Now wait a minute.

Shouldn’t your spouse be your main source of support in times of need? Unfortunately for many people, spouses take the role of the “enabler” or “saboteur”.  This is why many couples pack on the pounds  together as the relationship matures. And it’s not limited to just your spouse either;  not by a long shot. If you don’t know how to channel the nearly irresistible influence of  your spouse, friends, co-workers and family to work  for you, instead of against you, you stand little chance of changing anything in your life.

It’s time for you to open your eyes to the role others play in the health goals you want to achieve. In this week’s installment of Habit Change I will help you find ways to engage your social circle to become “helpers” in your pursuit of change, so you don’t have to fight an uphill battle against the overwhelming influence of peer pressure.

Habit # 5    Create a Network of Friends

It should come as no surprise  that your peers have a massive influence on how you think, act and ultimately on what you become. Just look at the five people you spend the most time around. Chances are, they are a reflection of your own economic, social and health status.

Humans are social creatures and are easily influenced by others, whether they’re consciously aware of it not. So to create a massive health change in your life, you’re going to need to take an inventory of your key influencers and determine whether they are friends (helping you reach your goals) or saboteurs (who distract you from or intentionally undermine your change efforts).

One of the main strengths in weight loss programs like Weight Watcher’s and transformation television shows like the Biggest Loser is the social influence component. Weight Watcher’s employs weekly group meetings to reinforce accountability and helps instill a belief in what their “losers” can achieve. The Biggest Loser provides each participant with a plethora of support and influence that all but guarantees their weight loss success – at least as long as the support system is in place. Just imagine what you could achieve if your main source of influence were personal trainers and nutrition specialist whose job is to make you succeed. Of course this is the real world but you still have the ability to stack the odds in your favor. I’ll break it down for you in 3 easy steps.

Get the crowd behind you, and you can change just about anything!

1. Take an Inventory

Make a detailed list of the social influences in your life. Look at family, friends, co-workers, partners, anyone exerting an influence in your lifestyle. From there, draw two separate columns, one for your “friends” and one for your “saboteurs” . Your ‘friends” are those who teach, coach and get you closer to your health goals. They raise your health consciousness and provide timely motivation and cheer your every success along the way.

“Saboteurs” on the other hand are those who enable your unhealthy behavior. Some obvious examples are those who stand to make money if you fail or lose an excuse for their own bad habits if you succeed.

It’s also possible that you have people around you who actively hold you accountable to a bad habit. It’s hard to ignore their powerful influence because you worry about disappointing or receiving criticism from them if you don’t indulge in their bad behavior. I can certainly relate to this one. Some of my friends, who haven’t moved past their old drinking habits, STILL expect me to drink with them, and at the same level I did 20 years ago. 

Others can also exert their influence on you by more subtle means. They can shape your view of what you consider average, acceptable and reasonable is in terms of fitness and personal body image – and without you even realizing it. How many married couples do you know that get fat together? It’s likely they’re not even aware it’s happening to them because they’ve redefined what is “normal” to them.

Like it or not, your peers will not only determine your view on what is normal but also help define what you believe is possible to achieve by lowering your aspirations. This why obesity is considered to be at least partially an infectious disease.

Now that you’ve taken inventory of your peers, hopefully you have more friends than saboteurs influencing you. If not, there’s more work to be done.

2. Redefine Yourself

The negative influencers in your life have no doubt negatively shaped your views and beliefs about yourself. If you continue to measure yourself against unhealthy, unwise or even dangerous standards, your change plan is at risk.  Rise above the shared sense of what is common or acceptable amongst your peers. Ask yourself two questions: How do you want to live and feel? And who do you want to be? Then go out and do it!

3. Turn Saboteurs Into Friends

Now that you’ve refined your “normal” and have a clear picture of  who you want to become, you need transform the accomplices, saboteurs and role models supporting your bad behavior into helpful friends. You can accomplish this by simply asking for their help. Explain to them the role they play in making your health change more difficult and share how you’d like them to help you succeed. Many of them will actually be unaware of their behavior, much less how it affects you.

It’s not that they have bad intentions, rather that they exert a bad influence. In the end, most of your saboteurs will be more than willing to play the new role you’ve presented to them. If you can do that, you’ve not only removed the influence of someone pulling against you, you’ve gained the help of someone who’s now pulling for you.

Of course there will be some who are unwilling to or are simply unable to support your change efforts. Some of these people might be your family, bosses or co-workers, so cutting them out of your life isn’t a viable option. You will, at least occasionally, have to deliberately separate yourself from those who stand in the way of your goals.

Once your inventory of peers is stacked in your favor (more friends than saboteurs), it’s time to bolster the odds even further by enlisting some new friends. Find people who share your goals or are interested in supporting you. Joining an existing group or social network can be a great start. Leverage technology to enlist supporters from all over the world. Social media has been shown to be quite an effective tool for managing weight loss. Of course you can also hire a personal trainer (wink wink) to coach you through your change process.

As you now realize, while saboteurs frequently drag people into bad their habits, having more friends in your life can have an astounding impact. Don’t be blind to the influence others have on your health and lifestyle. When you enlist more supporters, coaches and fans into your circle of influence you stand a far greater chance of succeeding. The result is a sustainable healthy lifestyle –  for life!

If you enjoyed this article, please quickly do me a favor and share with others and comment below.

