health

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Weight Gain or Fat Loss

Quick Tips

I recently read an article where a blogger that posts about his journey to overcoming struggles with food addiction, moving into a life of health and movement, had his wrist slapped for promoting nutritional advice without being a licensed professional.  So, to CMA (cover my ass) I will go ahead and let it be known that this article or any article on this blog that discusses nutritional interventions should not be implemented without consulting a professional.  This is for reading entertainment only, the choice to take action is yours. 🙂

The hard part about saying that is that a lot of nutritionists use outdated methods and refuse to move past the calories in verses calories out recommendations to treat overweight or obese patients.  This is sad, because there is obvious more going on with weight gain and fat retention than just calories.

Overweight belly

I am going to tell you right now that there are good calories and bad calories.  No doubt about it.

What about the quality of food?  The type of food we consume?  This has to count for something, doesn’t it?

Scientists are starting to blow the whistle in agreement.

Gary Taubes is an author that is leading the charge, not a scientist but worth listening to.

I have long thought that it is an ingredient issue, and since I dove into the underground nutrition world some years back, it is obvious that our health epidemic is heavily related to the quality of our food more than the quantity of our food.  Again, calories do count for something, but the source of those calories seem to be impacting bodily fat loss more than anything.

I like analogies to understand topics so let me ask you this…

—>  If you drink 300 calories of soda versus eating 300 calories of lean meat/veggies/eggs, which will have a bigger negative impact on body composition, particularly with regard fat gain?

The soda, right?

Fat gain and diet soda

It’s clearly the soda, and so many people know that it is the soda that it boggles my mind why we as consumers continue to buy products like soda, candy and pastries when we know that regaining control of our body would require choosing natural whole foods like lean meat, veggies and eggs.

Here is a decent article from Men’s Health about diet soda and fat gain.

It’s crazy to think about.  There is an incredible amount of psychology behind why we choose to eat what we do.  I know for a fact that kids are exposed to crap food through their parents and schools.

Kids will eat whatever their parents prepare, and when they are at school, they have to eat whatever the school has prepared (unless they pack a lunch that their parents have made).  I haven’t seen a healthy school lunch yet, even though I know there are pockets around the country that are promoting the transition to healthier lunches for schools.

Unhealthy school lunch

This is what my school lunch looked like as a kid, how about yours?

I was reading this morning, and I came across a link to an article discussing calories and the food industry.  The article goes on to say that the food industry is tricking us.  They have mastered the art of influencing people’s buying habit based on calories.  The promotion of low calories in processed foods leads people to believe they are making a healthy choice, when in reality they are buying highly processed food that increases the body’s likelihood of translating that food into fat.

Here is a nice snippet of the article:

calories in versus calories out

You can find the entire article here:  Debate over calories starting to erode “food pyramid’

Take a few minutes to read it, it’s worth your time.

I do agree that calories still count for something, but I also think that in order to get the pendulum to swing back away from the calories in versus calories out approach, we have to preach quality versus quantity.  Once this thought process starts to stick, we can then re-introduce mindful calorie consumption in combination with quality food consumption.

I know that I am an extremely active person and that has helped me maintain a lean body, but I haven’t given a crap about my calories consumed in a given day for well over 7 years.

Why?

Because when you diet consists of mostly plants combined with adequate protein, water, coffee and green tea, what is to be concerned about?  Eating well is the best stress reliever because you can feel confident that what you put into your mouth is giving you the best possible chance at a long and healthful life.  Aesthetic-wise, you’re giving your body the best opportunity to stay lean, which does wonders for your self-confidence.

I intended for this post to give a bird’s eye view of some of what is currently being discussed regarding what we perceive as good calories and bad calories.

One thing is certain… we’ve got an epidemic on our hands and the solution to it is simple, but how we get there seems to remain complicated.

Subtle positive changes in diet will have provide massive returns on investment, I guarantee this whole-heartedly.  It’s a decision we all have to make from individual to individual.  The food that you consume will either put you closer to your body transformation goals or lead you further from them.  Exercise alone is not enough.

What will you choose?

Cheers to sticking it to the food industry and regaining health…

KG

Are You Deserving of Fat or Weight Loss?

Quick Tips

I am not trying to be a buzz kill people, so you’ve been warned right away.

I’d also like to mention that the most important part of this article is probably the very last paragraph located underneath my typical “Cheers to…” sign off.  Make sure you get all of the way through to that point, ok?  It will give you the full effect. 🙂

The title of this post was meant to be an attention grabber.  I do in fact… have a heart and it is big and the people near and dear to me know that I care about them.

