It happens to all of us…

It’s 5:30pm or so on a workday, you’re about to head home… and wondering if you should exercise.  Maybe you’re already home and just want to cook dinner and watch some TV.  Or maybe it’s a weekend morning and you want to get some beers and watch football with your buddies and not worry about hitting the track or gym.

Sometimes you actually have a real excuse… maybe you’re a little sick or are too sore from yesterday’s bench routine.  Should you still go?

Well we put together a little flowchart for you to always know exactly whether this is a “skip” day or a “stop being lazy and get your ass to the gym” day.

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There’s no question that the best way to have a ripped, muscular body is to put your time in at the gym and be attentive to your diet.  That being said, there will be times on the road to total fitness where you just want a “quick fix” to look good.  This might be before a date, before going out to the clubs, or just before taking some pictures for Facebook.

Here are some ways to use optical illusions to your advantage to make yourself look like you have more muscle mass and less body fat.

1) Get a Tan

Skin tone is one of the most powerful factors in how you’re perceived on many levels.  It certainly has a huge impact on how big your muscles look.  In general, the darker the better.

This is one of the reasons why you tend to see rap stars with their shirts off more than rock and pop stars.  It is that much easier to look great with your shirt off, the darker your skin is.

Without even considering race, think about how many pasty white people you know that look good just wearing shorts and shoes.  For some reason, all the definition lines are harder to see when you look very white.

Take this test if you’re willing… Go to your local drug store and buy a sunless tanning lotion.  L’Oreal and Jorgen’s are the best reviewed and hardest to screw up.

Take a picture of yourself in the mirror before applying, and then take another picture of yourself a few hours after tanning.

You’ll notice that your arms look more cut, your abs have better definition, and every muscle just seems to stand out more.

You’ll also notice your teeth look a lot whiter (another advantage that darker skinned people have in the looks department) and you’re on the whole, more attractive.

2) Wear Fitted Clothing

You’ll have to be careful with this one because this can easily backfire depending on what your bodytype is at the moment.  If you’re quite overweight, tread very carefully.

For t-shirts, dress shirts, and many collared shirts, you can get a “fitted” style that will hug parts of your body and accentuate where your muscles come out.

This will sound obvious to some readers and be mind-blowing to others, depending on where you’re living.  When I was visiting New Jersey, I went to a Banana Republic and asked where they have fitted graphic t-shirts.  I realized right away I had to explain to the store associate what both “fitted” and “graphic” meant.

A good fitted t-shirt will hug around your waist and around your arms.  It’s not a skin-tight spandex look, but your sleeves should be just tight enough to comfortably fit around the biceps without straying out.

Dress shirts usually come in fitted forms as well and have the unique advantage of making you seem buffer without it looking like you’re trying to look buff.

Also, if you’re in pretty good shape already, wearing a white t-shirt will help the illusion even more.

3) Do Some Push-Ups

I learned this one from a professional dating coach who would have his clients do 15-20 pushups before a date or before going out to meet women.

This is not a full workout, but pushups are a quick exercise you can do that will swell up your arms and give you a couple hours of enhanced muscles to show around if you’re going out to the club.

If you have a little more time, consider doing a quick mini full-body workout right before you hit the bars, including body weight squats.  Professional body-builders have their own routine they call “The Pump” to do right before competition.

But if you only have a little bit of time, just some pushups will give you that muscular look right away and also boost you with some extra testosterone and confidence too.

4) Improve Your Posture

This one is not as fun because it requires more long-term work instead of a quick fix before going out.

You’re always going to look less jacked if your shoulders are slumped, if your back is hunched over, or if your body is unevenly balanced when you’re standing or sitting.

The first thing you can do is just start being cognizant of how you’re standing.  You can easily just pull your shoulders back, have your chest out, and stand up straight.

However, the more you work on your posture over time, the more effortless it will be to show off your physique without thinking about it.

A simple exercise to do is to lay your belly with your arms at your sides, and pull your shoulders back for ten seconds. Do this 5 times each day and you’ll find it becoming easier and easier to keep good posture.

Another one is to get on the floor and lie on your back… putting your legs on a coffee table or couch at right angles.  Just laying there for 5 minutes a day will help release your lower back muscles to improve your posture.

Try doing all of these before you go out to a club or party and see what happens.  Most likely, you’ll get more compliments for being jacked than you ever have before.

There is a love-hate relationship with the idea of taking time off your workout if you’re sick.  On one level, you don’t want to lose your momentum and you definitely don’t want to lose your muscle-mass.

On another level… let’s face it, we all want a break sometimes.  Health psychologists can sometimes even trace athlete illness to coming from a desire to take a few days off without any guilt.

This article is written for people that want to not only keep their fitness gains… but also want to get out of the sick condition as soon as possible so they can train for real.  This will mean that these workouts are going to be easier… and secondly… that they will help your body heal at an accelerated rate.

