Back from Jersey shore and Manhattan…great trip, lots of workouts, including bodyweight army training, 10 miles of walking in NYC, upper body at the renegade gym, a day off at the jersey shore, and then squats at the renegade gym again – Thursday I got back to Toronto to do an interval training video and hill sprint workout.

When I got back, I went straight to this blender drink:

1 frozen banana, frozen raspberries & blueberries, frozen spinach, almond milk, peanut butter, walnuts, and cacao nibs. And there is a lot more nutrition in this week’s guide.

Click here to listen to the call…

Now let’s get into the TT Workout and tips…

Monday – June 14th

Transformation Tip of the Week:

“You can make mistakes, but you are not a failure until you blame others for those mistakes. When you blame others you are trying to excuse yourself. When you make excuses you cannot properly evaluate yourself. Without proper evaluation, failure is inevitable.”
John Wooden

So stay strong. Do your best, always do better than yesterday…and learn from your mistakes.

Next week I’ll cover the TT Buff Dudes & Hot Chicks Workout, but this week I’m going to tell you about the workouts I did at Jason Ferruggia’s gym…

Monday’s workout at Jay’s gym was:

Box Jumps (I managed a 48inch box jump and Jay did 51 inches. Then Military Press, Chins, Alligator pushups on power wheel, and T-bar rows. I did some planks and side planks to finish off.

Tuesday
Get 30 minutes of fun activity – now grab a Green Tea and do this week’s research review.

Reference:

Effect of moderate intensity resistance training during weight loss on body composition and physical performance in overweight older adults. Journal    European Journal of Applied Physiology. University of Rhode Island.

27 overweight and obese older (age 67 ± 4 years) adults were separated into one of 2 groups:

1) a 10-week Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension for weight loss diet (DASH, n = 12)
2) DASH plus moderate intensity resistance training (DASH-RT, n = 15).

Results:
No significant weight loss differences between the DASH-RT and DASH groups.

However, the DASH-RT group had a greater reduction in body fat than the DASH group (9 pounds of fat vs. −0.5 lbs) AND the DASH-RT group had greater changes in lean mass (+1.8 pounds vs. −3 pounds).

These subjects gained muscle and lost fat at the same time – at age 67!

So what’s stopping you?

Wednesday

In the June 2010 issue of Men’s Health magazine, trainer Mike Robertson explains why you shouldn’t go to failure in your workouts. So he agrees with me and Jay Ferruggia.

As Jay says, “you need to avoid training to failure. In your workouts, make sure you dominate the weight, don’t let the weight dominate you.”

At Jays’ gym, 2 young guys insisted on doing “death set failure” sets…and they got weaker…but now they are on Jay’s plan and they will hold back a little each workout so they will continue to get stronger all summer.

Click here to listen to Jay explain this in greater detail in an interview I did with him back in April

My 2nd workout at the Renegade Gym with Jay Ferruggia:

BW warmup, Medicine Ball Throws, Squats, Rack Deadlifts, Glute-ham raises, battling ropes.

Thursday
Do 30 minutes of fun activity…and now a motivational quote for you:

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”
- Emerson

Friday

I only trained twice with Jay, but when I got back to Toronto I filmed an interval training video and then followed that up with 6 sprints of about 30-40 seconds up a steep hill. More info to come in the intervals video…

Social Support Saturday!
30 minutes of fun activity…

One of the keys to Ferruggia’s success is the training environment that he has in his gym. Imagine 12 guys training in a gym at once…stronger than you…forcing you to train at their level…while motivating one another…playing music that pumps you up. It’s such a comraderie there that guys hang out for 30 minutes before or after their workout to motivate other groups of guys working out. Powerful stuff. Makes me want to move there.

Sunday – Plan, Shop & Prepare
30 minutes activity and plan, shop, & prepare.

But don’t try the fish…here’s why:

Most fish at restaurants and in grocery stores is farmed…and you don’t even want to know about the conditions of farmed fish. It’s nasty.

You’ll also be shocked to know that Men’s Health magazine reported that restaurant meals contain 18 percent more calories than stated – due to flawed portion sizes.

Fortunately, I had an amazing home-cooked vegetarian dinner on Monday night. It was made by Jay’s fiance, Jen and consisted of:

Raw vegetables and hummus, plus a plate of peppers and artichokes in olive oil, and then a couple of slices of flatbread pizza, followed by kale wraps filled with quinoa, cashew-red pepper sauce, salsa, and avocado. Dessert of coconut milk ice cream (cookie dough flavor) and raw almond butter cookies.

Sure it wasn’t the best fat loss meal, but the ingredients were fresh and made of real food (with the exception of the ice cream treat).

Next week!
TT Workout – Update TT Buff Dudes & Hot Chicks
Nutrition Research Review – Surprising info on breakfast and fat loss

Vegetarian smoothies can be heavenly…and they can also be evil for the belly.

And I’ve learned a lot about smoothies – or what I prefer to call, “Blender Drinks” – in the last 8 weeks as part of my Veggie Lifestyle.

Here’s some truths about blender drink smoothies…

1) YES, you can add spinach to your blender smoothies and you won’t notice a difference in taste but you will get more nutrients!

You can even add Kale as well.

(And if you have blueberries and strawberries in your smoothie, you won’t even notice a difference in how it looks.)

2) Store-bought pre-made smoothies and the smoothies you buy at “Juice”-places in the mall are PACKED with sugar that will fatten your waistline.

Avoid those at all times!

3) Murphy’s Law applies every time I use a blender.

Just check this video of me making a blender drink:

4) You really need a good blender if you are going to be a blender drink maniac like I am.

I’m hooked! Two a day!

5) You don’t need to add protein powder.

Most people could save a lot of money and never buy a jug of protein ever again.

You don’t need 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, especially if you have some fat to lose.

6) Its really not that hard to clean a blender…

…and remember, this is coming from one of the laziest guys in the world!

7) You don’t need to add juice to your smoothies.

My mom does this, but I don’t see the point. If you have fruit, like bananas, mango, raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries in your smoothie that’s sweet enough.

(Pineapple also makes for an amazing blender drink addition.)

So add more fruits and vegetables to your diet the smooth way,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, The Lazy Man’s Guide to Vegetarian Eating

PS – Did you get your copy of the 8 raw food smoothies bonus?

We are giving this away as a Veggie Meal Plans Bonus at:

=> http://www.EasyVeggieMealPlans.com

It’s a fast action bonus along with the GREATEST product I’ve ever created.

Seriously.

I truly believe the “Defend Your Diet” audio program I did with Kardena Pauza and her husband Mark is easily the greatest interview I’ve ever done with someone…

…if not the most valuable “program” I’ve ever put together for anyone on anything.

And NO ONE has ever done something like this before.

Get yours here:

=> http://www.EasyVeggieMealPlans.com

PPS – You’ll get my “Lazy Man’s Guide to Vegetarian Eating” in the Deluxe Package.

It’s a complete 55 day diary of EVERYTHING that I ate while on the veggie meal plan experiment.

PPPS – Yes, I’m still doing the veggie lifestyle.

Enjoying it, especially since I started grilling portobella mushrooms for burgers.

You gotta try Kardena’s mushroom burger recipe from the meal plans!