I hope you’re having a great holiday weekend!

The 4th of July is a time to celebrate this GREAT Country we live in with your family and friends.

Most everyone will be celebrating at picnics and parties where you’ll be surrounded by high fat foods, sugary drinks, and killer desserts.

Essentially… Foods laced in a ton of FAT and SUGAR! Not the best environment for losing weight and sticking to a healthy eating plan.

Here are a few eating tips that will help you cut down on junk, yet give you the satisfaction of not totally depriving yourself:

1. Skip the hot dog and have a grass-fed hamburger instead.

2. Grill a chicken breast with a NEW seasoning or marinade.

3. Skip the bread with your burger.

4. Skip potato chips and choose veggies with a guacamole dip.

5. Skip high sugar desserts and make a dish of Greek yogurt with fresh strawberries and blueberries, it will have a red, white, and blue theme!

6. Skip the deep-fried fries or mashed potatoes and make a blue Okinawan sweet potato dish.

7. Make your potato salad with mustard instead of mayo.

8. Make a fresh salad with a ton of veggies and put the dressing in there lightly – oil and vinegar or balsamic vinaigrette. NO cream dressings.

11. Use smaller plates! Have big portions of healthy items and smaller of not-so-healthy.

12. Don’t hang out near the food table!  Play with the kids instead :p

13. Drink light beer, red wine, and skip anything with soda! Make a pact with yourself to have a glass of water in between each drink.  (For holiday drinking tips, check out this post: Ways To Beat A Hangover)

14. Bring a healthy dish YOU like and don’t go hungry.

15. Eat some healthy snacks before the party so you don’t go crazy once everything is out.

16. Send leftovers home with everyone else!

Use these tips to help you stay on the weight loss track

I wish you and your family a Happy & Safe 4th of July!

Eating healthy at fast food restaurants can be tricky.

Today at bootcamp someone asked me what I think of the Low Carb Six Dollar Burger From Carl’s Jr.

I think it’s an ok decision when you’re stuck out on the town and everyone you’re with wants to grab a burger.

The 570 Calorie Low Carb burger has a 100% black angus beef patty, two slices of cheese, tomato, red onions and dill pickles wrapped in a romaine lettuce leaf.

If you order it without mayo, mustard, or ketchup, and just one slice of cheese, you can get it down to just under 400 Calories.

If you’ve got to eat out, grab the Low Carb Six Dollar Burger!

Do you ever hear things like this?

“Comfort food”

“Special treats”

“Reward meals”

What exactly is “comfort food”?

According to Wikipedia: “food consumed to improve emotional status, whether to relieve negative psychological affect or to increase positive feeling.”

Comfort foods “improve emotional status” by turning on the reward centers of your brain.  You feel more like a winner after you eat your comfort food.

And, as Charlie Sheen will tell you, winning is addictive.

But the problem with comfort foods is that they lead to comfort bodies:

What if there was a way to turn OFF the food reward centers of your brain?

A way to turn down the need for the emotional lift that comfort foods can bring?

Turns out you can turn down your “neural response to visual food stimuli”:

Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 May 5. [Epub ahead of print]
Neural Responses to Visual Food Stimuli After a Normal vs. Higher Protein Breakfast in Breakfast-Skipping Teens: A Pilot fMRI Study.
Leidy HJ, Lepping RJ, Savage CR, Harris CT.

This study used brain imaging scans to see if breakfast would alter brain activity in overweight girls and to see if additional protein would produce more alterations.

It did.

The group that ate a higher protein breakfast (50 grams of protein) had a much reduced food motivation and reward response.

What does this mean for you?

Eating a higher protein breakfast will help you stop viewing food as a reward.

Now, fifty grams of protein may seem like a huge amount (especially if you’ve been skipping breakfast)…

So I want to give you a simple plan that WORKS: It’s called 30/30/300.

• Eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up
• Eat at least 30 grams of protein in your breakfast
• Eat at least 300 Calories at breakfast

Simple

Following the 30/30/300 plan will raise your metabolism, help you lose weight, and cut down on comfort food cravings.

For more info on food cravings and brain chemistry, check out these other articles from Wold Fitness:

Sugar Cravings Taking Over Your Brain

Are You An Emotional Eater? (Quiz)

End Emotional Eating

Salads can be so much more than iceberg lettuce and shredded carrots.  Salads should be delicious and nutritious – not boring and limp.

Today I want to share 8 greens that will boost both the taste and nutrition of your salads.

Salad Booster #1: Arugula

I’d describe arugula as “mustardy,” which helps to add flavor when you’re cutting down on salad dressing.

Arugula will also give you a good dose of calcium and magnesium.

Salad Booster #2: Watercress

Last night I had plum and chicken kabobs over a watercress salad. Delicious!

Watercress is a little peppery, and contains awesome phytochemicals that fight airborne pollutants like tobacco smoke and exhaust fumes.

Think of a watercress salad as a HEPA filter for your lungs.

(Update: One of my clients told me her grandmother used to crush watercress and feed it to her whenever she had a cold lodged in her chest.  Grandmas rule!)

Salad Booster #3: Spinach

Spinach and I get along so well I have to remind myself to branch out and eat lots of other vegggies. I cook down as many as 8 cups of spinach into my morning eggs.

Spinach is a great source of both lutein and zeaxanthin – antioxidants that protect your eyes from aging.

A study from Tufts University found that eating spinach frequently lowers your risk of age-related macular degeneration by 43 percent.

Salad Booster #4: Romaine

Romaine tastes a little bit like celery, without the bother of strings getting caught in your teeth.

It is a good source of beta carotene (more than 700 micrograms per cup).

The University of Illinois showed that high levels of beta-carotene inhibits the growth of certain cancers by 50 percent.

Salad Booster #5: Kohlrabi

I didn’t like kohlrabi the first time I had it, but now I can’t get enough! It tastes like a cross between a cabbage and a turnip (seriously).

Kohlrabi has potassium (an essential element) to help lower your blood pressure.

You also get a dose of glucosinolate, a phytochemical that has been shown to help prevent some cancers. Cool!

Salad Booster #6: Endive

Crisp, slightly bitter, and full of fiber – endive is a great addition to any salad.

A cerving of endive also has plenty of folate: an essential B vitamin. People who don’t get enough folate have a 50% greater risk of developing heart disease.

Salad Booster #7: Bok Choy

Bok choy tastes a little like cabbage… but it has A LOT more vitamins!

You can get even more cancer-fighting, age-reducing phytochemicals from eating bok choy: flavonoids, isothiocyanates, and dithiolthione.

Salad Booster #8: Mustard Greens

This is advanced salading right here. Mustard greens are spicy, crunchy, and delicious. The only caaveat I have about them is to start off with small servings if you aren’t used to eating vegetables. Otherwise your digestive system might rebel!

Mustard greens are a good source of tyrosine, an amino acid that can help with both your memory and your concentration.

There you have it! 8 delicious ways to add more flavor and nutrition to your salads. Now for a bonus tip:

BONUS SALAD TIP

Most salad dressings are packed full of sugars, vegetable oils, and gummy coloring agents. Gross.

If you want to add some moisture and some flavor to your salads, add in some fruits and nuts.

I add a few raisins, a bit of chopped apple, and some chopped walnuts to my broccoli-watercress salads. Mmmmmm…

Other good moisture/flavor additions to a salad are: cucumbers, berries, bell peppers, chopped dried fruits, and meat.

Have fun and eat some delicious salads!

I’ve got a very interesting article to share with you today. It’s from my good friends and fat loss cooking experts Dave and Karine from Metabolic Cooking.

