Healthy Eating On The Go- Runza

So if you're like me and constantly on the go during the day, you probably don't have much time to cook a healthy meal in the middle of your day. So you turn to fast food as your next alternative...and yes, restaurants are still fast food :)

Obviously fast food is not the ideal choice for getting lean and sexy, but we don't live in an ideal world. The facts are that people are busy and convenience will always trump anything else when it comes to eating.

So here's the dilemma. How are you supposed to stay on your healthy diet and go out to eat at the same time?

Well you can for the most part and not feel guilty about it. As long as you stick to the basics and make the healthiest choices possible, you will still be on track to a healthy and fit body.

In this video I went to Runza for a quick lunch.

Here is a typical order at Runza
1/4 lb. Legend Supreme- 770 calories, 37g fat, 46g protein, 32g carbs
Large Fries- 630 calories, 35g fat, 7g protein, 70g carbs
Medium Pepsi- 230 calories, 74g carbs

So let's do the nutritional math....
This one meal equals-
1630 calories!
72 grams of fat!
53 grams of protein
176 grams of carbs

Now considering the average person needs to consume 2000 calories, this one meal takes care of 80% of your caloric needs!

Now see what other options you have available to you:




Now here's what I got:
Deluxe Chicken Sandwich (Grilled)- 380 calories, 12g fat, 29g protein, 40g carbs
Side Salad- 30 calories, 1g fat, 2g protein, 4g carbs
Iced Tea (medium)- 0 calories, 0 fat,protein,carbs

Grand Total- 410 calories, 13g fat, 31g protein, 44g carbs

Here's the link to Runza's nutrition info:
http://www.runza.com/resources/all/files/69938/_fn/Nutritional+Poster.pdf?disposition=inline

Be aware of what you're putting into your body and make the healthy choice.

Get after it!
Mike

Larry The Cable Guy Helps Boot Camper Tiffany Verzal and Family!

A lot of times you hear about celebrities and how they bought a new mansion for $25 million or bought a couple new sports cars to add to their collection or how they blew a half a million dollars to throw themselves a birthday party.

But then there are the rare few..

The ones who realize that with great fortune comes great power...the power to change lives and make a difference in the world.

Click the link below to watch a great video on this exciting event and christmas blessing for the Verzal family that will be able to help countless families in the future!

Click The Link Below:
Larry The Cable Guy Donates Money for Alexis Verzal Rehab Center

Just yesterday, Larry The Cable Guy (Dan Whitney) proved that he is one of the rare few.

He announced Monday his charitable organization, the Git-R-Done Foundation, will donate $1.2 million to develop a new 14-bed children’s rehabilitation center within the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. The new facility will be named “The Alexis Verzal Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital at Madonna” in honor of the 13-month-old Texas girl who suffered a brain injury in 2008.

Tiffany Verzal, mother of Alexis, has been a member of Capital City Boot Camps since October and you can find her sweating and working hard with the 5:45am crew :)

Her and her husband Brandon moved to Lincoln from Texas this past year to bring Alexis closer to the Madonna Rehab Center and give her the best care in the nation.

Also, be sure to watch a brief clip of the documentary that Tiffany and Brandon Verzal, owners of V2 Content, made of their daughter's journey dealing with a traumatic brain injury as well as documenting the journey of other TBI patients.

Get After It!

Mike

Snow Day Fat Blasting Workouts!

Well it's official...it's WINTER here in Nebraska! Lincoln's first major snow storm is upon us and all the kids are going to enjoy a nice snow day today due to the schools closing.

Since you probably won't be going to a stuffy gym to workout in this weather, I have designed a couple of snow day fat blasting cardio workouts for you to do at home.

You've probably heard that slow and steady wins the race. But the cardiovascular key to fat burning is to use interval cardio workouts that alternate high-intensity levels with lower-intensity effort. That formula keeps your body burning calories long after you've stopped working out.

Workout 1-

Equipment Workout:
If you have a bike/treadmill/rowing machine/elliptical at home

Interval Variation: Pyramid
This pyramid structure allows you to start with short bursts of speed, and then you'll peak at the longest surge of energy in the middle of your workout before coming back down.
3 - 5 minutes warmup
30 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
45 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
60 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
90 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
60 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
45 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
30 seconds high intensity
3 - 5 minutes cooldown

Workout 2-

Body Weight Cardio Workout:
Boot Camp Warm-Up (5 min)-
1. Reverse Lunges
2. Lateral Lunges
3. Single Leg Toe Touches
4. Front Pillar Hold
5. Windmills

COUNTDOWN Workout-
Alternate between the three exercises without resting. For your first round, do 10 repetitions of each exercise. For your second round, do 9 reps. Then do 8 reps for your third round, and so on. Go as low as you can, or until you reach zero.
1. Squat Jumps
2. Burpees aka: Squat Thrusts
3. Mt. Climbers (count the left knee for your reps)

Finisher: (3 min)
1. High Knee Sprints in Place- 30s
2. Bicycle Crunches- 30s
3. High Knee Sprints- 30s
4. Flutter Kicks-30s
5. High Knee Sprints-30s
6. V-Ups-30s

Cooldown-3-5 min

Have fun and be safe in this winter weather!

Get After It!

Mike

Busy Lincoln Mom Shares How She Lost 39lbs and 6 Dress Sizes!

Guest post was written by Shelly Jackson who is our Boot Camper of the Month for October!

It has been said that in order to make significant change, you have to first find your bottom. While I don't know if that is true for everyone, I can definitely see places and times in my life that it has been true. For me, the most significant - or maybe just the most recent - is weight loss.

Over the past couple of years, a busy job, a sick child, a limited amount of time and other, more mundane issues have taken precedence over fitness. I knew it was happening, but I honestly didn't see the situation for what it truly was. Although in my mind I knew I was gaining weight and not taking care of myself, I didn't think it was THAT significant. It sounds ridiculous now to say that out loud, but as humans I guess we have an unlimited capacity to lie to ourselves. Gaining the weight, and letting my body get out of shape, happened gradually over a period of time. Finding my own personal bottom though, that came rather suddenly.

One day I was working, reading something on my computer screen. I noticed something in my peripheral vision, near the bottom, that was really bothering me. I kept looking around trying to figure out what I was seeing, when it hit me. Like a ton of bricks. Or maybe like a ton of fatty food. It was my FACE. I could see my face, in my lower peripheral vision, when looking strait ahead at the computer screen. For me, this was so disturbing it was the absolute rock bottom of personal fitness, and I had to make a change. Funnily enough though, I messed around for another nine months, losing a little weight, gaining some back, joining one program, quitting that one, looking for another one, etc. I was getting results, but not very quickly and not necessarily very lasting. I got discouraged, and kind of started to believe that achieving the results I wanted was very unlikely to ever happen.

