Every Friday I will be posting an audio message for your enjoyment. I am working on getting video going, too, so look forward to that coming soon.

Feel free to comment below and let me know if you have experienced anything close to what I am talking about in this week’s post.  There may be 2 more posts in this series so hang tight while we get to The Silencer…the Pill.  Cool?  Woop woop!

Previous Series Post

Play Now:

 Why Our Cycles Are Important [8:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Remember in the last post that I said there is a lot of info out there–some good, some bad?  We need to put this whole issue into perspective by at least reviewing the information that is out there and then discuss how it does or does not apply to us:

Your cycle is a barometer by telling you:

Whether your hormones are balanced or not.

Find yourself crying because they made your coffee wrong that morning?  You may be a bit unbalanced.  Also, ladies, if you find yourself with a 5 o’clock shadow and it’s only noon time, you may have a problem there.  Shaving your beard on the way to work in the car is not cute, no matter how discreet you are.  If your chest hurts for weeks at a time (and you are not menopausal), you have extreme exhaustion from 2 to 5 pm, up all night long staring at the ceiling, some days you are Hercules—other days you are Pee Wee Herman or lastly, you have night sweats.   Any of these scream hormonal imbalance.

Whether your metabolism is fully functioning.

Gaining weight just watching fast food commercials?  Time to see if the thyroid is up to snuff.  Ate a piece of bread and it was as if someone opened an umbrella in your tummy five minutes later?  Could be issues with your gut which in turn mess with your metabolism.  Have a gall bladder issue and you aren’t your typical candidate for it?  Sounds like a possible thyroid problem there.  All of these things say, off kilter.

Whether your moods are in alignment.

Punched your husband in the face because he ate the last of something and then said, “so what?” about it?  Your free testosterone might be a bit too free, eh?  Feel like you need to have a baby yesterday and you are happily single and under 35 years old?  Get a hold of yourself, girl!  What’s wrong with you?  Sorry…that was my own personal interjection.  What I meant to say was, “You may be a bit estrogen heavy there.”  Gave somebody the finger in traffic and then realized it was your boss?  That progesterone may be getting the best of you.

If your cycle was off before you began clean eating it may be because of:

• Menopause/perimenopause
• Stress/Exercise
• Significant change in weight—up or down
• Medications
• PCOS/estrogen dominance/hormonal imbalance
• Nutrition
• And at least 5 other things that aren’t worth mentioning in this post

Most doctors help their patients manage these issues by:

• Focus on nutrition
• Limit stress
• Vitamin supplementation
• Prescribe the pill

This gives you an idea of what every woman faces whether they have chosen to lean out or not.  All of these are real issues and well documented in the medical community.  The question then becomes, “How is this different for you?”

Hormonal Imbalance

This is a given for us the first time we diet down to anything.  It doesn’t matter if we went from 200 pounds down to 180 pounds; dieting throws your body into a tail spin.  Some of us make it through unscathed, the rest of us are still picking up the pieces years later.  It’s different for everyone.  How it shows up, though, after dieting is anxiety, bingeing, mood swings (very high highs or very low lows), metabolic disturbances and our cycles.

If your cycle was off after you began clean eating it may be because of:

• Too little fat in your diet
• Too much exercise for way too long
• Too low of cals for way too long
• Too much exercise with too few cals for way too long
• Anxiety/depression medication
• Adrenal fatigue
• Insulin resistance
• Metabolic syndrome

What your doctor will suggest you do to help:

Eat right and exercise.

I know.  Don’t hit them.  Seriously.  But they will tell you that you need to eat healthy foods and make sure you do some cardio.  This is after you bring them 6 months worth of food journals and a plate loaded iso-lateral chest press machine for their waiting room.  You’ll be amazed at how many of them think that you are not doing enough even though you did the whole appointment with them on your own personal treadmill that you carried into the office all by yourself. Crazy.

Limit the stress.

This is about as effective as using chapstick as a gluestick.  Do they know who you are?  You’re Mrs. Type A.  You’ve already worked out, did 8 hours worth of work and made all your meals for the week and it’s only 9 am.  Getting you to relax is as laborious as 10^th grade summer reading list.  Totally no fun and getting it done takes forever!

Supplementation.

Not a bad thing to add in here but most likely, you’re already taking what they will suggest.  But it’s a good start.

Take the Pill.

WHOA NELLY!  This is the next post!  Sit tight!

There’s more to come and on Friday, I will have an audio post for you to listen to.  If you have never heard my voice or my crazy antics, now you will have your chance.  Can’t wait!  Woop woop!