In this article, you will learn:

1. Why most “healthy” cookbooks use ingredients that actually make you fat.

2. How to ensure your meals are optimized for fat loss.

3. What to do so your meal plan doesn’t hit a fat loss plateau.

I’m telling you, this is pretty awesome

Is your food making you FAT or burn MORE fat? (article)
By Karine Losier & Dave Ruel

If you’ve tried fat loss diets before and have used a variety of weight loss cookbooks to try to lose body fat, then you very likely know by now that those fat loss diets and the “healthy” cookbooks that go with them don’t work.

What is it about them that makes successful weight loss so difficult to achieve?

Well for starters, most “healthy” cookbooks are NOT designed with high Metabolic Thermo Charge ingredients. They are not using the metabolic powers that certain foods have to make your body burn more body fat. Instead, they use ingredients with very low thermogenic effect.

Why does this matter? Because the Metabolic Thermo Charge of food stands for how many calories your body will burn just by breaking down the nutrients each time you consume a certain food.

Most people have absolutely no idea of the power some of these foods have over the fat burning processes that go on inside the body, and so they never really think twice about them. BIG MISTAKE.

For example, simply consuming high-quality protein with most meals will naturally burn off more calories and move you closer to your target weight. Lean protein has a very high “Metabolic Thermo Charge”. Spices also have a strong thermogenic effect on your body. Combining certain foods together, such as chicken and turmeric, with help you burn more fat after you eat it.

Interesting, right?

But that’s not all. Another thing to consider is whether or not your so-called “healthy” cookbook has a real structure. Too often, cookbooks are just a bunch of recipes thrown together at random – you pick and choose what you feel like eating at that point in the day. That is NOT going to make you burn fat faster!

Having a structure is mandatory if you want to rid yourself of stubborn fat. That’s why we developed a quick and easy “Metabolic Nutri-Profile” system for all our recipes, so you can see precisely what nutrients you’re taking in, which ensures that each meal makes the most of your metabolic rate.

Don’t make the mistake of venturing into the food jungle without your compass!

So we’ve talked about the food and the structure of your eating plan. Sounds like we’ve got it covered, right? Not yet!

Ever followed a diet to a  T and all of a sudden noticed that you stopped losing fat?

This is called the Metabolic Adaptation Phenomenon. It occurs at that point in your diet when your body knows precisely what it’s getting in terms of food and has fully adapted to it. When it reaches this state, your metabolism slows down and fat loss screeches to a halt.

In order to avoid the Metabolic Adaptation Phenomenon, you have to vary your nutrient intake regularly, shocking your body as time goes on. This keeps it guessing and ensures your metabolism stays on high at all times. Having a wide range of fat loss recipes at your fingertips makes avoiding this frustrating condition a breeze!

Now you know the REAL score when it comes to fat loss and dieting! Be sure to watch out for these three sneaky saboteurs next time you make the decision to lose fat!

——————————————–

I told you this was great info, right?

Dave and Karine know everything it takes to be successful when it comes to burning fat faster. And in Metabolic Cooking, they provide you with a huge collection of awesome fat torching recipes that will:

1. Help you burn fat faster with the help of specific Metabolic Thermo Charged ingredients

2. Efficiently structure your meal plan with their simple and effective “Metabolic Nutri-Profile”

3. Fight the Metabolic Adaptation Phenomenon.

If you struggle with food or nutrition, Metabolic Cooking is your knight in shining armour.

Metabolic Cooking <——- Recipes that burn fat faster!

I’ve got to admit: I’m not a huge fan of ground turkey.  This simple burger recipe is about the only way I like to eat it.

Makes 3 Servings (3 Burgers)

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1/8 cup minced onion
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons minced green bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl.
2. With clean hands, squeeze it together until it’s very well combined.
3. Divide into three equal portions and form into burgers about 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick.
4. Spray a skillet with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Place over medium-high heat.
6. Cook the burgers for about 5 minutes per side until cooked through.

Nutritional Facts (Per Serving)

Calories: 184
Protein: 33g
Carbohydrates: 4g
Fat: 4g

I found this recipe in my Metabolic Cooking System cookbook.

