Mind Games

Your mind is a powerful tool. It can help you reach your goals, but it can also prevent

you from it. When you think negatively, “you boost production of the stress hormone which

affects your health, your weight and your mind.”, according to Dr. Daniel Amen, award winning

physician, psychiatrist and best-selling author. So for the New Year I challenge you to change

your thinking into good, valuable, constructive and positive thoughts.

“In his new book Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, Dr Daniel Amen identifies

the infuriatingly common scourge: the ANT (Automatic Negative Thought), which he describes

as ‘the -little voices that pop into your head and tell you you’re not good enough, not thin

enough, a rubbish daughter, mother, worker’.”

Everybody has these self-destructive thoughts once in a while, but it’s a matter of

how many, how often and what you do about it. Do you beat yourself up for eating too many

cookies? Are you dwelling over how much you should have gone to the gym this past month,

but you haven’t?

Push them away, out of your head and see what you can accomplish. Focus on a game

plan. What CAN you do, to better the situation? Forget about things you can’t control and take

action where you HAVE the power to change something.

- “I ate way too much over the holidays, my love handles are hanging over my belt”

-> “I will bring a healthy snack and lunch to work on Monday to cut down on calories”

- “I haven’t worked out in ages. I feel flabby”

-> “I will write down the times I’ll be at the gym this week, and follow through with it”

- “My skin feels wrinkly, I’m getting old”

-> “I will make sure to drink plenty of water and get enough sleep”

There are many ways to accomplish more positive thinking. Put positive goals on a sheet next

to your bathroom mirror. Think self-boosting, not self-destructive, just like the little engine going

over the hill “I think I can, I think I can!” What you think is what you are.

Get used to the positive and get rid of the negative. Your body will thank you.
 
Have a great New Year!
 
Yvonne
 

Abs At Gun Point!!

 Abs At Gunpoint

Recently I was on T-nation a great website with loads of articles on strength training and nutrition.

The abs at gunpoint artcile really resonated with me. I 've had clients try to eat supposedly healthy carbs but many times end of eating too many carbs and not getting the weight loss results they want. Carb cycling can be a very efffective way to force your body to dump fat.  I've known this from my bodybuilding days.

I'm sick and tired of people spewing generci nutrition information that doesn't get results. Most food journals I look at contain too many carbs. This is like the saying "give a person enough rope and he'll hang himself."  This seems to be true with carbs.  People eat them too late at night and usually in too large of quantities.

The problem is that many people give themselves so many carbs that they don't force their bodies to have to dip into fat stores for energy.  I don't care if this isn't mainstream thinking.  It just works.  I have personally used it on myself in clients to ge fat loss going.

So if you are stuck in a fat loss plateau. This could be the answr for you. Just like workouts nutrition plans need to be shaken up time to time to continue progress.

Here it is via T-Nation website:  http://www.t-nation.com/

Abs At Gunpoint By. Dr. Mike Rousell

Dr. Mike Roussell and Chris Shugart are blindfolded and tied to chairs in a room with no windows. A fully-automatic assault rifle is pointed in their direction.


A gruff voice says, "When I count to three, you will both tell me one thing that will solve the obesity epidemic for the general population and help the advanced athlete and bodybuilder shed fat rapidly."

Mike and Chris hear a metallic click. The safety has been removed.

"One, two, three!"

"Eat about 100 grams of carbs per day!" they shout simultaneously.

Silence. Then the rifle is lowered. The kidnapper smiles.

Why? Because even a homicidal nutrition nut knows that this simple solution makes more sense than just about any diet strategy you'll ever try.



The Power of 100 Grams

We've both been recommending this ridiculously simple yet powerfully effective dietary approach for years. We've seen it work with everyone from hardcore male bodybuilders to hardcore female kindergarten teachers.

It not only strips off the excess body fat, it accelerates the process of health improvement by exponentially improving the quality of your diet... all with one little guideline:

Eat about 100 grams of carbohydrates per day.

Why 100 Grams is Magical

Eating 100 grams of carb a day is as close to nutritional magic as you can get:

It's Low-Enough Carb

At 100 grams of carbs per day, you won't be in ketosis, but your carbs will be low enough that you'll be preferentially stoking your metabolic furnace with stored and dietary fats and not carbs. Also, most people won't experience any mental fogginess, crabbiness, or lack of energy that often accompany really low-carb diets.

It's High-Enough Carb

At 100 grams, you still have room to get in fast-acting carbs as part of your peri-workout nutrition strategy.

There's never a reason to skip tactical carbs consumed around your weight-training workout. Carbs taken in at this time won't contribute to fat gain and may even speed up the fat loss process. With a 100 gram daily allowance, you can scorch off the belly fat and maximize the anabolic potential of the peri-workout timeframe.

In addition, with 100 grams of carbohydrates allowed every day, there's no reason to avoid nutritionally ass-kicking fruits, berries, and vegetables as you have to do with 20 and 30 gram diets. This not only allows you to eat good-for-ya foods, it opens up your diet to a wider variety of meal choices. No need to live on bacon and string cheese for twelve weeks.

Key point: If you eat five meals per day plus your workout drink, 100 grams of carbs is the perfect amount. At each of your five meals you'll eat around 10 grams of vegetables (preferably green and fibrous) or berries, then during your workout you can slug down a serving of Surge Recovery and boom... 100 grams of carbs.









The Autoregulation Effect

With 100 grams of carbs to "spend" every day, the average person is going to experience powerful autoregulatory effects, even if they pay little attention to the other macronutrients. Follow the 100-Gram Carb Cure and, well, everything else just falls into place:

• With a limit of 100 grams of carbs, you'll naturally become selective about the types of carbs you eat, especially on training days when you only have around 50 grams to eat depending on your peri-workout strategy.



You'll have to remove refined carbs and the obvious junk food. You'll need to stick to mainly green fibrous vegetables, small portions of berries, and nuts. On non-lifting days you'll have room to eat some beans or a protein bar.



• Calories will be largely controlled since you'll be choosing more filling foods. These satiating food choices, being on the lower end of the carb count, aren't going to cause your blood sugar levels to go bonkers, which can lead to cravings and mood/energy fluctuations that we often try to "fix" with more food (and usually not the physique-supportive stuff.)



In short, it's just difficult to overeat when your food choices are controlled and carbs don't exceed 100 grams daily.



• Some people are label-reading, food-weighing, ingredient-list scanning, waitress-interrogating nutrition freaks. You know, like the humble authors of this article and many TNation readers. But not everyone is. They probably have lives and stuff.



For those folks, the 100-gram rule becomes an educational tool that teaches them to adopt eating strategies than can last a lifetime. The 100-grammer will be forced to read labels and check out serving sizes. He'll probably learn to cook his favorite foods since store-bought versions have all kinds of carby crap added to them.



The 100-grammer won't fall for bullshit "Low-Fat!" and "Made with Whole Grains!" health claims you see all over the cereal, bread, and Pop-Tart aisle. He'll ditch the fruit juice, most sugary dairy products, pasta, and HFCS-infused condiments. He'll become wary of those "guiltless" menu options at chain restaurants, which border on fraudulent.

In other words, by paying close attention to this one macronutrient, the 100 gram dieter will self-regulate, self-educate, and become more self-reliant. He also won't look like a land whale come summertime. Bonus.



100-Gram Carb Cycling



You can tweak this plan even further by adding the element of carb cycling.

As mentioned above, on training days you can eat around 10 grams of fibrous carbs at five different meals and then have a Surge Recovery for your workout nutrition. (Or FINiBAR pre-workout with Anaconda and/or MAG-10 during and after. Choose your weapon.)

On non-weight training days, don't add more vegetables and beans in place of the Surge Recovery to get to 100 grams of carbs. Instead, just remove the Surge Recovery and don't replace the carbs. This way you'll only be eating 50 grams of carbs that day.

So, about 100 grams of carbs on training day and 50 grams on non-training day. This simplified carb-cycling plan would easily get you over a weight-loss plateau or accelerate your current rate of fat loss.



The Rest of Your Diet



For the rest of your diet (i.e. protein and fats) there are a couple of other guidelines.

Eat protein at every meal: a bunch of eggs, protein powder, or a hunk of meat. It's hard to screw this part up.

Add fats to each meal as well. Don't go overboard with nuts and seeds because they come with their fair share of carbs and you'll quickly be on the 250 Gram Carb Plan. Walnuts are great because they have a lower carb count than any other nut, and they contain the most diverse fatty acid profile (including omega-3s).

Use oils and some butter on your vegetables. Sprinkle salads with different oils or cheeses. Don't skimp on fatty fish like salmon and take your daily Flameout.



Wait! Why Not Just Count Calories?

