Are you suffering from malnutrition and don’t even realize it?

You might have read this title and thought  “there’s no way this applies to me.  I eat healthy, I take a multivitamin.”    Most people that come to see me are on some sort of vitamin, mineral or other type of supplement.  And they feel that this is helping to make them healthier.  These days the food industry even fortifies our foods with vitamins and minerals by adding them into frequently consumed foods like breads, milk, etc. 

So given all of these wonderful technologies we have in place how is it possible that you could be suffering from malnutrition?  The problem in North America is rarely that a person isn’t consuming enough vitamins and minerals the problem is that most people in North America are not properly digesting and absorbing their nutrients.  There is a very good chance that you’re wasting your money on your multivitamins and other supplements because you’re not absorbing most of them into your body so your body can’t actually use the vitamins and minerals you’re supplying it with.

Most people these days have digestive dysfunction believe it or not.  A lot are getting pretty significant symptoms and think that they are “normal” because so many people these days are experiencing them.  Unfortunately this day and age what is typical is far from “normal.”  If you’re experiencing any of the following you’re probably suffering from digestive issues: bloating, gas, belching after meals, stomach pain, cramping, getting sick once or more a year, not having 1-3 bowel movements per day, having bowel movements that have a strong odour, frequent headaches, and indigestion/heartburn.  There are many more symptoms that can result from having digestive issues as well; these are just the most common.

If you’re having digestive problems depending on the type of digestive dysfunction that are occurring you will probably not be able to absorb the nutrients properly from your supplements.  Some of the most common digestive issues are hypochlorhydria (too little stomach acid), leaky gut syndrome (your small intestines don’t properly absorb food), parasite infection and bacterial imbalances.  All of these can create an environment in your gut that can be preventing you from being able to get the bang for your buck from the supplements you’re taking. 

Step one is to work on your foundational principles. 

1.        Make sure you’re not eating any processed food (read ingredient list, if you don’t recognize and ingredient don’t eat it!). 

2.       Make sure you’re eating lots of raw foods (fruits and veggies that are uncooked).

3.       Make sure you’re drinking enough water (1/2 an ounce of water for every pound of body weight).  And I do mean water, not processed beverages, not vitamin water, not coffee or tea.......water!

These are the first step to begging the repair process of your gut function.  The next step is to identify what digestive issues could be creating your problems.  We can help you with this step, shoot us an email at info@peak-personaltraining.com to find out how we can help you.  And finally you have to fix that dysfunction to make sure that your body is actually able to get the nutrients it needs.   This is typically done through nutrition and lifestyle change, exercise change, and intelligent supplementation.

The important lesson for today.......you can’t just take a “magic” pill or shake to get health, you have to make sure your body is actually functioning properly.

Nine reasons you're not losing weight

The other day I was out at a party, having fun with some friends when somone I didn't know at the party found out I was a personal trainer they started going on about how they can't lose body fat no matter what they do. Having spent several years now as a personal training in Ottawa working with people who are looking for weight loss I've heard this sentiment many times. "I can't lose body fat no matter what I try." This is what inspired this article. Most people tend to be doing one or two right things to try to lose weight, but just can’t seem to get the results they want. Usually they’ll try exercising (which usually consists of a large amount of slower paced cardio) and they might try to watch what they are eating. In this article I’m going to go through and give you 9 things that are holding you back from dropping that unwanted body fat.

#9- Poor hydration: You should be drinking around ½ ounce of water for every pound of body weight. If you’re not getting close to this amount or more you’re probably dehydrated. This is going to have a negative impact on not just your weight loss but also your energy levels and health. For more info on how and why to hydrate check my article on hydration.

#8- Not enough food: This typically tends to happen more with female clients then male clients. People get so concerned with counting calories and wanting to get those results fast they decrease their calorie consumption WAY too much. I had one client who would not take my advice of increasing her calorie intake; she ate 900-1100 calories/day. And guess what after losing 4 pounds in the first month she didn’t budge one single pound for the next 8 months because she just wasn’t eating enough food so her body was shutting down her metabolism. Don’t get into calories counting or slashing calories out. Focus more on good food choices (non processed food) and reasonable serving sizes.

#7- Too many carbs- In North America we’re carb overloaded. Almost everybody over consumes on carbs, this is in large part due to the typical American Food Pyramid or Canadian Food Guide and their unbelievably high serving sizes for grains. Even if you’re eating whole grains if you’re having 6-12 servings of grains per day you’re not going to be progressing towards your goal of weight loss. Now I’m not suggesting a low carb diet, carbs are a great thing you need them to live. However, try to get your carbs mainly from fruits and vegetables. Remember carbs are in almost every single food, outside of meat or fish.

