82 Ways To Change Your Shape in the Mirror in 2018

It’s that time again!! Every year I compile a master list of the most valuable articles that have helped my personal training clients achieve optimal health and weight loss. It’s a comprehensive list of old and new that will help you cut out the guesswork.

Please share this list with anyone (friend, family member, colleague, client, etc.) who wants to change their life and finally see a difference in their health and lifestyle. Also, be sure to bookmark this page and return to it when you're frustrated with your results (which happens to everyone) or need a new idea.

Tip: Skim through this list and find the headlines that are most relevant to your current goals and interests (then spend 20 seconds skimming the article).

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Effective Weight Loss Tips and More!

-Your Business Plan to Lose Weight (or Achieve Optimal Health)
-37 Snack Ideas for Weight Loss (And You Won’t Be Bored)
-"14 Ways to Lose a Pound a Day" Review

-"42 Ways to Beat Your Junk Food Cravings" Review
-How to Lose Weight Without Exercise
-"Here's Why Counting Calories Really Isn't Necessary for Weight Loss" Review

-"How to Design Your Kitchen for Weight-Loss Success" Review
-The Secret to Losing Nearly 27 lbs!
-“20 Easy Ways to Cut 500 Calories a Day” Review

-“4 Surprising Benefits of Eating at Night” Review
-Science Confirms Two Ways to Lose Weight Fast
-4 Ways Your Brain Makes You Overeat—And How To Outsmart Yourself

-6 Things 'Successful Diets Have In Common
- “40 Things You’ll Gain When You Lose Weight” Review
-7 Ways to Lose Weight After 50

-Will Eating at Night Really Make You Gain Weight?
-"6 Things You Can Do Every Day to Prevent Weight Gain" Review
-5 Non-Diet Ways to Trick Yourself into Losing Weight

-"20 Easy Ways to Lose 5 Pounds at Work" Review
-"10 Secrets to Lose 25 Pounds Now" Review
-Do This Every Day, and You May Lose 20 Pounds in 6 Months

Why You're Not Losing Weight or Body Fat

-"Best and Worst Meals for Diabetes-Savvy Dining " Review
-"If You're Trying to Lose Weight, Don't Make These 10 Breakfast Mistakes" Review
-"10 Mistakes You're Making Every Time You Think About Starting A Diet" Review

-"7 Reasons Your Weight Loss May Have Stalled" Review
-3 Reasons Why What You’re Eating is NOT Healthy (Even Though You Think So)
-“10 Trendy Health Foods That Can Threaten Your Waistline” Review

-“Why Stress Makes You Want to Eat Everything in Sight or Nothing at All” Review
-4 Weird Reasons Why You're Gaining Weight
-“5 Ways Your Breakfast is Sabotaging Your Weight Loss” Review

-“Just Say No to That Detox Diet or Juice Cleanse” Review
-The Underlying Influence on Your Weight Loss Failures
-6 Diet Tricks That Are Actually Making You Gain Weight

-"Don't Fall for These 10 Weight-Loss Gimmicks" Review
-"5 Bad Things about Detoxing You Don't Know" Review

Easy Recipes for Weight Loss

-The Best Fish Nachos for Weight Loss!
-Weight Loss Recipe: Chili Cajun Chicken and Sauteed Vegetables
-The Best Spinach Stuffed Salmon Weight Loss Recipe Ever!
-Weight Loss Quick Supper: Cajun Almond Crusted Chicken with Asparagus and White Beans

-Weight Loss Recipe: Almond Crusted Mahi with Brussels Sprouts and Roasted Garlic Potatoes
-Vera Cruz Fish and Brussels Sprouts Weight Loss Dinner
-15 Minute Weight Loss Dinner from Trader Joes

Why Salads May Not Help Your Weight Loss Goals

-Why Salad is So Overrated
-"25 Salads That Have More Calories Than a Big Mac" Review

Holiday Weight Loss Tips

-"10 Foods to Give Up for Lent—and How Many Calories You'll Save" Review
-9 Dishes Doctors Won't Eat at Thanksgiving

Best Sources of Protein for Weight Loss

-Save the Cow! Here is a List of Non-Animal Protein Sources
-"45 Vegetarian Protein Sources You Should Be Eating" Review
-36 Ways to Fulfill Your Protein Needs While Losing Weight

Foods You Want to Avoid....And Why!

