How To Double Your Weight Loss and Keep It Off For Good

groupphotoThere is a secret that most personal trainers don’t want you to know.  That doing this one thing will not only help you lose the weight you want to lose without strenuous or relentless exercising. It is so powerful that if you do nothing else, this one thing will help you really FINALLY get the weight off and change your body for the better, and it will be more permanent weight loss than you could ever achieve with other fad diets.

We push this method on all of our clients and don’t keep it a secret.  Why? Because if you really want results, it is guaranteed to help you get them. Have you ever really been faced with the reality of what you eat every day? Really truly looked at it, written down on a piece of paper? Chances are you haven’t and most of us don’t really want to! It’s a little tedious at first but I guarantee you it’s the single most powerful thing you can do for your health and wellness.

A study done by Kaiser Permanente in 2008 took a group of individuals and put the entire group on the same nutrition plan. Half of that group food journaled. The other half did not.  Wouldn’t you know it, the group that food journaled not only lost weight, they lost DOUBLE the average amount of the non-journaling group. Not only that, they kept the weight OFF long term.

sausage, sweet potato and kale soupFood journaling might sound like a pain in the neck but if you want to live the rest of your life on a diet, instead of learning how to eat and live without dieting – this is the way forward! Whether you do it for yourself or with a coach, making yourself accountable makes a huge difference.  It isn’t a quick fix but can be turned into something that’s maintainable and manageable – all while enjoying your life at your pace.

Ask our latest clients….

  • Joe V just did a 10 day 5 visit punchcard style program with us and lost 6.4lbs and 4.5 inches off his body.
  • Mike H just started and lost 11lbs in his first month with GTS.
  • Steve M lost 11 pounds in his first month with GTS.

What will you do? Close this page and forget about it. Or take advantage of what we are about to offer.  Our Holiday Punchcard Program starts THIS WEEK.  Your punchcard gains you access to classes but also to the unmatched knowledge of a team of trained coaches. Nutrition coaching, food journal review and accountability are all included in this package deal! Just like our long term clients.

Here is our limited time Holiday Punchcard Program: (Offer ends Nov 16th!)

  1. 10 Visits for just $147
  2. 15 Visits for just $197

The sessions can be used anytime between now and December 21st and here are
all the available time slots:

  • Mon, Wed, Fri: 5:45am, 7am, 7:45am, 9:45am
  • Tue and Thur: 8:15am, 5pm, 5:45pm

Tons of schedule flexibility and more accountability than ever before. Including a private coaching session for nutrition, food journal review, weigh-ins and measurements, phone calls from my Success Goals Coach and of course the entire GTS support group.

If ever you were contemplating needing support in your weight loss journey, this is such an amazing opportunity without having to committ to long term coaching.

Be sure to register before the deadline, Friday Nove 16th: Register Here

Less Carbs and Calories

Lower Carbs, Lower Calories but the SAME great product for Energy, Vitamins, Mental Focus and even pre-workout fuel.

If you are a spark fan like myself, this is great news! Advocare was able to reduce one of the inactive ingredients called maltodextrin. I never knew this, but Maltodextrin is where three or more carbohydate molecules are joined together to help product pass through equipment during manufacturing.

One of the things I love about Advocare is that they are always ahead of the curve and looking for ways to improve. With their new access to better manufacturing equipment, they have now been able to reduce from:

45 Calories – to Only 15 Calories

11 Carbohydrates- to only 4 Carbs

They did this without changing any of the active ingredients like B-Vitamins, Chromium, Zinc, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and all the other great stuff.

You still mix the scoop (which is smaller) in 80zs of water.

Who is SPARK for?

  1. Everyone… Seriously though, it has so many applications and is helpful in so many ways there are hundreds of ways it can make an impact in your daily life.
  2. If you struggle with energy or mental focus around that 2-3pm time – The B-Vitamins are like brain food and will help you re-focus and finish up your day.
  3. If you are a coke or diet coke drinker – I can’t tell you how many people Spark has helped kick the nasty soda habit.
  4. If you need something to use before your workouts – If you ever struggle to get in the right nutrients or run out of energy before you finish your training session. Not only the vitamins that are in it, but the caffeine (equivalent to a cup of coffee) will help power you through your training session and ensure you are burning FAT instead of lean muscle.
  5. If you are a heavy coffee drinker – Don’t get me wrong now, I love love love a good cup of coffee (black) but when it turns into 3, 4 or a pot of coffee that is a bad thing. Perhaps its that you take your coffee with cream, sugar, etc… It’s like I used to tell my wife Brandy, you have cream and sugar with a splash of coffee!

As you can see there are so many applications, but in the end… I feel that if we just have enough energy the decisions we make are usually so much better.

Too tired to… go to the gym

Too tired to… prepare a healthy meal

Too tired to… keep working on that big project

Too tired to… (you fill in the blank)

With this new and improved formula I want to encourage each of you to take the SPARK challenge:

If you struggle with any of the above, give it one month and just see. One box of Spark has 14 packets so two boxes will get you almost a month. Or, a canister has 42 servings and is even more economical per serving.

