The best thing to do is MOVE ON. We all have days when we eat more than our bodies need, that is the rule, not the exception. In two decades of practice as a nutrition counselor, I have never met someone who did not lose weight because of ONE episode of overeating. The trouble starts when one episode stretches into an entire day, week, month – you get the picture. You do NOT need to go on a very restrictive program to compensate for over eating. But you should try to think about the circumstances that led up to the overeating — Too much tempting food around? A stressful personal or work situation? Being too restrictive with your weight loss program so that it is very hard to maintain? – So that you can try to understand the behavior and practice correcting the response the next time around.
Category Archives: Weight Loss
The Stress and Relaxation Response and How Belly Fat Is Made
The “fight or flight response” is our body’s primitive, automatic, inborn response that prepares the body to “fight” or “flee” from perceived attack, harm or threat to our survival. When we experience excessive stress, whether from internal worry or external circumstance this bodily reaction is also triggered. Originally discovered by the great Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon, this response is hard-wired into our brains and represents a genetic wisdom designed to protect us from bodily harm. This response actually corresponds to an area of our brain called the hypothalamus, which—when stimulated—initiates a sequence of nerve cell firing and chemical release that prepares our body for running or fighting.
After studying the physiological effects of the ‘flight or fight’ stress response, Cardiologist Herbert Benson discovered that by eliciting the ‘relaxation response’ the opposite was also true (1996). This physiologic state of calm is an equally essential survival mechanism, providing us with the ability to heal and rejuvenate our bodies. Today, the relaxation response is crucial when considering how often the fight or flight response is triggered inappropriately.
When our minds become focused through deep breathing, meditation, repetitive prayer, or mantras, the body responds with dramatic affects. There is a decrease in heart rate, blood pressure and metabolic rate (Benson, 1996).
Under stress, the potential to store belly fat is much higher. This is caused by certain hormone receptor sites in the abdominal region or center region of the body.
How does it get there? It’s absorbed via the intestines. But the key player is the omentum (the abdominal fat storage facility). It’s the pouch you carry on your belly. The belly pouch!
So your omentum clears the cortisol steroids because it has receptors that bind to them and can suck them out of the bloodstream (unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily reduce the stress level that you feel). The steroids turbo-charge the ability of omentum to store fat, so your belly fat (and subsequent waist size) become the best surrogate indicator of how well you are really coping with stress (despite what your brain might be claiming). That uptake of steroids throws your body in metabolic disarray by:
Making your omentum resistant to insulin so sugar floats around without being absorbed and used appropriately by needy cells, and this:
- Chronically raises your blood sugar, which damages our tissues;
- Super-charging your omentum with inflammatory chemicals that destabilize the delicate equilibrium of your hormones;
- Forcing your omentum to pump high-octane fat directly into your liver—causing your liver to make even more inflammatory chemicals.
Here is the bottom line, the human body will always function in a way that ensures survival for evolution. A lot of times this means the body will resist the changes we are trying to induce. When you are stressed out the last thing the body is likely to do is lose weight, specifically fat mass. I have found with a lot of clients that progress will come to a screeching halt due to excessive stress in their lives. Focus on decreasing your stress, creating a planned safe approach to exercise, getting in the right type of nutrition for your goals and which compliment your exercise and everything in life will become easier and more manageable!
How can I prevent a heart attack?
It is important for you to understand your risk factors for having a heart attack or heart disease. If you understand what they are then you can change your lifestyle to reduce your risk factors and your chance of having a heart attack. Risk factors that can be reduced are: smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, lack of exercise. You can reduce your chances by reducing your risk factors. Do not smoke, if you are overweight lose weight, if you have high blood pressure take your medications as your doctor prescribes and reduce the amount of salt you eat, if you have high cholesterol take your medication as prescribed and eat a diet low in fat, if you are diabetic take your medication as prescribed and follow your diet as prescribed, try to exercise per your doctor’s advice
Even if you have heart disease, there’s a lot you can do to improve your heart’s health.
Ask your doctor for help and when it comes to exercise and nutrition seek the help of a specialist, (ei: Qualified Personal Trainer with experience and a Certified Nutritionist), your doctor can give you general good advice, but that only goes so far and some doctors, might even give you the wrong advice. Together, you can set goals to reduce the things that raise your risk of heart attack.
- Don’t smoke, and avoid other people’s tobacco smoke.
- Treat high blood pressure, if you have it.
