Posts Tagged ‘Fat burning’

Excuses & Meme’s…The Great American Way! Part II

Please read part I posted last week to shed light on what I am about to suggest in this post.  Last week I told you that all of us have meme’s and that they act to impede our fitness and nutrition goals.  Today I would like to give you some simple steps that you can apply to change your current mindset so that you can obtain the lifestyle that you truly deserve.

Step #1:  Acknowledge that you make excuses:

No, you’re not in AA but this first step CANNOT be overlooked. If you do, you will pay the price of failing.  You make excuses…yes you do.  There is absolutely nobody that is exempt from excuse making and you are no exception.  That is ok.  The good news is that you can change your mind once you identify your excuses and memes. 

Step #2: Write down all of your excuses and memes:

This is more of a process.  For the next 30 days I want you to write down all of the excuses and memes that you make to yourself.  See last weeks post for examples.

Step #3: State the opposite:

Once you have written down all of your most annoying excuses and memes you need to write down the exact opposite.  For example if you say, “I am too tired to exercise after work”, write down “Because I am proactive and take responsibility for my life, I will exercise before work to increase my energy level”. 

Step #4: Change your Sub-Conscience Mind: 

Your sub-conscience mind is the part of the brain that stores all of your habits.  It steers the proverbial ship.  This is where the vast majority of all your behaviors are stored and processed.  To change your sub-conscience mind you have to do the following things.

            a. Convince it that it is wrong:  You do this by stating the exact opposite of your memes.  The very moment that a negative or damming thought enters your head you must replace it with the opposite thought…even if you have to say it out loud.

            b. Construct a list of positive affirmations:  On this list could be something like “I am in control of my eating at all times”, or “Exercising daily is just part of who I am”. 

            c. Repeat your list of affirmations daily, morning and night: Do this when you first awake and before you go to sleep.  The goal is to be in a relaxed state where not much will bother you and where your mind can be at ease. 

            d. Be in a state of believing:  When you are repeating your affirmations, do so in a state of positivity and optimism

Step #5: Disarm your alarm system!

When you begin doing these simple steps your brain will tell you that you are crazy and that you are acting weird or like a moron.  This is normal because your brain is still convinced of the validity of your previous mindset of excuses and memes.  Persistence is the key here.  If you persist and repeat your affirmations day after day you will begin to believe the things that you are telling yourself and BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE YOURSELF YOU WILL ACT ON IT!  Yes your behavior will start to change in a way that you never imagined possible.

Step #6:  Realize that you never “Arrive”.

We live in a world of complacency, feeling entitled and laziness.  If you are not constantly reinforcing your sub-conscience mind, rest assured you will slip back into old ways.  Stay focused and realize that you have to be proactive to win the battle.  Things will not magically work out for the best if you are not constantly bathing your mind with the things that you want to accomplish.

Step #7 Action:

This is where it is time to get off your butt and get into action.  You can have the most wonderful meditation sessions of visualizations and imagery known to mankind, but if you don’t move you will never change your behavior.  It is much easier to shed your old excuses when you see yourself doing the opposite of them.  Soon you will be excuse free!

Step #8 Making it Long-Term:

Realize from the get-go that this is about lifestyle change for the long-term!  Never allow any short-sightedness to enter the picture here.  When you are planning your visualizations and affirmations make them long term.  You want to adopt a mindset of permanency.

 Well there you have it my friends!  Properly applied these principles can and will change your lifestyle for the better.  Start applying them today…there is absolutely no room for procrastination here.  Remember…life is good!

You may be asking yourself…what the heck is a meme?  The word meme is derived from a branch of Psychology called “Memetics”.  Memetics is the study of human behavior BASED on certain psychological beliefs.  In other words it is the study of mental habits.  If I believe that I am a fat, and unattractive slob, even though it may not be true, it becomes a reality in my own mind.  Take for example the victim of Anorexia Nervosa.  Although their body fat level may be fatally low, they think and believe that they are fat.  They live in an alternate reality that is fueled by their own flawed thinking.  Essentially memes are lies and excuses.  They may contain an element of truth BUT they can be altered by you.  They can be changed.

