'll cut to the chase as to how things are going. I just finished up my first month of training for a fitness competition with my bikini coaches.. So far I've lost about 5 pounds, 1% body fat, and an inch off of my waist, hips, and thighs. I've also increased all the weights on my lifts. So far, so good!

Have you heard of the WhatKateWore blog? It's a fashion blog that chronicles Kate Middleton's fashion - what she wore, where to get it, affordable knock-offs (RepliKates), etc. With all of The Crown hype (Season 4 really was amazing) my social media feeds have been flooded with news of the Royals - what they eat at the holidays, what the grandchildren call Camilla, which outfits have been repeated, how often they go to the bathroom, etc.

If you've read my earlier posts, you know that I’m reverse dieting and trying to increase my calories by about 300 calories a day (from 1500 to 1800 calories). For about five years I've somewhat regularly tracked my daily food intake on the free version of My Fitness Pal. But when I read that other fitness competitors are eating 1500, 1800, or 2000 calories a day, I sometimes still can't guess what that looks like.

Time for a check-in! It has been nine weeks since I started my reverse diet from 1500 to 1800 calories and started strength training 3-4 times a week in preparation for doing a fitness competition next spring.

For so many, the holy grail of fitness is having “great abs”. And as a fitness professional, I think this makes complete sense! Having visible ab definition is a sure sign that you are physically fit. No one gets good abs from sitting around watching TV and over-eating.
However, HOW you get good abs is not the way many think. I often get asked “what exercises can I do to have better abs?”.

As you know, to prepare for another fitness competition, one of my first goals is increasing my daily caloric intake. Say what? Calories up? Yes. My good friend and colleague Allison, has convinced me this is the way to go for this prep. In her twenties, Allison destroyed her metabolism eating too little (~1200 calories a day) and doing endless hours of cardio.

Yes, absolutely! But in moderation. Just like most things in life, a little bit of something not-so-healthy is fine in moderation. If you are going out having multiple drinks a night, several nights a week, this will definitely hinder your fat loss progress. However, having a small glass of wine with dinner every night or even having several drinks one night a week shouldn’t really set you back.

Don’t waste time doing these 10 things when trying to lose fat

When it comes to fat loss, there is so much information available telling us the “best” way to go about this goal. Sadly, most of this information is downright misleading. Much of it is created to try to sell a product.

The term “reverse dieting” probably sounds very odd if you aren’t part of the bodybuilding world! This phrase means exactly like you might guess it means – the opposite of dieting! When you think of going on a “diet”, you tend to think of eating less or restricting your calories or food in some way. The term reverse dieting is often used to refer to the process of INCREASING your calories.