Are You On Track?

by Alwyn Cosgrove

So here we are again...Today marks the 25% point of the year. Sorry - it's not an April fools joke.

The entire first quarter of 2009 has already passed- we are now three months into 2009.
90 days are gone forever.

Are you on track with those New Years Resolutions? Are you on track with your goals?

If you wanted to lose 20lbs this year - are you down 5lbs already?
If your goal was to do 250 workouts - have you completed 62?
It's amazing how time passes so quickly. If you need a "do-over" then I'm going to give you one.

You can REDO your New Years Resolutions right now and get started all over again.

That's right - I'm letting you off the hook - but don't waste a single second.

If your goal is fat loss - start today
If your goal is muscle building - start today
If your goal is (insert anything here) - start TODAY !

25% of this year is gone forever. Will you make changes TODAY or will another 25% pass, then another 25% -- and before you know it -- it's 2010.....

I meet a lot of people in my job, and get a lot of questions via email. I'll talk to guys who track every single macronutrient that passes their lips, and have tried just about every program out there. When I ask them how things are going -- they'll tell me that it's great, or that the program is working well.

However, very few people actually measure and take stock of their efforts. If you are following a plan to lose fat - are you actually losing fat? And I mean at a rate that is acceptable for your efforts? Or are you blindly following a plan that doesn't work, and essentially ignoring that?

I know where my progress towards my goals stand because I measure it.

When I was in the hospital for a stem cell transplant - the medical team took measurements of temperature, blood pressure and blood samples every 4 hours.

When we implement a marketing campaign at the gym -- we track the results. We know for example how many direct mail pieces we send out, the cost of each mailing, how many inquiries we get, how many appointments are made, and how many people join the gym as a result. We know exactly how effective the plan is, and whether the return we are seeing is worth the investment.

We can see that for $X invested, we receive a return of $Y. We need to know where our membership stands - our new members, renewals etc and when our busiest times are - everything is measured and tracked so we can continue to grow and serve our members.

If you remember "SMART" goal setting -- one of the keys is 'M' - Measurable.
Measure your results.

As we enter the second quarter of 2009, it's time to take stock of your efforts.
Has your current return been worth the investment?

Again -- 25% of this year is gone forever. Will you make changes TODAY or will another 25% pass, then another 25% -- and before you know it -- it's 2010.....

Don't waste a single second. Start TODAY.

Where will you be at the 50% point - July 1st ? That's 13 weeks away. Will you be 13 weeks leaner - will you be 13 weeks closer to your goals?

The time will pass anyway....

Want To Lose Some Body Fat and get in shape for Summer? STOP exercising!

STOP exercising, START training!

We’re now 84 days into 2009. How are those ‘resolutions’ holding up?

From what I gather from most people, not very well. Hopefully the sun making its appearance last week might ‘shock’ you into action.

Those comfortable, warm, baggy clothes will have to be put back in the wardrobe for a while. So, how will you feel this year when the sleeveless tops, shorts and dare I say it- bikinis come out this year?

Food for thought eh?

So back to progress. Looking back on your results over the past 8 weeks, how have you got on? Now doubt your fitter? Leaner?
Hopefully.

What’s next in your program?

What? - you don’t have a program?

I have actually touched in this before and for those of you that are’ doing your own thing’ and ‘exercising’- would you put your own dental plan together? Would you do your own filling or root canal?

No. So why on earth are you planning your own exercise? Here in lies the problem.

At my local gym- I see people in there 6 maybe 7 days a week, doing the same thing over and over again. Seriously, some of these guys and girls have been training there for years and have NEVER changed shape and look exactly the same.
Why?

They don’t TRAIN, they WORK OUT or EXERCISE.

Here's the difference- people who TRAIN, have a detailed plan, including, progressions, recorded weights, reps, sets and rest periods. Even down to how fast they need to run on the treadmill.

Sorry but just because your exercising doesn’t give you the devine right to get results.

People that exercise, hop from machine to machine haphazardly, Their program is usually something that looks like 10 mins on the treadmill, 10 mins on the cross trainer, 10 mins rowing and a few sit ups in the useless ab cradle.They do every 'class' going. Or for the guys, chest Monday, back Tuesday. Arms Wednesday etc etc with no timed rest period, the ‘magic 3 sets of 10’ all year round!

