It was awesome but I’m not writing to give you a case of the green eyed monsters, I want to make you think about your eating habits?

Clare had too much food on her plate for her to finish so she asked if I wanted any.

“No I’m just fine,” I replied.

“Keith, there are children staving in Africa,” she replied in an almost monotone voice.

“And your dying to have a heart attack or diabetes,” I replied.

Clare blinked slowly and then a light went on inside…. “You have got to turn that into a blog!” she said!

So here we are….

There are children staving in Africa and other countries for the want of a good meal but there are also hundreds of thousands if people in developed countries dying from diseases of over eating every day.

In the Boot camp, Personal Training sessions and the Personal Nutrition course food is a major subject day in and day out. Not only do we discuss what we should and should not eat but also our psychological and behavioural attitudes to food.

There are many things that come up time and time again such as depression and comfort eating, the feeling of loving or looking after your loved ones or demonstrating your love for them through food treats, but the biggest one is the inability to leave food on your plate due to a few simple words that have been said to you as children time and time again.

You have to finish your dinner, there are children staving in Africa!!!!

If there was a way of measuring the health effects of a few simple words I’m willing to bet that this sentence is one of the most deadly!

Think about it!

Committed to your success

Keith, Clare and the Team

P.s 3 body fat scales sold already!!!

To Find out more and get yours click here

Anyway, detoxinifcation, how toxins are making you fat and sluggish and which vegetable you need to by organic!

I think that we all know that it’s a good idea to buy organic varieties of fruit and vegetables but we are often unsure as to why. You can read articlse in the paper stating that organic varieties have a higher vitamin and mineral content and then read the following day that they don’t!

For me it’s not just about the nutrient density, it’s also about the toxic load. Before we get onto this let’s just stick with the nutrient density. You are always going to find discrepancies between which is better, the organic variety or the factory farmed. This is due to 2 reasons;

1)      It depends on who’s doing the study or who is paying for it and what they have got to lose by the study not finding in their favour

2)      Soil quality, let me explain with a little back groud information.

Back in 1936 a group of doctors introduced document 264. This document was a warning to the senate that the mineral content of the soil was eroding and that the vitamin and mineral content of our produce was at risk and would not be ble to support the health of the nation. Since this time nothing has been done to correct the problem and it has become a global problem!

It’s going to take time for the soil to recover it’s nutrient density therefore it’s going to take some time before we see supermarket organic produce that is consistantly higher in nutritional density than facory farmed produce.

Elmer Heinrich in his book, the root of all disease states that we need 10 servings of vegetable just too equal 1 serving of vegetable from 50 years ago.

Back to Toxins!

It’s better to buy organic as they do NOT have the toxic load that factory farmed produce has. A toxin is a substance that causes harm to the body. The immune system, liver and kidneys work hard to break down and excrete these toxins but they often become over loaded due to our level of exposure.

When you consider the exposure from our environment, factories, cars, air fresheners and then we add in perfumes, deodorant, cosmetics and shower gel and then on top of this our food we could over time overload our systems ability to cope and to detoxify us.

Just for a moment think of the pressure on your detoxification systems if you do this every day for 30 years, 40 years even 50 years and then add in that most people don’t get good quality exercise or sunlight in, don’t drink enough water, have poor quality sleep and consume processed food and don’t eat to their metabolic type. It’s not a surprise that our systems could be compromised and that we may suffer some symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, stomach problems, regualar head aches or lifestyle diseases, cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes etc.

Weight loss in itself is a process of detoxification. Many toxins are fat soluble, if the body can’t process them it stores them in fat cells to be delt with later, therefore increasing your weight. Many people never give their body enough of e rest from toxins to enable the body to retreve the toxins from the fat cells and process them. They therefore get fatter and fatter on the toxins they consume.

