What is the biggest thing we need to learn when it comes to losing weight?

Is it what are the best types of vegetables?

Maybe the least sugary fruits?

Do we need to understand the entire Glycemic Index?

Maybe we should only eat protein?

Are you getting enough good fat?

These are all great questions and ones that I hope you learn the answers to along the way to losing weight but none of them are what will really allow you to lose weight consistently.

What will work on a consistent basis?  What is the one thing you need to learn to lose weight consistently?

It is simple, portion control.

How much can you have of the food you like.

The problem is not the pizza.  Okay, part of the problem is the pizza.  The bigger problem is the amount of pizza.  The amount of lasagna.  The amount of casserole.

You see we can eat the foods we like and still lose weight, we just can’t eat until we are stuffed with these foods, they are just too calorically dense.

If you want to eat until you are stuffed, try doing it on romaine lettuce and carrots, you can eat a ton of lettuce and carrots without consuming too many calories.  (Don’t actually try that, it will be way too much fiber and you GI tract will hate you for several days.

Understand what your caloric intake should be for a day, then see where one cup of lasagna falls on that scale, how many calories are in one slice of pizza versus 4 slices?  You can easily work in 350 calories of pizza or lasagna, however 1000 calories because you ate 3 times as much as you should is rather hard to work in, unless you like being hungry.

First step to losing weight, eat only 2/3 of what you normally would.

I’m a pretty old school kind of guy.  I hold few but very powerful thoughts that I find to be true across the world and disciplines.  We are all responsible for ourselves.  Anything worth having is worth working for and make it happen.  I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I have the capacity to learn.  I’m not the most athletically gifted person you will ever meet but I have the capacity to practice and perfect.  Because there is always more, something just out of reach that I want I will always continue to drive upward, that is just my restless spirit.

I share these thoughts with you because I honestly think everyone is capable of improvement and any time you are on a path to improvement, you are much happier and more satisfied with everything that you are doing.  So that is great but what does this have to do with health and fitness?

I am simply encouraging you to start (hopefully continue) your upward path.

There are only really two important decisions to make when you are looking toward any goal whether it is health and fitness related or in another realm of your life.  First pick a path to get you there, then whole-heartedly follow the path.  That sure is simple.

Anyone who tells you there is only one way to skin-a-cat is either really closed minded or is lying to your face.  That does not mean that some paths are not more suited for different people but relentlessly following a plan is very powerful (even if it is the worst plan in the world).

Have you ever relentlessly followed a plan?  Honestly not let anything get in your way?  No excuses, no ifs or buts, no shoulda, coulda, woulda.  If you haven’t not experiences that type of focus and dedication to something, I’m sorry.  You are missing out on most of your potential in a lot of ways.

You see what we do in the studio everyday is to help people design a path that will work for their goals and their lives.  So they get realistic expectations of goal achievement, and realistic goals for exercise completion so they have the ability to dedicate they prescribed amount of time to exercise and supportive eating.  Then we persistently question their adherence to their specific plan to ensure they not only have a good path to follow but that they are relentlessly pursuing the execution of their plan.

It is as important to have confidence that you can complete your entire plan as it is to have the best possible plan.  If you don’t believe you can do it, you can’t.  When you believe you can do something, it is only a matter of time and execution.

If you would like to discuss putting together a plan that will work for you and that you can work, please click here and request a free consultation.

So the New Year’s Resolutions are in full swing.  Gyms are full, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are busy, people are exercising and eating better.  This is the week that things usually get a little sticky for people.  This week will be the first time they decide they are too tired to workout.  This week will be the first time they reach back for those comfort foods.  So what are you feeling and what should you be feeling?  How can you stay on track so this year is not like all the other years?

First item you need to understand is a simple truth.  If you are losing weight, it is likely that you will experience a form of hunger.  I’m not going to sugar coat this one.  The hunger response is a survival mechanism that we simply must over-power.  Our bodies send the hunger signal for one very simple reason to alert you to eat, because you have started to use fat stores for energy, your goal when losing weight.

Why does our body send this signal?

It is pretty simple.  Our body relies on our fat stores to supplement energy when our consumption is less than our output, usually during long bouts of exercise.  It also relies upon on fat for long-term survival.  Back in our hunter-gatherer days the winter’s were pretty slim pickings.

You see, our fat stores is what our body relies upon when we are continually using more energy that we are putting in, that is how we lose weight.  So it is only logical to assume that if we burning fat for energy our bodies will alert us to do so because it doesn’t know when it will get calories again, so it sees the fat stores running out and you starving to death.  The logical part of the brain simply does can not affect this primal instinct.  Think about it, when you feel hungry, can you think “don’t worry body I will eat in 2 hours so you don’t have to feel hungry.”  No, if that worked it would be the cover of every magazine you see, “Think Your Hunger Away.”

