How to Lose 8 Pounds in 5 Days

So I surpassed my original goal of five pounds in five days; I actually ended up losing almost eight. Weight as of about 6 pm on Friday 7/31 was 245.6, down from 253.2 - a total of 7.6 pounds. Not bad for five days of work. Even better, it was easier to do than I thought it would be. Some takeaways in no particular order:

-You should lose at least 3-5 pounds the first week of 'dieting' if you do it right.,
-It wasn't really that hard to; no excuses for lack of results!
-Of course it wasn't all fat loss - but I look and feel visibly thinner. My pants are noticeably looser, abs a little tighter - pretty cool.
-It's a 'moral' boost - fast weight loss is motivating, plain and simple!
-My diet was laid out according to basic principles of The Zone. For a simplified version of The Zone, check out this post: The Zone Made Simple. For more explanation and details, buy the book. It's well worth it.

-The plan I follwed is a killer template for kick-starting your weight loss. To see the original post, and give it a try yourself, click here.
-For those of you who are fighters or whatnot and are used to cutting weight, eight pounds in five days might not sound like a lot - that's fine. It was substantial for me - and I didn't have run in a rubber suit or sit in a sauna or anything crazy to do it.
-I actually only worked out once a day, which is normal for me. So you could say I lost the weight through diet and supplementation alone.
-The Xenadrine I took helped a lot with the immediate weight loss. Consider taking it or a thermogenic supplement of some kind if you're trying to lose weight and want to reach your goal as fast as possible.



Have an event you're trying to get ready for? Taking a vacation and want to look your best? Give the lose 5 pounds in 5 days challenge a try for yourself and let me know how it goes for you!

The Zone Made Simple: Lose Body Fat Fast With This Ridiculously Easy Meal Plan

Simple is good, especially when it comes to your diet. Here is a super simple plan based on Zone Diet principles to help you lose body fat starting today:


one block of protein =

1 oz chicken breast
1 oz canned tuna
1.5 oz ground turkey
1 oz protein powder
1 egg
1/4 cup cottage cheese

one block of carbohydrate =

1/3 cup oatmeal (cooked)
1 cup green beans
1 1/4 cup broccoli
1/2 apple
1 1/3 cup zucchini
1/2 cup blueberries
brown rice 3 tbsp
1/3 sweet potato

one block of fat =

3 almonds
1/2 tsp peanut butter
1 tbsp avocado
1/3 tsp olive oil


For each meal, pick one food from each category. The amount of food that you eat will depend on your size:

(small - 150 and under) 10 blocks a day = five meals, two blocks each
(medium - 150-175) 12 blocks a day = three block breakfast, lunch, and dinner, two two block snacks
(large - 175+) 14 blocks a day = three four block meals, one two block snack


Here's a sample two block meal - contains two blocks each of protein, carbohydrate, and fat:

2 oz chicken breast
2 cups green beans
2/3 tsp olive oil

• There are a lot of possible combinations of foods you can come up with. Just keep it simple!

• Drink at least 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water per day.

• Also make sure to weigh and measure your food. This is very important and critical to success.

I lost almost seventy pounds in under six months with a diet plan very similar to this - give it a try for 30 days and see how it works for you. If you'd like to learn more about the Zone Diet, check out the book on amazon here. Good luck!

How to Lose 5 Pounds in 5 Days

Ready to jump start your weight loss? I'm going to show you how I'm going to lose at least 5 pounds over the next 5 days.

A couple of things before we start: Not all the weight you lose will be from fat. Duh - but that's not really the point. I just want to show that it's possible to lose quite a bit of weight in a short time and literally look leaner and more defined in a very short period of time. So here's the basic plan:

1. Diet

About 30-40% each of carbs, protein, and fat. No 'fast' or refined carbohydrate allowed - predominately veggies and fruits. Here's a sample of a day's worth of food:

530am

1 serving muscle milk
1 tsbp peanut butter
1 banana

930am

2 pieces ezekial bread
4oz turkey
1oz cheddar cheese
1 tbsp avocado

12pm

2 apples
3 oz string cheese
15 almonds

3pm

1 cup brown rice
5 oz chicken breast
2 cups broccoli

5pm

home-made protein bar

730pm

5oz ground turkey
2 cups salad w/ olive oil + vinegar dressing

Keep in mind, I weigh over 250, so I get a lot more calories on a fat loss diet than most people. If you're trying to do this yourself, you'll have to adjust the portions - a good starting point is your body weight times ten in calories per day.

