1. Look for Store Specials
Read your grocery store’s weekly ad and plan your meals around the specials. The food will generally be healthy and at a reduced cost compared to normal. You should also look at ads for competing grocery stores. It takes a little planning, but can save you a lot.

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2. What’s on Hand?
The first rule is to use what you have on hand. Check your freezer/refrigerator, pantry, and cupboards and use what you already have in meals. You will need to use some creativeness, but you may be surprised at what you can come up with.

3. Make a List
Just like working out with a program, make a shopping list and stick to it. Do not buy impulsively; stick to what’s on your list. Most impulse buyers end up with too much sugary snacks and other unhealthy foods.

4. What is In-season?
You can save a significant amount of money from buying fruits and vegetables that are in season. These foods are generally the most expensive on the menu when it comes to eating healthy. Ideally you should eat your fruits and vegetables within a reasonable time after purchase. But, if you think they may go bad, you may want to look at the frozen variety to prevent wasting money.

5. The Farmer’s Market
Most towns and cities have a local farmers market. This is a great place to save money on fruits and vegetables and it’s a fun activity to get out of the house and even meet new people. Locally grown produce is generally less expensive and fresher than what you’d find at the grocery store and the local farmers will negotiate quite often for a great savings to you.

6. No Meat
As you are aware, meat is also an expensive menu item so, on occasion, go meatless and save money. Instead of meats, look toward beans, rice, tofu, legumes, and other plant-based proteins to save money and eat healthier. You should note that beans and legumes are a great source of protein and fiber and also are low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

7. Prepare Your Own Food
Prepare your own food at home and save money, as well as have better hygiene surrounding preparation. Instead of buying bagged baby carrots or other bagged vegetables, buy whole sized carrots, lettuce, cabbage, etc. and cut it up yourself. It will take less than 5 minutes and you may find it relaxing while you think of other things during preparation. Isn’t your personal health more valuable than the convenience of having everyone do this for you? Prepare it yourself and save and, enjoy the quiet time contemplating your goals.

8. Brand Labels?
Would it surprise you to know that some of the major manufacturers such as Hunt’s and others, make the generic brand foods you see on store shelves. They use their product and put on the store’s label. This is a common practice in the entire manufacturing industry, both foods and non-food items. Purchasing the generic brands and brands at super stores such as Target, Walmart, Sam’s, and Cost-Co can save you lots of money on the most common food items, even meats and coffee.

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9. Eat Brown Bread – not White
When you look at breads, despite the additional processing for white bread, whole wheat bread is generally expensive. So, buy it on sale and if you buy multiple loaves, place the extra in a freezer until you need to use it. This will keep it fresh for later use and save you money.

10. Buy Bulk
You may not know it, but packaging is the most expensive part of the manufacturing process and, the more boxes, bags, etc. that you purchase, the greater the cost to you. The way around this is to buy in bulk. For example, you can buy the family size Cheese-it’s at the local store or, go to a super store such as Cost-Co that has the same items, but four times the volume in one box and at a cheaper price. Then, get home and when you open the larger bag, seal it with a clip after folding over the ends or place the remainder in Zip-Loc bags to preserve freshness for later use. Buying in bulk saves but plan your menu before you go to the store.

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Designing a personal workout program can be intimidating at first. However, with some basic guidelines, you can get started on your first program—a few are already included below as examples to learn from. Each sequential program can then be designed with the benefit of learned experience and it will become easier to plan workout days covering various duration. A workout program can be designed for any realistic time period. For example, it is more feasible to design a one-year workout program than a five-year program because one year is convenient and short enough to plan around a schedule of building a solid strength foundation, rank advancements tests, tournament competition, professional fighting events, pro ball, or other commitments.

