eating

The Howard Stern Diet

Quick Tips

Howard Stern Radio Logo

Howard Stern, on the radio is an entertainer. He knows how to attract listeners and boost ratings. Howard’s craziness on the radio often overshadows his intelligence, career success, and real world insight.

Lately, most of my driving has been accompanied by Howard Stern streaming through the airwaves.

If you don’t like Stern, I apologize. Keep in mind, he’s an entertainer. What you hear on the radio is not the REAL Howard Stern.

The Stern Show is ridiculously entertaining. His no bullshit unfiltered and uncensored interviews to world-famous people are second to none, mainly because of the Sirius censor-free platform.

For the last 4 years, I’ve renewed my Sirius subscription without batting an eyelash.

Howard is has mastered his craft, radio. Detailing it further, he’s a master of entertainment and communication. It’s got to be difficult to do.

One aspect of the Howard Stern show that’s fascinating is how frequently he talks about his personal life, more specifically his ongoing battle with nutrition and fitness.

It’s comical, but it’s reality.

The other day, I turned on the radio to catch him ripping apart one of his staffers, Benji Bronk. Benji is a long-time writer and content creator for the Stern show who’s famous for his clever public pranks and funny radio bits. Benji is an absolute character.

If you know the Stern Show at all, you know the staff feuding is as entertaining as the celebrity interviews.

In the radio bit, Benji told Howard that he’s depriving himself of eating in order to drop weight. Leveraging the old calories in versus calories out equation.

As is common with a lot of people, Benji lost focus with healthy habits. He had gained an unnecessary large amount of weight and now wants it gone ASAP.

Howard’s conversation with Benji evolved into a hardcore lashing of Benji’s extreme strategy.

Overall, I have to say that Howard didn’t miss the mark by much with his advice, which was…

  1. Find a mentor who understands nutrition and eat what they eat.
  2. Avoid the extreme in favor of simple, work into it, increase the intensity.
  3. Identify a health strategy he enjoys and can stick to over time.

One might read this and think, “duh”.

But common sense is not so common.

Humans overcomplicate and overanalyze EVERYTHING.

What makes perfect sense to you doesn’t make perfect sense to everyone else.

The perfect health plan doesn’t exist, so if you fall into the category of a person who’s constantly searching for the “truth”, call off the search.

We live in the age of computer, tablets and cell phones, all connected to the internet moving at break neck speed. Information is literally everywhere. It’s difficult to find focus on just one thing, especially if you’re desperate to lose weight.

There are so many strategies, it’s overwhelming for a lot of people.

Let’s briefly touch on why I valued Howard’s health advice to Benji…

#1. Role models are important.

Someone, somewhere, has already done what you are attempting to do, so why not learn from them?

Regarding the best approach to health, get around people that are already on the healthy path. Do what they do. Spending time with people who are not making health oriented decisions is going to send you in the same trajectory. YOU BECOME WHO YOU SPEND THE MOST TIME WITH.

Start teaming up with people in the gym who are getting after, and understand how to get after it. If they are a decent human being, they will take you under their wing and stretch your comfort zone. Eat as many meals with people who understand what simple clean eating is.

Learn from what they do. Study their habits, emulate those habits. Are they bringing healthy leftovers from last nights dinner in a Tupperware versus scrambling to the local fast food establishment for a burger and fries? Follow that lead.

One of the first steps to making incredible gains in fitness and nutrition is becoming aware. Once you know, you cannot un-know.

Role models can help guide you along the way.

#2. Begin with the long-term in mind.

If you want to put the pedal to the metal right out of the gates, go for it. It’s your life. But beware that many people fade with this approach.

It’s mentally draining to adopt healthier habits.

Health is a process. It takes time and it requires discipline. You have to trust the plan and stick to the plan.

Fast gains can be made, but there is no overnight success and there shouldn’t be.

Celebrate your efforts in the short-term, but understand that the real victory is in dedication the long-term.

Begin with the end in mind.

#3. Make an effort and enjoy it.

If you hate your workout program and your eating plan, it wil never last.

You will burnout. The resistance crush any will-power you have.

