Archive for the ‘Nutrition’ Category

This whole topc is really still in it’s infancy and what these products could potentially do to you. Now some of the above potential health problems are definitely not proven as fact in studies. However, some of them have been shown in animal studies given high doses.

 Feel free to do some research, you’ll find hoardes of people that attribute the use of artificial sweeteners over the years with all sorts of illnesses in themselves or in family members.

Regardless of the fact that any real health problems for actual human use are not proven yet, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather protect myself and my family and steer clear of these possibly dangerous artificial chemicals.

Of course, despite all of the health issues potentially associated with artificial sweeteners, the companies that sell the products will continue to claim that they are fully safe. Don’t believe them!  The bottom line is that the body was not designed to deal with foreign substances like artificial sweeteners. Take my word on that one.

So what are your options for alternatives? Well, your best alternatives for sugar or corn syrup are either natuaral honey, or organic maple syrup. Even though these alternatives still have the same amount of calories as sugar or corn syrup… honey and maple syrup, actually provide some nutrients and antioxidants, so it’s not just empty calories.

Empty calories such as white refined sugar stimulate your appetite more because your body is lacking nutrients.

Now I know your still thinking that you’d like to still save on calories but avoid the nasty artificial sweeteners.

Good news… You can!

It’s called Stevia.

Stevia is not artificial like the other chemical sweeteners I mentioned above. Stevia is a natural non-caloric herb that’s been used for thousands of years in some parts of the world. It is a South American herb and when dried into a powder, has a sweetness about 200-300 times stronger than sugar.

One problem I’ve noticed with using Stevia is that the pure powder is a very powerful sweetener, so you can easily use too much. However, I’ve found some good Stevia products that use a bulking agent added so that you can measure out the stevia powder in direct comparison to measuring sugar.

I’ve yet to see any negative reports or health concerns regarding stevia and only positive potential health benefits.

 I definitely give Stevia my seal of approval. Do yourself a favor (and your family), and if you are currently an artificial sweetener junkie, please consider switching to stevia.

Until next time, keep on training gang.

Scott

Hey there, it’s Scott Williams from www.succeed.com.au & www.succeedstrategies.com.au with your latest health and nutrtion tip.

Today I wanted to talk about artificial sweeteners because I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of confusion about them with my clients not really understanding them at all.

There is a huge list of products sweetened with them, and are marketed to you as “healthy foods” or “healthier” than sugar. But are they really?

Some of the most popular artificial sweeteners on the market today are:
• Equal
• Aspartame
• Splenda

These artificial sweeteners are used in pretty much every “diet” drink, “lite” yogurts, puddings, and ice creams, most “low-carb” products, and almost all “reduced-sugar” products. Look closely, even most protein powders are loaded with artificial sweeteners too (just look on the ingredients and you’ll usually see one of them).

Equal and Splenda are probably the worst offenders of claiming to be “healthy” as they say that it’s made from real sugar.

But don’t be fooled!
 
It’s still an artificial substance. Some of the truths they don’t tell you is that Equal & Splenda is a chemically modified substance where chlorine is added to the chemical structure, making it more similar to a chlorinated pesticide than something we should be eating or drinking.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions that I see all of the time and people, parents etc don’t realise what are in these products and thinking they’re taking the ‘healthy’ option for the family.

The truth is that artificial sweeteners are not even close to being healthy, and, can easily be as bad for you, if not worse, than sugar.
 
Most people think that they are doing something good for themselves by choosing the “diet” drinks or “lo fat” yogurts compared to the full sugar versions, but the problem is that you’re exposing yourself to a whole new set of problems with the artificially sweetened drinks and foods.

People these days are receiving a lot of contradicting messages about which foods are good for you and which are bad.
 
Don’t worry. Just stick with me and I’ll get past the marketing hype and tell you the truth. I’ll also give you some ideas for great alternatives to artificial sweeteners and sugar.

In reality it is a battle between artificial sweeteners vs. sugar. Both is evil, but which evil is worse?

