A Nutrition Strategy from Shawn Phillips

For those of you who are not familiar with Shawn, he's been on top of the fitness industry for decades; heading up the marketing for EAS, MET-RX, author of AbSolution and his most recent Strength for Life (among many others). Shawn is also the older brother of Bill Phillips, author of Body for Life.

Needless to say he's full of knowledge! I was fortunate enough to meet Shawn at Transformation Domination a few weekends ago in Tampa.

That weekend, Shawn had shared alot of great content but here's one basic yet valuable nutrition tip that can help any one to start eating better: Strive to have just one meal that you know is going to be as close to perfect as you can get. Essentially, a meal that looks as good on paper as it does in your body. From there, progressively more towards 2 meals, 3 meals etc.

I love that. Too often people try to completely change their diet and start a brand new training program all at the same time. When these people fail miserably they start blaming the system ("I tried to eat right and workout but it just doesn't work for me") and give up.

Rather then trying to become the next John or Jane Basedow over night, set some smaller goals and work at getting better at those goals each day.

As mentioned above, Shawn has a ton of great content out there. Check him out:
www.FullStrength.com
www.mystrengthforlife.com
www.startstrongmonday.com

YOU

I've found that the most helpful and useful things in life are often the most cliche and slap to the face obvious. For example, if you workout and eat right, 99% of the time you will not get fat, look gross and become sick - something over 35% of our population does not understand.

Today, what I'm really talking about now is owning your time. Last weekend, Holly Rigsby, owner of www.fityummymummy.com, dedicated a good portion of her speech about to this. Her point, was that we as Americans, we often spend too much time doing the things we think we need to do as opposed to spending time doing the things we want to do.

This really hit home for me because as an entrepreneur and teacher, I started to find my own workouts suffering. I'm on the road from early am to just getting home anywhere from 8 -10 pm - without any large chunk of time in the middle to spend on myself. I'd get in maybe 25 minute workouts but mostly 10 minute, high intensity circuits. These types of workouts do have a great effect on burning fat and maintenance but sometimes the meat head in me just wants to lift weights and not rush.

Therefore, for now on I decided to give myself one full hr to workout, three days a week. Sorry clients. Further, I started blocking out an additional hour for business development (stuff I need to do but have no energy to do at 10 pm after 13 hrs). Selfish? Maybe but its better long term for not only my personal growth but for those around me.

What are you not making time for?
Workouts? Family? Significant others? Reading? Baywatch re-runs?

Map out an hour each day to focus on whatever it is you love to do or be around. Literally mark it off in your calender or phone and start owning your time.

The more you skip out on what you love, the more you will resent yourself. Take care of the things you need to (your job, health etc..) and live a life that serves your purpose.

Cardio Core Routine

I wanted to take advantage of the weather down here in Tampa (people are crazy who are saying its cold) so I filmed this Cardio Core workout for you all to perform anywhere!

It's pretty simple:

• There are four movements - perform one after another without rest
• Start with two quality reps of each exercise and work your way up. Perform two reps of each exercise and move to the next. You should feel each rep
• No rest! Move from one exercise to the next
• Sequence: Cross Crawl, Pillar Transformation, Spidermans Single Leg Glute Bridge
• Start with three rounds. Increase reps before increasing total rounds

My Breakfast Shake

Semi-Private Training and a Rock Star Dual

Semi-private training is defined as two or more people, working on a specific goal (or goals) at the same time.

Why it works?

• Accountability to another person: Committing to someone else has greater power then just yourself
  
• Competition: Who is taking their training to the next level? Pushing themselves to the limit? Performing their off day homework? No one wants to fall behind or get beat out
  
• Funner:More people, more energy and a better vibe
  
• Better Results: Studies show that small groups/boot camps show greater adherence to programs then individuals training on their own
• Affordability: Nearly half the price of traditional one on one training
  

What most people do?

• Move at the speed of death talking to each other while on matching cardio machines
• Socialize in a gym setting rather then train: There's a tendency to get caught up in conversation, which prolongs your rest periods and eliminates your focus

I encourage all potential clients to join my boot camp or enroll in semi-private training for the reasons mentioned above. If you are interested, check out more at http://www.carabasetraining.com/semipriv.html

Ryan and Jeff are two of my rock star clients who were looking for a greater challenge so they decided to switch their individual training to semi-private. Check out Ryan and Jeff Dual it out....

Snowed In Cardio

Next time:

You are tired from working all day
Depressed over the darkness and bare trees
Frozen from the cold and white snow
Do yourself a favor and don't go to the gym.......

Instead, take advantage of these cardio routines below that require zero equipment and each take less then 10 minutes. OH and that are scientifically proven to boost your metabolism for up to 48 hours. Ah yeaa

There are three levels. I'd recommend people who have worked out for less then six months consecutively start with the first one and everybody else start with the middle before moving on to the last.

The first two workouts are about four minutes long. You can increase the intensity by adding additional sets. The second workout is only about two minutes long. If you do not have a medicine ball, use a basketball or book (3lb - 8 lb). Same rules apply with increasing the intensity. All three are powered by Workout Muse's Hip Hop Tabatas sound track.

You may not get a great shot of the lower extremity in the first video so know that you are kicking one leg in as you simultaneously kick one leg out.