Weight loss super tips

For me breakfast is one of the hardest meals of the day, but unfortunately it is also one of the most important.

Think about it, you have spent the last 8 hours without eating, your body is running low on fuel and you still have the whole day ahead of you.  If your like most people you probably have tons of things to do so you need a lot of energy to be able to get things done.  This energy usually comes from your breakfast.  Skipping breakfast will make you feel hungrier the rest of the day, which means you will probably eat things that you shouldn’t.

Time is usually one of the reason people have a bad breakfast or just skip it all together.

For those of you who can’t fin the time here are 5 of my favorite quick breakfast meals that you can make in a snap:

1) High-Fiber Protein Pancake:

Start by quickly the stove or toaster oven and top with your favorite nut butter:

Ingredients:
• 1/2 Cup Egg Whites
• 1 scoop Vanilla Prograde Protein powder
• 1/3 Cup dry Old-fashioned Oatmeal
• 1 tsp Ground Flax Seeds
• 1/8 tsp. Baking Powder
• Sprinkle of Cinnamon
• Olive Oil cooking spray

Directions: Spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray and place on medium heat to preheat pan. Meanwhile, combine the egg whites and protein powder in a mixing bowl, stirring with a fork or whisk until well-blended.

Add oatmeal, flax, baking powder and cinnamon and mix vigorously for about a minute. Check pan’s temperature by dropping a tiny amount of water on it.

If the water bubbles/sizzles immediately, the pan is ready. Using a large spoon or small ladle, spoon a small amount of the batter into the pan, gently spreading it to a pancake shape if it’s too thick to do this on its own. Cook on one side until bubbles begin to appear and burst on the top of the batter. Using a spatula, carefully flip over and cook for roughly the same amount of time. Repeat until batter is gone. Serves 1.

2) Scrambled Eggs with Avocado and Salsa: Scrambled eggs are healthy and fast to make. You don’t have to scramble them before you can just quickly stir them a few times while cooking and they’ll become scrambled – Amazing!

We like mixing two Omega-3 Eggs with ½ cup Egg Whites and adding Spinach. Then, top with slices of avocado and fresh salsa. It’s a quick breakfast fit for a king (or queen).

3) Whey Protein Smoothie: When you’re in a rush you can make this smoothie the night before, or quickly in the morning. The key thing is to use a single-serve blender unit, like a Magic Bullet, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning a huge, messy blender when you’re done.

We like to combine the following: 1 Cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, 1 scoop Prograde Vanilla Protein, 1 Tbsp Ground Flax, 1/3 Cup frozen unsweetened Mixed Berries, ½ Cup raw Spinach (the spinach adds a neat green color to the smoothie, but it still tastes awesome! Try it!), and 1 Tbsp Natural Peanut Butter.

4) High-Protein Cereal: Face it, people love cereal because it’s easy to eat and can be healthy. But, most brands are covered with sugar and full of junk. Also, with just milk, it doesn’t really pack much metabolism-boosting protein.

So, instead, try this with your normal breakfast bowl: Mix one scoop of Vanilla Prograde Protein with water or milk and pour that over a bowl of your favorite low-sugar breakfast cereal; some of our favorite are Uncle Sam, Bran Flakes (add your own raisins to make it Raisin Bran), Cheerios, Puffed Rice, and Shredded Wheat.

5) Nutty, Berry, Greek Yogurt: Most people think of yogurt as just a snack item, but it can be a great breakfast food too. However, like cereal, some yogurt is really like dessert, instead of a health food.

So, skip all that sugar found in most yogurts and try this: Mix 6 ounces of 2% plain organic Greek yogurt with 2 Tbsp of slivered almonds, 1 tsp ground flax seeds and 1/3 cup frozen, thawed, unsweetened berries.

You’re probably the type of person that goes to the gym in order to stay fit or get fit.  I want to congratulate you on doing something for your health, but I also want to give you a WARNING.

Some of the machines in your gym could be bad for your health.

These machines isolate your muscles, encouraging them to move in ways they were never meant to perform.  This leads to muscles that look good (“show muscle”), but that really work i.e they don’t improve our athletic ability.  Even worse, they might cause injury to our back and joints.

If you’re not willing to take this risk you can just drop the weights and go with bodyweight and whole-body exercises.  Training with bodyweight exercises helps you develop “go muscle” as well as “show muscle”.  Bodyweight training is how Fire Fighters and Special Operations Units train… they don’t go to the gym.

Let me show you a few exercises you can use to replace your gym machines.

Seated Leg Extensions Single Legged Squat

This exercise is really tough and I really recommended.  All you have to do is lift one leg up, stretch your arms out in front of you at shoulder height, and bend.

IMPORTANT:  Your knee should not pass the tip of your toes.  If it does you might put too much strain on your knee and injure yourself.

Thus exercise also works your core a lot so you actually work two muscle groups at the same time instead of one.

Military Press Rocca

This exercise is great for the shoulders and it helps develop strength for handstands.  I used it a lot to recover strength after I had shoulder surgery.

Start in a pike position.  Your body should form the shape of the letter alpha or an upside down “V”.  Your head should be tucked in between your arms and your legs should be completely straight.

Bend your arms until your head comes within 1 or 2 inches from the ground while you exhale.  Inhale and push yourself back into the starting position while you exhale again.

Plank Push Squat

This exercise is one of my favorites.  It is a whole body workout all in itself. The muscles your primarily work are your shoulders, core, back and legs.  I learned it from the TACFIT Commando program and it is now a regular in my training.

