4 Reasons Why You Will NOT Experience a Set-Back If You Ate Too Much This Weekend

I hope you enjoyed the Easter/Passover Break.

It seemed like the girls, Rozanne and I were everywhere over the past 3 days spending time with family and friends and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine...after all, that's what a long weekend is about isn't it?
(To the right is a picture of my protein-junkie 18-month-old, Mikey, enjoying a hard-boiled egg...don't worry, she had about 6 chocolate eggs after!)

Amidst all the pizza, pasta, ham, dessert and all the little chocolate eggs that I ate, I still managed to get to the gym couple of times and stayed on track with my workouts.

Even though there was a lot of distraction (my in-laws have this knack for breaking out the poker chips at just the right time), I stuck to my schedule and was disciplined enough to cut out from the family stuff for a quick 45 minutes (traveling time included) to get to the local YMCA.

And even though I got kicked off the Smith Machine while I was doing Blast Strap Push-Ups because a trainer wanted their 40-something-out-of-shape-female-client to do some Smith Machine bench presses (!?!?!), I was still able to get a great muscle building workout in...


1a) 3 sets of weighted Chin-Ups
1b) 3 sets of Standing Military Presses

2a) 3 sets of DB Rows
2b) 3 sets of Blast Strap Push-Ups





Holiday eating can really throw you off your stride if you can't quickly get back on the horse. I’ve seen many a client just throw away all their fat loss efforts and completely fall off the wagon because of one indulgent weekend.

But that’s not going to happen to YOU (or to me)…

4 Reasons Why This Past Long Will NOT Set You Back From Your Fat Loss Goals
1. The weather is getting better. It's spring time and that means more family bike rides, hikes, playing in the park and NO STUFFY GYMS that make you feel trapped and clausterphobic. Being outdoors and doing your fat loss workouts outdoors will make you feel vibrant and alive. Your body relishes the Vitamin D that it's been missing over the winter. So get outside, take a kettlebell and and head over to the playground and do some chin-ups with your kids! ***Remember, no kettlebell swings while the little ones are around.
2. You will stick to your plan. The best part about your FitAndBusyDad workouts is that it allows for flexibility. If you miss a workout, it's not that big a deal because you can stack the missed component onto the end of another workout. And with each workout only being 20-minutes of less, you won't be caught in the gym or away from the family for very long at all.

3. Your diet could use the break. Chances are, if you've been eating well for the past few weeks, you're body could be reaching a plateau. Just like how our workouts need to be changed every few weeks to give our body a different stimulus to change, the same holds true for our diets. If you've been eating a lot less than normal lately, then a sudden "re-feed" could be just what your body needs to say, "whoa, what the HE** was that?" and restart your fat loss metabolism! Just make sure to go back to your clean eating ways starting today.

4. Don't sweat the small stuff. Truthfully, if you enjoyed yourself this weekend - spending time with the kids and your friends, family and loved ones - then in the big picture of things, if you ate a little too much this weekend, IS IT REALLY THAT BIG OF A DEAL? The answer of course is NO. We just need to jump back on course and continue with the healthy lifestyle that we've been living and teaching our kids. One long weekend of indulgent eating will not hinder our results if we've committed a lifetime of healthy habits to ourselves and our family. Now, it's just a matter of getting back on track and continuing what we started.

I hope you guys had as enjoyable weekend as I did. I'm off to the farm now (it's my day off) for a children's birthday party. Then it's off to the gym.

Enjoy your day!

Chris Lopez
The FitAndBusyDad

P.S. Speaking of indulgent eating, my good friend and fellow author Joel Marion just finished recording some REALLY eye opening videos on the pitfalls of dieting and how you can actually use your favorite foods to lose fat *faster*. I'll be sending you a direct link to check out these powerful videos tomorrow, so make sure to keep a close eye out on your email. Believe me when I say you're definitely NOT going to want to miss these!

4 Ways to Bust Through Your Weight Loss Plateaus

***I got 3 hours of sleep last night, so instead of a blog post, I'm going to give you an article that I got from a very successful nutrition expert and author. Today's post comes courtesy of my friend Mike Roussell from NakedNutritionNetwork.com. If you don't know Mike, you can read about him at my post HERE. But to sum it up, Mike's got a PhD in nutrition from Penn State University, runs a successful nutrition consulting business and is the father of 6-month-old twins.
Mike is......a FitAndBusyDad.***




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Busting Through Weight Loss Plateaus
by Mike Roussell

Weight loss plateaus are the bain of every dieter's existence. There is nothing more frustrating than doing everything that you are 'supposed' to do but for whatever reason the weight loss just stops.

Before we get into how you can smash through your weight loss plateau it is important to determine if you have actually plateaued OR perhaps you haven't actually been following your diet and/or training program.

The first step is to do a gut check and make sure your compliance to your program is where it needs to be. If you haven't been 90% compliant then stop reading this article and get back to focusing on doing what you actually said you were going to do.

If you have been sticking to your program but have stopped losing weight then we have a problem.

Homeostasis.

The human body is all about achieving homeostasis (check out this article in regards to homeostasis and weight loss), so what we need to do is shake things up and get our systems un-homeostatic (not sure if that is a real word). Here are 4 ways that you can disrupt homeostasis and blast through your weight loss plateau. You aren't meant to do all of them instead just pick one at at time.

1. Increase Calories for 7-10 Days
This doesn't mean go off your diet. Instead, increase your calories (no more than 500 calories per day), mainly from carbohydrates to give your system a 'break' from calorie restriction. After the 7-10 day period cut your calories back down and your weight loss will start back up. This strategy works well if you have been dieting for a long time.

2. Crank Up the Intensity
Often times we find ourselves perpetually dieting (see the Lifetime Fat Loss article for a great example) and can just never seem to get those last 10 pounds off. In these situations cranking up the intensity on all fronts (diet and training) for a set amount of time is a great way to blast through a weight loss plateau. With this method we are basically shocking your system out of homeostasis. This is a great situation for Warp Speed Fat Loss (and one of the reason's we developed it.)

3. Change Your Training Program
Sticking to the same training program for too long used to be a very common problem. Now with all the training resources on the Internet, being on a program for too long isn't an issue for many people (but it may be for you). You need to be switching up your program (set, reps, exercises, how many days a week you train, etc) every 4-6 weeks. If you do need a new program we have a large archive of 4 week fat loss workouts and a new one every month in the Faster Fat Loss Zone.

4. Reduce Your Carbs
This tip is the opposite of the first one, but works just as well. Dropping your carbs down to a ketogenic level will strongarm your system into using fat as its primary fuel source. This metabolic fuel switch works best if your carbs aren't too low already (>100g/d). To further enhance the effect of this technique use the induction protocol where you eat 20g/d of carbs or less for 2 weeks.

Weight loss plateaus are frustrating but don't let them discourage you or stop you from reaching your goal. If you have truly reached a plateau pick one of the techniques above and put it into action. When you hit another plateau, pick another one. Continue doing this until you have reached your goal. Remember that for the most part weight loss is not a linear process. Plateaus are a normal physiological occurrence but using the strategies in this article you can beat homeostasis and achieve the body you want.

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Thanks Mike!

I'm going to take a nap now.

Chris
The FitAndBusyDad