POSITIVE POWER HOUR

Today I want to put all of our food and exercise knowledge aside and talk about the one thing most people forget about when they are on their fitness journey. That thing is your MIND. My mind?! You mean we aren’t going to talk about food or work-outs on a diet and fitness blog? Not today. And that is because your mind is the third and final component needed to maintain a healthy, fit and energetic life style.

I want you to think of the thirty minutes of your day you spend BEFORE your work out. How do you spend those thirty minutes? Are you driving from work to the gym? Are you relaxing at home in anticipation of having to work out? What do you spend your time doing thirty minutes before you enter your gym. Chances are your doing something that doesn’t take much energy. Now I want you to take those thirty minutes and apply your mind. We as humans literally have the power to re-wire our brain chemistry. When we start thinking positive we attract positive out comes. This is because of The Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction in a nut-shell is when positive potential becomes noticed when a conscious effort is being made on an imagined out come. This causes our vision’s to become energy, which is then attracted and manifested into your reality by anticipating the positive to manifest. If you believe, your energy matches the frequency of your vision and it becomes your reality. In other words, a conscious being creates his or her own reality by always focusing on something in a positive manner and allowing it to occur. If you do not expect it, it will not occur, and if you anticipate the failure than you will fail. It’s simple.

So every day when you have the thirty minutes before your work out, I want you to visualize yourself as your best, strongest, most fit you. How do you want to transform your body? Do you want to be able to run four miles with out stopping? Do you want to loose 20 pounds? Do you want to be able to do 30 push-ups by a certain date? VISUALIZE. Picture yourself as you wish to be. All while your visualizing this say to yourself out loud positive affirmations. Things like: “I am happy, healthy and strong. Each day, my body improves. I feel light, I feel quick, I feel energized.” Anything that is positive, say. But you must truly believe your goal is achievable. While you say these things and visualize yourself, you must also feel the positivity inside. You have to feel it and believe it or it won’t work. If you let the fear and negative thoughts creep in then you will only attract more fear and failure. Think of the feeling you will have when your happy with your body. After all, your an actor, you should be able to produce this feeling and hold onto it while you execute your positive affirmations.

Now you may think this is all “hokus-pokus” but what do you have to loose? Try it. Try this in all aspects of your life not just your journey on fitness. Try it with your career. “I am a talented actor. I am getting auditions. I am booking auditions. I am making money. I am successful.” Do this everyday and watch how you start to attract more positive situations and people in your life.

THINK POSITIVE. ACT POSITIVE. BE POSITIVE.

Ruby

LIQUID SATAN.

“I’ll have a Diet Coke please.”

Do you ever catch yourself saying those words? If you do then I want you to stop kidding yourself. Just because a soda is Diet does not make it healthy. In fact the amount of chemicals needed to replace the sugar in soda is probably worse for you than the actual sugar. Remember this the next time you want to order any kind of soda: If you pulled your tooth out RIGHT now and put it in a cup of Soda, in less than 24 hours your tooth will be completely disintegrated. That’s right. It will be gone. Soda is SATAN. Say that to yourself. SODA IS SATAN. Never drink it. The levels of acid found in soda have been comparable to the same levels found in batteries. In Central Appalachia, because people love the soda Mountain Dew so much, it has become America’s number one place of tooth decay. Think of that. If you put that into your mouth even just once a day, that is putting an unbearable amount of chemicals and sugar into your body during a life time.

Soda has roughly 40 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving. Chances are you fill up your cup once or twice maybe three times. Watch this video to really physically see the amount of Sugar you drink per serving.

Now drinking non-diet soda leads to dramatic increases in fat buildup around your liver. Also increases fat in your skeletal muscles. Both of these contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes. Soda can also raise cholesterol. It’s OBVIOUS that drinking all the sugar in sodas will cause weight gain, but what is not so obvious to most is that even diet soda will make you fat. Soda consumers tend to have a 70 percent increase in weight gain over a ten year period. Thats disgusting. Those who drank more than 2 diet sodas per day saw a 500 percent waist increase. This may be because the chemical used to replace sugars, Aspartame, raises blood glucose levels. When your liver encounters too much glucose, the excess is converted to body fat.