#6- Avoiding fat- This is one of the biggest problems I see is people avoiding fats like the plague. Unless you’re eating a lot of deep fried food, fast food or potatoes chips you’re probably not over weight because of too much fat intake. I have to increase the fat consumption of most of my clients that come to me. I want to be clear when I say it is important to be increasing fats I’m talking from natural unprocessed sources, ie. Nuts, oils, avocados, meat, fish, etc. These are all good fats and they are going to help you towards your weight loss. If you’re consuming dairy products do NOT get low or no fat products. Get diary that has fat in it, don’t get the skim milk or the 1%, get some that has higher fat contents in them. Dairy is supposed to have fat in it, that’s what Mother Nature intended. If it is fat free or low fat it means it’s been very processed and nutrients have been taken out of the food.

#5-Too much aerobic exercise in the “fat burning” zone: Most people do endless amounts of cardio to lose weight, thank you mass media. Unfortunately this is far from the most efficient way to lose weight. For those of you who hate doing an hour of cardio every day I’ve got some good news for you. Slow long bouts of cardio is one of the least efficient ways for people to lose weight.

If someone has been completely sedentary and inactive they do need to start by doing some basic cardio (just get moving, go for walks or bike rides outside), however if you are in pretty decent shape you need to switch things up and start doing something different because as you develop more cardiovascular fitness your body becomes very efficient at storing fat. Go take a look at your local gyms aerobic classes. Pick out one or two regulars in the class who need to lose some weight, then come back in two months there is a good chance they will be the exact same size or bigger. Their body becomes so efficient at burning fat they begin to burn less calories with every workout. For more information on this check out this article on interval training.

#4- Not enough anaerobic exercise- Most of you are going to be saying to yourself what the hell is anaerobic exercise?? I’ll skip over the nerdy science stuff and give a simple explanation. With aerobic exercise your body uses oxygen as the main source of energy, with anaerobic work your body is working so hard that it doesn’t have enough time to use oxygen for energy so it uses glycogen (stored carbs) and a couple other chemical reactions to give you energy. Any easy rule of thumb to know if the exercise you’re doing is anerobic; if you can’t do the exercise for more than 30 seconds to a minute and half without taking some sort of rest or recovery then you’re training anaerobically.

For example, if you are in the weight room and you do a 8 reps on bench press and can’t get that 9th rep out. You would need a break to continue working out (this would be anaerobic). Picture a football player who sprints as fast as he can from one end of the field to the other, he wouldn’t be able to continue sprinting he would need to take a walk to recover (this is anaerobic). The reason it is important is when your body works anaerobically it elevates your metabolism and according to research it stays elevated anywhere from 4-48 hours afterwards. You do not get the same elevation in metabolism from aerobic work.

#3- Too little intensity when working out- When it comes down to it most people just don’t work hard enough when they are working out. As a personal trainer I see this with almost all new clients. They think they are working really hard and killing themselves, but they are far from really pushing the envelope. When you look at most people looking to lose weight and they are in the weight room they go through their little circuit of 8 exercises taking breaks long breaks, chatting in between. What they should be doing is getting some good quality work done in the gym. I would take 20 really hard minutes in the gym weather it’s weight room or cardio over 60 minutes of moderate intensity work for most people.

#2- Poor Sleep Habits- This is a big one where people go wrong. Most people are getting a terrible night of sleep these days. Over the years I have heard hundreds of different peoples lifestyles and sleep is one of the biggest problems. Most people get a broken night of sleep where they wake up several times and have problems getting to sleep or they can’t fall asleep in the first place, or they simply don’t leave themselves enough time to sleep. Step number one make sure you’re getting 8 hours of sleep every night. Step 2 make sure you’re getting to bed between 10:00 and 10:30 every night. Most people I talk to wine about having to go to bed that early and say I’m a night hawk I like to stay up late, I’m not tired at that time of night. The reason they’re not tired is because that is what you’ve conditioned your body to do. But all you’re doing is fighting Mother Nature again.

Humans are designed to function based on the cycle of the sun. Our hormone release is in large part triggered by the sun rising and the sun setting. If you’re getting to bed around midnight and getting up at 8:00 the next morning you’ll be throwing your hormones out of whack. I’ve seen a person who could not lose any weight once they switched their bed time to 10:30 without making any other changes he began to lose weight immediately. Not only will it help with your weight loss you’ll no longer need as much caffeine because you’ll have far more energy.

#1- The Wrong Attitude: This is probably one of the areas that most people need a lot of work on. Most people spend too much time being negative with their thoughts. Don’t look at exercise as being tough and a lot of work. Look at it as a way of challenging yourself, if you can get into the gym and get through a hard work out it can help you to build confidence in handling the other challenges life hands you.

