The holiday season is a time for relaxation, family and delectably-tasty treats. From the special turkey dinner at Thanksgiving to the finger foods at holiday parties, it is hard to avoid putting on a little holiday weight. Though staying fit, healthy and slim through the holiday season will require restraint and dedication, it is possible to get the most out of the season without giving into the sweets cravings and lazy temptations.

Plan Workout Times:

For many who gain weight during the holidays, the lack of a plan and the mindset that it is impossible to give up those special treats leads to failure. However, according to Women Fitness, taking the time to plan ahead for holiday workouts make it easier to maintain the schedule when it is tempting to sit on the couch and watch that silly holiday movie with the family. Thus, it is important to work out when an appropriate time to exercise is and what will lead to the best success in terms of sticking to your plan.

Eat Every Meal:

During the holidays, it is easy to anticipate that special dinner or party and try skipping out on meals to save extra calories. Unfortunately, Peter Walsh from Oprah.com points out that skipping meals can actually result in extra weight gain. The hunger from avoiding necessary meals results in overeating at the special occasion and taking in more calories than you would have otherwise. This can be particularly true for stressed individuals, such those who have put in a lot of the time at office (or the malls) as well as students who have been hitting the books extra hard for their online classes, as stress can also cause people to overindulge.

Spend Time on Muscle Building:

When devising an exercise plan, always remember to include some muscle building exercises. While it might not be possible to get to a gym and use the lifting equipment, taking a few minutes for exercises such as pushups, squats, and lunges can maintain muscle mass and improve your metabolism.

Muscle building is just as important for the holiday months as it is for any other time of the year. More muscle mass results in a higher overall metabolism that works more efficiently even when the body is at rest. Trying to spend every other day on simple exercises that build muscle can help maintain or lose weight.

Plan a Day for Cheating:

Sticking to a strict diet during the holidays is challenging, particularly when it comes to the special treats that are only around in the winter. Fortunately, staying fit through the holidays doesn’t necessarily mean giving up every treat. Instead, you can plan ahead for a couple days a month to indulge yourself during the holidays. The key to the day of indulging on a diet plan is to keep the amount of treats you eat to a moderate level. Enjoy a slice of pie or extra-buttery mashed potatoes, but avoid overeating.

Eat Slowly:

With so many tasty foods set on the table, eating quickly is a common part of the holidays. Unfortunately, the body requires a little time to process when the stomach is full. By the time the brain acknowledges that it is full, fast eaters often find that they’ve eaten too much and now feel like the stuffing-filled turkey.

Taking the time to savor the meal and chew food thoroughly will not only make the experience more enjoyable but also allows the mind to recognize your body’s signals for when you are actually full.

Pay Attention to the Foods:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that diabetic individuals should pay attention to the foods they are eating and avoid or limit foods that have heavy sauces, glazes or gravies. Although the CDC is providing advice to men and women who must watch their blood sugar, the fact that it can help reduce excessive calories and sugars without giving up good food applies to anyone looking to stay healthy during the holiday season.

Avoid turkey that is covered in gravy or the part of the ham with the honey glaze. Instead, opt for pieces without the gravy-heavy, sugar-filled honey or other sauces. This will reduce your caloric intake at the meal without forcing you to eat less.

The holiday season is a tough time for anyone trying to stay fit and healthy. Fortunately, continuing to exercise and working out a plan to avoid eating extra calories is the key to staying healthy and maintaining your weight.
 

The thought of building muscle when you are a complete beginner can seem daunting at first but in reality, the concept is simple. Train hard, eat well and sleep well. Add consistency into the mix and you have a near perfect plan of action. So why do people find it so hard to see results in the gym? Here are 4 of the top reasons why you are not building muscle and getting the desired results from your training.

You Are Not Eating Enough!

