Putting a few simple good tips into practice can make a huge difference in your overall quality of life.

Today I want to share with you a few of the best nutrition and exercise tips I’ve learned over the years. I know they can work for you, since they’ve worked for me tremendously in the past.

1. 1. Never drink your calories. Almost any type of liquid calorie drink is going to contain no nutritional value whatsoever and is going to go right through you, leaving you hungry again a short time later. Just drink water all day long and save your taste buds and your appetite for real food.

1. 1. Don’t worry about the length of your workouts, focus on the quality. There’s absolutely no reason to spend hours at a time in the gym, unless you’re training to become an Olympic athlete. To drastically decrease the amount of time you spend in the gym, focus on things like supersets and HIIT (high intensity interval training). Just make sure you’re efficient – it’s all about quality, not quantity.

1. 1. Eat Carbs. Although carbs have a bad reputation, your body still needs them to function properly. So instead of going on a low carbohydrate diet, focus on eating complex carbs such as oatmeal or brown rice.

1. 1. Stay consistent. The secret to permanently and quickly changing your physique is to stay consistent with your training and nutrition. It’s the small choices you make every day that make the biggest difference to where you’re going to end up. You need to think of this as building a house – you don’t try to build the house all at once, you place one brick at a time and soon you have a house.

1. 1. Replace excuses with reasons. It’s pretty easy to think of excuses as to why we don’t want to workout or eat healthy. Excuses are the nails to building a house of failure; they won’t get us anywhere in life. Instead of constantly thinking of why you can’t do something, think of all the reasons why you can and should do something.

1. 1. Buy healthy food. It doesn’t get more complex than this. As long as you’re not stocking your pantry with doughnuts, cookies, candy and cake, you won’t even give yourself the option to eat it. Always buy nothing but healthy food at the grocery store and you’ll be forced to eat it.

1. 1. Make exercise fun. You don’t always have to lift weights (lift weights – http://how2gainmusclefast.com/) and do cardio – you can also get a fantastic workout by taking a walk with your neighbors, playing a game of basketball with your buddies, rock climbing and so on. If you enjoy the activity you’re doing, you’re much more likely to stick with it.

1. 1. Pay attention to ingredients – not packaging. Whenever you see words like “fat free”, “reduced calorie” and “reduced sugar”, do not be deceived – this is simply marketing hype. You always need to take a close look at the nutrition information and especially the ingredients. Many foods contain hidden additives and preservatives that are not good for your health, despite what the front of the package might say.

1. Don’t just make goals, evaluate your progress against them. Although having a specific, long term goal is great, routinely measuring the progress you’re making is even better. If you’re not making any progress, change your approach and start fresh. For example, if you’re not losing anymore weight, it’s quite possible that your metabolism (metabolism – http://how2gainmusclefast.com/what-is-metabolism/) has slowed down and you might need to drop your calories lower than before. If you’ve hit a muscle building plateau, it’s quite possible that you can’t get stronger either. Always evaluate your results and make adjustments to your training program or diet if you want to see the best results possible.