Now you may be asking the question…well what does this have to do with my fitness and nutrition goals?  The answer is a resounding: EVERYTHING!  Do you know that YOU have memes?  Yes, you have memes that are good and bad.  Here are some examples of memes to help you better understand this article.

“I can’t find the time to exercise…I am just too busy”

“My genetics have pre-disposed me to be fat…there is not much I can do about it”

“I am just naturally lazy…it is hard for me to get motivated to do anything!”

“I would like to eat healthier, but I don’t have time and it is too expensive”

“Nobody understands me…that is why I fail”

“I am too old to exercise”

“I am too important of a person at work to allow time to exercise”

“Eating healthy is boring”

“I am entitled to eat unhealthy…I’m an American” (This is more of a sub-conscience meme)”

“I would be healthier but I don’t have the support of my family”

“I am too tired to work out after my job…I just want to crash”

 I guarantee that many of you reading this are saying to yourself, “yes that is me” or, “well, yes they are excuses but they are true!”  Would I offend you if I told you that none of these excuses are rooted in truth?  Memes have a terribly insidious way of convincing you that they are indeed truthful.  Let’s take the time excuse for example.  In a recent study performed by the American College of Sports Medicine they found that the number one excuse for not exercising is time.  People feel like they don’t have enough time to exercise but what the study found is just the opposite.  People HAVE the time but they don’t MAKE the time.  Simply put it is not a priority to them.  This clearly show’s what a meme is…these people firmly believe that they don’t have the time to exercise but REALITY shows that they indeed do.  So to clarify…the meme is: “I don’t have the time”, but the reality says: “I don’t make the time”.  My friends there are a huge difference here!  Memes are nothing more than false mental realities that we create for ourselves…they are not rooted in truth.

 So how do we change our current thinking (meme) patterns?  In my next blog post I will give you a step-by step program that you can use to dissolve your current memes.  I assure you that you must dissipate your current memes if you ever hope to change your physical and nutritional lifestyle.  I have seen people succeed by changing their memes and I have seen people fail miserably because they don’t take the time to correct the mental before the physical.  In fact it has to be that way…mental before physical.  I think you can sense the truth inherent in these words.  Remember my friends; life is good…stay tuned for next week’s installment.

Ryan Flint, Lifelong Fitness Certified Personal Trainer and Sports Nutritionist

 I know there seems to be an on-going debate out there these days with health professionals, nutritionists, and the media giving different opinions about whether organic food is worth the slightly higher prices.

But there are a few VERY important aspects of organic food that I rarely see anybody out there talking about.

First, as you know, the main aspect that most people talk about in the organic vs conventional food debate is simply whether the food in question was grown with pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers, and whether that food contains pesticide/herbicide residues on the actual food when you eat it.

And that IS important… I mean, I know I don’t want to be ingesting pesticide residues that are potentially carginogenic or even estrogenic and can possibly increase belly fat (due to the xenoestrogens)… and I’m sure you don’t either!

But there’s another another MAJOR aspect of organic vs conventional food that most people are overlooking, and that is:

The impacts of conventional farm chemicals on the SOIL, and how that affects the nutritional composition (quantities of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in the food)

The harsh chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides used in conventional farming can destroy a large part of the microbial activity in the soils (bacteria and fungi) that help to make soil minerals more available to the plants roots.  Conventional farming degrades this aspect of the soil which results in lower micro-nutrient levels in the plants that you eat.

In organic farming, these harsh chemicals are not used, and the soil is healthier and more biologically active (fungi and bacteria aid the plant roots with uptake of minerals and nutrients), and the plants roots can therefore obtain more nutrition which produces foods with higher micro-nutrient levels.

