28 DAYS TO LEAN MEAL PLAN

You’re training hard every day with your program, going heavy on the weights and sweating up a storm with cardio. Newsflash: While that’s critical to your ultimate success, that’s just not enough for you to lose the fat you want to.

To reach your get-lean goal, you must also follow a get-lean diet. Why? Even if you work out hard for an hour every day, that still leaves 23 more hours for you to wreck all your hard work in the gym with just one slip-up: a measly handful of chips, a beer with the guys or a burger at lunch. Diet is a huge, so to speak, part of the fat-loss equation. It's the backbone of your entire plan, the foundation of a hard body.

Bodybuilding nutrition consultant Jim Juge says nutrition determines your success or failure, plain and simple. "The diet is 65% of what you need to get in shape,"” he says. Juge would know, as he’s helped countless dedicated people reach their goals, from achieving their best body ever to placing first in bodybuilding competitions.

You've got 28 days to get to your goal, so we've recruited Judge to help you every step of the way. He’s adapted a traditional bodybuilding competitor's diet for a non-competitor (that means you!) who wants to look his best, shedding as much fat as possible in a very short time. With just under a month, there’s no time to fool around, so commit today! Go to the grocery store and stock up tonight. Come breakfast time tomorrow, follow his plan as strictly as you can and get ready to show off those impressive muscles in a month.

YOUR GET-LEAN PRINCIPLES

Strict. Strict. Strict. This is your mantra for the next 28 days. There’s just no way around the diet, says Juge, and eating clean is the name of this get-lean game. Juge'’s diet plan is filled with fresh, clean foods that are as unprocessed as possible. Here are his three simple principles to shed fat fast.

How to lose weight Eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, daily. If your protein intake is too low on a restricted-calorie diet, you'll lose a lot of muscle in addition to any fat you’re lucky enough to shed. A high protein intake will help you preserve lean mass during your dieting phase. Choose lean high-quality proteins like egg whites, poultry, lean red meat and protein supplements. 

The diet provided here contains about 220-–250 grams of protein daily, fine for a male weighing 200-250 pounds. Up your protein only if you’re heavier than 250 pounds, or you're very hungry and need to add food during the day. Judge suggests an additional protein shake for an easy quick fix. (If you’re under 180 pounds, cut out 3 ounces of meat or chicken per day from the diet.)

Keep your carbohydrates low to moderate when trying to lose weight. 

"“On a low day you'’ll have closer to 100 grams of carbs,"” he says. "“A moderate day is about 150 grams of carbs." Juge prefers to rotate low and moderate days in order to keep energy high and provide a change of pace. Good, clean, fiber-rich carbs include oats, potatoes, rice and whole-grain bread.

Drink at least a gallon of water per day. It'’ll keep you hydrated and healthy. Water should be your primary beverage during dieting. Though many rely on diet sodas, Crystal Light and other low-calorie sweetened drinks, plain old water is really your best bet.

[Source: http://www.muscleandfitness.com/nutrition/meal-plans/28-days-lean-meal-plan]

43 WORKOUT ROUTINES TO GET BIGGER, STRONGER, AND LEANER IN 2016

First off, New Year's Day falls on a Friday this year. There's no way anyone is starting a new program on a Friday. (But if you're up for it—alright!—Skip ahead.) For the rest of us, here's the deal. Sleep that hangover off, recover over the weekend, and we'll get things started first thing on Monday.

OK, kidding aside, you've been saying it all year along: "I'm going to really get myself in great shape this year," or "I really need to get myself BACK in great shape this year," or "I'm completely bored with my training, I need something new." Lucky for you, we've got all of those minor issues covered.

The New Year Redemption Plan (5 workouts)

Motivation is the engine to success, and that's true for everything in life. You can have all the talent in the world, but without the will to put in the hard work and long hours, there's no way you'll succeed. The Redemption Plan isn't just a series of workouts, it might just be the shot of motivation and inspiration you need. To view the overview and learn about the program, go to MENSFITNESS.com/Redemption

The 21-Day Shred Winter 2016 Update (includes five new maintenance workouts, plus a completely overhauled iOS app for an even easier user-experience)

There's no doubt about it, The 21-Day Shred is aggressive. Short Workout Routine in the morning, full length workouts after work, with plenty of high-intensity cardio and hardcore lifting. (Not to mention, there's the  low carb diet.) One of the most popular rapid weight-loss programs, just got a new face lift, and a series of five new workouts you can use once you've finished The Shred. For more details on the app update and new workouts.