Don’t look at eating healthy as a form of depriving yourself, thinking about how much better you’re going to feel not only with better energy and health , but also the increased confidence when you start to shed inches off your waste and hips. If you go into your weight loss challenge thinking that it’s going to be impossible, no fun and it’s going to suck that’s exactly what your experience is going to be and you won’t be getting to your goal. If you take a different perspective and look at it as a challenging journey that has a light at the end of the tunnel and you keep your positive perspective going you’ll get to that light at the end of the tunnel.

Most people when they ask me what they should do to lose some weight don’t like the answer I give them because it’s not a quick fix; it’s not some miracle pill. It’s going to take hard work, commitment and it will be a long journey. But once you get to your weight loss goal I guarantee you it will all be worth the hard work and effort.

For more free information check out our free resource section of our website at http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/resources.html. 

How can you get rid of your love handles?

In the last post we talked about some of the problems of using exercise to target specific areas for fat loss.  In this post we will quickly cover how to target one area that people typically want to lose the bulge. 

Do you want to trim down your “love handle” area at the side of the stomach?  This area will often get an increase in body fat from people who are having issues with the hormone insulin.  If you’re having an increase in fat in this specific area that means you’re probably doing something in your nutrition that is causing a steep increase in your insulin levels.  When you think about insulin you probably think about diabetes.  But just because you don’t have diabetes doesn’t mean you’re in the clear when it comes to insulin and fat loss. 

To simplify it insulin’s job is to decrease the amount of sugar that is in our blood stream and store the sugar for use later or take it to be used as energy.  First it is important to understand that all carbohydrates spike insulin levels.  Certain types of carbohydrates like processed sugar and grains spike insulin levels more, while others like fruit will spike them slightly less.  And finally most vegetables create very small insulin spike. 

What does this have to do with targeting your love handle area? Well, insulin signals your body it’s time to store fat, the more insulin that gets released the more fat is stored.  Many people think that by eating a low fat diet they can avoid this, but unfortunately your body has a process that converts any excess carbohydrates into fat.  And a lot of this fat storage will store in your love handle area specifically. 

So what can you do to help decrease fat storage in this area?  Try to have your insulin levels more steady throughout the day.  Here are a few easy steps to help you accomplish this. 

1.        Eliminate processed sugar.  This can “sneak” into people’s diets, especially if you drink coffee multiple times every day and have sugar in your coffee. 

2.       Time grain and starchy foods within 1-3 hours after you workout.  If you have done intense exercise your body will have used a lot of its carbohydrate stores, so this will spare you the excess sugar that will get converted to fat.

3.       Never go more than 4 hours without eating.  This will help to level out your insulin levels and give you less food cravings and better energy on top of helping you target that love handle area.

4.       Eat more non-starchy vegetables than any other food group.  Vegetables are a great carbohydrate source that are dense in vitamins and minerals and won’t give you large insulin spikes. 

So now you can go out and start to target a specific area to lose fat.  And remember you don’t have to switch all four habits at once.  You can start to work bit by bit to make small improvements that will last.  For example, if you’re consuming a teaspoon of sugar with your coffee.  Start by decreasing to half a teaspoon first, and continue to consistent small improvements.  If you’re eating 2 times every day, increase to 3 times first.  It’s better to make continuous small changes that will last than to make a bunch of really big changes that you can only maintain for a couple months.   

Check out our next blog to learn how you can target your stomach.

Give me an exercise to target the fat on my......

Almost every single client who’s looking to drop some fat or tone up always ask me to give them an exercise that will help them lose fat _______ .  You can insert any number of different body parts.  The thing is there has been no research to prove or indicate that there is a strong relationship between doing exercises that will target specific areas of fat.  For example, just because you have more fat on your stomach doesn’t mean that doing crunches or any other ab exercise is going to burn more fat in your stomach than anywhere else in your body.

Most people don’t have an understanding of how the body gets rid of fat.  Here is a quick explanation of the way that you “burn” fat is that your fat cell gets the correct signal from your body indicating it needs energy.  You fat cells will release fat into the blood stream which will take it to the muscles and the rest of the body to be used as energy.  But your body doesn’t necessarily take fat from the area that is being worked, it will take fat from fat cells all over your body.  For example, just because you do crunches doesn’t mean your body is going to use fat from around your stomach.

Another reason most people think that they can lose fat in a specific area is that there is a myth out there that fat will turn to muscle or that muscle can turn to fat.  This is not true, fat cells and muscle cells are two completely different structures.  They do not totally transform, it would be equivalent to brain cells turning into heart cells.  This is another reason that it isn’t really possible to target a specific area to lose more fat through an exercise.  Even though you can target a specific area to increase the amount of muscle that doesn’t mean that the fat will disappear in that area.

