The Fit Stop

May. 10, 2012

The ‘Anti Results’ Weight Loss Program

Ok, so we’ve all read numerous books, magazine articles and rantings on this blog telling us what we SHOULD be doing to get great results when it comes to weight loss and changing your body composition. But because I like to be different, I’m going to give you the ‘anti-results’ fat loss plan, follow this plan if you want to get slow or minimal results, I can GUARANTEE this system will work for you.

EXERCISE

If you’re going to do any exercise at all (it’s much easier to just not eat) then be sure to make long steady cardio the basis of your training, try to work at the lowest intensity possible so you can run for as long as you can. After a few weeks you’ll find that your jogging will get much easier as you get fitter and more capable at running , so the same 5km route you’re running won’t have the same calorie burning effect as it had when you first started because it’s not as hard.

This is easily fixed!

Just keep running longer and longer each week to make up for it. We all know there’s no shortage of time, you’re probably not too busy so just keep extending that running distance indefinitely. If you have postural issues, back pain or are a little overweight, just push through the sore knees, lower back aches, and ankle and calf pain.

NEVER do any weight training, this will make girls big and bulky, and there’s absolutely no need to be strong, injury resistant and physically capable. Just get a look at these women, they compete at the elite level in a competition called Crossfit, it’s a training method which uses a lot of quite heavy weight training at a very high intensity. These women below are some of the word’s best at this, and they lift more weights in both amount and frequency than you’ll ever get to or comfortably fit into your weekly schedule if you have a job, family, life etc.

These women don’t look very good at all and you wouldn’t want to look anything like them so again, stay away from any heavy weight training.

I think all men and women would agree these women below look much better, all you have to do is put in 2-3 times the training time, run over 20+ km per day to burn enough body fat to stay lean and you’ll have a body with no useless, ugly, ‘bulky’ muscles. Just don’t ever reduce the amount of running you do or things will turn around pretty quickly!

And if you do decide to exercise just do it whenever you really feel like it, don’t follow any sort of routine, it’s best if you make it as sporadic and as inconsistent as possible. If you get the chance to sleep in, get drunk the night before, or just go socialize with friends instead of training then go for it as it won’t make any difference to your results but skipping these daily obligations wll greatly impact you in the long term. In 5 years time you’ll be looking back and you’ll really regret all those early mornings, skipped drinking sessions and hard workouts.

DIET

Eat the most convenient thing you can find, your best bet is packaged and processed foods like cereals, bread, biscuits, crackers, pastries, noodles and muffins as they are quick, easy and convenient. The best part about this food is they’re full of preservatives and all these other chemicals and additives so they’ll last an abnormally long amount of time in your pantry before they go off. Beats buying fresh fruit, veggies and meat that will only last a few days!

For dinner you need something to fill you up, a big bowl of pasta with low fat sauce should give you all the nutrients you need to go for that big jog tomorrow. Remember, as long as it says low fat on the label it’s fine to eat.

Just because we humans have eaten vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts, seeds and only natural foods for our thousands and thousands of years of existence with no obesity issues (until recently), it doesn’t mean humans haven’t improved this diet with “technologically advanced”, processed foods.

Just because there’s a weight or obesity epidemic that has a high correlation with the amount of processed foods consumed doesn’t mean anything. Most cases of people being overweight are genetic and have no connection with food and lifestyle choices anyway.

If you really want to lose weight, start depriving yourself of food wherever you can. Stop eating breakfast, skip meals, your body doesn’t really need vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre to flourish, as long as you’re eating low fat and low calorie foods like mentioned above you’ll be fine. Don’t worry about hormone levels from lack of eating and nutrients for now, you can always take some drugs prescribed from your GP if things get out of whack later down the line.

Don’t worry about your metabolism slowing down when you starve yourself, it’s sort of like with the jogging I explained above, your metabolism will slow down when you deprive yourself of food so just keep eating less and less to counteract this. It’s worked for these women…

and alcohol isn’t really a food so it doesn’t matter too much. Everyone knows wine is good for you anyway, so it’s logical the more you have the better it is for you (duh!). If you don’t like wine just go for the low carb beer because the alcohol itself won’t be doing you any harm as long as you ditch some of those pesky carbs

No supplements will work they’re a big waste of time, you’re getting everything you need from your packaged and processed foods diet, plus most of the breakfast cereals you get are fortified with added vitamins anyway, it says it all over the box!

GENERAL MINDSET AND ATTITUDE

You don’t need to work hard to get good results, just look at all the magazine covers you see every day, the world is full of quick fix magic bullets, you just have to find the one that works for you, be patient and you’ll stumble across it. In fact you can follow the same lifestyle you were leading which made you put on weight in the first place, and with minimal effort make dramatic changes to your body and health. Everyone knows this is possible.

Make sure to weigh yourself every day just to make sure you don’t deviate, scale weight is the ONLY indicator as to how you look, and we all know that everybody has a predetermined weight where they will look fantastic regardless of whether that weight is composed of fat, muscle or water. If you ever put on weight on the scales, it will ALWAYS be body fat so beware of this.

And again, don’t worry about your health or physical capabilities too much it’s ALL about how you look right now. You won’t care how you look when you’re older anyway so it doesn’t matter if the lifestyle you lead today catches up with you. By the time you’re older there’ll be 60 minute hip replacements while you wait, a cure for cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, it’s easy to buy a walking cane or wheelchair to get around when your lack of muscle strength and postural issues get the better of you and no doubt you’ll find someone who’ll help you out of your chair when you no longer have the muscle strength to do it on your own, (or you’re in too much physical pain).

So follow the advice on all of the above as closely as you can, you’ve got the rest of your life to spend time reclaiming your health but what matters is you do whatever it takes NOW to lose as much weight as possible on the scales as quickly as you can and as conveniently as you can without disrupting your eating pattens, work, social life, favourite t.v shows and levels of comfort. What a plan!!

AND IN CASE YOU MISSED THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OR JUST THOUGHT I’D GONE CRAZY…

THIS ADVICE IN THIS POST IS COMPLETE B.S – DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF ALL THE ADVICE ON THIS PAGE AND YOU’RE SET!!

