Interval Eating™ - A New Paradigm In Nutrition!

What the heck is Interval Eating™ you're probably thinking! Interval Eating™ is a close cousin of Intermittent Fasting. It’s a simple to follow nutrition lifestyle that frees you from the burden of calorie counting; eating rabbit food like iceberg lettuce and celery sticks and has a super attractive cost of zero dollars. One additional bonus of Interval Eating™ if what I've revealed to you isn't enough is that you can lose weight with this particular nutrition lifestyle without exercising. Of course exercise will accelerate your results but it’s completely unnecessary.

You interested yet? How could you not be? Check it! Interval Eating™ features structured eating windows of 2-4, 2-6, 2-8 and 1-12 in which you will consume all of your calories. You have two days a week where you’ll have one four hour eating window each day, two days a week with one six hour eating window each day, two days a week with one eight hour eating window each day and one day a week with one twelve hour eating window. You can mix it up however you like. For example you can do one day with one six hour eating window and the next day with one twelve hour eating window or do two consecutive days with a four hour eating window each day. A number of my coaching clients report they prefer to have an eight or twelve hour eating window day following the more challenging four hour eating window days. You can also adjust the time of your eating windows as needed. If you need to begin your eating window at noon one day and 4pm the next day that’s just fine. It’s entirely up to you. Interval Eating™ offers you what I've coined structured flexibility.

Once again you don't have to count calories but if your goal is weight loss you will have to exercise portion control for all of your snacks and meals within your eating window for the day. You also shouldn't feel compelled to continue eating food for the entire duration of your eating window. An eight hour eating window doesn't translate to eating non stop for eight hours straight. Only eat when you're actually hungry within the eating window. I often find that during my eight hour eating window days I usually finish consuming all the calories I want/need within a six hour window. I'll eat a meal, wait about two and half to three hours and then eat once more. I've also found that even when I feel super hungry I just can't consume as much food as I want. Fasting for as little as twelve hours effectively resets your appetite.

Interval Eating™ gets five stars from me. I love the fact that I'm not a slave to a diet, calorie counting or financially burdened with buying super expensive diet products or supplements. I of course don’t recommend Interval Eating™ for pregnant or lactating women. Prior to trying Interval Eating™ or any other nutrition program you should of course seek the advice of a competent, licensed, board certified medical doctor to ensure you won't experience any contradictions. For more information on how to optimally integrate Interval Eating™ into your daily life contact me at nutrition@fitnessfervor.com.

Remember the secret to weight loss is finding and permanently utilizing a calorie restrictive nutrition program that is both appealing and appropriate for you and your lifestyle. Trying to lose weight focusing on exercise is setting yourself up for failure. The multi billion dollar fitness industry goes to great efforts to hide this fact from you. If you exercise one hour a day seven days a week that is only about four percent of your week. No one other than exercise junkies exercise seven days a week. The average is about two to three days a week of an hour or less of exercise. Nothing you do for four or even fourteen percent of your week which would be equivalent to exercising for more than three hours a day seven days a week will override the food you consume on a regular basis. Nutrition will always trump fitness in regards to weight loss!

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Stinking Thinking

Losing weight permanently isn't easy.  Especially if you’re trying to lose weight without addressing the psychological reasons you’re overweight, overeating and lack motivation to exercise on a regular basis.  You need to ask yourself hard hitting questions and answer them honestly before you embark on any weight loss or lifestyle change journey.  A few questions to ask yourself are:

1. Who will you be if you lose weight?  If you've been overweight for a long time it's become a part of your identity.  How will you identify yourself without all the extra weight?
2. What will change in your life if you lose weight?  Will you lose certain friends or a significant other that prefers for you to be overweight?  What happened last time you lost some weight?
3. Why won't you feel safe if you're thin and attractive?
4. How does being overweight serve you?

Until you can honestly answer the questions above you're wasting your time and money with personal trainers and gym memberships.  Permanent change comes from the inside out not the other way around.

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Set It Off In 2013

2013 is here baby! Don't half step this year. Set it off!  If something is new and scares the hell out of you that's exactly what you should be doing.  Why are you half steppin in the first place? You scared to fail?  The main difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people know failing is a part of success.  You become good at something by doing it over and over and over and over.

Micheal Jordan didn't just wake up one day and become a great basketball player.  He missed thousands of shots and that's precisely what ultimately made him a laser sharp shooter. At his prime he couldn't miss a shot if he tried.  What if Michael Jordan missed a few shots when he first started playing basketball and said to himself "To hell with this basketball crap! Let me go do something easier like sitting around whining and complaining."?

