Nutrition

The Simple Secret to Getting Leaner

The following is a guest post by Annie Berryhill:

In recent days, under the direction of my coach, I made some pretty significant changes to my already fairly clean Paleo-type of diet.

Best lean diet. Eat fat to lose fat.

Now I am not a microbiologist, biochemist, super-institutionally-educated brainiac. I am just a gal who loves to read. And to use her body as a science lab. It seems when you get enough fat, and lower you carbs, your body learns to use what you have hanging around for energy.

Okay, it’s not really a secret. It’s just one of those things that people just don’t want to believe. It’s actually counter-intuitive so people resist. But the truth is, it works and I am living proof.

Will it work for you?

I don’t know, but if you are into shedding some body fat, it is worth it to give it the old college try, right?

Let me go on the record though… I work to balance the “Ideal/By-the-book” program with “Real Life”. At 46 years old, I feel like I know I need to keep things in check. But at the same time, allow some “escape hatches” for fun and a little craziness (chips and salsa craziness!)

So for the last 6 weeks (or 5, up until I was commanded to shut down workouts), I adhered to a type of plan that I had never done before. In 6 weeks time, I am literally swimming in my Daisy Dukes. And have lost about 6 lbs. (I never go by pounds but I randomly weighed myself and was shocked to see the number. It’s the lowest I have been in about 20 years.)

Anyway…here is the plan:

AM:

1 Scoop (1Tbls) of fat before coffee (which has coconut milk and or coconut butter in it)

1 Protein Shake Daily Balance with Coconut or Almond Milk Base + 1/2 an avocado OR a scoop of almond butter with ice in a blender. Fill the remaining space in the blender with raw spinach, or spinach and Kale. Blend til smooth.

<If I get hungry at mid-day, I have a scoop of fat)>

Lunch

Meat (grass-fed, hormone free), Veggies (greens of course), Fat (Olives, Avo, coconut butter, olive oil)

Snack of fat if needed…

Dinner- Repeat something like lunch

I am allowed to have red wine (up to 2 glasses) up to 3xs a week. I usually would drink it only on evenings that precede an off-day.  I am also allowed 1 CHEAT MEAL a week. I’m just sayin’…

My WODs:

Mostly short (4-12 minutes tops!), core-centered workouts with medium weight components, varied movements.

What has improved since being on a this Fat-Oriented Paleo-Like Program:

• I sleep better
• I feel stronger, lighter
• Hamstring injury notwithstanding, I feel strong
• I am excited that I can adhere to it VERY easily, no real cravings!
• My passion for cooking and eating clean, I could talk about it all day every day!

What has been the hardest part on this eating plan?

• Keeping enough fresh food in the house
• Planning ahead
• Anticipating hunger and being ready to combat the cravings with fat sources
• Getting used to eating KALE (yuck!)
• Getting my husband to buy into what I was doing for US!
• I miss cheese a little bit, but not too much…

So, in the end, it is really simple to follow and allows a large variety of foods to use. Many people are against the whole shake thing. But with all the chopped veggies and fat I add, I believe it does slow down digestion and absorption somewhat. Besides, I like the ease of shakes in the morning – Just Make and GO!

Does this seem easy or is it a little baffling to you? Do you need some help understanding it, or coming up with a plan to implement this? Never fear, I am here to help you get rid of that nasty fat and reveal you strong, lean, healthy self!

Anne (Annie) Berryhill is a Crossfit Level 1 Trainer, USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach, Crossfit Athlete and competitor who owns and operates OC Fitness Revival in Orange County, CA. Services include personal and group training, nutrition classes and counseling. As well as providing incredible health-improving supplements to help people  to make the most out of what they’ve got.

Reflect and Prepare for Life’s Next Adventure

Congratulations! At Ryan Krane, Inc. we believe that hard work deserves praise. Take a few seconds right now to reflect back on your work from 2010. With the arrival of the New Year, we need to take a step back from ourselves to acknowledge and truly appreciate our own work. What did you accomplish?

Did you give your all during training?

Spend valuable time with your family?

Meet a new friend?

Reach a new milestone in your business?