There is a happy-medium between making an effort and finding enjoyment in the efforts being made. Where those two intersect is where results reside.

But here’s another reality. Making a shift from sloppy eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle over to smart nutrition and daily workouts are going to be stressful in the beginning. It’s work, and it’s not always easy.

You can expect many days where the last thing you want to do is eat a salad, especially when everyone else is smashing a greasy burger. You can expect days where getting up an hour earlier to get a workout in before starting the day is the last thing you want to do, especially when other people are sleeping in.

There is great (perceived) pain in building healthy habits. It is a lot easier to ignore the details and be careless. But, doing so has a price.

So, in the beginning, find foods that fall into the realm of being nutritious. Eat them. If you don’t know what foods are nutrient dense, Google it. Seriously. Type in “healthy foods” and you’ll find millions of search results. Find a list, go to the grocery store and familiarize yourself with those foods, regularly.

As you gain confidence, expand. Find other foods that serve your health well.

Same goes for fitness. Don’t jump into a hardcore metabolic conditioning workout on the first day. Opt for yoga, a long walk or some simple body weight drills like Animal Flow.

Animal Flow is an ideal fitness program for beginners since it’s body weight based. Plus, you can learn how to exercise effectively in the privacy of your own home.

Crawling is a low-impact highly effective activity to build strength, motor control, and core stability.  Can you do this?  I bet you can.

Bodyweight training is ideal for everyone, particularly beginners because you can get your training in ANYWHERE. Stop thinking, buy the Animal Flow DVD and get going.

Mike Fitch, the creator of the program will teach you everything you need to know.

If you’re not there yet, at least subscribe to my YouTube channel. Watch me do it, then you do it. Simple.

Less thinking, more doing.

Not into Animal Flow? Fine. No matter what you choose, remember that YOU HAVE TO MAKE AN EFFORT. You have to.

The effort given will be proportionate to the reward, nothing more and nothing less.

So what does Howard Stern’s Diet consist of?

Plain and simple, Howard is a mono-eater, just like many other lean and healthy people I know. No surprise here. A lot of times, people who have a good grasp on healthy habits aren’t preparing extravagant meals like you see on the Food Channel or various social media platforms.

Howard knows the foods he likes and he eats those foods on a regular rotation. A lot of healthy people do this. It removes the decision fatigue from the situation.

Here’s a snapshot of a day in the life of the Howard Stern diet:

  • Breakfast- Egg Whites, half piece of toast and fruit
  • Lunch- Salmon with 1/4 baked potato and veggies
  • Mid-afternoon snack- Apple
  • Dinner- Eat out or at home (protein with veggies/fruit)

He keeps it simple. I can appreciate that.

If I could change one thing about Howard’s daily eating, I would add more protein. I would also encourage him to eat the yokes in the eggs. There is so much nutrition in egg yokes!

I’d also be curious to see if he’s consuming enough calories. Based on the example above, it seems like he’s a contestant on the TV show Survivor.

On the fitness side of things, I would encourage Howard to limit the long, slow distance cardio training. In general, adults need more resistance training to preserve or build lean muscle mass.

Nothing crazy here… just simple and effective exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups and chin-ups, body rows, etc. People underestimate how effective a couple of rounds of simple bodyweight exercises can be.

Ground-based movements like you’d find in Animal Flow are also making giant waves fitness. Crawling, locomotion exercises various dynamic core drills, mobility training, etc… are all incredibly effective for burning fat, building lean muscle and re-establishing movement capacity. Again, this is all stuff you can find in the Animal Flow DVD.

Now, if you’re interested in leveraging the power of nutrition, I am going to direct to Brad Pilon and his intermittent fasting program, EAT STOP EAT.

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Brad is one of the smartest nutrition coaches in the world, and EAT STOP EAT is a perfect example of a massive shift in our understanding and approach to healthy diets. In fact, he refers to it as a “pattern of eating”, rather than a diet.

What we now know about highly effective eating, is that it’s not only about the foods you’re eating (or not eating) but it is also about the timing of eating food.

Intermittent fasting is not nearly as torturous as it sounds, so I encourage you to check it out.

