Happy Friday!!

Woo Hoo, the weekend really couldn’t have come fast enough … am I right?

What have I been doing all week?

Glad you asked!

Prepping for a weekend photoshoot is what I’ve been doing.

I need to get as LEAN as possible for my shoot (‘camera adds 10lbs’ and all that) so I’ve been making concerted efforts to get the calories down and the fat off.

I’m doing a good job … I’m looking pretty ripped this weekend.

However, I have a BIG plan for next week.

I’m planning on gaining some weight. On purpose.

Why on EARTH would I do that after all the hard work I just did to take it all off?

Glad you asked me THAT, too …

It’s not scary to gain the weight if you know HOW to take it off again. You just gotta learn how.

Then you can manipulate your weight to suit whatever you’ve got going on in your life at the time. It’s a very cool thing to know.

By the way, if you’re in the market for some new fitness equipment for your own home workouts, I HIGHLY recommend checking out FitnessTown.

It’s where I buy ALL my home fitness equipment. All of it!!

And the coolest thing is that they SHIP!! So YOU can buy their awesome equipment, too!

FitnessTown – Your Fitness Equipment Experts

Have a fit, fun and fantastic day.
Girlwithnoname

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Hey gang!!

I just finished getting jiggy with my weight stack.

And while I got my workout done I also did some thinking.

I started thinking about some of the processes I had to go through in order to become the dedicated nutrition and fitness buff that I am now.

And one of my tactics that I’d kinda forgotten about came to mind.

It’s kind of an ‘outside of the box’ tactic, and I’m thinking it might help you, too.

So of course, I have to share:

So? What do you think?

Does breaking it down to the “physical” make things any easier?

Or did I just manage to confuse the heck out of you?

I hope it’s the former, cuz it really did work very well for me when I needed it.

Hope it works for you, too.

Have a fit, fun and fantastic day.
Girlwithnoname

ps. if you still haven’t gotten on the “Hot at Home” Early Birds List, get at it before I close it to give my Early Birds and Inner Sanctum members first crack at it for cheaper. Go here:

(… and I ain’t jokin’ here. I’m only doing this SPECIAL pre-release ONCE, especially for my loyal friends and viewers ONLY … after I close the Early Birds sign-up, it’s closed forever. Just sayin’…)

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Saw something today …

… it was something that made my blood boil a little …

… AND it made me really believe that you get what you work for.

And some people get what they deserve.

Whether its the result of lots of work…

… or the result of NO work.

Get to WORK! Get RESULTS.

Don’t do the work … don’t expect results.

Simple as that.

Have a fit, fun and fantastic day.
Girlwithnoname

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It’s Here! Happy New Year!!

With this brand spanking new year upon us I know a lot of us are embarking on new fat loss or fitness plans.

There are so many people that start each new year with the best of intentions and the loftiest of resolutions they’re determined to keep.

Are you one of them?

Do you know that most resolutions are tossed aside within 3 months of the new year?

Why? Well, probably because most people don’t see the results they’d hoped for and give up.

And they’re not seeing the results they’d hoped for because they don’t really know how to get those results effectively.

So many mistakes. So many abandoned resolutions.

That sucks.

Good news! My buddy Craig Ballantyne sent me this excellent article to share with you so that YOU don’t wind up making some of the most COMMON mistakes that sabotage almost everyone’s fat loss resolutions.

This is stuff you NEED TO KNOW if you’re serious about getting some results from your fat loss efforts this year.

So, give this a read and arm yourself with the facts. Then, let’s make THIS batch of New Years Resolutions the batch that we KEEP !!

Thanks Craig!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

7 Top Weight Loss Mistakes

When it comes to fat loss, I feel like I’ve been everywhere and seen everything. I’ve watched 95% of people in the gyms struggle with weight loss and make no progress, but I’ve also watched the weirdest and wildest regimens work for others.

And in dealing with thousands of people on the Internet and through the Men’s Health website, I’ve been able to pick up on the “Seven Mistakes People Make When Trying to Lose Fat”

Here they are to help you avoid them …

1. People simply fail to consider the consequences of their actions.

Alwyn Cosgrove (one of the top trainers in the business) once told me, “I get my clients to think, ‘Will this help me or not? Is this a positive step or not?’ If you can see that every action that you take is either helping you lose fat or stopping you from losing fat, then you will start to make better choices.”