Don’t worry, it gets WORSE. The myths you have heard are true. Soda can cause cancer. Two contaminants in the coloring, 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, have been found to cause cancer. Can’t pronounce them? Me either! Then you certainly should not be pouring them into your body. It is the only one you have. 16 micrograms per person per day of 4-methylimidazole is enough to pose a cancer threat, and most popular dark colas, both diet AND regular, contain 200 micrograms per 20-ounce bottle.

Soda also causes you to age faster and cause problems with your hormones.

If this information is not enough to get you to quit drinking all kinds of Soda than you need to read it again and again and again until it does. Most people drop ten pounds the first month they quit drinking it. Wanna loose ten pounds? Give it up and see how much better you feel after just one month. You have nothing to loose but the weight.
KIDS: JUST SAY NO TO SODA.

Ruby

YOUR TOOTH IS SWEET

Okay, So you woke up early, you worked out really hard and you made sure that your meals were full of whole heart healthy foods ALL WEEK. You have been soooo good, but your starting to feel like your missing out on the sweeter things in life. Trust me, I understand. Especially if you are a woman, you have sugar cravings that are hard to control. But when you are at your goal weight, if you keep your sweet tooth’s to a minimum than you won’t have much to worry about as far as weight gaining goes. If you are trying to loose more than twenty pounds, than I suggest you stay away from sugar completely until you are at your goal weight. Once you are at your goal weight, you can allow yourself to splurge once in a while. I use Sunday’s as my day to splurge. Now when I say splurge I do not mean eat anything greasy or fried or sugar infested all day. I mean pick something that YOU want. Something that is a serving. But- (you knew there was a but) make it healthy. You CAN and will find healthy sweet snacks, and I promise you when you get your body accustomed to eating this way, the sugary foods you used to love will suddenly look awful.

One of my favorite sweet desert like snacks is Greek Yogurt with Strawberries and chopped up almonds. If you do not know the health benefits of almonds, check out my post on healthy snacking. Now we normally avoid fruit at night time, but if you are going to splurge, you mines well have something from mother nature that in the long run will benefit you far more than a processed treat. One 8-ounce cup of Greek Yogurt has as much protein as a 3-ounce chicken breast. Strawberries have vitamin C in them which helps your immune system. The antioxidant properties in strawberries may also help to prevent cataracts. So eat your strawberries and your eyes will be able to read the cue- cards or script just fine. Don’t like strawberries? Pour honey and cinnamon in your yogurt. Besides the great taste, honey has many benefits. Honey helps reduce muscle fatigue of athletes. BUT honey is a natural carbohydrate so try not to eat it to close too your bed time. Some studies have shown that just 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon per day can lower cholesterol. Cinnamon also has manganese, fiber, iron, and calcium.

So, when you are feeling like you need a sweet treat, skip the brownies and opt for your yogurt parfait. You can even freeze it for an ice cream effect. It is absolutely DELICIOUS. Its like a party for your mouth, so invite all your taste buds.

LOOK SWEET OR EAT SWEET. YOU DECIDE.

Ruby

IN THE NIGHT

Okay dudes and dudettes, we are about to embark on the subject of dinner. But before I go further, we recently talked about breakfast and how important it is, proper snacking habits, and the almighty lunch. These very important subject’s have all lead you up too the subject of dinner, so if you did not read up on the others before you stumbled across this writing than I suggest you get to it.

Dinner: Don’t eat after 8:00pm. Dinner: Don’t eat a lot because it’s night time, your body doesn’t burn fat after dark. Dinner: Eat a huge meal to hold you over because you won’t be eating the rest of the night. Do any of those sound familiar? I bet someone along the line has told you one of those three crazy concepts. And I bet you believed it, or at least tried it. While their reasoning may make sense to your brain while they were explaining it, does it make sense to your body? Does not eating when your hungry make sense? I want to press upon you that it is not quite the time you eat that matters, but WHAT you eat and how much of it you consume. Now the fact that it is night time when you eat dinner DOES mean you should avoid eating certain foods, the ones higher in sugar and carbs like fruit, bread, and grain’s. But that does not mean you should starve yourself! You avoid these things at night because your body was working its hardest during the day time, so we had to feed it foods that gave it energy (natural sugar and carbs) but at the night time, we still need to feed our bodies and muscles, just with different kinds of foods. The best kinds of foods to eat for dinner are ones that contain two elements: Vegetables and protein.

You want to eat Veggies and protein at night because you worked out that day (hopefully), and your muscles were worked to the point of exhaustion. They were worked this hard because you remember my article on how getting fit takes lots of hard work in the gym and the best way to get there is with high cardio work outs that contain endurance and strength training, right?

Now eating vegetables can be delicious, you just need to know how to cook them and which ones are tasty. People often steam their veggies out and that makes the flavor and nutritional value vanish. Cook your veggies in a stir fry manner. Dab your fingers in olive oil and apply it to the pan. I advise against pouring olive oil onto your pan because far too much spills out than you anticipated. If you barely smear the lightest layer over, it will be enough to aide in the cooking, but so little you won’t aide in the calories. I want you to pick vegetables that are high in protein. Protein is the main building block in building muscles. Muscles take more energy to maintain in our bodies so the bigger they get the more fat we burn naturally. More muscle= less fat. Protein is the main component in the growth and repair of your muscles, your ligaments, bones, tissues, skin hair and nails. It boosts your immune system and helps your body fight infections. It also helps keep your bodily functions running smoothly, such as digestion, metabolism and even your circulation. So it is win win here. Some veggies that are high in protein are: broccoli, sweet potatoes, potatoes, spinach, artichoke, brussels sprouts and asparagus.

I want you to get used to cooking. If you want to feed your body foods that keep the fat off and build the muscle you must learn to cook. But cooking takes to long to do your thinking and getting food out is so much more convenient. STOP MAKING EXCUSES. While your waiting for your food to cook, run your lines. Do a few extra squats. Do not let the fact that cooking takes time stop you from doing it. You will get quicker and better with time. Now if you are more of a meat eater I would advise you to pair up one of these high filled protein veggies, with another vegetable you may like that might have less protein BUT is still filled with natures nutrients and some LEAN meat. Chicken is best. Boil it, bake it or roast it. Do not fry your food. EVER. A four ounce serving of chicken is 196 calories, has 35.1 grams of protein and only 5.1 grams of fat.

One of my classic and favorite meals is this: Cut up a medium sized sweet potato or a few small sized ones. Boil them for 15 mins or until soft, then thrown them into a stir fry pan with onions, tomatoes, and zucchini. Place a cap on the pan and cook on a medium heat for about 5-7 mins stirring occasionally. Put a few dashes of water in the pan before covering it along with some fresh basil and bouillon. Bouillon is a seasoning that come’s in many flavors, my favorite is vegetable or chicken. If you are a vegetarian than your meal is ready in just 20 mins. Enjoy your hot fresh home made meal. You are feeding your body nutrients and protein, a combination for success. If your not a vegetarian, pair this with a medium sized piece of roasted chicken breast. You can even break the chicken up into small pieces and throw it in the vegetables and pair it with some BROWN rice for a chicken bowl effect. A healthy balanced dinner will keep you full and make your body happy so you can wake up early and go on that audition you have been preparing for. Now stop wasting time, go shopping and fill your fridge with whole foods that will last you through the week so you can stop eating out, start saving money, and start looking fantastic.

EAT FROM THE EARTH. WALK ON THE EARTH. CHANGE THE EARTH.

