The Mind Over Body Matter Letter

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed and also grab the "leaked" chapter of The Fat Loss Black Book called "The Gremlin Must Die". Thanks for visiting!

Here are Craig Ballantyne’s Big 5 Fat Burning Exercises:

Juice fasting is one of the things that people talk about a lot when people think of fasting.

However, Pilon talks about juice fasting, and why you don’t want to do it when you’re on his Eat Stop Eat plan…

Enjoy.

Want to try something new… and give your lifestyle a much needed BREAK from the boring eat this, don’t eat that, not now, now? Check out Eat Stop Eat today… the insider’s secrets to dropping the pounds with ANY lifestyle…

I suppose all of us have at one time or another wondered does fasting work?

On the surface it appears to make sense, especially for the short term.

Less food, giving the body a chance to cleanse itself from unwanted toxins that have managed to take up residence, and allowing the body’s natural processes to work. This all seems to make sense. Then we head to the supermarket and are confronted by images of the latest starlet and her emaciated form clinging to life, and wonder what if any benefits are to be found in denying the body the basic building blocks of life? The answers, like in many areas, lies somewhere in between the emphatic abstinence from all fasting, and the fanatic abstinence from all food!

Fasting does have a beneficial effect on our bodies, but only if it’s not overdone. We’ve all seen and heard about famous fasts for political and spiritual reasons, and far be it from me to debate the spiritual benefits one may or may not receive from such an endeavor, (political fasting tends to end badly most of the time) fasting for a health benefit is both a good practice and long a staple of those seeking optimum health.

The key question here is how much and how often. I’ve become a fan of what is known as “intermittent fasting”, which is the practice, as the name implies, of doing a fast at intermittent periods. There is a lot of latitude here. Some people do as much as alternate day fasting, some one or two days per week. Most people opt for the once or twice per week regimen, in part because many who are employing these methods are on a fitness quest, and to deprive the body further would likely derail their efforts at optimum health.

Doing this type of fasting allows for individuals to still maintain a rigorous workout routine if they so desire, and in fact can benefit that aspect greatly, both by helping to cleanse the body of accumulated toxins by the use of the fasts, as well as by helping to keep additional weight from adding another element to the fitness equation.

Make sure you are healthy enough to employ a fast, without a heart condition, hypoglycemia or other serious medical issues. Start slowly and get used to the lifestyle and see what works for you and you’ll have a much greater shot at success. Programs started at light speed sometimes lose their traction as people get discouraged and lose interest. Start slow to ensure success!

You would do well to check out this kind of fasting as a method of not only improving your dietary and general fitness levels, but also for the many added benefits that fasting usually brings around, some of those being a sense of discipline, improved sense of well-being, a real chance for your body to rejuvenate, and an antidote to the fast paced lives we all live.

HEY GUYS: Punch in your height, waist, and shoulder measurements and discover your Adonis Index Today!

If you’re seeking a marvelous way to lose weight and build muscle fast then you could do a lot worse than giving Kettlebell training a try.

Kettlebells are a demanding and tough weight training routine emphasizing the use of bell-shaped dumbbells you swing in a variety of different exercises, all designed to give you a total body weight workout along with an added cardio benefit.

Combine this type of exercise with a sensible eating plan, and you’ll not be able to keep on unwanted pounds, even if you wanted to! Let’s take a look at some of the basics of this kind of training and how you can implement it.

Be sure and be clear from the start just what you hope to attain with a program like this.

Write it down!

Studies show that written goals are far more likely to be paid heed to, and actually accomplished! Make sure you do not have any medical issues that would prevent you from doing an activity as strenuous as kettlebells, and then you can dive right in!

Once you’ve got a goal, medical clearance, and some actual kettlebells, (sometimes available at gyms or certainly available online) you can start a program that has you employing this kind of regimen at least three times a week.

There are many devotees of this type of training that go at it 5 or 6 days a week, but to start, 3 days a week is fine. This type of training is difficult, and you’ll be working muscles you never thought you had. You don’t want to set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic goals when you’re just starting out. Remember, the cardio element may take some getting used to as well.

A big part of an effective kettlebell training regimen is the employment of a sensible eating plan along with the actual kettlebell training. ( I know; this isn’t the exciting part!) Make sure you get plenty of protein, fruits and veggies, and keep a rein on simple carbohydrates. One tip I can share is to not try and go on any kind of extreme diet plan, as this type of training is quite demanding, and you’ll need a well-balanced, nutritious plan to render the best results possible.

Once you get into it you’ll find that swinging kettlebells is a hoot! Most of the exercises, like the cleans, snatches, and swings are not that hard to get the hang of, but it’s best to begin this type of exercise with a partner if at all possible, so as not to hurt yourself and make your goals even further away! To achieve the best results for weight loss, kettlebells should be done with heavy weights and low reps, with an active rest in-between. Soon you’ll find yourself able to take on more weight or less rest, and reap further strength, weight loss and cardio benefits.

Kettlebell training can be a great way to go about losing weight while building muscle. Just be sure to have written goals, a sound diet plan and safety first in mind and you’ll soon find yourself shedding pounds and gaining strength at the same time!

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Turbulence Training

You can’t boost your metabolism with supplements. Or at least not enough to cause weight loss. This is hope in a bottle, but this hope doesn’t stand a chance. It doesn’t work.

One misconception is that caffeine boosts your metabolism, but I’ve also heard that fish oil, protein, CLA, and green tea will do it, too. As with the fat burning zone, this myth comes from a distortion of science.

Green tea, for example, was shown to increase the daily energy expenditure of young men by eighty calories per day. Now, that’s great news for the people who make supplements because they can put that claim on their label, but what that doesn’t take into account is that people’s bodies adapt to a stimulus.

If there is any benefit to taking a particular supplement, by the end of the week, your body has adjusted to the chemical and no longer reacts to it. And that’s why, as a recent study showed, that taking Green Tea supplements for 12 weeks did not cause any fat loss. Most supplements seem to be nothing more than glorified caffeine pills.

Let’s think of this another way. Say for example that green tea extract actually did help you burn an additional eighty calories per day. It is agreed upon by most trainers that one pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. Even if the supplement worked as intended, then it would take nearly a month and half to lose one pound!

Unfortunately, you’ll find big promises from supplements in every magazine, and it is very difficult to avoid the allure of the quick fixes that supplements present. Supplements make you think, “Why work out when you can take a pill?”

And as long as there are people who aren’t willing to work for their results, there will always be a product claiming to work miracles.

Unlike these “miracle” supplements, research repeatedly shows that both strength training and interval training can help boost your metabolism and burn fat.

In one study, women did a strength training session with eight repetitions per exercise and had a significant increase in their post-exercise metabolism. This is just another example of how short burst training will burn more calories and more fat. These are proven results that no diet pill can compete with.

Boost your metabolism with hard work, not the easy way out,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Click here for more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment.