2 Things You Need In Your Kitchen

Before I get into the meat of the post I want to thank you for tuning in to me in 2008.  I am honored by your attention and time.

I’m looking forward to seeing you in the New Year.  In week #1 look for the start of a 4 part series on creating a brand new body in the time that you actually have.  I’m doing it with the good folks at Primer Magazine over the next 13 weeks:

•    Part I A (week 1):  creating the mind-set to finally succeed this New Years – 99% of Americans fail to keep their resolutions past even 2 weeks, so don’t miss this part.
•    Part I B (week 1):  the simple nutrition plan that will massively skyrocket your energy AND help you drop 10lbs of body-fat in 4 weeks without having to count calories
•    Part II (week 2):  the 4 week Metabolic Blast workout plan – the other half of the equation that will have you down up to 10lbs of body-fat in just 28 days and less than 3.5hrs/week of exercise.  (I’ve had people do a lot better than 10lbs in 28 days.)
•    Part III (week 5):  phase II of the Metabolic Blast and trouble-shooting based on readers questions.  If you want your body to make progress, then you must systematically (NOT haphazardly) progress your workouts over time.  Generally every 4 weeks works very well.
•    Part IV (week 9):  phase III of the Metabolic Blast.  Its time to finish off your New Year’s transformation and “unveil.”  If you’ve stuck with it so far you will be looking at a new person in the mirror.

#1.  Sugar-Free Syrup

.25 cup regular maple and/or pancake syrup has at least 200 kcal in it, ALL of which are from sugar.  A quarter cup is only 4 tbsp and is extremely easy to eat without realizing it.  Most people end up eating between .25 and .5 a cup with breakfast.

4tbsp of maple syrup is the equivalent of a 20oz bottle of regular coke.  That is a HUGE blood sugar spike and crash (energy destroyer), and a HUGE spike of insulin (super fat storage, unless you just finished lifting weights).

Sugar-free syrup has just 20kcal per .25 cup, all of which come from slow-digesting sugar alcohols.

So, if you are making my super yummy, high protein pancakes use sugar-free syrup.  By the way “super yummy, high protein pancake” is NOT an oxymoron, and they’re made out of actual food, not a hodge-podge of highly processed Franken-food.  Oh, and they are very easy to make too.

#2.  Low-Carb Ketchup

Ketchup is pretty much just red high fructose corn syrup (HFSC).  This came as a big blow to me as I am a ketchup lover.  75% of the calories in regular ketchup come from HFSC, the most fattening substance known to man.  A few tablespoons here and a few tablespoons there you have a can of coke on your eggs, bun-less burger or whatever you like ketchup on.

Luckily there is such a thing as low carb ketchup where they take out the HFSC or sugar and replace it with Splenda, and the remaining calories come from actual tomatoes.  It has 75% fewer calories AND no added sugar and still tastes good.

While neither one of these changes alone will give you a completely different physique, both will help you to make more progress towards a leaner and more energetic you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

Larry’s Merry Christmas – Part I

Between my friends, family, clients and my awesome readers I was able to collect $340 for Larry’s Christmas fund.  Keep in mind that this was a totally spur of the moment, last minute thing.  You all gave that much between 9am and 5pm EST with no warning whatsoever.  That is really cool, you all deserve an applause.

Here’s what Larry got:

• $310 Gift Certificate to Target – he’ll be able to get far more than just socks
• $25 Gift Certificate to Barnes and Nobles – once the feet are good, we have to take care of the mind
• A copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens – in addition to giving fish I wanted to do at least a little something to teach Larry to fish as he is pretty much on his own

My friend and client Steve brought Larry over to my house last night and we gave him the gifts. The look on his face was the greatest gift I could get.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED TO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE.  You rock!