If you plan to embark on a lifestyle change program this year to get fit and manage your weight, controlling your alcohol consumption is vital. In this, the fourth installment of my Habit Change Series, I want to challenge you to reduce (or eliminate) your consumption of alcoholic beverages. I’m sure this will be the least popular habit to change, but the effect of which will be profound for some people. This habit should also be reinforced with a commitment to better fluid management. Let’s get started.

Habit # 4    Reduce Your Alcoholic Drinks

Make no mistake, alcohol is essentially a poison. When consumed, it must be detoxified by the body immediately. During this process,  alcohol takes its grip on your brain by altering your thoughts, moods, judgement, learning and memory. For shy folks like myself, alcohol weakens social restraint, suppresses anxiety and, for better or worse, inhibited emotions and behavior begin to emerge.

Alcohol and Hydration

Alcoholic drinks have a diuretic effect in that they increase urine production. Alcohol consumption also destroys millions of friendly microorganisms in your gut. This and the diuretic effect can cause a state of dehydration and sickness commonly known to all of us as the hangover. The effects of which can be minimized with hydration, electrolyte and anti-oxidant therapy, before and after “boozing”.

Alcohol and Weight Loss/Gain

Regular drinkers almost always struggle to manage their weight. Recent studies have closely linked high alcohol consumption to increased abdominal body fat, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio. All three are import markers that correlate with CVD risk and morbidity. It’s not just alcohol that’s the culprit here, it’s the lifestyle and eating habits that go with the territory (for most people) that also have an impact.

Alcohol contains only empty calories (about 7.5 per gram) and although does not directly convert to fat, it does greatly reduce or inhibit the oxidation of body fat stores.  Even if you drink in moderation, be aware of the extra calories in alcohol, as well as the calories you consume before, during and afterwards. Alcohol has been shown to increase appetite  especially for salty, high fat foods. But as long as you’re in “energy balance” ( calories in = calories out) you won’t gain weight. If you’ve created a caloric deficit (by restricting calories) you should still lose weight. But the problem now is that you must give careful consideration to your rather small “caloric budget” .

How will you spend your calories?

A couple of drinks on a 1,400 calorie diet could account for nearly a third of your daily intake and displace nutrient-dense whole foods. To help you cut back, there’s an online calculator to help determine the calorie content of your favorite alcoholic beverages.

The average Canadian women consumes around 1,600 calories a day. Despite what you may think, it’s nearly impossible to meet even the minimum nutrient requirement from such little food. Even if all that food was whole, natural and organic (which of course it’s not), it may take as much 2,500 calories to provide enough vital nutrients to meet the demand. If you regularly consume alcohol, or even coffee, teas, sugar and antibiotics, you can be sure those important nutrients are never being absorbed the way they should. The resulting nutrient deficiency can elicit a starvation response within the body, kicking your evolutionary fat storage capacity into high gear.

Alcohol and Exercise

Don’t Drink and Train!

It’s pretty obvious why you shouldn’t drink alcohol prior to heading to the gym for a workout. But alcohol can still have a huge impact on your performance and function, regardless of the timing. Alcohol is known to lower levels of IGF1, testosterone and hGH, all of which (when lowered) will affect exercise performance and contribute to accelerating the biological aging process. It also interferes with glycogen re-synthesis and blood glucose levels. This results in impaired strength, endurance and recovery capacity. Bad news for athletes and anyone looking to fully benefit from an exercise program.

Continuous consumption of alcohol has been shown to cause a condition called alcoholic myopathy in many users.  This condition is characterized by a total muscle loss of about 20%. Obviously not good if you want to be strong, functional or even look your best for that matter. Muscle directly impacts your metabolism and less muscle means you utilize less energy and store more body fat. This creates the “skinny-fat” look.

“But I’ve just got to have my wine”

While a drink every now and then is considered “acceptable”, long term abuse can lead to premature aging, liver cirrhosis, brain damage, CVD, osteoporosis, and severe organ damage. There is evidence to support that having an occasional glass of wine or two can have heart health benefits.  More recently though, these benefits have been questioned by some experts, citing that these recommendations are no longer applicable to our modern, fatter population. The proposed benefits of alcohol may simply be outweighed by all the negatives.

It’s true that red wine is a valid source of resveratrol which has well documented cognitive enhancing, and anti-inflammatory properties. However, these benefits are erroneous if you don’t consider the quality of your wine, how it was fermented, produced and with what materials? The quality of your wine is relative to the quality of the ingredients used to make it. Most commercial wines contain far too many additives and chemicals to ever be considered healthy.  Besides there’s plenty of resveratrol found in foods such as red and white grapes, blueberries and peanuts. You can even pick it up in capsule form as a nutritional supplement.

Even if you believe that your wine is actually contributing to your health, I wouldn’t recommend having it every day. Not even just 1 or 2 drinks a day. The reasoning is that behaviors repeated every day become habits. Habitual drinking can lead to binges and even alcoholism. If you find yourself with this habit, you might want to reflect on the information I’ve presented here and decide if the reward is really worth the risk to your weight loss and performance goals – not to mention your health and quality of life! Like any habit, integrate it into your lifestyle slowly with a progressive approach such as this:

• Choose a smaller serving size
• Dilute alcoholic drinks with soda water, seltzer, ice or low calorie soft drinks
• Use non-alcoholic alternatives 50% of the time 
• Abstain from alcohol a few nights a week.