I’m sure you already know the problems with sugar:
1.  excess empty calories,
2.  blood sugar spike,
3. insulin surge this creates in your body promotes fat gain
4. stimulates your appetite further for more sweet things

On the other hand, artificial sweeteners save you calories, but there’s growing evidence that they can increase your appetite for sweets and other carbohydrates causing you to eat more later in the day anyway. Therefore, you don’t really save any calories at all. Also, studies have shown that artificial sweeteners can stimulate high insulin levels in your body too, which again can promote fat storage.

All of the artificial sweeteners listed above are nasty chemicals that the human body is simply not meant to ingest. However, most of us are ingesting a whole lot of these chemicals on a daily basis. Aside from the problems I touched on so far, other health issues that have been related to artificial sweeteners in scientific studies as well as observations are:
• some have been linked to potential cancer risks
• headaches
• developmental problems in children and fetuses
• negative effects on the liver, kidneys, and other organs
• stimulating cravings
• gastrointestinal problems

Stay Tuned for Part II soon

Scott

Will I Lose Weight if I Skip Breakfast?

Some people think that skipping breakfast will help them lose weight. It won’t.

Studies show a direct link between breakfast and successful weight loss, and that compared to breakfast skippers, breakfast eaters generally:

•  Eat fewer calories throughout the day
•  Eat less saturated fat and cholesterol
•  Have better nutrition habits
•  Weigh less (women 4kgs/men 3kgs less)

 The key to successful weight loss.

The key to successful weight loss is burning more calories than we consume each day.

Our body burns calories 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. How quickly we burn those calories is called our metabolic rate.

Our individual metabolic rates change throughout the day and night, depending upon things like when we last ate and whether we are active or at rest.

Even though we burn calories while we are asleep, our metabolic rate slows dramatically during this time and we burn fewer calories per hour as a result.

(Now before you go planning to give up sleep to lose weight, which is definitely not the answer, let me tell you a better way).

The way to maximize the number of calories we burn each day is not to stay awake longer but to maximize our metabolic rate while we are awake.

This is where eating breakfast comes in.

Why breakfast is so important to losing weight?

One of the secrets to successful weight loss is to kick-start our metabolism as soon as possible after we wake. The best way to do that is to eat breakfast. In fact, nothing, including exercise, gets our metabolism going as fast again after eight hours of restful sleep as eating a healthy breakfast!

When we skip breakfast, not only does our metabolic rate stay low, so too does our blood sugar levels. Low blood sugar levels resulting from missing breakfast often leads us to feel lethargic.

Low blood sugar levels in the morning eventually make us feel extra hungry later, which sets us up for impulse snacking, or eating overly large portions of food at lunch and dinner.

When we eat breakfast, our body feels nourished and satisfied, making us far less likely to over eat during the rest of the day.

Common reasons for missing Breakfast

The most common reasons that people skip breakfast include:
No Time
Preferring to exercise in the morning instead
Not feeling hungry in the morning
Unable to stomach food first thing in the morning
Here’s what you can do if either one of these causes you to miss breakfast regularly:

“No time” is no excuse

Time is at a premium for most of us. Nevertheless, it pays to make time for what is undoubtedly the most important weight loss meal of the day.

If time is a real issue for you and you only have a few minutes for breakfast in the mornings, try to:
Eat something that doesn’t take any time to prepare, like a glass of pre-squeezed fruit juice, a couple of pieces of fresh fruit or a tub of low-fat yoghurt. Even last night’s left-over stir fry is a better option than eating nothing at all.
Prepare your breakfast the night before. Lay your cereal packet, dish, spoon or toast condiments on the breakfast bar so they are ready to go first thing in the morning.
Do two things at once. Try doing something within your morning routine, like ironing a blouse or shirt for example, while your toast is browning in the toaster. (Try not to do two things at once while you’re eating, you’ll eat too quickly and your digestion will be affected. If you have no choice, eat anyway, but try not to do this too often).
Have at least something to eat no matter how small and take the rest of your breakfast with you. For example, drink a breakfast smoothie and take your favourite breakfast cereal to work with you in a plastic container.
If you are in a rush to get somewhere, eat something as soon as you get there. If you’re meeting someone, meet them in a café or coffee shop. If you are always in a rush to get to work, leave a packet of breakfast cereal in your office kitchen or in a drawer of your desk.

