Fat Loss Cheetah
Fat Loss and Health Tips for the Modern Woman

Let’s just clear something up…. there is 1 and ONLY 1 thing that matters when you are in the gym if your goal is fat loss. It is not whether you do cardio or weights, how much time you spend, or how cute your new Lulu pants look. The most important factor for fat loss workouts is INTENSITY. You are much better off doing a shorter workout that is so intense you feel like you are about to puke than spending two hours doing cardio.

Why?

EPOC. You can read more about what that is here.

Shockingly enough, you can get a sufficiently intense workout in just 4 minutes. So why don’t people do this all the time?? Because it’s really hard. As you may already know, fat loss isn’t easy. The problem is that if you do this workout one time, you will not look forward to ever doing it again because its REALLY FUCKING HARD. This profuse hatred for the workout causes you to stall your fat loss because chances are you will want to go back to your hour long elliptical session since those are EASIER.

Shitty.

Nevertheless,  in case you are really determined and you have a really strong will… I will let you in on this workout so you can hate it as much as I do.

1. Get an interval timer. The easiest way to do this is to go to the App Store or the Android Market and search for ‘interval timer’. I’m sure you can handle the rest.
2. Set up your timer for 20 second work sessions and 10 second rest sessions. If you remember elementary school math you will quickly figure out that in order to reach 4 minutes you will need to do 8 of these work/rest intervals
3. Learn how to do front squats.
4. Pick a relatively easy weight.  For most of us, the bar with maybe a 5 or a 10 on each side is more than enough
5. I bet you can guess the rest! Do as many squats as you can for the work interval, and rest for the rest interval.

Important rule: Don’t cheat!!!

Do a real front squat each time. Don’t rest 15 seconds. Or 20 seconds. Only rest 10 seconds.

If you can do this workout 3x a week and eat a moderately healthy diet, you WILL lose fat.

Post your experience once you try!

You are hung over, you feel fat, and you don’t want to look at another Christmas cookie for the rest of your life. This is a pretty typical scenario for December 26. Most loser people wait until January 1 to get their diet back in order. However, you are smarter and you will start today. This way by January 1 you will already be feeling great. Here are the best things to do right away to get back to feeling normal and to get on your way to skinny.

1. STOP feeling bad about all the damage you have done. You can only move forward at this point.
2. Do a juice fast to cleanse, renew, and most importantly – SHRINK YOUR STOMACH BACK TO NORMAL
3. Commit to working out. Pick 3-4 days in the week where you WILL work out, no excuses. Here’s how to commit. Here’s how to work out.
4. Just eat less.

You did the damage gradually. Now you will undo it gradually. Do yourself a favor and get a head start.

You decide it’s time for you to get serious about your workout. So you hit up a trainer, a fitness friend, or a fitness magazine for the latest “fat blasting” workout. This workout happens to involve 10 different exercises with 3 sets per exercise, and requires you to put the workout in your phone so you don’t forget. On top of that, your gym is missing the butt blaster machine so you can’t do the full workout anyway!

Is this not a pain in the ass??

The fitness industry is a multi-million dollar industry, and you better believe that people who make equipment for health clubs are making money by making you think their product is necessary for you. The truth of the matter is, you don’t need to do a bunch of different exercises, or even necessarily be in a gym to get an effective workout. Nothing will produce better results than performing a workout where your effort is a 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10). As long as the exercise(s) you are doing are taxing your muscles and your nervous system to the point where you can barely go on, you WILL see results.

On top of this, the less clutter you have in your brain about all the exercises you need to perform, the more likely you are to get it done. Are you more likely to do 100 squats? Or 3 sets of 10 squats, 3 sets of 10 shoulder presses, 3 sets of 10 hamstring curls, etc etc. You get the point?? The idea is to SIMPLIFY. It will allow you to get more done.

Here are some examples of SIMPLE workouts that will bring you results:

1. Every other day, do 200 kettlebell swings. Pick a weight where you cannot get past 30 reps without stopping. Once you can go no more, put the kettlebell down, regroup, and start over. The goal is to get the 200 reps done as quickly as possible
2. Every other day, do 100 squats with the squat rack. Pick a weight that you cannot get past 20 without stopping. Same idea as above.
3. Every other day, do 10 30-second balls out sprints with a minute rest in between. Make sure you are sprinting AS FAST AS YOU CAN. As you get better at this, decrease the rest time down to 30 seconds gradually.

