Monthly Archives: January 2011

Real Training for Real Fat Loss

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Welcome Back!!

Today’s blog is about laying out the facts of how to train for real fat loss. Regular readers will know that I believe you should focus on fat loss, not weight loss. (If you don’t have a copy of my free report on fat loss myths you can get one from the box to the right of this post)

Simply put, after over a decade of my own ups, downs & failures to achieve lasting fat loss I have developed some fairly strong opinions on this issue.

Lots & lots of reading these last 10 or so years...

I have come to hold theses opinions through a combination of educating myself by reading articles, chasing down scientific papers, following an ever changing cast of fitness ‘gurus’ and by trying just about every program there has been. Like famous author Tim Ferriss, I have used myself as guinea pig, and I have arrived at some convictions about fat loss.

The biggest mistake I made and the one I still see the most people making is this belief that low intensity, high volume cardio is the best way to lose fat.

Let me tell you this is a crock – not true at all!!

They have their place, but not the one you've been told!

Short sharp cardio (think Tabata’s or sprints) will burn more fat for longer than hours on a treadmill, a stationary bike, stepper, strider or slider. There is a heap of research out there on this. Trouble is many Personal Training organisations, many medicos and other ‘health’ professionals are either using information from textbooks that were old when they did their degrees or else they are playing politics to gain more mainstream acceptance. Doesn’t really matter – high volume low intensity cardio is a mug’s game. Period.

Second in line is the belief that doing high volumes of circuit training exclusively is the best means of burning fat.

When I first started coming across the research on the effect of high volume circuit training on fat loss I thought that I had found the Holy Grail. The more I looked the more research I found to support this, the more of the Gurus I found who supported this – it seemed like a no-brainer.
Again – this is not right!!

One of the benefits of being your own guinea pig is that you can judge what actually works and what the effects are.

The truth is that no one exercise modality can or should be used exclusively when fat loss is the goal. What you need is a mix of exercise types that hits different energy systems in your body and works to drive your metabolism.

Using circuit training exclusively I found:

1) That the perception of effort was right up there – these were hard & challenging workouts!! So hard in fact, that I started to collect niggling injuries from too many repetitions.

2) This came about from the high volume of exercises were giving my joints, tendons & ligaments a real beating. I developed overuse injuries and these required me to stop & heal – no fat burning happens when you can’t work out!!

Injuries mean no fat loss

3) The type of exercise done in these ‘fat loss’ circuits did not allow for much weight to be used 9nor could it be safely used) so my strength began to drop off. Rapidly. A beginner may have gotten stronger (if they avoided overuse injuries) but anyone with any time using weights just seems to get weaker.

4) A drop in strength and a lack of challenging weight coupled with high volumes = Muscle loss. High volume circuits when used exclusively as a fat loss modality leads to lean tissue loss which leads to a slower metabolism which leads to shifting any fat just gets harder & harder to do.

5) High Volume Circuits also cause physical stress out of proportion to their benefits which increases your levels of cortisol (everyone’s favourite ‘fat to the belly’ stress hormone) and decreases both Growth Hormone & testosterone release. Certainly not what you want for fat loss.
However this does not mean circuits are bad. Nope they just become bad when they are used exclusively for fat loss and other exercise types & protocols are not used.

An effective, metabolic reconditioning program needs to contain most if not all of the following key factors:

1) Lift weights, heavy weights using compound (multi-joint) exercises. Think Deadlifts, chin / pull ups, squats, overhead presses, clean & jerks or even one-armed push ups. Think 4 – 6 reps and no more than 3 or 4 sets.
Not only does this preserve lean tissue, it promotes strength and better fat utilisation as fuel

2) Train fast but safe. In other words perform your exercises as fast as you can whilst maintaining good form. This engages your nervous system and leads to a faster metabolism.

3) Perform some size work – use weights that you can move for 6 – 10 reps and again no more than 4 sets. Again try for compound moves or bodyweight exercises where you are at a mechanical disadvantage. NB these sets should always come after your heavy sets.

4) Circuit training – no more than 3 stations, no more than 15 – 20 reps a time and only 3 – 4 rounds.

