Posts Tagged ‘information’

The worst (and best) magazines to read for a healthy lifestyle


03 Feb

What surrounds you on a daily basis helps shapes who you are. From the check out counter to the doctor’s office, what you read influences what you believe. Should you be selective in the magazine you pick up? Yes.

A recent UK study found that food and food ads in magazines are made up mostly of  foods high in sugar, fat and salt. Magazines that are more desperate and less selective of the type of advertising and articles they run are going to be more likely to land you toward higher calorie and less nutrient rich foods. They also lead you to bad information and dogmatic beliefs about “scientific” information. This encourages unhealthy lifestyle activity, eating, and training practices.

From all of the data and with the selection of magazines available at this time I have gathered the best (and worst) magazines to read to achieve a healthy lifestyle and encourage weight loss.

The Best:

*These magazines were chosen based on content and ease of availability and purchase cost.*

1. Eating Well

I don’t always agree with everything they say when it comes to why to eat the things they list. However, they provide great recipes and ideas on how to put together healthy, tasty, and sensible caloric meals.

2.  National Geographic Adventure

While the original is great, this one provides a map and explanation to different places you can explore, and how to do that with ease. Even if you aren’t ready for travel yet, warm yourself up to it with the thought of fun and adventure that can await.

3. Men’s/Women’s Health

They aren’t perfect, but among all of mainstream diet and health magazines they are leagues ahead of the rest. There are fantastic authors and contributors, and the material is entertaining. The only mainstream fitness/health magazine I read and respect.

4. Science News

It is a fun magazine that explores everything from robots to psychology. Sure to entertain, but in ways that make you think and get amazed by the simple things we see everyday.

5. Art in America

A life is about more than just the jeans you can fit in. Art, music, and the people that make up our world of beauty and emotion can help you tap into something that can break the mundane, and enlighten untapped creativity.

The Worst:

1. People Magazine

I find it to be the worst because for some reason readers still think that the magazine carries integrity. I can say for certain it doesn’t. Month after month it delivers the worst in diet, nutrition, and training information.

2. Us Weekly

While it is just another of many in the gossip magazine pile, it seems to go that extra step to put horrible “facts” out on what to do to achieve a fit and beautiful body. Please stick  to paying stalkers okay US Weekly?

3. Flex

The number one magazine for trying to hide the massive amount of steroid usage, ever.

4. Southern Living

I live in the south, you don’t want to eat and live like us. We are the fattest people there is in the world.

5. National Enquirer

If you actually take the information in there seriously, you should check if something is rattling in your brain. They also aren’t nearly funny enough to take down Weekly World News.

Socio-economic and gender differences in nutritional content of foods advertised in popular UK weekly magazines.

Adams J, White M. Eur J Public Health. 2009 Jan 18. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 19151418 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

The Body Fat Solution-Review-Tom Venuto


07 Jan

I hate doing video.

I hate taking pictures.

I look weird and I don’t like it.

I made an exception for one man. Tom Venuto.

YouTube Preview Image

Go buy the book. Go on, go get it!

PS-Tomorrow I will be announcing the details of the essay contest where I will be giving away 2 copies of The Body Fat Solution.

PSS-Please support Tom and pass the word around. He is one of the good ones and it has a chance to hit the big time. Could you imagine good information actually getting out to the masses?

How to Use The Fat Loss Troubleshoot Package


07 Jan

I am one of those people that sometimes assumes people know exactly what I am thinking. I have recently released the new version of the Fat Loss Troubleshoot with all kinds of extras and goodies. The problem is you don’t know how to use them! That is my fault so I am going to rectify this right now. Before I give you the order, you first have to answer some important questions.

Why did you buy the package?

There are three main camps of people who bought the package. Which camp you belong in will depend on how you move through the system of manuals. While there is a wider selection then just this, I think you can find one group that you relate to on some level.

Group A
-Is new to nutrition and training
-Has been dieting for a while but doesn’t understand fat loss
-Is stuck in a plateau or rut
-Is having a hard time losing fat, doesn’t understand why
-Is looking to achieve lean body and healthy strength increase
-Is looking to understand basic levels of nutrition and training concepts

Group B
-Has been dieting a very long time
-Is recovering from an eating disorder or hoping too
-Has been training very hard and has hit a wall
-Has been dieting very hard and has hit a wall
-Has a problem with Thyroid, Diabetes, Celiac, etc

Group C
-Is a professional athlete
-Is a professional bodybuilder or fitness competitor
-Is looking to hit very lean and low levels of body fat
-Is looking for information on how to dry out for stage
-Is looking for information on how to make weight for class

Whichever group you fit with will determine what you would need to read and when. Please look at the outline below to determine that for yourself. I am numbering the books in order of importance for each group.

