Hello Ladies… it’s Dan here.

Just wanted to let you know that we had to go through an upgrade of the software that runs our site. So when I did that I thought I would give the site a new look completely… something a little more professional and personal.

The buttons you see on your right are not functioning yet, but they will be soon so please forgive me if you click on them and they don’t work.

Taylor and I really appreciate you visiting our fitness blog and hope that you keep coming back and make comments!

Don’t feel like a turkey this thanksgiving… it’s still 16 days away and that means there is still some time left to lose a few unwanted annoying pounds of fat and to tone up! If you haven’t seen your family in months then this is a great time to blow their socks off and have them go “Wow, you look amazing!”…

Who doesn’t want to hear a comment like that? Especially from family!

Lose Fat Tone Muscle!

So here’s a great my great “lose fat build muscle workout”

To help you along the way. Since you are getting short on time, this workout needs to be done 3 days a week… no days back to back. Normally I don’t write about adding cardio in but once again with 16 days left, it would be helpful to add a great interval cardio workout to the end of your weight training or on off days….

Keep in mind never do your cardio before your weight training, you don’t want to tire yourself out before you even get started!

The Workout…

I call this a 4 X 4 workout… 4 exercises you do for 4 sets! Don’t rest until you get all 4 exercises done back to back then do them all 3 more rounds! For fat blasting results keep rest down to 1-2 minutes! Alternate between Wkout A and Wkout B
A Workout:

1. Push-ups… 12 reps
2. DB Split Squats… 8 reps/each leg
3. Assisted Pull-ups (or normal pull-ups)… 12 reps
4. Lunge jumps… 15 reps

B Workout:

1. Bench press… 12 reps
2. DB Side Lunges… 8 reps/leg
3. Seated Cable Row… 12 reps
4. Burpees… 12 reps

For more workout help that will last not just for the next few weeks but for months, check out The Trinity Training System for women! Get help with workouts, nutrition and staying motivated (so even if you’re not seeing family you still want to keep improving!)

Check out:
Women’s Workout Fun Facts To Get Results
The Best Cardio For Women

How many healthy TV dinners are in your freezer right now? It’s ok to be honest, with names like “Lean Cuisine”, “Healthy Choice”, and “Smart Ones” how could you be going wrong with your lunch and dinners?

Sure these are low in calories but when it comes to losing fat (it’s not about losing weight, its about losing fat) are these helping you out? Of course they would love you to believe that are and they do a great job at convincing but in reality… they could be causing more harm than good.

They will help you lose initial weight but it’s hardly the amount of fat you could be losing if they weren’t in your life.

Why Lean Cuisines Are Bad (and their sister meals)

First off, sure they have fewer calories than if you go with the traditional meals, and they’re great because all you have to do is pull back the film, pop it in the microwave and a few minutes later you’ve gotten what sounds like a gourmet meal… BUT

How do they cut the calories? Sure the calories are low which helps with losing weight but to get them low they often take out fat and add in carbs. And more often than not these are not the good carbs I rave about… these are simply and starchy carbs! These carbs aren’t our weight loss friends, they are responsible for setting in motion a rise in your blood sugar… which cues your insulin to rise which then tells your body to store fat!

Things to check for… check salt intake, it’s recommended that adults get 2400 mg of sodium per day, check for “fortifications” which often means preservatives and additives.

All tv dinners are processed which is definitely not a clean meal, it’s a wise idea to stay away from foods with additives, preservatives, sodium etc as these play with your fat storage abilities and who wants to add chemicals to their body that they can’t pronounce?

For example, here’s just a few nutritional details from one meal. It has only 310 calories (not bad) but for that few calories it has 39 carbs. And the carbs are from white pasta and sugar used to make the sauce. A slice of wheat bread only has 12 g of carbs just to put it into prospective.

The better option…

I do have good news, there is a clean eating microwavable dinner available that can help with weight loss… Kashi is a great option. It’s all natural, great portions and I think they taste great too. The only problem I have is that of course they are more expensive.

The even better option is to go for fresh ingredients and make your own meals. Meals don’t have to take forever to make. You can have a great lunch box packed in less than 5 minutes. And during the week my dinners never take more than 30 minutes to fix.

