| Most of us spend countless hours searching the internet or magazines for the magic pill or the world’s greatest ab exercise, I know I did. With the huge amount of information on the Internet, and everyone being an expert or having an opinion on everything nowadays, it’s so hard to find accurate and reliable information. The majority of it is BS and untrue.
So what really works?
Eating real food and doing real, intense exercise. AKA hard work. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Nothing worth having comes easy.”
As you are reading this I want you to not only think about how this information can help you but also how you can start to make small changes starting today. The key here is SMALL, don’t overhaul your whole house/pantry/fridge, but pick one thing at a time and add it into your routine, once you master that, add in another one.
Food
Your goal is to eat REAL food. Avoid processed foods. At CrossFit One Life, we break it down real simple and define real food by this mantra; “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake levels that will support exercise but not body fat.” This is the key, my friends.
Start with my favorite, the meat. Chicken, steak or fish. Slap that baby on your plate and we’ll build your meal around this delicious piece of protein.
Next, add your veggies. Pile them up! Surround your meat until your plate is almost full! Asparagus, broccoli, carrots, kale, whatever is in season or is your favorite! Then leave a little spot, about the size of the bottom of a drinking glass, for your grains or potato or fruit.
Lastly, give up sugar. This is by far the hardest part for everyone but has the most profound effect. Sugar is super addicting, so quitting will be hard. The last thing we want to do is drink our calories in the form of juice or soda.
BONUS SHOPPING TIP: You’ve probably heard it already but stick to the perimeter of the grocery store; don’t go down the aisles. Everything you need is on the outside!
“What about portions? Macros, micros, math!!??”
Don’t worry about that yet. Cut out sugar for 30 days, replace those grains with vegetables, and you’ll see results. We’ll get into counting macros later.
Remember, it didn’t take you a week to gain the fat, it’s going to take much more than a week for it to come off.
Exercise
Get off that treadmill now.
To lose fat, you need to turn your body into the machine that it is. That means regular meals and high-intensity workouts. This may be the opposite of what you’ve been told in the past, but as someone who has seen, and continues to see, people succeed here is where the results come from: something called HIIT.
HIIT: high-intensity interval training. Do something really hard, rest, then do it again. If your workout takes longer than 30 minutes, you’re probably not working hard enough and not likely burning any fat. If you can have a whole conversation during your workout, you’re not working hard enough. You should sweat, a lot. If you don’t like sweating, or it makes you uncomfortable doing it at your gym, you either don’t want it bad enough or you need to find a new gym.
I coach classes for one hour periods. This one hour is filled with a warmup, maybe some strength or skill training, and then a focused fat burning period. This fat burning period we call a WOD, this is the Workout of the Day. This WOD can last anywhere from six (yes I wrote six) to twenty minutes on average. Clients usually need to sit down afterward, some lie on the floor. I prefer the couch.
These workouts are not programmed just because they are hard, anyone can make a hard workout. They are chosen to completely drain your energy tank, requiring your body to break down fat to refill that tank back up. Here’s the difference between walking/running and HIIT: think about cars for a second, compare idling your car, and racing at the Indy 500, which is going to burn gas the fastest?
What movements work best? Well, let’s stick to the basics, the movements that you, as a human being, were built to perform. Pick up things, put them down, lift them overhead, squat with them. Use different combinations every day, routine is the enemy. Give yourself a time limit and do as much as you can within that time. Add new things; rowing, kettlebells, sprints, weightlifting, gymnastics, etc. Your body was built to MOVE!
I will add a couple of workouts at the end of this for you to try.
Last thing: Get a coach. I have a coach, and try to get coached at every opportunity I can. Your kids probably have coaches. You’ll save a ton of time, probably some of your joints, and a lot of self-doubts by letting someone else make up the workouts for you. I am not talking about a rep-counter, I’m talking about someone who will say “push your knees out, and get a little deeper in that squat” and give you homework. It’s crazy that we would never sign kids up for an uncoached sports team or gymnastics class but we will put ourselves in even greater danger at the gym. It’s even crazier thinking we can rip out a workout from a magazine and expect results from that….
These are some workouts that can be done at home with very little equipment:
WOD #1:
5 Rounds
1-Minute Alternating Lunges
1-Minute Sit-ups
1-Minute Push-ups
REST ONE MINUTE AFTER ALL 3 EXERCISES.
WOD #2:
Run or Walk for 20 Minutes
*Perform 12 Air Squats Every 2 Minutes
WOD #3
Beginner
5 Rounds
75 Singles (Jump Rope)
5 Burpees
Intermediate
7 Rounds
75 Singles (Jump Rope)
5 Burpees
Advanced
7 rounds
30 Double Unders or 90 Singles (Jump Rope)
7 burpees
Now you have all the tools you need to get started. Don’t wait until later to start this – start at your next meal or your next workout. Don’t wait to work on yourself. You owe it to yourself to live life to the fullest. Start Now. |