Building muscle requires a calorie surplus. This basically means you need to eat more calories than your body needs each day in order for it to grow and build new muscle tissue. Many people believe that they are eating enough when in truth they are not. Writing down a typical day’s worth of food and totaling up the calories is the best way to find out if you are consuming enough calories for muscle growth.  You should be looking to consume around 300-500 calories over your maintenance level to build muscle. At the same time be careful not to consume too many calories.
As well as underestimating calorie intake and neglecting to eat enough, people can also do the exact opposite. People can overeat with the belief that they need to eat big to get big. While this statement holds some truth you don’t need to over exaggerate your calorie intake to build muscle. Eating thousands more calories a day than your body needs will help you build muscle but you will also put on a lot of fat. Eat sensibly to minimize fat gains.

You Are Getting Comfortable!

To build muscle you need to walk into the gym looking to improve upon your previous week’s work. Do not walk into the gym and do the exact same thing every week. If you bench pressed 3 sets of 8 reps with a particular weight last week push for 3 sets of 9. Once your reps start increasing, bump up the weight. Always look to add more weight to the bar or perform more reps. Adding weight or performing more reps each workout is the only way your body will get bigger and stronger. The same goes for your routine. Are you sticking to the same workout routine week in and week out?
If you are and you’re finding progress increasingly harder to come by then you need to switch things up. Your body has become comfortable and accustomed to your routine and needs change and variety. This doesn’t mean you should totally revamp your routine; the change can be as simple as changing the order you perform your exercises in, taking out one exercise and replacing it with another, or simply lifting heavier weights for fewer reps. Do not change your routine if you are seeing good progress. Only switch it up when progress stalls.

Your Protein Intake is too Low

Although protein is not the only contributing factor toward muscle growth, it is important to take in adequate amounts of protein throughout the day. Protein should be the main staple of every meal you consume. Protein will help build and repair damaged muscle tissue, aiding in the recovery and growth of your muscles. Just like calories, protein intake can often be misjudged and needs to be monitored to ensure your muscles are getting enough protein to rebuild and grow. The best high protein foods for muscle growth are lean cuts of meat such as chicken, turkey, beef, pork or lamb—basically, any lean cut of meat you can get your hands on! Other great high protein foods include fish, tuna, whey protein powder, cottage cheese, milk, and eggs.

The most effective way to consistently meet your protein requirements each day is to consume 4-6 small meals throughout the day, each consisting of a rich protein food as listed above. Try to consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. You can take anywhere between 1-2 grams per pound of bodyweight if you think there’s any additional benefits to it but as long as you are taking in at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight on top of a calorie surplus and a good weight training program, you will build muscle.

You Are Not Consistent!

Whether you are looking to gain muscle or burn fat, if you are not consistent with your training don’t expect to see any dramatic changes in your physique. Consistency not only applies to your training but your diet as well. Diet and weight training go hand in hand. If both aren’t consistent then you are not getting the full benefits out of your training. If your diet is poor, your gym sessions will suffer. If you are consuming a solid diet but you are not training hard enough, you will not grow. It’s as simple as that. Be consistent with your diet by taking in the correct amount of calories and protein each and every day. Train hard and always look to improve upon your previous workouts and you will be unstoppable. Change your gym habits now to build muscle more efficiently and finally turn that average physique into something special! 
 
 

Holy Grail Body Transformation

The Holy Grail is Tom Venuto's new 74 page ebook that is destined to set the record straight in such a way that you could say it's the LAST WORD on gaining muscle and burning fat at the same time.

Tom has competed in bodybuilding 28 times, going through season after season of gaining muscle and competition after competition of getting cut – sometimes as low as 4% body fat or less.

So, when a guy like Tom speaks about losing fat AND gaining muscle, you definitely want to hear what he has to say.

From now until midnight (PST) tonight, you can get a copy of the “Holy Grail body transformation system" PDF ebook format, absolutely free when you purchase Tom’s Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle e-book from:

Holy Grail Body Transformation

Burn The Fat is often referred to as “the bible of fat burning nutrition” and if you don’t have a copy yet, then this is a better opportunity than ever because you will get the new ebook as a bonus along with the classic best selling Burn The Fat program.