5) Sprint. Great for fat loss, great for your legs, do wonders for your cardiovascular & aerobic systems. Best done either later in the day or the day after your weight / circuit training.

Move your body through space - the faster the better!!

So there you have it – the best way to achieve maximum fat loss via exercise.

Give this style of training a try, and see for yourself!

The Top Current Weight Loss Scams

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Firstly let’s be clear – you want to look for fat loss not weight loss. You can lose weight through water loss, muscle loss or even bone mass loss – none of which will do anything except make you into a smaller ‘skinny’ fat person with a lousy metabolism and a host of health problems.

Secondly let’s take a look at what passes as the latest & greatest solutions to being ‘overweight’… Some are new, some are old timers dressed up in new clothes…

Everyday there seems to be a new miracle cure or miracle machine available everytime you turn on the TV. Each one promises 6-pack abs, and the body of your dreams ( also notice how most of them miraculously seem to give you a tan, whiter teeth, and big hair…)

But it is not just TV – every newspaper or magazine you pass on the newsstand or open has more miracles waiting for you to try – Pills, secret herbal formulas, tibetan fruits, extracts from the South Sea islands, Nepalese diets or yet other machines.

Radio has it as well, and so does the internet – especially the health & Lifestyle sections of on-line news… we are bombarded by the patently untrue mesage that there is amagic bullet, pill, potion, herb, diet or machine that will transform our bodies with minimal effort and virtually overnight.

Scam machines have been around for long, long time...

Emotionally we go “Well it sounds plausible, those people look a lot better and they couldn’t advertisie it if it didn’t work could they…’ This drowns out the logical part of us that goes ‘Hang on – None of this stuff I’ve tried has worked in the past, people get paid for these ads, this just can’t be right – it all seems too good to be true’

Marketing is an art that uses advertising to excite the emotional part of us and shut down the logical part. They do this by appealing to our vanity, our wants & desires; by having celebrities endorsing the latest machine / potion / pill and by using incredibly good looking people as demonstrators.

The truth is that far too often we fall into the artful marketing trap and end up buying a machine that does not do as it promises or else has a restrction on how heavy you can be to use it (and this is always not a level that enable males in particular to use them); or with pills / potions or lotions that just don’t work. Even worse is the diet plans that wreck your metabolism even further by encouraging poor nutrition or is impossible for an adult with a job or a family to keep to..

yep - that'll work...

Then if we do lose weight on the miracle program we put it all back on in short order and usually add a few pounds more than when we started.

Worst of all we waste our hopes, our time and our money things that just don’t work. Remember the old marketing adage – ‘Sell the sizzle, not the steak.’In short we waste time, energy and most of all hope on these scams.

I have personally beeen caught out by these things many times over the years and I want to help you avoid making the same mistakes that many of us make by getting involved in these rip offs.

Here are some of the curent ones:

Scam#1: The you-beaut, fantastic, proven by thermal imaging amazing 6-pack machine / gadget / device

Everyone wants a flat stomach. Every male (and quite a few females) want 6-pack abs and every year there are at least 7 or 8 new machines put out on the market. Each one promises that it is / uses the latest tchnology and will transform your body in only minutes a day or week.
(to be fair some of them also – usually passed over or in the fine print – mention that you have to use the machine AND their special diet as well to achieve results)

Of course we know that to lose fat we have to:

  • Create a calorie deficit
  • Manipulate your hormones through diet, food choice, frequency of meals
  • Exercise
  • Recondition & fire up your metabolism through all of the above.

Not only can you NOT lose fat by sitting / lying/ twisting / jumping on the latest machine for 7 or 10 minutes a day (or what ever the latest claim is ), you CAN’T spot reduce. No machine short of the ones plastic surgeons use for liposuction can deliver spot reduction. Not a one.

Oh yeah and doing 100’s of crunches doen’t reduce your fat or weight either.

Fat loss results happen due to reductions in the fat carrried by your entire body. Physiologically you can’t just burn the fat from a selected area. (although there is some research out about BAT – brown adipose tissue, a type of body fat designed for quick burning – that may support spot reduction in very specific areas 9 upper back – and under very specific conditions – just wait until the marketing guys get their hands on that!!)