The food you’re eating should give you a metabolic advantage to stay lean and healthy, no matter what your age or body type.

If you’re constantly stressing over counting calories, it’s worth auditing your food choices. Sometimes, I feel that calorie counting is what the modern generation does to manage the negative effects of eating food we know to be bad for our bodies.

Howard turned 60 years old this year. He often comments his body has never looked or felt better since he started focusing on leveraging smarter nutritional strategies.

Nutrition and fitness are never a bad investment, and it’s a lot more simple than you’d think.

The biggest secret is getting started and building steadily on that momentum, day by day.  

 

Cheers to the Howard Stern Diet…

KG

How to Eat To Stay Lean for Life

Quick Tips

In talking with a friend today about nutrition and how my eating habits have evolved over the last 7-8 years, I realized how simple eating should be, yet how complicated we make it.

I firmly believe that how you eat as a kid has a lot to do with how you end up eating as an adult, although I have seen plenty of people who make the shift to eating wholesome food as adults once they become fed up with nagging health, weight or poor self image.  We all have our breaking points, it’s just a matter of when.  I have to say that I cannot applaud these people who have made the positive shift from eating chips and soda to veggies and lean meat.

It always amazes me what the smallest of changes can do for a person’s body transformation.

I generally eat the same rotation of foods weekly.  I never count calories and I generally eat until I feel satisfied.

 

Every single day, breakfast makes or breaks you…

My breakfast rarely ever changes from the usual 3 egg omelette with veggies, Ezekiel Bread toast with peanut butter and banana slices (dusted with cinnamon).  I wash it down with 2-3 glasses of ice cold water and a few cups of coffee.

This breakfast is a meal that I look forward to every single day.  I typically eat at 5:30am, taking my time to consume the meal while I write or read articles.  This breakfast fuels me until about  11am/12pm, when I feel the need to refuel with some lunch.  Lunch is usually a salad with meat (salad+meat makes it a MEAL) or a homemade protein bar.

I have written about my homemade protein bar recipe, which I originally got from Precision Nutrition’s awesome cookbook Gourmet Nutrition.  I can’t say enough about the protein bars or any of the other meals that can be found in that book.  The pesto pizzas are one of my favorite meals of all time.  Incredible replacement for eating the highly processed stuff from a local pizza place.

 

Eating is an acquired taste (no pun intended)…

As I started to learn more about food and the power that food has on general health, performance and body composition, I began to realize that most of the recommendations were exactly the same, just reorganized.

I started to use simple guidelines to help direct my grocery shopping and food choices…

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Best food tips grandma

bad food list

 

I still use these tips personally to remind myself and also to help others dial in their eating habits.

I get asked all of the time what foods I eat.  I usually throw out the, “If it wasn’t grown from the earth or have a mother, I don’t eat it” line, or lately just to keep it short and sweet, I will say “plants and meat”.  Why say any more than that?  It’s not rocket science, so why complicate for a person that is already being bullied by a food industry that pumps out garbage advertising.

The response is sometimes, “But Kyle, you eat red meat?!”

My response, “Hell yes.  Plenty of it”.

Using these reminders can take the anxiety and confusion out of grocery shopping (where you decide whether to make a monetary commitment to the food) and actual preparation and consumption of meals (which is determined what you have purchased).

I began to take notice that I would eat whatever was stocked in the house, as most of your probably do the same.  I know for a fact that  many of you also do this.  Whatever is convenient and quick is going to be consumed.  Right?

 

Learn how to cook, it’s probably the answer to most of your problems…

In my pre-cooking days, I began to notice that whatever was being prepared by someone else dictated what I was going to be eating.  If it was chocolate chip pancakes wrapped around sausage links, cake, donuts, Hamburger Helper, Ramen and on and on… it didn’t matter, it was going to be eaten.  It sounds like a dumb observation, but if you aren’t preparing your own food, you are eating whatever is being prepared by the person that is.  Sometimes that means eating junk.