So when you feel hunger, don’t panic, take credence in the fact that you are burning fat for energy, the goal.  Now just don’t go too long or your body will start to really slow down your metabolism.  Try to eat about an hour after you feel the hunger.

Second item you need to understand is the proven truth that it takes 21 days to form a habit.  So giving in the second week is like getting to the 20 yard line and laying down instead of scoring the touchdown.  Again, no easy answer here it is all about staying the course and not deviating.  Don’t even think that you have an option.  Treat your exercise and nutrition plans like work.  Work that if it doesn’t get done, or is done poorly you could get fired.  Give it real purpose, never optional.

Finally, find a way to stay accountable.  Maybe it is a friend, maybe it is a spouse or significant other.  Some our clients live by myfitnesspal.com.  More so our clients are accountable to us and the plan we derive together.  Give us a shot and try our Max Metabolism Boot Camp for one week free.  Learn more at www.maxmetabolismstlouis.com

First a reminder, the Take Down Challenge registration ends tomorrow, get registered here.

Okay, now let’s explore how to keep your New Year’s Resolution longer than the national average of 15 days.  I thought I would do something a little different this week, so I asked our staff what keeps people motivated while working with us, I figure there could be some good insight to how successful exercises stay successful.

Dave (our lead trainer) said, “Accountability and results.”  He is a man of few words but the words do ring true.  Having someone to keep you on your plan and seeing that plan produce will definitely keep you motivated.

Christine (our everything else person, phone, scheduling, front desk,) said, “Besides their own motivation…results.  They need to be committed to their plan and see results so they want to continue.  Oh and if it is fun that helps too.”  Internal motivation is a huge factor.  If you don’t truly want, almost feel like you need to change your habits, it will not happen.  It is an internal feeling of needing to have the change from the exercise that will keep you on your path.  You are an adult, you have to make the decision to commit.

Stacey (a trainer here) said, “Results.  Motivation.”  Interesting, all three so far have sited results as a major factor in people sticking with their New Year’s resolution.

Tim (guy writing this blog and owner of Finish It Fitness) said, “People will stick with their New Year’s resolution when they have a clear plan to follow, the focus or outside force to keep them on their plan, and belief that the plan they are putting in motion will work for them.”  People need to believe in what they are doing.  When they have confidence in their path, they are much more likely to stay with that plan when they hit a bump in the road.  Every path has bumps it is what we do when we hit them that determines our successes and our failures.

Okay so it is finally time to reveal the incredible new program I flew to Huntington Beach to bring back to St. Louis.  I told our current clients on Saturday and people are already signing up.

It is called the Take Down Challenge and it is awesome!

Here is the skinny on the Take Down Challenge.  It is a 28-day nutrition based weight-loss challenge.  Participants can expect to lose about 5% of their body weight during the challenge!  It is the simplest, easiest way I have ever seen nutrition conveyed, which is why I HAD to convince them to allow me to bring it to St. Louis.

Each week you will get a meal plan, with portions specific to you.  Each item on the meal plan has an easy, delicious recipe.  I have now tried all of the meals they used during their last challenge and they are good.  You will also get a weekly weigh-in and quick check with one of our trainers to see how you are doing.  For this challenge I am also adding two Max Metabolism Boot Camp classes each week during the challenge.  Making this a perfect New Year’s Resolution.

I can not stress this part enough, it is the simplest, easiest way I have ever seen weight-loss nutrition conveyed and it is all done for you.  Grocery list are included each week broken down by recipe to make it even easier.  Literally all you have to do is decide which of you options you are going to eat and prepare the food.  By the way, their is always a quick option that can be made in under five minutes.

It gets even better.  All the food is normal food we eat all the time, their is a pizza recipe.  It really shows you how you can make some small tweaks on how you prepare you food, understand what you are putting in it and the portion size that will allow you to reach your weight-loss goals.  All the food in the challenge will be available at Dierbergs, Schnucks, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes.  Basically if you shop at one of those places, you will have no problem getting all the ingredients.

Why I love this so much reason #(insert big number here):  It is great if you cook for a family.  They can eat the same food as you, because, it is not “diet” food.  It is normal stuff that we all eat.  Make a recipe, take you portion and let the rest of the family fight over the rest.

A couple of things their is a mandatory kick-off meeting where we will explain how easily this will work for you on Friday January 13th at 6:30.  We will be doing initial weigh-ins and assessments from January 9th-11th (only 15 minutes tops) this will give us enough time to develop your specific nutrition portions.

Oh yeah, it is a challenge so you could be one of the winners.  Winners will be determined by total % of body weight.  First place is $400 of Finish It Fitness bucks, second is $200 of FIF bucks good towards anything we offer.

