Jul 26

If it Ain’t Broken, Don’t Fix It… and If It’s Still Workin’, Wear it Down.

Adhering to a regimented fitness program and nutritional program are key factors to maintaining a healthy level of fitness as well as a happy and strong lifestyle. It is frequently seen on social media, various magazines, and other commercialized sources of information that there is a new cutting edge style of fitness training and/or a diet that will help you lose weight, maintain lean muscle in a revolutionary amount of time. While all of these things might be a great way to help creates positive adaptations in your lifetime fitness goals, sometimes bouncing from one practice to another can halt your progress in achieving your goals.

Something that we do as personal trainers here in the Napa Valley with our clients is to promote our clients our to follow a structured program. These structured programs are checked up on every four weeks. We usually keep about 50% of some of the goals and exercises that are in the program to repeated in the next 4 week goal setting process. This way our clients can practice these exercises and nutritional guidelines so that they develop competency in mastery in these techniques and carry it on for the rest of their lives. If the program is eliciting positive results and not hindering any of the progress we are making with our clients, we will not change it. This is where the saying comes from one of my great mentors “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” and “if it’s still working, wear it down.”

So it’s a good idea is to seek out a program that is good for you and start practicing certain techniques that are somewhat challenging but you can track and manage your progress to ensure that you are developing mastery in these habits and techniques. By adhering to some of the same things that aren’t boring and mundane but still serve as somewhat of a challenge to you, you will be able to create positive adaptations with your steps toward living a healthy, strong, and happy lifestyle.

Jul 03

You Are What You Eat and Do

A very common goal for our Personal Training clients that we train here at Napa Tenacious Fitness is that people want to transform their lifestyle and body into something healthier.  A very common goal is to want to lean out and learn how to implement proper dietary habits into their life.  It seems like a very simple solution when someone says that all you need to do is work out more and eat less food.  If only life were that simple.

Being sick of where you’re at and having failed multiple times in attempting to change a body that is overweight is not an easy place to be in.  Critically important modifications such as ensuring that you are eating the correct foods that are low glycemic index and having balanced portion sizes for each meal throughout the day is going to make a big difference toward ones journey in improving the overall health of their body.

In addition to having a healthy diet,  a consistent amount of activity throughout one’s week involving consecutive days of exercise will transform a person’s body into a body that is used to performing physical activity often.  A body that performs physical activity and exercises more will look and function like a healthy body with lean muscle, decreased body fat and an efficient metabolism.  This means ensuring that you are doing resistance training at least 2 times per week and doing some sort of cardiovascular activity that gets your heart rate above 50 or 60% for a prolonged period of time of 30 minutes or more 1 to 2 times a week.

A body that is consuming 5 to 7 evenly sized meals with equal amounts of carbohydrate, protein, and healthy fats five out of seven days a week will turn into a body that looks like someone who is consuming evenly portion meals throughout their week on a consistent basis.  In other words you will look like the choices that your eating habits consist of.

This also holds true with the amount of exercise you are doing throughout your week.  An individual who consistently does resistance training of compound techniques such as squats, push-ups, and pulling movements throughout their week is going to look like a person who has a body that can perform those exercises efficiently.  More often than not, these individuals have more lean muscle, less excess fat storages and increased metabolisms.  An individual who does not participate in physical activity 3 days a week and sits down in a sedentary lifestyle five or more days out of the week is not going to look like a person who participates in strenuous physical activity and exercise three times or more a week.  Once again the image that you put out there will portray the amount of exercise that you are inducing upon your body.

These points are critically important factors that will contribute toward someone wanting to transform the health of their life.  So if you want to change your image and achieve some of your goals toward living a healthier, stronger, and happier life, perhaps it would be a good idea to create a checklist that gives you weekly tactics to ensure that you are achieving some of these goals.  It’s not how Intense or how unique your exercise program is that will give you the results that you’re looking for.   Adhering to a program and ingraining this into your life will create results that will positively influence the achievement to your goals and making Life Time Fitness an everlasting component to your world.

