6 Ways to Stick to Your Diet

So many have us have tried and tried again, we keep starting, and then we binge and then we try again.  It's just an endless cycle.  We know that once we start dieting that we will just inevitably stop.  Let's face it dieting just isn't fun.  You can't drink, no more mickey D's, and no more snacking on chips when you watch TV.  But dieting  is super good for you and it will help you reach your desired fitness goals.  So for those of us who do decide to take the plunge here are six tips that can help you beat that bulge.

1. Chew Gum (and lots of it).
Chewing gum especially cinnamon gum helps suppress the appetite.  Also it helps prevent shameless snacking, because if you already have gum in your mouth you are less likely to mindlessly grab some chips.  In addition gum can help satisfy you if your craving something sweet.

2.  Eat cheat meals
Dieting doesn't have to be an endless marathon where you never eat what you want.  Let's say that we eat 5 meals a day.  A meal is not necessarily a sit down meal, it could be you grabbing an apple on the way to work.  So any snacking we will consider a meal as well.  If you add that up that is 35 meals per week.  Now if you have 35 meals per week you can use the 90: 10 rule.  If 90% of your meals are healthy you can eat 10% what you want.  This can help you satisfy your sweet tooth, without going on a 3 day binge only to regain what you worked so hard to lose.

3. Put hot sauce on stuff
While sometimes diet foods aren't always the best tasting and are a little bland, most hot sauces are 0 calories, and the spiciness helps to suppress your appetite a little bit.  So don't be shy and go heavy on the hot sauce.

4. Keep Busy
When you are sitting at home looking at the computer or just mindlessly watch TV a lot of us have the tendency just to eat out of boredom.  However, if you are busy working on a project, or doing a hobby that you really love, you might just forget about eating all together.  While I don't advocate starving yourself during a diet, if you keep busy you might just forget that you are on a diet all together.

5.  Eat TONS of vegetables
Vegetables like mushrooms, carrots,  cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, etc.  are all mostly water.  It is possible to eat a plate full of vegetables with under a 100 calories.  You literally can not eat too many vegetables.  If you are hungry can some asparagus.  You won't eat too much, you can stuff your face with steamed broccoli, and you may get full but you will not overeat.  Since most vegetables contain mostly fiber and water, you get the full sensation, with all the vitamins just with almost none of the calories.

6. Take pictures of your progress
Let's face it you look at yourself every day in the mirror.  You don't necessarily notice when you are changing or not, however when you take pictures of your self on a weekly basis, you WILL start seeing results, and when you look at those pictures it will give you the motivation to keep on going, because you will be able to see how much you have accomplished.

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How To Stick to Your New Year's Resolutions

Another year has passed and you probably are making the same new year's resolution again. Odds are you are just one of the statistics. There are more gym member sign-ups in January than any other month of the year. It is because of all of the people like you who want to start their life fresh. Now another sad fact is that most of these people will be gone and stop working out by March. If you don't want to be like them try these tips:

1. Start of Slow
The body doesn't do well with dramatic change. Odds are if you go from a couch potato from a gym-rat overnight, you won't be able to stick with your plans. However, if you just plan on showing up! to the gym (you don't have to work out), and then leave. Do that just 3 times a week. Then maybe the next week you could start working out for 10 minutes, then 20, then build up until you are working out your desired amount. This will help you slowly become acclimated to the gym, and you will be able to build up a habit of going, making you less likely to break it.



2. Eat 1 healthy meal per day
So the same logic goes for diet as it does for the gym. Even though diet is more important than working out in terms of weight-loss, we will start out even slower. Let's say you eat 5 meals per day (including snacks), try to eat just 1 healthy meal a day. So if you snack on chips during work, eat an apple. Do that just once a day for a month. Then the next month continue eating that apple in place of potato chips, but then if you have another snack after work when you go home, replace that snack with a piece of fruit. Then you can start working on your main meals. Before you know it, all your meals will be healthy, and you won't desire any of the bad food again.



3. It's Ok To Cheat
Now I'm not saying it's ok to completely ditch your diet all together, but after a couple of months of rigorous dieting, its ok to maybe have 1 or 2 cheat meals per week. These aren't meals where you completely binge, they are more like meals where instead of the apple you will have potato chips. In these meals you reward yourself but you don't go too over the edge, because it is easy to get back right where you started.

