They say its Autumn here in Melbourne but today definitely felt like a winters day with a top of 13 degrees. By the time I got home from work I felt like eating something warm and hearty however my fitness goals at the moment don’t allow for foods with sauces. But that doesn’t mean I can’t give it to someone else to enjoy.
So I went about preparing a Tagine’s from one of my favourite Moroccan cuisines for my dear man who was getting home from another late day at work.
The two leading causes of obesity in the western world are, in my opinion, the over consumption of trans-fats and sugar.
Sadly, due to disguised ingredients, you might not even be aware you’re eating them even if you have sworn off them for life.
The Modern Diet
When you take a walk through the supermarket what do you see?
Most of the supermarket is filled up with canned, boxed, and processed foods. Supermarkets have entire aisles filled with junk foods. Crackers, cookies, cakes, chips, candy … all these things are placed in key areas in supermarket that are designed to entice us to buy them. You can’t go to the checkout counter without being confronted with several varieties of chocolate, candy, and chewing gum. It’s enough to make any health fanatic have a fit of rage!
The thing is, we ALL know (or should know) these foods are bad news; however some of us decide to eat them anyway.
These foods are completely devoid of nutrients. However, some customers have been getting savvy to companies’ sugary trickery, so companies have started fortifying these ‘foods’ with various nutrients to try to attract people to buy them. Basically what this means is that companies are adding synthetic compounds to refined sugar products to give them the appearance of being healthy. For example, Coco Pops are filled to the brim with sugar, but Kellogg’s now market them as having “added calcium”.
Sugar and Calcium – everything a growing body needs… Kellogg’s should be ashamed of themselves, marketing these kinds of cereals to children.
In other words, it has become increasingly less obvious to the consumer that these foods are nutritional nightmares. Energy and sport drinks, or better yet, that ridiculous ‘vitamin water’ filled with sugar, are another example of sugary junk foods in disguise.
In the modern supermarket the chocolate and lolly aisle would be a better place for commercial breakfast cereals due to the horrendous amounts of sugar content. These aisles may as well be called “the unhealthy aisle” or the “dessert aisle”.
This is very alarming as the problem is even worse than it appears on the surface. Trans fat and sugar both make their way into foods that people wouldn’t expect. If you want to see this in action, take a browse down your supermarket’s soup aisle and take a look at some of the labels. Do you notice sugar in the labels? No? Look again.
Things like “sucrose” and “fructose” or pretty much anything that ends in -ose represents a sugar, whether ‘natural’ or artificial’.
So why is sugar in minestrone soup?
When we cook these things at home, we don’t add sugar to them. I’ve never seen the words ‘add sugar’ in any soup recipes (or maybe I just buy healthy cook books?) So why is it in these packaged foods? Because it adds shelf life, makes products taste nicer, and is more addictive to our taste buds.
The unfortunate fact is the majority of consumers are completely clueless about what’s in the foods they are eating.
Trans-fats are equally as bad (if not worse).
Trans-fats often find their way into foods that on surface value appear to be healthy. Things like granola bars and even breakfast cereal can contain trans-fats. Look for anything that is “partially hydrogenated”. This is “code” for trans-fats. Once you start reading labels, you’ll be shocked at how many foods contain both of these ingredients. That’s why I tell my clients and readers, if it’s in a packet, don’t buy it.
What do we mean by sugar?
The issue of carbohydrates and sugars can be confusing.
The negative reputation associated with all carbohydrates is not justified. To sort out all the confusion lets break carbohydrates down into two groups:
Caveman Carbs
Modern Carbs
Caveman carbs are easy to identify, just ask this one question,
“If I was a caveman or woman, could I eat this food?”
Modern carbs are the total reverse. They are all the foods that we did not have access to as cave-people.
Refined “Natural” Sugars
Natural sugar occurs in things like fruit (fructose) BUT don’t get tricked into thinking the isolated version of fructose is good for you- its not. Processed refined sugar for the most part comes from whole foods (which includes fruit).
