Many people ask if I know of a good way to detox your body and lose some quick weight to jump start a healthy diet. Well, I gave you a few ways in my previous blogs, but here's one I just discovered using some other materials.
I bought some Odwalla Superfood (which is good itself) and Naked Blue Machine and Mango purees. I usually take a few drinks of these by themselves, but I had an idea. I also bought a large bag of spinach at Costco and decided to mix the three.
Use this for your breakfast and snacks (yeah, I know it's not a snack, but trust me it works). Use the following ingredients:
1. 3 cups spinach
2. 1/2 bottle Odwalla Superfood
3. Any amount of Naked juice (use multiple juices for more flavor)
4. Any other fruit you would like (I recommend bananas and pineapple to add more flavor)
5. Optional: Add a low sugar protein powder to thicken up the shake. I use the P90X recovery drink to add a bit of taste.
Blend the ingredients together and you should get about 6 cups of puree that you can drink throughout the day. For a major detox drink only this for a week (make it a few times a day so your body feels it's getting enough healthy calories each day). After a week ease back into food and only drink this once a day.
In addition to drinking lots of fluids and only eating healthy options, I used this once a day for a week and lost 15 pounds and 5% body fat. This is much faster weight loss and body fat loss than healthy eating and exercise alone.
Beware this is only a short detox and you should not use this as a pure diet all the time.
One question I've received is, "So I cut out sugar and started eating more grains, but I'm not feeling any better, why is that?" When I ask what type of grains are being eaten I discover it's white flour products.
Let's get something straight, white flour is not a grain whatsoever. White flour is a simple carbohydrate, meaning your body can break it down quickly for energy. Some might think, "Wow, quick digestion and quick energy, what's wrong with that." Well, with quick breakdown comes quick usage of the energy, meaning it doesn't last long. The other problem with white flour is it is stored as fat much faster than other types of actual grains.
White flour isn't only in white bread, it's in almost any type of processed food you can buy at the grocery store. Look at the labels of the food you eat; if the food label has anything with "bleached" and "flour" together, it's the same thing. Condensed soups, pastas, meal mixes, etc. all contain this ingredient. Ditch the white flour for real grains and watch out for the processed foods.
Have you seen those commercials sponsored by the corn companies that try and convince you that high fructose corn syrup is nothing worse than sugar? Well, if you haven't check out one right now. At the end of the video is a little rant by the guy who owns the video on youtube and makes a good point.
First I have to say this, we eat too much sugar as a nation period! Whether it's corn sugar or regular table sugar everyone is used to, we consume too much sugar and need to cut down on all different types. However, watch the commercial again and think this the whole time, "It's healthy to eat corn sugar because it's just like regular sugar." Although you might be able to say, "That's retarded, no sugar is healthy." it is pretty simple for many Americans to justify to themselves they are ok to eat corn sugar and other processed foods because these sugars aren't anymore unhealthy than the sugar we've been consuming for years.
According to many sources you can find online, high fructose corn syrup (also called corn sugar now by the corn industry) doesn't do anything different than cane sugar. But what are they saying exactly? From all the sources I've read there are two things consistent between refined white sugar and corn sugar:
1 - Same amount of calories
2 - Both sugars cause the same reaction in the blood stream, meaning you will produce the same amount of insulin no matter what type you eat
Well a study at Princeton University says different when it comes to over-all health of corn sugar VS regular sugar. According to a research study in March of 2010, corn sugar is a high factor of obesity in our nation today. There were two main control groups of rats in one study. One group was fed regular rat chow (whatever that is) and water sweetened with corn sugar. The other group was fed regular rat chow and water sweetened with regular table sugar (I'm assuming that's refined white sugar that you used to pour on your cereal every morning). The control group being fed the corn sugar gained a significant amount of weight compared to the other group.
In another study with animals, all animals that were fed corn sugar gained more weight and had obesity related diseases that many people are dealing with today. For more information you can see this study at http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/and see for yourself.
Now that doesn't mean go eat all other sugars instead of corn sugar and you'll be fine. Cut back on the sugar! According to researcher Nancy Appleton, PhD there are approximately 146 reasons to avoid all sugars. Some reasons are (this is a copy and paste from http://www.naturalnews.com/022692.html and is not my own material):
* Sugar feeds cancer
* Sugar increases cholesterol
* Sugar can weaken eyesight
* Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children
* Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein
* Sugar causes food allergies
* Sugar contributes to diabetes
* Sugar can contribute to eczema in children
* Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease
* Sugar can impair the structure of DNA
* Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children
* Sugar contributes to the reduction in defense against bacterial infection (infectious diseases)
* Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)
* Sugar contributes to osteoporosis
According to this same website (again it's http://www.naturalnews.com/022692.html and not my own information) Stevia is the best alternative to sugar when it comes to health. Don't overload of course, but look at the facts. When finding a sugar alternative be careful.
