Just this past weekend, I went to the Perform Better Results Business Seminar by Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove. I was excited for the whole event because I knew how successful the Cosgrove’s were in running a highly sought after gym in California. I knew I was going to learn a lot but the seminar just exceeded my expectations. To top it off, both of them were really down to earth people who really want to help normal people like me achieve success in fitness and in business.

Me with Alwyn and Rachel. This pic was taken after our morning workout so I'm still sweaty and not very presentable...LOL.

If you don’t know Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove, they are the owner of Results Fitness in Newhall, California. Their gym was been voted as one of “America’s Top 30 Gyms” in Men’s Health 2008 and also “America’s TOP 10 Gyms in Men’s Health 2009. Alwyn also has a great online fitness program called “Afterburn” and another fitness and nutrition (low calorie, low carb, done for you meal plans and workouts, etc.) program called, “Warp Speed Fat Loss.” But, the latest product to come out that is dedicated solely to women and written by Rachel is the book, “The Female Body Breakthrough.”

I have read the book about 3 months ago when it first came out and meant to review it in the blog but just got sidetracked. So, coming out of the seminar, I got reminded how valueable this book is to women around the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a veteran in exercise and nutrition, there’s several things you can learn from this book that is worth more than its price. To me, if a book or a seminar only teaches me ONE valueabe thing that will move my business and fitness forward, I would’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it.

Pic of Rachel when she was a figure competitor

In the book, Rachel was very candid when she talked about her battle with bulimia for at least 5 years. I couldn’t believe that this is the same person I met this past weekend because she is so empowering and inspirational. This just made me an even bigger fan of her because she understands what most women go through.

In the book, she even created an acronym for the B.I.T.C.H which stands for “Be Inspiring Totally Confident and Hot.” Some of you may think that it’s lame attempt to make being called a “BITCH” cool but I think it’s pretty creative and motivating. Now, I can say, “Oh yah, I’m a BITCH.” I even named a workout out of this for my bootcamp and all my women clients loved it.

The one tid bit that really stuck with me is Rachel’s tip during “the time of the month.” You know, that time when you’re hormones are all over the place and you just want to eat every dessert that comes your way. Basically, she says that if we learn to not give in to our food desires during this time that we will see even more fat loss because our hormones favor it during this time. So, when that time comes, I try my best to stay on track and not give in to temptations which has gotten easier over the long run.

Most Recent Pic of Rachel Cosgrove for FBB

Rachel also created the “Fit Chick Credo” which I enlisted here:

1. Act as if you are a fit female
2. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
3. Fuel Your Body to be Fabulous
4. Train hard or go home
5. Get hooked on feeling fit, not a number on a scale.
6. Be an early Riser.
7. Make R&R…&R a priority!
8. Obstacles will arise -anticipate them!
9. Keep a journal or a blog
10. Eliminate Crabs and surround your self with supportive people!
11. Think about your thoughts!
12. Attitude is everything!
13. Manage Your “Tub of Stress”!
14. Put an end to body bashing and instead celebrate your strengths!
15. Don’t rely on will power. Have strategies!
16. Stop rationalizing and making excuses!

Some of these credos are straightforward while some still need a little elaboration like #13. But, if you read the book, it will all come together for you.

The The Female Body Breakthrough also includes sample menus and a done-for-you 16-week workout program with pictures and description. It is a complete guide into getting the fit female look. If you want to go even further, Rachel has created a membership site with the book where you can get a new, monthly workout and coaching from her. You can check it out at www.femalebodybreakthrough.com. She does charge $97/month for this service but if you value her expertise and what she has to offer to benefit your health and fitness and achieving your goals, you will realize that this is a small price to pay. If I had the means, I would train at Results Fitness and pay much more but for those of us who don’t live near their gym, this is the next best thing.

She also wrote an article about her experience with steady state cardio while training for the Ironman which she has proven to be ineffective in terms of fat loss. You can read the article, “The Final Nail in the Cardio Coffin,” here.

Lastly and more importantly, Rachel talks about all the excuses that we make when we see ourselves “checking out” (her words) out our fitness plan. She works with you with visual tools, mindset questionnaires, and just mindset in general. If you have exercised or dieted at all in your life, you’ll recognize that mindset is one of the most important factors in fat loss. Without the proper mindset, all the strategies in this book will not help you. Rachel does a great job with the mindset aspect of becoming a fit female.

