Are Hidden Calories Sabotaging Your Fat Loss Goals?

In my training business, I have the pleasure of training married couples. Sometimes they train together and sometimes they come in at different times because they know they wouldn't be able to workout together without annoying one another (or me).

I've also had the opportunity to work with mother/daughter duos. Again sometimes they train together and sometimes not.

However I learn the most about the other when they don't train together. Not that I pry and try to wrestle out deep, dark secrets. Maybe I do sometimes as a form of bribery for the future, but not often.

But I learn a lot about the other's eating habits, entirely by accident. I don't ask, it just comes out through normal conversation.

What I find is that the other half of the duo is not entirely truthful with me.

Sometimes it's on purpose, but most of the time it's just an oversight.

People forget about certain parts of their daily diet.

They neglect to tell me that in addition to their morning eggs and toast, they put a lot of sugary jelly on the toast. Or that they drink 4 cups of coffee that are loaded with heavy creamer or sugar.

Again, I don't think my clients lie to me, I just think they don't realize what they're eating and how it can affect their waist line.

I call these things "hidden calories."

Hidden calories include things like jellies, sauces, salad dressings, juices, adding sugar to coffee or teas, etc.

They are things that seem minor, but can add up to hundreds of calories very quickly and if it's a habit to do them every day, that adds up to lots of fat over the weeks, months and years.

Do you have any hidden calories?

Do you put ketchup on every single bite of food?

Do you add a couple scoops of sugar to your morning cups of coffee?

Do you add salad dressing by the scoopful to your otherwise healthy salad, turning it into a calorie bomb?

Maybe you like to have a bagel for breakfast or for a mid-morning snack. That's all fine and dandy until you realize that most store-bought bagels are loaded with calories, the majority of them highly processed carbohydrates that will send your blood sugars through the roof, then send you crashing back to earth, only to be hungrier than before.

Maybe you eat perfectly all day (uh-huh, sure you do) only to succumb to a bowl of ice cream or cereal before bed. Bam! There's a few hundred worthless calories right there.

My point is that these hidden calories will add up...quickly. They will add up in the form of fat around your waist, on your butt or giving you a little more jiggle than you're comfortable with. Or, they'll just de-rail your otherwise healthy eating plan and stop your fat loss dead in its tracks.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to find these hidden calories and get rid of them (sorry, I watched Mission impossible the other day). Or at least greatly reduce them so they're no longer a factor in your fat loss.

Get rid of the sauces.

Cut your salad dressing in half.

Cut the sugar and cream out of your coffee.

Drink brewed green tea rather than the store bought kind that doesn't have all the health benefits anyway.

Think about what yours are and fix them.

Have a good day!

Ed

Summer Fat Loss Starts Now

I meant to post this last week, but didn't. Oh well, everybody makes mistakes. But it still holds true today, even though many of you in the U.S. don't check email on holidays.

Throughout the winter and early spring I kept reminding you that, in the U.S., Memorial Day was coming up.

I told you how Memorial weekend was the unofficial start to summer and how many people take their first trips to the pool, or beach on the long weekend.

I told you that you should set a goal for yourself and start moving in the right direction to achieving that goal by Memorial weekend.

Well, it's here. Did you achieve your fitness and fat loss goal?

Did you lose the amount of fat you said you would back in January or are you at the same point you were then?

Maybe you set some other fitness goal that didn't have as much to do with losing fat as it did with getting in better shape. Maybe you signed up for a run that was being held this weekend. If so, how'd you do?

If you didn't achieve what you set, don't worry about it. Just move on to the next goal.

The next big summer holiday here in the U.S. is 4th of July. There's barbecues, lots and lots of loud and annoying fireworks and more trips to the pool and/or beach.

Will you be ready for that one? You've got a little over a month, so if you set a good goal and stick to it you can achieve it.

You'd be amazed how much you can achieve in what seems like such a short amount of time.

So what is it? What's your goal?

Think about it.

Write it down.

Put it in places you'll see it routinely throughout the day like your bathroom mirror, refrigerator door, desk, computer monitor, in your car, etc.

Look at it and read it out loud throughout the day and ACT!

To steal a corny, but worthwhile, line from Nike "Just Do It!"

Have a good day!

Ed

P.S. - If you need help getting started on your fat loss goals, check out my Fat Loss To Go program at www.fatlosstogo.com. The main program is a 16 week fat loss program designed to be done in around 15 minutes per day and all from the comfort of your own home. Plus with all the bonuses included, you'll be doing workouts for well over 6 months before you repeat anything. Give it a try. I promise you'll love it.

Why Do You Want To Lose Fat?

I like to talk about my daughter and family life quite a bit in my newsletters.

I don't do it to brag...well maybe I do.

