With March just around the corner, I hear a lot of men at the gym talking about getting in shape for a trip down south to soak up some sun and escape our Canadian winter.

Many say their goal is to “get in shape” before their trip or to simply “lose some weight”

But most of these people are already doomed from the start because of how they setup their goals….

I remember meeting Dr. John Berardi (creator of Precision Nutrition) in Toronto a few years back and asking him what he thinks is the BIGGEST weight loss mistake people make?

Surprisingly, it wasn’t about protein, carbs or fat. Or even specific workouts.

It comes WAY before any of that he said…

The BIGGEST weight loss-mistake people make is in setting goals.

Don’t get me wrong, setting goals are good, but most people have it all WRONG! They don’t know the difference between a behavior goal and an outcome based goal…

Understanding this is a big eye-opener for a lot of people and it’s CRUCIAL for achieving your health and fitness goals.

A behavior goal is based on something you can directly control and do yourself; an outcome goal is based on the end product of a series of behaviors.

Most people set only outcome goals, such as the following:

* “I will lose ten pounds in ten weeks.”
* “I will bench press 250lbs this summer”

While these goals are specific and measurable and may be challenging and attainable, one problem is this: they’re outcomes. And outcomes are often beyond your control.

After all, you can’t control your fat cells and their rate of fat metabolism by just hoping they’ll shrink. And you can’t defy gravity by making 250lbs feel like 150lbs. What you can control, however, are your behaviors.

So how can you pick better goals, goals based on behaviors? Try these on for size:

Want to lose ten pounds in ten weeks? Then start by understanding what behaviors you can adopt immediately that’ll lead to this result. Make these your goals. Here are a few examples:

• I will exercise for at least 3 hours per week.
• I will eat three to five meals each day.
• I will eat vegetables with every meal.
• I will avoid alcohol this week

Hope this helps you take the actions you need to get the results you want.

Precision Nutrition is the only nutrition system I personally use and recommend to my clients to get lean and healthy once and for all because it works in the real-world…and it’s currently 33% off for TODAY ONLY!

Don’t procrastinate, don’t hesitate. Just take action. You can build the body you never thought you could have – if you make the choice to begin right now.

The Precision Nutrition System <==Try it Risk-Free for 45 Days

3. What are your top 10 foods to lose fat fast?

1. Fish
2. Chicken Breasts
3. Lean Beef
4. Eggs
5. Spinach
6. Bell Peppers
7. Broccoli
8. Oatmeal
9. Mixed Nuts
10. Fruit

4. Do you need to do cardio to burn body fat? If so, what kind of cardio is the most effective?

You don’t have to do cardio in the traditional form of what most people think to burn fat.  People were burning fat long before treadmills and stationary bikes.

You just need to do high intensity exercise that revs up your metabolism each and every workout. Basically if it’s hard, it burns lots of calories!  This is the most efficient way to burn calories as bodyfat. You could run, sprint, swim, lift weights, do supersets with weights.  Keeping track and shortening your rest periods between exercises is an awesome away to burn calories and increase your conditioning.

Remember you don’t really burn much fat when you are actually exercising, except for a small amount of fatty acids that are in your bloodstream.

It’s the calories your body burns during the other 23 hours of the day that count.  With exercise and a clean diet you will put your body in a caloric deficit which is still the ONLY proven way to melt off that unwanted fat.

5. Is it necessary to do endless crunches to build your abs?

Absolutely not!

Would you do 100 reps of bicep curls do develop your arms?

No, you would you use a weight that is challenging.

Performing compound free weight exercises like squats and deadlifts will work your abs better than lying on your back doing endless crunches.

For direct ab exercises, stability exercises like planks and side planks are great to increase core strength.  To increase the difficulty perform these on a stability ball or remove one of your bodies pillars ( one leg or arm off the ground).

To develop those 6 pack muscles also do weighted exercises like the cable rope crunch, (I know its called a crunch…) and seated bench leg lifts with a dumbbell between your feet.  Keep the reps between 8-10.

6. What is the best exercise to lose belly fat?

The best exercise to lose belly fat is…

The one you are going to do to consistently and intensely!

No matter how good the exercise is at burning calories or building muscle, if you don’t do it you won’t achieve the benefits.

But to answer the question, any movement that involves the most muscles and gives you “the best bang for your fat burning buck”

If I had to choose I would probably choose the barbell deadlift, as it pretty much uses every muscle in your body to perform correctly.  You can do it with heavy weights for lows reps to build muscle which in turn burns fat or you can do it with a lighter weight and do higher reps which will challenge your cardiovascular system.

