If you missed Part I, I listed the first 10 of 30 health and fitness tips in this series. Here’s Part II, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or dietician. I do not provide meal plans or claim to be a nutrition expert. I only make recommendations on what foods to eat or avoid based on past experience and my education.
11. According to the Perfect Health Diet, most can benefit from intermittent fasting (IF). We all do it (no eating over night while sleeping and breaking the fast in the morning with breakfast). IF involves extended periods of fasting longer than the normal overnight fast.
There are various protocols out there – I like the 16/8 method, which is fasting for 16 hours and eating within the next 8. I’ve done the Renegade Diet for 4 weeks now and have lost fat all over, particularly in my torso. I’ve also lost 6 lbs. IF will teach you the difference between emotional and true hunger. You’ll also learn that missing meals isn’t the end of the world. Leangains.com, John Berardi’s free IF ebook, John Romaniello and Dan Go’s ebook Fat Loss for Ever and the Perfect Health Diet are other great resources on IF. A more in-depth blog post will be written soon on my experience with IF.
Read more about the Renegade Diet HERE.
12. The 2 most common lower body movement patterns performed in the gym are the squat and hip hinge. Strive to be able to squat like a baby for the rest of your life and learn the difference between hip flexion and spinal flexion – you’ll save yourself a lot of stress later in life.
13. Finding an excuse to workout is ridiculous. Invest in a coach/trainer and learn how you can use stuff around the house for home workouts. You don’t need much and you’ll be surprised how much you can kick your ass with just body weight exercises and a few pieces for equipment.
14. Look at weight training as loaded stretching. Using perfect effective form in the gym will not only build stronger bigger muscles, but will move your muscles near their full range of motion…that is unless you perform 1/2 reps for everything. As Nick Tumminello said last weekend at the Personal Trainer Development Centre Hybrid Training Conference “It’s not rocket surgery,” referring to keeping mobility while participating in a resistance training program.
15. Get fit to run and don’t run to get fit. Your unfit body can’t handle the pounding and high repetition of jogging. Guaranteed, you’ll eventually develop an overuse injury from inefficient biomechanics over time. Resistance and strength train to build tissue tolerance to the pounding. Lose weight with better nutrition – take the load off your joints and soft tissue. You’ll thank me later.
16. Organic sugar is just as bad for you as non-organic sugar. Don’t be fooled! High fructose corn-syrup is terrible for you and is not like regular sugar as the commercials proclaim.
17. Time your carbohydrate intake around your workouts and limit your carb intake the further you get from your workout. Minimize your carb intake on non-workout days. This is known as carb-cycling. It’s worked wonders for me, as I haven’t seen my abs this well since I used to run track. Note: this picture is before I started IF.
18. Eat more fat. Fatty fish, coconut oil, olive oil and organic dairy butter are great sources. Saturated fat has recently been shown to not be linked with heart disease as was originally thought. Read the meta-analysis HERE. Remove trans-fat from your diet and minimize your PUFA consumption. The Perfect Health Diet recommends a diet with 60-65% fat – astronomically high compared to the recommendations by the Canadian Food Guide.
19. Don’t count calories. Eating real food takes care of this. Remember, anything packaged is not real. Even protein powders aren’t truly “real” and should be eaten in moderation.
20. Today’s wheat is shit, so take it out. Check out Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis for more. Gluten-free options aren’t much better in comparison. Take out all artificial sweeteners, MSG, and margarine. MSG is an excito-toxin that prevents you from getting full. Think about this: there are no naturally occurring fat mice in nature, so researchers have to use MSG to fatten up these poor animals for testing (imagine what it can do to you!). Try to eat organic meats and dairy products. Skip on the farmed fish and drink organic coffee. Eat seaweeds and organ meats – something my wife and I still yet to try. Liver and onions anyone?!
Well, that’s it for part II. Stay tuned for part III.
Thanks for reading.
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-JK
