Fat Loss: The Be All, End All Formula – Part 4/4

For those of you who’ve made it this far down the rabbit hole, I applaud you. While it may have only been an hour of your time to read all four parts of this series, it’s taken me about 20 hours to write, edit, jazz-it-up. That same amount of time would be required of you to heed my advice, be that investigating the hyperlinks or doing some of the tasks suggested thus far.

 

If you haven’t done all that reading and work yet, get to it because this won’t make much sense without it:

Part 1 – Introduction to “The Formula”, NEPA/NEAT and the importance of moving!

Part 2 – Muscle Training, Cardio Training Part 1/2

Part 3 – Cardio Training Part 2/2, De-stressing & Sleep

 

Let’s check in on that formula again:

(Adequate NEPA/NEAT) + (Adequate + Appropriate Muscle Training) + (Adequate vs Appropriate – Excessive Cardiovascular Training) + (De-stressing your life + Adequate Quality Sleep) + (Adequate but Appropriate Goal Based Nutrition) = FAT LOSS

 

So far I’ve also been preaching this:

High Amount of NEPA/NEAT > Muscle Training > Cardiovascular Training

Basically what I’m saying above is in your quest for lower body fat levels, your NEPA (non-exercise physical activity/how much you move in a day) is more important than how much weight lifting/resistance training you do and both of those are far more important than how much time you spend running while staring at a wall in front of you; I don’t care how fancy the machine is at your gym, the human body is a better machine, so freaking move it around more!

BUT…

I now need to make an adjustment for the final detail:

Adequate/Appropriate Goal Based Nutrition = High Amount of NEPA/NEAT > Muscle Training > Cardiovascular Training

If there is a holy gospel to fat loss, the above pic is it!

Detail #4 – Adequate but Appropriate Goal Based Nutrition

I’ve been at my career for over 7 years now. There’s one thing I see time and time again: change. Here’s the thing, I can always tell when a client has done something positive in their nutrition habits. The effect is pretty much immediate: less inflammation in the gut so the pooch belly is less, they have more energy, they go harder in the gym and their brain is very clear and articulate.

The inverse of that is a bloaty, unhappy body and bowel system, b*%&chy mood, whiny temperament, low energy and a slooooow mind. And how likely will a body and mind forced into that position on the regular, be motivated and active in producing change?

I’ll go so far as to say that the quality of food we eat along with the kilocalories, macro and micro nutrients that it provides, finds a magical way of providing motivation or demotivation for the change we seek in all avenues of our lives. Doubt me? Go eat McDonald’s every single day 3 meals a day for a week and tell me about all the factors above. Then go back to your normal diet (which hopefully is not the same thing as McSh%ts) and see if your mood, energy and motivation changes.

How’s the saying go? You cannot out-train a bad diet!

But, what’s the best way to eat for fat loss?

I don’t have a perfect answer for you. And any person claiming to have THE answer is full of themselves. There are a good 1000 different diets and meal plans that can all work the same. I’ve already deeply delved into the nutrition topic in a blog post entitled: Don’t Hire a Personal Trainer for Fat Loss:

 

Here: https://adriancrowe.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/dont-hire-a-personal-trainer-for-fat-loss-part1/

And Here: https://adriancrowe.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/dont-hire-a-personal-trainer-for-fat-loss-part2/

*I would really suggest that if food is the detail in the formula you’re not understanding or messing up the most that you read that blog series. I wrote it with the intention of never having to cover the food topic again despite me touching on it here.

 

I’ve said this 100 times: if Person A lost 50lbs of fat on the Jenny Craig system; Person B lost 50lbs of fat on the Dr. Bernstein starving yourself but it’s okay because we inject you with B vitamins and make sure you don’t exercise system, or Person C lost 50lbs of fat using a personalized meal plan from my preferred nutrition dudes: Wet Wolf or Scott Abel…guess what…

 

They lost 50lbs of fat and that’s what matters!

 

I don’t care what system you choose so long as it works for you. I may have an opinion but that’s going to be clouded by bias based on my experience.

