Function Ability Through Healthy Fats

Fat. Aside from what I consider to be the other 2 most feared words in the English language, "Pool Party," its probably one of the scariest words someone hears. People quickly run from this term before coming to an understanding that there are different types of fats, good and bad. I'm here to discuss good fats. Known as Omega's or Healthy Fats. Derived form natures most natural sources, it is by far one of the most important nutrients you can put into your body. I'm going to take you on a short learning expedition for your own personal understanding of why we need these fats on a daily basis. 

There are all kinds of healthy fats in all different physical forms. Avocados, nuts, seeds, coconut, olives, fish and many more. The way we consume these fats play a major role in our central nervous system, heart and brain function, and digestion of the nutrients we intake from the foods we eat. MCT's (Medium Chain Triglycerides) are the best healthy fats you can consume since they don't contain chylomicrons. Coconut is a MCT. I was just informed by a family member that Italian farmers were known to have a few "shots" of olive oil every morning before work, and this family member also does the same. 

Good fats also aid with a very well known hormone in our body called Cortisol. It is a stress hormone in the human body that is released when we go into starvation mode, lack sleep or are just stressed out about something. Its a hormone that actually enables your body to cling to fat when you consume foods. If you don't consume good fats, instead of the nutrition from the foods you eat being transported to the muscle tissues where the nutrition needs to go, it is quickly transported to the fatty areas of your body and stored as fat when it should be burned off as fuel. Consuming good fats with most of your meals helps slow down and properly transport the nutrients being consumed. Without these fats, the transportation process is much quicker and nutrients are stored in those fatty areas I mentioned above. Here is a short excerpt from an article I posted yesterday about good fats and CNS (Central Nervous System) 

"Low levels of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are linked to hair loss, low blood platelets, impaired vision, altered mental states, learning problems, and growth retardation in children." 


There's a reason these two fats are known as essential. If we have a deficit, multiple bodily processes, including those required for the brain, central nervous system and cell membrane functions, will be slowed down, or halted" The human central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. These lie in the midline of the body and are protected by the skull and vertebrae respectively. This collection of billions of neurons is arguably the most complex object known.

The central nervous system along with the peripheral nervous system comprise a primary division of controls that command all physical activities of a human. Neurons of the central nervous system affect consciousness and mental activity while spinal extensions of central nervous system neuron pathways affect skeletal muscles and organs in the body."



As you can see in the above article, from the brain to eye sight to blood platelets, there is a serious need for good fats to be consumed other than just transportation of the nutrients we consume. However, too many people aren't getting enough healthy fats in their diets because they believe that these fats will make them fat. Its a completely overlooked aspect of a healthy diet & needs to be addressed more than it is. As I have been researching over these past couple years I learn more and more about nutrition than I ever considered and have seen a drastic change in my health by utilizing the information I absorb and applying it to my life every single day. It is important and vital to one's health to incorporate all aspects of being healthy into daily routines. Do not think good fats make you fat. They actually enable your body to burn fat.

I prefer a MCT healthy fat with whatever I am eating, my recovery meal (post workout) usually consists of low glycemic nutrition such as a sweet potato with sautéed veggies or a Shakeology, to aid in muscle repair, my dinner includes Extra Virgin Olive Oil and my last meal of the day, which is a Papa Steves No Junk Raw vegan protein bar, which has coconut in it because the coconut has the essential fats my body needs to slow and transport the protein to my muscles where it belongs. It enables me to become leaner by burning the fuel and take care of my Central Nervous System at the same time. Enabling my ability to function at my very best and having the energy to make it through a workout or my day, means I need to have those good fats incorporated with my meals.

I have so many people come to me and ask why it is they lack energy or functionality throughout their day, including before, during & after a workout? One of my first concerns of course is what they consume on a daily basis as far as food goes and if they are getting enough sleep for recovery of the body. Its a science. Your body & the function ability of it is dependent on what you are consuming, your sleeping patterns and daily activity. From enzymes, vitamins to food, what you do on a day to day basis will depict what your energy levels will be, how much weight you want to gain or lose, proper function of the central nervous system and more. Good fats are a KEY component to be consumed if you aren't already making sure you eat them everyday. Start getting those good fats into your routine. You will literally feel a change in your energy levels and feel able to function properly by consuming a variety of good fats.

A Cheat Meal? Really?

 

YES! I said it. A cheat meal. Since I began my fitness journey I have been on many different eating routines from eating enough calories a day to build muscle to lowering my calorie intake & how much of each nutrient I feed my body in order to lean out. One of the scariest things a person who is changing their eating habits can hear is the phrase "cheat meal." There is a  misconception all over the world that as one diets, there should not be any kind of meal that includes junk at all because it will push you further away from your goals and you will gain weight, reversing what you intend to do, which is either lose weight or build muscle.