In time you’ll learn to be less reliant on alcohol. If you must partake now and again, do so responsibly, choose lower calorie options, avoid caffeinated mixers and consume a glass of water with every drink. Reducing alcohol consumption, together with implementing other healthy habits like eating a balanced breakfast, eliminating harmful stimulants and becoming more active, are collectively part of any successful healthy lifestyle program.

If you enjoyed this article, please quickly do me a favor and share with others and comment below.

 Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save and preserve it.

Plato  - 350 BC

 

Habit # 3   Become More Active Today

Doctors now agree that inactivity is a major catalyst for diabetes, high blood pressure, joint damage, chronic fatigue and other major health conditions. I tend to view lack of exercise as a major health condition in and of itself. And is likely the root cause of most of our current health problems. Becoming more active is important but how much is really needed? The CSEP (Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology) recommends 150 minutes of moderate cardiorespiratory activity,  or 75 minutes of  vigorous activity per week, to experience the health benefits of exercise.  These guidelines also recommend 2 weekly weight training sessions to preserve muscle and bone health.

But what if you hate exercise?

In order to make exercise a lifestyle change, your level of participation must be increased slowly. It also must be enjoyable and garner consistent results, or your efforts will be short term and your experience will be miserable. If you hate exercise, or see it simply as a means to an end, you are probably approaching it in the wrong way. If you believe that exercise is your punishment for “bad behavior” (i.e. eating too much dessert),  you’ll likely quit long before making any real progress.  This creates an obsessive cycle of binging and punishment that only reinforces your distaste for exercise.

To illustrate my point, imagine that you just ate a 600 calorie doughnut. Your guilty conscience now tells you you need to burn that off with a jog tonight. The problem is, you haven’t run in years and never really enjoyed it anyway. So it’s unlikely that you are going to last more than 15 minutes without excessive fatigue symptoms.  If you’re a 165 lb woman, you can only expect to burn about 150 calories (at 5 mph) -at best!

You’re probably sweating profusely ,experiencing dizziness and discomfort (from the unaccustomed effort) and believe that this is how exercise SHOULD feel. It is, after all, your “punishment” right? All this exertion, yet you’ve only managed to burn less about 1/4 of the doughnut? In fact, it would actually take you close an hour of jogging to incinerate all of the calories.

Can’t jog because of joint pain?

You would have to walk (at 3.5 mph) for 20 minutes, EVERY DAY for a week, just to burn off that doughnut.

Was it worth it?  Not likely and for many people, even the recommended 150 minutes of activity each week is not enough to prevent weight gain. In fact, for some overweight individuals, getting as much as  250 to 300 minutes of exercise per week may be necessary to control their weight. So it’s obvious that you’ll need a more appropriate and sustainable approach. You’ll also need to challenge your beliefs surrounding exercise.

Myths about exercise

• No pain, no gain.

Painful, intense exercise will NOT lead to lifestyle change. Continued discomfort will discourage you from continuing and can damage your body.

• High intensity exercise burns more fat.

Actually it burns more carbohydrates than fat, at least in the first 15-30 minutes of the exercise. This depletes your muscles and often induces carbohydrate cravings, and a subsequent increase in appetite, in order to replenish lost stores.

The only way to change your view on exercise forever is to :

1. Engage in activities that you enjoy and that leave you feeling energized, not exhausted.
2. Introduce exercise slowly and micro-progress the intensity as you become more fit.
3. Work at a level that is comfortable, and sustainable over a long period of time.

Any other approach that does not adhere to these guidelines will not work for long – I promise you.

The key is micro-progression. Adding about 10% to your weekly activity volume until your fitness goal is achieved is ideal. If you can only sustain 15 minutes of moderate activity this week, add 2 minutes next week, and the week after, until you’re burning enough energy to  fuel your lifestyle.

Are you really active?

Most inactive people seriously misjudge how much food they consume and how little exercise they actually do, or are capable of doing.  As a 165 lb female, you will burn an average of 12,400 calories each week. Even if you manage to jog for 20 minutes, 3 days a week (a good starting point), you can expect a mere weekly burn of  680 calories. All you need to do is eat 1.3 doughnuts that week to erase the expenditure from the jogging you performed. However, with controlled micro-progression of your exercise duration and intensity, you can soon expect your weekly burn to double, triple or even quadruple – all with the same level of perceived exertion. This makes exercise a more important contributor to your weight management efforts.

Increasing your activity level is only half the battle, unless you also make an effort to REDUCE your inactivity. This means reducing your time at the computer, in your car and in front of the television. Statistics Canada reports that 48% of  Canadians, aged 12 or over, are inactive. Half of them report to be sitting most of the day.  Being physically active does NOT negate the effects of being sedentary( i.e. increased risk of CVD). There is a strong correlation between sitting and mortality risk, even among more fit individuals. So a commitment to frequent movement is essential.

If you don’t reduce your inactive time, you’ll soon be complaining that you don’t have time to exercise more. Since you only have 24 hours in the day, limiting unproductive and inactive behaviors will free up the time you need to embrace active living to its fullest.

On a related note, a recent study in the British Medical Journal showed that men who watch too much television (20+ hours) produce 50% less sperm than those who watch less. Sperm count, and quality appear to improve relative to activity levels. This is enough to keep me moving that’s for sure!

How do you rank? Take the test below to find out!

Physical Activity Index

How did you score?  Are you as active as you thought? If not, why not start to change that today?

