Workout Hard, Post-workout Smart, Part II

female-tape measure six pack-1-375

In this second installment of “Workout Hard, Postworkout Smart” I am going to go into detail about why you should avoid carbs and if you should consider making fat a part of your post-workout strategy. In the last installment I covered the fundamentals of a post-workout strategy and defiled some sacred ground when I challenged the established notion that our bodies need carbs to increase protein synthesis (not true) and to replenish our glycogen stores (also not true).  I went so far as to say that carbs should only be included in a post-workout plan under certain conditions and that anyone with the goal of losing body fat should never eat carbs post-workout.

4 Reasons to Avoid Carbs Post-workout

So that you aren’t following my recommendations in blind faith I will give you 4 reasons that you shouldn’t include carbs so you, too, can testify and walk in the light:

1. Carbs trigger the release of insulin, the hormone responsible for fat storage.  Insulin converts carbs into stored body fat.  The higher your blood sugar levels the bigger the spike in insulin release and consequently the more fat your store.
2. Our bodies store 3 grams of water for every 1 gram of glucose.  Eating large quantities of post-workout carbs make you retain more water, giving you that swollen and bloated look.  Don’t let water retention kill your definition!
3. Intense resistance training and high intensity interval training creates a huge surge in growth hormone (GH).  GH is a muscle building, fat burning and anti-aging hormone that cannot exist in the blood stream in any substantial amount when insulin is also present.  The insulin spike from carbs effectively shuts down your GH surge erasing one of the best benefits of training.
4. Chronically high insulin levels lead to insulin insensitivity, which can eventually lead to chronic disease like adrenal fatigue and even diabetes.

More Post-workout Myths: Fat

The same school of thought that has been preaching post-workout carb-loading to improve protein synthesis has also preached avoiding fat at all costs because it negatively affects protein synthesis.  Research has now proven that moderate fat intake does not negatively impact protein synthesis.  On the contrary, taking omega-3 fish oils will actually increase protein synthesis!  Omega-3’s have several benefits in addition to improving the efficiency of protein synthesis:

1. Omega-3 fish oils (EPA-DHA) are a powerful anti-inflammatory that help calm down inflammation caused by intense exercise.  That means faster recovery for the next workout session.
2. Fish oils turn on the lipolytic genes (fat burning genes) and turn off the lipogenic genes (fat storage genes). I could probably stop here, but I'll keep going...
3. They are great for joint health.  Your joints take a beating during heavy resistance training and especially plyometrics.  Joint health is a key to longevity.
4. The anti-inflammatory properties boost immune system function, which is often compromised by intense training.
5. Bonus: Omega-3’s are great for clear, vibrant, youthful skin.  Don’t you want the canvas you are stretching over all those rippling muscles and six-packs to look as good as possible?

Fish oils turn on the lipolytic genes (fat burning genes) and turn off the lipogenic genes (fat storage genes).

fish-oil

Summarizing “Workout Hard, Post-workout Smart, Parts I and II”:

Now you know why you should be avoiding carbs post-workout and why moderate fat intake is not the devil we once thought.  You also know why you should include omega-3 fish oil as a part of your post-workout strategy.  In the next installments of the series we will cover:

Part III, How to optimize your post-workout hormonal cascade for more fat loss, muscle/strength building and better recovery.

Part IV, Recommendations on the best supplement brands as well as additional supplementation that can augment your goals such as, creatine, branched chain amino acids (BCAA), L-glutamine, fish oils, Greens Powders and other high anti-oxidant blends, adaptagens, and much more. 

Part V, Importance of central nervous system (CNS) recovery for the advanced/hardcore trainees and so your workouts don’t leave you bonking at work.  

Workout Hard, Post-workout Smart, Part I

best-recovery-shakes-for-triathletes

We all want to maximize the hard work we put into training.  Having a good post-workout nutrition strategy is the only way to truly get the biggest return on investment.

Last month, I wrote an article Myth #3: The Milk Myth, and in it debunked a related myth that chocolate milk is the ideal post-workout beverage. After I posted that blog I got a lot of emails and Facebook messages from people asking what they should be doing with their post-workout nutrition if chocolate milk (and Gatorade) weren't good options.

The short answer is, "It depends."  It depends on your goals, style of training (duration and intensity), when you train and what you are doing with your global nutrition strategy.  I’m going to give you the long answer in this four-part post-workout series.

Today’s installment is an introduction to the highlights and some recommendations you can implement immediately.

There are four key factors that you need to consider when deciding upon your post-workout strategy:

1.  Exercise causes protein muscle breakdown.  The more intense and/or longer the duration of training the more this is an issue.  Reversing this process into protein synthesis, which rebuilds the tissue stronger than it was before is your primary goal.

2.  How (or if) you will replenish depleted energy stores like glycogen (glucose stored in muscles) and the other components that allow your body to produce ATP (think "muscle fuel"), such as creatine.

3.  Ridding your body of the metabolic byproducts and controlling catabolic hormones that break down your body and create inflammation is the third factor to consider.

4.  The often forgotten and ignored fourth factor is how you will support central nervous system (CNS) recovery.

Before you can choose the best post-workout strategy for yourself you need to answer a few questions:

1.  What are  your goals?  (fat loss, build muscle, strength, performance, etc)

2.  What is the duration and intensity of your training?  (this may vary from day to day)

3.  Who are you?  Or more specifically where are you at now with your fitness and body composition?

4.  Are you willing to try something new and give it a long enough trial to really determine if it is a better strategy?

Post-workout Strategy Basics

 Rebuild and Replenish

In order to stop protein muscle breakdown and replenish energy stores you need protein.  Protein is broken down into amino acids, which are the building blocks you need to repair muscle tissue (protein synthesis) and stop muscle breakdown. The faster you can positively improve your protein balance the faster you get into the muscle-building phase and out of the breakdown phase.

