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I Can’t Cook… So THIS Is My Solution

Sunday, November 14th, 2010

I can’t cook. Seriously. But i do figure out ways to eat healthy with my un Rachel Ray like skills. I can get by on a lot of lemon pepper on my chicken and rice, and some chili sauce on my brown rice or quinoa. Sometimes I’ll even bake sweet potato fries (precut of course). I will never be the casserole king. I possibly, even if time allows, will never write a recipe book. You will never see me on the food channel showing you how to make pretty chocolate desserts in under an hour that taste amazing, and look like boquets of flowers. I’ll tell you this. I have honestly no idea how to make healthy food taste like it’s unhealthy. If I did, I’d be pretty rich. But this blog today isn’t about cooking. It’s about the opposite. I’ve been watching a lot of food documentaries late at night before I go to bed. Some talking about food curing cancer, some talking about how the pharmaceutical and chemical companies basically run the food industries. Stuff that most people don’t care about. But it got me thinking. None of us REALLY know what is put in the food we eat. Especially things that aren’t just one ingredient. We all know an apple is an apple. But what exactly is a microwave dinner. What’s in that? have you ever read the ingredient list? It’ll say sweet and sour chicken, but there will literally be 75 ingredients. What are those ingredients doing to your body? I have decided to do an experiment with myself. Crazy I know. But I like being a scientist. So in order to know exactly what I am putting in my body, I am deciding to eat only raw, organic foods for the next month. This should be interesting. I may or may not modify this. If I lose ten pounds in the first week, I’ll be adding chicken to the plan. This is going to be extremely interesting since I rely on zipfizz a lot. So no whey protein shakes, no cooked foods, no zipfizz. I’m going to try to journal each week and see how I feel and let you know the effects of it all, so this should be interesting. Your beloved Rachel Ray would probably not approve of this mostly fruits and veggies plan, but I don’t care. If you are interested in becoming weird like me, there are a few documentaries you should watch. Food Matters is probably the most influental out of all the ones I have watched. Food Inc. is a must see. The Beautiful Truth is a great documentary about food being the cure for cancer, and The Gerson Miracle is another good one. I’ll be updating soon. Wish me luck.

Tags: cancer, diet, healthy, protein
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Pushups- for beginners to fitness experts | ipadio | Talk to your World

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

Pushups- for beginners to fitness experts | ipadio | Talk to your World.

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I HATE Doing Abs!

Monday, November 1st, 2010

Yeah. I said it. I hate doing abs. I’m no different than the next guy. And that’s why I DON’T do them. I know that’s hard to believe. I was just like everyone else when I was younger though, doing sit-ups and crunches between commercial breaks of my favorite tv shows, doing knee raises while brushing my teeth, you know, what everyone does. Wait. You don’t do that? Oh.. Ok. Maybe I was a little weird when I was younger. Well, here. I did used to end every workout with about 10 minutes of six pack work. I bought a book called Complete Book of Abs, and did the workouts in it for a while. And I did have a pretty ripped stomach. But guess what. It wasn’t very fun for me either. So I decided to stop doing it. And now, my abs look better than they used to when I did do “abs“. IMPOSSIBLE, you say? I disagree. I think you can get better abs by not doing crunches. Do me a favor. Stand up, and bend backwards for a second. Now, feel your stomach. Is it tight? You bet it is. This is the opposite of a crunch, so why are your abs flexed? Doesn’t make sense huh? But your muscles are flexed so it’s obviously working. But I thought you had to do crunches to get abs. Man. Now I’m confused. Ok. Here’s where I’m going with this. You can do certain things, things you don’t think play a role in developing a six pack, and they WILL help you get one. Some of these things include diet and the exercises you do in your workout. You aren’t going to get a six pack if you aren’t currently eating foods that serve a purpose nutritionally, so that takes care of number 1. Let’s go to those exercises. Take a pushup for example. Get in pushup position. (I thought I told you this weeks blog would be interactive, no?) Ok. now, in that pushup position, flex your butt cheeks. Now do pushups with your butt flexed. Do you now feel your abs? My point is this. If you focus on perfect form, in every exercise you do, you won’t have to worry about your abs, because they brace everything for all the movements you do. Another example of this is jumping rope. Do it for a couple minutes and see how your abs feel as you are jumping. Point Tony. So if you practice perfect form, your abs should take care of themselves. I have tons of videos on youtube that will give you pointers on this sort of thing, and I also have a 4 week six pack plan on my site that gets you a six pack with exercises that are not called “crunches”. My youtube channel is www.youtube.com/tonept3 and my website is www.tonycress.com Go check them out. Now, all you bench presssin fools who are trying to put on more weight than you can handle, drive your butt and lower back into that bench, and let your abs help you. I think it’s more macho to have a nice six pack than to have a broken back. Night y’all!

