South Beach Diet

Cardiologist Dr Arthur Agatston developed the South Beat Diet to help his patients lose weight. When his diet plan was compared sided by side with the AHA recommended diet of the time his patients had significantly lower cholesterol, triglycerides and lost almost twice as much weight during the same time period.

While this diet became popular about the same time as other low carb plans such as Atkins they really are different approaches. The South Beach Diet has a much less restrictive diet, once you are past the first stage you are allowed to introduce some carbohydrates back into your diet as long as they are complex and unrefined carbohydrates. Additionally the first phase of the South Beach Diet last two weeks, where as the Atkins plan is an open ended time frame. Additionally this diet doesn’t advocate eating foods with high fat or soluble fats like other plans. While tests on these kinds of fats remain inconclusive many nutritionists advocate keeping these types of fats to a minimum. Additionally the South Beach Diet teaches you how to make healthy food choices choosing foods which have a low Glycemic Index number. Foods with a high glycemic index have been shown to increase the blood sugar in the body causing an energy boost followed by an energy crash, triggering a craving for foods with high sugar content.

That said the South Beach Diet is very popular plan that millions of people have used to successfully lose weight. Additionally it is viewed as one of the most open and least restrictive of all of the low carb diets today. This makes it a perfect choice for those who have failed on other low carb plans as well as people who haven’t tried any low carbohydrate diets.

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The Firm - Transfirmer

Many exercise videos today are moving from stand alone items to a shared series of videos. This is the case with the newest video from the FIRM company the TransFIRMer video. The company who produces this video has been producing aerobics and other exercise videos for over 20 years. They have a simple formula high energy aerobics exercises mixed in with light weight usage. According the company’s website and promotional information this method burns fat up to three times faster than similar products.

The newest addition to this video is the two steps. You can use the steps individuals or together and achieve 5 different positions. These allow you to vary the intensity of your workouts and exercise completely different muscle groups in new and different ways. The series also contains one of the firm’s signature exercises a step up to a 14” height that is designed to work the butt, and upper thigh area. If you’ve ever tried this exercise you’ll really feel the burn in your legs a few hours later. Included with this set are 3 different videos that vary in intensity and allow you to make your workouts more difficult and strenuous as your body becomes stronger. The instructors change from video to video but if you find one you like you find them on other videos that are outside of this series.

While many exercise companies try to build online communities no one has done it with the success of the firm. Many people who have had success with the series stay on and follow the series for years. They become what the company likes to call “FIRM Believers” you can find them all across the forums and message boards. They also run moderated chats and interviews that allow you to chat online or ask questions directly to some of the firm instructors. The amount of online information offered by this company is truly amazing. This is one product we feel has what anyone could want or need from a fitness program.

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Billy Blanks Boot Camp

Fitness instructor Billy Blanks of Tae Bo fame is back, with his new Billy Blanks Boot Camp exercise series. As is Billy’s style these tapes have lots of exciting fast paced music to go along with the high energy cardio aerobic workouts. You also get Billy’s exciting high energy commentary and motivational messages throughout the tapes. While the exercises in this series are said to be based on actual US Army basic training and physical fitness exercises we suspect they took a lot of creative license as far as that is concerned.

That said these tapes are very exciting and effective if you enjoy the high energy workouts. It is pretty hard to watch them and not be motivated to get up and start exercising. The absolute beginner may find this series somewhat overwhelming, but if you do any sort of activity during the day or are in moderately good shape you shouldn’t have a problem keeping up with these tapes.

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