To effectively design your own program, you must know what yours goals are for a yearly training period. Are your goals to simply increase speed and strength? Will you be competing in tournaments or fighting in professional events? Your program must be designed around periods of time in which an all-out effort will be required. For example, if you were going to compete in a national tournament on Saturday, how will you train for it the week before or the week of the event? Should you be doing more strength training or more event specific training? Also, suppose you were competing in tournaments each weekend for several months, started back on your normal strength program and after six or eight weeks were invited to a tournament in Europe. How would you work this unscheduled event into your yearly training program? How would the daily-workout cycle change? The workout cycle is the change of intensity of lifts done in the workout—this will be discussed later. Without further ado, let us begin.

Stages
Now that I have discussed the overall yearly program and generalities of the medium and short training periods it is time to give specific details for each period, stage and phase. Each period will require different types of training. For example, you are competing every weekend during the summer in various martial arts tournaments (in-season) or full contact matches such as the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) or MMA, or you’re on the road playing a ball sport; more time should be spent on training that parallels what your competition entails. However, if the competitive season has ended (off-season), more time can be spent on strength training in addition to cross training exercises such as ballistics, plyometrics, heavy bag, running, etc. (Like a non-competitor). To avoid confusion, let us not think of the short and medium training periods, but only of the full years training. During the year, you will have three different stages: (1) foundation; (2) competition; and (3) transitional and again, only two stages if not competing—foundation and transitional. Depending on individual goals, each stage will have a different duration.

It is important that you do not “burn” out too quickly and end up in a worse state at the end of the program than at the beginning, i.e., fatigued by overtraining. For instance, you may be three months, six months or even one year away from competition or testing.

Foundation Stage
If you are a beginner and have never performed strength training or periodized a workout program, the foundation stage will be the most important and, likely the most difficult initially. This stage builds foundation in strength and technique. At first, very light weights should be used. Once you feel comfortable with form, additional resistance (weight) can be added and eventually, maximum weight goals set for each exercise. For the beginner, the foundation stage will last longer than normal because of unfamiliarity and, until a certain level of conditioning is reached. For some injuries, such as lower back problems, this period can also be used for rehabilitation (light weights only). During the second time or when you write a new medium period training program, the duration of the foundation stage will generally be less and more precise, i.e., more specific goals set for each exercise. For example, the foundation stage for a beginner may last 8 months and during the second year, assuming competition, it may last only 4-6 months. The speed-strength program described herein should be approached as if you are a beginning martial artist. You should first learn the basics through a longer foundation stage and, as with rank advancement, you will be better at the foundation stage each successive time. At the completion of the foundation stage, you are ready to progress to the competition stage.

Competition Stage
The competition stage of your yearly program will be shorter than the previous stage. Upon completion of the foundation stage, you should have attained greater skill in lifting technique and acquired increased strength. Lifting will still be a major concern, but most of the training during this stage should be spent on the types of motions and physical parameters required for individual competition. For example, if you spar every weekend in a tournament, speed-strength training should not exceed two days per week. If you are sparring on Saturday, the best strength-training days would be Monday and Wednesday. As a rule of thumb, 85 percent of training time would be spent on sparring and associated type drills such as forms or Kata’s and or cardiovascular endurance if you’re a martial artist or shooting, sprinting, ball drills, etc., if you’re in ball-sport competition; 15 percent of training time would be spent on strength training. For professional fighters like kick boxers and rank advancement tests, the competition stage may be one, two, or three times per year. For hockey players, it can be 80 times per year. Either will require a shorter foundation stage as well as shorter competition and transitional stages.

Transitional Stage
Whether you compete or not, a transitional stage, which is designed for rest and recovery, must follow each phase peak, regardless of stage. This stage allows you to take a break from normal training to rest and perform something different such as riding a bike, hiking, racquetball, etc. The key factor is difference—this allows the body and mind to recover and regenerate. The transitional stage should be at least 7 days and no more than 14 days. Also, physical activities in this stage should be light to moderate. Again, a transitional period always follows a foundation stage and short (competition) period. For example, if your program has one foundation stage and three competition stages (short periods) during the year, you would need four transitional stages; one to follow each peak. However, this stage will be very short for repetitive weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly competitions.

Phases
The stages I have discussed can be broken down further into phases. By dividing the stages into two separate phases, a gradual transition with the addition of more difficult exercises, is easily accomplished.

