there is no finish line...enjoy the ride...

It's OK to be OVERWEIGHT, just don't be a little too THIN

I watched the finale of the reality show, “The Biggest Loser” a few days ago.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this program; the basis of the show is to select approximately a dozen participants who are morbidly obese and submit them to an intense program that involves diet and extreme workouts coached by celebrity trainers that yell and scream , often bringing the participants to tears when these extremely overweight individuals stuggle through their workouts (I guess it's good for ratings).  After each week, the person with the lowest weekly weight loss is kicked off the show.

This blog post isn’t to discuss the program’s training methods that most professional trainers find to be highly questionable, but the reaction directed towards the young women that won the $250,000 and the title of being the “Biggest Loser”.  Rachel Frederickson who used to be a national class swimmer started the show, (which runs over a number of months), at an extremely unhealthy 260lbs and finished at an incredible 105lbs, an astonishing weight loss of 60% of her original body weight! 

As I mention above, the extreme methods employed by the show’s trainers to get these people to lose this incredible amount of weight in such a short period is highly questionable.  That being said, the social media network lit up like a Christmas tree immediately after Rachel lost the highest percentage of her original weight (which, let’s not forget is the objective of the show), and was severely critical of the 24 year old for being too thin and appearing unhealthy.  I find this criticism is a direct reflection of how “health illiterate” North Americans have become. 

When Rachel first weighed in at the beginning of the show’s season, she was 116lbs overweight with a morbidly obese BMI of 44.6!  When she finished, she had a BMI of 18.0, which is 0.5 underweight, or 3lbs for her 5'4" height.  Currently in North America (Canadians and Americans), there are 245,000,000 citizens that are either overweight or obese.  I found the outrage over this young women’s final weight disturbing.  When was the last time you saw this kind of outrage directed towards anyone that is just 3lbs overweight?  NEVER!

I find there’s a double standard when it comes to weight.  I coached a guy who was an obese 245lbs by changing his diet and trained him to compete in the grueling 200km Etape de Tour bike race in France. After 10 months of healthy eating and a daily structured cycling program, he successfully completed the race and weighed a healthy 165lbs (a loss of 80 pounds of fat). His only complaint is how many of his friends and family feel compelled to tell him how unhealthy he looks, even though he’s the healthiest and fittest he’s ever been.  And that no one ever told him he looked unhealthy when he was obese.

Before

After

It seems thin people are open game and criticized for being thin, even though they sport a healthy weight.  I also experienced this phenomenon last year when I was in training for Haute Route (7 day stage race from Geneva to Nice through the French Alps).  I monitored my weight, body fat and lean muscle mass regularly to ensure I never jeopardized my health.  But that didn’t stop people from telling me that I looked unhealthy, even though I was in the best condition of my life.  By comparison, it’s socially unacceptable to show concern and point out that someone is overweight or obese.

The health consequences associated with the overweight and obesity epidemic are well documented and understood, and it's cripling our healthcare system.  If only we had a general population consisting of people that were only 3lbs underweight; we wouldn’t have many of the health problems and costs associated with Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, Joint Degeneration, Workplace Productivity, Cancer and many more health issues.   In fact, studies have indicated that people that are slightly underweight live longer and healthier lives when compared to their normal weight, overweight and obese counterparts.

I think this unwarranted criticism of Ms. Frederickson is the result of a general population that can no longer recognize what healthy looks like, and when they see a person that’s healthy thin, they immediately associate them with some kind of unhealthy eating disorder.  Instead of ostracizing this young woman for being 3lbs underweight, I’d like to see people with weight issues focus their attention and energy on themselves byeating a healthy diet and being more active.

Enjoy the Ride….Rob

10 Ways to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

Ok, I have to come clean here and tell you that I have the world’s sweatest tooth and it’s at this time of year all my will power flies out the window and I really struggle with avoiding all my favorite Christmas treats my wife makes.  Thank goodness I never give up my training program and I make exercise a high priority at this time of year.

I’m not sure why it happens; it could be that we get caught up in the sparkling lights, the pretty snow, the shopping frenzy and the fun of the holiday season. But, suddenly you may find that managing your weight and sticking to your exercise program easily slides down to the bottom of your priorities. After all, sampling sweet treats and browsing for the perfect gift can easily distract you from the treadmill.

With a little bit of planning, you can move more in December and keep those extra pounds for Santa. So watch the ball drop on December 31 and know you don’t have to spend the rest of the year undoing the damage you did this month...with these tips.

Be careful of liquid calories - Holidays are notorious for tempting us with drinks we wouldn’t normally consume. Alcohol is a poison to the human body and offers no nutrients, just empty calories! Eggnog coffee drinks with whipped cream, hot toddies, and spiced rum can have as many calories as a personal pan pizza! Opt instead for sparkling water with a splash of fruit juice of your choice.

Focus on socializing, not food and alcohol - Go to the party to socialize, not just eat and drink. Use your energy making memorable conversation rather than focusing on food and drink. 'Tis the season for friends and family after all, and conversation is calorie free!

Get moving - Food isn’t the only enemy, lack of activity is also the problem. Remember calories in versus calories out. I’ll watch some of my holiday favorite TV shows while riding my bike on the indoor trainer instead of sitting for hours on my butt. Also, instead of looking for the perfect parking spot near the front door, park farther away at the mall and take the stairs with your packages. Better yet, get your workout done in the morning instead of being derailed by evening holiday hoopla.

Select healthy first - Really stick to consuming your eight fruits and vegetables each day—keeping nourished with healthy food helps avoid those excess sugar highs and energy lows that can make you tired and depressed.

Try the one-a-day program - Limit yourself to one indulgence per day. Don’t deprive yourself of all sugar for three days so you can pig out at the company holiday party. Be moderate in your thought process: one cookie, one candy, one eggnog, not one of everything all at once.

Control the risk for temptation - Don’t walk through the break room at work 10 times a day when you know it’s filled with treats and candies brought in by fellow workers. My wife sets all her Christmas treats on the coffee table just staring at me. Don’t place treats on your kitchen counter or on the coffee table where the temptation is too great. Know yourself and your weaknesses so you can more easily avoid them.  Because if you’re anything like me, you can’t just eat one.

Never go to a party hungry - One of the worst things you can do is starve yourself before a holiday party in a misguided effort to save up your calories. The hungrier you are, the less capable you are of staying in control. Avoid the grazing mentality at parties: take a plate and fill it only once with appetizers. Don’t keep going back for seconds and thirds.

Exercise in small bursts - Break up your exercise throughout the day to reach a minimum of 60 minutes per day. Try two 15-minute walks with a 30-minute shopping outing with some extra lifts of those packages you're carrying.

Escape the couch - Step away from the living room, and invite family and friends to get active. Choose gifts that encourage venturing outdoors, such as sleds, skates, or snowshoes. Get out and power walk to see the neighborhood holiday lights. If you must sit to watch a favorite show, get the whole family to do something active during each commercial break like jogging on the spot, or jumping jacks.  Do something that will elevate your heart rate without breaking into a full-on sweat.

Set your own limits - Many times we eat foods or have seconds just to please the hostess or cook. Politely say “No thank you. Everything looks delicious, but I think I’ve reached my limit!”

I’m the first to admit that this time of year is tough to manage because of all the unhealthy temptations that surround us, but remember, if you like most people, ½ of the weight your gain over this holiday season, will be with you for the rest of your life. Enjoy your family and friends while giving the cold shoulder to the unhealthy temptations.  Trust me; they have no feelings to offend.

Enjoy the Holidays….and Enjoy the Ride…..Rob

 

Are the nurtition "experts" confusing you?