In my opinion avoid as much sugar as possible, mainly soda pop and processed foods. However, today it's very hard to avoid these foods and prepare a healthy meal everyday. Use your best judgement and try to stay healthy and avoid the sweets as much as possible.
Diet professionals constantly tell me to "Eat less calories than you expel in energy and you'll lose weight! It's really that easy." Well great but what kind of foods am I supposed to eat? "Anything low in calories." was always the answer. However the calorie count on packages is an estimated count, and technology that I use to track my calorie usage during excercise are also estimated. What about all the other ingredients in food (salt, potassium, fat, cholesterol, vitamins, minerals, etc.). How do those not help in losing weight?
Counting calories can be an effective start to losing weight, but it's not going to get you farther than most other diets that are easy to follow. Take into consideration that other things, such as salt, can cause a fluctuation in weight daily (fun fact: weight can actually fluctuate anywhere from 3 to 12 pounds per day on average...so if you weigh yourself at 190 lbs you could be as high as 202 or as low as 178!). When you consume excess amounts of salt your body retains more water than normal, adding water weight to your daily scale checks.
How about vitamins and minerals? Well, you could eat whatever you wanted that was low in calories and lose some weight, but will you be healthy? According to http://www.livestrong.com you can develop the following problems due to a low amount of daily vitamins:
- Low Immunity
- Brittle Bones
- Bad Oral Health
- Joint Pain
The last thing I want to consider is the amount of fat in food. Calories and fat are not the same thing and your body does not absorb/digest/store fat and calories the same. This is why food labels have the tiny little section saying "Fat from Calories" to show the difference. Something low in calories can be high in fat. Fat is the hardest energy source to break down by the body, so the body stores it for future use and uses other components that can be broken down easily (carbohydrates as an example).
Don't believe the hype that you're healthy just by focusing on calories; focus on a multitude of factors such as fat, cholesterol, simple and complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, etc. All in all, eat a healthy diet consisting of a variety of foods without the refined sugars and processed procedures and exercise consistently. Losing weight and feeling great has an easy answer but a difficult process to constantly follow on a day to day basis.
Just watch this video, I love this guy and what he does. This has been around for a long time so you've probably seen it, but it's amazing what you can do with a little creativity to show how supplement/exercise commercials can trick you into thinking results are fabulous!
If you haven't seen the full bar commercial, check it out above. This commercial actually isn't too bad and makes you believe it could replace surgery some day
Here's my problem with Full Bar. You drink a large glass of water, eat the bar that looks like an oversized Rice Krispy Treat (I love those treats, so I'd be happy to make that my diet), then wait a little while before eating your meal. The full bar will fill up your stomach so you feel full after eating less food. No offense to the creator of Full Bar, but if you drink a large glass of water and eat a large rice krispie like substance before any meal you'll obviously feel more full before a meal! You don't have to necessarily by the full bar.
This contradicts what many diet experts claim about eating a certain number of calories a day to keep your metabolism up without your body storing excess fat due to the theory of starvation (explanation: starvation mode happens when your body doesn't consume enough calories/fat/food overall a day, meaning your body stores fat thinking it's not getting enough food each day or you're under high stress). You still have to consume enough nutrients and minerals each day to stay healthy.
Here's an experiment for you that I've already posted earlier: drink a large glass of water before a meal, wait 20 minutes then eat. Halfway through your meal drink another glass of water and finish eating. You'll feel more full plus increase your water intake which will help you in losing weight anyway.
Positives: Full Bar could be used as a diet starter plan to mentally trick yourself into thinking you have to eat less by visually seeing less food on your plate after consuming the Full Bar. Afterwards you could cut the Full Bar and eat the same amount of food. If your body feels full you've successfully tricked your brain into eating less and feeling more full without the Full Bar. Otherwise, no other positives.
Negatives: Expensive, uses common sense to lose weight, doesn't necessarily provide you with the nutrition you might be missing with eating less food. Remember, it's not necessarily eating less it's eating more healthy food and eating less junk/crap food. Eating a large amount of vegetables won't kill you, and the full bar doesn't have the nutritional value of vegetables.
In my opinion the Full Bar is just a guy saying you should eat his food to expand in your stomach and eat less. It makes sense, but doesn't do much for you. The diet has you incorporate healthy food and extra water which will help you lose weight without the Full Bar.
There are multiple supplements out there claiming to block fat so you can eat all you want and lose weight while doing it. Lifestyle changes are not necessary with these miracle pills so they are tempting to the public because people want to lose weight with minimal effort. These don't work!