Previous Series Post Next Post in Series

Every so often I think about professions that have it tough because of TV:  Doctors, cops, teachers…you get the idea.  TV adds this flare to their occupation that makes it hard for them to do their job in real life.  Either they make it seem super simple to solve a crime or they have these miraculous diagnoses for patients in a nick of time so that when you go through something like it in real life, your view is jaded.  It has to make a doctor’s life impossible or a detective’s job stressful dealing with folks who have outrageous expectations because every week they look at life packed up nice and neat in an one hour TV show.  There’s no fuss, no muss…nothing.  You have an issue, the team will solve it.  You have a missing child, look—we found them!  But reality is so much more different for those folks:  crimes go unsolved, people get sick with things that are not always “solvable” and are sometimes fatal and the people who work there are not happy-go-lucky robots loving every minute of their jobs. 

 Ok, now that I have sufficiently set you up in fear as to where this article is going, let me move on and make my point.  TV is to doctors as the Six O’Clock news is to fitness professionals.

 I cannot watch the “healthbeat” section of any news broadcast because of the blatant misinformation and I cry any time a medical study comes out because they butcher the conclusion of the study to create a sensational news story.  Let me say this right now and be very clear:

 YOU CAN FIND A STUDY TO SUPPORT *ANY*–I REPEAT–*ANY* COCKAMAMIE THEORY YOU HAVE ABOUT HEALTH AND FITNESS AND A COMMERCIAL DIET TO BACK IT UP.  THAT DOES NOT MEAN IT REALLY WORKS.  JUST SAYIN’. 

 I also loathe magazines.  I will not name any in particular because they are all the same to me but just know that they have to say the same thing to you month after month after month so to keep it “fresh”  they begin to add twists and catches to their stories to keep you coming back.  Because let’s face it, how many different ways can you “tighten” the booty or “flatten” the tummy?   Although they have the right to make a living, they do it at the expense of their honesty and your health.  

 When it comes to general weight loss information, you can find it anywhere.  In fact, it’s getting beyond old and moving into nauseating.  But when it comes to crafting a beautiful body from nature’s resources (devoid of fat burners, diet shakes and pre packaged meals), the nation is severely lacking.  I cannot tell you how stressful that is. 

•  You will find very few studies on how to lose the last five pounds or how to lift your butt up off of your ankles so you can at least walk without tripping. 
• There are no studies on lean going leaner or what it takes to get rid of stretch marks and so on. 
• You will not find much truth about what running REALLY does to the body or how much weight you will gain running your first marathon. 
• There aren’t any resources around that are going to tell you how to lose weight the second time around and how hard it really is because we all gain at least 5 pounds back in our lifetime (I know it’s way more than that but I felt I’d ease up on the doom and gloom). 
• And you definitely aren’t going to find any sites to tell you about what to do when things go wrong (you push it too far) or if you have a special issue (pcos, hypothyroid, etc).   

Why?  Because the mainstream media only cares about losing weight *at any cost* and having the hottest story out there.   Those of us who care about losing body fat and looking good at the end are few and far between but we do exist.  We are out here for sure, but we’re a lonely breed of professionals who rely more on our expertise than we do on studies because the studies just do not exist.  What separates us from the others out there is what we primarily focus on:  realistically looking good naked through all natural means of clean eating and supplementation for those who want the stage body without the stage.

Right now there is this new trend of running articles and information flooding the news circuit.  I am going to assume it’s because the economy is bad and people have to do something.  So they’ve left their gyms and took to the pavement.  That’s not a bad thing and I am glad folks aren’t just lying around but what is a bad thing is the junk the media is now pumping out there about running.  Here’s a news flash:  it is not an effective *long* term weight loss/look good naked solution.  Don’t believe the hype!  We have much to talk about this but for now, just know, this is not your long term solution for keeping the weight off and making a hot body.  Can it be part of it?  Absolutely!  But is it the answer they are toting it as?  NO. And you’ll be mad as a hornet when you have to put humpty dumpty back together again after listening to their advice.

No…don’t believe the hype that you are reading out there.  You aren’t crazy.  These things really happen and no one is talking about them.  And those that are talking, aren’t talking reality.  How about we put some facts out there and have some fun while we’re doing it? 

So you know that means there’s much more to come.   I can’t wait.  Hang tight because we will be solving some problems and answering some nagging issues that main stream media wants to ignore.  I promise I won’t leave you hanging.

As always, keep it clean and keep it active.  Woop woop!

A false sense of security mixed with a fragile self image makes for a desperate woman on cardio.