Most people like to exercise in the morning for the same reason they should eat breakfast, to raise there metabolism and burn extra calories.

If you exercise in the morning on an empty stomach, your metabolism won’t reach the same heights it would if you ate something before-hand.

Don’t like to exercise on a full stomach? Ideally we shouldn’t really work out until an hour or two after our breakfast (or any other meal), but if you like exercising in the morning or it’s the only time you have, a glass of fruit juice or small piece of fruit beforehand will give your metabolism the spark it needs to maximize the calories burnt during your workout.

Remember, you don’t need to eat a three course meal to get your metabolism going in the morning, even something small like a banana or fruit smoothie will get it firing.

Hey Everybody,

Many people at Boot Camp and in the gym have been asking me about Artificial Sweetners.

Here is an article from the latest Succeed Fitness Magazine:

http://succeed.fitpromag.com/Article.aspx?article=3229e9ef-f0e2-40d1-a560-9e5b00d4299e

I am not saying take it or don’t take it, the jury is still out on the effect of artificial sweetners.

There are as many studies to say how bad they are, as there is to say that they are safe and you are consuming less calories.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below and let us know?

The Succeed Team

Did you know, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass factory farm doesn’t compare nutritionally with organic free range eggs from healthy chickens that are allowed to roam freely and eat a more natural diet.  Your typical cheap grocery store eggs will have lower nutrient levels and a higher omega-6 level and lower omega-3 level.  On the other hand, the cage-free organic eggs from healthier chickens allowed to eat more natural feed and roam freely will have much higher vitamin and mineral levels and a more balanced healthier omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio.

I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store with a box of free range eggs.

Most people don’t realize that there’s a major difference because they’ve never bought real eggs from healthy chickens… The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks and thin weak shells. On the other hand, the free range eggs had strong thick shells and deep orange colored yolks indicating much higher nutrition levels and carotenoids… and just a healthier egg in general.

This is due to the fact that a free-roaming hen allowed to roam on plenty of land will eat a variety of greens, insects, worms, etc transferring MUCH higher levels of nutrients to the eggs compared to an unhealthy hen that is trapped inside a cage and fed nothing but piles of corn and soy.  It’s a DRASTIC difference in the nutrition that you get from the egg.

So next time a health or fitness professional tells you that egg whites are better for you (because of their “fat-phobic” mentality towards dietary fats), you can quietly ignore their advice knowing that you now understand the REAL deal about egg yolks.

So, can we all please STOP with this sillyness about eating an omelete with 4-5 egg whites and only 1 egg yolk… If you want real taste and real health benefits, we’d all be better off eating ALL of our eggs with the yolks.

Do you REALLY think that our ancestors threw out the yolks and only ate the egg whites?  NOT A CHANCE!  They intuitively knew that all of the nutrition was found in the yolks.  Our modern society has been brainwashed with misinformation about fats and cholesterol.

Like I have been saying to you all, eat like a caveman!!!!

This is exactly how I eat… I personally eat 4 whole eggs every day with breakfast, and I maintain reasonably low bodyfat most of the year. 

Enjoy your eggs!!!

Scott

Hey all, here is part I in a post about the truth about eggs.

I was on a weekend trip with some friends down the coast  recently, and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for us. As always I was particularly hungry on this morn so I went over to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of ham and eggs.

Well, to my shock, I noticed that he was cracking the eggs open and separating the egg whites into a bowl and throwing  the egg yolks out. I asked him why he was throwing out the egg yolks, and he replied…

“because the egg yolks are bad for you…that’s where all the fat and cholesterol is”.

And I replied, “you mean that’s where all of the nutrition is!”

This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation about nutrition, somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG!

By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you’re essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg. The yolks contain B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients… it’s not even worth trying to list them all.

In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolks.

Even the protein in egg whites isn’t as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid structure and make the protein more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with healthy omega-3 fatty acids (the good fats).

Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids (EFAs).

