Metabolic Meal Plan

Getting Results

The hardest part of my own fitness program isn’t getting to the gym or taking part in body conditioning on a committed basis, it’s eating right. You probably figured that out by how much I write about food. The food part always seems like another job ­– plan it, shop it, cook it, and then hopefully be in the mood for it when it’s time to eat. Then start all over. 

Do it. The results are worth it.

If you missed “Eating to Burn”, you might want to read it and then return to here. Eating every three hours is not a fad diet. It’s just sensible, and the quality of what we eat makes all the difference. Aim for health first, you’ll never go wrong.

Ayla Yavin, L.Ac., an acupuncturist at Longevity Health, says that she has seen people actually reverse the aging process and become more physically fit and resilient as they get older. Four keys to this are good nutrition, plenty of rest, a sustainable exercise program, and rejuvenating therapies such as acupuncture, chiropractic and massage.

Eat Well

A diet loaded with fresh organic vegetables, legumes and seasonal fruit will help keep you healthy.

Gluten free grains will keep your muscles pumped and your brain clear. When it comes to grains, the less processed the better. Whenever I’ve forgotten this and taken a turn down the processed food aisle (that includes the cookie aisle) my energy, clarity and metabolism gets sluggish.

Quality protein will build muscle. You want this! Replace some of your evening carbs with protein – you’ll add more muscle while burning additional calories digesting the protein.

We feed our cars with the fuel that makes them run best. Why treat our bodies any differently? The way food interacts with our individual body chemistry is one of the most important aspects of health and fitness for us to understand. 

Fad Diets

Fad diets arrive, they peak and then new ones appear. That’s partly from marketing, but mostly from the fact that each diet only works on one-third of the people who try it and doesn't on the other two-thirds… it just isn't suited to their body chemistry. 

Fad diets can have value though. If you’re trying one, pause and learn what part of the diet structure works for your body. Learning to eat right is a lifelong process because our body’s requirements are constantly changing.

What's in – What's out

I’ve received a lot of emails asking what my personal daily diet looks like, so I’m going to share one with you here. My day starts at 4:30 am, but for writing this plan, I started it at 7 am – when I'd really rather get up.

My eating is fairly simple and always starts with breakfast. There are three meals and three small snacks. Eating like this keeps me fueled all day long and gives me abundant energy to work out. The snacks are foods that can be kept in a desk or cooler – or in a gym bag if you’re on the run. New York fitness trainer and former Mr. Australia, Gennaro Ferra, uses a diet similar to this to keep his clients in shape.

Alcohol, most dairy, soy, peanuts, wheat (and gluten sources) and highly processed foods  are eliminated from my daily diet. Try this for yourself – go 10 days without them and see how you body feels. Then, if you want, add them back one at a time. Be sure to notice how you feel after each one re-enters your body? Does the wheat and gluten bloat you up? Do your joints hurt when you have an alcohol binge, or are you suddenly re-craving sweets the day after?

You’ll probably notice that red meat isn’t listed on my typical day menu. It is part of my diet though, a couple of servings a month. It’s better for us to eat less red meat and be sure it’s the best – hormone free, organic grass fed beef. 

Eggs are organic and free-range. Chicken and turkey is organic – or at least hormone and additive free. Vegetables and fruits are organic and seasonal. I visit local farmer's markets or purchase their produce whenever possible.

If you are over 40 – or in my case, over 60 – keeping your meals small and frequent is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself.  Plus when you eat like this, you’ll have a metabolic furnace that will burn fat, support muscle growth, and keep your energy levels high all day long. None of these meals should hit you like a Thanksgiving Day feast. If they do, you’ve eaten too much. The same applies if you’re still full after 3 to 3 ½ hours – cut down your portions at the previous meal.

Whenever I want to prepare for a photo shoot or event, I make sure I stay on course like a Cessna getting directions from air traffic control. Our bellies are the center of our power. Take charge of your eating, and you'll be surprised at how more much personal power you feel.

My Six Meal Plan

Breakfast 7 am

·      1/2 cup of cooked oats with a scoop of protein powder mixed in, or

·      Hot brown rice or buckwheat cereal with protein powder, or combine with fresh fruit, or cook in a spoonful of raisins.