Alli is different however. Alli claims their product blocks fat as usual, but it's not an easy process. You must still improve your diet with a diet plan provided, increase your water intake, improve your exercise and the weight will come off but not rapidly. Alli claims you'll lose 1.5 pounds for every 1 pound you'd lose for regular exercise.
Positives: Alli does help you lose weight and there are not side effects that have been discovered. Many people have seen success through Alli at a safe pace.
Negatives: Alli is expensive and does cause excess bowel movements consisting of "blubber" as described by some. This is the excess fat being blocked and discarded by Alli.
So if you read my post on Bowflex Select-Tech Dumbbells you'll know I hated them. I purchased a pair of Powerblock Dumbbells a while back and see the opposite, I love them! Very durable, very strong, a great weight up to what I need (70 lbs) for a home workout using P90X or any other type of workout. If you're looking for some dumbbells that aren't too expensive, bulky and space wasters and will last a long time consider Powerblock Dumbbells in your research.
So I had a pair of Bowflex Select-Tech Dumbbells and you should believe that I am completely disappointed. After only a few months the dumbbells starting falling apart. When I would select a higher weight, the smaller weights would fall out. I almost broke a few toes with these things. Not recommended at all! There has been a recall on the dumbbells, so if you have had the same problem contact Bowflex so you can get your money back or a pair that won't break your foot while you lift.
Many people think they need to buy weights in order to bulk up and gain a great deal of muscle mass. However, resistance bands can do almost just as much as weights can in the home, and resistance bands cost much less and are easier to store.
Weight sets can cost anywhere from around $50 - $500 depending on the quality and condition (used VS new). If you want to bulk up tremendously and look like a body builder lacking a neck, I'd have to say buy the weights and take lots of steroids! For those that want to tone muscles and build a good deal of muscle mass without a major bulk crisis, buy some resistance bands and use them in your everyday exercises.
Resistance bands can cost up to $80 depending on which brand and set you purchase. I found some Gold's Gym set of 3 resistance bands for $10 at Wal-Mart. I know I know, shouldn't shop at Wal-Mart but lets get real, everyone complains about them then ends up shopping there anyway because they know they save money. These resistance bands have been great for the last 3 years, I have no complaints whatsoever.
Research and find some resistance bands that work for you and your goals.
If you haven't seen the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" you should; the documentary follows Joe, an overweight and sick Australian man determined to lose weight. In order to do so he follows a strict diet consisting of only juice from fruit and vegetables he juices himself for two straight months. Joe's courage and strength show us that we can lose weight with a healthy diet, and keep the weight off with a consistent healthy diet and exercise.
I have shared this documentary with hundreds of people who buy juicers or decide they want to juice and have incredible results. However, is juicing the best thing to do? Well, I went to http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com to see what they would recommend for me. My goal was to lose 20 pounds, and my recommendations were one juice a day for only a week, then go from there. Well, juicing isn't for everybody to follow like Joe.
After doing a little research on juicing, I realized it wasn't the best way to get vitamins and nutrients from multiple fruits and vegetables a day. Although juicing is very healthy, one thing is better...puree. The difference? Juicing extracts juice from the fruit leaving behind pulp full of vital nutrients and fiber. Puree...place all the fruits and vegetables in a blender and go at it; nothing wasted and nothing lost. Less fruit and vegetables are needed to puree than to juice, saving money and still filling you up with the nutrients you need each day. Puree is an easier cleanup while juicing consists of many parts to clean and wipe down.
Juicing, however, is easier to drink down. Puree his much thicker and harder to down quickly if you're in a hurry. Puree is also harder to make great tasting combinations between fruits and vegetables that are great tasting like juice.
In my opinion, juicing is great but puree is much healthier and easier to maintain and clean. In addition, save money by using up to half the fruit needed to juice in a large puree.
Please note that taking supplements can help you achieve fitness and health goals, but are not always necessary. The supplements you want to avoid are supplements that offer extremely fast and easy results with minimal work. Workout supplements are usually the culprits in this case.
Many vitamins and minerals are an advantage to your health because they provide you important vitamins and minerals you might be lacking in your everyday diet.
Also note that supplements are not 100% regulated by the FDA. Thanks to Utah's Senator Orin Hatch's proposal, a bill was passed restricting the FDA from regulating supplements like they do many foods. This means that a company can sell you sugar and nothing else, but put other ingredients on the package and list benefits that 100% will not happen. Find reviews on different websites about supplements you are considering and see how reliable the company producing the supplements can be. For example, NSI is my favorite supplement company. I have seen many results from there products in my general health.
Pros: Protein helps rebuild muscle after stress (working out of any sort).
Cons: If too much protein is taken it can effect your kidneys, and most excess protein is wasted.
Myths: Protein will make me bigger! Protein is the major building block of life. My college biology professor used to tell us, "If you want to rule the world, control protein and it's all yours." Protein is made up of various amino acids that do many things such as provide a little extra energy, rebuild, reboot your body, etc.
