Rituals, Weight Loss and Metabolism

We build rituals around everything we do. When we want to create change in our lives we need to consciously craft those rituals so the result we want is simply the default reaction, not something we have to expend creative energy to reach.

In Essentialism, Greg McKeown narrates the race ritual of Micheal Phelps, the most decorated American Olympian of all time winning 22 Olympic medals. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing China we set a record for most first place finishes by any athlete in a single Olympics, eight gold medals.

Two hours before a race Michael Phelps would conduct the exact same warmup swim every time, in the exact same order.

After the swim he dry off, put on his headphones and sit on the massage table. Always sitting, never lying down.

From this point forward he would not speak to his coach or anyone else until after the race was over.

At 45 minutes before the race, he would get dressed for the race. At 30 minutes he would go to the warmup pool for a 600 meter swim.

At 10 minutes before the race we would walk to the ready room and find a place where he could sit alone. He would place his goggles on one side and his towel on the other.

When his race was called, he would walk to the blocks. He always approached the blocks from the left side. He would dry the block every time, and perform the same two stretches, in the exact same order, always with the left leg first. Then he would remove the right earbud.

When his name was called he would remove the left earbud.

Phelps also had a routine for what to think about every night before […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:28-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Rituals, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Spiritual Energy, Weight Loss and Metabolism

For the purpose of this program, when we talk about spiritual energy renewal we are talking about our actions being consistent with our values.

When we do things we feel good about, that are in line with our values they become a source of spiritual energy which can extend our physical and emotional energy.

But when we do things that are in conflict with our values, they become a drain on our physical and emotional resources.

In the movie Promised Land, actor Matt Damon portrays a character who purchases land for gas exploration. He sometimes misleads people to get them to sell, but he has great conviction in his work and is spiritually driven because he believes he is right. He had grown up in a small town and seen first-hand the devastation that occurs when the jobs leave and the last hold outs are left with nothing.

Once his character has a change of heart about the company he works for, he can no longer lie to get people to sell. Once his actions were inconsistent with his values they became an overwhelming drain on his energy.

In this story we can see how our values can have a great impact on our energy and motivation. They can either provide support and longevity to our physical energy or they can drain us and drag us down.

But in order to make use of our spiritual energy we have to be clear about what provides our spiritual energy to begin with.

Asking the question, “how does healing our metabolism and finding health line up with our values?” This question will help you organize your motivations and keep yourself focused through the changing process.

What are your personal values? Values are action based, […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:29-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Spiritual Energy, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Mental Energy, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Mental energy is our ability to focus on a task, undistracted for a period of time. It is our willpower. And it functions like a muscle. For our minds to best direct mental energy, it needs to be driven hard for short bursts and then given sufficient time to recover.

Imagine a sprinter on a track. The sprinter gives it his all for a short period of time then takes an equal or often longer, period of time to recover. When the sprinter is ready for their next performance the results are directly tied to how well sprinter was able to recover.

Our best mental performance comes when we are able to fully engage in a task for a short period of time, then take a break that allows our brains time to recover.

Now consider that our brains make up just two percent of our bodies weight, yet consume an astounding twenty-five percent of our calories. This is critical to understand because it underlines our immense needs for physical energy. If the physical energy needs are not being met we have the additional deficient in our mental energy.

Additionally, physical movement directly stimulates our mental energy. In “A Few Good Men” Tom Cruises’ character was in trying to solve a problem and said he needed his bat. He said he thought better with it. After taking a few swings and walking around the answer came to him.

Many of us get our best ideas taking a walk or in the shower when we are moving around.  This is because the brain is fed from bottom to top and back to front. About 800,000 signals per second enter our sensory cortex, they are consolidated and only about 200,000 are […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:29-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Mental Energy, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Emotional Energy, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Our physical energy renewal was based on four factors, nutrition, breath, physical activity, and recovery. They re-energized the body on a physical level, and depending on the depth of our interest they may or may not have provided an emotional energy renewal.

For example a dinner in front of the TV, even if shared with someone else may not provide an emotional energy renewal. You may need an undistracted meal, paired with in depth conversation in order to feel emotional renewal. But someone else may be fine having dinner in front of the TV with someone if they both really enjoy the show and the shared experience.

Similarly, one person may begrudgingly walk their dog just long enough for the dog to poop and hurry home. While someone else may see a dog walk as an opportunity to bond with the animal and may get great emotional renewal from the walk.

We are all different and we all need to find ways to emotionally renew ourselves. Our emotional energy reserve is derived from positive emotions and is a key to sustained performance.

