nutrition1.jpg  Yes, I'm going to enjoy writing this post as much as you'll probably enjoy reading it. This is high on everyone's list of favorite topics. And unlike a lot of other trainers, I'm not going to tell you to forgo all of life's little pleasures like Boston Cream Pie. Instead, I focus on how to enjoy these little delicacies while not having them destroy your health.

So first of all, this topic arose from a discussion I had with a client and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it with you. My client has had great success getting fit with us but this past week, she ate a lot of cookies at work because she was hungry. From that I realized that she and most of all of us don't realize how to best eat sweets.

The first mistake she made was to eat a sweet like cookies when she was hungry. Tip #1: when you're hungry, eat a meal or something as close to it as possible. When you're hungry, you need food, not sweets. Sweets, especially mass-produced junk food, are amazingly low in nutrients. They're just poor quality food. Being poor quality, you have to eat lots of them to feel full. And surprisingly, most of it has intentionally been produced to get you to eat more of it. Yes, companies manipulate ingredients to get you to eat more of their product. It helps sales. Eating junk food when you're hungry is therefore the worst possible time -- you're at your most vulnerable.

If a meal isn't possible then use tip #2: have a backup meal replacement like a whey protein shake available. The variety of protein shakes available today is staggering and they are very useful. Mix the protein with maybe half milk and half water and you have the ideal meal -- high in protein, moderate in carbs and fat. That's exactly how I advise people to eat anyway and your protein shake reflects that. BTW, we carry the Biochem protein flavors because they are ideal for fat loss, being naturally a bit sweet but high in fiber. They are great to kill a sweet tooth while giving you a boost of nutrition. I highly recommend the hemp flavor!

biochem hemp and whey.jpg There was a time when sweets were dessert and they were consumed after a meal. That was simply the way to do it properly and it still is. Eat your meal first and then have something small and rich for dessert. You will eat less of the sweets since you're either full or close to it already. And the richness of the sweet will signal your brain to be satisfied.

We got away from doing this for various reasons, perhaps one is that eating dessert become associated with how rich people eat. So the masses never picked it up. The problem is that the more affluent the family, the thinner they tend to be. Ever notice that? Dessert is likely part of the reason why. But by displacing sweets away from their role as dessert, they became everyday snacks we eat between meals, making their impact of us more profound.

So stop eating sweets between meals and have a small sweet after a meal, instead. Or drink a healthy protein shake. That way you can have your cake and eat it, too.

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Check out what we've been doing in class lately:

 

We hear all the time from ladies that they don't want to get big so they don't want to swing the heavy weights. Here's proof that it won't happen. In fact, it's impossible! Swinging a kettlebell isn't going to make you pop out with muscles all over the place.

So grab that HEAVY kettlebell and start swinging!

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IMG_0020.JPG1. Spend money to make money. Too many trainers have the idea that they’ll spend money on their training abilities, clothes, equipment, etc. when they make more money. Wrong answer! Think for a moment: why should the client hire you? What makes you unique when compared to other personal trainers? If you won’t spend money on yourself, why should the client spend money on you? If you don’t think you’re worth it, why should they?

2. Emphasize education. The more you know, the better you can help the client. Waiting until after you get successful to get a better fitness education is a terrible idea. Do engineers wait until after they are successful to learn how to be better engineers? What about doctors? They don’t. Staying educated is part of the process, NOT the result.

3. Realize that you’re in a business. We’re here to make money and support our families. We don’t give away our services for free or act like what we do is worth nothing. Instead, give high quality service to the client and get paid for it.

4. Selling is part of the process. You must sell your services to the client. How you look, how you act, what fitness tools you specialize in, what results you’ve gotten with past clients, how you talk to clients, etc. all are part of the selling process. You’re selling your services (or maybe not) every day whether you realize it or not. What message are you sending to clients everyday – hire me now or don’t hire me at all?

5. No one is going to do it for you. Your manager isn’t going to find clients for you. Your friends aren’t going to find clients for you. They don’t even know or probably care what you do all day anyway. And your own clients probably won’t help you find other clients if you don’t ask them to. Take control of your fitness career by being proactive. Get off your butt!

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    me crossfit1.jpg

    Since passing my level 1 certification last week, we've started training folks using Crossfit methods at Formosa Fitness during private and semi-private sessions of 2-3 people. We stress coaching and doing the movements safely and correctly -- something you can't do on your own. We also have lots of equipment for Crossfit workouts in our gym -- full set of real bumpers (only gym in Taiwan with those!), rings, full set of kettlebells, etc.

