Stop Chasing A Number

I know exactly how it feels to be over weight and badly out of shape.  My weight loss journey began over five years ago when I topped out at 215.  After almost four years I had gotten down to my lowest, 167.  Today I'm around 180.  The three pictures below reflect me at approximately those weights.
 

When I began my journey, it was all about hitting 190 on my 30th birthday.  That was all I thought about from the day I set that goal, six months before my 30th, until the morning of my birthday when I got on the scale and it read 185.  It was a fantastic feeling to know that I was capable of setting a goal and then surpassing it.  I spent a couple months enjoying what I had accomplished before setting a goal to reach 175.  After I got down to 175, my goal became 170.  When I hit 170 I was completely satisfied, or so I thought.  My weight teetered from 167 to 172 for about a year or so before I realized that all I was, was a bag of bones and belly fat.

I had lost 45 pounds but had hardly anything to show for it.  I had a bit more confidence but for the most part I still walked into a room doubting my every move.  Yes, I had lost 45 pounds but I had the muscle mass of a fifteen year old.  Yeah, I had lost 45 pounds but I was still unable to be completely happy with who I had become.  Losing a lot of weight, or finally reaching what you feel to be your ultimate number on the scale, doesn't always mean you'll feel as happy and perfect as you thought you would.

What I have realized over the past year is, it's not about a number on the scale.  It's about hard work, challenging your body, sweating your butt off and doing things you never thought possible.  My confidence level when I was at 170 was probably a two out of ten; today my confidence is probably at an eight or nine. At 170 my overall happiness was probably a six or seven and today it is a ten every single day of my life.

Are you ready to stop chasing a number and start chasing a greater you?  

Throw away your scale and never look back.  I promise, if you start training to become a greater you: your stress levels will decrease, you energy levels will increase, you self-confidence will increase and inevitably your body fat will decrease.  Your journey should be about feeling the greatest you have ever felt, not just about a number on the scale.

So how do you start chasing a greater you?  You push yourself to accomplish things you never thought possible.  You don't even need a gym to become a greater you; if you can move your own body weight, you can start there.  Push ups, pull ups and squats can all be done with out weights and are a great measure of total body strength.  If you do have a gym at your disposal, the options are limitless as to how you can achieve a greater you.

My keys to success: find a training system that excites you, don't limit yourself, train with someone, don't join a gym without a week trial membership, lift heavy, don't be afraid of what others think.  ~jason b.

How Under Eating and Stress Effect Weight Loss | Part 2

In Part 1 we discussed how under eating can effect weight loss and even lead to weight gain.  In Part 2 we will discuss the ways that stress can effect your weight loss.  We will go over Cortisol, Acute stress, Chronic stress and how it all relates to weight loss or lack there of.

First thing we need to talk about is Cortisol.  Cortisol is a steroid hormone that's functions include: blood pressure regulation, metabolism of glucose, maintenance of blood sugar and maintenance of the immune system.  Cortisol is often called the stress hormone because it is also released in response to stress.  Cortisol released during acute stress gives you a sudden burst of energy, a higher pain threshold, increased immunity and improved memory.  This is called the fight or flight response and our bodies were designed to handle such acute stress as being chased by, or hunting, wild animals.

Are bodies however are not designed to handle the chronic stress in our lives such as: high pressure/hectic jobs, social commitments, your child's future, being caught in traffic daily and even stepping on your scale can be a chronic stress.  Chronic stress can be the cause of headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, depression and anxiety.  Both depression and anxiety can cause an individual to turn to food as a way to comfort themselves.  Having a high pressure/hectic job can lead to eating on the go (likely fast food) or they may even begin under eating.  Those are just a few ways that chronic stress can effect weight loss by effecting our eating habits.

Now let's discuss how chronic stress and Cortisol can effect weight loss from within.  When Cortisol is released during chronic stress, it stimulates the production of glucose in the liver; at the same time it signals the body to conserve glucose in the blood stream.  What is glucose?  Glucose is your body's fuel; produced when your body breaks down all the nutrients you ingest or when your liver produces it during chronic stress.  As we know, your body through your BMR and your activity levels we can burn 'X' amount of glucose (calories) as fuel.  When we don't burn the amount of glucose we have available for energy, the remaining glucose will be stored as fat.    

I'll try to make it a little simpler: chronic stress releases Cortisol which stimulates our body to not only conserve glucose but produce more of it; not taking into consideration the glucose that is broken down from our ingested nutrients.  Since we can only burn so much glucose as energy through our day, the glucose that is not burned as energy is stored as body fat.  

Stress can not only effect your weight loss by you turning to food as comfort for depression or anxiety, it can cause you to make bad food choices / under eat and it can also slow your weight loss due to hormonal imbalances.

Keys to success:  schedule lunch breaks away from work, minimize social commitments, take the road less traveled, meditate, take deep relaxing breaths, eat nutritionally dense foods, follow a sleep schedule, exercise regularly, exercise with a purpose, lift weights, punch a punching bag, do what you love, smile, laugh and high five.  -jason b.

