Permanent Weight Loss

One of your enemies in the war against body fat is a chemical known as cortisol. It’s also known as the stress hormone. Don’t get me wrong; cortisol is an essential and beneficial chemical that our body uses to react to stressful situations, (which is consequently how it became known as the stress hormone). It’s also used by our bodies to return to a relaxed state after the stressful situation has ended. The problems with cortisol occur when somebody is exposed to frequent stress. Frequent stress can cause heightened and prolonged levels of cortisol in the blood stream. There are many negative side effects with heightened and prolonged exposure to cortisol, including increased levels of belly fat. Yes cortisol leads to increased levels of abdominal fat, which also lead to another array of health problems.

The best way to blunt cortisol release is to manage your stress! Obviously. And of course one of the best ways to manage stress is exercise. However, there is another issue to tackle here. The issue is the fact that when you perform resistance training exercises (which you should) it can lead to increased levels of physiological stress. The good news is that this is easy to deal with. Since you are already exercising (you are aren’t you?) then you are already busting most of your stress.

The question is this: After a good resistance workout, how do can you blunt cortisol release from the physical stress of resistance exercise? Simple, give your body what it needs right after your workout. After a good session of resistance exercise, your bodies’ glycogen stores will have been mostly, if not completely depleted. You body sees this as a problem (stress) and will release cortisol to get you hungry so you will eat and replenish your muscle glycogen. So what does your body need to blunt that cortisol release? Make sure you eat a fast digesting carb so that your muscle glycogen will begin to replenish before your brain has the chance to release cortisol into your blood. The fast acting carb will quickly break down and promptly increase your blood sugar levels. This will tell your brain that you are already in the process or fueling your body so it will turn off the instinct to release cortisol.

One of the best ways to do this is to have a whey protein shake right after an intense resistance working out. To that protein shake add about 50-100 grams of a fast acting carbohydrate such as granulated table sugar, or honey. Fast digesting carbs like this create a sugar spike that will tell your brain the emergency is over and to save its stress hormone store for a more stressful time later on.

NOTE: If you have diabetes, definitely check with your endocrinologist before considering this tip.

Ideally the majority of your carbohydrate consumption should consist of slower digesting carbs that are low on the glycemic index. However, as said before, eating a very small portion of a fast acting carb after resistance training can actually be beneficial in helping your body blunt cortisol release.

Thanks for reading,

Kim Nielsen

Today I had a very good workout. I was a bit sore from yesterday’s workout, so I performed some cardiovascular exercise.

I want to make a point before we continue; This workout should only be attempted by those who have been working out consistently for at least 1 year.

I spent the entire time on the treadmill. I started with a 10-minute warm-up, walking at 2.5 mph for 1 min. Then 3.0 for 30 seconds, 4.0 for 30 seconds, 5.0 for 3 minutes, then finally 6.0 mph for 5 more minutes to complete the warm-up. Then I ran for 20 minutes performing intervals of 4-8 mph. After that I ran for a 5-minute recovery period starting at 3 and slowly ramping back up to 6 mph until the 35-minute mark. At that point I want back to intervals but much more extreme with a range of 3-9 mph. This was very challenging. Then after 7 minutes of that interval set I slowed to a cool down for 3 more minutes to finish out at the 45-minute mark. I was completely soaked in sweat, but I am sure I burned at least 550 calories, maybe more!

Again, this type of cardiovascular exercise is for those whom workout at an advanced level and do so consistently. Yesterday I promised that I would deliver a beginners workout plan, so here it is:

If you are a beginner, you can burn fat by performing cardio for about 15 minutes if you include about 25-30 minutes of resistance training. If your aim is to burn fat, then make sure you perform the cardio first. If you have a gym membership then try this:

Perform 15 minutes of cardio on a machine of your choice: Bike, Elliptical, Treadmill, and Stairs, whatever you want. For the first 5 minutes choose a low setting and go slow. If you seem to be going faster than the machine can handle, its not the machine its you, slow down. After 5 minutes increase the difficulty by 1 and keep the same speed. After 1 minute if you feel like you can increase your rate, try just don’t go faster than the machine. Keep this up until the time is up, then you are good. Now move on to the resistance training. Beginners should start with the basics and do a 2 day split.