I’ve always told people that breads and pastas would bind up their guts, but I never had a simple way to explain it.

And then this came to me….

What is the recipe for bread?

• 4 cups flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tbsp baking soda
• 1½ cups water
• 2 tsp vinegar (cider or white)

What is the recipe for paper mache glue?

• Water
• Flour

Eating bread and pasta is basically making paper mache glue in your gut.

Ew.

When I first moved to Seattle to go to college at Seattle Pacific University, my mom gave me a great book called “Where’s Mom Now That I Need Her?”

I had all sorts of recipes, plus useful info like how to iron clothes and sew on buttons.

The title of this book gave me a great idea, so I’d like to give you the Mom’s Weight Loss Diet:

Your mom told you everything you need to know about basic nutrition

1.  Eat more fruits and vegetables

2. Don’t drink pop

3. Take you own lunch to school (or work!)

4. Don’t spoil your dinner with cookies or chips

5.  Plan your meals

6. Stay away from fast food

Start following these six simple tips and you’re well on your way to mastering nutrition.

And when you fit into your skinny jeans again, just say “Thanks Mom!”

Brussels sprouts are the classic vegetable everyone jokes about hating:

But I figure the only reason these aren’t your favorite vegetable is that you’ve never cooked them Momofuku style!

When you cook them properly, brussels sprouts take on a crispy, caramelized quality that makes them freakin’ addictive.  David Chang, the chef behind the Momofuku restaurant group actually had to take them off the menu at one of his eateries.

“Every single table ordered them.  It was ridiculous.  I would’ve had to dedicate one of my cooks to doing nothing but cooking sprouts all night.”

Here’s how to turn brussels sprouts from boring and ordinary to a delicious favorite that even kids won’t stop eating.

The sprouts Chang took off the menu were pan roasted with crispy chunks of bacon and then tossed in pureed kimchi.  At another restaurant, he deep-fried them and tossed them in fish sauce.  And at Ko (a restaurant with only 12 seats!) he browned them in a skillet, tossed them in sriracha hot sauce, and served them with a squirt of lime juice.

“Basically, you can’t f*ck them up,” Chang says, “Cook the Sh*t out of them; just don’t turn them in to charcoal.  They’re really resilient to strong flavors.  They’re incredibly forgiving.”

The key to brussels sprouts isn’t the flavoring, it’s how you cook them.  Get the first part right and you can give them any kind of a spin you want.  Your secret is to give them an evenly browned finish.

Slice the sprouts lengthwise, then cook them cut side down.  I like to use nitrite-free bacon fat (I’ve written about uncured bacon before here: Sodium Nitrites Are Not A Good Idea)

A cast-iron skillet on your stovetop is the best way to get a delicious carmelization.  But if you’re cooking for a large group you can easily lay them down on a baking sheet and roast them in a hot oven.

Brussels sprouts cooked right don’t need anything more than some salt and lemon juice.  Anything else you want to add is totally up to you

Here’s a recipe straight from David Chang (serves 4):

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh brussels sprouts
• 1/4 pound thick cut bacon (get uncured!)
• Butter (optional, get butter from grass-fed cows)
• Sriracha hot sauce (also called “rooster sauce”)
• Lime
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degress
2. Trim the hard ends off the sprouts, then slice in half lengthwise
3. Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat until crispy (about 5 minutes). Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate
4. Drain most of the fat from the pan and add the sprouts cut side down.  Raise the heat to medium high and sear until sprouts begin to sizzle.  Put the skillet in the oven and roast until the sprouts are deeply browned (about 8 minutes), then shake the pan to flip them over.  Pull the pan from the oven when the sprouts are bright green and fairly tender (about 10 minutes more)
5. Return the pan to your stovetop over medium heat.  Stir in the bacon and, optionally, a pat or two of butter.  Swirl until evenly mixed.
6. Place in a bowl and add a few squirts of sriracha and a squeeze or two of fresh lime juice.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve with anything!

