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July 08, 2009

Delicious Sweet-Hot Chipotle Bison Burgers

I'm a big fan of bison meat. It's lean. The fatty acid profile is significantly better than conventionally raised beef (with a more natural balance between Omega 6 and 3). And it's got the delicious taste of wild "game" even though it's farm raised.

The only downfall of bison, and other very lean meats, is how easily they can dry out. It's not really a problem. It just means you have to learn suitable cooking techniques.

One of my favorite ways to prepare ground bison is my famous Delicious Sweet-Hot Chipotle Bison Burgers (OK-they're not really famous-but I really like them).

Here's what you'll need:

  • 2 lbs ground bison
  • handful fresh parsley
  • 1/2 small onion
  • 1 or two packets stevia (to taste)
  • 1 or 2 chipotle peppers (with a couple tbs of sauce)

Roughly chop your parsley and onion and then throw them into a food processor. Whiz them until they're almost a pulp.

Put your chipotles in a bowl with their sauce and dice them up finely with a fork and a sharp knife. Mix in the stevia then add the rest of the ingredients and start mashing. Get your hands in there and squeeze everything through your fingers until it is thoroughly mixed together.

Form the mixture into patties according to your taste. I like to make fairly large patties and I find making them relatively thin works better. They end up cooking faster without drying out.

Heat your BBQ as hot as you can get it. Put the burgers on and leave the heat high to sear one side. Keep an eye on them. This can take as little as 45 seconds. Flip them and turn your flame almost all the way down. The residual heat will sear the other side but then the grill will cool so the inside can keep cooking without burning the outside. Leave them for a couple minutes and then flip one more time (yes-my timing is very scientific-just keep an eye on them).

I like to cook mine medium rare. I know and trust the origin and handling of my meat, so sometimes I'll even cook it rare. Anything more than medium and bison is ruined though.

Here's a trick to check your doneness. Press your thumb together with your middle finger (the one you use to flip the "bird"). Now press the pad of flesh below your thumb in your palm. Then press your burger. If it feels similar, it's medium rare. For rare, press the thumb to the index finger and use the same method.

Here's an illustration of what I'm talking about from Simply Recipes. They also have the corresponding finger tests for all the other levels of doneness.

finger-test-4.jpg

finger-test-3.jpg

What keeps the burgers moist?

The pulped parsley and onion isn't just there for taste (although there IS that), they also add a ton of moisture to the mix and make for super juicy burgers. Especially if you get the searing step right, as this traps the moisture inside the burger. The juice from the chipotles serves the same purpose.

A final tip for juiciness is to let your burgers sit for a couple of minutes once you take them off the grill. This somehow seems to allow the juices to settle into the meat (again-I realize my explanations lack scientific rigor-I just do it...).

I often eat mine on their own with a bit of dijon mustard on the side. But if you want the conventional burger experience you can throw it in an Ezekiel sprouted grain bun with your favorite fixin's.

I'll follow this up at some point with some tips for getting bison steak right on the barbie and also for cooking a mean pot roast in no time using a pressure cooker. Let us know if you have your own favorite bison recipes.

Enjoy!

July 04, 2009

The Relentless Sabertooth - How to combat the stress of modern life

30 seconds...

That's how long stress is "supposed" to last.

Either the Sabertooth eats you or you get away. Then you shake it off and life continues on.

But modern life brings with it the specter of The Relentless Sabertooth. Nowadays, the pursuit of the predator is endless. A bad boss, a negative friend, a looming deadline, a deteriorating marriage, a financial tight spot, and any number of other sources of stress mean we've always got a tiger staring us down.

Did you notice my use of the term "shake it off"? It's no accident of etymology. If you watch an animal who has been startled into great attentiveness and then decides there's no threat after all, you'll see them shake off the tension before they return to whatever it is they were doing.

We were meant to do the same thing. But as with so many other natural gifts of movement we were given, for the most part we've abandoned this practice to societal convention.

After all, it would look weird if we actually shook off the tension after being reamed out by our boss, right? Sure. Except by not doing it, we're holding onto that tension - storing it up to cause trouble for us down the road.

What are the negative consequences of chronic stress?

Among other things, if you ignore your daily stress you'll be able to look forward to:

  • Disrupted learning - Chronic stress affects your ability to think and learn. Children from emotionally stable homes have better success rates at school. Stress-unchecked-even affects your memory.
  • Weakened immune function - If you don't deal with your stress, you'll get sick more often. A great book to learn more about this is Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.
  • Increased disease risk - Chronic stress also sets in motion a series of physiological processes which predispose you to many of the diseases of civilization-heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, etc.

