Archive for the ‘Slow Carb Diet’ Category

5 lbs and 5 fat loss tips! 3-Week Slow Carb Update, Arleene loses 5 lbs!

So here we are, on week 3.   Arleene has lost 5 lbs, but is still skeptical. Before you watch the video below, here are 5 tips to stick with this, or any other nutrition program.

1) Eat the same thing every day. If you find something that works, duplicate it!   This is why I send so many of our clients to the food logging site at www.myfitnesspal.com.  If you find out for even just 1 day the amount of calories and food you need to keep you on a caloric deficit, you will consistently be losing a pound of fat or more per week.  (An average deficit of 500 calories per day burns 3,500 calories for the week.  3,500 calories is equal to 1 lb of fat!)

Do this for 3 days with some of your favorite meals, and then use this as a template to cycle through.  By eating the same thing every day, you leave out the variables and greatly reduce your chances of failing.

2) Stay accountable to someone.  If you’re involved in a program such as our bootcamp, you’ve given yourself a much higher probability of success.  It’s a funny thing, but often times you won’t do it for yourself, but you’ll do it for someone else!

3) Drink a serious amount of water.  By serious, I mean between 1/2 to a full gallon of water per day!  Yes, you will be in the bathroom all day, but you will see greater fat loss for a number of reasons.  One is that if you’re fully hydrated your bodily processes become more efficient, including your bodies ability to release fat.

Another reason is that you can work out at a higher intensity when fully hydrated.  Have you ever worked out in a state of dehydration?  You hit the wall pretty quick that way.  Also (this is the big one), when you drink large amounts of water, especially before meals, you can’t eat as much!!

4) Purge the junk!  Yes, you’ll feel like you’re doing a disservice to the starving children in Africa, but like the commercial says, “Just Do It!”.  Once you’ve thrown out all the junk in the house, you won’t be lured in when you’re feeling low on will power.

5) Measure just one thing.  Studies have shown that by measuring at least one variable it will have a huge difference in your ability to get results.  You can measure the grams of protein you eat each day, or the grams of fat.  You can use food logging to measure your calories.  You can even measure portion sizes with your fist and stick with that for a serving.  You can even measure how many times you chew each bite!  Just measure something!!

 

 

Updates on Arleene’s Slow-Carb Diet

There’s a lot I’m behind on lately.  I’ve been so busy helping boat loads of people lose weight and feel great, that I’m behind on my update posts of Arleene and her slow-carb diet.

In real time, we’re on week 3, and she’s seeing consistent results, so we’re going to keep it going.  However, as far as updates, the below videos will get you up to speed.  I still have a few more recent vids to publish, but I’ll release those in the next few days.

Oh…I almost forgot!!  We officially have the basketball court at the Foster City Athletic Club!!! The owner, Mohan, and manager, Terry, are very supportive of our bootcamp and they want to see you guys get great results from your program.  This means that we have a ton of space to run around, do crabwalks, lunges, frog-hops, push-ups, create obstacle courses, etc.  THIS ROCKS!!  We’re very, very excited about this!

Also, Samantha is helping us with childcare at FCAC in the morning, so make sure to bring your kids and say hi to her when you go into child care.  This is great for the mom’s in our 9:15am bootcamp – no more excuses!  Bring the kids, and get a great workout with Steve and Roy in the morning bootcamp.

Please leave a comment below!  Arleene needs your support!!  She’s putting herself in front of everyone by doing this, so I would really appreciate you supporting her by giving her a comment in the comments section below!!

Here’s a video I forgot to put up of Arleene getting her measurements…kinda funny.

Here’s Arleene’s update on day 6. I told you I was behind on these posts!

This one’s funny and foodie! Check out how we get our grub-on with the Slow-Carb Diet!

 

Update on Slow-Carb Days 1-3

I must say…I’m impressed. Arleene is keeping strong with the “beans”.   If you’re just tuning in, my girlfriend, Arleene, has been doing the Slow-Carb Diet from Timothy Ferriss’ book, The 4-Hour Body (featured on Dr. Oz).  The Slow-Carb Diet consists of protein, veggies, healthy fats and slow-burning carbs in the form of beans.

Things like eggs, avocado, black beans and salsa are the norm around our place lately.   When we eat out, Chipotle works well. Despite some of the program’s restrictions, I think it has some big pluses, such as no counting calories.   That’s right, that means no food-logging, despite my constant badgering and preaching about food logs, this particular program doesn’t call for it.   It also includes a cheat day, so one day per week, anything goes – pizza, beer, hotdogs, spam sandwiches – whatever.

Here’s a pic of our breakfast! It’s plenty of food, and this type of breakfast gives you LOT’S of energy for the day!

Here’s a quick video of Arleene and her thoughts on getting started on Super Bowl sunday.   I bleeped out most of the bad words.

Make sure you leave a comment below. We’d love to hear your thoughts!   We’ll be updating you with Arleene’s progress all month!

Day 0 – The “Slow-Carb Diet” Shopping Day

Ok, like I’ve been saying – it’s not about balance anymore, it’s about cycles (which is how nature balances herself out). Lose 10-15 lbs in a month, then get back to balance and maintenance. I think where people go wrong with dieting is that they’re either 100% on or off. Why not be 100% focused for 30 days, then go into a more balanced approach to maintain that weight loss?

This is what I’ve taken from Timothy Ferriss’ new book, The 4-Hour Body. Hit a cycle of weight loss to get fast and immediate results, then go to a balanced cycle.