Once I took the responsibility and the initiative to cook my own food for each meal, I started eating clean.  I saw tremendous positive changes in my body appearance and performance.  Clean eating to me is eating food that is free of any processed crap (ingredients).  Clean eating involves eating food that rots it if isn’t consumed fast enough.  Clean eating can be a complete pain in the ass.  You’ll have to grocery shop 2-3 times at the grocery store because you are eating food that has a shelf life of just a couple of days, or, you’re eating so much of these quality foods that you literally run out.  It’s all worth it.

I learned through experience that if I ate quality food, I could eat just about as much as I wanted.  My plates for dinner and breakfast are still piled high with quality food that does nothing more than nourish my body and refuel it for the next training session.

Here is another bold statement for all of you to chew on:  Eating clean makes you shit.

And while you may giggle and blush when I say that, it really isn’t a laughing matter.  Eating quality food will make you eliminate regularly, which is so incredibly vital to your digestive system and overall health.  So many of us walk around with toxic food pooled up in our bodies.  Open the lid to a restaurants dumpster on a hot and humid Summer day, take a big whiff.  Now imagine what your stomach looks like after Doritos, Bagels and French Fries.

Our bodies can develop inflammation and sometimes aches and pains from the food that we eat!  Who knew.

Ever heard of leaky gut syndrome?  A lot of people have it and don’t know it.  Years of processed food and sugar finally taking it’s toll on their intestinal lining.

I know people who have been damn close to going under the knife because they thought they were suffering from a rotator cuff injury, when in fact it was an awful inflammatory effect from their diet.  They changed some things in their diet prior to surgery and boom shakalaka, pain free.

This isn’t hocus-pocus.  I have talked about how some health professionals are proactive and some are reactive.  I would suggest that you seek out good information from those professionals who are proactive.  Holistic healthcare used to be a taboo topic, but more and more folks are finding that holistic practitioners may in fact not be crazy voodoo witch doctors after all.

We can complain about our healthcare system all we want, but we need to take look in the mirror at the individual level first.  We, as humans in these modern times, should be able to take care of ourselves.  We have to pull up our pants, comb our hair, brush our teeth and start being big boys and big girls when it comes to our discipline to be conscious of food and consistent with movement.

Start small and simple, build on the momentum gained.

 

Un-educated, computer-less cavemen could figure it out…

For thousands of years, people have been eating plants that were grown from the earth and adding in a little animal meat, eggs and nuts for protein.  Our ancestors weren’t entirely sure when the next meal was going to come.  True hunters and gatherers.

Plants and pastured meat is medicine (and fuel) and it can be leveraged (very simply) to bring your body composition and overall health back to center, despite your movement habits.  Although adding in a simple movement regimen is like pouring gasoline on the fire.  Mix both and you’re set up for success.

 

The wrap up…

So at the end of the day, I do suppose that the best nutritional intervention is the one that you are willing to stick to.  Whatever and wherever your starting point is, your ground zero, just do something to shift your nutritional intake in a positive manner.

These days, I view nutrition as I do the purposeful workout.  It is an acquired taste that you’ll become better and better at as you continue move deeper into the realm of nutrient dense foods and seasonings while slowly eliminating the sugary/processed foods of the past.

A pure trade out.  In the good, out with the bad.

You’ll become better at identifying good food from bad food every single time you make a conscious effort to shop smarter at the grocery store.

Cooking becomes less chaotic and more systematic over time.  Just like working out regularly to build physical fitness, cooking and eating wholesome food becomes more and more fun every time you do it.  It’s just a matter of sticking it out long enough to make the habits stick for the long-term.

I am in no way talking about eating for six-pack abs and veiny arms, I am talking about fitting into your college jeans and feeling comfortable (and proud) about taking your shirt off at the lake.  For some of us, maybe it’s eating to save our lives (literally).  For most of us, body restoration means regaining our self-confidence and our pride in a body that we worked hard to develop.  Improving how you feel about yourself and how you perceive others feeling about your bodily image with do wonders for your happiness.

It’s a feel good story for everyone.  When was the last time someone regretted taking back control of their body?

 

 

Cheers to common sense eating for life!

 

KG

(This article in no way implies that I am supporting Paleo or any other diet trend).