Here's the scoop, & this is one big heaping scoop of Italian Gelato if I may, Cheat Meals are good. Yep, I said it. They are. Now, don't get me wrong, taking a day to eat anything you want filling your body with thousands upon thousands of calories that day is not the correct way to go about a cheat meal. There are absolutely different methods of cheat meals where on certain diets (lifestyle is better than the word diet) where through the week you are paleo, which means very very little carbs and the cheat idea behind it is to eat what you want in a 6 hour window to re-boost the insulin levels for the week. However, the normal cheat meal and preferred by me is one cheat meal a week. If you have a lot of carbs through the week, and you use a day to have a cheat meal, it should be 1 meal (i.e. dinner & a reasonable dessert) because you're getting the insulin spike through the week. 

So for instance, lets say you want a pasta dish or a steak with a potato & some bread. Fine. Then afterward you have some ice cream, a slice of cheesecake or something to satisfy the sweet tooth. That is considered a legitimate cheat meal. If you abuse that day you choose to cheat by eating everything you can get your hands on, yes you will more than likely ruin your long term goals. You don't want to do that. If you really need to have out of the ordinary meals from your diet all day, a refeed would be the best way to go about it. 

Refeeds include the intake of carbohydrates which are the body's main source of fuel instead of just consuming a ton of junk. Some people prefer this method due to the fact that if they have a junk filled dinner & dessert, their mentality starts to give them a guilty feeling that what they are doing is wrong & will go to the extent of purging what they had just consumed, which is not good at all. Others feel the cheat meal will lead to more than what they set out to eat & therefore avoid doing it all together.

Here is the 101 on the cheat meals. As a person diets, the LEPTIN levels in your body, (which is the mother of ALL fat burners) drops, and you aren't burning fat at an optimal rate. Your body needs the cheat meal or refeed once a week in order to maintain the burning of fat at an optimal speed. Its like a fire. Once its lit, it goes strong for a good period of time, but as that time passes on, the fire slowly dies down & you have to add more fuel or wood to get it going again. Its the same thing with your body. You need that boost so you will continually burn fat. Don't be afraid to have a cheat meal once a week. Not once a month, once a week.                                                   

I am great friends and work with many professionals, some of who get on stage to show their figures in competition & include this method as well, and have extremely low bodyfat due to the fact that they have a lean diet where they incorporate a cheat meal once a week to keep burning fat the way the body needs to. This not only aids in burning fat, but it can also help to keep someone from going on an all out binge & destroying everything they worked so hard to get. Its not easy to eat clean foods all the time, but we do it for our health and when we have a goal we want to reach. Take into consideration that its not going to kill or destroy what you have going for yourself as long as you can control it. If you can't control it, then a refeed is more for you & will help your mentality from freaking you out and screwing everything up. 

Your body composition will determine how much of a cheat meal you should have. If you are pretty lean, you can generally have a little more on your cheat day/meal. If you are heavier, you should take into consideration that right now isn't the time to have such a big cheat meal & just do something small once a week like a piece of chocolate or 1 scoop of ice cream. Don't begin to think I'm telling you that everyone can have the same amount in a cheat meal or that it won't effect us in different ways. Generally the leaner you get, the more your body needs to boost the lepitin & you can add a little extra to that cheat meal.

We're all human, we all crave certain things & our bodies let us know what we are craving. The whole goal is not to let what our bodies are craving self destruct our long term goals. Go into a cheat meal with the knowledge of what its going to do for your body. Knowing that it doesn't need to be out of control like drinking sugary alcoholic drinks all night or hitting every dessert bar you encounter. Just keep track of the food you consume, make it legitimate and if you are concerned, talk to someone who knows about the science of the body a little more than you so it can be put into perspective and you take away not only a good feeling that once a week is fine, but the understanding of how the body works & why people incorporate the cheat meal.

Don't Push It

We've all been there. That little drive inside of us that screams "You can do more!" or the image of a person you admire that pushes you to press on no matter how tired or weak you may feel. There are so many people who believe that if they train for hours on end, no matter how exhausted & weak they become, they will achieve their physical goals faster as opposed to taking it easy and working out with a carefully crafted scheduled plan. The mindset of it all is less time, faster results, happier self image. WRONG!

