For optimal fitness, longevity, and a lean body, weight training is essential. If you avoid pumping iron because you’re afraid of getting “bulky,” then you’re missing out on one of the best fat-burning methods around.

When you’re weight training, you shouldn’t rely exclusively on the scale to gauge your progress. You can use a body fat tester or a tape measure to track how many inches you’re losing. The size of your body will shrink as you shed fat and build muscle, but your weight may not change as dramatically as you expect. Besides, what’s more important, the number on the scale or how you look in your skinny jeans?
If you’re still not convinced that you need to lift weights, here are 10 reasons why you should reconsider.

1. Burn more fat. Researchers at Tufts University found that when overweight women lifted heavy weights twice a week, they lost an average of 14.6 pounds of fat and gained 1.4 pounds of muscle. The control group, women who dieted but didn’t lift weights, lost only 9.2 pounds of fat and gained no muscle. When you do an intense weight-training program such as ChaLEAN Extreme®, your metabolism stays elevated and you continue to burn fat for several hours afterward. During regular cardio exercise, you stop burning fat shortly after the workout.
2. Change your body shape. You may think your genes determine how you look. That’s not necessarily true. Weight training can slim you down, create new curves, and help avoid the “middle-age spread.” Just look at the amazing body transformations of the women who’ve completed P90X®. Dropping only 3 percent of your body fat could translate into a total loss of 3 inches off your hips and thighs. And no, you won’t bulk up—women don’t have enough muscle-building hormones to gain a lot of mass like men do. If you keep your diet clean and create a calorie deficit, you’ll burn fat.
3. Boost your metabolism. The less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism will be. As women age, they lose muscle at increasing rates, especially after the age of 40. When you diet without doing resistance training, up to 25 percent of the weight loss may be muscle loss. Weight training while dieting can help you preserve and even rebuild muscle fibers. The more lean mass you have, the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories you’ll burn all day long.
4. Get stronger and more confident. Lifting weights increases functional fitness, which makes everyday tasks such as carrying children, lifting grocery bags, and picking up heavy suitcases much easier. According to the Mayo Clinic, regular weight training can make you 50 percent stronger in 6 months. Being strong is also empowering. Not only does it improve your physical activities, it builds emotional strength by boosting self-esteem and confidence.
5. Build strong bones. It’s been well documented that women need to do weight-bearing exercise to build and maintain bone mass, and prevent osteoporosis. Just as muscles get stronger and bigger with use, so do bones when they’re made to bear weight. Stronger bones and increased muscle mass also lead to better flexibility and balance, which is especially important for women as they age.
6. Fight depression. You’ve probably heard that cardio and low-impact exercises such as yoga help alleviate depression, and weight lifting has the same effect. The endorphins that are released during aerobic activities are also present during resistance training. Many women find that regular strength training, in conjunction with psychological treatment, helps lessen their depression symptoms substantially.
7. Improve sports fitness. You don’t have to be an athlete to get the sports benefit of weight training. Improved muscle mass and strength will help you in all physical activities, whether it’s bicycling with the family, swimming, golfing, or skiing . . . whatever sport you enjoy.
8. Reduce injuries and arthritis. Weight lifting improves joint stability and builds stronger ligaments and tendons. Training safely and with proper form can help decrease the likelihood of injuries in your daily life. It can also improve physical function in people with arthritis. A study conducted at the University of Wales in Bangor, United Kingdom, found that mildly disabled participants who lifted weights for 12 weeks increased the frequency and intensity at which they could work, with less pain and increased range of movement.
9. Heart health. More than 480,000 women die from cardiovascular disease each year, making it the number-one killer of women over the age of 25. Most people don’t realize that pumping iron can also keep your heart pumping. Lifting weights increases your “good” (HDL) cholesterol and decreases your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. It also lowers your blood pressure. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that people who do 30 minutes of weight lifting each week have a 23 percent reduced risk of developing heart disease compared to those who don’t lift weights.
10. Defend against diabetes. In addition to keeping your ticker strong, weight training can improve glucose utilization (the way your body processes sugar) by as much as 23 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 weeks of strength training can improve glucose metabolism in a way that is comparable to taking diabetes medication. The more lean mass you have, the more efficient your body is at removing glucose from the blood, which can reduce complications from diabetes or even help prevent type 2 diabetes in the first place.

