Sugar Shock - Part 2 (note: Video May Load SLOWLY)

Well folks...want to see just how much sugar you consume in a day? This lady takes the time to show us in this video. Does anyone really wonder why we are having so many health problems?

Rest It or Work It: 6 tips for back pain

Back pain can be debilitating--or irritating--but rarely can it be ignored. So, one of the frequent questions we get from clients who come in with pain is: "Do I rest it or do I work it to get rid of the pain?"
It seems obvious to some that when something hurts, you need to stay off of it...and, in many cases this is where people can get into trouble. Many times, back pain is caused by postural deviations and imbalances which place stress on vertebrae or on the sacro-iliac joint at the junction of the pelvis and spine. Muscles will begin to spasm and compensate around that joint to stabilize and prevent further injury through movement. Many times doctors will simply suggest that a back-pain sufferer stay off their feet and avoid lifting anything--and sometimes this is exactly what needs to happen. However, after the point that acute pain has subsided, too much rest can cause the muscles to further weaken and worsen the postural deviation that started the pain in the first place. In my opinion, and that of many respected practitioners, the key to regaining a healthy spine is through correcting the imbalance, strengthening muscles and retraining the body proper movement patterns for bending, lifting and rotating.

So, how do you know when to rest and when to work? Here are my tips:

1) If the pain is acute or has an electrical, shooting quality, get cleared by a doctor prior to working out...there is nothing gained by herniating a disc or creating nerve damage.

2) Hire a corrective exercise specialist...a trainer who is specifically trained to assess and correct postural deviations and who is willing to work with you, your doctor and your chiropractor if necessary.

3) If you have dull, aching, aching pain which often presents itself after bending, sitting, or lifting, you are likely in the beginning stages of pain caused by postural or movement imballances stressing your spine and SI joint. You may want to seek assistance from an exercise coach to help you correct and strengthen.

4) If you have had a traumatic injury which is causing shooting pain, a high level of pain, you will likely need to work with a physical therapist and chiropractor to get you to a base level of strength.

5) If you have joint pain following or during a work out---STOP AND GET THE HELP OF A QUALIFIED EXERCISE SPECIALIST. It is so easy to correct things BEFORE damage is done!

6) Finally, NEVER let anyone convince you that you can not function and that you need to just wait around and take pills. There are amazing practitioners all over the world, from CHEK trainers to Physicians and Chiropractors, who can help you--you just need to find someone who believes in your body and health as much as you do!

Why Calorie Counting Doesn't Work

We are all aware of the fact that portion sizes are going up...resteraunts are serving more food on a plate and sodas have gone from 6oz to 60oz in a decade. Nutritionists rightly harp on the danger of over-consuming calories and do battle daily with clients, teaching them to count calories, measure portions and have more will-power. We are inundated with articles such as this one (How much is too much? The bigger the portion, the more we overeat) from my very own Miami Herald. I used to marvel at how difficult it was to keep my clients to reasonable portion sizes. I wondered why it was so hard to just quit eating when you know you should. Some labeled it as an addiction and I watched people struggle. Some would do well for a while until their will-power buckled under the stress.
I now know that calorie-counting, in my own never-humble opinion, is crap. Yes, it is important to not consume more calories than you need...however we have been looking largely at the behavior and ignoring the cause. We have been telling people that it is mental...and just takes more will-power and education to start eating less... BULL $%!*.
I came to the realization that most of my clients were starved for the nutrients their body craved and that is why they are over-consuming foods. NOT just micro nutrients, but most of my clients were depriving their bodies of the proper MACROnutrients for their metabolic types. Many teach their bodies to turn to sugar and caffeine for energy. However, As soon after they begin eating metabolically, nearly EVERYONE decreases or eliminates thier sugar cravings. When they consume the proper ratio of carb/protein/fat for their type, they AUTOMATICALLY begin to feel full at the proper portion sizes...their bodies to not crave more food because it is getting exactly what it needs in that meal.
There are other factors which also help to balance hormonal systems and blood sugar (ie: eating organically and ridding yourself of any intestinal fungal blooms) but a vast majority of my clients begin seeing a huge difference in energy, body composition, cravings, and mood stability simply by eating metabolically.
Is metabolic eating a panacea? I believe that it needs to be worked in a way to make it easier to teach and more accessible to the general public but the science is sound and the results are amazing. It certainly has more long-term plausibility for my clientele than gems like: "Share your plate with a friend." or "Drink lots of water before you eat so you can feel full." It is my job as a coach to provide REAL solutions and provide my clients ways to get back in touch with their bodies...not tricks to ignore what their body is trying to tell them. Metabolic Eating is one such tool.
To learn more, I recommend "The Metabolic Typing Diet" by William Wolcott.

