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Plan your meals ahead

Planning your meals ahead is a great weight loss tip to keep you on track with your daily nutritional plan. By planning meals, you will have a set schedule to adhere to and know exactly what to eat at specific times of the day. You can even take it to another level and pre-cook your meals. Many body builders will pre-cook their entire week of meals and store them in Tupperware bowls. Along with these pre-cooked meals, you can store quick protein snacks like protein bars for tasty treats during the day.

Keep visual motivational reminders

Visual reminders can really help motivate and inspire you to stay on your weight loss plan. Cut out pictures of your ideal body and put them on your bathroom mirror, bedroom night sand or your office desk. These will remind you what your physical goals are and keep you on track to reach them. It’s important to note that although this technique is a great motivator, you should not strive to look exactly like the pictures you choose as inspiration. Know that everyone’s bodies are different and genetics play a big part with the way your physique will appear in shape and symmetry. Work hard to get the best body you can achieve within your limits.

Have a late night protein snack

Your insulin levels are very sensitive at night and it will be much easier to store extra fat if you consume sugars later in the day. Stick with the lean protein and non-starchy carb. A great meal would be a grilled chicken breast salad with romaine lettuce, sliced cucumbers and a little balsamic vinaigrette dressing. You could also opt for a nice chicken breast/veggie stir fry. Throw some broccoli, mushrooms and chicken into a stir fry pan with a touch of soy sauce. This makes a great meal for later in the day!

Watch Out for Fat-free Foods

Fat-free foods can be very deceiving. Many of the fat free foods on the market make up for the fat levels by loading their foods with tons of sugar. Make sure you read the food labels and check the calories, sugar content and list of ingredients. You will likely find a very large amount of sugar which will wreak havoc on your insulin levels making it harder for you to lose body fat. The overall calories in these foods are usually also very high.

Don’t mix food with TV

A terrible habit and serious calorie killer is eating while watching television. It’s extremely easy to unconsciously snack on junk food while watching your favorite shows. You will be inundated with commercials that urge to eat junk foods like soft drinks, fast foods, sugar-coated cereals and candy. By the time you know it, that entire bag of potato chips or cookies is all gone and you’ve consumed what too many empty calories. If you have to snack on something while watching television, try healthy snacks like: • Air popped popcorn • Celery stick with no-calorie dip • Non-fat cottage cheese • Frozen grapes • Protein and fruit smoothie • Fresh fruit • Carrots

Be Honest with Yourself

In order to have long term success with any weight loss plan, you need to be honest with yourself. You need to set short term goals which are attainable, follow them with determination and put forth the effort o succeed. Everyone slips up from time to time and it takes courage to learn from your mistakes. Ask yourself what made you foul up and how you can avoid this in the future. If you have a cheat day, don’t think your entire weight loss plan is ruined. Get right back on your plan the next day and stay focused.

Do not Judge your Body to Others

One of the biggest issues with people trying to lose weight is that they try to look like their favorite movie stars. Women may want to have the body of Jennifer Aniston or guys may want the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Genetics play a large part in your overall physique, so don’t get depressed if you can’t get your stomach to just like Jennifer Garner. Each person is unique, so try to focus on making positive changes to your own physique and be glad when you reach a goal.