Arctic Zero Healthy Protein Ice Cream Review

Being a Personal Trainer means that my days are filled with high fiving professional athletes and supervising the workouts of Sports Illustrated swimsuit models.  Wait, no, that's not true at all.  In fact, none of that has ever happened.  But for one night last evening I did get to live out something every little child dreams of:  being a professional ice cream taster.

When I was told of an entire pint of ice cream that contained only 150 calories (not per serving; per pint!), I felt I owed it to all of you to drive 1 mile down the street to Whole Foods and try as many flavors of this product as I saw fit.  The name of the product is Arctic Zero and you can use this link to find out if a store near you carries it:  http://www.myarcticzero.com/contactus.php

Nutrition
Arctic Zero is an oxymoron, for it is a healthy ice cream.  I said it-- healthy ice cream.  It is an all-natural product that contains no fat, very little sugar, 14 grams of protein per pint, and 8 grams of fiber per pint.  Wow!

Did I mention this product is also safe for those suffering from a lactose intolerance?  And that's it is also gluten free?  This product has such as low calorie count and reasonable macros, therefore anyone can fit Arctic Zero into their daily food intake, if desired.  

The ingredient list is also short, which I love.  The main 2 ingredients used here are purified water and whey protein concentrate.  After reading further down the list in an attempt to figure out where all the flavor comes from, I stumbled upon an ingredient that I found to be very interesting:  organic monk fruit.

After researching what a monk fruit was, I was fascinated by the video below.  Monk fruit is a completely calorie free fruit!  The video mentions a company that is currently trying to introduce monk fruit to other foods and drinks in an effort to lower their sugar content-- that would be amazing.

Flavors and Taste
Arctic Zero comes in 8 flavors:  Chocolate, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Coffee, Cookies & Cream, Mint Chocolate Cookie, Strawberry, Vanilla Maple, and what they define as "seasonal flavors".

Last night, I tried chocolate and coffee.  The first thing I noticed was they each had a slightly different texture.  The coffee tasted more like gelato, while the chocolate tasted a bit more like water ice.  I enjoyed each of them.  If you're expecting creamy, fattening ice cream that is filled with brownies and fudge, your in the wrong spot to being with.  But, for a product that has such few calories, the taste was better than I expected.  Also, the satiety was fantastic, it struck me as a very filling product.

Overall, I very highly recommend this product.  It is a refreshing cold treat that doesn't even scratch the surface of attempting to sabotage your diet.  Eat it 100% guilt free, and enjoy every bit of it.

Nutrition 2012: Simplify Your Life, Burn Fat, and Build Muscle, Part 3

Today is the post many of you have been waiting for—after reading you’ll be able to successfully calculate your daily caloric needs as well as the proper macronutrients for your specific body type and fitness goals.  We’ve covered a lot of information in the past 2 days, so much that I’ve decided to expand this series into a 4^th part on Friday which will be FAQ answered type post.  Also, I thought it best to start today’s post with a quick recap of the first 2 days worth of information. 

Quick Recap:

•   Avoid foods that have marketing messages on them.  19 cents out of every dollar you spend actually goes towards food, so use that money towards whole fresh foods that are packed with nutrients.
•  Not all chicken, beef, fish, and dairy are the same.  Eating the wrong types can lead to excess fat storage without realizing it.
•   If I don’t eat enough food, it won’t result in weight loss it will result in catabolism—a process where I lose muscle mass and my skin composition worsens.
•  If I eat too many calories or the wrong macronutrient breakdown, regardless of how hard I work out, I won’t lose weight or body fat.
•  Eating 6 meals per day is no longer the best way to lose body fat.  Instead of eating every 3 hours, eat around your lifestyle, still hitting your calorie and macro goals each day.
•  Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day.  In fact, it doesn’t really matter when you eat, only what you eat.
•  The occasional cheat meal is perfectly acceptable, just take the time to make sure it fits into your macros for the day and feel no guilt!
•  There are many free tools available to help you track your food intake—USE THEM!  You aren’t going to lose those last 10 pounds or get that

So it really doesn’t matter when I eat?

For the most part, no.  Research is slowly teaching us that our bodies are far more efficient than we ever thought possible.  We are learning that what you eat is significantly more important than when you eat, and that nutrient timing is becoming a thing of the past.  

As with most things in life, going to the extreme is not recommended.  If your caloric needs are 2,000 and you eat 1 meal of 2,000 calories each day, this is not going to the best way to go about it feeding your muscle.  

There is one facet of the timing that is still worth sticking to.  As I’ll explain below in further detail, it is generally recommended that a sufficient amount of calories are still consumed post workout.  For those of you that workout at night, don’t eat all of your calories during the day and then starve yourself after you workout.  To summarize, eat your proper amount of calories whenever it makes you happy, just save a nice portion for post-workout, regardless of what time of you hit the gym.

Introducing Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting, or IF, is becoming an advanced method to burning stubborn fat while being able to enjoy your lifestyle.  Simply put, IF is the idea of going a prolonged period of time without eating, followed by in most cases a compacted and simplified eating schedule.   In my opinion (at this time), IF is the type of program that should be followed only by those adhering to a strict workout regimen.  That means 4-6 days per week of heavy exercise.  

I will cover the basics below, but for those interested in a free and complete resource on IF, reading Dr. John Berardi’s e-book at http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting is a must.  It even goes as far as showing you his bloodwork results, and body composition changes.

There are many methods to IF, for most it’s about choosing the one that fits your lifestyle best.  Here is a quick summary of the 2 main types of Intermitting Fasting (several versions exist, however they get pretty extreme, and I have chosen not write about each version as the 2 below are the versions I believe in most):

  

• 16/8: The most anabolic of all IF methods, and frankly the one that makes the most sense.  As you’ll read further along, this is also the style of eating I currently utilize.  It’s a simple process:  each day you pick an 8 hour window to consume your food, then strictly avoid any calories for the next 16 hours, repeating this process for a periods of several weeks or months. 

• 24 Hour Fast: Yep, skip an entire day of eating.  This is more for the weight loss crowd.  As extreme as it may sound, the health benefits are fantastic and I’ve seen a client have great success with it over a short period of time.  This is not for the person trying to add serious muscle mass.  You would simply choose a 24-hour period, generally 1 time per week, and completely avoid any calories.  It’s an experience at the least.

What are the health benefits of IF?