If you follow this advice you should have no problem sticking to your new year's resolutions, and hey maybe you will inspire someone else in the process.

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3 Ways to Bust Through Any Plateu

Many people come to me and ask me, "Mark!  I've been  working out for awhile, and I am just not seeing the gains that I used to when I first started lifting, how can I get those gains back?"  Well while you probably wont see those gains that you did because of the law of diminishing returns, which pretty much means our bodies can only handle so much.  You can only weigh so much, or you can only lose so much weight, their is a limit.  But, if you haven't reached your limit yet, there are some things that you can do.

1.  Change up your supplements/start taking supplements
While many people are taking supplements, they sometimes take the same thing for too long.  If you are still taking that same fat burner that you used 5 years ago or that same pre-workout, it may be time for a change.  Change to products with different active ingredients, and vary what you take.  Or if you don't take any supplements START!  They can really help you take your workouts to the next level.

2.  Change up your workout
There are so many people who do the same thing day in and day out.  They had the same workout split for years.  They would do the same exercise on the same days for so long.  This is not how you build muscle.  I personally never do the same workout twice in a row.  I haven't actually done the exact same workout in over a year.  It is important to vary your rep range and set range and exercises to continually keep the body guessing.

3.  Watch what you eat
Many people ask "Mark I just cant put on size"  or "I just can't lose the fat that I want".  While both these people spend all the time that they need in the gym they don't eat right.  If you are eating not enough/too much food no matter how much you workout, you will not gain size/lose weight.

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How to Really Lose Weight

Ok, there are so many diet crazes, weight watchers, atkins, the keto diet, south beach, and the list goes on and on.  However, I am willing to sum all of them up into one sentence

"Eat less; do more"

If you want to lose weight, all you have to do is eat at a calorie deficit.  What this means is you need to find out how many calories you normally use per day, which is about 

your body weight * 15 = Base Metabolic Rate (BMR)

*Note this number is higher if you are more active and lower if you are sedentary

  or your maintenance calories.  If you want to lose about a pound per week you would lower your calories about 600 below your BMR. Now if you want to eat more you can increase your BMR by doing more (running, swimming, etc.)  It does not matter what you eat when it comes to weight loss.  However, it is much easier to get fuller off of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables than it is candy bars.  But, it is possible to lose weight eating twinkies all day.  Although, you would have other health problems. If you want to find out more accurately how to calculate your BMR you can go here http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_BMR.php where they go in depth to calculate your calories.  That's it!  That is the secret to losing weight.

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Astral projection

Astral Projection is an out of body experience that occurs when you are asleep.  It is kind of like lucid dreaming which is controlling your actions and being aware of yourself when you are dreaming.  However, astral projection is taking lucid dreaming to the next level.  It is where you literally have an out of body experience.  You can literally see yourself coming out of your body, and you can do whatever you want.  You can fly to mars, be a pirate, mess with your friends.  It's like your dreaming, but it's more realistic.

People who have said to experience astral projection say it is different than anything they have ever experienced.  One person said that it was like she was having a war between her physical self and her spiritual self trying to escape.  While this may seem scary, actually it is a really good thing to do.  It helps you to be able to control how you relax.  There have also been claims of people in groups astral projecting together and going on glorious adventures.

Here are some tips to do astral projection if you so choose.

1. Relax.  Make your whole body still.  Don't move a muscle.  Don't even move your eyes.  You need to keep still until you feel shaking, or a warm tingling.
2. Release yourself. One you finally feel a warm tingling or a shaking, imagine that there is a rope over you and that you are pulling yourself out with a rope.  
3. Enjoy.  Once you have released yourself from your body, enjoy your out of body experience.

Tips

• Don't Freak out!  Whatever you do don't be scared.  If anything bad happens use your mind to will the bad away and only think good.
• Use music.  There is some music like  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDgTWoe9KGg, which can aid in astral projection

Overall, this is a really good technique that you can use to relax, and it can be a fun technique to learn because you never know what kind of adventures you can go on.