Tune in to our next blog post to learn how you actually can target specific areas of your body to lose fat......I’ll give you a hint it has nothing to do with picking the right exercise.

For more free information to help you reach your goal check out our free resource section of our website at http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/resources.html. 

What is organic food?

I was talking to a buddy of mine the other day and somehow it came up that I buy most of my meat from local farmers who raise organic free range meat.  He didn't really know what organic meant.  I always tend to forget that although organic food is becoming more mainstream a lot of people don't really know what the differences is between organic food and conventionally food. 

Here are a few things that set organic food apart from conventionally raised food:

·  Synthetic fertilizers must not be used. Instead, organic materials such as animal and plant wastes, compost, including crop residues, are used.

·  The soil is kept fertile through the use of animal and plant waste; however, sewage sludge is strictly not allowed.

·  Synthetic pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc must not be used. Instead, natural means of pest control, for example by allowing organisms (e.g. ladybugs) which eat pests to thrive, are practiced. In fact, populations of these organisms are deliberately built up. Natural agents are also allowed, although in controlled amounts.

·  Crop rotation is practiced. This helps to preserve and even enhance the quality of the soil, and also encourages a balanced and diversified ecosystem to thrive. It also helps in weed control.

·  Cover crops are grown. Cover crops are used to restore nitrogen and organic matter into the soil.

·  Genetic engineering and modification must not be involved – much of the dangers of GMO are presently still unknown.

·  Plant produce must not be irradiated. That process damages the food and makes it harmful to us.

·  No chemical preservatives, flavourings or additives must be added to the foods.


Animals can be considered organically raised if the following conditions are met:

·  They must be fed organic food, e.g. organic grains. Commercially farmed animals are often given unhealthy junk foods, including the remains of other animals, which are sometimes diseased.

·  They must not be given artificial hormones, antibiotics, drugs, steroids, etc.

·  Genetic engineering or modification must not be involved. No playing god.

·  The meat and other animal food products must not be irradiated. As mentioned above, the process damages food and makes it harmful when consumed by humans.

·  No chemical preservatives, flavourings or additives must be added to the meat.

Remember it is very important if you do not know the farmer to buy certified organic at the grocery store.  This means that the farm has been certified, other farms can write organic without the product which actually doesn't mean much.  Most fruit, vegetables and meats that say organic are usually certified organic, but make sure to read those labels. 

Are you responsible?

Later this week I’m heading down south for my honeymoon, I wanted to go on a few different supplements to decrease my chances of picking up any critters while I’m down there (a very frequent occurrence for people traveling).   One of the supplements I went on was a pro-biotic. I had some left over from about a year and a half back when I went to a nutritionist to get his help with a few different issues I was having. 

After being on the pro-biotic for a few days I developed a canker sore (typically I only get these when I come into contact with anything with gluten or wheat).   Thanks to my very intelligent wife’s suggestion I read the ingredients list and it had both wheat and soy in it.  After going off the supplement for 4 days the canker is almost gone. 

What does any of this have to do with responsibility?  Well the nutritionist had done food intolerance testing on me and knew I was VERY intolerant to wheat and soy, yet he sold me a supplement that contained both.   I’m a saying he was a bad at his job, no, defiantly not, he made a mistake.  But the important lesson to learn from this is to always be responsible for what you’re putting into your body.  I should have been reading the label of everything I put into my body, even if some other professional was saying it was safe for me I should have made sure that is was.  In reality this was a much bigger mistake on my part than his. 

We have so much information at our finger tips it’s very easy to do research yourself and get the information you need to make your own decisions about our health.  Don’t just follow the latest diet, take the latest shake or supplement, or start taking a medication without educating yourself first.  Actually research and see if what someone is saying actually makes sense and if it is right for you. 

Most of the stuff that health professionals are selling is complete garbage, so you have to be careful to protect your own health and not waste your hard earned cash on products that aren’t going to improve your health.  Always take responsibility for your own health and don’t take anyone’s word as the gospel truth.   For more free information check out our websites free resource section at  http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/resources.html. 

Do nothing to help lose weight??

                Do you take time for yourself?  Actually stop and think about it.  How many times in an average week do you stop and take time to be alone with yourself? First I want to explain what I mean when I say time to yourself.  I mean sitting, lying, or standing and doing nothing, I mean literally nothing.

                Almost everyone these days is over stressed, I would say there is a good chance that you thought to yourself in the last paragraph “I don’t have time to do nothing.” That is a very common response I usually hear.  And I promise you if you don’t have time to do nothing, than you defiantly need to make some time to do nothing.  A lot of clients who come to see me have too much going on in their lives and it leads to them failing to reach their fat loss goals.  Right now are you failing to reach your goals?