Good question. Sure, eat just 1200 calories of anything in a day and you'll lose weight. Thank you, Law of Thermodynamics.

But you could also lose muscle, wreck your metabolism in the long term, perform poorly in the gym, squander your long-term health, send your hormone levels into tailspins, raid a Chinese buffet, and risk programming in bad dietary habits ("Twinkie Diet," anyone?). It's also unsustainable and usually leads to fat regain and rebound.

Oh, and one more little-bitty thing: the higher-carb, "just eat smaller amounts of junk food" diet plan has the highest failure rate of any fat-loss strategy ever developed in history.

Yeah, there's that.



Mike's Sample Menus



Training Day

Meal 1: Eggs, spinach, cheddar-cheese scramble

Meal 2: Metabolic Drive Low-Carb, walnuts, 1 serving blueberries, Superfood

Meal 3: Salad (romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers) with chicken and extra virgin olive oil

Meal 4: Flank steak with asparagus and butter

Workout: Surge Recovery

Meal 5: Chicken breast with broccoli and extra virgin olive oil

Non-Training Day

Meal 1: 4-egg omelet with salsa and cheese, 1/2 a grapefruit (sprinkled with Splenda) on the side

Meal 2: Metabolic Drive Low-Carb, flaxseed oil, 2 serving strawberries, Superfood

Meal 3: Roasted chicken breast with spinach (wilt in a pan with minced garlic and extra virgin olive oil) and a small apple

Meal 4: Extra-lean ground beef sautŽed with peppers and onions

Meal 5: Roasted salmon (spread Dijon mustard on top before roasting) with asparagus and 1 serving great northern beans



Wrap-Up

Eat about 100 grams of carbs per day.

One rule. Damn-near universally effective for fast, painless fat loss. No gun-toting kidnapper required.

6 Ways to Beat the Winter Blues

Does the change in seasons bring you down? Does lack of sunshine make you blue? Ready to hibernate ‘til spring? Here’s a few tips to help you beat those winter blues.


Let the sun in. The seasonal increase in darkness can have a negative effect on your mood. To fight this, open the blinds and window shades when you get up in the morning. Also, try to spend a little more time outdoors on sunny days, soaking up some sunshine rays can improve your mood.

Enjoy a winter sport. Find a winter sport you enjoy, and before you know it, you’ll be looking forward to the cold weather. Whether it’s skiing, skating, or snowshoeing, aerobic exercise boosts your endorphins to lift your mood.

Exercise. Aim for at least 3-4 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes. This can be an easy walk on the treadmill, extra laps around the mall, or even just up-and-down the stairs at work. Exercise helps your mind by releasing those ‘feel good chemicals’ that improve your mood.

Eat a Healthy Diet. What and when you eat has a great affect on your mood and energy. Avoid refined and processed foods (like white breads, white rice, and sugar). These foods are not only devoid of the nutrients your body craves, but they can zap your energy levels and can affect your mood. Try to incorporate more complex carbohydrates (whole wheat breads, brown rice, veggies, fruit) and drink plenty of water.

Treat yourself. Having something to look forward to can keep anyone motivated, even when winter seems endless. Plan something that’s exciting to you—a weekend trip, a day at the spa, a party, or special event. If you plan something exciting, your mood improves when you’re anticipating it and when the event actually comes.

Relax! You’re busy. Work, family, friends, appointments, meetings—even if you enjoy being busy, everyone needs some time off. Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to extra opportunities. Try to spend a few minutes each day doing nothing. Read a book or magazine, sleep in on the weekend, go to bed early, try some meditations, or take a yoga class. Relaxation can alleviate stress and leave you with calm energy. Mental exercises and positive thinking can help keep depression at bay.

Supplementation - Filling the Voids

According to USDA studies, less than 3% of Americans eat a balanced diet everyday. Fewer than 1 in 50,000 achieve recommended daily allowance (RDA) of ten essential vitamins and minerals. As a result, top medical associations and health organization now recommend supplements as “prudent” for complete nutrition.




The Challenge

Modern life presents many potential obstacles to long-term health:

Poor food choices: Almost 90% of us have a diet that is poor or needs improvement.

Excess weight: Increased risk of many long-term health problems.


Age-related changes: The process of aging slows down the body’s ability to utilize nutrients in the diet.


Confusion about the right supplementation: With the wide variety of supplements on the market, it’s no wonder that people aren’t sure which nutrients to take and in what quantity.


