No longer the bridesmaid!
After twice finishing second, we finally made it over the hump! Niki finally took home the first place trophy. I was so tired that day (as you can tell from the picture below!), the only thing keeping me awake was the fact that I knew this was going to be her time to shine!
YES!
Bikini winner on the left
Eating fat can get you skinny?!
You can quote me on this, as long as you’re not eating to many overall calories, eating fat WILL NOT make you fat. In fact at times I’ve adopted an Inuit style way of eating, where 70% of my calories came from fat. And guess what, I got leaner!
Fish for dinner again!
Contrary to popular belief fat doesn’t actually make you fat. Now mind you certain fats will clog your arteries. However healthy fats can actually help you become leaner!
Remember that there are certain vitamins that are fat soluble, A, D, E, K. There are also essential fats, that must be obtained from your diet. Think of it this way if you were to only drink one glass of water each day, your body would actually retain water! I know it sounds counterintuitive, but your body would be in a state of dehydration and therefore hold on to whatever water it can get since it doesn’t know when it will get more. Now if you were to drink 4 liters of water each day your body would flush it self on a regular basis knowing that it will get more water very shortly.
The same thing can happen with your fats. If you limit the amount of healthy fats your body won’t use fats for energy. Increase your healthy fats and keep your carbohydrate levels at a reasonable level and you’ll use fat for energy at times of low energy out put, like sitting around watching TV, imagine that!
- By having more healthy fats your body will use up more fat for energy.
- Best sources include; olive oil, fish oil, hemp oil, flax oil, borage oil, sunflower seed oil, palm oil, avocados, almonds, pecans, cashews, walnuts, coconut oil, pumpkin seed oil, fat in grass fed animals, butter (raw is best or organic).
- LIMIT/AVOID: trans fats (pastries, French fries, deep fried foods) margarine, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and oils, fats from conventionally raised cattle, roasted nuts, farm raised fish.
just so we're clear...this is the bad stuff!
As if getting leaner wasn’t enough, but you should also notice your skin and hair should look and feel better! So don’t be afraid to ‘chew’ the fat!
My trip to the strongest gym in the world!
A client of mine made it a goal to bench press 300lbs. So I said, why not, let’s go for it. He had made it to 265, however we’d been stuck there for a couple of weeks.
I told him about this elite power lifting group down in Columbus, Ohio, called Westside Barbell. I said he may need someone from there to help us bust this plateau.
He thought it would be cool go down for a day and train, I agreed. So the next day he calls me says, he spoke to Louie Simmons (the owner and inventor of their training system.) And that he was going to book a flight and hotel for us to go down and train.
I was very surprised and pretty pumped to go at the same time!
For those that don’t know powerlifting consists of lifting 3 lifts, the squat, bench press & deadlift- whoever totals the most wins their weight class. The Westside barbell club has the most record holders of any gym in the world. And Louie Simmons is the mad scientist who through years of reading has developed the system that has made the men and women who go there lift superhuman weights!
So Tuesday night we flew down to Columbus, and stayed the night at a hotel. It was an awful sleep, the fire alarm went off twice in the night!
The following morning we met Louie for breakfast at a Bob Evans restaurant. Joining us was one of the strongest bench pressers in the world, this dude must have weighted 300lbs. Louie was very slow to warm up to us, that is until we started talking training and he saw that I knew my stuff.
We then followed him to the gym, located in an industrial area, with no signage. This was not a “fitness centre” this was a training facility. No change rooms, no cross trainers or bikes, just lots of weights!
There was an aggressive attitude in the air, coming from the other lifters and definitely from the hardcore rap and rock came through the speakers…I absolutely loved it!
But then I almost got myself killed! Forgetting I was in the heart of Ohio, and the amount of love they have for their Ohio State buckeyes, I took off my hoodie as I was getting hot and underneath I was wearing a Michigan Wolverines shirt.
Don't where the blue in Ohio!
The wolverines are considered enemy! After seeing that he said he was going to make me hurt the next day. In actuality I hurt for about 3 days after.
Generally the work outs are only an hour, but Louie kept wanting to show me all different things so we were there for two hours (probably because of the shirt!)
Bamboo bar, used to improve shoulder health
he walked away and told me to do 200reps!
It was quite a learning experience. Heck by the end of breakfast he had already changed some of lifting beliefs.
I hope to visit Louie and the Westside gang again some time in the near future, he said that was fine as long as I change my shirt.
With the Man himself!