Ruby

Its 12:00 Somewhere

Lunch time! Everyone loves lunch and more importantly everyone loves to go out to lunch for meetings here in Los Angeles. We all know the value of networking as an actor. “Lets talk over lunch” mean’s you are eating out somewhere among the thousands of places to eat in LA to discuss possible career propositions. Now I am going to press this heavily: a lot of people think because they are eating out its an excuse to eat poorly. I want to make the point that it is POSSIBLE to eat healthy (almost) anywhere you go. The difference between a healthy meal and an artery clogged meal can even be as simple as eliminating one ingredient. You just have to be aware and have full knowledge of what foods are good for you and which are not. I have a rule of thumb I want you to always keep on your mind, EVERY time you eat. The more COLOR the better. Most foods that are white are processed, fattening and or bleached out. Mayo, white bread, cheese, milk, cream cheese, ranch, butter these are all full of fat. When you order a meal, get whole wheat instead of white. Ask for no cheese. Do not be afraid to be picky and ask the server what is put on the sandwich or what the dressing is made out of. If it is made with mayo skip it. Use mustard instead, it has no calories. Next time your out to lunch and you order a salad, do not get ranch dressing, croutons or cheese and you will cut down your calories nearly in half. Replace ranch dressing with olive oil and lemon. Olive oil has healthy fats that your body use positively because it is full of antioxidants, especially vitamin E. Vitamin E has been proven to lower risk of Cancer. Now you might think olive oil is fattening because it is an oil but it is the highest plant oil in monounsaturated fat, which doesn’t oxidize in the body. Olive oil is very low in polyunsaturated fat, which is the kind that does oxidize. Do not over use this for anything in excess is not good for your body, but do not be afraid of the fat in it. Olive oil does your body good. It also can be left in your hair for 30-60 minutes then rinsed out with shampoo. That will make your hair nice and shiny for the camera.

Another thing that will help you cut calories at lunch if you are eating home instead is a little trick that most people find to be fascinating. If you are making a sandwich (first off use whole wheat bread or even better sprouted bread. Sprouted bread has no carbs) But the trick I want to teach you is use only ONE piece of bread. Toast it, lightly but enough to where its firm then take a bread knife and cut the bread in half horizontally. Yes horizontally. The side where the crust is, put the knife in the middle and lightly start to cut it back and forth like a saw, straight across with your hand on top to keep it steady. THen open the bread and VIOALA! You have two slices. If you start to get used to doing that your going to save yourself tons of calories and carbs each week. If you gain anything from this post today, I want you to remember the things to cut out when your out to eat- which one’s to avoid and how just simply asking for wheat bread and no mayo on your turkey sandwich can be the difference between a healthy meal and a fattening meal. Also, always opt for a salad instead of french fries. I think the reasons are obvious. Do NOT let anything get in your way of eating right every day, the only thing cheesy about your lunch meeting’s from now on should be the smile you get after you make a great deal because your body’s looking so good, they could not help but cast you in their next film. You can thank me later.

NO MORE EXCUSES. NO MORE FAT. NO MORE FROWNS.