Last week I spoke of how hard it is to get lean the second time around. How you think you will just do all that you did the weeks before and it will just magically fall off again. Umm…WRONG. As we go full steam ahead into this series, let me dispel some myths so we can all be on the same page for this series:

Law of Equitability
Basically, you cannot ask the body to less and somehow you miraculously get more out of it without some type of major “reset” in your system. This is a very hard concept to get through to people but I will try my hardest to explain.

If you just spent 12 to 16 weeks eating 1200 cals/day, doing 60 min of cardio/day, lifting 4 days/week, you are not going to lose weight doing anything less than that any time soon. So let’s say you gain 10 pounds back and you are ready to lose it again. It’s been about 2 to 3 months since you hit goal weight and you have been at this new weight that long. You decide it is time to get back to that miraculous weight you were at before and you think you are just going to start back up again and the weight will fall off. Most of us now know that it does not and what actually happens is that we can stay at that weight doing all that we were doing before forever. Why? Because your body responds to *change*–not absolutes. Whatever you were doing before now must be equal or greater to be able to affect a change in your body. The danger in this is that you can find yourself down to 1000, 900, 800 calories while doing 1, 2, possibly 3 hours of cardio/day to get the scale to move. Do not fall into this trap.

No matter how much water you pour in here, it can only hold 20 ounces.

Law of Diminishing Return
There is a point where no matter how much more you do, you got whatchu got. You ain’t gettin’ no mo. Got me? If you are lean for the first time, hear me as I speak: Pull back on what you are doing to do the least amount that you need to do to get what you want. Don’t get on a cardio “high” and start banging out more than necessary. Or even worse, don’t become paranoid that you need to do a small Olympic trial every week to maintain what you have. You are setting yourself up for failure when you go to lose weight again—and I can guarantee you you will have to lose weight again. The more you do now, you will have to do at least that and most likely more to get lean again. So if you start out gang busters at an hour of cardio/day, guess what? You own that now and then some later on and that is a slippery slope that is not going anywhere good, fast.

Law of Continuation
Taking a fat burner? Tried some other stuff here and there? Messing around with hormones or supplements? If you have introduced them into your diet for any significant amount of time (and this varies/substance) they directly reduce your chances of being able to lose the weight again without them. And just like the law of equitability, you must have more, use more, etc. to get more.

Yes, we’re jackasses.  But we’re still cute.

Law of JackAssery
Unfortunately, we all suffer from this one. Here is what this looks like…

You lose a ton of weight and you look great. To do this you are doing cardio 7 days/week, eating very clean—almost no cheats and lifting like a pscycho. You hit goal weight and your event/wedding/vacation comes and goes. You begin to slip on your program. At this point, what we all should do is enter into a place of maintenance where we back our plan down a bit and settle into a comfortable weight we can maintain. Sometimes that might be 2 or 3 pounds more than what you are right now but you still look good. But mentally we can’t do that. We’ve either been beaten into submission by the scale or have such a fragile self image now that the mere thought of giving up where we are sends us right to the stair master. So we begin to cheat and fall apart WHILE still doing 7 days of cardio, super clean diet and lifting like a psycho. We have more and more days of cheating, we become more and more tired and then suddenly we are up 7 to 10 pounds. But now, shoot to the law of equitability and we see that we’re in trouble. We have gained weight *within* our “cleanness” and now there’s nowhere to go but extreme. Whatever you do, when you know you cannot hang on or it is time to call “uncle”, open up your diet and back your cardio down. Let me repeat that, open up your diet and back your cardio down.

So much to talk about and so little time!

I want to welcome all the new people to the blog, we appreciate you reading us. And we want to welcome all the new ladies who have signed up for updates, we appreciate you as well. I have not sent out anything on this series, yet, because so many new folks were signing up but I will now. Too much to talk about!

Start looking at where you are in your plan right now. Is it sustainable? Is it reasonable? Do you need an intervention? If you can relate to any of this, I want to hear about it below or email me at Jodi@trans4mationstation.com and I will be happy to chat with you.

