In today’s episode we’re talking about the most common mistake people make when measuring fat loss or progress toward any goal: business, fitness, weight loss, you name it. Then we establish a new way to approach measuring progress and give practical recommendations for benchmarking your progress. Want to know the best way to measure fat loss (and the worst)? Listen to today’s episode! Don’t forget – I want to know your questions, challenges and obstacles so get on the free VIP e-newsletter list so you can share with me!
Hey hey! I want to share with you one of my favorite things that I’m newly obsessed with! Two things, actually. They are helping me in a few really specific ways and I realized this morning that I hadn’t told you about them yet!
(I’m trying a new thing – if you’d rather listen to this blog instead of read it, click below to listen to the audio version. Do you like it? Should I do more audio blogs? Let me know what you think!)
I am really big into being productive in the morning. Crazy things always happen during the day. Unexpected commitments, delays, problems, obstacles – you name it. Murphy’s law shows up on the regular: whatever can go wrong will. It just happens.
I also believe that if I have the right attitude and focus, I’m much more capable of handling whatever life throws my way.
There are two ways I try to take advantage of the morning time:
Get my attitude right. Set the stage for how I’ll approach the day
Complete my most important things early in the day
Here’s the truth and I teach this in almost all of my courses: what you focus on you feel. If you focus on where you went wrong, what you missed out on, what stressors are ahead – you’re going to feel frustrated, disappointed and stressed.
If, on the other hand, you focus on what you’re grateful for, what you’re excited about and all the good things you’re accomplishing, you’ll feel happy, satisfied and proud.
I don’t know about you but I make far better food choices when I’m feeling good than when I’m feeling bad. If I’m feeling down, I can talk myself into eating all sorts of junk, I can talk myself out of a workout and I can talk myself into being lazy and unproductive.
So really, managing my mindset is a huge part of achieving my fat loss and fitness goals. Maybe the biggest part, honestly. It is absolutely one of my “big rocks” as I call them – the 20% of things that drive 80% of my results.
Now, onto the tools. There are two tools I’ve been using regularly lately that do so much for helping me keep my head in the right place so I can make good decisions. And I will tell you: my body is responding. My positive outlook is improving my choices and my body is changing. I’m happy.
The first is a little journal called The Five Minute Journal. I had heard Tim Ferriss talk about it years ago and more recently I’ve heard several other very successful folks say that they use it and love it so I decided to go for it. It is NOT your typical journal. It is not about sitting down to write for 20 minutes about what happened and your feelings about it. It’s really the 80/20 principle embodied in a journal (can you tell I’m loving it?).
The premise is this: you take a couple minutes in the morning and a couple minutes before bed to fill out some predefined fields that focus you on gratitude, affirmations, accomplishments and improvements. I am LOVING it. Honestly, it is making such a huge difference in my mindset and my focus (and like I said, my body is responding).
Of course the biggest challenge is actually doing it every day as opposed to having intentions but not making the time or forgetting it exists after a few days. The key for me is putting it in the place I go to every morning first thing and every night before bed. Yep. I’m not embarrassed to say that mine is in the bathroom. That’s the first stop I make in the morning and the last stop before bed! Don’t judge me!
The second tool that is making a big difference for me is a free app called Win Streak (search for it in the app store of your phone). Basically, you put it on your smartphone or tablet and all you do is note 3 wins you had today and 3 wins you’re anticipating for tomorrow. This does a few powerful things for me:
It keeps me focused on the positive. Instead of beating myself up and searching for the things I’ve messed up or opportunities I haven’t taken advantage of, I’m focusing on all the positive accomplishments in my life (no matter how small they are!)
It allows me to forecast victories for tomorrow. It’s easy to live with dread, right? Dreading what you have to do tomorrow or next week or the project hanging over your head at work. I am much happier (and happiness, for me, leads to better choices) when I’m approaching each day with positive expectation.
It has changed my perspective and motivated me in a unique way to look for and then accomplish these wins. I like the feeling of adding a win to my app. I look for ways to win and then I follow through so I can record it. Silly, but true and extremely powerful.
Have you used either of these? What did you think? What is the most powerful thing you do to start your day? Are you going to grab a copy of The Five Minute Journal? I highly recommend it!
