Fat Burning Furnace

If you’ve been keeping up with my posts over the past several months, you know this has been quite an exciting time for me. I gave birth to my first child, Christian, on August 12th and life has not been the same (in a good way, of course!).

Now my little guy is almost 11 weeks old and it’s time for me to get back into a solid workout routine. Yes, I have done some exercise here and there…walks around the neighborhood and some light strength training at home. But I’ve seen myself fall into the same predictable trap that I’m sure happens to many new moms and dads…”I just can’t find the time to workout”.

I know. You probably never thought you would hear me say that, and again, I’m not saying I’ve been doing absolutely nothing. But if there is one thing I have learned in the past 10 years about achieving long term fitness results, it’s that you have to go into your workout sessions with a plan! It can’t just be “a little bit of this or a little bit of that”. You’ve got to have structure to your workout routine, otherwise it turns into more of a “time wasting” session than a “fat burning, muscle building” session. You know who I’m talking about. Those folks at the gym who walk around the gym aimlessly just doing whichever machine they think looks interesting, or worse yet, whichever one happens to be free at the time. This is not the way to get your body to burn fat and lean down. I assure you.

I will tell you what I have been doing…my homework…and that entails researching and reading the latest and greatest (and admittedly not so great) fitness programs that are available today. I know I’ve told you this before, but I don’t really have to search too far to find a new workout routine. I regularly receive emails from lots of great fitness authors asking me to take a look at their programs.

Well, I have now narrowed down my search. My first and most important criteria for the workout I was going to choose was it must be time efficient! I know you parents can relate to this one. Ever spent your whole workout time thinking “Please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up. I’ve only got 4 exercises to go, ok now just 3, ok last one…almost done”.

Yup, that’s me. When your kid is only 11 weeks old, nap time is workout time so I’ve got to get it done FAST!

I also don’t want to sacrifice my results just because I have a limited amount of time to exercise. That’s why I’m going to follow Rob Poulos’ Fat Burning Furnace program for the next 12 weeks to get back to my pre-baby shape (and you all know that my pre-baby shape is no joke).

When Rob first sent me his program, I had still not been cleared by my doctor to exercise, so I had to find myself a good guinea pig to test out the program for me. I asked my business partner Jeff if he would be up for the challenge (I say challenge because Rob’s workouts don’t sacrifice intensity for the sake of time . Yes, they are short, but as Jeff will tell you, they do provide a very effective workout).

Now Jeff is almost at 10 weeks on the program and he’s got a lot of great insight to share with us. Stay tuned for Jeff’s results and his feedback on the program (good and bad).

For now, just so you have an idea of exactly what kind of workouts and program Rob’s Fat Burning Furnace provides, here is a great article from Rob that gives you a bit of background on why he structures his workouts the way he does.

If you’re currently spending hours at the gym and not seeing your body change the way you want it to, click here for a fat burning workout.

  

When you’re as passionate about nutrition and health as I am, you just never stop reading and researching. I can’t possibly already know it all right? (even if sometimes I like to think so.)

One of my favorite weekly activities is visiting the local book store and perusing the aisles of the diet and exercise section.

Holy moly!

If you ever want to confuse yourself on purpose this would be a great place to start.

One book tells you that a diet of all vegetables is the only ticket to health…umm, boring, no thanks.

Another one tells you to eat lard and cheese and lots of it…umm, my stomach hurts just thinking about it.

And yet another tells you to only eat only on the odd numbered days of the week and skip every other Sunday…ok, I made that one up.

Here’s my point. There are a lot of very wonderful, very informative and very useful nutrition and diet books and programs available to you today, the problem is in sifting through the really horrible stuff to finally get to the really great stuff.

I truly believe there is no “one size fits all” (or in this case, one nutrition plan fits all) program for everybody. Some of us will succeed using certain programs while for others, it’s just not the best way for them.

I have no problem telling people that The Diet Solution Program is just one way to approach a healthy way of living. It’s what has worked for me and thousands of other people. But that surely does not eliminate the fact that many thousands of other people have had success with several other programs. We just always have to keep an open mind and arm ourselves with the facts. (But The DSP is still the best! Come on, I’m the author, let me just believe that for at least a second.)

Here are my thoughts on just a couple of the good, bad and the ugly nutrition programs that are popular on the market today:

Vegetarians and Vegans

Going “meatless” has been very popular for some time now. Some follow this way of life for religious and spiritual reasons but many others choose to go meat free because the current state of our cattle, poultry and even fish farming practices have become quite scary and dangerous.

I couldn’t agree more. The way conventional farmers are raising cows is saddening. Injecting them with antibiotics and hormones just to get the most out of them is making them sick and then in turn making us sick. That is why I highly recommend always seeking out naturally raised, antibiotic and hormone free meats and poultry (preferably organic).

But back to the vegetarians. I don’t disagree with their diet of choice, but I do disagree many times with the foods they choose for their meal plans. Many vegetarians become extremely dependent on soy products and processed and packaged vegetarian foods that are filled with chemicals and preservatives. If you’ve read Chapter 9 in your Diet Solution Manual, you know how dangerous this type of soy can be on your health and an overabundance of it in any diet can cause weight gain, fatigue and even serious thyroid problems.

If vegetarianism is your choice, choose beans and lentils, cottage cheese, yogurt and eggs (if you eat them) as your protein choices. You can still follow the Diet Solution mentality of “keeping it au natural” without having to include any meat and animal products or any of these processed soy products.

The Raw Food Movement

Eating raw foods is one of the latest crazes. There are even specialty restaurants in states like California and New York that serve complete raw meals for those who are “raw foodies” (A bloody steak over salad greens?) Hmmm…interesting.

I do completely agree with the raw food mentality in many respects. Once you cook a food you do change and sometimes, even de-nature its natural sources of enzymes and nutrients. For example, many vegetables are much more nutritious when eaten raw (most of them actually), but that would greatly limit the variety of foods and recipes we could put together each day.

How about raw meat? Believe it or not there are many who will dive into a raw, juicy piece of meat without even flinching. This can be a bit of a dangerous practice if you are not sure exactly where your meat came from and how it was raised. My theory here still stands that if you are going to consume animal products, they must be as natural as possible (whether you decide to cook them or not).

How about the veggies? The best approach here, if you are not ready to join your local raw food club is to make sure you have a minimum of one raw component in every single one of your meals. For example, include a fruit with breakfast, add carrot sticks or sliced raw peppers to your snacks, slice some tomatoes and cucumbers and include in your lunch and dinner. Doing that alone will greatly increase the enzyme and nutrient value to your daily intake and will help your body’s digestive process.

Take a good look at the food you are eating all day and strive for a minimum of 3-4 raw food items daily. I have seen this one simple step really help many people who were previously having trouble with their digestion and elimination.

These first 2 are just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on about the array of nutrition programs we all have to choose from. And I will next week. Leave me a comment on my blog and let me know which programs you would like to hear about. I warn you, the answers to some of them may not all be positive, but you want the truth right?

Have a wonderful and healthy weekend!

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com