Even if the result of one adventure didn’t end as expected, learn to appreciate the journey. Stay motivated to reach your goals—or completely start new goals this year. Never forget that as humans, we’re able to accomplish literally anything we put our minds to. As famed Roman poet Horace used to say, CARPE DIEM! Take advantage of 2011 and do your best!

How to Prepare for the Cold Weather!

Water: The Key To Life

The following article is from friend and guest writer Jenny Berkeley from www.eating4eternity.org.

Firstly, I would like to say thank you and acknowledge Ryan Krane for the opportunity to share this article on his blog and you, his readers. As a nurse, I am very passionate about helping patients get more out of their current situation. You may be afflicted with a disease but you are not your disease.

In this article I’ll talk about one of my favourite topics. My topic for you is water. You see water is such a fundamental part of all alive and all existence that we sometimes take granted. I will grab hospital emergency rooms in and around Toronto. I see patients come in all manner of health challenges. And at that time I interrogating them I ask one simple question to which the answer is almost always the same. My question: “How much water have you to drink in bars 24 hours?”

The answer is almost always none or one to two cups. Sometimes patients get creative and they begin to count their cups of coffee, their juices, their energy drinks, and other liquids as water intake. But even though drinks contain water they are not a substitute for pure, clean, unadulterated water.

Your body is 70 to 80 percent water. Looking at yourself in the mirror, it seems hard to believe that your body could be 70% water and 30% solid matter but that is the truth. Given that water is such a large component of who you are, it makes sense to ensure that you have the very best water inside of you.

The old saying, “you are what you eat” becomes even more so in the expression, “you most certainly are what you drink.”

People have literally had your eyes opened by my lectures on this topic. I have received thanks from people whose lives have since been changed. One attendee in her evaluation said, “The information was logically presented and did support the method of hydration as a main health facilitator as well as others for your body. Well done Jenny.” The reason why people are excited is because I make the lecture so simple that a child could understand. I even draw a few happy faces on the blackboard when I teach also.

Water is so fundamental that making it too complex with person to understand is denying them access to information they need that could possibly save their life. That’s the way I look at it and that’s why my lectures are loved by the attendees.

As an athlete, your muscles must be infused and surrounded by the proper of water at the proper pH. It is the quality of this water that will facilitate proper elimination of cellular waste as well as proper absorption vital nutrients into your cells. If you want to be a better, faster, stronger, athlete then you must pay attention to the factor which makes up more than 70% of your body mass. Whether you are training for tennis, soccer, football, track and field, or even a marathon, it is important to ensure you have the proper nutrients along with the water to support it. If you failed to heed the warning then in your later years you too may become the victim of degenerative diseases so please hydrate well.

Remember, water truly is the key to life.

If you or a friend or family member in the Toronto, Canada area would like to learn more, come out to my speaking event on November 22, 2010. For more information visit: http://health2010.eventbrite.com

Peace and be well.

- – - -

Jenny Berkeley has been helping others for over 18 years. As a nurse and a health educator, she is fully able to help others understand their health from a traditional medicine or alternative medicine approach. She is also an author, speaker, lecturer, life-change coach and an advocate for good health. She is the publisher of a monthly health and wellness eZine and she is a social media butterfly with over 22,000 followers on twitter who follower her thoughts and insights. Her no nonsense approach to health and wellness gives people the information they need without the filler or fluff. Jenny lectures on a variety of topics including Senior’s Health, Diabetes, Colon Health, Dehydration and Disease and much more.

Blog: http://eating4eternity.org/blog

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sproutqueen

Prepare for the Holiday Binge!

Don’t let the most recent heat wave fool you. Fall is upon us, and we all know what that means. The holiday season will be in full swing soon enough. And for many of us, that means more binge eating and less exercise … leading to lower energy reserves, bigger guts, and-perhaps the most uncomfortable outcome of holiday overindulgence-a tight-fitting wardrobe.

