Eating out can ruin your fat loss progress.  It just isn’t easy to go out to eat and pick healthy choices.  

If you do pick what seems to be a good choice you have very little control over what it is cooked in or if they are hiding something in it that may not be great for you.

 You can make a ton of requests and get it cooked just the way you want, but many people don’t want to seem like a pain in the you know what, especially if you are in a big group.

And if you are anything like Wil or myself it isn’t easy to pick the best option.  In fact, most of the time I will just say to heck with it and use eating out as a cheat meal or one of my 10% meals.   

We are going to try and compile a list of healthy choices that we recommend from local restaurants, but we need your help.  

Leave us a comment and let us know your favorite restaurants and where you want us to find Force approved choices. 

We are working hard for your fat loss success…are you?

It is official, I have been thrown for a bit of a loop.  I wrote last week about my recent thoughts on using a nutrition plan with plenty of carbs to rev up your metabolism and start burning more fat.  After our recent partnership with Jayson Hunter I have been a bit baffled by the number of carbs in his nutrition plans.  I have seen his success and we have talked extensively about how he helps a ton of people lose fat and feel better.  However, through my own experiences I just didn’t think it applied to me.   I thought that it wouldn’t work for someone that was carb sensitive, had lost a lot of fat already and did it without starchy carbs in his diet.  

This is a big problem with a lot of people.  I am guilty of it as well.  We see what works, we see real world results on other people, and we see the scientific data but we tell ourselves that we are somehow different and that it won’t work for us.  Are we really that special?

I decided to do a bit of an experiment and try it out for myself.  I dove head first in to the Force Fat Loss program and wanted to see if you could get extremely lean on this plan.  Well i have to admit that I am only a few days into the program but I can tell a difference.  My workouts are better, I am full all of the time, and the best part is I am down 2-3 lbs after just a few days.  I haven’t even hit a no carb day yet.  I have ate oatmeal, whole wheat buns, pasta, shredded wheat, milk, and a ton of other items that I would never let myself have before.  

Don’t take this the wrong way.  I am not gorging myself on these foods.  There is a very specific way and time to eat these foods.  There are rules and guidelines to follow just like any other plan.  I can’t fill you in all the secrets, but you can get them for yourself at Force Fat Loss Made Easy.   

I think that after depriving myself of healthy carbs for such a long time and then eating bad carbs on my cheat meals I had done some damage to my metabolism.   I think that having these carbs in my diet will keep me from craving sugary carbs and really crank up my fat burning potential.  

I am excited to see what the first week brings in the terms of fat loss.  I am even more excited to see how far I can take this program and see what kind of shape I can get into for the summer.  This is hands down the most sustainable nutrition plan that I have ever tried.  I can see myself following this program for a long time!!

Hope everyone is having a great spring break!

I will be headed to Chicago this weekend for a bit of a get away, if you have any suggestions on activities please let me know!

Here is is plain and simple a quick bodyweight workout you can do on the beach or where ever you might be vacatioing on spring break.

5 Minute warm up:

45 seconds of plank

Bridge x 15 

Push Up x 8

Y Squat x 10

repeat for 2 sets

20 Minutes as many rounds as you can get in:

10 lunges each leg

10 push ups

10 bodyweight squats or jump squats

10 bent over sand rows : Stand with knees slightly bent and back flat with upper body parrallel to the ground.  Reach out with straight arms and grab the ground.  Cupping your hands pull as much sand as you can back towards your heels with straight arms. 

20 reverse crunches

50 yard sprint

Cool down with some stretching and you are good to go!

We have all done it.  Most of us know we shouldn’t. But, most of us do it anyway.  We all check the scale a little too often.  We get hung up on numbers.  You want to see the instant gratification that the scale provides when you see a number that is less than the week, day or month before.  

The more and more I see people get frustrated and quit their programs, give up on trying, or go out and console themselves with the stuff that got them to that “big” number in the first place the more I think that the scale should be checked a lot less frequently.   A lot of changes happen in your body when you start a new exercise program or are working towards a new goal.  You can gain lean body mass, increase the amount of water and nutrients that your muscles are holding and you won’t see much of a change on the scale.  

Does this mean that you are not making progress?

Absolutely not!

There are a few tricks that you can use to motivate yourself and keep yourself in check.  One simple trick is to pull out a pair of jeans that you want to fit in to.  We will call these your skinny jeans.  If you don’t have a pair, go buy one.  Hang

 them in your closet and put them in a place that you have to look at them every morning when you are getting dressed.  This will make you think about what you are going to do that day to get in to the jeans.   And I don’t mean struggling for an hour to get them on and laying on the bed using a pair of pliers to zip them up.  I mean comfortably putting these jeans on.  

Once you can fit into these jeans you know that you have made progress and you are doing the necessary work to reach your goals.   It is really that simple.

Give it a try and let us know how it works!

I have really been thrown for a loop recently!  I am a big advocate of reducing the number of carbs in your diet to really start burning fat.  I like to take out almost all starchy carbs and focus on getting my carbohydrate intake from mostly vegetables and some fruits.  I have recently seen a lot of success come from cycling carbohydrate intake with a lot of clients and I have been adding in some carbs to my diet in the mornings with no negative effect on fat loss and no noticeable fat gain over the last couple of months.

What is a guy to do?!?!  I still think that the easiest way to start burning fat is to eliminate sugary processed carbohydrates from your diet.  It is the best way to start reducing the number of calories you are consuming and it will rev up your metabolism.  But, what if you could eat some healthy carb options and still drop fat?  Now this has m rethinking my thought process. 

I am seeing the success in other people, the science makes sense, and it seems to be something that is manageable.  I think I might just have to give it a try and see what happens.  I am sure that good things will come from it.  It will be a nice break from what I have been doing and hopefully get me back to where I was a year ago and help me better maintain my body fat levels.  I will need to kick 5-8 lbs of fat to get back to that place.  

If you are interested in what I am going to be trying and what several other Force Fitness members are doing to get in great shape go to Force Fat Loss run through the site a bit and see what it is all about.  I even have my before and afters up on the home page, so if you don’t believe that I have been there and done that when it comes to fat loss I am putting up some proof.   

Are you going to be joining me on the journey?

I had one of our best boot camp members come up to me the other day and let me know, very quietly, that he had lost 15 lbs in the last 8 weeks of boot camp! I was very proud of him and I know that he truly deserves such success. It isn’t an accident, he didn’t just show up and lose weight. Fred comes in each and every workout and busts his butt to get those results. He sweats, he strains, he makes funny faces (sorry Fred, but it is true).

Success doesn’t happen by accident. At least not for most of us. And especially not when it comes to fat loss. You have to put in the work and make the effort. Fred has a demanding job, I am sure one of the last things that he wants to do is get up early and sweat his tail off at boot camp three times a week. But, I can always count on him to show up with a smile on his face and cracking jokes.

Fred told me this morning that it is actually more like 16.5 lbs lost, so another 1.5 pounds in a little under a week. I couldn’t be more proud of him and happy that he is making a ton of progress!

Are you willing to put in the work?

Write us a comment and let us know your biggest obstacle or success story.