Dealing with adversity

If you are trying to change your body you are probably going to encounter adversity along the way. You are going to come across times when the easy thing to do is to make poor nutritional choices, you are going to encounter times when the workouts get hard and you want to quit, and you are going encounter times when you are so busy that it is hard to find time to eat right and workout. The trouble is that when most people encounter adversity in their path towards a better body they quit and say that the program is too hard. The truth is that those who are willing to push through the hard times are the ones who are probably going to get the best results. So what are some possible road blocks that you may face along the way?

• Eating with friends and family who will try to feed you poor food
• Holidays
• No energy to workout
• Muscle soreness
• Too much to do and not enough time to workout
• Travel
• Vacations
• Social events

These are all roadblocks that can be overcome if you keep a long term picture of what you want to accomplish. Most people are too caught up in the now. For example, the cheesecake may taste good now but is it helping you reach your goals in the long run. Body transformations require several weeks of hard work, discipline, and consistency. Those that can stay the course and deal with the adverse situations along the way are the ones who will reap the rewards.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

So you want to change your body? I will tell you that you need to get outside your comfort zone. Most people take the approach of walking or doing light exercise to try and change their bodies. The way to make real changes to your body is to step outside of your comfort zone and push yourself a little further than you thought possible.

All sorts of good things happen when you step outside of your comfort zone. By pushing yourself and stepping up the intensity of your workouts you will increase levels of many hormones. These hormones determine where the food goes(nutrient partitioning). If you have a better hormonal environment then the food you eat will be more likely to go to your muscles instead of your fat.

There are a lot of people who say they want to change their bodies but when it actually comes time to put in the work, they are not willing to do the work that it takes to be successful. This is the reason why such a large percentage of people fail when attempting to change their bodies. It is the person who has the mental ability to keep pushing when things get hard that will always have the best results.

If you want to change your body you must also have the bigger picture in mind. What would cause anyone to want to step outside of their comfort zone? If you have a vision of what you would like to accomplish then you often know the work that will need to take place to get you to your goal. Stepping outside of your comfort zone is just part of the process of reaching your goals. By stepping outside of your comfort zone you will disrupt your bodies homeostasis. Our bodies must be forced to change by doing thing that you have never done before. So push yourself a little harder in your workouts and just remember that "extraordinary results require extraordinary methods."

Eat Like a Man and Still Lose Weight

On the nutrisystem commercials that are on TV you hear the saying "eat like a man and still lose weight." There is some truth to the statement. I don't think nutrisystem understands what this truth is but there is truth in this statement. The hardest clients to get to lose weight are the ones who have constantly resrtricted their nutrition, have tried every diet, and eat almost no food. The easiest clients to ge to lose weight are the ones who have not really dieted much and just eat whatever they want. It is pretty easy to get these clients to lose 10-15 lbs within a couple of weeks with just some small changes. Lets take a look at why this is the case.

What happens when you eat like a man? When you eat enough food for your body but do not overeat you send the proper signals to your body to maintain adequate levels of hormones such as testosterone, leptin, ghrelin, and thyroid. On the other hand when you constantly diet and eat really low calorie levels you lower your levels of all of these key hormones, and remember that hormones are what determine body composition because they determine nutrient partitioning. Nutrient partitioning is simply your hormones directing the calories you consume into either muscle or fat. If you have proper hormonal balance then you will partition your calories well and it will be easy to lose fat. If your hormones are out of balance from constant dieting then you will have a partitioning problem and it will be hard to lose weight.

So if you eat like a man you probably will lose weight if you keep the quality of your nutrition high(veggies, meats, nuts, fruit, a little starch, and no sugar). Low calorie dieting is not the way we are made to eat. Restore the balance in your body by eating plenty of the right foods. The quality of your food is what determines nutrient partitioning, along with weight lifting, good sleep, and low stress levels.

Boost Your Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is responsible for brain power. Dopamine is also responsible for regulating your metabolism. When you influence your brain chemistry this is the origin of where normal hormone production starts. Thus, changing brain chemistry is the fastest way to influence body composition.

So if you want to lose weight you should consider things that will raise dopamine. If you have low levels of dopamine you are likely to be overweight with extra weight in your stomach. In order to raise dopamine naturally the easiest thing you can do is to eat more protein. Protein is rich in the amino acid tyrosine(the precursor for dopamine). One of the biggest mistakes that the average person makes is that they eat no protein at breakfast. By skipping your protein at breakfast you are missing out on an easy way to naturally increase your dopamine and lose weight. Another easy way to increase dopamine is to exercise. Exercise increases dopamine and the increased dopamine makes you want to exercise even more.

When your dopamine levels are increased you will be more likely to want to exercise, less likely to overeat, and you will have better energy throughout the day.

Strength

When it comes to changing your body and improving your health strength is king. Muscle mass is very metabolically active and requires more energy to maintain. This means that by having more muscle you will have a higher metabolism. Strength is also a much more needed quality in everyday life than cardio. Strength is necessary to carry bags, move furniture, lift your kids, and many other things that you do everyday.

So how do you build strength. Resistance training that incorporates progressive resistance is the way to get stronger. Resistance training with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, or body weight exercises all work. The key to getting stronger is to use progressive resistance, which means that the amount of weight that you lift is gradually increasing. Strength training is a process that your body adapts to, so every time you repeat a workout you should expect to do better. You can do better by either lifting the same weight for more repetitions or lifting more weight. As long as you constantly try to improve your workouts with progressive resistance you will build strength. The most common mistake that people make is that they do not push themselves to do better in their workouts. The easy thing to do is to settle and do what you did last time, but this approach will not provide you any gains because once your body adapts you will no longer benefit from that workout.

Grass Fed Beef and Dairy

Most of the beef and dairy you find these days is from cows that have been fed corn, antibiotics, and who knows what else(sawdust has been approved as feed). Cows are made to eat grass not corn. They are fed corn because corn is cheap and it fattens them up. If the cows are fatter then the farm makes more money. By feeding the cows corn they change the nutritional value of the meat and dairy that comes from the cow. Cows that have been fed corn have more saturated fat, higher levels of Omega 6 fatty acids, and they lack CLA(which is helpful in burning body fat).

Commercially raised beef and dairy is also a warehouse for toxins. You have to remember that fat is where all animals store the toxins that they are exposed to, so if a cow is fed antibiotics and exposed to a lot of toxins then those toxins will be found in the meat that you are eating.

For these reasons it is important to choose grass-fed beef and dairy. By choosing grass-fed products you will lower your exposure to toxins, and increase your consumption of healthy fats. The only problem with grass-fed beef is that it is not easy to find. In order to find grass-fed beef consider going to the farmers market, health food stores, or contacting local farms. If you live in an area that has large health food stores such as Whole Foods or Trader Joes then you will be able to find it there.

Grocery Shopping

One of the keys to a successful nutrition program is learning how to grocery shop properly. When you go to the grocery store the foods that you should be eating are all on the periphery of the store. The produce, meats, nuts, and dairy can call be found on the outside edges of the store. It is when you go in the aisles that you get in trouble. In the aisles is where you will find all of the processed and fake foods. Most people who are trying to lose weight eat fake foods that are fat free or sugar free. You will get much better results if you stick to real foods. By sticking to real foods you will avoid all of the sweeteners, additives, preservatives, trans fats, and high fructose syrup that cause a lot of health and metabolic problems. Sticking to real foods will allow your metabolism to function properly without the toxic loads of all the fake foods.