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What should you eat before and after a HIIT workout?

Pre and Post-Workout nutrition enhances the effectiveness of your workouts

Let’s talk about some benefits of consuming some nutrition before the workout.

Do you want to reduce body fat and get lean? Use nutrient timing to enhance fat loss and get lean.

Carbs can be your friend, if you stay active

Carbs can be your friend, if you stay active

Pre-Workout Nutrition benefits

If you consume nutrition pre-workout, you may:

  • Fuel your workout, so you push harder and make progressions
  • Feel energized and improve recovery for afterwards
  • Preserve more lean tissue while eliminating fat

We can talk about the post-workout foods next.

Post-Workout Nutrition benefits

Consuming nutrition post-workout is very valuable for these reasons

  • Faster muscle recovery and potentially reduces soreness
  • Increases protein synthesis to protect muscle and burn fat
  • Helps with recovery of many systems in the body
  • Best time to consume nutrition is within 0 to 60 minutes of exercise

What should you eat pre/before and post/after a workout?

Most of the nutrition research and our experiences lead us to the same elements.

  1. Water
  2. Protein or amino acids
  3. Carbohydrates
Supplements can make it easy, especially if you aren't hungry after the workout

Supplements can make it easy, especially if you aren’t hungry after the workout

The protein is necessary for muscle recovery, even if your number 1 goal is to burn fat. The carbohydrates also improve muscle recovery by drawing more protein and refilling the stored muscular energy. If the calories are low enough, you will burn a lot of fat and be able to feel great after your workout.

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion
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Fresh Juice for Fat Loss and Detox

Have you or your friends ever gone on a juice detox?

Maybe there is some benefit to going on a juice cleanse, but I am more in the category of having fresh juice as a regular part of your diet. What are the benefits of fresh juice for fat loss?

Benefits of Fresh Juice include…

There are many benefits to fresh juice.

  • Extremely high antioxidant value
  • Very easy to digest so it supports the gut health and therefore the immune system
  • Provides a plethora of easily absorbed vitamins and minerals
  • Takes the work and time out of eating a lot of vegetables

My favorite juice

Carrot / Beet / Ginger

Extremely high nutrient density found in this fresh Carrot/Beet/Ginger/Parsley juice and Wheatgrass shot.

Extremely high nutrient density found in this fresh Carrot/Beet/Ginger/Parsley juice and Wheatgrass shot.

Let’s examine a little bit deeper here.

Carrots: A fantastic base for the juice and actually juices very well so your juicing machine processes it well. Tons of beta-carotene which can be converted inside the body to Vitamin A if needed. Tastes great and protects your skin from free radicals.

Beets: I could go on and on about beets. The antioxidants in beets are superior for the immune system and other components of beets have been proven over and over again to improve the oxygen pathways in and out of the cells. Beets are nature’s version of N.O. Xplode, except way better for you. Beets also support kidney and liver detox and so much more.

Ginger: Wow, Ginger truly is the “Great Root” as branded by Rachel’s Ginger Beer here in Seattle. I remember reading about the benefits of ginger from a book by the founder of New Chapter herbs. Aside from the potent anti-inflammatory effects of ginger (to support recovery), Ginger improves the composition of bacteria in the body. In fact, research is showing that the combination of bacteria in your gut may be related to your ability to burn fat. IF your stomach bacteria is opportunistic and unhealthy, you will struggle to lose weight. On the other hand, if you have many healthy symbiotic bacterial colonies in your stomach, then fat loss comes easier. Ginger, you are the great root.

I love this juice. It helps me make up for the not-so-good things that I might partake in or be exposed to. From there, you can add so many things… Lemon, kale, parsley, garlic, cucumber, celery, apple, orange, etc etc.

Fresh Juice is your ally, Odwalla is not.

There’s a cost/benefit decision that must be made for most things in life. Fresh Juice contains tons of antioxidants, enzymes, and an overall abundance of nutrients so it is worth drinking these liquid calories. On the other hand, pasteurized store-bought juice is no longer a “living food.”

If you were thirsty, you could probably drink this in a minute or less. That's nearly 60 grams of sugar instantly being digested and likely being stored as body fat

If you were thirsty, you could probably drink this in a minute or less. That’s nearly 60 grams of sugar instantly being digested and likely being stored as body fat

Moreover, pasteurized store-bought juice typically uses apple and other sweet fruits as a base, therefore the sugar content is sure to wreck a would-be dieter’s fat loss plans. The sugar in fresh juice (such as carrot sugar) is offset by all the veggies and enzymes. On the other hand, sugar in Odwalla is excessive and will surely be stored as fat either in your belly or thighs.

Drink fresh juice for overall health and longevity

If you consumed 10-15 servings of vegetables per day, do you think you would reach your fat loss goals?

Do you think you would have a less chance of cancer and literally every other disease known to man?

Do you think you would have less symptoms for whatever you are currently dealing with?

Fresh YES!!

Well that’s that folks, stay tuned for more. Contact me if you want anything specific because I’ll write a post just for you.

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion
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5 Insights from Holistic Health for FAT LOSS

Want to burn more fat?

The goal seems simple yet our bodies respond in curious ways. Lets look at body composition.

Runners, explosiveness/strength vs endurance/distance

Differences in body comp, maybe its okay to be heavier than runway model standard or ultra endurance runner (r)

Think about body composition for a moment. You may notice an individual who is exceptionally lean no matter what they are wearing. Their body composition would indicate low levels of body fat.

How do we burn more body fat?

Focus on the gut

I think fat gets way too much attention, probably because you can see it. We can’t kill the fat cells, but we can make them smaller. The fat cells must receive hormonal signals in order to begin the burn of energy from fat cells. In other words, it’s the fat cells themselves that burn the fat, yet it’s the internal system that must first produce the signal.

Once you have a certain amount of fat cells, they can only shrink in size -- never disappear.

Once you have a certain amount of fat cells, they can only shrink in size — never disappear.

To signal fat cells to burn fat, the most common way is to workout. High intensity exercise can be short and still burn a ton of fat. The HIIT workout (example: Orangetheory) will burn fat mostly due to the hormonal release post-workout. These are the signalers that tell the fat cells to use energy and therefore get smaller.

The gut is complicated

Take a moment to think about all of the organs in your torso. There is much life within my human digestive system, it’s like totally ecological. There are so many billions of non-human life inside my body, it’s a biotic fiesta in my stomach. I like to celebrate with my gut and with my friends.

TBT may'n, back at LP Athletics trying to have healthy gut micro-flora

TBT may’n, back at LP Athletics focusing on strength and having healthy gut micro-flora

Aside from the fact that the digestive system is the biggest key to human immunity, the gut is ground zero for so many metabolic processes. The nutrients we consume from food contain catalysts for physiological, biological, and hormonal elements that life would be impossible without it. Therefore pure fat loss is impossible without nutrients.

Nutrients are the most valuable

Don’t leave it to scientists to discover everything, but it’s pretty amazing the advances in nutrient science with the last few decades. It’s unlikely we’ll understand everything about nutrition, but we can go on these ideas:

  • Nutrients come in many forms, for example: 
    • vitamins, minerals, water
    • dietary fats, carbohydrates, proteins
    • antioxidants, phytonutrients, fiber
  • Doing it right

    Doing it right

    • enzymes, pre-biotics, pro-biotics
    • curcumin, gingerols, dietary nitrates
    • etc
  • The goal is to improve symbiosis within the gut and surrounding organ systems between human cells and colonies of bacteria
    • Lactobacillus acidophilus is a commonly mentioned pro-biotic in our guts
  • A calorie is probably still a calorie, but most of us don’t really appreciate the depth at which food impacts our metabolic lives  24/7 including how fast the cells age!
    • Anti-aging strategies always involve exercise and nutrition
  • You can’t beat real food and herbal sources
    • Fresh, green food provides many catalysts for fat loss, and also for systemic health
    • High quality herbal extracts have benefited human health for thousands of years
  • It’s less about what you don’t eat, than what you do eat
    • Even if you restrict calories, you may be restricting nutrients as well
    • A low calorie poor diet is still a poor diet — dieters may become nutrient deficient if their food is not nutrient-dense.
    • The nutrients contain catalysts — cellular processes – sending signals to fat cells
    • Give your body a reason to burn fat, for example: antioxidants

You always knew it was about the gut anyway

If you’ve ever had a gut feeling, you may have experienced a range of feelings, emotions, and experiences from within the gut; Some pleasant, some anxious, others perhaps made you feel compelled to action.

Listen to the gut. Focus on nutrients. Simplify your life by consuming fresh vegetables.

And if you have a sweet tooth like me, you could be eating berries almost every day of the year. Blueberries are loaded in antioxidants. Give your body a reason to burn fat. Nutrients. Antioxidants. A reason.

You'll be excited about this when your eating window is only 8 hours long

YEEEE!!

Good luck my readership. May you eat mindfully and enjoy your existence inside and out.

and Digestion Immunity Nutrition Orangetheory Fitness Seattle Orangetheory Seattle
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How does Group/Community help people Lose Weight and Burn Fat Faster?

Making a living with (other) people’s bodies.

Philosophers will continue to ask questions about the ways in which human minds and souls intertwine whether through thought or faith. What is clear to me is that all people share a fundamental foundation of the state of health and fitness. For most people, it isn’t until you get sick that you realize how much you value health.

Maslows needs

In order to produce as a higher being than before, one must support the physiological aspect.

To truly value health is to commit to a better tomorrow

In my five year career in health / fitness around the Puget Sound, I’ve become acquaintance with many people who have struggled with health. Actually, there are a lot of people on the front lines of natural health who themselves have experienced pain or tragedy. They re-learned how to treat their bodies and re-emerged from their struggle to share meaningful stories and information with people going through something similar.

Health must have a preventative focus

At the same time, health must also require urgency. The most important act of health are those which nourish or empower the entire person. Holistic health has a focus on preventing disease of modern society. Every day is extremely important in the function of all human systems including the heart and mind.

Communities with shared health values succeed more often

You’ve heard the saying, “you are what you eat.”

Perhaps you should adopt a new one…, “you are who you spend your time around.”

The quickest way to reach your goals is to surround yourself with people who are experiencing the journey already. Health and fitness, they say is also like success, as in it is more about the journey than the destination.

I see these things as… A healthy constitution, a vessel which is rewarded by ongoing detoxification, a real human person with the thoughts and feelings of empowering their most important asset.

Burning fat is best done in the company of others burning fat

If your goal is to burn fat, aligning yourself with other people who share these values will have a profound positive effect on daily behavior. Yes we are influenced by others, so use it to your advantage.

Maybe you already are on the journey. Then, reader, I solute you. Continue to inspire the people in your life to make choices that benefit the foundation of their needs as a human. Yet, help those who want to be helped.

Finally, the benefits of group fitness summarized

  • Accountability
  • Fun
  • Motivating
  • Effective
  • Positive social outlook
  • Team aspect,
  • Yet individually competitive
  • What humans have known forever:

WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER

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Is Chronic Inflammation holding you back?

Chronic Inflammation is the pre-cursor to disease and insult to the organ system

To experience chronic inflammation, one need only go so far to consume the SAD (Standard American Diet) on a regular basis. Fast food restaurants come to mind. Soda is quite possibly the most anti-fat loss thing people consume regularly. Not only does soda erode oral health, it also causes the bones to leech minerals as an attempt to balance the pH of the system. The acidity mixed with sugar also put stress on the pancreas and liver.

To make things even worse, the quick delivery of all that sugar into the gut tends to feed the harmful, opportunistic bacteria. Then you have serious gut dysbiosis (microbial imbalance) and more and more research has shown that obese people share similar gut bacteria.

It’s about the organs, dummy.

Nah, you’re not weak of mind. You understand that eating healthy is of vital importance to making gains in fitness.

This guy ate veggies today.

This guy ate veggies today.

You can’t get rid of your past

The more years one has eaten poorly and not taken care of themselves, the more effort it will require to re-balance the body. Your lifestyle must change, is changing, or has changed in order to reach a healthier state — a fitter body. Learn from mistakes and be humble because food has power over all of us.

Antioxidants: Healing Power on Daily Basis

Wow, to think that we can consume natural foods and promote the wellness from within our own vessel. I can’t go a day without eating at least something of color. The greatest nutrient density and antioxidant power will make itself known through resilience and hues of the rainbow.

Healthy picnic at the park

Healthy picnic at the park

Promote Healthy Inflammation Regularly with Nutrition

We need a certain amount of inflammation in the right areas at the right times, balanced anywhere around the body. To do that, we have to eat healthy foods — ideally the healthiest foods on the planet.

There is access to some of the world’s healthiest foods in nearly every grocery store in America. It’s usually fresh. It may have distinct colors. It could be pungent, bitter, sweet, sour, or rich and delectable. Natural markets and delis are literally goldmines for the latest new, health trends combined with traditional healing knowledge from all parts of the world (often in the form of herbal extracts or educational products).

Extremely high nutrient density found in this fresh Carrot/Beet/Ginger/Parsley juice and Wheatgrass shot.

Extremely high nutrient density found in this fresh Carrot/Beet/Ginger/Parsley juice and Wheatgrass shot.

The truth is that we should aim to have a healthy relationship with food — being natural food. This is how you can get a fit body, beyond discussion of calories and macronutrients. Beyond basic calculations. Nothing can make up for the pure antioxidant power of healthy natural food. Eat well my friends.

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion Weightloss Now