Environmental challenges: Poor air and water quality, as well as exposure to free radicals from pollution and the sun’s powerful UV radiation, all have an impact on health.



Why should you supplement?

Besides the obvious fact that you aren’t reaching the RDA of essentials vitamins and minerals every day, research suggests that increasing the intake of specific nutrients may be helpful in the following ways:



Prevents deficiency diseases
Promotes optimal health

Promotes the health of key body systems: heart and cardiovascular system, breast, lung, prostate, bones, muscles, blood vessels, eyes, teeth, and gums.

Promotes healthy immune function

Prevents free radical damage

Reduces the risk of birth defects

Choosing the right supplements


Food supplements are not regulated or standardized by the Food and Drug Administration. This means virtually any product can be sold. As a result, assuming two brands of product are the same is a big mistake. Choosing the wrong product can have strong negative effects on health.



So what should the conscientious consumer do? It’s just like shopping for healthy food options in the supermarket—you need to become a good label reader.


Ignore flamboyant product names. Extravagant terms like ‘extra strength’ or ‘meganutrition power’ are used to just to sell the product and are usually empty catchwords.

Look for nutrient amounts. Some companies will list a source, such as blue green algae or juice powder concentrate, but neglect to provide the amounts of many of the nutrients they claim to supply.

Make sure the amounts are listed by percent of the Daily Value or DV, not just in mg or ug amounts. This allows you to compare amounts supplied by competing products and to determine whether the supplement provides nutrients in proper proportion to one another.

Exercise caution with ‘one-a-day’ type tablets. Once a day supplement tablets rarely supply adequate amounts of all 24 DV nutrients. Some minerals such as calcium require quite a bit of bulk, one tablet containing all the nutrients in proper amounts would be very large.

Watch out for supplements that contain artificial colors, sweeteners or chemical preservatives. We get enough of these in our everyday diets without ‘supplementing’ for more. Some of the most common are FD & C Red #40, FD & C Yellow #96, Shellac, BHT, BHA, and sucralose.



Keys to a good product

The keys to choosing a good vitamin supplement can be referred to the as the 3 p’s:

Purity refers to the quality of the ingredients in a product. Choose organic/unaltered sources for their strong enzymatic action, balance, and phytonutrients.

Potency refers to levels of nutrients that are strong enough to be effective. A good product should have at least 100% of the RDA for all essential vitamins and minerals. Check especially for 100% of Biotin, which is often left out of inferior products.

Performance refers to the proof that the product actually gets into the blood-stream and delivers nutrients to the cells. Good products will have published ‘peer reviewed’ clinical studies proving their efficacy and ‘bioavailability’ or absorption.

Choosing the right supplements


Food supplements are not regulated or standardized by the Food and Drug Administration. This means virtually any product can be sold. As a result, assuming two brands of product are the same is a big mistake. Choosing the wrong product can have strong negative effects on health.



So what should the conscientious consumer do? It’s just like shopping for healthy food options in the supermarket—you need to become a good label reader.



Ignore flamboyant product names. Extravagant terms like ‘extra strength’ or ‘meganutrition power’ are used to just to sell the product and are usually empty catchwords.

Look for nutrient amounts. Some companies will list a source, such as blue green algae or juice powder concentrate, but neglect to provide the amounts of many of the nutrients they claim to supply.

Make sure the amounts are listed by percent of the Daily Value or DV, not just in mg or ug amounts. This allows you to compare amounts supplied by competing products and to determine whether the supplement provides nutrients in proper proportion to one another.

Exercise caution with ‘one-a-day’ type tablets. Once a day supplement tablets rarely supply adequate amounts of all 24 DV nutrients. Some minerals such as calcium require quite a bit of bulk, one tablet containing all the nutrients in proper amounts would be very large.

Watch out for supplements that contain artificial colors, sweeteners or chemical preservatives. We get enough of these in our everyday diets without ‘supplementing’ for more. Some of the most common are FD & C Red #40, FD & C Yellow #96, Shellac, BHT, BHA, and sucralose.

Death in a cup!!

Caribou Med Milk Mocha With Whip





Every week I pour through food journals and see a common type of foo or should I say beverage that has more calories than most food. 

That beverage is usually from Starbucks ore Caribou.  Many people that are consuming this drinks have the goal of losing weight and bodyfat.

