1. Take 6 grams of Fish Oil every day.
2. Eat 24 almonds every day (1 ounce)
3. Measure your waist, hips, thighs, and upper arms every Friday.
4. Schedule the time to plan, prepare, and shop for your meals.
5. Get plenty of the cheap plastic tupperware containers.  Make sure the lids all fit.
6. Design a “go-to” breakfast, lunch, and dinner that you can fall back on if you don’t have a plan.
7. Buy some cool workout clothes that you look forward to wearing.
8. Read this blog.
9. Read “Freakin’ Fabulous” by Clinton Kelly to learn how to dress outside the gym (One of my favorite books!)
10. Take pictures of you in your underwear every other week.
11. Drink at least 80 ounces of water every day.
12. Don’t drink any calories (exceptions: protein shakes)
13. Go to a casino buffet and see what people who eat like that look like
14. Throw out everything in your kitchen that isn’t part of your meal plan.  If it’s in your house, you’ll eat it.
15. Plan out your reward meals in advance.  And then enjoy them.
16. Get good cooking tools, it makes it a lot more fun (and much easier!) to have the right stuff.
17. Find a skinny doctor to give you a checkup
18. Register for one of my bootcamps and come at least 3x a week.
19. Before you skip a workout, watch this video:
    
20. Drink at least 2 mugs of green tea every day.
21. Make friends from work come to bootcamp with you, you can all support each other during the day.
22. Hang this line up in your kitchen: “Eating is a promise you make to your body, and every time you eat processed food, you are betraying that promise.“
23. Get rid of negative people in your life.
24. Give up grains.
25. Give up high fructose corn syrup
26. Give up alcohol
27. Go for a walk 3x a week for extra exercise and to absorb vitamin D.
28. Write your goals down from memory every morning.
29. Friend me on Facebook and ask questions on my wall.
30. Get a stainless steel water bottle with a cool pattern on it.
31. Take a great multivitamin like VGF25+ (for women or for men)
32. Do extra interval training twice a week (here is an interval program I use with my clients: Interval Training Workout)
33. Set an “Unveiling Date” to reveal your swimsuit body.  Memorial Day is coming up soon….
34. Get rid of your fat clothes as you lose weight.  Don’t give yourself an easy out.
35. Buy a pair of skinny jeans with the waist size you want to be.  Hang them on your wall.
36. Make your family eat healthy too.  There’s no reason to cook 2 separate meals.  Show them you love them and make them eat clean.
37. Try a new kind of vegetable every week
38. Add flavor without adding calories: salsa, mustard, lime juice, tabasco, spices
39. Drink a mug of peppermint tea before bed every night
40. Print out pictures of fitness role models and put them in your food log
41. Floss twice a day (Do you know how many people skip this?)
42. Add 1 cup of broccoli to lunch and dinner
43. Cook meat twice a week so you always have a supply
44. Pack some protein powder in baggies so you’ll never have to skip a meal (I like this one)
45. Go see a chiropractor at least once a month (I go to Brian Russell, he is the best!)
46. Use a  Foam Roller every day
47. Add a long stretching session every week
48. Read Secrets of a Former Fat Girl and learn her “It’s Not An Option” strategy for getting fit
49. Come to a seminar and learn what REALLY works when it comes to increasing your metabolism
50. Ask yourself “If I don’t make this change today, how will I feel this time next year?”
51. Keep a nutrition, workout, and healthy ideas journal.
52. Go to a fitness and bodybuilding expo.  You probably don’t want to look like these guys and gals, but you’ll see people who are 100% dedicated to their physique.
53. Plan a vacation to the beach and decide to be the fittest person there
54. Wear a pair of Vibram Fivefingers during your workouts and your knees, ankles, and back will thank you
55. Mellow out.  Stress hormones cause fat storage.
56. Don’t half-ass your workouts.  You’re there to get something done.
57. Take one day a week off from hard exercise.  Go for a walk in the hills.  This is called “Active Recovery”
58. Eat five or six snacks every day, instead of 3 large meals
59. Eat REAL foods.  Processed foods cause an insulin surge and you’ll store every extra calorie as body fat.
60. Buy smaller dinner plates.  Our fullness is greatly controlled by the size of our plates in relation to food volume.
61. Feel fuller by eating more vegetables and clear soups.  This is called “Volumetrics”
62. Eat breakfast.   This will cut your risks of obesity, heart disease, and cancer.  (I’m not hungry first thing, so I have a protein shake, almonds, apple, and spinach)
63. Read food labels and pass up anything that you can’t pronounce.
64. Watch less TV.  Pick a few favorites and TiVo them.  Sitting in front of the TV is the express route to snacky-town.
65. Don’t fear dietary fat.  Your body NEEDS fat.  Cut out all carbs from grain and sugar instead.  (Go to town on fruits and veggies!)
66. Follow your plan.  The more closely you follow your nutrition and workout plan, the faster you’ll get the results you want.
67. Brush your teeth after every main meal.
68. Eat a healthy snack before you go to a social event.  That way you’ll be less likely to binge on the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
69. Get out of the “more is better” mindset when it comes to exercise.  Instead, take a smart approach based on the elements of your metabolism.  More isn’t better.  BETTER is better.
70. Get your teeth whitened.  You’ll feel better and smile more.
71. Keep walking shoes in your car.  No more excuses.
72. Shop with a list.  Not on the list, not in your cart.
73. Drink a specially-formulated workout drink during and after your workout.  (I drink this one: Prograde Workout)
74. Maybe you think it’s easy for some people.  And maybe you’re just making excuses:
    
