Tag Archives: weight loss

“I can’t, I have to go to the gym…”

Hi, my name is Kaitlin and I have an addictive personality….

Now this in no way means that I am one of those people everyone wants to be around and can’t get enough of, it means that when I find something I like, I do it to the full extent of which it can be done until it cannot be done anymore.

For example, about 5 years ago I exchanged drugs and alcohol for fitness, committed to it whole heartedly, wound up doing some competitive bodybuilding shows, got way too lean too fast and absolutely destroyed my metabolism…which I suppose I am somewhat grateful for because it opened my mind up to a whole new way of looking at nutrition and how to approach clients when it came to fat loss, BUT, none the less it was a mistake that I still pay for.

Fitness is still a part of my day, every single day. I feel lazy and for lack of a better term, ‘fat’ when I don’t get my blood pumping in one way or another on a daily basis. Similar to when I was a dead beat substance abuser and didn’t get some sort of fix that day, but instead of feeling out of shape and lazy, I felt anxious and irritable. And now that I’ve typed that I see that basically nothing has changed. Subconsciously my mood is relatively shittier when I haven’t gotten a work out in during the day.

I am 100% positive that if you are in the least bit active, you can relate to that. You could be at sub 10% BF and still feel like a walrus if you don’t hit the gym as planned. (That  coming from my personal experience …) It’s an absolute addiction, much better than some others you could pick up, but an addiction none the less. I mean, by now anyone who’s watched Legally Blonde knows that exercise induces the release of endorphins and ‘endorphins make you happy’, thanks Elle. So it only makes sense that we are inherently pissed off somewhat when we don’t get our daily fix…or does it?

Fitness is not about a daily caloric intake, or the number of sets you do per week calculated down to a perfect science in correlation to your body type, BMI or resting heart rate. Its about CONSISTENCY. If you wake up on ‘chest day’ but your legs are feeling supercharged and you want to try and max out your squat, fucking do it. NO ONE IS IN CONTROL BUT YOU. No one at the gym knows what your work out schedule is, what shirt you wore the day before, or let alone cares, so go after it. Sure, there’s a LOT of trainers out there preaching the importance of a 5 day split or specific rep schemes to get strong/lean/bigger/taller/faster/smarter, and there is absolutely some methodology that is bulletproof (such as Wendler’s 5/3/1 program) but you know what? If you go to the gym 3-6x a week, bust your ass working on whatever you decide to do that day, you’re going to get fitter. If you want bigger biceps, focus on biceps, not just one day a week, load them suckers up. If you want to deadlift the world, DO SOME DEADLIFTS. Keep it simple, perform the movements that support your current goals. Get your ass off the bosu ball if you only care about doing 50 strict pull ups. There is something to be said about being well rounded, and I guess if you enjoy trying to balance in a one handed plank while doing cable curls with your teeth to isolate your triceps and singing the ABCs backwards, thats your bag and I’m not here to judge anyone. But, no one is saying you HAVE to do that to improve. It’s amazing what people come up with to ‘supplement’ their current goals…the only supplementary exercise I would add to ANY program, is incline sprints. But that’s another post…

It’s way too easy to get caught up in this crazy regime that doesn’t allow you to think for yourself or actually feel your body. We get so set on our weekly ‘routine’ that it almost limits us. And for me, when I have a set work out schedule, I enjoy the structure for a while, but it gets monotonous, structure isn’t bad for newbies who aren’t really gym savvy yet, but for the seasoned vets out there, I know it took a ton of stress out of my life when I stopped worrying about how/when I could get to the gym to do my premeditated work out, and started to just do what I knew I could that day. Life is unpredictable man, and you have to love and accept what gets thrown at you daily, not resent yourself or your job or your friends for throwing a fork into your machine of a gym life. Relax, enjoy the moment you’re in, friends are more important than abs, and a family dinner is more important than a shoulder pump. No ones going to care what you looked like at 27 if you are an amazing husband/wife, mother/father or human at 45, take it as it comes.

The moral of the story is, there’s no long term magic formula, you just have to find something sustainable and something you ENJOY. If you don’t like what you’re doing for exercise, stop immediately. Don’t waste your time, if you hate the gym, try hiking. If you despise running, try Jujitsu. Don’t force yourself into anything because you read in Meat Head News that you HAVE to do such and such 3x per week to get hot in a bathing suit. Move your body and do what you love. It’s that simple.

Dr. Garth Davis spittin’ straight facts….

Video

Dr. Garth Davis is a texas based Doctor, most notably known for performing gastric bypass surgeries…a few years ago, instead of going under the knife himself, he adopted a whole foods, high carb, low fat plant based diet. Since his success in defeating his own obesity, he now advocates the same dietary regime to all patients before utilizing surgery as a last resort…heres a great excerpt from his Facebook page explaining his current view on nutrition in this country…

“What will it take to make people understand that carbs do not make people fat. Patients come in to see me for weight related issues. When asked what they think the central problem is, the answer is always carbs. Yet, every diet log I look at is loaded with animal protein and fat. Just about everybody is eating eggs and sausage for breakfast. I can’t tell you how often Jimmy dean sausages are mentioned. Then everybody has sandwiches for lunch. They are quick to point out that they use turkey meat. Yes people snack on junk food but the number one snack food is chips which is more fat than carb. Dinner is always a meat and a vegetable, but the meat takes center stage. Junk food is certainly present but things like donuts are more fat than carbs. We get more protein than any other country in the world. All my patients are eating ample to excess protein when they come and seem me. So, how is this high protein working for us?

