I’m sitting here watching TV today and I see a commercial for some kind of ab roller.   They had some GREAT before and after pictures that I can guarantee were NOT the result of using this product.   You want  a six pack?  Situps and crunches aren’t going to get you there by themselves no matter how many you do.

Here is the sobering reality.  In order to get those abs to ‘pop’, you have to burn off the fat that is covering them.  Is your body fat over 12%?  You probably aren’t going to see them.  To get them as defined as those you see in magazines, you’re really looking at around 7-10% body fat.  Before worrying about if you’re doing enough hanging leg raises or crunches, make sure your diet is in order and that you’re burning the fat you need to burn to get your body fat down.  Don’t get me wrong, working your abs is important but it shouldn’t be the first thing you do to lose that spare tire.

Let’s face it.  There’s a reason most gyms use contracts (usually a year or two) instead of month-to-month memberships.  They know that most people cannot maintain the motivation needed to make fitness a way of life so having a month-to-month, or pay as you go, membership option is much less profitable!  So, how do you take advantage of that membership you just paid to use their facilities for the next year or two?  How do you get and stay motivated? 

Let’s face it.  What motivates one person may not motivate another.  I have even heard the claim that people who are able to sustain their motivation do so because of a significant event in their life that motivated them to get started.  I would like to share a few things that keep me going back, day after day, to my gym and constantly counting calories.  Hopefully you will find some of these suggestions helpful.

When I first started working out a few years back, I was told, “You gotta eat egg whites!” I would even see guys at the gym bring liquid egg whites in the carton and storing them in the gym fridge to cook later. I ate them, but I never REALLY new why I should.

Do you know?

As it turns out, egg whites have no cholesterol, no fats, no transfats, and no carbs…only protein! This makes them VERY low in calories as well. Protein, as you know, is the key building block in building muscle. Not only does the egg white have protein, but it has THE ONLY protein (albumen) that is absorbed into your system immediately with a 100% absorption rate. No other food has this protein! In fact, experts have been trying to recreate this protein in protein bars and protein drinks but have not even come close to accomplishing their goal.

So there you have it!  The next time you make an omlette, seperate out the yolks and make it healthier!

There are few books out there that I can point to and say, “Wow, that book really made a difference in my life!”  The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove is one of those books.  I know that may sound a bit melodramatic but it absolutely and completely changed my lifting paradigm. 

Lou Schuler mixes just the right amount of humor, real-life stories, nutritional information, fat loss and muscle building theories into the meat of the book and Alwyn Cosgrove creates some of the most brutal workouts I’ve done in my life!  There are enough workouts in this book alone to keep you busy for a year and put you in the best shape of your life.  Alwyn breaks the workouts down to three sections: Fat Loss, Hypertrophy, and Strength.  Each workout is designed to produce these results.

When I first started weight training, someone asked me what education or training I had in workout design.  My response was, “None.”  His reply?  “Then why are you trying to create your own when there are some very effective workouts created by knowlegable experts with the education and background to get the results you’re looking for?”

He had a point.

Not only do Lou and Alwyn give you the workouts but they also give you the theories behind them so you can become educated in the methods they use.  For example:  the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn.  Why would you want to do bicep curls which effects about 2% of your muscle mass when you can do squats which work over 200 muscles in your body? 

Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned gym rat, there is something in this book for everyone.  Shortly after New Rules of Lifting (NROL for short) was released, there was a request for a women’s version.  Lou and Alwyn complied with the request and released New Rules of Lifting for Women.

If you’re interested in checking out either of these, I have linked them below:

I am an admitted recovering Diet Coke-aholic.  I am ashamed to admit it but I was drinking a minimum of 6 Diet Cokes a day.  If I had to take a guess, I would say a normal intake for me was 9-10 per day.  I had convinced myself that Diet Cokes were a “freebie”.  I mean, they have no calories and they are very low in sodium.  What’s bad about that, right?

The truth is that nobody really knows.  However, there are a number of studies that have shown a correlation between drinking diet sodas and weight gain.  Want to hear something that’s going to sound completely counterintuitive?  In these studies, those that drank the diet sodas were proven to be at more of a risk for “Metabolic Syndrome” than those that drink regular sodas.  The theory is that the sweetness of the diet sodas desensitizes your tastes and makes it difficult for you to guage your caloric intake. 

I’m sure you may be asking, “What is Metabolic Syndrome?”  Well, I’m going to try to answer that.  Metabolic Syndrome isn’t a disease or sickness but rather a group of symptoms which includes insulin resistance (precursor for Diabetes), high blood pressure (hypertension), and Cholesterol abnormalities.  There isn’t a consensus on diagnosis for Metabolic Syndrome but there are two generally accepted guidelines: one from the WHO (World Health Organization) and one from the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (now THAT is a mouthful).  In a nutshell, you are at risk if you:

–  Have a large waistline (over 40 inches for a males, 35 for females)
– High Triglycerides
– Eleveated fasting blood glucose level
– Blood pressure of 140/90 or above

So, there you have it.  As I said, nobody really knows why drinking diet sodas places you at a higher risk…only that studies have shown this to be true.  I finally came to this realization about a month ago.  I’ve had people telling me for years that diet sodas are bad but they couldn’t point to anything concrete and say, “Here’s why!”  Now they can and I’m convinced.  I dropped the diet soda and started drinking water and sparkling water flavored with fresh lime. 

Last night I had a diet soda for the first time in 4 weeks and I couldn’t believe how sweet it tasted…horrible!  In my opinion, once you kick the habit, you’ll probably never go back!