If so, I have set up a 5 part video series that walks you through the best known progression to performing the perfect pull up. Even you don’t think that you can ever do a pull-up this series will show you how.

If you are not sure where to begin make sure to look at this previous post and watch video #1. If you can complete that task move on to video #2. Then progress through each stage all the way up to level 4 and 5; posted here in this blog.

These videos represent the last two stages in the progression to a perfect pull-up.

Progression to a perfect pull-up video 4 of 5

Progression to a perfect pull-up video 5 of 5

Happy Pull-ups

My guess would be that even if you haven’t used a food recall sheet, you could guess the potential flaws. For one, how does everyone report the same size of a piece of food? See the photo for a reference point.

You’re not alone; numerous groups of independent researchers have noticed the same thing. Recently, some of the biggest names in obesity research have banded together to put a stop to using such sheets in science. A few weeks ago these researchers wrote a letter to the editor of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition asking him to stop allowing science with such a blatant flaw to be published.

You might be surprised to hear that even though we routinely use food-tracking sheets in clinic I support this decision 100%.

I believe that science attempts to control an environment and collect data that will either support or oppose a theory. Science needs things to be exact. You and I need things to work. These situations don’t jive very well, very often.

In other words for the same reason that I support taking such sheets out of science is the reason why I believe they have a place at FitMetabolism. That reason is inconsistency. Food recall sheets tell me more than I need to know, and its nothing about food.

For a visual of why food recall sheets don’t work for science look at the photos I took at the grocery store the other day. Now these are all vegetables but when did portion sizes grow to astronomical proportions?

At FitMetabolism we use recall sheets to understand how you work, how you think, and what your emotional connection with food is. Not simply to see what you ate.

Science wants to use the sheet to find out what; I want the food sheet to find out why. Why do clients track chili (or any other food choice) in so many ways… and what does the way that you track it say about you?

For example lets say that I had a bowl of chili, then the standard way to measure home-cooked mixed foods is 2C-1P-1F for every 1.5 cups. Yet, we see everything from not writing it down at all to tracking it with really high values (4C-2P-4F) even if an individual only sampled the chili.

So the next time that you want to sneak in those extra few bites at dinner, skip that snack, or just find yourself too busy to eat less remember to track your food because why you are doing it might just be more important than doing it.

p.s. In the name of writing down your food portions, we should be receiving our new binders soon so watch your inbox.

I was talking to an individual the other day about weight loss. She didn’t know me and I didn’t know her, but the topic of weight loss is kind of like the weather, we don’t need to know each other to talk about it. But like the weather, she decided to tell me her thoughts about how to lose weight. I was there only to some banking but found myself hurled into a philosophical debate (okay, I didn’t really debate, I just listened).

She told me that she decided to avoid sugar, diet pop, bread, and any food that contained gluten, all in the name of weight loss. It sounded like quite the task. It was definitely a lifestyle overhaul. But what she said next kind of surprised me.

After she told me what she was doing, she said “You know? That bread, gluten, and aspartame are all part of the problem” She figured I already knew that….but I didn’t know that (I’ll explain).

I just listened

She went on to tell me how each one contributes to obesity. As she was talking I was thinking, why is she so sure? What makes her make those types of claims? Where did she acquire that information? What I appreciated about the conversation is that I think its real; I think there are a lot of people out there that would make the same claims.

Here’s the problem.

Her belief system: Consuming bread, aspartame, and gluten all contribute to obesity.

My belief system: The opposite of her belief system

After she was done talking I stated “Actually, interestingly enough, a study done in 2006….just kidding, I deposited my cheque and walked out the door. I’ll write a blog about it instead.

Here’s what I did next:

I decided to Google (www.google.com) bread, aspartame, and gluten with regards to obesity. Then I did the scholar approach to Google (www.scholar.google.com). Scholar Google brings up the research done on any particular subject…the really boring material, but it’s gone through the rigorous scientific method. I believe if I want to understand what the mass believes I will Google, if I want to understand what research believes I will scholar.google.

What belief system is right?

I have created a table of what happens when I search the particular topics (bread, aspartame, and gluten) in google or scholar google.

