Train the Body Ep 1 : Addition & Subraction

Hi OwnPace Family,

This first episode of train the body will focus solely on Nutrition because that’s one area I get the most questions and there appears to be the most confusion. Nutrition is without a doubt the biggest part of health and fitness which is why I like to keep it simple so it’s easy to adhere to.

In this first stage we are going to do something very fundamental that everyone can follow which is addition of nutrients and subtraction of sugar.

ADDITION & SUBTRACTION

Adding nutrients is simply adding real whole food items into your day such as greens (spinach, kale etc), seeds (chia seeds, flax seeds etc), or any fresh fruit or vegetable with any meal.

For Subtracting sugar, I want you to think of all the ways you take in refined sugar in a day and just swap out or eliminate one. For example, if you drink a sugary beverage try replacing it with water which automatically shaves off a few calories.

The goal is to make a small daily commitment and sticking to it. Any thing you add or subtract daily is a win, and when you start to win everyday, that turns into a habit.

The Stair Master Upgraded Pt 1

Hey OwnPace Family,

I know a lot of you have memberships to gyms and you use the stair master (I give it as homework to some of you). But the feedback I've gotten is usually "it's to boring", so I've put together some new things you can do on the stair master. This is just part 1, hope you enjoy the video and don't hesitate to ask me any questions. 

Also, if you know anyone that could possible use this, please share it with them.

Until next time, 

Olan

OwnPace: 8 minutes a day keeps the fat away

Hey Guys, 

This is one of my go to routines to help melt fat away. You can use it on its own or you can add it as finishers to you workouts. I've added a video below so you can see exactly what each exercise looks like. 

Here is how it works:

2 exercises

8 rounds

20 seconds of work

10 seconds break

Day 1 

Squat Jack

Mountain Climber

Day 2

Floor Tap Squats

Push Ups

Day 3 

Burpees

In & Out abs

Day 4

Lunges

Plank Reaches

Day 5

Jump Rope

1,2,hook, hook

Day 6

Challenge day: Do one round of each exercise

Bonus: Weights added

Squat Press

Renegade Row

OwnPace: The Truth about Weight Loss... Part 2

Hi OwnPace Family, 

Hope every one enjoyed part 1 of this series and learnt a thing or two. Now it's time to go a little bit deeper into the process of fat loss. I started this series because most of us have fat loss goals which is why we attempt to "eat clean" and "workout". However after speaking to a lot of people, I realized there is a huge disconnect in understanding how it actually works and people don't know how fat loss happens which is why they try every single gimmick on the market such as slim teas, fat burning pills, extreme food restrictions and all the other fads out there. So now my goal is to help you understand a little bit better how fat loss actually works so you can not only make smarter decisions but also have very REALISTIC expectations.

Before we go any further, ask yourself these questions and answer honestly. When you lose weight/burn fat where does it actually go? How does it leave the body? When you say you want to lose 5lbs, 10lbs, 20lbs etc where does that fat actually go? Also, do you know what 1/5/10/20 lbs of fat looks like?

There is well written article that explains perfectly how fat exits the body, so I don't have to write a whole new one lol. But instead of just giving you a link to the article, I want to also give you some things to think about as you read the article which will help you make sense of fat loss. 

Things to think about:

• How does fat exit the body? Where does it go when you lose it?
• Now that you know how fat exits the body, how does that impact your expectations of how fast you want the weight to fall off?
• Since fat leaves the body through mostly breathing and partially through sweating and urine, what can you do on a daily basis to improve your chances?
• Do you now see why breathing and cardio is important?
• For clients who train with me, do you see why I take breathing very importantly and why we take those deep breaths at the end of each session to ignite the fat loss process?

Some things to take into consideration going forward:

• Be more aware of what you put into your body since now we know it goes nowhere until it is vaporized. So that burger, cake, beer, pizza, bread, ice cream, margarita etc stays in your body until you burn it.
• Really try to understand the kilograms in kilograms out concept, it's a major key to weight loss.
• I preach nutrition is king for fat loss, but now do you see how training (movement of muscles) plays a role in the process?
• Do you see why some kind of movement at the start of your day can help triple your metabolic rate for the rest of the day which increases your fat burning capacity?

Here is the link to the article.

Here is a quick reference guide to easily remember how fat leaves the body.

Until next time, 

Olan 

OwnPace: The Truth about Weight Loss... Part 1

Weight loss can be very challenging but what is even more challenging is keeping the weight off. Have you ever lost weight using any method and then gained it right back? If yes, then keep reading.

