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About the Author Mark Ottobre is the author of book The Truth About Supplements, a PICP Coach, a Biosignature and NLP Master Practitioner and a Personal Trainer to Mr Australia, Miss Australia and Miss Olympia. He has created two phenomenal fitness programs, The Alpha Body and Eat Your Way to Abs. Mark Ottobre started his journey to success as The Fat Kid. At school, he was nick-named as Pork Chop. As if this was not enough, Mark was once told by a teacher You know Mark, out of a scale of 1 to 10 in useless lumps, you are a straight 11! At the age of 14, Mark fell into the category of gym goers trying to lose weight. It wasnt until the age of 15 that he was introduced to training and found the necessary tools to transform his mind, body and lifeforever.

The Fat Kid to The Speaker, Writer and Trainer of Champions Today, Mark specialises in training both fitness champions and regular people to achieve extraordinary body transformations in the shortest time possible. He has written for Muscle Mag and Australian Natural Bodz magazines and holds a passion for teaching Personal Training. Marks philosophy is to Train hard, No excuses and his own peak fitness reflects that. He has the edge over 99% of personal trainers, coaches and health experts because he not only understands the physical aspect to training and nutrition in the finest detail, but also combines it with the all important mental edge he has discovered after years studying the worlds top peak performance experts.

For your step-by-step program go to http://www.maximusmark.com today

By Mark Ottobre 2010

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Special Thanks To Chris Triantopoulos of Medallion Personal Training Annamaria Ottobre Kristine Coffey

DISCLAIMER: All recommendations are made GENERALLY for people who are looking forward to improving their physiques, living a healthy lifestyle and increasing performance. This information does not intend to or attempt to, cure, prevent or treat any disease or illness. We assume that you are healthy and free of disease as you peruse the information presented. For any specific dietary requirements, please see a qualified specialist. *Calories were referenced from www.calorieking.com.au 2010, Mark Ottobre ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, for any reason or by any means, whether re-drawn, enlarged or otherwise altered including mechanical, photocopy, digital storage & retrieval or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from both the copyright owner and the publisher. The text, layout and designs presented in this book, as well as the book in its entirety, are protected by the copyright laws of Australia and similar laws in other countries

The following is based on the Eat Your Way to Abs audio program. For your convenience it has been transcribed and edited. The Question and Answer format has been retained to maximise content.

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Preface
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to invest in your health. I am honoured that you chose to download my program, Eat Your Way to Abs. I promise the information below will cut through the crap and give you what you need to know in the shortest time possible. This program is composed of an ebook and an audio program. For your convenience, I have added a shopping list to this ebook as a quick reference guide for your grocery shopping. The Audio Program I believe repetition is the mother of learning and creating change. If you are serious about mastering this material, I would recommend you to download the audio on to your iPod or CD and listen to it while you drive, clean, cook or do other tasks that dont require much concentration. Listen to it a number of times; ingrain the ideas in your head. I would also recommend not listening to the whole audio in one sitting, but over a number of sittings so that you have time to reflect and act on the ideas being presented. The Ebook This ebook is based on the audio program and has been expanded to give you specific information. I have kept the question and answer format so you can find what you are looking for easily and quickly. It was the most effective way of designing the ebook so I could fit in as much relevant content as possible and communicate it in a practical, easy-to-use format. It would be best to print it out if you want a handy hard copy version, but you will have to manually note down some links. I sincerely hope you gain value from this program. Feel free to email my team and leave feedback at info@thealphabody.com. Heres to your success, Mark Ottobre

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Table of contents

Chapter
Strategies and Breakfast I bet you dont eat like this in the morning! Fish Oil The skinny version of why you need it Green Drinks Why to have them and how to make them taste great! Calories Once & for all, they dont count! Pesticides and Toxins The Insidious Two Insulin, Hormones and Calories The secret stuff that weight loss groups wont let you find out! Females, Mindsets, Oprah & a Steak! A must read for females and for those with one in their life Corn, Sugar and Soy Research that will make you think twice about what youre eating Multi Vitamin Supplements & Soil- Think supplements are a waste of money? Read on! Trans-Fats The untold history Eskimos & Ketosis They have more in common than you think! Males and Muscle Top guidelines for increasing muscle mass Counting Carbs and Protein Whats a high protein diet anyway? Final Thought The Main Key Shopping List What to bring with you to the supermarket!

Pg. No.

6 to 9 9 to 10 10 to 12 12 to 14 14 to 16 16 to 19 19 to 22

22 to 25 25 to 26 26 to 29 29 to 30 30 to 32 32 to 33 34 35

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Whats the first thing you explain about nutrition to a client? The first thing is to simplify. There are only so many changes a newbie can make to their diet in one week without feeling a little overwhelmed. To make the change sustainable, I like to feed my clients with advice neatly spread over a period of time. New trainers make the mistake of giving all the information to clients at once. This is not the most effective practice. An average person has been taught the how, when and what of eating. And often its these traditions that prevent us from achieving our goals. After the mindset talk, I look at the nutrition plan, and first meal on the agenda is breakfast. Until a client does that right, they dont get any more nutritional advice. Getting breakfast right will influence the food choices made for the rest of the day. Working with one concept at a time until its an ingrained habit is the best way to create lasting change. What do you recommend for breakfast? Unfortunately, due to TV marketing, majority of people think high sugary and carbohydrate cereals are healthy breakfast options to eat in the morning. These are terrible when it comes to blood sugar. People would be much better off if they ate a high protein breakfast instead. A high protein breakfast could include some type of red meat, fish, chicken or eggs. Most people think thats strange. What I find strange is people are embracing milk, corn and soy as wonder health foods when most have some form of allergy to soybased products. Yet, the same people still have them for breakfast. Once they follow this approach, people will find they wont have energy crashes straight after and need a pick me up in the form of a coffee or an energy drink. The truth is most breakfast choices, due to their sugary nature cause people to have energy dips by the time they make it to work place.