Here’s a small picture of the research:

Bread

Click this link to view the research: http://fitmetabolism.com/if-you-want-to-lose-weight-eat-bread-and-lots-of-it/

Gluten

A 2006 study in the American Journal of Gasteroenterology followed 188 overweight and obese people with celiac disease on a gluten-free diet for 2 years. They discovered that throughout the 2-year study 81% of the subjects gained weight. So going gluten-free may not be the solution.

Resource: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/759355

Aspartame

A 1990 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 31 subjects were administered diet soda and as a result decreased their calorie intake by 7% leading to a significant reduction in body weight. So drinking diet soda leads to weight loss.

Resource: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/51/6/963.full.pdf

What to believe:

Now I’m not saying go ahead and drink diet soda, eat 12 slices of bread a day, and stop going gluten-free (especially if you have celiac disease). But I want to have you stop and decide for yourself what to do. Research also claims that the best way to change behaviour is to create choice. I want to give you choice. You can choose to have bread or not to have bread and lose weight; you can choose diet pop or not to have diet pop and loose weight; You can choose to go gluten-free or not go gluten-free and lose weight. It’s your choice.

Don’t believe everything you hear. Find out what you believe and make the choice that fits you. You are more likely to reach your goal and stay there the rest of your life.

For fun go to www.scholar.google.com and put anything in the search bar. Have fun!

Now, while these are great feats and certainly worth their mention I feel as though most press and buzz around the race focused on the few and far between.

For the few and far between, or the winners as they are touted, I imagine the idea of running comes naturally or at least very easily to them. I also assume this makes it easier to find that deep desire to want to train, to get up early on Sunday after a barbeque the previous night and go for a 30 kilometer run in the rain, or to skip out on the après run latte and finish another set of hills.

I am not capable of running a marathon in sub three hours, or maybe even at all, and you might not be either. So why then do we focus on the few and not the many? Is the average runners accomplishment any less worthy? I would actually argue the opposite.

I know many, many runners who are slaves to the pavement 5 days a week for years on end. They may not ever win a race, but they finish it… sometimes walking.

Year after year they work their butts off, not always literally and here is our opinion why…

but they work hard and against all odds.

So why is their no mention of you in the popular press… Why is it nowhere to be seen?

If you train and run, like many of us, you are a runner. You may not have passed a test, you may not be as consistent as someone else, but in my books you are a runner.

Running, or self-care for that matter, is a very tricky choice to make. You have to beat the odds and motivate yourself when nobody seems to notice how difficult it is and how hard you have worked. The mere fact that you keep doing it is amazing. You have my utmost respect.

So this post goes out to everyone who runs… everyone. I also want to extend it to everyone who has ever been an exerciser, and by my definition that means you.

Keep up the hard and know that someone is routing for you.

Have you ever wondered why you regain the weight back so quickly? You see, diets won’t take the blame. I think it’s time that they did. Here’s why!

Diets set you up for weight regain- here’s the science to back it up.

Friends, I want you to be sure, if you grasp this one philosophy, you will never want to diet again. You will finally find out why it is truly hopeless until you change the way you approach health and fitness. You need to reach your goal without dieting but by making small changes in a few key behaviours.

Here are the facts! Typically the metabolism is reduced when someone is losing weight, predisposing the dieting subject to weight regain once they are done the diet. So in 1997 a group of researchers decided to see if they could do something about it. They took obese dieting subjects and separated them into three groups, a weight-training group, an aerobic training group, and a diet alone group. Their hypothesis was that the weight-training group would stimulate muscle growth and as a result preserve the metabolism as they were losing weight.

What they discovered is something that is rarely discussed in diet centers. Weight training did not prevent the decline in the metabolism.

Lets bring this research to a practical level.

This means that an obese dieting individual will not be able to prevent the drop in metabolism even with weight-training! (because we cannot keep up with the muscle loss due to the fact that we don’t need it anymore to move us around, see blog I’m exercising and eating healthy but not losing weight).

Here is the truth. This means that after I diet my metabolism will be lower and there is nothing I can do about that. This is where dieting is very dangerous.