In order to get real results, and see significant changes, I needed to figure out the reasons I gained the weight, the reasons I was losing it, and take responsibility for both of these things. Figuring out the reasons you gained a significant amount of weight is a personal journey that I can't comment on. The reasons are as different as humans, and can only be deciphered by the person who owns them. Figuring out how to lose it though - that part is actually pretty easy, once you get serious about putting in the work.

For me, it was a numbers game. I think there are really four steps to this particular numbers game, and I think if we are really honest with ourselves the steps are both easy and manageable. The four steps are:

1.Know how many calories you burn
2.Know how many calories you eat
3.Keep track of your progress
4.Do the work

Know how many calories you burn - I used Hy-Vee for this step. I'm a numbers person, and I needed to know the numbers. As in, number of calories I was burning each day, before exercise. I knew that weight loss was, to a certain degree, a mathematical equation. Calories in - calories out = weight loss (or gain). Karen Hollis, the dietician at the new Hy-Vee on O Street, gave me a simple 20 minute test that told me exactly how many calories my body was burning each day on its own (more scientifically referred to as Basal Metabolic Rate).

Know how many calories you eat - I used a pretty simple program that cost less than $30 for this step. It is called Weight by Date, and it installs on both your PC and your Smart phone. You record what your goals are and what you've eaten, the program tells you what you're doing right, what you're doing wrong, and if you're making progress. It also has really good graphs, which appeals to my number loving heart. There are a million ways to keep track of your eating, but for me I needed it to be very specific and measurable and this program was perfect.

Keep track of your progress - See above. In addition to the tracking provided by the food journal program I am using, I also weigh myself every day and take pictures at the start of
every boot camp. I know some people say you aren't supposed to weigh yourself every day, but I say it works for me. We're all different, and I think to a certain degree everyone has to figure out which small tips and tricks work best for them.

Do the work - And this is really the crux of the issue. If you really want to change, in anything, you have to do the work. The funny part for me was, once I found the right place, I wanted to do the work more than anything. It didn't feel like a chore anymore, and I actually started to look forward to it. Thanks Mike! Prior to joining Capital City Boot Camps, I had tried out another Lincoln boot camp. It wasn't a good fit for me, and I didn't have good results. In fact, I gained some weight while going there.

Joining Capital City Boot Camps truly changed my perspective. For me, the encouragement, camaraderie and supportive environment were what I needed. Combined with the interval training and nutrition information, I found all the tools I needed to be successful, motivated and able to take control of my health and my weight.

That isn't to say it is always easy to find the time to fit it all in, but it is possible. It has sometimes been a struggle to find time to keep up with the exercise outside of boot camp. It has required a certain amount of changes in the life of my child and some of my friends as well; like it or not, they often get to do the exercise with me. There are only a certain number of hours in the day, and you have to choose what your priorities are. Also, sometimes you have to get creative to fit it all in. (Fun fact - doing jumping jacks during commercial breaks (instead of fast forwarding through them) burns about 300 calories an hour.) If you want to change though - if you REALLY want to change - it's possible to fit it all in.

Additionally, and I think this is the real advantage of Capital City Boot Camps for me, once you start to see results it becomes much easier to keep working on it and find ways to fit it all in. The program Mike is offering is designed in a way that brings quick results. I lost 39.5 lbs in the first four months of boot camp. That's 1/3 lb. per day. Seeing results this quickly makes it much easier to be excited about it at 5:45 am :)

To anyone considering the program, I would say this - give it a month. For me, it felt really hard the first week. The second week was better. By the fourth week, I had lost a noticeable amount of weight, and I was excited to keep going. Now, I feel like a lifelong convert. That isn't to say I have all the answers. I religiously count calories, yet occasionally can't seem to resist the temptation to eat junk. I don't think it's probably OK to use up all of your daily calories on cake, and eat nothing else. What I do know is that I've found a place that I can work on it, and the tools to be successful, and that feels like a great start. The fact that I've been able to do it with such a great group of people has been the (calorie free) icing on the proverbial cake.

Prograde Nutrition's HUGE Back-To-School Sale

Summer is over.

We’re all back from vacation.

The kids are back in school.

And people everywhere are ramping their fitness program back up because Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

To make those fitness efforts easier than ever my buddies over at Prograde Nutrition are having an enormous sale. This week only you can get 10% off ALL of their powerful products. Yes, the very same ones I use and have been telling you about.

All the details, including the EXACT time it expires this Friday, can be found right here:

Back-To-School Sale

Get after it!

Mike

PS - By the way, Prograde Nutrition's products are notoriously delicious. You definitely want to take advantage of this BIG sale in a BIG way.

7 Father's Day Fat Fighting Tips

Father’s Day is a time for celebrating what our father’s have sacrificed to allow us to lead the lives of our dreams. But as we celebrate how much our father's mean to us, it also makes us realize how much we want our father's to be around for a long time and living strong and healthy lives.

Look, I'm not trying to bash on the dads out there, especially on their special day, but someone has to say something already.

Our father’s are now in the worst shape of their lives, many suffering from a very scary condition called Metabolic Syndrome X.

This guy has pretty good balance!

One of the main indicators of someone who has metabolic disorder is abdominal obesity, as clearly demonstrated in the picture above. The scary part is that many dads out there look just like this!

Please read below for an excellent description of Metabolic Syndrome from http://www.medicinenet.com/:

What is metabolic syndrome?
An association between certain metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease has been known since the 1940s. In the 1980s this association became more clearly defined and the term metabolic syndrome (also known as syndrome X or the dysmetabolic syndrome) was coined to designate a cluster of metabolic risk factors that come together in a single individual.

In more current times, the term metabolic syndrome is found throughout medical literature and in the lay press as well. There are slight differences in the criteria of diagnosis - depending on which authority is quoted. Regardless, the concept of a clustering of risks factors leading to cardiovascular disease is well accepted.

The main features of metabolic syndrome include insulin resistance, hypertension (high blood pressure), cholesterol abnormalities, and an increased risk for clotting. Patients are most often overweight or obese.

Insulin resistance refers to the diminished ability of cells to respond to the action of insulin in promoting the transport of the sugar glucose, from blood into muscles and other tissues.

How is metabolic syndrome defined?
The definition of metabolic syndrome depends on which group of experts is doing the defining.

Based on the guidelines from the 2001 National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (ATP III), any three of the following traits in the same individual meet the criteria for the metabolic syndrome:

1. Abdominal obesity: a waist circumference over 102 cm (40 in) in men and over 88 cm (35 inches) in women.
2. Serum triglycerides 150 mg/dl or above.
3. HDL cholesterol 40mg/dl or lower in men and 50mg/dl or lower in women.
4. Blood pressure of 130/85 or more.
5. Fasting blood glucose of 110 mg/dl or above. (Some groups say 100mg/dl)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has slightly different criteria for the metabolic syndrome:

1. High insulin levels, an elevated fasting blood glucose or an elevated post meal glucose alone with at least 2 of the following criteria:
2. Abdominal obesity as defined by a waist to hip ratio of greater than 0.9, a body mass index of at least 30 kg/m2 or a waist measurement over 37 inches.
3. Cholesterol panel showing a triglyceride level of at least 150 mg/dl or an HDL cholesterol lower than 35 mg/dl.
4. Blood pressure of 140/90 or above (or on treatment for high blood pressure).

And though Metabolic Syndrome affects more women than men, there is certainly no shortage of men 40 years and older who have that “deadly beer gut” that literally makes them a ticking time bomb for a slew of serious medical conditions.

But there is good news amongst this frightening reality: The most common cause of metabolic disorder is of course a vicious combination of a lack of exercise and poor diet.

See below for the top 7 Father's Day Fat Fighting tips to help save our father’s lives:

1.) Lay off the Brewskis

It’s no wonder why our dads have more of a keg for a gut than a six-pack. See below for the best way I know of explaining how alcohol can destroy your body composition:

How Alcohol Makes You Fat
-Alcohol first passes through the esophagus as it travels to your stomach.
-From there, 20% of the alcohol is absorbed immediately by your bloodstream.
-The remaining alcohol travels to your intestines and is absorbed from there.
-The alcohol in your bloodstream then travels directly to your liver. It is here that
the body breaks the alcohol down, something that is absolutely essential since
alcohol is toxic to the body.
-Alcohol brakes down into acetate and acetaldehyde which IMMEDIATELY
signals to your body to stop burning fat. Even worse, another waste product of
alcohol, acetyl CoA, actually starts to make more body fat.

If you booze, you WON’T lose fat!

What Does this Mean?
-Your body can only effectively process 0.5 to 1 ounce of alcohol per hour
-How much damage? A 12-ounce beer contains about 0.6 ounces of alcohol. If
you consumed 5 of these, your body would be inhibited from fat burning for up to
6 hours. This is aside from the fact that your body will actually be storing fat
during these 6 hours! The more you drink, the longer your body is inhibited from
burning fat in addition to a greater fat build up from excess acetyl CoA. As you
can see, one day of binge drinking can set you back days if not a full week when
it comes to fat loss!
-What’s the worst-case scenario? Mixing alcohol with sugary beverages
promotes even further fat gain due to the resulting insulin surge that triggers fat
storage (e.g. regular beer or cocktails mixed with regular soda and/or fruit juice)

The Bottom Line
If you want to be lean, you must minimize ALCOHOL consumption!
If you must drink:
a.) Choose wine or hard liquor and “light” beer
b.) Limit alcohol consumption to 1-2 days per week with a 1-2 drink per day max

References:
Campbell and Volek, “TNT Diet: Targeted Nutrition Tactics”

2.) Quit being such a pansy and work your lower body

Most dads just want to do the typical meathead workout that emphasizes the upper body only. If you are going for the Johnny Bravo look where you have a built upper body but chicken legs for wheels, then keep doing what you’re doing.

However, it is important to note that strong, muscular legs are the key to torching your gut. After all, the majority of your body’s muscle mass, and thus metabolism, is contained within your lower body.

Not working your legs is like going to a gun fight without a gun, and here’s why:

a.) Training your whole body (legs included) not only helps you burn more calories each workout, it also maximally depletes your body’s glycogen stores (the sugar in your muscles) to allow for more total body fat burning
b.) The more lean muscle mass you have in your lower body the more calories your body will be burning 24-7-365 outside of your workouts
c.) Whenever you work your legs you generate the largest increases in natural anabolic hormone levels which translates into more total body muscle and less ugly, unwanted body fat.

So if you want better abs, you better start using those legs!

This can be easily accomplished with 3 total body workouts per week that train your upper body, lower body, and core within the same workout.

3.) How about doing something other than bench presses and curls!?

Look- I get why guys don’t want to train their legs. Unless you are wearing a speedo, no one is going to see them! So there is simply not as much motivation to put the time and effort into your lower body as there is for your upper body which is always on full display at the beach or poolside.

Nothing beats a little chest and bi’s baby!

However, if you are trying to develop a really nice upper body, you need to start venturing outside the realm of bench presses and curls. Don’t forget, you do have muscles on the backside of your body too!

In fact, your lats are the biggest muscles in your upper body and when developed they really help promote that V-shaped torso that both makes your waist look smaller and your wife happy ;)

Bruce Lee- The Lat Master Himself

Start doing at least the same amount of pulling as pushing (if not more) unless you want to end up like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Quasimodo did way too many bench presses and curls… not too sexy!

Lastly, only do isolation movements like bicep curls if you have extra time after your main workout. Compound movements like rows and pull-ups work your biceps just as hard and since they allow for the use of heavier loads, they also provide a better growth stimulus to maximize results in minimal time.

4.) Don’t eat like those idiots from NutriSystem

Here’s my take on how the idea of NutriSystem got started:

“Hey, I’ve got an idea for an incredible product and marketing campaign:

Let’s gather a group of genetically gifted former pro athletes that have them pack on some pounds since ending their playing days. We’ll have them all get their asses kicked by top personal trainers while following a restricted calorie diet so we lean them out real nicely.

But then we lie to the overweight male coach potato consumer and tell them that they got these results from eating the same exact food they are currently eating- you know, pizza, lasagna, brownies, ice cream, etc. Except we’ll make the meals the size of a dime so they can still technically eat what they want and lose weight at the same time.

To make it even better, we’ll pre-package all of their meals for them to buy from us so these lazy bastards don’t have to do anything besides nuke it up and eat it!

We’ll make millions! Brilliant!!"

Laces Out Dan!

Well, that’s exactly what has happened- thousands of sports-loving, ESPN-watching dads have been swindled to buy into this gimmick that you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight without exercise- because Dan Marino did it!

Look- if you honestly think you can keep eating the same foods that got you that gut in the first place, then I’m not sure how much more I can help you. And yes, there is portion control within the system, but to me it’s a like a big pile of crap vs. a small pile of crap… IT’S STILL CRAP!

5.) Accept the fact that you probably need some professional fitness advice

What you don’t know will hurt you, but what you think you know will KILL you!

Seek out a fitness expert to get life-changing results!

Dads- quit being so stubborn and macho. It doesn’t make you any less of a man to hire a personal trainer or join a boot camp because your wife and her lady friends do it.

In reality, your wife (and women in general) are simply smarter than you because they effectively outsource their fitness needs to an expert whereby you try to re-invent the wheel on your own with little to no results.