I always believe in investing in myself because that is the only way I can grow. This is the same for everyone. A lot of people ask me how I come to know what I know about exercise, nutrition, and fat loss and my answer is education. I can always stop and say that I know everything but that is simply impossible. Even with the knowledge I’ve accumulated over the last couple of years, I am continually learning and I do that my learning from the experts like Rachel and Alwyn.

You can get the Female Body Breakthrough at Amazon.com by clicking here here.

Note: I bought the book with my own money and if you buy the book from the link above, I will get a commission percentage for the sale.

You’ve heard many fitness experts say that you have to set goals if you want to lose fat and become successful in doing so. But, people who have not worked out consistently and really dialed in their nutrition may either overestimate or underestimate their goals. This was definitely the case for me when I just started out the fat loss process. I wanted to be at a certain body fat percentage that was just way too low for the amount of time that I gave myself to reach it. Also, I had an unrealistic view of how I was going to look like when I reach my deadline.

You’ve probably read my post that talks about finding a model, like Jessica Biel, to look up to. Maybe you want the “fitness model look” and that’s what inspires you. It’s a great strategy and one that I still use today. Is it a realistic goal? Maybe, maybe not. We have to keep in mind that there are a lot of factors that affect how we look and how quickly we can achieve our goals. I will discuss some of these factors but take note that there are many other ones that may affect your results.

One such factor is body type. Our body types will dictate where we lose our weight first. Using myself as an example, I have an apple shaped body which means that when I gain weight, I see it immediately in my midsection. On the other hand, when I lose weight, I lose inches on my hips, thighs, and my arms first. For people who are pear shaped, they are most likely to lose inches from their midsections first then on their hips and thighs.

The next factor is training experience. This pertains to how long you’ve been training and it’s quality. This will also include tinkering with your nutrition. Many people can see amazing results in 3 months if they consistently follow a workout program that is designed for their goals and they find a nutrition plan that works for their body type. Some people may be fortunate to find these on their first try but most people tend to be in an eternal roller coaster of trying new things. The good news is, if you give something a good try, consistently for a month, you would have a good idea of whether it works for you or not. No matter what, your results will depend on the quality of your effort. If you didn’t follow the programs with at least 90% compliance, don’t expect to see amazing results.

The last factor that I’m going to talk about are your genes. There’s no doubt that your genes can impact many areas of your fat loss. Whether it’s your metabolism, your body type, your muscle building potential, hormone interaction etc., your genetic make up has something to do with it. People who are naturally skinny will obviously not have the problem of gaining weight and there are quite a few people out there who are like this. My point is, it’s unrealistic to compare ourselves to people who have the advantage of “good” genes on their side. Does this mean that we just give up and decide that it’s going to be too difficult? Of course not. This just means that we have to work harder and stick to the workout and nutrition plans more consistently. We may take a longer time to achieve our goals but with the right attitude and tools, it is definitely possible.

I wrote this article because I see people who have unrealistic expectations once they have been doing something for a few months. This is where our culture of immediate gratification can hurt us. It takes a lot of time and effort to achieve an amazing physique. Just ask any fitness model you know and he/she will tell you how many hours of exercise they put in and how much less food they eat. Even the Biggest Loser contestants will tell you that they work out all day and probably starve themselves sometimes in order to see a mind-blowing transformation.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t aspire to have an amazing body if that is what we want. I’m just saying that our actions would have to match our goals. If you want remarkable results, put in remarkable effort.

As I got ready to enter the Turbulence Training transformation and took my starting measurements, I realized that I haven’t written a post about how to measure body fat. A lot of people tend to base their progress on the bathroom scale, the tape measure. or the body mass index but body fat is probably the most detailed measurement of progress that we can take. When we measure our body fat percentage, we can tell how much of our weight is from body fat and from lean mass or muscle. This becomes important as we take our second set of measurements at about 2-4 weeks apart, we can then tell if we are gaining muscle, losing fat, maintaining muscle, etc.

Note: the picture above the post does not have anything to do with it but I thought it was so cool and calming.