The prevailing wisdom has been that carbs along with protein is ideal because it creates an insulin spike that rushed all the protein into the muscles at warp speed to trigger more efficient protein synthesis.  The problem with creating an insulin spike is that insulin is the hormone that triggers body fat storage.  There is now research proving that ingesting carbs with protein does not improve protein synthesis.

The second reason that people have always said that you need to eat carbs post-workout is that you need to replenish your muscle glycogen stores.  This has also been proven false in research studies.  Our bodies are more than capable of replenishing their own glycogen stores through the process of gluconeogenesis using lactate and amino acids.  Unless your intense workouts are longer than an hour you do not need carbs post-workout.  A general rule of thumb is 30 grams of carbs for every hour of training (this does not apply to you if fat loss is your primary goal, see below).

What does this mean for you?

A basic post-workout nutrition strategy is to have 15-30 grams of high quality whey protein within 30-45 minutes of training.  The quicker you get that nutrition the better.  The amount of protein you take depends on your size, your goals, and the intensity/duration of your workout.

• The more muscle mass you currently have the more amino acids you need to support protein synthesis.
• Higher intensity and heavier weights means more damage to your muscles and therefore a need for more protein support. The same goes for training that is longer in duration.  In general your most intense day shouldn’t also be your longest day.
• If your goal is primarily to build muscle or you are a hard-gainer you should up your protein post-workout and quality carbs from whole food sources.

My Example

I weigh 225 lbs. with less than 10% body fat and do 2-3 very intense workouts a week.  I normally take 24 grams of protein along with 5 grams of L-glutamine, greens powder, maca root and some amino acids immediately after my intense workouts.  I mix my post-workout shake with either water or raw milk if my workout was particularly intense or long, which they often are.  I take nothing or just some glutamine, greens powder, and maca root (more info on those later) following my less intense metabolic workouts that are shorter.

If your goal is fat loss…

Your primary concern is moving more, eating less and controlling your insulin levels.  Sugar is not your friend.  Your workouts should be intense and no longer than an hour at most in duration.  Intensity is more important than duration unless you want to be skinny fat.

In the event you do some less intense steady state aerobic workouts (jogging, cycling, or swimming) for active rest or to mix it up you don't need any post-workout nutrition.  Occasional post-workout fasting for your longer, harder workouts is also a good strategy to employ to maximize natural growth hormone (GH) levels (more on that in Part 2 of this series).

In the subsequent parts of the series I will dive deeper into the following topics:

Part II, Why post-workout carbs sabotage your hard work and why fat might maximize it.

Part III, How to optimize your post-workout hormonal cascade for more fat loss, muscle/strength building and better recovery.

Part IV, Recommendations on the best supplement brands as well as additional supplementation that can augment your goals such as, creatine, branched chain amino acids (BCAA), L-glutamine, fish oils, Greens Powders and other high anti-oxidant blends, adaptagens, and much more. 

Part V, Importance of central nervous system (CNS) recovery for the advanced/hardcore trainees and so your workouts don’t leave you bonking at work.  

Myth #2: The "Milk Myth"

milk glass

Milk may be one of the most historically important foods in human history.  It is also one of the most misunderstood.  In the second installment of my Myths series I plan to separate the Milk Myth from the truth.  You may be missing out on a nutritious longevity food that is capable of boosting your immune system and keeping you lean, or you may be one of the many who have been misguided into putting their health at risk by the media and clever commercial campaigns.

Got Myth?

1.    Milk drinking is a relatively new practice limited to Europeans…False!

It would makes sense that the reason so many people don’t handle dairy well is because it is a relatively new food for humans and limited to Caucasians.  This is a common misconception and one that scares a lot of people away from milk. The reality is that our cultural dependence on milk originated in Africa and then rapidly spread to Europe and Asia through those that practiced animal husbandry because it gave them such an advantage (I’m referring to raw milk, which we will get to in a bit).   In fact the ancient Maasai tribe of Africa, whose culture has been almost completely untouched and affected by the modern world, still drinks raw milk as one of the cornerstones of their diet.

2.    Milk must be pasteurized to be safe to consume...False!

For thousands of years people raised cows and thrived drinking raw milk from their animals.  In those times cows were an important commodity and given good, humane care.  In many of these cultures the cow was apart of the family.  The need for pasteurization became a reality after the advent of the overpopulated urban dairies housing diseased cows living to their knees in excrement and whose hindquarters remained caked with manure (lunch anyone?).  Under these conditions disease passes easily through the medium of warm, protein-rich milk making pasteurization necessary.

3.    Raw milk is unsafe…Very False!

According to epidemiological research by the Weston A. Price Foundation and author/molecular biologist Dr. Catherine Shanahan, no epidemics have ever been traced to raw milk consumption when the cows were healthy and the humans milking them were disease free.  I can also tell you from personal experience that my girlfriend, my business partner and I all drink raw milk daily without any problems.  My girlfriend has been drinking raw milk throughout the entire 40 weeks of her pregnancy.  Not only has she not had any issues, she has not had any morning sickness, colds, stomach distress and her weight gain has been minimal.  Draw your own conclusions.

