Blowing Your Diet

Let's say you are dieting. Taking in 300-600 less calories than what you spend, so to lose 1/2 to 1 pound a week. You might be working out via weights, cardio or even better, them together. That way you you don't lose muscle (maybe even gain a little) while dieting... also you can eat more that way!

Anyway, let's say you completely blow your diet. I do this too. Someone brings over an apple pie or a pumpkin pie, I can't hold back. I must devour. Granted, I'm not trying to lose weight, but I still try to keep a healthy diet for fitness gains and overall health. So you're like me and eat not one slice, but two slices of pie. Boom. You blew your diet. Right? Maybe. It all depends on how you react to blowing your diet. If you think, "Oh, man. I blew my diet. I guess I might as well eat some cookies and ice-cream now. Doesn't matter because I blew it anyway!" then, yes you blew your diet. You'll probably gain some weight from that rampage through desserts. If you think like this instead, "Hm. I kind of blew my diet, but if I don't eat anymore junk food today, I won't gain weight! I just won't lose any." then you didn't blow your diet. You didn't lose weight that day, but you didn't gain any either! That's fine, as long as you don't make a habit of it. If you continue using that thought process throughout the week you won't lose any weight that week. You won't gain any, but you still didn't move closer to your goal. What I try to do during this time of year (I call it pie season) I try to limit myself to one or two days when I can have a pie slice or two. I still don't eat your average cookie, but I might it a pumpkin one once in awhile instead of a pie slice.


If you're not like me and are in love with chocolate, not fruity pies, your battle is harder. Chocolate is always in season. So eating chocolate desserts twice a week all year round (not 1-3 months) isn't going to allow you to lose much weight, if any. What do you do? You eat chocolate once a week if you can't cut it out. If you do cheat and eat more cake than that, make sure you tell yourself (set an alarm too) to have a painfully hard workout some time soon after that cake. Soon that cake may not seem worth doing interval training for 5 miles or doing one hour of hard interval weight training. Oh, and if it's only the chocolate flavor your crave (not the cake, cookie, candy bar or something-else-not-so-good-for-you), then maybe you should get into protein shakes. Whey protein shakes come in a bunch of flavors, taste pretty good, are high in protein and are low in calories.

Train hard, eat well (veggies: BFF, Best Friends for Fitness), rest well (at LEAST 7 hours of sleep, 8 or 9 hours is better), avoid (or manage) stress and you'll get fit.

Train Like a Man

At first glance this may look like a guy telling other guys to go hardcore. Well, if you're a guy and you aren't got hard at your training, then you should start now... but this post isn't only for guys. Girls, you too, should train like a man. That is if you want to get fit faster.

What do I mean, train like a man? I mean train heavy. Don't waste your time on 'toning' for 30-50 reps. That rep range is way too high. You might say, "I don't want to lift heavy because I'll become bulky." Guess what? You won't get too bulky unless you use steroids or hormone booster... or maybe if you are a Olympic-lifter who trains for years and eats a ton. Girls don't have enough of the right hormones to 'get bulky', so don't worry. 

If you train heavy, you'll also become stronger... duh. Low, heavy reps are ideal for strength. That is, 2 to 6 reps are best for strength. 8 to 12 reps are best for gaining size (as long as the strength is there to go heavy enough). 12+ is endurance. Training for endurance has it's place, but if you run you don't really need much more endurance. 

Now, why would you train heavy? Well here are a few reasons: it burns more calories, it builds more muscle, your core gets stronger with out targeting it, and it's pretty impressive! Also, being strong (naturally, mind you) is healthy. I was reading about studies about how older people tend to live longer if they have more lean muscle mass... so why not be stronger? Being strong just makes your daily life easier anyway!

Now that you know that training 'like a man' isn't all that bad, but is actually good, how do you do so? Just lift heavy? No... you have to train right. Doing heavy dumbbell curls won't get you far. You need compound movements. Some of the best barbell/dumbbell ones are: squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, barbell rows, Romanian deadlifts, and many more. Don't have access to heavy enough weights for these exercises? No problem. Train with your body weight! If you're super paranoid about getting too big, then you will probably prefer these over using weights. Here are a few examples of what you can use: squats, pistol squats (one legged, epic exercise), single leg Romanian deadlifts, jump squats, pushups(progress from easier variations to harder variations), pull ups (same as pushups), planks (same as pushups and pull ups) gymnastic moves, sprinting, V-pushups (shoulder), and burpees.

A few ending notes: always warm up! You preform better,  and greatly deduce your chance of injury. Train hard. You girls won't get too bulky, guys will get bulkier (yay!). Eat healthy. If you're trying to lose weight, eat about 500 less calories that you burn that day. If you're trying to gain weight eat at least 500 calories than you burn. If you are trying to maintain weight, but replace fat with muscle, then eat as much as you burn. Stretch. Deduces injury risk and increases flexibility (cool!). Set reasonable goals. One you can complete in a month (repeat every mont) and another long term one that could take a year or more. Lastly, have fun! Training shouldn't be a chore. You may enjoy lifting heavy things, it's fun! Or you may enjoy doing cool body weight feats. Either way, have fun!