To assist your liver and to help your weight loss or health you should follow the advice of the Environmental working group;

12 Foods you should only buy Organic!

Buy these organic only

1)      Peach

2)      Apple

3)      Bell Pepper

4)      Celery

5)      Nectarine

6)      Strawberries

7)      Cherries

8)       Kale

9)      Lettuce

10)   Grapes

11)   Carrot

12)   Pear

Ok even if not organic

1)      Onion

2)      Avocado

3)      Sweet Corn

4)      Pineapple

5)      Mango

6)      Asparagus

7)      Sweet Peas

8)      Kiwi

9)      Cabbage

10)   Aubergine

11)   Papaya

12)   Watermelon

13)   Broccoli

14)   Tomato

15)   Sweet potato

Healthy weight loss, lifestyle disease prevention all require you to give you body a break from time to time, and let it detoxify itself and recharge.

Here is quite a simple detoxification programme for you to follow;

• For 5 days keep all sugar, grain, grain based products, dairy and processed foods out of your diet
• Eat organic fruit, vegetable and meat
• Drink at least 2 litres of water throughout each day
• Introduce some super foods such as  Spirulina, cocoa, macca powder and aloe vera

You can fine these and other products at the follow website;

www.creative-nature.co.uk

www.aggressivehealth.co.uk

To find out more about foods, detoxificcation and weight loss come to the nutrition course, the £1 bootcamp trial or £9.95 for 3 personal training session trial

Committed to your success

Keith, Clare and the Team

Hey, I hope that you day is going awesome,

One of the questions I get asked and emailed time and time again is;

What should I have to eat?

Now I know that this sounds like a really easy question to answer and I’m going to give you some guidelines at the end but I need to explain that it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Did you know that the failure rate for diets is about 80%?

Yep it’s a big failure rate and means that you need to ask WHY this happens?

You may have noticed with your friends, family or colleagues that one diet that works really well for someone makes someone else feel awful and actually gain weight.

Have you also noticed that when people participate in one size fits all guidelines their ailments do not improve in fact, they often get worse!

What do I mean by ailments? Headaches, muscle aches, digestive issues such as reflux, bloating, cramping, pains and IBS.

Again the word WHY springs to mind… They are on a diet, surely that means they are getting healthier!

The problem is that many diets are not healthy…. I know what you’re thinking…… “Thanks Keith, that’s great. I have come to your blog and all you have told me is what I knew already!”

Yep I know, it obvious that just eating cabbage or just drinking milk/soup or doing shakes is not healthy or cutting your calories down to 1000 per day and yes that is commonsense, but let’s look at the problem in a little more detail.

Hippocrates was an early observer of the importance of food to your health he equated food to medicine. Some foods can be toxic to your body, slowly poisoning you even though you may not be aware this happening, we call this a chronic degenerative pathways and is the reason why ‘one man’s food can be another man’s poison’ or for us one persons diet can be another persons poison!

Steak for instance makes some people feel really good and others feel really tired. I, myself start the day with a piece of steak as it will but me in a great mood and make me feel full of energy for the day, but I can’t give this guideline to someone else as their body might not like it! They could go the opposite way, tired and grumpy…..

One needs to eat to ones type!

I am, what’s known as a parasympathetic fast oxidiser….. Mmmmm sound complicated right, but this just describes how my metabolism is functioning at the moment. In reality it means basing my diet around carbohydrates would be a very BAD idea and difficult for me to stick to. I used to be a carbohydrate monster being a Personal Trainer and a competing Sportsman, it’s what I was told I had to eat for energy. (How wrong could they have been!) I was grumpy and tired almost all the time and never felt properly well and energised and I was in my early 20’s!

Once I started eating to my METABOLIC TYPE (MBT) or eating genetically correct foods for me I felt awesome having increased, sustained energy, maintaining a lower body fat percentage and all the little aches and pains that I was suffering from in my gut cleared up.

Eating to your MBT is possibly the single most important thing you could do to gain and maintain a healthy weight and overcome health issues at the same time.

Click here to find out your metabolic type and how to implement it into your life

Here are 7 top tips to get you started in the right direction.

