Betsy

Mary Kaszuba, owner of Tranquility Day Spa, a phenomenal facility in Milford for all your beauty and relaxation needs (Yes I go there regularly), is pictured here cranking out ''Betsy''.

Betsy =
20 kettlebell Swings (pic 1) 30 Thrusters and (pics 2 & 3) 50 12-inch Box Jumps.

After a functional active warm-up, she completed the 3 exercises 3 times without any rest in 17 minutes. The effect that 17 minutes where her heart rate was in the 150-170 range for the whole duration is Strength Endurance. The after effect is fat burning heaven. Whilst doing the drill I could have sworn she thought she was in hell but… the results of this type of training will be seen on all my clients come summer time. Lean, ripped and very, very fit!

Happy Leap Day! Enjoy a fantastic weekend!

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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Are Eggs Causing Disease and Weight Gain?

I just read this newsletter from my colleague and friend Mike Geary and thought it was great information that everyone should know about. There has been some confusion about this lately and he explains it very well.

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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Why Cardio Doesn't Work

Cardio exercise is such a strange thing. In theory, it should work so perfectly well for all men and women, but as anyone who has tried it knows, the practicality of it just doesn't add up.

After all, some men and women do cardio 6 hours, 9 hours, or more per week, and still have belly fat to burn. On the other hand, it works just fine for others.

British researchers wanted to get more insight into this paradox, and studied 35 overweight men and women, who weren't previously exercising. (Reference: International Journal of Obesity 32: 177-184, 2008).

Subjects exercised 5 times per week for 12 weeks. That's a lot of exercise, but it helped the subjects lose an average of 8.2 pounds, which is great - I was positively surprised by the results.

So cardio will work for some people, however, in my experience, it works best in young men, who need the help the least!

Back to the study, the variance in fat loss between individuals was huge. Check this out...

The best subject lost a staggering 32.3 pounds in 12 weeks, while the worst subject actually GAINED 3.74 pounds.

The scientists think they know where things went sour. They classified the subjects into 2 groups, called the "Compensators" and the "Non-compensators".

The Compensators were hungrier, and as a result consumed an extra 268 calories per day, all but wiping out their cardio efforts.

Therefore, the Compensators lost the least amount of weight, and scientists believe that was due to the huge "compensatory" increase in appetite experienced by this group.

Does your appetite increase when you do slow cardio? If it does, research shows it will ruin your cardio efforts.

So if your cardio program is not working for you, check your appetite and calorie intake to see if you are "compensating" for your efforts. If you are, you might be better off using a program of high-intensity resistance and interval training (i.e. Turbulence Training) for your weight loss efforts.

As Australian Professor Steve Boucher has shown in research, interval training increases hormones called catecholamines. And increased catecholamines can reduce appetite, among other fat-burning benefits.

In the real world, few people lose 33 pounds after 12 weeks of cardio. Heck, few even achieve an average weight loss of 8 pounds with aerobic exercise.

So again, check your appetite, and consider giving high-intensity exercise a go for your next workout program.

Beat the curse of cardio with high-intensity Turbulence Training.

Sincerely,
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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The Last 4 Doctors You Will Ever Need - DR DIET

The Modern Diet

Because our diet plays such a foundational role in our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing, let's begin with Dr. Diet. Dr. Diet says, "Get rid of the S.A.D. C.R.A.P.!"

The human body has evolved over millions of years, just like any other living creature on planet earth. One major difference between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom is that animals don't read diet books - they eat their natural diet.

Not surprisingly, disease epidemics occur much less frequently among animals living in the wild (except those that are induced by man through environmental poisoning). While so-called nutritional experts debate over what is the best diet for humans, they, and their audience, have become obese, sick and diseased dining on their suggestions! Nature is full of examples that show us why modern dietary recommendations can't be right. We're told, for example, that eating red meat and animal fats clogs the arteries and brings about heart disease, but I've yet to hear of wild, carnivorous animals dying of heart disease the way we humans do. The fact is, we've moved far away from our natural diet and begun to eat what I call the S.A.D. C.R.A.P. diet. What exactly is the S.A.D. C.R.A.P. diet? Simply put, it stands for:

Standard American Diet, consisting of:

• Carbohydrates
• Refined Foods
• Additives
• Preservatives

I see it with my clients over and over again, even when working with professional athletes, that people are typically eating far too many simplified and processed carbohydrate foods. Carbohydrates are foods that don't come from anything that had a set of eyeballs. For example, carrots, celery, apples, oranges, soda pop, breakfast cereals, bread, etc., don't come from animals.