What they promise...

The models using the machines were already in shape and were hired for the ads because they were in shape and could use the machine without falling off!! They shure did not get into shape using the machine they are smiling about on TV.

None of us should fall for the fiction that by by rocking back and fort or by circling or twist stepping that we will end up looking like the models. We let hope (or despair) overrule commonsense.

Still literally millions of these useless devices / machines are sold every year. I have a friend who has a collection fo them – all were flavour of the month for about 2 weeks – all ended up in the basement, the closet or under the bed. Not a few have made appearences on EBay.

All failed and yet my friend like others just keeps falling for the marketing again. And again. (By machines & devices I include sliders, treaders, walkers, gliders, swings, bean, roll ups twisters, circlers etc etc)

My personal favourite is the one that ‘works’ your abs by giving you small electric shocks. Comedian Robin Williams has got it 100% correct when he says: ‘You’d be better off wrapping it around your head, turning it on and saying ‘I will not buy stupid s*it like this again!!”

Scam #2: Special Super Weight Loss diet plans.

This one is easy to spot – it either involves diet plans that totally cut out an entire food group or it is based on using an exotic fruit / vitamin, extract or juice.

Another scam easy to spot is those diets that require you to eat only 1 type of food for an extended period of time – no-carb, low-carb, no meat, no cheese, no fish, lemon juice only, high protein, watermelon, no fruit, fruit only, cabbage soup, chicken fruit, Israeli Army diets, food combining, lemon pepper, grapefruit diets banana diets, bean diets, French diets, Hollywood diets, Beach diets, fat diets – etc etc

Not for the long term & most are a scam...

A hallmark of these types of diets is their lack of nutritional balance, their rebound weight gain after you go of them and a further slowing of your metabolism.

These all have several things in common – they do work (for a short while) for weight loss, they wreck your fat metabolism and they are a waste of time. Any severe alteration to food ingestion and reduction in calories will result in some weight loss, even, in some cases, some fat loss – but most of them cause weight loss by fluid loss and as these are often poor in terms of protein you also lose lean tissue. Result – an even more compromised metablism and rapid weight gain.

It may be necessary to recondition your metabolism and refresh your food habits by using a short term more restrictive program (like Lose 20 in 30) but unless such programs are nutritionally balanced and based around better dietary choices they will not work.

Of course once your metabolism is reconditioned then you can move to a lifestyle program that ensures you stay lean & fit & healthy.

Scam #3:  The ‘Unbelievable Body Transformation with a side of Miracle results in a short period of time’ Products

It is possible to lose 30 pounds or more of fat in a month – but this requires a strategic and holistic program covering diet, hormone manipulation, food choices, feeding frequency metabolic reconditioning and not a small measure of discipline. Fat loss of this magnitude cannot be continued on and on either – mentally & physically you will need a rest. My point is that to lose fat rapidly requires a structured, strategic program that covers a lot of ground.

If you see a diet plan that tells you you are going to see rapid, overnight results – you know the type ‘lose 10 pounds in 3 days!! – just walk away. If you see an ad for the latest fat burning / blocking / destroying pills – walk away. Because they don’t work in nearly all cases and the few that do only work for a short time.

If people are not trying to recondition their metabolism and are taking the long view, then losing up to 4 pounds (2 kilos) a week is about the average healthy fat loss. Most people who are watching their food choices, eating less processed crap and moving more tend to lose fat at this rate. Nearly everyone loses more weight in their first few weeks than later on. This is because of a number of factors. The main factor is homeostasis – your body does not like change and tries to stay the way it was before you began to alter your habits. The other reason is that a lot of the initial weight loss (not fat loss) can be fluid that is freed up as your body adjusts to new food choices and calorie limits.

It is also true that less fat you have to lose the slower you’ll lose it – see homeostasis above…

The miracle results scams usually require you to go a liquid / shake only diet, buy their special calorie controlled diet food or use special pills or / patches. All in all just a way to part you from your money. Again the results of these types of programs tend to be short term and when the pills run out (if not before), the last shake has been taken then the weight comes back. With a vengeance.

