I am not going to talk about that today, at least not completely. Instead I am going to talk about the change I made to my diet that has completely changed my life.

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Let’s load up the Mr. Fusion, get into the Delorean, and jump back about four weeks ago. One of the strength coaches at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, Marco Sanchez, got me to watch “Food Matters,” a 77 minute documentary that changed the way I thought about what we eat. Now, in the past, I have seen other “SHOCKING” food documentaries like “Food Inc.” but nothing really changed for me. After talking to Marco and sitting down and watching “Food Matters,” I knew I needed to change something about my diet, the food I ate.

Let’s get back into the Delorean and travel even further back to to 2004. In early 2004 I started suffering from some serious constipation issues. This was along with eating pretty clean. It was when I was in full blown healthy Kevin mode and was reading as much information on the subject as I could. For reference, I believe at the time I was following the “Testosterone Advantage Plan,” by Lou Schuler and Mike Mejia. You know, protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc.

I went to a gastroenterologist, had a bunch of tests done that I would say might have been the worst things I have ever had to go through in a hospital. Think colonoscopy and barium enema. Not the most fun stuff in the world. So, the doc put me on two medications to help me with it. One was Miralax, which at the time was a prescription drug, and Zelnorm, another prescription drug, that was taken off of the market a year after I was first prescribed it because there were negative heath effects.

I gave the drugs a 4-5 month trial, when I saw no benefit, I went off them and just gave up on the gastro (which happened to be the most recommended in the area I was living in).

I more or less just tried to live with constant constipation, sometimes utilizing laxatives like Milk of Magnesia, if things got real bad.

Over the past few years I tried cutting out some stuff from my diet to see if it would help. First up was creatine. Went off it for 6 weeks, no difference. Then it was caffeine, no difference. At this point I was not going to give up my whey protein. It was the nectar of the lifting gods as far as I was concerned with.

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Now let’s come back to the present day.

I no longer suffer from the stomach issues that would almost debilitate me 6 or 7 times throughout the year making me miss work and basically just hangout near a toilet all day. And all I had to do was modify a few things.

And before we go on, I need to mention that Whitney Sickler has been a huge help along with this process as well.

Going back to Food Matters, one of the drive home points was that you should juice organic fruits and vegetables daily to get in a plethora of micronutrients (for clarification micronutrients are non macronutrients like protein, fats, and carbohydrates.). On top of that you should comprise your diet of >51% RAW food. Without going too much in depth, you lose nutrients when you cook, and of course process your food. Made sense to me. I can do that. And after seeing the drastic health benefits that the people in the documentary yielded, I knew I had to take action on this.

First thing I did was cut out all Whey protein, and most milk protein as well, sticking with Egg Protein powder (which is a little more digestive friendly), and a new plant based protein blend I will talk about in a bit.

As for what I eliminated from my diet, here is a quick list:

• Whey Protein
• All artificial sweeteners
• Diet Soda
• protein powders with splenda
• Chicken and Meat (not consciously, it just kind of happened, I will have some turkey tips if I go out with friends though)

I hit up Amazon and picked out a badass blender, the Blendtec 1560-Watt Total Blender. It is one of those blenders that will blend an iPhone in 60 seconds… If you are into that sort of thing…

Now why should you spend $400 on a blender? To put it simply, you want to blend the sh*t out of whatever you put in the blender to make digestion and absorption of nutrients as easy as possible. I was initially hesitant about spending as much money on a blender as an iPad, but it was worth twice that, and if I want I can blend an iPad… Again only crazy people would do that.

Next up was to obtain the essentials of my shakes. Again, I went to Amazon because they have much better prices than Whole Foods:

• Chia Seeds

• Amazing Grass Raw Reserve Green Super Food (A Raw Green SuperFood, again sticking with the raw theme)

• Lifetime Life’s Basics Plant Protein Blend (Again, I eliminated all whey from my diet, I use this as well as egg protein for supplemental protein)

• Goji Berries (Grab half a handful once a day to snack on.

