Welcome back to another edition of Lean Body Fitness Secrets E-zine! Feel free to forward this E-zine to any of your friends, family, or co-workers that you feel may enjoy it. If you received this as a forward and would like to receive a free subscription to this E-zine, go to Free Fat Loss Tips Newsletter
Do You Have a Sweet Tooth?
The recipe I'm giving you this week is something that I came up with a few years ago that will definitely satisfy all of you chocolate lovers out there. It's a recipe that will satisfy both your sweet tooth and your muscles, without packing on the flab! Now I will admit, I have a sweet tooth…big time! So, in order to satisfy my sweet tooth and avoid packing on the blubber, I have to be a little savvy about putting together my sweet treats.
Even with as hard as I work out, if I give in to a candy bender for a couple days, the abs start to disappear pretty quickly! What works well for me and some other people I know, is to satisfy my sweet tooth with just a small piece of super dark chocolate when the sweet tooth comes knocking. You get a little shot of antioxidants as well as a smooth satisfying treat.
Fruit is another smart solution to the sweets attack…but I'm talking real whole fruit, not juice, and not the canned stuff loaded with corn syrup! It's simply pretty difficult to overeat on fruit. Think about it. You could eat one donut and easily pack away 400 or 500 calories depending on what type of donut it is. You'd have to eat 5 or 6 apples to take in the same amount of calories.
I think it's fair to say that the donut would probably not fill you up that much, but I can guarantee you'd be full if you tried to eat 6 apples in one sitting! Anyway, here's the recipe. I like to use it as a tasty dessert or as one of my midmeals either mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Enjoy!
Geary's Healthy Chocolate Chip Ricotta
Mix all of the ingredients together in a container and you're done! Store in the fridge and enjoy a few spoonfuls each night for dessert. Let me know what you think. I love this little concoction! If you split this into 4 servings, the approximate macro-nutrient breakdown per serving would be:
20 g. protein; 19 g. carbs; 11 g. fat; 260 calories
By the way, you get 84 additional lean body recipes like this one with my Truth about Six Pack Abs Program.
If you didn't already know, ricotta cheese is mostly made up of whey protein (the fast digesting portion of milk proteins). On the other hand, cottage cheese is mostly made up of the casein portion of milk protein (the slow digesting long lasting milk protein). Both have different benefits (if you're tolerant of dairy products).
Don't be afraid of the fat in this recipe. The fat from cocoa beans that makes up dark chocolate is called cocoa butter. It's a natural fat made up of a good portion of a healthy saturated fat called stearic acid. If you've been mislead by the mass media and have been taught your whole life that saturated fats are unhealthy (which is not necessarily true as you'll see), I'll refer you to the following article in which I make a case for why all fats, including saturated fats, are always healthy, if they have this one characteristic in common. This is an eye-opening article about saturated fats.
Who Likes World's Strongest Man Competitions?
I don't know about you, but I love watching those strongman competitions that you see on TV. Now that looks like some good old fashioned fun to me! I'm always looking for fun and different ways to get my workouts in, and nothing spells testosterone better than throwing around kegs, pulling cars with ropes, lifting boulders and giant logs, or slamming huge sledgehammers. Now obviously a guy like me, weighing in at 195 lbs, would never be able to compete with these 350-lb bohemoths, but it doesn't mean normal sized people can't use these training techniques to have a little fun and get great workouts.
A little while back, I met another trainer named Zach Even-Esh at a couple different training conferences. He's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet with a positive attitude that's downright infectious. Well, it turns out that Zach is training a lot of his athlete clients with strongman techniques and getting great results. He's also started a website called Underground Strength Coach. This is for those who are looking for something a little more hard-core…training with a little machismo. Check it out…it's great stuff!
While you're at it, if you like these hard-core training styles, check out this Sandbag Training site. I've been incorporating sandbag training into my routines for about a year or so now, and it's a great way to mix some good variety into your routines. It's very challenging for those of you who are up for challenging your muscles to something new. Remember, the entire world is a potential gym…open your mind to the opportunities, and watch your body start to change!
The "Holidays" are Here…Why Not Try to Lose Weight Instead of the Normal Weight Gain?
Ok, this is a pet peeve of mine. I see so many people using the "holidays" as an excuse to allow themselves to pack on 5, 10, sometimes even 15 lbs of flab during this "let it all go to hell" time of year. My problem with this is that I don't quite understand this mentality.
Let's break this down. If you're gonna call Halloween through New Years Day the "holidays" period, you've got a two month period that many people use as an excuse to pack on that layer of winter insulation around their waists… and then they spend the entire next year trying to get rid of this extra weight! During this 2-month period, you have Halloween day, a Thanksgiving gathering, a couple Christmas family and office gatherings (or Hannukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.) and the New Years Eve party.
So you have about 5-6 days where you will be at parties and gatherings and will find a lot of temptations to overeat. Well, why not go right ahead and eat all you want. Seriously, pack it in until you can't eat any more! Enjoy…live it up! After all, you have 55 other days during this period to eat right.
Who says that this has to be a two-month free-for-all of feasting every single day? Just keep the binging to the party days, be smart on all of the other days, and you'll do just fine. In fact, I personally stuff my face like crazy at all of these parties and get togethers. However, the next day, and the other 55 or so days during this period, I eat healthy just like I normally do, allowing me to maintain the same bodyfat level during the holidays as I do at any other time of year.
Actually, a few overfeeding days mixed in with a consistent healthy diet for the majority of the time actually helps revamp your metabolism to make sure it's not getting sluggish if you've been restricting calories.
So why don't we try something new this year and actually lose flab during the holidays instead of the normal gaining that most people do this time of year! Use the party days as your overfeeding days, stick to a smart healthy diet all of the other days, work out hard, enjoy your holidays, and get ripped by next year! If you want more motivation and a sure-fire strategically planned program to guide you on the way to ripped-ville, check out The Truth about Six Pack Abs.
Well, that's all for this issue of my Lean Body Fitness Secrets E-zine. Stay tuned for my next issue in a couple weeks as I'll reveal more insider nutrition and training tips to keep your workouts and your menus fresh.
I hope you've enjoyed all of this information. Remember…results only come by taking action! Whether you're reading my tips or another fitness expert's tips, don't just read about this stuff and then forget it. Take action right away on building the body you want. You'll feel better, look better, perform better, and live a longer and more enjoyable life.
