There is no magic brew, no magic supplement formula and definitely no magic food I utilize to get ready for a show or photo shoot.

Search the web right now and you’ll find literally thousands of pre competition diets laid out by far more renown people than I.

Maybe some of the 8-6 White Collar Professional slobs can relate to this more than my personal training/fitness professional brethren.  I don’t know.  I made a promise to a few folks I’d reveal this as soon as I got around to it.  Now that I have been doing this for a couple of years and taking notes of what works and what doesn’t, I believe I have much of this dialed in.  You can never be too sure as life often times “gets in the way”.

So being true to my Master Series on Dieting Article, I need to do some math and compute finite anthropomorphic measurements of where I am starting and where I need to get to.  Let’s go.

Height-6-2

Body Weight 217 Pounds

Body fat 8%

Goal is 5% Body fat and maintaining 207-210 pounds.  Unlikely but am working like crazy to get there.

10-13 Kcals Per Pound of Bodyweight cycling macronutrient percentages up and down through out the week.

250 gms of Protein per day (no exception) =’s 1000 kcals Protein Daily

125-175gms of Carbs per day (Higher on Weight Training Days)=’s 500-700 kcals Carbohydrates Daily

135-150 gms of EFA’s per day   =’s 1215 kcals of EFA’s per day.

Here is my Daily Diet!

• 6:30AM-Thermogenic Cocktail 1st Dose (Wouldn’t you like to know what’s in this)

• 6:45AM-Cardio Session 1-45 Minutes on Stationary Bike (Moderate Intensity)

• 8AM-Feeding 1—2 Scoops Muscle Milk MRP, 1 Scoop Dymatize Casein Protein, 3 Tablespoons of Udo’s Oil

• 10:30AM-Thermogenic Cocktail 2nd Dose

• 12 Noon-Feeding 2—Ground Turkey Meatballs (Giving me 50gms Protein), Broccoli

• 2PM-Thermogenic Cocktail 3rd Dose

• 4 PM-Feeding 3——Ground Turkey Meatballs (Giving me 50 gms Protein), Broccoli

• 7:30PM-Training Days Only(M/T/Th/F)-Feeding 4-Post Workout Shake of Dymatize Mass Gain(60-75gms Maltodextrin Carbs) and 1 Scoop Casein Protein

• 8:30PM-Feeding 4/5-Lean Protein (Chicken Fish-Salad with Homemade Salad Oil from Udo’s/Italian Seasoning)

• 9:30PM-Cardio Session 2(30 Minutes of EEW(Energy Expenditure Work-Low Intensity on Bike to get Sweat Going)

• 10:30PM-Feeding 5/6-2 Scoops Casein Protein, 2 Tablespoons of Udo’s Oil

MIHWCS

The goal of future iterations is to offer more granularity to the discussion.

Part 2 of TMC’s Master Series on Dieting provides usable information seeing to the success of beginners and advanced dieters alike.

In helping people diet and also facing the rigors of dieting myself over the last 13 years, I’ve come up with a 6 step list which if followed and monitored correctly should ensure the success of most dieting approaches.

6 CRUCIAL STEPS SEEING TO THE SUCCESS OF A DIET

1)Controlling the body’s insulemic response. This is the most important thing any dieting human needs to understand relative to their own condition.  In lay terms, every time you consume a carbohydrate, protein or fat your body biochemically responds by releasing insulin into the bloodstream.  It is difficult to predict the insulin secretion from any particular food, due to assorted digestive interactions and the differing effects on insulin release.  You have to measure this yourself and learn what foods cause problems for you.  Stabilizing blood sugar to control hunger/appetite allowing for feedings of healthy nutritious kcals at regular intervals is of paramount importance to the success of any diet.

2)Maintaining Consistent Eating Patterns(Frequency/Stability of Feedings)-We’re all so busy in our normal lives it becomes quite difficult to eat at regular intervals 7 days a week.  Look no further than dieting fitness and body building competitors to get first hand knowledge of how one prepares food to eat every 3-4 hours.  Even as a busy professional you can set reminders in your outlook calendar, or even your google calendar on your PDA to remind yourself to eat every 4 hours.

3)Beneficial Environment(Surrounding oneself with foods useful to the diet)-Anyone whose ever dieted before understands the importance or ridding “trigger foods” from your pantry.  If there is nothing bad to snack on in your house, how much easier will it be to maintain your nutrition?

