The Natural Cleanse

Our bodies go through millions of cellular reactions at any given time which lead to cellular wear and tear. Accumulation of cellular garbage leads to further destruction within the cell and has been linked to accelerated aging and many types of chronic disease. The process of autophagy deals with garbage cells by recycling them within the body. The only catch: you have to be in a fasted state for this process to work really well. The hormonal response from the introduction of even a tiny amount of food immediately blunts the process. That’s also the reason why adequate sleep slows the aging process; because sleep essentially is a fast! On the flip side prolonged fasting can lead to the degeneration of muscle mass, bone tissue and overall weakness in the body. A healthy balance of these two processes will lead to a body that can essentially cleanse itself while continuing to build and repair tissues efficiently, leading to increased vitality and longevity.

Improve Your Relationship With Food

Being able to say no to food is a powerful fat loss tool. Dr. John Berardi says in his e-book on intermittent fasting, “Hunger is not an emergency, it is a feeling… one that’s nothing to panic over.” When you learn to defer food gratification you start to understand the difference between psychological (mental) hunger and physiological (body) hunger and you unlock the key to the biggest reason why people gain excess body fat ; eating too much too often.

Fat Loss Simplicity

The most important factor to dietary success is compliance. Brad Pilon, author of one of the best IF resources available, says, “a bad diet that you can stay on is more effective than a good diet that you can’t”. Most of the popular diet plans like Atkins, The Zone and South Beach are just different methods of reducing caloric intake for weight loss. Most versions of Intermittent Fasting provide greater simplicity than traditional diets allowing you to stay on track longer, getting you better results over time. A particularly good book on IF is Brad Pilon’s “Eat stop Eat” and can be downloaded here.

Portable Fat Loss

I often get asked the question “what I should eat when I go on vacation to continue to lose fat?” While you should always be eating nutritious whole foods, there are times when this will be more difficult or you may just want to splurge! Planning at least one fast can minimize the damage to your fat loss goals when on vacation or in any situation where good food choices are not readily available. Intermittent Fasting does not require any special food to work so you can stay compliant anywhere on the globe.

If you would like to do any additional reading on the topic check out precisionnutrition.com for great articles on the topic. They also have a free e-book which gives a complete overview of intermittent fasting. It can be downloaded here.

Yours in good health,

Derick

Improved strength to weight ratio

If you can lift your own body weight it means that you carry an efficient bodyweight for your strength. Low body fat is a prerequisite for this challenge as well as strong back muscles and a good grip. I have yet to meet a woman who could do chin ups or pull-ups that wasn’t lean enough to show some abdominal definition. If you are not there yet they make strength bands that you can buy to assist you. Getting “toned” is a function of getting leaner and stronger. As you get leaner and stronger your chin ups and pull ups will improve.

Balancing effect

Chin-ups will strengthen the back. Strengthening the muscles in your back will also have the effect of pulling your shoulders back and greatly improving your posture. Commonly the posture of people is compromised because of sitting too much, carrying extra weight in the chest area, carrying children or general imbalance from doing too much in the frontal plane. This slouchy posture not only looks bad but also causes shoulder problems like frozen shoulder. Increasing your strength in “pulling” movements will correct this imbalance and give you a great looking back!

Quiktrain core exercise

Since chin-ups involve so much effort doing few sets of chin-ups a week is enough to maintain a great deal of strength and tone of the upper body without a lot of time invested. It also keeps you in check about your body fat as carrying extra body fat will make it very difficult to complete this exercise. Once you get to this goal, you save a bunch of time on your workout by making it a staple and I promise, you will get better at it but it will never become easy. That is a Quiktrain exercise.

Check out the video below to see one of my clients first attempt at a chin up using band assistance.

The first quarter of 2012 is officially over and I am happy to say that lots of goals have been met. As a team, we are truly a bunch of losers… losers of pounds, clothing sizes, old habits and bad attitudes! If you didn’t get exactly what you wanted out of the first quarter, Stay persistent. Change exists just beyond the moment of the greatest frustration. Never give up! There is still time until the warm weather hits. What will your wardrobe look like in July?

