Major Keys to the Summer Body Diet

Can you believe that it’s already May? I guess it’s hard for me to wrap my head around it considering all of the snow we’ve been getting in Colorado. Well either way, we are approaching the summer, and we all know what that means. It means it’s time for us to take a good look in the mirror, possibly self-loathe a little bit, then finally decide to make a change to get that defined, cut, and toned summer bod.

Zooming past all the self-loathing (since that’s the worst part and none of us want to talk about it anymore), in early May, many of us are at that stage where we have decided to either eat clean, exercise more, or even eat less junk. Regardless, they’re all big decisions, and I’m proud of us for doing so. Give yourself a pat on the back. Although we feel confident about our willingness to change, it is certainly possible that we fell lost, confused, or ill-informed on where to start. Possible questions that can be asked are: “What should my workouts look like?” “How much cardio should I be doing?” “Can I still eat double scooped ice cream cones on Fridays or have a couple glasses of wine?” Some of us may even feel lost with diet decisions as soon as we wake up. Pause. IT IS PERFECTLY NORMAL TO FEEL THAT WAY. So calm down and take a deep breath. It will all be ok.

Narrowing down all of these questions is essential because we must establish a base or a foundation that all of our fitness decisions and actions come from. For the sake of today’s blog, I will say that there are three categories that need attention in order to look better naked. That’s what most of us want right, to look better naked? Ok good. Glad we broke the ice on that one. Anyway, in my opinion, these three areas of focus are: resistance training, cardio, and diet. Although I believe that all of these work together to help sculpt that Greek god/goddess body you’ve been wanting, diet is the area of focus I want to touch on.

So what can and can’t we eat? What are we free to do? What are we restricted on? These are the questions that I used to ask when I was first introduced to fitness. Truth is, I want to avoid this because the last thing I want is for you to feel like you’re on a leash with your diet. Yes, you will have to avoid certain things, but I don’t want to make you miserable. I’m not about that life. My goal here today is to leave you with a solid understanding of how your body works with your food so you can make healthier, more informed decisions.

I’m sure that most of you have heard the word “macros” or “macronutrients” before. These are the three big nutrients that you need to be consuming on a daily basis. They are fats, carbohydrates, and protein. These nutrients are what provide you with calories and energy. Before I address how they work in your meals, I want to briefly discuss how they work in your body. Short and simple, both carbs and fats are used by your body for energy. Protein can be used as energy as well, but not as much as the other two macros. The primary differences between carbs and fats is that your body wants to use up carbs much faster than fats, and carbs can only be stored in limited quantities where fat storage is unlimited. If you absorbed nothing from that, remember this: both carbs and fats are used for energy. Now to protein. All you need to know about protein is that it is used for the tissues. Our body uses it to build, repair, or maintain tissues. Not too bad, right? It’s simple. Carbs and fats = energy, and protein = tissue support. For the sake of fitness we will say muscle support. Now that we have gone over how our bodies use each macronutrient, let’s talk about how that plays in our daily life with food choices.

There is one tactic or piece of advice that I want to give you to try in your diet. It has worked tremendously with myself as well as my clients. That tip is: avoid combining carbs and fat in the same meal while trying to lean down or stay lean. There is some controversy over this topic but from what I’ve gathered and based on the results I’ve seen, I feel confident saying that this can help you shed some fat. Unfortunately, our bodies don’t do the best job of reading our minds. It does what it wants. If we give ourselves carbs and fats in the same meal, our body will not see one source of energy, it will see two sources but only select one to use. That means our bodies store the other as fat. With this said, I recommend meal combinations of protein & fat, and protein & carbs. I would avoid protein, fats, and carbs, in the same meal especially when your primary goal is fat loss. Please please please, eat both carbs and fats in the same day. Your body needs them and you’ll get a little weird if you go without carbs for days. All I’m suggesting is avoiding the combination of those carbs and fats at the same time.

To this point, you may feel like saying “well shoot! If that’s all I need to focus on in my diet, this will be a breeze! As long as it fits the guidelines of those macronutrients, I’ll be set!” *Really loud buzzer sound*. Not quite. There are a few more things that I recommend keeping an eye on.

One of the most overlooked nutrients to watch is sugar. Sugar intake can make or break you. To be brief, the only time that your body needs sugar is first thing in the morning because you’ve been fasting for hours while sleeping. Other than that, I would avoid sugar as much as possible. If you consume it and your body doesn’t use it immediately, it will be stored as fat. We don’t want to be moving one step forward and three steps back. And no, that doesn’t mean you can go nuts on the aspartame. I use stevia when I am watching my sugar intake but even then I keep it minimal.