You see, athletic activity is 100% reliable and comes with a lifetime guarantee. Each time you work out or play a sport you make a deposit into your bank of health. If you don’t nourish your health you’ll be making deposits into someone else’s account. . . in the form of health care and pharmaceutical costs. It’s an investment of time and energy, but it pays great dividends and unlike the stock market, the return is always greater.  Physical activity provides a distraction from the serious side of life.  There is no end to activities you can choose from and you can even rotate and change with the seasons, from golf in the summer to skiing in the winter.

Just as quick fix diets are going the way of the Dodo bird, so are the quick fix, high intensity approaches to general fitness. I recommend a back to basics approach that is self-paced, enjoyable, and integrated into your lifestyle. It includes weight training ( go here for exercise guidelines for beginners) , aerobic conditioning and mobility work. It also involves lifting things, doing housework, going outside, embracing nature and other means of exercise in lieu of sedentary activities.

One by one, you need to replace old habits with new ones that get you moving and keep you moving. With this approach you’ll learn to view exercise as a reward, not a form of punishment. This occurs from the immediate satisfaction of completing the task, and over time through improved health, well-being and quality of life.

If you enjoyed this article, please quickly do me a favor and share with others and comment below.

In today’s world many of us are bombarding our body with ridiculous amounts of coffee, cigarettes and sugar laced energy drinks, not only as a meal substitute  but also to fill energy gaps between poorly structured meals. Reducing or eliminating non-food stimulants from your routine will be the second stage in your habit change progression this year.

Habit # 2     Ditch the Caffeine, Nicotine and Energy Drinks

Caffeine containing beverages

Coffee, tea, colas, diet sodas, most energy drinks and other caffeine-containing drinks are the most popular beverages in the world. Over 1.7 billion cups of coffee are consumed everyday, worldwide. The average person consumes around three cups per day, with the average office worker consuming closer to four. It’s also been estimated that about 65% of coffee drinks are consumed during, or as an alternative to, breakfast. To say the least, people love their coffee. Of course, it’s the mood-altering drug caffeine that they really crave.

After drinking a cup of  coffee (or any caffeine containing beverage), the caffeine within enters the bloodstream and stimulates the release of more glucose throughout the body. This produces a feeling of alertness and temporarily raises energy levels.

The problem is that this sudden rise in glucose causes the pancreas to over-secrete insulin resulting in a rapid drop in blood sugar levels. This why people crave another cup shortly after the first cup – to bring blood glucose levels back up.

Are you jump-starting your mind and body with caffeine instead of food? 

Actually, caffeine isn’t all that bad. In fact, there are many known health and performance benefits when consumed strategically and in moderation. It’s only a problem when it’s abused (as defined by >400 mg or 4 cups/day for men or >300 mg or 3 cups per day for women). It’s also an issue for people who are naturally intolerant, who don’t drink enough water, who are generally unhealthy or frequently use it as a substitute over nourishing food to obtain energy.

For these people, even short term consumption of caffeinated beverages can lead to heartburn, acid reflux, headaches, anxiety, insomnia and dehydration. Long term abuse can lead to more serious conditions including addiction, increased cholesterol, depression, chronic fatigue and obesity. Many regular caffeinated beverage drinkers often abuse caffeine because over time they build up tolerance to its effects, which creates a need for more to get the same energy jolt.

Nicotine

The mood altering drug nicotine, contained within tobacco, can temporarily improve your memory, alertness and your capacity to learn. Much like caffeine, there are also plenty of problems associated with it’s use including raising blood pressure, reducing lung function and restricting oxygen uptake.

In fact it’s been said that a single cigarette can shorten your life by 14 minutes, or 6 to 8 years over the course of a lifetime.

Smoking cigarettes for an early morning boost inhibits appetite, leaving one out of touch with their natural hunger signals. The result is that your body does not get the nutrients it needs, when it needs them. Much like caffeine  nicotine brings blood glucose levels up too high and the resulting drop in blood sugar signals cravings for sweets – or at least another cigarette. Nicotine also tends to blunt or dull the taste buds, which enhances the desire for stronger flavored foods (higher in salt and fat).

Nicotine replacement therapies (includes chewing gum, the patch, nasal spray and the inhaler) help reduce the severity of nicotine withdrawal and cigarette cravings to allow you time to establish your new behavior. For really heavy smokers, Zyban ( not an NRT) can be prescribed and affects your levels of dopamine and norepinephrine to produce a state of  “alert relaxation”, much the same way nicotine does.

Few people ever successfully escape nicotine’s enslavement, but with more treatment options than ever before, more people are beating the odds.There are approximately 50% less people smoking today than 50 years ago, but we still have a long way to go.

Sugar Based Beverages and Energy Drinks

I think it’s safe to recognize sugar as a potent drug, the health effects of  it’s consumption ( in even moderate doses) are comparable to caffeine and nicotine - some experts say it’s on par with heroine.  I would agree, have you ever seen the child who was refused their dose of refined sugar? It’s pure mayhem for everyone as the child deals with the powerful withdrawal symptoms. Chronic consumption of high amounts of sugar are linked to diabetes, obesity and even cancer. This is what many parents have fueled their children with for years ( and continue to ) and we are seeing the effects of that abuse today.  Chronic illness, physical and cognitive impairments commonly found in seniors are now showing up in our children.