The healthiest societies now and for thousands of years have been societies that ate high carb diets. Tell the skinny Okinawan eating his yams and rice that he will get fat. The body utilizes carbs directly as energy and has a very good storage capacity in the form of glycogen. In fact, you can eat up to 500 gm of carbs before your body will go through the inefficient process of turning carbs to fat! Your body want to use carbs or store them as glycogen. It will only turn them to fat in situations of very high calorie intake and minimal calorie output.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10365981

Now fat is a whole different issue. Fat can be stored, and is stored directly as fat. In fact, a biopsy of the fat on your tush can tell us exactly the kind of fat you have been eating. It turns out, as Dr. McDougall has been preaching for years, the fat you eat is the fat you wear.

Fat is dense with calories. There are 9 calories for each gram of fat compared to 3.7 calories per gram of carb. Fat is not a primary fuel and breakdown of fat for energy is far less efficient than utilizing carbs.

I find it so strange how we cannot see this in society. All these pseudo experts spouting nonsense and confusing the public. Meanwhile all I see is patient after patient after patient suffering from excess protein and fat.

Even weight loss surgery patients seem convinced that they need more protein. They come to see me because they are gaining weight so their surgeon must have done something wrong because they are eating lots of protein and drinking protein shakes and eating deli meats and chicken and still gaining weight. Simply switching them to a low fat, high complex carb, plant based diet fixes everything.

Now you can find articles that show a low fat diet doesn’t work but that is because they are calling a 30% fat diet low fat, which it is not at all. Ornish and Essylstyn have reversed heart disease and kept prostate cancer at bay on low fat diets where fats were <12% of diet.

The EPIC study in Europe having looked at thousands of people over many years concluded that starch has very little to do with diabetes and with obesity, but meat and fat correlate strongly. They found that chicken was the most correlated with weight gain. Chicken! That is our health food in this country! And how is it working for us?

Bottom line. Eat fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes. Avoid meat and dairy as much as possible. Eat whole, unprocessed food. This diet always works. I have not seen it fail, but I have seen all the other diets fail, big time!”

so….yep. Take a look at the powerful video below, ESPECIALLY mom’s with kids!!

Sugar, a love story….

Exerp. from wiki:

“Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. “

Whenever I have someone approach me haphazardly about nutrition, (i.e. “So like, tell me how I need to eat”) before I even respond I usually start hearing a lot of defenses from them….”I really don’t eat very much….I don’t eat fast food…..I don’t eat sugar….” ALL of these responses are pretty typical, the last one being probably the biggest misconception of all when it comes to diet and nutrition.

First and foremost, you NEED sugar to survive…

“Glucose aka SUGAR, is the only fuel normally used by brain cells. Because neurons cannot store glucose, they depend on the bloodstream to deliver a constant supply of this precious fuel. This blood sugar is obtained from carbohydrates: the starches and sugars you eat in the form of grains and legumes, fruits and vegetables”

….you read that right, even VEGETABLES contain a form of sugar. The word carbohydrate is basically a blanket term for sugar…you wouldn’t call whole wheat pasta sugar, but you would call it a carbohydrate, and when it is broken down into its simplest form and absorbed into the blood stream, it is recognized by the body as SUGAR! An essential nutrient to human life. Table sugar to sweet potato, the body recognizes it the same, sugar is sugar.

Now this doesn’t mean I’m advocating you taking tablespoon upon tablespoon of sugar in your morning coffee, it won’t kill you but isn’t necessarily healthy either, there is a big difference between how your body processes refined/simple sugar and how it processes a fiber and vitamin rich food like quinoa, corn, potatoes and beans. Fiber slows down the absorption of sugar in the blood stream, basically because fiber its self is slower to digest. This means a slow release of energy into your cells, a far cry from what we remember feeling as a child after eating an entire package of gummy candy. Not to mention complex carbohydrates (those containing fiber, to simplify) are typically  lot more nutrient dense than their simple counterparts. With the exception of fruit, that is.

Complex Carbs: (eat these, a lot)

Sweet/white potatoes

Oatmeal

Corn

Whole wheat products

Quinoa

Buckwheat

Spelt

Brown rice

etc…

Simple carbs: (eat these, on occasion)

White sugar

Brown sugar

White rice

White flour products

Fruit

Concentrated fruit juices

etc…

To simplify, there is ‘sugar’ in almost everything you eat, outside of pure fat (oils, animal fats) and things like animal protein. So if you’re honestly trying to ‘quit sugar’, the ‘no added sugar’ blueberry muffin is kind of a pastry lie. My honest advice?  Stop drinking soda, diet or otherwise, steer clear of refined white flours, pasteurized juices and empty calories like candy and lattes. There are slightly different rules for athletes/post training carb uptake,  and everyones carbohydrate needs are different, but to maintain a healthy body (and mind) eliminating ALL sugar is just a bad decision. Eliminating the ones that are of no nutritional benefit though, are a good idea for the general population and their health.