Sample MEAL plan

BY THE FIT TEACH.
Pregnant and nursing woman should seek adice from their family doctor before following this meal place and/or eating whey protein smoothie or shakes.


















Day 1

Breakfast – omelette 1 whole egg & 4 egg whites, 1 slice of multigrain/whole wheat toast (dry toast- no butter).
Snack – Hummus AND  veggies.
Lunch – Chicken breast and Greek salad ** olive oil, lemon dressing.
Snack – Protein smoothie (fresh blueberries, rasp., straw., flax seeds, plain yogurt, ice, vanilla whey) *no fruit concentrates!!
Dinner - Fish (tuna, salmon, tilapia, etc) with a huge green leafy salad with avocado slices, cucumbers, greenn peppers, tomatoes, olive oil & vinegar

****Drink 1.5 litres water throughout the day.




Day 2












Breakfast – Steel cuts oats add berries, low-fat milk or 1/4 cup plain yogurt

 Snack – Protein Smoothie **same ingrediants as above

 Lunch – 3 Bean Salad and green leafy salad with low-fat dressing

 Snack – Tuna, cucumbers, on top of romaine lettuce; season with salt and pepper then add olive oil & vinegar

 Dinner – Chicken breast stir fry or chicken breast fajita’s without the tortilla wrap, only sautĂ©ed veggies

***Drink 1.5 litres water throughout the day....EVERY DAY.

Additional snacks if needed through out the day: 
  • Plain yogurt, cinnamon, and walnuts
  • Sliced green apple and/or pear
  • Cottage cheese (with berries or by its self)
  • Scrambled egg whites

Avoid Excessive Cardio and Lose Weight?! Find out how!

A common concern about doing cardio especially if done on an empty stomach and high intensity, is the possibility of losing muscle. After a night of sleeping glycogen, blood glucose and insulin are low; this is an optimum environment for burning fat. Unfortunately, it may also be an optimum environment for burning muscle because carbohydrate fuel sources are low and levels of the catabolic stress hormone cortisol are high. It sounds like morning cardio might be a double-edged sword, but there are ways to avert muscle loss.
All aerobic exercise will have some effect on building muscle, but as long as you don’t overdo it, you shouldn’t worry about losing muscle. It's a fact that muscle proteins are broken down and used for energy during aerobic exercise. But you are constantly breaking down and re-building muscle tissue anyway. This process is called "protein turnover" and it’s a daily fact of life. Your goal is to tip the scales slightly in favor of increasing the anabolic side and reducing the catabolic side just enough so you stay anabolic and you gain or at least maintain muscle.
How do you build up more muscle than you break down? First, avoid excessive cardio. Aceto suggests limiting your cardio on an empty stomach to 30 minutes, and then it would be "highly unlikely that amino acids will be burned as fuel." He also mentions that "a strong cup of coffee should facilitate a shifting to burn more fat and less glycogen. If you can spare glycogen, you’ll ultimately spare protein too."
Always give your body the proper nutritional support. Losing muscle probably has more to do with inadequate nutrition than with excessive aerobics. Provide yourself with the proper nutritional support for the rest of the day, including adequate meal frequency, protein, carbohydrates and total calories, and it’s not as likely that there will be a net loss of muscle tissue over each 24-hour period.

