Healthy Living - Exercise Tips & Nutritional Advice

Insulin is the master hormone, it governs pretty much every other hormone in some way and management of it is critical if muscular gain or fat loss is your priority.

Insulin has the ability to increase the uptake of protein into cells, as well as increasinganabolic (Building/Regenerative) processes it can also help decrease catabolic (degenerative) processes.

To make insulin work for us depends on the individual but fundamentally it involves consuming carbs and protein together. Insulin then under the right environment and at the right levels triggers anabolism and delivers the amino acids for protein synthesis (Muscle adaptation).

Managing Insulin is all about the diet and what we’re looking for is a small spike in most cases, enough to drive those nutrients into tissue.

The only meal as a note that requires a rapid and high spike in insulin is the post workout.

During a workout we have damaged tissue and driven blood sugar down. This needs a reactive spike to bring blood sugar and insulin levels back to baseline and also drive amino acids to repair the damaged cells. Utilizing a post workout carb and protein drink is critical as this speeds up the absorption. Irrelevant of the makeup of an individual I would in almost ALL cases recommend a 2:1 ratio of carbs and protein post workout

PROTEIN

The human body is in a constant state of protein turnover. Anything that is cellular is constantly being degradation or breakdown. Insufficient consumption of protein means that the body remains in a state of degeneration stealing amino acids from non-critical to maintain critical function. Protein has a large amount of factors as to its turnover rate, hormones, diet and training to name but a few. When we influence Insulin and any other anabolic hormone positively that number goes UP.

There have been countless studies on optimal intake but some of the best results have been shown when purely mass building at 2 to 3g/kg. of bodyweight.

If we refer back to the initial points:           

Increase Anabolic hormones and decrease catabolic hormones.

Increase Protein and nutrient turnover.

BCAA’s

The use of BCAAs during training is once again something I will re-iterate, read my past articles for more info but these are a few of the finer points.

• It helps to regulate and promote protein synthesis and reduce degradation.
• It helps with the anabolic/catabolic hormone ratio
• Raises Growth hormone and Insulin during a workout.

ZINC

It has been shown that there is a worldwide prevalence in Zinc deficiency and also that is plays a large role in modulating testosterone levels.

Check out our BioSignature program to learn more about your insulin levels and how to control them.

To gain the most muscle growth from your workouts, you need to know how to eat before and after each and every training session.

In fact, the hour before training and the 3 hours after training will play a critical role in your success or failure at building muscle. This is the most productive window of time for nutritional enhancement.

From the time I've spent in the gym as a personal trainer, I can honestly say that most people don't reach their goals for one reason: they don't know how to eat to maximize muscle growth.

And the fastest way to start packing on muscle mass and increasing strength is to take advantage of the anabolic window of opportunity before and after weight training. 

When you eat the right kinds of foods after intense training, your body is in a prime state to release muscle building hormones like testosterone, insulin, growth hormone, and cortisol.

High blood insulin levels increase protein synthesis in your muscles by up to 50%. Weight training can stimulate protein synthesis up to 100% and amino acids taken after a weight training workout can increase muscle building by 150%.

But the best thing is, taking in amino acids right after a heavy, intense weight training workout can stimulate protein synthesis by up to 200%!

That's why it's important to take a protein and carb combination right after training. It can be through whole food or you can use protein shakes mixed with juice or Gatorade.

You can also add some creatine and glutamine at this point as well.

About 2 hours after training, it's good to have a whole food meal. This will give your body more nutrients to stop any chance of muscle tissue breakdown.

Finally, 3 hours after training, take a meal replacement shake to continuously replenish lost glycogen stores, replace energy nutrients, and preserve the lean muscle tissue. 

So, a total of 1 small protein and carb-rich meal about a half hour before training and then 3 meals within the 3 hour time period after training.

The combination of these will ensure your body is kept in a muscle building anabolic state throughout your workout and well after.

Losing weight is a never-ending battle for some people, but if you really think about it, it’s a pretty simple process.

The key is to eat foods that make you feel full instead of eating foods that make you feel hungry an hour or two later – pretty easy huh.

Here are some simple tips to help you eat smarter. 

• Eat foods that make you feel full
• Eat fiber rich foods
• Avoid sugary snacks, soft drinks and high carbohydrate foods!

I make it sound simple, but of course it’s not that easy in reality. We’re all tempted by snacks filled with sugar, soft drinks and carbohydrates everyday at work and at home. That being said, it is possible to slowly start changing your eating habits so that you start working healthy foods into your diet little by little.

How Sugar-Filled Foods and High-Carb Foods are Related

It’s important to understand how sugar-filled treats – such as soda, cake, lollies, and other vending machine “delights” – are all related to foods such as white bread, regular pastas, and rice. When we eat these sugar-filled, high-carb foods, our bodies turn it into sugar (glucose) which is then stored as the dreaded fat that we all work so hard to avoid.

Curb Your Appetite and Avoid Sugar and Carbs at the Same Time

It’s possible to make yourself feel more “full” at mealtime by introducing more protein into your diet with a steady diet of lean meats, such as chicken and fish, along with an occasional steak or two. Also important is to eat plenty of fiber-rich vegetables and whole wheat breads, pastas, and rice.

Protein, fiber, and fat are digested slowly by your body and thus your body feels more full. Eating carbs, even if it’s a large quantity, makes you hungry within a couple of hours, whereas high-protein foods will leave you full and satisfied until your next meal.

Hopefully these tips will help you to control your next midnight sweet craving.

Highest Fiber Vegetables 

Avocado
Beans
Broccoli*
Brussels sprouts*
Cabbage*
Carrot
Chick Peas/Garbanzo Beans
Eggplant
Greens -- collards, kale, turnip greens*
Lima beans
Mushrooms
Potato with skin
Pumpkin, canned
Peas -- black-eyed peas, green peas
Peppers 
Rhubarb
Spinach*
Sweet Potatoes

* These high-fiber vegetables are also goitrogenic, meaning that they promote thyroid enlargement and can potentially cause or aggravate hypothyroidism. Typically, the risk is highest when these foods are consumed raw, regularly, and in substantial quantity. Cooking eliminates most goitrogenic properties.

Highest Fiber Fruits
Apples
Avocado
Bananas
Berries -- Blueberies, Blackberries, Raspberries, etc.
Dried Fruits -- Figs, Raisins, Apricots, Dates, etc.
Guava
Kiwi
Orange
Pears
Prunes

Other High Fiber Foods
Beans, Lentils, Lima Beans 
Nuts -- Almonds, Brazil nuts, Peanuts, Walnuts, Cashews

Look for DBP, DEP, DEHP, BzBP, and DMP in the ingredients; all are chemical estrogens

Ladies do you have unwanted body fat around the hips and thighs.

It may be due to estrogen storage from chemical toxins in the cosmetics.

Anything in the below picture that says Hormonal Disruptions will contribute to a Hormone imbalance and contribute to body fat storage.

The chemicals are absorbed into the body via the skin, the bodies largest organ. The chemicals that the body can't detox are stored in fat. 

Get you body fat measured with us, using Charles Poliquin's BioSignature method.

http://www.harboursidefitness.com.au/pages/view/62/biosignature

BioSignature goes beyond standard body fat testing and REVEALS your BLUEPRINT for FASTER FAT LOSS!

The novel concept of Biosignature was developed by world-renowned strength coach Charles Poliquin after noticing trends and correlations while working with athletes for nearly 30 years.  Biosignature is a system based on scientific evidence that where people store their body fat is an indication of their hormonal profile.

