Today we’re going to switch gears a little bit and see what advice Tony has for us in terms of diet and  nutrition.

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Craig Ballantyne:    Yeah.  It’s such a simple thing that can be so powerful.  And I’m sure that you guys have seen it, like you said, thousands and thousands and thousands of times – amazing stories of people literally cutting their body weight in half.

Tony Horton: You know Dallas Carter lost 160 pounds.  This girl, Julianne, lost 110 pounds. They – in both their stories;

they didn’t count a calorie;

they just stopped eating junk.

And they stopped eating huge meals.

And they stopped eating before they went to bed.

And the problem with most people is that they have a food addiction, and they’re not willing to admit it.  They have a serious food – they’re addicted to the crap ingredients that is in most food.  And it’s hard to get off.  It’s maybe not as hard as getting off of cigarettes, but it’s really hard.  You know what I mean?

So I tell folks, I say, “Find fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats, and find the spices that make those things taste good.  And find the restaurants that will make the food the way you want it.” I can go into any restaurant, anywhere, and ask for exactly what I want.  I mean, it’s not – I’m not gonna say I’m gonna get the thin crust, whole grain pizza covered in vegetables with no cheese, but I’ll get something close.  I’ll get something close.

And I always tell the waiter – like, people say, “Well, what do you do when you go out?  What do you do when you travel?”  I say, “Put a cooler in the car, plug it in, and then put – you know, PLAN ahead.”  Nutritionists – just like their workouts.

If you wanna have success with your workouts, you have to have a PLAN.  Same thing with food.

You have to have a – if you’re going on a trip and you’re gonna be in a car, and you didn’t pack the – and the night before and put it in your cooler in the car the next morning, then you have not made your PLAN and you have set yourself up for FAILURE.

You’re gonna be starving, and there’s gonna be Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, and Burger King, and Pizza Hut along the way, and you’re gonna make a mistake.  You know?  There are certain rules to success.  I call it the “cycle of success.”

There are certain things that have to be done every day, for you to succeed, for your day to be great.

I’m 51 years old, and ten minutes ago, I was eight, playing catch in my front yard.  I’m 51.  How’d that happen?  The trip is short.  You’d better get your act together.  You know what I mean?  Are you gonna go out like a lot of people, the last 20 years of your life?  And it’s an ugly picture, filled with lack of movement, lots of depression, and too many pills.

Craig Ballantyne:    Those are powerful, powerful points there.  And Tony, you know, seeing you on Facebook and just listening to the last five minutes of conversation there, you’re a true motivator and a very inspirational person.

Now, what is it that – what are some of the things that you have seen in your personal training with clients that has helped people stay motivated?  Obviously just simply knowing to PLAN, planning ahead, keeping it as simple as possible.  What else has really been very successful in helping people that you’ve trained in person and through P90X to stay motivated and stick with the program?

Tony Horton: You know what I learned a long time ago is that – there’s a great article in Time magazine that came out, I don’t know, about five or six years ago.  It was the ten most important trends of the millennium.  And number nine was called “Infotainment.”  And I’m kind of hardwired for that.  I mean, that’s just kind of who I am.  I mean, I was an actor and a comic, and I also loved fitness.

So I could take really dull, hard to swallow stuff and make it more palatable for people through little – like, a lot of my expressions, “Do your best and forget the rest,” “You’re only good at things you do often,” “Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and healthy fats,” you know, “the cycle of success,” “communication,” you know, “meditation” – these are all things that I – that are short and easy to remember and keep you on track.

I mean, I know you have a lot of trainers out there, but the thing is, a lot of trainers and nutritionists and everything – they treat this stuff like rocket science.

Well, the stuff is hard to swallow as it is; and then we’re gonna make it dry and boring on top of that?  Oh, my God.  You know?  The reason why P90X is successful is because Carl Daikeler, the CEO, and Jon Congdon, our president, said, “Horton, go do your thing.  We’ll tone you down if you get too crazy,” you know?

So I was able to just – I mean, I go on QVC and I just act like a clown.  I mean, I just – you know, why make this stuff – it’s – push-ups are hard.  Pull-ups are hard.  Squats are hard.  Cardio sucks.  You know?