75. Don’t smoke.  Don’t hang out in smoky places.
76. Pack your lunch (Last Friday I asked 3 of my fittest friends out to lunch.  All 3 already had something packed by 7am.  Coincidence?)
77. Get some sunshine early every day.
78. Need a jump start?  Hire a GOOD personal trainer for 4 months to get you going.
79. Eat more protein.  It raises your metabolism and preserves lean, toned muscle.
80. Give yourself a break.  If you screw up on your diet, just get started again THAT DAY.  Don’t declare the week a loss and set yourself farther back
81. Get more and better sleep.  Try to make your bedroom a “cave”- dark and silent.
82. Throw out your scales.  Use the pictures from number 10 to gauge your progress.
83. Cut out all soy from your diet.  It will mess up your hormones and make you store more fat.  (Also – tastes gross)
84. Make exercise time your fun time.  We have a blast at bootcamp because it’s fun and we vibe great together.
85. Why sports?  You’ll live longer!
    
86. Print out the 7 Rules Of Nutrition and keep them with you when you plan your meals (find them here: Nutrition Guide)
87. Make fitness a LIFESTYLE, not a “quick fix”
88. Get the Paleo Cookbook and try 3 new recipes a week
89. Make a bet that you can lose a bigger percentage of inches off your waist than your friend.
90. Go to ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com and look at what some people eat
91. Before you eat anything, ask yourself “Will this bring me closer to my goals?  Or take me away from them?”
92. Stay satisfied longer by having protein, fats, and vegetables in every meal.
93. Get your priorities straight: Do you want to look and feel great?  Or to eat a muffin that will make you bloated and crash your energy levels in 20 min?
94. Focus on metabolic resistance training.  Building and maintaining lean muscle will raise your metabolism and keep you healthy and mobile.
95. “The more you cook, the better you look.”  Stay out of the fast food drive-thru.
96. Stick to one plan long enough to give it a chance.  If you change workouts or diets based on every ill-informed magazine artilce you read, you’ll never have a chance to make progress on any of them.
97. Take note of how you feel after every meal.  If you’re lethargic, cut down on the carbs.
98. Take ACTION on something EVERY day.  Want to eat 2 apples a day?  Don’t go and buy just four apples.  You’re out of luck in 2 days.  Go and get 14 instead.
99. Remember that a great body is built one day at a time.  Every day that you live according to your plan brings you one day closer to your goals!

What is YOUR best weight loss tip?  I’d love to hear it!  Leave a comment below

What is emotional binge eating?

It’s when you eat large amounts of food when you’re upset, tired, stressed, angry, bored, anxious, lonely, sad, or have low self-esteem 0r relationship problems.  If you’re like me, you usually binge on junk or “comfort” foods.

One study in my files says that 80% of excessive eating is caused by emotions – NOT hunger!

I figure it’s ok to eat for emotional reasons once in a while.  The problem is that we eat emotionally so often that it becomes impossible to distinguish betweeen true, physical hunger and endless emotional hunger.

When I surveyed my facebook friends on their biggest fitness problem, the number one thing people told me they do wrong is binge eat.  At office parties, at home in front of the TV, at the bar on weekends.

If you binge eat, you need to find out what TRIGGERS the emotion that leads you to overconsume.

To do this, try keeping a 2-column food/stress journal.  (My younger clients also keep a “zit journal”, which is kind of gross, but necessary)

Write down what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat in one column.  In the other list the stresses, thoughts, and emotions you’re feeling right before and while you’re eating.

You’ll see the link between the two columns very very quickly.

Here are the most typical emotional triggers that lead to binge eating:

Location/Situation:

This is the number one problem for me, I eat when food is there.  At office birthdays, everyone presses you to try their cake.  At a friend’s house, you don’t want to be rude and turn down anything, so you eat it all.

Negative Thinking:

A LOT of people eat when they feel unworthy.  When their self-esteem is down, they eat for comfort.  Or they actually scold themselves WHILE they’re binge eating, berating their lack of will-power.

Physical:

This is when you eat for physical reasons that aren’t really hunger.  Eating to cure headaches or because you didn’t sleep well are two common causes.

(Or maybe you’re using the phenylethylamine in chocolate to fill other desires, like in the movie Down With Love)

Nervous Energy:

When I’m stressed out or anxious, I become “orally fidgety” and chew gum.  Other people bite their nails or grind their teeth or smoke.  But many many people much on chips or soda to give their mouth something to do.

Boredom:

This is a biggie.  Standing in the kitchen, staring off into space, and finishing off a box of Chips Ahoy.

Habits:

My mom is a GREAT cook.  So lots of my comforting memories revolve around food.  If your parents used to reward you with treats, or take you out to celebrate, or built the habit of dessert after every meal – it has probably become a habit.  And breaking a comforting habit is very emotional.

