It is summer time and many people are starting to lean out. For some, it’s a yearly ritual and for others it may be the first time they are attempting to lose weight. Either way, fad diets don’t work.

Dieting can be tough, regardless of how you do it. Eventually when you start watching what you eat and training for your fitness goals, you will more than likely hit a period of time that will test your willpower. Everyone knows this and this is why most people fall off. Those who stick it out though are usually the ones who developed a flexible plan that they can stick to and make a life style.

Fad Diets = Failure

In reality, most diets simply set you up for failure from the start as they’re not maintainable for life. These diets are almost always fad diets. Fad diets are not sustainable. On top of that you’re never taught to be self sufficient – it’s always follow this or that as opposed learning anything really useful that will help you for the rest of your life.

One of these two things typically occur during a diet:

1. You follow whatever fad is popular at the moment chasing a quick fix, and you lose 5-10 pounds. You then go back to your normal habits and lifestyle, and all the weight and more comes back.
2.  The diet itself is simply not maintainable from the start so you give up in frustration and move on to the next fad in an effort and hope to someday have “success”.

No matter which scenario happens, things ultimately have the same outcome. You throw your hands up in frustration and defeat and give up. You assume you are just meant to be this way. After all nothing works and you have tried “everything”

Think long-term – not just this week or month, not 5 or 10 pounds. What can you realistically adhere to? What fits your individual personal preferences, schedule, and lifestyle? After all those 3 factors dictate long term adherence and consistency.

The majority of people will follow a FAD as opposed to be FLEXIBLE.

Let’s compare the two.

FAD DIETS

• Rigid
• Restrictive
• Unmaintainable
• Antisocial
• No Balance
• Unrealistic

FLEXIBLE DIETS

• Free
• Structured
• Maintainable
• Social
• Balanced
• Realistic

You will always fail when you attempt to fit your life into a plan as it does nothing more than box you in. You’re more likely to have lasting success by fitting the plan into your life and the best way to make that happen is to base things around your individual personal preferences, schedule and lifestyle.

Flexibility over fads if you want to lose fat, and not lose your sanity.

Blake Bernstein, Resilient Personal Trainer

The post Fad Diets Don’t Work appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.

People who want to lose weight often struggle with their chosen diet plan and this results in them giving up. If you are one of those people, I hope after reading this you will be able to master the diet game and achieve your goals.

First of all, you must understand that there are no magic foods that burn fat. In terms of weight loss, a calorie is a calorie. I see many people fall victim to believing in super foods or fat burning foods and they over-consume these without an awareness of how many calories they have eaten. Unsurprisingly, they pack on weight. In order to shape your body composition, a calorie is a calorie.

Some of these super foods may have more micronutrients than your average food, but it doesn’t mean you can over consume. There are differences between foods that are micronutrient and fibrous dense and foods that may be deemed “unhealthy”.  To lose weight, make sure you track your macros and are aware of your calorie intake.

Next, and this is the most important tip, if you are trying to have a successful dieting plan you do not, I repeat do not, need to restrict yourself to an entirely “clean” food intake. Demonizing foods can be a detriment to your mental health and cause you to have unhealthy relationships with food. Moderation over restriction, any day.

If you have a plan you can only sustain for a week, and you end up overeating or binging because you’ve tried to restrict certain foods or have your calories too low, you are going to continue to spin your wheels.

A healthy relationship with food is paramount for long term success. You are setting yourself up for failure by using methods that result in a poor relationship with food. In order to set yourself up for long term success, the mental and emotional aspects of food, as well as the physical aspects, have to be taken into consideration.

7 Tips to Lose Weight

There are some very simple guidelines we can all follow to improve our health markers and lose weight.

1. Eat a wide variety of fresh whole foods.
2. Include the foods you love in your diet.
3. Don’t over eat or eat anything in excess (including “healthy” foods). If you think you might have had enough, you have.
4. Be mindful not to over eat carbs or fat from processed foods.
5. Make sure you have sufficient protein with every meal and that you aren’t under-eating protein.
6. Ensure you are eating enough fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes every day to have sufficient fiber in your diet.
7. Make sure how you are eating is sustainable for the rest of your life.

That’s it.

-Blake Bernstein.

The post Master Your Diet To Lose Weight appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.

Everyone from high level athletes to Susan in your yoga class claim’s to be seeing amazing results using it. But does it really work? How can you not try it when it is all you ever hear about? Let’s jump on the IF train and take a ride.

So What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is just fasting for a specific period of time. Whether that is daily, or even weekly. You set up your windows in specific times throughout the day, usually 16 hour fasts and then you eat in the remaining 8 hours.