So remember that everything you put in your mouth is either for or against fat loss. And every exercise choice you make is either for or against fat loss. “Get that”, Alwyn says, “and you’re a hit.”

2. People neglect to control their insulin and blood sugar levels – 2 key factors in determining whether or not the body fat will come off.

If you eat processed foods you are guaranteed to elevate your insulin & blood sugar levels. If you do that, your body sends the message, “Store fat!”, and you won’t make any progress. So avoid white-flour based bakery products, sugary drinks, and almost any carbohydrate snack that comes in a bag or a box.

3. People train like it’s the 80′s.

Yes, I know. Eighties music is popular again. But that doesn’t mean ineffective training methods from the 80′s like light weights, low intensity steady state cardio, and endless low-intensity ab work should also make a comeback. That type of training should stay buried in the back issues of cheesy muscle magazines. Stick to strength training and interval training for efficient and effective body changing routines.

I know that the “fat-burning” zone and “morning cardio on an empty stomach” has been drilled into your heads by well-meaning trainers and articles, but science just doesn’t support this.

The latest on fat loss research from Australia has shown that a 20-minute interval program led to significantly more weight loss than 40-minute aerobic sessions.

We must adapt our programs to the science in order to succeed. Don’t be left behind!

4. People don’t take 30 minutes to plan their next day’s food intake.

If you fail to do this, you will set your fat loss efforts back by a minimum of 72 hours. Without a good meal plan, you are left to hunt and gather food in the modern world. And that’s a recipe for fat loss disaster. You are bound to eat something processed if you aren’t prepared. You will lose the fat burning benefits from yesterday’s workout and it will take until the end of the following day to get back on track. An entire 72-hour period wasted.

5. People don’t eat enough vegetables.

We can thank John Berardi for making it common knowledge that you should eat fiber-rich vegetables at every meal to assist your fat loss efforts. By doing so, you’ll control your blood sugar and insulin – thus supporting the optimal hormonal situation for fat loss.

6. People screw up their hormones with poor lifestyle choices.

If you are out boozing and staying up late on the weekend, you are shutting down your fat loss and messing up the optimal hormonal environment for fat burning. I will talk a lot more about the optimal hormonal levels for fat loss in the future, as I believe this is the underrated key to building your best body ever.

7. People don’t plan and monitor their training sessions.

If you are still going to the gym without a plan, then you are going to have a hard time losing fat. And if you aren’t recording your workouts and eating habits, then you aren’t losing as much fat as you probably can. To fix this mistake, start by getting on track with strength training and interval training. It’s guaranteed to get you lean.

I know that your motivation is high at this time of the year. So grab a good program based on science, add to that a nutrition PLAN (that is actually planned out on paper – like the TT Nutrition Guidelines from Dr. Chris Mohr), and get some social support on your side and you will succeed this year.

Get your very own copy of Turbulence Training & the Nutrition Guide here:

==> Turbulence Training with Nutrition Guide

Sincerely,
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yah, that is 100% good, solid advice there. Thanks again Craig!! I think I can speak for everyone here when I say we really appreciate everything you’ve shared with us today.

Alright gang, now get out there and ATTACK those New Years Resolutions with this new-found knowledge.

I mean it ! USE IT ! LIVE IT !! SUCCEED !!!

… and have a Safe and Happy New Year!! It’s gonna be a great one this year!

Have a fit, fun and fantastic day.
Girlwithnoname

ps. looking for something more personalized to help you get there this year? Did you see my last post? Maybe you should: Make Your New Years Resolutions Permanent This Year

BTW, you’ll also need one of these handy timers for a lot of Craig’s TT workouts:

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In my last post “Healthy Eating: “Busy” Is No Excuse” I quickly mentioned a cool resource that I recently discovered:

The “Anabolic Cooking” Cookbook by Dave Ruel (who is also known as “The Muscle Cook”).

In fact, even though I’d only taken a cursory glance through it and it looked pretty good during that glance, I was SO excited about my new discovery that I wanted to make sure you knew about right away.

Well, since then I’ve taken a more extensive look through the book and the other goodies you get with it and tried a few of the recipes.

So? Is it really as good as I initially thought at first?

What’s the real truth about this cookbook, now that I’ve had a chance to analyze the heck out of it (like I’m known to do with stuff like this)??