Ahemmm… moving on… ahemmm…

However, inspired by a classic sales book that I was paging through last night while lying in bed, I thought that I would put my own spin on classic topic related body restoration, fat loss, weight loss… whatever you choose to reclaiming ownership of your health as.

I want you to think about one thing for a quick second:

Deserve to lose fat or weight?

Do you?

I truly wish a long life that is filled with love and happiness and achievements for every single person. 

Time on earth is short, live it up.

If you are one of the rare few people who have gained weight or unwanted fat due to unavoidable natural causes, well, this article may not pertain to you so much.  But that doesn’t change the fact that you folks can put some interventions into motion yourself.

HOWEVER, for the rest of you, considering that a large majority of people are doing very little if anything to help themselves live a long life that is disease free (from preventable metabolic disease that is), you should really stop for a minute and evaluate what it is that you keep “thinking” that you want to achieve.

If you are someone who wants to trim down, build some strength, endurance, decrease the circumference of your waistline, eat better, drink more water, etc… well.. do it.  Enough thinking and pondering and researching… just do it (there is that Nike slogan again!).

It’s not enough to “think” about how bad you want to restore your body to that teenager or mid-20’s physique that you once donned.  You’ve got to do the work.  So many think about thinks until they nearly spontaneously combust it’s nuts!

This article might be the same old song and dance, but hey, if it is received by as little at 1% of the readers stopping by the blog… well… I impacted someone.  I can live with that.

The Sales to Body Analogy:

In the sales book I was reading last night (Integrity Selling), the author was sharing why sales professionals who have exhibit good character and work with their customers to service them to the best of their abilities deserve to earn mountains of money.  Theses sales people shouldn’t feel bad about asking for business from new customers or asking existing customers for more business.  They are selling with integrity.  If the sales person can go to bed every night knowing that they provided a high value to their accounts, they deserve every stinking penny.

Why?  Because these salesmen and women are EARNING their income. They aren’t being handed an income, they are earning it by exhibiting good character (doing the right things whether someone is looking or not- my definition) while accommodating their customer’s every need.  The successful salesperson sets goals (goal clarity) and then works to achieve them night and day.  Achievement is awarded to those who selflessly serve their customers night and day.

What about regaining control of your body?

The pursuit of fitness, whether you call it weight loss, body restoration or trimming fat around the edges, demands that you go to bed knowing that you put forth a worthy effort each and every day.  It’s tough to feel sorry for an individual that wants the world in hand yet sacrifices nothing.  You have got to put forth an effort of some kind and be relentless in your approach.

The beauty of moving more and eating well is that it takes very little tweaking for the average individual to start experiencing positive shifts in their appearance, energy levels, health markers, etc.  Very little I tell you.

But, in the same breath, I will tell you that it takes one things always:

The willingness to start followed by the willingness to endure.

Just as the salesperson has to be emotionally courageous (emotional intelligence) and willing to get kicked in the crouch without taking it personally, folding up and heading home with their tail between their legs… so does the person seeking physical self-improvement.

Peaks and valleys.  Thus is life.  Those who stick it out long enough will see reward.

We had an old saying in hockey that I have come to appreciate more and more as the years pass.  It always seems to put things into a manageable perspective for me:

No Highs, No Lows

Never allow yourself to get to high during the good times, never get to low during the frustrating times.

Keep the balance.

Endure.

Cheers from the icy streets of Eau Claire, WI…

KG

[You made it!  This article might stir up some emotions for some of you.  You might feel guilty, irritated, motivated, or “called out”.  My aim was not to make you feel bad about yourself.  If you begin to feel emotions like motivation and irritation, good!  Especially irritation.  Getting irritated gets things done.  It’s the point where you say to yourself, “Bullshit with this, I am going to take care of business from here on out”.  Irritation can set things in motion faster than anything sometimes.  It’s the “I told you so” attitude where you now want to prove the world wrong.  Me personally, irritation makes me accomplish tasks at break neck speed.  I get pissed because I observe myself becoming complacent in my position (whatever position that may be)  Embrace these emotions and leverage them to make positive change.]

Flip the Switch

Food/Eating

I don’t think that there is anything more:

  • Controllable
  • Manageable (is this the same as Controllable?)
  • Predictable

… then movement, eating and transitioning your lifestyle into the positive category.

Think about it.

What other area in your life do you have so much control over?  You are in the driver’s seat throughout your entire life.  You determine your general health.

What other area in your life can you map out and say, “If I do this, then I am going to get the reward of that”, especially with such subtle adjustments.  There really isn’t any real effort involved, it’s more of perceived effort.  Your brain is holding you back.

Improving your overall health is certainly a choice, but once you flip the switch and make the decision to be healthy by  executing consistent bouts of physical activity paired with rock solid nutritional habits, you are GUARANTEED to get results.