-"50 Foods You Should Never Eat" Review
-"25 Awful Ingredients Everyone Still Uses—But Shouldn’t!" Review
-"The 10 Dirtiest Foods You're Eating" Review

-11 Foods to Toss Out of Your Kitchen For Good
- “21 Foods that Sound Healthy, But Are Not!” Review

Why You Should Avoid These Drinks

-"20 Coffee Drinks with More Sugar Than a Can of Coke" Review
-How To Fit Alcohol in Your Diet without Ruining Your Weight Loss Goals
-"70 Most Popular Sodas Ranked by How Toxic They Are" Review
- “The Most Unhealthy Drink Orders at the Bar” Review

-"The Best and Worst Booze to Drink if You Want to Lose Weight" Review
-4 Ways To Beat Your Diet Soda Addiction In One Week
-How Caffeine Could Prevent You From Losing Belly Fat

How to Eat at Restaurants and Airports

-“23 Restaurant Foods with Crazy High Amounts of Sugar” Review
-How to Eat Healthy at the Airport

Fitness/Exercise Myths and More!

-4 Simple Ways to Flatten Your Stomach
-You Should Master These 6 Exercises Before the New Year (And Here's How)
-12 Workout Myths That Just Need To Die
-The 15 Most Common Mistakes Personal Trainers See in the Gym

-“7 Myths About How to Stay in Shape” Review
-“How Much Exercise It’ll Take to Undo 17 Popular Fast Food Items” Review
-“20 Ways to Ensure Workouts Happen Every Day” Review

-End Your Lower Back Pain Today
-"The 21 Worst Things You Can Do For Your Body" Review
-Personal Trainer Wisdom: 1 Fitness Myth Unraveled

The Keys to Improve Your Sleep and Reduce Fatigue

-49 Reasons You're Always Tired
-11 Ways To Sleep Better Tonight
-This simple addition to your bedtime routine could make a huge difference in your sleep

Resolutions, Goals, and Relationships

-”13 Weight Loss Resolutions You Shouldn't Make" Review
-”The Best All-In (Life Changing) Fitness Plan for 2017
-5 Morning Habits That Have Made Me More Successful (and Less Stressed)

-"9 Ways to Ensure Your Relationship Is Built to Last" Review
-99 Ways to Redefine Yourself Today
-Excerpt from the book Redefine Yourself: Define Your Purpose

Picture Credit: souprecipesforweightloss.com-Will this smoothie help you change your shape in the mirror?

"13 Weight Loss Resolutions You Shouldn't Make" Review

Are your New Year’s resolutions already setting you up for failure? Check out these rewrites to set you up for weight loss success (from the MSN article “13 Weight Loss Resolutions You Shouldn't Make.”).

"I want to lose 20 pounds"

"Dropping 20 pounds is a great long-term goal, but dieters tend to fall off track when they have such a lofty resolution," says Amidor.

Revised resolution: Lose 1 pound per week
"Instead of taking on such a big task, focus on losing one pound a week by setting small diet and exercise goals," suggests Amidor. "For example, resolve to pick skim dairy over whole and pledge to work out 30 minutes, three times a week. You'll be surprised how small tweaks can result in major change."

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Big, drastic changes can be overwhelming and tiring. Test the effect of small changes 1 lb at a time. Also, don’t forget that losing 1-2 lbs per week is most sustainable. Not fast enough? It isn’t your biological choice. Time for acceptance. With this trend, do you really have 52-104 lbs to lose anyway? Most likely not. Be patient and do this right.

"I'm going to stop eating at restaurants"

“Nixing a night out with friends for the sake of your diet is no way to live,” says Amidor. “You'll only wind up frustrated and will be more likely to fall off the wagon.”