This processing creates its’ own product. We know these by many names such as:
Table sugar
Corn syrup
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Agave Nectar
Sucrose
Brown Sugar
Organic Sugar
Low GI Sugar
They are all refined sugars and all have the same impact on blood sugar and insulin despite which plant, fruit, or lab they come from.
While real whole fruit contains fructose sugar, it also contains a range of important nutrients and fiber. When we isolate the fructose portion from the food, there are no nutrients and no value despite the fact that ‘fructose’ came from fruit. Additionally, an a Read More…
Janet has been training with us since 2007. I made this short video of her journey from 2006 to 2011… CHECK IT OUT!!
You will notice a big difference from 2009 to 2011 – Its around the same time I went on a learning rampage (BioSignature, PICP and SCTS course with the Poliquin Institute) AND Janet took a much needed year off competing.
“I started training with Mark in 2011 after getting to a point where I was tired of looking after my own training and nutrition as well as everyone else’s! As a personal trainer and health coach myself for over 13 years I know all the ‘facts’, but that doesn’t mean I can always be objective or motivated.
As I’ve had several stages of feeling that way, Mark is actually about the 6th or 7th trainer I’ve worked with to achieve my personal goals, I go through phases where I’m happy alone and others where I know I need support.
I chose to work with Mark because I knew him from various courses and had noticed that he was very observant, asked smart questions in class, and seemed to care about his clients well being beyond just the physical results. Furthermore, in various positions I’ve held in the fitness industry I’ve mentored hundreds of different trainers, and so I like to think I have an eye for who is a cut above the rest!
What I found is that Mark takes personal training to a level that most trainers possibly don’t even consider. His approach is very holistic, in that he took the time to regularly check in on how I was going with nutrition, lifestyle, stress management, even business management. All of the things which do play a part in whether or not you might stay on track or slip off path a little.
Two things that especially stood out to me in working with Mark were how accommodating he was of me bringing my toddler to training sessions (she loves it!) and also one occasion when he sent me an email that was very relevant to where I was emotionally with dealing with old food and body image issues. I don’t think there are many guys out there that either get where women come from when it comes to body image, or want to!
Mark’s workouts are challenging, fun and varied, and his training is result based. I was able to check a few pretty cool strength goals off my list. To be honest my jaded view of the fitness industry is that most trainers see it as a means to some undefined end and are watching the clock, but to Mark helping people IS clearly the end game and the way he presents as a PT shows that.”
5 Things I Learnt About Training Last Year By Erros Chiodo
1. Deadlifts Rule!
If you have been to any decent gym in your city you have probably seen someone perform a deadlift, but not necessarily well!
If you are part of the elusive deadlifting club I encourage you to stay a member like I have for the past 8 years as the rewards will be great. Deadlifts are probably the most fundamental and primal of all movements within the gym. No other lift gives you the same raw strength increases whilst putting slabs of muscle onto your back, legs and traps. Pretty much every muscle of the body is involved in deadlifting, causing a great plasma shift of blood into the working muscles.
A large plasma shift induces boosts of anabolic hormones testosterone and growth hormone. You can also generally move more weight with the deadlift meaning there is far greater nervous system activation than any other lift, leading to more strength and muscle gains. Deadlifts have a great transfer to other lifts within the gym, I have seen my clients improve on other back exercises like barbell and dumbbell rows as well as squats because of them. Deadlifts strengthen the posterior chain like no other exercise providing great strength and stability all along the spinal column and through the hamstrings.
Honestly who doesn’t like being able to comfortably lift 200 plus kilos in gym? And if you don’t.. That’s fine you can stick to doing cable concentration curls in the corner!
