How many times have you set a goal and not achieved it, or got there then ended up falling off the wagon? Do you then stop and ask yourself why? Were you being consistent in taking the steps to get there and also after you made it there? I’m going to bet the answer is no.

What keeps you from reaching or maintaining your goal? Is it because it’s too hard? Of course it’s going to be hard! That’s the fun in getting there. If it’s something that is truely unattainable then start with a smaller goal and create a new one each time you reach it. Your journey should be a marathon not a sprint. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. Maybe you reached your goal and no longer think you need to work at it. Wrong! Once you get there the very  thing you want to do is go back to your old lifestyle. Just as before,  that will set you up for failure. This is a big downfall for people who follow fad diets (which I’m sure I’ll be writing about either here or my personal blog). Yes, you can eat a bit more, but you need to stick with your maintenance calories otherwise all your hard work will quickly fade away.

A great tool to use to help you stay true to yourself and your goals is to use a calorie counter app on your phone. When I first started getting serious about my lifestyle change I used the My Fitness Pal app. I always go in and set the numbers myself to my personal goals. With this app, you log EVERYTHING you eat so it really makes you think twice about eating that piece of candy or second helping at dinner. There are quite a few other apps you can use so I highly suggest to give them a try!

My personal goal at the moment? (more…)

1 Step Forward or 2 Steps Back?

Hello Fitastic Family!!

I hope this week and summer season has been serving you well. I’m coming at you short and sweet this week. This week we are going to focus on what direction you are moving. As we all know real goals, true goals, take time. A real goal will not happen overnight; especially if that goal is health and fitness related. It’s going to take a lot more than a few salads and a handful of trips to the gym to build the body that you want. I know sad but true.

So this week I want you to do what I did. Go to your bathroom or bedroom mirror and ask yourself out loud are you honestly taking the right steps no matter how small they may be everyday to reach your goals. Go ahead, ask the question. Then give yourself the honest answer. Truth be told my honest answer was NO! Yes, you heard right me, Wild Will himself was taking steps backward heading in the wrong direction. I wasn’t doing it because I was lazy or didn’t want to achieve my goals. I was going backward because I wasn’t focused on the prize and I wasn’t being honest with myself. I looked in the mirror and had a good long heart to heart with myself. I’m sure my wife was very confused as to why I was talking to myself in the mirror, but whatever that stuff works. It’s just you vs. you when you are talking to your reflection.

I admitted a lot of things I did not want to admit. Similar to how an addict has to say the words out loud. Hi my name is Will and I am addicted to….whatever it may be those words are freeing. Say your short comings out loud, say your addictions out loud, and admit the truth out loud to yourself right in front of yourself. I am telling you, you will feel (more…)

In the Kitchen Wild Will

Chocolate Mint Protein Ice Cream

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream. Well we can scream for all we want but if we don’t want our waistlines to expand all we can do is scream for it. I don’t know many people don’t like Ice Cream, its creamy, it’s delicious and the flavors are endless.  Ice Cream is typically reserved for “cheat” meals or as a once in while snack for those trying to live a healthy lifestyle. All that cream, sugar and fat is not greatest for our bodies to handle in mass quantities. UNTIL NOW!!! This week I bring not only healthy ice cream that tastes amazing but it has an added bonus. It only takes 3 ingredients to make! Yeah, get excited for that. Now for you clever folk out there you can take this recipe and come up with your own flavors based on the whey protein you use and the toppings you want to add in. I kept it simple but feel free go nuts, literally add some almonds as a topping.

Here We Go!

Ingredients

1 Scoop of chocolate whey protein powder

6 oz plain 0% fat Greek Yogurt (I used Chobani)

1 TSP of Mint Extract

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl; blend all ingredients till all the protein powder is gone

Place bowl uncovered in your freezer for 1 hour

Pull bowl out of freezer and mix once again

Place bowl back in the freezer for another 30 minutes

Remove bowl, mix and ENJOY!

That couldn’t be any easier!

Macros

Calories 210

Fat 1 gram

Carbs 10 grams

Protein 39 grams

Remember feel free to add your own spin. Strawberry protein for strawberry ice cream; nuts for toppings; fruit toppings and more; just be sure to add it into your macros.

Be sure to follow Fitastic on Face Book, Twitter @feelfitastic, Instagram @teamfitastic and Pinterest FeelFitastic

Protein isn’t just for “Athletes”!  Quality protein needs to be a staple in EVERYONE’S meal structure, as it’s an essential piece for human development.  It’s not just a statement- I’m going to tell you why you need these highly valuable nutrients, and then YOU make the decision to add them into your regimen.  If your beliefs allow you to eat animal based protein, focus on adding:

• Lean Beef
• Fish
• Chicken
• Eggs
• Pork

However if you have developed your eating habits on an animal friendly ecosystem, stick with more:

• Tofu
• Beans
• Nuts
• Lentils

Here are several reasons to put more emphasis on your protein intake.

