Ever wonder how you can add small tricks to your home to keep you and your family from chowing down? Well these tips below will make you laugh but also make you realize how easy it is to keep you from keep eating constantly throughout meals.

1. Hang a mirror. Hanging a mirror by your dinner table will keep people from over eating. No one likes how they look when they’re shoving food down their mouth, so this keeps everyone from just eating a portional size and not over eating.
2. Rearrange your closet. Hanging a form-fitting piece of clothing in the front of your closet or on the door will be a daily reminder of why you want to get in shape and be healthy. It will keep you motivated to get that sexy body to wear that black sexy dress or that suit you’ve been dying to fit into.
3. Move your TV out of the bedroom. Research shows that people lost more weight when they had fewer TVs in their homes, including intheir bedroom. It makes them get up and do activities that make you walk around instead of staying in bed and watching Oprah. With no TV, it even can make you do cleaning, which also burns over 200 calories an hour!
4. Keep the extras away. Keeping the servising dishes several feet away from you, for exampple, on the counter or the island, you could end up eating 20% less than you would if it was on the table because there is a higher percentage that you won’t be getting up and getting seconds because you’ll realize your actually full before you have time to go in the aother room and get more potatoes.

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Maximize your fat loss with these cardio tips!

1. Run hungry! Remember this, when you exercise your body will burn sugar as a fuel source FIRST, and then resort to fat burning if you are doing aerobic exercise. When you first wake up your blood sugar levels are naturally lower, so if you do your cardio BEFORE you eat and replenish those blood sugar levels, your body will turn to burning fat. This of course means running off more body fat than you would if you ate before you ran.
2. Interval training is the way to run. Not only is this the best way to burn fat but it’s also the best way to improve your aerobic fitness and stamina. Alternating a brisk walk and a fast jog every two minutes for thirty minutes will increase your metabolism and burn more fat.
3. After Cardio Burn! If your cardio session is at least 45 minutes, your metabolic rate will continue to burn those calories faster for up to 12 hours after that workout session.

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Need a reason to exercise? Well how about it fights off a ton of diseases that can cause lots of harm and even shorten your life span. 64% of men and 72% of women fail to fit in activity into their weekly schedule and that is why there are so many diseases that have come about. With the invention and increase of fast food and unhealthy food and the decrease in people exercising, it seems like someone you know or more have a disease. Well Exercise changes that. They fight these unwanted viruses and keep your immune system fighting whatever is not wanted in that wonderful body of yours.

1. Heart Disease. Regular activity strengthens your heart muscle, lowers blood pressure, increase HDLS (the good cholesterol) and lowers LDLs (the bad cholesterol). Remember, the heart is a muscle and needs a workout too!
2. Stroke. Researchers found that being active reduces your risk of having and dying from a stroke. A study showed in the magazine “Stroke” that people who exercise had 20% less risk of stroke than the ones who were less active.
3. Type II Diabetes. The US is the number one leader in this category of the amount of citizens with this type of diabetes. Type II Diabetes has increase by 62% since 1990 and now 17 million Americans have it. Exercise can enhance weight low and help control this condition along with reducing blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which all help cause type II diabetes.
4. Obesity. Overweight and obese conditions can be prevented with exercise and a healthy diet. Doing those two things will help reduce body fat and increase muscle mass, which help improve body’s ability to burn calories. The combination of reduced calories and daily exercise will be the ticket to the weight loss and controlling weight gain.
5. Back Pain. Back pain can be reduced or prevented with a fitness program that involves muscle strengthening and flexibility. Doing both of these will help strengthen your back muscles and reduce that unwanted back pain.

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Got willpower? How on earth do you beat the sweet tooth cravings and show your stomach who’s boss? Ironically enough, you’ve got to eat! A craving is like a little devil, constantly encouraging you to overindulge, and dieting only turns up the pressure. The reason: Cravings are all about blood sugar. If your levels stay consistent through the day, your eating patterns will too. It’s when you starve yourself for hours that cravings call.

Try the following 5 willpower tips to curb the urge to crunch on chips and candy and keep working toward a lean, strong body!

1. Eat less sugar and refined carbs during the day. The less sugar you eat, the less insulin our body releases–and the less sugar you end up wanting.
2. Brush your teeth or use a mouthwash after your meal. Or pop some sugar-free mints. Studies show that the flavor of mint helps to curb an errant sweet tooth.
3. Stock up on low-calorie, sugar-free options: such as sugar-free Popsicles, Fudgsicles, pudding, or gelatin packs.
4. Try some fruit. It’s sweet, but also packed with vitamins and fiber.
5. Grab a portion-controlled treat. If you must have something sweet, keep it small. This way, you get your sugar fix with the fewest number of calories possible.

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Games are always fun, so try some with your eyes. Using smaller plates with smaller portions makes it look like you are eating just as much as you would if you had a regular sized plate. Tricks like these make losing that weight easier. Staying positive and following little tips that make a big difference can really turn that scale around!