This means that your body fat levels and corresponding imbalanced hormones can be effectively managed through a combination of diet, exercise, a targeted supplementation program, and lifestyle modifications.  A trained BioSignature practitioner will develop that plan for you based on YOUR unique biological signature. This means FASTER results and FEWER supplements than is possible with the industry's typically more random and haphazard approach.

For example, the thickness of a person's umbilical skin fold (your gut) is a direct reflection of cortisol (the stress hormone) output. A relatively fat midsection indicates stress levels are high and/or the ability to handle stress is low.  The good news is that 1) it's not your fault and, 2) it can be changed.

The result is improved performance in ALL areas of your life - physical, mental and intellectual.  By following your personal plan, you will emerge leaner, stronger, healthier, happier, and more energetic.

Find out how to put in less effort and achieve greater results by booking an appointment to find out more about your BioSignature and discover the secrets that have previously only been available to top athletes. Isn't it time you heard the truth about how to avoid needless years of disappointment and get rapid results NOW -- even faster than those popular reality shows! 

Contact me for a consultation and get started on you perfect body today.

You’ll also want to add the healthy fat CLA to your supplement regimen. CLA can significantly aid fat loss while simultaneously enhancing hypertrophy and strength gains. Research shows it can even help specifically target ab fat. Although CLA is best known for its anticancer properties, researchers have also found that the cis-9, trans-11 form of CLA can reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease and help fight inflammation. CLA is also known for its body weight management properties, which include reducing body fat and increasing lean muscle mass.

Over 30 clinical studies have been published investigating the effect of CLA on weight management. The trials have quite variable designs, which leads to inconsistency. However a meta-analysis conducted in 2007 concluded CLA has a small impact on fat mass.

Dietary sources Kangaroo meat may have the highest concentration of CLA. Food products from grass-fed ruminants (e.g. mutton and beef) are good sources of CLA, and contain much more of it than those from grain-fed animals. In fact, meat and dairy products from grass-fed animals can produce 300-500% more CLA than those of cattle fed the usual diet of 50% hay and silage, and 50% grain.

See your healthy meals page for Kangaroo, fennel and caraway burger 

There was a time when everyone was told to eat plenty of bread, rice and potatoes and to worry more about fat than sugar. But now that we're in an epidemic of obesity and diabetes, nutrition experts are saying you can have too much of a good thing, and we need to be more careful about the type and amount of carbs we eat.

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates (carbs) are one of the four nutrients in food that provide kilojoules, or energy, to fuel the body. Carbs can be divided into two main groups: sugars and starches. In fact, starches are made up of lots of sugar molecules stuck together, and so when digested, both starches and sugars produce sugar in the body. Sugar produced by eating carbs is sent around the body in the blood and can be measured by a blood sugar level.

What do carbs do?

Carbs are the body's primary fuel, a bit like petrol in a car. Carbs give us energy to work our heart, lungs, kidneys, brain and muscles. Carbs are particularly important to fuel the brain, helping us to think clearly and to balance our mood, as well as to power muscles during exercise.

Are carbs fattening?

Any food can be fattening if you overeat. It doesn't seem to matter a whole lot whether your food is high in fat or carbs, but how much you eat in total (ie. kilojoules). Pure carbs have the same number of kilojoules per gram as pure protein, but around half the kilojoules of pure fat.

Watching the type of carbs: the glycemic index (GI)

You can't talk about carbs without mentioning the glycemic index (GI). The GI is a way of comparing different carbs by ranking their effect on blood sugar levels. High GI carbs cause a rapid rise and decline in blood sugars, whereas low GI carbs have a more gradual and longer lasting effect. Moderate GI carbs are somewhere in the middle. The benefits of low GI foods are for people with diabetes who struggle to keep their blood sugar and insulin levels down at a normal level, however including more low GI foods has also been shown to reduce the risk of developing diabetes. A low GI diet might also help with weight control as low GI foods tend to be more satisfying.

Choosing lower GI carbs

Lowering the GI of your diet is as simple as swapping a high GI food for a lower GI alternative and it can taste just as good.

