It is official. Avidityfitness.net is no longer going to be updated. The information that is here will remain. However, to see updated information you must now go to LeighPeele.com

In this latest podcast I think I talked about everything at least once.

http://mfammitsboel.com/

Hope you enjoy, here is a preview…

Question:

Hi Leigh,

Thank you for answering questions! I am losing fat just fine, however too much is coming from my breasts, not enough from my thighs and butt. Is there any way to address that ratio? I’d like to keep my.. rack, as you call it. In case is matters, I am approx 22-23% BF currently. Just looking to lose the last 2-5 pounds of BF, and trying to have firm, defined curves. I like my curves! I just don’t want jiggly curves and I’d like a flat tummy. I lift.. I follow crossfit, but with a bit more balanced extra strength work and more rest days.

A few more details about me, in case it matters: I’m small.. 5′2″ approx 119lbs. I’m successfully using a fresh whole foods (mostly paleo) diet with IF days, low calorie non-IF days, and refeed days mixed into each week.

Thank you!

Question:

Hi Leigh,

I’m a listener of the Fitcast and I love your work. I have a question for you. I’m a female, 28, 5 feet 7, 130 pounds, down from 165 in June 2008. I just finished New Rules of Lifting for Women and I’m really happy with the results. But there’s one problem I just don’t know how to solve.

I have water retention in my outer thighs and it hurts when I sit on the floor with my legs crossed. It’s also sensitive if I touch the area. I’ve had that since I was a teenager, even when I wasn’t fat. I drink plenty of water (more than 1 gallon per day), I massage my thighs with a glove in the shower, I weight train 3 times a week and take long walks every day.

My daily sodium intake is around 3,000 mg. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Thanks a lot! Milie

Question:

Ok Leigh,
I’m a subscriber to your site, but I don’t get to read it often. I’ve been seriously considering getting your books however I have a question. As a mom who works outside the home I’m busy. I know you’ve heard that one before! Once I get home there’s dinner and the kid to attend to not to mention taking care of all the other life concerns. I’m tired all the time and I have a low thyroid. I know that I need to get moving and take care of MYSELF to keep my health and my sanity! I have a love hate relationship with food and exercise. It definitely sounds like your book can help but I don’t really have the means or the time to get to a gym. So the exercising has to be done at home. Is this possible with what you have outlined in your books????

Need help!

Thanks,
Alisa

Question:

Hey Miss Leigh!

Welcome back.
I hope your intense emotional situation wasn’t too taxing… but I guess that’s when the best things come out of us… in your case, a book?! Just cranked out a book… that’s pretty incredible. Can’t wait to find out more about it…

So…. I’m almost at my 7th week… I’ve been hovering between 125 & 126 for the past 3 weeks.
I know you’re swamped with emails, but if I should be so lucky as to get your answer/advice/wisdom on the following?:

* I was listening to one of your hotbod podcasts, the one about training to get the body you want… and you mention more reps and shorter rests between in order to get that longer, leaner look (which is the one I’m goin’ for). but the final lifting program in metaburn is like 5 reps w/ 1-2 min. rests… should I still follow that, even if it’s not really the training that’s supposed to get me the look I’m going for?

* I work out at home, and don’t have a bar… any idea of what I can do to substitute CHIN UPS? right now I’m doing lateral raises instead of pulldowns because, despite my every effort, I couldn’t for the freakin’ life of me find a dumbell version of a lat pulldown on the internet:/

* am I still supposed to keep my calories at that original number – 1,406 cal/day?

Leigh, you are the best, and I can’t express to you how much I appreciate your consistent support… you arm people with information and knowledge, empowering them, us…. and it feels amazing to feel like I kinda understand what’s going on with my body.

p.s.
I really miss your podcasts:) I used to do my lifting workouts to them…

and as always, thanks for everything you do….
Anna

Question:

Hi Leigh = )

I’ve emailed you before with a few questions and I really appreciated your advice. I’m currently 4 weeks into your pull-up program for women (it’s going well I think, although I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to do it again later – my starting strength was very poor – I didn’t know how poor until I tried doing 4×15 negatives!!), and when I’m finished with that program I’m going to start OPT-Remix.

Anyway, I actually have a few questions about my body – where its’ at and what I need to do to get it to where I want to go.

I’ve attached two sets of pictures – the befores are of me in April last year, weighing 57kg, the afters are of me in August after 4-5 months of dieting at 54kg.

After the 4-5months of counting every piece of food I put in mouth and eating more green veg than I care to remember (my friends were not impressed with me munching on celery at the cinema! lol) I looked at the after photos and kind of felt that it hadn’t really been worth it – yes I was leaner but I still didn’t like the way my body looked, plus none of my friends or family said that they could see a difference (in real life, not in the pictures). Consequently I ended up kind of re-bounding. I still ate pretty well but I just ate too much.

Anyway, currently I’m 59kg and looking pretty much the same as in the before photos (obviously now those afters aren’t looking so bad). Like I said, I’m going to start OPT-Remix in 2 weeks time to get off some of the excess fat but I was wondering if you could help me with a few questions / issues?

1. What would you estimate my bf% to be in my before and after photos?
http://avidityfitness.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/before-shots-sally.jpg
http://avidityfitness.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/after-shots-sally.jpg

2. Given that I like the Evangeline Lily (from Lost)

http://www.blogcadre.com/files/images/evangeline_lilly.preview.jpg

Jessica Biel

http://www.jessica-biel.net/gallery/candids/hawaiibeach/hawaiibeach_01.jpg

Look – what do I need to do? Like I said, in my after photos I was fairly lean but I think my body looked disproportionate and unattractive – did I just need to lose more fat? Or gain more muscle in my upper body? Get a plastic surgeon?! (joke!). I really am confused about what to focus on – I don’t particularly care about being a particular bf% (my first question was more out of curiosity), I just want to have an attractive body.