Misc Emotions:

Have you ever eaten to “fill the hole”?  Stress, fatigue, andger, anxiety, and loneliness usually make the “void”, not true hunger.

Someone who doesn’t like confrontations might go eat 2 snickers bars instead of telling a co-worker that they need to step up.

Food takes the edge off of anger, resentment, fear, and anxiety – and almost everyone uses food for this reason.

Emotion-based hunger usually focuses on a particular food.  One of my friends just texted me that she wants pizza because she’s “craving cheezy greasy stuff.”  This is a comfort food.

To help you identify comfort foods in your food journal, here’s a list of the most common comfort foods.

Number One for both men and women: ICE CREAM.

Men: Pizza, Casserole, Beer, Steak

Women: Chocolate, Cookies

The first step in ending emotional eating is to identify what triggers you to start bingeing.

Your homework: Keep a journal for the next week and find out what sets your eater off.  Next week I’ll give you my best strategies to bust each type of binge eating.

I love seeing “after photos.”

You know, those jaw-dropping body transformations.

Like the guy who changed his beer belly into a six pack.

Or the girl who traded her muffin top for a boy short ready booty.

Big time body transformations are awesome.  Unfortunately, they are also few and far between.  Sure, anyone who walks into a gym and does even a little work will lose some fat, tone some muscles, get stronger, and feel better.

But very few make those head-turning, “holy smokes!” changes in their bodies.

Today I’m going to share the secrets of those people who succeed in big-time transformations.

My main man Tony Robbins has a saying: “Success Leaves Clues.” If you ask 100 people with an amazing set of before-and-afters, I’d bet big money 95% of them took the same route to get there.

So… Here are the 7 things all successful body transformations have in common:

Body Transformation Secret Number One: The Right People

You MUST start surrounding yourself with the right people if you want a mega-change in your body.

A personal trainer I know says that your weight is an average of the five people you spend the most time with.

A study from Harvard found that hanging out with fat people is enough to make you fat.  The wrong people in your life are almost certain to drag you down.  (Maybe not right away, but they can wear anyone out)

This happens because of something called “cultural para stimuli.”  Victor Starling came up with this theory after experimenting on cats.

Starling took half of the cats in the study and performed brain surgery on them.  This surgery made them act in bizarre and self-destructive manners.  Then he put them in with the rest of the cats.

What happened?  Did the crazy cats try to act like the normal cats?  Did the normal cats ignore the crazy cats and get on with their lives?  Nope.  ALL of the cats started acting crazy!

Look at the self-destructive behavior of your friends and family.  They eat too much.  They’re lazy.  Their lifestyle sucks.  Do you pull them up or do they drag you down?  Most of the time, it’s the latter.

Your mission: Ditch the lazy crazies and find some like-minded companions for your transformation.

Body Transformation Secret Number Two: Set A SPECIFIC Goal, With A Deadline

Deirdre Reid set a goal of losing half a percent of body fat per week for 8 weeks. Here’s her picture:

Deirdre went from a size four to a size zero in less than 8 weeks by following the Wold Fitness Ripped Plan.

See, “losing weight” isn’t a goal.  (And it’s better to focus on inches instead of weight anyway.)

A goal has to be measurable, have a time frame, and there has to be a REASON.

The power of a goal with a deadline is most obvious in bodybuilding and figure competitors.  They KNOW they are going to be on stage in a teeny swimsuit in just 16 weeks, so they don’t cheat on their diet, they don’t miss or half-ass their training, and they stay focused.

Your Mission: TODAY sit down with a pad and pen and set a specific goal with a deadline.

Body Transformation Secret Number Three: MEASURE!!

Everyone who has made an amazing body transformation has gone through a period of measuring their food and calculating calorie and macronutrient breakdowns.

This is because measuring raises your awareness of what you’re REALLY putting in your body.

You don’t have to do this forever.  Just two weeks of keeping a detailed log will provide you invaluable knowledge to carry you through any body transformation.

And this is really cool – as a fitness coach, I can tell you that absent anything else, measurement improves results.

Wrapping a tape measure around your waist every Friday afternoon will keep you on track better than hopping on a scale every morning.  I promise.

Your Mission: Start keeping a food log.  Write down everything you eat for just 3 days.

That’s it for today…

Stay tuned to get the rest of my secrets to an amazing body transformation.

WARNING: Two of them are DEFINITELY not politically correct.

An interview with John Alvino of How to get Ripped Abs.

Luke Wold: Hey John, I consider you a “real world” guy – in that you work with real people with busy lives and hectic schedules. We all know that there is a ton of fat loss advice for pre-contest bodybuilders (fasted cardio, two-a-day sessions, egg whites and steamed fish 6 times a day…).

And we also know that there’s good advice out there for the overweight guys who have never exercised before (like don’t eat Oreos, and take the stairs instead of the elevator…).

But what about the “in between” person? You know, the professional man or woman who works a solid 9-5 job with maybe up to an hour commute each way, and still tries to spend time with the family and kids. There’s a serious lack of information for this demographic. How do you set up a solid “real world” fat loss nutrition plan for these people?

JA: I couldn’t agree with you more. Earlier in my career, I would tell this type of client that they had to eat a broccoli and alfalfa sprouts omelet for breakfast every single day! When they told me that they didn’t have the time to prepare that, I would accuse them of not being committed.