In her best-selling book Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon writes about the health benefits of raw milk, “Raw milk from pasture raised, grass-fed cows will contain the Price Factor and cancer-fighting CLA as well as a rich supply of vitamins and minerals.”  Unfortunately, it is very hard to find this kind of milk in America.  California, New Mexico, and Connecticut have milk available at health food stores and at farmer’s markets.  Be sure you ask the seller if the cows are pasture-raised.

4.    Pasteurized milk is nutritious…More False!

The pasteurization process denatures milk, robbing it of its natural nutrient content.  You can expect the following from pasteurized milk:

• Heating from the pasteurization process alters the amino acids lysine and tyrosine, making the proteins less bioavailable.
• Promotion of rancidity of unsaturated fatty acids.
• Vitamin C lost during pasteurization usually exceeds 50%.
• Vitamin B12 is totally destroyed.
• Loss of other water-soluble vitamins can run as high as 80%.
• Reduction in the availability of milk’s mineral components including calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulphur and many trace minerals.
• Destruction of milk’s digestive enzymes.  These enzymes help the body assimilate nutrients like calcium.  The absence of these enzymes puts unnecessary strain on the pancreas.  Sally Fallon, director of the Weston A. Price Foundation, says this strain on the pancreas may explain the connection between milk consumption and diabetes.

5.    But what about milk fortified with vitamin D?  Oh boy…

It is a common practice for synthetic vitamin D2 or D3 to be added to pasteurized milk.  The former is toxic and the latter is difficult to absorb.

6.    But wait!  I thought chocolate milk was the ideal post-workout recovery beverage…Most False!

There has been a lot of noise lately about chocolate milk being the “ideal” post workout beverage.  The line of thinking is that low-fat chocolate milk has a good mix of protein to rebuild tissue and carbs to quickly replenish muscle glycogen levels after a tough bout of exercise.  This got some traction when some studies came out saying that subjects who drank chocolate milk recovered from an intense training session and were able to do more work capacity for longer in a subsequent workout session than those who drank only Gatorade or water.

Of course chocolate milk is a better recovery option than Gatorade or water alone.  But what does that really say other than in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king?

Yes, The protein content of chocolate milk makes it a better choice than Gatorade, which is entirely sugar and probably the worst choice.

That does not make chocolate milk the “ideal” post workout beverage.  It is still a very poor choice for all the reasons I have outlined in this article.  All the arguments for chocolate milk totally collapse on themselves.  All chocolate milk is pasteurized.  We know the pasteurization process kills most of the nutrient contents, making chocolate milk nothing more than a sugary beverage with a host of dead/denatured nutrients and hard to assimilate protein and lactose that causes digestive and organ distress possibly leading to insulin insensitivity and diabetes*.  In fact digestive distress (upset stomach and “the runs”) is one of the most common complaints among endurance athletes that choose to use chocolate milk for recovery.

*That was a mouthful, but it felt so good to say.

7.    People with lactose intolerance must avoid ALL dairy…False again!

Lactose is the name for milk sugar.  People with poor tolerance for milk lack intestinal lactase, the enzyme responsible for digesting lactose. According to some estimates only 30-40% of the world’s population produces lactase.  Lactose intolerance has different levels of severity, allowing some non-lactase producing people to consume small amounts of dairy.  Additionally, some people are allergic to the milk protein, casein, which is a very hard protein for the body the digest.

The good news for these people is that the process of fermenting or souring milk partially breaks down lactose and predigests casein.  The end products of fermenting are yogurt, kefir and clabber, which are often well tolerated by those with intolerances.  Butter and cream contain little lactose and casein and may also be a viable option.  Fermented and/or soured butter and cream is even more easily digested.  Lastly, cheese made from raw milk contain a full compliment of digestive enzymes making it far more easily digestible that cheese made from pasteurized milk.

Boost Your Metabolism and Fat Burning Power with Coconut Oil

close-up-of-coconut-palm-tree

It’s about time you get acquainted with your new best friend, the coconut.  Along with other healthy fats, coconut oil is the key to losing weight and maintaining a lean body once the weight is off.  Coconut oil is one of the cornerstones of the diet for those of you living on Primal Island.

For decades saturated fats have been demonized in the media and by parts of the scientific community as being the cause of obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD).  The fact is that there is a large body of research showing the complete opposite.  My blog on the Cholesterol Myth also touches on some of the false information that is considered fact regarding nutrition.

Over the last 25 years the French have maintained their trim physiques while consuming cheese, full fat cream, whole milk, butter, steak au poivre, and béarnaise sauce.  During that same time Americans have been on a low- and non-fat crusade that has led to over 97 million Americans being classified as overweight (65% of the population), making us the fattest nation in the world.  Rather than making you healthy and lean, avoiding healthy fats will undermine your health and weight loss goals because you need fats for countless body functions.

Maintaining a stable, low body fat percentage is a sign of good health.  Good health can only be achieved with proper nourishment from your diet.  So, despite the fact that you may be overweight, you are likely to be undernourished.

In addition to making you undernourished, yet overweight, eating a low fat diet can spark food cravings that lead to overeating and binging.  When you eat the proper amount of fat you feel satiated.  This feeling of nutritional satisfaction sends a signal to your body that food is abundant, so it releases fat stores.

Sidebar: Most low fat diets are also nearly always high carb diets.  Eating high carb foods triggers the release of insulin, the hormone that causes your body to store fat. 