Whereas many people just have breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  You now set up your day in a different structure, and eat within a “time limit”

Keep in mind, the only way IF will work for fat loss is if you can adhere to this for a long period of time.. Also, if you are in a calorie deficit. This is the KEY factor. 

Eating very large meals in a short period of time tends to help others feel as if they aren’t on a diet… But sadly, it isn’t magic.

Hope this helped!

-Blake Bernstein

The post Intermittent Fasting: The MAGIC Of How To Lose Fat appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.

When some people begin to start losing weight, many times they are hyper focused on their diet. They want to achieve ‘x’ weight by ‘y’ date. The same thing goes for training. You may become hyper focused on achieving ‘x’ look by ‘y’ date or achieving a strength goal by a certain date. The biggest problem here is that you aren’t focusing on the important thing which is the process by which you will achieve your goal.

You may know someone who has replaced a meal with a shake in order to lose weight. Or they may carry prepared meals in a Tupperware everywhere with them. They deny themselves the foods they love and enjoy during the week. This often leads to binge eating on the weekend and an empty cupboard. Better yet, think about your favorite instagram fitness model’s training regimen. They crush a session Monday, and then are then too sore to train again til Friday.

Consistency Equals Success

The fact is, it has been proven many times that a lack of adherence and consistency are THE biggest hindrances to success. When people focus on the end goal rather than the process they are using to achieve their goal, they are less likely to be adherent, consistent, or accurate. Enjoying the task at hand, and ensuring it takes lifestyle and environmental factors into consideration, yields better results than focusing purely on the end goal – even when using ‘optimal’ methods to achieve it.

You may have a particular training or physique goal to reach, but doing some ‘optimal’ program that you hate means you aren’t going to get optimal results from it anyway. In the same way, you may have the ”BEST” diet that makes you lose 5 pounds a week – and this might sound great in theory – but you aren’t going to stick to it very long if it denies you of certain foods you like.

If you have a long term goal whether it is related to performance/training or weight/health and you are ready to make that change – then following a program in which you have great consistency and adherence to is ideal. You should do something that you enjoy. Manage your expectations and make sure what you want to accomplish is achievable, and take into consideration environmental and lifestyle factors.

Diet Adherence

Adherence and consistency are the primary determinants to success. If doing ‘non-optimal’ things like enjoying a meal out with friends, or fitting ice cream into your calorie intake twice a week, makes you stick to your diet in which produces weight loss – that is amazing!

On the opposite spectrum, if you have a goal of being healthier, and being more physically active – you don’t have to use a barbell or do any specific movement, or class to get “great” results. Weight training is always an amazing idea due to the great things we know it does for our health, but you can find whatever you like in the gym, and do what you like! It all depends on the individual and their goals. With diet as with training, the most important thing is finding a way to to increase consistency and adherence to the program you choose.

The post How To Stop Sabotaging Your Diet appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.

You may have heard people say “I have a slow metabolism,” or “I have a fast metabolism.” It’s as if they think of their metabolism the same way they think of their liver – like it is some mechanism or some separate thing with a specific bodily task (that task being burning food).

To put it simply: your metabolism is your body.

Your metabolism is your bodily functions and processes themselves. It is the chemical reaction within the cells of your body. The chemical reactions are either catabolic (to be breaking down matter and releasing energy) or anabolic (to be building up matter). 

Now, your metabolism can be influenced in a few different ways: Gaining weight, losing weight, or by exercising.

Energy Expenditure

The biggest misconception about metabolism is the myth that some people have a slow metabolism and that some people have a fast metabolism. The first factor to consider when talking about ones metabolism is someone’s energy expenditure. This means how many calories someone is expending on a given day based upon a variety of different things they may be doing, such as their exercise/daily movement.

The second misconception is the amount of muscle mass compared to the amount of fat they carry. This is an important variable. Since muscle burns more calories than fat even though this amount is very very tiny, a lean person that is of the same height and weight as an overweight person may have a slightly higher basal metabolic rate.

The leaner person is also going to be more effective at calorie partionining. That is to say, his or her body may be more likely to store excess calories as muscle instead of fat. 

This is where hormones come into play. Calories are king. Hormones generally play 2nd to calories, but nonetheless they can have an effect on one’s ability to gain muscle, lose fat, or both. And they play a role in how much muscle or fat is created. A lean person is going to be much more effective at gaining muscle than an overweight person.

If you are lean, you are more likely to have increased insulin sensitivity, and insulin is one of the most powerful anabolic hormones synthesized in the body. This means that an overweight person is going to be more likely to be gaining fat.