I just returned from close to a month in France.  The first part of my trip was to participate in the grueling Haute Route bike race.  This is a 7 day stage race from Geneva to Nice France, covering over 800km through the French Alps, climbing over 21,000 meters or 70,000 feet of grueling mountains passes every day at my maximum race pace effort. It was undeniably the hardest endurance event I’ve ever competed in and it certainly lived up to its reputation as being, “the Highest and Hardest” cycling sportive in the world.

Approximately 600 participants competed in Haute Route and for one week I lived in a “cycling bubble”.  Imagine if you will an environment where every person is keenly aware of their personal health and fitness level (I was even comfortable wearing compression socks in public). This obviously contrasts to the everyday world we live in, where the typical North American’s personal health and wellness is not a priority, that is unless they have an illness or disease.

Outside the Haute Route cycling bubble, which consists of very thin cyclists that take their health and fitness to a scientific level, was the everyday person who cheered alone the roadside as 600 of us passed through their villages or towns.  It’s these people that caught my attention, because they represent the general population by which I can draw comparisons to what I observe here in North America. 

After finishing Haute Route, my wife and I spent the next few weeks in the Provence region of France, starting in Nice where we observed and enjoyed a very different lifestyle compared to what we’re accustomed to in Calgary, or our other home in Arizona. 

It seemed we could find any number of close-by markets where fresh locally grown food was always available. 

We also spent two wonderful days with a good cycling friend and his family and were treated to meals that were fresh, healthy, sourced locally, and very typical of the French lifestyle. 

By contrast, when I returned home, I found myself steering my oversized grocery cart through my local supersized grocery store, selecting produce that was probably aged artifically under ultraviolet lights, while  surrounded by oversized people stuffing their oversized carts for what appeared to be a month’s worth of processed junk food and supersized soft drinks. 

My general observation is that, “North Americans are obsessed with size and equate ‘more’ with better value”.  This thinking manifests itself in our supermarkets, restaurants, home appliances, highways, real estate etc. We drive oversized minivans and sport utility vehicles; we rip into potato chips bags the size of garbage bags, we drink soft drinks from bathtub-sized containers and wedge our steroid fed Thanksgiving turkeys into oversized refrigerators that have more room than most European cars.

The fact that we weigh too much because we eat too much on a regular basis may be obvious to some, but I’m starting to see a disturbing trend of pseudo-science that’s distracting us from the real causes behind our unhealthy size.  Study after study are looking at fringe reasons why over 65% of us are either overweight or obese and are focusing on the edges of the problem instead of the flabby core.  It seems like we’re focusing on the less daunting issues that distract us from the one that’s most difficult to change, which is the sheer volume of food our “larger is better” culture accepts and now believes is normal.

In the past two weeks since returning from France, I’ve read stories or blog posts that describe research exploring the effects of a proper breakfast on weight loss; the implications of gut bacteria on a person’s tendency to be fat; the impact that sleep deprivation on dietary cravings; the possibility of strenuous exercise as an appetite suppressant (I can attest this isn’t true after observing how much food we ate after strenuous daily racing during Haute Route); and the unhealthy food choices a person will make when their favorite sport team loses the game.  I even read an article that experts have now drawn a parallel between air-conditioning and obesity. 

Like the trillion dollar business seeking a cure for cancer, obesity has become full-time employment for scientists, physicians, nutritionists, and professors, who are funded to look for every obscure reason why we’re so fat. What’s upsetting is that these experts have done little in the way of providing clarity; in fact they have done more to confuse the general public than help. We’ve been told that snacking is good for us and that it’s not; that fruits and veggies will save the day and that they won’t; that more exercise means fewer pounds and that it makes little to no difference. Their approach to the weight issue is like a doctor stitching a cut finger on a severed arm; they're focusing on the cursory problems when the larger issue is staring them in the face.  There’s no one standing at my door offering a million dollar research grant, but what I’ve advised the people I’ve coached has yielded positive and lasting results more consistent than anything the experts are advising and it’s largely because I keep it simple and focus on the obvious problem.  

Back to Europe for a moment. I’ve been there a number of times over the past few years and from my observation, I know they’re generally thinner and healthier than North Americas.  I also know they walk more, and they eat more locally grown foods, but these factors alone don’t make the difference in body size or health when compared to North Americas.  The reason for the difference is because they don’t celebrate huge portions the way we do.  They can’t comprehend the sheer volume of food we eat over here. For example, my friend in France said the French don’t understand the concept of the “Doggie-Bag” (you know, for that time when we just can’t shovel anymore food in our faces, so we take whatever’s leftover home and eat it later).  He said it would be very difficult to move his family back to the United States, where he's originally from, largely because of the lifestyle differences, which includes the unhealthy eating practices of North Americans. Note the healthy portion size on "Mrs. No-Finish-Line's" plate (Eggplant, Rice and Pork Tenderloin, served with a wonderful bottle of local rosé wine).

When the typical North American thinks of value; 7-11’s Super Big Gulp, Coca Cola’s economy pack, KFC’s party size, Papa John’s two-for-one pizza, the Whopper, the Double Whopper, the Triple Whopper, Costco in all its bloated grandeur all come to mind. With restaurants that serve obscene volumes of food and are celebrated on shows like “Man vs. Food”, we’ve been taught that quantity, not quality, equals good value and it’s established a dangerous baseline for what we consider to be a sane and acceptable amount of food. 

While preparing for Haute Route, part of my training objective was to reach and maintain an optimal race weight.  I often think cyclists are more pre-occupied with weight than international super models.  Although for a cyclist, carrying an unnecessary 5 to 10 lbs over 70,000 feet of mountain climbs, as I did in Haute Route can be the difference between racing well and just surviving.  For me, this meant I had to lose around 10lbs to 15lbs, which doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re already thin, losing 10 to 15 pounds requires extra attention to not only what I ate, but how much of it I consumed.  During the 7 months leading up to Haute Route, I dropped my weight from 167lbs to 153lbs.  Actually, I gained 4lbs of muscle during this time and lost 18lbs of body fat for a net weight loss of 14 pounds (6.36 kg) and still managed to maintain a very healthy 7.8% bodyfat.  I achieved this simply by paying particular attention to my food portions in addition to my food quality.  After getting over my habit of eating more than I really needed, I was surprised how easy it was to eat smaller, healthier portions and still not feel hungry.  And the surprising and unexpected benefit was how much more I enjoyed the food I ate. 

So my advice if you’re seeking a healthy body size is to ignore the cursory pseudo-science that’s confusing our lifestyle choices, especially when it comes to food and simply learn what a healthy portion is and eat accordingly.  Remember, when it comes to food, “less is more”.   

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

 

Are you a Tony Soprano?

When I speak with people about the risks of an unhealthy lifestyle, quite often I’m presented with the argument that their uncle weighs 250lbs, drinks 4 shots of bourbon and smoke a pack of unfiltered cigarettes a day....and he’s 95 years old and still kicking up a storm.  We’ve all heard this story.  So, their uncle or aunt that is the exception to the evidence is what they hang their future health outcome on.  The exception to all clinical and scientific research is their excuse for being obese and living an unhealthy lifestyle. 

It was with sadness on a couple levels when I heard of the premature death of James Gandolfini.  First, I was sad because I really liked him as an actor, especially as his character, Tony Soprano. He will be missed on both the big and small screens.  And second, I was sad that he ignored all the research and science that indicated his lifestyle was directing him to an early grave.  Gandolfini was obese at a weight of 300lbs when he died at the age of 51and even though this is considered a young age these days, it didn’t surprise me that he died of heart attack.

And just like the person that hangs onto someone they know that lives a long life in spite of their poor lifestyle choices as how they model their own lifestyle, let’s remember that James Gandolfini represents the vast majority; those hundreds of thousands of people that die every year of heart disease, or some other chronic disease.  Dr. Oz was on CNN the other evening and was asked to comment on the death of Mr. Gandolfini and he said, “1/3 may have been genetics, but for sure, 2/3 or more, of what contributed to his death was of his own doing”.

