Burn More Calories in Less Time

The way to shape up fast is no secret. Weight training will sculpt and build lean muscle, which (unlike fat) burns calories on its own; cardio (brisk walking, biking, jogging, etc.) will shed the fat hiding those defined muscles. I'm a cardio fan from way back, but who wants to slog away on a treadmill in a dull gym, going nowhere fast (or slow, as the case may be)? Not me! Especially when you can spend less time and get better results.

The secret is intervals. Study subjects who spent just 20 minutes mixing sprints with jogging lost three times the fat off their legs and butt in 15 weeks, compared to those who jogged steadily for 40 minutes, research from the University of New South Wales in Sydney finds. Intervals may spark fat-mobilizing hormones, and they amp your cardio capacity so your future runs will actually feel easier.

I like relaxing runs, but if you do the same slog every day, you can suffer from what's sometimes called "postman's syndrome"—named for those who do the same walk every day and yet their bodies never change. Your muscles become so efficient at a movement over time that if you do it day after day and eat the same way, you never overtax your system and burn more calories to lose weight.

The answer is to mix up your cardio either by changing your workout around or adding speedy bursts—meaning intervals. Intervals can be fun if you approach them right. Each one represents a mini goal—finish the 1-minute sprint, complete the 2-minute cool down, and so on. I feel more pumped up doing this and never get bored. Now put on those running shoes and lets go.

What does self-image have to do with weight loss? What role does the subconscious play?

How can your self-image affect your success in following your diet?

In our subconscious mind we all have a particular self-image. It may be an image of a fat person that needs to lose weight fast, or of an unsuccessful person, or maybe a very attractive confident one.

That image has a representation attached to it, a picture that pops-up in our minds whenever we say the word “I”. The picture that appears to us in our minds does not necessarily equal reality. It actually matches the belief we have about who we are in our deepest subconscious.

If you have an image of a ‘fat’ you running through your head, how would you attract the desired ‘thin’ you, into your life? That image in our mind of the way we look, weight and external appearance determine what we project into the world.

Research shows that 80% of our behavior is affected by our subconscious. And that, together with our belief system, determines our results.

If you perceive of yourself as fat in your subconscious, the law of attraction will attract into your life that fat image time and again.

Changing the personal image you have of yourself to an image of a thin, healthy successful one, will help you become healthy and reach the weight you really want fast.

The change has to begin in your subconscious.

If you want to succeed in losing weight and maintain the change in you, you have to start with changing the self-image in your subconscious mind into a successful, healthy, and happy, worthy person.

This image will help you lose weight faster and easily keep it off for good.

Now close your eyes and start creating your new self.