Your weight can be your best friend and not your enemy

You have one great thing about your body that can help you lose weight and you don't even know it. Your own weight can be one of your greatest assets in your fitness goals. There are a lot of exercises that can be done that utilize your own body weight that work multiple muscle groups(burn those calories!) at one time.
The key to performing not only these exercises, but any exercise is proper form and mixing it up to work different areas. A lot of these exercises can be done at home, which means you won't need that expensive gym membership.

Chest and Triceps
Pushups work both your pectoral muscles as well as your triceps. You can target what areas you want to work by varying your hand position and the angle of your body. Adding chair dips will give you extra work for your triceps. For guys really building your triceps is what gives your arms the size that the ladies like looking at. Ladies working your triceps targets that area that you complain about, so work those dips and blast those bingo wings.

Standard pushups are performed with your hands shoulder width apart, straight back a tightened core. The key to an affective pushup is reaching a deep contraction(lowering your chest as low to the ground as you can) and a full extension by ensuring that your arms are fully extended and locked out. Remember that it's about quality not quantity. 20 pushups with proper form is better than 100 pushups with crappy form. So take it slow and control yourself on your way down and and really concentrate on squeezing your chest muscles and triceps on the extension. One area where people go wrong with pushups is they take their spine out of alignment by looking forward because they were told to keep their head up. The best way is to look straight down keeping your spine in full alignment. The saying keep your head up comes from when people tuck their chin to their chest.

To mix up what areas you work in your chest bring your hands closer together or spread them farther apart. By spreading your hands farther apart you really target your chest, by bringing your hands closer together you target more of your triceps. You Off set your hands with one set with your right hand farther forward an one with your left hand farther forward. If you want to target your upper and lower pectorals either elevate your feet for a decline pushup working the upper portion of your chest, or do an incline pushup by leaning agains a counter or table to work your lower chest.


By performing dips on a chair you can work your triceps. Simply place your hands on the front of the chair with your hands facing forward. Your lower back should be agains the front of the chair and your legs extended outward. Lower your body until your arms form a 90 degree angle and then extend your arms upward squeezing at the full extension. If you want to add some difficulty you can place your feet on another object like another chair or exercise ball.

Some simple body weight exercises with variations that target different areas and different degrees of difficulty. There isn't a need for a gym membership if you have the discipline to exercise while at home. This can be a go to routine or a back up for days you can't make it to the gym. Stick to your plan, stay motivated and reach those goals.

Stay tuned for back and bicep body weight exercises!

Best Way to Burn Calories and Fat

Walk, jog, sprint, lift...it's all exercise right? While yes it is exercise, but not all exercise activities are created equally. Some people say "if you want to lose weight then you have to run run run." ahh no way I hate running, ok then just walk. It doesn't matter, if you walk the same distance that you run you burn the same amount of calories. Running just gets you done faster. So whether you run 1 mile in 7 minutes or you walk it in 15 minutes, it doesn't matter.

The only difference is the intensity that it takes to run will create the micro tears in your muscle fibers that you need to build new muscle. This is why you are sore the day after you run. Building muscle will increase your metabolism in turn burning more calories during regular day to day activities. The downside to low intensity cardiovascular exercises is you tend to only burn calories for the duration of that activity. So your 7 minute mile only burns calories for 7 minutes. That leaves 23 hours and 53 minutes of the day that is left up to regular day to day activities to burn more than you consume.

So what do you then? Run for hours on end every day? God no, that would be torture. Add weight lifting or high intensity interval training (HIIT) to your routine. Weight lifting and HITT not only burn calories during the activity but also after. SWEET! You mean I can burn calories sitting on the couch resting after I work out? yeaaaaaa buddy! Actually for up to 36 hours after.

If you want to go the weight lifting route so you can finally have that model physique you've always wanted then start out with a routine that has you working your entire body focusing on the major muscle groups. Remember the larger the muscle is the more calories you burn during contraction and extension of that muscle. So do not ignore your legs. The muscles in your legs are the largest in your body.