If you’re working out hard, eating right, and STILL not losing any freaking fat, this post is for you.

Have you heard that hormones can affect your fat loss?

It’s true!

The first thing you need to know is what hormones are.  Here’s the definition: “A hormone is a chemical released by a cell or a gland in one part of the body that sends out messages that affect cells in other parts of the organism. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism. In essence, it is a chemical messenger that transports a signal from one cell to another.”

This means that a hormone just a little bit out of whack can derail all of your fat loss efforts!

It also means that slight adjustments of your hormones can have a profound POSITIVE effect on your body.

A really cool thing about hormones is that you can actually use the shape of your body to figure out which hormones are out of balance.

Once you know what the hormonal culprits are, I can help you figure out a plan to get back on track.

Love handles?  Insulin is messing with you.

Arm fat?  Testosterone is low.

Belly fat?  Too much cortisol.

Thigh and butt fat?  Estrogen levels are high.

Before I dig deep and expose these hormones for you, I want you to understand something important:  If you’re not exercising right and you eat like crap, don’t blame hormones.  These are the “final piece” of the fat loss puzzle.  Eat right and do metabolism boosting workouts before you start blaming hormones.

Rant over.  Now some specifics…

Hormone: Testosterone.

Too much? Almost never an issue.

Too little? Increased body fat, decreased lean muscle.

All right, pretty much everyone needs more testosterone.  (Don’t worry ladies, you won’t grow a mustache unless you take steroids!!)

To let you know how to increase testosterone, I want you to know how college kids “fake out” hormone tests to get prescription steroids.  See, if you get low test results, the doc can prescribe steroids and you don’t have to worry about legal issues.

So when a football player wants to artificially lower his testosterone levels, he will do four things: cut out protein, cut out fat, cut out sleep, start doing aerobics.

To NATURALLY increase your testosterone, just do the opposite: eat lots of protein, eat lots of fat, get more sleep, stop the aerobics and start lifting weights!

Hormone: Thyroid

Too much? Hard to put on muscle, weakness, fatigue

Too little? Fatigue, slow metabolism, increased body fat

If you want to fix your thyroid hormones, you first have to fix another hormone: Leptin.

Leptin’s primary purpose is to restore fat reserves when you eat.  This is to help prevent starvation during times of famine.  After checking fat reserves, leptin decides how much energy your body needs and where to send it.

When leptin drops, your brain gets a signal that it’s time to eat (this signal comes from the hormone ghrelin).  As you eat, leptin levels rise and your brain gets the signal to stop.

Not eating enough (or, more precisely, not getting enough NUTRITION from the food you eat) gets leptin to signal the thyroid to slow your metabolism in order to conserve energy.

Step one of optimizing your thyroid hormones: Eat enough food.  Starving yourself will just shut down your metabolism and make you gain fat.

Now, if leptin levels are too high, you can decrease leptin sensitivity and “fullness” signals won’t reach your brain and tell you to stop eating.  Overweight people actually have very high leptin levels, the problem is their hormonal receivers don’t recognize it any more.  (Like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the receptors just stop listening)

All of this extra eating without feeling full leads to too many calories being consumed and then stored as fat.

It is really hard to overeat on “clean foods” so most extra calories come from junk foods: pop, candy, cookies, muffins, anything made with sugar, wheat, or soy.

Step Two of optimizing thyroid function is to only eat good foods (my rule is “only foods a caveman would have eaten)

Hormone: Insulin

Too much? Increased body fat, increased body weight, increased blood pressure, insulin resistance

Too little? Type-1 diabetes

Insulin is a Big Deal.  Look at health reporting in any major news network and you’ll hear about insulin again and again.

I’ve written about insulin before: Understanding Insulin

While insulin is necessary to keep you alive, insulin surges have a devastating impact on your body, including making fat loss almost impossible.

The number one way to get insulin under control is to CUT DOWN ON CARBOHYDRATES.

Your goal isn’t to get insulin down to zero, you need it to move nutrients around in your body.  Instead, you want to prevent the insulin surges that come with a rush from sugars or dairy proteins.

Just start replacing carb calories in your diet with vegetables, proteins, and fats, and you’ll get your insulin levels where they need to be for a great looking, healthy body.

Hormone: Estrogen

Too much? Increased body fat, increased body weight

Too little? Joint pain, health issues, slowed muscle building

When talking about estrogen, there is no simple 101 course.  Overly simplistic doctors just provide hormone pills that cause as much (or more) harm as good.

But for fat loss, there are 3 keys to taking control of estrogen.  They are:

1) Blood sugar management

2) Adrenal glands

3) The gastrointestinal system (including gallbladder and liver)

For blood sugar management, just follow the guidelines in the insulin section above.

The adrenal glands get messed up from constant stress – I think we all have that!  Simple things you can do to reduce adrenal fatigue are: get more sleep, take less stimulants, take time to relax, exercise (but not aerobics!!), and to eat fewer carbohydrates.

If your adrenal glands are overactive, you might have these symptoms:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Allergies
• Excessive sweat
• Gastric ulcers
• Fatigue after meals
• Sweets Cravings
• Excessive urination

If your adrenals are underactive, you might notice these:

• Difficulty staying asleep
• Dizziness when standing quickly
• Blurred vision
• Shakiness or lightheadedness between meals
• Eating relieves tiredness
• Salt cravings

Symptoms aside, getting a Salivary Adrenal Test is the best way to pinpoint what you need to fix.  (I could give blanket supplement recommendations, but you don’t mess around with adrenals.  Get the test done and I’ll help you )

And the third key for taking control of your estrogen levels is managing gastrointestinal health.

High fiber isn’t the cure-all here.  In fact, high fiber diets based on bran and grains may make your digestive system WORSE.  Ugh.

The best way to fix your bod is to eat organic vegetables and wild, grassfed meats.  The chemical changes that take place in chemically fertilized plants and corn- or grain-fed animals absolutely DESTROYS your gut health.

Take home message for estrogen: Cut out carbs, get adrenal levels tested, eat wild foods.

Hormone: Cortisol

Too much? Slowed metabolism, increased body fat, decrease in lean muscle

Too little? Almost never an issue

Mastering your cortisol is about mastering your stress.

Not just lifestyle stress, but also dietary and exercise stress. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one stressed out. Check out the Top Ten most prescribed drugs from 2008:

1. Lipitor – Cholesterol lowering medication. Cholesterol is often increased during times of stress.
2. Acetaminophen – Pain medication. Stress causes inflammation, which drives pain.
3. Acetaminophen – Pain medication.
4. Levothyroxine – Thyroid medication. Stress responses directly causes defects in thyroid hormone physiology.
5. Amoxicillin – Antiboitic. Stress negatively impacts our immune system, making us more prone to infection.
6. Lisinopril – High blood pressure medication. Stress is well known for causing or contributing to high blood pressure.
7. Nexium – GERD medication. Stress is a well known contributor to symptoms of “heartburn”, or gastroesophageal reflux.
8. Synthroid – Thyroid medication. Stress responses negatively impacts defects in thyroid hormone physiology.
9. Lexapro – Depression and anxiety. Stress obviously contributes to both depression and anxiety.
10. Singular – Asthma medication. Stress can induce asthma and makes the condition worse if someone already has it.

Yikes!

Ok, after that top ten list, here are Luke’s Top Three Ways To Reduce Cortisol:

1.  Cut out carbohydrates!  (notice a trend yet?)

2.  Get more sleep!

3. Stop doing aerobics, they are totally overstressing your body!  (use metabolic resistance training instead!)

All right!  This post was a lot more technical than usual, but I’ll be back with some crazy new exercises – and a BIG announcement! – in a few days.

Talk to you soon

~ Luke Wold