holiday, I focus on myself to become the best I can be. We all go through difficult situations and may feel down at times but it’s important not sit around and feel sorry for yourself. Work on how to improve your life and you’ll draw those special people into it whether it’s personal or professional. Focus on yourself and don’t worry about what other people have.

In the end, the material things are meaningless. Be positive, keep focused and be grateful for the little things in life that money can’t buy. Everyday is a new beginning. A smile, the weather or the holiday spirit are some of the most precious gifts of life.