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Avoid Junk Food or Eat Healthier Junk Foods?
As a fitness professional, I’m always amazed (and puzzled) with the conflict people seem to have with losing weight, yet they refuse to stop eating junk food. An interesting thing I have noticed over my many years helping people to lose weight is that almost every single person that has told me that they are “attempting” to lose weight, almost always has their house filled with all sorts of junk food instead of whole unprocessed natural food.
It is not uncommon for people to tell me that they are trying really hard to lose weight, but I will still notice boxes of apple jacks and fruity pebbles on their counters, cakes, candies, and chips in their cupboard, and sodas or syrupy juices in their refrigerator.
So the question that always stumps me is that if all of these people honestly wanted to lose weight so bad, why in the world do most people still have their houses filled with junk foods instead of healthy food?
Interestingly, the answer usually is that they do not want to give up their favorite foods because they think that eating this junk food allows them to “live a little”… if you ask me, it sounds more like dying a little with each bite!
My take on it is that eating junk foods has nothing at all to do with enjoying your life… In reality, when you give up junk foods you actually enjoy life more because you feel better and are more energetic every day. In addition, getting into better shape by not eating junk food can obviously help improve the way your body looks (and therefore increases your confidence), thereby making you enjoy life even more.
One thing that many people fail to realize is that eating healthy does not have to mean eating bland and boring food. Instead, when you learn to enjoy natural unprocessed food and start exploring all of the varieties of natural food that this planet has to offer us, you learn that you can enjoy the natural flavors of real foods more than overly processed aggressive tastes that are so common with excessively sweet and salty junk food.
An example of this is that the other day I wanted an unsweetened iced tea while out on the road, but all that the store had available was these bottles of heavily sweetened iced tea. Well, I have not bought a fully sweetened iced tea in probably at least a few years now… I have actually gotten used to drinking unsweetened iced tea and have learned to appreciate the natural taste of tea without needing sugar or other sweeteners.
Whe I drank this bottled sweet tea, I almost gagged because it was so syrupy sweet, it was absolutely nasty.
A similar example… I used to need a lot of sugar in coffee, but after a slowly reducing the amount of sugar I would use in coffe, I can now actually drink black coffee and enjoy the natural flavor of it without needing sweeteners (although I rarely drink coffee).
These are just a couple examples of how once you start appreciating the natural flavors of real food, you find that you no longer need the super-aggressive salty, sugary, or artificial flavors that have been ingrained in us by the food companies and all of the junk food they push on us.
My belief is that everyone should actually enjoy what they eat, and can do it without eating overly processed junk food… Actually, people are often surprised to hear that a lot of the foods that they think are junk food, I have healthy alternatives that they never thought of.
A few examples:
Junk food: a chocolate candy bar, a chocolate donut, or a piece of chocolate cake
Healthier alternative: a couple pieces of extra-dark chocolate (greater than 70-75% cocoa content only)… this is higher in fiber and much less sugar than milk chocolate or even dark chocolates that are less than 70% cocoa content
Junk food: Deep fried and breaded chicken fingers and fries on the side (loads of nasty trans fats)
Healthier alternative: grilled chicken breast strips with peanut dipping sauce and vegetables on the side
Junk food: a cheap fast-food burger on a processed refined white bun
Healthier alternative: A grass-fed burger (higher in CLA and omega-3 fats) with raw grass-fed cheese on a sprouted grain roll
How about that for eating healthier yet still very tasty foods!
I hope that what you get out of this article is that there is more to life than eating junk food, and eating junk does not necessarily mean that you’re “living a little” as so many people say. Instead, I feel the opposite is true.
Eat healthier and discover the natural flavors of real foods (not processed) and you’ll soon discover that you no longer need junk food. Enjoy!
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About the author: Michael Geary is a nationally Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist, and author of the internationally-popular “The Truth about Six Pack Abs” ©2004-2007. In addition, Michael publishes a fitness newsletter, Lean-Body Fitness Secrets e-Zine, that is enjoyed by 10′s of thousands of subscribers in over 100 countries around the world.
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Why Cardio Doesn’t Work for Fat Loss
By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com
Cardio exercise is such a strange thing. In theory, it should work so perfectly well for all men and women, but as anyone who has tried it knows, the practicality of it just doesn’t add up.
After all, some men and women do cardio 6 hours, 9 hours, or more per week, and still have belly fat to burn. On the other hand, it works just fine for others.
British researchers wanted to get more insight into this paradox, and studied 35 overweight men and women, who weren’t previously exercising.
(Reference: International Journal of Obesity 32: 177-184, 2008).