We all know you SHOULD exercise. It not only keeps you in shape, but it is good for your health, your spirit, and your muscles. That said, some of us are still lazy fucks and refuse to work out. Although I don’t pity you for being lazy, I’m still going to give you a few different tips and tricks for losing fat while being a sloth. These tricks are not the regular “Shape Magazine” solutions such as “drink more water”, or “park further away from Target”. That stuff doesn’t really work. My advice will actually make you lose weight if you follow it.

1. Do a juice fast. If you read my blog on a regular basis you know that I keep drilling this concept over and over again. That’s because it works for fat loss. Not only does it make you skinnier, but it makes you healthier and happier. In my opinion it is also the EASIEST way to drop pounds quickly. If you’re dirty on the inside it will not be unusual to lose 10 lbs in a week.
2. Do the Atkins Diet. Dr. Atkins’ diet was quite the trend several years ago, and then everyone got over it. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, it simply means it’s not trendy any more. If you stop eating ALL carbs you will lose weight quickly. How?? Read this. When I say ALL carbs I mean that literally. Vegetables count. Brown rice counts.  Keep in mind that this is not the healthiest way to lose weight. However, if it’s not realistic for you to drink juice all day this is a viable option.
3. Practice Intermittent Fasting. This is the latest trend, and it happens to work. Basically, intermittent fasting allows you to take a break from food for a certain amount of time in order to give your digestive system a break and reduce calories. A very popular way to practice intermittent fasting is to not eat until late afternoon/evening. The point of this is that it teaches your brain that it’s ok to be hungry. In fact, it’s very natural. Back in the day when cavemen chased little animals for food they went through times of famine on a regular basis. As a result, our systems are designed for this. If you need more guidance, another popular method is the “Eat, Stop, Eat” system. Ignore the cheesy sales pitch.
4. Eat Less Food Than You Are Eating Now. Such a simple concept, but yet so complicated for many of us.  Do this without trying to count calories. Here’s how.
5. Take  Diet Pills. I never said that all these methods had to be good for you. The point of this article is to show you how to drop serious weight without exercise.  Try these. They are very effective.

What is it about the months of November and December that makes us involuntarily shove unthinkable amounts of food into our mouths?? For most of us it is endless holiday parties, leftovers, and alcohol-induced eating.  As the weather gets colder, activities slow down as well. We all know that more calories + less movement = getting fat. Boooooo! Chances are that if you have picked up the latest issue of Shape Magazine they will give you suggestions such as “eat before you get to the party so you’re not starving”, or “limit yourself to one drink”. Frankly, these options suck… not only because they are no fun, but also because they are hardly effective. Lucky for you, I have come up with some tips that work:

1. If you know you will eat a lot at night, skip breakfast AND possibly lunch. Many “experts” will tell you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and don’t skip it, and you need it. Bullshit. Try simple math instead of “expert” advice. If you eat 2000 calories at your party AND 500 calories for lunch AND 500 calories for breakfast, you will have ingested 3000 calories total. However, if you skip those 2 meals you will only have ingested 2000. This formula can be tweaked. For instance, if you are starving in the morning and you eat a 300 calorie breakfast, you will have ingested a total of 2300 calories for the day instead of the original 2000. Makes sense, right?
2. If you eat a huge meal the night before, don’t eat until you are TRULY hungry the next day. This is another variation of the rule above. I don’t know about you, but when I eat a ton of food at night I usually wake up with a “food hangover”. Many of us will ignore this sensation and eat breakfast because its breakfast time. Or because we’ll faint. Or some other weird reason. YOU’LL BE FINE! Perhaps you’ll only get really hungry the next day at dinner. Or perhaps in time for a late lunch. The key is, wait until you feel the true and real sensation of hunger to ingest food.
3. If you know you have a big dinner at night, get a HARD workout in that morning. Hard workouts raise your metabolism. A higher metabolism allows you to ingest more calories without getting fat. Hard workouts can consist of something like this or this.
4. Do a juice fast the day after a big dinner. Chances are you won’t be too hungry the day after you have an obscene amount of food anyway, so a juice fast will be easy. It’s a nice way to clean out your system and reduce your calories the day after a feast. It will also tremendously help your hangover.
5. Control your eating/drinking at every OTHER party. Sometimes getting wasted and eating everything you see is fun. And satisfying. The key is SOMETIMES. When you’re on your way out make an agreement with yourself on how you will handle this event. You can say to yourself  ”tonight I will go balls out and lose all control”. The next time you can say to yourself “I will limit myself to 2 drinks and 1 plate of food”. Then stick to it. This makes for a healthy balance.

