Eating For Your Goals

I'm back again after a long weekend filled with homework, but I definitely wanted to make sure I addressed what I consider a very important topic regarding diet and exercise.  Now I may have touched on it once or twice (or about ten times...), but never have devoted an entire article to this simple little piece of wisdom.  And that special nugget of knowledge, my friends, is that even if you're training hard as heck to accomplish whatever goals you may have set in the gym, you're only concerning yourself with half of what you need.  That's right, if your diet doesn't compliment your goals, you may never reach your true potential under the bar, on the track, in the pool, or wherever else you want to make your mark on history.

Now sure, we all know to "eat healthy, whole foods."  But that's wayyyy too general to work sometimes.  I'm talking more specifically about eating a diet tailored EXACTLY to your sport or activity.  If you haven't done the research and adjusted your intake regarding both quantity, quality, and what exactly it comprises, then you aren't going to hit it perfectly day in and day out like you need to in order to become the best.  Let's delve into this a little further, and see exactly what I mean.

Before I go much farther, let me address one thing.  I mentioned eating was half of performing well.  Actually...it isn't.  You can eat crap, train as hard as physically possible, and still see results.  But will they be optimal results?  Will they come as quickly as physically possible?  Will you look and feel your best the most possible amount of days?  If you say yes, you're kidding yourself.  OF COURSE NOT.  Eating may not be everything, but it's a HUGE part of performing the way you want to perform.

Now each sport/activity/goal you have in mind has a specific diet type that works optimally for the desired results.  Here are a few examples of what you need to be eating based on what exactly you want to achieve:

Lose fat:  Clean foods, raw foods, whole foods, all in a caloric deficit will work very well.  To see optimal results, keep a lot of water in your diet, keep the sugar far away from your piehole, and make sure you're getting lean meats dense with protein, complex, slow digesting carbs full of fiber and whole wheat, and healthy fats like nuts and olive oil.  You MUST keep in a caloric deficit though, which will be a different value for everybody based on weight, age, metabolism, muscle density, and all sorts of other factors.  To lose large amounts of fat, ketogenic diets (very low carb) diets have been known to work well, and I have a whole article on those, so read up.

What doesn't work as well:  Junk foods, high in saturated fats, hydrogenated fats, and especially lots of sugar.  Sure, if you're in a caloric deficit at the end of the day, that's great, and you'll still lose weight, but I can almost guarantee it won't happen as quickly or efficiently as possible.  You're basically using up calories that instead could be replaced with lean meats to help maintain muscle mass and fiberous veggies that will keep you full.  If you eat like crap, you'll tend to look like...well...you know.  

Gain Mass:  Lots of food.  You need to be in a caloric excess at the end of the day, but try to keep an eye on the actual amount you go over your maintenece (the number of calories you require to maintain your weight).  Overshoot this number by too much, and you'll start putting on an excessive amount of fat.  And we all know the name of the game when gaining mass is trying to put on muscle with as little fat as possible.  To do this, like I'll always say, keep it clean, but calorie dense.  Red meats are great, as are scoops of peanut butter and sweet potatoes.  Gaining mass isn't about eating anything and everything in sight.  This is what's called a "dirty bulk," and almost always results in too much fat gain and very little actual muscle gain.  Train hard in the gym, do big, compound lifts, and don't skimp on the meals.

What doesn't work as well:  Obviously, eating under or at maintenance levels will make any gains in size impossible.  Yes, that's right, IMPOSSIBLE.  It goes against the laws of nature.  If you don't consume more energy than you use, your body won't have an excess to build things bigger and stronger.  So if you're trying to gain a six pack AND get bigger, you might as well forget about it.  Focus on the muscle, eat big and often, and worry about cutting up later.  Seriously, there isn't much more of a futile situation than trying to get big and eating too small.  Get it?

Gain Strength:  Here's the deal, if you're looking to gain strength, like gaining mass, you need food.  Sure, keeping it clean is always the goal.  Eat a boatload of protein, lots and lots of complex carbs, and as always, healthy fats like nuts and seeds.  Eat a LOT of them.  Your body needs every ounce of fuel to replenish itself for maximal loading as frequently as possible.  Here's the deal though.  Strength athletes, if truly specific to their sport, generally don't get all the power they need from healthy, clean foods.  Usually they'll throw in a few borderline foods, and many just go all out on the junk.  Sure, it's bad for you, but a burger, a piece of meat pizza, and a pile of fries really helps you push a LOT of extra weight up.  Believe me I know, some of my best squat sessions were after an accidental overload of food the night before.  All that caloric energy, while not optimal for lean looks and rippling abs, sure works great for strength.  Would I reccommend going for the junk?  HECK NO!  I believe there's always a clean alternative, and here it just lies in eating more food.  Drink milk, eat peanut butter, have a couple of sweet potatoes.  That'll give you the energy.  It may fill you up, but hey, your stomach could lose a bit of stretching. 