While hydrostatic body fat testing is the “gold” standard in measuring body fat, Dr. John Berardi at Precision Nutrition came up with something that’s pretty close. Most body fat measurement manuals only use 4 sites but Dr. Berardi’s system tests 7 sites for more accuracy.

The 7 testing sites are as follows:

• Abdominal Skinfold
• Triceps
• Chest
• Midaxillary
• Subscapular
• Suprailliac
• Thigh

Before you panic and tell yourself that you don’t know half of these sites, let alone pronounce it, I actually have a document with pictures and instructions for you. You can download the Body Fat and Girth Measurement Guide by Precision Nutrition here. This guide includes step by step procedure for measuring body fat and girth (circumference) measurements. In order to use this guide successfully, you would need:

The Accu-Measure Fitness 3000 Personal Body Fat Tester and

The MyoTape Body Tape Measure

You can use other brands but I have found Accufitness products to be easier to use. The other ones I’ve used before were bulky and awkward to use. You would also need another person to measure your body fat sites. The girth measurements are easier to do with the Myotape but there’s no way you can measure your body fat on your own (if you find a way to do that, let me know…lol).

Inside the guide you will find that the formulas are way too difficult to calculate and very confusing. So, I created an Excel file for both men and women so that all you need to do is enter your information. After that is done, the worksheet calculates everything automatically for you. You can track up to 12 weeks worth of measurements (spaced 4 weeks apart) in this worksheet.

Download the Men’s Results Tracker here.

Download the Women’s Results Tracker here.

Before you enter your information in the Excel file, make sure that you save a blank version first so that you can use it again for the next set of 12 weeks, and so on. These are the tools that I use when I want to get myself measured and when I measure my clients. I hope you find these tools as useful as I have.

Eversince I was in college (which seems like ages ago), I’ve had this pain on my mid-back. It usually flares up during mid-terms and finals when I would be studying a lot and pulling off all-nighters so I can get some last minute studying in before the exam. After awhile, this pain went away until about a few months ago. This time though, it was not letting up.

Before, a trip to the gym and doing some cable back rows will usually alleviate the pain. Since I go to the gym fairly consistently, I would do my usual remedy and hoping that it will do the trick. Imagine my surprise when it didn’t. Because of this, I decided to go to a chiropractor. After my visit, the pain would go away for a few days only to come back again. So, after my third visit, my chiropractor suggested that I perform some specific exercises in between visits to help with the pain. I assured him that I perform some on my own but he gave me a different one anyway.

Before I continue with the solution, I want to emphasize that my pain probably comes from having bad posture while sitting in front of the computer (or, in the past, studying) for long periods of time. After awhile of being in this position (since college), it got harder to correct it by trial and error because I really didn’t know what was causing it. Now that I think about this issue even further, I also believe that the pain worsens when I do a lot exercises with my shoulder such as kettlebell snatches and not perform any mobility exercises for them. But, I also want to emphasize the fact that some people feel pain on their lower back which can be caused by many factors such as weight concentrated in the mid-section and poor core strength, just to name a few. So, the exercises that I’m about to discuss would mostly deal with bad posture.

The one exercise that helped me a lot: Stick Ups

I’ve done stick ups before for warm-up as Craig Ballantyne will use it every now and then when he creates his Turbulence Training Workouts. However, I never really thought that it would help my back pain.

Here is a great video of Craig demonstrating the stick up. It’s the first exercise that he discusses in this video:

So, as soon as my back pain flares up, I head on over to an empty wall and start doing stick ups. I was completely surprised when the pain went away! Talk about, immediate results. Now, I just love to include this exercise in my warm-ups and workouts that I design for my clients because it is a simple yet very effective exercise.

Another exercise that I like to do is the Ab Prone Cobra. This exercise tends to help strengthen your Rhomboids (the muscles in between your shoulder blades) which get weak over time because of poor posture. Here is a good video on how to perform the Ab Prone Cobra:

As you can see from both exercises, they tend to put your upper body in the opposite position that you would be if you were hunched over. So, doing these exercises on a regular basis will improve your posture and decrease mid-back pain (if you have it). It’s crazy how a simple adjustment at the chiropractor (which feels good by the way) coupled with these exercises has helped me with my back pain. I’m glad that I didn’t have to resort to pain relievers which only relieve my pain temporarily.

