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TIFF-FIT BOOT CAMP

JAN. 3 - FEB. 11

Boot Camp located in Greatwood - Sugar Land

WEEKLY - Nutritional Guidance

LOSE - Inches & Body Fat

GAIN - Strength & Tone

Accountability

This is a 6 week session.

Class Times:

Mon - Wed - Thurs - Sat :

weekdays: 5:00 am, 6:00 am & 8:00 am

Saturdays: 7:00 am

*5:00 & 6:00 classes located in Greatwood Training Center parking lot

**8:00 class located at Sugar Land Memorial Park (on University)

***Extra/makeup Saturday classes held at Sugar Land Memorial Park & Town Center parking garage

First day of class is a TUESDAY, but remaining weeks will be Mondays.

2x's week (12 classes): $180

3x's week (18 classes): $225

4x’s week (24 classes): $288

Can start anytime -- will pro-rate session

The more often you come, the cheaper it is per class!

Cash or check accepted.

• Payment due by first class of the session. Checks made out to Tiffany Nuno.

• Session may be pro-rated. If you have travel plans, no worries! You can still join us at a pro-rated price. Contact me to discuss.

• NEW PAYMENT OPTION--Paypal (small fee applied) Check the top of the website for this payment method.

What you can expect from Tiff-Fit:

Physical fitness assessment

Workouts catered to your fitness level

Cardiovascular endurance

Strength training

Speed and Agility

Circuit training

Core Strengthening

Plyometrics

Body fat percentage testing (upon request)

You will need:

• Yoga Mat (thicker is better)
• Dumbbells (one or two pairs ranging from 5-10 pounds)
• Workout gloves
• Jumprope
• Water,water, water
• Towel
• Appropriate clothing for weather
• A Great Attitude!

Come join us! I promise you'll get hooked!

Sign up today! If there is an interest for a different time or location please let me know. If there are enough requests for a particular time or area I will start another camp to accommodate your fitness needs and schedule.

Keep your diet on track during and after holidays........

• First, don't starve yourself if you are going out for dinner in the evening. Have a light breakfast and lunch and eat a small snack 1-2 hours before going for the meal. If you do not eat during the day you will be more likely to overeat at dinner and you may be so hungry that you are unable to savor the delicious food you have just been served.

• Order a salad as it will help to fill you up and can bump up the dietary fiber intake of your meal.

• Ask for salad dressing or sauces to be served on the side. By requesting this you can control how much you want on your food, instead of having excessive amounts that will add unwanted calories to the dish.

• Soup is a great starter. Most soups are low in calories and satisfying so the temptation to overindulge during the main course or dessert is reduced. Remember cream based soups are higher in calories so choose vegetable, bean or lentil-based soups. Also avoid asking for bread with your soup, a couple of slices of bread with your soup will bulk up the calorie content of a potentially very low calorie starter.

• When ordering pasta dishes, look for tomato-based sauces rather than cream-based ones. Tomato sauces are much lower in fat and calories. In addition, the tomato sauce (or marinara sauce) can count as a vegetable.

• Remember 1 tablespoon of oil is a whopping 100 calories so order items that are roasted, grilled, steamed, boiled, stewed or poached. These items are prepared without oil or other cooking fats.

• Enjoy a baked potato, with tasty low calorie toppings, but ask the chef to go easy on the butter, sour cream & bacon bits. Try some salsa on your baked potato for a lower calorie topping.

• And finally, share a dessert or an appetizer with a friend.

FAT LOSS SECRET #5

MORE MUSCLE = GREATER FAT LOSS

Here’s a fact that you may not be aware of: Every pound of muscle you “own” adds an additional 50 calories to your daily calorie burn. In other words, 10 lbs of lean muscle equates to a real 500+ calorie increase in your metabolic rate.

Here’s another fact: most people lose muscle while dieting. This can be the result of any one (or more) of the following factors:

Inadequate calorie intake – as mentioned in an earlier secret, not eating enough food and calories is the equivalent of metabolic suicide. Not only will it cause an immediate decrease in calories burned per day, but it will also cause your body to begin feeding on muscle tissue for energy (as muscle tissue is less important to survival than calorie-rich body-fat).

Excessive slow-go cardio – not only does regular “slow-go” cardio fail miserably at burning substantial body fat, it also is a great way to eat away at calorie-burning muscle tissue as you try to lose fat.

A lack of resistance training – most people who diet solely rely on cardio for exercise (if they even exercise at all). Unfortunately, cardio alone doesn’t do much to support lean body mass (i.e. lean muscle); for that, you’ll need to start incorporating some resistance training into your exercise regimen.

Inadequate dietary protein – protein should be the staple nutrient in every weight-loss diet, but unfortunately, it’s often comes in last place when compared to carbohydrates and fat. Simply put, if your goal is to have a lean, sexy body that you can be proud of, you need to be eating protein with every meal.

To summarize, muscle tissue supports metabolism, makes fat loss easier, and ultimately leads to the “lean” look you’re after. If you’re worrying about getting “too big”, that isn’t going to happen, especially while losing fat. But if you are careful to avoid the forementioned four mistakes, you’ll make your fat-loss journey much easier and you may just add a few pounds of lean muscle in the process.

FAT LOSS SECRET #4

HIGH-INTENSITY TRUMPS “SLOW-GO” ANYTIME, ANY DAY, ANYWHERE.

Just the thought of spending 45 minutes to an hour staring at the wall or TV in front of me while on the treadmill, eliptical, or stationary bike is enough to make me cringe (and like I have that kind of time anymore!) Fortunately, I haven’t done that kind of cardio workout in a while.

“But I thought cardio was one of the fundamental keys to fat loss?” you ask...

Well, cardio is a loose term and when used generally refers to the type of exercise mentioned above. Slow-go, low-intensity, “fat-burning zone” cardio = Unproductive, Inefficient, Ineffective.

Steady-state, slow-go cardio burns minimal calories and minimal fat. High-intensity, interval-based workouts burn considerably more calories and considerably more fat, all while taking half the time or less. How?

Well here’s the thing about high-intensity exercise. Because the sessions are so short (generally anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes), cardio done for 45 minutes in the “fat-burning zone” may actually burn a bit more fat and calories during the actual exercise session. But this the important part—despite burning a bit less fat and calories during the session, high-intensity exercise has been shown to elevate metabolism for up to 48-hours post workout. This means that with high-intensity exercise, you’ll continue to burn fat for up to two days just by going about your own business.

You can be sitting there watching TV or helping your kids with their homework, and you’re still burning calories from an itty, bitty 15-minute exercise session you did yesterday!

If you ask me, that’s pretty darn cool! I made the switch to high-intensity cardio last year and am so glad I did. I encourage you to do the same.

Now for some practical advice: If you’re not quite too sure what high-intensity interval-based cardio is (then where have you been?!?! We’ve done these in boot camp!) or if you need a sample workout, no worries--

Grab your tennis shoes, walk outside, and run “hard” for one minute. Then, slow things down with a slow jog or brisk walk for one minute. That’s one “interval”. Now repeat that 7 or 8 times for a 15-minute workout.

Of course, you can do these types of intervals on regular cardio equipment at the gym as well. Once you get pretty comfortable with the approach, there are literally countless ways you can mix things up by switching the type of exercise, work to rest ratio (in the example above, the work to rest ratio is one to one as we are running hard for one minute and then “resting” for one minute), and the length of each portion of each interval.

So say goodbye to slow-go boring cardio and start losing fat much, much faster with high-intensity exercise. You can do it!

Get more information about interval training under the additional resources tab: http://tiff-fit.blogspot.com/p/interval-training.html or http://tiff-fit.blogspot.com/p/more-interval-training.html

FAT LOSS SECRET #3

MIRROR YOUR METABOLISM

Skip breakfast. Moderate-sized lunch. Large dinner. That’s the typical American diet. But here’s the problem. That’s the exact opposite of your daily metabolic rhythm. We eat our largest meal when metabolism is at its lowest point and when metabolism is at its peak (in the morning, upon awakening), we eat nothing. If you are serious about dropping body fat, it’s time you break the American habit and start mirroring, not defying, your metabolism.

Remember, metabolism is highest in the morning, so breakfast, not dinner, should be your largest meal. A large breakfast also helps to boost overall metabolic rate and get your metabolism fired up to burn even more calories throughout the day.

Research has repeatedly shown that those who regularly consume breakfast have faster metabolisms than those who don’t—eat a large breakfast every day and your body (both inside and out) will thank you for it.

Then, as the day goes on, metabolism starts to taper off until it reaches its lowest point in the evening hours just before bed. Do your best to limit food intake, especially carbohydrate intake, during this time. For dinner, it’s probably best to go the low-carb route (while getting most of your carbs during breakfast and lunch).

A great dinner would be a large salad full of mixed greens, protein (chicken or some other form of animal protein), and some healthy fats (i.e. an olive oil-based dressing). If you do choose to eat something after dinner (which is OK if you follow the rules), just make sure it’s either a green vegetable or animal protein (no carbs).

Because green veggies contain minimal calories while being high in fiber, they’re sure to curb hunger pangs with very little calories. Protein on the other hand will have more calories, but has the advantage of directly supporting calorie-burning muscle tissue (instead of going to bed and leaving muscle “starved” for 8 or more hours). As you’ll see in a later fat loss secret, maintaining muscle tissue while dieting just may be the most important thing you can do for fat loss and metabolism.

In summary, metabolism is highest early in the day so take advantage of it and make sure you get a good breakfast to start you day. As metabolism tapers off in the evening, limit those carbs.

FAT LOSS SECRET #2...

AVOID THE “DEADLY COMBINATION”

By using just the one strategy listed below, you will immediately be able to eat 300-500 additional calories each day without putting on a single extra ounce of fat.

Why would eating more be beneficial? Well, remember our last secret--The more you eat, the less likely it is that your body will turn to its nasty starvation defenses.

And I don’t know anyone who would be opposed to eating more food when watching their diet, do you? More calories = greater satiation and fullness; two things that go a long way when it comes to actually sticking to the plan.

So what’s the secret to eating more without the fat gain? It has to do with avoiding one simple combination: carbohydrates + fat.

To understand why this combination is such a big no-no, let’s analyze what happens in the body when the two nutrients are combined.