Erros Deadlifting 255kilos /561 pounds :
2. Strongman Training For The Off Season
If you are not sure what the sport of strongman involves, its basically lifting a variety of heavy things in different ways. Without going into too much detail on all the different events and competition process, I can say that there are definite benefits one can derive from implementing strongman training techniques.
Around 2 years ago I made the transition from natural bodybuilding competitor to strongman trainer. As much as I loved getting up on stage painted brown and in tiny Speedos the sport just wasn’t for me. Don’t get me wrong I loved the training and discipline involved in attaining such a physique. It’s ironic t Read More…
At the moment I’m working towards doing my first Figure competition. As we all know the food you eat for your competition prep can be rather restrictive and makes it tricky when having guests over or if your cooking for two.
As cooking tasty food is something I enjoy, especially when I get to eat it, I would be quite grumpy if I had to do a ‘chicken and broccoli’ diet for 12 weeks.
Here is a fresh and tasty salad that has all the right ingredients to keep you on track with your goal and you can add the dressing and extra flavours to your guests meals or that special ‘other’ that you’re cooking for.
These were the fitness entry requirements for Tough Mudder
10km run
25 push ups
6 pull ups
45 metre swim
Sweeeet!! I’m in!! I probably need to increase my running sessions but otherwise I should get through.
When I don’t have any set goals around my fitness (training for the sake of training) my training normally consists of a mixture of HIIT resistance training/Crossfit style training, strength training and trail running. I train to be stronger, faster, fit and feel awesome.
So all that being said here is what I did to prepare for the Tough Mudder:
Three Trail Runs a Week
These were about 8 km runs on an unstable terrain and included going off track to do some uphill sprints on the side trails. I never do steady state cardio, besides the fact that I find it absolutely boring and un-motivating. Steady state cardio is only useful if your goal is to do endurance sport such as a marathon. As far as fat loss, building strength and speed, steady state cardio is useless.
(above) Trail running… Tough Mudder Style!!
Strength Training
Twice a week I attended a Strength And Conditioning class at Dominance held by Murray Ballanden and learnt how to incorporate kettlebells into my workouts which helped to increase overall body strength and target weak areas such as my upper back and core. Murray is a great coach and loves working with people on repairing their injuries and correcting the imbalances (and like Mark is very particular about perfecting technique).
Mark and I recently came back from the most amazing holiday in Thailand! Textbook! Yes the ones you see in the movies where you’re on ‘Cloud 9’ and every day is a new and exciting adventure.
One of the salads we experienced was so good I just had to share it with you and perfect for the warm weekends we’ve been having.
Ingredients
½ firm papaya seeded and diced
½ cup of chopped dried figs
1 firm avocado seeded and diced
Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon of fresh coriander chopped
Lightly mix all the ingredients together so the avocado and papaya don’t turn to mush and it’s ready to serve.
This salad is beautiful with Cajun or BBQ chicken or fish
As we arrived at Philip Island and parked the car I could see the Tough Mudder participants almost finishing their race…they looked tired and muddy and ready for it to be over. Eeekkkk!!! I’m here finally! The day had come around so quickly and I had no idea what to expect and was hoping I had trained properly for it.
12:45 was my start time. As I jumped the first wall and stood in the ‘pen’ with 600 other ‘Mudder’ participants I listened to the commentator give us our send off speech. “Tough Mudder is a challenge” he said, “not a race. It is about camaraderie and helping your fellow team members complete the race and get to the finish line.
The course went for 20km with a mixture of running and 28 obstacles to challenge you. As he spoke about the obstacles ahead it definitely seemed you needed a team to complete them and I signed up to do the race on my own!
Oh well! I’ll just have to make friends and ask for help. Read More…
Have You Ever Wondered How Sports Models or Figure Competitors Get in Shape?
SOLD OUT – Email info@enterprisefitness.com.au to be put on the waiting list
I certainly have. I wonder why more of them don’t end up in hospital with some of the diets, training and cardio regimes they follow…
I’ve been consulting and training female figure models and natural bodybuilders for a number of years and some of the “diets” and “training programs” I’ve seen are ridiculous and down right stupid…
I’m the guy that will tell you everything you have heard about health, fitness and comp prep is wrong… then back it up. Don’t believe me?