- Eat a healthy diet that’s low in saturated fat, trans fat, and salt. Increase your good fats such as mono and polyunsaturates (good fish, nuts, seeds such as flax and hemp)
- Exercise at least 30 minutes on most or all days of the week. Keep your heart rate constant and at a level that is recommended for your current condition. Your personal trainer will help you with this. I am heart wise certified with Ottawa Heart Institute. Trainers that are Heart Wise certified can work with you to target your specific zone.
- Keep your weight in the normal range. Depending on your fitness goals, this range is different for everyone, but there is a general body mass index rule that you can follow, however it is a reading that does not take into account your goals or existing muscle mass if you’ve played sports or have done resistance training.
- See your doctor for regular check-ups. Get full blood work done. Check the results. Ask to see them.. TRUST ME, doctors are humans and there is always a chance for human error when READING the results.
- Take your medicines exactly as prescribed. The right type of nutrition and exercise are huge factors in helping reduce your medications, even getting off some types of medications.
- Control your blood sugar if you have diabetes. .Again, The right type of nutrition and exercise are huge factors in helping reduce your diabetes medication for Type I and eventually come off your Type II diabetes medication.
Create A Morning Routine That Helps You Lose Fat!
If you eat a decent breakfast and lunch, with perhaps a nutritious snack in between, you should be taking in enough calories to function properly throughout the day and feel alert until dinnertime. After dinner, many of us stop eating and do not eat anything at all until morning, while some of us snack once or continuously. However, throughout the evening and night, the body continues to function and burn calories, even when sleeping. After six to eight hours of sleep, we awake with a need to consume more calories to get through the day.
Morning is the time of day when the body is most depleted of calories. This is a great opportunity to burn fat from the body. Instead of the exercising at night to burn excess calories left over from your last meal, experts suggest a morning workout of the same intensity and length will burn three times as many calories as the afternoon or evening workout. This is simply due to the fact the body will expend the existing calories in the body then will dig down to use excess, stored fat to produce energy.
To get the most out of your morning workout, health experts recommend working out for at least thirty to sixty minutes for optimal fat burning results. Prior to working out, avoid consuming calories of any kind, as the body will use these before they begin to burn the body fat available for energy. Do not worry, however, as a good breakfast is part of a fat burning morning routine when consumed after the morning workout. Exercising in the morning kicks the body’s metabolism into high gear, burning many more calories throughout the day than if you wait to exercise until nighttime.
Of course, part of a fat burning ‘morning routine’ is…well… the routine. By consistently working out each morning, your workout for the day is complete, you’ll be better equipped to cope with the day’s stresses, and you’ll enjoy better impulse control over your food choices throughout the day. Choosing healthy breakfast foods, rather than skipping breakfast, and eating after your workout will significantly curb food cravings throughout the morning until lunch time. When that morning donut cart rolls through your office, you’ll be able to smile confidently and say “No thanks.”
Starting the day with a healthy workout and a nutritious breakfast is your best opportunity to commit to burning fat and getting into serious shape. Fitness expert Rob Lagana is available to help you, and will customize a nutritious, fat burning meal plan to help you reach your goals.
Q&A What is core exercise?
Core exercise are exercises that focus on either the stabilzation, endurance or strengthening of the core muscles. Core exercises focus on the abdomen, the lower abdomen and hips, the obliques, stabilizing muslces, the spine and the back muslces, as well as the butt. Core exercises train these muscles to work together properly to maintain proper balance, agility, posture and movement to help the body move efficiently as well as preventing injury.
Some examples of core exercises are the plank hold, side plank, floor bridge, bicycle crunches, reach throughs, push ups, back extensions and a number other exercises that focus on the trunk of the body.
The point of core exercises is to train the many large and small muscles that help control and stabilize the spinal column and pelvis to build endurance and strength and be better able to control the spine and pelvis when forces are applied to it during daily activities and physical activities. Core exercises can and should be incorporated into every workout you perform each time you exercise. This can be accomplished by performing as many exercises as possible while having your spine and pelvis unsupported by a bench or seat. This will require the core muscles to engage to stabilize the body.
Serious Warnings about Dieting
As an expert and someone that has been in the community of fitness and bodybuilding for many years, I’ve seen people start diets and fail after 3 weeks even when they did lose 5 pounds the first week on their diet.
Here are some facts about weight loss that you should know if you dare attempt to start a diet on your own.
* If done incorrectly can cause serious rebound effects.
* First week of initial Weight Loss is all water and glycogen — Not Fat.
*There is a big difference between Fat Loss and Weight Loss
* Second week of Weight Loss is water glycogen and muscle — Not Fat.
* Diets alone are a temporary solution to weight loss.
* Your body adapts to your diet within 3-4 weeks.
* There are different types of metabolisms and the diet that you are currently on might work against your metabolism.