 

The Caveat:

Now, the likelihood of someone maintaining that fat loss is inversely related to how insane and “stupid” most fitness and health professionals feel the process was. Meaning, the more you had to suffer and starve yourself into the fat loss, good luck at maintaining it.

 

There are DIEts and then there are lifestyles. Bernstein is not a lifestyle unless you’re really into rollercoasters, yo-yos and possibly metabolic damage!

 

Let’s do this instead:

Top 5 Smart Moves for Your Nutrition:

• Eat enough food – seriously, most women mess this up. Some dudes do too (like me). If you’re concerned about a banana, yam or plain oatmeal making you fat…you have lost control of the concept of food being healing and working for your metabolism. That’s right, you have become incapable of feeding yourself without emotion and in that case I HIGHLY suggest you work with one of the coaches I talked about earlier. How many bananas would a person have to eat to gain 10lbs of fat?? Look into the link above regarding metabolic damage.
• Eat real food – I haven’t had a dishwashing machine in about 4 years, well that’s not true, I do have my girlfriend (sorry babe!) but I will say this about doing the dishes: how effective your fat loss is going is directly related to how many forks you have to wash. You don’t need a fork to eat cereal for breakfast. You don’t need a fork to eat a sandwich for lunch and you don’t need a fork to eat pizza for dinner. I know that sounds crazy but seriously, be on a mission to dirty as many forks as possible each week and you’ll lose weight! Paleo style eating has one thing going for it: if it was once living, had eyes or grows in the ground or on a vine/tree/bush – it’s probably real food. There are no spaghetti trees, there are no Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal plants, nor are there any tofu(ngus) vines. EAT LIKE AN ADULT IF YOU WANT FAT LOSS.
• The more processed the further you should back away. If you are going to buy something out of a box, bag or package I have two rules: 1) you have to be able to pronounce and know what all the ingredients actually are 2) it should have less than 8 real ingredients. Take an Elevate Me protein bar (my preferred bar) for example:

So it has: whey protein isolate (arguably not real food but I’ll compromise there), raisins, dates, almonds, apples, bananas, and…that’s all. Yep, check, I know what all those are.

Do you know what’s in your Quest bar? Apparently not what’s on the label.

 

When I was really young I distinctly remember asking my mom while she was making ‘dinner,’ “No, mom, I don’t want to eat a puppy, why are we having hot dogs!?!” Man, was I smart back then, even then I knew something was fishy; or should I say full of beef (and you do know byproducts means anus, organs, and whatever parts of the ‘ALL beef’ they want to feed you)

• Get enough protein but not too much: If most gals stuck with 3oz (about 20g of protein) of meat and most guys stuck with 5-6oz (30-40g) every meal for 3-4 meals a day they’d be golden. Too little protein you don’t have enough satiation, struggle to grow muscle mass and are no fun at a BBQ. Too much and you risk THIS. Special circumstances (heavy training, strict dieting for a contest/fight, etc.) may warrant a change to the above but for the most part, it’s a good rule of thumb. Something to consider and try and I ask most of my clients to try it for a week is this: http://www.strengthsensei.com/the-meat-and-nut-breakfast/ If after a week on that for breaky you don’t feel better, more alert and start seeing some of the bloat in your gut go down then you’re probably eating close to this last detail:
• Figure Out What Foods Work For You! If you’re what I call a category 2 eater (go to Part 2 of the Don’t Hire a Personal Trainer for Fat Loss to see which category you’re in), meaning you’re not ready to have someone tell you to eat 3.7oz of salmon, 2 whole brown eggs, 8 spears of asparagus and 1 teaspoon of flax oil for breakfast, then 3 hours later have 4oz of dark chicken meat with 2.4 cups of salad mix with some fancy oil for a dressing followed 3 hours later by… you get the point…

 

Then I ask you to draw up a big 3 column chart

The first column of the list are foods that agree with your body. Meaning when or as you eat them you are proud to be eating them, they sit well in your tummy, they don’t bloat you, and they give you energy hours later, not leaving you starving an hour later or crashing. Obviously those foods should be whole and real food.