The top and bottom of it is- one gets results, the other doesn’t!

You see, people that ‘exercise’ do actually get fitter. When you exercise, your body adapts by getting ‘fitter’. Great right?

There’s a downside though. This makes the exercises easier to perform.

BUT because the exercise is now easier to perform, the body uses less energy to do it, which in turn means fewer calories used each time you do it.

So a challenging workout that once burned 400 calories now only burns 200.To combat this you then start exercising for longer, 2 hours instead of one, 3 classes in a row.

QUICK TIP- training for longer than one hour is counterproductive do dropping bodyfat and is a sure fire sign that what you're doing isn't tough enough.

It doesn’t matter whether its Pilates, spinning, walking, running or a bodypump class, this applies to ALL exercise.

One of the main principles of TRAINING is progression or progressive overload.

The ONLY way for a program to work is to KNOW that you are constantly improving in EVERY session.

Can you do 1 more rep?
Can you work at an extra intensity?
Can you decrease the rest period?
Are you even timing the rest period?

You get my point.

Every session MUST be uncomfortable and intense.

Low intensity exercise DOES NOT WORK. The only thing you can improve then is the amount of time spent doing it. Do you really want to do that?

If you’re serious about getting results, you must have a plan and you must continue to improve with every session.

Here’s my top tips for getting results with a plan

1) You MUST have a program written by a professional. No that doesn’t include your boyfriend- unless he’s a trainer. If you’re a trainer yourself, this is also true. I always have a program created by someone better than me. Us trainers think we’re great but we SHOULD NOT be writing our own programs, there’s ALWAYS someone better then you. What would you say to a client if they wrote their own program?

2) You MUST record what you do- intensity, rest period, weight, reps, sets. How can we progress and improve if we don’t have a record?

3) Set a personal best every session- can you lift 1k heavier? Can you run 1km/hour faster?

4) If you’re looking to lose fat you MUST get uncomfortable. If you don’t get out of you comfort zone nothing will happen.

5) You MUST NOT do the same fat loss program for more than 4 weeks. The body is a master of adaptation.

6) If you can train for longer than 60 mins- the program isn’t hard enough and it will end up being counterproductive

My FAVOURITE fat loss and muscle building plans are created for me by Craig Ballantyne. His website is http://turbulencetraining.com

I really do want to help you. I really feel sorry for the guys in my gym who are slaving away for 2 hours EVERY DAY and not getting results.

Simple answer to losing weight fast: Sleep more

by Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS

There are all kinds of weight loss tips and healthy eating guidelines for you to follow. There is a new healthy weight loss diet coming out almost every week. Now many of these healthy eating guidelines and weight loss tips are valid points and should be followed if you want to achieve permanent weight loss.

You may be overlooking a major component to successful weight loss. This has nothing to do with healthy eating guidelines or exercise intervals. It has to do with recovery and your downtime.


How much sleep do you get each and every night?

The amount of sleep you get could be the make or break tip to you weight loss success. Research studies are showing that those who are sleep deprived have higher levels of bodyfat compared to those who get adequate sleep each night.

Studies have also linked a lack of sleep to hypertension and Type 2 diabetes. A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology followed 68,000 volunteers for 16 years and found that those who got five hours or less of sleep per night were one third more likely to gain 30 plus pounds over the course of the study than those who slept seven hours or longer.

Another study Stanford University reported that subjects who slept the least had higher levels of bodyfat than those who slept 8 hours or more.

The commonalities that both studies have are that the participants who lacked sleep had lower levels of the hormone leptin and higher levels of the hormone ghrelin. Leptin is produced primarily by the fat cells and this hormone works to decrease hunger and increase your metabolic rate. The hormone Ghrelin is produced by the gastrointestinal tract and increases your hunger. This is an imbalance of two key hormones that affect your body type and whether you gain weight or not.

The simple answer to correct this is to obviously sleep more. There are other things you can and should be doing to keep your leptin level elevated and your ghrelin level low, but the most often overlooked weight loss tip is sleep. We are all very busy and sleep is something we wish we could do more of and just never seem to get it.