Smoking Teeth = Poison Gas

I am continually surprised by how few people actually aware of the true dangers of mercury in your mouth. This is largely because many dentists refuse to admit it or to inform their clients or the dental associations refuse to inform the dentists of the dangers.

Nay-sayers have a huge vested interest in denying this--largely because they have told people for decades that there is ABSOLUTELY NO DANGER in mercury filling. Imagine the class-action lawsuit if we all found that this junk is poisoning us. So, while everyone is busy avoiding tuna because of trace mercury (which I recommend you limit but not cut out completely), many of us are getting hundreds of times more exposure from our dental work.

Watch the full video...it is worth the time. Even if you don't believe everything in this video, pretend that it is just half-true...wouldn't even that be worth the extra effort to get these metals out of your mouth to avoid potential Alzheimer's and other neurological and physiological damage to your body?

Diet Foods Making You Fat?

It looks like people really are starting to catch on to fact that we can't fool our bodies into optimal health and body weight.In this week's Time Magazine, they feature an article Do Diet Foods Lead to Weight Gain?

This article explores a couple of studies which link low-calorie sweeteners to something they are coining "metabolic syndrome. Basically, the body gets conditioned to crave sweet things, knows that the sweet things it gets don't have any energy, so it begins to condition the body to over-consume all sweet things.
According to the article "Two years ago, scientists at the University of Texas reported in an eight-year study that for every can of diet soda that a person drank, he raised his risk of being overweight by 41%, compared to a 30% increase in drinkers of regular, sugared drinks.

Someone posted a comment on Digg about my previous Diet Coke post saying something to the effect of "isn't this already commonly-known information...why post this?" Well, my friends, if it was commonly known, we wouldn't have such a problem nationally. If it were known, my new clients wouldn't gasp when I suggest to them that, if they MUST consume soda, that they consume the regular soda.

The official response to these studies from food companies is predictable: "This study simply defies common sense," wrote Dr. Richard Adamson, scientific consultant to the American Beverage Association, in a prepared statement responding to the study. "To suggest that foods and beverages with zero calories contribute to weight gain contradicts the overwhelming body of scientific evidence that supports that they can help you reduce calories and maintain a healthy weight."

In my opinion, further studies are going to show that it goes WAY beyond conditioning. There are millions of complex chemical reactions that occur each second in our bodies to maintain our metabolism and life. What defies common sense, in my book, is to assume that we can arbitrarily put these chemicals into our food supply and presume to even GUESS the long-term effect they will have on those reactions and our metabolic system. It smacks of arrogance to me. It also seems completely inauthentic to defend said chemicals when they are clearly being linked to problems simply because your company has financial stake in it...just my opinion.

If you want a healthy, lean body, start giving your body foods it had evolved to digest and metabolize. Clean fruits, veggies, and meats. Our world is full of delicious natural foods that are there for the eating if we can start challenging the line of junk we have been fed about diet foods.

Diet Coke Nation.

So, we all know that companies are put together to make money right... but do we really really understand how far some will take it to continue to make money? I am always teaching my clients to analyze what they hear and research things that they put into their body...question everything--even what I tell them. Why? Because our food supply really is messed up and the food companies are out of control. They are, in my opinion, slowly poisoning us, making a lot of money doing so and just denying the hell out of all of it. I see it every day...and so do you if you learn to look for it. So why don't we do something about it? Because we are being fed a line of marking crap EVERY SINGLE DAY making us complacent...urging us to just trust those nice folks at the food and drug companies.

