Those of you that know me, know that I am a man of science and WILL NOT attach my name and reputation to just anything. They have gone through the extra effort of becoming GMP certified. GMP means Good Manufacturing Practices. Nutritional supplements are not FDA regulated. In the absence of that, a GMP certification with third party auditors ensures inspections of dietary supplement manufacturing facilities to determine whether specified performance standards on a number of measures—including quality control, cleanliness, receiving and testing of raw materials—are being met.

All of the ingredients are something I feel comfortable ingesting, myself. In fact, they don’t use artificial sweetners (aspartame) which make other supplements like workout shakes taste crappy. They use Stevia which is a non-caloric sweetner which also has a nutritional content and contains fiber. And there aren’t any strange herbs or anything. It’s very good stuff. Just good old fashioned nutrients.
Like I said, I won’t attach my name to just anything and after nearly 3 years of research, this is it!

S.P.A.R.T.A.’s Pro Grade Nutritional Supplement Line

Today is the first day of the launch. We’ve started with the basics like men’s and women’s line of multivitamins, whey protein powder, and pre and post workout drink.
BE SURE TO STAY TUNED because in the following days, I’ll be releasing a new product each day.

Tuesday - Meal Replacement with 35 grams protein and 8 grams of fiber.

Wednesday - Nutritional bars “Cravers” only 180 cals. No trans fats and comes in peanut butter, almond butter, and spirulina. Healthy dark chocolate to satisfy that chocolate craving.

Thursday – Essential Fatty Acids. Reduce your risk of early death from cardiovascular disease by 50%. It’s krill oil which is just as effective and won’t give you “fish burps”. I’m a huge supporter of essential fatty acids for everything from brain health to it’s anti-inflammatory properties.

Friday – The week will be culminating in the release of the weight loss product, METABOLISM. This link will come with one of the best articles on metabolic effects of certain nutrients I’ve ever read. This is a great natural product at the right dosage so as not to cause the side effects of other weight loss products.

This is big. If you’d like a reasonably priced supplement line that you can feel safe taking and expect good results, I’ve found it for you through my own research. I’m very skeptical and I haven’t seen anything that would make me not want to be a part of this or not want to attach my name and reputation to it.

So here’s that link again. Come in and check out what we’ve got available. Thank you.

S.P.A.R.T.A.’s Prograde Nutritional Supplement Product Line

When you exercise, your body pulls glycogen from the muscles. Glycogen is your body’s storage form of glucose or sugar, which is the primary fuel for exercise depending on the type and the intensity level. If you workout at a higher intensity or are involved in anaerobic exercise (short, powerful bursts of energy such as strength training or certain sports), then your body primarily uses glycogen for energy. If you are involved in low or moderate intensity exercise, your body will use fat along with glycogen for energy. Once you are done exercising, you must replete the glycogen. If you don’t, you won’t have enough energy to do your next workout or the one after that. Or maybe you will but your performance will be less than ideal and you won’t last as long as you might usually do. So bottom line, you must replete that glycogen!

You have a window of opportunity to replete glycogen and ideally it’s within 30 minutes. Within that 30 minutes when you finish exercising, you should have a snack that is comprised of carbohydrate and protein. Ideally you don’t want carbohydrate that is full of fiber because fiber slows digestion. You actually want the carbs to be digested rather quickly so they get to your muscles. Protein is important to include as it helps your body digest the carbs and it allows your muscles to absorb the glucose for storage.

A client of mine came to me with 2 goals. She told me that she wanted to win races (she’s a triathlete) and she wanted to lose some weight. One catch though….she wanted to keep her Starbucks skim caramel macchiato in her diet. When it comes to weight loss, that might be something that would need to be cut out more frequently than she would have liked. However because she already exercises regularly, I encouraged her that the ideal time to include the Starbucks coffee would be right after her workouts. It includes carbohydrate from the syrup and protein from the milk. Of course there are other snacks that are of better quality nutrition however keeping this coffee in her diet is extremely important to her. So we made it work to her benefit. If you like to eat foods that contain a lot of simple sugar, the best time to do that would be after a workout. You still need to control the portion size however make consumption of these foods work to your advantage. For example, if you like to eat chocolate, have 1 or 2 small pieces along with some milk as your post workout snack.

