010. My Favorite Nutrition Article EVER

This article is the most comprehensive article about weight loss and understanding your cravings that I've ever seen in my life. It's cleared up so many mysteries and I believe anyone who reads it is much better off for having read it. Take a gander!


Fat Loss 101 - Master the Basics
(posted on Beachbody forums by Rick Stype)

It seems everyone wants (or needs) to lose weight, but with all the information out there it just gets more and more confusing for the average person to know what to do? Let’s back it up a little and start from the basic understanding of how fat loss happens in a simple and easy manner. Once you can master the basics that’s probably 90% of where all your results will come from!

Fat loss first and foremost is a hormonal event, the right hormones telling the body to release the stored “energy” in the fat cells to burn off. It is also important to know that there are also fat “storing” hormones that act in the opposite way, triggering the body to store “future energy” into the fat cells. The body triggers these hormones through many different stimuli like food, drink, exercise, stress and sleep. Fat cells are just the body’s emergency storage tanks after all. If we didn’t have fat cells, we wouldn’t have survived the famines of the past. It’s a built-in survival mechanism that is getting all the wrong signals today. The body wasn’t designed around constant intake of food, especially the processed and high in sugar kind (as that is not something that naturally grows on trees!).

So we know that fat loss is hormonal. Also fat loss occurs when oxygen is present, what is known as aerobic (which means “with oxygen”…don’t get all happy yet all you daily joggers). The other stage is called anaerobic (which means “without oxygen”). Anaerobic training is also known more commonly as “strength training” (which you can tell by the lactic acid burn). Here’s where people get confused when it comes to exercise. Most people think that by doing aerobics you burn all the fat you want. Well if that was the case, obesity would of been taken care of in 1986 and your gym aerobic instructors wouldn’t have an average BF% over 25%. Who ever said you are guaranteed to burn fat? What about stored glycogen? Plus if you can burn fat in an aerobic state, well aren’t you in an aerobic state all day long (minus brief times of anaerobic activity) including sleeping?? So here’s the breakthrough, you have the ability to burn fat all day long! The only thing left is the hormones and whether they are saying, “empty the storage tanks” or “here comes some more” to the fat cells.

The Fat loss hormones we’re going to focus on briefly are insulin, glucagon, and growth hormone (GH). Insulin is a fat storing hormone, while glucagon and GH are fat burning hormones. If insulin is present and elevated, the other hormones go down (this is an important relationship to realize). Another hormone called cortisol (stress hormone) is a muscle breakdown hormone, and that is not something we want in our fat loss quest. Below are just quick and easy bullet point on how to maximize the fat burning hormones and minimize the muscle breakdown/fat storing hormones (don’t think all muscle breakdown is bad, you need to break down and rebuild the cells it’s when you have excessive breakdown and minimal rebuilding that is the issue as that will lead to a loss of muscle).

Your #1 enemy is sugar, and places it hides (drinks, sauces, dressings, etc). If it has a label, read it and see what sugars you are really getting, as everything you put into your mouth counts! Why is sugar bad? Because sugar will be quickly absorbed into the blood which causes a spike in your blood sugar and with that spike the body releases insulin to take care of it (shuttle excessive blood sugar into the fat cells for storage!). So like I tell my clients, every time you put sugar into your mouth just tell yourself,” I don’t feel like burning fat for the next 3-4 hours” as that is exactly the hormonal signal you are giving it. Remember also when insulin is high; glucagon and GH go down (this is important to remember especially at night)

So let’s recap, for fat loss we want:
• Minimal insulin levels throughout the day (no high levels/spikes except during the post workout window when the insulin sensitivity is maximum, it goes into muscle not fat)
• Maximum Glucagon (which is directly inversely proportional to insulin levels)
• Maximum GH (which is controlled by insulin, exercise response and sleep)
• Keep Cortisol in check (you will have some, but excessive will lead to muscle loss)

For Insulin control (and max Glucagon response):
• Keep levels low by not eating sugar or foods that quickly break down into the bloodstream (processed foods, breads, cereals, pasta) Just say to yourself every time you are about to put sugar in your mouth, “I don’t want to burn any fat for the next 3-4 hours” as that is exactly what you are telling your body with your hormonal response from the ingestion of sugar! (Already said that above but I want to drive the #1 important point home!)
• Have protein with every meal (as that will slow down the digestion of any sugars). Also protein intake stimulates the release of glucagon.
• Improve insulin sensitivity with glycogen draining exercise (resistance training), which will in turn reduce your insulin resistance (which is one of the biggest reasons for obesity and a serious increase of risks for many other diseases including heart disease, cancers, diabetes, accelerated aging and more!)