Check out some of the guys and girls I’ve trained and consulted for:
2 time Ms Olympia and 3 time Ms Australia, Janet Kane
He got rid of the useless supplements I was using – and this actually caused me to drop 2 kilos of fat within a week!
Started Getting Results That I Only Had Dreamed About – Aidan Guyett
I Feel Myself Getting Fitter and Stronger Each and Everyday – Carley Smith
2 time INBA Mr. Australia, Tristan Boyce
I could go on but I think you get the point…
Let’s cut to the chase here; I’m known for two things, my no BS attitude and my passion for health and fitness. I’ve combined these two traits and put together a seminar packed with information you can take away and use to get the results you’ve been working so hard for.
The seminar isn’t JUST for people who want to compete… It’s for anyone and everyone who is passionate about their health and fitness and wants to look like they can compete.
Results speak for themselves so I’ll let a couple of the members that attended the last seminar tell their story.
Story 1: Lisa Callingham: Can’t Believe How Unhealthy My First Comp Prep Was:
I did my first figure competition in May of this 2011 and was pretty amazed at how unhealthy my prep felt. I really thought there must be a way of achieving the look you need for competition without sacrificing my health and risking metabolic damage and so on, so decided to look for another way.
As a long time subscriber to Mark’s podcasts and info I knew that he was a great source of information on training and nutrition, so decided to investigate his online training program.
I would love to train with Mark in person, but as I live in Sydney the only possibility was to work with him online – and I’m so glad I did.
Mark provides you with everything you need for your specific training and nutrition goals – we had a specific time limit too – I started with Mark 10 weeks out from my competition and he guided me to be completely ready for Comp Day. He answered every question I had about my training or nutrition (and there were lots!), and always got back to me really, really quickly, and to that end I just placed 2nd in the IFBB State Championships Master’s Figure.
I learnt so much about proper nutrition, hormonal balance and the importance of other factors like sleep and supplements on how well I trained, allowing me to get the results I wanted.I also went through Comp prep full of energy with a smile on my face, which was completely different to the previous time where lack of food made me listless and miserable!
I can’t recommend Mark highly enough!
Lisa Callingham
Story 2: Victoria May: This Was About a Lifestyle
I came to get help from Mark after a very turmoil year that saw my eating and binging spiral out of control after competing. I was at wits end not knowing how I was going to get my body back into gear when I got the tip that Maximus Mark was the person to see. So I made the call and went and saw Mark..
From the moment Mark opened his mouth, everything made sense.. I was not going to be put on another stupid starvation diet, I was not going to be put on a ridiculous training plan… This was about improving everything from the inside out.. so that I would never have to diet another day in my life in order to stay lean nor would I have to do endless amounts of cardio to stay lean.. This was about a lifestyle.
It is hard to describe how grateful I am for what Mark has taught me, I have never in my life felt better, full of natural energy – yep that’s right, I don’t touch ANY fat burners or energy drinks or caffeine, its a daily natural high I sit on, I don’t get bloated anymore, I feel amazing, and I am not spending my whole week training! I do only what I need to which is very minimal in order to stay at a lean and at a healthy weight.
My mindset towards eating, training and supplementation has completely taken a 360 degree flip.. I absolutely recommend if you are feeling trapped and controlled by food, or training or you have obsessive behaviour about it; that you speak to Mark about what you can do.. I promise .. you wont ever regret it!
Victoria May
Champion Sports Model
Firstly we love running seminars so it would be our privilege to have you attend. Topics that will be covered:
Evolutionary eating
The truth about supplements
Why farming is the over looked factor to health
Why gluten makes you fat, dumb and infertile (check out the video from our last seminar on gluten)
How to put a contest prep together
The ‘Be X Do X Have’ formula for success
Plus much, much more
Mark talking about Gluten
ACTION TAKER’S BONUS!