I also thought it was interesting that on the day I heard about Mr Gandolfini’s death, the American Medical Association voted to classify obesity as a disease.  So instead of saying “you’re obese”, now you can say, “I have obesity”.  I wonder if this subtle difference in classification would have benefited Mr Gandolfini and the 100’s of millions of North Americans that are obese.  In Mr Gandolfini’s case, I don’t think it would have changed much as he often said he liked the feeling of being large and didn’t like losing weight for certain roles he played.

I have little doubt the decision to classify obesity as an illness will draw more medical and public attention, which I think is positive, but was it really the right thing to do.  Like any other form of illness, the public looks to our medical community for the treatment.  And in most cases, illnesses are treated with some kind of pharmaceutical solution and never really cured. Will all the obese people now take this change in classification and simply look to their doctor for some pill to fix them up?  As with many chromic diseases brought on by poor lifestyle choices, will the overweight and obese  take even less responsibility for their condition?  It’s not like it’s a mystery how they got that way.  Just look at what large people purchase at the grocery store and you’ll see the answer.

Unlike people that are ill and suffering from cancer, diabetes, mental illness, etc.; someone who’s obese may not actually be clinically ill.  So how will being told, “You have obesity” help these people in their fight against their size and self image. Will they retreat further and become more self conscience of their condition, which would be equally destructive.

I read a while back that our medical community is ill equipped to treat obese people with only ½ of primary care physicians qualified to treat them.  The fellow I coached this year and last who started out at 245lbs and is now a very healthy 165lbs through dietary changes and cycling for exercise, told me that when he was at his heaviest, his doctor still didn’t mention he was putting himself at serious risk.  With the AMA classifying obesity as a disease, have they passed the treatment responsibility to an ill trained group of doctors?

I’m also concerned how the major stakeholders will react to this decision. If obesity is classified as a disease, the attention will be directed towards medical treatment and even less towards prevention.  The obesity epidemic that affects any nation that eats a typical North American diet has four responsible parties, with a fifth waiting in the wings;

1. Big Food – who are responsible for the unhealthy food they produce, but are wildly profitable
2. The Citizen – who choose to make unhealthy food choices for themselves and their families even when they know it will have long term health consequences
3. The Government – that subsidizes unhealthy food producers, making healthy choices significantly more expensive for many people in low income brackets.
4. The Medical Community – that will now be saddled with treating yet another man-made disease that can be prevented for the most part through healthy lifestyle choices. 
5. And a new stakeholder will play a more prominent role.  Big Pharma – who will smell significantly more $$$$ because now that obesity is a disease, it will be treated like all other diseases...through some kind of prescription medication.

I’m sure the AMA meant well by changing obesity’s classified to an illness.  To be sure, weight management is a complicated issue that employs an entire industry of medical researchers that are trying to figure it out.  But I’m equally sure this decision will have a boat load of unintended consequences.  So to avoid the consequences of this decision, don’t take the path of “Tony Soprano” and ignore obesity, regardless of its classification.  Prevention is the cure, so shape your health outcome by making good lifestyle decisions today, because let’s face it who wants to die at 51. 

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

 

What Are You Made Of?

My regular guest blogger, Dr Les Davidson and I align on most health related topics and this week is no exception.  Of the people that actually monitor their body weight, I wonder how many understand what makes up the number on their scale, and why is it important.  That’s the topic of today’s post by Dr Les.

Besides our nation being just lazy, the obesity epidemic gripping North America may be in part due to what I call, “health illiteracy”.  So many people have preconceived ideas of what “healthy” is, but in actual fact they score very low on the health literacy scale when it comes to nutrition, diet, body weight, fitness, sleep, stress, etc., and even lower on execution.

Specifically related to Dr Les’ topic of weight, I’m experiencing this “illiteracy” first hand as I train for the hardest amateur bike race in the world this August - Haute Route.   This 7 day stage race starts in Geneva and finishes in Nice France and covers 860km through the beautiful French Alps.  But it's not the distance that makes this race so grueling; it’s the 21,000 meters (68,000 feet) of climbing over the Alps that makes is so hard.  Below is the profile of the 7 days of racing facing the 600 participants of Haute Route. 

 

Given the amount and severity of climbing involved, special attention to a rider's body weight and its composition is of primary concern to every participant.  There’s a reason why cyclists pay more attention to their weight than international super models, and it has little to do with vanity.  In fact, it has everything to do with how much power a rider can produce for every kilogram of body weight.  And the relationship between power output and weight has greater sagnificance when long, steep mountain climbs are involved.

At the beginning of January, I weighed 171lbs, but to race Haute Route, I would have to shed between 15lbs to 20lbs to increase my “power-to-weight” ratio to over 4 watts/kg.  Losing weight is just half the battle, as one must also be mindful of what type of weight that's lost.  In my case, I want to lose body fat, while maintaining or even increasing lean muscle mass. 

There’s an old saying in business, “If you can measure it, you can manage it”.  So, at the beginning of February I started measuring my body fat using skin fold calipers.  By focusing on the quality and even more importantly, the quatity of food I consumed, I now weight 156lbs.  During this time I also gained 4lbs of lean muscle, so effectively I’ve lost 19lbs of body fat since January.  Since fat occupies more volume than muscle, I’ve also lost an inch from my chest, waist and hips, so I actually appear much thinner.  Below is my progression of weight loss and muscle gain since I started recording this information in February.

And here in lies the “health illiteracy” issue.

It seems in North America you can be overweight, or even obese, and no one will ever mention that you have a serious and potentially life threatening health issue.  In fact, a recent study found that over 60% of parents with overweight children considered them to be of normal weight.  But if you’re thin, as in healthy thin, people take it upon themselves to point out that you’re too thin and don’t look healthy.  Can you imagine the reaction you would receive if you told a friend that she was overweight and didn't look healthy?  The duel standard is because of three reasons:

1. Given there are so many overweight and obese people in North America, our mental model of what constitutes a healthy weight and size has been skewed over the decades.  People of a healthy thin composition are now in the minority and look different to the majority of overweight North Americans.
2. Most people are illiterate when it comes to what a healthy size and weight should be.  Just like the majority of people no longer know what represents a healthy food portion.  As a result, the bigger is better attitude prevails.
3. Finally, weight loss is generally associated with serious illnesses such as AIDS, Cancer or Eating Disorders.  My good friend Pierre LeClair who I coach was once 250lbs.  After losing 80lbs last year, he tells me people that haven’t seen him for a while ask him if he’s sick because he looks too thin, even though he’s the healthiest he’s been in decades.

This is obviously frustrating to a guy like myself that’s uber aware of my health and fitness, but more importantly, it draws attention to the fact that so many people are “health illiterate” which has negative consequences at both individual and national levels. 

Dr Les, has done a great job of framing the issue, why it’s important to understand what you’re made of, monitoring techniques, and how to bring yourself back to a healthy and well proportioned size. 

As always with much of what I share, “knowledge is power, but action flicks the switch”. 

Enjoy the ride….Rob

 

What Are You Made Of?

by: Dr Les Davidson

What are you made of? Or stated more technically, what is your body composition? Are you a lean, mean athletic machine, or are you getting a little soft?  Every year billions (with a “b”) of dollars are spent on weight-loss endeavors in North America. Beyond the obvious — looking good at the beach — is there any reason to be concerned about the composition of your body.

As a competitive wrestler throughout high school and university, the scale was a constant companion because we were grouped according to our weight classes for competition.  I learned quickly that the quality of my weight was crucial; reducing extraneous fat became an important objective. Forty years later the challenge to maintain an optimum fat to muscle ratio is still there but my motivation is less about competing and more about remaining healthy and active. In order to do that, I need to pay close attention to my body composition.

