In my state of Alabama we have the sad distinction of being the 2nd Fattest state, and that is not a ranking we should be proud of. According to CalorieLab in 2011 Alabama has a population that is 33% obese. When you dig into the statistics even more Alabama is the overall fattest state when you combine the Overweight and the obese for a total of 70% of the population. These are staggering statistics that will take generations to reverse but the key is to start now.

I am currently sending in my Specialist in Fitness Nutrition Certification final so I can better help the clients in my personal training. These individuals are working on goals to lose weight or to get ready for a specific event. The clients that I see now have a belief that “dieting” is a temporary thing and when they reach their goal they can just go back to the old way of eating. The first goal is to train my clients to use real food and to cook for themselves the majority of their meals. It is easier for them to eat something out of the box instead of preparing a meal.

My clients also have a sense that eating “healthy” is a very complicated thing and that it will cost a lot more. I start by having them keep a food journal for a week without changing anything in the way that they eat. This exercise allows them to become aware of what they are eating and will show me what kind of foods they tend to like. At the end of the week I take the food journal and work up a basic meal plan that includes the types of foods they like and I’ll make the substitution for whole food sources whenever possible. Depending on the client this might be a very gradual transition so that they can see quick success in the way they feel and perform at work and other activities.

It is a challenge in Alabama because so many people are overweight and obese that a person of normal weight will appear “skinny”. The food choices will also seem weird if they are not fried or cover in some way. It is a long journey but it is worth the effort to be able to help just one person live a healthier life by helping them with their nutrition.

*Source of stats are from Calorielab.com

How many times in the last week did you drive-thru to “grab” something to eat?  How many times did you stay at home and cook a meal from scratch without using the microwave to warm-up something from a box?  If you answered yes to the first question then we have some work to do; but the good thing is your taste-buds will thank you!

Growing up I always enjoyed learning what I could about cooking, but my knowledge stopped at boiling noodles and pouring a can of sauce over them.  When I got real fancy I would brown a pound of hamburger meat to add to the sauce for a truly hearty meal.  This was the cooking pattern that I a carried into marriage with my lovely wife Jenda who’s cooking knowledge stopped at deep frying chicken tenders in the Fry-Daddy.

When Jenda and I began on our fitness journey with P90X, we quickly realized out how much we were eating from a box.  Most of our meals consisted of pasta in some form and maybe some chicken.  There were no vegetables and when they did appear they were in a steamer bag that we would microwave to melt the “cheese” in the bag.  In the last 3 years, all of this has changed because we now buy raw food to cook for dinner.

I know what you might be thinking.  I don’t have the time to cook a meal from scratch every night.  The kids have ballgames, I have meetings, we get home late and I’m just to tired to cook.  I agree that we are all very busy.  I work a full-time job while doing personal training after hours.  My wife works as a Pre-Kindergarten Special Education teacher and then we have our 4 little munchkins at home that also crave our attention.  Planning is the solution to our busy schedules.  Jenda and I sit down for no more than 30minutes every Saturday morning to plan out our meals for the next week.

Planning is KEY!

On Sunday I make the grocery run and I love this time.  I usually go by myself and get a chance to think about the week and what my goals are for the upcoming days.  I used to go directly to a grocery store to purchase everything, but since we have fresh vegetables in season I take a route by a local farmer’s market to purchase all my veggies and fruits.  The farmers market also has the best homemade sausage and strawberry preserves.

On Sunday evening I will pre-cook much of the weeks food so we can warm it up during the busy work week.  We enjoy grilling a lot during the summer, so I often grill all the chicken we will need for the week at this time.  Jenda will cut some up for a grilled chicken salad and then put away some grilled chicken breasts.  We will have 2 or 3 dinners prepared for the days we are going to be late.  By doing this, all we have to do is warm everything up. (This is the good way to use a microwave )

Now that Jenda and I are actually cooking meals, it is fun to find recipes to try.  Last week I bought some wild caught red snapper and grilled it with olive oil and some salt & pepper to taste.  I served it with corn relish made from the corn I bought at the farmers market.  It took a total of 30minutes and it was so good!  I recently found a recipe that looks delicious for roasted cauliflower that is said to taste like french fries.

http://summertomato.com/roasted-curried-cauliflower-to-die-for/

I encourage you to plan out next week’s dinners before you go to the grocery store.  If you go to the store with no idea of what you are going to cook,  you will almost always over spend and not make the best food choices.  If you need recipe ideas take a look at these websites for inspiration.

http://peakability.com/seasonal-garden-recipes

http://summertomato.com/category/recipes/

http://www.foodbuzz.com/recipes

http://allrecipes.com

http://epicurious.com
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Matthew Hillis is a father of four that was letting life go by while he laid on the couch until one day he decided to change. He was able to lose 30lbs in his first 90 days of working out with P90X. Matthew has kept that weight off for 2 years and has helped hundreds of people just like yourself to achieve their own fitness goals. If your life is busy and you believe there is just no time to workout then allow Matthew to help tailor a fitness plan to you and your life. Together we are better!