Two things you can do about it, today...

  • Shake it off - Everyone I introduce to Scott Sonnon's vibration drills feels silly when they first try it. But then they get addicted. The most comprehensive guide to CST vibration drills is the RESET dvd. The concepts are presented mainly as they relate to sports performance, but the techniques are brilliant for sloughing off your daily stress.
  • Find balance - Practice Prasara Yoga. It helps to realign your structure. Stress is accompanied by superfluous muscle tension. If left unchecked, this leads to pairings of short & tight muscle and connective tissue pitted against lengthened and loose tissues.

Sample Vibration Drills

(from my buddy John Sifferman)
 

Follow-Along Prasara Yoga Sequence

June 30, 2009

Little Red Feast - Lobster is a healthy indulgence and a heap of fun

I’m sitting under the green round sign that brings a sigh of relief to any traveling coffee lover. My Westjet flight back to La Belle Province boards shortly. This trip has been a short and unexpected one.  I’m “down home” to Nova Scotia to see my grandmother, who isn’t doing so well. It was great to see her and to catch up with all the extended family.

Foggynovascotia


The other fringe benefit of being back east is conning my Mom into cooking me a lobster dinner. Few things scream down east like a home cooked lobster feed. It just doesn’t taste the same after a few days of transit as it does fresh off the boat.

And if you are looking for the occasional healthy indulgence, this is it. I guess not everyone loves lobster -- can’t see why not though -- but for those who do, who could ask for a more guilt free feast?

Lobsters


Omega 3 - Lobsters are a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids. If you aren’t familiar with the health benefits of Omega 3 (like if you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years) a quick Google search will unearth a wealth of information on the subject.

Protein - Lobster packs a hefty 30 grams of quality protein for a measly 5oz portion. That makes it a great choice for those seeking to limit their carb intake.

Fun, Friends & Family - Eating lobster is an experience. There’s cracking, squirting, flying parts and lots of fun times. That makes it great for reducing stress and boosting your immune system.

Other goodies - You’ll also get some choline, vitamin A, E, B6, K, B12 and folate, niacin, sodium, potassium, phosphorus,calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese and selenium.

So if you haven’t tried the little red feast, perhaps its time. What's YOUR favorite guilt-free feast?

June 25, 2009

Domino Fitness

I'm starting to think that Seth Godin should go ahead and start a health and fitness blog! In case you don't know, Seth is probably the most popular blogger in the world.  Nominally, his blog deals with marketing, but his insights apply so universally that anyone could benefit from reading it.

Recently, he posted about what companies can learn from dominoes (the game). To often, businesses go for the big score and the game winning deal.  Instead, they need to line up one domino at a time, starting with the one that's easiest to topple.  Once they get that first one past the tipping point, the resultant show of toppling dominoes will be an impressive and monumental sight.

What Can Dominoes Teach Us About Our Fitness Goals?

Have you ever tried to lose ALL those ten pounds in a week?  Have you ever gone so hard on your first workout or your return to the gym that you couldn't walk the next day?  Have you ever gone to a big family gathering, not touched a morsel of the delicious spread, and regretted it a week later when you're back to eating everything in sight? If any of that sounds familiar - I'm guilty of all of it at one time or another - then you know what Seth is talking about when he refers to going for the big score.

Sometimes Less Is More (but Better is always Better)

It's great, even essential, to have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal).  But you have to break it into steps and compenents that allow you to steadily creep towards your objective while staying under the radar of any negative adaptations. Circular Strength Training provides us with a number of tools to help us make the most progress possible without the resultant breakdown that often comes with typical quick results.

Pairing the principle of Incremental Progression with the monumental Training Hierarchy Pyramid tool, you can plan out a program that will get you to where you are going one small step at a time.  But the funny thing is, you'll get there more quickly than by trying to race to the finish line.  Hmm - Isn't there a popular kids tale about that...

6 Tips For Creating The Domino Effect

  1. Define your goal - Imagine exactly what the end result will be.
  2. Dissect your goal into pieces - Slice that end result into as many little pieces as you can. When you become that person... What are you eating? How are you sleeping? What training are you doing? What recovery work are you doing? What skills do you possess? What attributes do you have? Now take all those things and slice them up even more. For example, what training will you need to do to support the training you'll be doing when you reach your goal?
  3. Line up your "dominoes" - Now, take all your slices and put them in order. Which ones need to come first to support the rest.  Those early slices are part of your General Preparedness (from the THP model).
  4. Make a macro plan - Take all those lined up slices and build yourself a macro plan.  This is a large scale plan that allows you to visualize all the steps it's going to take to get you where you are going. This can be a mind-map, a pyramid, a list, an essay or whatever format most speaks to you.
  5. Make weekly micro plans - Every Sunday night, spend some time mapping out the next 7 days. Use your macro plan as a guide. Assess which dominoes have tipped and which are next in line.
  6. Adjust the macro plan as needed - It's essential to have a big picture plan, but fatal to assume that it is immutable. You will need to adjust it constantly as you go in order to reflect the realities of your life and your progress.

Look Back & Admire The Results

What I've learned about the THP and Incremental Progression over the last few years is that anything is possible. Not only that, REAL results will come faster than you could imagine. But you have to get those dominoes tipping in the right order and with the right timing. Then the magic starts happening.


[image courtesy of  Mirko Macari on Flickr]

June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day

"Papa"

Of all the words in the world, that's the one that gets me the most.  It can mean so many things. 

  • I need you
  • Look what I've accomplished
  • Where are you
  • I hurt myself
  • I'm happy
  • I'm sad
  • I wanna play
  • Protect me
  • Fix what's wrong
  • And so much more...

It's amazing how much power one little word can have over a man.  It encapsulates the entire array of responsibilities you take on with Fatherhood.  I'm not sure I'll ever have a more important role in life than husband and father.

I'm not perfect, but I have my role models who continually inspire me to do better.  My "Pop" and other men from a bygone age were icons of sacrifice, integrity and steadfastness.  When they gave their word, they meant it - no matter the cost.

We seem to live in a more relative world now, where gray has overtaken black & white.  And I'm not immune.  But the imprint of the men from those golden years of Fatherhood still spark my imagination and spur me to action.

Take a second to honor our fathers and grandfathers today.  And a very special Father's Day wish to all of you Dads, Papas, Daddies, Pops and Old Men out there. 

Also, congrats to the father's who won themselves a copy of Bodyweight Exercise Revolution over at the Fit For Fatherhood Giveaway.  All the entries conveyed great stories of how fitness and fatherhood intermingle and interact.

Finally, my buddy Ryan sent me a link to this video which captures some of the essence of being a Papa.

Enjoy.

June 13, 2009

What Can You Learn About Fat Loss From Stacking Wood?

Here we are, still early June, and already I'm preparing for next winter.  That's just a fact of life we have to live with in Quebec I guess.  Anyhow, 10 cords of wood was dumped into our driveway this morning.  And I vowed that this year it was all getting stacked on the day it arrived!

Firewood


So that's how my day was spent.  And as I stacked those last few logs, it dawned on me that there is a big parallel between a task like stacking wood and the journey that most people have to face when trying to lose fat or achieve some other health or fitness goal.

When that pile first gets dumped in the driveway, it looks so big that you're sure - even though you know better - that it's going to take at least a week to get it stacked.  You dig into those first logs with a slightly doubtful attitude.  Even though you are fresh and motivated to get the job done, there is a nagging feeling of being overwhelmed.

After a few hours, the pile is noticeably smaller.  You gaze with satisfaction at the ground that you've liberated.  But then you look back at the pile and realize just how far there is to go.  You toy with leaving it for tomorrow.  Of course, if you leave it for tomorrow it could drag on for days or even weeks.  So you dig back in, weary but determined.

By the time you're three quarters of the way through, you're tired and starting to get sore.  You've come a long way and the results are there.  But man, that last part of the pile still just looks so big!  This is where the gremlins really kick in.  It wouldn't take so long to polish this off tomorrow would it?  I could just relax and enjoy my evening.  This is where you need to give yourself a kick in the rear and just do it.

Finally, there are only a few loads left and you know that you've made it.  You start to feel a bit euphoric.  You stack that last log and you even think to yourself - before you raise you arms in victory - that you could probably even keep going if you had some more wood to stack.

So, what's the big lesson?  That wood got stacked one load at a time and one log at a time.  That is the biggest secret to sustained success in anything.  You've got to drip, drip, drip away like water on stone.  Eventually you'll wear a grove in that stone and change the shape of your destiny.

