Quick Breakfast Ideas

A high protein, low carbohydrate breakfast will keep you energized and reduce your appetite. But what the heck can you eat? Cereal is out. So are pancakes, muffins, waffles, and most other typical breakfast foods. The standard eggs and bacon is fine, but it gets old quick.

With a bit of creativity and a few minutes in the kitchen you can make a healthy, delicious low carb breakfast. Try one of these recipes tomorrow and let me know what you think!

Paleo Green Eggs & Ham

6 hard boiled eggs, diced

6 strips bacon, crumbled

2 avocados, mashed

Juice of a lemon

Salt & pepper to taste

Mash the avocados in a large bowl. Add sea salt, pepper, lemon juice, and crumbled bacon. Mix to combine ingredients. Add chopped hard boiled eggs and toss gently.

Sausage with Bell Pepper and Monterey Jack

4 cooked Italian sausage links, sliced

¼ cup red bell pepper, diced

¼ cup green bell pepper, diced

¼ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Sautee peppers in olive oil until lightly browned. Add sliced sausage and cheese. Continue heating over low heat until cheese is melted.

Tomato, bacon, & mozzarella stacks

1 medium tomato, thick sliced

4 strips bacon, cooked

¼ cup mozzarella cheese

Olive oil

Sea salt & pepper

Drizzle tomato slices with olive oil and season to taste with salt & pepper. Top with bacon and shredded cheese. Place under the broiler until cheese is lightly browned.

Ham, cheddar, and jalapeño scrambled eggs

4 large eggs

2 oz ham, cubed

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Diced pickled jalapeño peppers to taste

Whisk eggs, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add eggs and cook, stirring with heatproof rubber spatula. As the eggs begin to set add remaining ingredients. Cook 3 to 5 more minutes. Serve right away.  

More on how high cholesterol can be GOOD for you!

Check out his article on how high cholesterol LOWERS stroke risk!



http://www.bio-hormone-health.com/2011/11/03/high-cholesterol-can-lower-your-stroke-risk/

Eight Tips for Weight Loss

8) View weight loss as a lifelong process. Most people (including me) struggle with the yo-yo. Don’t beat yourself up over it!

7) Instead of looking back with shame and guilt at how you’ve let yourself go, look forward with enthusiasm at where you want to be.

6) There are many effective approaches to weight loss. If you try something and it doesn’t work, try something different!

5) Most people say the last ten pounds are the hardest to lose. I couldn’t disagree more. The first ten are the real battle. It becomes easier as your goal gets closer.

4) Don’t use the holidays as an excuse to wait to start your weight loss efforts! If you don’t try now you’ll probably be three or four pounds heavier on January 1^st!

3) Don’t use your kids as an excuse to keep your favorite snack foods around the house! My daughter Sophia likes goldfish crackers as much as she likes potato chips. But I don’t. So I buy the goldfish crackers.

2) Don’t be afraid to try something new, even if it sounds crazy. What your doing isn’t working, so what do you have to lose?

1) It’s not a problem when you fall off the wagon. It only becomes a problem when you stop trying to get back on!

Boot Camp

Our new Boot Camp program is a fast paced and fun workout consisting of unique interval cardio segments alternated with free weights, kettlebells, and body-weight only exercises. Workouts are specifically designed to not only burn calories but also to create hormonal changes in the body that will increase your metabolism for up to 72 hours after each workout!

Last night our workout was particularly fun with many of the gyms most enjoyable exercises:

A)  DB Push Press - Ten seconds of as many reps as possible. Five sets with ten seconds rest between sets. Targets your shoulders and triceps and gets your heart rate up.
B)  Speed Hammer Curls - Ten seconds of as many reps as possible. Five sets with ten seconds rest between sets. Tones the muscles of the upper arm.
C)  Sled Intervals - Sled sprint alternated with a backwards sled drag. Three rounds, resting while your partner works.

Burn fat while frying the front of your thighs

D)  Assisted Pull-ups - Two sets of 10-15 reps alternated with the Prowler. No better exercise in the world for your upper back, shoulders, and biceps.
E)  Assisted Dips - One set of 10-15 reps alternated with the Prowler. A great exercise to firm up the back of your arms.
F)  The Prowler - Everyone favorite cardio interval! Sixty yard shuttle runs alternated with dips and pull-ups.

Jack up your metabolism while working your glutes and thighs

G)  Ab Circuit - Super slow straight leg sit-ups, high tension iso-metric ab holds, plank push-ups, vacuums, plank, & bicycles in a circuit to both strengthen your core and define your mid-section.

