On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, was my attempt at 20 straight pull ups.

This was the 4th performance goal I set for myself and by far the hardest for me.

I’ve always been horrible at pull ups - as a kid, I could only do 1.

At the beginning of October, I could only do a mere 6.

But then I started training pull ups 3 days a week and got much stronger at them.

I didn’t quite reach full extension on my form and I didn’t quite reach my goal, but I did more pull ups than I had ever done before, so I was pretty pleased.

Check it out!

Scott

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to thank you for being a loyal reader of my blog and viewer of my videos.

It really means a lot to me that you take the time to visit and listen to what I have to say.

Today is a day where you may eat a little bit more than normal.

In case you feel like burning some calories today, I put together a quick 5 minute workout that you can do anywhere.

I made a beginner version and an advanced version.

Try it today while you’re eating some pumpkin pie.

If you get in a workout today, leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Have a very safe, happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

Scott

OK, it’s time for my push up test.

The goal, 100 straight push ups.

My initial test was October 5 and I did 52 push ups.

This push up test was filmed on Sunday November 23.

I said October in the video. Oops.

Well, check out the video to see if I made it.

And as always, please share your thoughts and comments.

Have an amazing day.

Scott

On Sunday, I tested myself on performance goal #2 (out of 4) - attempting to run a 6-minute mile.

When I initially tested myself on October 5 in the one mile run, it took me 6 minutes and 15 seconds to run it.

So I had to knock 15 seconds off the time.

Check out the video to see if I did it.

By the way, if you think you can’t get a good workout in 6-minutes, just try running a mile as fast as you can.

It’s an amazing quick workout….and…

I bet you’ll change your thinking.

I often do a 4-Minute Workout for Fat Loss which can wear me down as well.

Thanks for watching.

I would love to hear your feedback.

Scott

So I didn’t plan on doing another entire Abs Uncrunched Show dedicated to the diet where you eat cookies for weight loss.

But after reading one readers’ comments about how much weight she has lost by eating cookies, I come to realize she just doesn’t get it.

And its not just her - millions of people who are on fad diets like this one just don’t get it.

So I decided to investigate further to see exactly what are the ingredients in one of these cookies anyway.

And how much do they cost?

So let’s back up a bit.

First let me show you what Jennifer wrote. She is the reader that advocates eating cookies for weight loss.

She wrote…

“I’m one of (name of doctor withheld) Arizona customers and I’ve lost 35 pounds on the (name of diet withheld)(25 in the first 6 weeks). One thing I love about this diet is it’s so convenient. Sure, if I had the time and money to eat the way you recommend I wouldn’t need cookies, but with these you just grab a bag in the morning and go. I used to hit the drive-thrus and binge often but the cookies have retrained me into eating some protein every few hours. (Name of diet withheld) customers are encouraged to eat lean proteins like chicken, fish or turkey plus lots of vegetables, and we also take a multivitamin and mineral pill (a supply comes with the cookies). The 800 calorie dinner is in addition to the cookies which have 90 calories, 5 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber each. Now that I’m at my goal weight I use the cookies in between meals to keep me from getting hungry and help me make the right food choices. As for the taste, they’re not very sweet because they only have 2 grams of sugar, but they’ve eliminated my sweet tooth. The Oatmeal Raisin are my favorites. Don’t knock the (name of diet withheld) it may not be for everybody but it’s what I needed to drop four dress sizes and feel good about how I look.”

I had a lot to say about what Jennifer wrote; please watch the show to see what I had to say because I got pretty fired up about it.

Please note: My initial video was removed as I received a letter from the law firm representing this company that promotes eating cookies to lose weight threatening legal action.

Jennifer I’m sorry to say, but you, like millions of other people, have been duped into throwing away your hard earn money to this fad diet.

I hope you take it to heart the message in the video.

Please note: My initial video was removed as I received a letter from the law firm representing this company that promotes eating cookies to lose weight threatening legal action.

I am saying these things to genuinely help you.

I did some research to investigate the ingredients of these cookies and how much they cost, since Jennifer claims that is expensive to eat healthy.

Here are the ingredients that is in one of the oatmeal raisin cookies.

WATER, GLYCERIN, WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, CRISP RICE (RICE, SUGAR, SALT, MALT), OATS, SOYBEAN OIL, MICROCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE, RAISINS, MILK PROTEIN, VINEGAR, MODIFIED PALM OIL, BROWN SUGAR, BEEF PROTEIN HYDROLYSATE, EGG WHITE SOLIDS, WHEY, CANE SUGAR, WHEAT FLOUR, LEAVENING

(SODIUM BICARBONATE, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, CORNSTARCH, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM SULFATE), WHEAT BRAN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SALT, CINNAMON, NUTMEG, FD & C YELLOW #5, CALCIUM PROPIONATE (PRESERVATIVE).
ALLERGY WARNING: CONTAINS MILK, EGGS, SOY, AND WHEAT.

Now I ask you - are these ingredients full of nutrients and healthy?

Or are they lacking essential vitamins and minerals, and are unhealthy?

What do you think?

As for the nutritional label, here’s the pertinent information:

Serving Size: 1 cookie (24g)
Servings Per Container: 6 cookies
Calories: 90
Total Fat: 2.5g
Saturated Fat: 1g
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 150mg
Total Carbohydrate: 11g
Dietary Fiber: 2g
Sugars: 2g
Protein: 5g

These cookies are very expensive too.

It costs $60 for a week’s supply of these cookies. That’s $240 a month - just on cookies!

Meanwhile I pointed out in my video that I had recently purchased 6 organic apples from Whole Foods for $2.

With her $60 that she spent on her week’s supply of cookies, Jennifer could have bought 180 apples!

Moreover Jennifer says she doesn’t have time to eat healthy.

How long does it take to:

…grab an apple

… grab a handful of almonds

… cook 1 minute oatmeal

… grab a hard boiled egg.

Not long, that’s for sure.

Please note: My initial video was removed as I received a letter from the law firm representing this company that promotes eating cookies to lose weight threatening legal action.

At the moment, I can’t show you the video, but…

…please leave your comments. I need to know what you think.

Have an amazing weekend.

Scott

Halloween Week continues on the blog.

I thought maybe I should get a new look besides the funny hats and sunglasses for Halloween.

What do you think?

So I invited my friend Amy to go costume shopping at Party City.

I must say it was pretty crowded for the middle of the afternoon.

But it is the day before Halloween afterall, so I guess that could be expected.

Check out our trip to Party City.

Scott

Is diet soda making you fat? It very well may be. This was the subject of the most recent Great Fat Loss Debate with Scott Colby (that’s me) and Scott Tousignant. We had 3 special guests on the line as well to give their opinion - Kevin Gianni, Kyle Battis and Rob Poulos.

How can diet soda (or pop as some people like to say) make you fat? Doesn’t it have no sugar and no calories? Well yes, yes it does. But let’s take a closer look. First I want to reveal to you the nasty ingredients of diet coke, one of the most popular diet drinks out there. These are listed in order of greatest to least amount…

Carbonated Water
Caramel Color
Aspartame
Phosphoric Acid
Potassium Benzoate (to protect taste)
Natural Flavors
Citric Acid
Caffeine

Tastey! As you can see, there is nothing healthy about diet soda at all. They contain no nutrients that your body needs. In fact, it’s poison to your body. There are actual research studies that show that diet soda drinkers gain more weight than regular soda drinkers. One theory is that the artificial sweeteners in diet soda trigger a hormone in your body that causes you to store more fat and have more cravings for sugar.

Another theory is that diet soda drinkers may adopt the mindset that since they are drinking diet soda, this gives permission to consume more calories in the foods that they eat.

In any event, diet soda is not good to put into your body if you want as healthy a life as possible. We had a lot of great opinions in our podcast, “Is Diet Soda Making You Fat.” We even gave suggestions on how to stop drinking diet soda if you’re addicted to it.

Please listen to the audio below. And don’t forget to share your opinions. Do you agree with us and the research? Is diet soda making us fat? Did you used to be addicted to diet soda and now you’re not? Share your opinions and stories below in the Comments section.

Have a wonderful day.

Play Now:

 Is Diet Soda Making You Fat?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Quick workouts and interval training were the topics of episode #3 of The Great Fat Loss Debate with Scott Tousignant and Scott Colby. Can you increase the intensity of your workouts so that you can shorten your workouts to 10-15 minutes a day and still get great fat loss results? Well the research is saying yes you can, and in my own workouts I have gotten great fat loss results with short, intense workouts. In fact, I often will string together three of four of these four-minute interval circuits together from my Four Minute Workout DVDs for a quick, but very effective fat burning workout.

Should you ignore all long, traditional, low to moderate intensity workouts? Well this is up for debate. In fact, this is much of what Scott Tousignant and I debated in our podcast. Ultimately, whatever you enjoying doing for your exercise is what you will stick with and make you happy. That is most important.

Scott T and I would love for you to listen to us debate the topic of quick workouts for fat loss. Please listen the podcast below and then click on the link that says Comments so we can hear what you think.

We would love to get your opinion. So speak out! : )

Play Now:

 The Great Fat Loss Debate - Quick Workouts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Starbucks offers a wide variety of high calorie and high fat drinks and food choices. Is Starbucks making you fat? This is the subject of Episode #2 of the Great Fat Loss Debate with Scott Colby, Scott Tousignant and special guest, Kevin Gianni. Is Starbucks contributing to the rising obesity trend in adults and children? Well their menu would certainly suggest it. A lot of their pastries and snacks are nearly 500 calories. Some of their drinks can be nearly 1000 calories depending on what you order.

For example, a piece of no sugar added banana nut coffee cake has 480 calories and 28 grams of fat. You may have thought that this would be a healthy option based on the words, “no sugar added” but you would be wrong.

A grande peppermint white chocolate mocha with 2% milk and whipped cream is 530 calories and 18 grams of fat. So if you have the no sugar added coffee cake and a grande peppermint white mocha with whipped cream, you’ve consumed 1010 calories and 46 grams of fat. Wow!

Of course, there are ways to make your drinks healthier or less healthy by the size of the drink, the type of milk, the type of syrup, whether or not you add whipped cream, etc. So then it’s a matter of personal responsibility. It is up to you to be responsible for your own health and make wise choices.

I personally go to Starbucks almost every day, but I usually order a black coffee.

Should Starbucks be doing more to help fight the cause against obesity? They do a nice job listing nutrition information on their website - www.starbucks.com. Should they be doing more?

You want to know what we think? Well you’ll have to listen to Scott, Kevin and I debate the topic.

Simply click on the audio player below to listen to this weeks Great Fat Loss Debate and then take a moment to share your thoughts and feelings about the podcast.

What would you like Starbucks to do to help combat the rising trend in obesity?

Please share your comments below.

Play Now:

 Is Starbucks to Blame for Rising Obesity?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome to the first episoide of The Great Fat Loss debate, a weekly podcast with Scott Tousignant and Scott Colby. This will be a weekly podcast, every Thursday, where Scott Tousignant and I will talk about the hottest, most controversial topics in the fat loss industry. Our topic for episode #1, the ever popular debate about low carb - high protein diets. Each podcast will be about 15 minutes.

Listen in as I rattle off the ingredients of Kellogg’s Smart Start cereal - oat bran, sugar, rice, raisins, high fructose corn syrup, glycerin, dextrose, malt flavor, potassium chloride, salt, cinnamon, coconut and palm kernel oil, baking soda, ascorbic acid, niacinamide, zinc oxide, wheat starch, calcium pantothenate, reduced iron.

And here is a list of ingredients in whole wheat bread - Whole wheat flour, water, yeast, sugar/glucose-fructose, canola or soybean oil, wheat gluten, salt, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, calcium propionate, ammonium chloride, calcium sulphate, May contain acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides, calcium carbonate, monoglycerides, calcium iodate.

What a list!

Are these foods healthy for you? Well that’s up for debate.

I would love for you to listen to our podcast and then let your voice be heard. Share your opinion about low carb - high proten diets under the Comments link below.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the play button or downloading to your computer. Enjoy!

Play Now:

 The Great Fat Loss Debate - Episode #1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download