I want you to take just 5 minutes every day for the next 2 weeks and spend it doing nothing.  I mean literally nothing, sit and try to clear your mind.  You are almost guaranteed to find this incredibly challenging at first.  You will find your mind wandering and wanting to think about a million things.  And that’s okay, just relax and bring your attention back to feeling air come in and out of your body.

                Here are a few things you can do to try to make it easier to be present and do nothing in the moment.  One technique is to focus on your breathing, really pay attention to all of the sensations as the air enters in through your nose and leaves out through your nose.  When the mind wanders bring it back to the breath.  Another technique is to focus on breathing, but hum out loud as you breathe out.  If your mind wanders bring it back to the vibration you feel as you hum during your exhalation. 

                It will take a little while to improve.  Don’t be too hard on yourself, it will come with practice.  I can relate to having a very busy schedule, running my own business and having a 18 month old son to think about.  But take at least 5 minutes every day to start and you will notice your stress levels begging to decrease if you keep up with it.  Slowly try to increase it to 20-30 minutes every day if you can.  It will be well worth cutting out Grey’s Anatomy or CIS from your nightly schedule to get some “you” time. 

Have you accomplished your New Years resolution yet?

The end of the year is fast approaching.  We are almost done November, so I want you to take a second and think about the goals that you had set for yourself this year.  Can you even remember your New Years resolutions?  If you do remember them have you accomplished all of them or you’re on pace to accomplish them by the end of the year?  If you’ve forgotten them you’re not alone, most people do.  If you’re not on pace to accomplish your goal actually take a second and think about why you haven’t been putting in the work to accomplish your goals.  Do you have your goal written down and do you read it at least twice every day?

                If your answer is no to either of these this is a great first step.  Write down what your fitness or health goal is for the rest of 2010.  You only have one month left so it doesn’t have to be a huge goal, it can be something simple that will lead into a larger goal in 2011.  Put your goal somewhere you will read it every day, ie. On your fridge or on your night stand.  Personally I put my goals on my nightstand and on my desk at work.  I read them every morning and every night before bed.  This will help to keep it in the front of your mind which is a big step in starting to actually accomplish your goals.  For more free information to help you on your way to accomplishing your goals check out other free resources on our website http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/resources.html. 

Do you have enough support?

                Have you ever stopped to look at your support system you have surrounded yourself with?  Most people haven’t.  It can be a very important factor in accomplishing your goals.  Look at the 5 people you spend the most time with (friends, coworkers, spouse, children, family).  Actually think about the 5 people closest to you in your life.  Are these the type of people who are supporting you and helping you move towards your goal or are they putting barriers in your way?  Most people say “yes, it’s great” without actually stopping and thinking about this question.  Make sure to actually stop and think about your support system.

                I’ll give an example to help illustrate what I’m trying to say.  I have a client who’s trying to lose weight and her partner loves eating food at the local sports bar.  When she’s trying to eat healthy and suggests they make something his response often times is along the lines of “come on, let’s go have some pizza or some wings, I really want to go to the bar, let’s go.”  Now compare that to another client of mine she was telling me a story the other day about how she really wanted to eat something that would be taking her a step away from her goal, and her husband’s response was lets go for a walk instead, we wanted to get outside tonight anyways.   By the time she got back to the house her desire to have that food had passed.   

                Think about being in these two situations it would be much harder in the first scenario to stick to healthy eating habits if you have someone putting this type of influence on you all the time compared to the second scenario.  When you actually look at the support system around you and the five people closet what does it look like? 

If you find you have 1 or more people within your life that are not helping you head in the right direction I would strongly encourage you to have a conversation with them and talk to them about what you’re trying to accomplish, why it’s important to you to accomplish that goal and finally how much their help would mean to you.  Usually the people in our support system don’t mean to be holding you back, they don’t realize what it is they’re doing and how much it means to you to reach your goal.  If you’re struggling to lose weight download a free copy of “P.E.A.K. Fat Loss” a 6 month guide that walks you through step by step how to make a total transformation. 

http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/freefatlossmanual.html

Are exercise classes doing you more harm than good?

                Many people are doing large group exercise classes;  a lot of these classes are focused on lifting weights or other high impact exercise.  I have had a number of clients come to me who do “body pump” or similar classes and they have resulted in very serious injuries.  I’ve even had instructors come to me over the years because they’ve hurt themselves from teaching these types of classes.  Yes that’s right the people who are suppose to be teaching you proper technique often do get hurt from doing the routines they’re teaching......think about that for a second.  Are you having back, knee, or shoulder pain or you just don’t feel great after completing these classes?

