Let me say right off the bat that calories DO matter when it comes to fat loss. If you’re taking in more fuel (food) than your body needs, the excess will be stored and your body won’t go looking for additional energy to burn (from your stored body fat). However, calories are just ONE part of the equation, and they aren’t the most important part. What matters more? HORMONES.
Seriously. Hormones are chemical messengers. They’re constantly assessing the conditions inside and outside your body and firing off signals and instructions based on what’s going on. Your hormones determine what your body does with the fuel you’re consuming. Your hormones are responsible for instructing your body to either burn fat or store fat. They’re determining if you’re tapping into muscle for fuel. They trigger mood swings, hunger and cravings. They are responsible for your energy, your ability to think clearly (or not), your libido and your metabolic rate.Hormones run the show.
Sure, you can cut calories without regard to hormone balance. Traditional crash diets or extreme exercise routines can wreak total havoc on your hormones. They’ll drain your energy, make you hungry and send your cravings through the roof. Over time, they’ll slow your metabolism – one of the main reasons people tend to regain the weight they lose on such programs. Not only that, any weight you do LOSE is just as likely to be muscle or water as it is fat. Specific hormonal signals are what allow you to burn fat in the first place. Not some arbitrary calorie deficit.
Your body is designed to ensure your survival. When you focus on creating the largest calorie deficit possible by eating less and exercising more, your hormones create a survival-first scenario in your body. It perceives that fuel is scarce and responds by increasing your hunger, increasing your cravings, slowing your metabolism, releasing stress hormones and holding on tighter than ever to your stored fat in case it is needed for survival.
On the other hand, there are basic nutritional and lifestyle principles that balance these hormones. They encourage fat loss. They decrease hunger. They reduce cravings. They improve your mood, outlook and mental focus. They increase your metabolism, quench inflammation and help you sleep better at night.
Want to know more about how you can balance your hormones naturally? Without doctor appointments, without expensive prescription medications? Without turning your life upset down? I am ALWAYS talking about this with the folks on my Primal Potential VIP email list. Click here to get on it now and get a free download that will help get you started!!
I have failed over and over again. I have created plans, set goals and missed them by miles. I’ve beat myself up, told myself off and thrown in the towel hundreds of times. You know what? It has helped me. That’s right: All those repeated failures gave me incredibly powerful information that all came together to allow me to change life.
From all those failures, I have the incredible benefit of knowing what DOESN’T work for me. I don’t have to try A, B and C because I already did and they didn’t work. For example, I know that money is not an incentive for me. You could offer me $300 for every 10 lbs I lose and that won’t be enough to keep me out of the bag of Oreos. I’ll argue with myself that tomorrow I’ll be back on track and I’ll still get that $300 because I’ll be “extra strict” after indulging in the Oreos. I am really good at lying to myself like that. From my failures I learned not to waste my time with incentives that don’t work. The only incentive I need is what I’m truly after: a fit, strong, healthy body.
The whole “super strict” thing? That doesn’t work for me, either. Yeah, I can do it for a few days or even a couple of weeks but I know, from failing a million times, that it’s going to end the same way: with a binge. All that willpower, restriction and deprivation ultimately makes me snap and go into a wild sugar frenzy. From my failures I learned that I need a more moderate approach. I need to build in enough margin to enjoy my favorite things every once in a while. Total deprivation makes me feel like a caged bird and the only thing I can think about is breaking free.
Too much exercise makes me a sugar junky. I messed this one up more times than I can count. A little exercise is good so as much as I can possibly fit into my day must be better, right? Uh, not for me. Never. This goes very wrong very fast. Over the last 20 years I have gone on so many exercises binges. I’d spend hours each day working out. I’d get up early, stay up late and “burn” as many calories as humanly possible. The result? I was ravenously hungry all the time. My cravings were out of control. My ability to resist the hunger and cravings was very limited and my eating would negate any potential benefits from all that working out. From getting that one wrong a few dozen times, I’m now easily able to resist the temptation to workout “more”. One high intensity workout each day is what is best for my body. No need to mess around with anything else.
I can’t predict what the scale will do. Oh my goodness. If you could see my planners and notebooks and spreadsheets over the last several years you’d probably think I’m Rain Man. I spent years obsessed with predicting how much weight I could lose by a certain date. I’d write it out, day by day, what my weight would be on each day and when I’d hit some certain arbitrary goal. It never worked. Weight loss isn’t linear like that. Fortunately, from dealing with frustrating and feelings of failure for years, I know that doesn’t work for me. Now, I embrace consistency. I don’t predict my results. I concentrate on my actions.
