Time to Repair

Thanksgiving is now over and it is time to repair the damage done by that huge carbohydrate-rich meal. It's time to step your fat loss efforts into high gear. Don't do what most people do and wait til after New Year's. Holiday season is not the time to cease all workouts and good eating habits. Keep up the hard work and your body will thank you with your best year ever.

My Turn

It's my turn to try some of my own fat loss techniques. I put on a good bit of weight over the past couple months. Most of it was muscle, which was my goal, but some of it was fat. Now, I realize that I don't have a bodyfat problem, but it still would be nice to get more of a ripped look.

Unfortunately, a wrist injury has precented me from doing any kind of upper body work. I also can't do lower body work involving free weights. This has been the case for 3 weeks now. I'm hoping one more week of rest will do the trick, but I'm really not sure. But, instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I intend to do some leg work on Monday and Wednesday with a tough session of interval training on the bike on Tueaday.

I also need to change up my diet a bit to cut out some carbs except around my workout period. I can't wait to start going at full-strength again.

Matt Maresca
www.conquerthefat.com

P.S. The injury was my own fault and I should have taken care of it when it first happened. It probably would have healed in just a few days had I done this, so don't feel bad for me.

Simple Answer

Q: What is the biggest killer of a fat loss program?

A: Lack of consistency.


It really is as simple as that. Put in a consistent effort in which you constantly challenge your body by following a sound workout and nutrition plan; and you will get results.

So why aren't you being consistent?

What did you do today?

What did you do yesterday?

What will you do tomorrow?

The answers better all be in line with your goals.

Another Quick Note About Fat Loss vs. Weight Loss

A few people have come up to me in the past and said something like, "My clothes are fitting more loosely and I can notice some changes in my body shape, but I'm not losing that much weight."

And to that I respond with, "Great!"

If you're looking better, feeling better, and your body is responding positively to your efforts then what is the problem? Do you think anyone really cares how much you weigh? Do you walk around with your weight posted on your forehead?

Seriously, weight is not that big a deal unless you are at a risk for serious diseases. Even then, excess bodyfat is the main problem. Which of these situations would you rather:

1) Lose 5 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of muscle for a total weight loss of 10 pounds.

2) Lose 10 pounds of fat and gain 5 pounds of muscle for a total weight loss of 5 pounds.

Unless you haven't been following, you would probably agree that the clear choice would be #2. Don't worry about the scale if all other signs are positive.

Why Do I Say Fat Loss?

A lot of people ask me why I always use the phrase "fat loss" and not "weight loss". Quite frankly, I don't give a rat's butt about weight loss. What good is weight loss if all you've lost is muscle or water weight. I care about losing bodyfat. Whether you realize it or not, this is what you care about, too.

For one thing, you need to preserve as much muscle as possible to keep your metabolism high. This will help you lose additional fat and keep it off long-term. Most people put weight that they had lost through diet and cardio back on relatively quickly due to a loss of muscle. If you were to gain a couple pounds of muscle, your overall weight loss profile might not look as good, but you would be in a much better position to continue on a positive trend of losing bodyfat.

Another reason to be concerned about fat loss is that it looks darn good! When you lose fat and muscle, you may get skinnier but you don't have that nicely defined figure that looks so great in a bathing suit. Add a little muscle and burn a little more fat and you will start turning heads!

Don't worry too much about the numbers on the scale. Look at bodyfat %, measurements, clothes sizes, and the way you look in a bathing suit. Remember, fat loss and not weight loss.

Push-Button Society

There has been some discussion in the media recently regarding the dramatic increase in obesity and people getting significantly overweight all over the world. Some have suggested that the people are to blame. If you are fat it is because you are lazy. Others have blamed society. The world is making it easy to get fat. I think both theories are correct. We are all to blame. We are living in a push-button society in which we expect a quick and easy solution to every problem.

Picture this. You come home at night after a very tough day at work. You are hungry but you do not feel like making anything. You just want to hurry up and satisfy your hunger and get some much-needed and well-deserved rest. And most people would not blame you one bit for feeling this way. So, you go to the fridge and pull out a frozen dinner. You pop it in the microwave, push a button, and in a matter of a few minutes you have a hot dinner ready to be eaten.

Now dinner is over. You feel better now that your hunger has been satisfied. You are ready to put your day’s work behind you and clear your head. You need something to entertain your mind for a little while. What do you do? You go into the living room, sit down on the couch, grab the remote, push a button, and…voila. Entertainment!