When looking for proteins you want to be careful what kind of brand you buy, what it says it does, and if the ingredients are actually in there (read my caution blog). Some tips to purchasing protein:
1 - Find protein with a variety of amino acids and maybe some added vitamins. The more healthy ingredients the more benefits up to a point.
2 - Avoid high sugar proteins.
3 - Find one that mixes well and tastes good. I know it's all about the ingredients, but if you can't even choke down the stuff then you won't take it often and you'll waste your money.
4 - Liquids are more easily absorbed, so shakes and mixed powders have more benefits than bars and pills.
5 - Use a reputable company's protein.
6 - If you ever have questions about it, ask a physician or even a chemist. Both can tell you if the mumbo-jumbo claims on the packaging even make physiological sense or if a bunch of fancy words are thrown into the mix.
Many people eat enough protein in foods to where they don't need excess protein. However, if you do decide to take a protein supplement, I'd recommend starting off with less than up to half the recommended daily amount. See how you feel, then work up to however much you feel you need. Remember, protein DOES NOT make you bigger, it helps you rebuild muscle.
Nutrisystem is effective at helping people lose weight because you eat their food and only their food like Jenny Craig. Nutrisystem focuses on the same idea of the hypoglycemic diets and they prepare the food for you. People do lose weight off the low calorie food provided. However, Nutrisystem does nothing to help you learn what foods to eat afterwards and doesn’t provide you with an exercise program or any type of diet program once you are done with their program. Personally I have seen amazing results from Nutrisystem go down the toilet when my friends and acquaintances go through the program; almost all of them gained more weight after the program than they had before they started Nutrisystem. If you decide to do Nutrisystem, my recommendations would be to plan out your diet by choosing an effective program to eat healthy, not to lose weight, but to maintain your weight. Visit http://www.nutrisystem.com for more information.
Jenny Craig sends you food, you eat it and nothing else (well, I’ve heard different things, some people say you can eat a little but not much outside of their food). It’s very simple to follow, they have counselors and nutritionists there waiting to help you when you need it. I have never had the food, but I heard it is not the best tasting food out there. The cons to Jenny Craig are the price and the lack of nutritional help afterwards. I understand they are implementing programs to help people keep the weight off, which if true would increase my rating, but I have not seen anything as of yet to prove they do it effectively. Jenny Craig is good for someone that doesn’t have time to shop or cook for certain foods, and has the money to do it. Visit http://www.jennycraig.com/ for more information.
These diets focus solely on “good foods VS bad foods” and your blood glucose levels. The diet is very effective as it does teach and consult which foods are good and which are bad, and it has stages to detoxify your body and return to a normal state. However, the only con to the diet is the very difficult system to fit. Some of these diets want you to eat certain foods at certain times of the day, in a certain order at a single meal and are very complex in what you can and can’t eat. It is effective and should be used by someone looking to lose 30 pounds or so. Use a search engine to find all the information you can about these diets as there are many to choose from.
The Fat Smash diet gives you a list of allowable foods and tells you what to eat and what not to eat. There is a very effective plan to detox the body and rebuild it within 90 days. This diet does teach you how to eat and change your lifestyle, while increasing energy levels and health levels. However, this is a very strict and restrictive diet and should only be done by those with will power to avoid certain foods. If not followed 100% this diet is not effective. Go to http://www.fatsmashdiet.com/ for more information.
Fat Flush Diet – 1.5 Stars – Medium $$$
The Fat Flush diet basically starts you off at a low calorie diet with lean proteins, then slowly adds on more calories each week until you reach your maximum account. The book does teach you about foods that are good for you and how to prepare them. However, it’s just another low calorie diet that can be potentially harmful if not done correctly or if you do not consult your doctor. Again in my opinion, not recommended.
To starve yourself it’s not very expensive. However, this diet can be very harmful to your health. Of course you will lose weight because of the decrease in calories, but this diet does not teach someone how to change their lifestyle, can only be done for seven days, and who likes cabbage soup that much? Ewwww! Once you finish the diet you must wait approximately one month to do it again. In that month you can gain weight the weight back because you’re increasing your calorie intake again. This is a very unsafe diet and I would not recommend it personally.
Clean Food Diet – 4.5 Stars – Medium $$$
The Clean Food Diet is like Dr. Furhman’s diet in a way, however, it does allow more meat and animal products to be consumed daily. Eat fruits and vegetables (raw state is better) and exercise daily to get the body you want. If you eat healthy your body detoxifies itself and the craving for sugar and other process foods is decreased. Like many of the other diets, eat every 2-3 hours to make sure your body is not starving and your metabolism is increasing. Visit http://www.eatcleandiet.com/ for more information.