What’s good about it?

WHAT’S WRONG WITH IT?

I’m gonna tell you everything you need to know before you head out and grab a copy for yourself …

… but if you need a sneak peek, I’ll tell you this much before you watch the video:

Yes, there’s a couple of things I find frustrating about it. But that shouldn’t stop you from checking it out.

None of it is insurmountable and if Fat Loss or Muscle Gain (or both) is your goal, then this is a “must have” nutrition resource.

Here’s the what you can expect once you’ve got yourself a copy of “Anabolic Cooking – The Cookbook” :

Alright, so now you know everything you need to know. What more is there to ponder?

Hundreds of Delicious, Nutritious, Healthy, Fat Loss and Muscle Building Recipes.

C’mon! What else do you need in a cookbook anyway? Grab your copy right now, and get cooking.

==> Anabolic Cooking – The Cookbook … by “The Muscle Cook” Dave Ruel

Have a fit, fun and fantastic day.
Girlwithnoname

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Wow!! What a way to start the week!!

Are you ready for this? (of course you are, I warned you last week this was coming, but that doesn’t make it any LESS exciting, does it?)

Anyway, I got Brad Pilon, author of the controversial nutrition and weight loss program “Eat Stop Eat” on the phone over the weekend and of course I hit the ‘record’ button as soon as he said hello …

This is an EXTREMELY informative interview and Brad blows the lid off a BUNCH of commonly held myths and misperceptions about metabolism, muscle loss, weight loss in general, and a ton of other stuff.

If you want to simplify your weight loss or weight maintenance program, this really IS a “MUST HEAR” event … and possibly my most controversial interview to date.

So tune in now and find out what’s raising eyebrows:

What did I tell you? Crazy stuff, eh?

Did we just blow every single one of your fondly held beliefs out of the water? Well, good! Cuz this is stuff YOU NEEDED TO KNOW!

Here’s where to grab your copy of Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat to learn ALL the interesting and “RELEVANT-TO-WEIGHT-LOSS” facts about Intermittent Fasting plus learn the strategies of how to do it EFFECTIVELY for yourself:

==> Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon

(if you don’t feel like listening all the way thru the video that autoplays on the site, there’s a nifty little “Order Now” link all the way at the bottom of the page you can just click on to skip straight to getting the goods)

Phew!! That was awesome and I’m spent!! I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did!!

So, enjoy reading Eat Stop Eat and finding out how Intermittent Fasting can work for you.

Always a pleasure talking to you Brad, thanks again!

Have a fit, fun and fantastic day!
Girlwithnoname

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Hi everyone! How’s it going today?

My “3am feedings” got me thinking the other day so I thought I’d share with you my thoughts on fat loss and eating late at night.

Is it really a bad thing?

Meh.

Check it out:

** Don’t forget, if you’re having a hard time keeping those New Years Resolutions, head over to my Online Fitness Coaching page and sign up. **

I’ve been known to beat those New Years Resolutions down and leave them whimpering in the corner. If ya need help, just let me know.

Here’s today’s Workout Song of the Day.

It’s great for cardio.

Just a great fast, weird, fun song! Nothing else. And sometimes that’s all ya need to really grind one out, right?

Enjoy!

Yello – Bostich

Don’t forget, if ya love it Amazon can set you up in the click or two of a mouse. Just click on the Buy button on the player widget and you’ll have it in no time.

Have a fun, fit and fantastic day.
Girlwithnoname

ps. don’t forget I’m starting a new series for anyone who signs up for my Inner Sanctum newsletter. I’m pouring out my heart about who I was before I decided to get super-fit (and trust me, some of it ain’t pretty) … plus how I found my resolve to get in shape. Sign up over at the top of the sidebar if you haven’t yet (and enjoy a free report from Tom Venuto, one of my favourite guys).

]]> http://www.girlwithnoname.com/2010/01/calories-in-vs-calories-out/feed/ 2 http://www.girlwithnoname.com/2009/05/tom-venuto-wisdom/ http://www.girlwithnoname.com/2009/05/tom-venuto-wisdom/#comments Sun, 10 May 2009 19:57:07 +0000 Girlwithnoname http://www.girlwithnoname.com/?p=825

Hey you guys… I found a fantastic article written by Tom Venuto. Give it a read and you’ll see why I’m so hyped up on his fantastic book. He knows what he’s talking about and he speaks the truth!

