Nice Home Garden Salad

So if you're like me and you've got a vegetable garden in your backyard, I came up with a really good salad over the weekend from what picked from it.

Here's what I had:

- A half a cucumber sliced and quartered
- A half a green pepper chopped up
- Some cherry tomatoes cut up (or you could cut up some regular tomatoes

Not from the garden:

- A can of tuna
- A handful of walnuts
- Olive oil
- Red Wine vinegar
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic Salt

Combine all those ingredients in a bowl and you've got yourself a really nice lunch salad with some good protein, good fat, and a nice portions of vegetables.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

I Know, I Know, I Know

You people probably think i abandoned this thing. I'm just having too much fun this summer to stress myself out about why the world is getting fatter and how to fix it. So, I've taken some time off. But, you remember this cute little girl that I got back in May?



Well, she ain't that little anymore....But still cute....





www.leanbodyfitness.com

No, I'm not Dead....

Sorry, I know it's been awhile since I updated this. Just been having to much fun this summer. I'll have some new material though this week so, stay tuned.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Cholesterol - What All Those Numbers Mean

So you get your cholesterol checked (by the way, you should be doing this every year or every other year or, if you have abnormal numbers, as often as your doctor recommends) and get confused as to what exactly those numbers mean.

Well here’s a breakdown:

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) – This is the bad kind. This is the kind that builds up in the walls of your arteries and over time, can cause heart disease. You want to keep this number low. Less than 130 MG/DG is recommended.

HDL (high-density lipoprotein) – This is the good stuff. This is the cholesterol that basically acts as a cleaner and helps remove the LDL off the artery walls. You actually want to increase this number. A healthy range is between 40-60 MG/DL. It’s important to keep this number at least at 40 MG/DL.

Total Cholesterol (TC) – This is the combined total of LDL, HDL and VLDL (this type isn’t discussed here). Overall, you’d like to keep this figure below 200 MG/DL.

So how do you get those LDL down and the HDL up? The first step is to make lifestyle changes. Lose some weight. Change your eating, and get on an exercise plan. Studies have shown that both resistance training and aerobic exercise can improve cholesterol numbers. Also, if you smoke, STOP SMOKING!!!!

Other things you can do is increase your consumption of foods that are high in monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, almonds, walnuts, and natural peanut butter. You should also completely eliminate anything in your diet that contains trans fats (check the label. If the word “hydrogenated” is listed anywhere in the ingredients, don’t eat it).

Another big step you can make is by increasing your fiber consumption. Try to get between 30-35 grams of fiber a day. Good sources of fiber are just about any vegetable (broccoli, carrots, celery), as well as whole grains such as oatmeal, whole wheat bread (that’s actually made from whole wheat flour). You can also get a large dose of fiber from legumes like black, pinto, and kidney beans. And don’t forget about fruits. Pretty much any kind of fruit is filled with fiber (apples, oranges, pears).

Once you get your eating in line and your exercise on track, there’s no reason your cholesterol shouldn’t go down and result in decreasing your risk for heart disease.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

No! I'm Not Dead!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Gone last week and this week has just been nuts trying to settle back in.

A little story though from my trip.

I was down in New Orleans for a conference (non-fitness related) and a couple of the days I decide to do a workout in the hotel fitness center.

I walked into the area and there was a young guy in there, maybe late teens or 20s. He was doing your typical bodybuilder workout, isolation exercises (bicep curls, tricep stuff, movement like that, that never work). He was also doing some weighted crunches on a swiss ball. That impressed me because that's a decent exercise. Except I learned a new way to do them from him that must be more effective than anything I've ever seen before:

You lift the bottom of your shirt up and look at your abs in the mirror while doing the exercise. That's an amazing new modification to that exercise that I'm SURE results in better body composition (please, I hope you see I'm being sarcastic).

After that I didn't much pay attention. I did my bodyweight warm up and then I started doing some dumbbell power cleans. I did notice the kid taking a glance at me in the mirror (that's bad form to take your eyes off your abs while doing those swiss ball crunches...) and he looked pretty confused as to what I was doing.

But, here's the most entertaining part of the kid's workout. After he was done, he walked out of the fitness center and onto a patio where the pool was. He sat down at a table....and immediately.....lit up a cigarette.......

I don't think I could makeup an ending like that to that story even if I wanted to.....

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Out This Week

I'm out of town this week at a conference. Have a good week and I'll be back to blogging next week.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Pet Obesity Epidemic

I was at the vet office yesterday and I was looking around and noticed something about roughly two-thirds of the dogs that were in the waiting room: they were just outright fat. It got me thinking about the topic of whether the human obesity epidemic is starting to move it's way into the pet population. So I did a search and sure enough, it is.

"While there have been no studies on this particular question, there appears to be anecdotal evidence that there is a correlation between overweight owners and overweight pets," explained George Fahey, who teaches and does research in the Department of Animal Sciences.

Which only makes sense really. When you see overweight adults, chances are, their children are overweight as well. It just follows that overweight people's pets would also be overweight.

Here's a few simple steps you can take though from the article that can help avoid this problem:

"First, don't feed your pets table scraps. Second, feed the amount recommended on the bag or can, and if the dog or cat begs for more, don't give in," he said. "Finally, make sure the animals, especially dogs, get adequate exercise."

Sounds like the same advice that humans can use in their own weight management process as well.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Doberman Intervals

Didn't have time for my normal interval workout yesterday so I tried something different when I got home from teaching my kickboxing class.

I went outside after doing a little leash training with her to get her a little exercise. She follows me everywhere I go so it wasn't a problem keeping her near me.

I started at one side of the yard, looked at her and then sprinted to the other side as fast as I could and she followed right along. When reaching the other end, I would turn around, take another look at her (and watch her little nub wag a million miles an hour) take a turn for a different part of the yard and sprint as fast as I could to it, again, with her on my tail. Did this repeatedly for about 10 minutes.

Great impromptu interval workout that was not only good for me, but also good for my dog. I'm not sure what's going to happen though when she can actually beat me in the race.



www.leanbodyfitness.com

Water and Marathons

This was an interesting study about marathon runners and how it's not necessarily the case that by drinking a lot of water during the run will help your performance.

With the Marathon's temperatures reaching 19 degrees Celsius, the average runner will potentially lose almost a litre of sweat every hour and reach a body temperature of over 39 degrees, two degrees above normal. The sporting community has long assumed that drinking large amounts of water helps to keep the body's temperature down, which improves performance. A recent study led by Dr Chris Byrne of the University of Exeter shows that the level of fluid intake has absolutely no effect on body temperature or performance.

Now, don't take this to mean that drinking water while exercising isn't important. You need to listen to your body while you're exercising and drink water when you deem in necessary.

But, on the other hand, there might be a psychological component to drinking a high level of water during a marathon when you don't need it. It might make you FEEL like you're able to perform at a higher level. So if that works for a person, I don't seen any harm in continuing on that same path.

By the way, it IS important to get in liquids after you're done working out. Ideally you should weigh yourself before you workout and then again right after the workout and for every pound you lost, drink 16 ounces of water. That's rarely practical to weigh yourself every time before and after a workout, but, the point is, you do need to rehydrate yourself in order to recover properly.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Open Friday

Sorry, nothing to blog about today so, thought I'd entertain you with a good pic of the puppy.

have a good weekend.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

News Flash: There's Too Many Diets Out There

This was an interesting article about how confusing it is out there with all these diets.

Some good quotes:

In her quest to shed pounds, Amy Jamieson-Petonic tried the cabbage-soup diet, a hot-dog and peanut-butter diet, and just about everything in between. Then, after an "aha" moment as she tried on a size 22 coat, she said, "No more." She started eating smaller portions and healthier foods, and took up running. Lo and behold, she slowly lost 100 pounds. Fifteen years later, Jamieson-Petonic, now a 38-year-old registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, has kept off all the weight. "Real people can do this," she says.

Shocking. Eat less and healthier and exercise more. Interesting concept.

