Ten Essentials to a Better Body

5) Eat More Fiber: Fiber has many benefits to the man looking to trim his waistline and improve his health. It helps lower cholesterol, improves insulin sensitivity and prevents absorption of fat. The big bonus for those of us trying to shed pounds is that fiber makes you feel full faster and longer. Eating 4-5 grams or more of fiber per meal is a sure fire way to help curb cravings, improve your health and eat less without the diet destroying hunger pangs normally associated with weight loss.

6) Keep a Journal: Keeping a workout journal should be absolutely required. When your motivation starts to fade, a journal is a perfect resource to boost you back up by reviewing your previous starting points and your current gains. I find it essential to write down what I lift week to week, or distance run and add 5 or 10% a week. I keep my gains coming and consistently ensure I stress my body. If you don't already, start logging everything you can; weight lifting poundage, distance, food intake and body weight are all great things to log.

7) Join a web site: Moral support is great for staying consistent. Joining a website such as BodyBuilding.com and reading the daily information as well as interacting on the forums is an outstanding way to stay motivated for the long term. Motivation and consistency is possibly the single most important factor in determining if you will make your fitness goals.

8) Interval Training: Interval training is arguably one of the best ways to improve cardiovascular performance, muscle conditioning and overall health. Also referred to as HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training, the overall concept is replace standard 20-40 minute cardio routines with high intensity intervals. Intervals can be performed on a track, bicycle or cardio machine of your choice. The basic premise is to perform at 80-90% of your maximum output for a set amount of time or distance, and then back off in a recovery phase. Alternating between 100m sprints and 100-200m walking recovery sections is a simple training method to begin with.

I was able to compress my normal 30 minute cardio session into 10 minutes of hard output. The results are amazing. After even one session, muscles I never thought were used in running were sore. My chest, arms, abs and back were all very sore (in a good way) the first few sessions, similar to that of the following day after lifting weights. This is not an exercise regime you should just jump into however. It assumes a certain level of fitness at onset. I highly recommend googling for "HIIT Training" for more information before partaking in your first session.

9) Clean Food = Clean Mass: No matter how many sit-ups you perform, how much cardio you do nor how many hundreds of pounds you can bench press, you will never lose weight unless you eat clean. Diet is 90% of losing weight and gaining muscle mass. Put clean foods in your body and you'll get clean mass. Remember, a pound of fat is 3,500 calories. A calorie deficit of 500 calories a day will drop 1 pound of body fat in 7 days. This is a great goal to start with for most people. Combined with healthy exercise, 1.5 - 2 pounds a week is not a difficult goal to achieve.

10) Shock Your System: No matter how you ultimately choose to lose weight, it's important to cycle your training every 4-6 weeks or even sooner. By performing the same exercise routine week after week your body will soon adapt to the stresses applied to it and slow the adoption of new mass. Throw in a few new exercises, change from machines to free weights, or drastically change the speed of your cardio. Keep your body guessing and it will continue to pack on lean new mass and lose fat.