Once you are done being entertained for the moment, you decide that you want to know what is going on in the world. You want to know where the most death and destruction is occurring. You want to know why one political party is criticizing the other now. You want to know what actress just broke up with her singer boyfriend. So you go to your computer and click away. Each button push gets you more and more answers and it is so satisfying that you keep going for over and hour.

During the time you were clicking away on the Internet, you happened to come across an advertisement for some swimwear. This got you thinking. “I wish I could wear that and look like that actress who just broke up with her singer boyfriend,” or the guys “I wish I could walk next to a girl on the beach who was wearing that and have her think that I looked good enough to be with that actress who just broke up with her singer boyfriend.”

Now you are picturing yourself on the beach in your current shape. It gets you to declare your determination to lose some weight and flatten your stomach. But how do you do that?

Well, if you can push a button and have a hot meal ready in minutes, if you can push a button and have entertainment for an hour, and if you can push a button and learn what is going on anywhere in the world, why can’t you push a button and get the body you want?

And there we have the core of the attitude of our push-button society.

This may seem to be an exaggerated example. I mean no one really thinks they can push a button and get a “hot” body, do they?

Maybe people don’t think this exactly, but, at the root of the matter, the feelings are the same. We want something now and we want getting it to be easy. It seems as if we have put that old say that “nothing worth achieving comes easy” to pasture. We want everything to come easy and when it doesn’t we get discouraged.

This is a huge problem because fat loss is not easy. It can not be easy. We are talking about changing your body composition. We are talking about reversing months or even years of damage. This cannot be accomplished with the push of a button. There is no magic pill that does this. There is no magic exercise that can be done while laying in a comfortable position that does this. There is no diet that can make you lose 30 pounds of bodyfat in 30 days and keep it off.

We are living in a world of lies and disillusion. We want everything to be easy and comfortable. We want fast results without having to put in much work for them.

Here is a newsflash people: The world’s population is getting fatter everyday even while technology is improving. If getting the body of your dreams were easy, then why, in this day in age, would we not all look great in our bathing suits? Why are so many people extremely overweight if successful fat loss is easy? The answer, of course, is it’s not easy!

Losing bodyfat and improving your physique takes hard work and dedication. It takes discipline and courage. It requires sacrifice and consistent application. All this comes down to each person individually. We must destroy this push-button lifestyle. Sure, it is great having modern conveniences, but they should not take over our lives.

If you want to burn that fat, flatten your stomach, and feel healthy then you are going to have to work for it. The first step to achieving these goals is to understand that it is not going to be done with the push of a button.

The overweight and obesity problems we are currently facing in the world are due to both society and individuals. We have created a mentality that everything should and can come easy. If we are going to reverse this problem then we most begin by creating a new mental approach to life and fat loss. And yes, even this cannot be accomplished with the push of a button.

For more, please visit http://www.conquerthefat.com and get on my mailing list. Let's conquer this fat loss problem together.

Yours truly,

Matt Maresca

Meet Your Fat Loss Guide

Hi guys, I am Matt Maresca. I am glad that you decided to check out my blog. I am sure that I will be able to be of help to you in achieving your fat loss goals. That is my aim with this blog. I want to change the scope of the world of fat loss, and hope to start seeing more success stories.

In fact, there is nothing better than a good success story. That is why, if you have one, I want you to send it over to me and I will post it on this blog (with your permission of course). Hopefully, your success story will inspire others to go after their dreams.

If you do not have a success story just yet, don't worry, it is on its way. Just keep plugging away in the gym and keep practicing sound nutrition habits. You will succeed, and you have to keep that positive approach. For now, if you are struggling with something, feel free to send me an e-mail with questions and comments. I'll try to help you out as best I can.

Go ahead and bookmark this blog and check back daily. It is my goal to post something every single day, most likely at night before I go to bed. And if I am going to help you reach your goals, then I better make darn sure that I reach my own. That is one of my philosophies: practice what you preach. OK, so I didn't make that up myself, but it is still something I believe in.

I leave you with this piece of advice: Develop a plan for yourself that you will follow every day. Take some time in creating it so that it is a plan that will take you to your goals. Once you have that plan in place, act on it! Follow your plans to your greatest dreams and you will get there, so long as your plans are accurate. But remember, you will never get to where you never try to go.