Outwit Your Appetite! 8 Easy Steps to a Better Diet

No matter what diet you're on, losing weight is not an easy task to take on. Luckily, there are a few things everyone can do to keep the junk food where it belongs: away from you!

Regular Cardiovascular Exercise: Not only does aerobic work burn unwanted calories, but it also triggers a release of hormones that suppress appetite post-workout.

Eat Breakfast: After a nice, long slumber your body is in need of nutrition. Protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, and minerals. Skipping breakfast sends a message to your body that it might not be able to get food for an extended period of time. This puts your body into starvation mode, where your body stores fat and uses muscle for energy. Eating breakfast steers you clear of this situation, and studies show those who ate a healthy breakfast actually consumed less calories during the course of a day than those who skipped the meal.

Don't Skip Meals: Having smaller meals more often raises your metabolism throughout the day. Missing a meal does the opposite. Keep your body a fat burning machine by downing small meals about every 3 hours.

Fix the Pantry: If you don't have it around, you won't eat it. Don't tempt yourself by having junk in the house. You are more likely to make a healthy decision when hungry if you keep those foods at store.

Hit the Hay: Sleeping less than 7 to 8 hours a night disrupts the balance of hormones that regulate appetite control. Getting enough sleep on a regular basis will keep those hunger pangs down and make it easier to stick to any diet.

Drink Yourself Silly: Drinking water with, and in between meals, keeps you feeling full. Also, the thirst mechanism is often mistaken for hunger. So the next time you're hungry during the day try drinking a glass of water before loading up with your next meal.

Fantastic Fiber: Fiber is one of the reasins it is better to eat whole grains instead of processed foods. Among its many other benefits, fiber helps you feel fuller longer. Even having a fiber supplement with a meal will help fill you up.

Make it at Home: Making your own meals instead of eating out has a multitude of benefits. At restaurants you don't know exactly what they're putting in your food, chances are they slather butter and other added fats and artificial flavorings. Making food at home keeps you in control and can instantly be fresher and healthier than any store bought product. Also, if you are able to make a large amount of food ahead of time, you can prepackage your meals so that when you're hungry you can grab a healthy homemade meal quickly instead of being tempted with unhealthy alternatives.

Six Pack Central: Where Are My Abs?

Who doesn't want a tight, strong midsection? Just about everyone strives for it, but most never achieve it. Why? Are most people just flat out unable to attain a six pack? No, the answer lies in a few key areas.

1) Improper Dieting: 'Great abs are made in the kitchen'. You may have heard this before, but what does it mean? Dieting is without a doubt number one on the priority list for attaining a six pack. Without a diet that puts you in a position to burn more calories than you take in, you will always have a layer of body fat covering up your abdominals no matter how many sit ups you can do.

2) Lack of Variety: The ab portion of most people's workout consists of plopping down on the mat and pumping out a hundred crunches. We must remmeber that the abdominals are made up of three parts: upper abs, lower abs, and the obliques (muscles on the sides). An ab routine needs to hit all three of these muscle groups, otherwise you are not going to fullly develop your abs. Russian twists, side planks, and leg lifts are examples of exercises that work the entire abdominal region and should be included in your workout. You can also add stability ball and bosu exercises to your resistance routine to add some variety.

3) Lack of Cardio: Ok, say you have a solid ab routine. You can feel the muscle in your midsection, but still aren't seeing results? You will only begin to see definition when that layer of body fat that is covering your abs is removed. Remember, we can't spot reduce (take away fat from just one specific part of the body), so cardiovascular work is the easiest way to reduce your total body fat percentage. Once you lose that layer, your six pack will come shining through.

So what should I do for my ab routine, you ask? Here is a quick workout you can do in the gym or at home. Go through all of the exercises once, rest about 30 seconds, then repeat for one or two more sets:

Leg Lifts 20 reps
Plank 30 seconds
Russian Twist 20 reps/side
Side Plank 30 seconds/side
Straight-leg Crunch 20 reps