Junk food? Fast food? What positive comes out of eating this?

Over the years I have often asked people why they eat fast food-taste, convenience, price, comfort, kids enjoy the toys and meals, treating themselves etc so I wanted to break these down into groups and explore some different options.

Taste: Food additives are added to most fast food to preserve the food and enhance the taste, MSG is in ALL fast food and the reason why it should be avoided is because our sensory mechanism that tells us that we are full, is literally disengaged with this additive.  Additives are ADDICTIVE, how many of you have said to yourself “Monday I will start my plan, but this weekend I will eat every bad food in sight to get it out of my system?” You literally are setting yourself up for failure, start now, wait a week before adding a cheat, patience is a gift that we all have, sometimes unwilling to adventure.

Convenience:  Time yourself on how long it takes to leave your house, go to the restaurant, wait in line, pick up the food and then go home to eat.  I have blogged about how long it takes to prepare food fast and enjoy home cooked meals, I guarantee you will have a meal in less time.  Not to mention gas prices and wear and tear on your vehicle!

Price: An average meal at a fast food restaurant costs $7 where as a home cooked meal is around $3, a family of 4 is $30 where a home cooked family meal is $12.  The truth behind cost is how much you spend at the store while buying product, you forget how many meals you can make and it seems like you are spending more per meal.  Do your own math, a nutrition plan always comes out cheaper.  If taste-convenience-price are your main factors there are now stores that sell ready made meals for people who are into their health or even ship to your house! My Fit foods and personal trainer food are a couple that I advise you look into.

Comfort:  There are so many options out there to have half cheat meals or dress up a cheat meal into something that will benefit the body.  With technology in foods and options to trigger comfort why not go with a healthier alternative and enjoy your body better than indulging? There are protein cookies, protein pancakes, protein brownies, protein pudding, turkey burgers, sweet potato fries that you can make, low sodium and sugar ketchup, there are ways to make fried chicken out of egg whites and wheat germ to name a few, be creative with your selections!!

Kids enjoy the toys and meals:  Do I have to get harsh on this? I worked at a fast food restaurant during the beanie baby craze, it was in my teens so please don’t judge ha ha and I can tell you the parents went freaking nuts over these items! These toys cost less than a dollar at a regular store, do we need to fill a child’s room with random toys and fill their stomach with addictive chemicals and processed food in order for them to obtain a gift that will be thrown away in a year? Most stores now have its own child friendly items for you to purchase at a reasonable price while you shop for your food, it seems to me that its a win/win situation.

Treating:  I have left this for last, depending on the person I have taken quite a different attitude to overcome this objection.  Some, treating is a reward for effort and working hard in counting calories, a break from constantly being strict on their meal plans, treating is a reward sometimes for losing a certain amount of weight or body fat.  To me, this doesn’t make sense, BUT I have to understand that everyone is individual and IF it keeps the client on a program I have not problem with it, remember that a cheat meal per week is not only open, its necessary! The only problem is, a treat is often misused…some treat themselves everyday, or do not understand what a treat really is, some don’t treat once a week, often several times, some do not stick to the original plan and leave holes in the plan and then treat themselves on top of it, some mix treats with cheat meals and bad nutrition, some overly cheat without doing what is necessary during the week to build muscle and reduce body fat.  So, if you can be honest with yourself, you will be successful, if you do not follow a plan do not treat yourself, keep motivated, keep pushing and win the war!

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What’s YOUR excuse?

What’s your excuse?
No Excuses is a phrase used commonly in the industry to pull us from the valleys or plateaus, which are common, and bring a better mentality or focus so we give 100% to our workout. No excuses means that you do not give in to lack of equipment, lack of energy, lack of experience, lack of money, lack of time, lack of options or lack of motivation.  No excuses means that the following factors will not hold you back; Age, posterior deviations, sex, injury, height, weight, knowledge or fear.

