How Most Health & Fitness "Gurus" Cheat You Blind (With Ultimately No Results To Show)

The health and fitness industry is enormous. It doesn't take a genius to tell you that there are literally millions of health and fitness "gurus" out there trying to sell you all sorts of junk with absolutely no follow-up or accountability to offer. More than 90% of people don't look after themselves physically, not because they don't want to be fit and healthy, but mainly because they are not in the right frame of mind due to their conditioning on eating and physical activity. These things can be very hard to change, but they don't have to be!
What's more shocking?
90% of the 10% who do "look after themselves" end up failing at their initial health and fitness goals in the long run. This leaves 1 in every hundred people "fit and healthy". No joke.

The major obstacle, you might think, must be food and exercise, right?
WRONG.

The reason that so many people fail to reach their ideal health and fitness goals is because:

a) Unrealistic expectation and lack of commitment (completely psychological)
b) A lack of sound advice and knowledge (too many "gurus" with contradicting stories)
c) Cheat psychology (wanting the quick-fix)

So when you see a commercial on TV or a marketing campaign focused on getting you fit, do not fall into the sales traps of the corporate fitness "gurus" who spend billions each year on learning how to take your money.

Health and fitness is simple:

1. Find good information and advice suited to you personally
2. Follow through with accountability to ensure your success  

This is a matter of what you eat, how you eat it and what exercises you engage in etc. But the major, MAJOR obstacle is truly getting the two steps above right in the first place. You can achieve this by finding someone fit and healthy (preferably a professional), getting their advice on your situation and getting a group of like-minded people to form a "social-group-network" which is going to hold you to your goals.

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Stretching To Lose Belly Fat

The first thing that springs to many peoples minds about stretching is that muscular tearing feeling that most people get. Very rarely do I find clients who actually enjoy stretching but, those that stick to a diligent stretch routine will get better results 100% of the time. This is mainly because:

1. Muscles become more flexible and trigger hormones that encourage muscle growth, thus increasing your metabolic rate.
2. The body becomes more relaxed in general which releases tension and inhibits the release of stress hormones such as cortisol which are known to cause weight gain.

Stretching in general is an improvement on your everyday health and fitness, you become more flexible and more able so by the definition of fitness, you have improved it!
But I have to stress the fact that no single method alone is going to give you a "magic pill" to get sexy abs. It's the cumulative effect of making positive changes to improve your general health and well being that make the biggest difference.

Some Typical, Fat Melting Replacement Foods

So I established yesterday about how important foods are in reaching your health and fitness goals. Just as a recap though (and to stress the importance of this) it will be approximately 80% food and 20% exercise that gets you to your goal of a flat, sexy stomach.

I don't want to discredit exercise though as that is where your toning happens and is also vital in increasing your health and fitness.

What I want to mention about this though is that we have a big, fat problem.
70% of the US population are overweight or obese. Even more alarming is the rapid decrease in the age of overweight children. We are, as a society, getting fatter.

And if 80% of the problem is coming from foods, what can we do about it?
Well, most people dread the mention of calorie counting and diets so I'm not going to mention them further (although if you're diligent enough, calorie counting can help you lose weight). What I will suggest is that you take 3 vitally important tips away from this reading today:
1. Reduce your "processed food" intake - This is a simple thing really. Just don't buy as much canned and pre-packaged food as you usually would. By replacing these processed foods with more natural, raw foods, you are effectively reducing your exposure to all kinds of additives, sodium being the most common and what you eat to replace the packaged foods is likely to give you other health benefits too!
2. Don't fall for "diet" products - Manufacturers aim to make huge profits so they will do anything to convince you that their "junky" foods are going to help you lose weight and you will probably willingly believe them if it means you can enjoy the products. Don't fall for it. So called "diet" or "lite" products more often than not, do more damage than good to your results.
3. Integrate other foods into your eating - Over time you should aim to try something new each week. Try out "healthy" foods and see what you can do with them. Even if you can't stand the taste of them (grow up), if you want real results, integrate foods you wouldn't usually eat into your regular diet. Some good foods include nuts, seeds (eg. sesame seeds), green vegetables, herbs and legumes.

I hope you got something out of that one. Take away those 3 points and apply them and you'll be flaunting your sexy abs in no time. Remember the 80/20 rule!