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. 

Are you stressed when you eat?

Is your body under quite a bit of stress when you’re eating? A lot of people are these days and don’t even realize it.  Simple things such as reading emails, complaining about your day to someone, watching TV can all create a stress response in your body when you eat.  Why does it matter if your body is having a response to stress when you eat?

Your body is controlled by your nervous system; there are two main braches.  To simplify it one of the branches of your nervous system is to help you deal with stress (sympathetic nervous system) and one to help you deal with rest/recovery (parasympathetic nervous system).  When you eat your parasympathetic system should be working, it helps you to properly digest food by releasing the right hormones, enzymes, etc. 

However if you begin to get stressed or you are already stressed before you eat your sympathetic nervous system will be activated.  When this side of your nervous system is activated it actually shuts down a lot of the process that causes proper digestion.  This can lead to a number of different problems: indigestion, upset stomach, bloating, problems with bowel movements, etc.  If you have frequent digestion problems forget the Pepto Bismol and try doing nothing when you eat, or just have pleasant positive relaxed conversations during meal times.  Yeah this seems simple, but if you try this for 4 weeks you will notice you have improved digestion.

If you’re struggling with digestion and you are having problems figuring out how to improve in this area please send me an email at info@peak-personaltraining.com to see how we can help.

Having problems focusing?

It’s a very common problem these days; most clients that come to me have problems focusing, problems falling asleep because their mind is busy, and problems relaxing on vacation.  Their minds are go-go-go all the time, they can’t just relax.  I can relate, it’s something that I really work on all the time, I’m even working on it as I write this post, my mind wants to wander to the next thing I have on my to-do list this morning.  I love my work and I think about it all the time, even though I love what I do this isn’t good for the stress levels. 

Here is a quick technique I use to help my mind try to relax that you can do almost anywhere.  Take a deep breath in through your nose, and make sure you are doing belly breathing (diaphragm) and as you slowly breath out through the nose hum for the entire breath out.  Really pay attention to the vibration you feel from the humming, and try to feel it go through your body.  Do 5-30 breaths slowly humming every time you breathe out.  Try to just focus on your breathing and the vibration feeling from the humming.  If your mind wanders just bring it back to one of those two sensations.  It might seem a little silly, but it will help you to focus and you will feel much more relaxed within just a minute or two of doing this.

If you’re still having problems falling asleep or relaxing and need more help I invite you to book a free consultation with us today.  Just shoot us and email at info@peak-personaltraining.com or give us a call at (613) 818-5334.

Hydration first thing in the morning

I talk a lot about the importance of staying hydrated with clients.  Now don’t stop reading and say  “yeah, yeah, water is important I know this stuff.” Actually take the time to read this almost everyone these days are chronically dehydrated and are suffering because of it without even realizing it. 

To learn about all the issues that can come with being chronically dehydtrated take a look at this article on our website http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/article-hydration.html.  Today I’m just going to talk to you about something you can do to stay hydrated and keep your energy high in the morning without needing caffeine. 

It has to do with drinking water within the first 20 minutes you’re awake.  After sleeping all night your body is very dehydrated, often times this is why a lot of people feel stiff or like they have some aching muscles.  Start trying to drink 750ml-1 liter within the first 20 minutes your’e awake, before you eat any food.  I know this sounds like a lot of water, but you’ll be surprised how quickly you can drink the water if you do it before you eat. 

The reason you can drink it easily is your body is craving the water.  Yes, you’re going to have to go to the washroom a couple times later that morning, but it will be well worth it for the energy boost and getting rid of that stiff feeling.  Hope this info helped you out, any questions shoot me an email at info@peak-personaltraining.com or I invite you to book a free consultation today.

How can you tell which food to eliminate to test for food intolerance?

The way I get my clients to see which food they should try to eliminate first is to have them write a food log of everything they eat.  On the food log track your reactions within the first hour and a half after you eat.  Look for any change, ie. bloating, gas, belching, energy drop, mental fog, skin reactions, increased flem in the throat, nasal passage becomes blocked, any kind of reaction. And make a note on your food log of your reaction.  After doing this for a week look at which foods seemed to give you the most problems.  Ie. if you have a bad reaction every time you eat something with wheat in it, you probably have a problem with wheat.  So try eliminating that for at least 2 weeks.  After you have avoided it completely for 2 weeks introduce it back in and see if you have a bad reaction to it.  If so, you’re intolerant to the food.

