I’ve used various tools in my quest to become better over the years. I’ve tried and kept many natural health principle’s as well as used many exercise programs to build muscle and burn fat.
I’ve done traditional bodybuilder exercises, walked, done endless cardio and implemented High Intensity Interval Training. I’ve tried running and I’ve done a few different boot camps in recent years.
My guest for this interview is the creator of what I like to think of as the simplest yet most effective method to end hours of cardio and use your very own body weight to build muscle and burn fat at the same time.
Craig Ballantyne is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and contributor to Men’s Health Magazine. He’s on the Inside Fitness training advisory board as well as Oxygen magazine training advisory board and has a background as a personal trainer in the Toronto Canada area.
Craig is the creator of Turbulence Training and I’m glad to have him here today to discuss his program and how it can help you achieve your ultimate physique.
Part 2 – Turbulence Training Nutrition
Since you brought it up, I’d like to take a brief look at your approach to nutrition before getting back to training.
In reading Turbulence Training, I realized that we both have natural approaches to health. We both drink and recommend green tea and we are both proponents of raw almonds.
What is Turbulence Training’s approach to nutrition and how is it paired with the exercise portion of your program?
I truly believe that nutrition is the biggest, by far, component of a good fat loss program.
There’s a saying in the fitness industry, “you can’t out-train a bad diet”, and that hold’s true almost 100% of the time (and especially as you get older).
Fortunately, I also believe that good nutrition for fat loss is very simple. And here are my 5 steps to building a fast fat burning diet.
1) Find out how much you are eating now. Use fitday.com.
2) If you are not losing weight, eat less.
3) Eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, and good protein sources. Don’t eat junk from a bag or a box.
4) Give yourself one treat meal per week to look forward to – not a treat day, just a treat meal.
5) Plan ahead. Prepare your meals (spend 1-2 hours on the weekend getting your meals and meal plan ready for the week). Identify obstacles and come up with solutions to avoid them.
That is it.
Very simple. Most people do pretty well on 1-3 and even 5, but mess up on number 4. I often hear how well someone did all day long, but then while making dinner they snack on upwards of 500 calories of their kid’s treats, or other processed carbohydrates they have lying around the house.
The little things can add up to big time problems. So take a good long look at everything you eat.
And all of this can be avoided if you follow rule #5.
With all that said, I still went out and found a nutrition expert, Dr. Chris Mohr, to put together a bonus Nutrition report for the Turbulence Training program.
Basically, he and I agree on the whole, natural foods approach.
And even with all that said, I think a lot of nutrition approaches can work for fat loss, because I believe that many diets are “personality-driven”. I.e. what works for Joe might not suit Jane’s lifestyle and likes/dislikes.
But most TT users stick with the whole, natural foods and have great success.
So Turbulence Training’s focus is pretty much on the training part of a fat loss program with bonus material outlining a natural approach to diet.
I’m currently working on my own 12 Weeks to a Former Fat Guy program (that’s the beta name anyway) which walks readers through step by step implementation of healthy choices and principles. It should be available by the fall of 2008.
I’ve got a lot more questions about bodyweight exercises and your 300 & 500 programs, but before I do, I want to find out more about you, Craig Ballantyne.
I know you contribute to Mens Health magazine and a couple of fitness advisory boards.
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