Looking back on it now, I realize that as a young trainer, I had no idea how difficult it is to work a stressful job, raise a family, and still summon up enough energy to even get to the gym.

It wasn’t too long before I realized that my expectations were unreasonable, unnecessary, and unrealistic for them to stick to. Thus, I had to be creative enough to devise meal plans that would deliver results while being realistic and easy enough for this busy folks to actually follow.

After years of trial and error, I have found several ways to accomplish this goal. For starters, these clients have a tough time following a diet that has very precise parameters.

For instance, instructions such as: “eat exactly 3.35 ounces of salmon with 1 ¾ cups of broccoli at exactly 10:25 a.m. each morning”, or “You must prepare and eat 7 meals per day.” Their lives are simply too stressful and busy to be this rigid. They need more flexibility in their diet protocol.

Trying to force this “all or nothing” approach onto a person such as this will more often than not result in total failure. After your client realizes that he can’t follow the plan, he will fall off the wagon and feel completely defeated.

This may discourage him from ever trying to lose fat again. And it is just unnecessary. A successful diet, first and foremost, must actually be feasible. If it’s not, it doesn’t matter how great it is, because it will most surely fail.

To make an eating plan realistic for a busy businessman or woman, I would suggest that they eat 3 meals per day. Most people eat breakfast, lunch and dinner anyway, so this would not be disruptive to their extremely busy day. In between these “regular” meals, I would suggest eating 2-3 convenient snacks.

LW: What about training? Doing six or seven days a week, or multiple sessions for these people is just fantasy land. What about some real world workouts? I’ll give you an example – a 40 year old father of two – with a full time job (40 plus hours per week) who is maybe 19-20% body fat but wants to see his abs for the first time this summer?

JA: In my experience, when someone has a restricted schedule like this, I am usually only able to meet with them around train 3 times per week. So it is imperative that we get the most out of each training session. The most important goal for each of these training sessions is to create a metabolic elevation that will last up until the next training session.

Let’s assume that he would be using a Monday, Wednesday, Friday training schedule. Our goal is to perform a workout that increases metabolic rate for 48 hours. In order to accomplish this, we must work all major muscle groups – so that means full body training routines.

These full body routines should emphasize exercises that have a high metabolic cost. In addition, this routine should be designed using a multi-station approach.

Because there is a time constraint, you will spend very little time resting in between sets. Therefore, exercises performed back to back should not interfere with each other. In other words, consecutive exercises should not fatigue the same exact muscle groups.

Immediately following the resistance phase of this routine, he would perform a special type of interval training. For the actual interval, you will work hard (about 90% of your max) for 30 seconds. Then decrease the intensity to about 60% of your max for 60 seconds. That is one interval.

After the 60 second “easy” period, increase the intensity back up to 90% and begin the second interval of the workout. Start with 6 intervals per workout, and build your way up to doing 12 intervals per workout. Once you can perform 12 intervals at maximal intensity, it is time to vary your workout.

Varying your workout from time to time, when done in a calculated manner, will keep your body constantly stimulated to respond positively to this type of training.

LW: Can you give us a sample workout based on your training principles?

JA: Sure. I’ll give you’re a workout that I designed for my client JR. He fits the “busy working client” criteria perfectly. He works about 70 hours per week, has a wife and 2 kids that he spends a lot of time with. To his credit, he still manages to train hard 3 times per week. This is the workout that he just performed:

1: Dynamic Movement Phase (5 min):

Rope Jumping 3×60 seconds with 30 sec rest.

2: Joint Prep Phase (3 min):

Overhead Squat 30 seconds, Reaching Split Squat 30 seconds, Forward Flexion 30 seconds, Supine Hip Raise 30 seconds, Intermediate Plank 30 seconds

3: Resistance Phase (25 min): This is a multi station circuit. Perform 5 rounds without any rest.

1a) DB Squat Push Press Combo 5x 12,10,8,6,4

1b) Strap Chin Ups 5x 12,10,8,6,4

1c) DB Step Up 5x 12,10,8,6,4

1d) Hands Elevated A Frame Push Up 5x 12,10,8,6,4

1e) DB RDL With Shrug 5x 12,10,8,6,4

4: Interval Phase: (12 minutes)  Do 4 continuous sets

2a) Med Ball Slams 30 sec maximal effort

2b) Jumping Jacks 60 sec easy pace

2c) Rocket Jumps 30 sec maximal effort

2d) Seal Split Shuffles 60 sec easy pace

5: Static Stretch Phase: (5 minutes)

This routine has JR out of the gym in 50 minutes. And the results speak for themselves. JR has lost 22 pounds of fat in 9 short weeks and is in the best shape of his life.

LW: Nice. Any other tips for these people?

JA: There are several little things that they must do in order to succeed. Some of the keys to success are:

• Since you are only training 3 times per week you must make each workout count.
• You must be consistent.
• No missed workouts.
• Prepare food in bulk. (Most cheating stems from not having healthy food readily available).
• Keep the house stocked with quick and accessible healthy foods and snacks.
• During the first week of your meal plan, I encourage you to weigh/measure your food.

