Like most things in life we pass a judgement or place a value on something based upon what we are used to. When it comes to food I would argue you can’t afford not to buy the best quality food available to you. Let me try to demonstrate. In recent years young developing girls often begin their menstrual cycles far sooner than they did only 25 or 50 years ago. This early menstruation has been linked to the increased use of hormones and antibiotics in domestic farming. In addition the continual consumption of trace amounts of antibiotics within our food puts our immune system to work. Unfortunately not in the way we want, rather than the antibiotic working to reinforce our immune system as we would hope it would in a time of illness, our body now becomes desensitized so we either need to consume a lot more or they are just ineffective altogether. It’s my belief that examples like the above are strong contributors to health outbreaks like the recent H1N1 pandemic. Sit down for a moment and think about how many sick days you’ve taken in the last year that either caused you to miss work or pass up on something personally that held high value to you. Consider the lost wages and assign a value to the missed experiences, in this example alone I bet you will find the dollars needed to improve the quality of your next filled grocery cart.

A quick google search indentifies: Heart Disease, Cancer, Lung Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease and Diabetes as Canada’s 5 deadliest diseases. Cumulatively these diseases currently do or will effect the majority of the population. Let me describe that in a way that might be more meaningful. If you have a family containing three people (mom, dad and a single child) it’s expected that mom and dad WILL develop one or more of the above diseases and the child has a 50% chance to also develop one of the above diseases. In all cases Canada’s five deadliest disease’s share another thing in common, regular exercise and quality nutrition are recommendations for reducing the risk of developing these diseases.

The next time you’re at the grocery store contemplating how expensive high quality food is consider the cost of consuming anything else, truly none of us can afford not to consume the best foods available.

If you are like most it’s never fun to hear the alarm clock first thing in the morning to get up and go to work. And quite possibly, if you’re like most, you certainly don’t have time to prepare a proper lunch to take to work. This means you are either: skipping lunch (maybe breakfast also), consuming processed food in a restaurant or some convenience item you thought to grab, or eating an unbalanced snack of quick ready to eat whole foods. In any of these situations you are creating metabolic turmoil. Skipping meals is an easy way to destroy muscle mass in a hurry and ruin your metabolism. The only thing worse is consuming heavily processed food that creates free radical havoc and leads to hyperinsulinemia (ongoing elevated blood glucose levels) the lovely precursor leading to type II diabetes.

The second way you will ruin your metabolism today is by remaining dehydrated. (You have no doubt already been dehydrated for days or weeks.) Chances are you will make it even worse by consuming caffeinated beverages and engaging in stressful situations from work conflict to rush hour traffic. All combined has a pronounced effect on elevating cortisol (our primary stress hormone) and reducing our ability to produce the recovery hormones like estrogen/testosterone and growth hormone. This in itself has direct links to conditions such as depression. However it is also easily avoidable by avoiding caffeine, artificial sweeteners and consuming 12+ glasses of filtered water each day.

Adam helps Sue with another great workout!

To top it all off you will get home and simply feel you need to unwind from it all, you will be too tired to exercise (which fatigue is a symptom of increased physiological stress and chronic dehydration.) Now as the evening winds down most of us dread the coming of the next day so we procrastinate going to bed and turn to late night television or other forms of entertainment as a distraction from stress effectively inhibiting our ability to have a restful sleep. I don’t recall the exact numbers but the average person working full time accumulates hundreds of hours of sleep debt each year. Missing sleep damages our circadian health, which combined with physiological stress has a further disastrous effect on hormone production. Our body must progress through all the stages of sleep three times each night for optimal repair hormone release. If you sleep less than 7 hours and wake up at all during that time it’s safe to say you will experience the next day unrecovered. Unfortunately this effect is cumulative, so you can begin paying the debt now, or wait until you break down.