Mid-morning 10 am snack

·      6 oz organic or goat's milk yogurt, 1 organic apple, pear, or

·      5 oz tuna with lemon and a small white sweet potato, or

·      2 hard boiled eggs plus 1/3 cup buckwheat cereal, or

·      8-10 oz homemade protein shake, or

·      2 spoonfuls of hummus and gluten free crackers or vegetables

·      12 Almonds and an apple, pear or other fruit in season, or

·      6-8 Gluten free crackers with almond butter.

Lunch 1 pm

·      Steamed or grilled chicken and cruciferous vegetables, or

·      Grilled salmon or turkey with steamed vegetables

·      Include a serving of grain like brown rice or quinoa, or white sweet potato

·     If I have a craving for something sweet, I'll wait for a half hour. If it doesn't pass I'll eat half a piece of fruit. 

Mid-afternoon 4 pm snack

·      6 oz organic or goat's milk yogurt, 1 organic apple or pear, or

·      5 oz tuna with lemon and a small white sweet potato, or

·      6 0z satay chicken and vegetables, or

·      2 hard boiled eggs and vegetables, or

·      8-10 oz homemade protein shake, or

·      2 spoonfuls of hummus with vegetables, or

·      12 Almonds and an apple or pear (or other fruit in season)

Dinner 7 pm

·      Wild salmon or white fish, or

·      Chicken or turkey breast

·      Vegetables including steamed asparagus, broccoli, spinach and cauliflower

Evening 10 pm

·      If you get hungry, make a protein shake. I prefer this with water only late at night, but you could make it with blueberries and almond milk.

·      Prep yourself for a restful sleep with hot caffeine free tea – mint, ginger or one of your favorite herbal teas.

Train your Body, Train your Mind, Tame your Tongue.

Photo: Sarah Bailey. Taken on my 60^th birthday. 

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional or nutritionist. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your health care provider.

Heartbeat Hotel

It's in our Chest

When I moved to NYC  5 years ago I had my own personal recession going on. No surprise, my identity had been used by someone very close to me and I had lost almost everything. (This did have a happy ending – it took 8 years, and he ended up with "felon" after his name). Anyway, one afternoon walking through Chelsea on the way to an audition, I passed the VIEW Bar and saw a sign up for "Best Chest Contest" – winner gets $1,000. 


Take off my shirt for the possibility of ending my financial recession... why not?

The night of the contest – in my mid-50's – I was definitely the "old guy" there. And being next to Mr. Gay New York didn't give me lots of encouragement. But my friends and boyfriend, Steven, braved the rain to support me. My intention that night was to win. It worked for the judges and the crowd because I left the bar with my rent paid for the next month.

Most of us don't work out to win contests in bars, but every once and a while it comes in handy. There were better chests in the show, but I had worked on symmetry, balance and proportion. If you're cut, defined and fully present you can always win a crowd – no matter what your age. 


Thinking back to earlier times, us natives used to respect and admire our elders. That is until we were taught to treat them as old – by the elders themselves. Somewhere along the way, the older, wiser members of our tribes turned into – just plain "old folks". What's up with that? Age is a chronological number, never a pass to drop out of life. 

Breath and Form
When we drop out we cease to be present, we become numb to the everyday things that turn us on. We simply become tourists that visit our own life – stopping in once and a while to take snapshots and pick-up souvenirs. When we stop being a drop-in tourist and are fully present, we create a vibration that will keep us young and healthy. And the more present we are, the better it gets. The higher the vibration, the better we feel. Even diseases have difficulty staying with a happy body.


When you workout for an hour, with full attention to your breath, form and nothing else, your mind clears and your body relaxes. You're not focused on anything except the present, so everything comes into focus. 

Transform yourself 

from the inside out, 

or the outside in, 

and you'll transform 

your world.

The physical-spiritual transformation creates peace in your body. When you've worked out the tensions that press on your chest – and your vibration is clear – bingo, your heart opens to the world. Now, you're lighter and suddenly everyone is attracted to you.


Go figure...  all you did was workout.

An open heart filled with light and love is a gift we all have. Go ahead, unwrap it – it's Valentine's Day. 

