Address the Source of Your Performance Weakness

Don't Sleep in Your Weak Spot [Infographic]

As 2016 is drawing to a close, many of us can't seem to stop thinking over our year's past accomplishments and conquered goals. Maybe you nailed a PB in your bench press, mastered the double under, or whipped out a sub six finally. You're feeling pretty darn proud of your performance and your bod. Perhaps you're even thinking you're in the best shape of your life, but are you?

The best trained athletes like Tom Brady, Peter Sagan, Lionel Messi, and Stephen Curry all have something in common besides being the top dog in their respective sports. They all work on their -- weaknesses.

Say what? Yeah, this is usually where the rubber meets the road between the pros we watch and the rest of us. These sports superstars aren't on the field, in the gym, on the track, or in their clips working on their strengths. These talented and gifted individuals spend the bulk of their practice addressing the problem with their game, striving to constantly improve their shortcomings. We've all heard the saying: "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

How about in 2017, you and I stop sleeping in the weak spot of our performance and hit the source of it instead, getting to the root of our performance problem. With the correct diagnosis and approach, we can get faster, stronger, and endure.

Lack of strength in weight training or inadequate speed while cycling or running can mean you have weak biomechanics. If your form is suffering, you'll use more energy and work at a higher work rate when engaging in your favorite sport which will deplete your fuel, increase the acidity of your muscle pH, hinder your lungs from turning over carbon dioxide than someone else who ably and effectively moves the kinetic chain with accuracy, using less effort and muscle glycogen to cross the finish line.

If your thing is weight lifting, check out your movement patterns by watching yourself in the mirror or in a video captured by your phone. Perform an unweighted movement and determine if your basics are spot on from set up to finish. BOLO for knee(s) that shoot out, incorrect foot placement or weight distribution in your shoe or bare foot, eyeball uneven barbell or dumbbell height. These are all signs that you need to dial back on the weight when lifting or lowering.

If you fade in the saddle or fatigue before your journey's end, then endurance is your Achille's heel. If you consistently do shorter, more intense practice like HIIT several times per week instead of going for more frequent and time demanding longer durations or if you fail to follow up your anaerobic push with a lengthy steady-state pace, your body probably goes to higher percentages of MHR sooner rather than later, knocking your muscles out from under you or crippling your lungs. Solution: Add more time onto your workout each week, increasing gradually and consistently until you reach your sport's ultimate length. In generally a month to month and a half of working around or slightly below 70% of your maximum heart rate, your body will adapt and create additional mitochondria or power plants in your muscle cells which will allow you to go longer with greater metabolic vigor, less fatigue, and breathlessness. 

Speed, strength, and endurance are all measurable values. Do what the pros do to improve their sports performance and eliminate the weak spots in your game by charting your workout details. Composing a workout history will help remind you to address your troubled spots in a move in order for you to perfect a flawed movement pattern and provide you with the critical info to work on strengthening all of the muscles that power that move, helping you to strengthen weaker muscle fibers in say maybe your shoulders, low back, hips, or core. Logging your workout times, pace, splits, and distance covered in your phone or on paper consistently without fail will provide you with an accurate recollection of really how much time you are putting into your practice and show you if you are incrementally increasing your quickness and endurance as you should. 

Yes, self improvement takes time but what better investment of your days than spending seconds, minutes, and hours creating the best you that you can be. Right?

Thanks for reading. Your readership encourages me and I appreciate that.

- Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

New Study Shows Leisure-Time Exercising Lowers 13 Common Cancers

Exercise When You Feel Like It and Lower Your Cancer Risk

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society are giving us all some fantastic news about the relationship between greater levels of leisure-time physical activity and a lower risk of developing 13 different types of deadly cancer. The study, conducted by Steven C. Moore, Ph.D., of the NCI and his colleagues, was published in JAMA Internal Medicine on May 16, of this year, confirms that there's evidence supporting the benefit of physical activity in ones pastime to a reduced risk of cancer and emphasizes its role as an integral part of population-wide cancer prevention and control efforts. 

This study looked at hundreds of previous studies, pooling the data from 1.44 million people between the ages of 19 and 98 living in the United States and Europe. Study participants were followed for 11 long years during which time 187,000 new cases of cancer occurred. Among the participants who spent more of their leisure time being physically active than their sedentary counterparts, the study revealed an association with a lower risk of colon, breast, endometrial, liver, kidney, esophageal adenocarcinoma, gastric cardia, rectum, bladder, myeloid leukemia, lung, and cancers of the neck & head. 

How much leisure-time physical activity are we talking about? A pretty doable amount in my opinion. The median level of pastime action was approximately 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. Coincidentally, this same 2 1/2 hour number is the same amount of minutes currently recommended by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention for moderate-intensity exercise. Way to go CDC!

What seems to the mechanism(s) causing this decreased risk of developing cancer? Well, there are numerous mechanisms that could be at play. It's possible that the leisure-time physical activity is causing a reduction in the transit time of waste to pass through the GI tract, a reduction in inflammation & oxidative stress, or increased immune function. It could be that hormones such as insulin, IGF-1, estrogen, and androgens such as DHEA, DHT, androsterone, and testosterone are being positively affected. 

Let's not get hung up too much on the importance of why our cancer risks are being reduced and instead let's stick to what we do know which is we need 150 minutes of off-work bodily movement to keep us off the direct mailing list of Sloan Kettering. 

So how do we apply the encouraging research discovered in this study in our own lives? This week before we go to work or after we get off of working our 9 to 5, it means we need to hit the gym for 30 minutes Monday through Friday without fail, we could throw on our faded shorts & tennis and go run for 50 minutes 3 days this week, or maybe squeeze in a 30-minute hike on Thursday and then swim for an hour two days this weekend. 

Free-style it and mix it up. Remember the study involved leisure-time physical activity and not rigidly scheduled exercise so no freaking out. Throw on your ball cap, throw a little caution to the wind, and just go exercise whenever you feel like it. 

Writing is my "thang" and your reading makes it possible for me to smile. Thank you.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert 

Offsetting Training Stress with Nutrition

Still smiling after a 20 mile run. 

Stress: An Inevitable Component of Achievement

There's a common joke amongst long-distance runners: You don't have to outrun the tiger, you just have to outrun your FRIEND! 

Competition is healthy. It promotes mental and physical growth. It forces us to try harder than we had ever tried before, to persevere longer than we thought possible, and to push beyond ones comfort zone and pain threshold to perform at a level that the athlete did not know that they were capable of reaching, achieving, and surpassing. 