I will say this however.  If you're training for strength, you're not allowed to cry if you slip up and eat a burger and a few pieces of cake.  Remember, you don't train to be lean, you train to be strong.  If you go over caloric requirements, even by a lot, so what?  Use it to fuel your workout.  Eat as best you can.

What doesn't work as well:  Obviously, less food doesn't work.  Cutting carbs DOESN'T WORK.  Low calorie diets DON'T WORK.  Heck, I'll say in general that trying to put a cap on your calories DOESN'T WORK! If you want to be strong, eat when you're hungry, eat a LOT whenever you can, and make sure you're working hard enough to stay hungry frequently.  I will say that unlike mass gain, it IS possible to get stronger without excess calories, but it's definitely slow going for anyone other than a newbie.  High carb, high fat, high protein.  That's the name of the game for strength under the bar.  

Before you go thinking you can deadlift that, realize that those big plates are 100lbs a piece

Endurance:  Carbohydrates.  Need I say more?  If you're running miles upon miles a day, you need carbs, both simple and complex.  I'm not a runner, so I can't give you a specific diet that will make you as successful as possible.  But I will say that from the endurance athletes I've met, they're always shoveling in the pasta, fruit, and veggies.  Sure, they eat a lot of lean protein to help rebuild ripped up muscles (and pop a lot of joint supplements for those pounded ankles), but as far as I know the main focus is carbohydrates.  This goes for swimming, running, biking, hiking, or other sports/activities where you're active at medium-high intensity levels for extended periods of time.  Your body needs fuel, make sure it gets enough.  

What doesn't work as well:  Well honestly, I was going to say ketogenic diets.  However, I know that there are runners out there who follow ketogenic diets and are quite successful.  I believe these people have been on keto diets for quite some time though, and personally I don't believe it's the greatest idea to limit carb intake and expect to perform as well on extended runs, bike trips, etc.  Don't limit carbs, don't eat in a caloric deficit, and for obvious reasons DON'T DEHYDRATE YOURSELF.  Lots of water, LOTS AND LOTS!

Listen, once again, if you don't eat for your goals, you're probably not going to reach them.  I say probably because for some reason, certain people get lucky.  But those people are few and far between.  Not losing weight?  I'd look to your diet first.  Not improving on your lifts despite lifting heavy day in and day out?  You're probably not eating enough.  Trying to gain mass but the scale won't budge?  Heck...EAT MORE!  Can't seem to run a 5 minute mile?  Well, have a big plate of spaghetti the night before and see if you just can't break that barrier tomorrow.  It's simple stuff.  Sure, there can be lots wrong with a training program, but I'd really make sure your diet isn't off kilter first.  Have a good food base, and go from there.  After all, we are what we eat, and I'll take that saying a step further and say our accomplishments tend to reflect what we eat as well.

And then there's Chad Ochocinco who eats McDonalds every day and still seems to perform better than was thought to be physically possible.  *sigh*, it's people like him that take away credibility for the healthy stuff.  Oh well.  There's only one of him, and there's many more people like you and me....the normal people.  Just don't follow his example, OK?  Please?

He eats McDonalds EVERY DAY!?!  As Chad would say..."Child Please.."

Eat to be strong, to be fast, and to win.  Good Luck!

Be The BEST, Not The Thinnest

Body fat seems to be the enemy of 90% of gym-goers these days.  They don't lift to get strong, they don't run to get fast, and they most certainly do not pedal on that spinning machine to train for their next summer bike trip.  No, they lift, run, swim, bike, squat, pull, and jump to get LEAN.  They want those rippling abs, popping veins, and to fit into those size 1 jeans.  It's become an obsession, and in my opinion, it has gone too far.