The second column you list foods that are “neutral” to you, they don’t make you feel like a gym star, they don’t boost your energy too much nor make you crash, they don’t bloat you and they may be slightly processed or real food. Basically it’s like the meal just happened but still tides you over till your next meal or snack.

The last column are foods that just don’t agree with you, meaning they leave you bloated, gassy, low energy, craving more food less than an hour later, and set off your cravings later in your day. Now you might ask, “Why bother making a list of foods that aren’t good for you?” Because you know damn well you’re eating that stuff so make a list of ALL the stuff you have eaten in the last 6 months and sort them into the 3 columns. It’s an eye opener when you do this which I did for myself recently.

 

Such a list might look like this:

It takes a bit of experimentation to get this list perfected and sometimes your tastes and gut will change depending on stress or your physical shape as well as what fruits/veggies are in season. Keep this list (along with your spouse’s list) on the fridge. When you don’t know what to make for dinner or lunches, it’s pretty simple: at least 70% of the time, eat foods that are in the first column which are foods that make you feel good and honestly feel help you lose body fat and support muscle growth. Try to keep the foods in the third column, the ones that make you look, feel and become fatter to less than 10% of your total incoming food.

 

A great resource for something like this is a book I suggest everyone read at least twice: How to Eat, Live and Be Healthy by Paul Chek Big eye opener this book was and whenever I feel lost with my food I go back to it.

 

The Top 5 Dumb-Dumb Moves Unless You Want Fat Gain

 

• Starting your day with processed foods. Most processed foods are high sodium, high sugar, low fiber and low protein. So basically you’re gonna be dehydrated, bloated, energized for about 13.8minutes, crash 15 minutes later and be hungry despite plugging 400 calories into you and you’re setting off a chain of processes that will lead to bad food choices later. The other day I was in a rush, and toasted 2 Pop Tarts for breakfast as I sped out the door (I know, you’re freaking out about that right now, right! I have my own hankerings too; good thing it wasn’t a Costco sized box). It was the absolute WORST day ever, despite eating well the rest of the day. Ugh. Energy was just garbage, my brain was foggy all day, I felt gross and didn’t have a bowel movement that day (I know, TMI), my mood went south to the point where people were asking “are you, like, uh, okay dude?” come 5pm, and when I got home I was too tired and cranky to eat anything (I think I had an apple pear for dinner) which was then followed by a garbage sleep. All because I decided those tasty blueberry Pop Tarts just had to be had for breakfast. Seriously people STOP EATING SHIT FOR BREAKFAST if you really want fat loss! If it comes out of a package (unless we’re talking eggs) or a bag it doesn’t belong in your belly for breakfast.
• Grocery shopping when you’re hungry (or should I say hangry). We should really avoid the middle isles of a grocery store to begin with but even worse if you do so when you’re hungry. I’ve said it before: BUY YOUR INTENTIONS. I’m a closet grocery cart snooper. I judge you buy what’s in your cart and it usually shows clearly in your body composition. So, make a list of groceries that you need for your intended meals or meal plan and preferably go grocery shopping right after you just ate a big, healthy meal.
• Going far too long between meals. What’s far too long? Most of the fitness industry regurgitates “you have to eat every 3-4 hours or your muscles will disintegrate and you’ll wake up with an extra love handle.” Um, no. Again, it’s highly individualized. Some people are grazers, some prefer big meals. If I go longer than 6 hours without a meal it’s all downhill from there. What’s your time limit? Just make sure you don’t cross it.
• Eating out at a restaurant more than once a week (this includes the lunch you didn’t pack for yourself). Meals prepped by others are based on two major things: taste and profit. Not your body composition goals and unfortunately not what’s the absolute highest quality food and source. I dare you to get the nutritional facts of your favorite dish at each restaurant you eat at. I’ve seen salads with 1400 calories!! I do have a rule though, if you’re gonna eat at a restaurant, just do it for real. Eat what you want and your next meals make sure it’s back on the bandwagon. I don’t care if you slip and fall; I care if you get back up. Stop whining to me your guilt over the Krispy Kreme you shoved down your muzzle and just get back to your meal plan.
• Not trying the elimination diet idea. For the love of 6 packs, do yourself a big favor: try going without. Without what you might ask? I don’t care, just make it up. Challenge yourself. What do you start your day with? Take that out for a day. Put something else in there. I dare you to try going just 1 single day without any sugar (check every ingredient label). Try just 1 day without your triple-triple coffee (do plain tea instead). Go one day without meat, there are lots of non-animal protein sources. Try one day without dairy. Or wheat. Or whatever. And then try one week of that. You are hopefully going to have a long life, you’ve got some time to experiment and figure out what works best for you! You’d be surprised what a little sacrifice and abstaining could do for you and your little belly.

