Ok were not all 28 years old anymore where having a nice fit body is just rediculously easy. So here is a consise up to date holistic approach to getting the weight off. Right off the bat Im in trouble with this topic cause I could tell you how to lose 20 -30pounds in 8 weeks or 50 + pounds in 12-16 weeks but once we talk about staying lean and fit after that, then we have to balance this little thing called LIFE.
One of the main tools that I use early on with a client is the use of the wellness wheel developed by Dr. John Travis, MD, MPH The Wellness Wheel is a graphic way of representing the Wellness Energy System:
- I could evaluate and set goals(treatment) for every component of this pie chart. My blog is essentially a way to communicate this wellness wheel to you. I cant do that in one session or even in one year, so for now the brief topic this month is fat loss : so obviously just nutrition and moving(exercise) are not the only components effecting this any more than just your consumption of saturated fats is directly linked to your blood cholesterol levels or for that matter to increased cardiovascular disease rates.
My suggestions then to get the fat off include:
- Go to the top of the food chain and visit your MD. Or perhaps an MD clinic specializing in antiaging medicine and bioidentical hormone replacement. Don't wait for crazy symptoms of testosterone or other reproductive hormone deficiency or adrenal fatigue to creep up on you before you decide to seek help. Go ahead and get a complete hormone panel done along with your other normal labs(complete blood count and metabolic panel). Do it now, be willing to make a body payment to prevent future premature disease.
- Think about why you even want to change. This reason must have emotional energy behind it to be important enough to lifestyle your way back to health. The biggest obstacle by far to you changing and restoring health is the emotional barriers stacked up like a monument in front of you. You need help outside of yourself. So hire an LPC or well qualified fitness or holistic health coach who has been through enough stuff in life to learn via formal training and life experience. Its the therapists or coaches role to serve like an enzyme in biochemistry.
Yup I'm gonna divulge a page from that 10th grade biology textbook you have all forgotten.
That red upward slope is the totality of all the stuff you have to overcome to reach the top where momentum can carry you downhill and life gets substantially easier.
Actually its a carbonic anhydrase reaction but dont tell anyone. I like to take science diagrams and turn them into life lessons.
I, Eric Niles holistic health coach am a force in your life to pull you up and over your barriers to change, and in fact I may just serve to actually lower the barriers. These can include things like the following:
- Negative energy of people in your life who don't want you to succeed or keep you "stuck"
- Bad belief systems like "I'm 50 years old and shouldn't expect to be thin and fit" or God is angry with me and is thwarting my attempts to move ahead in life. Yup I'm gonna attempt to dispel that crap out of your life.
- Multiple medical challenges(obesity, arthritis, GI inflammatory issues, fibromyalgia, high blood pressure, low anabolic hormone levels,).
- Financial disaster(yup Ive been there). Ill send you to Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University for actual coaching on this but lets face it, when your in crisis management mode, its virtually impossible to get healthy without a coach on your side. This crisis keeps you stuck in eating poor quality food, no cash to buy cellular health supplements, probably no time to commit to working out cause your working two or three jobs plus raising your precious children (AHHHHHHH)
- Decide if you want to jump start your weight loss with a quick aggressive approach
Don't listen to silly health or fitness "experts" who tell you their opinion of why you should or shouldn't do such and such. They are probably just spitting back text book information they were spoon fed when they were 22 years old. Some methods of jump starting your weight loss include:
1.
HCG diet plan(includes a 26-40 day cycle of a hormone injection) along with a low calorie(500 daily plan). Talk to an anti aging or hormone replacement physician who is into wellness and lives the lifestyle.
2.
Take a medicine: It sure beats surgery and spending all your cash making expensive urine by visiting Vitamin Shoppe and GNC to buy lower quality supplements. Medicines work, yes they are just a tool to use for a brief time, but when chosen correctly the right tool makes all the difference. So here are the classes of fat loss pharmaceuticals:
- Stimulants, appetite suppressants, fat blockers, fat mobilizers, (Phentermine is the most popular stimulant /appetite suppressant combo administered in physician directed weight loss clinics along with a restricted meal plan 5 HTP is one choice of supplement for appetite suppression.