How many times has this happened to you… it’s been 5 days and you are ON IT – eating healthy, working out every day, no alcohol. Then Thursday night rolls around and you have plans. These plans consist of dinner and drinks… and more drinks. You wake up the next day feeling like dog shit from the alcohol hangover as well as the food hangover. So you say fuggit and go back to eating shit and not working out.

Let’s be realistic. Getting and staying in shape requires a lifestyle change, not a 5 day change. Chances are this lifestyle change will not include the elimination of alcohol. So we have to be responsible and PLAN AHEAD for our alcohol consumption so that it does not completely ruin our diet.  Plenty of models and fitness personalities go out, party, and still look fabulous. You can too if you follow a few rules:

1. DO NOT have an all or nothing mentality about a night out. If you drink and eat shitty one night, wake up the next day and eat healthy again. Don’t feel bad about not working out for one day if you are hung over, it won’t make a difference.
2. Drink coconut milk the morning after. It does WONDERS when you are hung over. Get a whole coconut from Whole Foods, not the bottled stuff.
3. Don’t get fancy cocktails, drink your liquor with soda.
4. Try to eat before starting to drink. You will experience much less drunk munchies.
5. Dance it off and/or get laid before you go to sleep. You will digest the food and sober up in order to have a much better food/workout day the next day.
6. PLAN! If you know you’re going out that night, do a highly metabolic workout such as sprints so that your metabolism is kicking in high gear for the evening
7. If you are just having 1 or 2 soda-based drinks and still eating healthy, DON’T feel guilty. This is only a couple of hundred extra calories, which means nothing. Same for a couple of glasses of wine.
8. Don’t drink desert wine
1. Dry White Wine 158 cal
2. Medium White Wine 160 cal
3. Red Wine 170 cal
4. Sweet Dessert Wine 362 cal
9. Give yourself a drink limit so you don’t feel guilty
1. <2 drinks – no big deal, you can do this almost daily
2. 2-4 drinks – you can do this a couple of times a week
3. >5 drinks – limit this to no more than once a month
10. If you have 5 vodka sodas and no food, you have had less than 500 calories. This is less than a typical dinner. Although these are empty calories and you probably feel like shit, you are still in a calorie deficit and will not gain fat.

Not eating for days sounds f****** nuts, right? That’s what I thought too until I tried it. Turns out the extended juice fast actually not that bad.

Throughout the recent years I have experimented with different kinds of juice fasting, and through trial and error have figured out some stuff. Although I have read a bunch literature around the topic, I was still unsure about the experience, especially since the people writing the books are basically a bunch of tree huggers with lives much different than mine.

So I decided it was time to become the guinea pig and do an extended fast. I’ve tried one-day fasts in the past, but evidently short fasts are short on results.

First things first – background information on fasting:

Fasting has an extremely powerful healing effect on the body. While you are not eating food, the body will systematically cleanse itself of everything except vital tissue. In the breakdown of unhealthy cells, all essential substances are used and conserved in a most extraordinary manner.  As a result, a few things happen:

1. You get a lot healthier FAST
2. You get skinny
3. Your stomach shrinks so you eat less food once you are done with the fast
4. You just feel better

Summer is over. Gone till next year is the season for pool parties, the beach, skimpy Herve Leger dresses, and booty shorts. This does not mean it’s time to give up your fat loss goals since staying skinny is A LOT easier than getting skinny. So why not start now for next year instead of freaking out in April?? And why not prime yourself for the holiday season so you have at least a bit of wiggle room? I’m trying to help you make your life a lot easier… you should listen to me.