Today’s Q&A is another “random show”! Short answers to a handful of questions including how to handle menopause and fat loss, whether or not superfood supplements are worth it, overcoming scale frustration and staying on track when life gets crazy. If you find this episode helpful or if you have questions, hurry up and get on the VIP e-newsletter list so we can stay in touch and so I’m sure to answer your questions!
As I near menopause, it is becoming much more challenging to burn fat. How do I handle menopause and fat loss? I know there are hormonal factors at play. What are your recommendations?
What is your take on high density superfood drinks, such as Kylea Total Living Greens Drink, Beachbody Shakeology, Athletic Greens, etc. Is it even possible to get your body’s total vitamin and mineral needs through diet alone or is it beneficial to supplement with these “superfood” drinks or any other product claiming to provide high quality dense nutrition that we are missing out on because the average American diet doesn’t consist of a variety of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis?
My clothes are fitting better but the scale isn’t moving! What should I do?
I know life is going to get crazy at times and I’m worried that I’ll veer off track as soon as stress hits. How can I manage to not let it throw me off?
Today we’re going to be tackling a super common question and that is about how to beat stubborn belly fat. Most people find that the midsection fat is the hardest to lose. We’re much more quick to lose weight in our face, chest, arms and legs but that belly fat is pretty dang stubborn. And it is. But there are strategies to burn that belly fat and we’re going to dive into them today. Oh, and if you find this episode helpful or if you have topic suggestions or personal question, take a quick sec to get on the VIP e-newsletter list!
Insulin in brain= shuts off hunger= insulin resistance in brain= increased hunger
Insulin in liver= decrease glucose production (inhibits gluconeogenesis) and decrease glycogen breakdown (inhibits glycogenolysis)= insulin resistance in liver= increased glucose production and increased glycogen breakdown= high fasting blood sugar
Insulin in muscle tissue= increase glucose & fat uptake= insulin resistance in muscle= inability to burn fat and sugar
Insulin in fat cell= increased fat storage and decreased fat release= insulin resistance in fat cell= decreased fat storage and increased fat release
So, the ideal situation may be to remain insulin sensitive in muscle, brain, liver, BUT insulin resistant at the fat cell
Practical Implementation
Follow the golden rules of carbs & fat loss
Eat your carbs at the right time
The right type of carb
In the right amount
In the right company
Minimize the processed foods. Period. If you are struggling with belly fat the #1 weapon is going to be what you let pass your lips.
Emphasize non starchy veggies and protein (but do not overdo the protein as it will stimulate insulin)
Get plenty of healthy fats, especially essential fatty acids – these get incorporated into your cell membrane and make your cellular receptors more responsive to insulin. This is a good thing.
Avoid elevating cortisol and insulin at the same time via:
Skip carbs in the am (from all sources except non-starchy veggies)
Skip the high sugar pre-workout drinks
Monitor stress and practice stress reduction
Meditation
Leisure walking
Yoga
Mindfulness
Sleep
Perspective
Prioritize sleep. Check out this episode on how to improve sleep quality when you can’t increase quantity
Exercise intelligently
If you’re worried about burning belly fat, please stop with the chronic cardio.
A few times each week do HIIT to create that hormonal response you want from your catecholamines without the exaggerated insulin response
In today’s episode we’re busting the major myth that calorie counting leads to fat loss. Calorie counting doesn’t work unless you understand what you’re looking at. The way most people go about calorie counting is completely misleading and will not lead to fat loss or health. We talk about what a calorie actually is and all the reasons that calories are not created equal.
A calorie is a unit of measurement as is an inch or a mile or a degree. A calorie measures the energy potential within a food – how much energy (via heat) is released when it is burned in a closed system. Unfortunately, humans are not closed systems and the energy is not simply “burned”. Calories do far more than just release heat within the human body. In fact, that’s the least of it. They influence satiety, metabolic rate, brain activity, blood sugar and hormones in very different ways. For these reasons, calories are not all created equal when looking at their impact on people.
4 Reasons Calorie Counting Doesn’t Work (detailed in episode)
The human body is not a closed system
The source of calories determines the metabolic pathway. Different metabolic pathways have a massive difference on how we feel, our fat burning potential and our total energy usage.
The source of calories, even within the same macronutrient group, determines their impact on hormones. The same number of calories from two different types of sugar can have a hugely different hormonal impact.
The source of calories has a variable thermic effect