Many of us start our day with food or drink, laced with high amounts of refined sugar. These include sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, energy bars and fruit juices. Much like caffeine and nicotine, these foods create a spike in energy followed by a rapid drop in blood glucose levels. Many people will alternate between caffeine drinks, cigarettes and sugar all day long to maintain some sense of control over their energy levels. In reality, there is no control and the damage to the body over time can be seen in the form of obesity, chronic fatigue and depression.

The American Heart Association currently recommends consuming no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day for women and 9 for men. This is less than half the sugar contained in a 20 ounce bottle of Coke. Consuming naturally occurring sugars, in their natural form (ie. fruits over fruit juices),  provides only small amounts of sugar and enough fiber to sustain energy longer, without the energy crash and without the degenerating health impact.

How to Break Free From the Stimulants

The chemically induced highs you get from drugs like caffeine and nicotine only reinforce physical dependence and send you on energy roller-coaster that can be very difficult to get off. Abrupt withdrawal from any of these drugs can cause headaches, drowsiness, lethargy, irritability, nervousness and even mental depression. All of these only make the need for the drug even greater. For this reason, as you phase out some of the stimulants from your routine, including a cup of coffee (preferably black) with breakfast may help suppress these withdrawal symptoms. Changing to decaffeinated coffee is another option but still causes dehydration unless you follow it up with a couple cups of water.

Whether you decide to remove sugar based energy drinks, caffeine containing beverages or nicotine from your routine, do it slowly and over a long period of time. For example, it isn’t realistic to go from 8 cups of coffee a day to none. The withdrawal symptoms will simply be too overwhelming to endure. Focus on one at a time and scale back.

Seek lower dose alternatives such as herbal teas ( only if you like tea), decaffeinated beverages and nutritional supplements that yield a milder stimulating effect. My personal favorites are “Craig’s special blend” (green tea with a splash of lemon juice,  honey with herbal pomegranate tea for extra color and flavor) and homemade hot cocoa. I also use Ginkgo Biloba, a well known natural botanical remedy, as a cognitive enhancer to boost my concentration for those early morning workouts.

Another trick is to add water to sugar based or artificially sweetened drinks. Gradually increase the amount of water you add with the end goal to acquire taste for less sweet foods. There are many other options out there to help you get off the stimulants if you take the time to research and experiment.

If you haven’t yet implemented breakfast into your routine, I’d recommend starting there first. This will make getting off the stimulants much easier by limiting cravings. So for the next couple weeks (or as long as it takes) commit to easing off the stimulants and supplying your body with a gradual release of glucose and a more consistent supply of energy with balanced meals and snacks throughout the day – everyday.

If you enjoyed this article, please quickly do me a favor and share with others and comment below.

I also challenged you to implement some of the behavior modifications I recommend into your own lifestyle.  Since this is the first day of habit change let’s take a look at getting off to a great start with a nourishing breakfast!

Habit # 1    Kick-Start Your Body With Breakfast

Getting off to a good start goes a long way towards building energy and enthusiasm for the day’s events. It’s been well documented that having breakfast within one hour of waking helps increase alertness, improves function at school and work, and improves overall  human performance. Despite these benefits, many people still fail to meet this basic need, which consequently sets off a cascade of poor decisions that negatively impacts their health.

“I don’t have time for breakfast” or “I’m just not hungry in the morning” are the common reasons that people give for skipping breakfast. Many people don’t realize that if they eat breakfast they will, after a couple of weeks, start waking up hungry and anticipating their morning meal. This in turn will cause them to become hungry more often, increasing the opportunity to nourish the body throughout the day. If you aren’t hungry in the morning, perhaps it’s because you ate late the night before. I’ll bet it was a large meal too? Research shows that “late-eaters” lose less weight (on a diet) and typically consume fewer calories at breakfast, or skip it all together.

Her engine is fully revved!

It’s generally good practice to keep 12-13 hours between your last meal and breakfast. The body can use its energy stores during this period and you will most likely wake up hungry. If you eat too late, you’ll likely blow off breakfast, or eat less than you need to get you  through until lunch. To fill the gap, you’ll snack on convenience food, drink coffee or smoke cigarettes, then when you finally consume your first meal, your ravenous cravings will negatively influence your choice of foods.

This is how the energy roller coaster starts (energy spikes followed by prolonged lethargy with no way off until the routine is broken). Correcting this starts at breakfast, where your main objective is to get your “engine” revving to support peak performance throughout the day.

Skipping breakfast causes the body to become attuned to not being hungry until close to dinner time. This usually results in overeating at dinner and late night snacking on high calorie foods. Both of which can impair your sleep quality/quantity and your natural hunger signals the following day.

If you believe that you don’t have time to eat breakfast, know that you’ll get that time back (and then some) in improved productivity. I understand that some people have been skipping breakfast most of their lives and that the habit is deeply entrenched. This makes change more challenging but no less rewarding if you alter the routine.

If your breakfast doesn’t deliver the sustained energy you expect, you may need to look at the quality of the meal. A balanced meal consists of 1/3 protein and 2/3 carbohydrates. Traditional breakfasts of cereal and milk with a tall glass of OJ is not balanced and lacks many of the key nutrients for sustained energy production, namely fiber, fats and protein. In fact, most people will crash as 1-2 hours from a meal like this. The key is to experiment until you find a meal combination that keeps you satisfied for 4-5 hours. By that time, you should be hungry and ready for your next meal.