When fat is ingested, a good amount of fat is released into the blood stream. Now how about carbohydrates? Not only does carbohydrate digestion release plenty of sugar into the blood, but it also causes the pancreas to secrete large quantities of the hormone insulin.

Insulin, also known as the storage hormone, functions to shuttle nutrients present in the blood, including fat, to their respective storage sites.

To simplify the whole scenario:

Carbs + fat = insulin + fat.

Insulin (storage hormone) + fat = fat storage.

Now, of course fat can be stored even without insulin, but a ton of insulin resulting from carbohydrate ingestion certainly makes the job easier. Start avoiding the combination and you should see immediate results.

Again, some practical advice I’ve been saying for awhile: Eat protein with every meal and choose to combine it with either carbohydrates or fat, never both. And don't combine carbs and fat in the complete absence of protein (i.e. cookies, pastries, chips, bread & butter, pastas with cream sauce, etc).

And remember, this suggestion is referring to the majority of your diet. About 10% of the time, it’s certainly more than fine to indulge a bit in some carbs + fat containing foods.

So, avoid the deadly combination 90% of the time, and the other 10% of the time, indulge away. Everything in moderation!

FAT LOSS SECRET #1...

EAT MORE, NOT LESS: THE LIE OF CALORIE RESTRICTION

Have you ever celebrated the fact that you went all day without eating anything? (shame shame!) Or perhaps you thought your diet was right on track if your breakfast consisted of half a bagel and your lunch a small cup of salad greens.

The media along with a slew of fat loss misinformation has programmed us to believe that less is best. The less you put into your mouth, the more fat you’ll lose. Twelve hundred calories is much better than sixteen, and a simple thousand even better. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite of how our bodies work.

To understand why, you have to understand your body’s number one priority: to keep you alive! Fail to give your body enough food each day and it won’t be long before your body shifts into “starvation mode” as a defense mechanism. It’s simply your body’s way of protecting you from a lack of food.

Now, you’ve probably heard of starvation mode, but it’s not likely that you fully understand it...

As you begin to curb your food intake, especially if you are heavily restricting calories, the body begins to send out hormonal signals to decrease metabolism, preserve body fat, and increase appetite. Not so great of a scenario when you’re trying to lose body fat, right?

One of the major players in this whole chain of events is the hormone leptin. When you heavily restrict calories, leptin levels plummet, sending a signal to the brain that you are not eating enough food. Once this happens, all those other things (decreased metabolism, stalled fat loss, increased appetite, etc) occur as a chain reaction. At this point, fat loss becomes one heck of a battle, and so many individuals fail at the whole dieting for fat loss thing.

So what do you do?

The key is to create a moderate caloric deficit through both diet and exercise— enough to have you losing fat at a consistent, steady rate, but not so severe that it triggers your body’s starvation protection mechanism.

Some practical recommendations:

First, never skip meals—ever—especially breakfast.

Second, be mindful of your calorie intake. To avoid the disasters of starvation mode, keep your caloric deficit moderate—no more than 500 calories below your daily maintenance intake.

Eat more, lose more. It’s a counterintuitive concept, but one that will save you a lot of dietary frustration when followed.

I'll be back soon with secret #2--avoiding a deadly combo (ok, it's not really deadly, just detrimental to your fat loss!)

More on Posture & Muscle Imbalances

MUSCLE IMBALANCES

By engaging in postural muscle strength activities, we look to improve posture. But typically, the exercises we choose are not focused on postural muscle strength. The most common muscle imbalances come from having a sedentary lifestyle in which sitting is dominant. When you are sitting, your muscles shorten. With prolonged sitting, your muscles become tight and cause a disturbance not only on the opposing muscle, but also with the entire musculoskeletal system.

Common Problems with Muscles Involved in Imbalances

• Weak Upper & Middle Back- Here we are dealing with weak trapezius muscles and the rhomboids. This could be due to lack of exercise or doing too many chest exercises. Each muscle has an opposing muscle or muscle that works opposite of it. If you are doing too many chest strengthening exercises, you will cause muscle imbalances. Our pec major is our traps and rhomboids antagonist.

• Tight Hip Flexors-Here we see the pelvis rotating anteriorly and this too is due, in large, to sitting for extensive periods. Tight hip flexors in turn do a lot of abdominal work, making your core exercises useless. What also occurs is weakening of the glutes as these are the hip flexors opposing muscle.

• Tight Hamstrings- Commonly, the hamstrings take over the normal functions of the glutes and hip flexors as the hamstring is the synergistic (helper) muscle to the hip flexors. Here we will be prone to injury. Sitting absolutely shortens the muscles, causing tightness. Any tightness in the hamstring makes gains in the gym near impossible.

What to do:

1. Those who have their shoulders coming forward, should practice flexibility and retract their shoulders during exercise.
2. Create balance by incorporating every muscle into your workout, with the same amount for each opposing muscle.
3. Strengthen your core. With a strong core, you will maintain proper alignment.
4. Strengthen your glutes. Your glutes are the largest muscle in the body. Since we all do a lot of sitting, we need to focus on strengthening our glutes to ensure they are dominating when need be.
5. Better your flexibility. The best way to relieve tension is though stretching. A stretch is opposite of the function of the muscle.

Take Home Message:

Sit up keeping the head straight, not forward or to the side. Bring your shoulders back and relax them down. Sit with legs parallel (not turned out) and shoulder width apart. Keep your pelvis aligned by engaging your abdominals. Get up and stretch every hour if you are sitting for any longer than one hour. Every twenty minutes reach your arms straight, feeling lengthening of the spine. Strengthen your back and core muscles and make sure to maintain balance through all opposing muscles exercises.

Importance of Good Posture

Bad posture is easy to obtain as many common daily activities require repetitive use of the same muscles. This can lead to muscle imbalances, reduced flexibility, and leaves us more susceptible to injury.

Think of the times we are required to lift our arms towards the front of our body. Eating, washing our hair, cleaning the dishes and brushing our teeth just to name a few. When we continually use the same muscles, we tend to neglect the others. Similarly, if we spend a lot of the day driving, watching tv, or sitting at a desk our muscles tighten up because we are constantly in the same position. This lack of range of motion can lead to tightening of your postural muscles resulting in poor posture, rounding our shoulders, and a pelvic tilt.

Beyond aesthetics, a strong back leads to years of health and mobility.

Good posture:

• helps decrease the abnormal wearing of joint surfaces, preventing arthritis
• lessons the stress on the ligaments holding the joints of the spine together
• prevents the spine from becoming fixed in abnormal positions
• causes the muscles in your back to be used more efficiently
• keeps bones and joints in the correct alignment so that muscles are being used properly

Poor posture leads to:

• rounding of the shoulders, involving the posterior deltoids
• tightening of the latissimus dorsi, causing rounding known as hunchback or Kyphosis
• numbness in the legs
• pain in the leg, neck, and back

I'll be back soon with more information about posture and muscle imbalances.

Craving Killer Tips

Did you know that scientists say sugar is as addictive as some drugs including cocaine, so it’s no wonder we can’t get enough once we start eating more of it.

With all of this in mind, here are THREE things to help KILL sugar cravings to fight fat and burn off the extra calories.

Tip #1: Get Going

I mean some form of moving your body. When you exercise your body releases feel good hormones that act as “crowbars” to pry away unhealthy sugar cravings. Have a craving for sugar? Do 2 minutes of exercise (like climbing stairs, squatting in place, burpees) and notice how they decrease.

Tip #2: Drink Like a Fish

Many people battle false food cravings that are really THIRST cravings. Many times your brain detects that you are low on water and it sends out a craving signal for you to drink more water but it’s misinterpreted as hunger. In fact, many people walk around in a mild state of dehydration all day and wonder why they can’t overcome cravings. Divide your bodyweight in half and drink that many ounces of water each day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, shoot for 75 ounces of water consumption each day. It helps to flush your system and hydrate your body to burn fat and fight cravings optimally. Try it!

Tip #3: Don’t Eat By Accident

There’s a big difference in trying to lose weight by choosing healthy foods… and actually following a PLAN where you know exactly when, what and how much you’re going to eat each day and then tracking the results and adjusting accordingly. Make a list of what you’re going to eat for the next day each night (and make sure you have this food available) and stick to your plan. Eating by accident leads to extra calories in the form of snacking, larger portions and eating the wrong foods.

5 Ways To AVOID Overeating

“I can’t lose weight because I eat too much.”

It seems that people blame their troubles with weight control or weight loss on the fact that they have a hard time controlling what they eat.

But, is this really the case?

Most often people fail to actually eat ENOUGH at all their meals; they skip breakfast, try to eat barely anything at lunch, and then are so hungry when they get home at night they either eat continuously, or snack without thinking while watching the late night news.

What this does is set their body up for a fat-storage situation that makes it even harder to want to eat in the morning because they’re so full from their late-night binging. However, there are some people that truly have a hard time eating less and always eat more than their body needs – especially if they rarely exercise or move their bodies at all. Or, there are those situations that we’re in where we can’t say “No,” regardless of what we do. Whether we chew gum, drink water, or try to just walk away, we always end up coming back and filling our bellies until they can’t hold anymore.

So, why is this? Why do some people not seem to have an "off" switch? What is it about them, or the situation that makes it so hard to eat less and stop before they’re stuffed? Some people don’t have an OFF switch. Let’s look at some of these factors so you can understand what may drive your desires for food. And maybe the next time you’re faced with more food than you need, you’ll be able to push away from the table and not think about it anymore.

1) The Bigger the Plate, the More You Eat

Just like houses, plate sizes have gotten bigger and bigger over the years. In fact, most portion sizes of foods are bigger than what we really need. No longer is a 9- or 10-inch dinner plate good enough (that size is for salads). Now, most dinner plates span 11 to 12 inches across, while cup and bowl sizes have also increased. These larger sizes encourage people to add more food, and subsequently, eat more than they really need, leaving themselves feeling over-full and guilty. Researchers from Cornell University showed that people consume 22% more food when it was served on a larger plate or bowl, than a smaller one, adding to an already increasing waistline.

A bigger plate will encourage you to eat more.

Even nutrition experts are unable to resist: When nutrition professors served themselves ice cream into a big bowl they gave themselves 31% more than those given a smaller bowl. Then, if they were given a large spoon, their scoop portion increased by 14%. So, regardless of education, even the wise can be fooled into eating more.

