Shake or 2 a day keeps the body fat away!

Last week I had a lot of fun posting about how to turn your body into a fat burning machine and I received a lot of positive feedback. I could post so much more about different exercise programs that would also help you lose that bodyfat, but you can't out work a poor diet so let's see what we can do to improve those eating habits to help you reach your goals.

One of the tips that everyone almost every one agrees on is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you need to eat 5-6 small meals every day to rev up your metabolism. In our busy lives, most of us have very little time in the morning and have outgrown the days when mom when cook us breakfast before work or school so we're lucky if we even think about grabbing something on our way out the door. Meal replacements can help us get the nutrients our body's need including water and get our metabolisms going.

Every morning I have a shake that takes at best 2-3 minutes to make even if I get really fancy. You can use water or milk in your shake with fruits, low fat and sugar free puddings to make unlimited recipes; my favorite is called Nutty Buddy! After your pour it into your to go cup, you fill up the blender with hot water to soak through the day to make it easy to clean at night. I've been able to lose about 13lbs in the last 6 weeks by making this tweak. Just like Slim Fast says, 2 shakes per day and a sensible meal. I also make sure I get in 2-3 more protein concentrated snacks between meals.

Not only can this modification into your lifestyle prevent you from taking in too many convenient calories on the way to work in the morning or at lunch, but it can save you time as well! 8oz of milk, 2 scoops of meal replacement, some ice and a mini blender at work makes a great tasting shake for about $1.75 per shake for  under 200 calories. Compare that to a McGriddle, orange juice or coffee and cream and you can see my point. For more info about these meal replacement shakes, go to  http://catalog.herbalife.com/core-products/formula-1-nutritional-shake-mix?start=null  and contact me or your local Herbalife Independent Distributor.

Turn your body into a fat burning machine part 4

Remember the story of Paul Revere's ride as a child in elementary school? He was the patriot who alerted the militia with the famous phrase "the redcoats are coming, the redcoats are coming!". In this 4th and final installment of this series How To Turn Your Body Into a Fat Burning Machine you are going to learn of an equally significant phrase in your fat body history lesson: "the glucose is gone, the glucose is gone!".

OK, that intro was a little bit corny, but it makes me smile every time I think about it. If Insulin, the fat storing hormone, is our enemy, then Glucagon is one of our closest allies in the Adipose Revolutionary War. Insulin and Glucagon are like Lex Luther and Superman, The Joker and Batman, Osama...well, you get the picture. Actually, both of them serve a very important function in the body of keeping the blood glucose levels stable. If it weren't for Insulin you would be blind and diabetic and if it weren't for Glucagon you'd probably never wake up from your sleep at night and go into a coma. So in reality it's probably not fair to depict Insulin as such a bad guy. Maybe Batman and Robin would be a better characterization, with Glucagon being Batman and Insulin being Robin; but who really wants to be Robin? Alright, moving on...

Glucagon is a hormone secreted by the pancreas, the same organ that creates Insulin; so think of the pancreas as the Batcave. Glucagon's primary role is to elevate blood glucose levels when it gets too low after not eating for a few hours. When the blood glucose gets too low the body screams "the glucose is gone, THE GLUCOSE IS GONE! Then it turns on the spotlight to signal Batman and summon him from his fortress. Glucagon goes to work first in the liver where glycogen is stored. Remember this from yesterday? When you eat too many carbs, your body boxes it up and puts it away in the closet for later use? Well, now it's time for action because you haven't eaten in a few hours and the body needs help with energy. Glucose is like the many cool gadgets hidden in the basement of Wayne Manor which attach to Batman's belt that he uses to fight crime (this is really going too far isn't it?). Well what if Alfred were to retire or pass away and Batman didn't have anyone to create any more gadgets? What would Batman do? He would have to find another source of his inventions. That's what Glucagon does, it finds other sources of glucose. Since the liver and muscles are the only places to store glycogen, it must find an alternative source; that's where your fat cells come into play!

Your body's preferred fuel source is glucose, but if the glucose is gone, what else can your body use? It can use fat cells and turn them into ketones! This little process is like Batman outsourcing his tools to Apple or something and them giving him an Ipad10 in return! (ok this has just gotten goofy now) So it's not the preferred source of fuel for the body, but now you're really turning your body into a fat burning machine, LITERALLY! It's burning off fat for ketone bodies and this is why you feel a little sluggish in the morning or on a severely restricted carb diet like the Atkins diet in the first 2 weeks. This sounds like great news, right?! You're probably saying to yourself "all I have to do is not eat any carbs and I'll burn the fat away"! Slow down there Robin. Your body ALSO breaks down muscle tissues into amino acids for fuel as well. So as your body is eating away at it's fatty tissue, it's also eating away at your muscle which is in effect slowing down your metabolism. That's why fasting or severely restrictive calorie diets is a bad idea. This is like one of Bruce Wayne's supermodel girlfriends spending away all of his millions of dollars which are funding the research and development firms that create the cool toys for Batman. The key is to keep blood glucose levels steady.

