By Marco Girgenti

This is a biggie, folks. Ignorance!

All roads that lead to excuses usually wind up in compromise and how we eat is no exception.

I have consulted people’s nutrition and exercise numbering in the thousands, let’s focus on food for a moment.

So we sit down at a table for your fitness consultation and you begin telling me everything you want to change about your body, how you have tried and made so many efforts and that you really want this, etc…

My first question will be: “how many calories do you average per day?’

“Oh, gosh, I don’t really know, but I try to eat healthy.”

Here is the deal; I do not advocate counting calories religiously, but you have got to at least know what your tipping point for losing/maintaining body weight is. So, what many people resort to is the commercial diet programs we see so many B-list celebrities endorse, because, after all, the program does it all for you and there is no thinking or weighing to do; and that, my dear yo yo dieter, is exactly where the problem lies. We do not think! So we go on some diet program with pre-fab boxed meals and are amazed at what happens when we come off the boxed food; BOOM, it all comes back and then some. Besides, can you actually commit to being on pre-packaged boxed food for the rest of your life?

I hear you: “I am just going to do this until I hit my target weight.”

Oh no, you’re not. You’re going to hit your target, come off the boxes and wind up with a whole new weight loss goal, but this time you will have to account for an additional 20-25% body weight.

Then of course, there are the famous, I call them infamous, point based programs. Ask yourself; what are you learning about the food you are eating? You may be staying within your prescribed point system, but what if 2-3 of those points are coming from foods laced with trans fats or lard? Are you really any further ahead, or is it just about a temporary dip of the scale? What happens when the food choices on vacation is not on the point system?

The bottom line is this, if you are not going to think about what you are eating, there are plenty of bogus food and diet programs who will do the thinking for you. You will pay them, they will continue to make billions and you will remain ignorant and on the dieting roller coaster.

Be prepared though; it’s going to cost you a lot more than just your health. Some of these programs run into the thousands of dollars.

What a price to pay for not having to think… actually, no; what a cost.

By Marco Girgenti

Great, You Are Exercising… I think.

In this second part of my 5 part series on “Why You Are Not Losing Weight,” I will look at exercising.

Let’s get one thing straight; everyone reacts to certain exercises differently. Just like a “one size fits all” diet will not work, neither will a generic approach to exercise. I used to tell people who were just getting started on their weight loss journey to simply “move.” 

Although movement is important, like in any other area, people define this differently.

“I went for a walk today.”

I hear that a lot from people. Fully remembering that for me just over a decade ago that was big news, we always want to progress. So I am suggesting you still do move, but do so with purpose. Your poodle will probably not pull you along quickly enough to generate a metabolic shift, but pushing a stroller uphill, might. A leisurely walk around the block might be a great thing to do following dinner, but a vigorous walk will yield better results.

At the gym, if you are training for weight loss, doing a set of exercises with medium to challenging weights followed by 3 minutes to get to a water fountain will not get it done, but circuit training in 3 minute intervals at 80-90% intensity and a 1 minute water break will.

What will definitely not get it done is you doing things incorrectly. This is where I have to stop, no, stomp all over the objections “I can do it myself/I can’t afford a trainer.” Most of us have had financial challenges, but I encourage you to closely examine where your money is going. Are you spending a lot of money, and calories, on expensive “designer” coffees? Weekly visits to the salon? Guys, the beer nights with your buddies and just eating out in general? That social outing drink(s) or buying lunches and snacks at work?  Your monthly VIP movie channel packages… these all add up.

It all boils down to one thing; what is important to you? The amount of overweight people I consulted who refused to get a trainer, nearly all had perfect hair, Michelangelo level nail detailing and $500 Gucci glasses, and not just the guys 🙂
Nice things are wonderful to enjoy, I am just challenging you to examine where you might be putting money that could better be used to help you on your fitness journey.

What costs more than anything is doing things incorrectly, which can lead to injury and then you, sitting back on the couch thinking, “wow, I am never going to lose this weight”, and being in a very discouraging place. If you have been hurt in the gym or still don’t know what kind of cardio to do and whether or not you should be doing it before or after weights, do yourself a favor; stop wasting your time just moving, and move with purpose instead.

By Marco Girgenti

Okay, there can be many reasons as to why that fat won’t let go.

You are exercising, eating “right” and making an effort. So what gives?

In my debut series I will touch on several areas from food planning, mindsets and other pitfalls and successes.

After losing over 150 Lb and keeping it off for a decade, I can say with meekness and surety, that I “get” weight loss. What I am working on these days is the sculpting, so to speak. Those last 15-20 Lb. are fighting for me because they “love” me. Which brings me to my first point:

Your Fat Loves You

Have you ever hard of what happens when a mother bear senses her cub is in danger? Well, God help the cause of that danger, because momma will put herself between it and her baby, defending it to the death, if necessary.
That is how our fat works. It is a strange type of love hate relationship, but maybe looking at it this way will make it a little clearer.
When our bodies are underfed, especially when we have been at a particular weight for a long time, our “weight set point” senses a shift and, like momma bear, perceives this as danger and then it’s fat to the rescue! Fat exists for a number of reasons and one of them is to be our protector. If you were stuck in the wilderness without food or water, your body’s metabolic rate (the speed at which you process and burn calories) would slow down to “save” you, so to speak. The result? Our systems go into a protective mode and the body begins to resist weight loss and store fat. I like to say it does this because “our fat loves us.”

The Fat that Fought Back

So, how do those low cal diets look now? Just ask anyone that has ever been on one, because invariably the body rebelled and the fat fought back. Hey, I did call my book “Starving to be Fat,” for a real reason folks! At my heaviest weight, I was barely eating. It was not until I began to understand the concept of stoking my metabolism through regular intervals of eating, that the fat came off and stayed off.
Now, I am not saying we should get stuck on a rigid number of calories, but consider this; do you haveany idea at all as to how many calories you consume daily and from which food groups? Don’t you think you should? A guideline, at the very least is essential. Find a facility, perhaps a nutritionist that can calculate your BMR, Basal Metabolic Rate. The BMR is an equation based on a number of factors, such as percentage of lean tissue etc…that will tell you at what rate your body burns calories. Go over that amount without being active and you will gain weight, go under it dramatically and you will lose, then gain.

Remember; fat will always fight back, it is engineered to adapt to varying circumstances and to protect you. Don’t starve your body into gaining fat!

By Marco Girgenti

DO YOU REALLY?

One proclamation that we repeatedly hear is “well, I know what to do, the problem is doing it.” Well, I am going to challenge you on that, because the truth is most people actually think they know what to do, but they don’t!

To help gauge how accurate your statement is, here are a few questions that will quickly tell us if you really do know what to do, and are just not doing it.

1. What is your Basal Metabolic Rate? (Basically, at what rate does your body store or process its calories?)
2. How many calories did you take in today and from what food groups?
3. At what heart rate (beats per minute) should you exercise in order to burn fat and preserve muscle?

The list goes on and on, but if you do not know the answer to these three questions, here is some tough love; you really don’t know what you are supposed to be doing. What you have is the general 98% failure rate de-facto mantra : “I just need to eat better and exercise more.”

Okay, let’s say I give you the part about exercising more. Can you tell me how many of the foods in your kitchen right now are laced with trans-fats, have hidden sugar or contain more chemicals than they do nutrients and whether or not those labels like “fat free, low in sugar, or part of a healthy and balanced lifestyle” actually help or sabotage your weight loss and health goals? If you do not know, then again, you simply think you know, or you cannot be bothered to take the time to know. If that is the case, I must ask you the golden question; who are you going go trust to give you the information you need to succeed? Who do you trust to feed your children? Take it from a single dad who coached his son to a 17 LB weight loss; the responsibility falls solely on you.

All that we can do is educate you, but you have got to want to take matters into your own hands. If you don’t I will give you a list of commercial diet programs and “health” food manufacturers who are making billions of dollars on our blind faith.

