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Most of us know about the importance of setting long term goals and while I don’t dispute their importance, I think it’s equally important to focus on and to set short-term goals.

Short term goals help keep you motivated on those days when you feel like you’re never going to reach your long term goal.

If your long term goal is to lose 20 lbs…

Set some short-term goals like:

• lose 5 lbs.
•  to exercise 4x a week

And don’t forget to reward yourself after you hit your goals.

At the outset, it can be very hard to stay motivated and it’s important that you take the extra steps necessary to keep yourself motivated to stick to your exercise program at this time.

Once you start making progress, you won’t need the extra motivation…

Feeling and looking better is usually enough motivation for most people.

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You should see some of the looks I get when I tell people that their best shot at increasing their metabolism naturally is by eating more meals throughout the day.

On average I would say most people eat about 1-3 meals per day and there really isn’t anything much worse you can do to your metabolism.

By only eating 1-3 meals per day you are essentially starving your body. Your body (the medical marvel that it is) reacts by storing a good portion of the food you ingest as fat.

That’s right your body is more apt to store the food you eat as fat if you’re only eating 1-3 times per day.

Your body does this because it doesn’t know when it’s going to get fed again. Being that your body’s only objective is survival, it naturally stores the food you eat as fat so that it can be burned as fuel when your body needs it. Think of a squirrel storing its’ food for the winter…same concept really.

BUT when you feed your body every 2-3 hours and consequently eat 4-6 times a day, you turn up the heat on your bodys’ metabolism.

Since your body knows (You’ll have to do this consistently for a few weeks to reap full benefits) it’s going to get fed in the next 2-3 hours, it’ll utilize all the nutrients you feed it and get rid of the rest.

Your body will be less inclined to store the food you eat as fat if you’re eating 4-6 times per day.

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Fish oil, such as omega-3 fatty acids may prevent heart attack and strokes for those at risk of heart disease and also provide benefits for those with a healthy cardiovascular system.

According to American Heart:

We recommend eating fish (particularly fatty fish) at least two
times a week.  Fish is a good source of protein and doesn’t have the high saturated fat that fatty meat products do.  Fatty fish like mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon are high in two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

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If one of your goals is to lose weight or burn fat you may want to consider eating a salad before you have your dinner.

Eating a low calorie salad with healthy ingredients like lettuce, nuts, garbanzo beans and vegetables (stay away from high-calorie dressings) will usually reduce the amount of food you consume during the main course.

This a good practice especially when eating out because the portions served at most restaurants these days are huge.

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According to Mens Health (June, 2007) researchers at Brooklyn College discovered that drinking 4-6 ounces of full caffeine coffee per day can reduce your chances of dying by heart disease by as much as 53%.

The article also went on to mention that the scientists conducting the study were unsure if the benefits were due to the high amount of caffeine in the coffee or the fact that java is packed with disease-fighting anti-oxidants. The study did conclude that decaffeinated coffee and soda with caffeine did not provide the same results as full-caffeine coffee.

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