Quiktrain is getting better with some exciting additions:

Personal consultations with a registered nutritionist. Fill out in detail the 3 day food journal and send it back to me asap – Just click here to download it. My nutritionist will sit down with you and make recommendations on how you can maximize your results with personalized eating strategies that work for you! The first session is scheduled for Sunday April 15th. This is completely FREE!

Quiktrain cardio club – Looking to run your first 5k, 10k or half marathon or do you just want an extra session to maximize your fat burning? Cardio club workouts are for you! We will use the most effective interval protocols and tools like kettle bells, skipping and running to blast extra calories and carve out that nice flat tummy we all want. These sessions will be 45 minutes once a week. This is also completely FREE!

Quiktrain Referral Program – Refer a friend and save $$ on training!

• Refer 1 friend receive $25 off your next payment
• Refer 2 friends receive $50 off your next payment
• Refer 3 friends receive 75$ off your next payment
• Refer 4 friends receive $100 off you next payment

Note: Email me if you are interested in the cardio club and what times work best for you (am or pm + Weekend or weekday + preferred time) We will try to determine a time that works for everyone.

Thank you sincerely for an awesome first quarter of 2012. Its inspiring to me to see everyone working so hard and getting results. Now it’s time to go even harder than ever before.

See you soon!

One of the top reasons motivated people fail at permanent fat loss is because they take a majority cardio approach and half-ass the weight training.

Prioritize your fat burning activities to elicit maximum results in the least amount of time. Strength coach and world renowned fat loss expert Alwyn Cosgrove talks about the hierarchy of fat loss. He lays out the activities you should be focusing on in order to achieve the best fat loss results for your time. You’ll notice that resistance training ranks at the top of the list and aerobic training falls toward the bottom of the list. For those allergic to change, you can stop reading now and continue on in mediocrity. If you want to lose fat fast, read it, know it, apply it!

Before I go on you must know one thing: Fat loss will not happen if you take in more calories than you burn. It just won’t. A diet that contains a balanced amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats is a must. You must burn more calories than you take in. Oh, and just because it’s healthy doesn’t mean that the calories don’t count against you. If you overeat 800 calories of veggies it elicits the same results as overeating 800 calories worth of cheese burger and waffle fries at your local greasy spoon. The excess calories will be stored as fat. Buying organic won’t save you from this fact, too.

Cosgrove breaks down hierarchy like this:

1) “If you have 3 hours – high-intensity resistance train only.” This type of training kills calories on three fronts: calories burned during exercise, calories burned during recovery (up to 31 hours) and calories burned by adding muscle. You can do it in three 60 minute sessions or 4 forty-five minutes sessions. Focus on full body circuits using compound exercises that combine multiple muscles within the same movement, for maximum muscle stimulation.

2) If you have 3-5 hours – high-intensity resistance training and high-intensity anaerobic interval training. This type of cardio training burns more calories than steady state cardio and it also maximizes post exercise calorie burn. An example of this would be interval sprints at close to maximum effort on land or on a bike for 30-60 seconds followed by a rest interval. Note: this is a difficult interval. Beginners should build up to this gradually under supervision of a certified personal trainer.

3) “5-6 hours – add aerobic interval training.” This burns a bit more than steady state aerobic interval training. An example of this would be moderate intensity and low intensity intervals (2:1, 1:1) on an elliptical or treadmill that are continuous for 25-45 minutes.

4) “7-8 hours – add steady state high intensity aerobic training.” For those cardio junkies, steady state has its place; it just falls lower in the pecking order. Prioritize this activity and you’ll be cheating yourself out of post exercise calorie burn and metabolism increase from increase in lean muscle. Under this umbrella would be any cardio activity done at a constant pace for 25 minutes or more.

5) “8+ steady state low intensity cardio activity.” These are just the little activities that come under the umbrella of moving more. It doesn’t make a huge impact on fat loss but it doesn’t hurt either.

There is no magic here. Do the harder stuff before the easy stuff and you will get to your fat loss goal faster and maintain results.