Wishing you peace, love and abundance,

Rick


Train your Body, Tame your Mind, Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional or nutritionist. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your health care provider.

Eat to Burn

Six Times a Day

You know that phrase, “ he (or she) eats like a bird”. It usually means that person hardly eats at all. In reality, birds eat all the time. They have to, otherwise they’d be like a 747 without fuel. Grounded.

If we eat properly, our bodies will maintain a normal, healthy weight and composition. If we skip meals, eat junk or binge late at night, we end up looking like a chunky monkey.

I grew up in Eisenhower’s 1950's America with it’s new convenient foods, cars with big and bigger fins and a society that ate 3 square meals a day. You weren’t supposed to eat between meals, at least that’s what the experts said.

This blog is about eating early and often. 6 meals a day – and please don’t make them square! Have three meals and three nutritional snacks, or small meals. Actually, they are all small meals compared to what you’d get with the 3-meal deal.

This blog is also about eating your most important meal, because even though we’re in the era of daily new apps for our phones (Dick Tracy would be trading in his wrist watch) and kindle books, our bodies are still primal mechanisms. So when it comes to eating, think of your body as if you were a Caveman.

Watch and Learn

Let's visit three Caveman scenes that will help explain how our bodies react to starvation / metabolism functions.

Scene 1: Caveman Wakes and Hunts

Caveman wakes up and goes on a hunt. His metabolism kicks in to provide fuel from fat stores so our hero can score breakfast. He’s ravished, so he eats right away – he’s got his protein and vegetables. Because he ate after his hunt, his body knew that there would be plenty of food. It could keep right on burning, no need to horde those fat stores.

His metabolism supported him on the hunt, going into fat burning mode so the Caveman would have energy for his hunt, get food and be alive for another day. He didn’t think about his metabolic burn, it knew when to turn on.

This is the same as doing intense cardio first thing in the morning before breakfast. If you want to burn fat and lean down, do cardio within 40 minutes of getting up, then feed yourself.  But if you skip eating after the cardio your body will really go into starvation mode, hang on to its stored fuel (fat) and you’ll defeat the purpose of all your morning work.

Scene 2: Caveman Wakes and Eats

Caveman wakes up, makes a breakfast with protein and low glycemic carbs. Buttons his suit and walks to the office. He fired up his metabolism first  by having a lean, protein rich breakfast to digest. Plus, his starvation monitors are satisfied that they can relax and burn, burn, burn. It’ll be a good day for them because there’s lots of food. Once again, he didn’t think about his metabolic burn, it knew when to turn on.

The action of digesting food burns between 10 and 30 percent of the total calories you’ll burn each day. Start your metabolic furnace by eating protein and carbs first thing in the morning.

Scene 3: Caveman Wakes and Hangs Out

Caveman wakes up, makes coffee and watches two hours of Netflix. Has more coffee, not knowing that it will dampen his appetite (it raises insulin levels) and make him an "out of control" eater late in the day.

By the time noon comes around his primitive signals have gathered together in the fear of starvation. His metabolic furnace is ice cold. No food, no breakfast, no hunt… must be starvation in the bush today. Mid-afternoon, he gets in his car and picks up a double bacon cheeseburger, fries and a coke. His body knows just what to do with that food now – store it as fat.

So if you’re skipping breakfast, your probably packing on the pounds. Plan the night before, get enough sleep and know what you’ll have for breakfast in the morning.

Every Three Hours

Our body stays watchful, like those hidden spy cams. If you create a starvation situation for your body during the day, all the alarms will go off and your metabolism will come to a screeching halt. To keep this from happening you have to eat small meals every 3 - 4 hours.

Every three hours doesn’t mean mega meals every time you eat, it means moderate portions. You’ll want to eat about as much as you would in 3 normal meals, spread into 6. That’s 3 meals and 3 snacks.

You get the idea here – split those calories up. Smaller portions make your digestive process fire-up, and allow your body to metabolize food efficiently keeping you energized all day long. If you’re too full after waiting 3 – 4 hours, you probably ate too much at the previous meal.

Learn and Burn

Burn Mode

When we digest protein we burn approximately 25 calories for every 100 calories eaten. 

When we digest fats and carbohydrates we average a burn of about 10-15 calories for every 100 calories eaten. 