Case study:

Lets take Steve as an example. Steve is 300 lbs. and has a resting metabolism of 2400 calories per day (meaning he burns 2400 calories per day if he were to just lay in bed all day; definition of metabolism). Steve is tired of his weight and just wants it off. He wants it off as quickly as possible. So he signs up for a program that will guarantee him weight loss.

It’s a diet that requires him to take a supplement. He’s quite ecstatic about it because it’s easy and he doesn’t even have to think about it. He just has the shake instead of his regular lunch and then at dinner consumes vegetables and protein. This type of process is very typical for a high protein low carbohydrate diet. It’s perfect; he has too much on his plate to have to think about what to eat!

Fast forward a couple months and Steve is down 50 lbs. He finally reached his goal. The diet stated that he would actually boost his metabolism because it was a high protein diet (I won’t get started on that one). So unbeknownst to Steve his metabolism has actually gone from 2400 calories a day to 1900. That drop represents a 500-calorie drop per day, equivalent to a 45 min run. This is why exercise is such a great weight manager.

Now Steve decides to go off the supplements and start eating normally. He re-enters his old habits with a lower metabolism. What a perfect storm to regain all of his weight back.

Fast forward again and Steve has regained all of his weight back. The good thing is that because his body needs to support the extra mass his muscle starts to grow again and as a result his metabolism increases. Picture Steve again at 300 lbs. He is back to his old habits, has gained his weight back and is wearing his old clothes again.

The only change is that his metabolism is slightly lower. He now has a 2350-calorie metabolism (slightly lower than when he started the diet). As Steve wonders why he can’t keep the weight off he decides to go on a different diet. One that will work! Maybe the injections will help. So he re-enters the weight loss weight regain cycle.

Below is a visual representation of this cycle.

There is hope! In my next blog I will be discussing what Steve can do to stop this viscous cycle. Remember this, this pattern is normal. Don’t beat yourself up. Diets love this cycle. You will always need them; unless of course they do everything they can to help you avoid this.

At Fitmetabolism, we want you to avoid this cycle. We have done everything to assist you in this. This is why we don’t sell supplements, or meal replacements, or have you cut out something just to put it back into your diet. We work very hard to help people lose the weight and keep it off for good.

Do me a favor. I want you stand for justice. Share this blog with anyone who is caught in this cycle. Let them be aware, this is a science thing. We need to start breaking this cycle to see global change. Thanks Fm’ers for standing for the scientific truth.

The situation: Who is Steady Eddy

Eddy is a 56-year-old university graduate; he has a family of three girls and maintains a great professional career in the oil industry.  He has never formally lost weight before in his life, nor does he exercise on a regular basis.

A fair number of his friends and family members carry a few extra pounds around their waistline yet; apart from the typical challenges with age no family member has serious health complications.

Recently, at his annual physical, his doctor brought up the idea of losing weight.

This shocked Eddy as he considered himself quite a healthy man.  He golfs three times a week in the summer, plays hockey once a week in the winter and has a personal trainer twice a week when he can fit it into his schedule.  Even though he doesn’t enjoy the gym exercise has always come easy to Eddy.

The idea of losing weight shocked him because while he sometimes watches his nutrition and is an active guy he has no dieting experience whatsoever.

After some careful consideration he realized that he has probably gained about 1-2 lbs. of weight per year since starting his current job at the ripe age of 30 and is currently carrying an extra 30 – 35 lbs. Eddy says it depends on whom you ask.

Why: We ask Steady Eddy how he gained the weight

After asking Eddy what has contributed to his weight gain he responds with the general nonchalant attitude that he has come to be known by; I guess it just crept up over time you know, because I am getting older.

Although he now plays less hockey he golfs more often, and most of his habits have not changed over the years.

He takes clients to lunch two to three times a week, eats dinner out some if not most of the nights and is rather knowledgeable about food choices.   He tries to eat as healthy by sometimes eating breakfast when he can and ordering a salad with his lunch instead of fries.

The Plan: how a Steady Eddy loses weight

Because he has never tried to lose weight before the idea of measuring his metabolism never occurred to Eddy. He simply thought that if he were to increase his awareness and slightly cut back his food he should have no trouble losing the weight.

Eddy briefly chatted with his personal trainer but essentially initiated a self-directed meal plan that included some caloric restriction.  His plan was VERY complicated as it included specific times of day to eat specific nutrients, not to mention it forced him to eat breakfast.  Essentially Eddy’s plan boiled down to these three points:

• No snacking at night
• No more than 3 drinks a week (Sunday through Thursday) with a few extras on the weekend
• No extra carbs at lunch or dinner and definitely no dessert, EVER!

Where is Steady Eddy now?

Eddy began to weigh himself consistently on his home scale and was pleasantly surprised with the results. In approximately 8 months he had reached his goal of losing 30 lbs. by using his three main points listed above.

Eddy ran into minor hiccups but nothing seemed to phase his attitude towards loss. In addition, he cannot quite seem to grasp why people struggle with weight loss.  I changed a few habits, nothing major, and the weight came off. Easy!

He has since kept the weight off for a year but seems to be showing signs of weakness when it comes to his complicated plan.

Great job Eddy, I wish that many others could follow in your footsteps!

Going Forward

As it turns out Eddy is not your typical weight loss client and he is definitely not the diet or supplement industries dream patron yet, he does occasionally find his way to weight loss programs.

When we see someone like Eddy we find that he is rarely disappointed.  At Fitmetabolism we work with Eddy’s to find a more sustainable approach because we know how quickly the weight can creep back up and how much people (myself included) enjoy dessert.

For example, on his current plan he would not be able to have a boy’s weekend.

If Eddy were to learn the carbohydrate language he could learn to manage a boys weekend on the golf course and not see weight gain from the event.

Moreover, if Eddy wanted to take one daughter to get ice cream after lunch and another to the hockey game to enjoy a hot dog his current plan wouldn’t allow it.  Again the carbohydrate language would teach Eddy to manage these scenarios and maintain his weight loss.

If Eddy finds a well designed clinic he can choose to have a weekend with the boys and knock back a few extra drinks or enjoy a hot dog with his daughter at the hockey game and enjoy dessert afterwards.

Overall this gives him the freedom that he desires while maintaining the weight he wants.

While Eddy does not truly exist we probably all know an Eddy in our lives.  If so, I would love to hear how your Eddy has affected you.

Next month we meet another typical Fm client and one who has struggled much more with her weight; Miss Moodee Foodie.

Progression to a perfect pull-up video 1 of 5

Progression to a perfect pull-up video 2 of 5

Progression to a perfect pull-up video 3 of 5

View parts 4 and 5 of this series

When we don’t hit our goals we tend to to feel bad about ourselves. I believe everyone wants to succeed and be loved and, nobody likes to feel unsuccessful or down. I also believe that most of us even want this for others as well.

Why is it then that when we set out with the best of intentions we always get knocked off track by some other person or unforeseen event and end up falling off, feeling silly, or maybe even find ourselves wallowing in self-pity.

If everyone wants the best for others then why were Wanda’s friends setting her up to fail?

Lets see if I can shed some light on this with a personal story.

In 2002 I started my first degree, kinesiology, and like most students probably thought I could change the world.  I haven’t yet, and I may not ever. But I am not failing; I am actually doing even more than I ever thought possible. Frighteningly, I am changing myself.

Around three years ago I started with FitMetabolism. My initial opinion of what they did was probably no different than what yours was.  They helped people exercise more and eat less to lose weight. Easy, right?

For long-term clients you already know this couldn’t be further from the truth but I was green, I was young and far too eager to help that I ended up missing the big picture.

For the first six months to a year I had clients focus on their weight and they saw great results, the scale dropped and they all seemed happy. They got what they wanted and I felt great because I was changing the world.

Then I noticed something, I noticed that not every client was sticking around, and some were dropping off and not coming back. I thought they were just having a tough time and didn’t want to come back so, I wrestled with the idea of how could I help them see that they just had to stick it out. It took a while for me to realize that I wasn’t taking any responsibility in the process and wasn’t being a team player.