Fitspiration is common with people who workout, it is extremely common with women who are now empowering themselves with their workouts, leaving the treadmills behind and getting into the weight rooms, focusing on building lean muscle instead of just elongating their muscles and winning the battle of the bulge, lifting heavy weight and not fearing “bulking”.  Women are now starting to attack their workouts, become more focused and not let any obstacles get in their way.  I have seen time after time that women will not let any objection stand in their way of their goals and it is enlightening to see this change in the industry.  Instead of skimming foods, eating salads, starving themselves to lose weight, women are now eating proper foods, learning what nutrition does to their bodies and eating right which always brings a smile to my face.  There is no more fear of being starving, no more lack of nutrients, there’s a deep learning that the right amount of macros will fuel their body, fuel their workouts, fuel their life and overall I have found that women are starting to take control!

There is a lot of inspiration from Maria, if taken the right way.  There are always pros and cons and I will go over both;

  • Maria works two jobs and has three kids.
  • Maria takes care of a disabled Veteran husband.
  • Maria utilizes her time by working out while her kids play.
  • Maria is on schedule, waking up at 6 am to plan her day.
  • Maria works out 6 days a week, usually for about an hour mixing her cardio and weight training.
  • Maria plans her meals, understands what macro nutrients and micro nutrients do to her body.
  • Maria did not put on excessive amounts of weight while pregnant.
  • Maria has battled obesity in the past.
  • Maria does not watch TV, play on her cell phone or let any outside influence clutter her life.

Sounds easy and inspiring right? I can easily understand how defensive some can be, I will go over the other side;

  • With working 2 jobs, taking care of 3 kids, is she adequately spending enough time to teach, communicate, show appropriate manners, discipline, encouragement, or even know much about their lives?
  • Her husband might be disabled but with him home it certainly makes for an easy sitter while Maria takes her life into perspective.
  • While her kids play, if she is busy working out, who is watching them? Who is making sure they are safe? Three boys, we all know there’s possible injury.
  • Do we have the luxury of waking at 6 am? Some are on rotating schedules, work schedules, life restraints, I know of plenty that have to wake at 4 in the morning and make a mad dash to get to work.
  • Not all have the ability to workout 6 days a week for an hour at a time, or the luxury of a gym to do so, there are plenty of life expectancies that will not allow that.
  • Most overweight individuals the problem is food, addiction, understanding and education.  I have spent so much time talking to clients about where to start, what to do, what foods do what, motivation, expression, depression, all these issues come into play and seem so overwhelming when starting a program.
  • I can safely say I have no idea what a woman deals with when it comes to pregnancy, I can also say that anyone who has gone through it is stronger than I.  This subject is closed for 9 months in my opinion, I will say that you have a life after to learn eating habits and change from there.
  • People like their shows, it is a way of taking the stress out of their lives, I have heard so many say that watching TV is harmless and entertaining, which I agree completely.
I believe that this picture brought just as much positive as it did negative, it brought controversy, it might have originated to inspire but it has evolved into much more.  The gifted versus the struggling, the great genetics versus the workers, the did versus the doing, the accomplished versus the quitters, the overcome versus the excuses.
Will you look like Maria? Maybe, maybe not.  Will I look like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Definitely NOT, but I take his teachings to better myself, to achieve what I never thought possible and Maria intended to do the same thing.  Whether you want to look like Maria or not, take the teachings and lifestyle that she did in order to improve yourself instead of choosing to give up.  If you take 60% of what she did into your own life you have still improved yourself, you have bettered yourself, you have changed yourself physically and ultimately you will feel better.  If you take 0% of what she did and still believe that you are better in your own life then take that into perspective, don’t take the time to be negative towards someone who you don’t know, be positive in your own world and ignore those who believe they are doing something that you are not.  It all comes down to how you feel about YOU.

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Failure versus quitting

Has anyone seen this before? Does it motivate you?  

How about this quote?
“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

Definition of FAILURE:  Omission of occurrence or performance; specifically :  a failing to perform a duty or expected action

Definition of QUIT:  
1. to stop, cease, or discontinue: 
2. to depart from; leave (a place or person): 
3. to give up or resign; let go; relinquish: 

I believe in reaching 2 different levels, 100% of what you believe is your capability and 100% of what your capability really is.  

