The Switch (Part 2)

It’s been a while since the last post about how to make The Switch happen.

I’ve been a bit busy(ier) with work, normal life, and mainly from my long distance triathlon training and racing. The Ironman race is going to be happening almost a month from now, so I had started to become serious (kind of!) with my preparation, and I have not had much time to write more blog posts. Sorry!

To make up the lost time, let me go directly to one more powerful tip that will help you take full advantage of your Perfect Fat Burning Machine:

Increase your protein consumption

With our current diet habits, we tend to eat too much carbs and too little protein. This is a mistake, because the right amount of protein in your diet brings you many benefits to your health, your fitness and your looks, too. I will actually write a full blog post in the near future about the Power of Protein to go into more details, but for now, let me focus on how protein can help you burn fat. Lots of it!

If you eat a good amount of protein in all your meals, breakfast included, you have three positive effects for fat burning:

1. Your hunger is satisfied for much longer (so you do not eat too much during the day)
2. Your metabolism becomes faster (so you end up burning more calories and body fat)
3. You build -or maintain- muscles more easily (and the more muscle you have in your body, the more calories and fat you burn daily, even while sleeping!)

Three synergistic effects for the price of one!

Great deal, huh?!

So, how can you make it happen?

Start by checking if you are consuming at least 1 gram of protein for each kilogram of bodyweight you have a day. For example, for a guy weighting 80 Kilos, he should consume at least 80 grams of protein during the day. These grams should be spread out in each meal, at about 25-35 grams per meal (about one chicken breast portion or steak portion)

In my case, as I am training and racing (this damages the muscles and they need to be repaired using extra protein from the diet), I consume much more protein than that.

To make it practical, use your main meals to consume large amounts of protein:

1. Breakfast: this meal is critical to boost your metabolism and set your day. Don’t waste it with donuts, cookies or sugary cereals that have very little nutrients in them and lots of calories. Use instead plain yogurt (a large portion) with no sugar added and fruits or natural cereals. You could also use ricotta cheese, or if you enjoy it, also eggs, ham or even salmon (I don’t like salmon at all for breakfast, but in some countries is very common). The point is to find what you like (yogurt for me!), but consume large amounts of protein for breakfast. You will notice a positive difference in your energy and hunger levels during the whole morning.
2. Lunch and Dinner: make a large portion of either chicken, turkey, fish, beef or tuna (whatever…just make it large and vary it every day) and add lots of vegetables dressed with extra-virgin olive oil. Make a large portion of both protein and vegetables. Don’t be afraid about the calories! If you do not add bread, rice, pasta or desserts, you will not gain weight by eating this. You will instead “train your body” to burn fat as fuel, and the best thing is that you will not be hungry for many hours.

As I do not like to measure everything (it is boring and unpractical!), I check if the amount of protein I am consuming everyday is appropriate with two things:

1. Are my nails growing fast and strong? Is my beard and hair growing fast? This is in an indication that there is enough protein in the diet to help build and repair body tissue (muscles, hair, nails, etc)
2. Am I getting sick frequently? Catching colds or the flu? Allergies? This might indicate that I am lacking protein in my diet, as a strong immune system is greatly supported by enough protein in the diet. By the way, I do not remember when was the last time I had a cold (knocking on wood now!!)

If I think that the level is too low, I usually adjust it by adding extra protein using Protein Powders to supplement my normal diet. The chocolate flavor, whey protein shakes are my favorites!

Go ahead!

Increase your protein consumption drastically from today!

Try it!

You will immediately notice that you are less hungry.

Your body temperature will rise slightly (this is your metabolism speeding up!)

And you will start to see muscles in your body that you didn’t know they even existed!

Additional protein is the secret weapon to make The Switch really happen even with people that usually have problems losing fat.

As always, test it by yourself!

And then let me know if you are happy with the results

(I know you will be!)

Superfit projects are for all! (so what's yours?)

I got the following email from an old friend of mine, whom I have not seen since elementary school. He wanted to share his success story applying the Superfit Project principles, and he has allowed me to share it with all of you.

Hope you get a few tips from his experience, and especially get some inspiration to really start working on YOUR SUPERFIT PROJECT!

As you will see, it does not matter what physical condition you have right now, or the time you have available to train. What really matters, as Cesar has demonstrated, is to take the decision to make it happen. And then do it!

Thanks to you Cesar for sharing your story and my sincere compliments on your current amazing results. With your new lifestyle, I am sure you will obtain even greater results and much more fun with your training, too! :)

Dear Jose,

I was thinking about what would be the best way to thank you for the positive changes that your posts in "thesuperfitproject.blogspot.com" have stimulated in my life, so I thought that the best way was to share my story with your readers.

Until the end of 2010 I used to carry a sedentary lifestyle. I used to do sports regularly only until I was about 18 years old, but after that a complete life change came: university, girls, parties, wedding, children, etc. Thus, I arrived at 35 years old with 112kg of bodyweight and I had become an occasional sports practitioner (terrible idea!). I used to play indoor soccer every 15 days or once a month, while the rest of the time I was full of pain in the knees, heals and back. All finished by mid 2010 when I suffered an injury in my ankle while I was playing. I had to spend $300 just to recover, and I decided that it was much cheaper to stay away from the play field.