Body composition is simply a measurement of lean body mass (bones, muscles, ligaments and organs) compared to fat mass which is referred to as adipose tissue. Technology allows us to accurately measure the amount of lean mass versus fat mass. These measurements are expressed as percentages of overall weight and knowing these percentages and what they indicate is important to your health.

A certain amount of body fat is essential to insulate our body, protect our organs from trauma, provide energy, and to assist hormone production necessary for reproduction. The amount of essential fat will vary dependent on sex and age but there are recommendations for ideal body fat percentages. The table below from the American Council on Exercise is typical fat percentages.

	Male	Female
Essential fat	3-5%	10-16%
Competitive Athletes	6-13%	14-20%
Recreational Athletes	14-18%	21-24%
Average	19-20%	25-31%
Obese	25+%	32+%

 

An equally important variable is where the fat is located; excess fat found at the waist (also known as central obesity) is associated with increased risk to our health. Our waists are thickened not just by the fat we can feel but also because excess fat accumulates around the organs (visceral adipose tissue).

Historically, we believed this fat to be an inert storage of extra energy. Medical science has now come to understand that adipose tissue is a major endocrine organ that produces hormones associated with insulin resistance and general body inflammation. The conditions associated with excess fat are often discussed as separate syndromes but in reality, they are a group of interrelated issues that cascade into ill health. Insulin resistance and inflammation leads to Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X — conditions associated with an elevated risk of Type Two diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. There is also strong evidence that Metabolic Syndrome increases risk for certain Cancers. Then there is the impact that excess adipose tissue has on the musculoskeletal system with increased back pain and damage to the weight-bearing joints of the lower extremities. In my office each day I see patients impacted by being overweight. It may not cause their back, hip or knee pain but it aggravates their symptoms and limits their ability to be as active as needed to regain good health.

Determining your risk:

Body weight alone is a poor indicator of body composition as it does not differentiate between lean tissue (bones, muscles, connective tissue and organs) and body fat. There is no single ideal percentage of body fat for everyone. Estimating body composition is attempted with the body mass index using the variables of weight and height (weight divided by height squared). More accurate methods using DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) or hydrostatic weighing (calculating what sinks (lean mass) versus what floats (fat) when the client is submerged under water) are often difficult for most individuals to access. Using calipers to measure skin folds or employing Bioimpedance are affected by the skill of the person measuring and the formulas applied, but can be easily mastered with a little practice. At our office we employ the bioimpedance method. With careful attention to patient hydration and selection of the optimum formula, we have had results that match closely to results of the DEXA scan.

Another method to stratify those who have high levels of body fat ignores the percentage of lean mass and body fat and focuses instead on the amount of belly fat. Measuring your waist circumference may be a more sensitive test because, as I mentioned, Intra-abdominal or visceral fat (regardless of overall body fat) has a particularly strong correlation with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers and other life shortening diseases. There are three ways that this measurement is used to quantify risk:

1. Waist circumference, Absolute waist circumference (>102 cm in men and >88 cm in women)
2. Waist–hip ratio (the circumference of the waist divided by that of the hips of >0.9 for men and >0.85 for women)[19]
3. Waist circumference divided into height. This has been described as the index of central obesity. (0 .5 or greater is suggested as a sign of increased risk. More specifically the range for women was suggested to .47-.54 and for men as .51-.58).

Reducing the risk:

1. Diet: You cannot exercise at the same pace you can eat so it is critical to moderate your calories regardless of the protein, fat or carbohydrate content of your food or the amount you exercise. Look for food in a natural state with no “improvements” by the food industry (such as partially hydrogenated fat, preservatives or high-fructose corn syrup).
2. Exercise: Just remember we are designed to move and not doing so compromises our health. Vary the intensity and duration and include resistance activity. This challenge becomes greater as we age because hormonal shifts make building lean mass harder and layering on fat easier
3. Sleep: Sleeping too little or of a poor interrupted quality increases insulin resistance and raises cortisol the stress hormone. (See Rob’s blog, The Sleep Mistake Many of Us Make)
4. Stress reduction: Being overwhelmed or on heightened alert increases the sympathetic nervous system activity. This releases cortisol and directly increases belly fat. Moderating our moods by eating or drinking too much is often seen in response to stressful situations.

The body has tremendous recuperative powers if it is provided with the right inputs. March is Nutrition month and I would like to encourage you to think of the importance of quantity as well as quality of your food! Exercise is critical for good health but it can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet! Don’t pursue some unrealistic and media-hyped expectation for your body.  People come in all shapes and sizes but no shape is improved by an expanding layer of belly fat.

Pay more attention to what you’re made of. This will be good for your health and you just might look better on the beach this summer!

Four Common Diet and Exercise Myths Dispelled

Is it any wonder why so many North Americans are frustrated with the barrage of mixed messages regarding their diets and the roll of exercise?   It’s my attempt to provide some clarity to many of misconceptions that guide people to their lifestyle choices, and as a result I write about and often share other articles that I feel assist in making informed health decisions for yourself and your families.

That being said, I came across an excellent article by Dr Mark Hyman that exposes four myths about health and lifestyle choices that I’ve written about in the past, but has consolidated them into one article.  Dr Hyman dispels the following common myths:

Myth 1: Diet Soda and Diet Drinks Don’t Make You Fat or Cause Type 2 Diabetes

Myth 2: Eating Fat Makes You Fat

Myth 3: Being Overweight Is Your Fault

Myth 4: Exercise Your Way to Weight Loss

As I’ve often said, “Knowledge is Power, but Action flicks the Switch.  Dr Hyman has provided clarity to 4 of the most common myths about diet and exercise, and after reading this; it’s up to you to put this information into action.

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

 

How Diet Soda Makes You Fat (and Other Food and Diet Industry Myths)

By Dr Mark Hyman, MD

How do you lose weight? Substitute diet drinks for sugary drinks. Eat low-fat foods. Just eat less of the bad foods -- it's all about the calories. We are told, "Just have more willpower."

These ideas are false. They are food and diet industry propaganda that make and keep us fat and sick. Lies by the food industry combined with bad government policy based on food industry lobbying are the major cause of our obesity and diabetes epidemic. Now, more than 35 percent of Americans are obese, and almost 70 percent are overweight. This is not an accident but the result of careful marketing and money in politics.

We are told it is all about making better choices. If we all took more personal responsibility, we could stop this obesity and diabetes epidemic. We have been told there are no good or bad foods, that the key to weight loss is moderation. And, of course, if we all just exercised more, all of us would lose weight. These myths hold us hostage. So, what doesn’t the Food and Diet industry want you to know?

Myth 1: Diet Soda and Diet Drinks Don’t Make You Fat and Cause Type 2 Diabetes

Diet soda DOES makes people fat? Really? How does that happen?

If losing weight were all about the calories, then consuming diet drinks would seem like a good idea. That's certainly what Coca-Cola wants us to believe in their new ad highlighting their efforts to fight obesity. They proudly promote the fact that they have 180 low- or no-calorie drinks and that they cut sugared drinks in schools by 90 percent.

Is that a good thing? In fact, it may be worse than having us all drink regular Coke (and the other food giants making diet drinks also push the same propaganda). A new 14-year study of 66,118 women (supported by many other previous studies) found that the opposite seems to be true. Diet drinks may be worse than sugar-sweetened drinks, which are worse than fruit juices (but only fresh-squeezed fruit juices).

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, discovered some frightening facts that should make us all swear off diet drinks and products.

1. Diet sodas raised the risk of diabetes more than sugar-sweetened sodas!
2. Women who drank one 12-ounce diet soda had a 33 percent increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, and women who drank one 20-ounce soda had a 66 percent increased risk.
3. Women who drank diet sodas drank twice as much as those who drank sugar-sweetened sodas because artificial sweeteners are more addictive and are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than regular sugar.
4. The average diet soda drinker consumes three diet drinks a day.