Oh, and just a few cool things about the collection process:

#1.  The VERY first person to send money via PayPal was my mentor Alwyn Cosgrove who lives in LA.  What a class act.  A lot of people think that you get to the top (he’s got a very successful gym, 2 mainstream books, dozens of other info products, and a whole lot of other businesses) by being mean to people or being selfish.  Alwyn is living proof that you do well by doing well.

#2.  A lot of times when I ask single people with full time jobs and no kids in their early 30’s for donations to various charities they say stuff like, “oh, let me see… No, I don’t have the money to help out.”

But when I ask my buddy Jon, who is a full time law student he ALWAYS says “yes” and puts his money where his mouth and heart are.  By the way, Law School is Expensive and tough!  Its not something you can do while you work full time.

To all my readers, thank you again.  Have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or non-holiday.  I’ll write to you soon.

P.S. We actually got a lot more money after the fact.  Mike Robertson gave a bunch himself and put it up on his blog, and decided to give out free hats and t-shirt to anyone who donated ANY amount of money via his blog.  What a guy!  I’ll talk to Steve to see how we can best put this to good use for Larry.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

My Most Important Blog Post Ever – Please Take The 2min To Read This Today

A client of mine does a LOT of charity work and mentoring. One day he brought in one of his mentees to a training session – lets call him Larry.  Larry was such a great kid – a real joy to work with. The kind of kid that I would and did work with for free.

Larry is in a very tough spot in his life. For Christmas his MAJOR wish was for SOCKS because he doesn’t even have real socks… something that I just can’t fathom. Socks?  (By the way, if you don’t celebrate X-mass that is OK. This is totally NON-religious.  It is just about being  human and about making someone’s life a little brighter.)

When I woke up today I thought, “man, you know what would be really great?  What if me and everyone I know chipped in to get Larry a HUGE gift certificate from Target?”

So, even though I there to ask you in person, I am asking you to please help me out.  You seem like the kind of person that would love to do something like this.  (I say that because you read my Blog.) Even if its only $20, that would still be awesome.

You can paypal me at josefb20017@yahoo.com  whatever you can contribute.

I am going to the store to buy the gift certificate today.  No, there is no such thing as too too late, I will front whatever money you commit at the cash register today.

Josef

Santa Is Tired Of Being Fat: The 2008 Fitness Gift Guide

The holidays are upon us, and if you are anything like me you still have shopping to do:-)!  As a fitness coach I end buying a lot of health & fitness related gifts and these are the top 5 coolest gifts ideas that I have seen and bought this year:

#1.  Gym Boss – When I switched over to semi-private training this fall I was having trouble keeping track of both people’s rest periods during their workouts.  And, as you know, rest periods are one of THE most important variables to control in a metabolic workout.  The only thing I could think of was to buy a bunch of extra Nike watches with interval timers in them, but they run $90+ retail, so that did not seem like the best idea.

I asked a friend with a semi-private gym in Philly about what he used and he told me about the Gym Boss Interval Timer.

So far I have purchased 16 of them!  Some of them for me and a lot for my clients to keep track of their workouts on their own.  You can even set them to vibrate so you can listen to your iPod or avoid annoying others with your infernal beeping.

#2.  Valslide – When I first heard about the Valslide I thought it was lame and gimmicky.  But, this summer I had the good fortune to spend a week at Alwyn Cosgrove’s gym in LA where he and his wife made me use one in a workout.  That kicked my butt, abs, arms, etc. and COMPLETELY changed my mind.

A Valslide replaces a traditional Slide Board (the big slide thing that became an aerobics class in the 90’s, but didn’t really pan out).  The slide board is a really cool piece of equipment that you can use for:

-very intense core work (Alwyn had me do one set of the Valslide plank in LA and my abs were sore for 3 days – 1 set!)
-incredibly challenging push-up variations
-to literally double the number of lower body exercises that you can do

BUT they are:

-heavy
-NOT portable
-expensive ($500 and up!)

A Valslide does the same stuff as a slide board, but is only $30 and is small enough and light enough to be taken pretty much anywhere.