I'm here to say that if you are serious about attaining the goal of getting leaner than you need to ditch these drinks and I'll tell you why as a I present my case against them.

Once in awhile wouldn't be bad but daily will kill any efforts to burn fat.

Here are the reasons why these drinks are bad for those that who wish to get leaner.

1. Tons of sugar which spikes blood sugar causing your body to release tons of insulin to counteract the spike which basically puts your body into a fat storing mode.

2.  Many of them have high fat contents which sends the calories through the roof. Science says you need to burn 3500 extra calories to lose a pound of fat. If you are getting an extra 500-600 calories per day from these drinks which is very possible to do than you are actually undoing your exercise calories burned and can actually swing the pendulum in the other direction that direction is weight gain

3.  Because these drinks are so loaded with sugar and caffeine you are setting yourself up for a peak with a crash behind it. Those of us who know what that crash feels like understand that when that occurs your workout is basically done and energy is nil making it hard to get motivated to exercise. 

Here are a couple of the worst ones I found..

Caribou Medium Medium  Milk  Chocolate Mocha  With  Whip
35 grams of fat that's 315 calories of fat!!
51 grams of sugar. Wow what a shot of insulin that will bring on.
550 Calories. That's almost half of someone's daily  caloric intake!

Caribou Hot Cocoa
58 Grams of sugar-huge blood sugar spike/insulin release=fat storing
38 grams of fat!!
620 calories-WOW!

Peppermint White Mocha From Starbucks
100 grams of sugar-seriously triple digits??
22 grams of fat-still quite punch
660 calories-Need I say more how about happy holidays

So are you one of these people who is attached to these rinks or can you quit? If you are telling me that you want to lose weight but do not want to give up these drinks than you aren't serious you are just doing lip service.   You might have known all along they were not good choices but here the proof right in front of you,

So what do you do if you like hot drinks with caffeine?

My advice is to switch to black coffee and a little, notice i say a little Truvia sweetener (no aspartame)and some lite creamer.  I personally like a good cup of coffee in the morning just without the sugar and fat which not only will add fat to by physique but also mess with my energy levels. Another option is to switch to flavored teas. 

Remember two for the keys to losing bodyfat are not spiking blood sugar and keeping calories in a deficit. These beverages do just the opposite. That is the plain and simple truth.

Four tips for back pain relief



One of the biggest complaints I get from many of my personal training
clients is back pain.

 Practically everyone has experienced it at one point or another.

That's why in today's article I'll show you a few quick and easy
 exercises that'll help ease the pain ... so you can enjoy the rest of
 the holiday season!.

 Back Pain? Find Relief With These 4 Simple Exercises


Did you know 8 out of 10 Americans experience back pain at one point
or another?

 Chances are you've experienced some type of back pain too.

 One of the keys to avoiding back pain -- and even reversing it -- is
 to stay healthy and exercise.

This strengthens the surrounding muscles that protect your back from
injury.

However, if you're already experiencing back pain, here are four quick
exercises you can do right now that will help ease it:


 Wall Squats -- Start by placing your back flat against a wall. Make
sure your heels are touching the wall. Now walk your feet about 12
 inches out in front of you. Keeping your abs tight, squat until your
 knees are at a 45-degree angle. Hold this position for 5 - 10 seconds.
Now straighten your knees and repeat for 10 more reps.



 Hip circles -- Place your feet shoulder width apart. Now place your
 hands on your hips. Rotate your hips clock wise 10 times (pretend
 you've got a hula hoop). Now go counter-clockwise 10 times.
 Repeat each side 2 more times.

.Torso twists -- Start with your feet shoulder- width apart. Keep  your arms hanging by your sides.

 Now swing your arms and torso to one side. As your arms swing around,

 let them pat your lower back gently. Now swing your torso and arms to

 the other side. Again, let the arms swing around until they pat your

 lower back. Repeat this 10 times for each side.

Single knee to chest -- Lie on your back.

Straighten your legs. Now while keeping your left leg straight, bring

your right knee towards your chest. Use your arms to help bring it as  close as you can. Hold for 5 seconds. Release and straighten out the right leg. Now keeping the right leg straight on the floor, bring the  left knee towards your chest, again using your arms to help out. Hold  for 5 seconds and release. Repeat this 10 times each side.

Follow these four simple exercises and back pain will soon be a thing  of the past.


 By the way -- did you know back pain can be avoided completely by
 staying fit and healthy?