(I should point out that there are some Doctor prescribed medicines that do indeed speed metabolism and assist in fat loss, but these are not the ones you see with celebrity endorsements or on TV. Nor are they the ones you can buy over the internet, proper medically supervised liquid only diets do exist and they are used in life threatening circumstances and are administered in medical facilities – not your kitchen.)

But real fat loss, lasting leanness comes from what; when; & how much you eat and how often and how much & often you move. That’s it. No magic potions, pills, patches, foods or bullets exist to do the job for you. None.

Save your money and your emotional well being.

Scam #4: ‘Diet Foods & Foods that cry out ‘Fat Free’!!

My favourite – ‘Fat Free’ they scream from the packaging as if all fat was the enemy (its not) and yet they fail to mention the amount of sugar they have put in to the products to replace the fat, or the amount of indigestable gums they have added to replace the mouth feel of food that has had the fat removed.

Nutritionally these foods are a disaster area and they can actually add to a tendency to put on fat. Most of these pre-packaged, processed ‘fat-free’ foods contain a wide array of additives, such as high fructose corn syrup, refined sugars, MSG, sodium and saturated fats. Yes fat.

You see current US law requires that fat content of greater than five grams be listed in one gram increments, less than five grams be listed in .5 gram increments, and lower than .5 grams as containing zero grams of fat. Thius means that if a product has .49 grams of (any including trans) fat, the label can list the fat content as zero. In the case of trans fats this amount (.49 grams) is way over the recommended daily allowance and could contribute to various adverse health effects.

Moreover most of these foods are low in protein, which as regular readers of this blog know is needed to stimulate your metabolism, maintain and build muscle tone.

In theory, I like the idea of pre-packaged meals to assist in weight loss. They make it easier to control portion sizes but the truth is that they too are examples more of the marketer’s art than of any real fat loss benefit. Plus they tend to be more expensive than real food.

Then there is the issue of dependence – what happens if someone stops using these foods and has not learnt about proper food choices? They return to old habits and the cycle begins again…

So if you’re thinking about using pre-packaged foods because of the convenience factor, just be sure to look at the ingredients and if you see a high amount of sugars and gums put them back on the shelf. After all, many pre-packaged diet foods are stuffed with additives that encourage rather detract from obesity.

Scam #5: Celebrity or fake doctor-endorsed diets.

Celebrities are paid big bucks to endorse products – famously many Hollywood types go to Japan and make millions by endorsing products that have not and never will use.

But they wouldn't use it if it didn't work...

It is not so different in the West. Celebrity endorsement works – people want to be ‘Like Mike,’ they want to be able to identify with their heros – whether from sports or entertainment.

Look use commonsense – if a celebrity is promoting a product the chances are they did not use it to get the way they look, or to gain the effect of the product they are promoting. (I think that Chuck Norris is one of the few who actually used a product they promoted – the body weight gym thing.) Even if the celebrity actually used the product does not mean that it is safe, effective or works – just that the celebrity involved has a bit more integrity than others…

Look don’t trust celebrity advice on weight loss. Particularly if you know they’re being paid to say what the company wants them to say. Just because an actor used to star in your favorite TV show, doesn’t mean they’re suitable to, or qualified to, give you cogent weight loss advice. Remember, most celebs, even the Bor D grade ones, have a whole behind-the-scenes team helping them get, look and stay slim.

Worse still are the Doctors for hire. In Australia we see few medicos endorsing weight loss products, but we do see an endless stream of nutritionists, dieticians and personal trainers doing so. This is not the case in other countries where you can add Doctors for Hire to the advertising mix.

In these cases it is usually some Doctor (often a Dentist, a Chiropractor, Doctor of Philosophy or from some non-medico type) you have never heard of touting some miracle pill / potion / device that is a breakthrough you’ve also never heard of. Just remember he is being paid for his time & endorsement. Many of these Docs for hire hail from fields of study that have as much to do with fat loss as a mechanic has to do with flower arranging.

Scam #6: Toning Shoes & Shake Weights

It seems that everyone has their own version of ‘toning shoes’ out now. Target & K Mart carry in-house brands, and many international footwear companies have their own versions. Does this proliferation mean that they work? Do the celebrity endorsements mean that these are one of the ‘secret’ tricks used by the celebs in question to stay in shape?

No – it just means that the idea behind them is logical enough that a whole lot of people are buying them.

By stimulating various muscle groups through an unstable platform, these shoes supposedly increase both muscle tone and weight loss. Unfortunately testing by various consumer groups have conclusively proven that this is not the case and that the shoes could in fact cause you injury.

Just because a celeb says they use them doesn’t make it true. And even if they do, it doesn’t mean that they work…

Just like Shake Weights.

Apparently there are hundreds of fit, chiselled, lean men & women who shake weights for 15 minutes a day to get in and stay in shape. Entire armies of closet weight shakers…

If you look at the weights involved and how they are supposed to used youn will see that they are closer in concept & performance to those Ab belts of the 70’s & 80’s. or take a look at your local bar tender – he is unlikely to show a musclar physique from all of those cocktails he has shaken and served…

Sorry – they don’t work – the idea that the vibration they provide stimulates your muscles enough to burn significant calories and stimulate muscle growth is laughable.

Stay away from them.

Scam #7: Performance enhancing hologram embedded braclets.

Seriously a piece of silicon rubber with a ‘hologram’ embedded in it is supposed to enhance your athletic ability and therfore assist in developing the body & sport’s perfomance of your dreams. And this piece of ‘technology’ only costs $60 (unless you go to EBay & buy from China where this fashion accessory will cost you about $2)

In Australia they have had to withdraw their claims and offer refunds...

I really don’t have to go any further with this one do I??

So there you have it – some of the top weight loss scams to avoid.

Be well, I’ll be back soon, and focussing on foods you can add to your diet to help you drop the fat..

5 Truths about Fat Loss

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Welcome back!!

Here are five truths about fat loss that you often do not get told by the ‘weight loss gurus’ out there:

1. Prepare to be uncomfortable – At least for the first while.

In order to ose fat you have to make changes and as we have seen inprevious posts your body doen’t like change very much. in fact it fights it!! Thsi means that if you are serious about fat loss and are using a real program you will feel uncomfortable for a little while while your body starts to accept and then utilse the changes you are making.

One of the easiest changes to make is to eat less. by this I mean try to eat less than you are normallycomfortable with.

Changes from a poor to a good diet can be a litle uncomfotable for a few days...

We all know that lose fat we have to create some form of calorie deficit on a regular basis and a simple way to do this is to eat less than what has become ‘normal’ for us.

The key to doing this succesfuly is to eat foods that promote a feeling of satiety – and this means lean proteins, fibrous carbs and good fats with a distinct lowering of processed carbs.
If you can do this on a regular basis, eating less will quickly become the new ‘eating normal’ for you.

2. This is a tough one, especially in this day of media overkill interms of how we should look & act – but compare yourself to yourself.

No two people’s shapes are the same, everyone has a different body shape so it makes no sense at all to say I don’t look like Brad Pitt (I don’t!) or Angelina Joie ( I definately don’t!!) as no=one does.

The photos we see on magazine covers of either celebrities, models or just ‘beautiful people’ are photshopped, airbrushed, and taken from expertly lit photo shoots done by professionals. No real person can look like that without the same technology and support (make-up, lighting, personal chefs etc etc) being available. Yet we tend to compare us to these images and almost EVERY picture you see a completely unrealistic illustration of a human body. And like it or not, no matter how hard we try we will never look like these images…

It will take a while to get to look like this - if ever. be your best, not the media's...

By all means use the mass media images as a means of inspiration but the ONLY person you should be comparing yourself to is yourself. Use the mirror and way your clothes fit to chart progress and focus on becoming the best that you can, not the bestt hat Photshop can produce…

3. Be in a hurry but be patient. At the same time.

Sounds crazy but what I mean is that there is NO evidence to back up the idea that the maximum ‘safe’ fat loss is a couple of pounds a week. This is an arbitary number that has gained widespread acceptance without any scientific backing.