Learn more at www.stlouistakedown.com

If you have more questions or to sign-up, give us a call at (314)766-6107.

I just returned from a quick two day trip to Huntington Beach CA to learn all the in and outs of an incredible program they are running out their. The creators Paul and Carolyn Fetters are probably two of the most generous, kind, and caring people I have ever met. It was a great weekend capped with a 12 mile run from Huntington Beach pier to the Costa Mesa pier along the beach boardwalk. It is hard to beat any run with the ocean on one side and the silhouette of mountains on the other.

More to come soon on the program. (We will be running in it January.)

As most of you can imagine, I do not travel well. I’m like a three year old, I can only sit in one place for about an hour before growing restless. This is a simple fact that I have learned to handle with many magazines of varying interest. This trip I took the latest issues of: Money, Men’s Health, GQ, The Journal of Exercise Physiology, Maxim, and Inc. Oh yeah and I had my laptop with a list a little over a page long with things to work on.

It is both blessing and frustrating only being able to focus on one thing for about 20 minutes at a time.

That was neither here nor their.

What I noticed with all the different magazines is a common thread of fitness through each magazine. I don’t know if that means all of these different editors find it to be that important or if the readership demands the fitness information.

Then I open up Google news today to find a story about research that says, the more you exercise the healthier you are.

Wow! Who would of thought?

Do we really need to be doing that study these days, is that not just a fact of the world we know to be true? I don’t remember reading anything about the earth’s gravity still pulling things toward the earth. I’m sure we have stopped testing that fact.

Now, I understand testing different exercise protocols for different conditions. That makes sense, we may not be there yet for every aspect of every condition.

Keep testing folks, but please test something that can have impact. Test something that can be implemented.

Stay posted for the big announcement. It is not quite ready to roll out yet, but I can tell you it will start on January 13th and sign-up will end with no exceptions on January 4th.

Today I want to share with you a client story with our actual assessment data to back up everything that I am going to share with you.

About 7 weeks ago a long time client of mine said to me “I think we need to focus on losing some weight.”  She had never expressed any interest in dropping pounds before, she had started with me to improve her running and stay healthy.  Since her goals had nothing to do with fat-loss we never spoke of it.

When she told me she wanted to lose some pounds I replied “No problem, lets bump up your next fitness assessment (normally we do them every 6 weeks), get some fresh numbers and sit down for a nutrition coaching session.

And that is what we did.

What we knew was that her fitness plan was well-rounded and being implemented as you can see from the physical test part, she maxed out her front plank and wall sit with good upper body strength as well.

What was missing?  The nutrition component.

So once I had these numbers in hand I went about developing her nutrition plan.  Then we met to talk how she was going to implement the plan.  I remember that nutrition coaching session very well, I thought it went way too smoothly.

Here are the two ways initially nutrition coaching sessions go:  I go through explain everything and there are no questions (which means usually they were not listening or not actively thinking about how to implement) or there are a ton of questions and objections as to the what’s and how’s which usually ends with a good result because I have the opportunity to clarify why and what is important as nutrition is involved.

So this meeting lasted about 15 minutes (I schedule 30 minutes for all of them).  I thought for sure it she was not listening…

Until her next workout when I asked how her nutrition was going and she spouted here exact numbers that I had asked her to track.

I’m thinking AWESOME, she did listen and she understood, not only that her numbers were right where I asked her to have them!!!  This is going to be good.

Week after week she was spot on with her nutrition, including a race week where I had her increase calories to allow for a better run, understanding she was not going to lose weight that week.

Here is her follow-up assessment just 7 weeks later.  (Yes we try to do them every six but scheduling sometimes is difficult)

In 7 weeks without changing her exercise (we already had that in place), and some simple nutrition goals, she lost 14.8 pounds!, 2 inches from her waist  and 2 inches from her hips!

She is happy with where she is at now, so we are simply moving to a maintenance plan for her nutrition so she can stay there and not have to worry about gaining and losing weight to stay happy.

The moral of the story…

…

…exercise is not the complete solution.  You must have both ends of the spectrum nutrition and exercise to achieve weight-loss goals.  It doesn’t need to be fancy, but it does need to be understood and implemented.

For information on how you can see these types of results just click here for a no-obligation free consultation where we can discuss how you can reach these types of goals.

‘Ol Ben was a smart man on many levels just one of which is the power of people and influence.  He did help lead and entire country to revolution while still vacationing in the country he was warring against.  I still have not figured that one out.
No, this is not a history lesson, I hate names and dates, just let the stories live…another soap box for another day.
Do you make excuses as to why you are not in better shape, why you are not 15 pounds lighter, why your pants are too tight to button?