References
1. Aceto, Chris. Everything you need to know about fat loss. Club Creavalle, Inc. (1997).
2. Bahr, R. Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption – Magnitude, Mechanisms and Practical Implications. Acta Physiol Scand. Suppl. (1992) 605. 1-70.
3. Bergman, BC, Brooks, GA. Respiratory gas-exchange ratios during graded exercise in fed and fasted trained and untrained men. Journal of Applied Physiology. (1999) 86: 2.
4. Brehm, B.A., and Gutin, B. Recovery energy expenditure for steady state exercise in runners and non-exercisers. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. (1986) 18: 205,
5. Brybner, BW. The effects of exercise intensity on body composition, weight loss, and dietary composition in women. Journal of American College of Nutrition, (1997) 16: 68-73
6. Landry, Greg. The Metabolism System for Weight Loss. Greg Landry. (2000).
7. Maehlum, S., etc al. Magnitude and duration of post exercise oxygen consumption in healthy young subjects. Metabolism (1986) 35 (5): 425-429.
8. McCarty, MF. Optimizing Exercise for Fat Loss. Medical Hypothesis. (1995) 44: 325-330
9. McDonald, Lyle. The Ketogenic Diet. Morris Publishing, (1998).
10. Melby, C. et al. Effect of acute resistance exercise on post exercise energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate. J Applied Physiology, (1993). 75: 1847-1853
11. Wilmore, Jack, Costill, David. Physiology of Sport and Exercise. (1999) 2nd ed. Human Kinetics
12. Tremblay, A, et al, Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism (1994) 43: 818-818
13. Treuth, M.S., Hunter, G.R., & Williams, M. Effects of exercise intensity on 24-h energy expenditure and substrate oxidation. Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise. (1996) 28, 1138-1143
14.Wilcox, Harford & Wedel. Medicine and Science in Sp

The law of sowing and reaping is also the story of the law of averages.

The story goes like this:

“The sower was ambitious. He had excellent seeds and the excellent seeds could bring about excellent opportunities, excellent results, and/or excellent weight loss success. So we’ve got an ambitious sower with excellent seeds. The sower goes out to sow the seeds, but the first part of the seeds fall by the wayside and the birds get it. The birds are going to get some of the seeds.

Now when the birds get some, you’ve got two options. Number one is to chase birds. I wouldn’t do this. Here’s what happens if you go chasing birds: you leave the field and this is going to distract from your future and not add it. The best comment to say when things are a little disappointing.….. “Isn’t that interesting?”

The sower keeps on sowing, that’s the secret to success. He keeps on sowing. If you keep sowing, you can sow more than the birds can get because there aren’t enough birds. There might be a lot of birds but there’s not enough because the Law of Averages will work in your favor – as long as you keep sowing.

Now the sower keeps sowing the seeds and now some of them fall on rocky ground where the soil is shallow. And this rocky ground is not of your making or even of your liking but because you have such excellent seeds and are such an ambitious sower a little plant starts to grow. But on the first hot day, it withers and dies. Not an easy thing to see, for any of us. Jot this down: The hot weather is going to get some.

Here’s what to say when the hot weather gets some of your seeds…… “Isn’t that interesting?”  What else can you say? The answer is nothing, there’s nothing else you can do.  I wouldn’t spend much time on that, just let it go and don’t go for this why, why, why stuff. You might say, “How come some plants (some successes in weight loss and in life) just last a little while?” Here’s the answer: Some just don’t stay. Jot this down:  Some results just don’t stay.

Now, you’re starting to get which categories to put your results and outcomes into and starting to see that you can’t solve the way it is set up. This is part of the Law of Success, the Law of Averages and the Law of Sowing and Reaping. To change the set up would be like trying to rearrange the seasons and you can’t fool with that. All you can do is cooperate with the way things are set up.


The the secret for an ambitious sower with good seeds is he keeps on sowing. He has to learn to discipline his disappointments. This is a key phrase to use for the rest of your life. You must learn to discipline your disappointments. Because this is the way things are set up; some attempts and successes are not going to stay, and that is not of your making, it’s part of the law. You’re not going to be successful at everything, all at once and especially not at the beginning.

Now, if you made gross errors, neglected due diligence and ruined your own seeds that’d be different; you’re responsible for that. But in the normal course of things, this is the way things are and you might ask, “Exactly how much of this are you going to have to go through?” Well, hang on. It’s not the end of the story.

