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Soda is Bad For You

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It was only a matter of time, till I wrote a blog post on this. It seems so many people are still naive to the serious consequences that come from consuming soda. As a San Diego personal trainer I am shocked at how many clients start my San Diego weight loss program and log in their food journals soda! Especially with a recent report in 2005 stating soft drinks are the number one source of calories in the American diet! I keep repeating that statistic because I find it so incredible. According to recent statistics, Americans consume close to 50 billion liters of soda per year, which equates to about 216 liters, or about 57 gallons per person. Holy Crap Batman!!

So what makes soda so bad for you. Let’s start with the amount of sugar found in a can of soda, 16 teaspoons. This is nearly three times the maximum daily sugar intake recommended by the American Heart Association.

Once soda is ingested, your pancreas rapidly begins to create insulin in response to the sugar. The rise in blood sugar is quite rapid. Here’s a play-by-play of what happens in your body upon drinking a can of soda:

* Within 20 minutes, your blood sugar spikes, and your liver responds to the resulting insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat.
* Within 40 minutes, caffeine absorption is complete; your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream.
* Around 45 minutes, your body increases dopamine production, which stimulates the pleasure centers of your brain – a physically identical response to that of heroin, by the way.
* After 60 minutes, you’ll start to have a blood sugar crash, and you may be tempted to reach for another sweet snack or beverage.

High fructose corn syrup is processed in your liver, and unlike other natural sugars, most of it gets shuttled into fat storage. This is why fructose is a primary culprit behind obesity—far more so than other sugars available.

Aside from the weight gain, eating too much fructose is linked to increased triglyceride levels in the body. In one study, eating fructose raised triglyceride levels by 32% in men! Triglycerides, the chemical form of fat found in foods and in your body, are not something you want in excess amounts. Intense research over the past 40 years has confirmed that elevated blood levels of triglycerides puts you at an increased risk of heart disease.

Not only does fructose consumption lead to insulin resistance but it also decreases leptin signaling to your central nervous system. Leptin is responsible for controlling your appetite and fat storage, as well as telling your liver what to do with its stored glucose. This interference can lead to over-eating since your brain does not receive the signal from your stomach that you are full until much later.

Soft drinks are a big contributing factor to obesity in our country. An independent study published in the British medical journal The Lancet found that 12-year-olds who drank soft drinks regularly were more likely to be overweight than those who didn’t. In fact, for each additional daily serving of sugar-sweetened soft drink consumed during the nearly two-year study, the risk of obesity jumped by 60%! That is why there is such a big push to get the soft drink vending machines out of schools. If you are allowing your children to consume these beverages regularly you are really jeopardizing your child’s health.

As mentioned earlier, soda clearly elevates your insulin levels, and elevated insulin levels are the foundation of most chronic disease. Not only does drinking just one soda per day increase your risk of diabetes by 85%, it also increases your risk of:

* Heart disease
* Cancer
* Arthritis
* Osteoporosis
* Gout
* Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

Eliminating soft drinks is one of the most crucial factors to address many of the health problems you or your children suffer. Because normalizing your insulin levels is the best step you can take to improve your health and lower your risk of disease and long-term chronic health conditions.

Substitute soda with pure water, tea, or if you must drink a carbonated beverage, try sparkling mineral water with some lime or lemon juice.

While you are at it. Look at all the other processed foods you consume and make sure under ingredients it doesn’t list high fructose corn syrup. You would be surprised at how many items contain this ingredient. Including yogurt, breakfast bars and cereals, crackers, etc. Get rid of this garbage! Read my blog Processed foods and your health, to learn more about why these items are bad for you too.

Andrea King is a certified San Diego fitness trainer offering health and wellness solutions to her clients through holistic methods. Andrea helps her clients find a true healthy lifestyle for themselves through participating in her San Diego weight loss programs.

