Muscle and Weight

Facts about muscle and weight 

Earlier in the series we talked about the importance of weighing ourselves for accountability.   Most weight loss programs require weekly weigh-ins.  This is because self weighing is linked to successful and sustained weight loss.  There is value in stepping on the scale but it's important to look at factors that influence weight.  When we lose weight we're hoping to lose fat.  But not all weight is attributed to fat.  Changes in body weight may also reflect fluctuations in muscle, body fluids and in the longer term bone density.   

When following a weight training program designed for weight loss, we may notice that we initially gain weight.  A more appropriate term/goal is weight training for fat loss.  Muscle is more dense than fat.  One pound of muscle looks quite different than 1 pound of fat.  We can experience changes in body composition without noticing a change on the scale.   

At Amethyst Wellness we use the traditional scale as well as a body composition scale which uses a process called bioelectrical impedance.  The device is able to estimate total body fat and lean muscle percentages by measuring the speed a mild electrical current travels through the body.  This is painless and completely safe for everyone.   

Other accurate methods are tape measurements.  I usually measure chest, waist, hips, thigh and upper arm.    Waist circumference is a particularly important indictor of health.  Excess abdominal fat is more harmful than fat accumulated on the hips and thighs because abdominal fat affects the organs and is more likely to affect cholesterol and insulin sensitivity.   

I promised to share my journey as I follow my Fitness Genes fat loss plan.  I've been pretty much on target for most days in terms of my nutrition and exercise recommendations.  At the 4 week mark, I've lost 4 pounds.  My body fat percentage has decreased and my lean muscle mass has increased.  Further, I've lost 1.5 inches in my waist.   

I've talked about the Genetic Fitness Test to determine nutritional needs and the best plan for fat loss.  Sometimes the best indicator of successful weight loss is the "jeans" test.  How do your jeans fit?   If your clothes feel looser chances are you've had an improvement in body composition even if this is not reflected on the scale.   

The bottom line is that it is important to weigh yourself for personal accountability.  However it's equally important not to place too much value on this one number.  Look at other measurements to determine whether a particular plan is working for you.  It can take time to find the right plan and to implement that plan properly.  If you're having difficulty achieving your goals it may be time to seek the advice of your healthcare professional. 

Here's to your health! 

New Year Weight Loss: Motivation

Maintain and Regain Motivation

As we near the end of January.  Many people begin to struggle with their weight loss and fitness goals.  There are many factors that contribute to “failure” of diet and fitness plans.  Here are some ways to help get back on track.

1.       Analyze your barriers.  This is probably the most important aspect of achieving success.  Figure out the things that are keeping you from achieving your goals.   One of the most common barriers to health and wellness is time.  We are so busy in this society that our health sometimes is put aside.  The good thing about this barrier is that it's concrete and objective.  It takes work to overcome this barrier but it's something that is task oriented.  With planning, preparation and practice, it can be achieved. 

2.      Beware Saboteurs.  A saboteur is a person who interferes with your success.  Saboteurs take the form of spouses, best friends, coworkers and your children.  Sabotage isn’t always malicious but it can interfere with your goals.  The first thing to do is communicate your goals.  Let’s say a coworker brings in brownies that you “just have to try”.     You can politely thank the coworker but explain you’re on a very specific eating plan and you do not want a brownie.   At my house I pre-prepared specifically portioned meals which were in individual containers (We’ll discuss this more during the section on meal preparation).  My spouse unintentionally took some of these meals to work for his lunches.  I had to politely explain that these were specific portions for me but I offered to make some for him as well. 

      The amount of time and effort required to explain your goals to others depends on the specifics of the relationship and the amount of support you need from that person.  Usually it’s best to be polite.  Use phrases like “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t offer me dessert while I’m trying to achieve this goal”. Ultimately, remember that you cannot control the actions of others but only your own.   

3.   Analyze your goal.  Is your goal measurable and attainable?  Is it reasonable?  Sometimes, fitness and weight loss goals in January are very optimistic.  We may have good intentions but if we set our goals too high we can become overwhelmed.    It may be better to take a large goal and break it down into smaller pieces.    Also, it’s important to be flexible.  Life can be unpredictable and we may need to make adjustments to our goals.   