Take your fat loss one meal at a time, one day at a time and one week at a time.  All of a sudden you'll wake up one morning and your proverbial pile of wood will be so small that you'll wonder how it is that you got there.  But now you know, you got there one load at a time...

Ruby Slippers - 4 Ideas For Mastering Your Fitness Destiny

This morning, Seth Godin wrote about Ruby Slippers.  I see so many people at the gym who just spin their wheels for hours on end, week after week, and don’t seem to make any progress.  They don’t know how to use their Ruby Slippers.

Ruby_slippers

I’ve talked about this before.  It’s the difference between training and working out.  You train for a goal.  You want to achieve a specific end.  You work out to pass time in a vague attempt to “improve” in some way.  You’re spinning your wheels.

A training goal is kinda like the wish you would use your Ruby Slippers for.  If you don’t know what you want, what’s going to happen when you click your heels?  Nothing.  If you don’t know why you’re in the gym (or park, or track, or rec room, or wherever you do your exercise), are you going to achieve anything meaningful?  Nope.

You may think goal setting is something reserved for elite athletes, but it doesn’t have to be some lofty or complex goal like winning an Olympic medal.  Not long ago I wrote about how I designed an entire cycle about getting one of my small coaching groups to the point where they could do 5 Rounds of Forward Pressure in 5 minutes.  The first time I introduced the material, they did three rounds in 20 minutes!  I set a target of 6 weeks to achieve the goal.  They did it in five!  All their energy was poured into that goal.  They would tell me stories every session about practicing the routine at home or about trying to teach it to their husbands.  It was great.

It’s easy to set a goal around an athletic pursuit.  If you want to win a canoe race or get the MVP award for your Ultimate team, there’s built-in motivation and focus.  But if you don’t have a specific competitive target in your life, there is a tendency to flounder in your health and fitness pursuits.  But there are many ways to come up with goals that don't require formal competition.

4 Ideas For Determining A Fitness Goal

  1. Density - Like the Forward Pressure example above, choose a routine or an exercise, determine a volume you would like to accomplish and a time you would like to do it in.  Some great ideas for this are FlowFit®, Clubbell® Swings (or any other Clubbell® exercise), my Sandbag In 6 Degrees routine or this CST Bodyweight routine.  You’re only limited by your imagination as to what you can choose.
  2. Sophistication - This is an oft forgot option.  Take what you are doing now, and set yourself the goal of learning and perfecting a version that requires more motor sophistication.  If you are doing push ups, learn the Screwing Press Up.  If you are doing deadlifts, learn and apply the Bruiser Clubbell® Swing to your training.
  3. Stats - Play the numbers.  If you are looking to lose fat, set a measurable target.  A lot of BER success stories have used belt sizes to measure their progress.  You can also go a step further and take on a coach who can accurately measure and follow your bodyfat percentage. 
  4. Feat - After discovering CST, and coming to realize that there was more to training the pressing heavy weight in two dimensions, one of my proudest moments was when I first achieved the Elbow Lever.  Picking and working towards a “Feat of Physical Mastery” is an outstanding way to bring focus and motivation to a training regimen.
Sonnon_elbowlever
Scott Sonnon performing elbow lever

Whichever path you choose, make sure that it is enough of a challenge to drive you forward, but realistic enough that you don’t become despairing of your ability to achieve your chosen goal.  This old acronym can help you with the process of clarifying your objective - S.M.A.R.T.

Specific: Define exactly what you want to achieve.

Measurable: How will you determine if you have achieved it?

Attainable: You know you can get there, but it’ll be tough...

Realistic: Does it fit into your life? Can you do what needs to be done?

Timely: Set a deadline!!  When will you cross the finish line?


And if you really want to accelerate your progress, in a future post I’ll teach you how to be a S.M.A.R.T. - A.S.S.  This add-on deals more with the process of actually playing out the achievement of the goal.

Don’t leave your results to chance.  Make sure that when you click your heels, something wonderful is going to happen.  What will you wish for when you click?

June 05, 2009

Understand Stress - You'll Increase Vitality & Improve Physique

This is a guest post from Dr Kathryn Woodall, DC.  She is an accomplished and forward thinking health care professional and a Circular Strength Training Instructor who shares her insight at A Comfortable Soul.