#3.  Gourmet Nutrition II – I love John Berardi (don’t tell Natillie) and I love his books and cookbooks.  I own them all and I use them all.  Even thought it was really useful, his first cook book, Gourmet Nutrition I was pretty ugly and black and white.  His new one has rockin’ recipes too, BUT its actually nice to look at.  My favorite is the Texas Thin Crust Pizza on page 98.  Click here for more info.  ($40)

#4.  For the overweight and overworked: Turbulence Training – A LOT of you all said that time was a big obstacle in getting the body you want.  With that in mind, a home based, time efficient workout might be a really good idea for you.  This could be a gift to yourself or you could just ask someone for it.  Turbulence Training (TT) is a 3-day per week home fat-loss workout that is designed to be completed in 45min flat.

If your current level of responsibility will not allow you to get to a gym or exercise more than this, then this is probably the best use of your time.  I’ll be honest and say that you could get faster results if you could get a few more interval sessions in.  BUT, the best program is the one that you can actually follow.

If you are super busy – parent with multiple young children and/or a job, then eliminating the commute and getting it all done in 45min might be exactly what you need.  When life slows down, then you can expand some.  But for now you’ve got to be doing something on a regular basis.

Craig has a special offer that he is running right now, where you can give this to someone to try his program out for 21days for $5 and see if its right for you or someone else in your life.

#5.  A cheap, but effective home gym – Most people think that a home gym is a luxury of the rich.  You know, they think that the centerpiece is a home treadmill that will run them $2,000 or more and take up all the free space that they have in their home.

NOT TRUE.  You can put together an extremely effective home gym that offers you virtually unlimited variety for metabolic training for LESS than $150.  If you consider the fact that a gym membership in DC will be $70 or more per month, this is a good deal.

Here is all you need:
*Adjustable set of dumbbells ($40 for a basic 40lb kit and about $1 per pound extra)  (buy these locally, the shipping will cost as much as the weights)

*Exercise ball ($23-34)

*Resistance bands ($40 for the whole 4-band set)

*A foam roller ($11 for the 1’ long, round one)

*An interval timer ($20 for the Gym Boss)

Total cost:  $145 for a basic, complete and versatile home gym.

Bonus ideas, to really take your gym to the next level:

*A pull-up bar
*Valslides

If you have the space and the need:
*A barbell set

If you need more ideas you can check my holiday gift guide from last year right here.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

Random Pug Post – Cute Pug Pics & Videos!

Here I go with cute pug pics again. I know, I know. This has nothing to do with fitness, but I just love pugs. Looking at them brightens my day and hopefully yours. Here are the 3 cutest pug pics I have seen.

By the way, if you are also a pug lover, there are these things called “Pug-o-palooza”. It is exactly what it sounds like – a palooza of pugs! Old fat one, young sprightly ones. Google it!

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

5 ‘Secrets’ To Lasting Fat-Loss – How NOT To Pull An Oprah

So, if you haven’t heard, Oprah is back up to the big 2-0-0 again. With all due respect to Oprah and all of her other areas of tremendous accomplishment, she’s NOT the person you want to be taking weight loss advice from.  For almost as long as I’ve been alive she’s been on the yo-yo diet roller coaster.

While I haven’t kept up with her latest fitness advice, I do know that one of her more recent (and famous) trainers told her that the key to fat-loss was working out twice-a-day.  Hmmm…  If you work 80 hours a week that may NOT be the best long term solution.

While that is probably necessary to be a competitive body-builder or figure competitor, it is NOT necessary or usually even helpful for regular, busy people who just want to look good naked and in clothes.

My post yesterday was about Jim, who at Oprah’s age has not only maintained his fat-loss, but is now even LEANER and has more muscle than a year after his “after” pic.

5 ‘Secrets’ To Lasting Fat-Loss

#1.  There is NO secret: If you are fat or have ever been fat its because your whole LIFESTYLE sucks.