4.    Don't be afraid to Ask for help.  It may be as simple as asking a friend or spouse to encourage you and help keep you on track.   Many are willing to do this but ultimately it is you who is responsible for your own actions.   You may wish to hire a health coach or personal trainer.   Some people find it easier to take direction from a person in a certain role.  Working with a coach also increases accountability which improves success. 

If you’re sabotaging yourself, it may be time for behavioral therapy.   Many unhealthy behaviors are linked to emotional issues or events.  There may be fear, whether we're afraid to fail or perhaps afraid to succeed.  We may fear loss of control.  The mind is such a complicated thing that we sometimes need help figuring this out. 

I wish everyone encouragement and success in their journeys toward health and happiness. 

Here's to your health.

New Year Weight Loss: Goal Setting

I hope everyone is continuing to have a Happy and Healthy New Year! 

As we enter the second week of January, some people start to struggle just a bit with their health and wellness goals. 

The first step to achieving a health goal is defining that goal.   It’s best to make your goals simple, specific and achievable.  If you have a large goal like losing 100 pounds, I recommend that you break that up into smaller more quickly attainable pieces.  Examples are to lose 10 pounds or no soda for 30 days.  Once the smaller goal is achieved, you may then set a second achievable goal. 

My personal short term goal is to follow my Fitness Genes Fat Loss meal plan as exactly as possible for the next 6 weeks.  I’m already on week 2 and I must say I feel great!   Before the holidays, I was eating less healthy foods.  Since I’ve revisited my meal plan and I’m eating mostly whole and natural foods, I’ve immediately noticed an improvement in my skin tone.  Before I was bloated and tired and now I feel just a bit better. 

This week I completed a webinar on how to develop a meal plan based on your Fitness Genes result.  The demonstrated macronutrient calculations are based on my genetic results.  However, the principal of calculating macronutrients can be applied to any meal plan so it may be worth checking out even if you do not have personalized recommendations from Fitness Genes. 

The most common concern about my meal plans involves alcohol.   There is no alcohol on the weight loss plan.  Unfortunately, nothing will sabotage good intentions like a drink or two.  This happens for several reasons.  First, alcohol delivers calories without any nutritional benefit.   Each gram of alcohol has 7 calories which are converted to sugar in the body.  Alcohol cannot be stored in the body so it must be metabolized immediately.  While the liver is busy metabolizing alcohol it cannot metabolize other nutrients making them more likely to be stored as fat. 

The second pitfall with alcohol consumption involves lowered inhibitions.  Your carefully planned food choices may fall to the side when presented with a tempting high fat, high calorie option.   Additionally, alcohol consumption can cause low blood sugar or hypoglycemia which will make it necessary for you to eat more even if it’s not on your plan. 

So, I strongly recommend abstaining from alcohol while you are on a weight loss program.   When you have reached your goals, you can absolutely include moderate alcohol consumption as part of a healthy lifestyle. 

If you do chose to drink, make informed decisions.   Here’s a chart published by Cosmopolitan that summarizes the calorie content of common drinks. 

I encourage everyone to stay true to their wellness goals.  Here’s to your health!

New Year Weight Loss

It’s a New Year!  Many of use the hope of a new year as inspiration to make healthy lifestyle changes.

I love the inspiration and motivation that the New Year brings.  I feel like I press a reset button and hit the ground running. 

What I don’t like so much is facing the music.  As I step on the scale for the first time after the New Year, I’m forced to face the consequences of my holiday shenanigans.   While this is not always pleasant it’s important to establish a baseline of where I’m at so I can set realistic goals for the future. 

For those with a weight loss goal as one of your resolutions, I encourage you to focus on health and wellness rather than a specific number on the scale.  There are different opinions in the professional community about using weight as a health parameter.  I feel it’s important to weigh ourselves for self-accountability, but it’s also very important to realize that this number does not define our value as a person.  There are many contributors to health and wellness and weight is just one of them.   Finally, body composition is much more relevant than weight.  People who are muscular tend to have a higher weight but less body fat than those who are less muscular.

