Hey! What’s happenin?
There have been a lot of things going on in my world, including a very exciting event coming up in the next couple of days – my 10-year wedding anniversary to my gorgeous and sexy wife.
We started dating way back in high school and have been inseparable ever since. It’s pretty cool being married to your best friend and I love her more every day. We just finished up celebrating with a mini-vacation and left Maren at home. We miss her every time we leave her, but it’s always kinda nice to get away and leave the munchkin at home!
Okay, enough of the mushiness and on to the fitness and diet stuff!
I’ve been receiving more and more questions via email lately (which is awesome) and a common theme seems to come up over and over. People want to know if I have any secrets. They may not come right out and ask “Do you have any weight loss secrets?” but it’s usually pretty easy to read between the lines and figure out what they really want.
I can understand the desire to seek out secrets, but to be totally honest I don’t have any secrets – and there really aren’t any secrets to be found…anywhere.
Okay, that’s not totally true.
I do have a couple of secrets that I use on a regular basis to help me lose weight (when I need to) and to keep my fit, strong and trim physique.
But my “secrets” have more to do with “rules” that I hold myself to more than a secret workout technique, secret supplement, or whatever secret weight loss technique you may have hoped I would share.
What do I mean?
I’ll give you a few examples of some of my “rules” (or if you prefer to refer to them as secrets…be my guest)…
When it comes to workouts, here are my rules:
1. Always focus on full body metabolic workouts that use primarily dumbbells and my own bodyweight. I can’t stand long, drawn out workouts because I find them boring and I want my workouts to have the flexibility of being done at home in addition to my training studio.
And when I say “metabolic” I mean I always include at least 2 or 3 exercises that crank the intensity up and I work ‘em. Sometimes it’s a Burpee with a push-up at the bottom and Jump Split Squats (mixed in with things like Swings, Push-ups, Inverted Rows, etc.) Other times it’s Turkish Get-Ups…which are killer, but they suck.
Make sense?
2. I’m a dude and I like to work on my arms, but I always leave this to the end of the workout.
Don’t get me wrong – things like push-ups, rows, pull-ups, dips, etc. ALL work the arms, but sometimes it’s nice to do some of the isolation exercises like bicep curls, triceps extensions, etc. I do them, but I keep them at the end of the workout because if I’m running short on time I want to make sure I fit the most important stuff in first…and hitting the “isolation” exercises are NOT the most important.
3. I hate cardio. I hate it, hate it, hate it! That’s why I stick mostly with bodyweight cardio. I’ll be posting some more examples of bodyweight cardio workouts on the blog in the coming weeks so keep your eyes peeled for those.
When it comes to my nutrition or “diet”, I also have a few rules…
1. I start every day off with a homemade smoothie. I can’t emphasize how important a healthy breakfast is and this goes way beyond weight loss.
My homemade smoothies include real fruit (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), quality whey protein powder, ground flax seed and Kefir. They taste fantastic and give me a HUGE nutrient boost and shoot my energy through the roof!
2. If I want a treat, I’ll eat it. I’m not going to deprive myself of something that I want. If I want some chocolate, I’ll eat some damn chocolate.
But…I don’t go overboard and I don’t do it more than once per day. My treats are small – once per week I’ll splurge a bit, but if I’m trying to lose some weight I don’t allow myself any “splurges.”
3. I keep my “containers” small. Small plates, small bowls.
This is a no-brainer when you think about it. The smaller the plate or bowl, the less food you can fit.
We have a bad habit of wanting to fill our containers with food…then we eat all that food.
If you use small bowls and plates you can still fill it and eat it, but you’ve cut the total calories by at least 50% and possibly more.
Okay, that’s all the secrets I feel like sharing today.
You need to come up with your own “secrets” and use them. You can use mine if you’d like, but I encourage you to figure some things out that work for you and fit your personality and your lifestyle.
Not everyone has the personality that allows them to “cheat” when they want. They don’t have the control and can’t stop at a small amount. That’s fine.
Figure out what works for you.
Have an awesome day!
The Fit Dad
P.S. – If you’ve come up with your own “secrets” or “rules”, please let me know what they are. I love hearing what other people have come up with and what works for their lifestyle. Leave a comment below and let me know what they are!
The first thing you need to understand about me is that I believe ALL parents are superheroes...some just have a little too much flabby goo covering their Superhero Body. To learn more about The Fit Dad's story,
Great stuff Ed. I keep telling my clients that there are no secrets. Simply eat right, exercise properly based on your goals, get enough rest, and you can pretty much expect to live a healthy and fit life. Unfortunately, too many people don’t want to believe that and continue searching for the big ’secret’ to weight loss, and they never find it.
~Dave
Dave Soucy´s last blog ..No, You Just Eat Too Much and Move Too Little
Thanks for the kind words Dave!
You’re absolutely right, although unfortunately it seems to be an uphill battle for us realists and honest people.
Hi, I stumbled on this site searching for healthy smoothie recipes to help raise HDL. Great berry smoothie recipe by the way. I made one for me and my husband for Sunday Lunch and you were not kidding about the energy boost! And it did taste great!
I wanted to comment about the “big secret” topic. As a person who has full knowledge (after many hours of research, study and self discovery) it seems that the main problem is when you tell a person to ‘eat right’ and ‘eat less’, most people still have no clue, or not much of one. The biggest thing that helped me was learning about nutrients, which foods had the best ones and how they affect the body and then learning how to translate that knowledge into reading the label. I would say THAT is the biggest secret. Or perhaps the “big secret” is KNOWLEDGE
I had to train myself to ALWAYS read the ingredients, no matter WHAT the fancy front packaging says, I learned the hard way you can not trust it. For example, I picked up a box of Quaker Instant Oatmeal High Fiber. I skimmed over the first five or so ingredients and put it in the cart. Being Quaker I never thought to look closer and see that it had an artificial sweetener in it!!!! I was VERY upset as I am avidly against artificial sweeteners or any artificial chemical substitutes! I tasted it in the oatmeal, (normally I make Old Fashioned Oats but sometimes I dont have time and I havent made up a batch ahead of time, hence the instant.) I checked the ingredients closer and saw it listed (I am not sure if I remember right but I think it was Splenda)
Since that time I have started trying to buy more organic, whole and raw foods. I have also discovered GREEN smoothies and after just one day of these I feel a difference. Theres more than just convenience in smoothies, the act of making a smoothie makes it a greater health benefit. I read an article that discussed chewing your food very well and I believe there is something to this, something about breaking open the cells in the raw vegetables to release more of the good nutrients there for better absorption into the body, by blending smoothies its like super chewing your food and the best thing is the green snoothies taste like fruit snoothies but with the added benefits of GREEN nutrition!
I have and still am researching the web for health information, one of the best sites I have found was earthclinic, they have compiled a database of folk remedies and include real unedited feedback from the general public. There are several experts in biochemistry, entomology, chemistry and nutrition that contribute. I learned how to heal an infection with turmeric among much more very valuable information, like did you know cayenne pepper will stop bleeding almost instantly? It also has healing properties. I have learned which foods to include in my smoothies by learning what each one contains and how it benefits the body. I also read an article that scientists have discovered a particular probiotic found naturally in the stomach kills the virus that causes H1N1!
Thanks for all the great information provided and here’s to better health for all, never stop learning!