Mid Life Fitness

It’s been a while since I’ve had a guest post on the blog, but today I have a timely post from Craig Ballantyne, the author of the best selling Turbulence Training system. Back at the start of the year I wrote about goal setting and yet I know that most of the people who set goals back at the start of the year have now either forgotten about them or given up. And for those who have given up, there will be a degree of guilt, though some will hide that with bluster about a change of mind.

Craig is here focussing on those who started the year with an aim to lose a few pounds or to tone up, and yet you can read this with a broader view. Here is Craig with some strong advice about a simple way to implement a 7 step detox diet which you can use every day to eat cleaner and achieve better results.

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I just got back from the SuperBowl and got a chance to sit in the front row right in the endzone. It was really cool, and I also got a chance to see “The Who” live in concert at half-time.

But, while I was there, I had a few extra “non-compliance” meals than normal, so it got me thinking about detox diets.

I have a pretty strong opinion about detoxing, and I put together a simple 7-step detox diet plan that you can easily follow so that you never have to do a 16-day detox ever.

You see, my biggest “beef” with the entire theory of “detoxing” is this…

It is simply NOT possible to EVER detox your body.

Why?

Because it’s such a vague statement.

What does “detox” mean?

How do you measure “detoxification”?

What do you even define as toxins?

And when do you officially become “detoxed”?

The answer is, “You don’t.”

It’s impossible.

After all, every single second of every day your body produces carbon dioxide, which is a toxin.

And if you have deep belly fat, research shows that this “visceral fat” is constantly releasing inflammatory toxins into your blood.

Every second. The more fat you have, the more toxic you are.

Plus, every breath you take includes pollutants.

And even the water that you drink may contain “toxins”.

So….what’s the real deal on detoxing?

Listen, while every “expert” is out there arguing about tiny little details and “gurus” are trying to sell you on detoxing so they can sell supplements, the TRUTH is that you really just need to know a few steps to avoid getting toxic in the first place.

In my opinion, the #1 factor in living a “low toxin life” is simply to keep as much garbage out of your body in the first place, rather than depending on a 3-day, 7-day or even 16-day detox to be healthy.

So what do I do to prevent “toxin build-up” in the first place?

Well, I live the Turbulence Training Lifestyle of course, including my “7 Step Detox Nutrition Plan”:

1) Start each day with a blender drink of berries, spinach or other greens, raw nuts (such as walnuts – rich in healthy fats), and other ingredients packed with antioxidants and healthy fats.

2) For lunch, have a large green salad with spinach, beans, broccoli, peppers, avocado, onions, etc.

3) Eat an organic apple a day. Certain fruits (i.e. apples, peaches, cherries, and strawberries) and vegetables have a higher exposure to pesticides, and you should choose organic when possible.

4) Eat RAW snacks only – of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Try using this one simple rule and limit all of your between meal snacks to raw fruit, raw vegetables, and/or raw nuts and I promise you’ll drop the pounds because you’ll be full on a smaller number of calories.

5) Drink Green Tea (2-3 cups) and filtered water (3 liters) instead of beverages that contain calories or chemicals.

6) Limit animal protein intake to only 2 servings per day. On most days, I’ll one of the following: an “after workout” chocolate milk, organic eggs in the morning, or occasionally I’ll have high quality meat at dinner.

You don’t need to be a full vegetarian to live a longer life, but you should probably avoid eating meat 5 times per day, like people in Chicago.

(Hey Chicago, don’t get mad at me for that…it was a born-and-raised Chicago native who told me 5 servings of meat per day was the average Chicago meat consumption.)

7) Minimize or completely eliminate alcohol intake.

While research does show that for men, up to 2 drinks per day may help cardiovascular health (and for women, up to one drink per day), I’m not about to recommend you start drinking.

After all, if you go above those limits, you start to destroy your health…and you risk addiction. Alcohol killed my father, and I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you. Tread cautiously with the booze.

So that’s it. A simple 7-Step Detox Diet Plan.

By the way, it goes without saying that you should avoid:

- cigarettes
- trans-fats
- excessive amounts of sugar
- refined grains
- and 7-11 nacho cheese

Right?

Of course.

And you should be exercising to lose the belly fat…using proven methods, such as interval training – which is proven to beat long, slow cardio when it comes to burning dangerous belly fat.

Plus, you should be using Turbulence Training resistance supersets to burn more calories and sculpt your body.

If you’ve never used Turbulence Training, you can try it out today for less than the cost of a Superbowl hot dog.

Click here to get Turbulence Training for less than 5 bucks:

=> http://dbu488150.turbulence.hop.clickbank.net/?page=trialoffer

Simply follow those 7 nutrition guidelines and use the short TT workouts to cut out as many toxins from your body – without detoxing.

Stay strong,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

PS – I also believe you should avoid toxic relationships…

…so you need to take a hard look at the people you surround yourself with in life.

Do you have the right work friends?
Are you in the right relationships?
Do you spend enough time with the right family members?

Or are they toxic too?

Remember – you need social support for success in life and in fat loss…so surround yourself with positive people, like the good folks on the TT Member’s forum.