Thankfully you can’t unravel your health in just one 24 hour period, and thankfully your body is so resilient that even with everything you have already put your body through with lifestyle changes much of the damage already done can be undone. So even though unknowingly you woke up this morning determined to ruin your metabolism you now have the simple tools to alter your course in history and begin to experience increased health and vitality.

One of my favourite books.

In 16 years it’s safe to say I’ve had, learned and changed a few ideas about training and nutrition. I am astounded how much you can continue to learn and how the pieces of a much bigger puzzle slowly fit into place with time. With many holes and gaps in ideas and concepts still remaining I am excited to express and implement a few more. Let me explain myself.

In 1994 when I really started to take weight training seriously, I entered my first contest that year, I somehow was enlightened about the Glycemic Index. The GI basically is a chart of foods and explains what time period it takes for them to begin to breakdown in the stomach and illicit an effect on blood sugar. As you know a rise in blood sugar causes insulin secretion controlling many major hormonal processes in our bodies. Continual consumption of processed foods which tend to be high glycemic are one of the leading causes of Type II Diabetes in North America today. So back then in my mind the intelligent thing to do was try to consume lower glycemic foods, well lower glycemic foods do not tend to be the most exciting foods on a menu. Broccoli, seeds, asparagus etc.

Some time later I continued to learn that combining protein, fats, and carbohydrates altogether greatly changes the glycemic index of all the foods and allowed for a much greater variety of foods. So my ideals shifted to educating people that it is always wise to consume these three elements together. It was about this time that I found a book by Dr. Barry Sears called Enter The Zone. The Zone was one of the many lower carbohydrate and moderate fat diets of this era. I was fond of the zone as it wrapped much of my nutritional knowledge together to where it made sense. Balance and proper food ratios with meals always comprised of some protein, carbs and fats is still likely to get many of you heading towards your goals. But then there is that other group, the group of people that seems to struggle no matter what. Many of you are probably these people, the ones constantly on the hunt for new answers.

Over the past several years we have continued to experiment, everything from high protein ketogenic diets (Atkins is an example) to low fat diets of yester year. All of them work, sometimes. Recent research is leading me in new directions. It’s very apparent that we are all individuals with very individual body chemistry and yet science and medicine is still very much a bunch of statistics. Example, when someone is deficient of say calcium we are told to supplement calcium. Well the truth is you can have two people deficient in calcium for instance and one will require supplementation of calcium while the other will need a completely different mineral to improve the absorption and usage of the calcium. The individual requiring the other mineral taking more calcium could even worsen the situation. You can imagine while I am learning more about this basis of nutritional individuality how curious I am, and how confused I am.

The last two years have been remarkable in terms of developing new knowledge about understanding the relationship of specific foods and their effects on our body. This science is called Nutrigenomics, the study of our gene response to food. Even Dr. Sears so many years ago recognized this in a quote I seen from his book, “some people can eat piles of carbs and never gain an ounce, its in their genes.” One of the best books I have found on this topic, I was so intrigued I am currently finishing their level 1 certification, is call the Metabolic Typing Diet by William Wolcott. Metabolic Typing provides testing, ideas and answers for choosing what foods and combinations you should eat to look and feel better. Together the science of metabolic typing and nutrigenomics provide strong evidence that many serious conditions such as Type II Diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome and cardiovascular disease have a strong connection to the foods we eat and can be controlled, stopped and possibly reversed if we begin to decipher our own individual body chemistry.

Jill says, “I used to get unbelievable migraines and tension headaches. I was taking a lot of pain medication etc. Advil, Alieve, Excedrin. The first time I used the Deep Relief roll on I was blown away. I put some on my neck and my forehead and within about 5 minutes my headache pain was minimizing to the point that it disappeared.”

If you would like more information on the products and what they can do to enhance your health and program, book a FREE consult today at One-to-1 Fitness!

To learn more about these awesome new products you can attend an upcoming regional meeting here in Red Deer! Join Jon Raynes, the Canadian Regional Director as he tells of some amazing research and findings showing where therapeutic grade essential oils can be used to promote your health, vitality and longevity goals. Grab a friend and bring them out to this FREE fun and informational meeting!

