I think it’s a combination of these things, but for now I’m going to focus on sugar. By controlling our sugar intake and absorption, you will have the potential for successful weight loss.  Inability in controlling sugar can lead to weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes. This article will explain the relationship between sugar and carbohydrates, the many forms of sugar, what effect each form has on you, how to identify it on food labels, and how to minimize the impact of sugar.

Let’s start with the basics. Sugar is a carbohydrate.  I’ve heard people say; “sugar is sugar” this isn’t true.  There are different types of sugar.  They have different molecular bonds, and your body can tell the difference.   The main types of sugar that we get on a regular basis are:

• Sucrose-Table sugar
• Fructose-Fruit sugar
• Glucose-Formed when the body digest carbs and starches
• Maltose-Found in grains
• Lactose-Found in milk

Now, you may notice something called “sugar alcohols” on your label under carbohydrates.  These are naturally occurring or manufactured, and have a molecular structure as the name suggests of sugar and alcohol.  Sugar alcohols can be about half as sweet as regular sugar, but the main reason for using sugar alcohol is to reduce the negative impact of simple sugars. Which cause insulin spikes, which then causes fat retention, calories (sugar alcohols have less calories than regular sugar), and they don’t cause the tooth decay that regular sugar can cause.  You’ll see Xylitol, Sorbitol, Mannitol, and others (usually with an “itol” ending) on the label as a sugar alcohol.

Artificial sweeteners are yet another way to attempt to help with calories and insulin spikes by replacing sugar with synthetic substitutes.  Artificial sweeteners are much sweeter than naturally occurring sweeteners.  These can cause you to crave more sugar. These sweeteners are heavily regulated as far as how much can be in your food, but to me, the verdict is still out on the safety and long term effect of these sweeteners.  Personally, I stay away from synthetic sugar like Splenda, Aspartame, Sweet N’ Low etc.

Natural sweeteners, like honey or agave nectar are safe, and they add nutritional value. However, they don’t give you any benefit relative to calories, insulin spikes, or tooth decay over regular table sugar.

It’s important to understand what all these sugars are because they have so many names and are disguised so easily.  In order to control your insulin spikes you need to understand what each of these sugars do as well as what else you can eat with sugar in order to limit the effects.

Fiber is an important carbohydrate that actually delays sugar absorption.  Fruit such as raspberries, apples with the skin, and strawberries are high in fiber; as well as veggies like broccoli, artichokes and peas.

In order to understand the effect of sugar on insulin spikes you have to look at the total carb make-up.  It’s hard to put a blanket value on how many carbs a person should have because of all the various factors like metabolism, age, and activity level.  If you are trying to lose weight I would keep complex carb intake to less than 35 grams.  I would keep simple sugars to a minimum (use
the 3 bite rule…if you can’t finish a sugary snack in 3 bites then don’t eat it).  Don’t add any sugar to anything.  A product with 20 carbs; in which there are 4 grams of sugar, 10 grams of sugar alcohol, and 4 grams of fiber, will not have much of a spiking effect.  Half of the sugar alcohol content can be subtracted from the total carbohydrates listed on the label, which gives a better feel for the actual carbohydrate load you’re dealing with (for example subtract 5 grams from the 20 grams of carbs, making a net effect of 15 grams of carbs).  The fiber further reduces the effect of the sugar absorption.  Complex carbohydrates contain fiber. We can find this in whole or multi-grain bread, wheat pasta, oatmeal and vegetables.  Try to stick with these carbohydrates to limit the effect of sugar on your blood and thus slowing absorption and aiding in weight loss.

Carbohydrates are necessary for brain function and are our body’s favorite source of energy.  It would be foolish to completely cut out carbohydrates.  However, carbohydrate cycling techniques (low carb days followed by carbohydrate “loading”) have been very effective in controlling blood sugar, reducing calories and thus helping with weight loss.

Research is still continually being done on the “right” amount of carbs, proteins, and fats that are necessary for a healthy diet.  The more research that comes out, the more I see a trend to a balanced diet which doesn’t have either nutrient in overabundance over the other.  As with mostly anything it’s all good in moderation, and sugar is no exception.

Reebok is paying a $25 Million dollar settlement to the Federal Trade Commission for false claims that their shoes would increase strength and tone in hamstrings by 11% and increase muscle tone and strength by 28% in the buttocks compared to walking without them. They made a ton of money based on this claim but they didn’t have enough testing to substantiate it. This shoe was a big winner because as most products that make huge profits for their companies they promise the consumer big results for minimal effort.