For the first 12 people to sign up they will also receive a closed door training session with Mark and the Enterprise Fitness team.
ACTION TAKERS BONUS #2
The Enterprise Fitness Cookbook eBook : 29 Recipes approved by your Personal Trainer!
My lovely fiancé Kristine is the best, healthiest cook you will meet! Ok I’m a little bias, but trust me, we receive emails every week from clients telling us how much they love Kristine’s recipes
ACTION TAKERS BONUS! #3
Step by Step Supplement and nutrition Blueprint to smash through any plateau
This is not for sale online. Only available to personal clients and people that attend our seminars. It doesn’t matter if you forget everything I say in seminar, follow this hand out and you will get in shape!
SOLD OUT – Email info@enterprisefitness.com.au to be put on the waiting list
Early bird rate: $147 (Paid in full before April 21st)
Regular rate: $247 per person (Paid after April 21st)
The seminar is limited to the first 20 people to pay in full. The first 12 people to pay in full will receive bonus 1#: A Closed door training session with the team at Enterprise Fitness. Do not delay, this always books outs.
Making a payment and registering online is simple and secure. We use a program called 1shoppingcart which is used by over 25,000 businesses worldwide. We do this to ensure your payment is 100% secure.
What other trainers who have attended say:
Mark’s Eat Your Way To Ab’s seminar was the most relevant nutrition information I have ever received. It provides useful & applicable detail to all who attend, regardless of background or training experience.
Whether you are stuck in the 80′s food pyramid or a hard-core Paleo fan, Mark’s insight into the “why’s” of his information is what makes you sit up & take notice.
Backed by real world experience, I would challenge anyone to follow Mark’s advice & NOT see results.
As a trainer, type 1 diabetic & absolute nutrition enthusiast – I would highly recommend Mark’s Eat Your Way to Abs for all.”
Wes Brinckley
2 X Ms Olympia and 3 X Ms Australia, Janet Kane
“When faced with the task to come in harder with much leaner legs for this comp and improve over the last comp, I was very hesitant to remove the cardio as Mark had wanted. There was no logic that I could apply from my experience that would give me the confidence with this plan, but with the sheer confidence I had in Mark’s knowledge, I trusted the result would come.
“In previous comp prep, I was used to doing 45 min cardio at 5 am (before the kids would wake) and then a grueling 2-hour weight session at 9, immediately followed by the second cardio session of 30-45 minutes.
The third cardio session would be somewhere in between doing the home reading with the kids after school and cooking the dinner. And all this was done at least 12-16 weeks out from a comp.
“Needless to say this comp prep did not have all that cardio included. Sure I trained incredibly hard in the gym and in the kitchen, and I literally swapped the cardio with more sleep and happier moments with my children.
I also felt much more calm and balanced and surprisingly still maintained a higher level of carbs up until the competition than I had in previous times.
“Having the weekly measurements, I was able to see the incremental changes in my body and that the program was working; seeing these changes, I became more confident in Mark’s plan as I am very results focused. If I were only to judge by the scales, then I would have ditched the program as there was not a whole lot of change in the body weight. Gratefully my body-fat was dropping, lean mass remained the same through the whole process and the targeted sites of my legs were also significantly dropping. I was very happy.
“Now that Mark has a process to eliminate the excess cardio and only use cardio as a final prep, WHY would you do it any other way?
“Thanks Mark – you truly are a trainer with exceptional knowledge and the results are there for all to see on stage”
—Janet Kane, Ms Olympia, Ms Australasia, 2X Ms Australia, 2X INBA All Females winner
Nothing We Did Seemed To Work… Until I Met Mark and Kristine
“As a Personal Trainer I had attended a number of courses on mainstream nutrition. I always walked out with unanswered questions and could never manage to shed my last 5kg myself, let along teach my clients to do the same. It was extremely frustrating. On top of that I was dealing with a husband and 2 children that were constantly getting sick, and I had no idea why! Nothing we did seemed to work.
