Spot reduction is a Myth !!!!

A lot of people come to me and ask what kind of abdominal exercise can they do to get rid of belly fat? My answer is always the same : " doing sit ups and crunches all day long won't help you get rid of belly fat " for couple of reasons, first of all spot reduction is a myth, second of all six packs are made in the kitchen and last but most importantly the bodies fat distribution depends on the hormones and getting rid of it depends on the hormones as well.
I will try to explain it real simple in a nutshell here how our hormones makes us accumulate belly fat. I am not an expert in hormones or not a doctor or anything just had my own weight problems for many years and did a lot of reading and studying to figure it out how to permanently loss weight and keep it off as well. I didn't wanted a quick fix, I wanted something that works on the long run and it's sustainable and healthy. It took me a long time until I figured out how to do it and I will share it with you now.
So lets go back to the basics and talk about why the body accumulates body fat mainly around our wast and why is that dangerous. Couple of reasons you have all or most of your body fat around your belly is: insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome , high blood sugar, impaired glucose metabolism, adrenal fatigue to mention a few and the danger is that it's not just around your waist but all around your organs as well.
Hormones that control your metabolism, appetite  and body fat distribution are: thyroid hormone, insulin, cortisol, gherlin and leptin, estrogen and testosterone.
Extra belly fat can indicate one or more of the following hormonal imbalances: high estrogen, low testosterone, low DHEA (a hormone of the adrenal glands), high insulin and high cortisol. 
Belly fat is a sing of estrogen dominance especial in woman, high cortisol and high insulin go hand in hand and they are catabolic hormones meaning that when they are high your body is storing fat and breaking down muscle. Testosterone is a growth hormone manly for mean but women have it, too only a lot less than man and it is an anabolic hormone meaning that when it is high your body is braking down fat and building muscle. The problem is that in todays word both woman and man have high levels of estrogen, insulin and cortisol and low levels of testosterone. Belly fat in a man indicate low testosterone and high cortisol. 
So now lets see how to balance our hormones to lose the belly fat and save ourself from diabetes, heart disease and other health issues.
First thing to do is, change your diet, remember " six pack are made in the  kitchen ", SUGAR has to go, refined and artificial and even natural if you have impaired glucose metabolism like I do. Grains has to go and all the junk made from them, hydrogenated oils has to go as well , all the junk , artificial coloring and all the man made chemical the has nothing to do in our diet.
Start eating good fats, every hormone in our body is made from cholesterol, in order to balance our hormones we have to eat lots of good fats like bacon and eggs, avocados, lard, coconut oil, butter and anything we have been told not to. We see what the low fat diet did to us, now lets focus on fixing it.
Second most important thing is a good night sleep, yes very important, if you can't change your diet but you fix your sleep everything  will get better. 8-9 hours of quality sleep is necessary possibly from 10 pm until 6-7 in the morning at least. 
 Last thing to do is stress management, you have to fix your cortisol levels, meditate or anything that helps to relax. 
Exercise helps to balance your hormones as well, so I am not telling you not to exercise, contrary you should exercise on a regular basis and workout your whole body not just some parts of it, in order to keep you muscles in balance as well.

Suns out, buns out !! Training the glutes the right way for the right reasons !!

Who wouldn't like to have a nice and round back side for the summer or for the whole year or for the rest of your life. 

The gluteus muscles includes the gluteus maximum, medius and minimus and are one of the biggest, strongest and most functional muscle in human body.  We want them big, round and hard, boys and girls, old and young. 

The gluteus muscles does hip extension, abductions and adductions  among other things and  has many function,  from moving us around all day long to aiding in posture and helps to hold the upper body straight, stabilizing the hip. It's a mover and a stabilizer at the same time. Sitting a lot on it doesn't do much good to it, it wasn't made for that, actually makes it weak and lazy. An other thing that sitting does it gives us short hip flexors and the shorter and stronger are the hip flexors the longer and weaker are the glutes. The short and tight hip flexors are pulling us forward and the weak glutes can't  counter balance in the back and hold up straight. 

