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Archives for September 2011

Venus Index Coaching Call

September 28, 2011 by 1 Comment

It’s been approximately 4 weeks into the 3rd Venus Index transformation contest and it’s a perfect time to do an inventory of what has been working and what needs some work.

If weight loss is your issue you have to remind yourself that the process is not linear. Some weeks are going to go really smooth and others are going to be a lot bumpier. Muscle building is the same thing, some weeks just feel like a lot more progress is happening than others.

It's time to find your exercise groove just like meatwad did with his 'powerwalking'

This is sometimes tough to deal with as your  daily and weekly effort seems to feel linear and consistent even though your results are not. The key at this point is recognizing that the path has it’s ups and downs and to be consistent over the long term. Twelve weeks is going to go by in a flash. Finding a groove is important and sticking with the parts that are working is going to keep you moving forward.

Give yourself some room for change, but don’t try to change everything at once. Review your list of what is working and what needs changing, pick the one or two most important things that need to change and make a plan. Give it about 1-2 weeks to see if what you’re changing is working then move on. If something doesn’t work, discard it and try something else.

Remember that this process is not perfect or smooth, it’s a controlled stumble forward.

In todays coaching call we’ll cover what to do at the quarter contest point and how to set up your inventory list, and how to think your way through the next 4 weeks of the contest.

John

LISTEN TO THE COACHING CALL:

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Filed Under: Contest, Podcast, transformation Tagged With: , ,

Calculating Metabolic Rate

September 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Metabolic Rate…Metabolism, BMR, RMR…these are buzz words that the diet and fitness media throw around all the time, however it’s greatly misunderstood.

There are many ‘metabolic rate’ calculators online that you can use to supposedly find out what your specific metabolic rate is by typing in your height, age, gender and weight. Some even have an ‘activity factor’ built into the calculator that is supposed to incorporate the amount of calories you are burning when you partake in various daily activities.

Do you think a simple calculator can guess your metabolic rate exactly?

Metabolic rate calculators are meant to be estimators, not fact. If you type your information into a calculator and it says your metabolic rate is 2500 calories per day, but when you eat 2500 calories per day you gain weight, then you have proof that your metabolic rate is actually lower than this number. You also have proof that the calculator is wrong.

This however is not how many people view this sort of situation. I get countless emails from people who say they’ve used a calculator and the calculator says their metabolic rate is X or Y, and when they try to eat that much they gain weight. Instead of believing that the calculator is broken or wrong they instead believe there is something wrong with themselves because they don’t fit into what the calculator said.

The tragedy is the fact that most people have the automatic assumption that they are broken instead of the calculator. This has to change if people are going to start having a healthier attitude and clearer picture of what it takes to get in shape and stay in shape.

In today’s podcast, we’re going to get to the bottom of what is behind metabolic rate calculators and what we know about metabolic rate in general.

We’ll explain how you  should view the numbers these calculators give you and how to use it as a general starting point to explore where you  might need to start if you’re trying to lose weight or get in shape.

Once you start viewing these calculators for what they really are, you can let go of any potential roadblocks or fears you might have about your ‘metabolism being broken’.

John

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Filed Under: Metabolism, Podcast, Uncensored Podcasts S01 Tagged With: , , ,

Being a Venus = Making It What You Do: Interview with Felicity

September 21, 2011 by 3 Comments

If you thought you were just ‘big boned’ or a big person and doomed to be ‘big’ think again. This is exactly how Felicity thought of herself and never thought she could slim down, or lose weight and get the body she wanted.

Instead of focusing and believing she could change the shape of her body she focused on building strength and power. At least this way she was making progress.

First Place Venus Index Transformation Felicity

Venus Index 1st Place Felicity

Felicity lost over 34lbs and 6 inches off her waist!

Being a nurse Felicity explains that they are notorious for back injuries so part of her training focus was to build her core strength, which eventually just bulked up and made her midsection thick. This might have built some strength, but it also gave her a thick blocky waist.

Turing to the advice of a sports nutritionist she followed the instructions she was given to a tee. She felt good, and got ‘firmer’ but didn’t lose any weight. This is because her ‘nutritionist’ recommended far too many calories for her to eat. This obviously lead to frustration as she followed the instructions but didn’t get the results.

Once she started with the Venus Index system she started to get the results she was after and actually experienced a relief to finally be putting the effort into something that is actually working.

Following the wrong instructions to a tee, are just going to get you frustrated and feeling like a failure faster.

Having dedication, effort, drive and desire is not enough, you also have to be following the right plan. Once Felicity started on Venus she took it and ran. The results speak for themselves as she won our second transformation contest.

Felicity shares the keys she found that helped her make such a great transformation.
John

LISTEN:

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Filed Under: Contest, Interview, transformation Tagged With: , ,

Reading Between the Lines – How To Deconstruct Diet & Fitness Media

September 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Diet and fitness information can be found in print, television, online, from health care practitioners, and just about everywhere else. It seems that everyone has an opinion on what to do for ‘fitness’ and ‘health’. So how do you know who to listen to and who to ignore?

The words tell a different story when you know what is going on behind the scenes

Is it as simple as picking one group of people and following everything they say? Or is it more prudent to pick and choose from various camps and philosophies and piece together your own unique system?

How do you even know where to start? Do you need to go back to school for a degree in physiology? That sounds a bit drastic. It makes more sense to just follow the advice of a professional who has already done this work. But just like any profession, some health care practitioners aren’t as good as others, and the message you get from them depends on the medium.

The story you’ll get from a practitioner when you see them in an off the record face to face conversation can be drastically different from the story they might write in an article for a popular website or magazine. You have to learn how to consume recommendations and information based on the media and platform it’s being delivered from.

