Meditation 101

Meditation refers to a state where your body and mind areconsciously relaxed and focused. Practitioners of this artreport increased awareness, focus, and concentration, aswell as a more positive outlook in life.Meditation is most commonly associated with monks, mysticsand other spiritual disciplines. However, you don't haveto be a monk or mystic to enjoy its benefits. And youdon't even have to be in a special place to practice it. You could even try it in your own living room!Although there are many different approaches to meditation,the fundamental principles remain the same.

The most important among these principles is that of removingobstructive, negative, and wandering thoughts andfantasies, and calming the mind with a deep sense of focus.This clears the mind of debris and prepares it for ahigher quality of activity.The negative thoughts you have – those of noisy neighbors,bossy officemates, that parking ticket you got, andunwanted spam – are said to contribute to the `polluting'of the mind, and shutting them out it allows for the`cleansing' of the mind so that it may focus on deeper,more meaningful thoughts.

Some practitioners even shut out all sensory input – nosights, no sounds, and nothing to touch – and try to detachthemselves from the commotion around them. You may nowfocus on a deep, profound thought if this is your goal. Itmay seem deafening at first, since we are all tooaccustomed to constantly hearing and seeing things, but asyou continue this exercise you will find yourself becomingmore aware of everything around you.If you find the meditating positions you see on televisionthreatening – those with impossibly arched backs, andpainful-looking contortions – you need not worry.

The principle here is to be in a comfortable position conduciveto concentration. This may be while sitting cross-legged,standing, lying down, and even walking.If the position allows you to relax and focus, then thatwould be a good starting point. While sitting or standing,the back should be straight, but not tense or tight. Inother positions, the only no-no is slouching and fallingasleep.Loose, comfortable clothes help a lot in the process sincetight fitting clothes have a tendency to choke you up andmake you feel tense.

The place you perform meditation should have a soothingatmosphere. It may be in your living room, or bedroom, orany place that you feel comfortable in. You might want anexercise mat if you plan to take on the more challengingpositions (if you feel more focused doing so, and if thecontortionist in you is screaming for release). You maywant to have the place arranged so that it is soothing toyour senses.Silence helps most people relax and meditate, so you maywant a quiet, isolated area far from the ringing of thephone or the humming of the washing machine. Pleasingscents also help in that regard, so stocking up on aromaticcandles isn't such a bad idea either.

The monks you see on television making those monotonous sounds are actually performing their mantra. This, insimple terms, is a short creed, a simple sound which, forthese practitioners, holds a mystic value.You do not need to perform such; however, it would pay tonote that focusing on repeated actions such as breathing,and humming help the practitioner enter a higher state ofconsciousness.The principle here is focus. You could also try focusingon a certain object or thought, or even, while keeping youreyes open, focus on a single sight.

One sample routine would be to – while in a meditativestate – silently name every part of you body and focusingyour consciousness on that part. While doing this youshould be aware of any tension on any part of your body. Mentally visualize releasing this tension. It workswonders.In all, meditation is a relatively risk-free practice andits benefits are well worth the effort (or non-effort –remember we're relaxing).Studies have shown that meditation does bring aboutbeneficial physiologic effects to the body.

And there hasbeen a growing consensus in the medical community tofurther study the effects of such. So in the near future,who knows, that mystical, esoteric thing we call meditationmight become a science itself!About the Author:Tim Maher is interested in personal development in all itsfacets and has read many books on this topic. It is aninterest that is fed and nurtured by listening to audiobooks and seminars when possible. To assist your ownpersonal growth journey get your audio resources at ==>http://www.magillaudiobooks.com/list.aspx?catId=137

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How Fat Loss Pills Can Make You Fatter

The bottom line is...fat loss pills work. This is both the best thing about them and the worst thing about them.

When you take a good fat burning supplement, you lose a lot of fat, you feel better about yourself and you are happy, right? This is the best thing about fat loss supplements.
The worst thing about these supplements is that because they work so well, you don't have to change your eating or exercise habits to accomplish your goals. You get results simply by taking a little pill.