Be the switch on the left

It’s tough to guarantee a lot of things in this life.

Again, stop and think about it for a quick second…

Can a person guarantee by achieving a Master’s Degree that they are going to be successful?  Is your life going to be that much better by going through another 2 years of school and thousands of dollars of school loans?  No.

(I am not hating on all of you that went for your Master’s… kudos to you)

My point, again, is this:  What other area of your life has such an obvious step by step procedure to attain desired results outside of choosing to eat well and move more?

I cannot think of anything.  If you can, please leave a comment below.  

My job is to create awareness.  Actually, that is my mission.  If you’re aware of the exact steps that you need to take to achieve lasting positive change by improving your body and mind, you are that much closer to success.

Once you’re consciously aware of what you should be doing, you’re screwed.  

Why?  Because now you know.  Now you are aware.  Now you’re emotional invested in executing what’s right.  Anything negative or toxic is now just moving you further from your goals.

Yes, my aim is to get at your conscious thought process, absolutely.  If I can create enough of an emotional justification in your head for you to break your current habits and reach for better habits, then I have won.  That is my goal.

I say it all of the time it seems like, but people who are currently living in an unhealthy state really don’t realize how close they are to being able to change it all for the better.  It is so simple.  Not easy… simple.

A tweak in your eating here… a tweak in your beverage consumption there… sprinkle that with some movement instead of sitting…

You viewed this on an older post, but, watch it again because it’s that good…

2.7 million people have watched this video.  That means that 2.7 million people now know what even just the smallest adjustment of moving more throughout the day can have a life.

That’s awareness.  That’s my aim, my goal and my mission.

Stop wasting time and flip the switch before it’s too late.

-KG-

Canadian Outreach: Delivering What Needs to Be Delivered

Supplemental Nutrition

The Canadian outreach program is in full effect.

I first met my next contributor at a convention in Miami, FL.  We got talking about each other’s backgrounds, experiences and reasoning for attending the convention and we hit it off instantly.  Again, I was like a kid in a candy store asking her all kinds of questions, and I actually had more to ask but I decided to control myself.

One of the takeaway points from chatting it up with Julie was her comments about the female population and effectively treating osteoporosis by supplementing calcium, especially if it is consumed in an isotonic capable form.  Isotonic?  Think liquid form supplementation that is absorbed ridiculously fast by the body, delivering what needs to be delivered.

Calcium deficiency is interesting to me because the most obvious (and well-known) source of calcium is milk.  However, as I have harped on this blog in past posts, you’d cry yourself to sleep if you knew the quality of the milk that you’re probably buying and drinking.  I’ll save the heart ache for another post.

You’re welcome.

Besides the low quality of mass-produced milk, we also face the issue of inflammation and dairy sensitivities in a lot of people, IBS, etc.  Now, you could turn to other foods like kale, which is a rich source of calcium that a lot of people don’t know about, but kale quite frankly is a pain in the ass to prepare.  Eating it raw is like chewing on laminate flooring.  Most people won’t take the time to execute that gourmet kale recipe, so let’s just deliver the damn calcium and get it over with, ok?

*** Oh, if you want some interesting information about bone health go here for some notes I took while attending a recent webinar.  Knowledge is power.

I’ll let Julie share her opinion…

When any of us are looking for solutions to address our personal health concerns, we look for solutions that are safe and effective.  Safety and efficacy comes from research and experience with the products and this is one of the best parts about selling Isotonix. 

As consumers, we all know there are some friends we trust more than others regarding health advice.  

As I become more familiar with using the Isotonix products, I find that my customers and friends come to me more and more for this kind of advice, and I always want to have a well-researched answer for them.  The best part about distributing Isotonix products is that the MarketAmerica science team has done a lot of the leg work for me in terms of gathering the scientific research ensuring that safety and efficacy that I am looking for, in the entire product line.  

Having Isotonix as a research-backed product line, provides me as a distributor with peace of mind that what I’m selling to customers is a great supplement and the best option for those who are looking.

  • Why Isotonix?

–  It is affordable, and it is better value due to the enhanced bioavailability of the products.
–  There is a range of products that make it possible to help reach a more diverse customer base of people with a tool to help them take control of their health.
–  It is based on the most current research, so everything is always up to date to ensure the best customer satisfaction and results from taking nutraceuticals.

  • Why is it so great for practitioners?

–  The products are effective and backed by scientific research on design and combination, so all you need to do is ensure your research on indication and dosage. 
–  You are never alone in recommending the products. Doctors and health care practitioners have been benefiting from being able to provide their clients and patients with access to a dependable product line.
–  There is access to the products online so that customers can order products from the comfort of their home or work with the autoship program.  The method of distribution adds a convenience factor for you and your customers.  