Be generous with the protein, heavy on the vegetables, moderate with fats and carbs.

Body fat does nothing to help your metabolism function or burn calories, but muscle does.  For every pound of muscle you add, your body burns an additional 50 calories every 24 hours.

Muscle takes less space than fat. Lose 5 pounds of fat and add 5 pounds of muscle and you’ll not only look leaner and tighter, you’ll be burning an additional 250 calories every day without doing anything but looking good.

Protein helps your muscles repair after working out. Digesting protein burns more calories than other foods. You’ll burn two times more calories digesting protein than carbohydrates.

Protein, Carbs and Fats

Protein will keep you feeling full longer. Go for lean chicken, turkey, fish, eggs and powdered protein.

Carbohydrates keep your muscles pumped and full and your brain functioning. Your body loves carbs for energy. Keep your intake balanced. If you think I’m talking about “Wonder Bread”, do an experiment and leave it on your counter for the next year. It won’t go bad. Switch to grains like quinoa, brown rice, millet and buckwheat.

If you really want to get "cut", turn off your carb intake at 5 in the afternoon. Eat only protein and vegetables after that.

Dietary fats are different than body fat. Healthy dietary fats will help you burn fat. Fats play an important role in delivering key vitamins. (Vitamins A, D, E and K). Fats also help our body produce essential hormones like testosterone. Eat quality fats and keep you’re your hands off fried foods and trans fats.

Fat free will make you fat! Get your fats from sources like fish, flaxseed, almonds, avocados and olive oil.

Write and Shop 

Get a handle on your food intake. Write down everything you eat, how much and what time you eat. Do this for 4 to 7 days. Knowing where what you eat is the first step in controlling your diet.

Plan to win. Plan your meals. Plan for a couple of days if you can, but certainly for the next day. Write it down. Most of the time you’ll end up right on target.

Fill your cupboard and refrigerator with healthy fruits, vegetables, proteins and grains. You can’t eat them if they’re not around.

A follow-up blog in two weeks – the Metabolic Meal Plan – will give you a six-meal program to get you started. I'll share my meals and snacks that will keep you lean and energized all day long. 


Watch for my Valentine's Day blog next Sunday...  to you from Paris. 

Train your body. Train your mind. Tame your tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional or nutritionist. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your health care provider.

Ten Training Tips

At the gym I see every kind of body. The guy who's totally lean, the trainers who are huge but need coaching on body aesthetics, the really heavy guy working on his biceps, and there's the guy who just came in from Abercrombie. 


Comparing myself to other guys gets me into trouble because there's always someone better and more fit – and someone who's not. My meditation Master always said that "there is no competition", our task is simply to make ourselves better.  

Better Workouts – Better Bodies

1 Train your mind 
Before you start a set, know what you are going to do. What's your form and movement? How many reps are you going to do? Tell yourself you are going to do 10 reps and you'll almost always do them. Tell yourself you are going to try to do 10 reps and you'll almost always miss your mark.

2 Core values first
If you have core values, you can weather anything life throws at you. If your body has a strong core, the same thing happens. So train your core. Get a stability ball for home; they're the best piece of gym equipment you can invest in. Workout your abs and lower back. First thing in the morning do hip dips on the ball followed by a hard ab blast. Flip over and do 20 push-ups on the ball planking your body and pulling your belly button to your spine.

3 Legs before coffee
After you do your stability ball routine, hit your legs by doing three sets of 25 squats without any weight. Now have your morning coffee. You'll have more energy all day long. The first time I did this I was shocked at how much work it was. This is great to do before you head to the gym for a leg workout.

4 Befriend a dumbbell – or two
Use dumbbells instead of machines. Dumbbells make each side of your body (or arm, or bicep) work independently. Both sides have to work just as hard. Additionally dumbbells allow muscles a greater range of movement and strengthen the smaller muscles, tendons and ligaments. You'll keep from being bored too. Dumbbells have more variations for training than machines or barbells.

5 Release growth hormone
Train your legs.Working this massive muscle group triggers the release of large amounts of growth hormone. Guess what? That creates muscle growth throughout your entire body and best of all turbo charges your fat burners. Want a strong upper body? Train your legs.

