ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER MONTH, ANOTHER YEAR

Ok the summer is over and you have put it off another year. In all things a person must establish a certain level of commitment in working out there is many opportunities for success on so many different levels.

The unmotivated, the weak, the ones that always make an excuse as to why they can't make it to the gym, I have found out that we make time for the things that we want to do.

Look motivation is the key to anything in life. I know it is not easy and yes it hurts but if it was easy everyone would do it. That is what separates you form the rest. The heart, the drive and lets not forget the DESIRE, DISCIPLINE AND THE DETERMINATION to reach your goal.

In the last article we talk about how important it is to drink water. Now it is time to tell you how important it is to make sure you eat and not skip meals.

Meal frequency (the number of meal you eat each day) could be the most important aspect of your nutrition program. If you do this right you will burn fat, build muscle, and with a regular training program you will be heading in the right direction to the body of your dreams.

It takes motivation, persistence, planning, and a little bit of sacrifice. As I've stated before, nothing worth achieving comes easy. Don't get it wrong it is not easy. Eat six meals a day. No excuses, no exception, just do it because you know it is an important part of reaching your goals and building the body that you want.

Eating six (6) proper meals a day takes work it take a time commitment, among other sacrifices. It takes time to make the meals and time to eat them. It also involves other aspects of your life. For example socializing, going shopping, and watching sports on the weekends.

You need to plan ahead. This means shopping and then cooking most of your food once or twice a week, putting your meals in a microwaveable container and carrying your meals around with you.

You are going to have to ignore comments from friends and family. Most of our social events center on food such as cookouts, thanksgiving, Christmas and so on. Sure, you may be able to eat some of the food available but you need to be prepared just in case.

Now this may also require you turning down the food offered and pulling out a protein bar or a meal that you brought with you. Now you will have to deal with the comments and questions, usually negative that will arise. Just stay focus on your goals.

Now let's talk about what eating six meals a day will do for you. Our bodies have become very efficient at storing excess calories. Especially since those calories are stored in body fat.

One reason for eating six meals a day! There are three things that can lead our bodies to storing calories as fat. One would be to consume a very large meal. This alerts our body to the fact that this could be our last meal for a long time, so we better preserve as many calories as we can (body fat, of course) just in case out next meal doesn't come for a long time.

The next reason is going too long between meals. This kicks in our bodies "starvation" mode and it stores calories as fat because it does not know when it will be getting its next meal.

The third reason would be a sudden and severe restriction in daily calorie consumption. Just like going too long between meals, this kicks the "starvation" mode into action, causing the storage of body fat.

What do most people do when they decide to lose weight and go on a diet? They severely restrict calories as well as going a long time between each meal. This may work at first but eventually causes the exact opposite results that they are looking to accomplish. Their metabolism slows down and they tart storing fat, even on so few calories intake a day.

Now most people who diet don't add weight training to their program and you have a real disaster waiting to happen. Without adding weight training about half of the weight lost will be muscle, not fat, which slows down your metabolism even more.

Note: if you restrict your calories too severely, even if your are weight training, a percentage of your weight lost will be muscle, as your body doesn't have enough calories to sustain the muscle it has, let alone to build new muscle.

This also goes for going too long between meals. If your body goes too long between meals, not getting the necessary calories, protein, and other nutrients, it goes into a catabolic state. In other words, it starts eating your muscle for energy. This would slow down your metabolism, leading to the storage of more body fat.

Anyone who severely restricts calories and goes a long time between meals will hit upon the first reason - eating excessively large meals, otherwise known as binging. Most of these calories will go straight to being stored as body fat.

Now how do you avoid these mistakes? You eat smaller, more frequent meals. If you eat every two to three hours, always having a prepared nutritious meal, shake or bar handy, you are much less likely to binge.

Not severely restricting calories and adding weight training, you will lose body fat, not muscle, thereby not only preventing your metabolism form slowing down, but also speeding up your metabolism due to the added muscle from the weight training.