When should I do cardio

Cardio--mostly treadmill 30 minutes, sometimes I'll do something different like bike or elliptical strength training--mostly machines, sometimes free weights. I do one muscle group a day. time of day? I prefer mornings, but it all depends on when i can get the kids up and out goal-- I want to lose the belly flab that hangs over when I wear certain pants. I would like to lose about 10 pounds or go down a size and just be firm and have muscle tone. Also, i just want to be healthy. Thanks for your help

First of all I am happy to help so no worries :-) You have some pretty specific goals which is great, all you need to do is make a plan as to how you get there! I would suggest that you talk to a decent trainer in your gym so you can do this or I will happily guide you but that will require much more indepth analysis. Firstly some basic things to follow with your cardio and training: If you are doing more than 10mins cardio do this after your weight training as this will allow your energy systems to function at there best for your results. Always have atleast 0.5% incline on the treadmill regardless of what your doing as this will give you feet a more natural stroke. I suggest after your weighttraining you keep the speed down but increase the incline further to reach you desired heartrate rather than doing any high impact running which could be done on a none weight training day. Its great that you are using machines and free weights but it would be even better if you used more free weights than resistance machines say ratio of 80/20. This will alot harder yes but the benifits speak volumes. The area you want to reduce are classic areas and if you approach your training and and nutrion right this perfectly achievable. Doing specific excercises like lots of abdominal crunches will not increase that fat loss in that specific area, however it is possible to focus on reducing an area by manipulating the diet and impacting different hormones. But thats alot more indepth than I can explain here. I hope the above answers help you head towards and surpass your goals, as I said if you would like further help please feel free to PM me. Good Luck and Keep Training!

cool. thanks