Good Snack Choices to Boost Metabolism

The key to losing weight is to raise your metabolism to a higher level and keep it up there all day. This is done by eating small meals throughout the day, not just breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Think of your metabolism as a fire. When you eat your fire burns, when the fire starts to burn down fuel is needed to keep the fire burning. The type of fuel is key to a long burning fire. Paper and cardboard will burn hot and fast but not for long. Oak logs burn slow, hot and for a long time. Think of carbohydrates and sugars as paper and cardboard and protein as the oak logs.

If you start the day with a bagel with cream cheese, your metabolism spikes and then starts to drop quickly. Lunch comes and its a fast food lunch and you spike up again, only to drop back down until dinner where it will spike again until bed time. If you start your fire with paper and cardboard it wont burn long enough to do anything and once it burns out, its that much harder to start the fire burning again. You want to eat small meals throughout the day, adding protein fuel to your metabolism fire and keep it burning high, hot and all day long.

Target, FAT!

I think we all want to believe there is a secret to weight loss. With so many different companies claiming that pill X or solution Y will solve all your problems with their simple solution, you start to believe that its true.

The ones that really get me is the ones that target specific areas. "Lose Belly Fat Now!" ""Removes Fat From Thighs!" " Eat This Food and Burn That Specific Body Fat!" Claims like these and many others that make the statement that their solution will remove fat from a specific area of the body, unless its a doctor performing liposuction, are a fabrication.

While its true that there are foods that will help boost and raise your metabolism, they don't target a specific area of the body. I mean, how does the food know where the fat is? It doesn't, the raised metabolism is what is burning the saved calories throughout the body as a whole. The same is true of all those metabolism boosting pills and capsules you can purchase to "Burn Off The Pounds!"

On the same line of thinking, there is no magic exercise that targets belly fat or thunder thighs or even man boobs. Regular cardiovascular exercise combined with a healthy balanced diet, with the correct sized portions, with your daily total intake of calories below 2000 for most guys, will burn the stored fat. Period.

Face it, It takes hard work, dedication, will power and real effort to lose weight consistently over time. Time is the other thing it takes. The weight didn't get there overnight so don't expect to lose it overnight either.

The bottom line it that there is no quick and simple solution to losing fat. Accept that you will have to put in some work and get started!

Gadgets! - Endomondo Pro tracker app

The Endomondo tracking app for your smart phone is one of the best apps I've tried to keep track of how many miles and calories I've burned on a walk or bike ride.

Its a GPS tracking app so you need to make sure the GPS is enabled on your smart phone to get all the data needed to track your workouts. You choose from a wide range of workouts from walking, running, biking to kite surfing, really too many to list here. You let the GPS locate you, then start your workout. There's even a count down to give you a few seconds before you start your workout. The app will chime in once you hit the 1 mile mark with the time it took to get there. It will update you if you are doing laps with your split time too.

Awesome Dry Rub

This is my "Go To" rub when ever I am grilling anything. Hamburgers, Pork Chops, Country Style Ribs, Chicken, you name it, I've used this rub on it.

After a few mixes and trial runs over the years I came up with this mixture. I suggest using fresh spices for the best flavor. If its been in your pantry for over a year, throw it out and go shopping.

• 1 tbl granulated sugar
• 1 tbl brown sugar
• 1 tbl garlic powder
• 1 tbl black pepper
• 1 tbl cumin
• 2 tbl chili powder
• 2 tbl cayenne pepper
• 2 tbl paprika
• 2 tbl curry powder
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Mix everything completely and pour into a shaker bottle. You can use one of those empty glass spice containers that you just emptied from your pantry. Just shake it liberally on your favorite grilling meat, rub it into the meat, let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and then grill it to perfection.

Shake a little more on as you cook for a little more flavor.