What does the two mean to me? 

Once you quit, you haven’t reached 100% of what you believe is your capability.
Failure is when you have reached 100% of what you never thought your capability would ever be! 

There is a further definition and that is called Muscular Failure-In weight training, training to failure is repeating an exercise (such as the bench press) to the point of momentary muscular failure, i.e. the point where a repetition fails due to inadequate muscular strength.

Again, what does this mean to me?

Muscular failure means to push yourself beyond the comfort level, your threshold, your natural given endurance, giving what you believe is 100% of your mind and body to accomplish your goals! Every single time that a client gives themselves their complete focus their body will always follow, they will beat every small goal they have set upon themselves and a stronger physique will follow.  It means that you can not successfully contract the muscle, break form or move the desired weight to its full extension.

Failure is not reaching your potential, failure is thinking today’s workout will ruin tomorrows activities, failure is allowing the 23 other hours in your day to affect the 1 hour dedicated to your body, failure is not planning, failure is wasting the time and energy.

Quitting means that  you let all failure affect you.  If you quit, you lose focus, you lose strength, endurance, a positive mindset, you lose your mental capacity to reach 100%, your original goals seem worthless, your long term goals are unaccomplished  your nutrition doesn’t mean as much as it did before, so you miss meals, eat the wrong types of food, skip workouts, become sedentary and lose perspective of what got you in the gym in the first place.

Failure is not an option? Neither is quitting!

If you QUIT yesterday I challenge you to FAIL today, therefore SUCCESS will meet you tomorrow.

Change-Motivate-Influence





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This is better….than that!

“You will never master your craft in 30 days so why expect your body to rapidly change in this time frame?”

Upon talking to a friend of mine who has recently decided to cut calories we started discussing his future meal plans, his weight as it currently stands, how many pounds he plans on losing and overall physically what changes he wants to make in his life.  I can tell you that the individual is a determined human being, I have no doubt that he will be successful but he made a statement that I have heard throughout the 12 years of me being a Personal Trainer;

This is better than that!

I can assure you, both choices he was about to make were almost nutritionally void.  It was at this point that I wanted to educate him and teach him to start studying nutrition instead of what he believes is a “diet”.

First point: Ditch the word “diet” from your vocabulary! If you eat a majority of fast food, miss meals, eat large portions or even the other direction which is putting the correct calories in your body from nutritional sources such as Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats.  It is all the tragic word, DIET.  Replace the program with a “Nutritional Plan” and see the results immediately, learn what protein does for muscular growth, development and recovery instead of blanketing yourself with ‘it has protein in it, so it must be good’.  Learn the difference between a complex carbohydrate and a simple sugar and learn the difference between a healthy fat and saturated fat, the tools are simple and accessible! Read, buy books, look online, find a forum and ask questions there, ask questions and accept the answer, knowledge is always the right key to success.

I do not eat fast food but I eat food made fast! 

  • Grilled and baked chicken takes 30 minutes, if you make 6 at a time then you have enough left over for days, depending on how much you eat. 
  • Tuna literally comes in packets, its faster than any fast food chain to start eating! 
  • Red Potatoes take 5 minutes in a microwave to prepare!
  • Asparagus, green beans, broccoli all take less than 5 minutes to prepare, they even come in handy microwave ready bags.
  • Rice will take 20 minutes to cook and will last you for days, minute rice is void of nutrition, guess what? It only takes a minute to heat up your left over rice!
  • Ground turkey takes less than 10 minutes to brown! Cook a pound and you have several meals!
  • Egg whites come in cartons now, so you dont have to take all that time separating them! You will be eating in 10 minutes! 



Second point:  Dont make excuses like the statement that started this blog, if you eat ice cream every night, start with only the weekend, half your portions, use an alternate source-frozen cool whip works great! If you eat fast food everyday, start preparing your meals with choices that mirror what you are eating as a start and continually push yourself daily to take these bad habits out of your life.

