Could stress, lifestyle and allergies be keeping you from a flat tummy?

Although some women eat well, exercise regularly and maintain a good weight they still have trouble getting a flat stomach. A great article in the Australian newspaper’s site of the Herald Sun highlights how no amount of sit-ups or ab-exercises can help if there is an underlying reason for a bloated tummy. The article is an edited extract from book by James Duigan called Clean and Lean: Flat Tummy Fast which is now available on Amazon.com

James walks through some underlying causes for not achieving a flat stomach but then also dives into detail on how to combat these causes. The usual culprits are stress, bad lifestyle, poor food and drink choices and even allergies. By identifying these culprits and learning how to deal with them in each case is not only going to get you into better shape but will help you avoid future chronic diseases which are exacerbated by stress and toxins.

His well researched advice is both cleansing to the body as it is to the soul. A great read available in hard-cover on Amazon.com 

Have you hit a weight loss plateau, even though you seem to be doing all the right things?

Booze and the way it is consumed could a lot to do not achieving an ideal weight. People lead such busy lives now that they work hard and find the need to play hard. Binge drinking has reached epidemic proportions and apart from the health implications it helps maintain the bulge. It is not so much the high calorie content in alcohol which is instantly released into the bloodstream. It has a lot to do with the metabolism shutting down after such a shock to the system. The food choices we make after a binge are usually quite poor as well. Usually you can also write-off the next day when it comes to training or eating well, sometimes it takes 2 or more days to fully get back in the mood for training. We have all been there with polar bear.

So What to do?

I have for you a great quick read from Craig Ballantyne, the creator of Turbulence Training. Here are some good observations on Alcohol and Training. Personally, the years I struggled most with my weight were also the years I used to binge drink. I rarely drink any more and when out with friends I may have a glass or two with plenty of water in between. When I get home I try to make a nutritious snack before bed. 

To find out more about the Turbulence Training method Click Here

Walk and stimulate your Fat Burning Hormones

Just the though of exercise can make a procrastinator sink further into an armchair.  ”I have to go, and get changed, find those sneakers which are in a box somewhere, I actually have to tie up the laces, there will be more clothes to wash, I will break out into a sweat and then I will need to wash my hair. Besides look at the weather outside, I’ll catch cold and have to take time of work, and I hate being sick. Look at the time it will be dark soon. And I think I have left the gym membership at work… or is it in the glove-box.” I think we get the idea here. 

Many people hear or read the word exercise and immediately images spring to mind of joggers, people sweating it out in a gym, aerobics instructors, and the exercise machine gathering dust in a back room somewhere with a pile of washing on it. 

The humble art of walking

Walking is often overlooked as a form of exercise. You don’t have to wear a silly outfit, or go out and buy the most expensive pear of sneakers to do this. As long as your footwear doesn’t cause you blisters you can participate in this form of exercise. Now although a gentle stroll in the park is a good start, the idea should be to walk 3 to 5 times a week. You should walk briskly enough and long enough for you to break into a mild sweat. And that is it.

Increase your heart rate

This regular form of exercise increases the heart rate just enough to wake your fat burning hormones. Now bear in mind this is the bare minimum amount of exercise needed to keep your metabolism from being sluggish. Accompanied by a nutritious diet plan this form of exercise will result in fat loss. It is worth keeping in mind that no diet plan can be very effective without exercise. Walking will set you on your way. If you need to see quicker results you can keep walking for about 15 minutes after you break a sweat and so on. In time you will find that it will take longer to get to the level where you break a sweat. Once you have reached this level of exercise you can look into other activities. Most importantly however you need to keep it regular and spread out during the week.

As promised at the start of the month, I have got around to reviewing The Diet Solution Program. This program has got me very excited as it is consistent with all my research into fat burning hormones. The diet is all natural and does not include any supplements. It is not a diet as such in that it’s not about sticking to a certain program for a length of time.

The Diet Solution Program introduces you to a way of life that eliminates dieting. The focus is on making the right everyday choices at the supermarket, at the market or wherever you get your groceries from. By doing this you fill your fridge and pantry with the correct foods, so even when you snack, you make good snack choices.

Isabel De Los Rios has devised this program. She is a nutrition specialist, so none of what she recommends is wacky in any way. It is not about starving or counting calories. She has designed the program to be easily incorporated into everyday life, even if that life is a hectic one. The shopping lists and meal plans are very realistic. Even though she encourages people to go organic, her program can also be followed without going organic. She has not only helped people that have weight problems with her nutritional advice, she also help people with disease that stems from poor diet. 

Her program comes with my highest recommendation. As I was reading through it after years of researching, I couldn’t believe how easily she explains all the concepts of losing weight and being healthy, which go hand in hand.

I recommend you check out my review which includes an link to her official website where you can watch the video.

Fat Burning Hormones looks at The Diet Solution Program.

One of the most powerful fat burning hormones is Testosterone. In the adult it peaks at around the age of 25 and the production of it in the body drops off around 10% every 7 years. People with Zinc deficiencies produce even less testosterone. Now there are plenty of zinc supplements on the market but a healthy person who eats a balanced diet should not need to take any such supplementation to keep levels sufficient for a healthy body. New studies have found that the zinc found in foods is more readily absorbed by the body.

