You’ve worked all year to get in shape. It could have been a New Year’s resolution that got you started. When winter hits, the weather gets cold and gloomy. Learn to ignore the gloom and doom and stay on track to better health.

During the warmer weather, it is easy to get physical activity. We work in the garden, go for walks in the evening, bike ride with the family, and spend lots of time outdoors. When someone wants to go, we jump up and go. There seems to be more energy in our steps.

The main motivation is looking good in great clothes. There’s nothing wrong with that. We all want to look our best for as long as we can. The by-product of looking good is that we can achieve great health benefits. Unfortunately, when winter rolls around, all we desire is to curl up on the couch in big sweaters and slippers. It’s not cute but it’s comfortable.

But, that big sweater gives us a false sense of security. We can’t see how much damage we could potentially be doing by eating and maintaining a sedentary lifestyle. It is okay to want to slack off a bit on the exercise but totally dropping things is a no-no.

Here are a few tips to help you stay motivated during the winter months. To start, set a regular time to work out and stick to it. You may not feel like meeting a friend at the gym for a class but you can pop in a DVD or VHS tape and sweat at home. Instead of cranking up the car and braving the cold, you stayed comfortable and worked out anyway.

Maybe the busyness of the holidays has you skipping workout sessions. Exercise is cumulative. Every little bit adds up. Fifteen minutes in the morning plus another fifteen minutes in the afternoon equals thirty minutes of physical activity that day.

Physical activity doesn’t have to be an hour of jumping up and down to a routine. It could be reading a magazine while walking on the treadmill. Dancing around the room, as you vacuum and clean, counts as exercise, also.

Talk to a friend or workout buddy even if you can’t get to the gym with them each day. Use the telephone to keep each other motivated. When the weather leads you to slouch on the couch, phone a friend and get a pep talk until you jump up on your feet and get going.

Listen—you’ve worked mighty hard all year. Why throw it all away during the season of frivolity and food? It won’t be easy to stay motivated, but friends can help. Stick to the routine as much as possible and you won’t feel the after effects of a long indulgent holiday season – you’ll be one step ahead when January rolls round too.

Okay, before we start with the blueprint, I want everybody to keep this in mind: it’s not “weight” you want to lose, but “fat.” Everybody calls it “weight loss,” but, believe me, you don’t want to be losing muscle in your quest for a thinner body. I’ll be using terms like weight loss and lose weight, but I really mean “fat loss” and “losing fat.”

What I’ve got for you is a 5 step “blueprint” to lose weight by counting calories, covering how many calories you should eat in a day to lose to carb/protein/fat ratios, and more.

If you grab a pen and a piece of paper to write down numbers as you read along, you’ll have a calorie counting plan by the end of it all.

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Whether you love or dread the Thanksgiving holiday, one thing for sure is: it’s hard to stick to your diet. A plate (or two) heaped with turkey, gravy, buttery mashed potatoes and all the trimmings can blow any progress you’ve made.

There are many things you can do to stick to your diet and still enjoy a Thanksgiving meal — and believe me, sticking to plan or not overdoing it feels A LOT better than stuffing yourself silly.

Here are some “turkey day” tips to get you through Thanksgiving:

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Do you have a decent body except for that middle roll of flab that just doesn’t seem to go away no matter how much you exercise or attempt to spot reduce that area?

The truth is that the spare tire around your middle is fat – and you’re not going to see the 6-pack abs buried beneath until you get rid of it.

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Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just wanting to maintain your sleek physique, boosting your metabolism to a higher rate is always a good idea. There are several ways to give your metabolism an extra push — including exercising early in the day — but eating can also be a factor in its elevation.

Increasing your metabolism means your body burns calories at a higher rate. So if your metabolism is high, it’s burning calories even when you aren’t working hard at the gym. A sluggish metabolism can cause you to gain weight, because you’re consuming more than your body is burning.

Here are 7 ways to boost your metabolism, so you can burn fat fast:

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If you’re trying to eat healthy, you might worry about adding too much dairy to your diet, since dairy products are generally considered high fat foods. But if you add the right kind of dairy to your meal plan, it doesn’t have to have a negative impact on your calorie count.

In fact, studies have shown that dairy foods may actually contribute to weight loss and a healthier body, since it provides the body with the calcium it needs. Calcium found in dairy products is far better than any other source of calcium.

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Yes, I know — technically, summer’s not over till September 22nd this year. But, up here, for all intents and purposes, summer is a done deal. The kids are back in school, bathing suits are being put on less often (if at all), and the days are getting shorter.

Chances are you went to one too many barbecues, ate one too many cheeseburgers or drank one too many mojito this summer. Even though I’m more active in the summer, I tend to celebrate the season with more food and pack on a bit of summer fat.

If you’ve gained some summer fat, now’s the time to get cracking and make changes to lose it. Even if it’s just a few pounds, do you really want the summer fat hanging around till December, when “holiday fat” comes a-knocking? I don’t think so… Before you know it, you’ve added on 5, 10, 15lbs or more!

When it comes to getting rid of fat, it’s best to use a 3-pronged attack: nutrition, exercise and mindset. I’ve pulled together some links to help you attack your summer fat.

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Dieting is hard and it takes some dedication. Losing interest is the number one reason why most diets fail and we often end up back where we started or worst still putting on a few pounds than we had in the beginning. Diets are ok but they leave a lot to be desired when they restrict you and what you can eat, simply not being able to have something, means that you crave it all the more. Here are the top ways to lose a few pounds without losing interest.

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Why should you eliminate processed foods from your life? What is wrong with them? Processed foods are full of harmful fats, avoidable chemicals, refined starch, and white sugar and so on. More than 6000 chemicals, some of them possessing cancer-producing properties, are used in the processed-food industry. Many processed foods are produced through procedures involving overcooking under high heat, undermining their nutritional value in the process. When toxic agents, food additives and other foreign ingredients enter the body, the human immune system tries hard to throw them out. If the task is too difficult, the immune system suffers, leading to several complications for health.

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One of the biggest reasons people don’t eat healthy foods is because they feel it won’t taste good. The problem is, if your health food doesn’t taste good, you’re eating the wrong health food. Just because something is good for you doesn’t mean it has to taste bland, boring, or completely gross. There are plenty of ideas out there for eating healthy without making sacrifices on taste. Here are just a few of them.

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