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General and Specific Phases within the Foundation Stage
Within the foundation stage, most of training will be spent on basic strength training, as in a beginner program. In the general phase, you will spend more time with exercises such as squats and presses. For the specific phase, you will incorporate more speed exercises such as the snatch, clean and jerk, and beginner plyometrics or jump drills. The transition from the general to specific phase must be gradual, never fast. Also, each phase will have a desired number of training days. For example, a general phase may have 24 speed-strength days; a specific phase may have the same or less. For a three day per week speed-strength program, you may have a total of 12-16 weeks training, thus the preparation period would be three to four months; training would be evenly distributed between the general and specific phases. The general phase which is comprised of slower exercises (squats and presses) is necessary for building an adequate foundation which will allow you to perform faster exercises used in the specific phase where you will build speed. As a beginner, one is primarily in the general phase of the foundation stage for his first program. For successive programs, you will need to give the specific phase more attention as you attempt to plan more specific goals into your programs.

Pre-competition and Competition Phases within the Competition Stage
These two phases are incorporated into the competition stage. The focus in these phases must change for each. For the pre-competition phase, most of your training time should be spent on speed exercises (snatch, clean and jerk, plyometrics and ballistics) and on the technique of your martial arts style (judo, Kenpo, Shito-ryu, Tae-Kwon do, the UFC, MMA, etc.), bodybuilding competition, pro ball sport, Olympic, or collegiate competition. A desired number of speed-strength workout days should be written into the strength program; the exact number of workout days will be geared to your competition schedule. As you near the pre-competition phase, less time should be spent on lifting and more on competition specific routines.

To reiterate, once you have entered the competition phase, lifting days should be no more than two days per week. In this phase, your competitive bout should be about two to three weeks away. As the competitive match draws closer (4-5 days from the match), all lifting exercises should cease; only light warm-ups combined with stretching should be done during the 5 days leading up to the competition. You should perform light to moderate exercise, but not become sedentary; don’t “lay around!”

Peak
The peak would be the day of competition, i.e., the tournament, full-contact fight, rank advancement, or title match day for the competitive martial artist or ball game for pro athletes, high-school athletes, and so forth. On this day, you will be striving for maximum performance, moving as fast as possible at different times, and you will deliver an “all out” effort to achieve long sought-after goals, i.e., to win the competition, lift the heaviest weight, or earn the next rank. This competition may just be several rounds in a title bout or, if you are in competitive tournament karate, this may involve numerous competitions in both Kata (musical, empty-hand, and weapons) and/or sparring. Or, it can be the 60 minutes of play in football or 9 innings in baseball. So, 1-3 hours of strenuous physical exertion using explosive speed may be required; you must train for this—put it into your workout program.

The peak will also occur in the lifting program at the end of the foundation stage for the non-competitor. This will usually last for one week on three different lifting days, i.e., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On each of these days, different lifting exercises will require that you lift 100 percent of your maximum (goal) weight. Again, the goal weight is a set weight which you desire to lift for a given exercise. For example, 315 pounds for a bench press max, 400 pounds for a back squat, or 250 pounds for a clean and jerk. This ‘max’ week will be the peak in the lifting program (end of the foundation stage).

Rest and Moderate Activity Phase within the Transitional Stage
After the peak, the competition day or week of maximum lifts, a few days off is allowed. This occurs in the transitional stage, in two separate phases, i.e., one for rest and another for moderate activity. The transition stage begins immediately after a peak regardless of stage. The rest phase lasts 4-7 days and is for complete rest. Complete rest means to perform no exercises of any kind. This phase allows time for acquired injuries to heal and for recovery. The moderate activity phase, should be spent doing light to moderate exercises for 7-10 days. For those who are competing, these phases will be much shorter during continuous, in-season training and competition, i.e., if you are competing every weekend.