1. Experiment with your food and listen to what your body is telling you about it. Have a day where you eat Carbs at each meal, a day where you eat lean protein at each meal and a day where you eat a high fat content at each meal. 2 hours after each meal ask yourself, how do I feel? Full/hungry, tired/energised, grumpy/happy etc. You’ll soon find out which foods make you feel the best and therefore what to eat at each meal to get the best results for you. This is far from your metabolic type but is a place to start before you come on the nutrition course with us.
2. Base your diet around real whole foods. Meat, fish, vegetables, nuts and a small amount of fruit.
3. Avoid processed foods, grains and COW’s dairy for at least 7 days. Add cows dairy back in on its own and see how you feel and then try adding in SMALL amounts of grain and see how you feel.
4. Sip water throughout the day. Although this will not directly help you to lose weight it will help your detoxification systems which will help your weight loss. It has also been shown to reduce the symptoms of back pain, arthritic pain and digestive issues.
5. Get some fresh air and sunshine everyday
6. Exercise at least 3 x per week at a high intensity
7. Come on the nutrition course and learn a little bit about how food works in the body so that you are in control of hunger, cravings and your weight loss rather than them being in control of you.

Committed to your success

Keith, Clare and the Team

I know it seem like they are just lucky but usually this is just not the case, they not lucky.

I can guarantee they have a different mindset to you. It’s all about what you tell yourself. Whatever your inner monologue is saying is what will happen. There is plenty of science and physiology that back this up.

There is an area of the brain called the central reticular activating system that stops you being overwhelmed by information. It helps you to focus on what’s important at any one time. If you keep negative thoughts/words in your mind body and soul you will get negative results as this system will help you to focus on the negative.

It’s a fact in life, bad things happen but it’s how you cope with it. You have a choice whenever something happens. You can either get stressed which will cause more worries and everything to seem worse or you can take it on the chin and think how you can overcome this and put a positive twist on it.

I have a question for you, what is your main goal for health and fitness?

The answer you have given to this question could tell me a lot about your mentality and your long term success rate.

If your answer was “I don’t want to be fat anymore and I am fed up of being tired”

This type of answer will not help you achieve your goal as you are keeping “being fat and tired” very much alive and in the front of your mind. Without you even realising it you are focusing on being fat and tired. We want you guys to move towards your goals not to move away from your current state.

So let ask the question again and reframe the answer, ‘What is your main goal for health and fitness?’

“I would like to have more energy and to feel sexy and comfortable in myself”

With this answer you are moving towards your goal and this is now what you are focusing on.

You now will have the start of a very powerful tool that will help you achieve your goals in life and to keep long term success.

I’m not saying that changing your whole mind set is easy, it is something that could be very emotional but with our 100% support and your awareness of it you can achieve it.

You need to really focus and concentrate on what YOU want, what will make you happy. Remember the unconscious mind needs to know what you are aiming for and you get what you concentrate on.

This is similar to a person walking through a field and always taking a particular route. After a number of times through the field, a path will begin to form. As the path forms, the person’s pace will become faster since he knows where to go and consequently the grass is worn down under one’s steps, eventually becoming a well trodden track. In the same manner, by having clients focus on what they want, a neuron path for the desired state and its associated behaviour will begin to form.

Each step is a step closer, so today I want you to focus on what you want and if a negative thought or feeling may cross your mind I want you to consciously reframe it into a positive though or sentence. Doing this consciously will then help the unconscious mind to build that pathway.

Each morning think of three positive things you would like to achieve today for example:

I would like to attend Bootcamp/personal training session today

I would like to go the whole day eating the best possible foods

I would like to spend quality time with my family

There are three positive actions that will improve my day.

Each night before you go to sleep I would like you to think about the day and only focus on the positive things that happened in your day.

Remember there is ALWAYS a positive!

Amy

So I’m not superman, which up till this point I was thoroughly convinced that I was, but according to clients I’m still a Disney character! Mmmmm…..

Enough about me! On to the lipid hypothesis and scientists!

This post is article 3 in my cholesterol series. Today we are going to look at fat and it’s role in health and heart disease. If you have not already you may wish to read articles 1 and 2 first so that you don’t miss out anything.

Article 1 – The-truth-about-cholesterol-part1

Article 2 – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Ready?

Let us then look at the lipid hypothesis

What is a hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a theory, suggestion or supposition. It is what somebody thinks should happen and it is then either up to them or others to prove whether this theory is right or wrong. This is how a scientific experiment is started. The scientist starts with a theory and then does a test to see if his theory is correct.

If he/she was correct then the theory becomes a fact, if they weren’t then it is a disprove theory and the result’s become the fact.