I challenge you to educate yourself and stop handing your health and the health of your family over to brands and convenience.  Do you remember that exam you had to pass? How about that job you wanted so badly or that sporting event you wanted to excel at? What did these require in order for you to succeed?

Like anything worthwhile, proper nutrition and weight maintenance require knowledge, discipline and action.

Know what to do and do it!

By Marco

The commercial diet programs now advocating “no calorie counting, no weighing and basically no thinking,” these are the companies who do not want us to think for ourselves. They just want us consuming their product. Permanent and safe weight loss requires thought and knowledge. Take it from me, you do not drop 160 Lb. and keep it off for 10 years by not thinking.

We blame the fast food industry a lot. Yet, I have never seen someone magically be pulled into one of those establishments by force while walking down the street. We make choices and these companies, whether fast food or “diet” meet the consumer demand based on that. If we “tell” these companies: “I don’t have time to exercise, nor figure out what I need to eat, weighing myself once in a while bugs me, I don’t want to know how many calories will help me gain/lose…

I just don’t want to do this and and…” Well, those companies are going to give us exactly what we are looking for! The QUICK, NO THINK FIX! It will be customized to makes sure that they address all of our peeves.

Let me ask you; do you run any other part of your life just guessing like that, or just the part about what you are putting into your body?

Look, I realize that the allure of a lot of the “commercial diet” programs is the support group piece, and I am all for that. I am talking about taking control and being as aware as possible of what we are eating.  If I were to ask you a question like; are you eating 7000 calories a day, or 700, do you have any idea? It would really be good to have a slight idea, don’t you think?

When I first started out to lose weight over 10 years ago, I would just stand in the shopping market aisles for hours reading ingredients, trying to understand what it all really meant. It was a daunting task which sometimes bordered on frightening however what was really frightening was finding out just what was in the stuff I was eating. Trust me, it’s not just the obvious junkier food, a lot of the so-called “health-food” is just as bad if not worse. 

Commercial diet programs don’t want you to think for yourself because they want you to buy their products and services, it’s that simple. If, for example, you are using a point system, or a card or color-coded system I understand this is based on caloric intake, but what if you actually knew what the ingredients in these foods were? Are the calories then all that important, isn’t it more about the quality of the ingredients of those calories? I’m often said in presentations that I believe turpentine has zero calories as well. So if I put a bunch of sugar into turpentine and told you it had zero calories because I used sweetener and told you it may help you lose weight, would you buy it? The answer is probably yes if it tasted good and you thought it would help you lose weight and it fit into a “quick fix, no think” diet. “They just told me I could have that, so I did.” 

Oh boy.

There’s no substitute for knowledge. However, it seems to all come down to the quick fix, doesn’t it? Everybody wants it as fast as possible, but very few want to do the work that is involved to get there properly, even though it’s going to take them a little while longer. If you’re not in the habit of reading labels, it’s pretty simple to start. 

Here are some tips to get you, umm… thinking!

• Start reading food labels more carefully. Pay close attention to the serving sizes

• Perhaps more importantly, it is all about INGREDIENTS! Read the ingredients list. If there is something you do not recognize, DO NOT blindly assume it is okay to eat it, ‘cus, after all, “they” allowed it. Copy the word down and FIND OUT what it is! What you discover may shock you!

• Stop “free pouring” “lite, light, low cal…” (whatever “sell it to you” terms the company is using to lure you) salad dressing! Did you know there are over 100 different types of and names for sugar?

• Realize that many people plan their TV time and what shows they will watch, how to PVR and time shift so as to not miss them. They will program their recorder for an entire week, BUT… do they give a moment’s attention to what to eat when, or do they just show up and see what’s available at any given moment in the fridge or the food court?