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition, Supplements, Training by admin | 1 Comment

Apr. 11, 2012

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5 Variables of a Fat Loss Nutrition Plan

Another post on nutrition, what can I say that you haven’t heard before you ask?

Well, often you have to hear things when put in a certain way before you have that ‘aha’ moment when something just clicks. Diet and nutrition is such a hard area to grasp for a lot of people, and i’m constantly trying to explain things in a way which makes it easy for people to understand.

So anyway, here are 5 variables that you need to worry about when it comes to a good eating plan, and it’s pretty much IN this order.

Read on to see if you’ve put some thought into each variable and decide whether you need to step it up a notch in one or more areas to really get your nutrition dialed in.

Optimum Food Choices

This needs to come before anything else, before you worry about calories, how many meals to eat, fat burning supplements or even how often to exercise (from a weight loss perspective), you need to address your food choices in regards to the types of foods you are eating, and the quality of the food you’re eating. You can exercise till the cows come home but if you’re eating bread and drinking soft drink every day, and not putting enough quality nutrients into your body consistently then its going to be very hard to get fit and more importantly…healthy.

There’s plenty of other info on this blog about what type of food we want to be eating so I won’t get into it in too much detail here, but in a nutshell – eat a lot of good quality, organic when possible, free range lean meats/poultry/seafood, eat alot of vegetables (unlimited), include healthy fats from natural sources (and an omega 3 fish oil/krill oil supplement), and eat a moderate amount of fruits.

Avoid any processed, engineered foods that have been ‘invented’ by humans in the last 100 years or so, limit starchy carbohydrates and an excess of wheat & grain based foods, limit any other liquid besides water, green tea, and organic coffee (and good quality protein shakes with water). So this is just a good foundation for most people, within this framework its important to listen to your body and how you feel, open your mind to the fact you may have some degree of allergy or intolerance to common things like dairy, wheat, gluten etc. This can often lead to weight gain, bloating, digestive issues, tiredness, inflammation and a bunch of other less than ideal symptoms.

Total Calorie Intake

Whilst calorie intake is definitely important, it is a very misunderstood area for a lot of people. Many think there is some magic calorie amount where everybody will see results, often in spite of poor food choices, 1200 seems to be popular. Just remember all calories aren’t equal, and 200 calories of donut is not going to have the same effect on your body as 200 calories of spinach. When food choices are good however, then calories do become relevant and it’s the next step in individualizing your food plan.

In reality your calorie range for weight loss will be an individual thing, (affected by your weight, muscle mass, hormones, activity levels, unique physiological makeup etc.) but you can get into the right ballpark with a few simple calculations based on your weight.

This is the formula I like to use, there are other formulas but whichever you use you’ll find it’s very similar. Find your bodyweight in pounds, which is kgs x 2.2, then multiply it by 10 for the first number and multiply it by 12 to get the second number.

Example: 70kg x 2.2 = 154 pounds

154 x 10 = 1,540 154 x 12 = 1,848

1,540 – 1,848 is the calorie range

If you are 70kg, your weight loss calorie level will fall somewhere in this range (give or take), so start at the top and systematically lower the amount till you find the point at which you’re losing a healthy, sustainable amount of body fat. You can download the ‘myfitnesspal’ app to track your food and calories on your phone.

Protein/Carb/Fat Ratios

This basically refers to the percentage of your diet that’s made of protein, carbohydrates and fat. There’s plenty of people who have lost weight on a low carbohydrate and higher protein and fat diet, and there’s plenty of people who have lost weight on a lower fat and higher carb diet, so it’s safe to say that both can work (the thing they have in common is they both address total calorie intake). However for the normal person who probably started having issues in the first place due to a high carb diet, who is not doing a ton of exercise and has been sedentary for a while, and is probably eating BAD carbs anyway which need to go, then a higher protein and fat diet, with a lower carb intake will be the best way to go, so maybe something like a 40:35:25 ratio of protein:fat:carbs.

People who can lose weight or stay lean on a higher carb diet tend to be people with comparitively lower body fat percentages already, a decent amount of muscle, and training hard consistently. The way that a fit, lean, muscular, active person who trains hard handles carbs and a moderately overweight, reasonably sedentary, ‘less fit’ person with a sluggish digestive system and metabolic issues handles carbs are a lot different. Where ever you fit in on that continuum will dictate what you’re eating more or less of.

Meal Frequency

I used to think that eating 6 meals per day was the best way to go, and eating every 3 hours was a golden rule to stick to. But as of late, and as new research and studies come out I’ve changed my mind on this for now. It seems that the frequency of meals, or how many meals you eat in a day doesn’t matter so much as the total calories ingested. So basically if you eat 1700 calories over 6 meals or 1700 calories over 3 meals it won’t make a difference in terms of weight loss. So basically, do whatever is easiest for you to stick to, if eating 6 meals per day stops you from getting ravenously hungry by dinner time and eating anything in sight, or gives you more energy, then do that. If 3 meals per day is a lot easier for you to plan, its less stressful for you to source out good healthy food choices and means you don’t have to struggle to find the time to eat 6 meals a day, then go with 3 because that’s what you can realistically stick to. I wouldn’t go any less than 3 just for the pure fact it’s going to be hard for you to eat enough quality food in a day from 1 or 2 meals.

Meal Timing

This is a concept you may not hear about so much, its more in the realm of sports nutrition, but this is one variable that can make a big difference in regards to your recovery from training and the results you get. The timing in which you eat certain types of foods, can play a big role in how your body handles those nutrients. For example after a session of weight training, your body is in a unique physiological state where you’ll handle carbohydrates (and your body’s insulin response) a lot better, and you’ll use protein more effectively. The protein you ingest within about 30 minutes of your training session basically triggers and kick starts the recovery process for muscle repair, strengthening and growth (toning up). Drinking it in the form of a liquid shake means it will metabolise and get into your system a lot quicker, and it’s generally easier to get your hands on a shake within 30 mins of training than it is a cooked chicken breast. If you haven’t been taking a protein shake (with some good carbs) after training to take advantage of this variable then that’s one thing you can do straight away to noticeably improve your results, you’d be mad not to. This also means that you have a bit more wiggle room for carbohydrates like rice, potatoes etc in the couple of hours after you do some weight training – yay!

