Welcome back to Part 3 of our body transformation ‘Explained’ blogpost. I took a few days off so you could implement some training advice and experiment with Interval Training. How did it go? As I write this last content for you, I want you to understand that I, personally, am going through this just like you. I am resistance training, cardio training and eating real tight. So, I am paying homage to the 3 major components of your success formula: 1) Resistance Training, 2) Cardio Training(Interval, slow steady-state, voluntary activities), and 3) Nutrition. With your understanding of these components and your baseline body assessment completed, you are now ready for this last segment, Nutrition, and on your way to success!

First, there is nutrition for health improvement and nutrition for achieving body transformation(dropping body fat, scale weight). I am taking the standpoint of achieving both by eating whole foods, relying on plant based foods, eating clean, eating tight, lean proteins, and not worrying about how much fat is in each item. Get your mind off the fat and more aware of the sugar. You see sugar, simple and complex carbohydrates(at the wrong time of day) are your culprits in sabotaging those fantastic workouts! As Brenden Brazier(Thrive) puts it, “High-quality, nutrient dense, alkaline forming, easily digestible food in proper proportions” is the answer.

To start off, remember that this nutrition formula can be as simple as , calories in vs. calories out. Say you eat that week real crappy but exercised like the Energizer rabbit, as long as the calories in were less than the calories out(your basal metabolism and exercise activities), you would lose scale weight and a portion of that scale weight loss would be fat! Remember that you want to maintain or increase your muscle(lean body mass) and lose fat pounds as the ideal scenario. But my eating crappy example would not satisfy my health improvement criteria. So without writing a book, I want to sum it up for you, a guideline of nutrition to improve your health and deliver body transformation.

To complement your ’smart’ exercising from Part 2, your sound nutrition plan should provide you with enough calories to support your BMR but be less overall than total calorie burning for that day or week, depending how you are keeping track. I will assume for the majority of blog readers that you eat meat. And still a reminder that you need to consume half your body weight in water per day.

Sugar(simple carbs) – the only time(s) to consume sugar(sucrose, dextrose) is either at breakfast soon after awakening which jump-starts your metabolism or immediately after a resistance training workout along with your sports nutrition supplementation.

Eat whatever number of meals you need to or can eat in your typical day. It could be 3-4 or 5-7, just as long as the calories in are less than the calories out. Look at each meal(including snacks) as a meal, so there needs to be protein, carbohydrates, and fat. A 10:00 am snack of an apple is eating clean but not a meal, you could have combined it with nuts for protein and fat to make it a meal. Eat breakfast no matter what, start your day off physically and mentally right with breakfast. What kind of breakfast? Protein, carbohydrate and fat!

Sample Day: Breakfast- eggs and oatmeal, which includes the 3 nutrition components- protein, carbohydrates and fat. Mid-morning snack meal- a piece of fruit with nuts. Lunch- chicken breast on a salad with olive oil and vinegar. Mid-afternoon snack- cottage cheese with cut up fruit and raw veges. Dinner- lean protein, fibrous carbs(veges).

What you are striving for is eating lean protein throughout the day, getting your fruit sugar and complex carbs(rice, potatoes, breads, grains, pasta) in by a certain time of day that is best for your results, like 2-4 pm. After this time only eat lean protein with fibrous carbs(veges, especially green leafy) rest of day. This is just a suggestion, but it has had lots of success with many people and you will read from other sources the same thing to confirm that it is body transformation results oriented. Plus your health is not compromised as you are eating real food. To sum it up…

Eat whole foods, nutrient dense foods, plant based foods, organic foods, lean meats…foods that you would consider, Clean! Rid your diet of packaged foods, refined sugar foods, simple carbohydrates. Convert your complex carbohydrates from white based to a more natural source. White rice to brown rice, white bread to 100% whole wheat bread, etc. But just remember, it’s ‘A’ OK to eat complex carbohydrates, just not late in the day to evening. You won’t get your fitness results from pasta and pizza each night, just excess stomach fat!

So that I haven’t lost you… protein, carbs and fat each meal. Eliminate simple carbs and sugar. Eat your fruits and complex carbs by 2-4 pm each day so your body has a chance of using them for energy and not fat storage. After 2-4 pm switch to fibrous carbs(veges -concentrating on green leafy). Add in good fats(olive oil, coconut oil, nut butters) so your meals have some fat to fuel your workouts. Eat organic as much as possible! Experiment with both animal and plant based protein.