Note that if you’re sick, you have to be cognizant of not infecting other members of your gym or fitness center.  Part of making fitness a powerful part of your life is showing respect for your body, your temple (the gym), and your community (fellow gym junkies).  If you’re sneezing or breaking into cold sweats, just do these at home using YouTube videos or DVD’s.  Always err on being over-considerate with these exercises.

1) Yoga

Yoga is an extremely powerful fitness activity for many reasons.

If you’ve done even a single yoga class, you’re no doubt familiar with upward facing dog and downward facing dog.

Now, if you’ve ever owned a dog you’ve seen they do the same thing… that upward and downward stretch (hence the yoga names).  This is one very good reason why animals don’t need chiropractors or get sick like humans do.  They’re in touch with their natural “maintenance” movements that cleanse their organs and refresh their muscle and skeletal systems.

Yoga is a way for us to do this ourselves under a guiding teacher.  Your stretches will increase circulation, your twists will push out toxins, and your sweat will help you excrete those floating toxins out of your system.  You also get the added benefit of simply relieving stress from your mind and body.  A lot of tension gets caught up in the muscles which weights us down over time and yoga helps release that.

There are plenty of videos online for you to do a light yoga workout… and if you feel well enough to go to a class, make sure you go easy and use the lighter “modifications.”  You’re in competition with no one, not even your healthier self.

2) Very Light Aerobics

This is the one of the best things you can do when you’re stuck in the house.  This is where you really have to set aside your ego for the moment and do some exercises that, well… Richard Simmons would be proud of.

Just go to any YouTube Channel and look for some recorded aerobics lessons.  If the recording shows a full class of people… then the more out-of-shape the audience looks, the better.

This is something you can do for 15-20 minutes just to get your circulation flowing and bad chemicals moving out of your system.  Do just enough to be sweating and feel like your blood is moving.

If you normally do home aerobic workouts like Insanity, then take that workout and divide it by 100 in intensity.  Even just half the warm-up at half the pace enough should be all you need.

3) Just Jog Outside

Yes, this is a truism, but many of the best things you can do for your body when sick are kind of boring.

The advantage you get from jogging outside is beyond just getting some aerobic exercise.

You’re getting out into the sun which will help you quite a bit psychologically as well as physically.  The sun will not only give you Vitamin D but wake your body up, giving it some healthy light beyond what’s on your TV screen or through your windows.

Plus, the act of putting on your track shoes, getting your gear on, and running sends a very powerful message to your brain, “I’m still in control.”  That attitude sends endorphins, reduces stress-related cortisol, and will most definitely speed up your recovery.

Just lightly jog around for about ten to fifteen minutes and then stretch.  You do not want to be sprinting or doing any type of high-intensity interval training.

One thing to keep in mind is that you are under no requirements to do any of the above if you just feel awful.  Sometimes all you need is pure rest, especially if you have something like a chest cold, severe flu, or bronchitis.  Also, if you have anything wrong with your stomach, then doing anything but very light stretching could exacerbate the situation.

Also, make sure if you do any workout that you rejuvenate yourself with plenty of water and supplementation if possible.  A dissolving Vitamin-C supplement like Emergen-C contains electrolytes and is great to have in water following any exercise when you’re not feeling at your best.

For bodybuilding and fitness goals, protein shakes are part of life, and… they’re not that bad at all.

They’re not a necessary evil like caloric deficit or soreness.  They actually taste good for the most part and give your muscles the building blocks they need to grow and strengthen from your workouts.

However, they DO get boring.  There’s no way around that.  No matter how wonderful the chocolate fudge pie flavored whey gets, your taste buds will scream “ENOUGH!” at some point.

Here are some ways to “shake things up” so you can continue using this wonderful resource without getting fatigued on it.

Obviously your needs for carbs and fat will vary, so use your own judgment on certain ingredients for what you add to your shakes.

1) Switch to Smoothies

Your home blender will always give you way more options than a cup shaker or spoon for your shakes.   Even those little blending cups have minimal chopping ability.

This does make things more difficult on-the-go, of course.   If you need part of your smoothie for later on, store it in a thermos and use one of those metal twine balls inside (from a shaker-cup) to re-mix everything later in the day.

A good standard staple is to use milk and some plain yogurt (full fat or non-fat), which will add a pro-biotic nutritional edge to your morning.  Then you can add more of the items below as you wish.

2) Add Frozen Fruit

The great thing about this is that you have a near limitless variety for what you can add to a protein smoothie.  In the frozen section of your grocery store, you will find frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, peaches, mango, pineapple, cherries, guava, and more.

You may have to visit a few stores to find everything, but that isn’t so bad.  If it turns out that Shop Rite is the only place to find organic frozen cherries, then you can just buy a few bags while you’re there and only return once every month or two.

And of course, any fruit you find in the fresh produce section, such as bananas, are great for unpeeling and freezing for later use.

