Category Archives: Nutrition

The Truth About Weight, Genetics, and Intensity

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You know a guy from work lost forty pounds by swearing off carbs. Your spouse dropped four inches from their waist after walking six miles a day. Your best friend went vegan and gained tons of energy, morphing into the best shape of their life. But when you try to do what they did for the same amount of time, you don’t lose much fat, and may even feel physically sick. What gives?

It turns out that genes and body chemistry can have a significant effect on the outcome of your efforts.

Unsurprisingly, most people, about 88%, respond to higher intensity exercise versus a lucky 12% who will be able to lose fat and manage their weight with lower to moderate intensity work. On the diet spectrum, there seems to be a more even split: about half of people lose fat on a lower carb diet, while the other half responds more to low fat eating.

This explains to some degree why many people spend hours in the gym and get no tangible results. Most people cannot rely on a thirty minute, steadily paced elliptical workout to create change in their bodies beyond a week or two. It’s just not intense enough. Moreover, modes like weight training with heavy resistance and CrossFit can deliver results because they create a higher intensity that has the potential to produce those results.

The caveat, however, is that most people should not start with a high-intensity workout like this. To safely and sustainably progress in your weight loss as well as overall fitness, you need to dedicate plenty of program time to overall movement quality: soft tissue, mobility and stability work. Otherwise, you may be losing weight, but your high intensity moves are likely exacerbating existing imbalances further and pre-disposing you to sub-optimal structure and function, as well as injury.

Mindful of this, I recommend working with a knowledgeable, professional coach who can help you address your weaknesses and heal imbalances before progressing appropriately. You’ll prevent pain and injury and feel good in your body. Then, you can build your workout intensity and continue progressing in your fitness and weight management goals.

I’m happy to answer any questions you may have! Please reach out to me directly at blendablebalance@gmail.com.

For further reading on some of the genetic science, check out Rock Star Research.

Listening To Your Intuitive Sense of Hunger

Babies naturally have an accurate sense of when they’re hungry and when they’re done. As we grow up, when does that ability go away? And why?

So much of our eating behavior is driven by our environment, culture, and society:

1) Nonstop work and activity. In American culture, a leisurely meal does not happen by default. Working professionals may be at the mercy of their company schedule. Family mealtime can be influenced by kids’ schedules. Moreover, our culture generally values convenience over spending time on food prep and cooking, and fast food typically comes with high levels of sugar, salt, and fat and low levels of essential vitamins and minerals.

2) Never-ending availability of cheap, palatable food. Not so long ago in our evolution, food supply was scarce. Not so much today; we can eat whenever and whatever we think we want. Even office supply stores have soda, candy, and junk food in highly visible spots. Sugar, salt and unhealthy fat are a combination that tastes good, but can easily cause weight gain and even become addictive, robbing us of physical and mental health.

3) Marketing and advertising messages to eat constantly. This also plays on our natural inclination to eat when food is available. These visual signals can easily make us think we want to eat, when oftentimes we aren’t truly hungry and don’t need food. The average person is exposed to 5,000 ads in a day in 2020; we can receive and respond to these suggestions without even realizing it.

How can you work around these obstacles?

  1. Awareness is the the first step to re-calibrating for more intuitive eating: observe your body’s hunger signals and respond properly to them, just like you did by instinct as a baby. My favorite approach is that when your hunger is a 7 out of 10, you should eat. When your satisfaction is a 7 out of 10, stop.
  2. Preparation have balanced snacks on hand, and when you’re truly hungry between meals, eat one!  Healthy choices for you may be a handful of almonds, or a serving of Greek yogurt topped with fresh berries. I personally keep a couple of low sugar fruit and nut bars with me to have when I’m on the go between meals.
  3. Savoring helps you slow down and get maximum satisfaction from eating. For snacks, eat a portion and wait about 20 minutes. If you’re not at a 7 out of 10, consider eating more. The same principle is true for meals; eat less of each food than you think you might need, enjoy it slowly, and check in with your hunger after about 20 minutes have passed. Most of the time, you’ll be satisfied with what you’ve had and won’t truly need more.

Using that approach will help you be less inclined to buy and consume the ubiquitous junk food that doesn’t pay you back in value. You’ll also be less responsive to external cues nudging you to eat, and more in control to make healthier choices that propel you toward your goals.

What’s Your Soul Food?

The landscape used to look very different in America.  Prior to WWI, most citizens were farmers, working and eating from the land.  Farm-to-table wasn’t a hipster movement but an actual way of life.rockyridge

When I was little, I was only allowed to eat real food for the first few years, albeit a slice of birthday cake here and there.  As I got older, fast food became more ubiquitous because of convenience and the fact that it tasted good, so everyone in the family would eat it.

As a result of the Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, pizza, and Chinese food, I got lazy.  I barely knew how to cook when I left college, and when I moved to CA I was mostly surviving on frozen food from Trader Joe’s.  Thankfully, I learned the basics of cooking soon after moving.

I’ve never felt better than when I make dinner every night: fresh veggies, something with healthy fat and protein, green salad, and complex carbs.  A serving of each seems to be in perfect balance with whatever my body needs.  When I get away from that, my energy and well-being suffer.

Food is truly natural, un-processed, and has few ingredients.  Non-food is processed, probably comes in a bag or box, and may have six ingredients or sixty.  Just because something is edible doesn’t make it food.  Just because you grew up eating something, doesn’t make it food.  Just because it tastes good, doesn’t make it food.  Check your habits at the door and question everything you think you know about food and eating.  When you open your thought process, rather than chasing the latest “diet”, you’ll be able to make the choices that are best for your health and your well-being: true soul food.

I like the 80/20 guide: eighty percent of the time, eat fresh things (food) that originally came from the ground, not a factory.  The other twenty percent of the time, enjoy stuff you like that’s fast, processed (non-food) and/or not the healthiest choice.  Not 80 percent salad, though.  Change it up regularly so you and your taste buds don’t get bored.  (Plus 20 percent for whatever your cupcake equivalent is!)

Pro tip # 2: add three fresh vegetables (two green) and two fresh fruits to your daily eating.  Have fun with it by looking up healthy, delicious recipes that use in-season, thus more affordable veggies.   Simply planning more and adding produce will have you well on your way to higher-nutrient eating and more energy to live life and meet your goals.

[Photo: Santa Teresa State Park, San Jose, CA]

Diets Don’t Work! What To Do Instead

lyon1Atkins, South Beach, Paleo, vegan, juice cleanses, raw food, gluten-free…there are a lot of diets out there.  Every one of them markets itself as the “right” one for you, and does so brilliantly.  You’re unhealthy because you eat carbs (Atkins).  No, because you eat the wrong kind of carbs (South Beach). Actually, you don’t eat enough meat/animal fat (Paleo).  Whoa, you shouldn’t be eating anything from an animal ever (vegan)!  Time to “detox” (juice cleanses) and make sure your body has enough “living” enzymes (raw food).  And wheat is definitely ruining your digestive system (time to go gluten-free)!

I don’t believe in defining any food as inherently bad – REAL food, that is.  Allergies and sensitivities are one thing, but food itself is not bad.  In fact, real food is delicious, energizing and satisfying.  More to come on food vs. not food; right now we need to reclaim the four-letter D-word.

Did you know that the word “diet” comes from the Greek root “diaita” meaning “way of living”? A diet is not what you don’t eat, not a fad, and not something you “go on” to lose weight.  The way we currently use the word doesn’t work for me, and TRAINER NEWSFLASH: it doesn’t work for anyone.  “Diets” fail almost 100% of the time.  Weight is re-gained, and you have “failed”.  But a “diet” was never the answer, failure was inevitable, and it’s not your fault.   You’ve been set up.  Most people do not realize this.  The diet and weight loss industry is worth over 20 BILLION dollars for a reason, and that’s because a lot of people buy the hype.  We buy it because we need an answer to this problem of how to eat, enjoy our food, and stay healthy in the age of technology.  How on earth are we supposed to do all three at once?

Conventionally, “diets” are a temporary solution to an ongoing problem, so first we’ve got to re-define what a diet is.

Diet (n.) : what you eat.

That’s it.

Everything is permissible to eat, but not everything is beneficial to eat.

Some things, especially in large amounts, can cause metabolic harm (soda, beer, and refined sugar come to mind).  Does that mean you need to limit those things?  Absolutely.  Does it mean you can never enjoy those things?  Absolutely not.

I want eating to be a pleasurable experience and I believe it should be.   As a trainer, I often fine-tune how my clients are eating.  Recommendations always depend on lifestyle and goals, and eating is mindful and balanced with physical activity to derive maximum enjoyment.  It’s so much better than any depressing “diet” of deprivation, and all it takes is curiosity and a few simple guidelines.

The best news of all: it’s sustainable forever.

There’s no “going off the diet” and re-gaining what you’ve worked so hard to lose.  No “failing” and feeling badly about yourself.  Just simplicity and balance.  Savoring and splurging.  Feeding your body and mind what you need to function at your best.

So no more “diets”!  Eat mindfully, and be happy.

[Photo: Lyon Street; San Francisco, CA]