Revised resolution: Order smarter at restaurants
"Before dining out, have 10 almonds or an apple so you don't arrive ravenous, and then start with a small salad," suggests Amidor. In a 2004 study published in the Journal of the American Diet Association, Penn State researchers found that women who started a lunch with a salad consumed up to 12% fewer calories than those who skipped the first course. "Choose a light appetizer as your entree and have the bread basket removed," says Amidor.

Personal Trainer Wisdom: I don’t completely agree with this suggestion. I’ve seen many people build a first-course habit at all costs (this time a salad next time fried calamari). To minimize starvation, eat a small balanced meal (10 almonds AND an apple) 1-2 hours before dinner instead and stick to a mindful entrée at the restaurant.

"I'm going to weigh myself every morning"

"Daily weigh-ins are not an accurate gauge of progress," says Tanya Zuckerbrot, a registered dietitian based in New York City and founder of the F-Factor Diet. Water retention and hormones can mean as much as a two-pound swing in as little as a day. Plus, if your weight-loss plan involves strength training (and it should!), you may even gain weight from increased muscle weight while still losing fat and inches.

Revised resolution: Measure weight loss in inches, not pounds
“When you feel your pants getting looser as the weeks go by, you'll know you're slimming down,” says Zuckerbrot.

Personal Trainer Wisdom: While checking the scale may give you an overall indication of your weight loss trend, the minor day-to-day fluctuations may be caused by a number of the aforementioned factors. Don’t sacrifice your sanity and save the scale for a monthly check-in.

"I'm going to eat 900 calories a day until I lose the weight"

Sure, severely restricting your calorie intake will spur weight loss, but you'll gain it all back as soon as you start eating normally again (not to mention that starving yourself is dangerous). "This is often the attitude of yo-yo dieters, who go from a size four to a 12 and back again, seemingly overnight," says Amidor.

Revised resolution: Develop a healthy eating plan with an RD
If you're unsure how to lose weight the healthy way, consider making an appointment with a dietitian. "Many RDs now take insurance, so don't be afraid to ask if yours is accepted," says Amidor. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has a registered dietitian referral service that allows you to search a database of practitioners across the nation.

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Repeat this mantra: “You don’t need to create a deficit to lose weight, you don’t need to create a deficit to lose weight, ….” Your body is an effective and efficient machine that operates optimally when fueled and repaired properly. Most commonly, the average (sedentary) person only needs 1300-1700 calories per day. Trust your body. When you live in line with your set metabolism for a given point, your body will lose the weight for you.

"I'm going to cut calories by skipping breakfast"

Research shows that foregoing a morning meal will put you on the fast track to weight gain, not a loss. In a study published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, for example, participants who skipped breakfast were hungrier and more likely to indulge in fattening foods later in the day.

Revised resolution: Eat a protein-packed breakfast every morning
“Eating a filling breakfast lessens the chances of bingeing on junk later in the day,” says Zuckerbrot. "Pair lean proteins with high fiber, complex carbs….to keep hunger at bay and ward off craving all day long."

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Eat a protein-packed ________ is soooooooo 2005. You’re better than this! My revised resolution: Eat a nutrient-packed breakfast of vitamins, fiber, fat, and protein every morning.

"I'm going to get more exercise"

"This resolution isn't specific enough to be successful," says Jim White, a personal trainer and registered dietitian in Virginia Beach, Va.

Revised resolution: Commit to a set number of weekly workouts
Fitness newbies should start with one weekly workout that combines cardio and weight training, like a body sculpting class or a session with a trainer. After three weeks, build up to two weekly workouts, and over time aim for five workouts a week. Progressing slowly wards off injury and excessive soreness that may prevent or deter you from sticking to your exercise program.

Personal Trainer Wisdom: The more general your approach the more general your results. Create a business plan for your fitness. What is your mission? What results do you expect? What do you need to do? What do you want to do? What progression is realistic for you?

"I'm going to the gym for two hours every day"

“Working out two hours a day is not only boring, but it can also cause injury in newbies who aren't used to being physically active,” warns White.