The Chicago Bulls and millions of adoring Michael Jordan fans are eternally grateful he wasn't a weak minded quitter.  Michael is a wise man and at his core a winner. He most likely instinctively knew missing all those shots was just par for the course.  Be like Mike. Keep taking and missing shots until you're so damn good you just don't know how to do anything but win. Besides what's the alternative?  Sitting around singing the shoulda woulda coulda blues?  Set it off!

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Your only hope for permanent fat loss

There are a number of ways to lose weight but if your focus is permanent fat loss your goal should be increasing your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) which is the number of calories you burn while doing absolutely nothing.  Your BMR accounts for 60% -75% of daily energy expenditure in most people.  Physical Activity such as kettlebell training only accounts for 10% - %15.

TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) which occurs during the processing of the food you eat for use and storage  accounts for about 10% of daily energy expenditure.  Clearly you can see increasing your BMR is really your only hope.

Your BMR is determined mostly by the amount of lean muscle mass you have.  The more muscle you have the higher your BMR will be.  Strength training and a smart but simple nutrition plan is your ticket to increasing your muscle mass.  Restrictive and over complicated diet plans are not sustainable so they only work short term.  Eliminating carbohydrates from your diet will help you lose weight but as soon as you add carbohydrates back to your diet all the weight you lost will come back with a vengeance.  Complicated diets that have you eating carbs one day and protein and carbs one day and just protein one day and avoiding dairy, wheat or gluten will get old quick. Diets that have you thinking you'll die or that your muscles will wither away if you don't consume protein every two to four hours aren't really ideal for someone that has an active lifestyle and can't stop and eat every few hours.

Why not live how our ancestors did?  When we were hunters and gatherers obesity was almost non existent.  Hunters and gatherers didn't have breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack schedules and would often go days without food.  On days they did eat it would be common to eat just one meal after hunting and gathering all day. Hunters and gatherers were lean for two reasons.  Their bodies were in a fasted state most of the time and they were very active regularly engaging in activities that increased and challenged their strength.

Our BMR's would be through the roof if we lived like our ancestors.  All this obsession with breakfast, lunch dinner and snacks is making us fat.  The food and supplement industry spends billions of dollars each year brainwashing us into thinking we need to be stuffing our face with food and supplements 24/7. This brainwashing coupled with the endless supply of food at our disposal is the main contributor to the obesity epidermic.

Do some research for yourself and see if it's really necessary to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between.  Research how long it takes for your metabolism to slow down in the absence of food.  

Your metabolism won't slow down if you don't eat every four hours.  It won't slow down even if you go an entire forty-eight hours without food as long as you do some type of strength training activity. Contrary to what the supplement industry has led us to believe you don't have to consume a protein shake within thirty minutes of workout.  Don't believe anything you haven't thoroughly researched.  A mind is a terrible thing to waste. 

 Do some kettlebell training and then get some knowledge.  A good resource for undoing all the brainwashing is Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat.  You MUST read this book.  No one has researched nutrition and supplements more than Brad Pilon. Click here for more information or to order Eat Stop Eat.

Eat Stop Eat

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Meditation : The present of presence

Contrary to what you may have heard meditating isn't just for zen like Buddhist monks.  Meditation is the best thing you can do in your battle against the stress and anxiety you experience in your day to day life.  It dates back to the dawn of mankind and is the most underutilized healing and life enhancing mind body practices here in North America.  Meditation is quite popular and commonly practiced in Asia where it is purported to have originated but we haven't quite caught on here in North America.  Maybe it's because it's not sexy or flashy enough to catch the eye of your average person.  Maybe it's because you really can't make any money off meditation.  You can meditate anytime anywhere without any fancy expensive equipment and you don't need to join any clubs that incur monthly memberships to meditate.  All you need is yourself and a quiet space.

When you meditate you are freeing yourself and healing your body.  Mediation is simply focusing on the present.  If you could just for as little as fifteen minutes a day stop ruminating about the past and obsessing about future events that may not even ever occur you will liberate yourself.  People frequently talk about self love.  Mediation is the ultimate expression of love for yourself.  You love yourself enough to let go and let your mind be free and think of nothing but this present moment.  Studies have shown that constant negative and stress inducing thoughts contribute to a faster aging process.  Meditation won't stop you from aging but it will undoubtedly slow the process down.  Mediation is a great anti-aging tool.

