I must admit, sometimes I get my ideas from places that you wouldn’t think possible. If you read my posts often you know I draw parallels between things in life and fitness. That’s because I believe fitness is a life thing – not a “I need to lose weight” thing.
Right now I’m reading a terrific book. It’s called The Shack, by Wm. Paul Young. Last night I was really taken by some of the lines I read:
“…I will take a verb over a noun anytime.”
Now I don’t want to give you the context of this as I don’t want to spoil the book – I want you to read it on you own!
But more importantly I wish to talk about that statement and how it relates to life and your fitness. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m feeling a bit under the weather today – head cold galore! I have to expect it now that we are in the full swing of the school year and my kids are bringing home colds and most of my clients kids are sick now too. With all that said, I try not to take any meds whether it be over the counter or prescription.
What does this have to do with you?
Most of the time the junk we put in our bodies is meant to treat the symptoms not take care of the cause. As I think about this there are many things we do in our lives to treat the symptoms…but do we ever really try to fix the problem(s)?
Don’t be fooled by advertising, claiming high in whole grains or FAT FREE. Get into a good habit of reading labels on the foods you are ready to buy.
While they may have messages such as Low Fat or Reduced Calorie written all over them, when you read the ingredient statement and label more closely, you may be Un-pleasantly surprised. Look for hidden sugars, preservatives, and saturated “bad” fats. Read the rest of this entry »
I finally finished my report that outlines why your weight loss goals are making you fat. In this free report you will learn exactly how to set yourself up for success.
Imagine never having to start a weight loss program ever again.
This report will reach far beyond you surface goals and get to the heart of the matter so I must warn you: if you don’t really want to lose fat weight once and for all…then don’t read my report.
Here is a short video with me and two of my favorite people in the world, my two boys, talking about how you can access my free report.
I want to encourage you to not only read my report, but to share how everyone you know can also access it.
Do you think your health and fitness would be a whole lot better if you simply made better choices during the day? We are all faced with decisions and some seem easy and some seem difficult.
If you had tracks to run on – that is you had enough truthful information on how to make BETTER choices – You could make informed decisions that would add up to SUCCESS! I bet you would see faster results. You would see more fat loss in less time.
So what if you took just one day and made better choices?
What if you ate breakfast instead skipping it?
What if you ate protein, carbs and fat in every meal and snack?
Thanks to all of you for allowing me to “vent” my fustrations as I see more and more people set up for fat loss failure and or injury. As a follow up to yesterday’s post, as promised, I am going to talk about what to do to combat over aggressive short term fat loss programs.
In order to set yourself up for success you need to have a workout program that is designed to coincide with the long term strategy you are developing. This will guarantee your fat loss will happen as quickly as possible – and stay off!
The Biggest Loser and all the contests that have spawned off the popular “reality” show at your local gym have placed people who are desperate for fat loss in a very bad situation. Fat Loss at all costs, training for symptoms and dieting/exercise extremism can cause injury while confusing people into believing that what they always hated about exercise still reigns true.
Fitness is all around us. There are lessons everywhere we look – if we are looking. How much exercise is right vs. too much, what are the best exercises for fat loss, etc.
Saturday morning I was snuggling on the couch with my boys, Trevor and Andrew, during their usual wake up ritual of cuddling and watching TV. I was thinking about my next fit tip, or fitness blog entry and my plan for my womens bootcamp at 10am.
We stopped channel surfing when the popular Bob the Builder animated program flashed acrossed the screen.
Bob the builder was constructing one of those exercise trails. You know – you run or walk for a bit followed by an exercise like pull ups, push ups, stretching etc. I started to pay attention. Read the rest of this entry »
If you are already consistently working out in an effort to lose fat weight than it’s time to turn up the heat – keeping your intensity high and eating well as we hit the holiday eating season. If you are not – don’t wait another single second. Don’t wait until your New Year’s Resolution to give you a reason to start.
