by Joey Stabile | Oct 17, 2018 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness, Strength Training
Protein Power: It’s Not Just for Muscles (Part 2 — Appetite Control)
By Joan Kent, PhD, and Shawn Bevington
Protein is used to make hormones, which are messengers in the body. They’re produced in one part of the body and then distributed — through blood, interstitial or other body fluid — to other organs or tissues. There they modify activity and function.
This brief post will focus on just a few hormones and how they affect appetite.
*CCK (Cholecystokinin) – Satiety is the feeling that you don’t need another meal because you’re still satisfied from the last one.
CCK is arguably the most powerful satiety hormone in the body. It reduces appetite by stimulating the function of the brain’s key satiety center, the VMH (ventromedial hypothalamus).
CCK is released when we eat protein and fats. It affects our food preferences by reducing the desire for carbs.
Anyone who suffers from an exaggerated desire for carbs probably needs to eat more protein. Vegans, for example, may experience strong cravings for carbs, including sugars. Finding a true protein source is a key factor in reducing vegans’ cravings. More on that in Part 3.
Eating adequate protein can also be key in conquering sugar addiction for this same reason.
*Ghrelin – Ghrelin increases appetite by stimulating the brain’s lateral hypothalamus. The LH can be seen as a ‘feeding’ center.
Eating protein can help to reduce ghrelin release. In healthy men, a high-protein breakfast decreased post-meal ghrelin levels more than a high-carb breakfast. The high-protein meal also slowed gastric emptying. Researchers attributed both effects to the secretion of CCK and glucagon, both triggered by protein.
*Glucagon – Glucagon is a hormone made in the pancreas. Insulin is, as well, but the functions of the two hormones are oppositional and work to balance glucose levels.
Insulin also tends to be a fat-storage hormone, while glucagon moves fats out of storage and into the blood stream so they can be utilized as fuel, rather than stored.
While many foods trigger the release of insulin, only protein foods trigger glucagon. Glucagon is also secreted when we exercise.
As mentioned above, glucagon and CCK seem to control appetite by modifying ghrelin levels.
Don’t miss protein and brain chemistry, age, and the vegan solution in Part 3, right here this week!
Shawn Bevington is a holistic health coach, certified by the National College of Exercise Professionals (NCEP). He has been a fitness trainer for six years, and boasts another seven years of activity in various programs, including football, shot-put, pro wrestling and other strenuous sports. Self-motivated, Shawn has spent years researching on his own – and putting that information into practice with his clients. His knowledge, skill and experience have made him a sought-after fitness trainer, both by clients and by colleagues who bring questions to him.
Dr. Joan Kent has a PhD in Psychoactive Nutrition. She was the first to document the brain chemical pathways of sugar addiction and to explain the sugar/fat seesaw hormonally and chemically. Joan has helped hundreds and hundreds of clients with metabolic conditions — diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer — as well as clients with inflammation and mood disorders. Joan has written 2 best-selling books: Stronger Than Sugar, on conquering sugar addiction, and The Sugar-Free Workout, on fueling before, during and after training for optimal performance. Visit www.LastResortNutrition.com and grab your free gifts.
by Joan Kent | Aug 28, 2018 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness
A previous post covered ways that sugar can increase fat consumption. One way is that fat makes sugary foods taste sweeter. That may mean a sugar/fat combination tastes preferable to a sugar-only food, such as hard candy.
Clients have told me that, when they eliminate sugar from their diets, they can actually enjoy snacking on a brown rice cake topped with a slice of tomato or sprouts.
When they’ve been eating sugary foods, though, such a snack seems unappealing and unpalatable. At those sugar-laden times, they find themselves wanting different things: bologna or salami sandwiches, for example, or other heavy foods.
Those heavier foods have more fat in them than the first snack, so the clients are consuming extra fat — even though they weren’t necessarily seeking high-fat foods in the first place.
In my dissertation, I named this “secondary fat consumption.”
Secondary fat consumption can occur in several different ways:[private PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|PRO-Studio|28 Day Challenge]
– We eat more of a fatty food (like peanut butter) when we have sugar (jelly) to eat with it and make it taste better.
– We eat sugar, which triggers endorphins, as explained above. That shifts our preferences to other foods that trigger endorphins — to more sugar or to high-fat foods, or both.
– We crave something sweet and want the sweetest taste we can get — so we instinctively choose a sugar/fat combination, instead of, say, a hard candy with sugar only.
Unfortunately, that’s not the worst of it. High-fat foods we eat trigger the hormone ghrelin. To me, it always seemed like a Monster Hormone.
For one thing, ghrelin slows metabolism. Who wants that?
At the same time, ghrelin stimulates the part of the brain that increases appetite (the lateral hypothalamus). That gives “secondary fat” a chance to increase calories — not only through the secondary fat calories themselves, but also through all the other foods we might suddenly want to eat simply because that secondary fat has triggered ghrelin and our appetite.
It’s obvious that there’s potential for a self-perpetuating cycle in this, and that it can toboggan its way down a slippery slope and pick up speed.
It also seems obvious that — bottom line — sugar is the culprit in this metabolic mess.
Avoiding sugar is one important factor in transforming your health, increasing your energy, and feeling great. Heart disease, the #1 cause of death in the U.S., has been linked with inflammation. So have diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and more.
Inflammation is strongly affected by nutrition, and sugar’s effect on insulin and hormones makes it a strong contributor to inflammation. Dare I advise, yet again, not to eat it?[/private]
by Matt Wahleithner | Jul 10, 2018 | Best Practices, Engage Your Students
Principles to being a successful Group Fitness Professional
You have your Mic on, your equipment is all set, you have new killer choreography, and your class is packed! You head over to hit play and start class… What’s going through your head? For me personally when I head over to my IPOD to hit play, I take a deep breath, clear my mind and focus in on what, Don Miguel Ruiz calls, THE FOUR AGREEMENTS: Be Impeccable With Your Word/Don’t Take Anything Personally/Don’t Make Assumptions/Always Do Your Best. When I do this, I know that the class that I am about to teach can change lives and inspire people to be better than when they walked in to class.
Be Impeccable With Your Word, say what you mean and mean what you say. This is so important when you are in front of your class because your participants are hanging on your every word and every word needs to mean something. Try to avoid filler words and repetitive motivational cues, like some of my favorites, GOOD, LOOKS GOOD, and KEEP GOING. Although some of those may seem like okay phrases to use, they really don’t provide and significant feedback that will help participants during class. Instead try being stronger with your phrases; Keep Going For 20 More Seconds, Your Form Looks Good, and Excellent Job With That Drill. These cues are letting your participants know exactly what to do and how they are doing at it. When your cueing is STRONGER and more EFFICIENT your classes are easier to follow and this will help grow your numbers!
Don’t Take Anything Personally. When your participants come in and want to criticize or don’t show excitement during your class, 99% of the time is has nothing to do with you. This is a hard thing for many instructors, including me, to understand but once you do, it will be that much easier for you to relax and enjoy your classes.
Don’t Make Assumptions, because not everyone in your class is going to tell you everything or always ask for help. When someone walks into your class, you are responsible to make sure that they get everything they need and are clear on the format and goals of the class they are about to take. Even if you have regulars in your classes it’s still very important that you not assume they know everything and make sure they understand and are clear on the set-up and goals for the class ahead. Great each person as if it’s their first time and if you know them or remember them, make the greeting more personal by using names or asking them if they are seeing progress on their goals. This small touch will keep people coming back time and time again!
Always Do Your Best, because people are counting on you to help them achieve great things! No matter what may have gone on in your day, you need to leave it at the door and do your best to help those who have come to achieve great things in your class. Make sure you come into class prepared and ready to motivate and inspire people to be better and the only way to achieve this is if we are doing our best! Best ways to be prepared is to plan out your classes well in advance, learn choreography fully before teaching it, rehearse your script of what you’re going to say and when, dress the part, show up early to check equipment and be available for participants, and the most important part, have fun!
Following these Four-Agreements as a Group Fitness Professional will ensure that you are always on top of your game and helping change lives every time you press the play button.
by Joan Kent | Jul 5, 2018 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness
No, these don't include anything from Andrew Zimmern
This short post covers 6 relatively unknown — and odd — tips that can help us control how much we eat.
Odd Tip #1: Hide Your Breakfast Cereal
This first tip comes from Brian Wansink, PhD, who is well known for his work on food psychology and eating behaviors. His research has revealed that simply keeping breakfast cereal in full view throughout the day — say, on the kitchen counter — has an impact on weight.
Two facts came forward with this.
It didn’t make a difference if the cereal was junky (Fruit Loops, Cocoa Puffs) or more healthful (oatmeal). Just keeping it visible was the salient factor.
Also, the difference in weight between revealers and concealers averaged 21 pounds.
Since it doesn’t affect meals directly, keeping cereal in the kitchen cabinet seems like an easy way to help control food intake.
Odd Tip #2: Change Your Plate Color
I’ve come across this tip in two ways.
1) Using a plate that’s the same color as the food you’re eating encourages eating more food.
Of course, meals typically include several foods of different colors. A practical way to use this might be to think in terms of side dishes you’d like to limit. For example, if the side dish is white — potatoes, pasta, white rice — it might be a good idea to avoid using a white plate.
2) Then there’s the color blue. Eating from a blue plate seems to make people eat less. One theory is that the color blue is “off-putting.”
I wonder this matches up with the first part because there’s no blue food. (Yes, blueberries are purple.)
So if we want to keep eating lots of vegetables, maybe we should avoid green plates(!).
Odd Tip #3: Limit Your Food Variety
Variety seems to make us eat more. That could be one reason that a buffet-style meal encourages overeating.
But I’ve also heard that keeping too many different types of food in the kitchen could have a similar effect, prompting us to want to sample the different foods.
Maybe the best way to enjoy variety would be to change shopping lists from week to week, rather than buying lots of different foods at one time.
Odd Tip #4: Use Smaller Serving Spoons
The test study I read about used M&Ms to investigate how people ate from a big, full bowl of the candies in an office setting. Apparently, a large scoop invited greater M&M consumption than a teaspoon.
I wonder if there’s an unconscious link between the number of “spooning” actions and how much food we’re willing to take. One scooping action may seem less greedy than 5 teaspoons, even if the quantity is the same.
A practical way to make use of this at home might be to use a smaller serving spoon for the foods you’d like to limit (for example, mac & cheese) and a larger one for vegetables and other healthful fare.
Odd Tip #5: Change Your Eating Rate
Slowing down is a meal tip that’s been around for a long time, and it seems intuitive that eating slowly would decrease food volume. But that didn’t seem to work for women, although it did for men.
What worked for both men and women was to begin the meal at a normal rate of eating, then slow down to about half speed for the rest of the meal.
The article I read didn’t specify exactly when to slow down, so I’d suggest just after the initial hunger has passed.
Odd Tip #6: Eat Smaller Food.
Cutting food into very small pieces seems to limit the amount we’ll eat.
Again, I wonder if it relates to arm action, the plate-to-mouth action. If it takes more of those actions to eat the food, maybe we unconsciously limit the number of times, rather than the amount of food per se.
Whatever the reasons behind these odd tips, they don’t involve eating different foods or counting calories, just a simple shift in behaviors.
I’m for whatever works, so why not give them a try? And if they help with holidays meals, so much the better. Please let me know which, if any, work for you.
by Joan Kent | Jun 8, 2018 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness, Strength Training
Frequently, I recommend protein powder to supplement dietary protein, but my clients aren't always sure exactly what to do once they have it. That’s the topic of this post.
Why Protein Is Important
Protein has numerous functions in the body, starting with the obvious one that it can be converted to glucose for energy.
Because I’ve covered protein in previous posts, I’ll keep this part brief. Protein is used to form hormones, enzymes, blood, body tissue, hemoglobin, antibodies, transport proteins, and much more.
As protein enters the small intestine, it triggers CCK, a powerful satiety hormone. CCK curbs carb cravings significantly. People who don’t get adequate protein often have strong sugar cravings.