                When I used to work in a large chain fitness club I would watch people who participated in these classes and I would see them using horrible technique, without being corrected.  Seeing them exercise like this would actually make me cringe because the chance of injury was almost inevitable.  Even a lot of the instructors were using the same bad technique while instructing the participants. 

                Another problem with these classes is that many participants feel the need to exercise at an intensity that they’re not ready for because they feel uncomfortable in that setting and don’t want to look out of shape.  This feeling of social pressure can cause many to push themselves beyond their bodies capacity, which can lead to injury or to be sore for a days or even a week.  Have you ever felt sore for days after a class? This is actually a really bad sign.

                And you could actually be creating a hormonal response that is stopping you from losing weight.  A person should only do intense exercise for shorter bouts of time, I’m talking 10-40 minutes.  Most people will respond best in my experience to intense exercise in the 10-30 minute range unless they have a high level of conditioning.  Most of these classes last an hour, and have people going all out as hard as they can for almost the entire class.  What happens is once you have exercise for too prolonged a period of time for what your body is ready to handle it causes you to release glucocorticoid hormones, yeah big words make me feel really smart ;).  All you need to know is that these hormones actually signal your body to store fat.......yes that’s right when you exercise at too high of intensity for too long a period of time you actually wind up storing fat.  This is why so many people who participate in these classes see little to no change in their body’s shape.

                If you’re struggling to lose weight check out our free resource section of our website http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/resources.html to learn all about what you need to do to start getting serious fat loss results or download a free copy of our manual “P.E.A.K. Fat Loss” at http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/freefatlossmanual.html. 

Are your goals possible or are they realistic?

I have people come to me all the time with very un-realistic goals.  When you’re setting a goal do you look at what’s the most weight loss I can possibly lose in the next 6 months or year?  And you set this as your goal?  It is important to differentiate between what is possible and what is realistic for you. 

The other day I had a client who wanted to lose 30 pounds in 6 months and she was about 60 pounds overweight.  This is defiantly possible; I have had clients reach similar goals.  However when you look at how willing she was to change her current lifestyle and nutrition her goal wasn’t realistic for her.  When I started discussing taking out all processed food, getting to bed by 10:30 and several other changes she would have to make, she said “I don’t know if I can do all that.”  She wasn’t ready to make the sacrifices and changes necessary to accomplish her goal of losing 30 pounds.  People often set goals that are possible but not realistic given their readiness to change....it’s a serious problem that prevents people from permanent weight loss.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for setting challenging goals, but it is important that you actually look into the “how” behind accomplishing your goal.  Talk to professionals and ask them what you would have to do to accomplish your goals.  Then actually take a second and look at everything you have to do and ask yourself am I ready to actually make all of these changes?  Do I really feel confident that I can make all of these changes?  If you start to think things “well it’s possible” or “I might be able to do that.”  Stop and ask yourself if you’ve gone through this exact same situation before.  I bet you have. 

You’re not alone most people that set fat loss goals, do the exact same thing over and over again.  They come up with these incredibly difficult goals, but don’t plan out everything they have to do and come up with plan that they can implement into their lifestyle long term.  This usually leads to one of two possible scenarios.  They set out, lose a bit of weight and get discouraged and stop their “diet.”  OR they hit their very difficult goal, but they’ve been feeling so deprived they start to eat all the food they’ve been missing out on and gain all the weight back. 

What would make more logical sense to you, coming up with a goal of losing 10-20 pounds over the next 6 months and not feeling deprived, knowing you’re going to keep that weight off long term and being on track to continue to lose weight after you hit that goal?  Or making a lot of difficult changes very quickly, counting calories, depriving yourself and losing 30-40 pounds over the next 6 months and gaining it all back again in the next year?  All the people that I have come into contact with over the years that have been successful at maintaining their weight loss make slow, steady, consistent changes to their lifestyle instead of a complete overhaul.

You can be very successful with your weight loss goals, you just have to make sure that they match your willingness to change.  If you need help losing weight download a free copy of “P.E.A.K. Fat  Loss: A 6 month guide to transforming your life, health and body.”  It will walk you through every single change you have to make on your weight loss journey and it will give you the tools for you to be able to not only reach your fat loss goal, but learn how to keep it off.  And it’s free.....not catch......no sales pitch.  A free resource that will get you success if you follow all the steps. 

http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/freefatlossmanual.html

What toxins are sneaking into your body?

I talk about reading labels of all the food you eat.  And hopefully you’re doing that.  But are you reading the labels of all your skin products?  Anything you’re putting onto your skin gets absorbed into your body within seconds.  This is one place where a lot of people are getting a large amount of toxins in their body.  If you’re finding yourself feeling tired frequently, irritable, problems with bowel movements, digestion, frequently sick or having headaches than you are probably having too many toxins coming into your body.  These can be signs that your body is not properly detoxifying.  You want to start limiting your toxin exposure.  Start reading the labels of your different soaps, shampoos, hair products, make up, etc.

