This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Michael Geary I have his permission to share it with you.

In most of my Lean-Body Secrets Newsletters, I like to provide a healthy snack or meal recipe that not only is delicious, but also helps to get you closer to that hard-body appearance that everyone is looking for. In this article, I’d like to give you healthy food ideas in a different way. This time, I figured I’d just give you some ideas of what I stock my fridge and cabinets with.

Remember, if you don’t have junk around the house, you’re less likely to eat junk. If all you have is healthy food around the house, you’re forced to make smart choices. Basically, it all starts with making smart choices and avoiding temptations when you make your grocery store trip. Now these are just some of my personal preferences, but perhaps they will give you some good ideas that you’ll enjoy.

Alright, so let’s start with the fridge. Each week, I try to make sure I’m loaded up with lots of varieties of fresh vegetables. During the growing season, I only get local produce, but obviously in winter, I have to resort to the produce at the grocery store. Most of the time, I make sure I have plenty of vegetables like zucchini, onions, fresh mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, red peppers, etc. to use in my morning eggs. I also like to dice up some lean chicken or turkey sausage into the eggs, along with some swiss, jack, or goat cheeses.

By the way I’m talking about whole eggs, NOT egg whites. Always remember that the yolk is the most nutritious and nutrient dense part of the egg, so only eating egg whites is like throwing away the best part… and no, it’s NOT bad for you because of the cholesterol… eggs actually raise your GOOD cholesterol. Try to get free range organic eggs for the best quality.

Coconut milk is another staple in my fridge. I like to use it to mix in with smoothies, oatmeal, or yogurt for a rich, creamy taste. Not only does coconut milk add a rich, creamy taste to lots of dishes, but it’s also full of healthy saturated fats. Yeah, you heard me…I said healthy saturated fats! Healthy saturated fats like medium chain triglycerides, specifically an MCT called lauric acid. If the idea of healthy saturated fats is foreign to you, check out my healthy fats article.

Back to the fridge, some other staples:

Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt – I like to mix cottage or ricotta cheese and yogurt together with chopped nuts and berries for a great mid-morning or mid-afternoon meal.

Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds – delicious and great sources of healthy fats.

Whole flax seeds – I grind these in a mini coffee grinder and add to yogurt or salads. Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and prone to oxidation, creating high levels of free radicals in pre-ground flax.

Whole eggs – one of natures richest sources of nutrients (and remember, they increase your GOOD cholesterol so stop fearing them).

Nut butters – Plain old peanut butter has gotten a little old for me, so I get creative and mix together almond butter with sesame seed butter, or even cashew butter with macadamia butter…delicious and unbeatable nutrition!

Salsa – I try to get creative and try some of the exotic varieties of salsas.

Butter – don’t believe the naysayers; butter adds great flavor to anything and can be part of a healthy diet (just keep the quantity small because it is calorie dense…and NEVER use margarine, unless you want to assure yourself a heart attack).

Avocados – love them…plus a great source of healthy fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.

Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs).

Rice bran and wheat germ – these may sound way too healthy for some, but they actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.

Leaf lettuce and spinach along with shredded carrots – for salads with dinner.

Home-made salad dressing – using balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo’s Choice oil blend. This is much better than store bought salad dressing which mostly use highly refined soybean oil (full of inflammation-causing free radicals).

In part two look out for staples in the freezer and staples in the cabinets.

For more info on Mike’s program ** Visit Six Pack Seeker **

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Kardena Pauza I have her permission to share it with you.

For many of us traveling, it means skipping workouts, eating processed foods, and generally feeling guilty and frustrated because our commitment to a healthy lifestyle has temporarily gone by the wayside.

But with a little effort and following some quick and easy tips I’ll share with you, you’ll never have to resort to the over-priced, high-calorie food options that are prevalent in airports.

But first, did you know that when you’re at the airport you can actually take your own food through the security check? Most people don’t know this, but as long as it isn’t liquid, gels, or gooey stuff over 3 oz. then you’re in the clear.

Okay, so you know that preparation is the key for anyone looking to lose weight and stay fit. Well, this is especially the case when a last minute road trip unexpectedly arises.

So, with that in mind, here are some healthy food options suitable as snacks, breakfast, or dinner, that you can easily put together.

1. Grab all the veggies you have in the refrigerator and combine them to make one big tasty salad.

2. Pack 2-4 healthy nut bars. My favourite is the RAW bar.

3. Cut up fresh celery, carrots, and cucumbers – it’s quick and it’s easy.

4. Add a few pieces of fruit to your “lunch pack”.

5. Nuts are another excellent snack option.

6. Seaweed snacks. These delicious treats are sure to draw some wandering eyes as people try to figure out just what the heck it is you’re eating.

7. And lastly, pack a bag of flax crackers.

If you can put just 10 minutes into preparing some snacks for your trip, you’ll feel so much better later on when everyone else is stuffing their face with high fattening foods and you’re sticking to you healthy diet.

Even if it’s just some healthy snacks to tie you over while waiting at the airport, this plan with help you eat healthier and avoid the junk you know is bad for you.

For more info on Kardena’s program **Click Here **

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson I have his permission to share it with you.

Let me give you a few examples of what is typically thought of as “disease”…

— Leprosy

— Cancer

— Hypothyroidism

We’ll just take three… there are thousands as you know.

Now, we can all agree that these three states represent true “disease”. The first you could catch by accident; the second is a combination of genetics, environment, and who-knows-what-else, and the third is almost always genetic.

One, cancer, is something you ‘may’ be able to do something about. For example, lung cancer. 90% of lung cancer patients contract the disease from smoking.

Let’s just cover these 90%, shall we?

And folks, I’m asking for an open mind here…

Is lung cancer, in the case of the 90%, REALLY a disease?

Or is it a biological consequence?

Sure, “cancer” is a disease. But what caused it in this case? Something involuntary? Hardly. Something that could not be stopped?

No way.

The 90% caused it. Period.

Welcome to the real world.

So, I propose this: We redefine “disease” as an abnormal biological condition that we DO NOT have direct cause or effect over.

Airborne viruses: Disease. Obesity: NOT a disease.

And yes, lung cancer in chain smokers: NOT a disease; it’s a biological outcome. The end result should be treated as a disease, of course, but come on: Where is the responsibility folks?

Life, if you want to life it fully and without fear, is ALL about taking total responsibility. That’s empowerment. Anything less is… well, LESS.

In our example, lung cancer is no more a “disease” than, say, me hitting myself over the head with a hammer every day and causing brain damage is a disease.

Brain damage (not self-induced) = disease.

Brain damage caused by self-inflicted hammer-hitting = biological consequence. In this case of sheer stupidity!

Now, one could (and many will) make the argument that I had a “mental” disease that caused me to WANT to hit myself over the head with a hammer… but… well…

At this point we need to redefine the word “disease” in my opinion. Here’s why:

First, if this were the case, I could say that all criminals have a disease.

They all have a mental disease that makes them want to kill, steal… you name it.

This may in fact BE true… we do not know… but do we hold them NOT responsible if it is? No, we do not.

And that brings us back to obesity.

Obesity and being overfat is not a disease folks…

—— > it’s a biological consequence.

And, with the exception of the extremely ‘rare’ cases of total glandular dysfunction from birth, obesity… your bodyweight… is your responsibility.

Period. End of story.

Sorry, but that’s the way the ball bounces.

Am I being mean? No. I was obese. I have a right to speak my mind about it, and trust me: My depression (a disease… sorta… some genetic, but a lot of it was caused by eating too much sugar) definitely aided in my obesity.

Then how come I’m not obese any more?

I found a better way to eat. I re-trained my body to crave this style of eating (and exercise) over stuffing myself with pizza and burgers every day.

Here’s what I use: click.here

It torches bellyfat… and it reprograms the body and mind to use food as fuel… especially if you use Jon’s “7 Minute Body” workout system (you can get it at 77% off after you pick up EODD on the page above… ; )

So be brave. Be fearless. And be responsible.