Ruby

WORK WORK WORK IT OUT

Earlier this week, I wrote to you about breakfast being the most important meal of the day, and proper snacking. I was going to continue with the topic of meals and discuss lunch, but I think the topic of exercise is now needed. Today I worked out at Rise Above Fitness in Huntington Beach California with the amazing personal trainer and creator of BAMFit, Krissy Mae. Krissy is far more than a trainer, she is an inspiration and awesome person. Check out her blog @ www.kmaecags.com for more information on her and BAMfit. Today she had me doing some work outs that I have seen and done, and some that I have NEVER seen and NEVER done, nor thought I could do. We have all heard the gimmick “at least 30 mins of exercise a day, even a brisk walk will help improve your health.” Now while that is very true, 30 mins of walking each day will not give you rock hard A-list abs, or perfectly sculpted arms that get the front cover of your favorite gossip mag. As actors, we know that our bodies are our tools and we must keep our tools in tune. Before I gained proper knowledge on fitness, I was doing TONS of cardio. Cardiovascular exercise means that you’re doing an activity that raises your heart rate to a level where your body and heart are working, Cardio is a good thing for sure, it produces electrolytes and serotonin in our brains as well as increases the production of red blood cells in our blood, which carry Oxygen to the brain. It also helps reduce the risk of heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Now although cardio has all these positive aspects to it, it is not the only thing you should be doing. A lot of people will tell you if your training you do not need that much cardio, but I am here to tell you that they are wrong. The only difference in what I am going to teach you and what other people feel about cardio is I am doing work outs that incorporate cardio WITH strength training and endurance. There are so many insane work outs you can do that burn 700 calories an hour just like running would do only you are BUILDING YOUR MUSCLES. A lot of women think that if you do do free weights you will build bulk and become beefy. That is so false and I will tell you why. Men produce 7-8 time MORE testosterone than women do, so even if you wanted too, you could NOT get as bulky and buff as a man. If you do intense insane work outs the same one’s as your boyfriend or brother, your body will respond to the work outs like a woman’s body should. It will give you lean muscle mass and low body fat if you incorporate intense work outs with little breaks in between so your cardio levels are being rased while your muscles are being worked. Check out K-Mae’s BAMfit website I mentioned earlier for a list of great and intense work outs.

The last thing I want to leave you with is if you want a great, sculpted body with no body fat, it is not going to come easy. You will have to wake up earlier, hit the gym longer, push harder, train more and keep your mind set completely on the “I CAN DO THIS” level. If you want something good, you MUST work hard at it. Olympic Gold Medal’s are not handed out to the one’s who half ass train, but to the ones who push their mind, body and souls. The out come is greater than the struggle. Every time you want to give up and every time you want to cry think of yourself on the Red Carpet. Camera’s catch every single aspect of your body, so make sure its amazing.

YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOUR DREAM BODY. STOP DREAMING. START DOING.

Actor Workouts – Train for Bane!

If you were as impressed as I was with the physique of Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Night Rises, then the video below is a must-watch. In is it a high intensity routine which will have you not only burning fat, but building lean muscle as well. It’s one of our best actor workouts yet, but it is rather advanced- so if you’re new to working out, be sure to follow proper form. This workout includes Jump Rope, Dynamic Clean and Press, Box Jumps and Dynamic Pushpress among other exercises. Sound difficult? It’s not. Because many of these exercises require gym equipment, feel free to have a trainer assist/spot you.

High intensity workouts are my personal favorite, because if done right, the workout combines cardio and weight training into one. Usually the rest periods between sets and exercises aren’t too long, and the reps are quick. This style of working out keeps your heart rate up, makes you sweat and burns calories much faster than with traditional weight training. Another great thing about high intensity workouts is that usually the time in the gym is cut down. Being an actor workouts need to be quick, so follow a routine like this to save yourself time. Be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day- not only will this help you with your fitness goals, it’s just a healthy habit to pick up. I aim for 1 gallon per day, but you can start with a half gallon and work your way up.

SECOND CUP OF COFFEE

Okay, So I just recently talked about breakfast and how important it is for our bodies to start the day off with a carb and protein filled breakfast right? So naturally my next will be lunch? No, my next topic is SNACKING. Yes, we can snack and still be fit!

But before I head into that, I want to make it clear that this blog is not about me handing you a specific eating schedule on what exactly to eat at every second of the day. No, this is me explaining to you how a healthy life style is LIVED and obtained.
Once you understand that our society has a tweaked view on what healthy eating really is, with fast food chains trying to promote to you a “healthy fast food diet”, when that food has been shipped over in a truck for 6 weeks before it even hits the freezer of the fast food chain, only to be re-heated under a lamp, your eyes will be opened to whole new way of living and feeling. A healthy life style involves clean eating, small portions, daily physical activity and a happy positive loving mindset. With these three things, you can and WILL be physically fit and happy.