Does this phrase sound familiar: "Eat whatever you want and still lose weight!"

Here's the scenario: you take the pills and you lose all the weight you want. What happens when you stop taking the supplement once you've reached your goals? Since you haven't had to change your eating or exercise habits, you regain the weight. Then you buy their pills again and start the same cycle again! It is very similar to the yo-yo diet syndrome of weight loss and regain.

How do you break this cycle? The solution is very simple though it may not be glamorous or easy: you learn to eat properly and you exercise regularly.

When you remove your dependence on fat loss pills to lose fat (through education, nutrition and exercise), you free yourself to use them to enhance your efforts, not anchor them. You will be able to lose your extra fat and keep it off without having to depend on fat loss pills to make it happen.

Fitness Expert
Nick Nillson Read More

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Feeling Guilty About Cheat Day

Hey Ray,

I have a question about the "cheat" day. It was my friends birthday the other night, and I took her out. We naturally split a dessert after dinner because it was her b-day. But I have to admit though that I felt compelled to have cake with her because it was her birthday and didn't really want it.

PROBLEM: You are the captain of your own ship. You should never do anything that is not inline with your beliefs or goals.

Anyway, because I hadn't scheduled out this dessert as part of a cheat day before I had the cake, I felt guilty about eating it after I ate it and decided to make the harmless dessert into a "cheat"/"binge" night since I figured I had already screwed things up.

PROBLEM: You allowed one hit of a fight to knock you out. When you see you have taken a wrong turn, get back on the right path. Going further down the wrong path will not get you to your destination any faster.

And now I feel like I've just blown my entire week and will have to spend the next week just to burn off all of the fat I stored on this one night. And this feeling makes me want go for hours without eating just so I can burn off the fat faster (which is how I have dealt with binge/cheat nights in the past. And the number goes down quickly when I do this, but, after reading your book, I know now that this doesn't work and is counterproductive. Anyway, my question for you is how do I make a "cheat" day into a day that doesn't take me off track or impede progress: a day where I don't feel guilt and have no reason to feel guilt? Thank you and I hope you are having a great day,

SOLUTION: You have educated yourself and know that everyone needs a cheat day for sanity and to enjoy the finer things life has to offer. A benefit of this is a zig zag pattern in your caloric intake that keeps your metabolism from stagnating. Trust yourself and your knowledge…trust me and my expertise and simply get used to doing the right thing.

*Also, how do you stay patient with yourself at losing 2 pounds per week? In order to lose 2 pounds of fat, I need to be so meticulous about my diet, and workout very hard the entire week. And only seeing a 2 pound loss/week is such a bummer after all of that hard work and detailed planning. How do you look at this?

SOLUTION: Two pounds a week is awesome weight loss by anyone's standards. I would like to be a millionaire by next week but guess what? Some times you have to follow the steps that need to be taken in order to acquire something of great value.

Everything that has a payoff requires a sacrifice and this is the price you pay to succeed at anything worth while. Once you acquire the goal, maintaining it is easy…that’s the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ray Burton
Author http://www.fattofitbook.com

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No Gym No Membership No Problem

Hello,

My name is Frank Remington, a 50 year old male smoker that has undergone knee surgery, have some permanent damage to the right knee, and have been diagnosed with premature arthritis in both of my knees, hip and lower back. I work on the road around 250 to 300 days per year and am usually in one area for only 3-4 weeks at a time, so a gym membership is almost impossible for me to use. I travel with a set of Reebok Speedpac dumbbells and a 65 cm fitness ball. Cardio work is a big problem for me because of the injuries, arthritis, and surgeries over the years (not to mention the smoking part!). I stay at cheaper hotels generally (project budgets) that don’t have any type of fitness equipment or facilities. I do a 4-5 day/week, 30-45 minutes/day lifting regimen, but it doesn’t seem to do any good. I would dearly love to drop around 30-40 pounds, but am clueless as how to go about it. Any advice for someone like me? Any help would be very, VERY much appreciated. I am really looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Frank Remington

From Ray:
I think your best bet Frank is to get into some bodyweight training. That way you can train quickly and at a heavier resistance. Just look at a gymnast. If you train quickly using fairly decently heavy resistance like your own bodyweight and watch the processed food often cardio isn’t needed.