• Faster body fat reduction along with easier ability to maintain existing fat loss
• Increased muscle gains
• Flexibility, reduction in cooking times, and improved quality of life due to better balance
• Improved regulation of glucose levels
• Reduced blood lipid panels and blood pressure

From personal experience and the experience of other industry professionals that are currently using IT, I can tell you that my cognitive function and energy levels are both noticeably improved as well.  Getting back in touch with our roots and thinking back to the cavemen—did they eat around the clock or did they eat only when food was available to them?  It’s only in the modern times that we have a surplus of food and have chosen to eat this frequently.  So while this program may sound extreme, it really makes a heck of lot more sense that breaking your food up into tiny quantities and eating every 2-3 hours, completely disrupting your life.

Who is IF not best suited for?

If you consider yourself knowledgeable in regards to nutrition, have experience in measuring out your foods and macros, and workout consistently, IF is a major breakthrough for you.

But….if you are not very knowledgable in regards to making the best food choices, or don’t have a consistent pattern of making healthy food choices, along with no prior experience or willingness to measure and calculate everything you eat, then IF will be too dangerous for you.

This is a program that requires you to be exact.  Every day.  If your just guessing at your calories and macros each day, that means you are guaranteed to be under or over eating and combining that with IF is not safe.  Develop months of consistent healthy eating patterns and tracking/measuring your intake daily, and then you can choose to incorporate IF into your life and reap the benefits.

Setting the right calories and macronutrients for yourself

Before we get to the sample templates below, it is critical to understand how we arrive at these numbers, and how to adjust these numbers if necessary.  Anyone can set a number—for example, if you need 1,700 calories per day and a 40/40/20 ratio of macros, this information is useless unless you follow it every day of your life.  Under eating, let’s say 1,400 calories one day and then over eating with 2,000 calories is NOT going to be successful just because they average out to 1,700 calories. 

How do I calculate the proper amount of calories for myself?

Your caloric needs depend on 3 major variables:

1. Current bodyweight
2. Body specific goals (weight loss, fat loss, bulking, etc.)
3. Daily activity level

Our first major rule of thumb is that multiplying your body weight X 10 will give you a rough estimate as to the amount of calories your body needs for simple maintenance.   Remember, this is just a general rule, and does not take into consideration your activity level.   Those who are active and workout frequently, may have to multiply their body weight by 12-15 to reach their daily calorie goals.

If you are trying to lose weight, you need to be in a slight caloric deficit.  Yesterday, Matt used the example of 500 calories per day, which is a great start.  If you are trying to add muscle mass, you must have a caloric surplus.  There is no way around these rules, folks.

How do I calculate the proper macronutrients for myself?

I’m going to simplify this for you into just a few quick steps for right now, before we get into the more complicated scenarios in the sample templates below.

Protein:  Most people should immediately start out by consuming 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight each day.  This number can comfortably go as high as 1.5 grams.  If you weigh 150 pounds, you should start by consuming 150 grams of protein each day, totaling 600 calories.  If you chose to go up to 1.5 grams, that would be 225 grams of protein, adding up to 900 calories.

Fat:  A general estimate is to consume .5 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight.  So for someone weighing 150 pounds, this would be 75 grams of fat, totaling 675 calories.

Carbohydrates:  As you will see discussed below in each example, carbs are very specific to your goal, therefore it does not benefit anyone to give a “round number estimate”. 

What is carb cycling? 

In the example templates below, we’re going to be using examples of carb cycling, which is an effective method of increasing and decreasing your carbohydrates in relation to your workout and non-workout days.

Basically, this means increasing your carb load on workout days and significantly decreasing on non-workout days, instead allowing your body to use fat as an energy source.  

In the example above, with the 150 pound person eating 150 grams of protein per day and 75 grams of fat per day, carb cycling might look something like this depending on their specific goals:

Workout Day:  1.75 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight

Non-Workout: .75 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight

Why?  This is a highly effective way to reduce your total calories for the week, while still feeding your muscles enough to grow.  This method can have great results for those who measure their intake and are looking to burn extra fat while preserving (or adding to) their existing muscle mass.

Example Templates

All of the templates below are merely examples.  They provide a great learning experience, but do not neccesarily represent the calories and macros that you should be using.  It's also very important to note that these numbers will change several times for several reasons through each of the training periods for these sample clients.  It could be because the estimated numbers were high or low, or because they are progressing and need slight modifications.      

Obese Oscar

Background:  Oscar is looking to lose 100 pounds.  He’s current inactive, and will be starting a workout regimen of 5 days per week.  He works from 9-5 and will be training at 6pm each night.

Current Weight:  250 pounds

Nutrition RX:  Oscar has no prior experience with consistent healthy eating, therefore we will start him off with the basics.  No advanced diet techniques here, just fresh foods, ample proteins, and lots of water.  Oscar can eat whenever he is hungry, as long as he saves part of his calories for post-workout, and hits his macros every day.

Calorie Recommendation: The basic 250x10 = 2,500 calories.  That might seem like a ton of food for someone trying to lose 100 pounds, but remember that his large weight means he will exert a large amount of energy throughout the day.  We’ve also ensured that Oscar will remain physically active throughout his day, ensuring himself to be at a caloric deficit.

Macronutrient Recommendation:  250g Protein (BW X 1), 100g Fat (BW X .4), 150g Carbs (From fresh sources only, and from veggies 3x per day).  This totals exactly 2,500 calories.

Almost There Annie

Background: We see a lot of “Annies”.  They have anywhere from 5-25 pounds to lose, and 3-10% bodyfat.  Annie has exercised, tried diets, and still can’t take her last bit of weight off.  Annie has a flexible schedule, will be training 6 days per week between 5-6pm each night.

Current Weight: 150 pounds

Nutrition RX:  Our plan of attack will be similar to Oscar’s in the sense that we will keep it simple and basic to begin.  She also can eat whichever times are convenient for herself, as long as she eats well after her workout.  While her diet will be simple, right from the start we’ll tell Annie that if she keeps an impeccable food journal with exact calories and macros for 60 days and hits her numbers, then we’ll consider putting her on a program where she cycles her carbs, does IF, or both, should desire any of those programs.  But we’ll wait for Annie to prove to us that she’s 100% ready so she is safe.

Calorie Recommendation:  I would start Annie with 1,800 calories (BW X 12).  Chances are good that Annie has been under eating many days, and splurging other days.  This means she still has a good amount of muscle mass to build, more than she realizes.