 

Jun 15

“Healthy Desserts” are still Desserts

Dessert are something that many of us really enjoy.  It could be something sweet, savory, or alcoholic.  We all know that dessert is not the best option when looking to lose weight and develop lean muscle due to excessive consumption of unneeded calories from carbohydrates in the form of sugar and unnecessary fat.  Indulging in an extra meal at the end of the day to “satisfy your sweet tooth” will slow down your progress when looking to lose weight.  The most vulnerable time to do this is after dinner and before bed, which is the most sedentary time of the day when are not utilizing many calories as a fuel source other than the function of breathing and maintaining the function of the organs of your body.  When consuming these excess calories at “dessert time,” your body will take these extra calories and put them right into fat storage.  That’s right… your muffin top, love handles and/or spare tire.

An issue that is increasingly prevalent when working with our clients as Personal Trainers and Life Time Fitness Coaches here in Napa is when we hear a story about one of our participants consuming something like fruit instead of cheese cake or ice cream.  In addition, Napa offers some of the most enticing alcoholic beverages available anywhere in the world… wine!  It is a very common occurrence that we hear about our clients drinking a glass of wine at the end of the night instead of dessert as a justification that this will be better than eating some ice cream or a cookie.  Well, here’s the truth:

When you treat something like dessert, it’s still a dessert.

Let’s first look at some of the commonly misconceived alternatives, like eating some fruit after dinner instead of a decadent dessert.  Consuming something like strawberries or some peaches at the end of the night is not going to be as bad as woofing down a bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup and a brownie.  However, the truth is that you are still going to get a spike in insulin from the fruit and you are going to be consuming excess carbohydrates that are not going to be metabolized as energy.  This insulin will be produced and will now put your body into an absorptive state.  If your body is absorbing sugars during the period at the end of the day after dinner when you do not move much and expend much energy, the fat cells are going to understand this message as a go ahead to absorb the excess sugar in your blood and store it… making the fat cells happier and bigger.  So, the truth is if you eat something that is putting itself in the dessert category, “healthy” or not, your body is still going to treat it like dessert and have the same response you would get from consuming a standard sweet and tantalizing dessert.

Now let’s look at another story we commonly hear that we commonly hear and is massively misunderstood.  This is the story that people will not eat dessert, but will have 2-3 glasses of wine, some beers, or a glass of whiskey.  This scenario is commonly justified because the serving of booze will not have as many calories as one of our favorite sundaes.  Well, that’s wrong too.  Any alcoholic beverage is full of calories and can spike your insulin too, giving the physiological response of telling your fat cells to have a giant party with all of the sugars invited to make them nice and big.  In addition, 2-3 glasses of wine will equate to about 500 extra calories.  What are those calories?  Well those are sugars… and we all know where sugar goes if we do not use it.  Another key component of alcohol consumption and how it hampers our weight loss goals is that the chemical break down of alcohol into sugars we can use for energy takes longer, which means that if we do not use the sugars that are in the booze we drink… you guessed it, they get a one way ticket to the adipose island.  Smack dab in the middle of the places you don’t want your calories to go, which are the midsection, hips and thighs.

Now that we know dessert time and/or drink time is a time that will cause an increase in fat storage no matter what, what can we do rectify this problem?  Here’s a few suggestions:

  1. Have only 3 nights a week of dessert/drink time.
  2. Don’t justify having fruit or “something light” (like one of those “healthy dessert ice cream bars”)
  3. If you like to drink, try having at least one night a week where you don’t drink.

We aren’t saying that you shouldn’t drink and have a treat every now and then.  I mean come on, we live in Napa.  It’s one the best places in the world to indulge in delicious food and wine.  However, let’s take some time to enlighten ourselves on how to make revolutions in our Life Time Fitness Goals and be more aware of what goes in our body and how justifying a treat to not be a treat… is still a treat!

