Josh Perez Fitness

With whey protein, creatine, nitric oxide, and BCAA’s your probably obsessed with building muscle, and you’ve probably taken each of these muscle building supplements. They are cost effective, and help you to train stronger, longer and to look better. But I want to ask you a question:

How often do you consider your overall health?

Sure, you eat right and train hard. You are healthy. No doubt about that. But are you as healthy as you could be? I know, I know. I am starting to sound confusing. Let me explain what I mean.

A Muscle Building Supplement Story

I have been training for over two decades. During this time I was obsessed with muscle building supplements. I wanted the best whey protein, and the latest research on creatine. I wanted to know what supplements would boost my testesterone and growth hormone levels.

But I never thought about the basics…supplements for overall health. Supplements that I should be taking, but wasn’t. Supplements like a quality multivitamin, a supplement for joint health and essential healthy fats (fish oil and flax seed oil). I was trying to build muscle, but wasn’t giving my body 100% of the necessary building blocks to function properly on all levels.

You see, nutrition and muscle building is easy. You need to start from the ground up. First, you begin with supplements for overall health. Supplements that provide ALL the necessary vitamins and minerals you need to pack on mass. Supplements like fish oil that assist with proper heart and brain functioning.

Then, once you have prepared a healthy foundation, it’s time to add the muscle building supplements. But I had this all wrong. More than that – I was ignoring the basics. I was trying to run a muscle car using the worst possible fuel.

Muscle building is an exciting and life changing process, but it is also hard on the body. Major changes are taking place. You are lifting heavy weights, tearing down muscles over and over again, rebuilding them stronger each time. If you don’t provide you body with the basics, as you age, you are opening the door for your body to break down.

This is exactly what I had been doing. Years passed by, and slowly – despite my training and diet – my age started to catch up with me. I wasn’t feeling like my old self. I had less energy, and more aches and pains. And I didn’t feel mentally alert and aware.

Supplements for General Health

Don’t be like me. Don’t ignore the small stuff. Make sure you focus on supplementing with the basics. Here are some supplement “basics” I strongly recommend you consider:

A Multivitamin:
Not just any multivitamin. A quality multivitamin. And along with this, I would also recommend supplementing with some addition Vitamin C. The vitamin requirements of anyone who partakes in intense training is higher than a sedentary person. Training depletes vitamin stores in the body. These stores need to be replaced to allow for optimum energy levels and recovery times.

A good multivitamin product will fill in all the "holes" in your diet. The multivitamins listed here are designed for athletes, bodybuilders and anyone who trains hard. A good multivitamin is often one of the supplements that’s overlooked, but is one of the most important. What’s the point of having a good diet and training program without backing it up with a solid multivitamin?

Fish Oil:
Fish oil, or healthy essential fatty acids, should be a staple for anyone that trains hard. Healthy oils and essential fatty acids are well known for improving overall health, vitality and brain function. But healthy oils also play an important role in muscle building and fat loss. A Danish study  proved that supplementing with the correct ratio of essential fats can increase stamina, improve muscle development, speed recovery and improve cardiovascular function.

Joint Health Supplement:
Muscles aren’t the only thing in the body that takes a beating from hard, intense cardiovascular and weight training. Every time you train with weights, go for a run, or play sport you’re putting your joints under pressure. Weight training is especially hard on the joints! To get the most out of your training schedule and protect yourself from joint injuries you need to take care of your joints. Joint health supplements can help protect your joints from damage, and help you recover from a joint injury.

Thanks to Muscle & Strength for providing the article!

Follow me on Twitter JoshPerezFitness! Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

Fat loss supplements are a very popular and effective way to burn fat. But did you know you can amplify the benefits of a fat loss supplement by doing a few simple things? You sure can! This article will provide some tips on how to maximize your fat loss while taking a fat burner or fat loss supplement.

Before we dive into the tips, let’s take a brief look at 4 common fat loss supplement categories:

• Thermogenic Fat Burners
• Stimulant-Free Thermogenics
• Appetite Suppressants
• Thyroid Regulators

Thermogenic fat burners are designed to raise your body temperature, your metabolic rate and the amount of calories you burn. This means you will burn more calories during the day, even when resting. Stimulant-Free thermogenics fat burners are designed to provide amazing results for those who prefer to steer clear of stimulants.

