Better Is Better

Low-Carb Breakfast Dilemma

I have the disadvantage of a slight egg intolerance. I can sneak a few in from time to time, but more than that and things turn bad quickly…

Unfortunately, it seems that pretty much every low carb breakfast option on the planet involves a generous helping of eggs in one form or another. So what’s a guy to do when he wants to break fast on something that doesn’t contain a high load of carbohydrates?

Well, one of the simplest answers — and the one that I most often use — is to eat whatever you had for supper last night. But for some reason, here in the West people aren’t too keen on that.

So here’s a quick concoction that I quite enjoy for breakfast.

Organic deli meat “wraps”

Take a few slices of organic deli meat like roast beef or turkey (the organic part is important — you want to avoid the nitrites / nitrates in conventional deli meat like the plague). Slice some English cucumber in long thin slices. Throw some cucumber and some alfalfa sprouts in each slice of deli meat and roll it up into a “wrap.” If you don’t mind a few extra calories and carbs, throw in a sprinkle of organic cashews in there before you wrap ‘em up.

That’s all for today. I’ll cover the whole nitrate / nitrite thing in a future Fit Foodie. It’s one of those hidden evils that most people don’t know about.

7 Things To Avoid In Your Halloween Chocolate

Time for another Fit Foodie Friday…

If you’re a Foodie like me, you like food too much to deny life’s great pleasures. And chocolate is definitely one of those things that most of us Foodies will never be able to abandon.

But when it comes to your health, there’s GOOD chocolate and there’s BAD chocolate. Personally, I enjoy the taste and texture of the good stuff more than the bad.

Enjoying organic dark chocolate can actually be quite beneficial to your health — in moderation of course. Did you know it's even a great source of antioxidants?

Chocolate is made from the beans of the cacao tree, Theobroma Cacao Plant. Cacao is full of flavanoids that are commonly known for their antioxidant activity. A small bar of dark chocolate can contain as many flavonoids as six apples, four and a half cups of tea, or two glasses of red wine. (Fat Burning Kitchen)

Mike Geary, author of Fat Burning Kitchen, lists seven more health benefits of this sinfully delicious treat in his most excellent treatise on healthy eatin'.

But to balance them out, there are also 7 dastardly sins which you must avoid if you want to make the best choice for you and your kids this Halloween.

• Trans fat -- An artery-clogging type of fat that forms when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening.
• High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) -- Contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals, and leeches micronutrients from your body. Raises your blood sugar levels beyond acceptability, and leads to insulin resistance and weight gain. It really is a metabolic poison and, in many ways, acts identical to alcohol with chronic exposure when eaten in high amounts.
• Artificial sweeteners -- Never allow anything "artificial" in your chocolate.
• Soy proteins -- Unfermented soy can cause digestive distress and a weakened immune system.
• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) -- An excitotoxin, which over-excites your cells to the point of damage or total destruction. Can potentially cause brain damage and other disabilities to varying degrees.
• Preservatives and stabilizers -- Avoid anything artificial and look for only organic ingredients.
• Milk or milk byproducts -- Could impact how well you absorb the healthy antioxidants in the chocolate.

(These 7 deadly chocolate sins are from Dr Mercola’s newsletter)

Milk chocolate is generally a source of most or all of the above no-no's. These aren’t easy things to avoid. Your standard Halloween fare is resplendent in these ingredients.

Making the right choice will make Halloween more difficult and expensive. But if you care about your health and the health of your family, isn't it worth it? Don't be tricked by your treats...

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More Fit Foodie Friday...

Butter Me Up…

What’s THE Most Evil “Health” Food?

Butter Me Up…

Time for another edition of FitFoodie Friday…

Last week we talked about the evils of margarine. This week is devoted to the original that it was modeled after — butter!

But not just any butter. After all, how’d you like to smear a nice pat of pus, injected hormones, chemicals and insecticides onto your toast? Thought not…

But that’s just what you’re getting when you use the run-of-the-mill grocery store butter. Remember your mom or your grandma telling you that you are what you eat? Well, the same holds true for cows.