Sure, there are exceptions.  Some people go to the gym for different reasons.  But those "honest to goodness" gym-goers seem to be getting scarcer and scarcer.  I have to ask, what gives?  I lift because I love lifting, and love feeling strong.  I eat healthy because I want my body to perform at top notch levels (a "champion" level, actually), and if I maintain a lean, muscular frame as a result of that, so much the better.  So many people torture themselves to eat so cleanly they're basically grazing with the cows, and run for so long that one of these days they might forget their legs on the treadmill.  All in the name of 7% body fat.  Listen, I'm about to drop some knowledge on you that might surprise you:

Some body fat is actually HEALTHY!  Anywhere between 7-15% is healthy for a male, and 10-20% is healthy for a female (by the way, body fat percentage means the total percentage of body mass you have that's not LEAN body mass.  Lean body mass is muscle, bone, and all other essential body mass.  Body fat is excess adipose tissue.)  Sure, that may seem pretty low if you're an average, slightly overweight middle aged person, but the upper end of this range is extremely achievable through regular exercise and a clean, balanced diet.  And the lower end is still EXTREMELY achievable if you're determined.  Remember, you get out what you put in.  There's no magic trick, but I've given you hundreds of tips and tricks at this point to get started.  So if you're confused, scroll through my articles for workout ideas and awesome diet advice.

But you have to ask yourself.  Is maintaining 7% body fat really what you want?  Sure, it may be nice to look shredded for a month or two, get some good pictures in, but let me tell you something, to get as ripped as this:

takes pure, unfaltering dedication.  Can you do it?  OF COURSE!  But if you ask Kane Sumabat (the guy in this picture, who is sponsored by Controlled Labs, a very successful supplement company), he'll tell you how crazy his workouts are every day, how incredibly strict his diet has to be, and what his life is like (FITNESS FITNESS and MORE FITNESS).  This is his life.  And while it's possible to get cut like him, it may not be worth it to the average individual.  And that's completely, 100% OK.  You can be at 15% body fat and look GREAT.  Heck, you can even be a little higher than that, and look darn good.  It's all about your diet, your dedication, and what you put into it.  If you eat clean and work hard, you will look good, no question about it.  NO...QUESTION...ABOUT IT.

But wait, am I overlooking some crucial advantages to fat loss?  Listen, fat loss can be extremely important.  If you are overweight, trying to lose fat is an extremely reasonable and intelligent goal.  It can help you live a much longer, healthier, more enjoyable life.  But don't forget about the other things the gym represents.  It's a place of self trial, and new challenges.

So here's what I suggest:  Don't JUST run to lose that gut, run to be the fastest you can be.  Don't just lift because you were told to by some stupid article online, lift to be a strong, powerful, impressive individual.  Set goals for yourself.  Jump higher each day, try to squat a little more, run a little faster for a little longer.  Don't think so much about the fat, or being 100% shredded, just try to be the best.  The weight will come off, you'll look amazing, and you'll BE amazing too.  So what if you're not 2% body fat.  If you can out-sprint everyone else, if you can throw more weight over your head than all those other hulking guys, if you can do more burpees in one minute than any other girl, no one will care that you're not some perfectly sculpted bodybuilder.  You're strong, you're fast, you're a BEAST.

Don't go to the gym to be the thinnest.  Go to the gym to be the best there is, was, or ever will be.

Good Luck.

The Short Term Key

Short term goals are some of my best friends, and through writing this article I hope they become some of yours as well.  These little goals are not only easy to think about, but are easily achievable!  That's right, they're goals that you have a very good chance of achieving quite quickly.  Ahhh, doesn't that sound nice?  Accomplishment.  Love that feeling.

And conveniently, they're probably the best stepping stone to that long term goal looming dramatically over your noggin, constantly in your thoughts, keeping you awake at night (muahahahaha....).

But seriously, consider the short term goal your sword, to slay that giant beast.  The bat, to knock down that wavering pinata.  The axe, to hack at that massively daunting oak.  You get the idea.

First, let's define what a short term goal means in OUR situations (at the gym, of course).  They can easily be applied to lifting weights, cardio, flexibility training, even diet!  And the best part is, they keep you on track, keep you coming back for more day in and day out.  And probably their most important job is to keep you feeling good, accomplished, and satisfied.  Let's find out how to start setting some short term goals, shall we?

What can you do now?  This statement is purposely quite general.  What are your current strengths, skills, flexibility, calorie/nutrient consumption, etc.  How do you stack up?  Maybe you bench 190lbs for 4 reps.  Maybe you can jump on a 36" box 5 times in 8 seconds.  Maybe you eat 2500 calories a day and want to lose 3 lbs.  You're only going to know where you stand if you make an effort to record these type of things!  Write them down!  Put them on a note in your ipod (I have one on my iphone entitled "Current PR's"!  Make a voice recording!  I don't care which, just make sure you record your abilities, because if you don't I can almost guarantee you won't make progress (or nearly as much as you could.)

How do you feel?  This one's a little bit harder to fathom, but not too hard to grasp if you really put some thought into it.  After you did those 4 reps of 190lbs on the bench press, how did you feel?  Were they extraordinarily easy?  If that's the case, why the heck did you stop?  Were they super duper hard?  Was it your MAX? How about that diet?  If you're eating 2400 calories, how full do you feel throughout the day?  Are you starving?  Bloated?  Tired?  MAKE NOTES OF THESE THINGS AS WELL.  These feelings are important in order to set short term goals effectively.