Get Yours Right here: Gritton’s Advocare Site

Enjoy

Jeremy

How To Eat Fruit 101

cherriesInspired by a recent conversation I thought I would shed some light on fruit and why it can (or cannot) be a hinderance to your fitness goals.  Let’s get a few things straight.  For one, yes, fruit is good for you! It’s full of healthy nutrients, fiber and antioxidants.  It’s part of a balanced healthy diet.  Not eating it means you are depriving yourself of some seriously healthy stuff.  Not to mention it’s a better alternative to refined sugar treats. But can fruit make you fat? No, but hang on…

IF you are trying to change your body composition, the amount, the type and the timing of fruit in your diet can make a difference.  The types of activities  you do can influence how your body metabolizes it as well.

Fruit won’t make you fat or make you gain weight, excess calories will. There, I said it.  However, eating higher calorie higher Glycemic loading fruit later at night could hinder some fat loss.  And that is what we want to lose when we lose weight.  This is all about being balanced. Fruit eaten earlier in the day has time to metabolize and be used as energy.  Fruit is actually a great source of healthy carbohydrates.

My tips for choosing fruit:

1. Eat what’s in season and enjoy it in moderation. Moderation is important with ANY food. Even Kale.

2. Unless you are doing endurance or really tough workouts, you can stick to fruit with less sugar like fresh berries, citrus and high water content fruit.  These all have a lower Glycemic index load on your system too which can influence blood sugar spikes.

3. Denser higher calorie, higher sugar fruit is ok but be mindful of when you eat it and how it will serve your body.  A half of a banana in the morning before a good hard run will help power you through. Fruit eaten before bed is not going to be put to good use.

4. Pairing.  Have nuts, low fat cheese or plain greek yogurt with your fruit to balance it out and make it a well rounded snack.  Adding fruit to salads with protein can be great too.

All food that comes from nature is good for you for a variety of reasons.  The main thing to keep in mind is you should expand your choices and eat from a wide range of fruit, vegetables and whole grains to stay healthy.  Limiting fruit to earlier in the day and pairing it with protein can help keep your blood sugar in check.  Knowing a little more about how and when to eat fruit will give you energy to continue kicking fitness butt.

 

National Doughnut Day

donutI’m not kidding you, today (June 5th) is National Doughnut Day.

If you visit a Krispy Kreme store today and get just one of the original glazed doughnuts that is 190 calories and 11 grams of fat. With that in mind, we all know it’s nearly impossible to eat just one. So, lets say you have MORE willpower than I do and you eat only two of them.

Do you know how long you would have to spin on a spin bike to burn those calories off?

It would take the average size individual (160lbs) approximately 30 minutes to burn off those 380 calories.

For about 3 or 4 minutes (or in my case about 30 seconds) of enjoyment while you eat those two doughnuts, you would have to spend 10x that amount of time to get rid of those calories.

Today, and every day, think about what happens for such a short amount of satisfaction. Is it worth it?

To be perfectly honest, sometimes it is, there are certain things that are totally worth the hard work necessary to burn away those crazy calories. On the other hand, not everything is or should be worth it. Pick your treats, plan on them and don’t allow one treat (like national doughnut day) to turn into a weekend, week or entire summer of poor choices.

Many times, just being aware and conscious of what is going into your body can save you a lot of heartache.

Here’s to a healthier, happier you!

Your Coach,

Jeremy

P.S. I’m thinking of starting a national “push-up” day, anyone want to join me?

2 Secrets Revealed

Psst… Can you keep a secret?

I’ve got two I want to reveal. As they used to say on one of my favorite shows, Seinfield, “It’s going in the vault”. George would tell his best friend Jerry that to get him to share a secret, only to tell it to his fiancee within minutes of leaving.

I’m actually okay with you sharing these two secrets to anyone who will listen. In fact, I want the whole world to know the truth.

Ready?

Secret #1 – Having a glass of wine at night WILL make you fat. I don’t care what the studies show about heart health and red wine being good for you. If you consume a glass or two of red wine most every night you are going to have excess body-fat. Think about what wine is made of, FRUIT, what does fruit have in it, SUGAR, and what does sugar do to your body? I’ll answer for you, it makes you store fat at a much higher rate (and about a million other things).

If you want to drop 6-10lbs really quick, just stop having the wine for a couple of weeks and watch what happens.

Secret #2 – Crunches don’t give you a “six-pack”, COMPOUND MOVEMENTS do that. Unless you are just genetically gifted or under the age of 21, it’s not as simple as going in for a few crunches 2-3x per week and suddenly you have those washboard abs you dream about. Compound movements done correctly, with the right intensity and frequently enough will challenge your core more than doing 10,000 crunches ever will.

If you don’t believe me, try getting under 300 or 400lbs and perform a squat and tell me your core wasn’t working just as much as your legs.