To compete means to perform. Performance competitions like triathlons & ironman triathlons, half & full marathons, as well as expedition & adventure races require professional and amateur athletes alike to push their limits throughout the entire training process in order to improve both their mental and physical condition to emerge victorious. 

The amount of training necessary to compete at a high-performance sport is cognitively and physically demanding. Demanding on ones time, balancing work & family life.  There also exists a continuous tug-of-war and second-guessing game that goes on in the mind and body of a performance athlete as she or he attempts to weigh and assess training intensity with the risk of potential injury, trying to sustain motivation while experiencing physical and mental training fatigue, and struggling to stay hydrated and properly nourished but lean enough to stay competitive during the entire training process up to the day of the race.  

Training is stressful. Stress that is both physical and mental. Performance stress can be physically manifested in swollen joints, sore muscles, lethargy, nutritional deficiency, and weight gain. Mental stress can also be physical in nature, showing up as anxiety, inability to concentrate and sleep at night, depression, and fatigue. 

Initially appearing as weight gain and fatigue, stress, if ignored and unaddressed, can lead to systemic inflammation. Inflammation, now shown in clinical research to be one of the leading causes of acute and chronic illness as well as one of the leading causes of disease. Stress's ability to inflame the body and weaken the immune system is not to be taken lightly. 

So how can an athlete offset the negative physical manifestations of high-level training and speed up recovery? Nutrition and adequate hydration are two effective ways to counteract and mitigate training enervation and fatigue.

A healthy athlete is a well-performing competitor. Health begins with consuming nutrient-dense foods as part of a well-balanced diet that is full of plant-based variety and color.  Correct nutrition and adequate hydration are the legs on which sports conditioning and recovery stand. 

Muscle recovery requires a full range of vitamins and minerals coming from nutritious living foods. High-level training offset with a proper nutrient-dense diet can continually regenerate the athlete's cells by providing both the physical energy as well as the chemical building blocks required to replace lost or injured tissues as well as to rejuvenate and revitalize joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles necessary to compete on race day. 

Before you sign up for your next race, sit down and look at what you are feeding your body with. Eating sport-specific foods can help enhance the athlete's workout quality and fitness level by providing the correct balance of carbohydrates, fats, and protein as determined by exercise intensity and performance requirement. Ultimately, your body is only as good as the food you feed it and an athlete is only as good as her or his body is on the day of the race.

Thank you for your readership. I definitely appreciate your support as I live out my passion in words.

- Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

BellGia.com

Are Juice Cleanses Nonsense

Is the Juice Cleansing Movement All Hype or Are There Real Health Benefits

The impetus to juice is to enjoy the health benefits associated with the consumption of additional vegetables, herbs, roots, and fruit. Juicing, if done correctly, will allow "the juicer" to get many more plant-sourced vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals into their body than would otherwise not be possible if consumed by traditional mastication (chewing up and swallowing).

Juicing is NOT about getting an additional source of fiber into the diet. It's the exact opposite. Juicing extracts and disposes of the fiber from the produce being juiced, thereby, leaving the liquid portion devoid of time-consuming, need-to-be-digested fiber, in the juicer's catch-cup for speedier digestion upon swallowing. The liquid dispelled by the juice extraction machine contains all of the vitamins, minerals, and beneficial plant compounds of those juiced vegetables, herbs, roots, and fruits. Vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds that would otherwise be missing from a diet that's based upon lean animal-sourced protein and under 50 grams of carbohydrates (the amount of carbs found in 1 cup of long-grain brown rice or ~1 cup of baked sweet potatoes) like the Paleo, Ketogenic, and Atkins-type diets. 

Juicing experts and educated juice advocates recommend juicing primarily green vegetables, a few  root vegetables for their dense mineral content, and very little low-sugar fruit. Most American diets are not lacking in fruit. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is reported in clinical research as being low in green vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, and Brussel sprouts. Dietary questionnaires and patient interviews show that the majority of Americans are able to eat an apple, an orange, a tomato, or a banana daily, but the average American has difficulty trying to find the time to make a pot of green beans, steam a pan of asparagus, or boil turnip greens for a nutritious side item at mealtime. 

Dark green vegetables are high in protein (though many uninformed critics of juicing say otherwise), vitamins, and minerals and low in glucose unlike root vegetables and fruit which can contain as much sugar as a 1/2 can of Coke to the shock of many a store-bought juice lover (1 cup of green grapes contains 21grams of sugar minus the fiber versus 19.5grams of sugar in a 1/2 can of coke). A ketogenic dieter or a paleo adventure lover wanting to add a clean-burning plant-based protein to their diet could make a green juice that contains 1 bunch of broccoli with its 17.15grams of protein and 1 head of cauliflower with its 16.13grams of protein and wind up with a glass of vegetable juice that contains 33.28grams of total protein which is equivalent to ~4.5 ounces of cooked 93% lean ground beef without the added cholesterol and naturally derived animal hormones. 

There is a science to juicing just as there is a science or method to cooking. Cooking requires some know how and so does juicing. To create a vegetable juice that is nutritious and well balanced, it is advisable to read a few good books on the subject written by dietary chefs who have been educated in juicing or by professional juice therapists. There is a plethora of misinformation on the internet and books published which have been written by overnight authors who do not know the subject matter which they are writing about. There is also an equal number of juice critics that for one reason or another want to put the kibosh on juicing by suggesting that those who juice will become protein deficient. As you can see for yourself from the above-referenced example, adequate protein can be easily had in one glass of vegetable juice if one juices protein-dense vegetables and not primarily sugary fruits that are low in protein. 

Protein, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and carbohydrates can all be found in a big glass of green juice. Governmental research shows Americans just aren't getting enough vegetables in their daily diet so why not try to consume a single glass of vegetable juice each day. An easy way to do this is to make a glass of vegetable juice for breakfast. A morning glass of green juice will contain just as much protein without the added cholesterol as eating a breakfast egg, sausage, and cheese omelet with the exact same amount of fiber as the extracted vegetable juice -- ZERO.  An egg and sausage or egg and bacon breakfast contains no fiber as does a glass of extracted vegetable juice. Therefore, why are pundits arguing against juicing not realizing that the standard American breakfast is oftentimes devoid of fiber as well is beyond me. 

In conclusion, juicing can be incorporated into ones diet in order to get the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals. Juicing can also add a clean-burning source of plant-based protein to someone's diet whose percentage of dietary protein maybe too rich in animal meat. Juicing can be low in sugar if the amount of juiced fruit is kept to a minimum -- just enough fruit to make a juice palatable for consumption. And, lastly, a great rule of thumb I tell my clients who are about to embark on a juicing program is "juice your vegetables and eat your fruit." 