But one of the main reasons I fill you in on my family life is because it is very, very important to me.

It's the reason I work so hard.

It's the reason I put in a lot of 12 hour days.

I want to work very hard now and build something so that sometime soon I won't have to work as hard and can spend more time doing the things I really love like taking my daughter to the pool, zoo or children's museum. Or just get to take her to the park more often when the weather's nice, which is kind of rare here in Nebraska.

It's also a reason I work hard when I do my own workouts.

I want to have as much energy as humanly possible so that I can keep up with her. I couldn't possibly see myself as one of those dads who gets worn out because he's too out of shape to play with his kids.

I also have my vanity reasons for working out so often (who doesn't want to look better?), but a big reason is for health.

What's your reason?

Why do you want to get in better shape and lose fat, or stay at your current fitness level?

Do you have a reason?

If not, you better get one figured out because it's very important.

Your success may hinge on it.

If you don't have a strong reason, a strong "why" for wanting to get lose fat, get healthier, then what's going to stop you from having seconds at the buffet line? What's going to motivate you?

You need a "why". You need a very strong "why".

Is it your kids?

Maybe your doctor told you that you're pre-diabetic and that you need to get your weight under control before it becomes full blown diabetes.

Maybe you someone in your family died of a heart attack and you don't want to succumb to the same fate.

Or maybe you just want to look as good as possible with or without your clothes on.

That's fine. That's one of my reasons. I think that's probably one of yours too, if you were totally honest.

That's your assignment for today.

Figure out your "why". I'd actually like you to tell me what your "why" is. I want to know.

Plus it helps to tell someone you can trust to help hold you accountable. I may not be able to stop you from eating the french fries or drinking your third (or sixth) beer, but I can check in on you from time to time and make sure you're on track.

Have a good day!

Ed

Push-up variations

I love push-ups. I do them in every single workout and I try to include them in as many of my clients' workouts as possible.

Plus my boot camps do A LOT of push-ups on a weekly basis.

There really is no better upper body movement than the push-up. It works virtually every muscle in your upper body including your chest, shoulders, upper back, triceps (back of your arms) and last but not least your abs/core.

That's right! Push-ups are a core exercise. If your core wasn't working, your stomach would sag like an old horse...and if your stomach sags like an old horse while doing push-ups, keep your stomach and glutes tight. It'll make the exercise much more effective.

The problem with push-ups, though is that they can get a little easy after a while and you need to change it up a little bit.

So I made a video to show you a few "intermediate" push-up variations. I want you to give these a try the next time you do push-ups.

Check the video out below.





Have a good day!

Ed Scow

Want To Know How I Fit 7 Servings of Fruit In Before Lunch?

Yesterday I told you about the importance of “baby steps” when it comes to anything having to do with nutrition or exercise.

My point was that you shouldn’t have the idea in your head that you can go from 0 to 100 just by flipping a switch. You need to take small steps over and over again in order to make big changes.

Today I’m going to give you a few more pointers dealing with the idea of baby steps.

Let’s say that your goal for the next couple weeks is to add more fruits and vegetables to your daily diet.

Here’s what I do that gets me 7 servings of fruit in before lunch.

Everyday for breakfast I have a smoothie. It’s part of my routine. I have a glass of green tea, then make my smoothie and head out the door. The smoothie contains blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, pomegranate juice, ground flax seeds, wheat germ, protein powder and a little skim milk.

When you have a breakfast like that, calorie counting isn’t really even a concern. I’ve heard trainers and other fitness/nutrition people tell their clients or readers not to eat bananas or other fruits because they’re too high in carbohydrates. That’s a bunch of bull. I’ve never known anyone to get fat because they eat too much fruit. Not only that, but most bananas are only around 100 calories.

Anyway, back to my 7 servings of fruit before lunch.

That breakfast nets me 4 servings of fruit right off the bat. A serving berries is ½ cup and I have ½ cup of each of those berries, plus the pomegranate juice adds another serving.

Then mid-morning I’ll have an apple and a banana. Most bananas actually count as 2 servings, an a medium sized apple counts as 1. So there’s my 7 servings all before lunch.

My energy levels are through the roof in the morning and it’s all because I get all that fruit with the vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fiber and protein.

So if a healthy breakfast is your first “baby step”, follow my lead and have a healthy, fat fighting, immune system boosting smoothie everyday.

What if your “baby step” is that you want to start doing fat loss workouts 5 or 6 days per week, but you only regularly exercise 2 or 3 times? Then what?

Make an appointment with yourself. That’s the easiest way to ensure that you’ll find the time and stick to it.

You might have to get up 30 minutes earlier or miss your daily lunch with friends or co-workers, but so be it.

By setting a fat loss workout appointment with yourself, and sticking to it, you’ll be that much closer to setting that new habit in stone.