How do we keep even blood glucose levels?
Step 1. Eat low glycemic index carbs to prevent insulin levels from spiking
Step 2. Eat small frequent meals throughout the day to keep blood sugar levels from dropping too low causing you to over eat, thus spiking your insulin levels
Step 3. Eat balanced meals. Always have a protein source with a meal, crackers are not a snack. Tuna and crackers is a better choice
Step 4. Exercise often. Exercise helps regulate all of these systems. This is the glue that binds.

I hope you enjoyed this blog, this was the most fun one to write. If you enjoyed it, please follow, share it on facebook and let me know!

Turn your body into a fat burning machine Part 3

As the saying goes "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". Carbohydrates can be your friend and your enemy. Your body needs carbs for energy to fuel your workouts, but they can be your enemy when it comes to fat storage and health risks such as diabetes. We will learn how to keep a wary eye on them so they can still be your friend but realize they have potential to be your enemy when it comes to your health and your waistline. This concept can be a bit confusing at times, but I will try to keep it simple. I still remember the day this clicked in my mind. I was sitting in either Biochemistry 2 or Physiology 2 at Parker College of Chiropractic and we were learning about the body's response to both hormones Insulin and Glucagon. The instructor summed it up by saying Insulin is a fat storing hormone and Glucagon is a fat burning hormone. Here's a picture to demonstrate the process of carbohydrate digestion into glycogen and fat storage.

In the picture above we see that when we eat carbohydrates in food whether they are good or bad the body breaks them down into glucose; it doesn't discriminate. If you eat a lot of carbs in one sitting you are going to have a lot of glucose in the bloodstream. Glucose is a sugar and is the body's preferred source of energy because it's quick and efficient! Having too much glucose in the blood can be harmful to your body though and it's the reason why people with diabetes have to have limbs amputated, go blind and go on dialysis. So the pancreas responds by producing insulin (fat storing hormone) to convert the excess glucose to glycogen to save it for stored energy later. Glycogen is basically a bunch of glucose wrapped up in an box and stored in the closet for later use. As we see in the picture above, it is stored in the liver and the muscles. But the liver can only store about 8-12 hours worth of glycogen and your muscles can only store about 20 minutes worth of glycogen. So if you eat a large carbohydrate meal and your glycogen stores in your liver and muscles are full, your body is forced to store the glucose as fat and we don't want that!

Now that we know how the body stores excess carbohydrates as fat we need to limit the amount of carbs to only enough to supply energy for our physical activity. Most authorities suggest limiting your daily carb needs to 50%. This is good starting point and over time you can whittle this down to what works best for you. A good breakdown is to take in about 20% of your calories from good fats as we discussed 2 days ago, 30% in proteins and 50% in carbs. Again, try this for a month and see how it works for you. If you are having difficulty losing body fat still, it probably means you are taking in too many carbs, so cut it down to 40% and try that for a month.

Here is a simple meal plan for you to try out if you want to stay around the above percentages. My suggestion is that you eat some complex carbs with a protein in a 3:1 ratio of carbs to proteins for breakfast. As an example this could be a bowl of oatmeal, 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites scrambled and some cantelope. That would be about 45g of carbs and 15g of protein and some healthy fats. This would provide some fuel for a pretty good start to your day. At lunch try to cut down that ratio to 2:1. A tuna sandwhich with some salad is a good example of a 2:1 carb to protein meal. By dinner time a good chicken or steak salad would provide a solid meal with proteins and limit the carbs since you don't need much more fuel for anything. If you workout in the evening after work a good idea is to have an apple and some protein about an hour before to give you a little boost so you can make a maximum effort.

Tomorrow we will discuss Glucagon, the fat BURNING hormone!

Turn your body into a fat burning machine, Pt 2

After writing the first part of this post yesterday I realized there is so much more I could have written about so I decided to make this at least a 2-3 part series so stay tuned!

Yesterday we talked about the 2 types of fat; visceral (around your organs) and subcutaneous (under the skin) and the benefits of getting enough good fats in your diet and supplementation program to turn your body into a fat burning machine by producing Omega 9's and CLA. I briefly touched on another requirement to get rid of that deadly visceral fat and that's exercise.

According to the Mayo Clinic and the Department of Human and Health Services the weekly recommended weekly amount of moderate exercise (brisk walking) is a MINIMUM of 150 minutes per week. Which is only about 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week. This would be good for those who are not used to physical activity at all and may be a good starting point. They also recommend AT LEAST 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity such as jogging. They also suggest strength training exercises at least 2 days per week. So if you were to do just the bare minimum, you could compile a program of doing moderate aerobic activity consisting of 3 days of moderate aerobic activity on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 25-30 minutes per day and strength training on Tuesday and Thursday. Of course they summarize by saying if you want to lose weight or have specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more. THIS IS THE MINIMUM!!!