Macronutrient Recommendations:  150g Protein (BW X1), 75g Fat, 131g Carbohydrates.  This totals exactly 1,800 calories.  If Annie tracks her intake for 60 days, we would then adjust her to a program where we increase her carbs on training days, while significantly reducing them on non-training days.  A 16/8 Intermittent Fasting option would be provided, if Annie desired, and felt that it would benefit her schedule, and was comfortable with the program.

Rockstar Ronnie

Background:  Ronnie is a weekend warrior, always has been, doesn’t want to change.   He’s pretty sure he needs to lose weight because of his growing midsection, but also wants to bulk up a bit to impress the ladies.  Ronnie works irregular, but mostly long hours.  He has a high stress level, and wants to be able to workout 3-5 times per week, at varying times.

Current Weight: 180

Nutrition RX:  Even though Ronnie has worked out and tracked his food intake in the past, the key for his success is simplicity.  At first glance, you would think IF might be a good option for him because of it’s ease to use, but his hours are too irregular—during the week he works a lot, and on the weekends he’s always out with friends.  While I’d love to cycle his carbs, that’s out as well because he drinks on the weekends and has warned us he makes poor decisions.  For now, Ronnie can eat whenever he wants to as long as he hits his numbers.  We’ve even allowed a generous 20% cheat allotment for Ronnie each day.  This means 20% of his calories can come from whatever he wants as long as his macros as in order at the end of each day.

Calorie Recommendation:  2,520 (BW X 14).  Ronnie’s a tough call, and someone who will likely need to adjust his numbers in the future as his body changes.  We are looking to build muscle, while reducing fat with someone that has an irregular schedule here.  We’re going to make sure he eats enough to feed his muscles, and really make him bust his butt at the gym with some interval training in addition to his strength program.

Macronutrient Recommendation:  225g Protein (BW X 1.25), 90g Fat (BW X .5), 236g Carbohydrates.  This totals 2,520 calories.

In Between Ira

Background:  Much like Ronnie from above, Ira is at a weight and body type where he’d like to add a little muscle while also reducing his body fat.  The major difference here is that Ira is willing to commit 100% of his energy to a program, and has previous workout and nutrition tracking experience.  Ira is dedicated to changing his body composition and will be working out 5-6 times per week, mostly around 6pm.  

Current Weight: 180

Nutrition RX:  Ira loves the idea of IF and cycling his carbs, because he knows it will allow him to spend less time in the kitchen, and see changes in his body much quicker.  He’s also not afraid to put the effort in and understands how exact his numbers need to be each day.  Because of this Ira, will eat each day between the hours of 1pm and 9pm only.  At least 40-50% of his calories will come during the post-workout hours of 7-9pm each night.  

Calorie Recommendations:  2,340 on non-workout days (BW X 13) and 2,880 on workout days (BW X 16)

Macronutrient Recommendations:  225g Protein (BW X 1.25), 90g Fat (BW X .5), 135g Carbs on non-workout days.  225g Protein, 90g Fat, 270g Carbs on workout days.

Slender Sally

Background:  Sally has never worried too much about her weight, she is at or close to an ideal body weight.  She would like to reduce her body fat and get a little stronger if possible though.  We know this means replacing some of her body fat with muscle, and not to expect a change on the scale, but in how she looks and how her clothes fit her.  Sally with be exercising 3-5 times per week and varying the times of her workout.  She keeps standard hours, and has minimal-moderate stress.

Current Weight: 130

Nutrition RX:  Sally has no prior experience with tracking her food as it’s just come fairly easy to her most of her life.  She has some workout experience, but not a ton.  We’re going to keep things simple for her and allow her to eat whenever she is hungry—regardless of the time of day, again as long as she saves some of her calories for post-workout.   What Sally doesn’t know is that her goals are going to require a lot of hard work—much more work than simply losing weight.  Therefore, she’ll be working very hard at the gym, and subsequently eating more than she would ever expect.  

Calorie Recommendation:  1,820 (BW X 14).  

Macronutrient Recommendation:  130g Protein (BW X 1), 65g Fat, 156g Carbs.  This totals 1,820 calories.

Helpful Calorie and Macronutrient Tips

• When you first set your numbers, stick to them like glue for at least 3-4 weeks before considering changing them.  If you hit your numbers exactly for a period of 3 plus weeks and your body hasn’t changed slightly in the direction you want it to, you may need to slightly readjust by adding or depleting calories.  That’s ok, just give your body enough time to adjust and remember that noticeable physiological changes (i.e. fairly dramatic) take on average 6 months.  While it’s ok to admit you set your numbers incorrectly once or twice, or adjust as your body changes, you’ll never reach your goal if you keep changing your numbers.

•  If you are having trouble staying at or below your calorie count, check out this awesome post by Jordan Syatt, that gives you some great ideas for foods that will fill you up but don’t pack high calorie counts:  http://www.syattfitness.com/the-dieters-dilemma-how-to-stay-full-in-a-caloric-deficit/

• If you are having trouble reaching your calorie number or are falling short, for most people it is as simple as ensuring your protein counts are where they should be.  Identify your favorite protein sources early on, and stick with them.  Getting enough carbs is almost never an issue.  If your struggling to eat enough fat, get re-acclimated with eggs (whole eggs) and peanut butter (NOT the reduced fat kind). 

•   If the idea of tracking the food, calories, and macros of food is not appealing to you or if you don’t feel you have enough time, then you need to drastically reset your goals in life.  Your health comes first.   It takes 5-10 minutes per day of effort, and scientifically ensures that you are going to reach your goal (provided your actually going to the gym!).  Take a step back, re-prioritize your life and your day, and put health at the start each and every time. 

Finishing Thoughts

This 3 part blog series has been designed to make your life easier, while helping you understand the types and amounts of food you should be eating based on your body type and goals.  Friday, we will be extending this into a 4^th part, that will answer frequently asked questions regarding all of the information we have covered.  If you have a question, I always encourage comments at the bottom of each post.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and the same goes for your body.  So instead of wasting time and effort on programs that don’t work, I strongly encourage you to stick to science.  Having the answer is never enough though.  We must act consistently on this information in order to yield the results we are seeking.  Thank you for reading what has been our longest (by far!) post yet, I hope you’ve learned a tremendous amount of new information that will give you the confidence to change your body type, should you desire. 

