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The following is an article that I received from a reader of this blog. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but if anyone has an article that they would like to have posted on this blog just send it to me and I’d be happy to consider it! Today’s article is about gaining weight:

Searching for Reliable Weight Gain Answers

And that brings us to the first component required for weight gain, and that is gaining weight tips. Without knowledge, all of the planning and routine you stick to won’t help you gain weight because you simply won’t have the necessary information to make effective decisions. The problem with knowledge is that it’s hard to come by definitive answers. All you have to do is watch television for a couple of days to see what I mean. One week a certain food is bad for you; another day it’s great for your health. It’s all very confusing to the average person, but to someone who needs facts in order to plan healthy, high-caloric meals it can be even worse.

Doctors and fitness trainers are also not always the best experts to ask for advice either. Doctors are sometimes just as confused by these conflicting medical reports as the rest of us. Fitness trainers will either tell you what worked for them which may not necessarily work for you, or they’ll try to sell you on the idea of muscle building supplements, and that’s no magic bullet either.

So where can you go for reliable information? That’s the real question. One solution would be to work with a dietitian. They could provide you with guidance about a weight gain diet, discussing which foods to eat and could ensure that you remain healthy throughout the process. However, unless you are severely underweight or have a medical condition that requires the care of a dietitian, your insurance provider won’t cover those costs and the costs of seeing a dietitian every week or even every month can add up quickly.

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I get so tired of hearing ads like “Don’t change your diet, just take a pill and you lose 50 lbs!” or “Lose weight without breaking a sweat!” or even things like “Take this supplement and gain 10 lbs of muscle without even trying!”. It’s sad that we’re such a nation of immediate gratification. The question I always ask myself is that even if it did work that easily, what has really changed? I would still be the same person and would have learned NOTHING from the experience of changing myself to change my body.

I guess I believe in the holistic approach. There is something that you learn from changing your life that keeps you from going back to the way you used to be. Whether its an addiction, a bad habit, or whatever. Maybe that’s why I get so annoyed when I see companies pushing for a quick fix. Everyone wants to be rich NOW, healthy NOW, fabulous NOW… whatever happened to working hard for something?

In order for a lasting change to take effect, you have to decide to change. A pill doesn’t change who you are inside. A pill may help you with some physical appearance issues, but you’ll still be you. So take the REAL approach. Start by learning to change some of your habits so that in the process of becoming a new you physically, you become a new you in every other way as well.

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This last weekend I was reading in the book Scrawny to Brawny by Mike Mejia and John Berardi and they make some very interesting points about how sometimes you have to make adjustments to an exercise depending on your body. For example, if you have longer arms and you do the bench press the traditional way you could be putting a lot of extra strain on your shoulders that a person with shorter arms won’t have to deal with as much.

Unfortunately this isn’t something that is commonly talked about in most of the magazines and articles out there. Nor do I have all of the answers either! But it’s worth taking a look into so that you can make sure that you’re not in risk of injuring yourself do to improper form for your body.

If you happen to be more on the tall and skinny side (ectomorph), I would highly recommend Scrawny to Brawny as a good resource for making adjustments to your form. For the other body types, endomorph and mesomorph, I haven’t come across any good resources yet. But I’ll be sure to let you all know if I do!

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Planning your meals in advance is a very good thing to do. First of all, it keeps you on track and gets rid of a lot of spontaneous eating. For myself I’ve found that when I haven’t planned out what I’m going to each each day I’m a lot more likely to eat things that I really shouldn’t. Planning is a very important thing to do.

This is another reason why it’s a great idea to cook your meals in advance as well. Think about it: if all of your meals are planned out and you even have them prepared ahead of time how much would that help you to keep on track? You have the food ready (just have to heat it up) so you’d have to come up with a really really good excuse to go grab a whopper from Burger King!

Does this take some extra time and thought? Yes! It’s a good idea to set aside 1-2 days that you do most of your meal prep. Make big batches of some of your favorite meals. Another tactic that a lot of people have used is they intentionally ‘over make’ every meal, that way they always have lunch for the next day.

These are some good lifestyle habits to get used to. Planning and preparing your meals this way can be very beneficial to keeping on track in the nutrition side of your weight loss or muscle gaining program.

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I must admit: I’m a steak lover. If it was good for me (and less expensive ) I’d probably eat steak just about every day. Just today I came across a post from Lose Weight Guru that offers several healthy recipes for preparing steak. Talk about a fitting topic to refer just before the weekend!

One thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that whether you’re trying to gain weight or lose weight, it doesn’t mean that you have to eat bland and boring food all the time. Are you going to have to make some sacrifices? Of course! But do you have to resign to only ever eating chicken breasts and rice for the rest of your life because everything else is on your “Do Not Eat” list? Of course not! It’s all about eating healthy. Most dishes can be prepared in a healthier way if you’re willing to look into it more.