David Snowdon is an epidemiologist who studied 678 aging nuns. His interest was on factors that effects the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Studying essays the nuns had written when they joined the order in their twenties, Snowdon found an amazing correlation between the nuns who were optimistic and those that were pessimistic. Those that focused more on positive emotions lived longer, happier lives and were less likely to develop Alzheimers.

John McEnroe was one of the most colorful personalities in tennis. He was famous for his spontaneous bursts of anger over his performance or a disagreement with an official. In a legendary match with Ivan Lendl […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:30-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Emotional Energy, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Sleep, Weight Loss and Metabolism

The function of the parasympathetic nervous system is rest and repair or sometimes called rest and digest.

During slow wave sleep the body relaxes, breathing becomes more regular, blood pressure falls, and the brain is less responsive to outside stimuli. The pituitary gland releases growth hormone, which stimulates tissue growth and muscle repair.

In a study with the Stanford men’s basketball team. They slept ten hours a night for five weeks. The results were that the freethrowing percentage improved by 9 percent, the three point shooting improved by 9.2 percent and their 80 meter sprint was faster.

REM sleep is to the mind what slow sleep is to the body. REM sleep is when your brain dreams and reorganizes information. Your brain clears out irrelevant information, boosts your memory by connecting the events since your last sleep to your previous events, facilitates learning and neural growth.

One of the ways it repairs the brain is to remove toxic proteins from its neurons that are the by-products of neural activity when you are awake. Unfortunately, it can only do this when you are asleep. And when the toxic neurons are not removed they wreck havoc on your prefrontal cortex effecting cognition, creativity, problem solving and inhibition.

Sleep deprivation means you can’t recover physically, your immune system weakens, and your brain becomes foggy.

Sleep deprived individuals are at increased risk of viral infections, weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, mental illness, and death.

One of the ways it does this is by raising the stress load on the body and the cortisol levels. A lack of sleep helps break down skin collagen making you look older by reducing the elasticity of the skin.

In men, not enough sleep reduces testosterone levels and […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:30-07:00September 20th, 2015|sleep, Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Sleep, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Movement, Weight Loss and Metabolism

The brain is at the center of all we do, and it needs three things in order to operate. Glucose, oxygen and activation through movement. Over the last two days we have addressed the brain and body’s need for glucose, as well as oxygen. Now we are going to look at activation, or the brain and body’s need for movement.

The quality of our movement has a direct impact on the quality of brain function. Because neurons must be regularly activated in order to keep them functioning, if we go for extended periods of times with stimulating them we lose control over them.

Let me give you an example. Think about all the things we used to do on playgrounds as children. Climbing on monkey bars, spinning and twirling, or how about just running back and forth playing tag. Those are all skills we developed which have faded without use.

The more sedentary our bodies become the less control we have over them. The physical loss of control, and results in decreased activity of the brain further impairs other brain functions such as problem solving.

Because our brains are fed from bottom to top and from back to front, the more active our brains are as a whole, the better the performance of the pre-frontal cortex. This means if we move more throughout the day the more productive and creative we become with intellectual tasks.

So along with glucose and oxygen, movement becomes the third way we can restore or extend brain and body performance. Walking, playing and working out are all great ways to relieve stress, and improve brain and body performance. And the more varied and interesting an activity is the more stimulating it is for […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:31-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Movement, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Respiration, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Before we get started with breath and respiration, we’ll take a minute to discuss the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle between the thoracic cavity and the abdominal cavity.

When the diaphragm contracts air is pulled into the lungs. This is important because the lungs themselves do not exert any effort in the breath cycle. When the diaphragm relaxes the breathe is naturally expelled meaning there is no muscular tension necessary to naturally exhale.

It is worth noting here that western lifestyle habits contribute to very bad posture for a lot of people. It is worth the time to sit up straight with good posture. Since people are constantly hunched forward and flexing at the abdomen it is more difficult for the diaphragm to inhale without the use of auxiliary breathing muscles.

When a person is breathing through the use of auxiliary breathing muscles such as in the neck and chest it is inefficient and a sign of stress. This is undesirable for several reasons. First it exhausts these muscles which produces stress, and inflammation. Second it increases the likelihood of hyperventilation.

So, physiological respiration is the exchange of gases through the act of breathing. The lungs contain millions of alveoli that transfer gases between the lungs and blood.

Generally, people understand this to be the inhalation of oxygen and the exhalation of carbon dioxide. But of course there is more to it than that.

The amount of air exchanged in the lungs in a single breathe while the body is at rest is called the tidal volume and it requires about 12 percent of our lung capacity. In fact humans require both oxygen and carbon dioxide.