Did you know that over 50% of the antibiotics produced in the US go into animal feed? Do you wonder why? It’s because the animals are kept in such retched conditions that they need to pump them with antibiotics to keep them alive.

Guess what else many of them are getting pumped with… Bovine Growth Hormone. We’re lucky here in Canada that it has been banned, but in many countries it’s still used. And it increases the rate of udder infection by 50-70%, which means more need for antibiotics.

But it also means pus gets into your dairy products! There’s actually an “allowable limit” of pus in commercial dairy… (yuk!)
 
Then there’s the actual food that the animals are eating. Conventional farming has no qualms about using feed that’s been sprayed by countless chemicals and insecticides. And just as with humans, all that lovely stuff is secreted through the cow’s milk.

And they aren’t eating their natural diet of grasses either. They’re being stuffed with grains and other things they would never it if they were left to their own devices. This means that the fatty acid profile of both the animals and the milk is terribly skewed towards the inflamatory omega-6s and away from the healthy omega-3s and Conjugated Linoleic Acid.

OK, so all that probably turned you off dairy — including butter — right? That’d be a shame, since what I’ve just described isn’t REAL butter in it’s natural state. It’s something akin to butter that we’ve gone and modified through our treatment of the animals.

The real thing is a wonder of nature full of myriad benefits. Plus, it tastes great. Have you ever tasted conventional butter side-by-side with organic butter from grass-fed cows? You’ll be amazed.

My new favorite book on nutrition, The Fat Burning Kitchen, rattles off almost a full page of benefits derived from butter. Here are a few of the highlights…

• Butter is rich in the most easily absorbable form of Vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health, both of which are essential to fat burning and energy
• Contains anti-oxidants that protect against free radical damage
• Is a great source of Vitamins E and K
• Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is a potent fat burner, anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster
• Vitamin D found in butter is essential to absorption of calcium, the immune system and overall well being

(excerpt from The Fat Burning Kitchen)

So I hope I’ve buttered you up sufficiently to put butter back on the menu. But make sure it’s organic and preferably grass fed. (and we’ll talk about pasteurization some other time…)

What are your favorite uses for butter? Do you use butter at all? If not, will you?

Bodyweight Workout For Fat Loss

As summer wanes and winter creeps ever nearer, you may find something else is also creeping up on you. Autumn tends to be accompanied by a slow creep of girth around the mid-section.

And even if you manage to fend off this slow creep, you still have the upcoming holiday season to think of. How you eat is going to have a lot to do with how well you weather the storm. I strongly recommend you check out Fat Burning Kitchen to help you with that.

But I’ve got another secret weapon for you. Below is one of my favorite bodyweight workouts for fat loss. In one minute, do three reps of the three exercises below. Take the rest of the round to recover before starting again at the top of the next minute. Do that 20 times...

3 x CST Frogger


3 x Lunge Jump


3 x CST Swing Split


Be forewarned, this bodyweight workout is deceptively easy for the first couple rounds. Don’t be fooled...

And make sure you blast through your three exercises as quickly as possible. You may be tempted to dawdle through it and take your entire minute to get the exercises done. But if you go that route you’ll soon run out of gas. The only way to make it through is to go as fast as you can and then spend the rest of the minute on recovery.

If you are more into training with equipment right now, you can also click through to check out my colleague Craig’s super popular fat loss program.

The important thing is to synch up your nutrition and your exercise to come through the dark months in fighting form for Spring. Keeping yourself lean and healthy year round is a pursuit that will pay dividends in mood, energy, vitality and longevity.

So make, borrow or buy a plan and get to it…

***
You may also enjoy these bodyweight workouts:

Tough Bodyweight Workout (with video)

Bodyweight Workout for Fat Loss (with video)

Super Availability

 

There’s just TOO MUCH FOOD available.