Here is why we can't trust, why we have to wake up:
Most people, but particularly holistic practitioners have realized the dangers of Diet soda for years and years.

The artificial sweetener hikes food cravings and poisons the neurological system and kills your metabolism. The carbonation and acidity threaten bone density, and the "no-calorie" appeal makes it one of the most over-consumed junk foods in history.

Finally, even the main-stream news shows are unable to ignore the threat of this "food".

A recent ABC news report tells of some of the dangers of diet soda. You can watch the clip at:http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/237/popup/index.php?cl=3577574
The report tells us that companies sell over $21 billion/year on Diet Sodas! Yes, Billion!
When asked to comment on recent studies pointing to the danger of over-consuming diet sodas (now, mind you, I would rather my clients drink regular soda than ANY diet soda so the newscast is cutting a break by adding the term "over-consumption" to the question), Coca Cola sent an official respose:

"Great taste. No Calories.
Wholesome Ingredients.
How could you drink too much."
Diana Garza
Communications Director
Coca-Cola North America

I'm sorry, I just threw up a little in my mouth. Are you kidding me? Wholesome ingredients?
So, I figure that I will post list of all of those wholesome ingredients:
High Fructose Corn Syrup and/or Sucrose, Water, Caramel Color, Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavors, Caffeine.
Yummmy...if only we could have a little more wholesome High-Fructose corn syrup in our America diets. What??? You say that HFCS is the NUMBER ONE ADDED INGREDIENT IN PROCESSED AMERICAN FOODS???!!! Thank god! Im feeling more wholesome already...although I certainly can see how these wholesome food ingredients might explain the ridiculous spike in adult onset diabetes amongst 6-year-olds. Perhaps we should come out with a wholesome Diet Coke baby formula...get us off to a great start from infancy!
Ok, I'm going to get off of it now and leave you with just one simple request: LEARN ABOUT YOUR BODY AND ABOUT WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT. Unfortunately, we just can't trust the companies or government to be straight with us on it...they have billions riding on us continuing to buy into their garbage.
Even after EVERYONE knows that cigarrettes kill people, are the companies even admitting to it? NO NO NO. How much proof will we have to have to make food companies admit that the things we are doing to our food is causing chronic fatigue, diabetes and cancer? Who cares? You don't need them to admit to it, you just need to know the truth and buy accordingly...then you don't have to worry about buying a load of crap because you, your family and friends will be living great, healthy lives without their processed trash.

Breaking Through The Things that Stop Us...

I have recently become aware of blocks in my own life...things that stop me from being WHO I want to be. At times they are just shadowy "blind-spots" that I keep running into like procrastination, getting bogged down or a general loss of power. At other times, I recognize that the issue is very clear: avoidance of certain things, meeting with certain people or making certain goals.

As I began looking at these blocks, I became more aware that the same blocks kept popping up throughout my life!! Not only did I have a loss of power around, say, pushy people in my personal life but also in my professional life, with friends, family, clients and business associates. Humm...interesting right? It became very clear that my loss of power and my unwillingness to deal with certain people and certain situations had NOTHING to do with the individual or situation and EVERYTHING to do with who I was being.

Let me share a quick example from my own life:

I used to feel a complete loss of power when clients would not take my advice or follow a program that I had created for them. This resulted in frustration and , at times, conflict between myself and the person whom I professed to HELP! I NEEDED them to do the program so I could fix them! WOW...let's break that one down to illustrate where I was lying to myself, who I was being, and how I have come to a different way of dealing with it:

1) The lie:
OK, there are a couple of lies that are hidden in this one.
The first is that I know what is best for people better than they do! I pretend that people NEED the work I do. In reality, each human being is able to choose his or her own course in life. If people just really love food and aren't worried about the health repercussions, then who am I to make them wrong for that? The truth of that situation is that I provide a very valuable service to those out there who really do want to transform their lives and health but I am NOT here to make that choice for them or make them WRONG for not choosing what I would choose. NOBODY, my friends, needs fixing...we are all perfect and complete. From there we can CHOOSE to completely transform our lives because we want to ....not because we HAVE TO FIX things.