1.  Thermic Effect of  Food (TEF)-  Protein is a very costly macronutrient for the body to metabolize.  Your body actually burns calories in order to digest protein.  So from a Fat Loss perspective, it only makes sense to include protein with every meal.

2.  Repairing Skeletal Muscle and Tissue-  The volume and intensity of your exercise and training creates consistent damage to the body’s muscle fiber and tendons.  Protein plays a major role in repairing the broken down tissue.

3.  The Addition of Lean Body Mass (LBM)-  Resistance training tears down the body’s muscles.  As noted, it’s important that you provide your body with the proper nutrients to rebuild itself.  Contrary to popular belief, a high-protein diet will NOT create big, bulky muscles in Women.  Females simply do not have the testosterone and hormones responsible (more…)

Hello Fitastic World,

Some of you may remember me as Fitastic’s March Athlete of the month. For those of you that didn’t catch it, my name is Heather Hayes and I am an NPC bikini athlete. Fitness has had a place in my life on and off for the past few years, but it wasn’t until January  of 2013 that I decided I really needed a change. I wanted to feel healthy, energized, and of course finally have a body I had once only dreamed of. I regularly started going to the gym, eating what I thought was “healthy”, and pulled workouts from here and there. But that just wasn’t enough. In May of that year I got into contact with my coach, Staci Boyer, and had decided I was going to take the next step, prepare for the stage. After 20 weeks of hard work and discipline I finally made it to my goal. Once I stepped off stage, I knew it was something I had fallen in love with! Here I am just over a year later with three shows under my belt and hungry for more!

Unlike some, this isn’t just about a trophy, a pro card, sponsorships, or exposure. Sure, those things are great! But for me it’s about sharing my story, my ups and downs, my successes and failures, my knowledge, and my experiences along the way. I hope that they not only inspire someone else, but that they help them pick themselves up when they’re on the brink of giving up. The fitness industry is full of some of the most supportive, positive, caring people I have ever met! Many others have helped me in more ways than they can imagine along this journey so I guess you could say this is my way to pay it forward. I hope those that I reach to will do the same.

How lucky am I to have the opportunity to be a part of the Fitastic team?! Now I can share these things with all of you and people all over the world! I hope that you will follow me as I continue on my journey to wherever this road may lead. It might be a bumpy ride at times so hold on tight!

-Hbombs

In the Kitchen with Wild Will

This week I bring you Chocolate Protein Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze. Let’s be honest who doesn’t love cupcakes? They are like little mini cakes of delight. But as we all know we must avoid a “true” cupcake most of the time to maintain a healthy lifestyle; especially during contest prep. So I bring you an alternative. True it is a not real cupcake with its flour and sugar. However when your sweet tooth starts to crave or you want to bring a healthy alternative to your backyard BBQ these cupcakes are sure to hit the spot. Enjoy!

For the Cupcake

1/2 Cup Coconut Flour

1 Scoop Chocolate Whey Protein

3 TBSP Unsweetened Coco

1-1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

3 TBSP Truvia

¾ Cup Plain 0% Fat Greek Yogurt

1/2 Cup Water

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 Cup Chocolate Almond Milk

2 TBSP Peanut Butter

You can add up to ½ more cup of whey protein if you like a thicker batter

Combine all the dry and wet ingredients into a large mixing bowl and blend.

Using a cupcake tin scoop out two spoonful’s per cupcake.

Place cupcake tin in your preset oven for 350 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Be sure to test the cupcake when brining it out the oven to make sure it has cooked through. I prefer to do this with a toothpick. Place it in the cupcake, if you (more…)

The preconceived notion is that “fat” is bad for us.  Well, that is correct and incorrect.  There are the negative altering fats and health boosting fats.  No matter what you do in your life and what your goals are, if you can harness the power of heart healthy fats into your daily regimen you will thrive!  Keeping it simple keeps our decisions sound and easy.

Starting with what to avoid- unhealthy fats.  Trans fatty acids are poison.  These fats increase the hardening of your arteries and negatively affect your metabolism.  Trans fats lurk in packaged cookies, crackers, chips and in many fast food meals- especially fried foods.  When reading a food label, be on the lookout for terms like partially hydrogenated or just hydrogenated vegetable oils.  If either is at the top of the ingredient list or listed before healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, save your money and don’t buy the product.