The Winter Bulk Up (6 workouts)

We get it, not everyone is trying to shred. Some just want to stack on slabs of meat to their bones. In fact, it may even be a smart idea to switch over to a bulking plan from time to time. For more on how to gain some serious mass, go to MENSFITNESS.com/BulkUp (beware: there are two leg days. Well, two of everything.)

Holiday Gut Checks (8 workouts)

Parties, holidays, travel, a jam-packed schedule, or short attention span, the Gut Checks are your solution. There's some bodyweight stuff, some plyos, and some free weights. A little bit of everything. But they're also only about 15-20 minutes. To watch the entire Gut Check series (8 workouts), go to MENSFITNESS.com/GutCheckWorkouts

The Inner Beasts (3 workouts)

Ever have one of those days you're just so incredibly fired up? Like, fired up pissed, or fired up energized? Either way, those are the perfect days to go to the gym like a god-damn lunatic. To view the Inner Beast series, go to MENSFITNESS.com/BeastWorkouts

The Elimination Series (3 workouts)

It's a known fact that spot reduction isn't possible. Your genetics are going to influence where fat loss happens first, but if your muscular development is lacking in some areas, it's possible to muscle produce. This series demonstrates workouts that target the most troublesome of areas: man boobs, love handles, and chicken legs. To view The Elimination Workouts, go to MENSFITNESS.com/EliminationWorkouts

The Specifics (6 workouts)

Sometimes all a workout program or routine needs to take things to the next level is a small change. The Specifics provide a series of exercises you may not have in the regular rotation. Every body part is covered, and all exercises are demonstrated by five social media fitness influencers. To view The Specifics series, go to MENSFITNESS.com/TheSpecifics

The Muscle Shockers (3 workouts)

Speaking of changes, sometimes it takes a bit more than just swapping exercises. Ever stop getting sore after a workout? Maybe even start to go backwards? A muscle shocker may be in order. The Muscle Shocker's are a series of special techniques or strategies to stimulate the muscle fibers.

[Source: http://www.mensfitness.com/training/pro-tips/43-workout-routines-get-bigger-stronger-and-leaner-2016]

Foods to Help You Lose Weight

1. Beans

Inexpensive, filling, and versatile, beans are a great source of protein. Beans are also high in fiber and slow to digest. That means you feel full longer, which may stop you from eating more.

2. Soup

Start a meal with a cup of soup, and you may end up eating less. It doesn’t matter if the soup is chunky or pureed, as long as it's broth-based. You want to keep the soup to 100 to 150 calories a serving. So skip the dollops of cream and butter.

3. Dark Chocolate

Want to enjoy chocolate between meals? Pick a square or two of dark over the milky version. In one study, chocolate lovers who were given dark chocolate ate 15% less pizza a few hours later than those who had eaten milk chocolate

4. Pureed Vegetables

You can add more veggies to your diet plan, enjoy your "cheat" foods, and cut back on the calories you’re eating, all at the same time. When Penn State researchers added pureed cauliflower and zucchini to mac and cheese, people seemed to like the dish just as much. But they ate 200 to 350 fewer calories. Those healthy vegetables added low-cal bulk to the tasty dish.

5. Eggs and Sausage

A protein-rich breakfast may help you resist snack attacks throughout the day.

In a study of a group of obese young women, those who started the day with 35 grams of protein -- that’s probably way more than you’re eating -- felt fuller right away. The women ate a 350-calorie breakfast that included eggs and a beef sausage patty. The effect of the high-protein breakfast seemed to last into the evening, when the women munched less on fatty, sugary goods than the women who had cereal for breakfast.

6. Nuts

For a great snack on the run, take a small handful of almonds, peanuts, walnuts, or pecans. Research shows that when people munch on nuts, they automatically eat less at later meals.

7. Apples

Skip the apple juice and the applesauce and opt instead for a crunchy apple. Whole fruit blunts appetite in a way that fruit juices and sauces don’t.

One reason is that raw fruit has more fiber. Plus, chewing sends signals to your brain that you’ve eaten something substantial.

[Source: http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/9-foods-to-help-you-lose-weight?page=2]

Fitness Mantras with meaning

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

It’s a popular saying (now a chart-topping song) and you’ve probably used the phrase to motivate yourself before. Evidence shows you’re likely to have made a good choice in doing so, with a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology finding that after you endure hardship, you’re better equipped to handle difficult times in the future.

Good things come in small packages

This mantra is being used more and more in health circles to describe portion control. Our verdict? True and false. True when used to describe the benefits of downsizing your dishes, false when eating packaged food. Experts have found that eating directly from food packets – regardless of size – causes us to eat more than when they’re plated up. To keep your portions in check, use a smaller plate.