Nutrition 2012: Simplify Your Life, Burn Fat, and Build Muscle, Part 2

Today we continue our nutrition series with a special guest blog from Train With Rob Personal Trainer Matt Repece.  Matt is a highly intelligent dude with a voice that needs to be heard in the fitness world, even if his voicemail message sounds like Arthur Fonzarelli.  Competing as an amateur drug free bodybuilder and working as a Personal Trainer, Matt has learned quite a bit about our industry, and I’m proud to have him on the team.  I recommend you follow him on Twitter (@repeceofass) or schedule a Personal Training session with him by visiting our contact form at http://www.trainwithrob.com/contact-us

Contributed by Matt Repece

Now that you’ve got a solid basis and idea about what to eat, how often to eat and how much of it you can eat in regards to body composition, it’s time we discuss just how you can incorporate this style of living into your every day life. The beauty of understanding overall macronutrient and calorie balance is fully appreciated once you’ve accepted it, practiced it and ultimately allowed yourself to benefit from it.

I was guilty of years of bringing multiple Tupperware containers to work jam packed with grilled chicken, rice and broccoli and if you’re guilty of that too, then prepare to wave bye-bye. Gone are the days of packing 4 meals for a long car ride or passing up restaurant week with your friends because you’re scared of that delicious steak or burger and the calories it packs.

It’s time we usher in a new era, an era of flexibility, an era of balance.

Balance: How to Strike That Perfect Chord

Balance is a word we’ll be tossing around a lot here because it’s so important for our overall happiness. We strive to find a work/life balance everyday so why should our nutrition and fitness goals be any different? Once you’ve figured out which style of dieting or eating works best for you your life will be so much more enjoyable.

Since I don’t need to eat 6 meals per day, can I eat whenever I want to?

Eat when you want to eat, if breakfast is your favorite meal of the day then eat up, I personally forgo breakfast in favor of larger meals later in the day, most commonly pre-bed. Yes, that’s right; I eat a large portion of my calories AT NIGHT and PRE-BED! I know what you’re thinking and with the knowledge I have now I no longer fear the insulin fairy or carb monster that comes after 7:00 pm to store my carbohydrates as fat. Knowing that the body metabolizes and digests around a 24 hour energy balance has made life so much easer… and more delicious.

This style of living does not mean that you can have a free-for-all every day of the week. Still, we must adhere to strict calories and macro/micronutrient ratios while consuming the majority of calories from whole, nutritious foods. But fitting in the occasional bowl of ice cream or snickers bar won’t hurt your progress and will give your mind a necessary bit of relief from the stress of dieting.  

It’s also important to note that this style of eating works for ME.  There are a lot of variables that should go into selecting when to consume food, this schedule works because I train at night, and prefer the majority of my calories to come post workout.   The idea is to just give you an example of how flexible eating has improved the quality of my life and provided freedom.  After reading all 3 parts of our post, we hope to have you in a position to do the same!

Macro’s, Micro’s and Calories – OH MY!

It’s important to remember the big picture here, we have to set some numbers for ourselves and hit them, consistently, to really benefit from any of this. Tomorrow’s post is going to discuss this in detail, along with provide you an exact idea of your caloric and macronutrient needs.  Today, however, I’m going to use this example below just to show you how to easily consume the proper macros, even allowing for the occasional cheat.  It is important to note that the numbers below do not apply to your specific calorie needs—that will come tomorrow. 

For every gram of fat there is 9 calories, for every gram of protein and carbohydrate there is 4 calories. Now that we’ve got that out of the way we can work on breaking down our individual macros. We’ll use “John” as an example; John weighs 180 lbs and likes to lift weights and exercise (John NEVER misses a bootcamp, btw). John’s goal is to lose some body fat to lean up for summer time, so we set John’s ESTIMATED maintenance calories at 2,500 (180 x 14 calories per pound of bodyweight). This is the amount of calories that John will need to consume on a daily basis to remain at his same, normal weight.

What we’ll need to do next is put John in a slight deficit in order for him to effectively lose fat so we’ll start John off at a 500 calorie deficit. The number 500 is not some arbitrary figure that we just assigned to John, there’s a reason we use that as a starting deficit. There is 3,500 calories in one pound, so, if we put John in a deficit of 500 calories per day, for 7 days, he’ll be at a weekly deficit of 3,500 calories, meaning that John (assuming he tracks his macros and hits them correctly) should lose about a pound a week.

So now that we know John will be consuming 2,000 calories for his little cut, we’ll need to assign him his macronutrient’s which is what our total calories are composed of. A good rule of thumb for anyone strength training is to get about 1-1.5 grams of protein per body pound, which sets his protein at roughly 200 grams, give or take. Next we must fill John’s fat allotment. Generally we try to get between .4-.5 grams of fat per body pound which will set John’s fat levels at around 80 grams. The next category, our favorite, is carbohydrates. We take the combined total number of calories from both protein and fats and use the remaining calories to find our carbs, like so: 200 grams of protein x 4 (cals per gram of protein) + 80 grams of fat x 9 (cals per gram of fat) = 1,520 calories. 2,000 (his calorie limit) – 1,520 = 480, next we take those remaining 480 calories and divide that by 4 (cals per gram of carbohydrate) and we get 120 grams. So for John, as he wants to diet down will be looking at a macronutrient breakdown of 80/120/200 ~ 2,000 calories.

The same would be applied if John were looking to bulk up, we’d set him at a moderate calorie surplus of 500 and the math would be the same. Now that we’ve seen an example of how to calculate maintenance level calories and macro’s for bulking or cutting, how do we incorporate this seamlessly into our every day life?

 Living Life and Dieting – Together At Last

There are a multitude of calorie counting websites and applications for our cell phones or computers that make tracking our calories simple and easy to do. Two of my favorite cell phone applications for both the droid and smart phone are Fat Secret and My Fitness Pal. Both of these applications have corresponding websites that you can use if you don’t have a smart phone or aren’t necessarily the most tech savvy individual. Fitday.com is another good tool to use if you’re more inclined to track using your computer. These websites and applications have thousands of foods already pre-programmed into them (and if they’re not in there already, you can input them manually!) so your excuses of “it’s too hard” or “I don’t have time” are literally useless now as it takes almost no time at all to plug what you’ve eaten in your food log.

Another great help to us is the all powerful internet. The majority of restaurants or stores have their foods nutrition labels on their sites which makes for easy tracking. Example; if you know you’re friends are meeting at TGI Friday’s for happy hour and you’re going to enjoy an order of Sizzling Chicken and Shrimp then a quick Google search will reveal that it contains 1140 calories and have a macronutrient breakdown of 78/44/56 (F/C/P).  Knowing this, we can “fit it in” to our individual macro’s for the day and still be in our deficit, still effectively losing weight.  Don’t worry if you didn’t catch the math the first time around, there will be a plethora of examples for you to run through tomorrow, even some based on your specific body type and fitness goals.

