My Daily Wellness Tip

Free Form Fitness Opens New Location Downtown Tomorrow

 

If you're downtown on the market for Canada day tomorrow be sure to stop by and say hi. We're opening the doors as an open house. The address is 281 dalhousie

Hope to see you soon!

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Is A Large Breakfast Better?

There's a saying in the weight loss world that goes like this; Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper if you want to lose weight.

But is this true?

Not likely unless you've always eaten like a king at every meal then you would create  a deficit in calories which would make you lose weight. But what if we kept the calories the same, would there be a change? Not in my experience. In fact when we look at insulin (the number 1 fat storing hormone in our body), we find something called "the dawn effect" were your body has fasted all night keeping your blood sugar low and increasing gluconeogenesis (converting amino acids for fuel). If you get up and have a high carbohydrates breakfast, you will be raising your insulin higher in the morning that any other time in the day (with the possible exception of post workout) This counters what you want to happen when the goal is weight loss.

For weight loss you want to keep a nice a steady flow of insulin with out the ups and downs.

So the question is not how much we eat at every meal but what we eat. Remember carbohydrates have the biggest impact on blood sugar and insulin, protein has a little effect unless you eat too much at once and fat has no effect unless it's combined with a high carbohydrate meal.

So if your goal is to lose weight it only makes sense to eat a lower carbohydrate breakfast and then a consistent amount of carbohydrates with each meal throughout the day to avoid the blood sugar roller coaster. 

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5 QUALITIES OF A CHAMPION

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The 3 Pillars - Nutrition, Exercise & Accountability

How important is the last pillar called accountability? I talked about it in my story but I have to say it again "accountability is the pillar that holds everything together".

Here is a new statistic that shows you what I'm talking about;

"IHRSA data show that 42% of fitness club members attend their clubs less than 50 days per year—an astonishingly large chunk of any club’s membership base."

I would love to see the data on how many of the remaining actually attain their goals. It's human nature that motivation and inspiration comes and goes. No one has 100% motivation all the time not even the best athletes in the world. The trick is to have a system in place when motivation gets low. 

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Is There Sugar In That Dressing?

Have you ever been to a restaurant (while trying to stick to your diet) and asked the waitress if there was any sugar in the sauce or salad dressing that was accompanying your food? I know I have and often times I'm sure they were wrong.

Well now there's a way to know the truth. All you have to do is keep around these little strips. Your saliva actually starts to break sugar down food on contact so even though these strips explain to check glucose in your urine it works in saliva too. If you want to find out if any food has sugar or starch in it, all you have to do is chew the food to mix in with your saliva and then place the strip in your mouth or place a little saliva on the strip. If it changes color you know it has sugar or starch.

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Salad Can Make You Fat

I know what you're thinking. I'm crazy like this salad head guy?
Well I have to tell you, I was a surprised when I found out about this too.

Let me explain;

The upper part of the intestine contains cells that release hormones into the bloodstream when they are stretched, like after a meal. These hormones signal the pancreas to produce some insulin to prevent a blood sugar rise that might otherwise follow the digestion of the meal. Large meals will cause greater stretching of the intestinal cells which will in turn secrete proportionately larger amounts of these hormones. Since very small amounts of insulin released by the pancreas can cause a large drop in blood sugar, the pancreas simultaneously produces the less potent hormone glucagon to offset the potential excess effects of the insulin which will cause gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis and there by raise your blood sugar.

Summery: If you eat enough to feel really full then even if it's salad it will still increase blood sugar and insulin. And as we know what insulin does. Insulin is the fat storing hormone. 

Here's the story of Dr. Bernstein (not the same guy that your're thinking of) and his patient from his book Diabetes Solution.

"Many years ago a patient asked me why her blood sugar went from 90mg/dl up to 300mg/dl every afternoon after she went swimming.  I asked her what she ate before her swim. "nothing, just a freebie," she replied. When I asked her how much salad she was eating before her swims, she replied "a head."

A head of lettuce contains 10g of carbohydrates, which can raise a type I adults blood sugar about 50mg/dl at the most. So what accounts for the other 160 mg/dl rise in blood sugar?"

He calls this process the The Chinese restaurant effect where you could eat a whole bunch of bean sprouts but if you eat to the point where your stomach feels very full you're still going to raise your blood sugar.

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