While the word "diet" may not be on anyone’s mind right now with the holidays and tons of parties, it’s surely in the back of everyone’s minds with January 1 around the corner.

So let’s get the info out there while it’s on people’s minds.

There are a few diet "mistakes" that are common, but once you know ‘em, you won’t struggle with them again (at least you’ll be aware … and awareness is the key).  You think you’re on track — eating breakfast daily, drinking all diet drinks so no liquid calories, and enjoying low fat snacks between meals — but it’s not necessarily that simple. 

Here’s the truth — let’s delve into this a bit deeper to reveal 3 Diet Mistakes Everyone Makes.

1. Eating breakfast daily.  OK, that seems a bit weird — breakfast is supposed to be THE most important meal of the day.  Well, unless it’s a bowl of fiber free cereal or a bagel and cream cheese with zero nutrition to fuel your body. 

   Check this out — 1 cup of Kellog’s low fat granola gives you 28 grams of sugar (that’s more than Froot Loops), which is just a few teaspoons shy of what a can of soda offers.  If you instead opt for a plain bagel, you mine as well sit down and eat 5 slices of bread because you’re getting the same thing … empty calories that won’t even fill you up.  So, yes, eat breakfast…but choose some protein, add in some fruit and/or veggies, and you’ll be well fueled and full of nutrients.  THAT will help with weight loss.

2. Drinking diet drinks to eliminate liquid calories.  This one is tricky.  We’re not fans of diet drinks — diet soda, tea, Crystal Light, etc.  Why?  Because they’re artificial.  And, interestingly, a handful of studies suggest diet drinks may actually cause weight gain just like their high calorie counterpart.  Very simply the thought process is that your body is "tricked" into thinking it’s getting something sweet, but since you don’t actually get any calories or nutrients, you then have MORE cravings.  Hmmmmm.  Maybe. 

   Here’s the kicker, though.  We hate the high calorie alternative too.  We’re not suggesting slurping down liquid Froot Loops (e.g, soda) either.  Drink water.  If you don’t like the plain flavor, add slices of fruit or veggies to change it a bit — it will take on a hint of whatever fruit or veggie you use.

3. Enjoying low fat snacks.  Snacking is great…when you choose good options.  But when you don’t, they are, well, junk. 

   Zero nutrient rice cakes = Junk. 
   Low fat chips = Junk
   Low fat ice cream or cookies =  You guessed it, junk. 

   The list can go on.  Want a solid snack that will help fill you with nutrients AND boost weight loss?  Grab a handful of nuts — they’re loaded with healthy fat, protein, fiber, and a ton of nutrients.  Good stuff.  Of course, they are calorie dense — so sticking to that handful is the key. 

   Just don’t fall for the low fat mantra.  If a good is naturally low fat, like veggies and fruits, fantastic.  But if it’s a food that SHOULD have fat but it’s "magically" disapeared, that means it’s full of added junk to make it taste like what we’re used to.  Stick to real foods, just stick to smaller portions.

Mohr Results Bottom Line: You don’t have to get duped with all the diet information you’re going to be hearing over the next several weeks and month.  Armed with the right tools, you will absolutely be able to make the best decisions and achieve whatever goals you want.  If you want a simple fat loss jumpstart so you don’t have to think about anything — just following along with the blueprint, check out the 21 Day Fat Loss Jumpstart


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Thanksgiving in the States is tomorrow…

A holiday that has turned into the biggest eating day of the entire year in the States.

On average, it’s suggested that American’s eat upwards of 4200 calories/day — about 3-4 times above "normal" — or what’s needed.

We’re all about enjoying yourself and the special holiday traditions.  In fact, it’s important to remind you that your daily habits are significantly more important than any single occasion.  BUT, avoiding that post Thanksgiving feeling of disgustingness (is that a word?), where you have no option other than unbuttoning your pants and collapsing on the couch, only to fall asleep and wake up bloated and uncomfortable, isn’t a bad thing.

Instead, this year, try these 3 ‘tricks’ that help you save on calories but not skimp on flavor or even miss out eating your favorites.

Consider it your Thanksgiving Survival Guide.

These Thanksgiving Survival Guide tricks are so simple they’re almost too easy.

1. Don’t let your foods touch on your plate.  Weird, I know — but most of the time the plate is piled so high, it’s like a giant mess of foods.  This year leave "white space" between each food.  Why?  You’ll pile less foods on one another meaning you eat your favorites, just not as much of each.
2. Skip the mindless eating.  Avoid the snack bowls, mixed nuts, and extras that are lying around the house…pre dinner, of course.  These are just extra calories that fill you up but aren’t "unique" to Thanksgiving, so you’re not mindlessly eating extra calories but aren’t even noticing (or enjoying) what you’re eating.  Enjoy the ‘unique’ foods — don’t waste calories on the basics you can get every day.
3. Fill your plate (without letting foods touch) and walk away from the buffet table.  Then wait 20 minutes before deciding to go up again.  Again, seems obvious.  But it’s not too common — walking away from the buffet table means you’ll be less likely to keep filling up on the extras just because.   And waiting the 20 minutes will allow you to truly determine if you’re physiologically hungry (not likely) or psychologically hungry (more likely).

There you have it.  These are simple, their straightforward, but they’re all effective ‘weird’ little tricks that can make a big difference.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers. 

Sorry for the lack of posts the lack of updates the last few days.

There’s been a few things happening at the Team Mohr HQ…

…namely, we’ve grown.

We now have a new daughter in the Mohr House.  Everyone is doing great.  Kara is recovering well.  And Ella (our 2.5 year old) is wondering who just completely took over her world!

Back to the HOT topic the other day — one of most popular blogs to date — is there a fat more dangerous than Trans fat?

On the blog I talked about the dangers of very high omega-6 oils, like soybean oil.  But while the intake of soybean oil has skyrocketed, it’s certainly not the only culprit of our insanely high intake of the oils.

Lets take a step back.

If Omega-6 fats are essential, why do we keep saying they’re dangerous?

Because while they ARE essential, too many in the body can cause a host of issues, namely inflammation.  And inflammation — chronic inflammation — has been linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, Alzeimers and pretty much every other disease known to man.

So one major goal with our diets should be to "tame the flame" or, in other words, eat less inflammatory foods.

Outside of soybean oil, which again is in more foods than you’d expect, where else can we find high levels of omega-6 fats that we need to decrease?  Here’s just a few…

• Corn oil
• Safflower oil
• Sesame oil
• Sunflower oil
• Walnut oil
• Pumpkin oil

But it’s not just oils that are a culprit.

A brilliant scientist and omega 3 fat pioneer, came up with something called the Omega-3 Balance Score — where foods are "ranked" based on their omega-3:omega-6 balance.  The goal with his lists are to eat more of the foods that have higher positive numbers and less than have negative.  Here are some examples below of some common foods:

A VERY appreviated list from what’s found on Omea-3 Score Sheet website:

Eat These (short list)

Anhovy, 78
Tuna, 61
Salmon, 52
Sea bass, 48.6
Tuna, 46
Flaxseed, 28
Beans (pinto, kidney, adzuki). + 0.5
Spinach, +3
Collard, +1.9

Eat Less of These
Rice, -0.6
Macaroni, -0.5
Most Ready to eat cereals, -0.9
Rye crackers, -1.1
Croissants, -1.3
English Muffins, -2.1
Waffles, -18.2
Puff pastry, -30.6

Now, this is a very, very abbreviated list from the site listed above.  But definitely check out that link, as you may be very, very surprised with what you find!  Just wanted to give some examples.  Keep in mind, while we like the overall idea of this, it’s certainly not the only measure of food quality.  Walnuts, for example, have a very negative score — but they have loads of other health benefits, so like most things, it’s not the only measure of quality.

But as a whole, it’s a good idea to eat more "positive" foods and a lot less "negative" foods.

Who knows.  Maybe it’s what’s been keeping you stuck with your weight loss efforts.

What do you think?  Let us know by leaving a comment or clicking "like" on FB to share with your friends.

Dietary fat has always been a hot topic of debate.

From the emergence of the Atkins diet several decades ago to the fat free craze in the early 90′s, dietary fat has been embraced by many and shunned by others.

It’s safe to say that at least amidst all of the confusion, there is agreement among most experts that quality is crucial and we have to shift our focus away from just "fat is good" or "fat is bad."

Sure, there is still some debate about quality fat — some say butter is the new health food and coconut oil is a healthy saturated fat.  But what’s true?  And why can’t we all just get along?

Well, there is one thing we all can ‘get along’ about … and that’s that artificial trans fat is dangerous.  It increases your risk of heart disease.  It may be tied to causing an increase in dangerous belly fat, which makes it doubly bad and so much more.

But what if there’s something even worse than trans fat?  And it’s not some unique fat that is rare in the American Diet.  In fact, it’s often where trans fat often comes from…hydrogenated soybean oil…

This time, though it’s not just the hydrogenated part we’re concerned with, however.  It’s the soybean oil itself.  And while you may not use soybean oil regularly to cook with, trust me, it permeates our food supply. 

Why such alarm for such a common oil used in so many food products? 

The fat within soybean oil is mainly an omega-6 fat. 

Let’s backup.

Omega-6 fats are essential fats, meaning we have to get them from the diet.

But we get way, way, WAY too many.

And this is dangerous for many reasons.

1. It increase inflammation throughout the body.
2. Inflammation is the underlying issue for most diseases.
3. Too much omega-6 fats "block" the crucial omega-3 fats.  Some experts suggest omega-3 fat needs are 11 times higher when someone has a high intake of omega-6!  Again, remember omega-6′s are already very high in Western diets.

I can go on, but those 3 bullets are pretty telling of why too many omega-6 fats can be dangerous.  If omega-3 fat needs are 11 times higher with too much omega 6, yet as a whole most don’t eat enough omega-3′s as it is…you can see our concern!  And this is why soybean oil (which is mostly an omega-6 fat) is high up on the "dangerous" list.  If you think you don’t eat much of it, check out this picture — courtesy of famed Omega-3 Researcher, Dr. Joe Hibbeln.  This graph represents a 1000% increase where 0.2 lbs/person/year was produced to 1909 where 25.0 lbs/person/year was produced in 1999. 

• So we’re not eating enough omega-3′s.
• We’re eating way too many omega-6′s (meaning we’re also hurting omega-3 status)
• And soybean oil is one of the major omega-6 culprits in the Western Diet.  Sure, there are others, but this fat permeates the foods we eat. 

The question now becomes…what do we do about this?

No surprise here — eat less prepackaged, prepared foods.  But not just the obvious pastries, Twinkies, Ding Dongs, etc …

…how about MOST prepackaged salad dressings?  EVEN if they say "made with olive oil," that solely means there’s a splash in there somewhere.  I can assure you that if you have a prepackaged salad dressing in your fridge right now, high up on the list (usually 2nd) is soybean oil.

Salad dressing certainly isn’t the only culprit, though a common one.

Most prepackaged foods are loaded with soybean oil, often pushed as a "healthy" alternative to other fats.

But considering a recent report suggested omega-3 fat deficiency causes 96,000 deaths per year (only behind high salt intake for dietary causes of death) and above trans fat intake…

...and high omega-6 diets "block" omega-3 benefits, requiring even higher amounts, you can see why we suggest soybean oil is so dangerous.

Now, we’ll write more about this next week — but there are actually a lot of foods that are very high in omega-6 fats that you may not even be thinking about, sometimes often pushed as great options.  English muffins, tofu, sunflower seeds, sunflower seed butter, chick peas, peanuts and many, many more …

If you’re curious about your personal levels within your body, you can get an Omega-3 Test to find out your levels. I just had mine done and Kara will have hers, too.  Fortunately my blood looks pretty good, but still not in the "optimal" level, which means I’m continuing to tweak and improve to get it there. 

Simply adding more omega-3′s on top of a horrible diet isn’t the answer.  That’s like putting a band aid on the problem.  You can’t go to McDonald’s, take your Nordic Naturals fish oil, and think you’re doing something good.

We need to look at how we can decrease omega-6 fats as well.

Nix the six.  Eat the 3′s! 

Looking for even more information on omega-3 fats and 50 other dietary supplements?  Check out http://www.DietarySupplementU.com

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We were at the park with Ella the other night and were talking with another set of parents while our daughters played together.  As we continued to talk, the conversation came up of how we manage to fit in exercise with Ella…and how will we with another one on the way.

This particular couple already has 2 kids, both under 3.  And both, admittedly, have struggled to maintain their own exercise habits.

Now we’ll be the first to admit, having kids certainly throws a little wrench into the mix … it makes eating healthy and exercising regularly a bit more challenging, but certainly not impossible or out of the question when you have a strategy in place.  What used to be our normal routine is now dictated by an almost 2.5 year old.  And again this will all change in a few weeks for us personally. 

It doesn’t mean exercising is impossible until your last kid turns 18 and you’re an empty nester.  And even if you don’t have kids, similar challenges exist — you’re working longer hours, don’t want to get up an earlier to exercise before work like we do in our Louisville boot camp and simply struggle to make time.

What we shared with them at the park is exactly what you’re going to hear today …

…it’s something we’ve learned and adapted over the last few years since Ella has been around.  Our goals certainly shifted — years ago I would train twice per day — lifting once, some type of cardio or sprints later on.  Kara did the same when she ran more often; lifting in the morning and then running in the afternoon. 

But basically we now get in and out of the gym or wherever we’re working out as quickly as possible.  We call it the "Power of Less."  Interestingly, in the book the 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, he coined the term "minimum effective dose" … same idea.

…how little can you do and still get the best results?  In other words, less is more (or is it less is MOHR?).

Ferriss points to the example of boiling water.  Boiling water is boiling water.  It doesn’t get "more boiled" with greater and longer heat.  

We’re not trying to get people to move less; we’re trying to be practical in our recommendations because at the end of the day, spending as much time with Ella as possible is a lot more important than spending as much time as possible working out. 

One example of getting more done in less time is changing the intensity of your workout.  We can do 10 hill sprints in 20 or 30 or so minutes…very challenging workout that puts a lot of demands on many muscles of our bodies.  Or we can go out for a walk each day, do that for about 60 minutes, barely elevate the heart rate or work muscles with any type of intensity and not get close to the same results.

Does this mean walking is bad?  Of course not…and we DO often do that stroll just to get out of the house.  We’re not necessarily even doing it for the sake of exercising, it’s just better than sitting around watching TV and it’s a great way to break up the work day and take a break from staring at a computer.

But let’s go back to that minimum effective dose … or what we say is the "Power of Less."

Maybe it means you have to bump up the intensity of your workouts to get more in less time. 

The Power of Less works for nutrition, too.  In fact we talked about it the other day when we suggested you STOP THINKING.  There’s 15 million different ideas, diets, and tips out there … focus on ONE and you’ll get results rather than flip flopping daily and believing every single thing you read. More on this to come in the future…

It’s where less is more.  And where LESS will get you BETTER results. 

The Power of Less.  Agree?


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