Hey there just wanted to shoot off this video to you. We always tell you that you cannot out train a poor diet. Sometimes a little visual will help with actually understanding that phrase. Take a look at the video and tell me how many can relate to this in some way. Pay attention to the amount of calories the guy is eating vs the amount of calories burned.
Enjoy! Have a great weekend!
The third part in your fitness success equation is your workout. Remember these were in order of importance. Your workout is not the most important. You can see results with your great motivation and nutrition, your workouts now can make or break the speed of your results. “So why are my workouts poor?”
Many people get discouraged, don’t have the time, and get frustrated with the pace of their results. You don’t have to spend hours on cardio, 6 days a week, trying to spot reduce your dreaded areas. They are a waste of time. The intensity needs to be cranked up and think about big calorie burns and not trying to stay in your “fat burn zone”, or targeting your troubled areas. You can be more effective with 3 intense workouts per week than you would if you were on a 6 day schedule with a mediocre workout.
As a recap you have to be in it to win it. Drive, motivation and determination need to be spot on. Find positive social support, reward/punishment, determination. Second, take a look at your nutrition, cabinets, refrigerator, freezer. Start planning you meals by living and not surviving through your day. Last find a fun intense workout that you will love, keep it fresh. Hope you enjoyed!
Depending on the expert you talk to they will all agree that roughly 75% of your results come from the way you eat. Yes that’s right 75%. Your nutrition should not be taken lightly. It is true, you see the fad weight loss diets and you can lose weight without exercise. It is also true that you will lose valuable muscle if you only diet, but these are topics for another day.
Every boot camper hears me say this. “you cannot out train a poor diet.” Now I hate the word diet because of what society has made it out to be, but if you look at the basic definition of the word diet we are all on one all the days of our lives. It is what we eat each day, each meal. The image of a diet especially when it comes to fitness and weight loss is that you are restricting calories or nutrients in order to see rapid results.
The way that we see your diet is the way you would like to eat for the rest of your life. If you want to life in an unhealthy way with no carbs or minimal calories etc. then do so but you can expect to shorten your life span, develop diseases, not live an optimal life. This cultural image of diets has three key letters DIEt. Now we all have good and bad eating habits and it is just a matter of retraining your tastes, likes and dislikes. Replacing unhealthy with healthy options. Educating yourself on what/when to eat/drink and how to read labels. Making time to prep food for the week or the next day. PLANNING. P.P.P.P.P.P.P. Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Lastly this one of the most difficult parts of the road to your goals. However going back to yesterdays post. If you don’t have the motivation, support system, mindset, rewards/punishment system then you are doomed. You are going into this journey with a “I’ll give this a try attitude.” Fix that first. See you next time!
Hey there Fit Soldiers, I wanted to put this out real quick, I plan on breaking it down in up coming posts. Have a little read, tell me what you think.
It’s clear, and it kills me, that not everyone gets the results they want. So why do some people fail and some succeed? The answers are probably endless but I see them falling into three categories. These categories are not in a random order but are in order of importance.
First up: Motivation. You have to want to get results, what is your goal and why are you doing it?
Second: Food. If I had a penny for every time people asked why I’m not losing X amount of weight… rethink what your eating. You cant cheat yourself.
Third: Training. Many ways to waste your time with a workout, like I said we’ll get into that later.
I will break them down in order in the next three posts. Sorry to leave you hanging over the weekend. Stay posted!
Following a recent two week trip to Berlin its always fun comparing the cultural differences between us. With my fitness cap on I began to think about the serving sizes of their meals. I mentioned it to Katie and we got talking about how we either feel over full and not really want to do much of anything after we eat. This is what I call the “Food Coma.” Or we take food home as left overs and probably gets tossed out. So we decided to experiment a little bit the next time we ate out.
We decided on one meal and split it. Now I have no problem eating any meal of any size at a restaurant and sometimes that over full feeling feels good. Kind of a prideful feeling “like yeah take that, is that all the food you got, I can still fit a few more bites in.” So the experiment was on, we split a meal. It was in Fairplay, CO after hiking a 14er, yeah we earned our own meal but we’re still sharing this one. A salmon sandwich that came with a soup, and we added on one trip to the salad bar.
We finished, paid, and left the restaurant and took note of how we felt. Yeah FULL. We had just hiked a 14er and then split a meal and we were content with the amount of food given to us. Katie and I got excited about this new concept. We are going to start saving money (weddings are expensive…) and be healthier for not overeating every time we go out.
I would guess the servings in an American restaurant are easily twice as much as you should be eating. So there is your tip. Share with your hubby, split with your kids, or not order at all and just eat what your kids don’t eat (Joanna). Give it a try. You will avoid that guilty overstuffed feeling, save some money, and have energy for a walk after dinner knowing its a walk because you feel good not a guilty walk because you ate too much.
A supportive community is a crucial part of Fit Soldiers. It is a spoke in the wheel that will get you the results your here for. If we were did not care or your fellow boot campers were not in it for the same reasons then the road to your goals would be slow, frustrating and painful IF you ever got there (sounds a little like a big box gym). There is another supportive spoke in your wheel that we don’t always have the most control of. That spoke is your kitchen.