If you are new to the weight training scene or are unsure of what the heck a “compound move” is, here is a basic rundown:

  • Squats
  • Push-ups
  • Pull-ups
  • Swings
  • Snatches
  • Clean and Press
  • Lunge and Curl

It basically means a move that demands more than one muscle group to be engaged. Or as I sometimes say, “a real humbling experience”. Anytime you can maximize your time and perform compound movements you will not only burn more calories, you will build more muscle (which in turn helps you burn more calories), look a heck of a lot better than doing isolation moves like bicep curls and yes… start you on your journey to “six-pack abs”. (That and balanced nutrition of course)

Here is my challenge to each of you. Next time you lift, do ten reps of the above moves, rest then do 10 reps of things like Bicep Curls, Crunches, Tricep Kickbacks, Calf Raises, etc and you tell me which ones are more challenging.

Not sure how to perform these compound moves? Email me back for a FREE Discovery Week of our Classes (Kettlebell, Boot Camp or Semi-Private) and we can show you how effective this style of training can be. jeremy@grittonstraining.com

Your Coach

Jeremy

P.S. If you haven’t heard yet, the summer athlete program begins Monday June 8th (there was an error in the original flyer). We have just a few spots remaining, where our goal is to help your child make varsity, gain more confidence, earn more playing time and or begin on their journey towards a college scholarship. AND GOOD NEWS, I just found out I can accept athletes starting at age 12 now… Email me if you want one of the remaining spots: jeremy@grittonstraining.com

Seared Fish and Garlic Kale & Quinoa in less than 8 minutes.

8 minutesSounds fancy right? Well guess what, it took me all of 8 minutes to prepare.  Gone are the days of the excuse “I just don’t have time, I’m too busy.”  The trick is to be PREPARED.  Preparation is half the battle sometimes and really, if you shop smart, sometimes you can eliminate that headache too. I have made a lot of healthy discoveries along the way and at the risk of never being able to find these in the store again after I post this, I’m going to share it with you.

Label reading is critical when it comes to shopping and convenience food.  Generally I shy away from prepackaged foods and processed snack if I can help it. If you happen to have a Sam’s Club or Costco membership (and if you don’t I recommend shelling out the $45 to get one, it’s worth it) there are tons of great fresh and frozen food to be had.  On my latest trip I discovered the key to my busy night dinners when there’s not much time to cook a full blown meal. Whether you shop at Sam’s Club or not you can still find healthier convenience food if you know what to look for.

Frozen Fish: You can find, for between $12-$16, bags of pre-measured, flash frozen wild caught fish.  It makes calculating calories a cinch and you can typically find something you like.  I have found wild caught salmon, tilapia and one of my favorite, pictured, wild tuna steaks.  Fish is a great source of protein without a lot of caloric spending.  Basically, you get a lot of bang for your buck.  A 4oz flounder filet is about 20g of protein and only 90 calories. Not to mention fish is rich in nutrients and those famous omega’s. Make sure you aren’t buying pre-marinated fish which could pack on some unwanted sugar and fat.

samsclubSide Dishes: I have found healthy alternatives to many side dishes in Sam’s club that sometimes only require 90 seconds of microwaving.  My latest find is Garlic Kale and Quinoa.  You simply put the bag in the microwave for 3 1/2 minutes and you’re done.  Cooked to perfection.  Half the bag was 180 calories and full of healthy leafy greens and complex carbohydrates (essential!).  Quinoa also packs in some protein (about 6 grams) and is also an omega champion.

One word of caution when buying pre-mixed dishes – READ THE LABELS.  The brand I bought also had a kale and squash mix that looked great but was “maple” flavored.  So what could be a healthy dish was more like a 16g of sugar side dish.

I thawed one 4 ounce piece of fish in a bowl of tepid water.  Seared it with a tsp of sesame oil and topped it with a store bought wasabi dressing.  The result of my shopping trip was a very quick and easy meal made in less than 8 minutes.  If you don’t like tuna, any fish will work!

What to look for:

Balance.  We always aim for balance of healthy protein and complex carbohydrates.  However don’t be scared off by higher carb foods like quinoa, brown rice and potatoes.  These are all really healthy for you, you just have to combine then with protein and watch the serving sizes.  Measure!

Hidden Sugar.  Something we sometimes forget to look for.  You’ll be shocked to read the label of your Strawberry Greek yogurt to see it has 21g of sugar in it.  That’s as much as 6 Chips Ahoy cookies.  Sugar adds up and it’s sneaky!

Serving Size. Don’t just look at the Calorie number.  That number is for ONE serving size so be sure to read how many servings are in each package or container.  Sometimes there are more than one serving in there so you have to portion it out or account for the whole thing.

Wild Caught.  Wild caught fish is healthier for you and a safer bet when it comes to eating fish.  Fish in general is a great staple to add to a healthy diet but it would be nice if it wasn’t contaminated with junk from farms.