If you are one who struggles with losing weight. You have tried healthy weight loss diet after diet and you still seem to struggle with your weight loss than I suggest this.

Record how much sleep you get each night for one week.

Before you go to bed each night evaluate how your day was. Were you tired? Did you wake up refreshed? Did you feel that you needed more sleep?

After this one week of recording your sleep look at how many hours on average you slept each night.

If it wasn’t 7 hours then make it a goal to average 7 hours of sleep a night.

If you did average 7 hours and you still felt tired every morning then work to increase that average to 8 hours and see how you feel.

Every person is a little different when it comes to required restful sleep. You may need to experiment with this a little.

If you are serious about permanently losing weight though I suggest you make increasing your sleep a priority or everything else you do to lose weight may be for nothing.

Call me on 491732 or simply click on the link below to get your FREE Health & Fitness consultation!

www.workoutsmarter.com/consultation.html

The 2 Pounds Per Week Rule And How to Burn Fat Faster

by Tom Venuto

Why do you always hear that 2 pounds per week is the maximum amount of fat you should safely lose? If you train really hard while watching calories closely shouldn’t you be able to lose more fat without losing muscle or damaging your health? What if you want to lose fat faster? How do you explain the fast weight losses on The Biggest Loser? These are all good questions that I’ve been asked many times. With the diet marketplace being flooded every day with rapid weight loss claims, these questions desperately need and deserve some honest answers. Want to know where that 2 pounds per week rule comes from and what it really takes to burn more than 2 pounds of fat per week? Read on.


Why Only 2 Pounds Per Week?

The truth is, two pounds is not the maximum amount you can safely lose in a week. That’s only a general recommendation and a good benchmark for setting weekly goals. It’s also sensible and realistic because it’s based on average or typical results.

The actual amount of fat you can lose depends on many factors. For example, weight losses tend to be relative to body size. The more body fat you carry, the more likely you’ll be to safely lose more than two pounds per week. Therefore, we could individualize our weekly guideline a bit by recommending a goal of 1-2 lbs of fat per week or up to 1% of your total weight. If you weighed 300 that would be 3 lbs per week.


Body Weight Vs Body Composition

Weight loss is somewhat meaningless unless you also talk about body composition; the fat to muscle ratio, as well as water weight. Ask any wrestler about fast weight loss and he’ll tell you things like, “I cut 10 lbs overnight to make a weight class. It was easy - I just sweated it off.”

You’ve also probably seen people that went on some extreme induction program or a lemon juice and water fast for the first week and dropped an enormous amount of weight. But once again, you can bet that a lot of that weight was water and lean tissue and in both cases, you can bet that those people put the weight right back on.

The main potential advantage of any type of induction period for rapid weight loss in the first week is that a large drop on the scale is a motivational boost for many people (even if it is mostly water weight).

Why do you hear so many diet and fitness professionals insist on 2 lbs a week max? Where does that number come from? Well, aside from the fact that it’s a recommendation in government health guidelines and in position statements of most nutrition and exercise organizations, it’s just math. The math is based on what’s practical given the number of calories an average person burns in a day and how much food someone can reasonably cut in a day.


How Do You Lose More Than 2 Pounds Per Week?

Can you lose more than 2 lbs of pure fat in a week? Yes, although it’s easier in the beginning. It gets harder as your diet progresses. How do you do it? My rule is, extraordinary results require extraordinary efforts. An extraordinary effort means a particularly strict diet, as well as burning more calories through training because you can only cut your calories so far from food before you’re starving and suffering from severe hunger.


Simply put, you need a bigger calorie deficit.

If you have a 2500 calorie daily maintenance level, and you want to drop 3 lbs of fat per week with diet alone, you’d need a huge daily deficit of 1500 calories, which would equate to eating 1000 calories per day. You would lose weight rapidly for as long as you could maintain that deficit (although it would slow down over time). Most people aren’t going to last long on so little food and they often end with a period of binge eating. It’s not practical (or fun) to cut calories so much and in some cases it could be unhealthy.