Here's a couple of the interesting diets that they talked about in the article:

The Astrology Diet

In "Zodiaction: Fat-Burning Fitness Tailored to Your Personal Star Quality," trainer Ellen Barrett and astrologer Barrie Dolnick promote an exercise and eating plan based on the 12 astrological signs. Scorpios are "fiery" and need "cooling foods," says Barrett. "It sounds fun, but there's no scientific backing for it," says the ADA's Andrea Giancoli.

I'm a little lost for words to comment on that.

Here's another:

The Blood-Type Diet

In "Eat Right 4 Your Type," Peter D'Adamo, a naturopathic doctor, argues that people should eat according to their blood type. A type A, he eats lots of fish and avoids processed meats. "There's no evidence that different people with different blood types need different diets," says Willett. So what's the appeal? People "think it's more personal than other diets," says Giancoli.

That's an interesting observation about how people are attracted to this diet because it feels more personal. People who have tried a lot of different diets (and fail each time) think that their bodies operate somehow differently than all the people that have ever lived on the planet. So they fall for these kinds of diets.

Detox Diets

For some reason, people think our bodies are full of all kinds of toxins," says dietitian Tara Gidus. Some detox diets, including "21 Pounds in 21 Days," call for "cleansing" with colonics. Translation: enemas. The problem with using them to clear the colon of waste: "it's not really waste at all," says Northwestern University gastroenterologist Alan Buchman. "What people describe as 'toxins' include the normal metabolic products of digestion and the normal bacteria that produce vitamin K and folic acid - and other substances that keep the colon healthy.

First, you can't help but laugh to think that people actually believe that their body is some kind of swampland for deadly toxins. Second, always keep this in mind when you start a diet and they have as part of the plan a "detox" phase in the beginning, then walk away from the diet. The only reason they have that phase is to get you to lose a ton of weight (mostly water and lean mass) in the beginning so you stick with it and dish out more money for something that you can't live the rest of your life doing.

I'm going to disagree with this last quote though:

The final word goes to James Hill, who runs the University of Colorado-based National Weight Loss Registry, which tracks dieters who have kept off 30 or more pounds for at least a year. What's their secret? They eat a low-fat diet and watch their total calories. They eat breakfast and weigh themselves often. And they get 60 to 90 minutes of exercise a day.

As I've stated in the past, it's not the lower fat levels that are making you lose weight, it's that you're getting in less calories. And you don't need 60-90 minutes of exercise a day. If you workout efficiently with strength training and intervals, you can get the results that you want with just 30-45 minutes of exercise, 3 days a week.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Start of Summer

Well, we're at the start of the Memorial day weekend. Start of summer (well unofficially).

Summer brings up shorts, swimwear, cookouts, swimming, and unfortunately bad eating and drinking habits.

Well, it gets worse. This article gives you some horrible news on some of your favorite summer drinks.

Sorry to break it to you but, stay away from them. It's just not really worth it if you are striving for better health and fitness. They're full of empty calories and although they seem like it might be innocent having even one a week, it's going to cause a set back in reaching your goals.

So stay away, or I'll sic this vicious beast upon you:



Have a nice and relaxing Memorial day weekend and I'll be back online in the middle of next week.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Gabby's Food Addiction

Gabrielle Reece has a good article here about food addiction. She comes right out and says:

Food is a drug, and a lot of us are addicted to it. We get stressed, we reach for a donut to soothe our souls. Lonely? Pizza is a warm companion. Feeling bad about ourselves? Ice cream eases the pain.

I need to revert back to an old blog entry of mine here that goes over steps to help you get over things like this and to be able to build up more of your self-esteem and self image in order to reach your ideal health and fitness goals.

She's got some great advice on how to start on the right path:

First, you have to acknowledge that you don't have the will power on your own. The cravings and callings are bigger then you (for now). What can you do about it? Get help. Go see a doctor or nutritionist that will put you on a program. This is not about failure or being a bad person, this is about finding a way to get healthy and strong. Nothing else. Beating yourself up is not going to do anything. Love yourself enough to feel you deserve a little help.

There's nothing wrong with going to talk to someone. Go talk to your doctor, nutritionist, a personal trainer, or all of the above. There's no shame in going to these people. Don't think of yourself as being a failure in doing so. You need some help and you need professionals to help get you on that track.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Soldier Training

I don't really find this surprising but, it seems that government does:

Soldiers get sprained ankles, torn ligaments and stress fractures just like competitive athletes,

gee, ya think?

So now the Army is going to research the mechanics of soldiers to find out exactly how injuries such as sprains, tears, and fractures occur (particularly in the lower body). Once that's done, training programs will be designed to help build up the strength and endurance of soldiers in of hope of preventing those injuries:

The tests are designed to recreate the most problematic activities for soldiers, usually repetitive motions that can cause strain on knees, backs and shoulders. Soldiers in the 101st learn to rappel and jump from helicopters, and the landings can be dangerous.

And it concludes:

Researchers hope to develop training programs that soldiers can begin before their next overseas deployment, which could happen as soon as this fall.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

The Scoop on Trans Fat

Trans fats. Not good. Basically, it’s a man made product. There are really only a few places you can find natural sources of trans fat. You’ll find trans fats in mainly products like margarine, vegetable shortenings, and a number of different processed foods (crackers, cookies, some potato chips, etc).

You can tell that a product has trans fat in them when you look at the ingredients and you see the words “partially hydrogenated,” mostly in vegetable oils. What trans fats do is increase your LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) and decreasing your HDL cholesterol (your good cholesterol). It basically does the opposite to the two types of cholesterol than what we want them to do. This in turn, increases the risk of coronary heart disease.

There is some good news though. Starting January 1, 2006, the FDA required that food companies specifically list the amount of trans fats that are in a serving of the product. Another bit of recent news is that starting July 1, 2007, New York city will be the first American city to ban the use of trans fats in foods that are served in restaurants in the city.

So read those nutritional labels! Stay away from foods that contain the word “hydrogenated” in the ingredients listing and you’ll be sure to reduce your chances of bad heart health.

End the week with probably the best picture of the week of the new puppy, Scarlett.



www.leanbodyfitness.com

Sticking to your workout

Here's a good article that appeared in Men's Health, written by Adam Campbell on how to stick to your workout.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Switch your training partners
Working out with a partner who will hold you accountable for showing up at the gym works well—for a while. But the more familiar you are with the partner, the easier it becomes to back out of workout plans. "Close friends and family members don't always make the best training partners because they may allow you to slack off or cancel workouts," says Jacqueline Wagner, C.S.C.S., a trainer in New York City. To keep this from happening, find a new, less forgiving workout partner every few months.

I think what happens if you workout with someone that you don't know, you get self-conscious, but that can actually motivate you because you don't want the other person to think you're a slacker. So, you end up not only showing up for every workout, but you also workout at a nice high intensity.

Here's another one:

Think about fat
Your body is storing and burning fat simultaneously, but it's always doing one faster than the other. "Understanding that you're getting either fatter or leaner at any one time will keep you body-conscious so you won't overeat or underexercise," says Alwyn Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., owner of Results Fitness Training in Santa Clarita, California.

I would also add that it's important not to undereat and overexercise. You need fuel in order to burn fat, at the same time, you need recovery time in order for your body to repair the muscles you destroyed during the workout. It's all about finding that balance.

Last one:

Plan your workouts in advance
At the start of each month, schedule all of your workouts at once, and cross them off as they're completed. For an average month, you might try for a total of 16 workouts. If any are left undone at the end of the month, tack them on to the following month. And make sure you have a contingency plan for bad weather and unscheduled meetings. "You're about 40 percent more likely to work out if you have strategies to help you overcome these obstacles," says Rod Dishman, Ph.D., an exercise scientist at the University of Georgia.

Would you build a house without a plan written out first? No. That's why you need a plan to reach your fitness goals. Layout a workout for a full month and you've got a plan. Just make sure you follow it!

Oh, can't get away without posting another picture of the new addition to my family:



www.leanbodyfitness.com

Weekend

Sorry folks. Didn't get chance to research for today's blog. Will be able to in the next couple of days. Been dealing with this new precious little puppy all weekend long. You know how it goes.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Free Friday

Things have been rather crazy the last couple of days with something that I've been preparing so it's a free friday on the blog.

