Last week a my wife and I along with our good friends Bobby and Danielle set off on a Caribbean cruise for 6 days. We had an amazing time, out ports of call were Key West, Grand Cayman, And Jamaica. If you have never been on a cruise before I recommend it for sure. The only problem is the food… The food is amazing, Free, and served 24/7. If you are not careful you can over eat by 5000 calories + a day. Here are a few tips and tricks to staying healthy on vacation. 

1. Make a plan and share it with your friends. 

If your like me you hate to here about how you messed up and didn’t live up to the hype you created for your self. This is why telling a friend what your goals are is vary important to keeping you on track. - My Plan: Workout for a min. of 1 hour each day in addition to the excursion we went on.

2. Pack Snacks

Airports are filled with junk food, and the food on flights are not any better. Pack a few healthy snacks in your bag and drink a lot of water. If your anything like my your a sucker for suits and this will help you avoid the wrong kind of in-flight munchies. in addition bring fruit to your stare rooms or hotel rooms to avoid the temptation of calling room service at 2am.

3. Do something active each day

Pick an excursion or adventure that is going to get you moving. Choose paddle boarding of kayaking over taking a tour in a boat, take bikes or walk instead of taking a cab. Rent your own snorkeling gear and swim to the reef. The more you do physically on vacation the more you are going to remember. 

4. Loose weight before you go.

I lost 7 lbs right before I went on my cruise almost as a preemptive strike. But once I got on the ship I started to think about how hard it was to loose those pounds and how much easier it would be to just keep them off.

5. Last and not least come up with a routine

It is hard to find time to work out on a vacation, this I know. But there is always a few hours of down time. Maybe before you leave for the day or when you get back form being out. or even after everyone else has gone to bed. For myself I took 1 or 2 hours before dinner to get my swol on. It also got me super hungry so it worked out perfect.

But your on vacation, so have fun.

Joey a

So I went on a dairy fast for about 10 days. Reasons were part health and part willpower. No milk, cheese, yogurt, or anything that contained dairy, ie: Lattés, ice cream, cookies, and everything else that tastes good. The result was 7 lbs of weight loss, no flem, and a lot less stomach cramps after coffee. Oh yeah I cut out coffee too, because its not good black.

After all is said and done, and now knowing what effects dairy have on the body, I am going to do my best to stay away from eating it in excess. Try it out some time. If you think you don,t eat a lot of dairy just weight until you cut it out, it’s shocking.

Joey a

The other morning I was really craving something sweet for breakfast, but  shortly realized I didn’t have anything to make to make pancakes. With a little pushing around in the refrigerator I found a these:

Ingredients

whole wheat tortilla
peanut butter
bananas
blueberries
honey
brown sugar
oil
whip cream (optional)

When I made it for myself I only used the tortilla, Peanut butter, bananas, and blueberries. The next day my wife needed a dish for a party, That’s when I added the honey and brown sugar. It’s a good addition but adds a bit more calories.

Directions

Spread peanut butter over 1/2 of the tortilla. Place sliced bananas and whole blueberries on the peanut butter. Drizzle with honey. Fold tortilla in half and set aside. oil a lg frying pan. Once butter has come to a simmer sprinkle pan with brown sugar. Place the folded tortilla on the frying pan. Flip tortilla after 20 seconds. Enjoy.

Today I didn’t have a lot of time to get a workout in and I knew If I didn’t I would be in a bad mood all night. So what was I to do? CrossFit Or H.I.I.T.!

CrossFit Style Workout:
A lot of reps of a few different exercises as fast as you can for time.

H.I.I.T. - High Intensity Interval Training
High Intensity Interval Training is a specific type of interval training routine. It is mostly used for individuals trying to lose weight. It has a number of distinct goals and differences which make it unique.

I went with a crossfit style workout that I made up, Here it is:

1000r “Reps” Strong
100 Pull ups
500 Meter on the rower
100 Squats
100 Kettle Bell Swings
100 Sit ups
100 Push ups

In that order with no brakes.
My time was 22:00

Try it out and post your time.

“I just don’t have time to eat healthy,” “Eating good costs to much,” “Healthy food takes to long to prepare.” These are all excuses I hear when I encourage my clients to eat better. That’s just not true. A wile back I discovered the benefits of preparing my food in advance. For example pre prepping saves time, is economical, helps reduce wasted food, and is a good way to eat healthy.

What To Do:

Simple. Go to the store, Buy your favorite meat, fruits, vegetables, fresh herbs, grains, nuts, and dairy I am planing on posting my shopping list this week so stay tuned. Is you don’t have a good set of Tupperware get some. I have a set of Rubbermade stackabls that I love.

Once you have your food ready wash and layout everything you are going to prepare. DO IT right when you get home or else you wont do it and your food is bound to go bad. Start with the Vegetables, Cut up all your vegis into manageable amounts, Onions last. You can always use half of the items you bought and save the rest in zip locks for when you need to replenish the tubs.

As you are chopping up each vegi, place it in your container with a little room for air and breathing room for scooping it out later. Once all the vegis are cut and placed in there separate containers put them in the frig and move on to the fruits.

Fruit is easy, All you have to do is wash them and put them in individual bags and place them in the frig, right? Wrong. If your anything like me I don’t often eat fruit by it self. I am more into fruit salads. So wash and cut up your fruit and put it all together in a baking dish with a lid. Whenever you are feeling snacky Just pop the lid and scoop the goodies into a bowl. Its a super easy way to get good carbs in, especially in the morning when cooking is out of the question. When you are shopping for fruit look for deals on fruit that may be on sale because it is getting close to its expiration date. This kind of fruit is perfect for freezing and using for smoothies and smoothie bowls.

Now on to the meat. I tend to stay in the white meat and fish spectrum so shopping for meat is fairly easy. I buy organic and nitrate free turkey deli meat pre sliced, Ground turkey, Frozen salmon burgers, and organic chicken breasts. Micro prepping meat is essential to having a meal with substance. Start with the ground turkey. Brake the flat up into 5 portions and place them in freezer safe zip locks. Because you are braking them into small portions you wont have to take them out of the freezer and let them defrost. Just put the stove on low heat and chop it up with your wood spoon. The same rules apply to the salmon burgers, Just because they come in burger form doesn’t mean you cant ground them up in a pan and use them a taco meat. When It comes to cooking its all about being creative.

As a personal trainer I am often asked what and how often do I eat. Until a few months ago I didn’t really have a lot of consistency in my food habits, I would eat whatever I could whenever I had time. The big change came when I committed to going to the market on the same day every two weeks. “With and a mid week run to get more fruit.”

So what is the first rule of diet club?
“CONSISTENCY”

Not just in what you eat but in what time you eat and how much you eat at each meal. Lets start with what I eat. Because this is just an overview I am only going to mention the types of meals I eat and not the exact recipes, those will come in later posts.

WHAT:

• WATER
• Lean Meats and Fish
• Fresh Vegetables - Excluding the white ones
• Fresh Fruits
• Whole grains and Granola
• Organic Brown Eggs
• Natural Grain Rices
• Light Oils
• Raw Nuts
• Fat Free Yogurt

WHEN:

The when is the a vary important part of any strict diet. If you are like I use to be “eat what you can when you can,” you need to change. Start scheduling time for food. Like for real, Wake up a half hour early, Take a long lunch, and cook dinner. The big thing is to “Pack and Snack.” Micro prep has saved me a lot of time. More on micro preping in later posts. 

5:20am - Fruit/Granola/Yogurt - Getting carbs in early helps me start the day and really gets my metabolize kicking, within 3 or 4 hours I am usually starving.

8:00am - Small serving of Nuts or a Granola bar and a coffee. But Joey, “Coffee is bad!” Not in small amounts. Coffee has been proven to increase productivity and also help your focus during a workout. For me, Coffee isn’t something I need right when I wake up, But If I don’t have it by 9am stay clear. It also helps to get rid of what you have left over in your stomach from the night before…

11:30am - “PROTEIN TIME” - By this time in the day my body is begging me for eggs or some type of protein. This is the meal I think of as my breakfast. It is also the last meal I eat before I workout. Because I don’t have a lot of time to eat before my 2 hour workout micro prepping really comes into play. A good rule for this meal is the more protein the better, and because 1 egg can contains up to 9g most of my 3rd meals include them.

1:30pm - Protein Shake - 70g of pure chocolate goodness. I only recommend this after a workout. 

2:00pm - Standard Lunch - P/C Combo - More carbs than protein in this meal usually. Examples are sandwich, sushi rolls “Brown Rice,” Tacos, Turkey burger, Sweet potato fries. The reason I take in a good amount of carbohydrates at lunch is because this is the last carb based meal I eat and my body needs it to get me through the rest of the day.

6:00pm - Dinner 1.0 - Meat, And Potatoes! “Sweet potatoes that is.” The goal of dinner 1.0 is replenish all the calories my body burnt in the last half of the day. Because I don’t usually workout at night, the portion size of dinner 1.0 is small. Just enough to fill me up but not stuff me. Examples include - Fatty fish, chicken, turkey, Greens, and a small amount of fruit to quench the carb craving. 

8:00pm - One to two hours before bed - Dinner 2.0 -  Protein Shake #2.
I also like to think of this as my dessert or sweet treat for the night. Because I am going to bed soon after this I want a substance that is going to work for me wile I get my horizontal on. That’s where casein protein comes in. Choosing a good protein blend or just a straight casein protein for your bedtime snack is essential. Not only dose it fill you up and help you fight the munchies but it goes to work on repairing micro rips in your muscles wile your counting sheep.

I know this all may seem crazy to some of you, but once you start a diet like his you will be amazed at how you can start to figure out what your body needs. Give it a try! If you workout at night switch the protein meals around to fit you, It is all about finding out what is going to work for your body. Stay tuned for more posts.

Posts to come:
Shopping Lists
Micro Prepping
Sup with Supplements
Recipes
Stay Tuned!