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Don't Just Get Ripped This Summer

Article Submitted by: Dane Fletcher

Wednesday, 17 January 2007

Don't you hate it when, in the middle of September, stores start hollering "It's almost HERE...!" and then proceed to tack up plastic holly vines and wreaths all over the place? It's the most irksome thing! Let us enjoy fall for a few minutes, will ya'? Oh sure, store owners throw in a few turkeys here and there, and scatter the requisite number of amber and red leaves across the counters, but the truth is, they can't wait to start selling you yuletide trinkets. That's where the big bucks are anyhow, not in Styrofoam ice chests or Pilgrim gear.

As the onslaught commences, you get more and more stressed out, thinking that you're shopping later and later every year, feeling guilty that you're somehow a crummy husband or father because you don't care as much as Joe Average Customer who shops for his wife and kids during the sweltering months of July and August. You then remind yourself that it's just October 1st and feel better remembering that even fanatical QVC doll collectors aren't duped by the hype that early! You mutter something under your breath, pull your knees to your chest for a loud cannonball into your backyard pool, and forget all about it.

It's the same thing that happens just after Christmas, during that week prior to New Year's Day. Granted, you don't have the 4 month lead time to feel ashamed of yourself for not having kept the current year's resolutions, but that week between Christmas and New Year's Eve is HELL on the self-esteem. Articles, news clips, and commercials warn you repeatedly that the witching hour is fast approaching... the time when your complete list of atonement for the previous year, and upcoming year's resolutions, must be completed—or else! It's as if you're taking your final walk down that painted line toward your last meal as a condemned man. Savor it, because tomorrow you're a goner, BROTHER!

Peppy, short-haired cheerleader types start showing up in early January on the tube, pushing diet programs, weight loss centers, torture equipment, and meals-in-a-can, with suspicious smiles and breasts that don't move. Boxes with entries for mystery contests start appearing at your office reception desk and corner lunch haunt. Beware! The appealing bikini clad woman on the front of the box is a Trojan Horse! There's really a balding salesman hiding in that box, just waiting to ambush you into a contract at some chrome and mirrored super-club! And it'll go on and on and you won't ever see a way out.

These people would have you believe that the icicles you saw hanging like daggers from your porch this morning are going to melt by afternoon under a 90 degree sun! Don't buy it! It's all a trick to guilt you into buying, consuming or becoming something you don't want to purchase, eat or be.

You don't need the guilt, and you don't need the reminders from people who circle your home like hyenas waiting for cold-carcass leftovers. The only thing you need is your good sense and your bathroom mirror. Oh, she's underrated, alright, that mirror of yours.

I mean, look at her... She never gripes about you leaving the bathroom a mess. She doesn't care if you leave her steamed up, or that you don't wipe her down. She's quiet, she's humble, and she doesn't nag. She'll sit patiently, just staring back at you each time you drop your pants to check out your quads. She never blushes and definitely won't ever laugh at you. The best part is, she doesn't accuse you of being an ego-maniac when you stare right past her to see a reflection of yourself, and then get jealous when you go out for a night on the town with the ladies. She's right where you left her the night before, waiting to see how you look in the morning.

Don't get me wrong, she can be a harsh mistress on occasion. She'll show you what you really look like during those pudgy off-season moments, and it can wreak havoc on your ego. But she'll turn right around in 10 or 12 weeks and become your biggest supporter when you lift your shirt and show her your shredded abs. That's more than the ‘salesman-in-the-box' or the ‘peppy girl with the motionless breasts' will do. You can take that to the bank!

Yep, simply stated, that's about all you need to get ripped: Your good common sense and your mirror as a guide. The only problem is, your mirror is a mute and she isn't real good at giving diet and training advice. That's where we come in.

Let's just break it down and make it easy for you. You don't have to panic at the end of March or early April, thinking that you have no time to "get shredded for summer". You have plenty of time between now and then, there's no question about that. However, the real question is, How long are you willing to prolong looking your best?

Steely Determination, Cushy Body

Prolonging looking your best is what most people do. They dive into the wooly coats and the ‘fridge in winter and then rush to take it all off again when the sun starts burning their skin. They never really approximate a hard body because their body fat is constantly yo-yoing up and down within that cycle. Each year, it gets higher and higher in between as they lose muscle while dieting and pack only fat on during the months of heavier food consumption. So while it's an attainable goal for anyone to take weight off in 2 or 3 months, and look ready enough for summer, it becomes less and less likely, as each year passes, that the kind of condition one gets into is going to be anything close to the ‘rock hard' variety. Born of the best intentions, and a steely determination, this kind of cycle only encourages fat storage and a cushy body.