A balanced approach would be to enroll in a bootcamp, such as our bootcamp in Foster City and Mountain View, so that way exercise and accountability is covered. Even if you’ve hit your goal, it would still be a good idea to come at least 2x/week to maintain, and get weighed-in regularly. There’s no way the scale could sneak back up if you’re committed to a healthy lifestyle with a bootcamp program or a personal trainer. ; )

…and considering a personal trainer costs over $500 – $600 per month at 2x/week, doesn’t it make sense to spend $200 per month for bootcamp at 4x/week so that you can keep up your fitness lifestyle? In my opinion, it just makes way more sense, because who can’t budget $6 per day to stay in bootcamp all year long?

Yes, you may have to stop eating out as much, or skip the $5 lattes at Starbucks, or maybe cut back on the Heineken’s…but it’s all for YOUR HEALTH, right?

Our nation is in serious trouble right now. With 1/3 of America obese, we need to stop criticizing each other, and have the courage to love ourselves and our families, starting today. We have to start with our own fitness, and pay it forward. We’re on a mission! More organic, less processed. More slow, less fast. More exercise, less TV. More walking, less sitting in cubicles. More sunshine, less florescent lights. More awareness, less tuning ourselves out. More giving, and less taking.

Sorry if I’m ranting now…but it’s important that we look out for one another, and working on ourselves first is the way we can ripple the effect out to our families, kids, friends and communities.

So…now that I’m off my soap box. Here is a video with us at Safeway starting up the “Slow-Carb Diet”. Enjoy!

The 4-Hour Body and the Slow-Carb Diet

Just got done reading the 4-Hour body, and I must say…LOVE THIS BOOK!

Author Tim Ferriss is someone I’ve followed for a few years now. (He also wrote the book, 4-Hour Workweek, and coined the term “lifestyle design”. Needless to say, I’m a big fan.)

This is the question Tim sought to answer in his 549 page book of awesomeness:

For all things physical, what are the tiniest changes that produce the biggest results?

After tons of research from top trainers, doctors and scientists from around the world (and a lot of self experimenting), here is what Tim shows us in his book (I’ve left out a few things, but these are the things I’m concerned with as a fat loss coach):

• How to lose 20 lbs in 30 days on the ubersimple Slow-Carb Diet
• How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, weekends, holidays, etc.)
• How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice
• How to sleep only a few hours per day and still feel fully rested
• and much, much more…(I left out the part where he shows how to produce 15-minute female orgasms…it’s not our focus here…but I’m sure it will burn a few extra calories!)

So…after 10 years of being in the fitness industry, and comparing his Slow-Carb Diet plan with all of the bazillion diet books out there (I’ve read every book on the shelf…), I like this approach.

It’s simple.

It’s effective.

And it will work…as long as you stick to it.

My girlfriend has volunteered to be my test pilot for this one, and I’ve invited others to follow it for 30 days to see what kind of results they can get.

Would you like to lose 10-20lbs this month along with us? Then great!  Here are your instructions via my “cliff notes” version of the Slow-Carb Diet.  I encourage you to go out and buy the book, The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss.  I picked mine up at Borders for 40% off!

Step 1)  Go shopping. The Slow-Carb Diet is all about…you guessed it!  Slow carbs!!!  In this case, we are going with beans as our staple, then we have eggs, chicken, fish, beef, and veggies.  Butter is allowed, and so is EFA’s like extra virgin olive oil (Tim recommends macadamia oil), and you should have at least 1/2 an avocado per day.  You can eat nuts, but sparingly, because overdoing it could halt your fat loss.

The great thing about the Slow-Carb Diet (well…2 great things).  The first is a cheat day 1 day per week (eat anything you want!!).  The second is NO COUNTING CALORIES! (I thought you’d like that one!).

Step 2)  Make some food! Arleene and I are planning to ask my mom to make us her award winning chili, and her awesome hamhocks and beans dish.  Then we’re going to look online for a good lentil soup recipe, bake up some chicken breasts, get a ton of veggies and steam ‘em up for the week, and boil a whole bunch of organic eggs.

Step 3)  Have a plan for eating out! We like to eat out a lot, but that’s not a problem.  You can pretty much eat at Chipotle forever on this diet.  Beans, chicken, an avocado and some ice water with a lemon in it and you’re good to go!  (See Tim’s book for his secrets on lemon and cinnamon and how they help you burn fat…).

Step 4)  Eat the same thing every day. The beauty in this plan is in it’s simplicity and it’s redundancy.  It’s actually a proven fact that those that eat the same thing every day get better fat loss results.  Plan your fun-time for the cheat day, otherwise, just wash, rinse, then repeat.

Step 5)  Sorry, no fruit. Don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of vitamins in your veggies and from a multi-vitamin.  Save fruit for cheat day.  Remember – this is for 30 days.  After you’ve lost 10-20 lbs, then you can go back to your regular diet…and hopefully be eating less junk because of the new, healthy patterns you’ve followed on the Slow-Carb program.

Step 6)  Forget about balance, think “Cycles”. I myself used to go around preaching balance all the time.  The problem with balance is that you never tip the scales, so to speak.  Cycles makes more sense, and is actually the way nature balances itself.  Everything in nature runs in cycles – night and day, the 4 seasons, the cycle of birth and death, etc.  Let’s stick with nature on this one.  Lose 20 lbs fast, then get back to a healthy routine and exercise maintenance plan.

For the rest of the details, go buy the book!  Don’t be a cheapskate, you gotta’ pay to play!  (I don’t get any money for endorsing this book, I just think it’s a good investment in your health…).