The combination possibilities are near endless as well, because you never know how peach will combine with blueberries compared to raspberries, etc.

Most diets allow at least one serving of fruit a day and a smoothie is a great place to make this happen.

Note: Vanilla flavored protein powder seems to work best with fruit for the most part.

3) Switch the Protein Source Up

Ok, hear me out on this one before you start rebelling in the comment section.

I am fully on-board with the idea that the best protein powder is a blend of fast-digesting and slow-digesting milk proteins (such as whey & casein).

However, just like salmon is arguably healthier than pork chops, you would not want to eat fish every single day of your life.

A healthy diet has variety, there’s no way around it.  For some reason, we gym rats assume that sucralose and whey should be immune to variety rule, but if you care about your total health, then it makes sense to mix some other types of protein powder in.

Don’t go for the soy, but there’s egg, hemp, and rice protein to at least look at.  Even if you end up having days with less protein in your shakes, you’ll feel a lot better and enjoy having new shakes you’ve never tried before.

4) Try Some Oatmeal

This one surprises a lot of folks because most likely your entire life, oatmeal has only been a food that is only EATEN and never drank through a straw.

However, if you take some rolled oats fresh out of the canister and throw it in your blender, it makes a great smoothie even tastier and heartier.  An eighth or fourth of a cup goes a long way.

You’ll get some more carbs with this, but you also get a ton of fiber and nutrients… as well as lowering your overall cholesterol.  Along with quinoa, oatmeal is one of the top grains on earth so don’t shortchange it.

5) Add Peanut Butter

This is another counter-intuitive measure but will make your protein smoothies tasty and dangerously addictive.  If you already have some mixed frozen berries in your blender, add a spoon or two of smooth peanut butter and you get a delicious peanut butter and jelly taste to your protein shake.

If you want to take it even farther, use Earth Balance “Coconut & Peanut Spread,” which combines coconut oil with peanut butter for a unique and unforgettable taste sensation.

Speaking of coconut oil, if you need a fat source for your morning, that is a great addition to put in a smoothie as well, and goes especially well with strawberries and cherries.

When in doubt, simply just be creative.  As said earlier, you will want to see how the fruit, oatmeal, and natural fat recommendations gel with your nutritional regimen.  Either way, you can rest that there’s no reason your protein supplementation has to be boring.

Earlier we talked about “overrated health foods” that are not everything they claim to be.  Foods like egg whites and acai berry, which while healthful are not as amazing as you might think.

Today we’re going to look at some foods that are far worse… ones that I would call fake health foods.  These are foods that the companies actually know are unhealthy but place in the aisles to cash in off misinformed customers.

There are even more insidious because of the manipulative corporate intentions, so you can keep an eye out for these and help your well-meaning friends avoid them. 

1) Better ‘n Peanut Butter

This one is aggravating not only for being less healthy, but because it has the sheer audacity to claim it’s healthier than the real deal.

I can respect JIF and Skippy at least a little bit because they don’t pretend to be superior while adding sugar to an otherwise pretty-good peanut butter.

“Better’n Peanut Butter” however, takes away good parts of peanut butter and adds in things you don’t want.

For example, an average double-tablespoon of natural peanut butter will have 8g carbs, 8g protein, and 16g fat.

The fat content may sound high, but remember that the fat is 80% unsaturated (same as olive oil) and just fine in moderation.

How does “Better ‘n Peanut Butter” improve this natural wonder?

By taking the fat AND protein out and bumping up the refined carbs.

So you’re left with 2g fat, 2g protein, and 13g carbs.

Oh and if you were wondering, the extra carbs come from dehydrated cane juice, rice syrup, and tapioca syrup… all fancy names for sugar.  They claim it’s not “refined” sugar but I say if you have to chemically suck the sugar out of another food to make something sweet, it’s pretty processed.

What’s more, without the fat and protein to fill you up, you’re likely to eat way more of the supposed “Better” kind, resulting in a larger amount of calories than you were planning on.

2) Frozen Diet Meals

In the frozen section of the grocery store, you generally have two types of microwaveable meals to choose from.

There’s the “Yes I’m lazy” category and the “I’m a sucker for pretend-healthy food” category.

You can just tell from the brand names which one is for you.  In the first category, you’d find Hungry Man and Banquet Select.  You don’t look at an item named “Hungry Man XXL” with a picture of WWE wrestlers on the cover and expect a sprout salad.

But then you have Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, and Eating Right.   What do most of these have in common?

Well they all make the promise that you will be eating healthfully merely by picking up a package with “lean” or “healthy” on it.

And what kind of person do you think will rush right to labels like that?

People who are unable or unwilling to do their own research on what types of foods are healthy.  They’d prefer to let the companies decide for them.

So they end up eating these lower-calorie but heavily processed microwavable meals, many being loaded with refined white grains, additives, and sugars.