The benefits of meditation are cumulative meaning you have to meditate on a regular basis to derive benefits.  Remember you can meditate as little as fifteen minutes a day.  Thirty minutes or more would be great but whatever you choose just make sure you set aside time everyday to free your mind and heal your body.
When you first start meditating you will find your mind wandering. This is normal and should not frustrate you.  Simply bring your mind back to the present when you find it wandering when meditating.  Meditation is like a sport in that the more you do it the better you will get at it.  The more you meditate the less your mind will wander while meditating.

Research suggests meditation may help conditions such as:

• Fatigue
• Binge eating
• Heart disease
• Anxiety disorders
• High blood pressure
• Cancer
• Depression
• Pain
• Sleep problems
• Substance  abuse

Additional research shows medical meditation  is beneficial in regards to:

• Fibromyalgia
• Diabetes
• Immune disorders
• Wound healing
• Bone fusion
• Surgical preparation

If you're just starting out with mediation you may want guidance.  "Meditation for Beginners" by Jack Kornfield is an excellent resource for meditation newbies.  Also feel free to click here to contact one of our certified meditation coaches to help you integrate meditation into your busy life.  We offer consulting over the phone or via skype for your convenience.

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What's your purpose?

I see a lot of people wandering aimlessly through life with no real purpose or direction.  This causes all kinds of problems for these people and anyone that has the misfortune of having to deal with them on a regular basis.

When you haven't found your purpose in life it affects every aspect of your life.  Your family, career and social life will all be negatively impacted if you have no purpose.

Some signs you haven't found your purpose and lack direction in life are:

• Having a constant thirst for drama
• You're trying just a little bit too hard to "fit in" and "be cool."
• Loathing the happiness and success of others
• Being overly concerned with what other people are doing a.k.a. nosiness
• Looking for constant validation and approval from others
• Incessant bragging about things that really aren't brag worthy
• Frequently trying to undermine people you're jealous of or that have rejected you
• Chronically gossiping and spreading rumors
• Feeling like you need to control and manipulate everyone around you

All of these things are done to create a sense of power because when you have no direction you feel weak and insecure.  But if someone really had power they'd be living the life they want and being nosy, gossiping, and trying to undermine people wouldn't be of any interest to them.  They'd put in the necessary work and sacrifice to be happy and content, accomplishing goals they set, and feeling fulfilled.

What can someone do if they haven't found their purpose in life and are tired of being a busybody drama queen?  To find your purpose you have to look inward. Stop worrying about what other people are doing and what they may think of you. Ask yourself questions such as: What are your core values? What are you passionate about?  What do you enjoy?  What are you good at?  After answering these questions look for ways to help people with your unique innate gifts.  Your life has no purpose if you're not helping others. Once people start focusing on things they like and are good at and helping people their life will become rich and meaningful.  They'll literally be upset with themselves for wasting so much time with foolishness in their past.
If you or someone you know are having trouble finding purpose in life reach out to a good Life Coach to help guide you.

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Think like an Olympian

Man I love the Olympics!  I wish they were held every year instead of every four.  All of these highly competitive athletes that have trained hard day after day and year after year to attain that highly coveted gold medal excites me and makes me proud.   As a personal trainer this is the type of spirit I would like to see in my clients.  I want them to exhibit the same passion for health and fitness that an Olympian has to be the best at their respective sport.

Gold medals are great!  But they can't compare to the benefit of aging with the grace and poise that comes from living a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise and a healthy diet.  It disappoints me when I hear people say they don't have time to exercise.  I always think to myself you have time you just don't find exercising pleasurable so you'll conjure up any excuse not to do it.  You'll never hear Usain Bolt or Micheal Phelps claiming they don't have time to exercise.   They couldn't imagine life without their exercise regimes.  That's why they're Olympians.  They also don't view exercise as an unpleasant chore or burden.  They see it for what it is which is a challenge that reaps great rewards.

Next time you feel like skipping a workout think of  Serena and Venus Williams, Gabby Douglas, Kobe Bryant, Micheal Phelps, Usain Bolt and the slew of other athletes that are participating in this year's London Olympics. You may not be an Olympian but you should have the same desire to win at life in general.  Wouldn't you agree a long happy life free of diabetes, high blood pressure,  musculoskeletal dysfunctions, joint pain, metabolic disorders, Alzheimer's disease and dementia is worth the investment of exercising at least thirty minutes four to five days a week and avoiding junk food? Wouldn't you prefer to be independent and free in your golden years as opposed to a burden to your loved ones?   That would be the quintessence of winning!

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