One book that I’ve learned a lot from in terms of cooking delicious, healthy meals is Eating-for-LIFE by Bill Phillips. If you haven’t checked out this book you should. It’s basically the nutritional companion to Body-for-LIFE, and is well worth having with your recipe books.

Have a great weekend, have a nice steak!

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I think reading success stories in any area is great. It’s always encouraging to see other people achieving great things, even the things that I am trying to accomplish as well.

So what about becoming your own success story? When you approach each day, are you consciously thinking about how reaching your goals is going to make you into a success story as well? This can be a very powerful thing that I would encourage everyone to try. It’s really a matter of mind-set: do you believe that you can accomplish what you’ve set out to do?

There are a lot of times when I think “What separates the people who accomplish things from those that don’t?” I don’t think I have a perfect answer, but one thing that I’ve learned from reading and watching people is that the people that reach their goals and accomplish more in their lives have this sense of confidence around them. They believe that they can do it. They also don’t let others get in the way of what they believe they can accomplish. Those are skills that we have to incorporate if we are going to succeed ourselves.

Will it happen overnight? Probably not. But with the right attitude anything is possible. If you’re really looking to change your life in terms of your overall health and fitness, give it the time and attention that it deserves. Develop the determination and positive self image that it will take to reach those goals. And then become your own success story!

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Sponsored Post

We all know that buying your supplements and products online is a great way to save. Well, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Coupon Chief online coupons, but they have a great selection of coupons that can help you save any more when you’re doing your online shopping.

Just today I was browsing through their site and came across some GNC coupons. Naturally, the deals that they offer will vary from time to time, but why not save as much as you can? GNC has a great selection of quality products, so they’re definitely worth checking out. Honestly though, if you haven’t already heard of GNC I’d have to wonder where you’ve been for the last 40 years or so!

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I think that most of us are guilty of this, so let me explain what I’m talking about today with a bit of a story:

Bob is getting ready to do his next set of barbell bench presses. He’s been feeling pretty good, doing a weight that is good for his level of fitness. Randomly, several other people start coming over to the benches to do their sets as well. The first thing that Bob notices is that these other guys are putting up more weight than he is. In fact, when he looks at his barbell it looks tiny compared to some of these guys.

What do you think Bob does next? He adds more weight so that he doesn’t feel like such a weakling when people walk by and see his bar compared to the others.

WRONG CHOICE!

You see, what Bob has done is he’s let his ego get in the way of his own fitness level and what he should be doing. He’s allowed himself to worry about what others might think when they walk by rather than focusing on what he should be doing for himself. This is a very dangerous thing to do.

When you walk into the gym, leave your ego at the door. Heck, leave it in the car or somewhere at home. When you come to work out, are you there to impress somebody or are you just working to build your best body? Different people in the gym will be at different levels. You need to work out at your level, not someone else’s.

So do yourself a favor. Next time you start to get intimidated by what others are throwing around, just smile and say to yourself “I’m on my way. In fact, given enough time I’ll be able to do MORE than that!” Then just keep going with your plan. Don’t let your ego get in the way.

Also, as a side note, guys are not the only ones that are guilty of this. Women will do the same thing, maybe just in a different way. Either way its the same bug.  Don’t let it catch you!

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Most of the time on this blog I like to talk about the things that you personally can be doing to better your life and health. But the problem is that if all we do is rely on ourselves and ourselves alone, we don’t have as high a probability of making it. There are so many other factors that play into our surroundings that need to be considered if we’re going to be successful.

Today let’s talk about your social network and how they support you. We’ve all been told since we were kids that we needed to hang out with the right crowd. The same goes when it comes to your health and wellness. If you’re always hanging out with lazy, overweight, exercise avoiding people you’re likely to be one yourself. On the other hand, if you spend most of your time around healthy, exercise loving, moving forward people you’re also likely to become one of those as well.

Does this mean that you need to drop your friends and get a new group of people to hang out with. Not necessarily! What you need to do first is some probing into whether or not they will support you in your new habits. If you approach them and say “hey guys, I’m starting a new workout program and would appreciate your support by blah blah blah (fill in the blahs)” and they give you support or if some of them think that it’s such a great idea that they want to join you, then you know you have a positive support group. On the other hand, if they make fun of your new idea and try to pull you back down, you’re definitely in the wrong crowd. But does this mean you can’t be friends with these people? NO! It just means that you need to prioritize your time so that you are spending most of your time with those people that will encourage you.

Now what do you do when a negative social network lives with you (spouse or significant other). Honestly, I think that in this situation you have to be a lot stronger personally and hopefully eventually they’ll come around to support you. But don’t expect much until you prove that you’re serious.

In either situation you have to be determined enough to realize that in the end it does all depend on you. Your friend are not going to drag you to the gym. In the end you have to be responsible and take the blame. A positive social network can help, but don’t rely on them to get you through. Use them as a means of support for what you have already decided to do.

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