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How to prevent cravings and promote weight loss

produced by john c ashworth

How to prevent cravings and promote weight loss
john c ashworth in the Silverstone home gym.
virtual coaching with john c ashworth
Click here for virtual coaching powered by the fitness nomad…

I’ve been working hard over the winter during the pandemic to re-create my fitness nomad fit for life training system right here on the ash flash. You can get early access to this program once completed by subscribing to the ash flash.

Below I’ve included a small photo of a meal I ate yesterday for lunch. It’s not pretty, but it has that lean peace of chicken I used as an example in the video above, along with some freshly roasted potatoes, a salad with pepitas and a few cubes of cheese and parmesan and catina dressing, with a nice glass of almond milk. Not included in the photo is the couple dozen chips I couldn’t resist while I was preparing the meal. It was Saturday, and I had just finished the yard work, and I was famished. Just wanted to get that in there for full disclosure, because that’s why I’m not leaner. Too much extra snacking. A lifelong habit that I’m working to correct in my 50s now.

Nutrition can be tricky because there are just so many ways to combine all the variables and there are now so many different ways that varying experts recommend we eat. So, in general, I don’t dole out much nutrition advice anymore other than the common sense stuff. Once again, and as always, I focus on the science, and what we truly know, and then I encourage you to figure it out on your own and be honest with yourself about how you’re really eating.

Stay away from simple carbs and junk food. Stop drinking so much alcohol. Don’t overeat. Focus on whole foods and stay away from too much red meat. Keep a food journal and increase your awareness about what you’re truly taking-in and read the books I recommend on nutrition. They will help you gain perspective and a better understanding of how to nourish yourself in a more healthful way.

Also, cook as much of our own food as possible. Most people, I’ve found, could start here, along with eliminating the junk food and alcohol and make terrific progress.

-John

whole foods health lunch 1
my saturday lunch with leftover grilled chicken, homemade roasted potatoes, salad, a little cheese and my favorite almond milk. -John
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Is your sales pitch missing this important message?

written by john c ashworth

If you are unable to quickly, easily and comfortably communicate the fundamental reason why people or organizations would choose to do business with you and you company above all other options, including doing nothing, you will likely have a very serious problem when prospecting for customers.

In fact, you might not ever even get your foot in the door..

Here’s a quick sales pitch formula to help you get started.

“We assist our _______[clients or customers] in the _______ [industry/business] to _______(what you help them do). We do this by _______[what do you help them do? what problems do you solve for your customers?].”

Don’t cheat this work. I know it sounds simple. Too simple, even.

But it’s not.

As soon as you begin working through this as it relates to your products and services and your company, you will see what I mean. If you haven’t answered other key sales and marketing questions about your business, you will have to go back and do that first, before you can get to this.

This process forces you to consider four very important questions about your business. Questions that I’m sure you’ve thought of at some point or another, but that I know first hand, most small business owners and salespeople don’t spend nearly enought time curating and clarifying so that they can truly hone their efforts.

I’m going through this again in my own work right now so I’m also speaking from very personal and timely experience.

Especially in light of everything that has changed over the last year and a half, it is time to reflect on how you, your work, and your business have changed in an effort to adapt to your customers and the marketplace.

What can you do differently?

How can you craft a killer unique selling proposition? (USP)

Here are those four quick questions that will help get you started.

  1. Dou you work with individuals, organizations, enterprises, associations, or governments?
  2. What industry or industry segment do you specialize in? What segment? What market? What type of business? “…OK, I know, that’s really a few questions in one, but they’re all related.”
  3. How do you assist your customers?
  4. How do you assist your customers?

OK, time to get to work.

-John

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The Amazing Benefits of Strength Training

john c ashworth benefits of strength training 041821

written by john c ashworth

…be sure to listen to this related podcast: How to maintain a strong metabolism as YOU age.

podcast produced by john c ashworth, aka the fitness nomad

I remember when I first discovered the true and immediate transformation that one exercise session has on your physiology. I mean for 72 hours or so, you become a completely different human being.

Your blood sugar stabilizes. Your bad cholesterol goes down and your good cholesterol goes up.

You rid yourself of cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine. The stress chemicals that seep into you and your soul each and every time you experience even just a little bit of stress. Cortisol in particular can be devastating because it promotes storage of extra fat in your belly, where it can more easily go to work on wreaking havoc for your blood sugar and arteries.

Exercise is simply amazing in its ability to produce an immediate elixir to this cascade of calamity in your blood and body.

Exercise in the form of strength training is even more powerful on its own and that’s what I plan to cover in this series of posts.

Let’s start today with a simple list of strength training benefits and that way as I add more of the story for each, you can check back to this post and click the live links to further explanation and elaboration.
  • rebuilding muscle
  • recharging metabolism
  • reducing fat
  • reducing resting blood pressure
  • improving blood lipip profiles (your cholesterol)
  • enhancing post coronary performance – after a heart attack or some other ishemic or disease event related to your heart directly
  • reisting diabetes – by helping stablizize your blood sugar by demanding more from your muscles and body
  • increasing bone density
  • decreasing physical discomfort – strength training is terrific for your joints, as one example
  • enhancing mental health
  • revitalizing muscle cells – which means more of you is alive and well and working and thriving
  • Reversing physical frailty
  • combating cancer
  • enhanced athletic performance from your tennis and golf games to whatever it is you like to do to release your inner bohemian athlete

Take a quick second right now to bookmark this post. I’m committed to this list and have been excited to start this series of posts for quite some time now. I’m only one nomad, so I can’t get to everything at once 🙂

Before I go, I do want to leave you with a quick thought or two about how strength training helps you stay leaner over the years. Especially when you’re over 50. And again, that podcast I keep mentioning is a good one. I’ll just include it again here too…

podcast produced by john c ashworth, aka the fitness nomad

The science on the subject shows us the critical cause-and-affect relationship between muscle loss and fat gain. You can refer back to the podcast I did on this subject if you like. I always like to clearly emphasize this point when discussing the benefits of strength training because on the surface, the numbers don’t seem that devastating, but when you dive into the details, you will see that the muscle you lose each decade is one of the primary things working against you when it comes to staying leaner as you age.

Unless you perform some type of muscle strengthening activity, you will lose about 5 pounds (2.3 kg) of lean (muscle) weight every decade of adult life (Frontera et al. 2000). This reduced your resting metabolic rate by 3% per decade (Keys et al. 1973).

This reduced the number of calories you burn each day whether you are exercising or not, and causes your body to store more of those unburned calories as fat.

Remember, resting metabolism accounts for approximately 70 percent of the calories used every day, as such, metabolic slowdown is a major factor in fat gain during aging (Wolfe 2006).

A great article I found along the way. This research was led by one of my favorite long-time scientists for strength training, Wayne Westcott, PhD.

Resistance Training is Medicine: Effects of Strength Training on Health