Scale Addiction

Weight loss. Two words feared in the female language. From the day they are born, females hear their mom’s, aunts, sisters, friends, neighbors and Barbie on TV talking about it. They learn that the term weight loss to a woman is synonymous to ‘libido’ is to a man. So why? For the past 40 years, Americans have been taught to focus on a silly little dial with numbers (or an LED screen). And that these numbers define their self- worth, their progress, their true inner core of being a woman. The more weight you lose…the better you are doing. The less you lose…you are lazy, or worse, just destined to be overweight. Marketers have learned this is the main selling point in peddling their products. “Lose 10lbs in 10 days on the _______________(fill in the blank) new overnight miracle cure” What’s interesting about this whole concept in weight loss is that America and the UK are the only countries who really focus on weight loss. Don’t believe me? Try buying a ‘weight loss’ scale in Japan, Norway or Columbia. This concept of ‘weight loss’ is foreign (pun intended). So where did the whole ‘weight loss’ thing begin? No one is sure but it’s my belief that it begun around 1950-1960 when doctors began setting up offices where they would measure their customers height and weight. Then once a year, the client would come in and the customer’s weight was taken again. Naturally,if they lost weight, their health had improved. If they gained weight, their health likely suffered. So when the doctors began seeing this correlation, they realized that losing weight was healthy and gaining weight was not. With the influx of media channels (TV, radio, print), saavy marketing companies began using this whole weight loss correlation as a way to market good health. Today, it’s marketed as get happy, feel sexy, regain your confidence or turn his head again. So what’s the rub with ‘weight loss’? Well….we believe that weight loss as a long term indicator is a great measurement of progress. Weighing yourself once a month or every two months helps keep you accountable. Scale addiction… Most people we deal with have become addicted to the scale. They get up at 8am, weigh themselves. They go and pee…they weigh. They eat, they weigh. They workout, they weigh. They pee again, they weigh. By the end of the 3rd day of their new miracle cure diet, they have weighed themselves 50 times and they finally give up out of frustration. They’re amazed that their friend Betty lost 10lbs in 1 day on this diet so therefore they believe the problem lies with them. On a short term basis, weight loss is deceiving and ultimately defeating. It’s a worthless tool that will drive you crazy. My simple recommendation, don’t do it. I believe in focusing on routines. These routines become habit. Habit becomes lifestyle change. Then, and only then, does healthy weight loss occur. What’s great about this philosophy is that when you stop focusing on a number, you actually begin focusing on the core of the problem. Your habits. The mental agony of weight loss is when you don’t see the ‘number’ (results) you are promised or hope for, you then begin blaming yourself (or cursing God…or your husband J). You then begin believing that you were just meant to be overweight. You then give up. Here’s the main key you must learn about this whole crazy weight loss thing. Eat the right food and your body burns body fat as fuel. Eat the wrong food and your body creates body fat after it uses some of this ‘wrong food’ as fuel. When your body burns body fat, you experience ‘weight loss’ . It takes your body several days to burn body fat. Some people burn fat faster than others. The simplistic theory that 3500 calories = 1lb of fat simply does not hold true. Thus, you must stop believing you will lose 50lbs in 2 months. Good health and weight loss take time. The great news: You can begin changing your habits immediately. Okay then, what do I do now? So if I discourage weight loss as a measurement what do I recommend you use to monitor your progress so that you do not waste more of your precious time or energy going down another useless diet/fitness/weight loss path? (*I wish I had a cute acronym like ‘S.E.X.Y’ or ‘R.I.P.P.E.D’ to add some ‘umph’ to my summary below but I do not). a. First Understand & Accept – you must understand and accept that health and fitness takes time. You will begin ‘feeling’ the results within a matter of days. You will experience sugar withdrawals. When you cut out simple starches, sugar, fructose from your diet, your body will react. This is a sign that your body is shifting it’s ‘fuel source’ from the wrong foods to your stored body fat b. Patience – ignore the noise. Learning to ignore the noise around you and in your head is 99% of the battle. You must remind yourself you are changing your life and not worrying about weights or dates. Remind yourself that patience is what you must focus on to learn health. c. Size Reduction – your clothes, bra strap, jewelry, etc will get looser. This is the outward noticeable sign. Don’t expect to get in a size 2 before your high school reunion. Just know you will reduce SEVERAL sizes over the next 12 months. (one of our 1,700 trainers told me a great illustration he uses for his clients regarding weight loss vs. size reduction, it goes something like this…”Imagine you weigh 180lbs and wear a size 14. Then tomorrow, we get in a rocket ship and go to the moon. On the moon, you would weigh only 30lbs…however you are still in a size 14. The lesson…focus on size reduction. It’s the true barometer of how you are doing!) I tell a lot of clients if they want to lose weight fast, simply stop eating and walk 3 hours a day (of course I am not serious). They will lose weight but when they begin eating again, the fat fairy will come back with a vengeance along with her 2 cousins ‘Cellulite and Panty Lines’. You must stop focusing on the numbers of a dial. You must address the core of the problem… eating habits. Not less, not starvation. But simply the wrong foods So…what are your eating habits?