If you want to lose your gut, follow the lead of the ladies ;)

6.) Make the time for a 5-minute warm-up

You simply can’t afford to NOT warm-up. It’s like pushing the pedal to the medal in the dead of winter in your frozen car- things just don’t work right and you’re not going anywhere.

A cold body, like a cold car, doesn’t run on all cylinders

It only takes about 3-5 minutes to lengthen your muscles and lubricate your joints to best prevent injury and ready your body for a more effective workout, so DO NOT skip the warm-up!

Below is a great 5-minute body weight warm-up for you to do before your workout:

Alternate between 50 s of work and 10 seconds of rest for each exercise in the following warm-up circuit:
1- Stationary Running
2- Jumping Jacks
3- Lunge, Reach and Twist (left leg)
4- Lunge, Reach and Twist (right leg)
5- Front Pillar Hold

7.) The “no pain-no gain” attitude will leave you a bitter, crippled, and grumpy old man

The “no pain, no gain” methodology is quite possible the most abused practice in fitness. Pain is a good thing as long as it’s the right type of pain as outlined below:

When exercise BURNS YOUR MUSCLES that’s a good pain- this means you are pushing past your comfort zone to inspire change, working with intensity to torch calories and build muscle, and burning sugar so your body can burn fat for hours and hours after your workout.

When exercise HURTS YOUR JOINTS that’s a bad pain- it means you are quickly wearing down the structural integrity of your joints and will soon be unable to do anything without pain or stiffness. This is most often caused by a combination of using too heavy of loads, poor exercise form and technique, strength imbalances, and lack of mobility and/or flexibility- more reason to heed Tip#5 and seek professional help!

I have worked with too many dads who have beaten their bodies down and nothing’s more depressing than a dad who can’t play with his kids or participate in recreational activities with his buddies.

Do yourself and your family a favor and stop being such a meathead when it comes to exercise.

Exercise doesn’t have to hurt to get results and nobody wants another grumpy AND injured old man ;)

Happy Father’s Day! I love you Dad. You mean everything to me ;)

Get After It

Mike

7 Worst Exercises Ever Part 1

Previously, I’ve shared my best exercises for rapid fat loss and muscle gain, featuring a host of multi-joint, compound movements for your upper body (e.g. push-ups, pull-ups, rows, dips, etc.), lower body (squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc.), and core (pillar holds and rotational core exercises).

These “multi-muscle” exercises provide the biggest bang for your buck during your workouts to generate maximum results in minimal time. Even better are total body exercises like a deadlift to curl to press or a squat thrust variation that takes the meaning of a whole body workout to a new level.

But, I think today I'm gonna switch it up a bit and focus on the WORST exercises you can add to your workout routine.

Now back when I was in high school and college, I fell into the trap of making these following exercises the main focus of my workouts. But with gaining more knowledge and experience over the years, I wouldn’t be caught dead doing these exercises anymore.

These movements deliver shoddy results and flat our hurt people- they are movements that have far greater risk than reward. So please DO NOT make these exercises the main focus of your workouts!

So without further ado, here is Part 1 of a two part series for:

The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time

1.) Abs Machine

Everybody wants to get six pack abs. The problem is that most people do excessive crunches to try and get that washboard midsection. Crunches and sit-ups only promote excessive flexion of the lumbar spine and tend to cause neck and back pain. This should never be the sole focus of your core work.

What’s worse than crunches or sit-ups? Doing a similar movement with added weight in a machine that only trains your body in an unnatural front to back motion in a seated position!

Yes, abs machines, like crunches and sit-ups, do make your feel your abdominal muscles, but there are far better ways to accomplish this without the high risk of short and long-term injury to your spine.

Remember, the true purpose of your core is stabilization, both static and dynamic- to be able to maintain a neutral, straight-line position from your hips to your shoulders in all 3 planes of movement (front to back, side to side, and rotational) no matter what the external stimulus may be.

21 Century Training Upgrade: For rock hard, athletic abs focus on pillar stabilization exercises like front, side, and back pillars. Also, focus on ground based rotational core work like chop variations and upper body torso twists.

2.) Back Extension Machine

Well, if I HATE the abs machine, how do you think I’m going to feel about the back machine? I mean this is just such a stupid exercise for so many reasons.

First of all, people already use too much “back” on most movements because of tight hips and inactive/weak glutes. Thus, I prefer to focus more on hip extension movements that strengthen your butt rather than continually overloading the spinal erectors.

Plus, adding in corrective stretching for the hip flexor complex, the hip rotators, and the hamstring complex that opens up your hips and alleviates excessive spinal flexion and compressions is literally exactly what the doctor ordered.

Second of all, just like the abs machine, this bootleg exercise trains your body in one plane of movement in a fixed path and as a results doesn’t work your key stabilizer muscles.

Lastly, the way that most people perform this movement in such a spastic out of control manner for speed just makes me want to vomit.

21 Century Training Upgrade: For a strong, stable back focus on deadlift, good morning, and hip extensions variations while simultaneously focusing on the corrective stretching and self-massage of the Lumbo-Pelvic-Hip (LPH) complex.

A superman, or airplane, as it is sometimes called, is also a great exercise to improve spinal erector endurance while simultaneously improving scapular strength and stability.

3.) Leg Extension Machine

I think this guy needs tan a little more before he works out:)

This exercise is usually the staple of most people's leg day workouts. I used to be guilty of performing this exercise thinking this was the best way to get stronger legs. I'd often jack the weight up to 180-200lbs trying to crank out as many reps as I could.

My hands would be grasping onto those handles under the seat and holding on for dear life to try and keep my butt from coming up off the seat while I extended my legs out. How stupid was I!!

Here’s the bottom line with this exercise- it will wreak havoc on your knees! The excessive compressions on your patella will without a doubt results in the brake down of articular cartilage which will in turn results in a bunch of arthroscopic knee surgeries to remove loose bodies and eventually full blown crippling arthritis. Avoid this machine like cancer!

21 Century Training Upgrade: For strong, stable knees, focus on both knee-dominant (lunge, step-up, and single-leg squat variations) AND hip-dominant single-leg exercises (single-leg hip extension, deadlift, and good morning variations) to prevent strength imbalances between limbs AND to prevent strength imbalances between your front and back thighs and your inner and outer thighs.

4.) Elliptical Machine

Look- if you are really, really overweight and haven’t exercised in over a decade, then I think an elliptical has some use. But, other than that, I think it’s relatively useless.

Yes, it is a low-impact alternative to running on a treadmill, but there is very little range of motion during the movement and does not burn nearly as many calories as the machine claims it does.

Furthermore, the elliptical is not a good machine to do intervals on because it promotes excessive hyperextension of the knee. This can easily result in injury at high levels of speed and resistance.

