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Weight Loss Diet Tip Through Addition and Subtraction?

Posted by: The Fit Dad | Comments (1)

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

I’m going to make this weight loss diet tip short and sweet.

Notice the Slim Fast? Don't add that...ever.

It’s actually more than a tip, it’s something I actually want you to do and then tell me about your plan.

For the next week, I want you to add something good for you that you don’t normally eat to your daily diet and I want you to subtract something bad.

It doesn’t have to be a huge, ground shaking diet change, anything will do BUT you have to do something.

For example, if you don’t normally eat raspberries, eat some every day this week and if you drink pop every day, take it out (or at the very least subtract from your daily total if you drink multiple servings).

Or, if you don’t normally eat asparagus or broccoli, rotate them for the next week (eating broccoli one day and asparagus the next) and if you normally eat out for lunch, pack a lunch.

There are some obvious rules to this – the item you add has to be a fruit or vegetable and it can’t be juice…it has to be the actual piece of fruit or vegetable, yes I’m making you chew and digest food.

And obviously what you subtract has to be something you shouldn’t be consuming on a regular basis anyway, like pop (soda), “coffee drinks” (mocha frappa mucho grande lattes), fast food (doesn’t matter what you order, remove it), etc.

I’m going to participate in this as well.

I’m pretty bad about getting enough vegetables in and the easiest way for me to do that is to have a big lettuce and spinach salad for lunch every day and add broccoli to it, in addition to some protein in the form of nuts and chicken/turkey breast.

I’m going to subtract potato chips. For some reason I’ve been eating chips with lunch over the past few weeks and I need to stop that.

I could blame it on Andrea, but she doesn’t force me to eat the things. Actually I should blame it on Maren because she’s the one who asks for the Cheetos and I’m only too happy to oblige.

We can blame our kids for some weight gain, but you don't have to resort to this to get back at them

One way or another, I think we can all blame our kids for a little weight gain and poor eating.

All I’m asking (or telling) is for you to make 2 very small changes for 1 teeny, tiny week. There is no excuse in the big book of excuses that can be used to shoot this request down.

It’s just too easy to do…now you just have to do it!

All it takes is baby steps…small changes over the course of a few weeks make a huge difference, but you have to be consistent with it.

Plus if you can do this for a week, it will be very easy to make those small changes permanent.

So what do you think? Are you up for it?

You can do it. I know you can.

Have a great day!

Ed Scow

P.S. – Let me know what your additions and subtractions will be for the week by leaving your comments below. It helps to be held accountable and sometimes just letting someone else know is all the motivation you need to keep yourself in check.

Categories : Fat Fighting Foods, fat loss nutrition

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Diet and Nutrition Questions & Answers and a Weekend Goose Attack

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Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Have you ever been attacked by a goose?

We almost were over the weekend while on a bike ride. We stopped at a pond so Maren could feed the ducks and a family of geese swam over and Mama Goose started hissing…

…I had no idea geese hissed. She scared the baby ducks away while her whole group got out of the water and walked toward us with Mama Goose still hissing and puffing her chest. I didn’t want to see what would happen if Mama Goose attacked, so we packed Maren up and rode away.

Weird experience to say the least.

Anyway, I’ve been getting a lot of questions from readers lately, which I love, and thought I’d share a few with you on the topic of nutrition and weight loss.

Q: “I’m having a lot of trouble resisting things like cakes and other deserts. What can I do to stop the temptations?”

A: You’re not going to stop craving these foods, nor should you. You like them and should enjoy them. Depriving yourself of your favorite foods is the downfall of most weight loss efforts. You get in this “I can’t” attitude where all your favorite foods get totally cut out, but sooner or later you snap and eat those forbidden foods, then feel defeated.

Instead you need to focus on limiting your favorite foods to certain times of the week.

Say your favorite is Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, which is fantastic by the way. Don’t do something stupid and say you’re not going to eat it at all, instead limit it to 1 serving Friday or Saturday night (or whatever night you want).

Doing that gives you something to look forward to, without feeling deprived.

Plus don’t go nuts on the amount you eat. Just because I say it’s OK to eat it doesn’t mean you are allowed to stuff your face.

Q: “I’m heading on vacation this week and want to fit into my bikini. I’ve got like 7 pounds to lose. Can you give me some toning exercises and a diet that will get me there?”