Start on the ball of your feet with your butt close to your feet, and hands on the ground with your arms straight.  Push with your legs as you exhale until you reach the pushup position.  Your body should be as close to the ground as possible until your legs reach full extension. Inhale, and push with your arms until you reach the starting position.

Pec Deck Machine Explosive Pushups

Working with plyometric exercises are great because they help you stimulate different muscle fibers which aren’t usually tabbed with weight training.

Join the Bodyweight Revolution

Explosive pushups can be done different ways.  If you are a beginner you can just explode up without having to lift your hands of the ground.  As you get better you can try to clap (once or twice) or hit your chest with both hands.

If you liked want to try out more bodyweight exercises like this one go to www.bodyweightcoach.com and join Bodyweight Revolution!

A correct timing of our internal clock (circadian clock) enables us to predict daily environmental changes, and temporally adjust behavioral and physiological functions.

When we go out to party late at night, sleep bad, or sleep with too much light in the room, our brain loses the “feeling” for internal and external rhythms.   As a result of this, the environment perceived by our brain becomes flattened and arrhythmic.  This often leads to an altered metabolism, which can eventually lead to weight gain.

Leptin the hormone responsible for hunger and satiety fluctuates according to our perception of time, as well as to fasting and feeding.  When leptin levels are altered so is the balance between food intake and expenditure.

So how can we avoid all of this?

There are a few things we can do in order to keep our clocks running correctly in order to great the best weight loss environment possible.

1. Go out for a walk on a sunny day

Even though there is no data to back this up, some studies show that constant exposure to bright light and its regularity can improve function in a number of clinical conditions related to obesity including bulimia, anorexia, insomnia, and depression.

2. Eating regularly

Eating at the same time every day helps improve synchronization of circadian system.  This is probably due to the elevation of body temperature caused by eating (thermogenesis), and the effect of eating on cortisol (stress hormone) levels

3. Eating what is right at the right time.

Studies have shown that eating the same meal during different times during the day can have a different effect on your body.  Eating what you eat for breakfast at night can cause you to gain weight, while eating it for breakfast will not.  This is why caloric intake at night must be low and high in the morning.

4. Exercise

Regular physical activity has been shown to improve late night sleep and reduce day time tiredness.  As we have seen before this is great for maintaining a synchronized clock and optimal weight loss environment.

Weight loss goes beyond calories in and calories out; it is also about timing and rest.  Sleep in a dark room, learn how to distribute your calories during the day, and plan your meals ahead of time in order to eat regularly.

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Losing weight is easy.  That is why a third of all Americans are obese, right?  Turns out losing weight is pretty darn tough.  Unfortunately, it is not as easy as burning more calories than you eat.  This strategy may work for a while, but you will eventually hit a plateau.

Why? You can thank our ancestors for this.

A long, long time ago, before we had super markets and processed foods, our ancestors had to hunt, catch, and pluck their food from the wild.  This meant that food wasn’t always available.  They could actually spend a couple of days without eating.  Energy couldn’t be wasted so it had to be stored when resources were available.  In order to do this their bodies created a hormone called leptin.

After a big feast leptin levels would rise and create a fat loss environment where fat was used as fuel.  As resources became scarce their leptin levels dropped creating an energy saving environment.  This meant that their bodies began to store fat.  Fat that would help them survive until they killed their next meal or found enough fruits.  Leptin helped our ancestors survive long starvation periods…this why leptin is also known as the “anti-starvation” hormone.

Leptin levels are closely related to fat and insulin levels.  That is why it is easier to lose the first couple of pounds, but the last ones are a bitch.  The more fat you lose the harder it becomes to lose the rest.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could use leptin levels in order to lose weight without eating too much?

Actually you can.  Joel Marion created a diet called Cheat Your Way Thin where you are actually forced to eat pizza, ice cream, and other good stuff in order to create a good fat loss environment.

Leptin levels decline gradually.  It takes about 7 days for them to drastically drop.  This means that if you play your cards right, you can create a great fat loss environment for six days and eat whatever you want on the seventh.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

The thing is you need to do this strategically in order to lose weight, or else things may back fire and you may end up gaining a few pounds.  Joel’s diet tells you exactly when to eat all your favorite foods while still managing to lose weight.

Don’t hesitate and never feel guilty again about eating your favorite foods again.  Click here Now!

Iwas just looking at the news in www.cnn.com and I came across this video from one of my favorite cooks, Jamie Oliver.  I’ve been  fan of Jamie´s cooking for sometime, and I really like the way he gets to his audience.

The video talks about how our eating habits are literally killing us, and our children.  Our eating habits have lowered life expectancy by 10 years.  Your robbing your children 10 years of there life’s.  You maybe trying to protect them form violence, gangs, and all that danger us stuff outside your home, but you don’t realize that the main cause of death is living right in your refrigerator.

Take a look at the video it is a bit long, but very entertaining and worth watching.  Spend the next 21 minutes and give your child 10 more years of life.

Isometric exercises are great for strengthening your abs and core.  Isometric exercises are those in which you have to hold a position for a certain time.  Some of the greatest examples of isometric exercises are those performed by gymnasts.  L-sits, handstands, and levers are just some of  the examples.  These exercises might me a bit advanced for a beginner, but there are also other exercises that you can do, and that are really easy to do.

One of my favorite exercises is the plank.  In this exercise all you have to do is lie on the ground, as if you were doing a push up, but instead of having your hands on the ground you have your forearms.  Watch the video to see a demonstration.

To increase difficulty level you can lift a leg or place your forearms on a stability ball.

If you are really advanced you can try my stability ball challenge.  Take a look.

Try this exercise to build a strong core and prevent injury.  If you want a true six pack don’t hesitate and click here now