Think about it- what’s the first machine people who are new to cardio exercise jump on? The elliptical! Why? Because it’s so friggin’ easy!

Don't try and convince yourself that the elliptical is a good option because you have bum knees. This is what will help your knees. If you are overweight, then lose some weight. Perform a ton of corrective stretching and self-massage on your front/inner/outer hips and thighs to improve your tissue health, and work on hip and ankle mobility to take pressure off of your knees so that you can get back to running pain-free.

At the end of the day, you can read a dang magazine like this guy while on an elliptical....So how much benefit do you really think you will get from this overpriced waste of space?

21 Century Training Upgrade: For optimal results during your cardio training, you must focus on intervals. They burn 9 times more body fat than steady state aerobics and also result in greater improvements in overall conditioning than long, slow, boring cardio.

If you are overweight/de-conditioned and/or have joint issues, the best place to start an interval training program is on a spin bike, or better yet, an Airdyne Bike which has both upper and lower body attachments to make it more of a total body conditioning experience.

Another awesome form of full body cardio is the rowing machine. Perform intervals on the rowing maching and I'll guarantee you'll be dripping after 20 minutes.

If you need to rock your cardio equipment-free and/or at home or on the road, use body weight based exercises like jumping jacks, stationary running, split jumps, burpees, mountain climbers, etc..

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week...

Get after it!

Mike

PS- What other exercises do you see people doing in the gym that make you cringe? What other exercises do you absolutely hate? What exercises have gotten you (or your clients) hurt in the past? Please share your personal experiences by posting a comment to this blog post, thanks!

Four Rules To Live By

Today I want to share some killer tips with you that pretty much sums up what all of us need to do to get lean and sexy and to be able to stay lean and sexy for life.

It doesn't get any simpler than this… but simple works!

TOP 2 EXERCISE TIPS

Make Your Workouts Total Body:

This means doing a five-exercise circuit (designed to work your lower body, upper body, and core) at least three times per week with a day of rest between workouts. A great way to perform the workouts are to alternate between 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for each a double-leg (e.g. squat), push (e.g. push-up), single-leg (e.g. lunge), pull (e.g. row), and core (e.g. plank) exercise. Perform up to 4 rounds without rest for a killer 20-minute total body workout.

Harness the Power of Intervals:

Interval training is scientifically proven to burn nine times more body fat than ordinary exercise and elevates metabolism for up to 48 hours following your workout. What you should do is perform cardio intervals on non-strength training days three times per week. Selecting your cardio exercise of choice, alternate between 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest and repeat this 30 second interval eight times for four total minutes followed by a one-minute rest. Repeat for up to 20 total minutes. This routine works best on a stationary bike (airdyne) or for body weight cardio exercise that you can do at home like running in place or jumping jacks. If you're up for the challenge, try outdoor sprints or hill sprints to really kick your butt.

TOP 2 NUTRITION TIPS

Eat Early and Eat Often:

Get something in your stomach immediately upon waking and then every two to four hours to starve fat and feed muscle. By continuously fueling your furnace, and eating some animal protein (meat, eggs, cheese, etc.) at every feeding, you'll also keep your metabolism revved up throughout the day and prevent overeating.

Think Fiber First When Consuming Carbs:

Eat an unlimited amount of fibrous, cruciferous green veggies to fill your belly both during and between meals. For optimal fat-burning, try to limit fruit and other carbohydrate consumption to within 1-2 hours post-workout when your body best tolerates starches and sugars.

Live by these 2 exercise and nutrition rules and you will have a body to be proud of for the summer... I guarantee it ;)

Get after it!

Mike
PS- Please forward this blog post to anybody that you know who can benefit from it!

Pill Poppers

I've got a mission for you today.

Go flip through a magazine, scan the newspaper, surf your TV channels and see if you can run across some type of ad that says:

“Eat all the foods you want and still lose the weight!”
“Lose up to 2 lbs a day without diet and exercise”
No hunger, no exercise, no disappointment, miracle, breakthrough, revolutionary, destroys, eliminates, dissolves, melts, flushes, soaks up FAT...

Something along those lines.
I bet you can find a couple within 30 seconds...these type of ads are EVERYWHERE.

And don't assume that just because it's FDA approved that it's safe.

So what's in a “fat loss pill”?

Well, the goal of most of these pills are to STIMULATE fat loss by doing one or more of the following:

Decrease food cravings, speed up metabolism, interfere with the body's ability to absorb specific nutrients in food and shedding excess water.

I'd prefer you stimulate fat loss by strength training and intense cardio intervals, but that's kinda tough to put into a bright bottle :)

Most of these pills contain caffeine (supposed to increase energy and metabolism), diuretics (dehydrate cells to reduce water weight), and appetite suppressants.

Now I was reading an article today promoting these weight loss pills and this was a direct quote from that article:

“While all of these different functions of weight loss pills stimulate your body, keep in mind that it does not create fat loss- you do , through diet and exercise.”

Now, I applaude them for admitting to this. Fat loss pills DO NOT work!

So why the heck do Americans continue spending billions of their hard earned moolah on pills that even admit to not being effective for fat loss??

I think it's a combination of things like deceptive advertising, feeling desperate, etc.

But I also think it's because it requires no responsibility. People can pass the blame onto someone else, the pill company. They can just say the pill didn't work and that's why they didn't lose any weight. People don't want to take a hard look in the mirror and face the facts. Most people are looking for the easy way out but there are no magic pills for fat loss.

People need to stop just treating the symptoms and get after the cause of their weight gain.

If you're putting on excess pounds because you always have junk food hiding in the cupboards, then clean them out! Out of sight, out of mind.

If you are stressed out or depressed and use food to comfort you, get rid of that chocolate ice cream and spoon and grab a pair of dumbbells instead. Exercising is a great stress reliever and triggers your body to release a chemical called endorphins which makes you feel happy. This feeling of euphoria can last up to 12 hours.

So throw that bottle of ThermaSlim away. Look at yourself and figure out what things caused you to put on the weight. If you don't know the real reason behind your weight gain, then you can't move forward and be successful in your own weight loss efforts.

And don't just say it's because you eat too many hamburgers and fries. That's not the answer I'm talking about.

Look deeper into the root of the problem. Once you figure that out, then and only then can you truely progress and be on the road to getting the body you deserve and can maintain for the rest of your life!

We Have Finally Found The Answer To Permanent Fat Loss!! Ice Cream

Finally!! Researchers have cracked the case for losing fat forever. After many exhaustive tests, experiments and clinical trials, scientists have announced today that the best food to eat to melt the fat and keep it off forever is ice cream!!

How great is that. You can have dessert and shed the pounds at the same time. The studies show that the frozen composition of ice cream actually raises the body's metabolism higher than eating room temperature food. This causes the body to burn more calories at a higher rate. So they recommend that you eat about 4-5 servings of ice cream a day to keep your metabolism burning high to create the best environment for rapid fat loss.