And healthy habits are no different than bad habits in one respect. They are hard to break.

Once you’ve changed a couple things for the better and you see and feel the results, you will actually feel guilty if you begin to break that habit for a couple days.

If you get used to exercising 4-6 days per week and have to miss a couple for whatever reason, it will eat at you because you know how much better you feel for it.

Or, if you begin to have a healthy smoothie every morning for breakfast and you forget one morning, or decide to do breakfast out with some friends and eat something unhealthy, you will feel guilty and might even get a stomach ache because you’re not used to the unhealthy meal.

Your body yearns to run at its peak. It wants to be healthy and fit, you just have to give it the means.

So, what are your baby steps? Figure them out and start today!

Have a good day!

Ed Scow

P.S. – If you want to try having a smoothie every morning for breakfast, one of the bonuses that comes with my Fat Loss To Go program includes over 100 different smoothie recipes. With that eBook, you really have no excuse on what to have for breakfast. Plus, smoothies make a great post-workout meal. Check it out at www.fatlosstogo.com

Baby Steps And Fat Loss?

Last Fall my daughter took her first steps. It was October to be exact.

We were playing outside and I set her down in front of me and she took a few steps. I followed her very closely to keep her confidence up, and she took a few more steps.

Some people don't believe me because I was the only one there at the time and my wife was kind of disappointed because she missed Maren's first steps.

It didn't help my case that she didn't take another step on her own for about a month and a half. Then she started to wobble a little bit more on her own and now, 7 months later, she is running everywhere. She loves to run around out side. She loves to carry things around. She loves to hold a phone up to her ear and walk around and "talk". It's the cutest thing you've ever seen.

But she didn't get to this point easily. She fell...a lot. She still falls...a lot. But she's gotten much better at walking/running, but it wasn't the easiest thing in the world for her.

The same can be said when it comes to changing your eating or exercise habits. You know what you want to do and you have a goal you want to reach, but you've got to take "baby steps" in order to achieve that goal.

No one should even let it cross their minds that they're going to eat perfectly and exercise everyday of the week when they don't exercise at all now and have horrible eating habits.

That's just plain dumb. Not only that, but it sets you up for failure and a quick failure at that.

You have to take things one step at a time and build on each little success until you find yourself running rather than wobbling around barely able to walk.

Let's say that you have a soda drinking problem, in addition to a lot of other poor eating habits. You should first conquer the soda drinking and totally cut that out or relegate it to a "reward meal". Once you have that habit down, THEN you can start on another habit. But don't move on until you have successfully kicked the soda drinking habit.

Or, let's say that you like to eat a lot of junk food between supper and bedtime. You should get that under control before you even worry about the snacks available in the breakroom.

The same correlation can be made with exercise. If you are totally new to exercise, you should start small. Start by setting an appointment with yourself when you're going to workout. Once you get that going, then progress from there.

Taking these "baby steps" when it comes to fat loss will greatly increase your chances of success. It does because if you only focus on 1 or 2 things rather than your entire lifestyle, it makes it much easier to conquer each poor habit and replace it with a good habit. You just keep putting one foot in front of the other and pretty soon you'll notice that your clothes are fitting better, people are taking notice of how much different you look and you'll find yourself with more energy than you thought possible.

So what are your baby steps? What can you work on RIGHT NOW to help you lose fat? Do you need to cut out drinking soda or coffee drinks? Do you need to cut out the nightly glasses of wine or beer? Do you need to make appointments with yourself or a personal trainer to make yourself workout? Do you need to get a hold of a good fat loss program to get you started?

What is it? Figure it out and do it. Then after a few weeks when you've got that one habit down, pick the next one and just keep building.

Have a good day!

Ed Scow

P.S. - If you do need a good fat loss program, check out my Fat Loss To Go program at www.fatlosstogo.com It comes with over 29 weeks of fat loss workouts, 10 minute workouts, workouts that can be done while traveling, plus tons of nutrition information.

The Easiest Fat Loss Nutrition Tip I Can Possibly Give

The other day I was training a client and she asked me about nutrition.

We got to talking and she asked me "What's the easiest thing you can tell me? What one nutrition tip can you give me that will help me lose fat and stay healthy?"

That was a very good question. And a tough one to boil down to just one thing.

I'm not very good at giving one sentence answers.

What I came up with was a pretty good tip, though.

I told her if it has no chance of spoiling, don't eat it.

Pretty simple, right?

Well, think about it. What foods spoil?

Fruits, vegetables, dairy products, breads, meats, etc.

What foods don't spoil and would probably still be edible after a nuclear blast?

Processed carbohydrates like crackers, chips, or basically anything that comes in a bag or box or can.