1. Move on your lunch hour. A brisk 15 minute walk burn about 100 calories, then it gives you less time to eat. Doing this five days a week, it burns an extra 500 calories then sitting around, and end up eating more than you had planned during your lunch hour.
2. Use smaller plates. Instead of cutting the amount of food you eat, using smaller plates and using smaller portions gives you the visual that your still eating a lot when you really aren’t. It’s a little eye mind trick.
3. Wait to have seconds. Once your finished round one, you might want to go right back for round two, but wait twenty or thirty minutes, this allows your stomach to start feeling full because the food finally has reached your stomach.
4. Tricking your sweet buds. Instead of peach cobbler, try something just as tasty, but ten times healthier. Make a fruit kebab with peach and banana and apple. Brush honey onto each piece and grill for about 4 minutes on each side. sprinkle some cinnamon on it, and the sweetness and deliciousness will surprise you and leave you wanting more.
5. Swap oil for applesauce. When baking, use applesauce instead of oil. Two tablespoons of oil is about 200 calories, 4 tablespoons of applesauce is only 40. Double the applesauce to oil ration when using it in baking recipes but applesauce has the same effect!

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We all love that salt and crunch factor along with carbs. Of course, they add to our calorie count which adds to our belly fat. An easy trick is swapping out foods. These cut calories which in turn cut that belly fat you’ve been working so hard to get rid of.

1. Spinach for Iceberg Lettuce . Spinach is full of iron and fiber that iceberg lacks. Research shows adults who have higher levels of folate lost more than 8 times more weight than a person on a low-cal diet.
2. Nuts and Seeds for Pretzels. Instead of pretzels, use your nuts and seeds as your crunchy snack. Nuts are loaded with MUFAs (monounsaturated fats…the good fats). Research shows that people who eat two or more servings of these a week are less likely to gain weight, and if the weight is off, is less likely to gain that weight back!
3. Yogurt for Sour Cream Yogurt is still the sour taste you need when making your veggie dip, but it has less fat and less calories, but is packed with calcium that helps make your bones strong.
4. Dark Chocolate for Milk Chocolate. A small bar of dark chocolate contains fat-fighting MUFAs. Plus, since dark chocolate is richer, you tend to consume less of it!
5. Sliced Zucchini for Lasagna Noodles. Using zucchini or eggplant instead of noodles can hide the fact your eating veggies, while decreasing the number of calories and carbs you intake.

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Would you be willing to sacrifice 1 year of your life if you could magically be guaranteed a ‘perfect’ body for the rest of your life? How about 5, 10, or even 20 years of your life? Tune in Tuesday night at 11 p.m. to 19 Action News’s Jen Picciano as she reveals the shocking (and revealing) results of a survey that polled women right here at Fitness Edge in Lakewood, as well as around the nation. What would you be willing to sacrifice for the ideal body? Post your answers down below in the comments box!

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How To Sleep Like a Baby

Sleep is crucial for your health, well being and quality of life.

Yet, if you’re like so many millions of Americans, you’re simply not getting enough… That’s dangerous because it effects your mood, health and day to day performance.

With that in mind, here’s how to sleep like a baby every single night – boosting your energy, health and quality of life…

1. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Your biological clock likes routine, and is very sensitive to change. So make sure you pick times and stick to them. Now the only catch is you can’t sleep in on the weekends… But what’s the point in sleeping in and missing half of the weekend you’ve looked so forward to all week anyway? Get up early on Saturday for a change and enjoy the best part of the day.

2. Be more active and workout! Instead of lying in your bed for an hour every night trying to sleep, wasting time, spend that hour working out during the day instead. You’ll burn away all that excess energy that keeps you awake, get in great shape and not have to spend the night tossing and turning anymore. Warning: Don’t work out close to bed time though, because you can wake your body up even more.

3. Don’t take sleeping pills. It scares me how drugged up the nation can be sometimes. I strongly disagree with taking sleeping pills. The key is to learn how to fall into a relaxing, natural sleep. By taking pills your body never learns that, and becomes drug dependent. This makes it even harder to fall asleep when you come off the pills.

4. Avoid coffee, tea or soft drinks in the evening.  Anything with caffeine in it is going to keep you awake longer than you need to be. Cut consumption AT LEAST 3 hours before bedtime.

5. Keep your bedroom temperature cool and consistent. I think everyone can relate to long, sweaty, summer nights… The warmer it is the harder it is for your body to “shut down” and get into sleep mode. There’s no exact temperature I can recommend, just try experimenting and find what works best for you.

Sleeping really is a health essential so USE these tips and make sure you’re getting enough!

What’s the biggest challenge you face with getting enough sleep? Drop us a line down below and we’ll try and address the most common issues in a future post!

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