So, is it a matter of getting in shape for summer, or just getting in shape and staying close to the mark all year long? The latter is really preferable because even if you deviate from your diet plan - damn dirty human being that you are - you won't have fallen far enough off of your diet to really tumble past the point of no return.

Dizzying Heights and Sickening Treks

Look at the cycle of dieting and gorging -being in shape and out of shape - as climbing a mountain and then falling off its peak. It's when you fall completely down the side of a mountain, picking up avalanche speed as you go, and sustaining massive injuries on the way down, that makes the prospect of going back up to the top of that peak, daunting and unappealing. Plus, once you've fallen, you become accustomed to all of that rich oxygen at sea level and it makes the prospect of climbing thousands of feet up rocky, treacherous terrain, seem impossible. You fight the asphyxiation you feel as you ascend into lean air supply, making acclimation to the process difficult, at best.

Who needs it, right? Yet that's what 90% of people do, even pro bodybuilders who know better.

Broken Wings Can't Fly

There's no way that one article can supply the motivation and guidance needed to help repair faulty drive and determination or haywire self-esteem. Hopefully, what it can accomplish is a redirection of thinking toward using the time prior to summer as a maintenance phase, rather than a diet and fitness cram session. Still, if you're currently in that ‘avalanche-and-gaining-speed' phase of falling off the mountain, you'll need something to bring you back up to peak condition.

The Meat ‘n' Potatoes

It's impossible to tailor-make a program of "fitness recovery" for all people and have it address all different body-types; particularly in a magazine. Diets that are specifically detailed in magazines are really difficult for most people to customize in order to fit their needs. Besides which, they typically aren't well thought out in theory and therefore truly are not for everybody.

As a result, the parameters of this program will be general as a rule, but specific enough in addressing the types of choices you can make, as well as how to make them fit into the framework of your needs and schedule. You should have no trouble at all incorporating them.

Every Garment Tells a Story, Don't It

It's ugly and sad that clothes aren't magic and don't hide who we are beneath their seams, but they don't and they never will, so you have to do the next best thing.

First and foremost, it's important to have a plan, whether you're going into summer, fall or winter. It doesn't make a difference what season it is, there's just slightly more embarrassment associated with swimsuits than there is with jeans and sweaters. But if you're fat and out of shape, your jeans in winter are going to tell the same story that your swimsuit did in the summer (though not quite as harshly) - that you're not at your best and need to shed some body fat to reach your ideal.

Making a plan is less about rigidity than it is about actually being accountable to something or someone. Accountability is the cornerstone of most success in the world.

A lot of bodybuilders who use a trainer to prepare them for competitions know this all too well: When you know you have to drop your pants and lift your shirt for someone each and every week, you know you had better make some progress or heads are going to roll!

That's a tremendous motivator. So if a list or intention statement with specific goals attached isn't enough to keep you honest, find someone to whom you must report each week to show your progress. It can even be a Polaroid camera. Snapshots don't lie and I highly recommend them. Whatever method you select is personal and your own choice.

Next, you have to either have a good command of diet and training or you have to find someone who does. What is meant by that is an all-around good idea of which foods fall into which categories, how to execute a particular exercise, etc. Your ‘authorities' can be books, but consult with someone who can confirm that the author is on the right track. Often, nutritionists seem like a good choice, but unless they have a lot of "successes in practice", they're just regurgitating what they learned in school and that doesn't always translate into a successful outcome in the real world. The world is full of experts and very few of them can actually steer you toward your goals. Educate yourself as much as possible to know what constitutes a protein, a carbohydrate or a fat food.

Give yourself a definite amount of time to get into that initial bit of good shape. Maintenance is something else altogether. Tell yourself you must make your goal by that date! It's not like the sky is going to fall if you don't, but you should feel as though it will. You'll work harder. Make reservations for Mexico or Hawaii and you'll have to reach your goals, come hell or high water! But be realistic too. If you have 40 pounds of body fat to lose in a month, it's not likely you're going to get there. You might, but you'll look a little peculiar.

Last, in preparation, get rid of all food that doesn't support your eating plan. Trust me on this. For you, dieting may mean you don't include any seasoning or anything pleasurable (though I don't recommend this approach), so do what you have to do to rid your palace of offending condiments and meal accouterments that might derail your goals.

Now you're mentally set and ready to tackle the program-

This "get in shape" program is based on 12 weeks - better known in some circles as 3 months! Don't look for a reinvention of the wheel at any time, in any program because it doesn't exist. What you're going to be doing is guaranteed to work, if you work it.

