by Michael Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

In most of my Lean-Body Secrets Newsletters, I like to provide a healthy snack or meal recipe that not only is delicious and healthy, but also helps to get you closer to that hard-body appearance that everyone is looking for,
while also more importantly, improving your health for life. In this article, I’d like to give you healthy food ideas in a different way. This time, I figured I’d just give you some ideas of what I stock my fridge and cabinets with.

Remember, if you don’t have junk around the house, you’re less likely to eat junk. If all you have is healthy food around the house, you’re forced to make smart choices. Basically, it all starts with making smart choices and avoiding
temptations when you make your grocery store trip. Now these are just some of my personal preferences, but perhaps they will give you some good ideas that you’ll enjoy.

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Alright, so let’s start with the fridge. Each week, I try to make sure I’m loaded up with lots of varieties of fresh vegetables. During the growing season, I only get local produce, but obviously in winter, I have to resort to the produce at the grocery store. Most of the time, I make sure I have plenty of vegetables like onions, zucchini,  spinach, fresh mushrooms, red peppers, broccoli, etc. to use in my morning eggs.  I also like to dice up some lean chicken or turkey sausage into the eggs, along with some swiss, jack, or goat cheeses (preferably raw grass-fed cheeses when I can find them).

By the way I’m talking about whole eggs, NOT egg whites.  Always remember that the yolk is the most nutritious and nutrient dense part of the egg, so only eating egg whites is like throwing away the best part… and no, it’s NOT bad for you because of the cholesterol… eggs actually raise your GOOD cholesterol.  Try to get free range organic eggs for the best quality.

Coconut milk is another staple in my fridge. I like to use it to mix in with smoothies, oatmeal, or yogurt for a rich, creamy taste. Not only does coconut milk add a rich, creamy taste to lots of dishes, but it’s also full of healthy saturated fats. Yeah, you heard me…I said healthy saturated fats!

Healthy saturated fats like medium chain triglycerides, specifically an MCT called lauric acid. If the idea of healthy saturated fats is foreign to you, check out my healthy fats article

Back to the fridge, some other staples:

* Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds – delicious and great sources of healthy fats.

* Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt – I like to mix cottage or ricotta cheese and yogurt together with chopped nuts and berries for a great mid-morning or mid-afternoon meal.

* Whole flax seeds or chia seeds – I grind these in a mini coffee grinder and add to yogurt or salads. Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and prone to oxidation, creating high levels of free radicals in pre-ground flax.

* Whole eggs – one of natures richest sources of nutrients (and remember, they increase your GOOD cholesterol so stop fearing them).

* Salsa – I try to get creative and try some of the exotic varieties of salsas.

* Avocados – love them…plus a great source of healthy fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.

* Butter – don’t believe the naysayers; butter adds great flavor to anything and can be part of a healthy diet (just keep the quantity small because it is calorie dense…and NEVER use margarine, unless you want to assure yourself a heart attack).

* Nut butters – Plain old peanut butter has gotten a little old for me, so I get creative and mix together almond butter with sesame seed butter, or even cashew butter with macadamia butter…delicious and unbeatable nutrition!

* Leaf lettuce and spinach along with shredded carrots – for salads with dinner.

* Home-made salad dressing – using balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo’s Choice oil blend. This is much better than store bought salad dressing which mostly use highly refined soybean oil (full of inflammation-causing free radicals).

* Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs).

* Rice bran and wheat germ – these may sound way too healthy for some, but they actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.

Some of the staples in the freezer:

* Frozen berries – during the local growing season, I only get fresh berries, but during the other 10 months of the year, I always keep a supply of frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, etc. to add to high fiber cereal, oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, or smoothies

* Frozen fish – I like to try a couple different kinds of fish each week. There are so many varieties out there, you never have to get bored.

* Frozen chicken breasts – very convenient for a quick addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.

* Grass-fed steaks, burgers, and ground beef – Grassfed meats have been shown to have as high as, or even higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids than salmon (without the mercury). Also, grass-fed meats have much higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) compared to typical grain-fed beef.

* Frozen buffalo, ostrich, venison, and other “exotic” lean meats – Yeah, I know…I’m weird, but I can tell you that these are some of the healthiest meats around, and if you’re serious about a lean healthy body, these types of meats are much better for you than the mass produced, hormone-pumped beef and pork that’s sold at most grocery stores.

* Frozen veggies – again, when the growing season is over and I can no longer get local fresh produce, frozen veggies are the best option, since they often have higher nutrient contents compared to the fresh produce that has been shipped thousands of miles, sitting around for weeks before making it to your dinner table.

Alright, now the staples in my cabinets:

* Various antioxidant rich teas – green, oolong, white, rooibos are some of the best.

* Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta – much higher fiber than normal pastas

* Oat bran and steel cut oats – higher fiber than those little packs of instant oats.

* Cans of coconut milk – to be transferred to a container in the fridge after opening.

* Brown rice and other higher fiber rice – NEVER white rice

* Tomato sauces – delicious, and as I’m sure you’ve heard a million times, they are a great source of lycopene. Just watch out for the brands that are loaded with nasty high fructose corn syrup.

* Stevia – a natural non-caloric sweetener, which is an excellent alternative to the nasty chemical-laden artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.