Second lie (This one is a BIG one): I was pretending that the program was for them when in reality I was so attached to the outcome. It was important for them to succeed so that I could feel good about myself. In that place, I NEEDED something from my clients for my self. I wasn't able to be there completely for them, without judgement and in a place of giving because I was being selfish. By taking my own need, and ego, out of the picture and just making myself present, I realized that I can always bring power and clarity to the situation. I can now be there fully for my client and really listen to what is going on rather than making everything mean something about me. In this space, my clients and I work through some amazing obstacles. I am now COMMITTED to helping my clients and not ATTACHED to how that happens.


So, you want to know the amazing thing? This pattern did not at all end with how I approached my clients. I soon realized that I became that needy, judging person when ANYONE didn't want to take my advice or when I really wanted someone to do something. It was affecting my relationship with my phenomenal boyfriend, my family, and my friends. I was actually being so selfish that I would distance myself from people rather than come to terms with who I was being. Once I saw that I was being selfish, and needy, I simply let it go and created a new way of being. I decided that I was going to be a powerful leader instead. Now each time I am faced with the situation, I automatically see it for what it is and can choose to remain a powerful leader instead of defaulting to a selfish and needy martyr.

To be fair, this is a sticky business. I didn't realize that I was actually doing it until I was given the tools to do so. So, now I pass those tools on to you.
1) Look for places in your life where you have a loss of power...a place you just can't seem to get through: Perhaps it is your health.
2) Look to see where you are lying to yourself. There is a fib in there somewhere and the more diligently you search for it, the more power you will get back for yourself.
3) Decide WHO you want to be in that situation.
4) Be that person and keep looking for the little lies.

I work through this process frequently with my clients. For instance:
"I didn't have time to write down my food or do the exercises" There is lie in this which is SO dis empowering. The lie is that the client doesn't have enough power to even schedule his time. That he is just a helpless victim of his schedule. I have no judgement here: NONE. I don't need them to fill out their journal or complete their program...but I am committed to empowering them. So, what there is to do is just acknowledge the fib: "I don't have control over my schedule or life." and do one of two things: Either recommit to making it a priority and set structures in place to make sure that you follow through in the future. OR you can acknowledge to yourself that you are not willing to take this step toward securing a healthier body. There is no right or wrong here...no judgement just complete honesty.

In a place of honesty with yourself and with others, there really isn't anything standing in the way of what you want...there may be some confusion about what you want to create but the game-playing is over. I occasionally get clients who swear up and down that they want great health and a body they can be proud of but will never follow through when the opportunity presents itself. Just as I had to dig deep into my loss of power, they must dig deep to see where they are deceiving themselves. Either they really don't want what they say they want, or they don't want to do what is necessary to obtain it.

There is such great power available in distinguishing these lies because they allow us to live in reality...they allow us to see what is real and work with power to create something else. Without this honesty, people all too often fall into playing the victim or hopeless martyr. I have yet to see a "victim" achieve any lasting fitness goal. Success rises from empowered people not those who so easily diminish themselves with self-deception.For more information on learning to do this type of self-work, I recommend visiting Landmark Education. It has completely changed my life for the better and has also been a positive influence for several clients and family members

Sleep Problems? Circaidian Rhythem

Did You Know:

Your bodies' Circadian Rhythms (sleep cycles) is set at birth?

This means that sleep will always be most natural in your time zone of birth. If there is a big time difference between where you live and where you were born, you may need to take very specific steps to ensure proper sleep.

You body enters a physical repair cycle between 10:30pm and 2:30am and a neurological repair (mental repair) between 2:30 and 6:30am?

If you are getting to bed consistently late or waking up consistently early, you are losing out on critical hours or repair which CAN NOT be made up by sleep in because the hormone production is not supporting the repair outside of those time windows.

Bad Habits You don't Know that You have!

