What if the bad food is not the problem?

Okay, we all know about bad food. We are told about it all the time, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Okay, so you know what to stay away from:

• Fried foods
• Fatty foods
• Creams and butters
• Ice cream
• Sugar foods
• Salty foods

And if you're trying to lose weight, you sometimes wonder "What food can I eat at all?" and are left to ponder this while you shop for more fruits and veggies and other boring foods.

But, what if, in our quest for getting to the "perfect size", what if we find out that the bad food is not the problem?

• What if we eliminate the bad food, but still can't lose weight? 
• What if we workout like crazy, but the scale still doesn't budge?

Could it be possible that the bad food is not the problem? 

When you are used to eating "bad" foods, such as those listed above, it is hard when you start eliminating them from your daily life. You have to deal with cravings, you have to deal with a growling tummy and you have to deal with your emotional ties to food. Cravings, you can deal with. Growling tummy, you can control to some extent. But, the emotional ties, oh, that's when we get into trouble.

We find out that there is a REASON we are drawn to these foods, whether it is:

• Habit
• Lonliness
• Lack of love
• Comfort 
• Unhappiness with life

And that's the hard part.

That's the reason most diets don't work. It's not all about cutting out the "bad" foods. It's about finding out WHY those foods are important to us and then dealing with those emotions. It truly does start with the inside, so will you?

When you're too tired to workout

You're too tired to workout. No energy.

So, now what? 

Do you just take a day off exercise? And what if a day becomes two days? And on and on? How do you know when to take a day off?

There are many reasons why you are too tired to workout and have no energy:

• Exhaustion
• Overtraining
• Illness
• Boredom

Now, for the first three, these are legitimate excuses for wanting to miss a day. When you are exhausted, your body is weak and asking for a break. Give it one. When you are overtraining, your body is stressing and asking for a break. Give it one. When you are sick with an illness, your body is recuperating and asking for a break. Give it one and let it recover.

However, if you are just bored and feeling lazy in your muscles, that is the time to get off the couch. I know, you're too tired to workout. I know, you have no energy. Do it anyway.

• If you can't do your normal workout, do something. 
• If you can't run, walk. 
• If you can't lift weights, do light exercises. 
• If you can't do cardio, stretch.

Do something to get your body moving. Talk to that inside voice in your head. If you know exercise is good for you, then say it. If you know you NEED to get up and exercise, then do it. Remember - whatever you tell your body - your mind is listening! Always remember that! 

Tell your mind - you can succeed, tomorrow will be a better day, you are strong!
And you will...

Emotional eating

Emotional eating can derail even the best workout plan.

Why? 

Because when you look at weight loss as a whole, 20% is the workouts, 80% is nutrition. Good nutrition. Emotional eating is very common due to stress, boredom, a way of stuffing feelings as you stuff your mouth. Sound familiar?

This is a great article by my mentor Tosca Reno...

http://www.eatcleandiet.com/newsletter/augrise10/

Here's an important quote from it:

"The sudden onset of hunger is triggered by an emotional event. All of us have been conditioned to eat food when we’re sad, bored, frustrated, anxious and even when we’re happy (think of all the times we choose to celebrate an event with cake and desserts). Emotional eating also tends to become a vicious cycle of self-sabotage. Once we allow ourselves to eat emotionally, we feel guilty, and that guilt feeds another bout of emotional eating that moves us even further away from our goals."

Tosca also talks about recognizing your trigger foods and using a journal. I highly recommend using a health journal. In fact, every client of mine gets a health journal on their first visit. It's crucial, not to record food, but to record the emotions that go along with the food.

You can conquer emotional eating. If I can do it, you can too...

Healthy oatmeal bar recipe

This is a recipe I modified a little bit. I make this on Sunday, cut it into bars and keep them in ziplocs or container in the refrigerator. Then, throughout the week, I eat one bar with a fruit for a snack. This is particularly good for those PMS weeks when chocolate cravings are strong. It replaces chocolate or a protein bar. The ingredients are healthy. Enjoy!

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tspn cinnamon
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/8 tspn sea salt
1 scoop protein powder [I like to use chocolate]
1 tbsn cocoa [optional - if you want a chocolate flavor]
1/2 cup peanut butter [I use natural crunchy]
1/2 cup organic sugar [you can leave this out if you want or use agave nectar]
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
2 tbsn olive oil [I use extra-virgin]
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 cups oats [old-fashioned, like me]
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 x 9 baking pan with nonstick spray.

Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, protein powder and cocoa in a medium bowl. In separate bowl, beat peanut butter, sugar and honey with electric mixer until blended. Blend egg and egg whites with a fork in a small bowl. Add to the peanut butter mixture, along with oil and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula. Mix in oats, dried cranberries and walnuts. Scrape batter into baking dish.

Bake the bars until lightly browned and firm to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan on a rack before cutting into bars. Serving size is 2 x 2 bar.

Carnation Breakfast Essentials - Is this a good breakfast for you?

Carnation Breakfast Essentials

"Good Nutrition from the start"
-2x protein of an egg to help build muscle
-2x calcium of yogurt to help build strong bones
-21 vitamins and minerals

So, it's good, right? 

If you are trying to lose weight, it is easy to be deceived - by clever advertising wording, by beautiful packaging, by the idea that instead of eating real food, you could drink a shake. Drinking a shake, in a "dieter's" mind is always better for weight loss than eating.

But is it? 

Let's look closer at the food label: http://carnationinstantbreakfastessentials.com/Products/Bottle/Rich-Milk-Chocolate/Nutrition.aspx

260 calories
5g fat
4g carb
14g protein
230mg sodium
39g sugar

Calories are not too bad, for a breakfast anyway. Fat, carb and protein percentages are ok, not great, but ok. But it is definitely a carb-loaded drink, not a protein drink. 230mg of sodium, a little high if you want to stay in daily intake of 1,500-1,800mg. But the sugar! Daily recommended sugar is 32g a day. This has 39g!

If you look at the ingredient list, sugar is second ingredient, followed by many other forms of sugar.

This is a SUGAR drink. Plain and simple. 

• Yes, it's popular. 
• Yes, it's pretty. 
• Yes, it's packaged to help you eat [or drink] healthy and advertising even shows giving it to your children in order to help them eat healthy in the morning. 

It's a SUGAR drink.

It is NOT a good option for breakfast. When you are trying to lose weight especially. Sugar affects your hormones [ladies] and your metabolism, your ability to burn fat. Better options would be oatmeal, fresh fruit, real food.

Another dead giveaway that this is NOT a healthy option is that it comes in a box. Read the labels. Know what you are putting into your body - and your child's. Don't be fooled by marketing and advertising. You know better, right?


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A product or pill will not change your life, you will.

This is me. Well, it's not actually me. It kind of looks like me. But this is what I look like today, mouth open, hands by my face, totally frustrated.

I'm a fitness professional. I love my job. My job is to change lives. This is all good. But sometimes, it's so frustrating. Sometimes I want to stand on a mountain and scream, mouth open, hands by my face and SCREAM:

"A product or pill will not change your life, you will"

If you are a member of my Facebook fanpage, you have heard this for the past two days. It's been my status update for two days now. Hoping that it will sink in.

So, as a fitness professional, here's my dilemma and my frustrations:

• The unending "marketing and advertising" of beautiful, fake, unhealthy food
• The distortive and truth-bending "marketing and advertising" of super products - pills, shakes, exercise equipment - that is going to make you drop 7-10 lbs immediately - complete with a barrage of before and after photos that really make you want it
• The sell-out trainers that promote these products - Jillian Michaels - oh yes, when it comes to the "show", it's all about emotional healing, get inside, do the hard work, but in reality, it's "here, take this speed pill [fat burner] because it's the only way you can do it" - sell-out

That's it in a nutshell. And that's why I feel like screaming. Because...

• You have to do your research when a new product comes out and read labels
• You have to do your research when something looks too good to be true and find the true sponsor of a product
• You have to use common sense and look for the true motives of a person, even a popular fitness trainer

But, this is too hard. It's too much work. It's too time consuming. It's easier to just sit on the couch, watch these unbelievable ads and promotions, listen to the complete bullshit, and take that frickin' pill. Deprive yourself of real food. Don't worry about real exercise. Stop listening to that inside voice that gives you guidelines.

Friends, it's not going to happen that way.
I've been there.
But maybe I'm the stupid one here.

Because...

• They are making money
• They are selling product
• They are convincing people

And what am I doing?

• I'm not making money
• I'm not selling a product
• I'm trying hard to convince people

So, see the screaming part now? I want to make money. I want to support my family. I want to change the world. To do this, do I have to give up one or the other? I could have just given up years ago and just SOLD THE FRICKIN' PRODUCT, but I didn't and I haven't. I keep training, I keep educating, I keep talking to anyone who will listen that there's a good way to lose weight, to live a healthy life. And it doesn't involve taking a pill. It doesn't involve taking shakes. It doesn't involve exercising for hours a day. It does involve common sense. It does involve listening to your instinct, your inside voice. And it does involve change, doing the hard things that you know you ought to do.

So, I will say one more time for emphasis and then I will go on and do what I do:

"A product or pill will not change your life, you will"

So, now do it.

Is this cereal good for you?

Gotta love that "marketing and advertising". Not.

Kellogg's Low-Fat Granola Cereal

Has all the key "diet" phrases: "low-fat" and "granola"

Look carefully - serving size is 1/2 cup. Does this beautiful bowl of granola cereal look like 1/2 cup? 1/2 cup is 190 calories. How many 1/2 cups do you think are in this bowl?

Then, check ingredients. Second ingredient is sugar, third ingredient is corn syrup. Further on down the thick list is high fructose corn syrup.

It's a beautiful package. It appears to be healthy. It's low-fat. It's granola. But you have to do your job and read the label. This is not a healthy food for you. Better alternative? Oatmeal, a true low-fat granola, oats. Real ingredients. Real food.

Take the time to find the truth about what you are eating. It's worth it to your health.