Bottom Line: Choose dinnerware that your grandparents would eat off of, especially if you can’t hold back during a good meal.

2) The Prettier the Plate, the More You Want to Eat

Scientists tested the attractiveness of a serving dish and how it influenced a person’s perception of the food they were eating. People were served a brownie on a napkin, a paper plate, or a nice china dish and then asked what they thought. After eating it off the napkin, they thought the brownie was alright. After the paper plate, it was pretty good. But after eating off the china, it was really, really good and the greatest brownie they’d ever eaten. They chose to pay more for the brownie when it was served on good china and wanted to eat more.

Got nice dishes? You’ll eat more food.

Take Home Message: If you want people to eat more, give them exceptional dinnerware to eat off of; but, if you’re trying to encourage yourself to eat less, choose plates that are slightly boring.

3) If You Can See It, You’ll Probably Eat It

Visual cues are one of the strongest predictors of overeating, or eating when not necessary.

That’s why television commercials at night often show images of tantalizing snack foods or creamy sugary treats. Not only are you tired and looking for a boost from a long day, but when your mind sees it, it thinks about how good it would taste. Eventually you’ll run to the pantry to seek out your own evening snack. The same thing goes for parties. When food is out in plain sight, people are more likely to eat it, whether they’re hungry or not. But, if that food was covered and invisible to the eye, it wouldn’t get wolfed down.

Weight Loss Tip: Keep your work sweet treats in an opaque container so thoughts of sugar won’t dance through your head. Or, better yet, don’t keep them there at all.

4) Close Food = Eaten Food

Picture this: You’re sitting in front of your computer working away, but you have a bag of pistachios also sitting beside you on your desk. You know you’re not really that hungry, but because those tasty green pieces of goodness are within arm’s reach, you’re more likely to eat them than if you have to go into the kitchen to seek them out. And so you do, and before you know it, the bag is almost empty and the pile of shells starts falling onto the floor. You feel stuffed and embarrassed, but you can’t go back in time to change it.

If food is within arm’s reach, you’re more likely to eat it.

If you have more time to think about what you’re about to eat, by forcing yourself to travel to get it, you’re more likely to rethink your unnecessary cravings.

Bottom Line: If ice cream is your passion, don’t even keep it in the fridge where you’re likely to grab it right after eating dinner. You’ll think twice if you have to drive somewhere to chow it down and will probably just say no.

5) Avoid Dining with a Big Eater

You’re going out to dinner with your pro-swimmer friend Mike (it could happen!), but you know good and well that he eats a lot more than you because his metabolism is cranking on overtime from all his exercise training. So, you try to eat less than him, but for some reason you still end up chowing down more than you need. Why is this? Scientists from Cornell also discovered that people mimic how their dining partners eat. When you’re seated in front of a person eating a large meal, you’re more likely to eat a larger meal than normal and over-doing your intake. Or, if that person with you eats fast, you may also find yourself eating faster than you’d usually eat and, in turn, taking in more calories.

Weight Loss Tip: If you’re going out with a big or fast eater, ensure your portion size is fixed to be smaller on purpose. And, make sure you don’t share dessert with him/her, no matter how good it looks.

Benefits of eating breakfast, particularly a BIG, protein-rich breakfast.

Researchers from The University of Kansas Medical Center and another team from Virginia Commonwealth University have given us proof and reason to be following those exact recommendations for the most rapid weight loss.

Study #1 – University of Kansas Medical Center

This study analyzed the effect of a protein-rich breakfast on appetite and overall daily calorie consumption among teens who typically skip breakfast.

In the study, teens either consumed a protein-rich breakfast of solid foods, a protein-rich breakfast beverage (i.e. meal replacement shake), or a breakfast meal containing minimal protein. All meals were 500 calories each.

The result?

The protein-rich breakfast groups (both solid food and beverage) faired better than an equal calorie breakfast not containing substantial protein. Further, it’s interesting to note that the solid food protein-rich breakfast group scored significantly higher than the protein-rich beverage group with regards to consuming less calories at lunch and feeling considerably more full after the breakfast meal.

Had the study included a control group with a lower-calorie or skipped breakfast, results would have been even worse (proof below).

Take home lessons from this study:

1. Eating breakfast isn’t enough. The breakfast meal needs to contain ample protein to adequately affect satiation and overall caloric intake.

2. A meal replacement shake breakfast doesn’t seem to have the same satiation and calorie intake benefits that a solid food protein-rich meal does.

Study # 2 – Virginia Commonwealth University

Study participants either consumed a diet which included a large protein + carbohydrate breakfast (totaling HALF of daily total calories) or a typical low-calorie diet.

The result of this one?

The group that at half their daily calories at breakfast lost FIVE TIMES MORE WEIGHT than the typical calorie restrictive diet group.

If that’s not convincing evidence that a big, protein-rich breakfast trumps some low-calorie “piece of toast” breakfast, then I don’t know what does.

The ultimate take home lesson:

The ideal breakfast should be BIG, containing plenty of lean protein and carbohydrates.

5 Fat Loss Mistakes

Want to be lean and fit? Then check out these mistakes we often make and then follow the weight loss tips to remedy them:

Top Five Mistakes

Mistake #1: Do you skip the most important meal of the day?