Once you get into the practice of reading food labels you’re going to notice what I call the usual suspects, or, the repeat offenders. They seem to show up everywhere in the form of hydrogenated fats and oils, high fructose corn syrup, or what I like to call the “ose’s,” just about everything that ends with an “OSE” is a sugar! Have a look around the house right now and in your cupboards. Pick up a few bottled or boxed items and read through the ingredients. There are a few things that you may notice immediately, 1) you probably need a science or language degree to get through the pronunciation of some of the ingredients and 2) that you’re going to see the same names over and over again.

If you’ve got any of those so-called gummy vitamins in the house, you should really have a close look at those as well because they are some of the worst offenders.

Then again, you wouldn’t know that unless you have knowledge as to what the ingredients are.

Don’t you think it’s worth the investment in time to do some learning?

Getting in the habit of reading food labels a few minutes each day is definitely one way to getfitfaster!

By Marco

I have consulted thousands of one on one cases of people who wanted to lose weight and I have found some common, albeit startling beliefs, patterns and practices.

These common areas have nothing to do with whether I was consulting males or females. For the sake of my article, we are going to establish our client as wanting to lose 30+ Lb. and in their 30’s.

Not one person even had a general idea of how many calories they were taking in daily. I asked questions like: “do you think it’s along the lines of 1500 per day, 3000, 5000 or more?”

NO CLUE.

I can say this however, most of the people wanting to lose weight were all either:

1) Under-eating, or 2) under the impression they did not overeat, but were unaware they were taking in thousands of “hidden” calories. By this I mean processed foods, oils, so called “healthy meals,” and “healthier” meal choices they had thought they made in a restaurant.

2.   Hardly anyone ate breakfast and proceeded to tell me they were not a “breakfast person.”

3.   They were all doing too much cardio. They were also doing it in the wrong order; before resistance/weight training, instead of after.

4.   Most women pointed to the fat on the back of their arms, or hips and legs as their “problem area,” while most men indicated their stomachs.

Additionally, they all were under the impression they could lose weight primarily/solely in that area, also known as “spot reduction.” Women thought triceps area exercises would rid them of fat in the arms and men thought that crunches, or even worse; sit-ups, would rid them of body fat in the mid-section.

5.   Rounding off our top 5 and perhaps the most alarming; everyone thought they needed to cut carbs or go on a diet, and everyone who lost weight, gained it all back and then some.

There were other common areas of misunderstanding as well. Lack of proper exercise technique, or which exercises to do was also high on the list, but the one common denominator was lack of knowledge.

Get the right information and your chances of success will greatly increase!

By Marco

After holding thousands of consultations, both privately and for large fitness chains, I can say with absolute surety that there are undeniable patterns at play when it comes to whether or not someone elects to work with a fitness trainer. At the very top of the list is “I’d love to, but I can’t afford it.”

Now granted, if someone does not see the value of working with a pro, then they are not going to invest a dime. They may feel this way because the consultation they received was more of a sales pitch than anything else, but the reality is that ignorance can kill a person. Don’t believe me? Spend a day in a battle field somewhere without training, try to fly a plane, try to fix your own car (without being a mechanic), try to do surgery on yourself… see what I mean?

You think those are extreme examples? How would you like a list of the injuries: strokes, pass outs, calls to 911, the amount of people who quit trying and chronic conditions now in full swing, that all started at a gym; all because an inexperienced person “tried it” on their own. 

So you can’t afford a trainer? Well, let’s have a look at what you apparently “can afford.”

• Designer coffees
• Dinners out
• Vacations you can’t afford but put on credit
• Weekly hair appointments
• Weekly nail appointments
• Mani / Pedi
• The golf course fees
• The huge car you drive that you can’t afford and the gas that it eats
• The weekly partying, girls/guys night out
• Not making your lunches, buying them instead
• Nights out at the movies
• I love my wine and my booze. How much is that costing you?
• That outfit you just HAD to have.
• The “diet” and weight loss supplements you are buying
• The shopping spree
• The boxed “diet” food you are buying
• The cigarettes
• The big screen TV
• Binge buying at Costco, Best Buy, Guess
• Video games
• Fad electronics
• The list goes on and on…

Truth is you could do away with any one of these if not several and put some money aside to get educated by a fitness pro, but you don’t. You choose not to.