* Healthy Weight Loss on diet alone does NOT work.
* Beware of Diet pills, if it’s not a drug it will NOT work. If it is a drug, it will NOT work without proper nutrition and exercise, however caution must be used as the fat loss will only be temporary once you come off the drug.
* Losing 15 pounds does not mean you lost 15 pounds of fat (adipose tissue).
Fat burning should be part of the weight loss process if done correctly. A nutrition plan and exercise plan work best for ultimate fat loss. Losing fat greatly improves life expectancy, physical and mental well-being. The true goal behind weight loss is FAT LOSS.
You want to lose weight from FAT which is mainly adipose tissue.
Weight Loss is a generic term for losing unwanted scale weight. If your not losing fat, your losing water, glycogen and muscle. These are three of the most important things your body needs to stay healthy and function. No wonder people that go on so called diets feel like crap, see no beneficial results and don’t meet their long term goals.
This can easily be solved by hiring an expert. With an expert, your obstacles and goals will be concretely defined on paper and you are guaranteed a success plan to losing fat for good.
Top 10 Protein Foods and Options
We’ve all been there… we start a diet or what I like to call a planned nutritional program and days after you get sick of eating the same foods. The chicken or tuna makes you want to gag.
“It doesn’t matter what you cover it with, it will still taste like chicken and tuna.”
Now, as an expert certified personal trainer, IFBB Nutritionist and champion bodybuilder, I tell all my clients that if you can make it past the first 2 weeks of the same foods, your body will go through a type of detox and your senses will adapt nicely to the same foods that your eating. Chicken will actually taste a lot better.
Most people can’t last 2 weeks on the same type of foods and will make every complaint not to eat them. I’d love to take these people to a poor part of Africa for 2 weeks and let them hunt for food on their own. I bet they would appreciate food a lot more, even if was the same types of all.
Wouldn’t that make a good reality show? Since I don’t have the money to do that right now, I’ll list 10 Protein foods you can add or substitute in a weight loss diet prepared by someone that thinks you might have been able to get past the 2 week hump.
Substitutes for Chicken
1. Turkey
2. Wild Meats (Deer, Bisson etc..)
Substitutes for Tuna
3. Talapia
4. Cod
5. Haddock
6. Orange Roughy
Substitutes for Oatmeal
7. ArrowHead Mills Rice and Shine
8. Cream of Wheat
Substitutes for Egg Whites
9. Whole Eggs
10. Whey Protein Powder
Enjoy these great tasting substitutes and steady as she goes up the road to meet your weight loss goals. Stay tuned for my vegetarian top 10 protein foods and options next !
Rob’s 5 Tips To Help You Lose Weight and Stay On Track On Your Own
1) Have a mental picture in your mind, and PLAN your weight loss project.
Any successful project starts with a plan, and you should look at losing weight the same way!! Thinking about details such as..where you stand presently, where you want to be, and the steps you will take to get there! And this includes planning your meals and preparing them in advance! This has helped me tremendously!
2) Look at your weight loss project as a whole life changing experience, and not as a diet!
Focus more on the idea that you have now chosen and made a commitment in taking a NEW path of a healthier lifestyle, and you can be certain that just as I you will start to witness as your body changes and becomes new again! Start by promising yourself to only allow nothing but healthy foods in, and watching your portion control,along with also starting to take small steps in making exercise part of your new daily lifestyle! Join a gym if you can, and if money is an issue for you, there is always the local YMCA’s which have a program in place to help with funds as EVERYONE deserves to live a healthier active life!
3) Use all the resources you can to help make this project succeed.
Visit your local library, do some online searches, talk to your family doctor. Get EXCITED about Re-educating yourself basically on how you can change your unhealthy body into a brand new healthier one!! You would be surprised at how much info is actually out there, and how amazing this sort of project becomes! Just remember nothing will be handed to you, its up to you to take charge of your own life, and to act on it!
4) Get mentally prepared by acknowledging the fact that it is not going to be easy.
This might be the BIGGEST challenge that you will ever make for yourself, but remember the self rewards that come with being challenged are 100x better! Being challenged makes you a stronger person both inside and out! Also remember to keep in mind especially if you are having a bad day, that in the end it WILL be all worth it, and that it certainly DOES get easier as times goes on! Just stay strong and don’t let weakness defeat you, and remember you are so much stronger! Have patience and work through it day by day, week by week…don’t focus on the end goal.
5)Set little goals before reaching your end goal.
This will make the time go by faster, and you will be excited when passing these little goals as you reach them and not even realize that you are getting closer to the bigger goal with each passing day! These can be anything from special monthly occasions, weekly weigh ins, monthly pics. Perhaps your doctor can arrange some weekly weigh ins, FREE OF CHARGE!! Whatever it is that will help keep you motivated while working towards you end goal.