The Facts…

Here are the nutrition labels for both the regular Stouffer’s Mac and Cheese and the Lean Cuisine version… I do agree that overall the Lean Stouffer’s wins over the real deal but when it comes down to it either are really helping to get the ultimate body! But it is better than eating fast food and big portions.

But for the best results go with natural, bag lunches!

Other Post You’d Like:

My Favorite Shake Recipe

Eating Eggs Is Great But Eating 24 Dozen?

Get Tons of easy clean eating recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even desserts at my online women’s training site The Art Of Weight Lifting… and the best part you can get full training for 21 days for a buck! Check it out here!

If I am not training women, running the bootcamp, working on the site or working out myself you are likely to find me training gymnasts and cheerleaders at a local facility here in Charleston. I have gotten to know some really great families being there and it’s pretty cool to see these kids kick ass and achieve great things.

A few months ago one of the moms was diagnosed with cancer (I think adult leukemia) and it is amazing… since her diagnosis she hasn’t missed a day of bringing her daughter to practice (3 times a week), standing at the side cheering and talking it up with the other moms and she always wears a smile. She has a beautiful wig and carries herself taller than ever!

Get Your Tush Up

This got me to thinking…

This lady is motivation for EVERY woman

If she can get out of bed every morning and put on a brave smile for friends, family, and the world then there is no reason you can’t achieve your goals… no matter what they are. I figure if she can get over her hurdles and win this battle then we can all get out of bed on these cold mornings and get our workout done.

Make A Pledge

<p class=”alert”>You can make it here, or write a sticky note and put it on the fridge that you are determined to hit your goals, lose the fat, tone your body and not just for a party next month but for the long term.</p>

On those days when you don’t feel strong enough to get up and get to the gym (because you don’t want to get out of the warm blankets) or you just want to sit and eat Holiday Cookies, remember the mom and the other women who are an inspiration everyday!

You can do it!

Here’s a killer workout of the week. This workout will have your heart rate up from the time you get started till the time you finish up.. and that’s a good thing. It’s going to make sure your metabolism is boosted to burn the most calories possible and your body burns of the most amount of fat it can!

Of course always start with a light warm-up… light cardio and few bodyweight exercises, just enough to make your heart rate rise a bit and get your blood flowing. This only takes 5 minutes.

Fat Burning Workout For Women

You’re going to do these exercises as a quad-set… that’s 4 exercises back to back before resting. So you do a set of 1a, then a set of 1b and so forth. But the kicker is instead of resting we’re going to add an active rest! So for a 45 seconds in between your quad-sets you will jump rope or jog or whatever you prefer! But no sitting down.

Do each quad-set for 2-3 sets aiming for 10-12 reps.

• 1a. Walking lunges
• 1b. Push-ups
• 1c. Leg press
• 1d. Inverted Rows

-Jump Rope. Run, etc-

• 2a. Seated military Press
• 2b. Leg curls
• 2c. Burpees
• 2d. Med Ball chops

-Jump Rope, Run, etc-

Go strong till the end! When you’re done finish off with just a 5 minute cool-down. Walk on the treadmill, stretch and bring your heart rate back down. Stretching is great not only to help fight muscle soreness but studies show that it also helps to induce the muscle building/toning process!

This is just one great workout… and remember for the best results it’s important to keep your body guessing and to never get used to a workout. So to make sure you’re muscles stay confused you have to change it up… Here’s how you can get over 3 months of women’s workouts!

Other posts you might like:

Women’s Home Workout Of The Week

BE AGGRESSIVE… And Boost Fat Burn

Best Foods In Your Fridge To Lose Fat

In the News/Magazines this week is all about Tyra Banks… I normally try and stay out of the celebrity gossip arena but I love Tyra so I decided to break away from my normal ways today… so I appologize ahead of time!

Tyra Is Back!

People magazine is reporting that Tyra has lost 30 lbs since her “Kiss my fat ass” comment in 2007… Oh that was priceless! And how did she do it?

I am sure she had some Hollywood trainer helping her out in the gym but she is contributing to her change in food habits to be the biggest helper.

I have said it all along…

To get the best results exercise alone isn’t going to do it!

