Diet and fitness tips for men

1. Focus your brain.
Sticking to a healthy lifestyle is 90% mental and 10% physical. If you can train your mind to stay on track, you will be successful with your healthy transformation. Set realistic goals and stay focused on them. It may be hard at first, but after a short time, you will become a fitness addict. Trust me on this one.

2. Make a new habit
Habits are hard to break, so make exercise your new habit. Doing your exercise routine around the same time every day will help ingrain your new habit into your brain. Remember, healthy lifestyle is 90% mental...so this is important.

3. Set realistic goals.
Make small changes in your diet and exercise at a time. Don't make drastic changes or you will set yourself up for failure. Set simple goals that are very easy to obtain. It is far better to reach several small goals than it is to fail at a few large goals.

4. Do not diet!
Diets will only work in the short run. You want lasting results that come from a complete lifestyle change, not from a couple months of "dieting".

5. Don't eat crap.
You know exactly what I'm talking about here. Stop putting things in your mouth that are not good for you! Stop eating fast food, candy, sugary deserts, processed snack foods and especially sugar soft drinks. If you consume a large amount of these types of foods, you may find this step difficult....you must view these kinds of food as poison.

6. Fruits and vegetables are your friend.
Eat plenty of these and you'll make your mother proud. You will also make your body happy because it prefers the natural sugars in fruits and vegetables over the processed sugar in mass produced snack foods.

7. Be careful about cutting carbs.
You can lose weight fast by cutting carbs from your diet...but be careful! Your body needs some carbs to stay healthy. Replace most of your "white carbs" (white bread, white rice, potatoes, pasta) with whole grain equivalents. Cutting back is fine, but don't cut back too much or eliminate them from your diet.

8. Do it with a friend.
Working out with a friend makes exercise more fun because you can motivate each other on your journey to look better and feel better! It also helps to have a workout buddy who is in better shape than you.

9. Get informed.
Before starting an exercise program, it's best to educate yourself on your program or routine. The guidance of a professional fitness trainer or dietician can give you an extra motivational boost. If you can't afford to shell out the bucks for a live trainer, get your info the free way....plenty of information on the web or you can actually (gasp!) crack open a book.

10. Drink water!
...and lots of it...especially after exercise. The extra water intake will help your body flush the toxins out and also helps to curb your appetite.

11. Hang in there.
Depending on the shape you are in when you begin your healthy transformation, you may have a long way to go. Be patient and don't give up. Take a "before" picture of yourself so you can make a comparison and see your awesome results. This will motivate you even more.

11 Fitness tips to get you on your way to looking good and feeling better.