Save your 2011 New Years Resolution for something you can’t prevent right now. And here’s how…

Ideally we would all just watch our diets and not over-eat, but lets get real. If you are going to overindulge, prepare your body first. If you know you have a late afternoon feast to attend, start the day off with a workout. Anticipate the cake, the eggnog, the butter-filled buns. Earn your hearty holiday meals by counteracting the extra calories with extra exercise beforehand.

Stay hydrated. It can be easy to fill up on the food and forget about water. Fruit is tasty to the tongue, won’t fill you up, and refreshes the body with water. Need help with digesting all that food? Sneak over to the kitchen and down a glass of lemon water. If you’re going to clean your plate, at least give your body what it needs to process all that food.

Set a time for the eating adventures to stop. 8 or 9pm. Save the leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch rather than midnight’s fat-packing snack.

The next day… Starving yourself the day after binge eating is not the answer. Your body is in a state of recovery, and recovery requires nutrients. Eat a healthy breakfast and set aside some time to exercise. All those extra calories from turkey and pie have left your body filled with energy stores. Use that energy up! This is ideal for a long, sustained workout. Although try not to overexert yourself. The goal is to burn off those extra calories, not kill yourself in the process. A long scenic walk can go a long way towards curbing the weight gain holiday trend.

TIP: If you feel up for it, add some free weights to your walk or run. Doing this can vastly increase the calories burned and maximize your time.

Staying in shape in these weeks leading up to the many feasts that await us will dramatically increase the body’s ability to bounce back after falling off the diet wagon. With a little motivation and exercise, you will feel healthier and look better. And if another freak heat wave hits Southern California in January, your body will be “summertime fit” and ready to hit the beach and catch some rays.

Obesity: Many Causes, Simple Solutions!

Obesity rates continue to grow in the United States, especially among children and adolescents, and a lot of people are asking why. The biological answer is that more and more people are eating high-calorie foods without getting enough exercise to burn off the calories. But why are people eating so much? Stress, boredom, spending too much time sitting down, depression, lack of sleep, and loneliness can all lead to bad eating habits. And, of course, happiness can lead to overeating as well. Once the weight is put on, over time the body adjusts to the greater weight, and that’s when you can start to feel hungry long after the body is nourished … and that’s when the weight gain spiral can take over….

The latest research points to hormones as one cause for out-of-control appetites.Ghrelin and leptin are known as “hunger hormones.” They work together to help you stay at your current weight and keep you from losing fat. In other words, when you’re in shape, they help keep you in shape. But what about when you put on a few pounds (or a few more than a few)? What about people who have never been in shape before?…

Understanding how hormones effect your appetite is one step closer to overcoming their tendency to feed the brain bad or unproductive advice.

Ghrelin’s job is to make you feel hungry. The problem is that when you lose weight and try to keep it off, ghrelin levels often rise instead of responding to the lower weight, as if it wants the excess fat back. Ghrelin tells the brain: “You never used to feel satisfied from such a small meal, you need more food!” Leptin levels, do the opposite and switch the appetite off. The only problem is that many overweight people have developed a resistance to leptin, and even when leptin works to suppress the appetite, they still feel hungry. Leptin tells the brain: “You’ve eaten enough, you can put the fork down!” … but the message gets drowned out by the ghrelin hormone’s tempting, unproductive, and dangerous advice that it feeds the brain.

So far, scientists struggle to find ways to balance or predict these hormones, which is all the more reason why lose-weight-quick-and-easy diet schemes always fail in the long term. The only long term solution is for the mind to overcome the body’s unhealthy desires; it is the only lasting transition into fitness. This requires both personal dedication and a system of support, whether a spouse, a good friend, or a certified nutritionist and personal trainer….

How to Calculate Your Average Workout Water Loss

You know you’re supposed to stay hydrated, but do you know how to calculate your average workout water loss? Every time you hit the gym, your body loses water. Since your body is 65 percent water, being dehydrated by as little as 2 or 3 percent can decrease performance by as much as 10 percent. Depending on your diet, hydration habits, and the intensity of your workout routine, you are more or less prone to sweat out an unhealthy percentage of water…

Now, you might be saying to yourself: “But what’s wrong with sweating a lot? I thought I was sweating off the pounds!”