Have a good weekend and come back on Monday when I return.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Children and Diabetes

This really shouldn't come as a surprise but, the number of children being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes is at an alarming rate:

In another sign of the alarming childhood obesity epidemic in the United States, researchers report a 200 percent increase in the number of children hospitalized for type 2 diabetes.

Just a reminder about what exactly Type 2 diabetes is:

Type 2 diabetes, which used to be called adult onset diabetes because it was rarely seen in children, is typically diagnosed in patients who are overweight. Left untreated, it can lead to such complications as heart disease, blindness, nerve damage and kidney damage.

When most kids were diagnosed with diabetes, it was the type 1 version, which is the result of genetics mostly. Type 2 diabetes is mainly caused by diet, a very poor diet. The comparison in this study between both types in kids is startling:

They found that rates of hospitalization for type 1 diabetes increased 15 percent between 1997 and 2003, while rates of hospitalizations for type 2 diabetes increased 200 percent.

So the big question is, what steps can parents take to help prevent their child(ren) from getting type 2 diabetes?

First, parents need to realize that they have to change their own health behavior before they can really effectively change their child's. If you as a parent have your cupboards stocked with junk food, eat out more than once a week, and don't exercise, then how is your child supposed to live a healthy lifestyle if you yourself aren't providing an environment that encourages that?

Here's some tips:

- Make eating healthy a family goal, where everyone is going to do it. Go through every spot in your house and throw out any and all junk food.
- Stay away from fast food. Enough said.
- Go out and get some family exercise. Play catch with your kid, walk the dog, teach your child games that you used to play as a kid (kick the can comes to mind).
- Limit your's and your child television time. Let's say no more than an hour at night before they go to bed.
- On the same note, limit the time your child spends in front of a computer or playing video games. The goal is, limit tv, internet, and other computer games and exchange that with outdoor games where your child is getting exercise and not even knowing it.

These are just some suggestions and should give you a starting point. Just taking these easy steps can help reduce the chances of health problems our children.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Turkey Chili

I know. I'm a little late on this considering it's spring and normally chili is a winter thing but, this recipe can be used during any season. It's quick to make, very very tasty and very easy to make. Give it a try. You'll love it.

Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

· 1 pound of lean ground turkey
· 1 can (14 oz) Mexican-style diced tomatoes
· 1 can (15 ½ oz) black beans (drained and rinsed)
· 1 can (14 oz) whole kernel sweet corn (drained)
· 1 package (1 ½ oz) dried chili mix
· ¼ cup water

Cooking:

1. Brown the turkey over medium-high heat.
2. Drain grease from pan.
3. Add everything else and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.

Nutritional Info:

· Feeds 4 people
· Per serving:
o 305 calories
o 35 grams of protein
o 34 grams of carbohydrates
o 4 grams of fat


Source: Men’s Health January/February 2001

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Eating Before Working Out

Earlier this week, a friend of mine said that her son was getting headaches and overall just not feeling well after his track practice. I told her that he should have a little something in his stomach before track practice and that should cure the problem. Sure enough, that did it.

Had the same situation occur last night in my kickboxing class. It was a pretty intense class and one student came up to me afterwards and said "ya know, it's amazing how much more energized you are with just having a banana before class."

I know there's a myth out there that working on an empty stomach will result in burning more of your body fat.

The reality is that the majority of the calories you burn during the workout is from carbohydrates from food and glucose in your blood, liver, and muscle. The reason for this is because those sources turn into the energy that you need for the activity that you're performing more quickly than converting body fat into that energy.

Don't get depressed about that. If your workout is intense enough, then after the workout your body goes into fat burning mode in order to repair muscle, build muscle, build up the bone mineral density in your bones, repair your nervous system, etc.

So by having a little bit to eat before you workout will give you the extra energy to keep the intensity up which will then result in more fat being burned AFTER the workout.

What to eat and how much? Well , don't make it a seven course meal. Just something like a quick shot of an energy drink, maybe a protein bar, a banana, a granola bar, something that has a little bit of protein, a moderate amount of carbs, and a minimal amount of dietary fat.

I'm going to say it again. Be more concerned about the intensity of your workout so you'll burn more calories AFTER the workout, not during the workout and getting a little bit of food in your body before the workout is going to help you keep that intensity up.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Quick! Forget Everything I Told You!!

Okay, not really. But this may turn into more of an entertaining rant rather than an objective perspective on the issue.

This article talks about something that appears to be gaining a little bit of traction among various populations. I wouldn't necessary call it widespread but, it's getting more and more attention.

It's called CR: Calorie Restriction. But it's not just your run of the mill calorie restriction that is in normal diets. This is a more extreme calorie restriction to almost the point of starvation, sort of (more on that later).

The theory behind CR is that it has been shown to extend lives in various animals. Test on humans is just starting. The article goes on to say:

The mechanism by which calorie restriction slows aging in animals isn't yet understood. But it seems to depend on these basic mechanics: When you eat less than you need, your metabolism slows down. Your heart rate ebbs, your temperature drops. It's an evolutionary response meant to help us survive during famines (and it explains why some dieters have such difficulty losing weight).

I'll admit that I like that piece about how it may explain why dieters have difficulty losing weight when restricting calories too much. I think I preach that quite a bit that too low of a calorie restriction is not going to help with fat loss.

The author of this article is a former anorexic and ask this basic question and then moves on to try and get explanations of it throughout the rest of the article:

When I was being treated, my doctors invoked my low metabolism as a catchall for the physical damage I was doing. My low heart rate, amenorrhea (the loss of my period), and the goose bumps I got in 70-degree weather were all signs of illness. So, how can something that is a symptom of disease in one person be a marker of good health in another?

It also bears to mention that there are clear similarities between CR and anorexia:

It states, "Anorexia: It's All About Appearance. Calorie Restriction: It's All About Health." The next point is that anorexia is the result of low self-esteem ("Anorexia: I Am Bad"), whereas CR is about loving and respecting yourself: "The inner monologue of a CR practitioner is 'Calorie Restriction is worth the effort because it may prolong my life and health.' "

Okay, now this is where I get a little rant in. You're following the same type of lifestyle but one is about appearances and the other is about improving health? So I could severely reduces my calories in order to "look good" and just say "nope, I'm not anorexic, I'm just trying to be healthy like the other CR drones."

Another interesting observation in the article is the reaction your body goes through when the calorie restriction kicks in:

Now I understand what happened better: My starvation triggered the release of endorphins. In evolutionary terms, this is designed to give humans heightened coping powers in an emergency. In my case, it gave me a sense of well-being and made me feel sharp and energetic. This feeling became an addiction, so that I pursued it even as my tolerance level rose and the same amount of endorphins no longer produced the same effect, at which point I became quite depressed[emphasis added].

I've talked about this a number of times. Once your body becomes accustomed to it, it adapts, and you no longer get the same effect. You need more (or less in this case) of the stimulant in order to get the desire effect. It becomes a downward spiral.

Now onto the second part of the article that gets into examples of people that are following CR.

The first example he talks about the experiences of one person doing CR:

These include obsessiveness, particularly about food; he adopted behaviors that are also common among anorexics, such as watching food shows on TV and seasoning food with salt or spices to a degree that most people would find unpleasant. He also describes experiencing a kind of emotional "smoothness" or placidity, which at a certain point morphed into a kind of deadening.

The article continues with his experiences:

Dean also discusses a common side effect of CR in men: loss of libido. Unlike the obsessive behaviors, which he succeeded in cutting out, he found he couldn't boost his sex drive. Instead, by mental effort, he turned the drawback into a benefit: He came to enjoy having more time and attention for things other than sex. Dean connects his loss of libido to a decline in other instincts that he identifies as conventionally masculine: He feels less aggressive and selfish, and has less of an urge to use people for his own ends.

okay Dean, you keep telling yourself that....

onto the next person, Al.

My next interview was so upsetting that it is difficult to write about, and it shows that CR can, in certain cases, lead to full-blown anorexia. I called Al at home; his voice was quiet and somewhat difficult to hear. I asked how many calories a day he ate (1,950, he said) and how much he weighed.