So there you have it:

1.    Optimum Food Choices
2.    Total Calories
3.    Protein/Carb/Fat Ratios
4.    Meal Frequency
5.    Meal Timing

There might be one that you haven’t thought about too much and now realise you can improve, or you might improve each one just slightly which could mean a huge difference to your overall diet when added up.

Hope this that helped!

Posted in Nutrition by admin | No Comments

Mar. 28, 2012

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‘Releasing The Brakes’ For Better Fitness & Fat Loss Results

When we think of getting healthy, losing weight or increasing fitness & strength, we know there’s plenty of things we can be doing to help with these goals:

- Cutting out junk food, alcohol and processed carbs (in fact ANY processed foods)
- Regular metabolic resistance training and interval training,
- Eating good quality lean protein and a ton of veggies
- Stretching / mobility work
- Etc, etc, etc

BUT it’s also worth thinking about some of the overlooked factors that can make all the difference in the world; I like to refer to this as ‘releasing the brakes’

Just imagine you have a brand new sports car, with a turbo engine. This thing has all the makings of a high performance vehicle and everything it needs to drive super fast.

So you go to take off, foot goes down on the accelerator, but nothing happens! You press down even harder…nothing, then you floor it….still nothing!…

You’ve got the hand brake stuck on! So much potential, but this one little thing can stop the car from moving completely.

The point of the story is that no matter what you’ve got going for you, and no matter how much effort you put in to training or your diet, sometimes you have to find how to ‘release your brakes’ to really get the most out of yourself and realize your potential.

Example 1 : I see many people, who decide they need to eat a really low calorie diet to lose weight, sure this may work for a while but if you’ve already done this one or two times before and your metabolism is stuffed up as a result then your low calorie diet isn’t going to work. As a result of your previous weight loss attempts you’ve lost a lot of muscle tissue, metabolism has slowed, hormones are out of whack, and you’ve got vitamins deficiencies. You’ve got the brakes on and no matter how hard you press down on the accelerator nothing is going to happen. To release the breaks you’ll need to go through a process of ‘re-feeding’ and re-nourishing your body by eating more good quality caolories for a while and getting that metabolism fired up again (you can drop your food intake again after this).

Example 2: You train hard, always putting in your best effort, coming to the gym regularly and jogging on your off days. Top points for effort! However through previous years of inactivity and poor posture, maybe even some past injuries, you’ve got certain muscles that are tight, inactive glutes, mobility issues and muscle imbalances which are preventing you from moving correctly, getting stronger, training harder, progressing, and making the most out of your training efforts. You can release the brakes by spending 6 weeks intensively stretching and foam rolling your ‘problem areas’ and doing some a couple of minutes of corrective exercises every day to fix up those muscle imbalances, then you’ll get a lot more out of all your effort in the long term.

Example 3: You exercising hard 5 times per week, eat really well, but feel your results don’t come as quick as they should. After getting a blood test you realise your thyroid is out of whack, your low in zinc and magnesium, and your deficient in vitamin D. This is stopping your body from losing body fat and working as it should. After spending a little bit of time fixing up these issues and ‘releasing the brakes’, your body starts changing much quicker.

Ther’s plenty of other example I could give, from the people you surround yourself with who might be a negative influence on you in some way, to your attitude & mindset relating to what you think you can or can’t achieve.

But as you can see it’s not ALWAYS about pressing down on the accelerator as hard as we can, sometimes we need to step back and see if we have the brakes on, just to make sure we are getting the most out of all the effort we put in .

Now don’t read this and automatically think you’ve got some problem, 90% of the time your solution is a combination of these things: eat better, train harder, train more often (which requres alot of discipline)

But it’s worth thinking about…

- Do you have postural, flexibility, muscular issues that you know are hindering you?
- When was the last time you had a blood test to see if you had any hormonal issues or vitamin deficiencies?
- Have you previously lost a lot of weight through a really low calorie diet and your body isn’t responding to your good eating like it should?

If you feel like you’ve got the brakes on somewhere and need some help identifying or addressing the situation, feel free to email me and ill help where I can or try to point you in the right direction. (it might take a couple of days for me to reply!)

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition, Training by admin | No Comments

Mar. 6, 2012

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Random List Of Useful Health, Fitness & Fat Loss Tools

I’m a big believer in constant self education and evolving with the times, I always try to stay on top of the latest when it comes to health and fitness, and in particular how it can help me to help you.

I know there’s just so much out there when it comes to the health and fitness industry, it’s often hard to separate the good stuff from the bad, truth be told there’s alot of B.S information and products.

Anyway, along those lines, I’ve compiled a bunch of random, unrelated things that l think are quite cool and you might find useful. Some of these things I’ve been privy to for quite some time, and some i’ve just stumbled upon recently.

Here goes:

IPHONE & ANDROID APP – ‘MYFITNESSPAL’

The is a great app for keeping a food diary, its very easy and intuitive to use, and the best part is it will calculate your calorie intake whilst your recording what you eat. Whilst I don’t think it’s a good idea to obsess about calories, there’s no denying that it is relevant if weight loss is your goal, so it’s sometimes good to see where you’re at for a few days to make sure you aren’t way off. It has a big Australian foods/brands database which is where a lot of other phone and online apps drop the ball. Just be conscious of the fact when you start it up and create your profile, it will give you quite a low recommended calorie range, too low in my opinion so aim a bit higher. To find it just search for ‘myfitnesspal’ in your app store, and if it doesn’t show up type in ‘calorie counter’ – it will show up for one of them.