Superfoods, Weight Loss, and You!

You may have asked yourself what is it that makes a food "super"? According to Dr. Steven Pratt, who coined the term in 2004, a food must meet certain criteria to be classified as a superfood. The food must contain nutrients which improve and enhance one's longevity, it must be backed by peer reviewed scientific studies outlining their health benefits, and it must be readily available for consumption in the general public. Apples, blueberries, broccoli, garlic, oats, tomatoes and walnuts are just a few among many nutrient dense superfoods. According to Dr. Pratt's website, "These foods were chosen because they contain high concentrations of crucial nutrients, as well as the fact that many of them are low in calories. Foods containing these nutrients have been proven to help prevent and, in some cases, reverse the well-known effects of aging, including cardiovascular disease, Type II Diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers." The fact that many of these superfoods are low in calories and nutrient dense would suggest that they are perfect for weight loss. Dr. Pratt said, "The most common thing I hear is how much weight people lost without trying to lose weight." He goes on to say, "It's the non-diet diet. It's food you can eat for a lifetime." To Your Health, John Hall

The Amazing Kernel

According to research completed in March 2001 by Dr. K. Phillips of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the sunflower kernel is rich in a number of nutrients that have been shown to protect against cardiovascular and other diseases and to act as antioxidants and anti-carcinogens. When considered in aggregate, this amazing kernel packs a powerful nutritional punch. Sunflower kernels contain high levels of vitamin E, betaine, phenolic acids, and choline. In addition, the kernel is a good source of arginine and lignans. Each of these compounds, while perhaps unfamiliar to the layperson, has been studied by the scientific community and shown to offer a variety of health benefits. Vitamin E (Tocopherols): May protect against cardiovascular disease. Betaine: May protect against cardiovascular disease. Phenolic acids (chlorogenic acid): Antioxidant and anti-carcinogen. Choline: Plays a role in memory and cognitive function. Arginine: Potential heart benefits. Lignans: May protect against heart disease and some cancers; lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride.

Sunflower seeds offer an easy way to add some crunch, taste, and nutrition to a variety of foods. Toss them over your salad, mix them in with popcorn, serve them a la carte, or even add them to your fresh baked, whole grain breads and muffins. To Your Health, J

8 Tips for Avoiding the Holiday Pounds

It's that time of year. The leaves turn majestic hues of red and gold. The air becomes fresh and crisp. We can finally put an extra blanket on the bed and cuddle up with a cup of hot tea. Yes, it's fall. We just spent 8 months killing ourselves to get into that bathing suit, but now we've replaced it with a worn pair of jeans and a much more relaxed attitude towards food. After all, it's the holiday season, and no one'll notice a few extra pounds under layers of clothes. A little extra weight just gives us a New Year's resolution to focus on, right?