Just remember we all deserve to be healthier and happier, so challenge yourself today!
Q&A How do you maintain discipline with diet?
Diet is simply a selection of healthy or unhealthy foods. once you’ve
made the decision to eat healthy, then momentum and discipline will
keep you strong for the road ahead.
My discipline comes from an intensity of thought. To build this
intensity of thought. You have to first create something called a
Hook. This hook creates a conditional reflex. When you activate your
hook, you intensify a behavior. You can read up on the Nobel prize
winner named Ivan Pavlov that really gets into detail about this. I
first learned about this in a Russian manual for bodybuilding, that I
ordered from a bodybuilding magazine, about 17 years ago. So, I
started created my own hooks. Every time I opened the fridge, I
would picture myself in the shape that I wanted to be in and if I ate
unhealthy food, I would immediately do 200 situps. Eventually, every
time I would open the fridge and see unhealthy food, my abs would
start to ache.
Get into a routine and focus and the next thing you must do to
accomplish your task. I always have a vision. Stay very focused. You
need to believe in yourself and have no self-doubt that you will
accomplish your goals.
Boost Your Metabolism
Metabolism is all about breaking down tissues / cells and rebuilding them.. The cycle of this creates your metabolic rate and the rate that you need is unique to your conditions. The advice below will make sure you have a guide to keeping the metabolic cycle going, which will lead you to lean muscle mass.
1. Build Muscle Mass Strength training builds lean muscle
tissue, which burns more calories at work or at rest, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. The more lean muscle you have, the
faster your metabolism will be. How do you start strength
training? Try some push-ups, or a few squats or lunges. Use 5
lb. free weights to perform simple biceps curls or triceps
pulls. Do these exercises three to four times per week, and
you’ll soon see a boost in your metabolism as well as an
improvement in your physique.
2. Do Not Skip Meals or Drastically Reduce Your Caloric
Intake If your body senses that food is in short supply, it will
slow your metabolism to conserve energy. Over time, the result
is that when you do eat (even if you consume the same foods as
always) your body will be slower to use the calories as fuel,
thus creating a backlog of unwanted pounds. A good strategy is
to cut your caloric intake by no more than 500 calories per day
and never less than 1200 calories total each day. Once you
determine your goal for calorie consumption, divide those
calories into 6 different small meals/snacks through out the
day.
3. Increase the Amount of Protein in your Diet Most
researchers agree that protein helps to stabilize the secretion
of insulin into your blood stream, a process that can affect
metabolism. The average person would benefit from protein intake
at a minimum of 70 grams or higher each day.
4. Aerobic Workout 3 Days a Week Even though exercise doesn’t
affect your RMR, the extra calories you burn could add up to an
additional 1-2 pounds of weight loss per month.
5. Increase Movement in Daily Lifestyle The more you move,
the more you burn! You can actually make a significant addition
to the number of calories you burn each day by relatively minor
changes in lifestyle. This can be as simple as taking the stairs
instead of the elevator; park a distance from the mall or
office; window-shop with your best friend rather than sit over
coffee; walk the dog instead of just let him out; do a little
gardening or clean house while you talk on the phone. Making
these types of changes for just 20 minutes of your day will
cause you to burn an additional 100 calories per day or an
additional pound per month. Making more of these changes can
help you burn as much as an additional 1,000 calories per day!
6. Go For an Evening Walk Although exercising any time is
good for you, evening activity may be particularly beneficial.
Many people’s metabolism slows down toward the end of the day.
Thirty minutes of aerobic activity before dinner increases your
metabolic rate and may keep it elevated for another two or three
hours. What that means for you: those dinner calories have less
of a chance to take up permanent residence on your hips!
7. Get Adequate Sleep As funny as it sounds, sleep
deprivation may make you fat and not just because you’re
susceptible to cases of the late-night munchies. According to
researchers at the University of Chicago, women who got less
than four hours of sleep per night had a slower metabolism than
those who slept for a full eight hours.
What about supplements? Diet supplements that claim to increase
your metabolism have flooded the marketplace. Our advice is to
beware. Stimulants (such as caffeine, ephedrine, nicotine, and
others) have not been clinically proven to increase metabolic
rates. It may be that they stimulate a person to simply be more
active, which then burns more calories.
A supplement is just that…
Use it to supplement your diet with missing nutrients and to
hydrate the body with special nutrients in order to acheive
either a anti-catabolic state or anabolic state. There is no
magic pill, so beware of miraculous marketing hype.