I mean, if we’re gonna make it really important _____ giving all the statistics and the range of motion and the Krebs cycle – shut up.  If your client wants that, and if that’s important, great.  If they wanna count calories, then you’re better to show them how.  But other than that, you’d better get a sense of humor.  Get a sense of humor about it, man.  And give people a break.

A guy – I have a friend of mine; she’s brilliant.  Brilliant.  She does Gyrotonics and Pilates.  But she starts working with me, and she doesn’t cut me a break.  She asks me to do things that I physically can’t do, and she looks at me like I’m crazy.

“You’re a trainer.”  I said, “I’ve never done this move before in my life.  I have a learning curve, thank you very much, so I’d like you to be more patient and have a better sense of humor and show me a modified version.”  And if you’re supposed to be so good – those – you’ve got degrees up the ying yang, but you can’t show me those three things?  So that’s important, I think.

Craig Ballantyne:    That’s awesome stuff.  I mean, aside from just being really interesting and motivational to the people that are listening for the fat loss purpose, the trainers – I hope you really paid attention to what Tony just said there.

It was CAREER-CHANGING advice for you.

If you can be entertaining and break things down into very simple concepts from the very – from slightly complex stuff that nutrition and exercise can be, you will help a lot more people.  And Tony – with 18,000-plus fans on Facebook, on your Facebook fan page, you are certainly helping a lot of people.

To discover the rest of Tony Horton’s fat burning advice:

Click here to listen to this exclusive interview

I promise you’ll learn a lot to help you lose belly fat

I’m going to show you the full workout videos here to help you get started burning fat fast with simple workouts you can do in the comfort of your own home.

Now you might think these workouts are easy, but you MUST know this…

Three of the four most recent TT Transformation Contest Winners (like Robyn, pictured) started with the Beginner program during their 12-week Transformation. So you are in good company with these workouts.

Here’s the Beginner Workout Warm-up Video.

We’ll start with the warm-up, doing 3 bodyweight exercises back-to-back-to back with no rest in between. Once you’ve gone through the exercises once, take a 30 second rest and repeat it one more time. That is the general warm-up for the workout.

So, the 3 bodyweight exercises are going to be; prisoner squats, pushups, and stability ball leg curls.  This is a nice total body warm-up and hits all of the hot zones of the body.

For the prisoner squats, place your hands behind your head as if you were being arrested in the prisoner position. This will allow you to work your upper back in a squat movement by keeping the shoulder blades together. Now, place your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart, and then squat down and up, repeating for a total of 10 repetitions.

The next bodyweight warm-up exercise is the pushup or kneeling pushup. For this exercise you will do 8 repetitions. Bring your chest down to the floor and up, making sure to keep your abs braced and your body in a straight line. The kneeling pushup is performed the same way with the exception that you are doing it from your knees.

Without rest, move on to the stability ball leg curls.

Most people do this WRONG and they let their hips drop…keep your hips bridged up at all times!

Laying with your back on the floor, and feet on the ball, bridge your hips up and curl the ball back in, keeping your body in a straight line. Repeat this for 8 repetitions, rest 30 seconds and then repeat the warm-up exercises one more time.

Now for the real workouts to help you become a body transformation contest success story…

Alternate between Workout A and Workout B for 4 weeks, doing each workout only once per week.

Now for the full workouts, and we’ll start with the Turbulence Training Beginner Level Workout A.  We will start with the first superset, dumbbell squats and pushups.

For the DB squat exercise, you are going to start by holding a set of dumbbells in your hands at arm’s length, with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart. With your chest out, head up, push your hips back, squatting to parallel and then back up.

Be sure to use a nice and controlled descent and then a strong contraction on the way up. In total, you will perform 10 repetitions of the dumbbell squat exercise.

Without rest, immediately move on to the next exercise in the workout, the pushup or kneeling pushup.  Placing your body in a straight line, drop your chest down to just above the ground and press up with your chest, triceps and shoulders.

Again, you will perform 10 repetitions of this exercise and then rest for 1 minute before repeating the superset 1 more times.

