Join The Conversation on DIETING

JTC

Join The Conversation!

I want to know how you diet.

I have tried many diets on my own and experimented with my calories and macros to see what works for me, and I believe I found what works!  I, personally, can eat about 2300 to 2500 calories a day and still lose fat as long as I am slightly active.  I eat a high amount of protein in my diet with fat as a byproduct and I strategically place my carbs at the beginning of my day and after workouts.

When I border on eating too many calories or when I decide to take a cheat day, I simply add more cardio to burn the calories that I added.

Please let me know in the comment section down below what you do!  I want to hear everyone’s view on diet and exercise, and how you have found what works best for you!

Thanks,

Christian!

Advertisement

Adding Cardio To Help Cut Down

Sometimes you may cheat on your diet or you may be struggling to lose some extra weight, so cardio is a great method to burn off extra calories and burn fat!

A lot of people in the fitness industry have fear mongered and made people fear that they would lose muscle if they did a lot of cardio.

and that just isn’t true!  Here is a video by Elliott Hulse explaining why cardio burning muscle is a complete myth!

Progress To The SMART physique

A week ago I introduced you to SMART goals and how to get ripped implementing smart strategies. To read up on how to cut down your body fat and achieve your perfect physique in a timely and attainable manner, click here.

I’ve been using SMART goals along with intermittent fasting to cut down the body fat, and cut out the excuses.

..cut down the body fat, and cut out the excuses.

I have been intermittent fasting for a few weeks and my results aren’t incredibly impressive. Here are some pictures I took today:

   

I have a decent amount of size and a wide back so I assumed that intermittent fasting may help me achieve my goals. While it does help with portioning due to a small eating window, it didn’t necessarily help me lose any fat. It actually became hard to retain muscle mass and I overate to compensate.

    
So for this past week I have decided intermittent fasting will just not work for me. Now, with SMART goals in mind, I am taking more calculation into my fat loss. 

In the past week I have already lost two pounds and I am feeling better than I was before. I am drinking lots of water to stay hydrated, taking a multivitamin along with my fish oil and vegetables, and eating high quantities of lean meat.

My training is consistent and now, with my diet on point, I am more than confident that you will be seeing a completely transformed Christian Boyles over the course of the next few months.

This confidence is because I set SMART goals for myself and I’ve built the character through trial and error.

Just remember, no matter how many times you fall down…

..continue to get back up and keep trying. You know deep down that you have a lot of potential and you can, and will, be victorious.

 

Using SMART Goals To Get Ripped In Three Months

Write Your SMART goals down in a journal!

SMART goals are used by businesses and smart people to set their goals in a way that makes those goals:

1. Specific – goals are very specific and include detail of what, why, and how the goal should be accomplished.
2. Measurable – goals should have tangible evidence of how to tell whether you’ve completed them or not.
3. Achievable – the goals should be very possible and not impossible.  If a goal is impossible it is likely to only discourage someone.  If the goal is obtainable then the person achieving the goal may feel very proud of themselves once they finish.
4. Results focused – there should be a clear explanation for why you’re completing the goal.  Also, there should be a definite result from completing this goal that can impact you or your work.
5. Time bound – there should be a set date for when you need to complete this goal.  Your goal should have some urgency involved to its completion.

If you haven’t noticed yet, SMART is an acronym standing for specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound.

Not only are SMART goals a great way to accomplish things in your life or at your workplace, but they can also be very handy when you are wanting to make achievements at the gym.  If you haven’t read my post titled “Victory From A Goal And A Direction And Why You Can Succeed” I highly recommend you click here because that post relates very closely to what I am about to talk about with SMART goals.  Now, it’s time to explain why SMART goals are so important:

1. They help give the driven a path to follow.  Is your mind cluttered with all sorts of ideas of what you want to do?  Then it’s good that you’re driven, but write out some SMART goals so that you can truly be successful.
2. They raise your confidence!  When you set small, achievable goals they will eventually add up and you will realize that you have achieved a lot more than you originally thought possible.
3. Businesses have been using them for years!  Do you want to try and reinvent the wheel or do you want to find what has worked for successful people for a long time already?  Great, I know you made the right choice.

