Zen My Fitness – Linking Muscle and Mind

Archive for the ‘Fat Loss’ Category

I like to experiment and found a cool technique on how to make your veins pop out especially if you want to highlight your leanness in a photo shoot.

I know I’m diverging away a bit from what I normally write about and it’s not really Zen minded but I like amuse myself.

It will only work if you are lean enough and then use food to explode internally that is to push your veins closer to the surface.

It’s simple and sort of enjoyable when I explain what you need to do but it only last a few days.

If you want vascularity (see those veins)  to last longer then have a look at my last months body transformation workout or have a look at these videos of Visual Impact.

Visual Impact is a body building fitness program that I used to get leaner and build some muscle and the bonus section is the “get ripped” section”. It uses effective and unique techniques to get a lean muscular look.

Anyways here is what I did to make it happen. Read the rest of this entry »

I have read so much about Crazy Celebrity fad diets that I decided I should try one to see if they really would work.

I picked the Cabbage soup diet only because it went for 7 days and would not be so disruptive in my normal routine. It has also been recommended by medical institutions as a pre-surgery diet so I guess it couldn’t be that bad.

Most diets are not suitable for long-term weight loss but are good for losing weight fast.

The Cabbage Soup Diet is a low-fat & low- calorie, high-fiber diet that should help drop weight fast.

It could be used before you embark on a long-term eating plan.

The CABBAGE SOUP DIET

Day One: Read the rest of this entry »

Crazy Celebrity Diets can work for weight loss over a longer term than just for a few days, celebrities like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston look fantastic so their diets can’t be that bad?

In Hollywood its good to be different, so diets that make sense are usually based on sound nutritional practices but specially wrapped to sell to celebrities and then onto us, their adoring fans.

As I mentioned in my last article “diets that don’t work” the sole purpose is for rapid weight loss, the better diets are ones you can use and become healthy.

The Zone Diet – (Enter the Twilight 40:30:30 Zone)

A popular diet followed by Jennifer Anniston, Brad Pitt and Rene Zellweger was created by a scientist so not surprisingly that’s why its so formula based.

You eat meals in the ratio of Carbs 40%, Proteins 30%, Fats 30% which controls hormones and the body’s insulin to stay within a healthy region to help lose fat. Read the rest of this entry »

We get caught up in all the many CRAZY things that go on in Hollywood.

So in the next couple of articles I thought I’d shed some light on the Celebrity Diets that ”don’t work“, “do work” and “one diet I’ll choose to try out” to see what happens.

In a previous post I discussed how celebrity fad diets can be unhealthy and maybe even dangerous but these ones are just silly.

All diets used for rapid weight loss are usually nutriently unbalanced,  they can not be used over any lengthy period.

Diets have a very low success rate, so essentially they don’t work.  Most times your original weight returns shortly after you stop dieting.

Maintaining a healthy weight over a life time is only sustainable by using a nutritional strategy rather than a fad diet!

An example of  a nutritional strategy is using   intermittent fasting for the long term.

The Zero Fat Diet - (the evil fats)

SALT is the latest spy action movie where CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is wasting the bad guys and maybe some of the good guys too!

But Angelina needed to get into shape for this role.

Her issue was not to lose weight but actually put it on. A reverse situation for most of us.

Angelina had to do the following; Read the rest of this entry »

Celebrities have a huge influence on us.

Everything they do is always in the spotlight and at times we want to copy “everything they do”.

One area that gets a lot of attention are their diets and workouts.

Some are spot on with their weight loss but some are so far off the track it becomes dangerous, here are a couple examples of crazy and not so crazy diets they follow.

You might be surprised which celebrity gets its right!

Jennifer Love Hewitt – The Grape Whisperer

This hard working actor would work on set for up to 15 hours a day.

Not having a lot of time Jennifer would go home and make simple but high carb (carbohydrate) meals of mashed potatoes, risotto and pastas and not having the time to work out took its toll on her body as the weight piled on.

When it got to the point that Jennifer felt she need to lose weight the first diet she tried was The Grapefruit diet (also known as the Hollywood diet)  a short-term fad diet. Read the rest of this entry »

The health benefits of walking are quite obvious but having a dog not only as a companion but as an exercise partner will help you get out there and do it.