This year, I’ve decided to share my personal experience.  Though I am a healthcare professional and nutritional consultant, I too sometimes struggle with weight gain.  I’ve always been fit and healthy, but the last few years have been challenging.  Due to life stressors, hormonal fluctuations and just getting older, I managed to gain 20 pounds over a period of 5 years. 

With that said, I love helping my clients identify their personal barriers to wellness and then helping develop solutions.  I know how about the challenges associated with weight gain and feel this enhances my abilities as a nutritional consultant.  I also know quite a bit about the health consequences of weighing more than we should and remain passionate about keeping wellness and all-natural weight loss as a main part of my clinical practice. 

What is all-natural weight loss?  It’s simple.  We eat the right amounts of the right kinds of real food.  My plans involve meal planning and calculating macronutrients, then applying that to the client’s life. 

What is the right meal plan?   Even during my extensive training, there was so much conflicting information.  Paleo, Atkins, South Beach, the Zone and Weight Watchers are just a few of the popular plans.  We all know someone who lost a ton of weight on one of these plans.  Some plans work for some people.  Others don’t.  That’s because we’re all different. 

I was so excited to discover genetic testing for weight loss consulting and meal planning.  I researched many companies then decided to try Fitness Genes.   The saliva test provides an analysis of specific genes that are known to influence individual response to diet and exercise.  You then receive detailed recommendations about your nutrition and fitness needs.

 When I took the test, the results confirmed my suspicions.  I’m sensitive to carbohydrates and do better with higher protein meal plans.  I’m lactose intolerant.  I’m genetically pre-dispositioned to Vitamin D deficiency (I live in Florida and run outside getting plenty of sun, but I have low vitamin D levels). 

I upgraded to the fat loss program to get an even more detailed plan to help achieve my goals.  I’ve decided to follow the plan exactly for the next 6 weeks and I’ll share as I go.    

In upcoming blogs and videos, I’m going to show you my personalized nutrition recommendations for fat loss and share how to make a meal plan from that information. 

Here’s to your health!

21 Day Healthy Eating Challenge: Week 2 Meal plan and recipes

Welcome to week 2 of the Healthy Eating Challenge. 
This week you may eat anything off of last week's menu OR

Breakfast: Egg Cups plus 1 orange or
Smoothie

Snacks: celery plus 1 wedge laughing cow cheese or
homemade snack bar

Lunch: Kale salad or
Chicken salad with spinach

Dinner: Chicken stir fry
Meatloaf with a twist
Kidney Bean burgers


Before you go to the grocery store, you may find you have many of the needed ingredients left over from last week.  Hopefully, if you did not eat all of the food you prepared last week, you put it into the freezer.  You can use that this week as well.


Here are the recipes:

Egg Muffins

Ingredients

·         6 Eggs plus 6 Egg whites

·         1 Sweet potato

·         1 ½ cups spinach

·         12 ounces Canadian bacon

·         Olive oil

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Thinly slice sweet potato and drizzle with olive oil.  Place on baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.  Then spray a jumbo muffin tin with cooking spray.  Place 2 slices of Canadian bacon on bottom of tin.  Next layer 2-3 slices of sweet potato.  Add about ½ cup spinach.  Crack 1 egg plus 1 egg white onto the top of each.  Bake for 20 minutes or until set.

Serves 6

Total calories: 188

Carbohydrate: 6.5 grams

Protein: 22 grams

Fat: 9 grams

Serve with small piece of fruit

Basic Smoothie Recipe

Ingredients

1 scoop protein powder (should have <5 grams carbohydrate and 15 to20 grams protein)

1 Tablespoon nut butter (ingredients should be nuts and salt- no other additives)

1 Cup Almond Milk

1 small serving fruit 

Directions:

Place all ingredients into a blender along with some ice; Blend and enjoy.