Thank you for your continued literary support. It is heaven to be able to write and your readership provides the clouds on which I pen my prose. 

Sincerest Thanks,

- Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

No Insulin Secretion Means No Stored Calories

What Foods Do Not Cause Insulin Secretion?

Much to the surprise of what many people believe, protein stimulates insulin's release from the pancreas just as sugar and starch do.

Insulin, if you remember, is the hormone whose main job is clearing excessive glucose from the bloodstream and packaging it in the form of fatty acids called triglycerides into your fat cells for later use. Insulin begins to be secreted by the body BEFORE we take our first bite of food. When we start daydreaming about, looking at, or smelling food, our brains release insulin during a process called Cephalic Phase Insulin Release. The body prepares itself to be fed and gets an early jump of what it thinks will be a sudden flood of glucose by releasing the stored insulin tucked away in your cell's vacuoles. The amount of insulin your body keeps stored in these storage organelles called vacuoles is determined by your previous meals' average macronutrient content. If you've made it a habit of eating sugar or complex carbs at mealtime, your body's got your number and it has stored an appropriate amount of insulin in anticipation. Once we start to eat, our bodies kick up its insulin secretion and produce even more of this hormone. 

Insulin does more than control blood glucose levels. It also stimulates the body to absorb most amino acids. Amino acids, as you know, make up protein. Too much protein, just as too many carbs, will have your pancreas pumping out insulin like a gas station attendant on a rainy day. Therefore, if you consume more protein than your body needs, your pancreas is going to produce insulin, causing your body to store those protein calories as glycogen, a/k/a stored carbs, IF you have room in your liver and muscles for the stuff. If there's no room for anymore glycogen in your liver and muscles, then those protein calories ARE going into your fat cells and can increase your body's percentage of total body fat if you've made it a habit of consuming more protein than your body requires from you on a daily basis.

Dietary fat is the only macronutrient that doesn't cause insulin to be secreted. This means that when you eat foods that are entirely composed of fat, or predominantly made of the stuff, your pancreas is able to relax and kick up its proverbial feet and take a break so to speak.

The foods we eat are divided into three categories or macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. The predominant or majority macronutrient contained in a food determines its food-category status. For example, beans contain protein, fiber, fat, and carbohydrates. If you turn over a can of kidney, black, chick peas, or white beans you will find out that beans are a carbohydrate and NOT a protein based upon the beans' predominant macronutrient content which is carbohydrates.  

Steak, chicken breast, salmon, veal, bison, and ostrich are all examples of meat. Meat or animal flesh does NOT contain any carbs, only protein and fat. (Please notice that I did not include dairy. Dairy contains milk sugar which is a carbohydrate.) Avocados, butter, and plant oils (oil is another name for fat) like peanut, olive, coconut, sunflower, and sesame for example, do not cause insulin's release. 

If you trying to keep your insulin release to a minimum, perhaps trying to stick to a ketogenic diet and are striving to get under 50 carbohydrates a day, this means you can put butter in your coffee or on top of your bison and still stay in ketogenesis. 

In addition to avocados, butter, the appropriate amount of animal muscle (flesh), and the plant oils mentioned above, pre-diabetics, those striving to minimize insulin secretion, and ketogenic dieters can enjoy an ounce of macadamia nuts and still be okay when finger-stick time comes around because these Hawaiian nuts contain 21 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and only 4 grams of carbohydrates. These same folks can also have an ounce of full-fat cream cheese melting on top of their broccoli or perfectly cooked ribeye steak with its 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and measly 1 gram of carbs and still have high levels of BHB or beta-hydroxybutrate, the key parameter to determine if ketones are being produced by the body in response to fasting or extremely low-carbohydrate consumption.

Controlling ones insulin secretion is starting to catch on. Large universities and private research companies are beginning to invest millions of dollars into the subject. Cancer research studies are going on presently with human-test subjects in hopes of fighting the dreaded disease. There has been some terrific research done on longevity and low insulin secretion. 

I think it might be a great idea to keep ones mind open when it comes to low-carbohydrate diets. Sometimes what was once considered common knowledge has been proven wrong. Remember, people used to believe the world was flat and that the devil caused seizures. 

Thank you for your continued support. I live to write.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

DO NUTRIENTS DIE WHEN YOU MAKE JUICE AHEAD OF TIME?

VITAMIN LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH PRE-MADE VEGETABLE JUICE

Can you and I agree before you read my blogpost that we're probably going to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and perhaps one or two snacks on most days? This is not a fast day. We're going to consume calories for energy and normal cellular replacement, repair, and growth from some kind of food source, be that solid or liquid.

Now that we've agreed to this, let me ask you, "In what nutritional state is the food that you're planning on consuming in?" Specifically, are you having grilled chicken that was killed several days ago or killed a couple of weeks ago and was frozen until it was purchased by your local grocer served on top of a head of lettuce that was picked over a week ago and then transported over several days via truck or barge 1,200 - 3,600 miles along with a few slices of cucumber and tomato that were taken from their vines two weeks ago?

I'm asking these tough questions in order to get you to think and understand that the food that you are going to eat really is NOT fresh at all, therefore, why are you overly concerning yourself with the nutrient integrity of your pre-made, stored vegetable juice to the point where you are thinking that it just isn't worth juicing vegetables and fruit you bought from your local fresh market or green grocer if you're not going to juice it and drink it immediately when the alternative meal that you would eat in place of the juice is FAR FROM fresh or nutrient packed?

Life is sometimes a long way off from perfect. Sometimes we have to hope for the best and accept  the best-case scenario alternative. Many times, however, we're not going to get anything close to the ultimate result we were looking for so you and I are going to have to accept the best of whatever we can get at a particular moment. 

Juicing can be just like life. Real-time juicing followed by immediate consumption is of course the ultimate way to get the most nutrition out of your at-home juicing or made-to-order guzzled-down-on the-spot juice from your local juice bar. Many times, however, we just don't get that option so we have to SETTLE for the best we can get which isn't the best case scenario but it is far better than nothing.

Making a large amount of juice ahead of time and storing it in the refrigerator in order get your daily allowance of vitamin-packed vegetables and fruits if you work an 8-12 hour-a-day job, are a full-time mother of 1-4 little kids, are taking 12-15 credits at school, are a busy social butterfly with lots of stuff to do throughout the day, or maybe just lazy person who doesn't want to make juice and then clean up a juicer 3-4 times a day is a great idea. Some nutrients, however, naturally breakdown or decay over time due to lipid oxidation, lipid rancidity, light, heat, and from a variety of complex reactions that involve degradation, volatilization, and recombination of sugars, amino acids, aldehydes, ketones, hydroperoxides, organic acids, and then there's phytochemical breakdown of flavonols, flavonoids, and color pigment that occur in vegetable, herb, and fruit juice. 