This eating plan can be summed up as ‘Eating Clean’ with manipulating complex carbohydrates and fruit sugars! Happy Eating and Stay Strong!

Note: If weight loss is your goal, losing 2 pounds per week is your guideline as any more than that is assuredly lost lean body mass which will sabotage your body transformation. On the flip side, if weight gain or hypertrophy is your goal, calories in need to be more than calories out thus creating a Positive Energy Balance.

Flex-Fit Training provides all clients with body fat analysis, scale weight broken down into fat pounds and lean mass pounds. Also we determine your BMR and thus establish a baseline of where you are at now to set goals to accomplish your body transformation needs. Call for a consultation 919.995.4679. Online clients are welcome also! duane@flexfittraining.com

So sick and tired of seeing and hearing all the misguided weight loss pitches bombarding me and the general public wherever we are or go! Eat this magical ‘cookie’ from the cookie jar… UPS will deliver our pre-packaged processed food that you then kill in the microwave… Hi! I’m Marie O., I lost weight, gained it back, lost it again, gained it back again and now I lost it again, so let me help you with a proven nutrition system based on scientific research! Yeah Right!

This sought after answer can be real easy if you just understand some basic information and then implement that information in Parts 1, 2 & 3 of this blog. Before we get 8th grade scientific, lets first understand the 3 major components of your success (weight loss / body fat % reduction) formula; Resistance Training, Calorie Burning Activity(cardio vs. Interval Training), and Nutrition. Of the 3, most experienced fitness professionals consider Nutrition the most important! Ok, now for the 8th grade commonsense science.

So you want to lose weight? As a fitness professional I take that as…So you want to lose body fat? So take it from me, it’s body composition that matters and not scale weight.

Body Fat and Lean Mass make up body composition. And lean mass of an individual is directly related to metabolism. Calories come into play which is just a unit of measure. It relates to “combustion” or, to produce energy. Proteins, fats and carbohydrates provide different rates of combustion. Fat is most efficient where protein and carbohydrates are less efficient. Your metabolism is the total amount of energy required by all your bodily functions for one day. Now here’s your take home message…It’s imperative to understand that in order to make a positive change (fat loss, weight loss), your body requires a certain metabolic expenditure and caloric consumption combination in order for that change to occur. Energy Out- one activity is the fueling of the basal metabolism(BMR). The second is the fueling of its voluntary activities (exercise). The primary cause of excessive body-fat and obesity is an energy imbalance in the body. If weight loss / body fat reduction is your goal, then you seek a Negative Energy Balance. The ‘old’ calories in vs. calories out equation! Now that you just graduated 8th grade, the question is ‘How do I proceed’!

First you need to be weighed so you can have a starting scale weight and thus help determine your body composition. Next have your body fat tested with either professional skinfold calipers or hydrostatic weighing(under water at a fitness testing facility). Those assessments will determine your fat pounds and lean mass pounds and give you a starting baseline of your own body composition. Next determine your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) to get a good idea of how many kcals your body burns at rest and is needed to operate optimally. Once you have your BMR, You MUST eat at least this number of calories per day! If you calorie restrict or deprive, your metabolism will shut down thus sabotaging you mentally and resulting in no change on the scale and lean body mass is sacrificed. And, you don’t want to lose any lean body mass, your goal is to protect that and increase it! First order of business is to start drinking pure water to the tune of 1 oz. for every 2 lbs. of body weight or half your body weight in ounces per day. To Be Continued!

Flex-Fit Training provides all clients with body fat analysis, scale weight broken down into fat pounds and lean mass pounds. Also we determine your BMR and thus establish a baseline of where you are at now to set goals to accomplish your body transformation needs. Call for a consultation 919.995.4679. Online clients are welcome also! duane@flexfittraining.com

How do you know your supplements are making a difference? Before you or I answer that, let’s get a better understanding what happens to us daily at the cellular level. Each day we are exposed to free radicals – unstable molecules that steal or ’scavenge’ electrons from other molecules. Many of the physical effects we call aging are a result of free radical damage. And no matter how healthy you try to be, you receive free radical damage every single day.