I personally use Fat Secret and have been tracking my calories for over a year now. I know first hand just how important this part of dieting is as without tracking my macros I would have never lost 25 pounds and gotten below 7% body fat while preserving a good amount of lean muscle. Understanding that meal timing is largely irrelevant and calories are king allowed me to go out with friends, go to BBQ’s, grab dinner with family and even indulge in one of my favorite things – GASP, ice cream! – Without missing my mark and continually losing weight.

Wrapping Up

We now know how to find our maintenance, calculate our macros and what to use to track them. We now know that we can still eat out with friends and family and not hurt our overall goal. What’s important is that we practice moderation and balance, once you learn how to walk that line I assure you that life while dieting will be much more enjoyable and will make reaching your goals infinitely easier.

Nutrition 2012: Simplify Your Life, Burn Fat, and Build Muscle, Part 1

Today’s post is part 1 of a 3 part series geared to give you the latest, most advanced, and most effective nutrition information available within the industry today.   My goal is to make this 3 part series something that everyone from beginning exercisers to advanced exercises can use as a reference over and over again. Upon completion, you will have a full understanding of exactly what foods your body needs to consume to reach your specific goal.  Along with this knowledge, will come the ability to design your own daily nutrition template including the correct macronutrients and daily calories, while being able to conveniently and comfortably fit your new plan into your existing lifestyle.

Here is a sneak preview of what to expect:

Part 1 (4/30):  Nutrition 2012:  What to eat, how often to eat, and how much to eat

Part 2 (5/1):  Fitting your food consumption into your daily routine seamlessly

Part 3 (5/2):  Sample macronutrient and calorie templates for each body type

What To Eat:  Upgrade Your Food Quality, Lose Weight

Nutritional awareness is at an all-time high—good, right?  Not really.  At this stage of the game, 99% of wide-eyed consumers are nothing more than prey for the food manufacturers and their marketing tactics.  Billions of dollars are spent annually in an effort to falsely lead consumers to believe they are eating healthy foods. 

Much of today’s food is significantly less healthy than it was decades ago.  What has changed?  Our constant demand to have things quicker, in larger quantities, tasting a certain way, and with a colorful marketing package.  As you’ll soon read not all chicken, beef, dairy, fish, fruit, and veggies can be considered healthy.  Choosing the right types will go a long way towards a lean body.  Choosing the wrong types can fill your body with chemicals that are known to contribute to obesity—an invisible battle you’ll never see coming.

Quick Tip:  If it comes in a package or box that has a “healthy” label on it—don’t buy it.  The healthiest foods don’t come with marketing and sales tactics.  When is the last time you saw a package of chicken or fish that told you how healthy it was?  Or a commercial for fruits and vegetables?  A University of Washington study showed that 81% of the money you spend for food goes towards marketing, manufacturing, and packaging.  That is shocking.  Only 19 cents for every dollar you spend actually goes towards food.  The day you start to think of the food companies just as you do cigarette companies, you’ll be on your way.

Which types of “healthy” foods should I avoid, and which should I consume?

Poultry

According to a study from the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at London Metropolitan University, today’s chicken has 266% more fat and 33% less protein than the chicken we consumed 40 years ago.  If that’s not enough, Why does this happen?  Several reasons.  Animals live in unimaginable cramped conditions, and are fed unnatural diets (feces from other animals, corn, hormones, grains) that cause the same weight gain as the humans who eat them.  Not enough for you?  A study from Consumer Union showed that 12% of tested chickens were infected with Salmonella, and 42% carried Campylobacter—the cause of what you thought was a “stomach bug” was really this nasty type of food poisoning.

Solution:  Fresh cage free, hormone free, lean chicken. 

Dairy

Today, the average cow produces 2-5x the amount of milk during it’s lifetime when compared to 40 years ago.  Did something evolutionary change to allow this?  No.  Cows are routinely fed a hormone called recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST—studies have linked this hormone to cancers including colon, breast, and prostate. 

Solution:  Look for packaging that specifically says “hormone free”.  You’ll be surprised that most chain food stores don’t carry the rBST free product.  However, it can be found at Whole Foods and shockingly Wal-Mart.

Beef

Much of the beef we consume comes from mixtures (nice word for excess fatty trimmings) of thousands of cows, creating a breeding ground for bacteria.  Because of this, the USDA allows for the beef to be fed through pipes while being pumped with ammonia (see: posion) gas in an “attempt” to clean the meat.  Worse yet, there is no evidence this highly dangerous system even works.

Solution:  Buy local, lean, grass fed and hormone free beef.

Fruits & Veggies

There are 2 simple things to know here. 

1.     Eat more!

2.     Avoid the “dirty dozen” and buy the organic variety of these 12 pesticide infected foods: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, grapes, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes. 

Items not on this list are generally considered to be safe and do not need to be purchased organically.  

Solution:  I don’t care who you are, you don’t enough veggies.  Start your day with 3-5 veggies in an omlette, add some to a salad for lunch, and use them as a side for dinner. 

Fish

Fish farms face similar problems as our traditional farms—overcrowding and disease.  Wild caught fish is thought to be the healthier option.  Although it is worth paying attention to the media to see if fish from certain areas of the world should be avoided.  This can be dependent on many factors, some as unpredictable as natural disasters.  This information is constantly changing.  Lastly, a major problem we are facing that will only get worse is overfishing.  Certain fish such as Chilean sea bass, monkfish, swordfish, and blue fin tuna are all presently overfished leaving their futures (and our future to consume) in jeopardy.

Solution:  Eat, fresh wild caught fish.  Few things are healthier.  They are rich in omega fats and high in protein. 

Nuts & Healthy Fats

There is nothing to avoid here, actually just the opposite.  Healthy fats (listed in the cheatsheet just below) aren’t consumed enough.   Generally people here the word “fat” and think it is bad for them—this couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

Jeff O’Connell (@J_O_Connell), author of Sugar Nation, recently tweeted “Replacing fat with carbs – we’ve done that experiment for 30 years on 300 million people, and the results speak for themselves.”

He is referring to carbs leading to the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic we currently find ourselves battling.  It’s time to start embracing healthy fats.  We’ll talk specifics in part 3 of this article, so that you know exactly how much fat to consume.

Your “Must Buy” All Natural Chemical, Hormone, and Preservative Free Grocery List

This is just a start.  For most, it should serve as a list of items that will be consumed and replenished on a weekly, if not more frequently, basis. 