This offer is almost over, so I highly recommend you visit the Burn The Fat website today and jump on this deal while you still can. Tom doesn't make offers like this often, and this is one you don't want to miss.

Here’s the link again:

Holy Grail Body Transformation

Dramatically Increase Your Calories for 3 Days

You will never achieve a positive nitrogen balance with a low calorie diet. It takes raw materials – carbs, protein and fats – to build new muscle mass and support recovery. Increasing your calories by 50% (from 3,0000 to 4,500 per day, for instance) for three days can spur growth while adding little if any bodyfat. The key is to limit the increased calories to a designated three day period; you'll be able to stimulate growth by improving muscle sensitivity to insulin and by providing more carbs for glycogen storage.

If you are in an overtrained state – and if you're not gaining any new muscle mass, this is probably the case – the additional calories will promote anabolism before fat storage is able to kick in. That's why you want to limit the 50% increase to a three day period. After that time, return to your typical intake of daily calories; you'll have stimulated new growth without adding unwanted fat.

Get more of these super tips that work especially well for hardgainers by clicking the link below –

Hyper Muscle Growth

It's an easy sale, too. Your body is much more adept at building muscle OR cutting fat than it is trying to do both at the same time. In fact, cutting up and building muscle at the VERY same time is impossible.

However, that is not to say that, over the course of six weeks, you cannot gain muscle and lose body fat. You can start out at 200 pounds at 15% body fat and wind up at 200 pounds at 10%.

You see, you split your training into cycles. I've talked about this before. Interestingly, you can break up the cycles into even smaller chunks than I did in that old post – we're talking intra-day stuff here, folks.

When you do your weight training during the day, your muscles break down and are ready to build back up again immediately after your workout. They are super-efficient. This is the time when you run a calorie surplus (more on surpluses and deficits in a moment, and NOT of the federal budget variety!).

Most of the rest of the day, if you want to cut up, you can run a calorie deficit.

Over the course of a 24-hour period, you may need 3,000 calories, depending on your weight, activity, metabolism, etc. However, each hour is not simply 1/24th of a day, in caloric-need terms. At rest, you may need only several hundred calories for an 8-hour period.

During your peak activities, you may need A LOT more calories.

When you're running a calorie deficit, if you do it right, you're burning fat. Conversely, when you're running a surplus, you're setting the stage for anabolism (muscle growth).

You have to know how to do this. Timing, as they say, is everything.

And Vince Gironda was right after all – successful bodybuilding is 85% nutrition!

For more info on this, check out The Holy Grail. It's free, for a limited time, but with a catch. But, in my opinion, it's worth it.

Stay tuned. More tonight or tomorrow.

I loved how he didn't take crap from anyone and if you got in his way, he ceremoniously lopped off your head! The movie was kind of crappy (looking back on it now), but the physical superiority displayed by Conan left quite an impression on me.

I remember reading Muscle & Fitness during those days; they ran a story on how Arnold trained for the movie (I kept those magazines – I'll have to dig it up). It was quite amazing. Just learning how to use that big-ass sword must have been grueling!

Now, Arnold was in great shape, having won the Mr O for his last time in 1980. However, he obviously trained for the part, learning how to wield that giant sword, battle, and otherwise beat the tar out of his enemies.

Back in Conan's day, there weren't any weights to lift; those warriors trained hard, but they trained in a primitive way, using whatever implements and heavy stuff they had laying around. If you want to build a body like Conan, you ought to train the same way.

Lean Hybrid Muscle is a system I ran across that was put together by 2 strength athletes who wanted to build muscle and lose body fat at the same time.