Be sure you still have your cardio element to your routine, but add your cardio after you have lifted. If you run on the treadmill or elliptical before then you burn the energy you need to lift properly before you ever get to the weights. Instead use your energy on lifting first then deplete your fat stores for energy during your cardio. Also your heart rate should already be elevated from lifting so all you have to do is maintain your target heart rate for 30 minutes rather than having to get your heart rate where you want it and keep it there afterwards for 30 minutes. Keep things simple and working in your favor.

Now what was this about HIITing people, ahh yes HIIT. Such a great intense workout that you feel like you are taken to the very edge of failure every single time. An example of HIIT would be sprinting for 30 seconds, jogging for 60 seconds, sprinting for 30 seconds, jogging for 60 seconds. The jogging period is your recovery time because this sprint that you're doing isn't a slight increase in pace, it's a full on sprint like you're running for your life. All high intensity intervals are done at the level where you are pushing yourself to the point you can't push any harder followed by a lower intensity to recover and prepare for the next high intensity interval.

Here is a great video with some great tips on HIIT from Jim Stoppani.

Switch up your activities, keep it interesting. If you can manage the intensity of HIIT then add it to your toolbox, if not then work hard to get yourself to where you can. Remember, as long as you're putting in the effort you will only get better, stronger, faster and leaner. Keep your goals in sight and work hard to reach those goals, because if you don't then nobody will.

Uncover Your Abs

Well the heat is on and bikini season is a go for all you ladies....and uh gents.

I've been really working on trying to clean up my diet so I can get those 6 pack abs that every guy wants. Most people think that if you want great abs then you have to kill your abs with sit-ups and other abdominal exercises. While yes you need to have well developed abdominal muscles for great abs, you also need to get rid of that cozy blanket of fat that is covering them. No point of having the worlds greatest abs if they're hidden under a layer of fat.

So how do we get those great abs to show? Well there is a saying that abs are made in the kitchen and not the gym, and this is 100% true. The key to exposing your abs is lowing your body fat percentage. The average male is approximately in a range of 18-25% for males and 25-31% for females. Now keep in mind the average person doesn't walk around with great abs, they tend to have a little layer of fat covering those abdominal muscles. Also remember, we don't want to be average, we want to be extraordinary. So what percentage do you need to expose your abs for all the world to see your hard work and dedication? Well for males you need to drop your body fat percentage below 10% and for women getting below 19% would be where you need to be.

There are a few methods that you can use to determine your body fat percentage but the most accurate is a Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. Other methods would be water displacement, bioelectrical impedance and the skin fold test. Once you have determined your body fat percentage you can set your goals for where you want to be and a plan to get there.


So how do we get our body fat percentage down to where we can start to see some progress? Clean eating! I'm not saying wash your pizza with soap to get off any dirt, I'm saying eating lean meats, veggies and proper carbs. Some people will say stay away from carbs and bla bla bla. Uhhh hello McFly! You need carbs to provide fuel for your intense workouts. I've seen to many people pass out during a workout because they have been told to avoid carbs because carbs are bad! Those big mean nasty carbs! Eat carbs, but remember to taper your carbs throughout the day with most of your carbs for breakfast with portions getting smaller to the smallest portion at dinner. You can get a lot of carbs from veggies as well, which also provide fiber.

You can get into all the mumbo jumbo of "fat fighting foods" and "fat blasting supplements" but it all comes down to what you're eating, how much you're eating, and how much of what you're eating are you burning through exercise. Simple math, burn more than you consume= weight loss, consume more than you burn= weight gain.

A good way to keep track and keep yourself honest is to keep a food journal. Most of us have smart phones so try downloading a food journal app like MyFitnessPal or Spark People. Check them out and figure out what one is best for you and your needs. You would be surprised at how much you are either over eating or how the foods you are eating aren't providing the nutrients you need. Eat smart, live well, and stay motivated.

May I See Your Low-Fat Menu Please

We as normal people enjoy a night out on the town from time to time. Trying to live a healthy lifestyle doesn't  mean that you can't enjoy yourself, it just means that you have to look a little harder for a healthier option. Take tonight for example, the wife and kids decided they wanted to go out to eat for dinner. Naturally the kids want all the greasy stuff that isn't good for you and after a fun game of "What do you want? I don't know, what do you want?" we decided on Red Robin(more like the kids decided). Now if you're not familiar with Red Robin, it is a "gourmet" burger place. During my less than healthy days I'd always go with the Burn'n Love burger. MMM so good, nice and spicy with those fried jalapenos on it.

