How to Eat Healthy While Travelling Over the Holidays!

 

‘Tis the season again – we are entering that infamous Thanksgiving through New Years stretch where the average American will gain 8 – 12lbs!    One of the main reasons for this is that we get out of our normal routines for both exercise and diet.     It is even more challenging if you are travelling during this season because you are out of your home and have less control over your exercise and eating habits.

However, where there is a will there is a way.      Here are some key tips to prevent weight gain during travel:

Plan your meals and your exercise.    This is probably the most important tip because with a little planning you CAN eat healthy and get in your exercise.

2.     Start by looking at your travel schedule and planning your meals during travel.     We all know how lousy the food is on an airline so instead of being subjected to the lousy and unhealthy food bring your own.   In many airports today, there are plenty of healthy options that you can purchase and carry on the plane.  Great options include:

a.       Nuts – see below

b.       Ready to drink shakes like Muscle Milk (even starting to see this in an organic option in airports!).

c.       Nutrition bars – see below

d.       Hard boiled eggs

e.       Salads with chicken

3.    Even better buy non-perishable food before you leave home.  Excellent choices for meals and snacks that are easy to travel with include:

a.       Nuts – come in cans and pouches with smaller packages being ideal because while nuts are healthy they are high in fats and even healthy fats have lots of calories!    No honey glazed and if you need to be concerned about salt stick with unsalted, roasted nuts.    Best choices include pecans and walnuts and brazil nuts followed by almonds, then peanuts and cashews in terms of sugar content.

b.       Nutrition bars – there are a ton of healthier bar choices now, and they have actually figured out how to make a healthy bar that tastes pretty darned good without a ton of sugar that have high levels of fiber, healthy fats, and protein.      Several variety of Kind bars fit this bill including Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt; Caramel Almond and Sea Salt; and Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan.    These bars taste great and will satisfy you and travel well.

c.       Ready to mix shakes – there are many great options for shakes that are low in sugar and high in protein that taste great and come in packets that are easy to mix in a plastic shake bottle after you add water.      Gone are the days where these options must be blended in a blender.      Experiment a bit and you can find shakes that come in single serve packets that mix quite well in a plastic shaker bottle.

d.       If you are driving, consider bringing some pre-made meals in a cooler that are either ready to eat cold or can easily be microwave or baked when you arrive.     When you bring some of your own food and healthy desserts you know you will have good options!

4.      Focus on a great breakfast because you can get eggs in every town in America both at restaurants and in people’s homes.    Eggs are fantastic meal that really satisfies, and they can be prepared in many different ways.    Starting the day off with 2 – 3 whole eggs along with some sautéed vegetables, some cheese and some berries will keep your hunger at bay and provide a healthy meal that is easy to come by!

5.     Get your exercise in!    Plan before you leave – worst case you can use resistance bands and get a great workout in a very small physical space such as a hotel room.     For resistance bands and workouts with them check out www.resistancebandtraining.com For a great bodyweight workout try this one: https://workoutanytime.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-three-best-bodyweight-exercise.html

6.      Go for a walk and check out the neighborhood or go see some nearby sites.  Sitting on your butt all day while food is being prepared all around you is asking for trouble!   Get up and get out and active for part of the day or offer to do some shopping for the group or pitch in with some of the physical chores if you are staying at someone’s home.   

How Much Exercise Does it Take to Burn Off Thanksgiving Dinner?

 

To put this in perspective it is very easy to eat upwards of 4,500 calories if you really go crazy and pay no attention to portion size, how many portions you are eating, and what you are eating.      Given that the average person burns somewhere around 2,000 calories per day it means that you would have to fast for more than two days to get rid of this entire holiday binge!

On the other hand, let’s take a look at a more restrained (yet enjoyable) Thanksgiving Meal by looking at everything you would eat, how many calories each item contains, and how long it would take to burn off with specific exercises.     At 2,445 calories this is very big meal, BUT if you only ate this one meal in a day the typical American is only eating 445 calories past their average daily calorie burn of 2,000 calories.

 

3 pigs in a blanket – 150 calories – 15 minutes – walking at a moderate speed for 15 – 20 minutes

 

1oz brie cheese – 95 calories – Ice skating continuously for 12 minutes

 

4oz Sweet Potato – 187 calories – 45 minutes of weight lifting

 

½ cup Green Bean Casserole – 227 calories – 18 minutes of jumping rope

 

1 glass of wine – 125 calories – 10 minutes of burpees

 

¼ cup cranberry sauce – 102 calories – 20 minutes of cycling outside

 

3.5 oz white meat turkey with skin – 177 calories – 20 minutes of touch football

 

½ cup gravy – 25 calories – 3 minutes of jumping jacks

 

½ cup stuffing – 195 calories – 25 minutes of swimming

 

1 cup mashed potatoes – 237 calories – 1 hour of canoeing

 

3 by 3 inch square cornbread – 198 calories – 25 minutes of stair climbing

 

Green Bean Casserole – 227 calories – 30 minutes of walking at a moderate pace

 

Pecan Pie Slive (1/8 of pie) = 500 calories – 1 hour of ice skating

Stay tuned for specific Holiday Eating, Drinking, Exercise and Stress Reduction Techniques and Tips in the coming weeks blogposts!