Is it really going to make that much of a difference?  I’ll use an anecdotal story to illustrate how toxic some of these products can be.  I had acne on my scalp under my hair for years and figure it was just something I was destined to have.  When I switched from a typical hair gel product to an all natural product I had the acne disappear within a week.  Start looking at everything you put on your skin and see all the ingredients you don’t recognize. 

Trust your instincts

I sat down the other day with a woman who was interested in personal training.  She was already seeing a personal trainer, but was looking for something different.  She was telling me how she was always sore for prolonged periods of time after workouts and often didn’t feel ready for her next workout.  She also mentioned how her trainer would make her do 10 more reps after she could no longer perform any more reps on her own. 

 She asked me “this is right is it? I shouldn’t be feeling like this should I?”  The thing is she already knew the answer she just wanted confirmation from me.  In case you’re in a similar situation, if you are working with any kind of professional doesn’t matter what type and your gut is telling you something is off and it doesn’t feel quite right.....it’s probably not.  Trust your gut! 

For more free information check out our "Free Resource" section on our website http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/resources.html. 

What type of labels do you have?

Do you actually read the label on every single food or beverage you put into your body?  A lot of people out there don’t.   If you’re not doing this, start doing it right now, start today!  Grab something out of a box you have in your lunch or in your cupboards if you’re at home.  Actually take a second and go grab a couple items.  Read the ingredients label and see how many of the ingredients you don’t even recognize.  This is a major problem with our society right now, most of the food we eat isn’t real food.  It’s highly processed. 

Even a lot of food that is “health” food, is highly processed.  Most of the bread they tell you is great for you, or cereal that is a must have for health, or even the dairy you “have” to eat is highly processed.  If you’re eating food that has ingredients you don’t recognize you will want to ask yourself the following questions: 

·         Am I overweight?

·         Am I feeling tired most of the time?

·         Can I not picture getting through my day without having caffeine?

·         Do I have large fluctuations in energy?

·         Do I get a cold or flu more than once a year?

·         Do I suffer from a hormone imbalance?

·         Do I have problems losing weight around my stomach and hips?

·         Do I have dark circles under my eyes 3 or more times every week?

If you’re eating processed food frequently it can cause a lot of these problems.  Start reading every label of all the foods you eat and see how many contain ingredients you don’t recognize. If you start eliminating all these foods and replacing them with real food (that don’t have ingredients lists) you’ll be amazed after a 3-6 weeks how much better you will look and feel.  Give it a try!

Action....not just a movie genre

A big key to whether you’re going to reach a goal you set or not is action.  Are you ready to actually take action and move towards your goal every single day until you reach your goal?  Most people if they set a goal will talk about how they really want it, and then they begin on the road to trying to accomplish their goal.  After a few days, weeks or months go by, they forget all about their new goal.  A classic example of this is people making a New Year’s resolutions.  Most people make them, but don’t actually accomplish their resolution for the year.  The reason why most fail is that they don’t take immediate action and continue to take action on their goals daily. Even if it is a small action that helps you move towards your goal take action every single day.

The first step is to come up with a plan of everything you will have to do to accomplish your goals.  Write all of these down.  Now come up with a plan of when and how you will implement all of these different steps.  Then continue to take action on your plan every single day.  Read your plan every morning and every night.  This will help to keep you on track, and keep you taking action towards your goals.  A lot of people will read this and think “hmmm” interesting, and won’t actually do this exercise.  These will be the same people that will fail to reach their goal.  You don’t want to be one of those people so take action and actually do this exercise.  Remember they don’t have to be large actions they can be very small and simple.  The important thing is to keep momentum. 

Is your cardio training getting you little or no weight loss?

I can’t tell you how many potential clients come and tell me they “I don’t know where I’m going wrong, but I can’t seem to lose weight.”  They say they are barely losing any weight and that they are doing cardio 4-6 times per week, some even 7 days per week!  And they don’t understand why they can’t hit their fat loss goals.  Does this sound just like you?

You probably see this type of training on TV shows, and that’s what the mass media keeps telling you people do this to lose weight.  Well unfortunately long and slow cardio workouts are not ideal for fat loss, and often times in my experience have even caused clients to lose ZERO weight!  If you’re not getting results and you’re working outing out often this could be happening to you.
One of the main reasons longer-slower cardio in the fat burning zone doesn’t help you lose weight is that it actually make your body more efficient at burning and storing fat.  Believe it or not, it’s true.  The main energy source you use during long cardio sessions in the “fat burning zone” is not surprisingly fat......which is why most people think it’s good for burning fat.  However, after the first few weeks your body adapts to this and actually becomes very efficient at storing and burning fat. 