There is no secret – eat better and exercise regularly for as long as you want to be lean, healthy, sexy and energetic.

If you are OK with looking and feeling like crap, don’t sweat it.

#2.  Get a plan that works: Jim was doing aerobics classes, jogging and long distance biking before he started working with me.  It should not surprise anyone reading this blog that this exercise did nothing for him.  (If that does surprise you click here.)

Metabolic resistance training circuits and intense interval training work really well in very little time.  While this is a whole LOT harder than what most people do in the gym – slow, steady state aerobics and light bicep curls, it does actually work and work in LESS time.

As a matter of fact, it seems that relying on walking for fat-loss actually slows down your metabolism. Please don’t think that I mean you should never walk anywhere.  You should.  I’m only saying that it is a horrible, if not counterproductive fat-loss tool.

Byrne et al. The effects of a 20-week exercise training program on resting metabolic rate in previously sedentary, moderately obese women. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2001 Mar

#3.  Suck it up and get it done – stay out of fat-loss limbo: Getting lean is not necessarily an inherently pleasant experience.  There is hard work in the gym and very clean food to be eaten.  While that clean food can and should taste good, its really not the same as Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

Most people are trying to “get over” on the fat-loss process by cheating as much as possible because they think that this will make the fat-loss process more fun.  WRONG!  It actually makes it worse.

If you really suck it up and go all out, you can drop 15lbs of body-fat in a month and be DONE with fat-loss!

If you focus on trying to “get over” you’ll just be stuck in fat-loss limbo; always sort of going for it, but never 100%, so you will always be perpetually trying to lose fat.

The point of going on a fat-loss program is to lose the fat and to GET OFF OF IT! NOT to stay on it while forever half-assing your way to nowhere.

#4.  Get a qualified coach: I can read your mind right now, “Josef just put this up here to try and sell his coaching to me.”

Well, you can think whatever you want.  If that’s your attitude I probably wouldn’t work with you anyway.

I did NOT transform my body by myself, nor did Jim, nor do most people.  I hired a coach and paid a lot of money for guidance and accountability… actually I paid a LOT of money.  I had to go through about 10 trainers before I found who was actually worth the money.  (Remember my first trainer?)

I still have and always will have coaches in the areas of my life that I want to improve.  I still pay other people for fitness and nutrition advice.

The difference between amateurs and professionals is that the pro’s have coaches.

#5.  Avoid “The Dieter’s Fatal Flaw”: So you have sucked it up, followed through and dropped the body fat.  Good for you!  Be proud!

But do not be seduced by what I call The Dieter’s Fatal Flaw.  This is the erroneous and subconscious belief that says, “now that I’m lean I can just go back to my old lifestyle and everything will stay the same.”  I know that you wouldn’t say it out loud to yourself, but I’m willing to be that you have BEHAVED in accordance with this belief before in your life.

You ate right and exercised to get here and it will take good nutrition and smart exercise to stay here.  Yes, you now have some room for dessert and the occasional small cheat meal, but not that much room.  Not in your new pants anyway:-).  This is a lifestyle NOT a diet.

You can say things to yourself like “oh, why do I have to do this!?  Its so hard!  [Pathetic baby-like whining].”
Or you can say, “you know what, I like looking good naked!  I like being sexy!  I like having enough energy to work a 12 hour day, workout and still be able to come home and be ‘up’ with my family!  I like not getting sick, and feeling kick-ass all the time.  The truth is that nothing tastes as good as being fit, healthy and energetic feel!”

You choose what you focus on.  What you focus on you will feel, and what you feel will be real to you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

Where Are They Now? What Happens a Year After Fat Loss?

All pictures were taken in the same closet at the same gym with the same crappy camera. No tanning (obviously!), no baby oil, or anything else.

Would anyone like to know his “secrets”? Would you all like to see a post about that?

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.