The Most Important Piece of Equipment for a Healthy, Lean, and Toned Body

I'm going to let you in on a "secret tool" I use to help people reach their fitness and weight loss goals in record time. It is well known in the strength and conditioning world, but few fitness enthusiasts or personal trainers use it. Failure to utilize this vital gym equipment is the primary reason most people you see at the gym never make progress.


Many people start exercising and achieve immediate, noticeable results. But after a few months these results come to a halt. They may faithfully take spin class, lift weights, and do hour upon hour of cardio year in and year out. But there body never changes.


They blame this on diet. Or maybe they think its just part of getting older. And while these are important factors, using this simple tool every time they worked out would vastly increase their results.


Are you ready? Here it is...the single most important gym equipment you can use to get the body you want in record time:


Pen and paper.


Yes, that's it. That's the secret tool of the most successful trainers and body transformation coaches in the world. Without a record of what you've done you're just going through the motions. Pen and paper do more to help you reach your goals than any dumbbell, group fitness class, or cardio machine ever will.


Did you burn 300 calories on the treadmill last week? Or was it 330? Was it eight reps with fifteen pound dumbbells or ten reps with twelve pound dumbbells? If you don't know the answer to these questions, how are you going to increase the demand on your body? And if you don't increase the demand on your body your body will not change.


Here is a sample workout log I used to help a forty something mother of two lose twelve pounds of fat and gain six pounds of muscle in just 42 days! (The only changes to her diet involved switching to a zero carbohydrate breakfast)  

Workout 1

EXERCISE	8/1/2011	8/10/2011	8/22/2011	8/31/2011
A) DB Bench Press (1-0-1) 3 x AMRAP, 30 sec RI	20 x 20-12-5	25 x 14-8-5	25 x 16-8-6	30 x 9-4-3
B) Parallel Grip Pull-down (5-1-1) 3 x AMRAP, 30 sec RI	62.5 x 9-5-4	62.5 x 13-6-6	65 x 12-5-4	67.5 x 11-5-5
C) Speed Row Left (x-x-x) 1 x AMRAP	25 x 40	30 x 40	35 x 33	35 x 35
D) Speed Row Right (x-x-x) 1 x AMRAP	25 x 40	30 x 40	35 x 33	35 x 35
E) DB Lateral Raise 1 x 10 full range 1 x 30 partials Static hold x 30	3 x 10-30-18 sec	3 x 10-30-24 sec	3 x 10-30-30 sec	5 x 10-30-8 sec
F) Rower 2000m for time	11:51	11:04	10:49	10:48

Workout 2

EXERCISE	8/3/2011	8/12/2011	8/24/2011	9/6/2011
A) DB Curl (10-0-X) 3 x AMRAP, 30 sec RI	15 x 8-4-3	15 x 10-4-4	15 x 11-4-4	20 x 8-3-3
B) Machine Calf Raise (1-0-1) As many sets of 10 as possible, 10 sec stretch between sets	90 x 10 x 5	90 x 10 x 7	90 x 10 x 8	90 x 10 x 8
C) Leg Curl (10-0-X) 3 x AMRAP, 30 sec RI	70 x 7-4-2	70 x 9-4-3	70 x 10-4-3	80 x 8-4-3
D) Neg. Acc. Hanging Leg Raise (5-0-X) 3 x AMRAP, 30 sec RI	BW x 7-5-4	BW x 8-5-5	BW x 9-6-5	BW x 10-6-4
E) Farmer’s Walk 3 x max time, 30 sec RI	24 kg x 54-32-24	24 kg x 65-30-22	32 kg x 49-24-18	32 kg x 55-30-23
F) Treadmill 20 min x max distance	1.3 miles	1.5 miles	1.6 miles	1.7 miles

Workout 3

EXERCISE	8/5/2011	8/15/2011	8/26/2011	9/9/2011
A1) BB Bench (1-0-1) 6 x 8, 0 sec RI	55 x 8 x 6	60 x 8 x 5 60 x 5	60 x 8 x 6	65 x 8 65 x 6 x 5
A2) KB Front Squat (1-0-1) 6 x 8, 1 min RI	24 kg x 8 x 6	24 kg x 10 x 6	32 kg x 6 x 6	32 kg x 8 x 6
B1) T-Bar Row (1-0-1) 4 x 15-20, 0 sec RI	20 x 20 x 2 20 x 17 20 x 15	20 x 20 x 4	25 x 20 x 4	30 x 20 x 4
B2) 5 Riser Jump Squat (1-0-X) 4 x 20, 2 min RI	BW x 20 x 4	BW x 20 x 4	BW + 10 x 20 x 4	BW + 15 x 20 x 4
C1) KB Overhead Press (1-0-1) 3 x 15-20, 0 sec RI	10 x 20 x 3	15 x 19 15 x 15 x 2	15 x 20 x 2 15 x 16	15 x 20 15 x 16 15 x 12
C2) Plank 3 x 30-60 sec, 0 sec RI	30 sec x 3	40 sec x 3	50 sec x 3	60 sec x 3
C3) Walking Lunge 3 x 1 trip, 2 min RI	BW x 3	BW + 10 x 3	BW + 16 x 3	BW + 20 x 3