Maybe it’s me, but as I age I want to keep everything where it is started: high. I’m just sayin’. I have no desire to get up in the morning and locate my backside, unravel my middle and fold up my arms to bring them with me wherever I go. And let us all be so honest and say this happens! Gravity is more powerful than we like to admit and it’s constant; it never gives up. Knowing this, we need to be prepared for the battle and for those of you who have already succumbed to the grips of gravity, there is help.
I am going to spare you a long, drawn out story that I am good for telling. I am not going to tell you anything about someone’s childhood when their butt was high or anything like that and now it’s their my basement and they visit it every-so-often. Nor am I going to describe what happens as you age and have babies or age and don’t have babies but how you may have an accordion for a belly now, a flour sack for a bum or mud flaps for arms. I refuse to give in to the strong desire to provide visuals of examples or horrifying details of how it can happen and scary stories from high school reunions. I had to talk myself out of giving you a two paragraph anatomy and physiology lesson about brown fat, insulin resistance and cavemen (insert whatever else is a popular topic right now…I’m drawing a blank) because it seems the industry demands this. Basically, I was having massive drama when I sat down to write this post and I decided to keep it simple. Here it is in a nutbag—shell, shell…sorry…here it is in a nutshell. Whoopsie.

• You care about how you look in AND out of clothes.
• You work hard in the gym and you watch what you eat. But it’s not enough. There’s something missing.
• You have had a few babies or were/are once heavier than you like and it left you with loose, sagging skin that does not seem to ever go away.
• You workout like a madman but you are not interested in competing in any sport so you really would not consider yourself an athlete per se. But you love a good workout and you diet like a pro.
• You want to lose the weight once and for all and you want someone to walk you through it every step of the way because you do great the first (X) amount of weeks and then it’s in the crapper from there.
• You have a wedding/shower/vacation/maternity leave coming and want to look great for it. I mean not just in your clothes, but the body parts that are not covered, too (arms, legs, abs, etc.).
• You like living on the wild side and think there’s something about this wack ball chic writing that’s appealing to you…like picking a scab or chewing on a hang nail. Hey…I’m being honest here. I will say, though, the other girls are much more sane than I.

Whatever the case may be, here it is: Trans4mation Station.

We set your goal together, we agree upon it and then we put it into action. We ask for at least 3 months full dedication and will tell you if we need more time than that, how long it may take and how it plays out. We are more concerned with your health than we are your results and we will tell you that. If what you desire is extreme, we’ll shut you down from the beginning. This is why we agree upon the goal together. Again, we’re women. We get it. We’ve either been there or are fighting like mad not to be and know what you fear. Happy, well adjusted women are our passion and hope to get you there by the end of your journey with us.
This site will be launching in the next few weeks although the business has been in existence for over a year now. This is what you can expect from a plan:
A customized nutrition plan
Weight training program
Functional Training program
Cardio schedule
Supplementation recommendations (all natural)
Snack list and recipes
Glossary of exercises
A bi-weekly phone call

The training changes monthly, the nutrition changes when necessary (sooner or later than a month, your results decide). I am sure at this point you are thinking, “Sounds great…how much? A million bucks?” Nope.

$199 down (programming fee), $67/month and you may cancel at any time.

I am sure you are tired of counting points, avoiding food groups and endlessly googling only to end up with the same body you started with but maybe a bit smaller. Let’s really transform that body together and get back to who you were before life hit you with a sack of potatoes . Hit me up as soon as possible: Jodi@trans4mationstation.com.

Because of the phone call and the level of detail we provide, we limit the amount of clients we take on. We only have a few spots open now but because enrollment is ongoing, check in with us whenever you are ready to see if we have new openings. In the mean time, I am going to go lift my derriere with a great metabolic lift this morning. Have a great day!

Imagine if it were that simple. In fact, if it were that simple we would not be in the weight crisis that America seems to be in now. For starters, most women are “starvers” before they are ever “eaters” meaning they will forgo food all day long only to eat one meal, possibly two that day and not overeat in the two meals that they do have because they are truly used to operating on such low cals. Secondly, women tend to be more active than men in their day to day lives and if it was just about cals in vs. cals out, activity would have to count for something once dieting and they would begin to drop something.

But it’s not just about that. There is so much more to it and it seems that every time I turn around there is some new “guru” out there telling you how you should just ‘push away from the table’. If you have been trying to lose weight, or better yet, optimize your physique by losing the last 10 to 15 pounds for a while and you have some clown telling you to just “push away from the table” when your diet is cleaner than a dish straight out of the dishwasher, it could get ugly. I find the battle to look good naked is not represented well in the diet arena. There are no studies done on those who are lean (18% to 20% body fat for women) trying to get leaner (12 to 14%). There is nothing out there that tells you the leaner you get, the harder it is to get there again should you gain weight. There is nothing out there that acknowledges REPEAT dieting and the struggles that you incur.

Plateaus, stubborn weight loss, weight loss after a sudden, dramatic gain, weight loss on a seasoned athlete, etc. all pose very difficult situations in which a person can try to lose weight and most likely not succeed on just the simple “cals in vs. the cals out” method. Some situations truly require patience, creativity and intimate knowledge of the human body to be able to shed the weight. Others require you to know a bit of endocrinology or holistic medicine. Regardless, just trying to balance eating less with working out more is not going to get you to your goal, you’re going to have to experiment some.