What's your long term goal?  Remember what I said in my New Year's resolution article?  Set a long term goal that's challenging.  Make yourself work, reach, exert near maximum effort as often as you can while avoiding injury.  How do you plan to impress your friends (and more importantly, yourself), if you don't have to power yourself to a higher, fantastic level?  Be ambitious.  Record a goal for yourself that you can be seriously proud of when you complete.  Write it down, and PUT IT WHERE YOU CAN CONSTANTLY SEE IT.  You need constant reminders to be successful.  It's human nature.


Now, set your first short term goal! You've got all the factors in place to be able to set your first short term goal.  Now keep in mind, there's still an art to this.  Don't make it an immediate short term goal.  At the earliest, make it for tomorrow.  For the beginner, I'd suggest either weekly, or bi-weekly goals.  Monthly is a little lengthy, and gets to be vague.  Let's look at the examples above, and set some goals for those people:

If you bench 190lbs for 4 reps now, how about 195lbs for 4 reps next week?  Easy enough to do, eat right and get proper recovery, and you'll be there in no time.

Do you run for 10 minutes now at 7.0 miles an hour?  Aim for an extra minute next week, at maybe 7.2 miles per hour.  Or better yet, add another thirty seconds every two or three days.  Maybe only 15 seconds!  How easy is that?

How about the diet one.  If you consume 2400 calories now, and feel hungry, replace 200 calories of a guilty  "snack" food (like Tostitos) with 100 calories of some sort of bean salad, or a handful of peanuts.  Simple!

And the great part about short term goals is that they ADD UP QUICKLY.  It's easy to look at a short term goal and scoff, thinking the whole time about "so what if I squat 5 lbs more than last week."  It's 5 little pounds!  But if you could do that all year (which would be extremely difficult, but isn't unachievable,) you'd be squatting over 250lbs more than you did at the beginning of the year!  WOW!

But what if you fail?  Don't sweat it!  If we all hit every one of our goals every single time, we'd all be Olympic champions!  Recover, recuperate, regroup, re-motivate, and try again in a day, or two, or a week.  Don't lollygag, but don't rush into it.  It's really like walking a tight rope.  Push yourself, but on a consistent and realistic basis.

Finally, let's cover the topic you're all probably considering.  What if you don't set any short term goals?  Well, everybody works their own way, but you have no idea how many people I see go into the gym and do the same exercises every day, doing the same number of push-ups, same number of squats with the same weight, and same amount of time on the treadmill.  They don't have goals, they just want to say they go to the gym, and convince themselves that's all that matters.  Blahhh...boring...and believe me they won't get far.

How about those who have the big goal in mind, but no little ones?  Well, I've heard a lot of people say they want to bench 350, but don't go about getting there with any sort of routine or consistency.  They're dumb about it.  And what happens?  They get sidetracked, tired, burned out, and inevitably...FAIL.  Sure, there are exceptions, but in my opinion those exceptions are few and far between.

So that's the scoop.  Short term goals are what bring the big, crazy goals into perspective.  They're stepping stones across the huge waving river (there I go with the analogies again...).  Set them, and start seeing that sweet, sweet progress.  

Keep setting goals.  Keep breaking records.  You'll be surprised at how far you'll get.  Good Luck!

New Year's Resolution: Doing It Right.

Time for that inevitable post, regarding the most inevitable yearly subject with health and fitness: The "New Year's Resolution".  It's always there, nagging in your face, making you feel bad about yourself when things don't go as planned.  And they never seem to, do they?  It seems like whenever you get rolling on that goal, whether it be big or small, something comes up, and suddenly it takes a back seat to the rest of life.  And when the next January 1st comes sauntering back up the calendar, you remember back on that goal of yours and feel like crap when you realize how you didn't complete it.  Heck, you might not even have come close.  Why does that happen every year?  Why can't, just once, that goal be something you can grasp, complete, and feel great about?  Well, chances are, you're approaching it wrong.

What do I mean?  Well, there are several little seemingly minuscule details that can turn an achievable goal into something vague and inapproachable.  And they really are just little things, mindsets, schedule changes, or details about the goal itself that turn them froFuf m something amazing and inspiring into a demon-like monster, too scary and daunting to really tackle.  Here are a few ways to make sure that you ACTUALLY REACH YOUR GOAL this year, and god will you feel great when you do.  Ready to start?  

