Natural Weight Loss Coach

Today, May 23 2009, I finally got to watch Star Trek with my wife and teenage son.

I don’t know if you’re a Trekkie,  but let me explain the big draw of this movie franchise: the variety and richness of the Star Trek characters.

(Sidenote: My personal favorite is Capt. Picard, and my personal favorite episode is Tapestry.)

The movie starts with the extremely unusual circumstances surrounding the birth of James T. Kirk, the cowboy captain that started it all.

Then it is followed by the strict discplinary, but somewhat controversial upbringing of Spock, in his homeworld of Vulcan.

One by one, we are introduced to the rest of the legendary crew of the USS Enterprise: Lt. Uhura, Doc James McCoy, Lt Sulu, Ensign Chekov, and of course, our Engineer Scotty.

In my opinion however, the movie is slightly more about Spock than Kirk. These two main characters vividly illustrate the differences between the logical Vulcan, and the emotional Human.

The confrontation between Spock’s logic and Kirk’s passionate drive to win was how these two legends were introduced to each other.

In the end, emotions, both good and bad, were the “heroes” that delivered the results. Logic developed the plans on how to achieve the results.

Simply said, emotions drive our behavior more than anything else. Emotions fuel our passion and conviction and determination to get things done.

Emotions, not logic, drive us to do whatever it takes to make things happen. Logical reasoning only develops a roadmap.

So what has this got to do with weight loss?

Herein lies the problem of the weight loss industry in general - we focus too much on:

• the logical equation of calories, and
• the logical approach of restrictive diets, and
• the logical fat burning of exercise.

In reality, we will only change our behavior once we have a deeply rooted emotional reason to become and stay healthy. It could be:

• fear of premature death.
• embarassment from how we look in our bathing suit.
• concern to be a good example for our children.
• our desire to be loved by our spouse.
• anger at those who silently ridicule us for the way we look.

Every person is different. Every single one of us was raised in a unique environment that shaped our emotional character. (That’s why I like the Tapestry episode.)

Regardless of what these factors were in our lives, it is entirely up to us, to identify a deep emotional conviction to finally get us to our desirable and attractive body shape.

In Star Trek, Capt Kirk was driven like a wild man by the inspiration of his father’s heroism.

Spock was intensely conflicted between his logical sensibilities and the traumatic loss of his human mother’s tender love.

Both of them saved the day, pushed by their respective emotions. But it was their logic that carved the path to their success.

Logical and emotional. Combined together, I label it: mental fitness.

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. ~ Bill Cosby

What’s it gonna be for you?

Live long and prosper,

Capt Harry

       

262,085 miles since Dec 31st, 1989.

Pictured here is one of the best material investments I’ve ever made since migrating to the US.

I bought this car brand new on New Year’s eve and she’ll probably run until 350,000+ miles, without any major work.

But what has this car got to do with health?!?!?

I’m getting there in a minute, so please bear with me.

I don’t get 35 miles per gallon mileage anymore, but she’s still at a respectable 26-30 mpg. Still pretty green, relatively.

Here are the top 3 biggest expenses I’ve incurred to date:

• clutch replacement - $897.73 May 2008
• strut replacement - $690.47 Apr 2002
• distributor replacement - $527.77 Jun 2006 (this was my fault because I made some simple, but stupid modifications)

Notice that the major components: the engine, the transmission, the frame, the body are all original and intact. Heck, even the paint is original.

Normal maintenance:

• timing belt - $550.06 May 2006 (3 yrs premature - long story)
• timing belt - $353.56 Mar 2003
• timing belt - $365.40 Jun 1997
• oil change - guestimated at $1,050 over the 19-yr period (as prescribed, every 7500 miles)

All throughout its life of 19+ years, only once did this car ever stop on the road, and I had to call a tow truck to help me out. (That was a result of my stupid modifications!)

One more thing: this car is NOT pampered. It doesn’t sit idle in the garage with a warm blanket, but it does stay inside the garage every night.

So again, what has this got to do with health?

Here’s my point. If you take care of your car, the car will take care of you.

Take Care of Your Body and
It Will Take Care of You

Take care of your body TODAY and everyday thereafter, and it will take care of you for a long and healthy life.