Group A

1-The Fat Loss Troubleshoot/Fat Loss Troubleshoot Audios

2-At this point you can either do the OPT for Fat Loss Program or
use a program of your choosing with the nutritional principles of the Fat Loss Troubleshoot and can utilize the pre-made meal plans for your caloric choices to pair with your training program. For example, let’s say you want to do New Rules of Lifting, but still want to apply the Fat Loss Troubleshoot principles. No problem, simply figure out your nutrition needs based on the books (FLTS) “Activity Quiz” and then pick the meal plan to correspond with your daily needs.

or

2-If you choose to do the OPT for Fat Loss Program then you simply follow the guidelines of that program (both in training and nutrition) and go from there. The meal plans are NOT for the OPT programs. They are for the FLTS to help guide by moderate principles.

At this point the choice is yours where to go, but here is an idea from my end.

3-The Metabolic Repair Manual-This will be good for you because you will learn how not to diet down and to keep at bay any problems. You may be free of problems now, but it can be very easy to get your metabolism in trouble with bad dietary and training habits. This is a great read to show you what not to do and prepare ahead.

4-The Water Manual-A good follow up to MRM and fun to learn how to drop water weight if need in the future.

5-The Maintenance Manual-While it may seem like it is a distance away for you, it is important to be reminded of the fact that finishing a diet can be a real thing.

6-OPT Remix-You may never need or want a training program like this, but if you are starting out and this is your future then its good to know how to handle it when it comes.

Group B

1-The Fat Loss Troubleshoot/Fat Loss Troubleshoot Audios

2-The Metabolic Repair Manual-While this is likely why you bought the package, you should still start out with the FLTS first. The Metabolic Repair assumes that you have read it or understand the information in on a large level. When you start on repair trust me, you don’t want to wonder what a carb is.

After reading those two, if the Metabolic Repair Manual fits for you then you may be on a different journey for a while and following REPAIR or Metaburn (the two programs within the Metabolic Repair Manual). If this is the case then the rest of the books will become important at a later date.

Group C

1-The Fat Loss Troubleshoot/Fat Loss Troubleshoot Audios-While you may think you know it all or have nothing to learn, I assure you as simple as the book is, it isn’t that simple. Sometimes things click better when we re-open the gateway of knowledge through different words.

2-OPT Remix-Once you get where your downfalls or slip ups can be, it’s time to start your program. OPT Remix lays out training and nutrition, so no need to utilize the meal plans for FLTS while doing the program.

3-The Water Manual-If a competition or photo shoot is coming up you will need to learn the best ways to manipulate water and carbohydrates.

4-The Metabolic Repair Manual-Just so you don’t get in trouble with your shredded body, and so you can keep it that way, you need to make sure to read the MRM. Its good to learn how dieting down to lean levels can affect you.

After that the rest is for either education/fun to add to your knowledge base.

I hope that this helps you better understand how to best utilize the Fat Loss Troubleshoot Package for your needs. If you have an questions as always feel free to contact me or head over to the JP Fitness Forums to the Fat Loss Troubleshoot Section.

Lastly, if you don’t have the package yet, you can find out more information here.

The Gut Awards


09 Sep

The fun thing about having a blog and having an awesome reader list is that you can put out information into the world and maybe, just maybe, do something good for people. I sat thinking this weekend about how I could really help you, yes you, have a better understanding of the finer things in your fat loss life.

I took a stroll or more so hobble (injury story soon to come) down to the lake by my home. I sat there listening to the sounds of nature when a man, a 6′3 beer gut man strolled by me to go feed some ducks. We exchanged a brief smile and soon he was gone.

I started thinking “what if that man wanted to lose that gut?” and  then I started to wonder if he looked online, where would it lead him? I thought of all the people in this world who are looking to lose the sausage arms, muffin tops, spare tires, etc. I thought of where it might take them and the bull products they might buy.

Not anymore.

Alright, perhaps my reach is not that big…yet. One person is good enough for me. Ladies and Gentleman. Fatty’s, Husky’s, and Ripped. I give you…

The Gut Awards!

With each product I come across, be it supplement, equipment, or book it will receive a Gut Rating. The Gut Rating will be a method of measure that some only dream to be weighed by. It will be known that you are nothing, that your product is nothing, until it is held up by the almighty GUT.

I will hold no punches. I will kiss no rears. The Gut will speak the truth, both good and bad. In the end you, my reader, will make the final decision to buy.