6 Work the big boys 
Just starting? Want to burn and get ripped? Train your big body parts first – train your legs, your back and your chest. These are the powerhouses of your body, they'll fire up your metabolism and create additional energy for you. Your smaller muscles will get worked right along with them without direct focus. You'll still want to  train your biceps, triceps, shoulders and forearms, just not as often. 

7 Super circuit
Circuit training is perfect if you're just getting started, you muscles are relearning how to work. You can work them hard, build strength and get a full hour in. If you're already training, doing a circuit training blast once every two weeks can keep you lean and your workouts fresh. Your goal is to do 3 full body circuits in an hour.

8 The magic hour
Hit an hour of weight training hard, stop and stretch. It's not really a magic number, but it's a good time measure for most of us. After an hour of intense weight training your body starts to produce cortisol in response to perceived stress. Too much cortisol is nasty and deserves an entire blog. Suffice it to say that it can lower testosterone levels, cause protein breakdown, increase body fat – and with overtraining – decrease athletic performance. Want more time at the gym? Split your workouts morning and evening, you'll have a rest, and both workouts will be strong.

9 Cardio blast last
If you want to do cardio on weight training days, do it after your workout. You can always power through 20 minutes of cardio after training. But if you use your prime energy for cardio before a workout, you'll have less energy and endurance lifting weights, get poor results and take longer to create the gains (or losses) that you are looking for.

10 Recover and grow
Some days my mind thinks my body should train – but my body doesn't want to. If I'm dragging myself up the stairs to the gym I know I've hit one of those times that is approaching overload. I probably haven't recovered from my previous workout. So I'll guiltlessly leave the gym and do something fresh with my hour. Look at it this way; we work out to challenge our muscles to grow. The muscle has to recover as it's growing, so if we're not fully recovered we won't be creating new muscle growth with our workout. Listen to your body, it always knows best.

Train your Body. Train your Mind. Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional program without consulting your health care provider.

Sugar Baby – Part 3

It’s just cool to think that we got beamed down from “somewhere” to experience such earthly abundance. An abundance of experiences, loves, hates, playthings and … sweets. If you have been reading the other “Sugar Baby” blogs you’ve probably made some decisions about those sugars and sweeteners brought to you through the marvels of modern chemistry. Unlike the sweeteners in Sugar Baby –Part 2, these sweeteners weren’t created by chemistry geeks wearing lab coats… we’ve left the Frankensugars behind. So this blog takes a look at natural sweeteners.

Will Work for Sugar

As a kid, my sweet tooth was so strong that I’d ride across town to my grandparent’s house to score some cookies (I was a dental mess). Along with her "All American" chocolate chip cookies, there were always her Armenian specialties of Paklava (or Baklava as the Greeks say) and butter cookies, both sweet and without sugar (she served the latter with spoonfuls of honey over it). Most of the time there was a half eaten apple or berry pie around too.

Before she would let me indulge, I’d have to work in the garden, filling the apple basket and collecting eggs from her chickens or berries and vegetables from her garden. She had plenty of honeybees as well, but they terrified me. She was my first teacher about the abundance and generosity of natural foods and also the memorable, addictive sugar spikes of refined sugars. Sugar is irresistible to 4 ft. tall humans, and just as juicy to 6 ft. ones.

Stealth Naturals 

With the exception of stevia, (stevia doesn’t elevate blood glucose levels) all of these natural sweeteners can lift you up, send you flying and then crash you down just like the old Paramount Park Stealth Rollercoaster. These sweeteners have calories… you know what that means. If you don’t burn them off, you'll add them as fat and end up looking like a stand-in extra for "Big Momma". One more thing, even though the “crash and fat” warnings should be enough – Sugars can weaken your adrenals, which compromises your ability to deal with stress. Stress leads to illness.

Dehydrated cane-juice crystals

These are the easiest substitute for replacing white sugar, and you know, if it looks like a dog and barks like a dog… Anyway, the crystals are made by evaporating water from sugarcane juice. This is sold under the name sucanat. Sucanat is not processed like white sugar so it still contains nutrients found in the sugarcane. Don’t be mislead, sucanat is not commercial “brown sugar”.

Sugarcane is a crop that isn’t sweet on the environment; it’s hard on ecosystems and biodiversity. Buy organic or Fair Trade certified sucanat.

Blackstrap Molasses

This sweetener is what is left after crystals of sugar are removed from sugarcane or beet juice, and it’s about 65% sucrose. Blackstrap molasses contains calcium and iron and other minerals, providing nutritional value. Sorghum molasses and Barbados molasses are less nutritious than Blackstrap.

Barley Malt, Rice Amasake, Rice Syrup and Sorghum Syrup

These sweeteners are made by fermenting grains. They contain both simple and complex sugars as well as some complex carbohydrates so they are absorbed slowly into your bloodstream. They also contain nutrients (approximately half) from the original grains.

Date Sugar

Like the previous sweeteners, you can figure out the source from the name. This sugar is made from pulverized dried dates. One tablespoon of date sugar is counted as one fruit exchange in the diabetic exchange system. It contains fiber and minerals from the original fruit.

Maple Syrup

This great tasting stuff is simply tree sap. There are lots of minerals in this one including potassium and calcium. It takes 10 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. Make sure you are choosing REAL maple syrup. Under the ingredients it should say 100% pure maple syrup, not corn syrup or anything else. Making sure it is organic is important because some companies use formaldehyde to prolong sap flow. Vermont has stringent quality control for the production of maple syrup. Always check the label.

Honey

Honey is just as sweet as refined sugar and gets absorbed into the bloodstream quickly. If you want nutritional value from this sweetener, choose raw honey. Raw honey contains the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and pollen that are destroyed when honey is processed. Raw honey, particularly from local sources, may help with hay fever and allergies by building your natural immunity. My suggestion: don’t eat processed honey.

Agave

Agave Nectar is a liquid sweetener that comes from the sap of the agave plant. It’s the maple syrup of the south. Agave is heated and processed to create the light or amber liquids. I’ve read that the amount of iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium create the color tone. Agave is sweeter than refined sugar, but doesn’t spike your insulin levels as refined sugar does, but it has just about the same calories as sugar.

Stevia

This is probably the least known sweetener around. You won’t find it on many labels. Stevia is a native of Paraguay and is now grown in many countries. It has been used for many centuries and by many cultures. Extensive scientific research has been done to prove its safety, but until recently, it had only been approved as a dietary supplement. Stevia packs a sweet wallop. It’s 150 to 400 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories. It has been proven to help regulate blood sugar levels. A little goes a long ways. You can find stevia as a liquid or in powdered form.

Staying Alkaline

We already know that processed sugar and chemical replacements for sugar are acid forming and that cancer and viruses love an acidic body. Ratings for the following natural sweeteners come from a book I highly recommend called Alkalize or Die by Dr. Theodore A. Baroody:

Alkaline Forming Sweeteners

Honey – Raw 

(from alfalfa, clover and eucalyptus, sourwood & tupelo varieties)

Sucanat

Dr. Bronners Barley malt sweetener

Brown rice sweetener

.............................................

Acid Forming Sweeteners

Barley malt syrup

Fructose

Honey – Processed and pasteurized

Maple syrup

Molasses

Turbinado sugar

Eat till you Pop

Culturally, we’re programmed to eat until we explode, just like the fat guy in Monty Python and the Meaning of Life. What you want to do is moderate your intake. 


Maybe because the Blue Agave plant also gives us tequila with memories of crazy dancing, I’m partial to it as a sweetener. Maple syrup reminds me of double stacks of pancakes and Sunday mornings, so I have trouble controlling my use... raw honey reminds me of stress free days at my grandmothers. 

Over time I’ve “Trained my Tongue” to be happy with less. If you ever had to stay off sugars for a long period of time –which is something one would do on a Candida elimination diet– when you finally get to eat an apple or grape, your taste buds just explode from the sweetness. 

Find a natural sweetener that works for you, it might not be the one that someone else likes. As you use less, you’ll want less. Or better yet, eat an apple. Having a dessert or an occasional indulgence can be part of diet planning. It’s actually better if it is planned. It keeps us from going on a total binge. Take the time to read labels, and stay conscious when you eat. The less processed your food is, the healthier you will be. Your body will love you for it, so will your abs... 

We don’t have to be saints to be healthy, just committed.

Supplements

To assist with sugar metabolism

Chromium picolinate, B-complex vitamins, calcium/magnesium

To help with sugar cravings

L-glutamine, royal jelly, bee pollen, gymnema sylvestra

To assist with fat burning

L-carnitine

To balance adrenal stress caused by sugar

Licorice root, Siberian Ginseng, Vitamin C and Bioflavanoids

Train your Body, Train your Mind, Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional.  You should never begin an exercise routine without consulting your physician. 

Sugar Baby – Part 2

My chiropractor boyfriend and I are waiting for a driver to take us to the movie set of "Eat Pray Love" in Bali. We're sitting outside in the sun and we can smell our morning coffee.

Our coffee arrives – and these blue packages of pseudo sweet arrive with it. It’s really weird to see packages of "Equal" while we’re listening to the river, the sounds of the jungle and brushing ants off my computer. 

The ants aren't touching the Equal...

The coffee is great.

Ninety-two reasons 

Are you looking to get away from the dark side of sugar and think that Equal and NutraSweet are the solutions? You're not alone. What you'll want to know before you tear open those tempting packets is that they both contain aspartame, which has ninety-two (that’s 92!) side effects listed by the FDA. 

When aspartame is ingested, methyl alcohol – one of the primary ingredients of aspartame – is converted into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a dangerous neurotoxin.

A few side effects from aspartame

Memory loss

Nervous system disorders 

Joint pain

Migraines

Brain lesions

Bloating and 

Alzheimer’s disease

Aspartame is a $1 Billion industry, maybe it's just "too big to be called toxic". In spite of recognizing 92 side effects – did I mention these other side effects: hair loss, blindness and weight gain? – the FDA approved aspartame (without restriction) in 1996.  Who's got your back?

Coal Tar Delight

So you thought you’d switch to Sweet and Low instead? Your prize with this sweetener is the coal-tar compound saccharin. When did coal tar enter the food chain and who put it on our table anyway?  When politics takes over, we get artificial everything and so far, saccharin seems to be the biggest political football sweetener around. Saccharin was originally discovered in 1879, and claims the title of being 300% sweeter than sugar. 

In 1977 the FDA was going to ban saccharin but congress overturned their ruling, requiring only a warning label instead. Canada banned saccharin that same year. One writer stated that 'even when using very high doses on lab rats saccharin was only a low level carcinogen' –  a low level cancer causer. How many of those low level cancer causers do you think the government allows in our foods every day?  Now, it's your choice to eat coal tar products or not, and the government is more than pleased to tell you that it's perfectly safe. Looking at the increased rates of cancer over the last century, I'll take a guess that the low level cancer causers are adding up. By the way, the government has since removed the warning label.

Frankensugar

Advertisers have us loving Splenda – what a lovely name. Splenda is made by chlorinating sugar and changing its chemical structure to get something I call “frankensugar". The manufacturers call this product sucralose. It’s mostly pure... except for the chlorinated molecules, heavy metals, methanol and arsenic. 

According to Tuberose: Some chlorinated molecules serve as the basis for pesticides such as D.D.T., and accumulate in body fat. You would just as soon have a pesticide in your food as sucralose because sucralose (Splenda) is a chlorocarbon... chlorocarbons have long been known for causing organ, genetic, and reproductive damage. It should be no surprise, therefore, that the testing of sucralose reveals that it can cause up to 40 percent shrinkage of the thymus: a gland that is the very foundation of our immune system. Sucralose also causes swelling of the liver and kidneys, and calcification of the kidney.

High Fructose Dreams

There are natural alternatives to refined and chemically altered sugars, but before we get there, here comes High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) my “top of the list” of evil sweeteners, mostly because it is just everywhere.  HFCS entered our food chain in the 1970's, it's a highly processed corn syrup and because it is much sweeter than sugar it saves food manufacturers lots of money. HFCS is a dreamy moneymaker. It’s in everything from cranberry juice, soft drinks and yogurt to energy bars and those workout drinks you buy to help you get lean. 

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The big problem with HFCS is the fructose, a sugar that is found naturally in fruit. The small amounts of fructose found naturally in fruit won't make you fat, and it's digested with natural enzymes and fibers. With HFCS our bodies don't utilize the fructose as a source of energy so we metabolize it as fat. Not at all helpful if you're looking to lean down or show your abs.


It is known that during the 1970's and 1980's that the average American's body weight increased at a rate similar to the food industry's increasing use of HFCS.

HFCS has the ability to shut off our “full signals”.  At least with refined sugar, our bodies tell us when we’ve had enough – like when you can’t even imagine having one more bite of that triple layer chocolate cake, regardless of how much it cost and how much is left on the plate.  

Kiss from the darker side

While I think these sweeteners are depraved, you don't have to be deprived, there are natural sweeteners waiting for you. Frankly, our bodies can digest small (emphasis on small) amounts of just about anything, it's a survival thing we've developed. But why push it? Small amounts add up. When your body is processing toxins, it loses valuable functions to create new and healthy cells. Translation: you age quicker, and get sick easier. 

Artificial sweeteners are highly acid forming. Our bodies maintain a natural PH or acid-alkaline balance. When our PH balance becomes too acidic, our bodies react to survive. To neutralize the acid, our bodies take alkalizing minerals from our reserves. When our reserves are depleted, the neutralizing minerals are taken from our bones and muscles. One more thing; viruses and cancers thrive in acidic environments. 

Know what you're eating and read ingredient labels. Trust yourself. If one of these sweeteners happens to touch your lips, just know what kissed you and get on with conscious eating. Read "Sugar Baby – Part 3" next week for natural sweeteners.

Train your Body, Train your Mind, Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medial professional. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your physician.

Sugar Baby – Part 1

It's the middle of January and our 2010 resolutions are still fresh. The last of the sugar cookies are just crumbs left next to the half eaten gingerbread house that moved in with us last month. It's that time to re-train our minds and our tongues.

From the dark side 

We've heard enough to know that refined sugars and sugar substitutes are not good for us, but they’re so difficult to stay away from. Let’s face it; sugar is a sneaky ingredient lurking everywhere. Take a look around your kitchen and you’ll find it in breads, dried cranberries, soymilk, tonic water, bottled teas, salad dressings, crackers and just about any processed food. The people who create the recipes for these foods used to cook for Darth Vader and now he gets a cut of their profits. They know that the sugar in their foods will get us drugged up and lure us right into their dark side. Sugar is a mortal enemy of ripped abs.



It’s important to remember what we’re feeding with our sugar addictions. Viruses love sugar, yeasts (like Candida) love sugar, parasites love sugar, cancer loves sugar, fat cells love sugar.


Sugar, in its original form, is the juice from the sugar cane plant. Simple enough, and not terribly damaging when consumed moderately in its natural state. The white sugar on our tables and in our foods is stripped of the fiber, vitamins, minerals and natural enzymes that are helpful to our bodies. This refined sugar has no nutritional value and is usually found in foods that contain excessive fats, useless calories and a ton of cholesterol.


Refined sugar makes you fat. When our liver maxes out on the amount of sugar that it can store as an energy source, the rest is pumped back into our bloodstream and dumped around our body… so guys, look for it on your belly and girls on your thighs and upper arms. Type 2 diabetes is caused by too much sugar. All this stresses your body and stress causes aging.


Beware, when fructose, a natural sugar found in fruits, is refined, processed and added to foods or beverages, it has the same effects as refined sugar.


Legalized Coke
A 24-ounce Coke usually contains over 75 grams of sugar. That’s enough sugar to make your insulin levels bark like a Doberman on crack. Harvard says a single can of Coke a day will add 15 pounds of body weight a year.


According to "Healthbolt" this is what happens to your body after drinking a Coke:
The First 10 minutes:
10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down. Nice visual huh.
20 minutes:
Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
40 minutes:
Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
45 minutes:
Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
60 minutes:
The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
60 Minutes:
The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
60 minutes:
As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.


This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) But, hey, have another Coke, it’ll make you feel better.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sugar = Diabetes, obesity and aging… are we having fun yet? Tune in next week for part 2 -- information on sugar substitutes.


Train Your Body. Train your Mind. Tame your Tongue.
Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medial professional. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your physician.