Thursday, January 28, 2010

New Year New You So Far

If you made a new year's resolution, you are arriving at the 28 day mark. Studies show that it takes 21-28 days for us to break a habit or make a change. And chances are that your resolution was either fitness or diet related, as they hold #2 (fitness) and #3 (weight) spots for our top 10 resolutions. So, how are you doing?

If you haven't done so already, it is time for a measurement interval. You will basically find one of three outcomes: your situation has improved, plateaued or worsened.

If you have improved, positive results indicate following your current plan without change. If you have plateaued or backtracked, you need to make some adjustments.

Poor Plan or Poor Execution

Which is it, because it is one or the other. Perhaps your plan is essentially a good one but you left things a little vague. Eating a portion of protein with every meal is more specific than eat more protein. Or after some reflection, it occurs to you that your compliance has been about 75%. That's not bad but you have to get over 90% if this is going to be the year you are going to be fitter and leaner. You adopted your friend's plan and it may not be the best choice for your body or lifestyle. If in 28 days you haven't made improvement despite being confident the plan is a good one or truly adhering to it, get a new plan.

Here are two tips that might help you make a positive difference...

Cut 250 Calories

The body was designed to maintain a status quo. If you suddenly start burning more calories, compelling hunger shows up to correct the deficit. If you decrease your calorie intake, you may feel sluggish in an effort to conserve energy. It doesn't seem to mind if you just eat a little less at each meal.


Increase Exercise Volume

For improved body composition, you should be exercising 5-7 hours a week. This will give you average to excellent results in both fat loss and muscle mass gain. Try adding additional exercise in 30 min - 1 hr increments bi-weekly until you are seeing results.

Applause for all of us making strides to be our healthiest selves.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Settled Science Is Neither Settled Nor Science

"When a scientist tells you that 'the science is settled' in regard to any subject, he's ceased to be a scientist, and he's become an evangelist for one cult or another. The entire history of science is that nothing in science is ever settled. New discoveries are continuously made, and they upend old certainties."

-Dean Koontz, Breathless

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

In Defense Of Food

"Don't eat anything your grandmother or great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" wrote Michael Pollan in his book, Omnivore's Dilemma. I came across his wise advice while researching the real food or whole food movement.

I just read his more recent volume, In Defense Of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I have to laugh...and recognize his philosophy's simplicity as truth.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

"...eating a little meat isn't going to kill you, though it might be better approached as a side dish than a main. "


"You're better off eating whole fresh foods rather than processed food products."

"Avoid foods that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it's not really food."


"The plain fact that the chronic diseases that now kill most of us can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food."

"Letting the scientists decide the menu would be a mistake."

"Nutritionism supplies the ultimate justification for processing food...fake foods can be made even more nutritious than the real thing."


"Nutritionism has become the official ideology of the FDA." "...presuaded thousands of Americans to trade all pleasure in eating for health-promoting dietary regimens."

"McGovern "Goals"...National Academy Of Sciences report...dietary guidelines of the American Cancer and Heart Associations...US Food Pyramid....direct responsibility for creating the public health crisis that now confronts us."


"Declines in deaths from heart disease is due not to changes in lifestyle, such as diet, but to improvements in medical care."


"What people don't eat matters as much as what they do."


"It might be wise to eat more plants and less meat."
"People underestimate their food intake all the time."

"When you cook at home you seldom find yourself reaching for ethoxylated diglycerides or high fructose corn syrup."

"If you manage to just eat food most of the time, whatever that food is, you'll probably be okay."


"...using meat more as a flavor principle than as a main course, treating it as a condiment for vegetables."


"Organic Oreos are not a health food."

"Pay more, eat less."

"How often would you eat french fries if you had to peel, wash, cut and fry them yourself-and then cleanup the mess?"


"People tend to eat more when they can have exactly what they want."


"Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does."


"Eat deliberately."

"
Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup. They have crossed from foods to food products. "

"Avoid food products that make health claims....to make a health claim it must have a package, so right off the bat it's more likely to be processed than a whole food."

"Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle." "Get out of the supermarket whenever possible." "You are what what you eat eats too."

"Eat mostly plants, especially leaves."


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

5 Ways To Improve Your Health

We will either be more healthy or less healthy by this time next year. Life is dynamic not static, things do not remain the same, including our health. Here are 5 ways to become a new you in 2010.

1. Purge your fridge and pantry.








The holidays are over, taking our excuses for all things indulgent with it. Still have a few of those gourmet cookies your financial planner sent? Throw them away. Half drank bottle of wine? Braise some meat with it. Everything used to celebrate last year doesn't need to be dragged into your new one.