Also, it’s quite possible that the heavy use of chemical fertilizers, which make crops grow much faster than normal, leads to a shallower root system, that inherently absorbs less micro-nutrients from the soil column compared to organically raised plants that are forced to have deeper, more extensive root systems to obtain all of the nutrients the plant needs.

I think it’s quite easy to see why organic foods can have superior nutrition levels and more vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants than conventional foods.

But beware of conflicting “reports” out there on this topic.  Although there is much data on the superior nutrition levels of organic foods, you may also find some data that contradicts these findings in particular studies.

The reason that this happens is that science isn’t perfect, and someone may measure the nutrition levels of a certain type of conventional tomato, for example, compared against a different type of organic tomato, grown in a vastly different geographic area in vastly different soils and climate.  There are dozens, or even hundreds of complications with these types of studies, which is why you can’t always make direct comparisons.

 However, I think with the evidence we talked about in terms of soil quality, nutrient uptake, and also just the pure fact that we don’t want carcinogenic and estrogenic chemicals in our food, it makes it worth it to try to buy organic as much as possible.

Sometimes Local may be MORE important than “Organic”

Here’s another vitally important thing to keep in mind… 

If your choices at the grocery store for the organic food come from half way around the globe (such as organic produce from Chile or New Zealand when you live in North America), then you might want to consider favoring local produce even if it’s not labeled “organic”.

For one reason, many local farm stands may actually have organic produce but simply aren’t legally allowed to label their food “organic” if they haven’t acquired whatever necessary licenses they need for that.  If you ask the farmers, many times you may find out that the local farm produce is in fact organic, or at least close to organic (meaning they use very minimal chemicals compared to a large industrial farm).

Also, local produce that is picked at it’s peak of ripeness, and on your plate in a matter of hours or days, will usually have much higher nutrition levels compared to “organic” produce that was picked halfway around the world well before it was ripe and traveled weeks to make it to your grocery store.

The one caveat to this is frozen produce… sometimes fruits and veggies are picked at their peak of ripeness and frozen rather quickly, even if they were picked halfway around the world.  In this case, organic frozen fruits and vegetables can sometimes be just as nutritious as local produce (although they may carry a bigger petroleum burden than local produce)

So, if I were to give my overall recommendations to save yourself from the inherent health dangers of pesticides and herbicides, while also eating food that contains the highest levels of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, it is this:

1. choose organic over conventional most of the time, when it’s available

2. choose local foods over organic if the organic food came from very long distances away (although frozen organic fruits and vegetables can be just as nutritious as local)

3. Don’t forget that choosing organic also helps to protect the environment from chemical fertilizer and pesticide pollution that can harm ecosystems and your own drinking water supply.

4. Don’t fall for “organic junk foods” — I’ve been seeing this trend lately — Just because crackers, cookies, cakes, and corn chips may be labeled “organic”, doesn’t mean they are healthy… junk food is still junk food!  And these are still overly processed foods that can make you fat!

Remember that forcing change for responsible agriculture starts with your choices as a consumer.  The more we demand responsibly grown and raised foods by choosing those foods in our shopping carts, the more that producers and suppliers will respond to that demand.

The following is a list that you can use as a nutritional checklist.  If you can answer yes to these questions you will find yourself on the fast track to success.  If you find yourself at a plateau, oftentimes you will find yourself negligent in one or more of these areas.  These principles are based on long term lifestyle change and I promise you that if you apply them and are able to answer “yes” to all of these on a CONSISTENT basis, you WILL succeed!  Best of Luck!

1- Am I within my calorie range on a daily basis?

This is extremely important.  Most people get frustrated because they fail to lose/gain/maintain weight even when they are making healthy choices.  The problem is that the body can get quite particular and even 300-500 calories in either direction can make all of the difference.  Log on to www .fitday.com to enter your calories and find out if you are indeed within your range.

2-Am I eating 5-6 SMALLER meals spaced out every 2-3 hours?