How Under Eating and Stress Effect Weight Loss | Part 1

If burning more calories then you consume is the key to weight loss; wouldn't it then make sense that consuming fewer calories would then result in greater weight loss?  And then it would also seem to hold true that once one is no longer constantly hungry, one would be able to consume even fewer calories and then even greater weight loss would be the result.  Mathematically it makes complete sense but that's not how this works.

As you consume fewer and fewer calories, your body will go into 'starvation mode'; your body's response to starvation where your metabolism slows to conserve calories.  The longer your body is in 'starvation mode' the slower your metabolism and we all know, the slower your metabolism the harder it is to lose weight.  

This is an obstacle that I dealt with first hand during my weight loss journey.  It's was a very, very hard idea to grasp because after all it was eating that got me fat, right?  Well, kind of.  It was crap like: frozen pizza, macaroni and cheese, heavily buttered popcorn, fast food and high daily alcohol consumption that got me fat.  

Weight loss isn't a diet, it's a life style change!  What we should be doing is trading our "crap" in for nutrient dense foods.  Here is a fantastic way of thinking about it: If it grows on a plant, eat it.  If it was made in a plant, leave it.  The closer to raw your food is, the better it is for you.  

Now for the tricky business; figuring out our calorie deficit and the number of calories we should be consuming.  Since everybody and every body is different, every calorie deficit is different.  In studies it has been proven that your body can extract 31.4 calories per pound of body fat daily for energy.  After that your body will begin to burn lean muscle mass as fuel (this is how you get skinny fat!).  So your calorie deficit each day will be 31.4 cal./lb of body fat.  

Calculating Your Calorie Deficit = 31.4 calories / lb of body fat

(your weight x % of body fat = pounds of body fat)   |   (lbs of body x 31.4 = calorie deficit)

example: 185 x .14 = 25.9   |   25.9 x 31.4 = 813 (my calorie deficit)

Now that we've figured our calorie deficit we need to figure how many calorie we are burning each day.  Step one is to calculate our Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).  Our BMR is the number of calories we burn daily by simply being alive.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) Equation

Female: 655 + (4.35 x weight in lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years) = BMR

Male: 65 + (6.23 x wight in lbs) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years) = BMR

example: 65 + (6.23 x 185) + (12.7 x 65) - (6.8 x 33) = 1837 (my Basal Metabolic Rate)

Step two is taking our activity factor and multiplying it by our BMR.

Activity Factors

1.2  Sedentary (Little or no exercise and a desk job)

1.375  Lightly Active (Little exercise, 1-3 days / week)

1.55  Moderately Active (Moderate exercise, 3-5 days / week)

1.725  Very Active (Hard exercise, 6-7 days / week)

1.9  Extremely Active (Daily exercise and a demanding job)

example: 1837 BMR x 1.725 = 3168 (total number of calories I burn daily)

Now that we have figured our calorie deficit (calories burnt from our body fat per day) and our total number of calories burnt daily, we can figure how many calories we should be consuming to meet our energy demands. 

Calories Needed to Meet Energy Demands

Calories Burnt per Day - Calorie Deficit = Calories Needed

example: 3168 - 813 = 2310 (calories I need to consume)

One thing I really want to drive home: weight loss is a lifestyle change and not a diet.  The weight you are trying to lose was not gained in days or a few months, so you should not expect to lose this weight in days or a few months.  You will have set backs.  You will have days where you just don't feel like exercising.  You will have days where it is impossible to stay on track nutritionally.  You must accept that as a part of life and remember they are set backs, not failures.  If life was perfect and easy, no one would be over weight and we'd all have six packs.  

Keys to success:  eat nutritionally dense foods, follow a sleep schedule, limit stress, exercise regularly, exercise with a purpose, lift weights, do what you love, smile, laugh and high five.  -jason b.   

Sleep More, Weigh Less

Like I said in my last post, life can be an absolute shit storm with one result being too little sleep.  Is it your lack of sleep that's adding inches to you waistline?  Recent studies are showing it's a possibility.

There are two hormones affected by not getting enough sleep that are directly related to hunger and feeling full: ghrelin and leptin.  Ghrelin is a hormone released by the stomach that tells the brain you are hungry.  Leptin is the hormone that regulates eating by telling the body when you are full.  In studies it has been shown that ghrelin levels are higher in people who sleep too little and leptin levels are lower in people who sleep too little.  Simply put, if you are not getting enough sleep, your body is telling you you're hungry and not telling you you're full.  In no way does that math add up to weight loss.

Let's look at how your lack of sleep may be affecting your day to day life.  You don't sleep well, or you don't sleep long enough, so you look for caffeine or something sugary to get you going.  You didn't get out of bed in time to make your lunch so you go out to eat.  You begin to crash halfway through the afternoon so your back hitting the caffeine or a sugary snack.  You skip the gym because your motivation clocked out an hour before you did.  You stop for dinner on the way home because you don't want to cook.  You finally lay down to sleep but can't because your body's going crazy from all the caffeine drank and  the sugars that were in all your processed foods.  Now you're going to get another night of little or bad sleep and tomorrow the cycle will start anew.  Again, the math does not add up to weight loss with a day to day routine like that.

