Ten Simple Tips For Staying Lean

1. Curb Calorie Density: You can save calories by making better choices, for example, marinara sauce has fewer calories than a cream sauce.

2. Shrink Your Servings: Portion size is critical for staying lean. Having an idea of how many calories are in a food will help you get there, for example, a deck of cards is a serving of meat and a tennis ball is equal to a cup of rice.

3. Limit Some Choices: Instead of a donut, have half a whole grain bagel with a teaspoon of peanut butter, this choice will save you calories and has more nutritional value.

4. Curb Liquid Calories: Alcohol is a great place to start when looking at liquid or empty calories. 2-3 drinks per day can add and extra 2-5 lbs, fruit juices are another high calories liquid choice.

5. Make Movement Part Of Your Life: Its all about energy in vs. energy out. By simply moving more throughout the day we will lose or keep extra weight off, or don’t move and gain weight guaranteed. It does not have to be in the gym, for example, take the stairs, wash your own car, or play basketball with the kids.

6. Lean Muscle Increases Your Metabolism: Fat is burned in muscle tissue. A pound of muscle burns approximately 55 – 60 calories vs. a pound of fat only burns 3-5 calories. To stay lean it is very important to maintain or increase your lean muscle tissue.

7. Break Up Your Exercise Into Shorter Time Blocks: Rather than try to work out 3 days a week for an hour and a half, try 20-30 minutes 5-6 days per week.

8. Find A Friend Or Coach: Having a friend to work out with is a great way to stay committed to your workout regime. By setting an appointment with a friend or a trainer you are less likely to skip a workout.

9. Set Realistic Goals:Without written, specific tangible goals you are just hoping for results.

10. Think Healthy, Not Just Skinny: If you are skinny but have very little muscle you can still have high levels of body-fat. Eventually this may cause health problems or lead to weight gain. Speak with a fitness coach to determine your body-fat.

Inspiration

Failure

Why Supplement with Protein?

So why use protein supplements and not food? Well, protein powder is essentially just food in powered format. A majority of people find that it's difficult to eat enough meals every 2-3 hours in order to get their allocated amount of protein. By using a protein supplement you can count this as one of your meals especially when you add some fruits and fat oil with it.

If you have the time and can eat whole food, than do so as protein powder still doesn't contain all the vitamins and minerals of protein foods such as chicken, beef and fish. However, protein powder still is a high level protein source and do a great job when you rushed and have to get that protein.

So walk into any supplement store and you will see all sorts of brands, sizes and types or protein powder. Your best choice is to choose a milk protein or casein/whey combination. Casein/Whey is a slower absorbing protein blend than regular Whey isolate protein. When looking at the ingredients, look for whey and casein or "milk protein blend" as the top ingredients.

Having milk protein has been shown to help with muscle recovery and building as well as help with fat loss which is a fantastic combination for those wanting to change how they look. Just be sure to follow the other 10 Steps to Nutrition for Fat Loss by eating healthy fats, veggies, fruits, etc.

So use the Spartan Nutrition coupon I gave and if you didn't receive it be sure to see me. Choose your protein wisely and see the results!

Upcoming Bootcamps

Two sessions are now open!!
Session A running Mon/Wed/Fri Oct. 20th-Nov. 14th.
Session B running Tues/Thurs./Sat. Oct. 21st-Nov. 15th.

Please let me know as soon as possible which session you are interested in doing as each day I am adding new people to each block of time. Again 4wks and 12 classes. A maximum of 10 people allowed in each bootcamp. Session A is almost full, Session B still has spots avaialble!

Be sure to ask about the referral program to reduce your costs substantially and get other people some great workouts and results! Refer new members to knockoutps@gmail.com for prices.

Pre Workout Nutrtion

Since a lot of you are pretty much rolling out of bed and probably get to the club within 30 to 45 min of waking up I would recommend a simple liquid shake involving a scoop of protein in water. This will give you some energy to work out and quickly get into your system. Be sure not to have to much as your body may want to bring it up from the intense workouts :)

Stay tuned to the importance of post-workout nutrition, escpecially weight training.

Enjoy your day!

Supplements

With the busy lifestyle we all lead it sometimes very difficult to reach our fitness and fat loss goals. Trying to make sure you are getting 5-6 meals a day, enough protein, feeding the kids, meeting with friends and on and on. So no wonder a lot of people just fall off the wagon and just eat whatever. One way to help meet the 10 Steps to Nutrition for Fat Loss is to use supplements.

So which ones?

Well, in the previous post I talked about Fish Oil as being a mainstay in everybody's supplement list whether you exercise or not. There are so many benefits to this wonder supplement that nobody should not be getting their fish.

Other supplements I recommend are:
1)Protein Powders
2)Greens+
3)Muscle Recovery/Workout Drinks
4) Omega 3 Fish Oil ( already mentioned)

One other supplement that could be included but has some controversy is creatine. I will leave that to another post to explain why you might want to supplement with creatine.

By supplementing with the above you will be well on your way to reaching your fat loss goals and increase your performance in the gym.

The next few posts will go into why each supplement is recommended.