"Ninety-two," he answered. I hoped I'd heard wrong. "How tall are you?" I asked. "Five-four," he said. "But I used to be 5-feet-11." He paused. "Osteoporosis." His spine had compressed a full 7 inches—or perhaps he was bent over. I was glad we were on the phone and I couldn't see him.

It continues:

Al used to be a professor at a university; now he is on permanent disability. He has had pneumonia five or six times. In the middle of one of these episodes, he collapsed from low blood sugar and went into a coma. Al acknowledged that his CR has turned into anorexia. Nonetheless, he refused to criticize the theory behind it, and he spoke sharply about the damage Americans do to themselves by eating too much. "I firmly believe in caloric restriction," he said, before adding quietly: "I believe I've gone too far."

Okay, first, I guess I'm overall confused about how low in calories these people are actually going. It says that Al was taking in 1,950 calories a day. That doesn't seem extremely low to me.

Regardless, let's summarize what this all comes down to. You severely restrict your calories with the theory that you'll live longer. The side effects are, if you're a woman, menstruation will be screwed up, for a guy you lose your sex drive, you shrink in height and end up looking like Quasimodo, might end up in a coma, have to quit your job because you become permanently disabled, your immune system becomes useless, and you become frigid if the temperature goes below 70 degrees.

Do I really have to state the obvious question here?

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Good Food for Your Teeth

This article says that not only are these foods good for your teeth, they also happen to be good for your health. A colleague of mine once had a great simple way of determining whether a food is good for you or not. He said food that is good for you will stick in your teeth. The key word in that sentence is IN. Good food will stick in your teeth, bad food will stick on your teeth.

So if you're pulling out dental floss out after a meal, you've made good food choices.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Build Your Arms by Doing Squats

You’re probably looking at this topic description and saying to yourself “HUH?”

Well, let me explain.

First, a short little discussion about direct arm work.

Isolated arm work isn’t the best route to take in getting bigger arms. The reason being is that your arm muscles are really muscles that are used for assisting other muscles. Think about it. You go to pull something off the wall. You’re mainly using your upper back muscles, and your biceps are just there to help out. You go to push a large object. Again, your mainly using your chest muscles and your triceps are assisting with the push. So, your arms rarely work in isolation so why concentrate on training them in isolation? You want bigger arms, then work the bigger muscles that the arms help (back, chest, and shoulder muscles).

But how can your legs help build your arm muscles?

When you work your leg muscles doing the big exercises such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc., various hormones are released. More specifically, testosterone and growth hormone are released. When these are released, they are not only used as a repair mechanism (thus a muscle builder) for the leg muscles, but, for muscles in the entire body. If you only did direct arm work, because the muscles being worked are so small, a very minimal amount of these hormones are released. So the bigger the muscles that are worked, the more of these hormones are released, thus the bigger all the muscles in the body will grow.

To summarize, work out with multiple joint exercise (bench press, dips, pull-ups, shoulder presses, rows, squats, deadlifts, and lunges) with a repetition range of 6-8 per set and with short rest periods (between 60-90 seconds) and you’ll maximize the hormone release you can get from workout to workout, which will help you increase the size of those guns!

www.leanbodyfitness.com

All About Muscle Fibers

You may have remembered me mention in the past that we all have different kinds of muscle fibers. The topic today is going to go into a little more detail of what each of those different muscle fibers are and how they relate to the Lean Body Fat Loss Training program.

1. Type I muscle fibers (aka slow twitch muscle fibers) – These fibers develop force very slowly and at the same time, relax slowly and can withstand fatigue for long periods of time. These types of muscle fibers have a high capacity for activities such as a marathon, soccer and distance cycling. Basically, you are going at a sub maximal pace for a long period of time. These fibers are used in what is classically called “endurance” exercises and activities.

2. Type IIa muscle fibers (aka fast twitch muscle fibers) – These fibers can develop force faster than the type I fibers but, also get fatigued faster. These fibers involve activities that are a little more quicker and powerful with intensity than the type I fibers, such as an 800 meter run, some strength training workouts like in Lean Body Fat Loss Training Program and interval training.

3. Type IIb muscle fibers (aka fast twitch muscle fibers) – These are the most powerful muscle fibers that we have. These are the fibers that are able to develop force very rapidly, but, at the same time, they fatigue very rapidly. These include activities such as a 100-m sprint, a maximal lift of a weight, or a vertical jump.

So what does all this mean for fat loss? One other piece about these fibers is they’re recoverability after the activity is complete. Remember, type I muscle fibers don’t fatigue easily. So if you go out for a run at a steady slow pace, you’re mainly using type I muscle fibers and they aren’t “damaged” that much during the process and thus, recover rather quickly after the activity is complete. When using type I fibers, you don’t burn that many calories afterwards in order to “repair” them.

The type II fibers (both types) are a different story. They fatigue very rapidly and they don’t recover as quickly as the Type I fibers. So if you were doing a barbell squat and lifting as much as you can, you should be able to only lift it once. This is very taxing and those high power type II muscle fibers fatigue almost instantly. You’ve caused “damage” to those muscle fibers and your body is going to need to use energy in order to “repair” those muscle fibers.

This is the reason why weight training and intervals and other high power activities are good for fat loss. You will burn more calories after the workout in the repair phase than you would if you were doing longer, less intense activities that only use type I muscle fibers.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

The State of Exercise in America

And we wonder why there's an obesity problem in this country.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

New Diet Summary

In this post I gave you the results of a diet I was on for the past 3-4 months, and in this post I gave you the details of the diet, and here I gave you an example of what I eat that fits within the diet.

Now, we'll go into why exactly this diet works so well.

Back in the original link to the diet guidelines, Adam states that:

The idea is that you'll keep insulin levels low all day long (high insulin inhibits fat loss and promotes fat storage) except during your workout, when you'll use insulin to decrease protein breakdown. You'll also eat protein at the same time, to enhance protein synthesis. Plus, by eating before and during your workout, you can workout as intensely as you desire. So it's the best of both worlds: faster fat loss with more energy. In addition one problem with a pure fat loss ketogenic diet is that although you preserve muscle, you can look "flat" because of the reduced glycogen stores. This plan keeps your muscles looking full and feeling big.

I can attest to his statement about other low carb diets. I hated them because I just always seem to feel so flat. Never have had that feeling with this diet.

All day your body is burning fat for whatever you need for energy. But, when you eat a food that increases your insulin, that natural fat burning process slows down, until your insulin level is back down to normal. If you're eating these high spiking insulin foods all day long, it means your body's fat burning system is not being used very much.

So, you eliminate the foods that spike your insulin except for the time period around your workouts. The reason being is that around the workout, you WANT to have a spike in insulin to get that protein and other nutrients to your muscles to start the muscle building/repairing process. Don't be afraid of this time period though and think "but I don't want to stop burning fat." It's a better payoff during this time period because you're building and repairing muscle which over the course of 24-48 hours, is going to result in burning MORE body fat because of the metabolic disturbance that you've created.

Finally, if you decide to try this diet out, give it a few months and let me know how you like it and what your results are. If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at mike@leanbodyfitness.com

Good Luck!

http://www.leanbodyfitness.com/

New Diet Part III

In this post I gave you the results of a diet I've been on for 3-4 months and in this post I listed what is actually involved in this diet.

Now I'm going to go over what it is that I actually eat every day to give you a decent example of the types of foods that fit into this diet.

Workout days:

Breakfast

-Apple
-2 egg omelette(with yolk) with with cheddar cheese, mushrooms, carrot shavings, and chopped green or red peppers.
-One Tablespoon on Natural Peanut Butter

Morning snack

-Can of Tuna mixed with Olive Oil and pepper
-Asparagus
-Chunk of cheddar cheese
-Whole hard boiled egg (with yolk)
-3 tablespoons of almonds

Lunch

-Pork chop
-Carrots
-Broccoli
-Pepperoni slices
-3 tablespoons of almonds

Before and durning workout drink

-18 ounces of Gatorade
-20 grams of a protein powder (low carb powder)
-drink half of it 10 minutes before workout, drink the rest equally throughout the workout

Post workout drink

-18 ounces of Gatorade
-20 grams of protein powder (low carb powder)

Dinner

-1 Cup of cooked brown rice
-1 Grilled chicken breast (mixed in with the rice)
-4 cups of broccoli
-2/3rd's cups of carrots
-Olive oil splash over the rice/chicken and the vegetables
-Pear

Before bed snack

-1/2 cup of cottage cheese
-1 tablespoon of Natural Peanut Butter

Non-workout days:

Breakfast

-Apple
-2 egg omelette(with yolk) with with cheddar cheese, mushrooms, carrot shavings, and chopped green or red peppers.
-One Tablespoon of Natural Peanut Butter

Morning snack

-Can of Tuna mixed with Olive Oil and pepper
-Asparagus
-Chunk of cheddar cheese
-Whole hard boiled egg (with yolk)

Lunch

-Pork chop
-Carrots
-Broccoli
-Pepperoni slices
-3 tablespoons of almonds

Afternoon snack

-3 tablespoons of almonds
-Pepperoni chunks
-sliced cucumbers

Dinner

-1 Cup of cooked brown rice
-4 oz. piece of broiled salmon (mixed in with the rice)
-4 cups of broccoli
-2/3rd cups of carrots
-Olive oil splash over the rice/salmon and the vegetables
-pear

Before bed snack

-1/2 cup of cottage cheese
-1 tablespoon of Natural Peanut Butter

I'm sure you're wondering a little bit about the protein powder. Here is an example of one that would satisfy the requirements of each scoop. It contains 20 grams of protein and only 4 grams of carbs and 2 grams of fat. That's basically the type of ratio of each serving that you want to see in a protein powder that you use before, during, and after your workout. NOTE: I've never tried this specific protein powder before so I can't verify the taste. But, since you're mixing it with Gatorade, you probably won't even notice it's there. That being said, I'd recommend sticking with the vanilla flavored protein powder as I'm not sure the chocolate flavor would go that well with orange or grape Gatorade...

On the whole eggs, if you have high cholesterol and it's due to genetics (in other words, you've tried treating it with diet and exercise in the past and it hasn't come down), I would advise that you speak with your doctor first before consuming on average 3 of them a day.

Also, make sure you're getting in water throughout the day, including when working out. My recommendation is to go out and buy a 1 liter bottle of water and drink 3 liters on a daily basis. If you're not use to drinking that much water though, work your way up to it.

Now, this may seem like a lot of food and it might be for you. The beauty of this diet is that Adam Campbell calls it "self-regulating," meaning that once you're full (which won't take to long), just stop eating.

So you may find that you can't eat everything that I've listed and that's okay.

Just make sure that you are limiting your carbs outside of fruits (which it's okay to get 2 fruits a day) to no more than 2 servings a day. If you like eating oatmeal, that's fine. Just realize that after that, you only get one other whole grain/legume serving for the day.

Next week I'm going to do a summary of all of this and also give you the theory on why this type of diet works so well, especially if you strength train.

Until then, write out your grocery list and get to the store!

If you've got any questions, especially about whether certain foods are alright to eat on this diet, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at mike@leanbodyfitness.com

www.leanbodyfitness.com

New Diet Part II

In this post, I went into some of the results that I got from a new diet I was testing out since last November.

Well, today we're going to get into the details of the diet.

In this post on a forum I frequent from time to time is a layout of what is involved in the diet.

First, a few things about this forum that it was posted on at www.jpfitness.com. It's a great site put on by Jean-Paul Francoeur, who is a great trainer, an excellent businessperson, and just an overall great guy.

It is frequented by some of the most amazing minds you'll ever find in the diet and fitness world. Some of these people are who I learned from and took that knowledge to build the Lean Body Fat Loss Training program. They include guys like Craig Ballantyne, Alwyn Cosgrove, John Berardi, Lou Schuler, and many many more. Including the author of the post that listed the diet, Adam Campbell.

Adam Campbell is currently the Sports and Nutrition Editor for Men's Health. He has in the past been an editor for Men's Fitness as well. He is also a co-author of a great book called The Testosterone Advantage Plan.

Now let's look at exactly what is involved in the diet:

1. Eat as many of these vegetables as you desire throughout the day.

Asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumbers, egg plant, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, peppers, pickles, spinach, squash, string beans, tomatoes, zucchini. Of course, oil-based, low carb dressings are fine for dipping, steaming is great, as well as sautéing with garlic (fantastic for fresh spinach with olive oil).

2. Eat as much lean meat as you want: 90 percent lean beef, turkey, chicken, tuna, salmon (any kind of fish/seafood really). (You can eat bacon, ham, and fattier meat, too, but just for the sake of being politically correct, limit these to one to two servings a day.) Use low-carb marinades and rubs to add variety to things like chicken and beef.

3. Especially avoid high-carbohydrate snacks. That is, anything that would spike your insulin between meals. Instead eat pepperoni or cheese (or better yet, pepperoni sticks dipped in soft cheese! or tuna, etc. Also, eat at 1-2 servings of peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, and pine nuts per day (great snacks).

4. Allow yourself one to two servings (but only at ONE meal) of the following: whole grain/wheat bread, brown rice, sweet potato, oats/oatmeal (In other words, if you want a sandwich for lunch, eat it. If you like oatmeal for breakfast, eat it.)

5. Limit fruit intake to 2 servings a day. Choose from: strawberries, pears, peaches, apples, and grapes.

6. Have as much coffee (with cream or artificial sweeteners), diet soft drinks, and tea as you like.

7. Drink lots of water. Let's say 16 ounces ever two hours you are awake on top of other beverages.

8. Drink (roughly): 15 grams of protein, 45 grams of carbohydrate (high-glycemic like maltodextrin or dextrose) in 12 ounces of water--half 5 to 15 minutes before your workout, and the rest evenly divided every 15-20 minutes of your workout. (This is basically a "Nutrient Timing" principle.)

9. After your workout, drink 20 grams of protein and 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrate. (These numbers are debatable, but I think they'll do the job quite nicely.)

10. Eat eggs and plenty of cheese. Avoid milk most of the time. (If you love it, limit it to one serving a day.)

Sit back and read the above over a few times. In the next couple of days, I'll go into how I've incorporated this into my daily meals and give you exactly the foods that I'm eating to give me the results that I posted here. If you have questions about the diet in the next couple of days, don't hesitate to e-mail me at mike@leanbodyfitness.com and I'll try and clear up any confusion you might have with what is posted above.

Like I stated, this is a great diet and something that I not only think is a great way to lose weight but, is also a great eating plan that you can follow as a healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life.

P.S. This diet is actually going to be coming out into a book in the fall. When it does, you'll be the first to know about where you can get it.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

New Diet Part I

In this post a couple of months ago, I mentioned a diet that I was testing out on myself and was waiting to give my approval or disapproval after I was on it just a little while longer and had some blood work done to make sure there were no harmful effects on cholesterol, glucose, etc.

Well, I'm here to give the results.

First, I've been following this diet 90% of the time (following a diet 90% of the time is the standard that you should be meeting when on a diet. Sorry but if you're only following a diet 50% of the time, then you're not following it) since roughly the middle of November.

Before starting the new diet, my weight was roughly around 170 pounds. I didn't necessarily need to lose body weight but, wanted to lose some body fat since it increased some since I was coming out of a muscle building phase for the 3 months prior.

My new workout consisted of a basic fat loss workout that included strength training 3 days a week for roughly 30 minutes each session and 2 days a week I did an interval workout that lasted roughly 20 minutes a session on a bike.

The results:

Weight: actually dropped to 158 pounds. Lost quite a bit of body fat too as I'm seeing definition around muscle that I've never seen before.

Strength: Has increased quite a bit in all of the big lifts (Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Pullup). I'm creating new records on a regular basis now.

All of these were taken in a fasted state:

Total cholesterol: 146 (down from 166 in June of 2005)

HDL cholesterol (the good stuff): 60 (up from 53 in June of 2005)

LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff): 76 (down from 97 in June of 2005)

Triglycerides: 49 (down from 81 in June of 2005)

Blood glucose: 90 (up from 81 in June of 2005)

Blood pressure: 104/70

Resting pulse: 70

All other blood work was within normal range.