Coconut Oil and other Saturated Fats

Saturated fats, such as those found in coconut oil, butter, cream and red meat can be good for you if they come from good quality sources.  Out of the saturated fats, coconut oil is the most easily absorbed and burned by the body making it a metabolism super-charger and the most likely to aid in weight loss.

Coconut oil is unique because it contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) shown to boost metabolism and stimulate weight loss.  This has been proven over the last 14 years in research done in France, Italy, Canada, Japan and the United States.

The is what the research says…

• McGill University (1998) researchers discover that medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) actually use up energy when they are metabolized.  You read the correctly.  The amount of energy required to oxidize MCTs is greater than the energy they provide, making them a weight loss agent!
• A number of animal studies show that obesity levels in animals fed a MCTs decreased in direct proportion to the ratio of coconut oil in their diet.
• Report published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000) shows that adult males burn off coconut oil three times faster than other common fats.
• Study published in Journal of Lipid Research (1996) shows that animals fed a diet consisting of at least 50% MCTs had significant weight loss despite no other diet changes.  In contrast, the control group fed the same diet with the same number of calories, but consisting of 50% long-chain fatty acids, lost no weight at all.
• Study published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1991) reports that humans who consumed meals containing high ratios of MCTs caused a significant rise in body temperature compared to those who at the same meal containing long-chain fatty acids.  The rise in body temperature indicates increased metabolic activity caused by increased thyroid function.  Coconut oil helps your thyroid boost your metabolism!  Hypothyroidism (thyroid deficiency, resulting in low metabolic rate) affects an estimated 12 million Americans.  In addition to causing weight gain it is also a precursor to other ailments, such as heart disease, breast cancer, and chronic fatigue.  Coconut oil’s assistance could be huge for these people.

As you can see the benefits of coconut oil are immense, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.  I have more blogs planned for the future extoling the virtues of coconut oil and coconut milk.  For now let’s recap with the following points.

• Healthy fats from quality sources are essential for longevity, health, weight loss and sustaining a lean physique.
• Coconut oil contains Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs).
• MCTs are quickly absorbed and burned in our bodies.  They are not easily stored as body fat.
• Studies have shown that MCTs require more energy to digest than the provide making them a weight loss agent.
• Studies have also shown increased thyroid function thereby increasing metabolism when MCTs are added to diets.

Myth #1: The Cholesterol Myth

fried-eggs-1

Americans are scared of dietary cholesterol and saturated fats.  Marketing hype and poor research have misled the American people for too long.   I want to help dispel that myth and share with you why you should stop running away from saturated fats and cholesterol and instead make a 180 degree turn and sprint into their loving arms.

The Lipid Hypothesis (aka: The Cholesterol Fat Myth)

1.  We eat a diet containing high levels of cholesterol and saturated fat, and as a result develop a high level of cholesterol in our blood.

2.  High blood cholesterol causes atherosclerosis.

3.  Atherosclerosis obstructs the vessels that bring blood to the heart, resulting in coronary heart disease.

The Truth

Extensive scientific evidence exists that contradicts all three parts of the Lipid Hypothesis.  This isn't new research by any stretch of the imagination.  Unfortunately, the media and even a large part of the scientific community have not communicated this truth to the public.   It is a waste of time to get into all the reasons the media and scientific community share information that can be misleading.  All of those reasons can be best summed up by saying that it is just an unfortunate part of human nature that when people have money, power and pride on the line they will say just about anything.

One member of the scientific community that we can applaud for coming clean is the father of the lipid hypothesis himself, Ancel Keys.  Keys conducted research with chickens and rabbits that fed the two animals oxidized cholesterol.  When Keys saw that the chickens and rabbits started having heart problems as a result of their change in diet he concluded that cholesterol led to heart disease.  There are a few problems with this research.  Neither of these animals eat ANY cholesterol in nature so the fact that it caused a problem is not surprising.  The fact that he chose rabbits, who are herbivores, is another issue I see with this research.  The final issue with this research is that the experiments where done on chickens and rabbits!  It is pretty obvious that the human body works much differently than chickens and rabbits.

Since his original hypothesis Keys was quoted as saying, "There's no connection whatsoever between the cholesterol in food and cholesterol in the blood. And we've known that all along. Cholesterol in the diet doesn't matter at all unless you happen to be a chicken or a rabbit."

Unfortunately, the result of Keys original findings, corporate food industry marketing and the false information the media has been push for decades has resulted in Americans avoiding cholesterol and saturated fat in favor of low fat diets that are high in carbs, particularly refined sugars, that have been show to increase the risk of heart disease.  This study shows that most heart attack patients actually have LOW cholesterol!  The findings in that study are scary when you consider the statins people are taking and the "low cholesterol" diets so many people are on in an effort to lower their blood cholesterol levels.

Oops!

Let's recap:

1.  People believe cholesterol leads to heart disease, but

2.  Research shows that most heart attacks occur in people with low cholesterol.

3.  Doctors recommend people avoid dietary cholesterol and take statins to lower cholesterol anyway.

Bonus Rounds:

4.  Statins don't actually influence cholesterol directly.  Statins are just a mild anti-inflammatory.

5.  Some dietary changes and a few supplements can create the same anti-inflammatory action without the use of pharmaceuticals.

Practical Nutrition Advice, Pt. 2

female-six-pack-abs

1.  Channel your inner guru.  Stop eating all the foods you already know you shouldn't be eating. 

People come to me for nutritional consulting, most of the time for fat loss, beginning our first meeting by telling me all the foods they know they shouldn't be eating. Do yourself a favor, save time and money by eliminating foods you already know are bad for you.

