Eat healthy while travelling

At the end of this week I will be going to Sasquatch music festival for 5 days. I know there will be no food (especially now being a Vegetarian) for me to eat while trying to maintain my condition and shape. So, I have alredy prepared and packed some foods for the days spent in a tent listening to some good music :)

My cool bag and food box looks like this;
Protein powder
Oats
Nuts
RTD's
Home made protein bars
Soy Snacks
Cottage Cheese
Eggs
Celery
Veggie Burgers
Ezekial Bread.

With the above foods on hand, I see no reason why I should have to purchase any other food while there.

Just like last year, I plan on doing my cardio in the morning at day break walking around the huge campsite, which is awesome because you get to see so many different people and spectacles.

I am looking forward to having a couple of Vodkas (in moderation) mixed with my fruit protein shots (by CNP), listening to some great music spent with even better people and maintaining a clean eating schedule at the same time.

Its very easy when time is spent on preparation. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

Vegetarian Bodybuilding

I have completed my first week as a Vegetarian bodybuilder! It has been pretty hard but I am starting to figure it out now. Most of the veggie meat was really upsetting my stomach. I felt very bloated and full all of the time. My digestive system wasnt having fun and I was holding so much water due to the sodium content. After trial and error, I have noticed by limiting these veggie deli meal, tofurkey and veggie sauces, I am feeling much better. I have also placed more pineapple in my diet in the morning to assist with digestion so now I am feeling a little better with more energy.

I will see how I go next week but I hope my energy continues to improve because I am still feeling much lower than what i am used to.

Cardio for Fat Burning

Many people always advise cardio before breakfast. I actually advise and practice this method the opposite way around.

If you have slept for 6-8 hours, you body has fasted for this time. The metabolism will be at its slowest because no food has been present to give it a jolt. So, what do people do? They go hit the treadmill and extend that fast even longer so by the time they have eaten their next meal, the metabolism is running at a snail pace pace craving every calorie you are about to feed it. This is what we DONT want. We want spike the metabolism as soon as we wake up and so we can get it firing when doing cardio so we can burn more cals.

The more frequent we eat meals, the faster our metabolism. So, why would we want to extend this fast by not eating before bed and immediatly upon waking. Experts say that you should live by the 3 hour rule of eating but not much is mentioned about the extended fast of sleeping.

Although not practical for most, I wake in the night to have a shake as this shortens my fast. My metabolism fires so fast that it wakes me up to eat, not an alarm. Yes it can become a bit of a pain but I feel and look so much leaner for it, and I only have to do 20-25mins cardio max.

Give it a try for a couple of weeks and see how you go

Fat fighting cardio

While I am doing my Vegetarian stint, I have decided to give my body, joints and tendons a little rest by changing up my workouts and cardio.

Yesterday I did a leg circuit which went something like this -
Leg press - 30 reps
Stiff leg deadlifts - 15 reps
Walking Lunges - 50 steps
Standing calf press 30 reps
Single leg extension 20 reps
Single ham curls 20 reps
Seated calf press 30 reps

I completed this circuit 3 times with very little rest to maintain my increased heart rate and to ensure I maintain my body fat levels

This morning I got to the gym and did a 45 minute spin class which was fun. I want to mix things up over the next month to keep things interesting for my body and brain

Vegetarian Fat Burning

Once I completed my 12 week transformation last week, I decided I needed a short term goal. For some reason I thought I would go vegearian for four weeks. Wow, I was suprised how hard it was to combine my new vegetarian lifestyle with my low carb lifestyle. It has certainly made me get creative with many meals in the kitchen and now I am starting to enjoy it a little more. I have made cottage cheese taste nice (I hate it) and I have made plenty of home-made protein bars.

I will keep you updated on how I go as I go along

Fat Loss Training

So often I look at people walking, biking and stepping their buns off upstairs in the cardio area. I shake my head and only wish they new that they could burn off so much more in the weight room providing the weight training program was designed in such a way.

Muscle maintenance = more calories burned. 5lbs of muscle can burn an extra 250-300 calories per day - thats a whole meal for some people!

By weight training you are burning fat 24/7 but by performing cardio hours on end, you are just burning fat for those hours and those hours only.

Women, dont be scared about building big muscles to burn extra calories. I am talking muscle density here, it doesnt have to be muscle size.

The training system I love to use to burn fat while I am building muscle are one of the DTP's (Dramatic Training Principle). Here is one example that will help you lose fat in the weights area.

Choose one exercise for back and one for chest (lets say bent over dumbbell rows and dumbell bench press) Perform 50 reps on bent-over rows and immediatly following, 50 reps on dumbbell bench press. Rest for a minute and increase the weight so you fail at 40 reps. Continue this for 30 reps, 20, and 10. Now its time to go back down in weight the same way we increased - 10 reps, 20, 30, 40 and finishing with 50. Its only one exercise so you should be finished in 40 mins but the workout is unreal. It will keep your heart pounding and will build the muscle to keep fat burning peaked long after you have left the gym

Welcome to my very first blog post.

To begin, I am going to cover various fat loss approaches, and the first being fat loss supplements. I have just completed another 12 week transformation and I know there are many in a panic as summer approaches, so I want to cover all aspects of this right now. So, please send questions my way if you have any immediate concerns.

There is a huge line of fat loss supplements on the market, so it is can become easy to be confused. I have never been on to reach for the shelf and buy one of the popular supplements that you see marketed everywhere as many of them carry a blend of ingredients. I like to do things the hard way and buy a couple of single ingredients and take them at the right times in the right amounts. Here is a list of my fat loss stack and when I like to take them.

1. L- Carnitine

2. Yohimbe

3. Green Tea.

I choose this fat loss stack because I find that L-Carnitine allows me to use more fat as energy, green tea stimulates my metabolism and yohimbe increases blood flow, especially to my lower body. I like the fact that there is no stimulating effect and because of this I can take them before my evening cardio. I would normally stack these with a coffee before my morning cardio.

This is the fat loss stack I recommend to my clients who have gone through radical change so I am happy to recommend them to you.