In reality, your entire body is in constant repair and maintenance. Almost every living cell dies and gets replaced by a new cell - CONSTANTLY.

As you age, however, the cell duplication process becomes less and less efficient. It slowly deteriorates over time - normally. But it could accelerate depending on your lifetyle.

It’s just like making a photocopy of a picture. A copy of the original is fine. But a copy of the copy is not quite as good. What if you make 50 subsequent copies of the picture? What do you think will the last picture look like?

Get the picture? (No pun intended.)

When a living cell duplicates itself, do you think it needs raw materials or ingredients to do that?

You betcha. Specifically, your living cells need MICRO nutrients (minerals, enzymes, vitamins, biotics, etc.), which in turn, come from MACRO nutrients (carbs, proteins and fats) that you eat.

This is the reason why I don’t believe in counting calories. Quality food will keep your metabolism going, while bad calories will CHOKE your metabolism.

So if you feed your cells on empty calories, the cells do not reproduce properly. If your organ cells fail, then eventually the organ itself fails.

Let’s take the pancreas. When its cells start to age prematurely, then it will slow down in producing insulin. And of course, lack of insulin (which is different from insulin resistance), can potentially lead to weight gain.

I’m not a body builder, and I don’t really have any aspirations to be one. I’m just a regular guy who’s discovered REALIZED some common sense approach to maintaining a lean (not mean) body.

As I grow old into my sunset years, I’d like to be strong, healthy and ACTIVE up to at least 100 years.

Please, no chronic disease that would cripple me for 10, 20 or even 30+ years. No organ transplants or heart bypass operations either.

I don’t wanna be moving around with a cane, let alone in a wheelchair or cart, with an oxygen tank strapped behind me. It’s not the way to enjoy the time with my grandkids.

Preferably,  I’d just stop breathing in my sleep one day. (After I’ve had my last words with my family & close friends.)

Here’s one of my simple rules - don’t mess around with the manufacturer (unlike the “simple” modification I did with my car).

When it comes to my health, NATURE is the manufacturer. I try my darn hardest not to mess with it.

As much as I practically can, I let natural foods maintain my health - avoiding, as much as possible, man-made medication including processed foods and pre-packaged “weight loss” meals.

Are you investing on wellness and prevention, instead of spending for repair and intervention?

       

This a followup post to 2 previous discussions I’ve had regarding counting calories as a MISLEADING technique for weight loss.

If you haven’t read those, I suggest that’s where you start –> Danger of counting calories.

For many, many, many years I thought that I was eating healthy since I would have oatmeal for breakfast every day. I love oatmeal.

However, there were days when I would eat something else - like eggs, or bacon or perhaps some boxed cereals.

There was one thing that I noticed. On those days I had oatmeal, my stomach would grumble in 2 hours or less. Otherwise, I would last for 3-4 hours easily.

That was strange and intriguing to me.

So after several years, dozens of books, hundreds of hours of reading, dozens of doctor consultations, and innumerous blood testing, I learned the difference between fast-burning vs. slow-burning carbs.

Fact Or Fiction?
Food Companies Protect Our Health

Last week, while I was cleaning our pantry, I found some leftover famous brand oatmeal (classic variety.) It was labeled as:

• “100% whole grain”,
• “100% natural”,
• “helps manage blood pressure”,
• “helps lowers cholesterol”
• “helps promote healthy arteries”
• 150 calories per 1/2 cup serving

I now know that this was no good. I have long switched to steel cut oats, which has made a HUGE difference in managing my weight.

Instead of throwing it away, I decided to do a measureable experiment.

You see, instead of calories (a guesstimate at best), I measure blood sugar levels - something more accurate with today’s technology.

Why? Read on.

Myth: Fat Makes You Fat

Fat DOES NOT make you fat. There are other health problems associated with fat intake, but it is NOT the primary reason why we are embarassed with wearing our summer swimsuit.

Excessive blood sugar gets converted into BODY FAT. Yes, the kind that would bulge your belly, and prevent you from wearing your sexy jeans.