If you need to dump the toxic folks and get positive social support, we’d love to see you on the forum and help you out.

You will get a free 3-month TT membership access to the forum when you try out Turbulence Training for only $4.95 today:

=> http://dbu488150.turbulence.hop.clickbank.net/?page=trialoffer

Please click that link to get started losing fat & getting rid of the toxic baggage in your life.

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I should point out that the above is an affiliate link, so if you decide to buy something I will get paid an affiliate commission, but since the offer is just for $4.95 I don’t think I’ll get rich any time soon from that. But money aside, I have a lot of respect for Craig and I know his system has been tested and proven by enough people that I have no qualms about recommending it to you.

Taking the first step to success

The one thing which defines a person who is successful is that there is clarity in their mind about what they are doing. Knowing what you want is all about defining goals, but simply setting goals is far from enough to ensure success; it is merely the very first step. Remember though that every journey begins with that first step and without it there is no journey.

To begin a journey you need to know the destination. The final destination can be a little vague but the next step in the journey has to be known with crystal clarity if you are to arrive at the place you wanted and not somewhere else.

There are always two things which need you need to be clear about with your goal; what you want and when you want it. You can imagine a goal to the effect that next summer you can have a body which will impress people when you take off your shirt. But what exactly does that mean? As a goal it isn’t very useful – does it mean you will have large muscles, that the muscles are well defined or just what exactly?

Precision about the goal

Be precise about the when. By Summer, do you mean at the start of June or do you mean July or even August? Pick a day and fix it in your mind and if there is something which will act as a lock to stop it shifting such as a competition, a party or a holiday, then so much the better.

Then decide what it is that you want and again be precise. Is it to gain or lose a certain number of pounds? Do you want to add a certain number of inches to your chest or arms? Do you want your body fat percentage to be a certain level?

If you are vague then you are setting yourself up for failure. If you have no clarity about the goal then it’s because you don’t really know what you want. How will you know if you have you really achieved what you wanted or not? If you can’t define the goal with clarity then it means that the goal isn’t really important for you, and things which aren’t important get sidelined very easily.

Rebalancing your life

To achieve a goal you have to create the space in your life to allow the goal to happen. In order to move towards the goal you must move away from something else; you will need to sacrifice things you are doing now. For most people one of the sacrifices will be financial – fitness and health are never cheap options and there are some very expensive ways to spend money. If you have enough money to satisfy every whim, you have very little chance of having enough time to indulge all of the whims which you can afford, so one way or another you will have to overcome limitations.

Achieving goals is all about tipping the balance away from its current stability and creating a new balance where there is no choice but to achieve the goal. The goals you choose and your ability to pay the price necessary to achieve those goals are dictated by your personal values and by your passion for those values. If you have no passion for your new goals you will never muster the energy to make the necessary sacrifices and overcome the obstacles which will block your path. If you can’t muster that passion then perhaps the goal is not in line with your values and you should consider either choosing a new goal or a new time frame in which to achieve it.

The key is to sacrifice those things which have no value for you in terms of the goal. To give up the things which are holding you back – relationships, habits or simply ways of killing time or money in ways that are no longer useful to you. You will not reach your goal unless you take action.

Narrowing your focus

In order to make real progress you need to restrict the number of goals. Every goal will have at least two or three activities related to it – so to build muscle you need to workout, eat well and sleep for example. All of those take time and focus. If you set three goals then you may have nine activities to manage, and very quickly you will lose focus because each activity might have its own challenges. Eating well for example means buying the right foods and taking the time to prepare and eat them. Sleeping well means reducing stress and allowing enough time, but neither of those are easy if you are trying to shoehorn working out into an already crowded schedule. I’d suggest that you have no more than three goals at any on time and even then in an ideal world just work on one at a time. If you really want to be become extraordinary, to do better than the average, then you will need to have only one goal.

Clarity

The degree of clarity you have about the goal and the specific next actions you need to take in order to achieve them will dictate whether or not you succeed or fail. If you review your goals once a week or once a month how likely is it that you will achieve them? Goals need to be reviewed every day; either in the evening or first thing in the morning. Review them and reawaken your passion for achieving them.

Having the actions you need to take fresh in your mind will affect the choices you make during the day. By being in your mind you will notice actions which otherwise might have happened while your mind was on autopilot and busy with another task. Having noticed the trigger point you can make a decision about how to act. Do you eat the cookie or the apple? Without focus your hand likely would have been in the cookie jar long before your mind actually noticed it. People on diets consistently under report the amount of food they eat, simply because they don’t realise that they are eating it. It’s the same as when you drive on a regular journey and have no memory of the actual drive.

Putting it all together

Remember your passion and use it to swing the balance of your life such that achieving the goals becomes easier than not achieving it. Have clarity about your goals and about what you are doing today to move towards the goal.

Every thing that you do either moves you towards your goal or away from it. Every step away from your goal means having to take another step just to get back to where you are now, a step that would otherwise have moved you towards your goal. It’s easier and faster to stay on track than to deviate.