When it comes to weight loss, for most people it’s a never-ending vicious cycle of gaining and regaining weight. The most prevalent reason this happens is we use none sustainable ways to achieve the initial weight loss. Most peoples only idea for weight loss is reducing calorie intake and removing certain foods from their diet completely. The problem here is humans are hardwired to resist any type of restriction especially dietary restrictions. Have you ever tried any of the popular diets, or weight loss methods and just couldn’t complete it or do it all the time, so you gave up. I’ll be the one to tell you most of those things work, but not for long. Low calorie diets, slimming teas, fat loss pills, juicing, meal replacements, fat loss 30 day challenges, and any other thing you can think of, they all work in someway but the problem comes when their effectiveness starts to diminish or you just can’t do them anymore. I can almost guarantee if you do a 7-day juicing, you’ll lose some weight. Even better, I have a 3-day diet that will give you a 5 – 10 pound weight loss.

Link to the 3-day diet below:

http://www.ownpaceathletics.com/new-blog/2017/7/2/transformation-challenge-week-5-part-ii

The thing is you just can’t juice for the rest of your life or do my 3-day diet everyday. So most people go back to their normal eating habits and boom, they gain the weight back and sometimes even more. Want to see for yourself, watch this

Through my years of training and research, what I believe we undoubtedly need when it comes to keeping the weight off is a weight maintenance program. There are new weight loss programs popping up every other day, but nobody is really addressing how to maintain it. So, once you’ve accomplished your initial weight loss hopefully through better lifestyle habits, then we have to shift the focus away from weigh loss and toward healthier living and weight maintenance over time.

A few quick things to think about

·      Do know what a set point weight is?

·      Do you know how the human body responds to dietary restrictions?

·      Did you know your body naturally reverts to a set point weight?

My goal is to be able to shift your perceptions on weight loss so you can escape the seemingly never-ending cycle of losing weight.

If you are struggling with your initial weight loss, follow the steps in the links below and watch the pounds fall off.

Step 1:

http://www.ownpaceathletics.com/new-blog/2018/2/4/get-guaranteed-results-now-phase-1-elimination-and-preparation

Full 30-day challenge here:

http://www.ownpaceathletics.com/new-blog/2017/10/29/ownpace-30-day-clean-eating-challenge

Step 2:

http://www.ownpaceathletics.com/new-blog/2018/2/11/phase-2-tracking

Step 3:

http://www.ownpaceathletics.com/new-blog/2018/2/18/phase-3-healthy-food-options-portion-control-and-supersets

Now over the next few weeks, we’ll be addressing several things that will help you understand how to keep the weight off and how to live a healthier lifestyle going forward.

Until next time,

Olan

OwnPace Athletics

PHASE 3: Healthy food options, Portion Control and Supersets

Hey guys,

So in Phase 1 we eliminated all the “bad foods” that we know are most likely keeping us from our optimal health and fitness. And then in Phase 2 we started tracking to see exactly what habits on a day-to-day basis are either helping or hindering our goals.

Now it’s the time to look at your completed tracker from the week to find trends.

Lets start with the morning weight and waist & hip measurements.

What changes do you see?

What are the trends? Are they consistently going up or down or just the same?

Once you figure that out, it’s time to look at what you did on that particular day.

Lets look at an example, if your weight increased from the previous morning, lets find the possible reason. Look at the remainder of your tracker to determine what happened, did you exceed your calorie recommendation? Did you meet your recommended number of steps? And did you workout?

If you exceeded your recommended calories intake then you know that’s most likely the reason, and then if you compound that with not working out and not taking enough steps, you have your answer on what happened. And the same process goes for the inverse scenario, if you wake up lighter than the previous day, look at what you did that day and those are the habits you want to maintain.

Everyone is different and different things work for different people that is the point of tracking, so you can find out what exactly works for you and you can maintain those habits. Some people can eat whatever they want and not gain any weight, and one like me; I can just look at a slice of pizza and gain 5lbs.

Ps: I know tracking every meal is not as easy as it sounds, but nutrition is the number key to fat loss. You can train as hard and as much as you want, but if your nutrition is not up to par, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but YOU WILL NOT LOSE ANY WEIGHT.

My nutrition philosophy at OwnPace is simple “The right diet for you is the one you can sustain for the rest of your life”. That brings me back to tracking and counting calories. Can we track every single thing we eat for the rest our lives? My answer is NOOOOOO!!!!