And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg…

“But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol through the roof”

No, not true!!

When you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body regulates it’s internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.

On the other hand, if you don’t eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has dozens of important vital functions in the body.

And here’s where it gets even more interesting…

There have been plenty of studies lately that indicate that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.

In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as other antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.

So I hope we’ve established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body… instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.

The healthy fats in the egg yolks help to maintain a good level of fat-burning hormones in your body.

Overall, this means that the extra fats (healthy fats) and calories from the yolk are so nutrient-dense that they actually HELP you to burn off body fat!

Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Development

A blog by Scott Williams on sugar vs honey

Most of you already know my stance that artificial sweeteners are pretty much one of the most evil things you can put in your body.

I have been offering quite a bit of nutritional guidance recently and people  seem to be confused about what to use to sweeten their coffee and other food and drink.

The less of any sweetener you can use, the better… consider how much work has gone into making a little tablet to make something sweet… it has been very heavily processed. If you can slowly over time adjust your taste buds to enjoy the natural taste of foods and drink without the need for heavily sweetening them, you’ll see many benefits for your body.

However, this leaves the question… If I really want to at least use a little sweetener, what should I use?

The easy answer is that a natural honey source is better for you than refined sugar. Keep in mind that they are both calorie dense and eating large amounts of honey will still make you deposit body fat, but at least it is natural.

However, refined sugar is devoid of nutrition and using it actually makes your body use up stored nutrients to process it.

Honey on the other hand has many beneficial nutrients, enzymes, and antioxidants… raw honey is best (find a bee keeper in your area) or you can find raw honey at certain health food stores. Stuff from Woolies or Coles has generally been processed and typical honey from these stores, processing destroys most of the enzymes and antioxidants that give the benefits.  I won’t use any honey other than raw honey.

In fact, I don’t use refined sugar for anything at all. It’s either raw honey, pure maple syrup (not fake corn syrup), or stevia for all of my sweetening needs.  Those are better choices than processed sugar or artificial sweeteners.

You can find Stevia located in the Sweetner section of your local supermarket. It is a complete natural product.

Check out this post I did with some scary facts on suger:
http://www.succeed.com.au/2010/01/can-you-handle-the-truth-about-sugar/

Scott Williams
CEO, Succeed Personal Development
Canberra, Australia

Some Body Fat is in fact good for you! You may not realise, not all body fat is bad.

There are two types of body fat, essential and non – essential body fat.
Essential fat helps our body to function, it keeps us warm, protects vital internal organs and regulates the nutrients going into our bodies.

Non – essential body fat is the type that begins to make your clothes seem tighter. It stores when our body collects more energy from food and fluid than your body needs. It tends to store around organs like the heart and lungs.
As levels of non essential body fat increase, so does the layer of adipose tissue (fat) underneath the skin. Healthy eating and a change in eating habits can get rid of those unwanted kilos.

Muscle cannot turn into Fat!

It is a common myth that when you stop weight training, muscle will turn into fat. When you stop training, your muscles reduce in size. If you continue to consume the same amount of food as when you were more active you will increase your body fat levels.

You cannot Spot Reduce Body Fat

Every individual carries their body fat in a different way. Women, for example, tend to carry more body fat on their arms and bum (pear shape), while men tend to carry more around the upper body and stomach. Unfortunately, it is impossible to reduce fat on one specific area of your body. To lose body fat from anywhere on your body, you need to take on some aerobic/anaerobic training and pick up a few dumbells!

A mix of Aerobic training and Weight training is best for shedding unwanted KG’s

To burn body fat, you need to expend more energy throughout your day than you are putting in. The more cardio training you do (running, walking, swimming e.t.c) the better. When you combine this training with a weights program, you will see greater results in a shorter amount of time.

The good news is, the more muscle you have, the more body fat you will burn throughout your day!

On average you burn about an extra 4 calories per hour for each extra kilo of muscle.

A useless fact: this equates to around 27,700 calories per year or 4.5 kilo’s lighter you would be, you can also lose another 4.5kg simply by having correct posture and sucking your stomach in and chest out…. there is 9kg in one year and  you haven’t even started training with Succeed Canberra yet!!!