RULES FOR DIET:
● You must eat at least 4 meals per day. Eating 4-6 is preferable.
● Prepare most of your food the night before and use disposable or portable meal containers.
● Stop eating starchy carbohydrates by 2 or 3pm.
● If you are hungry and it's not mealtime, or time for a snack, drink a protein shake with 20g of protein and little or no carbs, or eat 10 almonds or walnuts - No exceptions!
● Follow the plan exactly, but make your own choices of foods from the list.
● During the final 3 weeks of the program, you must increase protein by at least 20-50 grams per day in at least 2 additional meals, cut starchy carbohydrates completely out of your diet, and add in 1 -2 more servings of fat.

MACRONUTRIENT GROUPS - What You Can Eat

Protein (Men: 6-8 oz portions per meal/ Women: 4-6 oz portions)

Eggs
Non-fat cottage cheese
Chicken breast
Turkey breast
Ground Turkey
Lean ground beef (92% or leaner)
Petite Sirloin, or Flank Steak (grilled, ok)
Fish
-Halibut
-Sole
-Orange Roughy (too much of this causes nasty accidents!)
-Salmon
-Scallops
-Lobster
-Crab
-Shrimp
Whey protein (or any combination whey, milk, egg, but whey is best)

Carbohydrates - Starches

(Men: 1 potato, 1 cup rice or grain product, 1 cup squash / Women: ½ all)
All white/ red potato varieties
Sweet potatoes
Brown rice
Cous-cous
Barley
Squash
Whole wheat bread (2 slices - dense/ good quality)
Oatmeal (2 cups men/ 1 cup women)

Carbohydrates - Vegetable/ Fruit/ Non-starchy
(Note: Vegetables unlimited quantity at meals/ Fruits: ½ c men & women)

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Green beans
Spinach
Salad greens
Cabbage
Berries of all varieties
Melons (except watermelon) (1/2 per meal)
Grapefruit (1/2 per meal)
*No peas, root vegetables or squash

Fats

Almonds
Walnuts
Peanuts
Peanut butter, Almond butter, Cashew butter
Olive oil, Canola oil, Avocado oil

DIET

Cardio - Empty stomach
Meal One: 2 protein, 1 carb (starch), 1 carb (non-starch) or 2 carbs (non-starch), 1 fat
Snack: 1 protein
Meal Two: 1 protein, 1 carb (starch), 1 carb (non-starch), 1 fat
Snack: 1 protein, 1 fat
Workout - Resistance Training
Meal Three: 1 protein, 2 carb (non-starch), 1 fat
Snack: 1 protein, 1 fat or 1 carb (non-starch)

RULES FOR CARDIO:
● If you have time for only one cardio session, make sure it's first thing in the morning and done on an empty stomach
● You must include at least 4 - 30 minute sessions of cardio in your program per week as a minimum.
● You must include at least 2 interval training sessions in your program, on whatever cardio apparatus you choose (treadmill, cycle, elliptical trainer, or outdoor runs)
● During the last 3 weeks of your program, increase cardio sessions to 2x daily (doing either 2 - 20 minute sessions per day or 2 - 30 minute sessions per day)

Interval Training: In a 30 minute session of cardio, do 5 minutes warm up and then increase intensity in either pace or difficulty, sprint for 2 minutes moderate for 3 minutes, 5 minutes normal workload, and repeat until 30 minutes expires.

RULES FOR TRAINING:
● You must train each body part twice weekly
● You must include at least one superset combination, per body part, during at least one of your two workouts per week
● Take no more than 2 minutes rest in between sets, and preferably do another exercise for another body part while you are recuperating. Keep your heart rate up through training.
● Do abs at least 3 times weekly
● You must keep weights you use moderate enough that a rep range of 10-12 is possible for each body part.
● During the last 3 weeks of your program, increase pace of workouts, increase rep ranges, and decrease recuperation time between sets.

Suggested Workout Configuration:

Monday - Legs, Abs, Calves

Tuesday - Back, Chest, Arms

Wednesday - OFF (cardio, abs)

Thursday - Legs, Abs, Calves (circuit training - moving rapidly - including more shaping exercises such as leg extensions, lunges & more ab movements)

Friday - Back, Chest, Arms (circuit training - moving rapidly - while one body part is recovering, do a set of something for an alternate body part)

OFF - Saturday and Sunday.

About the Author: Dane Fletcher is the world's foremost training authority. He writes exclusively for GetAnabolics.com , a leading online provider of Steroids and Bodybuilding Supplements. For more information, please visit http://www.GetAnabolics.com.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com

About The Author:

About the Author: Dane Fletcher is the world's foremost training authority. He writes exclusively for GetAnabolics.com , a leading online provider of testosterone cypionate and creatine. For more information, please visit http://www.GetAnabolics.com.

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