Marcus Colburn's Diet Plan

Teammates, CM SEAL Team blogger checking in with some fast and furious Colburn Nutrition "Cliff Notes".

1. Eat like an elk. Elks graze during their waking hours. You are not an elk you say? You need to graze, not binge!

2. Cut back on empty carbs. Eat good clean carbs instead like black beans, brown rice, sweet potatoes and oatmeal.

3. Consume more protein. Our bodies burn more protein on a reduced-calorie diet. On average, lol "EXPERTS" recommend about 1 gram of HIGH quality protein per pound of body weight every day for someone that is exercising regularly and wants to maximize lean body-mass while losing fat. Don't be dependent on protein shakes and other LOW quality quick fixes!

4. Keep your fat intake to 20% of your total daily calories. Now be careful here. That's "LOWFAT" not "NO FAT"! Certain fats are important to regulating much of our metabolism. People that eliminate "ALL" fats tend to put on extra unwanted blubber. Because good fats like omega-3s actually possess thermogenic properties, meaning that they actually help your body produce heat by burning fat. So it's easy on a LOW-FAT diet to cut your "GOOD" fats too low and sabotage all fat burning efforts!

5. Eat more fiber.

6. Keep ALL alcohol to a MINIMUM!

7. Consume whole foods at least 4 of your 6 daily meals. Meal replacement like shakes & bars are not like whole foods that require digestion requiring a minimal (fat burning)metabolic boost.

8. DRINK LOTS OF H2O!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nuff said!

Mojo Frog

Here's a link to Marcus's "Mirror Mirror on the Wall" diet post of a few months back.

Twenty-three Game Changing Tips

CM SEAL Team blogger: Marcus Colburn

It's simple to suggest eat less, exercise more and you'll lose fat.
Unfortunately this advice does not explain why your friend can indulge in pizza and beer and stay shredded all summer while others need to put a microscope over every food that enters their mouth.

As you know, not all metabolisms are created equal and research has proven that some of us can burn fat faster than others. If you feel like you're doing everything right but still unable so shed those last few pounds then let one of the following advanced fat burning tips and tricks below work for you.

Getting shredded can not be left to chance with the mentality that you hope it works. In order to shake the last few pounds of fat you must combine as many of these techniques as possible so that you experience a huge difference in the mirror as you say:

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL WHO'S THE MOST SHREDDED OF THEM ALL?

Here are 23 of the exact secrets I used to cut 23-pounds of fat in 10-weeks that lead to the photos that declare victory!

1. Follow a specific, pre-set nutrition plan so that you know exactly what you're supposed to eat and what times and in what amounts. You will be less likely to cheat and more likely to follow your plan. Print it out and post it on your refrigerator.

2. Read labels because you must be precise about your food intake and ensure your food plan matches exactly with what you're consuming or how in the world can you help yourself?

3. Go slow & if you fall back, break into a run -- just keep shooting for "PERFCT"ting it each week.

4. Tweak, re-evaluate and re-tweak. If you're not losing, tweak ONE variable for the following week while keeping everything else standardized. Re-evaluate your progress and continue this feed back loop each week.

5. When tweaking a variable in your training, make small changes instead of big ones. For example, add one extra 45-minute cardio session next week if you plateaued, not 3 extra cardio sessions. If you're doing 2 interval workouts, add a third.

6. Did I say small changes are responsible for big changes? If you're eating 2 slices of whole wheat bread on meal one, drop it to only 1 slice instead. Dramatic nutrition or cardio changes is unnecessary. Remember it's a "HUMAN RACE" not an immortal race!

7. Plan to raise your caloric intake one time every five days, minimum.

8. Start doing interval training and build up to at least three 20-minute workouts at 85% intensity.

9. For interval training, rely on the classic and effective 1-minute hard followed by 1-minute easy protocol for a total of 10 intervals.

10. Incorporate steady-state cardio on a empty stomach before breakfast. If you're on a ultra low-carb diet then this is not necessary however "regular" cardio in a fasted state can help your body to resort to using more fat for
fuel.

11. Drink a big black cup of coffee or have an espresso before you do fasted cardio before breakfast.

12. Incorporate a liter of water before you do your cardio in a fasted state in the morning.

13. If possible, perform strength training in the evening and perform your cardio in the morning. This requires more dedication but can be very effective for your quest for "PERFECT" ion.

14. Train hard with high speed strength movements often. Challenge your buddies! Be prepared to move from 3-days or 4-days of strength training to at least 5-days of strength training a week.

15. During fat loss, the details of the workout are not as important as muscle building. Focus on intensity and finishing the workout knowing you held nothing back.

16. Keep rest periods between 30-60 seconds.

17. Don't worry about the length of your workouts, even if they last up to 1.5 hours.

18. Don't plant to eat perfectly without any unplanned cheat, I mean "TREAT"!

"IF YOU'RE NOT cheating/TREATING, YOU'RE NOT TRYING!"

19. Eat as many fibrous vegetables as possible like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and/or asparagus to name a few.

20. Eat your first meal earlier than you are currently eating it now. Having your first meal around 6 am and your last meal around 6 pm works the best for the majority of people.

21. Treat your weight training workouts as if you're trying to build muscle. Keep the STRENGTH moves harder & heavy duty to keep your muscle mass and maintain your metabolism. Believe me, if you do pullups in crazy ways with a friend holding you down or pullups with your buddy pullin at you. You do more good for yourself then the aveage joe does at the gym & you're more functional too. Make sure you stretch all muscle groups as you get warmed up in between sets!

* "Stretching is like doing steroids without messing with your hormones that scream later!"

22. Only bring food items that appear on your meal plan into your home.

23. Set a deadline for the day you want to be shredded and ripped.

Just one of these tips above could be the game-changer to get shredded at last. Your instincts will tell you which ones to begin leveraging starting today.