Jun 08

The Medicine Cabinet… Clear It Out and Start Exercising!

Health issues caused by becoming overweight are becoming increasingly prevalent.  Conditions such as hypertension, sleep apnea and arthritis are just a few conditions whose names are on this list.  A common solution to resolving these problems are referring to the services of a general physician.  The physician will more than likely offer a prescription of medicine to help alleviate these symptoms of stress such as high blood pressure medications, diuretics, and sleep assisting prescriptions.  For people suffering from sleep apnea due to an increase in fat mass around their throat, a CPAP machine is sometimes prescribed.  While all of these are solutions to curing detrimental health conditions can be caused by living a sedentary life style, they are just a band aid to the overall problem.  This problem is your life. and if we want to live longer, we should act appropriately.

One other critically important piece of information that not every doctor will recommend to treat this conditions, is exercise.

The health conditions that were listed above (overweight, sleep apnea and arthritis) are more often than not linked to a lack of physical activity and poor food choices.  While prescription drugs can help treat these conditions, they can also be harmful in the fact that they will promote the very thing that created the problem in the first place.  The genesis of these conditions will generally be due failing to adhere to a healthy lifestyle.  As you know from reading my website, we promote Life Time Fitness in Napa by adhering to exercise, having a positive outlook on life and ensuring that our diet is healthy and balanced.

Implementing an exercise routine on a weekly basis will help battle the effects of becoming overweight.  Performing some sort of physical activity will put positive stress on the heart as well as the muscles and the bones of the body.  By increasing the heart rate in a controlled environment, such as a structured resistance training routine, will help level out the effects of high blood pressure in the arteries of the body.

Compound resistance training techniques that target the muscles of the lower body, upper body pulling movement, and upper body pushing movements will elicit a stress response on the muscles surrounding the larger bones of the body.  Once the larger bones of the body receive that stress, anabolic hormones responsible for the reconstruction of muscles and bone tissue will be released into the blood stream triggering the resynthesis of the bones and joints.  By performing resistance training, the body will strengthen the bones that are deteriorating from the effects of arthritis.  While arthritis medication is helpful, the human body will be able to last longer if we can reduce the amount of arthritis medications that seem unnecessary and increase the amount of exercise to improve our journey to live a healthy and strong life.  As a Personal Trainer and Life Time Fitness Advocate in Napa, one of my jobs of myself and my team is to prescribe exercises to individuals suffering from issues such as the joint disease and arthritis.  No matter where you are in the world and you are reading this article, seeking out the advice of Personal Trainer would significantly help fight the detrimental effects of arthritis.

CPAP machines help overweight individuals sleep by assisting the breathing cycle while sleeping.  Sleep apnea is a condition that is linked to restricted breathing due to increased fat tissue around the throat causing a restriction of air going through the trachea.  The CPAP machine is meant to be a temporary solution for the conditions Sleep Apnea linked to being overweight.  Ideally, an individual with Sleep Apnea that is tied to being overweight should not be on this device forever.  Why?  Because by decreasing the amount of weight a person has, fat mass will be reduced in the body AND an increased exercise will lead to a healthier sleep wake cycle.

So, are medications bad?  Absolutely not.  They can be very useful.  However, depending on these medications, an overabundance might lead to overuse and can seriously impede an individual’s human potential in their lives.  The more prescription medication bottles in the medicine cabinet that fall out when you open it is an indicator that an intervention should occur.  This intervention is our pride and joy as Personal Trainers.  So why not try to reduce the amount of medication bottles you have in your cabinet and increase your over quality of life by staying physically active, exercising, and eating healthy?

I don’t know about you, but living a happy and strong life sounds like a good way to kick ass in life.

Jun 01

The 3-to-1 Principle: 3 nights healthy… 1 night to treat yourself!