Or so you would think, but not in the case of cholesterol and the lipid hypothesis. This is the theory that can’t die no matter how many time’s it is disproved!

What is the lipid Hypothesis?

This is the theory that Saturated (animal) Fat intake is directly linked to blood cholesterol levels, this in turn causes arthrosclerosis (build up of plaque in the arteries), resulting in a heart attack or coronary heart disease (CHD).

This theory sound’s great, right and accurate, but remember it’s a theory until proven to be fact.

And this is where it falls apart…..

We can start by looking at the archaeological record and evidence gathered from surviving hunter gathers. Here we find that animal products, fats have been consumed in far higher quantities as we evolved for the last 3 million years than are consumed now. In fact an average 80% of our daily calories used to come from animal fats.

Dr Weston A Price studied the health and diets of un-modernised tribes back in the 1920 making very detailed findings of diet, health, disease, bone structure and longevity and found time and time again that tribes had a high fat, high protein diet but very low levels of illness and almost no incidences of premature heart disease or stroke. (1/2)

We look slightly deeper at this research in these 2 books on the Personal Nutrition Course

We can trace the origins of the Lipid Hypothesis theory back to 1953 and a study performed by Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota. Ancel Keys constructed a graph that compared death rates from heart disease with total fat intake in from 6 countries and plotted a correlation between the 2 factors. What he did NOT do was publish the data from all 22 countries that was available to him.

Why not I hear you ask….. Because if you used all the data, it does not show a correlation between high fat intake and coronary heart disease!

Population comparison studies are often fatally flawed.

Calories from fat tend to be more expensive, so the countries that eat more fat also eat more sugar, smoke, drive cars and have DVD players and satellite television. If you look at the studies you could plot the incidences of heart attack against number of TV’s owned and you’ll see that in countries where a high % of the population own TV’s they also have high incidences of heart disease.

Does that mean that having a TV is a risk factor for heart disease?

I have to be honest and say that personally I think the haunted fish tank (TV) is a risk factor of heart disease due to lifestyle decisions it makes us make! But just owning one is not and does not cause heart disease.

So In summary, population comparison studies are great for highlighting RISK FACTORS, but do not prove a hypothesis. They are even less usable when 17 out of 22 (77% of the available data), is left out.

But let’s not stop with one study, let us take a look at some others.

Experts assure us that the lipid hypothesis is backed by scientific proof, but there is very little evidence to support a connection between fat, cholesterol and health problems such as heart disease and stroke.

Before we hit the studies consider this for a moment;

Before the 1920’s heart disease was rare, so rare that when the electrocardiograph was invented the inventor (Paul Dudley White) was told to concentrate on something more profitable.

By the mid 1950’s heart disease had become one of the leading causes of deaths particularly in America.

Today, up to 40% of all deaths are from heart disease. If it was caused by animal/saturated fat you would expect to see a similar rise in the amount consumed, but we don’t. We see a drop of about 20 – 25%, but an increase in the use of refined vegetable oils of about 400% and an increase of sugar and processed foods of about 60%.

Are you ready for some studies?

Framingham Heart Study

This is often quoted as being the study that proves the lipid hypothesis. It is a long range study which started in 1948 and involved 6,000 people who all lived in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The participants of this study were split into 2 groups, those that consumed little saturated fat and cholesterol and those that consumed large amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol. The 2 groups were compared at 5 year intervals over 40 years!

After 40 years the director of the study stated;

“In Framingham, Massachusetts, the more saturated fat one eats, the more cholesterol one eats, the more calories one eats, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol….. We found that the people that ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the LEAST and were the most physically active “

What the Framingham study did show was that people who weighed more had abnormally high blood cholesterol levels and were at slightly more risk for future heart problems. The study also showed that there was an inverse correlation between weight gain and cholesterol levels and the amount of fat and cholesterol intake.

This means people who ate more fat and cholesterol were thinner and had lower cholesterol levels than those that ate less saturated fat and ate less cholesterol!

Multi-year British Heart Study

This study involved several thousand British males who were split into equal half’s. The first half were asked to reduce their saturated fat and cholesterol consumption, to stop smoking and increase their consumption of vegetable oils and margarine. After 1 year those on the lower fat and cholesterol diet had 100% more deaths even though the high fat dieters continued to smoke! The publishers of the study ignored the studies finding and published the following;

“The implication for a public health policy in the UK is that a preventive programme such as we evaluated in this trial is PROBABLY effective…..”