I know that chips and crackers can get stale, but that's not the same as eating a banana after it's sat on your counter for a few days. Stale chips are still edible. Ask any poor college kid.

I could go in farther with this tip and get into whole-wheat vs. white, non-fat dairy vs. 2%, and lean meat vs. fatty and that would be a very good conversation. I'll save that for another day because I was asked about 1 tip, not a research project.

I will however go a little farther into that tip and give you some advice for your next trip to the grocery store.

Stay on the edges of the grocery store and don't venture into the middle aisles. The outside of the store is where all the fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meats are as well as their organic counterparts. These are the foods you want to stock up on.

Not only are those foods that spoil the ones that will help you lose fat, but they're loaded with the things that our bodies need to survive.

They have the vitamins, minerals, cancer-fighting phytonutrients, enzymes, proteins, amino-acids and healthy fats our bodies must have in order to stay healthy and live a full life. A life without constant colds, trips to the doctor and an ever-growing waist line.

However, when you venture down the dark, cavernous center aisles you get into the highly processed items like kids' cereals, chips, crackers, sugar-laden condiments, soda, alcohol, etc. and those are the things that will make you fat and unhealthy.

Simple enough, right?

I promise you that if you take this one, overly simple piece of advice and put it to use you will see results. And not only in your waist line, but how you feel too. You will be more vibrant, have more energy, your skin will look and feel better, your hair will look and feel better, plus you'll start to strip the goo off your waist line.

So do it and do it today.

Have a good day!

Ed

P.S. - I'm working on getting a lot of good nutrition bonuses from some fitness professionals I know to be added to my Fat Loss To Go program. There's going to be recipes, fat loss tips for people on the go, etc. Once I get all these bonuses together, they'll be up on the site as f.ree bonuses. However, if you buy before then I'll be sending you all the bonuses at no additional cost.

There's also going to be a ton of new workout bonuses in there too including abs specific workouts, workouts geared towards women's trouble spots and men's trouble spots, etc.. So make sure you don't miss out! Go to www.fatlosstogo.com today and get it purchased!

Want To Know How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods And Still Lose Fat?

I love LIFE cereal.

To be more precise, I love Cinnamon LIFE cereal.

It's a guilty pleasure. I know I shouldn't. I know that it's a horribly processed carbohydrate, with no nutritional value, and will do nothing but mess with my blood sugar levels if eaten by itself, but I love it. I'm the grown-up version of Mikey.

In the past, I've actually been known to eat a bowl (or 3) for lunch...but only as a "cheat" meal, and only on a very rare occasion.

See, even a personal trainer isn't perfect with his eating.

But there's a better to fit in my guilty pleasure of Mikey's favorite cereal. As I've said before, one of my favorite snacks is homemade trail mix. My wife buys almonds and other nuts in bulk and puts in raisins, craisins and my Cinnamon LIFE cereal.

That way I can get a high protein, high fiber, vitamin and mineral packed, easy to transport and eat snack in and still enjoy a guilty pleasure. Plus those extra carbs actually help out with my busy training and massage schedule.

That's how you can enjoy a guilty pleasure and still make it healthy.

If you like ice cream, give it a little punch by adding some high fiber raspberries or blueberries. Or you can put a mixture of those two and throw in some strawberries too. It'll make the ice cream taste a lot better and make it a little better for you.

Or if you're a candy bar junky, just buy a small package of "bite size" bars and pack them with your lunch and have one after you eat your chicken breast sandwich, apple and broccoli.

My point is that you don't have to give up your favorite foods just because you want to lose a little blubber. You just have to figure out sneaky ways to keep them and minimize the size and frequency of those guilty pleasures.

You can have them on occasion, even daily if you do it right and only have very small portions.

In fact, I recommend that you still keep your favorite unhealthy foods in your regular eating plan.

It'll help keep you sane.

It'll help ensure you actually stick to your new healthy, fat fighting lifestyle.

Think of it this way. Have you ever seen those hidden camera shows where they put a plate full of junk foods in front of little kids and then leave them unattended?

If you haven't, let me fill you in.

The kids whose parents let the kids have a little treat every now and again will only take a few bites of the junk food and then continue playing.

But the kids whose parents totally restrict the junk food go CRAZY and stuff their faces. They come unhinged and become junk food junkies.

Don't be kid on a sugar high.

Let yourself have an unhealthy snack every once in a while. It'll do your body good.

Just make sure it's small and only done on occasion.

Have a good day! And snack well!

Ed

P.S. - Did you like this nutrition tip? The nutrition manual that comes with my Fat Loss To Go program is loaded with common sense fat loss nutrition advice just like this. Check it out at www.fatlosstogo.com and don't forget that within the next week or so I'm going to have a big announcement including lots of new bonuses, and if you've already purchased the program, you'll get them sent to you at no additional charge.