After the rest and moderate activity phases (transitional stage) are complete, you are ready to begin again with new goals and standards, i.e., a new program. Assuming you performed well and were persistent, you should have improved considerably. When beginning your next program, build up slowly, do not try to perform the beginning of the new program like the end of the old, i.e., begin with 50 percent or so of the maximum (goal) weight (which will be increase over your last program), not 75 percent or higher (see following sections). Also, for plyometric and ballistic exercises, perform a few days of beginning level exercises before continuing with intermediate or advanced exercises. This will reduce chances of injury. Staying injury free is the key to any successful program. These concepts are explained in detail in Dr. Tindall’s book Speed-Strength Training for MMA: Fighting Power. The concepts work for all professional sports.

The following tips are proven to be successful through weight-loss research. If you follow these tips, you have a great chance of reducing your weight and being more healthy.

Personal Eating Habits

1. Limit both calories and fat
• Eat a low-calorie diet. How many calories should you eat. Choose the weight you wish to be and multiply it by 10 then, add 200. For example, Joe wants to weigh 150 pounds so, 150 x 10 + 200 = 1700 calories. This amount is based on a day with no exercise. If you exercise, you’ll need to determine how many calories you might burn and add that amount to the above.
• Keep your fat intake below 30% of your total calories. A good ratio of fats:proteins:carbs for a healthy diet is 25% fat, 25% protein, and 50% complex carbohydrates that lean heavily toward green, leafy vegetables.

2. Meal Frequency – eat 6 small meals a day and start with breakfast
Dr. Tindall has taught meal frequency to professional and collegiate athletes for years, long before it became popular in lay magazines. Treat your body like a fine-tuned race car. Give it gas when it needs it most, i.e., hills, corners, and straight-a-ways. You do this by keeping your meals in the following basic order, which is based on about a 2,000 calorie per day diet (adjust for yourself).
• Breakfast (400 calories) – the most important meal of the day because is increases your metabolism.
• Morning Snack (200 calories)
• Lunch (500 calories)
• Afternoon Snack (250 calories)
• Dinner (500 calories)
• Pre-bed Snack (150 calories)
Cereal (hot or cold) and fruit is a common breakfast among weight watchers. Also, for more detailed instructions and menus, consult one of Dr. Tindall’s books, either 90 Days to a New You: Total Body Makeover or Nutrition Made Simple, both of which give detailed steps on the above process.

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3. Track your calories
Do not count every calorie, but initially, be aware of how many calories you are consuming. Once you’ve done it for a week or so, you will have a basic understanding of the process. You can also write this in your journal.

4. Eat consistently
Stick to your basic nutritional habits, if they are good ones, throughout the year. Some days you may overeat a little and some days you will under eat. Just remember this is long term and it will balance itself out. If you do so, you’ll be about twice as likely to maintain your weight goals. The biggest problems are to avoid splurging too much on the weekend and also holidays. When you feel full, stop eating!

5. Limit Fast Food and Restaurant Meals
The average intake of calories in the U.S. is twice as many as a person needs each day. A large part of this is eating out, whether in a drive through or sit down. Let’s look at an example. If you have a McDonald’s quarter-pounder with French fries and a coke, you have just had 790 calories. Put in perspective, a 5’ 2” female should weigh about 110 pounds and have an average calorie need of about 1300 calories per day. If she ate the above meal, she would have consumed 60% of her daily calories in one meal. This promotes both overeating and significant weight gain when done daily.

Exercise habits

6. Exercise 60 minutes a day
Dr. Tindall has answered this question often. People always ask “How many hours do I need to exercise each day to have the kind of body I want?” Assuming you’re not a competitive body builder or other competitive athlete, you need to exercise 5 hours per week. The most common exercise is actually walking so, walk fast.

7. Burn 520 calories per workout day
Choose exercises that will help you burn at least 500 calories per hour of activity. Speed-strength, martial arts, boxing, full-body activities, Cross Fit, etc. are all exercises that will help you burn lots of calories. Basic walking, biking, treadmill, etc. will generally burn much less. Lift weights and work the back, chest, and legs – the big muscle groups for the most amount of calorie burn in the shortest amount of time.
Other habits

8. Keep Track
You will want to weigh yourself about once per week – that is sufficient. Don’t be a scale watcher and do it every day, but consistently on a weekly basis. This will let you know where you are and also put a mild pressure on you to maintain. In other words, you’ll catch small weight gains before it gets to be overwhelming.

