What everyone is probably most interested in, and the best place to start is how I dropped nearly 40lbs in 3 months. The place I started and single best thing I did was buy a book called: The Abs Diet!

This book is loaded with information on why foods are bad or good for you, proper eating habits (not dieting as the title implies), exercise descriptions, and basic workouts. Check it out at Amazon. (There’s a women’s version too)

Your body is a machine. Whatever you put into it, must come out either as a waste, or as energy burned. If there is more than your body can burn or get rid of, it is stored as fat. That’s why I’ll break it down into 2 basic categories: The Food and The Workout.

The Food
Let’s be honest, humans have been living healthily long before we invented protein shakes, bars, diet pills. Before we “discovered” carbs, people ate them all the time with no ill effect! So here it is, the very basics:

• Lean meats only (chicken, turkey, fish)
• Low fat milk and only low fat dairy
• Vegetables, lots of them
• Fruits, again lots
• Grains, be sure it says “whole grain” or skip it
• 6 small meals, breakfast should be the largest
• No food 2 hours before bedtime
• Document EVERYTHING you eat for two weeks (helps later on)

Try and stick to ~2000-2500 calories daily, but what’s more important is that you understand which foods are truly healthy, and what the proper portions of them are. (HINT: Read the label, buy a food scale) I’ll post more in depth about this topic later.

The Workout
1000’s of workouts exist out there, all based on differing theories and aimed for different results. This one is geared towards beginners, and should have you in and out of the gym in less than 1 hour.

Week 1: 12 complete movements of each exercise (reps). No resting between exercises. Twice through the whole list (sets). 2 minutes rest between the two sets.
• Machine squats / Leg press
• Machine bench press
• Upright row
• Overhead machine press
• Pull downs
• Leg extension
• Bicep Curl
• Lying Leg press