I wrote this post for 3 reasons: 1) to tell people that pain relievers are not the only answer to reducing pain, 2) to promote the chiropractic profession because they do more than just “adjust” people, and 3) to help people be proactive about their posture. As I get older, I tend to value good posture a lot which I took for granted in my younger days and I hope that the people who read this blog/post may do the same.

Let’s face it – many people fall off and on the healthy lifestyle wagon all the time. There are many so called “yo-yo dieters” who lose the weight only to go back to their old habits and gain double the weight they lost before they started a diet in the first place. I, myself, have experienced this “diet” roller coaster and lately, I have been thinking why this is.

I have come to the conclusion that fat loss or living a healthy lifestyle has a lot to do with your mind/brain and/or how you think. I may have realized this awhile ago but I just never thought about it as deeply as I have at this very moment.

I can train my mind to always come to this place whenever I get stressed. It's a nice place to go to.

Ok, so the brain is not a muscle (I just thought it would be a cool title) but it is worth exercising everyday because your success, in fat loss or anything in your life, depends A LOT upon it. If you were to look at people who are successful in anything, you would find that they are usually optimistic, motivated, and disciplined (among other things) people. The important thing to note here is that these successful people did not get like this overnight. Everyone sucks in the beginnning – at anything. What you and I need to know is: perfect practice makes perfect.

How do you do this? Recently, a client of mine brought to my attention a book called The Beck Diet Solution. It is a book created by Dr. Judith Beck who is a psychiatrist that specializes in Cognitive Therapy. The book teaches you many ways to deal with “dieting” and the many pitfalls associated with it. [Note: if you're a regular reader of my blog, you would know that I like diets because they help you practice the skills you need to succceed but I don't recommend having the diet mentality in the long run.]

Here are some tips that would help you stay on track and help “train your brain” in terms of “dieting.”

#1 Practice Your Resistance Muscles

If you are starting a new diet plan, it may be difficult for you to resist food temptations in the beginning or maybe even towards the end. The key to being successful during this time is to practice resisting these temptations. Just like in working out, you need to exercise your resistance consistently so that it will get easier later. This could be something simple as saying, “No, thank you,” over and over again to the foods that are offered to you at a party.

Dr. Beck says that it takes at least 20 times for people to practice resistance before it gets easier or becomes a habit. So, the next time you feel that you need to have a midnight snack or buy that candy bar at the cashier counter, resist the urge and keep doing so until you don’t want to do it anymore.

#2 Prepare for Bumps Along the Road

We all have it, we get stressed, we get emotional, we get busy, etc. That’s life. Life will always throw things at you and catch you off guard. This reminds me of my recent experience of starting my own business while my husband was deployed in Kuwait. I didn’t realize the emotional and physical toll that it will have on my body. These events have caught me off guard which caused me to lose sight of some of my fitness goals and some weight gain. At the time, I didn’t realize what was happening until I was able to pin point the things that are causing the change in my behavior and decided to deal with it.

You may get stressed by a new job, a looming deadline for a big project, adapting to a new place after moving, getting married, etc. Name it and I’m sure it will affect your behavior in terms of your fitness goals. The key to staying strong during these times is to recognize that they will pass and you don’t need food to make you feel better or that you need to keep doing your workouts to de-stress. Really pay attention to how your behavior is changed by an event and stick to your plan even when you don’t feel like it.

#3 Fight Cravings with an Alternative Habit

Dr. Beck describes cravings as a physiological and emotionally intense urge to eat. Usually cravings can occur even when you’re not hungry and they usually occur during emotional depressions or arousals. She suggests dealing with cravings by having an alternative habit when you have them such as walking your dog, drinking hot tea, listening to your favorite music, going for a swim, reading a good book, etc. This strategy will greatly help you if you find something that you enjoy doing. At the same time, it also requires practice on your part and some trial and error to find and form these new habits.

#4 Tell a friend

Our friends/family can be a source of strength during times of weakness. Recruit the help of your spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, or best friend to help you accountable for your actions. You would want to either e-mail, text, or call this person whenever you have a craving or desire to eat something that’s not on your plan. Sometimes, the simple act of just telling someone about your craving (or any diet difficulty) and having them talk you out of it or having them remind you of why you’re doing this in the first place will help you get out of that mindset that you have to give in. This is a great tool and one that everyone should practice whenever the situation occurs.