Remember, the danger of the visceral fat poses a myriad of health concerns including but not limited to producing hormones (cortisol) and other substances that can raise blood pressure, lower good cholesterol, raise bad cholesterol, insulin resistance. This translates to higher risks of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes.

If you'd like to know more about nutritional guidance and supplements that can help reduce this type of dangerous belly fat along with the unsightly subcutaneous fat, give me a call at 405-206-1700, look me up on Facebook under Level 10 Nutrition or follow me on Twitter @level10body .

Turn your body into a fat burning machine!

I was having a conversation with a trainer at my gym the other day and he reminded me about something I had learned a long time ago in Chiropractic College that would help anyone turn their body into a fat blasting furnace! The key is to eat fat to lose fat. This may sound counter-intuitive, but hear me out.

First of all, we have to recognize that there are 2 types of fat that people store around their midsections; subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. The latter type is the one that will KILL you! Have you ever seen an old man who had a big round pot belly that was hard as a rock? That's an example of what visceral fat looks like. It is fat that is stored around your organs. The reason why this is so harmful is because it causes inflammation around the organs. Your body is divided up in cavities and if these cavities begin to get crowded, the blood flow in the area becomes restricted and inflamed. The subcutaneous fat is the type that is soft and squishy just under the surface of the skin. It's our love handles, hips, thighs, etc. The visceral fat though, along with not being aesthetically pleasing, it also can increase your risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and arthritis.

According to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for America the daily recommended percent of calories taken in from fat should be 20-35%, preferably from good fat sources. That's not too radical. 20% is actually kind of low if you think about it. A gram of carbs and protein each have 4 calories. A gram of fat, however have 9 calories. So if you were goal was to have 1500 calories per day and multiply that by 20% that equals 300 calories per day from fat. If you take that 300 calories and divide it by 9 that equals 33.3g of fat per day. If you're trying to eat 5-6 small meals per day that means limiting your fat to only about 5.5-6.6g per meal. Sounds low, but still doable, right?! Not so fast...

So what's a good fat source and a bad fat source? And what's the difference? Good fat sources which contain Omega 3 fatty acids come from fish, flax, grass fed meats and dairies. A bad fat source as most of us know are the saturated fats and trans fats. These fats promote the visceral fat that we discuss earlier. So how do we get rid of this belly fat? It's a 2 pronged approach, good fats and cardio exercise. Before you click on the x in the upper right corner saying to yourself "I've heard all of this stuff before..." let me let you in on the secret behind the science.

When you eat the good fats your body is provided the Essential Fatty Acids that your body doesn't naturally produce and is required from food sources (that's why they're called "essential"). But here's the magic: your body produces the other super secret fat burners called Omega 9 fatty acids called Conjugated Linoleic Acids called CLA. You can help to supplement your body by first eating the required omega 3's and choosing GRASS FED beef and dairy instead of the cheaper, corn-fed, growth hormone injected and antibiotic pumped beef that only costs $3.99/lb. You can also purchase high quality supplements like Herbalifeline. Yeah, it's more expensive, but so is the bill of having open heart surgery, buying insulin shots and paying for a funeral.

So what's it going to be? Invest in taking some supplements, choosing higher quality foods and getting to that Level 10 body you always wanted? Or you could just keep sleeping in, eating what looks and smells good, being constantly disappointed with how your clothes look or fit and the true crime; teaching your kids to repeat the process. The choice is yours....

What does Level 10 mean to you?

Have you ever heard someone refer to another person as a "perfect 10"? As the saying goes "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". What I may consider as a 10 may be a 7 to someone else and vice versa. When it comes to setting your goals, it's a good idea to have a mental picture in your mind of what you want to accomplish. Better yet, it would be good to cut out a picture of a magazine or something like that to find a tangible image of the goal you are seeking. People create vision boards because it give them a physical picture and a reminder of what they want to accomplish in life whether it be lifestyle, fitness or financial goals, etc.

When setting your physical or fitness goals it's very important to be realistic when it comes to the body type you currently have. I'm not saying you shouldn't strive for a certain level of fitness or choose a model you would like to look like. What I'm saying is if you're 5'2" tall with short legs and a long torso, don't choose a picture of a model who is 6'2" tall with legs up to her ribs! Pick someone who looks like they are proportioned like you and go for it. You can always keep looking for what you perceive as a perfect 10 for your body frame and modify your goals as you strive to achieve the body image you want to accomplish.

Level 10 Nutrition is all about supplying you with the nutrients, guidance and counseling to help you achieve your perfect 10 body. If you have any questions you can email me at level10nutrition@gmail.com , look me up on Facebook or follow me on Twitter at @level10body . I am an independent distributor of Herbalife products and my mission is to help end the trend of obesity in this country starting with myself.