Run, Swim, Fly, Green Diet

Time for another fat loss phase, and I'm going to do a 2 week phase of the 'run, swim, fly, green' diet.

This is an idea Charles Poliquin came up with the kick start a fat loss phase, kicking the sugar addiction and getting used to eating good healthy food.

The system is simple, and it goes like this -- For 2 weeks eat only the following foods:
1) Foods that fly, swim, or run
2) Foods that are green and grow in the ground
Can it get any more simple? Probably not. Simply put, if it doesn't fly, swim, or run and isn't green and growing in the ground, you don't eat it for 14 days.

That's all. That's the plan. And it works...when you follow it for 14 days and then, after the 14 days, you appropriately transition off of the plan.

You Are What You Eat!

By Alex Gold

I do a lot of good stuff when training people. I get them stronger, get them in better shape, fix postural problems, cure little niggling aches and pains and much more. But when it comes to body composition/fat loss results, most of the results are out of my hands. The training certainly gives you the gun and even loads it for you, but you have to hit the target yourself!

Why You Must Eat Right

You have heard the phrase, “You are what you eat” before, I am sure. The fact that is undeniable is that if you eating more calories than you require, you will be putting on weight. The correlation tends to be that bad food is more calorie dense than good food, so ‘eat bad – look bad’. No matter how hard you train you cannot train around a bad diet. Yes, you will get stronger. Yes, you will get fitter. You may even gain some muscle (those extra calories don’t have to be stored as fat), but it will be highly unlikely that you will lose fat.

Sometimes it is hard to get good food in – you have a busy week at work and find yourself grabbing food on the go, trying to make ‘good’ choices from what is available, but generally not eating in a way that is going to change your body for the better. This is understandable, and occurs all too frequently in today’s on-the-go society. However, ‘understandable’ does not mean ‘excusable’. Sometimes, if you wish to achieve the results you deserve, you will have to put a little work in.

Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail

There are a few little things that can help your chances of staying on track so much easier. If you have to decide when you are hungry what you will eat next, you have very little chance of succeeding long-term, no matter how good your intentions are. Therefore, you can do some or all of these tips to save time during busy times:

 Chop large quantities of vegetables at once, store in containers
 Pre-cook meats (chicken breast etc.)
 Make batches of stir-fry and chili to reheat when needed
 Buy a cool bag and carry food with you where possible
 Find healthy meals you can eat in restaurants
 Find ‘emergency’ solutions
 Ensure you have good food in the fridge when possible

By simply doing these little things, some of which require a little one-off research (what food can I have in Subway?) and some that you may have to do on a bi-weekly basis (chopping vegetables, cooking meat), you can take a lot of the pressure off when it comes to eating time. Rather than spending ten minutes every time you plan to eat preparing, it can be done in one go, saving huge amounts of time later.

This little tip is one of the most important variables for me between success and failure. When I am carrying healthy food with me, I no longer have the choice of, “what shall I eat next?” every time I feel hungry. In fact, if I make a bad choice, it will be even more highlighted by the fact I will come home still carrying healthy food. In this way, it is more effort to not eat well, which is exactly the kind of situation that will lead to success in the long term.

Mixed Martial Arts And Size Zero

Mixed Martial Arts And Size Zero!

This came up in conversation with a client the other day, and I thought it'd make a great topic to write about! First, a little background...

In mixed martial arts, as with many combat sports, there are weight classes set in intervals of roughly a stone. Fighters are only ever matched up within their own weight classes, as a much larger individual has too big an advantage in terms of strength and mass and will often beat a more skilled smaller guy due to size alone. The weight classes eliminate these one-sided fights.

Now, some examples. The two pictures below are of Sean Sherk and Randy Couture, who are both UFC champions.

Both are about 8% bodyfat or thereabouts, both are in great shape and renowned for not tiring out. Looking at their build, they have pretty similar proportions. So you'd think it'd be a great fight between the two of them then? There's one problem.....Sherk weighs 155 lbs (11 stone) and Couture weighs 225 lbs (16 stone). If they ever did fight, Sherk would have a serious problem! On the other hand, Couture would have a serious problem fitting into one of Sherk's shirts. In order to get down to 155, he would have to lose 70 lbs of muscle, and even then may not fit into the same clothes due to having a much larger bone structure.

This is why I find the current obsession to be a size zero ridiculous - people have different body types, bone structure etc. and there is never going to be a 'one size fits all' solution to anything, let alone clothing! What you should instead strive for is minimal levels of body fat whilst maintaining a healthy amount of muscle, within the framework of your own body. This is a path that is much more likely to lead to success than blindly trying to reach a size that is impossible to do, and you are more likely to feel good and be healthy if working with your body's potential.

In summary, stop worrying about weight and size, and instead concentrate on fat.......or I'll set Randy Couture on you!

 

Junk food is delicious!

Wow, junk food is great! A nice burger and chips, some pizza, fish and chips, mars bars, jelly babies....mmmm, lovely!

Or not.

Recently I've noticed that junk food SEEMS nice, but rarely is! The nice burger and chips becomes, in reality, a soggy lump of sub-standard meat in a bun that falls apart with a sauce of dubious origin. The pizza becomes either a floppy mess or overcooked (or if you're particullarly lucky, both). The fish and chips is horrible, batter so fatty you can see the years coming off your life as you eat it and half-cooked oily chips that normally resemble wilting celery. Sweets look good until you eat them, then are normally far too sweet or chewy.

This, however, is a good thing. The more bad experiences I can have on my 'cheat' meals the better, since next time I will probably remember that it wasn't really worth it. I just had a lovely meal of salmon fillets, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, radish and olive oil which was much nicer than any cheat meal I have had recently.

So remember, next time you are thinking of ditching your nutrition plan and going for that tempting junk food, it's probably not worth it in reality. And as Alwyn Cosgrove says, "Nothing tastes as good as lean feels!"