Appetite suppressants help you to feel full, and to reduce hunger. Since you won’t be craving food, it becomes easier to lose weight. The last category of fat loss supplements is thyroid regulators. A thyroid regulator helps you to achieve consistent and proper thyroid functioning, and allows the body to burn fat properly.

Tip 1: Eat Your Protein

You don’t need to be a bodybuilder to benefit from additional protein consumption and supplementation. Protein is the most thermogenic macronutrient. It requires more energy to process protein than it does carbohydrates or fats. Therefore, protein is nature’s fat burner of choice.

By eating a larger percentage of your calories from high protein foods, you will burn more fat, and assist your body in retaining lean muscle mass while dieting.

Muscle mass also helps you to burn fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body will require each day. Muscle mass provides a natural boost to your metabolism, so the more you have, the easier it becomes to burn fat.

Protein supplements such as whey protein powder, casein protein powder, protein bars and meal replacements can assist you in making sure you eat enough daily protein.

Tip 2: Get Stronger

We have already discovered that muscle helps you to burn fat. But how do you build muscle? How do you train to hold on to as much muscle as possible while dieting? The answer is simple…train to get stronger.

Push yourself on every set of every workout. Try for more reps, and add weight when you can. By doing this, you are encouraging your body to hold on to as much muscle as possible; you are giving your body a reason to burn fat instead of muscle.

Many people make the mistake of training with light weight and high reps when they are attempting to lose fat. By using lighter weights, you are telling your body I no longer need all of my muscle, so it’s ok to burn it as an energy source.

Training for strength does not require you to train like a powerlifter. Simply continue to use your current workout plan, and work hard to push yourself.

Supplements such as creatine, BCAAs, and glutamine can help you to maintain as much strength as possible while cutting fat.

Top 3: Use a Pre-Workout Supplement

Training while on a diet is not always easy. There are days in which you will feel tired or unmotivated. We’ve all been in this position, and know that one missed workout can often lead to another, and another. When you start missing workouts, it’s easy to say I quit…let me start again next week or month.

Pre-workout supplements are designed to give you nutrients to enhance your workouts. Increased blood flow, better mental focus, enhanced muscle pumps and increased energy are just some of the reasons why more people are using pre-workout supplements. One of the most common and popular pre-workout ingredients is nitric oxide.

A pre-workout supplement allows you to train longer, stronger, and with more energy. Simply stated, a pre-workout supplement functions in a synergistic manner with your fat loss supplement, and with your aggressive training approach, amplifying your efforts and maximizing fat loss.

Tip 4: Eat Your Healthy Fats

There is a deep rooted myth in dieting that eating fat makes you fat. The reality is that fats do not make you fat. Only eating too many daily calories can make you fat.

Most of us have packed on extra weight because we ate too many white poisons – sugar and flour-based foods. It’s not the fat that caused your bulging waist line. It was the cookies, donuts, sodas and chips.

Now that you are eating healthy and dieting, do not avoid healthy fats. Your body needs healthy fats to function properly, and without them you actually make it more difficult to lose weight.

Supplementing with fish oil, flax seed oil and other essential fatty acids (EFAs) can help to insure that you are eating enough daily healthy fats while on a limited calorie diet.

Follow me on Twitter JoshPerezFitness! Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

Compare The Top 5 Diet Plans For 2010

According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s report obesity is responsible for 300,000 adult deaths in the United States each year and are attributable to unhealthy dietary habits and physical inactivity. Therefore you need a specific plan of attack to understand what your body needs to eat. Your eating habits and proper percentages of carbohydrates, proteins and fats are unique as having your own “thumbprint.” That’s why online dieting is becoming the most effective and efficient method of getting introduced to a diet that works for you. I’ve reviewed all the major dieting sites targeted for the U.S. population. I welcome you to read all the reviews on this site and make your own decision. A great dieting service will not only give you a very comfortable and enjoyable experience, it will also increase your success in finding the results you need.

Below are the 5 of the best, reliable, and affordable diet plans ranked according to the number of people who sign up, customer service reviews, online features, and maximum weight loss in the shortest amount of time. Follow our links to visit the sites we recommend and read a more in-depth review of each diet site. Are you ready to have your body back?