4)Positive Peer and Societal Influences(Friends/Family)-I could write for days on this component but it stands to reason if you don’t surround yourself with like minded people, your diet is going to fail.  If you think you can diet and go out with your peeps on Friday and Saturday nights and drink in excess, you’re dead wrong.  You will set an entire weeks worth of dieting back from one Saturday night bender.

5)Preparation of Food and Meals/-Without this crucial step mastered, you have no chance to succeed.  Every successful dieter knows they have to prepare an entire weeks worth of meals on Sunday.  Stacking the tupperware baby.  Make meals with clean healthy proteins combined with green veggies or clean low glycemic carb sources like sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa etc.

6)Proper Ancillary Supplements/Consistency of Using Them.-I could argue that supplements are worthless if not used in conjunction with the right diet/eating philosophy.  But for dieters obsessed with losing body fat, utilization of certain supplements at key points in the day is crucial.  EFA’s, Fiber, Vitamin/Minerals and Thermogenics can all play a vital role if used intelligently and dosed at precise times in the day.  Some with meals, some in between and some without any food whatsoever.   Learning how and why to use them is a worthwhile endeavor.  Research their usage or ask a qualified competitive body builder or physique/fitness competitor for insights.  Most of the time these folks are happy to share their knowledge.

Next up is a look at my diet as I prepare for my Photo Shoot with Sharon Polsky Wbff Pro.

Stay tuned!

MIHWCS

There is so much mis and dis information circulating thru the general public about”losing weight”. Even the basic concept of “weight loss” is a misnomer in and of itself.  The terminology is useless and a great cause of confusion.  Western Society in the 21st century is at a crossroads because most people through the aid of technology are basically sedentary.  In the same regard, people usually eat the simplest most available food stuffs ie what’s on grocery and convenience store shelves.  Most of them are highly refined, processed and laden with trans-fats. When you combine these two basic concepts, you can visualize the impending disaster facing the health care industry for the next 50 years.

The issue is not something concerning the Bodybuilding/Life Extending/and Fitness communities. What they are looking for is the quickest and most effective way to get lean/shredded. The general goal of this series of articles is to offer a an informed perspective using 20 years of empirical application which have yielded such results.

Bio-Chemistry and Thermodynamics

There is no “cookie-cutter” approach to altering ones body composition. Notice we didn’t say weight loss because what we are after is adiposity reduction/elimination.
The Human body’s weight can fluctuate in multiple ways rarely linearly with a persons individual response either positive or negative.  In the simplest of terms, the Human Body can alter its physical composition by reducing or increasing kcal intake. It doesn’t matter the types of energy used for such a purpose. Regardless of what the many and various diet guru’s say about the composition of the nutrients and macro-nutrient ratio %’s— The LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS prevails 99.9% of the time.

If you take in less kcals than you need for maintaining “BASAL METABOLIC RATE“(BMR), you will lose weight(Skeletal Mass(Muscle) and Adipose Tissue(Body fat). The inverse is also true.

Accepting this as a universal truism, how do we establish a *Normal Persons BMR*?

How does a Normal person differ from a person reading this site? (We need to establish guidelines here…we’ll address and augment this answer in a future installment covering the diverese population groups reading TMC and looking for help)

General Guidelines

Determining BMR is multi-factoral and often confusing because of our favorite term in the world of molecular biology and food and nutrition. “Biochemical Individuality“. No single person burns kcals the same.  Humanity is so different in this regard. (And if you knew how Reptilian shape shifters burned wow..:) Understanding the diversity of caloric burn, self experimentation and accurate record keeping is of paramount importance to understand how individuals **process nutrients**(more on this in a future article)

To illustrate “How to diet”, it’s easiest to create a fictitious 200 pound recreational bodybuilder as a mean.  First we need to determine body composition before we investigate anything else.  We must have a basic starting point. Goals are formed after a thorough assessment of a persons condition.  This is the crucial step because most people who fail on their diets(even performance athletes/bodybuilders)do so because they lack a starting point of accuracy. (Much More on this topic in future installments of this Series).

Anthropomorphic Measurements are Essential and the only governing scientific process for a productive diet.  Read that line 100x and memorize it.  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  We must figure out a person’s Body Fat Percentage(Adipose Tissue) and his Lean Body Weight(Skeletal Muscle and Bone Mass) taking into effect bone/hip structure(more on understanding this later) before we can formulate an intelligently designed diet.

