Anatomy Of My Weekend Cheat Meal

So after eating real good all week, I had to keep my sanity by getting my standard cheat meal at Logans. This meal falls into my cheat meal category because of parts of the meal. The main course is a house or garden salad with ranch followed by a medium cooked 16oz ribeye steak with steamed broccoli. That part is ok.

But the cheat parts are the rolls with butter and the appetizer sampler with cheese sticks, buffalo chicken fingers and loaded potato skins and diet coke for a drink. So the total calorie count for this meal is unknown but must be huge.

Here are my exaggerated Cheat meal qualifiers.

Cheat qualifier number one: exceeds my standard meal calorie requirement by 10 billion.

Cheat qualifier number two: Parts of it are horrendous for you, yet oh so yummy and therefore I never normally eat it.

Cheat qualifier number three: macronutrient ratio is so ass backwards that you would die from metabolic syndrome if you ate it regularly-example 5 zillion % bad carbs, 4 zillion % trans and saturated fats and 1 zillion % protein.

Cheat qualifier number 4: It has to be so good at the time that you devour it all like a madman but then probably want to throw up and die.

Bottom line is that you have to earn cheat meals. I recommend when starting the program, the 90/10 ratio for 90% of the week you eat super good following the nutrition principles as closely as you can and then 10% of the week you enjoy your taboo items in moderation. As you progress and become better at the nutrition plan and are making good progress, you can switch to a more relaxed 80/20 ratio. It all depends on how serious you are about making the change.

Some people need to use the 80/20 ratio to start with and then progress to the 90/10 ratio. You have to determine what is best for you. There are many different ways to carb cycle and employ cheat meals. My method is simple and works. You should never feel as though you are denying yourself as this will psychologically damage your progress long term. So if you want something, have a bite but don't kill your efforts binging.

Do the best that you can in the beginning and make the nutrition plan and workout routines part of your lifestyle. You should enjoy yourself and never be miserable. Health and fitness is a good, positive thing and it needs to always be viewed that way for you to excel.

Leave your comments and let me know what your thoughts and experiences are. If you enjoy my blog then please subscribe (it's free) so I know who likes it and can tailor my articles more to your interests.

Thanks and enjoy.

Eric
Dempsey's Resolution Fitness

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Eric
Dempsey's Resolution Fitness

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Eric
Dempsey's Resolution Fitness

Cardio Observations From The Gym

When I walk around the gym, I see countless people doing cardio on the dozens of different machines. Treadmills, stairmasters, elipticals, bikes - makes no difference. People are brainwashed to spend hours in the gym doing cardio. I watch people spend an hour on one machine then move to another for who knows how long. It's crazy. They have been conditioned to believe that hours of cardio and burning x number of calories is the magic formula to changing their bodies. Then people invariably flock to the scales with the mind bending weight standard charts placed above them. I feel frustrated because I spend everyday trying to retrain people, mostly women, to stop doing that stuff.

A very small number of people I see do it right. I see some enlightened people sprinting and doing intervals on the cardio machines after they finished with their resistance training. Most of those people look fit. But most of what I see is the standard long slow endless hours of going nowhere fast. I still see people reading books while they ride bikes slow. They don't know any better and at least they are doing something.

Then I have people say "why don't you teach them how to do it then?"  Well of course, in the begining, I tried to help people. You have to remember that I have worked at Smith Fitness Center since it opened in 2007. After countless people turned down my offer to help them repeatedly, I gave up and let those who wanted my help seek me out. They all thought they knew better. The same people on the same machines day after day, year after year - never really looking any different.

I can't change everyone's social brainwashing. The damage is just too widespread and too big. But when I have people enroll in my programs I teach them how to attain their goals by doing things that produce more results in less time.

Spending more than 25 years doing every major form of cardio and training hundreds of people has given me experience to know what works and what doesn't. Combined with cutting edge, science based studies and my own experience, I teach you what will work 100% of the time. Cardio in all it's forms has it's place. But you have to learn how your body works and what type of cardio does what from both physiological and  metabolic standpoints.

If you want to get lean (notice I didn't say lose weight), you have to do things a certain way if you want to make it happen any time soon. Some people say do HIIT or sprints or intervals, while others advocate long distance slower cardio sessions. They all have their place and they do different things. Macronutrients tie into the type of cardio that you do. It's exhausting to look deep into each aspect so we'll keep it short and caveman sweet.

Think of your body as a machine. The machine needs fuel to run. Carbs, protein and fats are all fuel sources in one way or another. When you do cardio you are traditionally thinking that you are burning calories and therefore burning the fat off to lose weight. Maybe, yes and no all apply depending on how you are doing cardio and how you are eating. Most people don't have it right because the social brainwashing tells people to eat less and do more cardio. Biologically this can't work with your machine ( body). Invariably, most people end up losing weight from lean body mass loss because they simply eat less and do more cardio. It doesn't get you lean.

So stop wasting time in the gym. Learn how to do it right so that you burn fat, build and maintain your lean body mass and actually change your body to look good naked. Lean, sexy and toned right? That's really why everyone is on the dang treadmill in the first place. Nobody says hey, I'm gonna hit the gym to drop 5lbs of muscle today.

If you want to learn about how I teach people to actually get lean, sexy and toned sooner rather than later, contact me and I'll fill you in on a better way that actually works. You've already tried all of the stuff that doesn't work. It's time to do something that does. Metabolic conditioning and targeted fat loss cardio with a supportive nutrition plan works. Spend less hours in the gym and get more results.