Why do I mention this? Their system is very similar to how Conan, the vikings, and other warriors must have trained back in their day. In fact, modern strongmen often compete in events that mimic ancient strength exhibitions. Mike Westerdal, of Critical Bench fame, and Elliot Hulse, a modern-day strongman, are giving away a free copy of their "The Warrior Physique" where they show you specific training exercises that accomplish both muscle growth and fat loss.

You can get your copy of The Warrior Physique right here.

I love this program! It's full of unconventional exercises that are sure to build the body you want in record time. Get it now while it's still free.

but only if you want to burn body fat and build muscle, all at the same time! Here's a rundown on how the program works. I don't have time to do a full review right now, but I wanted to give you some info on the program, as it's on sale for $10 OFF today.

Metabolic Surge – Day by Day Rundown

By Nick Nilsson

The program consists of 3 primary phases that lasts a total of 12 days. You then repeat this cycle 3 times for a grand total of 36 days. Then you have a 10 day recovery period where you'll take things easier and regain strength and give your body a bit of a break.

Let's get started:

The Nuts and Bolts of Phase 1:

Phase 1 is based on low-carb eating. Your body will be switching over to serious fat burning in the first day-and-a-half to two days. The training is Fat Loss Circuit Training (which I mentioned preiviously) and it will hasten the departure of carbs and water due to its demanding nature. It burns a lot of calories and will help get rid of carbs from your system FAST.

Being in a low-carb state is much more efficient for fat loss, though you don't want to stay in it too long (about 5 to 7 days is the most I recommend).

The third day is a complete rest day to help you recover from the first two days. You'll need the rest for the next two days (trust me).

On the fourth day, it's Lactic Acid Training. This type of training is designed to dramatically ramp up lactic acid production in your muscles and keep it there while training that specific bodypart. Why is this good? Well, the reduced pH in your body (more acidic) is an emergency situation and your body secretes G H in response (the full name of which I can't write here or this email will get filtered!). This hormone is not released as much when insulin is present in the blood, therefore we do this training on the 4th and 5th day of the low-carb eating, to be sure you have NO insulin floating around.

This maximizes the hormonal effect of the training. Lactic Acid Training also is not very damaging to the muscles – you start with one high-rep set (30+ reps), rest 20 seconds, then go again and try and hit as many reps as you can. Keep going for the prescribed number of sets.

This is followed by High-Intensity Intervals. The intervals are done on this day so as not to coincide with the thigh training of the next day. Lactic Acid Training for the thighs and interval training don't work as well when done on the same day because most cardio training uses the legs to a large degree. The legs will be too fatigued to push really hard on interval training.

You will be following a very basic supplementation program of multivitamins and protein powder during this phase. You can also include glutamine after workouts. Take NO creatine during this phase so that you save it for the transition to Phase 3 where you'll get the most bang for your buck with it.

The Nuts and Bolts of Phase 2:

Phase 2 uses 2 days of single-nutrient eating to shock your body.

The first day focuses entirely on protein. Since you've been eating low carb and teaching your body to preferentially burn fat for energy, by suddenly depriving it of a fat intake as well, it's forced to seek out the most convenient fat source: bodyfat.

The interval training done on this day will encourage your body to use plenty of bodyfat for energy. It's not going to be easy, working on only protein like this but it's VERY effective. We only do this for one day.

The second day is designed to create a desperate need for protein in your body by starving yourself of it for a day. When you go to Phase 3 and eat plenty of protein, your body will aggressively store protein in the form of muscle.

Since you will be staying away from protein, don't take any glutamine on this day. Glutamine is an amino acid, which is a component of protein. You will be getting plenty of it as you go into Phase 3.

We will not be doing any training on this day as we are looking to only deplete the body of free-circulating protein, not to excessively break down muscle tissue. Just that depletion will create the desperate need in your body for protein, similar to what your body experiences on a carb depletion from low-carb eating and reloading.