For max GH response:
• Most of your daily GH is released in the first couple hours of sleep at night (75%). Keep your insulin levels low (which means no big meals or sugar 2-3 hours before bed) and get to bed by 10pm to get the maximum response. So get your sleep, your body will thank you. People shorting themselves on sleep will also be hindering their fat loss efforts and may lead to more weight gain from improper hormonal responses (which can also trigger cravings!)
• Exercise with Intensity (for fast twitch muscle recruitment, not slow twitch), whether it is resistance training with short rest periods or doing interval training like sprints. Short burst of anaerobic intense exercise (lactic acid burn) will in turn signal the body to release GH. Long aerobic activities (jogging, etc) will NOT. (The old argument of look at the body composition of a sprinter vs. the marathon runner - the sprinter has more muscle and very low bf%, the marathon runner has little muscle and a higher bf% even if they look smaller.) See the role of lactate in exercise induced GH response.
• Exercise in a fasted state has also shown to increase GH levels (again make sure you have enough energy to get through the workout, a small meal may be needed 1-2 hours prior if the activity it too intense)

Minimize excessive Cortisol:
• Keep all intense strength or cardio exercise under 45min (remember we want to increase the intensity in a short period, not the duration). Anything longer will just start wasting muscle as fuel.
• Practice relaxing throughout the day, don’t stress out over things that mean very little in the long run (ask yourself will this really be important in 1 week, 1 month, 1 year). Get perspective on things in your life, and detach from things that really don’t matter. Smile more, take deep breaths throughout the day, get out in nature, find your passions in life, etc. We are too stressed out and our body was only meant to use stress in short bursts (fight or flight response) not all day long events.

So if you can master these small steps, you will see tremendous changes. Remember that fat loss is an all day event! So eat and live your life that way! Don’t worry about how many calories you burn doing something, because that is not the point. Worry about what you eat all day and how your hormones are going to react to it. Eat the foods your body was meant to eat and live the active lifestyle your body was designed for, and you will have increased health, look great, feel great and hopefully live long and stay active. So, to sum up:
• Remember that 85% of fat loss is nutritional based (not how many calories you can burn doing something) and you have the ability to burn fat all day long if your hormones tell your body to do so.
• Eat whole natural foods (not processed - if it wasn’t around 100 years ago, you don’t need it!), avoid all sugars (foods and drinks), have protein with every meal
• Train your fast twitch muscles with resistance training 2-3x a week and do 30-60min of “active lifestyle” based movement daily (not going to call it cardio). Go have fun doing whatever! (Play tennis, go walking/hiking, ride a bike, enjoy what you do!)
• Stop stressing out, take some deep breaths, get outside to relax and get your 8hrs of sleep.

009. Oops.

Okay, so I guess it's official--I'm pretty much the world's worst blogger.

But hey, everyone's got strengths and weaknesses, right? I'm not deleting my blog simply because I don't always (...okay, because I RARELY...) have the energy to write posts. I am going to make a solid effort to post more often though, because it's kind of ridiculous that I have this blog that's supposed to be interesting and informative but yet I only post in it maybe once a month if I'm lucky.

H'okay. Givin' this thing a shot.

I got the idea for this entry from a fellow Beachbody coach, Kelly Nelson (http://coachkel.blogspot.com). It was something I had been thinking about as well, but I guess I needed the extra push to actually write it down. ...Hey, that's what coaching's all about, right? Giving people that extra nudge to accomplish what you know they can do? Exactly.