Some of the huge words I just used above may have scared you into thinking pre-made juice is worthless but it isn't. The lifespan of most of the vitamins you are hoping to get from juicing are several days or longer so you're not going to lose much nutritional value in making and storing your vegetable juice ~12, 18, or 24 hours ahead of time. Drinking pre-made, stored vegetable juice is better than not drinking vegetable juice at all. 

Vitamins A, K, C, and E last a long time before decaying. Most of your B vitamins, like B6 for example, stay in the juice for the most part during 24-hour cold refrigeration. B3, however, is one of the shorter-lived B vitamins which has a short half-life of ~20-45 minutes but your body makes B3 so you really shouldn't worry about your juice's B3 degradation. 

In conclusion, the freshest juice is best BUT we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a 20-minute behind schedule, oh my gosh I lost my keys, I'm never going to make it on time, "Did I remember to brush my teeth" kind of a world so stop sweating the small stuff. 

Drink the freshest juice you can. Remember that some juice is BETTER THAN no juice at all. A good rule of thumb if you have to pre-make your vegetable juice and store it in the refrigerator for later consumption is to minimize the juice's exposure to light and heat while slowing down cellular oxidation by using a resealable glass jar or jug that is filled as high to the top of the lid as possible to reduce the amount of oxygen in the container that can cause oxidation and refrigerate the vegetable/fruit juice in a really cold fridge but don't freeze it (no ice particles). 

Here's to your health,

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

Do Thermogenic Fat Burners Really Work?

Should I Buy a Fat Burner If I'm Dieting?

I know a lot about thermogenic agents because I'm in the weight-loss business. I have been dieting women and men down the scale for twenty-five years. Over one thousand women and six hundred men of varying ages, shapes, and sizes have come to me to help them shed their excess fat and bring out their svelte physiques. 

Some of my clients were athletes that let themselves go in the off-season, others were moms or dads that became chubby and out of shape when the babies started coming, and others were couch potatoes who ate potato chips with one hand and controlled the remote with the other. So, yes, I can state with confidence and knowledge that I can tell you everything you want to know about over-the-counter thermogenics commonly sold as "fat burners".

Thermogenic agents like Hydroxycut, Ripped Fuel Extreme, and Xenadrine do not burn your body's fat stores no matter how many or for how long you take them. Thermogenic agents like those popular brands mentioned above, speed up the body's metabolism (the breaking down of the foods we eat in order to re-create the substances our bodies need for growth, repair, and energy) by stimulating the body's nervous system usually by using caffeine (a xanthine alkaloid which is a central nervous system stimulant) as the chemical stimulant of choice or something similar to it's C8H10N4O2 chemical structure. 

In order to burn your body's stored fat, your body must release a peptide hormone called glucagon. Glucagon is released from the liver only when your body's concentration of blood glucose is too low.  Then and only then does the liver convert stored glycogen into glucose to be used as energy for normal body processes, for thought, and for movement like exercise. Your body uses its glycogen stores before it will use its fat stores as its fuel.

The average human body stores 100 grams of glycogen in the liver and between 300-400 grams of glycogen in its muscles. Your body must use up those stored carbs before it will burn the body's stored fats through a process called lipolysis. I'm sorry to break that to you but it's true and the sooner you know how your body gets its energy, the sooner you will be able to lose your unwanted weight.

Your over-the-counter thermogenic agents or fat burners don't and can't make your body burn fat, but they can speed up your heart's contractions and cause it to beat faster and circulate your blood quicker which requires more calories be used as energy than would a resting heart. The caffeine in these fat burners will also stimulate gastrin release (a hormone made by the stomach) and gastric acid secretions which will aid in gastric motility or the movements of the digestive system and the transit of its contents more quickly. This means the food you eat may get out of your stomach quicker, go through the small and large intestine faster, and then cause you to run to the bathroom for a bowel movement. 

Basically the caffeine or similar stimulant in your store-bought fat burners will get your body's nervous system stimulated where your organs will be working faster and requiring more calories as energy to keep up this quickened pace. The caffeine can also mask hunger, coverup fatigue, and improve athletic performance due to its ergogenic effect and the sparing of muscle glycogen.  

So, to answer the question posed by this blog post: "Do Thermogenic Fat Burners Really Work?" my response is "Yes, Hydroxycut, Ripped Fuel, and Xenadrine can work for some people because thermogenic agents like these cause central nervous system stimulation which CAN burn additional calories for the person who is taking them IF that person's body hasn't adapted to high caffeine or stimulant consumption." 

Please be aware that not everyone should take or can take a thermogenic agent. Those with nervous system disorders, heart conditions, digestive disorders, or anyone who has struggled with an eating disorder may want to talk to their general practitioner before even considering taking these types of drugs. 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my blog. I appreciate your continued support. 

References: 

Scand J Gastroenterol Suppl. 1999;230:35-9.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert 

Should I Drink a Cup of Coffee Before I Exercise?

Will A Cup of Regular Coffee Help My Sluggish Metabolism?

If you are an avid gym goer you have no doubt seen somebody drinking a Starbucks' coffee before stepping onto the treadmill for a run. You're probably like many people who thought, "What's up with that?" 

No, this person isn't so addicted to caffeine that she or he cannot give up their vice before exercising. Caffeine, once thought to be a denigrator of human health has been shown in recent clinical research to reduce the possible risk of Parkinson's disease, protect against type 2 diabetes, promote a healthy heart, and lessen the chances of contracting liver disease or liver cancer. 

Consuming caffeinated coffee before physical activity is not the same as smoking a cigarette or slamming a shot of tequila even though many people think these three well-known recreational drugs, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, are similar.  

Research sited in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that caffeine has a thermogenic effect upon the human body. The term thermogenic refers to the physical heat that results from increasing the body's metabolism. The caffeine in coffee, chocolate, tea, soda, over-the-counter medicines, and diet pills can cause thermogenesis as well as reduce appetite, and increase the excretion of urine from the body. So not only does caffeine consumption give your brain a buzz and open wide your tired eyes, but it can also kill your hunger and cause you to urinate maybe a pound or two of water weight from off the scale at the same time. 

If one cup of Joe is good, is two cups even better? It appears that caffeine does indeed have a dose-response effect. The outcome of a study also published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that gave healthy adults caffeine in 100, 200, and 400 mg amounts concluded that the more caffeine consumed, the higher the thermogenic effect upon the coffee consumer at the 200 and 400mg amounts. 