So what are our options? At OwnPace I like to keep everything simple because I believe our health and fitness habits should seamlessly fit into our lives. There are two ways I’ve found that work extremely well for everybody and they are

·      Eating better food options (a donut vs. an apple)

·      Portion control (one serving of potato chips vs. the whole bag)

Let’s dive deeper into these options.

Step 1: Healthy Food Options

In Phase 1 we eliminated certain foods we classified as bad foods for the purposes of fat loss, so now we are going to take a look at food choices that are better for you.

We should generally have 3 nutrients dense balanced meals a day. A balanced meal comprises of all essential nutrients (macro and micro nutrients).

I know we’ve all heard about Macronutrients and Micronutrients, but what are they?

Our bodies are pretty complicated, meaning that they have a whole lot of nutritional needs in order to survive and function. The composition of our diet is essential to meeting these needs and therefore it’s important to understand the two different types of nutrients. It can be split into: macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).

The three macronutrients all have their own specific roles and functions in the body.

Good sources of Macronutrients

Protein: Meat, Fish, Chicken, Beans, pulses and legumes, seeds (hemp, chia, flax), nuts (unsalted), quinoa, avocado, beets, raw greens (kale, spinach).

Carbohydrate: Rice, quinoa, potatoes, apples, bananas, cauliflower, carrots, oats, brown rice, millet, quinoa, chickpeas, kidney beans.

Fat: Almonds, walnuts, seeds (pumpkin, chia), olives, avocados

Micronutrients are not needed in the same quantities as macros, however are still equally as important. Micronutrients work in tandem with macronutrients to keep the body functioning and are crucial in order to maintain energy levels, metabolism, cellular function, and physical and mental wellbeing.

Below is a comprehensive list of foods we can eat from the 3 macronutrients. You can mix and match them for as many food options as possible; you don’t have to eat the same thing everyday to be healthy.

Step 2: Portion Control

The ultimate goal when it comes to eating better is to be able to eat intuitively but before we get to that point we have to know what is ideal.

To reach or stay at a healthy weight, how much you eat is just as important as what you eat. Do you know how much food is enough for you? Also, did you know there is a difference between a portion and a serving?

A portion is how much food you choose to eat at one time, whether in a restaurant, from a package, or at home. A serving, or serving size, is the amount of food listed on a product's Nutrition Facts, or food label.

Different products have different serving sizes, which could be measured in cups, ounces, grams, pieces, slices, or numbers—such as three crackers.

The quality of what we are eating matters but the quantity also matters just as much. The secret is once you start downsizing to healthy portions, your body will downsize too and Portion control doesn't mean you have to eat tiny portions of everything.

We all know that we have to burn more calories than we consume to achieve meaningful weight loss and that is why portion control is extremely important. Basically, the larger the portions of food you’re generally served or serve yourself, the more likely you are to eat too much and gain weight.

Before we go any further, to put things in perspective, let’s say you burn about 2,000 calories per day, which is what you’d have to eat to maintain your weight.

If you overate by just 15% every day (about 300 calories more), you’d be faced with about 30 pounds of weight gain by the end of the year…without feeling like you had been overeating at all.

Luckily once we learn to rightsize our portions, we consume fewer calories and once we understand how to control your food portions and have a heightened awareness of how many calories you eat and burn, you can control your body weight with ease.

It’s not very practical to just tell someone to “eat less” when eating large portions of everything is so ingrained.

Here are several options to help you visualize how much you should be eating of your macro and micronutrients.

Ideal Plate

Step 3: Supersets

Finally we get to the training portion. I know this is the part most people care about the most, so lets get to it.

Supersets are when you perform 2 exercises back to back without rest, which is a very effective fat loss method.

Equipment needed:

A pair of dumbbells

Each day we are going to be performing 2 exercises in this fashion

12 reps each exercise

4 rounds – Beginners

6 rounds – intermediate

8 rounds – advanced

Ps: if you feel like you are a beginner and you complete 4 rounds and still got more left in the tank, don’t hesitate to go more than 4 rounds.

Day 1

·      Alternating Lunges

·      Ascending Inch Worm Push ups

Day 2

·      Squat Press

·      Perfect Pushup

Day 3

·      Lunge Curl

·      Renegade Row

Day 4

·      Lateral Lunge Step Up

·      Lateral Raises

Day 5

·      Squat Hammer Curl

·      Front Raises

Day 6

·      Rotational Shoulder Press

·      Jump Jack Press

Day 7

·      The Challenge

·      Do one round of each exercise 

PHASE 2: TRACKING!!!