If you have a lot of reactions scattered throughout your food log which is often the case this can be difficult to identify the problem food.  This could mean a number of different things, but often times it’s because you’re eating a food you’re intolerant too frequently. Which can create intolerances to other foods as mentioned in my previous post.  Some of the most common foods to be intolerant to are: gluten, wheat, corn, soy, beef, and dairy.   So those are usually good places to start if you’re having lots of reactions try eliminating at least one of those for two weeks, then re-introduce it and look for negative reaction. Hope the info helped.  Any questions or you would like professional help identifying what foods you’re intolerant to shoot me an email at info@peak-personaltraining.com.

The easy-lab free way to tell if you have a food intolerance

There are expensive tests that can be done to see if you have food intolerances, many of these are unreliable though.  The easiest way to see if you’re intolerant to a food is to completely stop eating the food for a period of time, and then introduce it back into your diet to see if you have any negative reactions.  Examples of negative reactions are numerous here are a couple: indigestion, heartburn, upset stomach, undigested food in stool, bloating, gas, mental fog, poor energy, memory problems, skin irritation, flem in the throat, blocked nasal passage, etc.

    

    How long should you eliminate the food from your diet? Usually most will have 60-90 days as the "gold" standard.  However, most people find it hard to wrap their heads around not eating the food they love for that long of a time period.  I have had success with helping clients identify food intolerances by having them completely eliminate the food for a period of 2-3 weeks.  Once you have eliminated the food for the 2-3 weeks re-introduce it back into your diet and see if you get any negative reactions that we discussed above.  How do you know which foods to eliminate first?  I’ll talk about this in the next blog post. 

     If you're having digestion issues or you think you might be intolerant to certain foods and don't know where to start I invite you to contact us to see how we can help.  Or if you just have any questions please feel free to shoot me an email at info@peak-personaltraining.com. 

Do you have a food intolerance you don’t know about?

           When I start discussing with groups food intolerances I usually get the same response all the time.  All ask everyone in the group how many people have a food they’re intolerant to, usually only one or two hands go up.  Often NO hands go up.  Most of the people say how happy they are that they aren’t intolerant to gluten, milk, etc.  In actuality we are all intolerant to different food, to varying degrees.  Most people ask, how do I know if I’m intolerant to food? Symptoms that can likely mean you are consuming food you’re intolerant to include three basic types: Skin, respiratory, and GI tract.  Skin symptoms include: dermatitis, eczema, hives, frequent skin rashes.  Respiratory symptoms include: Nasal congestion, sinusitis, asthma, frequent coughing.  GI symptoms include: mouth ulcers (such as canker sores), abdominal cramp, nausea, gas, belching, intermittent diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome. 

            Take a look at that list and ask yourself if you’ve been having problems with any of those frequently.  Personally I used to get canker soars really badly every since I was a little kid off and on.  Once I figured out I was intolerant to gluten and eliminated it from my diet, they disappeared along with loads of other symptoms within a few weeks.  Stay tuned for more information about how you can figure out which foods are likely causing your problems.   If you are having digestional issues please contact us to book a free consultation today to see how we can help at info@peak-personaltraining.com.  Or check out our website for more information to help your digestion at http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/. 

Grains consumption staggering increase and its effect on our society!

Average daily calorie intake grew by 523 calories Per capita consumption Commodity group 1970 2003 Increase in pounds, 1970-2003 Increase in daily calories, 1970-2003 Pounds Percent Number Grains 136 194 43 188

North Americans are in large part grain-aholics.  How much are we talking about?  It may boggle boggle your mind.  In 2003 the Average American consumes 43% more grains then they did in 1970.  That is crazy when you actually take time to think about that number.  On average people are eating almost 1.5 times as many grains as they were in 1970.  And this number has probably continued to escalate in the last 7 years since the data was taken.

The large increase in grain consumption is leading to people having insulin sensitivity issues that are causing problems such as syndrome X, diabetes, obesity, and many others.  Most clients that come in to consult with me about nutrition who are looking to lose weight think they aren’t consuming enough grains……in the last 4 years I haven’t had one person who wasn’t consuming enough.  Almost 100% of them were consuming far too many grains and it was holding back their weight loss.  Take time to consider what your diet looks like.

For more information and free resources that will get you dropping the inches of your waste check us out at http://www.peak-personaltraining.com/resources.html. 

“Give me an exercise to lose weight here!”

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 to be used. 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.
 
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.
Tune in to our next blog post to learn how you can target specific areas of your body to lose fat.