3.
Other combinations of nutraceuticals designed to increase cell energy production(fat burning), protect from oxidation, sludge buildup, inflammation, and a host of other villians sending us into an early grave.
4.
Other low calorie meal replacements (like Optifast liquid drinks). I managed one of these clinics in the past, and the more I think about this approach, it really is a good one. Sure I wouldnt suggest my clients "drink" all their meals but for a short time period, just focusing on these drinks allows you to focus on other components of your wellness wheel and then you can relearn healthy eating and shopping once substantial weight has come off.
5.
GI tract cleanse or detox. (special combination of herbal, nutrient, fiber blends) designed to "clean you" like liquid drano minus the poisens. Many other 'detox" or cleanses exist, fruit and vegetable cleanses, chelation therapy, Vit C flushes, etc. and many helpful remedies(separate future blog perhaps for a Naturopathic Doctor).
Once you have done the above, then follow this:
- Balance your wellness wheel(mostly likely hire a professional coach)
- Buy the following high quality(pharmaceutical grade) supplements if desired: Max International or Life Vantage (2 companies) which distribute high end patented nutraceuticals to help restore cellular health and energy by allowing for more glutathione perioxidase and superoxide disumtase to be manufactured): Dont worry about it, believe me these are like superman to the rescue and can seriously help fight off cellular oxidation and rust from occuring much more than you ingesting large dosages of other antioxidants like selenium, zinc, vitamin E, vitamin C, resveretol, Dark chocolates with high cocoa content etc..I would also suggest a thermogenic heat producing weight loss aid, an essential fatty acids and omega oil blend, and a stimulant supplement (check with your Primary care provider).. You certainly dont have to do all these things, remember some clients lose significant fat simply by emotionally detoxing with a good counselor or simply eating fewer calories or cutting out simple sugars.
- Heres a few examples(there are many more) of nutrients found in top of the line thermogenic and or stimulant supplements:
- Conjugated linoleic acid, carnitine,(not creatine silly), yerba mate, yohimbine, forskalin, green tea extract,caffeine, synephrine(anything ending in eine or ine will jack up your cardiovascular and metabolic systems, they attach to the AV node in the right atrium of your heart to speed up impulses). This might not be a good idea if your prone to certain arrythmias, conduction problems(AV block for example) have hypertension or take another stimulant medicines like Effexor. Combine too many stimulants along with regular Starbucks visits and you too might be the next contestant on "Fun Filled trips to the Emergency Room- excessive firing in your wiring". (Just wanted to throw out a few terms to show you that you need to see your MD, or NP, PA to assure safety).
- Eat according to your metabolic type(fill out a questionnaire I can email you), and eat a little less than your body requires.
- Dont eat less daily calories than is below your metabolic rate. The only exception to this would be for a brief period (no more than 10 weeks) with some of the above mentioned aggressive quick approaches.
- Divide your calories as follows: Breakfast 25%, snack 10%, lunch 25%, snack 10%, dinner 30% Dont be anal, just realize to keep heat production(thermogenesis) high you need to treat your body like a coal or wood furnace(stoke the fire regularly with small bits of fuel).
- Eat the following foods: coconut oil, organic butter, heat producing spices, nuts, seeds, complex grains, plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins like free range chickens, turkey, game meats, very lean red meats, fish, egg whites, seafood.(Remember eating the right portions and amounts of food to lose fat is different than me discussing the topic of eating nutrient dense foods). So Im not gonna tell you right now why everyone needs to be eating asparagus, or spinach or give you all the healthy oils you should consume.. Ill save that for another blog, I just wanted to wet your appetite.