Hey guys,

Welcome to Phase 2.

We are not going to throw everything from phase 1 out; instead we are actually going to get more diligent in the process. Not only are we keeping the eliminated foods out of our diet, we are also now going to keep track of what we are actually eating. But before we know where we are going, we have to know where we are. And let me be the one to tell you, getting fit and healthy is not easy, it takes a little bit of effort but it is very worth it.

Step 1: The Tracker

Print a physical copy or Open a digital copy of your tracker and lets start filling it out starting with your name. If you do not have a copy of the tracker, please email me at 

info@ownpaceathletics.com

Step 2: Your Goal

Think about what you want to accomplish and write it down. Also, think about how big or small that goal is and the amount of effort required to accomplish it. For example, losing 5 pounds and losing 30 pounds by the same person does not require the same amount of effort. So if you want a noticeable change, you’ll have to make simple but significant lifestyle changes.

Step 3: Record your Initial weight

Measure your initial weight on day zero (the day before you start tracking) and fill out the starting weight portion of the tracker.

Step 4: Determine your recommended calorie consumption

Download “myfitnesspal” app or any calorie counting app if you don’t already have one.

•       Create an account and enter your information as directed such as your goals, fitness level, height, weight, age, gender, exercise level, and goals.

•       The app will then construct a plan for you consisting of your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) based on the information you provided

Once you have that number enter it into the recommended calorie consumption and it makes your fitness journey extremely simple and intuitive. It also gives you full accountability of your goals, you can no longer say “I don’t know” or make any other excuse.

If you want to lose weight and you are eating more than the calorie goal stated, you will not lose any weight and most likely gain weight. Same goes for muscle gain, if you are not eating enough.

Also, you can keep track of your activity/step in the app also so it adjusts your calories.

• In the app's "More" page, tap "Settings" then "Steps."

Step 5: Filling out the tracker

Why you need the scale.

Morning weigh in: why is it important to weigh yourself in the morning?  Well because you don't have the added weight of a recent undigested meal. During the day, when you're eating and drinking, those foods (and fluids) add weight—at least until they're digested and excreted. Just a cup of water adds half a pound, for example—and 20 percent of most meals are water, which adds up to a lot of extra weight. Since you're not eating or drinking during the night (unless you get the midnight munchies), your body has a chance to remove extra fluids (that's why you pee so much in the morning when you wake up). So weigh yourself in the morning ... after you pee.

Why you need the tape measure.

Waist and hip measurements: 

Why is it important to measure your waist? Waist circumference (distance around the waist) is a common measure used to check for fat held around the stomach. Having extra body fat around the stomach-more than 35 in. (88 cm) for women and more than 40 in. (102 cm) for men-increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Why is it important to measure your hips? Not all excess weight is the same when it comes to your health risks, so the weight in your hips and buttocks have a different health risk than the ones in the abdominal area, so it’s good to keep track.

Below is how you measure it.

Also, there is the waist to hip ratio which measures the ratio of your waist circumference to your hip circumference. It determines how much fat is stored on your waist, hips, and buttocks. People who carry more weight around their midsection (an apple-shaped body) are at higher risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and premature death than those who carry more of their weight in their hips and thighs (a pear-shaped body).

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a healthy Waist to Hip ratio is:

0.9 or less in men

0.85 or less for women

In both men and women, a WHR of 1.0 or higher increases the risk for heart disease and other conditions that are linked to being overweight.

Calories consumed:

Now this is where myfitnesspal really comes in handy. Pretty much everything you eat will be input into the app to see how what you are currently eating compares to your current recommended calorie consumption.

For Phase 2, we are going to focus even more on the elimination diet from phase 1 but this time we are going to track what we are actually eating. In phase 3, I’ll make my recommendations on healthy options you can substitute things with based on your results from this week. So, if you eliminate everything from phase 1 and you track what you are eating in phase 2 and you notice you are still exceeding your calorie recommendation and not losing weight, then phase 3 will correct that because we’ll start focusing even more on portion control.

If you notice, I’m not making you do everything all at once because different things work for different people and why we track each phase separately is so you can identify what works specifically for you.

This is why you need the pedometer

Steps walked:  I know we’ve all heard that whole take 10,000 steps a day thing, but do you know why? So check this out, completing 10,000 steps a day typically burns about 2000 to 3500 extra calories each week. One pound of body fat equals 3500 calories, so depending on your weight and workout intensity, you could lose about one pound per week simply by completing 10,000 steps each day. Ps: if you want to lose more, then move more. 10,000 steps is just the minimum!!!