Exposure to free radical activity is a natural part of life, but in today’s highly stressful and hectic world, it’s possible to become overexposed and experience greater consequences of free radical damage. Environmental pollution, unbalanced diets, preservatives and additives in food, excessive body fat due to inactivity, mental stress, and even breathing create free radicals in your body. When left unchecked, free radical damage to your cells accumulates and can lead to serious health concerns later in life. In fact, free radical damage can cause premature aging and is a large factor in the deterioration of health over time.

Natures solution – Antioxidants are your first defense against free radicals – they freely share their electrons and stop the degenerative chain reaction of free radicals. Our bodies naturally generate some antioxidants, and certain foods also contain antioxidants. However, new research shows additional sources of antioxidants may provide added protection against a growing onslaught of free radical invaders.

Carotenoids are an important category of antioxidants, they are primarily responsible for the reds, oranges, and yellows we see in fruits and vegetables. In our bodies non-carotenoid antioxidants rely on carotenoids to defend and replenish themselves, so that they can continue their cell-protective work. Therefore, a high level of carotenoids in the antioxidant defense network suggests that there are also high levels of other antioxidants. Research suggests that skin carotenoid levels measured with the Pharmanex BioPhotonic Scanner correlates with, and are a good indication of, the body’s overall antioxidant defense system.

If you would like to know your skin carotenoid score using this high-tech scanner, contact us for local scanning appointments or for a scan operator near you. Flex-Fit Training and Healthy Numbers are currently sponsoring a 10 week ‘Eating Healthy – Antioxidant Contest’ at Flex-Fit Training Studio here in Raleigh where 51 of our clients are eating more fruits / vegetables daily and having repeat skin carotenoid scans to see their progress in fighting illness, infection, disease, and slowing the aging process. For more information contact us at duane@flexfittraining.com.

All information in this blog post is accredited to Pharmanex, a division of NuSkin

It’s funny how I’m staring down all these recent heavy duty marketing campaigns for useless nutritional products that I can only reason that greed is the marketing driver. Case in point, Sunday morning TV commercial for the new Centrum (you know, the horse pill company)vitamin that improves your metabolism as a direct result of ingesting it.

You know that the operators of port-a-johns have to dump out the contents, and when they do and after washing it down to nothing there stands a small pile of hard matter, yes you guessed it, ‘horse pill’ vitamins. They do not get assimilated by the body due to the manufacturing process. If you are taking a multi vitamin(I would suggest it) that is one big pill, find a better source. Think soft gels and capsules and bioavailability!

Centrum multi vitamin boosting your metabolism? Absolutely NOT! Here’s the skinny on your metabolism. If you want to boost or rev up your metabolism, eat smaller but more frequent meals per day and build some lean body mass. Use your cardio workouts for calorie burning and oxidizing body fat , 2 good things, but they do not boost your metabolism directly. You need to weight(resistance) train 2-3 times a week consistently to increase lean body mass, which in turn burns more calories at rest. More muscle burns more calories at rest, add some muscle and now you burn even more calories. Now change up some of your cardio workouts to true, Interval Training as icing on the cake!

Quick cellular explanation; at the cellular level is your mitochondria(powerhouse of every cell), your goal is to increase the number of mitochondria. You do that by strength training(only activity that increases the # of mitochondria) which increases your lean body mass. If you have more mitochondria, you have improved resting metabolism. Mitochondria use oxygen and burns it at the cellular level, now how can I make my mitochondria burn it better….Interval Training, not slow steady state cardio. Run for 1 minute(work) at a 8-9 on the 10 scale(Ratings of Perceived Exertion), then jog(rest) at a 5-6 on the 10 scale for 2-3 minutes, repeat for a total duration of 30 minutes minimum. Now your mitochondria and extra mitochondria are burning oxygen at a higher level, thus boosting your metabolism.

For the avid exerciser who wants to get tested for their resting / exercise metabolic rate, VO2 Max, contact Chris Eschbach at Human Performance Lab, Meredith College – www.humanperformancetesting.com

Have you seen the most recent TV commercial about HFCS where the ear of corn is in the police line-up and the witness is asked who was the culprit and the witness can’t pick out the bad guy? Well, I can pick em out! This is like the third ad campaign I have seen on TV to sell the American people on HFCS being harmless to us. Yeah right!