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The other thing about a high protein breakfast is this: The first 30 grams of protein you eat for the day goes towards the immune system which has benefits from a general wellness perspective. The word protein in Greek means of prime importance. So in designing the very first meal of the day, it only makes sense to consume protein. What would you eat that with? Either with mixed vegetables, sweet potato, nuts or by itself. Most of the time it would be a combination of green vegetables and nuts. And to prepare it, it takes about three minutes. The I dont have time business is nonsense; people just need to make the effort. What would you say to people who say they dont have time to eat in the morning? People who complain this way place more value on whats easy and convenient than they do on their health. If they did value their health, they would wake up an hour earlier with a smile on their face to cook a tasty breakfast. The fact is if you want something in life, you will do whatever it takes to achieve it. Once when I was competing, I remember waking up two hours earlier everyday to prepare my food for the whole year. No one on planet earth was going to stop me from my goal. Speak to bodybuilders or fitness models around the world: The one thing they all have in common is they dont make excuses about the food they eat. Part of eating healthy is consuming a nutritious breakfast. You dont have to eat breakfast if you dont want to; however, dont complain when you do not get the results because youre the one not following the formula. Another important factor that comes up in conversations with new clients is emotional guilt. I dont believe that guilt should be a factor
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in nutrition and exercise. This is one of my top rules in helping people create change. You must help people take responsibility for all their actions and inactions. Guilt doesnt necessarily make people want to take responsibility for their lives. Often it makes them want to run. I like to look at guilt with my equation analogy. Lets start with 1 + 1 = 2. We all know this right? So then why ask if you can change the 1 for a 3 and then expect it to still equal 2? We know thats impossible. Dont change an equation and expect the result not to change. If you want to change the equation thats fine, but realise that wont get the same result. Same way, approaching things with a left-brained, analytic viewpoint helps remove emotion and guilt. It positions people as the ones who have the choice of following that equation to get the result they want, or changing it and keeping the results they have. Either way, it makes them responsible. People have to learn, they cant take the bits they like and leave the rest. They must accept the laws that govern the human body. A scientific way of getting people in shape is by having them eat a wholesome breakfast in the morning. This is part of the equation. If you take that out of the equation youre not going to get the results that you want. Simple. So if a client tells me, I cant eat breakfast, I am honest with them. I say, Youre probably not going to get the results you are expecting. You might be able to make some change, but probably not the change you were dreaming of. I make sure to keep my clients in checkif they are serious about what they want, I wont let them fall into delusional habits that will leave them frustrated. I always explain that their actions and behaviours must match the result they are intending.

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And when you look at things like that you dont need guilt as a negative motivator. What about a protein shake for breakfast? I dont recommend that. How come? The first reason is because youre not stimulating the metabolism. Protein shakes will enter and exit the GI track a lot faster than real food. This means you are not stimulating digestive enzymes or firing the metabolism. Food has a thermogenic effect on the body. I cover this quite extensively in the Eat Your Way to Abs Seminar. In short, your body has to heat itself up to digest real food. Now thats true with real protein foods, however that is not true with protein shakes. Your body doesnt have to work for the nutrients as it would if you were eating something like a steak. We were designed with teeth and I am a firm believer were designed to eat real food. A lot of personal trainers live off the protein shake diet. This practice will often slow the metabolism. I know it sounds clichd, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast actually means to break the fast. When you rise in the morning, your body has been on a fast for six to eight hours, depending on how long you sleep. What are the key supplements you would recommend a client who is starting out? Youve probably heard this a million times but I am going to say it again: The key supplement is fish oil. As a human race, we evolved eating a diet rich in Omega 3s. To conclude the benefits of fish oil in a very brief way, I remember learning of a study conducted in the prison system where they gave prisoners a dose of fish oil as low as three grams a day and
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then monitored violence. The result showed that violence went down by one third!
For more information on fish oil in the prison system visit these links: http://www.amenclinics.com/blog/28/supplements-decrease-violence/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18358242 News report: http://www.3news.co.nz/Fish-oil-and-vitamins-reduceviolence-in-prison-inmates/tabid/372/articleID/145682/Default.aspx http://www.insidershealth.com/article/new_study_aggressive_behavior _reduced_significantly_by_taking_fish_oil/4028

Whats more interesting is that political and health experts in the US estimate they could cut the US health bill by 50% by issuing each citizen three grams of fish oil a day. That would be interesting and the biggest study you could conduct on any supplement. Personally though, I dont think its that magical. Fish oil is comparable to water in some ways. Many chemical processes in the body depend on Omega 3s. It works on brain function, inflammation, the heart, aids in losing body fat, muscle health and it increases serotonin levels (serotonin being the feeling good neurotransmitter) in the brain. Many obese clients are depressed, and therefore have poor willpower. The client will be complaint with your advice if you can help them increase the serotonin naturally. The better the clients mental frame, the more willing the client to comply with the advice. (Coach Charles Poliquin taught me that.) Another plus about fish oil is that its relatively inexpensive for what it does. If you want more information on fish oil I would recommend visiting pubmed.com, which is where most peer-to-peer research is published. When at Pubmed (or Google) type in Fish Oil and. The search will return several studies where fish oil is proven to be beneficial to cure several diseases. The next supplement that I would add would be either a green drink or a multi vitamin and mineral supplement. If I had to pick one out of these it would be the green drink.