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that ignoring the results in favour of a politically correct answer is particularly scientific and I sure as hell don’t see the word probably as being a good word to base a nation’s health policy on.

But let’s move on and have a look at another trial, MRFIT.

The Multiple Risk Intervention Trial (MRFIT)

Ok, this one was sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood institute (USA), and compared mortality rates and eating habits of over 12,000 men.  Again we have 2 groups those that reduced their intake of saturated fats, cholesterol and smoking and those that didn’t. This study did show a marginal decrease in Heart disease in those that reduced fat cholesterol and stopped smoking, BUT and it is a big BUT their overall mortality rate (Death rate), was a lot higher.

They died from cancer, brain tumours, suicide and violent death (We’ll talk a different day as to why they died of these things on a low cholesterol diet). So the reduction in fats did not mean that they lived longer healthier more full filling lives they just died of something else.

At this point I’d like to tell you about a diet Guru that you may have heard of, Nathan Pritkin of the Pritkin diet.

Nathan Pritkin was a well know advocate of the low fat diet. His diet also focused on whole natural foods eliminating sugar and processed foods and included a strict intensive exercise regime. This diet had a great success rate for lowering blood pressure , cholesterol levels and losing weight, but…

Have you noticed that there always seem to be a but?

BUT,

People had problems staying on it due to low energy, difficulty in concentration, depression, weight gain and mineral deficiencies.

Using this diet Pritkin did manage to save himself from heart disease but it could not help him recover from leukemia. Sadly, he died in the prime of his life of suicide when he realised that his diet was not working.

You may call me old fashioned but I don’t really want to die of heart disease, cancer or depression leading to suicide.

Let’s move on and look at some other population studies;

Population 1 – Yemen/Israel

Jews living in Yemen with diets consisting solely of fats from animal origin V.s Yemenite Jews living in Israel eat margarine and vegetable fats. (4)

This study revealed little heart disease or diabetes in the animal fats group but high levels of both disease in the vegetable oil and margarine group. It was also noted that this group also consumed a high level of sugar.

Population 2 – India

North V.s South India. The population in northern India consume on average 17 times more animal fat but their incidences of coronary heart disease is 7 times lower than that of southern Indians. (4)

Population 3 – Africa

The Masai of Africa mainly eat and drink milk, blood and beef which is all high in fat but they are free from heart disease and have low cholesterol levels. (4)

Population 4 – Eskimo

Eskimo’s when on their native diet of animal fats from Fish and marine animals are free from disease. (4)

Population 5 – Chinese

In a study of 65 Chinese counties it was found that those that consumed large amounts of whole milk had half the rate of heart disease as areas that consumed less animal product. (4)

Population 6 – Mediterranean

We are often told to follow the Mediterranean diet as there is a lower incidence of heart disease. For some reason we think that just adding olive oil to everything is the key ingredient….?

70% of the calories that are consumed are from saturated fat sources coming from goat’s cheese, lamb and sausage. The population of Crete is a great example as they are known for their good health and longevity and their native diet is primarily made from the above ingredients. (4)

Population 7 – Puerto Ricans

Matines. I. Et al (1975) looked at the correlation between cancer and high fat intake. It was found that Puerto Ricans consumed large amounts of animal fat but have very low incidences of colon and breast cancer. (4)

Population 8 – Japanese

The Japanese have the longest life span of any population in the world. This is largely attributed to a low fat diet. The Japanese eat little dairy, but their diet is not low fat! It possible that the Japanese consume more cholesterol than we do in the UK or the Americans! This is due to the amounts of shellfish and fish broth they consume on a daily basis. The diet also contain moderate amounts of egg, beef, pork, chicken, seafood and organ meats. What the Japanese do NOT do is consume a lot of vegetable oil, white flour or processed foods. Since WWII the life span of the Japanese has increase in line with the increase of the amount of animal fat and protein in their diet. (4)

Population 9 – France

The French diet is loaded with saturated fat in the form of butter, eggs, cheese, cream, liver and meats. In Gascony Goose and duck liver for a staple part of the diet. In this region 80 out of 100,000 middle aged men get heart disease. Across France it about 145 in every 100,000 in middle aged men and in America 315 out of every 100,000 middle aged men get heart disease.