Here are some examples I have heard in my years of pointing the finger back at people.
“I had to have the cupcake” -yeah, someone problably was holding your mouth open and forcing it in.

“It was a really tough week at work” -really, all of my weeks are peachy-keen and flowers bloom everywhere I walk

“For no reason I’m bloated today” -there is a reason, your body is reacting to something you put in it

“Dinner with the in-laws means I drink” -yeah, that seems like healthy self-medication

“I was too busy to exercise” -okay, how much TV did you watch?  Oh it wasn’t zero?

“I don’t like vegetables” -what does that have to do with eating twinkies?
Does someone make excuses for you?  Let’s reveiw some that I have overheard in conversation?
“Go ahead and have desert, you’ve worked hard” -so why rouine all of that work?

“Why are you having a salad you are a skinny minny” -So you would rather put me down than feel bad about ordering the double bacon cheeseburger

“Just one drink won’t hurt” -yes it will, it will cause an exact amount of damage now and who knows how much damage in drunken decisions

“When was the last time you had frozen yogurt” -Why are you asking you know I am trying to lose weight
Sorry I really digressed there.
My Point:
Surround yourself with people that will be supportive. People that understand you are working towards a goal and will help, not hinder you in that quest.

Ask for support from them. Preempt the situation by stating you are working toward a goals and you would appreciate their help and understanding.

If they can’t do that maybe you need to be asking bigger questions.  Are these people I can trust and believe in?  Are they really friends?  Do they have my best interest at heart?

Benjamin Franklin knew how to be supportive to his friends goals, he understood that having the right people around him, supporting his cause, their common cause was the only way to create such a big change.  If what you are doing is not getting you to where you want to be, create big change.

The people around you make all the difference in the world, ask for their help, demand their help.

We had a great day for the inaugural St. Louis Rock and Roll event.  A lot of fast times, a lot of PRs, by the Fleet Feet Training Team and by the wonderful people we work with in our studio.

Once the initial excitement of running fast settles down, our thoughts start to turn to what’s next?

It is only natural, for the last 12-17 weeks you knew exactly what you were going to do everyday, Saturday=long run, Sunday=rest, Monday=easy run…  Now that structure suddenly leaves, where do you turn, what are you going to do everyday?  What is your plan?

That is a big question.  One that first requires a little introspection.  What is your main goal?  Do you want to set a PR?  Is your main goal weight-loss?  Is your true goal to be as healthy as possible?  Do you just want to continue running a race every month?

Obviously these are not all the potential answers, what is your true purpose for running?  Once you know that you can then start to formulate a plan.  If you would like with you plan request a free consultation, we can help put together the ideal plan for you.

Your path my look like no other, but your goal maybe like no other.  Post-race is a great time to really to focus some thought on what it is that you truly want.  Not what you think you should do, but rather what it is that you really want.  I often find that when I am talking to people, I find that their actions are not in-line with their wants.

Lining up your goals(wants) with your actions is crucial to achieving them.  Knowing you are on the right path boosts confidence in the plan.  Confidence in your plan boosts compliance to your plan.  Compliance to your plan boosts results.  Start at the beginning of the chain, not half-way through.

Recently I was able to sit down with quite a few people interested in our boot camps. Which is great, I love talking with people about ways they can improve their fitness, lose weight, and generally feel better about themselves.  What is tough on my end is once we begin talking about their goals, lifestyle, motivation, and limitations I found 5 of the 6 of them were not well suited for our boot camps.

Our Max Metabolism Boot Camp is great, it works really, really well for a lot of people, but we offer three services for a reason, not one program is right for everyone.

What is frustrating for me is the fact that I had to try and steer a conversation away from a great, fitness and fat-loss solution that these people were dead set on using (believe me I could have collected a check from each one of them on the spot), but would not have been a positive outcome for them.  Instead I had to explain how our other services yield the same outcomes but come at it from a slightly different angle.

I do not go to the mechanic when my car is running rough and tell him I need a certain part replaced.  I don’t know jack about what could be wrong with my car.  I may want the tune-up but if I need new injectors, that is what it is.  But these people thought that our boot camp was the only solution for them and they left without giving our expertise a chance.

That sucks.

Now these people will probably go to the next thing they find, buy it, and again struggle to figure out why it isn’t working.

To me the sign of a true professional is one who will tell you when they cannot help or when something they offer is not right for your circumstance.  A person who tells me they are not the person they need is a person who will get my call next time.

While having someone who wants and needs our help walk out of our door without committing to a program that I know will work for them does break my heart, I am firm in my belief that we would not service them in a just and fair manor, thus we would not be giving them the greatest success possible.  And that would be a disservice.

For information about what would be appropriate for you, request a free consultation.