Some of you are going to be a little taken back with this next one, but during my experience as a trainer, this seems to be a very hard item for people to drop out of their diet. Alcohol. Oh, the alcohol. For me, alcohol is the easiest to stay away from. But for others, a glass of wine is difficult to avoid after a stressful day. I’m not here to tell you to drink or not to drink, but I’ll leave you with this. A study provided by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in which eight men were given two drinks of vodka separated by 30 minutes showed that fat oxidation (which basically measures how much fat the body burns) dropped by 73%. Alcohol will slow your fat metabolism down. I’ll leave it there.

Lastly, in regards to metabolism, there is a lot of controversy. Some say that eating three square meals per day will not slow your metabolism down, and others disagree. If I’m being transparent with you, I’ll say I don’t know enough about the science of our metabolism to argue either way. I have read studies that argue for one and studies that argue for the other. But, I do know that our bodies can only synthesize so much protein at one time. So if an 180-pound male needs to consume 144g of protein in a day (I recommend .5-.8g protein per lb of body weight to build muscle, which you do need to look lean), it would be best to do so over several meals. Some believe we can get away with 1g protein per lb of body weight, but I see that as a little too much.

In summary, your summer body can be a few steps closer if you follow these guidelines:

1.   Avoid combining carbs and fats in the same meal.

2.   Watch your sugar intake. Keep it minimal.

3.   Don’t go crazy on the booze. You’ll put on fat and do stupid things you’ll regret.

4.   Spread your meals out so your body can properly use all of the protein you consume in the day.

I hope this helps some of you. Now that you have a little more knowledge, go out there, shed some fat, and get everyone’s head turning at the pool!

If you have any other questions regarding diet, training, etc., feel free to reach out to me at poehlmannfitness@gmail.com

What Drives You?

What is the motivator in your life?

There are so many things in this world that can drive us to experience something greater. Wealth, possessions, traveling/sight-seeing, health, etc. I think it’s fair to say that for a lot of us, the two most popular motivators come in pairs. Those pairs are wealth & possessions and experiences & community. Per usual, there are two sides to the coin. Do we live, grow, and learn to become wealthy? Or do we live, grow, and learn in order to fulfill our hearts with experiences that we share with loved ones?

My question is why can’t it be both? Why do we have to assume that it is only one or the other? I believe we think that way because we have pre-determined analyses of what the person is like on either side of that coin. If he/she is driven by money, wealth, or possessions, most would assume that they are selfish, stuck-up, and don’t have the time of day for anyone else. If he/she is driven by experiences with community, we may assume that he/she is just a free-loading hippie that takes peace-sign selfies and wants to live off of the hard work of others. You may not agree with those statements, but my experiences have told me that it seems to be that way. We tend to associate the person and their motivator with some kind of stigma. This brings me to my main point.

So going back to the question at hand, why can’t it be both? Why can’t we be driven by all of the above? In my mind, it’s simple. We CAN be driven by both. I believe this to be true enough to say that in order to reach the full potential or even fulfilling season of our lives, we MUST be driven by both. They go hand-in-hand. In order to drive this point home, we need to take a look at how logistics and philosophy come together in the melting pot of self-purpose.

In order to avoid throwing more generalized statements out there, I’ll make this personal. Here is my take on this topic based on what I believe, experience, and enjoy in life. I am the person that is driven by money and wealth. Heck yes I am. I’ll admit it. I feel no shame on my end for it. (Just FYI, there may be a little more personality and fire to the content in the remainder of this blog. Strap in.). Here is a news flash to some and a reminder to others. The world that we live in operates around money. It’s a fact, and there is no getting around it. We don’t live in a field of dandelions where people can kindly lend you whatever you want while we hold hands and sing lullabies. Money is required in order to live. Money is required to buy food, shelter, etc. Logistically, it makes sense to be driven by money. If I was starving out in a dessert, food and water would be my motivators. Duh. So can you really blame me for being motivated by it? Hear me out, because this is where I want to bring all of this to clarity.

Last note before I move on to a deeper meaning of this point. What’s the point of being motivated by money and possessions if I don’t have people around me to share the experiences that come with it? Don’t let your drive for those things bring you to a world of solitude.

Anyway, logistics and material things aside, I firmly believe that I am on this earth to make some sort of positive impact. Now, I don’t want to make this a discussion of theology, self-purpose, faith, etc. but I feel not only a desire, but also an obligation to leave my environment/community better than when I first came to it. I have the desire to improve my surroundings just as much as I want to have wealth. Some of you may not feel that there is a point to having that train of thought, simply because you are 1 person out of billions. So how much of a change could you really make? I don’t blame you for thinking that way. Heck, I used to be in that frame of mind. But read further. Here is where this gets interesting because we are now at the intersection in which all of my desires work perfectly together.