“With these shoes all I have to do is do what I always do and I will get a nice butt? I’M IN!!!” I had a lady train with me that was at least 100 lbs overweight wearing these shoes thinking she was going to get a tight butt. Besides having a nice rear being the last thing she needed to worry about (she needed to lower her blood pressure, decrease her chance for diabetes, and just get active), she couldn’t move laterally in them…she couldn’t squat because they push you on your toes…and forget running. The shoe was more dangerous than good in this case.

Training with minimal effort with high expectations is the same way. I have some clients that when they come they definitely give 110%, but they only train 2 or 3 times a week. Their eating is good but results will be super slow because they are not burning enough calories. We were built to be constantly active. However most of us have desk jobs where we sit for 6-8hrs a day. So let’s take one week of exercising 45 minutes/day for 3 days. That is 2hrs and 15 minutes in a week. There are 168 hrs in a week. Of those 168 hrs about 40 are spent behind a desk and say you get 6 hrs of sleep a night 42 hrs are spent in bed probably 7 hrs at least are spent driving and to be on the conservative side say you spend only an hr a day watching tv…7hrs on the couch. So conservatively 96 hrs are spent per week being completely still. The other 72 hrs you spend doing something that’s probably not very vigorous. You can’t expect to lose weight and counter at least 96hrs of inactivity with 2 hrs of exercise. I’m not suggesting you workout for 20hrs hrs a week but 5-6 isn’t unreasonable. This is why diet it so important along with getting enough rigorous exercise.
The hardest part to working out and eating right is starting. In a few days I’m going to introduce something to not only help you get the ball rolling but keep the ball rolling. It’s going to be challenging but fun and you will see results. I’m so excited about it that I’ve been slowly leaking details to some of my clients. I can’t wait to release it.
In the meantime if you have the Reebok toners I think you can get your money back…those things weren’t cheap!

I’ll talk to you soon.

Our bodies change according to the stress we put on it.  If we eat too much then our bodies way of adapting is to use as much of the energy source we can but store the rest as fat.  If we eat too little our body will hold back on the energy consumed and try to hold on to as much food as possible and still potentially store it as fat.  The same adaptation counts for exercise.  If we do the same thing all the time our bodies will figure out the exact amount of effort it takes to accomplish that task and only build enough muscle and lose enough weight to get the task done efficiently. 

Let’s take Zumba for example.  Zumba is a great mode of exercise for the first several times you take it, but give it a month or two and see what starts to happen. The first week or so you were probably breathing hard and sweating profusely and burning tons of calories.  After a while it got easier and easier and the weight loss slowed or stopped.  The reason isn’t that Zumba doesn’t work. Your body did what it was supposed to do and it adapted.  You became more efficient at the movement and you didn’t have to work as hard to get the same amount of work done.  You can’t dance but so hard in a Zumba class before it becomes kind of ridiculous. 

That’s why resistance training is important.  If done correctly you really shouldn’t hit plateaus especially if you are eating correctly to correspond with your goals.  There are so many different types of exercises that you can do and different combinations of movements that your body shouldn’t have a chance to adapt and it can always feel new.  In addition, you can always increase intensity of an exercise by adding more resistance.  Your body’s response is to use more energy because it is either inefficient at the movement you’re doing or it has to recruit more muscle to accomplish the task of handling the increased resistance.

This is why functional training and boot camp are so good at burning tons of calories and expediting weight loss.  It’s really hard to hit a moving target.  In other words your body has no clue what is about to happen from one training session to the next.  It can’t predict how much effort it will need to put forth and therefore it becomes in-efficient…in-efficiency in this case is good.  It means more calorie burn and more muscle recruitment which in turn leads to inches lost and muscle built (assuming you are eating correctly).

I’m not suggesting you stop taking Zumba or the workout DVD you love (P90x is great but what happens after 90 days?), especially if you have fun doing it.  What I am suggesting is that you choose another form of exercise that involves resistance and consistently changing.  Keep the target moving and you will hit your weight loss goals. 

To help you out with getting to your goals I’m offering you 4 days of training and 1 day of boot camp for $75.  This is valued at over $150.  To make it even better for you I’m offering a one week meal plan and a free nutrition seminar.  That is worth another $150.  You get a total value of $300 for $75.  I’m only allowing for 15 people to take advantage of this deal and it’s only open till July 15.  To make it even more fun I’ll give a bonus week of training to the first two that respond.  Don’t be left out click here to register!!