Contrary to popular belief, losing fat does not take hours upon hours in the gym. In fact, it can be done with no gym at all.

It is a common misconception that when one wants to get skinny, one should go to the gym and kill oneself until one can’t go anymore. The truth is, the most important factor in losing fat is your diet. Have you ever heard the expression “6-pack abs are made in the kitchen”? Well, it’s true.

Although precise percentages are impossible to measure, it has been proven through numerous scientific studies that diet contributes about 70-80% to the fat loss puzzle. In other words, if you don’t work out and just keep a strict diet you will lose 70-80% of the fat that you would have lost if you work out and diet.

Have you ever gotten a bad flu and lost 5 lbs in a matter of a week through not eating? Or have you ever killed yourself in the gym for a month and saw no results for a month? This is all due to diet.

All that said, I am NOT knocking working out. Exercise makes you feel good, builds muscle for a firmer shape, and helps you burn calories more efficiently.  You should definitely work out on a regular basis in order to stay healthy and vibrant. However, we all know that there always comes a time when we are in a pinch to lose some fat, and focusing on perfect diet and perfect gym routine is virtually impossible when you have a job, a boyfriend, nails to get done, bikini to wax, etc.

Therefore, if you can focus on one thing just focus on diet, and squeeze in some gym when you can.

Now, let’s take a look at which diets will get you results the fastest in ranking order:

1. EAT LESS FOOD – You need a lot less food than you think, especially when not working out. Humans can go days, even weeks without food. Although I am not trying to lead you in the direction of an eating disorder, I am a proponent of periodic fasting. It not only makes you lose fat, but also makes you healthy.  ”Eat, Stop, Eat” is a fabulous guide on how to get started. Guides are extremely helpful when starting a program like this since I’m betting if you do it on your own you give up on day 1.5 due to hunger.
2. LOW CARB DIET – Not the healthiest way to drop pounds, but not the worst either. If you are not into fasting, the old school method of cutting out carbs still works. It baffles me how when things go out of style, people think they don’t work anymore. Just because Dr. Atkins is dead, doesn’t mean carb counting stopped working. Here’s a good guide on how to stick to it.
3. XTREME FAT LOSS DIET – If you are one of those type A people who like precise instructions, check this one out. It’s a combination of tricking yourself into eating less food, while revving up your metabolism. I’ve seen my friends drop quite a bit of fat on this one.

“One quarter of what you eat keeps you alive; the other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive.” 

No matter what kind of diet you’re on or how healthy you think you are, the unfortunate reality is that unless you live in the Tibetan mountains you are probably loaded with toxins. Beyond building up toxins from food, you may be experiencing other unhealthy events such as drinking alcohol, smoking (whatever you smoke), or other recreational weekend activities which we will not discuss in detail.

The result of this unhealthy cocktail is feeling sluggish in the morning and after lunch,  aging (aka wrinkles), unhealthy colon (your poo is important), and most importantly WEIGHT GAIN!

The more toxic your body is, the harder it is to lose fat. There are a bunch of complicated processes that the body goes through to change it’s chemistry which are made that much more complicated by toxins.  So what can you do to fix your toxic, dirty self without a lot of money or commitment?? FAST. One day a week is all you need to see benefits. Of course, if you’re up for a 3 day fast (only once a month) you’ll heal that much more. However, for most of us that is unreasonable because of the need to function in work and life at 100%. Needless to say, energy levels are much lower during a fast.

Here’s why fasting works for weight loss and general detoxification:

• Detoxification is a normal body process of eliminating or neutralizing toxins through the colon, liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph glands, and skin. This process is sped up by fasting because when food is no longer entering the body, the body turns to fat reserves for energy.
• There is a healing process that begins in the body during a fast. During a fast energy is diverted away from the digestive system due to its lack of use and towards the metabolism and immune system. The healing process during a fast is greatly encouraged by the body’s search for energy sources.
• The most scientifically proven advantage to fasting is the feeling of rejuvenation and extended life expectancy. When you clean yourself out, your cells rejuvenate and you are good as new (almost).
• Fasting is a much easier way to reduce calories than consistently eating less. If you eat the same as you always have, but take out one day a week from eating, your weekly calorie intake will be greatly reduced.