Crushing Your Workout’s Comfort Zone

Quick Tips

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Aaaaahhh comfort.  What a great word.  It brings such a heart warmed feeling just thinking about it.  We all love comfort.  The comfort of home, the comfort of socializing with long time friends and family, the comfort of driving the same route to work everyday and the comfort of knowing that everything is going to be alright.

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… and here come the black clouds… 😦

Let’s do a u-turn and get real for a few minutes…

… because this post is about identifying and breaking comfort to strive for more.

Comfort is the enemy of building fitness:  getting stronger, running farther/faster, stretching longer, assessing smarter, conditioning harder or choosing to eat wiser.

When you get comfortable in your pursuit body transformation or performance enhancement, you are essentially saying that your work is done.  You slip, lose control, let important things fall to the wayside.

But your work is never done because you are always are work in progress, always.  You have to be, otherwise you have submitted.

I read a Facebook post by Scott Sonnon where he describes himself as being “always a white belt mind”.  If you aren’t familiar with Scott’s background, he is a world champion martial artist turned strength and conditioning innovator.  I don’t agree with everything that he teaches, but he does push the boundaries of what we consider to be “functional” in the training world.  He’s got a bunch of other accolades and awards under his belt (no pun intended) that you can Google if you’re interested further.  He’s extremely bright guy and I enjoy reading this work.

It’s been said that exercising and eating properly is a “lifestyle choice”, and well, as shitty as it is for me to admit this, it really is.  I really don’t like dropping that line because everywhere you walk some donkey is preaching that same old song and dance.

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Got lost there for a second… sorry… back to comfort…

Getting comfortable leads to all kinds of silly workout habits that can become hard to break:

  • Lifting the same dumbbells over and over.
  • Never switching your training variables… same reps, sets, etc.
  • Skipping reps and sets, or even entire workouts.
  • Resting for the same amount of time after each effort.
  • Running the same mph, for the same amount of time, for the same distance.
  • Biking for the same amount of time, at the same RPM, for the same distance.
  • Refusing to evolve and try new movements or methods.
  • *** Refusing to change or FEAR of change.

***  This is a big one.  There are a lot of people out there who are scared of the unknown.  They fear the thought of working to improve themselves.  They fear the anticipation of how difficult it will be to lift more weight, condition harder or uncover weak points in their movement.  We end up tricking ourselves into thinking that we are “doing the best that we can”, but there is always another level that we can get to.  Check out this post regarding success, it has a lot of carryover into breaking through the comfort zone in your workouts.

—>  My own story

I’ll step up here… I was scared to put myself out to the world, start a building an audience (again) and take my writing seriously.  I cared too much about what people thought, or how my message would be received, so I threw away nearly 100 pages of written material.  Now I realize that I am on the right track, my writing does serve a purpose and all of this “practice” will force me to break through my own comfort zone.  I learn something new every single day and I love it.

Fear is paralyzing… and it is also just a feeling.  I repeat, fear is just a feeling.

So the next time you step foot in the gym, bring that new strength program with you and give it a shot.  What is the worst that could happen?  You get tired and realize that you’re a little weaker, unstable, immobile than you thought you were?  Who cares.  People care a lot less than you would think.  Go for it.

Most of the bulleted points above are representative of a person who has already committed to fitness at one point in their life and are now stuck in the rut.  They get stuck in a rut and it gets tough to wake up and dig out.  Waking up only happens when you become aware that your current workout habits are no longer serving you well.  You’ve got to realize that your body is really good at adapting to the stresses that are constantly placed on it.  Especially if those stresses never change.

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Experts of developing bad habits.

We become experts are what we repeatedly do, which in some cases is a good thing (good habits), but in a lot of cases, we have become experts of carrying through with poor habits.  Less than optimal habits. (I’ll be the first to stand up here too).  Breaking habits is a billion dollar industry.  Look at guys like Tony Robbins.  He’s built his entire career around teaching people how to break bad habits and develop habits that are more conducive to achieving success.

Change it, don’t be afraid to change it.