The average US citizen consumes 12 teaspoons daily of high fructose corn syrup. This is found in soft drinks, canned fruit, packaged foods, jams, and a zillion other foods. Many foods sweetened with HFCS contain mercury. Mercury is a known brain toxin!

A few manufacturers of HFCS, citric acid, and sodium benzoate use an old fashioned system that involves mercury to make caustic soda. The mercury is left as a residue in the production of caustic Soda. There are about 50 plants worldwide still using this technology.

One study published in Environmental Health found that nearly half the samples of HFCS tested contained mercury residue. In 2000, 58 tons of mercury was reported missing from the chlor-alkali plants(makers of chlorine and caustic soda) in operation in the US.

Before now, our greatest threat for mercury exposure was through fish, followed by mercury amalgam in dentistry and through vaccines, as it is sometimes used as a preservative. But the prior study’s Environmental Health Officer estimates that exposure via HFCS could be up to 50 times that of mercury amalgam exposure in children age 3-19, as this age group is the largest consumer of HFCS.

We too have had a potential day to day exposure to the heavy metal, just by choosing our food from the boxes and bottles in the center aisles of the grocery store. Aside from the case against us for improper nutrition, we could be slowly poisoning ourselves. Typically multiple studies show one in three products test positive for mercury residue.

Please read labels when you grocery shop, you will be amazed at the number of products you buy each week with this poison on the label.

While I was walking down my driveway for the Sunday paper today, I noticed it was wrapped in a yellow plastic Splenda sales bag. My first reaction was, will they ever stop! It’s hard to believe that Splenda is spending millions on ad campaigns for their poison sugar and the uninformed are eating dose after dose.

Sucralose is patented as a manmade “chlorinated sucrose sweetener” and it is registered as “chlorinated sucrose.” Chlorinated sucrose is not found anywhere in nature, like real sugar (sucrose) that is extracted from sugar cane and sugar beets. Chlorinated sucrose exists because of man.

The FDA states in their Final Report on Splenda that sucralose is “produced at an approximate purity of 98%.” The other two percent does not have to be reported to the FDA, nor listed as added ingredients. So what’s in the other two percent?

The chemicals used to synthesize sucralose in the five-step process:

1. Acetone 2. Acetic acid 3. Acetyl Alcohol 4. Acetic anhydride 5. Ammonium chloride 6. Benzene 7. Chlorinated sulfates 8. Ethyl alcohol 9. Isobutyl ketones 10. Formaldehyde 11. Hydrogen Chloride 12. Lithium chloride 13. Methanol 14. Sodium Methoxide 15. Sulfuryl chloride 16. Trityl chloride 17. Toluene 18. Thionyl chloride

The FDA does not presently require an Environmental Impact Statement for sucralose, so it’s open season for the rules, at present. The “technology of foods” (artificial sweeteners and manmade foods) has gone too far, and will not secure eternal health, beauty, slimness, or youth. Laboratory chemicals are not the answer.

Adapted from: The Hidden Chemicals in Splenda by Dr. Janet Starr Hull

http://www.splendaexposed.com/articles/2005/11/the_hidden_chem.html

What is FREE of charge, readily available, can be grown yourself, and breaks down into humus? Of course…Leaf mold / compost!

I use leaf mold as organic matter in my food gardens and also as a mulch covering to further feed the soil over time, which then feeds the plants. If you want to eat highly nutritious organic foods grown on your own property, then STOP throwing away your leaves. I’m a freak, walking the neighborhood to get all kinds of FREE leaves to compost(separately). When done properly, your earthworm count is ideal and you end up with a monster load of “Super PowerCharged” compost ready to feed your soil and plants.

In the fall, save every leaf you can lay your hands on. Either shred or place them in a pen separate from the regular compost bin. You can process large amounts of leaves into valuable leaf mold by use of a wire pen. Use welded wire or a similar wire to make a bin like the one you may have made for the regular compost pile. Add a 12-inch layer of leaves, wet them down with a hose, trample them down, then repeat until the pen is filled to within 6 inches from the top. Now do nothing, let sit. Harvest months later!

If you want to know how to grow your own PowerCharged foods, keep in touch!