9. Forget TV – Choose a Hobby
The average child in the U.S. watches 40 hours of TV per week; the average adult watches 35 hours per week. Research has shown that people who watch TV less than 10 hours per week burn about 600 calories more than those who watch more than 10 hours of TV. So, what excuse do you have when you tell me you do not have time to exercise, but you watch 10 or more hours of TV per week? There is no excuse!

10. Never Quit
In the Speed-Strength Conditioning Department at the University of Colorado, Doc Kreis has the players wear shirts that said “Winner’s never Quit; Quitter’s never win!” It was the mantra of the team. Never give up – always be persistent. We all have set backs whether by injury, traveling, family issues, etc., but just keep going! If you never give up, you never fail.

Contrary to popular belief, weight loss is not permanent. If you do not believe it, weigh yourself every day for 10 consecutive days, each morning before breakfast. You will note that your weight does indeed fluctuate. Not by multiple pounds, but often, plus or minus 2-3 pounds. You are dynamic and so is your weight. In fact, the only way to maintain the same weight each day is to do the same amount of exercise, east the same number of calories and, well, you get the picture. The goal is to keep the big weight load off. Below are 10 tips that will help you do that. Make them a habit and you’ll be the new you that you wish to be.

Use the 10 tips below to help you stay motivated on your journey to permanent weight loss, especially when you’re not losing weight. But don’t just read them…do them.

1. Use Creative Visualization to ‘see’ the New You:
• What does the new you look like?
• Can you envision yourself on the beach in a new bikini or swimsuit?
• What are your goals to get to the new you?

You need to be able to envision the new you, like a movie in your mind. Like goals, write down what you want the new ‘physical’ you to look like. Then, make concrete small-step goals to get there. Every journey begins with the first step and, small steps are best as you start down the new path. For example, how much do you wish to weigh? Every goal has an important place in the plan.

2. Create a list of why? Why do you want to look like your vision?
The why is all important because it will help you to create reachable goals. List all the reasons you want to lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle. Post you list where you can see it every day – on the fridge or your desk. Review it constantly so that you maintain your focus and stay motivated. Just like your bathe each day, review your list daily as well – this will help you stay motivated.

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3. Think about Now versus the Future
This means you can remain the same physical you or you can become the new physical you. Which would you rather be? The same physical you requires little effort, the new physical you, requires goal, a plan and much work. But, the new physical you will be more rewarding, and you’ll be glad you put in the effort. Think about time. In one year, with no effort, you’ll be the same as now, maybe even heavier, more out of shape, but likely, still unhappy about how you look. Or, in one year, you can have a better physical you. Regardless of your choice, one year of time will have elapsed regardless of what you do.

Ask yourself:
• How will I feel in one year if I take now action? What will I look like? How will my health be impacted?
• If I make a plan, set my goals and work at my future me, how will my life and health be impacted? Won’t I be happier? What is most important personally about the new you?

4. The Importance of Losing Weight?
Over 95% of the illness and disease we have is related directly to nutrition. Likewise, increases in diabetes within the U.S. especially, have skyrocketed as the amount of sugar consumed per person has increased. Weight gain is directly linked to sugar consumption because sugar depresses your body’s natural fat-burning metabolism. Thus, eating healthier becomes a no-brainer. If you will eat healthy, weight loss becomes easier for most. And, as you lose weight, you become less susceptible to high blood pressure, diabetes, and many other ailments. Also, by losing weight, you’ll become naturally healthier and likely happier. Then, if you indulge occasionally, you won’t feel so guilty.

