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Louie Guarino joins me for his first time on the show and shares some of his tips and best practices for not only what has made him a successful physique competitor but the way he empowers his clients to succeed in their transformations as well. Louie has some great, sustainable advice to offer and we talk about the power of choice and making better decisions on the journey to better health. To learn more about Louie, check out http://www.lgthetrainer.com and connect with him on his social media channels. To learn more about your host, visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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*The title of this post was taken from the Guided By Voices song of the same name*

This past weekend, I filmed a little motivational video (with the help of my oldest son, Jackson) for one of our closed communities reminding clients to stay focused.

Not just because it’s the holidays.

When I coach clients in the studio pushing their physical limits with back squats, traplifts, and bench presses, focus is immensely important.

On those rare occasions when a client feels a little tweak, the conversation might go:

ME: What happened on that rep?

CLIENT: I lost my focus, I was thinking about X, Y, Z instead.

Focus matters.

It reminds you to brace your core and engage your breathing before you start the rep.

It reminds you to tune out the noise around you: music, conversation, etc.

It forces you to pay attention to the task at hand: the perfect rep.

Not only with the heavy lifting, focus matters for diet too.

Focusing on your hunger allows you to ask yourself:

Am I truly hungry or am I bored/stressed/anxious and filling that void with food?

Focus allows you to make choices that lead you closer to your goal.

Focus reminds you to eat something before you go grocery shopping so you don’t buy every hyper-palatable treat that you pass by (Winter Oreos anyone?)

Focus is that gentle voice in your ear that says “You have a goal to reach and you have every tool at your disposal to reach it.”

Focus is what you might lose if I keep this post going too long.

And this is Gary, laser-focused on his traplift PR.

I have the great pleasure of welcoming Susan Niebergall to the show for the first time. Susan has had an amazing journey into fitness and found the perfect combination of nutrition and strength training to help her conquer her menopause symptoms. Now, she inspires other women to do the same. To learn more about Susan, connect with her at http://www.susanniebergallfitness.com To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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*The title of this post was taken from the Sly & The Family Stone song of the same name*

I guess it’s only fitting that I write this post the week of Thanksgiving.

Last year, I was fortunate to pull together all of our current clients at the time to celebrate the holiday with a gratitude video. You can check it out here.

And while I had the best intentions to do that again this year, I have been completely consumed in something that I believe is equally deserving of gratitude.

This is one angle of our new location. We have been fortunate to stay in the same plaza as before but we have taken over significantly more space (double the work space, actually.)

This has been an amazing process for a lot of reasons. For one, we’ve been in negotiations, preparations, construction and transition for several months now. When that much conversation happens between us and our clients, there is a lot to be excited about.

That’s not to say there hasn’t been a great deal of frustration with the move as well. Let’s just say, there are some industries that are very easy to work with and some that aren’t.

However, most of that is behind us.

As of this week, the city has given us the green light to resume business after having to temporarily cancel a couple of days worth of sessions to make the move and get our final inspections cleared.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be finishing up the spot too.

As you can see, we’ve changed our flooring from carpet to mostly rubber and our turf shipment will be arriving in about a week so we can do our sled work year round.

Also, we were very fortunate to have had many of our clients help us carry tons and tons (literally) of equipment and weights over to the new spot. To be able to share that endeavor with the people who keep us operating was extremely gratifying.

So, while I’m on the subject of gratitude, I will say this as many times as there are eyes to read and ears to listen: Thank you.

Thank you on behalf of myself, trainers Megan and Julie, and our families who your support helps us provide for.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to expand for the 3rd time in nearly 9 years.

What an amazing blessing.

Thank you to every person who has ever stepped through our doors and given us an opportunity to help. We didn’t always succeed, but we always grew as trainers for having the experience.

It is my sincerest hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season.

I can think of no better way than for us to be mostly settled into the new space to kick the holidays off.

If you’re currently part of the RevFit family, thank YOU for helping us get to this point. We are in your debt.

If you’re a former family member, thank you for giving us a shot once upon a time and we’d love the opportunity to work with you again.

And if you’re a potential client, we would love to show you what we do that has brought us this far.

Thank you. Happy Holidays.

Jason (The Leenaarts family), Megan (The Winiarski family) and Julie (The Boehringer family)

Due to some technical difficulties with two shows that were previously recorded, I have decided to release a small update to give you the news and also to unveil our top five most downloaded episodes. We will resume normal programming soon! To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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*The title of this post was taken from the Red Hot Chili Peppers song of the same name*

 

If you’re struggling to reach your goals or you haven’t quite started on the path towards reaching them, there are three questions I would encourage you to ask yourself:

First, how important is your goal (or why are you motivated to change?)

Whether you’re trying to lose fat, hit a new record in the gym, or just feel better how motivated are you to reach it?

Does your life (or health) significantly improve when you get there?

The reason you’ll want to answer this question is because you will likely find yourself in many scenarios where the drive and ambition to reach your goal will falter. If you know how important it is for you to reach your goal, motivation will not be an obstacle you will have in your way as often.

Second, what are you willing to sacrifice to reach your goal?

Achieving anything with your physique will require some type of sacrifice, maybe several of them. This can include the time you need to meal prep, the time you will commit to a gym or a workout routine you do on your own, and possibly some sacrifice of your social life to stay on track.

Third, how sustainable is your plan?

If you’re embarking on a regimen of high intensity bootcamps, crash diets, juice cleanses or celebrity endorsed fads to reach your goal, you not only stand to burn out and get discouraged but regain everything you lost with a vengeance.

Looking at this differently, imagine you want a promotion at work. That’s your goal.