Now not everything pre-made in the frozen aisle is bad for you.  You just have to treat a frozen dinner like that like any other packaged food and ask yourself:

• Does this have an adequate amount of protein?
• Does this have the carb amount I’m looking for?
• Are there a lot of sugars, additives, and other things I don’t want in my body?

You’ll find that once you start analyzing what’s inside frozen dinners, you will lose your desire to have them at all and… god forbid… start cooking for yourself instead.

3) Miracle Whip & Fat Free Dressings

You may know Miracle Whip as the “Healthier Mayo” in the grocery store.  Interestingly enough, Miracle Whip originally began as the “Cheaper Mayo” in the 1930’s when ingredients like eggs were harder to come by.

At some point in time, Kraft realized that they could raise the price of Miracle Whip to the same amount as Mayo while capitalizing on the “all fats are evil” scare.  So Miracle Whip became something for more health conscious people.

Now we can break open the myth of this thinking.

What’s the main difference between the two?  Mayonnaise has egg in the ingredients and Miracle Whip has high fructose corn syrup instead.

So calorie count and fat content aside, the real question is if you think eggs are healthier than cheap refined sugar.  If so, then mayo should be your choice.

The same is with Fat Free dressings.  Kraft is another big offender at this, by creating dressings without olive oil (which is very healthy) and instead putting in high-fructose corn syrup to pad your waistline

There are other odd products to watch out for, such as orange juice that has been de-sugared and replaced with some artificial sweetener.  You are better off not drinking fruit juice in the first place, but chemically altering the food is not the answer.

The truth is that nature has given us food that is great “as is” without needing tampering to be healthier.  Man’s adjustments just get in the way.

Your best bet when looking at foods that claim to be healthy are to ask these questions:

• Is this a natural food that a company is chemically altering?
• Is natural fat being substituted with sugar of any kind (including any “syrup” that sounds natural)?
• Is this product’s only health claim that it’s low calorie or low fat?

You’ll see a number of products like these in health food stores, possibly even organic grocery markets as well.  The reality you’ll have to accept is that you cannot trust any company to have your best interests in mind over their profit statement.

This means you have to take responsibility for everything you eat.  Sometimes there will be a company you can trust on a limited basis.  If Horizon makes an organic cottage cheese you like, you can probably trust their organic yogurt too.  However, it’s always up to you to look at the label and find out what these health claims really mean.

No matter what the feuding dieticians say about saturated fat, red meat, carbs, or protein, vegetables will always be the golden child of any diet.

Vegetables are very low-calorie, low-sugar, low-carb, and low-fat.  In fact, it’s low in just about everything but fiber and nutrients… the things your diet needs the most.  It’s safe to say if you had enough vegetables every day, there would be no need to even consider popping a vitamin pill… or any other for that matter.

However, we have to deal with the fact that vegetables are unfortunately less convenient than other less-healthy items in terms of buying, storing, cooking, and preparing in a way that actually tastes good.

Throw me a steak and I can make it work with just about any heat source.  Throw me a head of bok choy and I’m going to spend 10 minutes Googling how to cook it, 10 minutes Googling how to make it taste good, and another 5 minutes Googling what the hell bok choy is.

So here are some short cuts to make sure you eat enough vegetables every day.

1) Easy Raw Choices

There will be plenty of times when you’re on the go and unable to really cook anything.  If you are trying to get 2-3 vegetables in your diet every day, you can’t bank on always having leftover cooked veggies to take with you.

Because of this, you need to have a few raw goodies on call for you whenever you need them.

For me, the best items for this are red bell pepper and a bag of mixed greens from Trader Joe’s.

A red bell pepper tastes great on it’s own.  It’s not bland or spicy, and actually should taste pretty sweet.  You can cut it in slices or even eat it as if it’s an apple.

If you have a bag of mixed greens or baby spinach, you can easily dump some into a plastic container and put in a little closed cup of salad dressing and you’re good to go.

Other options for you could be carrots, little tomatoes, or celery.  Just make sure that anything raw you choose does not taste bland or boring.  You have to enjoy it if it’s to become a habit in your day.

2) Frozen is Awesome

At any grocery store, you’re going to see a lot of frozen veggie options.  Aside from the convenience of having vegetables which never go bad, you also have the wondrous benefit that your food will most likely be cut up for you already.

This means you can put a bag or two of veggies in the steamer or microwave, and within some minutes, you’re done and can even have some leftover portions available to cool and refrigerate for tomorrow.  Since the veggies are pre-cut, this means all you need to do when on the go or in a hurry is grab a fork and chow down right out of the container without any preparation.

Just make sure you vary the types of vegetables you eat.  You don’t want fall into the temptation of lazily having a corn, peas, & carrots mix every day.

By the way, if you have a little more time and are willing to do some chopping, a steamer pot will also be your best friend for any fresh vegetables you get at the market.  It probably only adds about 5 minutes to the process to chop up and is just a simple “add water & stir” process.