Also, will be drinking at least half of my body weight in ounces of water per day - this comes to roughly 1 gallon.

2. Workouts

I'll be trying to hit at least two workouts a day; if this isn't possible for what ever reason on any of the days, I'm not going to stress about it, but that's the goal. I'm trying to burn as many calories as possible and rev up my metabolism so I'll be burning more calories throughout the day - even when I'm not working out. Will look something like this:

Day 1 -

am Kettlebell 'man maker': 12 min of swings alt w jogging
pm 'Pull' day - Deadlifts, Pull-Ups

Day 2 -

am 30 min easy run
pm 'Push' day - Push Press, Push-ups, Dips

Day 3 -

am Intervals on stationary bike
pm repeat day 1 lift

Day 4-

am sprint workout
pm repeat day 2 lift

Day 5-

am kettlebell whole-body circuit
pm yoga class

3. Supplement support

I'll be taking a protein supplement for convenience - I need a decent meal in the mornings and I usually don't have time to cook anything, so Muscle Milk is a perfect solution. I'll also be taking a thermogenic (Xenadrine) to help speed up my metabolism a little and for its diuretic effect. If you're interested, you can order both of these supplements and many more from bodybuilding.com:

Take $5.00 Off Your $100 Order! Use coupon code 5off100.



That's the plan in a nutshell! I'm starting at 253.2 as of Sunday July 26th at 10pm. I'll try and update my progress as I go, and give the final update on Saturday the 1st of August. Wish me luck!

Optimum Training Frequency

How many times per week should you work out? Depending on who you ask, you could get a lot of different answers. Some High Intensity Training (HIT) proponents might tell you that twice a week or even less is ideal. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some individuals, like elite-level athletes, train for hours nearly every day of the week. People get great results using both of these methods - as well as anything and everything in between. So what's ideal for you?

Most people (although I'm not sure there's such a thing, because everyone is different) with a 40-50 hour per week job, a family, etc. aren't going to have more than a few hours a week for exercise in reality. So that pretty much rules out the extreme high-volume, multiple time per day training for most of us mere mortals.

I think doing some sort of activity most if not all days of the week is a great thing for a lot of reasons. I personally just don't feel right if I don't get a workout in every day. More than anything, exercise and activity and movement should just be part of your day, every day!

Although there are many, many ways to categorize the types of 'exercise' one can do, I'm going to break it down into three different categories for the sake of simplicity (we're not going to get into sport-specific work here either):


1. Flexibility/Mobility

Most every day of the week, you should include some sort of flexibility/mobility work, whether that's joint mobility, myofacial release, static/dynamic stretching, etc. The specifics of all this I'll save for another article. Just learn more about all of these modes of flexibility and mobility and do them regularly.

2. Strength

Strength work for most of us and for most goals I believe is best done 3-4 times per week. Less than this is probably not enough; most natural trainees don't need more than four times per week even to gain a lot of muscle if you have a solid plan and are working at an adequate intensity.

3. 'Cardio'/conditioning

Cardio and/or conditioning work will depend largely on the goals of the individual. Anywhere from two to five times per week could be appropriate - losing body fat will typically require more cardio, gaining mass likely less.

Something else to think about: you probably need to do more of what you don't like. For example, if you hate to stretch, you likely aren't doing enough of it. If you really enjoy strength training, you're probably doing plenty of that in relation to the other categories - you could even cut back a little on your strength work to make time for flexibility and mobility.

Activity on most days of the week is what almost everyone needs to get to their fitness goals, whatever they are. Different goals are going to call for different focuses on different parts - most importantly, get your plan mapped out and get going!