The sower keeps sowing his seeds and some of them fall on thorny ground and again a little plant starts to grow but as soon as the little plant starts to mature, thorns begin to pop up and choke it to death and it dies. Jot this down: The thorns are going to get some and that’s not your fault either.

What are these thorns? Call these little thorns "little cares", "little distractions", "little something’s that-get-in-the-way", "little set-backs"…..who knows what they are. [Example: The screen door came off the hinges, dinner rehearsal for your friend’s wedding, your kid is having a birthday party and a sleepover. You can’t just let your house fall apart, neglect your friends or abandon your responsibilities; you’ve got to take some time and attend and fix things up.]

And you can hear the thorns growing. Extra trash has piled up in the garage and you can’t let mountains of trash take over. You’ve got to keep your trash hauled out. People who let little things cheat them out of big opportunities have a difficult time achieving success. The thorns are going to get some but they don't get them all.
Here’s the good news…..the rest of the story goes very quickly. 

The sower keeps on sowing seeds (you keep going to the gym, eating the proper foods, visiting informative websites, reading inspiring blogs). Yes, researching the internet and reading motivational articles and blogs can be more powerful to you now at your heaviest, your lowest or most discouraged than when you are at your smallest, fittest or most motivated. Good job coming this far!!

As the story continues, the Law of Averages always work. After continuing to sow - some seeds fall on good ground. Seeds falling on good ground will always happen (sooner or eventually) as long as you keep sowing. Keep plugging away at losing weight long, keep striving towards your goals, keep fighting to accomplish your dreams and eventually it will happen. Keep updating your information, seeking help from reliable consultants, and applying relevant principals and concepts and things start to happen. Seeds start to grow and plants begin to appear.

Some people will reap 30% from sowing seeds in good ground….and some will reap 60%..... and others will reap 100% from sowing in good ground. You ask, “Why the difference in numbers?” Jot this down: It’s just the way it is.

It’s not easy remembering that every client or person remotely interested in losing weight, aspiring towards goals, or dreaming of greatness is NOT going to be 100% successful.  You can try to make the 30% people reap 60% but that's difficult for any person to handle. 

Let the 30%’s do 30% to the best of their ability and keep letting them do 30% because that’s how they build their lifestyle and that’s they way they get what they want out of life. Let the 60%’s do 60% and let the 100%’s do 100%.

If you want to get all people to do 100% you must first go through all these experiences and next you’ve got to talk to all these people……which is exactly what I did.”


Hope you enjoyed this adapted Law of Averages written by Amber Jones, borrowed from “The Law of Sowing and Reaping by Jim Rohn (Excerpted from Building Your Network Marketing Business single CD)”
To read or download the original please click this link: 

www.thewiserway.com/TheLawofSowingandReapingbyJimRohn.doc



Additional Benefits of Early Morning Cardio

Here are some of the additional benefits of doing cardio early in the morning (whether on an empty stomach or or not):

1.It makes you feel great all day by releasing mood-enhancing endorphins.

2. It "energizes" you and "wakes you up."

3. It may help regulate your appetite for the rest of the day.

4. Your body’s circadian rhythm adjusts to your morning routine, making it easier to wake up at the same time every day.

5. You’ll be less likely to "blow off" your workout when it’s out of the way early (like when you’re exhausted after work or when friends ask you to join them at the pub for happy hour).

6. You can always "make time" for exercise by setting your alarm earlier in the morning.

7. It increases your metabolic rate for hours after the session is over.

Of all these benefits, the post-exercise increase in your metabolic rate is one of the most talked about. Scientists call this "afterburn" effect the "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption" or EPOC for short.