3) Make Green Smoothies

If you have any New Age, woo-woo friends on Facebook, you have almost certainly seen your friends post pictures of their Vitamix… a wonder-blender that lets you stuff in broccoli, apples, celery, and a lead pipe and end up with a beautifully smooth and tasty drink.

Now if you are thinking you should go out and buy a Vitamix, I can warn you that it will cost you about $380-$700 for the privilege.

The good news is that no matter what your raw foodie friends tell you, you don’t actually need a Vitamix or Blendtec to make green smoothies.

Whatever blender you have right now will let you make smoothies out of chard, spinach, kale, collards, or mustard greens.  Just about any leafy vegetable you can chew in a salad will be fine in a blender, though it may take more poking around when mixing.

Just add about 4 to 6 ounces of almond milk, two ice cubes, and stuff in a bunch of greens into the blender.  When I say “a bunch,” I mean way more than you can comfortable eat in a big salad bowl.  The blender will end up giving you 1/5 of the volume you put in once the greens are chopped to smithereens and mixed in the almond milk.

Now you have a super-green drink that you can make in a few minutes.  You’ll have to experiment with what green drinks taste best for you.  For me, spinach is the easiest swallow, with chard as a close second.  You’ll have to see what works best for your tastes.

Always remember that vegetables tasting good is essential for you to follow any of the suggestions above.  Even if you have to sub in a “less impressive vegetable” like carrots or cucumber instead of broccoli or kale, it will be worth it if it means you actually eat it.

And yeah… only resort to V8 if you absolutely have to.

Happy Vegging.

If there’s one thing that science has proven to your worried mothers and stern health teachers, it’s that alcohol is good for you… in moderation.

There’s the reduction of stress, some antioxidants, and most importantly… the social lubrication.  You’ll have more fun and social bonding with friends if you’re out drinking and the effect on your physiology is significant.

Moreover, a 2005 article in the Wall Street Journal stated that people who had one or two drinks a day ended up making 10-25% higher income.

Now if you have bodybuilding, fat loss, and fitness goals, it’s a good idea to think about your choice of drinks.

Here are the best and worst alcoholic drinks for your health goals:

1) Hard Liquor

The average shot of vodka has only 97 calories, no fat, and no carbs.  A lot of people mistakenly assume that all calories are split into fats, carbohydrates, and protein, but alcohol is actually another category of calories altogether.

The good thing about alcohol calories is that they’re easily digestible so the chances of any of those calories making it to your waistline are fairly negligible.

If you mix vodka, whiskey, or gin with something calorie-free like club soda, then you have your dieting drink of choice.

There are a couple VERY important caveats to this.

For one, you have to be much more careful of your intake.  Binging on any alcohol will put a real strain on your system and torpedo you results downwards.

Because of this, you’ll want to avoid taking straight shots.  This may be hard sometimes when you’re with your buddies, but taking shots will have you downing way more alcohol than you planned (especially since you’ll likely have another drink in your hand in between shots.)  Mix your liquor with club soda or have it poured over ice.

The thing to always keep in mind is that once you’ve crossed the line from “moderation” into “getting drunk,” your drinking is no longer healthy.  It might still be fun and we all like to overdo it once in a while.  However, if you’re serious about improving your body, you’ll want to keep it to two drinks a night max.

The other caveat is that you want to be careful of what you mix in with your vodka, which we’ll discuss in “Mixed Drinks” below.

2) Wine

A glass of wine has about 120 calories and only 3.5 carbs.  Not too bad at all.  Plus, since only about 14 of those calories are from carbohydrates, that means the 106 remaining are “alcohol-calories”… meaning it’s pretty much a free ride anyway.

Add to this that there are several powerful antioxidants in red wine that can assist your overall health, such as resveratrol, flavonoids, and procyanidins.

White wine has a little less of these antioxidants, but still enough to be an attractive choice.  Also, since white wine contains less fermentation byproducts than red wine, people tend to have fewer hangovers when drinking the white stuff.  If a hangover can make you skip your workout, then white wine is definitely a better choice.

3) Beer

The calorie and carb counts for beer are all over the place.  Some are under 100 and others are pushing 300.  Most of the ones I looked at hovered at around 130 calories with 9 grams carbs.

Not nearly as bad as you’d expect… Provided you keep it to just a couple brewskies instead of doing a kegstand.  Still, those 9 carbs per glass are more than your trainer would prefer you take.

Also, because beer is so voluminous, if you just drink casually while at the bar, you’re less likely to need to order many drinks anyway.

Of course “Lite” beers will always beat their regular counterparts on paper, but as long as you are not having especially creamy stouts, the regular stuff should be fine for one or two.

4) Mixed Drinks

Here we hit the big one.

Remember when I said there were a couple caveats to drinking hard alcohol?