Moral of the story: If you get enough good sleep, you will probably weigh less.  If lack of sleep and a bulging waste line seem to be an issue that you face, I've got a challenge for you.

3 Week Better Sleep & Weigh Less Challenge:

At Night

• Set a consistent sleep schedule.  Allow for 7-8 hours of sleep each night and wake up at the same time every morning.  No, you don't sleep in on the weekends.  Your body needs a routine.
• Take all distractions out of the bedroom.  No TV.  No phones.  No computers.  No tablets.
• Don't eat a large meal within 2 hours of going to bed.  
• Don't exercise within 4 hours of going to bed.

Your Day

• Eat breakfast.
• Take your lunch to work.  Don't forget your vegetables.
• Prepare dinner at home.  Again, don't forget your veggies.  Try to stay away from processed foods.
• Don't drink any caffeine after 2 pm. 
• Cut you alcohol consumption in half.
• Schedule 30 minutes of moderate exercise 6 days of the week.

Again, if a lack of sleep and a bulging waste line seem to be an issue that you face, I challenge you to follow this few steps for three weeks.  If you're up for the challenge, I want you to keep me posted as to the challenges you're facing and any results that you are seeing.  -jason b.

  

Life Can Be An Absolute Shit Storm

Sometimes life can be an absolute shit storm.  Too much work.  Too many family events.  Too many friends pulling you in all directions.  Too little sleep.  This shit storm often time leaves: low energy levels, lack of motivation, bouts of depression, frustration and even illness in its wake.

With everything going on in your life, it becomes very easy to make excuses and then validate them either on your own or to have a  friend (also in the middle of a shit storm) validate them for you.  The excuse I hear most often and use to use myself is, "I just don't have time."  That my friends, is a load of crap!  You're reading this blog post, right?  Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that you're taking time to read this, but let's be honestly, if you have time to sit down and check social media, you have time to exercise.  When dealing with work, family, friends, lack of sleep and any other variable keeping you from staying/getting fit and living a healthy lifestyle; you have to get creative.  The one thing people often don't know is, your exercise doesn't have to be done all at once.  You can do two bouts, three bouts, four bouts or more of exercise a day and see the same benefits you would if you did it all at once.  With that being said, tell me you can't find six times throughout your day where you could throw in ten minutes of exercise.

If you don't hit snooze, that's seven minutes and then add three for a total of ten.  

Again, you're reading this blog post.  If smokers get to take ten, why don't you take 
ten to exercise.  Don't go out for lunch; bring your lunch and use the ten minutes you 
would have been in your car.  On the way home from work stop at a park for 
ten minutes alone.  Go on a walk with your dogs, with your wife, with your children 
or with a friend for ten when you get home.  If your not in charge of cooking dinner, 
you have at least ten while dinner is prepared.  There is no rule that you have to be 
sitting on the couch to watch TV, so there's at least ten.  
Finding time is easy, you just have to be creative as to where you look.

Now that I've found you an hour in your day for exercise; what are you going to do with it?  Nothing, unless you are motivated to stay/get fit and live a healthy lifestyle.  Where do you find said motivation?  It has to be inside you, it can not be something someone else wants for you.  If you are not motivated to: start a fitness program, lose the weight, eat healthy or be the positive role model for your children, you will not be able to stay on track.  This change has to be something that you want.  This change has to be your driving force.  If you really, really, want this change, you will stop making excuses and start living the lifestyle you want.  

If you are motivated and ready to make change; where do you begin?  The best way to begin and stay consistent with an exercise program is to do what you enjoy.  If running is torturous for you, you won't do it, so don't make it part of your new fitness routine.  If you like shooting baskets, make that part of you routine by adding full-court "fast breaks" after missed shots.  If you need to take out some frustration, get a punching bag and some gloves, then thrown down until you can hold your arms up.  If you are doing something you like, you will then like exercising, thus you will keep exercising.

WARNING!!  No matter how self-motivated you are or how much you love your fitness program, there will be set backs.  You may get sick.  Maybe there is a vacation scheduled.  Perhaps you get injured.  Maybe there's a day where the shit storm is too much and you don't have your regularly scheduled training.  No matter your set back, remember it is what it is, just a set back.  The best way I have found to get through a set back is to stay positive.  If I'm injured, I try to goal set in other aspects of my life so that I am still working toward something.  If I'm sick, I use my time to write or research so that I feel like I am at least doing something.  If I have a day where I just can't get a work out in, I recover and get back at it the next day.

My last bit of advice.  If your shit storm becomes overwhelming and you simply don't know how to make it through; sit down and talk with someone.  Ask someone, ask me, to help find ways to incorporate fitness and healthy lifestyle choices into your daily routine.  If you really want to "work toward something greater," I will be happy to guide you.  -jason b.