A: No.

Q: “Why do you always talk about fiber whenever you give nutrition tips?”

A: For a couple reasons, actually.

First, fiber-rich foods are also some of the healthiest foods around. Fruits, vegetables, nuts and beans are all loaded with fiber PLUS they’re loaded with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and protein (nuts/beans) and healthy fats (nuts/beans). I not only want you to reach your weight loss and fitness goals, but I want you to be healthy.

So many people lose sight of health in their pursuit of fat loss and that shouldn’t be the case.

Fiber-rich foods are also REAL foods. Meaning they’re not processed, loaded with tons of preservatives and crammed into a box or a bag, sitting on a shelf for months on end with “vitamin enriched” or “multi-grain” stamped on the box.

Another reason I encourage you to increase your fiber intake is that it doesn’t let you eat as much at one time.

Fiber “bulks” and makes you feel fuller faster. If you feel “full” faster, you won’t eat as much. If you don’t eat as much, you will lose weight. It really is that simple.

By the way, I didn’t mean to brush aside that question about fitting in to the bikini, but it’s true.

I get questions like that all the time and I usually don’t even respond to them because that’s not how I operate. I don’t encourage people to do crazy things to lose a bunch of weight in a very short period of time. It’s unhealthy and stupid.

Have a great day!

Ed Scow

P.S. – If you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m here to help.

Categories : Fat Loss for Men, fat loss for women, fat loss nutrition

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Weekend Bodyweight Workout and Easy Nutrition Tip

Posted by: The Fit Dad | Comments (2)

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

I wanted to end out your week by sending you one of my favorite bodyweight workouts as well as a simple nutrition tip to help save you from your weekend guilt trip – you know what I mean, the saying of “I’m done eating like this, starting today I’m eating clean.”

I know people who go through that thought process on a routine basis. They start the weekend off excited as a 2 year old chasing a frog (which happened to Maren this week), saying “Oh it’s just one day” or “I’ve worked hard all week, I deserve this” then Sunday night or Monday morning rolls around and the guilt trips start flooding in.

That doesn’t have to be the case. It’s okay to relax your eating and workout habits on the weekend, but don’t totally throw them out the window…just ease up a bit.

Which is where this post comes in. The bodyweight workout only takes 10 minutes (maybe less if you’re a little more advanced) and the nutrition tip is so ridiculously simple it takes no willpower to put into action.

The workout is a Push-up and Squat Ladder. It’s one of my favorite bodyweight workouts because it hits pretty much every muscle in your body and is quite deceiving in its difficulty plus it can be done anywhere since there’s no need for equipment.

Start off by doing 1 push-up, then stand up and do 1 squat. Get back down on the floor and do 2 push-ups, immediately followed by 2 squats and keep climbing up the ladder going back and forth like that until you reach 8 or 10 (10 if you’re pretty good at push-ups and 8 if you’re not so good).

Don’t let the low numbers of 8 or 10 fool you because if you did the math in your head, you’d realize that you’re doing a lot of push-ups and squats – but I know you can do it.

I actually found this old video I did going over this bodyweight workout (I forgot about the video…I need to be a little more energetic in my videos, huh!), so if my explanation doesn’t make much sense maybe the video will:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B35lBRuCig

The nutrition tip is simple. Before you sit down to eat lunch and dinner, eat a serving of vegetables or a fruit that’s high in fiber.

For example, have broccoli, an apple, raspberries, a pear or even some blueberries. Eat a serving of 1 or 2, wait a few minutes and dig into your meal.

The fiber won’t allow you to eat as much, plus because you’ve got some food in your belly you’ll think twice about what you’re eating or drinking.

All those things will lead to fewer calories consumed, even if you’re relaxing your normal eating habits and having some cheat foods.

Easy, but very powerful.

Have an awesome weekend and don’t forget I’m here for you if you ever have any questions.

P.S. – I meant to tell you this earlier, but I’m now offering a “trial offer” of my Fat Loss To Go program. You can try the entire program for 3 weeks for only $4.95. This isn’t a watered-down version of the program either. You get the whole thing, including the 15 weeks of 10-minute workouts, all the nutrition information, the add-on workouts, the advanced workouts, email support AND the brand new videos of the entire program!

