Nutrition

The last week or so clients have been coming down with the sniffles, a slight sore throat, and some good old greenish boogers.

Typical signs that our bodies are fighting something.

But hey, it’s that time of year – at least that what the statistics tell us.

As you know, I attempt to remedy most everything naturally. I’ll tell you why that’s important a little later in this post (with some shocking images) but here’s a glimpse of some of the things I’ve been doing to prevent this “sickness” from getting worse…and hopefully nipping it in the butt:

• ACV Tea – warm water with 1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar, juice of 1/2 lemon, and 1 tsp of honey
• Throat Soother Tea – warm water with 1 tbsp ACV, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp honey, 1 inch cube ginger (grated and juiced squeezed), and pinch of cayenne pepper.
• Gargling with warm salt water with pinch of cayenne pepper added – spicy but it’s an awesome antibacterial.
• Neti pot (using warm salt water) to clear out blocked sinuses.
• Drinking kombucha daily for it’s terrific probiotics. Kids also receive their infant probiotics.
• Increasing vitamin D3 intake (close to 10,000 IU/day)
• 2-3 tbsp fish oil daily
• Halls throat lozenges (just got these last night)
• ColdFX – I’ve never tried if before so I’m giving it a go.

All of these weapons are in addition to eating a healthy diet.

Feel free to hijack these remedies if you’re feeling a little under the weather. Each of them plays an important role in supporting your immune system, lowering inflammation, and killing off bacterial/viral infections.

Now, here’s why I’m so adamant about going about all this naturally…

Two nights ago, I spent close to 30 minutes at Rite Aid to find some suitable cold/flu/sore throat remedies.

To my dismay (but not surprisingly) 99% of the options were absolutely atrocious. Why?

Because they were loaded with either boat loads of acetaminophen (like Tylenol), which destroys your digestive tract, or unnecessary additives like aspartame and food dyes.

Here are some examples:

Buckley’s complete cold and cough. However, upon looking at the ingredient list I almost lost my dinner. 325mg of acetaminophen in just ONE teaspoon! That’s almost as much as is found in Tylenol extra strength. No thank you! I should mention that the acetaminophen is only found in their “flu” formulations.

Check out the product info from their website:

Notice the CAUTION – “…contains enough drug to seriously harm a child”. Not good.

Obviously, I passed on Buckley’s.

Now, let’s have a look at some of throat lozenges available to us. These were even worse.

First, I picked up a package of Ricola because I’ve seen their commercials over the years. I figured they might be good. The initial ingredients looked promising until they snuck in the aspartame and acesulfame-K. Might as well be drinking Coke Zero.

Again, my recommendation of NOT buying anything that see advertised on TV holds true.

When I was younger, I used to use Cepacol quite a bit. Apparently, I had a lot of throat infections when I was younger. Thank you antibiotics. Thankfully, I haven’t used Cepacol in more than a decade. This ingredient list will show you why…but you need to look all the way at the bottom where the plethora of toxic ingredients is found:

Can you count the number of toxic ingredients that proven to DAMAGE human health?

I count the following:

• acesulfame potassium
• FD &C blue #1
• FD & C red #40
• propylene glycol (more commonly used in de-icing liquids for cars and airplanes)
• sucrose

WOW!

Hopefully, this post serves as a friendly reminder that although many over the counterflu remedies (which are really drugs) put forth good intentions, they can really do more damage with prolonged use.

Stick to the recommendations I made at the beginning of this post and you should be ok. At the very minimum, they’ll help reduce the severity and duration of your cold or flu.

I want to share something with you that came up in a conversation with one of my clients…

The vast majority of good folks all around the world, perhaps just like you, are carrying a significant amount of excess weight around their mid-section.

Now, not only can this excess belly flab be demoralizing, carrying a devastating physical and emotional toll, but excess abdominal fat is even DEADLIER than you might imagine.  In fact, research has shown this type of fat to possess more potentially fatal health risks than any other type of fat¹–a reality that could very well steal decades of your life well before its time…

The fortunate news, however, is that in just a moment I’m going to show you exactly how you can begin to combat your belly fat issues with REAL science, but before I do, you first have to understand the 3 pitfalls directly responsible for CAUSING excess abdominal fat…

Cause #1? The typically recommended low-fat, high-grain diet. For decades, grains and other high carbohydrate foods formed the base of the food pyramid and the foundation for a “healthy diet”. All the while, fats were demonized.

