Lets get real. To get leaner, how many possible ideas, diets, therapies book, and articles do we need to read, ponder and attempt? That is the $1,000,000 question. We talk, talk, talk and maybe try some reactive approaches but with little, at best, short term results. When I talk short term, let’s assume less than 2 years. Any diet can get results for short term. Vision is a lifetime of health and not results just for the reunion.
The answer has been getting clearer as we learn more about our body. But at the same time we make poor choices, which guide the waistline to expand and the thighs to widen. People do not pay me to give them what they want to hear. They want – and I strive for – results for life. Without that goal and vision they usually are wasting their money. I had a friend who became a client 8 years back. He asked how could he drop his running times down a notch more. Well, to the embarrassment of my wife I respectfully said he needed to lose weight or the fanny back he carried 24/7 around his waist. He laughed, my wife blushed but he took the step and took his fitness and health to a higher level. He was fit but no one had told him straightforward that he really needed to lose weight to get faster. Then we worked a plan that lasted for lifetime results. If you are already an athlete, losing 2 lbs around you body is much more performance enhancing and economically healthy than the cost of buying a titanium bike part that saves you 90 grams and costs $200. 10 oz. racing shoes yield much less return that the extra 2-5 lbs that you may carry. For those who may not consider yourself athletes yet, well get real or your life will be filled with more politically correct schemes and frustrations. A politically incorrect approach to the vast information of health is what I use to get results for a lifetime and not just a year. You may be fat, overweight or obese but realize that we all have much to learn. Just because you wear a size 4 or have a 29-inch waist does not mean that you are healthy. And gluttony has little to do with your shape.
Opening up our minds and spirits to the gift of health is a goal that our Creator has put in front of us. Are you willing to take the step?
Before we get into the facts, let’s lay some guidelines to assist you in your goal.
- Teacher Should lead by example. Does an AA counselor have meetings at Joe’s Bar? Does your Church just read scripture or truly strive to develop life’s most important relationships? Does your financial planner live in debt and does your orthodontist have crooked teeth? Does your personal trainer carry some extra sizes on their belt for the next famine? Does your nutritionist or medical practitioner have health in their home or do they just talk the talk? Joking aside, this is reality. Americais the greatest country in the world: freedom to choose and freedom of speech. Leading by example should be the 1ststep to really looking for a professional to help facilitate your way to success for a lifetime.
- Vision Mostany diet can lose you weight. Did you get that, almost any? Grapefruit, soup diet, Atkins, Zone, Bean, etc. etc. All work but only when you take in fewer calories than your metabolism will burn. The problem is that you have a great chance of gaining back much more after you succumb to the temptations of societal food. Do you really want to count your carbs for the rest of your life? Do you really want to count the grams of protein or fat that you are eating at every meal? You may also need a variety of new sizes of clothing but that counting approach will drive you nuts, and you will need a psychiatrist after long: truly unrealistic for lifetime results. Have a vision that anything worth having takes work. You did not get fat overnight so getting lean and healthy will take vision.
- Pride /Sacrifice Do you really think we are smarter than our Creator? There is something that they call exercise. America wants it to come in a bottle. It doesn’t happen. God made us to move. This will hurt but there is no exercise in the capsule. The very best diet still falls short on reaching your potential for optimum health without a proper exercise program. The 3 main organs for proactive weight control relate to hormone and insulin function:
- Pancreas
- Liver
- Skeletal muscle.
We can affect the first 2 with the right diet and nutraceuticals, but proper exercise will affect all three. Proper is the key word because many play the Russian roulette wheel and never understand how important your metabolism, hormones and immune function is altered with the right intensity and volume. If you think that just because you burned 900 calories /hour instead of 700/ hour is the right path to optimum shape, and health, chances of reaching goals are slim.
Burn That Fat
Malnutrition Do you realize that the great majority of obesity and overweight people are caused by malnutrition? Yes, they eat enough food but that “food” (it is a real stretch to refer to them as foods) is void of any sustaining nutrients. Surveys show that many parents are going to school or work without breakfast. Mid-morning they have a coffee, soft drink and chips or snack. Most snacks are loaded with the worst possible fat (trans fatty acid). Lunch of nachos (do I need to defend this poor choice?), pizza (processed fibreless grain, sugar gladdened sauce, and processed cheese food), chicken fingers (deadly trans fats, sugar, processed ground chicken scraps, processed flour with no fiber or key nutrients), hamburgers (same as before) and then followed by soda (sugar) or diet soda which includes aspartame (a neurotoxin which can actually cause you to gain weight). Ever see any one that you know that is very healthily, fit and lean drinking diet drinks? So why would you?