No pain no gain

It’s a philosophy many PTs advocate, and if they mean that sacrifices must be made to achieve Fitness for Beginners, then there’s no doubt they’re reminding you of plain logic! If they’re advocating that muscle pain results in body gain, though (the kind where you can’t get out of bed post-workout), then you might have to question their intentions. According to experts, muscle aches don’t prove the effectiveness of your workout. Soreness is most often the result of micro-tears in muscle tissue after a tough or new exercise session, and you shouldn’t be in pain after each trip to the gym; otherwise you’re risking injury.

Prevention is better than cure

This adage couldn’t be truer when it comes to an array of health conditions. Type 2 diabetes, for example, is one condition where this saying is important as this type of diabetes can be easily prevented with exercise, diet and lifestyle changes. Also, pre-diabetes, when detected, can be reversed through positive and preventative lifestyle changes, helping us to ward off the risk of it developing into a serious condition. It’s also true when it comes to our brain, skin, eye, ear, oral and heart health!

[Source: http://www.womenshealthandfitness.com.au/fitness/workouts/397-fitness-mantras-with-meaning]

Top Foods to Heal Digestion

Singling out the root cause of all those tummy troubles can be difficult, but it's likely that for most of us, our diets and lifestyles are to blame. The typical Western diet, heavy in refined carbohydrates, unhealthy fats, and low-quality protein sources—with very little in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables—can wreak havoc on our bodies and, in particular, on our digestive systems. 

But the good news is that, while bad food choices can cause major damage to the digestive system, good food choices can have the opposite effect. By introducing certain Nutrition foods into your diet, you can begin repairing your gut and healing digestion naturally. Try my favorite five foods to start feeling better fast!

Bone Broth

Hands down, bone broth is my top food for healing digestion and leaky gut. But be clear: I'm not talking about the canned stuff you buy at the grocery store to use in recipes or make soup. I'm talking about bone broth the way our ancestors made it: with marrow, tendons, ligaments, and every other inedible part of the animal being boiled and then simmered over several days.

The simmering causes the bones and ligaments to release healing compounds like collagen, which can totally transform your digestive health. Collagen protects and soothes the digestive tract's lining—so much so that it sometimes helps people with food allergies and sensitivities begin to tolerate those foods.

More: Turkey Bone Broth Recipe

As an added bonus, if you've been suffering from skin issues as a result of poor digestion, collagen is amazing at improving skin's elasticity (hello, younger you) and reducing cellulite.

Coconut Products

Coconut products—including coconut oil, coconut milk, and coconut water—are excellent for healing digestion and maintaining a healthy gut. Because they help the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins, calcium, and magnesium, coconut products help keep things flowing smoothly.

Probiotic Foods

When it comes to healing digestion, probiotic foods have your back. Probiotics are bacteria that line your digestive tract and support your body's ability to absorb nutrients and fight infection. In fact, there are actually 10 times more probiotics in your gut than there are cells in your body. 

These little do-gooders make sure there is a healthy balance between the good and bad bacteria in your gut. It's when the imbalance tips too far in favor of the bad gut bugs that digestive issues (like IBS or poor digestive function) crop up.

[Source: http://www.rodalewellness.com/health/top-5-foods-to-heal-digestion?cid=OB-_-ROW-_-SSF]

GENERAL TIPS ON LOSING WEIGHT AND GETTING HEALTHY

After posting the advice on what I would say to someone who is just starting out, I got a lot of positive feedback via email, but most people also asked for some more practical advice on how to start out. Like what small changes they should make first. Well, I did mention some of the small steps in the previous post, but here are some more for you to consider. 

Some of these are taken from my weight loss diary I kept and some of them I have only learned myself during maintenance. They are going to be different for everyone, so you just have to figure out what works for you.

– Don’t give up: This is the most important one. It is not going to be easy, but it IS going to be worth it!

– Don’t take on too much: One of the points I made in the last post was to make small changes. Don’t change everything at once, otherwise you will get overwhelmed and something will have to give. Not being able to do everything will be frustrating and stressful and you don’t need any more stress. Start with the easiest things, like drinking more water and eating breakfast and then add on more changes from there.

– Snack wisely: No joke, I used to have a whole bucket full of unhealthy snacks when I was obese. I would never let the bucket get half empty before I filled it up with snack sized cakes, chocolate bars and other fattening treats. They would give me an instant hit of energy, but I would soon come crashing down. Choose nuts, seeds and fruit for a snack that will do exactly what a snack should do – carry you to your next meal and keep your energy levels up.