Now, here’s a quick and dirty way to do it without much pain:

• Make lunch your last meal of the day
• Suffer through not having any dinner that evening by keeping yourself busy with shopping for skinny clothes, doing a full facial and mask on your hair, or having sex.
• Wake up the next morning and don’t eat breakfast
• Begin eating again the next day at lunch.

Words of advice….

• Eat light around the fast. So have a light lunch the day you are starting the fast, and another light lunch when resuming eating again. Otherwise you may not feel good.
• Don’t exercise. When fasting you need to conserve your energy for the healing events that will take place inside you.
• Don’t sit around at home and think about how you’re fasting and it sucks.
• DON’T do a fast hung over

If you would like to turbocharge your progress with fasting or you simply want more info about why and how, this is an excellent read.

Let me know how it goes…..

It’s been a while since I’ve written, and I have no excuse. I can tell you I got busy, but I would be lying. Although I WAS busy, I could have found time in the day to share my thoughts with you. Did you miss me??

This got me thinking about motivation. Training and staying in shape is just a small piece of the puzzle of what keeps us motivated in life, and without a motivating environment chances are you will get nowhere. You will be fat, broke, and miserable.

I recently read somewhere that Koi fish are even MORE motivated by their surroundings than humans. Apparently a Koi fish’s growth is completely proportional to it’s environment – if you stick a koi fish in a tank it will only grow 2 inches, but if you let it go wild it will grow up to 2 feet!

Think about how motivating environments apply to humans and training… do you hang out with a group of friends who are constantly going to dinners and drinking? Do they keep ordering and ordering? Do these people work out?? If your friends are constantly going out to dinner it is going to be extremely difficult for you to exercise portion control when you get back home. If these people are constantly drinking it is not only going to influence you to take in extra worthless calories, but will also make you lethargic and lazy the next day.

Conversely, are your friends constantly doing something active? Working out, hiking, biking? Are they big on hitting the farmer’s market once a week? Is Whole Foods their favorite place on earth??

After I learned about these Koi fish I took a look at my own environment and realized that even a seasoned workout junkie like me changes with environment. For the past month or so I have had a small rotation in friends that have caused me to drink beer and eat burritos more often than I would like. Some of these burritos happened to be the size of a small child. Therefore, although I kept my training on point I have still put on a couple of pounds. In the grand scheme of things, no biggy – I know exactly how to get back on track. However, it opened my eyes to the severity of influence from my environment.

This lesson of motivation should be applied not only to training, but to all aspects of your life. Do you hang out with people that are supporting you in furthering your career? Do they help your relationship with your boyfriend? Are you dressing like you belong on an episode of Jersey Shore because your friends are?? The Jersey Shore thing is obviously an exaggeration, but still no matter how strong you are the level of influence from your environment is staggering.

So do yourself a favor and start hanging out with a couple of girls who are constantly at the gym, don’t drink much, and have cute clothes.

I love cake. I love ice cream. I love anything that is sweet and creamy and yummy. (GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE DAMN GUTTER) This is why I was so excited when the Greek Yogurt craze happened. I realized that I can mix bananas, pecans, honey, and yogurt, and achieve desert! Best of all, this desert contains about 20 grams of protein and is good for me! Or is it?

Dairy has been a controversial topic for some time now when it comes to fat loss. Some professionals love it due to it’s high protein and low fat. Others advise their clients to remove dairy from their diet when trying to lose fat. What is the deal??