First of all, aim high.  That's right, HIGH.  Make it something you have to work toward.  There's a saying I live by (well, workout to), that if you're 100% confident you'll make the lift, it isn't heavy enough.  While this isn't always true, it has a lot of value in all sorts of daily applications.  If your goal is too attainable, sure you might complete it, but what have you really....attained?  Not much, if anything.  Want to lose two pounds?  Great!  Two to four weeks later you might be done, look in the mirror, and say, hell, I don't see a difference.  Why not aim for 10 lbs instead?  Or even 20 lbs?  Maybe more!  WORK HARD!  Make your goal something you really have to reach for, and stay committed.  Do you have any idea how amazing it will be to look in the mirror twenty pounds later to see that lean, mean, sexy machine?  You need to want it, to crave it, to make it your mission.  Attack with vengeance! After all, wouldn't it be nice to be the ONLY one of your friends who actually achieved their goal this year?

Life isn't easy.  Neither are the goals worth achieving.  The drive to complete the questionable and daunting tasks in life are what separate champions from the meek and average.

Second, I find quantitative goals to be more easily graspable.  Think about it.  I'll give you two common "New Year's Resolutions", and you tell me which one is easier to grasp mentally.  First resoltion:  "Eat Healthier and exercise more."  Second resolution:  "Lose fifteen pounds and hit the gym 4 times a week for one hour each session."  By the time the year is through, which one will you be able to look back on and say "I did that," to?  Definitely not the first one.  Well, sure, you could say it, but there's very little actually merit to thinking you ate healthier.  You'll have very little way of knowing actually how much healthier you ate, and how much more often you visited the gym.  Chances are you won't have done much of either, considering the goal is so vague to start.  Make it quantitative, numerical, and in other words, "recordable."  You can record time spent at the gym, calories consumed, weight loss, and easily see what we all commonly refer to as PROGRESS.  Progress is what keeps you pushing.  Visible, obvious progress.  Numbers are what count here.  Numbers.

Third thing to remember is that no excuse is good enough.  I don't care what comes up. 

-Genetics aren't a good enough excuse to blame on your slow weight loss, or poor strength, or a bad mile time.  

-While I agree that work can sometimes be a killer, it's not hard to slip in even half an hour of workout time in the morning, evening, even the middle of the night.  

-Sure family is important, but hey, it wouldn't be hard to include them in some fitness goals, would it?  Go for a hike, a swim, a run, a climb, I don't care, just get out there and work!  

And don't get me started on age.  Have you seen Tony Horton?  If not, google image him (in fact, I'll just save you the trouble here).  He's fifty something!  It's never too late, you're never too old, get those joints moving.  

Yup, Tony Horton.  He's 53 actually.

You have to want it, and in the end no excuse will explain why you didn't reach your goal.  I read a newsletter posted weekly by one of the top weightlifting coaches in the country, Nick Horton, and let me just say he writes some pretty inspiring stuff.  One of the greatest quotes I've read he posted just today, in his New Year's Resolution article:

"Every gym in the country (including my own!) braces itself for the New Year’s Rush. We get new clients in larger numbers than any other time of the year. And by March, nearly every one of them has already quit.

It is not just expected, it is built into the business model.

Putting in hard work in the beginning is meaningless if you're going to throw it all away the instant "real life" starts to rear its head on you. Being busy is not an excuse, having a family is not an excuse, neither is "it's not the right time".

At some point, every person who actually meets their goals learned the biggest lesson of them all:

Consistency requires a PERMANENT lifestyle change."

There you have it, wrapped up in a nutshell.  If you really want to achieve something amazing, no excuse is acceptable.  No matter the cost, you must integrate your goal into your life.  That's how it works, and that's how people become great.  If you put some real thought into it, it's not as hard as you think, and I GUARANTEE YOU CAN DO IT.  

To end this article, I'll share with you my goals.  I am a weightlifter, therefore they involve weightlifting, which is conveniently quantitative.  

I want to clean and jerk 150kg.  

I want to Snatch 100kg

I want to Back Squat 181kg 

I want to get in under a professional weightlifting coach

I want to be at least a lean 175lbs

See?  Quantitative goals.  And by posting them here, I've shown you my very last tip.  Force yourself to see your goals every single day.  Show them to other people.  Create some pressure to achieve what you set out to achieve.  Pressure is what keeps people going, because at the end of the year, people will look at you and say "Hey, did you lose 20lbs?  Did you hit the gym as many times as you said you would?  Where's that six pack?"  And you don't want to let them down, do you?

Try hard, push through the tough times, and never give up.  You are capable of more than you could have ever imagined.  GOOD LUCK!