Ben and Jerry's here I come!!

Now I hope you're reading this and thinking... this sounds too good to be true.

I know you're smart enough not to fall for this...so put the ice cream down :)

Unfortunately, many Americans have tried a lot of fad diets out there and have failed. Now it doesn't make you a bad person for trying to make yourself healthier by going on one of these fad diets. You just didn't have the right information that you needed to make an educated choice. That all changes now.

Fad dieting goes way back and some I find to be pretty unusual. I found things on the vinegar and water diet back in the 1820's.

Then in the 1920's there was the popular cigarette diet that boosted Lucky Strike sales by more than 200% with the slogan "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet"!


Another was the Sleeping Beauty diet that had you zonk out on sedatives for a few days. Can't eat while you're unconscious i guess.

Some more fad diets are the cabbage soup diet and the grapefruit diet that seemed to be popular in the 90's.

To keep yourself from being a victim and falling for another dangerous fad diet, read this:
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200903/1238095587.html

The bottom line is you have to be willing to put in the work to get the results you want. This isn't about finding the best diet plan to go on. It's about making a lifestyle change, to become more physically active, eat smaller portions, and trying to eat healthier foods instead of prepackaged crap and fast food sludge.

Take personal responsibility and make better choices for yourself. You only have one body in this world, so you better take care of it!

Brain Teaser

So I posted this to you guys last week. I got some really interesting answers to this and a couple of people actually got this right! I was pretty impressed.

So here was the question from last week:


It costs nothing, but creates much.It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give.It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits. It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in a business, and is the countersign of friends.It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and Nature's best antidote for trouble.Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anybody till it is given away.

What am I describing??

Drum roll please......






A Smile :)


Anybody that got this right, make a comment and let us know.

Have a good day.

Mike
www.CapitalCityBootCamps.com

5 Super Quick Tips To Burn That Flab

My boot camps hear me say this over and over like a broken record... nutrition is 80% of the fat loss game. You CAN'T out-work a crappy diet! It will eventually catch up with you, guaranteed.

One of my professors from college told me a story awhile back of how he went on vacation to visit some of his old friends. He's an active guy and is in great shape. His friends said they also stayed fairly active, so they decided to go to the gym and get a workout in before their day got busy.

Now my professor did his normal strength training routine and cardio workout. He watched as his buddies just cranked out a ton of crunches and were just trying to smoke their abs. They would do a couple curls here and there, but their main goal was to work on their gut.

After the workout, they all went out to eat and guess what his "500 crunch" buddies were ordering...pitchers of beer! Now just to let you know, his friends did not have six pack abs as you would think from all that ab work. They had guts on them...sporting the beer belly look.

And they wondered why they couldn't lose that spare tire and get their abs to show. Like I said, you can't out-work a crappy diet, period.

Here are five super simple fat loss tips you can easily follow to start getting your nutrition back on track:

1) Be Prepared- Follow the motto of the Boy Scouts. Prepare your meals ahead of time. I like to use a couples hours on Sunday to get a general outline of what meals I will eat for the week and also knock out most of my shopping. At least make a blueprint so you have some plan and make adjustments throughout the week as necessary. If you fail to plan, then plan to fail.
Cmon, if little Billy has to do it, so can you.

2) Don't Listen To Your Mom- Remember when you were always told to eat three square meals a day...well stop that right now. Shoot for a minimum of four small meals a day but optimally six small meals (every 2-3 hours) for rapid fat loss. Why? Because you need to control your metabolism and insulin levels. To do this, you need a steady flow of nutrients into your body throughout the day. If you only eat 2-3 meals per day, your blood sugar rapidly rises once you eat the meal and then crashes down a couple hours after. This causes your body to store fat and everything that much tighter because it knows you won't feed it for another 8 hours.

3) Stop guzzling liquid sugar. Yes, I mean soft drinks, juices and bottles of iced tea loaded with high fructose corn syrup. For the most part, a 12 oz can of cola is 150 calories of pure sugar. Have a couple of those a day on top of what you already eat and you could be hitting the 3000-4000 mark in calories per day! Remember, to lose one pound of fat, you need to burn 3500 calories....and it works the same in the reverse, yikes!

4) I've talked about this a million times - eat breakfast! If you want to make fat loss easy then make sure you start your metabolism off on the right foot. I would even prefer a pop tart over nothing...it's that important. Enough said.

5) H2O- Water is the most important element to the body. It makes up 60% of your body weight and go without if for a few days and you'll be dead. So it only makes sense to make drinking water a main pillar in your nutrition. Try and drink at least 1-2 glasses with each and every meal. This will not only keep you hydrated, but also keep you from overeating. The more water you drink, the less water you'll retain...just so you know ladies :)


* Bonus tip*

If you're having trouble with your nutrition and want to get the proper nutrients without all the calories, check out a whole foods based multi. Try Prograde Nutrition's VGF 25+ because it's made from 25 whole veggies, greens, and fruits.

Men visit-http://mikebevard.getprograde.com/store.php?top_menu=Products&products=6&submenu=1

Women visit-http://mikebevard.getprograde.com/store.php?top_menu=Products&products=7&submenu=1

Yours in health,

Mike Bevard, CPT (ACSM)

PS- Have you sent your friends here yet-
http://www.capitalcitybootcamps.com/

Top 10 Reasons To Stay Out Of The Gym

I used to think it was absolutely necessary to be in a gym to get results. I thought that a good workout required you to be in a health club or weight lifting room of some sort.

Back in my college days, I would spend hours in the gym "pumping iron" and doing all the bodybuilder routines like bench press and lat pulldowns all the time.

Then I started working at a local health club as a personal trainer after I graduated. In the early days of being a PT I kept that same mentality. From shadowing other trainers and reading school text books, I thought I needed to focus all my clients on the machine weights for exercises like smith machine squats, bench press, lat pulldowns, leg extensions and leg curls to give them a great workout.

I soon realized how inefficient that type of "bodybuilder" training was and quickly began to implement a functional training format that produced real world results but required very little use of gym machines. I wanted my clients to be able to lift a bag of groceries in one arm and carry their kid in the other. I wanted them to increase their range of motion and improve their balance so they wouldn't slip and fall on the ice. I wanted them to learn how to properly lift objects so they didn't throw their back out.

I didn't give a crap if they could squat 500 lbs and bench 275 lbs. Please tell me when, in your daily routine, will you be pushing a 275 lb object off your chest while laying on your back? Please leave a comment if this is part of your normal day :)

My clients would get amazing workouts only using their body weight, resistance bands, kettlebells, free weights, stability balls, medicine balls, boxing gloves, and jump ropes. I would say that about 90% of the workouts I put clients through would focus on this type of training.

