Herculean Weight Loss

Herculean Weight Loss

 

As a young boy I had a strong fascination for Greek mythology…  Ancient history was one of my favorite subjects in school…  Of all the legends or myths, the one I most identified with were the adventures of Hercules…  Those of you who know Greek mythology are aware; Hercules was the son of Zeus and was half man, half god…  I must have watched every one of Hollywood’s reenactments of Hercules staring Steve Reeves more times than I can even remember…

 

This strong interest in Hercules, would place my feet on the journey of developing my strong physical body, but more importantly my knowledge of how the human body responds to nutrition and exercise…  The passion for this knowledge would have me spending countless hours of research and endless hours in the gym, long after every-one else had left…

 

Though the history of what I accomplished with my body is not ancient, the basement full of trophies and titles are a distant memory and the dust they collect make them appear as if they were a part of the Greek ruins…  However the passion for the knowledge and more importantly desire to share the knowledge burns brighter than ever…

 

Throughout my life I have had several wonderful dog companions… I usually gave them Greek names; one was called Thea and of course another called Hercules…  During the trials and tribulations of life I never heard from Zeus and Hercules never showed up in my time of need…  Why, because they never really existed, which is why we call them myths…  However the real creator God would speak to me, and his son Jesus showed up every time I called upon his name…

 

On one occasion my dog Hercules had lost his life through circumstances outside of my control…  I was very sad and as I spoke to God I expressed my sadness saying, “I miss my Hercules”…  God’s response back would change my life…  He said, “Hercules was not your dog”…  I was puzzled, I responded, “Whose dog was he”…  He answered, “ Hercules was mine, I allowed you to have him”…  Now came the life changing part, God asked did you take care of Hercules like he belonged to you or me”?  Well my answer quickly changed my focus…  I now have two dogs and they no longer receive Greek names, they have biblical names Shiloh and Cyrus…  Why? They do not belong to me, but to God and he allows me the privilege to take care of them for him…  I have never loved dogs more or enjoyed their companionship more…

 

So what does my story of Hercules have to do with helping clients lose weight?  To better explain the fire, which burns so brightly inside me and seems as I age to burn even hotter…  The words I shared with you were not audible and Hollywood will never

create them into an epic movie… It’s the voice within my spirit, because that is where I believe the Spirit of God dwells…  If Hercules did not belong to me, then the body I live in does not as well, it belongs to God…  He has allowed me to enjoy decades of wonderful health and I intend to take care of this body as if the king owned it…

 

Now I ask you this question?  Have you been taking care of your weight and health like it belongs to you or God…  Get really quiet and still when you ask, and I believe you will hear something as well…

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Apple A Day Weight Loss

Apple A Day Weight Loss

Growing up my old world Italian mom would say, “ A apple a day keeps the doctor away”…  Your mom maybe was saying it too…  Well my mom was right throughout my life there have been very few doctor visits, and I have eaten what seems like an orchard of apples…  So what did our mom’s know about the health benefits of apples, especially when losing weight?

When meeting new clients, I always emphasize the big picture of healthy lifestyle instead of dieting to lose the un-wanted fat and keep it off…  Apples should be a major player as you focus in your picture of ideal health and weight…

I’ll take you on a journey of the apple’s role in your body on route being leaner and healthier…  First, lets start in the stomach apples, along with other fruits and vegetables are alkaline foods and help balance our PH, or acid, alkaline balance…  Many who are over-weight have dietary habits too high in acid foods coming from animal protein and processed grains…  Over time this leads to acid stomach conditions, like reflux and certain cancers, which thrive in acid environments…

As the partially digested apple moves into the small intestine pectin a soluble fiber in apples becomes a healthy sponge absorbing digestive bile, which will result in the lowering of cholesterol levels and help maintain a healthy gallbladder…  As it moves into the large intestine it assists in forming a healthy stool, preventing conditions like diverticulosis or pockets in the intestines, which can become infected leading to a more serious condition of diverticulitis…

As the nutrients from the apple enter the blood system they provide a beneficial role in the pancreas function…  First the glucose from the apple being low glycemic causes a slow gradual rise in blood sugar, which triggers the beta cells in the pancreas to produce insulin sending glucose to muscle, liver, brain and providing stable cellular energy…  This stable insulin response, prevents fat storage and keeps cell membranes from becoming insulin resistance, which leads to type II diabetes…  Second, apples are packed with antioxidant, photo-nutrients called flavonoids, which keep free radical destruction of cells, leading to cancer…  Pancreatic cancer is still one of the least treatable forms of cancer, so lifestyle, which prevents, is far better than treatments, which repair…