Tags: crunches, hate doing abs, sit-ups, six pack, workout
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Finish Your Fitness-Six Pack Secrets and Real Life Too!

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Most of my blogs are about fitness, and in some aspect, I think you can take all of them in different areas of your life and apply them positively. I think the blog today is no exception. I read, I think it was, in Men’s Fitness the other day, to be a “finisher”. I LOVE this. Whether we are talking workouts, exercise programs, installing new ceiling fans, nutrition, or crossword puzzles, this works! Think about it. Let’s just take the crossword puzzle. Now, a crossword puzzle that has seven missing words, that’s not finished. You don’t get any sense of accomplishment from that. Think of any business that has projects. Or, school. Most everyone I know had some form of school. You definitely had a class project, or group project, or project you had to do yourself. If you went in on the due date, and had your project half done, that would most likely be a failing grade, unless your mom was the teacher. Valentin P. you know what I’m talking about! Cheater! In all seriousness though, unfinished projects, workouts, exercise routines, it’s all the same. You’ll get what you need when you finish the job. When you have an exercise program, follow it through, keep your nutrition in check and attain the goals you have set, you will come out ultimately happy. Now if you don’t finish the job, eat half good and half bad foods, don’t eat enough or eat too little, and aren’t consistent with your routine, you will most likely end up being held back in the 12th grade for the 2nd year in a row. You are so close to graduating, yet, you still have work to do. Finish the job. Finish every job. Don’t even let there be “to do” lists. Just do them.

Tags: Exercise, Men's Fitness, workouts
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Do You Work Out Every Day?

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

I didn’t work out today. I also didn’t work out on Sunday I think. So out of 5 days this week, 3 have been fitness days. I don’t know why I wonder this, but I see people in the gym all the time, for two hours at a time, and they are there every day. I don’t work out every day, but I know a lot of people who do. I am in better shape than most of these people who work out every day, so, what gives? Something isn’t right here. I thought the more you work out, the better shape you are in. I’m here to tell you, working out every day, in my opinion, isn’t what the cool kids do. I work out, TOPS, 4 days a week. Over the years, I’ve learned that resting and recovery is JUST as important as the actual workouts you do. How are you going to become more fit, if you don’t let your muscles recuperate? Another thing. Those people who work out more than me, I would be curious to see just exactly what they eat on any given day. Most people, aren’t even honest with THEMSELVES about their nutrition, so I don’t expect them to be honest to me when I ask. Maybe it’s not even honesty, maybe it’s just that they forget they had Cold Stone 4 days in a row. I don’t know. Anyway, just ranting today, hopefully I’ll have some informational substance for you all on Friday.

Tags: Fitness, Nutrition, work out
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How Much Do You REALLY Work Out?