2.  Put your fork down after each bite.

Take the time to enjoy your food and properly chew it. Eating is an experience that is meant to be enjoyed. It is a chance to connect to your body and your food. Slow down, enjoy and be thankful for the food.

3.  Surround yourself with other health conscious people. Limit your eating companions to those that share your same ideals and commitment to good nutrition. 

In their recent book, CONNECTED, researchers Christakis and Fowler reveal compelling evidence on how emotions and behaviors spread throughout a social network. They followed the behaviors of 3 generations of citizens in Framingham, MA whose social networks they had mapped out. They found that when one person gained weight, started smoking or got sick that close neighbors and friends were 50% more likely to behave the same way. The second finding was even more interesting. If PERSON A gained weight and was friends with PERSON B, the friend of PERSON B who PERSON A didn't even know was 20% more likely to gain weight (2 degrees of separation). They took it a step further and found that the friend of the friend who was unknown to PERSON A was still 10% more likely to gain weight (3 degrees of separation).

4.  Eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. 

Studies have shown that getting this amount of protein to start your day gets your metabolism kickstarted and running faster throughout the rest of the day. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. If you can't pull yourself together enough to cook breakfast that early in the morning start the habit of making a morning protein shake.  Lay a good foundation for your day with plenty of protein within 30 minutes of waking up.

5.  Wash and prep your fresh produce as soon as you get home from the grocery store. 

Restaurants all over the world wash and prep their produce in advance because it saves tons of time. Having your veggies and fruit chopped, sliced and diced beforehand will make cooking a breeze.  Preparation is the key to success. Any habit that removes obstacles from you eating right is a healthy habit to start.

6.  Go for a 15 to 20 minute walk after your meals. 

Walking after a meal aids in digestion and fights sugar cravings. In my own experience a post-meal walk curbs sweet cravings too which keeps you from reaching for dessert.  Sugar satisfies the pleasure centers in our brain. Getting sun and fresh air on a walk releases the same chemicals without all the calories.

7.  See #1 

8.  Eat like an adult. 

Stop eating fast food, stop eating kids cereal, put down sweets and comfort foods when your favorite show comes on. Ease up on snacking in general. And for god's sake eat more vegetables.

The Island Story That Will Answer 97% of Your Nutrition Questions

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The second step of the Rebirth Body Transformation series after assessing your Point A is to begin to plan a strategy to get to Point B. I believe the scientific term for this step is called connecting the dots. The purpose of today’s blog is to begin giving you a clear illustration of the right path so you know what to look for.

Today, I am going to focus on the nutritional path. Rather than give you a list of foods you should eat and another list of foods you shouldn’t eat, I want to tell you a story that will empower you to make good decisions on your own. If I just give you a list of foods, it would be either unbelievably long or leave much to be desired. I would also be catching a fish for you rather than teaching you to fish. After the following story you will be a pretty darn good fisherman (or fisherwoman).

The Island

Here is the scenario. We find ourselves along with a contingent of close friends and family deserted on a tropical island with no way to get off. Picture the Hawaiian island of Kauai. I like to envision Kauai because it fits the specifications of this story perfectly and because I would love to move there some day (do yourself a favor and take a vacation to Kauai).

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Kauai, I’ll do some more detailed explaining about our current situation. Kauai is a tropical paradise. It is where Jurassic Park was filmed. As far as islands go, this would be the one to be stranded on. The island gets an abundance of rainfall and sunshine. The soil is excellent too. There is lush vegetation everywhere. Almost anything you can think of could grow here.

Once we have all gotten over the shock of waking up on this tropical island together, we decide that it is probably best that we do some exploring to get a feel for our surroundings. Our large group splits up into three smaller groups to canvas the island in a day and then meet back at the beach where we started. The first group decides to walk around the island to check out the beaches and to get an idea of what the coastline is like. The second and third groups decide to walk inland and split the island into halves to explore. One group covers the east side of the island and our group decides to do recon on the west side.

Upon our first inspection of the island we find evidence that humans have lived here before. While doing recon in some caves our group finds very basic tools for farming and hunting (score). It looks like we have hit the jackpot. We have found ropes, harnesses for plow animals, the plows themselves, shovels, pick axes, hoes, spears and an assortment of other farming and hunting tools. So far things are looking good for us (now if we could just find steak).

By the time we pack up all the tools it is starting to get late so we decide to head back to the beach. On our way back we discover herds of wild cattle and sheep grazing in the foothills (our prayers are answered…is bacon asking for too much?). Further along the path back to the beach we meet up with the group that was responsible for exploring the east side of the island. They tell us that the east side of the island is mostly forest. In the forest they saw signs of animals we can hunt for food like wild pig, deer, and rabbit to name a few (BACON!!! Lets go for broke, I’m asking for satellite tv). One of the more nimble in our group climbed into a tree to see if she could find squirrel nests. She hit the jackpot finding squirrels and their nuts (if you laughed you need to grow up…that was a test).

We continue our walk back to the beach when a couple that was walking in the back start yelling with excitement. They have found an assortment of berry bushes. If this is starting to sound like a dream in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, you’re right.

When we get back to the beach the third group is waiting for us with good news and fish cooking on a fire. They found some great fishing spots that are easy to access and some springs with fresh water. A small contingent of the third group decided to follow the spring inland only to discover a rich area of forgotten farmland with some vegetable crops still growing. It wasn’t in the best condition, but they say it looks like whoever was here before us successfully farmed the land and left us something to get started with.