But not all of you have begun your pursuit of fitness yet.  Some of you don’t know where to start.  You’re searching for that beginning point to build from. For you folks, you can learn from the mistakes of the folks who are currently stuck in their comfort zone.  Avoid it.  Learn how to progress your exercises, add reps, sets, weight and difficulty of movement.  Train on one leg, two legs, sprint up hills, jump over hurdles, pull your body up to a bar, push your body away from the floor, hold a core demanding static position for time, take joints through a full range of motion even when they feel “locked” up, smash your tissue with a foam roller and then take a lacrosse ball to your feet for a few minutes…

Keep progressing, keep pushing forward.

You get the point.

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In my own training, I have plateaued.  It is time to move on.  I would’t say that I was in a “comfort zone”, but I definitely reached a point of no return where going longer and harder was foolish… I need to increase the poundage.  Making myself increasingly tired by adding volume during my sessions isn’t accomplishing anything, other than making me… more tired.  Those double 24kg Lifeline Kettlebells have officially become too light.  It sucks to say it, because we had a great run, but it is time to move on to bigger and better kettlebells/barbells/etc.  My conditioning has never been better (except in my hockey playing days) but my backside is weak as hell (article about that coming soon) and my upper body pulling strength is lacking.  It is time to upgrade the gym and increase the demands of my training.  I made it last a while, and it was a great experiment.

Getting comfortable in anything in life can have disastrous outcomes.  Whether it’s career, working at building relationships or making your time worthwhile in the gym, if it is worth pursuing, it is worth pursuing aggressively.

 

—>  The irony of “having no time” and the comfort zone…

If you’re a person that’s pressed for time and you’re caught in the black hole of a workout comfort zone, you’re committing the ultimate sin.  Do you see the irony in not having any time to workout and then when you do finally workout it is same generic routine that you always use?  No wonder people are depressed and confused from their progress in the gym.

You’re going through the motions… stop now.

 

—>  Here are 5 quick tips to crushing comfort zone syndrome:

1)  Increase the load of your lifts, now.  (add roughly 2.5-5lbs to each lift every couple of workouts)

2)  If engaging in aerobic:  decrease the time to cover the same distance (move your ass!), increase incline or resistance, monitor your heart rate (effort) or ditch aerobic training altogether and throw down with some interval training sessions.

3)  Trade machines for free weights.  (Machines are for rehab patients and the elderly)

4)  Find someone that trains harder than you do.  (You become who you hang around)

5)  Set a goal with a date and read that goal 2-3 times a day.

If you felt like I was calling you out at any point, you’re guilty.  I feel the same way when I read articles about taking actions to the next level, especially the link I shared early in the article related to success.  There is always room for improvement, room to grow, another gear…

 

 

Cheers to crushing comfort in your workouts!

 

KG

Flip the Switch

Food/Eating

I don’t think that there is anything more:

  • Controllable
  • Manageable (is this the same as Controllable?)
  • Predictable

… then movement, eating and transitioning your lifestyle into the positive category.

Think about it.

What other area in your life do you have so much control over?  You are in the driver’s seat throughout your entire life.  You determine your general health.

What other area in your life can you map out and say, “If I do this, then I am going to get the reward of that”, especially with such subtle adjustments.  There really isn’t any real effort involved, it’s more of perceived effort.  Your brain is holding you back.

Improving your overall health is certainly a choice, but once you flip the switch and make the decision to be healthy by  executing consistent bouts of physical activity paired with rock solid nutritional habits, you are GUARANTEED to get results.

Be the switch on the left

It’s tough to guarantee a lot of things in this life.

Again, stop and think about it for a quick second…

Can a person guarantee by achieving a Master’s Degree that they are going to be successful?  Is your life going to be that much better by going through another 2 years of school and thousands of dollars of school loans?  No.

(I am not hating on all of you that went for your Master’s… kudos to you)

My point, again, is this:  What other area of your life has such an obvious step by step procedure to attain desired results outside of choosing to eat well and move more?

I cannot think of anything.  If you can, please leave a comment below.  

My job is to create awareness.  Actually, that is my mission.  If you’re aware of the exact steps that you need to take to achieve lasting positive change by improving your body and mind, you are that much closer to success.

