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Sunday, October 2, 2011

Recipe for Fat Loss




Wait, don't tell me - you were waiting in line at the checkout and a magazine article grabbed your attention, "Lose 10 pounds in 5 days!" You snatched the mag, skimmed through 50 pages while spilling subscription cards onto the floor, only to discover that people in some place like Miami or L.A. are eating specific fruits or gobs of meats or drinking raw eggs to slide back into pants from their senior year of high school. So you stocked up on some weird stuff you can't pronounce, and you gorged yourself all day every day, yet the scale hasn't budged. Am I close?

You and I are products of a fast food generation, where shops need a drive-thru, and microwave ovens are too slow, and whatever it is should have arrived 5 minutes ago. We have been programmed to expect too much in too little time, to circumvent nature, to manipulate technology, and to pervert laws of physics to satiate our desires. We demand immediate gratification.

In the world of weight loss marketing is everything. Fads always have been and always will be, and savvy sellers know how to push people's hot buttons. Combining eye-popping keywords with exclamation points they generate magazine sales, pushing advertised products while making outrageous claims. In the end, there is no way around nature. And so it is we should look to nature, and not a salesman, for solutions to body transformation.

I began my own (latest) journey of fat loss in April 2011. I was almost 35% body fat, and I weighed about 240 pounds. I had been eating lots of processed food, most of it high in carbs and animal fats. Chicken Alfredo. Lasagna. Broccoli Rice Casserole.

You are what you eat. My body became a walking tub of Broccoli Rice Casserole.

I began an exercise program using HIIT on an elliptical trainer at Anytime Fitness in San Antonio, TX. At first I could barely pedal at 180 strides per minute, and I could not last longer than 5 minutes. I continued to blast away at the gym for about 1 hour each day, for a couple of weeks. I was able to jog on the elliptical for longer and longer, but my fat seemed to be stuck to my frame. It was then that I decided to experiment with my diet.


I made the following adjustments:

No salt
No dairy (cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, butter)
No carbs (rice, pasta, cereal)
No animal flesh other than fish (bovine, pork, fowl)

100g of RAW vegetarian protein per day
Loads of plant fats (avocado, olive oil, almond butter)
All organic
All raw


I was intensely curious about what would happen if I avoided cooked food altogether. I commenced on an all raw diet - just like nature intended. Salads, fruits, nuts, seeds. If it was something I could pick from a tree or bush or pull directly from the soil and consume, then I ate it. If humans had tampered with it in anyway other than brushing off the dust, I avoided it.

I also chose entirely organic foods. If it was not 100% USDA organic, I did not ingest it. I wanted to see what would happen if I avoided toxins altogether. Many people think organic is simply easier on the environment, as in, easier on the Earth. It is. And we should consider that we are all parts of a whole. What damages the soil, air, and water invariably wreaks havoc on our internal environment, that is, our biological terrain.


GENERAL PLAN
A typical breakfast for me involved black coffee and a raw, vegetarian protein shake. Then came my workout, where I committed 1 hour to HIIT on the elliptical, followed by 1 hour of weight training. Immediately following my workout I consumed another protein shake and a few tablespoons of raw almond butter, as I prepared my lunch. Note, I did not cook my lunch. I prepared it.

Lunch was boring but filling. Sometimes it would be a VERY large salad, mostly organic spinach, a basket of organic sprouts, organic broccoli, organic kale, and some organic vinegar with organic almond oil / cold pressed olive oil. Or I might just eat straight from the can - wild caught Tongol tuna (lower mercury) with organic mustard slathered over the top. Some days I would just eat raw spinach out of the box by hand, like a gorilla. I kept a large bowl of a seed/nut mixture of sunflower, almond, cashew, peanut, and pumpkin on the counter, and I would enjoy large spoonfuls at all times throughout the day.

About 2-3 hours after lunch I would enjoy yet another raw, vegetarian protein shake, and finally for dinner I had...a very light dinner. Usually another fluffy green salad, with heaping helpings of the seed/nuts, and some scoops of organic peanut butter or organic almond butter to tide me over for morning.

This simple diet worked. It was all organic, almost entirely raw, and the cool thing was, I ate as much and as often as I wanted. I never let myself get hungry. And it worked. I went from 35% to 14% body fat in less than 4 months. I lost about 50 pounds of pure fat. And I even gained some muscle. So how did this actually work?

HIIT
High-Intensity Interval Training has been a hot topic lately. But the principle goes back about 10,000 years. You and I carry a gene around from our caveman ancestors. When triggered properly our bodies will begin to shed fat stores while simultaneously building muscle tissue. In order to trigger this genetic switch, you must study and learn about how to implement HIIT into your program.