There are many factors that affect a person trying to lose bodyfat in an effort to be lean. Let’s look at some of them:

Diet History

If you have never dieted before, you will most definitely fall under the CIVCO umbrella the first time you try. In fact, you could even do Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig and get fairly good results. Whatever you do it does not matter because the body has never gone through a diet before so it will respond to a new stimulus almost immediately. However, if you are a career dieter, you will notice right away that the more you diet, the harder it is to lose. When I say this, I do not mean the length of time you are on a diet, I mean the amount of times that you have gone up and down in weight.

Hormone Profile

Hormones are complicated. Do I need to say anymore? Add in an autoimmune to the picture and you have a recipe for frustration. Hypothyroidism, PCOS, Syndrome X, faulty menstrual cycles etc. can slow your progress down to a grinding halt where you never seem to get past the “same 5 pounds” you keep going up and down. You may starve yourself to death but if any of these issues remain unresolved, you are doing nothing but digging yourself further into a hole emotionally and possibly physically.

Muscle Mass

Depending on the amount of muscle mass you have, weight may fall off easier for you than others. The more muscle you have the easier it is for you to get lean. This is not the same as losing weight, this is about losing body fat. If you desire a very lean appearance and you lack a considerable amount of muscle, you will find that you are required to do a bit more than the average person to achieve it. Now I need to be more specific here: I do not mean you need to be muscular or have popping biceps, I want to make that clear. But you do need to have some muscle on your frame. Whenever I have a client who is doing “everything right” and yet cannot seem to get as lean as they want it is typically due to the fact that they lack significant muscle mass for their frame. Again, not the same as needing to look like a body builder of any kind, but you lack the amount of muscle necessary to provide an adequate base BMR to help you out with your dieting.

Supplement Abuse

If you previously abused fat burners, energy drinks or other stimulants, you are in for a battle. Again, you can argue CIVCO all day long but in the end, you are in a permanent plateau until you re-establish equilibrium to your system. I find that it can take as much as one year of “fixing” for every one year of fat burner abuse. This, of course, is purely anecdotal information as I have never seen a study that addressed this phenomenon but I have had plenty of experience working with clients who once abused fat burners.

Set Point Theory

Most of us have heard of this theory and if you have not I will sum it up for you in this way: your body has a certain weight that it wants to be or stay at and it will take an act of nature to successfully move past it or keep from moving to it. If you come to me wanting to lose a particular amount of body fat and want to be a certain weight and have either never been that low before in your life or have not been it in more than ten plus years, I am going to give you the hairy eyeball first and ask you how much it means to you. Am I being a Debbie Downer? No, I’m being realistic. Before you embark on a hard journey, I am giving you a chance to adequately pack for it. So you need to get a big enough bag that can hold your emotional fortitude, ambition, motivation and resolve or be open to the fact that it might not happen.

You may honestly be in a true plateau right now as you try to reach your ideal (not your body’s ideal) body weight. If that is the case, do not be discouraged by those that tout the CIVCO mantra. Their experiences are much different than yours in that their clientele just wants to lose weight. That is much different than what you desire. Because you strive to be leaner, you do not apply to their general public studies performed on general public people who have lots of weight to lose and many habits to change. There are very few studies, if any, on lean folks who eat clean who want to lose another “10 or so” pounds but now find it hard to so. Instead, keep searching for information that speaks to your exact situation and that will help you to stay focused.

Now you know I am eventually going to cover every scenario in this post so stay tuned as I focus on metabolism this week. So much to cover and so little time to get it out to you. *sigh*

I grew up in a middle class neighborhood that was a true suburb in that it had less hustle and bustle than that of a big city but still had enough activity to label it more than a small town. But it also had this strange “country” feel to it that “city folk” would make fun of whenever they would venture into our little city. Now when I say country, I don’t mean Garth Brooks and the Grand Ole Opry, I mean I lived on a street that had a community center for teens on one end of the street and a horse stable on the other. Ummm, yeah. Talk about a dichotomy there.

Another thing that we had in my neighborhood was a “beach”.

Let me tell you right now, it is not a “beach”.

It is a river’s version of a “cul de sac” and it sits all the way down a very long, winding road (ironically, the same road as the horse stable) in the ‘city-country’. The river ends in a lake and the city has cordoned off parts of it for people to swim there. I think in my twenty-some-odd years of living on that road, I might have dipped my feet in the beach water maybe once. I wouldn’t swim in that water if you put a winning lottery ticket on a buoy halfway out and told me I could have all of the money when I got to it. Knowing that water, I would have to spend my entire lottery spoils on good healthcare after that.