Things you probably think are helping you but are ensuring you stay fat.

1) Choosing only low fat, reduced fat and lean foods.GASP! EAT fat??? NO WAY!!!

If you are one of the people who are constantly searching out the lowest fat foods, you are likely depriving your body of the necessary dietary body fat essential to running a healthy hormonal and detoxification systems. High-fat foods got a bad rap when many of the highly-processed and fast foods we consumed were pumping the American diet full of fat. Unfortunately, the backlash came in the form of the fat-free craze which had every food company latching on to a new way to market crappy food to the public...LOW FAT OREOS..Yeah!

In fact, many people I see are consuming so little fat that they are depriving their bodies of the essential dietary fat necessary for hormone production and fat-soluble vitamin absorption. What does this mean? Well, it means that a large majority of people are running around hormonally deplete and without enough vitamins to run their detoxification systems. Humm... hormone imbalance and increasing toxicity...I wonder why they don't feel so great?

2) Choosing only low-carb foods

OK, carbs don't make you fat either...just junk does.

Don't go low-carb, just cut out the sugars, processed flours, and over-processed garbage.

Your body needs carbohydrates to function, and depending on your metabolic type, needs them to be anywhere from 30-50% of your total caloric intake.

In order to cut out the sugars and crap that are stressing out your adrenals and causing you to be on a vicious cycle of energy highs and lows, you must start looking at your food.

Did you know that high-fructose corn syrup is the number one ingredient in foods consumed in the US...yup, that nasty, sugary substance is so incredibly cheap that the food companies love to use it to give the rest of the sawdust they produce a little taste.

Start cutting this garbage out and limiting your processed foods altogether. One of the easiest ways to do this is to do what I call the "outside-isle" Shopping trip. Walk in the grocery store, hit the outside produce isle and pick up lots of great fresh produce and nuts, round the corner to pick up fresh eggs and dairy (if not allergic) and end at the butchers counter for some fresh meats. You can always augment your carbs with whole wheat pastas or breads if you do not have gluten intolerance.

3) Doing too much Cardio.

It seems that everyone is cardio-crazy...everyone thinks that this is the way to get that great body. So, you can look around next time you are at the gym and wonder why most of the people you see on the treadmill day in and day out are still chunky.

High-Cardio activity create a high-adrenal and cortisol response. Most of us are already adrenally challenged from stressful lives and too much caffeine. All of that extra cortisol puts us into a catabolic (breakdown) state which causes breakdown of muscle tissue (the same muscle that helps support your metabolism). If we stay catabolic for long enough, our body begins to go into a stress mode where it holds fat and drops your metabolic rate.

The solution? The goal is to create an exercise program with a "net-anabolic effect." These carefully structured programs usually include more resistance training and concentrate on creating a greater repair reaction in your body to counter-act the catabolic breakdown.

4) Dieting

The path to hell is paved with good intentions and the path to a beer belly and saggy thighs is paved with fad diet books. Just stop starving yourself already!!!

I have a problem with most diets because:

a. Calorie deficits don't work long-term...want to argue this with me? I can give you loads of research proving it or you can just call your friends and relatives to see how well it has worked for them. Consider for a moment that it isn't that we are just eating too many calories but that the foods we are consuming are so poor nutritionally that we are actually starving ourselves to death and causing excessive hunger.

b. Most diet foods are so processed, chemically altered, and enzymatically dead, that you would be better off eating the box they are packaged in...at least then, you won't get all of the preservative.

c. I am a big OPPONENT of working against your body. If you are having cravings, it is likely from a hormonal or blood sugar imbalance. If you simply "gut" you way through on sheer will-power, you aren't addressing the underlying cause of the imbalance. Ultimately, the cravings win and you gain the weight back.


Start listening to your body. Do you ever wonder why fitness has to be such a huge struggle? Do you really think that our bodies have evolved through the millennia to become so high-maintenance and fussy? The truth is that the human body is amazing, strong, and self-sufficient as long as we quit getting in the way with bizarre behaviors that we think are going to help us stay "sexy".