References
1. Aceto, Chris. Everything you need to know about fat loss. Club Creavalle, Inc. (1997).
2. Bahr, R. Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption – Magnitude, Mechanisms and Practical Implications. Acta Physiol Scand. Suppl. (1992) 605. 1-70.
3. Bergman, BC, Brooks, GA. Respiratory gas-exchange ratios during graded exercise in fed and fasted trained and untrained men. Journal of Applied Physiology. (1999) 86: 2.
4. Brehm, B.A., and Gutin, B. Recovery energy expenditure for steady state exercise in runners and non-exercisers. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. (1986) 18: 205,
5. Brybner, BW. The effects of exercise intensity on body composition, weight loss, and dietary composition in women. Journal of American College of Nutrition, (1997) 16: 68-73
6. Landry, Greg. The Metabolism System for Weight Loss. Greg Landry. (2000).
7. Maehlum, S., etc al. Magnitude and duration of post exercise oxygen consumption in healthy young subjects. Metabolism (1986) 35 (5): 425-429.
8. McCarty, MF. Optimizing Exercise for Fat Loss. Medical Hypothesis. (1995) 44: 325-330
9. McDonald, Lyle. The Ketogenic Diet. Morris Publishing, (1998).
10. Melby, C. et al. Effect of acute resistance exercise on post exercise energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate. J Applied Physiology, (1993). 75: 1847-1853
11. Wilmore, Jack, Costill, David. Physiology of Sport and Exercise. (1999) 2nd ed. Human Kinetics
12. Tremblay, A, et al, Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism (1994) 43: 818-818
13. Treuth, M.S., Hunter, G.R., & Williams, M. Effects of exercise intensity on 24-h energy expenditure and substrate oxidation. Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise. (1996) 28, 1138-1143
14.Wilcox, Harford & Wedel. Medicine and Science in Sp





The effects low self esteem has the weight of teenage girls

Teenage girls feeling deeply self conscious can develop a quiet obsession of constant self-doubt and anxiety that impacts their ideal weight. The more complex their issues around self worth and esteem; the more a healthy weight becomes a difficult issue. Young girls start off comparing their body type to other females they see on television, in films, in magazines and in their communities and these comparisons often become unhealthy because they generally don’t support or celebration the beauty and uniqueness of who the teen girl is or who they are becoming. Furthermore, young girls with low self-esteem blame themselves for not being like other women and eating disorders and self consciousness are habits that evolve as they get older rather than go away.

Warning signs may include obsessive behavior regarding dieting, food, or exercise and expressing a distorted view of how they feel they look or how others view them. Being very focused on changing physical aspects rather than developing areas of their personality or intellect is another potential warning sign. These warning signs of low self-esteem can make maintaining a healthy weight difficult for any teenage girl.

Eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and obesity can start off as mild as continuous comments about ideal body types all the way to excessive dieting to try to control size and weight. A person who observes they are always the biggest person in the room or or constantly feels different from the rest before of their weight will often try several times to change how they look.  Eventually after many year with this silent struggle they usually decide they are fooling themselves by believing they can be smaller. A tremendous amount of guilt is often associated with that line of thinking and may lead to secretly starving themselves in order to fit in.  Feeling ashamed to have resorted to such action can then trigger cravings for high fat or comforting foods. At times they may eat in excess privately and become numb to their feelings altogether.

IF you think you know someone with an eating disorder:

Do not ignore what you suspect are signs. Be understanding. Realize they are not trying to improve self-esteem by having an eating disorder. Often they will deny anything is wrong. They may truly believe they have nothing to worry about or that nothing is wrong. Be patient. Low self esteem and eating take a toll of the body. One day they will decide they want to change. It is not up to you to choose that day. It comes after time and years of experiencing what is not working.

Once they are fed-up and decide to change they can expect disappointments, moments of relapse and days of feeling unworthy, discouraged or paralyzed by frustration. These are all normal. They are the pit stops along the road to recovery. Be supportive and gentle with them as they go through this change. They will remember and thank you for it later.

Anyone seeking support from close friends or online networks can benefit from knowing well- being is on its way. Instant relief or dramatic results is not necessary in measuring success. Deciding to confide in someone (anyone)  is worthy of all their troubles.