Now just because I have decided to live a healthier life, that doesn't mean that I can't have the things I enjoy anymore. If I were to have a craving for a Burn'n Love burger I'd just eat half and save the rest for lunch for tomorrow. This is always a great way to still enjoy a great meal out without overeating and consuming almost an entire days worth of calories in one sitting. These portion sizes that these restaurants are dishing out are ridiculous. Some of these meals literally have well over 2000 calories in one dish. Holy sweet mother of Neptune! The crazy thing is that we just sit back and chow down without even thinking about it. If you have a smart phone, which I believe most people do, try looking up a meal that your considering on the restaurant website for the nutritional content. This could help you decide on either what to eat, or how much of it you're going to eat.

Another great way to treat yourself is, if you decide you want to drink a soda (or pop for you weirdos in the north), try ordering a glass of water as well. You might find yourself drinking out of both and thus drinking less of that sugar filled soda of choice. Now for you beer drinkers out there you could try the same thing, but if you're like me you would feel like you're wasting a good beer if you don't finish it. So when the waitress/waiter asks if you want the tall 22oz, politely decline and just opt for the regular 12oz. You could also use this as a great way to test your will power and quit drinking alcoholic beverages all together. I hear all of the time from people "wow I've lost 10lbs just from not drinking beer or soda." Soda and beer are empty calories that provide nothing in nutritional value, but man are they refreshing.

Some restaurants now are even jumping on the healthy lifestyle bandwagon and offering lower calorie meals or half portions. I say great! Check your menus for these options and see if any of it tickles your tongue. Just remember that you CAN still eat out and enjoy a nice healthy meal, so go out and reward yourself on a great week in the kitchen and in the gym. Just remember that reward doesn't mean binge and forget all about portion sizes. Either way, enjoy your rewards and get ready for a new week of achieving greatness.

The Habit of Health

You've taken the steps to making healthier food choices when making your meal plans and now you have that brand new shiny gym membership. You might even go out and buy some new clothes to work out in while you're there. You get through your first week, you're a little sore but you work through it. Monday comes around and you really aren't feeling like going because your cat doesn't seem to be acting normal, and you really need to make sure that he's not going to jump from your first floor apartment window in attempt to take one of his 9 lives. You skip Monday's workout and say "I'll just go tomorrow." Well tomorrow never turns into today and you just stop going. Why is this?

Well I'll tell you why, you haven't established a routine and developed a habit of going. It takes approximately 28 days to develop a habit and approximately 66 days to establish a routine. No matter how bad you might feel like skipping a workout in the very beginning you need to stick it out and go. Once you have developed that habit and established that routine you increase your chances of successfully abiding by your workout schedule.

Now with saying that, I'm not saying don't take a day off to rest. You need those scheduled rest days to allow your body to recover from those intense workouts. When developing your workout routine try and schedule 1-2 rest days. The key word here is scheduled rest days, so try and stick to your schedule the best you can.

An example of a workout routine would be:

Monday: Chest/Tri's
Tuesday: Cardio/Abs
Wednesday: Back/Bi's
Thursday: Cardio/Abs
Friday: Shoulders/Legs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest

Monday: Chest/Tri's
Tuesday: Back/Bi's
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Cardio/Abs

No matter what the schedule that you come up with looks like, the key is to do your best to stick to it in the beginning so you can establish that routine and develop that habit. Set small achievable goals for yourself so that you have something to keep you motivated. For myself I used 5lbs increments of my weight loss. Remember that you didn't gain the weight overnight so don't expect it to fall off overnight.

The Full Story

Have you ever just barely arrived at work and you feel yourself starting to get hungry even though you have "breakfast?" I know I've been there before, I guess my monster size bowl of Lucky Charms just wasn't enough. So being the not so health savvy person I was back then I'd run to the vending machine and grab a snack.

Well you see the problem is there are certain foods that really provide nothing to your body so you're body is screaming "Hey you! yeaaa you with the hands that can feed me, why don't you give me some real food!" Real food? you mean that pop tart isn't real food? Whoahhhh mind is blown!

So it pretty much breaks down to hey lets give our body what it needs, real food. There are a lot of foods that keep you fuller longer, or satiety. These are foods like eggs, yogurt, fruit, oats, potatoes, beans, chicken, fish, lean beef, broth base soups and our favorite low calorie snack..popcorn!

You see the pattern here? These are real foods that provide a lot of nutrient value to your body. Do your best to try and incorporate these high satiety food items into your meal plan. This way you're getting the best bang for your buck. You can have one hell of a day eating great food while maintaining a low caloric intake to properly lose weight rather than starving yourself. Eating sounds like it's a lot more fun than starving.

Here is an example of how you can go through your day:

Breakfast: 
1 cup of oatmeal( plain that way you can add your own flavors, stuff like apples and nuts, peanut butter and banana)
8oz of OJ

snack:
banana

lunch:
4 oz of chicken breast
lettuce
tomato
cucumber
avocado( for that healthy fat that we need in our diet) 
Lavash bread (tortilla like wrap that is low cal and low carb)
apple slices with greek yogurt( low fat and high protein)

snack:
popcorn or nuts

Dinner: 
4 oz beef(marinade in lime, tequila, chili, cumin, mustard powder, paprika and oregano) see where we are going here? STEAK TACOS BABY!
lettuce
tomato
cheese
corn tortillas (wrap in foil and either throw on the grill with the steak or in the oven to warm)
black beans


Now I know a lot of people out there say don't eat past 7pm bla bla bla! Have a very small snack before bed. This keeps your metabolism going and prevents your body from going into catabolic state and breaking down valuable muscle tissue which we need. Some of my snacks before bedtime that I like is a spoonful of peanut butter(cream or crunchy which ever you prefer), Casein protein shake(slow digesting protein), a small muffin with a glass of milk, a small bowl of a healthy cereal of choice with milk.

Just remember when choosing your snack before bed to avoid high sugar foods that can cause a spike in blood sugar levels like ice cream, candy, alcohol, cookies..etc. You want a food that will provide a nice even digestion for a steady blood sugar level throughout the night. Foods like the muffin and milk and the cereal with milk can actually help you sleep. The combination of the carbohydrates along with the tryptophan in the milk can make for a rather nice night of Z's.

Health Tips For The Busy Lifestyle

A friend of mine asked me a great question yesterday and it gave me the great idea for today's topic, thanks Tracy! The question was about how to squeeze in fitness and health into a busy lifestyle. Well I'm going to hopefully answer that for Tracy and any of you that have the same question. We all live crazy hectic lifestyles and we still need to take care of our bodies. Here are a few tips on how you can achieve your fitness and health goals no matter what your schedule is. 

Plan and prepare your meals ahead of time
Plan out what you will eat for your lunches and dinners for the week the weekend prior. Take a little extra time on Sunday and get to work in the kitchen or outside on the grill and get everything prepared ahead of time. You can bake a weeks worth of chicken tenderloins in the oven at 425 degrees in 20 minutes. This way you can throw everything in separate containers and in the refrigerator. Monday morning comes along just grab your container for lunch and boom you're on your way out the door with a healthy nutritious meal. No more ordering out because you're so tired from a hard day at work, your meal is already taken care of, pull it out warm it up and enjoy.

Some things that I like to do is to grill or bake my meats( I prefer chicken, low fat and high in protein) with just some basic seasonings so that I can switch things up throughout the week so I don't get bored and want to give myself a break with McDonald's or some other nasty disgusting fast food. Grill your chicken with just some salt and pepper and you can be creative with how you put it together, anything from a chicken wrap, chicken salad, chicken with pasta and veggies..you get the point. Remember that eating healthy doesn't have to be boring and bland.