In the second superset, you will pair dumbbell rows with stability ball leg curls.  So, for the db row, you are going to have the db in one hand, while the other hand is going to rest on the end of the bench as is the knee on the same side.

Do NOT round your back. Keep your back flat at all times.

Now, keep your back flat and bend your back knee, while planting the foot into the ground.  Place the db at arm’s length, and then using your upper back and lats (a back muscle), bring your shoulder blade towards the midline and row that dumbbell up to your chest.

It is important to pull with your back and to just use your arm to hold the db, making this not so much an arm exercise, but a back exercise.  Do 10 repetitions for one side, then switch over and do 10 for the other.

Now, without resting, you will move on to the next exercise in the superset, the stability ball leg curl for 12 repetitions.  Heels up, hips up and curl that ball back in with your hamstrings, being sure to keep your body in a straight line.  Rest one minute and repeat that superset one more time for a total of 2 supersets.

We will finish workout A with a third superset of two abdominal exercises, the ab curl up and the side plank.  So, for the ab curl up, lie on your back, one leg is bent and the other is flat (it doesn’t matter which), you can place your hands under your lower back to support it.

Next, keep your head in a straight line with your body and curl your shoulder blades off the ground and then back down.  Do 10 repetitions of this exercise and as you get stronger and fitter you can hold the top position for up to 5 seconds.

Next, move immediately into the side plank done for 15 seconds per side.  If you find this too easy, then you can hold the position for 30 seconds.  So, hold for 15 seconds on one side, and then 15 seconds on the other side, rest one minute and repeat that superset for a total of 2 supersets.

Now that you’ve finished the strength training you can move on to the interval training and then finish off with your stretching.

Whew…And now for Turbulence Training Beginner Level Workout B. Start with the regular beginner level warm-up, and then we’ll use a set of dumbbells to do chest press and step-ups.

For the chest press, you are going to lay flat back on a bench.  Then, press the dumbbells up and in and then slowly take them down and out to chest level.  After you’ve done all repetitions, without rest you will go into a dumbbell step-up.

To perform the db step-up, place one foot up on the bench.  You will then use that leg to pull yourself up to the top position, and then slowly lower yourself down.

Once you’ve completed all repetitions for the first leg, switch over and complete all the reps for the other.  After all the repetitions for the superset are finished, then rest one minute and repeat one more time for a total of 2 supersets.

In the second superset you will pair elevated pushups with a one-leg hip extension.  The elevated pushup can be down kneeling or in a full position.  To get in position for the elevated pushup, place one hand elevated four to six inches on a block or a step, while the other hand will be flat on the ground.

Next, perform six pushups with one hand up, and then switch elevated hands and perform another six repetitions.  Be sure to keep your body in a straight line with your abs braced.  This exercise will be a little more difficult then any other pushup exercise you’ve done.

Moving immediately into the one-leg lying hip extension, bend one knee while placing the other up in the air.  In this position, your bent leg will do all of the work.  So to perform the exercise, brace your abs and bridge your hips up.  Make sure to come nice and slow on the way down.

After you’ve done all ten repetitions for one side, switch over to the other side.  This exercise involves a really strong contraction in your hamstrings and glutes.  Again, once you have completed the superset, rest one minute and then repeat one more time.

To finish off workout B, we will do an abdominal superset, consisting of a plank and a bird dog exercise. (Bird Dog Bally ===>)

For the plank, you will place your body in a straight line from toes to shoulders, and your elbows on a mat, hold this position for 30 seconds.

The bird dog exercise is not strenuous, but requires a lot of control in your midsection, while working little muscles in your lower back.  So, with your hands and knees on a matt, lift your opposite arm and leg, keeping everything straight and flat.

You will perform this exercise by alternating sides for six repetitions.  Take a one minute rest and repeat the abdominal superset one more time.

Now you are finished the strength training portion of workout B and you can continue on with interval training followed by stretching.

Congratulations! Alternate between Workout A and Workout B for 4 weeks, doing each workout only once per week.

Hope you enjoyed the Beginner Level Turbulence Training workouts,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS – Click here to get started with Turbulence Training and join the Transformation Contest!