Remember that the reason behind this one is to activate your metabolism and supercharge it!  You can eat the same amount of calories but only in 3 square meals and you will NOT lose the weight that you would with 5-6 smaller meals spaced out every 2-3 hours.  Why?  Because your blood sugar levels stay much more steady when eating the smaller more frequent meals.  Never neglect this principle.

3-Are my Macronutrients (Carbs, Pro, Fat) in Balance?

Remember that the body prefers a balance of these sources.  You should be around 50% Carbohydrate, 30% Protein, and 20% Fat, unless otherwise directed by your trainer.  This pertains to each individual meal and to your total daily intake.

4-Am I Consuming Moderate to Low Glycemic Carbohydrates?

This is by far the most overlooked nutritional aspect that can have a huge impact.  Please refer to the book, The New Glucose Revolution, The Complete Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index for further insights and understanding on this topic.  It is essential to gain a complete and thorough understanding on this topic so that you can reap the benefits of eating moderate to low glycemic carbohydrates.

5- Am I consuming adequate Fruits and Vegetables on a Daily basis?

The body demands nutrients, fiber, antioxidants that are found in fruits and vegetables.  Don’t like veggies?  Get over it and get used to them because they are the life blood of good nutrition and you cannot consider yourself truly healthy until you are getting at least 3 servings (3-5) of veggies a day and 2 servings (2-4) of fruit.

6- Am I eating Breakfast?

This is an absolute must!  I know that many of you struggle with this one…if you do start small and work up to a moderate meal.  This sets your body’s metabolism into motion for the day and ensures that you keep your blood sugar levels in check.

7-Is my sugar/treat intake low?

Nobody is telling you that you can never have a treat, but if you do so earlier in the day and make sure that you keep your portion size small.  Your total daily sugar intake should never be more than 10% and lower is much better.  Sugar is a death nail when it comes to weight loss.

8-Is my fat intake low? 

Remember that you should never be over 20% in the fat category and of that 20%, no more than 10% (and much lower if possible) should come from saturated (animal) fat.

In my next post I will do a Non-Nutritional checklist that will work hand in hand with this one.

Life is good!

Today I want to continue speaking about the power of the glycemic index in helping you to change not only your physical body but also the more important things like energy level, better mood,  and increased concentration and focus.  Is there any of you that would not like to enhance these facets of life?  Please refer to the first edition to this article for the nuts and bolts concerning the glycemic index.

Sometimes we think of calories as calories as calories…with absolutely no differentiati0n.  The fact of the matter is that calories can have a drastically different affect on the body depending where they come from.  Lets say that you are a fitness enthusiast (as you all should be) and you are planning on going on a long 5 mile hike tomorrow.  What kind of carbohydrate should you consume…high, medium, or low glycemic?  I want to give you some example scenarios to help illustrate the point.

If you were indeed going hiking you would want to start loading up on some low glycemic high energy yielding carbohydrates such as whole grain pasta’s, sweet potatoes, or beans and legumes.  Ideally you would want to consume these carbohydrates about 1.5 to 2 hours before your hike (or whatever athletic, or recreational event you are planning to endeavor in).   The reason for this is that these sources of foods are very low glycemic which means that they break down SLOWLY into your blood stream and provide you with a slow but steady source of calories (energy) for the task at hand.  If you were to eat a high glycemic carbohydrate instead and then go hiking you would hit the wall faster because the food would be rapidly digested, your blood sugar would rise, give you an abrupt source of energy but then you would end up crashing as your blood sugar came back down.

Now lets say that you are in the same scenario with hiking but the only difference is that you have neglected to eat prior to your hike and now you need to get some quick calories in you to get on with your upcoming hike.  You only have half an hour before your hike so now you would want to consume something with a moderate glycemic index such as whole wheat bread or corn.  You can also consume some low glycemic carbohydrates first such as those listed previously to ensure that you have an “energy cusion”.  What I mean by this is that once you burn off the moderate index carbs you still have the lower glycemic carbs to fall back on because they will be breaking down to blood sugar at a slower rate than the moderate ones.  Think of it like a birthday cake…you have the initial layer of frosting (your higher medium carbs) followed by the cake itself (the lower glycemic carbs).  The frosting is what is going to get you the initial energy boost, and the cake itself will provide the lasting energy because there is more substance and bulk, just like you would get from a lower glycemic carb.  Obviously this is not true in real life, but I hope the visual helps.

OK, that is all well and good, but what about it you just want to lose weight!  If that is the case then you should be trying to get the lowest glycemic carbs possible at all times because it ensures that you will keep your blood sugar levels low which means less insulin spikes which means less fat-storage!  It’s that simple!  The bottom line is that you want the carbohydrate to break down as slow as possibleso that you can use that calories that it yields.  This also ensures that your body uses the available calories instead of storing them.

So go and make the resolution to strategically isolate which carbs you will and will not have.  The New Glucose Revolution is a great book series to get you started in this endeavor.

1. Severely restrict their caloric intake.  A starvation diet (i.e., reducing your caloric intake to less than 50% of what your body requires) presents a number of problems to people who are trying to lose weight.  First and Foremost it doesn’t work.  Any weight that may have been lost is subsequently regained because most individuals cannot maintain such a restrictive eating plan over the long haul.
2. Have an unduly NARROW perspective of the problem at hand. Too many people view losing weight as simply a matter of cutting back on what they eat.  In reality, it’s an issue of basic physics—balancing energy in with energy out.  As such, if you really want to lose weight (and keep it off), you need to increase your level of physical activity and eat in moderation.
3. Ignore the need to maintain their level of lean body mass.  A common tendency among individuals who exercise is to focus their activity efforts solely on aerobic exercise.  In the process, they lose muscle mass, which is replaced by fat when they inevitably regain whatever weight they lost.  In turn, their metabolic rate as well as the number of calories that they need to maintain their current weight, is diminished.  This adjustment creates a cycle that is counterproductive to sustained weight loss.
4. Misinterpret what some food labels are actually telling them.  It is extremely important for individuals who want to control their weight to be aware of the fact that labels that state that a particular foodstuff is either “no fat” or “no sugar” does not mean “no calories”.
5. Try to lose too much weight too rapidly.  Research shows that a weight-reduction program that involves a slow and steady loss (i.e, approximately 1 lb or less per week for women and 2 lbs or less per week for men) has the best chance for success, particularly when it is combined with an effort to change any inappropriate lifestyle habits.
6. Believe that spot reduction is possible.  The concept of spot reducing is a complete myth.  No exercise will eliminate fat from a specific area of the body, just as no change in your level of caloric intake will guarantee that the fat will melt away in the area of the body you most want to address.  As a rule, the pattern in which you lose body fat is genetically predetermined.
7. Mistake water lost through sweating for actual fat and weight loss.  Your body has millions of sweat glands hat cover your skin, excreting water and electrolytes.  When you exercise, the amount of water (sweat) that is perspired increases in an effort by your body to help keep you cool and regulate your body temperature.  The water you lose for perspiring can mislead you into believing that you’ve lost more fat and body weight than you may have actually lost.  Such water weight is replaced when you subsequently consume fluids.
8. Buy into the “magic beans” theory.  Selling supplements and related pills, powders, and potions that purportedly will somehow facilitate a person’s efforts to lose weight is a multi-billion dollar-a-year industry.  Other than being a waste of money and a purveyor of false hope for individuals who are looking for an easy and quick-fix approach to losing weight, such items also can have negative health consequences.
9. Follow unproven and spurious dieting advice.  The number of unsound diets that target unsuspecting individuals with undocumented claims and unhealthy practices seems to grow exponentially every year.  Truth be known, these diets share at least two traits—they don’t work, and they may actually be harmful (physically and financially) to a person who tries them.
10. Consider a surgical solution to their “weight” problem.  Some individuals consider a surgical option for losing weight.  In this regard, two procedures tend to receive the most attention—liposuction and gastric bypass surgery.  Although guidelines vary, gastric bypass surgery is generally reserved for severely obese individuals.

