These excuses could kill you.

Published: Sat, 02/19/22

I'll admit it. I've been there. I am sure you've been there too. We make up a gazillion different excuses why we can't work out or why we need a cheat day (that turns into a string of "I'll start my diet tomorrow" declarations). Well, as we all know, excuses don’t get you fit, healthy, and lean.

Your body doesn’t care whether or not you work long or late hours or that you don't have time to make healthy meals & snacks. YOU are the only one in control of your body, your choices, and ultimately, how fit and lean your body is. So, stop making excuses and instead make controlled choices.

Guess what? If you continue to make excuses not to take care of yourself because you don't have the time, you’ll spend that same time in the doctor’s office down the road. Can’t do a complete cardio session? Then just do a portion of it. And this goes for eating too. You won’t successfully lose that body fat if you’re always waiting for something to pass.

“I’m just going to wait until after the 3^rd because that’s my kid’s birthday. But then somebody’s leaving work, and we’re going out for dinner… and then there’s a holiday in between. So, I should probably wait three months.”

STOP IT. There is no better time than NOW. Life is happening and will continue to happen, but your health isn’t if you don’t get off your butt ASAP. No excuses.

Now that you are committed to making your health a priority, start doing cardio on an empty stomach. Whatever cardio you decide to do, do it on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. When you wake up, your body is empty as far as stored calories, glucose, and glycogen. You’re as empty as you’ll be.

So, when you get up and do cardio in your target zone (I’ll get to that in a minute), you are going to dip into the fatty acids to keep your body moving. Doing cardio in the morning on an empty stomach for 30-minutes is like doing it later in the day for an hour and 15! You get a MUCH BETTER bang for your buck!

Okay, about that target heart rate – it’s the heart rate you need to sustain during cardio for optimal fat burning. Take 220 minus your age = number. Multiply that number by .6 as well as by .75. For example:

If your age is 37
220-37= 183

183 x .6 = 110 (lower range)
183 x .75 = 138 (upper range)

Those two numbers are your lower and upper range. In the example, if that person works out with his heart rate between 110 and 138, he will be using nothing but fatty acids to keep going in that zone.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to go to the gym. You can jump rope, walk around the neighborhood, or even jog in place. Simply get your heart rate in that zone and sustain. I suggest investing in a heart rate monitor like this Polar Ft1 Heart Rate Monitor, so you’ll know every second where your heart rate is. It’s the best in the market and one of the most valuable pieces of equipment you can own.

Plan your meals by prepping. If you prepare meals in advance, you think through your meals. And when you get hungry, you have more power to make smart decisions. If I am hungry and I haven’t planned, I am prone to grab anything I can jam into my mouth – and usually, it’s not stuff that’s good for me.

With meal planning and prep, you need to LIMIT the amount you’re actually eating to lose body fat. . If you eat out several times a week or even every day or even twice a day, you need to limit that to improve your chances of losing body fat. Restaurants are notorious for adding ingredients that increase calories and fat. You may think you’re doing a great job ordering the chicken and broccoli, but you don’t realize the amount of salt, butter, and oil they add to each. When dining out, you don’t know what’s actually going into your body. To be successful with losing body fat, you need to know what you’re consuming, and when you eat out, it’s tougher to know.

With the meal prep and portioning, have healthy snacks around the house. Get rid of the crap. You are probably just as weak as I am, and I know from experience that I won't eat it if I don't have it in the house. I stock up with healthy snacks like vegetables and almonds.

So, you can see this is not complicated stuff. It’s pretty simple! You have to stop making excuses, get off of your ass, follow the plan, and take action!

Alpha M. POST of the WEEK

Hello gents. I just want to present my nearly six week transformation. On December 1st, I started eating a lot of trash food that increased my body with a lot of fat. Every day I felt bad and unhealthy. After 30-days of horror, on January 1st 2022, I was happy to get back to my usual food. So, my transformation started. Why did I do this? I wanted to give you guys the motivation to never give up. Treating your body good and changing from eating bad food like pizza, noodles, and fast food.

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