Weight loss is one of the top subjects that drive people to improve their fitness.  Increases in overall weight can lead to metabolic diseases, joint pain and other psychological factors that are detrimental to human health.  As Personal Trainers who promote Life Time Fitness here in the Napa Valley, we are posed with many challenges on how to guide the people we engage with to lose weight and achieve a healthier lifestyle.

Napa is a beautiful city that has many decadent items for lovers of food and wine.  The appreciation for food and wine is apparent in the tourist community and plays a huge roll in employing people who live in Napa.  Wine makers, event managers and restaurant workers are all surrounded by the bliss of drinking the world’s best wine and eating some of the world’s best food.  Therefore, the temptations to consume copious amounts of alcohol and eat rich and delicious food is right in front of our eyes, both literally and figuratively.  When temptations are so close for eyes to see, it makes overeating and overdrinking a very easy thing to do.  We all know what happens when too much food is consumed at one time… the food will not have anywhere to be absorbed and it will be stored as fat (especially the delicious Napa cuisine).  In addition, some of the social events that the professionals in the wine industry are obligated to go to always have alcohol… tons of it.  The omnipresence of wine and catered food is another trigger that can convince a person to over consume and influence the gain of extra weight.

So, is delicious food from Napa Valley’s fine dining restaurants and the best wine in the world a bad thing?  HELL NO!  As the writer of this article, I think it’s a great thing!  We should take time out to enjoy amazing things in life… and food and fun wine experiences are definitely a part of that!  However, the key concept to many things in life… is balance.  With that being said, what is a good way to balance a life in which one wants to maintain a healthy weight and is surrounded by things that might negatively influence their weight?

In reality, no one person is unique when it comes to being surrounded by tantalizingly devious decisions in food.  We are all surrounded by vices that might convince us to go down a path that is not the most beneficial for our wellbeing.  In this subject, we are talking about decisions involving the overconsumption of food and alcohol.

But why is it that some certain people in the food and wine industry are able to maintain their weight and live a healthy and active lifestyle?

Balance is key to this.  Ensuring to decide on more things that will influence health for tomorrow over choices that will negatively impact ones health is a great example of how to balance a life that is surrounded by decadence and gluttony.

A great technique that we teach our clients at Napa Tenacious Fitness is the 3-to-1 principle.  The 3-to-1 principle refers to the amount days in which someone will make healthy choices for 3 days in a row and then allow 1 day in which the person can allow themselves a treat.  For example, a good technique would be to abstain from carbohydrate consumption at dinner and dessert for 3 nights throughout the week.  After 3 days, you can allow yourself a meal that includes carbohydrates… or even dessert!

I know that as a Personal Trainer and Life Time Fitness Coach in Napa people might be saying… dessert, really?  You’re damn right that’s what I’m saying!  This is a technique that takes an extreme amount of control and concentration.  It so challenging to break cycles that have imbalances to them.  Any little technique we can utilize to positive influence a shift in the healthier direction and away from overeating is a huge success and will positively impact the loss of weight.  This will lead to a healthier lifestyle overall.

So give it a shot!  Pick one thing that you think is kicking your ass and causing you to not be as fit as you would like to be… eliminate that aspect for 3 nights in a row, and then allow it for the third night.  Then repeat it…again and again… and again

May 25

Take Deep Breaths to Reduce Work Stress and Improve Concentration, Productivity, and Mental Health

Do you ever find yourself stressed out, stuck in a rut, or just too busy that you don’t know what to do next?

Sometimes stress puts us in a confined state of mind in which we feel like we have nowhere to go and we stay stuck in a stressful state of something like anger, depression, or spite towards someone else.  We can also find ourselves feeling stagnant on certain work days where we sit at our work desk for so long.  States of melancholy which we get in a state of mind that basically makes us feel like we’re a shoe in a dryer and we don’t know what to do next except have our thoughts go in the same mundane circle.   Similar to the way our bodies adapt to become stronger after weeks of regular exercise, part of progressing forward in life and maintaining a good quality of life is making sure that your mind is constantly percolating and striving for adaptation.