#5 Understand that Hunger is not an emergency

Many people tend to get moody or easily angered when they are hungry. One thing that I learned from practicing Eat Stop Eat (ESE) is that my hunger usually only lasts about 5-10 minutes. I have been through more worse physical discomfort in the past such as a tooth ache, strong headache, back pain, etc. The discomfort from hunger is nothing compared to the discomfort I’ve felt with these. Thankfully, I haven’t been injured as I can imagine that a broken leg or arm would be even worse.

The one thing to realize here is that most people tend to confuse hunger with a desire to eat. If you just ate a meal or a snack and you feel “hungry” again, chances are you just want to eat. If you want to distinguish between feeling hungry and just having a desire to eat, try fasting for 24 hours. Then, you would really know what real hunger feels like.

#6 The Advantages List

One tool that Dr. Beck has you do on the The Beck Diet Solution is to create an “Advantages List” on day 1. Basically, you would create a list of at least 20 things that you will have once you have reached your goal and read them first thing in the morning and during times of weaknesses. Here is a sample list:

• I want to have more self-confidence.
• I want to look better.
• I want to be healthier.
• I want to have more energy.
• I want to be less self-conscious.
• I want to wear more fashionable clothes.
• I want to wear size 5 jeans and feel great about it.
• I want to look great in a bikini.
• I want to feel strong.
• I want to be able to keep up with my kids.
• I want to look younger than my real age.
• I want to have a strong immune system.
• I want to look HOT!

Take note that each advantage should be written in a positive light instead of a negative tone such as “I don’t want to get sick.”

Having been able to maintain a healthy weight and a healthy lifestyle, I realize that simply having a nutrition and workout plan is not enough. You also have to have a plan for dealing with the way you think and undoing your old, mostly destructible habits. Also, finding a balanced, healthy lifestyle, knowing that you can make mistakes, and eat the not-so-healthy foods every now and then is what would really help you maintain your success in the long run.

The very first time I reached my ideal weight of 120 lbs, I wasn’t very happy with how I looked. I thought that I was just being human and I’m just not easily pleased with my accomplishment. Looking back 2 years from then with a lot more knowledge regarding fat loss, I now understand why I didn’t like the way I looked. Basically, I looked like a smaller, but still flabby, version of me, only lighter.

My Biggest Mistake

Back then, I was like most people, as soon as I decided to lose weight, I would hit the treadmills and start running like a mad woman. I was so focused on getting my cardio done that I didn’t even care about lifting weights. The end result is skinny fat – I looked skinny but I mostly had fat. If you were to touch me, it would probably remind you of the pillsbury dough boy. If you were to ask me to do push ups, I would fall flat on my face on the very first repetition.

What was I thinking? Seriously though, a lot of people tend to start their weight loss this way. I know because I encounter similar situations in my job.

The Best Way to Achieve that “Toned Look”

Now that I have a few years of training under my belt and I have learned so much about exercise and nutrition, I have a good balance of cardio and strength training. When I am in a hurry and don’t have much time, I simply choose to lift weights rather than do cardio.

This picture is still a little skinny for my taste but just adding a few pounds of muscle on her would make her look even better in my eyes

Here is a good template for a fat loss routine: Upper Body workout on Monday, Lower Body Workout on Wednesday, and a little bit of both on Friday. You can always switch the days if you workout on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. When I say upper body or lower body, I don’t mean that you should do isolation exercises like bicep curls. I mean do multiple joint exercises like military press, lat pull downs, chin ups, pull ups, squats, lunges, step ups, etc. If you really want to do some ab exercises, you should be doing planks, side planks, hanging knee raises, spider man climbs, mountain climbers, etc. Remember that in fat loss, you are better off doing these exercises because they help you burn more calories in less time.

In terms of sets and reps, I would focus on doing about 10-15 reps and 3 sets of each exercise. Then, you may increase the weight you lift by 2.5 lbs in some exercises so that you are making progress each and every week. Even if you have the same workout for 8 weeks but you are increasing your weights, you would still make progress. But, it would be good to change up your strength training routine every 3-4 weeks while keeping some of the big lift like squats and deadlifts in the mix.

