I was looking at the calorie counts on a few baked goods at panera bread the other day while trying to decide on what to eat. Many of the items were within 50 calories of each other but there were some big calorie bombs in there that were 200-300 calories higher.

Some of these items are double the calories of the others.

A 200 or 300 calorie difference is quite obvious and a no brainer if you’re trying to reduce calories. There is simply no hope of losing weight if you’re consistently making the highest calorie choices when you eat. But the real trick to getting really lean is also making the 50 calorie choice as well.

When it comes to losing weight every little bit counts, even the difference between a 200 calorie item or a 250 calorie item really matters. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but over the course if a few days and a few weeks these little decisions could add up to losing a pound of fat or not.

If you eat 3 times per day, and you find a way to cut out just 50 more calories each time, that is an extra 150 calorie deficit each day x 7 days that is already 1050 calories for the week…or a 3rd of a pound of fat. Add that to just an extra 15-20 minutes in the gym to burn an added 50 calories and it all starts to add up.

Once you understand the concept of calories in vs out and what your daily calorie needs are, the little things really do matter. This could be the difference between having sugar or sweetener in your coffee, or having milk vs cream in your coffee.

Even taking a fat burner can add a few extra calories to your daily burn. And all of it matters.

Weight loss is tough. Effectively dropping even 1 pound of fat in a week takes a daily effort. And it’s the little things that seem trivial that will end up determining if you get there or not.

We all tend to selectively forget some of the food we eat when we add up our daily intake. Making the effort to find the lower calorie choice in as many was as possible will always serve you well.

John

It’s been approximately 16 months since I last had my blood tested and I just got my test results back today.

Everything checks out A-ok. Last time my HDL numbers were a little low, so I took a fish oil supplement which brought my HDL up nicely into a cardio protective range.

This is the stuff I take.

If I didn’t get my blood tested last year I wouldn’t have known that my HDL was low. I didn’t make any big dietary or lifestyle change, I simply added some fish oil and continued doing whatever else I was doing from an exercise and diet standpoint.

The point is that you’ve got to know where you are in order to know what you need to do (if anything).

For me the only thing that needed attention was HDL. The solution was quite simple as there is good research to show that taking a fish oil supplement that is high in EPA and DHA can have a potent effect on raising HDL. So I took the simplest approach and added fish oil. The specific brand I used was from BlueStarNutraceuticals. I am biased towards their brand because I helped them develop it, but I also trust them because I know the quality of the ingredients.

I’m sure there are plenty of other good fish oil supplements on the market. And if you’re going to take one make sure it’s got the highest level of EPA and DHA possible (these are the two essential fatty acids that we take fish oil for in the first place).

With that said, you probably want to get your blood tested first to know if you even need a fish oil supplement in the first place. There are other reasons to take fish oil besides low HDL. It can improve dry eye syndrome, it can help with some skin conditions as well as joint problems.

The point is to do some homework on whatever your symptoms are and why you think that a fish oil supplement might be right for you. Then if possible test whatever it is that you want to change before you take the fish oil, and test it again a few months later. This is the only way to know if it’s working.

For me the test was easy and the proof that it was working was pretty obvious as I had a defined number to look at.

For things like joint pain, inflammation, or dry eyes it’s going to be a bit more subtle and you’ll have to keep a journal of how you feel on a daily and weekly basis specifically about the given condition. Looking back through your journal will be the only way to notice if things are improving because these changes happen slowly and gradually.

If you start using fish oil and you think things are improving but your not sure, the only way to get a definitive answer is to stop the fish oil and see if your symptoms come back. It a minor inconvenience but this off-on-off approach is the only way to know for sure if it’s doing what you want it to do.

Better to know than to just be guessing.

John

P.S. If you want to check out the fish oil I used you can see it here > Omega Blue

I was recently browsing some diet/health headlines…in one of the opening blurbs to a post I read the following words “vegetables that are ALLOWED on this diet…”

Allowed?

When was the last time you were in a position to have an allowance? Maybe when you were 8 year old.

These cats don't care if they're 'allowed' to eat Ice Cream

The idea of having things that are ‘allowed’ vs things that are ‘forbidden’ is a dangerous concept promoted by most extreme fad diets.

This type of thinking can lead to psychological barriers and issues associated with food when people end up eating something that is ‘forbidden’…and we all do no matter how strict we’re trying to be on any diet.

This is a dis-empowering position to be in as you’re blindly following rules set out by someone else, and in most cases for no good scientific reason (see blood type diet, GI diet, atkins diet for a few examples of nonsensical food category restrictions).

Many of these diet recommendations can do more harm than good as they can seep into your consciousness and you eventually believe you’re a bad person for eating things that are not ‘allowed’ by the latest diet you’ve tried to follow.

