17 years into my fitness journey, I became a certified personal trainer with the National Academy of Sports Medicine, aka NASM, and started Body Shepherd to help people just like me journey out of obesity and into a fit life. In this episode, I mark 3 years of Body Shepherd by sharing the 3 most striking lessons I have learned so far (spoiler: I'm …

I tested positive for COVID-19. 3 days into having it, I thought to start logging daily audio entries on what it was like each day, and did so for all 10 days of my mandatory quarantine. I am sharing this because there is so much doom-and-gloom, so many sad stories about people who contract the virus, but that is not my story. I want to share this …

2020 was not the year I thought it was going to be. I'm sure you can say likewise. I have organized my thoughts into several takeaways from this weird year. Join me as I sort through the disappointment, enlightenment, specks of hope, and more. Plus, I'm changing the direction of Body Shepherd in 2021. No more just focusing on overweight/obese peopl…

Welcome to Season 4 of the Body Shepherd podcast! In this season, I am interviewing people I regard as The Onward Experts; those who have an expertise in the different areas of life we are facing in our various points of a journey toward a healthier, fit version of ourselves. EPISODE 1: How To Eat More Vegetables Without Knowing It • A Chat with Al…

Season 3 of the Body Shepherd podcast will address the various challenges that we are all facing in light of the COVID-19 coronavirus. If you have been listening to each episode as they drop, thank you! You might have wondered if this podcast shut down or not, and the honest answer is that I just needed some time away to take my own advice from the…

Season 3 of the Body Shepherd podcast will address the various challenges that we are all facing in light of the COVID-19 coronavirus. In this episode I want to share with you what I have learned to be 3 tips for helping make one's full life at home - as in during a quarantine or 'safer at home' order - more productive. For over a dozen years I hav…

Season 3 of the Body Shepherd podcast will address the various challenges that we are all facing in light of the COVID-19 coronavirus. In this first episode, I want to challenge you to think about your fitness and weight-loss journey without access to a gym…period. As in, assume gyms don't reopen. Let that sink in. Are you prepared for that? Do you…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 10: "Rapid Fire Q&A!!" In Season 2, I have taken a single question and devoted an episode to it over the course of the 9 previous episodes. To wrap this season up, I am devoting Episode 10 (this episode) to rapid fire Q&A! This is a series of questions that don't qu…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 9: "What Equipment Do I Need For A Home Gym?" The single-most asked question I get is, "What equipment do I need for a home gym?" And in this episode, I aim to answer that question. Unlike past episodes, this one is a tad interactive, in that I have a news post to g…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 8: "Is Exercise Variety Important?" I have tried hard to avoid a question that has a genuine "yes/no" answer, but here I am: The answer is yes/no. This is because, yes, you do need exercise variety to hit the various part of the human body effectively. But also, no,…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 7: "Should I Workout When I'm Sick?" If talking about supplements is the most controversial topic among trainers, whether to workout while one is sick is a close second. Both sides have hard-headed reasons why they believe what they believe and I am no different. Li…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 6: "Should I Workout Every Day?" Sometimes what hold people back from starting a new fitness journey is the perception that you need to workout every day. It's a very common question I am asked: Should I workout every day? The short answer is no, you shouldn't do th…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 5: "What Are The 'Unwritten Rules' Of The Gym?" I believe one of the one of the most valuable things I can offer someone on their weight loss journey is my firsthand perspective and experience of having gone through morbid obesity (and an eating disorder) and into a…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 4: "What’s ONE training tip you would give anyone?" Whether I am just chatting with someone and we are talking about our careers, or if meeting a possible client for the first time, a question I am often asked is, "What is ONE training tip you would give me?" My ans…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 3: "Do I REALLY Need A Goal?" "Depends what your goal is" sure seems to be the default reply to any question asked of any certified personal trainer I have ever met. Is that your experience, too? Yeah, that's what I thought. So, why is is the G-word so entrenched in…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 2: "Should I Buy A Fitness Tracker??" Apple® Watch. Fitbit®. You name see them everywhere: The fitness tracker, aka "smart watch." So, should you buy one as part of your weight loss journey tools? Believe it or not, I have a very strong take on this topic because th…