Stayed tuned for tomorrow first Gut!

Rating System:

5 Guts equal a fantastic product, a standard of all products.
1/2 Gut equals the lowest form of products. It isn’t even worthy of a full gut.

If you have anything you desire to be rated by the gut, send the information to me through my contact form. If you are the publisher yourself, be warned I can not be bought, easily. You can send me stuff to review as well.

(HFCS) High Fructose Corn Syrups-New Sweet Surprise Commercials


03 Sep

By the end of this post you will never be confused about what is good and bad to eat again.

I don’t know if you have caught the new commercials on tv, but apparently corn was starting to get a little bitter about their constant bad press. It isn’t that I disagree really, I just think it is funny as an industry, as a country, that we are making pro High Fructose Corn Syrup ads. That is just the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

To quickly note, sugar isn’t just sugar. Nothing is ever that black and white, but, is HFCS going to kill you, are they right? The short answer is, under current research, there is no danger with intake of HFCS on small levels. If looking for a interesting take on various HFCS study information hop over to Alan Aragon’s Research Review for the August edition. It might just surprise you.

I will be the first to admit that I have “feelings” about substances. My feelings about substances that you take into your body are pretty simple. I am going to do you the favor of sharing with you…the system. I have a rating system that I have designed that without a doubt will allow me to make, on average, the best food decisions. I guide by this rating system everyday. Sure, there are occasions where I have intake that goes against this rating, however it is rare and it is by just personal choice, not phobia.

Are you ready for my rating system that will help you guide by what to eat and what not to eat on a daily basis?

The System:

Eat Often=Foods that have a lot vitamins, minerals,  and nutrients.
Eat Little=Foods that don’t.

That is the system.

Ask not what your food does to you, but what your food does for you.

We Aren’t All Fat Loss Bastards


26 Aug

I received this email the other day and it made me think about how important all aspects of my teaching is.

“Hi Leigh, I just wanted to say that you are so funny! I know you can piss people off but I love it, never change!”

This gave me a mixed feeling deep down inside. On the one hand it is true, I do piss people off sometimes. It is hard when you have to tell it “how it is, as you see it.” If I “bend the rules” at all, even the slightest bit, then YOU, the reader, will lose out. However, I don’t want you to think that I would ever enjoy hurting anyone’s feelings or that my intent is to jab. I may call it how I see it but, it is never with a ill intent. On the contrary, it is with the best of intents. Usually if people have a problem with what I say it is because, sorry, they are wrong or neither of us have shared all the information. The less I know, the less anyone knows, the more likely we, together, are going to get things wrong.

Having said all of this, I want to make it clear, that I love positivity. I love happy and fun people. I am a happy and fun person and seriously have the best time in my life. I laugh everyday, all day. I just do my job and SOMETIMES that job makes me have to be the “bad guy” to some people. I know that some folks…who will remain nameless…out there have some anger built up and can be a bit mean. Lump us all together, fine! Call us all the Fat Loss Bastards! In the end, I hope you will thank us for our honesty the best we can give it.

Guess what though? This isn’t about that!

What this is about is a guy who really is downright one of the most sweet guys I have talked to in a long time.  Scott Tousignant is his name and he is just fantastic. You talk to the guy and you can’t help but light up. I had a really rough day today, and I mean rough. I had a call with him at 3:30 to discuss a trip that we are going on.  Let’s just say it was hard to feel bad while I was on the phone with him. He has a wife, beautiful kids, and he wants to inspire and help. He doesn’t try to pretend he is something he isn’t, he has good goals, and does a great job at motivating people to achieve their goals. I think it is really funny he goes by the Fit Bastard, because he is anything but.

He recently put out some MP3 downloads. Now, I haven’t got a chance to listen to all of them yet, I am going to do a proper review (by the way the review section should be a blast, keep watching it), but for the most part, they are good stuff. Inspiring stuff. Sure, there is information and some lessons on things but, it isn’t about that. It is about that kick you need sometimes, that “push.” Here is a great snip with Tom Venuto.

Tom Venuto-Unstoppable Fat Loss Clip

I love Tom. By the way, we are all going on that trip together. I don’t even want to THINK about the trouble to come. I also know that I will likely smile the whole time.

If interested in some good motivation clips and not getting everything so stern all the time, go check it out.

(*Note* I did one myself and I am in the big package because I am special…so niener)

UnStoppable Fat Loss, Here You Come

The Fat Loss Troubleshooter – Leigh Peele

Common Sense Meets Advanced Knowledge