Saturated fat causes the build up of fatty tissue along the lining of your arteries and increase blood cholesterol levels.  Avoid or severely limit foods with these fats: red meats, full-fat dairy products, vegetable shortening and butter.  You can often identify Saturated Fats they tend to be solid at room temperature, with the exception of tropical oils.

In contrast, polyunsaturated fats are your heart healthy allies with decrease aging affects and are required for normal daily function.  Along with increasing your cholesterol profile, polyunsaturated fats assist building in cell membranes.  The two types of polyunsaturated fats: omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids help lower triglycerides.  It has been proven that omega-3s help prevent and even treat heart disease and stroke and can be mainly found in (more…)

The first unit of Fat Loss Science was the implementation of Strength Training into our daily routines to promote lean muscle development.  When you elicit the power of Strength Training in combination with the habit of the 2nd component below, you’re well on your way to achieving greater and more sustainable Fat Loss results.  If you missed the Strength Training piece, you can review it HERE.  The idea is to keep the choices and decisions we make for greater Fat Loss within our functional vehicle (our bodies), as simple and easy to transition as possible.

2nd Part to the Science of Fat Loss documentation:

Eating Habits commonly referred to as “Diet“- by eating nutrient dense foods (lean protein, heart healthy omega’s, whole grain, etc.) every three hour, generally speaking, our bodies will ignite the burning of fat; it is the thermogenic effect of food.  The thermic effect of food is the caloric cost of digesting and processing different macronutrients in your diet.  This results in an instigation of metabolic increase and will fuel your body to burn fat up to 24 hours a day (in combination with the first component of Strength Training).  Processing protein requires the greatest expenditure of energy, with estimates ranging as high as 30%. Dietary fat, on the other hand, is not as easily processed and turns into body fat causing only 2 or 3% of calories burned through processing. The amount of energy required to process carbohydrates falls between that of protein and fat. It is essential to take in protein as it is also the building block of muscle. Eating pre and post workout is an essential factor too, our bodies need (more…)

Motivated by Hate? Um…What?

This week’s blog isn’t so much of a focus on what I am currently doing for my training but more of what is motivating me; better yet what is not motivating me.

Nope. Wrong. Foolish.

Let’s do a little experiment, stop reading and hop on Instagram right now. Click on any “fitness celebrities” page. Scroll down for no less than one minute. I bet money you will see a meme of some kind saying this stupid phrase “Haters are my motivators”.  You may now be asking well Why Wild Will? Isn’t it better to turn a negative into a positive? Also Wild Will didn’t you write about that in your 1^st blog; that you were motivated by a guy that “hated” on you?  All valid questions.

Let’s start with the concept that you are motivated by hate. That someone hates you so you are going to take that hate and reach your goal because of their hate. What is that? Why does it take someone to hate you to reach your goals? Think about it, think about the statement that “haters are motivators” first who are these “haters” what does that even mean. The real question you should be asking is why so many people hate you? Everyone needs motivation. So why are you trying to find it through hate? If everyone around you hates on you for what you are doing you should really get a new group of friends. Or better yet, are you asking for the hate? You see a lot of this “hate” on Instagram like I said above. Typically on the profiles that have a lot of selfie love and no real actual health and fitness content aside from an #eatcleantraindiry hastag.

Real quick let me explain that there is a clear difference between ab shots/selfies and actual motivation. For example progress pics, transformation pics, exercise pics (to demonstrate a move), professional modeling shots. These are actual motivational pictures; show a transformation or a progression is a great way to show people out there the true process. You will see these in real people’s profiles. True fitness celebrities like (more…)

Aspired by many but built by few, the biceps are the quintessential show-off muscle. Interestingly enough they are often focused on more than triceps and over trained in the process.  You can easily find yourself adding sets, including too many volume techniques and over doing it on your relentless quest for bigger guns.
Normally barbell curls, dumbbell curls and some sort of one-arm concentration curl make up a typical routine. Too often we kill our arms with countless sets and too many intensity techniques, driving our sought-after gains into the ground. How do you improve on that? What can be changed to help you reach your goals?

Try a few alternatives to shake up the routine to illicit development and growth:

1.)  Go 30% to 40% lighter in weight than you normally do (you know what I’m talking about, your bicep lifting weight typically increases with your ego- ha). Take real focus to the isolation of each repetition movement- no momentum, no swinging your arms, voluntarily contract each rep to feel the proverbial “burn”. You’ll be surprised that you may only be able to complete the same rep range as you do with your normal weight, but your muscle tissue will be feeling much differently.
2.)  Apply a Time Density strategy. Pick any bicep exercise and a specific amount of time. Start with a low number like five minutes if you are new to this type of training. You can slowly increase your (more…)