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10 Things You Didn't Know About Your Brain

1.  The brain holds between 3-1,000 terabyte of information
This is pretty impressive seeing that a movie is only a couple of gigabytes, or that the National Archives of Britain with 900 years of history only has about 70 terabytes of information.
2.  The brain is 80% Water
The brain is soft and spongy, and water really helps it perform better.  So the next time you feel dehydrated drink some water, and you will help out your brain function.
3.  The brain itself can't feel pain
But don't worry if you hit your head, you will still pain.  Even though the brain can't feel pain, it is surrounded by bone and tissue that can feel pain.  So that's why you still get headaches.
4. The Higher your IQ the more you dream

Courtesy of Mateu from DeviantArt

While this is true, don't feel bad about not remembering your dreams.  The average dream only lasts about 2-3 seconds, which is barely fast enough to register.
5.  The brain generates as much energy as a 10 watt lightbulb
I don't think any computer has as much memory as the brain, but they all use a lot more energy than the 10 watt lightbulb.  We should study the brain and see how it utilizes power, and maybe we can build a computer closer to it.
6.  Your brain is more active when you sleep
While you would think that day to day life would be a lot more active for your brain, the opposite turns out to be true.  While scientists don't know the exact reason why your brain is more active, you can thank your active brain for tons of interesting dreams while you sleep.
7. The brain is always changing
One study found that learning to juggle changed the structure of the brain in just 7 days.  This goes to prove that the brain learns very quickly.
8. Information can be processed as fast as 268 mph
This explains why your reactions can be really fast.  For example pulling your hand away from a fire.  On the other hand, don't rely on your reactions too much because some information can be processed as slow as 0.5 m/s
9. People who eat lunch did better on IQ tests
Studies show that people who eat lunch score an average of 14 points higher on an IQ test.  So when you are given the option of skipping lunch, don't.  You will be eating to a healthier brain.
10.  The brain uses 20% of the oxygen from your body
While the brain only weighs 3 lbs, your brain takes up about 1/5 of your body's total oxygen.  That's a lot of air!

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The Truth About Sleep

I know, I know, you probably think this article is about how you should get 8 hours of sleep per night, and that if you don't you will be tired and lethargic throughout the day, and that sleep is super important.  Well while this may be true on an average day, I am here to tell you a little bit about how sleep actually works.

Sleep consists of 5 stages (theta waves, sleep spindles, delta waves, delta sleep, Rapid Eye Movement or (REM sleep))  lasting about 90 minutes.  If you wake up at the end of a cycle you will feel refreshed and energized and ready to tackle the day.  On the other hand if you are woken up in the middle of the cycle, due to outside factors (having to pee, alarm clock, someone waking you up, etc.) you will feel groggy and tired.

So here's the point.  If you wake up after just 1 sleep cycle, you should feel great!  But, even though you will feel great be wary because despite feeling good, you need some sleep to recover your body.  But, you might need less sleep than 8 hours.  Some people need only 4 or 5 sleep cycles.  So if you wake up after 4 cycles or 6 hours, you will feel brilliant.  There is nothing wrong with you, and you can enjoy your longer day!  But it is different for everyone.  Some people only need 5, 6, 7 hours or so. So find out for yourself how much sleep you really need you might be shocked.


Now there are some other shocking things about sleep.  In addition to not only needing 8 hours, it is possible to skip the 5 stages of sleep, and go straight to REM sleep.  It is actually possible to sleep for only 2 hours per day, and be fine.  This is called the Uberman sleeping schedule which consists of six twenty-minute naps every 4 hours.  While this would be nice, most of us who live in the real world, this is impractical.  People cant just sleep for 20 minutes every 4 hours with work, and other commitments.  But, there are lots of other different sleep cycles that you could choose from in the list below.

Name	Total sleeping time	Method
Monophasic	≈8.0 h	8 hours major sleep episode.
Biphasic	≈6.3 h	6 hours major sleep episode and one twenty-minute power nap.
Biphasic (90-minute nap)	6 h	4.5 hours major sleep episode and one ninety-minute nap.
Everyman (with 2 naps)	5.2 h	4.5 hours major sleep episode and two twenty-minute power naps.
Everyman (with 3 naps)	4 h	3 hours major sleep episode and three twenty-minute power naps.
Everyman (with 4 - 5 naps)	≈3 h	1.5 hours major sleep episode and four to five twenty-minute power naps.
Dymaxion	2 h	Four 30-minute naps (every 6 hours).
Uberman	2 h	Six twenty-minute naps (every 4 hours).

