What's up with detoxing??

Detox has become a buzz word in the fitness arena these days. I see Jillian from biggest loser know has a two week detox. There are several detoxes that involve different regimens. Generally people will lose weight on these detoxes but usually much of the loss is water and not fat.

What do detoxes really do for you then?

First off it's not all about the weight loss it's about putting your body in a better environment to lose weight. Setting it up for success. Many people especially after the holidays have blood sugar that is about as stable as Hollywood marriage. In other words there blood sugar is rising and dropping low much like a roller coaster from eating processed foods and sugar. In a nutshell this creates a hormonal environment that makes it an uphill battle to lose fat.

• You constantly have cravings especially at night
• Your body is programmed to store versus release
• Your energy levels are inconsistent

What a detox does is help stabilize those blood sugar levels it also will free up your colon (I know yuck)  if you are not regular this can effect your body's ability to absorb nutrients and also increase levels of toxic substances.

In my opinion a good detox now and then is like changing the oil in your car. We all get off track and these help bring you back on track faster. The problem is most of them last 2-4 weeks and involve buying a lot of different foods for different days.  Kind of a pain in the butt but if you can do it, great.

If you are like me and do not want to put your life on hold for this long but still see the value of a detox then a would suggest the RESET kit by USANA it's only 5 days and has proven very effective with many of our clients as a tool to get them on track and stabilize blood sugar.

I've posted a quick video link below that you can watch and learn about the program. It's quick and effective, but it's not easy. So if you are in a rut and feel you cannot get your eating on track, give this kit a try.

Quick way to look leaner!

I used to do bodybuilding shows back when I was younger.  I had plenty of time to dedicate to training for those contests and no real responsibility .  It was one of the hardest challenges that I ever faced.

From that experience I learned a lot about nutrition and it's effect on the human body. 

The absolutely quickest way to change how you look is to dial in you nutrition program and really start to eat well consistently day after day. You literally can see changes each week. 

Back to bodybuilding. One of the main goals with bodybuilding is to get lean. That is where you really start to see your muscle definition and shape. Many people have good muscle development but it is hidden under both a layer of fat and a layer of water retention.

Eating better and exercising will help to get rid of the fat so what I am going to address is getting rid of the water under the skin that can distort definition and add inches of bloating, making us appear fatter and soft.

You can deal with this issue right now and get that water out from under the skin, giving you a leaner more defined look.

Here are some tips on how to do this:

1. Drink a lot of water to help flush out your body. Actually distilled water works very well helping your body get rid of excess water. You are running to pee all the time but it should subside as you get rid of the excess water.  Stick with it & you will notice a difference! Remember the water intake formula is to take your bodyweight and divide it in half to get the number of ounces you should drink daily.  So if you weigh 200 pounds you should be drinking 100 ounces per day. That's about 12.5 glasses!

2. Limit your sodium to under 2400 mg.  Excess sodium makes your body hold water like a sponge.  It's important to eat foods in their most natural state. Processed and frozen foods tend to contain higher levels of sodium. One example I remember is chicken. Frozen chicken contained around 900 mg of sodium and fresh chicken was around 50 mg. 

3. Severely limit or completely eliminate wheat and dairy.  For some reason these types of food really can cause you to bloat up. Instead of wheat use whole grains such as oatmeal, wild or brown rice and non-gluten products.  Obviously this might be a hard thing for many people to do so focus on cutting back if not elimination.  I have had many clients tell me that they didn't miss these things once they went off of them. Many times they actually felt better.  As for dairy I recommend using a good calcium supplement instead of drinking a ton of milk. Do you realize we are the only species who drinks another species milk.  Plus much of the milk is loaded with hormones and is processed taking much of the valuable nutrients out. The vitamin D is added back in usually in a second rate synthetic form.  My advice is to find a good pharmaceutical grade supplement like USANA and depend on that versus milk for calcium.

These three steps can really help you start to feel firmer and leaner.  Give them a try for yourself and see what you think.  By adhering to these habits you might look and feel a whole lot better!

Felipe's greatest bootcamp hits of 2009!

Felipe had really turned into a mean drill sergreant. Check out his bootcamp from the other day by clicking the link belwo and see some of  his greatest hits of 2009.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcW9FW09x38

Goal setting tip #1 for the New Year

A few years ago I had just gone through a divorce and was on a plane to LA . I decided it was time to start my life over and set some fresh goals. On that flight I must have set 30 goals for the year and maybe accomplished 2 of them. I was just a little overzealous to say the least.

I have always been goal oriented but have come to realize that narrowing your focus is more productive. When setting goals focus on a few things so you can really zero in your focus instead of trying to juggle too many balls at once. Eventually you will drop some of them.

As you look into the New Year pick 2-3 things per quarter to accomplish. Don't get overzealous like I did. Look at everything you want to accomplish this year and break it into phases where it is manageable instead of overwhelming yourself and not getting any them accomplished.

Have someone else look at them and give you some honest feedback. You want to set reach goals where you have to work hard but are attainable instead of trying to do the impossible. 

Remember how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So make sure this year you include both short and long term goals as well as checkpoints for both.

This will set you up for success.