Proteins

Choose From:

·        Cage Free/Hormone Free Chicken Breast and Ground Turkey

·        Grass Fed/Hormone Free Ground Beef

·        Wild Caught Fish such as Salmon, Tuna, Mahi Mahi, Bass, Flounder, and Sardines

·        Eggs

·        Hormone Free Milk & Greek Yogurt

·        Seitan (Gluten Protein for my vegetarian readers)

·        Protein Shakes- I recommend Optimum Nutrition All Natural Whey or Met-Rx All Natural Whey

·        P28 High Protein Bread & Bagels

Fats

Choose From:

·        Olive Oil & Vegetable Oil

·        Nut Butters

·        Nuts

·        Fish (see above)

·        Eggs (see more below)

·        Avacado

Carbohydrates

Choose From:

·        Veggies

For now, I am intentionally leaving the rest of this blank.  Part 3 of this article will contain sample daily eating templates based on your body type and goals.  The type(s) of carbohydrates you should eat are dependent again on body and goals, therefore I will include this information during the third part of this series, so you aren’t confused and don’t eat the wrong type of carbs.

Great, Now That I Know Which Foods, How Much Should I Eat?

This is also going to be discussed in great detail in the 3^rd part of this post (coming Wednesday), but we’ll cover the basics of over and under eating here to get you started. 

What happens if you eat too little?  Your body will go catabolic—which means it will starve itself, ultimately losing muscle mass.  Eating too little might cause a short-term and temporary change in the scale, but will never change how you look.  Your skin composition will deteriorate and you will look worse than if you just kept your current body type.

What happens if I eat too much?  It will be stored as fat.  It’s that simple.  While eating too many calories is the main culprit, you can also store fat from eating a proper amount of calories but the wrong macronutrients—mostly excess simple carbohydrates and not enough lean proteins.  I say it very frequently to get the point across and will repeat it again here…you can not out train a bad diet.  I don’t care how hard you work at the gym.  Eating excess and wrong foods combined with a combination of crushing your CNS (overtraining) while repeating bad and limited movement patterns at the gym is a double whammy and a recipe for absolute disaster. 

Get ready for Part 3 of this series, where you’ll learn how to calculate exactly how many calories you need along with the proper amount of protein, fat, and carbs.

How Often Should I eat?

Hide the women and children, I’m about to drop a major knowledge bomb!

I’m about to tell you something that goes against everything you’ve been told so far.  It’s so big that when I first started researching it more than 6 months ago, I didn’t think I’d ever believe in it.  Usually, I need to see something in writing from at least 3-5 respective authorities in their field, backed with numerous studies before I take anything seriously enough to change my views.  In this case, I needed at least double to triple that much credibility and research. I've been holding this juicy nugget of information back from you guys for long enough and am finally, after several months of contemplating, comfortable enough to bring it to the public.  Are you ready?  Make sure you're really ready for this one-- it goes against everything you've ever been told in relation to meal frequency.  Here goes...

Stop eating 6 meals per day.

Those might be the sweetest words I've ever written.  Let's be honest here, eating 6 meals every day of your life is a pain in the ass.  I think about every car ride I took that was packed with protein bars, going to movie theaters with turkey sandwiches shoved in my pockets, and staring at the clock every day of my life waiting for feeding time in fear that I would go catabolic if I went more than 3 hours without food.  I was a prisoner in my own life, and so were millions of others. 

Never again.

But won’t my glycogen stores empty during a workout?  No.

But, but, but won’t my muscles shrink? No.

But wait, my “metabolism” will definitely slow down, right? No.

Life just got simpler for all of us.  No more cramming almonds down your throat during a meeting, or bringing chicken and rice with you everywhere you go.  Simplicity, minimalism, call it whatever you want.  Personally, I call it FREEDOM, baby.

Let's take a little step back, before I go any further.  Nothing else has changed folks—remember what I said above about not being able to out train a bad diet.  Your macronutrients still need to look a specific way at the end of the day.  And your caloric intake needs to be a certain number in relation to your weight and fitness goals. The only thing that has changed is that research shows you don't need 6 meals to take you to that number.  Do whatever your day allows you to do.  All of the other rules still apply.  Fresh foods, no chemicals, lean proteins, colorful veggies, etc.

So how often should I eat than?  Again, do whatever your day allows you to.  Do what makes sense, and makes you happy.  Simplify your life.  If you want to eat 3 meals, go ahead.  Prefer to eat 4 times, have fun with that too.  Fit it around your lifestyle.  The second part of this series will deal with this entire subject—fitting healthy nutrition around YOU.

Want more info on why you should stop eating 6 meals per day?  I plan to write a long (and boring) post in the very near future regarding the science behind this major announcement.  Check back within a few weeks for it.  For now, just throw out the concept entirely and enjoy your life without worrying about eating every few hours. 

Check back tomorrow for the second part of this series.

10 Health & Fitness Words I Hope I Never Hear Again

Words are powerful.  When we use them ourselves, we believe in them.  When we read them on a package or hear them on a commercial, we also believe in them.  Below is a list of words that are either incorrectly used or misleading.  Learning the difference will help arm you with the knowledge to workout smarter and make better decisions at the grocery store.


1) Cardio

Here's a word that might be more overused and misused than "abs" or "core" if that's imaginable.  "Cardio" refers to our cardiovascular system, but somewhere along the way the masses started using this word to define a method in which to lose body fat.  Problem?  "Cardio" as you know it-- riding the elliptical, bike, running on the treadmill, doesn't burn fat.  It's just a repetitive motion that our bodies adapt to very quickly.  I prefer phrases such as interval training, energy systems, and endurance training.

2) Abs


I could write a book on this one.  Generally, people point to their belly as their "abs" and say they want to do as many exercises as they can to "feel the burn". Ughhh. Want the best ab exercise in the world?  Mike Boyle calls it the table push-- think about that one for a second, you'll figure it out.

I can typically tell how bad a client's diet is (or was the night/weekend before) from watching their attitude towards certain exercises.  You can't out train a bad diet.


3) Biceps

Why does this one make the list?  It's the least important muscle in your body.  Yet, society judges men's fitness levels based on the size of their bicep, which leads to people curling with extremely heavy weight, which leads to back injuries.  I do very limited bicep work myself, and very little with my clients.  If you do any form of bicep curls, but don't do chin-ups, slowly walk away from your computer and re-think your workout plan.

