The Absolute Best Nutrition Advice I Can Give.

I think by now most people understand the importance of proper nutrition. Regardless of what you goal is you need to be conscious of you eat habits. As important and nutrition is, this is where most people will fail in their fitness program. There are literally hundreds of diet programs our there that you can follow. Most diet programs will work to some extent. Whether they keep the weight off is a true test of how good the program is.

If I could only give one piece of advice for nutrition it is simple. You MUST have a proactive food log. I could show you numerous studies that demonstrate how effective just keeping a food log will be on weight loss or weight gain. If you combine this with a proactive food log you will dramatically increase your results.

By a proactive food log I mean you write down your food first before you eat it. When most people start using a food log they think about what they had that day and start writing it down. Some with guess while some will measure everything they had. This can be good but what happens when you write in your food for the day and you overshot your calories? When you write down your food after you eat it you are very likely to make mistakes. Instead if you are proactive you can plan your food ahead of time.

Here is all you need to do. Every Sunday you write down what you are going to eat for the week. Add up the all calories/protein/fat...(whatever you want to track) and make sure you hit the right numbers. That way when the day goes by you just follow the plan. Obviously things will happen where you have to deviate. When this occurs you just have to make the smart choices and get back on track when you can. If you follow the plan that you have written out then you have no reason to fail. I promise you will get to your goal faster than ever.

One tool I like to use for this is http://www.dailyburn.com/. This is a free site that can track your food. There are many other programs like this out there but I am a big fan of this one. You can even add Motivators who can look at the food logs you enter to keep you accountable. After you enter in your log you can see the breakdown of carbs/fats/proteins. Looking at this chart will help you determine if the meal plan you designed is the right proportions of food or not.

Give this a try next week and I promise you will see better results faster.

Good Luck,

Mike
www.sandiegopremiertraining.com
www.myworkoutcreator.com

Kettlebell Training: The Best Fat Burning Workout Ever?

Many people are now becoming more familiar with kettlebell training. If you have followed my blog in the past you have seen that I have posted different kb exercises and workouts before. I am a big believer in this type of training. I noticed an article in the latest issue of Fitness Matters put out by the American Council on Exercise. The article was called Kettlebells: Twice the Results in Half of the Time?

The article was about a study that involved 10 volunteers who were experienced with kb's. The researched put these volunteers through a 20 minutes kb workout and monitored each participant. They found that after the 20 minute workout that they were burning, on average 20.2 calories per minute (404 calories per 20 mins), which is very high. They compared this to running at a 6 minute mile pace. The average heart rate of the 20 minute workout was 93% of their HR Max. So these were very intense 20 minute workouts.

All of the results look amazing but then you look at the workout they did. It consisted of one exercise. It is a short workout but this would be one of the most boring workouts every. What they did was the KB Snatch. This is one of the foundation kb exercises. They did 15 seconds of snatches on one arm then rested 15 seconds and did the other arm. They continued this for 20 minutes. This would be a very tough workout but very boring. This most likely wouldn't be a typically kb workout so it is hard to say how realistic this study is.

The bottom line though is these people did burn a ton of calories using kb's. The main reasons are because kb's exercise are aerobic and anaerobic and they involve large total body movements. Combine these and you will have an awesome fat burning workout. I do think you would get similar results do this type of workout with just about any type of exercise that involve total body movements though. Despite this kb training is a great fat burning tool and should be added to your routine. Below is a 4 minute workout I recently posted using kb's.

Mike
www.sandiegopremiertraining.com
www.myworkoutcreator.com

10 Interesting Facts About Health, Fitness, Nutrition, and Sports

I am always amazed by the little facts you will find in the health industry. I wish I could say I knew everything about health and nutrition, but unfortunately there is just too much information to know. I do my best to keep up with the biggest issues. It is fun though to find out some interesting lesser known facts. Here is a list from Autumn 2009 Issue of the Sports Nutrition Insider:

1. Butternet Squash, despite its name, contains no butter or nuts; however, this Winter squash variety does have a rich, sweet and nutty-type flavor and is high in antioxidant Vitamins A and C.
2. A filbert is actually a nut closely related to the hazelnut that is high in protein and Vitamin E.
3. Paprika is a popular spice that is manufactured by finely grinding dried red peppers and is often used to not only add 'heat' to dishes, but also for colour.
4. Ostrich meat contains less fat than beef and chicken per 100 gram serving and almost as much protein.
5. Canada is the #1 producer of wild blueberries in the world.
6. Approximately 21 pounds of milk is required to produce just 1 pound of churned better.
7. High in Magnesium and a great source of zinc, pumpkin seeds have been associated with prostate protective properties.
8. Alcohol has seven calories per gram, which equates to approximately 200 empty calories per ounce.
9. Canada has not one, but two official sports; ice hockey is the official winter sport and lacrosse is the official summer sport.
10. A 180-pound male will burn roughly 252 calories bowling for the better part of one hour. (too bad for #9 though)

Sports Nutrition Insider Volume 2, Issue 4 Autumn 2009.

Mike

www.sandiegopremiertraining.com
www.myworkoutcreator.com