BALL IN A SOCK

I’ve written about this before but just a recap. I’ve never paid for a massage that’s been as effective as rolling on my ball in sock. It’s a great, practical, easy to make tool which is awesome for getting in to tight spots, knots and trigger points in muscle, especially in your upper back, lower back, and glutes. You actually get better and more efficient at rolling on the ball the more you do it, you learn about where your tight spots are and how to get into them. For a more thorough rundown you can read this old blog post I wrote HERE

COCONUT YOGHURT

I discovered this stuff a month or so ago in my local health food store, and I’ve been extremely excited ever since. This yogurt has no sugar, no dairy, is full of good fats, and healthy bacteria. It also tastes great and has a bunch of different flavours to compliment the coconut. If you like a bit of yoghurt, it’s a great, guilt free replacement. If you want to get some, to find your nearest location- click here - http://www.coyo.com.au/stores/?address=St+Kilda+East+3183

COOKWELL BLENDER OR BAGIC BULLET BLENDER

I’ve had about 3 of these blenders, they’re quite similar to the magic bullet blender (which you could also buy) but a bit cheaper, and they’re awesome. Great for making healthy protein shakes / smoothies, baby food, grinding your own organic coffee beans etc. The best thing is you put your ingredients in the cup, place the lid on which is actually where the blades are, blend it all up, take the lid off then drink straight from the cup, or take it with you to work or the gym. Very simple, easy, and not much mess to clean! I’ve seen these at Kmart, Homemart, Harris Scarfe for under $50, but i’m sure you can find it at other places too.

Book – ‘The 150 Healthiest Foods On Earth‘

Yep you might have seen this book sitting on the coffee table at the gym, it’s a really great, easy to read, visually pleasing book, and the author is spot on. If you want to learn a bit about good nutrition but the thought of reading a dry, boring nutrition book cover to cover is not appealing, then this is a good start.

Great coffee table book to have in the house, and it will definitely help you to make the right food choices.You can buy it from Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/150-Healthiest-Foods-Earth-Surprising/dp/1592332285/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330655508&sr=1-1-spell

RESISTANCE BANDS

One of the harderst things about working out on your own at home for an extra workout is the lack of ‘pulling’ or ‘rowing’ exercises you can do. It’s easy to get the ‘pushing’ movements in (push ups, overhead pressing etc) but if anything, most people need more ‘pulling’ exercises to strengthen the postural musles in the upper back, and counteract the seated, ‘hunched’ posture most of you are in all day. Too many push ups without balancing out the ‘pulling’ will further exasperate any issues you currently have (and most people have issues to a certain degree). I do 50-100 band pullaparts or face pulls almost every day to keep the shoulders healthy and to make sure to counteract any muscle imbalances. If you do sit at a desk all day, then it’s a good idea to do these – you’ll feel a lot better for it, reduce injuries and tightness, be stronger when you’re body is all aligned and you’ll save yourself some grief down the track! You can purchase some on ebay easy enough – I found some for you right here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RESISTANCE-FITNESS-EXERCISE-BANDS-TUBES-SET-KIT-P90X-/200626753438?pt=AU_Strength_Training&hash=item2eb6494f9e

THE NEW ‘PROFESSIONAL WHEY’ PROTEIN FORMULA

This has always been the best quality protein, but in the past it has come unflavoured so you had to flavour it yourself. Not a huge deal for me, but it’s an extra thing to do, and for many people who struggle to find time to eat and prepare food it can be that little bit too much of a pain in the butt, and can be hard getting the flavour right. But now there’s a new formula which comes pre-flavoured with only organic natural ingredients and natural sweeteners. In an industry full of poor quality products which can actually do more harm than good if you don’t know what to look for, this stuff is easily the best quality, healthiest, and affordable protein on the market. I’m stocking this at the gym now so if you want any just ask, at $40 for a 1kg bag you won’t get it much cheaper, and definitely not for this quality!

FEEDMEE

I often go to the FeeMee on Carlisle St, just down the road from the gym. This is a great place to get an actually healthy meal, so if you’re ever stuck for lunch or dinner after training this is a good option. They’ve got a big selection of salads / veggies and protein sources, you can get a pre-made salad from the menu or create your own if you like! You can also choose to get a potato, sweet potato or healthy soup. Just be careful not to go overboard on the potato’s or the dressings etc if you’re on a weight loss plan (a bit of potato is ok after training though), but apart from that this is about the only ‘fast food’ or ‘take away’ in the area which I condone.

There’s actually 2 stores locally:

- 215 Carlisle Street, Balaclava

- 104 Chapel Street, Windsor

That’s it for today, i’m sure i’ll be back for part 2, but in the meantiem I hope this has given you some new things to add to your health & fitness reportoire!

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition, Supplements, Training by admin | No Comments

Feb. 16, 2012

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The Importance Of Recovery

An often overlooked aspect of everyone’s training and exercise program is recovery, it’s not all about exercising as hard as you can and then disregarding the impact this has on your body for the rest of the day, recovery from training is in some ways the whole reason you’re training in the first place,…

What the heck am I talking about and how does it affect you?

Well…

Recovery basically refers to the repair of the damage we do to our muscles and our connective tissues during a workout. Recovery is also the restoration of the enzymes inside muscle fibres which are broken down during training, the refilling of the carbohydrate fuel stores within muscle cells, and it’s the return to normal of the nervous and immune systems, all of which are affected by a bout of physical training.

Nerdy textbook pic – there’s a lot going on in your body during and after a bout of high intensity exercise

This damage occurs after all our sessions whether it be strength training or cardio, however the degree to which it affects us on every level will vary accordingly. For example if we have a session of heavy lifting, our muscles anc connective tissues will need more recovery than if we did some interval training on the bike.

However, it’s important to remember that when we train we don’t just want our bodies to repair and return to normal during recovery periods. Ideally, our body systems should adapt and our muscles will repair and add to their structure to go that little bit further in making us stronger, adding muscle tissue, improving our motor control and coordination, increase our threshold for lactic acid and to allow us to increase the intensity and duration of work we can do.

The human body is amazing in that when we place a stress upon it, it will try and adapt to better cope with the situation (some of you might have calluses on your hands from training, this a real life example, your skin is adapting to the stress of holding dumbells) we are essentially doing this when we are working out.

You’re lifting heavy objects, fatiguing muscles, challenging your cardiovascular system and in doing so your body will sense that it needs to adapt and improve the efficiency in which you carry out these tasks several times per week, hence more muscle, increased strength, less fat, improved cardio etc. This is once of the reasons why we constantly need to increase the intensity and change up the programming of our training sessions to trigger this adaptation response.