7. Can busy dads lose those unwanted pounds in just 3 hours a week?

Providing the workouts are structured to provide maximum afterburn to burn calories and a structured diet is followed that is less than their caloric maintenance level, then yes it is possible.

My Dad Fitness workouts provide these two key components in only 3 hours a week because of the combination of high intensity weight training and supersets and high intensity cardio interval training.

30 minutes of resistance exercise followed by 16 minutes of intervals gives you maximum muscle building and fat loss in only 3 hours a week.

Combined with a healthy diet of 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, busy dads are losing those unwanted pounds in the shortest amount of time so they can get on with their life and spend time with their family.

8. What is the SECRET about getting six pack abs?

I am sure you heard the famous quote “Knowledge Is Power” right?

Well, guess what, I believe that’s a bunch of crap!

If that were true most people walking around these days would be in
awesome shape with lean hard 6 pack abs.

But we all know that’s not the case.

• Chéri the movie

Even though most people already know you have to eat healthy and
exercise to get in shape.

So you have the KNOWLEDGE, but do you have the POWER?

Only if you take ACTION

That’s because “Applied Knowledge Is Power!”, see the difference?

So if that is the secret, I am letting it out know. Take action.

You have the knowledge.

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose Your Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

The concept behind this episode was of having a world made up of everyone’s total opposite, which is based on the Bizarro World stories featured in the Superman comic books.

The Bizarro versions of Jerry, George, Kramer and Newman were called Kevin, Gene, Feldman and Vargas.

So if you are not getting results from your workouts, maybe it’s time you do the opposite of what you see most people doing in the gym.

A lot of regular gym goers continue to look the same year after year despite how often they make an appearance and I am sure you don’t want to look like “most” people, as over 60% of people today are obese.

For the first time, the number of overweight individuals around the world rivals the number who are underweight.

In fact a new word – “globesity” has now been coined to reflect the escalation of global obesity and the overweight!

Remember, Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

Think about this quote for a second and ask yourself, does this quote apply to the way I workout?

If so, it’s time to stop being a workout slave to your old school workout routines and time to break away from the crowd by doing the opposite of what they are doing.

The results just might surprise you.

1. Quality, not Quantity- Don’t fall for the cardio confusion where you think the more time you punch on a cardio machine the more fat you burn. You don’t need to spend hours working out everyday to get those rock hard abs or bulging biceps. The key to effective workouts is intensity. With shorter weight training and interval cardio workouts you spend less time working and more time burning fat. High intensity workouts elevate your metabolism up to 36 hours after your workout.

2. Mirror Muscles- Most guys love training the muscles they can see in the mirror like their chest and biceps. But 50% of your muscles are on the back of your body. Muscles of your upper and lower back, hamstrings and even your triceps on the back of your arm are often neglected in favor of pumping up those mirror muscles. This contributes to overuse and imbalances in the shoulders and spine making you more susceptible to shoulder and back injuries. Do more pulling than pushing when you are in the gym and you will really be glad with what you see in the mirror.

3. Bet on Low- Betting on high might be the smart choice in a game of poker, but for better workouts, go low. Instead of following the classic “3 sets of 10 reps” routine, go bizarro and do the opposite with “10 sets of 3″. This will allow you to focus on the performance and quality of your repetitions instead of fatiguing your muscles with higher reps. Most people train to improve appearance; you should train to improve performance and your appearance will improve as a result.

4. Step Away From the Machine- You don’t need to workout on expensive equipment that isolates small muscles and put your body in unnatural positions all while you sit down. When you perform an exercise using machines you force your body to follow the range of motion dictated by the machine, when it should be the other way around allowing your body to control your range of motion. Besides some cable movements. which are actually closer to free weight movements than machines, stick with barbells, dumbbells and bodyweight exercises so you build functional muscles that you can use in the real world.

5. Be Flexible- I am still amazed at how many people still don’t pay proper attention to warming up before their workout and stretching at the end of their workout. If you want to have healthy joints and pain free flexibility, follow a proper warmup and cooldown. Get your body primed for training with dynamic movements like bodyweight squats and pushups, then help to lower your heart rate and relax your muscles with some stretches after your workout is over. This is not something that you can afford to ignore if you want a healthy body for many years to come.

