1. Do five minutes of stretching when you wake up and eat a high protein & fruit based breakfast to get off to a good start in the morning.

2. Set a schedule to do exercise 3 times a week – try to keep your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes each time.

3. Focus on eating carbs during the day and stay away from fatty snacks.

4. Aim to drink between 1 and 1.5 litres of water a day. Have the bottle close at hand on your desk.

5. Try to wean yourself off sugar in your tea & coffee.

6. If you have a ‘low blood sugar moment’, have a drink of water and grab a banana instead of chocolate or a biscuit.

7. Have a light dinner, with limited carbs – quinoa and couscous are the best – and aim to eat fresh fish for supper at least three times a week.

8. Cut down on salt and use olive oil to cook with – but only use as much as you really need.

9. Make sure you get enough sleep. If you feel tired you will be less keen to exercise and increase the chances of feeling as though you need a high calorie sugar fix.

10. Remember to have three squirts of FULL fast five times a day – preferably before you eat and at set other times.

If there’s one thing that many people neglect when it comes to their workout plan, stretching is it.  They devote a high amount of time and energy to performing their cardio and resistance training, but as soon as that’s finished, they’re getting out of the gym as quickly as possible – they have a life to lead!

But, if you’re skipping the stretching component of the workout, you’re really missing out on a number of key benefits that it provides.

Let’s take a quick peak at the main reasons why stretching is so important to workout success.

It Enhances Your Range Of Motion

The very first reason why stretching is a must is because it’s going to help to enhance your range of motion so that you can move throughout your exercises better.  If you want to see the full benefits that any exercise has to offer, it’s important that you work the muscles through the full movement pattern.

It would be like performing a squat but only going partially the way down.  If you really want to see maximum benefits, you must go as low as possible as this is when the glutes will really be called into play.

If you’re very inflexible though, this will be next to impossible therefore you won’t see the benefits you could be.

We do tend to lose range of motion with age, so if you aren’t stretching, it’s only going to get worse from here on in.

It Keeps You Injury Free

The next important reason to add stretching to your routine is because it keeps you injury free.  If you’re not stretching after a workout, your muscles are going to be tight and tense and any force that acts upon them could end up pulling or straining a ligament.

Those who are more flexible often find they do suffer injuries a lot less frequently as they are quite limber and able to accommodate to forces acting on them.

An injury will quickly sideline you from all workouts and really hinder your progress – in fact, it’ll put a temporary stop to all progress entirely.

It Reduces Post-Workout Muscle Soreness

Finally, the last reason why you must be sure to add some stretching to your routine is because it will help to control post-workout muscle soreness.

Stretching is going to help remove the lactic acid build-up from the muscle tissues that’s responsible for that high level of pain and discomfort you often experience the next morning when getting out of bed, so by stretching at the end of the session, you can curtail this.

Stretching will allow the muscle fibers to relax and lengthen so that you don’t feel quite so tense and sore later on.

So as you can see, stretching is really a must-do for success.  It only takes ten minutes total at the end of your workout but this is some of the best ten minutes you could spend if you want to see success.  Get in the habit of doing it now and you’ll never think twice about skipping it again.

The 17 day diet, the weight loss plan that has taken the web by storm, is the brainchild of Dr. Michael Moreno.
Moreno, the author of the book, “The 17 Day Diet,” says people who follow his plan will achieve results that will last for a lifetime.

The plan has four cycles. Each cycle consists of 17 days where dieters vary the carbs, proteins, fruits and other kinds of foods they eat in order to stimulate their metabolism and promote weight loss.

Each cycle unfolds in 17 days because that’s right before the time when the body starts to recognize the diet as a habit and metabolism starts to slow as a result, Moreno says.

Check out an excerpt of the book below.

Just Give Me 17 Days

I can personally sum up the 17 Day Diet in two words: fast results.

Depending on your weight when you start out and your metabolism, you might expect to lose up to 10 to 12 pounds the first 17 days. Of course, the further you are from your ideal weight, the more you’ll lose initially.
Let’s not kid each other: When you start a diet, you want to see results right away, in how you look and in how you feel. That’s because our society is geared toward to the immediate; we want things and we want them now. The same is true of weight loss. We get impatient when the pounds don’t come off fast enough to meet our expectations. It seems much easier to give up than to go on.

This diet is designed to produce quick results, not because it starves you down to size but because its carefully designed balance of food and exercise adjusts your body metabolically so that you burn fat, day in and day out.

Also important: The weight-reduction portion of this diet is limited to just 17 days at a time so that you aren’t demoralized by the thought of endless months of dieting.

Nor are you apt to plateau like you often do on other diets. The 17 Day Diet keeps your body and metabolism guessing. I call this “body confusion.” With each 17 Day Cycle, you’re changing your calorie count and the foods you eat. By varying these things, you prevent your body from adapting. The scale is less likely to get stuck. The added bonus: You’ll never get bored. And it’s fun watching those pounds melt off. So confusion is good!

At the end of 17 days, you’ll go on to a second 17-day Cycle, then a third, and finally enter the weight-stabilization Cycle of the diet in which you get to eat a greater variety of foods, including your favorite foods within reason. (I don’t want you to get too chummy with the all-you-can-eat buffets again.)

I already know what you’re thinking: Is it possible to shed pounds swiftly yet safely? If done right, without sacrificing good nutrition, the answer is yes.

Despite what many nutritionists have preached for years, rapid weight-loss diets can be healthy if done correctly and can work wonders on reducing pounds and inches in just days. Brand-new research suggests that the faster you take weight off, the longer you keep it off. Now that’s a reason for dieters everywhere to rejoice. Plus, if you’re too embarrassed by a recent weight spike or have just gained an embarrassing eight pounds after a holiday weekend or an ice cream binge, this diet can get you back on track fast.