Now for the Produce

Currently I have a few staples to my shakes. Lets run down the list.

Kale: Tony Gentolcore has told me for years to eat more kale…Now I do, I go through about a lb of kale each day now.

• Spinach: Normally I throw in one monster handful per shake
• Carrots: One handful per shake
• Cucumber: 1/2 cucumber per shake
• Celery: sometimes I throw in a stock or two
• Frozen Strawberries, Blueberries, Banana, Mango, Peaches, Raspberries (2 hand fulls of fruit, sometimes a little more if post basketball or other exercise)

Now, this is what the processes looks like:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And since people would ask, here is what I normally do twice a day, which the fruit varying. (All Organic if possible)

• About 1/2lb of Kale
• 1 HUGE Handful of Spinach
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 handful of carrots
• 1/2 packet of Amazing Grass Raw Reserve SuperFood
• 1 Scoop of Lifetime Life’s Basics Plant Protein Blend (Vanilla Flavor)
• 2 Tablespoons of Chia Seeds
• 2-3 Handfuls of frozen fruit (50% of the time it is strawberries and blueberries in the morning, I do peaches and banana post basketball nights)
• BLEND Until Bitchin’

The Results of my Modified Diet:

The most important benefit was the digestive issues clearing up. Without going into detail, I am as regular as clockwork. Although, I will say you will have a transition period, where you might not want to go out with the hot chick from accounting.

The other major benefit has been my energy levels. Since getting in >51% raw food each day (usually upwards of 65%) I have stopped drinking coffee and most energy drinks. I still have 1-2 Guru drinks each week for a boost mid day. For the most part, my only caffeine comes from green tea. And like any diet where you clean up your food intake, you just feel better overall.

Now Here Are Some Important Notes:

• You can get the goji berries, chia seeds, and cacao pre ground into powders, might make more sense to get these
• Why do I use a blender and not a juicer? I personally want the pulp from the fruit and vegetables. And I like the idea of turning them into meals instead of just a vegetable cocktail.
• If there are any questions, just send them to kevin(at)thefitcast.com and I will be glad to update this post with answers.

Things Everyone Can Take Away from This:

• You need to eat more vegetables, blending is one way to get in a ton of vegetables in one shot.
• Think you eat enough vegetables? You don’t, eat more!
• Watch Food Matters, it is free on Netflix Streaming, or you can buy the DVD on amazon.
• I don’t say it lightly that this might be the most important thing I have ever done. I don’t plan on having multiple surgeries to fix the stomach and digestive issues my family history has been plagued with.
• Especially colon cancer.
• No matter what, I make sure I get in two smoothies a day. Even when I stuffed my face during the week, yes week, of Christmas. It is that important.
• I dropped 10 pounds in two weeks, I am guessing half of that was, “waste.”

(Get it, the Replacements, in place of the podca…Well at least I really like the movie…)

Long story short, there is no episode this week. Jon is super sick and Leigh is super busy finishing an AWESOMELY SUPER Cook Book. Either way, I have some things to talk about and I want to give you guys some things to think about.

1. You Really Need to Listen to Music in the Morning. 

For the last few months I have been listening to, “Sports Talk,” or educational Podcasts. It did not help me get excited or energized for the day. Instead I sometimes dragged for an hour or two until my 5th and 6th cups of green tea were ingested.

About 10 days ago I made a point to fire up good old Pandora (I say old because everyone is using other music services now, but I paid for a year of Pandora One, so I am sticking with it) after I got back from walking my dog Marty.

(Clearly it was a long walk)

After 10-15 minutes of listening to music, I am fired up and ready to get to work, even if it is 7am and the sun isn’t up. A simple change that made a big difference to the start of my day as well as my outlook for the rest of the day.

Here are some hott (that’s right, with two “T’s”) beats:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. You Really Should Watch Food Matters

Click here to view the embedded video.