So where do I get this zinc stuff?

Zinc can be found in red meat, oysters and shellfish are the highest sources of zinc, closely followed by eggs, and dairy. And if you are a vegetarian or vegan, not to worry, dried fruits and nuts are a rich source as well as pumpkin seeds, fresh vegetables and potatoes. Chickpeas are also a great source. One of my favourite salads is a chickpea salad with tomato, onions cut into it, a sprinkling of olive oil and oregano. Just soak the chickpeas overnight. Boil the chick peas for 15min, remove the froth that accumulates on top, then rinse with cold water. Yum! Any excess beans can be stored in the fridge in a container and some extra olive oil for up to a week, making them an ideal food for snacking.

Other Benefits

Apart from helping maintain healthy levels of testosterone, zinc also is an important factor in keeping the immune system robust, it helps keep stress levels low. People that have difficulty seeing at night are aided by increased zinc in their diet. Keeping you energy levels high is also another benefit of zinc rich foods.

So get some in ya!

Time to get of the couch and get the blood pumping. Dieting and eating all the right foods needs to be combined with exercise if you want to battle the bulge. This week we take a look at Intensity training.

High Intensity Interval Training helps you burn up to 20 more body fat than tradition cardio workouts. Instead of just jumping on the treadmill or going for a jog, the best way to get those fat burning hormones active and speed up your metabolism is interval training. If you are not sure what it’s all about, a simple search on you tube will reveal plenty of videos on this topic. Here is Jim Stoppani (PhD, Senior Science Editor for Muscle & Fitness Magazine) explaining what its all about. 

Also on YouTube you can check out the “body rock” series if you are stuck for ideas. With skipping rope or star jumps, you don’t even have to leave the home, these are just some of the advantages. So if you have an internet connection there is no excuse. And if you dont train and you want to lose weight, start today.

I have not been this excited about a diet program for a while. Its called The Diet Solution Program and it is Awesome. As I was watching the video on their site, I was thinking “This is everything I have been trying to explain about diets in a nutshell”. All the principles of Fat Burning Hormones come together in this program. It is all natural, it takes the emphasis of dieting and puts the emphasis on eating the right things, and this is exactly what activating the metabolism is all about. 

I will be including this program on our main site soon. Watch Here and see why I am so excited by this program.

Thyroid function, among other things, secretes two types of hormones;  hyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) both are fat burning hormones.  A combination of eating foods rich in iodine and certain types of exercise are sufficient to stimulate the thyroid into producing these fat burning hormones. That said after an extended period of dieting, especially with low-carb diets, both hormone levels decrease and the metabolism can come to a halt.  This is due to the brain’s pituitary gland which releases a third hormone which is aptly named the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH).  THS is released when T4 and T3 levels become high, in other words during extended dieting and then we hit the weight loss plateau.

New diets like Cheat Your Way Thin account for the thyroid activity and introduce cheat meals, like fast food and pizzas. These types of meals break the extended dieting or fasting and reset the clock so to speak. For cheat meals to be effective however, they have to be introduced into the diet in the right way otherwise the brain’s pituitary gland catches on and releases more THS which has the effect of bringing the metabolism to a grinding halt.  It does so for good reason as it needs to regulate other hormonal functions which are essential in the body – normal heart function in particular.

Traditional low carb diets don’t take this research into account and the weight comes back on quickly as soon as carbs are eventually reintroduced into the diet.  So if you need to lose weight over an extended period of time, you are best to follow diets that take these factors into account. 

Fat burning hormones are released in the body during training, but more importantly they can be kept turned on during rest periods. When you train, you should not fall into the trap of training for strength when your goal is fat loss. Yes bigger muscles mean you will burn more fat however, bigger muscles also happen when you are training for fat loss. The idea is to do more reps at less than your maximum strength with proper rest periods in between.

A recent article on Fox News is quite an interesting read. A lot of people spend a lot of their energy on dieting the right way without spending a thought on the proper way to exercise. With just a few tweaks and adjustments to your training routine you could be on your way to the body you dream of.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/08/24/rest-periods-defined/

One of the most frustrating things about weight loss is when you are doing all the right things and you still can’t lose weight. You eat 5 to 6 healthy meals a day, you exercise regularly, your portion sizes are correct, and although you had good progress to begin with, you are facing stubborn fat that just won’t go away.  This is where the defences of the body are keeping you fat and it got to do with toxins.

When toxins ender the body, the liver tries to limit them from moving around in the blood where they can attack all your organs. As a defence, your body stores toxins in fat. Toxins bond with fat cells and are stored away when the liver is overwhelmed with toxin intake. This in turn interferes with the Leptin Hormone which sends the signal to the body to burn fat. Evidence of this is when people loose fat quickly they often get headaches, acne, rashes etc. this is because the toxins are being re-introduced into the body when the fat cells release the toxins as a result of weight loss.

Dr Pompa Explains this process on this video.

So if you are doing all the right things and still can not lose weight, its time to have a look at the role toxins play in the body, how to eliminate toxins from the body and how to reduce toxin intake in your food.