The 2 Pounds Per Week Rule and How to Burn Fat Faster
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com

Why do you always hear that 2 pounds per week is the maximum amount of fat you should safely lose? If you train really hard while watching calories closely shouldn’t you be able to lose more fat without losing muscle or damaging your health? What if you want to lose fat faster? How do you explain the fast weight losses on The Biggest Loser? These are all good questions that I’ve been asked many times. With the diet marketplace being flooded every day with rapid weight loss claims, these questions desperately need and deserve some honest answers. Want to know where that 2 pounds per week rule comes from and what it really takes to burn more than 2 pounds of fat per week? Read on.

Why Only 2 Pounds Per Week?

The truth is, two pounds is not the maximum amount you can safely lose in a week. That’s only a general recommendation and a good benchmark for setting weekly goals. It’s also sensible and realistic because it’s based on average or typical results.

The actual amount of fat you can lose depends on many factors. For example, weight losses tend to be relative to body size. The more body fat you carry, the more likely you’ll be able to safely lose more than two pounds per week. Therefore, we could individualize our weekly guideline a bit by recommending a goal of 1-2 lbs of fat loss per week or up to 1% of your total weight. If you weighed 300 lbs, that would be 3 lbs per week.

Body Weight Vs Body Composition

Weight loss is somewhat meaningless unless you also talk about body composition; the fat to muscle ratio, as well as water weight. Ask any wrestler about fast weight loss and he’ll tell you things like, “I cut 10 lbs overnight to make a weight class. It was easy – I just sweated it off.”

You’ve also probably seen people that went on some extreme induction program or a lemon juice and water fast for the first week and dropped an enormous amount of weight. But once again, you can bet that a lot of that weight was water and lean tissue and in both cases, you can bet that those people put the weight right back on.

The main potential advantage of any type of induction period for rapid weight loss in the first week is that a large drop on the scale is a motivational boost for many people (even if it is mostly water weight).

Why do you hear so many diet and fitness professionals insist on 2 lbs a week max? Where does that number come from? Well, aside from the fact that it’s a recommendation in government health guidelines and in position statements of most nutrition and exercise organizations, it’s just math. The math is based on what’s practical given the number of calories an average person burns in a day and how much food someone can reasonably cut in a day.

How Do You Lose More Than 2 Pounds Per Week?

Can you lose more than 2 lbs of pure fat in a week? Yes, although it’s easier in the beginning. It gets harder as your diet progresses. How do you do it? My rule is, extraordinary results require extraordinary efforts. An extraordinary effort means a particularly strict diet, as well as burning more calories through training because you can only cut your calories so far from food before you’re starving and suffering from severe hunger.

Simply put, you need a bigger calorie deficit.

If you have a 2500 calorie daily maintenance level, and you want to drop 3 lbs of fat per week withe diet alone, you’d need a huge daily deficit of 1500 calories, which would equate to eating 1000 calories per day. You would lose weight rapidly for as long as you could maintain that deficit (although it would slow down over time). Most people aren’t going to last long on so little food and they often end with a period of binge eating. It’s not practical (or fun) to cut calories so much and in some cases it could be unhealthy.

The other alternative is to train for hours and hours a day, literally. People ask me all the time, “Tom, how is it possible for the Biggest Loser contestants to lose so much weight? Well first of all they’re not measuring body fat, only body weight. Then you have the high starting body weights and the large water weight loss in the beginning. After that, just do the math – they’re training hours a day so they’re creating a huge calorie deficit.

But without that team of trainers, dieticians, teammates, a national audience and all that prize money, do you think they’d be motivated and accountable enough to do anywhere near that amount and intensity of exercise in the real world? Would it even be possible if they had a job and family? Not likely, is it? It’s not practical to do that much exercise, and it’s not practical to cut your calories below a 1000 a day and remain compliant. If you manage to achieve the latter, it’s very difficult not to rebound and regain the weight afterwards for a variety of physiological and psychological reasons.

For Fast Fat Loss: Less Food Or Harder Training?

Trainers are becoming more inventive these days in coming up with high intensity workouts that burn a large amount of calories and really give the metabolism a boost. This can help speed up the fat loss within a given amount of time. But as you begin to utilize higher intensity workouts, you have to start being on guard for overtraining or overuse injuries.That’s why strict nutrition with an aggressive calorie deficit is going to have to be a major part of any fast fat loss strategy. Unfortunately, very low calorie dieting has its own risks in the way of lean tissue loss, slower metabolism, extreme hunger, and greater chance of weight re-gain.