Oh… and be sure not to catch “internetemailitis”… its a disease that causes you to want to check your email more than 10 times a day.

I have it. So be careful… may be contagious. : )

P.S. Author Jon Benson documents his journey from obesity to total leanness in EODD. He had to overcome ‘real’ diseases, like pituitary failure from a high fever (i.e. viral pneumonia that almost killed him) and clinical depression (partially what he calls “his fault”; partially not… i.e. half disease, half biological consequence.) He KNOWS what you can do once you have a solid plan in place and a determined mind.

Then no “disease” can stop you… at least the ones that do not kill you.

So go for it… be brave, be responsible… and be lean! click here

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson I have his permission to share it with you.

I bet you didn’t know this …

Obesity…even being overfat… is a disease.

No, really.

At least that’s what several social groups wish you to believe. “Suffers Of Obesity” is just one of those groups. Their entire stance is obesity (which, btw, can be only 30lbs or so over your ideal bodyweight) is an actual disease.

Well, is it?

Yes… and no.

Comedian Ricky Gervais has a hilarious go at this stance… that obesity is a disease. You sometimes have to laugh, you know? ; )

“No… it’s not a disease… it’s greed. You just love to eat,” or so Gervais believes.

Well, in my first newsletter for 2010, a new decade with new ideas, I’m here to share a new idea with you:

We really need to redefine some words.

One of those words is “disease”.

Case-in-point: Wikipedia.com defines disease…

“In human beings, “disease” is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories.”

Let’s think about that.

If you bump your knee against a sharp object, is this a new disease called “bumpuskneeitis?” Er… no. It’s an accident. Sure, it may ’cause’ a specific set of symptoms that could broadly (as in as broad as the back-side of a barn) be considered a “disease”, but … no. It’s an accident with biological consequences.

Social problems? So, if I decide to read 17 books on why my parents suck as a teenager and develop anti-social behavior, is this a “disease”? NO! This is the angst of youth combined, perhaps, with poor parenting! Sure, it can lead to mental issues that could be classified as “disease”, but guess what?

It’s totally within your control. No one force-fed the books to the teen. And no one is force-feeding you, or anyone you know.

That decision is yours and yours alone… and anyone, repeat ANYONE on the face of planet earth can change their behaviors and attitudes toward food.

Okay, some more thoughts on disease:

Check out Part 2 !

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If you only have a small amount of time to dedicate to exercise I can tell you that it is possible to lose a considerable amount of fat if you follow the right type of program and nutritional advice.

So we don’t all have hours of time to spend working out in the gym.  In fact most people are so busy they just neglect to even go, thinking that they couldn’t possibly get enough work done in just 30 minutes.

I’m here to tell you that that thought process is flawed.

When you combine the right type of exercise in the right order then it is definitely possible.

Not many people are privy to the knowledge I have gained on how to implement these strategies for fat loss in just 30 minutes, but after successfully taking a group of individuals through the whole process over the month of January (they are just about to enter the second phase of the system)I am now opening it up to everyone.

Please visit my specialist site Fat Burn In 30 for the full scoop.

I’m only taking in 30 new students to this course and it will close again on Sunday evening, so go check it out now **click here**

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This guest blog post is a transcription between fitness and nutrition authors Jayson Hunter and Jim Labadie. I have their permission to share it with you.

Jim: Okay, I think that’s something very important for people to understand that is when you start, you can see these dramatic results but it’s permanent lifestyle changes which is exactly what the carb rotation diet teaches is that, you can have fast, safe permanent weight loss but its permanent in the sense that you can start by taking off 15 – up to 15lbs in 30 days, but things are going to level off, and you have to make behavioral changes, you have to change your life. There are no quick fixes for anything, right?