Follow these 5 tips in your next workout and if anyone asks you “what your doing?” tell them the opposite!

Apparently you can learn a lot from comic books

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose Your Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

Samuel L Jackson is an awesome actor and made the film for sure.

We put baby Matea to bed around 8:30pm and she stayed asleep so we managed to get through it without any interruptions. Not a common occurrence with a 9 month old.

With both of us home together this weekend we got up this morning and cooked a breakfast of bacon and blueberry pancakes. This is an occasional treat and can be part of living a healthy lifestyle if you exercise consistently and eat these foods occasionally.

Try to workout on the days you decide to eat a reward meal so your metabolism is elevated and primed to burn up some extra calories.

I hit the gym this afternoon and had a great workout of:

Trap bar deadlifts
Bulgarian split squats
Leg Curls
Heavy DB Holds for time

I also used my new Crock Pot that we picked up yesterday. I have put off getting one of these despite how great they are for easy cooking healthy meals only because I actually enjoy cooking and putting meals together!

For busy families a Crock Pot is awesome for hearty and healthy meals that can be thrown together in the morning and ready when everyone gets in the door. Just “set it and forget it!”

But I am glad I finally got one as I whipped up some tasty chili this morning in the Crock Pot before I headed to the gym and a few hours later I am enjoying a tasty and healthy bowl of chili and a cold certified Coors Light while watching my Pittsburgh Penguins play the Washington Capitals.

Matea cheering her team.

Not a good day for the Pens as they just lost 5-2. They are certainly not helping their chances at getting a playoff spot.

Here is a funny commercial I just saw during the game that all you hockey dads will appreciate!

Oh well it was a great weekend of food, fitness and family.

Amadeus movie That’s what I love about living the Dad Fitness Lifestyle.

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

PS – If you are still frustrated and don’t know where to start…

…please remember that you have 8 weeks to try out Dad Fitness to see if you like it.

If you don’t, just let me know and you’ll get all your money back and you can keep all of the programs and bonuses (just in case you ever feel like giving it another try in the future).

You have nothing to lose. That’s my promise to you.

And if you are still skeptical about Dad Fitness and how it can make you the strong and healthy Dad you want to be, you can take the $4.95 trial offer and test out Dad Fitness for 21 days.

Get your trial offer here:

=> Click here for the Dad Fitness Trial Offer

You got questions? Well I got answers!

Here are The Top 8 Fat Loss questions I get asked by busy dads.

1. What is the biggest mistake men make when trying to get 6 pack abs?

Not following a set plan. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!”

If getting 6 packs abs is a goal, then do what needs to be done to reach that goal.

This involves following a plan of consistent workouts that rev up your metabolism and burn calories and following a structured meal plan 90% of each week. You don’t have to be perfect, but 90% will get you results and allow you a little wiggle room. For example, 6 meals a day for 7 days is 42 meals. To make sure your getting 90% compliance, this allows you to mess up 4 of these 42 meal or snacks during the week.

Keep track of each workout and each meal. If your not keeping track of these things you are just spinning your wheels.

Would you just go out and spend money everyday and not look at your bank account?

2. Do I have to give up alcohol to get rid of that “beer gut”?

Just remember that it all boils down to calories in vs calories out. Booze is just extra empty calories. If your gut is truly a “beer” gut then staying away from beer will eliminate all those excess calories. Just 6 beers add up to a whopping 900 calories! That’s almost half of your total daily calories requirements.

Plus drinking also stimulates your appetite and lowers your inhibitions so you are more likely to chow down on those chicken wings or pizza after a couple beers.

That’s why the first thing they ask you at a restaurant is “do you want a drink?” because people will eat more when they drink.

If maximum fat loss is goal just cut out alcohol for the short term until you reach your goal. If you can’t do that, you have another problem that you should deal with first.

3. What are your top 10 foods to lose fat fast?

1. Fish
2. Chicken Breasts
3. Lean Beef
4. Eggs
5. Spinach
6. Bell Peppers
7. Broccoli
8. Oatmeal
9. Mixed Nuts
10. Fruit

4. Do you need to do cardio to burn body fat? If so, what kind of cardio is the most effective?

You don’t have to do cardio in the traditional form of what most people think to burn fat. People were burning fat long before treadmills and stationary bikes.