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What are green drinks? Green drinks are basically that, grounded up vegetables or high concentrate Spirulina. (To know more about tasty green drinks and the benefits of an alkaline state, get my book The Truth About Supplements www.thetruthaboutsupplements.com). To summarise, if you can get a good green drink you are going to be able to bypass something like a vitamin mineral supplement (even though you could still take it as well). Green drinks cut a lot of corners because of the wider variety of vitamins and minerals content. Make sure that you buy a green drink that is organic. I get mine here (this is also where I get my fish oil). Green drinks are convenient. I like to have one to two drinks a day. I find it better than taking lots of pills. And as for clients, lets face it: They wont want to take lots of pills and can sometimes be turned off from supplements because of this. Some people add it to their protein shake. I wouldnt personally, because of the taste. What do the veggie/green shakes taste like? They taste okay. I have a trick to improve the taste without adding sugar. I add something called stevia to my green drinks. Stevia is a natural sweetener; its 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. I remember a friend of mine gave it to me for the first time, I was about to use a teaspoon when he insisted to only use one tenth of a teaspoon. We settled on a half a teaspoon and my coffee was way too sweet. When using stevia all you need is a quarter of a teaspoon. It costs between $10 and $30 dollars (Australian) when purchased through a health food store. A small jar is around 30 grams. When some people look at such a small jar they are sometimes turned off by price because it doesnt look like you get a lot. However, it will last you six months, if not longer, because you are only using a tiny bit at each meal and coffee.

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If youd like to know more about stevia, go here: www.thetruthaboutsupplements.com. Stevia makes it just a bit sweeter and takes the bitter edge off. It has no calorie and supports alkalinity in the gums. Its not an artificial sweetener but a natural one derived from the stevia plant. If there are any complaints about taste of green drinks, thats how I would solve it. I would never use artificial sweeteners though. Lets just say the jury is still out about artificial sweeteners, and whatever is out isnt favourable toward consuming them on a daily basis. Instead of getting into the debate about artificial sweeteners, I would just use stevia. Speaking about calories, is a calorie a calorie? No, absolutely not! A calorie is definitely not a calorie. Sometime between 1890 and 1900, Wilbur O. Atwater, an agricultural chemist, came up with the idea to put everything into a calorimeter. Think of a calorimeter as an oven. Wilbur placed different foods into an oven and he basically measured the energy that was in food. The oven turned the food to ashes and you could objectively measure the amount of heat the certain foods produced. Now what he found was that fats have nine calories, carbohydrates have five calories and proteins have four calories, etc. While this did measure the energy in the foods, what it failed to take into account is how the human digestive system works and how hormones are switched on and off by the foods we eat. Please understand and get this our bodies are chemical machineswe dont just heat up the food in our body like an oven. The notion (though accepted as gospel) is ludicrous after you consider all we know about enzymes and hormones today. How can we still accept the theory calories that go in need to be in harmony with calories that go out? If we want to succeed at our

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weight loss and body sculpting endeavours, we have to look deeper. A certain chemical response goes on within our bodies when we consume food substances. In a sense, we literally switch on and switch off hormones that in turn have the ability to switch on and switch off genes. As you may have figured, the calorimeter simply cannot take into account these factors. The saying goes as Our genes load the gun and our environment pulls the trigger. So if we constantly eat the wrong things and have a certain gene that creates ill health, we will pay the price. There is a condition called Lipodystrophy. Patients affected have emaciated upper bodies and obese lower bodies (or a variation of this.) I tracked down a link to a photo here (I didnt want to place the photo in the book itself as the image can be disturbing). As weird as it seems, it was this condition that got me fascinated with how our hormones communicate with our bodys fat stores. I first came across Lipodystrophy at a presentation by author Gary Taubes. His book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, is a masterpiece of research. Gary spoke about this condition and researched it back to the 60s and 50s. Today the condition is found in some AIDS patients. More importantly, the condition, Lipodystrophy begged the question, Did the upper half under eat and the lower half over eat? Now obviously thats impossible, but this condition exists. And if it exists, there must be something more to the Calories in v/s Calories out theory. A better question to ask is why does it exist? It exists because there is a hormonal imbalance in the body.

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Hormones tell the body where to store the fat. Hormones are manipulated through food, supplements and (believe or not) our mental attitude. One course I would highly recommend for Personal Trainers is Charles Poliquins Biosignature. (Click here for more information.) Charles goes into much more depth about the science of hormones and body fat. Needless to say, the course clearly demonstrates that a calorie is not a calorie. People who still believe that a calorie is a calorie need to join the rest of us in 2010. They are 110 years behind science, literally! For example, I eat 2000 calories a day and I get those calories from lean proteins, vegetables and Omega 3s. You, on the other hand, go to a fast food restaurant and eat 2000 calories. In this situation, we are not going to end up with the same physiques, are we? No, you will be nowhere near me. . . Youre going to be overweight whereas Im going to be lean. Furthermore if we were tested drawing blood from our bodies, I would be far healthier. The medical systems approach to everything is youre healthy as long as youre not sick. My approach, however, is, find whats optimal. Calories play apart in the picture, but to say a calorie is a calorie when ingested into the human body is incorrect. Whats your opinion on the pesticides and environmental toxins? Pesticides and environmental toxins are a growing problem. They are both insidious. Theyre insidious because what is sprayed on foods is not written on the food labels. Neither are we told whether the spray might be toxic. Hell, toxic is still being defined! I mean, anything can be toxic, even water if you consume it in high enough amounts. And so long as the scientific community approaches pesticides and chemicals in
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our environment with still to be defined terms, our grandchildren will be the ones to pay. BPA (or Bisphenol A) is not a pesticide but it is a good example of an insidious toxin in our everyday environment. BPA is whats used in a number of different canned foods and plastic water bottle products. Amongst neurological issues in infants, its also found to be lowering the testosterone. Like said, the insidious part is that companies dont always label their products. The numbers three and seven mark if BPA has been used. The numbers are supposed to be in the triangle, which is not always easily found even to someone so conscious of these things like me.

The numbers are suppose to be found in the triangle but thats not always the case

Pesticides are they sameyou simply dont know how much has been used and if its are harmful. So either you need to assume or buy organic. One thing that everyone should know about organic food is this: Organic may not be any more nutritious for you than a non-organic item. But thats not why you buy organic anyway. Let me explain Food industry (amongst other political factors) has been campaigning with research papers and studies that organic food is completely equal to its non-organic counter-part from a nutritional stand point.

