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".