by Whitney Provost

Brock Huard, former Seattle Seahawks and University of Washington Huskies QB, started doing P90X workouts recently. Brock is the latest athlete that has found P90X to be a great home fitness workout. Brock will be added to the list of celebrities and athletes using P90X. Ashley Wellington-Fahey, of Fit In The City, recently checked in with Brock Huard and P90X:

Brock Huard Talks About P90X

About a month in a half ago, I spoke with 710 ESPN Seattle’s, Brock Huard regarding his recent fitness endeavor, P90X- one of the latest and greatest at home workout systems that incorporates not only a variety of exercises that keep you from plateauing, but also a strict and useful nutritional plan to assist in the process of gaining maximum results. Brock is just past his midway mark of the 90 day plan, so I thought I’d check in with him.

According to Brock he’s lost 10 pounds so far, and noticed that his back has been feeling better than it has in a long time (being a former NFL and Pac 10 Quarter Back, back issues are a likely cause for our midday co-host). Beyond losing weight and finding some relief in his back, he says he’s upped the number of reps he can do on the pull-ups and begun to notice that the core work has been helping him the most.

I LOVE IT! P90X continues to NEVER need a paid endorsement by celebrities or athletes…if you follow the workouts, follow the nutrition plan…the results speak for themselves! I look forward to seeing what Brock Huard has to say about his P90X workouts after he’s finished the 90 days.

Shakeology…not only is it the “healthiest meal of the day“, but the incredible VALUE you get in a single bag of Shakeology is really off the charts and put into a different perspective as you will soon see. My personal Coach, Blake Warrington, went out shopping in Boise to get as many of the ingredients that he could buy that come in Shakeology to see what it would cost. And give us a great visual, both with the dollars value and the snapshots below, of why I will continue to be a HUGE champion for Shakeology. The numbers don’t lie. See for yourself.

And after Blake finished putting the list of these supplements together, Beachbody CEO, Carl Daikeler made the following comment about the receipt:

Awesome demonstration Blake. And even if someone did assemble all that, I am willing to bet that most if not all of those ingredients are not sourced at the same high standards as we use, and they are likely processed so they can stay on the shelf longer. That means the potent properties are cooked and killed before they ever get into the bottle. Not Shakeology – as close to fresh as it comes without picking it off the tree! And do you know how hard it would be to make that $481 concoction taste good? You would throw it all away after one sip. Not Shakeology. I am so proud of this product!

Which would you rather do? Take 38 supplements every day that will cost you over $483.12 every month, or with just one scoop each day of a great tasting meal replacement shake that will cost you just $119.95 per month (just $4 a day – like a coffee and bagel, but WAY better for you) – SHAKEOLOGY! Get It at http://Shakeology.com/timcarter.

Also, Blake could not find 8 additional ingredients that are in Shakeology.

Note: This is a close approximation as to everything in Shakeology and the supplements shown here.

What do you think about that?

Pink was on the Oprah Show with good ol’ Oprah Winfrey. Oprah, as you’ll see in this clip, (if you haven’t seen it already) learns from Pink that P90X is one of the BIG reasons she is in such good physical fitness. I had wrote about her story in an earlier post:

Pink Rocks P90X Workouts On Tour

Are you thinking about getting P90X because of Pink talking about it? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Take action and get your own beach body with P90X!

You’ve gotta see these final 8 Beachbody transformations of 2010. They are being voted on by the Team Beachbody community members. I wonder who will win the 2010 Beachbody Million Dollar Body Grand prize of $25,000? Amazing transformations…see for yourself and tell me who YOU think should win?

Lives are changing…one workout, one meal at a time. I love the Beachbody lifestyle.

Welcome to Part IV of our oh-so-basic nutrition class designed to give you an overview of basic nutrition and make healthy eating much simpler. First, we had an introduction, which was followed by a very simple analysis of what you should eat. Today, we finish our discussion about marketing jargon, with a look at the two of the most successful slogans of all time: fat free and low carb.

Fat Free. We’ll start with fat free because it was popular first. The dreaded “f” word is sorely misused out there in foodopia. About the only thing most of us really know about it is that we might have too much of it on our bodies. Fat is a colloquial term for looking more like Kirstie Alley of the TV show Fat Actress than Kirstie Alley of the ’80s slacker comedy Summer School. Fat is also one of the key nutrients that we must eat for our bodies to keep functioning. And this is where the association problem begins.

