Trying to achieve fat loss in 30 days is not impossible but you have to be flexible enough to follow the right combination of meal planning and workouts to be successful. The idea is not to kill yourself with dehydration or starvation methods and you want to avoid overtraining and plateau issues by doing endless hours of exercise. What you want to do is set an attainable goal for your total fat loss in your 30 day window. Losing 50 pounds of fat in a month is simply not going to happen so don’t set your goals to that extreme. A 5-10 pound loss in 30 days is normal (2-3 pounds per week). Try to implement healthy lifestyle changes during the 30 days in order to continue your healthy choices for a longer period of time. Things such as learning how to eat on a consistent basis (every 2-3 hours) along with learning how to balance clean eating with a little bit of pleasure (cheat meals) during the week is important. Having a little fun once in a while helps to avoid feelings of deprivation which can lead to falling off track and bingeing on unhealthy junk food.
If you want to successfully lose fat in 30 days then of course for that period of time you want to drop certain high calorie food items and you will also need to increase your exercise output in order to reach your goals. Once you attain your fat loss goals and hit a maintenance level you can then enjoy some sugar and other “treat” foods but not too much because you want to avoid gaining all of the weight back especially since you worked so hard to get it off.
The questions you should be asking yourself include why you want to lose the weight, what keeps you motivated and why you want to be in control and accountable for your body. During your 30 day fat loss program, you must figure these things out slowly as you piece together meal planning, shopping, exercise and then schedule everything within your hectic life of school, kids and work. You need to find what works specifically for you and then apply it.
Your food choices should be pretty basic. Stick with fresh produce and lean protein foods. Try to avoid any type of processed foods that contain ingredients on the nutritional label that you don’t understand or can’t pronounce. Try sticking to nutrient dense whole foods (veggies, fruits, lean meats) and see how you feel and look. You may find that your palate gets cleansed so that by day 30 you don’t even want to eat some of those unhealthy, processed junk foods you had previously been eating.
Concentrate a large portion of your main meals around dark greens and dark leafy green veggies such as kale, broccoli and green beans. Any type of fibrous vegetables are perfect to include in your 30 day fat loss diet and make sure you prepare them by steaming, boiling or eating them raw.
Next, focus on lean proteins and cook them in a healthy manner. Add a small portion of starchy carbs to your meals such as peas, squash, dark rice, ancient grains and tubers. This is a great selection of metabolism boosting foods which will help with your fat loss goals and keep you filled up and satisfied with wonderful nutrients.
Let’s now move onto your workouts. Exercises that promote higher levels of fat loss include both cardio and weight training. Sprints, jumping rope and running stairs are excellent for burning lots of calories and fat. For strength training, choose compound exercises like bench press, squats and deadlifts to build lean muscle mass which is the key for increasing your metabolism and burning body fat. Keep your rest periods short or use circuit training while keeping the intensity up to boost the calorie burning effect even further.
Water is absolutely crucial and helps to flush toxins out of the body while helping increase the fat burning process. Water is not the only essential liquid though, so remember to include omega-3 fatty acids with flaxseed oil and Udo’s Oil. Implement important items that contain healthy fat including olive oil, coconut oil, and fish oil. Use a moderate amount when cooking with them and you can also drizzle them onto salads and other foods.
It’s also important to keep a fitness journal of your training information and workouts so you can track how you’re doing and monitor your results. Just make sure to document important details like the number of reps, sets along with the weight used for each exercise and other important details like how you feel and look. This may be the most important part of your 30 day fat loss challenge since you can go back to the information at any time and learn what you did right and especially what you did wrong!