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

How much do you think you work out? 4 times a week? Twice a day? Every other day? I hear people all the time saying, “I work out 4 times a week, but still can’t get rid of this belly.” Well, to be honest, that doesn’t shock me. My question to them would be, drumroll please…………. “what do you eat?” Want to know why? Because these people working out four days a week, really aren’t thinking about the rest of the week, when they aren’t working out. Let’s break this down. How many hours are there in a day? The answer would be 11. No, kidding. It’s 24, math wizards. How many days in a week? 7. Ok. So how many hours in a week? This answer took me about 3 weeks to figure out, but I got 168. Am I right? Ok, good. So let’s look at it like this. Said person works out 4 days a week, for an hour and a half each day. That ends up being 6 hours a week. This leaves you with 162 hours left of the week. Now, is your 6 hours a week going to combat against whatever you do the other 162? What exactly is it you are doing the other 162? Eating, working, sleeping, watching tv, putting your kids to bed, watching tv, looking on the internet, watching tv, and eating. But even before we go into that battle. Let’s first clarify how much you work out during each 1 and 1/2 hour session. Let’s say you get to the gym and do 25 minutes of cardio. Good for you. You go get a drink of water, and decide what sort of weight routing you are going to do, taking 5 or so minutes. We are up to 30 now. Let’s say you stretch for another 5 minutes. now we are up to 35. Ok. so you have a resistance training routine, where you do 10 exercises, 3 sets of each exercise with a minute rest between sets. Keeping it simple, thats 30 sets. If you are resting a minute between sets, that’s 30 minutes of REST during your hour and a half workout. So now your hour and a half has gone down to one hour, take away the 5 minutes to change from cardio to strength training, and 5 minutes to stretch, and now we are down to 50 minutes. So instead of 6 hours a week of working out, now we are really down to 3 hours and 20 minutes of actual workout time. I’m going to leave you with this, since I don’t want to do any more mathematics. 3 and 1/3 hours out of 168 hours in a week. How much are you really working out?

Tags: Exercise, gym, weight, work out, working out
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Want a Quick Way to Lose Weight?

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

OK. I normally don’t do random quick information. I usually have some underlying agenda, that is the lesson to be learned through my blog. Today, I am just going to tell you how to lose weight, and get ripped up in a hurry. This really isn’t rocket science, or even brain surgery. Which one would you rather try to do without having any knowledge of either? I think I would try rocket science, but I would stay FAR, FAR away when those rockets went off if I had anything to do with them. Anyway. On to how to get you turned into a lean, mean, fitness machine.

Really, the secret to this whole thing is three words. Fruits and Vegetables. That’s it. I know this works for me, and unless you have some sort of “thyroid condition“, it will work for you. If you decide to base your diet on fruits and vegetables, weight will come off… period. When I need to get lean, what I do is have a goal in mind, for how many fruits and vegetable servings I take in a day. Most people, I will bet you, don’t even get a total of four, so this is probably a good number for you to start with. Don’t worry about your protein content, or your carbs and fats. Just try to get 4 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Try to even them out too. If you are already doing this, try for 6. If you are already doing THAT, try for 8, and so on. If you are really killing it, i dare you to try to get 5 servings of veggies, and 5 of fruit, a day. Still eat whatever else you normally would like to, but fill yourself with the fruits and vegetables first. Get your protein shakes, or chicken and rice as well, but make the fruits and vegetables first and foremost. Give this a few weeks. When I started implementing this diet technique, I lost about 10 pounds in four weeks. I didn’t really change anything else to be honest. My workouts were the same, and I didn’t really do any extra cardio. This works. You don’t really need to know why, but it does help curb eating things that will keep weight on you, or even add to your weight. Try it out, give it a few weeks, and if you don’t start getting leaner, you can come and blow up my rocket.

Tags: cardio, diet technique, lose weight, protein shakes, thyroid condition, workouts
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The Shake Weight. Gets You in Shape?