Unfortunately, these recommendations couldn’t be further from the ideal path to a flat belly.  A diet high in wheat and other grain products inevitably leads to high blood sugar and poor sensitivity to the hormone insulin.^2,3,4 In turn, poor insulin sensitivity has been shown to be a major cause of abdominal fat accumulation.^5,6 Even worse, the more abdominal fat you gain, the worse your insulin sensitivity becomes… and thus the vicious cycle begins, often leading to out-of-control belly fat storage over time.^7,8,9

Fats, on the other hand, are instrumental in the regulation of your overall hormonal balance, including many fat-burning hormones. When you understand how to choose the right fats, replacing high-carb items in your diet such as bread, bagels, muffins, baked goods, and pasta with more of these fat-burning, healthful “fatty foods”, you’ll be well on your way to a flatter belly.

Here are 7 of my top “fatty foods” for a flat belly: Whole Eggs, Nuts (such as almonds, pecans, walnuts, and cashews), Seeds (such as sunflower seeds and flaxseeds), Avocado, Olive Oil, Fatty Fish (for example, mackerel, tuna, salmon, and trout), and Coconut Oil.

Still, none of these 7 fats qualify as my #1 fat for a flat belly, which stands head and shoulders above all of the previously mentioned fats in its ability to slim your waist and burn belly fat. You’ll want to make sure to consume plenty of this #1 belly-fat-burning fat daily, so be sure to keep reading as we’ll reveal exactly what it is and where you can find it in just a moment.

The second major cause of excess abdominal fat storage is increased levels of stress.  You see, when your body is under stress, it secretes a stress-coping hormone called cortisol. Unfortunately, increased cortisol levels have been directly linked to excess belly fat.^10,11 And it doesn’t take a whole lot to spike cortisol, either…simple subconscious worry and anxiety (which we all deal with to some degree), a busy schedule, and/or inadequate rest are enough to send cortisol levels soaring.

The third and final pitfall of increased belly fat stores is failing to consume effective levels of belly-fat-burning nutrients daily, particularly the #1 fat for a flat belly, conjugated linoleic acid. While you probably haven’t heard of conjugated linoleic acid, it’s been around since the beginning of time as this “super fat” is actually a healthy and naturally occurring fat found in beef and other dairy products such as yogurt, milk, butter, and cheese.

Beyond that, and of prime importance to today’s conversation, conjugated linoleic acid has been linked to an array of health benefits, most noteworthy being its unique ability to burn more belly fat than any other fat known to man.

Just how effective is conjugated linoleic acid at burning fat and slimming your waist?

1. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled human study (the gold standard of research design) published in the Journal of International Medical Research, 20 participants were either given conjugated linoleic acid or an imposter (in the form of vegetable oil) daily for 12 weeks. At the end of the study period, the conjugated linoleic acid group lost 20% of their body fat while the placebo group lost no fat at all.¹⁴
2. In another double-blind, placebo-controlled human study conducted by renowned Swedish researcher Dr. Annika Snedman, those receiving conjugated linoleic acid lost 400% more fat than the placebo group over the course of 12 weeks–and this was all done without any change in diet and without the implementation of a regular exercise program.¹⁵

Want more evidence? There’s no shortage when it comes to the belly-fat-blasting effects of conjugated linoleic acid…

1. A third study conducted at the University of Barcelona, Spain measuring the effects of conjugated linoleic acid intake in 60 healthy men and women age 35 to 65 found that subjects receiving conjugated linoleic acid lost significant body fat (78% of which was from the belly region) while the placebo group actually GAINED weight…¹⁶
2. A fourth double-blind, placebo-controlled human study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition with more than 175 total participants resulted in the conjugated linoleic acid group losing 8.7% of their total body fat while the placebo group once again GAINED weight. Subjects were asked not to change their diet or exercise routines during the study, further validating the intake of conjugated linoleic acid as the only explanation for the vast difference in results between the two test groups.¹⁷
3. And as if that wasn’t enough, yet another study performed by the leading research team at Upsalla University in Sweden and published in the prestigious International Journal of Obesity resulted in the conjugated linoleic acid group significantly reducing their abdominal girth in only 4 weeks, while the placebo group experienced no change in abdominal measurements whatsoever.¹⁸