The air on earth at sea level is about 21 percent oxygen and […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:31-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Respiration, Weight Loss and Metabolism

Energy and Metabolic Stress for Weight Loss and Metabolism

Building on a previous lesson, we need to take a more in-depth look at the stress hormone cycle and its effect on energy and metabolic stress.

As the stress load increases, so does the need for glucose. But if the glucose needs are not met the result is an increase of adrenaline to help move the stored glucose from the liver in the form of glycogen.

But if a person has a low metabolic rate, and they have a deficiency in glycogen, then the adrenaline will move free-fatty-acids instead.

And now the production of glucose comes from cortisol at the expense of muscle tissue and the thymus gland.

As the muscle tissue is broken down certain amino acids cause further suppression of the metabolism.

This stress on the thymus gland also weakens the immune system and is one of the ways low metabolic rate and chronic stress contribute to frequent colds and other illness.

So if you have a low metabolism and you are low in glucose then eating a food that causes a cortisol response may actually make you feel good. But overtime it may cause wasting of the muscle, sexual problems, and mood problems.

Serotonin is an adaptive stress hormone. When we hear of serotonin we usually think of the brain. However, 95% of the serotonin in our bodies is produced in the intestine.

One of the sympathetic nervous system responses to stress is to reduce blood circulation in the extremities and the intestines. This is great if there is physical danger and we need to run away because right then we do not need to be focused on digestion.

But the effect on the intestines is that it causes poorly digested food, excess serotonin, and inappropriate levels of bacteria. This […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:32-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Energy and Metabolic Stress for Weight Loss and Metabolism

Metabolic Markers for Weight Loss and Metabolism

Metabolic markers are key to understanding how the body is reacting to what you are eating. As previously mentioned the sympathetic nervous system’s primary process is to initiate the flight or flight response in the body. While the parasympathetic nervous system’s primary process is maintenance of the body.

Throughout the day these two systems should trade off dominance as we react to stimulus and then take time to recover. But in our society it is extremely common to see people exhibiting signs of chronic sympathetic dominance in which they have a lot of anxiety.

Additionally, instead of the gradual passing of control that should occur between the two systems a lot of people have more dramatic swings that can be seen in emotional reactions going from mania to extreme fatigue.

To make matters worse a low-metabolic rate works to constantly suppress the parasympathetic nervous system contributing to the chronic elevation of stress hormones which in turn leads to low-metabolic rate and a vicious cycle has begun.

Thyroid is a principle hormone of the parasympathetic nervous system, and cortisol is a principle hormone of the sympathetic nervous system and as one increases the other should decrease back and forth.

The most common disruptor of this cycle is – you guessed it – dieting. Dieting lowers thyroid and raises cortisol. So, when the body is deprived of energy, the stress load is too great, and the bodies reaction is to lower the resting metabolic rate in order to preserve energy.

But wait, it gets worse, as fat tissue decreases during a calorie deficit leptin falls which causes a decrease in metabolic rate, and the metabolic rate now stays suppressed until the fat energy stores are replenished plus an additional store to help […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:32-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Metabolic Markers for Weight Loss and Metabolism

Putting Health First for Weight Loss and Metabolism

The preparation stage is about taking the decision you committed to in the contemplation stage and creating the steps necessary to achieve it during the action phase.

It is the cornerstone for successful change since it affords us the opportunity to make a solid commitment to changing our behavior. Any lingering doubts need to be addressed in this stage.

I know the struggle for worthiness, it seems staying or being thin is the only goal. But not reaching this goal time and time again, you’ve come to RESOLUTE. It’s important to keep your focus during this program and begin the process of healing the body and brain connection.

Your worthiness is not wrapped up in your appearance (that’s what got you here in the first place) it’s about your core values. RESOLUTE is about valuing the one body we have and using it to enjoy life to the fullest. Yes, that’s being fit and feeling comfortable in our body. But no, it’s not about being perfect or hurting our bodies to get there.

Reconnecting to our bodies means putting health high on our list of values. Up there with family and spiritual beliefs. Yes, I’m asking that you consider putting health first and making it a crucial strategy for long term weight loss.

Instead of getting confused about what health is, we are going to educate you on what to expect and how to implement changes that lead to health. But first we need to take the time for preparation. Spending time with our WHY will help us gain clarity, and make our efforts pay off.

Let’s use an example to understand the value of the why. Have you ever picked a diet, jumped right in Monday […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:32-07:00September 20th, 2015|Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Putting Health First for Weight Loss and Metabolism
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