I see it happen all the time…fat loss results that are trashed and all kinds of inflammation in the body by eating the wrong foods. Please don’t let this be you. Whether you’re exercising hard or not, keep your results and feel better by avoiding these 7 foods:

1) Don’t Eat: White Pasta
White pasta will never be OK to eat when your goal is to look fit. Sorry, it’s filled with way too many simple carbs. These plentiful carbs have one singular goal: to be stored on your body as fat.

Eat This: Spaghetti Squash

On those nights when you really crave a big bowl of noodles, try this instead. Poke a spaghetti squash all over then bake at 400 degrees F for 45-60 minutes. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, scoop out the seeds and then scrape out the long, noodle-like strands of squash. Serve these healthy noodles with spaghetti sauce and meatballs.

2) Don’t Eat: Store Bought Salad Dressing

The nutritional benefit of your salad is all but undone by the questionable ingredients in store bought salad dressing. From trans fats to preservatives, store bought salad dressing is a landfill of unnatural ingredients that are best avoided.

Eat This: Simple Homemade Dressing

Making you own salad dressing is so simple, it literally takes less than five minutes, and it tastes so much better freshly made. Here’s the equation to use when making your own dressing:

• 3 parts high quality oil – extra virgin olive oil, hemp seed oil, flax seed oil, or sesame seed oil.
• 1 part something acidic – vinegar, lemon, lime
• A dash of salt and fresh ground pepper
• Some fresh or dried herbs

3) Don’t Eat: Packaged Granola Bars

Packaged bars have one thing going for them—the convenience factor. This convenience comes at a price, as each packaged bar contains more preservatives, carbs, calories and sugars than you should be eating.

Eat This: Raw Nuts

When you need a quick, energizing snack look no further than a handful of raw nuts. This is a great way to cut down on the sugar and other harmful additives in granola bars while still enjoying a convenient energy boost.

4) Don’t Drink: Blended Coffee Drinks

Coffee chains have made it socially acceptable to sip on a large blended coffee drink topped with whipped cream, anytime and anyplace. Unfortunately, your body is going to respond to all that sugar in the only way that it knows how…by storing it as fat. These blended drinks are extremely addictive, so it’s best to avoid them completely.

Drink This: Unsweetened Iced Tea

The whole idea behind blended coffee drinks is to quench your thirst, but there are more fitness-friendly ways to do so. Double brew 4 cups of your favorite tea – try Chai Rooibos—then chill it in the fridge for a few hours. Serve over ice and sweeten with a sprinkle of Stevia if needed. Guilt-free refreshment.

5) Don’t Eat: Fast Food Breakfast Sandwiches

The drive thru may be calling you, especially when you’ve left for work in such a hurry that you forgot to eat breakfast, but don’t give in. Fast food breakfast sandwiches are filled with loads of preservatives, trans fats and questionable ingredients. Not to mention these little breakfast bombs contain more calories and fat than you need in the morning.

Eat This: Grain-Free Mini Muffins

The recipe below Grain-Free Mini Muffins make the perfect on-the-go breakfast or snack to keep you out of the drive thru line. Make a batch on the weekend to stock the fridge and then grab as needed throughout your busy week.

6) Don’t Eat: Flavored Yogurt

Little cups of fruit-flavored yogurts are often marketed as the next best weight loss secret, but you know better. These ultra-sweet concoctions are filled with sugars, corn syrup and preservatives, which will derail your fitness results and send you on a sugar high.

Eat This: Plain Greek Yogurt with Fruit

Plain Greek yogurt has more protein and far less sugar than the cute little fruit-flavored yogurt cups. Dress it up by adding your own, chopped fresh fruit.

7) Don’t Eat: Potato Chips

Around three o’clock in the afternoon, when that vending machine is calling out your name, remember this fact: Studies suggest that a potato chip habit caused subjects to gain weight even faster than an ice cream habit. This is likely due to all the preservatives, trans fats, empty calories and salt, and how hard it is to each just a few.