I’m on my way back from the big Circular Strength Training® Certification event in Bellingham, WA. I’ve decided to fast on the voyage home. It’s just the easiest way to avoid eating a bunch of junk.

I’m one of those people that can easily plunge down slippery slopes. Give me one piece of somewhat junky food, and the next thing you know I’m eating an espresso brownie from Starbucks.

It was my buddy Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat, who first gave me the idea to fast while traveling. And I’ve had good success with it on many occasions. For me, it just seems easier to turn off the valve completely than to try regulating the flow of crappy travel food.

But the problem is the sheer volume of tasty, but empty, food that’s all around me. I’m not particularly hungry. But the lemon cranberry scone over in the Starbucks display is weighing on my will power with the heft of a Bruiser Clubbell®.

So I’m thinking, no wonder we’re having so much trouble maintaining the kind of health and physique that we’d like and we deserve! We were never meant to have so much abundance. This Super Availability of sheer calories is completely counter to the bodies that our evolution has provided us with.

So the next time you bow down to “just one” espresso brownie (and you will–so will I) just give a moments thought to how long it would take you to gather that many calories if you were dumped into the wild. Assuming you had the skills to do it, how much energy would you expend to gather that much “food energy”?

It’s an interesting experiment...

Fitness Belief Systems & Sunk Costs

One of my favorite bloggers, Seth Godin, recently wrote a post about not getting caught in the snare of "sunk costs."  Although this concept is often referred to in business, it's also very applicable to your health and fitness lifestyle.

Unless you are 100% happy with your current state of wellness, you'll probably have to take a look at your relationship with sunk costs.  For example, is your idea of a healthy breakfast centered around a bowl of shreddies with skim milk and a glass of orange juice?  To most, that would sound like a pretty reasonable thing to eat in the morning.  But if you are trying to lose fat, it's not a great way to start the day. 

Your belief about breakfast food is a sunk cost.  You've invested in it for years.  That's something that is difficult to let go.  If you choose to believe otherwise, you are losing all those years of belief in what you were doing.

That's one reason wellness habits are so hard to break.  There is a sunk cost involved with almost all of them.  I remember my friend Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat, talking about how the entire wellness industry is built around belief systems.  There are no casual opinions about health and fitness, there are profound convictions.  An argument about fitness is likely to resemble an exchange between fans of two professional sports teams.  It goes well beyond logic and enters the realm of pure emotion.

So if you aren't happy with your current level of health and fitness, take a good look at your sunk costs.  What habits have brought you to the point where you are right now.  Are there any areas where you have to cut your losses and change your beliefs?

Do you have any experiences to share in which letting go of a sunk cost resulted in a positive shift in your fitness or your life in general?

Intermittent Fasting - Fast-5 Fat Loss

Better's Better regulars will know that I have a keen interest in Intermittent Fasting.  Generally, I follow the principles outlined in Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat.  But lately I've been seeking out other perspectives on fasting, for my own information and experimentation, but also to share my discoveries with you.

For example, I recently interviewed Martin Berkhan of Leangains.  And now, I have the pleasure to introduce you to Bert Herring of the Fast-5 Diet.  Like Leangains, Fast-5 is what I call an "eating window" approach to fasting.  I'll be posting the text version of the interview with Bert in 3 parts in order to make each piece a bit more digestible.  But you can download the audio file in its entirety at the bottom of this post.  Enjoy!

Fast-5 Fat Loss - Part 1

 

Adam: Welcome, everybody. We're here with Bert Herring, the author of Fast-5, a book about the principles of intermittent fasting. I think what I'll do is, I'm going to turn this right over to Bert. Bert, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

Bert Herring: My background consists of a variety of medical education and medical experience. The interest in intermittent fasting started while I was working at National Institutes of Health.

After trying several different ways to avoid getting hungry during the day, I realized that if I just didn't eat breakfast or lunch I was less bothered by hunger interrupting my day. That served me well for my productivity and attention. I realized that at the same time I was losing weight that I had wanted to lose.