Don’t keep trying things that haven’t worked in the past. In fact, become a student of your failures. Are there strategies you keep trying even though they haven’t worked yet? Are there theories you hold despite proving to yourself that they aren’t true? Embrace your failures. They are the keys you need to make this journey a success! Within your failures is just about everything you need to make a total transformation!
There is very little more frustrating than hitting a weight loss plateau. The food choices and exercise that had been getting you great results for months all of a sudden aren’t getting you anywhere. Your weight isn’t moving, your inches aren’t changing, your clothes fit the same but you’re working as hard as ever! What the heck?!
Weight loss plateaus are very common and you should expect them, but that certainly doesn’t make them any easier to deal with!
Your body is built to seek balance. More often than not your body will be fighting against everything you do to lose weight. It’s going to work hard to adapt to the changes you make and you’ll find your body is less responsive over time. Sad, but true.
The easiest way to tackle plateaus is to create your weight loss plan in such a way that you always have another play in your book to keep your body guessing and reduce the chances that you’ll hit a plateau to begin with.
Think of your weight loss efforts as a continuum. On the far left you have reverse progress, or eating, exercising and living in a way that moves youawayfrom your weight loss goals. Of course we want to avoid that.
A little further down the path is the minimum amount of changes required to see results. Maybe this is 3 workouts each week and eating clean 70% of the time. You continue down that continuum until the max point – eating clean 100% of the time and working out at your maximum amount of time and effort.
Sometimes we make the mistake of starting out guns blazing close to the far right of this spectrum. I am SOOOOO guilty of this! As our body adapts (and it always does), we aren’t left with much wiggle room to kick things into a higher gear. You put yourself in position where your only options are eat less or exercise more. That’s a bad place to be as both are likely to increase your hunger and decrease your energy. Not to mention that fact that you’ll probably be 100% miserable and unable to maintain that kind of program.
I made the mistake early on in my weight loss. About 6 months in I got super strict with my eating and workouts. I basically limited my intake to lean proteins and green vegetables. While that’s great for fat loss it certainly wasn’t the minimum effective dose and when my body adapted, I had very few options other than to endure several months of frustration. I had to take time off, settle for not making any progress and wait until my body was ready for me to try again. NOT FUN! (But totally my own fault!)
The best approach is to identify your minimum effective changes and gradually increase your intensity as your body adapts. Start making small, incremental changes and monitoring your progress. When you find something that works, keep doing it! Resist the urge to add more, eat less or up your intensity. Seriously. I know how tempting it is but that approach is very likely to backfire. Stay consistent with that small change for as long as you’re making progress towards your goals. When your progress slows or stops, add another small change that boosts your rate of progress again. Keep practicing it, keep monitoring your results, and continue to avoid the urge to go “all in” right out of the gate!
Oh boy am I excited to write about this topic. I’m not sure why – it’s not something that has been a lifelong passion for me or anything – but when I started to learn more about it and realized how much of what I thought I knew was wrong, I knew I had to share it with you. I want to talk to you about cholesterol. That word has an unfairly negative connotation. It blows my mind that you can go to reputable sites from health institutions and the government and read so much about cholesterol that just is flat out wrong.
Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that is so critical to human health that every single cell within our bodies is equipped to produce it on its own. Our liver is designed to recycle it so we can get as much use out of it as possible. Cholesterol is used to make vitamin D, to make hormones, and to make neurotransmitters (such as serotonin, a primary regulator of mood). Cholesterol is required for the formation of synapses in your brain – allowing you to think, analyze and store information.
It’s no surprise that human breast milk is naturally high in cholesterol and even contains a special enzyme to make sure that infants absorb as much of it as possible.
Nora Gedgaudas, author of “Primal Body, Primal Mind” refers to cholesterol as the human body’s version of duct tape. I love that and think its spot on. Cholesterol is deployed in response to chronic stress, poor dietary choices, thyroid issues, injury or inflammation. Because of that, it’s often found “at the scene of the crime” in the case of arterial damage.