Eat This: Baked Kale Chips

Kale chips are crunchy and satisfying, just like potato chips, yet you’re able to crunch away guilt-free. Filled with fiber, protein and real food nutrients, this is one crunchy snack that won’t expand your waistline. Here’s how to make them at home: Wash and tear one bunch of kale into chip-sized pieces. Toss with a Tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.

The quickest and most permanent way to drop fat, feel amazing and live independently for a lifetime is through a combination of healthy eating and consistent, challenging functional fitness workouts.

Are you over 50 years old? I’m here to help you meet your fitness and weight loss goals. You deserve that fit and healthy body—I can help you get it.

Call or email today and together we will get you on the path to your best body ever!

What myths are out there waiting to trick you? Here are seven that you’re most likely to come up against.

Fat Loss Myth #1: You Need to Work Out Every Day

A little bit of working out will help you lose a little bit of weight, so a lot will help a lot…right? Possibly. If your “little bit” of working out involves taking a walk from your living room to your mailbox, ramping up to a jog around the neighborhood, then everyday is a good thing. However, if you’re pushing it hard at the gym 5 days a week, adding another two days isn’t a great idea. Not only do you increase your chance for overuse injury, but you don’t give your body time to recover. If your body can’t recover, you can’t get your peak performance every day, making it harder to burn fat.

Fat Loss Myth #2: No Coffee!

For many people, having to drop coffee is unbearable. Fortunately, if you’re a coffee lover and you’re trying to lose weight, you don’t have to give up your hot caffeinated goodness altogether. What you will need to do is cut the sugar and creamer. Once you get used to the taste of black coffee, you may find that drinking a cup half an hour before your workout will actually propel you to your best sessions ever.

Fat Loss Myth #3: Slow Is Better

Slow-moving folks rejoiced at the idea that a slower pace could mean more fat burned. And while moving slower—walking instead of running—may seem more appealing, there is a problem. Because moving at a faster pace and pushing yourself harder will always burn more calories in less time. Of course, if you plan to walk at a moderate pace for three hours, you will burn more than if you sprint 100 yards and call it quits. But if you can sprint 100 yards, walk 20 yards, and then sprint again, repeating the process for an hour, you will easily shed more calories, fat, and pounds, than just going for a walk.

Fat Loss Myth #4: Cardio Is All You Need

Want to lose weight? Good. You’ll need to get some cardiovascular exercise. But don’t buy into the idea that cardio is all you need to lose weight. If you don’t lift weights or do some sort of strength training, your aerobic workouts will eventually work to burn off your muscle as well as fat. In the end, this means less strength and a lower metabolism—both which could lead to an inability to maintain a workout routine.

Fat Loss Myth #5: Your Workout Should Be Killer

Ever feel your workout didn’t work you hard enough? If you’re improving and increasing, don’t sweat it. That’s just a sign that your body is growing stronger and better able to handle whatever you throw at it. While many think a workout isn’t good unless it leaves you unable to stand up straight or lift a book, don’t believe the hype. Pushing your body so hard that you can’t function after a workout may give you mental assurance that you’re working hard, but it’s putting you at extreme risk for extreme injury.

Fat Loss Myth #6: Heat Burns More

Slide this one under the heading “Stranger Than Fiction,” but according to research, those hot yoga classes may not be paying off like you expect. Strangely, they found that people who slept in a colder environment increased their weight loss ability substantially more than those who slept in a warmer temperature. Granted, the study involved sleeping and not exercising, but the chill should transfer to your workouts. Turn the temp down a notch for a month or two and see if there are any changes!

Fat Loss Myth #7: There Are Negative-Calorie Foods

Whether you’ve bought into the myth or not, you’ve likely heard that certain foods—celery is a favorite—burn more calories via digestion than they contain. So if you eat nothing but celery, you’ll burn more calories than you consume, which catapults your weight-loss ability into the heavens. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. Celery is low in calories, but you could survive on it if there was no other food available.

Call or email me today and we will get you started on the exercise program that will reshape your body and shed that fat once and for all!