There are always a number of reasons to prefer one type of product over another, but from my experience, of all the nutraceutical products out there, the enhanced bioavailbility of the Isotonix line and the diversity of products and applications makes it an easy decision for me. I feel fortunate to be able to provide these supplemental options to my customers, and it has tremendously benefited my personal health and the growth of my business. 

– Julie Hwang, BSc, ND (cand. 2014)

Move More, Sit Less

Pure Fat Loss, Quick Tips

The original title of this blog was going to be “Move More, Sit Less”.

For some odd reason, I had a lot of trouble trying to come up with a “clever” name for my little space on the internet, even though I have an OK understanding of how SEO (search engine optimization) works, and the title isn’t going to automatically get my information out to the masses.

So what is the purpose of this blog?  

I had to ask myself that before I started up another blog.  It is so easy to for me to sit in front of my computer and bang out post after post about movement, food, and everything else that has to do with maintaining or regaining control of your mind and body.

I don’t know why, but I am just fascinated by how simple fat loss really can be, yet how complicated we make it.

One interesting thought came up in conversation one weekend while I was up in “God’s Country” (aka:  Hayward, WI).  I was sitting on the deck at my girlfriend’s parents house when the conversation swung to health (for some weird reason everyone wants to talk about health when I am around).  Tom, my girlfriends Dad, mentioned that he felt that people who write about self-help are just in it to make a buck ($$$).

Isn’t she adorable? I think so.

I felt a little weird once her Dad mentioned this (even though I know he didn’t mean anything harm by saying it) as I am currently working on a book that incorporates time tested solutions for fat loss, along with a manual for hockey players (strength and conditioning).  I am not writing the books because I feel that my target audience needs to hear more about health and nutrition, I am writing it because, well, god dammit I want to write it.

For me, it is an accomplishment sort of deal.  I feel like I have a lot to say and I need some sort of avenue to get all of my thoughts out.  What better vehicle than writing a book?  If a business develops because of it… great!  I am an entrepreneur at heart.

 

What qualifies me to write a book?  

I will be blunt here.

I am well read and I have a shit ton of experience working with athletes of all levels, Mom’s, Dad’s, high-profile business owners, low profile average Joes and everyone in between.  I worked with young kids in Detroit during my tenure at a training facility.  That was a true experience in patience and learning to communicate on a whole other level.  I have even trained the trainer on a number of occasions.

If you are someone who really cares about credentials, I have those too (CSCS- Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist).  This certification is through the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) which is corrupted and supposedly the best in the industry right now, but honestly, I think credentials are bogus.  You either have experience and continue to grow your knowledge and passion for your field or you don’t.  Don’t let someone fool you with their long list of credentials.  It might not mean shit.

More than anything, I am a walking/talking example of everything that I write about.  That is why I feel comfortable teeing off on methods that I may disagree with or supporting methods that I agree with.  I always used to tell my athletes that I would never ask them to do something in the gym or on the ice that I wouldn’t do or haven’t done as a player myself.

The same goes for fat loss.

 

Why would I recommend someone do something that I haven’t done or would be willing to do myself?

Yea, I have done the 10 minute ice-cold shower to test its effect on fat loss.  Held on for dear life during a legitimate Tabata Protocol.   I have worked through grueling escalating density training sessions… and on and on.

I have tested out intermittent fasting and its effect on my own bodily appearance.

There is more and more buzz about the impact of intermittent fasting on fat loss and improving body composition, potentially even extending life (not entirely sure about this claim just yet).

While I don’t doubt that intermittent fasting is probably effective as hell, I found that it simply isn’t for me.  I cannot function without food.  Mentally, I go to hell.  I gave it an honest chance, and am willing to do so again, but my mental performance suffered greatly.  I’m not implying that I am a food addict, I am saying that I treat food as fuel for energy, which helps me stay focused mentality and prepared physically.

Put simply, intermittent fasting is just not for me.  I eat awesomely nutritious meals and I love it…

Image

Eat. Real. Food.

But that is not to say that it cannot be for you.

This is just an example of many of the interesting topics that you are going to find on this SIMPLE blog.

I am all about simple and effective.

You’ll find that to be true if you continue to stop in and read what I have to say.

If you like what I have to say, by all means continue to come back and visit me.

Add me to your RSS feed so that you can get updates on new blog posts.  Sometimes they will be relevant to your personal situation and sometimes they won’t be.  Regardless, I will always do my best to pump out good information supported by plenty of pictures, videos and links to other resources that I have found helpful over the years.

 

Cheers to squeezing more out of life…

Kyle Garner