How To Bring Breakfast Back To Your Routine

I’ve always said I only preach what I practice, and my breakfast ritual is no different. I usually wake up reasonably hungry as I promptly sprint to the fridge to get things started. My breakfast setup even precedes the washroom duties. You really needed to know that part didn’t you. My job requires sustained energy and focus (to motivate those who routinely skip breakfast), so I’m pretty thorough. Here’s how it goes:

• Freshly squeezed lemon in hot water.This provides a robust shot of Vitamin C, hydration and creates an alkaline digestive environment for what’s to come.
• Shower time.
• Glass of green tea. I add a little lemon and some pomegranate herbal tea for taste. This is prepared the night before and is a great source of anti-oxidants and hydration.
• Stinging nettle root extract. For circulation and maybe to grow some hair too!
• Ginkgo Biloba. For improved circulation and brain function.
• Homemade spelt and multi-seed bread with Manuka honey. For energy.
• Fruit of the day. For energy.
• Handful of nuts. For fiber and to build meal density. I prefer almonds.
• Greek Yogurt with whey protein. To repair my muscles from schlepping weights around for clients all day.
• 3-5 fish oil caps. For radiant skin.

That’s it. If it seems like a lot, it really isn’t and it only takes 2 minutes to prep and 5 minutes to eat. This gives me about 4-5 hours of sustained energy until I get hungry again and need lunch. I have taken the time to experiment with many food combinations to find what works for me and encourage you to do the same.

If you are someone who routinely skips breakfast, or grabs breakfast on the go, you should try to implement this habit for the next 21 days. This  alone can go along way to getting your energy levels on track. It won’t necessarily cause weight loss, but in combination with the habits I’m going to divulge in the coming weeks, you’ll start to feel and see the results that a healthy lifestyle creates.

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1. Am I progressing and reaching my weekly goals?
2. Is my approach sustainable for the rest of the year?
3. Does my approach make me feel healthier or do I feel run down?

As I mentioned in a previous article, most health resolutions WILL fail by this date, and be all but forgotten by next month. This isn’t because people are weak willed, rather their approach is way off the mark. Typically, people take a shotgun approach to change, hoping that if they implement enough food restriction and exercise, that surely they’ll achieve some level of success. Unfortunately throwing a bunch of haphazard strategies at fat loss, hoping that something will stick, only works on T.V.

Last month I presented a  new paradigm for your fitness and  weight management. An approach that does not use external measures of success such as specific meal frequency and timing,  specific food portions or society’s unrealistic standards of “ideal” weight and body shape. One that does not have you tearing up your body and over-training in the gym 2 weeks into your program. This new paradigm shifts the responsibility of the process, and the results, solely on  the individual.

It’s a sustainable solution that empowers you to get in touch with your internal cues of hunger and meal satisfaction. In turn, nurturing your relationship with food, while you reap the energy and vitality from meeting your body’s need for nutrients. It also gives you the opportunity to learn to enjoy participating in regular exercise and finally enjoy the health benefits of being active.

Sounds great, right?

One of the keys to achieving this is in the process. Instead of thinking only in the long term, establishing smaller, easily attainable weekly goals will set you up for success. Attempting to change too many things at once will only dilute your efforts and results. These weekly goals can come in many forms but if you want to make the most impact, choose goals that are most relevant to the outcome you seek. They should be behavioral in nature and powerful enough to make a big impact in your progress.

To help you out I’ve selected the top 10 behavioral issues people struggle with the most in their day to day lives. These ten are real barriers to change for a lot of my own clients and when systematically “corrected,” the outcome they seek is usually realized. Here’s my list (and by no means comprehensive) :

Top 10 Behavioral Habits to Adopt in 2013

1. Eat a balanced breakfast.
2. Reduce or eliminate caffeine, nicotine and energy drinks.
3. Get at least 150 minutes of activity each week.
4. Perform at least 5 minutes of daily stretching and relaxation techniques.
5. Adopt a diet dominant in plant-based food sources.
6. Learn to control emotional hunger cues.
7. Reduce or eliminate alcoholic beverages.
8. Accept nothing less than a good night’s sleep – every night!
9. Implement a fluid management system.
10. Create a network of supporters.

Not exactly breaking news is it? Yet most people continue to struggle to implement many of these behaviors into their routine. If your routine is missing any of these habits, I’ll bet your not feeling or moving as well as you should. Many of you might be only doing one or two, or worse, none at all. I’m going to dedicate the next few weeks to helping you out. Each week from here on, I’m going to zero in on only one of these behavioral goals for you to work on. I’ll explain the importance of each and offer strategies to get you started. To help you out with the accountability portion I recommend a free online service called HabitForge. They send you email reminders and motivation to keep you on track with your habits.

However you implement your habits, take it slow and only work on one at a time. This increases you change of success immensely. Some experts say it takes 21 days to adopt a habit, while other argue that it takes much longer than that. However long it takes to ingrain the new behavior into your subconscious is up to you. Change is not a race, rather it’s  a systematic process of repetition forged over a long period of time. Stay the course, and over time your diligence will deliver strength and stability to your mind, and body!

Does anyone really find those generic recommendations helpful? Lose 1-2 pounds a week, join a gym, exercise, carry around a food journal and other familiar ”expert” tips, each of which predictably serve up failure every time.

It’s been estimated that nearly half our population will resolve to change something heading into 2013.  About 50% of those will pledge to lose weight and become fitter. Predictably, sales of  diet programs, self-help books and gym memberships skyrocket in January. As history shows, by January 7th, nearly a third will have broken their resolution, and by Valentine’s Day, nearly half have begun to lapse back into their old behaviors. By the summertime, 60% of these resolutions will be abandoned and put on the shelf for the next year.