For instance, if one of your meals requires 1 cup of rice, you should have a pretty good idea of what a cup of rice looks like. That way, when you are eating out, or on the road, you will be able to estimate your portions with reasonable accuracy.

LW: Thanks so much, John, for taking the time to share these great insights with us. For those of you who are interested in creating an amazing body transformation and losing fat at an incredible rate, you should definitely go to John’s website, How to get Ripped Abs

He has changed a lot of lives with his amazing fat loss techniques, and clearly he is sensitive to the working class person who is busy, but still wants and deserves to get in great shape!

JA: Thank you, Luke. It’s always a pleasure speaking with you. I look forward to next time!

~ Luke Wold

PS – Click here to check out How to get Ripped Abs

One of the first things you need to do if you want to lose weight is quit drinking anything with calories in it.

This is one of the 7 Fundamental Rules Of Nutrition that make up the best fat loss and fitness programs.  (Here’s all 7: Carson City Nutrition)

Calories add up quick with any kind of a drink, and liquid doesn’t set off the “fullness alert” in your brain.

Quick Example:

I was talking to a lady on Saturday afternoon.  She told me she has a tall cafe latte with 2% milk from Starbucks every morning (and sometimes one in the afternoon too).

Now for some quick and easy math – a tall latte with 2% milk has 150 Calories.  365 of these come out to 54,750 Calories over the course of a year.

And you know what, a pound of fat has 3500 Calories.  Some quick division (54750/3500) shows us that a daily latte with 2% milk comes out to the same calories as 15.64 pounds of fat.  (And those lattes would cost you$949, not counting taxes and tips)

Yikes!

I’m NOT telling you to cut out coffee.  No way!  But if you switched from a latte with 2% milk to an Americano, you’d save yourself 54,750 Calories a year – without having to exercise!  (To jog off that many calories you’d have to cover over 684 miles)

Here’s another example: a cup of orange juice has 121 Calories.  Every breakfast in a commercial has a glass of orange juice next to it.

A cup of orange juice every day comes out to 44,165 Calories over a year.  This is the same calories found in 12.62 pounds of fat.

Now, what about the title of this post?  How To Gain 15 Pounds In 2010. Simple – if you drink just a few extra calories every morning, you can easily put on 15 pounds in this coming year.

OR you can switch to coffee, water, and green tea and start losing weight without breaking a sweat.

The choice is up to you.

So many people wrote in about my post on how grains will mess up your physique and your health (check it out here: Grains Suck!), that I decided it’s time to shed some light on aerobic training…

The fallacy of using aerobics as a fat loss tool is probably the biggest single lie ever foisted on America by the health and fitness industry.

So… if you’re already on a diet, will adding in aerobic training increase fat loss?

To be blunt: No, it won’t.

But you might not believe me.  That’s fine.  After all, it goes against what everyone will tell you about fat loss.

Just do me one favor – check out these studies before you decide I’m crazy:

Van Dale D, Saris WH, Schoffelen PF, Ten Hoor F.
Does exercise give an additional effect in weight reduction regimens?
Int J Obes. 1987;11(4):367-75

This group compared two groups over 8 weeks: A diet-only group, and a diet plus 4 hours of aerobic exercise per week group.

Unfortunately, the aerobics didn’t help the second group lose any more weight than the first.

8 weeks x 4 hours = 32 hours.  In 32 hours you could have read ten books, learned how to dance, or spent more time with your kids.

But 8 weeks isn’t that long.  Here’s a 12 week study:

Utter AC, Nieman DC, Shannonhouse EM, Butterworth DE, Nieman CN
Influence of diet and/or exercise on body composition and cardio respiratory fitness in obese women.
Int J Sport Nut. 1998 Sep; 8(3):213-22

Turns out that 45 minutes of aerobics at 78% max heart rate 5 days a week for 12 weeks had ZERO EFFECT over just dieting.

Ouch.  45 hours at 78% max heart rate for no fat loss.  That sucks.  What could you do with that 45 hours?  Build a room addition?  Even better – you could fly to Paris from Reno, have lunch and dinner, then fly back in 45 hours.  Or you could spend that same time on a treadmill.  Up to you.

How about a study longer than 12 weeks.  Will aerobics start working for you then?

Redman et al
Effect of calorie restriction with or without exercise on body composition and fat distribution
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Jan 2

This crew looked at 6 months of aerobics and dieting.  The aerobics group did 50 minutes of aerobics 5 days a week for the whole six months.

Sadly, the aerobics group didn’t lose any more weight or body fat than the diet-only group.

Let’s see… That’s just over 108 hours of aerobics for no more weight loss.  MAJOR bummer.  What would you do with 108 hours?  You could build a real, working plane.  Maybe write a short novel.  Or drive from Carson City to New York and back, with time there to catch a Broadway play.

Of course, this study was only for 6 months.  How about over the course of a YEAR?

This time there was actually an effect from aerobic training!  Woo-hoo!

The aerobics group did 6 hours of aerobics every week for a year.

Average weight loss was .3 pounds (4.8 ounces) per month.

312 hours of hard aerobic exercise just to lose three and a half pounds.

I don’t know about you, but I’d be pissed.  3.5 pounds in a year?  There’s a heck of a lot of things I’d like to do with those 312 hours – maybe learn how to speak Italian.