All things considered we are looking pretty good. There is no electricity or modern engineering for us to use on the island, but we have plenty of wildlife to sustain us with a climate and land that holds a lot of promise for gathering, farming and agriculture. If we can somehow find satellite television in time for the next season of Sons of Anarchy I would consider this paradise.

Answering Your Nutrition Questions with a Question

Can I find this food on Tanner’s Tropical Island?

If you can answer yes to that question when you are at the grocery store or ordering at a restaurant you will be walking on the right path 97% of the time. I reserve the right to change that percentage, but at the moment I’m sticking with 97% with a high probability I will lean to 98% in the near future.

I also challenge you to think more critically about this scenario. If you do you will be rewarded with better answers and better diet decisions. Here are some hints and questions that I will pose for you to help you peel this onion:

- Time management is critical on the island. There is a limited amount of daylight on this island to hunt, farm and gather food. Start to think of time management on the island as a metaphor for your daily food menu. Spend your time wisely. - Does it make more sense to hunt and kill a wild pig full of protein and quality fats that will feed and fuel us for days or to spend all day gathering berries that will go bad in a few days and have relatively little fuel for us? I’m not saying berries are bad, but they are better as snacks that we pick during a hunt to give us a boost of energy between meals while we work. - There is only so much land that we have available for farming and only so much land that we can farm. Which vegetables should we grow? Which vegetables are the most nutrient dense? What will give us the most bang for our buck? - We could grow wheat, but consider how much time, effort and man-power it takes to grow, harvest, grind, mill, blah, blah, blah, and bake. Is the time and effort worth the low nutritional value when that time could be spent hunting, cultivating and collecting more nutrient and energy dense foods. - How important does fat as a fuel source become? Think hard on this one. Consider the alternative fuel source. Strawberries and blackberries, for example, are a great snack, but when was the last time you spent all day performing manual labor and then satisfied your ravenous hunger with fruit? Does a juicy rib-eye with mixed greens, avocado, and asparagus sound more up your alley? - Trail mix is for the trail. - It makes sense to ferment our veggies so they have a longer shelf life and so that we can get the benefit of all the healthy bacteria in fermented foods. These bacteria boost our immune system and aid in digestion. Eat fermented foods like sauerkraut, kim chi, and pickled vegetables! Now!!! - Native Americans are known for using every single part of the buffalo that they hunted. Take a page out of their book. Use every part of your food. It is the right thing for our bodies and it is the ethical thing to do. Eat meat on the bone, eat marrow and collagen and eat your organ meats. Your skin and joints will thank you one day. - Quick word on the animals on the island. None of them are raised in pens, pumped full or hormones/antibiotics or forced to live in their own excrement. They live free in pastures eating their natural diet. We should treat our animals the same way. You vote with your dollar. Money talks in America. If you really care about the environment and animal rights you had better start making the right decisions at the grocery store and the famer’s market. If you think it doesn’t matter you to watch the documentary Food Inc. - Our vegan and vegetarian friends can ask the same metaphorical questions as if they were on the island. Substitute questions about meat with questions about a plant based diet. If you have an ethical issue with eating meat I totally respect that. Based on my own experience and research I believe high quality, organic grass-fed meat that is humanely raised is the healthiest choice. However, I also respect everyone’s choices and hope that there is something that everyone can take from this without having an emotional response. The key is to avoid all the processed foods and junk that you couldn't find on the island. - I highly recommend the following reading. This is your body and your life. Educate yourself.

Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan

All of these books have a lot of great recipes! Try my Almond Crusted Salmon recipe and my Pinterest for some quick and easy recipes that I have pinned.

Connecting the Dots

Point A Point B

I wasn’t a geometry major, but I do remember that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If everyone had a definitive straight line drawn out for them that would take them from where they are now to where they want to be, we would all make like Johnny Cash and walk the line.  Body transformations would be a lot easier and I would be out of the job…Wait, that is my job!

Imagine having complete faith that this step-by-step guide would help you achieve your goals. In addition to having the plan you would also have the peace of mind that every step you took was one step closer to your goal.  A great plan is valuable.  Faith is priceless!

Point A - B Messed up

There is a question I have seen written that asks, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”  Few things have inspired me as much as that question, or more accurately, my own answers to that question.  When you free yourself from doubt, your mind is free to focus on the present.  Western and Eastern spiritual traditions from the teachings of The Bible to the Bhagavad Vita teach that presence of mind is the key to happiness and enlightenment.  People also pay handsome sums of money to their therapists to achieve this state of mind.

I am not attempting to teach you how to achieve total presence of mind.  That is way beyond the scope of my expertise.  My goal is to help you reach your goals and to show you how you can thoroughly enjoy the process to the point that the journey becomes the destination.  First, however, I need to point out that you will never be able to walk on that doubtless straight line unless you have an honest assessment of where you are now, Point A, and a crystal clear vision of where you want to be, Point B.

Point A

When you don’t have an honest assessment of your Point A you are trying to shoot a basketball into a hoop blindfolded after someone walked you out on to some random place on the court.  You don’t know if the basket is in front of you, behind you, to the side or how far away it is.  It is safe to say that you are doomed before you even begin.

In order to take the blindfold off you have to be brutally honest with yourself.  You have to take responsibility for the fact that you are where you are at right now because of the sum total of your decisions and actions.  There is no two ways around that.  Deal with it and you can move forward.  Refuse to deal with it and you will be shooting baskets with the blindfold on for the rest of your life.

