So you've got a class reunion coming up and you don't want to be the person who looks like they've spent the last 10 years growing OUT instead of up. If you've got 30 days and you are willing to live by the following 5 tips, you are guaranteed to not only lose a significant amount of weight, but to feel incredible as well!

You'll be able to march into that class reunion brimming with self-confidence because you will have spent the last 30 days not just cleaning up your appearance, but also proving to yourself that you've got what it takes to be a success!

1. Drink Loads of Water

A lot of people don't realize it, but water is one of the most potent weapons that we have against excessive body fat and other health issues. Water plays a part in everything that we do, and as a general rule, the more you drink, the better. Short of Hyponatremia (excessive sodium-free water intake), you can drink just about as much water as you want to.

At least one gallon of water per day is about the minimum to get the most benefit, while up to two gallons of water spread out over the course of each day would be ideal. From a weight loss perspective, there are numerous benefits to drinking plenty of water:

• Water, although tasteless, helps you to feel satiated (full) so that you won't eat as much.
• Water helps to flush toxins out of your body, which means your body will run "cleaner" and more efficiently, causing your metabolism to increase (burn more calories).
• Water lubricates every single process in your body, even down to the cellular level. This includes efficient energy production and utilization, including the transporting of bodyfat from storage (thighs, hips, waist) to your muscles so that it can be used for energy. 

As a general rule, if you don't constantly have a water source at arm's reach (and you're drinking it!), then you aren't getting enough water to significantly assist in the weight loss process.

2. Minimize your Intake of Sodium (salt)

Again with a tip of the hat to Hyponatremia, make sure that you get the minimal amount of sodium in your body each day, which, according to the American Heart Association, is approximately 1,000 mg for every 1,000 calories that are ingested.

If you start reading labels on the food that you ingest, however, you will see that most people are getting far more than 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of sodium every day!

In addition to simply being unhealthy, sodium also makes you "puffy". Your body tends to visibly retain water, which is a phenomenon that most women also experience during their menstrual cycle.

Ironically, the best way to stop water retention is to…yep - drink more water! Remember, water flushes out your system. By keeping your sodium intake to the minimum levels (but not below that), you will appear thinner due to minimizing sodium-induced water retention.

3. Starve your Bodyfat Storage

We put on extra bodyfat by taking in calories that our bodies cannot utilize for energy. This is normally due to simply taking in too great a number of calories, but it can also be due to not getting enough activity after ingesting calories.

So, if we put on bodyfat by not burning enough energy, in order to lose bodyfat, we reverse that process, causing our body to go looking for energy in such a way that the energy must come from bodyfat storage, a.k.a. - the aforementioned hips, thighs, stomach, etc.

The most efficient way to do this, which will also crank up your metabolism for the entire day, is to do cardiovascular training every morning before you ingest any calories. If you eat breakfast, or even drink coffee with sugar and creamer in it, you will retard this process.

I wrote up an entire description of how this process works, which you can read about right here. Be sure that your pre-breakfast cardio routine lasts for a minimum of 30 minutes, although an hour is ideal, and make sure to keep up the proper intensity level as well. Pre-breakfast cardiovascular training should be done at least 5 days per week, preferably 6.

4. Make your Muscles work FOR You

Just like you can trick your body into burning through bodyfat as its primary energy source, you can also cause your body to metabolize (burn) calories very efficiently by properly timing a resistance training workout. 

Every evening (or whenever your last meal is before your sleep cycle), eat your final meal, wait 60 minutes, and then do 30 minutes of moderate to intense resistance exercise. Be sure to include plenty of lower body and leg exercises since they will crank up your metabolism more than working the smaller muscle groups.

That being said, don't forget to also do plenty of abdominal exercises, push-ups, and other bodyweight only exercises.

Ideally you would do this 30-minute moderate to intense exercise session 4 or 5 days each week. As soon as you are done with the workout, drink a protein shake. This will give your muscles the amino acids that they need to repair themselves, while also not refilling your body's carbohydrate storage.

Remember, the following morning you will be doing 30 to 60 minutes of cardiovascular training, and you don't want your body to have access to carbohydrates during that workout so it will burn through bodyfat instead. 

5. Pack on the Protein, Ditch the Sugar

One of the things that most people don't know about protein is that it "costs" your body a lot of energy in order to break it down and utilize it. That "cost" comes in the form of calories. What that means is that by eating a higher percentage of protein in your diet, your body will actually burn through more calories, even if you don't exercise at all.

Here is the trick, though; you can't just add on more protein to your diet, you need to ingest it instead of something else. If losing weight is your goal, then replacing sugar in your diet with low-fat protein sources is the way to go. 

You aren't replacing carbohydrates completely - that is unhealthy and can be dangerous - but rather getting rid of simple sugars are replacing them with low-fat protein.

For example:

• Instead of having 2 servings of white pasta with dinner, have just one serving of wheat pasta, but also eat an additional chicken breast.
• Instead of having 2 slices of white toast with your breakfast, have just one serving of multi-grain bread, and add in 2 additional low-fat sausage patties or links.
• Instead of eating an entire sub-sandwich for lunch, get your sub made on whole wheat or (preferably) multi-grain bread, and ask for extra cheese or meat. When you get the sandwich back to your table or your desk, take the top half of the bread off, throw it away, and eat the rest of the sandwich with a knife and a fork.

Those are just examples, but you get the idea. Don't add in a significant amount of additional calories by eating protein, but rather remove the types of foods that are made with simple sugars, and replace those foods with healthy sources of protein.

Summary

So, as you can see, if you want to lose weight for a class reunion, the process is not significantly different than any other weight loss program. The key to success lies in these 3 things:

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1. Consistently following this system for the entire 30 days
2. Exercising intensely enough during every single workout (morning and night)
3. Closely monitoring not just what you eat, but when you eat it

Even if you are not trying to lose weight for a class reunion, why not give this program a try for 30 days? You are guaranteed to be happy with the results!