Hey all, here is the last installment of my Weight Loss Secrets for you…

Fitness tip 13 - Be around like-minded people. Be around people that are going to give you the support you need. Research shows that people who have the support from friends and family stuck to their goals and those without support failed time and again. If you’re around overweight people that are not dieting what do you thinks going to happen? That may seem a bit tough but how many millionaires do you see hanging around with people who are penniless. Surround yourself with what you want to become!

Fitness tip 14 - Be prepared. The majority of us are so busy with everyday life that we don’t have time to cook nutritious rich foods everyday. Preparing your meals a week in advance is the key to good food choice. Take time out to write a weekly shopping list, shop, and cook up a stack of nutrient dense food on the Sunday night or whenever you have the most time, put them in the freezer so that you don’t get caught short later in the week.

Fitness tip 15 - Eat slower, smaller portions. Research shows that if you eat slowly you’ll eat less. There is a signal that goes off in the brain after about 20 minutes of eating that tells you you’re full. Be sure to chew your food completely and take breaks in between bites. Reduce the size of your portions, even if your eating quality food, too much of a good thing can make you put on weight, remember weight loss tip 6, you need to create a calorie deficit. Eating more than you need will cause you to store fat.

Fitness tip 16 -  Be Positive. You are what you think you are, visualize yourself walking round looking and feeling exactly how you would like to and then take the necessary action. Every time you look in the mirror visualize what you want to look like and ask yourself what you’re going to do today to become that person. Things may not always go your way, losing weight can be tough, if you think it’s too hard you’ve already lost the battle, stay positive and focused and you’ll succeed.

Reading this report will mean nothing to you if you don’t take action and begin to implement some changes into your everyday life, without taking action you’ll be stuck in a vicious circle of fad diets and magic pills only to find yourself back where you started, frustrated and confused. It’s up to you to make things happen and to take control of your own health, don’t you think you’re worth it?

Take action TODAY! What are you going to do today to become who you want to be?

Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Training

Hope you are all having a great day? Here is part III of my Weight Loss Secrets….

Fitness tip 9 - Interval Training. Interval training is the number 1 cardiovascular exercise for weight loss. It includes high intensity exercise (for10-60 seconds) broken up with periods of low intensity exercise. The good thing with interval training is that you burn more calories in a shorter amount of time. So there’s no need to spend hrs pounding away on a treadmill, you can be done in 20-25 mins and that’s including your warm up and cool down! This form of training will keep your metabolism elevated for up to 24 hrs after you’ve finished training, through E.P.O.C (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), so you’ll be burning calories even while you’re sleeping.

Fitness tip 10 - Include a cheat day once every 10 days! Keep your body guessing and have a cheat day once a week. This will stop your body from hitting a plateau and stop your metabolism from slowing down. A cheat day is a good time to eat the foods you’ve been craving throughout the week. No-one can eat perfectly 100% of the time without cracking, so hold off any foods that aren’t in your nutrition plan until this day. Having a cheat day will allow you to be good for the other day’s, (just don’t go too mad)!

Fitness tip 11 - Eat whole foods. Whole foods have formed the basis of the human diet for millions of years. In the last hundred or so years we have been subjected to countless foods that are totally foreign to us. Much of what we call food today (McDonalds, potato chips, sugar coated cereals, French fries) are highly processed and have no nutritional value, these foods will be stored as fat by your body. You are what you eat, if you eat wholesome foods that are full of nutrients, your body has all the raw materials it needs to keep you nourished and maintain a weight that is ideal for you. Whole foods are foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains all of which are full of vitality. There is more and more research and people heading back to the old style of eating like our ancestors (caveman style). If you can catch it, pick it, or grow it, you can eat it! 

Fitness tip 12 - Write your goals down. On a piece of paper write down your goals, set yourself a timeframe and look at it everyday. Make sure their realistic enough for you to achieve but tough enough to make you work hard for them. Every time you reach your goals, set new goals and timeframes, this will help you stay motivated and maintain your results. Having goals gives you a path to follow and something to strive for.

Scott Williams