So how do we keep our mind percolating and striving for the next best thing that’s in front of us?  One technique that I use is a little bit of meditation that I learned in a psychology class in college.  When being taught to be an elite performing human being in our everyday lives, we always talked about what an elite performer in an athletic event has to go through to achieve their task.

Something that is commonly taught to athletes before they execute an event is to take deep breaths.

Taking deep breaths will slow down the heart rate a few beats and decrease the amount of stress hormones that are telling the heart to beat so fast.  There is a physiological correlation to taking deep breaths and triggering the body and it’s nervous system how to relax.

For instance, Marksmanship performers who participate in biathlons, a sport in which an athlete will ski downhill and then aim for a target and shoot at a long distance target with a rifle.  The challenge of this is performing a complicated task of downhill skiing and immediately aiming and shooting at a target that is very long distance away while their heart is racing and stress hormones are making the body over stimulated.  Baseball athletes will are also taught to take a few deep breaths before going up to bat.  Taking deep breaths helps these athletes to become a better performer because they can focus on the task at hand that takes a high amount of dexterity, like aiming for a target or hitting a small baseball that’s being thrown at you very hard from a pitcher.

Even though most days at work and  life  in the general population does not involve the above mentioned extent of physically athletic activity, stress can hit us the same way just as it does an athlete performing an athletic activity correctly.  For example, if someone were to have a bad day at work and get reprimanded by their boss because they didn’t do something the right way, their mood could be affected in a negative way in which the individual may not want to exercise, eat healthy or go to sleep in a timely manner because they are over stressed.  The stimulus of getting yelled at by the boss will increase the amount of stress hormones, blood pressure, and heart rate responses to an individual.  This stress stimulus is very similar to what we have talked about with athletes and their activities they want to execute correctly.  the solution to this type of stress response is identical to how an athlete will center themselves.  By taking deep breaths, one can apply similar heart rate recovery, concentration, and an overall decrease in the amount of stress hormones being produced.  This is a method in which we can become Elite performers and adhere to a healthier lifestyle.

So when stress from everyday life gets in the way and keeps us from adhering to Life Time Fitness, try taking a few deep breaths.  This is one technique that I was taught by one of my favorite psychology teachers in my college career:

  1. Find an inanimate object outside (like a tree, the horizon or some clouds)
  2. Look at that object… then close your eyes. Take one long, deep breath.  Feel your longs all the way to it’s fullest capactity and take your time.
  3. Let that breath out.
  4. With your eyes closed, take another long and steady deep breath. On the exhale, open your eyes and slowly let out your breath.
  5. Take One more deep breath with your eyes open, still looking at the object you initially picked out. Exhale one more time and think about something that makes you happy (I think about my son, my friends, my family… and burritos!)

Feel free to try this technique when things get rough.  Not only will taking deep breaths bring in a better state of focus when in the middle of an athletic event, but this technique can help reduce stress in our everyday lives!  This is a technique we teach to some of our Personal Training clients in the Napa Valley because there are so many beautiful things to look at here … Trees… Vineyards… Hills.  Sounds like some great things to look at and take it all in, right?

So take some time out of the stressful part of your day and look at something pretty.

It will be alright, if we just take deep breaths.

May 07

Advancements in Plank Exercises: Elbow Plank Reach

Plank exercises are a great way to start to develop core strength in any beginner to intermediate exercise routine.  As Personal Trainers in Napa catering to our clients, we like to use advancements in different techniques to progress to different stages of strength. After a client at Napa Tenacious Fitness demonstrates mastery and competency in both the Straight Arm Plank and Elbow Plank exercise, we will progress them to more advance isometric exercises that require core engagement paired with another movement.  One of the techniques we progress to is the Elbow Plank Reach.