So there you have it!  When you are setting your goals with your trainer, please keep in mind these myths that pervade the public in general.  I would ask you to pay particular attention to #1, 2 3, 5, and 9.  I would say that 90% of our clients have had or still have some of these flawed beliefs.  Please know that we care for you and hope greatly for your success.  Please allow us to work within our professional realm to help you get the results you have always dreamed of.  Remember life is good when you are physically active! 

Please talk to your trainer about re-committing to your New-Year’s resolutions and we will be happy to help you.

Ok, you are talking to a friend that you have not seen for a while, just shooting the breeze and catching up when all of the sudden you hear him say, “I just started a new exercise program and I am doing my cardio 6 times per week to burn the fat and I lift in the gym 3 times per week to firm up”.  You nod your head in an affirming gesture, end the conversation, and go on with your day.  You return to work after your lunch-break and over hear two ladies in an adjacent cubical saying, “Yea, I just started working out again but I am just focusing on cardio for now to burn the fat and then when I reach my goal I will start with the weights”.

Many of us have heard statements such as these and many more.  Those that make them have the very best of intentions but the very worst of factual information.  Today I want to give you some facts that will change your approach to fitness and ultimately point you in the right direction for whatever your fitness goal may be.

Must Have Natural Metabolism Elixirs:

1- Resistance Training:

For those of you already involved with resistance training congratulations!  For those of you who are either not doing it or putting it off, till “I have lost some initial weight”, please reconsider the following physiological process of fat burning:

-Resistance training is the nuts and bolts to building muscle

-Muscle is a metabolically active tissue, meaning that it is the tissue that is constantly burning         calories and fat.

- Resistance training is the ONLY way to maintain a level of lean muscle tissue that will help you in your fat-burning quest.

2- Proper Cardio/Resistance Training Balance

This goal will vary for everyone depending on fitness levels, goals, age, gender, and so forth.

A few rules of thumb that might help you…

A- If your goal is weight loss: You want to start with 50/50 split between cardio and weights.  For example cardiovascular activities on M/W/F and weights on T/TH/SAT.

B- If your goal is muscle gains: You want to start with the scale swayed towards more weight training days.  So you might go to four days of weights and only two days of cardio.  In reality this particular set-up can burn just as much and in some cases more than the weight loss regime that I just listed under letter A.

C- If your goal is weight maintenance:  typically weight training 3-4 days per week with 2-3 days of cardio injected on your non-weight training days.

3- Muscle Building Nutrition

How many of us go to the gym, do our workout and then lie to ourselves with some of the following excuses…

-“I workout so that I can eat like I want to”

- “I workout so hard that my body can handle some of the junk food that I consume frequently”

- “I am not making progress in the gym so it must be my workout” (completely turning a blind eye to poor nutrition)

The truth is that nutrition is 80% of the fat loss battle whereas the gym is only 20%.  Yes we need to workout and workout hard, but how can we expect our bodies to build muscle and burn fat if we are giving it crap food every day?  The math does not add up and that is why there are so many frustrated, plateau stricken, ever persistent gym going people out there that never get over that last fat hump.

The bottom line:

We all have certain beliefs and perspectives about resistance training that may or may not help us in our fitness goals.  I am speaking to some people in particular.  1-) Those wishing to shed body fat 2-) Those only participating in cardiovascular exercise 3-) Those who have viewed resistance training as a “guy thing” or those who have been turned off by massive bodybuilding men and women thinking that they will look like them if they participate in a sensible resistance training program.  Resistance training consistently beats cardiovascular exercise when it comes to burning fat and maintaining healthy body fat levels.

If you truly want your body to become a Fat Burning Machine please do away with those worn out and tired myths and consider the aforementioned points in this article.  Become a believer as your fat melts away and you maintain the lean muscular and sexy body that you have always wanted.