Once they turned to someone for help it won't matter if mistakes are made because they have another person there to be gentle and support them. Low self-esteem can be a life long struggle. Eating disorders can rob years off their life if they continue to avoid the buried pain. Sharing their feelings with someone is necessary in order for change.

If they decide they can't confide in someone they know they will need to find a different person they feel they can trust. That person doesn't even need to have gone through a similar situation. It just needs to be a person feel they can talk to.





The Fit Teach
(Amber Jones)

Get the David Beckham body

David Beckham is probably the most famous footballer (soccer) of the current day. He has risen through the ranks from a schoolboy hopeful, to team captain, to win caps for England, play in two World Cups, and now helping to increase soccer awareness in the USA, playing for LA Galaxy. But in addition to this, he has become something of an icon, a style guru, and a model for male health and fitness. So, the big question is, how does he do it? How do you get a body like David Beckham? How does he train, what does he eat?

David Beckham’s Diet


To ensure fat is kept to an absolute minimum, but muscle can still grow, it is essential to ensure that you have a fast metabolism that burns fat (body fat and dietary fat). To do so requires a well balanced and healthy diet - plenty of green leafy salads, low GI vegetables, lean meats, fish and poultry. Avoiding sugar, high GI carbohydrates (such as bread, pasta, flours, sugars, cakes, and general junk food) is essential to keeping the fat off and the metabolism fired up.

David Beckham’s Strength Training


The key to athletic and functional strength is compound weight training. Bodybuilding exercises which focus on individual muscles are only for show. To build functional strength for sports and athletics, compound training is essential. Compound exercises include the dead-lift, squats, bench press, bent-over/cable rows, shoulder presses and standing barbell curls.

David Beckham’s Endurance Training

For David Beckham, the bulk of his cardio fitness training probably comes from football training sessions, but supplemented with some running and cycling. The main training routine for soccer players is a specific circuit training routine. They may include in their arsenal: speed work and plyometric training routines, as well as classic old school training, such as shuttle runs, squat thrusts, jumping jacks, skipping, jogging forwards and backwards, plus abs/core workouts and upper-body conditional with crunches, leg raises and press-ups (push ups).

Soccer players require excellent strength and conditioning not only to perform, but also to help prevent injury during a game. Keeping their joints strong and flexible is essential.  Diet plays an important role, and supplementing a diet with cod liver, glucosamine and chondroitin, and other vitamins and minerals is essential to ensure supple but strong joints. Flexibility training is a vital area of physical training, making sure to stretch both before and after workouts.

Combine these three elements of training and you can get a body like David Beckham. We cannot help you with looks and style, but for fitness, endurance and strength, this should get you on track to have a “Beckham Body“.


It's not life's fault I'm having a bad day

Amber pursued a teaching career shortly after stumbling upon becoming a personal trainer. She believed that she could be whatever she desired in life and it would only a matter of time. During some moments in her life when circumstances and outcomes were far off her ideal course; depression set in. The only anecdote for depression Amber knew of and depended on was exercise. But when she wasn’t exercising she forced herself to do the activities she remembered she enjoyed at one time. Over the years she developed more ways to keep her mind distracted from depression and anxiety. She learned how to adopt methods on how to stay encouraged and optimistic through out the toughest times of her life.
When asked what the driving force in her life is she says it`s the love for God and the belief that happiness is a choice not a response. Everything in her life seems to get better when she stays focussed on loving the small things in every moment. She often says, ``It’s not life’s fault I’m having a bad day.”
In all moments she decides to make a  choice... focus on what makes her feel a little better or stay tuned into what feels a little worst. To Amber love seems to be one of the best exercises to improve the quality of life. Sometimes people use love in a  negative way to explain crazy, risky, and irrational behavior but according to her love is also the  reason why some people perform brilliant accomplishments. Many people told her that being in love with every moment isn`t realistic but she decided to morph into what she believes in rather than listen to other opinions.
As a teacher and personal trainer Amber always shares her stories and ideas with other people, making her journey more valuable to herself and others. She has etched in all her journals and personal notebooks, the secrets to overcoming difficult times in her life. The most dominate secret being able to be in love what she does. Even those circumstances she wasn`t in love with she stayed determined to transform them into events that improved her life in some way. She re-examed moments and adjusted her perspective until she could view it through the lens of love goggles. Being firm with her mind and developing ways to be in love with life, in all its unpredictable moments, has been the remedy most used by Amber to surpass mediocrity and stir clear of depression.