We take supplements, but if they are not whole food you are just getting the tip of the iceberg. Not only that most of the fragmented supplements do not work in synergy like a whole food supplement. The Process that has been patented by God is Synergy. Synergy is the 5000 different flavinoids, vitamins, phytochemicals, fibers; enzymes in food working together for efficient utilization by the body. “Until Science can duplicate a blade of grass nature can only laugh at its so called wisdom”- Thomas Edison
This is what the American Institute of Health, American Cancer Society, American Heart association are recommending, to reduce our risk cancer and disease. Children are eating packaged waffles (overly processed grains with sugar and hydrogenated fat); processed grain cereals, crackers, sodas, fast food and maybe 1 or 2 fruit or vegetables/day. Type II Diabetes and obesity are prevalent and multiplying daily in children. Many have a lot of calories but little if any sustaining nutrients. This is malnutrition and this is where most American live. These are the patients of the future. Those on Juice Plus+ (concentrated powered Produce in a capsule) and the other proven Juice Plus + products would bridge that gap. We still need to understand and take further steps. Let’s press on.
Insulin We have an unlimited supply of energy called fat. Even at 4% body fat I have enough fuel to run from Pittsburgh to Dallas. The keys are how do I utilize this fat while talking, listening, walking, sitting, sleeping and exercising. The main way to utilize this energy supply and progress towards Optimum Shape and health is in one word: INSULIN. When we eat we produce insulin to help the body transport glucose from carbohydrate to the cells in the body. Most of glucose is use to produce energy about 10% is used to fill up your muscles and liver with glycogen (stored glucose for exercise at a later time). The rest is converted to fat and stored as energy. Now when we eat foods that are processed, have little or no fiber, high in sugar, corn syrup, the body produces higher insulin levels. This includes food such as pastries, most breads, most packaged cereals (corn flakes) and yes, most pastas. This increase in insulin is to keep up with the high spike in blood sugar. It is the body just trying to defend itself from personal dietary terrorism. Well, when the insulin raises that high and that fast many things happen physiologically. Most are not good!! A rise in insulin causes more fat to be stored and also less fat to be burned. So that wonderful unlimited supply of fat we have just sits as a fuel tank with no fuel line hooked up.
Eating meals with fiber, or adding the right fat and protein, helps regulate this insulin function. My family and clients use the Juice Plus + Thins in addition to the Capsules for the assistance of regulating this Insulin and blood sugar spike. Adding frequent meals is also an added asset to helping insulin function to allow your body to utilize fat. Having a good (relative) snack between meals will control this insulin swing. Not adding added calories but spreading them throughout day.
Exercise Now that you have chosen to start an exercise program, using the right approach will make all the difference to where you will burn your fuel. You will utilize fat and sugar as fuel while exercising. Depending on the intensity a higher percentage of fat or sugar will change as intensity is chosen. High intensity = high percentage of sugar as fuel. Low intensity = High percentage of fat as fuel. You only have a limited supply of sugar in the form of glucose in the body. But as mentioned prior we have the unlimited supply of fat to utilize. It is like uranium; just have to teach the body how to access the reactor. If you teach your body to burn sugars you will be having a campfire fueled with newspaper. It will be hot, but not for long. If you teach your body to utilize fat it will be like having a nice thick oak log to burn hot and long and melt the fat. The lower intensity workouts 60-70% teach your body how to utilize fats for energy. Not that a higher intensity is never prudent but first you build a proper foundation of fat burning. Intensity also plays into the last focus optimum shape and health.
Stress As we exercise at higher intensity we create stress by using a hormone called cortisol. This stress hormone is the flight or fight hormone. When the intensity is high, you’re passing your competition, stuck in traffic, meeting the deadline, reaching the quota, speaking in assembly or arguing with your friend or family. Studies show that stress can be a major factor to weight gain and lead to so many inflammatory conditions (proper fat choices to balance this inflammation) to destroy our health. This cortisol increase during stress shifts our body to burn sugar instead of fat. The more stress you have the more your body relies on sugar and the less it relies on fat for energy. This will then lead to the body craving more carbohydrate-rich foods and more negative insulin spiking carbohydrates (processed snacks, donuts, bagels, breads etc.)
The above choices have been going on for thousands of years. This is not astro physics. If we miss the age of a black hole by a few million years it does not hurt anybody, but if we mess this up we’re in trouble. We’re in trouble because we are too timid to change. It definitely takes sacrifice. Above choices are good for your genes, your future generations and for the earth. Is your health worth it?
Choose wisely your mentor or coach in your goal, have vision, and remember God gave us these wonderful bodies. Lets not abuse or try to outsmart him. Have a wonderful month.
Marc
“Health is more Than Fitness”