________

“Should I decrease my exercise because I’m stressed or will exercising decrease my stress?  Does it matter what the stress is?”

Stress, hormones, exercise, and diet have been talked about frequently but they are seldom spoken about in manner that gives a complete picture.  Therefore, people are left with questions such as the above.  We understand they are all connected, but how they are connected and what to do to get the results we want is a bit fuzzier.  Since there is a lot of information about how each one works separately, we are mostly going to concentrate on the big picture to give you the opportunity to understand why the answers to the above questions depend upon your current state of health. 

The first thing to understand is that stress, hormones, exercise and diet are interlinked in a dynamic way.  If any one of them is altered the other three will also change.  Instead of thinking of each one responding in a linear manner, it would be more accurate to picture that they are each a ball being juggled.  Have you ever seen a juggler throw one ball way up in the air and then continue juggling with the others? 

Juggler


How about when they drop a ball but keep juggling in a way that lets them work their way down to pick it back up again without ever stopping?  Our bodies are like that too.  In fact, each of us is a master juggler.  When something goes out of the typical rhythm we have established, we continue to juggle what we have until the out-of-range ball gets close enough for us to juggle with again. 

If we stick to our juggling analogy with diet, stress, hormones, and exercise all as the balls we are using, you can see that it is important how far out of typical range any one ball goes.  Did one go a little high or a little low so that with only minor adjustments you can keep juggling?  Did the one that went high get caught in a tree or did it just go really high and we need to keep juggling the others while it comes back down?  Did the one that dropped land at our feet or did it roll into the deep end of a pool and sink to the bottom?  The higher or lower one ball goes, the more you will want to keep the other balls in a range that is easily changed in order to adapt as the other ball comes back.  If one ball is already excessively high or low, you don’t want to make it even harder on yourself by tossing another one out of range.  If we look back at the beginning question now, you can see that the answer is, “It depends.”

What to do if I think I'm stressed...

We’ll go into more detail soon, but for those who want a quick over-view to know how to compensate when stress is an issue, the following can be used as a guide:

If there is physical stress that is high enough for you to be wondering if you need to compensate for it, you probably do.  Make sure the quality of your diet is high to ensure adequate building blocks, and stop exercise until the physical stress is 3 or less (with zero being no discomfort and 10 being “take me to the hospital” problems).  Your hormones will raise and lower as needed to heal your body.

If you have a high quality diet and the stress you are experiencing is not significantly high (an 8 or greater on a scale of 0-10) and has not been building or around for an extended period of time, your workout and diet probably need little to no tweaking to compensate.  Your hormones will deal with the stress and return to a more balanced level provided the stress does not become chronic.   In other words, if your diet is healthy and the stress is in the 4-7 range for a short time, exercising even at higher intensities is likely to cause positive results and help your hormones return to balanced more quickly.

If your diet is poor and your stress level just went up but is under an 8, you may want to lower the intensity of your exercise to moderate while also raising the quality of your diet.  If your diet is poor there might be physical stress that will complicate the other stress you are experiencing.  It can take a few months of a good quality diet before stress in the 4-7 range doesn’t require a change in exercise.

Typically stress in the perceived range of 1-3 requires no changes. If your diet is of poor quality greater than 15-20% of the time, your exercise and hormones are likely to suffer as a result.  Stress of any sort will have more impact if that is the case.  15-20% gives plenty of room for you to enjoy the occasional dessert, go to dinner with friends, etc., without feeling guilty and adding to your stress levels or feeling like you should exercise an extra amount because of it.

If you’re exercising at high intensity levels every single day, you are not giving your body a chance to rebuild and repair even if you are eating well and keeping the rest of the stress in your life to a minimum.  Do it for long enough and your hormones will no longer be able to compensate so that you will get injured and be sick more frequently.  Add extra stress in and it is a recipe for trouble.

All of the above applies to the vast majority of people who are a little out of sync but not seriously so.  In regards to the juggling analogy, the above guide is NOT for the juggler who has a ball caught in a tree or lost it at the bottom of the deep end of a pool.

Does it matter what the stressor is?  If it is physical stress, then the degree of physical involvement does matter.  A paper cut is not going to be as physically stressful as a broken bone.  The more life-threatening the injury, the more physically stressful it will be.  When it comes to emotional stress, the cause doesn’t matter nearly as much as your perception of and reaction to it does.  For example, one person might be fired from his job and be devastated by it while another person might actually be relieved and happy.  Fortunately, most people are able to adequately judge and rate their perceived level of stress.

