So the calendar has switched over and it’s 2010. You’re interested in losing weight and think you should buy the latest supplement or give a new weight loss infomercial a try.

But what if we told you the secret to losing weight is right around the corner at your local grocery store?

[I can't remember the last time I went down the "pop" aisle? You shouldn't be going down it either!]

This is where it all starts – The input to the output. The snap of the ball before the touchdown pass. How you go about something as routine as grocery shopping could be holding you back from the fat loss goals you deserve to achieve.

Here are three important strategies to keep in mind the next time you’re heading out to the grocery store to “pick-up” a few things. < <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>

Everywhere we look there are savory food temptations ready to derail our healthy food intentions. My personal struggle during the holidays is homemade Italian cookies as I outlined last week.

[Candy canes don't do it for me anymore. I prefer sophisticated sugar treats now that I'm a big boy:)]

Just say no to the goodies? Ha, not likely, and I think I speak for the majority of us. So how exactly can we survive the holiday food traps and not swell up like a balloon?

Try these useful tricks to help keep your sanity and more importantly the excess pounds off and make one less resolution (weight loss) in 2010. < <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>

At this time of year there tends to be a lot of leftovers in the fridge, cookies in tins and jars, and sweets out on display in living rooms as a result of holiday festivities.

In my extended Italian family, instead of rhyming off all of Santa’s reindeer, I would go around the cookie trays and name all the homemade delectables that family members would offer up. Come Panatone, Pandoro, Caggionetti… now amaretti, pizelle, terrone, and on nuchata, sicilian cannolis and biscotti.

[You either like Venetian or Sicilian when it comes to cannolis. There's nothing more polarizing in an Italian cookie argument.]

Don’t worry about pronouncing them, “just try one” would be the answer from my family. As if cravings weren’t difficult enough to handle without 20 different homemade dessert varieties staring me in the face!

Where do these urges come from?

Cravings can result from many different factors including: < <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>

Today’s post comes to us all the way from Italy. My good friend Oscar Del Ben is a personal development blogger who writes about really cool lifestyle topics such as productivity and business, and he’s also a martial arts fan. I asked him to share some of his thoughts with us on alternative activities to achieving a healthy lifestyle – hence the topic of martial arts.

[Nothing like a side-kick-to-the-chops to get someone's attention]

Oscar is usually very quick to point out his lack of English writing skills because it’s not his native language but rest assured I think he has a very good handle on it and does a fine job expressing his points of view. You can find his blog at FreestyleMind.com and feel free to leave comments for Oscar or myself below.

Martial Arts as a Way to Stay Healthy – Guest Post by Oscar Del Ben

Martial arts became famous in the western culture as a way to defend ourselves by doing a series of – sometimes complex and bizarre – movements. In reality, martial arts is more then just Bruce Lee bicycle kicks – it’s quickly being linked to keeping our body healthy and balanced in various modern research studies. < <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>

Having an active holiday season is what I remember most from my childhood. Rolling-up huge boulders out on the snow-covered lawn in an effort to build an abominable snowman or digging out forts to prepare for a snowball fight are some of my favorite pastimes.

[An oldie but a goodie, this funny comic gets me every winter:)]

But as we grow older and accumulate different responsibilities, maintaining our physical and mental well-being can be difficult through the winter holidays. Throw in shorter daylight hours and we can often find ourselves huddled in our house – or at a shopping mall – stressed out from the holiday pressures of buying presents, attending parties and eating too many of those rich and creamy holiday deserts! Chocolate panatone, I think I love you… Bah humbug we say.

Not so fast! The Christmas season doesn’t have to be an unhealthy time of year. Instead, here are 8 ways to keep you active and healthy during the winter holidays: < <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>

If you’ve visited a Skechers retail store or flipped through a health magazine in the last six months you may have noticed a funny looking shoe called Shape Ups hitting the weight loss marketplace.

[Nothing makes me feel more comfortable then walking barefoot.]

According to Skechers, Shape Ups were designed to promote weight loss, firm calf and butt muscles, improve posture and strengthen your back with several styles and colors available for men and women.

Now it’s not often weight loss and fashion are combined into one tangible product but during a recent visit to a Skechers retail store I decided to give these bad boys a try because you can never have enough butt muscles, right? < <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>

Let’s all admit one thing right from the start: It’s so much more enjoyable to complete a cardio workout through a game or sport then by traditional means.

 
[HINT: The sport I'm talking about in this post is a close relative to tennis. Err... excuse me sir, you have something stuck in your back!]

Forget treadmills, ellipticals, step-machines, or whatever other piece of equipment you’ll find at your local gym. I’d rather be testing my physical abilities, or lack thereof, opposite another person or group of people playing basketball, soccer, football, or ultimate frisbee to name a few.

But mainstream sports aside, today’s article is about a sport that suffers from a reputation as a pastime for only the elite in society. How ironic is it then that it was likely invented by prisoners in the 19th century? You can find the complete history lesson over at Wikipedia.

What Sport Am I?

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Rafi Bar-Lev, a former combat medic and founder of the community fitness site Passionate Fitness, has stopped by today to discuss ways to help you stay motivated when you just don’t want to exercise. Before you skip over this information because you don’t think it applies to you, STOP!

It eventually happens to us all but the important part is to recognize the workout rut you’re in so that you can climb out and continue reaching for your fat loss goals.

[Climbing out of a workout rut seems pretty easy when you compare it to this type of climbing...Yikes!]

5 Ways to Stay Motivated When You’re in a Workout Rut – Guest Post by Rafi Bar-Lev

We’ve all been there when you just get tired of hitting the gym and want to stop working out. Luckily, the feeling is natural and there are ways to get around it.

Here are 5 tips to help you get motivated when you’re in a workout rut:
< <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>

Anybody else overwhelmed about the information regarding H1N1 this past month? It’s practically impossible to escape the crush of swine flu related facts and vaccination options. No matter the medium, be it the Internet, TV, radio, we’ve been overloaded with information regarding this pandemic and it seems to be a popular conversation with just about anybody you talk to these days.

Worst of all, the amount of email forwards I receive on a daily basis where poor Piglet is getting abused by Winnie the Pooh and company!

[Seems like something out of a movie but this was Mexico earlier this year!]

One thing to remember in all of this hoopla is the media and how they always reports things that go wrong, but rarely seem to find enough ink to talk about things that go right. Therefore, we hear about and subsequently pay more attention to the few people who ended up very sick or unfortunately died from the swine flu than the many people who successfully recovered from the swine flu.

What should you be doing?

< <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard that fasting (or commonly referred to as starving by the uneducated) will cause you to lose your muscle mass. Every time someone asks me how I stay in good shape they think I’m lying when I say intermittent fasting is a major weapon in my overall health and fitness plan.

What? Come on man… you’re supposed to eat to get muscle, protein with every meal, 17 meals a day…

OK, I exaggerated that last one a little but you get the point. Fasting and the fear of losing your hard-earned muscle seems to be one of the most prevalent myths out there and it’s time to get to the bottom of it.

[Raise your hand if you've posed for a picture doing the double bicep shot? Of course we have:)]

Use it or lose it sister…

Intermittent fasting reduces your caloric intake but does not result in a loss of your hard-earned muscle if you follow this one golden rule: You have to be involved in some sort of regular resistance training program like strength training, body weight exercises, resistance bands, whatever. < <- Click Here to Continue Reading ->>