A few other suggestions for snacks include: a glass of chocolate milk, cottage cheese and fruit, a cup of yogurt, a toasted bagel with slices of cheese on top, a sandwich with turkey and cheese, or a piece of fruit and a glass of milk. Of course these are just a few suggestions. Think about what you like to eat and be sure to get a combination of carbohydrate and protein after your workouts to reward your muscles for their hard work. You’ll notice the difference in your strength and muscle tone for eating a proper snack after exercising.

Chris here again. Thanks Stephanie for contributing this piece! I’m especially in favor of the glass of chocolate milk after a workout. Next to crab legs, that’s my second favorite thing on the planet as far as food goes. Stephanie is the dietician I have chosen to work with (after years of looking) for S.P.A.R.T.A.’s nutrition program. Her website is SMull Nutrition. Current S.P.A.R.T.A. clients ask your trainer about how to set up your initial meeting with Stephanie to get on a guaranteed results nutrition regimen!

First and foremost, fat loss requires a calorie deficit. What does this mean? It means that we have to figure out how many calories your body needs to maintain your weight. You can use a formula based on your height, weight, age, and sex to determine this number, but a better way is to perform an accurate metabolic test using the Body Gem. Ask a S.P.A.R.T.A. trainer about how to set one up. From that number, we can determine exactly how many calories you need to LOSE fat. In the short run, this is the one and only thing that matters in terms of fat loss. These calories can come from anywhere as long as they are within your limit. It could be pure chocolate, but if an average size woman ate about 1400 calories of it, she would most definitely lose fat. Obviously, not the best nutritional thing to do, but calories are how your metabolism is measured and it doesn’t matter where they come from. If you put your body in a deficit, your body has to use its stores (fat) to make up the difference and keep you alive assuming you are not too low and in shut down mode.

Step 2.

Get some of each of the food stuffs at each meal and snack. Now we get into a little more detail and a little more long term effects. There is a lot of talk lately about Carbs causing an insulin spike and triggering fat storage, etc. That’s all true, but it’s a half truth. As long as there are not too many calories and you have a nice mix of some good carbohydrates like whole grains (containing fiber too), some lean proteins, and some good fats, you will slow digestion and hold off an insulin surge. You will also feel more full for a longer time. A mix of anywhere from 40-30-30 to 60-20-20 is acceptable. But, don’t get hung up on percentages. The simpler, the better. If you are going to track anything closely, make it where it will count most, the calories. The good carbohydrates should be the slight majority and about equal amounts of protein and fat. Not equal in volume, but calories. Fat has more than twice as many calories per gram than protein or carbohydrate. Just a dash of an oil can be equal to a few ounces of lean meat. Or if you have an oily fish like Salmon, you may kill two birds with one stone and get your protein and good fats in one shot. Couple that with some good carbohydrate and/or some veggie, and you have a meal. It’s the same thing with snacks, a small handful of something like peanuts has good vegetable protein, nut oils, carbohydrates, and fiber to boot. It’s a perfect snack in its own package.

Step 3.

Lastly, eat a variety. You don’t want to eat exactly the same thing every day. You will have your preferences that you like, but you should not consume the same regimented meals every single day. If you do that, you leave yourself open for nutritional deficiencies. If you follow my 3 steps here, you should be reasonably nutritionally sound and supplementation really isn’t much of an issue. I might suggest a multi-vitamin for insurance purposes to fill any gaps, but that’s about it besides taking fish oil for its numerous benefits on every cell in the body.

I’ve had my most success with this simple 3 step approach with many of my one on one clients. Some have lost 60-70lbs using this simple strategy. Once you know these principles, you should feel empowered that you now have the knowledge to control your body weight throughout your life. In the long term, we might need to go into a little more detail about metabolism if you lose a significant amount of fat like that. That is something any S.P.A.R.T.A. trainer would be happy to discuss with you. Feel free to use the “ask a trainer” feature on our website. Of course, in addition, it is absolutely critical that you do some proper resistance training to at least maintain your lean body tissues to preserve your metabolism. If you lose those, your metabolism will be lower than if you had done nothing at all. More information about nutrition and testing your metabolism.