I am currently putting together a program called Quiktrain 3x that integrates the hierarchy of fat loss along with principals of good eating and lifestyle in an 8 week package. I’ll be posting the details on the blog in the next couple weeks.

In the meantime, stay healthy and strong,

Derick

Resistance training has the ability to sculpt the body so you not only lose weight but also look better naked! P.S. The girl on the right probably weighs a lot more too!

So go hard in the gym  and don’t be afraid to lift weights that challenge your muscles and push you outside your comfort zone.  This approach will make sure you metabolism revs hot enough to shred the fat and build the strong defined body you can be proud of.

Quiktrain Top Fat Loss Habit:   “Supplement with a multivitamin and fish oil daily”

The leading research has shown us that supplementing with fish oil has tremendous affects on fat loss by increasing insulin sensitivity in the body.  Increasing insulin sensitivity is important because it makes our bodies better at using stored fat for energy.  So don’t be afraid of fats and make sure you incorporate them into every meal!

Bonus Fat Loss Tip: Two-a -days (two workouts in one day) boosts insulin sensitivity and helps accelerate fat burning.

Dinners, parties,wine, chocolate, cookies, candy, pastries and the list goes on!  If your mouth is watering right now with the thoughts of cheating on your diet then this post is for you!

If you’ve been on a workout program chasing down that flat tummy or those bulging biceps now’s not the time to blow it!  Make sure your diet survives  the hollidays with some top strategies to help you enjoy the holiday cheer without having it spill over into the new year and your beltline

Tip # 1: Revisit your goals and focus

Remind yourself why you are doing this in the first place. Write it down.  Try on your goal dress or pin up your old college ball pics.  Getting fit is about looking and feeling your best.  Is it a six pack you’re after, are you trying to improve your health markers like blood pressure or cholesterol.   Do you want more energy to play with your kids, look good in a bikini or finally have the confidence to go shopping and love what you try on?   Stirring up all these passionate reasons will give you the focus to maintain your workout schedule and make excellent food choices.

Tip # 2 Keep it clean and light

You know when your celebrations are scheduled. You also know that there are going to be tasty delights circulating around the office waiting to hijack your willpower and drown you in sugary calories.   So for the next two weeks make sure you are keeping you calories in check by substituting your heavier breads, pastas and rice with a variety of veggies.  Aim for 5 servings a day.  Remember vegetable are carbs too.  Anything you can eat in a sandwich you can have in a salad. Have 1 big salad a day. This substation will reduce your calories without you feeling hungry all the time and this way if you do end up having some treats you will balance out your net calorie intake.

Tip # 3 incorporate mini workouts

Mini workouts wake up your metabolism and give you doses of happy hormones that can keep you feeling great for hours after your workout.  But perhaps the biggest value occurs on a much deeper physiological level.  The trick is to get in a workout before you eat a big meal. This signals your body to devote those post workout calories to restoring energy balance vs. fat storage.  For the biggest metabolic boost do combination exercises that use more than one muscle at once and train in a circuit.  Aim for 15-20 minutes high intensity!

Tip # 4 Drink lots of water

 Continue to drink lots of water throughout the day.  The excess sodium from preserved foods and snacks can overload your kidneys and cause you to retain water and feel dehydrated.   If this happens the last thing you’ll want to do is work out and the first thing you’ll want to do is reach for a sugary carb loaded pick me up. Avoid this cycle at all costs.   Flush your body out with water to keep from retaining water and feeling dehydrated and fatigued.  Start with 2 litres for women and 3 for men.  If it’s a workout day you’ll need more.

Tip # 5 Be Selective

The rule is, if it’s not at least 8 out of 10 on your delicious scale then just say no.   It’s not worth the extra calories.  Personally, i’m a big cheesecake fan and I have no problems putting down a mediocre cheesecake.   Savour the treats that you most enjoy in small amounts and leave the fillers out.  Go for quality, not quantity

At the end of the day remember that its not what you eat from Christmas to New Years, its what you eat from New Years to Christmas so aim to eat well 90% of the time and you’ll have no problems keeping your body in check when it counts.

Coach D

P.S. Special thanks to Elizabeth for some great ideas for this post!

D