The other alternative is to train for hours and hours a day, literally. People ask me all the time, “Tom, how is it possible for the Biggest Loser contestants to lose so much weight? Well first of all they’re not measuring body fat, only body weight. Then you have the high starting body weights and the large water weight loss in the beginning. After that, just do the math – they’re training hours a day so they’re creating a huge calorie deficit.

But without that team of trainers, dieticians, teammates, a national audience and all that prize money, do you think they’d be motivated and accountable enough to do anywhere near that amount and intensity of exercise in the real world? Would it even be possible if they had a job and family? Not likely is it? It’s not practical to do that much exercise, and it’s not practical to cut your calories below a 1000 a day and remain compliant. If you manage to achieve the latter, it’s very difficult not to rebound and regain the weight afterwards for a variety of physiological and psychological reasons.



For Fast Fat Loss: Less Food Or Harder Training?

Trainers are becoming more inventive these days in coming up with high intensity workouts that burn a large amount of calories and really give the metabolism a boost. This can help speed up the fat loss within a given amount of time. But as you begin to utilize higher intensity workouts, you have to start being on guard for overtraining or overuse injuries.That’s why strict nutrition with an aggressive calorie deficit is going to have to be a major part of any fast fat loss strategy. Unfortunately, very low calorie dieting has its own risks in the way of lean tissue loss, slower metabolism, extreme hunger, and greater chance of weight re-gain.

My approach to long term weight control is to lose weight slowly and patiently and follow a nutrition plan that is well balanced between lean protein, healthy fats and natural carbs and doesn’t demonize any entire food group. To lose fat, you simply create a caloric deficit by burning more and eating less (keeping the nutrient density of those calories as high as possible, of course).
But to achieve the extraordinary goals such as photo-shoot-ready, super-low body fat or simply faster than average fat loss, while minimizing the risks, I often turn to a stricter cyclical low carb diet for brief “peaking” programs. I explain this method in chapter 12 of my e-book Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (it’s my “phase III” or “competition” diet).

The cyclical aspect of the diet means that after three to six days of an aggressive calorie deficit and strict diet, you take a high calorie / high carb day to re-feed the body and re-stimulate the metabolism. Essentially, this helps reduce the starvation signals your body is receiving. It’s also psychological break from the deprivation which helps improve compliance and prevent relapse.

The higher protein intake can help prevent lean tissue loss and curb the hunger. A high protein diet also helps by ramping up dietary thermogenesis. A high intake of greens, fibrous vegetables and low calorie fruits can help tip the energy balance equation in your favor as fibrous veggies are very low in calorie density and some of the calories in the fiber are not metabolizable. Healthy fats are added in adequate quantities, while the calorie-dense simple sugars and starchy carbs are kept to a minimum except on reefed days and after (or around) intense workouts.


There’s No Magic, Just Maths

In my experience, a high protein, reduced carb approach in conjunction with weights and cardio can help maximize fat loss – both in terms of increasing speed of fat loss and particularly for getting rid of the last of the stubborn fat. Helps with appetite control too. But always bear in mind that the faster fat loss occurs primarily as a result of the larger calorie deficit (which is easily achieved with sugars and starches minimized), not some type of “low carb magic.” If your diet were high in natural carbs but you were able to diligently maintain the same large calorie deficit, the results would be similar.

I’m seeing more and more advertisements that not only promise rapid weight loss, but go so far as saying that you’re doing it wrong if you’re losing “only” two pounds per week. “Why settle” for slow weight loss, they insist. Well, it’s certainly possible to lose more than two pounds per week, but it’s critically important to understand that there’s a world of difference between rapid weight loss and permanent fat loss.

It’s also vital to know that there’s no magic in faster fat loss, just math. All the new-fangled dietary manipulations and high intensity training programs that really do help increase the speed of fat loss all come full circle to the calorie balance equation in the end, even if they claim their method works for other reasons and they don’t mention calories burned or consumed at all.


Beware of The Quick Fix

Faster fat loss IS possible. My question is, are you willing to tolerate the hunger, low calories and high exercise for that kind of deficit? Do you have the work ethic? Do you have the supreme level of dietary restraint necessary to stop yourself from binging and putting the weight right back on when that aggressive diet is over? Or would you rather do it in a more moderate way where you’re not killing yourself, but instead are making slow and steady lifestyle changes and taking off 1-2 lbs of pure fat per week, while keeping all your hard-earned muscle?

