Ok, that might be a bit much.

So while you might not want your fate determined by the toss of  dice, how about let it determine your workout?

I thought I would share with you one of my workout tricks.  It is pretty much an anywhere / anytime type of workout so it is great for when you are stuck at home or when you travel.

I call this workout “Dem Bones” and I use it when I need  to shake things up with clients & bootcamps

The only equipment you’ll need is a pair of dice and a clock or a watch to keep time.  Other than that all the moves in the example below are strictly bodyweight. (Although the moves you pick are up to you)

First you choose 6 exercises and assign them a number.  Like this:

1. Squats
2. Push Ups
3. Sit Ups
4. Lunges
5. Burpees
6. Mountain Climbers

Now the first die tells you what exercise you’ll be doing.  The second tells you how long you’ll be doing it ( x 10 seconds).

So for instance if you roll a 2 and a 4, you’ll be doing Push Ups for 40 seconds. If you roll a 3 and a 6 you’ll be doing Sit Ups for 60 seconds.

Just keep repeating the rolls for 20-30 minutes with minimal rest and you’ll have your ass kicked in short order.  Sometimes you’ll be pissed you get burpees for 60 seconds 3 times in a row, but it evens out when you get another move for only 10 seconds.

As opposed to to other situations where you roll the dice – this time you can only win.

Joshua Carter, CPT The Body Transformation Expert Carter Fitness http://carterfitness.com 818-337-6175

PS:  The response to the "I Need Your Opinion" was overwhelming (emails and blog comments).  Be on the lookout for a special announcement later today or tomorrow.

We dress our kids up and say "look how cute they are – NOW GIVE US CANDY!" By nights’ end the children can take home their bodyweight in candy. After the kids go to bed (if they go to bed) it is time for the parents to exact the "candy tax"- one for you two for me…

By the next morning the kids’ booty has shrunken considerably. It’s all in the kids’ best interest of course – candy is not good for them.

Even if you don’t have kids you have to stock up on feedbags of snack sized this and that for potential beggars trick or treaters. Heaven help you if you hand out something healthy. I know of one house that actually gave out whole walnuts (in the shell) one year. Needless to say most of them were returned at high velocity within moments of them shutting the door.

I truly love Halloween. It is a Reese’s filled blessing of a day.

But on to the point of it all : CHEATING.

On all the fat loss nutrition programs I design for clients cheating is as mandatory as any other aspect. Every 7 days, I usually recommend one cheat day. It can be a full day, or sometimes a cheat night, or just a cheat meal. My personal cheat day is Saturday.  This is not just simply for fun,there is a good reason for intermittently splurging.  There are two main benefits to cheating to be aware of: psychological and physiological. Let’s tackle psychological first.

Psychological Benefit of Cheating: In my opinion this is the more important reason of the two. The psychology of training and nutrition cannot be understated. Now let’s say you come to me and say you need to lose a decent amount of fat. The bottom line is you do not get to eat the way you eat now, and look the way you want. The way you look now is a direct result of the way you eat now. That should make sense: regardless of training programming, the nutrition has to change.

Let’s also assume that you love Snickers bars (you could substitute anything, sugar sodas, vats of pasta etc.) and you have one every day. Guess what- I’m going to tell you to knock it off. No more Snickers. Well for you that just sucks. But there is light at the end of the tunnel: Your cheat day. Go ahead and have 2 Snickers that day.

The Cheat Day allows you a day when you don’t have to worry about carbs or even fat intake. You have a sanctioned day off. So during the week you can more easily forgo the crap you would normally eat because come cheat day it is all yours. You are not depriving yourself as technically there is nothing that is not allowed. This improves nutritional compliance and keeps fat loss clients relatively sane.

The Physiological Benefit of Cheating: Your body is teaming with hormones. Some hormones want to keep you fat, some want to make you thin. They are constantly doing battle, and guess which one is winning? The deal is that your body is wonderful at adapting. From an evolutionary stand point that is great – from a fat loss perspective it is a giant pain in the ass. Your body wants to keep fat on for many reasons – not the least of which is the famine that is right around the corner.