Assuming we’re fat because we eat too much fat, marketers decided that by making foods without fat we’d be less fat. This might work if, oh, nutrition was as simple as 1+1=2. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s a science, requiring things like math ‘n’ stuff that we don’t have time for here. All we have time for here is to say this is wrong. If you don’t eat fat, you will die a miserable death. Fat, among other things, is vital for our endocrine systems to function properly. You might not know what this is, but it basically regulates our bodies’ day-to-day functions.

But this marketing “theory” does have some bearing on real life. Fat is nutrient dense. This means that by volume, it has more calories than other nutrients. In fact, it’s about twice as dense as other foods. So you should eat a lot less fat than other things or you might get twice as large. Fat also tends to taste good, so it’s easy to crave. We don’t need much of it, but we like to eat a lot of it. Are you starting to see the issue? There is not just a marketing idea but also a market for low-fat products.

Essentially there are two types of “fat free” or “low fat” labels: those on animal products and those on packaged products. Let’s start with the animals, because it’s simpler.

Fat-free dairy products and low-fat meats simply have their fat removed. There are different types of fat, which we’ll get to later. Animal products tend to have what’s called saturated fat. We need only a very small amount of this to survive. If we eat a lot of animal products, we can easily get too much, leading to high cholesterol levels and other assorted problems. The relatively simple step of removing fat does not take away from these foods’ nutrient values. It just gives you less fat.

Fat-free packaged foods are a whole other matter. Things like cookies, candy, chips, peanut butter, etc., must be scrutinized because the fat is usually just replaced by another ingredient. It’s often sugar, which is usually as bad—if not worse—for you. In some cases, it’s extreme. Peanut butter, for example, is loaded with fat, but most of it is unsaturated fats your body can use. “Low-fat” versions usually include a lot of sugar, and sometimes trans fats, which are man-made fats that have no place in your diet. So by eating the low-fat trade-off, you’re actually eating worse! Then there’s candy, which sometimes sports a “fat free” label, as if not having fat is a perfectly good excuse to stuff yourself with gummy bears. Using this type of logic, why not consider crack? It gives you a lot of energy and, after all, it’s fat free!

Bottom line: Fat free and low fat can be okay, especially in animal products. “Fat free” doesn’t mean “sugar free,” though. Learn to read labels. There’s often more to the story. Some fat is a necessary and healthy part of your diet.

Low Carb. Following the astonishing success of “fat free,” the “low carb” label hit our shelves a few years back with all guns blazing. Virtually no labels were left unturned. Even when low-carb diets were somewhat debunked, the “low carb” labels remained. Now you might see a “low carb” moniker on just about anything, from meat to rice to beer. Some foods warrant this, but, in most cases, it’s absurd marketing jargon—it makes the aforementioned “fat free” slogan look like a paragon of advertising honesty. We’re talking “swamp land in Florida for sale” territory here. Let’s look at the worst offenders.

• Meats and veggies. Meats don’t have any carbs, so when a meat product is advertised as “low carb,” it’s like boasting that your cat doesn’t bark. Veggies, though, are mainly carbs. However, they have very few calories—so few that low cal should be their trademark, but, instead, advertisers promote them as low carb. Water, with no calories, would also fit this bill, but I haven’t seen low-carb water yet, or have I?
• 
  
• Alcohol. Low-carb alcohol is probably the most misleading label claim running today. A regular beer, for example, has around 12 grams of carbs. A low-carb beer may have 5 grams of carbs, so you’re getting about 25 to 30 fewer calories, hence those commercials with the finger treadmills to burn off all the extra carbs in regular beer. But both have alcohol, which makes up most of the calories in beer. While technically not a carb, alcohol has a similar impact on your metabolism regardless of whether it’s regular or low carb, almost twice the calories if you opt for the regular type, and few nutrients. So low-carb alcohols are a misnomer. Sure, they’re all technically low carb, but they do the same thing to your system that you are avoiding carbs for in the first place. It’s 100 percent gimmick.