The positive clinical results gained by this AJCN study, spawned other research involving the effects of caffeine and metabolism. The American Journal of Physiology printed a study comparing the thermogenic effects on lean and obese caffeine consumers.  

If you thought that life was undeservedly kind to the thin, fit, and muscular before, you will be sure of it now after reading the result of this AJP review. 

Clinicians gave ten obese women and ten lean women caffeine in sufficient amounts to induce caffeine-stimulated thermogenesis. The ten lean women experienced a greater thermogenic effect which raised their metabolic rate higher than the more portly females and the calorie-incinerating effect lasted longer in the leaner test subjects than it did in the obese women who consumed the exact same amount of caffeine. The American Journal of Physiology study showed, in their small sample size, that women with a lower body mass index and a higher percentage of lean-muscle mass received a greater stimuli when consuming caffeine than the women who had a BMI in the obese range and possessed a larger percentage of body fat. The conclusion, the leaner the individual, the better and lengthier the thermogenic effect.

Like the results in these two studies and maybe thinking about stopping at your local coffee house on the way to the gym? If you are, you can be pretty sure that you'll be okay doing so. Caffeine is considered safe for most people when consumed in moderation, which Mayoclinic.org has defined as less than four cups per day. Consuming in excess of four cups of coffee on a given day can result in restless night's sleep, may bring on a mind-splitting headache, or possibly cause a heart to beat irregularly. Caffeine can also interfere with some medications and antibiotics.  

Hope to see you on the treadmill next to me downing your cup of Joe. And, yes, if you are running next to me WE ARE RACING!

Thank you for inspiring me to write about what I love.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

References: 

Am J Clin Nutr. May 1990 vol. 51 no 5 759-767

Am J Physiology Oct 1995 269(4 Pt 1):#671-8

Mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition June 2016 

Displacing Good Calories with Convenience-Food Alternatives

I Can't Drink All that Green Juice

GRAB & GO
MAKE & TAKE

I hear it all the time from my clients,"I can't get down all that vegetable juice. I can't finish it all. "We can chug down a 20-ounce big gulp and slam a pilsner of beer but we can't drink a serving-sized plastic cup of veggie juice...So why do you think that is?" I ask.

We spend much of our days rushing from here to there in the hopes of getting everything done and still workout in order to stay healthy, trim, and fit. 

Does this sound like you: Got to get to the gym early in the morning so I'm going to stop at Starbucks after my exercise class and grab a quick coffee and breakfast sandwich because I can't be late to work. Or is this you -- Taking a couple courses at school to further my education or get ahead in my career so I'm going to jump out and grab Chipotle so I can squeeze in a couple sets at the gym or catch that 5:45pm spin class. No, then perhaps this is you: The kids need to get picked up from daycare or aftercare, therefore, I'll just drive through the golden arches and grab a chicken wrap and then high-tail it over to karate. 

Rush, rush, rush. Many of us are in such a hurry that we think we only have time to grab something QUICK to eat and drink in order to stay on time for everything else we have to accomplish on any one given day and still get our exercise in somewhere. We've talked ourselves into believing that this is what we must do to get everything done and still have time to stay fit and healthy but what we are really doing is counterproductive to your goals and many of us are clueless. 

You are trying to get thin or stay weight stable but what you're actually doing is sabotaging your gains and weight-loss success by displacing the good calories you could be eating that are better for your body with other less-valuable food calories in the hopes of saving yourself some time and money. 

That stop at the Buck in the morning is costing you $8 and 20 minutes of your time. It is also simultaneously filling up your stomach with a quick source of energy (caffeine) along with a bunch of fat you don't need, some not-too-great overly-processed protein, and more carbs than your body needs to get four hours of work done before the lunchtime meal arrives. With that same eight bucks and fourth of an hour, you could juice five pounds of carrot and an entire package of celery. Yes, you really could. 

I have timed this same scenario out hundreds of times in front of the women and men I've worked with in order to show her or him that in the 20 minutes it takes for them to drive to their local coffee shop and throw down some cash, they could have juiced all that produce I just mentioned and wash their juicers, providing themselves with vitamins, minerals, anti-aging antioxidants, power-packed protein, easily burnt-off carbs, and the healthiest forms of essential fats in the same amount of time. 

The human adult stomach is only about the size of a medium-sized fist. Generally on average, the stomach has a volume of approximately one liter which is about a quart. However, the stomach does possess the capacity to STRETCH and hold more food -- up to about four liters or an entire gallon.

Whether your stomach can hold one liter or a gallon, SPACE is LIMITED. If you drink a large coffee with cream and sugar and chow down on a breakfast sandwich, there goes room for a 16-ounce green juice at your local juice bar. 

It doesn't take a nutritionist, dietitian, or a weight-loss specialist to tell you what you already know which is that a giant glass of fresh-pressed vegetable juice is healthier for you than a gigantic cup of Joe and 3-minute microwave egg and cheese biscuit. You will undoubtedly feel better, think more clearly, and have more energy to leap over tall buildings in a single bound if your FUEL of CHOICE is lean and green than black and comes in a sack.

In conclusion, do the mathematically computations and stopwatch your "supposedly-necessary" time saver you call breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. When you take the few minutes to reflect on your behavior and decision making process, you may find out that what you thought was cheap and easy is actually expensive in respect to your healthy lifestyle and training program.

Thank you for your time and valuable support. You help me feel necessary in the overall scheme of things.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

Maintenance Exercise Following Weight Loss -- Do I Have to Keep Working Out So Hard or As Often?

Maintaining Lean Muscle Mass After Losing Weight

You accomplished your goal of losing your unwanted weight. Congratulations! Losing weight isn't easy and if you've dropped 5, 10, or more pounds and kept it off. You should be extremely proud of yourself. I know that I am of you for it.

Now that you've gotten rid your additional weight burden supported by your knees, hips, and shoulders, you probably want to know IF you have to keep exercising at the same intensity level you were when you were dieting or do you have to exercise for the same duration or length of time? According to substantial statistical research, your weight maintenance depends upon you doing just that. 

The National Weight Control Registry is the largest prospective investigation of long-term weight loss maintenance, established in 1994. The NWCR reports on their website (www.nwcr.ws) that they are currently tracking over 10k individuals who have lost considerable amounts of weight and have kept it off for an extended period of time. This continued research study has over twenty-two years worth of diet and exercise questionnaires and annual follow-up surveys collected from both men and women over the age of 18 years who were once overweight but then dieted to obtain a BMI in the normal range (18.5 - 24.9). 

The average National Weight Loss Registry member has lost 33 kg or about 72.6 pounds and has maintained their weight loss success for greater than 5 years. To maintain their weight loss, NWCR registrants describe engaging in high levels of physical activity related as 60 minutes of exercise. If NWCR members are to be believed, 94% of them report increasing their physical activity above what they had previously done before losing their unwanted weight and 90% disclose that they engaged, on average, in about one hour of "exercise" per day. 

I have worked in the healthcare professional in one capacity or another for twenty-five years. Two decades of experience helping over 1,000 people lose weight, eat healthy, get physically fit, and either gain muscle or maintain what muscle they had has provided me with lots of statistical data of my own. I will tell you that the majority of my female and male clients had to continue to workout regularly "almost" as hard and nearly as lengthy in duration as they did while they were in the process of losing weight. In order to stay at their desired size, they needed to maintain about the same amount of lean muscle mass they had added to their bodies while they were dieting and their weight maintenance also required the continued caloric expenditure or calorie burn produced as a result of exercising or physically moving. 

Physical activity or exercise helps with weight loss due to its metabolism boosting effects and its caloric expenditure. Physical activity or exercise that requires an additional weight burden upon the body's musculature causes an increase in muscle size -- you build more muscle. A pound of muscle has more energy requirements THAN a pound of fat, therefore, the more lean muscle mass you possess, the higher your basal metabolic rate typically. The higher your BMR, the more calories you burn throughout the day and night. 

If a certain amount of movement or exercise enabled someone to lose their excess weight, it is scientifically unreasonable to think that about the same measure of physical activity isn't going to be necessary to keep off the lost weight due to that person's requirement of a higher basal metabolic rate to process AND USE UP the food they put in their bodies in the form of breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner as energy as well as to construct the molecular building materials for their cells and tissues.

I hope this post answered the maintenance exercise question. Thank you for reading.

Until next time,
Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert

How to Get A Great Butt

What Kind of Butt Are You Looking For?

What do you think of immediately when you hear the names Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, and Jennifer Lopez? 

Great butts! Right?

Butts that are worth millions of advertising dollars to the women who sport them. From brand sponsorship, sports car ads, clothing-line endorsements, and everything salable in between, it's no wonder why J. Lo insured her mega-money-making bootie for supposedly $27 million dollars. BUT those BUTTS belong to celebrities and what matters to you, frankly, is YOU. So, let's you and I discuss YOUR derrière. 

What kind of butt are you looking for? Do you want to look great in a pair of ripped jeans?  Is your desire to break hearts at the pool or while walking down the beach with a butt worth killing for? Or would you be satisfied with a butt that just didn't sag down onto the backs of your legs?

When you're young, regardless of whether you're male or female, it doesn't take much to have a fantastic looking backside as long as you aren't too heavy. A good butt in your youth just kind of happens without very much effort from its owner. You wake up in the morning and BAM your bootie looks awesome. But as you get a little bit older, around 27-30, or if you gain too much weight, 10+ pounds or put on the Freshman 15, above what's ideal for your height and gender, your butt can become your least liked body part right next to your apparently large feet or misshapen toes.

The difference between a butt worth COVETING or worth COVERING is the amount of fat and muscle your bootie possesses. More muscle means a rounder, fuller filled-out pair of jeans or bikini bottom. A butt that contains a lesser degree of lean muscle mass is a bootie that has too much skin that will sag onto the backs of ones hamstrings. A butt that's well-padded with fatty deposits or subcutaneous adipose can look voluminous, voluptuous, and worth squeezing as long as that fatty tissue is attached to a descent amount of gluteus muscle. However, a backside that's stuffed with unflattering fat or lumpy deposits can show cellulite dipples and dents when NOT concealed in a pair of Spanks or spandex-containing workout pants.

I hope I have convinced you that the difference between having the butt of your dreams or the bootie of your nightmares is MUSCLE. On your next trip to the gym or during tomorrow's outdoor run, why not interrupt your normal exercise routine or pattern and workout your glutes? With regular, repeated gluteal training, four weeks from now you'll be taking selfies of your beautiful butt more than you do now of your pretty face.

Thank you for your continued support. I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog on a daily or weekly basis. You give me reason to speak which is priceless.

Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert

Are You Allergic to Restaurant Bread or Store-Bought Cupcakes?

Diet Baseball

Three Strikes and It's Out

As a Weight-Loss Specialist I have grown to HATE the weekends. Like a priest, I hear confessions from morning until night on Saturdays and Sundays. Admissions of guilt that sound like this: "I ate too much, I drank too much, I had dessert, and I didn't exercise."

Week in and week out I teach my clients how to lose weight and get rid of their fat. Drink enough water, limit your starches, exercise regularly, avoid processed food, fill up half your plate with vegetables, eat no more than two pieces of fruit per day, measure your nuts, and don't eat unless you're physically hungry. I sound like a broken Bride of Chucky Doll to me.

I go over the diet maintenance rules with male and female clientele until they can recite them in their sleep. The dieting boundaries I prescribe will become, I hope, second nature to them. Nobody wants to be on a "diet" forever. What you consistently eat, must become the way you live your life, a lifestyle that's automatic, something that you don't even have to think about anymore. 

But it never ceases to amaze me that after 4 to 8 weeks, 3 to 6 months, or even after an entire year of learning what good, clean eating habits, figuring out what works for them, and discovering which foods just DON'T, that those same individuals who have lost 20, 30 50, and well over 100 pounds go back to eating the same kinds of food that contributed to their weight gain (the same foods that I took out of their diet) to begin with. 

Some foods cause negative effects in the bodies of certain people for one reason or another  -- bloating, gas, cellulite, water weight gain, and fat deposition. I like to describe it as a metabolic food allergy.  It's not a "real" food allergy like being allergic to shellfish or nuts that cause ones throat to swell shut or the skin to break out in hives. It's a physical weight-gaining phenomenon  that takes place every single time Miss or Mr. XYZ eats PQR.

Specifically, I am talking about going to a nice restaurant with your beloved, having a couple pieces of bread and oil before dinner, and then blowing up like a balloon on the scale the next morning. Maybe for you it's alcohol. Does a glass or two of chardonnay with lunch cause you to unbutton your pants by night fall? Or perhaps the fat-gaining Satan in your life is a baked good like a mini cupcake or chocolate-chip cookie. A nibble of just one of these sweet treats send you into your closet to pull out your sweat pants with the adjustable waist band for several days. 