Processed Foods and Your Health

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As a San Diego personal trainer one of the biggest components of my job and what really affects the success of my San Diego weight loss programs is the nutritional component. Many people make the wrong assumption that if they just workout they can eat whatever they want. Unfortunately, that really is just not the case for so many reasons. A lot of my clients that start with me at the beginning think of me as their metabolism. They go out and drink and eat out at restaurants during the weekend, and come back Monday weighing heavier than they did Friday.

What many of us don’t realize is that eating healthy isn’t some crazy science. It’s actually pretty simple when you think about it. It goes back to the basics. Eating your foods in whole form. When you go to the grocery store and pick out your favorite box of cereal, frozen pizza, or granola bars and looked at the ingredients list. Do you ever find it odd that you have no idea what about half the items are on that list? Why would you put something in your body that you can’t even pronounce? About 90% of the money spent by Americans in grocery stores goes towards processed foods.

Let’s look at processed foods and their impact on various chronic diseases….

Diabetes

As far as our hormones and metabolism are concerned, there’s no difference between a bowl of unsweetened corn flakes and a bowl of table sugar. Starch is 100-percent glucose [table sugar is half glucose, half fructose] and our bodies can digest it into sugar instantly.

We are not adapted to handle fast-acting carbohydrates. Glucose is the gold standard of energy metabolism. The brain is exquisitely dependent on having a continuous supply of glucose: too low a glucose level poses an immediate threat to survival. But too high a level causes damage to tissues, as with diabetes. Processed foods have the ability to raise insulin levels very high when digested, and therefore should be avoided especially if you are battling with diabetes.

Heart Disease

Many processed foods contain trans fatty acids, a dangerous type of fat. According to the American Heart Association, “TFAs tend to raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol … These changes may increase the risk of heart disease.”

Further, most processed foods are extremely high in salt, another blow to the heart. One-half cup of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, for instance, has 37 percent of the daily-recommended 2400 g  of sodium.

Processed foods carry a lot of sodium and should be avoided not only for simple health reasons, but it also will lead you to look very bloated, and prevent you from looking lean.

Cancer

A seven-year study of close to 200,000 people by the University of Hawaii found that people who ate the most processed meats (hot dogs, sausage) had a 67 percent higher risk of pancreatic cancer than those who ate little or no meat products.

A Canadian study of over 400 men aged 50 to 80 found similar results. Men whose eating habits fell into the “processed” pattern (processed meats, red meat, organ meats, refined grains, vegetable oils and soft drinks) had a significantly higher risk of prostate cancer than men in the other groups. Men who ate the most processed foods had a 2.5-fold increased prostate cancer risk.

Yet another study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Mile Markers, and Prevention found that refined carbohydrates like white flour, sugar and high fructose corn syrup is also linked to cancer. The study of more than 1,800 women in Mexico found that those who got 57 percent or more of their total energy intake from refined carbohydrates had a 220 percent higher risk of breast cancer than women who ate more balanced diets.

So there you have it. It is clear that processed foods do not provide the body with any real benefits. In fact, these three chronic diseases were not nearly as wide-spread until after processed foods became more popular in the US.

I understand that convenience is a big factor in why people purchase processed foods. That’s what Tupperware and sandwich bags are for. You can easily transport fruit, raw veggies, hard boiled eggs and cooked cold chicken. It’s all about preparation. I usually take two days a week to cook a large amount of food and then I put it in Tupperware and re-heat when I am hungry. If you are really stuck on carrying around bars, I recommend Lara bars. They usually have 5 or less ingredients, and you can actually pronounce them. Finally, I have included a recipe for making really delicious granola bars at home.

Granola Bar Recipe

178 calories, 6g of protein, 11g of fat, 16g carb, 50mg sodium.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup raw oatmeal
  • 2 cups granola or trail mix
  • 1/2 cup ground walnuts
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chips
  • 2 cups natural unsalted nut butter (chunky type)

Directions:

  1. Oil a 9×11 baking sheet.
  2. Place all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine.
  3. Add the wet ingredients and form into a firm paste. You may need to add more peanut butter or honey if the mixture is too dry.
  4. Press the mixture into the oiled container.
  5. Cover the pressed mixture with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
  6. Cut into 36 bars and serve.
  7. Store extras in an airtight container or wrap individually in plastic and store in the refrigerator.