Remember, 1-2 pounds per week is 50-100 pounds in a year. Is that really so slow or is that an astounding transformation? You don’t gain 50-100 pounds over night, so why should anyone expect to take it off overnight? Personally, I think short-term thinking and the pursuit of quick fixes are the worst diseases of our generation.
If you want to be one of those “results not typical” fat loss transformations, it can be done and it may be a perfectly appropriate short-term goal for the savvy and sophisticated fitness enthusiast. It’s your call. But when you set your goals, it might be wise to remember that old fable of the tortoise and the hare, and buyer beware if you go shopping for a fast weight loss program in today’s shady marketplace.

Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com

About Tom
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models( e-book) and The Body Fat Solution (Hardcover, Avery/Penguin Books). Tom is also the founder and CEO of the Internet’s premier fat loss support community, the: Burn The Fat Inner Circle.

Products That Are Scams

As our country gains weight at an alarming rate, we are spending more each year on products that promise us easy, effortless weight loss. Each year billions of pounds on weight loss products.

The problem is that in spite of headlines that feed our hopes that a new, secret, “better” weight loss formula has been discovered, the truth is there are no easy solutions to losing weight.

Simply put, weight loss is a combination of lifestyle choices, and is the result of a firm commitment to making and maintaining them over a period of time. Any products that offer weight loss without reduced caloric intake and increasing activity levels are fraudulent- and a waste of money.


Why Do People Buy Products That Are Scams?

Denise Bruner, MD, MPH, FASBP is a specialist in weight loss, and a fellow in the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. She shares one of the major reasons that weight loss scams flourish today: “We live in a society today that wants immediate gratification. This is reflected in our willingness to buy from those that promise ‘instant results’”.

The increasing obesity in our society, and hopes that weight loss can be achieved without lifestyle changes fuels the growth of frauds. Bruner states, “The majority of the population is overweight, and the numbers are going up. There’s a huge market out there for weight loss products. After all, it appeals to us to find out that you can ‘Lose 30 pounds in 30 days.’ We don’t want to have to deprive ourselves of our favourite foods, and want something that will ‘magically’ absorb the calories.”

Illegitimate weight loss products feed on false promises: People are fooled by these scams because they hope that they aren’t scams. They hope that they’re real, and are an easier, faster, painless way to lose weight.

With the huge demand for weight loss products (and their revenues), companies are more than willing to become suppliers-whether or not their products work. The number of companies promoting bogus supplements and weight loss products is increasing rapidly in recent years.”


How can you spot a weight loss scam?

Typically, weight loss scams make promises that aren’t realistic. Headlines that promise weight loss without dieting are always scams, since calorie reduction is the basis of any true weight loss program.

There are no legitimate weight loss programs that allow you to “eat whatever you want” without limit.

If it sounds too good to be true-it is!

Other tips offs that the weight loss product is a scam include:

* Claims to be a “secret” formula: Products that claim to have secret formulas are scams. Dr. Bruner feels strongly on this issue, and states, “There are no ‘secrets to weight loss’ being held away from the public. In the UK alone, an estimated 82 people a day die from obesity (that’s 30,000 each year.

* There’s no physical address for the business. Legitimate products and services will have a physical address and phone number. Be wary of those that only offer a mailbox, or a charge-free number to call manned by “call centre” personnel.

The Internet is also being used to promote frauds. You can’t judge how good or legitimate a product is by how professional the web site looks. This only reflects how good their web designer was.

* They promise rapid weight loss. Weight loss that is too rapid is not only unhealthy, but is normally quickly regained. The best plans advocate moderate goals, with slow, steady weight loss of about 6-8 pounds a month over a long period. Any product that offer overnight or rapid changes is a fraud.

* They state that they can help a person lose fat or cellulite in a specific part of the body. Body fat is lost overall, not in a spot, and ads that claim otherwise are frauds.

* They promise permanent weight loss. No product can do this, since permanent weight loss is maintained by lifestyle changes.