But that was just a quirk of mine at the time; I didn't have the realization at the time that it could work for other folks as well. But when I started looking into it a few years ago, it became clear that it was just a predictable function of it.

Adam: So you stumbled upon the practice of it by mistake and then looked into the science, the theories of it afterwards? Is that correct?

Bert: That's correct. There have been lots of people who have chosen to eat only one meal a day for one reason or another or they have a certain window. You probably have heard of models' diets or models' recommendations that they only eat after six PM. So there are lots of variations on a theme.

That was just my particular approach that I'd stumbled on and that's what's worked for me.

Adam: A lot of people listening to this will probably be familiar with the idea of the 24 hour fast once or twice a week, because I've interviewed Brad Pilon before. Can you just outline a little bit what your approach is?

Bert: My approach is a daily schedule of at least 19 hours of fasting which allows for a five hour window during which one eats according to appetite. For some people that means eating one large meal, for some people it means eating a meal and then grazing their way through the window, and some people have chosen to make two meals within the five hour window.

People have had different [inaudible 03:05] has been successful. The reason that I have supported this approach is that it's in the general public's eye a more approachable, a less intimidating stretch of food. Because the 19 hours include sleeping, and most people can see it as a reasonable goal to just delay rather than going the full day without eating.

Adam: Is there any significance to the 19 hours mark? Is there anything biologically, physiologically important to that hour, or did you just through experimentation find that that's the best approach for you and your clients?

Bert: That's just what works for the bulk of the people who have tried it. [inaudible 04:04] and I don't know what the difference is. Sometimes it's been somebody who's on a medicine and it may have to do with that, it's not clear. I have just gone with the approach of what I see working for most people who try it. And the most accessible.

Download The Fast-5 Interview MP3

Stay tuned to the blog for Part 2 of this interview in the coming days.  You can also visit the Fast-5 website for more information.

Do you fast?  If so, is it for health or body composition?  And what do you like about it, hate about it, find difficult, etc?  If you haven't tried it, what would make you give it a go?

The Steve Jobs Workout - Bodyweight Exercises For the Virtual Nomad

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The pace and rhythm of our lives are changing.  And the transformation is only accelerating.  I read today how Steve Jobs is now working from home.  This speaks volumes about the future of lifestyle design.

My colleague Ryan Murdock has been intrigued by the Virtual Nomad concept for some time now.  Probably because he is one himself.  More and more, people are abandoning the daily grind.  In its place a lifestyle of flexibility and creativity is coming of age.  And the metamorphosis is reaching into every tentacle of this new lifestyle, including the way people are getting and staying fit.

Ryan gave a good example of this new approach to fitness in his article about bodyweight training for business travelers.  It no longer flies to tell people they need to fight their way to a crowded gym and waste their time standing in line for marginally effective weight and cardio machines.

These people are choosing better options at work.  They need better options in the rest of their lives too.  As you probably know, one of my favorites is bodyweight exercise.  It's a time-tested and NATURAL way to build muscle and burn fat anytime and anywhere.  Deep rooted physical cultures have been using nothing but bodyweight to build natural vitality, beautiful physiques and outstanding performance for centuries.  But enough with the sales pitch...

What could Steve Jobs, and all his fellow Virtual Nomads, being doing to stay fit, healthy and vital?  The answers to that question are endless, but here are a few suggestions.

1. Compensate for your over-specializations

First off, many Virtual Nomads will be spending significant time slouched in front of laptops, iPhones or other tools of their trade.  This causes certain over-specializations.  The body adapts to take on the "shape" that you spend most of your time in.  If you spend all your time in the "slouched desk jockey pose," that is the shape your body will want to take on.  You need to specifically counteract that.  Try these mobility exercises for the desk jockey as a start. 

And then there is Prasara Yoga exercise to specifically target the desk jockey slump.  You must strengthen the "functional opposite" to whatever over-specializations you may be developing.  In the case of the Virtual Nomad, this probably means some form of back bending.  Here is Coach Scott Sonnon doing an advanced back bending exercise.  But you can start with something simple like a Cobra or Upward Facing Dog pose.