If you get the promotion, not only will you be involved in something that is of greater interest to you but you also get the boost on your resume and the upside of better salary. With those things maybe you can finally afford a family vacation and you won’t have to work as many hours as you do in your current position. These are some motivators to get to your goal.

To get the promotion, you will have to work harder, longer and with more focus to get the attention and respect of upper management thereby putting you in position for the promotion. By doing so, you may have to work some weekends, take away time from family and friends (temporarily) and prioritize other work tasks to be completed more efficiently. These are your sacrifices.

You’ll also have to give yourself a reasonable timeline. Maybe you’re willing to work this way for six months but not for two years. This is your plan of sustainability at a given rate.

This same process of thoughts with advantages and benefits would apply to your fitness goals as well. You need to know where you want to go, why it’s appealing and ultimately what it would take to get there.

Another thing to consider is that you may have to revisit these questions multiple times along the way. A goal that is important to you now may not be important in three months. Or you may find yourself more willing to adapt to change later as opposed to now.

There’s no wrong answer. Only the candor you owe to yourself to decide your best path to success.

We can help.

After her excellent debut on Episode 66 when we discussed her book, “Why Me Want Eat”, Krista Scott-Dixon returns to discuss the pros and cons of the Paleo diet. We talk about not only Krista’s personal journey implementing this diet but her massive depth of work with Precision Nutrition clients who were curious about it as well. To learn more about Krista, check out http://www.stumptuous.com and http://www.precisionnutrition.com To learn more about your host, visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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*The title of this post was taken from the Robert Johnson song of the same name*

I’ve always enjoyed cooking.

In the time that my wife and I have been together, I just haven’t given myself enough opportunities to do so.

I should also add that my wife is a wonderful cook so I would have been hard pressed to top her.

After our son Sebastian was born (in August of this year), I wanted to take some of the load off my wife’s back by trying my hand at cooking more often.

Fortunately, I came across a series of recipe books that made my life much easier.

Scott Baptie, the founder of Food For Fitness, has been releasing a series called The High Protein Handbook for the last few years.

Each e-book has about 30 recipes leaning towards high protein options featuring many different variations including beef, pork, chicken, turkey and seafood.

I was so impressed by the collection that I bought all three and asked Scott to come on my podcast to chat about them. If you happened to miss the show, you can listen back to it here.

One of the things I was happy to note was that even though Scott includes onions in many of his recipes, my wife and I found each dish delicious without them (as neither of us particularly cares for onions.)

In addition, Scott has calorie and macro counts with each dish plus a code where you can scan the meals into your food tracking app.

The other thing I really like about these options is Scott’s prep and cooking breakdown for time so you know how long each dish will take before you can dig in.

As of this writing, I’ve prepared well over 25 different meals from those first three books and each one has been excellent.

This has also been a huge help because my wife has been working steadily to lose the baby weight since Sebastian was born and the fact that we’re not dining out as much makes it much easier to keep calories in line.

In the aforementioned podcast episode, Scott tips his hat to a new book in the collection specifically for use with slow cookers (Crockpots.) I am proud to announce that this new book has been released this week. You can purchase your copy here and get special pricing on bundles featuring the other books as well.

Like any good tip I can offer to help people on their weight loss/wellness journey, I would be doing you a huge disservice if I didn’t let as many people as possible know about Scott’s work.

But you don’t have to take my word for it.

If you’re unsure that you want to spend the money (and the books are a bargain to begin with), Scott has several free recipes you can try out without spending a dime. You can check those out here.

For me, these recipes have been an amazing addition to my cooking arsenal and I have significantly more confidence in the kitchen that I had before.

I still can’t quite top my wife’s skills but I have definitely improved and that’s all that matters for me.

I have Scott to thank for that and I can’t wait to try my hand at the slow cooker options soon as well.

I should also note that for those of you on plant-based diets, Scott is working on a book for you too!

So, what are you waiting for? 😉

 

It has taken far too long to get him back on the show but Sigma Nutrition’s Danny Lennon returns this week. In our continuing diet series, Danny and I discuss the ketogenic diet. We cover why it might be seeing a resurgence despite not being a new diet and what some of the benefits and disadvantages of this diet could be. To learn more about all of Danny’s incredible work, check out http://www.sigmanutrition.com To learn more about your host, visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

iTunes OR Stitcher OR iHeartRadio

*The title of this post was taken from the Stereolab song of the same name*

Losing weight by focusing on calories is a great, if not crucial, path to success.

However, we know that counting calories can be tough and for some, it can be downright discouraging.

I was in a consult with a client recently who admitted she typically drank a bottle of wine each night.

Depending on the wine, that’s approximately 600+ calories per bottle.

So, if my client changed nothing else about her diet but removing the daily bottle of wine she will very likely lose weight by that one change alone.

In reality, it can be difficult to tell someone who is accustomed to drinking a bottle of wine a night to completely abstain.

If we dial the goal down and ask to aim for one serving (5 oz) of wine each night, my client can likely still lose weight and not give up her favorite drink. By doing this, she would be removing nearly 500 calories daily from the diet.

Of course, this is also assuming that she doesn’t make up those calories elsewhere since the bottle of wine is no longer part of the equation.

Does this guarantee success?

No.

But it is one of the little “tricks” one can use to lose weight successfully without ever counting a calorie.

So, if you’re trying to lose body fat and the thought of micromanaging your calories is beyond what you’re wanting to do right now, take a look at some of the mainstays in your diet that may need a more critical eye.

We can help.

Oh, and this is our client Kristie who’s down 13lbs from what she has called “The Big Mac Diet.”

I knew that cheeseburgers were her favorite food so I showed her how to incorporate them into her plan without feeling like she was missing out.

Looks like it’s working 🙂