* Raw honey – better than processed honey… higher quantities of beneficial nutrients and enzymes. Honey has even been proven in studies to improve glucose metabolism (how you process carbs). I use a teaspoon or so every morning in my teas. Yes, it is pure sugar, but at least it has some nutritional benefits… and let’s be real, a teaspoon of healthier raw honey is only 5 grams of carbs… certainly nothing to worry about.

* Organic maple syrup – none of that high fructose corn syrup Aunt Jemima crap…only real maple syrup can be considered real food. The only time I really use this (because of the high sugar load) is added to my post-workout smoothies to sweeten things up and also elicit an insulin surge to push nutrients into your muscles.

* Organic unsweetened cocoa powder – I like to mix this into my smoothies for an extra jolt of antioxidants or make my own low-sugar hot cocoa by mixing cocoa powder into hot milk with stevia and a couple melted dark chocolate chunks.

* Cans of black or kidney beans – I like to add a couple scoops to my Mexican wraps for the fiber and high nutrition content. Also, beans are surprisingly one of the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!

* Dark chocolate (as dark as possible) – This is one of my treats that satisfies my sweet tooth, plus provides loads of antioxidants at the same time. It’s still calorie dense, so I keep it to just a couple squares; but that is enough to do the trick, so I don’t feel like I need to go out and get cake and ice cream to satisfy my dessert urges.

Lastly, another thing that’s hard to go wrong with is a good variety of fresh fruits and berries. The staples such as bananas, apples, oranges, pears, peaches are good, but I like to also be a little more adventurous and include things like yellow (aka – mexican or champagne) mangoes, pomegranates, kumquats, papaya, star fruit, pineapples, and others. Also, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries are some of the most nutrient and antioxidant-dense fruits you can eat.

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Well, I hope you enjoyed this special look into my favorite lean body meals and how I stock my cabinets and fridge. Your tastes are probably quite different than mine, but hopefully this gave you some good ideas you can use next time you’re at the grocery store looking to stock up a healthy and delicious pile of groceries.

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To find out more about Mike’s Health & Fitness programs… Click Here!

This one focuses more on weight loss and healthy eating than exercising for muscle gain, and Kay actually uses many of these ideas herself with great success.

The Diet Solution Program promises a complete and comprehensive weight loss program that will not only help you lose body fat, but guarantees you increased energy, health and vitality all at the same time.

With so many weight loss programs out on the market and on the internet today, what makes this program any different than all the rest?

Before we get to the program, let’s take a look at the expert behind this program. Isabel De Los Rios is a nutrition and exercise specialist with 10 years of experience helping clients reach their ideal weight and tackle conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and high cholesterol. Isabel has a very extensive educational background in nutrition and exercise physiology.

Her personal experience with her own weight struggles and her mother’s severe diabetes led her search for the BEST nutrition information available today. The Diet Solution Program is a result of her 15 year study and research.

I’ve also talked to Isabel about her training and education background, and I’ll be honest, it was impressive, unlike other so-called “health experts”, who are just following main stream nutrition programs. Isabel provides her readers with the truth: the facts most people have never taken the time to research, read and decipher.

Plus, Isabel has been a nutrition and exercise specialist for the past 10 years and has personally worked with hundreds of clients in her own private facility, overseeing successful weight loss programs. This hands on experience with real people solidified the facts and principles she had learned in books, journals and from other health professionals. The proof was really in the results of real people.

In fact, Isabel’s articles are pretty radical when it comes to her nutrition principles which is why her approach works when main-stream nutrition fails. So if you are looking for the same old nutrition theories taught in every other book and program on the market today, this is not the program for you.

Now one of the biggest questions about the program is simply, “What is The Diet Solution Program?” Well according to Isabel, it is the most comprehensive and detailed nutrition manual available on the market today.

Not only does it teach you exactly what principles you need to follow to finally reach your ideal weight, it gives you the meal plans, shopping lists and recipes to do so. It does not push some extreme, unreasonable way to lose weight. It actually teaches you how you can make this healthy way of eating into a lifestyle. And if you have ever attempted to lose weight in the past, you know that the only way to maintain it is to make it a way of life.

The best part about Isabel’s program is that this new way of life is not some torturous eating regimen. She really shows you that you can eat delicious food, combined the right way, to lose weight and maintain it.

One of the best side effects of the whole program is the increased health and vitality that every participant experiences. Decreases in blood sugar levels, lowered cholesterol, increased energy, elimination of digestive discomfort and cleared skin conditions are just some of the few benefits other people have already experienced.

Frankly, as I said before, Kay’s used the program herself and recommended it to many others. She won’t appreciate me telling you this, but her “before” pics are much worse, so she won’t show them…

Why does she like this? Because she was sick and tired of following nutrition plans that either did not work or made her lose weight but feel terrible. Yes, she wanted to be at her ideal weight but also wanted to maintain a healthy body at the same time and not have to resort to extreme, radical methods. The Diet Solution Program helped her lose weight and feel healthy and energized at the same time.