In the Elbow Plank Reach exercise, you will be starting out in the standard elbow plank position with the arms bent at a ninety-degree angle and feet will be sprawled out slightly wider than the normal elbow plank position.  The big toe should be even with the outside border of the hips.  Your hips should be steady and square to the ground.   Abs, shoulder blade muscles, pecs and abdominal muscles should be tight.  Ensure that your back is flat while pressing your elbow into the ground wind up the shoulder joint to flex the muscles surrounding the shoulder blades and arm pit maintaining rigidity in the torso extend one arm in front until the arm is completely straight.  Return your extended arm underneath the armpit and rinse and repeat with the same movement on the other side.  Repeat this movement for reps!

We usually have our client perform anywhere from 3-10 repetitions depending on how challenging the exercise is.  In addition, to modify this exercise, you can place your elbows on an incline surface such as an exercise bench or even an even higher surface (at home, you can use something like a kitchen counter or sturdy table… this will make it easier!)

This is great exercise to add to any routine.  It is an abdominal exercise that utilizes both spinal, abdominal and hip stability while utilizing the core musculature to put positive stress on the a wide variety of core muscle groups!

 

Apr 26

Out to Lunch and Feel Pressured to Eat Unhealthy Food? Look at the Appetizers!

Having a job that requires you to go out to lunch meetings and being exposed to restaurant food can sometimes sabotage your healthy eating habits.  For example, sometimes you may be pressured into consuming certain foods that are not the most conducive to your health and fitness goals because most of the table might order appetizers.  When living in the Napa Valley, we know that indulgent food options are hard to pass up.  That’s why seeking the services of Personal Trainer and Nutritional Consultant in Napa is a productive way to stay on track!  Appetizers that may not be the healthiest such as bread, crackers, or carb-filled item this and cheesy items.  We all know that when you eat too many carbs at one time and then also eating too much fat at one time will trigger the absorption of fat cells in the body.  So how do we get around the impulse to eat carb filled or fat filled restaurant food when going out to eat with your friends, family, and/or working team?

Something we tell our clients during our Nutritional Consultations is to look at what sides are offered on the menu.  More often than not, a restaurant will have a side menu that has things such as salads, vegetables, or strict meat dishes that don’t include copious amounts of carbohydrates such as crackers, breads, or grains.  In addition, when ordering some of these items you can request the item to be served with light cheese, or no cheese at all.  You can also ask to get creamy dressing put on the side so you are in control of how much dressing gets put on your salad.

By looking at the snack or appetizer menu when out at a bar or a social function or work function, you can make better choices by limiting the amount ingredients on the actual item that you’re ordering.  Remember that when your body is in a rest and digest state, such as when you were out to lunch and not working out, you are not going to absorb carbohydrates as readily.  Therefore, that is one of the best times to look for healthier options.  This is where looking for healthy vegetable sides such as roasted brussel sprouts, beet salads, or tuna tartar dishes are going to benefit you.  So next time you’re out to lunch, go ahead and look for these items and try to make healthier choices!

Mar 22

Don’t miss your workouts: Keep a gym bag in your car at all times

Fitting workouts in after you get off work, coming home from school or, coming back from another sort of endeavor which requires you to be dressed in a specific attire is always challenging.  Long days can lead to you wanting to go straight home…. Putting workouts on the back burner. Sometimes this is because you are not dressed in workout clothes.  If this is the case, you might have to run home real quick to get into workout clothes before making your way over to the gym.  Just the fact that you must make an extra trip home is a deterrent that can lead you to avoiding the gym that day.  Stepping into your house and seeing your family, your dog, or the ever so inviting couch in front of the TV is going to make it pretty enticing to sit down and call it a day.  When you sit down and call it a day… well that means that you may not get any workout in at all.  We want to be able to fit something in to create lifestyle characteristics in which we can get some workouts in throughout the week.

So, what is a good way to make sure that you don’t make that extra trip and have to come home to obtain your workout clothes?