Well the problem with mixed drinks is that the sky is the limit in all categories.  The alcohol and carb content you get is often based on the bartender’s training, mood, and how consistently you’ve been tipping her.

Some drinks may come out weak and some may come out tasting like there’s at least two shots in there. (Definitely make sure you tip after that one.)

Alcohol aside, the big factor to think about is what you’re mixing the liquor in.  If it’s cranberry juice, you are getting about 25 carbs already with a lot of it being sugar.

A White Russian drink can be almost 400 calories.

The key word in there is “can” because you really don’t know what you’re getting because it’s entirely up to the bartender’s discretion.

Some people mix their hard alcohol in diet soda, but I recommend you avoid that if possible.

Looking at the list above, you may be wondering why hard liquor is above wine.

Well, on paper… and with the right discipline, simple hard liquors like vodka, whiskey and gin win because they’re so pure and free of carbs.   There are also a 1997 study from the Journal of Psychopharmacology that puts vodka ahead of red wine in terms of relaxation and stress reduction.

However, you’re not going to lose any competitions from having a glass of chardonnay instead of some Jack Daniels on the rocks, so go with wine if it’s something you enjoy.  As long as you stay away from sugary mixed drinks and rich thick beers, you’ll do fine.

Also, another question you will have to deal with is how many drinks you should have a week (definitely cap it at two for one day).  There is the school of thought that says your muscles will grow faster if you abstain entirely and others that say you are best capping yourself at two drinks a week.  The list above tells you the healthiest choice of drinks but not how much to drink.  Make sure you talk to your trainer to see what’s best for your program.

The online marketplace is one of the coolest things to come out of the past twenty years.  Now, with only a credit card you can order just about anything online and find the best price as well.

Unfortunately, this also opened the door to a lot of scammers that will sell you “free trials” of real-sounding supplements where you “pay for shipping only.”  What you’ll end up discovering is not do the supplements not work, but you’ve been swindled into a monthly or weekly auto-ship where you pay $50 a bottle and cannot even cancel because their customer support line is just a recording no one listens to.

We want you to avoid all that so here are some guidelines for how to make sure you’re always safe when shopping for supplements.

1) The News Doesn’t Report on Weight Loss Miracles

Any article you see on supplements that begins with “BREAKING NEWS!” is almost certainly fake.  What resellers will do is purchase a domain like “abc-news-today.bz” and post a web page that looks like a legitimate article, complete with a picture of a sexy Swedish journalist named Ivana next to the column.

The fact is that news teams don’t go on the hunt to track an amazing weightloss epidemic that is spanning nationwide thanks to this special berry.  And if they ever do, you can trust they won’t start linking to suppliers so you can buy 2 minutes after seeing the “article.”

Think you wouldn’t fall for any of this? Some can be very convincing and will even copy a legitimate news site’s format down to the color of the page border.  Another sneaky thing is you might have come to this fake “ABC News” page from ABC News itself!  Some advertisers are very slick about buying a banner ad and making it look like a link to another news story at the same site.  So yeah, I guess that means you can’t trust even the actual news site to steer you the right way.

2) Every Review is Biased

Now there are some reliable sources online that rate supplements but they are extremely hard to find and verify.  In general, if someone provides a link to the website where you can buy, they’re usually getting a piece of the action.

There’s a type of online business called affiliate marketing where people get a percentage commission for getting people to buy through their own link.  This isn’t a bad thing and can be a very legitimate way of making money.  However, since just about anyone can sign up to be an affiliate, you get very unscrupulous people writing anything they possibly can to get someone to click that link and buy.

Some people will say they used the product themselves and others will say that they were “skeptical until they saw the scientific research.”  Since they’re not ALL lying, just treat that information as if it were something your cab driver mumbled to you on your way to the airport.  Something that could be worth investigating but… yeah, something a cab driver was mumbling so it’s probably bullshit.

3) Assume Testimonials are Fake

Even if testimonials were 100% true, you would still be in the dark for how much that person was exercising, what their overall diet was, what their genetics was, and how representative their story is of the customers who buy the product.  Testimonials work as an emotional appeal because back in caveman days, we had only maybe 150 people in the tribe, so if 4 people said something, it was probably reliable for everybody.

That being said, plenty of fitness companies and affiliates also manufacture testimonials out of thin air.  Some hire actors and don’t disclose it, while others simply just grab images of Google search and then paste creative testimonials that they just wrote themselves.

4) Never Trust Someone You Haven’t Met

Have you ever visited a forum and been appalled the trash talk people give to each other?  You can say “Top Gun was awesome in 1988” and someone writes back “That was 1986, genius.  Why don’t you go back to skool u retard?”

That same guy probably couldn’t even look you in the eye if he had to say, “Excuse me” to get by you in the grocery store.  Yet you have millions of people talking tough as if they’re card-carrying members of the Hell’s Angels.

Well, just like people are infinitely more comfortable talking tough in a forum than face to face… they’re also infinitely more comfortable trying to scam someone online than over a retail store counter.

Yes, there are some liars everywhere, but the fact is that if you go to a Nutrition Zone or even a GNC (where they’re brainwashed to sell you the corporate items), the salespeople still know that you can return and complain if they’re caught lying about a supplement or being deceptive on billing.

So the best thing you can do is to go to several supplement stores and talk to people.  Independent ones that don’t create their own products are best because their salespeople are more often exercise and nutrition enthusiasts who would love nothing more than to tell you “Half that stuff on the wall is junk, I’ll tell you what actually works.”

Visit enough of those independent places and you should be in a much better position.

And in the end, talk to personal trainers you trust and nutrition specialists you know personally.  This industry will continue to be one where you have to watch your back and do your research.

At some point in every Gym Junkie’s life, you will find yourself cutting carbs as part of a fat loss or cutting plan.  You may not be a raving Atkins fan or die hard South Beacher, but nutritional science is finally starting to agree that reducing carbs, especially refined grains, is a great start to slimming your waistline and improving your overall health.

However, it can be tough sometimes to say goodbye to your favorite carb-infused meals you love indulging in, so we’ve compiled a list of substitutions you can make to get much of the same tastes with less carbs and more nutrients.

Pizza

Solution: Take a large portabella mushroom head that’s roughly the size of a personal pizza.  I know this will probably sound impossible for any man reading this so you’ll probably have to use two or three unless all you want is a snack or appetizer.  Take an oven-safe pan and melt some butter on it or spread some coconut oil.  Then place the mushroom head on for 7-12 minutes so the moisture evaporates.  From there, add your cheese, tomato sauce, and meats (hell, some veggies too!) and you’re good to go.

Lasagna Noodles

Solution: Zucchini.  Cut them length-wise and bake the strips on a cookie sheet for twenty minutes at 430 degrees. From there you can add cheese, meat, sauce and whatever vegetables you would normally add for lasagna.

Potato Chips

Solution:  Sunflower seeds.  Yeah that does sound a bit boring at a first glance… plus it may give you flashbacks of kids at summer camp eating those snacks and spitting shells everywhere.  To make them tastier, by the shell-less kind and fry them up with butter and a little salt until they’re nice and crispy.  Afterward you mop it up with a paper towel or just be a man and enjoy the greasy mess as it is.

Mashed Potatoes

Solution: Cauliflower.  Steam some cauliflower up and then throw in the blender or Vitamix with some butter and it’s just about done!  You can also add some cheese, seasoning or sour cream to get an even better effect.

Wheat Flour

Solution:  Almond flour, coconut flour, or flax seed meal will give you a tasty alternative.  Use in recipes as you would use wheat generally but you’ll want to adjust the amount because some of these substitutes can end up more soggy with their different chemical compositions.  You may have to experiment a bit but it’s worth it.

Spaghetti

Solution:  Spaghetti Squash.  Cut it in half, remove the seeds, and microwave for ten minutes or so.  These become hot strands that can seriously compete with the real thing.  Just add pesto, primavera, or marinara sauce like you would regular spaghetti and you’re ready to go.  Also goes really well with cheese.

Sandwich Bread

Solution:  Use a lettuce wrap or cabbage leaves.  If you want a good example of how this is supposed to work, go to IN N OUT and order a “Double-Double” as “protein style” and see what they give you.  This is admittedly a very different texture from bread but it at least lets you have some satisfying finger food that you can pack in a lunch bag.

Macaroni & Cheese

Solution: Cut out half the noodles and put chopped vegetables in the pot instead.  This is sort of a “half-assed” carb substitute because you’re still using macaroni.  However, if you can cut the white carbs in half and get some nutrients to boot, I still think that’s pretty awesome. Frozen veggies are ideal for this, such as those mixed packs of broccoli & cauliflower, or ones with peas, carrots, corn, green beans, and lima beans.

Pancakes

Solution: Mix some oatmeal, cottage cheese, and a couple eggs in a blender and you’ll have a great low-carb batter.  To make it even tastier, add some seasoning like cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and maybe even some sugar if you’re feeling dangerous.  Once you have it super smooth, then just pour it on the griddle as if you were using Aunt Jemimah mix.  Instead of using syrup, try some mashed raspberries, butter, and/or peanut butter.  Also, Earth Balance has a new delicious spread of peanut butter mixed with coconut oil, so that’s a great lower-carb topping for pancakes.

Sugar

Solution:  Use a natural, unrefined sweetener whenever possible.  Dried dates blended up in the Vitamix will make a very sweet addition to any dessert.  If you can’t do dates, try honey or molasses.  Also, cold coconut oil can give the illusion of sweets even if there isn’t sugar in it.

I first noticed this when refrigerating sausage pieces cooked in coconut oil.  When cold, the previously-cooked oil takes an “icing” like taste and texture on whatever food you’re using.  So this is definitely an area to experiment with.    And yeah, don’t just switch to sucralose, aspartame, and stevia without first trying natural alternatives.  They’re designated “safe” by the FDA but you at least want to take some effort in curbing the sweet tooth on your own for the best long term results.

Whether you’re a newb or a card-carrying Gym Junkie, there are countless temptations around the gym that will cause you to mess up your progress toward your fitness goals.

Making sure you avoid these following mistakes will be what gets you the muscle, fat loss, and performance gains you’re shooting for.  Some of these are more common with beginners (#2) and others are almost exclusively the experienced folk (#3).

See where you fit in in this list and what you need to dial in to get fit fast.

1) Not Stretching After… (Or at All)

Any time you hit a big fitness goal, everything inside you wants to chill… not stretch.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve just finished a big race, or you’ve hit a new bench press max, or if you were able to finish an Insanity DVD without breaking form once.

The problem is that this is the time where you need stretching the most.  Ideally, you would do a quick warm-up, then stretch, then after your workout, stretch again… but this isn’t always realistic.  At least save 5 minutes to stretch and/or cool down when you finish.  After a workout, your muscles are warm and this is the best time to increase their flexibility and prevent unnecessary soreness or injury.

If you find yourself taking unexpected days off at all because of soreness, then this is the first thing you need to correct.

2) Modeling the Buff People

It’s an unfair fact of life that you don’t always see the full picture when you meet someone who looks like they’re doing everything right.

If someone looks like they have 3% bodyfat and a rack of muscles that would make 1992’s Marky Mark jealous, it’s easy to assume this is the person to go to for advice.

The fact is that this person might just have good genetics…

Or be using steroids…

Or have major back problems from his exercise regimen.

Steroids are a lot more common in gyms than you might think… even among non-competitors.  And of course, they’re unlikely to admit this when you ask “What’s your secret?”

And you really never know how someone’s workout will work with your own body.  The truth is that some physiques are more forgiving for bad form, and others grow bigger with less intensity or variety for whatever reason.

You need to find an expert who has trained people with your body type to success instead of looking for who has the best build.

As an analogy, you wouldn’t necessarily go to a guy with a Ferrari for financial advice.  The person could have inherited a lot of money or could be in debt up to his damn neck.  The car is just a clue that this person might be worth talking to, nothing more.

3) Being Social

There are few activities better at bonding males than sharing a bench and shooting the shit.

If you go with friends, you’ll want to talk about your week with an anecdotal story for each set you do.

If you go by yourself, you may find yourself seeing familiar faces and going up to say hi.

This can cut your workout efficiency by 85% or more.

Making friends is fine (and a necessary part of human wellness) but you have to stay rigidly committed to completing your workout even if you have to blow some people off.  All you have to say is “Gotta get back to my set,” and they’ll understand.

4) Not Tracking Progress

If you don’t track how much you’re lifting week to week, you’re unlikely to make any real progress.

This is because you’ll always err toward your comfort zone by default.  You’ll do what’s comfortable and not push yourself unless it’s staring you in the face that you have only gone up five pounds on lat pulldown in the past eight months.

This is made harder because not all gyms use the same measurements.  There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to set the cross cables for 80lbs and seeing the plates are labeled A through P instead.

You still have to do your best and write down how many letters you can pull if you plan on returning to that gym.

Remember that today there are tons of apps for your phone to track your exercises if using a clipboard is inconvenient.

5) Ignoring Your Core

Your core is what will dictate how effective you are at every exercise you do, both in how much you can lift and how proper your form will be.  To act like it’s unimportant would be like trying to create the world’s best nutrition plan while refusing to hydrate yourself.

It’s because of this that a lot of personal trainers sometimes start you out with only core exercises when you begin… so every other exercise they give you will be more effective an easier to learn.

Now you don’t have to necessarily plan a core-only workout routine.  It can be enough to make sure your core is engaged with every exercise you do.  Cable exercises can be great for this because even light weights can require you to keep your core completely firm in order to balance yourself.

And when you’re doing cardio, keeping your stomach tight during knee-highs will strengthen your core while you’re burning fat and strengthening your hip flexors.

You just never want to be the guy with built arms but a loosey-goosey back and hanging stomach.

In fact, tightening your core will actually make you look a lot slimmer than you are anyway so there’s no reason not to do it.

6) Improper Form

I almost didn’t want to include this one because it’s so obvious.  However, for every 1,000 Gym Junkies who know their form is critical, there’s always that one who will look at a list like this and say “No mention of form!  I guess bad technique is allowed like butter and whole eggs now!”

So yeah… make sure you do your exercises correctly and don’t sacrifice form for anything.  Not for time, certainly not for higher weight, and not to impress anybody.  While you want to be aggressive with your goals, you want to be just as aggressive with your form compliance.  Keep both of those strong and you’ll be in amazing shape in no time.