Anyway, back to the point. My copy of Insanity will be arriving at my house in about an hour and a half. I've been so excited for this program since they announced its launch at the coach summit in March; it's an extremely intense, cardio-based "shreddage" program that is being touted as the most difficult workout program ever to be put on DVD--and I fully believe it! If DVDs wore out like tapes did, my free preview disc that I got with my One-on-One in May would be completely worn out by now! It brings me to the floor in a puddle of my own sweat each time I do it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

...But now that my own copy of the FULL program is on its way, a sense of reality has hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm basically going to be commiting myself to 60 days of pure hell. I'm going to be torturing myself--with the best and most welcome form of torture possible mind you, so it's a good-natured torture--for a full 60 days. What am I thinking here?!?!!!! Obviously I'm crazy, but why am I crazy? Because I love a challenge? Because I'm ready to take things to the next level? Because I want to be more disciplined? All of the above--but the best question is, why do I think I'm crazy for wanting to do this? What makes me think I can't do it?

Oh, that's right, because I'm the laziest human being on earth. I admit it--I am super-duper lazy. If I have nowhere to be for days at a clip, I'll literally just sit around and do nothing except eat, exercise, and whatever's necessary at the time. It's horrible. However, when it comes to my exercise regimen, I'm surprisingly strict with myself; even if I have plans, I'll always get it in somehow. I use my head when evaluating what exactly I will be doing that day, but it always happens, because I like how I feel when I'm done.

...That las tstatement statement brings me back to my initial question: what makes me think I cannot complete a full 60 days of the Insanity program? I really have no idea. I know I'm just going to take it one day at a time, and I've been so psyched for this for so long, so I'm definitely not going to quit, but I really don't know why I keep second guessing myself all of a sudden. I guess we'll just have to see what happens!

...........................and I promise I'll update about it ;)

<3 Jillian

008. Just a thought...

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire; if you did, what would there be to look forward to? Be thankful when you don't know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn. Be thankful for the difficult times; during those times you grow. Be thankful for your limitations, because they give you opportunities for improvement. Be thankful for each new challenge, because it will build your strength and character. Be thankful for your mistakes - they will teach you valuable lessons. Be thankful when you're tired and weary, because it means you've made a difference. It's easy to be thankful for the good things.


I saw that in someone from high school's AIM profile and I thought it was super appropriate to post...well, everywhere. It really is true. It's so easy to be thankful for the good things in life but yet everyone always laments the bad things. There's always a silver lining!! :) Thanks, Kew!

007. ARGH!!

Okay, so when I can't sleep, I flip through infomercials if I don't feel like watching DVDs. Usually I find a P90X one, or some ab-doohickey thing that I just watch for kicks. Buuutttt every now and then I run into this one:

The Kymaro Body Shaper.

Yes, sometimes we all need a good shaper to smooth things out, I won't lie. But when it's "recommended" as a SUBSTITUTE for losing weight and being healthy--that's just not cool. The infomercial had women that had waist sizes of 49" -- 49 INCHES!! -- and when they tried this thing on, apparently it made them "shrink" 4.5 inches. What was worst was that the people for Kymaro were like "wow, and you didn't have to do a single situp, crunch, or exercise!" and made it sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Here is where my "ARGH!!" comes in. I get so frustrated when people think they can take the easy way out of everything. My favorite acronym in the world comes from my 12th grade economics/government/psych teacher--"TINSTAAFL": There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Meaning, everything comes at a price, no matter what it is. You can keep trying to find quick fixes and that's what you'll get, not a lasting change.

Ugh, I feel like I've gone on way too many rants like this lately, so I'm going to stop. I just had to get my aggression out somewhere, sorry!

~ Jillian

006. Small Wins

Sooo, I'm dying.

...Just kidding. I'm only really sick, but I figure now's as good a time as ever to write a blog entry, right? I've had this little gem in my head for quite a while and every time I went to write it, either my internet would crash or my computer would shut down in the middle of the night or the plague would strike, or...I don't know, but for a while I was thinking maybe I just wasn't meant to write this entry. Obviously, since things keep getting in the way, it just wasn't a good idea. Aaaaaaaaand then I thought better of it and now here we are.

Something I've [clearly] been thinking about a lot lately is the matter of small wins. What exactly are small wins, and how do they REALLY help us out? But the more I think about it, the more I realize that small wins are exactly what ALWAYS get us to wherever we need to go.

Think about this for a second. Bill Gates didn't create Microsoft at the snap of a finger; the first climber of Mount Kilimanjaro didn't start out on Mount Kilimanjaro; everybody's favorite, "Rome wasn't built in a day." And whoever came up with that phrase was completely right--it takes TIME and PATIENCE to get where you want to go.

How does this apply to fitness and weight loss? Ohhh, patience young grasshopper. ...Actually, there isn't really any patience necessary for this one, because it's very easy. You can't go from 600 lbs to 200 lbs in one workout. That should be pretty basic, but so many people overlook it. The ol', "I've got too much weight to lose to do anything at this point." Members of my own family have completely given up on the idea of losing weight due to a knee problem (even though they acknowledge that this knee problem is due to excessive weight on their frames--go figure).

When small exercises are suggested, like maybe power walking on a treadmill accompanied by a light weights circuit, I get a firm "no." When even smaller things, like walking around the block, are suggested, I get the same "no." They're basically looking for me to say "hey, count to 10, go to sleep, and you'll wake up looking like Christie Brinkley!" ...but lets be serious, looking for the quick fix is NOT going to work, people!!! Take things in striiiiiiiiiiiide. Start out by making teeny changes in your diet--like passing on the cookies at dessert, for instance. Then throw in a bit of light exercise. Then graduate to a slightly more advanced program.

And you know what? This entry's called small "wins" for a reason--CELEBRATE when you overcome each task! Celebrate when you get to add something new! The more you celebrate, the better you'll feel; the better you feel, the more your progress shows; the more your progress shows, the brighter you'll shine.

Have a good day!
<3 Jillian

005. Going M.I.A.

Hello?

......Jillian?


Are you there?

*crickets*
Oh, sorry, here I am! Yes, I admit, I went AWOL for a few weeks. School caught up to me, and with finals and papers and projects and stuff, something had to give.

Ya know, that's a phrase that's used a lot, or something to that effect anyway. "Something's gotta give. I had to let go of something. I have to prioritize." ...But what exactly is prioritizing?

Everyone has his own idea of what it is to prioritize. In all honesty, when I was in high school my priorities were as follows: computer/internet, food, diving, homework, family/friends. I'm not even kidding--that is my complete list of 16-year-old priorities. In the four years that have elapsed, needless to say I've matured quite a bit and my priorities have rearranged themselves and morphed to fit my needs. They now look something like this: family, friends, school, fitness, fun.

Fitness? What? Where did THAT come from?!

When I was in high school, I was usually doing something. It wasn't always exercise, but it was always SOMETHING, whether it was doing homework or going to a meeting for a club or sleeping, or actually being IN school, it was always something. I didn't have time to focus on me, nor did I care about focusing on me. (Long story short, I really did not care about myself at all in high school, in every area of my life. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.) When I got into college, I realized something important: I'm worth something. I'm worth troubling over. I'm worth whatever I want myself to be worth.

With this thought in mind, I started trying to take care of myself. I started with the most important aspect at the time--mental health. I definitely had some baggage from my past that I needed to let go of before I could get to anything else, so I started with that. It didn't happen overnight; it took about 2 years for me to finally be okay with who I am and where I'm headed, and to use the things that happened in my past in a positive way to influence my future. I've learned a lot from my past, and quite frankly I would not change a thing about it. I'm a stronger, more outgoing person because of it.

Lately, and for the rest of my life, I will continue to focus on this part, but in conjunction with an extremely important part of my health--physical health. Physical health and mental health are so closely linked, for one reason, due to biology. Hormones and neurotransmitters go hand-in-hand with exercise. When you exercise, you feel good! It makes you happy! Obviously nutrition is important as well, which I've also been more careful about as of late.

It took me a while to realize just how much I missed being physically active. I think the real "wake-up call" for me was when I bent over to pick something up, and my stomach got in the way. Now keep in mind, I will admit, I have never been morbidly obese in my life. My highest weight ever was 160 lbs. when I was 5'4". I have been considered overweight for a while, but never in any serious [immediate] danger. Bearing this in mind, my friends laughed at me when I told them the story. But for me, that was a big deal! Another big deal was when I was driving and I found my stomach pushing up into my lungs and making breathing weird...not laborious or anything, just...weird. I knew I needed to do something. With that said, I whipped out my old Turbo Jam DVDs and got to work!