You got NetFlix Streaming? Great! Fire it up and add “Food Matters,” to your queue. Marco Sanchez, a friend of mine and one of the strength coaches at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, had been recommending it to me for weeks, but I just kept brushing it off because I thought I knew all I needed to about the whole Organic food/eat more vegetables debate. This documentary changed my mind. So much so the next day I bought a $400 Blendtec Blender and spent about $150 on food at the local Whole Foods.

(It is one of those, “Blends an iPhone” Blenders. It is a frickin’ BEAST)

Here are some take home points:

• We lose a ton of the nutrients in our food when we cook it
• Same thing when we are consuming non organic fruits, vegetables, and nuts/seeds
• The body is built to repair itself. It just has a hard time doing that when we are fueling it with heavily processes, nutrient lacking food.
• Juicing is something everyone should do to get more servings of fruits and vegetables
• Tony Gentilcore was always right, Kale is the food of the Gods.

• You can’t make money off a healthy person
• Being sick is profitable for drug companies.
• Things are not getting better in the world when it comes to the health of the population. As we become more and more technologically advanced we also are becoming sicker and sicker
• We should be growing more organic food and not wasting our time trying to milk a dry cow in the form of nutrient lacking fruits and vegetables

I might sound like a crazy person, but either way, this film has made me a healthier person. So I will call that a win.

 

3. You Really Should try this smoothie, it is my best so far…

• 1c Water
• 6-7 Ice Cubes
• 2 Handfuls of Spinach
• 1 Handful of Kale
• 1/2 of a cucumber
• 1 handful of carrots
• 1 handful of peaches
• 1 Scoop of Life Time Nutritional Specialties Lifes Basics Plant Protein Vanilla

Anyways for the whole weekend I will CONSTANTLY be updating this post with thoughts from the seminar while the presentations are going on. Who knows I might even post some audio or video too.

Perform Better does HANDS DOWN the best Seminars in the industry. Do yourself a favor and don’t miss the next one. Check out their seminar schedule on their website: http://performbetter.com Also they are makign a DVD set of the weekend. Keep an eye out for it you are only getting 1% of the content.

Friday 12:30pm PST

Martin Rooney

Every single time I see Martin speak I come away thinking that he is the man and we need more guys like him in this industry. He bleeds strength and conditioning. He hit on a lot in the 90 minute talk, starting with the history of the industry and where he thinks it is going.

From the 60′s and 70′s where we were looking at the Russians because their athletes were becoming some of the best in the world, of course we later found out they had some anabolic help.

(Will come back to this soon, Berardi is up now)

John Berardi

John is talking about Nutrition and the  Future of Body Transformation. Always great to see him present and was awesome catching up with him after over a year.

Good point from John about why he chose the word, “Precise.” And how Verstegan used the word, “Behavior Upgrades,’ and how he thought a hell of a lot about it because of it’s strong meeting.

“Are we teaching exercise or changing lives?”

Looking at the field of, “Change Philosophy” to increase compliance.

“Create an environment for contemplating change”

“Motivation/will power is like a muscle, it can get fatigued”

“Lead people to success by removing the obstacles in their way”

“What do I do (for my client) when motivation has worn/run out” [The Blackmail Diet]

“The Minimum Effective Dose”

[Kevin talking:]I think we are getting into less is more and the simplification of nutrition. I still don’t know what the best way is to address this with clients. Maybe some people need things to be simple while others need things to be more exact and calculated. Is having less to think about or more to think about better when it comes to nutrition compliance? Also Berardi is a bad ass presenter, he has even made big strides since I saw him for the first time back in 2006.

Berardi just brought up the 6-meals a day stimulating metabolism discussion. And was straight up that he championed it. It does work for people and can control hunger.

