Let's get one thing straight : I am not out to "lose weight". I am out to "lose fat".

My philosophy towards exercise and diet is that it should be part of your life, and your ultimate goal should be to just be healthy. That being said, I do desire to have a six-pack. It's free (you can choose to pay for the gym or supplements, but essentially all it takes is a time investment) and I don't see why I don't deserve to be able to take my shirt off and have hard abs.

You know how some people will diet and then end up putting on more weight than they lost? Well, I'm the opposite. Everytime I "mess up" for a few weeks, I get back on track quicker and I usually end up leaner than before. I say leaner because say the first time I had to get down to 130 to get 11% body fat. Well, this last time I was 134 and 11 percent. So , errors in eletro-scale readings aside, I had more muscle.

It's a learning curve. I'm picking up strategies that help LOSE FAT and RETAIN or BUILD muscle. It is very very hard for me to do, but I am starting to get good at it.

Here are some of my strategies this time around, and I can feel it in my bones, this time I will get to the single digits and I will get those perfect abs.

#1 cardio in the morning on an empty stomach... alternating between "interval cardio" and steady pace 2 mile run. BUT weight lifting is in the evenings and I sandwich it between two protein shakes. The first shake at 5pm is usually a low-cal, low-carb high protein shake. The one AFTER is EAS Simply Gain, which has carbs and protein and creatine.

#2 More calories from clean clean sources. My first diet had my at 1400-1600 calories. Sure it worked but my biceps were non-existent. My next one was 1800 every day. A bit better. Okay I'm a slow learner. This current plan has me at 2000 three days a week, 2500 on weight lifting days (that after-workout shake) and then probably 3000 or so on "cheat" days. I'm not going to religiously count calories this time around unless something starts to go horribly awry. Besides, after making dieting a religion basically, I'm pretty darn good at eyeballing calories. I can make up a diet plan off the top of my head for any ratio of fats, proteins and carbs you want and when I input it into a calorie calculator (such as the one available at FITDAY.COM) I'm right on the ball.

#3 Supplements : The gains I've made in strength and size this year have sold me on getting plenty of protein, plus taking creatine, glutamine, a multi-vitamin, and essential oils every day.

#4 Work out hard. I'm not talking about injuring yourself. Or being one of those people who is embarrassed that you can't lift too much weight so you sway and cheat to move it. Hell, I can't curl even 60 pounds on the barbell yet. I'm still doing 50 until I can do my about four sets of 6 to 8 with it. I'm at 4 reps now. But I mean challenge yourself.

KEEP YOUR GOALS in MIND : Remember that my goal is a hard one, trying to get abs and gain size and strength at the same time. I'm more leaning towards the abs goal first and then I'll back off on the cardio and put some new twists into weight lifting when I break that single digit barrier. But if your goals are more modest, SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING.

You can make slow changes. Walk three time a week. Stop buying and eating those cookies every day. Eat more fish. Start taking vitamins. Whatever. 2 out of three Americans are over-weight yet we have the greatest opportunity to be the FITTEST country what with the LOADS of information and resources available to us. I know dieting is hard. It has to be a lifestyle. My challenge now is to figure out a lifestyle that will give me the abs I want. What do you want out of your lifestyle?