– Make sure you are eating enough: It might seem that seriously restricting your calories will help you lose weight quickly, but you will end up doing more damage than good. Make sure you are eating enough to fuel your body. I often found when I hit a plateau that upping my calories helped me diet for weight loss. This is a good calculator to tell you how many calories you should eat if you just sat down all day: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

– There is no finish line on health: don’t see it as you have a certain amount of weight to lose and then you have finished. You will never finish. You always have to work hard at looking after your health. You will reach your weight loss goal, but you can’t just go back to your old habits.

– Move on from days where you go off track: I went off track countless times. Sometimes for one meal, sometimes for one day and sometimes for a whole week. But I always got back on track again and I didn’t punish myself for it. What is done is done; it is going to happen to all of us. As the saying goes, “fall down 7, stand up 8”.

– If you are hungry, then eat: you will see a lot of “diet plans” that say when you feel hungry, to drink a glass of water. I don’t necessarily agree with this. If you can identify it as real hunger, and not emotional hunger (which takes some time to tell the difference), then you need to eat. Trying to cover it up with water is most likely going to lead to a binge later on. But, if you can identify it as emotional eating, then a glass of water is a good idea.

[Source: http://www.hungryhealthyhappy.com/general-tips-on-losing-weight-and-getting-healthy/]

How To Find The Best Workout For Your Personality

"When people are similar to the activities they pursue," says Gavin, "they tend to be happier, express more satisfaction and stay with it longer." Enter: the fitness personality.

Consider how tough it is to stick with something you really don't like, says Ryan Rhodes, Ph.D., a professor in the Behavioral Medicine Laboratory at the University of Victoria. "We like the outcomes of exercise -- weight control, disease prevention, a boost in appearance," he says. "These are highly-desired things, but the process to get there is not."

Luckily, this is merely a framing problem: While we acknowledge that enjoyment is the primal impetus behind many of our daily habits when it comes to exercise, we focus instead on disease prevention, Rhodes says. Boring!

Instead of trudging along in workouts we hate, we may be able to learn something more from our natural emotional responses to exercise. In her 2009 paper, Personality, Physical Fitness, and Affective Response to Exercise Among Adolescents, Margaret Schneider, Ph.D., associate researcher at UC Irvine, explored the link between physical activity and two personality systems, behavioral activation (BAS) and behavioral inhibition (BIS).

Someone with a high BAS score is more motivated by reward, while someone with a high BIS score is more motivated to avoid punishment, Schneider explains, and physical activity can be both rewarding and aversive. "We know that at very high intensity, everybody feels bad," she says, but at a more moderate level, different people will feel different things while exercising. "People who are more BIS-motivated may be more sensitive to the negative cues like sweating, breathing hard and increased heart rate," she says.

Those cues are part of the body's physiological response to exercise, which is by definition a stress response, says Gavin. Additional pressure from an activity you truly disdain will only add more stress.

Early studies compared apples and oranges, says Gavin, and kept hitting dead ends. As he writes in his 2004 paper, Pairing Personality With Activity:

"Through the 1970s and 1980s, countless studies explored the relationship of personality traits to sport choice and participation. Most studies yielded results that could rarely be replicated. For example, some studies characterized runners as compulsive, depressed, inhibited, introverted, taciturn, cautious, deliberate, and suited to monotonous, repetitive situations. Others described runners as sociable, optimistic, sexually active, and well-adjusted. One report found that body builders had a pathologic preoccupation with muscularity, but another investigation found them to be quite normal. Martial artists were depicted as highly aggressive in one study, while another reported relatively low levels of aggression. Highly committed exercisers were described as narcissistic and obsessive-compulsive by one researcher, even though the general trend describes regular exercisers as well-adjusted."

To truly match a workout with a personality, he says, there had to be a way to "describe a physical activity on the same dimensions as personality," which led him to creating the chart below, depicting where 19 physical activities fall along seven personality trait spectrums.

But Gavin isn't the only one trying to make a better metric.

"It's really important for people to know what their expectations are for fitness," says Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist and spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise (ACE). "What they gravitate to becomes helpful [in making] exercise something you want to integrate into your life and continue long term."

To help people along that life-long journey, Matthews developed a Facebook quiz for the ACE that sorts users into Diet for Weight Loss types. Someone who identifies as a Planner may take a more reserved approach to fitness, sticking to familiar, tried-and-true exercises, she says. A Go-Getter loves competition and intensity and thrives off of seeing continued improvement. A Social Butterfly, unsurprisingly, loves group fitness and positive energy, while the Adventurer will try anything and everything, even if it's just a passing fad. Each personality is also paired with some suggestions for how to bust through those typical routines to reach peak fitness.

[Source: http://www.wellnesstoday.com/fitness/how-to-find-the-best-workout-for-your-personality]