swimsuit season?

Talk about a wake-up call...

This article is beyond awesome. I eat pretty healthy and clean most of the time, but I'd be lying if I never thought to my self, "Well, I can eat this piece of cake and really bump up my cardio tomorrow..." Nope, not the way to get a summer bikini-worthy body! (Cardio's severely overrated anyway).

By Kim Dolan Leto: a 40-something mom from Oxygen magazine

Are You Making These Common Mistakes?

How many times have you eaten something and said, I’ll work it off in the gym?” Before I educated myself I believed I could eat whatever I wanted as long as I worked out, but this is not true. You can’t out train a bad diet. Counting calories is a common tool for weight loss, but the source of the calories is the real issue. Last week, I heard a girl say to her friend, “time to burn off those Krispy Kreme Donuts.” While it’s true your body is going to burn calories as you workout, the way your body looks will be greatly affected by the type of calories you take in.

Consider the following thoughts:

• You can’t select and trade the calories you eat for the ones you burn. What you eat has EVERYTHING to do with how you look. (So TRUE!!!)
• There are the same amount of calories in a creme filled donut and a chicken breast, small salad, and sweet potato, however the body they produce is vastly different.
• Eating a diet of junk and doing solely cardio, will make you skinny fat.
• If you want tight-toned-dimple free skin, a clean eating plan, as a lifestyle, is paramount in achieving this.
• Skipping meals will not make you lose weight. Your metabolism will just slow down, store fat and use muscle to live off of.
• Quick weight loss is from water and sadly... muscle.
• Eating junk doesn’t satisfy hunger. Your body will still crave food, because empty calories from sugary foods do not provide you with the nutrition you need.

Have you ever thought if I skip lunch, I’ll save an extra 500 calories only to be so hungry at dinnertime you devour a pizza? Or have you thought if I eat that Pizza I’ll do extra cardio tomorrow? Does it work? I believe there really isn’t any way of getting around the lifestyle part of this. Eating a consistent menu of clean meals that are full of nutrition will support healthy and sustainable weight loss or muscle gain. We can’t out train our cheat meals. Yes, we burn calories, but you can’t look at a treadmill and trade one hour for one donut.

Do you believe you can eat whatever you want and then when you go to the gym you can burn that meal off? Do you play games with yourself? I did, and it got me nowhere. If you’re really serious about making a change, will you consider these points?