It IS a choice

Are you deifying your kids and buying expensive outfits that they outgrow in weeks?

What about that expensive hobby? Scrapbooking, cars, crafting?

As a man who lost 160 Lb. naturally and has kept it off, let me assure you of this: there is NOT A SINGLE SOLITARY SUPPLEMENT THAT WILL FIX YOUR WEIGHT PROBLEM or help you lose weight properly and long-term. Forget it; It is all a cash grab. You are spending money on shortcuts that do not work. 

The truth is that whatever we desire or prioritize the most, we manage to find the money for, or put it on credit, or find a way around getting it. Don’t believe me? Got any debt? What did you spend that money you did not have on?

The truth is we don’t WANT to spend money in the area of hiring a trainer. We would rather spend it on the vices and pleasures above. That and/or we think you can do it ourselves. This is the ONLY area people seem to skimp on. Not car repairs, not medical issues, not renovations, not golf lessons, but as far as the gym goes “I will try it on my own.”
As a trainer and award winning fitness consultant I can say this; NOTHING causes someone to leave a gym and give up on their fitness goals more than a lack of results. Why is there a lack of results? Because people in general have no idea what they are doing in the gym. I am not just talking about technique here. I am talking about programming, working around injuries, having a specific program; no, not just a class, though they are great as well. I mean a focused program that is right for each individual.

Bottom line? Everyone wants it, but few are willing to work for it, much less pay for it.

TRUTH IS, you can’t afford NOT to work with a trainer!

Check where your money is going. You may be able to make a few adjustments and at least get started with some potentially injury saving, discouragement preventing advice.

Most of all though, you have to decide that your health, fitness and well-being is THAT important to you. More than the vacations, more than the things we have all spent money we did not have for.

 By Marco Girgenti

In my last article, I wrote about ‘The Only Time I Ever Gained Some Weight Back,’ the article outlined the effects a 16 week, no carb transformation had on me. Today, I’d like to share how cutting refined sugar from my everyday eating has impacted other areas of my life; not just my reduced waistline.

CHRONIC PAIN

When you get used to living with joint pain or inflammation, you come to a place where you accept it and don’t really notice the symptoms any more… until one day you wake up and they are gone. It is a well documented fact that sugar causes inflammation which is a major factor in a long list of diseases, from cancer and diabetes, to atherosclerosis and digestive disorders. On a personal level, I had pain in my left knee for years, a trigger finger – caused by local swelling from inflammation or scarring of the tendon sheath around the flexor tendons and I also had recurring pain in the lower left side of my back and my left wrist. Since eliminating refined sugar or “simple carbs,” these are all gone!

Again, I want to take you back to my last article and remind you that I am speaking strictly about eliminating refined sugar, the kind you find in almost anything baked, any packaged foods, or meals in restaurants. Yes, it is everywhere. I still have lots of sugar from dates, fruits, etc… but my waist keeps shrinking and I feel stronger now than I did even 10 years ago (I am 49 as I write this article).

ENERGY

Refined sugar is also referred to as a High GI (Glycemic Index) food. My workouts are intense. They are all superset exercises and the HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) in my boxing workouts is extremely punishing. Yet, without any type of “pre workout” supplement, I power through these workouts with no inflammation and my energy comes solely from plant based foods. It amazes me. No “super science made in a lab” concoction. For a pre workout energy boost, I prefer 5-6 medjool dates and 2-3 tablespoons of seeds and my favourite are pumpkin and some coconut water to wash it all down. Alternately, I will juice an entire red beet, a 1-2 inch piece of ginger root with some cilantro and kale. These provide clean energy with nutritional benefits that are almost immeasurable and oh, they taste great by the way! 