What Does It Take to Burn Off Halloween Candy?

 

In the big picture of weight loss it is not what we do on the occasional holiday that really determines our weight it is the week in week out eating and drinking habits that determine our weight.   That being said if you are not careful you can eat/drink a ton of calories in one day which then turns into weeks of too many calories during the holidays starting with Halloween.

 The key is to plan and know what you are eating!   Candy can be confusing because of all the different snack sizes that are so prevalent during Halloween.      It is very easy to assume because you are eating snack size candy that it is not that bad, and this is true if you are not eating many pieces!    Before you eat candy see how many calories you are eating – it takes less than a minute to google calorie, sugar, and fat content for just about any common Halloween Candy.

 Here are some examples:

 

Nestle’s Crunch Bar (60 calories)       6 minutes of brisk aerobic exercise to burn off!

 

Kit Kat Bar (70 calories)                      8 minutes of brisk aerobic exercise to burn off!

 

4 Snickers Mini Bar (170 calories)      18 minutes of high intensity exercise to burn off!

 

Full Size Twix Bar (80 calories)           6 minutes of continuous kettlebell swings to burn off!

 

4.2 Oz Candy Corn (450 calories)       4 – 5 miles of walking to burn off!

 

2 Peanut Butter Cups (210 Calories)   2 miles of running to burn off!

So eating a little candy is no big deal, BUT if you are not watching how many pieces/containers you eat you can quickly rack up a ton of calories that would take more than an hour of vigorous exercise to burn off!

 Plan your candy intake and know what you are going to eat and enjoy it!   The other key is have candy after a meal so you are not really hungry – candy and hunger make for a really bad combination!

The Amazing Apple!

 

It’s that time again – apples are in season!  Not only do apples taste great – they provide powerful health benefits!

A medium apple is a low-calorie nutrition powerhouse – particularly if you buy organic and eat the skin.       A medium apple provides 4 grams of fiber, a nice dose of Vitamin C along with being a rich source of polyphenols (beneficial plant chemicals).     Most of the fiber and polyphenols are in the skin!

Polyphenols stimulate the body to produce more antioxidants through a process called hormesis.     These plant chemicals are produced by plants to defend themselves and are designed to be poisonous to insects.     

Because of our size the doses of polyphenols behave differently in humans and stimulate our cellular defenses and detoxification pathways.  Apples contain multiple types of beneficial polyphenols including flavanols, catechin, epicatechin, and procyanidins.   

Apples and Alzheimer’s Disease

High concentrations of polyphenols from apples have been shown to stimulate the generation of new neurons in the brain – a process called neurogenesis.   It is important to note that blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries all produce similar benefits to the aging brain.    The key with all of them is to buy organic.   Organically grown produce tends to have higher quantities of these beneficial plant chemicals because it must survive pests without the assistance of synthetic pesticides.

If you cannot find organic apples make sure you wash them thoroughly to remove as much pesticide as possible.

A study following 921 people showed that those who consumed the highest levels of flavonoids (a type of polyphenol) had 48% lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s Disease.    Apples are among the richest sources of flavonoids, but remember most of them are in the skin! 

How to Handle the Upcoming Fall Time Change!

 

It’s that time of year again – time to fall back and set our clocks back one hour.  .    Unfortunately, your body clock is not nearly as easy to reprogram.    This comes with some serious health consequences.  An hour time shift does not seem like a lot, but your body runs on a tight schedule and this one-hour change throws us off.

Scientists have documented that the shift to daylight saving time in the spring, when we lose an hour of sleep, is linked to an a much higher rate of attacks and car accidents.  Although we gain an hour to sleep – the change throws off the sleep cycle and that is where all the problems come from.

 Over the last 20 years, scientists have documented that, in addition to the master clock in our brains, every cell in our body has a circadian rhythm and time-keeping mechanism. The body and cell’s circadian rhythm help regulate important functions such as sleep and metabolism. And increasingly, there's evidence that when our habits — such as when we eat and sleep — are out of sync with our internal clocks, it can harm us.

When we disrupt our routines with erratic sleep or eating habits, it can increase the risk of metabolic disease. For instance, overnight shift workers are at much higher risk of developing diabetes and obesity. Research also shows that kids who don't have set bedtimes and mealtimes are also more likely to become overweight.