Now realize that some effort from you will be required, but Isabel has really done all the hard work for you. Included in her program is:

* Step by step action steps telling you exactly how to put the principles in place
* Detailed daily meal plans that make everyday eating easy
* Shopping Lists to make food shopping a snap
* Delicious Recipes to make everyday meals tasty

The manual is comprehensive. Jam packed with incredible and valuable information. But you don’t need to wait to get through the whole thing before you can start. You can use Isabel’s Quick Start Guide to start the program ASAP. Some people have even just used the quick start guide and lost 10-15lbs in a little as 6 weeks.

The Diet Solution Program is not just another weight loss scheme or extreme diet. It is truly the only way to lose weight and enjoy a lifetime of health.

The Diet Solution Program is perfect for people who have struggled with their weight their whole life and are sick and tired of programs that just don’t work long term. The DSP is also perfect for people who want to take control of their health and reverse health conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease.

If you’re in the slightest bit curious, I recommend you look closely at Isabel’s program. I was very impressed with all of The Diet Solution Program meal plans, the bonuses, the guarantee, and Isabel’s expertise. For the money, it’s the best deal in the weight loss industry – so much better than diet pills!

And remember…

Isabel De Los Rios’s The Diet Solution Program is backed by a 90 day money back guarantee. And this is a real guarantee… if you are not completely satisfied, you will receive your money back, no “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts.” So you really have nothing to lose… Except the fat!

Check it out here…

By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

This is always tough to admit, but nutrition is more important than your workouts when it comes to fat loss.

And since diet is more important than exercise, I’ve decided to spend a lot time sharing nutrition tips this week, starting with these 5 diet secrets:

1) Your nutrition program doesn’t have to be extreme.

Hold up on making any extreme diet changes. Make sure the nutrition plan you’ve chosen is sustainable. Simple diet changes go a lot farther than you might think.

Why not just eat more whole, natural foods rather than trying to go on an impossible-to-stick-to ultra-low carb extreme plan?

2) Get the junk out of the house.

If it’s in your house, you’ll eat it…and trust me, this goes for me too. When I visit a relative’s house for holiday, I always eat the treats they have sitting around. That’s why I keep the junk out of my house.

So whatever your weakness is, keep it out of your home. Success is that simple.

3) Fill in the “diet-killing” gap.

For some folks, the diet-killing gap is between work and dinner. For others, it’s between dinner and bedtime, but for almost everyone, there is a point in the day when we suffer from mindless eating.

So make sure you have alternatives…as soon as you come home from work, cut up vegetables and dip them into hummus. That will keep you full on a small amount of calories.

After dinner, if you need something sweet, stir up chocolate protein powder into a small bit of plain yogurt. That will satisfy you.

4) Chew your food 5-10 times before swallowing.

Most people eat so fast they only about 1-2 times. You’ll really notice a difference and you’ll slow your eating so you feel full.

5) Have a bowl of broth-based vegetable soup before a meal.

American researcher Barbara Roll has published a lot of studies showing that this will help you reduce the food you eat. Surprisingly, consuming just water doesn’t seem to do the same trick.

So those are just 5 of the diet secrets we have for you this year.

Stay tuned for proven secrets to help you lose fat in 2010.

Many people end up abandoning perfectly good fitness programs and weight-loss regimens before they even lace up their sneakers.

Why? Because in a world filled with fast food, instant messaging, and a five-second disease-tracking device, anything without a quick payoff goes against the grain of the typical American instant gratification ethic. While it would be nice to actually drop inches in just a few days like what most miracle ads proclaim, managing weight and losing weight through physical fitness is a slow and steady process that takes time and commitment.

Setting weight management goals for yourself can be a good motivator. Gradual weight loss, for those people who wish to shed off some extra pounds, is usually the safest.

That is why health and fitness experts had come up with the idea of lifetime fitness in order to teach people set realistic goals. These lifetime fitness programs generates dietary regimens that cut your normal calorie consumption for your weight by 500 to 1,000 per day, so will burning the same amount with exercise. In turn, this will definitely encourage healthier weight loss.

Good fitness programs teach you how to maintain a physically fit body at the same time enjoy and live a happy, contented life. It gives you the chance to strike a balance between the two (exercise and diet), and make exercise, be it team sports, cycling, or walking, something you will truly enjoy.

That is why good fitness exercises embody the concept that making a long-term healthy lifestyle change is essential to keeping the pounds off once they are gone.

These fitness programs provide you the right method in maintaining health, build up and encourage your competence, and can help you take care of your family’s physical fitness as well.

To know more of the advantages and benefits that fitness exercises can bring, here are some facts that you need to know:

1. Because the goal of lifetime fitness is to provide you with long-term achievements as far as physical fitness is concerned, these programs utilizes numerous fitness exercises that will tone and manage your health and the different parts of your body.

2. There are fitness exercises that will give your cardiovascular system a lift. You can also try some sports that will provide you with an alternative way of being physically fit.

3. Good fitness programs also provide nutritional advice on diet, such as food supplements that will aid in the formation of good blood cells and tissues thereby making your body at its peak of health.

Indeed, staying fit and healthy can be a long and winding road and there are instances wherein you may find your enthusiasm fading occasionally. Nevertheless, with the information provided by good fitness programs, you can start heading back on the right track to a healthier you.

Do YOU need a good fitness program?  Click Here!

