There is a better and easier way: Change your autopilot; in other words, the way you think. "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." (Romans 12:2 NLT)"

Ask Dr. Halid): Dr. Halid, I'd like to detox before I start my fitness journey. What supplements would you recommend?

Answer: "Detoxing" is not necessary. The liver, kidney, digestive system, spleen, lymph nodes work to remove "toxins" from the body. The best advice is to drink PLENTY OF WATER and get in all your vitamins and nutrients to promote normal functioning of these organs. If you ate your way into that situation with poor nutrition, you can always eat yourself out of it with good nutrition.

 -Dr Halid

Ask Dr. Halid: "Hey doc, I'm lookin to loose my belly fat and love handles. You always say diet is important. What type of foods do you eat to loose weight??"

Food list Courtesy of Dr. Layne Norton

Part of my prize for winning the $100K transformation was over $1K in credit at the bodybuilding.com store. Here's my latest order of supplements from Bodybuilding.com (I didnt need to order protein, I'm well stocked

Bodybuilding.com 100% Casein 
Chocolate, 4 Lbs.
8-Hour Muscle Power!

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/finder/lookup/filter/muscle/id/10/muscle/triceps

Question: I don't workout at a fitness center just my condo gym which I am limited on weights. Do you have a example routine that I could do? For what I'm limited on?

---- Answer: If your on a budget you can still get a pretty good workout without machines, barbells, etc especially if you are a beginner or if you aren't that strong. You can use resistance bands (which are cheap) and you can use your bodyweight. Checkout the link below to bodybuilding.com's exercise guide. Just put in what equipment you have and it will find specific exercises for each bodypart.

Have you been dieting for a while and hit a plateau. Not seeing the results you should be seeing? If that’s the case then you probably need to "refeed"!

The key to refeeds is a hormone called Leptin. Leptin lets your brain know how much e

It’s hard to believe the contest ends today. It has been an
experience. Before I get into my journey over these 12 weeks, I’d like to
explain what brought me to enter the contest looking the way I did.

I’ve always enjoyed weight training and playing sports. Over
2011, I began developing many injuries—Achilles tendonitis, minor sports hernia,
bilateral patellar tendonosis, sprained shoulder, triceps tendonitis, and a
wrist sprain---to be exact. Some injuries were worse than others, but having so
many sidelined me. Since I am a physical therapist, I was able to self treat. However,
rehab was slow. During this time away from sports and training I became very
discouraged. I lost motivation to eat healthy foods or to exercise at all. As
you can see from my Day 1 pictures, I gained bodyfat—lots of it. When January
2012 rolled around I saw a link about the ON transformation contest. By that
time most of my injuries had improved so I had nothing to stop me from
entering.

I was shocked at how…”plump” I looked in the Day 1 pictures.
I didn’t even realize how far I had let myself go but I didn’t get discouraged.
I was determined to shed that weight. I did my research and made a plan.

My plan was to gradually increase the intensity and duration
of my workouts to prevent injury and soreness and to gradually change my diet.
Weeks 1-2, I used low resistance and rep ranges between 12-15 and avoided going
to failure. Weeks 1-2, I gradually increased my cardio training from 15-30mins
using steady state exercise. During these weeks I did cardio and weight
training 3-4 times a week. Diet wise, I made gradual changes by swapping
unhealthy meals and snacks for healthy ones. For example, I swapped fruit loops
in the morning with a high protein/whole wheat cereal with skim milk and I
swapped snacks like vanilla wafers for beef jerky or low fat string cheese. I
went from 75% of my meals/snacks being high in fat/calories/carbs down to only15%
(which mainly consisted of my 2-3 cheat meals).

I entered week 3 feeling a bit more in shape, a tad bit
leaner, and injury free. I upped my cardio to 4-5 days a week aiming to hit
400-450 burned calories or 40-45 mins of cardio each day (whichever came
sooner). Occasionally I used HIIT but that mainly depended if I was short on
time or if my knees were sore. I also upped my weight training to 4 days a week
with sessions lasting about 1hr. I used as much weight as I could use while
working in the 6-12 rep range. My diet was pretty clean. I tried to keep my
carbs low and proteins high. My goal was to keep my percentage of
macronutrients to equal 45% protein, 35% carbs, and 20% fat. I can’t count
carbs or calories so I mainly guesstimated my macronutrient percentages. I also
only ate snacks that were high in protein and low in carbs. I didn’t worry so
much about fat since it digests slowly and won’t spike insulin levels. Additionally,
I only ate 1 cheat meal per week.

This plan worked for me. The hard part was staying consistent
and going to the gym even when I didn’t feel like it and even when I was dog
tired after a long day at work. I also had to lift smarter than I have in the
past. To explain, if I felt sore in a tendon, I had to think of ways to rest
that muscle and still get a good workout in. Sometimes that meant doing lifts
at a different angle. Sometimes that meant skipping that muscle group for the
week.

Motivation

What kept me motivated? I stayed motivated by constantly
discussing articles, workouts, and recipes with my fiancé and my best friend. By
doing this, staying fit was always on my mind. Participating on the ON Transformation
contest bodyblog gave me a chance to scope out my competition for the contest.
Seeing other people’s success brought out my competitive side and motivated me
to do better and go harder. I also stayed motivated by eating normal foods but
just with healthier ingredients (ex: whole wheat spaghetti and Italian turkey
sausage). Eating like this kept my cravings in check.

Supplements

I used a couple different supplements over the 12 wks. I
regularly used whey protein, ON amino energy before and during my workouts
(especially during cardio), casein before bed, and a multivitamin & EFA’s
daily. I used creatine to help with energy during the first 5 or 6 wks.

Goal Assessment

This was my first time setting goals to transform my body so
I really had no idea on how to set my circumferential goals. Therefore, some of
my goals were unrealistic. However, am very pleased with the progress I have
made over the past 12 weeks. I have definitely reached my goal of what I wanted
my overall appearance to be. I can’t imagine going back to looking and feeling
the way I did on Day 1. I hope my journey/experience, or whatever you wanna
call it, will help people to learn from my mistakes and be smart lifters to
avoid injuries. I hope it inspires and motivates other to also be active and
make the decision to be fit for LIFE.

Sample Diet

Snack 1—whey protein, half a banana

Meal 1—oatmeal, some agave nectar, 5 egg whites

Snack 2—low fat mozzarella string cheese, 0-4 strawberries

Meal 2—Salmon burrito bowl (lettuce, cilantro, black beans,
salsa, sweet corn, low fat cheese)

Snack 3—beef jerky/cottage cheese

Snack 4 (optional)—1/4 cup almonds and peanuts

Preworkout—Turkey wrap

Postworkout—Whey protein, half a banana

Meal 3—Grilled chicken stir fry with brown rice and mixed
veggies

Snack 5—casein