 As days get shorter with less daylight, it's easy to fall into bad habits, and light exposure is key to regulating circadian rhythm.     It is the primary signal to turn on the body’s metabolic processes for sleep and rest to active and alert.

How to prepare for the dark days

1. Go to bed an hour or so earlier and get up 8 hours later. 

Maximize your exposure to daylight in the morning hours since it gets dark so early in the evening.

2. Minimize Nighttime light

Exposure to light and electromagnetic fields from computers, phones, tablets, and T.V.’s all act as a stimulant, so it is important to minimize nighttime light exposure and blue light exposure in particular.  Blue light comes from artificial lighting.   Blue wavelengths – which are beneficial during daylight hours because they boost attention, reaction times, and mood – are disruptive at night.   Energy efficient lighting is packed with blue light as our electronics.

 So try to turn off lights and if you must use a computer get a blue light filtering program that will adjust the amount of blue light emitted by your computer, phone, and tablets such as flux – https://justgetflux.com and the Twilight app for your phone.   Both allow you to set times and adjust blue light output of your devices automatically based on time of day!  You can also buy blue blocking glasses to use in the evening.   This may seem gimmicky but there is very well done research supporting the effectiveness of reducing blue light in the evening through these and other measures!

3. Maximize early daylight Exposure

Just as darkness is the stimulus for sleep - bright outdoor light is what tells our body to wake up!    Even on a dark, cloudy day - outdoor light is at least 100 times brighter than indoor lighting!    Simply getting outside for 5 minutes as early as possible can make a big difference in sleep quality.     The combination of darkness at night and avoiding blue light along with getting out in the sun as early as possible can reset your daily circadian rhythm quickly.

How Resistance Training Increases Fat Burning and Prevents Lean Muscle Loss When Dieting

 

Several different studies have shown that resistance training can increase fat burning substantially.    An August 2021 study from the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences found that resistance exercise regulate fat cell metabolism at the molecular level.

In response to mechanical loading muscle cells release “extracellular vesicles” (particles) that give fat cells instructions to go into fat burning mode.

John McCarthy, Ph.D., study author and associate professor in the UK Department of Physiology stated:

“To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of how weight training initiates metabolic adaptations in fat tissue, which is crucial for determining whole-body metabolic outcomes,” McCarthy said. “The ability of resistance exercise-induced extracellular vesicles to improve fat metabolism has significant clinical implications.”

In addition to helping burn fat resistance training prevents the loss of lean muscle and reduction in resting calorie burn that occurs during any type of prolonged caloric deficit (aka dieting!).

In a study where woman were put on a very low calorie diet (only 800 calories per day and NOT recommended!) woman were put into one of three groups:

1.     One group did aerobic exercise only

2.     One group did resistance training.

3.     One group did no exercise

While all three groups lost substantial weight – only the resistance training group kept all their lean muscle (and actually gained a tiny bit) and their resting calorie burn (resting energy expenditure) only went down what would be expected from their significant weight loss.   The other two groups lost muscle and had severe drops in resting energy expenditure.

This is particular bad because it means that they are almost guaranteed to gain all the weight/fat back since they have a slower metabolism. 

Do You Have to Lift Heavy Weights to Increase Muscle Mass?

The short answer is NO!   A recent study ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34303313/) helps put this myth to bed.    The key is not so much how much weight/resistance you use as approaching momentary muscular failure.     This study looked at whether high levels of resistance were necessary for experienced lifters needed high resistance levels.

This is particularly significant because we know that gaining muscle mass is easier for inexperienced lifters, and it is much more challenging for experienced exercisers to make significant gains in lean mass.

The analysis included four different studies and concluded that "low-load RT (resistance training) elicited hypertrophic gains similar to high-load RT when sets were taken to failure."

Several studies also showed that there was a relationship between volume (sets and reps to momentary muscular failure) and hypertrophy.

Bottom Line:  The key to building muscle mass is lifting with good form and continuing to perform repetitions until you can no longer perform another repetition in good form.    Good form includes smooth, steady movement without using any momentum while maintaining constant tension in the target muscle/muscle group.

When in doubt it is usually better to have slower rather than faster movement speed and be particularly mindful to move smoothly when reaching the end of the lifting or lowering phase of an exercise to avoid unloading the muscle.

Can You Turn Fat into Muscle?

 

The short answer is no – fat does not get transformed into muscle.     Fat and muscle are two different tissues.    You can increase muscle mass while you decrease fat mass, but fat is not converted into muscle.  In the same way muscle cannot be converted into fat.    Fat is created whenever we take in excess calories from fat, protein, carbohydrate (or alcohol).    In this case the calories ultimately end up being converted to triglyceride and stored in fat cells.