3. Do you have any advice on how to start liking / accepting the way you look? I don’t want to accept being fat so that I can stay that way – I guess I’d just like to not feel like crying whenever I look in the mirror or see photos of myself! (this REALLY interferes with my diet at times as a bad ‘episode’ can lead to a full-on junk binge).

Thanks for all your help, again! You really are awesome = )

Sally

To listen, download here: Episode 23: Lots o Questions and Babble City (Click to listen to/right click and save as to download)

PS-Chance to get a free copy of FLTS or anything else I release at the end of the cast. Somewhere around the last 10 mins I think. If you know how to do podcast or podcast coding, hop on that!

One of the best things I ever learned to do was to scare the crap out myself.

Allow me to explain.

Everyday I get scared. Everyday. I get scared of stupid things, smart things, real things, fake things, people, emotions, physical tests, and mostly infomercial of weight loss products.  Being afraid is natural and it is not weak. However, letting the fear ruin and run your life, is being weak to your dreams.

I believe it is your dreams that keep you alive and fighting to be apart of this world. Because I believe in that, I believe anything that weakens that needs to be eliminated.

The question is what is your dream? It could be a million things,but I am going to assume that at least one dream of yours is to have the body and lifestyle that you always wanted. You want to be hot, relaxed, free, and have peace of mind.

What if I told you in order to get that piece of mind you had to scare yourself first?

Answer this question – Why do you not have the lifestyle and body you want right now?

I want you to write down the reasons and the excuses you gave. I am going to put one down right now.

“I don’t have time to devote to fat loss.”

What would happen if even not having the time, you did it anyway? What is the worse that can happen? This isn’t a rhetorical question. I want you to take every answer and every excuse you have written down and I want you to run through your worst case scenario.

It is now time to scare the crap out of yourself.

“I don’t have time to devote to fat loss.  If I try not to eat as much right now I am going to be tired, less focused, and I need my focus to do my job. The economy is bad and I have to keep my job. If I can’t do my job I could get fired. If I get fired then I might lose my home. If I lose my home then I might end up on the streets. While I am living on the streets bad things could happen and next thing I know I am on CSI: Miami.”

Would that really happen? You could say it is a possibility. If you allow your imagination to run wild, and I assure you mine can be amazingly cruel, you would be surprised how gruesome you can make things get.

The funny thing is you do that to yourself, everyday, all day long. Your problem is you stop it before it gets good. If you really took those fears all the way, to the worst case scenario,  you might see how ridiculous your fears are to have in the first place. You also will give name and face to your fears and automatically feel more prepared for battle of those fears. This will make you less likely to fall victim to them.

The only catch to running through the worse case scenario, is you have to turn right around and do the best case scenario.

“I will make the time to devote to fat loss. If I lose the weight and feel better I might have more confidence. If I have more confidence I might just get that job promotion that I have been wanting. If I get that job promotion I might be able to move to that beach house I always wanted. While I am living on the beach I might meet love of my life. Together we will travel and see beautiful things, spend time with our families, and I will spend my life knowing the joy and love of good people and fortune.

Would that really happen? You could say it is a possibility. If you allow your imagination to run wild, and I assure you mine can be amazingly beautiful, you would be surprised how amazing things can get.

Now it is your turn. Leave me your worst case and best scenario.

I have gotten a lot of questions lately about what to do after you “fall off the wagon.”

The answer isn’t as simple as you think and might surprise you.

Check out the latest podcast for more info on the topic.

After the Binge (click to play/right click and “save as” to download/ Itunes

A few points covered are…

-Recovering after a binge
-Why it is important to acknowledge the cheat
-Is there a right or wrong thing to do
-Is fasting okay
-Why did it happen in the first place
-What are the technical things that occur
-What should you expect your weight to lose
-How to deal with regain

Looking forward to hearing you thoughts so go check it out!

PS-I make a small mention of something special at the end…hint hint.

Here is a story.

Yesterday you ordered a copy of “Rid My Ass” off of Amazon.com. You read the book. Scratch that. You don’t read the whole book. You skip to the section that tells you what to do. Over the next 8 weeks you follow what it says to do, no questions asked. You either a) lose fat or b) don’t lose fat.

If this book works, you become the biggest fan of “Rid My Ass.”
If this book doesn’t work, you state it as being just another fad diet program and curse it for life.

Isn’t it funny that under both circumstances the majority of you have no idea why you did what you did? Why it worked or didn’t work? What the research was behind it, or how it came to be created?

Every day on countless of tv stations across the world you can find some sort of diet program. The people that give the testimonials all sound the same, and they say the same things. Are they lying? Not all of them.

They really believe in the product they are supporting. Wouldn’t you be talking up the product that finally worked for you?

My tip for you today is simple. No matter what program you are using, no matter who your “guru” is or who you turn to for information, make sure to understand what you are doing. Always understand why what you are doing works.

I try to do the best I can to provide all of that information to my clients and readers the best I can. Unless you are blessed with a lot of luck just following blindly is not going to work forever. Knowledge is power.

If you want to stop guessing and start knowing you have to get on board with the education. Even if you want to do other programs, or take a different path or journey, you will always have this compass in your pocket.

Are you my next informed testimony? I hope so.