Up until this point, this article has been written to give information applicable to the vast majority of the population.  Now we are going to delve deeper for those whose juggling balls are caught in a tree or at the bottom of a pool.  We’ll look at how all of it applies to fat loss, and we will explore a touch of science along the way.

The Adrenals

We can’t talk about stress without exploring the adrenal glands.  One adrenal gland sits just above each kidney and plays a role in tissue health (bone, muscle, skin repair and building – this includes intestinal health), blood sugar stability, energy production, emotional health, sexual health, immunity, fluid balance, thyroid function, inflammation, homeostasis (an example of dysfunction would include becoming dizzy upon standing quickly), memory, circadian rhythm, and overall vitality along with the possibility of a few other things not listed or not yet known. The adrenals are best known for the role they play in the flight/fight/freeze response, but as you can see, their health is significantly important to an individual’s overall health.

The glands go through three phases of function beyond their typical day to day activities.

Alarm-bell


1. Alarm Phase:

  • Cortisol and DHEA are high
  • Function is heightened
  • This has no negative side effects as long as it is short lived
  • Symptoms are consider good by most people because of the “high” associated with this phase, although it may become easier to store extra fat as they get closer to the next phase
  • This can be called Cushing’s disease if something causes it to be prolonged and maintained
  • Exercise typically doesn’t need to be adjusted for this phase as long as the stress is short lived.


2. Resistance Phase:

  • Cortisol is high or normal and DHEA is low
  • This is the phase associated with adrenal fatigue
  • Function is impaired but some people can put symptoms off to “aging”
  • Symptoms will vary depending on the other system(s) most affected and fat is more easily stored and harder to lose.
  • Exercise intensity probably needs to be dropped to moderate at this point and the foods in your diet need to be packed with high quality nutrition.
  • Lifestyle changes and the removal or reduction of the constant stressor make it possible to fully recover from the resistance phase.
  • In our juggling analogy, this would be when one ball has been thrown extremely high into the air.  It will come down, but we need to pay close attention to the other balls.


3. Exhaustion Phase:

  • Cortisol and DHEA are both low
  • Function becomes more impaired the deeper into exhaustion one is
  • Exercise needs to be reduced to low intensity or temporarily stopped completely depending upon the severity of the issue.
  • In our juggling analogy, this is when one ball has sunk to the bottom of the deep end of a pool.  Outside help is needed if we are to keep juggling.
  • Symptoms have most likely increased enough that visits to a doctor begin -- a metabolic syndrome is often active and the diagnosis is often missed until late into this phase because one or more other systems are malfunctioning enough to have their own diagnosis despite not being the cause of the overall problem. 
  • Insulin may begin to elevate and resistance to its effects may develop.  If it gets high enough, it might become an additional juggling ball stuck in a tree that will require help to retrieve.
  • In this phase, it is vital to seek help from a health care provider who has adequate knowledge and experience successfully treating people with adrenal issues.
  • Because traditional blood tests rarely show the dysfunction until it is almost too late, many people in this phase are told that it is “all in their head” or that they “need to eat less and exercise more” and are sent to see a psychiatrist despite the obvious host of symptoms they present with.
  • If severe enough and diagnosed correctly, it will be called Addison’s disease and can be treated. Left untreated in its most extreme aspect, death is likely to ensue via a related failure of one of the other systems.


Causes of the stress leading to phase II and III dysfunction can be many and include but are not limited to: prolonged stress (strain), auto-immune issues, head trauma leading to pituitary dysfunction, chronic infection, chronic inflammation (unknown food allergies/intolerances, consistent exposure to toxins, diets that cause insulin levels to remain elevated, etc.), abuse (physical, emotional, dietary, drug, etc. including exercise addiction), and combinations of the above.  The lifestyle an individual maintains can influence adrenal function and either increase or decrease the symptoms that are presenting as well as the rate of progression through the phases.

Most people cycle in and out of phase I several times over a lifetime without heading into phase II.  Some people will experience phase II either in cycles or for long enough to head into the significantly smaller group who experiences phase III.  Now that you are aware of the three phases, it probably makes more sense why you have sometimes read articles saying that you shouldn’t exercise while stressed while others say you should.  It isn’t the stress that is the deciding factor.  It is the status of your health.