Although the French are not suffering from Heart disease they do have a high incidence of degenerative diseases from the large amount of sugar, white flour and the time saving processed foods. (4)

Just to finish I would like to look at the 3 longest living populations in the developed world. First place goes to the Japanese, second to the Swiss and third place is a tie between Austria and Greece. All of the countries have moderate to high saturated fat intakes.

We could go on to look at animal studies but I have to ask you if you were a rabbit would you not keel over and die if you were force fed meats and cholesterol that you body has no idea how to digest because you are designed to process grass and dandelion leaves? I think your own common sense can put that one together without any pushing from me!

Lol

Committed to your health and success

Keith

Ready?

There is no good and bad cholesterol!

There I said it… Did the world end… No…. ok, great let’s get on with it then.

The substances that we call good and bad cholesterol are not in fact cholesterol they are a substance called lipoproteins. There are several types of lipoprotein, Chylomicron, VLDL, IDL, LDL, Lp(A) and HDL.
These are all protein based carrier molecules. Neither fats nor cholesterol dissolve in water, (not water soluble). This means that they need to be carried by molecules that are.

The most important lipoprotein molecules for us to concentrate on are LDL, HDL and Lp(a).
You may have thought that LDL (low density lipoprotein), is BAD cholesterol and HDL (High density Lipoprotein), is GOOD cholesterol, but by now you know that they are not cholesterol.
These protein molecules carry cholesterol from the liver to the body’s tissues and from the tissues back to the liver. LDL carries cholesterol out and HDL carries unused cholesterol back where it is used in bile to break down fat in your digestion process.

So where does Lp(a) come into it….? Ok, this is where you move ahead of many doctors and where you start to learn the Good Stuff!

Lp(a) is another form of LDL. It does have a little difference though, it has 2 types of protein on the outside of it, which allow the body to recognise it and then for it to attach to specific areas to do its job.

Now there are many ways in which your cholesterol level can be given to you. Your doctor may measure your cholesterol level and give you;

1. Your HDL score
2. Your LDL score
3. Total cholesterol level
4. Ratio of HDL to LDL

The problem is that none of these mention your Lp(a) level, which is a shame as it may be the only one that is any use in the assessment of your heart health and the risk of you getting heart disease.

Right, we need to get on with looking at cholesterol itself rather than hanging around with these proteins.

Due to something called the Lipid Hypothesis, which I’ll ramble on more about tomorrow, we tend to feel that cholesterol is a form of fat or is ‘made’ from fat. I’m going to burst this bubble as well, cholesterol is not made from fat and fat is not used to make cholesterol. Cholesterol is a waxy molecule made from a form acetyl-CoA…

What? Not fat?

Nop, no fat in cholesterol it is a waxy molecule steroid metabolite and only comes in one form there are no types, there is no good and bad, it only has one molecular shape which is used to do all the jobs that we mentioned in the previous post.

To make cholesterol your body starts with the substance acetyl-CoA and then 13 chemical changes later it becomes cholesterol!

Hey presto! No fat at all….

Well not quite Hey Presto, there are other chemical and enzymes involved, but not fat in this process.

In summary

• You don’t have a cholesterol level you have a lipoprotein level

• Lipoproteins carry cholesterol from the liver to the tissue and then from the tissue to the liver

• Lp(a) is a form of lipoprotein which is not talked about, but does have an association to heart disease and many doctors seem to have no idea.

• There is no fat in cholesterol, they are not the same thing and are not similar molecules

Complicated? A little but we’ll separate it all out as we go!