Learn all about it by heading to:

www.FatLossToGo.com/Trial_Offer.html

Categories : Fat Loss for Men, fat loss for women, fat loss nutrition, fat loss workouts

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How Often Do You Need To Change Your Workout And Why I Hate Pink

Posted by: The Fit Dad | Comments (0)

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Whenever I pick Maren up from daycare she asks to listen to “So What” by Pink on the ride home.

Personally I hate the song for no other reason than it’s just unbelievably annoying. Plus I hear it all the time in my training studio.

I try to get her to listen to something new every time – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and when it doesn’t I tell a little white lie and say I don’t have it on my iPod.

What does this have to do with weight loss?

You need to change things up a bit on a routine basis. I know that’s a stretch in comparing the two, but it’s close enough for me!

You can’t stick with the same fat loss program and same workout routine all the time because your body adapts and gets used to the same old thing – and it does it a lot quicker than you may think.

This doesn’t mean you have to totally quit what you’re doing and hop into a totally different workout, all it means is you need to change a few things.

It could be as simple as changing the order in which you do the workout for a couple weeks, or change the amount of weight used and the number of times you lift that weight (repetitions and sets).

It could also be something as simple as changing the type of push-ups your workout calls for.

For instance if I tell you to do a Medicine Ball Push-up, you could do a Decline Push-up (with your feet elevated on a bench or stability ball) instead.

You may like what you’re doing – just like Maren loves that stupid song – but that doesn’t mean you’re going to keep getting closer to your goal by doing the same thing week in and week out.

You NEED to change things up REGULARLY if you want to keep moving, changing and reaching your goals.

Here are just a few more examples of what I do in my own personal workouts, and all the workouts I design for my clients:

-    Change a couple exercises that work the same area – i.e. different style of push-up, instead of doing Mountain Climbers, do Stability Ball Jack Knife, different style of Plank, etc.
-    Increase the weight and decrease the repetitions, or sometimes I decrease the weight and increase the reps, or use the same weight and force out a few more repetitions.
-    Change the workout order. This can be kind of fun because normally I do tough stuff first, then progress to “easier” movements, but every once in a while I’ll totally change the workout around on my clients and have them do the “easier” moves first and the tougher ones later. This usually leads to A LOT of grumbling and/or cursing.

There are a number of other small and big ways to change up your workouts, but those should get you started.

Again, if you have any questions or comments leave them below and I’ll answer them.

Have a great day!

P.S. – In my Fat Loss To Go program, the workouts totally change every 3 weeks so that your body never gets used to the program. I even allow for some of the “minor changes” I just went over within the program to make it almost limitless in terms of changing up the workouts. If you want to change your body and do it with short workouts, check it out at:

www.FatLossToGo.com/StartToday.html

Categories : Fat Loss for Men, fat loss for women, fat loss workouts

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10 Minute and 4 Minute Workout Videos and My Friday Workout

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Friday, May 15th, 2009

I’ve been a big slacker lately with my blog posts and I apologize for that. I have been hella busy over the past couple months, which is a really poor excuse – I hate it when people give me that excuse, so why should I accept it from myself?

Oh well, I forgive myself…

…that “patting” sound you hear is me giving myself a hug and patting myself on the back.

I thought I’d share my personal workout for today, and a couple quick 10 minute workout videos as well.

My workouts are changing slightly since I’ve finished up filming all the workouts from my program and I’m getting back to lifting heavy things, which feels awesome!

I’m mixing up heavy lifting, with metabolic work. It’s tough, but feels pretty good.

Anyway, here’s today’s workout:

1) Barbell Push Press – 4 sets of 8 repetitions

2A) Incline DB Chest Press – 3 x 8
2B) Front Squat – 3 x 8

3A) Resisted Push-up – 3 x 15
3B) DB overhead Squat (bad combination) – 2 x 15
3C) Burpees – 8

Then I finished up with some isolation moves on my triceps and shoulders just for the hell of it.

Felt good.

Here are the workout videos I promised you earlier. The first is a 10-minute fat loss workout and the other is a 4-minute abs workout.

Give them a try this weekend. They’ll have your metabolism cranked and burning fat for hours – which is always good on the weekend since that’s when most people fall off the wagon.