Third point: NEVER ASSUME! Google takes a minute to find out the answers as far as calories, macros and how it fits into your nutritional plan, in the era of smart phones there’s almost no excuses, don’t set yourself up for failure when you can succeed! There is no way that you know what food item is better for you if you have no knowledge of what is in it!

My friend had made a choice to go with a chicken salad over a sausage biscuit from McDonald’s.

Southwest Salad with crispy chicken

Calories 450 Sodium 820 mg
Total Fat 21 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 5 g Total Carbs 42 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g Dietary Fiber 7 g
Monounsaturated 0 g Sugars 13 g
Trans 0 g Protein 23 g
Cholesterol 50 mg    
Vitamin A 160% Calcium 15%
Vitamin C 30% Iron 15%

Sausage Biscuit

Calories 430
Calories from Fat 243
Total Fat 27.0g42%
Saturated Fat 12.0g60%
Cholesterol 30mg10%
Sodium 1080mg45%
Carbohydrates 34.0g11%
Dietary Fiber 2.0g8%
Sugars 2.0g
Protein 11.0g
Calcium 1% · Iron 83%


As you can see, the choice was actually worse for him nutritionally! 
Forth point: Don’t be a consumer! Be nutritionally conscious! Read the back of the product and not the front, the front will get you to BUY the product, the back will tell you what you are about to put in your body! Ever heard of ‘carb conscious? Fat free?’ Makes you want to buy it huh?  This information is on all products that you will buy from a store, the nutrition facts are found on websites and if asked you can get the information from any restaurant.  You can also ask for a more nutritionally sound meal or modify it depending on what goals you have in mind.



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Goals

 When it comes to meeting a new client, I always ask them what goals they have in mind on what they are going for, usually it sums itself up to 2 different goals

  • Weight loss 
  • Weight gain

There are always the exceptions; tone, build strength, endurance, sport specific, health and wellness, energy and building muscle, overall the many reasons that clients come to me there is a specific goal in their mind on where they want to be.

After a short assessment and conversation about daily lifestyle and fitness experience I begin to dig deep into what they believe is an acceptable goal, then talk a little about exceeding those goals.  Of course I do not want to overwhelm the client or give them a false sense of accomplishment so I take it back a step while still encouraging the person.  For example; If a clients goals are to lose 15 pounds, I talk a little about the ability to lose a little more, 20-25 pounds, in a time frame that that is no more than 1-2 pounds per week, so we are looking at 7-10 weeks for the initial goal and 10-14 weeks for the accelerated goal.

I then go into body fat, I prefer a biometric impedance as its a little less intrusive. I talk about the body and what percentage of body fat is considered healthy and what we need to do to get there, I then calculate roughly how many pounds the body will weigh at a certain percent of body fat, how many pounds the body is holding in fat and a good time frame to lose the percentage.

Its usually at this point that the original goals have changed in the clients mind! 

I have 2 time frames when it comes to personal training;

  • 2 weeks
  • 6 months

Every 2 weeks we reassess your nutrition, what you are taking in, what you are utilizing, what carbohydrates work the best for you, what amount of protein works best, new ideas and overall how the client is feeling about the calories, the macros and the micros.  Every 2 weeks we reassess your body fat and weight, small goals lead to bigger goals!

To truly make a change in your physique you HAVE to give it 6 months, at least, as the body needs to transition in steps, with all of my clients I really dig deep to find out emotionally why they want to change their physique, what got them to the position of wanting to change and what made them fall behind in the first place.  Clients constantly face objection, from small to large, often created by themselves.  It is important to recognize the fears, encourage through valleys and overcome together as a team, all clients have the ability but need to be reminded every now and then.  6 months seems like a long time to someone who is just starting, by week 4 they have a different attitude provided the correct steps have been put in place and the trainer has a deep dedication to the clients success.

Success is the overall goal as success is in the eye of the beholder, perfection is impossible, improvement is the hardest thing you’ll have to do, being lazy is only the option after hard work has been planted.

Luke Fleming
The Force by Luke

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