It's been my professional experience that there are just some kinds of food that don't work metabolically with some people for whatever reason. (The reason doesn't really matter.) This is where the Diet Baseball Rule of Three Strikes (XXX) comes into play. Let's say you've been doing great on your diet -- losing 2-3 pounds per week, your clothes are getting looser, your fat stomach is disappearing, and your chicken wings are firming up and no longer flapping in the wind when you wave to a friend. One day you get forgetful or over confident (cocky) and think that after losing 20 pounds you can have a couple slices of sausage pizza and a glass of chianti with a girlfriend. Your girlfriend can eat Italian and not gain a pound, but you can't. 

The next morning like clockwork, you're 5 pounds heavier on the scale and you call me screaming, "What happened?" I could explain to you about carbs holding approximately 3 grams of water per carb gram or give you a speech about inflammation and alkaline/acid balance but doing that just causes me to use up my valuable saliva and you to think that your 5 pound gain is only temporary, but I know it's probably not. You're drifting back toward the diet rat wheel and in another week or two you will have repeated the same kind of unclean eating behavior and gained more weight until pretty soon you are back where you started -- fat and unhappy.  

When you have achieved real weight loss, not lose a pound/gain two pounds, but really won the battle of the bulge and reset your weight set point, there are foods at this new weight-weighing low that you can no longer eat and stay where you're at. No body wants to hear that though. Whether or not it's true doesn't really matter to most people who have been overweight and then diet down and get thin.  This is the point where I usually get into a tug-of-war with my client as to whether he or she is going to listen to me or their stomachs. 

So here's how the Three Strikes Rule works. You want to eat pizza, I tell you that maybe you can eat a couple bites of pizza every now and again but your days of devouring several slices are over unless you want to tie yourself to the stairclimber for 2 hours. You don't believe that you can't eat pizza anymore so I let you try it your way and you have pizza. The next couple days I ask you to text me your weight. You gained 2.5 pounds. Strike ONE. We both make a mental note. A month goes by and your craving for cheesy pizza comes back so you give in to your desire and stop at the local pizzeria and chow down. The next morning you are 3 pounds up. Strike TWO. You are starting to believe me now but not quite yet. It usually takes this third time for you to admit what I have been saying all along. This next dietary slide occurs two months after strike two and just as morning follows night, you ate pizza and you gained 3.5 pounds. Strike THREE and now pizza eating is OUT. 

Maybe weight gain happens when you eat cereal or oatmeal for breakfast several days in a row. Perhaps it's avocados in your salad or fat-free frozen yogurt after dinner that makes you blow up. It can be something different for everyone but what actually matters is what foods don't work with YOUR unique metabolism. 

The 3 Strikes Rule (XXX) -- borrow it from me and use it to help you stay at your ideal body weight from here on out. Get off the weight lose/gain merry-go-round for good.

Thank you for reading my blog and making me feel like I'm doing some good in the world.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

YOUR DIET IS AFFECTING YOUR DAUGHTER AND YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER WHETHER YOU REALIZE IT OR NOT

Your Dietary Habits are Shaping the Next Two Generations

Think, "Big Picture" for a moment...The food you eat is fuel or energy your body needs to do physical stuff like blink, snap a selfie, do a couple dozen squats, or carry in the groceries from the car. Your Greek yogurt, can of tuna fish, handful of nuts, ice-cold apple, and bowl of piping-hot broccoli all contain amino acids, carbohydrates, and healthy fats that your body requires to create all the cells, tissues, organs, muscle, hair, and blood in your body. 

The amino acids you get from your meals and snacks build proteins and those proteins help make and mark your DNA. What? You don't think of your breakfast burrito, your lettuce wrap, or your Frappucino like that? Maybe you should start.

Your eating habits aren't just about feeding your cravings, trying to stay at your ideal weight, or about looking great for summer. What you deem sustenance isn't a matter of following a particular diet like Paleo, being a lacto- or ovo-vegetarian, or trying to save innocent animals from suffering by going all-out vegan which is highly commendable. The majority of what you eat is used by your body to create new parts when the old ones wear out and to fix whatever inside or outside of you gets damaged or broken. 

Your body's processes of renewal and repair can be best summed up like this: "You are what you eat." You've heard that before, right? But have you read about the latest research that's suggesting that if you're a woman of childbearing age that well-know expression becomes: "Your granddaughter of the future is what YOU eat"? 

It turns out that if you are of the female persuasion, (Fellas, I will get to you and your epigenome in another post) what you nosh on or choke down can have even farther reaching affects than your current level of health and well being. As a woman, what you eat today can affect who your daughter of tomorrow may be and your diet also has the power to dictate in large part who your future GRANDDAUGHTER may become.  

There's two ways that this is possible. 

As a female, anywhere from the age of first menses to menopause, you and the foods that you eat create the baby that will by-planning or by-surprise begin to grow in your uterus when you get pregnant. What you have eaten and continue to eat -- good, bad, or even worse -- will, if your child-to-be is a girl, create her lifetime-supply of eggs or approximately 6 to 7 million oocytes that will be created and afterwards stored in her ovaries at around week 20 of gestation. 

The chemical substances that you are ingesting, processing, absorbing, and utilizing on a fairly regular basis are placing biochemical markers on top of your DNA called epigenetic marks that can and in many cases will be passed on to your progeny or offspring and their offspring. Scientists are currently discovering that more than just eye color, height, ear attachment, and some diseases are passed along in our sex cells or germ line to the children we create. Your body's sensitivity and ability to process sugar, how much fat your body stores, and your metabolic rate may all be handed down to your daughter and granddaughter.  

In practical terms, what does this mean ultimately? 

If you are throw back shots of tequila on the weekends with your spouse or make a habit of sharing romantic bottles of wine on the beach with your dates and you get pregnant as a result of your friskiness, those ounces of alcohol you slam and the four-cheese stuffed calzones you chow-down on at midnight along with all the other not-so-great food-like substances you digest frequently are the building materials your body is going to use to form the baby-making eggs that will one day become your grandchild just as your oocyte that was just fertilized by your lover's sperm was formed inside of your mother when she was a growing fetus inside of your grandmother's womb. Your regular consumption of sugar and fat, alcohol, and drugs are affecting your DNA and therefore possibly impacting your offspring's future by marking their genetic information with many of your biochemical predispositions.

You not only have the power to create a newer and better you by what you choose to put into your mouth and bodily system each day, you also have a huge opportunity to radically change the future of our planet by populating Earth with a human being who can think outside the box, run like the wind, feel empathy for others, and live to be over 100 by your eating lean, clean, and green. 

Thank you for reading what my super-charged neurons were currently meditating upon today and thanks giving me a reason to wake up in the morning.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

FRUSTRATED WITH YOUR STOMACH - CAN'T GET DEFINED ABS

HOW CAN I GET ABS?

Whether or not your abdominal muscles show or DON'T has a lot to do with three things primarily -- One, your current percentage of body fat. Two,  the size of your abdominal muscles' muscle "bellies." Three, the difference in your abs depends upon the length of your abdominal tendons.

Your percentage of body fat has everything to do with whether or not you can see your tummy muscles in the mirror after a really good workout or just rolling out of bed.
I started training professionally when I was 17 years old. I have worked with over 1,000 women and men. In all my years of experience this is what I have consistently observed: Men start showing their abdominal muscles somewhat at 15% body fat. At 12% body fat, a man's abdomen clearly begins to show muscle separation between the rectus abdominis muscles, a little bit of the external obliques begin to peak out (more obliques show at 10%), and the transverse abdominis is flat. In order to see the coveted six-pack abs that have earned their bragging rights, a fellas needs to be at 8% body fat. Between 6-8% body fat, the inguinal ligaments that display the really great "V" taper going downward into jock-wearing area appear. Congratulations!

A woman has a tougher job ahead of her when trying to get her abdominal muscles to show when she is sporting her bikini at poolside due to evolution's great idea to have women pad extra body fat for childbearing. (Thanks, Mother Nature.) Between 16-20% body fat, a woman begins to have a stomach that she is proud enough to wear a tank top in but not until most women hit 15% body fat based upon my professional experience does a woman get to see her external obliques peaking out enough where she can clearly see where her rectus abdominis muscles stop and wear her side obliques begin. At 11-13% body fat, a woman's abdomen is completely defined, six-pack abs are showing, and her torso is smooth, extremely linear, and desirable.

Now, let's suppose you have your body fat percentage just where you want it. Obstacle number two when it comes to creating a chiseled stomach are your muscle bellies. This is the middle of your muscle anatomically, the part where it is the biggest or widest. Some people are just born with thicker muscle bellies than other people. Your muscle bellies make your abs look more pronounced or outwardly instead of flat since you possess higher peaks on each one. If you have thinner muscle bellies on the other hand, your abdominal muscles will lay flatter and you may even possess an inward appearance in your abdomen (like Arnold Schwarzenegger). This is due to your muscle peaks being lower or not as bulky at their centers.

Your abdominal muscle tendons are the last hurdle a person striving to get beach-ready abs must consider when putting together their ab-training program. Your tendons are the connective tissue that unite your muscle to other muscles or connect a muscle to bone. Your body's unique tendons have a huge role in whether or not you have washboard abs or NOT. Your tendons are either longer or shorter. The longer ones will show larger gaps between your abdominal muscles. If you have shorter abdominal tendons, your ab muscles will have smaller gaps, will show more muscle striations, and your tummy appear more washboard-like than someone with longer abdominal tendons.

I hope your take-away from this article is that everyone is uniquely different. Take the time to learn about your body, study it as you would your major in school or an important aspect of your job. Love the body that YOU ARE IN. You are going to be in it for a long, long time HOPEFULLY.

Thank you for reading my thoughts. I appreciate you giving me a reason to think.
-Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert

WHAT IS THE COST OF GOOD HEALTH

Good Health Comes at a Cost 

"You don't get something for NOTHING!" We've all heard that saying and if you're over 12 years old, you KNOW that it's true. Everything comes at a COST and that includes GOOD HEALTH.

"What is the price of good health?" you ask. Good health will cost you 3 things -- TIME, ENERGY, and MONEY. 

Possessing good health doesn't just happen. Come on, you know that's the gospel truth. If good health and a great body didn't cost you some of your very limited time, we would all wake up gorgeous and ready to run a marathon every single morning. But that doesn't happen, does it? No, it doesn't and that's why coffee machines and cars were created.

Feeling good inside your body is going to take an investment of several hours each and every week of your time. Time you're going to have to CUT out of your television watching, game playing, social chatting, and just sitting around doing nothing. 

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends that Americans need AT LEAST 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity in addition to performing muscle-strengthening exercises 2 or more days per week. Notice that the HHS said, "at least 150 minutes" of moderate-intensity exercise per week. They suggest, however, that Americans who want additional and more extensive health benefits should increase their aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes a week PLUS 2 or more days of muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups. 

It appears, according to the HHS, that GOOD physical health comes at a cost of 5 HOURS per week plus a couple days of lifting weights. 

If the first cost of good health is time spent in the gym then you know that Cost Number 2 has to be ENERGY because working out 5 plus hours per week (the plus is for the 2 or more days per week of strength training) you are going to need a whole lot of energy to accomplish that task. Where are you and I going to get all this energy from pray tell? We are going to get it from getting a good night's sleep so we are fully rested when we get up each and every morning and from following the 2015 United States Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) that tells us to drink WATER, which has absolutely zero calories, instead of sugary drinks. The DGA says water should be one of the primary beverages consumed. Sleep, water, and nutrient-dense foods are going to give us the energy we need to possess good health. Just like we put gas in our cars and trucks to make them go, the human body needs fuel also to carry out the activities of daily living. 

The food-for-fuel we consume brings us to Cost Number 3: MONEY.

There is a financial cost to owning good health. Good health does kind of grow on trees but those trees are owned by Big Agriculture and they want their money for growing the food that gives you and I good health. I'm not going to tell you that you must buy all organics because, frankly, the scientific research doesn't say that. It is suggested by the Environmental Working Group that you should try to purchase when possible the following organic produce due to the heavy use of pesticides by growers: apples, celery, cherry tomatoes, collard greens, cucumbers, grapes, hot peppers, kale, nectarines, peaches, potatoes, nectarines, snap peas, spinach, and sweet bell peppers. 

Besides purchasing the above-referenced 15 fruits and vegetables organically, good health is going to cost you when you eat out as well. If you want good health then you aren't going to be able to eat out at the fast-food restaurants that offer that lunchtime hamburger for $.99 or that burrito/taco for under $1 buck. There has been enough published research on the negative health effects associated with fast food consumption that you know that running to the border or driving under the golden arches is not going to bring about good health. You are going to have to spend some extra hard-earned money on a variety of colorful vegetables, fresh in-season fruit, lean sources of protein, low-sodium legumes, and healthy-heart fats like Omega 3 from fish, flaxseed, or algae sources. 

The cost of good health is time, energy, and money. Three resources we are all fortunate enough to possess to some varying degree. It is up to you and I to decide for ourselves whether or not good health is worth the personal sacrifice of our minutes and hours, dollars and cents, and precious calories. This is America. We are each free to choose. Cast your vote for good health. 

Thank you for reading. 

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert