The Gospel According to FFC – Glory to your bod!

80% of the people who join a FFC join to lose or maintain weight loss.  The main questions are:

  • a. What ab exercises should I do?
  •  b. How much cardio do I do?
  •  c. How much time do I spend at the gym?

 

The real answer is d, None of the above things really have a bearing on weight loss, singularly.  You know what Damon always says “You can’t outwork poor nutrition”.

So lets talk about a, “What ab exercises should I do” no matter how many crunches or planks you do, ab exercises do not help with weight loss.  No matter what crazy contraption you see on t.v. and what those crazy models say, the twisty chair thing is not going to really give you a six pack in 3 weeks of 10 minutes a day.  In real reality, those people changed their DIET. Period. End of infomercial.

Ok let’s address b, cardiovascular exercise is very important.  Its important to get your body moving and your blood pumping and get out of your chair!  One of the most popular forms of exercise people do is walk.  Walking is great exercise if we are talking about staying healthy, not in terms of weight loss.  One of the things people say is “I walk x amount of miles per day and I just can’t get the weight off”.  Our awesome bodies ADAPT that’s what we were born to do! Once you have walked your trail or loop or whatever it is that you do your body gets used to the distance the speed and it starts to be ready for the movement, and so nicely you adapt and don’t burn as many calories performing the exercise.  Same goes for 45 minutes on the elliptical or treadmill or whatever it is that people do for years and years, same speed, same, same, same, with the same, same, same result, which is looking the same, same, same.

Letter c, finally, some good news people!  You do not have to spend 3 hours a day 7 days a week at the gym to get results!  YEY!   Have a plan so you don’t get caught talking or staring at the t.v. or just milling around doing 400 sets of biceps and calves.  Also, short bursts of high intensity work is great for your burn!  You can get a good interval training workout in in 30-45 minutes (Just ask our bootcampers!).  It’s fun and effective!

Letter d today is brought to your by the dreaded word, diet.  Diet in this instance does not refer to slashing your calories or starving yourself.  This means what you put in your body everyday.  It is my belief that we can have our cake and eat it too!  Not the whole cake, though!  Its really important to put healthy stuff in your body.  Be aware of what you are eating.  I suggest (for your most everyday life) organic grass fed meat, organic chickens that weren’t penned up their whole life and grown without beaks or whatever science experiment they are doing on food these days to make life “cheaper”.  I also suggest vegetables, the more raw the better and yummy healthy fruit.  I would keep the grains to a minimum, opting for whole grains and small quantities. 

Now you read my bracketed disclaimer (for your most everyday life), everyday is not your MOST everyday!  Somedays it’s your birthday, or the weekend, or your vacation somedays are AWESOME DAYS!  Most of the time we know when these awesome days are going to be!  I definitely suggest planning on having some fun AT LEAST once a week, that does not include when you are at the gym having fun, it does include eating fun stuff.  Fun stuff that’s worth it, ever gotten something at the coffee shop that looked yummy, but is stale and tasteless?  Just not worth it.  (My advice, no matter how much you spent, throw it AWAY! Save the calories for something better.)

If you love pizza, HAVE it!  If it’s your birthday I say “Let you eat cake!” If its your vacation..enjoy and come to grips with the practice of moderation or be prepared to pay the piper and get back on track (with some extra baggage) when you return.

Its what we always say, its about habits, but its not about feeling sore, or starving or deprived, it IS about planning and being real. AMEN

THE HUNGER

I am obsessed with the idea of being hungry.  I was born in 1972, the dawning of the age of microwave, TV dinners, coca cola and twinkies.  I have always gone to grocery stores with food aisles stocked with EVERYTHING you can imagine.  Fresh foods from all over the world, grapes from Chile, blueberries from Maine, oranges from Florida!  Pretty amazing if you really think about it, yet I am obsessed the topic of hunger.

I have read books about the potato famine in Ireland, when people only had rotten potatoes to eat, WWII stories, fiction and non, about prisoners of war being starved and worked to death or almost to death and the same with stories about the Jews in camps.  Some of my favorite stories have to do with world annihilation, what happens when Publix isn’t right down the street anymore? People are eating dogs or other unmentionable things to survive, even killing each other over the prospect of a good meal.

I know this makes me sound nutty and maybe I am a little bit! 

I can be “hungry” 30 minutes after eating a healthy, nutritious dinner, and besides the fact that I am a human machine, packed with muscle – what the heck is that feeling?  I can’t be hungry, not like the people in the books I read.  What is REAL hunger like?  Not knowing when you are going to eat next?  I have no idea how that feels.  Probably the longest I ever went without food was when I was “in labor” with my son 17 years ago.  Ask my husband, after 18 hours of ice chips I was hallucinating that he was eating a twinkie.  Anyone who knows Damon KNOWS a twinkie is not on the menu for him!   I couldn’t imagine going hungry for a day or longer.  The THOUGHT of fasting makes me feel dizzy.

However, what about being more conscious of that feeling?  What I mean is really thinking about the feeling before running to the fridge or cupboard or ice cream store.  What IS that feeling if you just ate?  Is it boredom?  Loneliness?  I challenge you to hang out with your hunger sometime.  Sit with it, ask it, “what the heck?”  Journal about how it really feels.  What is the feeling?  You may learn something about yourself.  It might bring you to an understanding about some of the challenges you have with your weight loss goals.  It may inspire you to do something that you have missed doing, enjoying a sunset, painting a picture, reaching out to a friend.  Feed the hunger with action!

CRUNCHES…Good or Detrimental?

We just got back from the Perform Better Summit in Rhode Island. It is a conference where the best of the best in our field present on various topics. It is always awesome to learn from the best. I had the good fortune of listening to Stuart McGill. He is the leading authority on lower back pain. We do not do crunches at our club for various reasons but it is always great to be validated by the best. He basically said if you are doing crunches you are guaranteed to have low back pain in the future.

Face it – we all want a flat, sexy midsection. But for many of us no amount of crunches or sit-ups seems to get the job done. I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me the following questions:

“I do hundreds of crunches and sit-ups a day and I still have a flabby midsection. What gives?”

Most of our clientele is looking for that lean look but before we get into that please keep in mind the core is responsible for so much more than just looking good. It is our “powerhouse” in which everything emanates so if we look good but have low back pain what the heck is the point!

Well, before I reveal your six-pack abs blueprint, let’s first debunk some very important myths about how to get six-pack abs:

Myth #1 – Weight loss is the key to seeing your abs

WRONG!

The key to seeing your abs is fat loss, not weight loss. Let me further explain: your body consists of fat mass and lean body mass (water, muscle, bone, organs, etc.). You want to minimize your fat mass and maximize your lean body mass to build a sexy metabolism: one that starves fat and builds muscle like clockwork. By improving body composition you will put yourself in the best position to rock that coveted six-pack.

So if you lose 17 lbs on the scale at the expense of losing some lean muscle mass in the process you will end up slowing your metabolism, decreasing performance, and losing that good looking muscle tone. But if you lose 17 lbs on the scale and you manage to keep or gain lean muscle mass you will increase performance, see more visible definition throughout your body, and lose primarily body fat.

Myth #2 – Do lots of abs work to preferentially burn off stomach fat

WRONG!

Spot reduction doesn’t work. You can’t just work the muscles of a certain area of your body and expect to have the fat in that region go away. Think about it: almost everyone does crunches but proportionately very few people perform total body workouts. So, with all of these crunches, we’d expect to see nothing but people with flat tummies and fat depots everywhere else on their body (arms, legs, etc.). But think of how many people you know and see on a regular basis that have more than a few inches to lose in their midsection. See what I mean- spot reduction doesn’t work!

See, your body loses fat in a genetically pre-determined way when there is the appropriate caloric deficit AND hormonal environment created by proper eating and training. So your best bet is to focus on burning as many calories during your workouts as possible by engaging your whole body each and every training session (not just your abs). Compound, multi-joint movements like squats, push-ups, lunges, etc. (or better yet, total body exercises like squat to presses) burn a lot more calories than isolation movements like crunches and sit-ups. So be sure to focus on these movements first and then if you have time, you can do some extra core work to please the abs training Gods.

Myth #3 – Crunches and Sit-ups are the best exercises for your abs

WRONG!

The scientific term for your six-pack muscles are your rectus abdominis. For years now, we have been conditioned to think that the best way to work your rectus abdominis is by doing endless crunches and sit-ups since these trunk flexion exercises make the muscles you want to see in the mirror “burn.” However, the true function of the rectus abdominis is to prevent hyperextension, not to flex forward over and over again. Anytime you brace your abs (think slight crunch before you get punched in the gut) and pull your navel into your spine you effectively stabilize your spine into a safe, neutral position. And the moment you relax your abs and lose that braced abs position, your back will begin to hyperextend putting you at greater risk for injury.

So, we focus on stabilization exercises in all three planes of movement (saggital- front to back, frontal- side to side, and transverse- rotational) by using pillar exercise variations (also know as planks). Besides training the true “anti-extension” function of your superficial ab muscles, these bridging/stabilization exercises also activate the key transverse abdominus muscles, or your deep abdominal stabilizers, that wrap around your spine and support your internal organs. Strengthening these inner ab muscles is the key to optimal posture and performance in addition to injury prevention, yet another benefit to performing pillars over primitive crunches and sit-ups that often cause unwanted neck and back pain.

Myth #4 – Do lots of long-duration cardio to burn the fat covering your abs

WRONG!

Both scientific research and real world case studies show that aerobic training for fat loss alone doesn’t work. Total body resistance training is the true foundation of any solid fat loss plan. In addition, interval training, where you alternate between bouts of maximum effort and active recovery, is scientifically proven to burn nine times more fat than ordinary exercise. Please note that you can perform both resistance interval training and cardio interval training to combine the best of both worlds. More on this to come!

The Top 2 Exercise & Diet Tips of All Time

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!

TOP 2 EXERCISE TIPS

* Invest in a Whole Body Workout: This means doing a five-exercise circuit (designed to work your upper body, lower body, and core) at least three times per week with a day of rest between workouts. Alternate between 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for each exercise:

double-leg (e.g. squat)
push (e.g. push-up)
single-leg (e.g. lunge)
pull (e.g. row)
core (e.g. plank)

Perform up to 4 rounds without rest for a killer 20-minute total body workout.

* Harness the Power of Intervals: Interval training is scientifically proven to burn nine times more body fat than ordinary exercise and elevates metabolism for up to 48 hours following 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 (airdyne) or for body weight cardio exercise that you can do at home like running in place or jumping jacks.

TOP 2 DIET TIPS

* Eat Early and Often:  Eat immediately upon waking and then every two to four hours to starve fat and feed muscle.  By continuously fueling your furnace and eating some animal protein (meat, eggs, cheese, etc.) at every feeding, you’ll also keep your metabolism revved up throughout the day and prevent overeating.

* Think Fiber First When Consuming Carbs:  Eat an unlimited amount of fibrous, cruciferous green veggies to fill your belly 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.

Live by these 2 training and nutrition rules and you will have a body to be proud of… I guarantee it!

HEALTHY Fast Food?!….You have GOT to be kidding me!

By now, I am sure you have heard all about the new Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

And while I have no doubt that this is a better option than the fried chicken alternative, it’s still nowhere near an ideal food choice.

Congratulations! You are eating “grilled” chicken with a bunch of garbage on the side. Lord knows that mac & cheese, mashed potatoes & gravy and biscuits aren’t going help you look any better at the beach this summer!

KFC says the grilled chicken has significantly fewer calories and fat, plus much less sodium, than its Original Recipe fried chicken that launched the brand more than a half-century ago.

Just as damaging to our waistlines, if not more, are the high calorie side dishes accompanying the chicken, which are filled with refined starches and sugars and unnecessary amounts of saturated fat.

For too long now the fast food industry has made a killing on misinforming consumers about what is and isn’t healthy.

KFC claimed that it recently switched cooking oils to eliminate all trans fats from their products – a noble effort indeed.

But upon further review, this does not look to be the case…

Here are the ingredients directly from their website:

KFC ® Grilled Chicken

Fresh Chicken Marinated with: Salt, Sodium Phosphate, and Monosodium Glutamate Seasoned with: Maltodextrin, Salt, Bleached Wheat lour, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Monosodium Glutamate, Spices, Palm Oil, Natural Flavor, Garlic Powder, Soy Sauce (Soybean, Wheat, Salt), Chicken Fat, Chicken Broth, Autolyzed Yeast, Beef Powder, Rendered Beef Fat, Extractives of Turmeric, Dehydrated Carrot, Onion Powder, and mot more than 2% Each of Calcium Silicate and Silicon Dioxide Added as Anticaking Agents.

Contains Wheat and Soy

I don’t know about you, but this certainly doesn’t sound like a nutritional powerhouse. First of all, “Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil” is not good for you and is a form of trans fat.

Trans fats are synthetic fats that are essentially foreign agents in our bodies. There is truly no room for them in a healthy diet.

Plus, a great rule of thumb is that the fewer ingredients in a food item, the better it is for you, ideally less than 5 ingredients being a good marker. Well, if you count the ingredients in this “health” food, there are well over 20!

Fast food and convenience store marketing campaigns make it very hard for us trainers to do our jobs.

When a company says:

“Our (name of product) is good for you because it’s low in fat or fat-free”

OR

“Our (name of product) is good for you because it’s got no sugar”

OR

“Our (name of product) is the perfect snack because it’s only 100 calories.”

In general, here are some great user-friendly guidelines to cut through all of the BS these money-hungry SOB’s are sending our way:

Beware of “Fat Free or Low Fat” Foods:

These food choices are often high in sugar or contain added sugar to make up for taste lost, which wreaks havoc on your energy levels and prevents fat loss.

Look Out for “Sugar Free” Products:

These food choices are typically made with artificial ingredients and sweeteners, are sometimes higher in fat to make up for taste lost, and often contain sugar alcohols that tear up your digestive system.

Stay Away From “100 Calorie” Items:

These low calorie bags contain ZERO nutritional value with little to no protein and are low in fiber and natural, healthy fats. Plus, these weight-gainers by another name do not fill you up between meals.

Probably the most infamous “healthy” marketing campaign is 100-CALORIE SNACK PACKS.

Which is better for your body: 100 calories of broccoli or 100 calories of mini-muffins?

GET IT?

I know I could easily eat 10 of these packs without getting stuffed – I guess that would be a 1,000-CALORIE SNACK PACK!

Unfortunately, we live in a calorie-conscious society, and marketers truly take piggyback on this.

But you don’t need to be a dope like the rest of them.

Educate yourself.

Educate your friends.

Educate your family.

Remember, the market determines the direction companies will go. If we choose not to put this garbage into our bodies anymore, they will make less of it.

Yours in Health,

Damon

P.S. – I just know you have something to say about this hot button issue. Please make a comment to this blog post about what pisses you off the most about this KFC Grilled Chicken, or any other fast food marketing campaign for that matter!

The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time

Top exercises for rapid fat loss and muscle gain include a host of multi-joint, compound movements for your upper body (push-ups, pull-ups, rows, dips, etc.), lower body (squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc.), and core (pillar holds and rotational core exercises). These exercises provide the biggest bang for your buck during your workouts to generate maximum results in minimal time. Even better are total body exercises like a curl to squat to press or a squat thrust variation that takes the meaning of a total body workout to a whole new level.

But, I think we’ll switch it up a bit today and focus on the WORST exercises you can add to your training routine. The following list features movements that I wouldn’t be caught dead doing – movements that deliver shoddy results and flat out hurt people – movements that have far greater risk than reward:

The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time

1.) Abs Machine

Crunches and sit-ups only promote excessive flexion of the lumbar spine and tend to cause neck and back pain. What’s worse than crunches or sit-ups? Doing a similar movement with added weight on a machine that only trains your body in an unnatural front to back motion in a seated position!

Yes, abs machines, like crunches and sit-ups, do make your feel your abdominal muscles, but there are far better ways to accomplish this without the high risk of short and long-term injury to your spine.

Remember, the true function of your core is stabilization, both static and dynamic – to be able to maintain a neutral, straight-line position from your hips to your shoulders in all 3 planes of movement (front to back, side to side, and rotational) no matter what the external stimulus may be.

Training Upgrade: For rock hard, athletic abs focus on pillar stabilization exercises like front, side, and back pillars and ground based rotational core work like chops variations and upper body twists.

 

2.) Back Machine

Well, if I HATE the abs machine, how do you think I’m going to feel about the back machine? I mean this is just such a stupid exercise for so many reasons.

First of all, people already use too much “back” on most movements because of tight hips and inactive/weak glutes. Thus, I prefer to focus more on hip extension movements that strengthen your butt rather than continually overloading the spinal erectors. Plus, adding in corrective stretching for the hip flexor complex, the hip rotators, and the hamstring complex that opens up your hips and alleviates excessive spinal flexion and compressions is literally exactly what the doctor ordered.

Second of all, just like the abs machine, this exercise trains your body in one plane of movement in a fixed path and as a result doesn’t work your key stabilizer muscles.

Training Upgrade: For a strong, stable back focus on deadlift, good morning, and hip extensions variations while simultaneously focusing on corrective stretching. A prone cobra, or airplane as it is sometimes called, is also a great exercise to improve spinal erector endurance while simultaneously improving scapular strength and stability. 

 

3.) Leg Extension Machine

Here’s the bottom line with this exercise- it will wreak havoc on your knees! The excessive compressions on your patella will without a doubt results in the breakdown of articular cartilage which will in turn result in a bunch of arthroscopic knee surgeries to remove loose bodies and eventually full blown crippling arthritis. Avoid this machine like cancer!

Training Upgrade: For strong, stable knees, focus on both knee-dominant (lunge, step-up, and single-leg squat variations) AND hip-dominant single-leg exercises (single-leg hip extension, deadlift, and good morning variations) to prevent strength imbalances between limbs AND to prevent strength imbalances between your front and back thighs and your inner and outer thighs. 

 

4.) Fly Machine

If your goal is to tear your pecs and destroy your rotator cuff, then I highly recommend that you add this exercise to your routine. I think the chest fly machine actually gets even more play then the bench press, which is considered to be the most popular exercise for guys.

Again, the use of a machine versus doing a dumbbell fly alternative eliminates the use of the key stabilizer muscles surrounding your shoulders. Furthermore, the common male desire to use maximum weight to build a chest he can be proud of typically results in overuse injuries like shoulder impingement or biceps tendonitis.

Training Upgrade: For strong, stable shoulders focus on performing an equal amount of pushing and pulling exercises. In fact, more pulling exercises initially may be a good idea if you find yourself heavily internally rotated and hunchbacked from years of focusing on your beach muscles (chest, abs, and biceps) while neglecting your rear shoulders and upper/mid muscles. The best pushing exercise you can do is any push-up variation, as it not only safely trains the entire front side of your body but also engages your upper back musculature in a way that the bench press does not. Furthermore, every year people die from bench pressing, but there has never been a reported death from performing a push-up!

 

5.) Elliptical Machine

Look- if you are really, really overweight and haven’t exercised in over a decade, then I think an elliptical has some use. But, other than that, I think it’s relatively useless. Yes, it is a low-impact alternative to running on a treadmill, but there is very little range of motion during the movement and does not burn nearly as many calories as the machine claims it does.

Furthermore, the elliptical is not a good machine to do intervals on because it promotes excessive hyperextension of the knee. This can easily result in injury at high levels of speed and resistance.

Think about it- what’s the first machine people who are new to cardio exercise jump on? The elliptical! Why? Because it’s so friggin’ easy!  At the end of the day, you can read a dam magazine while on an elliptical, so how much benefit do you really think you will get from this overpriced waste of space?

Training Upgrade: For optimal results during your cardio training, you must focus on intervals. They burn 9 times more body fat than aerobics and also result in greater improvements in overall conditioning than long, slow, boring cardio. If you are overweight/de-conditioned and/or have joint issues, the best place to start an interval training program is on a spin bike, or better yet, an Airdyne Bike which has both upper and lower body attachments to make it more of a total body conditioning experience. If you are cardio equipment-free and/or at home or on the road, use body weight based exercises like jumping jacks, stationary running, split jumps, etc.

 

6.) The Sex Machine- Abductor/Adductor Combo

Ah, the sex machine… this one just makes me smile. Women all over the world seem convinced that this “naughty” exercise can some how help them rid themselves of the thunder thigh/cellulite situation.

How many times have I heard: “What exercises can I do to get rid of this flab inside my leg?” Too many times!

Come on now, you know that spot reduction is a myth by now, right? Seriously, no amount of direct inner or other hip-thigh work will burn that ugly fat covering that sexy toned musculature everyone wants to see so let it go.

So the first thing you need to do is clean up all of the junk carbs in your diet and starting consuming lean proteins, healthy fats, and fruits and veggies every 2-4 hours while plugging water like a fish.

Then you need to get off this sexy machine and get real with a total body workout!

Training Upgrade: The best exercises for your inner and outer-hip thigh will come from band-resisted hip walk variations, side pillar variations, and any and all single-leg exercises, especially lateral lunges.  My favorite lateral lunge is the Valslide Lateral Lunge that simultaneously stretches and strengthens your hip musculature.

 

7.) Leg Press Machine

It never ceases to amaze me how we all look for the easy way out when it comes to working out. It’s clear why people prefer to leg press – they get to lay or sit on their ass depending on the exact type of leg press machine being used.

If you want both nice legs and a flat midsection then you need to squat! And yes, you can’t squat lying down, sorry!

But squats are tough because they require a whole body effort, an effort most people aren’t willing to put in, explaining why they get crap results form their workouts.

The leg press could very well be a major contributing cause for the rapidly increasing number of bulging and/or herniated discs among exercise enthusiasts. People always use way too much weight and use poor form resulting in brutally compressive forces on the spine.

Seriously, if you are opting to leg press over squatting, then you don’t know squat, pun intended!

Training Upgrade: The best (and safest) exercises for your lower body are a healthy combination of double-leg and single-leg exercises using free weights and body weight based exercises. Be sure to perform an equal amount of knee-dominant lower body exercises (e.g. squats and lunges) and hip-dominant lower body exercises (e.g. deadlifts and single-leg hip extensions) to make your knees, hips, and back bulletproof. In fact, most people are very knee-dominant and could benefit to start by performing a greater number of hip-dominant movements to balance out their lower body musculature.

You’ll notice once common trend among all of these crap exercises: they all involve MACHINES!

Get off those damn machines and focus on functional movements using free weights, bands, stability balls, etc. Not only will you ramp up your fat-burning and muscle-building pursuits, but more importantly you won’t end up hunchbacked in a wheel chair by the time you turn 50.

What other exercises do you see people doing in the gym that make you cringe? What other exercises do you absolutely hate? What exercises have gotten you (or your clients) hurt in the past? Please share your personal experiences by posting a comment to this blog post, thanks!

Why Quit?

Why do people buy a fitness book and never open it?  Why do people buy a gym membership and never go?  Why do people buy training sessions and not show up?

I have been trying to answer these questions my whole career in fitness.  There is no one answer, but I think it’s more of a psychological barrier than anything else.  In many cases I think people are not happy with where they are, not only physically but also emotionally.  I see people who have not done anything for 20 years, have put on an extra 10-30 pounds, work out for a week or 2 and quit.  Most people are intelligent enough to know that makes no sense, but are not rational thinkers when it comes to their health and fitness.   “I didn’t lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks, so it’s not worth it.”  Are you serious?  The answer is: yes they are.

That scenario does not play out in most cases in the real world.  If your child gets an “F” on his/her report card, do you help them study for 2 weeks, and if it isn’t an “A,” do you quit on them?  Of course not!  You would never give up on your child, sometimes to a fault.  If you were trying to move up in your job, would you put an extra effort in for 2 weeks, not get that raise or promotion and say “screw it” and quit?  Of course not, but that is exactly what many people do when it comes to health and fitness.

The next time you are thinking about quitting your fitness program or eating like crap, ask yourself if you would quit on your kid or job just because you didn’t feel like putting in the effort anymore.

We don’t quit many things in life, but we quit on our health and fitness all the time and sooner later pay a high price for having bad health or feeling like crap because our clothes don’t fit and we don’t want to go to the beach.

Just remember “success is a journey, not a destination.”  Once you wrap your head around the fact that taking care of yourself is something  that is not only good for you but makes everything else in your life better, in the long run quitting your fitness program or not showing up will not even be an option.

And remember, it does not have to be perfect, just start.  If you need help, get it.  Too many people try and go it alone and get frustrated.  If you need help with your finances you go to a financial planner.  It’s no different with your health.  Get on a plan that helps you get results and commit to it.

The last thing I would say about this is believe that you can do it.  Too many people start a program but deep down do not believe they can lose weight, which leads to them quitting sooner rather than later.

Yours in Health,

Damon

3 Obstacles to Intuitive Weight Loss

Who am I to know how to lose weight and keep it off?

If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, you need not worry, you are not alone.  In fact, this is the most common question asked by those who want to lose weight, as very few people are truly clear about the best way to eat for long term, enjoyable, and sustainable weight loss.

But not being clear isn’t the real problem.  Doubting yourself and your intuitive voice is.

Your intuition, or inner guidance system, has been perfected over thousands of years of evolution, and it knows exactly how to guide you to lose weight and keep it off forever.  But the silent – often unconscious – “Who am I…?” personal query plants a seed of apprehension that causes us to doubt that guidance, and become uncertain about our own abilities.

It’s a shame, really.  The majority of dieters have successfully convinced themselves that they are not their own expert when it comes to something as simple as shedding some unwanted pounds.  This can feel quite debilitating.

Well, friends, the time has come to clear the clutter once and for all.  Get ready to free yourself from the handcuffs of doubt, and decide right here and now that you are going to empower yourself to take back control of your weight, your health and your body forever more.

The 3 Intuitive Weight Loss Culprits

Named must your fear be before banish it you can.  - Yoda

As the little green Jedi Master said, we need to get crystal clear about what causes us to feel so powerless when it comes to confidently controlling our weight.

We all have a deep-seeded fear that we are not enough.  Most people believe that, at some level, everyone else has it all figured out.  The reality is that we’re all in the same boat, but because of our “we’re not enough” fear, we tend to give too much credit to others, while severely underestimating ourselves.

There are three catalysts that light the spark of this fear and doubt about our ability to intuitively lose weight effectively.  These rascals are so common and so impactful that most of us take them for granted, thus underestimating their power.  However, once they are brought into the light we can recognize them whenever they rear their ugly heads, disarm them, and leave them powerless while empowering ourselves – and our own weight loss – in the end.

1.  We live in the Information Age.

We are trained to look elsewhere for answers.  In an age where we can do a Google search on the word, “diet”, and get over 130,000,000 results in less than a second, we expect that someone else knows how to do this, so we’d better ask them first.  We are conditioned to look for an expert, however they are defined, but we rarely consult with our own intuitive voice before seeking counsel from others.

Learning from others isn’t the problem, it’s doubting ourselves so much that we go outside of ourselves for answers first that weakens our confidence and intuitive muscles.

2.  Too many diet options, most of which contradict each other.

With the sheer number of diets available today, marketers must find a way to position themselves to stick out in the industry.

To accomplish this ever-more daunting task, proponents of the latest secret diet strategy will either niche themselves as a diet for one gender, socioeconomic class, or age group, or they will spin the truth to get some attention.  Typically, they emphasize approaches that either contradict commonly-accepted truths, or challenge the premise upon which the current diet du jour is based upon, thus attracting media buzz by way of being sensationalistic or shocking.  “Lose weight without changing anything you do” is a perfect example.

The reality is that statements like these encourage us to doubt our own intuition and natural instincts about weight loss even more.  (No, it’s not possible to lose weight without changing anything you do.  Unless of course you are currently losing weight.)

3.  We see the staggering number of people who fail at weight loss.

The coup de grace of this doubt-inducing triad is the stark reality that over 90% of dieters end up gaining back the weight they lost within one to five years.

None of us want to fall into this category (at least not again), and as a fear-based reactionary result, we start analyzing, picking apart and scrutinizing every agonizing detail of the most popular diets in hopes of spotting the fatal flaws of the diets we decide to avoid.  Welcome to the fast lane for paralysis by analysis.  This leads to either a lifelong search for the perfect diet (while continuing to gain 1-3 lbs per year during our investigation), or we just say, “Screw it – it’s easier to be fat than to try to figure this out.”

All three of these buggers exacerbate the FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real) that we can’t lose weight on our own.

The truth is that each one of us has everything we need.

The Antidote

1.  Listen to your intuition.

What would you do to easily and effortlessly start losing weight today if you were able to temporarily set aside all of the doubt, misconceptions, and fear you’ve collected over the years about controlling your weight?  What would you do intuitively to drop the extra pounds?

Still stuck?  Maybe this will help.  Pretend you are living in the year 1700.  You find yourself with 20 pounds to lose.  You have no internet, no weight loss programs, no “experts” to consult, and no books.  What would you do to drop the extra 20?

You would eat less, move more, or do a combination.

We all know intuitively that our body weight, and the changes in our weight over time, will always tell us what kind of calorie balance we’ve been in.  Gained weight?  You ate more than you burned over the time period during which your weight increased.  Lost weight?  You burned more than you ate.  Did your weight stay the same?  You get the picture.

This feedback system – your weight changes and your intuitive ability to decide how to adjust based on it – has always been there, and will continue to be there for you for the rest of your life.

2.  Don’t get lost in the woods.

Have you ever heard the expression, “You can’t see the forest for the trees”?  Focusing too much on the details, at the expense of failing to see the big picture, will only get you lost, confused and frustrated.

The “forest” is the big picture – your calorie balance.  If you don’t get the calorie balance right, none of the other details like carbs, protein, fat, sugar, water, and best time of day to eat, will matter.  Case in point:  The person who “eats healthy” but never loses any weight.  Compare this person to the other extreme example: Someone who found a way to manage a calorie deficit for the past 2 years, lost over 30 lbs., but never ate a single vegetable and drank regular soda and ate Cheetos every step of the way.

Some people spend so much time arguing over the little nuances of weight loss, such as the Glycemic Index and whether you can eat meals with carbs past 6pm or 7pm.  These same people either never lose any weight, or if they do, they start to gain it all back when they eventually realize they can’t live with the highly-specialized, time-consuming and inconvenient diet strategies they chose to follow.

Remember this:  It doesn’t matter how “perfect” you are with your nutrition; if you don’t manage your calories, your weight will never change.

And it doesn’t matter how “perfect” your diet strategy is on paper; if you can’t live with it, you will start to gain the weight back as soon as you stop following it.

Get your calorie balance right first by making simple, intuitive adjustments to the way you eat and move which you can live with over the long haul, then work on eating as healthy as you wish while maintaining that balance.

3.  Never fight for your limitations.

If you don’t want your history to repeat itself, then promise yourself that you will give up on trying to prove that you are right about what you couldn’t do in the past.

Every day, your body burns calories.  Every day, you consume calories.  At the end of every 7-14 days, any changes to your body weight will be a direct result of the average daily balance between the number of calories you burned and the number you consumed.  This will repeat itself for as long as you are alive, which means you can always begin anew if taking control of your weight is important enough to you.

It also means that this calorie balance thing never ends.  So, if you want to lose weight and keep it off, stop doubting yourself.  Begin listening to your built-in intuition, trust yourself, use the feedback your body gives you, and relax in the knowledge that you have been inherently given everything you need to be successful, and you – only you – are responsible for the way you look and feel.

If you find yourself stuck at a certain weight, promise yourself that you will ask one question before looking elsewhere for answers:

“If there was no one else to ask, and I fully trusted my own instincts, what advice would I give myself now?”

You are smarter, and more powerful than you know.  It’s time to unleash it.

Why Mindless Eating Can Pack On Pounds

Below is a great article on mindless eating I found. Most of this concept comes from the groundbreaking research of Brian Wansink. I highly recommend his book.

It seems when Americans sit down to eat, our minds are out to lunch. Whether it’s the newspaper on the kitchen table, the morning news on TV, your co-workers you’re dining with, or simply the world passing you by, food is the only thing we’re not thinking about when we eat. The problem is, our absent-minded way of eating is starting to make a difference when we step on the scale — and not in a good way.

“Regardless of how tuned in we believe we are to what we eat and how much we eat, we are really a nation of mindless eaters,” says Brian Wansink, PhD, professor and director of Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

So if we’re not focused on our food, what is it we’re thinking about when we sit down for a meal? Do we give any thought at all to what’s on our forks, or do we just open up and consume?

Experts give WebMD tips on how we can stop our absent-minded way of eating and start thinking before we open our mouths for a mindless feast.

Mindless Eating

“The average person during the course of an average day makes over 200 food-related decisions,” says Wansink, author of Mindless Eating. “But if you ask someone what that number is, they say around 30.”

That could mean that many of the choices we should be making regarding the food we eat are made for us when we’re seduced by our environment.

“If we simply give people a larger plate size, in some cases, they’ll end up eating 25%-50% more food just because the dish they’re eating from is bigger,” says Wansink. “Whether it’s the time of day, who we are with, the lighting, the size of dish, the variety of food- — all of these things end up influencing us as we make food choices.”

While the brain that’s between our ears doesn’t seem to have a huge role on the food we put between our lips, that doesn’t mean it’s not having an impact on our waistlines.

“If you look at all the factors that influence your food choices over the course of a day, if you eat 20% more calories than you need because of those factors, then at the end of the year, that’s about 40 pounds of extra weight,” says Wansink. “So it makes a huge difference at the end of the year, and that’s what we call the ‘mindless margin’ — we lose and gain weight by a few calories a day.”

So if we’re not paying attention to our food, what is it we’re pondering?

Life vs. Food

“Even when you’re eating with others, say at a lunch meeting, it’s easy for people to get caught up in the conversation and forget to pay attention to their food,” says Linda Spangle, RN, MA, author of Life is Hard, Food is Easy. “Suddenly, they look down and realize their plate is empty, but didn’t really notice what they ate.”

Life, it seems, gets in the way of food.

“It’s very common for people to be so preoccupied with life concerns that they eat without paying much attention to their food,” says Spangle.

Instead of food, everything else is on their minds, from kids to relationships to work.

“Many workers multitask by eating at their desks and continuing to do computer work, answer emails, or do other tasks,” says Spangle.

They’re so focused on their work that the food in front of them magically disappears without a second thought.

“In the evening, many people no longer eat at a table as a family,” says Spangle. “Instead, each person grabs their own food, then they head to another room or they plunk down in front of the TV to relax from their day. In this case, TV holds their attention as they mindlessly shove food in their mouths.”

And in many cases, Spangle explains, the power of habit goes into overdrive when the mind shifts to neutral.

“Many times it’s habit,” says Spangle, who also authored 100 Days of Weight Loss. “We’re used to eating a certain amount of food at our meals, such as a large sandwich, and we finish it off even when we know we’re overeating or becoming too full.”

What happened to the joy of eating? Of enjoying a simple meal and relishing every last bite? Have those days gone the way of the family dinner?

“It’s not that people don’t want to notice and appreciate what they’re eating,” Spangle tells WebMD. “It’s that we’ve forgotten how to separate eating from all the other activities or demands in our lives.”

Focusing on Food

So how do we get our minds back on track and start focusing on food?

“The bad news is that the environment can lead us to mindlessly overeat,” says Wansink. “The good news is we can change our environment to eat what we want and eat the quantities we want.”

  • Slow down. “The faster you eat, the less likely you’re paying attention to your food,” says Spangle. “Consider setting a timer or your watch alarm for 20 minutes, then make sure that your meal lasts that long. For those who tend to quickly wolf down their food without noticing it, the 20-minute timer will completely change the way they eat.”
  • Savor the food. “Build the habit of starting your meal by taking very small bites and paying attention to all the details of the food, including the temperature, texture, seasoning,” says Spangle. “By really noticing these things, you’ll totally change your awareness of your eating. You’ll also find you can get a lot of satisfaction from a very small amount of food.”
  • Watch for the “eating pause.” “This subtle cue is related to the body indicating that it’s had enough food,” says Spangle.

During a meal, most people unknowingly take a break, put their fork and knife down, and stop eating for a few minutes. This is the “eating pause.” What usually happens next is mindless eating.

“After a minute or two, they will look down at their plate, notice the food that’s left, and start eating again to finish their meal,” says Spangle. “Interestingly, when people do this ‘eating pause’ they are usually at the point of being satisfied by their food — not too full, not still hungry, but totally satisfied.”

So the trick is, when you run into the eating pause, don’t just take a break from eating — stop altogether instead. Using this technique helps you keep your mind on your food and prevents you from overeating.

  • Don’t be seduced by labels. “When food is advertised as healthy or low fat, people fall for that,” says Wansink. “We find that when people think they are eating healthy food they overeat by 40%, or they compensate by putting cheese or mayo on the food or ordering cookies or dessert because they think they deserve it, and that has a huge impact on our calorie intake.”
  • Don’t eat by the clock. “When people eat by the clock, they might eat even when they’re not hungry because the clock strikes noon,” says Susan Moores, RD, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. “It’s more important to pay attention to hunger and eat when your body tells you to instead of your watch. When people are a slave to a clock it can backfire.”
  • Separate food from technology. “Don’t watch TV, surf the Internet, or read the paper when you eat because it’s too easy to become distracted and forget about the food you’re eating,” says Moores. “Or if reality has it that you are going to read a paper or watch a football game and eat, put a finite food in front of you so you’re not sitting there with a big box of snacks and an endless amount of food that you eat without a second thought.”
  • Be satisfied with your food. “What we hope people will get is satisfaction from food or from the occasion of eating,” says Moores. “If people get better at listening to their body and eating when they’re hungry and eating food they enjoy, they’ll be satisfied by it and eat it mindfully. It becomes what we call ‘intuitive eating,’ or the act of listening to your body and eating what your body is calling for and then by and large, you’ll be satisfied by it.”

OBSTACLE COURSE CHALLENGE

FLORIDA FITNESS COACHES is hosting an OBSTACLE COURSE CHALLENGE for the next 6 weeks!!!  The cost to participate is $99 per person, with a portion of the proceeds going to Bikes for Tykes of Naples.  Read more about it on naplesnews.com by clicking on the link below:

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/jul/30/local-health-club-to-host-fitness-obstacle-course-/

The events of the obstacle course are as follows:

  • 30 Mountain climbers
  • 10 Pull ups
  • Rope climb 
  • Agility rings (stepping through rings on the floor)
  • Jump over 3 steps
  • 10 Push ups
  • Throw 6 medicine balls
  • Lift medicine balls from ground to tailgate
  • 10 Get ups
  • Run around the building

THE FINAL TIMED COMPETITION WILL BE HELD AT FFC ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25th at 9:00am!!!

This is a fun, friendly community event that will benefit a GREAT cause.  We hope that as many of you who can will participate!  Encourage your friends to participate as well….both members and non-members are welcome!  If for some reason you cannot join the competition, but would still like to give to Bikes for Tykes, we will be accepting donations throughout the 6 week challenge.  If you have any questions at all, please contact us.  If not, start practicing!  Good luck!
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