Now, this is just the studies going over weight loss.  Since most people who go into an aerobics program are overweight, they get injured very quickly.  Or they just get bored at the repetitiveness.

The KEY to fast and dramatic weight loss lies in RAISING YOUR METABOLISM.

Why does everyone think of aerobics first when their pants don’t fit?  Simple, it makes sense. Burn more calories, lose more fat.

Too bad that doesn’t translate over into the real world.  (And the real world is where your skinny jeans are hiding)

If you want what DOES work, then you need to come to my Unstoppable Fitness Formula – Rules Of The Game Seminar this Saturday, November 7th at 1pm.

The entire seminar is only 77 bucks, has a bunch of cool bonuses, and comes with a 100%+ money-back guarantee.

There are only 4 spots left, but we might be able to squeeze in one or two more.

To get your spot, send an email to LDWold (at) gmail.com with your contact info and I’ll get you registered right away!

(Look at these pictures below, no one pictured used regular aerobics as part of their program…)

Lost 10 Pounds, 4 inches from waist, 3inches from hips

Lost 15 pounds, 3% bodyfat, 2 inches off waist, and 3 inches off hips

Lost 19 pounds, 5 percent bodyfat, and 5 inches off waist

Lost 20 pounds, 2 pants sizes, and more than 4% bodyfat

Lost 20 pounds and 6% bodyfat

Lost 25 pounds and 5% body fat

Lost 4% bodyfat and 4 1/2 inches off her waist

Lost 4% bodyfat and 9.5 total inches!

Lost 4 Dress Sizes!

Lost 5% Body Fat!

If you want the plan that gave these guys their great results, send that email to LDWold (at) Gmail.com right away!

I get a lot of emails that go like this: “I did cardio and starvation diets for years and now my metabolism sucks, what do I do?!?”

What do you do with a wonky metabolism?  Can you ever fix it?

Heck yes!  I’m handing this post off to my buddy Tom so he can answer this question.

Oh, and if you’re curious about Tom’s credentials, here’s his picture:

How To Repair A Damaged Metabolism
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Burn The Fat

If you’ve caused metabolic damage as a result of following starvation diets or losing weight too rapidly in the past, it can be extremely difficult to achieve any further fat loss at all. The good news is, metabolic damage can be repaired. All it takes is the right combination of metabolism stimulating exercise and metabolism stimulating nutrition (NOT just a diet), all done consistently over time.

The big irony is that most of the diet programs that claim to help you get rid of excess weight, only end up making it harder for you in the long run because they use harsh metabolism-decreasing diets and not enough exercise (almost never any weight training).

Starvation Diets Mess Up Your Metabolism!

It may take a little longer if you have really messed things up with severe starvation dieting in the past, especially if you’ve lost a lot of lean body mass, but it is never hopeless. Anyone can increase their metabolism.

Most people get an almost immediate boost in metabolic rate when they start the Burn The Fat program. However, the results are not going to be “overnight.” Give it a little time…

Within 3 weeks your metabolism will already be more efficient. Within 6-8 weeks, it’s burning hot. Give me 12 weeks of consistent diligent effort, sticking with all the metabolism boosting strategies I teach, and your metabolism really will become like a turbo charged engine, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that.

What’s most important for upping your metabolism is CONSISTENCY in applying the Burn The Fat nutrition and training principles every single day.

That includes:

* Meal frequency: eat 5-6 small meals per day
* Meal timing: eat approximately every 3 hours, with a substantial breakfast and a substantial post workout meal.
* Sufficient Caloric Intake: maintain a small calorie deficit and avoid starvation-level diets (suggested safe levels for fat loss: 2100-2500 calories per day for men, 1400-1800 calories per day for women; adjust as needed)
* Food choices: Select natural, unprocessed foods with high thermic effect (lean proteins like chicken, turkey, egg whites and fish are highly thermic, as are all green vegetables, salad vegetables and other fibrous carbs)
* Cardio training: Push up the intensity a bit if you really want to get a metabolic boost. Walking and low intensity cardio is fine, but higher intensity is more metabolism-stimulating
* Weight training: The basic exercises that include the largest muscle groups or even call into play the entire body as a unit (squats, front squats, split squats, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, overhead presses, all kinds of rows and core-activation exercises) will have a much greater metabolism stimulating effect than isolation exercises (concentration curls, calf raises, etc)

The weight training is extremely important in cases of “metabolic damage” because this is the stimulus to keep the muscle you have and begin rebuilding new muscle tissue, which is the engine that drives your metabolism.

The men don’t usually have a problem with the weight training, but I still hear women say they don’t want to lift weights as part of their fat loss programs. Well, people who wont lift weights can expect a very, very long metabolism “repair process” if they achieve it at all.

Consistency is the key.

Nothing will undermine the “re-building” of your metabolism like inconsistency. If you stop and start, or skip meals and workouts often, you will not even get off the ground.

After your metabolism is back up where it should be, it takes continued “stoking” of the metabolic furnace to keep it there. Once you get your metabolic engine running, you’ve got to keep feeding it fuel or the fire will die down.

