Ashley Kalym - Toned: A simple and effective guide to losing weight and getting toned

Toned

This book is your indispensable guide to getting toned and burning fat. Whatever your reason for losing weight, Toned will show you the simplest and most efficient way possible, whilst promoting your health and fitness in the process. No fads, no gimmicks, and no outdated methods. Just concise information designed to get you toned!

Copyright 2012 Ashley Kalym

All rights reserved. No portion of this book, whether in print or electronic format, may be duplicated or transmitted without written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesnt lead anywhere

Frank A. Clark

Hello, and welcome to Toned. The aim of writing this book was to cut through the mass of information out there with regards to fat burning, weight loss, toning up, and exercise in general. This book is a concise, effective guide to getting toned.

If you ask most women if they want to lose weight, the vast majority will say "yes". Even those of us who exercise regularly want to reduce the amount of body fat we have, and everybody wants that toned and beach ready look. However, most people will never reach their goal or target weight because they have no idea how to go about it, or are confused by the sheer amount of information out there. I am sure that you have seen the thousands of books and magazines on diet, health, fitness, and weight loss that are available.

So, what makes this book different from any of the other diet and fitness books out there? Well, for one thing I will not sugar coat things for you. I will say now that there are no shortcuts, no magic pills, no secrets, and no easy ways to burn fat. It will be difficult, it will be challenging, but if you want results then you have to be prepared to make some sacrifices and you have to be prepared to push yourself. If you are not willing to get outside of your comfort zone then it is very unlikely that you will ever see results.

Getting toned, losing weight, or burning fat can all be thought of as the same thing. If you wish to get toned, then what you really mean is that you wish to reduce the amount of body fat you have. Body fat is the layer of fat underneath the skin, which covers your muscle. If you want to look toned, then you must reduce the amount of body fat that you have.

Reducing your body fat relies on getting three things right. These are attitude, nutrition, and exercise. These make up what I call the Fat Burning Pyramid . We will look at this concept in the next chapter.

Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now

JonotanMartensson

In order to get toned and burn fat there are three things that we must get right:

1. Attitude

2. Nutrition

3. Exercise

These can be arranged into what I call the Fat Burning Pyramid. As long as you pay attention to all three areas, you WILL get toned! Neglecting one area of the pyramid will still get you results, but all three together combine to give you amazing results!

1. Attitude

Your attitude is the most important of all three factors to master. Your mind controls what you do at all times, and this extends to what you eat and how much effort you put into your workouts. This could also be thought of as your mind-set or behaviour. In order to lose weight you must have a good attitude.

2. Nutrition

Nutrition will account for as much as 70% to 80% of your results. This is for many important reasons that are explained in the nutrition chapter. Despite what you may have been led to believe by the media, books, television, etc., good nutrition and diet is actually very simple. I will explain exactly what to eat, and the reasons why it will help you to lose weight.

3. Exercise

Exercise is very important for a number of reasons. It helps to maintain and develop muscle mass, directly affecting your metabolic rate, which equates to the amount of energy you can consume without putting on any weight. It also gives your body and muscles their shape and tone. We will look at fat burning exercises, fat burning circuits, and how to use commercial gym machines to get toned in the later chapters.

Many of lifes failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up

Thomas Edison

This section of the book will look at the most important part of the Fat Burning Pyramid, which is attitude. You must have a positive outlook on your training, goals, nutrition, and all of the other small details that will make your weight loss successful. Without a good attitude you will find it very difficult to eat properly, you will find it very difficult to make time for exercise, and you will not get the results you want.

The mind can and will control all urges and cravings for energy rich food, which is the thing that we must fight against if we want to lose weight. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors did not know where their next meal was coming from. They would have had to catch, hunt, fish, and gather everything that they ate. Sweet and fatty foodstuffs were very rare to come by. Because of this, whenever they came across anything that was edible, they ate it!

Today, we can buy whatever we want; even foods that grow thousands of miles away can be bought easily and relatively cheaply. However, your biology and genetics do not know this. They still think that you live in the wild, where it could be a matter of life and death if you do not eat as much as possible every single time that you discover food. This instinct is not easy to overcome, hence the reason why so many people gain weight, and why we have so many overweight people in modern society.

So, we have a huge problem to begin with. We must be able to control our food intake and cravings. All this at a time in our history when food that is very high in energy is easily available in large quantities.

Many people also eat when they are upset, sad, depressed or under stress and pressure. This can come from many different areas of your life, such as work, family issues, financial problems, and many others. The important thing to realise is that junk food and comfort food is not the solution! Junk food will not give your body the nutrients it needs to run itself properly, you will feel physically bad, you will pick up illnesses more frequently, and it will make you gain weight!

However bad you feel, eating to improve your mood is a temporary fix. The likelihood is that it will make you gain more weight, that in turn will make you more depressed, that will make you eat more, and so on. Falling into this trap is difficult to get out of, but the hardest part is deciding to do something about it.

Losing weight is 100% psychological. If you can control your mind then you can lose as much weight as you like, and keep it off as well. The mind controls everything you do, from mood, emotional state, to hunger, to happiness, and everything in between. The mind will also control how much effort you can put into your workouts, and therefore how much benefit you get from them.

It is vitally important that you learn how to improve your attitude, especially when it comes to food choices. To help you, I have listed four things you should do to help your mind deal with the challenge of losing weight.

3.1 Set yourself a goal

In order to get somewhere you need to know where you are going. This means that you need to have a clear goal or end point to aim for. For getting toned and fat burning this means you need to have a target weight, a target body fat percentage, or an idea of what you want to look like before you start dieting and training. This goal needs to be realistic. It is not realistic to want to lose 5 stone or 50 pounds in a week. Having a goal or target that you can realistically meet will build confidence, give you more motivation, and you will be more likely to stick to the diet and exercise plan in the long run.