Revised resolution: Do efficient workouts
“Trade in long sweat sessions for high intensity, 30-minute interval workouts—you won't burn out as quickly and you'll actually torch more calories than doing long, drawn-out workouts," says White. Plus, researchers from the University of Western Australia found that interval training helps suppress post-workout appetite, further accelerating weight loss.

Personal Trainer Wisdom: In our society, we have latched on to the idea that everything should be scheduled for an hour. Have you ever wondered why? You might be surprised by what you achieve in half of the time (especially when you plan and move with intent).

Photo Credit:
MSN.com–Should adding this breakfast to your daily routine be part of your daily routine?

How to Save Hundreds of Dollars This Holiday Season (My Favorite Tricks)

Don’t let holiday spending cause you stress anymore! It’s the holidays…you should feel jolly!!! Here are my surefire tips to put cash back in your wallet (and still get what you want). I’ve utilized these tricks throughout the year and, especially, during this holiday season.

Earn cash back with Ebates

Personal Trainer Wisdom: My friend Allison introduced Ebates to me last holiday season, and holiday shopping has never been the same. The concept: You’ll receive a check for shopping at online retailers you normally would anyways. Of course, I met her suggestion with much skepticism. Within 3 months, though, I received a payment of over $300, and I haven’t questioned it since. Basically, Ebates.com has partnered with popular retailers including Target, Amazon, Dell, and much more to offer you a percentage payback for whatever purchase you make. Although the return is typically 1-5%, most retailers double their offer during holidays. Right now, Dell, Barnes and Noble, Barney’s New York, The Container Store, Coach, Under Armor, and Shoes.com are offering 12%! Last year, my wife and I purchased a television on Dell for a retail value of $1000. Luckily, Dell was offering a 10% Ebate and another 10% with Dell financing (saving me a total of $200). You can also receive $10 in your account when someone sends you a referral code....more free money. My referral code is https://www.ebates.com/r/MICHAE50039?eeid=28187. Trust me…this is real.

Honey finds coupon codes for you

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Honey is another great web browser extension built to save you money. At one time, I scoured the internet for coupon codes (thank you Retail Me Not for your years of service). No longer! After you create your account on https://www.joinhoney.com/ and download the extension, begin shopping! As you checkout, click on the Honey extension. She will scour the internet for you and automatically apply the best coupon codes. Recently, I purchased a computer from Lenovo and saved $50 with a Honey code (and I also received $50 in cash back from Ebates for a total of $100 off). Crazy enough, Honey is most compatible with Amazon. You can check Honey for a lower price without visiting the checkout. Just click on the button next to the price!

Book flexible travel using Google flights

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Even though you have a travel destination in mind would you be willing to fly to a nearby city or somewhere else on the same dates to save hundreds of dollars? Absolutely! With Google Flights, you can find cheaper roundtrip flights based on proximity using their interactive map. After you input your desired dates, click on the map. You’ll notice the lowest roundtrip fares for any city in the world based on your selection. A few years ago we tested this tip while looking for flights to Spain. We found spring airfare to Barcelona for $1300. After reviewing the map, we purchased $500 roundtrip tickets to Dublin, Ireland instead! Not only did we see another world city on our trip, but we also saved nearly 37% on total airfare (we booked another flight to Barcelona a few days later after our arrival for $320 apiece). Basically, we saw Ireland and Spain for only $820 roundtrip!! Keep in mind that your flexibility will determine your discount success. Good luck!

Use your Discover Credit Card on Amazon Prime

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Although you typically receive a 2% return on your rewards credit cards, Discover is now offering a 5% return on all Amazon purchases this holiday season. Time to stock up on everything you typically purchase throughout the year for a fraction of the price (especially if you use this discount with Honey). Link your Discover Card to your Amazon Prime account today!

Trade mileage for services (and save nearly 85%)

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Many rewards credit cards are offering an introductory benefit of 50-80,000 miles/points for signing up (usually for only a $95 annual fee). Why not barter these relatively free miles with your service provider? I value 60,000 miles as $1200 (the cost of a European trip in economy class). If you transfer the miles to me as a credit for $1200 of personal training services, you’ll save nearly $1000. The only cost to you is the annual fee of the credit card and the $100 fee for transferring the miles. Worse case scenario? Your service provider says no. Worth trying though!