In a 2007 study it was shown that a group who performed on average 6 hours of long slow cardio per week for an entire year lost an average of only 3.5 pounds for the entire year! That’s less than 1/3 of a pound per month.  For a total of 312 hours of cardio training through the entire year they only lost 3.5 pounds on average.  That’s a whole lot of work for almost no fat loss if you ask me.

At this point you’re probably wondering what type of cardio you should be doing to lose fat ideally.  I have a great article on this on my website to learn how to burn the most fat possible from your cardio workouts check it out at http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/articlecardio2.html. 

Are you eating right for YOUR metabolism?

The last two posts I talked about what I consider carb foods and what I consider protein-fat foods.  You might be wondering how you actually put these together and know how much of each to eat.  Well every single person is different, we all have different metabolisms.  What works for your best friend or your mom isn’t going to necessarily work for you. 

How can you figure out how much to eat? You listen to the signals your body is sending you.  If you have a plate of food pay attention to how much of the plate is covered with food that falls into our protein-fat category compared to carb category of foods.  About an hour and a half after you’ve finished eating pay attention to how you feel.   There are some typical reactions that are associated with eating too much carb foods compared to protein-fat food and vice-versa. 

Signals typically associated with too much carb foods compared to protein-fat foods about an hour and half after eating

·         Quick energy drop in energy 1-2 hours after eating

·         Tired but wired feeling

·         Headache

·         Don’t feel satisfied, hungry again quickly

Signals typically associated with too many protein-fat foods compared to carb foods about an hour and half after eating

·         Lethargic or sleepy

·         Heavy gut

·         Feel full, but still hungry

I want to stress that everyone has different reactions.  These are just more typical reactions.  Your next step if you get a reaction is at your next meal to change the ratio of carb to protein-fat foods on your plate.  And again pay attention to your reaction an hour and a half after you eat.  There are three options your reactions get: better, worse or the same.

 If your reactions get better you’re heading in the right direction continue to make changes until you have great reactions an hour and half after you eat. 

If your reactions get worse, you went in the wrong direction.  Go in the opposite direction and see how you react.

If the reaction stays the same make a larger adjustment in the ratio and see how you react.

If you can’t seem to get good reactions after you eat no matter what you do with the ratio of carb to protein-fat food it could be a digestion issues which must be addressed.  Hope that helps, if you have any questions please email me at info@peak-personaltraining.com.

Proteins and fats made simple

I watch television shows from time to time that talk about nutrition and diets.  And I’m sure you must be confused about what to eat and what to avoid.  Everyone is telling you something different.  Well I like to keep things simple......probably because I’m a pretty simple guy.  I like to break food down into three categories: processed food, carb food, or protein/fat food.  In the last post I put up I defined what three types of food fell into the carb food category.  Today I’ll go through and you’ll understand which foods fall under the protein/fat food category.

It’s pretty simple, the following foods are protein/fat foods:

• Animal foods (meat, fish, dairy, eggs, butter)
• Nuts/seed
• Oils (olive oil, coconut oil, etc)
• Legumes

Not too hard to remember right.  Take a look at what you eat and see how often do you consume a protein/fat food?  Over the next couple days actually take note of all the times you eat, how many times does a meal contain a protein/fat food?  On the next post I will go through and explain to you how to combine carb foods with protein/fat foods to help you feel satisfied after you eat. 

Carbs made simple

Are you like most people today and you’re really confused about food?  There is so much information out there it’s hard to know what exactly you should be eating.  Personally I like to keep things pretty simple.  I like to break food down into three categories for my clients: processed food, protein/fat food and carb foods. Pretty simple so far eh?

 Carb foods are fruits, vegetables, and grains.  Most people today are over consuming carbs, our society in general are “grain-aholics.” Most people are consuming too many carb foods in comparison to fat/protein foods.  This leads to increase in fat storage, obesity, problems with insulin levels such as diabetes, and large energy fluctuations.  You should be consuming most of your carb foods from veggies, this means you eat more veggies than grains or fruits.  Veggies are very dense in minerals, vitamins and fiber.  And they do not give you really steep insulin spikes.  Every time you eat meals and snacks you should have a carb food and a protein/fat food.   Next time I’ll go through which foods fall into the fat/protein category. 

Your big take home from this post.  Stop and think are you eating more veggies than fruit or grains every day?  If you’re not, start slowly replacing fruits and grains with vegetables.  For more great information on fat loss check out our free resource section on our website at www.Peak-PersonalTraining.com/resources.html.