Fat Loss

You’ve probably seen the ads on TV or read the magazine articles talking about “stress hormones” preventing fat loss (they are referring to the adrenal gland and its hormones).  Or you might have heard someone say they have glandular problems causing them to be obese.  You might be wondering if there is any truth to it or if it is just a marketing angle or an excuse?  There can be truth in that statement.  Hypothyroidism, adrenal dysfunction, and pituitary problems can make it easy to gain fat and difficult or impossible to lose while the hormonal imbalance is present.  It is also true, however, that once the hormonal imbalance is resolved (and sometimes as it is resolving) a healthy body composition can be obtained again. 

When hormones are balanced, fat loss requires a caloric deficit that occurs over time from lifestyle changes resulting in increased activity, decreased food consumption, or both.  When hormones are imbalanced, fat loss requires lifestyle changes and sometimes a health care provider’s help to balance the hormones and restore health – and then a caloric deficit that occurs over time. 

If there is a hormonal imbalance, sometimes restoring the balance will naturally increase a person’s metabolism or activity levels enough that they don’t need to restrict calories from their diet.  If you have ever heard someone say that just eating high quality, nutrient dense foods will let your body drop to a healthy weight, that can be true for those whose diet was their largest source of stress (too much sugar, chemicals, and processed food caused an imbalance and maybe even kept them from having enough nutrients to maintain healthy hormonal function).  Nonetheless,  a caloric deficit still occurred even if they think it wasn’t from the change in diet.  Perhaps they were satisfied more quickly because of more nutrients or perhaps the increased nutrients caused them to feel well enough to be active.  Either way, a calorie deficit was created.  But for those who had a hormonal imbalance that caused increased appetite in addition to slowing down metabolism, fat loss will require them to address the habits formed when their appetites were high.

Diet

Contrary to popular belief, a diet is not something you go on to lose weight.  A diet at its most basic is the group of foods you eat.  There are a ton of guidelines out there created by other people with opinions about what you should and shouldn’t eat, but the only diet you will ever be on is yours.  If I had my way, the aim of each person would be to choose a diet with enough variety to give them all of the nutrients they need for physical and mental health while also leaving room for some emotional and social enjoyment.   Some people will eat three times a day, others will eat six, and still others will fast one or more days a week.  Depending upon their exercise, hormone levels, stress, and general health, each of those options can be appropriate.  There is no one right way.  Quality and quantity are going to vary according to your current needs.  Flow with it and keep health as your first priority.

The Big Picture

Life is dynamic - just as with juggling, one part will be up while another is down and still other parts are temporarily sliding along on a level course.  When one area goes too far out of range, adjust in the manner you think is most appropriate.  If it doesn’t work, make a different adjustment.  If after several adjustments things still seem out of kilter, seek an outside opinion from a health care provider.  While all of that could sound glib, it is not meant to.  There are lots of hormones in your body, lots of situations that are potentially stressful as well as stress-relieving, lots of exercises that can be performed at different intensities, and lots of food choices available.  To add to it, each piece interacts with all of the other parts.  Your food affects your hormones which affect your emotions which affect your stress level which affects your activity which affects your food choices…  It would be very easy to get caught up in the small details instead of remembering that the little ups and downs are okay. 

"Good health is not any single choice but is instead the accumulation of all of our choices and behaviors over time."

Success

The salad you eat with lunch today is not going to make or break your health any more than the piece of chocolate you ate two weeks ago is.  The test you forgot to study for and are stressed you might have failed is not going to raise or lower any hormonal level enough to cause long-term imbalance.  The belly laugh you had at the joke your friend told will not create enough happiness to forever obliterate any future stress.  Good health is not any single choice but is instead the accumulation of all of our choices and behaviors over time.   Even if there were a textbook perfect way to deal with stress, exercise, and food, life is not a textbook.  Sometimes life goes according to plan, but at other times it is just outright messy. 

The secret to balance is therefore not perfection —it is learning to recognize and appropriately compensate for imperfection quickly enough that even if we wobble, we don’t fall down.


_____
Photos from Flickr courtesy of:
by eschipul
by TheTruthAbout...

May 27, 2009

Ideal Female Physique

We had a lot of fun voting on the Ideal Male Physique.  King Leonidas held his thrown, but now it’s time to crown a queen!  This time however, before I put the poll together I want to get a sample of who YOU think should be on the list of candidates.

What female physiques inspire you?  Ladies, who makes you want to run out and get some training in?  Guys, who makes you stare in naked appreciation?

