Goals: The Secret to Success

     Most people will tell you the hardest part of changing your life is starting. I disagree. The hardest part a few weeks into training. At this time you feel like you should be seeing some results, and for most people, those results are not significant enough. Id say around 70% of people that pledge to change their life successfully start and continue strong for a week, and when they don't see significant results after a week or two they think they cannot change, and simply give up.

     This is not going to be you. It's not going to be you because you are different, you know its a marathon, not a sprint. One sure fire way to not give up is to create goals for yourself. Goals allow you to gain satisfaction from small things, creating an aura around you of success and positive thoughts. The types of goals you can set are endless. For the first few weeks of your journey to your dream body I suggest you create small, achievable goals. This does not mean goals that are very easy to accomplish that you could have done before you took the pledge to change your body, but they should be goals that are helping you reach your final destination. An example of a great goal for a beginner looking to change themselves is simply to eat healthier for 3 days. 3 days, thats all. Take everything you learned in previous posts, and tell yourself that you will follow that plan for three days. After those three days, reward yourself. Instead of rewarding yourself with unhealthy food or things that will diminish your hard work, celebrate your success with getting yourself a new pair of workout short, or a new pair of lifting gloves. After those three days are up, you MUST set another goal. This time make it eating healthy for a week and getting 3 days of solid hard exercise in. Continue on this path, reach your goals, celebrate your goals for a short period, and then move on to the next one! Eventually you will be setting goals like increase your bench press by 20 pounds in 2 months, or lose 2% body fat. With every small goal achieved comes a step toward your ultimate goal; your dream body! Positivity is going to be one of the most essential components for this journey to continue on. Tell yourself you won't give up, strive for those goals and DO NOT STOP until you reach them. Remember, the goals you set should not be easy, but they should be achievable with hard work and focus!

   

Cardio or Weights? Which is Going to Sculpt my Dream Body?

    An argument that has been going on for years, with so many different opinions on the subject, how could a beginner decide which they need to do. Heres my take on the debate: lifting weights needs to be the staple of anyones workout routine, and cardio is determined by goals. I am going to help you out in determining how you should do incorporate weights and cardio to achieve what you though you could only dream.

For the individual looking to lose fat: If you have been following previous posts, you understand that a calorie deficit is going to be how you lose fat. Now, you will lose fat by just eating less calories than your body requires, but wouldn't you want to speed up the process? By lifting weights, your body will start to adapt and get what I refer to as "the after burn". By lifting weights, your metabolism will increase, in turn allowing you to burn more calories even when you are not working out. This is beneficial, and you can use it in two different ways. Your first option is to let these extra burned calories put you into a greater calorie deficit, which in turn will cause you to shed more fat. The second option would be to track how many calories you are burning during your weight lifting, and eat those calories to stay in the -500 calorie deficit. Now, how should you incorporate cardio? I suggest working in High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) three days a week. This will cause you to burn extra calories, which will speed up your fat loss, or allow you to eat more calories. What is HIIT? HIIT is exactly what it sounds like. You are going to push your body to its limits, going as fast as you can, for a short period of time. Then you will get a short period of lower intensity. A solid beginner HIIT routine would look like this on a treadmill or outside:

• 7 rounds
• 30 seconds 90%
• 60 seconds 35%

For the individual looking to gain muscle: If you are slowly focusing on building muscle, I suggest little to no cardio at all. Unless you have a reason to (sport, event) then cardio is really not going to be necessary. If you plan on doing cardio well trying to gain muscle, here are a few things you MUST do.

• Eat the calories you burned back- when looking to gain muscle, you should be in a calorie surplus in order for your body to grow. If you are going to incorporate cardio, make sure you are eating at least the calories you burned back.  
• NEVER do cardio before your lifting routine. If you are mainly focusing on building muscle, you want to be able to put 100% of your energy into your lifts. After you are done focusing on your main goal (bulking up) you may then use the rest of the energy to have to do your cardio. If you do your cardio before your lift, you are not going to be able put your all into your main goal of gaining muscle. 

     Whether you decide to incorporate cardio into your routine is essentially all about your goals, but what I have provided above is what I have researched and experienced to be the most useful ways to use cardio to your benefit. I am a firm believer that you must have weights in your routine, and that they should be the main focus in your journey to your dream body.  

Macros: Do they need to be counted?

     As you scour the internet for weight loss solutions, you may come across the word macros. In fitness, macros stands for macronutrients, which are Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fat. These are the three key sources in every food. While dissecting the online fitness world, you fill find people who think counting macros is essential for that perfect body, you will find people who don't think it plays any role, and you will find people in between. I am going to first explain to you the three macronutrients.