So, you might really not need as much sleep as you think.  I encourage everyone who reads this to look at this list, and try and figure out something that will fit with your day, and make you more productive.  Because we don't all need to get the typical 8 hours of sleep a night.  We really only need 2 hours of sleep per day to function.



sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/165/3892/513.short

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10 easy things to burn more calories throughout the day

1. Chew More
If you chew your food slower, you will be able to savor it longer.  Since it takes about 15 minutes for your brain to get the signal from your stomach that you are full, you will eat less, and after about 15 minutes you will find out that you are full.  This will stop you from overeating.
2. Fidget
While it may seem a little silly it really works.  If you tap your toes or shake your knees that all burns calories.  Just don't fidget too much or you may get some awkward looks at the office.
3. Stand More
When you stand you use a whole lot more energy than sitting.  You can stand all the time.  If there is the option where you can sit on a bench, or stand and talk to someone, take the standing option, you will burn more calories.
4. Take the Stairs One at a Time
When you walk up the stairs one at a time you are using a lot more energy than by taking then two or more at a time.  While you may get to your destination a little bit slower, you are burning calories, so enjoy the walk!
5. Chew Gum
When you are chewing gum, your moving your mouth up and down, thus causing you to burn calories.  You can even make your teeth healthier by buying gum that cleans your teeth like trident.  In addition, chewing gum   helps suppress appetite, so you won't feel as inclined to snack on little things throughout the day.
6. Walk Quickly
The quicker and more intensely that you walk, the more you will get your heart going.  If you walk like you need to get somewhere, you will appear important and you will be more able to look busy.
7. Sit With Better Posture
If you sit up in your chair you will be using your abs and strengthening your core.  In addition you will appear to be a better worker, and not lazy like some people who recline in their chair.  Maybe sitting up in your chair can be a good way to look busy and get that promotion that you have been looking for.
8.  Exaggerate every Movement
If you make every movement bigger, you are burning more calories.  For example if you wave at someone you don't have to make a wimpy "little wave" get into that wave.  Make it a big one, maybe even jump up and down.  The person will be happy that you recognize them, and you be healthier for it.  However, make sure you don't exaggerate your movements too much or people might give you weird looks.
9.  Go out of your Way
When you are going somewhere, take the long route.  You don't always have to go to the closest bathroom.  If you explore your environment and walk a little bit out of the way, you might see something interesting, plus your doing a service to your health.
10. Wear Warmer Clothes
When we wear warmer clothes our body is in thermogenesis.  This is just a fancy way to say that our body heats up.  When we are warmer we  burn more fat.  So now you can be warm, and lose fat! It's a Win-Win.

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7 Ways to Beat Holiday Weight Gain

Christmas is right around the corner, and you know what that means.  The whole family is going to get together and start eating.  Here are 7 really good tips that can help you beat that holiday weight gain.

1. Use a Smaller Plate
  If you use a smaller plate, it makes you eat a little less, and you will get the feeling of being fuller quicker.  Plus you don't have that awkward situation where you fill up your plate full of Aunt Edna's "Casserole"  only to find out its not quite as good as you thought it would be.  This way you only have to eat a small plate of that "Casserole" instead of a big plate.
2. Wait 15 minutes before seconds
It takes about 15 minutes for our brains to register that we are full.  If you just wait, and talk with the family for fifteen or so minutes, you may be surprised, and find out that you are actually full.
3. Eat some High Fiber food before the "Big Meal"
If you eat foods like almonds, wheat thins, oatmeal, etc.  before the meal, you will be a little fuller.  This will help you to not overeat on those Christmas cookies and cakes.
4. Do your dishes before desert.  
Once you finish eating, you may feel obligated to rush right to dessert.  However, if you do your dishes and clean up before dessert, you may realize that you are fuller than you thought.  This will help you from overeating.
5.  Drink Seltzer Water
If you drink Seltzer Water or carbonated water during the big meal, the carbonation will help fill your stomach.  This way you will feel fuller, without all of the food.
6.  Wear a Belt
Wear a belt tight around your stomach.  If you feel the belt getting tighter around you when you are eating, or you even feel as if you need to loosen it, you are probably eating too much.  This will just be an easy way of knowing when to stop.
7.  Enjoy Your Family
If you are talking and enjoying your family during dinner, you will be more interested in talking with them, and less focused on eating.  Often when we are with our family, we feel obligated to eat, and engage in emotional eating.  Don't worry about this.  Plus when you are talking with your family, you will eat slower, which will cause you to feel fuller sooner.

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