 Each molecule of triglyceride (fat) consists of a carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.  To get rid of a single molecule of triglyceride takes many enzymes and biochemical steps to completely oxidize fat.    The complete oxidation of 10 kg (22lbs) of fat requires 29kg of oxygen consumption and the production of 28 kg of carbon dioxide and 11 kg of water (H2O).   The carbon dioxide is excreted by the lungs while the water is excreted as urine, sweat, breath, tears or other bodily fluids.  

Building muscle is a whole different process.     Three key mechanisms are responsible for initiating muscle growth:

 Muscle Tension – all forms of resistance training force muscles to create tension to support and move the load.    When enough tension is created causes changes in the chemistry of the muscle allowing for growth factors to be secreted such as mTOR and satellite cell activation.   Tension can come from active tension where muscles actively contract and also from passive tension which is stretching which tends to occur during the lengthening (eccentric) phase of a resistance training exercise.    

 Active tension tends to result in muscle fibers becoming wider while passive tension can make them longer.

 Muscle Damage – damage to muscle cells causes a release of inflammatory chemicals and immune cells that activate satellite cells to come into action.     This also initiates muscle growth.

 Metabolic Stress – When you feel the “burn” or the “pump” when lifting weights, you are feeling the effects of metabolic stress.     Metabolic stress from high levels of anaerobic energy production helps contribute to muscle growth without necessarily increasing the size of the muscle.   This is from the addition of glycogen (multiple glucose units linked together in the muscle), which helps to swell the muscle.     This type of growth is often referred to as “Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy” and can increase the appearance of larger muscles without increasing muscle strength or the size of muscle fibers.    Increased fiber growth is referred to Myofibrillar Hypertrophy referring to the fact that myofibrils (muscle fibers) and growing.

 

In summary, for muscle building to occur you must force your muscles to adapt by creating stressors including increase tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress and then eating properly and resting to allow the muscles to recover and grow.  

 

How Strong Bones Rejuvenate the Mind and Body!

 

Scientists have discovered a hormone that helps your muscles stay stronger, your brain more alert and nimble, keeps your blood sugar under control, and makes your bones stronger.      

This hormone is called osteocalcin, and it is somewhat of a fountain of youth for your mind and body.  Bones create osteocalcin, and you can take steps to secrete more of it!

Osteocalcin tends to decrease as we age with the decline beginning in the thirties for woman and in the fifties for mean.   Scientists believe this decline is one of the main reasons older people lose mental and physical function.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center did animal tests and showed that injections of osteocalcin into older animals and showed that it resulted in dramatic improvements in muscle function to the level of younger animals.   The injections also improved animal brain functions like recall and learning to levels that rivaled younger animals.

Research from Europe and Australia showed that woman in their 70’s with the highest levels of osteocalcin had better mental skills that allow processing of information and decision making.

How to Increase Osteocalcin

The most important step to increasing osteocalcin in exercise!  Research from the Medical College of Georgia showed that running or walking twenty minutes per day increase osteocalcin.

But aerobic exercise is not the only way to increase osteocalcin levels – resistance training can also increase osteocalcin particularly if it is coupled with adequate intake of key minerals such as calcium.

Choline - An Essential Nutrient Many are Missing!

Choline is a nutrient needed for the brain to produce a key neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.  Acetylcholine is synthesized from choline and involved in memory, circadian rhythm and muscle control. Each of these specific functions contribute to the impact it has on cardiovascular health, liver diseases, neural tube defects and cognitive health.

There are synapses between nerves throughout the brain that rely on acetylcholine to communicate. Scientists have found using drugs that inhibit levels of enzymes that break down acetylcholine increases acetylcholine in the brain, and this has proven useful in the treatment of Alzheimer’s dementia.

Further many drugs, including most over the counter allergy medications, have an anticholinergic action meaning they cause decreases in acetylcholine.   Research has proven that regular intake of these medications increases the risk of dementia in people 55 years and older.  

To make matters worse studies have show that up to 90% of US Citizens have a choline deficiency.   When you combine deficient choline intake from diet with commonly used drugs that deplete acetylcholine you set-up the perfect storm for dementia!   The good news is that with targeted eating or supplementation it is easy to take in adequate choline levels to help prevent dementia!

There are several foods with high levels of choline.   The food with the highest level of choline is liver with a whopping 356mg per 3 ounces.   Another food with high levels is egg yolks.    Beef, seafood, and poultry are also good sources of choline.  Unfortunately, many of these foods, such as egg yolks, have been unfairly demonized and incorrectly connected with causing high blood cholesterol.    This is NOT the case! One egg yolk contains about 130mg of choline which is 25% - 30% of your daily requirement. 

For adults the daily requirement is 400mg for female and 545mg for males.

Choline Supplements

Another way to ensure adequate choline intake is to supplement.    There are four types of choline supplements.    Plain choline and choline bitartrate are the least expensive but do not support production of acetylcholine as well as DFP-choline aka citicoline or Alpha GPC choline.