Newsletter #13 – Have Your Cake and Eat It Too + Is Resistance Training Good For Your Heart?: Q & A with Josef

Have Your Cake And Eat It Too +

Lift Your Way To A Healthy Heart: Q&A With Josef

Quote #13

“You have to invest your time at the gym, not just spend it… watching TV while you walk on the treadmill for an hour won’t get you anywhere.” – Scott Abel

Quick Tip #13 – Eat Out, Speak Up

Here’s an easy, yummy, AND bowel healthy way to eat out with-out undoing your hard work in the gym. The next time you go out to eat ask the server to sub extra veggies for the starch (i.e. mashed potatoes, pasta, etc.). Most restaurants will be more than happy to accommodate you at no extra charge, and this will go a long way to make you lean or to keep you lean, and to improve your health. Large servings of starchy carbs generally block fat-burning, even more so at night when you are more likely to be eating out.

Recipe #13: The Brandenburg Breakfast

I never thought that anyone would actually care, but people have asked me what I eat for breakfast. So, here it is. I eat pretty much the same thing every morning because that makes life much simpler for me, and eggs seem to be the one thing that I don’t get sick of. I get my protein, my healthy fat, a serving of fruit, a serving of veggies, and it tastes good, and I get it all cooked in 10min. Please note that my breakfast is probably a little too big for most people. Click here to eat like a weirdo.

Have Your Cake And Eat It Too +

Lift Your Way To A Healthy Heart: Q&A With Josef

Q: If I spend all of my time in the gym lifting weights, how will my heart get healthy? Don’t I need aerobics for my heart?

A: NO. You can use resistance training to slash body-fat, improve heart and lung fitness/health, and to improve things like blood pressure in MUCH LESS time than via the aerobic exercise route. I haven’t done aerobic exercise in quite a few years, and I have a resting heart rate of about 54 beats per min. That’s actually lower than when I used to do long distance running, and now-a-days I can get a workout done in far less time than it used to take to run 8-10miles (oh, and my knees don’t hurt either).

The confusion on the subject of heart health and exercise comes from the fact that modern fitness is heavily, heavily influenced by bodybuilding. In bodybuilding the body is split up into parts: some exercises are for your biceps, some for your chest, some triceps… and, some are for your heart. This negates how the body actually works – it works as a whole. The only reason that your heart and lungs have to work harder and get fitter is because the muscles in your body are doing work and need more blood and more oxygen. Your muscles control your heart and lungs, not the other way around.

For example, lets say that you can swim a mile in 30min, and run a mile in 9min. You decide that you want to do a triathlon, and that your swimming needs work. So, for 3 months you swim each and every day, but do no running. You worked your butt off, your heart was pounding when you swam, and you can now swim that mile in only 25min. How’s your running? You’re actually slower. It now takes you 10min. to run that mile because your heart and lungs don’t go running, your muscles do. While your heart and lungs got better and providing blood and oxygen (fitter), your legs got worse at running from not running so you are slower. If we could actually train our cardiovascular systems in isolation, then swimming would have made you a better runner because it improved your cardiovascular fitness.

So, to get leaner, stronger, have a fitter heart, and better bones all at the same time, try this: Pick a multi-joint lower body exercise – i.e. lunges, and a multi-joint upper body exercise – i.e. a push-up. Do 10 lunges per leg, no rest, and go straight into push-ups for 10 reps. Rest 60sec, and repeat 3 rounds. Repeat that with 2 more upper/lower combos (try: rows + squats, and dead-lifts + an overhead press) with the same reps and rest periods. You’ll work every muscle in your body – including your heart, boost your metabolism for 24hrs+ to come, and you’ll be done with your workout in les than 30min.

Which one of these machines will isolate my heart!?!?

Q: In your first book, you have a chapter called “how to have your cake and eat it too.” Is that really possible?

A: YES! And, thank goodness it is. If I had to give up all chocolate chip cookies for the rest of my life to be lean, I think I might still be a fat ass. Life is too short not to have some treats. By the same token, life is too short not to be in excellent health and fitness so that you can enjoy each and every day to the fullest with lots and lots of energy and vitality. Here’s how to literally have your cake and eat it to:

• 1. Eat right 90% of the time. This is just simple arithmetic. If you are supposed to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, that is 35 opportunities to stick to your plan. 10% of that is 3 (we rounded down). So, you can break the rules up to 3x/week and be on track. But, beware, skipping a meal counts the same as breaking your plan. Most people think that they “are on the plan,” but in reality they are only sticking to the plan 60-70% of the time, which is the same as winging it and being on no plan at all. In 10min per week, total, you can track this on a simple piece of paper.
• 2. Treat Yourself, Don’t Cheat Yourself. 10% of the time (unless you wasted your 10% on skipping meals), you can treat yourself to a small to moderate serving of whatever you want. The only limitation here will be when you find out that some treats really do not agree with your digestive tract anymore after eating well 90% of the time. Eat until you are comfortably satiated, not stuffed. Also, if you choose to drink, do so in moderation. 1-2 drinks. Alcohol can stimulate fat storage, muscle break down, and sleeping with ugly people. Drinking to intoxication is one of the worst things that you can do for your physique.
• 3. Gain As Much Muscle As You Can. The speed of your metabolism (at rest and during a workout) is largely determined by how much muscle mass you have. Furthermore, most treats are high in refined carbs – i.e. French fries, cookies, etc. Muscle (and your liver to a lesser extent), is the only place that you can store carbs, other than in your fat cells. Extra muscle mass is like a “fat buffer.” The more you have the easier it is to maintain fat-loss over the long haul.

  Ladies, you can relax. I understand your fear of getting too big. Rest assured that becoming a hulking he-woman takes years, and years of eating and training specifically towards the purpose of getting huge – it won’t happen by accident. And, for that matter, most men can’t even do it on purpose. For women, trading in 10-20lbs of fat for 10-20lbs of muscle will result in a smaller, firmer and more toned version of you (and you will not lose an ounce of femininity). The extra muscle will help you burn more fat at rest, and during each and every workout. It will also make your back and arms look really good in a dress.

  Random aside: Here is yet annother photo of an obese person that does aerobics FOR A LIVING. If you can find them at almost every gym, and online, what does that say about what it will do for you?

  Guys, your favorite store is the limit. Get as big (in the muscle, not your gut) as you can while still fitting into the clothes at your favorite store (if your shoulders get big enough you can buy a shirt that’s too big, and take it to a tailor). It is soooooo much easier to drop fat when you have a whole bunch of extra muscle – every work out is more effective, and every day burns significantly more fat. At 5’10” (and maybe 1/2”), I’ve gained 45+lbs of muscle and I don’t think that I look like some enormous freak – far from it.

• 4. Keep A “Clean” House. If you don’t want to wear cookies, doughnuts, and cake on your belly, butt, or thighs, then don’t keep them around the house. No one needs more temptation. You don’t need junk food calling your name after a long, stressful day at work. Keeping only clean food in your home makes eating right easier than eating wrong, and that is at least half of the battle.

Six-Pack Abs Are Built in the Kitchen

And here is the cookbook that I used to build mine. Really, I don’t do sales hype, or BS people. I borrowed 90-95% of the nutrition philosophy that I use with myself and my client from the author, Dr. John Berardi. Click here to pick up a copy now.