Click the link learn more about my San Diego personal training programs and how I can help you on get on the road to a healthier lifestyle.

Eating Before Exercise and Post Workout Meals

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As a San Diego fitness trainer my clients know every time they come in to train with me that I am going to put them through the wringer and that they better fuel up properly or they won’t make it through the full 60 minutes. So when I get new clients going through my San Diego personal training program I always address what their meals should be before and after workouts. Most often times they don’t understand how much what they eat impacts their performance in the workouts. So they will eat a burrito for lunch then come train with me after work and end up getting sick. Or they won’t eat anything before the morning workout and not be able to make it through the workout without feeling weak and light-headed.

When it comes to working out especially at such an intense level it is extremely important to properly fuel your body for each workout. Working out on an empty stomach is not going to be very effective and certainly will not provide the adequate fuel needed to complete your exercise session. If you workout first thing in the morning, and you find it difficult to eat a large breakfast keep it small but packed with carbs, fat, and protein. Such as apple with nut butter, or a nut and fruit bar. The combo of nutrients are going to give you the perfect fuel to push through the workout at 100% effort.

Many rumors have gone around that it is good to workout on an empty stomach so you can burn through your fat stores. That is simply not true. Your body will always pull from it’s glycogen stores in the muscles first in combination with fat stores. In addition, you will be able to exert more force and effort into your workout after having a small meal, allowing you to burn even more calories, then you would ever be able to without eating first. Make sure to allow a good 30 minutes before your workout to avoid getting side cramps, or nauseous.

Post workout meals are just as crucial. During your workout you have taxed your muscles, and now they need to begin to rebuild. You should eat within 30 minutes of completing your workout since that is when your body requires those nutrients the most to properly rebuild. Your body needs more protein and fat, then carbs. A great post workout meal is a protein shake, easy to carry, easy to drink on the go, plus, it has all the essential amino acids imperative for muscle development.

On a final note, I always know when my clients cheat and eat something the day of or the night before a workout with me that is not nutritionally dense, because they will be weak, dizzy and most likely feel nausea. Keep in mind that your body is a machine and it needs the proper fuel in order for it to operate at it’s highest potential. You wouldn’t put sludge in your car’s gas tank would you? Than why would you do that to your body and expect it to perform and survive one of my workouts?

Andrea King offers nutrition coaching and San Diego personal training programs to those seeking a healthier lifestyle. If you are looking for help in achieving your fitness goals, Andrea King can help you achieve those goals and true balance.

Always Be Prepared – Just Like The Boy Scouts

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Today I want to talk about being prepared. The boy scouts motto is “always be prepared.” So their training includes having, and knowing how to get through obstacles and situations they may encounter in the wilderness. So how does this apply to you? It is important to always plan ahead when it comes to meals and your nutrition. As a San Diego fitness trainer one of the biggest obstacles my clients face is making time to eat nutritious foods. From bringing snacks with them, to having food readily available to eat when they get home from work. The problem is so many of my clients would get caught up in their day and not take time to eat. So what ends up happening is they binge on the bad foods from the vending machine at work, to the cookies at home.

The obstacle that many face is eating the right foods at the right time and being prepared with nutritious snacks if time sneaks by. It is important to fuel the body every few hours. It keeps the metabolism furnace burning, the energy constant, and prevents you from craving sugar from a fall in blood sugar levels.

How many times have you come home from work, starving and end up munching on cookies while you make  dinner? It’s your body telling you I need food! Chances are the last time you ate was at noon and it was a salad….that was over 5 hours ago, of course you are hungry! During the day is when your metabolism is at its highest and needs calories to give you energy. So don’t skimp on it. Make sure to eat a sufficient breakfast, lunch and mid-afternoon snack. That will help you stay satiated, energized, focused, and most importantly, keep your hand out of the cookie jar.

