Thursday, October 29, 2015

Big Announcement!



Hello Everyone!

I am proud to announce that I will be writing for a new athletic apparel company called RYU. I was introduced to them couple months back and I believe they will be the next leader in athletic clothing for the masses. As of right now they are in the opening stages and plan to have their first retail store open very soon.

From what I've seen they have everything. Workout tops, bottoms, accessories, you name it. I had the privilege to check out their head office in our very own down town Vancouver; I was impressed with every detail. From the energy buzzing through each person working, the colours of their offices, to the overall atmosphere they've created.

I'm excited to get started with them so early on and hope to expand my knowledge with more readers. If you'd like to check out more information, they also have a website up, give it a click and check it out!



Hope you will all follow their blog as I begin to write. My first blog for RYU should be up for next month of November. I will be sure to post it when it comes online.





Thursday, October 22, 2015

Hormones and Fatloss Part Three

You 'Mirin?


This will be my final instalment of "Hormones and Fatloss".... I know you're all sad, but we need to move on. It's not you its me...And there is someone else...

Anyway! Let's get to it. Today we are talking about insulin... Many of you automatically think about carbs, but there is more to insulin than just carbs. But who doesn't think of carbs all the time? As I am typing this, I am thinking of every carb-full food out there; mainly pizza, a lot of pizza...


But, back to insulin, this guy controls how quickly you can lose fat and gain muscle to what food gives you energy or which ones make you crash, and end up in a carb filled coma.

Insulin is produced in the pancreas and is responsible to take nutrients to your cells in your liver, muscles and stored fat. When insulin is happy your cells are ready to hold onto nutrients, when you use insulin at the right time, like right after your workout (post workout shakes) you can direct all those nutrients to your muscle cells. Meaning more nutrients in your muscles = building lean muscle mass and burning fat!

Now insulin sensitivity is term you should know. High insulin sensitivity is king when it comes to building muscle and destroying fat. When your insulin sensitivity is low your are more susceptible to a "crash."; foods high in sugar are usually the cause of this.

So, how do I increase my insulin sensitivity to build muscle? Avoiding junk foods, and hitting the weights at LEAST 2x a week.

A word of caution. There are cases where people can become insulin resistant because of chronically high insulin levels. When this happens your blood sugar stays higher for longer periods of time because the carbs you put in your mouth are slowed down to the point where they can't reach your muscle cells and build and kill off that fat. Basically your body won't allow you to loose fat, and your stuck in this circle of hell.

Now remember I just scratched the surface on insulin. There are books dedicated to this topic alone, so don't go out there thinking your an insulin expert. I am merely opening your eyes how our bodies work on the inside to battle fat!

Also don't go trusting celebrities recommendations out there either, like Justin Bieber here...



Image result for carbs meme

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Hormones and Fat Loss Part Two




I hope you all enjoyed my last post on the hormone Leptin. We should now all have a better understanding when it comes to fat loss and leptin.

Now to further your knowledge of hormones, today we will focus on Ghrelin. What? Ghrelin, yes thats right. It sounds like jibberish and something I made up, but this hormone is responsible for telling you if you're hungry or not. Usually it will tell you that you're hungry all the time. Then you over eat, then you're sitting at 10+ lbs you shouldn't have gain last Christmas.

So let's dive right in further detail about our new friend Ghrelin.

We've all been there. We ate about an hour ago, you get bored at home and you "feel" like you can snack on something. But really you don't need to. Your brain is telling you no, but your body is telling you yes. Then you find yourself in the fridge and pantry going through every snack you have ever bought in the last month and feel disgusted that you finished off a half eaten bag of chips.



Ghrelin is your hunger hormone and is produced in your hypothalamus (in your brain) kidneys and along with your pituitary gland. (That was just an lesson from good old high school bio) Ghrelin is also synthesized in and released by the stomach whenever its empty, throughout the night and when you wake up each day. 

Here is the important thing to remember, Ghrelin follows a schedule, this schedule is based on your eating routine. Now if you plan your meals accordingly you can keep your hunger signals in check. But if you tend to skip meals, like forgetting to eat breakfast, you end up feeling hungry all the time and end up snacking; then when you're supposed to eat, your too full, and then the whole world explodes.

This is the spiral you don't want to go down. To make matters worse if you combine a horrible eating schedule along with bad sleep habits you get a shit storm. Ghrelin and poor sleep are like the annoying couple you know. Always posting pictures on Facebook, doing things, and you could care less if they bought matching T Shirts over the weekend.

The lack of sleep impacts the hormone levels in your brain which in turn pushes ghrelin to activate more frequently and there you have it, you are snacking uncontrollably. Now if this sounds like you, a simple step is to work on better sleep quality and a better eating schedule.

This is why I nag my clients to make it a habit to eat every 3-4 hours and have at least 7 hours of solid sleep.

If you can control these two factors, you can do anything when it comes to any fitness related goal!

Let me know if you have any questions!


Thursday, October 8, 2015

Hormones and Fat Loss Part One!

Hello Everyone!

I've been reading a lot lately about hormones and how they are directly related to fat loss or any fitness related goal.

With a clear understanding how your hormones work inside of you, you will have a better grasp how to utilize them to your advantage. These hormones I will blog about in then next couple instalments all affect your mental, physical, social and emotional well being; with having such a huge impact on your life, it might be a good idea to know the 101 when it comes to hormones.

This week I want to focus on a hormone named Leptin. Since this name is derived from the greek word leptos meaning "thin" I think it is appropriate to use a good looking body photo for the cover of this blog.


And don't worry I won't discriminate, here is another one.




Now that we are done drooling over these fitness model's bodies, lets talk about leptin.

This one hormone in particular is very interesting, it plays a huge role in dropping the lbs when dieting. Since fitness models' job is to look lean for photo shoots they might not know but, when they go into their "cutting" phase, leptin is responsible for their bodies when achieving that lean chiselled look. But at the same time your body is smarter than you and will stop the process quick enough at a certain point, which is when you get frustrated with your fat loss and it hits a wall.

Does this sound familiar?

An example of this is when you see someone or yourself maybe drop pounds within days or weeks then hits a stand still. This is because of this little hormone in your body.

Leptin is responsible for regulating your metabolism along with other hormones such as your T3 and T4 (think thyroid for this one) When leptin reaches high levels your production of T3 and T4 will also go up. This process allows you to burn fat at a fast rate; but then when leptin levels drop, the other hormones drop as well.

Here is where the storm hits.... Leptin is produced in fat cells, which makes sense when you see the biggest loser constants loose 30lbs in one week. It's because they have a lot of fat, and a lot of leptin to help them melt that fat.

But, leptin is directly related to calories. When you eat less calories your leptin levels drop....Which causes your progress to a complete stop. Which also makes sense in the biggest loser example, as they go on, its more difficult for them to loose weight.

Now you're probably thinking....... I need to eat less to burn fat, but eating less destroys my ability to produce leptin, and leptin burns fat.... Makes no sense and its a giant circle of crap.

Well, shit what do I do now?


I will tell you. Things like:

  • hitting the weights at least 2x a week in the gym 
  • planned cheat days
  • high protein intake
  • low intake of fructose
  • and only dropping your calories to no more than 500 calories per week.
All of these any other strategies allow you to regulate and maintain optimal leptin levels for optimal fat loss.

Wow, who knew that hormones played such a huge role when it comes to fat loss?

Let me know if you have any questions!


Thursday, October 1, 2015

New Trend: Waist Trainers; the next worst thing in the industry.

When it comes to celebrities, people follow. If they wear certain clothing, eat a special diet, or endorse any product, people will buy.

Sometimes celebrities choose great companies and products, but most of the time, they are looking to make $$$ and will sacrifice whatever moral they have left in their souls to do so.

So here we go, it's time to bash on yet another ridiculous fad - The Waist Trainer.

If you don't know what a waist trainer is, its a device that resembles a corset from the early 15th century. The theory behind it, is your body will eventually mold into an hour glass figure, as the waist trainer promotes "shaping" and toning" effects to your body.

When you combine people like Kim Kardashian, Amber Rose and women on Instagram that post pictures like these









No wonder women would jump on this trend in a heart beat. Now lets look at the cause and effect with this contraption. 

I found this picture below to give you an idea what this promoting posture does to your insides. I am not sure who is responsible for the photo, but it gives a glimpse of what goes on when your body is strapped to this crazy device. 




I can't stand behind the intestines in this photo, but the rib cage and diaphragm I can. When you put yourself into this straight jacket your ribs go with it. Your ribs have slight movement in them; they move freely when you inhale and exhale, if your ribs are limited in motion, you wont be able to take a deep breathe in.

What happens when you can't breathe? You pass out....

There are numerous reviews and stories about this waist trainer where women have fractured/broken ribs because it was strapped on too tight; and passing out as they could not breathe efficiently

This whole idea of spot/fat reducing doesn't exist, but some how people believe it works. Sure squeezing the crap out of your love handles for 3 hours could make it appear smaller, but the next day you wake up, you are back to square one.

Why would you put yourself "in a such an uncomfortable position" (that was a Kim Kardashian quote BTW...) when 1. You should be comfortable with who you are, your flaws are what makes you perfect and 2. If you want your body to change, its dedicated hard work, there is no easy way out!