Now talking about Intermittent Fasting. “It better regulated my blood sugar”

“Some people too terribly with two large meals when it comes to hunger”

[Kevin talking:] Totally agree that some people do well with 6-meals and some do great with IF, it is not one size fits all. Both work. I still think there is a lot of benefits hormonally with IF. Kind of interesting to hear the audience’s mind get blown that he just supported IF. Like someone asking, “But what about pre workout nutrition.” Or, How do I fit in all 9 servings of fruits and vegetables with IF?” 

John Clarifies that he just wants us to think about how to make things easier for our clients when it comes to nutrition.

The Intermittent Fasting mentioning is brining up a lot of questions from the crowd. Interesting…

Intermitted Fasting is, “the next trend” (He is not saying that is a bad thing!)

[Kevin talking:] I agree that overall everyone is going to jump on this. It had been around for a while, just check out Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat (first edition was in 2006)

Alwyn Cosgrove

Next up is Alwyn Cosgrove on “Solutions for the Future of FItness Programming”

Selling you something that you can not see, like the fitness industry, something that you do not get immediately.

How can we take away the risk our clients take?

Bringing the comedy as always, crowd is laughing their asses off.

One trend that AC is seeing is that in the 12 years that Results Fitness has been open FMS scores on new clients are declining (as we continue to move less and less).

“You need exceptional systems”

We need to move toward “self limiting exercises” Think sled work, inverted trx row, goblet and front position work.

Day 2

In the morning I got to head out to Athletes Performance with (WARNING: Name Drops Ahead) Mark Verstegan, Mike Boyle, Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove, and Ana Tocco (Check out here site). It really is an amazing facility. The biggest thing I took away from it was how they eliminate as many obstacles to their athletes success as possible. They take care of all of their meals, training, recovery, etc. There are even Xbox 360′s hooked up with a place for the athletes to just hang out before or after training. Mark gave us a 25-30 minute tour with complementary EAS Shakes as well.

One thing I want to hit on more closely is how they already have the athletes nutrition planned out to the T. From supplements, to ratio of food in their meals cooked in the kitchen, to hydration. The system itself was very impressive.

Don Chu

Cam in about 45 minutes late to Don’s talk as we were driving back from AP. His talk is on, “Extreme Flexibility.” Lots of great stuff so far from assessment tests to going in depth on the relationship between muscle and fascia.

Mike Boyle

Mike is up, no holds bared. Crossfit and NSCA be aware.

“Fat Loss. This will always sell.”

“The ramifications of obesity…carrying a second person of body fat around is taxing.”

Mike showed a clip of him doing hurdle jumps from 1993 with the question, “What do you notice?” Verstegan yells out, “You had hair!” Still funny.

“In 1922 we knew single leg training was better”

No, but seriously, I would rather challenge myself and do something different every time. That is where this blog post comes in. I hope to provide some fresh ideas for you to use when it comes to the end of the workout, when you need to get that finisher in. Now hold on to your butts and crack open a Spike!

1. Burpee/Mountain Climber Combo: This one is pretty straight forward. You give yourself a rep amount to hit for each movement. I am a fan of doing 60 mountain climbers (30/side) and 12 burpees (with the push up). Rest for 60 seconds in between each round. Rinse and repeat at least 4 times and try to work up to 8 or 10. Keep the trash can near by…

2. TRX Circuit from Hell: OK, now things get interesting. That TRX in your garage isn’t just for rows and planks, it can be used for some of the hardest complexes imaginable. For this you will go from one exercise to the next, performing 10 reps (per side if  for each movement. The exercises are: Atomic push ups, rear foot elevated split squat, leg curls, rollouts, and rows. Try to get through the whole circuit in under three minutes.