When my clients get on my San Diego weight loss program we work on being prepared. Scheduling in times to eat and making sure the fridge, pantry, car and desk are all stocked with nutritious snacks.

Here is a list of good snacks to have on hand:

Protein Bars, raisins, nuts, dried fruit, trail mix, protein shakes, tuna, apples, carrots, hard boiled eggs and crackers to name a few.

Andrea King is a certified San Diego fitness trainer that specializes in weight loss. Andrea helps her clients learn how to time their meals, and how to structure each meal to provide the most energy, satiety, and low calories possible.

Dining out = Letting it Out

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As a San Diego fitness trainer that works with a lot of clients looking to lose weight, one of the very first things I tell them is to cut back on eating out. You would be surprised at all the secret loads of calories you can find in items that may not seem like they would harbor a lot of calories. However, restaurants often use loads of butter and oils to prepare dishes, tons of cheese, salt, sugar, and processed flour. These ingredients all lead to more calories, and a bigger waistline.

So, if you are one that likes to dine out, I recommend cutting it back to one to two times a week, you will save more money and be able to watch your calories better. If you have to travel a lot for work and therefore are forced to eat out more there are some precautions you can take to minimize calorie exposure.

1. Look for items that are grilled, and ask for sauces, and dressings on the side.

2. Avoid anything that is a baked good, has cream, or tons of cheese.

3. The cleaner and more natural way that you can order food the less chance you have of getting unnecessary calories.

Here are some examples of the foods you could get dining in vs. dining out for the same amounts of calories.

For even more San Diego weight loss tips check out more of my blog.

Alcohol Is Just Empty Calories

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When it comes to effective weight loss strategies there are many factors to look at. Being a San Diego fitness trainer it is my job to not only address all those factors but give you the solutions and tools to have effective weight loss results. Many of us understand that strength training, cardio, and a sound nutrition plan are crucial to weight loss but what many people fail to realize is that consuming alcohol is really counter intuitive to their fitness goals.

It has become a social norm and almost an expectation that in social situations alcohol consumption should take place. Most holidays, nights out, dinners, and parties all offer many ways to consume alcohol. It can be challenging and almost chastising to refuse drinks. There is a stipulation in society that in order to relax and socialize one must consume alcohol. However, not only is alcohol harmful to the body for many reasons in which I will not get into, it also is counter intuitive to weight loss.

Look at it this way. Alcohol is 7 calories per gram compared to protein and carbohydrates at 4, and fat at 9.In a glass of wine there are about 90 calories, beer 150 calories, and mixed drinks can be anywhere from 150-350 calories. These are empty calories; imagine if you consumed a glass of wine a day with dinner that’s 700 extra calories a week! If you just stopped drinking you could essentially loose a little over a pound a month without changing anything else.

What makes alcohol different from fat, carbs, and protein is that it cannot be utilized as fuel by the body. It has no beneficial nutrients to provide to the body. Also, alcohol can also slow the process by which your body burns fat. The alcohol calories you consume aren’t stored. Instead, they’re converted to acetate, a type of fuel that the body burns quickly. As a result, you burn off your alcohol calories before you burn the fat you are trying to eliminate by increasing your exercise and cutting back on your food intake.

Alcohol also has been proven to not only stimulate your appetite allowing you to consume larger quantities of food it also loosens your inhibitions.  This change in mind set can lead to a lack of willpower and undermine adherence to your program.

In conclusion, alcohol should be one of the first items to eliminate or at least cut back if you’re looking to loose weight successfully. For more San Diego weight loss tips follow my blog.

How to Alleviate Lower Back Pain

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As a San Diego personal trainer I come across many individuals that suffer from lower back pain and discomfort. Now there can be many reasons and causes of low back pain: a previous injury; misaligned spine; gastrointestinal distress; repetitive movements; weak muscles; tight muscles; and poor posture to name a few. The majority of Americans that do suffer from low back pain it is most often caused by poor posture, and minimal physical activity. There are ways to improve and even eliminate lower back pain through proper flexibility, nutrition, and strength training activities.