Carbohydrates as a group then are what I call "no-eyes foods", while "eyes foods" are our optimal sources of fat and protein. (For the purpose of balancing your eyes to no-eyes proportions, all nuts, butters, cheeses, avocado and oils are considered eyes foods due to their fat content.

If you are on the S.A.D. C.R.A.P. Diet, you can find yourself running into a number of common symptoms. They include:

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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Honey vs. Sugar

You already know my stance that artificial sweeteners are pretty much one of the most evil things you can put in your body. This leaves many people confused about what to use to sweeten their tea and other food and drink.

First of all, the less of any sweetener you can use, the better... if you can slowly over time adjust your taste buds to enjoy the natural taste of foods and drink without the need for heavily sweetening them, you'll see many benefits for your body.

However, this leaves the question...

If I really want to at least use a little sweetener, should I use sugar or honey?

The easy answer is that honey is better for you than refined sugar. Keep in mind that they are both calorie dense and eating large amounts of honey will still make you deposit body fat.

However, refined sugar is a "negative" nutrient...

It's literally devoid of nutrition and using it actually makes your body use up stored nutrients to process it.

Honey on the other hand has many beneficial nutrients, enzymes, and antioxidants... raw honey is best as typical honey processing destroys many of the enzymes and antioxidants that give the benefits. I won't use any honey other than raw honey. You can find raw honey at certain health food stores

Also, honey has been shown in several studies to improve the body's ability to process glucose, whereas refined sugar negatively affects your body's ability to process glucose over time.

In fact, I don't use refined sugar for anything at all. It's either raw honey, pure maple syrup (not fake corn syrup), or stevia for all of my sweetening needs. Those are better choices than processed sugar or artificial sweeteners.

"Don't be lazy, Eatclean-Be lean" - BK

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How Poor Food Choices Increase Belly Fat

Food is not only important for our biological growth but also affects our emotional and social interactions. Unfortunately, the real meaning of food has gotten lost in the present rat-race which we term as 'life'. This super-fast lifestyle is taking a huge toll on people's health and most of them do not realize it until it is too late. A vibrant health is what everyone should have but how many of us actually possess it?

In this 'instant' age food is the prime casualty. Work, home, social pressures all combine to make healthy eating habits seem difficult and that ugly roll of fat around the stomach is proof of it. Here, we will try and show how poor food intakes increases belly fat.

Who doesn't want to look good? It's human nature to want to look attractive. People spend money on gyms, on fad dieting just so that they can possess an enviable figure. Besides looking ugly, fat on the abdomen is a sure sign of a host of diseases which just may attack you making this fat extremely injurious to health. Nature designed the human body so that it would store fat as energy reserves but along with a leap in technology (cutting our work into half), came increased inactivity and poor dietary habits and this contributed to fat getting accumulated on the abdomen.

Poor food intake increases belly fat because poor quality, high in calories food stimulates the increase of fat cells and creates new fat cells. A diet high in sodium and fat and sugar adds to the abdominal fat. People now are so pressed for time that they take short-cuts for food and have now substituted good old home cooking with ready-to-eat food packages. Fast food is poor food, no matter what the companies do to advertise their products as healthy. Junk food contains high levels of fat, sugar and salt. It is popular because it is easy to buy, needs no preparation and is convenient to eat and it also increases your waistline.

Studies have shown how poor food intake increases belly fat because eating less fibrous and nutritious food results in poor elimination which in turn, causes bloating and distention of the stomach. You will not be able to get rid of that belly fat without taking a good look at what you are putting in there. If you treat your stomach as a trash can and insist on dumping nutrition-deficient food in it, it will take its toll on you.

People don't realize that no matter how much exercise they do, poor food intakes increases belly fat and they should guard against it. Whenever we are too emotionally charged, we tend to eat more and most of the time; we reach out for that packet of chips or that chocolate cake. In our stressed out mentality we don't realize the impact of these high-fat saturated foods and thus our poor food intake increases belly fat. Food high in proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals is essential for a balanced diet. These food groups give the right amount of nutrition needed by the body.

Many times people make the mistake of dieting very rigorously in the hope that they will slim down and they remain hungry for long periods. But, this makes the body go into the 'starvation' mode, it decreases the metabolism and fat cells break down less and this is another instance of how poor food intakes increases belly fat.

Thus, the right kind of food choices is very important for radiant health and an enviable figure!