Silly body – there is no famine around the corner.

Well I wish it were as easy as just telling your body that, but it isn’t. Your body’s main purpose is to ensure survival, and stored body fat ensures survival during times of restricted consumption.

When we alter our nutrition to promote fat loss, we will need to create a caloric deficit. That means we will be eating less calories then we did before. But your body is not stupid, it will see that the calories are dropping, and do whatever it can to slow and even halt fat loss. Again, body fat ensures survival, and your body thinks it is doing you a favor. Silly body. The body will alter levels of key hormones that will essentially slow metabolism and blunt fat loss. This is why many traditional diets stall and ultimately fail.(Side note: intense exercise can combat the metabolic slow down, but that is a different article).

One of these key hormones is leptin. When calories are low, leptin levels fall. It is actually a very complicated system, but in a nut shell if the body’s levels of leptin fall below a certain level, fat loss will cease. High levels of leptin tell the body it is ok to give up stored body fat for fuel. That is where the cheat comes in.

When you cheat you are essentially creating a short term caloric spike. The body responds very quickly to this spike (thankfully) and leptin output is increased. The increased leptin levels will allow for continued fat loss on non-cheat days. You can think of it as taking a half step back to allow you to take 2 steps forward. With this approach continued fat loss is achievable.

There is a fair amount of research going on about what makes for the best cheat foods. Currently it is believed that high carb foods work best. Yeah, I know – that is really cool. Fat should usually be kept in check, but don’t stress over it.

Alternatively you  just take leptin injections.  That should only run you about 2 grand a week.  Hmmm, 2 grand a week or eat whatever I want for a day…..hmmmm……

Conclusion: So now here we are, Halloween with all that candy. Mmmmmmm….candy. This article was not meant to give you license to gorge yourself on candy corn and Butterfinger Bites, but it was meant to give you some ammunition in your war on fat. Used strategically cheating can improve your fat loss program. Now go raid your kids’ candy sack.

Happy Halloween
From Carter Fitness

Yes, this is real. I actually carved my logo into a pumpkin.

Joshua Carter
The Body Transformation Expert
Carter Fitness
http://carterfitness.com/
818-337-6175

PS: Any and all Reese’s related products including but not limited to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (all sizes) and Reese’s Pieces as well as any peanut butter containing candies should be sent to the address below for immediate inspection and proper disposal!

Reese’s Disposal Unit
8300 Valley Circle Blvd.
Unit B
West Hills, CA 91304

Live long, and prosper.

Well wherever you remember her from, you probably know the story by now:  She got fat.

Twice.

I know as well as anyone that bodyweight can fluctuate throughout the year.  Life gets in the way and s^*t just happens.  My weight goes up and down and I do this crap for a living.  No one is perfect.

 
Before, After and After again.

The first time around she got signed on with weight loss center Jenny Craig to pimp out their diet plan.  You might already be aware I think the Jenny Craig diet plan is a crappy one.  It centers around pre-packaged foods and is really nothing more than caloric restriction with a pretty (and expensive) box.  It has its painfully obvious flaws. (see above photos)

Don’t get me wrong, if Jenny offered me a the kind of money they offered Alley I would tattoo their logo on my forehead.

Endorsement induced seizure

Ok, maybe not.

Well, after Jenny’s minions finished with Kirstie Alley she looked great. She dropped piles of weight and fulfilled her contract. Good job, Kirstie.

Then the lights went down and they parted ways. I’m not sure who said adios to whom, but the end result is the same – Kirstie Alley gained 83 pounds back.

At this point let me say day Kudos to Alley, who at the very least had the stones to say she F’d up.  That takes guts.

If you want to read the whole story go get People magazine, but it boils down to a few simple things.

First, once her contract ended, so did her accountability.  Every week
she had to weigh in with direct supervision, and when Jenny moved on to
plumper pastures that stopped.  When you have no one to report to, and
the scale is now in the back of the closet,  those dress sizes and
waist bands can slowly (and not so slowly) creep upward..

Second is she started cutting herself some slack.   A bite here, and nibble there.  She looked great so just a taste here or there can’t hurt.  Uh, think again.

