Sunday, October 5, 2008

Have You Ever Seen a Skinny Hippo?


I respect the cause of vegans and tip my hat to their dedication, but if you want to get truly lean, you have to eat animal protein. It’s a fact that carnivores are the leanest creatures on the planet, and I have yet to find a single scientific study that shows a carbohydrate dominant diet (vegan) creates a leaner body than a diet dominated by protein and fat.

All the studies I have researched unanimously conclude that diets which restrict calories and include carbs, fail miserably in the long term. These are the mainstream diets of today, and are also the cause of the frustrating yo-yo dieting phenomenon. Studies prove that high protein/low carb diets succeed more than 50 fold over the calorie restrictive diets that include carbs.

Protein and fat diets are the easiest to stick with because they satisfy hunger, while carb diets actually cause hunger to increase. Studies even show that people lose fat faster on a higher calorie diet consisting mainly of protein than those people who eat carbs as a predominant component and take in only half as many calories.

The calorie-in calorie-out theory was debunked long ago, and the low fat diet has failed miserably, yet people are still trying them, and the large medical and nutritional associations are still promoting them! Doctors and dieticians just assume the diet isn’t working because their patients must be “cheating”, but this usually isn’t the case. It’s our physiology that is to blame for the failure of the calorie restrictive diet which includes carbs as a component.

Don’t take my word for it. You can see this for yourself with your own objective survey. The next time you are at the grocery store, find someone who is obese (this should be easy) and look in their shopping cart. You will find that it is full of carbohydrate rich food. Then look for someone who is in great shape (this might be hard) and look in their cart. Things that make you go “Hmmmm.”
Look at the animal kingdom for another example. I bet you can’t think of many fat wild animals, but elephants and hippos might come to mind. What do they eat? You got it – they are vegans! Now think of all the carnivorous wild animals and you won’t be able to come up with a single one that is fat.

The digestive systems and teeth selection among the carnivorous animals are vastly different from the carb eating animals, and guess what? Our teeth and digestive system is much more similar to the carnivores than the vegans. We are of course suited to eat vegetables as well as meat, but in certain populations of humans like the Eskimos and Inuit tribes of the past, over 95% of their dietary calories came from meat and animal fat. They not only survived, they THRIVED, and had the lowest incidence of disease and nutritional deficiencies as well.

We were created to eat mostly meat and some vegetables, nuts and berries. If we were meant to be strict vegans, we would have a mouth full of molars and multiple stomachs to more effectively process the vegetation. Before we had ovens that could bake us carbs, and before the farming revolution which allowed us to grow carbs, we were primarily carnivores. So why are we fighting our natural tendency and physiology?

Some people are addicted to carbs and have a very hard time reducing them. The good news is that I’ve got a solution for them as well. My book Cracking Your Calorie Code includes specific mental techniques to not only bust the carb cravings, but to also reprogram your brain so you actually want to eat the way you should without the need for willpower.

The bottom line is that if you want to lose fat and look fit, you must get the majority of your calories from animal products. If you are on a quest to be strong, toned and lean, but also want to be a strict vegan, you’ve got a conflict. You just can’t have it both ways, so you will simply have to pick one or the other.

BRAIN TRAINING TIP FOR THE DAY: Visualize the body you want. Imagine your end goal as if it has already happened. Close your eyes and feel what this feels like in the present tense. Doing this short exercise every day will form new nerve pathways to create the thin you and change your habits without even knowing you are making those changes! For more details on this and other techniques to create new and permanent fit body, see my book "Cracking Your Calorie Code."

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Flush the fat with Greek yogurt!

When obese people followed a reduced-calorie diet that included three 6-ounce servings of calcium-rich yogurt a day, they lost a whopping 61 percent more fat overall -- and 81 percent more fat around their waists -- compared with those who didn’t eat yogurt. Why? Turns out the calcium in yogurt may hinder fat storage and boost fat loss. And calcium-rich dairy products like yogurt may contain additional fat-burning compounds as well.

Organic plain Greek yogurt is the best, and look for the low fat version (nonfat is kind of nasty). If you need to sweeten it up a bit, mix in some organic blueberries. If you need it sweeter yet (like Yami) mix in some liquid Stevia!

Brain training tip for the day: Fitness Affirmations! These will reprogram your subconscious so over time, it will start believing these affirmations and then make them happen by causing you to make changes in your habits and actions without you even knowing you are making those changes!

Look in the mirror and tell yourself the following affirmations every morning:

Sunday:
I am starting a new week of wonderful progress towards my fitness goals.
This week I am even healthier than last week.
I will plan my nutrition every day.
I will act the way fit people act, even when I don’t feel like it.
I admire fit and healthy people.
I choose health and fitness because I deserve it.
If other people can do it, so can I.

Monday:
I release all subconscious barriers to fitness progress and success.
I am an excellent nutritional manager.
I focus on eating foods that contribute to my fitness and health.
I make fitness a priority every day.
I will be an example to others of how to succeed in fitness.
I am in charge of my health and fitness success.
I exercise because I choose to, not because I have to.