How to Find a Personal Trainer

One thing I've learned from years of experience in the fitness industry as a personal trainer, fitness manager, and business owner is that the variance and quality level of personal trainers out there is huge. There unfortunately isn't currently a lot of regulation in the field - you have anyone and everyone from those with a fifty dollar internet certification to those with a master's degree or Phd, years of experience and multiple nationally recognized training certifications. However, working with a good trainer can be one of the best things you can do to help you reach your goals in the fastest, most efficient, and safest way possible. Here are the top 5 things to look for in your search:

1. Do Your Personalities Mesh Well?

This is really, really important - you're going to be spending time with this person for at least a couple of hours a week - you have to get along with them!

2. How much experience do they have? Have they helped people like you get to their goals?

Experience and past success is, arguably, more important than credentials. I have a long list of credentials myself, including a Master's Degree in Human Movement and five different training certifications, but I'll be the first to tell you that experience is at least as important as the letters behind your name. There's just no replacement for it.

3. Are they qualified on paper?

That being said, your trainer has to be at minimum be certified by a nationally accredited organization - NASM, ACSM, NSCA are probably the top three. Preferably they also have a degree in a related field.

4. Are their rates competitive?

Personal training is a service. You really can't 'bargan shop' and expect to get a quality trainer. Rates should be at least reasonable - here in the Sacramento market an hour session goes for anywhere from $50-$70 and up - but you have to remember, if you're paying too little, there's probably a reason why.

5. Do you have a good feeling about the person you're doing business with?

Maybe the most important factor; go with your gut. If you feel good about working with this person, go for it! Everyone who has a quality experience with a trainer ends up being very happy they did it - just do yourself a favor and get going!

If you're in the Sacramento, CA area and are interested in group or one-on-one personal training, please visit http://www.forestvancetraining.com.

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

Turns out the answer to this seemingly simple question might be a little surprising. A study done by Daniel Kripke in 2002 compared death rates among more than one million American adults who reported their nightly average amount of sleep. According to the study, people who sleep between 6.5 and 7.5 hours per night live the longest. People who sleep 8 hours or more, or less than 6.5 hours, don't live quite as long. Even more interesting is the fact that sleeping 'short' - 5 hours or less - might be better than sleeping 8.5 hours or more. According to the article, this data has since been corroborated by similar studies in Europe and East Asia. For more details and the complete facts, take a look at this article via time.com: How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

High Rep Olympic Lifting: Does it Have a Place in Your Workouts?

The Olympic lifts have long been a fantastic way to build strength, explosive power, and improve overall athleticism. We typically see these lifts performed and trained at very low rep ranges - i.e. five and under. More and more, 'high-rep' Olympic lifting is making its way into 'mainstream' workout routines. But is high-rep Olympic lifting really a good idea?

CrossFit is one place where we see a lot of high-rep Olympic lifts, particularly in their 'met-con' workouts. Having done most of the CrossFit 'benchmark' WOD's myself, I can tell you that those which include high-rep O-lifts are very tough indeed. The metabolic demand of 'Elizabeth', for example - Squat Cleans at 135 pounds and Ring Dips for three sets of 21,15, and 9 reps of each, performed for time - is very high. In fact, the first time I did that particular workout - which takes less than ten minutes to complete, by the way - I found myself on the floor in the fetal position, parked in front of a giant fan, for about fifteen minutes afterwards. No joke.

However, having seen a lot of these workouts performed with half-hazard form - in person and on workout videos in various places around the Internet - has started to make me question the concept and programming goal a little. If your technique isn't on point, you're in trouble - everything gets amplified when you get fatigued.

The main case against high rep O-lifting is that as you fatigue, your form deteriorates and things get sloppy, highly increasing your injury risk. I think that for a lot of people, form isn't tight enough to perform high reps safely, especially in the context they are typically being done in.

If you have a resonable level of mastery of the lifts, high-rep training can be okay. The problem lies in the fact that as high-rep Olympic lifting gains popularity (i.e. CrossFit gains popularity), there's going to be a lot of people out there doing some sloppy and potentially harmful stuff.

Now, a perfect tool to perform high-repetition ballistic lifts with is the kettlebell. The kb clean and press, push press, snatch, etc. are arguably a lot easier to learn than the classical o-lifts, as well as safer - the load used is typically less, among other things. For a little more info on how to integrate kettlebells into your training program, here is a link to a post I wrote about the versatility of the kettlebell as a training tool.