So as you can see the recovery aspect of training is very important, it is literally the THING that gives you the results. We don’t actually get stronger and fitter while we’re at the gym doing a workout, nor do we grow new muscle tissue or burn a ton of body fat while we’re actually at the gym, it all happens in the other 23 hours in the day we spend away from the gym, what you’re actually doing at the gym is creating a stress.

Now that we know this, we know for best results we want to optimize our recovery, to speed it up and to improve our results as much as we can before our next workout. Best results are achieved when doing as much training or exercise as possible without going beyond our capacity to recover. This is the perfect balance. (Although it’s important to remember, we need to make sure that we’re training hard enough and with adequate intensity to create enough of a stress to trigger this adaptation response in the first place!)

What we do with our time after a workout, and the lifestyle choices we make, will affect our recovery and results either positively or negatively, fortunately however we have a lot of control over these factors.

Ideally we want to maintain a good healthy lifestyle & diet, this doesn’t just mean staying away from junk food, it means eating foods that are high in all the good proteins, carbs, fats, vitamins and minerals we need, and it means eating enough foods, as well as a good supply of water. Your body uses these nutrients as the building blocks to repair itself, and to improve upon itself, just like watering and feeding a plant or any other living organism. If your goal it to add muscle, or if you’re trying to repair an injury it’s even more important for you to eat enough food.

We need to make sure we are getting enough sleep, this is the main time your body restores and repairs itself, if you’re not sleeping your recovery is definitely not optimal and neither are your workouts, it’s ideal to aim for about 8 hours sleep a night, if you can get more then lucky you!.

Things like massage and soft tissue work like rolling on the foam rollers and little bouncy balls, as well as stretching, will also enhance your recovery and help keep your body functioning well, sort of like when you get your car serviced and your wheels aligned.

and lastly, it’s been shown that drinking a protein recovery drink within 30 minutes of finishing your strength training workouts will kick start the recovery process and improve the rate at which your muscles recover and repair. After a strength training session your muslces will be very receptive to protein intake so this a good window of opportunity to make your workouts more productuve and get better results, with very little extra effort.

It probably doesn’t need to be said, but drinking alcohol, junk food, late nights, super low calorie diets, stress levels, and smoking all affect your recovery negatively; all these things are bad for our bodies, so we are effectively placing added stress on to an already stressed system. These things will slow your recovery and your progress. The last thing we want is for you to train hard, then go and place excess demands on your body by not following good lifestyle choices, this could eventually lead to over training where your body just cannot cope anymore and your performance will actually go backwards, your energy and immune systems will be down, and you may even get sick!

So there you go, that’s the importance of recovery and taking care of yourself

.
Hope this has given you something to think about

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition, Training by admin | No Comments

Feb. 2, 2012

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5 Questions To Ask Yourself At Meal Time

Losing weight, toning up, and being healthy comes down to the choices you make and the habits you develop from day to day. Its really quite simple, not necessarily easy, but it is quite simple when you understand what to do.

There are no magic bullet quick fixes, but if you just follow proven, solid principles on a consistent basis and go in to it with the mindset of ‘this is your lifestyle’ (and not a temporary health kick), you’ll get the results you want. Like it or not, the state of your body and health are the result of the lifestyle choices you’ve made up till now. If you want to change the outcome or the result you’ve been getting, then you need to start making the right choices that are conducive to your goals.

So if losing body fat or toning up is one of your primary goals, here’s 5 very important questions you should ask yourself when you sit down to eat… and if it helps, review these questions every single time you eat for as long as it takes to sink in.

SIMPLE: If you can provide the right answer to these questions every single time you eat a meal, you’ll lose weight and feel great and your body will reflect these great lifestyle choices you’ve made.

Here goes…

ARE YOU EATING TOO MUCH?

This might seem obvious, but it’s the best place to start. When you’re eating for fat loss its to be expected that you’re going to be feeling a little hungry some of the time, and that’s fine. It’s a good idea to stop eating before you’re feeling ‘full’.

So try eating on a smaller plate than usual, or just leave some food on your plate, put it in the fridge and save it for tomorrow.

And if you typically go back for seconds, maybe leave it at just one serve from now on.

Whichever one works for you, make sure you’re decreasing you’re calories in one way or another compared to what you’d normally eat.

So next meal time ask yourself – “Am I eating too much?”

(note: some people with a history of very low calorie diets need to eat MORE food to ramp up their metabolism and lose weight, have a think if you might be one of them)

ARE YOU EATING ENOUGH PROTEIN?

Protein intake will largely determine whether your body is going to burn fat or lean muscle, and obviously you want to lose the fat! It will also boost your metabolism and help repair and strengthen your muscles and connective tissues from weight training and other exercise (it will also help you overcome injuries a lot faster)

Females should aim for a palm sized portion, whilst men should aim for two palm sizes, choosing from good quality lean meats ( lamb, beef, chicken, fish), vegetarian sources (tofu, legumes) or powdered protein supplements.

So next meal you have, ask your self, “am I having enough protein?”

ARE YOU EATING TOO MANY SUGARS OR STARCHES?

If you’re eating too many sugars or starchy carbs this will very likely prevent fat loss, and is actually likely to be a big cause of your weight gain in the first place! So next time you eat, ask yourself if there’s too many starches, the most common contributor I see is bread and pasta, other common starches include grains, biscuits/crackers, potatoes, rice.

Sugars are commonly found in soft drink, fruit juice, chocolate, salad dressing, desserts, and sweet snacks. You don’t have to be completely free of these foods if its just too daunting to get your head around, but just start eating less of them to get the ball rolling.

Next meal time ask yourself- ‘are you eating too many sugars or starches?”

ARE YOU EATING ENOUGH VEGETABLES?

In terms of nutrient density and calorie for calorie ‘bang for you buck’ you can’t go passed veggies. By replacing a lot of your starchy carbs with a double serve of veggies you’ll help yourself to feel fuller, healthier and more energetic, as you’re loading your body full of extra fiber, vitamins and minerals.