Protein provides the amino acid precursors for brain chemicals that have many functions. Those amino acids can, for example, raise dopamine and norepinephrine for alertness and improved mood. Eating sufficient protein can reduce the need for caffeine — which triggers the same brain chemicals. But while caffeine depletes those chemicals, protein increases their production.
Another example is tryptophan, used by the brain to make serotonin. Serotonin enhances satiety and mood.
And protein provides several B vitamins that act as catalysts in forming all three of the brain chemicals above.
Why Protein Powder?
I’m not suggesting that you give up real foods and use protein powder instead. But protein powder is convenient. It’s light and portable and needs no refrigeration. Here are some suggestions for specific situations.[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Vegetarians / Vegans
Powdered protein is great for those who don’t want to eat meat. For vegans, who don’t eat any animal products, vegetable protein powder might be the best way to get high-quality protein in the diet.
Please recall that non-animal sources of ‘protein’ often aren’t. Nuts are not protein; they’re unsaturated fat. Beans, rice and quinoa are definitely carbs.
Vegans often experience sugar cravings. Vegetable protein powder could be a top method for vegans to stop cravings long-term.
Post-Training Fuel
As detailed in a previous post, refueling within 30 minutes is ideal. The best post-training meal is a combination of carb and protein in about a 3-to-1 ratio (the original research used 2 to 1).
Powdered protein will keep in a gym locker and mix with water as part of a solid post-workout “meal.” Just add good starch. Potatoes are excellent after workouts; other starches work, too.
Travel
Travel is an obvious time for the convenience of protein powder. A couple of years ago, I attended a 5-day seminar in a remote area. We were told it would feature only vegetarian cuisine. I brought 15 envelopes of raw vegetable protein powder and mixed one with water at the start of each meal. With my protein needs taken care of, I could enjoy the meal with no problem.
Conquering Sugar Addiction
For reasons explained above, having protein throughout the day can help you end sugar addiction by changing brain chemistry and preventing sugar cravings. Many brands of protein powder are out there, so find one with no junk — especially no sugar.
Don’t make the same mistake as a client of mine who had a serious sugar addiction. Instead of buying plain, unsweetened powder and mixing it with water (per my instructions), she bought French Vanilla and mixed it with orange juice. “The protein drinks are delicious!” she told me, but her sugar cravings got worse.
“Delicious” is usually a telltale sugar sign. Unsweetened protein — whey, pea, vegetable, soy, other — plus water won’t be delicious but will be helpful.
On the Go
Away from the office and a snack room, it might be difficult to find protein if you can’t stop for a meal. Depending on the hours you’ll be in the field, protein powder may help. Carbs are easy; we can find salads and other carbs almost anywhere.
Plan B
As suggested in a previous post, leave an envelope or two of protein powder in your car for emergencies. Take care of the protein and the rest of the meal will fall in place.
So skip granola bars, “energy” bars, chocolate-hazelnut spread, electrolyte drinks. The main benefit of protein powder is it’s a true protein source when ordinary foods aren’t available.
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by John | May 31, 2018 | Engage Your Students, Free Podcasts, Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Latest News
Georgia Green is a regular participant in Amy and my cycling classes at Life Time Fitness. I'll never forget the first day she walked in > tall, strong, with a great big smile – she looks like a fitness instructor – and came right up to me, with her hand extended; “Hi, I'm Georgia!”
Georgia and Mark set to test their gear.
What she didn't share with me, during our initial meeting, is that Georgia has committed to training and planning to spend a year riding 10,000 miles with her friend Mark and their 2 rescue dogs; Junebug and Biscuit. Amy learned that a while later, after one of her Saturday classes. Once I heard this amazing story I knew I wanted to have Georgia on the show 🙂
I caught up with Georgia while she was in Alabama testing her new touring bikes and the other specialised gear they'll need for their trip. We discuss her motivation to commit to this adventure and all the planning they've done to make this ride a reality.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/161023/659944-ici-podcast-342-2-people-2-bicycles-2-dogs-1-trailer-12-months-10-000-miles.mp3?download=true
If you're interested in learning more go to freedompedalers.com or they have a Facebook page at facebook.com/freedompedalers
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