By the end of 2010 I contacted you via Facebook, since we were classmates in elementary school, and the last time we talked was by the end of the 80's. Honestly, once I saw the lifestyle that you carry, I compared it with my own reality, and I decided that I had to start an immediate and radical change in my life.

On December 28th of last year, I started my Gracie Jiu Jitsu classes and I have not stopeed since then. I now eat healthier food, too. As a result, I now feel much better, physically and emotionally.

I started to follow your blog, and I was inspired and motivated to keep going with the life changes. I guess that others like me have been positively influenced, directly or indirectly, by your blog. This is the case with my wife and my sister. They both saw my enthusiasm and the visible changes (I have lost 12 kg already), so they got motivated as well to start practicing “dance-therapy” three times a week. And they have been doing it for the last three months.

Finally, let me share some conclusions I have reached, which I hope could be useful to others:
1. You do not have to be an athlete in top physical condition to practice any sport: just practice it at your own pace, with consistency, and the results will invariably arrive in a certain time.

2. Choose a sport that you enjoy (not the one that your friend or neighbor tells you to do because it works for him). Your training should be fun. If it is boring to you, or if it represents only a sacrifice, then for sure you will not keep doing it in the long term.

3. Once you have taken the decision to change, fight your “old-self”. Especially at the beginning of your program, you will unconsciously look for excuses to skip training (work, traffic, family, tiredness, etc). Create yourself the new habit and once you have done it, everything will be much easier. To create the habit, force yourself to follow the same activity for at least 21 days. That should be enough to make you get used to your new routine.

4. Do not follow strict diets. Just learn to eat well. (The Perfect Fat Burning Machine; Understanding the Vicious Cycle)

5. Rest assured that your body can work perfectly fine eating much less food than what you are ingesting today (without sacrifices, simply by reducing a bit your portions)

Pepe Viche, my friend, thank you again for your significant contribution to this life change. It could seem like an exaggeration, but changes like this could also save a life, or at least add healthier years to it. Only as an additional fact, last year I had my triglycerides level at 450, while the limit is only 150. Today, they are at normal levels again.

All the best

Cesar

You see!
Nothing complicated.
And actually fun!


Great results can be obtained by anybody.
By anybody who has the will to follow a path with consistency.
One step after the other.


So, what is Your Superfit Project?
What would you love doing with consistency?
Choose your activity!
(or if you are like me, choose many!!!)
But choose!


Start today.
Take your first step.
And then just keep moving.
You will be amazed to see how far you can actually go.

Clear Objectives

Today I did my first long distance triathlon race in a long time. It was a half-Ironman distance which corresponds to 1,9k swimming + 90k cycling +21k running.

It was a tough course with a three-loop bike course full of climbs and fast descents. A course not suited for my skills, but I still wanted to do it to regain some tri-racing experience and to test a few things before my full Ironman race.

In short, in terms of time performance, it was a disaster.
I was really physically suffering the whole day!

Due to the suffering, during the race, I was starting to doubt my approach to the preparation of the Ironman race. Actually, I was starting to consider what some of my friends tell me: that I should prepare the race with a more specific and structured training plan, and that I should cut other activities like free-climbing that are hurting my triathlon performance.

As a matter of fact, specific and structured training is what I prepare for athletes looking for top racing performance. But this is not what I am doing for myself.

Is it ok for me not to follow what I do when coaching others?
It all depends on what is the final objective.

This is where having Clear Objectives, from the beginning of any SuperFit Project (or any Life Project!) become so important: To plan how to approach any situation and how to measure the success of anything you intend to do, you have first to consider what is Your guiding objective.

And my guiding objective for this comeback to being active in sports, through the preparation of the Ironman, is this:

"To be able to complete the Ironman triathlon in Klagenfurt on July 3rd, 2011 with the best time possible, having always fun and without putting my health at risk"

Thus, based on these Clear Objectives, what happened today in my training race was not a disaster at all:

I was not fast, but I still finished the race
I learned a lot from the experience
I really enjoyed the beauty of the lake and the view from the surrounding hills

I am not injured and I had lots of fun
I drank lots of beer and ate great food, too! ;)

In other words, following My Clear Objectives, I will keep training and having fun as I am doing now. I will also keep drinking red wine and beer. And I will not eliminate my mountaineering or free-climbing activities even if they make me slower. I love them too much to sacrifice them just to improve my race time performance.

Having Clear Objectives is key to dissolve any doubts during decision making. After all, it does not matter what others think, but what You really think and want.

By the way, here is a short video compilation of the last training I have done. You will see that is not only triathlon, but for sure it is respecting my Clear Objectives: It has been extremely Fun!!!

(I am using a helmet camera during the bike, so be ready for jumpy video again!)

Superfit Project: Training for Fun (link youtube)