Wrong. According to a study by researchers at Sweden's Linköping University, those 4 weeks of celebrating can actually lead to long-term weight gain. Essentially, the researchers took a group of healthy young people, increased their caloric intake by 70 percent, and lowered their exercise levels. They also had a control group whose diets weren't altered. At 4 weeks, the participants in the test group had gained an average of 14 pounds. After 6 months, and no longer on an increased-calorie diet, only a third of these participants had returned to their original weight. After 1 year, the test group members were each still an average of 3.3 pounds heavier. After 2 and a half years, the "gluttonous" group continued to gain, while the control group still maintained a stable weight. Now, most of us don't increase our calories that drastically for 30 days straight. Sure, there's Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving leftovers, Hanukkah, the work Christmas party, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day, not to mention the extra sweets, cocktails, and (ahem) fruitcake. But according to the New England Journal of Medicine, the actual average weight gain over the holidays is only 1 pound. (They obviously didn't poll my family or friends.) So what's the big deal? The problem is, a year later, the vast majority of people have not removed that pound. Continue this pattern over 30 or 40 holiday seasons and the problem becomes—quite literally—huge. So how are we supposed to get through the holidays without gaining weight? Here are eight effective ways to get yourself ready to beat the holiday bulge. 1) Buy clothes that fit right now. This first tip might be a bit pricy, but it's a great motivational aid in staving off weight gain. A new addition to your wardrobe in a size that shows off your summer body can be all you need to prevent those extra pounds from creeping on. Imagine that beautiful holiday dress or great pair of pants, then imagine being unable to zip them up thanks to sugar cookies. Yeah, no one wants that. So before you begin the festivities, go buy yourself something perfect to wear to your parties and hang it someplace visible, so it serves as a constant reminder. Perhaps on the TV where you play your P90X®, INSANITY®, or TurboFire® videos, or in front of that treadmill that might be starting to collect a little dust in the corner, or on your refrigerator door . . . that way, if it doesn't fit quite the same way the next time you try to slip into it, you know it's time to get back to work. 2) Write it down. We try to write down everything we eat, right? We spend countless hours each month staring at a food diary, adding up our calories, and seeing if we got the correct balance of macronutrients. And then the holidays happen, and our little book ends up in the bottom drawer. It's almost like we're hoping that if we didn't write it down, it didn't happen. Unfortunately, the scale doesn't fit in that bottom drawer. The truth is, if we would write down the not-so-perfect meals and treats, we could find a way to compensate for them, at least a bit. For example, you have a peppermint brownie in the break room at work, which you know is carbohydrates and fat. Eat one less portion of carbohydrate and one less portion of fat for your dinner. It's not ideal, but it'll help. Or perhaps you couldn't resist Mom's homemade scones for breakfast. You could plan on an extra 20 or 30 minutes of your workout tonight. The point is, if we write it down, and do the math, we can lessen the damage. It isn't a good long-term plan, but to help compensate for a few slip-ups, it can help. 3) Keep exercising. Most fitness trainers will tell you the slowest point of their year is between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Sure, their clients schedule workouts with the best of intentions, but then they cancel them for parties and gift shopping. It's hard to remain balanced when you have a million things to do and gifts to buy. Yet the greatest gift you can give yourself is to stay focused on your fitness

goals and get your workout in. Shopping getting in the way? Do it online and save some time. Parties getting in the way? Just show up later. Who cares if everyone else is a couple of cocktails ahead of you? You'll be healthier, and you won't have to worry about the embarrassing YouTube® videos in the morning. Just stay consistent, even if it's inconvenient. You'll be much less likely to look like Santa (both belly-wise and red-nose-wise) at the end of the month. 4) Eat before parties. Most holiday parties don't focus on low-fat, low-calorie refreshments, so unless you're organizing the event, the best damage control is to show up with a full tummy. Make sure you eat your meals and snacks throughout the day, and try to eat a healthy meal before attending any party. If you're going straight from work, prepare a healthy and filling snack to eat on the way. You'll be a lot less likely to swim in mayonnaise dips and pigs in blankets if you're full. 5) Get junk out of the house. The majority of people don't get into their car at midnight, drive to the store, buy the ingredients for cookies, bake them, and then stay up to eat them. But if those homemade cookies that Linda in accounting made for you are already on your kitchen counter, you better believe you'll find a way to justify it. Frankly, at 12:30 AM, after a rotten day, for most of us there's nothing like a few cookies to drown our sorrows. The secret is to get the garbage out of the house. Send it to work with your significant other, donate it to a bake sale, re-gift it to your 100-pound friend with the perfect metabolism, or just dump it in the trash. Linda will never know. If you have holiday dinner leftovers, box them up for your guests individually and send them home with them. If your family still sends you that Pepperidge Farm® cookie assortment, invite a bunch of people over for a pre-party party and serve 'em up before the drinks. Try not to be wasteful, but get the less-than-healthy temptations out of your reach. 6) Offer to prepare healthy fare. This suggestion won't be well received by those of us who'd rather spend Thanksgiving sitting around watching football than toiling in the kitchen, but if you do the cooking, you have the control. Your family could have a tasty and satisfying meal without ingesting thousands of calories and fat grams. The way the turkey is prepared, the type of stuffing, how vegetables are made,