Wow, I just heard from fat loss expert Craig Ballantyne and he is kicking off his 7th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest by having his FIRST EVER 50% off sale on his world-wide best selling program, Turbulence Training.

Plus, you can win up to $1000 in the Transformation Contest just for losing your belly fat, so here are 3 amazing reasons to get started with Turbulence Training today.

Reason #1 – Turbulence Training is guaranteed to help you lose fat (and you get a 60-day guarantee so you can try out the program for 2 months to judge for yourself).

Reason #2 – In the 7th TT Transformation Contest, the winners of the male and female divisions get $1000 cash PLUS a 3-year Platinum Turbulence Training Membership. It could be YOU!

Reason #3 – The most important reason to get started with Turbulence Training immediately is the fact that it’s on sale for the FIRST time ever. Until Friday, January 1st at 9pm, EST, the price has been slashed by 50% in order to get as many people as possible started on their Turbulence Training Body Transformation.

So here’s what you need to do now:

Go to  http://tinyurl.com/ttsale

Click on the Get Started Link under the Big Yellow Start Button

Download your copy of Turbulence Training and all of the workout bonuses and start using the workouts and nutrition advice today to lose that holiday blubber and get a headstart on your New Year’s fat loss program.

Create your username and password for the TT Member’s area.

Post any personal workout and nutrition questions on the TT forum and Craig Ballantyne will answer those for you within hours.

That’s all you have to do to get started losing fat today!

But hurry, the 50% Turbulence Training sale is only available until Friday, January 1st.

It’s the perfect way to start your body transformation and kick-off the New Year to make 2010 your best year ever!

(And you could win up to $1000 in the Transformation Contest!)

Please don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to lose fat for good – without doing long, slow, boring cardio workouts. That means you won’t have to wait in line at the gym to do cardio when everyone goes back to the gym as a New Year’s resolution.

Click here to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime sale!

Dan.

You need to take action!

The rise in the number of fast foods joints that have a lot of saturated fat in the meals, the use of a lot of refined sugar in sodas and other processed foods and eating food with less fiber have all contributed to the fact that there are more people than before who are classified as either overweight or are obese.

A lot of other factors cause this to happen such as genetics, overeating and as people age; the metabolism slows down making it harder than before to burn the food that was just consumed.

The rate that a person loses weight is commensurate to how it is gained. Too rapid weight loss is not advisable since it leaves the person with loose skin and the only way to get rid of that would require surgery.

Generally, weight loss depends on the condition of the person which includes their weight, health, calorie-intake, age, gender, lifestyle, stress level and routine.

Being a little overweight does not necessarily make a person unhealthy. It just makes the person a bit unfashionable. Studies have shown that people who are a bit overweight live longer than those who have normal weight.

There is no quick (as in overnight) solution for quick weight loss.

However, Nutritionists and other health experts will say that healthy diet with proper exercise can actually help lose a certain number of pounds per week. The best way to do this is with a low calorie diet and an exercise plan.

The first thing a person needs to do is to choose a diet program designed by a dietitian or another health professional. The patient should be evaluated before any program can be made. The program usually consists of an eating plan and an exercise program that does not require the use of supplements or the purchase any expensive fitness equipment.

The best exercise plan should have cardiovascular and weight training exercises. This helps burn calories and increase the muscle to fat ratio that will increase ones metabolism and lose weight.

A good diet should have food from all the food groups.

This is made up by 2 things. The first is carbohydrates. The food that a person consumes should have vitamins, minerals and fiber. A lot of this can come from oats, rice, potatoes and cereals. The best still come from vegetables and fruits since these have phytochemicals, enzymes and micronutrients that are essential for a healthy diet.

The second is fat which can come from mono and poly-saturated food sources rather than animal fats. Since fat contains more than double the number of calories in food, this should be taken in small quantities to lose weight.

All diet plans are designed to make the person induce a reduced amount of calories into the body. This does not mean that the person has to eat less. It just means that one has to eat smart by choosing the foods that have less calories. This makes it possible for someone to lose weight without the need to eat less.

During the course of the program, the person should still consult with the doctor and other health experts to monitor their progress. There will be times that it is essential to modify the diet plan to further lose weight.

For quick weight loss, it is up to the person to stick to the program to see that it works.

Get your own Quick Weight Loss Action plan!

By Rob Poulos, Fat Loss & Fitness Expert & Creator of ‘Fat Burning Furnace’

As with a good majority of the things we do in life, we rely heavily on our vision or eyesight as the determining factor in whether or not we believe something.  And this is unfortunately the case in trying to burn fat as well.  What’s the old cliché?  A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Well, when we lock our eyes onto that photo of that buff guy or buxom bombshell on the cover of the latest fitness or weight loss product, something happens.  We get excited.  We may even get very excited!

Unfortunately, this is something that many in the fitness industry are preying on. They know this and use it to their huge advantage.  The process is simple: put a great looking and in-shape guy or girl on a product and it will sell.  They don’t even have to tell you you’ll look like that person – they already know your subconscious will assume it will happen.  When you’re desperate to burn fat, this is an easy game for the fitness industry to play.