Body Types & Metabolism

You may also hear people talk about body types: mesomorph, endomorph, ectomorph.

And while it’s true that people do have different body sizes and shapes, these body type labels are not an excuse to say you have a slow or fast metabolism.

If you’re an ”endomorph”, it’s likely because you grew up and became that way over time. Your body adapted to the food you were giving it.

Once adulthood was reached, your body had its shape.

So if you’re an ”endomorph”, you’re already at a predisposition to gain more fat when in a calorie surplus.

The ”ectomorph”, on the other hand, never ate enough growing up to become overweight, and so his body appears thin and skinny. Again, this doesn’t mean he has a fast metabolism. It just means he doesn’t eat enough to gain any significant weight. 

People will always say, “I know so-and-so, and he eats anything and everything and never gains any weight.”

This one is always laughable to hear. Are you sure about that? Do you monitor his food intake? Do you calculate his daily calorie intake vs expenditure? I highly doubt that. And if you did, you’d find out that on a weekly average, his intake vs expenditure comes out to be a wash. That’s why he doesn’t ever gain weight. He may gorge on foods on certain days, and eat very little on other days.

It balances out. If you are skinny and struggling to put on weight, you probably need to eat more.. Or provide your muscles with a more effective stimulus to grow, or both. If you’re struggling to lose weight, you probably need to eat less, or switch up your exercise routine, or both.

These are some of the biggest reasons why the fast or slow metabolism myth has perpetuated over the years. They are completely wrong though. Once you know the truth and understand it, you can use this new knowledge to make more progress and adjust your current plan.

The post The Last Metabolism Blog You Will Ever Need To Read appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.

Want a free crash course on all this fitness stuff?? For a limited time you can get a Nutrifit Analysis for FREE (normally $99) .

• Nutrition (meal timing, food choices, pre and post workout nutrition explained for your goals)
• Training (effective training options, suggestions and more)
• Body fat analysis
• Everything you need to know and learn about transforming your nutrition strategy and body.

Myth#1

Myth: To burn fat all you have to do is eat less and move more.

It’s more than that. Much more.

Many factors such as stress, sleep, hydration, recovery and supplementation and metabolism play critical roles in how much weight you can lose how you look, and how long it will take to reach your fat loss goals and much more.

Simply reducing calories and moving more will not cut it.

Often times, a person will simply rely only on the treadmill or some for of cardiovascular exercise as their sole strategy for fat loss. This is a mistake, excessive cardio also causes the catabolism of muscle which plays major role a in your overall body composition (how you look), overall health and longevity.

If you looked exactly the same but were 20 pounds lighter…would you be satisfied? Chances are no.

This will be result however, if your aggressively slashing calories and running like your getting ready for a marathon.

If you would like a free training session to learn some of the essential exercises to burn fat successfully. You can schedule your free appointment here. 

Myth #2

Myth: Carbs Make You Fat. (bread, pasta, sweets)

NO! Actually many clients find that after they have established a training schedule they enjoy and regularly do, they actually are eating MORE. While maintaining their new leaner body. Sounds too good to be true right?

Truth is carbohydrates alone don’t cause the damage. Its a variety of things. Here are a few common culprits that usually are of bigger importance than the carbs.

• Beverages (coffees, latees, shakes, alcohol) (Fact: the brain does not register liquid calories the same as solid food. So after a shake or beverage your likely to still be hungry even if the drink had a tons of calories.) This causes over eating.
• Sitting too much. (slo9ws metabolism) Aim for 10k steps per day.
• Not eating enough protein. (more protein in your diet will greatly enhance your metabolism, by the thermic effect of food (TEF).

So look at these things before cutting carbs. Cutting carbs(or fats) can shut down the production of certain hormones such as testosterone, leptin, and effect the adrenal, hypothalamus and pituitary glands of women effecting the release of crucial hormones.

Tip: Stick to unprocessed carbs (lentils, beans, rice, potatoes etc). Best time to have then is 1 to 2 hours post workout.

If you would like a free training session to learn some of the essential exercises to burn fat successfully. You can schedule your free appointment here. 

Myth #3

Myth: If your not sore the day after your workout your not working hard enough.

Not true. Not being able to walk the next day is not a good indicator of the quality of a workout. Soreness occurs simply because there is a new stimilus being introduced to your body.

The soreness that occurs the days after is actually called DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness). As you get more advanced you will not get as sore after workouts as you once did, but this doesn’t mean your not going to progress. Your body has simply gotten use to the stimulus.  Now this doesn’t mean you should change up your routine every 3 to 4 weeks, you definitely should BUT just because your not sore after every single workout doesn’t mean your training wrong. Don’t try to change everything all of a sudden.