Workout 4

EXERCISE	8/8/2011	8/18/2011	8/29/2011	9/12/2011
A1)  Seated DB Curl (2-0-1) 3 x 6-8, 0 sec RI	20 x 8 x 3	25 x 6 25 x 5 x 2	25 x 6 x 3	25 x 7 25 x 6 25 x 5
A2)  Hammer Strength Pull-down (1-1-1) 3 x 20-30, 0 sec RI	30 x 20 x 3	30 x 30 30 x 20 x 2	30 x 30 30 x 22 30 x 20	30 x 30 30 x 29 30 x 18
A3)  Assisted Dips (5-0-1) 3 x 6-8, 0 sec RI	10 x 8 x 3	9 x 8 x 3	8 x 6 8 x 5 x 2	8 x 6 x 3
A4)  DB French Press (1-1-1) 3 x 20-30, 4 min RI	10 x 30 x 3	12 x 30 x 3	15 x 20 15 x 15 x 2	15 x 20 x 3
B1)  Assisted Roll-up (3-0-3) 3 x 8-10, 0 sec RI	BW x 8 x 3	BW x 8 x 3	BW x 10 x 3	BW x 10 x 3
B2)  Trap Bar Deadlift (1-0-1) 3 x 8-12, 0 sec RI	65 x 8 x 3	65 x 12 x 3	70 x 12 x 3	75 x 12 x 3
B3)  High Handle Prowler 3 x 2 trips, 4 min RI	50 x 3	70 x 3	90 x 2 70 x 1	90 x 1 (skipped last 2 sets)
D)  Elliptical Machine 20 minutes for max calories	183	199	178	210

Adaptive Thermogenesis and Obesity

I'm sure that most proponents of the "calories in, calories out" theory of weight management would agree that energy expenditure plays a significant role in obesity. And I don't disagree.....but are most nutritionists and doctors looking at the wrong component of energy expenditure?
Total energy expenditure (or TEE), is the total amount of energy (i.e. calories) your body burns in a day. It is the sum of three distinct parts:
1) Obligatory energy expenditure - This is the energy required by the body to perform necessary cellular and organ functions.
2) Physical activity - Any additional energy burned by the body to fuel physical activity of any sort.
3) Adaptive thermogenesis - Additional energy expenditure induced by diet or cold exposure.
Most nutritionists and MD's believe that reduced physical activity is one of the root causes of obesity. Many also believe that reduced obligatory energy expenditure (i.e. "a slow metabolism") also contributes. But the picture looks very different once you look at the scientific literature.
In most animal studies, the difference between lean and obese subjuects is found in adaptive thermogenesis. In basic terms this means that most animals fed a high calorie diet do not gain weight. They off-set the increased calories by spontaneously increasing diet induced thermogenesis. With little exception, only when an abnormality in this process exists do animals gain weight. (1) Even when calorie intake and energy expenditure are equalized, some animals will gain weight while others remain lean.
Humans are much harder to study than rodents. But if human obesity is similar to rodent obesity (which is probable) it would help us to explore other reasons why our population is gaining so much weight. The typical "eat less and exercise more" treatment for obesity has failed, and abnormalities in diet induced thermogenesis is likely one of the culprits.
Is it possible that a diet high in refined carbohydrates and food toxins found in industrial foods (like wheat and seed oils) are interfering with our body's ability to adjust to normal fluctuations in energy intake? Could these same refined carbs and food toxins be disrupting natural hormonal feedback loops that regulate body fat stores? 
If this is the case, as I believe, the most effective treatment for obesity would be a natural diet of unprocessed foods such as vegetables, nuts, meat, poultry, seafood, and fruit. Short term restriction of all carbohydrates, even natural, healthful sources such as berries and sweet potatoes, would also likely be beneficial. 

References

1) "β-Adrenergic Receptors, Diet-induced Thermogenesis, and Obesity",

Bradford B. Lowell and 

Eric S. Bachman. Journal of Biochemistry, 278, 29385-29388.