And of course a few weeks later if it doesn’t, you may start to lose hope and realize that it’s going to be tough to keep up with the unrealistic and overly strict guidelines.   You’ve got a life, right?  Sure, you want to burn fat, but you’ve got a job, maybe a family, and other interests in life.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a great fat burning workout, but I know you don’t want to spend every waking hour for the rest of your life working out!

All of this happened to me several times over as a young man.  I wasn’t happy with my weight, wanted to burn fat, and was in search of the most efficient way to get lean, strong, and healthy, but while not spending too much time in the gym, or having to follow crazy diet plans for long periods of time.

After more than a decade of experimenting on myself, friends, relatives, and perfect strangers, I assembled some of the secrets that I found to work best at burning fat and in the shortest amount of time, on myself and the others that I worked with.  Now, what led me to do this was an incredible amount of frustration that I know thousands of others are going through right now.

Why?  To answer that, I want you to understand the psychological aspects of what we are up against in the world of health and fitness.

What do you call doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?  OK, I’ll answer this one…Insanity!  In some ways, the fitness industry is making you insane in your quest to burn fat and get a lean, strong, and healthy body.  Their promises are too good to be true and often they can’t typically deliver on them.   They are over-promising and under-delivering in many cases.

It’s a big psychological game that the fitness industry is playing with us, and it dates back to our childhood.  When we were kids, we were all taught in school that we could do anything we wanted to do when we grew up.  Your parents might have even told you that you can achieve anything you want if you believe in it strongly enough.  I know mine did.

While this can provide great inspiration in life’s pursuits, it can also be used against you by others, and without you knowing.  You are largely a product of your genetic makeup.  Just as Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies could never play in the NBA, a guy like Woody Allen could never win a heavyweight bodybuilding competition.

The reality is that these two guys can burn fat and get in the best shape of their life, but our genes are responsible for much of what we end up looking like when in that best shape.  But this isn’t what the fitness industry will typically tell you – they want you thinking that anyone can look like a genetic freak of nature…if you just follow their programs, that is.

Please know that I am not saying you are doomed by your genes…everyone can make amazing improvements in their physiques with proper exercise and nutrition habits.  It’s when we start comparing ourselves to the guys or gals in the magazines that we get into trouble, and get lost in that vicious cycle of hype and sensationalism all too prevalent in fitness and fat burning today.

As I mentioned before, you’ve got a life.  You’re a busy person.  We all are.  We live in a fast-paced society, the information age, where we have so many tasks to complete and so little time to complete them.  I don’t know about you, but I find myself trying to cram everything I do into those few hours between waking up and going to sleep.  It’s not easy.

Then comes along the fitness gurus telling you that to burn fat and get in great shape you’ve got to workout everyday or close to it.  You’ve got to do aerobics or cardiovascular exercise to burn fat, several times a week.  You’ve got to weight train several other days each week, so that you are literally working out 5-6 days each week, every week.  If you want it, you’ve got to do it, they say.

I’m here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth! Many of these programs will also tell you that you’ve got to follow some crazy diet to burn fat.  This might include cutting all or most of your carbs, ingesting loads of supplements or other magic weight loss potions.  On top of that, when their programs don’t deliver, they’ll tell you that everyone is different and that you’ve got to find what works right for you.  Wait a minute…weren’t they just telling you that their program promises the body on the cover?

What they are doing is keeping you in that fitness insanity that I mentioned earlier.  They keep you doing the same thing (trying then next hot product or workout and diet regimen) and promising the same great fat burning results.  If it doesn’t work, they recommend the next great thing.  And too many people go on to that next miracle product or promise and the fitness industry uses this to their advantage!

Unfortunately the fitness industry, in many ways, has become a cycle of hype and sensationalism.  Sure, there are some good-hearted trainers and professionals out there, but even some of them are being controlled by the fitness center owners, magazine publishers, and supplement companies.  That’s where the money is!  Even if they are trying to help you, they can become unwitting victims to the machine.

They advertise their products, programs, and diets by using the cream of the crop in the genetic gene pool.  Hey, if it worked for that guy or gal with the amazing physique, it will work for me.  I fell for it, too, many times, until I did some serious research and experimentation as I mentioned before.

Then one day I finally woke up and discovered for myself the secrets that few people are aware of.  Secrets that will never dominate the fitness industry’s general recommendations because they are unpopular with the people that control the industry.  Why?

Because these principles won’t sell loads of crazy exercise gimmicks, gadgets, or magic potions.  My Fat Burning Furnace students are schooled in the proper application of brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest.

But our subconscious mind is powerful, and you have to watch out…even today, I can get sucked in to a compelling late night TV ad, even though I know better.  So you’ve got to stay on guard.

If people would pay more attention to proven principles like those I teach my students, and spend less time with the latest “butt buster” or “fat stripper” on the market, we’d all be healthier, leaner, stronger, and happier for it.  And we’d also be burning a heck of a lot more fat in the process.

To Claim your free copy of Rob Poulos’s “7 Secrets Of Permanent Fat Loss & Fitness” at his website: Click Here!

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

Media reports say that most people gain between 5 and 10 pounds of body fat in the six weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. According to research from the New England Journal of Medicine, the average amount is much more modest – just over a pound. However, even modest holiday weight gain may be cause for concern: A study by the National Institutes of Health found that this seasonal weight gain – even just a pound – is usually not lost after the holidays; it simply adds to the “weight creep” that sneaks up on us as we get older.