This spark plug comes with a disclaimer – “volatile at times.”

Unstable, unpredictable, impulsive, capricious, fickle….. words I would probably avoid putting on my resume but they describe me very well. I’m so tired of people who won’t admit the less than attractive parts about them…..so all I can do is not be like them. I never pretended to hide the fact that I am a spark plug or that at times I am hard to deal with, difficult to reason with, and mostly just plain impulsive.

I will always admit that I’m an unstable atom with electrons flying all over the place. However, I’m also very certain about things that are unchanging; like my spirit, strength, determination, love-bound and limitless energy, honesty, loyalty, integrity, and courage to love, learn, and grow. I build my vision of the future upon these principles. They are not just words on paper; they are my beliefs and my values at the root of my spiritual core.

I never try to highlight my strengths in order for people ignore my weaknesses. I openly embrace the good with the bad. I don’t mind others shining a light on where I can improve. It’s only fair to let others decide if they want to associate with me after they weigh the pros and cons. But they have to learn to know what all the cons are first.

In some cases my weaknesses are not a good match with everybody. Some flaws are easier to overlook for some people, it’s about finding that chemistry, that balance of strengths and weaknesses that each person is willing to work with.

How many different ways do you find to love the things you do?

The Greeks wrote the book on forms of affection and Western civilization hasn’t done much but muddy the waters ever since. Our umbrella-term “love” didn’t exist in fifth century Athens; instead there were seen to be three very distinct and powerful love-related forces at work in the world: Eros (what we would call “sexual love” only more complex), philia (what we would call “friendship”), and agape (what we would call the “love of God” or the “love of all God’s creatures”).
Having organized the whole business from the ground up, the Greeks were able to appreciate its subtleties. Eros, for instance, while it is the basis for the word ‘erotic’, didn’t refer to the feelings evoked by pornographic vices or even to the heat generated between men and woman, but to all sorts of passions, including spiritual ones, that were based on a yearning for union or self-fulfillment. It also recognized the fact that fulfillment inevitably neutralized desire.
The social implications of philia can’t even be translated into English, and under the joint heading eros/philia the Greeks had room for a whole roster of good feelings, ranging from kindness towards creatures of the same race (physike) to benevolence towards guests (xenike).
On the other side of the cosmic coin was agape (say it like “canapĂ©”, sort of), which implied the giving of affection without expecting anything back and which was later twisted beyond recognition by overenthusiastic religious theologians. None of this is to say that the Greeks’ clearheaded perspective was responsible for their minuscule divorce rate, only that the Greeks spent a lot of time thinking about the meaning of love, whereas the rest have opted just to dance along to it.
An incomplete Education, 3,684 Things you Should Have Learned but Probably Didn’t, 3rd Edition, Judy Jones

Rational Expectation

This theory maintains that people learn from their mistakes. It is illustrated in the story of the economics professor who was walking across the campus with a first-year economics student. "Look," said the student, pointing to the ground, a five dollar bill."
"It can't be," responds the professor, "if it were, somebody would have picked it up by now."
An Incomplete Education, 3,684 things you should have learned but probably didn't, Judy Jones, William Wilson 2006

There is a distinct need to filter what you are going to listen to when you are transcending upon creating a new you. Whether it is a new fitness regime or dietary life style change, believing you can do it is the first step.