Once you’re consciously aware of what you should be doing, you’re screwed.  

Why?  Because now you know.  Now you are aware.  Now you’re emotional invested in executing what’s right.  Anything negative or toxic is now just moving you further from your goals.

Yes, my aim is to get at your conscious thought process, absolutely.  If I can create enough of an emotional justification in your head for you to break your current habits and reach for better habits, then I have won.  That is my goal.

I say it all of the time it seems like, but people who are currently living in an unhealthy state really don’t realize how close they are to being able to change it all for the better.  It is so simple.  Not easy… simple.

A tweak in your eating here… a tweak in your beverage consumption there… sprinkle that with some movement instead of sitting…

You viewed this on an older post, but, watch it again because it’s that good…

2.7 million people have watched this video.  That means that 2.7 million people now know what even just the smallest adjustment of moving more throughout the day can have a life.

That’s awareness.  That’s my aim, my goal and my mission.

Stop wasting time and flip the switch before it’s too late.

-KG-

How Long Should a Workout Last?

How-To

I get this question a lot.

I am never entirely sure how to answer it because I am not ever entirely sure that the person asking the question even knows what they are asking.

That was a mouthful.

Do you know what I mean though?

A training session doesn’t have to carry a time limit.  However long it takes to get the work done is how long it will take for you to train for that particular day.

I had a question from a friend who read my most recent blog post where I stated, “eat clean and you won’t have to workout 6-8hrs per week”.  I meant that statement.  I will never deny that eating is the foundation of a body recomposition program.  What you put in your mouth determines what you look like, and too some extent, how much of what you put into your mouth.

If you eat like shit, you are going to look like shit.  Sorry, but that is the truth.  The truth hurts sometimes.

Now that I am off of my nutrition tangent, let’s get back to how long a workout should last.  I advocated a shorter workout duration daily because most people will either:

a)  Lose interest if the workouts take to much of their day.

b)  Don’t have the time (so they think) to commit 6-8 hours per week to physical activity.

c)  Waste less time spacing out in the gym.

The interesting thing about “b” is that somehow people can find 12-18hrs (or more) per week to plant their ass in front of the TV and watch ridiculous reality TV shows while eating toxic processed food.  It truly is the evolution of man (and women).

But, I can ask these people what is consuming so much of their time and they will fight to the bitter end to justify every second of that reality TV watching.  That is a tough battle for a trainer to be in my friends.  That is another situation where the truth needs to be told, and the truth often hurts.

So, I have managed to evade the title of this post until now…

How long should a workout last?

Well, in my opinion, it is dependent on the person, their goals and timeline, but I really think that 30-45min is the sweet spot.  My general training template calls for 60min exactly, but I still feel like that it too much for most people.  And by too much I mean that they will view that 60min as “too much” of a time commitment to get themselves fit and feeling better.

So, when I tell someone they can train hard for 30-45min 3-4 days per week, it is a lot more appetizing to them.

But, I always tell folks that if you are going to shoot for the 30min mark, you are going to be sacrificing some valuable components of a complete training program.  You see, training is about a lot more than just looking good.  It is completely possible to walk around at 5% body fat with ripped six-pack abs yet be completed unbalanced with chronic pain and a ticking time bomb for a massive training injury (I will touch on this in my book).  A lot of injuries are preventable with a proactive approach to life and more specifically training.

I believe this down to my core.

I know what I am up against.  People aren’t going to change, so sometimes it is necessary to meet in the middle.  I am willing to do that assuming a person is willing to put forth one hell of an effort in their training and in their eating.

It’s crazy.  Most of us walk the fine line between having a body we can be proud of and one that we are ashamed of, yet most choose to go the unhealthy route until it is too late.  The statistics don’t lie, we have never been as unhealthy as we are now.

Time for a change I suppose.

—->  Here is my real issue with devoting less time to the daily workout…

I Don’t Count Calories: Ingredients, Food Addiction and Hyperpalatability

Food/Eating

I could care less about calories in food.

I’m serious.  I honestly don’t give a shit about the calories that are in the food I eat.