You might say that people who are overweight and just about to get diabetes drink more diet soda, but they scientifically controlled for body weight. And they found the artificial sweeteners increased diabetes independent of body weight!  This and other research shows how diet sodas make people fat and sick.

And that diet drinks may be even worse than regular sugar-sweetened sodas! How does that happen?

• Artificial sweeteners are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than regular sugar, activating our genetically-programmed preference for sweet taste more than any other substance.
• They trick your metabolism into thinking sugar is on its way. This causes your body to pump out insulin, the fat storage hormone, which lays down more belly fat.
• It also confuses and slows your metabolism down, so you burn fewer calories every day.
• It makes you hungrier and crave even more sugar and starchy carbs like bread and pasta.
• In animal studies, the rats that consumed artificial sweeteners ate more, their metabolism slowed, and they put on 14 percent more body fat in just two weeks -- even eating fewer calories.
• In population studies, there was a 200 percent increased risk of obesity in diet soda drinkers.

I love Taylor Swift. I met her last summer. She is a wonderful person with great integrity. I don't think she knows about this research, and I hope someone shares it with her so she can save millions of children and fans from drinking Diet Coke because she endorses it.

Bottom line: There is no free ride. Diet drinks are not good substitutes for sugar-sweetened drinks. They increase cravings, weight gain, and Type 2 diabetes. And they are addictive.

Myth 2: Eating Fat Makes You Fat

The diet and food industry has brainwashed us to eat fat-free foods, which seems like common sense. Eating fats makes you fat. Right? But the science tells us otherwise -- not all calories are created equal. And even though fat has more calories per gram (9 calories vs. 4 calories of carbs and protein), eating fat can help you lose weight.

This low-fat idea was based on bad science. Our government told us in the 1970s to go on a low-fat diet and to eat 8-11 servings of rice, bread, and pasta a day. And unfortunately, we listened. This was the beginning of our obesity and diabetes epidemic. The food industry happily created a flood of fat-free foods.

But the science has proven that eating fat doesn't make you fat -- sugar does. And it is sugar, not fat, that raises your cholesterol despite what people and most doctors still believe. A 20-ounce soda is fat-free, but that doesn't make it a health food. If cookies were fat-free, then you can eat the whole bag, right?

But the fat is replaced with flour and sugar, and the result we now have is one in two adults with diabesity -- that's pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes -- and almost one in four teenagers with pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes. We did a 10-day sugar-free detox with our online community, and 600 people lost more than 4,000 pounds in 10 days!

So why does eating fat free make you fat and diabetic?

In a recent Harvard study, Dr. David Ludwig found that in two groups eating exactly the same calories, the group that had the low-fat diet (which means higher in sugars and starches) burned 300 calories less per day. Their metabolism was slower than the group eating the higher fat and higher protein diet.

If you ate the higher-fat, higher-protein diet (of exactly the same calories), it is the equivalent of running for one hour a day. In other words, if you just swap out sugars and starches for good quality fats and protein, it will be like you added an hour of free exercise a day to your life without any change in calorie intake!

Bottom Line: The key point here is that all calories are not the same. Swap out sugar and starch for good fats such as nuts, avocados, olive oil, and grass-fed animal products or wild fish. Be a "qualitarian." Focus on quality, on real food, and the rest takes care of itself.

Myth 3: Being Overweight Is Your Fault

The food industry would have us believe that controlling our weight is about personal responsibility. Tell that to a 200-pound 5-year-old with diabetes and liver failure. Our taste buds have been hijacked by the food and diet industry. We are programmed to like sweet, salt, and fat tastes.

And those slick combinations of sugar, fat and salt in junk and processed food have hijacked our taste buds, our brain chemistry, and our metabolism. These foods are biologically addictive. We are held hostage by the food industry and we blame ourselves. This is food terrorism!

How does food addiction happen?

New research shows that industrial food full of processed sugars, fats, salt, and chemicals are powerfully addictive. And sugar is the worst culprit. One animal study found that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. When rats were given the choice between mainline cocaine right into their veins or sweetened water (in fact, they used an artificial sweetener), they found that sugar was eight times more addictive than cocaine. Even the rats already addicted to cocaine switched over to diet drinks!

And what's even more interesting is that while cocaine and heroin activate only one spot for pleasure in the brain, sugar lights up the brain like a pinball machine. If these foods are addictive and drive overeating, then the whole idea of moderation just doesn't work. Hey, just have that one line of cocaine or that one hit of heroin.

We can't stop eating, but we can stop eating junk and sugar! So we have to take back our taste buds, take back our brain chemistry, and take back our bodies from the food and diet industry. How do we do that?

Bottom Line: By eating real food -- chicken, fish, veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, and a little whole grains will reset your taste buds and your brain chemistry automatically.

Myth 4: Exercise Your Way to Weight Loss

The food industry and diet industry push exercise. Even Michelle Obama's childhood obesity initiative focuses on exercise in its name, Let's Move. But it should be really called Let's Eat Real Food.  Here's why. Sugar-sweetened drinks make up about 15 percent of our calorie intake every day. But you have to walk 4.5 miles to burn off one 20-ounce soda, which contains 15 teaspoons of sugar.

You have to run four miles a day for one week to burn off one supersize meal. If you have one supersize meal everyday you would have to run a marathon every day! You can't exercise your way out of bad diet -- except if you run a marathon every day.

Drinking 32 ounces of Gatorade after a workout is a dumb idea, unless you run around like Kobe Bryant on the basketball court for 48 minutes. There are better ways to replenish your energy and electrolytes than colored sugar water with a few minerals sprinkled in. To paraphrase my friend Bill Clinton, "It's the food, stupid!"

Bottom Line: Exercise is critical to long-term health and weight loss, but you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet.

Thankfully, science is shedding light on the ideas that keep us fat and sick. Unfortunately, scientists don't have billion-dollar marketing budgets. But we as a community of thinking people wanting real information can speak out, can spread the word and turn the tide of obesity and chronic disease together.

Believe ‘A Calorie is a Calorie’? Coke says it is....Think Again!

I read the following article today by Dr Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics at UCSF, and President of the Institute for Responsible Nutrition. 

I’ve shared Dr Lustig’s research and information in the past and given Coca Cola’ latest slick new 2 minute ad – Coming Together on YouTube suggesting to their consumers that a Calorie is a Calorie, thereby implying that it’s the fault of the general public for the obesity epidemic because they offer reduced and low calorie options (claiming no culpability on their part) is reprehensible, but predictable.

 

Dr Lustig’s research below is certainly timely given this slick piece of marketing and something every person that cares about their health and the health of their families should know and understand. 

Let's be clear, companies like Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and others that market processed foods are no friends of yours, mine or our families when it comes to selling products that are harmful to our health and the health of our families. They care only about revenues at the expense of a healthcare system that are struggling and on life support, while giving little consideration for their customers that are addicted to their unhealthy products.

Think about your health the next time you reach for the “Real Thing”, because you're not only paying for their products, you're also paying for a dying healthcare system.

I’ve copied the full article written by Dr Lustig for your convenience below.

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

Still Believe ‘A Calorie is a Calorie’?

By Dr Robert Lustig

If you do, you fly in the face of mounting and incontrovertible evidence that some calories -- in particular, "sugar calories" -- are jeopardizing both your and your family's health. Physicians and politicians who cling to the dogma that "all calories should be treated equally" imperil our country's health care system, food supply and standing in the world for the next hundred years.