It all counts.

This brings me to the big one: fitness is not a destination, it is a journey.  You don’t get to reach your goal, then say “woohoo!” and go back to eating like crap without consequences. 

Sometimes 83 pounds of consequences.

For most of us to get and stay lean is a constant struggle.  An ongoing battle. Does it get easier?  Yes.  Do you ever get to cheat?  Hell yes – I highly recommend it.   But it does not end – ever.

Think of it like brushing your teeth.  Just because you brushed today and your teeth are sparkling and white does not mean you can just stop brushing. Sure you might forget every once in a while – but you don’t just throw your hands in the air and say “Screw it – I ain’t brushing anymore!”  You have more sense than that.

And I hope Ms. Alley does as well.

“…and don’t eat so damn much!”

You can learn from Kirstie’s mistakes as they are common ones. 

Keep yourself accountable.  Write down what you eat, track what you weigh (or measurements are even better). 

Don’t F’ing nibble – it still counts even if it came off your kid’s plate.

Lastly, try to enjoy the ride. Getting in shape is hard damn work, but that does not mean it has to suck all the time.  Be consistent and dedicated and the results will come.

And to Kirstie Alley, I wish you the best of luck in the days to come.  I don’t know if you are heading back to the Jenny camp or what but no matter what you have a tough road ahead – but I know you can do it (permanently this time).

Joshua Carter, CPT The Body Transformation Expert Carter Fitness http://carterfitness.com 818-337-6175

I had heard of this Tabata thing for a while – mentioned here and there – but I never gave it much thought. Then I tried it.

The name says it all. Wait, no it doesn’t.

The Tabata Protocol was named after Japanese research er Dr. Izumi Tabata. The workout was developed to increase the performance of Japanese speed skaters. The beauty of the protocol is its simplicity- 20 seconds of all out effort followed by 10 seconds of rest or moderate movement. Repeat that 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. Sounds easy right?

Tabata and his team found that this protocol increased both anaerobic and aerobic pathways at the same time. What the hell does that mean? It means that they improved their cardio vascular systems, which is to say they could perform longer AND they increased their work capacity – so they could also work harder longer.

It was previously believed that these two systems could not be improved at the same time. The aerobic and anaerobic capacities were improved by 14% and 28% respectively. Another study that tested standard steady state running at 70% of aerobic capacity for 60 minutes for the same number of weeks showed an improvement in aerobic capacity of 9.5% BUT ZERO anaerobic improvement. Take a closer look at that – one group exercised for 60 minutes each time, the other group exercised for a total of four minutes each time. I wonder what they got to do the other 56 minutes?

Sure, he looks cool but can he Tabata?

Other timing splits were tested but this 2:1 work to rest ratio outperformed the rest. But here is the coolest part of all – bodyfat seemed to just fall off. The magic comes from the post-exercises fat burn. It is insane how well it works. Since this protocol was first developed advanced trainers have used this secret weapon to melt the fat off clients. There is of course one slight problem.

It is f’ing brutal.

So the other day I thought I would try it- I mean how hard could it be? You don’t need any equipment, bodyweight moves work just fine. Burpees, pushups, heavy bag, jump rope, thrusters, jumping lunges – whatever. I chose the bodyweight squat. With a wall clock in front of me to keep time I went at it.

The trick is to power these suckers out. No slow squatting here, as fast and as deep as you can. I pounded out as many full squats as I could in 20 seconds and then watched the clock for 10 seconds while I rested. No big deal. Another 3 sets in and I was singing a different tune. After 8 sets I was totally melted. I collapsed on the ground and tried to regain my composure. After being fully checked out by the paramedics on scene I was good to go (ok, not really).

Tabata thrusters, oh yeah…

I have been using intervals for a while now, but this is a different world. If anything I am up-playing the brutality of the protocol (I’m just mean that way), and down-playing its effectiveness. It is definitely hard, but it is EXTREMLY effective. For best results vary the exercise selection, and occasionally alternate this with the longer intervals (30 seconds on, 60 seconds off etc.)

This is an excellent addition to any fat loss arsenal.