Here is the type of workout I am talking about that uses only bodyweight and keeps you moving fast so you don’t need to go for a jog and you don’t need a gym membership.

As well, here is a clip of me doing most of these exercises:

Body weight video

Here is the page with the routine:

www.fattofitbook.com

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March 2007 Fitness Newsletter

I have a couple of updates to the website. The first is the exercise video clips page. I’ve put all the small and big clips I’ve done over the last year or so onto one page that you can reference any time you need to. You can find that here:
exercise'>http://www.buildingbodies.ca/exercise.shtml

Also I have a new video for you to see and rate about athletic drills. This is the fun stuff! You can see that here:
power'>http://www.metacafe.com/watch/453638/power_and_speed_drills_for_athletes/

There has also been an update to the famous glute and butt exercises page that you can check out here:

http://www.buildingbodies.ca/exercise/index.php/glute-exercises-for-a-better-butt/

I took the two most frequently visited “Butt” pages and combined them to put the information into one place. Everything you need is there for you.

Now for the exciting part. My book FAT TO FIT is now available on Amazon.com in paper back. Yes, after being on the internet for years, and selling it from mail order, I have officially gone commercial! I could use a few reviews over at amazon, so if you have read the book or done the online program, please go over and share your opinions.

Here is the product page:
Amazon.com
Also, if you have liked the info I've given you so far then let someone else know about buildingbodies.ca and forward this email newsletter to them!

Now For Readers Questions

Hi Ray,

I got your 6 fat burning don’ts letter and got kind of concerned. I am about halfway through phase 1 and am really liking the way I look, all except my midsection. I'm a slender guy to start with so fat really stands out on me when looking at the rest of my physique and right now my body fat percent is 15.2. I would like to get down to 8 percent if possible.

The reason your letter concerned me is because according to it I am really overdoing my workouts and causing that awful stress hormone to retain fat. I do cardio about 5 times a week (about 70 % heart rate at constant pace) and lift weights 3 times a week. The days that I combine cardio and weight lifting usually takes me a good 2 hours, which really exceeds that 1 hour stress limit! Also I do the beginner ab routine 3 times a week (crunches x 3, leg lift/hip rolls x 3, bridge x 3) and 3 sets of side crunches the other three days of the week. Am I doing too much ab work to get a trim waist?

I am pretty confident in my diet (250 protein, 150 carbs, 40 fat) from natural sources. If I am taking the right steps to attain those coveted six pack abs just let me know when you can, it would save me a lot of stress and worry. Also if I am doing the right steps how long would it take to burn 7 percent body fat? Thanks again Ray and take care.

Joel Smith
San Antonio, TX


P.S. I have written you a ton of emails in the past 2 weeks and you have yet to ignore or blow off any question I had. Thanks for your dedication and for caring. Keep up the great job!

Hi Joel,


You are not doing too much. Two hours is defiantly on the outside of the beneficial time limit to train though. You should train harder and faster to attain the lower body fat percentage. Everything should be finished in less than 1.5 hours on the long side. If you are really working hard on an abbreviated schedule like I suggest in the program/book and only taking one minutes rest between sets, that is enough time.

I would also suggest that if you insist on doing cardio five times a week as a beginner, that you switch back and forth between interval training and steady state cardio. Do the 20-30 minutes of sprints on the weight training days.

As for how long it will take you to achieve a 7 percent body fat, here is how you figure that out. Take your weight and multiply it by your current 15.2 percent figure. That will give you how many fat pounds you have. Now do the same thing using 7 percent body fat. See how many fat pounds that gives you. Take the difference and you have two options here; the first is extremely fast and the second is more normal. The fast route you would divide your fat pounds by two, that is how many weeks it will take to achieve a 7 percent body fat. The normal route has your difference between 15 and 7 percent being the weeks to achieve your goal.