Picture an old fashioned wood burning stove…

Imagine you’re in a cabin up in the mountains in the winter. It’s cold in there and you want to keep the cabin warm. Can you achieve this by feeding the fire once or twice per day? Nope. Not enough fuel to burn, so not much heat is generated.

What if you just toss an entire pile of wood in the stove all at once? Will that work? Nope. Lots of fuel, but can’t all be used at once… it just smothers the fire and the excess just sits there.

How about if you throw some tissue paper or crumpled newspaper in the stove, will that work? Nope – too quickly burning.

You have to keep putting small amounts of wood (the right type of fuel) on the fire at regular intervals or the fire burns out.

It’s also difficult to get the fire lit again. In the case of metabolism, it’s like going through that initial few weeks of overcoming inertia all over again.

Your goal is to get your metabolism burning hot and keep it burning and this cannot be achieved by missing meals, missing workouts or with sporadic, infrequent training.

I have only seen a handful of cases where all these things were done properly and there was still a longer “repair” process.

For example, one case was former ballet dancer. At 5′ 5″, she was previously 110 lbs and had increased to about 145 or so. She didn’t want to reach her previous 110, but find a happy medium of about 125 lbs.

I figured with 20 lbs to cut, this would be a simple and predictable process, but she had a challenging time (and I didn’t know why at first).

I later found out that she had been anorexic and bulimic for many years. This had caused a lot of damage, and although she did reach her goal, it took about twice as long as we had anticipated.

The good news is, even in this extreme case, the same nutrition and training principles worked! It just took a little longer. And by the way her program included some serious training with free weights and she ate a lot more (clean) food than she had ever eaten before. No “starvation!”

That’s the power of burning the fat and feeding the muscles… Trying to starve the fat with crash diets is what causes the metabolic damage in the first place!

If you’re interested in the healthy, sensible way to take off the fat, while keeping all your muscle and actually increasing your metabolism in the process, then my Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program can teach you how. No gimmicks or false promises. Just the truth – you have to work at it and you have to be patient.

——————————————————–

Thanks Tom!

So it boils down to just 2 simple things to fix your metabolism:

1. Eat sensibly
2. Exercise

That’s it!

Talk to you soon

Guess what?  It’s already October!

This year has really gone quickly.  I mean, I could hardly believe it was 2009 and now it’s almost 2010!

And in January of 2010 everyone will set the same old resolutions.  Just 3 months away.

But don’t get depressed!  3 months is a long time – you can get a LOT done in 3 months.

I used to train a group of lawyers and I asked those guys if there was any law stating that the only time you can set goals is on December 31st.  Luckily, there isn’t any law.  You can start making progress towards your goal ANYTIME!

Do you want to lose fat?  Is that your goal?  You could easily lose 2-3 pounds per week by starting now, working hard on your training, and tightening up your nutrition.

Since there are still 12 whole weeks left until New Years, you could lose 20-30 lbs before New Year’s Eve.

12 weeks left in the year.  Imagine how you’d FEEL if you started out 2010 already 20 pounds lighter than you are now?  You’d feel great!

Now, there are TWO main things you need if you want to lose weight and feel great:

1. The right mindset so that you’ll TAKE ACTION

2. A set of skills that guides you through the various stages of weight loss

Now here’s the cool thing:  When someone comes into my gym for the first time they fill out a quick form and one of the questions I ask is, “What are your biggest frustrations when it comes to health, fitness, and weight loss?”

More than 63% of people write: MOTIVATION.

And when I ask why, it turns out that most people aren’t motivated is because they don’t believe in themselves.

They KNOW that my Unstoppable Fitness Formula works, they’re just unsure that they’ll be able to stick to the plan.

I used to think that the way to do anything was to get motivated, then do the thing.

But after having worked with hundreds of people, I found out the TRUTH…

FIRST you do the thing, THEN you get the motivation!

So you start off following a proven plan designed to take you through the various stages of weight loss.

Here’s what is going to happen:

You lose a couple pounds….

…………….Then you get some motivation.

The workouts feel easier…

…………….You get some more motivation.

All of your clothes are too big….

…………….You’ve got some much motivation that you’ve developed an UNSTOPPABLE mindset!

One of my newest bootcampers sent me an email this morning.  She said: “thanks for the meal plans. FYI down 10pds! Unbelievable!!!!!!!!”

Do you think that losing ten pounds in 2 weeks would motivate you?

Find a proven plan and follow it for a few weeks.  My favorite is my 21 Day Rapid Fat Loss Plan (it’s what helped my bootcamper above lose 10 pounds in only 2 weeks).

And THEN you’ll be motivated to finish out 2009 with a bang!

If you haven’t started anything it’s not too late.  Make some goals NOW and get a huge jump start on 2010.

Don’t let these next 3 months slide by without doing something!

Lately a bunch of people have asked me how the heck I have so much energy.

And when I asked my newsletter subscribers for their biggest frustration, over a third of the answers were “not enough energy.”

See, we’ve all got families and jobs and cars and bills and cell phones and other stuff going on.  So when lots is going on in your life, it takes more energy than usual to get yourself going.

I mean seriously, it really sucks when you get up early to work out and your energy is low.

So here’s a really quick video explaining my secret to unlimited energy:

It breaks down to this: We always have the energy to do the things we WANT to do.