Breakfast is the MOST important meal of the day. Not only can skipping breakfast seriously alter your metabolism for the day, but it can also lead to weight gain. Eating breakfast in the morning sparks your metabolism, and helps you burn calories. It takes energy to break down food, so your metabolism starts up and is maintained until you eat next.

Recommendation: Get up a few minutes earlier and have breakfast. This can start your day off right. Try to incorporate high-quality protein sources that provide good fats and carbohydrates that have plenty of fiber in them. The fiber will keep you fuller for a longer period of time until you eat again.

Mistake #2: Not eating enough metabolism-boosting protein

The metabolism-boosting tissue on our bodies is muscle. Muscles consist of water, trace minerals, and protein. By adding protein, you are providing the body with the building blocks it needs to maintain adequate muscle mass. Protein provides the body with essential and non-essential amino acids, which help build muscle and can help burn fat.

Recommendations: To benefit from metabolism-boosting protein, it is recommended to eat 1gm or more per kg of bodyweight. This will provide the body with enough protein to maintain proper muscle tissue. In order to increase the amount of muscle you have, or if you are an athlete, then the protein requirements may go up.

Mistake #3: The workout you might be doing can lead to weight gain

That’s right, the exact workout you are doing might be leading to extra weight gain. Before you stop reading right here, let me explain how your workout might just be the problem.

Not everyone prescribes the same type of program, and most utilize the staples: cardiovascular work and muscle strengthening. Now, each one is important to the overall workout process, and both can help you lose weight. However, there are some people who only perform one of the two listed above. Most people think the more cardio they do, the better their weight loss results. Why is this wrong? Read on to learn the secrets.

Cardio does do a lot of good for the body. It helps to strengthen the cardiovascular system, helps to burn more calories in a 30-minute block, and can dramatically alter our lipid profile. However, most people do not follow the typical guidelines of only 30-60 minutes in one workout. Most people go beyond the 60 minutes, which then goes from fat burning and shifts to muscle burning. Muscle is, by far, our greatest weapon.

The more muscle tissue we have, the more we use our fat during the workout, and after. The exact workout that you are doing is eating this fat burning super weapon and might be leading to excess storage of fat. Making sure that you are incorporating a strength training workout in with your cardio will help preserve your fat burning potential, and help you burn extra calories at rest.

Incorporating strength training and increasing your protein intake (see #2) will help to keep your fat burning tissue in place, and help utilize that extra fat that is sitting around your abdominals or other areas of the body.

Recommendations: Incorporate the right type of strength program for you, to help men build more muscle and help women build metabolism-boosting lean muscle tissue. There are many different plans and protocols that you can use to help maximize your strength training routine results and help you shed those unwanted pounds.

Mistake #4: Not feeding the “machine” right after your workout

Athletes know about it. Strength coaches, dietitians, and sports nutritionists do too. The timing of nutrition post workout is just as important as the rest of the day’s nutrition. There is a small window of opportunity post workout to halt the breakdown of muscle, and help burn extra fat. This window, commonly referred to as the anabolic window, is a time when the body is very sensitive to insulin. Having a smaller snack with protein and carbs allows for greater breakdown and shuttling of the nutrients into the cells. This allows your body not only to be better hydrated, but it also helps with refueling the body with essential nutrients you need to help build muscle and burn fat.

Recommendations: A small meal or snack that has the right combination of protein and carbohydrates within 45 minutes after your workout. A great snack that provides the right combination of carbs to proteins is milk or a post-workout meal shake.

Mistake #5: Do you overeat, or not eat enough?

This one could be, by far, the biggest challenge facing most exercisers and people looking to lose weight. The fact is nutrition, and more specifically your calorie intake, is one of the most important steps in losing weight and keeping it off. Here is the easy explanation.

Calories are important to weight loss success. Maintaining a caloric deficit is the normal way to lose weight. However, not taking in enough calories can have detrimental effects on your weight loss success. Your body’s basal metabolic rate determines the amount of calories you need in order to maintain your weight and daily activities. To lose weight, you subtract enough calories from this number, and vice versa to gain weight. There is no magic number, but what is typically recommended is about 500 calories per day, which for 7 days equals about 3500 calories, or one pound of fat. This number is usually accomplished through a combination of diet and exercise.

Cutting your calories to dangerously low levels only creates havoc in your body. Your body usually shifts into conservation mode, and starts metabolizing muscle and spares your fat stores. This results in slower metabolism and higher fat stores.

Recommendations: Maintain appropriate calorie intake, but include 4-6 meals per day (that's including healthy snacks). Most meals and snacks should include lean proteins, plenty of fruits and vegetables, and have more healthy fats including some moderate levels of some saturated fats, which can be beneficial to health. Minimize the use of calorie-dense foods and baked goods since they include a lot of trans fatty acids, which has been shown to lead to heart disease and some cancers. To find out where you are lacking in calories, keep a journal and write everything down that goes into your mouth. This will show you where you might be able to increase in calories for optimal weight loss.

Losing weight, and keeping it off, takes hard work and dedication to stay on course. Making sure you are eating correctly by incorporating the right foods, eating enough calories, not skipping meals, and eating at the right time will help you to keep your waistline slim. Also, maintaining an active lifestyle by exercising regularly with the right strength and cardiovascular program will help maintain your metabolism-boosting tissue and keeping your fat burning at an accelerated rate.

Tips to be Successful with Your Diet

Check out these strategies to ensure a more successful diet. Good stuff!

#1 – Script Your Day
Each night review your plans for the next day, and script out your schedule. So at seven o’clock in the morning you know what you’re doing. At nine o’clock you know what you’re doing, and so on. That’s the same mentality you have to take with your nutrition. You have to do the meal planning at the start of the week and know what you’re going to be eating. You also have to know the “bad eating” situations that you’re going to be in. If you know those, you can plan ahead with solutions to those obstacles. In fact, you should prepare two solutions for every obstacle. So, if you know that Wednesday you have meetings all afternoon Wednesday and then have to leave work right away for a family event, then you have to know that there’s obviously an obstacle there. That means you need to plan out two solutions around that obstacle, whether it’s eating before the meeting and then having something ready to go in the car or on the bus on the way to your activity.

#2 – Create the Correct Self-Image
Basically if you have the self-belief in yourself that you aren’t a cheater, then you’re not going to cheat. It’s that simple. The only catch is, you have to honestly believe in yourself. Your self-image must be of a person who does NOT cheat on their diet. It’s all about having the right mind-set.

#3 – Plan, Shop, & Prepare Your Meals in Advance
Tip #1 was all about mentally planning for obstacles, but this tip is about the actual physical preparation of your meals. You have to spend the time either on the weekend or during the week creating all the food for your fat burning goals. Most people would be best off to do this on Sunday morning rather than Sunday evening or Saturday instead of Sunday. You will also have to spend some time – but less than on the weekend – “topping up” your meal preparation. Scripting, planning, shopping, and preparing your meals is perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT component of a successful fat loss program. Oh yeah, and I can’t forget actually EATING THEM too!
Remember: Once you accept how hard it is to lose fat, then you WILL succeed.

#4 – Brush Your Teeth After Every Meal
This one ain’t fancy, but it works! After you eat, brush your teeth. You’ll find you cheat less if you just brushed. This works great for those folks who are big-time snackers and gravitate towards a bag of chips or other munchies. So if you have dinner and then you know it’s lights out for food consumption for the night, brush your teeth. Same trick works at your job. If there are donuts or other goodies sitting around, brush your teeth and avoid temptation. Nothing tastes good if you have toothpaste in your mouth!

#5 – Our Old Friend, Social Support
Obviously the office is going to be an area of difficult situations, with office lunches, parties, donut days, Halloween Candy, and all the other holidays. You’re going to have some people who are going to “pressure” you into eating something you don’t want, so you have to plan ahead to deal with them. You go back to the scripting and planning AT LEAST two solutions for the peer pressure. And do your best to avoid those people and the bad situations. Spend your meal times with your nutrition buddy instead. Eating at home is another problem, especially if you have kids and treats for them at home. But you need to try and get your family behind you and supporting you. If your spouse doesn’t have a weight problem, then they might not see the big deal in eating healthy. But that’s when you need to be open in communication and negotiate a solution. To avoid night-time snacking, you need to create rituals to avoid mindless eating.
Rituals can include:
Brushing your teeth after dinner
Keeping snack foods out of reach and out of mind
Limiting yourself to a small snack-sized bowl, rather than eating out of the bag.

All of these tips will help you stay motivated and cheat less.
But REMEMBER…
A complete change in behavior will NOT happen overnight. You need to work on this everyday, and always try to be better than yesterday.
It might be a two-year plan for where you go from binging twice a week to taking it down to once every three months. Don’t get frustrated by set-backs, and NEVER GIVE UP! It might take you two years to do that, but you know what? If you’re 30, 40, 50 or even 60 years old, you have another 30-60 years to live. Better to stop the habits in two years than live with them for another 5 decades. Enjoy the small victories and you can pull it off if you stay motivated & consistent.
Remember: Today’s goal is just to be better than yesterday.

Measure Progress Without the Scale-- An Arsenal of Tools for Your Motivation

Frustrated. Disappointed. Hopeless. Skeptical. Whichever you choose, these emotions are enemies of people trying to lose weight—especially when you feel like you have done everything right. For many trying to shed pounds, the elation from that initial weight loss is brought to a screeching halt when the scale stops moving. But instead of viewing this as a setback, look for other ways to measure your progress besides the scale. After all, good health isn’t always measured in pounds. Losing weight usually involves a relatively simple calorie equation: burn off more calories with daily activity than you consume through food. So what happens when these numbers indicate progress, but the scale doesn’t? Before the aggravation sets in, consider why this might be the case. If you’ve been hitting the gym on a regular basis, participating in both cardiovascular and strengthening exercises, then chances are good that you have shed some fat. But the scale might not indicate this because you have also been building lean muscle. Since muscle is dense (a small volume of muscle weighs more than the same volume of fat), the scale might not reflect your hard work.

4 Non-Scale Signs of Progress
1. See results by taking a trip to your very own closet. Take out a pair of pants that fit snugly before you began your new, healthy habits. Are you able to ease into them, when before you had to sit (or lie) down and yank them up your legs? This is a sure sign of progress toward a leaner you! What about an old shirt? Is it now a little loose around your waist or arms? Also look for improved muscle definition when you check out your body in the mirror. There are many everyday indicators that you are firming up your body, from how your clothes fit to sitting more comfortably in a booth or small chair.