Stretching

Take yourself through a series of stretches to determine for yourself if you are tight in these areas:

1) Abdominal Wall: Is it difficult to lay on your stomach and push yourself up so that you have full extension in the arms while keeping your hips in contact with the floor?

2) Hamstrings- Can you lay on your back and fully straighten your leg while hip is at 90 degrees?

3) Low Back- Can you touch your toes when you bend over and legs are straight?

4) Hip Flexors- Facing the floor, can you bend your front knee to 90 degrees with foot flat on the floor, back leg straight behind, and set your hands on the ground on each side of the lead leg while hips are squared to the front?

If you can’t successfully complete these stretches as described then you are tight in that muscle group.

Strengthening– I take my clients through a serious of postural and movement assessments so I can determine by how they stand and the way their body moves what muscles are weakened.  The common culprits for weakened muscles that cause lower back pain are:

1) Inner and Outer Abdominal Stabilizers

2) Gluteal Muscles

3) Erectar Spinae Muscles

Quit Smoking

Research shows that smokers have more frequent episodes of back pain than nonsmokers, and the more people smoke, the higher the risk of such episodes.

Scientists believe that the nicotine in cigarettes contributes to low back pain in two ways. First, nicotine hampers the flow of blood to the vertebrae and disks. This impairs their function and may trigger a bout of back pain. Second, smokers tend to lose bone faster than nonsmokers, putting them at greater risk for osteoporosis, another common cause of back pain.

Develop Better Nutritional Habits

Lower back pain can be caused by gastrointestinal stress. In short if you are eating foods that your stomach has a hard time digesting you most likely will feel pain in the low back because the stomach is connected to the nervous system receptors in the lower back. So the pain you are feeling in the low back could be your bodies way of saying you aren’t eating the proper foods. To learn more about what foods are right for you read about Metabolic Testing.

Practice Better Posture

Make sure that your work desk is at the appropriate level as well as your computer desk. You should be able to sit in your chair, rest your feet on the floor while still keeping your knees slightly higher than your hips. Also while sitting up tall in your chair, your hands should not be higher than your elbows when typing.

While standing, keep shoulders back and down, hips slightly pushed forward and toes straight ahead with feet hip width apart.

Boost your Metabolism All Day!!!

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I am sure you have heard the importance of metabolism and it’s impact on weight loss goals. What you may not know, is what methods are the most effective for naturally keeping your metabolic rate high throughout the day. Many people turn to unnatural and unhealthy means for increasing their heart rate like caffeine and diet pills known as thermogenics. That not only increase the heart rate but the internal body temperature as well, maybe giving you an extra burn of 100-300 calories a day.

But what if I told you the following tips and strategies could get you burning up to roughly 650 calories a day? You would be much more likely to follow those, than taking those silly fat burning pills, right?

1. Eat Breakfast. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Your metabolism slows down as you sleep at night and needs immediate fuel upon waking to crank up the internal furnace and supply your body with the needed energy to attack your day. If you neglect to eat, your metabolism will continue to run at a very slow rate as if you were still asleep! To read more about this you can read my blog Why Breakfast is the Most Important Meal.

2. Interval Cardio Workouts. By including intensive bouts of 30-90 seconds at high intensity with a 2-3 minute moderate recovery for anywhere from 20-30 minutes you will increase the calories you burn during the workout . Plus, you increase your metabolism as your body works to recover and rebuild from an intense workout session. You can read more about the benefits of interval training in my post The Myth Behind The Fat Burning Zone.

3. Eat every 2-4 hours. Don’t let your body think food is not readily available. By eating ever few hours you keep your metabolism up, and prohibit it from going into starvation mode. To learn more about how restricting calories can slow down your metabolism read my post Fad Diets Have Short-Lived Results.