So why we need to train our back side to be nice round and strong beside aesthetics's is function, our every day mobility and posture depends on it. 

Because the lot of sitting we do on a daily bases, many people can't even contract their glute muscles, not just because of weakness in the muscles but because they don't have the neural pathway to do it, in other words their brain doesn't know how to do it. If you don't use it, you loose it!! 

First thing you have to do is to learn how to do standing body weight hip extensions, abductions and adductiones, floor bridges or ball bridges. After mastering these exercises and making sure that our brain knows what to do and how to contract the glute muscles we can progress to cable hip extensions, abductions, adductiones and maybe sg leg ball hip extensions, this is more challenging but can be done. From here we can go to squats and lunges, step ups and split squats with body weight and then adding weights to it and than progressing to hip trusts with heavy weights for strength. And that is how you get the nice and round back side with a lot of function and strength-:)))

Exercise videos:

 Strengthening the glutes and stretching the hip flexor at the same time.

Swiss ball bridge or hip extension.

Standing hip extension, adduction and abduction.

Cable hip extension, abduction and adduction.

Sg leg swiss ball hip extension.

                                         Staples of my diet.


A lot of people ask me how can I eat that much fat, what kind of fat and how without the bread. Well, I am not saying that anybody can do it the way I can or anybody should do it the way I do it. I am a firm believer that we are all different and there is no one diet fits all kind of diet. There are foods that are good to everybody like leafy green vegetables and there are foods that are bad for everybody like  refined sugars and carbs but there is a great range of variations in between this two side and everybody has to find what works for him/her. 
That is what I did, tried out a lot of different foods and diets, become a vegetarian just to see how is it for me, to be able to have an opinion about it, did a lot of reading and research of my own and then tried out things and put it in practice. It took me a lot of time until I figured out what works and what doesn't, it was a trial and error process but  finally found a diet the keeps me happy and healthy, easy to maintain,  not time consuming, don't feel hungry any more so I don't have to eat often and especially don't have to worry about what to eat if I am out in the city all day long, because a good breakfast keeps me going until late afternoon. I am not suggesting or saying that this diet works for everybody, because as I sad before we are all different and one mans medicine is an other man's poison, but if you are open minded and willing to try out new things and especially willing to give up old believes that can't leave without bread or cookies or pizza  :-)) you might get surprised and might save yourself from a lot of health issues.
Some people can eat more carbs, some people can eat more meat and some people can eat lot's of fats, like me. It took me literally no time to adopt to the high fat, ketogenic diet, without any difficulty or side effects, didn't even had the keto flu. I started from an already low carb diet, but nowhere near as low as I am now. My body adopted to this high fat diet like this would be and actually this is the most natural and normal thing on the world for me.
So in a nutshell here is the staples of my diet, will try to list everything I eat on a daily bases and everything I eat once in a while.
Let's start with the fats, because that is the base of my diet. I only eat healthy, good fats, never ever hydrogenated oil or margarine or anything low fat or fat free.

 The ratios are:

65-75% fats
10-15% proteins
5-10% carbs

Here is a list of good fats that I eat:

bacon
lard
butter
milk fat
heavy cream
bone marrow and bone broth 
pork rinds 
extra virgin olive oil
extra virgin coconut oil
avocado oil
avocados
MCT oil
flaxseed oil
home made mayo 
olives
fermented cod liver oil butter ( as a supplement and the only one that I take )
nuts and seeds
coconut butter
cocoa butter 

Proteins with moderation and always antibiotic and hormone free, free range and grass fed if possible from the local farmers.

chicken 
grass fed beef
pork
lamb
wild alaskan salmon
sardines
 shrimps ( once in a while)
chicken and beef  liver
eggs
raw cheese mostly
plain full fat yoghurt ( once in a while)

Carbohydrates:

leafy green vegetables
garlic and onions
mushrooms occasionally 
 home made sauerkraut 
frozen or fresh berries 
apples or other fruits
almond flour ( once in a while)
dark chocolate 85% ( once in a while)
seaweeds
cacao nibs

Condiments:

pink himalayan sea salt 
black pepper 
 raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar 
all kinds of fresh and dried herbs 
paprika
turmeric 
 fresh ginger
cinnamon 

Drinks:

water most of the time
tea
bullet proof tea
home made kombucha tea occasionally 

And that is about it, no protein shakes, no energy bars, no pre or post workout stuff, nothing just food, mostly fats not to much meat and very little carbs.