One easy solution is to make sure that you have your gym bag in your car always.  In this gym bag, you should have shoes, clothes, and a snack.  Your gym bag might look like this:

1.  Workout underwear (boxer briefs for the guys… Athletic undies for the girl) and sports bra (default girl necessity).
2.  Exercise shorts or pants that are comfortable for working out.
3.  An athletic top that you are comfortable in and will serve as a good workout shirt.
4.  Comfortable workout socks something that won’t be that like the dress socks that you wear to work.
5.  A snack that you can easily consume before you work out so that you have energy.  Something simple as a banana or some sort of healthy snack bar might work.

These are just some examples of the items that you can put into a workout bag.  With just five items into a bag you will be able to throw this in the back of your car and have something ready to go so that you can make it to the gym after whatever your obligation is before you head home for the night.  Having to make an extra stop before the gym just serves as an obstacle and a distraction to keep you from the gym.  Remember a 30 minute to one hour workout 3 times a week will make a huge difference in your vision of Life Time Fitness.  Having that bag ready to go in your car with your exercise Essentials will make it a lot easier to get a to the gym and get those 3 days a week in.

Mar 13

Cheat meal? Prepare for it and go out on a Dragon!

In today’s modern diet and nutrition culture, we are focusing on foods that we shouldn’t eat.  Some of these foods include alcohol, bread, grains, cheese, and various desserts. These are goods that give us comfort and are very satisfying to our taste buds.  These foods are so comforting and satisfying to eat because sometimes they are foreseen as the “forbidden fruit.”  After a long day of submitting our time to a full day of work at our jobs, we like to let loose sometimes, the comfort foods enter these times.  We are told to stay away from these foods because they will make us overweight, increase our cholesterol, and just be bad for us overall.

These statements are true only when something like these foods that we picture as the “forbidden fruit” are overused in abundance.  Just like consuming too much alcohol can cause serious detrimental effects on the body, so can copious amounts of comfort foods.  While this is a true, this doesn’t mean that we have to completely avoid all of these foods and treat them like they’re such a devil in our life.

As humans living in this world in which we have delicious tasting amazing food that is created from people who have a great passion for making food that tastes delicious, we should be able to enjoy these foods.  But how do we enjoy these foods on a scale that will still leave us healthy and able to thrive for the rest of our lives?

A method that I utilize with my clients and myself is to use the phrase “go out on a dragon.”  This can mean something along the same lines if the world was going to end tomorrow, you would want to live your last hours the most exciting and meaningful way possible.  If I were to do that I would go out riding on the back of a dragon.  So, when I do choose to eat delicious tasting and forbidden food like the ones that were named in the beginning of this article, I make sure to choose the most high-quality and best tasting forbidden fruit.  This food may be something that cost a little more and may take a little more time to acquire.  For example, if I want to get a cookie, I’m not going to go to the cookie that is on the shelf of a grocery store that comes in a pack of 30. I’m going to go wait in line at my favorite local bakery (Model Bakery in Napa) for 15 minutes to get the best tasting cookie possible that was created by a baker that morning.  I know that this cookie has natural ingredients such as real butter, real sugar and good quality flower that is made by someone that I can see behind the counter producing this delightful piece of bliss.

In addition, to looking for the best quality of junk food when I do get to that stage I make sure that I put in my hard work throughout the weekend which I eat clean for 4 to 5 days straight. And as a reward and a meaningful experience, I like to go out to my favorite restaurants that might cost a little more money and they might take a little more time for me to prepare for this.  But I am still maintaining 4 to 5 days a week of clean eating. In addition, I am looking forward to this “Dragon Meal” toward the end of the week.  Looking forward to something and preparing to ride that dragon gives me focus to stay on track and stay away from foods would disrupt my dragon meal experience.

This may be a good method to try out.  I always like to look forward to things and if I do too much of one thing I can’t look forward to it.  Therefore, I look forward to my Dragon Meal at the end of the week.  If you’re going to choose to drink alcohol, eat sweets, or go out for a decadent dinner… go out on a dragon!

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