A calorie is a measurement of energy (a matter of physics), not a value judgment on where that energy goes (a matter of biochemistry). As my book Fat Chance explains, you get sick from inappropriate energy storage (in your liver and muscle), not defective energy balance (bigger love handles). Nonetheless, "a calorie is a calorie" continues to be promulgated by the food industry as their defense against their culpability for the current epidemic of obesity and chronic metabolic disease. But it is as dishonest as a three-dollar bill. Here are just four examples that refute this dogma:

1. Fiber. You eat 160 calories in almonds, but you absorb only 130. The fiber in the almonds delays absorption of calories into the bloodstream, delivering those calories to the bacteria in your intestine, which chew them up. Because a calorie is not a calorie.
2. Protein. When it comes to food, you have to put energy in to get energy out. You have to put twice as much energy in to metabolize protein as you do carbohydrate; this is called the thermic effect of food. So protein wastes more energy in its processing. Plus protein reduces hunger better than carbohydrate. Because a calorie is not a calorie.
3. Fat. All fats release nine calories per gram when burned. But omega-3 fats are heart-healthy and will save your life, while trans fats clog your arteries, leading to a heart attack. Because a calorie is not a calorie.
4. Sugar. This is the "big kahuna" of the "big lie." Sugar is not one chemical. It's two. Glucose is the energy of life. Every cell in every organism on the planet can burn glucose for energy. Glucose is mildly sweet, but not very interesting (think molasses). Fructose is an entirely different animal. Fructose is very sweet, the molecule we seek. Both burn at four calories per gram. If fructose were just like glucose, then sugar or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) would be just like starch. But fructose is not glucose. Because a calorie is not a calorie.

Up until now, scientists have shown that sugar is "associated" or "correlated" with various chronic metabolic diseases. For instance, the increase in sugar consumption over the past 30 years paralleled the increase in obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Areas that drink more soda (e.g., the American Southeast) experience higher prevalences of these diseases. But correlation is not causation.

Which direction do the data go? Does sugar cause obesity and metabolic disease? Or do obese people with metabolic disease drink soda? You can't tell, because you only have one point in time -- the snapshot, not the movie. In the February 27 issue of the journal PLoS One, my colleagues Dr. Sanjay Basu, Paula Yoffe, Nancy Hills and I put this issue to rest, because we now have the movie.[1]

We asked the question, "What in the world's food supply explains diabetes rates, country-by-country, over the last decade?" We melded databases from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAOSTAT), which measures food availability, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), which measures diabetes prevalence, the World Bank World Development Economic Indicators, and the World Health Organization Global Infobase. We assessed total calories; meat (protein); oils (fat); cereals (glucose); pulses, nuts, vegetables, roots, and tubers (fiber); fruit excluding wine (natural sugar); and sugar, sugarcrops, and sweeteners (added sugar). We controlled for poverty, urbanization, aging, and most important, obesity and physical activity.

Bottom line -- only changes in sugar availability explained changes in diabetes prevalence worldwide; nothing else mattered.

Total caloric availability was unrelated to diabetes prevalence; for every extra 150 calories per day, diabetes prevalence rose by only 0.1 percent. But if those 150 calories per day happened to be a can of soda, diabetes prevalence rose 11-fold, by 1.1 percent (and Americans on average consume the added sugar equivalent of 2.5 cans of soda per day, so that's 2.75 percent!). And this effect of sugar was exclusive of obesity; controlling for body mass index did not negate the effect. Even more important, we showed that the change in sugar availability preceded the change in diabetes (that's cause, not effect); and we showed directionality -- those countries where sugar availability rose showed increases in diabetes, while those where sugar availability fell showed decreases in diabetes. This is a very robust signal, with little noise. While epidemiology can't prove scientific causation, the data allow for objective inference. Sugar drives diabetes worldwide, and unrelated to its calories.

When you do the math, fully one-quarter of the world's diabetes is explained by sugar alone.

The food industry has contaminated the American food supply with added sugar to "sell more product" and thereby uphold their Wall Street mandate to increase profits. Of the 600,000 food items in the American grocery store, 80 percent have been spiked with added sugar; and the industry uses 56 other names for sugar on the label. They know when they add sugar, you buy more. And because you do not know you're buying it, you buy even more.

The outcome: By the year 2050, one-third of all Americans will have diabetes. Trustees of the Medicare program predict that Medicare will be broke by 2024. No health care for you. Yet just six weeks ago, Coca-Cola had the temerity to introduce its two-minute ad "Coming Together," in which they say: "All calories count" because a calorie is a calorie; if you're fat, it's your fault (they claim no culpability); and because they make non-caloric drinks, they're part of the solution. The problem is that a calorie is not a calorie; if non-caloric drinks are the solution, then by inference they're saying that caloric drinks are the problem.

Sugar in excess is a toxin, unrelated to its calories. The dose determines the poison. Like alcohol, a little sugar is fine, but a lot is not. And the food industry has put us way over our limit.

The food industry will summon their spin doctors. They will yet again argue that the statistics are wrong, the interpretation is too broad -- but they will not be able to effectively refute the science. They haven't yet, and they won't succeed now. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and it's shining brightly on the food industry's practices. They will continue the propaganda, and try to sow the seeds of doubt. But they will be on the losing end of this battle. The UK and Australia have just this past week laid down stricter guidelines for sugar consumption. The people and scientists of the United States are onto them as well. It's just a matter of time before the politicians follow.

Robert H. Lustig, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics at UCSF, and President of the Institute for Responsible Nutrition (responsiblefoods.org), at which the Doctors' Food Project is the first campaign. He is currently getting his Masters in Studies of Law at UC Hastings College of the Law. His YouTube lecture, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" has been viewed over 3 million times. His book, Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease (Hudson Street Press, 2012), is in bookstores now.

Calories are NOT Created Equally

I’d like to share with you an article I recently read in Bicycle Magazine that’s excellent “food for thought” (pardon the pun).  And not just for cyclists, but for anyone that’s interested in maintaining a healthy weight.  It's often suggested that it doesn't matter if the calories you eat comes from a donut, or an apple, because a calorie is a calorie and the body doesn’t know the difference.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Let’s start with some basics.  There are 3,500 calories in every pound of body weight and when you exercise you burn a varying amount of calories depending on your activity and intensity. For example, I zap around 9 to 10 calories every minute when I’m riding my bike, which means a guy weighing 159 pounds like myself will burn between 500 and 600 calories on a typical one hour bike ride—roughly the calories in a 6-inch Spicy Italian Subway sub. (If you're heavier, you shed more calories; if you're lighter, you lose less.)

Most people that exercise generally overestimate how many calories they’re burning up during their workout.  And if they eat an energy bar and drink a sports drink, they’ve effectively cancelled any calorie burn.  According to Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, “Surveys show that many exercisers overestimate the calories they burn by nearly double and unless every morsel has a food label, it's difficult to know how many calories are consumed and even harder to know how much you're burning."  And it goes without saying that your average couch potato has no clue what they’re consuming and unfortunately they couldn’t care less.  In fact, the only time they take an interest is when they’re told they have heart disease, cancer, or diabetes.

As mentioned above, a calorie is a measurement of the energy in food. And for years we've been told a calorie is a calorie. According to Bonci, "Foods close to their natural state, such as fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean, whole cuts of meat, require energy from your body to chew and digest them. They create a thermic response, which means you burn calories just processing them."

Bonci and other experts partly blame the preponderance of "lazy calories" for the current obesity epidemic. "Our food is so heavily processed, it's practically predigested," she says. "That fast-food burger you eat from McDonalds has gone through so much pulverization, you barely have to chew. We're losing the ability to burn calories as we naturally would during the eating and digestive process." And many of these same foods are calorie-dense, so there's more for your body to store.

Neither Bonci nor I suggest counting calories as it takes the joy out of eating and ends up a futile venture. Instead, fill your plate with active calories, like those found in fruits and vegetables. Such foods possess more fiber and water, which means you digest them slowly, feel satisfied longer with longer-lasting energy.  Consider them as, "free foods" and eat as many as you want.