2. Build or Maintain Muscle Mass

As we age, we inevitably lose muscle if we do nothing to prevent it.  Many Virtual Nomads are still young.  Start preventing now!  But increasingly older Nomads like Jobs are coming onto the scene.  For them, it is crucial to encourage lean mass.  Muscle, and by extension strength, are a vital factor in keeping us young.  It helps you burn energy and reduce fat.  And when developed in a balanced way will reduce the chances of injury.

You don't need fancy equipment to build muscle.  There are plenty of bodyweight exercises for strength and hypertrophy.  The result you get from exercise has more to do with the way you put things together and the protocols that you use than with the tool.

One of the easiest rules of thumb to target muscle building is the Time Under Tension (TUT) principle.  Essentially this uses the time you perform the exercise to target different goals.  If you are looking to grow muscle, generally it is recommended to stay "under tension" for between 30 and 75 seconds (depending on the source).  I like to work with 45 seconds.  By the end of those 45 seconds, you should be starting to run out of juice, but still have two or three repetitions in reserve.  Do that for 3 sets and you're good to go.

When first getting started, you can pick a few simple exercises that hit most of the body.  Push-ups, One-legged squats and Planks are enough to get you going.  Then, when you start to crave variety, you can browse through these unique bodyweight exercises for some ideas...

3. Burn Fat

Again, although Virtual Nomads are generally on the go more than their cubicle bound counterparts, they are still more sedentary than our evolutionary ancestors.  So we're going to have to spend some time burning off any excess fat.

The most bang for your buck comes from short and sweet metabolic conditioning workouts.  One of my favorites is the Tabata protocol.  It's super easy to understand and to implement, and it delivers awesome results.  Just choose two to four bodyweight exercises that get the heart pumping.  Starting with the first exercise, perform 20 seconds of maximum intensity work and then rest for 10 seconds, then start all over again for a total of 8 rounds through that same exercise.  Then move on to the next exercise and do the same thing.

A couple good candidates for this approach are the Mountain Climber and the Prisoner Jump Squat.  You can take a look at them in the clips below:

So you see, it takes little space and no equipment to get an effective and complete workout.  The Virtual Nomad has no excuse to not stay healthy and fit as they ply their craft from exotic locations around the world – or from their local Starbucks as the case may be.

Bodyweight Training Meets Anabolic Diet - A reader's experience

Recently I had the good fortune of stumbling across one of the blogs of reader Andy Fossett, Anabolic Diet Results.  I enjoyed the writing and found the content to be thought provoking.  The following is a guest post from Andy about his experiences with the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution in conjunction with the Anabolic Diet.

Since the beginning of this year, I've been involved in an experiment to become "great." It's a relative term and a fuzzy goal. But as someone who has always just been good, it's a very real challenge to go beyond the results I've experienced so far in my life. Getting better results requires better effort and better tools. Effort comes down to motivation. My two primary tools in this experiment have been the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution and the Anabolic Diet. Before I describe my experience with combining these tools, let's skip to the results so you can see where this is going.

4x7 + Anabolic Diet

In a little less than three months following the Anabolic Diet and programs from the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution, I've:

• gained about 10 pounds of muscle and
• reduced my body fat by 1 or 2 percent.

To me, those are great results. Even better, I've achieved them while eating food I love, pursuing my hobbies, working at my career, and spending time with my friends. I'm convinced that, with greater effort and stricter compliance, I could have exceeded these results by a wide margin. However...

I've tried to "go hardcore" before. I ate almost nothing but oatmeal and chicken breasts for a couple of months while following a program of Olympic lifts and sprints. I got results with that too, but I hated life and eventually reverted to my old lifestyle - losing most of my gains in the process.

I've since come to grips with the fact that I'm not a Spartan. I don't live to train. I like beer. I like ice cream. I like having fun. Anyone who reads this blog probably already knows that CST is A LOT more fun than oatmeal and chicken breasts.