Studies have shown that there are many factors that play into the effectiveness of a training program so simply judging a workout solely on how sore you are is leaving a lot of progress on the table.

There you have it! Fat loss myths debunked!

Luis

The post The 3 Biggest Fat Loss Myths Debunked appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.

Here’s a simple beef bone broth detox recipe: by RHODA BOONE

INGREDIENTS

• 4 pounds beef bones, preferably a mix of marrow bones and bones with a little meat on them, such as oxtail, short ribs, or knuckle bones (cut in half by a butcher)
• 2 medium unpeeled carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 medium leek, end trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, quartered
• 1 garlic head, halved crosswise
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Directions here

Want to learn how to incorporate bone broth and other healthy superfoods in your diet?

Come in for a nutrfit analysis to get your nutrition plan set for success! Book your appointment here! 

The post Beef Bone Broth Detox appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.

#1 Coconut Green  Apple Smoothie

• 1 cup spinach
• 1 cup bok choy
• 1 cup of coconut water
• 1/2 Apple
• 1/2 Pineapples
• Fresh chopped ginger

Tip: Add ice and some water if too thick.

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

#2  Green Mango Protein Punch

• 2 cups spinach
• 1 cup mango
• 1 cup egg whites
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup blueberries
• Cinnamon

Tip: Use frozen berries and mangoes for faster prep.

#3 Superfood Blast 

• 2 tbsp Chia Seeds
• 2 medium Oranges
• 1 cup water or Almond Milk (Unsweetened)
• 1 scoop Hemp Protein Powder
• 1 cup Spinach

Ditch the Starbucks and upgrade your breakfast!

Luis Diaz C.S.C.S

The post 3 Breakfast Smoothie Ideas For Stripping Fat appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.

Here’s some facts about why it’s important to eat breakfast…

• Too much sugar and you will likely crash and have sugar cravings all day.
• Not enough water in the morning and your starting you the day dehydrated, which isn’t good for fat loss, muscle gain or anything.
• Not enough protein and your metabolism with still be sleeping.
• Not enough of some key micro nutrients (Vitamin C, and certain minerals) and your level of alertness, clarity and mood will likely be foggy and grumpy.

So there are 5 main areas you want to make sure you start the day right.

1. Protein: To boost your metabolism, burn more calories and keep your from craving sugar a good portion of protein in the morning is required. Good Options:
   1. eggs
   2. ground turkey
   3. chicken
   4. whey protein powder
   5. Greek yogurt
   6. cottage cheese
   7. fish (tilapia, salmon, etc)
2. Vegetables: Whether you blend it up or cook them having some kind of leafy green veggie in your breakfast helps with knock one of two or three servings I recommend clients.  One cup is all you need of any kind of your favorite veggies, This helps improve satiety (feeling full and satisfied) and provides the  micronutrients needed to process fats, proteins and carb property. Can loose weight? This might by why, your body doesn’t have the vitamins and minerals in needs to properly digest food. Good options
   1. Kale
   2. Spinach
   3. Broccoli
   4. Cauliflower
   5. Green/red/orange/yellow pepper
3. Water: If you hydration status is bad (meaning your dehydrated) you can flush out toxins. This creates, the problems where toxins get stuck in the body as well as fat. More water more fat loss. How much water should you drink?
   1. For the entire day take your body weight x 75% = the number in Fluid ounces you should aim to drink,
   2. In the morning 16 to 20 oz of ice cold water
4. Healthy fats, without healthy fat your hormones will essentially shut down. Fats are not going to make you fat, they are actually one of the KEY ingredients to a lean body, higher testosterone and more muscle mass. Best morning breakfast options:
   1. Avocado
   2. Coconut Oil
   3. Brazil nuts
   4. Almonds
   5. Macadamia Nuts
   6. Olive Oil (extra virgin)
5. Carbohydrates get a bad reputation because people abuse them. Choosing the right carbs in the right amounts is the secret to enjoying them without letting them ruin your goals. Best morning carb sources. A small fist full will be the amount to aim for!
   1. Potatoes (not fried)
   2. fruits (berries, pineapples, apples, melon fruits)
   3. Ezekiel Bread
   4. Quinoa
   5. Cous Cous

Eating breakfast will help you cover these bases and start building more muscle, getting leaner and looking how you want to look!

Luis Diaz C.S.C.S.

The post Eat Breakfast And Lose Weight Effortlessly! appeared first on Resilient Fitness in Wellington, FL.