I am not much of a morning person and waking up early enough to eat something before I went out the door was just too much. This was how I lived through High School and College. I would not eat anything until Lunch with an occasional snack like a Honey Bun before lunch. Well you can imagine what years of eating Honey buns will do. I started packing on weight and eating more junk food at the same time my activity level was going down. I found myself tired most of the day and to solve this I would reach for another Mountain Dew for a pick me up and was proud of my 5 empty bottles by days end. If you are keeping track that is 850 empty calories of Soda and another 600 calories for every Honey Bun I ate for a total of 1450. No wonder I was tired! I was not eating breakfast then I would pack my body with processed sugar to keep me going. I was told by a friend that eating breakfast would help me to start losing weight. I know, how can eating more help you lose weight. The truth is that it works. Here are 5 reasons that eating breakfast will help you lose weight.

It is so easy
Breakfast is one of the easiest and quickest meals of the day. Pick a whole grain cereal or some Oatmeal that you put in a bowl quickly and heat up. I personally prefer mixing my Chocolate Shakeology with some Almond milk and peanut butter. The trick is to find something that you can do and will stick with every morning before you head out the door.

You can Start the day off right
It is a new day with a chance to make new choices. Instead of reaching for a donut or leftover cupcake from yesterday’s office party, take this opportunity to eat a banana and oatmeal. Add some Coffee for a little kick and you are ready to conquer your day. When you start the day off with these good choices you will want to continue this trend when making other healthy eating decisions. These small changes will starting adding up and the weight will start coming off.

You will not be as Hungry
When you eat Breakfast you are less likely to grab for that donut at the office first thing in the morning. There will always be temptations of sweets but when you have eaten a good breakfast you are giving yourself a fighting chance to say NO. It is the same rule I follow when grocery shopping. Never go Hungry.

Higher Metabolism
When you eat breakfast you Break the nighttime Fast. This send all kinds of signals that it is ok to used the stored energy (aka FAT) to produce the energy that we need during the day. Our metabolism will slow down when we go without food for an extended period. The body’s job is to keep us alive and if it thinks that there is no food coming then it will hold on the the FAT.

All Day Energy
Eating Breakfast allows you to be more productive. Your brain is hitting on all cylinders and with the other healthy eat choices that you are making you will find that you don’t have that “2:30″ feeling. If you are like me and prefer to workout in the afternoon or evening then you will be less inclined to skip your next workout and instead give it everything that you’ve got!

How easy is that. The clients that I work with have a belief that not eating breakfast is a way to control calories and lose weight. This can not be further from the truth. Our bodies need food because it is our fuel. Just like a car needs gas we need fuel. The trick is to fill our bodies with the best fuel like Whole grains, Lean meats, Fresh/Frozen Vegetables and Fresh/Frozen Fruits. So what do you eat for breakfast?

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My Shakeology Recipe
1 Scoop of Chocolate Shakeology
1/2 cup of Almond Milk
1/2 cup of water
1 TSP of Peanut Butter
Ice to Taste
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Matthew Hillis is a father of four that was letting life go by while he laid on the couch until one day he decided to change. He was able to lose 30lbs in his first 90 days of working out with P90X. Matthew has kept that weight off for 2 years and has helped hundreds of people just like yourself to achieve their own fitness goals. If your life is busy and you believe there is just no time to workout then allow Matthew to help tailor a fitness plan to you and your life. Together we are better!

My wife Jenda is an amazing women that helps keep our house running.  She has taken over this weeks blog post to give you our family secrets in how we keep 4 kids feed healthy meals that everyone loves.

–Matthew

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When my family began eating clean three years ago, it was a little overwhelming for me to know what to eat. I was trying to get the calories in I needed to fuel my body appropriately, but was also trying to make sure the calories were full of nutrients. Then, I was trying to make sure I had the correct number of carbs, proteins, and fats…AND that my carbs were complex carbs. WHEW! Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? It doesn’t have to. Here are some things I did to simplify.

Create a Menu – For us, this was, and still is, huge! We are always on the go and I don’t always think about what is for dinner before it is time to eat. By having a weekly menu, I didn’t have to wonder what we were going to cook. Each morning, I look at the dinner planned for that day and know if there is something that needs early preparation, such as sweet potatoes that need to go in the oven early or roast that needs the crock pot. Then, when it is time to cook, I know exactly how much time is needed to prepare and cook the food. This also aids in preparing a grocery list. We save around $50 each week because we buy what we need to prepare meals and not very many foods that are not on the list. Matthew does the grocery shopping at our house, and he will often buy extra bags of frozen vegetables or some cans of soups that are not on the list, but other than that, we stick to the list.