Once you’ve gathered this data you can do some basic math.

200 pound Average Bodybuilder

We will assume is 15% body fat. This means he is somewhere in the range of 155-170 pounds of Skeletal Muscle Mass including bone weight.  Knowing these things you can begin to measure the factors that affect his BMR.

In TMC’s opinion these are the most important factors effecting BMR.

• Sleeping Patterns
• Mental Outlook
• Activity Levels in Day to Day living
• Consistency of Diet
• Genetics

It usually takes a competent exercise professional to understand and account for all of those factors. Once these are understood it’s safe to assume you can come up with a rough approximation of Daily Caloric Requirement to maintain BMR. Let’s say (hypothetical only) 15 kcals per pound of total bodyweight would mean he needs 3500 kcals per day to maintain his present condition. If 15 kcals per pound of bodyweight is the mean to maintain homeostasis(current body weight) we can now calculate the method of attaining the “crucial element” of any body fat reduction plan.

*Losing Body fat while avoiding/minimizing Muscle Loss*

How is this best achieved?(Initially and you can augment further depending on a persons condition-to be discussed further soon)

***15% Kcal reduction +***10% increase in Movement Patterns =’s Net 25% Energy Deficit.

There are many factors to discuss from here and rest assured they will be addressed in the articles to come.  Topics such as, the TYPES OF DIETS to employ, MAINTAINING AN ANABOLIC METABOLISM, CRUCIAL ERGOGENS ACCELERATING FAT LOSS, OPTIMAL DIET FOR WOMEN etc.

As always with everything TMC relates, formulating a strategy when dieting is only specific to the goals of the individual and his/her present state related to attaining such.

In our professional experience its safest to lose body fat gradually in order to not throw off the body’s equilibrium in maintaining its augmentation long term.

We hope you found some of this helpful and encourage you to respond by leaving a comment on the blog or on Facebook fan page.

Off to the LA Fit Expo!

MIHWCS

Gym Technik works for both iPhones and Android smart phone platforms.  TMC has been using it since 2009 when we were on Blackberry.

Here are some highlights from the announcement.

By getting personalized attention from our certified trainers, Gym Technik members with a Premium Plus plan can benefit in the following ways:

•  Customized workout plans with streaming video, accessible from their iPhone or Android.
•  Direct messaging access to the trainer to ask any health related questions
•  An affordable and convenient way to get access to a personal trainer
•  Workout plans continuosly updated based on actual progress
•  Online and Mobile features tied in with social media, to motivate and help members reach their goals faster.

If you haven’t already done so, you should check out his site today.

Staying on track with your fitness program, while traveling during the holiday season can seem difficult to some; but it does not have to according to fitness expert and author, Jeff Behar of Muscle Mag Fitness.com.

“Whether you’re at home for the holidays or traveling to see your friends or family, it can be easy to stay in shape, while partaking in holiday fare, if you have fitness plan. Maintaining your workout routine will not only give you that extra energy to partake in all the activities that may be on your agenda, but it will also help you resist overindulging at holiday meals and parties too!” according to Behar, CEO of www.MuscleMagFitness.com.

Here are a few helpful health and fitness tips for keeping fit during your holiday travels:

1. If you have a gym membership to a national chain, check to see if there is a local gym at your holiday destination
2. When packing, consider bringing resistance tubing so you can perform your favorite strength-training exercises when not at the gym.
3. Consider purchasing a fitness DVD for your trip. If you are normally a weight room junkie, trying something new can really help you make great gains.
4. Upon waking, go for a nice walk or run. Starting the day exercising will burn calories, burn fat and help you set the tone for the rest of the day.
5. Pack healthy snacks such as low-fat protein items, and fruit for your trip, and avoid airport food at all costs. This will not only save you calories, but money as well.
6. If staying at a hotel, choose a hotel that has a fitness center.
7. If traveling by car, plan for frequent stops to walk and stretch. Not only will this help you burn calories, but it will also help you stay more awake when driving and help you feel better once you reach your destination.
8. Eating a high protein, low glycemic carb meal before going to a holiday party. This will help increase your satiety levels (feeling of fullness), and reduce your temptation to eat empty calories and high fat snacks.
9. Enjoy small portions of high-calorie and high-fat holiday fare, if you can not control your urge to eat.
10. Eat slowly during holiday dinners. This will not only reduce your chances of feeling a “food coma”, but it will also help keep you from overeating, and putting on extra holiday pounds.
11. Always east some protein with your carbohydrate rich snacks. This will lower the glycemic index and load of the meal, and reduce the impact the meal will have on your blood sugar levels. It will also increase your satiety levels.
12. Limit alcoholic beverages over the holidays and separate drinks with glasses of water.