In today’s podcast Brad and I break down an article that was sent to us online. We’ll teach you what specific buzz words to look out for and what they mean legally. We’ll explain what influences most articles you find in print and online and how the message can become distorted.You’ll see how selectively pointing out parts of the truth and leaving out other parts can paint a picture exactly opposite of what the facts say.

Finally you’ll learn how to think your way through any article you read and decide if the message is credible, has any real backing in science, is worth looking into further and ultimately taking action on.

John

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Filed Under: Podcast, Uncensored Podcasts S01 Tagged With: ,

Dropping the Baby Weight, Every Little Bit Counts: Interview with Kasandra Bragg

September 14, 2011 by 1 Comment

In todays podcast I talk to Kassandra Bragg about what it’s like to get back into shape after pregnancy. Most health professionals will shy away from any sort of diet advice for women who are pregnant or nursing because they don’t want to be liable for any adverse reaction that might happen to the child.

Kassandra Bragg Venus Index Transformation 6th Place

Kass lost 20lbs

Kass is proof that you can get your body back after pregnancy

Essentially you’re left at the mercy of whatever pregnancy does to your body and nobody seems to support you in getting
back into shape. It can leave you feeling guilty about wanting to have your pre-pregnancy body back…it’s almost as if you’re left to choose between your body and your baby.

But this is a false dichotomy. You can definitely get your body back after pregnancy and you don’t have to wait until
you’re done nursing. And that’s exactly what Kassandra did. She built muscle, dropped fat, lost almost 20lbs and reshaped her body.

Some of the keys to making it work:

1. Remembering that every little bit counts.

Skipping one workout makes a difference or eating one extra cookie that is not on your plan will add up. Every time you break your plan you open the door to doing it again and again. It’s an excuse and a slippery slope to skipping another workout, having 2 extra cookies and then the floodgates are open.

2. Building momentum.

Stringing together a streak of multiple forward days is the key to making big progress in a short amount of time. Once you get on a roll you can see serious progress. Sure it takes daily effort but it’s the only way to make the change happen.

3. Cutting off the bad days before they turn into bad weeks.

Nobody is perfect and we all have backwards days and days where we feel like nothing is working. Accept that you had a bad day, understand that it’s just one day and get back on track the following day. Not allowing one bad day to turn into a bad week is a major factor in making a positive change.

Kass proves that you can have the body you want if you’re willing to do the work even after pregnancy weight gain.

John

LISTEN:

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Filed Under: Contest, Interview, Podcast Tagged With: ,

Should you take BCAA’s? – Facts about Branched Chain Amino Acids

September 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Branched Chain Amino acids (BCAA’s) are a popular supplement in the bodybuilding industry, specifically they’re marketed for building muscle, preserving lean muscle during dieting, and even increasing fat loss while dieting.  But do any of these claims hold up to scientific scrutiny?

BCAA's - Should you take these suckers or not?

When you take a closer look at the research you’ll find out that the experiments on branch chain amino acids are done with a very specific timing and protocol with specific end point measurements. Fitness marketers then tell you to recreate the experimental settings in your daily routine in an effort to mimic the results of the study.

But what are the results anyway? Most people just want to build muscle and drop bodyfat and look good…and I can tell you that neither muscle building nor fat loss are ever measured in these studies. In almost all cases the research looks at surrogate end points such as protein synthetic rate which is then extrapolated to mean ‘muscle building’.

In today’s uncensored podcast, we’ll discuss the research on BCAA’s what the methods and results mean and if you should even take them.We look at the effect popular fitness media has on our choices in supplements and how the success of one supplement can mold our opinion of other supplements.

Things to consider are your personal fitness goals, your current state of health (are you lean, overweight, obese, diabetic etc), the amount of time you have to spend working out and the amount of money you have to spend on supplements.

The intersection of your training experience, your goals, what you expect from BCAA’s and your budget will determine if you should take them or not.

John

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Filed Under: Podcast, Uncensored Podcasts S01 Tagged With: ,

Orthorexia and Food Cults

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

***As requested by many of you in the forums and over email, here is the Orthorexia and Food Cults podcast that was previous posted on the Adonis Index site earlier this year***

Orthorexia is a term coined by a physician Dr. Steven Bratman. It’s defined as an unhealthy obsession with health food…ironic to say the least.

Some people end up worshiping at the alter of a new food cult without even realizing it

Many people can fall victim to some degree of orthorexia as they search for the one ‘right’ way to eat, but each of these diets is nothing more than an unscientific fad that is more marketing and fear mongering than it is science.

Diet fads come and go and each one has it’s villian food and it’s hero’s all the way from it’s champion founder to the champion foods.

Low carb diets, blood type diets, raw foodies, macrobiotic, paleo and so on, each one will profess the merits of eating specific foods while removing many other foods from your diet for good. But is there really any proof that these diets can help you live healthier or longer or improve performance or the way you feel…or do anything at all?

In most cases these diets quickly become like a cult with all of the ugly consequences like becoming socially isolated from other people who are not part of the cult, the development of an elitist attitude about the given way of eating above any other form of eating and a general smugness of it’s followers as they assume they have become ‘enlightened’ to the one and only way to eat.

The reality is there is little if any scientific evidence to support any of these restrictive styles of eating. They are usually focused on minor and insignificant points about mixing and matching their ‘correct’ foods and miss the point of getting total calories under control and developing consistent exercise habits.

In todays uncensored podcast we’ll discuss orthorexia and food cults and how many of the diets that people read about and follow start to take over other parts of their lives.

We’ll also discuss how the champions of many of these cults don’t even follow their own recommendations.

John

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Filed Under: Food, Podcast, Uncensored Podcasts S01 Tagged With: ,
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