Here are 10 simple tips you can use for weight loss and fitness
1. Two quick and easy ways to cut extra calories from your diet yet still satisfy your sweet tooth: Drink Diet soda or Crytal Light and eat Sugar-Free Jello gelatin. These are two small changes you can make that will reduce calories but will not make you feel deprived.

2. To quote John Beecher, "Strength is a matter of the made-up mind." Is your mind made up that you are going to start and stick with a weight loss plan or is this going to be like other attempts where you give up at the first sign of failure?

3. Make changes in your diet gradually. The body doesn't like quick, shocking changes in anything. It's like going from a freezing room to a very hot room. We need time to gradually acclimate.

The same is true with changing our eating habits. First, if you eat junk food all the time, try to reduce it to a couple days, then to just one day. Gradual reductions are more long lasting.

4. One reason people overeat is because they are overstressed. Getting rid of tension in a positive way will help keep you from eating because of increased tension and stress.

Take a walk, participate in a yoga class, hit the punching bag, lift some weights. Find a way to relieve some tension and you may find you also relieve your appetite.

5. Stay away from products or services that sound too good to be true. The health and fitness industry is a 40 billion dollar a year industry and many companies that are selling bogus products are thriving.

They target people's emotions by luring them into believe that by taking their products, there will be magical results. Just think, if something was truly that good, wouldn't everyone already know about it and be taking it?

6. You must have the desire to change your body from where it is now. Without desire, you are setting yourself up for failure. You must want your goal bad enough that you are willing to endure some short-term pain to receive these goals.

Link pleasure to working out and pain to missing workouts. You must condition your mind. Stop talking yourself out of going to the gym and start talking yourself into it.

7. During the first couple weeks of an exercise program, you will notice that your scale weight either doesn't change or it may go up a bit. Throw the scale out the window, it doesn't distinguish between fat and muscle, so when you initially gain a bit of muscle at the start, the scale weight will go up. That's a good thing. Over time the scale weight WILL go down.

8. Most people do not like to calorie count, me included. But in order to properly lose body fat, you need to determine your daily energy expenditure or caloric maintenance level.

You then need to reduce your energy consumption to be below your energy output. It's difficult to place a number on how much below your consumption you should go, because everyone is different. A good place to start would be 150-200 calories below your maintenance levels.

Then continue to observe the effects in the mirror to determine if this number needs to be changed.

If you continue to see no results, try reducing your energy consumption to 300 calories below your energy output.

9. Alcoholic beverages are high in calories and low in nutrients. Alcohol increases the body's need for Vitamin B, which is used to metabolize it. At the same time, it impairs the body's ability to use these and other nutrients.

One or two standard-size drinks once in a while will cause no harm in normal, healthy, non-pregnant adults. However, those looking for ways to cut out additional calories to help in their weight loss efforts will be better off reducing their alcohol intake even further.

10. Whatever challenges you face, focus on the future rather than on the past. Instead of worrying about what you failed to accomplish last year, focus on where you want to be and what you want to do. Get a clear mental image of your ideal successful future, and then take whatever action you can to begin moving in that direction. Get your mind, your thoughts, and your mental images on the future.

About the Author

Shawn LeBrun is one of the internet's most publised fitness and weight loss coaches. Visit his site to see how he can make this the year you achieve your best body ever!