The doctor was happy and I was pretty happy about them as well. These are great numbers for overall health and preventative care for years to come if I continue to follow the healthy lifestyle that I've set out for myself.

So are you ready to strangle me if I don't give you the details of what this diet is all about? Are you anxiously awaiting it's unveiling?

Well, check back in the next couple of days and we'll go over the details. You won't want to miss this.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Why You Need Water

So you hear all the time that you should be drinking water but have you ever gotten the answer as to WHY?

Well, first, two-thirds of our body weight is “water weight.” Blood, muscles, bones and even our brains consist of large amounts of water. So in order to keep those processes functioning we need to constantly be replenishing the water stores in our bodies.

The other benefits of drinking water include:

· Giving you energy (for me personally, that first sip of water in the morning is like my coffee, it’s just perks me up and gets me moving).

· Can keep your skin healthy reduce the amount of dryness you get at various times of the year.

· Flushes out toxins and waste from your body.

· Helps with digestion.

· Can help reduce pain in your lower back (essentially by lubricating the area).

· Helps increase your mental and physical performance at work and at home.

· Can help you lose weight (quick tip: If you drink cold water, you will actually burn calories just by consuming it because your body has to use energy in order to bring the temperature of that water to body temperature).

So how much water do you need? It’s debatable but, what I have found to work best is to go out and buy a liter of bottled water and continue to drink and refill that bottle until you have drank 3 liters spread out over the course of the day. Also, make sure you get plenty of water during your workout. It’ll not only stop you from becoming dehydrated but, it’ll also give you more energy in order to keep your intensity up.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Funny picture I found, just had to share it:



www.leanbodyfitness.com

The Importance of Protein

Okay, I know in the past I’ve said that weight loss is about calories in and calories out. Meaning, if you take in less calories than you are expending, then you’ll lose weight. But, there’s an important piece that is understated, and that is that your body burns roughly 10 percent of its calories by digesting the food that you consume. This is known as the Thermic Effect of eating.

This is where dietary protein comes in. Protein is made up of various complex chemical bonds. When you eat protein, your body cannot immediately use that protein for energy, so it has to use energy to make that protein into energy. It’s easier for the body to breakdown and turn carbohydrates and fats into energy than it is to do this with protein. In fact, it takes 2 ½ times more calories to break down protein than is does to breakdown carbohydrates.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you currently are getting 30 grams of protein a day. That equals 120 calories you’re getting a day from protein (side note: 1 gram of protein equals 4 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrate equals 4 calories, 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories). If you take 120 calories and multiply that by the thermic effect of protein (which is .2), you’ll find that your body has to burn 24 calories just to break down that protein.

So if you bump your protein consumption up to 100 grams a day, after doing the calculation, you’ll find that your body has to burn 80 calories a day just to break that protein down.

Bottom line, start increasing your protein intake and you’ll burn extra calories without even trying!

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Why Progression is Important

Remember when you had your first alcoholic drink and by the time you finished it you were, well, pretty much buzzed, and maybe even flat out drunk? And then maybe after a few days you were sitting down for another drink, and thinking the same thing was going to happen with just one drink. What happened? You drank the same thing, but yet, didn’t get that same buzz or drunken feeling after that one drink like you did before. You now had to drink another, and then maybe even another to get that same effect.

Why did this happen? It happened because your body adapted.

The same thing happens when you workout. When you first get into an exercise routine, your body has never had that stimulus before. So you get sore, lose some weight and even build up your bone mineral density. But, after some time, you notice the scale stops moving, and your body image stops changing. Your body adapted to the stimulus and you’re now at a new plateau.

So how do you get to the next level? You change your workout routine. You add more intensity. It’s simple really. In order to continue to see results, you need to have an overloaded stimulus and you need to progress.

This is what the Lean Body Fat Loss Training does. The first phase you go through a preparatory period that helps your body with an overall conditioning. Then it progresses in subsequent phases to changes in intensity and volume. As long as you keep on the path of a continued slightly overload of the system, and slowly progress upwards with your programs, you’ll continue on your journey to your physical goals.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Intervals vs. Steady State Cardio Part III

So we've gone over intervals and shown why they are superior to fat loss than steady state cardio.

But, i guarantee some of you are saying, "But Mike, I started walking 45 minutes a day and lost 20 pounds over the coarse of 2 months. Don't try and tell me steady state cardio doesn't work."

Okay fine. You got me. Sort of.

If a person who previously was completely sedentary and didn't do anything other than sit at a desk all day and then came home and sat on the couch all of a sudden decided to start exercising, well of coarse they're going to lose weight. They are doing more activity then the previously were doing. They're burning more calories just by doing that new activity. But, I would still argue that if you lost 20 pounds during that 2 month time period with steady state cardio, you very well could have lost more weight using intervals and only doing them 20-30 minutes 3-4 times a week. Again, intervals win out on the exercise efficiency war.

Another question I'm sure someone is asking is "What about the 'fat burning zone?' Aren't you supposed to keep your heart rate in a certain range in order to burn more fat?"

The fat burning zone is a big myth. I mean think about it. Are you really going to try and convince me that someone running their butt off is burning less fat than someone going at a pace that isn't even causing a break in sweat? Using the logic that slower is going to burn more fat, that means you'd burn more fat sitting in front of the television watching Oprah rather than taking some sprints on the bike.

In the end, your net calories burned is going to be higher when using a 20-30 minute interval session rather than using a 45-60 minute steady state cardio session.

Try it. You'll love to hate intervals but, you'll soon get over that when you see the numbers on the scales dropping from week to week.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Intervals vs. Steady State Cardio Part II

Previously I went over what intervals were.

Today, I'm going to sum it all up and explain why intervals are superior to low intensity steady state cardio when it comes to fat loss.

The term is known as Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption(EPOC).

When you start working your muscles, your heart rate increases (thus also increasing your breathing) in order to get oxygen to those working muscles at the rate that is needed in order to sustain that activity. Once you are done doing that activity, your body is still going to take in more oxygen than you were before doing the activity for a period of time in order to continue to repair the muscles (as well as other functions) that you just worked.

You can try this yourself. Check your heart rate for 15 seconds. Then run in place as quickly as you can for 30 seconds. Check your heart rate after you’re done for 15 seconds. The heart rate is elevated above your pre-run-in-place rate. Now check it again in a minute, and you’ll still find that it’s above the rate that it was at prior to running in place. That’s EPOC. Your body continues to need oxygen at above the pre-activity rate in order to bring the body back to the pre-activity condition. And during this EPOC time period, your body is still burning calories from the result of that activity.

How does this relate to Intervals?

Let’s say you took a walk at a normal pace for 45 minutes. Let’s say you burn 150 calories during that time. Since the work you perform on the muscles is not very intense, the amount of EPOC needed after the exercise is not that big. You may only need about an hour before your body is back to your pre-walk condition. So the amount of calories you continue to burn from the walk, after the walk is very small.

Now let’s say you get on the bike and do Intervals for 20 minutes. The intervals are intense and require a lot of work of large muscle groups in your legs. The intensity is so much that within those 20 minutes, you may burn 125 calories.

But, the key is the EPOC. Because the intensity of the exercise was high, and large muscle groups in the legs were used, it’s going to take a longer EPOC in order to bring your body back to the pre-bike condition. It may take up to 24 HOURS for your body to get back to that pre-bike condition, and that means that during that EPOC, you are still burning calories. How many calories burned depends on a variety of factors but it could result in another hundred or so calories being burned.

This is not only why intervals are great for burning fat, but also why strength training is a great fat burner as well. When you strength train, it could take up to 48 hours for your body to return to your pre-exercise state, thus meaning 48 hours of calorie burning for an activity that you did 2 days ago!

Bottom Line. Do the intervals. They hurt, but I can tell you with absolutely certainty, if you do them consistently along with a strength training plan, fat WILL fall off.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Intervals vs. Steady State Cardio Part I

I've gone over why lifting weights is an important part of a fat loss program, as well as why keeping your eating line is also essential.


But now I'm going to go into over the next few days why intervals are much more effective to fat loss than steady state, low intensity cardio.

First I'm going to go over what intervals actually are and how to do them.

