Smart Health Talk Resolutions

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10 Smart Health Resolutions that can improve your health, and quality of life.

#1: Drop that extra weight slowly to avoid putting pounds back on.

➡ Always shoot for getting healthier versus thinner. With only 10% of the population genetically able to have that model thin frame, most of us are doomed from the beginning by setting that as a goal.

➡ Avoid setting yourself up for failure by setting realistic goals. Those that say, “I want to go from size 16 to wearing those size 6 clothes in my closet from high school” may never get to experience the feeling of success. Instead, say, “I will lose 8-10 pounds by Valentine’s Day, an additional 8-10 pounds by April Fool’s Day, another 8-10 pounds by Memorial Day, and finally I will lose 8-10 pounds by the 4th of July.”

➡ Work on changing one behavior at a time. Don't try and change all of your bad habits overnight. Pick one you feel you have the greatest chance of successfully changing and focus on that one. Once you experience success, the skills and confidence you have built from the experience can help you take on the harder ones.

➡ Start with your beverages and lose a pound every two weeks. By grabbing a water instead of a 20 oz soda (250 calories of refined liquid carbs) per day, you can lose/prevent one pound every two weeks. After the poundage is gone, chances are you won't be thinking, "I sure wish I would have chosen to drink that high calorie beverage choice instead of water so I could have kept those uncomfortable extra pounds on my body."

➡ Artificial sweeteners could be making you fat. With the creation of the super sweet artificial sweeteners we are becoming a society that can't be satisfied with the true taste of foods and beverages. We have now been conditioned to only like something if it is super sweet so when we try and drink low sugar teas or water "it is not sweet enough." There is something else happening as well that could be telling your body to store more fat.

➡ The brain eats a signal food is on the way with artificial sweeteners. When you drink a zero calorie beverage that contains artificial sweetener, there is a message sent to your brain as soon as it touches your tongue that says food is on the way. This triggers a secretion of insulin into the blood to get ready. Problem is there is no food, and therefore no glucose for the insulin to move into cells. This "faking out" the body could be causing even more problems, but because it could involve complex chemicals in the brain more research is being done.

➡ At the end of the day you are probably eating the same amount of calories even though you choose artificially sweetened beverages. Many people compensate for "calories saved" and eat extra so no big savings. There could be other changes in the chemicals in these sweeteners when they get hot, so be careful about storage. The Center for Science in the Public Interest recommends you completely avoid Saccharin, Aspartame, Acesulfame-K. Splenda (Sucralose) is chlorinated sucrose that is 600 times sweeter than sugar. You have to decide if putting chlorine in your body is worth it.

➡ Limit and dilute juice by 50%, and choose low calorie/low sugar coconut water instead of sports drinks. Since juice is concentrated fruit and fruit is high in sugar, guess what's in juice? Concentrated sugar! What if it is made from apples that contained residue from 20 pesticides what do you get? Concentrated pesticides. So choose organic when possible and dilute it by 50% and you end up with twice as many glasses of juice making organic half the cost. Added bonus is you only consume half the calories.

➡ Control your portion sizes by starting off with a smaller plate, bowl, and glass. Avoid overeating and the extra calories that come with it when you start off with a smaller container. Eat slower and enjoy the flavor to avoid a "tired and overstuffed" feeling later. Use contrasting colors when possible (white mashed potatoes on a blue plate) so your eye can do a better job of telling your brain how much food is really there. How many of us are blindly eating food with little or no pleasure, or punishing ourselves for overeating by turning off our brain and just going through the motions of chew and swallow without creating a memory to go with it?

➡ Higher quality food is more likely to be eaten than wasted. When you put effort and a little extra money into quality food for your body you pay more attention, just like if you were to buy a $300 pair of sunglasses. Chances are you keep better track of those than a $5 pair. Paying a little more for organic fresh vegetables, is a great start to an awakening of the food/body connection. You are not only more apt to eat them before they spoil, but you might just think about what a great thing you are doing for your body as well. Maybe that feeling of doing something great for your health will give you a greater feeling of satisfaction with less food.

➡ Remember fried foods soak up oil/fat which always adds at least 100 calories a tablespoon and can contain poisonous transfats that give you heart disease. Another good reason to limit fat is because how much easier it is for your body to store fat when it is already fat as compared to protein and vegetables which has to go through multiple steps to transform those foods into fat. Eating a lot of fat at one meal quickly raises fat levels in your blood too. Those circulating fats increase the odds more fat will accumulate and clog your arteries especially if they are saturated or transfats.

➡ Use "good fats" to help you stay full longer. Fat stays in the stomach longer to help us not get hungry as quickly, but many people choose the wrong kind of fats that can either be harmful or compete with all important Omega 3s leaving us deficient and our brain and body vulnerable. Fat is in every cell in our body, but the quality of those cells is only as good as the fat that was used to build them. Choose olive oil or grape seed oil for high heat cooking. Add more Omega 3s from sustainable and safe fish sources, Salba/chia/flax seeds, avocados, and nuts for building the healthiest cells. Our brains want Omega 3s, but most people are deficient. New research is showing this deficiency is slowing down our brain and impacting our mood causing more depression. Non Omega 3 oils are abundant in our foods, and edge out Omega 3s. Choose Omega 3 sources #1 always and you will build a better brain and lower your risk of heart disease.