Whether the weight gain is a pound or ten pounds, did you ever ask yourself why does holiday weight gain happen at all?

Here are some common answers I’ve heard:

“I’m too busy over the holidays to work out as often as usual.”

“No one can tell me not to enjoy myself over the holidays, so I’m just going to eat whatever I want.”

These answers all have a few things in common.

First, they assume that it’s an either/or proposition: You can either get in better shape or enjoy yourself, but not both. Stated in reverse: You can either deprive yourself of holiday enjoyments or gain weight, but it has to be one or the other. The truth is, “either/or thinking” is a very limiting form of thought.

Second, these are all excuses or rationalizations. “I’m too busy” for example, is always an excuse, because I have never known someone who was too busy to make time for his or her highest life priorities. The problem then, is not lack of time, but that most people do not make exercise or eating healthy a priority. We all have the same amount of time – 24 hours a day – but the way people prioritize the use of time is the difference between success and mediocrity. And remember, words mean little. Actions reveal a person’s true priorities.

Third, none of these are the real reasons most people gain weight over the holidays to begin with. The real reason is because an intention was never set for the opposite: To get in BETTER shape over the holidays.

Most people set a “goal” to get in worse shape over the holidays!

It’s not consciously set, of course, as few people would intentionally set out to gain fat. They simply do it by default. In their minds, they accept that it must be just about impossible to stay in shape with everything going on over the holiday season, so why bother?

Once the decision has been made, then the rationalizing (“rationing lies”) continues:

“Why should I deprive myself?”
“Family is more important”
“Worrying about diet and exercise during the holidays is neurotic”
“I don’t care if I gain a few pounds, I’m going to enjoy myself anyway”
“It’s only these two or three weeks that I let myself go wild”
“I’ll start the first week in January and lose the weight then.”

As a result of this “negative goal-setting,” they expect to work out less, eat more and gain a few pounds, and they don’t seem to even consider alternatives.

But what would happen if you set an intention and a goal to get in better shape between now and New Years’s Day?

What would happen if you decided that it was not an all or nothing proposition and that you could enjoy the holidays and all it has to offer and get in better shape at the same time?

And what if you decided that your health and your body were the highest priorities in your life, because you realized that can’t enjoy anything else in life, including family or holidays, if you don’t have your health?

Here’s what would happen: You would get in better shape!

I’m not all that different from you just because I’m a bodybuilder and a fitness professional. I have many of the same problems, concerns and struggles as you do. Although today I always get in better shape between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, that’s a result of a conscious choice, a close examination of my old belief systems and a lot of action. For me, it all started about six years ago.

For most of my adult life, I wasn’t much of a traveller and I didn’t enjoy flying or staying in hotels. I had a belief that if I traveled, my workouts and nutrition would suffer. After all, “it would be hard to stick with my usual bodybuilding diet, and I wouldn’t have access to my usual gyms.” Because of these reasons (excuses), I never did much travel back in those days.

Then I was forced to take some trips for business reasons. Predictably enough, my nutrition and workouts suffered while I was spending time in airplanes and in hotels. With my experience having confirmed my beliefs, I re-affirmed to myself, “See, traveling is nothing but a pain. You just can’t stay on a diet and training program when you’re out of town.”

After several more trips, I noticed that something very negative happened: I surrendered. I had resigned myself to “not bother” while I was on the road. I let my expectations create my reality.

But I didn’t let it go on for long. As soon as I became aware of what was happening, I decided that I wouldn’t tolerate it, so I challenged myself and my previous limiting beliefs. I asked myself, “Why the heck not? Why let myself backslide? Why even settle for maintaining? Why not challenge myself to improve while I’m traveling?” The answer:

There was no reason, there were only excuses.

From that day forward, I set a challenge for myself: To come back from every trip or vacation in better shape than when I left. Of course there were exceptions, as when I went on a vacation for total R & R. But I never let travel get in my way again…

I prepared food that I would eat on the planes so airline food was never an excuse…
I only chose hotels that had kitchens, so I could cook my own food…
I went food shopping immediately after check-in…

And I actually found myself training harder than usual!

No matter where I was training – it could even be some “dungeon” of a gym in the middle of nowhere – it didn’t matter because my mind was focused on improving and looking better when I came home than when I left. I had a goal!

What do you think happened? It’s not hard to guess: I always came home in better shape than when I left.

In fact, this experience is what led me to my “holiday fitness challenge.”

Like many people, I travel over the holidays, so I’m automatically in “travel challenge” mode at thanksgiving, Christmastime and New Year’s. But with the additional temptations and busyness that the holidays bring on top of the usual travel stresses, I saw fit to declare a new challenge: “The Holiday Challenge.” The difference was that for my “holiday challenge,” I pledged to not only to return home in better shape than when I left, but to enjoy the holidays to the fullest at the same time.

People who think I “deprive” myself to look the way I do would be shocked: I eat some damn good food over the holidays including Pie at Thanksgiving and my mom’s famous red and green Jell-0 Christmas cake. Then on New Year’s I’m usually toasting champagne and having a blast with friends or family. The difference is, every other meal stays right on schedule and I work out hard and consistently over the holidays; I don’t let everything fall apart just because ‘tis the season.’ In fact, I work out HARDER over the holidays!