Why? Because there is no tide; there’s just a river that drains into the lake (and if you knew where that water was coming from, you’d think keeping the beach open would be criminal). There are no filters, drains, purifying systems, nothing. And over the years, we humans have done a number on that water. From pets swimming in the water, to baby diapers left in the sand, people using it as a port-a-potty, to normal toxic waste coming in from the river, Mother Nature has not been given much time to regenerate and restore this body of water. So year after year, the damage has been done and now you are left with a very unsafe body of water fighting to keep some sort of balance with nature. And right about now you are asking yourself, “Where is she going with this?” Glad you asked.

Do you know what that lake represents? Your liver. Yes, your liver. That poor organ that takes up so much precious real estate on the right side of your body that you abuse more than your favorite pajamas is just crying for some love. I wouldn’t trade livers with some of you (I am making this sound like an actual option) if you paid me a million dollars. Right now, your liver is screaming:

“Dear God in Heaven, can you cut me some slack down here? What do you think this is? A waste paper basket? Enough already with the artificial sweeteners, fake food, smog, alcohol, tainted meat, stress and etc. Can you give an organ a break for crying out loud? All day long you have me shuttling junk out of here and then you think I’m going to help you lose weight, too? MAKE UP YOUR MIND! I’m taking this to the union! Convert energy, store energy, digest food, clean your blood. Enough! I need some relief down here and don’t think because you throw me a juice drink here or there that you are helping me out with cleaning up this dump. You’re not.”

Ok, once you get your liver to pipe down and get some sense, you need to pay attention to what he’s screaming about.

I have spoken about the role of your liver on numerous occasions but now it gets its own article. One of the things about ‘dieting with a specific look in mind at the end’ is everything needs to be on point for this to happen. We take dieting for granted and we shouldn’t. It is not easy nor is it guaranteed so we should be looking for ways to take advantage of every gift we are given in this area. Your liver just happens to be the best gift ever in the fight for a hot body but we do not appreciate it. Instead, we forsake it. Think about what we ingest on a daily basis and it is not too hard to see how much we seem not to care about this organ.

A primary function of your liver is to metabolize fat. If you keep it busy doing everything else (your laundry, your taxes, you know, all the stuff you don’t want to do), it cannot help you to lose body fat (Notice I didn’t say weight. If you want to lose weight just lob off a leg, we want to lose body fat here).

The best way to help your liver out is through detoxification. I bet you think that I am going to tell you to buy a detox of some kind to clean out your liver and then love all over it by avoiding the toxins above plus a few more. Wrong. I am going to tell you to avoid the toxins above (and a few more) but do not buy any pills or potions to “detox” your liver. While keeping it as clean as possible will allow you to lose more weight than you would have been able to if it was all clogged up, I am all about espousing nature and letting her take her course. Instead of focusing on trying to do some “weekend detox” or “instant flush”, just stay true to your clean diet, limit the toxins to as little as possible and drink plenty of water. Your liver will do fine all on its own.

Cleaning your colon does not clean your blood or your liver. Drinking a juice blend of 4 fruits and 3 veggies doesn’t do it either. No, your liver cleans your liver and does it quite nicely. It’s the only organ that can regenerate itself! How’s that for efficiency? Knowing that this organ can regenerate its own tissue and filter blood at a rate of 1.5 quarts/min., it almost seems silly to think that an herb can accomplish half as much as this powerhouse can on its own.

If you stop whatever weapon of choice you are consuming right now, you will allow your liver a chance to clean itself. It’s just like a cat, only it doesn’t demand things of you and then ignore you in your own home like an unwelcomed guest. When left to its own devices, it will clean and purify itself on its own and really does not need much outside help from you. Drink plenty of water (close to a gallon), eat lots of fruits and veggies (you should already be doing this) and limit the fake stuff in your diet (**transparency alert** I love diet coke. I’m working hard to wean this habit so I feel for you) and you are well on your way to maximizing the fat loss through your liver.

I love alcohol.  Seriously. 

Nothing beats a great glass of wine with an even better steak dinner.  It can be relaxing, yummy and almost daring depending on how often you indulge.

But consuming it on a regular basis is not going to get you the body that you want.  It may get you some extra pounds—not because it makes you gain weight, but because it drops your guard and you make bad choices—or possibly some temporary relaxation, but drinking in and of itself makes for a crappy cheat meal.