3. Grab bag Finisher: This is the one I use the most. I put together five or six exercises and put them into a complex. They usually involve low risk movements with lighter weights than normal, for obvious reasons. Think medballs, kettlebells, slideboards, TRX, body weight, and barbell exercises. Here is one you can try today that will have you screaming for mercy:

• Plate loaded front squat (Hold a 10-25 pound plate out in front of you while squatting). x8
• Renegade Row 8 reps/side

• TRX Rollouts (or ab wheel) x10
• KB Swings x12
• Bodysaw x12

• Overhead Medball Slams x20

BONUS: Here is a Death Circuit I did three years ago with Eric Cressey. I promise my posture is much better now:

Intermittent Fasting is the new hotness these days. But believe it or not, Brad Pilon was ahead of the pack back in 2005 when he wrote Eat Stop Eat. And I will be 100% honest, I was fully on board with the, “You need to eat 6 meals a day to increase caloric expenditure. and keep the fire stoked.” Remember all of that? Now study after study is coming out debunking that (and as Brad shows, studies have been around for a debunking that). That just goes to show you how fast trends change in the fitness industry.

Now back to Eat Stop Eat. A few months back I read the latest edition of Brad’s ebook and even hit up some friends with pubmed access to send me the studies he cites. All checked out and confirmed his methods and protocols. I thought to myself, “ OK, shit just got real, this is something we need to use as a fat loss tool.” And I use the word, “tool” because fasting isn’t for everyone’s lifestyle. With that said, sometimes it fits perfectly like Yvonne Strahovski’s…well…everything she wears… (Obligatory watch Chuck note)

I will give you one of my clients I train as examples:

John: John travels just about every week from Boston to New York, or New Jersey, or Phoenix, or the Las Vegas for work. Sometimes we are lucky to get in two great training sessions after he spent 2-3 nights in a crappy hotel bed and working his butt off consulting with clients. He used to do his best to eat well on the days he spent at the airport and flying to his destinations but even the best prepared flier will sometimes find themselves grabbing something that, “isn’t terrible” from a fast food joint or a shitty $8 protein bar that could probably be used in bullet proof vests (Right 50?). Instead of worry about any of that we would just schedule his fasts in a window that included his flight and gave him the ability to still eat normally when it came to taking clients out to dinner. He started that two months ago, since then he dropped 12 pounds and at 172 is the leanest he has ever been since starting to train with be two years ago while holding onto every bit of lean muscle we put on him and every bit of strength as well.

Now let’s talk about the actual book:

Brad has put together the ultimate guide to intermittent fasting. He covers it all from the history of fasting, to the latest research, to the myths, to combining fasting with your training program, to dealing with hunger, and the laundry list of health benefits from fasting. It is hard to not be convinced that there is a place for scheduled fasts in our lifestyles.

Over the last few years Brad has continued to update the book including sections on exercise programs, a chapter on the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle, and a F.A.Q section that covers just about every question you will ever have about fasting.

If you haven’t been able to stick to a diet where you are in a decent caloric deficit, Eat Stop Eat might be the solution to reach your fat loss goals. Think about it this way, if you follow Brad’s guidelines for structuring the intermittent fasting protocol with training you can easily be in a 7000 calorie deficit each week and be on a stead 2 pounds per week track. That doesn’t even take into count the hormonal benefits of the fasted state.

Click Here to Check out Eat Stop Eat.

There is a 60-Day Money Back Guarantee So There Is No Risk

• Eric Cressey takes you through all of the assessments that he uses at Cressey Performance. From how to perform them, to how to grade each movement. This part alone is worth the price of admission and I really believe that you need more than a generic assessment for your athletes and clients to see what is really going on (even more so if they are playing one sport where there are common asymmetries and trends). Also if you have any experience in the field, you know how vital an appropriate assessment is and how it can even help sell your program to your clients.
• Mike Robertson takes you through the all aspects that go into running IFAST. From client intake, how they structure their sessions, personal development, continuing education, and more. As you probably know, IFAST was ranked as one of the top 10 gyms in America by Men’s Health Magazine, clearly they are doing something right.
• Pat Rigsby gives you the keys to creating a successful training business if you work for a facility or you want to open up your own. To generating leads, structuring boot camps, having multiple revenue sources (so many trainers and coaches miss out on this one and it is the easiest way to pay the bills), retention, and more.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. I have to say, there are few things that can keep me up until 3am on a weeknight. One is a Jason Statham movie, and the other is great educational content that helps me be better at what I love to do.