Protein: Protein is an essential part of everyones diet. It contains amino acids that are required for the body to function. Protein is generally found in meats, poultry, fish, cheese milk and nuts. Here are the basics of what protein does for the body:

• Growth (especially important for children, teens, and pregnant women)
• Tissue repair
• Immune function
• Making essential hormones and enzymes
• Energy when carbohydrate is not available
• Preserving lean muscle mass

Carbohydrates: Carbs should be the most consumed food in your diet. The common misconception is that carbohydrates are bad for you. People believe this because when they think of carbs they think of things like bread, rice, and chips. In reality, fruits and vegetables are very very high in GOOD carbs. Here is what they do for us:

• Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of fuel.
• Carbohydrates are easily used by the body for energy.
• All of the tissues and cells in our body can use glucose for energy.
• Carbohydrates are needed for the central nervous system, the kidneys, the brain, the muscles (including the heart) to function properly.
• Carbohydrates can be stored in the muscles and liver and later used for energy.
• Carbohydrates are important in intestinal health and waste elimination.
• Carbohydrates are mainly found in starchy foods (like grain and potatoes), fruits, milk, and yogurt. Other foods like vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and cottage cheese contain carbohydrates, but in lesser amounts.

Fats: FATS ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF EVERYONES DIET, in moderation. When reading a label and looking at fat content, you should try you best to stay away from trans fat and saturated fat. These two types of fat are the unhealthy fats found generally in packaged and baked goods. Unsaturated fats should be where you are getting most of your fat, which can be found in things like olive oil, avocados and nuts. Why are they important?

• Normal growth and development
• Energy (fat is the most concentrated source of energy)
• Absorbing certain vitamins ( like vitamins A, D, E, K, and carotenoids)
• Providing cushioning for the organs
• Maintaining cell membranes
• Providing taste, consistency, and stability to foods

Now that you understand the basics of macro nutrients, do they need to be counted?

There are two different instances when you would consider counting macros, losing fat (note I did not say losing weight, I believe your goal should be to lose fat and conserve muscle or even build muscle) or gaining muscle.

Counting macros when losing fat: I strongly believe that counting your macros to the gram is unnecessary until you get in that below 10% body fat. This does not mean you should not be aware of how much of each macronutrient you are consuming. If you are using the app MyFitnessPal on your smartphone, when you set it up you will be able to see what % of each macro you are eating. For the average person looking to lose fat, I would recommend you go with 30% protein, 15% fats, and the rest carbohydrates (55%). YES, this does mean you can eat whatever you like, as long as you are at your goal calories and % of macros for the day. That doesn't seem so bad now does it? Forget those fad diets where you have to cut out carbs or fats, you NEED a healthy amount of each macro for your body to get used to its full potential. Summery: Counting each macro to the gram is not required unless you are under 10% body fat. Eat what you would like, just be conscious to get a solid ratio of macronutrients (55% Carbs, 15% Fats, 30% Protein) 

Counting macros when gaining muscle: In this case you have more flexibility with counting macros. If you are attempting to gain muscle, it is advised you eat in a caloric surplus (+500 to TDEE). If you are going to be eating in a surplus and trying to gain muscle, I suggest you up your protein in your diet. You will find myths all over the internet that you need to buy protein supplements and get 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight (ex. A 200lb man needs 200g of protein). This is a marketing scheme, and is not completely true. I am a firm believer in getting 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass. For example, a 180 pound man at 18% body fat has 149 pounds of lean body mass. So they should be eating 149 g of protein. Calculate your lean body mass. Again, I suggest that you use % for tracking your macros, but also pay closer attention to how much protein you are getting. Summery: When trying to gain muscle, you should be eating in a caloric surplus. Again, tracking macros through percentages will work fine, but pay closer attention to how much protein you are getting, it should be around 1 gram per lean body mass. 

(http://www.mckinley.illinois.edu/handouts/macronutrients.htm)

Getting Past The Intimidation of The Gym

     One thing you must understand before you start your journey to become the best you possible is that everyone started somewhere. Think the guy who can bench 300 did that in his first month? Think the women in the gym got flat sexy abs after a few crunches? They all started in a similar position to you. Afraid to head to the gym because they were too fat or too weak. There is only one way to gain respect in a gym, and that is hard work.

     If you have a gym membership, you are over one of the biggest hurdles already. I am going to give you a few tips on how to use that gym to its full potential, and over come the self consciousness you are experiencing.

1. If you go to the gym and work hard, no one has the right to judge you, and no one will judge you. Get there, lace up your sneakers, put your lifting gloves on, headphones in, hood up, and push your body to its limits. 
2. Do your homework. Before you head to the gym, find a routine that fits what you are looking for (post about suggested plans coming soon) and make sure you understand how to perform the exercises with correct form. Not only will correct form save your body from injury, but it will also show the others in the gym you know what you are doing and you are working to change your lifestyle. 
3. If you see someone judging you, you are not working hard enough. When you go to the gym every last bit of your focus should be on your workout and how hard you are pushing yourself. You should never have the time to worry about who is looking at you and who is judging you.
4. Respect in most gyms is earned by consistency and effort. When the every day gym goers see you there every day pushing yourself to change your life, they will soon gain respect for you and consider you a part of that gym. 