Here is another question and answer I did with Ben about weight loss exercise:

weight-loss-exercise-workout-help


I am looking for farms and ranches for sale. I am also looking for info on renting retreat locations. If you have any info on either, please forward it to me by replying to thisemail. Yes folks, there is a weight loss camp in the works.


That’s is for this month main newsletter,
See you in the updates,
Ray Burton

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Fish Oil And Fatty Acids

Omega fatty acids are becoming a very mainstream supplement these days. I thought for sure when I started my research that I would be able to answer two very simple yet common questions easily. I was wrong. Despite Omega fatty acids popularity and the nice chunk of change that is being made off it by supplement manufacturers, the solid recommendations on its intake are curiously varied.

When I started out, I only wanted to know first; “How much omega 3 should one be taking in a day?” Second; “Now that it is added to eggs, found in flaxseed and so on, can taking too much just add on the calories and not be beneficial?”

The first question of amount depends on the expert you talk to. The one thing that is almost a suggestion is that you should make sure you get a balanced amount of omega 6 and omega 3. Equal parts omega 6 to omega 3 is one suggestion and at the highest end, 10 omega 6 to 1 omega 3. Most of us get too much 6. See how this is heading already? I guess the good news is that in America (Canada too) we are heading towards 20:1 ratio of omega 6 to 3’s, so anything is an improvement from that imbalance.

That explains the ratio’s although somewhat vaguely. Now for the actual amounts. The national food and nutrition board is suggesting that 110 mg for women and 160 mg for men is sufficient. Individual nutritionists suggest a bit more. Somewhere in the 500-1000 mg per day range for normal healthy people and even suggesting more if an illness like rheumatoid arthritis is present.

The point that is hard to wrap your head around is the fact that four appointed “experts” suggest substantially different amounts. This makes it hard to give a solid recommendation as a personal trainer that is not an expert MD. The council for Responsible Nutrition, American Heart Association, the Food and Nutrition Board and the World Health Organization all suggest something different. What I take away from the amounts is that if you are at 200 mg up you should be good. If you are over 1000 mg, you are starting to get too high.

So what are the ramifications if you dare to take in too much of the omega fatty acids? The only thing I can find, and you should do your own research, is that you may get some diarrhea and gas. You may want a breath mint or two also as the oils from fish leave a, well, fishy aftertaste. Taking in too much of any macronutrient however is excess calories and of course this is no different with fatty acids. A surplus of fat intake will not bring more results and may lead to fat storage. Its not because its fat, its because of the surplus calories.

If you are worried about drug interactions, there is only one thing I have found and that is with blood thinners. The combination of blood thinners and omega 3 fatty acids can cause excessive bleeding. This makes perfect sense though since it is this effect that does help those with heart problems.

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Optifast Diet Plan Question

Hi Ray,
My name is Dianne and I have your Fat to Fit e book as well as being on your email list. I love the info you pass along. Thanks.

I am a personal trainer but always like to see what others are doing , get some ideas, etc. Your philosophies are that of mine.

But I do have a question/ opinion. I am doing some nutrition counseling for a physician in my area ( I have a degree in foods and nutrition and am a nurse too). These are people that have been on a very low calorie intake ( of which I do not believe in) but he wants me to help them transition back into eating normal meals after being on a low calorie diet using "foods" he has using a program called Optifast. I am doing this because I am so against this Optifast ( and I am trying to convince him of this) and would like to help people lose weight through good nutrition and exercise. Anyway.....she is coming off this optifast and has been on approx 1000 cal/day. ( I haven't seen her yet so I'm waiting to look at her food journal and talk to her). She weighs 214 lbs, 52 yr, 5' 6" and has incorporated exercise into her regimen 3x's / week (I have to find out exactly what she is doing ).