Clearly, research shows conjugated linoleic acid to be the #1 fat for burning unwanted belly fat through its unique ability to naturally activate the full fat-burning potential of each fat cell, but here’s the problem: the scientifically effective amount of conjugated linoleic acid (i.e. the daily amount necessary to obtain its belly-fat-burning benefits) is upwards of 2 grams per day, an amount that makes obtaining this level a virtual impossibility through beef and dairy products alone.¹⁹

For example, in order to obtain the necessary 2+ grams per day of conjugated linoleic acid you’d have to consume:

• 12 pounds of beef
• 25 pounds of cheddar cheese
• 5 and ½ sticks of butter
• 7 and ½ gallons of milk…or…
• 79, 8-oz containers of yogurt…^20,21

…every single day of the week.

Of course, the calories contained in such large amounts of these foods would completely cancel out the fat-burning benefit of their conjugated linoleic acid content, not to mention the extraordinary expense and utter impracticality of consuming that volume of food, period.

By Sue Heintze

Do you feel like you have reached a point where you just can’t seem to lose those last few kilos? Feel like you’d tried everything and are sitting there in frustration wondering what to do next?

We have some simple tricks for you to follow to quickly boost your metabolism and incinerate stubborn fat faster that you ever thought possible!

Don’t Starve Yourself

Simply put, don’t crash diet! While crash diets may cause short-term rapid weight loss, realize that much of this weight is water and it will come back. Not only that but since your body thinks it’s starving, it will slow the metabolic rate so when you return back to your normal diet (which you will since no one can maintain a starvation diet for long), you’ll start gaining extra fat rapidly because of it.

You’ll never win with starvation diets.

Pump Up Your Protein Power

It’s absolutely critical that you take in enough protein with your diet plan. Think of protein as a ‘power food’. It’s going to fuel your muscles and speed recovery, help reduce your hunger, and boost your metabolism.

The body has to work hard to break down protein in the body – much harder than it does for carbohydrates or dietary fats, so because of this, each time you eat protein, it causes a spike to your metabolic rate.

Forgo Your Fat Fear

Terrified of adding dietary fat to your diet? Don’t be.

Dietary fat can actually help you lose fat when used properly. It’s going to reduce hunger and ensure your metabolism is working properly. Healthy fats, such as those found in fish oil, coconut oil, avocado, walnuts, almonds, and flaxseeds will help enhance insulin sensitivity, increase your energy, and ensure that you’re using body fat as a fuel source properly.

Watch your portion sizes as fats are higher in calories than other foods, but definitely do not cut them out of your plan.

Get Smart With Spices

Tired of a bland diet? Pump up the flavour with spices. Spices are completely calorie free and offer numerous health benefits. Certain spices can actually boost your metabolic rate, so that you burn more calories in the hours following consumption.

Spices with metabolism boosting benefits include cayenne pepper and chilli powder. You might also like to consider adding cinnamon to your meals whenever possible as it helps to moderate your blood glucose levels so you use carbs for fuel rather than converting them to body fat.

Bring Back Those Carbs

On a low carb diet? If so, you probably think you’re on your way to rapid fat loss. While low carb diets can promote quick weight loss, there’s one caveat… Go low carb for too long and your body will fight you. Low carb diets will dramatically slow the metabolic rate as a hormone called leptin starts to decrease. As it decreases, your urge to eat will become stronger until it’s eventually uncontrollable.

To prevent this from taking place, periodically add higher carbohydrate days into your diet plan where you consume more calories and give your metabolism a break. Try and focus on healthy carbs if possible such as oats, pasta, brown rice, and sweet potatoes, but if you really want your favourite ‘cheat’ food – have it. This is the one time when that cheat meal will actually help not hinder you.

Harness the Power of Compound Movements and Metabolic Training

To rapidly incinerate fat during your workout session, focus on compound movements that work as many muscles at once as possible. Then, stack these exercises back to back with as little rest in between as you can handle.

This will create a massive calorie burn during the workout session and help you continue burning calories at an elevated rate for hours after it’s completed.

Perfect exercises to choose include squats, lunges, deadlifts, the bench press, and push-ups.