This week, become a connoisseur of “fired up” music - the kind of music that makes you get up and dance like nobody’s watching! Studies show that keeping pace with a rhythmic beat or imagining yourself out on the dance floor while performing your cardio routine might be all it takes to transform an average treadmill run into a real event.

Aside from making your routine more enjoyable, there is strong evidence that your energy output can be substantially enhanced when your work includes music, as stated in an article from Muscle Media Magazine, May 2001:

- The fact that we’re influenced by music should come as no surprise. Those who work out to techno or rock’n’roll have long recognized the intoxicating power of an adrenaline-spiked song. Recent studies show that music does more than just get us going. In a study published by Dr. Attilla Szabo, a significantly higher workload (up to 30%) was accomplished when participants workout out to progressively “faster-paced” music. -

So, fire up your Ipod, pump it up, and get it started!

Dianne Orwig is an international fitness expert, trainer, and success coach who has helped thousands of men and women reshape their bodies and their lives with her amazing less-works-better approach.

Discover what so many have already learned - that fitness does not have to hurt to work. Start getting better results in less time and with less effort than you ever thought possible. To sign up for our free fitness newsletter, please visit http://www.lovelivingfit.com.

(c) Copyright - Dianne Orwig. All Rights Reserved Worldwide

It’s tiny, uncomplicated, inexpensive, and very effective.  This powerful little bulge-busting wonder is none other than the humble 1 cup and 2 cup plastic container. As commonplace as it seems, this item has the power to put you on the path to success (a lot faster than the dormant treadmill in the corner of the spare bedroom!)

Here are 3 effective and easy ways to start eating right and, more importantly, eating the right size servings:

Container Rule #1 - A hard and fast rule in our house is - if you go to the trouble of preparing an approved meal, always make more than you need and store the rest in individual 1 and 2 cup containers. If, say, we grill 8 chicken breasts and make lots of roasted red potatoes and steamed broccoli, each item goes into a separate 1 cup container and these are stacked neatly in the refrigerator, ready to be packed in an Igloo or lunch box the next day. Having consistent container sizes makes it easy to pack 4 to 5 small, healthy meals, so you won’t run out during the day.

Container Rule #2 – When cooking a meal that contains all 3 items – carb, protein, and vegetables – using the 2 cup container works very well, especially with recipes like the one below:

LivingFit Healthy Brunswick Stew

1-1/2 pounds ground sirloin, browned, drained, and rinsed
2 (16 oz) cans of corn, drained
2 (16 oz) cans of diced tomatoes
1 (16 oz) can of creamed corn
1 large onion, chopped
3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons white vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients, bring to a boil on medium heat then reduce and cook over low to medium heat for 1 to 2 hours, stirring continually. The best time to taste test this recipe is NOT at the beginning. Try taking your first taste after the first hour of cooking, as it takes at least that long for the vinegar to pull the sweetness out of the onions and corn (this is what creates that distinctive flavor!) Use 2 cup containers for proper portioning.

With a recipe like this, in order to consume the correct portion of protein, carb, and vegetable, you need to eat close to a full 2 cup portion. (This is the kind of meal to eat when you are really hungry – very tasty, very filling, and really yummy.) This Brunswick Stew recipe is one of my Mom’s old Southern favorites and is a great “cook-ahead” dish.

Container Rule #3 – One of my favorite new fast-food restaurants is a place call Chipotle’s
http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=nutrition_calculator – it’s one of those build-your-own burrito places, but everything is organic and seasoned to a “T”. I usually order the burrito bowl (no tortilla) with rice, beans, grilled chicken, salsa, corn relish, and, occasionally, guacamole. Now, if I were to eat that whole thing in one sitting (do the math with the cool calculator link) I’d top out at over 700 calories. BUT, with my trusty containers, I eat 1/3 at the restaurant and put the other 2/3’s in separate 1 cup containers and, now, I’ve got 2 more delicious meals to look forward to!

This is a great habit to get into when you tend to dine out a lot. Take advantage of the typically oversized portions almost every restaurant serves by automatically asking for a to-go box when you order your meal.  Then, as soon as you get home, make it a rule to move your to-go box contents to proper sized containers that ensure you eat the correct portion sizes.

When I am traveling I try to order things like grilled chicken, rice, and veggies (with no extra sauce or fatty salad dressing.) I always take a to-go box back to my hotel room so that I have another small meal to eat later in the evening or the next day.

Just remember, when it comes to shedding unwanted fat, what you eat and when you eat isn't nearly as important as how much you eat.

So, you’ve been moving along fine with your exercise and nutrition plan and then suddenly, without warning, the scale stops moving… or worse, it starts to creep back in the opposite direction.