So here's my question:

For someone who has been on such a low calorie diet for some time, is it better, in your opinion, to increase the calories where they should be, based on BMR and activity, at a slower rate? She has lost some weight but I know that her body has to be in starvation mode! I think she should be in the 1500 - 1700 cal range for weight loss (probably higher because of her current weight). From what I am told about her she is going to have a hard time adding these calories on because she is afraid she will gain the weight back that she has lost.
I just wanted to see what you thought

Thanks for taking the time to read this...........Dianne

ANSWER FROM RAY:
Whew, your in a tuff spot. Alot is going to depend on your client. Sometimes they just wont listen and it breaks your heart to care more for them then they do about themselves.
I hate it when people are put on diets below 1100 calories no matter what. Even if they do lose SOME weight, its unhealthy and its clawing at the gates to come back for survivals sake like you said.

Bottom line, I agree that she should go back to a BMR and activity based caloric intake. You are going to run into oposition because she will gain some short term weight because of the state here body was in. SHE WILL HAVE TO TRUST YOU that once her body normalizes and she trains the way you ask her, that she will achieve results that will blow the past program out of the water.

I hope that helps and great job on using proper exercise and nutrition to help people live better lives.

Ray Burton President Buildingbodies Inc
http://www.buildingbodies.ca

http://www.FatToFitProgram.com

Bored?
Visit YouTube and watch a free workout video
with a motivational message:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/403285/ray_burton_weight_loss_workout_motivation/

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Using Weight Loss Pills For Results

Do think that you need some wonder fat burning pill or mega muscle pumper supplement to reach your goals?

Have you fallen for the scam that you can speed up the process by simply getting the newest development in “genetic research”? It also happens to be available for a limited time for $19.95 too I bet!

Well you have been mislead. There is no pill, powder or wonder supplement that will burn off bodyfat and allow you to keep it off that is on the market. Let me put it this way. When stuff has a direct effect on the human body, it becomes regulated. It then becomes prescription to protect us from killing ourselves with our own best intentions. I’ll tell you that again. When a supplement actually works, the government pulls it and it becomes a drug. AND YOU CANNOT GET IT WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION.

What about the pictures you see in the magazines that promote all those fat burners or muscle enhancers? What usually happens is that some guy or gal works really hard doing solid training and proper eating and gets some really great results. They send they’re pictures into a supplement company and are happy to get a pat on the back, a picture in a magazine and a couple bucks for their testimonial. It’s the way things work unfortunately.

Remember that any time something acts fast on the body, the stopping of that something will return you to your regular condition just as fast. That’s why steady progress is better than rapid stops and starts.

The reason your body is the way it is, is because of the way you live. Whether you are fat or skinny, it is a reflection of what you do on a daily basis with your eating and physical activity. Harsh, but those are the facts.

The glass half full part of this story is that if the state of your body is a reflection of your daily activities, we can change that reflection. All we have to do is change the activities. Do you need any pills, powders or supplements to achieve this? Absolutely not. Can a protein bar be convenient to put in your backpack if you are away from home? Absolutely yes.

Supplements are just that. They are a supplement to your regular diet and are a convenient OCCASIONAL substitute to a regular meal.

With what I just told you and the power of compound interest, I just saved you a lot of money! Training, eating and keeping your spirits up is all that is required to take your body to any level.

Training and eating right brings you to a point where you are soaking the absolute last drop of “ring out the towel goodness” from life.

Taking care of my body has taking me to places and allowed me to try things that I could have never dreamed of. EVERYTHING I HAVE DONE, YOU CAN DO TOO.

Maybe you don’t want to be able to do backflips, do a one arm chinup or step onto a bodybuilding stage at 4% bodyfat. That’s ok, but you sure as heck can if you want. All I want is to open the door to let you find your own limits.

If I could persuade you to turn away from the media chatter for a minute and only concentrate this:

“No Ocean Was Ever Crossed By Only Looking At The Water”

Now if you got the boat, then you just got to get in and start paddling. So the path to any goal comes down to acquiring the know-how and then simply doing it. There are thousands of resources and archives of great exercise and fitness instruction out there; I hope you will allow me the pleasure of being one of them.

To your success.

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