Need Your Help! (quick 2 minute survey + free gift)

I want to help you get to your fitness goals as fast as possible, and would greatly appreciate a little help. I also know your time is valuable, so I’m going to hook you up with a free gift if you participate in a quick 2 minute survey (keep reading for details) –

The survey includes questions like:
  • What your biggest fitness goals are
  • What your biggest frustrations in reaching them might be
  • What you’d like to learn more about in my weekly blog posts/emails – diet tips, workout videos, etc.
To take this quick 2 minute survey, just click the link below:
And when you’re finished, shoot us an email at fvtcoachingclub (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll have my assistant send you a copy of my 7 Day Rapid Fat Loss Blueprint as a thank you for participating!
Here’s the link again to take the survey:
Thanks for your help!
Forest

5 Proven Nutrition SWITCHES for Faster Fat Loss

Great new post for you today from Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS. I’m always on the lookout for diet and exercise articles to share … and I’ve gotten permission to actually re-publish this one on my website … so enjoy!


– Forest

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Every day in March, I’ve committed to sharing a Training and Nutrition “SWITCH” to help you lose fat. Here are 5 of the most popular nutrition switches I’ve posted so far:

Nutrition SWITCH #1 – No More Dessert for Breakfast

If you want to lose fat, stop eating dessert for breakfast.

Let’s be honest, most of what people eat for breakfast would qualify as dessert if served at any other time of day. So stop with sugary cereals, muffins (let’s be honest, we all know that muffins = cake), granola bars, and bagels.

Nutrition SWITCH #2 – Switch Your Eating Schedule

If you find that you often “binge snack” at night, try having a bigger late afternoon healthy snack, and then having a later healthy dinner.

There’s no magic to not eating after a certain time. I often eat a big healthy dinner and go to sleep within 30 minutes. That won’t make you fat. Eating a pint of ice cream & bag of chips every night while you watch TV makes you fat.

Nutrition SWITCH #3 – Minimize the Junk

Your house doesn’t need to be stocked like the local 7-11. Keep the minimum amount of treats at home to avoid mutiny and keep treats out of sight & hard to access.

Make healthy foods (giant bowls of fresh fruit) visible and places encouraging notes to eat the fruit in the kitchen.

Put ready-to-eat produce in most visible part of the fridge & hide junk in the back. All research proven to increase healthy food consumption. And when it’s your time for a cheat meal, you can enjoy it guilt-free.

Nutrition SWITCH #4 – Go From Processed to Natural

When possible, switch out all processed or “modified” carbohydrates and replace it with a fruit, vegetable, or nut.

For example, instead of toast with eggs, have an apple and add spinach to the eggs. Instead of a processed carbohydrate with your morning coffee, have 1oz of raw nuts (almonds or walnuts). With steak, eat broccoli, not mashed potatoes or French fries.

Nutrition SWITCH #5 – Cut the Sugar From Your Post-Workout Drink

If you’re focused specifically on fat loss, you do NOT need to add sugar (or any variations of sugar) to your after training drink.

I interviewed top nutritionists about this in 2010, and they all agreed that for fat loss, you don’t need to force post-workout sugar into your body. So take it out.

BONUS Nutrition SWITCH – Become Your Own Nutrition Expert

Stop getting fooled by fad diets. Become an expert yourself by going through a 2-week “intensive nutrition course”.

Here’s how:

Eat a wide variety of food for 2 weeks and record all of your meals. You’ll quickly know the calorie counts of all foods and proper serving sizes AND most importantly, what works for YOU. Very simple. Very effective.

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About the author: Craig Ballentyne is the author of Turbulence Training, a program designed for folks looking to lose fat and build muscle at home. He’s also got a very cool ‘Simple Nutrition For Fat Loss’ system that’s easy, enjoyable, and doesn’t restrict your carb intake … to learn more about it, click the link below:

March 2011 Challenge Workout Results

The March 2011 Challenge Workout in case you missed it:

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Beginning this month and moving forward, we’ll repeat the challenge workout from three months prior … this month’s is the same as December 2010’s. To complete the workout, you’ll simply do:

7 Burpees
14 Kettlebell Swings
21 Body Weight Squats

… and repeat five times as fast as you can.

—————
And the results:

AG 7:18
MG 7:24
SG 8:00
SR 8:10
TH 8:18
SK 8:47
LE 8:54
SP 8:55
KJ 8:55
KG 9:04
CS 9:38
SB 9:46
MA 9:52
BG 9:59
MA 10:14
NG 10:17
SF 10:18
BA 10:24
NP 10:41
PH 10:43
AA 10:53
LA 10:58
SM 11:15
MB 11:36
EZ 11:44
AS 12:11
AT 12:29
JG 15:42
NT 16:15
PT (4.1 rounds)
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Great turn out for this month and great job to everyone! Have a great weekend!
Forest

March 2011 Challenge Workout

Beginning this month and moving forward, we’ll repeat the challenge workout from three months prior … this month’s is the same as December 2010’s. To complete the workout, you’ll simply do:

7 Burpees
14 Kettlebell Swings
21 Body Weight Squats

… and repeat five times as fast as you can.

Here’s a quick video demo:
Good luck!
P.S. Out of the 20 folks who’ve completed the workout thus far this week, every single one who finished the challenge in December beat their previous time! Great job and keep up the good work!
P.S.S. Last chance to sign up for the Beyond Core Strength Workshop this weekend with Sacramento Chiropractor Dr. Sandy Bell – for more info and to sign up (just a few spots remain), click the link below:

Monthly Nutrition Challenge + Beyond Core Strength Workshop Update

Happy Monday!

This month’s nutrition challenge: Drink half of your body weight in ounces of water per day

You can read about last month’s – and the concept behind these monthly challenges – by clicking here
Also, our Beyond Core Strength Workshop – where you’ll learn about the right way to strengthen your ‘core’, injury prevention, and pain reduction from me and Sacramento Chiropractor Dr. Sandy Bell – is almost half full with about two weeks to go (!). If you’d like a spot, be sure to reserve one asap before they’re all gone – click this link to do so: The Beyond Core Strength Workshop
Have a great week!
Forest

Beyond Core Strength Workshop Open For Enrollment


Along with Sacramento Chiropractor Dr. Sandy Bell, I’m holding the Beyond Core Strength workshop on Saturday, March 12th at 10:30 am at my Land Park personal training studio … if:

1. You have nagging injuries that keep impede your workouts or daily life
2. You’re puzzled about the best way to strengthen your core
3. You have chronic pain that negatively affects your life in any way
You need to be at this workshop! To learn more and reserve a spot (btw it’s at my studio and space is limited, so sign up quick if you want a spot), click the link below:

Revealed: Secrets Of Restoring Lost Physical Function

Is chronic pain reducing your quality of life?

The story is all too common:
Chronic lower back/knee/shoulder pain keeps you from doing all things you want to do. From going on hikes. From standing for long periods of time.
Maybe you get into a workout routine and get on a roll … but you end up getting injured a month or two into it and have to stop. Or slow down so much that your progress is significantly affected.
And, naturally, you do everything you can for pain reduction … but here’s the thing: Everything you’ve learned about pain and injury is probably all wrong.
The ‘classic’ way to treat an injury is to treat the actual site – in other words, if you have knee pain, you take anti-inflamatories, ice the area up, etc. You treat the actual site of the pain or injury.
The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t address the cause of the pain and/or injury or where it’s coming from.
Let’s look at a common knee problem, Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, as an example. PFPS is often seen in runners, basketball players, young athletes, and females, especially those who have an increased angle of genu valgus or ‘knock knee’. The most common cause of this condition, according to WikiPedia, is “either abnormal forces (e.g. increased pull of the lateral quadricep retinaculum with acute or chronic lateral PF subluxation/dislocation) or prolonged repetitive compressive or shearing forces (running or jumping) on the PF joint.”
In plain English, this means that this condition frequently stems from muscular imbalances in the hips, legs and feet. It can also be caused by ‘prolonged repetitive forces’ – and many times happens when runners ramp up their milage too fast, for example.
So – what folks typically do is ice their knees, take anti-inflammatories, etc. – but they don’t look at the root cause of the problem. In the case of the PFPS example, it’s commonly exisiting muscle imbalnces or a poorly designed/lack of a training plan.
Moral of the story is this: If you’re experiencing pain of some kind, by all means, treat the site of the injury and get some relief. But make sure to also take a look at the bigger picture – and don’t forget that everything is connected. Muscle imbalances around the site of the injury – and even in other parts of your body – could very likely be causing your issues. Fix muscle imbalances, fix your bad posture, strengthen your core, use perfect form in your training and you’ll be surprised and amazed at what you can do!
Forest Vance, Sacramento Personal Trainer and NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist
P.S. Doctor of Chiropractic Sandy Bell (also my friend, colleague, and personal chiropractor) and I are putting together a workshop in the very near future that’ll teach you all about this specific topic. The main focus of the workshop will be specific solutions and strategies to help you move better, reduce pain, and restore lost physical function. If you’re interested, drop me a note by clicking here and I’ll make sure to reserve you a spot. More details on the workshop are coming very soon so stay tuned!