Females should aim for ½ to 1 cup, whilst males should aim for 1 cup.

Next meal ask yourself – “Am I eating enough vegetables?”

ARE YOU INCLUDING HEALTHY FATS?

Its important to differentiate between good and bad fats here. Highly processed fats found in processed foods will damage your health and lead to weight gain. Healthy fats however, will help with your weight loss. So try replacing any of these processed bad fats with good fats.

Bad fats are commonly found in things like pastries, chips, fast foods, fried foods etc

Healthy fats can be chosen from sources like avocado’s, raw nuts, eggs, seeds, coconut oil, olive oil, and fish oil or krill oils.

Next meal ask yourself – Am I including healthy fats? Or did I have some with my last meal/snack?”

There you have it – simple!

5 questions you can ask yourself to ensure you’re on the right track…

•    Are you eating too much?
•    Are you eating enough protein?
•    Are you eating too many sugars or starches?
•    Are you eating enough vegetables?
•    Are you including healthy fats?

If you’ve got these questions covered then you’re on the right track, and remember this – if you want people to be impressed by how you look or the results you’ve achieved, then they should be impressed by looking at your food diary and your exercise log when you show them what it is you do.

Hope this has given you something to think about…

Have a great day!

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Jan. 12, 2012

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Success Leaves Clues…(Or How To Kick Butt In 2012!)

I understand not everyone has a massive fitness or weight loss goal they want to accomplish, and just like to train to keep in shape, stay active, be healthy and stay on top of things.

But a lot of people I speak to do have quite big goals and would love to see some big changes.

For those of you who do have a fitness or weight loss goal you want to achieve, one of the most overlooked aspects of success is your attitude, or mindset.

No matter how many tips on exercise and diet we give you, if you have a negative attitude, a bad self image or self sabotaging behaviours then you’re going to find things very difficult.

The truth is if you were to start out on a fat loss or fitness quest, you had no idea how to exercise or what to eat and the only thing you had was a good attitude, I’d say you’re very likely to succeed.

Anyone can learn how to exercise properly

Anyone can learn how to eat right for their goals

The information or ‘how to’ is very accessible once you sort the reality from the nonsense (especially with a good attitude)

But without the right attitude you’re likely to:

- Give up when you hit your first hurdle or when things aren’t so smooth
- Not commit or give it 100% because you’re doubting everything, (including yourself)
- Not push yourself hard enough or get out of your comfort zone when exercising
- Find a reason to cancel training sessions too often
- Be impatient and expect unrealistic results too quickly
- Blame your circumstances because it’s ‘too hard for you’
- Blame external factors or other people for making it too hard
- Give in to temptations and stray from your healthy eating or exercise plan
- Believe that you’ve been cursed with ‘bad genetics’
- Forever think of yourself as ‘the fat girl or guy’ (these beliefs will subconsciously sabotage your efforts sooner or later because deep down that’s who you think you are)

And I guarantee that if you think some of the above applies to you, you weren’t always that way, somewhere along the way you learnt to think like that.

I mean, think about it, once upon a time you were a baby and you couldn’t even walk or talk! At some point you literally taught yourself how to walk and talk from scratch…sounds stupid but it’s true.

Do you know how many times you failed, fell on your butt, hit your head and totally stuffed up whilst learning how to walk?…Hundreds?…Thousands?…

But this didn’t deter you one bit.., you just got straight back up and kept trying because you hadn’t yet developed any negative, self limiting beliefs, and you REALLY wanted to walk so through hard work, persistency, lots of practice and a good attitude you eventually got there.

But now you think it’s impossible to get up earlier every day and prepare yourself a healthy breakfast?…Or do some intervals when you get home from work?…or ditch the bread, pasta & alcohol that’s keeping you from losing weight and being happy with your body?. WHAT? Sounds a bit silly doesn’t it after what you’ve already accomplished? …

So, after falling over thousands of times, and even giving himself a hernia and a busted up nose in the process, my little boy Cooper has finally taught himself how to walk!
(and he knows how to eat a good healthy breakfast too)

On the other hand, people who are successful in achieving their weight loss goals (or any goals for that matter) typically display the same sort of attitude and characteristics.

Successful people leave clues for the rest of us…

And it’s no coincidence that people who do succeed in what they set out to do:

- Have a positive attitude & expect to succeed
- Have a burning desire to achieve their goal
- Work hard to get what they want
- Take full responsibility for their own results and blame no one else or outside circumstances
- Understand they can control their own circumstances, their environment and experiences
- Hit a hurdle, learn from it, and find a way to get around it or fix it to get back on track
- Get help from others to get to where they want to go quicker and easier
- Do whatever it takes to achieve their goal – no matter what, until they do.
- Are persistent, knowing that doing the right thing over time will eventually pay off.
- Constantly try and improve what they’re doing – even if its just by 1%
- Take massive action on what they know they should be doing, without waiting and procrastinating for a ‘better time’
- Just Do It (yes, Nike is on to something there)

So, it stands to reason that if you want to be successful at anything (in this case its improving fitness, health, losing body fat, toning up, getting stronger, becoming more flexible etc) then these are the characteristics you need to adopt which will get you there.

So have a great attitude & mindset, mix it in with a bit of hard work and discipline, don’t get bogged down with negativity, genuinely believe in yourself, and constantly look for ways to improve or do better, and you’re guaranteed to kick butt in 2012!

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Dec. 15, 2011

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What’s So Good About Breakfast?

If you are trying to watch the weight over the Christmas / holiday period, its important to maintain your good habits (and don’t pick up any new bad ones) when the structure of your day to day working life gets a little ‘out of whack’

When you’re no longer in work mode, and your daily routine changes up over the break, eating breakfast is often the first thing to go, and from there it can have a snowballing effect, ruining your whole day. (in terms of eating that is)

Now this is assuming you’re eating breakfast every morning anyway, if you’re not, then there’s no better time to start than right now, it is a must if you’re trying to lose weight or care at all about how you look or feel.

