Over the years of being a personal trainer and nutritional consultant, I must've sat down with well over a thousand people and done an assessment on their fitness and health. Some of these folks were new to fitness and had no idea where to begin. Some of these folks had been dedicated to their gym for years with little progress. In both cases, nutrition was typically an area least explored by them. Countless times I've heard "I already eat well! I eat (between 1,200-1,500) calories per day, I usually have a salad at lunch, a smoothie/yogurt for snack, and turkey/chicken with greens for dinner".

I'm not really sure how everyone (particularly female) has gotten on this meal plan or some variation of it. The best piece of advice I can give someone when it comes to fitness (given that you've already cut out most/all of your junk food) is EAT MORE PROTEIN. I'm not saying drink a protein shake, which isn't necessary but can be helpful if you have a busy schedule (don't we all?) because it's convenient. But there seems to be a lack of protein in most people's diets. Most don't realize that exercising is a catabolic process (makes you lose muscle), so if you don't put back the necessary amount of protein to repair the muscle you may be working against yourself.

This applies to the weight loss/tone folks out there, "tone" is short for "muscle tone" so you need to preserve that muscle. It also applies to people looking to gain muscle. And as a bonus piece of advice, next time you're in the gym, bypass the elliptical and pick up some weights. You can thank me later!