Once you are done with your strength training workout and you still have time for cardio, go ahead and perform some high intensity intervalls which I talk about here. Better yet, if you’re a cardio king or queen which means that your body is used to running already, do some body weight intervals instead.

Following this template will reduce fat all over your body quickly than if you just did tons of steady state cardio. Also, you will gain some muscle mass which will give you that lean and toned look once you reduce the fat over your muscles.

I realize that this is a very general template but it will work for most people. Another thing to realize is, you can’t lose weight without taking care of your nutrition but I wanted this post to focus on the training. If you need help figuring out the amount of calories you should be eating based on your weight, height, and age, read this post on calculating your calorie deficit to get started. Nutrition would be best discussed in another post.

As I watched t.v. on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I saw a bunch of ridiculous weight loss commercials. But, the 2 ads that stood out the most for me were those for Skechers’ Shape Ups and Reebok’s Easy Tone. Both companies claim that wearing their shoes will help you burn calories and give you more toned legs and a rounder butt. The price? These shoes cost as much as $110! Aside from the ridiculous claims, they also come with a ridiculous price. These claims stir up some anger in me – just imagine me looking angry with smoke coming out of my ears.

If you haven’t heard of these shoes, here is an ad for Shape Ups that I found on Youtube:

If you go to Skechers’ web site, you will find that they have testimonials and “research” that back up their claims. It says that wearing Shape Ups is like walking on sand – takes more effort which therefore burns more calories compared to walking on pavement. I’m not saying that you won’t burn more calories with these shoes. But, the calories burned just won’t be enough to make you see the results that they’re suggesting you would get. You want a cheaper alternative? Just go to the beach and walk/run there. No, seriously, here is a better alternative…

A Strategy for a Rounder Butt: Kettlebell Swings

You probably know by now that I am a big fan of kettlebells. The reason for this is it’s cheaper than a lot of fitness equipments out there but it is also very effective in giving you a great total body workout at home (or anywhere you wish). They’re definitely cheaper than these shoes that will not deliver on their claim and longer lasting as most kettlebells are probably indestructible.

Want tighter glutes and sexier legs? Do swings instead and eat less.

Here is a video that I created that demonstrates what good kettlebell (KB) swings should look like:

After putting my class through their very first workout of just swings, they report being sore for days at a time. This is not unusual as most people since a lot of us forget how or don’t know how to really squeeze or activate our glute muscles. Of course, this soreness goes to a more normal cycle of about a day or 2 once you’re used to doing swings.

From my experience, I saw that my glutes got much tighter and looked a lot better in my skinny jeans ever since I did KB swings as an alternative to my high intensity intervals. But, I didn’t see this right away. It took a good 3-5 months before I even saw a difference. I used to think that a person is born with a nice butt but I think that most people can achieve a nice, rounder looking behind if they just consistently worked on targeting them on a regular basis. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that target training is effective either. This kind of result can only be achieved with overall fat reduction. Reduce the fat on top of your butt muscle and exercise that muscle for that “toned” look. This is the only way results happen.

By now, I am immune to infomercials for ab equipments but I see these commercials for Shape Ups and Easy Tone as another generation for exploiting the public’s need for immediate gratification. I wish having a beach body was way easier. Believe me, I would be the first person to tell you about it but it just isn’t. I know that eating less and moving more doesn’t sound very sexy compared to just walking your way to a leaner body but doing these two things will definitely save you time, money, and heartache in the long run.

It’s still the first month of the new year and I thought that it would be great to write a guide on how to get the most of pathtofatloss.com. This is very timely because this is usually the time of the year when people are thinking about getting their act together in terms of exercise and nutrition.

So, to get started the very first thing that you can read is the Fat Loss Primer. I wrote this e-book because I realized that a lot of people are at a lost in terms of getting started with their fat loss efforts. There’s a lot of misconceptions out there about what you should and should not do when it comes to losing weight and this e-book will set those straight. It is basically a compilation of my exerience as an individual and a personal trainer.

Second, figure out which areas you need the most help with and explore the article archives which you can access by clicking on the categories at the top of the page.