A 2-day split is simply upper body 1 day, lower body the next, then just cardio on the 3rd day, and then start over. After 5 or 6 days in a row feel free to take a day off, just watch those calories. For your upper body routine stay simple, something like 2 sets of lat pulls, 2 sets of chest presses, 2 sets of rows, 3 sets of bicep curls, and 2 sets if triceps presses.

Lower body could be something like 2 sets of leg presses, 2 sets of leg extensions, 2 sets of leg curls and 3 sets of any abdominal exercise that your comfortable with.

This is the exercise regimen I used in the beginning and it worked very well. I lost a bunch of weight just in the first month. I can’t remember exactly how much, I just remember how happy I was to have a success like that.

Now if you don’t have a gym membership then you are still in luck. You still need to get some cardio exercise such as running, jogging, bike riding, and so on. Perform about 15 minutes just like before. For upper body Try 3 sets of pushups, 3 sets of arm circles, and 3 sets of chair dips, and 2 sets of sit-ups or crunches. For your lower body try 3 sets of lunges, 2 sets of squats (body weight only), and 3 sets of leg kickbacks. If you need more detail on how to perform these exercises I will be posting more information soon. Well sorry all but I have to run now, thanks for reading,

Kim Nielsen

It’s possible that some drinks actually have no calories, but this is unlikely. The FDA Food Labeling Guide for the food industry allows manufacturers to list a food as no or zero calorie as long as the food has no dietary significance. This simply means that any drink with a calorie value less than 5 can be labeled as zero-calorie or no-calorie. One such example is Coke Zero. I honestly have no idea how many calories are really in Coke Zero. Maybe there are really no calories! But the point is that they can call it that, and claim no calories as long as there are less than 5 calories per serving.

If you would like to learn more about the FDA Food Labeling guide, you can read the latest release at:

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/2lg-toc.html

So how many calories in a zero calorie drink? Your guess is as good as mine, but at least we know its less than 5 calories per drink! If you keep track of your calories, just log it as 5 calories to be sure. The good news is that you can essentially have a serving and not worry to much about your body storing excess calories as fat as there are no significant calories to worry about. However, you should note that this is not a free pass to drink as many diet drinks, as you want to. Many if not most of these drinks are sweetened with aspartame, which is believed to cause long-term health problems. If you are drinking soda, most of them have caffeine, which can also cause problems if consumed in excess.

The bottom line is that many if not all zero calorie drinks have some calorie content, just not significant enough to worry about for only 1 serving. If you drink diet drinks, especially soda, make sure you consume them at a moderate frequency or lower. The majority of your liquid intake needs to be from drinking water. So drink lots of water every day, and consume sweet diet drinks as sparingly as possible.

Hello all,

Today I just want to talk about a tasty nutrition meal I made using roasted red bell pepper. First I roasted a red bell pepper on my grill until it was completely blackened. (To do this just put the pepper right on the grill grate over direct heat until the side facing the heat is black, then turn and repeat until the entire pepper is blackened).

Next I sealed it into one of those plastic lunchmeat containers. After a couple of minutes I was able to easily peel the charred skin from the pepper. Then I sliced it in two, and scraped out all of the seeds and pulp. After a rough chop, I placed half of the mixture on a whole-wheat tortilla with about 2.5 oz of grilled chicken. Then placed about 60 calories worth of shredded cheddar on top. After about 1 Tablespoon of salsa, I then placed another whole-wheat tortilla on top. I then cooked it in a quesadilla maker that I got for Christmas from my sister in law. I have to tell you, it was VERY good! I split a quesadilla with my wife, and she loved it! I calculate this recipe to be about 55 calories a wedge with the quesadilla split into 6 wedges. I know this isn’t the healthiest thing to eat, but it’s still fairly low in calories and very tasty. Besides, I also ate plenty of fruits and veggies today! I also kept my calories in check, which happens to be the most important thing when trying to lose weight from body fat.

Well that’s it for now. Thanks for reading and talk to you later,

Kim Nielsen