People from Down Town Chicago are driving south to Darin’s private personal training and “Boot Camps” in Orland Park, Il.

Click here for details about his program;   I WANT TO LOSE FAT AND GAIN MUSCLE

Darin Steen runs one of the most successful private training studios in the Chicago land area.  If you want to train 1 on 1 with him or get involved in his group personal training or “Boot Camp” classes go check his services out at;   Get in Great Shape With Only 3 Hours of Exercise Per Week.

Click here Train On-Line With Darin To Lose Fat and Gain Muscle With Darin Any Where In The World by using his On-line Program.

My  Fatloss Lifestyle System is the most time efficient fitness system on the market today. It will personalize work outs, cardio, nutrition, and goal setting for anyone and every one.

Some of my favorite cardio sessions are performed outside. In this video I am at a local fitness hot spot here in Orland Park, Illinois (about 30 minutes south of Chicago). It is called Swallow Cliff.

There is 125 steps, that is almost 10 flights of steps straight up. There is no way that you can simulate this work out in a gym on a treadmill, elliptical, bike, or stair mill.

There is something great about exercising out doors in the fresh air. One tip on any cardio challenge is that it is better to do less repetitions but more intense.

You will get more benefits to your heart and lunges and more fatburning from resting at the bottom for 2-4 minutes and going up the steps faster versus just going up or down slower with no rest.

Your Healthy Lifestyle Coach,

darin steen

Eating to gain muscle and lose fat really is easy.  Actually it is common sense, once you understand a few basic rules.

There are three basic aspects that are important in eating for fitness.

1. You need to eat higher quality natural unprocessed foods versus low quality processed foods.

Most would agree that this one is common sense.  Obviously 2,000 calories of chicken, salad, and broccoli is the way to go versus 2,000 calories of Twinkies and spam.  If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was manufactured in a plant, stay away from it!   IF IT ROTS, IT IS GOOD FOR YOU!

To find high quality, unprocessed foods that will work great for you remember the term;

“Lean, Green, and Marine”

Lean; proteins (chicken, lean red meat, whey protein, eggs, cottage cheese, turkey, pork) have the best thermic affect of all the food groups.  For every 100 calories you consume, the body burns 30 calories just to digest, utilize and eliminate it.  Plus lean proteins satiate your appetite best.

Green; (Salads, veggies, apples, green-beans, fruit) are full of fiber/vitamins/minerals (the more color the better) and water.  300 calories of Green is a mountain of food, versus 300 calories of starchy crabs (pasta, potatoes, and breads) will not even wet your palate.  It is impossible to over eat on Green.

Marine;  Healthy fats from fish (salmon, tilapia, red snapper, whit fish, nuts (almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts), avocado’s, flax and olive oil are very important to help keep our hormone levels balanced properly.  This area of nutrition is very often overlooked.  Trust me, if you take your fat intake too low, your body will shut down and your ability to reach your true potential will be limited.

2. You need to eat small meals often with protein and carbs combined together to maximize your Fat loss Nutrition

If you eat one meal per day of high quality food, that’s better than eating one meal of junk.  But to really rev your metabolism up & to really reach your true fitness potential you need to eat smaller and more often with high quality protein and carbs combined together.

A recent study at Harvard showed that those that ate a healthy breakfast had over 8% less body fat on average then those who skipped it.

You also want to taper your calories through the day.  Trust me when I tell you that there is lot of truth to the old adage “Eat Breakfast Like A King, Lunch Like a Prince, and Supper Like a Pauper”.

I know that if you are in the habit of not eating breakfast, that you do not have a hunger level in the morning.  But the key is to slowly work into it.

Start by eating a tiny breakfast in the a.m.  Maybe it is just one egg and a couple  spoon fulls of oatmeal.  If you want to speed up the process, get up 15 minutes early and get your heart rate up by power walking or any activity that raises your heart rate.  Plus the added benefit is that you feel much more awake and alert versus sleeping in.

You must work up to eating 6 small meals per day.  Now do not get overwhelmed.  We are not talking meals like most of you are thinking;  a huge plate that has side rails on it just to hold everything on it.

We are talking about small meals like;

1.  An average size chicken breast and an apple

2.  A 1/2 cup of oatmeal and 3-5 Egg white, 2 yolk omelet

3.  A can of tuna on an organic salad

4.  30 grams of whey protein and an apple

5.  4 – 5 ounces of turkey on a wheat tortilla

6.  Tuna, olive oil, lemon juice on a tortilla wrap

The options are endless if you just use your imagination and are just a little adventurous.