Your body is the way it is today because of the choices you have made.  Think of the way you move, eat, think and live as the language you speak to your body.  The way your body responds to those choices is how it talks back to you.  This is the cycle of communication between you and your body.  The way you move, eat, think and live tells your body how it should develop, feel, function, grow, shrink, stay young, age, progress, digress, repair itself, stay in a state of disrepair, fight off illness or be chronically ill.  When you become aware of this language you unlock a world of change.

The first part of the Rebirth Body Transformation is to honestly define your Point A.  A simple way I suggest doing this is to fill out a 7-Day Lifestyle Diary.  I have posted one on my Facebook Fan Page that you can download and print out.  Follow the instructions and fill it out in its entirety to get the most honest assessment of Point A.  Include any other benchmark measures that you would like to keep track of like weight, bodyfat, max push-ups, or max pull-ups to name a few.

Point B

“Your life is your tapestry and it should have great pictures, rich colors and a tight weave…Your life is your message.”  - Dan John

Before we cover the ‘how’ of fitness, you need to come up with the ‘why am I doing this?’  The crystal clear vision of where you want to get is your goal and your Point B.  To be more specific, your Point B is the lifesyle you want to be living that will allow you to achieve your goals.  Make no mistake, a body transformation is always preceded by a lifestyle transformation.  Living the same lifestyle you live now and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.  That is a different program that I don’t teach.

A lot of people I have worked with in the past have a clear idea of their Point A, but a much fuzzier idea of Point B.  They come to me saying, “I want to be more fit,” or, “I want to be healthier.”  How do you define “more fit” or “healthier?”  You have to be more specific.  Someone at a networking group I am apart of once told me that specific is terrific.  As corny as that is you should apply it to your goal setting.  Also remember to make your goals S.M.A.R.T.

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Realistic

T – Time bound

Part of any good strategy is good goal setting.  As with anything else there is effective goal setting and there is ineffective goal setting.  To paraphrase the great John Wooden, paying attention to details when you prepare a plan is and exercise in preparing for success.  Read my earlier blog to learn more about Effective Goal Setting.  If you are really committed to making a lifestyle transformation I suggest you take 20-30 minutes over the weekend to go through my Breakthrough Coaching Exercise.  Commit 5 minutes to reading Designing Your Ideal Day and I feel confident you will want to commit the additional 20-30 minutes to do the exercise.  The return on your investment of time is beyond anything else you could spend 30 minutes doing this weekend.  That is one thing I can guarantee.

Once you have defined your Point A and Point B you have taken the first steps to making a transformation.  In the next steps ahead we will draw the shortest, straightest line possible to connect the two.

Rebirth Body Transformation Series Announcement

Butterfly-Transformation

Spring is here! The weather is warming up, the sun is shining and nature is being reborn.  This is a great time to commit yourself to rebirth as well!   Start your transformation this spring with my 9 part Rebirth Body Transformation series. It is now almost 4 months past New Year’s Day.  Most health and fitness related New Year’s Resolutions have lost their steam or effectiveness.  Some of that can be attributed to a loss of desire and consistency, but the most common problem with resolutions is poor strategy.  I consider your goals, plan of action, knowledge-base, accountability benchmarks, and support network to be the components of your strategy.  No one ever intentionally puts together a bad strategy, but it happens every day.  When you put a poor strategy in place you either don’t see results, which demoralizes even the most committed people, or you create something so complicated that your effort level and aggravation level far exceeds the results you get which in turn is demoralizing.

The problem is that everything works for a little while.  Maybe you got a gym membership, joined a bootcamp or started cleaning up your diet. You lose a few pounds right from the beginning.  That lasts about 3 to 6 weeks and then you hit a plateau.  You try to break through, but you end up stuck and frustrated.  If you find yourself in this place right now or have ever felt this way, I’m here to tell you that you have three choices.  Option one, keep doing what you’re doing (if this is your choice lookup “insanity” in the dictionary).  Option two, give up and feel sorry for yourself (weak).  Or, option three, make changes and move forward with your body transformation.

If you choose option three I am here to help guide you through the life transformation that will precede your body transformation.  Transformation sounds like a dramatic experience, and it is.  Why would you bother making changes and putting in a lot of effort for an ordinary experience?  Don’t be overwhelmed though, a transformation can be as sudden or as gradual as you want as long as it is consistent.

When my business partners and I opened the LEAF Wellness Studio, we had the goal of helping people in Santa Monica and the LA area make dramatic transformations.  We have been blessed with amazing clients that have had a lot of success. With the launch of my fitness and lifestyle blog on my website, www.tannermartty.com, my new goal is to help transform people that can’t make it into our gym!

Transformation has a lot of meanings.  It can be as simple as starting a morning routine that puts your mind at peace for the rest of the day allowing you to stay in the present or as drastic as losing 15% body fat.  Only you can decide what kind of transformative experience you want to have.

To officially launch the new website and blog I have created a nine-part series I’m calling The Rebirth Body Transformation.  Over the course of the next couple weeks I’ll be helping you put together a solid strategy to put you on the right path to your personal transformation.  Together, we will define Point A (where you are at), Point B (where you want to be), and then map out the shortest, straightest line between the two.

If we don’t know each other that well yet, check out My Philosophy to get to know me better and to get an idea of how I think change happens.  I definitely want to get to know you better.  Like my Facebook Fan Page and tell me what’s on your mind.

