Eat Right

• Make a promise to yourself right now: no more fast food, no more soda and no more processed foods. These foods loaded with empty calories, and the trans fats in these foods make you fatter, faster. According to a study by the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, eating lots of fast food and processed food can cause you to put on more flab than the same amount of fat in whole foods.
  
  Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" and "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto," says it best: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
  
  Replace processed foods and fast food meals with whole foods like lean beef and chicken breasts seasoned with fresh herbs and fresh fish--broiled,never fried. Replace white starches with whole grains: trade white pasta and bread for whole grain varieties and white rice for brown rice. Load most of your plate with heart-healthy vegetables in a variety of colors. Snack on fresh fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth.
  
  

Exercise

• Fire up your body's fat burning furnace with cardiovascular workouts. Jogging, swimming, cycling and other aerobic exercises get your heart pumping and burn lots of calories. Work hard enough to stay at 80 percent of your maximum heart rate and keep going for at least 30 minutes, four times a week for maximum fat burning potential.
  
  Add strengthening and toning moves to your workout to firm up muscles and add definition to your newly slender frame. Tighten your core with pilates, firm up your backside with lunges and strengthen your arms with pushups. Add weights or use resistance machines at your gym for added benefit. When doing singular exercises like bench presses or leg presses, use each muscle group to failure and remember not to rest between sets. This will maximize the fat burning benefit of each move.
  
  Remember that fat loss success is often measured in inches, not pounds. Before you start your fitness plan, use a tape measure and record in inches your neck, chest, upper arms, waist, hips, each thigh and each calf. Measure yourself every two weeks at the same time of day to chart your progress.
  
  

Be Realistic

• Portion control can be a rude awakening when you're used to eating meals two or three times the size of what you should be eating. Know that with healthier foods come larger portion sizes because calorie counts tend to be lower.
  
  Be aware that a healthy rate of weight loss is only about 2 lbs. per week. Any more than that is likely to be either water weight. If you severely restrict calories in an attempt to lose more, chances are your body will burn valuable muscle tone, not fat, then bring your metabolism to a crawl.