Before 30 lbs Heavier

It takes a combo of proper workouts with proper nutrition.Even if you worked your tush off for an hour and your heart rate monitor has given you a rough estimation that you burned 500 calories, it doesn’t do much if you go home and eat pizza and coke afterwards.

So I thank Tyra for being honest. She also went to say that when she gained the weight she was eating pretty much everything she wanted… I have heard her in the past say fried chicken is one of her favs. But then she was also suffering bad stomach problems during this time too… and now?

Since she’s changed it up… not to a diet but to a healthier overall nutrition program she’s no longer having those stomach bug issues!

Tyra’s first step to lose weight…

Keeping a diary so she could really get an understanding of what was going into her body and making it obvious that it’s time for a change! This is really helpful because when you see the yuk you put in you’re a little more conscious about it the next time!

To read this article click: Tyra Banks Loses 30 lbs

I have increased my workout intensity recently… what about you?

If you want to lose fat then you have to make your body say good rid-dins! And that comes from an intense workout that pushes your muscles and your body to work hard.

There are a few ways to burn the most calories possible in your workout….

Of course you can:

1. Increase the weight (which means decrease the reps)
2. Decrease your rest period between exercises
3. Increase the reps (going back up to weight increase)
4. Or you can use your rest period to keep moving…

Active Rest

Active rest just means while you’re giving your muscles that you just worked out a rest and a few minutes to recover so you can get going again, you still keep moving and keeping your heart rate up but you’re at a low intensity while it’s going on.

My favorite form of active rest is jump roping. If I am doing 60 second rests then I might just rope for 30 of those seconds and allow the rest of the time to get ready for the next weight lifting exercise.

If you do this between each set then 30 seconds worth of jump roping can turn into 5-7 minutes of jump roping. Which may not seem like a lot still but can add an additional calorie burn of close to 100 calories!

Other forms of active rest

Jump roping in my opinion is the best, it’s definitely going to keep your heart rate up and it’s easy to do anywhere. You don’t have to run to a piece of equipment between moves. But there are of course other ways to get some rest in there too…

• Running in place
• Jumping jacks
• Step-ups (body weight)
• Straight body jumps

What not to do…

Get the best results!

Don’t confuse active rest exercises with plyo (jumping) exercises. These can tire you out too much and instead of resting your muscles you’re fatiguing them faster. Stay away from moves like squat jumps, lunge jumps, burpees, and bench jumps.

You just want a movement that keeps your heart rate up but doesn’t wear you out where you can’t finish your sets, you really just want to go for an exercise that keeps your heart going at 65% max.

Are active rests for all women?

Nope… if you’re trying to add a lot of strength to your body then you definitely need your rest time to… do nothing but rest. Your muscles run from an energy source called creatine phosphate and with those active rest you might go through your supply too fast. This can potentially make it harder for you to get those big strength gains. Also with strength remember you are lifting HEAVY… like 6 reps, so your rest are going to be longer than I talked about above, close to 3 minutes.

If you walk into my gym tomorrow you’ll see me and my jump rope going to town. I have a crappy rope but it gets the job done for now!

I have a HUGE sweet tooth and I need it filled from time to time. This weekend I had a few couples over for a dinner party which meant A. I wanted an amazing healthy dinner and B. I needed a good dessert.

My friends have come to expect a healthy full course meal when they are here for dinner so I didn’t want to let them down! For an appetizer I did the easiest thing ever… just got a couple of whole wheat wraps, put a thin layer of tomato sauce, swiss cheese, a few slices of tomato and bell pepper… toasted it all up at 350 degrees and Voila… slice it up and there ya go!

For dinner I went with a pork tenderloin, sweet potato chips and broccoli (yum) and for dessert…

Here’s My Clean Eating Cookie Recipe

I can’t take 100% credit for the recipe, I found a basic outline at Cathe Nation and changed it so I thought it would be better,

Ok, Not My Cookies But This is What They Looked Like

after all I can never follow a recipe to a T… I always have to Talorize it!