Jayson: Exactly, and if you go to the extreme and say, and again we don’t know exactly what diet The Biggest Loser people are on, but a lot of people go on what they call a , a true low carb diet, and a true low carb diet is like, maybe 30 grams of carbs for the entire day. It’s low. It’s essentially nothing. When you go on that type of diet it really wreaks havoc on your metabolism, where the carb rotation diet is tied with the carb rotation because you are preventing that metabolism from slowing down because you aren’t just going to this extreme. You’re cycling. You’re cycling the carb intake which is going to get you that fast weight loss but not sacrifice your metabolism because you want that metabolism to be fast all the time. That’s the number one goal.

Jim: Okay so that’s the key folks. Any body that’s listening, it’s all about your metabolism, you really need to know the science behind it and you really need to come to grips with it. In fact what you can do is you go to TheCarbRotationDiet.com and you can read Jayson’s five absolute truths, every serial diet seeks rapid and permanent weight loss must come to grips with. Now, there are certain things you just have to understand about the way your body works and you know, the high fat diets, the low fat diets, high carb diets, low carb diets, you need to come to grips with certain things about how your body works, and that is the key.
Your body works a certain way and that’s true for all of us, so you need to know the science behind it and while you can lose weight fast, safely and keep that metabolism up, you’re going to need to make those permanent lifestyle changes to keep it off. And that’s the key, that’s what the carb rotation diet teaches. So, Jayson, do you have anything else to add?

Jayson: Other then just don’t get caught up in these changes, you know these extreme changes of “Man how did they lose 30lbs and I can’t lose a pound.” You got to compare apples to apples here and see what positions their in and see what you’ve been in because as you noticed as you watched the second week of the biggest loser, those guys lost 2lbs, 3lbs, someone, like you said, gained a pound and that’s their body going through that transition and almost going into a survival mode. I think you’ll find that as you keep watching the show; their weight will start to be more consistent where they’ll consistently lose 2lbs of fat a week or 3lbs of fat a week.
You won’t see this wild swing of losing 30 lbs then losing 0 lbs even though they worked just as hard and ate just the same, because your body’s going to adjust, and your body – your metabolism will slowly speed back up and you know the goal is to try not to get that metabolism to slow down to being with, try to keep it up at an elevated rate so that it is a consistent, permanent weight loss.

Jim: There you go everybody. So, The Biggest Loser, it’s an inspiring show, it does some very good things and motivates some people, just make sure you understand the science behind why people are on diets and all the things—all the good things that you’re going to do for your body through doing things the right way. And TheCarbRotationDiet.com is the answer to that. So again, go to TheCarbRotationDiet.com, check out Jayson’s five absolute truths that every serial dieter, and you know who you are.
You are the people who, you know – hey everybody’s gone thought it, they’ve tried diet after diet. So, if you’re looking for rapid and permanent weight loss you must come to grips with 5 absolute truths about your body and the way it works and once you understand those, you really understand the changes you need to make and you’ll make them for the rest of your life. So, Jayson, thank you again for filling us in with all this great information.

Jayson: Thank you, I’m glad I could at least help out.

Jim: And stay tuned for more great pod casts everybody. We’ll be back next time.
Click the links here for more quick weight loss tips and healthy weight loss tips.

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This guest blog post is a transcription between fitness and nutrition authors Jayson Hunter and Jim Labadie. I have their permission to share it with you.
Jim: Hi everybody it’s Jim Labadie the Carb Rotation Diet. We’re here today with the creator of CarbRotationDiet.com, Jayson Hunter. And we are going to be talking a little bit about the confusion there was the other day on the show The Biggest Loser, a lot of people watch that show. In the first week all these people, extremely heavy people lost a ton of weight and then the second week really nobody lost any weight.

In fact, to my knowledge, one person gained one pound. So, we want to explain what the confusion is and what exactly happens when you have that rapid weight loss. So, Jayson, right away let’s just get to the information. This is just going to be a quick pod cast to clear up any confusion people have. Why did people see such amazing results the first week and see none the second week?