Thank you all for the inspiration.  Please share this with friends and family!

Consistency is Key

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A few weeks ago I had the honor of presenting for the Gentleman's Project, a group of young men in the LA area that meet regularly to network and be educated on topics that interest, well, Gentlemen. It is the group's mission to provide a setting and membership that contributes to the sharpening of each members perverbial sword. The GP leadership asked me to come to present on nutrition. I had roughly an hour to talk and answer questions so I needed to strip my talk down to the most useful and practical information possible. If anyone needs to talk for more than an hour to explain their basic nutrition philosophy they are probably making things way too complicated anyway. I take the approach that less is more. I believe strongly that one of the tenants of a healthy lifestyle is that all aspects of the lifestyle: work, play, pray (quiet time alone with your own thoughts), nutrition and rest must be sustainable. The more complex a strategy becomes the less likely it is to be sustainable.

The main points that I wanted to drive home with my talk is that consistency is the key to achievement and that keeping things simple makes it easier to be consistent. This is true for anything. A simple, straightforward workout program is easier to follow.  As a result people that adopt simple plans tend to be more consistent with them.

Last month I had the pleasure of being teammates with Tracy Reifkind, Queen of the Kettlebell Swing, at the inaugural Strongfirst SFG1 kettlebell certification in Houston, Texas. In addition to being a total badass Tracy is famous for totally transforming her life and her body in her 40's, losing over 100 lbs, by doing only kettlebell swings every day. She literally did not do any other form of exercise! There isn't a magic workout she was doing.  The magic was her consistency.  Tracy is an example of both consistency and how effective keeping it simple can be. Check out Tracy's blog for more info on her transformation and the kettlebell swing.

The Keys to Success

There are two common denominators among all of my clients that have had massive success making a body transformation. First, their body transformation is preceded by a lifestyle transformation. They don't simply start working out more, or eat a healthier diet. They slowly transform their entire lifestyle. They embrace the holistic approach, making changes to the way they move (exercise), eat (nutrition), think and manage their day (the umbrella we will call "lifestyle"). My second tenant of healthy lifestyles is that they are holistic. Any effort to make a healthy transformation must address mind, body, and spirit.

The second common denominator is consistency.Consistency is the most crucial part of change. Pick a plan and stick to it!  I have given you a basic plan in The Island Story that Answers 97% of Your Nutrition Questions.  Your goal is simple.  For the next month consistently only eat food that you could eat on the island.  If you can adhere to this diet plan 90% of the time over the next 28 days you will see amazing results.

Consistency means sticking with it 7 days a week. That is another huge mistake I see people, especially young people, making. They stay on their diet Monday through Friday and then eat like crap and booze hard all day Saturday and Sunday. When they don't see results they say, "to hell with this diet," and go back to eating the way they normally eat.

These people don't lack a good plan. They lack consistency.

Making Everyday Your Masterpiece

The key to consistency is focusing on one day at a time. It can be overwhelming to make a change with your constant focus being on staying consistent over the course of a year or more. Under those circumstances the task can seem insurmountable. There is a saying that the best way to eat and elephant is one bite at a time. That mindset seems obvious once someone presents it to you, but people rarely think in those terms.

John Wooden, the legendary coach of the UCLA men's basketball team that won 11 national championships in 13 years is famous for saying, "Make everyday your masterpiece." I love that quote. I actually have a wall decal of that quote above my desk. It reminds me to stay in the present and to focus all of my energy and attention on the task at hand. How can one truly reach their potential if they are diluting their energy and focus on regretting the past or worrying about the future?

Imagine if you could focus all of your energy on making a masterpiece out of today without worrying about mistakes from the past or things you can't control in the future? One thing is for certain, the process you undertook each day would be much more enjoyable if you focused on the art of making an ideal day.

I've seen a quote that says, "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" I like the essence of that quote. I take it to mean how courageous would you be with your actions if you couldn't fail. Indeed that is a beautiful headspace in which to be.

As much as I do like that quote, I like the following idea even more…

What would you do if you didn't care if you failed?

I'm not advocating total apathy. I am however, advocating that when you are motivated to make a change that you should put 100% of your focus on executing your plan each day and detach yourself from thoughts of the future success or failure of the strategy. Those worrisome thoughts about the success or more commonly the failure of the project only serve to distract you and plant seeds of doubt before your plan ever gets a chance to get off the ground.

If didn't care about failing, how much more would you enjoy the process of doing?

When I am able to put myself into this kind of headspace I find myself enjoying my day much more than when I am too attached to the success or failure of a project. I also find that I am completely present in my interactions with others which enriches all of my relationships.

When I finally do take time to evaluate my progress I am always amazed at how much I have accomplished and how much I have enjoyed the process. I have gotten the same feedback from my clients as well. They tell me that they never felt overwhelmed or panicked by the changes because we made slow changes and they only focused on adhering to their plan one day at a time.

My challenge to you is to make a plan and stick to it without worrying about success or failure. Enjoy the journey instead of focusing on the destination. After some time has passed take stock of where you are at. Be brutally honest with yourself. If you aren't making the progress you would like you need to make some adjustments and once again lose yourself in the process.

My suggestion is to put together a consistent daily regimen that you can build on over time. The next installment of The Rebirth Body Transformation series will talk about making a daily masterpiece and help you put together a solid Morning Routine which is one of the most crucial things to having a successful day. Your morning is the foundation of your day and everyone knows that a house must be built on a solid foundation.