To help you navigate through the articles, here are some posts from each category that I think would be of great help to you:

Nutrition

• How to Calculate Your Calorie Deficit
• Where to Go for Nutrition Advice
• Prepeare Your Way to a Leaner You
• Fasting for Weight Loss: Unravelling the Controversy
• Calorie Counting and Why You Should Do It

Exercise

• How to to Choose Workout Programs
• Why You Need to Be Flexible
• Common Health and Fitness Jargon
• How to Workout at Home
• How to Immediately Get Stronger

I want to tell you that while looking through the blog posts I have written in the past, it was difficult for me to prioritize which ones made the guide list. So, after you’ve read all the articles from this list, feel free to explore each category. You never know which article will give you that aha moment.

Lastly, there is one post that is really important and the reason why I do what I do and continue on the path of fitness (for life). This post is entitled, “What is Your Why.” This is a very important step that anyone should do (i.e. mandatory) because will power is usually not enough. To read this post, click here.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope this post helps you with New Year’s Goals!

Well, Christmas is over and no doubt you’ve probably gained a few happy pounds. I’m going to be honest with you…I did let my hair down during the holidays because it is a time of relaxing, having fun with the family, and eating good food. The only workout that I did was trying out my sister’s Wii Fit balance board which was a lof of fun. My mom even commented that I must be “off the diet” (no matter how many times I tell her that I’m not on any kind of diet – just a healthy lifestyle) because I’ve been requesting a lot of her great dishes. So, yes, I enjoyed a lot of feel good foods and then some more. This is also the reason why I didn’t write a “holiday fitness plan” article because I knew that no matter how many healthy eating articles you read over the holidays, you are bound to enjoy the holiday foods anyway – which you should because it does come around only once a year.

Alas, there’s no such thing as eating under a calorie deficit during the holidays. But, since the new year is just around the corner, I thought it would be great to write about how you can get back on track.

There’s no doubt that you will be plagued with many advertisements for diet pills, weight loss supplements, and useless fitness equipments. So, you should be very critical of what you see, read or hear on t.v., newspapers/magazines, radio, and other forms of media. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you’re probably a lot of steps ahead of the crowd anyway.

So, what’s your best fitness plan for the new year? My best advice to stick to the basics – the tried and true – the only way to lose the fat and win the battle of the bulge => eat less and exercise more.

Are you disappointed that I don’t have some crazy new idea for your fitness plan? Well, I’m not so much and this is why:

The Calorie Deficit

Having a calorie deficit is probably the most important factor when you’re trying to lose weight. You can workout as much as you want and eat the healthiest foods but if you are still eating way more than you’re supposed to eat, you will not lose weight. Violate this rule and your results will come to a screeching halt.

This should be good news to you because with all the ads for weight loss nowadays, this simplifies things a lot. When in doubt, go back to basics. Having a calorie deficit is the most basic rule out there but it works! The only way to accomplish this is to eat less and move your body more often. No weight loss supplement or “special” fitness equipment can give you the results that you’re looking for. Once you realize that you have to put in the hard work and not rely on magic pills, you will see results!

I am also not saying that having a calorie deficit is the be all and and all of fat loss. There are definitely other factors that come into play when you’re trying to lose weight but, most of the time, people then to lose sight of this rule because they’re always looking for a better pill or the next great fitness equipment. *Warning: rant coming…we can blame our age, our metabolism, our family, our stressful jobs, etc. but in the end, we usually don’t get results because we eat too much or not workout hard enough. *end of rant

Having said that, you still have to have a plan. So, here are a few steps to help you get started on the new year if you’re a complete newbie or just need a reminder of the basics:

• Calculate your calorie deficit. If you don’t know it, you can read this article and get the Calorie Deficit Calculator
• Write down short-term and long-term goals insted of new year’s resolutions. For example, lose 24 lbs by March 31 instead of just saying “lose 30 lbs.” Be specific!
• Make strength training a priority and get a workout program that you can do at least 3 times a week. Make sure that you will enjoy your workout but choose a challenging one that will take you out of your comfort zone.
• If you must perform some type of cardiovascular activity, make sure that it’s interval training or bodyweight cardio. I’m not saying that the elliptical or other cardio equipments are bad or inferior but if your body is used to them, you will not get much benefit from your workout. Same goes if you’ve been doing the same old workout for a long time. It’s time to change things up!