4) Diet

I've never dieted for one day in my life, and neither have any of my successful clients.  What have we all done?  Chosen to live a healthy lifestyle.  Making consistent healthy choices isn't something we do for one day, one week, or one year.  It's either a part of you, or you should really learn to love the way you look.  Don't count points, avoid foods you like eating, or starve yourself-- just make healthy choices and eat the other foods in moderation.  It's that simple.  Always has been, always will be.

5) Try

"Do or do not...there is not try" - Yoda.  Don't "try" to exercise or "try" to eat healthier-- just do it.  It works.  Every single time.  Without confidence?  Not so much.

6) But

"But" is that start of every excuse.  Every excuse is a lie to ourselves.  Eventually if we lie to ourselves enough times, we begin to believe our own lies.  A few days ago, I wrote about maintaining an honest inventory of your life-- this concept really applies here.

7) Sugar

A major hot topic within the industry right now asks the question "is sugar toxic" and it is currently being discussed on a wide platform.  Sugar is being blamed for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, terrorism, and the person in front of you this morning who was going 35 in a 45.

Want the short answer?  Sugar is highly addictive.  It can cause many diseases, and is an epidemic. My simple advice of only getting sugar from fresh fruits is how you can ensure you avoid this epidemic.  Once in a while, indulge in a desert.  But not every day, and always in moderation.  In the coming years, you'll start to hear much more about the dangers of sugar-- cut back your intake before it's too late.  If you're looking for a good book on the subject, I will shortly be reading "Sugar Nation" by Jeff O'Connell-- it looks like something everyone should read.

8) Made With/Contains

Lies, lies, and more lies.  Both of these phrases are used to trick the consumer into believing they are buying  a whole grain or organic product.  If it doesn't clearly say "100%" on the label, avoid it. The healthiest foods we eat, don't come with packaging that tells us it is healthy.  If the package is trying to sell you on the food, it's probably not very healthy.

9) Fat Free

Generally, this means the manufacturer put a bunch of sugar or chemicals into the product to make it taste better.  Very dangerous.  We need fat-- especially healthy fats from sources such as nuts and nut butters.  Buying reduced fat peanut butter is like buying a (reduced protein) protein shake.

10) "It's Ok"

The conversation goes something like this.

Client:  My (insert knee/back/elbow/etc) hurts.
Trainer: Ok, let's take a quick look at it and then find an appropriate exercise.
Client:  It's ok.
Trainer: (Head explodes)

If it hurts, don't do it.  Ever.  Pain means there is a problem-- not something that will magically work itself out.  Listen to your trainer/therapist/chiro/doctor.

Rob Goes 100 Days Without Meat....And The World Doesn't End

Today is Good Friday, so I thought the timing of this article would be perfect.  For reasons described below, on Christmas Day, I decided that I would give up eating meat for a period of at least 100 days.  Why 100 days?  I don't know, maybe because the number sounded cool, or maybe because I counted the days until Easter Sunday when I knew I wouldn't be able to pass up my Mom's turkey.

Regardless, this article is going to discuss my journey over the past 100 days, the foods I've tried and eaten to keep my protein levels up, and the changes in my body since Christmas Day.  To be perfectly clear, this article is not:

• An attempt to talk you into becoming a vegetarian
• Make you feel bad if you do eat meat
• A scare tactic 

If you don't have the same views as I share below, we can still be friends.  I have a lot of clients who are vegetarians and this will help introduce them to forms of protein their bodies need.  I also have a lot (99%) of clients who don't eat enough protein.  If anything, let this be a guide to helping all of you increase your protein intake, and throwing the "I don't know how to get enough protein" excuse out the window.  Whatever you do, don't e-mail me telling me that I'm trying to turn you into a vegetarian.  That's not the point.

Why did you give up meat?

There are a lot of reasons that I'll share.  There was no one specific incident or reason that ultimately led to this decision, but more of a collection of reasons over a long period of time.

I have a terrible short term memory.  I have trouble remembering mostly everything in life.  There is, however, one moment in my life that is so crystal clear that I swear I am still sitting at that dinner table.  I was about about 10 at the time-- enjoying a nice dinner with my family, not unlike any other night growing up.  Most of my dinner had been eaten, except for the meat portion.  At this stage of my life, I had become an expert at taking the meat piece by piece, and slowly putting it into a napkin below the dinner table, effectively hiding it from everyone and making it seem like I had been eating the meat each night.  This plan would end up backfiring on me several times throughout my youth when my parents would come across hidden stashes of meat randomly in my bedroom.  

Getting back to the infamous night at the dinner table, by now my Mom had gotten "ajada", whatever that is, as she did most nights when I didn't eat my dinner.  My dad had given me a warning and countdown on the clock, which by this advanced stage I also knew that if I just waited it out, he wouldn't want to spend his entire night in the kitchen waiting for me to eat meatloaf.  

Then, it happened.  I don't recall how or why, but the rest of the story goes like this.   The topic of where each type of meat came from was brought up.  You can start to play the "Wonder Years" theme song in your head at this point and picture Fred Savage narrating the rest of this story, while my 10 year old face is completely frozen.  My sister, 12 years older than I, was quite happy to list each animal for me.  Steak came from cows?  Pork came from pigs?  As if this wasn't disturbing enough, I then had the brilliant idea of asking how the animals were killed, and if the red stuff in the packaging was actually their blood.  Taking a step back, the only time my parents allowed my sister to babysit me, she thought it would be a good idea to dissect the fish (shark) that had died in our fish tank that night.  Does this seem like the person I should be asking in depth questions to regarding the slaughtering of animals?

Let's just say that since that night, I've never really fully adjusted to the thought of eating and enjoying meat.  I've just blocked it from my head, closed my eyes, and hoped for the best.  Story aside, here are the real reasons I chose to give up eating meat for this time period.  I've watered down the descriptions so that none of you are offended, or tell me I grossed you out, etc.   