Photo Credit:
Halfpoint–What savings can you unravel this holiday season?

You Should Master These 6 Exercises Before the New Year (And Here's How)

The new year is almost upon you, and it's time to refine your foundational movements. Here are 6 exercises you need to perfect (and how) before you reinvent your routine on January 1st:

Personal Trainer Exercise: Squat Over Bench or Chair

Prompt: Feet straight and hip width, screw in the feet, draw in the belly button, hinge at the hips, tuck the chin (to create neutral spine)
Progression (15-20 reps):
-Knees in line with hips
-Knees in line with hips while holding 5 lb dumbbells
-Knees in line with hips while holding 10 lb dumbbells
-Knees in line with hips...away from the seat
-Knees in line with hips...away from the seat while holding 5 lb dumbbells
-Knees in line with hips...away from the seat while holding 10 lb dumbbells

Personal Trainer Exercise: Walking Lunge

Prompt: Feet straight and hip width, draw in the belly button, plant the front foot, screw in the foot, slight hinge at the hips, tuck the chin (to create neutral spine), feet together
Progression (15-20 reps):
-Drop 1 inch
-Drop 2 inches
-Drop 3 inches
-Reassess

Personal Trainer Exercise: Step Up

Prompt: Screw in one foot on the step (heel under the knee), draw in the belly button, slight hinge at the hips, tuck the chin (to create neutral spine), bring opposite knee forward
Progression (15-20 reps):
-6-inch step
-9-inch step
-12-inch step
-15-inch step
-18-inch step
-Reassess

Personal Trainer Exercise: Stairclimber

Prompt: Draw in the belly button, slight hinge at the hips, tuck the chin (to create neutral spine)
Progression (time):
-Increase your time by 30 seconds each week/1 minute higher level and then 1 minute lower level....alternate

Personal Trainer Exercise: Pulldown

Prompt: Feet straight with heels under knees, screw in the feet, shoulders above your hips, draw in the belly button, keep the bar straight across
Progression (15-20 reps):
-45 lbs
-52 lbs
-60 lbs
-Reassess

Personal Trainer Exercise: Dumbbell Curl (1 Arm at a Time)

Prompt: Feet straight and hip width, screw in the feet, draw in the belly button, hips under your shoulders, elbow tucked to your side
Progression (15-20 reps):
-8 lbs
-10 lbs
-12 lbs
-15 lbs
-Reassess

Photo Credit:
Livestrong.com–Are they properly performing a squat?

"Are You Making This Huge Weight Loss Mistake?" Review

I’ve seen too many of my personal training clients make this mistake, and you probably are too. Stop spinning in place and make this change today.

What You’re Looking At

“Torch 800 calories in 60 minutes!” “Congratulations, you just burned 500 calories!” For some women, few things are more motivating than leaving your boot camp or hopping off of the treadmill knowing they just incinerated the caloric equivalent of a Big Mac.

However, paying too much attention to calorie-burn claims, whether on your treadmill display or health club’s website, can seriously sabotage your weight-loss progress. That’s because most fitness trackers, calorie counters, and estimates of calories burned use ridiculously inaccurate methods for measuring calorie burns, often leading you to believe that you torched way more calories than you actually did.

And if you don’t burn more calories than you eat in a given day, you’re not going to lose. You might even gain.

Personal Trainer Wisdom: In an effort to strategically shave off weight, many of my personal training clients also rely on machines to determine the calories burned. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, they are dependent on tools that aren’t scientifically measuring their expenditure (after all, the machines aren’t connected to them). With this being said, most people are hanging on to a delicate balance of a calories in and an inaccurate measure of calories out….usually a dangerous line for consistent weight loss. Your best bet is to focus on your caloric count instead of your caloric expenditure (a far easier and more reliable measure).

Bad Calorie Math

For example, a new study published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine reveals popular fitness trackers, including the Apple Watch and MIO Alpha 2, can be significantly off in their calorie estimations as often as 93 percent of the time. Each fitness tracker utilizes its own proprietary algorithm to calculate calories burned, according to Stanford Medical Center, which doesn’t always jibe with the individual wearing it, researchers say.