Protein Bar- Basic Recipe for meal replacement

Ingredients:

·         2 scoops protein powder

·         1 ½ cups dried oats

·         1 cup nut butter (should be all natural)

·         ½ cup dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, blueberries, dates, etc)

·         1 cup nuts

·         ½ cup seeds

·         1/3 cup ground flax seed

·         1/3 cup maple syrup or honey

·         ½ cup apple sauce

Directions: Mix all ingredients together.  Press into a baking dish (8x11).  Freeze for 1 hour.  Cut into 12 squares (or 24 for snack sized) and store in refrigerator or freezer.

 

Kale Salad with Turkey

Ingredients:

·         3 cups Kale

·         2 Tablespoons Almonds, chopped

·         1 granny smith apple, chopped

·         1 Tablespoon dried cranberries

·         4 ounces cooked turkey breast

Directions: 

Combine all ingredients and add 2 Tablespoons Cashew Mayonnaise (see recipe). 

Serves: 2

Total Calories: 320

Carbohydrate: 27.5 grams

Protein: 23 grams

Fat: 12.5 grams

 

Meatloaf with a twist

Ingredients

·         1.25 pounds ground beef (should be no more than 20% fat)

·         8 ounces mushrooms

·         1 zucchini

·         ¼ onion

·         1/2 cup tomato sauce

·         1 Tablespoon garlic powder

·         1 teaspoon oregano

·         1 teaspoon basil

·         ½ teaspoon black pepper

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Chop the mushrooms and zucchini in a food processor.  Dice the onion.  Then add all ingredients (except ¼ cup sauce) to a bowl and mix well.  Place in a loaf pan; pour ¼ cup tomato sauce on top and bake for 45 to 60 minutes.

Serves 6

Total Calories: 224 

Carbohydrate: 4 grams

Protein: 19 grams

Fat: 15 grams

 

Chicken and veggie stirfry

Ingredients

·         1 pound chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces

·         1 onion, diced

·         1 bell pepper, diced

·         3 cups green beans

·         1 cup mushrooms

·         2 cloves garlic

·         3 Tablespoons soy sauce

·         1 Tablespoon sesame oil

·         1 Tablespoon ginger

·         1 Tablespoon Worchester sauce

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet and cook chicken.  When almost cooked, add remaining ingredients.  Continue cooking until veggies are tender.  You may need to add ½ cup water.

Serves: 4

Total Calories: 195

Carbohydrate: 10 grams

Protein: 26 grams

Fat: 7 grams

Kidney Bean Burgers

Ingredients                                                                  

·         1 ½ cups kidney beans

·         ½ cup ground flax seed

·         ¼ cup water (may adjust as needed)

·         3 Tablespoons mustard

·         ¼ cup diced onion

·         ½ cup cooked quinoa

·         2 scoops plain protein powder

·         3 cloves garlic

·         Salt and pepper to tasts

Directions: Mash kidney beans.  Then add remaining ingredients.  Shape mixture into 4 patties.  Wrap each patty in saran wrap and place wrapped patties into a freezer bag.  Freeze patties prior to cooking.  When ready, cook patties on grill or in frying pan until cooked through.

Serves 4

Total Calories:  275

Carbohydrate: 31 grams

Protein: 20 grams

Fat: 8.5 grams

 

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

·         1 Tablespoon Cashew Mayonnaise

·         2 ounces cooked chicken breast, cubed

·         1 stalk celery, chopped

·         1 Tablespoon dried cranberries

·         1 Tablespoon walnuts

·         1 slice Ezekiel bread

Directions: combine all ingredients and serve open faced over bread.

Serves: 1

Total Calories: 288.5

Carbohydrate: 26 grams

Protein: 18 grams

Fat: 13 grams

Cashew Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

·         ¼ cup water

·         ¼ cup olive oil

·         1 cup raw cashews (soak in water overnight)

·         ¼ cup cauliflower

·         1 ¼ teaspoon mustard

·         1 teaspoon honey

·         Juice of 1 lemon

·         1 teaspoon apple cider

·         ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:

Put all ingredients into food processor or high speed blender.  Blend until creamy.

Servings: 16 (1 Tablespoon servings)

Total Calories: 74

Carbohydrates: 2.5 grams

Protein: 1 gram

Fat: 7 grams