An interval session normally starts with a warm up at a moderate pace. Intervals can be done on any exercise equipment such as the treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical, etc. Note though, you're going to get the most bang for your buck running, second choice would be the stationary bike. The elliptical, well, it'll work but, in my opinion, just avoid it.

After the warm up, you then go at 90% of your max pace for a short period of time. Might be 20 seconds, might be 30 seconds, or 45 or maybe a full minute. If you're on the bike, it's more important to increase the resistance first, then be concerned about the cadence. You want to keep the resistance and speed at a pace where you could really only pedal between 80-90 RPMs. If you're spinning really fast at a cadence of over 100 RPMs, then you need to increase the resistance you're using.

After the high resistance/high speed pace, you then reduce the resistance and the speed for a period of time down to the rate you were going at during the warm up. This really depends on the amount of experience with intervals. If a beginner, take about 60-90 seconds at the lower rate. If more experienced, you could use twice the amount of time for the rest as you did for the high intensity part (example, if you were going 30 seconds hard, take 60 seconds at the lower pace).

Once time is up on your active rest period, increase the resistance and speed again and go at it for the recommended amount of time. Keep doing this until you've done 6-12 of the high intensity intervals (again, based on your experience with intervals).

After you've completed the number you're going to do, slow down and do a cool down for 3-5 minutes at a nice easy pace. In the end, you're interval workout is probably going to be 20-30 minutes.

Important point to remember though. When I say 90% of your max pace, I mean based on your subjective max pace. If you're in good shape, been working out for a number of years, a max pace for you might be a full blown sprint. For someone just starting out, it might just me a faster pace walk and as you get more experienced with it, progressively increase your pace a little faster.

Next up, what this all means and why intervals are better for fat loss than low intensity steady state cardio.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Soda - Bad

Are you a soda junkie? Can’t get through the morning without at least one 20-ounce bottle of your favorite soda?

Well, I’m here to tell ya, that soda can really pack on the pounds.

First, some background on calories.

In order to lose a pound of body fat, you need to burn 3500 calories under your maintenance calorie level. The same goes for gaining a pound of fat too. Take in 3500 calories more than what your body needs to maintain your weight, and you’ll put on a pound of fat.

So let’s look at how soda affects this.

Take regular Coca-Cola Classic. There are 242.5 calories in one 20-ounce bottle.

Let’s say that you only drink one bottle a day. What that means is that if you were to stop drinking it, and didn’t make any other changes to your lifestyle, in the course of 26 weeks (6 months), you would be taking in 44135 less calories than if you kept drinking that one coca-cola a day. That means you would lose roughly 12 ½ pounds during that time period. And that’s only if you’re drinking one a day!

Addicted to Mountain Dew? Mountain Dew has 275 calories in one 20-ounce bottle. If you were just drinking one a day and decided to stop drinking it cold turkey and no other changes to your lifestyle, within 6 months you would lose over 14 pounds.

So if you’re addicted to regular soda, start pulling yourself off of it and the weight WILL start to come off.

But what do you drink in place of soda? Simple. Water. No calories, no added sodium, no man-made ingredients. And your body will love you for it.

Test Time

Take a look at this article with a calorie test. I'm not sure if getting them right or wrong is good or bad.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Fat Loss Challenge

Take a look at this website.

It's a great idea and I tip my hat to the governor of Indiana for coming out and recognizing the seriousness of the obesity epidemic and coming up with a program to slowly get people active as well as eating healthy.

Sign up for the newsletter. You can never receive to much information.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

A Lot of Food Part II

I mentioned in this post the difference that needs to be made between eating a lot and eating often and how sometimes when you see someone eating something and don't think they are eating "a lot," what that person might be eating is loaded with calories to truly make it eating "a lot."

Well, take a look at this article. You'll be shocked at the calorie counts in those foods. Just another example of how people completely underestimate their daily caloric intake.

You've been warned. Again.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

As I Was Saying

I mention in this post that the cost of health care is growing at super speed rates and that if this continues, people are going to be forced to start paying a lot more for it out of their pockets than a free (or close to free) ride that we've been getting thus far.

This article talks about changes that employers are making to their health insurance options.

The article states that according to a recent poll of employers:

The poll found that 5 percent of companies offered only a high-deductible plan in 2007, and that figure will rise to 9 percent in 2008.

A high-deductible plan works pretty much like this:

Depending on whether you have a single person plan or a family plan, the participant involved in the plan has a high annual deductible (over $1000). Whenever you go to the doctor, you've have to pay for the services out of pocket. Once you reach that deductible amount, then your insurance covers it from that point on.

But, there are tax advantages to this. What you are allowed to do is take money and put it in a health savings account (HSA) pre-tax (works similar to your 401k) and after you go to the doctor and pay the bill, you send a copy of the bill to the HSA provider and they then take money out of your account and cut you a reimbursement check. So you essentially paid for the medical services pre-tax.

One last thing about those accounts. You can also take a portion of the money in that account and place it into a separate account that is moved in and out of markets like what you have with your 401k.

There's a limit a the amount you can put in an HSA every year. And until you reach a certain age, you can only take money out of that account for "qualified medical expenses." But, after you reach a certain age, you can start taking that money out for any reason you want.

The good news is that it gives you another pre-tax shelter for your earnings. The bad news is, it's a pretty high deductible to meet before your insurance kicks in.

But, the reality from what the article says is that it's starting to gain traction among employers because it can substantially decrease their monthly health insurance premium that they pay for their employees. I don't think it's going to take long for more and more employers to change to only making this type of policy available to employees.

If this trend continues, I think you know what it means. Those that are healthy and just don't have the need to go to the doctor much are going to be able to take advantage of the tax shelter to save for retirement. For those that are not healthy, well, it's going to end up costing you.

So again, here's your choice. Start exercising and eating healthy, and in the long run, it's going to save you money. Don't start exercising and continue to eat unhealthy and take on other unhealthy activities in your life, and well, I think you can figure out what happens.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Eating A Lot vs. Eating Often

A lot of time when people see me throughout the day, I get asked "why are you not the size of whale?" I give them a puzzled look and ask "why do you ask that?" The response is "Because you eat soooooo much!!!"

Well, that's not necessarily true. I eat OFTEN, not a lot.

When you eat 6-7 meals a day, yes, it may seem to the outsider that you're eating "a lot" because you've got something in your mouth every 3-4 hours. But look at the amount you're consuming during that "meal." It's really not that much.

But, take a look at someone who eats unhealthy. The may not eat breakfast. And then at lunch, they go out and get some kind of fast food. Just looking at the fast food though still might not look like the person is eating "a lot." But, take a look at the number of calories in that fast food, the person's first meal of the day. Now take a look at what I would have eaten up to that point of the day (3 meals) and i guarantee that the number of calories that i consumed in those 3 meals, is STILL less than what that unhealthy eater had in one meal.

So don't always think that eating often is eating "a lot." As long as you pick the correct foods to eat (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, lean meats, etc) and stay away from the crap (fast food, and 75% of the stuff you find in a grocery store), then you just can't go wrong on your path to better health and fitness.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

I Hate to Keep Beating This

Again, no, not that.

Here's an article by Gabrielle Reece stating what I've been trying to pound into your heads...start eating....

Here's the way she puts it:

People, especially you girls, you need to eat if you want to lose. If you don't eat enough, you are starving yourself. So guess what? The body says to itself, "Oh, OK, since I'm not sure about this food flow, I'm going to hold onto every last calorie that enters my mouth." Isn't that great? So instead of working with yourself by blowing off breakfast and having "salad" for lunch and a glass of wine for dinner to stay or get thin, you're actually shutting down the show and making that eating hill even steeper.

Bottom line, stop looking at food as something to be avoided if trying to lose weight. You need to change your attitude and not feel guilty when you put food in your mouth. Food is fuel, it's not Satan's way of selling your soul to him.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Get Healthy = Keep Your Job

Anyone who lives in Michigan knows one thing about our current job market: it's blows.

One of the issues that I don't think has gotten as much attention as it should as one of the causes of this is the cost of health care. The cost of health care in this nation has consistently increased in near double digit percentages over the last several years.