By simply changing the composition of your plate, you will lose weight without worrying about hunger pangs, counting calories, or bonking episodes if you’re a cyclist like me. Below shows what a "high performance plate" should look like. Structuring your meals this way will allow you to fill up without filling out.

The Performance Plate

• One-quarter to one-third of your meal should consist of active and semiactive calories from protein such as lean meat, skinless poultry, fish, eggs and low-fat dairy.
• One-half should be active calories from fruits and vegetables (for the fill-and-chew factor).
• One-quarter should be active and semiactive calories from whole-grain starches: brown rice, whole-wheat pasta.
• Couch Potato calories should be consumed sparingly; and if you are overweight (BMI greater than 24.8) try your best to avoid them completely.

Active Calories

• Lean meat, fish, poultry
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Leafy greens
• Whole grains
• Beans and legumes

Semiactive Calories

• Fiber-rich cereal
• Whole-grain bread
• Low-fat dairy
• Soups

Couch Potato Calories

• Pastries, cookies, pies, cakes
• Fatty processed meats
• Chips, pretzels, snack foods
• Fast food

So being mindful of foods that are not only nutritious, but require energy to digest, you won’t have to starve yourself on one of those crazy diet programs that force you to count every calorie while depriving yourself the enjoyment of eating for pleasure as well as nourishment. 

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

I'm Not the Man I Was...I'm Healthy Now

I usually write a blog that coincides with the 1^st of January when people set their New Year’s Resolutions.  The number one Resolution people announce has something to do with their health. I generally explain the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and describe in detail the risks associated with the unhealthy alternative. This year is different.  I intentionally held off writing the same old message. 

First, I decided to write a post mid way through January, because according to statistics, 70% of all people that make New Year’s Resolutions have already abandoned their commitment to a new lifestyle and retreated back to their favorite couch in front of the TV while eating unhealthy food and washing it down with soda, beer or a glass of wine. 

Second, instead of “preaching” the benefits and risks associate with lifestyle choices, I decided to share a story written by Peter Leclaire.  I coached Peter last year and he finishing one of the hardest single day cycling races in the world.  What’s most impressive is when I started coaching Peter he weighed around 245lbs, and after 10 months of committing himself to a healthy lifestyle, Peter dropped his weight by 80lbs, to 165lbs and has become a lean, mean cycling machine.

It’s my hope that by reading Peter’s transformational story, you too will be inspired by what’s possible when you take action and make this Year’s Resolution the one that sticks for the rest of your life. 

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

 

My Journey to Health - by Peter LeClaire

Ever since Robert (AKA: Coach) asked me to write my story describing my transformational journey soon after racing Etape du Tour back in July of 2012, I’ve been struggling how to best write this. I had many ideas floating in my head where to start my story, how to fill in the middle and provide an ending with a call to action for those who like me were sitting on the sidelines.  Below is my story and I hope it inspires you to make the lifestyle changes I embraced, regardless of your age, your gender or starting weight.

My life, like many of yours, is fairly ordinary. I’m a 50+ year old guy that has time commitments of work, family, friends, etc.  I’m not an overachieving “AAA” personality with a strong take-charge mentality, but I am a passionate individual who generally loves what he does and sticks to it once started. This is especially true when people support and believe in me. This is where my story starts.

About 5 years ago I registered for my first charity bike ride, a back to back metric century (100km) in support of the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, one of the largest charity rides in Canada.  At this point I had never thought of a bike ride in terms of distance, only in terms of time. I was excited about being part of something bigger than myself and raising money for a great cause in addition to joining over 4000 cyclists with the same goal. What I didn’t realize was how hard it was to get my fat behind (and I mean fat) out the door and actually do some training. I had no real game plan except to put some time on the saddle. I was quite overweight and considered obese even though I was reasonably active in other sports, but it didn’t take me long to realize just how out of shape I was when I began climbing hills I found myself gasping for each breath by the time I reached the summit feeling the negative effects a poor cardiovascular system and carrying so much extra body fat. I’m happy to report that I can laugh at those days now, but at the time it was not only painful, but provided a view into my general fitness level.

I completed that first charity ride that spanned over a weekend and besides having fun, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment I immediately signed up for the next year’s event. This is when I realized the importance of setting a major goal for myself each year and cycling was the “vehicle” for me. Although I was still overweight, I participated in the Ride to Conquer Cancer four years in a row with the last two events being back to back 160km rides.  I erroneously felt that since I was doing all this riding I could reward myself with over abundant meals that were for the most part, unhealthy.

I think I can say that my real transformation started two years ago when I was in France on vacation and had the opportunity to ride with Coach’s step brother Gerry Patterson who has been blogging about his cycling adventures and guided tours throughout the South of France. I contacted Gerry through his blog and we scheduled a guided day ride. The only thing I knew about our outing was that we were going for an 80km ride in the hills behind Nimes. I mean really, how tough could it be. I had a vision of a pleasant cycle through the rolling French countryside, but the reality was a far cry from what I had imagined in my head.  How naive was I? As much as I struggled that day, and I mean struggled as it was probably the hardest physical thing I had done in my life up until that point, it was an epiphany. Gerry was telling me about completing his first Etape de Tour race, or riding up the famous Mont Ventoux and it dawned on me that I would love to do a big mountain climb like that one day. I couldn’t believe I was actually thinking this because I’m the same guy that hated climbing any hill and used to ride out of my way just to avoid them.

The biggest part of my transformation was to set a big goal, and after listening to Gerry talk about his riding and racing adventures I proceeded to sign up for what would become the biggest physical challenge of my life, the L’Etape du Tour 2012 – Act 2. For those who don’t know, this was an actual Tour de France stage, but for amateurs. This particular race was 202km and located in the high Pyrenees Mountains.  It was the hardest stage of that year’s Tour de France.

It would be an understatement of colossal proportion to say this was a huge undertaking and probably something in my physical condition that bordered on impossible.  In fact, there were many times I thought to myself that I must be nuts to attempt such a physically demanding event. I knew I couldn’t do this alone and needed some guidance and structure to my training if I was going to accomplish this monumental task, and I had no idea how I was going to get it. Talk about setting an audacious goal.

It was at this time that I was introduced to Robert Armstrong by Gerry. Robert was looking for someone to train as he often does from time to time.  Gerry mentioned that I had signed up for the Etape du Tour race and recommend I contact his step brother for some training tips, as he coached him to his first Etape de Race.  Well be careful what you wish for, because I received more than a few coaching tips.  I think it was when I mentioned my weight to Rob that he realized I needed more than just a few coaching tips.  In fact, my challenge was a total life makeover.  Rob didn’t want to kill my dream of participating in this great race, but he said there was no way I could finish in my current condition and he was genuinely concerned for my long term health.  Rob didn’t charge me for his services, so he spent a long time qualifying my interest and personal commitment to the transformation plan and it wasn’t an easy process.  He told me that most people fail because they embark on these journeys for all the wrong reasons.  I basically had to convince him that I was worth his time, and I must have done a good job, because he took me on.  So as I said above, be careful what you wish for, because although Coach was supportive, he showed me no mercy.

Even though his training program was communicated via email, because he lives in Calgary and I’m in the Toronto area, I felt his encouragement every day. If this was to work he said, there has to be complete honesty between the two of us. Coach sent me new dietary principals that I had to follow without question and he expected I follow it to the letter before we even started on the cycling training program.  He told me things about myself that were hard to hear, but it was the wake-up call I needed.  Commitment to my general health, given I was obese was far more important than riding a bike in some race in France.  But cycling was also the catalyst to get me to the end point. He explained the many health reasons why getting my size under control from my current weight of 245lbs back to my senior high school weight of 170 lbs was important.  I just thought he was nuts when he suggested I could lose 80lbs in 9 months.