➡ Avoid refined carbohydrates. Not all carbs are the same. Get to know which ones are best for your health. Best rule of thumb with carbs is to choose those that also contain fiber. It is the fiber that slows the release of sugar into the bloodstream. Never eat just pure refined sugar or flour in one meal. Check labels for fiber content, ingredients such as whole grains, and choose complex carbohydrates such as those found in fruits and vegetables, beans, lentils, quinoa, and Salba (Salba adds fiber, Omega 3s, and nutrients).

➡ Choose good quality proteins that are low in saturated fats and hopefully high in Omega 3s. Plant proteins are always good choices because they also give you fiber so beans, lentils, and nuts are great sources that can satisfy hunger and are a great bargain for getting the most nutrition bang for your buck.

➡ Consider buying organic eggs. Organic eggs are probably the best animal protein bargain on the shelf and have not been given any growth hormones, or genetically modified feeds. They have to be raised on more expensive organic feed, and are treated humanely. Only about $0.30 an egg means you could eat three for under a dollar!

➡ Grassfed organic beef not only is free of hormones and antibiotics, but is usually high in Omega 3s and many other nutrients. Meat can only have Omega 3s if the cows eat grass. The practice to feed genetically modified corn (sprayed with pesticides), to cattle and dairy cows can contribute to Omega 3 deficiency in humans which can lead to all kinds of health and mental problems. Sustainable fish is always a great choice, and easy to identify with the Monterey Bay Aquarium phone app. This app also lets you know if the fish could be high in mercury. Click here to find it.

➡ Don’t forget to reward yourself. It is human nature to want to get something in return for working hard and making sacrifices to achieve your goals. Figure out a reward ahead of time, and try and make it something that reinforces you to keep going such as a new outfit to wear to the gym.

Besides reducing your risk of dying from the #1 killer heart disease, your body gets all kinds of other benefits from dropping the extra weight. Our bodies were not designed to carry all kinds of fat and be able to work at a level that "preserves health." Instead it makes it harder to do everything including pump the heart. Most eat the wrong foods and are sedentary. Not challenging and giving your body any kind of workout causes muscles to shrink, and the ratio of fat to muscle to change dramatically.

Burden put on body to carry extra weight is HUGE. Everything is harder to do, and cannot preserve life as efficiently. Fat forms around internal organs, especially heart, and slows digestion giving food a chance to go rancid and form poisons that can end up being taken all over the body. Bones cannot deal with the stress and become malformed.

If you wonder why it takes time to "get in shape" and why the pounds are not dropping off faster, here's your answer. Muscle tissue is very dense like a rock and takes up less space than fat. One pound of it uses up many more calories than a pound of fat. That is why those with more muscle burn more calories when at rest and not exercising. Bottom line you will be able to eat more without gaining weight. Fat is like styrofoam, is less dense than a rock/muscle and takes up more room. Explains why your clothes get looser when you exercise and gain muscle, but the scale does not change. Takes week/months to build this complex tissue, but once you are there takes much less work to keep it than trying to build it. So in other words you will have to work out much less to keep muscle that to build it. So once in shape, do everything you can to stay there because it will be so much easier than if the muscle is lost.

When you change your fat to muscle ratio so muscle is a lot higher than fat after exercising, there is a lot of other things happening in your favor that is going to reduce your risk of death, and help you to be sexier too. One example of what will happen that you will not see is that your body will start to make more growth hormone. It is the sexy hormone and will change how you feel and look. That hormone also helps bones to stay stronger, muscles to get bigger and many other things associated with life extension. Blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar will all improve. Recovery times will be shorter so you can go longer and harder. Not such a bad thing if you want to go out and live your life to the fullest!

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Smart Health Talk Guest Kevin Sorbo

Click here to listen to our interview with Kevin Sorbo.

NOT ALL CALORIES CREATED EQUAL SO SPEND YOUR CALORIES WISELY

Look at foods in bottom rows. Most all have a lot of calories for small amount of food (total grams). Organic fruits fresh and dried, vegetables (lowest calories), nuts, legumes (beans, lentils), grassfed meats, wild salmon, sustainable fish low in mercury, nitrate free meats, eggs, and dairy will deliver much more nutrition bang for your calories and bucks. Go for nuts instead of the other refined carb choices toward the bottom of this list. Nuts and dried fruit have concentrated nutrition so twice the nutrition for the calories even though eating less grams of food. Remember any oil or fat is a 100 calories a Tablespoon. Why fried foods have so many calories. May oils from fast food restaurants are GMO and easily turn rancid so oil can be cancer causing. Breading is full of refined carbohydrates that soak up oil to add calories. Choose only good fats such as olive, grapeseed, coconut, nut and seed oils like walnut, sesame, macadamia, and peanut. Nuts are also full of fiber, nutrition, and good fats so feel satisfied faster and longer. All keep you full longer, and if you don't eat refined carbs, sugars, or heavily fried foods you can eat more nuts!

Some calories deliver a NEGATIVE RETURN because contain chemicals, pesticides, & GMOs. Our body gets more toxins than nutrients so body put in state of emergency not nourishing, repair, building, and regenerating mode.