“You can still enjoy the holidays without wrecking your diet and your workout routine. It just stakes a little forethought, and sometimes some creativity and control. So have a plan, and you can not only enjoy your holidays, but you can look good while doing so too!” said Behar.

Nothing is really ever as it seems apparently in the human brain.

Unrealistic optimism is a pervasive human trait that influences domains ranging from personal relationships to politics and finance. How people maintain unrealistic optimism, despite frequently encountering information that challenges those biased beliefs, is unknown.

We examined this question and found a marked asymmetry in belief updating. Participants updated their beliefs more in response to information that was better than expected than to information that was worse. This selectivity was mediated by a relative failure to code for errors that should reduce optimism. Distinct regions of the prefrontal cortex tracked estimation errors when those called for positive update, both in individuals who scored high and low on trait optimism.

However, highly optimistic individuals exhibited reduced tracking of estimation errors that called for negative update in right inferior prefrontal gyrus. These findings indicate that optimism is tied to a selective update failure and diminished neural coding of undesirable information regarding the future.

Check it out when you have about 15 minutes.

Have a great weekend!

MIHWCS

Mommy and Daddy after trying to stick it out and going through Marriage Therapy for the previous 6 months just were unable to put aside our differences.

We will always be unified through our love for our beautiful girls Alexandra and Isabella.  Hopefully in time, we will be amicable enough to keep this blog alive through joint/individual contributions, photos and videos.

Due to the volumes of commentary/articles, videos and pictures already indexed from 3 years on the web, we feel it best to keep the site alive.  The site will permanently “pay it forward” as more people find its unique content.

Daddy is planning on continuing his fitness pursuits and can only hope Mommy will do the same.  She is far too accomplished now to stop being right on the cusp of gaining world wide recognition for her beauty and physique.

I wanted to acknowledge Anh for being chosen as a Top 4 Finalist for Miss World Physique Magazine in December.  This is an incredible accomplishment.  Very few people understand how difficult it is to raise two young children and maintain a physique the caliber of Anh’s.  Daddy will always have a deep admiration for her dedication and desire.

I encourage our readers to vote for Anh by going here.

Here are some more photos of TMC on the last night we were together at the Model America Club and Athletic Wear Events at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino.

Thanks to everyone for their loyal patronage and readership of the site.

We vow to make it live on.

MIHWCS

We are definitely the only MARRIED COUPLE competing in the event. 

Anh competed in Figure today and she looked AMAZING.  There were a lot of incredible physiques in her class- CLASSIC OVER 35.

To say she deserved to place Top 10 or Top 5 is purely subjective.  We’ve attached a good pic that details her condition compared to the 10 girls who were in her grouping.

As biased as I am, she looked great.  Mad props to her for overcoming so many obstacles this year including having to raise 3 KIDS!  Alexandra, Gabriella and Jay-Jay!

We’re about to start the Club Wear Round and Daddy needs to prepare.

Here are the best pics of today with many more coming later and early tomorrow.

Lots of competitors walking around.  Model American Fitness Universe looks to be an amazing event for sure.

We are doing a photo shoot this afternoon and both of us “judging by the mirror images” are in the Best Shape of Our Lives.

Now if we can just hold that condition throughout the next 3 days?   It will be no small feat-for sure.

Here are a couple of quick snaps.

These are at the beginning of our carb load a couple of hours ago.

We’re attempting to peak tomorrow by 1PM(Anh) and 6PM(Jay).

We think we’re in good shape.

Stay tuned for much, much more!

MIHWCS

We needed to make sure we’d have some permanent memories from such an amazingly fun time.

Enter Jonathon Simon and his incredible eye behind the lense.  Jonathon is super talented and a master with lighting conditions.  He is currently still slotting people for Model America/Fitness Universe @the Golden Nugget in less than two weeks.

We recommend you contact him to reserve your spot now:

jsimonphotos@gmail.com or Cell 702-580-8737

We’re hopeful one of the magazines/online fitness sites publishes his photos in the next couple of months.

For now, here are some unique ones we shot.

Less than 12 Days from Model and Fitness America! 

TMC is pumped!

MIHWCS