Why is this you ask?

For one, dieting isn’t natural, healthy or sustainable. What’s worse is that most dieters adopt the “all or none” approach to change, which predictably results in deprivation, binging, perceived failure and self rejection. This initiates the yo-yo diet cycle that not only carries a hefty emotional toll, but also increases your risk for diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. In the end, you just end up even heavier.

Here are 10 good reasons to stop dieting today

1. Diets don’t work long term
2. Diets are expensive
3. Diets are boring
4. Diets can cause health problems
5. Diets can lead to permanent obesity 
6. Diets can rob you of energy
7. Diets can turn into eating disorders
8. Diets can make you afraid of wholesome, nourishing food.
9. Dieting causes emotional rebellion
10. Dieting creates stress in the family and relationships

Ok, you get it, dieting sucks. Is there a better approach to fulfilling your resolution of shedding a few pounds and enjoying a healthier lifestyle in 2013?

You say you want a resolution . . .

The first step in successful change is to establish why you want to change in the first place. I believe there are two major reasons why most people decide to lose weight and get fit: to get healthy or to improve body image. I think the obsession many of us have with body image is also a major reason why most resolutions fall far short of the target. Studies have shown a rise in body image problems among men and women in recent years. Mainstream media perpetuate role models with extraordinary physicality which has distorted our standards of beauty to a point where our expectations for ourselves have become totally unrealistic.

Many people believe that their body size and shape are completely under their control. Unfortunately, this is generally not the case.  The mostly impossible attempt to reconcile your distorted expectations with reality can result in a high physical and physiological cost.  This is why it’s important to have your resolutions routed in the desire to be healthy and more fit. You have far more control over this outcome and will likely sustain your motivation much longer. This isn’t to say that you can’t change your body – of course you can – but using the mirror and scale as a means for tracking your success can lead to perfectionist tendencies that often results in a loss of control.

The second step is to decide what approach you’re going to use. If you intend to use a plan you pulled of the internet, clipped from your favorite fitness magazine or read in the latest diet book, you might want to reconsider. Most weight loss programs measure success in terms of pounds lost. They seldom take into account the quality of the process or the sustainability of the results. Success at weight management is difficult, especially in the long term. If the process is unbearable, how long can you expect to keep it up for?

The same is true for for exercise. You cannot bombard your body with multiple weekly sessions at an intensity and duration that you’re not ready for.  Once your willpower breaks from the strain and you quit, what will you have to show for your 4 weeks of hard work? Most likely you’ll acquire an even greater distaste for exercise ensuring another long year of inactivity. If you’ve also  bought into the dieting mentality, this negative experience from exercise will likely be enough to sink your ship completely – and long before your journey has really begun.

A New Approach

Conventional weight loss programs that promote calorie restriction without maintenance should be replaced by health-oriented, lifestyle change programs. One that shifts attention toward attainable goals such as healthier eating, enjoyable physical activity and positive self-image. Many will still experience the physical changes they desire, but they must remain secondary to these primary objectives.

Instead of checking the scale for affirmation of your hard work, success can be measured with short term behavioral goals. Small changes that accumulate over time to eventually realize the long term goal of reducing health risks and improving your quality of life. Some examples of short term behavioral goals to consider are:

• reducing fat intake
• increasing activity levels with enjoyable activity
• eating breakfast
• drinking more water
• improving waist-to-hip ratio
• normalized eating
• decreasing reliance on medications

Whatever behavior goal you choose, don’t try to change too much at once. Your willpower isn’t that strong, trust me. Once the new behavior has been successfully implemented for a period of time, then introduce another. I’m sure you can see that over the course of several months you’ll be a much different person.

Physical activity should be introduced slowly. If you missed my post on exercise for beginners, check it out here for a detailed prescription. Even if you’re not a beginner, and have just been inactive for a while, take time to build your exercise tolerance back up to what it once was. Destroying your body with inappropriate exercise is not only unhealthy, it’s counter productive to your goals.  If it hurts, don’t do it. If you get too sore, it’s too much. Manage your fitness well and you’ll have those unscrupulous gym owners scratching there heads wondering why you’re still there in February.

Hopefully you can now see that the process of weight change need not be an all or nothing ordeal. Obesity is the result of  a complex interaction of medical, psychological, behavioral, social and cultural factors that varies greatly among individuals. Most weight management programs focus on weight, which makes these problems worse. They focus on the symptoms rather than the cause, creating more problems than it solves.

This year will be different for you.  

That is if you take the time to set up a proper weight management program. One that reinforces lifestyle and education to promote self-reliance and where self-acceptance and the ability to nourish one’s self for health and energy, rather than weight loss, are the new goals. This is best way to be successful with your heath and fitness resolutions in 2013 and beyond. Happy New Year!

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I’d say it’s time for a reality check!

Who doesn’t know someone on a diet right now? The average person will cycle through multiple diet schemes in the course of their lifetime and get the same results almost every time.  Plateaus and rapid weight regain are the typical results one might expect from a diet cycle. So if you take the deprivation and suffering that one expects to endure from dieting and multiply that by the the depression and despair felt when the diet fails, we have a real problem on our hands.

Being stressed and depressed are emotional states which inevitably lead to illness and dysfunction. What’s even worse is that every time a new diet is introduced, and failure results, a new layer of self-esteem is stripped away, like an onion, from the individual, until nothing remains but shame and self-loathing.