Yum…a great breakie…

Now I’ve touched on this before when talking about meal frequency that when your body goes for extended periods without food, your metabolism slows down in an effort to preserve the fat and muscle on your body, not only this, but your muscle tissue will be the first to be burned for energy when it is time to dig in to the reserves – not good if you want to keep that metabolism running high

Breakfast was given its name because you are literally “breaking the fast” from the last 8 or so hours you have been sleeping, and even more since you last ate. This is the reason it’s often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

So after not eating for 8 hours or longer, it is very important to eat a meal to get your metabolism kick started for the day , it will also provide your body with the much needed nutrients and energy it requires after so long a gap since you last fed yourself.

By eating a good breakfast, you’re also far less likely to over eat throughout the day and less inclined to snack on ‘junk’ food when the hunger catches up with you and you find yourself ravenous in the afternoon (this is a common pattern for many people).

Sporadic, unplanned over eating on unhealthy foods, along with a sluggish metabolism from not eating consistently day to day,
is a sure path to weight gain (or at least no weight loss).

And lastly, if you are reading this then its likely you are doing regular workouts, which require high energy. The higher your energy levels the more intensity you can put into your workouts, and the more you’ll get out of them.

So especially if you’re training in the morning and are coming to the gym after not eating for maybe 8-10 hours because you haven’t had breakfast, it is a certainty you are not optimising your performance and getting the best out of yourself. Again, breakfast will kick-start your metabolism, improve your recovery from training and make sure your body isn’t in a ‘catabolic’ state where it will eat into your precious metabolic muscle tissue. Along with the physical energy you will get, people who eat breakfast are more mentally alert as well, and this cannot hurt at all!

Breakfast will help your brain work better…

As you can see, when trying to control or maintain your weight - speeding up your metabolism, cutting out unplanned and unhealthy snacks, increased energy, and having effective workouts are obviously going to help.

If you wake up and you find you’re just not hungry and the thought of eating makes you sick, this is a sign that you’ve got a sluggish metabolism and you need to get it fired up. (A good analogy is to think of your metabolism as a fire… you need a big meal to get it started for the day, then keep topping it up throughout the day to keep it burning, if you don’t keep topping it up the fire will burn out)

Your metabolism is like a fire, and you need a big healthy breakie to get it started

If you’re just starting to get used to the idea of breakfast, start out with something little like a small protein shake or a small bowl of oats, or a banana, or an egg, and gradually build it up over time till it becomes a full meal. Soon enough you’ll find yourself waking up hungry in the morning and actually look forward to your breakfast.

Some good ideas for what to include in a good breakfast:

- Oats (if you tolerate them ok)
- Eggs
- Egg whites
- Lean meats (the thought of this might make some people sick, but humans didn’t eat breakfast cereal for most of our existence)
- Last nights left over dinner
- Fruit
- Veggies
- Omelette with spinach or other veggies
- Protein shake / smoothie

It is good to always eat some sort of veggies with breakfast to kick start the day, a good mix of protein, carbohydrates and good fats. What gives you the most energy and makes you feel the best may not be the same as somebody else which is why it is good to try out a few different things and go with what works best for you. Some of you might find it very surprising, but it’s very common that people don’t tolerate oats, muesli, and common breakfast cereals too well and it leads to bloating, digestive issues, lethargy, weight gain etc so see how these foods makes you feel. In my opinion you’ll get a ton more nutrients with a veggie filled omellete!

Hope this has given you something to think about!

…and just in case I don’t see you before…

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Dec. 1, 2011

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The Carb Cycling Strategy

I’ve mentioned before that the number 1 rule for losing weight (or adding weight for that matter) is energy consumption vs energy expenditure.

Or energy in vs energy out

But often people hear this and it can be misleading, yes its right you do need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight (eating less energy than you’re expending) but this isn’t the be all and end all when in fact the TYPES and QUALITY of foods you’re eating to make up those calories WILL play a big role.

The type and quality of food you eat will affect you positively or negatively in these areas:

-    Hormones
-    Blood sugar levels
-    How you feel / energy levels
-    Immune system
-    Risk factors for basically every disease
-    Vitamin and mineral intake
-    Fibre consumption
-    Protein consumption
-    Fat consumption (good and bad)
-    Ability to recover properly from hard training
-    Ability to lose body fat
-    Ability to add strength
-    Ability to add muscle
-    Levels of inflammation and pain throughout your body

And i’m sure I’ve missed a few, and needless to say these areas all interrelated.

But to the point of today..

One of the key macro nutrients we want to address and manipulate when looking to lose body fat (particularly for somebody who has a problem with consuming too many calories) is carbohydrates, particularly processed, man made carbohydrates or or ‘non fruit & veg’ carbs.

There’s a couple of reasons for this, one being that whenever you eat carbs your body produces insulin as part of the digestive process, insulin being a hormone which is very ‘anabolic’ meaning that it will often promote the storage of body fat. When you eat a meal you want your body to produce as little insulin as possible, so ideally the food you eat won’t get stored.

Now not all carbs are equally bad, you’ve got things down one end of the spectrum like sugar which should be avoided by everyone at all times, then there’s things like sweet potato’s, potatoes, rice, quinoa, lentils, oats etc which can have a place in your diet depending on how well your particular body tolerates them and when you’re consuming them (after a weight training workout for example is by far the best time to eat some carbs along with your protein).

A lot of people struggle (myself included) with completely eliminating these ‘non fruit & veg carbs’ from their diet, I myself do eat the better quality ones mentioned above particularly on training days, and I sometime eat spelt bread (although I am not trying to lose weight and if I was I would eliminate a lot of these carbs).

However I am fully aware that even if your goal is to lose weight and it’s best to avoid the ‘non fruit & veg’ carbs, some people find this very hard.

One effective strategy is to cycle your carbs, meaning you have days where you allow yourself to eat ‘non fruit & veg’ carbs, and you have days where you don’t eat any at all. This can be a lot easier to mentally cope with for many people who struggle with the concept of not eating any bread, pasta, crackers, rice etc – and seems to be a lot less daunting than trying to stick to strict guidelines 100% of the time.

So a simple and straightforward way to set this up would be to only allow yourself to eat ‘non fruit & veg carbs’ on days that you do some sort of resistance training, and ideally, the sooner you can get them in after training, the better.