In terms of short term results everything works.  Yes, even eating only ice cream can probably cause you to lose weight if you end up at a caloric deficit at the end of the day, but really does that even sound reasonable?  Does that sound like something that is going to give you lasting results and give you a lifestyle of the correct eating habits that will keep you from “getting back on” a program. 

Your program should be designed to teach you how to not only achieve weight loss but continue to manage your weight by eating healthy.  It should be a way of life and you should understand the principles.  If you don’t understand why you’re doing what you are doing with respect to nutrition what are the chances that you will be able to do it on your own?  Think about that…Doesn’t it sound like a scam to make money off of you because you were never taught how to do it by yourself so you have to “get back on” the program?  It reverses your thinking, “I failed the program so I need to get back on it to lose weight.”   

The truth is the program was never designed for you to have long term success and understand how to live a healthy lifestyle on your own.  The system is supposed to be a riddle and make you believe they are doing you a favor by giving you this “simple system” to follow.  They try to make you believe that weight loss is far too complex for you to figure out so they “make it easy” for you to follow by developing some system that only they understand. In most cases, weight loss isn’t complex…but it’s not easy…the hard part is discipline, consistency and sorting through all the b.s. and finding the truth.

A program should teach you how many calories, proteins, carbohydrates and fats you need.  A complete program should give you a plan to follow that you can use as a template so you have a clear understanding of the amount of food and what types of food are in the categories that you need to be eating.  A solid program will hold you accountable not only to others but most importantly to yourself.  A solid program will define your success not by how much you weigh but by how your body composition and inches change. 

I’ve seen the scale destroy a lot of people.  It is a tool that some weight loss programs use to determine whether you’re working their plan correctly or not.  People get obsessed with weight and once the point of obsession is reached people generally panic and try things that aren’t safe and will be counterproductive in order to get the scales approval.  It’s not your fault that weight is your measure of how fit you are.  We have been taught since we were young with charts like the Body Mass Index that say at “X” height and “Y” age you should weigh “Z.”  This is totally ridiculous.  According to this scale I’m obese.  This scale does not account for your muscle/fat ratio, or your bone structure.  Neither does the scale that you step on.

It’s time for a change in our thinking, understand the facts behind nutrition and get on the right track to a successful healthy lifestyle.  In order to do this you need to be empowered with the knowledge that will enable your success.  I will be offering a nutrition seminar to the first 20 people that respond to this post.  The seminar is valued at $165 but I am giving it for free because I know people really need this information.  All that’s left for you to do is take action and call now to register.  The seminar is at the Monroeville Library 4000 Gateway Campus Blvd, Monroeville, PA 15146 on Tuesday July 26^th from 6.30 pm -8.00 pm. 

I’m looking forward to your call and as usual with anything I give away there is no obligation and friends are welcome.

How long will it be until employers don’t hire people or give a time limit to get down to a certain weight or you’re fired.  Some CEO’s are already leaning in that direction.  I don’t recall the CEO that CNBC interviewed and what company he represented but it was with a fortune 500 corporation and he did not want to hire obese people because of the affect that obesity has on his expenses.

With the job market getting tighter and tighter your weight cannot be another factor that keeps you from reaching your professional potential.  However, I really don’t think it will be long before companies can legally use weight as a criterion for hiring and firing.  Who knows how many companies actually do illegally? CNBC only showed a few corporate leaders and their opinion about obesity.

A lot of these employers recognize that they have placed its employees in a perfect storm for obesity.  You work long hours, you sit all day, and there are few healthy options to eat at work.  Some of these employers have tried to incorporate fitness within their corporation.  They have fitness facilities within the business location, they offer incentives to maintain a healthy weight and they encourage eating right in their cafeterias. 

Now is time to take control of your weight issues before it starts to impact your career.  It is important to take action before you are forced to.  Do it because you want to be better, live longer and be active.   Making the decision to change your life is never easy but it’s even more difficult when you are forced.  Make it your decision…take control.  Take action and click on the link to get your 2 free sessions and consultation so we can begin changing your lifestyle.

Have you ever heard your car making noise like your brakes start to squeal and you ignore it for a day, a week or even worse a month?  What happens?  The noise doesn’t go away that’s for sure and if you wait too long it can damage your rotors and cost you more money than you would have spent if you would have just got your brakes repaired to start with.  I think it’s safe for me to say that procrastination has never saved me anything…not time, not money, not better condition…nothing.  What it has done is cost me more money or made a situation much worse than it had to be.

