I get a lot of emails with people asking why they aren’t getting the kinds of results they want to see with their fitness programs.  They tell me how hard they workout during the programs, and they just can’t understand why they don’t have a six pack!  My very first question back to them is, “How is your diet?”.  Every time, it comes back the same, “Well, I don’t always eat that well.”  Well, there is your answer!  People, the eating equation is a HUGE part in that puzzle of of fitness!  The goal is to turn off the mind chatter, and stop making excuses for eating bad food!

Fitness really boils down to goals, and where you want to end up in life.  For me, I REALLY like being super-fit and being able to do the things that I do.  I  workout and eat clean because I feel so much better when I do.  If I eat junk, I feel sluggish, bloated, and gross.  Why would I want to make a choice that I know is going to cause me to feel lousy?  I don’t do workouts for vanity reasons (although that’s not a bad side effect), I do them because I feel so incredible when I’m fit.

I still get the same bad food cravings that everyone else does, I just CHOOSE not to indulge in them, because they move me away from where I want to be.  The longer you eat clean, the less you crave the junk food, and ultimately, you feel BETTER!  Then, the “good addiction” sets in – and you just want to constantly reach for that ever next higher level.

Everything you do in life is a choice.  You can either choose to do the things that make you better, or you can choose to do the things that make you worse.  Life is ALL about choices!

I have a strong family history of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.  You know why?  Because I have a family full of people that made the choice to not workout, not eat right, and a parfait of other bad life choices!  You can either invest in yourself now, or you can deal with the fallout when you get into your 40′s, 50′s and 60′s!  My CHOICE is to invest now, live well now, and be SURE that I’m not a miserable, hunched over, grump when I become an old man.

You are the person that decides what you are going to do.  Nothing has power over you unless you allow it to.  Not food, not relationships, not your boss – nothing and no one – just YOU!  Clearly we have to do things in life that we don’t want to do….that’s just how it is – but we have 100% control over what we decide to put into our mouths.  We have 100% control to decide to exercise.

“Do your best and forget the rest”.  Those words can be applied to EVERYTHING we do in life.  You can see the glass as half empty or half full……its all about your perspective.  Don’t be one of those people that has a defeatist mind set.  Get up every day and invest in yourself.  You’ll be better person for making that CHOICE!

No matter what the situation, I always look to the positive, and I always try to stay on track with the things that bring me closer to my goals.  Turn off the mind chatter, stop the excuses, and become the person that you want to be!

The choice is YOURS……Who do you want to be, and where do you want to go?  Decide.  Commit. and trust me, you WILL Succeed!

~Mark

The title really says it all with this one.  Tony Horton, the creator of P90X and several other top selling Beachbody workouts has been changing lives all over the world with his incredible training and insight into fitness and nutrition.  He came up with these 11 laws to help guide people toward being better, happier and healthier.   I do my best to follow these “laws” every single day, and their impact in my own life has been nothing short of profound.  Read them, absorb them, and live them – you’ll be glad that you did!

