3 BBQ Techniques To Reduce Fat While Keeping The Flavor!

By Team eLifestyle Fitness and Lifestyle Expert Robb Armstrong

In last week’s Fit Tip we showed you how supplementing with protein powder can help you build lean muscle while boosting your weight loss efforts at the same time.

Flavor your flank steaks and sweeten your salmon, but don’t drown your arteries in an attempt to add taste. This week we give you 3 easy tips that can turn any barbecuing evening into a tasty low-cal feast.

Enjoyed by many, grilling is a low fat cooking method for a number of the foods we eat. Whether your choice of the day is steak, chicken or seafood combined with a selection of your favorite greens, there are ways to seal in the flavor while keeping calories in check.

3 Simple Calorie Trimming Techniques

1. Trim The Fat – Though it’s been said to seal in the flavor, cutting excess fat from your food won’t eliminate the flavor, but it will drop calories you don’t need.

2. Low-Cal Glazing – Wherever sugar is called for in a glaze recipe choose a sugar substitute or a natural sweetener such as Agave nectar. Known in Mexico as “honey water,” (and comparable in taste to honey) the nectar made from this cactus-resembling plant has many beneficial properties for the health-conscious consumer, especially taste.

3. Searing – Searing on the grill creates a crisp, flavor-bound exterior while maintaining a moist, juicy interior. Not to mention, the pleasing look of chef-worthy grill marks add to the aesthetic appeal of your meal when entertaining guests.

Eat Lite, Be Healthy

Making sure to incorporate these simple tips when you barbecue will help you keep it lite by cutting calories and fat while enhancing the flavor of your grilled feast. Now that’s healthful nutrition!

Note: Check back every week for more helpful health and fitness tips from eLifestyle's Fit Tips by Robb!

Supplementing With Protein Powder

By Team eLifestyle Fitness and Lifestyle Expert Robb Armstrong

Last week we explained how adding lean muscle to your body was the major key to weight loss.

In this week’s Fit Tip we tell you how supplementing with protein powder can help boost the return on your fitness efforts. What’s more, we’ll shake things up with a nutritious protein drink recipe to kick-start your day.

It’s "Whey" Convenient

Nowadays, finding healthy ways to supplement the nutrition you may be missing over the course of your busy day has become the norm. In earlier times supplementing with protein powders blended into drinks was something reserved primarily for bodybuilders. The reason is that in order to satisfy higher protein requirements for muscle building it was difficult to obtain all the protein needed through whole food.

Today however, protein powders have come along way both in their acceptance among those with healthy active lifestyles, as well as in taste and quality. There are many types of protein powders on the market with the best source coming in the form of whey –- better yet, whey isolate.

When do you need to supplement with protein powder?

• When you don’t get a sufficient amount of protein in your diet over the course of your day.
• When you’re short on time to prepare your meals but realize the need to follow a nutritious diet daily.
  
• When you need a great source of protein with minimal calories.
• To help you avoid skipping breakfast and provide a healthy, energetic boost to your day.

Did you know?

There is a misunderstanding regarding the use of protein powders. Some of our clients (with the majority of concern being from woman) think that it will “bulk” them up, when in fact a serving of protein powder is equal to a serving of fish, egg whites, chicken or red meat, which obviously doesn’t have any bulking effect whatsoever. Generally speaking, bulking is caused mainly by excess calories from a non-structured diet.

More importantly, you need protein in your diet on a daily basis just to repair the lean muscle you already have, which is directly related to the efficiency of your metabolism. It’s also unknown to most that whey protein is actually the highest grade of protein you can consume!

Kick-start your day with the easy Berry Blast Breakfast Shake

In a blender, mix:

• 16oz water, low fat or soy milk (depending on your taste requirements)
• 20g (1 scoop) whey protein isolate. (2 scoops for more advanced athletes)
• 1 tbls honey (source of antioxidants and 17.5g of carbs – glucose and fructose)
• ½ cup frozen or fresh berries (17g carbs – glucose and fructose)

*Drink soon after waking for best results.

Remember; your morning supplement and dietary habits can make or break your muscle building, body shaping and fat burning goals!

Enjoy!

Note: Check back every week for more helpful health and fitness tips from eLifestyle's Fit Tips by Robb!

Build Lean Muscle To Burn Fat Fast!

By Team ELM Fitness and Lifestyle Expert Robb Armstrong

At various times throughout their training regimen, some of our clients have expressed a little apprehension towards the use of weight training as part of their program to trim, shape and shed the pounds.

So, in this week’s Fit Tip we explain why adding lean muscle to your body is actually the major key to not only chiseling out definition and shape, but also losing weight!

Addressing The Muscle Myth

When it comes to lifting weights, some men and women tend to feel that by doing so it will unquestionably turn them into a hulking bodybuilder. However, if you take a look around the gym, the streets, your work environment, and even among your group of friends, you’ll realize that even though exercise is mainstream there aren’t hordes of muscled-up people everywhere you look.

In actuality, you’d be hard-pressed to find a bodybuilder anywhere unless you knew where to look. The fact is that becoming a bodybuilder takes an extreme amount of time – sometimes years. Not to mention, sacrifice and dedication under the rigorous training and dieting demands of a sport-specific program.

For The Ladies -- Being Fit With Feminine Muscle

I often laugh when some of my female clients, after following their routine strictly for the proper period of time, turn to me and say, "Wow, I really love my new muscles!" And then, after being so hesitant in the beginning, ask if the can I still build more!

We can certainly take a page from the bodybuilder playbook and adopt the understanding that your diet, training and dedication should be adapted to your specific goals. In this case, a program for weight loss while trimming and defining along the way is what we're after. And remember, ensuring success will require your complete attention to all the details.

Lean Muscle Sheds Pounds!

Having more lean muscle on your body will have a lasting impact both on the look of your physique and the rate of your metabolism. If you’ve noticed that over a course of inactivity you’ve said at some point, “Gee, I've gained about 8-10 pounds over the last year,” here are the reasons why:

Over the course of a year strength training adds about 2-5 pounds of lean muscle and each pound burns approximately 15 extra calories each day (in the past it was thought to be 50-70 calories per day per pound), which equals 30-75 calories burned each day. It doesn’t seem very significant, but it adds up to nearly 8 pounds a year!

So, without the fat-burning advantage of additional lean muscle on your body, just from regular, moderate weight training, your metabolism won’t have the jolt it needs to efficiently burn calories and ward off excess pounds that build up slowly over time.

Did You Know?

Through the use of a full-body or split-training program, whereby each muscle group is worked from a variety of angles in the same workout, the new lean muscle you add to your body doesn’t just “bulk” up one area.

Conclusion

The total lean muscle weight is actually spread out evenly over your whole body. The result is a trimmed, toned, shapely physique with a metabolism that continues to remain revved up throughout the day!

Note: Check back every week for more helpful health and fitness tips from eLifestyle's Fit Tips by Robb!