Yes the holiday eating frenzy starts now – not at Thankgiving as most people believe. In the U.S. we are all trying to find the best deals on Halloween candy. Again, it all starts Read the rest of this entry »
INSANITY can be described as doing the same thing over and over again…expecting different results.
In the United States one example of this is repeatedly continuing to disrespect and attack Governor Sarah Palin by personally attacking her – thinking somehow it will change the fact that she has more executive experience and real life qualifications than the Presidential candidate on the opposing ticket. (It also does not change the fact that Sarah Palin is NOT running for President). Insane.
What behavior do you engage in everyday while expecting a different outcome?
What self defeating eating habits do we continue to with while believing if we just do some extra cardio we can justify it. Hmmm….I’m still gaining weight though. Insane. Read the rest of this entry »
In the United States, today is the 7th anniversary of the worst attack on U.S. soil in history. There was a collective wonderment as thoughts of confusion and “how could this happen” reigned through the minds of all of us.
Prior to that day, if you asked most people they would say “that could never happen”, “not here” and “not in MY backyard”. Well it did. Then, shortly after, planning began on how to prevent this from every happening again. Thankfully it has not happened again. I pray it never does.
This story is so familiar in our individual lives when it comes to our health. No one thinks a health challenge will invade their lives or the life of someone they love – until it does. When that challenge is dealt with and hopefully eradicated…many people will change gears, adopt a healthier lifestyle and fight to not let it happen again.
In both cases there can be debate about prevention.
Could we have prevented the events of September 11, 2001? Can health challenges be prevented by Read the rest of this entry »
The great thing about tracking your own progress during your journey to a leaner, healthier body is that it is inherently valuable. You are tracking your victories, your speed bumps, your consistency…your success! In order to get a complete picture of where you are now with your diet and where you need to go – one of the most powerful tools that can be utilized is that of journaling everything you eat.
Write everything down. Water, snacks, mints, fruit…EVERYTHING! Most people will immediately see, Read the rest of this entry »
When designing your workout program try thinking about things from a different perspective. The days of split routines and isolation exercises have long since past outside of the realm of bodybuilding and/or specific weakness in a particular muscle group that is causing other issues ie., injury.
Training individual body parts is a time consuming and ineffective fitness model for fat loss. Split routines are very inefficient and many times the root of common repetitive motion injuries. Here is a short list reasons a split routine is not the best option for fat loss.
Less effect on EPOC (Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption)
Less overall Calorie burn during the workout
Lends itself to inconsistency
Time Consuming
Repetitive Motion injuries due to overtraining and emphasis on one muscle group
Encourages isolation of muscle groups when performing a complex movement in life
Neuro-muscular confusion as to role play within a particular movement (the wrong muscles are taking over during a movement or exercise)
To train effectively and efficiently shift your thinking to the following movements and then perform movements that produce them.
Up and down
Push and Pull
Bend and Twist
Ambulate (move forward, back, side to side etc.)
These are, in a nut shell, how we move. We get up and down; we push things away or pull them to us; we bend and twist and we move by walking, running, etc. Setting up your workout like this can result in the following 4 exercises:
Squats
Push ups
Sit ups
Walk or run
Or
Lunges
Rows
V – sits
Side shuffle
The combinations are endless and to be more efficient you can combine two or more movement patterns like a lunge walk or a medicine ball squat and press.
Whether you perform the exercises as a circuit (which I highly recommend) or as individual sets with rest in between them – you will burn more calories as you utilize more muscle groups. You also don’t have to worry about missing a workout as you would with a split routine. When you miss a day with a split routine, and that day turns into more of a week – those particular muscle groups have not been worked in quite some time. If you miss a week training the way I have described you know you have still exercised every muscle group in the previous week.
Consistency is your biggest advocate…especially over the long run and training movements instead of muscles gives you the BEST chance to do that.
Posted by davegleason 
Posted by davegleason 
Posted by davegleason 
