In this episode, Ean talks about the importance of keeping a food journal and why not keeping one may be the key to losing those last 10-15 pounds.
Tag Archives: Keto
Cheating During the Holidays? (podcast)
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness is now available. Are you planning on cheating a few extra days during this holiday season? If you are, there are some things that you can do in order to minimize weight gain. Listen to find out.
Fit For Christmas Challenge (Audio).
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now up. In the podcast, I issue a the “Fit For Christmas” challenge. Hope you enjoy!
Fit for Christmas Challenge!
So it’s 67 days until Christmas; what are your plans? For many years, what I use to do (back when I was overweight), is say something like this, “It’s the holidays! We have Oct. 31, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve, and New Years Day. There is no point in getting in shape now, I’ll just weight for the new year.”
But guess what? Year after year new year would come and I would make some progress, but eventually I fall back into old habits. The next holiday season would come around once again and I was just as fat and miserable as I was before. In some cases I was more unhappy.
Does this sound familiar? If it does, then the Fit For Christmas Challenge is for you! This challenge starts now! It is designed to break old habits and old programs you’ve been running in your head your whole life. How are we doing this? Step one is by starting at the beginning of the holiday season rather than the end. You’ve seen what happens when you wait. Don’t repeat the same process–try something new!
The Plan
This plan is based on two basic concepts that everyone knows–Diet and Exercise.
Diet
Here is the plan. First you must limit your carb intake to between 25 and 35 a day. It is not important right now where those carbs come form, just as long as you do not exceed 35 a day. This starts now!
Oct. 31 will be your first cheat day. You will not start this cheat day until after 1:00 PM, and it can last until you go to sleep.
The first week of November you will need to back to limiting your carbs to 25-35 a day. However, after the fist week, you can bump your carbs to 50. But you must never go beyond 50!
Your next cheat day will be Thanksgiving! And if you have been good, go a head and take that Friday as well.
After Thanksgiving, go back to 25-35 carbs a day for one one week. After that week, you can have up to 50 grams once more.
Your final cheat will be Christmas Eve and Christmas. Start on Christmas Eve as late as you possibly can, then cheat for 24 hours.
After Christmas, you will have to re-evaluate and see what’s next and what is right for you.
BTW, you do not have to count any carbs that come from green vegetables.
Exercise Plan
This is where there is some flexibility. In other words, it is up to you to choose a plan. However, you must choose a plan not make one up from day to day. For example, I’ve just started Insanity.
Other plans may include P90X, or most anything from Beach Body is good.
If however, you cannot afford these or you don’t have them and need to start now, you can go down to wal-mart, target…. and pick up something like this:
I cannot remember how much it was, but It was under $30.
Whatever you choose, you must workout 6 days a week.
A Few Things To Keep In Mind
First is that on your cheat days it is important to work out the day of and the day after. No exceptions!
It’s fine if you choose to work out twice a day to get better results; however, you do not need to do this.
And if you decide to go to the gym, create a plan and go at least 6 days a week.
Finally, monitor your body. If you are working out too much and need some extra carbs that’s OK. However, get them from fruit and vegetables. And make sure this is a need and not a craving.
Finally
I would love to hear about the workout plan you chose. Also, make sure to take some before pictures so you can monitor your progress. Best wishes and stay strong!
One Mental Attitude Necessary For Losing Wight (audio)
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now available. In this episode, I discuss going gluten free and one key aspect that is absolutely necessary in order to lose weight.
Why You Shouldn’t Always Watch The Scale
Consulting the scale is an easy way to monitor your weight loss progress. You step on it and if you weigh less than the last time you stepped on the scale, then you have lost weight–right?
The truth is that this way of tracking your weight loss is great when you are first starting to get serious about your health. However, when you are working on the last few pounds of fat, the scale is not the ultimate indicator in how much fat you are losing. In fact, it can be deceptive.
So what are some reasons the scale can be deceptive? There are two main reasons that I will address in this blog. One is water weight and the other is muscle.
First off there is water retention. Simply put, this is when you store exes amounts of water in your cells. This can happen for a verity of reasons I will not go into here. While every body is different, the average amount of weight you can gain though water is about five pounds in a day. This means that you can gain or lose five pounds in one day as a result of retaining or releasing water.
Muscle is another major factor in why the scale can be deceptive. The reason for this is due to the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. One leader of fat weighs about 2 pounds while one leader of muscle weighs about 2 1/2 pounds. If you are lifting as a primary form of exercise the rise in weight on the scale is probably due to muscle gain.
It can be frustrating when you are faithful to your diet, and working out, but the scale moves up. Remember it is not weight that you are ultimately trying to lose but fat. Instead of relying on the scale take measurements. Another great way of tracking your progress is by clothing. Get some clothes that are tight and see if they loosen up.
So if you are sticking to your diet and working out, then don’t sweat it if the scale moves up a few pounds. It could very well be water weight or muscle gain.
Why Breaking Bad Habits is So Difficult
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast. In this episode, I talk about the difficulty of braking bad habits and creating new ones and what you can do about it. Enjoy!
All Or Nothing
I have seen many people fail on diets for a verity of reasons. However, recently I have noticed an attitude or belief that I have not recognized in the past. Since I have noticed this belief, I have come to see it in many. I have even come to recognize that I have fell into this trap from time to time.
So what is this belief? It is simply this: That adhering to part of a diet should give an individual part of the results of that diet. In practical terms it looks something like this. A person starts a low-carb diet. After a few weeks he notices that he is not losing anything. However, upon review, he realizes that he is really only adhering to about half or three quarters of the diet. He thinks to himself (and here is where the poor belief system comes into play), “I should be losing something. I know I’m not following the diet perfectly but I am following about 75% of it. I should be losing something–shouldn’t I?” Can you relate to this story? I know I can.
To complicate things, perhaps you have seen a friend who needs to lose a some weight and got results by cutting back just a bit on their carb intake. The question, then, needs to be asked: Why does following part of diet work for some and not others? The answer to this lies in what kind of body style one has and how much one needs to lose.
For example, someone with a bean-pole body style who has only 20 pounds to lose can see great results from only following part of a diet. But, even a bean-pole who has 50 pounds to lose is going to have to do better than 50 or even 70% of a diet.
However, for those of us who put on weight easily and have more than 25 pounds to lose, we need to be super strict on the low-carb protocol particularly at the beginning. Why is this? Simply put, doing 50% or even 75% of a diet is not enough to reset your fat burning hormones.
The truth is you need 10 days to 2 weeks in order to down regulate your fat storing hormones and up regulate your fat burning ones. So, if you are strict for three days, but on that forth day you eat a meal that spikes your insulin levels, you are not going to lose weight. If you repeat this process for a few weeks, you might get discouraged.
Fixing this is a matter of being honest with yourself. Are you the type of a person who puts on weight easily? Do you have more than 20 pounds to lose? Are you just starting out on a low-carb diet? If any or all three of these are true, then you need to be as strict as possible. The results will be worth it?
What’s The Difference Between Paleo, Keto, and Low Carb Diets
Hey everyone. This is a new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast. In this episode I talk about the difference between the Paleo, Keto, and Lowcarb diets. I hope you listen and enjoy.
Reviewing Chris Powell’s Choose To Lose: The Seven Day Carb Cycle Solution (audio)
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now available. In this podcast I review Chris Powell’s book Choose to Lose The Seven Day Carb Cycle Solution.
Also, I talk about my experience in a one on one Yoga class!
Advanced Weight Loss Resources 