Hey everyone I have a few minutes before boot camp and thought I would fill you in on a Trainer Ben “TOP SECRET”.

Enjoy!!!

So I am really excited about this post for several reason but I am also sorry I didn’t write it sooner.

As a fitness professional I am expected to know everything about nutrition, food labels, and how to shop at the grocery store…  Well I do. But what I don’t  know is how you can make grocery shopping enjoyable, cheap, and speedy. And to be honest how many of us have time to read the labels to make sure we are actually eating something healthy.

If you would of asked me six months ago to explain my grocery shopping experience it would go something like this.

• Spending two days in a recipe book (I have A.D.D. small shiny things distract me) it does take two days
• Finally coming to the realization that everything takes too many ingredients and making a list of the same old repeated meals
• Shopping for two weeks worth of dinners just wondering if I can suffer through one more night of  fish and broccoli
• Spending two hours shopping going from the bread to the milk then back to the bread (you may know what Wal-mart I shop at)
• Cussing under my breath at the broken cart because it keeps steering itself towards on coming traffic (I can’t fix this problem just had to throw it in)
• Then spending way to much $$$ on boring meals

OK so you get the point. I’m sure your experience is the same or even worse especially if you have kids.

I have good news I know how to turn that shopping experience into this shopping experience…

• Pre-made grocery list for any size family
• Weekly meals that are never repeated
• The healthiest low fat ingredients (perfect for my boot campers wanting to shed some extra weight)
• You can expect to pay no more than $35-$40 at the grocery store for one weeks worth of dinners.
• Less time at the grocery store because everything is listed in its section of the store (I now spend about 20 minutes shopping for two weeks worth of meals)
• Easy to change out meals if you have a picky eater in the family
• Your shopping cart will look like a nutritionist went with you to the store.
• Great tasting meals
• More time with the family because the meals take just a few short minutes to make.

My SECRET WEAPON is a site called —–> E-Mealz.com

(Read the entire post it is sure to make your life a lot easier)

There are just so many amazing features to this program, you will be amazed!

With E-Mealz, not only will you be saving time by not having to plan your meals out, but the meals are extremely easy to make that you will also save time in the kitchen. Most importantly? The menus are designed to be easy on your wallet so while we’re all feeling the pinch of the economic crisis, E-Mealz will help you to greatly reduce your grocery bills. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Another thing I love about the service is the variety. I used to make the same, boring meals over and over again for lack of ideas. With E-Mealz, you will get a new set of meals each week and your family will never get tired of the same boring meals that you used to prepare.

There are dozens of plans to choose from. They even have the points system plan, which gives you points information for everything you serve. If you’ve done Weight Watchers, you know it can be tough to figure out how many points are in a homemade recipe. Once again, another time saver! Just look at the menu for the day, program the points into your tracker and wham… blam… your done!

When something is so quick and and easy  it usually suffers in the taste category, kind of like this protein bar I have been choking on for the last two hours. Great source of protein but smells like… well, you get the idea.

Not with E-Mealz the meals are not only easy to prepare and low-cost, but they are absolutely delicious.

You can customize your plan to fit your family’s needs. Choose your plan by store, by how many people you will be feeding, by specialties such as low-carb, vegetarian, low fat, and more.

Now, let me explain how the plans work once you subscribe. Each week, you’ll be given a menu to print out that lists all of the meals for the week. Then, you’ll have a second sheet that lists the items you need to purchase for each meal.

What I love about the set-up is that the grocery list items are numbered by meal. So, for example, let’s say your family plans to eat out one night during the week and you don’t need meal #5 on your list. You simply run down your grocery list and cross off all of the items that have a #5 listed next to them.

Items are also listed by aisle, so you don’t have to pour over your list trying to find a frozen food item that’s mixed in with a dry goods item. It’s so easy! Click here to see a sample for any of the available plans.

Okay, here’s the part that I know you’re going to love the most. Are you ready to hear how much it will cost you to get all of the above services? To make your life easier and save you money at the store? $1.25 per week!!! Can you believe that? Told you I was excited about this review.

There’s something far more important than anything I’ve mentioned here that you get when you use E-Mealz: More time with your family. Dinners together at the table (so important!). And less stress so you can enjoy that time even more. You can’t put a price on that!

Dave Ramsey and Trainer B. approve this message.

Hope you enjoyed this review and seriously go check out E-Mealz it is a huge time and money saver.

After shopping healthy be sure to check Oklahoma City’s #1 Boot Camp for all your fat burning needs.

Trainer B.

If you enjoyed this please leave a comment below…

I wanted to drop you a quick blog post to encourage you to not become another holiday weight gain statistic.  I have heard that the average American gains between 4-9 lbs from Thanksgiving to Jan 1st.  Even though Jan 1st is great for my business, I get TIRED of hearing everyone complaining and moaning about being heavier after the holidays!

It is OK to binge ONCE in awhile.  Use it as your 1-3 cheat meals/week.  By limiting the over indulgences to a couple times a week, your body won’t be overwhelmed and should be able to recover and burn those extra calories off.

Believe me, I love Sweet Potato Pie and Apple Pie, but I love be physically fit more.

So the questions is “How do I enjoy Thanksgiving and avoid gaining 5 – 10lbs in one day?”

”By making wise food choices. Cooking the stuffing outside of the turkey reduces its fat content, as does
baking sweet potatoes, instead of loading them with butter, sugar and marshmallows in a casserole. More Healthy Recipes

Pumpkin, an excellent source of beta carotene and vitamin A, is much healthier served as a custard, instead of a pie in a fat-laden crust. However, we have to be realistic,  ”For one holiday meal, people should be allowed to eat their favorite foods.” So, if you can’t do without
Aunt Martha’s candied yams, have some —but wisely. ”Eat small amounts of your favorites, and don’t eat until you’re stuffed, only until you’re satisfied.”

Also, keep up your exercise program. ”Many people stop working out  when they get busy around the holidays, but that’s just when they should be going”. ”Exercise keeps weight down, suppresses the appetite and relieves holiday stress.”

A few things you can do to avoid gaining an extra 10-15 pounds this season is: Mentally be prepared to say “No Thanks, Ive had enough”. Find smaller plates or a small saucer,so you don’t want to over-eat? Also remember, you don’t have to eat at everyone’s house you visit. Or you don’t have to eat everything they bring to your house.

Now, what happens if you do over-eat and you don’t follow any of my suggestions. WELL – I guess I will see you “Black Friday” at 5:30am in Boot Camp, which is where you should be anyway.

Boot Camp will stay right on schedule for the Holidays, don’t worry i wouldn’t let you get away from burpees for more than a day. I have posted the schedule Below and remember to bring a friend.

“Wednesday 25th” Morning 5:30am-6:30am Evening 6:00pm-7:00pm

“Thursday 26th Thanks Giving Day” OFF

Friday 27th “Black Friday” Morning 5:30am-6:30am Evening 6:00pm-7:00pm

Trainer Ben

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Yes I am going to push my foot over the line and give you the " Sex talk". Don't worry this isn't the the same one your parents had with you. Here is quick story for ya' This is a bit humorous to me because early on in my business I worked with 90% women. After a few months of my ladies getting wonderful results they started to drop like flies… Why?  Because they were getting a lot more (NOOKIE) and ended up pregnant. Their great results led to more activities and almost put me out of business… Gotta Love the IRONY. Enjoy!!!

What can stop colds, coronaries & diabetes?

Yippee … "SEX"!!! A healthy sex drive will leave you peaking in more ways than one.  People who have a lot of nookie most often experience health benefits which can leave them in much better physical form than those who don’t.  Sex can help fight flab, ward off colds and make you live longer. The sex research center in Kinsey Institute, says: “There is definitely a correlation between health and sex. If you are healthier, you are going to have more sex. “Making love provides a cardiovascular workout and floods the body with feel-good chemicals.” Sex is associated with good health and a longer life, a survey by the American Association Of Retired Persons reveals. Almost half of over-50s — 44 per cent — who described their health as excellent or very good had intercourse at least once a week. But just 20 per cent of those with only fair or poor health made love this often. It could be due to dehydroepiandrosterone  a.k.a. DHEA — which floods the body during sex and surges on orgasm. Bloodstream levels of this hormone are five times higher than normal when sexual pleasure peaks. DHEA has been shown to be beneficial in fighting reduced insulin response and middle-age spread.

Sex Helps with Blood Pressure

In the heat of the hump, sex increases blood pressure but in the long run it reduces it — cutting the risk of stroke. A study in Biological Psychology says regular sex lowers diastolic blood pressure — the lower number that shows the reading when your heart is resting. Satisfying sex also increases output of the chemical transmitter dopamine, which improves relaxation and counteracts stress hormones associated with hypertension. Low libido can also be an early warning of blood pressure problems. Doctors know that men who have hypertension are likely to have erectile dysfunction.

Sex Combats Diabetes

The exercise and calorie burning benefits of sex help reduce Type 2 diabetes risk. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that DHEA, released when we orgasm, improves insulin action. It  combats central obesity abdominal region, love handles and back fat.. Carrying weight around the stomach is a known risk factor for diabetes because the fat releases hormones called adipokines that seem to weaken the body’s glucose tolerance. Animal studies show DHEA protects against this damage too.

Sex Gives the Heart a Boost

Men who have sex less than once a month are twice as likely to have a fatal heart attack than men who make love at least twice a week. Dr Carol Cooper says: “Sex is great for the cardiovascular system but how much you get out depends on how much effort you put in. “If it’s not getting your heart racing, you’re doing it wrong. “Patients with heart problems sometimes worry about dying on the job, but that’s very rare. If you can manage two flights of stairs you are probably fit enough for sex.” Because it boosts circulation, sex increases the supply of oxygen to cells and stimulates the activity of various organs and systems within the body. Erectile dysfunction can also indicate cardiovascular problems.

Sex Helps Control Weight

Just 30 minutes of sex will burn around 200 calories, so if you have sex five days a week, that’s equivalent to two-and-a-half days of my weight loss boot camp. Fitness expert Nicki Waterman, says “For best results, women can hop on top because this will help firm their thighs and tone their belly.” An orgasm can burn 60-100 calories, 30 minutes of foreplay will blast 90 calories. And orgasms release both enkephalins and dopamine. These feel-good body chemicals help to reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol which is associated with weight gain, particularly around the tummy. They also flood the body with DHEA, which attacks belly fat, according to researchers at Washington Univeristy School of Medicine. Volunteers were given 50mg of DHEA and a second group took a dummy pill. Women lost 10.2 per cent of their abdominal fat and men lost 7.4 per cent.

Sex … the Health Defense

A healthy sex life will help keep colds at bay. Making love raises the levels of immunoglobulin A — or IgA — the frontline of the body’s immune system, according to scientists at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, US. They tested saliva samples of 112 students and found that those who had sex once or twice a week had higher levels of IgA than those who abstained or had sex less than once a week.

Proud Performance

Having sex the night before something stressful, such as an exam or having to make a speech, will improve your performance, according to a  study reported in Biological Psychology.

It releases happy body chemicals including dopamine, endorphins and enkephalins. Some studies suggest it can boost sporting performance, particularly in women. One theory is that they get a boost from raised levels of the male hormone testosterone. “For other athletes, a bit of extra aggression could be the difference between winning and losing. In this case I would suggest complete and satisfactory sexual intercourse the evening before the game or big decision.”

Sex Banishes Headaches

It might be the most tried-and-tested excuse to avoid having sex, but it seems a headache can disappear after you have a good romp. Orgasms release oxytocin and endorphins, natural chemicals which reduce pain. A study in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine found that volunteers who inhaled oxytocin vapour boosted their pain threshold by more than half. These pain-suppressing chemicals will also provide relief from both PMS and arthritis.

Sex Helps Heal Thyself  @ (super hero speeds)

Oxytocin — known as the bonding chemical — is responsible for that warm glow that comes after good sex. It can also help heal wounds. Studies show that high levels of oxytocin damp down inflammation-causing chemicals and speed up healing by as much as 25 per cent.

Sex Assists with Sleep

Once again you have oxytocin to thank. When released by satisfying sex, it acts as nature’s nightcap. Men are the most susceptible to this hormone — which is why they generally fall asleep within two-to-five minutes after sex and women take 20-to-25 minutes to nod off.

Please comment below!!! And If you haven't joined in on the amazing fat blasting workouts click here to get started at my Indoor Fitness Boot Camp.

One area that I can’t say I have much expertise or authority in, is getting kids to eat healthy.  I always get criticized that my food recommendations and choices aren’t kid friendly.  Of course I read and study on the matter, but until I really have experienced and lived by example, I don’t have much to say on the topic. A close friend and trainer  recently got a very passionate email from a woman he works with who was tired of hearing moms blame their kids for not being able to eat healthy. He forward it to me and   after reading her long email, I asked if she would be willing to write  a guest post, and she accepted.  So here is an-in-your-face challenge from one mom to another!

Enjoy!

“I have heard many times Moms say some version of “I know I need to change my eating habits to lose weight, but I can’t get my kids to eat healthy meals”.

As Moms, we pick many battles for the health & safety of our kids: wash your hands, buckle up, wear bike helmets, brush your teeth. We also get them regular health check ups and vaccinate them.

However, at one of the most basic needs of children-healthy eating-we draw the line and choose to lose the battle. Eating healthy is one of the most important keys to health and wellness for any age; it’s one of the most preventative measures for our immediate and life long health. Yet, time after time, Moms back down from the battle.

I’m not one of those moms that backs down from that battle. Even when embarked on my own battle to lose 30 lbs last year, my kids ate everything I ate from grilled veggies to salmon to ratatouille (all recipes from my Cooking Light magazine). What I’m about to tell you may seem too strict to some, but it’s worked for me.

My kids have never been made special meals. They eat what we eat, because we eat healthy, balanced meals at home. Because of an unhealthy addiction to processed food (which I blame on my pregnancy cravings for lunch meat, hot dogs and Cousins subs), my eldest fought us from day one of table food. Our rule was simple, he had to take a bite for every year he was old. He longer he fought and whined, the more of his helping he had to eat. He would sit for an hour. After that, his plate was removed, wrapped and served to him at the next meal. He did not get any snacks until that meal was gone. He’s 11 now and we still do this battle once and awhile. More often than not, however, he eats whatever is in front of him.

Like most moms, I get tired of battles, even this one that I feel strongly about. My kids have some favorite healthy meals that I fix regularly for them like tacos (complete with veggie toppings), enchiladas (meat and/or black bean), meat loaf and homemade spinach calzones. Also, when I’m serving an entrée that’s likely to encourage a battle, I try to balance that with a favorite veggie or fruit side dish. My kids eat spinach salad, sugar snap peas, grilled veggies & black bean and mango salad. And sometimes, I just make all of the grown up favorites and everyone just deals with it!

My kids also are good about making their own healthy choices for snacks. My kids love apples with peanut butter, pretzels, string cheese, whole wheat bagels with cream cheese, yogurt (plain with our own fruit put in it), dried fruit and popcorn. Summer time is always snack-easy because my kids love all the fresh fruit and vegetables that are readily available.

Don’t get me wrong-despite choosing this battle most of the time, my kids also get their share of gooey granola bars, Popsicles, mac and cheese, pizza and French fries. Its just not a mainstay in their diet. And I definitely don’t let it impact mine!

I know my process of teaching healthy eating may be contrary to what the experts say regarding food battles and lifelong eating habits. I just disagree based on my past experience. You see, my mom picked this battle with me. And here I stand, no eating disorders of any kind and a wealth of knowledge about good and bad foods (not that I always make the right choice, but its not due to ignorance).

One thing I make sure my kids are very clear about as I’m making them take two more bites- its not about the food and the battle. It’s about how much I love them and want to do everything in my power to keep them healthy because their wellness is the most important thing to me. They are worth the battle.”

-Jackie

Trainer Ben here hope you enjoyed this. It impacted me and I don’t have kids yet. I have posted  some pics below that were sent to me from a friend who took a vacation to Walt Disney World. I was going to use them for a later post but i feel they work well here. Don’t be this type of example to your children they deserve so much more. As you scroll through the pics ask yourself what you think is going to happen to these kids as they get older.

Nursing Directory

Let’s begin by defining the word “diet”. A “diet” is any severe restriction of food or calories that’s temporary. Most conventional diet programs call for extremely low calories: 800-1200 or less. Any time you restrict calories drastically like this, you will lose weight. So if your only criteria for success is weight loss, and you don’t care where the weight comes from, or how long it stays off, then you could say that “all diets work”.

There are two major problems with this approach: First, the weight loss from very low calorie dieting almost never lasts; 95% of the people who lose weight on conventional diet programs can’t keep it off. The second problem is that most of the weight you lose from low calorie dieting is muscle, not fat. If permanent fat loss without losing muscle is your goal (it should be), then it would be closer to the truth to say “diets never work”.

Statistics prove that diets never work in the long term. If they did work, then how do you explain the huge obesity problem today? An why is it getting worse? According to the National Institute of Health, there are over 100 million overweight people in the United States. That’s 55% of the adult population! Over 20% of the U.S. adults are clinically obese, which means they are at risk for one or more of over 30 health problems that are associated with excess body fat.

Despite the fact that there are more diet programs and weight loss products available than ever before, obesity has continued to rise. The Center for Disease Control recently announced that the number of people in the United States who are clinically obese (at least 30% over their ideal body weight) increased from one in eight in 1991 to nearly one in five in 1999.

There’s a valid scientific reason why most diets fail dismally. Most people make the classic mistake of trying to “starve” the fat with strict diets. However, because the human body has a complex and infallible series of defense mechanisms to protect you from starvation, it is physiologically impossible to lose fat with very low calorie diets. As soon as your body senses a food shortage, these defense mechanisms start to kick in. The human body is simply too “smart” for the restrictive very low calorie diet approach to ever work.

Why Eating Less Doesn’t Always Work

If you eat more calories than you burn, you will store the excess as body fat. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, then you will lose fat. Simple mathematics, right? Well, not exactly.

If fat loss were as black and white as calories in vs. calories out, then how do you explain why some overweight people eat less than lean people, yet they still can’t lose an ounce? And how is it possible for someone with a 2200-calorie maintenance level to eat only 800 to 1000 calories a day without losing any weight?

Using the strictly mathematical model, if you cut out 1000 calories per day from your maintenance level, that will add up to a 7000-calorie deficit in one week. There are 3500 calories in a pound of stored body fat, so cutting out 1000 calories a day should- in theory-produce a weight loss of two pounds per week. Actual real world fat loss rarely works out with such mathematical precision.

Rob Faigin, writing the  book “National Hormonal Enhancement”, makes a humorous, but true observation about calorie balance and weight loss. Faigin says, “If there existed an airtight mathematical relationship between caloric intake and weight loss, cutting caloric intake from 3000 to 1000 would result in a 60,000 calorie per year deficit- and would result in a 200 pound weight loss after a year. What if the person began the diet weighing 200 pounds, would he disappear?”

When a calorie deficit is first introduced, weight loss generally occurs rapidly, just as the numbers would dictate, but it never takes long before weight loss slows, and then eventually stops completely. Why does this happen? Why is it that you don’t lose 50 pounds in 25 weeks or 100 pounds in 50 weeks with a 1000-calorie deficit?

The explanation is quite simple: Over thousands of year, human have developed a weight-regulating mechanism that recognizes when there’s a food shortage and decreases energy expenditure to “protect you”. This survival mechanism is known as the “starvation response”.

The Starvation Response

You can survive for months without food. You’ve probably heard stories about people getting lose in the mountains or wilderness for months with no food at all (only water), or being confined in a prisoner of war camp for years with only tiny amounts of food. What makes surviving under these conditions possible is your body’s remarkable ability to slow down its rate of calorie burning.

When your body senses deprivation it says to itself, “It looks like this is all the food we’re going to be getting for a while, so we’d better stop burning so many calories and start saving our energy. This way we’ll be able to survive longer on the little amount of food we have.”

The starvation response developed largely from exposure to adverse environmental conditions like droughts, natural disasters and food shortages. Furthermore, there were no supermarkets ten thousand years ago- if people wanted to eat, they had to either grow their food or kill it. It’s likely that at times, ancient man didn’t know when the next meal was coming and may have only eaten once or twice a week. The starvation response evolved in humans to ensure the survival of the species.

Your Body Can’t Tell The Difference Between Dieting and Starvation

This wonderful feature of human evolution is a blessing if you’re stranded out in the wilderness with no food. During periods of starvation, the body slowly begins to feed off itself, burning fat stores, muscle and even internal organs for energy. If you continued to burn calories at your normal rate, you limited reserves of store energy would be exhausted quickly and you would die very soon after your food supply was cut off. The starvation response keeps you alive longer.

Unfortunately, this same life-preserving mechanism can work against you when you’re trying to lose weight because your body can’t tell the difference between dieting and starvation!

Sever calorie cutting always sends your body into “starvation mode”. There’s nothing you can do to stop this from happening other than to avoid sever calorie shortages!

Like I always tell my friends and family, if you want to burn more calories and melt fat as quickly as possible, you must eat small  meals regularly throughout the day and start exercising.

For more ways to lose weight and slash the fat check out my Oklahoma City Boot Camp www.trainerben.com