As I said earlier, you can apply these goals to fitness the same way you can life and work.  Simply pick something and go for it!  Here I’ll show you my current SMART goals on getting ripped in three months and this will give you the framework on how to write your own SMART goals:

1. List the goal –  My goal is to get ripped in three months!
2. Be specific – I will achieve sub-10% body fat by February by eating at a small caloric deficit, intermittently fasting, and I am doing this because I want to feel good about my body and my health.
3. Measurable – I will know how close I am to achieving a body fat % below ten by using a body fat caliper.  I can also track my results using measuring tape and a scale to check my weight.  There are also some clear physical attributes that will become noticeable as I obtain a lower body fat %.
4. Achievable – The goal is very achievable.  The average person can expect to lose about two pounds of fat a week and once I am lower in body fat I know that may slow down, so I expect to lose about two to three pounds of fat a week for a while.  After those first two months, I expect to lose about a pound of fat a week resulting in that low body fat %.  Plenty of people have done this successfully; it simply takes time and dedication to a healthy and balanced diet.
5. Results focused – The benefit of accomplishing this goal is the fact that I will feel good about myself and I will build the values and confidence to achieve more SMART goals.  As a result, when I move on towards my next goal of gaining lean muscle mass, I will have a lot more confidence in the fact that I can achieve the things I set my mind on.
6. Time bound – The completion date that I have established is February.  This puts a lot of urgency on me and a lot of pressure even if it is attainable.  This urgency is a great thing though, because I am more likely to stick to my diet and work harder to achieve my goal in that set amount of time.

As you can see, I have a great framework for my SMART goals and I hope you decide to write some goals out for yourself.

Just use the same SMART goal rubric I taught you and do your best to achieve something because you’re smart and capable.

How Do You Split Your Workouts?

Working out doesn’t have to be tricky or complicated, but that’s not saying it can’t be! So, today, I wanted to make a post with a slightly different style. Today’s post is a question. I’m going out on a limb here hoping for a response but here is my question: How do you split your workouts? Also, what is your reasoning behind this?

This applies to all of you, even those of you who mostly stick to cardio or yoga. Do you have days where you work out at a harder intensity? Do you have arm days?

I’ll go first. I typically work legs on Sundays, I do chest and back on Mondays, and arms on Tuesdays. I repeat this on Wednesday through Friday, and take Saturdays off. So it’s like this:

Sunday: Legs

Monday: Chest and Back

Tuesday: Arms(bicep, tricep, forearms)

Wednesday: Legs

Thursday: Chest and Back

Friday: Arms again

Saturday: Rest

I throw cardio in at the end of all of my workouts, so I don’t really cycle my cardio in any way. There was my plan, thanks for reading! What do you do?

Make Sure You Do Some Cardio

To all of you serious weight lifters and dieters out there, it may be a great idea to add in some cardio! Just remember that cardio is important.

Cardio is just as important as the weight lifting and the dieting.  Maybe you are wanting to be strong to the point that you started weight lifting, but endurance built from cardio will help you increase repetitions and sets during your workouts.  For the dieters, cardio is important because:  If you fail at your diet on any particular day, you can simply amp up the cardio and burn off those extra calories.

Take a look at any distance runner and conditioned athlete.  Just take a look at any of them.  They had to do a lot of cardio to get to where they’re at.  They had do a lot of conditioning and it may have taken a lot of running or swimming.

Also, as far as the running or swimming goes, you can choose to do whatever cardiovascular exercise you want.  I would just recommend that you do cardio three to five times a week.  It can be running, or swimming, or even walking.  There are a lot of different cardiovascular exercises.

Remember, the cardio is good for your overall cardiovascular health.  This means that in the ‘long run’ it’s good for your entire health.  By doing cardio, your blood flow will be better which in turn is better for your major organs.  It will help you lose weight, and you’ll be a well-balanced athlete.

Thanks for reading and please subscribe!

Nice and Slow, That’s The Best Way To Do It!

When you’re lifting weights there is one thing that is really important. That is going through your lift slowly to keep tension on all the muscles involved in that specific lift.