Jayson: Well, if we just use this show as an example. They saw so much weight loss in the first week because they obviously tell you that they are on a special type of diet, they don’t really go into the details of what it is, but I can assume that it’s a higher protein, low carb diet. These people are obviously 300/400 lbs because they were eating too much, they were over eating, you know ingesting thousands and thousands of calories. They were not on a healthy weight loss diet before this. So, when they got to The Biggest Loser, of course they restricted those calories and put them on a special type of healthy diet plan.

Glycogen is created from the carbohydrates and starches that you eat. So, for ever gram that you store in your body, you also store 3-4 grams of water. So, if you look at it from the stand point of maybe someone was eating 500 – 700 grams of carbs and they were storing all this glycogen and they cut it to 200 grams of carbs, well you can also cut out about 3-4 grams of water for every one of those carbs you just cut out. And obviously that’s weight on the scale and leads to quick weight loss.

And, when you see that, the metabolism kind of goes into a shock so, you lose all that glycogen and the extra grams of water which is weight in the end, and then not to mention they were exercising like crazy which none of them had really done before, so they’re going to lose water weight anyway from the amount of perspiration and body changes that are taking place and all the stuff that your body has to do to adapt to that exercise now. And your body generally fluctuates about 3-4% on a daily basis anyway.
So, if you look at it from the stand point of some of those men are 300-400 pounds, a 3 %- 4 % change could be, 12 pounds in either direction. And obviously women that are 200 lbs or 250 lbs, you’re looking at maybe 10 lbs in either direction, 8 lbs in either direction, somewhere in there. And women tend to fluctuate even more then men in regards to water weight on a daily basis just because of the hormone levels. When you saw the weight loss they were getting, such as 15 lbs, 18lbs, I think someone lost 29lbs. Most of that is the initial shift because of eating less carbs, eating less calories as well as just general water weight loss because of the increased activity that they were now doing along with their healthy diet plan.

Find out more on carb rotation diet in Part 2
For more info on Carb Rotation Diet program **click here**

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Craig Ballantyne I have his permission to share it with you.

Here are 3 kick-butt bodyweight exercises you can do anytime, anywhere to burn fat, stay energized, and avoid overeating.

Bodyweight exercises help you burn fat shockingly fast, without any fancy equipment.

1) Any Single-Leg Exercise

The pistol (single-leg squat to the floor) is the most advanced 1-leg exercise. But you can also do assisted single-leg squats with a band, or onto a bench, or even with a Stability Ball between your back and the wall.

If you aren’t ready for single-leg squats, you can use Bulgarian Split Squats, Reverse Lunges, regular split squats, or lying 1 – leg hip bridges if you are a beginner.

2) Decline Push-ups

These are harder than normal pushups, thanks to your elevated feet. And in this position, you can still use a close – grip to fatigue your triceps, a “piked – hip position” to build your shoulders, or even the Spiderman leg motion to work on your abs.

3) Bodyweight Inverted Rows

I choose these over chin-ups and pull-ups because bodyweight rows let your chest rest, while your back is strengthened. It’s the perfect complement to a pushup.

Do 8-12 repetitions per exercise. Don’t rest between exercises. Go through the circuit up to 3 times, resting 1 minute after each circuit.

For a once-per-month challenge, do each exercise to failure in your final round through the circuit.

Get in shape fast with Turbulence Training

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Well this is one of those really annoying things that I end up explaining a lot to people.

The ‘fat burning zone’, as is labelled on many cardio vascular machines, is supposedly the zone in which you burn more fat.

Strictly speaking the charts are right but they are also so very, very wrong. The fat burning zone on these charts relates to a percentage of maximal heart rate. These heart rate percentages are in turn based upon laboratory measures of the best level of exercise to burn the most amount of fat as a percentage.

Let’s start with the first problem. The % of heart rate that they recommend it based upon a prediction of your max heart rate. For this they use a very simple equation that your max heart rate is 220 minus your age. That would make my max heart rate 184 beats per min, yet just last week I got my heart rate up to 198 beats per minute. I don’t fit that projection. Therefore the prescribed heart rate level for my best fat loss percentage would be wrong.

It’s not just me, back when I was doing my thesis for my undergraduate degree, I studied 10 women in a raft of tests. Most noticeable was the heart rate differences but a prime example was the difference between two women of the same age.

They were both only 19 years old , so had a predicted max of 201, yet when I got them running to complete exhaustion (VO2 max test on treadmill) one peaked at 216 and the other at only 176 (and she puked in the face mask and collection apparatus (nasty clean up job).

So you can see heart rate can be hugely variable.

Secondly and most importantly the fat burning zone is a complete waste of time. I’ll show you why with a little maths…stick with me.

Let’s say you walk on the treadmill for an hour (in your fat burning zone) and you manage to burn 400 calories of which 70% were fat, you would have you burnt 280 calories of fat.

Then imagine you were to run fast (as fast as you could) for an hour on a treadmill and burnt 1200 calories, of which only 30% were made up of fat…you still burnt 360 calories of fat.

That’s 80 calories more fat, plus a whole heap more to boot!

So that’s it really, the fat burning zone is only good when viewed as a percentage not as a total amount of calories.

It’s like the old story about how survey groups used to confuse you with percentages i.e. 80% of users found that they had good results…what they didn’t tell you was that only 5 people were survey!!

We only care about total calories not percentages…the body burns calories not a percentage of those calories!

–This is an excerpt from my Fat Burn In 30 program designed for people who only have 30 minutes a day to exercise and want to lose fat.  The next course will be starting very soon, if you are interested get over to www.FatBurnIn30.com where you can get on the early notification list.

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Rob Poulos I have his permission to share it with you.

People are confused more than ever about how to burn fat. They are confused about the best way to go about achieving the body they want. They are confused about what works and what doesn’t, and the reasons why. There are countless individuals slaving away in gyms and fitness centers around the country right now.

They are working tirelessly, almost every day, on the treadmill, stair-climber, elliptical, etc. to burn those calories and fat. They also might be lifting weights several times a week for hours at a time to build some strength and muscle. They might even join a few aerobics or spinning classes too.

They are probably also trying one of the latest diet strategies that promises miracle fat burning and weight loss. They could also be spending a lot of money on the latest and greatest dietary supplements that could be that miracle pill that will aid in weight loss. They are also carefully watching the scale as their main judge of fat loss progress.

If it goes up a pound or two, they may behave rashly and maybe even change up their entire workout or diet program! And of course there are others are doing variations on that same theme.

After all, this is the kind of stuff that many of the popular fitness and diet gurus typically recommend to burn fat. But with so many different strategies and plans being pushed as the be all and end all, what happens is we tend to overboard.

And when that happens, we lose sight of what really matters in achieving lifelong fat burning, fitness and health…the principles than many people don’t know about, most people have forgotten, and only a select few put to use to achieve lifelong health and fitness. These are the same principles I used to drop over 40 pounds of unwanted body fat, keep it off, and revitalize my life!

With any exercise or nutrition program, you’ll probably lose some fat initially, but far too often the progress doesn’t continue or doesn’t come as fast as the person would like because they’re using a temporary mindset. They’re only focused on the short term and one specific goal. So they end up switching to something else, and the cycle continues until they’ve become consumed by this cycle of confusion.

I believe that this is one of the biggest, if not the #1 reason for the lack of fat loss and fitness progress that is being experienced by the masses of exercisers and dieters in the world. They are jumping from one fad diet or exercise routine to another, while losing sight of what’s really important, and what really works.

Simply put, they are exercising far too much, not nearly intensely enough, and trying to adhere to unrealistic diet recommendations.

If instead they focused on a long term plan, a lifestyle as it’s often called, and didn’t worry about “losing 10 pounds by summer”, they would find it far easier to do the right things most of the time.

And those right things include brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest. The students of my Fat Burning Furnace method understand this and are reaping the life long health and fitness rewards because of it. Are you?

For more info on Rob’s program **click here**

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