One way we can help change this is by getting healthier. Think about it. You stop smoking, start eating healthy, and start exercising. What do you notice? You don't get sick as often, your cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood pressure are normal, which in turn means you don't need to go to see a doctor as often, which then turns into a decrease in health care cost.

We can't continue to have these huge increases in health care costs. I would guess that most people pay a percentage of their health insurance premium through their employer, but the vast majority of the overall premium is paid by the employer. Ladies and gentlemen, if these health care costs keep increasing at the rate they are currently, you can kiss that free ride goodbye.

And what happens then? What happens when you retire and all of a sudden you have to pay nearly the entire health insurance premium yourself, or have only insurance that covers hospital emergencies and you have to pay all your other medical expenses out of pocket?

If you start now, you could essentially be saving yourself thousands of dollars in out of pocket medical expenses simply by getting into a healthy lifestyle. Which would you rather have money for? To pay for nice gifts for your grandchildren, or be strapped financially because of those medical expenses that could have been avoided? It's your call but, I would think the answer is obvious.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Shocker: BMI not a reliable measure

Well, this article doesn't really come as a surprise.

BMI is your body mass index. If you have a BMI of 25 or higher, you're considered overweight and 30 or above is obese. The article describes how it's calculated:

BMI is determined by this equation: A person’s weight divided by his or her height squared. Generally a BMI of 25 or above indicates a person is overweight; 30 or above indicates obesity. A person with a higher BMI is thought to be at a greater risk of heart disease, diabetes and other weight-related problems.

The problem is that it doesn't take into consideration how much muscle a person might have, age, or other factors.

The article gives an example that using this formula, 60% of NFL football players would be considered obese. But really, I think that can even be expanded to show this formula is inaccurate for just about anyone that has a regular workout routine.

Now, don't take this to mean that we as a society are NOT getting fatter. The BMI might not be the greatest measure but, spend a half hour at any public place and you'll notice that 2 out of 3 people are overweight/obese.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Myths unlocked about Squats and Lunges

There's always been a few myths out there about squats and lunges that I think would be a good idea to go over.

Myth Number 1: Squats and Lunges are bad for the knees

Assuming you have healthy knees (meaning, the doc hasn't told you not to do squats or lunges), they aren't bad for your knees. In fact, they could actually help build up the bone mineral density of the bone in the knee and surrounding leg bones to make them stronger and thus, decrease your chances of osteoporosis as you age.

Myth Number 2: In a squat, you shouldn't let your upper leg go below the point of being parallel to the ground.

One word: babies. Meaning, take a look at babies after they start to walk. They stand there, stick an object in their mouth, throw it on the ground, and squat down to pick it up. Look at how they squat. Their butt in that diaper is nearly grazing the ground. They then pick the object up, stick it back in their mouth, throw it back on the ground, squat down again, and the cycle continues for 3-4 hours.

Babies are natural squatters and if squatting below parallel was harmful, we'd have millions of kids growing up in knee braces.

Another point to make on this myth is that if you go below parallel, you're actually going to be recruiting more from your glutes (butt muscles). So if you're hoping to shape that butt, keep doing squats.

Myth Number 3: You shouldn't let your knees go past the front of your toes while squatting or when doing a lunge.

First, again, go back to the babies. watch their knees and you'll see that they naturally go forward and past the front of your toes.

The biggest problem I see with this myth is that if you are watching where your knees are going, you could be causing bigger problems in other areas: your lower back.

In a squat, your lower back should be in a neutral and flat position. You should keep your eyes looking straight ahead in order to keep it in that position. You don't want your lower back to round. If you're paying attention to your knees, meaning, you're looking down at your knees, your lower back immediately goes into a rounding position. Not good.

In a lunge, you want your upper body to be straight up and down. Don't lean forward. And I'll give you one guess as to what happens when you look down to see where your knees are in comparison to your toes.....Yup, the upper body leans forward.

Bottom line, don't worry where your knees are compared to your toes, just keep your eyes looking straight ahead and your back flat on a squat, and upper body straight on a lunge.

Strength without Size

Short blog today but, this video will keep you busy for a little bit.

Some more evidence for you ladies out there that lifting heavy weights is NOT going to turn you into the Hulk. Check out the video.

She's 115 pounds. He's a UFC fighter. In a strength to mass ratio contest, she wins hands down.

So please, get it out of your head ladies that you're going to get big and bulk lifting heavy weights. It's just not going to happen.

And as for you guys out there, let this also be a lesson, just because you see a small petite woman walking down the street, watch your back because she very well could kick your ass.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

I Hate to Say I Told You So

But, I told you so.

Another great article by Tom Venuto talks about metabolism and why starvation and crash diets are horribly harmful to firing up your metabolism and burn off that unwanted fat.

When you starve yourself, your body doesn't just immediately go into burning all the fat that you have. It actually starts eating away at muscle and other tissue in order to make it so that you don't need as many calories to maintain your system. You'll lose some weight (fat and muscle) but, at some point your body is going to come back into balance and you'll hit a weight loss plateau. But now, lets say that instead of your body needing 1000 calories to maintain what it needs to do throughout the day, it only needs 750 calories (i'm just using random numbers here. there's nothing special about 1000 and 750).

So you reach the plateau, get frustrated, and say screw it and grab a doughnut. The problem now is that your metabolism has been decreased your daily calorie needs from 1000 to 750 to maintain it's processes. That means, if you go back to eating the way you were before the crash diet, you are not only going to put the weight back on but also put on additional weight.

Let's use a real life example using 1000 and 750 calories. It took your body 1000 calories to maintain all it has to do through the day before the diet. Let's say you only got that many calories in for the day (and by the way, I would never recommend someone eat only 1000 calories a day). so you were maintaining your weight. Then you went on the starvation diet and after a few weeks, your body only needs 750 calories to maintain. You get frustrated and go back to eating the way you did before the crash diet (1000 calories a day). But, your body only needs 750 calories a day to maintain itself, and that means the extra 250 calories that you're consuming are turning into fat. Which means, that within a couple of weeks, you will not only have gained the weight back that you lost, but you'll start to put on more weight. Not good.

But, the article explains that to get out of this cycle

It may take a little longer if you have really messed things up with severe
starvation dieting in the past, especially if you've lost a lot of lean body
mass, but it is never hopeless. Anyone can increase their metabolism.

He then goes into some great tips on how to get your metabolism fired up again. NOTE to current and former clients of my Lean Body Fat Loss Plan. Any of these sound familiar?

• Meal frequency: eat 5-6 small meals per day
• Meal timing: eat approximately every 3 hours, with a substantial breakfast and a substantial post workout meal.
• Sufficient Caloric Intake: maintain a small calorie deficit and avoid starvation-level diets (suggested safe levels for fat loss: 2100-2500 calories per day for men, 1400-1800 calories per day for women; adjust as needed)
• Food choices: Select natural, unprocessed foods with high thermic effect (lean proteins like chicken, turkey, egg whites and fish are highly thermic, as are all green vegetables, salad vegetables and other fibrous carbs)
• Cardio training: Push up the intensity a bit if you really want to get a metabolic boost. Walking and low intensity cardio is fine, but higher intensity is more metabolism-stimulating
• Weight training: The basic exercises that include the largest muscle groups or even call into play the entire body as a unit (squats, front squats, split squats, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, overhead presses, all kinds of rows and core-activation exercises) will have a much greater metabolism stimulating effect than isolation exercises (concentration curls, calf raises, etc)

Hmmmmm. Sounds pretty close to what I try to drill into the people that do my plan. So take that under advisement, I'm not just pulling your leg.

Finally, he states:

Consistency is the key.
Nothing will undermine the "re-building" of
your metabolism like inconsistency. If you stop and start, or skip meals and
workouts often, you will not even get off the ground.

And that pretty much sums it up. Don't kid yourself into thinking that you can fool your body by eating junk food and skipping workouts or eating great on the weekdays and then completely blowing it on the weekends. Stop making excuses.

You can lie to yourself all you want that "it's okay" but, your body isn't going to fall for it. It's your body, and it can be whatever it is that you want to make of it.

www.leanbodyfitness.com