Take a look at whats in your cabinets, pantry, and refrigerator. Like most people its probably time for a healthy inspection of the temptations and bad habits that are lurking behind the rotting produce. Temptations are inevitable, if you have poor choices in your pantry and refrigerator they will get eaten, and probably at the wrong time. I cannot stress enough how important your nutrition is. It is very common to cancel out all your hard work with an excess of chocolate, sugared water, thick creamy salad dressing, chips, deserts, white flours, candy, high calorie foods.
As soon as you can take a step towards creating a non-threatening habit breaking environment and start tossing that rubbish. Then on your next trip to the grocery store start picking up supportive foods. Whole wheat’s, produce, plain nuts, greens, plain Greek yogurt, berries, sweet potatoes, mustard, salsa the list goes on.
Seriously, as a fitness professional and not a big box gym that just wants your money. I want results. As a professional I am telling you to get your kitchen in order, clean it up, and start caring about your results. If you have not done a grocery store tour you are out of your mind. You NEED to make it a priority. It is a FREE service we give our Fit Soldiers and you will learn a lot.
Hey there! We have a little inspiration coming from an over achiever boot camper! Coming this time on the topic of food.
“You Don’t Have To Fill To Fuel”
That’s right with the availability of food on every corner just about every American is a minority of the world when it comes to having something to eat whenever we want. Your food options are endless stretching around the world. So its no surprise that so many people are over weight. One reason being is that we are not programed any more to eat for survival but rather eat for pleasure, socially, for comfort, and stress.
We have become disconnected with our body and are not sensitive to the signs and red flags telling us that our body is full. We just continue to eat and eat until we are uncomfortable. Food is essentially your body’s fuel, but you don’t need to over eat and literally fill your body in order to fuel it.
Your call to action this week is to be more aware of what and how much you are eating. I want you to enjoy your food but keep it in check. Be a little more deliberate about your serving sizes. Don’t take a family size bag of chips to the couch and tell yourself your only going to have a couple. Serve food from the stove/counter and not a huge pot from the table, when your plate is done, your done. Give it a try, let me know what you think.
POD!!!
I’m going to start with the POD! Coming from the most recent Spartacus workout!
Father Daughter Taking Care of Business
OK Now some blogging business. It never ceases to amaze me how people continue to seek the quick and easy, short cuts, and miracle cures yet still expect to get great results. YES I am talking about the magic pills, crazy diets, and magic cleanses. I will be optimistic and say hopefully for the last time, CUT THE CRAP!
Lets get this strait. If your going to take short cuts on your health, your taking short cuts on your life. If you want to diet on 500 calories you better plan to live your life on 500 calories. If your expecting anything in life to be quick and easy then it will probably be the exact opposite.
Without going in to too much detail. When you go on a DIEt and reduce your calories or take out a specific necessary nutrient then you are depriving your body of some very important thing. There is no miracle cure to your body you have to take care of it day in and day out every day of your life.
“Lose It The Way You Live It!“
Following yesterdays post talking about what is truly important in your life. What if everything important to you could benefit by dropping down a notch on your importance rankings. What if that one thing was your health? Imagine now your life without the body image complaint, having to worry about heart disease, diabetes, rising medical costs, countless doctors visits.
With every new boot camper we explain to them that we want them to push themselves as hard as they can, get out of their comfort zone etc. However, they are the ultimate judge and are the only one in their body. They need to know when to play it safe and not push so hard they will loose their lunch or pass out. What do you think would happen if everyone of us took control of just one piece of their health. What would it be? Play with the kids outside not on a video game. Take 20 minutes for a workout instead of sitting on the couch. Walking at lunch time. Cutting back on the fast food, portion sizes. How about cooking a meal for you or your family for once.
Try that, take control of your life, don’t leave it in the hands of a physician who is not in your body and knows whats going on. Take some responsibility for your own health and take action.
It comes in all shapes, and sizes. It can look scary or determined. It can be an amazing feeling or a big let down. Where in the determination spectrum do you fall? Are you going to let little distractions and speed bumps discourage you and throw you off course never reaching your goal? Or are you going to be focused and roll over the speed bumps like a monster truck?
What ever you are “determined” to accomplish will not come easy. That promotion, saving up for the latest and greatest, your health and fitness, all of these you have to work. Your weight did not come on last night and your fitness did not deteriorate just last week. It took time. Stop searching for the quick fix and magic pill. Your answer is rooted in yourself and sustained by the environment you subject yourself to. If you try to do it on your own chances are it is not going to happen.
So how do you create a successful environment? Create a healthy environment. Nutrition is up to 75% of your results. If your refrigerator and cabinets are filled with junk, guess what? That junk is going to get eaten. If you stock your cabinets and refrigerator with healthy options. You are going to eat that way. Our grocery store tour is the perfect place to start restocking your shelves. Creating healthy meals, and awesome snack ideas that will keep your energy stable and support a healthy metabolism.
Check back tomorrow to learn how to create your healthy fitness foundation.