Lastly apples play a role in healthy heart and brain function…  Pectin the soluble fiber in apples improves blood flow by reducing cholesterol which reduces plaque buildup and inflammation in artery walls …   This can greatly reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke… Quercetin a flavonoid found in apples prevent free radicals from damaging the outer lining of brain cells, which leads to cognitive decline as in Alzheimer’s disease…

Will eating an apple a day by itself solve your overweight-condition? Are apples the sole solution in maintaining good health?  It would be foolish to think it would…  However as part of a healthy lifestyle incorporating frequency of meals, portioned amounts and quality of foods, nothing is more foundational than an apple to manage blood sugar and hormonal responses leading to a leaner healthier body…  So my mom was right, an apple a day has kept the doctor and added weight away…  

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Man Or A Mouse Weight Loss

Man Or A Mouse Weight Loss

 

Its Saturday morning early March in the year 1975, and Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech University are preparing to do battle on the baseball diamond…  As a nineteen-year old freshman pitcher for Old Dominion, I expected to spend the day trying to stay warm in the dugout, when all of a sudden it started to very lightly snow…  Being from Massachusetts, I was the only player on the team north of the Mason Dixon line…  Then I heard coach Methaney a former Yankee call out my name, Remington go warm up your our starting pitcher today…  Who me coach, I replied, then he took me aside where no one else could hear and said, ‘are you a man or a mouse”?  The coached figured in this cold weather, I was the right man for the job…  Well the coach was right, that day in March thirty seven years ago my name went into the record books, because I threw a no-hitter against the guys from Tech…  It would be the only no-hitter I would pitch in my college career…  I still remember today those words, are you a man or a mouse…

 

Later that summer of the same year, I would work at Mason Research Center in Worcester MA, where they conducted mainly cancer research and other scientific studies on mice, rabbits and monkeys….  So for over thirty years I have witnessed and followed the scientific breakthroughs discovered in clinical trials working especially with mice…  I both applaud and support their findings in many ground breaking advances in science…

 

 In a recent counseling session I was asked this question…  Coach when you measure my body fat, can you determine how much of it is white fat or brown fat?  I was surprised because it had never been asked before, even after thousands of counseling visits… I replied, “why do you ask”?  The over-weight client said he just finished reading a study about a clinical finding turning white fat into brown fat in mice…  Now you now where I’m going, out of my mouth comes, “ are you a man or a mouse”…

 

So what’s the skinny on white fat and brown fat?  Humans and mice have both white and brown fat…  In the simplest of terms, white fat stores unused energy and has little metabolic activity…  Brown fat is metabolically active and releases energy to keep us warm…  If you are over-weight you have too much white fat and located primarily in middle third of your body…  Brown fat is located in upper back, neck and very little brown fat is found in adults, hence the theory of turning white fat, which is energy storing into brown fat energy burning…

 

White fat can be "browned" with a class of drugs called thiazolidazines (TZDs), which increase the body's sensitivity to insulin. However, TZDs have many adverse effects -- including liver toxicity, bone loss, and, ironically, weight gain -- which have limited the use of these drugs…  I can see the commercials now ten seconds of benefits and twenty seconds of side effects

 

 

The theory behind this discovery is irisin; a hormone found in both mice and human has been able to be manipulated to turn white fat into brown fat in mice…  Now here’s the theory, if the hormone is also in humans, maybe it can alter white fat into brown fat…

 

Now here’s the reason for my comment, “are you a man or mouse”…  The way this type of news is reported is not helping in the battle of the bulge…  So what do we do brake out the ice breakers and head to the north-pole and shiver our way to a leaner body…  This discovery though news worthy is not what some scientists call the “holy grail” to solving our battle losing unwanted fat…

 

So what does work, and has worked for decades at losing fat and more importantly keeping it off…  Here is The Fat Loss Coach prescription for getting to your ideal weight and staying there…  It’s a discovery I made, not working with mice, but with thousands of men and women…  I did not discover it in the lab, but on the front lines of the battle- field helping fifteen patients each day for twenty plus years…  The foundation of this breakthrough is a lifestyle forged with the right balance of quality foods, portioned amounts, frequency of meals, duration and type of exercise, good hydration and proper rest, combined with the right dose of behavior modification…  This discovery manages both hormonal and metabolic activity and has stood the test of time…  The commercial for this discovery thirty seconds of benefits and zero for side effects, because there are none…  I can see that old Yankee smiling down on me today and hear those words, “are you a man or a mouse”…

http://www.thefatlosscoach.com