What's the Anabolic Diet?

On that note, I should probably write a few words about what the Anabolic Diet is all about. In a nutshell, the Anabolic Diet a carb-cycling diet that alternates between periods of insulin-fueled anabolism and lypolysis sparked by carbohydrate-depletion. Though there's a lot of science involved, it's extremely easy to put into practice. Monday to Friday, I eat a lot of healthy fats, meats, eggs, and vegetables. No sugar or grains. On the weekends, I eat pasta, bread, ice cream, whatever. The weekend "carb-up" lasts until I start to feel bloated or lethargic. Then it's back to high-fat and low-carb until next weekend. I love eating this way. I don't have to worry about eating too much of anything or timing my pasta meal an hour after my workout or anything like that. When I get hungry, I eat. Simple.

[Adam's Note: I just wanted to point out that although this nutritional strategy has been very successful for some people, I've never been able to make it work for myself or my clients.  People who do meet with success generally find they are taking two steps forward and one back.  I find that I take one step forward and two back.]

Bodyweight Exercise 4x7

This is actually pretty simple now too, thanks to the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution ebook. I'm by no means new to CST. I began using Warrior Wellness (the precursor to Intu-Flow) and Clubbells in 2005 and have since enjoyed working with a number of RMAX resources. I remember being intrigued when Coach Sonnon first made the 4x7 methodology public. At the time however, it just seemed too big, too complex, too expensive, and too difficult to integrate with all the other stuff I had going on in my life. Coaches Steer and Murdock totally destroyed that conception in the BER. The ebook came out a week before I had planned to begin my experiment, and it looked like the perfect way to apply 4x7 to my lifestyle. The targeted programs, the adjustable difficulty levels, and the ability to perform the workouts at home in a short time were especially attractive to me. I bought BER the first day it went on sale, and I read the whole thing in one sitting. After that, I couldn't wait to get started.

My Experience So Far

Since my primary goal (as a lifelong skinny guy) was to gain weight, I started off with the hypertrophy program. I found the workouts very challenging despite their minimal time requirement. I also enjoyed the creative application of the various protocols to make each workout fun and interesting. As I grew accustomed to each exercise, I looked forward to trying the next level in a subsequent session.

Though my workouts were a blast, and I felt like I was improving, the metrics did not agree. I was varying my diet heavily from week to week, trying to find the sweet spot with a few variables. I gained a little bit of weight, but it was mostly fat - not what I was looking for. I got somewhat discouraged, but decided to stick with both the Anabolic Diet and 4x7 for one more month. I'm now very glad that I did.

My second cycle was much more successful. I began working on the strength program in the BER. I found this program even more fun than the hypertrophy program. I loved the dynamic exercises and got super excited about bouncing around my dining room on those days. I also corrected my dietary balance during this cycle by eating more varied meats and a little less ice cream. I gradually increased my overall caloric intake and began to put on muscle.

The workouts in the BER are challenging and fun, but the high and moderate intensity days are only one half of the program. The low and no intensity days are integral to the the overall effect, which is a major point of departure from most workout programs I've seen. Having dedicated days for recovery and compensation is a huge benefit of the 4x7 system.

I'm a big believer in joint mobility training and yoga, but I've always found it a struggle to integrate them into a cycle. For one thing, I always thought of them as extras to be done in addition to my workouts. there's only so much time in a week, and extras are the first to get cut when life gets hectic. The 4x7 program makes a space for these important modes of training, and helped me slow down and make the most of each session.

Making It Life-Proof

The Anabolic Diet is that is works by causing a bodily adaptation. Basically, you train the body to prefer fat to other fuels. Of course, this is great for burning body fat, but it has a neat side benefit. After you are fat-adapted, occasional higher-carb meals during the week (or a beer or some ice cream) won't set you back - the body still prefers fat.

So you can pick up where you left off and not have to worry about wrecking your results for the week. I've done this a couple of times for social engagements and the like. In each case, my body composition still improved over the course of the week.

I've found the 4x7 to also be pretty bullet-proof. Like most people these days, I'm busy. I work, I work on the side, I practice martial arts, I have friends. All the usual stuff.

In the past, this has made it difficult for me to stick with a workout program. Sometimes, my Taido training conflicts with my recovery. Sometimes, I can't make it to the gym during hours. Sometimes, I'm just too damn tired to work out.

Since 4x7 is based on the concept of varying intensity (rather than sets, reps, etc.), I can adjust the day's plan based on my energy level. If I have training in the evening, I can downshift a high-intensity workout to moderate intensity. If I'm absolutely exhausted, I can take a recovery day and restart the cycle from there. And it's not difficult at all to make these adjustments. I just make sure to keep my effort, technique, and discomfort within the correct ranges. When I step outside the acceptable range, I back off or step down in exercise sophistication. Learning to use the Intuitive Training scoring has been the key to making 4x7 fit with the rest of my life.

Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together

4x7 and the Anabolic Diet work really well for me. I'm getting the best results of my life without having to sacrifice the things I enjoy. it's as close to a perfect combo as I've found yet. The BER really helped make 4x7 accessible for me. Besides providing a good variety of ready-made programs for specific goals, it explains the methodology in a very easy-to-understand way. Everything is easily customizable to your own individual capabilities and goals. In fact, after my current cycle (I'm working on the fat loss routine right now), I'm planning to try to put together a 4x7 cycle to increase my jumping ability. So I'm obviously pleased with my results so far and plan to continue using the Anabolic Diet the and 4x7 and BER programs in the future. The combination has been very effective for me and easy to put into practice.

Fat Loss Dance Moves - Can having fun on the dance floor can help you slim down?

Apparently the next big fitness craze is going to be Bollywood style “dancercise” classes. The craze is inspired by the closing scene from the Indian movie Slumdog Millionaire. Here’s a peak at the dance that’s causing all the commotion:

Now, you know this blog isn’t really big on the mainstream fitness trends and advice. But this caught my eye, not for the trend itself, but for the deeper idea of using dance, and other fun activities, to stay healthy and fit.

My wife and I used to do a lot of Swing Dancing. In fact, for a while there I was actually teaching it at a pretty high level. It’s performed to swing jazz music, mainly from the ‘30s, ‘40s and 50’s. And I can tell you that we would leave dance parties absolutely drenched in sweat. Dancing can be a great form of exercise for fat loss, coordination, timing and overall well being. For fun, here’s a look at one of the most famous (and acrobatic) Lindy Hop scenes of all time:

So that clip is a pretty extreme example, but you can see how vigorous it can be. Your fitness efforts don’t have to be confined to a gym. You can use any number of options to stay fit and healthy. The thing I like about dance is the addition of considerable skill to the movement mix.

Among the pivotal lessons I’ve learned from Circular Strength Training® is the importance of Flow, which in essence is the ability to get out of your own way and let your movement express itself freely. What could be better than dance for unlocking that inherent search for unfettered movement?

Once you get the basics down, dance allows you to

• Focus on the music and let your body do what it will (Flow)
• Spontaneously improvise movement grounded in the basics (Flow)
• String seemingly unrelated movements together into a coordinated Flow
• Benefit from the positive effects of listening to music

You don’t necessarily need an organized system of dance to take advantage of these elements. One of the coolest things we do around here is just put on some music and dance with the kid. But if you do want to launch into dance in a more organized fashion, you aren’t limited to your health club’s latest dancersise class.

• Figure out what music really turns your crank
• Find out what forms of dance are done to that music
• Search out schools in your area that offer that style of dance
• Ask if you can try a class for free to see if you like it
• Make sure you have a partner to practice with (if its a partner dance)
  Here are some suggestions to start the ball rolling: salsa, tango, swing, ballroom, hip hop, break dance, and much more (it all depends on your taste in music and movement)

It’s not for everyone, but if you like music, and you like to move, dance may just be another piece of your overall wellness plan.