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Yes, this might have some truth, However, thats not why you buy organic food. The reason you buy organic food is you can eliminate the pesticidesits nothing to do with which one is more nutritious. Nutrient value of food can be traced to the quality of soil it comes from. Its assumed the nutrient value of soil from an organic farmer would be higher compared with a non-organic farmer. However, at best, this is still an assumption and its based on the fertiliser the farmer usesnot the pesticides. But again, this is not the reason to buy organic. The government and the press are notorious for employing spindoctors. This is exactly what they are doing with the organic food issue. The main question is whether pesticides are dangerous to humans? Many so-called health experts seem to disagree that such toxins are poisonous to us. But do we really need experts to tell us the truth? The truth is obvious and simple, glaring right back at us: Pesticides are designed to kill living organisms. When it comes to organic food, budget seems to be the main issue. As a tip to save money, buy all thin-skinned fruits and vegetable organic. Thick-skin fruits and vegetables arent as important to buy organic as the thick outer layer can be peeled away along with the harmful pesticides. I always make an effort to buy organic. You have to remember that fat cells store toxins. Pesticides are toxins and so they are going to be stored. The three items that are sprayed with pesticides the heaviest are 1. Coffee 2. Butter and 3. Strawberries I would always do my best to buy these products as organic when available.
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To quote Michael Pollan, the author of the Omnivores Dilemma, You can shop for value, or you can shop for your values. Every time you go to the supermarket, youre basically voting. When you go to the supermarket, one of the best things you can do is shop for your values, and if you hold a value of health, you will always shop for your health. What is the most important factor when it comes to losing weight? The biggest thing from a hormonal perspective is controlling insulin. Fortunately for us, insulin is a hormone over which we have 100% control. We control it with the foods we eat. I look at this issue from a hormonal perspective, not a Calories in v/s Calories out perspective. Hormonally looking at weight loss, consider how much insulin does a person excrete on a day to day basis. Then help them choose foods to make insulin stable throughout the day. This will aid both weight loss and compliance from the client. So you need insulin to store fat? Yes, and also to drive the nutrients to the cell. This happens naturally when you eat. Whenever you eat, a small amount of insulin is secreted. Thats what diabetes is; the pancreas can no longer produce insulin. Insulin should not be viewed as good or evil. To answer the question, the body needs insulin to store fat from a chemical perspective. The fat cells consist of free forming fatty acids which can be used as energy and triglycerides. Think of the triglycerides as the storehouse. Triglycerides are three freeforming fatting acids bound together by a glyceride molecule module. For that chemical process to take place, insulin is needed. Once the fatty acids are bound they can be stored. When you eat foods that raise your blood sugar, insulin will get secreted to combat this change. Insulins job is to keep blood
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sugar stable. If a balanced blood sugar is not maintained, your pancreas wears out. This is called Diabetes Type 2, commonly associated with obesity. In laymans terms, in the course of a week, 90% of what you eat needs to be nutritious and natural. The other 10% of the time (once to twice a week) you can enjoy something deep-fried, sugary or salty. Insulin is also the aging hormone. Alzheimers has been dubbed as Diabetes Type 3 because insulin ages the brain. The less insulin you make over your lifetime, the less you will age. Many young males believe that the best way to gain weight is to consume high carbohydrate, sugary foods, such as ice cream, lollies or chocolate bars. These high sugary foods increase the rate of aging. It also makes you more likely to be insulin-resistant when we want to be insulin-sensitive (basically we secrete less insulin to do the same job). Its not a sound way to eat. Insulin is the main factor we need to really look at in terms of controlling someones weight. Thats why things like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers will only get results reducing calories. Eat Your Way to Abs is about eating more and looking better through correct food choices. Additionally, foods that raise blood sugar will often lead to over-eating. Believe it or not, in the early 1950s, reduced calorie plans used to be called semi-starvation diets. The reason why they changed the name was because people didnt like the term semi-starvation and the marketers had a hard time selling a semi-starvation diet plan. Every time you hear someone say a calorie-controlled plan, it basically means semi-starvation diet. Dont buy into it. I dont believe we need to starve to get the body we desire, however people do it, and whats worse is that they succeed at doing it. Apparently, because they lose the weight. That supposedly makes them experts on weight loss. Anyone can lose weight by starving. Theres not much to it: Just stop eating.