I’ll start the ball rolling with a few of my favorites.  Tell me which ones should be in the poll, if any.  Tell me who you want to see in the poll and why.  Let's not make this into an exercise in sexism.  I want to explore what we consider beautiful when it comes to the female body, and maybe get a bit of insight into why.  From whence does our appreciation stem, and is it the same as it may have been a decade or two ago?  I have an interesting anecdote about that.  I'll share it in the follow up post.  What drives our idea of what makes a female body beautiful? 

Without further ado, here are a few of my humble suggestions...

Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey  - 300 Movie)
Given the results of the Ideal Male Physique poll, it would just be plain old rude to not include the queen...

Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner - Alias)

Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie - Tomb Raider)

Uhura (Zoe Saldana - Star Trek)

Beyonce

Gabrielle Reese

Serena Williams

Eva Mendez
 

Now it's your turn.  Who do you want to see in the poll.  Are any of my suggestions in your top picks?  Let the discussion roll...

From the comments section

Here are a few of the gals you've added so far as candidates for the Ideal Female Physique poll...

Jamie Eason


Gabrielle Anwar


Missy Peregrym


Keeley Hazell


Megan Fox

Ava Cowan


Rhona Mitra


Jessica Biel

Kate Beckinsdale


Adriana Lima

Summer Huntington

May 26, 2009

4 Steps To Unlocking Your Potential

I just did a merciless triage of my RSS Reader (if you're not sure what that is, ProBlogger explains it here).  I sliced about three quarters of my subscriptions in one fell swoop!  And I was very attached to reading a lot of those blogs.  But I realized that they were taking more than they were giving in terms of the goals that I have for myself.  So they didn't make the cut in my Priority Hierarchy. (Note - please keep Better's Better in your Reader... LOL)

One of the strong points of the Circular Strength Training system is it's Value Hierarchy.  It puts health clearly and unequivocally at the top of the pyramid of values.  So everything in the system has to pass the test of health before it moves on down the pipeline.

I've found it very helpful to do something similar with priorities.  Mapping out a pyramid of priorities renders decision making much simpler and allows you to tap into your true potential by eliminating indecision along with actions that take you away from your goals.

It's important build a Priority Hierarchy to guide your life, your health and your fitness.  What matters to you most?  Here's a little exercise to help you find out.

Build A Priority Hierarchy Pyramid

  1. Take the time to list 10 things that are important to you.
  2. From your list of 10, pick the 5 most important priorities.
  3. Rank your top 5 priorities in order of importance to you.
  4. Every time you make a decision, filter it through those priorities in order to determine if the proposed action carries you towards your goals or not.
Kidsattable

A great example is a family who chooses to place time together during dinner at the top of their list of priorities.  Participating in sports may be second on that list.  If an opportunity comes up for one of the kids to join a new soccer team, they have to filter it through the list.  Do practices or games fall during dinner hour?  If so, the opportunity doesn't even make it down to the second of the priorities.  Even though sports is on the priority list, the soccer team wouldn't make the cut because it didn't make it through the first filter.

This is a very powerful tool in getting perspective on the decisions we make in our daily lives.  A small decision, in isolation, may seem innocent enough.  But if it is not aligned with our priorities, eventually it will build, along with countless other seemingly insignificant decisions, until we are living a life that is not at all what we want for ourselves.

I think the implications for health and fitness are pretty clear.  The foods you choose to eat, the exercise you choose to do or not do, the wellness practices you partake in–these are all, in isolation, small things.  But when you bring them all together they turn into a single mass with great inertia.  And once they get rolling, they're hard to change course.  So you're better off to tackle them one better choice at a time using something like a Priority Hierarchy.

River_mountain

I think it is important to make the distinction here with a Value Hierarchy though.  CST places health at the top of their hierarchy of values.  Like the rocky landscape in the photo above, values don't change easily.  Like the flowing river, priorities can shift from month to month or year to year as goals and situations change, but are constrained by the relative permanence of your values.  Your Value Hierarchy should underpin your Priority Hierarchy.  Your priorities must not undermine your values.

If you take the time to use the 4 step process above in order to tap into the power of priorities, I'll think you'll be amazed at the personal potential you'll be able to harness.  Give it a try and let us know how it goes.  Better yet, tell us below what your priorities are, then check back in a few weeks and let us know how well you've been able to align your actions and decisions with those priorities.