Next time…. Dumb Mistake thinking you could trust scientists to be scientific! The Lipid Hypothesis

Committed to your success

Keith

• Your body uses cholesterol to make your steroid based hormones, which are your sex and adrenal hormones – Testosterone, Oestrogen, Cortisol and Androgen etc

• Cholesterol is used in your bile which enables you to break down fat for energy and to release the vitamins A, D ,E and K the fat soluble vitamins. These are very important vitamins, but I’ll save them for another article

• Along with saturated fat, cholesterol is used to make the walls (membrane) of your cells. Without cholesterol this membrane would not function properly as it provides stiffness and stability

• Lipoproteins (protein cholesterol carriers), repair tissue damage such as the lining of the arterial
Wall

• Makes a substance call Ecseconoids, which are chemical communicators within the cell

• Precursor to Vitamin D needed for healthy bones, nervous system, growth, mineral metabolism, muscle tone, insulin production, reproduction and immune system function

• Acts as an antioxidant, protecting us from free radical damage and therefore heart disease and cancer, which is probably why its levels naturally increase with age

• Required for proper function of serotonin receptors in the brain. Serotonin is the feel good hormone. Lack of cholesterol is linked with aggression and violent behaviours as well as depression and suicide
From this list you can begin to see how important cholesterol is within your body and how it’s not an evil, malicious molecule sent to destroy the human race!
I think that now is a good time to point out that to perform all of these functions the body needs a lot of cholesterol, in fact it’s hard to eat this enough cholesterol to meet your daily needs, you would need to eat 6-8 egg yolks every day, so the liver produces the rest, which could be up to 5x the amount that you have naturally eaten (5).
I know what you may be thinking…. “Yes that’s great but we all know that there is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol, it must be the good stuff that performs all of these tasks in the body leading to health”.
So you may think, tomorrow let’s look at cholesterol, the good and the bad!
Committed to your success
Keith Tucker
Are you looking for a nutritional solution to health issues such as excess weight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, IBS etc?
Then check out the Absolute Nutrition course

http://www.absolute-training.org/personal-nutrition/

1 – William Castelli, M.D., former director of the Framingham Heart Study
2 – Gilman, et all; December 24, 1997 Journal of the American Medical Association
3 – Leddy, et al and published in 1997 in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Volume 29
4 – Udo Erasmus; Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill
5 – The great cholesterol con; Dr Malcolm Kendrick

Did you know that regularly missing meals can scupper your weight loss results?

Most people think and the press would have you believe that weight loss is a simple process of calories in and calories out but this is simply not true. If it were half of my client base would never have called or emailed me or even looked for my services.

I know lots of people who miss meals to lose weight and others who miss meals due to busy schedules or bad planning. I know all of these people because they are trying to lose weight, but most are struggling and many are moving in the wrong direction.

But why?

Why are they putting on weight or at best staying stable?

This is a question that I’m asked by these people all the time?

I want to share with you the reasons why, why people starve themselves and missing meal only to find that the scales are not showing them what they want to see.

To explore why calorie restriction does not work we have to look at our position on the planet and our evolutionary path to it.

We are the most dominant species on the planet, we are number 1 the top of the food chain. To get to this point we have under gone millions of years of evolution. During this time our ancestors have been through some real hard times such as ice ages, droughts and famines. To allow us to survive the trials and tribulations that nature throws at us we have evolved mechanisms to help us to cope.

When it comes to a lack of food the body has the ability to reduce its metabolic rate which means it can reduce the amount of calories that it uses for the various functions that are required for you to survive.

Your body also looks to store food so that you have reserves in case the famine is going to be prolonged due to seasonal conditions or natural disasters.

Missing meals and or dramatically reducing your calorie consumption leads to your body thinking that food is scarce and that you are in a period of famine.

So it slows down your metabolism and stores the food that you eat for later.

The next problem that you are going to face on low calorie diets or he regular missing of meals is the resumption of your normal eating pattern.

It will take a couple of days for your body to realise that you are no longer in a state of famine and food is now readily available again. During this time your body is going to store everything that you consume, especially as your metabolism is slow and you do not need the extra calories that you are now consuming. You therefore pile the pounds back on often becoming heavier then you were to start with!

It’s important for you to eat 3 meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner to make sure that your metabolism is running well and you are supplying it with all the nutrients that it needs.

Over the next couple of posts I’m going to talk more about the problems of low calorie diets or missing meal and I’m going to give you strategies to overcome your problems with meals.

The regular problems that clients bring to me are;

• I don’t feel like breakfast in the morning / it makes me feel sick / I’m not hungry
• I don’t have time for meal X because Y

So, eat 3 meal a day!