PROTEIN
Insufficient protein can result in catabolism, and any fat loss program should be concerned with preserving and potentially building lean muscle mass. Most American trainers and coaches recommend a daily intake of 1g protein/pound of body weight, whereas those outside the states usually advise 1g protein/kilogram of body weight. I have written a separate blog on protein which I encourage you to check out. I personally veer from mass marketed whey proteins and prefer non-GMO soy, pea, or rice proteins. Lean meats such as fish and chicken (organic) are good sources of protein, although it is easily possible to maintain healthy protein intake and a full spectrum of amino acids without consuming animal products.

CARBS
My fat loss program involved the total elimination of carbohydrates, which resulted in a state of ketosis. When the body runs out of glycogen stores a process called lipolysis occurs. During lipolysis, fats (lipids) are hydrolyzed into free fatty acids by the liver to be used as energy. I recommend ketosis for fat loss to my clients who have a healthy liver, while encouraging the use of antioxidants and a liver support supplement.

TOXINS
It is my opinion that it is the ingestion of toxins, rather than clean calories, causes fat storage. Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, larvicides, food coloring, artificial flavorings and sweeteners, and the host of poisons in our air, water, and soil generate a toxic load which gets stored in our adipose tissue. As fat tissues are broken down into fatty acids by the liver, the toxins are released into the bloodstream where they search for new fat tissue to "lock" into. In order to achieve sustainable fat loss it is imperative that toxins are purged from the body and only non-toxic foods are reintroduced. For this reason I only recommend eating food which has qualified for the USDA Organic seal. By eating only USDA Organic you are assured that no new toxins are ingested as the liver works to turn fats into energy while eliminating toxins which have been stored in both adipose and liver tissues.

RAW
Leukocytosis is a condition where a person's white blood cell count is higher than normal, which indicates illness. While viruses and bacteria are obvious causes of increased white blood cell production there is another culprit which is usually overlooked - cooked food. When humans ingest cooked food a process known as digestive leukocytosis occurs. Here's how it works. When we cook food we radically change its molecular structure. Nutrients are removed, minerals are reduced, and the cooked material becomes unrecognizable to the body. The digestive system responds to cooked food as an unidentifiable, foreign invader. In its efficiency the body acts quickly to protect itself by producing white blood cells. If you have ever indulged in a cooked meal of processed food it is likely that you felt tired, even sleepy, after eating. This lethargic feeling is actually not so much the digestive system doing its job to assimilate nutrients but is instead caused by massive white blood cell activity. By eating raw foods, as they occur in nature, we can enjoy the full nutritive benefits of our food, we won't unnecessarily tax our immune and digestive systems, and we avoid the tired feeling which accompanies the consumption of cooked food. Ovens, gas stoves, and electric stoves are all appliances which change the molecular structure of foods, and microwave ovens not only unnaturally alter food structure but also infuse radioactive particles into whatever they irradiate. It is time for a new way of thinking. We have been programmed to expect "hot" meals. This is cultural. Our bodies actually desire raw meals. This is natural. If we want to lose fat and gain health, and sustain it, we must embrace a natural view of food preparation. It is simply unwise to intentionally mutate the food we eat, and the concept of eating radioactive particles is beyond insane. If you have a microwave oven - don't use it!

REST
Our bodies need plenty of rest for tissue remodeling. As we embark and journey through radical fat loss our systems will require more ease and downtime. Hormones which aid in healing and cellular regeneration are strongest between 10PM and 2AM, regardless of where you are at on the globe. Seize this time by settling into bed so as to be asleep during this special period.

STRESS
A final consideration when discussing adipose tissue is stress. "The Silent Killer," emotional stress has a powerful relationship to the storage of visceral, subcutaneous, and belly fat. Practicing yoga, meditation, prayer, and mindfulness are all excellent methods for coping with stress. Fat stores will diminish in proportion to stress reduced. Give it a try.

CONCLUSION
The road to getting "ripped" and hard-bodied is multifaceted and there is no one simple shot, or magic pill, or super food which contains the solution. Body transformation and fat reduction is achieved through a systematic holistic approach and a lifestyle of a clean, healthy diet coupled with moderate to vigorous exercise. As you explore in your journey of self-improvement it is helpful to surround yourself with a support system of health-minded peers. Friends and family can have a strong influence on our diet and exercise regimen, so choose your relationships carefully. The services of a life coach, nutritionist, alternative medicine practitioner, and most importantly - a knowledgeable personal trainer - can help to insure you reach your goals safely, in the shortest possible time, and the results will be long-lasting.

1 comment:

  1. Well done, as usual. Bravo!

    Sincerely,

    ~Your first client, and wife. :-)

    ReplyDelete