1. Environmental Impact-  Until a few years ago, this thought never crossed my mind.  Turning off lights, driving a hybrid car, and unplugging appliances are all great thoughts, but can have less of an impact on the environment than cows alone, depending on your usage.  I've read studies that range from 20-60% of environmental issues can be directly correlated to the animals we breed to eat.  
2. Quality of Meat- As the demand for meat increases, the goal of the manufacturer shifts from quality to quantity.  This means anything ranging from ammonia being used to clean the meat, to pink slime, to growth hormones.  The meat you eat today is very much altered and of significantly less quality than the meat we ate 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago.  Around the time I made this decision there was a terrible stomach virus going around that was attributed to chicken quality-- a preview of things to come in near future.  Guess who didn't get sick?
3. Animal Life Quality-  Everything I thought I knew about the slaughtering of animals was like a child friendly G rated movie.  Again, I won't share the real details here only that the real process is enough to make the manliest of men cringe.  Google with caution.
4. Great Tasting Vegetarian Options- I'll describe further below, but I was really surprised with how good the new foods I tasted were.
5. It Was Important To My Wife- My wife has been a vegetarian for I believe nearly 4 years now.  While I chose not to tell her of my 100 day journey until last week, it made her very happy when she heard the news.  If she can do it for 4 years and presumably the rest of her life, why can't I do it for 100 days and then significantly cut back?

Was It Easy?

Yes and no.  The actual cravings for meat were very easy to control.  That part of it was not a problem at all.   The problem is everyone offering you meat products and trying to figure out how to turn them down without offending them....over and over and over and over.   Until they finally ask you why you keep turning their food down.  My Mom offered me chicken or turkey at least 5-10 times.  My Father-in-law (who knows I love his vegetable soup) kept offering me his chicken noodle soup until I thought he was going to handcuff me and pour it down my throat to prove that it was good.

The hardest day was last weekend at the Titleist seminar.  There was a catered lunch, that involved 3 types of sandwiches-- turkey, ham, or roast beef.  There were about 100 people there, many of which were fitness guys.  This was a world were the amount of meat on your sandwich was directly proportional to the size of your bicep.  Me?  I had a slice of tomato with 2 processed slices of cheddar cheese.  I searched for a matching pink umbrella for my water glass, but couldn't find one.

Oh noes!!  Doood, did you strength plummet and muscles shrink?!?

Every bodybuilder who is reading this right now is about to have their head explode.  Not only did my strength not plummet, but it went up...drastically.  My bench and deadlift especially-- each hit new highs that shattered previous personal bests.   Was this because I didn't eat meat?  No, but not eating meat didn't hurt my strength or muscle gains in the least.  Nor did I feel like I noticed a decrease in my testosterone levels.  Myth debunked.

What did you eat?

No matter what your dietary restrictions are, there is no excuse to not get enough protein every day.    Fish, eggs, greek yogurt, and whey protein were all staples of my diet and easy for anyone.  Let's talk about a few products you probably aren't familiar with.

Seitan: This is my new obsession.  It is made from the protein in wheat gluten.  Seitan is shaped and spiced to taste exactly like meat.  Out of all the meat substitutes I've tried, nothing is even in the same ballpark.  This is the one and only meat substitute I will recommend.  Seitan is available locally and comes in "flavors" such as chicken, beef, and pulled bbq chicken to name a few.  It takes less than 15 minutes to make.  Put a little oil in your pan, mix in some veggies and you have a  great meal.  

Seitan and Veggies

P28 Bread & Bagels: If you don't know about this product, check out my review here.  It's a game changer.  

Mahi Mahi Burgers:  We all love to grill.  It would have been hard to hang out in my backyard and look at my grill this summer without these burgers.  Are they good?  Every time we have a family party, they are the first to go.  Whether it's the kids, adults, or our picky (and old school meat loving) fathers, everyone loves these burgers.  They are available at Whole Foods.

What's Next?

In 3 short words, I don't know.  I know myself well enough to know that I can't give up meat for the rest of my life, but I also know that my experiment has been successful in proving that it will be a very insignificant part of my diet in the future.   My birthday is in exactly 3 months-- I might decide to have a burger or steak.  Then again, each day that passes, I'm less and less likely.  If it's just Easter & Thanksgiving Turkey, I feel pretty good with that.  

Funny enough, it's not the high quality meat I miss.  It's the occasional cheese steak or fast food burger that I find myself craving.  Perhaps my next step will be using seitan and duplicating a healthy version of a fast food burger.  If I do that, I promise to share the recipe.  

As I said numerous times at the beginning of this article, I am not trying to press my views on anyone.  If this article has made you just a little more aware of the healthy non-meat foods available to us, then I feel pretty good about that.  A long time ago, I started out not eating meat 1 day per week, which at the time seemed impossible.  Our country is becoming more and more dependent on meat products (50% of us eat meat with every single meal).  I hope that we all just become a little more aware of the quality & type of meat.  Pay extra for fresh caught fish, grass fed beef, and cage free dairy.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post asking if you were a trend setter or crowd pleaser.  The reaction from my friends and family to my meatless news has been surprising.  Let's just say it's been more pleasant than expected, and may have started a very good thing. 

Maintaining An Honest Inventory of Yourself

The weather is getting warmer earlier this year.  That means everyone is searching for answers to the million dollar question...

"How am I going to fit into my bathing suit this year?"

Panic sets in.  Some people work extra (too) hard at the gym.  Others starve themselves.  Ultimately, there is no victor in those 2 scenarios.  I have an easier solution.

Let me share a quick story with you.  A few days ago, I spoke to a woman who told me she had recently overcome her "sugar addiction".  For the past 2 weeks, she was 100% sugar free.  Congratulations, I told her, followed by asking her about her typical daily food consumption. We only got as far as breakfast but her answer blew me away.

Among the list of foods she ate for breakfast each day were yogurt and pomegranate juice.  I asked her to repeat herself 3 times just to make sure I wasn't hearing things.  Now there is nothing wrong with eating yogurt and while drinking juice isn't as healthy as eating the real fruit, who I am to criticize someone for drinking it.  Unless...

That very same person just proclaimed victory over a sugar addiction, of course.  Here is where things get a little hairy.  I politely tried to educate her as to the sugar content of the yogurt and pomegranate juice-- each time being met with a quick and forceful objection from her.  "But the juice is all natural", "it is expensive so it's ok", and the list went on.

She refused to honestly and objectively evaluate herself.  This is the point.  Instead of searching for some quick fix to fit into that bathing suit, take an honest inventory of yourself and find one thing that you can fix.  Every one of us has something that we tell ourselves to feel better:

• Do you really NEED that wine?
• Was work really so stressful that you couldn't workout that day?
• Is that injury really holding you back or are you just using it as a crutch instead of going to the doctor?
• Is going out to dinner but ordering chicken REALLY healthy, or just making the best out of a bad situation you put yourself into?
• Is going to the gym and performing the same treadmill or elliptical routine considered a workout, or just part of a unsuccessful routine?

Find the one thing you are able to fix right now. Today. Be 100% honest with yourself at all times.