And even though I had all of those high tech machines at my disposal on the main workout floor, the majority of the workouts I took my clients through were either down in a basketball gym, dance studio, tennis court, or some other open space in the weight room.

After some thought, I put on paper what I feel to be the top 10 reasons NOT to go to the gym:

1. Needless Travel Time: The daily gym workout will cost us at least 10-20 precious minutes round trip in wasted travel time. Add that time up over the course of a week and you are looking at losing at least 1-2 hours going to and from the gym. That doesn't even include showering, changing clothes, and running into "Chatty Patty" in the locker room taking up another 20 min. of you valuable time.

2. The Sheep Mentality: I have witnessed people doing some of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen at the gym. It doesn't matter if they're accomplished doctors, lawyers, or business men. I truely belive that the example most people set will make you worse or get you hurt. Everybody is doing the same thing. Most men and women are just following the herd like sheep. They follow all the misinformation provided in the form of the amazing fitness magazines and infomercials. People just go to the gym and do whatever everybody else is doing.

Most women are cardio queens who spend hours at a time on ellipticals, bikes, and treadmills...sadly getting nowhere fast. Here's what you need to be doing to get sexy and finally blast that stubborn fat from your hips, thighs, and butt.....Resistance training and high intense cardio intervals that last 20-30 minutes.

And then there are the meat head guys who spend all their time working those "mirror" muscles (chest, biceps, abs). They do all kinds of upper body isolation exercises and take extremely long rest periods between sets. They shout, scream, and make crazy animal noises when they lift to both annoy you and help them get that last 300 lb rep on the bench press. I bet these macho guys would be crying if they were put through a 45 min body weight workout.

When in doubt, DON'T do what everybody else in the gym is doing.

3. Needless Waiting Time for Equipment or Space: People spend about an average of at least 15-20 minutes per workout waiting on a piece of equipment or a certain space of the gym to complete their daily routine. You're not only wasting valuable time and money but also slowing down your results. Your body is in a constant warming/cooling cycle. When your working out, your body is staying warm but when you're waiting for that next machine, your body cools down back to normal levels. You want your body to stay warm and ready for exercise to not only decrease injury but rapidly increase fat burning.

So build your own gym at home so you and you alone control your workout environment for optimal results.

4. Sickness and Disease: You go to the gym to stay healthy, but in reality, gyms are cesspools for sickness and disease. Everybody sweats. Sweat is not the best smelling or most sanitary thing to be sharing with one another, but you do it all the time if you're at the gym.

Let’s just be honest about this- most overworked, burnt out trainers working at the typical health club are forced to double dip and clean up the gym at the end of their 10+ hour workdays.

How much energy do you really think they have left to thoroughly clean and disinfect equipment that hundreds of people have sweat, dripped and coughed on all day long?

Beyond catching the common cold, there are some other real serious things that have been spreading at gyms like wildfire recently like the merca staph infection epidemic.

So keep you and your family healthy by getting your own equipment and working out at home.

5. Annoying People: This is one of the biggest reasons I'm tired of working out at gyms. Some people are so dang annoying. My workout time is MY time. I use it to clear my head and forget about everything in life for awhile. It's a time to get away and kick my own ass for awhile.

But for most people going to the gym isn’t about getting results, it’s about socializing. You know who they are. The ones that you see in the gym just going from one person to the next just talking their ear off. Then they go lift for a bit and find someone else to talk to.

Sure you can chat when you're at the gym, but I find it extremely rude and also dangerous to do so when someone is working out. People can easily get distracted from what they're doing and not pay attention to their form and possibly injure themselves.

Just wait until after the workout and go down to a snack bar or lobby to have your conversations.

6. Expensive Memberships: Paying money for a place to workout. Isn’t your current rent or mortgage enough of a monthly overhead! Plus, these health clubs lock you into a long-term contract that makes it almost impossible to get out of. With the economy the way it is, you would think they would have more affordable options available. Plus, if you want "expert" help, you hire a personal trainer and tack on another $600 bucks to your bill. No groceries for you this week.

7. Useless Equipment: Machines suck- It's extremely rare that I use any type of traditional machines for my workouts. They don’t allow your body to train the way it was designed to move and function and they cause many overuse injuries. If you want to be lean, tight, and muscular, all you need is your body weight, some bands, and a few free weight options like dumbbells or kettlebells to get the job done at home or on the road.

8. Lack of Open Training Space: Most club owners focus on filling the training floor up with overpriced, oversized machines that take up all of the prime real estate. There's barely enough room to walk around in a typical health club let alone try and do walking lunges for your workout without running in to some piece of clunky equipment.

All you need is space- space to move freely and explore your own body’s capabilities.

9. Crippling Dependence: The concept of a gym is brilliant in the fact that they force you to create a dependence on them. Especially if you travel a lot for work, you might feel lost when you don't have access to a gym. You don't workout because you "Can't" since there's no gym available. If you're snowed in or can't make it to the gym, screw working out because you don't have the fancy treadmill or elliptical to use.

So... show yourself that you can get results without the gym. Pack a resistance band in your bag and get creative. I promise you that the best workouts of your life are waiting for you at home or in new places like a park, beach, hotel room, etc.

Step outside of the box and get after it!

10. Bad Trainers: This last one really bothers me. It's why the title of personal trainer doesn't hold as much respect as it should. It's the fact that most trainers SUCK! Anybody can go online and pay for a generic personal training certificate and get hired at a gym as a Certified Personal Trainer. Those slackers just want to sneak on by and don't want to study the materials and do the work to pass the rigorous exams given by prestigious organizations like the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), or the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

Once hired, most trainers just stick to the same old cookie cutter programs taught in text books and never adapt and try to learn new real world applications and techniques. Plus, most don't get paid worth crap and don't have any true incentive to get clients great results.

When you go to the typical gym for personal training, you enter a factory. They are trying to get you in and out. They don’t care if your reach your goals nor do they have the desire to build lasting relationships with you. They just need to hit their quota- you are just another number for them.

I have seen this countless times before where some jackass "personal trainer" gets paid $60 an hour to take somebody through a training session but then interrupts the workout by talking on their cell phone or texting somebody. Or how about the trainer that has their overweight client walking gingerly on a treadmill just having a conversation with them in a glorified therapy session.

And what about this need for the one-hour workout? Where the heck did that come from? I’ll tell you where- it’s just a default time to maintain an easy appointment schedule that most health clubs have borrowed from other businesses that have nothing to do with fitness. Not because one-hour is the magic number for the perfect workout.

It's all about Intensity. I guarantee I can give somebody an amazing workout and get more effort and intensity out of them for better results in 30 or 45 minutes than anybody doing a typical hour session.