It is possible to lose a lot of weight more quickly than this – but (notice I said weight and not fat) the usual drastic means often mean fluid loss, wrecked metabolisms and ending up a skinny fat person.

You can safely lose over 20 pound of fat in a month by using the right protocols – eating nutrient dense, calorie sparse foods; increasing your lean protein intake, exercising so you maintain muscle mass and increase your metabolic rate and use diet tricks that manipulate your hormones and enable you to successfully combat your body’s desire to maintain the status quo. These things usesd together will deliver a string fat loss.

So you you sould be in a hurry to get on the right program and begin to make the necessary changes so your metabolism becomes fitred up again.

Move it more...

You should be patient as even with a fat loss of 20 pounds in a month you are unlikely to see thaose 6-pack abs or get as lean as you want. This is where you keep at it and twatch the results come.

In my experience most 30 -day body recompositions for someone who is over 30 pounds overweight progress something like this:

First Week – Some cravings, your body is fighting back some soreness from unaccustomed exercise.

Second Week – The odd craving or 2 surfaces, your body is getting used to eating differently, you have dropped some size, exercise is not as challenging and you feel stronger.

Third Week – No cravings, visible changes, clothes fit better you are stringer & feel fitter & stronger, energy levels rise.

Fourth Week– Waist measurements are lower, your shape is diffeent- especially in the arms & legs and under the chin; the food is second nature, the exercise a habit and you are seein gthe results of a 20 pond fat loss and feeling great.

Feel fitter & stronger...

Again – this is generic – how your body and your mind react will be unique to you but in general if you follow a program like the ones outlined in previous blogs thisis what will happen.

4. Just because you are exercising more does not mean that you can eat more. Not yet.

Remeber you are trtying to fire up your metabolism and a proper program will enable you to eat the right fuel and not feel hungry. However there is a persistent myth that just because you exercise you can ‘reward’ yourself by eating lots more or even re-introducing some of the foods that got you fat in the first place.

Wrong – you cannot & should not. At least not until you are at your goal shape (again shape NOT weight). Once you are there you can switch to a maintenance program and frankly after 30 plus days of eating correctly you will not likely want to over eat or eat junk. (NB a good program allows for ‘Cheat days” where you eat what you want but again over time even on the cheat days you’ll find your desire for poor food much diminished.)

5. Lastly understand that your weight will flucuate over your fat loss journey.

So don’t weigh yourself every day – this is the quickest route to depression and falling off the leannes wagon there is.

Your goal is fat loss, part of this is increasing lean mass. Lean masss weighs more than fat so the scales could show you even gaining some weight in the early weeks. Add to this diferences in fluid intake & retention, Menses, the differing effects of different foods and your weight can alter as much as 6 or 7 pounds from day to day.

Get off the damn scales!!

Use the mirror, use your clothes and if you have to use the scales do it once a week at the same time and on the same day.

Stay the course and focus on the monthly trend.

I’ll be back soon!! Be well!!

How to Master Hunger

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Welcome back! I hope that you & your family had a safe & enjoyable New Year’s celebration.

When you are trying to lose fat, recondition your metabolism manipulate your hormones, exercise intelligently and still create a calorie deficit experiencing hunger is the quickest way to fall off the fat-loss wagon.

Constant, nagging hunger pangs are usually the sign of a diet too full of processed carbs and sub-par protein. Your body is so used to eating nutrient sparse foods that it has become conditioned to hit he hunger switch so it can get as many nutrients as possible. On a processed food diet these nutrients are sparse so they come with a load of sugars & so-called empty calories.

Lots of calories with little nutrition...

Even worse it is now believed by researchers that when you don’t consume enough nutritious foods your body enters a state of nutrient under supply which creates inflammation and a release of metabolic waste products that are toxic. The end result is a hunger pain that is truly painful & only alleviated by eating.

A recent study (Changing perceptions of hunger on a high nutrient density diet. Fuhrman, J. et al., Nutrition Journal 2010 Nov 7;9:51. Carried out at Hahn School of Nursing, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA ) has the answer though. And it echoes what I put forward in my 4-part post on reconditioning your metabolism.