When you eat real food, you can relax your thoughts during a meal.  It’s great.  You should try it.

What’s real food you ask?

Boom… real food.

Thank you Pick N Save for the lovely picture to make help make my point.

What I care about are the ingredients that are making up those calories.

I can get all of the information that I need about a food by the number of ingredients listed on the box.  I have to be honest, these days I don’t buy anything that comes in a box.  My girlfriend can testify to this, it drives her nuts.

I could fill an entire 8×11 sheet of printer paper full of one-liners about eating that I commonly use with people, but one that has seemed to really hit home was the following…

5 ingredients or less is a green light food.

Once I have been working with a client for a while, I move my recommendations back to 3-ingredients or less for worry free eating.

Here is an example of food you shouldn’t eat:

Tough to see the exact ingredients, but easy to see that it’s a long ass list.

Are you curious to see the “health” brand that contains this novel of ingredients?

I will disclose the brand at the end of this post…  I have to keep you reading somehow, right?

Eventually, once the habits of that client begin to adjust to their new found eating strategies, one of two things happen…

1)  They begin to eat 1-ingredient foods naturally because they see what eating real food does for body composition in short time, with or without the addition of movement training.

2)  I slowly transition them to eating 1-ingredient foods with ease (ease based on results).

The ingredients in food are addictive, and I predict (as do many experts) that we will begin to see massive lawsuits against the food industry for their conscience intent to make unprocessed manufactured food addictive to consumers.  Watch.  It will happen.

Hyperpalatability is another term that you should become familiar with.  Dr. John Berardi, CEO of Precision Nutrition and author of my favorite cookbook (Gourmet Nutrition), has written a great piece about hyperpalatibility over at www.precisionnutrition.com.

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Berardi’s article:

“Processed foods are engineered in ways that exceed basic reward properties of traditional whole foods, making them hyperpalatable.

Consider items such as ice cream, burgers, candy, melted cheeses, buttery/oily sauces, and so on – these are the foods that stimulate the release of opioids and dopamine in the brain and have addictive potential (note: artificial sweeteners can even trigger a dopamine response).

Rodent studies confirm this: Rats are unlikely to binge on normal rat chow. But when given the option of sweeter and fattier rat chow, rats go on a bender.

The table below shows the characteristics of some “normal” foods and some hyperpalatable foods. Notice how much higher in sugar, fat, and/or sodium the hyperpalatable foods are — and how many ingredients each food contains.”

Notice anything about the chart above?

Check out the number of ingredients in foods that have been identified are hyper-palatable.

This isn’t rocket science ladies and gentleman.  It’s right there in the chart, and it is listed again and again in the research.  We know what is making us fat.

In my effort to really beat my point into the ground until it makes it’s way through the filters that we all have on our eyes and ears, I recently snapped a bunch of pictures of foods at the grocery store…  find them here soon.

Yeah, I know you don’t want to hear my advice Prince.  Tough shit. Diva.

What I know for sure…

I know that nutrition has been written about over and over.  I am kicking a dead horse here.  I know that.

 Huge newspapers like the New York Times have begun to exploit the food industry and preach the importance of healthful eating.

But we aren’t getting it as a population.  For some reason, it is falling on deaf ears and blind eyes.

The United STates is the

So what is psychology behind a person actually knowing what they should and shouldn’t eat, yet continuing to eat the worst quality food on the planet?

I think that the issue is deep rooted to our childhood and also to social factors (friends, family, etc).

Junk eating starts young these days.

So, it’s Saturday and time to hit the Farmer’s Market.  You won’t find one vendor at the Farmer’s Market in Eau Claire, WI selling their fresh harvested Doritos to the public. 🙂

Real food being sold @ the Farmer’s Market in Eau Claire, WI

Getting you to think one article at a time.  Time is now, let’s goooooooo…

Oh, I almost forgot.  Remember that brand that I promised to reveal?  Here is the “natural health food” I was talking about…

P.S. I also think that there is common perception that eating healthy foods is more expensive than eating junk.  I will show you why it isn’t in a future post… Stay tuned.