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My clients dont starve. A client who I guided on the Eat Your Way to Abs plan told me after his first week: Mark, this is the most food I have eaten in a week in my life, yet I lost three kilos! This client is in his 60s. This is a perfect demonstration of what I mean when I say you dont have to starve to get the body you want. People who go on diets and starve are doing the wrong things. Thats why they fail. To train hard and recover properly, you need to eat correctly. The wisdom is in eating the right foods that have the correct hormonal effect on the body. The hormonal effect should minimise insulin secretion. Would you ever count calories? Never. Why so? For a number of reasons already stated. But another important addition is that your clients arent going to count calories and you are kidding yourself if you think they are. Trainers who work out diets in percentages clearly have no practical knowledge whatsoever; they have only read textbooks and never actually worked with real people helping them achieve real results. I would also like to go on the record and say, in all the years I have put together plans for bodybuilding contest in which I need athletes body fat as low as four per cent, I have never counted calories. Go on The Alpha Body or The Truth About Supplements and see the people Ive trained and the results they have achieved. Not once did I count a single calorie in any of them. To paraphrase Jonny Bowden, a world-renowned nutritionist, eat things that are hunted, fished, gathered and plucked. If you can succeed at getting your clients to eat things that are hunted, fished gathered and plucked instead of processed junk, and manage to
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inspire them to do it for two months, they would have changed their physiques. And you wont need to count calories. What are some key tips for females? Females are very well-read but on the wrong information. Females are exposed to so, so much misinformation and downright crap. Furthermore, companies spend millions and millions on marketing efforts to make females believe there is a faster, easier and better way that has been a secret for centuries. Its scam after scam. So when a female does finally come to see a professional, or is given advice that actually works, they can be somewhat sceptical because it sounds different. Females love to read gossip and fitness magazines filled with celebrity diets. And thats fine as long as they dont believe the rubbish they read. The unfortunate thing for a lot of females is that they believe eating less equals weight loss. The only way they know how to do it is therefore by starvation. The problem is that eventually they bomb out and crash, binge on the closet bucket of ice cream or block of chocolate and then repeat it all over again. Its simply not sustainable nor is it effective. Thats why you see females stuck in yoyo dieting patterns. In their memory, females only know one strategy for losing weight, which is either not to eat or to eat less. They cant stick to itbut its the only thing they think that gets the result desired. Its ugly, its brutal, but they succumb under pressure from the peers, boyfriend and society in general. To meet the demands of getting in shape and looking sexy becomes a priorityan uncompromising task. On the opposite spectrum you have personalities like Oprah telling women to embrace their fatness. This message has been somehow confused with embracing ones spiritual and emotional
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identities. This is why Oprah, a leader to so many millions of women, should carefully tend the image she is promoting to young females. She wants women to be empowered, and thats a noble goal we can all agree on. However there is nothing empowering about an overweight, unhealthy individual, be it a male or female. Such individuals have serious health problems. Its not a matter of self acceptanceits a matter of health! Both camps have issues. Furthermore, both camps result in or allow prevalence of serious health problems. Eating enough and eating correctly is as problematic for a female fitness competitor to an average Jane. Society has conditioned females that they should eat a certain way. But guess what? The shoulds are complete garbage. For example, most females reading this right now think low-fat yogurt is healthybut in reality, its not. Healthy option menus and healthy food products (many containing soy) have diluted what health foods really are. Now you have people going to a caf in the morning ordering a low-fat muffin and honestly believing theyre treating their bodies well. Then they walk past a guy like me, whos eating three full eggs, a steak with a quarter of an avocado and think Im eating too much fat. My question is this: Who taught you what to eat? Who told you the muffin is a healthy option? If you dig deep enough it comes back to what the food industry wants you to believe. This is a concept I discuss in my seminars. Females should be ordering a hefty steak just like their brothers, dads, husbands and boyfriends. The three worst things a woman can ever do to their health: 1. Become a vegetarian. 2. Consume a diet high in soy. 3. Buy into the low-fat nonsense. I would suggest women to either have full fat or leave it alone. The number one goal that I ask all females to achieve is to simply meet their daily protein requirement. I do not allow any questions
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until this one goal is met. This would be done in conjunction with meeting their fish oil requirement daily. What they eat the rest of the time is a work in progress. Most females will struggle to meet their daily protein requirement. They will think it is too much food, but it is not. This approach works extremely well because it shifts focus from thinking about the foods they cant or shouldnt have to the foods they have to eat. . You never want to disempower people by preaching they cant eat this or they cant eat that. The biggest thing about most clients, especially females, if you take something away from them they are going to feel disempowered. Never take anything out of their diet unless you replace it with something else. Come from the frame of mind How can I empower this person, how can they walk away and feel good about the advice I give them? What about the phrase A little bit wont hurt me? Most of the times when it comes to food choices, you have to analyse the line of thought. People are far too emotional when it comes to choosing foods because they wrap emotional meanings around healthy and unhealthy foods. Let me better explain with a story: I have a client who owns a caf. Once, a customer ordered a gluten-free sandwich and insisted that the meal should not have any dairy as they were lactose intolerant. My client replied with a No problem. Just as my client turned to leave, the customer called him. They wanted to add something to their order. Can you imagine what they ordered? Surely nothing diary-based, right? Wrong!

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At the end of all the commotion about gluten and lactose, the customer ordered a milkshake! As a good caf owner, my client alerted that milkshake had both gluten and lactose. Well a little bit doesnt hurt me, was the reply with a smile. This is unfortunately the mentality of some people. They dont get it. They think that just a little bit wont hurt them. Theyre delusional. Speaking generally, females are much worse offenders than males, or at least they have more exceptions to the health rules. You have to teach them that everything counts. Going out and eating that little bit of chocolate counts. Putting that dash of milk and teaspoon of sugar in your coffee counts. People view these behaviours as normal when they are not. Society has deemed it normal to add sugar to coffee, though sugar in refined form, the way modern society consumes, is an abnormality. Speaking from an evolutionary perspective, its not the way the human body was designed to eat. Dont be nave when dealing with your clients. Realise that they are probably eating more junk than they are telling you. Dont set down rules, get them to give you their goals and tell them how to do it. Be honest and use the equation analogy I suggested earlier. In short, challenge your clients thinking; challenge what they feel is normal to eat. What do you think is the biggest problem with what people eat? The major problem is refined sugars. This includes High Fructose Corn Syrup or HFCS (especially now because theyre marketing it as a healthy alternative to sugar! It is sugar for crying out loud!).

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I believe if we somehow boycott the selling of any refined sugar products in Australia for a month, we will see a rapid improvement in the countrys health. I would also love to see what happens economically. Most would suggest the country would suffer; however, improving the countrys health would surely improve its dividends. Thats food for thought for another time. Refined sugar is insidious because it is present in products when you wouldnt expect it to be in and in quantities you wouldnt imagine. Take an iced tea for example: people would think it is just tea. Many iced teas are loaded with sugars. Another example is tomato sauce. As a society we over-consume sugar. We grow up thinking it is OK. Take the marketing of Coke and Pepsi. Its been a part of the social fabric for at least last 50 years. I know I grew up thinking that Coke and Pepsi are as normal to drink as water. But nothing could be further from the truth. Ever tried people-watching at supermarket? Its one of my favourite pass-times. I like to see what the person next to me is buying. People have impulses towards the salty, the sugary or fatty foods. And companies love to exploit that impulse wherever possible. Why do you think there are chocolates and lollies right near the checkout in a supermarket? They know people cant resist the temptationespecially with the attitude One wont hurt me. In fact, in studies conducted on mice, researchers found the combination of sugar and fats cause strong addictions in the brain when the foods were removed. When the researchers gave the food back to the mice, they found the mice would gorge themselves.