Don't believe me, well then why don't you join a fitness boot camp. Find one in your area that creates a fit community- a culture of success. If you're in Lincoln, NE check out http://www.capitalcitybootcamps.com/ , Lincoln's Premier Fitness Boot Camp For Men & Women.

If you're not in the area and can't get it done at home, I know a ton of great boot camp instructors all over the world that can get you better results for less than a third the cost of typical personal training rates. We’ll get you out in 45 minutes and have you burning fat for the rest of the day!

I mean if you are the type of person who is motivated, empowered, and dedicated enough to consistently workout on your own, it appears that going to the gym may very well be the dumbest thing you can do.

I can honestly say that if you are serious about getting results, both inside and outside of your workouts, your best move is to avoid the gym and build your own portable home gym or to join a fitness boot camp with a proven track record of unmatched results.

Break the chains of the gym and get out of your comfort zone to get the results you want!

Get after it!

Mike

PS- Be sure to post below some of the things you hate about the gym so we can share our fitness frustrations!

Toilets, Coffins, and Ambulances...Oh My!!

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Super Bowl Workout- Blast Fat During Halftime!

The big game is only a couple days away.
Lots of football parties to go to, which means an easy way to get off course. Now just in case you go overboard with all the pizza, beer, nachos, and chili, I have provided a quick workout that takes a minimum of 4 minutes and a max of 20 min to complete.

Click the link below for all the details:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOoyIp8DeXI


See if you can get your whole party to do the workout. That would be entertaining!

Get after it!

Mike

Lincoln Personal Trainer Unveils Healthy Recipes To Cut Those Game Day Calories For Super Bowl XLIII

With Super Bowl Sunday just around the corner, the time is now to start getting ready for the, always popular and calorie filled, football party. However, why not make a couple of small tweaks to some of your favorite party food recipes to make them healthier and more figure-friendly come kickoff?

Here is a great in-depth list of both approved food choices and/or healthier substitutes for traditional party foods. Use this list to satisfy your taste buds while saving yourself at least hundreds if not thousands of calories in the process. If you use these strategies consistently for parties and social gatherings over the course of the year, this could prevent 5-10 lbs of fat gain… easily!

Section I- Appetizers:

Naked Sandwiches (preferably bun-less, only use whole grain bun option if absolutely needed)
Thin Crust Whole Grain Pizza
Fruit Salad
Super Salad Bowl (use unlimited veggies and lean meats, dip dressing on the side or use low calorie substitutes)
Sweet Potato Fries
Tuna or Chicken Salad
Nut Butter on Celery Sticks
Mixed Nuts (no sugar, unroasted, low in salt)
Cheese, Eggs, and Meat Tray
Raw Veggies (use dip sparingly)
Grilled/Sauteed Veggies (use extra virgin olive or coconut oil)
Figure-Friendly Nachos (see “accessories” below for ingredients: tortillas, cheese, salsa, and guac)
Buffalo Chicken Bites (skinless, no breading, use low calorie buffalo sauce sparingly)
Pasta Salad (use whole grain pasta and go easy on the dressings, choosing marinara based sauces over the creamier alfredo versions)

Section II- Accessories

Natural Whole Grain Tortillas
Natural Baked Chips
Diet Lipton Green Teas (or other low calorie/carb beverages)
Water
Natural Salsa
Guacamole
Salad Dressings: Vinegars of choice (apple cider, red wine, balsamic, etc.)
Other Low Calorie Condiments of Choice: mustard, hot sauce, horseradish, etc.

Section III- Main Courses

Lettuce Burgers (use extra lean sirloin or bison, preferably bun-less only using whole grain bun option if absolutely needed)
Rotisserie Chicken (choose “plain” and remove skin and dab off any grease as needed with paper towel)
Extra Lean Kosher Hot Dogs (preferably bun-less, only use whole grain bun option if absolutely needed)
Chili (swap extra lean turkey for the beef version to cut down fat intake)
Pizza (see “appetizers” above or use whole grain/thin crust options from restaurants or frozen food isles)

Section IV- Desserts

Edy’s Grand Light Ice Cream
Prograde Cravers (100% organic chocolate snacks bars) http://mikebevard.getprograde.com/cravers
Larabars
Cocoa Via Bars or Packs
Low Carb Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory
Protein Cookies (swap in protein powder for flour)

BONUS- Top 10 Tips to Save Thousands of Calories on Super Bowl Sunday

1.) Go Naked: Replace all buns or breading for sandwiches with a lettuce wrap alternative to cut calories, stabilize blood sugar, and boost fiber and micronutrient intake.

2.) Hydrate: Drink at least two to four cups of water before eating AND one to two cups every 15-30 minutes after you start eating to fill your stomach and prevent overeating that can be triggers by dehydration.

3.) Eliminate Those Empty Liquid Calories: Minimize or eliminate all fruit juices, regular sodas, and alcohol. Opt for water, tea, or low calorie/carb beverages in moderation to leave more room for whole food choices that have more nutritional value and better fill you up.

4.) Do not fast in preparation for a feast as it will turn your body into a famished fat-storing machine the next time you eat. The resulting low blood sugar levels that come from not eating for four hours or more make you crave junk foods high in both fat and refined sugars.

5.) Replace All White with Brown (Or Better Yet... Green!): Be sure to use the whole grain alternatives for any starch you serve at your party (e.g. chips, tortillas, breads, rice, pasta). Whole grains have more vitamins and minerals and are high in fiber which means they won’t have as negative of an impact on your blood sugar compared to its white counterparts. However, if you want to be a nutritional boy or girl scout, go one step further by replacing all brown with green in the form of green veggies (see “Go Naked” above).

6.) Focus on eating your lean proteins, fruits and veggies first. Use these in unlimited amounts as needed to fill you up and best prevent the typical party gorging of high carb and high fat meals (e.g. thick crust pizza with extra full-fat cheese).

7.) Never eat directly out of the bag or community bowl and use smaller plates to put your food on while limiting yourself to a pre-set plate total (e.g. four plate maximum during a three-hour football game).

8.) Replace Gold With Green: Opt for guacamole over cheese for your salads and chips. Guacamole is not only low in saturated fat and high in heart healthy monounsaturated fats but it also has a ton of fiber that will help fill you up fast and prevent overeating. Though cheese is a true super food in moderation, it is very easy to overeat especially when mixed with refined carb sources like white chips and pizza.

9.) Replace Flour with Protein Powder: Few people know that protein powder makes a great cooking or baking substitute for flour (e.g. protein cookies). By adding protein and reducing carb intake you will boost metabolism.

10.) 20 Chews: Eat slowly and require a certain number of chews before you swallow to allow your brain enough time to get the “I’m full” signal (e.g. 20 pre-swallow chews).