1. Variety - Variety is the spice of life and fitness. A lifetime of health and fitness is achievable when you can think outside the box. You have to mix it up all the time. Stay curious, creative, and stick with the kinds of workouts that you enjoy. A variety of exercises, workouts, and sports will allow you to avoid injuries, plateaus, and boredom.
2. Consistency -  Improvement and change occur when you do things often. Stopping and starting all the time will kill any momentum you need to succeed. You must find ways to stay in the game. Moderate forms of exercise, done consistently, provide far better results than the occasional full-body pummeling. A lifestyle that includes multiple forms of exercise five to six days a week guarantees results.
3. Intensity – YOU’RE TOUGHER THAN YOU THINK. The fear of pain or injury from working out is a mindset steeped in failure. You must learn to “Find the Line.” Do the extra rep or two, increase your range of motion, and increase resistance as you get stronger. Intensity goes hand in hand with Variety and Consistency. The combination of the three work together as a triad that creates a platform for success. The programs provide variety. Your plan will keep you consistent.
4. Purpose – Your purpose is to have a better life. Exercise and eating right help you feel better. When you feel better, you do more. When you do more, you meet other people. A healthy lifestyle gives us the energy to be better than before. We want to participate, share, communicate, and build a community—have purpose in our lives. If you had never found Beachbody, you might be right back where you were—isolated, with nothing to share, no purpose, because you weren’t doing anything with anyone.
5. Reality – Why do we want life to be different than it is? Why do we think about who we were and who we’re going to be more than who we are? We certainly talk a good game about who we are now. Why do we try to predict the future with the hope that wishful thinking is enough to change it? Life is NOT the way it was. It’s the way it is. Life is not our fantasy predictions of the future or our glory days of the past. Life is that thing that is happening to you as you read this. We fall into the trap of living in the past and future because right here is not good enough. Back then and up there are keeping you from right now.
6. Sports – Take the onus off of weight, inches, and body fat percentages and put the focus on MOVING—from dancing, rock climbing, and mountain biking to table tennis. I love that ping-pong! Think in terms of “can do” instead of “look like.” Sports are fun and help develop balance and coordination—which in turn accelerates your results. Jump, kick, run, spin, throw, skate, shoot, hit, score, compete . . . PLAY!
7. The Plan – SCHEDULE ALL WORKOUTS IN ADVANCE. This creates accountability. Plan an entire month ahead of time. Try to schedule as many workouts as possible with friends who have similar goals. WOWY was developed so that we could find an easy and effective way to stay accountable and work out together. Now we’ve got people in all over the world working out at the same time. That is cool!
8. Sleep (and stress) – Stressed out, sleep-deprived people don’t eat right and exercise regularly. Stress depletes energy, strength, and desire, while poor sleep habits affect your moods and immune function along with cognitive and motor performance. Burning the candle at both ends makes it impossible to be fit and healthy.
9. Loving It – Exercise and workouts involve commitment, determination, planning, consistency, and intensity. If you don’t like what you’re doing, there’s no way on earth you’ll succeed. Enthusiasm is a very big piece of the puzzle. Get creative and stay curious. If you enjoy doing Power 90 exclusively and it works for you, then keep doing it until it doesn’t. If you get part way through P90X and it’s not your cup of tea, then stop, and do something else. Something’s got to bring you back day after day, week after week. Love it (tolerate it) or leave it.
10. Flexibility – Flexibility is the fountain of youth. Flexible people are much less prone to injury. Yoga and stretching allow you to bring more intensity to your workouts. Flexibility is the key component to becoming less vulnerable and more durable. Aging has a funny way of making everything we do harder. Staying limber and flexible is the way to prevent that from happening.
11. Food and Supplements - You are what you eat! Food and supplements are your fuel. The right fuel supplies proper energy and recovery through balanced brain chemistry. The right supplements simply fill in gaps in your diet.

This is more of a food journal entry than it is an actual article today.  One of the biggest topics that so many people struggle with is their diet.  I mean, lets face it, when most of us average around an hour a day for our workouts, that leaves us 23 hours to be doing other things, like sleeping, working, and through it all, EATING.

In one of my prior posts, I covered the basics on eating;  what to eat, when to eat, and figuring out your nutritional requirements to keep you on track in reaching your fitness goals.  Since that article, I’ve received numerous emails from people, asking me specifically what I ate throughout the day, so I will answer that question below.  Another question I received from several people was “How do you eat in order to bulk up, but keep lean mass?”.  That question I will answer right now.

In order to bulk up, you obviously have to take in more calories than you burn.  Unless you are a bodybuilder, preparing for an event, the easiest way to accomplish this is by upping your caloric intake by as little as 300 calories per day!  Don’t feel like you have to shift the content of your food, just add to it.  Its really that simple.  Now, typically, for weight LOSS, I suggest a 500 calorie per day DEFECIT in your nutritional intake – but for adding, I suggest the slightly smaller increment of 300 calories.  This is what I have done to add bulk in the past, and going slower has taken a bit more time to add the mass, but its also kept all of the gains lean (no bloated look or feel – just solid muscle).

Ok, now I’ll go into a staple of my daily intake.  Let me start by saying that I no longer count calories, and I don’t measure the amount of food I eat, so these are going to be ballpark estimates on quantities.     Now, this is just a staple of one day, but I eat very close to the same things on a daily basis.  Breakfast, for example, is always the same for me, and ALL of the ingredients are mixed together.  When it comes to fluid intake, I drink either water (1 liter per 50 lbs of bodyweight), green tea, and occasionally (but rarely) 1 cup of coffee.

Breakfast

• Oatmeal (approx. 1.5 cups)
• Whey Protein Powder (varied brands), 2 scoops, 48 grams of protein
• Creatine Ethyl Ester powder (4 grams)
• Flax seed (2 tablespoons)

AM Snack

• Fruit (apple or banana – any fruit is fine)
• Cliff Energy Bar or Cascadian Farms organic granola bar

Lunch

• 1 lbs of vegetables (varies from day to day)
• (2) Morning Star Vegetarian burgers

PM Snack

• Protein Shake (mixed with water/ice), 2 scoops, 48 grams of protein or Greens Plus Protein Bar
• Cascadian Farms Organic Granola Bar

Dinner

• Bag (1 lbs) of Spinach
• 1 can of Albacore tuna or salmon
• 1 cup of diced tomatos
• 1 cup of Black Bean Pico De Gallo
• Salsa or Balsamic Vinegar

PM Snack

• Shakeology
• 2 scoops of Whey Protein Powder (48 grams of protein)

*NOTE*  I would like to point out that quantities above may vary slightly from day to day based on how I’m feeling.  In time, you will learn to read your body and know if you need to increase or decrease your intake slightly.  On days that I train in double sessions (for example), my food intake is almost always higher – simply because of the additional caloric burn.*

On occasion, if I’m really hungry within that 3 hour window of bed time, I’ll have one additional Protein Shake (always mixed with just water and ice).  Because I eat a Pescatarian diet (fish and veggies), and I do not consume dairy, I supplement quite a bit as well.  Without getting too specific, below is a summary of my supplements:

• P90X Multivitamins
• Flax Oil Capsules
• Thermogenic Fat Burners
• Calcium with Vitamin D
• CLA
• Ginko Biloba
• St. John’s Wort
• Alfalfa (for joints – VERY cheap alternative to Glucosamine/Chondroitin)

There you have the summary for a day of my nutritional intake.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here and I’ll get them answered for you.

Nutrition questions are the ones that I am most often asked about, and in all honesty, nutrition is the biggest key to unlocking what looking and feeling good are all about.  I would have to estimate that nutrition makes up 80% of the equation when it comes to truly looking/being fit – with the other 20% being pretty evenly divided between INTENSE exercise and proper recovery.

Proper nutrition really isn’t a big mystery either.  Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats!  For some reason, everyone wants to over complicate what to eat.  I’m a pretty simple guy when it comes to nutrition.  Heck, if not for my trusty microwave oven, I would likely have starved years ago.  I’m not a chef by any stretch of the imagination, and I honestly obtained my best results by just keeping it simple:  Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats (are you sensing a theme here?) 

In the next few paragraphs, I’m going to share with you EXACTLY how to eat to get that super-fit body that you crave.  Ok, pay attention, because here comes the important stuff.  First and foremost, develop a GOAL.  Just like your workout routine, you need to develop a goal that you want to reach.  Come up with a 30 day, 6 month, and 1 year goal.  Spend a few minutes really thinking about them, and then WRITE THEM DOWN.  Somehow, the act of putting pen to paper takes it from a thought, and transfers it into a REAL thing.  Now that you’ve done that, lets look at the next important things to follow:

• Figure out what you need to do to reach that goal.  First and foremost, you need to know how many calories you should be consuming during the course of a day (regardless of your goal being weight loss, weight gain, or maintaining your weight).  For those of you that are Beachbody Club members, make use of the tools section for caloric needs calculator (if you aren’t a Beachbody Club Member, contact your coach and ask them to plug your info into their caloric needs calculator).  This is one of the most valuable tools on the website, because you can plug in your personal information regarding height, weight, and age, as well as the Beachbody workout program you are doing.  The calculator then tells you the projected  number (of calories) you need to consume to safely lose weight, as well as telling you the needed calories to maintain your weight.
• Now that you have that number to shoot for, its time to continue your map of success by using a food journal to really dial in.  For all of the people I coach, I strongly recommend using www.fitday.com .   Its a FREE food journaling tool that allows you to enter all of your food for the day, tracks the total calories consumed, AND breaks all of those foods down by categories of protein/carbs/fats.  I typically urge people to use this tool for a solid two week period, because that way you get a really good feel for what XXXX number of calories really is (because most people tend to drastically under-eat, which is just as bad as over-eating).

Now, so far we have figured out our caloric target zone, and we have the tools to really track the intake to make sure that we’re really on track for reaching our goal.  What do I do next?  Now comes the time to put that information to use.  First, eating frequency:

• Ideally, you want to eat 6 small meals per day – spaced out by eating every 2.5 – 3 hours.  If you were able to schedule the perfect eating day, you would take your targeted caloric number (for example sake, we’ll say 2400 calories), then divide that by 6 (giving you approximately 400 calories per each meal).  Make sense so far?

Just as a general guideline, I try to avoid eating within 3 hours prior to going to bed.  This way, the last of your consumed food is pretty well digested, and less likely to be stored as fat.  On those days where I’m looking at going to bed in about 30 minutes, but I’m REALLY hungry, I’ll mix up a couple scoops of whey protein powder (with water) and drink that.  Protein tends to give you a very filling effect, and it will be pretty easily processed by your body while you are sleeping (without being stored as fat).

Next, lets talk about water consumption.  Since our bodies have such a high composition of water, its important that we drink plenty throughout the day.  The general guideline that I follow is 1 liter per 50 lbs of body weight.  Water (aside from being necessary) also helps to keep the toxins flushed out of your system.

Now its time for some tips to help you stay the course and reach your goals:

• After you’ve made your plan and committed to reaching your goal, get rid of all the junk food in your house.  Clean out the fridge, cupboards, and secret stash locations for all the garbage (come on, I know you keep a stash!).  With the bad food gone, head to the grocery store and replace the junk with clean healthy food choices (the top 2 tiers of Michi’s Ladder are full of them!  In fact, if you ate the foods contained in the top 2 tiers of Michi’s Ladder, you would consume a near perfect diet).  You can access Michi’s Ladder in the nutrition section of the Beachbody Club (again, if you aren’t a member, ask your coach to email you a copy – or better yet, become a club member – its WELL worth the money).
• Tell your friends and family what you are GOING to accomplish, and ask them to help hold you accountable.  Its amazing how much easier it is to reach a goal when you have your friends and family helping you to get there.
• Start a message board thread for your workout program and POST your daily food intake!  Somehow, when you post what you are eating for the world to see, it makes you work just a little bit harder to stay on track.  And your great example will also help you to motivate others that are going through the same thing.  Before you know it, you have an entire group of people working toward completing a goal.  People helping people – that’s what Beachbody is all about!
• Use Post-It notes.  Put them up on your fridge, your cabinet, your computer at work, the microwave, ANYWHERE that you encounter temptation – it sounds silly, but it really works!
• Lean on your coach for support.  We, as coaches, are all here to help you – so if you are struggling, we will gladly lend a hand to get you back on track – whether its giving you a needed kick in the pants (so to speak), or sharing in your success – we care about you and we are determined to help you succeed.

After a few weeks of eating clean and getting rid of the bad habits, you’ll find that you’ve adapted to your new healthy lifestyle.  The junk food that ran your life before will no longer have a hold on you, and you’ll see your cravings for it diminish more and more in time.  You deserve to be healthy, happy and fit!  Do the right things today, and they will always make for a better tomorrow!

Your friend in fitness,

~Mark