How do you know what to purge? If it is white, if it has enough preservatives to be stored in a bomb shelter, if is sweetened, if it has more than 5 ingredients, if you can't pronounce the ingredients, if it has a label touting a health benefit, if it is anything other than whole, it needs to goes.

2. Buy some real food.









Grown in the ground. Picked from a tree or bush. Passed by a hen. Carved by a butcher. Hand made from an artisan. These are real foods. Anything else is processed and makes you prone to disease and weight problems.

Fill your fruit and vegetable bins with fresh foods until they are overflowing. Stock the freezer with berries and quality cuts of meat. Only eat real (full fat - otherwise it has been processed) versions of yogurt, kefir, butter and other dairy, albeit sparingly. Try healthier replacements for staples such as agave nectar, nut milk, quinoa and steel cut oats.

50% of people hospitalized are malnourished. And fat. This year, rather than go on a diet, go for some food.

3. Have breakfast.









Cortisol is a vital hormone within our stress response. Too much creates unattractive side effects such as belly fat, moon face and buffalo hump. When you skip breakfast, you effect a metabolic circumstance of cortisol remaining high after sleep and a insulin crash later in the day. When you have a healthy breakfast, you start the day more in harmony.

Breakfast and subsequent meals are ideally composed of protein and complex carbohydrates. Think oatmeal with chopped apple and walnuts or spinach omelet versus bacon and eggs. Balancing protein with healthy carbs and fats, you maintain a balance between glucose and insulin. Breakfast might really be the most important meal of the day.

4. Commit to more fit.











If you need to lose weight, whether its a little or a lot, your current exercise program (along with your eating regimen) needs tweaking this year. If you are in good shape, any body could benefit from improved conditioning.

It is time to add resistance, because we are not getting any younger. That means hand weights, bands, machines or calisthenics. More muscle = more fat burned.

And we need to get some exercise everyday. Think 6 days of movement and 1 day of active rest.
Walking at a pace where you can enjoy the scenery and the company of a good friend is active rest. Walking at a pace where you are breathless and sweating is exercise. Even 15 minutes makes a difference.

Variety is also key. The body was designed to move, sometimes explosively. If you always work out on a machine, try skipping rope. If you always hit the cardio equipment, get down and do some push ups.

5. Enjoy a treat only after exercise.










Can't live without pasta or white potatoes? Great, exercise first. The body is most resistant to insulin after exercise so that is the best time to ingest higher glycemic foods. Pairing lower glycemic foods with higher ones also lowers the overall hit to blood sugar. Think quarter cup of pasta with lean protein and vegetables or a banana smoothie with protein powder. However, "Exercise first" is a sensible principle for managing glycation not an excuse to eat half a bag of oreos after a grilled chicken breast.

If you incorporate purging your fridge and pantry, eating only real foods, having a healthy breakfast daily, become more fit and eliminate insulin spikes, you will be healthier. And, I dare say, happier as well.

If not now, when?

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

HIGHTLIGHTS OF 2009

  • Jessica earning a Masters Degree
  • Andalucia, Spain
  • San Antonio Tea Party Protest
  • Thanksgiving in Destin
  • Brandon and Kim's wedding
  • Girls Weekend , Branson MO
  • Rex Allen Day 2009
  • Pilates Conservatory Review
POSSIBILITIES FOR 2010

  • European Christmas holiday
  • Specialist in Fitness Nutrition certification
  • Summer vacation Destin or Greece
  • Girls Trip - Brittany, FR
  • Cadaver Anatomy Course -NY

READING IN 2009
  • Atlas Shrugged - Rand
  • Lost Symbol - Brown
  • Living A Charmed Life - Moran
  • Back To Basics - Garten
  • Ageless - Somers
  • Things Good Mothers Know - Stoddard
  • One Second After - Forstchen
  • Relentless, Breathless - Koontz
  • Master Your Metabolism - Michaels
  • Garden Spells - Addison Allen
  • Schwarzbein Principle - Schwarzbein
  • Genghis & Emperor series - Iggulden
  • Going Rogue - Palin
  • In Defense Of Food - Pollen
  • www.biggovernment.com - Breitbart
WATCHING IN 2009
  • Flash Forward
  • Enchanted April
  • The Tudors
  • Hot and Fluffy - Iglesias
  • Lost
  • South Park
  • V
  • BodyRock.tv
LISTENING IN 2009
  • www.cafecody.com
  • Rumba Foundation- Jesse Cook
  • Music from Made In Spain - Various Artists
  • Beach House Marbella - Various Artists