It’s a common and dangerous myth that dripping sweat will drop the pounds. In fact, sweating too much can be counter productive. When you work-up a dripping sweat, your body starts to lose heat. Millions of sweat glands lying under your skin go into overdrive, consuming metabolic energy in order to secrete all the sweat. Your total energy, in effect, gets drained; and, in effect, energy is drained from your muscles… The very muscles you are trying to strengthen! 

Here’s how to calculate your workout water loss, so you know if you’re staying safely hydrated:

1. Weigh yourself before working out (For example, we’ll use a nice, round number: 200 pounds)
2. Weigh yourself immediately after working out (For example, 195 pounds)
3. Subtract the post-workout weight from the pre-workout weight (5 pounds lost)
4. Divide the pounds lost by the pre-workout weight (5/200 = .025, or 2.5% weight loss)
5. Lastly, multiply the pounds lost by 15.3, or the number of fluid ounces lost from the body for every pound lost during workout (5 pounds x 15.3 fluid ounces = 76.5 fluid ounces lost)

So, what do all these numbers mean? They mean if you weighed 200 pounds pre-workout and 195 pounds post-workout, you would have lost 2.5 percent of your body weight, and 76.5 fluid ounces of water. You might feel good about losing 5 pounds, but even at 2.5 percent body weight loss, your performance would have already degraded by a decrease in thermoregulation and a steady increase in thirst.

Negative effects on your workout performance only build alongside the percentage of weight loss. At 4 percent, your energy is now limited by 25 to 40 percent. At 5 percent weight loss,headaches are common, as well as a feeling of weakness, incoherence, fatigue, and general irritability. At 6 percent, you would feel especially weak, nauseous, and suffer from a dangerous loss of thermoregulation. Finally, at 7 percent and above, you would be in incredibly dangerous territory. Someone weighing 200 pounds would have to drop 14 pounds during a single workout in order to lose 7 percent of their body weight, which amounts to 214 fluid ounces of water, or over 26 glasses of water (assuming you drink 8 ounce glasses)! Obviously this is an extreme case, but you get the point…

You don’t have to sweat up a storm to shed the pounds. If anything, all that sweat may be slowing you down. If you stay well-hydrated, your post-workout weight loss should read close to 0 percent, which means you have enabled your muscles to workout under optimum performance conditions, unlimited by metabolic energy drain from over-sweating and fluid loss.

If you don’t want to workout the math on your own, don’t worry. Unlike working out at the gym, there are shortcuts with math, and online you can find many exercise water loss calculators.

Dietary Tips for the Summer Sun!

Summer is HERE! Don’t forget to Hydrate. . .

As the summer is finally here please do not forget to HYDRATE!! Now more than ever hydration is critical to prevent cramping and more importantly dehydration. To keep hydrated do the following:

1. drink plenty of fluids in advance (approx. 30 oz. prior to the start of exercise)

2. during exercise (aim for 15-20 oz.)

3. post hydration is equally vital (approx 20-30 oz. immediately after exercise)

Don’t neglect hydration!! If you do, you will be suffering the consequences . . . Follow the above program and you will never feel dehydrated again.

Summer is Here. . . Don’t Forget your Sunscreen!

With summer solstice coming up-the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere-now is as good a time as any to remind everyone not to forget their sunscreen. According to the FDA, over 10,000 people die each year from skin cancer. Unless you plan on staying out of the sun all summer, sunscreen is your #1 protection from UV rays and indirect DNA damage that can lead to cancers like melanoma. Yet, even though UV rays are carcinogens for the human body, weakening the immune system and radiating skin, why do so many people leave their sunscreen at home? I’ve heard every excuse in the book. “I’m only going to be on the court for an hour.” “I never wore sunscreen as a kid.” “My skin doesn’t burn.” “I’m wearing a hat today.” “It’s cloudy out.” Why take the gamble? UV rays are practically everywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing a hat, sitting in the shade, or the gray morning haze has yet to burn off. Even if you never feel burned from the sun, damage from UV radiation is not something to mess around with. Play it safe, protect your skin, and have fun in the sun this summer!

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