Subjects exercised 5 times per week for 12 weeks. That’s a lot of exercise, but it helped the subjects lose an average of 8.2 pounds, which is great – I was positively surprised by the results.
So cardio will work for some people, however, in my experience, it works best in young men, who need the help the least!
Back to the study, the variance in fat loss between individuals was huge. Check this out…
The best subject lost a staggering 32.3 pounds in 12 weeks, while the worst subject actually GAINED 3.74 pounds.
The scientists think they know where things went sour. They classified the subjects into 2 groups, called the “Compensators” and the “Non-compensators”.
The Compensators were hungrier, and as a result consumed an extra 268 calories per day, all but wiping out their cardio efforts.
Therefore, the Compensators lost the least amount of weight, and scientists believe that was due to the huge “compensatory” increase in appetite experienced by this group.
Does your appetite increase when you do slow cardio? If it does, research shows it will ruin your cardio efforts.
So if your cardio program is not working for you, check your appetite and calorie intake to see if you are “compensating” for your efforts. If you are, you might be better off using a program of high-intensity resistance and interval training (i.e. Turbulence Training) for your weight loss efforts.
As Australian Professor Steve Boucher has shown in research, interval training increases hormones called catecholamines. And increased catecholamines can reduce appetite, among other fat-burning benefits.
In the real world, few people lose 33 pounds after 12 weeks of cardio. Heck, few even achieve an average weight loss of 8 pounds with aerobic exercise.
So again, check your appetite, and consider giving high-intensity exercise a go for your next workout program.
Beat the curse of cardio with high-intensity Turbulence Training.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training
About the Author
Learn about the “Dark Side of Cardio” in the free report from Craig Ballantyne at www.TurbulenceTraining.com. Craig is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com
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5 Basic Components of Physical Fitness
When starting a fitness program of any type, the 5 basic components of physical fitness should all play an equal role in the program’s design and execution. And, while some fitness programs only focus on one or two at most, for optimum results you should choose a fitness program that integrates all five fitness components.
Let’s examine each and consider their function in your overall fitness plan:
Component 1: Strength Training
Strength training plays a crucial role in any comprehensive physical fitness program. Studies show that strength training build lean muscle mass, which in turn increases your metabolism and helps you burn more calories. In short, strength training can turn your body into a calorie-burning machine. When choosing a fitness program, avoid it at your peril.
Component 2: Weight Management
Weight management involves determining your best healthy target weight, and using a combination of nutrition, strength training, and cardiovascular exercise to achieve and maintain that weight. For many of us, weight management is something we struggle with throughout our lives. However, a good fitness program will address the issue of weight management in a way that is both practical and simple to follow.
If you find this component to be intimidating, just remember that in many ways this component is a natural result of implementing the other components of physical fitness. Once you implement the others, weight management has a tendency to work itself out on its own.
Component 3: Cardiovascular Exercise
Cardiovascular exercise has long been focused on as the answer to all fitness challenges. However, it should be mentioned that cardiovascular exercise alone will not result in an overall body transformation. As I stated before, all five components of physical fitness must be integrated into your fitness program for it to be truly effective.
Component 4: Nutrition
Nutrition is a curcial element of an overall fitness program, and one that both troubles and confuses many people as they start their fitness program. Low-carb and high-fat or high-carb and low-fat? What about protein? How many calories should I be eating a day? And so on.
Many people simply follow whatever they have heard “works best” from their friends and family, without really stopping to research the science behind some of these plans. Be advised that a good nutrition program is designed for a specific purpose, be it weight loss, gaining muscle, preparing for a sports competition, or simply feeling better. Therefore, form should follow function in your nutrition plan – one size does not fit all.
Component 5: Flexibility Training
Often ignored and relegated to “step-child” status in the fitness world, flexibility training is ultimately an equally important component of an overall fitness plan. As we age, our bodies tend to lose flexibility and we lost range of motion in our joints. This often results in problems with posture, chronic back pain, and can possibly even lead to injuries during exrcise and physical activity.
Optimally, you should engage in an activity such as yoga, martial arts, or pilates a few times each week as a compliment to your regular workouts. But at the very least, your fitness program should include flexibility training after each workout (the best time to stretch is after your workout, so remember to include 5-10 minutes of stretching after each workout session).
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About the author: Mike Massie, BAAS, NESTA CPT, is a certified personal trainer and boot camp instructor from Austin, Texas.
(Note: This article and all content on this site is copyrighted and may not be reproduced or distributed without the express written consent of the author. Thank you for respecting our content.)
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