Now lunch is usually a pretty big meal considering you may have been sitting on set all day, so starved. you decide to have a second or third cup of coffee to numb the hunger and keep you going. Doing that is like putting salt in your car engine. When our stomach rumbles, it is our bodies natural instinct telling us that we are hungry. So that means EAT! But do not eat lunch just yet, eat a snack, a small portion of something NATURAL. My best advice is to bring almonds with you. In addition to healthy fats and vitamin E, a quarter-cup of almonds contains almost 99 mg of magnesium, that’s 24.7% of the daily value, plus 257 mg of potassium. When there is enough magnesium, it improves the flow of blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. Studies show that a not having enough magnesium is directly linked to heart attacks. Almonds also contain potassium which is an important electrolyte that helps assist nerve transmission and muscle contractions. This helps level out blood pressure and heart functions. Another great snack is the all mighty apple. Now you are probably thinking “apples and almonds, how boring!” But when you start to change your taste buds, and your body chemistry with these whole foods that come from our earth, you will not only start to LIKE them, but you will start to CRAVE them. Plus, most sets offer nuts and fruit, we just so often notice the treats instead. Program your brain to start to want the fruit like a child would want candy, and you will notice how much less extra calories you are consuming each day.

So today, my challenge for you, bring an apple and some almonds to eat after your audition. Eat 14 almonds and an apple when your feeling hungry and its not quite lunch time yet. Not only will that snack be ONLY 200 calories, but you will feel the energy from mother natures finest snacks.

BE SMART. SNACK WHOLE. LIVE ENERGIZED.

Intro to Fitness for Actors

I’ve been working out for a few years now, and if there’s one thing i’ve learned, it’s that diet is the most important part of transforming your body. The second most important part is rest. The third most important part is the actual workouts. It might be surprising that the workout itself is least important, but there are so many different factors that go into how our body and muscles change, that once I explain it will start to make sense. Consider this a crash course – an Intro to Fitness for Actors.

First off, your body needs fuel. Check out Ruby’s post talking about eating breakfast- it really is the most important meal of the day. Before I go further, you should know that without working out consistently, your diet isn’t going to help you much. But, paired with proper workout and rest, your diet can really transform your body. Try to aim for 6 smaller meals spaced throughout the day, instead of 3 bigger ones. This will raise your energy levels, and you actually end up burning off most of the calories by the time you’ve eaten again!

This is not only the key to gaining muscle, but also losing wait. “How can that be?,” you might ask. Well, having the 6 meals will keep your body constantly filled with “fuel.” Muscles need this “fuel” to repair and grow, and you need this fuel to keep working out! You should be eating about an hour before your workout- if not, no fuel is provided to your muscles during workout, so they, and you, will fatigue faster.

Even worse, after your workout, when your muscles are spent and begging for some protein to help them recover, if you don’t eat immediately, your muscles with literally start eating themselves. I wish I was joking. On the other hand, with 6 evenly spaced meals you have a constant flow of nutrients in your body, ready to supply your muscleswith the recovery nutrients they need. To gain muscle, try to lessen the cardio and up the amount of weight-training. If you’re trying to lose weight, simply increase your cardio and lessen the strength-training. Try to incorporate both though.. it’s always good to have a little balance.

As fas as gaining muscle goes, you should try to use higher weight and lower reps than normal. For example, try 4 sets of 5 instead of 3 sets of 8.

When trying to tone, simply raise your rep count: 3 sets of 15 with lower weight instead of 3 sets of 8 with regular weight.

It’s really simple folks. The key is consistency. Get into a routine, and stick with it. You should be getting into the gym or working out at least 3 timers per week. Now I don’t fancy myself as a personal trainer, but I have definitely seen results by following the guidelines above.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.. and go take action.

-Truman

The 300 Actor Workout!

Want the body of King Leonidas? Look no further. This video includes the home version of a 300 Spartan training workout that anyone can do at home. It’s pretty simple- perform the exercises in any order with 30 reps per exercise. Combine exercises until you’ve reached 300 reps total. Hope you’re ready for the workout of a lifetime – The 300 Actor Workout.