5. Set Realistic Goals
We all want to set a goal for how much weight we want to lose, but to do that successfully you must set behavior goals instead of weight loss goals. As an example, suppose you desire to lose 20 pounds over the next three months. How will you accomplish that? A wise way would be to set the goal and make a plan for achieving it. For example, set a goal of exercising three times per week for 20-30 minutes and combine it with eating more vegetable instead of breads and pasta. This way you’re focusing more on being healthy, which will naturally spill over into your weight loss goals. You have much more control over your behavior than you do the number on the scale. And, it is a change in eating habits that will ultimately get you where you want to go. As mentioned before, take small steps, i.e., small goals that you can accomplish. Setting a very large goal, makes it more unattainable and therefore, makes you more likely to fail.

6. Reward Positive Behavior
Reward yourself for achieving personal behavior goals. You are more likely to keep doing something if it’s followed by something you want. For example, I promised myself when I lost 20 pounds that I would buy that new pair of shoes I wanted. The number of rewards is endless and last time I checked, a new pair of shoes didn’t have any calories that would affect weight gain. Rewards can often help motivate one to continue efforts, even if you haven’t lost weight. You should note that when you begin exercising, you will naturally increase the density of muscles. This usually results in a slight weight gain, but you have burned fat and you will likely note that, although you have a little more weight, you can wear a smaller size dress or jeans. So, in a more definite way, focus on losing fat instead of just weight.

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7. What is your Definition of Success? You may want to change it
Change the way you think about success. One of my favorite definitions of success is – the accomplishment of one’s aims, purposes, or goals. Thus, success can mean several things to you. In terms of fitness it could be:
• Being able to run 2 miles non-stop
• Chores and work feel easier to do, etc.
• Do not consume any fast food for one month
• Exercising consistently for three weeks – this will help make it a habit
• Feeling better overall and feeling exuberant about life
• Feeling stronger in your muscles
• Noticing changes in the shape of your body
• The ability to exercise 40 minutes instead of 20-30

8. Keep a Journal
If you want to be successful, you must have a plan that you hinge your goals onto. Get away from the PDS’s, smart phones and computers. Make this very personal. Purchase a small, hard bound journal and a pen. Keep them with you all the time. Write down your plan in your journal and check off each successful step you accomplish. Also, write about the foods you’re eating, exercise times, etc. A paper journal can be kept in your purse and or gym bag, on the seat of your car, etc. Start a journal and keep a tally of any and every success you deem important as you begin your new journey to more permanent weight loss. Examples include:

• Foods you eat each day
• Amount of time in the gym and what exercises you did: reps, sets, weight load, time, etc.
• Goals you reached and how
• Obstacles you overcame that initially plagued you
• Physical and mental feelings/changes you may notice
• Positive changes other people notice about you: tighter looking, bigger biceps, etc.

Set aside about 10 minutes each day to reflect on your goals and how you’re doing with them. And, when you fill up your first journal, get another and continue your journey. It is the small successes that will help you drive forward and help you to keep your passion.

9. Self Evaluate
One of the many things people do wrong when attempting to lose weight is to set an unrealistic goal of 20-30 pounds in one or two months. Not only is this unrealistic, it is also unhealthy. A good goal is 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week. And, it generally takes up to 2 weeks to notice the loss without weighing daily on a scale. Let’s look at an example. Susan wants to lose 10 pounds. Given that 10 pounds represents 35,000 calories, it’s not likely to be lost in a week or two. It is the combination of exercise and food intake that determine how much you will lose. This is the short answer, but it is more complex. Losing weight is a matter of energy balance. Food is the energy in and exercise is the energy out. If you have more energy out than in you’ll lose weight, conversely more energy in than out means you’ll gain weight. Thus, the best way is to eat healthy and exercise. Do it well and the results will surprise you.

10. Don’t be a Scale Watcher
All or our clients are forbidden to weigh more than once per week. It is like the adage ‘watch the pot, never boil’ type of saying. Weighing yourself each day will frustrate you and because the body is dynamic, you won’t notice a change that quickly anyway. Once per week is sufficient, even once per 10 days. Your body is ‘smart’ and constantly adjusting to new routines and food regimens you may put it through. Set your goals, write your plan, and get started. The weight will take care of itself it you just follow your plan.