That partly explains why your boot camp is so far off on its “burn 500 calories in 30 minutes” claim: Often, classes come up with caloric burns by simply having an instructor wear a fitness tracker during the class, Rebold says. “Then they take that information and use it to promote that exercise class they’re unfolding at their club,” he explains. The problem is, there is an insane number of intrinsic variables that will always impact how many calories you burn during a given exercise, ranging from your sex, age, weight, to your muscle mass, says Church. In other words, you won’t burn the same number of calories as your 6’2” male instructor. So don’t expect to.

Others classes, meanwhile, refer to average intensity rates from the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities to estimate calories burned during class, says Tim Church, M.D., Ph.D., professor of preventative medicine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University and chief medical officer of ACAP Health, a workplace wellness consulting firm.

However, when it comes to the number of calories that you burn during any given class, exercise intensity is the greatest player. Take your average indoor cycling class as an example: If someone is on a bike pedaling at a faster pace or a higher resistance, they’re going to burn more calories than someone who’s just going through the motions,” he explains. How intensely you’re able to pedal will depend not only on how fit you are, but also factors such as the sleep you got last night and what you ate for breakfast. So while average intensity rates will ring true for a small subset of class-goers, they are going to be ridiculously off for everyone who isn’t “average.”

So, odds are, you’re not burning the 800 calories that exercise class advertised, says Michael Rebold, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., department chair of the integrative exercise science program and assistant professor of integrative exercise science at Hiram College in Ohio. In reality, you may burn anywhere from 600 calories at the low end and 900 calories at the high end, he adds.

Meanwhile, research shows that you can’t depend on those calorie counters on your favorite pieces of cardio equipment, either, according to ABC News. In one oft-cited experiment, University of California - San Francisco’s Human Performance Center pitted the calorie counters of four different cardio machines against a VO2 analyzer. On average, the machines overestimated calories burned by 19 percent. Among the four machines, the elliptical machine was the worst offender, overestimating calories burned by 42 percent. So, for instance, it could say you burned 100 calories when you actually only burned 58.

Personal Trainer Wisdom: This section reminds us of the complicated algorithms of caloric expenditure. It extends beyond the simple math of a machine (even if it is measuring your heartrate). Always ask what the caloric expenditure claim is based on. As explained, it could be based on your instructor or other body types dissimilar to yours.

Your No-Math Solution to Weight-Loss

In the end, however, the problem isn’t the calorie-burn totals in and of themselves—it’s using them to calculate exactly how many calories you’ve “earned” or “worked off.”

After all, if you follow the whole, “I just burned 600 calories, so now I can go out and eat 600 calories,” you could easily end up gaining, not losing weight, Rebold says. The more your class, elliptical, or fitness tracker overestimated your caloric expenditure—and the more you depend on those numbers to determine what you do and don’t eat—the more you stand to sabotage your own efforts.

So instead of relying on a likely-inaccurate number to tell you how much you can eat, trust your body’s built-in calorie counter: your hunger cues, recommends Denver-based registered dietitian Kendra Glassman, R.D.

On a scale of one to 10, with one being absolutely starved and 10 being what Glassman calls “Thanksgiving-dinner-full,” eat when you reach a three or four (you feel a tinge of hunger), and stop when you’re at a six (comfortably full).

Personal Trainer Wisdom: Over the last 12 years, I’ve seen personal training clients practically kill themselves to burn as many calories as possible. They wanted to sweat off the weight loss. Unfortunately, you can’t avoid the one thing you need to change the most: Your diet. Believe me when I say that you don’t need to exercise to lose weight (although we need to move daily for optimal health). I chose this article to steer your focus away from unrealistic fitness measures and technological gimmicks. If you’re truly worried about your calories, count your dietary calories instead. If you’re not interested, you may want to reflect on the reasons why.

Photo Credit:
Sciencenews.com–Is weight loss bigger than the number of calories you burn while running?