7 Easy fixes you can make to your daily nutrition today!

Make those 7 easy fixes to your daily nutrition as your first step to successful weight loss and a healthier lifestyle. Those easy fixes are baby steps to a healthier diet. Start by building a strong base and then you can focus on the little things. These 7 easy fixes will make you feel much better and will build that strong base you need to lead a strong healthier lifestyle. Use those steps as general guidelines in your life rather than temporary diets. A habit starts by repeating an action several times.

1) Wake up, drink up: Drink 2 cups of water in the morning as soon as you wake up before you eat breakfast and while you are preparing for work. Water will boost your metabolism and give your body a good start. Have breakfast 30 minutes after your drink!

Take it up a notch: add lemon to your water.

2) Protein will boost your metabolism: Add a protein source to every meal and snack. This can include: eggs, lean meats, chicken, fish, nuts, beans, natural peanut/almond butter, whey protein

3) Make your own healthy spaghetti sauce: Add 2-3 Tbsp of 100% tomato paste to 1-2 Tbsp water. Mix in spices. Serve with your spaghetti.

Take it up a notch: Go for healthier spices/herbs like paprika, garlic powder, turmeric, basal, cilantro. Use whole-wheat pasta!

4) Eat more good fats: Ironically, eating more fats will help you burn fats. Go for good fats though, the liver uses them to boost its metabolic function and burn body fat. Your brain and muscles also need good fats to develop and function well.  Choose sources such as: olive oil, fatty fish (salmon, sardines, herring), avocado, nuts & seeds.

Take it up a notch: If you have eliminated all sources of bad fats and exclusively eat the good fats listed above then introduce 100% pure virgin coconut oil to your daily diet (1 Tbsp a day). Coconut oil helps our liver function and aids in fat loss, however it is also a high source of saturated fats. We only need little saturated fats and most of us get plenty in our diets through bad fats. Therefore only use coconut oil when your saturated fat intake is low from bad fat sources such as fatty meat, vegetable oil, fried foods, junk food etc. If you are unsure what I am talking about then disregard the coconut oil!

5) Take a vitamin D supplement or enjoy the sun: Take a vitamin D supplement (1000 I.U per day) during the winter in countries like Canada or enjoy 15-30 minutes in the sun per day in countries like Egypt. Vitamin D can be made by our bodies through the sun or can be supplemented in our diet through some fish and supplements. Vitamin D has numerous benefits for the body.

Beware: 1 cup of fortified milk will only provide you with 10% of your daily needs of vitamin D. Drinking 10 cups of milk a day is not recommended or realistic! Use a supplement.

6) Control those servings: Divide your plate into one ½ and 2 quarters. 1 quarter should be whole grains, 1 quarter should be a lean protein and ½ should be vegetables. When you serve your lunch or supper, put the remaining food in the fridge, this will stop you from going for seconds.

7) Wait for it….: Finish your meals and promise yourself you will wait 30 minutes before thinking of going for seconds. Wait 30 minutes. How do you feel now? It takes 30 minutes for our stomach to signal our brain that it is full. So give it some time and see if you are still hungry or not. 

Love it, or use fitness and nutrition to change it!

Mohamed

Before/after Transformation: How long do you think it took?

First off, I would like to dedicate this post to the 26 Egyptian soldiers who died in last week's horrific terrorist attack. Please take a moment to pray for them, may they rest in peace. 
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Take a look at those before and after pictures I took:

Before and After Exhibit A

Before and After Exhibit B

This transformation occurred after a rigorous plan that I worked on (I will share it just keep reading). We see many of those plans online. We are thrown in a world where we are unsure what works and what doesn't. We see tons of products, supplements, workout plans, diets etc. All those articles we come across have one thing in common: incredible before and after pictures that leave us 100% sure that this intervention used must work for us, it worked for them after all. Those websites often promise us results in 2-6 weeks! Promising us huge gains and a ton of fat loss in a matter of weeks. We are all guilty of falling for such claims. Our desire to reach our goals accelerate and pave the way for us falling for such false claims. We then proceed to buying in on those diets, supplements, products, etc only to find ourselves not achieving the results we saw online. We become frustrated and give up, we blame ourselves and say "maybe we can never reach such potential, maybe we don't have the genes for it". 

I want you to take a good look at those before and after pictures and guess how long it took me to reach those goals with proper nutrition and exercising of course. Keep that number in mind for now.

Often the correct answer to reaching our goals is right in front of us. It's a mixture of dedication, proper planning and patience. Patience is crucial, you will make progress in 2-6 weeks but you will not transform in that little time. It took you years of being inactive to get to where you are, do you really think a few weeks will fix that? It is simply not probable, I won't say impossible, but not probable. 

The point is do not fall for everything you see online, do not believe false claims, do not look at before and after pictures. Look instead to see how realistic those methods are, no pill will ever make you gain tons of muscle and lose a lot of fat. 

Now back to the pictures, who guessed a few weeks? Now who guessed a few months? I showed this picture to friends and family and I got answers varying from 1 month to 6 months. 

In reality, both before and after pictures are literally... 3 minutes apart. That is correct 3 minutes apart. Some of you might have guessed correctly, most of you will have guessed incorrectly. The only difference between those before and after pictures is my form, pose, did a set of pushups maybe and one big smile. Three minutes is all there is to it! 

My point is, do not believe websites trying to sell you products, pills, plans, crazy diets etc that simply do not work. Do not judge products based on before and after pictures. The only intervention plan that works is a balanced diet, exercise, some dedication, plenty of patience and my blog :D (of course I would say that)

Please note that some genuine people post before and after pictures of their own progress, those people, who are not trying to sell you anything crazy, are not out of line neither are they trying to fool you. They are genuinely exposing their progress that they are proud of. I have seen many of those pictures and I respect them all, in fact I love them. They are in no way misleading because they have no hidden motives behind them. As a matter of fact I have just seen a special one posted today that looked amazing and extremely motivating (they know who they are!). This post is mainly targeted towards companies/individuals who try to sell you crazy products by influencing you with such pictures. Think twice please! 

Love it, or use fitness and nutrition to change it :)

Mohamed

Why you should work your muscles to failure if you want to lose weight fast

Let us take a moment to pray for Cpl. Nathan Cirillo who lost his life in a cowardly act while serving Canada, also for the tens of Egyptian officers who die monthly maintaining law & order in the country and every other heroic figure who died while protecting others. RIP.
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Do you want the number one secret for losing weight (fat) very fast? Because I'm about to give it to you. Working your muscles to failure is a fancy way of saying “working your muscles really hard” and is also commonly referred to as “exhausting your muscles”. Most trainers hand out this piece of advice to friends/clients without addressing crucial points. Ideally, unless you are very experienced in the art of resistance/weight training (yes it is an art), then this technique is best done under the supervision of knowledgeable trainers. In this article I will discuss why and how you should work your muscles to failure on your own in a safe and effective way as part of your weight loss tools. First off, I would not recommend this type of training for those who are new to resistance (weight) training. I will explain how you can work your way to being able to adapt to this type of training. Please read carefully and ask questions if confused we can avoid injury.

What does “working muscles to failure mean”?

This exercise ideology means that when you perform a set of resistance exercise (squat, biceps curls, chest press etc) you complete the set only when the targeted muscle fails on the last repetition. Meaning you would be unable to complete any more repetitions using proper form. This type of training takes a lot of dedication and focus. If you commonly struggle with progress in the gym and with seeing results, this is the number one reason why (in my opinion). You should incorporate this type of training with resistance exercises you are familiar with, have been doing for a while and with absolute correct form.

How can working my muscles to failure help me lose weight?

There are two main benefits of working your muscles to failure:

1. You cause an “after-burn” effect: let’s get this clear! During resistance/weight training you breakdown muscles, your body responds by rebuilding them stronger when you rest and get proper nutrition in. In simple words “you breakdown muscles in that 1 hour per day in the gym, your body responds by rebuilding them in the 23 other hours” of the day. This can help you lose weight because your body can use your fat stores to rebuild and upkeep your muscles. In other words, science shows increased metabolism for up to 48 hours post strenuous resistance training (this effect is not as strong from cardio training).
2. When you work your muscles to failure, your metabolism will increase: Working your muscles to failure will force your body to rebuild them stronger and bigger. More muscle mass means a higher metabolism and that is because the body needs more energy to maintain that higher muscle mass. This means you will burn more fat throughout the day just by simply doing nothing extra. I often get the question “how can I increase my metabolism?” well this is the undisputed #1 one method to do it. Ladies, do not worry about getting bulky, unless you use steroids, it won’t happen. Building muscle for you coupled with fat loss means an overall tighter and well-figured body.

New to resistance training? Tips & steps on how to exercise to failure:

1. Start by familiarizing yourself with the exercise until you are 100% sure your form is spot on correct. You can always ask your gym trainer to watch your form to help you improve it.
2. Once you are comfortable and familiar with the exercise, start by using a weight or resistance level you can easily complete 12-15 slow and controlled repetitions of. Brace your core and clench your glutes. Now complete your set only when you fail on the last repetition. 
3. Rest no longer than 80-120 seconds between sets, repeat 3-4 times per exercise. 
4. Once you hit your target of 15 repetitions, increase the weight by 3-5% the next time you work that specific muscle. Keeping a journal will help.
5. It is crucial that the last repetition look exactly like the first repetition in terms of tempo and form. You are highly unlikely to hurt yourself that way.
6. Control your breathing: deep breath in while you lift, breath out when you lower. Never hold your breath!
7. Find a spotter who will help spot you on dangerous exercises like squats, chest press etc where you might risk dropping the weight.
8. Feeling sore towards the end is fine

Watch for those indicators of bad technique:

1. Your form is off midway or towards the end: Reduce the weight if that’s the case
2. You start pulling acrobatic moves and bending backwards/forwards to complete repetitions: Stop short of doing that, your muscles have already failed if you are at that point.
3. Your tempo (speed) increases towards the end: speed is not the focus here, if the first repetition takes you 6 seconds to complete then the last one should take you the same time.
4. Stop immediately at any sign of sharp sudden pain (not to be mistaken with general muscle soreness)
5. Building a very strong core and lower back will help prevent injuries

This post is dedicated to Cpl. Nathan Cirillo who died serving his country

 Rest In Peace

Love it, or use fitness & nutrition to change it.

Mohamed

The ultimate sacrifice you must be willing to make if you are to succeed in your fitness & nutrition goals

My brother, Omar, and I used to be couch potatoes  but motivated each other to achieve our goals! 

Ok I lied, the title of this post not only applies to succeeding in your fitness and health goals, but for every other goal you have in life. Accept my apologies for being brutally honest in this article but truth is we often worry too much about the now and make the mistake of letting it affect our future goals. 

I am talking to every person out there who is too shy to go to the gym because they are overweight, to the person who is worried they will make a fool of themselves in the gym, to the person who is afraid of failing and especially the person who gives in to drinking alcohol excessively with their friends when they are trying hard to lose that last bit of fat. It can also be the struggling individual with a sweet tooth but also a strong desire for losing weight, or the self-deceived person who wants to live long enough to watch their children grow but won’t give up smoking. Lets not also forget those of us who lie and cheat for short term pleasure and end up affecting our long term goals with loved ones. In every one of us you will find some form of that struggling scenario.

For you to achieve your fitness and health goals (and any other goals) you MUST be willing to sacrifice who you are now for who you want to become. I will give you a moment to let this sink in………… You need to sacrifice who you are now for who you want to become! That means letting go of the fear of being judged in the gym, letting go of the fear of failing, letting go of the fear of not looking “cool” enough in front of your friends.  We tend to hold on and worry about things that will not matter to us in the long run at the expense of what we really want to achieve.

Once you accept that you need to sacrifice who you are now for who you want to become then all you need to do is implement what you already know, which is basically to keep on fighting. I have heard this in a motivational speech before and it has stuck in my mind since: “the winner and the loser have both failed, the difference is that the winner gets up and does it again”. Every single time you fail, coupled with your desire to succeed, will bring you one step closer to success. Do not be afraid to fail, embrace it instead. Now take this and apply it to your fitness and nutrition goals. Act like who you want to become and you will be it! Trust me on this: down the road when you become what you want to be, you will only smile and laugh at the past, but first you must get there. I am still doing it, so can you! Let us do it together.

Grab a pen and paper.
Write "I am ready to sacrifice who I am for who I want to become"
Remind yourself of who you want to become.
Hang it up somewhere you will see everyday
Now try
Fail
Try again
Smile, you are there! Welcome! 

Speaking of failure, my next post will focus on achieving safe muscular failure in the gym to strengthen/grow/tone your muscles super fast! Don’t miss it.

Love it, or use fitness and nutrition to change it!

Mohamed

The 3 bad attitudes/beliefs hindering your exercise progress & how to fix them:

Photo by: Martin Angerer

Making mistakes is an inevitable characteristic that makes us human. No matter how perfect you think someone is, they have most likely made mistakes. The difference between those who succeed and those who fail is that the successful ones identify their mistakes and learn from them. The time it takes you to succeed is directly related to how fast you replace your mistakes with effective approaches. Believe it or not, making mistakes is in your favor and with the correct attitude, you will grow. So let us apply this philosophy to our physical efforts in the gym and rid ourselves of the top attitudes that will only set us up for failure.

#1 You only do cardio (aerobic) training for weight loss:

Cardio is any activity such as running, swimming, cycling, elliptical, Zumba class etc. While cardio exercises are an excellent method of maintaining your health and improving your heart function, it will not be very effective in weight loss. First off, cardio will only burn the number of calories you expend while you are exercising. To add to that, and without going too deep into metabolism, excessive cardio will use your muscle mass as fuels and thus effectively lower your metabolism. Now this isn’t meant to scare you and I am definitely not saying you should cut out cardio activity from your routine.

The fix:

Balance it out; add 2-3 days per week of resistance training to your routine so you can build more muscle. Building your muscles will increase your metabolism (yes having more muscle cells burns more energy throughout your day than having less muscle, welcome to the 21^st century). The problem with cardio is that it never places enough stress on your muscles to cause them to grow .Also try mixing up your cardio, top trainers use interval training with their clients for better weight loss and healthier hearts: run fast for 1-2 minute, walk for 1-2 minute, repeat 5-10 times.

#2 You only workout your upper body if you are a male, you mostly only workout your lower body if you are a female:

Yes you can always wear jeans to hide your lower body and put on a tight t shirt to show off your strong upper body (boys) and yes you can work your lower body non-stop to try and increase your butt size because you think your top half is fine (women). But in reality it is never that simple, and playing favourites with your muscles will only cause you to develop weaker ones over time. Forgetting about legs, which are the largest muscles of the body, will severely hinder your weight loss efforts.

The fix:

Give your muscles equal time and attention, especially the bigger ones. You lose more fat when you work your legs as opposed to your arms, don’t believe me? Do a set of biceps curls then do a set of lunges, when did you sweat more? Also, this is to all the lovely women out there, YOU CANNOT get huge and bulky by doing resistance training in the gym, it’s just not genetically possible so do not worry about it. If it so happens you are the rare bodybuilder breed that doesn’t need steroids, then you will not get bulky overnight anyways.

#3 You complete each set based on a fixed number of repetitions

This one is a bit advanced and more of a personal pet peeve. If you are always used to doing 10 repetitions of biceps curls or squats just because 10 is an even and fair amount of repetitions then I guarantee you are hindering your progress. The only times you can pre fix your repetitions are when you know for a fact that by the 10^th repetition you will be exhausted and that you will fail. My next post will talk about failing during a resistance exercise so please stay tuned for that instead of going all out and injuring yourself now.

The fix:

Given you are doing the exercise properly, safely and with correct form, skip the counting. Counting is psychological and your body will eventually pace itself. Completing 10 repetitions of an exercise doesn’t mean you have worked as hard as you can. The bottom line is your muscles will only grow when you place them under a considerable amount of stress. When my most dedicated and enthusiastic clients ask me “how many repetitions am I supposed to be doing?” my answer is always “as many as you can.. + 1”. Now while you do not have to take that literally since you are not exercising under an expert’s supervision, you should try listening to your muscles as to when they can stop as opposed to listening to what your tired mind is trying to tell you.

I would love to hear from you if this article has helped you in any way, don't forget to subscribe so you can get notifications when my newest post is up!

Love it, or use fitness and nutrition to change it!

Mohamed

One step at a time

http://www.quotepictures.net/just-take-one-step-at-a-time/

Often I come across people who, when they find out I am in dietetics and a personal trainer, would ask me a very common question. Any guessers? If you guessed, “How can I get in better shape?” then you are spot on correct.

In reality, this question can take forever to answer, and frankly that is exactly why top trainers and dietitians get paid a lot of money to work with their clients. My response to that very common question is always “well, what have you tried to do to get in better shape?” Most people think there is a one-fix solution to this question and while this is correct, that one-fix solution can ONLY be this: “having the motivation and will power to get in better shape”. Once you have that in the bag, everything else becomes a matter of knowing and implementing.

When I started being a trainer I would jump into giving advice about huge drastic life changes for my clients and friends. I quickly came to realize that there is no better way in losing people’s attention and business. Pounding people with a ton of changes only leads them to losing their motivation, which happens to be the worst thing to lose. Every trainer and dietitian knows that there is absolutely nothing better than having a client with strong motivation and will power, because that does 50% of the work for us.

So, to answer that commonly asked question there are two important steps, “how can you get in better shape?” first step is you have to define “better shape”. Whenever my mother and I used to get in heated debates and arguments I would, rarely.. well occasionally, scream out “I am free, I can do whatever I want” and her response was always “define free”. So you must define the term “in better shape”, do you want to loose weight? Build muscle? Improve your aerobic (cardio) performance? Feel healthier? Improve your chances from getting sick? Define it however you want to, as long as that is what you want and not what society expects!

Step 2 is how bad do you want to achieve how you defined “better shape”? Kinda want it? Want it bad? Not really sure? Want it more than anything in life? The list can go on. Once you define your motivational factor, rank it from 1 (I think I want it) – 10 (I will do whatever it takes) and monitor it over time. Make small changes in your life and see if it improves your motivational factor. You might ask “what small changes do I need to make?” and in fact what you are doing right now, curiously reading my fitness and nutrition blog, is precisely a small change. I will help you with the rest, over time of course. I personally had to learn from a very inspirational special person that the secret is always: one step at a time!

Don't forget to subscribe by entering your email at the top of the page, this will only notify you once a new post is up! 

Love it, or use fitness & nutrition to change it!

Mohamed

Welcome! A bit about me

Thank you for visiting my blog!

I will keep it short & simple. My name is Mohamed Rezk. I am first and foremost an adventurous, knowledge-thirsty and curious person like most of you out there! My curiosity coupled with my desire for both mental and physical self-improvment led me to a career in health & fitness.

I am a funny combination of an athlete, scientist, personal trainer, future dietitian and many more. I have been a Water Polo athlete for a total of 10 years, a personal trainer for almost 3 years, a scientist forever and, if all goes according to plan, a dietitian in less than 1 month. I graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Biomedical Sciences and decided to pursue dietetics. Being the adventurous, social and curious person I am, I was fortunate to learn a lot on nutrition and fitness through people I have come across as well as my own research thanks to my thirst for knowledge.

I did not choose dietetics and fitness as a career because I wasn't unsure of which career I should choose, neither did I choose my path based on any belief that "this is where the money is at". I truly believe that nutrition can prevent what medicine cannot solve nowadays, I have been saying that for the past 4 years so you can quote me on it ;). Having said that, my true passion lies in helping others, and this is what I will be doing through this blog. What's better than changing a life for the better? Nothing whatsoever.

I solemnly swear that all information published in this blog is backed up by science, in fact I will be citing some scientific articles for those who care, for those who don't, you will just have to trust me :) All of my advice given here has been used on myself as well as my clients. I will not overwhelm you with information or drastic life changes, I have learned over the years that REALISTIC goals are the way to go!

I would really appreciate it if you share this blog with your friends!

I will be posting my first entry soon, but until then feel free to comment suggesting topics you are interested in!

Don't forget to subscribe by entering your email at the top of the page, this will only notify you once a new post is up! 

Your body is your vessel in life (heard this one a billion times eh) so learn to......

Love it! Or use fitness & nutrition to change it! 

Mohamed