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These tests are also done with sugar alone, and again the results say that the mice show addictive behaviours and withdrawal symptoms from sugar. In one study, after a month of sugar binging and increased dopamine levels, the mices brains developed fewer dopamine receptors and more opioid receptors. These changes are similar to those found in mice on cocaine and heroin. Note: Dopamine is the reward neurotransmitter. Its commonly associated with the pleasure system of the brain. For more information click here: Science Daily So imagine having a stick of butter dumped into caramel. Or milk chocolate, donuts, some type of ice creams, cakes, bagels, flavoured milk, cookies and types of sauces. All of these fall into this category. Although they might not be classified as addictive like substances, they all deserve the slogan once you pop you cant stop. In another study conducted on rats, researchers gave the rats an option of consuming either a water substance with sugar or a water substance with cocaine. Researchers found that the rats selected the water substance with sugar over the cocaine! Now, even though the researchers say that it should not be applied directly to humans, it does open the door to many topics of discussion.
For more information: Magalie Lenoir#, Fuschia Serre#, Lauriane Cantin, Serge H. Ahmed* University Bordeaux, France Citation: Lenoir M, Serre F, Cantin L, Ahmed SH (2007) Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward. Click here and here

Sugar does have the potential to be addictive in humans. In fact, I believe there are many millions of people around the world who are already addicted to sugar. But of course you cant diagnose that as a sicknessnot until its too late and you become obese and diabetic.

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Many people say they experience withdrawal symptoms giving up their favourite sugary treats. Though surprising to some, this is not uncommon. This is why I would conclude that refined sugar (in any form) is the biggest problem with what people eat. If we can agree, that it is indeed an addictive like substance then how can it be OK for someone struggling with weight loss or dissatisfied with their current level of physical results to even taste just a little bit? . Can the alcoholic have a bit of alcohol? No! Can you give a drug addict just a bit of drugs? No! So is it OK to give a food addict a bit of a sugary treat? NO. You know, by the time you look away, that packet of Tim Tam is as good as gone! Its just not an effective practice. So you believe sugar should play no part in your diet? A very minimal part. It does have a place in some athletes regimes. However lets not kid ourselves here. How many of us train two times a day, six days a week, anyway? If you dont train that much, consumption of sugar once a week should be enough. If we consider a cavemans diet and the way in which we were designed to eat, the only time we ate sugar in high amounts was when we were lucky enough to stumble across a beehive, and that didnt happen every day. Since the caveman era, our genes have only evolved around two per cent, yet our environment and foods have evolved tremendously. Basically, our bodies are the same, but now we have evolved far too much and carry iPhones. For a caveman, it was a rare event to ingest easy to eat sugary carbohydrate. It was not normal to have sugar every day.

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Somehow modern society managed to get it completely backwards. If you are looking for weight loss, cut the sugar and replace it with lean protein foods. Things like chocolate bars, sports drinks, soft drinks dont play a nutritional part in your diet. These foods are calorie dense but nutritionally void. You want to be eating the exact opposite: nutritional dense, calorie void foods. These foods are things like green vegetables. Consider the chemicals present in highly processed or sugary foods. Any extra chemicals you consume will make your body a less effective machine. Repercussions include slowing down both fat loss and muscle building. It will also affect your energy levels. Whats your opinion about something like a Multi Vitamin? A Multi Vitamin is highly recommended. The thing about ANY supplement is you always want to source quality. If youre going to spend money on supplements, I encourage people to always buy a good quality brand. Whats a good quality brand? There are a number of different quality brands. Generally speaking, the best products are online. Being a Biosignature practitioner, and fan of Charles Poliquin, I like his supplements which you can purchase here. In my book, The Truth About Supplements, I have a complete chapter on Multi Vitamin supplements and a table listing U.S Pharmacopeia Standards (USP) and some of the products that meet those standards. Poliquins products meet those standards too; thats why I use them. Why use vitamin supplements? I always relate supplementation to iPhones. We dont need an iPhone, but they certainly do make life easier.