Your first inclination might be to point a finger at all that beautiful new muscle you’ve been building but, before you do that, let’s take a good hard look at the whole “muscle weighs more than fat” myth. Then we can get down to the business of identifying and eliminating the real culprits behind your stubborn scale syndrome. 

IS IT MUSCLE?
Probably not, since it typically takes 4 to 6 weeks to build one pound of lean muscle. Men, of course, build a bit faster than women but, even for a guy, it takes a good deal of hard work, the right amount of calories and, most importantly, a certain measure of TIME before a full pound of muscle will show on the scale. So, even if you are one of the lucky few who builds muscle pretty easily, these gains are always gradual. In the best case scenario, if you are consistently building muscle, you might see an increase of ¼ to ½ pound per week  – but even these numbers are on the high side when it comes to average muscle gains.

IS IT FAT?
On the flip side, if you are eating honestly, watching your timing and portions, avoiding alcohol, and drinking plenty of water, you will typically lose between .85 and 1.45 pounds of fat per week. So, you see, it isn’t that fat weighs less or muscle weighs more (a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat – it’s simply that muscle takes up less space than body fat…) When you are following your program 90-95%, in a month’s time you are going to lose many more pounds of body fat as compared to the 1 or 2 pounds of muscle you may or may not gain. Therefore, if the scale isn’t budging or is reverting back to the old numbers, it’s likely your nutrition is the guilty party.

WEAK AT WEEK 5
It’s usually after the honeymoon period of any nutrition and exercise program (between week 5 and 8) that things start to slide a bit. To decide if this is the cause of your weigh-in woes, have a look at these 6 Plateau-Busting steps and see if, perhaps, your program is due for some fine-tuning:

Plateau Buster #1 – Get Real – I’m going to pull a Dr. Phil on you here and ask you to really look at the difference between what you are doing right now, and how it compares to what you were doing when first you started. Are you missing workouts, skipping meals, having a few cocktails in the evening, cutting your cardio short, eating clean during the day but loading up at dinner? Make an honest assessment of how things were when you were losing as opposed to how things are now.

Plateau Buster #2 – Get Rid of Destructive Language – Think about the words you are using to describe how you feel about your fitness program. Have you been dragging yourself into the gym, struggling to talk yourself into even going? Negative dialog is one of the biggest drains on your energy so, while you’re at it, take a good look also at how you are describing your feelings about healthy eating. If you’re using words like “I’m not allowed…” or “I can’t have this or that,” you’re setting yourself up for failure. Start looking at all the great foods you can have and get in the habit of describing how much you enjoy those foods. Find something good to say about your exercise routine – then focus your energy (and your words) on what you like about exercise, as opposed to the things you dread.

Plateau Buster #3 – Get Your Portions Right – A good rule of thumb, no matter what eating plan you are following, is to make sure none of your meals are larger than your two clinched fists side-by-side.  If you find that any one of your meals covers the average dinner plate, there’s a good chance you’re eating too much.

Plateau Buster #4 – Get Your Timing Right – Going for more than 4 hours without food will not only set you up for overeating later in the day (the worse time to over indulge,) waiting too long to eat is at the root of almost every craving you experience, especially alcohol cravings. I recommend that my clients eat a small portion of protein and complex carbohydrate every 2-1/2 to 3 hours throughout the day. In almost every case, when the timing of your meals goes haywire, everything else follows suit.

Plateau Buster #5 – Get Out of the Restaurant Rut – When you have a choice, it’s best to avoid restaurant food. Certainly there are healthy choices to be had but, if you are eating out all of the time, there’s a good chance you are consuming a lot of hidden fat and calories. Just remember, restaurants are, first and foremost, in the business of making their food taste good. Making it healthy will always take a back seat because, of course, it’s the taste that brings you back.

Plateau Buster #6 – Get Your Protein in First – This is an old trick but it works for a lot of people. If you are eating properly – a small portion of protein and carbohydrate at each meal – getting your protein down first will often satisfy your appetite more quickly and this habit is also thought to slow the spike in insulin that typically occurs when you eat your carbohydrate first. While there’s not a lot of scientific backing on the benefits of eating protein first, many of my clients swear by this method as a way to avoid over eating, especially at dinner time.

Try these 6 methods of tidying up your fitness plan for at least a week and see if, at the end of seven days, your scale doesn’t finally, finally start moving in the right direction.

Dianne Orwig is an international fitness expert, trainer, and success coach who has helped thousands of men and women reshape their bodies and their lives with her amazing less-works-better approach.

Discover what so many have already learned - that fitness does not have to hurt to work. Start getting better results in less time and with less effort than you ever thought possible. To sign up for our free fitness newsletter, please visit http://www.lovelivingfit.com.

(c) Copyright - Dianne Orwig. All Rights Reserved Worldwide