• Chocolate and other sweets. We’ve now come up with all sorts of concoctions to avoid dreaded carbs. Two popular additions are artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols. Basically, these are substances that aren’t really food, have had no long-term testing performed on them, and should not be a major part of your diet unless you like living dangerously for something with very little upside.
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• Starches. You can now find low-carb versions of all of the carb-laden foods from the past. Some companies sell low-carb bread and pasta, and are probably well on their way to harvesting a low-carb potato. Some of these changes are positive. Chips, for example, are junk in the first place, and most of the low-carb options are healthier. However, changing breads and pastas alters ingredients in a way that may or may not benefit you. You see, you need carbs for your body to function properly, especially your muscles and your brain. So if you are active, and like to think, you don’t want to cut carbs completely out of your diet. The trick with carbs is to eat only as many as you can burn off because your body can’t store them. It’s only excessive carb consumption that will make you fat. With that in mind, we don’t need a genetically altered potato. What we need is to make better choices in the first place.
  

Bottom line: “Low carb” labels are completely unnecessary. It’s either spin doctoring or altering a food that you shouldn’t be consuming in the first place. With minimal knowledge of how to eat, you can strike the words “low carb” from your vocabulary.

Other odd label claims. Right on the bandwagon we find “antioxidant” teas, cancer-fighting calcium, immune-boosting juices, and so on and so forth. It’s nearly endless. Practically every health claim that you see on a label should be ignored, unless you’re in the drug store. What’s happening is that manufacturers’ marketing departments are latching on to any bit of research that shows something positive and spinning it right off the ol’ turntable. For example, tea contains polyphenols, an antioxidant. Always has, always will (unless we alter it), but it’s not just Lipton any longer, it’s “antioxidant” tea! If your diet lacks calcium, you have a higher risk of cancer, as well as an entire cornucopia of maladies; since calcium is essential for human existence, it’s now “cancer fighting.” It goes on and on. These claims are not always bogus, by any means. Tea and calcium are great. But it sheds some light on a potential problem if you blindly believe anything you read.

Bottom line: The best defense is a good offense. The more you understand about nutrition, the less likely you are to be duped. Learning to read a food label is a great place to start.

So next time, we’ll discuss how to read a food label. And since this is 911, we’ll even learn how to do it in 15 seconds or less!

by Steve Edwards

I do a lot of talking & writing about eating healthy, making better food choices, drinking Shakeology. There’s also a bunch of videos scattered throughout this site on nutrition. But this one is funny. I ran across it on YouTube. Maybe I just find it funny. I dunno. You tell me.

Do YOU Eat Crap?

And the verdict is???? Funny or not funny?

Everyone has gone through it in their lives. At one point or another, they were in good physical condition. Maybe it was all the way back in junior high because of PE class. College? Until you got married? And then…life happens. A career. Family and kids. Car accidents. Injuries. That physical fitness level you once has since turned into a couch potato vegetating in front of the TV with a bag of fast food for dinner ready to watch the lastest episode of LOST. Too tired to even cook a healthy meal, let alone do a workout like P90X or INSANITY.

In the last year on Facebook as I’ve been sharing about my journey back from a car wreck and living the Beachbody lifestyle, I’ve had the joy of watching many friends from high school, my Beachbody customers and fellow Beachbody Coaches find that spark of motivation to change their lives through fitness. They’ve taken action to move from that sedentary lifestyle and started on the path to get back in the fitness routine.

It’s been even MORE exciting to see their changes! Whether they’re following The Biggest Loser workouts, CrossFit workouts, a running plan, or just walking around the block…they’re getting active! Taking control of the reigns of the health. Not only today, but their health and physical fitness for years to come!

I myself am getting back into a fitness routine. Many of you know I’ve been in the process of healing from the wreck over two years ago that has left me with 3 herniated discs in my neck. Late last year, I completed a very modified version of P90X. I was thrilled to be active again and was looking forward to seein’ my 6 pack abs again in the new year. At the beginning of 2010, I started the P90X Lean workout routine with the P90X DVD’s.

Then disaster hit. Ending my third week into the P90X workouts we found out our water heater had been leaking and ruined the flooring in the bedroom, under the stairs and a portion of the living room!

So everything we had just moved into the house the month before had to be moved upstairs into the loft and out to the garage. Then the carpet was ripped up, the sub-flooring ripped up. We then find the water damage in the sheet rock…there goes the walls too. Sooo…there was nowhere in the house to do my P90X workouts.