I was focused on their role in the process, I was focused on their scale weight and I contributed to their dilemma by naively acting under this pretense.

I inadvertently and unintentionally reinforced their belief that if the scale went down that we should be happy and if the scale went up that we should be upset or disappointed.

I sometimes feel embarrassed that it took me so long to understand this, as it was literally my job.

With change comes challenges and requirement for motivation.  Mine was that while I knew deep down the scale wasn’t the answer but, I didn’t know what else to focus on.

I hope that most of my clients knew that this was not my intention, however it also probably happened many times. While I am still bothered by this I have learned a great lesson. I changed my perception. Weight loss as we see it here at FitMetabolism is not about the calorie or the scale – its about the person, its about you. It’s about you finding a path to your version of success that you can feel good about and continue to perform.

Everyone I have and will work with is where I get my motivation from; not from your scale weight, dress size, exercise frequency or even from a thank you but from you openly and consistently working to change your perception just like I changed mine. And even though I was able to start changing my perception I failed many attempts and had a lot of help.

So if we jump back to Wanda, why is it that she was set up to fail?

No it wasn’t because she hurt her back, or because of an extra couple lunches out in the week.  She was set up to fail because of where she started. Wanda’s goal was to lose weight and therefore if she didn’t lose weight she was failing. Moreover, her motivation was tied to her scale weight and therefore her motivation unintentionally dropped when her weight went down.

Wanda forgot all of the good things that she had accomplished.  Wanda was a true friend but never felt physically strong enough to help someone move. Yet, because she had been exercising she felt stronger and more confident about being able to help her friend move into a new apartment, she was also eating healthier, and she had inadvertently inspired her daughter to start living healthier as well.

Wanda needs to define her success as something larger and more personal than a lower scale weight or fitting into those skinny jeans in the back of her closet. She needs to tie her motivation to something deep inside her character before she will truly earn that mark of permanent weight loss.

At FitMetabolism we try to prescribe to the idea that weight loss is the first step of the journey and, that it’s a remarkable step and one that is very difficult for many to take.  While we work very hard to support you through losing weight the next step is to understand that weight loss is the byproduct of living a healthy lifestyle. In the name of this healthy lifestyle sometimes weight loss has to slow down in order for other aspects of our new lifestyle to catch up.

Wanda never let herself expand her own definition of success and it ultimately led to her feeling bad about herself.  Let’s hope for her sake she can change her definition of success.

I have since learned that developing a positive relationship with each of my clients, building trust and learning to genuinely listen and care for them is what I define as success. This gives me the room I need to grow while also making a few mistakes. I also know that my clients are smart, really smart, some far too smart, and they know what choices they need to make but they struggle with making them and for that they need support not an exercise plan.

I have since come even further and I have no one to thank but you.

I would like to challenge you to look at how you feel about your success when it comes to weight loss, are you like Wanda? If so, I would love to hear about how you want to change your perception of success.

Can I still drink wine or beer?

Yes.

Do I have to set a goal?

Yes, but you already have.

Will I have to give up everything that I like to eat?

No.

I don’t like to exercise; are you going to make me run?

No.

When someone first starts with us they see great results. Then the new car smell disappears and the challenges start to creep back in. For some the challenges never go away and they struggle right from the get go – keep reading to find out more.

Oddly enough these challenges are not as uncommon as we tend to think and that is the reason for this post.

When I first start working with someone it seems as though they battle with the exact same challenges as everyone else. Stress, boredom, loneliness, fatigue, moderate depression and lack of time are the most common.

How is it that if we all battle the same challenges that some of us end up overweight while others do not?

My first response was to break into the nurture versus nature debate. Or as I quickly learned, an agency versus structure debate because the nature versus nurture debate is long put to bed. For the record nobody won; the argument just changed shape.

Then I got to thinking about perception and how most of us are quite immune to our own actual reality. In other words most of life goes by and we make up our own version of it by cooking the facts to support our own bias. Not you, of course, you are much too aware for that. But let’s look at everyone else.

Think back to your first love. Chances are it didn’t work out and you went through a really emotional and rough patch immediately after. If it did work out then I congratulate you and am very happy for you, but this exercise should still have a truth in it for you.

I, rather science, have two points to make regarding our perception and how it affects our version of reality. In other words when we say things like I am too busy or too tired, is that really true or is that just the perception/reality that we have created.

Let me know how you feel about this or if your experiences are different.

Looking Back

Most people who have gone through a traumatic event such as losing their first love look back on that experience as the best thing that has ever happened to them.

Looking Forward

However, I doubt that if you asked any of these individuals before they broke up how they would feel if they did, that they would describe their future break-up with their first love as the best thing that will ever happen to them.

Where does this leave us?

When we conjure up an idea of how bad things will be we allow ourselves to design the worst possible outcome yet; when we look back on an experience we always find a more pleasant view.

We are so good that doing this that it isn’t until someone kindly points out this misalignment that we even become aware of the process. Once we are aware of it we can work at changing it.

Therefore, this unawareness is exactly why I want to introduce you to four hypothetical weight loss clients:  Miss Moodee Foodie, Steady Eddy, Edna the Exerciser and Yo-Yo Mama.

Each of these hypothetical clients will be featured in an upcoming newsletter – 1 bio per month.

While these clients are very hypothetical and fictitious, they all contain trace elements of issues that each of our clients may have dealt with or are currently dealing with.

As you read through the newsletters see if you can identify with any of their challenges, concerns, situations or strategies.

Stay tuned in the first week of June where we introduce someone that we all seem to know – Steady Eddy.

Jane has lost a significant amount of weight with me; then all of a sudden the weight loss stopped. Most people would consider this a plateau; I would, too, but not a physiological one – a psychological one.

We needed to determine what was stopping her from seeing more change. We both knew the answer was close, then in one session the answer was made known.

Deficiency Needs and Theory of Motivation

Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (theory posed in 1943), the most basic of needs are ones related to esteem, friendship and love, security and physical needs. If any of these needs are not met there will be a sense of anxiety and a desire/motivation to meet them.

This is where Jane’s story continues. She lives with a friend, who at the core level is missing the very basic deficiency needs mentioned above. His esteem over the years has been shattered and at the basic level Jane provides these needs for him. However, after losing weight, Jane started to experience more freedom, she started to spend more time away from the home getting involved with things that were once held back from her because of her weight. Her confidence increased, she started to gain more and more independence and required less from her friend.

The problem with her freedom is that her friend started to see less of her; he started to recognize that she needed him less and that she wasn’t around to fulfill his basic deficiency needs. This created more anxiety in him and he decided to fight more for Jane’s attention. He started to get more angry and defiant creating a very un-pleasurable place to live.

Jane had two choices: Get to her goal or meet the esteem needs of her friend. 

As the living environment became more toxic Jane’s weight loss halted. What she was saying in her actions was that having a less toxic environment was more important than achieving more of her weight loss goal. She noticed when she exercised less, ate more (with her friends through socialization) and spent less time with her other friends, her home environment became more manageable. In summary, she was more motivated to keep peace at home than to continue her weight loss.

Making the Right Choice

Jane will continue to struggle in her weight loss journey if she decides to enable her friend. Jane’s friend will need to fulfill his basic needs through other outlets, from other friends, work, life’s meaning, and perhaps a spiritual connection.

Jane realized this and finally understood why he was creating the strained environment. She decided to pursue her weight loss journey. Jane needed to address the issues head-on and ensure that her friend understood that this was not about him. Her weight loss journey was about her and the goals she wanted to achieve. Being assertive and recognizing that she deserves to achieve her goal, she deserves to feel this happiness allowed her to continue on her journey.

The environment has improved slightly, mostly because Jane has gained an understanding and renewed her commitment to herself. Her friend is realizing that he is not getting all his needs met through Jane. Hopefully he is on a mission to figure out how he can improve and where else he can meet his deficiency needs.

Maybe you are living in such an environment and your goals are being stifled. I want to encourage you to seek an understanding of where the other person is coming from. This understanding will allow you to have a deep compassion but also a renewed commitment to yourself to continue to pursue your best interests, your friend’s best interests, and the chance to pursue your dreams.

Lead your friend into success by going there first.