POST WORKOUT STIFFNESS

In the past I would feel a lot of soreness following intense workouts, even when I was younger, which means I should have been able to recover more quickly than at 49. However, since I eliminated refined sugar, that post training soreness has dropped to 90% of what it was. In fact, I train to the absolute max, the kind of max where one more rep could mean the bench press bar landing on my neck, or one more HIIT could mean the heart rate at above 190. The fact that I feel little to no discomfort at all from 24 hours following this type of intense workout astounds me perhaps more than anything else.

I no longer find myself with energy drops throughout the day; the 2:00 p.m. dip etc…  I am wide awake and more alert than I have ever been since I replaced refined sugar with foods that have naturally occurring sugar.

In my next article, I will talk a bit more about sugar, as well as the shocking effects I experienced after coming off dairy and then having a 3/4 cup serving of greek yogurt; a darling of the health food industry.

I hope this information helps to inspire you to make healthy lifestyle changes.

Thanks for reading!

Marco

The Only Time I Gained Some Weight Back.

Some time ago I made a conscious effort to eliminate all processed sugars from my everyday diet. When I say “diet,” it is not in the commercial sense of the word; I mean it to be defined as my way of eating on a regular basis. I also decided to stave off large quantities of bread, pasta and those types of carbs in general. I have enough “stored energy” in my body and that is what those foods represent and function as – energy.

Sounds like a no carb diet, doesn’t it? The exact thing I have been preaching against and wrote about in my book, “Starving to be Fat.”  Years ago, I took a 16 week “transformation” type challenge on for a few reasons:

1) I wanted to see if I had the discipline to do it. 

2) As a trainer, I had clients who were trying it.

3) As a fitness consultant I met with many who had tried that lifestyle and failed. So, over the course of this challenge, I ate nothing but chicken, some red meat and fish, only greens, no fruit, no bread, potatoes or any carbs of that sort. No fat to speak of, other than some portioned cashews 3 times per week, maybe some flaxseed oil and enough eggs and egg whites to support a small supermarket.

I trained in the gym 4-5 days a week and wound up doing upwards of 1 hour and 20 minutes of steady state cardio. Fun, huh?

I dropped weight alright and loved the results. So, why did I gain some weight back after I came off that challenge? Now that I have dealt with refined sugar in my life, I have my answer. I never kicked my system’s addiction to refined sugar and that is why programs and diets like that only work short term and they can be harmful as well.

STILL EATING SUGAR

If you read my article “How Marco Continues to Reshape…” (if not, please click here to read it) you will have a general idea of how I eat now. You will also read there that I eat a lot of sugar and fat and that I am dropping weight steadily. So what is the difference between how I live now and that 16-week program? There are a few differences; the sugar and fat are natural, not refined or artificial. Since I dealt with the refined sugar addiction and replaced the refined sugars with natural ones, in a sense I detoxed (big fad word there) my body’s dependency on sugar. Think my diet is boring? If you tried the raw desserts Susan has been creating, you would be astounded. They all taste better than their refined impostors and though they are calorically dense, they carry massive nutritional density. Because they are natural, the body responds differently and you become satiated with less. The urge to gorge is gone, as a result! Everything in moderation, of course. If you eat 3 cups of nuts, organic or not and you are not training to support that kind of eating, you are going to gain weight.

CLICK HERE for one of our raw treat recipes.

CARBS GALORE

Among other significant damage the diet industry has inflicted is its insistence on pointing primarily to pasta, potatoes, breads and the like, as carbs. However, all vegetables and fruits are carbs as well. So you could say I am eating more carbs now than I ever have.

SUGAR ADDICTION

This sugar addiction is passive. One may not go around “jonesing” for a hit of sugar; it works in the background and hooks you slowly. I can tell you this 100% though; until you wean your body off refined sugar, you will probable never have long term success in your weight loss goals. In my next article, I will talk about the major differences I have noticed, even in relation to training as a result of eliminating refined sugar from my diet.

Confession: Last night Susan and I had a lovely dinner outdoors and had tiramisu, a decadent Italian desert. Sugar indeed! Once in a while, but not a lifestyle… and that makes all the difference in the world.