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Same thing with supplements: we dont necessarily need them to survivethe human body can survive on very littlehowever if you want optimal, supplements are crucial. As society makes more and more (so-called) advancements, we see more chemicals and toxins in our environment. This means we need more than just food alone to keep us healthy. We live in a much more toxic environment compared to that fifty years ago. Some people who look at the world through a straw believe that supplements are excessive and not needed. They say things like We can get everything from food. That may have been true fifty years ago but that certainly isnt the case today. In fact I have research from the Journal of the American College of Nutrition supporting the argument that our soil has been declining in nutrients since 1936. Check it out here. Depleted soil means depleted fruits and vegetables. That, in turn means depleted animals, which means depleted humans. Supplements are therefore the societys adaption and answer to wholesome and complete nutrition. Supplement naysayers really need to understand that our soil is getting depleted. Industrial farmers use a fertiliser known as NPK. That stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. Thats three minerals out of fifty-seven. Apparently zinc, magnesium, calcium, manganese, copper, iron, cobalt, selenium, etc. just arent important. Its been estimated, that one tomato from the 1950s equals twenty tomatoes today. Not sure if that is 100% true, however it is food for thought. The only practical way to make up the nutritional deficit soil is to supplement it. Eating organic wont do it alone. As previously
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discussed, you buy organic to avoid pesticides not because its any more nutritious. If you can source organic food from a farm that uses more than three minerals, I congratulate you and hope you practise this for many years to come. However, this is the exception, for the majority (me included), supplements are just far more practical. What is a Trans-Fat and why is it so bad? To begin this topic, many health organisations promote the daily allowance for trans-fats should be less than one per cent of total caloric intake. That would translate to less than one gram a day. So if you have conservative health organisations saying this, you know it must be bad for you. The history of trans-fats goes back to 1911. Two men, William Proctor and James Gamble formed a partnership selling soaps and candles. To make both soaps and candles you need lard. At the time, the meat manufacture industry controlled the price of lard. Its comparable with petrol today: One week its a dollar a barrel, next week its two! These two savvy businessmen got sick of the meat manufactures antics. They heard of a German chemist, E.C Keyser, who found a way to restructure the cotton seed plant and make it solid. With this technology, they could now make as many candles and soaps as they liked without having to pay the meat manufactures for lard. The chemist created the first synthetic fat. Meanwhile, in a twist of events, between 1910 and 1911 the light bulb became affordable due to William David Coolidge improving the method of making the tungsten filament. This refinement finally made the light bulb costs practical. This meant the use of candles decreased which hurt business for Proctor and Gamble. Needless to say, Proctor and Gamble had invested time, money and effort into developing synthetic lard and werent just going to
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let it die. So they put their brains together and formed a company called Crisco, which we all know today as the company that makes vegetable oils. After all its a fat right? The idea why not cook with it brought the product shortening to the market. At the time it was a revolutionary product. As Criscos first ad in 1912 pointed out, You can fry fish in Crisco, and the Crisco will not absorb the fish odour! You can then use the same Crisco for frying potatoes without imparting to them the slightest fish flavour. You cant blame Proctor and Gamble. How were they to know it would have serious ramifications on human health on a global scale? They were just two guys in business. As a part of Criscos marketing strategy, they created a recipe book. The book contained recipes from lobster mornay to cookies, show casing the versatility of the product. The company evolved and started making different oils. Vegetable oil, formally known as Crisco Oil, came on to the scene in the 1960s. Today its quite common that hydrogenated oils (trans-fats) are found everywhere from your favourite fast food meal to your favourite supermarket cookie. So now you know the history. Needless to say, you would be best off avoiding these products. If youre going to use fat, make sure its not synthetic. Synthetic fats have no place in a healthy, well balanced diet. I always have to laugh at so-called experts stupidity (or sheer ignorance) when they recommend canola or vegetable oils, or to even margarine. Actually, the big laugh is on the American Dietetic Association (ADA) because they still promote such products at the same time acknowledging that trans-fats should be minimal in ones diet. The ADA has many sponsors who are supposed to be kept happy.

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To be frank, I would not look at ADA as a source of good advice or information. So why use Trans-Fats? The good thing about trans-fats is that they have a very long shelf life and theyre dirt-cheap! The very first form of trans-fatty acids was actually shortening. Now most people born after 1985 wouldnt have a clue what shortening is. But if you ask your mother (or grandmother), they will probably have shortening in the cupboard from when they were little that still hasnt gone off. From a business perspective, trans-fats and refined sugars are fantastic as they both prolong shelf-life of products. If the fruit and vegetable grower has too much stock and cant sell it in time, he loses money. But imagine if the product he was selling didnt go off? This eliminates the fear of losing money on expired stock. Thats why these unhealthy inventions exist. Firstly, to make the food industry more profitable; secondly, to cheaply feed a growing population. If you want to be healthy and in great shape, eliminate trans-fats (and refined sugars) from your diet; they do nothing for the body except make you fat and unhealthy. If I wanted to get in great shape, what are things to cut out? Again, start with trans-fats and refine carbohydrates. Then eat things that are hunted, fished, gathered & plucked, and drink only water, black coffee or green/peppermint tea. If you can tick all those boxes, then it all comes down to how lean you actually want to be and what else you need to cut out. People always expect me to say, Cut out saturated fats, but I dont think thats the real problem. The body can at least digest and utilise saturated fats. But how much?

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Thats open for a debate. Im not going to quote any numbers though I will say when choosing between low-fat products and full-fat products I would always choose the full-fat. When something is low-fat, it is high sugar which is much worse. If we take the Eskimos as an example (before western influence), we see that culturally Eskimos are much healthier and leaner than westerns. Yet they eat tremendous amounts of saturated fats! A man by the name of Vilhjalmur Stefansson spent time with the Eskimos from 1906 to 1918 confirming that they eat a diet solely of protein, fat and water and that there was not a fat individual amongst them. Later in 1930, Eugene DuBois recreated the diet with Stefansson taking blood samples whilst on the diet. What they found was improved bloods and an improved physique despite the fact that he increased his calories from 2,000 to 3,100. There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. However, essential fatty acids and essential amino acids make up the framework of a healthy body. The big fallacy is people thinking they need carbohydrates to survive. You dont. Most people overeat them believing they are being healthy when they really should be eating a steak. Is being in ketosis bad for you? No. Being in ketosis isnt bad for you provided you are a healthy person with a working pancreas. Jonny Bowdens book, Living Low Carb (highly recommended), has an excellent chapter on this topic. He tells the story of a restaurant many years ago that served dolphins. People thought the restaurant were serving dolphin the mammal, when in fact they were serving dolphin the fish which bears absolutely no resemblance to the mammal. They just had the same name. As the story goes, the restaurant simply changed the name and people no longer threw a fit whilst reading the menu.