My daily P90X workouts then became a combination of walking and running at the gym. Push-ups and pull-ups…you know the basics of physical fitness. And my good ol’ 35lb kettlebells I had just purchased. I wanted to continue getting back in the fitness routine and wasn’t going to let lack of space get in the way of my commitment to myself. So the space in the door frame of the utility room was my home fitness gym.

A week later, the dehumidifier had finished it’s job and the remodeling started. Six plus weeks after the chaos began, the house was put back together. And that door frame & I spent 20-30 minutes a day…hangin’ out. haha Seriously, nothing was going to stop me from getting a workout in. I had committed myself to getting into the best physical condition I could. Like my wristband says:

Basically all I’m sayin’ is…life is life. Even if it throws some challenges at you, you have to be committed to what you want to do. You don’t stop altogether just because you’ve had a set back or face seemingly overwhelming odds. Regardless if it’s being 20 lbs overweight, missing a workout, 6 months of workouts…heck even if you ate the rest of that half-gallon chocolate mint chip ice cream. Oooh, or those ice cream bars!

We are given 1440 minutes a day…we make choices how we’ll live them out.

Fitness is a lifestyle choice. Beachbody is a lifestyle choice. You choose to be active, you choose to eat better. Day by by.

Yesterday is just a memory and tomorrow isn’t a guarantee…but what choices we make today can deeply influence what tomorrow will be like when it comes.

Getting back in the fitness routine, working out and eating healthy is a choice. It’s a commitment to change. It’s a lifestyle with struggles early on to find a rhythm in living, to be consistent in eating, working out…but then, after a while, the fitness lifestyle is no longer a struggle…it becomes routine.

What are you doing today? What habitual routine are you doing?

Yep, you read it right…fat burning candy. With chocolate & coconut? I LOVE chocolate and coconut! (Hi, my name is Timothy Carter & I’m a choco-holic! haha) Mounds? Almond Joy? This recipe is better for you!

A few years ago my wife stumbled across the incredible chocolate coconut ball recipe that she scribbled down on a piece of paper. I called it the “Fat Burning Candy” recipe. As about as natural of a “healthy candy” can get in this day and age of high fructose corn syrup and processed foods.

I love dark chocolate and I love coconut. Coconut meat, coconut oil, coconut water…yum! If you know anything about the benefits of coconut oil…you know that coconut oil has fat burning benefits! Don’t believe me? Go Google it. I dare ya…

Okay…so here it is…the recipe you want to try:

Fat Burning Candy

1/2 cup organic Cocoa Powder
3 cups of shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 Cup coconut oil, raw organic
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup chopped raw almonds (or macadamia nuts)

Mix the Cocao and coconut together. Add coconut oil and agave nectar. Then mix in the chopped almonds.

Place in small mounds (spoonful) on tray and put in freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Once they’ve hardened in the freezer they’re ready to eat and/or store in a freezer bag. They’ll store for weeks in the refrigerator. Remember, it doesn’t take much more than 72 degrees for coconut oil to turn to liquid.

These are great chocolate & coconut candy treats for burning fat and satisfying the sweet tooth.

Everything in moderation though!

Let me know what you think when you’ve tried ‘em! What do you think of the recipe?

The Shakeology Challenge. I’ve had a lot of family and friends on Facebook of late been asking why Shakeology is expensive or why would I give up drinking my favorite Starbucks drink? Well, I think this graphic will give you COMPELLING numbers why I’m sold on Shakeology in general and DEFINITELY over drinking ANYTHING from Starbucks.

What has got to be shocking is the number of carbs and sugars in Shakeology vs the amount in that Starbucks coffee drink. I remember having a couple of those a day. I have a few friends (I won’t name names) that are drinking down 3 or 4 of those coffees a day to keep going. I hope seeing this changes your mind.

Instead of drinking all that coffee and sugar…replace those high calorie, high sugar drinks with Shakeology…and watch a couple inches disappear from your waist over the next month. Heck, a couple pounds off the scale too. Not only that, how about increased energy, VITALITY and STAMINA!

Next time, I’ll show you a comparison between Shakeology and a very popular fruit smoothie drink.

For more information, you can check out these posts on Shakeology.

Shakeology The Ultimate Fast Food Meal

What is Shakeology Where Can I Get Shakeology?

Or you can go directly to the source for more info: Shakeology.