By avoiding products with the above “red flags” in their advertising, you can protect yourself from illegitimate products-and save money.


Types of Weight Loss Scams

Weight loss scams can range from the highly illegal (and even dangerous) to the mildly unethical. There are degrees of fraud and misleading consumers. Some are scams where the person doesn’t receive anything at all when they send in their money. Another form of scam is when the customer sends in money, and they get a product that has no benefit, such as a sugar pill.

Other weight loss scams use questionable practices, such as making claims for an ingredient-but without scientific studies to back them up.

Some products sell because their names are similar to real products-even though they don’t contain the same ingredients or quality.

Popular scams are pills, powders, patches, and herbal teas that supposedly promote weight loss.

One recent scam was a powder taken a few hours before sleep. It promised that the fat would “melt away” while you slept. The only benefit was that the person gave up their bedtime snack when they took it; there was nothing in the powder to help. And the person who bought the powder was then deluged with other products from the company that would ‘make the product work better.’ It was all a huge fraud.”


How To Protect Yourself From Scams

One of the best methods of protecting yourself from weight loss scams is to seek medical advice from a qualified doctor who specializes in weight loss (bariatric medicine). At times, this means first coming to terms with a realistic view of weight loss.

Basically, it means reducing calories and exercising, but it must be individualized to the person’s needs.

For instance, the person with insulin resistance needs a higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet so they won’t feel that they’re starving; and those with allergies (such as to wheat or yeast) will need a diet that avoids these items.

To protect yourself from scams, check the product out first with your doctor. And if possible, try to avoid “impulse buying”. First investigate the product and the company’s reliability with consumer organizations. This can save you needless expense and disappointment in the long run.

Weight loss scams are on the rise, and the numbers of companies using fraudulent advertising are multiplying. By taking the time to carefully investigate a company and its products, and choosing to work with a qualified doctor on your weight loss goals, you can save yourself needless expense and disappointment. Best of all, you can get started on the road to real, achievable weight loss goals while maintaining good health.

Sample Nutrition Plan

This week I wanted to feature a Sample Nutrition Plan that has proved successful for one woman following a fitness program similar to the ones that I provide at workoutSMARTER.

But first, if you simply start avoiding the Western Lifestyle eating habits that tempt you on a daily basis, and live according to the Lifestyle I have adopted as part of my training protocol, you can lose fat and gain muscle.

That means no more snacks that contain carbohydrate and fat and no protein (i.e. vending machine treats), no more fizzy drinks, and of course, getting back to eating high-quality fresh produce and lean protein.

You might say that you can’t eat like this, but the truth is even if you start making only one change per day you will start to see improvements. Make this a goal that you will start today - to choose one healthier food option per day that will get you one step closer to your lean body.

Here are the guidelines.

– 4-6 meals per day
– Remove all sugar from diet.
– Have at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight (up to a maximum of 200 grams per day)
– Have 3 servings of fruit per day (sticking to high-fibre fruits such as apples or grapefruit and high-antioxidant fruits such as berries)
– Drink at least 4 cups of Green Tea
– Have a protein-only shake as your first post-workout meal.
– Follow Dr. John Berardi’s 90% rule - if you eat according to the guidelines 90% of the time, you can cheat 10% of the time and still make incredible body changes.

This is the exact meal plan & training plan that one woman used to get lean and achieve a flat tummy and toned legs.

Each meal is full of flavour, quality ingredients, and lean protein sources.
Here is her story…

Daily Calorie Intake: 1900 calories

All meals are about 350-375 calories

Breakfast

• 1/2 cup porridge oats (about 40g) (stir in 1/2 serving fruit at very end... peach is my favorite lately, but blueberries are yummy too, and frozen berries work out of season.

• Omelette (1 whole omega 3 egg, 3 egg whites, ½ serving chopped baby spinach, red or yellow pepper, mushroom).

• ½ cup milk (skimmed) in coffee


Mid morning

• 1 cup fat free cottage cheese with 1-2 serving fruit (about 200g, depending on type) (strawberries, blueberries, clementines became my favourites, mango, or a mixture of all of the above)

• 15g nuts (walnuts, almonds) or 1 tablespoon of peanut butter plopped on top.
• (sometimes 2 tablespoons of toasted wheat germ too, if I need the extra carbs depending on how much fruit I add)

• All mixed in one bowl.