You just need to do high intensity exercise that revs up your metabolism each and every workout. Basically if it’s hard, it burns lots of calories! This is the most efficient way to burn calories as bodyfat. You could run, sprint, swim, lift weights, do supersets with weights. Keeping track and shortening your rest periods between exercises is an awesome away to burn calories and increase your conditioning.

Remember you don’t really burn much fat when you are actually exercising, except for a small amount of fatty acids that are in your bloodstream.

It’s the calories your body burns during the other 23 hours of the day that count. With exercise and a clean diet you will put your body in a caloric deficit which is still the ONLY proven way to melt off that unwanted fat.

5. Is it necessary to do endless crunches to build your abs?

Absolutely not!

Would you do 100 reps of bicep curls do develop your arms?

No, you would you use a weight that is challenging.

Performing compound free weight exercises like squats and deadlifts will work your abs better than lying on your back doing endless crunches.

For direct ab exercises, stability exercises like planks and side planks are great to increase core strength. To increase the difficulty perform these on a stability ball or remove one of your bodies pillars ( one leg or arm off the ground).

To develop those 6 pack muscles also do weighted exercises like the cable rope crunch, (I know its called a crunch…) and seated bench leg lifts with a dumbbell between your feet. Keep the reps between 8-10.

6. What is the best exercise to lose belly fat?

The best exercise to lose belly fat is…

The one you are going to do to consistently and intensely!

No matter how good the exercise is at burning calories or building muscle, if you don’t do it you won’t achieve the benefits.

But to answer the question, any movement that involves the most muscles and gives you “the best bang for your fat burning buck”

If I had to choose I would probably choose the barbell deadlift, as it pretty much uses every muscle in your body to perform correctly. You can do it with heavy weights for lows reps to build muscle which in turn burns fat or you can do it with a lighter weight and do higher reps which will challenge your cardiovascular system.

7. Can busy dads lose those unwanted pounds in just 3 hours a week?

Providing the workouts are structured to provide maximum afterburn to burn calories and a structured diet is followed that is less than their caloric maintenance level, then yes it is possible.

My Dad Fitness workouts provide these two key components in only 3 hours a week because of the combination of high intensity weight training and supersets and high intensity cardio interval training.

30 minutes of resistance exercise followed by 16 minutes of intervals gives you maximum muscle building and fat loss in only 3 hours a week.

Combined with a healthy diet of 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, busy dads are losing those unwanted pounds in the shortest amount of time so they can get on with their life and spend time with their family.

8. What is the SECRET about getting six pack abs?

I am sure you heard the famous quote “Knowledge Is Power” right?

Well, guess what, I believe that’s a bunch of crap!

If that were true most people walking around these days would be in
awesome shape with lean hard 6 pack abs.

But we all know that’s not the case.

Even though most people already know you have to eat healthy and
exercise to get in shape.

So they have the KNOWLEDGE, but do they have the POWER?

Only if they take ACTION

That’s because “Applied Knowledge Is Power!”, see the difference?

So if that is the secret, I am letting it out know. Take action.

You have the knowledge.

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

Here is PART II of the Awesome Abs article so you can finally be a Dad with Abs!

Click here to read ==>PART I

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

Well, doing short interval cardio workouts have been proven in studies to burn 9 times more fat than long boring cardio.

Who has an extra hour anyway to spend walking on a treadmill like a hamster while reading a magazine hoping to burn enough calories to melt off those excess pounds?

Reading these magazines while working out has been shown to make you feel worse about yourself according to this article on MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25291978

With the Dad Fitness workouts you build muscle and burn fat in the same short workout.

Today was my off day from the gym, but I decided to do a fat burning interval session on my home treadmill. After only 15 short minutes I was soaked, and I drove my metabolism into high gear all day.

Here is how I did my Interval Cardio workout today on the treadmill. I used a one minute sprint paired with a 2 minute recovery walk.

5 mins-Warmup of walking
5-6 mins- Sprint
6-8- Walk
8-9 Sprint
9-11 Walk
11-12 Sprint
12-14 Walk
14-15 Sprint
15-20 Cooldown walk

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

If you are a busy dad and sick and tired of spending hours upon hours in the gym doing ineffective workouts and getting next to no results, then use Dad Fitness to cut back on your workout time, boost your metabolism (allowing you to burn calories and fat ALL day and night), and help you lose inches and fit back into your old clothes. http://www.dadfitness.com

I will also use this blog for daily tips,thoughts, workouts, comments and whatever else is on my mind.

So stay tuned

SB

PS. Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at http://www.dadfitness.com.