Higher GI food

1. Mash potato
2. Jasmine rice
3. White bread
4. Orange-flavoured soft drink
5. Jelly beans
6. Rice pasta
7. Boiled potato
8. Rice cracker

Lower GI alternative

1. Sweet potato
2. Basmati rice
3. Multi-grain bread
4. Orange juice, unsweetened
5. Dried apricots
6. Regular spaghetti
7. 4 bean mix
8. Rye crispbread

Good carbs and bad carbs

The main thing to think about when choosing healthier carbs is how nutritious is the food? Sugary foods such as lollies and soft drinks have often been called 'empty kilojoule' foods because they don't offer much else besides pure energy, whereas sugar-containing foods, such as fruit and milk, and starchy foods like bread and pasta - especially wholegrain types - offer other nutrients as well, such as protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. For a healthy diet, choose the good carbs with more nutritional value.

What does insulin do?

Insulin is a hormone that has many functions in the body, but a major one is to move sugar from the blood into every cell in the body to do its work, and to store the energy for later use. It's often called the storage hormone for this reason. It's thought that having too much insulin in the body causes weight gain because the body is in 'storage mode'.

What about diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition where blood sugar levels become too high because insulin doesn't work properly (type 2), or the body stops making insulin (type 1). Type 2 diabetes is the most common and often involves too much insulin in the body as it struggles to pump out more insulin to make up for its lack of effect.

Portion size matters!

Just because a food has a low GI, it doesn't mean you can eat as much as you like. Equally, high GI foods don't have to be off-limits, just go easy and enjoy in moderation. Overeating any food can cause weight gain, and overeating any carbs over the long term can disrupt your body's metabolic balance.

As a general rule natural is aways better. If it had to be "made" then is not the best choice

Make the right choice next time your in the supermarket.

Paleo

The paleo diet is sometimes referred to as the "caveman" diet. In other words, if our ancestors didn't eat it, you don't eat it. It's pretty simple. No grains, no dairy, no processed foods. Meat, fish, veggies, fruit and nuts. That's it!

Pros:

premium quality of food
low amount of inflammatories in your diet
simple to understand
all natural ingredients
so easy a caveman can do it

Cons:

very restricted diet
can be expensive
requires lots of planning and frequent trips to the market

Contact Daniel or Dave@harboursidefitness.com.au for more info and your free ebooks

A paleo diet for the 21st century, Paleo eating for Modren People an Recipes for the 21st Century Hunter Gatherer.

Nuts

Nuts are good for you, they are a power house of great nutrition that can aid in the reduction of heart disease. Full of Monounsaturated fats (good fats), vitamin E, folic acid, magnesium, copper, fiber, heaps of protein and rich in antioxidants. Nuts have been shown to lower LDL (bad cholesterol) and raise HDL (good cholesterol) levels. It has been shown that nuts can dilate and prevent hardening of arteries walls, taking pressure off your heart. A hand full of nuts with breakfast, lunch or dinner and your body will feel the difference, also a great snack between meals. 

Latest research has shown that our bodys continue to burn calories long after we have finished a workout. This shows that exercises has a big impact during and after work outs on our bodies fat stores, this continued fat burning can last up to and over 14 hours depending on the intensity of the workout. To get the best results you should be breaking a sweat, breathing heavily, have an elevated heart rate and increase body temperature, basically that your working hard. To make that effort count it all depends on what you do after, so stay away from sugars and simple carbohydrate and energy drinks and eat Meats, Vegetables, Nuts, Seeds and some Fruits and drink Water.  

Coconut Oil

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength.

These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial. 1 to 2 teaspoons a day is recommended for maximum benefits

A fundamental exercise that everyone should practice.

Stay away of the machines and get on the floor.

The push up works the chest, shoulder and arm muscles, helping create a strong shoulder girdle while also strengthening and stabilizing you from your head down to your toes.