You see, when there is damage within our bodies, new cells are generated to help repair the damage. Cholesterol is a component of those new cells. In additional to that, cholesterol – that duct tape of the human body – is carried to the scene of the crime via its carrier, LDL, to help patch up the damage. Unfortunately, because of our generally poor dietary choices and chronic stress, we never stop initiating this damage. Chronically high carbohydrate consumption keeps our inflammatory response in overdrive. Chronic stress causes internal damage and our body never gets a break. But cholesterol keeps doing its job – getting deployed out to the scene of the crime to patch things up. Well of course, if you keep slapping on additional layers of duct tape it will pile up and yes, you guessed it, you start to see “clogged arteries”.
Since cholesterol is there, it gets the blame. How about we look at what’s causing the damage!? Cholesterol is a healing substance – why is it chronically needed for healing? Where’s the damage coming from and how do we make THAT stop? It’s like saying that since police are at the scene of every crime we need to focus on reducing the number of police so that there is less crime. Um, yeah, go ahead and try that.
Now, I want to make one more point about cholesterol from food sources. Yes, your body is capable of producing cholesterol on its own. However, it’s a very complex and inefficient process. When you consume cholesterol from food sources, your body is able to down regulate cholesterol production. There is a natural system of checks and balances in place because we were designed to consume cholesterol rich foods like eggs and animal proteins. However, when you dramatically cut cholesterol and saturated fats from your diet, your body sends its cholesterol production into overdrive because it can’t possible survive without ample cholesterol.
If you want to be healthy, if you want your body to function optimally, if you want your immune system to be strong, here’s my advice: eliminate the cause of the damage within your body. Cut out processed foods and wheat products. Focus on whole foods, fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and high quality meat, poultry and seafood. Don’t think you’re doing yourself any favors by cutting your cholesterol intake or limiting your fat intake. The real culprit here is inflammation and the primary drivers of inflammation are poor food choices and chronic stress.
I have failed over and over again. I have created plans, set goals and missed them by miles. I’ve beat myself up, told myself off and thrown in the towel hundreds of times. You know what? It has helped me. That’s right:All those repeated failures gave me incredibly powerful information that all came together to allow me to change life.
From all those failures, I have the incredible benefit of knowing what DOESN’T work for me. I don’t have to try A, B and C because I already did and they didn’t work. For example, I know that money is not an incentive for me. You could offer me $300 for every 10 lbs I lose and that won’t be enough to keep me out of the bag of Oreos. I’ll argue with myself that tomorrow I’ll be back on track and I’ll still get that $300 because I’ll be “extra strict” after indulging in the Oreos. I am really good at lying to myself like that. From my failures I learned not to waste my time with incentives that don’t work.The only incentive I need is what I’m truly after: a fit, strong, healthy body.
The whole “super strict” thing? That doesn’t work for me, either. Yeah, I can do it for a few days or even a couple of weeks but I know, from failing a million times, that it’s going to end the same way: with a binge. All that willpower, restriction and deprivation ultimately makes me snap and go into a wild sugar frenzy. From my failures I learned that I need a more moderate approach. I need to build in enough margin to enjoy my favorite things every once in a while.Total deprivation makes me feel like a caged bird and the only thing I can think about is breaking free.
Too much exercise makes me a sugar junky. I messed this one up more times than I can count. A little exercise is good so as much as I can possibly fit into my day must be better, right? Uh, not for me. Never. This goes very wrong very fast. Over the last 20 years I have gone on so many exercises binges. I’d spend hours each day working out. I’d get up early, stay up late and “burn” as many calories as humanly possible. The result? I was ravenously hungry all the time. My cravings were out of control. My ability to resist the hunger and cravings was very limited and my eating would negate any potential benefits from all that working out. From getting that one wrong a few dozen times, I’m now easily able to resist the temptation to workout “more”. One high intensity workout each day is what is best for my body. No need to mess around with anything else.
I can’t predict what the scale will do. Oh my goodness. If you could see my planners and notebooks and spreadsheets over the last several years you’d probably think I’m Rain Man. I spent years obsessed with predicting how much weight I could lose by a certain date. I’d write it out, day by day, what my weight would be on each day and when I’d hit some certain arbitrary goal. It never worked. Weight loss isn’t linear like that. Fortunately, from dealing with frustrating and feelings of failure for years, I know that doesn’t work for me.Now, I embrace consistency. I don’t predict my results. I concentrate on my actions.
Don’t keep trying things that haven’t worked in the past. In fact, become a student of your failures. Are there strategies you keep trying even though they haven’t worked yet? Are there theories you hold despite proving to yourself that they aren’t true? Embrace your failures. They are the keys you need to make this journey a success! Within your failures is just about everything you need to make a total transformation!