Excessive blood sugar also leads to other diseases, like diabetes - which is what prompted me to learn about all these things to begin with.

Anyway, my experiment involves my breakfast as follows:

• 1/4 cup of quinoa
• 1/4 cup of  the “famous brand oatmeal”
• cooked on a stove top, not microwaved
• sweetened with kefir and 10 whole dried blueberries

I took my blood sugar reading before breakfast = 94 mg/dl. Normal.

Then I took my blood sugar reading after 2 hours = 151 mg/dl. Normal. The threshold for diabetics is 160 mg/dl according to WHO guidelines.

Note: Imagine if I prepared a 1/2 cup oatmeal, no quinoa, using the microwaved instant variety and sweetened with sugar. I’m sure it would take me over the threshhold.  That’s what I was doing before I knew any better! As I look back, this was probably a significant contributing factor to my pre-diabetic condition today.

The following day, I prepared exactly the same breakfast, with the exception of the oatmal.

I substituted the “famous brand” with steel cut oats (non-branded from the bulk food section of the grocery).  Everything else was the same.

By coincidence, my blood sugar was also 94 mg/dl before breakfast.

After 2 hours, here’s the magic number = 121 mg/dl.

Wow! Famous brand oats is 151,  while organic non-branded is 121.

30 mg/dl is a SIGNIFICANT difference between the 2 varieties of oatmeal.

Fact: Not All Calories Are Equal

75 calories of the “famous brand oatmeal” DOES NOT equal the 75 calories of quality organic oats.

As my personal experiment indicated, the branded variety had a higher glycemic index than the other. High index means “fast burning”, while low glycemic index means “slow burning”.

The lower the index, the better for weight management.

My other conclusion is this: I tend to avoid processed foods from BIG name corporate giants, and instead I go for organic varieties, whenever I can.

Processing strips the food of micronutrients. Chemical preservatives are added to increase grocery shelf life.

In other words, good calories have been deleted, and replaced by toxic calories. (This is a good subject for another post in the future.)

As you can tell, this is by no means a “scientific” experiment; but this is science GOOD ENOUGH for me!

While the threshhold guidelines are 110mg/dl for fasting and 160 mg/dl after eating, I believe that every person has their own individual threshhold.

So is 151 good for me? I don’t know. Maybe my personal threshhold is 150? or 135?

The point is, anything in excess of that threshold will get converted to fat for some people. In my case, it equates to a higher level of triglycerides.

Even though I’m not overweight, these excessive triglycerides could be contributing to my high blood pressure challenges (again, that’s another story for a whole series of posts).

Do Yourself A Favor: Prove It To SELF

If you are still frustrated and struggling with your weight, I encourage you to invest in a glucometer. You can probably get one between $10-$50 at Walmart.

Here’s a tip: if you’re going to shop by price, compare the costs of the testing strips, not the meter itself. I fell into the trap of a zero cost meter that required expensive strips.

Ask your doctor how to use it. (Although the instruction manual is easier than your VCR or TIVO.)

DO NOT necessarily rely on the “normal” results from your last blood test. You need to understand the cause and effect of your daily eating habits. Like I said, your threshold could be different from the accepted norm.

Years ago, I assumed that the “famous brand”, inexpensive oatmeal was good for me. Today I pay the price - with my health, as well as my wallet.

       

An inflammatory factor already linked to several diseases, including pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and arthritis, may also be responsible for the insulin resistance that comes with obesity, according to a new study.

Researchers have found that the inflammatory chemokine known as CXCL5 rises and falls along with obesity and weight loss in humans. They also found evidence tying the inflammatory factor, which is secreted at high levels by fat tissue, to insulin resistance in mice.

Treatments designed to block CXCL5 were found to improve the animals' sensitivity to insulin.

CXCR5 affect a variety of cells including muscle cells, cells that line blood vessel walls and cells in the lung and intestine. This means that increased CXCL5 circulating levels, as observed in obesity, could also lead to other problems such as atherosclerosis and other inflammatory diseases.

Three new studies show that most adults have unexpectedly large deposits of a calorie-burning type of fat. Biologists once thought brown fat disappeared after infancy, but its persistence suggests a potential new strategy to fight obesity.