The study involved 768 people who changed from diet lacking in micronutrients to one that was high in micronutrients. They then completed a survey that dealt with a number of the dimensions of hunger – things like mood swings, irritability, physical symptoms and where they felt the hunger in their bodies – on the 2 diet types.

In the study the level of and pain associated with hunger experienced (and the level of difficulty involved in coping with it) both dropped dramatically when the people involved switched a diet heavy in healthy foods. Large differences in the physical & emotional symptoms were found in the reporting between the 2 diets.

On the nutrient dense diet, hunger was not experienced as often as the sparse nutrient diet, nor was it as painful or even as unpleasant. This held true even when meals were skipped! Positive changes to the way in which they experienced hunger were reported by almost 80% of participants with 51% saying they had experienced ‘a dramatic or complete change in their experience of hunger.’

The study concluded a nutrient dense, though calorie low diet reduces or removes the less pleasant aspects of hunger. They found that it was not the amount of calories that influenced hunger but the density of the nutrients in the food eaten.

This is the ticket for nutrient density...

So – forget about counting calories; instead fill your meals with nutrient dense, low- or unprocessed foods. Focus on quality foods like nutrient-rich fruit, vegetables, whole grains with lean proteins and healthful fats – if you don’t your body is going to miss them and demand more fuel.

Just imagine – once you start feeding your body better it will make hunger a more pleasant and rarer experience, it will crave good food instead of processed crap, and you’ll find it easier to stay on the fat loss wagon.

I’ll be back soon – in the meantime why not leave a comment, Tweet this to others or ‘Like’ us on Face Book.

Be well.

The Top 20 Time-Tested Healthy Habits for a Longer Life

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Happy New Year!! I hope that you all had a great & safe new Year’s celebration.

Now the hangovers are done with and we are in the middle of resolution time I thought that I would share the following list with you…

So without further ado here are The Top 20 time-tested healthy habits to living longer that have survived for centuries…

1.     Eat fewer processed carbs, more plants, fruits and nuts.

2.      Have some lean protein with every meal.

Eat more of these with lean protein

3.      Put family first – Time with family is priceless and usually lowers stress levels and hence lowers cortisol which means les storage as belly fat.

4.       Take a walk. Move more we were not meant to sit all day or stay in the one spot. Have a stroll every 45 minutes – even if it is just for 5 minutes.

5.      Drink a glass of red wine daily. Reveratol etc etc – red still beats white for the good health properties.

6.      Reduce and manage stress by exercising, talking with a loved one or taking up a practise like Mediation, Tai Chi or Yoga. Bottomline stress kills so avoid it, reduce it or deal with it!

7.      Have a purpose find something that excites you when you wake up each morning.

8.      Spend more times outdoors – it will re-connect you with the world ourside your house & place of work.

9.      Be grateful – appreciate what you’ve got more than you rue what you do not.

10.  Have fun – do things that you enjoy, love life!

Move more, lift, push pull & play...

11.  Maintain a healthy body weight – recondition that etabolism, get leaner, eat better, avoid ingesting too much crap.

12.  Get regular exercise – push, pull. twist, run, walk, move weights, jump and play. Just move more. Remember we were designed to hunt, nit sit all day.

13.  Love and laugh – at the same time wherever possible (except when eating – messy…)

14.  Snack on nuts and low GI vegetables, low GI fruit and low fat cheese.

15.  Give something back. No esoteria here but paying things forward, giving when you whave wants seems to smooth the way…

16.  Eat 6 times a day – 3 ‘mains’ and 3 ‘snacks’

17. Eat a large breakfast with protein and good carbs.

18.  Eat a medium lunch –

19.  Eat a small dinner

20.  Drink plenty of water.

You can't get enough of this...

21.  Sleep when it’s dark.

22. Learn new things. It keeps you young, your brain working and lets you talk to others.

Well that was 22 but I couldn’t find anyhting about counting correctly when I researched this…

Next Post – we’re back into firing up your metabolism, getting leaner and some more hormone news…