I get excellent results when I walk for weight loss, it’s also the easiest and cheapest way to exercise.

Walking is Healthy For Everyone or Nearly Everyone

However, if I can walk with my dogs it makes it more enjoyable for all of us. It’s a Win-Wag-Win situation.

I mean what other piece of workout equipment looks you in the eyes, wags its tail and get excited about exercising?

What other exercise equipment has to stop to relieve itself at every tree!

Dog Gone Benefits:

Most dogs have excess energy. Sometimes you see it in the backyard  in the form of excessive barking, digging, getting overly excited and then, exercising is a must everyday.

To deal with canine behavioural problems I have learnt ” A tired dog is a good dog“.

For us humans, physical inactivity provides a very powerful risk factor of heart disease.

Regular walks lower cholesterol levels, reduce inflammation, reduce stress but also burns calories. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey Everyone,

Sorry but this is a very Quick Post I wasn’t expecting to do.

I really wanted people to know about this UNREAL OFFER .

For 21-days you’ll get to try the TURBULENCE TRAINING workouts and all you pay is $4.95 during that time.

I use this “Extreme Body Weight”system and I personally guarantee it works for achieving an ultra lean and muscular body.

This program usually costs $39.95, but you can start a 21-day trial for only $4.95.

And nothing will be held back.

You’ll get access to the entire Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system, plus you’ll still get your free membership into the TT Member’s area where you can ask any question you want about your fat loss workouts and nutrition program.

You have nothing to lose. If you don’t like the program, you can ask for your money back.

So there is no risk to you.

Instead, you can get started on the world’s most popular home-gym fat burning workout program that you can do with minimal equipment and in minimum time to help you burn belly fat. Read the rest of this entry »

What does Team Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Insulin levels have in common?  Nothing really but you would think vampires have an appreciation for the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels!

Anyways to look as lean as Robert does for the Twilight series, you might want to try Carb Cycling to loose fat but not muscle along the way.

So shovelling breads, cereals, and pastas into yourself as if it’s a race to the finish, is not the answer.

Eating meals or snacks like this which are high in carbohydrates will send your blood glucose level into outer space.

To counter for this rapid rise, your pancreas secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream which lowers the levels of blood glucose.

This insulin level caused by excess carbohydrates will ultimately promote the accumulation of body fat. OOPS and that’s what we don’t want!

In other words, if we eat too many carbohydrates, we’re sending a hormonal message to store fat.

However, regulating your blood sugar level is the most effective way to maintain your fat-burning capacity. Read the rest of this entry »

What food you stick into your mouth will determine blood sugar and insulin levels which have an effect on metabolic range for fat burning, muscle building,  maintaining a healthy weight and sports performance.

There are too many myths about how to manage blood sugar levels, where confusion reigns supreme but the result is you take a long time or never able to meet your health goals.

I have listed some basic tips of the right things to do, it will help lower and regulate blood sugar levels.

I’ve kept it general since following strict rules are too hard, boring and following a more general approach most of the time will allow for an effective long term improvement rather than fix me now mentality.

• We know carbohydrates (carbs) are insulin spikers so instinctively we avoid or limit their consumption.  However, eating minimal carbs will start to affect your brain (that’s one big fat cell but maybe not as big for some !) and deteriorate your muscles.
• With limiting carbs your workouts will start to suffer and you’ll have a lack of concentration, since carbs are needed by the brain and central nervous system to function . Low carb diets can eventually decrease your memory (we are talking Alzheimer’s). Read the rest of this entry »

I spend a lot of time in the gym watching others trying to get lean and muscular.

Months go by and they don’t physically change that’s because their overall program is not as efficient as it could be.

Reality is that everyone doesn’t understand diets are 90% of the answer to “Get me 6 pack abs”!

Action movie actor’s are becoming more like athletes these days.

They only have a small amount of time to get fit for their roles so their exercise and nutritional needs have to be exact and efficient as possible.

We can learn a lot from their routines and diet programs.

We could copy and incorporate these into our dietary habits which guarantees meeting our physical goals.

Here I have listed a few of well known actor diets;

(1) Jake Gyllenhaal has built a hero’s body to playing the lead role in the new swords-and-sandals action movie Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time.

Here is his typical daily nutritional plan that packed on muscle whilst keeping him lean. Read the rest of this entry »