And I’ll be back with some more pitfalls and solutions for you.

Committed to your success

Keith

No messing here we go!

1. I going to attack main stream ‘health food’ such as microwave meals and low fat options and I can add to that many slimming shakes. These are often cleverly disguised junk foods. Yes they are fast and they are convenient but they are nutritionally deficient and are more likely to stimulate you storage mechanisms increasing the about of fat you store around your belly. Remember the diet and food industry only have one agenda…… MAXAMISED PROFITS!

2. I have said it before and I’ll say it again Ab exercises like crunches, sit-ups will not flatten you belly or give you that allusive six pack. They are more likely to give you a bad back and postural problems, so don’t make them the most important or only exercises that you do.

3. Boring repetitive cardio exercise routines will slow your progress, you could be doing a lot better for your weight loss goals and not have to commit the time that long runs or walk require. How would you like to double or triple your results and only train 30 to 40 mins. In fact the right 20 mins is more effective at burning fat then a 5k run if you do it right. The fit body boot camp or melt the fat Personal Training will give you the tools that you need and the results that you desire.

4. Get yourself on a health promoting nutrition programme such as the Personal nutrition course. Take the power back and learn how food reacts in your body rather than relying on the media. 

5. Low calorie diets! Do they work, well some do and some don’t but generally let’s say yes, you will lose weight on a low calorie diet. But is it the long term answer to your weight problem? I’m going to have to give you the painful truth and say……………………… No, No it’s not. I think that I going to do a whole blog post on this in the near future so I’ll save the low calorie rant for then. Many of our client’s have been on low calorie diets and yet they have still ended up at our door!

So what are the answers, by telling you that these thing don’t work I have probably created more question and therefore more problems.

We’ll I’m going to give you them tomorrow!

Committed to your Success

Keith

As the days get shorter and it gets colder, I don’t know about you but I find it harder to get up. The snooze button comes out of retirement to help me stay in bed for just a bit longer.

For many people including myself at times it often seems like a good plan to have more time in bed and either miss breakfast or have something quick on the run.

Honestly, a good quality breakfast is worth far more than that extra 5/10 minutes between the sheets.

It has been shown in studies time and time again that people who miss breakfast make up the missed calories later on in the day or they get through the day by taking stimulants.

Neither of these approaches are good when it come to either losing weight or improving health.

Most people who miss breakfast end up feeling nibbly throughout the rest of the day, which is made worse by the high sugar snacks which is often the first thing that they have to eat.

For example one of my clients used to miss breakfast, waiting until she got to work at 9 where she would have a croissant or toast with jam and a coffee. By the time an hour had passed she was feeling nibbly again so had a high sugar snack and a coffee at 10 / 10.30ish. By lunch 1.00pm time she would be hungry again and would have a sandwich, fruit and a drink. This would satisfy her more, but by 3 pm she was ready to nibble again so she would only have 1 biscuit and a tea. She would manage to get through until dinner at 7 which would be a stir fry on a bed of white rice, but then throughout the evening she would have a glass of wine…. or 2 and some chocolate/biscuits/crisps and then to bed for 10.30/11pm.

The calories that she missed at breafast were made up plus extra throughout the day. Over a 3 year period she put on 3 stone!

The changes we made to her diet were simple but effective. If you’re not doing these, make a list and start.

1. Plan your food knowing what will happen throughout the week
2. Start your day with a protein based breakfast such as an omelette with meat or vegetables in or cold meats with some cheese and fruit
3. Take a snack with you such as goat’s cheese and grapes, olives, small meat chunks left over from Sundays roast or mixed nuts.
4. Cut the coffee and drink water
5. Take a lunch with you so that you do not buy sandwiches. Prepare it the night before possibly by cooking more dinner. Place it in a container in the fridge and take it with you for lunch. See how much money you will save over buying lunch everyday
6. Only have 2 or 3 spoonfuls of rice with your dinner. To make up the amount on your plate increase the amount of meat and vegetables

On these guidelines most people nibble less throughout the day and the evening, their health improves and they lose weight. If you don’t then you need to take things a little more seriously, come along to the boot camp for £1 or book a free consultation to find out whats best for you.

Committed to your success

Keith