Here is the thinking behind why you SHOULDN’T be consuming dairy when on a fat loss program: When trying to lose fat it is important to eat foods that do not spike the blood sugar level. The glycemic index is a way to measure which foods will spike blood sugar the most. Although dairy is low on the glycemic index (which is what most people go by), it is high on the insulin index (which most people ignore).  There are at least two key studies showing that the low glycemic index of dairy does not correlate with a low insulin response. In fact, the insulin response is quite high! One study found that it was similar to white bread! Also, in case you are not aware, human beings are the only animals that consume another animal’s milk. Can you imagine your friend’s baby cow sucking your boob?? Therefore, we do not digest cow product efficiently and they slow down our metabolism.

Here is the thinking behind why diary is GOOD for you when on a fat loss program: Dairy contains high amount of protein (especially our favorite greek yogurt!), and protein helps burn fat most efficiently since it takes 1/4 of the consumed protein calories to digest the protein calories. Also, calcium is a vital nutrient that helps overall health, and a healthier body is a leaner body.

Who is right? My theory is that all of these things are true. However, the absolutely crucial element behind fat loss is to burn more calories than you consume. I have eaten white bread and lost weight in the past, and I have also eaten white bread and gained weight. The point is that I was BURNING more than I was EATING. The decision on whether you will consume dairy lies in how hardcore you are about your fat loss. If you are planning to compete in a figure contest and need to get below 15% body fat, you need to be meticulous and take the dairy out. However, if you are looking to simply get in shape and look good in a bikini, chances are you will be happy around 20% body fat. I know there are nights where you are consuming curly fries and vodka-sodas anyway, so a little dairy will not hurt you.

In conclusion, bring on the Fage. And bring on the Trader Joe’s greek yogurt. And even bring on the organic raw milk if it makes you happy. Just work out and don’t eat too much. Magic will occur.

For more fat loss foods check out this guide.

My girlfriend came and visited me from LA last weekend and totally floored me with her new physique. Being that she is from LA, I made inappropriate assumptions and yelled at her to stop taking those damn diet pills! (Everyone does it out there) With a satisfied smirk she informed me that she has not been partaking in diet pills, but instead, the Paleo Diet. Apparently it’s all the rage in LA.

Needless to say, I am normally skeptical of things that are “all the rage” in LA. However, I have heard positive things about the Paleo Diet before from 2 top rated trainers, and decided to take a closer look.

Here’s the lowdown: The Paleo people lived in a time when life was simple – divorce rate was low, taxes were non-existent, and food was natural. Imagine this… instead of fighting with your man on who’s turn it is to make dinner tonight, you simply keep your mouth shut because your jobs are already set in stone (pun intended). Your man goes out and kills food (consisting of furry creatures), and you stay back and pick food. And the best part is, he ALWAYS has a 6-pack, and you ALWAYS look amazing in your animal skin bikini!

Apparently a bunch of really smart and high paid researchers did studies on this and realized that cavemen in the paleolithic era are naturally lean, have improved athletic performance, have acne free skin, and experience relief from many metabolic and auto-immune diseases. Who knew??

The BEST thing about this diet is that there is not a lot of rules. You have a set of foods that you are allowed to eat, and you eat them whenever you’re hungry. Gone are the days of 5 meals a day, or not eating 3 hours before bedtime. So if anyone tries to give you Paleo Diet menu plans, don’t listen. You get to make up your own rules with this diet.

*Disclaimer: DO NOT be gluttonous! If you eat like a pig and gorge yourself, NO diet will work. You need to learn to stop eating when you are full.

Paleo diet foods consist combinations of lean meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Paleo diet recipes consist of meals such as filet mignon dinner with asparagus and mushrooms, or seabass sith a salad of greens. I don’t know about you, but that sounds amazing to me!

As with anything else you try, you absolutely MUST educate yourself thoroughly on all the aspects of the Paleo Diet so you can be prepared for pitfalls and not make any mistakes.

I did a bit of research, and my recommendation is to go through this Paleo Nutrition Guidebook. This is also the guide that my fantastic LA friend followed.

Give this a shot and let me know your thoughts.  If you end up busting your ass at the gym less than I do but looking more fantastic after trying the Paleo diet, I will scream. But I will also congratulate you.

Do you think you lack discipline? Is that why you can’t accomplish your fitness goals? Well guess what… we are all 100% disciplined to the habits we currently have.