Also, if you order Fitness Business Blueprint during the first 24 hours of this launch you get a ticket for you an a guest to a Closed Door VIP Workshop with Pat Rigsby exclusively for FBB Customers. DONE DEAL! That is nuts that he is doing that.

Finally, they are offering a full refund within the first 12 MONTHS if you aren’t completely head-over-heels, jumping up and down with joy, absolutely thrilled with the System, you just let them know and you’ll get a full refund of your purchase price.

This is one of those things that comes around once every year or two that becomes a prerequisite to being successful in this field. Again, for me buying the FBB was an easy decision. The reason we continue to educate ourselves is to be great at what we do. Don’t you?

Check it out The Fitness Business Blueprint here:

http://FitBusinessBlueprint.com

As a fitness professional I should never let this happen. Right? I suppose so, but it happens to everyone, even those who’s job it is to promote a fit lifestyle. Sometimes that just isn’t the case. If you follow this industry you know there are a good amount of, “fitness professionals,” (meaning those that train people or give nutritional advice as their career) that don’t always follow their own advice. Practice what they preach if you will.

(I would do anything for this guy)

Sure, I could make excuses, not sleeping because my dog is going through some rough treatment, that not only has me freaking out if  has anything but a perfect breathing pattern, but has him peeing ever 4.5 seconds because of the medication he is on. Maybe I could blame the fact I had to move back in with my parents to get some help taking care of him, allowing me to actually leave him while I train clients or get in a lift for myself. Or that my dog and I aren’t going for two 45-minute walks everyday now (because he has to keep his activity restricted). Or it could be that I get 4 hours of sleep a night on a bed that was purchased when The Spice Girls were at the top of the charts (in the United States anyways).

(I will admit I liked some of their Summer Jams)

But there is no point in blaming something, or making excuses. What’s done is done and now we must correct it.

First let’s asses what needs to be corrected.

The assessment process was easy, a lot of it is as simple as, “OK, this doesn’t feel right.” Or, “I don’t have full range of motion (or at least as I should).” And the rest you can see in the mirror with a keen eye or through various mobility drills.

Immobile/Stiff/Tight:

• Pecs
• T-Spine
• Upper Traps
• Lats
• Hamstrings
• Ankles
• Less than 10 degrees of hip internal rotation

Sounds like your typical client with a desk job? Well, that is kind of what I have been doing with BodyByBoyle Online on top of working with my personal training clients.

The Correction:

• Twice daily self massage/stretching/activation/mobility
• Foam rolling:
• Calves and Glutes with Lacrosse Ball
• Quads
• IT Band (I still think it’s worth the 30 seconds to roll the IT Band)
• Adductors (inside (near hip) and outside (near knee)
• Lats
• Traps
• Static Stretching (about 30s each/per side)
• Hamstrings
• Hip Rotators
• Quad/Hip Flexors
• Activation
• Single Leg Hip Lift
• Dynamic Warm Up
• Ankle Mobilizations
• Scap Floor Slides (Sue Falsone convinced me these are best done on the ground)
• Knee Hugs
• Butt Kick Pull Backs
• Sumo Squat to Stand
• SLDL with Reach
• Spiderman Crawl
• Kneeling Adductor Mobs
• Piraformis Mobs

• Weekly session with John Pallof to work on tissue quality on a level that self myofacial work can’t do. The guy is worth every penny and bruise from his graston.
• Treat myself to a weekly massage from one of our on staff massage therapists at MBSC to again work on my less than stellar tissue quality.
• Reduced training volume. More body weight and high rep work. No benching of any kind, just push up variations.

My warm ups before lifting have always been thorough, but clearly I was not getting enough.

With the mobility stuff out of the way, check back tomorrow for the lifting program that will accompany this.