I spent most of my younger years on a ranch/farm. Cattle…lots and lots of cattle and a bit of farming and stupid, ungodly pigs. I hate pigs, but my dad had some which meant I had to help take care of them.

I hate pigs.

Even today, I don’t eat pork…except for bacon. I love bacon…but HATE pigs.

Before I get off on a pig-hating tangent, I better get to the point.

During those years spent in boots and trudging through mud and muck, I learned a lot of things have parallels to fitness and weight loss.

I’m serious!

For instance stagnation, ruts and plateaus.

We all reach points of stagnation (also known as a plateau) with our diets, workouts, and the idea we “want” to be healthy and fit – even me. As a matter of fact, I’m just coming out of a rut.

The same thing happened on the farm…literally. In the spring we’d get a lot of rain, plus melting snow and sun. Add in a lot of animals that weighed about the same as a Honda and you get some messy…stuff.

On top of that, you’d get a lot of standing water. Standing water is not good because it gets stagnant and is a breeding ground for all sorts of yucky stuff.

We had to get rid of that standing water before any problems surfaced.

This job was not fun.

As a matter of fact it sucked.

It usually involved digging small trenches to let the water drain. It was tough work (I think I’ve seen convicts doing this type of work) but it’s work that needs to be done.

What’s my point?

If you’re stagnant or at a plateau, it can lead to a lot of problems.

You get frustrated.

You get angry.

You feel like you will NEVER accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish.

You feel like the weight will NEVER come off no matter how hard you try.

It’s maddening!

There are a couple ways to break through that stagnant state and they’re not really easy, but they’re necessary.

Just like me digging drainage ditches to drain the standing, stagnant water.

One way to break out of the plateau and get out of your rut is to do something BIG and drastic.

Change your workout completely. No minor tweaks and changes – I’m talking a major shift.

If you’ve been doing nothing but use machines or dumbbells for the past 6 months switch to all bodyweight exercises for a couple weeks…and make them tough.

Don’t do 10 bodyweight squats – do sets of 40 or 50!

Do burpees…do 1-leg burpees…do burpees with push-ups at the bottom.

If you normally do slow mountain climbers, increase the speed so you’re almost sprinting in place.

Challenge yourself with the most difficult types of push-ups you can possibly do.

If you want an example of a killer week’s worth of bodyweight workouts, check out my personal workouts for the week by clicking here.

Again – not easy, but necessary. The best part of breaking out of a rut and shaking off your stagnation is that it doesn’t take long once you crank things up a bit.

The drastic workout change should only last a couple weeks and then change things up a bit again.

Now, let’s talk about the fun part – the diet.

Obviously, by fun I mean not fun.

If you’re stagnant with your eating plan and find yourself getting to the point where you constantly tell yourself “I just don’t give a damn.” often, you need to take the same drastic approach as you do with your workout.

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WARNING!!!
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This does not mean I am telling you to do some whacky liquid fast for 3 months or some other crazy fad diet.

That’s not what I’m saying at all.

All I’m saying is that to break out of this feeling of stagnation and “I don’t give a damn” thoughts you need to get super strict for a week or 2.

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Or if you want to make this portion a little easier to follow, just follow my secret diet. Learn more about that by clicking here.
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By super-strict I mean completely cut out the junk – no cheats, rewards, mini-cheats, etc. for 7-10 days.

Kind of like a nutrition detox.

No booze, no breads, no junk foods, no 100-calorie snack packs, etc.

No pseudo-health foods.

Just lots and lots of real, healthy foods.

Lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, lean meats, healthy fats, good-for-you fish, etc.

I told you it wouldn’t be easy, but once you do it…

…Once you’re done, oh man will you feel awesome.

Once this short period is over, you’ll be free of the stagnation and out of that rut and you will feel alive again.

Your spirits will be lifted and you’ll be so glad you were so disciplined.

Do it and you’ll feel great.

But remember – to get rid of the stagnation and break out of that rug, you need to make big changes…no baby steps here – big, sweeping changes for a week to 10 days.

It probably won’t be very easy, but it will break you out of your weight loss plateau.

If you have any questions, just let me know.

And remember…

Be a superhero today!

The Fit Dad

P.S. – Don’t forget to check out my personal plateau and rut-busting workouts by clicking here.

Ruts, plateaus, stagnation.

We all experience that with our workouts and with our weight loss programs.  It’s inevitable whether you’ve been working for a few months, a few years or a few decades, but the inevitability isn’t the important part.

How you react to the plateaus, ruts and feelings of stagnation is the most important thing.

As I said here, you need to do something drastic both with your workouts and with your diet.

To see what I do with my diet, click here and to see my own plateau-busting workout check ‘em out below…

These plateau-busting workouts are all going to be bodyweight workouts only and they’re going to mix in high reps, very low rest periods and some tough variations of push-ups.  If you can’t do the push-up variations I suggest, that’s cool.  Just pick out the toughest push-up variations for you and do them instead.

But…

…The exercises you choose to do in place of the ones I suggest MUST be difficult.  The point of this plateau-busting fat loss workout is to shake things up and shake you out of your comfort zone to get your body to continue making progress and to re-invigorate yourself and get you back on track.

Day 1:

Bodyweight Circuit – Complete this workout in a circuit, completing as many circuits as you can in 10 minutes.

1A) Pike Push-up – 15 reps
1B) Bodyweight Squat – 40 reps
1C) Jump Squat – 8 reps
1D) Decline Spider-Man Push-up – 15 reps
1E) 1-Leg Burpee – 10 reps per leg

2) Jump Rope – 5 minutes

3) Repeat the previous circuit for 10 minutes.

Day 2:

Bodyweight Workout Circuit – Complete this workout in a circuit, completing as many circuits as you can in 10 minutes.

1A) Burpee – 20 reps
1B) Reverse Lunge – 15 reps per leg
1C) Forward Lunge – 15 reps per leg
1D) Mountain Climber – 40 reps per leg
1E) Jumping Jack – 60 reps

2) Jump Rope – 10 minutes

Day 3:

Bodyweight Workout Circuit – Complete this workout in a circuit, completing as many circuits as you can in 10 minutes.

1A) Inverted Row – AMAP
1B) 1-Leg Feet Elevated Hip Extension – 15 reps per leg
1C) 1-Leg Decline Push-up – 20 reps
1D) Burpee w/Push-up – 12 reps
1E) 1 ½ Squat – 20 reps

2) Jump Rope – 5 minutes

3) Repeat the above 10-minute circuit.

Day 4:

4-Minute Metabolic Bodyweight Tabata Workouts – We’re going to change things up a bit today and break everything up into 4-minute “Tabata” style bodyweight workouts.  To do them, you’ll do the first exercise for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, then do the second exercise for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds and go back to the first exercise.  You should be able to get through the pair of exercises 4 times in the 4 minutes.

Rest for a minute, then go on to the next 4-minute Tabata.

Make sense?

1A) 1-Leg Burpee – 20 seconds,
10-second rest,
1B) Jumping Jacks – 20 seconds,

2A) 1 ½ Bodyweight Squat – 20 seconds,
10-second rest,
2B) Jump Squat – 20 seconds,

3A) Mountain Climber – 20 seconds,
10-second rest,
3B) Squat Thrust – 20 seconds,

4) Jump Rope – 5 minutes

Day 5:

I’m going to do something I don’t normally do and tell you to do 15 minutes of cardio today.

But it has to be high intensity cardio.  When I say high intensity, I mean HIGH INTENSITY!  I want you to work your butt off for 15 minutes doing your preferred type of cardio.

For me, that’s a stationary bike.  I’ll throw a movie in the DVD player, warm up for a few minutes, then crank up the resistance and go as hard as I can for 15 minutes.  After those 15 minutes, I’ll cool down, hop off the bike and do some light stretching.

Day 6 &7:  Take these 2 days off!

Still do something…don’t be a total lazy turd.  Play with the kids, go for a walk or leisurely bike ride – just don’t do an intense workout or sit on your butt all day.

Let me know if you have any questions about this week’s workouts!

And remember…

Be A Superhero Today!

Talk to you soon,

The Fit Dad

P.S. – If you have any workout or nutrition questions, leave a comment.  I love hearing from you and it helps me to design better workouts.

