Welcome to Volume 11 of the Fitness Destinations Journal!
Please read our two very informative articles below. Aaron Potts breaks down some basics for those of you whose New Year's Resolutions are hiding in a closet somewhere, and Marc David shows you the ropes to keep your nutrition on track.
Have a great weekend!
Fitness Article - Fitness Wars: Revenge of the Girth
As of the writing of this article, May 16, 2005, we are all almost 5 months into our New Year's Resolutions.
Are you skinny yet?
Did you find your six-pack?
Does your butt look like you wanted it to in those jeans?
For a lot of you, the answers to these questions are going to be "No, No, and, I took the jeans back to the store".
Why? You are a victim of the Fitness Wars, that's why. Your Girth is winning out over your Resolution, and you are probably more frustrated now than you were when you started!
Is there some master conspiracy that is keeping you from getting in shape? Do the rules of energy in vs. energy out not apply to you? Are you in a fat-loss vacuum where the normal laws of weight loss don't work?
Of course not. Yet, you still can't lose the bodyfat, and it is likely because you are simply confused.
If you are like most people, you have gotten fitness advice from the radio, TV, friends, family members, magazines, maybe even a Personal Trainer. Who had the most to gain from giving you fitness advice?
The radio, TV, magazines, and even your trainer are all interested in getting paid for handing out advice to you. Does that make them the most qualified to help you? With the possible exception of your personal trainer, no, it really doesn't.
What about your friends and family? Let's answer this question first: Was the person who gave you the advice in good shape? If not, then the point of that question should be clear!
Fitness Wars - all of these different people and agencies trying to get you to do something or buy something.
How about a little thing that some people like to call "Back to Basics"? Prepare Thyself! You are about to be shown the true secrets to fitness success!!
- Proper Nutrition. For those of you who don't know what that is, a good rule of thumb is that if man made it, don't eat it! If that isn't enough information for you, then consult a professional nutritionist, or do free research online. If you pay a professional, make sure they are properly credentialed. If you do the research yourself, don't believe what you find if that site is obviously more interested in your money than in your health.
- Eat 5 to 6 small meals a day. You say that you've heard this a thousand times already? Well, that should tell you something - it works! Your body is a calorie burning machine. If you are an average female, you can only burn about 300 calories at a time. An average male can burn about 400. It doesn't matter how much you exercise - if you eat more than that during any one sitting, some of it is going to be stored as bodyfat.
- Exercise - at least 60 minutes a day. It doesn't matter what the magazines say, or what you hear on the "1-Second Abs" commercial, or who tells you anything else. Exercise - at least 60 minutes a day. It bears repeating, so feel free at this time to keep saying it out loud until you feel that you have it memorized.
- Believe. This final step is really the most important. Most people have self-limiting beliefs. In a nutshell, that means that no matter how much education or assistance that they receive, they don't BELIEVE that they can lose weight! Let's see…. how does that saying go? "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right!" Believe it can happen, because it can. Then you will be only 3 short steps away from success.
Wow, what a revelation this article has been! In fewer words than it takes to list the dozens of unhealthy circumstances and afflictions related to being overweight, you have just been given a guaranteed 4-step system for fitness success!
Are you willing to take care of yourself and finally meet those fitness goals, or do you have another 5 months to waste?
Do yourself this one small favor. Count to four, beat the Girth, and remember that January 1st is just another day!
About the Author
Aaron Potts is a Certified Personal Trainer, and is also a Certified Success Group Leader for the Tahiti Trim Plan 40 program. He also writes Free Fitness Tips and hosts a Free Fitness Podcast for the Fitness Destinations website.
Fitness Article: Nutrition Is Not Common Sense
by Marc David
I'd like to explain an important concept that most online trainers (even the "gurus") don't "get"...
Have you ever heard that 'nutrition is common sense?'
Have you ever thought about why the United States has an epidemic of overweight individuals and kids that are out of shape? Or that most people talk about how in their younger days they were able to do this and that. Yet these people are only 30 years old?
Most people think nutrition is common sense. But these people are completely wrong.
You see, common sense isn't specialized knowledge, but just native good judgment. Many times common sense when it comes to many things in life is learned behaviors from parents, teachers, mentors or coaches. We get at lot of this common knowledge thru what we see as well. Driving on the right or left side of the road is common sense in your country. You get this from what you see.
The REAL four biggest problems when it comes to nutrition and common sense are that:
1- You learn what to eat from T.V. How crazy is that? I don't think I've seen a good commercial about just eating right. It's always about diets, points, fad diets, crazy workout stuff or fast food. Many kids get plenty of T.V. They don't understand why sugar cereal isn't part of a complete breakfast.
2- You learn what you see at home. If you were a witness to a lot of healthy eating habits (fruits, vegetables, moderate portions) then you probably got a lot of your good eating habits from your parents or guardians.
3- You learn to finish everything that's put in front of you. Does it matter if your hunger was satisfied half-way thru the meal? Or have you been told it was rude not to eat everything? You start to learn that finishing what's in front of you is more important than if you are hungry or not.
4- You learn nutrition at school. Some schools have good programs. Many do not. The only exposure most school children receive is the food pyramid. And then it's off to lunch period where they are served fish sticks and a variety of other unhealthy items. Only a few schools have a very healthy lunch option. It's pretty rare. You learn more about ancient Egyptians than you do about how to put together a healthy meal, and what the heck is a complex carb?
This is an important concept -- so let me break it down and explain it in detail.
Most things we learn are common sense. It's common sense not to touch a hot stove. Why? Somebody told you or you tried it and your body responded by telling the pain receptors in your hand that it didn't like that.
You learned the stove was hot and not fun to touch. Common sense. It didn't require any specialized knowledge.
Then it hit me...
Neither should nutrition. It doesn't require any specialized knowledge to eat correctly. But yet it's not common sense.
The reason most people get it wrong is because they were never taught!
They received a lot of information from T.V. which was promoting diets and fast food and sugar cereals.
Their parents didn't learn either so they passed that onto their children.
There's a pressure to finish everything that is put in front of you (don't be wasteful) ignoring the absence of the hunger feeling.
The lack of sound nutrition in most schools. You learn how to read in school. You learn how to write. You learn how to solve math problems. You learn history and you learn different cultures.
I'll bet you can guess what happened next.
You never learned the definition of a complete meal.
You start by learning that right now...
A complete meal always includes a lean protein and a natural, complex carbohydrate. The best meal of all for muscle-building and fat-burning purposes contains three things:
1. Lean protein (chicken, fish, egg whites, etc.)
2. Starchy carb (potato, rice, etc)
3. Fibrous carb (broccoli, green beans, salad, etc.)
And that is it - the biggest benefit of having a complete meal and understanding just how simple it is to create meals with these three steps.
So watch for your next issue of this mini-course, where I'll reveal the single most important question about how much cardio should you do.
Yours For Continued Success
About the Author
Marc David is a bodybuilder, writer, and author of the the e-book "The Beginner's Guide to Fitness and Bodybuilding" (BGFB): What Every Beginner Should Know but Probably Doesn't. Please visit his site at: http://www.beginning-bodybuilding.com
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