My Top 2 Tips For Diet And Exercise

For the past few months, I’ve been stressing to all my clients and boot campers various methods of exercise, different suggestions for nutritional intake, tricks to gain muscle and lose fat, and the list goes on and on.

But sometimes, we just have to stick to simplicity. I want to share some tips with you today that pretty much sums up what all of us need to do to get lean and stay lean for life.

It doesn't get any simpler than this… but simple works!

MY TOP 2 DIET TIPS:

1) Eat Early and Often: Immediately after waking up, eat something, and then eat 2 to 4 hours to starve fat and feed muscle. By continuously fueling your furnace, and eating some animal protein (meat, eggs, cheese, etc.) with every meal, you will also keep your metabolism high and active throughout the day and prevent overeating.

2) When Consuming Carbs, Think Fiber First: Eat an unlimited amount of fibrous, cruciferous green vegetables to fill your stomach both during and between meals. For optimal fat-burning, try to limit fruit and other carbohydrate consumption to within 1-2 hours post-workout when your body best tolerates starches and sugars.

MY TOP 2 EXERCISE TIPS:

1) Invest in a Full Body Workout: This means doing a 5-exercise circuit (designed to work your core, upper body and lower body) AT LEAST 3 times per week with a day of rest between workouts. Alternate between 20-50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for each: a push (e.g. push-up), double-leg (e.g. squat), pull (e.g. row), single-leg (e.g. lunge), and core (e.g. plank) exercise. Perform up to 4 rounds without rest for a killer 20-minute total body workout.

2) Harness the Power of Intervals: Interval training is scientifically proven to burn 9 times more body fat than ordinary exercise and elevates metabolism for up to 48 hours after your workout. Perform cardio intervals on non-strength training days three times per week. Selecting your cardio exercise of choice, alternate between 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest and repeat this 30 second interval eight times for four total minutes followed by a one-minute rest. Repeat for up to 20 total minutes. This routine works best on a stationary bike (or for body weight cardio exercise that you can do at home like running in place or jumping jacks.

Live by these 2 training and nutrition guidelines and you will have a body to be proud of... I guarantee it ;)

3 Foods You Have To Avoid

I’ve been doing this personal training thing for a long time now. The easiest part of my job is getting my clients to follow my exercise programs. They are always willing to bust their butts with the workouts. However, most of the time, the challenge is making the right food choices to ensure that the fat stays off.

Nutrition is by far, the most difficult thing to change, especially if you’re so used to a particular way of eating. But if you want to lose fat, this is the first place you need to make a change. There is unfortunately no way to out-work bad nutrition. The bottom line is: you eat bad, you get bad results, no matter how hard you exercise.

I’ve posted some of his articles before, and it’s only because Craig Ballantyne is one of the world’s most respected trainers when it comes to fat loss. His Turbulence program is one of the best out there. Here is a fantastic article that I personally have experienced with several of my own clients, and applies to the majority of people out there that are on a quest to lose fat:

Turbulence Training for MEN

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Men's Health Expert

When one my best friends came to me asking how to lose fat, the first thing I did was not to put him on a hardcore exercise program (even though he was young and relatively fit), but it was
to take a look at his diet.

These days it is so much easier to eat more calories in 10 minutes than you could possibly burn in 100 minutes, so exercise is only a small part of the equation if you want to know how to burn fat.

Fortunately, or unfortunately for Jack, my buddy, his nutrition couldn't get much worse. It was only the fact that he was young, male, and semi-active that kept him from being more than 30 pounds overweight.

Each day he consumed...

- 8 cans of soda (and not diet soda!)
- eggs and bacon with buttered toast and hashbrowns for breakfast
- pepperoni pizza for lunch
- chicken fingers and fries for dinner

On weekends he would eat even bigger breakfasts, subs and chips for lunch, and pizza and burgers for dinner, and then 12 beers with the boys.

Eventually Jack weighed a chubby 210 pounds at only 5'10".

Each winter he would gain the weight, and then lose some of it in the summer as he became more active.

His diet contained the three foods you must not eat if you want to lose fat and be healthy:

1) French fries
2) Pizza
3) Chips

But this wasn't the right way to live, and he knew it.

Fortunately, Jack was the best client I could have, and he made all the changes I recommended, and loves his new healthy eating diet.

Heck, with the exception of his reward meal pizzas, he almost eats as well as I do!

Jack eliminated the processed carbs and sugar, with his biggest change being the elimination of the soda. He now grabs green tea and water all day long. He's cut out almost all trans fats, getting rid of the fries and chicken fingers (although there are still trans fats in some pizza crusts).

He now eats...

- at least 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day
- power salads with chicken or salmon and spinach, tomatoes,
peppers, broccoli and other vegetables
- salmon, chicken, or steak and vegetables for dinner
- He snacks on apples and bananas

And he's cut down his weekend drinking, replacing it with what he calls the natural highs of being healthy. It's amazing when someone finds out how to lose fat that they are able to appreciate how much energy, vitality, endurance and stamina they can have thanks
to their food choices.

In fact, Jack regularly works 14-18 hour shifts at a hospital and says it doesn't bother him one bit. He's got more than enough energy to work that long - and then go home to his girl!

And he's no longer sleepy at 4pm, like he used to be during his overweight days, when he'd come home from work and fall asleep for 2 hours before getting up and eating another sleep-inducing meal.

And of course, we had Jack start using the Turbulence Training workouts. Other trainers are calling him the "fittest guy at the gym" where there are over 5000 members! He's a legend thanks to his short, burst Turbulence Training workouts.

Avoid processed and fried foods if you want to burn belly fat,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com/GetStarted

Top 10 Basic Nutritional Guidelines

Back to basics. As a trainer, I am on my clients on a daily basis talking about nutrition. I have to because this is always the thing that holds people back from truly reaching their fitness goals. I see it all the time: people are strong in their workouts, but weak in the kitchen.

Remember those goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year? Well, I want you to look at that list and ask yourself if you’re doing everything you can to reach your fitness goals. Most of you will probably say no. So let’s get back to basics and refocus on why you made the decision to get fit in the first place.

Here are 10 Basic Nutritional Guidelines that everyone should follow on a daily basis:

1. Get used to the taste of food without dressings, sweeteners, etc. Ultimately you'll grow to like the natural taste of foods that you once thought tasted bland.

2. Try to eat more like a true vegetarian (i.e. the bulk of the diet should come from fruits, veggies, unprocessed and unbleached food). But don't get me wrong; I don't want you swearing off meat.

3. "Supplement" your unprocessed vegetarian-like diet with the high-protein foods such as chicken breast, lean meats, and fish.

4. Add healthy oils to your foods such as fish oil and milled flax seeds.

5. Drink only calorie-free beverages (green tea, water, etc.).

6. Unfortunately the worst foods usually are the most convenient and the most processed foods. Avoid eating for convenience alone. Stay away from any and all kinds of microwaveable dinners.

7. Avoid any easy-to-prepare breakfast foods (waffles, french toast, etc) as they're loaded with fattening trans-fatty acids.

8. Avoid products containing the ingredients or words "partially hydrogenated," "high fructose corn syrup," etc.

9. Avoid fast/fried food.

10. Avoid foods or meals that are high in both fat and carbohydrates.

It is not enough to adopt just 1 or 2 of the above. You have to commit yourself to make these changes. I hate to tell you, but if you can’t handle these simple guidelines, it will be tough to reach your fitness goals. So as Nike says: JUST DO IT!