2. Aside from weight, use other numerical signs of progress. When you first start your program, take measurements of your waist, arms, neck and hips. Even if you are not losing pounds, you very well may be losing inches all over your body as your figure slims down and tones up with muscles. Measuring your body is more reliable than the scale alone. Other numerical indicators include a reduction of blood pressure or cholesterol, heart rate, and body fat percentage.

3. Monitor how a healthy diet and regular exercise affects your energy levels. Not only will you be able to work out for longer intervals of time, but everyday chores will also become easier. Whether cutting the grass or simply walking up the stairs, these behaviors will come effortlessly. Think of all the daily activities you could use more energy for—grocery shopping, house cleaning, playing with your kids, and more. Pretty soon you’ll be training for your first 5K, half marathon or marathon!

4. Lastly, be conscious of how you feel emotionally. You’ve been working hard to reach your goals. Hopefully, the hard work will come with a boost in self-esteem, confidence, and happiness. Are you beginning to feel more comfortable in your own body? Work to build a positive vocabulary to stay motivated. Just because the scale has stopped moving doesn’t mean that you’ve hit a plateau in reaching your goals. Don’t give up out of frustration—all healthy behaviors are well worth the effort. Whether it’s better sleep at night or more energy throughout the day, start listening to the signs your body gives you that all of your hard work is paying off!

The Number on the Scale

That Pesky Number on the Scale...

Let's talk body composition. We hear a lot about it... but what exactly is it? Well, to be considered "fit," you have to meet minimum standards in 5 different areas, known as the Components of Fitness. Body Composition is one of them (in addition to flexibility, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and aerobic fitness). Body composition itself deals with four areas: weight, fat mass, lean mass, and fat distribution.

Weight measures total body mass. We're all too familiar with this one, in most cases. But weight alone doesn't tell you the whole truth about your progress or fitness level. For example, it doesn't tell you how much fat you carry. People want to lose "weight." You could start lifting weights and actually gain weight...but that doesn't necessarily mean you are tipping the scales towards obesity.

Forget your preconceptions about the number on the scale. Knowing your weight is good, but not crucial--you want to lose fat, not necessarily weight. If you must weigh yourself, don't make it a daily habit. Weight tends to fluctuate throughout the day, and from day-to-day, by as much as 5 pounds or so. Most of these regular changes are due to food and water. If weight is an important record to you, then do it under the same circumstances (no clothes or shoes, first thing in the morning before eating, etc) and no more than every 1-2 weeks.

Tomorrow's post will talk more about how to measure your progress without the scale.

Diet Friendly Snacks

Many people are under the impression that snacking of any kind is strictly prohibited while on a diet. After all, snacks are loaded with extra fat and calories, right? Wrong! Truth be told, snacks can be an extremely beneficial part of a diet. There are actually several diet plans that recommend the consumption of daily snacks, sometimes referred to as “mini-meals”. Eating small meals, about five per day, can help keep hunger cravings at bay, lower your potential risk of over eating, and actually help you to lose weight. That’s right, eating more can help you lose weight. This is due to the fact that the process of digestion increases your metabolism through the burning or using of extra energy. Of course this does not mean that you can have all the chips and cookies you want. It is absolutely necessary that you only eat the proper types of snacks. Here are a few healthy and diet friendly snack choices.

1. Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Feel free to load up on these. You should be consuming about three to five servings a day, so these foods make excellent snack choices. Not only do fruits and vegetables contain plenty of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, they also have a good deal of fiber. Fiber helps to keep you feeling full longer so you do not have the urge to keep eating. On top of these benefits, produce is fat free and contains few calories.

2. Low Fat or Fat Free Dairy

Low fat or fat free dairy is another great choice for diet friendly snacks. Low fat or fat free cheese, yogurt, and other lean dairy products contain a good amount of protein, calcium, vitamins, and minerals. Calcium has been clinically proven to help with weight loss. It is very important that you only choose low fat or fat free versions, and make sure to read labels to ensure you do not choose products that contain extra fillers or added sugars.

3. Whole Grains

Whole grain snacks provide high amounts of complex carbohydrates and fiber. This combination not only helps to keep you feeling full, it also gives you an extra boost of energy. A perfect snack is low fat whole grain bread or crackers, paired with a bit of low fat cheese. This snack will hold you over throughout the day and it will not wreck your diet progress.

While the above-mentioned foods are recommended for snacking, it is important to note that you should not go overboard with any of these options. You still need to keep portions under control when preparing your mini-meals.

Here is some helpful snacking information: one stalk of celery contains about ten calories; two cubes of cheese about the size of dominos contain about one hundred calories; one cup of raw fresh vegetables is between twenty-five to thirty calories; one cup of low fat cottage cheese topped with a half cup of fresh fruit contains about two hundred calories; and a half cup of low fat frozen yogurt topped with a half cup of fresh fruit is about one hundred and fifty calories. Nuts can be a great snack option, but remember just a small palm full packs over one hundred and fifty calories. If you over do it with nuts, you can easily add eight hundred calories to you diet for the day without even noticing.