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To get to your point, there is ketosis and there is diabetic ketoacidosis, which are two completely different conditions. One is a fine state to be in, ketosis, the other one is life threatening. If youre a diabetic and are in diabetic ketoacidosis, you are in serious trouble. People have confused the two terms. Robert Atkins (Atkins Diet) tried to change the term to lipolysis so people would stop getting confused between ketosis and diabetic ketoacidosis. It is an unfortunate thing that healthy people think ketosis is dangerous; they have just misinterpreted the terms. What advice would you give a male wanting to put on muscle? Rule number one: MEAT your protein requirement every day, no exceptions. Of course I mean meet and not meat, but that is to say, your protein requirement needs to be met with real meat, fish or chicken and not protein shakes. Shakes are just not the same. You can train hard, but if you dont back it up with protein, muscle wont grow. Many times Ive had huge success with bodybuilding clients just increasing how much protein they consume in a day. The other piece of advice I will give is to check your ego when it comes to eating. Guys who think eating a lot is eating three full eggs and a piece of toast for breakfast are kidding themselves. Below is a table of how much protein is in each food per 200 gram serving. I made this table to give to clients so they could do the math themselves.
Meat Kangaroo (Fillet) Chicken (baked) Steak (Rump) Steak, Rib-eye Steak (Sirloin) Nandos Chicken Steak Protein per 200 grams 44.2 60 63 63 47.8 44.6

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Salmon Basa Barramundi 1 Scoops of Whey Protein (35g)

41.4 32 46 31.5

Protein per 200 gram serving (Note to reader: You can download the excel version from the page you download this book.)
Meat Kangaroo (Fillet) Chicken (baked) Steak (Rump) Steak, Rib-eye Steak (Sirloin) Nandos Chicken Steak Salmon Basa Barramundi 1 scoop of Whey Protein (35g) Protein per 100 grams 22.1 30 31.5 31.5 23.9 22.3 20.7 16 23 31.5

Protein per 100 gram serving- better guide for females (Referenced from www.calorieking.com.au)

After the protein requirement is met, I monitor how much carbohydrates they consume. I alter the amounts depending on the goal and the individuals body fat percentage. So you do count the carbohydrates and protein, compared to not counting the calories? Counting carbohydrates and protein is a completely different story as compared to counting calories. You are actually counting what happens nutritionally when counting protein and carbohydrate values. With this said, I have never worked with percentages like The Zone Diet does. I just make sure that people meet their protein requirement daily first of all. Then I ensure they consume quality fish oil and meet a fibre goal. The other essential part is to drink enough water daily. Provided the above is met, they get the next level of advice. This is where I look at how much carbohydrates they are having and
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manipulate them based on their goals. The lower the carbohydrates consumed the more protein they need to have. I use that as a general rule, not one set in stone. There are some rare, carbohydrate tolerant individuals who simply need more carbohydrates. However, they are the exceptions, not the rule. I like to think of carbohydrates as a game of how much someone can get away with. You never want to needlessly take things out of a persons diet if there isnt a specific purpose. If someone can have rice or pasta at every single meal and still be at eight per cent body fat, then why not? I have two clients who are classic examples of this. If they dont eat pasta, they lose too much weight. So it can happenits just rare. Would a high protein diet be bad? No, this argument comes from people who already have an existing kidney condition, vegetarians and animal cruelty activists. Research presented about high protein diets being negative is simply not objective. The only research that you will find showing that a high protein diet is bad is in research conducted on people who already have an existing kidney condition or consuming poor quality proteins such as processed meats. If someone has an existing kidney condition then yes, they should think twice about increasing protein from what they consume and consult a specialist in that area. However, if someone has a perfectly working and healthy kidney, liver etc. then there is no reason why a high protein diet would be bad. From the research that has been conducted, there is still no evidence that says a high protein diet is dangerous. After all, its how we were designed to eat. Also, one really needs to define the term what is meant by a high protein diet. Because a vegetarian would have you believe that if

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you eat a steak a day, thats a high protein diet, when its not even close. The other caveat with a high protein diet is that you need to define the foods. In the book The China Study, Colin Campbell looked at diets with processed meats such as hot dogs and hamburgers. I dont call that a high protein diet, I call it a junk diet! (Read more about this book quoted frequently by vegans and vegetarians here.) A diet like this might be high in protein but its also very high in toxins, sodium, trans-fats, etc. You can call fried chicken a protein food, but we both know fried chicken isnt the same as skinless grilled chicken when it come to protein and health. Thats the problem with looking at the world through a straw. You see what you want to see. When I say a high protein diet or met your protein requirement I mean eating all organic meat, chicken, fish, eggs, bison, kangaroo and other game meats. Eat like a caveman or woman. Not the processed junk meats. They are no better than refined carbohydrate foods. Final thoughts THE KEY to creating change is to take responsibility for all your actions and inactions. You will never create change in your life, or in anyone elses, until you take responsibility. You need to be responsible for taking fish oils, meeting protein requirements, waking up that extra hour earlier to make food and do it with no excuses and a smile on your face. To the personal trainers: Never let any client say, I didnt lose weight because you didnt give me the right advice. You have to give them the right advice. And in personal training, you have to assess what clients are eating to some degree. People can train five or six days a week but if they are still eating junk, results simply wont follow.

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The other part is accountability. Get someone you trust to hold you accountable to the goals that you want to make a reality to ensure it gets done. I structured my Alpha Body Mentoring program purposely to offer this service at a minimal price so those that need it can take advantage. (Visit www.thealphabody.com) Finally, make one change every week and see your body as a long-term project. The biggest thing with any diet, which in French means lifestyle, is if you blame a diet for your lack of results you will never achieve anything. Take responsibility of what you choose to eat.

This recoding and ebook program is for entertainment purposes only and is not a substitute for medical or health advice; seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified professionals before altering your current diet or exercise plan.

One on One Training and Consulting: Mark is a full time trainer and Biosignature practitioner. He can be contacted for one-on-one training, training programs, Biosignature and one off brain picking sessions. Email mark@thealphabody.com For more information on training services please visit: http://maximusmark.com/melbourne-personal-training/
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