On these days and during these times your body will be a lot more sensitive to insulin (so you won’t produce as much after eating carbs), and the other great thing is a lot of the food and nutrients you ingest around your training hours will be partitioned to your muscles and used to replenish your body after intense exercise, instead of getting stored as body fat.

And using this approach you’ll probably halve the amount of processed carbs you’re eating week to week which in itself should make a big difference over time.

So if you’re doing some sort of high intensity, metabolic resistance training at least 3 days per week (which is ideal) then you’ve got 3 days per week you can relax a bit on the ‘non fruit and veg’ carbs – in fact it can be almost like a reward for some people.

Just BE WARNED – this ‘carb cycling’ approach in NOT an excuse to pig out on the wrong foods on the days you’re allowed to eat them. You should still be avoiding ‘sugary’ carbs at all times, and you want to stick to the good end of the spectrum like the foods mentioned earlier – sweet potato, potato, rice, quinoa, (spelt or dark rye bread if you are going to eat bread) etc. Remember if you’re trying to lose body fat you still have to have some self control, and yes you might be hungry sometimes, this strategy can just make things a little easier and allow you to structure the timing of your ‘non fruit & veg’ carb intake.

If you’re only training 1-2 times per week then this might give you some incentive to add another training session in to earn your carbs, OR it just means you’ve only got 1-2 days per week to eat them, you’re much better off doing more training but take your pick.

Hope this helps some of you, a good strategy to think about if it suits the way your mind works.

Posted in Nutrition by admin | No Comments

Nov. 17, 2011

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Alcohol & Fat Loss

Everybody loves to have a drink or two now and then, some more than others, there is nothing wrong with that (within reason). We understand that not everybody wants to train to be an elite athlete, however it is worth having a look at the potential impact it may be having on your fat loss, health and fitness goals.

Firstly I suppose it is worthy to note that alcohol in small quantities has been linked with certain health benefits, studies have shown that 1-2 standard drinks a day for men, and less than 1 for women does provide partial protection against a specific type of heart disease and heart attack, as well as stroke. This is true particularly of red wine as it does contain various antioxidants, and has ‘anti-cancer effects’

But remember, as much as im sure a lot of people would like to believe it, there aren’t any additional benefits from drinking any more than this recommended amount, and it will offset any potential health benefits, with heavy binge drinking or long term drinking greatly increasing your risk of heart attacks (amongst other things)

The effects alcohol has on your fat loss efforts is another thing altogether. Alcohol is very high in calories, in terms of caloric content per gram, it is second only to fat.

Here is the calorie content of energy producing nutrients:

FATS 9 calories per gram
ALCOHOL 7 calories per gram
CARBS 4 calories per gram
PROTEIN 4 calories per gram

Even though alcohol is high in calories, it is not a good source of energy because the body can only metabolise alcohol at a fixed rate. So, when there is a sharp increase in energy demand (for example when exercising) alcohol metabolism is unable to meet it, making alcohol useless as a high energy source. I’m sure the thought of using alcohol as an energy source to fuel workouts never entered anyone’s mind anyway right?

Alcohol can be a source of energy however, when we are sedentary and not placing high energy demands upon ourselves. The calories provided by alcohol are also used preferentially, meaning that calories from food and body fat will not be used until all the alcohol is used up, this is why it is such a setback when we are trying to lose weight. Furthermore, alcohol itself is not a good nutrient because it does not supply any vitamins or minerals, in fact, in the long term, a high alcohol intake can impair the body’s absorption of nutrients from food and bring about vitamin deficiencies.

If you are on a fat loss plan then alcohol definitely needs to be kept at a minimum, alcohol adds calories, suppresses fat oxidation (your body’s ability to burn fat), messes with your hormones (and therefore your ability to burn fat) and also stimulates your appetite, leading to unplanned overeating and generally not so healthy food choices.

When you’re eating to lose weight, it also means you need to be eating in a calorie or energy deficit, meaning you’re consuming less energy than what is needed to fuel your body. Because your intake of food/calories is on the low end, its really important that the food you DO put into your body is going to ADD to your health in some way..

Basically when eating for fat loss, you want to pack in as many nutrients, vitamins and minerals as you can whilst sticking to your lowered ‘calorie budget’.
If you’re drinking a few hundred calories in alcohol, just keep in mind that nutritionally its basically wasted ‘empty calories’…precious calories which you COULD use in a much better way by consuming calories packed full of nutrients. So just say you’re eating 1700 calories per day on a weight loss plan, do you really want to be spending 500 of those calories (nearly 1/3rd) on alcohol?

You’d get much better results with some extra health promoting foods, adding nutrients, fiber, healthy fats and lean muscle building proteins.

So remember – use up your calories wisely!

Lastly, if you’re going to have a few drinks and get up to train in the morning (not uncommon to see in our Saturday sessions! :-p), you’re not giong to perform at your best…it will leave you dehydrated, reduce your blood sugar levels and therefore energy, impair your co-ordination, balance, strength, endurance and increase your risk of injury.

No matter who you are, too much alcohol will catch up with you…

To say it’s not possible to lose body fat whilst having a few drinks wouldn’t be entirely accurate, sure its possible to do it, BUT, just make sure you realise and understand what you’re getting yourself into, you factor in all the above variables to minimise the ‘damage’, and you understand that it won’t help your results and will most likely hinder them. Most people I see would make much better progress if they just dropped their alcohol intake alone. So next time the opportunity presents itself to have a few drinks, weigh up what takes priority for you at that particular point in your life and now you have the knowledge you need to make the right choice!

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The Fit Stop
St Kilda's Fitness, Fat Loss & Health Resource

The ‘Anti Results’ Weight Loss Program

5 Variables of a Fat Loss Nutrition Plan

‘Releasing The Brakes’ For Better Fitness & Fat Loss Results

Random List Of Useful Health, Fitness & Fat Loss Tools

The Importance Of Recovery

5 Questions To Ask Yourself At Meal Time

Success Leaves Clues…(Or How To Kick Butt In 2012!)

What’s So Good About Breakfast?

The Carb Cycling Strategy

Alcohol & Fat Loss

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