I’ve addressed two facts thus far. I want wealth, and I want to positively impact my environment. So how can I be the most well rounded individual if I am chasing two different things at one time? Actually, it’s quite simple. I know that if my heart and my mind are set in the right place, I can utilize both desires to leave a significant footprint on this earth. Not only do I let my desire to obtain wealth drive me to live like no one else, I also allow that desire to drive me to GIVE like no one else (shout out to my boy Dave Ramsey). In my mind, more money not only means a nice car, house, and early retirement, it also means having the ability to serve my community in a way I've never dreamed of.

Monetary desires don’t have to come with a heart to serve. And a heart to serve doesn’t have to come with monetary desires. But both of those forces can come together to create some of the most powerful movements this world has ever seen.

I leave you with these questions. What drives you? Really, why do you do what you do? Does what you're doing even have a place in your heart? If not, perhaps it's time to make changes. Maybe not. Comment, ponder, think. You have been given a life to live. Don't forget to actually LIVE.

ARE COACHES/TRAINERS RIPPING YOU OFF?

Sales pitch... sales pitch... sales pitch....

I'm sure this is most of what we fitness fanatics see as we scroll through our Instagram feed. Many of the big names in the fitness industry are either held under the thumb of some larger company they advertise or are just simply looking for a quick way to dig into our pockets. A lot of the time, both cases apply. Not only does this affect the relationship between trainer and client, but it also affects the progress on the client's fitness goals. 

When I was first introduced to the fitness world, I began to see a lot of this happening around me. I began to ask, how do these people get away with what they are giving out? I'm sure plenty of others have asked the same. After almost three years of training, researching, observing, etc., I can now clearly see how this is a major issue. Before I proceed, let me clear something up. This is how I see the fitness industry from my eyes. I am not saying that this is the case for everyone in every situation, either. Having said this, if you seem to disagree with my statements you can most certainly leave a comment or email me and we can chat about it further. But, don't be that person that just whines like a little schoolgirl and exits out of her browser because she's so frustrated.

So the big question at hand is, how do big names send out the cookie cutter plans that they do, and still hold a great reputation as a coach or trainer? Well, it's actually quite simple. The first factor is appearance/appeal. If I am an obese individual looking to shed body fat, why wouldn't I look to the master of shred in my eyes? I would want to look like him/her, no? Makes sense to me. Well, the problem is this: not only do people buy into the shredded coach, but they buy into the cookie cutter training plan and diet plan as well. At this point I can already hear some of you saying "well yes that's true but their clients get results!" Which is a valid point to a certain extent. If I am that obese individual I was talking about and I haven't worked out, my results are going to be stupid good. Heck, even an individual with average stats is going to react tremendously to any brand new training program. So the real issue is that these clients aren't reaching their full potential. Not only that, but they are left trying to figure everything out on their own because they are given a 30 day challenge or an eight-week plan upfront with no accountability whatsoever. This is where the second factor comes into play. Lack of accountability and rapport from both the coach AND the client. 

A few years ago, I heard my pastor say something that I will never forget. He reminded us that it is his duty to provide us (the congregation) with the Word and the message, but it is also our responsibility to ensure that what he is preaching is truth. That moment will never leave my mind. Church aside, this idea applies to all aspects of life. Unfortunately, not too many people utilize this especially when it comes to the fitness industry. In regards to our topic of coach reputability, we aren't even sure if they have any. Sure, they have eight-packs and 22-inch arms. But trust me when I tell you this - they are the masters of their own bodies. They know how their body works better than anybody else does. They are most likely using PEDs as well but that's another conversation. So, if I were to put myself in the shoes of a potential client I would NEVER trust someone that hasn't taken the time out of their day to get to know me as an individual and as an athlete. If a coach told me he was going to email me his "mass gain" program just after I emailed him a couple of times and sent a payment, I'd tell him to take a hike. From a trainer's perspective it's easy to just take a payment and send a cookie cutter program. Trust me, it makes our lives twice as easy. But that's not the coach I enjoy being, because I know my client won't take it seriously if I don't take it seriously. Beyond that, I speak nothing but the truth when I say I enjoy clients the most when they ask me questions and do their own research. Why? It's simple. If they ask questions, they are basically saying "prove yourself". I love that because it keeps me in check as a coach, and it shows me that all of the time I invested in that client isn't being wasted. Even further than that, I get the chance to build friendships with the people I am helping, and that's more real than anything I can take to the bank. 

Don't stop learning. Expect more out of your trainer and help them help you.