The reason? The area of your body where love handles develop is around your oblique muscles, an area often overlooked during exercise. How in the world can you get rid of these rolls of fat and find your waist again? To lose weight on any part of your body you need a total body workout. Targeting a specific area won’t decrease its amount of fat. You’ll also need to cut down on your calorie intake.

This happens with a healthy, low fat diet, coupled with plenty of aerobic exercise and strength training. Though you’ll need to do all these for weight loss, strength training will result in toned obliques. Interested in toning your oblique muscles and firming up your midsection? You’ll want to give these five exercises a shot.

For full story click the image below:

Did you know, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass factory farm doesn’t compare nutritionally with organic free range eggs from healthy chickens that are allowed to roam freely and eat a more natural diet.  Your typical cheap grocery store eggs will have lower nutrient levels and a higher omega-6 level and lower omega-3 level.  On the other hand, the cage-free organic eggs from healthier chickens allowed to eat more natural feed and roam freely will have much higher vitamin and mineral levels and a more balanced healthier omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio.

I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store with a box of free range eggs.

Most people don’t realize that there’s a major difference because they’ve never bought real eggs from healthy chickens… The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks and thin weak shells. On the other hand, the free range eggs had strong thick shells and deep orange colored yolks indicating much higher nutrition levels and carotenoids… and just a healthier egg in general.

This is due to the fact that a free-roaming hen allowed to roam on plenty of land will eat a variety of greens, insects, worms, etc transferring MUCH higher levels of nutrients to the eggs compared to an unhealthy hen that is trapped inside a cage and fed nothing but piles of corn and soy.  It’s a DRASTIC difference in the nutrition that you get from the egg.

So next time a health or fitness professional tells you that egg whites are better for you (because of their “fat-phobic” mentality towards dietary fats), you can quietly ignore their advice knowing that you now understand the REAL deal about egg yolks.

So, can we all please STOP with this sillyness about eating an omelete with 4-5 egg whites and only 1 egg yolk… If you want real taste and real health benefits, we’d all be better off eating ALL of our eggs with the yolks.

Do you REALLY think that our ancestors threw out the yolks and only ate the egg whites?  NOT A CHANCE!  They intuitively knew that all of the nutrition was found in the yolks.  Our modern society has been brainwashed with misinformation about fats and cholesterol.

Like I have been saying to you all, eat like a caveman!!!!

This is exactly how I eat… I personally eat 4 whole eggs every day with breakfast, and I maintain reasonably low bodyfat most of the year.

Enjoy your eggs!!!

Part I

I was on a weekend trip with some friends down the coast  recently, and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for us. As always I was particularly hungry on this morn so I went over to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of ham and eggs.

Well, to my shock, I noticed that he was cracking the eggs open and separating the egg whites into a bowl and throwing  the egg yolks out. I asked him why he was throwing out the egg yolks, and he replied…

“because the egg yolks are bad for you…that’s where all the fat and cholesterol is”.

And I replied, “you mean that’s where all of the nutrition is!”

This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation about nutrition, somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG!

By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you’re essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg. The yolks contain B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients… it’s not even worth trying to list them all.

In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolks.

Even the protein in egg whites isn’t as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid structure and make the protein more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with healthy omega-3 fatty acids (the good fats).

Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids (EFAs).

And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg…

“But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol through the roof”

No, not true!!

When you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body regulates it’s internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.

On the other hand, if you don’t eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has dozens of important vital functions in the body.

And here’s where it gets even more interesting…

There have been plenty of studies lately that indicate that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.

In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as other antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.

So I hope we’ve established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body… instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.

The healthy fats in the egg yolks help to maintain a good level of fat-burning hormones in your body.

Overall, this means that the extra fats (healthy fats) and calories from the yolk are so nutrient-dense that they actually HELP you to burn off body fat!

Scott Williams

Emotional eating is a big problem for many people. But what is it really? Well, quite simply, you may be eating for reasons other than satisfying physical hunger, providing energy, stoking your metabolism and feeding your muscles, and it may be keeping you overweight.

Are you an emotional eater? Do you eat for the wrong reasons? Do you eat mindlessly, stuffing down food without a conscious thought?

Take this quiz and find out:

Do you ever eat for any of these reasons?

1. To obtain a good feeling

2. For comfort

3. Out of sheer boredom

4. Out of habit (for example, every time you watch TV)

5. For social reasons

6. To cope with stressful events

7. To fill a void or missing need

8. To recapture a feeling or memory associated with a food (makes you feel “like being back home with family again,” etc)

9. To cope with depression

10. To cope with (or in response to) other feelings such as anger, loneliness, frustration, disappointment, grief, lack of control or anxiety

If so, then you’re an emotional eater!

As long as you are en emotional eater, you may continue to struggle to follow even the very best laid nutrition plans. That’s what’s so frustrating about this particular problem. You KNOW your nutrition (and exercise) program would work… if only you could stay on it and stop sabotaging yourself with inappropriate eating!

Conventional solutions to emotional eating are helpful. Much of the traditional wisdom focuses on conscious eating (mindfulness or AWARE-ness), as well as setting up your environment for success.

Awareness IS an important part of the solution, but an incomplete one. There are lots of people who are ALREADY AWARE of their emotional eating problems, but they feel unable to stop them

Why? It’s because traditional awareness-only solutions to emotional eating focus only on willpower and the conscious mind. But that’s not where your power lies.

Your true power source is your sub-consious mind, which is the part of you responsible for automatic behaviors.