By continually training yourself to exhaustion, you won't achieve the desired look or results you are aiming to reach. You are actually working against yourself forcing your body to reject the response you are looking for from your workouts. Cardio, Strength Training, Yoga, Ab training, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), Pilates & more should always be done on alternating days. The point isn't to plateau when you workout, which is why these routines are to be done on different days. Mixing up your routines will actually increase your body's ability to positively respond to each workout you do everyday. Giving your body a chance to actually recognize where its being worked out will build the muscle you want, increase the cardiovascular system as needed, and give you the flexibility & strength you are working so hard for. 

I always remember the saying "Rome wasn't built in a day." It was a process. Just as many things aren't created in a day, our bodies surely fall into the category of a process. When we were being developed in our mother's womb, it took 9 months to devolop everything we needed in order to be ready for birth. If our lungs weren't fully devoloped, we would be on oxygen until they were or we wouldn't survive. If our fingers & toes weren't developed we wouldn't be able to grab things or walk without help. Each body part plays a role in something. There are an obvious amount of reasons it takes time to develop, so understanding that building muscle, losing weight, increasing cardiovascular health & more all take a process of doing routines on alternating days.

Injuries are by far one of the most annoying scenarios to people who love fitness as I & a lot of you do. It hinders us & makes us feel soft, out of the loop, off our routine & aggravated  because we can't do anything about it. Stress comes into play, we get angry & we hate everyday we are impaired. We constantly look for ways around the injury trying desperately to find a workout we can do until we heal. I'll admit, if its an injury I can work around & avoid hurting myself further where I'm hurt, I'll find a workout suitable for me to do. However, if I know that I will be pressing my luck by trying to workout with an injury that can't tolerate anything strenuous, no matter what, I will NOT workout. I will let myself heal as I need to & when the time is right and I am 100% again, thats when I will get back into my routine. Trying to push yourself through a workout with a serious injury will only disable you for longer, as opposed to helping you heal so you can get back into your normal routine faster. 

Don't Push It!!! There is a reason people talk about this all the time. We want to be able to heal so when we get back to our everyday routine we are stronger and ready to "Bring It" in the gym or at home. Nothing is more important than paying attention to your form when you workout. It prevents you from hurting yourself. Don't get egotistical or try to impress that guy or girl with how much weight you can push around or how long you can do a cardio routine. Make it a point to have a set plan that you can follow so you will achieve the results you want for you. Being safe about your routine is better than being sorry. 

http://www.beachbodycoach.com/tjash2009 

The BodyBugg vs The Heart Rate Monitor Let Me School You

For the longest time I have sat back & watched as many many people have used the "Heart Rate Monitor" for a calorie counting tool. It sparked an interest in me the day I began my weight loss journey. I thought to myself "What a good idea. Why not know how many calories I burn in a day so I can lose weight & control my calorie intake?" Fabulous idea! So I go out to the nearest Sporting Goods store and purchase a well known name brand Heart Rate Monitor. I spend $60 & walk away with what I THOUGHT was the essential tool to have for CALORIE TRACKING. I started using my Heart rate Monitor that day. I worked out to Turbo Jam for 55 minutes & by the end the Heart Rate Monitor had read I burned 1205 calories......in 55 minutes of Turbo Jam. Mind you Turbo Jam is nothing like INSANITY and since INSANITY was in the making, I couldn't compare burns with both programs. What I did however was take what I had burned & used that in my daily regimen to control my calorie intake. I followed that for about 6 months. Here are a few questions I had to answer for myself after having NO success using the "Heart Rate Monitor" for something it WAS NOT created to do, Count Calories.

Q. Was I losing weight?

A. No. Not the way I could have been had I used a tool that was SPECIFICALLY MADE for counting calories. 

Q. Did I know how many calories I burned ALL DAY?

A. No. This little gadget told me what I burned during a workout & IF I decided to keep it going all day my calorie burn would have read something like 10,000. HUH??? Thats losing over 2 pounds a day! Puh-Lease!

Q. What can I do to solve this problem?

A. RESEARCH!!

Without answering these questions for myself, I would never know. 

I jumped on my computer. I quickly logged onto Chalene Johnson's website turbokick.com because I had seen her sporting this gadget they call the BodyBugg. I was interested since she had been my inspiration to take control of my life & become super healthy & fit. As most of you know, Chalene Johnson is a TOP World Renowned Trainer & we are blessed enough to have her as one of our very own in Beachbody outside of her company Powder Blue Productions (a.k.a. PBP) She had been blogging about this contraption for a while now & knowing Chalene, she DOES NOT promote something that DOESN'T WORK. In fact, she had one of the Biggest Loser contestants live with her for a month, having to wear the BodyBugg and it took the entire month of the contestant wearing it to convince Chalene that it was totally worth it. I finally decided to take the next step in researching the BodyBugg for myself on its website. I read everything about this tool before I purchased it. I found out Jillian Michaels makes her contestants on the Biggest Loser wear them and I also discovered 24 Hour Fitness was behind supporting Body Media, who created the SMARTEST Calorie Counting Tool available. I took the next step in purchasing one. $250 for the arm band and the digital display and Chalene Johnson was kind enough to share her 24 Hour Fitness code (bbgcj24) for an extra $15 off. 