My approach to long term weight control is to lose weight slowly and patiently and follow a nutrition plan that is well balanced between lean protein, healthy fats and natural carbs and doesn’t demonize any entire food group. To lose fat, you simply create a caloric deficit by burning more and eating less (keeping the nutrient density of those calories as high as possible, of course).

But to achieve the extraordinary goals such as photo-shoot-ready, super-low body fat or simply faster than average fat loss, while minimizing the risks, I often turn to a stricter cyclical low carb diet for brief “peaking” programs. I explain this method in chapter 12 of my e-book Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (it’s my “phase III” or “competition” diet).

The cyclical aspect of the diet means that after three to six days of an aggressive calorie deficit and strict diet, you take a high calorie / high carb day to re-feed the body and re-stimulate the metabolism. Essentially, this helps reduce the starvation signals your body is receiving. It’s also a psychological break from the deprivation which helps improve compliance and prevent relapse.

The higher protein intake can help prevent lean tissue loss and curb the hunger. A high protein diet also helps by ramping up dietary thermogenesis. A high intake of greens, fibrous vegetables and low calorie fruits can help tip the energy balance equation in your favor as fibrous veggies are very low in calorie density and some of the calories in the fiber are not metabolizable. Healthy fats are added in adequate quantities, while the calorie-dense simple sugars and starchy carbs are kept to a minimum except on refeed days and after (or around) intense workouts.

There’s No Magic, Just Math

In my experience, a high protein, reduced carb approach in conjunction with weights and cardio can help maximize fat loss – both in terms of increasing speed of fat loss and particularly for getting rid of the last of the stubborn fat. It helps with appetite control too. But always bear in mind that the faster fat loss occurs primarily as a result of the larger calorie deficit (which is easily achieved with sugars and starches minimized), not some type of “low carb magic.” If your diet were high in natural carbs but you were able to diligently maintain the same large calorie deficit, the results would be similar.

I’m seeing more and more advertisements that not only promise rapid weight loss, but go so far as saying that you’re doing it wrong if you’re losing “only” two pounds per week. “Why settle” for slow weight loss, they insist. Well, it’s certainly possible to lose more than two pounds per week, but it’s critically important to understand that there’s a world of difference between rapid weight loss and permanent fat loss.

It’s also vital to know that there’s no magic in faster fat loss, just math. All the new-fangled dietary manipulations and high intensity training programs that really do help increase the speed of fat loss all come full circle to the calorie balance equation in the end, even if they claim their method works for other reasons and they don’t mention calories burned or consumed at all.

Beware of The Quick Fix

Faster fat loss IS possible. My question is, are you willing to tolerate the hunger, low calories and high intensity exercise for that kind of deficit? Do you have the work ethic? Do you have the supreme level of dietary restraint necessary to stop yourself from bingeing and putting the weight right back on when that aggressive diet is over? Or would you rather do it in a more moderate way where you’re not killing yourself, but instead are making slow and steady lifestyle changes and taking off 1-2 lbs of pure fat per week, while keeping all your hard-earned muscle?

Remember, 1-2 pounds per week is 50-100 pounds in a year. Is that really so slow or is that an astounding transformation? You don’t gain 50-100 pounds over night, so why should anyone expect to take it off overnight? Personally, I think short-term thinking and the pursuit of quick fixes are the worst diseases of our generation.

If you want to be one of those “results not typical” fat loss transformations, it can be done and it may be a perfectly appropriate short-term goal for the savvy and sophisticated fitness enthusiast. It’s your call. But when you set your goals, it might be wise to remember that old fable of the tortoise and the hare, and buyer beware if you go shopping for a fast weight loss program in today’s shady marketplace.

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

Oops. Maybe my brain still hasn’t recovered from the trip and being sick… either that or I’m super distracted by the project I’m working on, because this post should have come before the previous post. Anyway, I finally get a workout (of sorts) in. Phew! I was climbing some walls being indoors all the time.

Well, here we go AGAIN! Sleep Deprivation but I’m going running! Plus I’m starting an experiment with how I manage my nutrition habits.