Faith, perspective and weight loss! It's not rocket science.

Can you lose weight fast?  That depends on you.  I would say this; as a PT, I am learning more and more all the time about how eating CLEAN alone is such a big help.  So, eat clean and whatever you do, be consistent!  Inconsistency can be your biggest enemy.  If you can reset your mind then you're golden.  Plenty of new research shows that you can, in fact, program your brain!  Not only can you program it by creating new habits, but you can even program it by telling yourself what you are and who you are.  You only have to believe it.  New synapses in the brain are created, literally, physically!  This is very new to biological science.  And, how inspiring!!

So, consistency, consistency, consistency.  Remember that when you "fall" away from that good diet, you are, in essence, making it more difficult to believe the best about yourself.  So, it's two fold, not only is telling yourself in time of temptation what you want to believe of yourself going to produce the best in you, but also, taking the right action actually reinforces that mindset!  It's kind of a "yin-yang" type of thing.  There are so many really, really good reasons to take hold of the YOU that you want to be by eating right every single meal and working out a little bit each day! You. can. do it.

There is no fitness in tomorrow.

There is no fitness in tomorrow.

If one hopes to change, you better believe that it is today. Fitness is not the type of thing that we can "plan" for... it's the type of thing that we just have to choose to do it. See the Nike slogan in there, in the last 7 words? That's why they have that slogan. Because the trap of thinking, "There will be a better time," is a lifelong trap.

If you can't do anything else besides throw in a whole lot of N.E.A.T exercises, then you better throw in a whole lot of NEAT exercises! Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. Example: Running up the stairs instead of riding the elevator, walking longer distances from your car to the store, pacing to think instead of sitting, just anything where movement replaces non-movement and the faster you move, the better.

Like · · Unfollow Post · Share · Promote

• 

  Jerry Pitman What's more, and worse, is that those who do fall into this trap do not know that often they can actually EXPECT an average gain of at least 10 lbs per year... which happens slowly enough that they don't realize it, however produces a total weight gain of 50 full lbs or more in only 5 short years! This usually starts occurring somewhere in the person's 20's and continues on, which is why it's so important to monitor the direction and the progression of our weight gain. According to legendary fitness expert Tom Venuto, there certainly is a direct correlation between monitoring our weight regularly and fitness level. Surprise surprise.

  Yes, this was copied directly from my Facebook page. I thought it was fun, so suit me. See if you can "Like" it.

Protein Much?

 Whether you are trying to add muscle or burn fat, one thing you may want to take into consideration is your protein to carbohydrate to fats macro-nutrient ratio.  You may have the hang of eating more nutrient dense foods, and truly, that is key.  You certainly wouldn't want to replace the vegetables that you eat with other protein sources. Honestly, you wouldn't want to even replace the fruits with them, well, other than unless you had more than 2 or 3 servings of fruit as even Tom Venuto, in his book "The Body Fat Solution" suggests that fruit is a perfectly fine source of nutrition, let alone Dr. Fuhrman.  But, something important to remember is that lean meat sources, fish, white meat chicken, poultry, and the leaner beef/steaks and wild game, are ALL very thermic (thermogenic) foods. Meaning that they will take TWO to THREE times as much natural energy to burn as carb sources do and protein has TEN times the thermic effect of fats.  So, even though lean meats aren't very full of phyto-nutrients, they sure can act as natural catalysts to a leaner, healthier body!  Not to mention, we can also actually get our protein needs through legumes, beans, peas and nuts! Be sure to include within most meals a nice protein source.  This is particularly important for those who are insulin resistant which is often undetected and tough to beat without a much higher protein intake.  Your daily percentage of protein grams, all foods included, for optimal performance should be equal to at least 30% of your overall diet but no more than 35% for the healthy adult.

Whatever you do, remember that proteins are only building blocks for tissue, no more, no less.  So, if you figure that just electively dumping an extra truckload of wood onto the lawn is helpful to a builder who is trying to repair a home in good time, then perfect, add in about 50 or 100 extra grams of protein into your daily diet! Just keep two things in mind, first, you're by far overloading your system and slowly destroying your liver which will only have to work to rid the body of all the excess and second, your body will not repair the damaged tissue any faster at all as a result of all that extra protein. I might also add that when Lou, Arnold and Stallone were on the rise and building muscle fast, they were using about 30/35 grams a day back then, total! If it worked for them, it would work for you too. Extra protein is completely senseless. Too little is not good either.

"Warmup? Pfff, What a Waste of Time!"