Tuesday:
I choose to eat healthy because I choose a healthy life.
My inner world creates my outer world.
Everything in life is a choice. I choose to be healthy and fit.
I create the exact amount of health and fitness I have.
I play the fitness game to win.
I am changing my genetics.
I am fully committed to permanent and lasting fitness and health.

Wednesday:
My healthy lifestyle changes are permanent and are part of the new me.
I will be a health and fitness inspiration to others through my example.
I believe fitness is important, and good health means freedom.
My metabolism will increase today.
I will get leaner today.
Every day and in every way, I am becoming fitter, healthier and freer.
It is fun to become in better shape.

Thursday:
I deserve to look and feel the way I imagine I should.
I am changing my metabolic set point.
I am destined to have permanent and lasting health and fitness.
I am truly grateful for the health I have now.
Exciting opportunities for activity and healthy foods always come my way.
My highest desires are manifesting now.
My capacity for exercise and proper nutrition increases every day.

Friday:
I expect and receive miracles.
My mind is growing new positive nerve pathways every day.
My vision of my ideal body is getting clearer every day.
My goals and objectives are manifesting themselves now.
I continue to act the fitness lifestyle, even when I don't feel like it.
I am committed to pushing my comfort zone and growing as a person.
I will focus first and foremost on foods that contribute to my fitness and health.

Saturday:
My body is feeling stronger and healthier every day.
I am moving better and find physical tasks easier to complete.
Healthy food makes me feel better and gives me more energy.
Water cleanses my cells and gives them what they need.
I am a lean machine.
My body craves activity and movement.
My tastes are changing towards healthier foods.

This will be yet another step toward creating your lean brain to cause your lean body!

More good info!

I can't stop finding great stuff! I spend about 10-15 hours each week finding new studies and research, and love to share all the great new information out there. Here's some more:

Obesity is a public health disaster of enormous (pun intended) proportions. The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. has increased from:
• 12 percent in 1991
• to 18 percent in 1998
• to 34 percent in 2006, according to CDC obesity data

A full two-thirds of the U.S. population is now considered overweight. However, in some ethnic groups the rates are even higher, such as African-American women, of whom 78 percent are currently either overweight or obese.

If the trends of the past two decades continue, researchers estimate that 86 percent of American adults will be overweight by 2030, with an obesity rate of 51 percent.

So what is the solution to this epidemic? MOre willpower? NO! It's about retraining our brains! Visit www.tapping.com to learn how to bust cravings, and keep posted on this blog for more tidbits and techniques to think like a thin person so you become a thin person without even working at it!

Get fit and stay fit without willpower!

I'm finally up and running with my blog! The world of fitness and nutrition is so riddled with misinformation it's astounding. The info here is new, correct, effective, and all based on the latest scientific research.

I will regularly post interesting new topics on this blog that I stumble across each week. Be sure to order my book to, as it has all the best information and techniques on exercise, nutrition and brain training so fitness can be achieved and maintained without the need for willpower! Stop the diet yo-yo once and for all!

Here's something interesting I came across today:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Overeating makes the brain go haywire, prompting a cascade of damage that may cause diabetes, heart disease and other ills, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Eating too much appears to activate a usually dormant immune system pathway in the brain, sending out immune cells to attack and destroy invaders that are not there, Dongsheng Cai of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues found.

The finding, reported in the journal Cell, could help explain why obesity causes so many different diseases. It might also offer a way to prevent obesity itself.

"This pathway is usually present but inactive in the brain," Cai said in a statement.
Obesity is a growing global problem, with 1.8 billion people estimated to be overweight or obese in 2007. Drugs marketed so far to fight obesity have only limited success and, often, severe side-effects.

Cai's team worked in mice, seeking to explain studies that have shown that obesity causes chronic inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation is found in a range of diseases related to obesity, including heart disease and diabetes.
They homed in on a compound known as IKKbeta/NK-kappaB.

Immune cells such as macrophages and leukocytes use it but Cai's team found it in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain linked with metabolism in mice and humans alike.

"The hypothalamus is the 'headquarters' for regulating energy," they wrote.
They found high levels of the compound there but it was normally inactive.
When they fed mice a high-fat diet, it became extremely active. And when it was active, the body ignored signals from leptin, a hormone that normally helps regulate appetite, and insulin, which helps convert food into energy.

Stimulating IKKbeta/NK-kappaB made the mice eat more, while suppressing it made them eat less.

Cai believes his team has discovered a master switch for the diseases caused by overeating.

"Hypothalamic IKKb/NF-kB could underlie the entire family of modern diseases induced by overnutrition and obesity," his team wrote.

Cai does not know why this compound would be in the brain and in the immune system but suspects it evolved long ago in primitive animals that do not have the same sophisticated immune system as modern animals, including mice and humans.

"Presumably it played some role to guide the immune defense," Cai said in a telephone interview. "In today's society, this pathway is mobilized by a different environmental challenge -- overnutrition."

"Knocking out" the gene using genetic engineering kept mice eating normally and prevented obesity. This cannot be done in people but Cai believes a drug, or even gene therapy, might work.