Eric
Dempsey's Resolution Fitness  

Meal Of The Week: Steak And Veggies

People have been asking alot lately for meal ideas. Here is my latest creation - fast and simple yet actually hot for a change. I grilled up a steak on my george foreman grill and then heated up a steamfresh bag with roasted potatoes, snap peas and red peppers. Chopped up the steak and put everything in a big bowl. Then I threw in the remaining chopped walnuts that I had, added in a little A-1 sauce, stirred it up all together and there you go. It was really good. I had some cold water with and I was set for a couple hours.

Now don't forget the other totally free meal idea resources that I provide for you, in addition to my blog"s meal of the week. So if you like this stuff go ahead and subscribe- it is free.

My free books page on my website has the prograde 12 fat burning meal plan ebook, 10 best anabolic recipes ebook, and the tasty fat loss and muscle gaining recipe ebook. There are 22 free health and fitness ebooks on that page alone. And I have a new paleo recipe page that has 10 paleo recipes on it, in pdf format for you to download. Yes, the links to those pages are on my email newsletter so you have to be a subscriber to get that. You can subscribe to get my free report and free email newsletter on any of my pages-just go and enter your email in the box and you'll get access to all this great free stuff.

Then you can check out my youtube page where I have a variety of meal and nutrition videos as well as lots of other stuff -over 200 videos in all.

Of course there is my free online health and fitness magazine with archived back issues. The magazine provides you with hundreds of recipes, articles and exercise videos by itself and a new issue comes out every month.

And I also have a facebook business and personal page as well as a twitter page where I post daily updates and exercise/nutrition info. So check them out as well and follow/like those pages.

I will be providing you with more great stuff soon. In the mean time you have hundreds of recipes and meal ideas to keep your metabolism high and turn you into a fit ninja.

Enjoy!

Eric

Dempsey's Resolution Fitness





Fat Loss Honor Roll And Client Achievements

This week we had alot of great progress. Great job everyone!

2 week check of Bootcampers yielded the following:


Cassandra went from a size 14 to a size 10 since starting Bootcamp last month.

Sabine lost 7.1% body fat and an inch off her waist.

Crystal lost 7.5 % body fat and 1/4 in from her waist.

Andrei lost 3.2% body fat and 1/4 in from his waist.


and JP raised his shrug machine deadlift by 20lbs.

Eric
Dempsey's Resolution Fitness

Meal Of The Week - Chicken, Walnuts, Broccoli and Corn

This meal of the week consists of chicken, walnuts, broccoli and corn. The broccoli and corn was steamfresh bags which I nuked for 5 minutes and the chicken was cold and the walnuts were raw, chopped. Threw it in a bowl added some hot sauce, stirred it up and it was ready. Took about 10 minutes max. Corn isn't a common food I eat but I had some so I used it. Quick and efficient. Keep looking for easy combos to make for variety. If you come up with any good combos, post a comment and let me know.

Eric

Dempsey's Resolution Fitness

Update From The North - The Lenny Saga Continues

Lenny came in for a workout today. He is back for a week visiting family after moving up north around August. If your not familiar with Lenny's Story, he started with the bootcamp at smith in Jan 2010 and trained with me and Gretchen at smith for a few months until he transitioned to the house bootcamp. He started out at 305lbs, 30.5% bodyfat and a 52in waist. When he left in August, he was at 251.5 lbs, 18.7% bodyfat and a 46in waist. Since then,  he has been training on his own and following the exercise and nutrition principles he learned down here and his current numbers are 241.5 lbs, 12.1% bodyfat and a 44in waist. His grand totals since January last year are  63.5lbs lost, 18.4% bodyfat lost and 8 in from his waist lost. Consistency and perseverance are his key strengths. The long, gradual, lifestyle changing exercise and nutrition principles will always be healthier and more productive than short term unhealthy quick fix diets. Once again, Great Job Lenny! He truly sets the example for other to follow. If he can do it, you can too!

Eric

Dempsey's Resolution Fitness  

Grazing - Metabolic Energizer Or Get Fat Quick Drill?

During my past years of nutrition coaching, I have come across a common psychological hold up with woman and their nutrition plan. The "Grazing" concept is where a person on a weight loss program / diet is seen eating constantly and referred to as a grazing animal (cow comes to mind right?). Based on the incompetent and inaccurate social theory that you are fat because you eat too much, when people see you eat constantly, they think " how does she/he expect to lose weight if she/he eats all the time?" This is ignorance on their part.

One of the most critical parts of the nutrition plan is the frequency of the meals. Raising your metabolism by eating the right stuff, at the right time, in the right amounts is crucial for fat loss. By engaging in so-called grazing, you are actually doing the best thing possible for attaining your fitness goals. Anyone who questions you, needs to be educated on fat loss and metabolism. So don't fear the social perception. You are doing the right thing.

Every time I slack on my nutrition plan and need to crank the metabolism back up, I get nuts, chicken and broccoli and put it in a big bowl ready to go. In between clients, I'll grab handfuls of nuts, chicken and broccoli and eat as much as I can. Then I'll go about my business and I'll get hungry a little while later and I'll repeat the process until I go to bed that night. It takes about two days and my metabolism is screaming. I am hungry constantly and eating loads of food. My performance and energy goes way up, the fat goes away and the muscle packs on. This is what you need to do. It works 100% of the time. And it's fast results. Doesn't need to be nuts, chicken and broccoli - use whatever you like as long as it's fibrous carbs and lean proteins with good fats.

Of course, you want to strive for about 6 evenly sized meals about every 2-3 hours based upon your calorie requirements and macronutrient ratio needs. But the bottom line is that eating a little alot will get you going until you can dial in your proper meals. It works. Give it a try and don't worry about being a called a grazer.

Eric
Dempsey's Resolution Fitness