To get ripped slim abs- join booty camp!!

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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Booty Camp and Turcotte

Below is an article about Turcotte Center for Health (www.turcottecenterforhealth.com) in Fairfield where my new studio is under construction as I write. I am busy purchasing equipment for my 500 square foot space and cannot wait to join the boys down there. In the meantime...

BOOTYCAMP is coming to Milford March 1st!

This 8 week program I believe has never been seen before in this country. Myself and Jason Leydon, of theUnderground2 (www.theunderground2.com), are designing a total health package leaving no stone unturned. From laying the foundations with a motivational guru you will receive:

• Individualized nutrition plan based on metabolic typing
• Weekly educational lectures from top professionals
• Complimentary precision muscle therapy massage
  (Jim Durant is the BEST in the business bar none)
• Beautification package (15% off all services at Tranquility Health and Wellness day spa)
• 3 early morning intense performance program workouts per week.

Ohh! Here is the beauty.....all participants wear heart rate monitors programmed by us to set an alarm when out of the prescribed zone=FAT BURNING RESULTS.

Myself and Jason are very excited about this 8 week gig which will be inside and out utilizing Tyres, Kettle bells, hills, beach runs, stair climbs you name it, we will do it.

It will be challenging, fun and educational. Limited to 16 people max! 6 spots gone already!!

Contact me here to participate: ben@benedictkelly.com.

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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Monavie in Milford

There must be something to this Juice. A lot of celebrities and athletes are on it now and they have had phenomenal free ads from the news and numerous mags around the country, especially in FL, CA and NY ... Oprah, Rachael Ray, Matt Lauer .....

I drink 2 ounces first thing in morning, 2 ounces with my post workout muscle replenishment shake and a further 2 ounces in the evening. AAA grade high octane nutrition for my body!

I am constantly looking for better ways to improve my health and was on www.brighart.com and found all these sites... check them out! ... just go to brighart, scroll down to the “Acai & MonaVie in the News” area... have fun!

Two great opportunities!!

Next Friday and Saturday, Two MV TASTINGS:

• Friday night, Feb 16th, 7:15pm, at the UNDERGROUND, 354 Woodmont Road, Milford
• Saturday, Feb.17th, 1:00pm at the Hampton Inn off exit 36, I95, Milford

Drink it! Feel it! Share it!
Mona Vie - the Super Antioxidant, Anti-Aging Nutritional Supplement

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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How to Lose Stomach Fat & Get 6-Pack Abs

Yesterday morning I torched through a brutal workout consisting of:

10 bench press 185 pounds
10 power cleans 105 pounds
10 deadlifts 135 pounds all done in a row with no rest.
I then proceeded to do 9 then 8 all the way down to 1 rep of all three exercises.

It took me 19 minutes to complete this workout and my heart rate was 154 average for the 19 minutes.

Did I do anything else? No, I was lucky to be able to drive home! Extremely challenging workout and I will try next week to better my time, then increase my weight. The goal is to lift my bodyweight on the bench and deadlifts and 3/4 of my weight on the cleans. Anyone with a moderate conditioning can do this workout, obviously varying the resistance to match your own strength. This is a highly anabolic workout and an excellent way to torch body fat

If you want to know how to lose stomach fat and get 6-pack abs, I can tell you in about 30 seconds. You don't need complex six pack ab workouts containing hundreds of crunches and dozens of exercises each week.

The best way to burn belly fat and start seeing your 6-pack is to spend less time focusing on it! In my opinion, all you need to do to get 6-pack abs is this...

Lose belly fat with nutrition, intervals, and resistance training.

More specifically...

First, start by improving the quality of the food you eat. No more processed carbohydrates, no more sugar, no more deep-fried foods, no more fast food, and no more sodas or juices. Simply making these changes will help you lose stomach fat fast, and you'll drop your body fat percentage in just days.

Next, you need to spend more time on the basic workout methods, such as total body strength training and interval training, and less time on boring, ineffective ab training exercises. Doing hundreds of crunches won't get you results. And doing long, slow boring cardio is also an inefficient way to burn belly fat and see your 6-pack abs.

According to researchers from Australia, including Professor Steve Boucher, the only way to spot reduce belly fat is to use interval training. This exercise method burns more belly fat than slow cardio workouts.

Once you've taken care of your nutrition, resistance training, and interval training, you can start with basic abdominal workouts. Here's what you need to know, and this will surprise you!

1. Beginners should stay the heck away from situps and crunch-type movements until they master the Plank, Side Plank, and Bird Dog. You have to take care of your back before you can start pounding it with traditional ab exercises.
2. Here are some my favorite no-crunch ab movements for intermediate levels...
1. Stability Ball Rollout (also can be done with the Ab Wheel or as a Barbell Rollout)
2. Stability Ball Jackknife
3. Plank with Your Arms on the Ball (according to research quoted in Mens Health, this exercise works your abs 30% harder than the regular Plank)

Okay, so I've given my controversial advice about what beginners and intermediate fitness levels should do for abs...now for my more advanced 6-pack ab recommendations.

But first, I want to mention some "unknown" ab builders...

1. The Elevated Pushup
2. Straight Arm Cable Pullover
3. Front Squat
4. DB Pullover & even DB Triceps Extensions with extra stretch

All great total body moves to have in your program to burn calories and build abs at the same time.

Now what do you really need to do to bring out your abs once you have your body fat low?

My favorite advanced ab exercise is Cable Crunches, which are without a doubt, the best resistance exercise for building abs.

The big message I like to get across to clients is that they can build 6-pack abs without ever doing a single crunch while lying on their backs.

It shocks people, but it is true. If you want to lose stomach fat fast and see your six pack abs, focus on your nutrition, total body strength training, and interval training before you even consider adding more reps to your current ab workout.

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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RIIIIIDICULOUS!

Last nights Super Bowl was one for the ages. To have the New York Giants, such a massive underdog come through and win the ''world championship'' was amazing and inspirational. The game was a close second behind a New South Wales v Queensland State of origin Rugby League unbelievable last second victory a few years ago that I witnessed. The top two games I have ever watched in any sport, period.

Where to start… The Giant’s defense was ridiculous, ridiculously good that is! The front 4 just monstered Tom Brady, hunting him, sniffing him and crushing him 5 times. I loved it. This guy has been untouchable all year but, let me tell ya from experience when you get hit once its ok, twice you shrug it off.. three times your looking over your shoulder and getting nervous.... four times and time is moving very bloody fast, and your ribs are hurting..... and five times you are dead set looking for the exit gate. Now as good as Tom Brady is, after getting hunted and hit that many times the halo above his head that made him immortal soon gets knocked off.

The play from Steve Smith in the 4th quarter to get the giants a first down on 3rd down was ridiculous. Not getting that and the game was over.

Eli Manning caught by his shirt in the pocket, (not giving in like some nancy boy quarterbacks I have seen ) and swiveling out running right and throwing a hail-mary-like pass upfield to whatshisname with three defenders converging was riiiiiiiiiiiiiiidiculous!!! Whatshisname catching the ball above his head and holding it with one hand on his melon (head) was a play that will be remembered for as long as man will live. It was game over if he didn’t make that play. David Tyree is his name!!! I am still excited about the game. It was an absolute cracker!

The New York Giants were written off by 95% of people, but they believed, they achieved and they won!

FYI: Can someone please tell me how New York are ''World Champions'' when no-one (except an ordinary league in Canada) plays Gridiron Football? No disrespect intended because I love the game but.....lets be serious here!

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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Grilled Chicken and Bean Salad

I was talking with my accountant yesterday and she had mentioned that had gone to my blog and pulled off my Grilled Chicken and Bean Salad Recipe a few weeks ago and loved it.

I asked what she liked about it and she mentioned that it was filling and tasted great without useless calories.

She then proceeded to mention that last week she gave it to a few guys and girls in her Spinning class because she liked it so much. On Monday one of the guys thanked her again for the recipe and has made it 3 times already because he likes it so much.

So I wanted to make sure that you got the recipe as well and hopefully you will enjoy it just as much. It really packs a punch in regards to burning fat as you will see below.

Here are the ingredients:

1. Cook and chop the chicken
2. Then mix the beans, corn, onion, and chicken together.
3. Pour in the 1 cup of fat-free French Dressing and you are finished.

You now have an excellent meal that is portable and can be eaten cold or hot. It tastes great both ways.

You might be wondering why this is a great fat loss meal. It is because you are eating a good amount of protein which provides fullness and has a high Thermic Effect Factor. A high Thermic Effect means that it requires more calories for digestion than other nutrients such as carbs and fat.

So your net calorie intake is lower. This meal also provides a great source of fiber which again provides satiey and fullness as well as slow down the digestion process so your insulin levels stay controlled. Controlling your insulin level is key to fat loss.

"eatclean-staylean" - BK

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