But it wasn't just about doing the DVDs--it was finding time for consistency, and that took rearranging my priorities a bit. I had to fit ME into the mix. I had to learn that, no matter what my school schedule looked like, I had to do at least one DVD per day. I kept myself on a strict schedule and did not miss a single day. (Actually, I think that's a lie, I might've missed ONE day, but that's it.) For me, that's what it was about: carving out that one 45-minute block of time per day to work out. I made sure I did some schoolwork and then said "okay, it's 6 PM, I've got a WOWY date that I can't break so I have to go work out." After a while, I WANTED to work out! I really missed that feeling.

And now, even though I've been done with ChaLEAN Extreme (which I credit for getting me back on track) for almost 6 weeks now, I'm still going strong! I know I havent' posted in a while, and I'm sorry for that, but I've definitely been keeping up with the workouts! Thanks to my newly reinvented priorities, I'm on a great path for now.

So my question to you is this: how long has it been since you've last examined your priorities? Are there any changes you need (or want) to make? Is there anything that needs to be added or subtracted? Take a good hard look at your priorities, and you'll make sure on your own that YOU never gets lost in the shuffle.

~Jillian

004. Be Your Own Yoda

Quite possibly one of my favorite eating tips of all time is self-taught: trick yourself. Why do I love it so much? Because it works!

Here's an example. I babysit every Thursday, and every Thursday, like clockwork, the parents end up ordering pizza to the house (thinking it's a great idea, despite my best efforts). I love the entire family, but they love pizza wayyyy too much. Now, this could very easily completely derail any diet. As much as I love pizza, I could totally turn it down if I had the opportunity. However, cooking my own meals while babysitting is probably not the best idea in the world.

Therefore, I've learned some good "coping strategies." First of all, I set my brain and I tell myself before the pizza arrives that I WILL be good about this. I won't eat the entire pie (lets be real--the opportunity's there, the kids eat a maximum of 1 slice each!), and I will eat slowly. Then, when the pizza actually shows up at the house, I serve the kids first--and I do exactly with them as I will end up doing with myself: cutting their slices in half, and giving them half a slice at a time (keeping the second half out of sight until they're finished with their first). Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Not so much. Tons of people end up giving small children full slices of pizza and expect them to finish the whole thing, and so many of them do end up finishing it! I learned the hard way--each week, the 4 year old would only eat half her piece of pizza, even though she would cry about wanting "the big piece" every week. (Knowing that she wouldn't even come close to finishing half of it was my solace, so I didn't feel guilty giving in to her every now and then.)

Like I said, what started with them then trickled down to me. I now always cut my pizza slice in half. Why do I do this? I used to always be a firm and definite two-slicer. Never more, never less. If I ever had less, people thought I was sick. With this thought in mind, 1/2 slice + 1/2 slice = "2" slices! And what do you know--after I'm done with those two half slices, my brain thinks I've had two full slices! In fact, most times it doesn't even WANT that extra half! It really is a miracle technique.

I always tell my friends, "if it's there, I'll eat it; if it's not there, I won't eat it." Again, seems like a no-brainer. However, when something is "only 50-cents more than the half order!," it's harder to resist ordering that full-size order of potato skins. If I don't buy it, I won't want it. I apply this to dessert as well. Luckily for me, at my school, we have the ice cream freezer. It's stocked with tons and tons of really bad things, including HFCS-laden "healthy" ice pops. (HFCS stands for High Fructose Corn Syrup, AKA public enemy #1 of the food world.) While I understand that Haagen-Dazs ice cream is not necessarily the healthiest choice in the world, sometimes my devilish, fruit-won't-cure-me sweet tooth strikes and I don't have a choice but to succumb to it once every three months or so. Therefore, I go for the teeeeny-tiny container. It's about the size of a half-dollar in diameter, and shorter than the length of my thumb. I know that if this is all that's in front of me, I won't want more, and I'll stop myself after I'm done.

Speaking of sweet tooth, my absolute FAVORITE way to combat a sweet tooth while somewhat "giving in" - bite sized candies. Andes Candies are my faaaaaavorite thing in the world. They're individually wrapped, 25 calories each, miniscule amount of saturated fat. Have two, and your craving for sweets is gone!

*climbs off soap box*

And that's Wednesday ;)

<3 Jillian