Among the top 10 causes of death in America are heart disease (29%), cancer (23%), chronic lower respiratory diseases (5%), and Diabetes (3%).  I would venture to say that 50% (maybe more) of the deaths that were caused by these 5 diseases alone wouldn’t have happened if people paid attention to the signs and changed their lifestyles.  Sure some disease can’t be helped and there is nothing you could do or could have done to change it, however there are a lot of things that don’t have to happen and conditions that don’t need to worsen if we just stop procrastinating and make changes.  Using this logic procrastination would account for about 30% of the deaths in America.  That’s just using the diseases on this list.  There are others that are caused by procrastination. This would make procrastination the leading cause of deaths in the US.

How many of you reading this right now are thinking “I’d really like to get started on a fitness program and start changing my lifestyle, eating right etc but I’m just not ready.”  I hear it all the time but the reality of it is that it doesn’t matter if you’re ready.  Heart disease doesn’t ask if you’re ready.  Well I take that back..yes it does, but are you listening?  Here’s how these diseases talk to you.

“I’m heavier than I’ve ever been.  I don’t even want to look at the scale”…are you ready? “My blood pressure has been high the last few times I went to the Dr.  He told me I need to lose weight.”…Heart disease-are you ready?  “I have trouble walking up and down the steps without having to catch my breath.”…Heart disease and lower respiratory disease-are you ready? “I feel like I’m addicted to sugar.  I get dizzy if I don’t have it.”…Diabetes-are you ready?

Ready or not it’s time to take action.  Your issues will not fix themselves.  The good thing is you have plenty of people that care about you and cannot wait to help you.  That’s what I’ve been put here to do…help people.  This is something that is dear to me…I’ve watched people very close to me opt to not take action.  They heard the brakes squealing but decided to go another few months instead of fixing the problem before it got worse.  Now it’s worse and the price is much higher than it should be. 

It’s time to call now for your free consultation so we can talk about what to do to get you on the path to success.  I can’t wait to hear from you.

The question was: What is the most difficult part about living a healthy lifestyle. Is it time? Consistency? Knowing what to do and how to do it? Or something else?

Cathy: In my case it’s adhering to a meal plan. My main drawback is time to plan the meals and/or investing in them when I’m out with clients and/or family and friends. I try to swap meals from different days and stock my work fridge with approved snacks.

My Answer: Assign a day where take an hour or two to prepare your meals for the week.  Use your meal plan as a template and when you feel the need to substitute make sure you’re trading like for like to stay within the nutritional value of the meal plan.

Ryan: Consistency in diet! Work, travel, meetings, kids, events, vacations all make it difficult to have a healthy diet. I like to think 4 healthy diet days out of 7 days is good week, which I know it is not. For example, this weekend I am doing a Y camp with my kids. All camp food from the cafeteria, not going to be easy to make perfect choices but I will do my best.

My Answer: What you can do in cases where the choices aren’t the healthiest is to control your portion sizes.   You don’t have to eat everything on your plate.  Bring protein shakes with you if you can.  It has become easy to take them with you and mix them using a shaker cup. Being prepared is a huge part of the battle. Try to pick a day to create your meals or at least your snacks.

Sally: Eating Healthy…Limiting Alcohol…in Social Events!

My Answer: If you have a solid meal plan eating healthy is just a matter of executing the plan.  Alcohol is tough. Stay away from the fruity drinks…tons of sugar. With respect to calories though I think you should stay with wine (Chardonnay or Pinot have about 100 calories for 5 oz).

Danielle: I feel like there’s always an occasion to eat unhealthy…Easter, someone’s birthday, girls’ night out…..etc. It’s not easy to always make healthy choices but if I do it more often than not, I’m happy with that. (And when those occasions come up where my choices aren’t the best, I try to make up for it at the gym or boot camp the next day).

My Answer: Similarly to what I told Ryan, watch your portions when you do have an unhealthy eating opportunity. If you are consistent with eating well and exercising your body has some safety factor built in to handle the occasional piece of cake.  However, even when you eat the cake remember the 3 bite rule and keep it to 3 bites to satisfy the craving and be done with it.

Michelle: I think its laziness for me. its easier to grab something unhealthy than to spend time making something.

My Answer: If it’s laziness then it sounds like you need accountability….somebody to pay attention to your food and your workout regimen. At the end of the day it’s up to you but it helps to know you are going to be held accountable to someone.

As usual I would love to hear from you to understand how to create a program that fits everyone’s needs.  Everyone is unique but we all have common issues.  If we work together we can all get our goals accomplished.