Think about it: If the sub conscious parts of your mind can handle complex tasks like beating your heart and circulating your blood without consulting your conscious mind, then how easily do you think it can control your eating behaviors?

Your ability to change inappropriate eating behaviors (eating for the wrong reasons), starts with your understanding that you have been running patterns on automatic pilot (unconsciously), without even realizing it.

The first step towards freedom from emotional eating is to develop conscious awareness. You can do this in many ways: For example, by keeping a food journal, or by searching your experience and making a list of autopilot behaviours that you didn’t realize were subconsciously-directed habits

But there is more to it than this. Conventional approaches tell you to become AWARE of your “mindless eating” but then they don’t tell you how to change those old patterns.

I’ve been spending the last few months researching this topic of eating behaviours and emotions and I’ve been researching Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). It was NLP that really helped me fill in the missing piece and make what I can honestly and legitimately call a “breakthrough.”

I’ve discovered numerous quick and easy, yet very powerful ways to neurologically short-circuit the old emotional eating behaviours and literally re-configure you with healthy eating behaviours that run on auto pilot just as easily as the old negative habits did.

Do you know what they are? How can you stop yourself from emotional eating?

Post any answers you may have in the comments section…

As most of you know I lost my mentor and Mother in Law to breast cancer at the end of last year.

So, I have joined forces with the Relay for Life in Queanbeyan and will be doing a 24hr CrossFit challenge within the relay for life to raise money for Cancer…

So far we have raised $36,450 for the cause and we are looking to break the $50,000 mark.

For those of you that are looking to support an awesome cause and help raise money for charity (+ get a bit fitter at the same time!!), I would love to have you come along and jump and do a workout or two with me!!

Here is the link to register and or donate: https://relay.cancercouncil.com.au/join/22675

Also if you don’t wish to participate, you can come along and watch, join the walk or just sit and watch the bands play during the day or the movies at night!! Bring the kids along, as I will also be running a kids fitness session at 11am Saturday & also a seniors session Saturday afternoon at 2pm, plus there will be plenty for the kids to do (jumping castle, face painting etc). There is camping so you stay the night + a big breakfast on Sunday morning.

Obviously events like these are to raise money, so even if you can’t make it any help would be greatly appreciated to such a worthy cause and to see me hurt!!

The more money we raise the harder the workouts become!!!

So get on board, I hope to see you all there at some stage…

When: Saturday 18th Feb
Time: 10am start
Finish: 10am Sunday
Where: Seiffert Oval, Queanbeyan

Click the image for more info:

Welcome back to the start of a new year, one that is sure to be filled of changes and exciting times.

The decision is yours in 2012!!!

What are you going to do? Is it time to make it about you and finally make some changes and set some goals for yourself? Or will you spend another year making up excuses?

Remember the quote - “if nothing changes, then nothing changes”

How many years have you made it about others, and not about YOU??

Well now is the chance to make it about you, it is never too late.

Whether it be the outdoor world and hitting up the Boot Camps in Canberra, or you are wanting to stay indoors at the Health Clubs, here at Succeed Canberra we can cater for all…

Our Boot Camp Canberra sessions are back up and running on a casual basis across the ACT, with the main program starting the end of this month, registrations are now being taken: admin@succeed.com.au

But if that is not your thing, then we can certainly help you at with any 1 on 1 or small group PT sessions!!! We have trainers based within Club Lime Tuggeranong and also at the Alive Health Clubs and also CrossFit Queanbeyan.

So why not get back on track and make it about you??

Simply click here to register for Boot Camp or enquire about Personal Training.

We look forward to huge 2012 and leaving a few thousand kilos of fat out there….

The Succeed Team

I am seeing a growing trend in many people not helping themselves out both in everyday life and also those who are into their fitness and health.

 Many Canberran’s are not doing anything to progress in their training and skills by failing to do any mobility or flexibilty work (not to mention what is happening to those that are sedentry on a daily basis).

It is vital that you spend time on your flexibilty if you wish to progress and get fitter, faster, stronger, or just to live longer for that matter!

I have just finished up a few sessions in my garage today, and I am seeing some lack of flexibilty in some people.

Here is an awesome resource tool for you. It is called the mobility WOD, run by Kelly Starrett, and he is the king of mobility in the CrossFit world, and he can certainly help YOU!!!

Check it out and get flexible:

Personally I think it is a waste of money (my own opinion).

We have been created to use our body in as natrual state as possible, and using these artificial items are ruining our bodies!!

I run in shoes with no support or cushioning and my feet and legs have never been so good! If you have shin splints I am going to tell you to run barefoot for a month and see what happens! Not run off and spend $600 on getting orthodics.

I will post about this soon but, this just came out in the news today that should answer your question about the toning shoe:

Reebok Agrees To $25M Settlement In Refunds For ‘Toning Shoes’

Don’t forget ‘Spring into Summer’ Boot Camp Canberra starts next week, REGISTER NOW…..

Scotty

It was an amazing crowd with 600 + people in attendance rocking it out to the amazing band “Ignition”, what a great atmosphere!!

A huge thanks to all the sponsors of the event, I will do up a post on all over the coming weeks.

Of course, thank you to the amazing Legs Dance Studio, dancers who set the place on fire with an amazing introduction to the night.

These girls are available to be booked for functions and I can’t speak highly enough about them, they were amazing.

We are still awaiting the final tally on how much we have raised, but just wanted to send out a few photos for you to look at.

Remember you can purchase any photos for $5 that will also go to Clare Holland House Fund at: http://travislongmorephotography.com.au