Feel free to add your own tips to mine at the CHARLIE MIKE blog!

P.S. I'M PULLING FOR YOU ON MY PERFECT PULLUP BAR!
"TRAINING IS NEVER OVER"
MOJOFROG OUT...

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall Diet Plan

CM SEAL Team blogger: Marcus Colburn

Let's talk some more about your "Eat Clean" diet. Eating habits are the most important change that one can make to gain ground in your fight for health & well being perfection! Ask any pro bodybuilder male or female, even the fitness folk, will tell you that it's 80% diet and the rest physical stuff. Everyone must realize that in order to achieve success in your war & it is a war, that you have to have the "win win" attitude!

Diet, more than anything, is within your "CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE". In other words you can choose what goes on your altar of your temple.

Just be like your ancestors the hunters & gatherers that you got your "Levis" from. They only ate nuts & berries. Because they were always on the move they just grabbed a few here & there. Also, they started planting veggies so they grabbed a few carrots & heads of lettuce & tomatoes for their hunting & fishing trips where they would bring home fish, animal protein & other assorted proteins! They never had stuff in their food like all the word that we can't pronounce. All they had was uggga bugga, with no preservatives for fresh taste forever.

Or diet this & that: all this new diet crap is just they way it sounds, diet crap! Like: aspartame = ass-pertain (grins), saccharin show sh*terin (evil grins), demerara= diarrhea, even ten dollar words that sure sound kewl like polysaccharides are all wrong! Just stick with water -- tons of it -- but make sure you stop drinking all that water by late after noon unless you want to keep waking up all night to relieve yourself thus losing sleep which is the other important factor for well being.

Break fast, or breaking fast from a good night sleep which should be 8 hours! Hey even N.A.S.A makes sure astronauts get 8 hours of sleep! Now they are the cream of the crop. Think whole wheat waffles. If you really need some thing sweet find some kind of sub like natural bee's honey from the hive! Any fruit or some sweet veggies like dates or figs all make excellent sugar subs. The most important meal of the day as your breaking your night fast! You can go big on this meal but "eat clean". Kashi cereal, "steel oatmeal"skim milk, v8 juice or carrot juice, Bananas, plain yogurt. even a little cottage cheese & applesauce makes for a good snack as well as a part of breakfast.

2 hours later: second breakfast: An Apple & Grapes some nuts & mini carrots.

2 hours later: prelunch: Rice cakes & natural peanut butter or baked pecans are awesome.

Around noontime: lunch: Don't let the title or name whole wheat fool you -- most of it is just colored white bread. The kind of bread you want is the "sprouted bread"! Tuna, salmon, roast beast, turkey or chicken with veggies like avocado, tomatoes, lettuce.

A few hours later -- but not later than 18:30 (SEAL time) or 6:30 pm, your final meal could be fish, your fave sushi, chicken but bake or broil everything. NO FRYING ANYTHING or Fast food or FRIED CHICKEN! Kentucky fried is out: it's bad bad bad. The final meal should be at 18:30 or 6:30 pm so you can get to sleep later without the digestion process disturbing you. Also I would say that one should be finished pounding down the water by 17:00 or 5:00 pm so that your sleep is not disturbed by bathroom visits! Remember, sleep zzzzzzzz sleep is soooooooo important!

"YOUR BODY IS A TEMPLE. TREAT IT AS SUCH!" "WHY PUT CRAP ON YOUR ALTAR?"

If you consistently refuse to respect your body, you better find a money tree, because you will need it to pay for all those doctors and nurses.

If you do follow my plan you will find yourself feeling better, smelling better, throwin' down with the younger crowd more. Happier & healthier!

"THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY."
__________________________________________________


Back in 1997 while serving with the elite Navy SEAL jump team called Leap Frogs, Marcus was involved in a life changing parachuting accident. After free-falling to three thousand feet, Mark opened his chute. But the SEAL above him did not and continued free-falling at ninety miles an hour. The other jumper tore through Mark's chute, hitting him in the head and hand with his body. The impact sent Mark twirling unconscious through the air with few cells left on his chute, and he hit the ground, changing his life forever. Mark's amazing recovery became his biggest challenge – and surviving the accident is a miraculous story in itself -- but what is even more inspiring is how he handles his life after the accident.

Can pushups, pullups and dips develop muscle?

A few days ago Charlie Mike reader Luciano asked if he could replace weight training with pushups, dips, and pullups and what kind of muscle gain could he expect?

Yes, pushups/pull-ups/dips and other bodyweight training exercises do develop muscle tissue. How much muscle tissue you develop is tied to how much resistance you give the muscles you’re training. For example, let’s say your one set max of pushups is 10; if you were to do one set of 10 pushups every other day of pushups, you’ll have a different growth curve of muscle development than if you were to do 5 sets of 10 pushups every other day. If you’re after bigger muscles you need to load up your muscles – that is do pushups or pullups to complete exhaustion – then drop to your knees on pushups or lower the Perfect Pullup bar and keep the workout going until you are absolutely spent on your sets. Follow the Perfect Pushup workout plan that comes with the Perfect Pushup or try something even simpler: 1000 pushups and 250 pullups a week – get’em anyway you can – JUST DO IT!

One more thing, don’t forget that muscles need protein – I’m not a dietician, but monitor your diet – watch what you eat. When I want to get Ripped, I reduce sugar and white carbohydrates (bread/potatoes, etc) and up my veggies and protein intake – eat smaller meals more often and always have water with each meal – try to have your first meal right after you workout in the morning (first set of pushups) and last meal 3 hours before you go to bed – don’t go longer than 3 hrs between meals.

Let me know how it goes and keep those questions coming – CHARLIE MIKE!

ALDEN