Acting in the same way as the plank the push up really works the core.

Set up

- Start flat on the ground with toes tuck in
- Straight neck, looking at the floor
- Hands just wider then the shoulders
- Hands inline with the chest, not the shoulders
- Tight mid section
- Drive through the hands and squeeze the chest till arms are straight

Eat Spinach

A rich source of many essential vitamins and minerals, filled with calcium A, B and C vitamins plus fiber, folic acid, magnesium, spinach can claim a special place among vegetables. Researchers have identified more than a dozen different flavonoid compounds in spinach that function as anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer agents. Spinach also oxidative stress-related problems, cardiovascular problems and bone problems at the same time.

Remember to wash all your fruit and vegetables after buying them to help wash off some of the chemicals used to keep them fresh and insect free.

Being nothing more then the movement we all use to pick something up off the ground

Whether you want to boost your metabolism, increase strength or lean body mass, decrease body fat, rehabilitate your back or maintain functional movement through the rest of your life the deadlift is a must exercise to master. 

The Movement

- Natural stance with feet under hips and toes under bar
- Hands grip bar just outside of knees
- Shoulder a little forward of bar with chest up
- Tight midsection with shoulders drawn back
- Weight on heels, shoulders and hip raise at the same time
- Once bar passes the knee pull back and stand tall
- Bar stays close to body

Fats are good for you

The total amount of fat you eat isn't really linked with disease. What really matters is the type of fats you eat. The "bad" fats saturated and trans saturated fats increase the risk for certain diseases.

Bad fats - Sugars, vegetable oils, deep fried foods, butter, cheese and cream.

Good fats - The "good" fats monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats help lower the risk of disease by lowering LDL (bad cholesterol) and raising HDL (good cholesterol). The best source is extra virgin olive oil. Other good sources include olives, almonds, peanuts, pecans, hazelnuts, avocados, salmon, pumpkin and sesame seeds all filled with omega 3 and 6’s.

The key to a healthy diet is to substitute bad fats for good fats and to avoid trans fats. The replacement of trans fats with polyunsaturated and/or monounsaturated fatty acids which help lower blood cholesterol levels. This can be achieved by eating less high fat processed foods and more fresh nut,s fruits and vegetables.

A basic yet challenging exercise, working all areas of your core. This exercise and its variations will strengthen your abs, back and hips giving you great core stability and strength. The main reason is to save your back from injury, especially your lower back. It's the deep core muscles that do most of the stabilising. But the plank is great because it works the deep core muscles, as well as the larger core muscles that surround them.

Position

- Come down onto your forearms and knees or toes.
- Aim for a straight line from your neck and ankles.
- Hold for 10 seconds and relax for 10, 4 times. Aim for 60 seconds holds.

Progress by holding 1 arm or/and leg off the ground.
Keep your body weight balanced and focus on working your core muscles (abs, back and hips), rather than your legs and arms. Keep breathing throughout. Take steady breaths.

Eat meats, vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruits, little starch and no sugar.

Many of the health issues we suffer from today are linked to what we eat. Try to eat fresh and natural while staying away from processed food.

The squat is a natural, vital and essential movement for your well-being. Squatting can keep your hips, back and knees strong and functioning well into your later years. Other benefits include flexibility, balance, neuromuscular coordination and total body strength.

When the squat is performed correctly, virtually every muscle in the body is moving in a coordinated effort. When this happens the body will naturally produce more testosterone, insulin-like growth hormone, and human growth hormone (HGH). Bone density increases and muscles and connective tissue get stronger.  

Our bodies haven’t adapted to our sedentary life, that’s why it is imperative that we use exercises that most closely resemble our most basic genetic programming. 

 Tips to improve your squat

- Weight on Heels
- Maintain lumbar curve with your chest up
- Bottom moves back and then down keeping chest up and looking forward
- Knee’s travel inline with feet