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

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