The Essentials: Counting Calories

     The only 100% proven weight loss solution is simple, yet people are always trying to find a quicker, easier way to achieve their goals. If you are not willing to make sacrifices, watch what you eat, and endure the process--which will not be quick and easy, but will show results-- then do not waste your time, this article and entire page is not for you. Now that I have everyone who is ready to work hard and not cut corners, I will teach you the essentials to counting calories. It is very simple to understand: If your calories in are less than your calories burned, YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT. If calories in exceeds calories burned, you will gain weight. For the sake of this post, we are going to assume someone wants to lose weight, and I will show you how you should go about this.

1. We need to figure out our individual Total Daily Energy Expenditure more often refereed to as TDEE. In a nutshell, TDEE is how many calories you burn per day through things like exercising, working, and even sleeping. HERE you will find a TDEE calculator. If you enter your stats and hit calculate, you will find how many calories your body needs a day to maintain your current weight. (Do not worry about BMR, that stands for Base Metabolic Rate, which is calculated into your TDEE anyways, so it is not needed). *The TDEE you get is an estimate through advanced calculations, it is not perfect, but it is close enough to where you can use it as a reference. The only way to find exactly what your TDEE is you must eat at a certain number of calories, see how your weight changes after a week, and then adjust from there*
2. Once you have found your personal TDEE, we are going to adjust it for weight loss. Say you got a TDEE of 2500 calories. To lose 1 pound a week, you would need to eat 500 less than that number. So: 2500-500=2000 calories to lose 1lb a week. Depending on the person and how much weight you have to lose, you can adjust the amount of calories you subtract. NOTE: Men should never eat less than 1800 calories, and women should never eat less than 1200. If you go below these benchmarks it becomes dangerous and can hinder your body more than it will help. I would suggest never subtracting more than 1000 calories, this may screw up your metabolism to the point where you cannot lose weight. 
3. Track everything you eat. I cannot stress this enough. I suggest downloading an app such as MyFitnessPal on your smartphone, or using good ol pen and paper. If you grab a handful of nuts as a snack, right it down. This is not a test, cheating does not lead you to anything positive. You should be 99% accurate with everything you eat if you want to see great results, and trust me, you will. 
4. EAT THE AMOUNT OF CALORIES THAT YOU HAVE CALCULATED. This is all you need to do to lose weight. Obviously, adding weight lifting and cardio will speed up the process, but you will learn about that in other articles. Simply follow these three steps, and you will lose weight. 

Tips/Tricks

• For the first week, weight yourself the day you start eating less calories, in the morning in the nude. Eat at a 500 calorie deficit, then weight yourself in exactly 7 days, at the same time. If you have lost less than a pound, don't quit. Subtract another 100 calories. If you have lost a pound or more, GREAT JOB, you are on your way to the body you want. Keep eating that amount of calories. 
• As the weight begins to peel off, recalculate your TDEE. This doesn't mean every week. I would suggest every 10 pounds you lose you should be reevaluating how many calories you consume a day. 
• Don't be afraid to eat foods you like! I am a firm believer in if the food you want to eat doesn't exceed the calories you have in a day, you can eat it! This will help you from going insane. By following this, I lost 40 pound in 11 weeks, and you can too. 
• Once you have gotten down to your goal weight, or close to it, I suggest purchasing a kitchen scale to weight out your foods. At the start (assuming you have a good amount of weight to lose) it does not require you to be as precise as when you start getting lower and lower in weight.  
• If you are lifting weights while in a deficit, do not use the scale as the only way of tracking progress. Use the mirror, it will show the best reflection of your hard work. 
• Take progress photos. If not every week, every other week you should set yourself up in front of the mirror and take a picture in which shows most of your skin to see how the work you are putting in is paying off. This serves as a great way to motivate yourself to keep going when looking back through the older pictures. 

Why You Haven't Seen Results!

     How many times have you heard it? "cut 10 pounds in 5 weeks like this!" Probably hundreds if you have been interested in changing your body for some time. I am here to tell you that fad diets and short quick fat loss solutions are all crap. It takes hard work, dedication, and focus to achieve the body you have always wanted. No matter your age, gender, height or weight, I can promise you there will be something useful for you on this site. Week after week, you will be finding useful tips, tricks, advice, and motivation for you to start your journey to a new you, and continue strongly. Everyone is different, and not everything posted here will be for you, but you can tweak the advice given to help you see results. 

     I want to thank you for checking out the first post and leave you with the first tip of advice. Calories. It has been argued back and forth whether counting calories plays a role in losing weight (which most of you will be here to do) or even gain weight and put on muscle. I will go into detail on how many calories you should eat, how to track them, how to determine calories when eating out, and lots more in my next post, but I suggest everyone either go on your smartphone and get the app MyFitnessPal, or grab the handy dandy pen and paper to prepare yourself for the lifestyle change you are going to make.