whether the cranberries are real, and countless other things can make or break the healthiness of a meal. There are tons of cookbooks out there, plus recipes in this and past newsletters, that can help you out. Yes, it does require a bit of work. But you're part of the Beachbody community. You can do anything! 7) Choose wisely and proportionally. Something occurs during a holiday meal. It's like a Las Vegas buffet—we feel like we have to eat some of everything. We feel almost like those foods will never exist again, and this is our last meal on the planet. This year, why not try to eat only your favorites, as in two or three items, and keep the portions to the size of your palm? If you're still hungry, try to fill up on veggies (preferably ones that aren't drowned in butter or cream-of-mushroom soup). If you want dessert, lean toward a small slice of pumpkin pie (220 calories) as opposed to pecan (a heftier 543), leaving out the hydrogenated nondairy whipped topping if possible. If you're going to have an alcoholic beverage, go with a flute of champagne (100 calories) as opposed to that rum-laced eggnog (with more than four times more calories, at 420). Just a few wise choices will save you a ton of calories, and probably a significant amount of heartburn as well. 8) Don't beat yourself up. Quite possibly the worst thing you can do is beat yourself up over a bit of holiday indulgence. Yes, it does stink to backslide after working your tail off. But sometimes it doesn't stink as much as dealing with your mother when you turn down her brisket and potato pancakes. Sometimes, we don't have time to go to work, buy a Christmas tree, decorate it with our kids, make dinner, oversee homework, tuck kids in bed, and spend an hour doing our Beachbody workout of choice. We can only do our very best. Mentally beating yourself up will only make you feel worse, which never helped anyone get back to their fitness program. So if you happen to gain that 1 extra pound this holiday season, be part of the rare group who actually follows through with their New Year's resolution and manages to shed it again. A week of hard work and a slight calorie deficit should do the trick. Resolutions don't come easier than that! A wise person once said, "The toughest part of a diet isn't watching what you eat. It's watching what other people eat." That really is the crux of the problem with dining out in public. When you're surrounded by people who are consuming the equivalent of their body weight in fat grams, it's really tough to stick to that chicken breast and steamed veggies. But if you have a game plan, you're more likely to walk out with both a satisfied tummy and a satisfied mind. So spend a few minutes on researching, on eating, and on exercising beforehand, and be strong when you get there. The effort will be worth it, and you might even be an inspiration to your dining partner. What greater reward is there than that? Oh, yeah—a six-pack.

Virgin Coconut Oil

Virgin Coconut Oil is an extremely versatile and wonderfully delicious tasting oil. Good quality coconut oil is one of the most stable cooking oils, plus it's highly resistant to rancidity. There are many ways to incorporate coconut oil into your diet. It could be used anywhere you currently use any of the "seed" oils (soybean, corn, canola, safflower, sesame seed, sunflower seed); used as a butter for spreads, over popcorn, or for baking; used in soups or 'smoothies'; eaten right off the spoon; eaten as a "candy" or "white chocolate" when refrigerated or frozen; put in coffee or tea; mixed with peanut butter; etc. Good quality coconut oil is also mild on the skin, and used in many areas around the world to both nourish and protect the skin and hair from, among other things, the harsh effect of the sun. Coconut oil has natural anti-oxidants and acts as an anti-oxidant itself. Also, coconut oil is rich in medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs), which have natural anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. Coconut oil contains Monolaurin, which is the same anti-microbial agent found in human mother's milk. Plus, Caprylic and Capric acids (medium chains), which are relatively and uniquely high in coconut oil, diminish the nutritional requirements for essential fatty acids (EFAs). Our coconut oil is made using a process called the Fresh Centrifuge Process. Fresh-Centrifuge Process is the emerging process benchmark for VCO extraction from fresh coconut meat that prevents contamination, alteration and deterioration of the oil, and retaining its freshness. The VCO produced is practically the same as it exists in fresh coconut meat - fresh smell and taste, no fermentation acid contamination, no peroxide contamination, no aflatoxin, no diminution of the heat-sensitive vitamin E, un-altered fatty acid profile, and high laurin content. It is a wholistic process that starts at coconut growing where and natural farm productivity improvement methods are implemented, and age of coconut fruits are monitored to get the optimum age for harvest (Note: underage and overage nuts contain lesser laurin oil). It employs an innovative process of extracting the oil at fresh conditions using purely physical method of centrifugation or high-speed spinning, thru a specifically-fitted high-speed low-turbulence centrifuge, without use of heating, fermentation and freezing methods of extractions. The final oil is packed in bottles and containers that undergo 100% preventive sanitation and disinfection, and sealed with slight vacuum to maintain freshness throughout shelf life. To Your Health, John

ADDANASSTOMY

Ijust read a blog from one the worlds best streghth and condtioning Mike Boyle and thought I would share it with you. Enjoy the humor and truthfulness.

