I am going into my senior year of college, and I decided I wanted to trim down a few pounds to look good for next year. I’m not a huge fan of running, but I know it works when you need it to and keep it up regularly.

I currently work at a very popular Mexican restaurant and am tempted daily with the food I am surrounded by. Since I work almost 40 hours I have struggled to get to the gym on a consistent basis. I figured the first step I could take to looking and feeling the way I want is by eating more healthfully. Yogurt, cheese sticks, nutri-grain bars and some fruit are what I’ve been eating for breakfast. Eating breakfast is extremely key because it gets your metabolism working for the day. This helps me because I primarily work in the morning, and we take our lunch break an hour before our store opens since we open a little late. Everyone eats the food in the store. Instead of getting a burrito bowl (you figure out where I work yet?), since I’ve already eaten breakfast I can get some chips and tomato salsa or get a small cheese quesadilla with a little bit of chicken on it. On top of that, drinking some water to wash it down helps ensure that I stay full.

I also decided to buy some healthy snacks to munch on in between meals. Cheese-its or some type of cracker will do. Some fruit cups or applesauce and even some fig newtons would be a good snack to have if you get a little hungry. Then for dinner salad or some sort of green is always best to have with your meal. Some chicken or a little bit of meat with some rice and some water is actually quite tasty if you add the right seasonings in moderation.

If you take everything that I’ve done in the past month plus WALK! You could lose 3 inches around your waist and get a little bit of toning like I did! I didn’t realize it till I noticed how many inches I lost, but a nice brisk walk in the city isn’t half bad. It is still working out and you’re getting to where you need to go at the same time!

We all know that what you eat affects your athletic performance. It seems like common knowledge that eating a diet based on potato chips and soda is not going to get you very far– although I have seen an athlete win medals on a Pop-Tart and chocolate milk diet. It is important to fuel your body with the right fuels.

Carbohydrates are the best source of fuel. Foods high in carbohydrates and low in fat are going to be your best friend. Your body stores excess carbohydrates as glycogen, and this is what your muscles use when energy is needed. Some great sources of carbohydrates are cereals, breads, vegetables, pasta, rice and fruit. If you do not like to get your carbohydrates from food, you also can drink your carbohydrates in sports beverages or fruit juices before you exercise.

People always say that you should consume proteins to build your muscles. Well, although this is true, you do not have to have a diet that is heavy in protein. Protein is not your body’s food of choice for fueling exercise, but you do need it to for muscle repair and growth. Some good sources of protein are meat, dairy products, and nuts.

Fats are good, too! Fats can be a source of fuel for your muscles during your exercises. The best type of fat comes from unsaturated fats from foods such as vegetable oils, nuts, and fatty fish. Just make sure that you only eat these foods after or well before you exercise.

You should learn to stay away from foods high in fiber and fructose right before an intense workout, as they probably will cause some problems. Why? Well, foods containing a lot of fiber, such as beans and lentils, bran cereals and fruit, could cause gas or cramping while fructose can increase the tendency for diarrhea with high-intensity exercise.

Foods are an important part of your diet if you are an athlete. Without the right foods, you make be weak and not live up to your full potential.

After a muscle burning and heart pounding workout, what should you be reaching into your fridge for, as you stand there, drenched with sweat? The answer is simple–chocolate milk.

While some people drink water to hydrate themselves and to keep their muscles from cramping, others turn to sports drinks, such as Powerade or Gatorade to hydrate and replenish electrolytes. However, a key to becoming a stronger and healthier person is to eat protein after you exercise to help  you recover and be more effective with your workout. Protein is needed to rebuild muscles that are torn down during exercises, so it is essential that one obtains the right amount of protein. One way to do this is via chocolate milk!

Chocolate milk is not only good for its source of protein. For instance, a sports nutritional specialist from Pennsylvania named Althea Zanecosky once stated that chocolate milk is one of the best drinks to consume after exercising because ”You get protein to rebuild muscle. You get carbs to refuel muscle. You get lots of liquid to rehydrate, but you also get the minerals to help you rehydrate.” If one compares it to plain milk, water, or a sports drink, such as Powerade, one will see that chocolate milk has double the carbohydrate and protein content. It also has a  high water content that will replace fluids lost as sweat. Of course, one other bonus to remember is that it is a source of calcium and also contains a little bit of sodium and sugar.

Of course, a lot of people do not want to drink milk after they exercise, especially chocolate milk, because they are running to lose calories. They think that drinking chocolate milk will defeat the purpose of exercising. Yes, chocolate milk contains more sugar, but there are low fat or fat-free options available that will work as well. However, the sugar is good for you to some degree because it will help your body refuel from the exercises performed.

This childhood favorite just may become your new favorite sports drink!

For more information on other tasty pre- and post-workout food items, read Save Money on Supplements.

The most basic building block of any diet is the calories that you consume.  Our body weight goals can be reached by regulating the calories we consume daily.

Calories obviously are needed to make our bodies function.  Every body type and person vary in the quantity of calories they need to consume daily.  Calorie consumption is imperative when attempting to maintain, gain or lose weight.  In fact, there is not a single one of you that does not fit one of those three categories.

The three ways we ingest calories are from protein, carbohydrates, and fats.  Proteins and carbohydrates each provide 4 calories per gram.  Fats more than double that with 9 calories per gram.  This is very important to know when planning your diet and while monitoring your calorie intake.

Now you need to discover how many calories that you need on a daily basis.  The national average for females is 2000 calories per day. However, each woman has a different need.  To get a more personalized count use the formulas below, but remember this is only a guide:

The first is to determine your Basal Metabolic Rate.  This formula tells you how many calories you need based on your height, weight and age.

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )

The next formula will help you take it a step further and give an even better estimate based on your activity level.  This requires the use of the Harris Benedict Equation.

Sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

Knowing what a calorie is and how many you need is only the beginning.  You now need to determine your goals of maintaining, gaining or losing weight.  Working your diet to meet your health and fitness goals will expedite your results.

According to my dad, my grandparents walked uphill, both ways, through twelve feet of snow, with only one pant leg and no shoes.  This was only their journey to school each day.  No wonder they were also able to inhale a pound of bacon and never worry about calories.

I am certain my sweet grandmother never chased Native Americans from her land with a rifle.  I do believe older generations needed to work harder to get anything done.  They washed clothes in a washtub and scrubbed each article by hand.  Lawnmowers weren’t motorized.  My dad remembers shoveling snow from the street because there were no plows.

This probably explains why they never had to watch their caloric intake and obesity was not a major issue.  Just to make it each day burned thousands of calories without even climbing onto the elliptical.  Today with all of our fancy appliances and running water, we expend less energy to get by.

First off, I will cover the obvious stuff we have heard before, and then I will cover something which may be new to you.  Park farther away from the store.  Take the stairs each afternoon instead of the elevator.  Walk your dog once a day instead of letting him run loose in the fence.

All of those things are obvious ways to burn more calories, and you are going to  ignore each of them completely the first time you are running late.  It will start to become effort, and you will cave in to the inner peer pressure.

Here is a sure fire way to burn some extra calories without much of a commitment.  Pick an exercise you are good at because we like to do things are good at.  Then say you will do this exercise every time you do something common throughout your day.  For example, every time you get up from the couch, you do ten push-ups.  Get a chin-up bar for the bedroom, and do five each time you enter.

Adding small things like this will burn more energy.  Imagine your story…”I used to do five pullups just to get into bed!”