Eat breakfast
Eat breakfast! I can not emphasize enough how important this is. When you skip breakfast you're killing your metabolism and setting yourself up for hitting up that vending machine for a bag of chips or a candy bar. It doesn't have to be some big breakfast that takes hours in the kitchen. Something as simple as a glass of OJ, some fruit and a whole wheat english muffin with jelly or jam. A breakfast like this takes no time at all, you can throw the english muffin in the toaster while you blow dry your hair, shave or get dressed. When you're ready throw some jelly or jam on it, grab some fruit and some OJ and walk out the door and on you are on your way to work.

Exercise
We all know that we should exercise but think that we need to spend countless hours in the gym. Not true at all, just remember that ANY exercise is better than no exercise. Instead of parking up close so your walk into work is like having front door service, take some time and park a little farther away. That way you can get a little extra exercise and that jerk with the truck that can't park won't ding your door. Skip the elevator and take the stair, it may suck at first but eventually it gets easier and you're a champ damn near running up the stairs beating the lazy ones taking the elevator. If you have a desk job try and stand up as much as possible. I highly doubt there is a rule at your job that says you must sit down. Lean against the desk and do some pushups

There are also plenty of desk exercises and stretches along with the pushups that can be done throughout the day. Here is a video by Michigan State University that demonstrates some stretches and exercises that can be done while at your desk.

You can also try and form a walking group with co-workers to walk during breaks while your other co-workers are out sucking in that nicotine.

Hydrate
Be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Bring a water bottle that you can fill up throughout the day. Set a goal for yourself on how much water you want to drink per day. Having a goal to reach for will help remind you to drink more water. Try keeping track of your water intake, this way you can see exactly how much water you are actually consuming. What ever your trick is for drinking more water is, just be sure to use it, unless it's packets of sugar filled water flavoring. Try and find a sugarless flavoring if you can. I hear those Mio's aren't bad at all, they're small and compact and can be carried with you.

And you will probably hear this from me over and over and over, but while it may seem like a pain in the ass at first, just stick with it. After a while you won't even realize you are doing these things as they've become a routine and a habit. Are you willing to sacrifice the 15 minutes of extra time it took to prep your meals for the health you've wanted for a lifetime?

Diet is a 4 Letter Word

Have you ever looked in the mirror after showering and thought to yourself, wow I really want to try and lose some weight. You may want to lose weight for some special event like a wedding, for health reasons and of course the reason we all want to lose weight, so we look better naked. What ever your reason for wanting to lose weight you decided that you wanted to diet. AHHHHHHH that 4 letter word that we all hate. DIET! The word diet has obtained negative connotations which bring negative emotions.

I can't think of the last time I heard someone say, "Damn I can't wait to start my diet this week, it's going to be great!" Sorry but that just doesn't happen. Most of the time we think of dieting as limitations on what we can eat. Majority of us have no clue on how to properly diet so we turn to the dreaded fad diets like Atkins and the South Beach Diet. They're easy, they give us a strict format that we can follow, eat this and this and stay away from that and that.

And that is where the problem comes in, nobody likes being told you can't do something or you can't have something. We're all adults here, we have been since we were 15 and decided that our parents were clueless and we knew better than they did (only to find out that they were right, CRAP!).

We start the diet plan and might even stick to it for a while, but then the cravings kick in. MMM pizza, chocolate, hot wings, burgers...you get the point. That is when we break and give in and tell that diet to take a hike. Diet food is so boring and flavorless, I want real food damn it!

You can eat healthy, lose weight and enjoy great food. There is no need to diet if you want to lose weight. As a matter of fact take that word out of your vocabulary. We do not diet, we make smart healthy food choices, eat proper portions and most importantly we become healthier. 

If you think of your weight loss goals as a lifestyle change rather than a diet your possibility of success increases dramatically. Don't think of it as a diet, but rather providing your body with the nutrients and fuel it needs. We all take care of our cars and homes, but how many of us take care of our body? No way your using inferior products in your 1971 Chevelle, but yet you will stop and McDonald's on the way home from work and...actually eat it! You can always buy a new car if it breaks down, but you can never buy a new body once it starts to break down, so take care of it now while you still can.

This is my first of many blog entries. I hope you enjoyed it because they will only continue to get better, more educational and will teach, guide and motivate you on your journey to a successful transition into a healthier lifestyle. Till next time.