Season 2 of the Body Shepherd Podcast: Answers to Common Training Questions EPISODE 1: "When Should I Do Cardio?" This is maybe the single-most asked question I get as a personal trainer, and it's wise question to ask because when you are training, your body only has so much energy to exert. You want to get the most out of that energy and your time…

If you want a neat, orderly weight-loss/body transformation story of how someone went from fat to fit, this is not that story. This is the uncensored, long-form body transformation story of Body Shepherd's founder, Dan Crask. The host is the longtime fitness pro, Chris Farrell and this episode was originally recored for the now-retired Fit Dad Life…

TIP: Supplements There may be no bigger taboo topic among fitness professionals than that of supplementation. So, in full disclosure, I am pro-supplements, so long as they are used as true supplements, and not leaned on entirely for results. Here are supplements I use every day and why: Protein. I find it difficult to get all the protein my body ne…

Life gets challenging. Maybe life has an especially great moment.Whatever the reason: Food beckons. You indulge…over-indulge. And then it hits: What I call The Fuggits.You have a bad meal, hell, a bad day of eating and you think, “Aww, fuggit…I’ve messed up this much, it doesn’t matter if I just keep eating like this because I failed.”And if you’re…

Ever notice that we tend to eat at our worst when we’re totally unprepared to eat?We are busy doing this and that, hunger hits, and the easy options are calorie-dense but nutritionally-vacant.We need to prepare to eat with a prep day. At least one day a week, I cook 2 proteins in bulk so that they are ready for me to pull out of the fridge and eat …

We have covered tracking your food, and now it’s time to look at going a level deeper by seeing your daily nutrition goals as a budget.The starting question is: Do you track “macros,” which are the macronutrients of protein, fat, and carbs, or do you just track calories? Macros: Track macros if your goal is to gain muscle. You will want 0.8g–1.0g o…

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is where each day has an Eating Window and a Fasting Window.Practically, IF has a standard format called the 16:8 model where you fast for 16 hours and eat within 8 hours.I have followed this model for 3+ years. Each day, I eat between ~12pm and ~8pm, and I am in a fasted state from ~8pm to ~12pm the following day.My appro…

The main reason why “diets” crash and burn is because we totally eliminate the indulgences that we genuinely enjoy, but have abused to the point of gaining too much weight. The better way is delayed gratification.When I began my fit life as a 325+ lb man, I gave myself one day a week to eat whatever I wanted. It was a weekly reward for hard work. A…

The grind of Monday-Friday provides a daily template of routine to keep things somewhat predictable.But come Saturday and Sunday, we can be prone to get a case of the “Fuggits” and just eat whatever is within arm’s reach.The best thing you can do for yourself is to use your voice from within the routine to communicate to yourself on weekends, and r…

A need to eat on the go is a must for a lot of people, and if the meal prep in Week 6 didn’t happen or you just find yourself very hungry while out, with no food that you prepared, the on-the-go options become viable.What should we do? Here are some tips: Skip the sides like fries. You will get adequate carbs from a sandwich bun so there’s no need …

Did you know your stomach is roughly the size of your fist?Try it out: Make a fist. See that size? That’s roughly the size of your empty stomach.So when you are adding portions of food to your plate, you can use a fist as a template.Listen and learn more about why right-sized portions are so crucial to the success of your healthy life goals.…

If you follow Body Shepherd guidance and are using LoseIt™, then you may have arrived here already: You need to measure your food.Or maybe you’re guessing.Either way, it’s important to measure your food accurately with instruments so you know how to accurately measure it with your eyes.I like to measure my food with a food scale and cups for ~3 mon…

If we are honest, the reason why “dieting” sucks so much is because our dislike of food choices associated with “dieting” are not the hyper-flavorful varieties that cause rapid weight gain.And if we go a step further in our honesty, we can see that it is a sense of entitlement to these hyper-flavorful foods that “dieting” removes.This is where a ne…

No matter what your fitness goal is, you will eventually hit a plateau unless you log and track your food. We can have success in the gym, but fail in the kitchen, which results in stalled progress.You have to log your food.The good news is that apps like Lose It make this a breeze. Lose It has a barcode scanner to instantly scan barcodes on pre-pa…

Learn what to expect from this first season of the Body Shepherd podcast. This episode sets the tone for this podcast from Certified Personal Trainer (NASM) and Body Shepherd owner, Dan Crask.