Most people who come to me for nutrition advice do not eat breakfast, eat a huge lunch at noon, and a massive dinner around 6:30 p.m.   If you are doing the same,  do not worry because it only takes about 2-3 weeks of eating smaller meals to work up to 6 meals per day;  thus,  speeding up your metabolism and fat burning potential.

3.  Cycle Your Calories By Eating More Starchy Carbs on Work-out Days; and only Non Starchy carbs on non workout and cardio days.

Good sources of starchy carbs are brown / wild rice, oatmeal,whole wheat pasta, sweet potatoes, yams, and whole wheat pasta.  Non Starchy carbs are veggies, green beans, salads, and apples.

Make sure that you eat a non starchy carb with your protein for every meal;  on work out, cardio, and non work-out days.

The only thing to remember is to add a starchy carb to 2-4 meals per day on work-out days.  This is what body builders refer to as carb cycling.  Your body breaks starchy carbs down into glucose.  Glucose is the gasoline for your engine.  Your muscles can’t fire without it.

The problem is, most people eat too many starchy carbs and therefore have to much glycogen which is then stored as fat.

So if you cycle your calories with the rules above, you will be giving your body the extra glucose on days that it needs it (for work-outs).  And on days that you are not as active, your body will not store fat cause your calories and starchy carbs will be lower.

You see it keeps the body guessing and it will never shut down your metabolism because of calorie deprivation which is what happens to most people when they go on a diet and severely limit their calories.

Eating this way is fun and very effective at gaining muscle and losing fat.    It keeps all of your bodies anabolic hormones at optimal levels.  I dare you to try it; I know that you will fell the difference in no time.  This simple Fat loss Nutrition system works great and I have used it on myself and my clients for 20 years.

If you would like some more great nutrition tips for post work out meals;  Post Work Out Meal Nutrition Strategy

Focusing on the “Three Pillars of Health”

1. The Foods That You Eat
2. The Exercise That You Get
3. The Thoughts That You Think

is about much more than fitting into a smaller pair of blue jeans.  It’s about being fully engaged.  It’s about having real energy.  It’s about being creative and less stressed.   It’s about sleeping better at night.  And it’s about “Reaching Your True Potential in all the major areas of your life.

Your Fitness Coach,

Darin

1) They work too hard during the recovery period. It’s called a “recovery” period  for  a reason! So don’t worry about “keeping your heart rate up”. Interval training is NOT cardio. It is a totally different method of training. So give up the cardio mind set and get to appreciate the recovery.

Interval Cardio A Key Component To A Fat loss Routine

2) As a result of working too hard in the recovery portion, most people don’t work hard enough during the work period. However, it is that hard, intense work that causes the body to change. So make sure you are doing QUALITY training.

3) Most people never changing their interval training workouts. You should be using a variety of work-to-rest interval durations and a variety of training methods. Also, be sure to keep track of your results so you discover what works best for you.

The five reasons why Interval Cardio Out Performs jogging or any other type of cardio exercise are:

1.) Time

Interval Cardio for fat loss only takes approximately 90 minutes per week; usually broken down into two or three 30 – 40 minutes sessions.  Where as traditional jogging or  “Fat Burn” cardio takes 5-8 hours per week.

2.) Burn More Body Fat With Interval Cardio

Even though jogging burns a higher percentage of calories from your fat cells (thus it is called “Fat Burn” cardio) when you are done with the low intensity cardio you are done burning total calories.

Versus when you are done with Interval Cardio, your body burns more calories (it’s called the after burn) for 6-8 hours.  And sometimes if the intensity is high enough, you can even burn more calories through the night and into the next day.

This is important, because losing body fat is about a lot of things.  But one thing for sure is it is about calories in your mouth, versus calories burned.  If you take more in than you are burning, then you will gain fat.  If you burn more than you are eating, then you will lose fat.

So when you utilize Interval Cardio, you win the “CALORIE” game; in the most time efficient manner.

3.) Build Bigger and Stronger Heart and Lunges

For the last century, it was thought that jogging long distance was the best exercise for building a bigger and more powerful heart and lungs.  On the surface, it seems logical; but we are now finding out that this assumption is “dead” wrong.

You see, your heart and lungs are muscles.  Although they are slightly different than your skeletal muscles, they are still muscles that respond to exercise similarly.  To make your skeletal muscles bigger and stronger do you lift light weights for long sets, or do you lift heavier weights for short sets?  Of course you do the latter.