2 Business days was all it took for me to receive my BodyBugg. Excited?? Oh goodness, you have no idea!!! I was so extremely excited about this tool. I had that feeling inside of me that told me "THIS IS IT. This tool WILL get the job done." Is that true? ABSOLUTELY, 100% without a doubt in my mind, did this tool WORK. For the first time ever, I learned how many calories I was burning minute to minute, whether sitting still, walking, cooking, working out or even sleeping! Yeah, you burn calories 24 hours a day. Your body doesn't stop burning calories after you workout. Its a continual burn. It just depends on how much muscle or fat you have in your body that depicts how many you burn. Another contributing factor is your body height. 100% true. Shorter people burn LESS than taller people. Chalene will gladly back this statement up. How many calories you burn in a day also depends on how active you are. In a ratio of 1:6 (fat burning 1 calorie a minute & muscle burning 6) I was hooked on lifting weights to build my muscles so I would burn more fat. ChaLEAN Extreme was my workout of choice. With the help of the BodyBugg I lost 38 pounds & gained more muscle than I ever imagined I could build. I was eating the proper portions of calories per day BECAUSE I KNEW for a fact how many calories I was burning. I was NOT being under or overfed. 

One of the most irritating things I get messages about is how someone saw another person talking, writing, filming a video clip or posting pictures of their heart rate monitor saying how many calories they burned during a workout. They let me know they have been using a Heart Rate Monitor as well, but have not lost weight, have not built proper muscle, don't know if they are eating too much or too little and don't know how many calories they are burning all day long. They also notice me wearing the Bodybugg in my pictures and ask me "what are you wearing on your arm & why?" Being an EXPERIENCED participant in both tools, I am here to tell you the Heart rate Monitor is ONLY that and a watch/stopwatch. Period. This tool was not created like the BodyBugg. The Heart rate Monitor CANNOT tell you:

Your Skin temperature

Your activity level

Your rate of heat dissipating from your body

Galvanic Skin Response (which tells you water content of the skin, and the constriction or dilation of the vascular periphery)

Steps taken in a day

PROPER Calorie Burn, Minute to Minute 

The BodyBugg has ALL of this and more. It comes with a website subscription to input your food for the day & accurately tell you how many calories you've taken in. You can add foods/drinks that are not in the BodyBugg system by inputting the nutrition from the back of the label & it will tell you how many calories you consumed by how many grams/ounces/fluid ounces is in a serving & the nutrition. THIS TOOL IS A CALORIE COUNTING DEVICE & MORE. I will not advertise the Heart rate Monitor for being an ACCURATE Calorie Counter because it is NOT. People are being either over or underfed and not knowing everything listed above by following what their Heart rate Monitor is telling them. They aren't losing weight and its the most frustrating thing to have to go through especially when you "feel" like you're doing enough. Its not enough to just have one part of the solution. It needs to be a whole. Here below you can see how the website for the BodyBugg is set up:

I really hope this blog reaches people on a Learning Experience level. This is not something I came up with, its something I genuinely was a part of, researched and GOT RESULTS from. I used this until I was able to finally know how many calories I was burning on a day to day basis, keeping me from over eating, under eating, working out harder, lifting heavier or moving more. Your calorie burn is much lower during weight training than on days you do cardio. However, after weight training, you burn 2.5 - 4 calories more per minute for hours afterwards as opposed to burning 600 calories during a 45 minute cardio workout & immediately slowing down back to a resting calorie burn; if of course you aren't active after the cardio workout. There are so many things you can learn if you just research and not take someones word for it. We are ALL DIFFERENT & our bodies require different nutrition workouts and supplements to get us to reach our goals. Knowing your calories is a very important factor in losing weight. I'm not here to tell you to go buy a Bodybugg, I'm just letting you know what the difference is between the 2 devices as I was a participant in using both. Do not speak from inexperience. If you haven't actually tried the BodyBugg and you're so negative right now I could put you in a dark room and you would develop, you cannot say I am wrong because I have thousands of people who have my back in letting you know that the BodyBugg is a Calorie Counting Device & it does just that. 

http://www.bodybugg.com