The title is self explanatory but here are the top 10 ways to destroy your diet:

1. Overeating away from home: Eating out poses a special challenge when calorie counting because restaurant portions are overgenerous; your best bet is to drink more water to fill you up and ask for a to-go box and put half your order away before you start eating. You can always save the rest for later.
2. Not reading labels: The most important number you need to pay attention to is the serving size, and fat grams. It’s easy to eat too much if you aren’t aware of how many servings are in a bottle or box and you consume the whole package, thinking it’s a single serving.
3. Eating too fast: If you eat quickly, your brain won’t get the message that you are full in time. Take your sweet little time and enjoy your meal.
4. Denying yourself your favorite foods: Be it chocolate, bacon, soda or french fries totally banning a favorite “unhealthy” food from your diet sets you up for temptation. Instead, use your calorie-counting skills to build in a small indulgence now and again.
5. Guilt over mistakes: If you are out with friends and get talked into dessert, don’t beat yourself up, over the smallest portion. Even if you did enjoy your indulgence, put it in perspective — it’s just one mistake compared to all your good diet choices yesterday, today, and the ones you’ll make tomorrow. If worst comes to worst, put in some extra time at the gym to compensate.
6. Putting too much “weight” on the scale: Hanging all your feelings of success on the numbers on the scale can be a diet disaster. You should only weigh yourself once every 2 weeks. Tracking other short-term health goals, such as eating more veggies, walking daily, or drinking water instead of soda, that will give you a sense of accomplishment and reward.
7. Not exercising enough: Even if you could achieve your diet goals by calorie counting alone, you would be more successful (and healthier) if you were physically active. Remember by working out, you create more of a caloric deficit which in turn will burn more calories from fat.
8. Eating in response to sadness, boredom, or stress: This wrecks your calorie counting for at least one day. When you become aware of your urge to eat in response to emotions instead of hunger pains, find something else to do that will distract you for 10 or 15 minutes, such as taking a walk, shopping, or googling obese images.
9. Thinking of your diet as a diet: There is diet fatigue if you go on a diet because most people want instant gratification. Most people can stay on a diet about three months and then they are done with it because they can’t stand it. Instead, focus on making healthy lifestyle and nutrition choices that you can live with for a long time.
10. Letting one mistake start you on a downward spiral: If you make a mistake, admit it, forgive yourself, and get back on track right away.

So now you know the top 10 ways to destroy your diet – hopefully you should be able to avoid them! To find the best diet that will work for you, read my comprehensive diet reviews of todays top mainstream diets that will get you results and hold you accountable.

Follow me on Twitter JoshPerezFitness! Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

Your body uses vitamins for a variety of biological processes, including growth, digestion, and nerve function. There are 13 vitamins that the body absolutely needs: vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and the B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folate). AAFP cites two categories of vitamins.

Water-soluble vitamins are easily absorbed by the body, which doesn’t store large amounts. The kidneys remove those vitamins that are not needed. Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed into the body with the use of bile acids, which are fluids used to absorb fat. The body stores these for use as needed.

How Vitamins are Regulated

Vitamin products are regulated by FDA as “Dietary Supplements.” The law defines dietary supplements, in part, as products taken by mouth that contain a “dietary ingredient” intended to supplement the diet.

Listed in the “dietary ingredient” category are not only vitamins, but minerals, botanicals products, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, microbial probiotics, and metabolites. Dietary supplements can also be extracts or concentrates, and may be found in many forms. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 requires that all such products be labeled as dietary supplements.

In June 2007, FDA established dietary supplement “current Good Manufacturing Practice” (cGMP) regulations requiring that manufacturers evaluate their products through testing identity, purity, strength, and composition.

Fat-soluble Vitamins

• A (retinol, retinal, retinoic acid): Nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, clumsiness, birth defects, liver problems, possible risk of osteoporosis. You may be at greater risk of these effects if you drink high amounts of alcohol or you have liver problems, high cholesterol levels or don’t get enough protein.
• D (calciferol): Nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation, weakness, weight loss, confusion, heart rhythm problems, deposits of calcium and phosphate in soft tissues. If you take blood thinners, talk to your doctor before taking vitamin E or vitamin K pills.

Water-soluble Vitamins

• B-3 (niacin): flushing, redness of the skin, upset stomach.
• B-6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine): Nerve damage to the limbs, which may cause numbness, trouble walking, and pain.
• C (ascorbic acid): Upset stomach, kidney stones, increased iron absorption.
  Folic Acid (folate): High levels may, especially in older adults, hide signs of B-12 deficiency, a condition that can cause nerve damage.

Taking too much of a vitamin can also cause problems with some medical tests or interfere with how some drugs work.

Follow me on Twitter JoshPerezFitness! Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.