I shared a post not too long ago from a great up and coming blog and the post was titled Time Under Tension Lifts. In this post, by WordPress user LifeIsFit, the point was driven quite clearly that by not locking out you are essentially putting more stress on the muscles.

We all know that more stress on the muscles and less stress on the joints is a good thing, which leads me to add a new point today.

As much as time under tension lifting is already beneficial, it’s also beneficial to lift slow due to the fact that you are putting extra stress on the muscles. This also helps you learn what muscles your lift is targeting, and will help you achieve that “mind-body connection”.

The more you know about how a certain lift is affecting your body, and the more you know your body, you will see better results. Therefore, get to squatting or bench pressing and rep it out NICE and sloooow.

I hope that this post was informative. Have a great day and please subscribe.

Motivation. Results Take Time

I found this image on Google. It was from a user on Pinterest and the message is so true. It’s my third post of the “Three Day Motivational Quote” challenge and here is the last quote, and it really hits home for me:

“Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you,”

This is so true and if you’ve been weightlifting or running, then you know that commitment is the most important aspect in regards to getting lasting results.

Too often I am lifting weights and I get a lot of blood pumping to the body part I am working on, and it begins to look bigger. During that time my confidence is great, but sadly that comes to an end a few hours later. The pump shows me how big I could get, but then later reveals I’m far from being there yet.

The fact of the matter is this:  Even if I get discouraged by the fact that I am not where I am going to be yet, I must keep working hard at my goals. Things won’t happen over night and there will be a lot of struggle, but it’s how I react to the struggle and decide to continue working at it that defines my results.

The same applies to you in your fitness endeavors. Thanks for reading and have a terrific day. Please subscribe.

Eat Healthy Now, Don’t Pay For Being Unhealthy

Here is a fact:  With a rare few exceptions, once you get so unhealthy you have a disease you will have to eat healthier.

Some people are born with diseases and sickness, and these people probably have to eat healthy and take medication too.

Personally, I have Crohn’s Disease. I was sick in the hospital about a year ago when I started thinking, “I wonder what life would be like if I got a colostomy bag and decided to undergo surgery.” For some, this is their only option. For me, it was one of my options and the easy way out.

At that point in time, I was filled with dread and felt hopeless but it is that thought that made me climb out of despair and take control of my life. I began researching colostomy bags and learned something interesting. If you have a colostomy bag, not only is your life very different and probably embarrassing, but you have to eat healthier! If you don’t eat healthy, your bag can get clogged up in the tubes and cause inflammation and infection.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to go through all that embarrassment and daily cleaning of some dumb bag I am going to go ahead and eliminate my bad habits before it gets to that point. I decided that in the hospital, and I climbed out of this despair I had as I realized that getting healthy now is my only option.

It was my best option. I have started this endeavor for myself and I am proud to say I went from a severe case of Crohn’s with all kinds of medication to only one medication.

Now, I have something to say to you. If you are at risk of becoming diabetic or if you have unhealthy habits, change them now. Do it NOW. Don’t wait and pay for your unhealthy decisions later, like a lot of people may do. Take control of your life and be transformed as your physical, mental, and emotional health all see tremendous improvements.

Thanks for reading. I hope that you apply the principle of “changing now” to your life. I hope you see improvements. I hope you at least give it all you’ve got and that you don’t give up.

Three Day Quote Challenge

I was nominated by “The Nerdy Author” user, The Other Girl, to do a three day quote challenge.  Basically, how this works is, I need to post a quote every day for three days and challenge three users to do the same each time.

That being said, here is today’s quote:

“If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough,” -unknown.  I believe this is true almost 100% of the time.  Make sure there is some doubt and that you are really passionate about your dreams, and then have persistence and dedication to prove your own doubts wrong.

No matter what your circumstances or who you are, at the end of the day, if you try doing something you love and you fail then at least you tried.  At the same time, nothing is stopping you from trying again with newly found wisdom and ideas.

Thanks for reading.

Here are three people I am tagging today:

Spartan Daddy

Finn West

Endless Possibilities

Again, thanks for reading, and to those of you who I tagged…..I sincerely hope you’re up for the challenge! 😉