Find your motivation. For me, my motivation is knowing that I won’t need a crutch when I get old and I will still look like I’m 30 years old even though I am 80 (ok, maybe not that young but you’d never know).

Here’s a double kettlebell workout that will surely challenge you:

The leanest people I know have these rules down as habits. Make this the year that you are going to be a part of the lean people statistics and never look back. I heard this one good saying while listening to an interview earlier, “If it’s important, do it everyday.” The calorie deficit is important so if you’re goal is to lose weight this year, make sure to have it at least 6 days a week until you reach your goal.

I hope you have a great and healty new year ahead of you. Let’s look forward to 2010!

I finally finished writing this post for the Elimination Diet (ED) Conclusion. As promised, I am giving you some tips that helped me get through this diet without any mishaps. If you haven’t read the previous posts related to this topic, you can go here and read those first so that you’ll have a little background about the diet and my experience.

I have prepared this video to elaborate on my tips a little bit more so watch this first and the tips will make sense.

[Sorry about the audio towards the end of the video. I am having technical problems with my video editing software.]

In summary, here are the

5 Tips to Having a successful Elimination Diet:

• #1 Prepare your week ahead of time – Sundays are the best time to do this.
• #2 Check out online menus and nutrition facts before you dine out and when you’re placing your order, be very specific with your order and how your food is prepared
• #3 Do plan a splurge – see the recipe in this post for my chosen splurge item
• #4 Look for alternatives – I mentioned that cinnamon is a very good “sweetener” in most foods. It reduces the sourness and fruits and brings out their sweetness. The other great substitute that I found if you’re a chocolate lover is carob chips. You can find them at health food stores and they even come in powder form as an alternative to cocoa powder. I pretty much gave up having bread on this diet but one of my bootcampers said that she dried Rye bread which has no wheat and liked it. This can be a good wheat-free bread alternative if you really must have some
• #5 Don’t stress out about the foods that you can’t have – this tip goes pretty much for any diet of nutritional lifestyle you choose. There’s always going to be an opportunity to have these foods so don’t stress about it during this time. Instead, enjoy and explore all the different options that you can have. As I always say, always have fun whether it comes to training or nutrition

Interestingly, I also had a discussion about food sensitivities and/or food allergies with my friend, Dr. Jaspreet Mundeir, who is a Naturopath. Here is her take on the topic:

‘You are what you eat’, we’ve all heard this familiar saying. Your diet may be nutritious and healthy, but what if the foods you are putting into your body were causing you to be ill or retain fat in stubborn places? Certain foods trigger an immune system response and can strain a healthy body. Over time these foods can cause debilitating illnesses. Poor diet, stress, trauma, infection, chemicals, drugs, and environmental toxins can all be contributing factors to the development of food sensitivities.

There are two major types of allergic reactions – IgE Type I and Non IgE. IgE Type I allergic reactions occur within a few hours after contact with the offending food or inhalant. IgE antibodies are elevated in diseases like allergic asthma, hay fever, and atopic dermatitis. Watery eyes and nose, rash, swelling, acute gastrointestinal distress are common presentations of IgE antibody-mediated allergic reactions.

Non-IgE allergic reactions, namely IgG, vary in response time due to the persistence of the reaction once initiated. IgG antibody levels increase from repeat exposure to the offending foods forming immune complexes. These immune complexes tax the immune system and symptoms vary in severity and location from person to person. Symptoms tend to be low grade and chronic such as general fatigue, malaise, headaches, trouble concentrating, and food cravings.

I work with many labs that offer testing for food sensitivities and this is often a vital part of some treatment plans. A simple elimination diet – guided by the results of a food allergy test – can lead people back on to the path of health. When the unknown is taken out of the picture, patients are empowered and they re-gain control of their health. This phenomenon is one of most inspiring in my practice.

If you want to learn more about how food allergy tests can help you with your overall health and fat loss goals, visit Dr. Mundeir’s web site for more information about some of these tests.

So, there you have it. I hope that you seriously give this diet a try. As I’ve said in my very first post on ED, I’m not a big fan of diets because they usually don’t advocate long-term lifestyle changes. But, ED is an exception because I did see and experience the benefits that this type of lifestyle can have to my long-term health that I don’t want to fully go back to my old ways again.

As always, please feel free to leave a comment or a question below. I look forward to hearing about your experience(s).