For instance, let’s take Heffer Hilary’s morning routine – she wakes up, takes a shower, and proceeds to make breakfast for her 3 screaming children and her corporate husband. The husband and the kids are spoiled, and the breakfast is not simple. On a certain Monday, breakfast consists of  eggs florentine, french toast, and orange juice. Coffee for the husband. Hilary happens to not have a dishwasher, so she washes all the dishes by hand and then goes on with her day. Her corporate husband makes lots of cash, so Hilary doesn’t have to work. Heffer Hilary is also clearly fat.  “Hmmm, I REALLY should hit the gym today”, Hilary thinks to herself. “But it’s sooo hard!”

Holy friggin shit! I would rather do 5 sets of squats, 3 sets of deadlifts, chest presses, shoulder presses, and run up a hill for an hour than feed 3 screaming children and a husband! Why? Because it seems a LOT less daunting to me. I am CONDITIONED to work out, and NOT feed screaming children and husbands. Thank god.

Do you see the point I am trying to make? You can make a habit out of any task and make it seem easy for yourself by doing it over and over again on a regular basis.  If you think something that the gym rat is doing is not feasible for you, you’re wrong. If you never squatted before, you CAN squat 100lbs. You just have to do it gradually.

So, here are the steps to change your habits and make working out easy (although you can apply the generic steps to any habit, including your diet):

1. Decide to make a change
   • Make up your mind that you are going to start working out. It seems dumb, but it’s important. Plan the days and times that you will go to the gym or the track, or whatever it may be.
2. Commit to going through the motions without necessarily doing the action
   • MAKE SURE that unless you are extremely sick, or your dog died, or something else traumatic, you GO to the gym. Even if you are extremely tired or not in the mood that day, just go and tell yourself you will do 10 mins on the elliptical (which is not a Cheetah-approved workout BTW). If you are going to the track, you will just do 2 laps walking. This will not make you a star athlete, but it will get you into the HABIT of working out. Be ready for this change to take roughly 3 weeks.  In other words, be prepared for the first 3 weeks to be rough. This is the hardest part of the process
3. Commit to action
   • Each time you work out build a little at a time, but progressively. For instance, if your goal is to squat 100 lbs and you have never squatted before, start with no weight. Next time, squat 5 lbs. Then 10 lbs, etc.
4. Be prepared for obstacles
   • You WILL get sick. And your dog may die. Things like this will cause you to miss a week at the gym. This is NO reason to give up on your new habits. Just deal with the obstacle, don’t feel guilty, and get back in there.
5. Maintain
   • Keep doing this and don’t stop! This step should be the easiest part since now that you are at least a month in it feels weird to not go to the gym.

Simple steps make the impossible very possible. Even if you are not a total beginner and you want to take your training to the next level, use these same steps. If you currently lift pink weights and do the elliptical for 20 mins, you CAN get to the point of squatting 100 lbs and running up hills without flinching. Just change your habits.

Do you remember the good old days when you first started working out? Perhaps you hit the ripe old age of 25, and realized that all of a sudden you can’t do the 2am Jack in the Box runs anymore without gaining weight. Or perhaps you gained that freshman 15 in college, which ended up to be the senior 20?

For whatever reason you decid it’s time to hit the gym and get your diet in check. So you hit it hard and eat well and lose 5 lbs. You add weight training to your routine and lose 5 more lbs. By this point you are a gym regular and walk in confidently on a daily basis with your routine all planned out in your head. You say what’s up to the weird guy in the weight room who has been stalking you and give the janitor dabs. You are a gym rock star and no one can touch you.

After a few more months of doing this, you realize the weight loss has stopped! Why?? You’re going to the gym every day and your diet is on point!

Well, ladies, the unfortunate news is that adaptation is a bitch. When you first start training and your body is completely uncomfortable, change happens. As working out becomes easier and your body adapts, change stops. This phenomenon occurs because the difference between energy intake and energy expenditure gradually balances within us. Remember, all the human body cares about is survival. It is only your brain that is concerned how hot you look in a white bikini. Therefore, the body is consistently working on restoring energy balance in order to survive. Imagine what would happen to humans if we kept losing weight because we couldn’t find enough food (energy intake) when roaming the land thousands of years ago. All the cavemen would drop dead pretty quickly!