So why do people put themselves through this nonsense in the first place?

The chronic dieter’s mindset is the problem. If not addressed, a chronic dieter will experience a never ending pendulum of deprivation and binging that will ultimately become a lifestyle.  The key is changing one’s beliefs. Chronic dieters get into trouble because they:

• Believe food is their enemy and that weight loss is a battle.
• Are emotional eaters. Food serves as a means of comfort, distraction, medication and punishment.
• Subscribe to constant recycling of old dieting trends.
• Don’t allow themselves to make any choices. They let the diet make the choices for them.
• Are out of touch with their own sense of physical hunger.
• Decide to lose weight for external reasons (ie. because their doctor, loved one or society says so)

Let’s face it, diets aren’t natural. We are happiest when our needs are being met and anything that prevents this cannot be continued for very long. Even if someone has had success on a diet before, I’ll ask them this – if it worked so well before why are you still struggling to lose weight now?

It’s not a lack of willpower at work here, it’s the fundamental fact that diets fail. People don’t fail – diets do. A successful diet is one that can be adopted forever and that doesn’t leave the person feeling deprived over long stretches of time.  So how can someone empower themselves to get off the weight loss roller-coaster, empower themselves to eat sensibly and never diet again?

The Successful Dieter’s Creed

1. Thou shalt establish realistic expectations

Chronic dieters have high weight loss expectations but seldom want to do the work to achieve it. Even the best commercial weight loss programs only result in a loss of 10-15% of an individual’s starting weight. While this is great, it’s nowhere near what most dieters expect. Television has warped public perception to the point where anything less than a 50% weight loss (from the starting weight) is deemed a failure.

Successful eaters don’t have rigid ideas of success. They understand that weight loss is a gradual process and that rapid fat loss methods cannot be maintained. They don’t subscribe to the all or nothing approach. They know that if they eat well 80% of the time, the other 20% doesn’t have much impact on the plan.

2. Thou shalt take charge of what, when and how much to eat

Successful eaters listen to their body by responding to internal cues of hunger, fullness and comfort. Dieters who fail are those who respond to emotional triggers and are usually completely out of touch with the physical cues that govern hunger.

Do you know who the best eaters are? Infants. Infants innately know when they are hungry and full and they respond accordingly. When was the last time you saw a baby eat when it was full? OK, maybe my mother might raise her hand here. But seriously, somewhere along the way many of us have lost touch with this basic instinct. Chronic dieters attempt to ignore these cues in hopes that their willpower alone will deliver change. Willpower is like a muscle, it gets tired and will eventually succumb to the strain placed upon it by deprivation.

Successful eaters document their eating habits in a food journal. One that chronicles not only the foods they eat, but the triggers and feelings they experience before and after the meal. By paying attention to details like this, a chronic dieter can identify negative patterns and work to change them.

3. Thou shalt love all food without guilt

Successful eaters view food as their ally in life’s journey. They savor, enjoy and celebrate food and never even consider removing it. They don’t view food as “good” or “bad”, because they know almost every food has its place in a healthy diet. They enjoy parties and social gatherings and engage in all types of food without anxiety or guilt. They’ve learned to listen to their body’s physical cues to set boundaries and moderate their food intake.

4. Thou shalt honor thy meal time

Successful eaters make meal preparation and consumption a sacred event.  They never eat on the go, skip meals or eat while distracted (i.e. watching T.V). Studies have shown that there is less brainwave activity watching television than when you are sleeping. We all know that eating and watching television are a deadly combination.

Successful eaters have a DEP (designated eating place) where they can enjoy a meal in peace and quiet. Perhaps at the dining room table where the internal hunger cues can be heard without distraction. It’s important to have all meals in this place to develop this routine.

5. Thou shalt embrace my shape and focus on becoming healthier

Modern society’s focus on unnatural physiques has perpetuated an image of what a man or woman should aspire to look like. Trends will always change and people need to understand that the people inspiring these “trends” are in the top 1% for that particular look. Very few women are genetically capable of achieving the physique of a runway model or fitness model, and no amount of hard work or plastic surgery can change that.

For the other 99%, comparing yourself to, and striving to look like, someone else will most likely result in disappointment and despair. Successful eaters shift the focus on health first, knowing that a lean and energized body will soon follow. They strive to eat well for personal reasons such as ’to feel better about themselves’, ‘to be healthier’ and ‘to feel confident about the way they look’ and never because someone told them they should.

If you’re hellbent on taking onus off yourself and riding the never ending popular diet bandwagon,   

Please consider the following before selecting a diet –  

If what you’re eating cannot sustain you for the rest of your life or maintain an optimum level of vitality, health and performance, then it’s NOT a good diet. This includes health focused contest diets used by natural bodybuilders.

Think long-term.

• If you ate the way the diet book recommended for the rest of your life, what would happen?
• Is the diet wholesome and designed for long-term health and biological function?
• Could it satisfy the requirements of a hard working athlete?
• Could you eat nothing but eggs and grapefruit forever (or whatever) without creating a micro nutrient deficiency?

It’s time to empower ourselves to eat properly. Forget the diets. Forget the commercial, corporate and conventional maze of deceit. Learn to regain what we’ve lost as a society – our basic intuition for knowing when and what to eat. Until we can do this, our nation’s weight problem will never be solved and the corrupt weight loss industry will continue to flourish from our ignorance.

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