4. Weight training. Weight training not only helps you burn calories during the workout, but also will boost your metabolism for the next 72 hours. Keep in mind this is hard training where you are utilizing compound exercises that get you to fatigue by 12 repititions. Hard weight training is the MOST effective way to not only build muscle but increase your metabolic furnace for the next few days. For every pound of muscle you build you burn an extra 50 calories a day which over the span of a week is an extra 350 calories without you having to do a thing!  And that doesn’t include the calories required to rebuild after you weight training workout. You MUST include weight training in your workout program because cardio and nutrition cannot only do so much.

I hope these San Diego weight loss tips help!!

Eggs are Healthy for You

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It’s been long debated whether or not eating eggs is in fact good for you. Nutrition experts have gone back and forth with whether eggs high cholesterol content has an impact on consumers own cholesterol levels. It had been hypothesized for some time that eating eggs could increase cholesterol levels which could eventually lead to heart disease.

However, more recently in 2000 a research study was conducted to identify if there is in fact a correlation between egg consumption and higher cholesterol levels. The results were published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition: Eggs make important nutritional contributions to the American diet and their consumption is not associated with high cholesterol levels. More importantly, the study showed that egg consumers had a higher intake of important nutrients like vitamins B12, A, E, and C than non-egg eaters, and that people who reported eating four or more eggs per week actually had significantly lower average cholesterol levels than those who reported eating zero to one eggs per week.

So why should you include eggs in your current diet?

1. Eggs are an inexpensive excellent source of high-quality protein.
One egg provides 6 grams of complete protein(all nine essential amino acids) plus it’s only 75 calories.

2. Eating eggs is helpful for losing weight.
Because of the high amount of quality protein in eggs, they make a very satisfying breakfast, which is especially useful for those trying to lose weight. In one study published in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (2007), subjects following low-fat, calorie-restricted diets were randomly assigned to one of two breakfasts: a bagel or two eggs. After eight weeks, the egg eaters experienced 65% greater weight loss, 83% greater decrease in waist circumference, and a greater improvement in energy levels compared to the bagel-eating group. Researchers hypothesized that egg eaters had increased levels of satiety throughout the morning and into lunch enabling them to consume less calories and still feel satisfied.

3. Eggs protect your eyesight especially as you get older.
Egg yolks contain a highly absorbable form of vision-protective carotenoids like lutein and zeaxanthin, which help to prevent age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.

So how many is safe to consume?

On a weekly basis, a healthy adult could consume an egg a day and not see any raise in cholesterol levels. The only people who should keep it under six a week are diabetics and those with heart disease.

Fad Diets Have Short Lived Results

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Here’s the scenario: You have a big event coming up, your pants are getting tight, or bikini season is around the corner. You decide that you must drop 10 pounds and rather quickly. So for the next month you skip meals, eat very little in the hopes of losing weight. Like magic you lose 10 pounds! However, somehow despite your best efforts to maintain this leaner version of yourself the weight starts to creep back. Oddly enough, you end up gaining the exact same weight you lost from the crash diet. So what happened?

This phenomenon goes back to primitive times when people were hunters and gatherers and at times they would go days without food. So as a way to conserve body fat during times of scarcity the body’s metabolism would drop to protect the body. Unfortunately, because of this defensive mechanism crash dieting is ineffective. Because even though at the beginning you lose the weight it will eventually come back to you.

Solutions:
1. Avoid low-calorie diets. The best way to lose weight is to eat according to your own metabolic type. When you begin to eat whole foods, and fuel your body with foods that are in line with your own bodies needs it becomes much easier to lose weight. You no longer get consumed in measuring and counting calories, you live your life fully, and with plenty of energy. Want to learn more about a metabolic diet plan?

2. A proper exercise program incorporating cardio workouts and strength training is essential. Strength training builds muscle and increases your metabolic rate, while cardiovascular exercise not only improves your health but also burns calories as well. Take a look at my post on the importance of incorporating a strength training workout plan.