In addition to eating less and exercising more, people may one day be able to stimulate their bodies to get rid of stored energy purely as heat.

At the moment, the only safe way to activate brown fat is to stay chilly, right at the verge of shivering, for prolonged periods. This causes your body to burn the fat for warmth. However, researchers hope to eventually find a less uncomfortable way exploit this ancient adaptation.

(NaturalNews) The television commercials for the anti-osteoporosis drug Boniva feature remarkably youthful, happy and healthy looking actress Sally Field extolling the wonderful ease of popping a pill once a day to prevent and even reverse bone loss. But for countless women taking this or other drugs in the class of medications known as bisphosphonates, their experiences could turn out to be anything but better health.

Already the drugs have been linked to a host of side effects including debilitating muscle pain and a serious bone problem, osteonecrosis of the jaw, which literally causes the jaw bone to die. Now comes a study from Wake Forest University School of Medicine scientists that evaluated a possible association between bisphosphonates and the development of irregular, sometimes fatal, heart arrhythmias.

The study, just published in the journal Drug Safety, does not say the drugs cause heart arrhythmias -- but it also strongly suggests there needs to be more and urgent studies on this issue. And a close reading of what the researchers do say won't put anyone's mind at ease over the safety of drugs like Boniva, Fosomax, Reclast and Actonel.

"Some trials show there could be a potential link between the use of bisphosphonates and the development of serious heart rhythm problems, but in our study the link wasn't conclusive," Sonal Singh, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor of internal medicine and lead investigator for the study, said in a statement to the media. "So we urge that additional investigations be conducted."

Previous studies initially sounded the alarm that using bisphosphonates might cause heart rhythm, especially upping the chance of developing atrial fibrillation. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), atrial fibrillation results when the heart's two small upper chambers (the atria) quiver instead of beating effectively. Because blood isn't totally pumped out of them, it may pool and cause blood clot, resulting in a stroke. The AHA says about 15 percent of strokes occur in people with atrial fibrillation.

For the recent study, the Wake Forest researchers analyzed data from previous observational studies and clinical trials to see if they could characterize a link between bisphosphonate therapy and irregular heart rhythms. They found that bisphosphonate use was associated with a significant increase in the incidence of heart rhythm disturbances, classified as "serious" because they resulted in hospitalization, disability or death.

However, when they added "non-serious" cases of heart arrhythmias in their analysis, that watered down the results and produced no overall increased risk of atrial fibrillation.

Confused? You aren't the only one. Dr. Singh stated in the media statement: "Our findings were discordant, with conflicting results. The challenge now is to figure out what it all means."

Adding to the confusion is this statement by Dr. Singh: "We found no risk of stroke and cardiovascular mortality in the trials. That was very reassuring." Meanwhile, in the same media release, his colleague and co-searcher Vinodh Jeevanantham, M.D., an instructor of internal medicine and co-researcher on the School of Medicine study, said: "The amount of data on the outcome of bisphosphonate use is insufficient to make a definitive conclusion."

Bottom line: in no way does the new study rule out serious heart rhythm problems resulting from taking widely prescribed bisphosphonates.

And there's more news about a different kind of health problem potentially linked to the drugs, too. Two worrisome case studies were recently reported in Ophthalmologica: International Journal of Ophthalmology indicating bilateral uveitis developed after women took bisphosphonate drugs. Uveitis is comprised of a group of diseases characterized by intraocular inflammation that can lead to permanent blindness. The women recovered after going off the drugs.

For more information:
http://www1.wfubmc.edu/News/NewsARticle.htm?ArticleID=2593 http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/bisphosphonates/default.htm http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18685574 http://www.iusg.net/page7/What_is_Uveitis.html http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4451

About the author Sherry Baker is a widely published writer whose work has appeared in Newsweek, Health, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Yoga Journal, Optometry, Atlanta, Arthritis Today, Natural Healing Newsletter, OMNI, UCLA's "Healthy Years" newsletter, Mount Sinai School of Medicine's "Focus on Health Aging" newsletter, the Cleveland Clinic's "Men's Health Advisor" newsletter and many others.

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