So, that’s it. I’m not going to be a food Nazi, I’m not going to tell you exactly what to eat (if you need that go here: Wet Wolf or Scott Abel) and stop eating like a teenager who’s been left at home for the long weekend by yourself with $100 to eat whatever you want.

Work for your fat loss. I’m sorry to disappoint but there is no other way.

 

The Crescendo, The Wrap Up, The Summary…whatever you wish to call it…

Way over 10,000 words later here I am, and hopefully you’ve made it all the way through all of that, the tasks to complete, the couple dozen hyperlinks, the videos to watch…the point is I’m never going to answer the question: “Adrian, how do I best lose fat?” again. That was the point of this blog.
For the attention deficit readers, here’s the gist of it:

 

• Get 10,000 steps or more a day
• Muscle training is more important than cardio but do both. Ideally 2-3 times per week with multi-joint, big strength movements along with copious unilateral work. Perform intense cardio 2-3 time per week, no more except for two x 4 week periods a year when you really need to trim down.
• Try my “Elimination Circuit” style training for 4-6 weeks exclusively.
• Learn about sleep, experiment with your own, improve your sleeping quarters
• UNPLUG FROM YOUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES! Try 3-5 hours a couple times a week where no TV, no phone, no iPad, nothing that requires a power cord or battery is occupying your attention. And no, sleeping doesn’t count.
• Try an isolation/floatation tank, just once. It may just drastically change your life.
• Write out your life’s “small joys” and don’t stray too far, nor too long away from them
• Treat your body better than you do your car, it too could use regular maintenance (chiropractor, massage therapy, acupuncture, etc; whatever your fancy)
• Eat more real, unprocessed foods that agree with your body (make a list of the ones that do and don’t) and be on a mission to dirty as many forks as possible.
• Obey the top 5 smart moves for fat loss above and make sure you’re not slipping into the top 5 dumb-dumb moves that are piling the pounds on. If you are still lost, hire a professional which I’ve provided links to.

You’ll never perfect the details of the formula. Like so many other things in life the journey is as worthwhile as the destination. And for the love of everyone else’s ear drums, when you figure out what works best for you, don’t go preaching it as holy gospel. It works for you, let others figure what works for them. Shoot them to this blog if they lack the outline for self-discovery.

 

Now, get working on your near perfect version of the details within the be-all, end-all formula to your fat loss goals:

(Adequate NEPA/NEAT) + (Adequate + Appropriate Muscle Training) + (Adequate vs Appropriate – Excessive Cardiovascular Training) + (De-stressing your life + Adequate Quality Sleep) + (Adequate but Appropriate Goal Based Nutrition) = FAT LOSS

If I can help further, just holla: adrian@adriancrowe.com

BTW, you can now find me on:

Instagram @adriancroweathletictraining

Facebook page at Adrian Crowe Athletic Training “The Crowe’s Nest”

YouTube www.youtube.com/acathletictraining

Fat Loss: The Be All, End All Formula – Part 3 of 4

If somehow you’ve found us just now, this won’t make much sense without having already invested your time into reading or perhaps even re-reading Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.

 

During the last installment I covered the first half of Detail 3: Cardiovascular Training in relation to fat loss. I left you hanging with the promise of a program style that works incredibly effective for fat loss.

It’s often said in the training world that the best program is the one you’re currently not doing. Simply because the body adapts over time and it’s wise to switch it up every 4-12 weeks (depending on your goals and level of experience).