The idea that you can either enjoy the holidays or stay in shape – but not both – is damaging and limiting. It hurts your social life, your emotional life and your physical life. Life is not an either or proposition; it’s a matter of balance. Success does not mean going to extremes. Success can be a simple matter of re-examining your beliefs, rearranging your priorities, setting goals, changing the questions you ask yourself, re-evaluating your expectations and acting in accordance with all of the above.

Your expectations will become your reality.

What are you expecting this holiday season? Are you expecting to be in better shape after holiday parties, celebrations, banquets, dinners, and desserts? If not, then why not? What’s preventing you from enjoying all of the above and still getting in better shape? Do you have a limiting belief which dictates that it’s one or the other? Could it be that you never set a goal, intention or expectation to do it? Could it be that you’re rationalizing or making excuses? If so, then I challenge you to change it this year.

I CHALLENGE YOU TO BE IN BETTER SHAPE ON JANUARY 1st THAN YOU ARE TODAY! I CHALLENGE YOU TO BE FITTER, HEALTHIER, LEANER AND MORE MUSCULAR!

BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE
The Classic Best-Selling e-book… Click Here For Your Copy!

There’s less than a month until the end of the year. Why not see how much you can improve your physique over the holidays, without depriving yourself of any holiday enjoyments or festivities? Just step up your expectations. Step up your standards. Step up your nutrition. Step up your training. Step up your action. Step up to the “holiday fitness challenge” the minute you finish reading this, and then just see what happens!

Eat right, train hard, and expect success,

Tom Venuto CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Fat Loss Coach

Discover the fat burning secrets of fitness models and bodybuilders and be 8-10 lbs LEANER by New Year’s. Visit: www.BurnTheFat.com

[ Editor's Note:  Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you. ]

Got arm flab?

Know someone who does?

Some women I know with a healthy sense of humor refer to it as “their wings” because their arm flab flaps when they walk or jog.

It’s time to get rid of your wings ladies…

… and guys, listen up:  You are not immune to arm flab. Even if your don’t have any, the tips I’m about to give will help you build stronger arms.

Before I go any further, I have to tell you about Marty Web.

Marty looked like … well, your typical 59-year-old housewife. Actually she looked a bit worse.

She was a good 80 pounds over her ideal bodyweight. And she had her wings…

… big time wings. Loads of arm flab.

That was at age 59.

At age 61… wow. Different story.

Marty transformed her body to such a degree that even I could have never guessed she was an OUNCE overweight!

Her story and 52 others just like her, male and female, are in my first book — and my best-seller Fit Over 40.

I’d like you to read more about it here –

http://www.fitover40.com/go/betterlife <— cure for arm flab

Marty replaced her “wings” with toned, beautiful arms. And you can too.

She has two pages in Fit Over 40… too much to cover in an email… but here’s the basics to get you started:

1. You have to get your nutrition down pat. Most people think that the flab on their arms (or anywhere for that matter) can be solved by “turning it into muscle.”

This is not true folks. Fat does not turn into “anything”. It is used for energy. Period.

Muscle is muscle. Fat is fat.

You must use low-insulin nutrition like I recommend in all my books, including Fit Over 40, to lower your bodyfat. For ladies, the back-of-the-arm bodyfat is often the last bit to go.

But I promise — it will go. I can go for anyone. Marty Web and dozens of other ladies in Fit Over 40 prove that in living color… and they share how they did it.

Low-insulin nutrition means eating more protein-rich foods, foods that are not processed, and plenty of tasty veggies. But it does not mean you cannot have your pizza and burgers here and there. I do every week and my bodyfat is low.

2. You must train your triceps. The back of the arm is made of three muscles called the “triceps”. You have a long head, a medial head and a lateral head that form the triceps muscle group.

If you cannot access a gym, you can do plain-old pushups to work all three heads of the triceps. Here’s a few tips. First, if you cannot do a pushup with your legs straight, start by doing them on your knees. Work up to straight-legged pushups.

Second, do one third of your reps with your hands facing away from your body, one third with your hands facing toward your body (fingers pointing toward you) and the final third with your hands in the “normal” pushup position, facing the same direction as your body. This will work the various heads nicely.

If you have access to a gym, see the exercises for the triceps found in my book Fit Over 40:

http://www.fitover40.com/go/betterlife <— say good-bye to arm flab

3. Finally, you have to have a role model. Find someone like Marty who has lost their wings and use their success to inspire you.

Put these three things together and you too will be “grounded” — wingless, but with a lovely pair of arms that never jiggle and look fantastic.

Want to know what your real odds are of having a heart attack?

How about a stroke? Diabetes?

Okay, this isn’t sounding like a positive letter… but hang in there. It gets a lot better and more positive.

I was having lunch today with my CPA and my good friend Sherry Strong. Sherry’s upcoming book is a must-read. I will let you know when she’s ready to release it.

Since Sherry has been here visiting,  I have learned SO much about natural food preparation and what really causes disease.

Our conversation took a turn to “doctor’s tests.” I think most of them are worthless. Some are vital.

It’s important to know the difference.