When you perform your resistance workouts, be sure you add in at least a "moderate to intense" 3-5 minute cardiovascular warm-up before hand. This helps prep the body for both burning calories and getting great lifts that your body will be "impressed" with!  Studies show that starting a workout off, whether cardio or resistance, more intensely rather than mild or moderate will cause a greater calorie burn through the entire workout.  The heart, lungs and vascular network can be thought of as our body's personal engine.  When that engine is primed, a greater efficiency and better performance is the result.  This goes pretty much for any athlete in any event, so then it most certainly goes for everyone else, barring any health limitations.

Next, you'll want to be sure, and this is strict, to get at least one good exercise specific warmup prior to the FIRST resistance exercise that you are to perform.  The reason for this is similar to the cardio warmup, yet it will  lend greatly in reducing the risk of injury! As a matter of fact, it may just determine whether or not we are to get injured on a given workout day.  As a bonus, the exercise specific warm-up also hyper-surges performance enhancing, oxygen carrying blood flow into the individual muscle fibers creating an optimal environment for our absolute best while also greatly reducing risk of injury to tendon and cartilage tissues! Basically, it's much more important than we typically realize. So, get those cells pumped full of blood before giving it your all! You'll not only get a better lift, you'll build more muscle through fiber tearing.

Artificial Sweeteners are Killing You.

Don't want to eat deadly Chemicals like Aspartame? Look for things labeled, "Diet" and "Sugar free"... I'm sure there are more. But, the idea is that if it does not use sugar but it's supposed to be sweet... then it's a reason to read the label, for sure. Nutra-sweet and Equal are also aspartame.

While it's actually included in many things, most people just don't pay attention. It's included Breath Mints Carbonated Soft Drinks Cereals Chewing Gum Flavored Syrups for Coffee Flavored Water Products Frozen Ice Frozen Ice Cream Novelties Fruit Spreads Gelatin, Sugar Free Hard Candies Ice cream Toppings Ice Creams  No Sugar or Sugar Free Iced Tea, Powder Iced Tea  Ready to Drink Instant Cocoa Mix Jams & Jellies Juice Blends Juice Drinks Maple Syrups Meal Replacements Mousse No Sugar Added Pies Non-Carbonated Diet Soft drinks Nutritional Bars Powdered Soft Drinks Protein Nutritional Drinks Pudding Soft Candy Chews Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup Sugar Free Cookies Sugar Free Ketchup Table Top Sweeteners Vegetable Drinks Yogurt drinkable Yogurt  Fat Free Yogurt  Sugar Free...

And, get this, there are about NINE different major artificial sweeteners and they're used all over the place as well! This is only ONE! And, they're all bad.... You want natural sweeteners, such as Stevia herb and Agave Nectar(personal favorite as it's actually low glycemic though it tastes quite sweet).

Lastly, there are a few things that we can actually look for at the store that give a darn... i.e. Xing Tea sold in the cold drinks section is 100% all natural and actually uses pure cane sugar to sweeten but not too much. It tastes great and has a good variety of flavors!! Yet, MOST of the other teas will sneak in the Aspartame or Sucralose, if not high-fructose corn syrup, somewhere.

The Old and the Weak

Physical performance and a lean, powerful body does not require youth even a fraction

as much as it requires physical exercise, a strong frame of mind, and a "go get it"

attitude. Youth, as far as great health and strength is concerned, is HIGHLY overrated

in our culture!

Age, like time, money, family, work and entertainment becomes just another excuse to

live in our own personal mire of pity, depression, apathy and defeat. As far as I'm

concerned there are far more "young" and weak than there are old and strong.

Note: There is a direct co-relation between lifting intensity and strength gains just as there is a co-relation between taking "action" and personal/financial success.

The Confusion Principle

Although there are many principles to learn when training, the confusion principle is the single most important principle in fitness, with the exception, perhaps, of intensity level. Adaptation is the real process that's taking place when we train the body for fitness and optimal health. The human body has to adapt, scientifically. It has no choice. We have a choice but our body simply does not.

Give the body the right treatment and every body will adapt. However, if we continue to do the same things, the body has little need to adapt at all. If you're exercising to maintain your current level of fitness, then the "same old workout" may do. But, if you're exercising to produce change in your body, then CHANGE is what is needed. You could add more resistance, more cardio, alternate cardio w/ resistance, more repetitions, the list goes on and on. It's o.k. to be creative but it's not o.k. not to challenge yourself.

The human body needs about 3 to 4 weeks to really adapt to a new set of "rules".  Therefor, one only needs to alter their routine about that often. Changing things up more often than that may backfire because not only has the body not even had time to adapt to the current exercises, but it is also too easy to fall into the trap of actually doing the same things over and over, causing the body to only become accustomed to the current pattern of what may seem like continual changes. Given a nice foundation of 3 weeks of the same program of exercises will allow you to make superb progress in your current fitness level but more importantly will give room to completely revamp the routine 3 weeks out and "shock" your system all over again.