In fact, if you lift light weights for 100’s of repetitions your muscles will atrophy to conserve energy.  The body says “I do not need this big muscle to do this light task for a long time so I am going to save energy and use a smaller muscle”.  It simply your bodies survival mechanism.

One of the most important factors at living a long time is the size and power of your heart and lungs.  So  doing interval cardio builds them up, and jogging makes them smaller and weaker.

4.) Changes The Way Your Body Stores Carbs You Eat In The Future

When you do jogging or “Fat Burn” cardio your body gets 70-80% of the energy required for that type of cardio from your fat cells, thus it is called “Fat Burn” cardio.  On the surface that seems like it would be a good thing.  But what happens is the body is very smart and it plans against future jogging sessions.

When you eat carbohydrates your body breaks them down into glucose (blood sugar) and glycogen (glucose stored in the liver and your muscles).  Glucose and glycogen is anabolic.  It is like muscle, it demands energy to sit there.  It is like rocket fuel for your muscles.  It can be used for short burst of intense energy production.  Fat on the other hand is a slow burn fuel that takes about 20 minutes of activity before it can be used.

So when you eat carbs in the future, it gets better at storing the glucose into the fat cells in preparation for future jogging sessions.  Therefore when you jog you create a fat storage machine.  This is not good.

When you do interval cardio training your body gets 70-80% of the energy required for that type of cardio from glycogen and glucose stored in your muscles and in your liver.  So when you do interval cardio the body stores more of your future carbs as glucose and glycogen in the liver and in the muscles.  This is very good.  Because for one the glucose and glycogen is anabolic, which means it burns calories all day long and even when you are sleeping.  And for two you have more energy for short bursts of intense activity in the future.  This means you can sprint faster and longer in the future.

5.) Builds More Functional, Usable Muscle, Is Easier On Your Joints, and Boosts Your Anabolic Hormones

Look at the physiques of a sprinter compared to that of a marathon runner.  Which physique do you want?  So train like a sprinter.  Short bursts of intense cardio followed by rest and recovery.   One reason why interval training builds more muscle is because of the above info about converting carbs into usable fuel.  But this is compounded by the fact that your anabolic hormones (growth hormone and testosterone) are raised by interval cardio; whereas jogging lowers your anabolic hormones.  When perform interval cardio with functional movements like running, the muscle is extremely functional because running simulates real world activities.  And because of this one’s balance, stability, and proprioception is worked at the same time as the muscles.

Interval training is easier on the joints than “fat burn” cardio.  The reason is because you are only performing the exercise for 60-90 seconds at a time and because of the intensity one’s muscles are tight and are absorbing the shock of the running.  Conversely, when one jogs for 60-90 minutes the muscles cannot stay tight to absorb the pounding of the running.  Thus the tension goes into bad places;  bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons.

Because of the above a good prescription would be to perform interval cardio 80% of the time and “fat burn”, jogging type cardio 20% of the time.

For the Interval Cardio routine that I developed and I have all my clients use,  Fatloss LifeStyle Interval Cardio Routine

Anyone and everyone does have the power to change their body, their lifestyle, and their life.  Our mission here is to give you the tools and the info to go out and make it happen.

To Your Success,

Darin L Steen

A certification or a bunch of letters behind a persons name does not mean that they are really good at what they do.

Whether a trainer has a certification from a highly accredited Personal Training organization or not shouldn’t be the deciding factor in whether you hire him or her.

Traits To Look For When Hiring a Trainer

Do they walk the walk?  Do they look fit and healthy?   If they really believe in what they are teaching, then they will be role modeling the behavior themselves.  I am not saying that everyone has to be a body builder.   But they should definitely be the best that they can be.

Do they have testimonials that you can contact?  If so, interview at least a couple and talk to them about their experience.  Did they change their body as much as you want to change yours?

Do they ask you a lot of questions?  Like; what are your goals?  What have your past experiences been with exercise and weight loss?   If not, this is a sign that they are not in it for the right reason.

Do they seem pushy or salesy.   If they are trying to close the deal then they are probably needy for a reason.  Stay away from them.

In closing,  I would like to say that a trainer more than likely should have at least one certification.  Because this shows that they have some ambition.

But most definitely what makes a great trainer is not a certification.  But rather experiences at helping people get in great shape, in a short amount of time with a time efficient work out.  To check out some highly qualified trainers in your area that will passionately assist you go to FIND A FITNESS TRAINER