Or

• 1 cup fat free or low fat yoghurt

• 100g fruit

• 15g nuts

• This has less protein than Cottage cheese, but I make up for it when I have my protein shake post workout.

Or

• Smoothie made from fresh or frozen berries, scoop vanilla protein powder, dollop of peanut butter on bottom of the glass.

• Sometimes add a little water or flavored sparkling water (or yogurt then less fruit) for a bit of liquid.

Lunch or mid-afternoon

• Spinach salad with sliced turkey breast, ham, chicken, tuna, or whatever meat I have for the week.

• More veggies to add in the better the salad - tomatoes, peppers, artichokes, spinach, cucumber, celery, etc)

• Dressing: ½ tablespoon olive or flax oil, 1 tablespoon balsamic or red wine vinegar, squirt of Dijon mustard - put in little dish with lid and shake up then pour on salad

• Apple or peach or cherries, sometimes wholegrain bread

• Another good one is tomatoes, cucumber, olive oil, red wine vinegar, tuna, red or yellow bell peppers all mixed in a little dish and marinating during the morning.

• Plus some sort of whole grain carb (bread, pasta, rice) or fruit

Or

• Whatever leftovers I had for dinner when I made something that was actually like a meal

Or

• 2servings frozen baby sweet peas microwaved and a protein on the side

Or

• 200g cooked butternut squash (or sweet potato but smaller portion) good sprinkling of cinnamon, and 15g walnuts.
• Mush all together and microwave to heat up.

Or

• ¼ cup quinoa with low fat cheese melted on it...any veggie on the side


Dinners

Usually I’m just looking for a meat and veggies and throw together whatever I have in the fridge/freezer…

• 2-3 servings of frozen stir fry veggies (I eat a lot of frozen veggies-tons of variety for stir frys) with some sort of meat, salmon, chicken, prawn, etc.

• 60-90 g low-fat cheese (jarlesburg makes a lite swiss cheese that’s 8g protein and 2.5g fat per 30g. (fat free cheese is disgusting) I eat a lot of cheese, love it melted, cause I get tired of meat.

• Make this into a grilled cheese - using wholemeal wrap (melted in microwave), or corn tortillas (to make a quesadilla cooked in george foreman) and salsa.

• Add whatever veggies I have around

• Lean beef burger on whole grain bread with mustard - or no bread and a different carbohydrate.

• Sauteed spinach salad (I double the spinach when cooking it). Heat l tsp olive oil, and ½ -1 clove garlic. Add fresh baby spinach and a squirt of lemon juice. Saute until wilted. Have protein on side (grilled salmon, chicken, pork, whatever)

• Or a microwave spinach dip – 2 servings fresh (or frozen) spinach, chopped. Little bit of red or green onions. Microwave spinach for about 2mins, drain a bit. Add ½ tablespoon mayo.

• Eat with protein on side and your favourite dipping carb (whole grain crackers) I usually just eat it with a fork and have another carb on side.

• Courgette and squash (pumpkin) grilled in george foreman and sprinkled with a wee bit of olive oil (sprinkle on herbs de province too) makes a nice veggie side.

I hope this gives you some ideas of different meal variations that you can try. Losing weight does not mean that you have to have boring, tasteless meals.

Back Pain at the Office

By Jesse Cannone, CPT, CPRS and Creator of www.losethebackpain.com

It's getting to be so bad that by Monday afternoon, you're already tired of being at the office. You're not even thinking as far ahead as Friday. Just getting to hump day is going to be challenge enough.

In reality, it's not the folks you work with who are getting you down - they're tolerable, mostly, although there is that one guy in accounting. Where do they find these people?

It's not even your boss, who, if he knew even half as much as you do, would be a shoo-in for Executive of the Year.

No, the biggest pain in your neck is actually located a bit lower. And it's really what's making working where you do seem a lot worse than it actually is.

Face it. It's your aching back that's sucking the joy out of your nine-to-five existence and making you feel 10 years older to boot.