I’ve got a newsflash that will change the world of
fitness and training forever.

I discovered an essential new operation that be
life-changing. The operation is called an addanasstomy.

Luckily you can perform this operation on yourself with
out the aid of a doctor. In an addanasstomy we take the
average gluteless bench press addicted trainee and we
begin an intensive program of squats and lunges to attempt
to add increase the size of the glutes maximus. Hence the
name. ADD AN ASS TO ME or in this case really to you.

It’s funny, in fitness we always seem to be trying to lose
something. Most of the time it seems to be around the waist.

The truth is that most people need to lose a little in front
and gain a little in the back. Don’t always think about taking
away, think about adding a little, but only in back. The way
most people look these days glutes belong on a milk carton.

I can see it now. Wanted lost glutes. Last seen just before
freshman year of college. The glutes began to disappear the
day you sat down for good and decided never to exercise again.

It was only a matter of time.

It’s so wonderfully rare to see a man or a woman who fills
out their pants properly. Don’t get me wrong, I see lots of
improperly filled pants. You know what I mean. In these days
of thongs and low cut jeans, it is even worse. I think you can
visualize the young girl with the adipose overflowing the top
of the jeans. Had enough yet? This same young girl is always
pulling up her low cut jeans because she has no glutes to
hold them up. For men the beer belly or the plumbers crack
are almost cliché. Both at least an indirect result of no glutes.

The truth is that gl utes are essential to survival.

Low back pain expert Stuart McGill, author of Low Back Disorders,
describes the loss of glute strength and size as gluteal amnesia
( his term, not mine) and goes on to implicate lack of strength
in the glutes for the debilitating back pain that afflicts so many.

The cure for gluteal amnesia is an addanasstomy.

The truth is we sit too much, we take too many elevators, we
skip too many stairs. The result.

Loss of glute function and the relative disappearance of the
bodies most vital muscle. Then to top it off we go to the gym
and do what? Of course, we work on our upper body. No wonder
everyone’s back hurts.

The cure. Squats, lunges, one leg squats, split squats. Hip
extension exercises and bridging exercises.

The good part is that the disease is cureable and that you
can perform the operation on yourself.



Regards,

Mike Boyle

To Your Health,

John Hall

Organic Is Better!

Everyone knows organic is better. You cannot argue that fresh, pesticide free, preservative free, hormone free, and just plain healthy food is better than the junk people are ingesting at their local fast food joints. The only argument one may have against purchasing it more than they do is that not all retailers carry it. That problem can be solved by buying organic food online.

With the advent of the internet came mobile everything – you can have a car washing service come to your door, or even purchase a car to be delivered! You can have a doctor come to your home. You can make an appointment with a hair stylist for you, or even for your dog, to come to your house and make you all pretty. You can also have your groceries sent directly to you, fresh, organic, and ready to become a delicious meal – snacks and beverages too! Organic food online is the solution to the crowded local supermarket that doesn’t have much of what you need anyway.

If you want to take your natural health and beauty a step further, try salon quality personal care products that go beyond the “green” movement and are completely toxin free. You hear people use the old adage that “you are what you eat”, but putting stuff on yourself can be just as harmful as putting it inside of your body. Chemicals are used to change your hair color, not give it the nutrients and cleanliness it needs to be healthy and vibrant. This is not a band wagon to join, this is an entire lifestyle undertaking that will help aid in prevention and being proactive instead of prescriptions and being reactive.

If you are new to this and have been ingesting fatty and unhealthy foods for a while, you may want to research detox diets for weight loss and jump start your new outlook on eating and drinking. What you put in to your body is not just for your satisfaction, but is supposed to re-charge your entire system and keep you healthy from the inside out. Drinking water, getting plenty of sunshine, and eating organic and healthy foods is the best way to keep your immune system, muscles, skin, eyes, and all of your other organs and functions healthy for as long as physically possible.

A secret of the medical community is that they don’t care about prevention. They don’t care that you eat right or keep the right amount of nutrients and vitamins in you. They don’t want you healthy because they don’t get paid unless you are sick. Pharmaceutical corporations are banking on the fact that you will not take care of yourself and need their drugs to help alleviate the symptoms, but surely not find a cure – they don’t want you healthy because then you won’t use their products.

To Your Health,

John Hall