That’s everything we need for phase 2. In phase 3, we’ll focus on specific fat burning workouts, food options and portion control.

See you in a week with more and more stuff,

Thanks,

Olan

Get guaranteed results now!!! PHASE 1: Elimination and Preparation.

Hey,

Congratulations on taking the next step in achieving your health and fitness goals. There are a lot of programs, diets, teas, pills and equipment out there that claim to guarantee results, however we still have a high number of overweight and unhealthy people, so there has to be a disconnect somewhere.

The truth is, it is almost impossible to guarantee results because there are so many variables such as body type, nutrition, training preference, water intake, sleep, genetics etc. However, over the last couple of years, I’ve researched and tested the metrics and habits that make the most impact on achieving your goals and I’ve come up with a process to guarantee your results. Unfortunately, I have nothing to sell you, no magic pill or equipment and you don’t even have to train with me personally because,

The road to true results is paved with HARDWORK, ACCOUNTABILITY, DISCIPLINE, SACRIFICE and CONSISTENCY.

For the most part we all have a basic idea of what we need to do to accomplish our goals and one of the 5 things mentioned above is keeping us from achieving them.

So how can I guarantee your results? It’s really just a one-word answer.

Tracking, tracking and more tracking!!!

At OwnPace everything we do is individualized, so the only way to truly know what works for you is to track what you are doing on a daily basis and see how it impacts your goals. Do your daily habits positively or negatively affect your goals. For example if you are trying to lose body fat and you drink (3) beers a day, the question now would be will eliminating these (3) beers help lose weight or not. And the only way to truly know the answer to that is to track the difference between not drinking and drinking. That is how all theories and beliefs come to life. You have an idea (hypothesis), then you test them out and they become either true or not true. In health and fitness it’s a little more complicated because there are just way too many variables so ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. We have to learn together what specifically works for you.

Tracking doesn’t lie, if you do the work meticulously, the results are inevitable. The image above highlights the process we’ll be using to track our progress and come up with actionable items specifically for you.

I'm going to share with you exactly how I stay lean and healthy year round. We are going on a 4-phase journey, but where the magic happens is at the end of step 4 we evaluate our results and use it as a foundation for our lifestyle going forward.

Each phase builds on the prior phase, so when we get into phase (2), you are going to continue doing the steps from phase (1), and when we get into phase (3) we’ll continue the steps from (1) and (2) etc.

Here is a list of the Phases and I’ll go into great detail each week:

Phase 1: Elimination and preparation

Phase 2: Tracking, food choices and portion control

Phase 3: Supersets and core

Phase 4: Tri sets, core and cardio

Lets get right to business!!!!

Phase 1: Elimination and Preparation

We’ll start with the elimination part because it’s usually the hardest for most people. We all have our favorite habits and foods that may not be best for our health and goals such as alcohol, candies,  and processed foods. But to get one thing we have to give up something else.

So if you want impeccable health and an optimal weight for yourself, you’ll have to give some things up.

Here is a list of everything we have to give up right now for the next four weeks at least and then you can slowly integrate some back.

• No dairy
• No added sugar
• No alcohol
• No soda
• No bleached food
• No pasta
• No chips

And here are 3 things we must do

• 3 workouts per week (anything counts, even just walking. We’ll go into more details for training in week 3)
• At least 4 cups of PLAIN water daily
• 1 cup of unsweetened green tea daily

For full details on the elimination diet, please click the link below.

http://www.ownpaceathletics.com/new-blog/2017/10/29/ownpace-30-day-clean-eating-challenge

And now, let’s talk about the PREPARATION piece!!!

Phase 2 is all about tracking, so we are going to need some tracking devices. Below is a list of everything we need for phase 2, some of which you have already. And for the ones you don’t have, you have all of this week to get them.

1.     Scale (any scale that will accurately tell you your body weight)

2.     Tape measure (something to measure your abdominal area and hips)

3.     Pedometer (any step counter such as fitbit, iwatch or any generic step counter)

4.     Food tracking app (myfitnesspal is the one I use but there are many others in the app store)

5.     Food measurer (measuring cups, portion control bowls etc)

6.     Camera (we all have phones with cameras)

Let’s get all these things ready for next week; they are essential to phase 2. 

Before you begin, you will need my tracking sheet, so If you are not on my mailing list and would like a copy of my tracking sheet, please email me at info@ownpaceathletics.com

Thanks for your continued support, 

Olan

Please share with anybody you think this may help!!!