An all-fruit day is also very cleansing to the body, which is a perfect switch from a high-protein, high-meat product diet. Eat as much fruit as you want. Your body will just be busy absorbing the carbohydrates from the fruit. Be sure to drink plenty of water as well. This fruit day also tends to flush out much of the excess water from your body.

The Nuts and Bolts of Phase 3:

The first few days of Phase 3 are all about building muscle (what better way to reduce your % bodyfat by increasing your % muscle mass!). When you come directly off a low-carb diet, your body is desperate for carbs and very sensitive to them. Your body will absorb them (as well as other nutrients) very rapidly.

This is also where the zero-protein day comes into play. You have also created a desperate need for protein in your body with it.

By combining these two desperate needs and then feeding them, your body is capable of tremendously fast progress. This is when you will be performing "Muscle Rounds" – one of the most effective muscle-building training techniques I've ever come across.

During these first few days, you will loading up on nutrients such as protein, glutamine and creatine to maximize the effects of the previous two phases.

You will also be keeping your fat intake extremely low to maximize fat burning during this time.

The third day of the phase is a day off weights but has you doing high intensity interval training for your cardio. Doing this type of training on it's own day means you can really put a lot of effort into it.

The fourth day is geared towards higher-volume, higher-rep training using Supersets. This type of training is excellent for forcing a lot of nutrient-laden blood into the muscles. The Supersets will also create plenty of lactic acid, which is excellent for boosting Growth Hormone levels in the body. You will also be doing interval training on this day again.

The final day of this Phase is a complete day off. Your body will need a little rest before you go back into the low-carb diet and training of Phase 1 again. You may be tempted to do a little more work – resist this as your body will need the rest!

On this day, you get a planned "cheat" meal…by planning it into your program, you get the mental benefits of breaking the strictness and your metabolism gets a nice shot. This planned cheating is a VERY powerful concept, as is the whole nutrient-rotation found in the Surge program itself.

Then Repeat Two More Times…

This 12 day cycle makes for one round of the program. In the NEXT 2 rounds, you're going to be increasing the number of sets you do, gradually building up the training volume, which forces your body to work harder to keep up. This is a natural metabolism-increaser and it's PLANNED right into the program.

Think of how the engine of a car reacts as you hit the gas to climb a hill…as the hill gets steeper, you have to almost floor it just to keep moving. But when you keep it floored and come up and over the top and down the other side, you pick up speed FAST.

This is the core concept of the Surge training program – you ramp things up then back off and let your metabolism ROAR.

Strength/Recovery Phase:

The Strength/Recovery Phase is not for fat loss but to allow the body some time to recuperate from the extreme training volume you've been placing on it. It is the overcompensation phase after ramping up to overtraining on the first 3 Phases, i.e. the car coming over the top of the hill and coming down.

The focus here is on building or re-building strength. You will dramatically reduce your training volume and frequency for a short period and target your training to strength training (lower reps and longer rest periods).

This sudden reduction in volume and frequency, while your body is still cranking and trying to recover from the high volume, will result in another jump in results. If you lost any strength during the first 36 days of training, you will get it all back here (and probably more!)

The Sum of All Parts:

As you can see, the training and nutrition of each Phase builds onto the next one, making the whole greater than the sum of all parts. This synergistic effect of the various nutrient and training regimes will allow you to effectively build muscle and strength even while training to lose fat!

From Phase to Phase, training volume will increase in order to push your body a little further and a little harder. Building up to this higher volume slowly will allow you take advantage of the body's reaction to temporary overtraining, keeping your results moving quickly. You will NEVER hit a plateau with this program.

Your body has no choice but to adapt – it's built into the training program and it's built into the eating program with the rotation between low-carb, low-fat and single-nutrient eating.

And remember, till Friday at midnight, this program is just $19.95 – the price will be going back up to $29.95. And when I put the update out within the next month or so, it'll be going up even MORE, so jump on this now if you think you might be interested.

Metabolic Surge