The short of it all is that in order to re-start fat loss you need to do something that makes you completely uncomfortable and shocks your body.  This can be related to your diet or your workout. If you do this with both diet AND workout, your chances of re-starting fat loss are rather high.

Let’s start with diet:

• Are you completely confused and don’t know where to start? The “every other day” diet is a perfect guide to mixing it up strategically and is the fastest way to break the diet plateau
• Have you been eating like a bird? Many fat loss experts believe that you should break away from the diet for a week or two in order to re-stimulate your metabolism by providing essential proteins and energy to build again. Once you stabilize hormonal influences, you can cut calories again in order to shock the body back into fat burning mode. This will obviously mean no fat loss during your diet break, but it helps boost fat loss when you go back to your old bird-eating ways.
• Do you have the same routine day in and day out and eat the same stuff day in and day out? Try diversifying your diet. This will shift your macronutrients and confuse the body. the “every other day” diet can help here as well.

Now for the workout:

• Do you go to the gym and do the same thing every time? Do something different! My favorite workout programs (due to the fact that they are most effective) are:
  • Turbulence Training
  • Body of Fire
  • Squat Routine (if you don’t need much guidance)

Chances are you have not done any of these before, so the shock to your body will be immense.

• Do you always do sprints for your interval training? Try the bike or the revolving stairs.
• Do you always go to the gym? Get outside and get into biking or hill running!

No matter what you do, the most important thing to remember is that you always have to keep your body guessing.  Once you become a seasoned workout junky, do not hope that the fact that you have a healthy lifestyle and work out will keep you on your fat loss journey. You MUST persevere and break away.

How sad are you that it’s the middle of August and summer is coming to and end soon?? Personally, I’m devastated about it. I’m really not ready for boots and turtlenecks AT ALL.

Now that the last round of parties and trips to the beach are coming up, you really need to make sure you look your absolute best in a bikini. God forbid you are invited to attend a White Party and you are not in rockstar shape!

If you are too cheap or too non-committal to spend $5 on the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet plan, there is a second best solution for you. You can choose to take matters into your own hands and diet down by simply cycling your carbohydrates. This will not produce as fast of a result as Xtreme Fat Loss and there is a lot less hand holding, but it is still relatively fast compared to just cutting calories.

Here is the plan:

• Day 1: Unlimited carbohydrates. This does not mean gorge yourself, but instead eat until satisfied.
• Day 2: Eat your body weight in carbohydrates. If you weight 130, spread 130 grams of carbs over all your meals.
• Day 3: No carbohydrates. However, you can eat all the non-starchy veggies you want.

Here are a few key things to remember:

• Eat several small meals throughout the day. I normally eat 4, but you can do anywhere between 3-6.
• Eat protein with every meal. If you always overeat, try eating the protein first.
• Eat until satisfied, not stuffed. I know this is harder than it sounds, but once you get used to paying attention to what you’re putting in your mouth it becomes second nature.
• Don’t get drunk and ruin everything!
• That said, just because you get drunk and mess up once it doesn’t mean you should stop. Simply resume the next morning.

The reason that carbohydrate cycling works is because of the way your hormones react to the fluctuation in carbohydrates. Hormones affect metabolism. The problem is that your body is a creature of habit and is very capable of adjusting accordingly . When we try to lose fat by cutting down carbs, it immediately starts to worry that a famine is coming. This causes a reduction in metabolism and a slower fat burning rate, which is the last thing you want.

This is where carb cycling fits in perfectly.  What’s basically happening is that you are tricking your body so it never knows exactly how you’re going to feed it.

For instance, you will make  your body raise its metabolism by training it to expect a large amount of carbs, but then you only give it a little food. This makes your body burn an abundance of calories even though you are only putting in a small amount. This is just one of the many tricks involved in the carb cycling strategy. The key to these low, medium, and high carb days is to keep your body “guessing” and your fat burning rate as high as possible.

Try carb cycling for 30 days and see how you like it. It would not be unusual for you to lose 5-10 pounds by doing this diligently for one month.