What you need:

• 1/4 cup all natural peanut butter (or hazelnut spread)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 egg white
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 T. water
• 2 cups old fashioned oatmeal Quaker oatmeal (large flakes)
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tbsp mini dark chocolate chips

What you do:

Mix all the wet ingredients in first… the first 5 ingredients above. Then incorporate the rest of the stuff in and mix until just blended (don’t mess up the oats). Oh yea, make sure you had the oven preheated at 350 degrees. Drop teaspoon mounds on a cookie sheet and bake for around 11-14 minutes.

These taste really good! If you need proof… they were all gone by the end of the night! Next time I make them I will make sure to take some pictures!

These oatmeal cookies are loaded with fiber, complex carbs, protein and healthy fats… A serving is 2 cookies! Each cookie has around 70 calories, 2 g of protein, 10 g of carbs. Not bad, sure beats eating a Tolls House Chocolate Chip!

Do you have a great healthy recipe? Give it up and share it with everyone… I am always looking for new ideas for my dinner parties!

As often as I put down many magazines and their poor fitness advice I am a big fan of Oxygen magazine. If you haven’t heard of it, Oxygen is a women’s strength training monthly magazine that actually gives some pretty good tips, statistics, recipes, and most of the time decent advice (at least better than most).

This month’s issue, Nov ‘09, threw a curve ball at me though. One of the most popular columnist Tosca Reno (The Eat Clean Author) was talking about two of her fitness friends coming for a week to visit… of course she planned on having a house full of clean eating foods and their must haves… eggs being number one.

I can't imagine

Guess how many freaking eggs these three chicks went through! Give up?

24 DOZEN… in 5 days!

That’s 288 eggs total… or 96 eggs per person. Now I am hoping that each lady had their husband visiting too so if that’s the case it’s still 48 eggs each!

The Incredible Edible Eggs

Of course eggs are great for you! They’re loaded with tons of vitamins, minerals (especially the yolks) and protein. But like anything, eggs in surplus can have their downfalls!

First off, the idea of eating that many eggs in less than a week makes me want to throw up! I can only eat so many omelets, so many scrambled eggs, eggs benedict, well you get the picture. After a while they are not so eggilicious and you start chirping like a chicken.

A little = Yummy!

I have not been one to shun the yolk, sure it has some cholesterol but the other benefits outweighs this. In fact, egg yolks have 17 different vitamins and minerals, including omega-3 fatty acids, folate and vitamin E… however the cholesterol in 48 eggs is hard to ignore.

So I did my research, (I can’t get rid of the biologist in me) 1 egg has around 215 mg of cholesterol… not bad. But I figured that the ladies (using the 48 eggs) ate an average of 9.6 eggs a day which means they took in 2,064 mg of cholesterol PER DAY!

Now I have to say… not a big fan of this idea. I did some more research (don’t you love my research) and found: According to the American Heart Association and also the USDA’s 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we should limit dietary cholesterol to 300 mg per day.

I still love Oxygen but just like with all magazines:  I don’t take the info as fact or direct advice. Because let me tell you, you won’t see me loading my grocery buggy with nothing but egg cartons any time soon, or ever!

I want to hear from you… What’s your take on this?

Other articles you might like:

The Paleo Diet… Not Just For a Cavewomen

Hardest Clean Eating Task Yet

Give The High Five

It’s my day to post… wooohooo!

I’m going to make it quick because I’m busy busy today… but I’m still going to get my workout in – wink wink.

But something tomorrow is going down in our town of Charleston…

Taylor’s first fitness un-bootcamp!

We are taking this a different direction than most typical bootcamps which always go those military themes and stuff like that… and we are going to incorporate some fun games and team challenges to get the competitive spirit alive again.

Think about it… when was the last time you competed against somebody and felt that rush?

If you’re like me probably a long time ago and I don’t know if it’s because I’m a guy, but I really miss competing.

I’m going to take some footage for you to watch so you can implement some of the exercises and also to show you that Taylor is real. Sometimes I still feel that people don’t think she is a real person or she’s posing as somebody she’s not.

That’s really it for today and I’ll say Happy Halloween and be safe… not too safe… and have a ton of fun and live it up!

Wish us luck for tomorrow in that it goes well and I’ll talk to you next Friday.

P.S. Give me some love in the comment section just so I can laugh at Taylor as my little post gets more than her bigger ones! Also let me know – if you want to what you’d like to hear more about.