I've personally been doing a huge volume of kb snatching using the MV02 protocol from Viking Warrior Conditioning by Kenneth Jay and have been seeing remarkable improvements in fitness and even body composition in just a three week period. You end up doing hundreds of kettlebell snatches in a workout, which you would have a really hard time doing safely with a barbell.

In summary, I think high-rep olympic lifting can be a tool for conditioning, for increasing metabolic demand, etc. during workouts, but must absolutely be approached with caution. Make sure your form is on point and you've trained the lifts and refined your technique outside of your high-rep workouts.

Thoughts?

P.S. I found a great article that goes into depth on high-rep O-lifting and how to train for and incorporate the Olympic lifts properly and safely into a CrossFit programming structure: Integrating the Olympic Lifts with CrossFit. Enjoy!

Tap Water vs Bottled Water: Stop Wasting Your Money!

I have a confession: I've been drinking bottled water for as long as I can remember. For those of you out there who are currently bottled water drinkers (and I'm willing to bet that most of you are), you have to admit: bottled water somehow seems cleaner and safer than tap water. I decided to research the topic a little for myself - the following is a summary of what I found. Guess what? You're probably wasting your money - and hurting the environment!

Bottled Water is Just as Safe

In this article from ABC News Health, they talk about how 20/20 took five national brands of bottled water and a sample of water from a drinking fountain in the middle of New York City. Samples were sent to a microbiologist to test for harmful bacteria (for more on this, see the video above). The outcome: no difference between any of the waters tested!

According to the same article, scientists have consistently ran tests for safety of tap water vs bottled water and have came up with similar results - they're largely the same. The United States has the safest tap water in the world.

It Comes From the Same Place

Another astonishing fact: 45% of bottled water comes from a municipal water source (source: webmd.com)! Almost half of the time, you're drinking tap water in a bottle! Pretty sad, considering that, on average, bottled water costs 500 times more than tap water.

It's Better for the Environment

Additionally, according to treehugger.com, the environmental impact of tap water is approximately one forth that of bottled water. Even of you drink bottled water for convenience, you should really be doing your part to save the environment and drink tap water.

Wow, I feel like I've been fooled for so long! I think I'm officially a convert - tap water seems to win hands down. Thoughts from any bottled (or tap) water drinkers out there?

Kettlebell Review: Apollo vs. Dragon Door

If you're riding your bike a couple of miles in to work every other day, you don't need to go out and drop ten grand on a time trial bike. Accordingly, when I first picked up a kettlebell about a year or so ago, although having several years of experience training others and myself, I didn't really know what I was doing. To be honest, I was mostly using them for two-handed swings during CrossFit WOD's (man those are some ugly-ass swings!). So any old kettlebell at that point did just fine. What I'm finding out - and as became apparent as I ramped up my high-rep snatch training in preparation for the RKC snatch test - is that the more advanced you get and the greater variety of kettlebell drills you are going to perform, the more that the quality of the tool you're using matters!

I used Apollo brand kb's almost exclusively to train for the RKC certification. The only training I really had with any other type of 'bells was at a gym where I took some training sessions from another RKC instructor in the area (very highly recommended when starting out, by the way).

The Apollos seemed fine, and honestly, because I was so used to training with them, I didn't really know any different. My experience with Dragon Door 'bells at the RKC weekend changed my mind. Leading up to the RKC weekend, I had been hitting my required 100 reps in the snatch test at just abouts five minutes on the dot during training. Amazingly, I hit 100 reps in four minutes flat during the official test! I think part of this was due to being fresh, having rested up a few days before the cert, and also could also have partially been attributed to plain old adrenaline, but I also believe it had something to do with the quality of the 'bells. The handles were much smoother and the kb's seemed better balanced. I also prefer the Dragon Door 'bell as it has a flat bottom instead of a rubber stopper on the bottom - but this is probably just personal preference.

I am in the process now of replacing all of my Apollos with Dragon Door brand kettlebells. I think they're worth the extra money for sure. I know there are also a lot of other brands out there as well - I'd love to hear about experiences any of you have had, good or bad. Hopefully, this review and my experience will help you with your kettlebell purchasing decision!

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Interested in learning more about training with a Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor? In the Sacramento, CA area? Take a look at my training page at www.forestvancetraining.com.