P.P.S. – If you’re ready to take your fat loss to the next level, then you NEED my Fat Loss To Go program.  It’s a fat loss program designed specifically for busy moms and dads and all the workouts can be done in 10 minutes!  Check it out by heading to www.FatLossToGo.com

I just started a new workout program and I’m toying with a new twist to my diet that I’m *hoping* will yield some awesome results…without making me feel like I’ve changed many habits.

I’ll definitely keep you posted on that.  I don’t want to give you too much info now because it’s very much in its infancy and I don’t want to throw a bunch of information out there without testing things on some clients and myself before sharing it.

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Now, on with the show!
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If, like most folks, you have trouble knowing what to eat, when to eat, if you should eat at night, blah, blah, blah…

…First chill out and relax.

The truth is it’s not as difficult as many so-called “experts” will have you believe.  It really comes down to making the right decisions most of the time and doing whatever the hell you want a little bit of the time…easier said than done, I know.

It’s just food so there’s no need to get yourself all wound up.  Just chill out.

Relaxed?

No?

We’ll work on the relaxed part later, but here’s a very simple little tip you can put into action that will help you in determining what to eat – which is by far the most important factor.

Ask yourself this question – “After I’m done eating this, how will it make me feel?”

The reason I started that out with “After I’m done…” is because it takes the emotional eating and comfort eating out of the equation.

When you eat because you’re stressed – or whatever your reason is for eating like crap – the actual eating makes you feel good…

…At least for a few minutes and then you feel like crap because you just ate an entire bag of Oreo’s or cut people off trying to swing your car into the drive-thru to get Super-Sized.

But when you actually stop yourself before you indulge and ask yourself that question it will let you remember what you’ve felt like in the past after eating poorly and will bring those emotions to the front of your mind and will at least make you think twice about what you’re about to eat.

Is that overly simplistic?

Absolutely!

And that’s the point!

So just chill out, relax and ask yourself that 1 simple question before you eat your next meal and snacks and you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to change your mindset and your habits.

So what do you think?  Is that simple enough?

Do you have any tricks you’d like to share?

Leave a comment below.

Have an awesome day!

The Fit Dad

It’s rare that I pimp books – especially if I haven’t written them myself and don’t know the person who wrote it, but I’ve got to tell you about a couple books that hit the shelves a couple weeks ago.

Both are called “The Big Book Of Exercises” and are put out by Men’s Health Magazine and Women’s Health Magazine.  They are 2 awesome books that cover 619 exercises – including pictures, detailed descrptions, etc. and the exercises are split up into what areas of the body they predominantly work, etc.

But if you want to know the COOLEST part…the MOST AWESOMEST (my word) part…the HOTTEST DAMN-DIGGITY part…the WICKED COOL part (with thick Boston accent)…the ASS-KICKINEST (my word) part – okay now I’ve run out of phrases for cool so I’ll just get to the point…

Watch the video to see why these books are so bloody awesome and why I wholeheartedly recommend them!

I think these books should be a part of everyone’s fitness library.  To get your hands on them, click the images below and you’ll be taken to Amazon.com or you can head to your nearest bookseller or I imagine you could get them from the Men’s Health and Women’s Health websites.

Have an awesome day!

And remember…

…Be A Superhero Today!

later,

The Fit Dad

P.S. – I get ZERO money by telling you to go buy those books…nada…zilch…not a damn thing so don’t think I’m pimping something just because I get paid.

Wow!  2009 is gone and now we’re on to 2010.  I don’t know what your 2009 was like, but I couldn’t be happier that it’s gone.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good year, but I’m so dad-gum excited about 2010 I can hardly stand it.  I’ve got so many things in store for you it makes my eyeballs want to pop out of my head due to excitement!

A quick personal note – to be totally honest I didn’t stick with my personal workouts very well over the past couple months.

I did the workouts, but I wasn’t that “into” them.  I thought they were boring, stale and dry and if you feel that way there’s no way you’re going to stick with them – even if you’re someone who gets paid to exercise!

But the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting on myself and I’m going to start experimenting on some of my personal clients and when I get the results I’m after I’ll be giving you the same stuff.  I’m pretty stoked about these new workouts I’ve been writing.

So stay tuned for those!

But now on to this week’s 10-minute workouts…

Day 1:

Dumbbell/Bodyweight Circuit – Complete this workout in a circuit, completing as many circuits as you can in 10 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »