SLEEP HYGIENE CONSIDERATIONS

#1. Get to sleep by 10:30 p.m. If you need time to wind down before you sleep, make the appropriate adjustments. Getting in bed at 10:00 p.m. and reading until 11:00 p.m. defeats the purpose.

#2. Minimize your exposure to bright lights, particularly fluorescent lights, for at least two hours before going to bed. If you don’t have dimmer switches try lighting your house with candles or lamps with low wattage bulbs.

#3. Sleep in a room that is completely dark. Purchase black out curtains or use blankets if necessary.

#4. Avoid consumption of stimulants (caffeine, sugar and nicotine) after lunch.

#5. Drink plenty of water. Our bodies have very little water reserve and dehydration stimulates stress response.

#6. Try unplugging all electrical devices in your bedroom, including clocks, TV’s and lights.

#7. Avoid confrontation and negative thoughts prior to bed. Consider keeping a journal and writing ten things you are grateful for before bed.

* Remember whenever light stimulates your skin or eyes, regardless of the source, your brain and hormonal system think it is morning. In response to light, your hormonal system naturally releases cortisol. Cortisol is an activating hormone that is released in response to stress. Our natural cortisol levels are meant to peak in the morning and begin dropping in the afternoon. Decreasing cortisol levels allow the release of melatonin and growth and repair hormones. Physical repairs primarily take place between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. After 2:00 am the immune and repair energies are more focused on mental repair, which lasts until we awaken.

 

The other day we were asked a question in regards to detoxing and it went something like this “What are your thoughts on performing a detox and aren’t our bodies set up to detoxify naturally?”  This is a great question and I would like to address it today in my blog. To begin I would like to say that yes, absolutely our bodies are totally built for detoxification and we have numerous pathways of elimination that include our digestive tracts, lungs, kidneys and our skin. When we run into problems is when one or more of these pathways of elimination become overwhelmed and then we begin to see signs of toxicity. Common examples are skin disorders such as acne or eczema. Oftentimes there is a problem with elimination and by cleaning up the gut and detoxifying the body, better results can be found than by using topical treatments alone.

The body is a great healer but even when fed clean organic food and quality water it can use a little help. Our current world is a different place than it was when our hunter-gatherer ancestors ran around chasing food and collecting fruits and veggies. Nowadays we breath toxic fumes, use hair products, skin products, household cleaning agents and numerous other things in our day to day life that greatly add toxic load to our pathways of elimination. Furthermore, when our ancestors ran around they often went through times of famine (especially winters) and this allowed the body a break from the work of digestion and gave it time to work on ridding itself of things that were not meant to stay. Today not many of us ever suffer famine as we live in the world of monster grocery stores and ice-cream and strawberries are available at 2:30am in December…..you get the point.

So what are a few things to consider when performing a detox? Most people require or at least benefit from supplements because they don’t want to change their lives for too long and their systems have been out of balance for too long. We also want phase 1 and phase 2 of liver detoxification to be equal or at least for phase 2 to be faster than phase 1 so we don’t increase reactive molecules and reabsorb what we are attempting to rid ourselves of. Personally, I believe the best methods for cleansing include consuming less food overall with a focus on fresh, organic, seasonal fruits and vegetables. One should consider decreasing meats and excess fats and completely avoiding processed foods, dairy, sugars and grains especially wheat and consume lots of quality mineral rich water. Herbs to support the liver, kidneys and lymph system are also very valuable to assist what nature already gave us. There are many other useful techniques that can be used in conjunction with diet therapy and they may include dry brushing, contrast showers, exercise or steam/sauna, to name a few.

This is a quick overview of why we can always benefit from a little detox program and spring is the best time to begin a cleanse, so consider doing a little house cleaning soon!

There is a good chance you have never heard of Azodicarbonamide unless you are a chemist but that doesn't mean that it is not all around you or even in your lunch.

Azodicarbonamide is a yellow, orange or red crystalline powder chemical compound that is used in the production of foam plastics. You can find azodicarbonamide in synthetic leathers, shoe soles and yoga mats among various other products. But guess what azodicarbonamide is also used in the production of food and has been given a “GRAS” rating in the United States and Canada. “GRAS” means safe and this means that under the name E927 azodicarbonamide is finding its way into some of the most popular foods in our society. It should be known that Europe and Australia have banned the use of E927 in food but here in North America we are still giving it a pass. The U.K. has identified azodicabonamide as aggravating to the respiratory tract and the World Health Organization has also found links to respiratory issues including allergies and asthma.

So I understand that we have an innocent until proven guilty policy, but when it comes to our health as human beings I believe that we may need to rethink this and one must wonder if big dollars aren't at stake here.

So where will you find the old running shoe in your food? E927 is a flour bleaching and improving agent that makes bread nice and chewy and found commonly in Subway sandwiches, McDonald’s buns, Burger King Buns, Wendy’s buns, Arby’s buns and Dunkin Donuts to name a few. There are definitely many other reasons you should refrain from fast food, but consider this food for thought next time the kids are in the back seat munching on flip-flops!








Tags- Calgary Personal Trainer, Calgary Personal Training, Nutrition, Precision Fitness and Nutrition, Fitness, Health, weight loss,Calgary nutrition, Calgary weight loss, healthy living, fat loss, Calgary wellness, 

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 Many people when trying to lose weight will cut their calories to extremely low amounts and hit the treadmill ...what a friggin' disaster! Crash diets don't work lemon juice fasts don't work and multi-marketing companies selling shake diets don't teach anybody anything. Why?

When you go on a highly restricted diet you begin to lose weight, but that weight after a few days is coming from both fat and muscle. Muscle is metabolically active, meaning that it needs energy (calories) to keep it going. Fat, on the other hand is metabolically useless. 
Translation- although you will lose weight when crash dieting you will also degrade muscle so when you're back to your normal caloric intake you are now less efficient at burning calories because you are now less muscle than before. Make sense?  Total body weight is not the most important factor; your body fat to lean muscle ratio is a way more valid numerical value. Muscle only takes up about 60 percent of the space fat does. The key here is to build more muscle which will raise your metabolic rate and at the same time lose fat. Translation- look better and take up less space. 

Here is another reason that the crash diet method does not work, your body is smart and it is set up for survival when you restrict your calories too much and for too long the thyroid slows down your metabolism which again makes you less efficient at burning fat.

Now as far as shake diets or any other multi-marketing fad diets go, sure they will work to burn some weight, hell if I feed you small rations of rice and beans or bread and water you will lose weight too! But what have you learned about being healthy and eating right from this approach and how long will it be till you return to your old ways?  It is time to get the weight off naturally using a healthy method that will be sustainable for good!

So....here are the meat and potatoes! (Sorry no potatoes allowed).

#1. Train hard 3 days a week (if you are reading on the treadmill or using those little pink weights ...YOU'RE DOOMED! )

#2. Run 20 minute intervals 2 other days per week.

#3. Start counting calories to get an idea what you are taking in. I hear trainers and nutritionists say it is unhealthy to count calories and becoming neurotic about counting is unhealthy but have you seen our population? By counting calories for a week of two you will get an idea for where you actually stand and you hopefully will become more aware of the choices you make.

#4. Figure out your lean body mass and multiply it by 12, this will give you your target caloric intake. Example- I weigh 150lbs my body fat percentage is 8. This means my lean body mass is 138lbs (the other 92 percent). 138 x 12= 1656. This is my daily caloric intake to shred off lbs.

#5. Vary your daily caloric intakes by eating more on your training days and less on your other days. Example- My calories per day are 1656. 1656 x 7 days of the week =11592 per week. So I'm going to eat 2000 each day I train (3 days per week=6000) and eat the remainder 1397per day for the other 4 days. This is hard and does not need to be done immediately but it keeps the body guessing (remember the thyroid and your metabolism) and gives you more energy when energy is needed (training days). If you don't think you are this disciplined skip this step but remember it when your weight loss plateaus.

#6. Operation green face! What does this mean? It means if it is a veggie it counts as green and if it has a face its protein. Avoid potatoes and yams. Your food should fit into these two categories.

#7. Limit grains, bread and rice as much as possible.

#8. Limit fruit to 2 servings a day. 

#9. Eliminate dairy as much as possible.

#10. Now that you know your lean body mass multiply that x 1 and this is your target protein intake in grams. Example I am 138lbs lean body mass so 138 grams of protein.  Protein is essential in building muscle and you are training hard. Furthermore, up to 30 percent of the calories in protein are used to break it down and protein will limit catabolism of muscle.

#11. Eat 20 percent of your daily caloric intake from fat. Fat has 9 calories per gram so get out the calculator. (Avocados, meat fat, coconut oil)

#12. Drink plenty of water!


#13. Have a re-feed meal once per week where you enjoy what ever you want. (Don’t get stupid).

#14. These steps are difficult and highly regimented and act only as a guideline, every human is different and this is why invoking the help of a professional will always help.

#15. Pain is only temporary so get moving, eating and being healthy! 



We have helped many people (including ourselves) shred pounds and with some hard work and discipline I am confident that you too can succeed. Please share this with anyone you feel would benefit.