Keeping a positive mental and emotional state is far more important than giving yourself a star every time you do as your told and eat what is ‘allowed’ and avoid what is restricted or forbidden.

We’re adults and should be treated as such. Being free to choose food you like to eat and keeping your total calories in control is the key to losing weight and maintaining your weight without feeling like a total failure every time you stray from the acceptable food list someone has arbitrarily written (let me repeat, most of these good and bad food lists are not grounded in science).

Eating a variety of foods, and keeping your calories in control is the driving force behind weight loss, weight maintenance and preventing diet associated disease.

A little common sense is all it really takes.

John

In a recent interview with one of the Venus Index contest winners a very interesting point came up. It was the concept of being “ready to change”.

Is it finally time to change?

We all know that everyone is physically capable of changing, losing fat, gaining muscle and improving the overall look, shape and health of their body. But the physical aspect isn’t the rate limiting step, in almost all cases it’s the mental aspect.

In other words, are you mentally ready to change? Do you have the spark, the desire, the drive to put in the necessary effort to actually follow through and make it real.

This is where most people fall short and give up hope.

Not being ready to change doesn’t mean you’ll never be ready, it just means your not ready at that moment. Some people try and fail multiple times before it finally sticks. But when it finally works and you make it to your goal, you will then realize that you were never broken, but rather you just weren’t ready to commit to yourself yet.

Most of the diet and fitness media prey on this lack of self confidence and inability to get into a mental and emotional state to make a real change happen…they tell you stories of how your metabolism is broken and how you  just need to eat a certain food, or take a certain supplement, or do a special exercise and then it’ll all magically fall into place. They constantly distract you from the real stumbling block (mental and emotional readiness to take action) and tell you it’s some metabolic or nutritional trick…

What a load of BS!

Years of being out of shape takes a toll on your mind and emotions and your belief that you’re capable of making a change. Your mind starts to fill in reasons why you’ve been unsuccessful and you start to imagine that maybe you are the one unlucky person who can’t do it (and the diet and fitness media ride this way of self doubt and make it worse).

But I can assure you there is nothing wrong with you, you’re body is perfectly capable of shedding fat, developing muscle and being as fit and healthy as you want it to be…but it only happens when you’re finally ready and in the right frame of mind to make a change.

John

I’ve recently been doing research on what the placebo effect is and how strange this phenomenon can be.

It doesn't matter what system you choose to follow, but you have to believe it can work

In many health related scientific research studies a real treatment (a drug, or physical therapy) is tested against a placebo.

A placebo is either an inert drug (no active ingredient such as sugar pills) or even a sham treatment that does nothing (placebo acupuncture where the needle never actually even penetrates the skin but the patient thinks it has)

Throughout the scientific literature you’ll find out that the placebo group shows measurable results. In most cases placebo only applies to things like pain that are subjective in nature, but hey, a reduction in pain is still a reduction (even if it’s a change in your perception of that pain)

And this brings up a much bigger issue, and that is the perception vs the reality. If I tell you that you’ve received a pain killing drug (but it was a fake), and you feel less pain anyway…then the fake has to be considered a success.

This area of research is leading to a new understanding of how much your mind and body are linked and how important your belief in a treatment or a system is to the success you might hope to have with it.

And this also goes for diet and fitness programs. If you start to believe that one workout or one way of eating is superior to others you may very well start experiencing a better overall effect from doing that system. You might just stick to it longer or be more diligent following it, or even be happier and feel more confident about yourself while you’re following it. Whatever the exact mechanism the point is belief precedes action and results.

This is also why you need to pick one program to follow, one that you can believe in, and stick to it for a prescribed amount of time and see it through to it’s conclusion or to whatever time goal you’ve set (be it 12 weeks, or 6 months or whatever)

During your time on a given system you should also try to insulate yourself from reading diet or fitness theories from other sources as they could easily sway your belief and start making you second guess what you’re doing.

It’s this second guessing that could throw a monkey wrench into your current progress and sabotage any progress you were making.The more conflicting opinions you read the worse this will get to the point where you dont’ know what to believe…and this is the point when you will have become totally frozen, paralyzed by information overload and getting nowhere.

So if you have a diet or fitness goal you’d like to achieve (more muscle, losing some fat, or just getting into the best shape you can in the next 12 weeks) this is what I want you to do:

Pick one system to follow (obviously I am biased towards Adonis Index for men and Venus Index for women, but any system is worth a try).

Follow that system faithfully and to the letter for the prescribed amount of time.

During the time you are following that system don’t read or consume information about any other system or conflicting points of view until you’ve made it to the end.

This is the only way to give that system a fair shake and truly find out if it will work for you.

John