I met Mark at the Australian Institute of Fitness; he was 1 of my coaches there. I instantly warmed to him; my gut instinct told me this was someone I needed to stay in contact with. And I was right. 18 months later, Mark was conducting the “Eat Your Way to Abs” seminar. Attending that was a no brainer. I had already attended a number of nutrition courses and had no results. Having looked at the people that consulted with Mark, I knew that I needed to be at this seminar. Not only did I attend, but took 5 people with me the next time he conducted this seminar.
At this seminar I had all my questions answered. I had a light bulb moment and everything made sense to me, regarding nutrition. Within 4 weeks of attending the “Eat Your Way to Abs” seminar the first time, I dropped 6kg! AND improved my lean muscle. On top of that I learned why my family was constantly sick; we were all intolerant to Gluten. I took us all off Gluten (yes including the kids!) and nobody has had 1 dose of antibiotics since then! It’s been 4 months. To give you an indication, my children took turns on antibiotics, 1 week each, and my husband had Tonsilitis fortnightly! So to be free of illness for 4 months is massive in our home.
I have implemented everything I have learned, and continue to learn, from Mark, with my clients too. They too are seeing some amazing results! My business has skyrocketed with all the success stories we are seeing. We always had results, we just have them faster now!
I highly recommend consulting with Mark and Kristine. You will not be disappointed! They are a wealth of knowledge and make it so easy to learn from them. They make you feel welcome and always take the time to answer any questions and provide you with the information to help you move forward. Not consulting with this couple, is doing yourself and your business (if you are a PT) an injustice.”
Just wanted to say thanks!
Just wanted to say thank you again for pointing me in the right direction with nutrition, I have attached a picture to show you the effectiveness your Eat Your Way To Abs seminar has had on me.
Warm regards,
Reece Adams WON Fitness
A big thanks to you!
You know your stuff and I have really benefited from your help. I now understand a hell of a lot more… How to eat, stay lean, get stronger and put on muscle at the same time. I have set a goal to compete in June next year on the Gold Coast for the Asia Pacific Championships. I know I can come in leaner and more muscular on the day without a ridiculous ‘bulking up’ (fattening up) phase in between!
You have been a great coach, a great help to me and now I am more confident than ever.
ShareIf you’ve attended our Eat Your Way To Abs Seminar you would have tasted our gluten free Fruit and Nut cookies. This is another simple fail proof recipe that cannot go wrong and takes minimal time to prepare. You can also freeze the cookies and they will be just as good when you’re ready to [...]
ShareHey, hey, it’s Maximus Mark, co-owner of Enterprise Fitness. Today I’ve got to drop some truth bombs. But first let’s lay the groundwork… Coke a Cola, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Hungry Jacks, Burger King, Safeway, Coles and mobile phones are not normal. They are all apart of the social fabric that we call life… Common, [...]
ShareMoroccan Chicken This recipe is one of my favourites at the moment to make when I’m cooking for guests. Besides the fact that its quick and easy to whip up; its also easy to double, triple etc and you can use it for leftovers or lunches for the next day. It really is one of [...]
ShareMany figure and sports models around the world all have the same problem… When they are in the “on” season, they are really on, training hard, doing cardio, taking their supplements, saying no to junk food, timing their meals perfectly, etc, etc… Basically they live like a well-oiled machine regardless of the pre-comp approach they [...]
ShareWe all like yummy food! So here is a quick cheat sheet to give you a few alternatives you can use to make your food work for you. Food Alternative Instructions Pasta Ribboned Zucchini All you have to do is peel a raw zucchini. No need for cooking it, the heat from the sauce you [...]
By Kristine