One of my favorite books is “The Man Eaters Of Tsavo”.  It’s a TRUE story about man eating lions in Africa (Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer starred in the movie version “The Ghost And The Darkness”)

The author, Colonel J.H. Patterson gives a great example of this in the book.  After working in the broiling sun all day, he sits down “too tired for anything beyond a long cool drink.”

So the Colonel is collapsed in his chair, too pooped to pop, when a Masai comes and announces that the man eating lions they’ve been hunting are nearby.  And in Patterson’s own words….

“On hearing this I straightaway forgot that I had already done a hard day’s work in the full blaze of an equatorial sun; I forgot that I was tired and hungry; in fact, I forgot everything that was not connected with the excitement of lion-hunting.”

Get that excited about getting the lean, sexy body you want and you’ll NEVER run out of energy for your workouts.

Now, leave a comment below about what gets YOU excited

(Hey you!  Thanks for coming back to WoldFitness.com, I really appreciate being your friend.  Today’s post is a special guest article by a great personal trainer in Carson City and a good friend of mine, Eric Robinson.

Eric gained 80 pounds after high school and then took it all back off through diet and exercise.  His passion for health and fitness shines through in everything he does.)

Eric Robinson

It’s no secret that most people know the basics of what they should and shouldn’t put in their body. With all the great free resources we have available to us, its getting easier and easier to be an informed consumer.

What’s not so easy is finding the right things to eat in the middle of a busy day when time and circumstances are against you. How are we supposed to eat 5-6 small healthy meals a day when our lunch is at 12:30-1:30 and little Jimmy has to be dropped off by 1:15?

What ends up happening is we break down, a little at a time and end up way off track and back where we started on our diets. It’s way too easy to find very good excuses when our responsibilities are pulling us in every direction.

Here are some strategies that have worked for my clients and me to help us stay consistent and motivated with my diet.

1. Stock up like it’s y2k! Not only is it cheaper to buy in large amounts, you can prepare it all at once, saving yourself that time later on. By cooking chicken, broccoli and mashed yams at the beginning of the week, you can have several meals on hand that you can steam in your office microwave.

2. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours… Share your recipes! There’s a lot of great health foods out there, but it’s still easy to find yourself eating the same thing time and time again. Share your recipes with your friends, it’ll keep your plate exciting and will help you stay motivated!

3. Don’t forget to eat! How much harder is it to say no to the jerk who brought blueberry bagels to the office if you haven’t nipped that craving in the bud. We all know to eat regularly, but we tend to underestimate how important it really is. Not only does regular intervals between meals speed up and regulate your digestion but it helps you “just say no”

4. Ask yourself… Do I need this? What will happen if I don’t eat that last piece of Gena’s birthday cake? Nothing. In fact chances are you won’t even remember it, can you think of one unhealthy thing that you regret not eating? Yummy food is only fun to look forward to, not back on.

5. Keep Track… Don’t obsess or you’ll drive yourself crazy, but try to know what you’re about to eat and what you’ve eaten already. Skipping the daily 350 calorie caramel frappachino can sometimes be all it takes to lose a pound every ten days. Try writing it down for a couple days so you avoid starving yourself or giving yourself too much room in your diet.

(Note from Luke: Eric is GREAT at helping his clients really dial in their nutrition)

6. Family Matters! Cook recipes for your whole family! It could get them excited about eating well (probably not, though), and it’s no fun when everyone else has pizza and you’re sitting alone with your brown rice pilaf. Families were invented so we don’t have to suffer alone right?

7. Eat to live… A dinner for friends is a great way to relax (assuming you like your friends), but we tend to treat dinner like the entertainment. Fill your time, idle hands hold drumsticks, and being active burns calories instead of adding to them.

8.Check it out! Who cares if someone sees you flexing your butt in the gym mirror, you deserve to see what all that work is doing for you, and you know they love it!

9. Be creative! Cook fearless! Try weird stuff, that’s how all the best recipes get invented. Whatever it is, do what you can to keep it fresh and keep from getting exasperated. worst case scenario, your dish is so disgusting it ruins your appetite and saves you from dessert.

10. Treat yourself! Once a week eat something naughty. It will help you keep from binging and when you are sure you will die without coffee cake you can tell yourself, not now but I’ll have some on Sunday. It is easier than telling yourself no and come Sunday you might not even want any. But if you still do, so what?! Better once a week than once a day. Think of it as an immunization. : )

Whatever you do, stay motivated!! If you are having a hard time keeping up the good fight, talk to someone, whether it’s your Personal Trainer or your friends or whoever, nothing motivates you like the people who want to see you succeed!

For more helpful hints or specific questions, or to set up an appointment to talk in person about your fitness goals and struggles email me any time I love hearing from people who are interested in this stuff!

-Eric

(Hey guys, Luke again.  I filmed Eric saying “Hi” and put it up on Youtube.  Here’s the link: Eric Robinson – Carson City Personal Trainer.

If you really want to lose some inches and tone up, come in for a no-cost, no-risk, no-hassle fitness consultation with Eric.  He’ll go over your goals with you and then give you his best advice for your PERSONAL situation.

Give him a call at: 775-671-5417 or email: eric.robinson.nv@gmail.com)