I’m going to give you the three tests you absolutely must take if you want to help ensure your future health in a moment.

But first, let me give you Sherry’s argument to my third test.

Yes, we nutritionists argue sometimes. ; )

I’ll let you decide. But statically it’s far more accurate than any blood test… and get this:

You can do it at home for freee.

So far, are you with me?  Good.

I’m going to go in reverse order, third test to last…

The third test is simply this:

Measure your waistline. Use a tape measure and do not pull it tight. Measure right below the navel.

Write down that number in inches.

Then measure your height out of shoes in inches. Write that down too.

If your waist in inches is more than twice your height you are FOUR TIMES more likely to have heart disease.

Four times. That’s more predictive than cholesterol tests by far.

And a lot less expensive to boot.

Don’t just read about this test — DO IT. I’ll give you something you can do ABOUT it if you fail this test in a second.

The great news is that this is one factor that is totally within your control.

Test number two:  Know your SED rate. This is an inflammatory marker in the blood.

Test number one:  Know your hsCRP and LP(a) levels. Both of these can be done as one test usually. Both are inflammatory markers as well as key indicators of heart health.

Go to your doctor and ask for these three blood tests. Usually they can be done all at once. Sometimes they are separate, but they are all crucial.

If you are thin and look healthy, listen to this:

You too can be Lance Armstrong or Jim Fixx….and not know it.

Lance and Jim looked like two of the healthiest men on the planet. Lance beat testicular cancer but came within an inch of his life. Jim died after a short jog of a heart attack very young in life.

Looks can be deceiving.

This is Sherry’s argument — and she’s totally correct.

That’s why I give you THREE (well, actually four) TESTS.

You see, it’s virtually impossible to have a normal SED rate, a normal hsCRP level and a normal LP(a) level and be at imminent risk for any of these killer diseases.

Possible, perhaps — but almost not.

So, if you look healthy and feel like a bazillion bucks, you still need to know your levels of these inflammatory markers.

If you are overweight or obese, you totally absolutely MUST do the waist/height test as well as the others.

You see, it goes both ways.

Some obese folks test out okay at the doc’s office. Their cholesterol, blood pressure, and all typical readings are okay. Rarely does a doc run an hsCRP or LP(a). And rarely do they run a SED rate.

See the importance here?

Both the fit and the unfit can be at dire risk and not even know it.

Now, here’s the solution:

A low-inflammatory nutrition and training plan, along with plenty of stress-free time.

I can help you with the first two things.

The third thing — de-stressing — is up to you. You may want to spend 30 minutes a day doing yoga, walking, meditating, praying, or whatever calms your MIND and BODY down.

Check it out:

Lance and Jim were both doing insane amounts of exercise… so much that they demanded insane amounts of high-inflammatory foods. Foods like processed carbohydrates for example.

And they both got sick. One of them died.

My good friend Dr. Steven Chase believes that 85% of cancer is preventable.

Re-read that:  85%.  And he’s an oncologist — a cancer doctor.

And you know heart disease is 95% preventable… or did you?

But all of these killers, especially diabetes, demand a low-insulin, low-inflammatory nutrition and exercise plan.

Lance and Jim had sky-high inflammatory levels from all that exercise. It was literally TOO much exercise.

That’s why so many marathoners die of heart attacks. They eat inflammatory foods and engage in high-stress exercise for too long of a time.

So, what’s the answer?

1. Short workouts that are intense, effective, and enjoyable. Weights and cardio both, or in-home resistance workouts will work fine.

2. Longer “soft” workouts like brisk walking that helps de-stress the body and burn more bodyfat.

3. A nutrition plan that allows for your favorite foods at the RIGHT TIME of the day but also helps you burn bodyfat without activating your body’s stress-producing hormones like cortisol…cool.

Most nutrition plans are stressful. Big mistake. Stress can cause you to hold on to bodyfat. Plus stress causes inflammation.

Most workout plans are either too easy or too intense for too long a period of time. My System is super-short (7-14 minutes a day, plus walks when you can.) This is enough to build all the muscle you need plus burn bodyfat when combined with the nutrition plan.

My System’s nutrition plan is ideal if you are willing to “diet” for a day or two, then enjoy a day of eating “normal” foods.

Hey, no one is perfect. Anyone who has half a brain should know that not very many people (myself included) are willing to do without their favorite foods forever.

That’s silly — and it’s not necessary to burn bodyfat.

In fact, my System ‘demands’ that you eat these foods at certain times TO BURN MORE BODYFAT!

Wild, isn’t it?

It’s the System I’ve used for years.

It’s the combination of two books:

7 Minute Muscle + Every Other Day Diet

Get them both for one low price…

Go here:

http://www.7minutemuscle.com/go/betterlife/oto <— Helps you pass the tests

Any of my three Upgrade Kits come with both books, a full year of support from me on the Every Other Day Diet group Forum, and so many bonuses I can’t list them all.

This combo is something I am so very proud to share with you.

It’s the ultimate System for lowering bodyfat, increasing lean muscle, lowering insulin, lowering inflammation, and ensuring your health.

Whether you are in shape or obese, this System is one that will work for you.

http://www.7minutemuscle.com/go/betterlife/oto <— Helps you pass the tests