This is not an MLM or business opportunity meeting of any kind, just pure education on the dramatic impact of a couple of simple little things.

When:  Thursday July 29, 2010

7:00 to 9:00 p.m. (doors open 6 p.m.)

Where: Red Deer, Alberta, Holiday Inn, 6500 – 67 Street

Cost: Free!  First 50 people receive FREE gift! Prizes throughout event!

http://events.youngliving.com/view.faces?regionid=17&eventid=3838

A hidden gem to reaching your next goal, check out my recent interview at this seemingly Top Secret location.

Low Fat, Gluten Free and Diabetic approved products to improve your health, Red Deer’s Sugar Free and More Store! One-to-1 Fitness clients receive a 10% savings when you let Valerie know you train with us!

3434A 50th Avenue
  Red Deer, Alberta
  T4N 3Y4

  Phone: (403) 347-1277

Open: Monday – Saturday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Preparation
1. Put all ingredients in blender and blend well.
2. Roll into balls.
3. Wrap in wax paper and place in freezer.
4. Makes about 16 balls.

Nutrition facts per serving (serving size 4 balls):
Calories: 388
Protein: 31 g
Fat: 8.5 g
Carbs: 46 g

Red Deer Personal Trainer says, "water is critical catalyst for lasting health and weight loss."

Today’s post is a reminder from Red Deer Personal Trainer Cabel McElerry that water is a key element to weight loss. You haven’t had enough water today or yesterday but you can start correcting it for tomorrow. Our body is comprised of seventy percent water it is the single most important element to sustain life. The difference proper hydration makes on a day to day basis is enormous. Previously I’ve talked about the importance of total calories, balanced nutrition even the important role of starchy carbohydrates. Consider water to be the catalyst most recommended by Red Deer Personal trainers that brings all those other things together when trying to initiate healthy, permenant weight loss.

Water is a key element in digestion and absorption. Many vitamins and minerals cannot be absorbed without sufficient water present, the range of vitamin Bs and vitamin C are two examples of water soluble vitamins. Proper hydration can have a dramatic effect on the way we feel in terms of mood and energy levels. Chances are you may be among the seventy-five percent of North America that is chronically dehydrated. According to Robert O. Young, PhD in his book The pH Miracle it’s not unusual to lose two percent of your body water in an hour of exercise. He continues to explain; that two percent drop can result in a measurable decrease in performance. A further drop in body water can lead to physical and mental fatigue and a dramatic decrease in muscle strength and the capacity for work. By the five percent mark you will likely experience dizziness, drowsiness, impatience and headaches. Too drop further your heart can begin to race and you may collapse. All this may occur with as little as a seven percent drop in body water.

If you haven’t already interrupted your reading to get a glass of water you should do so now. Proper hydration begins with the minimum recommendation of eight glasses of water per day. Remember this is a minimum to sustain reasonable hydration, if you are already dehydrated you will need much more than this for a few consecutive days to attain a level of proper hydration. As a personal trainer my recommendations are for the average individual who exercises on average three to four days per week to try to consume one litre of water for every eighteen kilos of bodyweight. Its best, if possible to try to consume quality water such as water processed by reverse osmosis or that has been filtered by some means to remove a number of the impurities we may be faced with in normal tap water.

I challenge you for the next week to consume water based on these recommendations and see if you feel better. Be forewarned the first few days you may just make a few extra trips to the washroom as your body adjusts but you will appreciate it later. Until next time.

If there is any macronutrient to suffer low self-esteem issues, carbohydrates are surely it. I’m not sure how they got such a bad wrap but it’s safe to say that should not be avoided like the plague like many people seem to think. If you want to know why you will want to check out an article I wrote a long time ago but have recently re-posted on a revised edition of my first website from when I started personal training in Red Deer.

Click to read: http://fitnessfx.com/2010/05/12/are-carbohydrates-evil/