On a low carb diet your body is not retaining water so you are losing sodium and magnesium, make sure you eat enough good quality himalayan pink salt ( this is very high in minerals, the best salt ever) and supplement magnesium , I do it in Epsom salt bath or magnesium spray form not taking tablets.  

Here are the picture about the meals to prove that I do what I preach :-)))


 All these meals are made from fresh ingredients and 30 min or under except the bone broth and the pork jello, those needs to be slow cooked for 6-7 hours.

Egg salad with home made mayo and olives, this is a breakfast to go sometimes :-))

Pork rinds with red onions for breakfast or dinner.

Bone broth with bone marrow. 

Chicken with spinach and cilantro pesto, lunch or dinner.

Chicken liver with sautéed spinach in lard, for dinner.

This is the MCT oil I take 3-5 tbs a day or ad it into the bullet proof tea or the high fat pudding.

Favorite breakfast, Transylvanian style bacon with eggs and my home made sauerkraut.

Grass fed burger with a big green salad and shiitake mushrooms for dinner or lunch.

My bullet proof tea, double dark chocolate yerba mate tea with butter, heavy cream and MCT oil.

Pork belly with big mixed great salad for dinner or lunch.

To go  meal, plain full fat yoghurt with frozen berries, MCT oil and flaxseeds.

Snack, olive oil seaweed, I eat this because of my iodine deficiency 

Poached eggs with salmon, avocados and cucumber for breakfast.

 This is the best Thai coconut soup I ever eat made from home made bone broth with shrimps, for lunch.

Beef liver with green salad and cilantro pesto for dinner.

This is my "in case of emergency" food if I am close to a Whole Foods and hungry.

An other meal to go, egg salad with home made mayo and salmons and bullet proof tea.

Sausage cooked in lard from the farmers market, pork rinds and ramson( bear garlic) salad for dinner.

My home made pork rinds.

Home made leaf lard made by me, use it for cooking.

And here is a sandwich from cucumber and home made chicken liver pate.

Grass fed beef with bone marrow in it with ramson salad for dinner.

My high fat carb loaded lunch to go for after workouts carb loading :-))) Heavy cream with frozen cherries, MCT oil, flaxseeds and cacao nibs.

Chorizo with a big green salad for dinner.

Farmers Market goodies :-)))

The only supplement I take, fermented cod liver oil butter.

The salt I use.

My home made pork jello.

 Best beef stew with a huge green salad :-)))for dinner.

Arugula salad with red onions and wild alaskan salmon for breakfast.

Almond flour and egg whites tortilla with mayo and sardines for breakfast.

Almond flour quesadilla with scrambled eggs and olives for breakfast.

Hard boiled eggs with wild alaskan salmon, cream cheese, olives and arugula salad for breakfast.

Beef liver with butter and sautéed brussels sprouts for dinner.

High fat pudding with heavy cream, frozen cherries, MCT oil, flaxseeds and cacao powder.

The making of cilantro pesto.

Home made cilantro pesto.

My home made pork jello with red Hungarian paprika and apple cider vinegar for dinner.

My home made kombucha.

Transylvanian style bacon with onions for dinner or breakfast.

Arugula salad with wild alaskan salmon and cream fraiche for dinner or breakfast.

Egg muffins with avocado, veggies and bacon inside :-))

My home made chicken liver pate, most of the time a to go meal.

Transylvanian style bacon with red onion and  raw goat cheese for dinner.

Beef liver with sautéed spinach in butter for dinner.

My home made sauerkraut.

Bacon and eggs, spinach and almond flour quesadilla for breakfast.

Drumsticks with sautéed green beans and cream fraiche.

Ground beef with sauerkraut, bacon bites and heavy cream for lunch.