Sure, you've learned to tolerate the bad coffee, pointless meetings, and lame jokes in the course of your day. But you just can't tough it out when it comes to back pain, which can range from dull, nagging aches to those unexpected twinges that feel like you've been hit with a taser gun.

If it's any consolation, you're not alone. More than 31 million Americans have low back pain at any given time. The bad news about back pain is that it not only lives with you all day at the office but it also comes home with you at night. It may even dog your weekends.


How do you develop pain?

If you are experiencing back pain at the office, you may think that it is coming from all the sitting, standing, and lifting that you have to do. And, indirectly, it does. But it is actually more about how the body has to adapt to all the sitting, standing, and lifting than the activity itself. Let's take sitting as an example.

Because of the amount of time you spend sitting, your body must gradually adapt itself to that position. This happens in a number of ways. The first thing it must adapt to is how the weight goes through your hips and pelvis. Then, there is the way you sit - upright, slouching, or something in between. Most importantly, it's what happens to the muscles while you're sitting. For example, your hip flexors will get tight from being in a shortened position and your butt will get weak and flabby from being in a relaxed state.

That simple combination of tight hip flexors and weak glutes is called a "muscle imbalance." The result of these muscle imbalances will be postural dysfunctions of your pelvis and spine. These imbalances send both your spine and pelvis into abnormal positions, the combination of which can be devastating to a person with a healthy back and catastrophic for a person suffering from any form of back pain.


What can you do about it?

What you must also understand is that your imbalances are the result of what you do in your everyday life - your workouts, sitting, the activities of your job, and your own personal habits. I'm not going to tell you to stop going to work. But what if you changed the way you present yourself at your desk?

Instead of sitting at your desk, try kneeling. I kneel at least 30 percent of the time I spend at my desk. I have a small foam pad that puts me just high enough to type and see the monitor. I sit on a therapy ball - and guess what? I don't sit still like my momma told me to. I move my hips in every direction, which means I'm working on my core balance all day long.
Action steps to take


Sitting

When I sit, I sit with my legs in all different positions - sometimes bent, sometimes behind me, other times stretched out in front or even to the side of me, keep the legs moving.

Every 10 minutes or so, I will work my body in some way - and, yes, that includes walking away from my desk. But more than that, I make it a habit to stand up when the phone rings. I also stand when I have to read something or when I'm rearranging the stack of stuff on my desk for greater productivity.


Standing

If your job requires you to stand all day long, be sure you have quality footwear and a neutral shoe insert. Our body mechanics start when our feet hit the ground. It is best if your feet are in the most neutral position possible.

One negative body pattern that many people fall into is to continually shift their weight from one foot to the other. The problem with this is that most people find eventually decide that one leg will be more comfortable than the other, and then that leg will get most of the weight most of the time. This will wreak havoc on the pelvis and spine. Better to put equal on each foot as much as you can, and learn to correct when you catch yourself shifting your weight or leaning on one leg too much.


Lifting

A third obstacle on the job can be situations where you have to lift anything over 10pounds repeatedly. Again, it's not the activity itself that puts you in jeopardy; it's your body's inability to tolerate the stress of the weight. In other words, you should be able to lift anything you want to and not have any difficulty doing it. The problem occurs when your body is suffering from the muscle imbalances and postural dysfunctions that we talked about earlier - and you don't even know it.

So, when you lift that object and you get injured, think of it as the straw that broke the camels' back. Your body was already in a compromised state, and it just needed that last bit of stress to send you in to a painful condition.


Stress

It's an unavoidable fact of life at the office, and it can also play a role by causing your muscles to tense up, which makes you more prone to injury. Stress also lowers your tolerance for pain. In some cases, minimizing stress on the job can be a daunting task, but deep-breathing exercises, walking around the block, or even talking about your frustrations with a trusted friend can help.

In closing, I want to leave you with this message: Even though the workplace can be a hazard to your health, if you do find yourself having back pain, remember that your thoughts and your beliefs about your situation will have a direct impact on your ability to recover and how fast you recover. That's why it's critical to learn all you can about your condition and take action as soon as you can...
If you want to learn more request a copy of my FREE Lose The Back Pain report by emailing me on awallis@iom.com .