    So if doing Crossfit in Taiwan or Taipei is something you're looking for, contact us today and get started.

    me crossfit2.jpg

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    Four-Hour-Body.jpg  If working out holds any interest to you, you're really looking to lose fat, you want to gain muscle, you want deadlift 500lbs., or pretty much anything else in terms of physical culture then The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss needs to be on your bookshelf today!

    Lifting the book itself is a workout as it clocks in at 600+ pages. It's an encyclopedia of physical culture for beginners and gives you an awesome intro to things you will never in a million years see at a mainstream gym.

    Examples:

    -- how to drop fat like crazy with the slo-carb diet

    -- how to gain massive amounts of muscle in a short time

    -- how to use kettlebells (YES!) to burn fat

    -- hwo to run 100 miles.

    -- how to get super strong ny getting your deadlift to 500lbs.

    -- and much more

    Seriously, this is the best fitness book to come along in a long time. These are things that serious people in the fitness industry already know but they haven't hit the mainstream yet. Ferriss breaks this stuff down so a beginner can understand it and that's the beauty of the book.

    The book even comes with it's own movie trailer. Check it out:

     

    And BTW, if you're looking to follow the book and you need kettlebells, we have them in stock right here in Taipei! Send us an email or call the number to the upper right and we can get you started today.

    Please be aware that almost no one does the swing right when they try it out. Come learn from us how to do it the right way and you'll get the wonderfull results Ferriss talks about.

    Let us know how you progress!

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    weightloss1.jpg  When I started out as a trainer, I knew fat loss was most people's goal and I had the idea that hard 30 minute metabolic workouts were the cure. I had used them to drop quite a bit of weight myself so I expected them to work for nearly everyone when I started training folks. And for some people, they did do the trick. We had folks (many, actually) than came in and did the workouts three times a week and lost fat. I was happy to see that. But not everyone responded to the program. Why not?

    As I looked at what folks were doing, one thing I noticed was that outside of our fitness sessions, some folks were not moving much. Their daily activity level remained very low and simply exercising with us three times a week wasn't enough. Think about it for a minute -- three 30 minute sessions a week is only ONE HOUR AND 30 MINUTES A WEEK! Sorry for the all caps but there are 168 hours in a week (and yes, I used a calculator to figure that out) and turning your metabolism completely around in only 90 minutes of exercise a week is a pretty tall order. For some people, it's just enough leverage to do the trick but for others it's not enough.

    So I was wrong. My mistake.

    Since then, I've advised fat loss clients that they need to do cardio 4-5 times a week outside of class or at least walk 10,000 steps every day in order to get fat loss results. I'm making that same recommendation to you right now!

    We are just too sedentary as a society for even three hard exercise sessions a week to make a difference. And let's be honest -- that three times a week tends to be more like twice a week, doesn't it? Far too often we let life get in the way of getting results. Realize that every time you miss a workout (assuming you are working out 3x a week) your exercise volume drops by one-third!! Are you dropping your calories by one-third to account for that? Yeah, right. No one thinks about that, do they? Starting to see why fat loss is hard?

    Getting in 10,000 steps of walking a day is something everyone can do and it gives you an activity buffer against missed workouts and the occasional diet mishap. For your fat loss plan to work, it will be a vital component that your workout can not replace. You need workouts, diet, and activity levels acting in sync with each other to conquer fat loss.

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    Catch the first episode of this show if you can. The problem with our food is institutionalized at this point, as the show clearly illustrates. And frankly the institutions are the enemy. They don't want change, they don't want you to know what's in the food, they've been lying to you and manipulating the process from the beginning. The only way for you to take control of your health is to opt out of the system wherever you can. Educate yourself about what you're eating, about what you're putting into your body everyday.

    When you watch the first episode, you'll get introduced to "pink slime." This is a central ingredient to all ground beef. It's beef "parts" that have been cleaned with ammonia to kill the bacteria. Is ammonia on the ingredient list for ground beef? Absolutely not. Why not? Becasue the powers that be don't want you to know it's in there, so you don't. And there you go. They'll make your decisions for you. But education empowers you. When you know what's in it, you can make a choice NOT to eat it. And that's what this is all about.

    Please watch and support this show!

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    abs.jpg  I now offer online training for those of you that can't train with me regularly in person. We communicate through email and video to get you the fitness results you want wherever you are. You can come train with me during private sessions to fix your exercise technique when you have time.

    Apply today and get started building the body of your dreams.

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    Maybe. 197lbs. at a body weight of 88lbs. is good but it's great when you're nine years old.

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    Doesn't he look amazing? He's 57 years old and he's known as "Old Superman" on Body Space. He started at the age of 48 and his story is very inspirational. Check it out:

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