Prepare ahead of time – About two years ago, we took the idea of having a weekly menu one step farther by spending Sunday afternoons to cook for the entire week. We eat a lot of grilled chicken, so Matthew will grill chicken and we will cube it or slice it for dishes or salads or leave it whole if we are going to eat it with a vegetable. This really cuts down on cook time at the end of the day and took a stress away from me. Granted, there are some things that are better eaten freshly cooked, but do what you can to prepare ahead of time. During school months, I will make even take time on Sunday afternoon to snack bags for the week with roasted almonds. This seemingly unnecessary task saves time on school mornings.

Food journal – In order to eat the correct number of calories, much less the correct amount of carbs, proteins, and fats, you MUST journal your food. You may choose to get a notebook and write every bite that goes in your mouth. Then you will need to research the amount of calories, etc. those foods have. This is not a bad plan, per say, but if you want to make it a little more simple, find a free online calorie counter, such as myfitnesspal.com. I use myfitnesspal and LOVE it. There is also an app for this site so it is easy to enter foods you eat on the go.

Bonus tips 

1.) Always be prepared. Keep a bag of almonds in your car for those times that you are starving, it is time for your snack, and you are stuck at the dentist with your kids. Life happens, just be ready!

2.) Don’t eat anything white! Often people ask how they can lose weight. I want to say “Eat less, exercise more!”, but I don’t. What I will say is “don’t eat anything white and get up and move for 15 minutes 3 times a week.” Sounds simple, huh? By not swapping white bread, pasta, and rice to whole wheat of the same, you are avoiding putting enriched flour in your body which turns spikes your blood sugar.

3.) Eat 5- 6 times each day. I eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and then sometimes another snack. Eating nutritious foods every 2.5-3 hours keeps your metabolism revving and fat burning.

I hope you find these tips helpful. Let me know what you think and ideas you have on how to make life simpler and maintain clean eating. Email me at jendahillis@gmail.com I look forward to hearing from you soon!

I know you have experienced the dreaded feeling of the muffin top. If you are unfamiliar, a "muffin top" is the extra roll that sneaks out from on top of your favorite pair of jeans. In the 80's this was not too much of a problem because ladies jeans would reach under those nice big shoulder pads. In the last 10 years jeans have been built to go lower and lower and unfortunately the country waistline has increased. This has contributed to the Muffin Top epidemic. I know you want to wear your favorite jeans that make your butt look just right so how can we lose the muffin top.

Our body is a very smart complex systems of chemicals, solids and all kinds of things you don't have to understand to lose the belly fat. We can also spend hours on end doing the latest crunch, sit-up or ab routine and still have the slight pug. Our body's do not lose fat in specific regions. So the only true solution is to lose fat from all over our body.

• The first step is to measure your body just the way it is right now. Get a sewing tape measure and wrap it around your belly to center of your belly button. I prefer the suck in method to get the absolute smallest reading. Write down how many inches it is.
• Next wrap the measuring tape around your right arm, then your left to measure your bicep area.
• The last area I want you to measure is your left and right leg at the middle of the largest part of your leg.  

Please write down each of the measurements because in 2 weeks I want you to measure the same areas in the exact same way. We are not concerned about the actual numbers at the moment, however, in 2 weeks we want to see a trend of those numbers getting smaller. So you now have your measurements so we are ready to start the fun stuff.

If you are serious about losing the extra roll then I want you to shop for fresh food at your local grocery store.  Stay away from food that is in a box or can.  Frozen Food is OK but try and focus on fresh food that will spoil if you do not eat it within a few days.  Yes, you will have to visit the grocery store probably once a week but all your meals for the next 2 weeks should come from fresh food. The majority of that fresh food needs to come in the form of vegetables. Stack the veggies high on your plate with a piece of meat for protein. When you look at your plate one-third of it should have a protein and the rest should be filled with vegetables. The more colorful the better. Since we are just starting out I do not want you to worry about counting your calories. If you start eating all of your meals from fresh foods the calories will take care of themselves. I also have a sample week's menu that my family uses Sample Week Menu.

The next step is usually the first step my clients want to take and that is working out. I personally workout 6 days a week around 30 – 45min per day, but I know that everyone has a busy life. My 4 children keep me and my wife hopping too. I want you to find a program like TurboFire or a gym class that you love. The goal is to get your heart rate up at least 30min for 3 or more days per week. If you have problems finding something you like doing everyday then please email me at matthew@matthewhillis.com or send me a message on Facebook. Whatever program you choose,  it is important to your  success to not do it alone. Find a friend or a buddy to come over and workout with you. I will also help keep you motivated towards your goal too. Support is the key to success!

Matthew Hillis is a father of four that was letting life go by while he laid on the couch until one day he decided to change.  He was able to lose 30lbs in his first 90 days of working out with P90X.  Matthew has kept that weight off for 2 years and has helped hundreds of people just like yourself to achieve their own fitness goals.  If your life is busy and you believe there is just no time to workout then allow Matthew to help tailor a fitness plan to you and your life.  Together we are better!