One of the biggest controversies in weight loss and wellness is the faulty belief that dietary fat intake is one of the main culprits to obesity and metabolic disease. We need to pump the brakes on this idea.

Now it should be obvious that if you consume excess amounts of dietary fat (regardless of the source), meaning more total energy in calories than your body needs, then well yeah, it’s going to result in body fat increases and negatively impact your health.

However, when you really start examining the evidence, saturated fats from natural sources don’t come out being the evil villain many have labeled it as being over the past forty plus years. And the advocates for this idea weren’t fringe loonies but many of our so called “experts” in government and mainstream medicine.

This shouldn’t come at a surprise to anyone who isn’t sleepwalking, but the low-fat dietary recommendations that started back in the 80’s which led to insanely...

In today's post I want to talk to you a little about the truth regarding discomfort. Now if we're going to be totally honest with ourselves, it should be pretty clear that it's human nature to seek comfort over discomfort. A bit of that is beneficial I reckon as it's healthier to take refuge in comfort under a roof and out of the weather, than say outside without shelter from the elements and marauders.

However, when taken to the extreme, as is true with most anything, what was good at the right dose ends of being destructive with excess. One could make a reasonable argument that the relative ease with finding comfort and lack of significant hardships in Western society since the ending of the second World War has led to an overall weakening of the individuals in those societies.

What's that old adage?

Tough times make strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, weak men create tough times.....and the cycle repeats. 

There's little debate about where...

In today's post I want to talk about an old quote from legendary strength coach Dan John that has always resonated with me because it is a simple statement of truth. The saying is that "strength is the glass for your body." Everything hinges on the glass as the qualities of health, function, mobility, and resiliency are all dependent on the size and density of the glass that contains it. 

Think about it this way. Say you've got a small shot glass and next to it a large 16 oz mason jar. Obviously, the large mason jar will hold a lot more liquid than the shot glass. Think about the liquid being qualities like balance, stability, mobility, endurance, power, deceleration, stamina, etc. The size of the glass determines how much these qualities can be developed or maintained. 

Now it's important you understand I'm not talking about muscular size here or the overall bulk or density of a person. When I speak of strength, I'm talking about absolute strength from a work capacity...

In today's post I want to speak to you about some ways you can begin seeing real results with changing how your body looks and feels. I promise you each one of these is a proven strategy and not just random fillers for content. Whatever you read on this blog I want you to get legitimate value from. Without further ado, let's dig in with strategy number one...

1.  Make a clear plan on how you're going to achieve your objectives

The first step of ensuring success with your fitness program is taking the time to sit down and write out a blueprint for what needs to happen. You must be clear with what changes will need to happen in your life and how you’ll accomplish them. What time will you exercise each day? When will you go to the grocery store?

I've found that you really do need to focus on preparation and establishing new routines or things just seem to eventually fizzle out. It has been my experience those individuals who make daily preparation a priority in their lives...

You may have read or heard about the term “functional exercise” being thrown around by personal trainers and fitness experts. With the increased awareness about the importance of core strength, flexibility, and movement patterns, functional exercise has become quite the buzz.

So what exactly is functional exercise? The best definition I’ve found is functional exercise is simply exercise that works the muscles in your body through integration in multiple planes of motion, the same way we move in everyday life.

This is in stark contrast to traditional health club machines that work your muscles in isolation. Although there are some benefits to isolating a muscle (primarily hypertrophy or increasing muscle mass) for most people who want to BOTH look and move better, the benefit of functional training cannot be understated.

It is my opinion that exercise should not be something done while “sitting down.” Exercise should be about conditioning the body within...

Today let's talk about perspective. Defined as a "particular attitude toward something," a point of view per say, we all have a perspective on things like exercise or circumstances in our lives. Good or bad, positive or negative, it will be up to us to establish the perspective we have with it.

I often look to work with my personal training clients when there's a need to establish a positive association with working out. This is an often-overlooked aspect with helping someone to develop a new habit. I don't care what the "it" is, if you dread it and only associate this thing with pain, discomfort, and negative feelings, you're not likely to persevere and reap the benefits you could from it.

If the words "working out" to you conjures up visions of puddles of sweat, pain, nausea, and feeling like you're going to collapse, you need a different perspective not to mention probably a different means of fitness training.

Look, exercise and working out shouldn't make you feel like you're...

I came across a press release this week from Science Daily regarding a research study that looked at a woman’s ability to burn fat in a menopausal or post-menopausal state. Now it’s no secret that fat loss can be more difficult for women when they reach mid-life, but it’s not necessarily for the reasons you think. I thought it would be informative to do a blog post on this subject to help shine some truth on this controversial subject.

I’ll go right ahead and directly answer the question “Can women burn fat after menopause?”

The answer is unequivocally YES! This is the truth and it’s important to embrace this truth if you’re a woman looking to lose weight and you’re in any of the following categories:

• Nearing mid-life and menopause
• Possibly or affirmatively in menopause
• Post-menopausal

Why is this so important?

Because it’s essential that you work from a place of truth, and you set your belief systems on said truth, so...

So you’re looking to get started with a workout routine for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, and the question is, “what exercises should I do?” Starting your fitness program off with the right exercises and the right routine will play a significant role in not only your results, but also with reducing your risk of injuries.

Most people who are unsure about what to do so simply watch others in the gym and mimic what they see them doing or follow a workout on-line. This isn’t a very effective strategy for making sure there’s proper personalization for individual needs. Simply put, the exercises that someone else performs may not be best suited for you at this time.

In today’s post I’ll share with you some strategies to follow when starting a personal fitness program.  

Look to begin with functional exercise when developing a foundation for resistance training.

At my Shaping Concepts Personal Training Studios, we...

We all know one of the top priorities in a fat loss program is to reduce sugar consumption. This can be easier said than done though for a lot of folks. There is no question that excess sugar in the body is one of the primary culprits behind the hormonal imbalances and inflammation that promote weight gain. However, the problem is not the idea of cutting back on the sugars, it’s often the way it’s gone about.

Alright before we go much further, let’s first review some basics so we’re all on the same page. Consuming a diet high in processed sugars, refined foods, and starch carbohydrates combined with a lack of exercise is a leading contributor to low insulin sensitivity, progressive insulin resistance, and eventually left unchecked a condition called metabolic X syndrome. This is where the weight gain comes fast and furious and the body succumbs to suppressed health and wellness.

More on how we get there.

As you may already know, one of insulin’s main...

You know a lot of people automatically assume because I'm a fitness trainer that it's easy for me to stay on track with healthy eating and exercise habits.

The reality of it is though, I struggle at times just like everyone else does. There was a particular time I remember several years back now when the stress of trying to run three personal training studios in three different cities started taking a significant toll on my mental, emotional, and physical health.

I was putting in over 60 hours a week running back and forth between Mt. Pleasant, Bluffton and Myrtle Beach on a regular basis. When you're stressed out and not setting priority-based boundaries on your time it's easy to get out of balance...and that's exactly what happened to me!

It was like a domino effect. First, I started losing sleep from the stress which just made me sluggish all day. Next, since I was tired most the time, I didn't have energy to workout. And since I wasn't working out, I was feeling lousy, to put it...