 

I will place one big caveat on the following: just like every other training style, Elimination Circuits can run their course. Using them for 3-5 week periods seems best, beyond that I tell people go back to trying to grow muscle like a crazy person. If you didn’t achieve significant enough fat loss during the time you used the Elimination Circuit, yet again, the details of your formula haven’t been sorted out (likely food).

 

Detail #3 – (Adequate vs Appropriate – Excessive Cardiovascular Training) Cardiovascular Training – Part 2 of 2 – Elimination Circuit Training

This was my last “cardio” workout. It was horrible. I hated my life come the end of it. Yep, I do cartwheels (blame Dan John for telling me to get over my suckiness of them). The Crowe Flow: Squat is one of my favored mobility drills for opening up where I tend to be tight. And yes, I think the gym ring idiot is purely in there to be “fun.” Angled Barbell exercises such as THIS are killer for elimination circuits!

Look, if your heart rate is jumping back and forth between 120-180 beats per minute for 60 minutes straight…is that cardio? Regardless of what you’re doing to get there??

Exactly! So make it fun. I make it up as I go.

The rules of the Elimination Circuit are this:

1. Choose 7-9 exercises
2. If the goal is cardio I suggest making most of them heart rate based, the rest aesthetic or physio/corrective drills. You can’t just go balls-to-the-wall for 60 mins straight.
3. Choose exercises you know you should be doing, some stuff you like doing, and throw in stuff you absolutely suck at for the sake of getting better at it.
4. How to calculate reps: take the exercise of your choice, what rep range would you normally perform it in? Let’s say for DB lateral raises you normally do 15 reps. Now take those reps and multiply by 4 or 5 rounds (you’ll have to experiment there). That’s how many you’ll do in total over the whole workout. The goal is to mostly have all exercises completed by the 4-6 round mark. If you finish them in 3 the weight/intensity was too easy or reps too low. If it takes you 8 rounds, the weight/intensity was too high
5. Simply perform as a traditional circuit, do the traditional amount of reps you can do with good form for exercise 1. Write down those reps. Move to exercise 2, perform and write down the reps. Continue until you’ve completed 1 round of each exercise. Then start back over. You’ll find on the first set of the circuit you’ll get a few more reps than normal, just like towards the end of the workout you’ll end up getting less than normal. It all works itself out if you’re ending exercises between 4-6 rounds. If finishing an exercise in 3 or less then it simply wasn’t hard enough, not enough load or not enough reps. If you’re not finishing until 6-10 sets, then it was too hard, too much load, or too many reps.
6. There are no rules except you have to finish all the reps. Feeling too beat to do the next exercise but you could do the next on the list instead, go for it! Just don’t jump around too much or you’ll get loopy and behind on reps. Once all the reps are complete, that’s it; workout over. Ideally the workout doesn’t last longer than 60 minutes, in fact, 45 minutes is probably the ideal.

This style will allow for the least amount of rest and such an INSANE volume/training density during a workout without blowing the body into nervous system oblivion.

Here’s an example of using and Elimination Circuit on a small group training setting (5 people). Same rules apply. Pick 7-9 movements, figure out the “typical” rep range you’d use on that movement, multiply by 4-5 rounds and then multiply by how many people are working together to accomplish those reps. In this style what you get is absolutely outstanding teamwork. Some people are better than others at exercise 3, where some are better at exercise 6; it allows each to work as a team on their strengths and weaknesses. Everyone hates the Crowe Plank so make them do it! The only goal: GET ‘ER DONE!

I prefer Elimination Circuits best for cardio but try them using strength movements too. A chest/back day could be done the same bouncing back and forth between 4 types of chest exercises and 4 back exercises. The only rule for a strength circuit there is that you do need to take enough rest (45-90 seconds if you feel the performance of a heavy set will suffer). If your form is going to be crap, take 15-30 seconds longer to sip some water then jump back in.

I want to revisit a piece from Part 1 of this series:

“Of the 168 hours we are all allotted in a given week, I want every minute, every hour and every workout to count for something. Who wants to workout 4 hours a week, week in-week out, to look and feel exactly the same next year?”