- Stop eating the following foods: Dairy(there I said it), instead try other milk varieties, nut milks, rice milk, soy milk. Stop eating canola oil, hydrogentated oils, simple sugars, too many grains, too many boxed foods. (Go read Skinny Bitch or Skinny Bastard) by those glamor girl trainers in Los Angeles. Their written with intentional sarcasm but I really love those books, it shines a light on many useful nutritional concerns. Sure they probably need God in their life to open their spiritual eyes, and transform their hearts, but dont all of us.
- Eat food as much as possible the way it came off the tree or out of the ground and you cant go wrong and by all means ditch the food guide pyramid(it was developed in conjuction with the agricultural industry who is in business to make money, not to get you healthy). Sure its got some truth in it, but so does Buddhism. Instead eat according to your metabolic type and you will know roughly the percentage of fats, proteins, and carbs your body thrives on. Once you know this, then eat a wide variety of the highest nutrient dense foods you can get your hands on.
- Drink more water(filtered) and bring a container with you throughout the day(just do it).
- Move regularly so you actually have to use those things called your lungs to breathe this gas we call oxygen, which burns this stuff we call fat.
- For those of you who just arent going to do formal exercise:at least get your ass off the desk chair at work occasionally and fit extra motion into your day with fidgeting, running up the stairs, work breaks of push ups, planks, jump roping, dips using the chair etc.. See me for complete work station exercises using elastic resistance too
- When it comes to formal exercise: Stick with a blend of aerobic and intense weight training. Theres not much benefit to low level resistance exercise training unless your very deconditioned, or rehabilitating an injury. So whether its pilates, zumba, yoga, pure barre, cardiokickboxing, bootcamps, P90 x, swimming, spinning, at least find something that makes you feel like a kid again when you used to engage in this thing called, "PLAY".
- For those wanting to really chizzle themselves, and add muscle definition the above routines will generally not work for this purpose. You have to overload the muscles over time and most group classes dont allow for this. Sure you will burn a bunch of calories in any type of group class, but you can do the same thing playing tennis or whatever, as long as the intensity is comparable.
- The following is an example of a plan of attack to add lean tissue to your body and raise your metabolic rate(and therefore turn your body into a metabolic machine of fat burning. Stick to a total body routine where your performing exercises using big muscles (deadlifts, squats, box step ups, lunges, pullups(chinups), back rowing motions, chest fly motions, shoulder shrugs, dips, cable high to low pulls etc..) And heres the deal, you need to challenge yourself progressively over time
- Lift about 15 reps slow , 2-3 days a week where you add resistance in small dosages each workout. Do this over a 2 week period.
- The next two weeks, lift about10 reps each workout still increasing the resistance each workout
- The next two weeks lift 5-8 reps each workout and increase the resistance each workout.
- Complete the last cycle again for 2 weeks or even drop your reps if you want, and maybe add in some eccentric contractions(lower the weight slowly to cause little tears in the muscles).
- Rest for 10-12 days with no lifting of weights to allow for recovery. Listen to your body signals to determine how much rest you need(Hire me for more specifics). This gets you out of the gym setting which your spirit needs.
- This type of routine will absolutely increase muscular size and or definition unless you have no testosterone in your system and you only eat 10% of your calories from protein.Im not saying its better than P90x or whatever else you can think of, but it will keep you injury free and get results in terms of muscle gain and increased resting metabolic rate
- On off days between your resistance workouts just do 2-3 aerobic sessions of 30 minutes. Make one or two of those sessions near your anaerobic threshold (about 80-85% max heart rate or about a 7-8 out of 10 on a 10 point effort scale. The other 1- 2 days just keep it easy to allow your muscles to recover from the lifting(you should feel sore). Hit me up for specifics on endurance training and competetion. Would you believe I used to run 80-120 miles a week when I was in grad school in Massachusetts. Crazy isnt it.
Ok gang, if you want more details or specifics on any of the above topics then thats where I come in. You hire me, I do the research find out what your goals, medical issues, and emotional or life obstacles are, and take general information and make it talored to you, to get results.
Let me know if I can help.
Your coach
Eric Niles, MS RCEP, CPT, LPC student