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

Ok. So I have a youtube video up on my page about the Shake Weight. Now, I guess I wasn’t totally clear on my views on this piece of “exercise equipment”. I guess some could watch this video, and think, “hey, this guy is in shape, this dumbell thing is making him talk funny, and he’s sweating. So it must be effective right?” That was not my intention at all. The whole video, was a sarcastic take on all the exercise gimmicks you see on tv. This is the problem with society and the way companies dupe people into buying their products. Now I don’t doubt that the shake weight serves some purpose in the fitness world. Actually, using it, I got a pretty good pump in my muscles. But using solely this device, you wouldn’t get very far in your weight loss or other fitness goals for that matter. You see the people on the commercials, all buff, and lean and stuff, but the harsh reality is that for those people, the first time they try that product is probably the day of shooting that commercial. These products can serve useful in CONJUNCTION with other exercise routines. If you used the shake weight, and that brazillian butt thing, and p90x, then maybe, you would have something. But what I was trying to get across is that it’s ludicrous to think that you could actually do JUST that, and have some crazy ripped body. Sorry for the confusion everybody. If you want to check out the video, just go here.

Tags: Exercise, exercise gimmick, Fitness, P90X, shake weight, weight loss
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A New Fitness Camp- Personal Training Las Vegas

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

I have decided the Silverado Ranch area of Las Vegas needs a new kind of fitness camp. In the coming weeks, I am going to be using my TRX instructor certification to develop a TRX fitness camp. What we are going to be doing is integrating TRX workouts with traditional boot camp style workouts. If you guys don’t already know, I am in love with the TRX suspension trainer, and a majority of my own workouts occur solely on them. now, I know you all may have seen the shake weight testimonial of mine, but this is actually serious. I believe in all the benefits of the TRX, and ANYONE can do the workouts. We can modify for all fitness levels, and also change the workouts for strength, fat loss, cardio, power, and any other cool word you can think of. We’ll be starting the classes by the end of September, but these ones will be limited to somewhere around 10 to 15 a class. We’ll keep you posted on class times and start dates, but give me a holler if you are interested so I know how to prepare.

Tags: bootcamp, Fitness, Las Vegas, Personal Training, shake weight, TRX, workout
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Getting Rid Of Belly Fat-

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

I was on my way back to Las Vegas from LA for the TRX certification on Sunday. I stopped at a 7 Eleven to get some gas, and a guy at another pump sees my personal training logo on the back of my car. Of course he decides to strike up a conversation, asks me how much I charge, gasps when i tell him, you know, the usual. Then he goes on and asks me one question I will possibly never understand why people ask. He says, “How do I get rid of this?”, and then rubs his stomach. Now, I am a pretty good judge when it comes to people and their workout routines, and I could tell he didn’t have much of one. So, if that is the case, why is he asking me this question. But I go ahead and ask him a few things back. One, “What are you doing currently to help you get rid of that?” Two, “What are you eating?” Both questions get answered with something I expect. The first one he says he tries to work out, but doesn’t have time to work out all the time, and the second one, he says it’s hard to eat healthy, and takes too long. Well, of course he’s got a belly. I don’t call these jusifiable reasons, they are definitely excuses. The guy KNOWS what to do, just isn’t doing them. He is putting these crutches out there so he can stand on them when he asks himself why he isn’t in shape. He doesn’t have broken legs, so why use the crutches? He doesn’t want to come to the conclusion that the reason he hasn’t lost his belly fat is because of himself. This is the main point I am trying to make. Most people know the right things to do, they just don’t do them, because it’s easier not to, or it tastes better to do the wrong things. I have a feeling, if I ask 10 people which is a better choice, to work out for only 10 minutes a day, or to not work out at all, I am pretty sure 10 of those people would choose working out 10 minutes a day. Also, if I asked the same people, which is a healthier option, cottage cheese, or macaroni and cheese, I bet 9 of those people say cottage cheese. The 10th person, would probably just say macaroni and cheese to be a smart ass. Anyway. This is my point. EVERYONE has a general idea of what are the right directions to go. No one needs a personal trainer for that. So go in those right directions to start, give it some time, a few months, and see where it takes you. I bet you lose 5 pounds without even thinking.

Tags: Las Vegas, Personal Trainer, Personal Training, TRX, work out, workout
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