So when you design or choose your workout programs, it’s about time. Spending more than 4 hours a week exercising can be a waste of time when it comes to fat loss. So telling someone that an hour on the treadmill 3x/week plus 4x/week doing 90 minute resistance training sessions just cost you over 6 hours of your life. I’d venture to say if you’re close to that and not seeing results it’s because, yet again, cardio is rarely the answer. It’s one of the details.

Implant this in your brain forever if fat loss is your goal:

High Amount of NEPA/NEAT > Muscle Training > Cardiovascular Training

Focusing on the above equation backwards (cardio, a little weights and the rest of your day spent sitting on your still overweight booty) is NOT EVER going to work. Especially if you can’t get the next two details sorted out.

Detail #4 – De-stressing Your Life + Adequate Quality Sleep

I was going to delve into research as to what the magical number of hours the human body requires to function (is it 6, or 7 or 8.258 to the third power) but here’s the thing: YOU’RE AN ADULT, figure it out. Most adults know that number for themselves. And good luck changing their mind.

The answer is probably 1 more hour than you’re currently getting if you’re tired all the time.

Most of the stuff I’ve read on sleep talks is not so much about how long one should be in bed sleeping but rather what is the quality of sleep you’re achieving (light vs. deep vs. REM sleep cycles)? What time of night are you going to bed (before midnight or after)? Are you a night owl or an early bird? Introvert or extrovert? What are the activities you are performing before sleep? What’s the quality of your place of sleep (meaning mattress, pillow, bedding, temperature of room, noise levels, electromagnetic fields from electronic devices, and how dark is your room)?

There is far more to experiment with the above parameters before one can so easily adjust the amount of time you’re sleeping.

If you really want to investigate something interesting about sleep look into polyphasic vs. monophasic sleep patterns. For a great many thousands of years (prior to the invention of electricity) humans may have slept differently to how they do today. My goal over the next couple years is to be able to schedule my day to allow biphasic sleeping patterns.

Here is my top 5 list of sleep fails guaranteed to throw a wrench into your fat loss plans:

1. Sleeping schedules all over the map. Shift workers find it much more difficult to maintain lower body fat levels than people with a 9-5 job. It’s better you go to bed and rise at roughly the same times every night, including weekends. Perhaps moreso because sleep schedules all over the map means meal timing and food prep that likely looks the same.
2. Too much TV or Candy Crush before bed. Let’s see, you want to go to sleep which requires darkness for your melatonin (the hormone that makes you drowsy so you can sleep) to fire properly and you’ve instead decided to blast your eyeballs with flashing, bright lights. Good one. A book would probably improve the quality of your life far more. But whatever your medium of choice to end your evening it’s probably wise it’s not too exciting. Don’t get me wrong, I do like my TV shows before bed too but never put a TV in the bedroom (pretty much asking for less sex aren’t you?) and watch some dry stuff last. I love me some Mysteries at the Museum before bed!
3. Eating too heavy a meal before sleep. Starving before bed is not wise either but you should experiment to figure out what foods digest best in the last meals/snacks before bed. It should be obvious sugar of any sort is the worst choice because we are talking about fat loss after all. Almost as bad for ruining sleep quality before bed would be alcohol.
4. When I was a teen 12 hours of sleep was “necessary” for me to function. No it’s not, you’re just bored with your life and haven’t set some goals that require you to get outta freaking bed and do something with your life. There are times my body tells me to F off for not sleeping enough the past nights of the week and I’ll let it sleep 10 hours but more than that is a waste of life and you’re more likely to be inactive after sleeping that long.
5. Your bedroom atmosphere sucks. Too much noise. Too much crap on the floor for you to even get to your bed. Too many plugs and electronics next to your head. Poor quality mattress. You don’t know the thread count of your sheets cuz you bought cheap sh*t. Your pillows are 2 years old. And there’s too much street light coming in from your windows. May as well scatter some thumb tacks randomly throughout your bed sheets to make it even more interesting. Fix the problem: Google this: “make bedroom conducive sleep”

Enough of that rant. Let’s move on.

Let me ask you something…could you right now, take a pen and paper and write 15 small little joys in your life. Not people (though quality time with people can be part of it). Not your job. Not your beloved iPhone. 15 things you can do right now that would bring a smile to your face. What recharges you? What makes the daily routine and grind worth repeating endlessly? Seriously, take a pen and paper and write 15 things down that you love doing.

Now ask yourself: how often are you doing them? How’s that saying go? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

I’m a workaholic for sure (routinely pulling off 60-80 hour weeks) but the first thing I do when work is done as much as can be for the day is get right to my little joys. When I skip that too often I’m a miserable SOB. And most likely so are you. If you’re tired, miserable, hate your daily grind, can’t stand everyone around you because they’re irritating you more than usual; while a 3 week vacation to Bora Bora sounds awesome right now, perhaps we don’t need such an extreme. A happy body is one that loses weight more easily. If not simply because of the causal effect on motivation and ability to stick to the hard game plan (read: nutrition) that’s going to help you achieve those fat loss goals. Wanna know how simple this is to achieve? Take a timer, 15 minutes. No one, nothing, no phone texts or calls, nothing is allowed to disturb you for 15 minutes every single day and you do one or more of those things on the list you created. If you couldn’t even be bothered to create the list, therein lies the problem. You want without the will to work for it.

What I’m getting at with all of this is that if you want to expend energy, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental energy, it is impossible to the degree that makes a real change in your life unless you recharge the battery often. Do you really think the human body is drastically different in energy needs to your cell phone? How often do you plug that battery in to recharge??

Two more things.

I kick myself in the proverbial pants on the regular for not having taken advantage of the years in my life where I was covered under an extended health care plan through my work place. My previous job I had hundreds of dollars in chiropractor, massage therapy, acupuncture and a whack of other services that were essentially free to me if I could have been bothered enough to take advantage of that. I’m going to kick your ass if you’re not taking advantage of that situation if you’re fortunate enough to have it. MAX that plan out!

For those of us not under such magical coverage, please treat yourself every 4-8 weeks. You take your car in for regular tune ups, correct? Because you know it helps it last longer and perform better. But not the same for your body?

 

Lastly, what if I said there was a very unique, personal way to achieve a deep state of relaxation, one that in my opinion cannot be beat for recharging the mind, body and spirit. What would that look like? First I ask you to invest 5 minutes of your life to explore these brilliant thoughts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeqmKwsvM58 (language warning)

I suspect the floatation/isolation/sensory deprivation tank will be one of the greatest things I invest my time into during the course of my life.

Just try it once! Trust me on that. (Locally in the Greater Vancouver area, look up Cloud 9 Float Spas in Coquitlam. The couple’s tank was brilliant quality couple time). Otherwise try finding a floatation tank near you: http://floatationlocations.com/map/ or www.floatation.biz/floatfinder/

 

But what does this all have to do with fat loss?

I’m sure you’ve seen someone who’s lost quite an impressive amount of fat and simply looked ragged and aged from the process. How often do those people keep the weight off? Rarely.

Those who are in great shape, have the vitality we all desire and maintain healthy body weights tend to look vibrant, healthy, happy, and have found a balance between how much they put out and how well they recharge.

 

Okay, we’ve got just one more installment left next week. I’m going to attempt to cover the final detail: {Adequate but Appropriate Goal Based Nutrition} as well as neatly wrap this whole series up for you all.

Please understand that my goal here is not to portray myself as the be all, end all guru of anything but rather to give you avenues and ideas to explore to help you find the best way to manage and adjust the details within your fat loss formula.

The Formula: (Adequate NEPA/NEAT) + (Adequate + Appropriate Muscle Training) + (Adequate vs. Appropriate – Excessive Cardiovascular Training) + (De-stressing your life + Adequate Quality Sleep) + (Adequate but Appropriate Goal Based Nutrition) = FAT LOSS

 

BTW, you can now find me on:

Instagram @adriancroweathletictraining

Facebook page at Adrian Crowe Athletic Training “The Crowe’s Nest”

YouTube www.youtube.com/acathletictraining

or email me directly at adrian@adriancrowe.com