Occasionally I will read of a trainer saying it is ok to have a drink with their meal as a treat and to count it as a cheat meal.  I hear you trying to keep the client focused and not putting them in a “box of denial” and normally I am the most easy going of folks when it comes to rules.  But alcohol is one that I have a no tolerance policy for when you have a goal that you are trying to reach. 

I get it, too, that it is easy for me to say that because I am no longer shooting for that “look” anymore.  But when I was going for it, I did not drink.  Ever.  Not at Christmas parties, birthday parties, never.  Just was off limits. 

Why?

Because it wastes so much precious time. 

It’s as simple as that. 

Alcohol does not cause you to gain weight.  It just keeps you from losing.  After you get over the dehydration caused by your drink or two, you then have to go about shuttling all the toxins through your liver.  That takes precious time away from your liver to do the thing it likes to do: breakdown fat.  So how do we make this work as a “cheat meal”? 

Once a month if you want to keep progressing—and it would be the only cheat that I would have that meal, that day, that week.

I am typically asked if it matters if it is “lite beer” or “gin vs. vodka” because of the calories.  This has nothing to do with calories.  This has everything to do with the fact that your body does not recognize alcohol as anything but a toxin.  It is not a carbohydrate.  It carries 7 cals per gram when carbs carry 4.  It takes about 24 hours to make it through your system and it is a stimulant typically causing you to have an increased appetite—i.e. munchies. 

Some of the biggest arguments I have had as a nutritionist have been about alcohol.  I get it, it helps you relax.  I know you want to have a glass every night but I am telling you, it will catch up to you more than anything else in your diet.  I can tell when I drink.  I don’t like it so I have since stopped (although I turn 40 this year and I can tell you it is going down!  Sorry…time to focus.)  being as casual about it as I have been the last year and a half so I am back to my original policy of general avoidance.  But for the brief time in my life that I let it back in to my food choices, I could tell the difference and it was not worth it.

Cheats are personal.  Some people can do the nibble thing.  Others need a meal and that’s it.  Some need to know that have the freedom to have something whenever.  Regardless, choose your weapon of choice sans alcohol when you are trying to lose weight or affect a change in your body.  Nothing is worse than wasting time and that’s exactly what alcohol does for you.  Wastes time.

Previous Series Post

Ok, we’ve all hit it.

It’s inevitable.

The dreaded weight loss plateau.

What in heaven’s name do you do now? 

If you’re like most women, you panic!  [Picture Gotham City burning; the Bat signal on the clouds; nothing but mayhem below—you get the idea!]  You start googling everything under the sun.  Here are some classic examples:

how to break a weight loss plateau

how to add intensity to cardio

how to lose 5 pounds in 5 minutes

hacksaws and their effectiveness (I see we’re getting desperate here)

It’s right about now when all rational thought tends to leave your mind.  You can no longer be trusted with your own exercise program.  You are as volatile as Elizabeth Lambert on a soccer field with a sea of pony tails in front of her.  Basically, put the keyboard down and back away slowly. 

Let’s be smart and think about this.  What causes a weight loss plateau?

1)       You’re in a rut. 

Have you been doing the same routine since the gym opened 3 years ago?  Seriously, when’s the last time you changed your workout?

2)       You’re too chicken to raise the weight.

If you have been lifting the same 10 pound weights since you can remember, it is time to make your exercises harder.  You must gradually increase resistance so you can keep challenging yourself.  Now, if you do this and you realize you can lift a car by yourself or one of the stones in a strongman competition, I would venture to say that that is not your issue.  At that point, you need to keep reading for other ideas.

3)       You do the same intensity workout day in and day out.

Your idea of an interval workout is leaving the remote by the tv and standing up in between commercials to change the station.  You need to branch out and add some hutzpah to your routine!  No matter who I talk to about this, I always find someone that knows this to be true but still doesn’t actually *do* it.

4)       You’re a hamster stuck in a wheel.

Now you’re the opposite of 3.  You are so neurotic about your exercise, you are doing plyos on Mon., Wed. and Fri., marathon training on Tues., Thurs., Sat. and Sun., Yoga on Wed and Sat, Jujitsu on Mon. and Thurs., Rock climbing every other weekend, bootcamp Tues. and Fri. and etc.  You have more going on than a bingo hall on a Friday night.  Less is more in this case.  Back it down and you’ll lose 5 pounds right away.

5)       You’re starving.

Have you pushed the cals so low you don’t even realize you’re biting your nails for extra protein?  When’s the last time you took a break dieting?  Every woman is on some kind of diet at some time in her life.  Have you been on one just a wee bit too long?  Do you count everything that you eat?  Or measure everything?  Have a hard time letting go of the structure?  Believe it or not, if you walk away from this for a week or two, you’ll probably break the plateau.

There are countless reasons for weight loss plateaus, these are just a few, and all of them are frustrating.  Before you make any rash moves, take two minutes to be as objective as you can possibly be about your program.  Keep track of how you are feeling and how you are doing with your program so you can spot trouble before it happens. 

Keep in mind, three things have to be the same for 3 weeks in a row to constitute a plateau:  bodyfat, pictures and weight.  If you are only checking one of those, it is not a true plateau!

It’s time for me to start a new series.  I have not decided on what it is going to be but I have kicked the idea of a weight loss plateau around.  Just know, another series is on the way very soon and like the ones before, will be very informative. 

Ok, get to the gym and start raising that weight!!:o)

So far in this menu series we have laid out proteins, fruits and veggies using a simple system of color coding.  Color is tremendously important in the world of food because the more colorful the food, the nutrient packed the food is.  Keeping your plate looking like the Rainbow Coalition is a great way to stay on the healthy side of life. 

But unlike protein, fruits and vegetables, starchy carbohydrates are not easily broken down by color.  A perfect example of that would be potatoes.  You have red potatoes, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes—and I would recommend that you eat them all at the same frequency because none is more nutritious than the other (ok, sweet potatoes have a slight edge;).   

Starches are also *not necessary* to be in your diet the way that fruits and veggies are or any other food source for that matter.  Yes whole grains are healthy, but they are not necessary.  For one thing, we just started eating them as a species.  We never ate grains on a regular basis thousands of years ago.  We were more meat based and plant based.  Also, no matter what grain you choose, it will require some level of processing just to be palatable.  When’s the last time you went wheat berry picking? 

So going strictly by color might not be the most prudent methods of choosing a starch.  But what about a starch’s texture?  I would venture to say that a starch’s texture is far more important than any other aspect of its composition.  There are 3 types of texture:

Shards of fiberglass:  This starch is the mainstay of any person’s diet who honestly says they are serious about looking good naked.  Fully represented by cut up gums, acquired taste buds and hard core chewing, this starch is all about health.  Do not even THINK of giving this to any family member who has not been thoroughly sworn into the “I care how I look AND feel club” or you will never hear the end of it.

Barley, quinoa, couscous, shredded wheat, millet, brown rice, steel cut oats.

Pass me the water, please:  This starch is characterized by a thick, smooth feel on the palette.  Nowhere near as intense as the shards of fiberglass family, but not an easy sell either.  Family members may not hate you after these, but they are still not party favorites. 

Lentils, beans, oatmeal (slow cooked), Ezekiel bread, oat bran, whole grain, brown rice

Flashbacks of Sade:  That’s right, these are Smooth Operators.  Eating these guys makes you forget about the 3 molecules of water that you’ll be holding on your butt for every gram of starch in them.  To be honest, you don’t care.  If you could slap a stick of butter on these and hum while eating them—you would!  These guys make ya wanna holla every time you eat one.  Family members will eat most of these starches but typically they bathe and dress them in things that would make you do double cardio just knowing they were in the house.

Potatoes (sweet, red, white, gold), Squash (acorn, butternut, spaghetti), pumpkin, root veggies, bananas

There are some foods that are missing off of this list on purpose:  peas, corn, lima beans, tortillas, pasta etc.  They just are not worthy of any good press.  Try to limit them to one time per week or less if possible.

Here are the rules:

1)       VARY YOUR TEXTURES!  Because we are creatures of habits and eat oatmeal like it’s our jobs, we deny our palettes the fun of pumpkin!  Texture is AS important as color when it comes to variety and beating food boredom.

2)       Try to have at least one from each texture every week.  If you are not eating starches on a regular basis, try starting with the Flashbacks.  They are easier to get down and chock full of vitamins.

3)       Do not repeat a texture in a day.  Most people have 1 to 3 starch servings per day but may find themselves eating different variations of oatmeal all day long.  Do not do that.  Vary your starch as much as possible.  Although quinoa, millet and spelt are all very healthy for you, eating them all in the same day may preclude you from any long board meetings for a few days.  Easy on the fiber there quick shooter!  OY!

Ok…we’re getting closer to having all of our foods laid out on the counter.  We have fats next and then we ‘order’ them.  I hope you have been trying some of these suggestions as to how to put some variety in your menu.  Feel free to share some tips in the comment section below if you have any!  I really want to hear about them!:o)

Previous Series Post Next Post in Series