Changing my diet was difficult at first because it was based on the healthy foods I rarely ate, like Vegetables, Fruits, Salads, and a healthy balance of Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat.  He also said no alcohol until I was back to a healthy weight.   These were tough choices indeed.  Changing from a lifetime of self abuse based on bad food choices and avoiding sugars like soda pop & concentrated fruit juices, processed convenient foods, as well as simple carbohydrates was very difficult. These were all the foods that contributed to my weight gain and provided me with the comfort I desired.  This was a significant change, but after his big speech about commitment to each other, it was tough to let him down, but more important, I wasn’t about to let myself down.

The next step was making exercise a daily priority. Coach set up my program in 4 week periods. It started with approximately 7 hours of structured training per week, which progressively got harder and longer as the winter season wore on.  This was not to say that I didn’t grumble to myself more than a few times and that I was exhausted and tried to convince myself that couldn’t do this.  Every time that happened I focussed my thoughts knowing the big picture goal: a new me with a new healthy body with a newer outlook on life. Many of my friends witnessed my transformation right in front of their eyes as the excess fat started to melt away. As much as I was seeing and feeling the positive effects of Coach’s training program and dietary principles, I still remained focused on the big goal ahead, which was getting scarier by the minute as the Etape de Tour got closer and closer.

Since reducing a significant amount of body fat by the time the outdoor season arrived (by March/April I was weighing around 180), my overall riding significantly improved and my ability to climb hills was easier than I ever experienced. In addition to my new found energy, my wife was tossing out all my oversized clothes.  I had gone from a size extra large in everything I owned, to a size medium. I couldn’t remember the last time I wore a medium in anything, but there I was wearing a new skin tight cycling kit 2 to 3 sizes smaller than I did a short 6 months before. I finally started to look like a real cyclist.  That being said, the other challenge I had to get used to was accepting my own self identity.  Every time I pasted a mirror or caught my reflection in a window, I didn’t recognize the skinny guy looking back at me.  And it wasn’t just me, many of my long time friends that I hadn’t seen for months didn’t recognize this new person that remotely looked like the fat guy they once knew. 

I found it strange that when I was obese, no one ever told me I was too fat, but now that I’m a very healthy size, with a BMI of 24, people will tell me all the time that I’m too thin.  I think we have so many overweight people in our country that used to look like me, we’ve lost track of what a healthy person should look like, because having a healthy weight is no longer “normal” in this country and people feel it’s ok to point out that you don’t look like the rest of the fat population.

2012 was a big year for me. In late 2011 I finally met the woman of my dreams whom I was to marry in July prior to going to France for Etape. It wasn’t a bad way to spend a honeymoon and do some cycling at the same time. My wife got to proudly watch me complete my goal of competing in Etape de Tour and only 3 days later climb the epic mountain of Mont Ventoux with a new friend John who was gracious enough to open his home to us for a few days. Thanks to Gerry for taking me out on that ride a couple years ago for without that single act of generosity, who knows who I would be today. You never know where that turn in the road takes you.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s imperative to set goals to keep yourself motivated. I love my new life of opportunities and I plan to stay this way.  I continue to train under the guidance of Coach Rob and have already seen further improvements in my fitness levels.

So what’s on my agenda for 2013?

I’ve signed up for another stage race in France which takes place in Lac Annecy on July 7th. I’m going to climb the epic mountain of Alpe D’huez (13.7km, 8.1% grade, 21 switchbacks, 1071 meters of climbing).  And if that isn’t enough, I plan to ride the famous mountain in the heart of Provence, Mt Ventoux, not once, but three times in the same day from the three different start towns. And finally back home I’ll do a couple 160km+ races. 

I share the list above not to brag, but to highlight the opportunities that are available to me now that I’ve taken control of my health and made it a priority in my life. I can truly enjoy my passion for cycling. I’ll never go back to my unhealthy self.  Take it from a guy that was obese and take control of your life, set a goal that scares you to hell, build a plan that includes someone to support and motivate you and most importantly, take action.  As the Nike slogan goes, “Just do It”.  Coach would often say to me,“Knowledge is power, but action flicks the switch”.  Well, I think by now most everyone knows what’s required to live a healthy lifestyle, it’s not rocket science.  Flick your switch and you too can enjoy an exciting life that isn’t held back by any physical limitations. 

Best of health.....Peter LeClaire.

Alzheimer's - don't let it steal your life

Last week my uncle died and his funeral was held on Monday.  He lived in Edinburgh Scotland, so I wasn’t that close to him as I’ve lived in Canada all my life and we’ve only met a few times.  Even still, it was a sad day when I received this news.  I was further saddened when I heard my Aunt wasn’t able to attend his funeral because she suffers from Alzheimer’s and it would have been too confusing for her.  Alzheimer’s seems to run in my family, as two other Aunts of mine, who have both since passed away, also had this disease. 

When it’s all said and done, life is nothing more than a collection of experiences and memories.  All your worldly possessions don’t add up to much when you can’t recall the life you lived.  This horrible disease robs people of their most precious asset...their mind.  For me, the most frightening consequence of aging is the possible loss of my mental faculties. Utter the phrase “Alzheimer’s disease” – especially to someone like me who’s seen three family members touched by it – and people’s expressions tend to get a bit strained.

Although Alzheimer’s can affect younger people, it’s the most common cause of memory loss among the elderly. With the first baby boomers reaching age 65 in 2012, healthcare experts are predicting that many citizens will spend their final years either suffering from Alzheimer’s or caring for loved ones who have it. 

Alzheimer’s is currently the only condition among the top ten causes of death that cannot be prevented, cured or even delayed. While death rates for other major diseases like stroke, heart disease, HIV, and several cancers – have declined in recent years or at least remaining constant, those with Alzheimer’s continue to climb at an alarming rate. Despite this grim trend, in 2011 the National Institutes of Health spent about one-tenth as much for Alzheimer’s research as it did on cancer, heart disease and HIV/AIDS. 

Given the lack of focus and funding for this mental health illness, it’s going to be a while before any meaningful treatment for Alzheimer’s is forthcoming.  Like I’ve said many times before, what you do today has a profound impact on your health in the distant future, and this doesn’t only apply to your physical health, but also your mental health.  So you might want to take care of your brain today to avoid being a statistic in the future.  I suggest the following:

1. Avoid unhealthy brain habits: Stop smoking, avoid recreational drugs and limit alcohol consumption to a maximum of one (women) or two (men) drinks daily. Smoking damages the blood vessels that feed your brain, and substance abuse including social alcohol consumption destroys neurons that simply cannot be replaced.
2. Eat a healthy diet: When planning your meals, rely heavily on vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains and nuts. These foods contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other compounds that are essential for neurotransmitter synthesis, healthy nerves and robust circulation. Limit red meats, which can be artery-clogging and increase oily, cold water fish, which is excellent for normal brain function.
3. Exercise your body: 60 minutes of exercise daily not only protects your heart, strengthens your muscles and builds strong bones; it also helps delay the onset of dementia like no other medication. You don’t have to take up triathlons either, simple walking will do.  Walking improves balance, aerobic conditioning and cerebral blood flow.
4. Exercise your brain: A 2009 study in the journal Neurology demonstrated that people who read, write, learn a new language, do crossword puzzles, play board games or cards, play musical instruments or regularly participate in group discussions are less likely to develop dementia. The study’s authors reported that every mentally stimulating activity you undertake will delay the onset of dementia. Besides wanting to retire to the South of France where the ability to speak French is necessary, learning this language to exercise my brain is the second reason I picked up the Rosetta Stone program.  Who knows if I’ll be able to speak French fluently, maybe not, but it sure is fun learning and like physical exercise helping my heart, I know learning French is helping my brain.
5. Address your medical issues: If you have high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high lipid levels, or diabetes, or if you’re packing on more body fat than you should, see your doctor or medical provider to get these problems addressed immediately. Uncontrolled hypertension or chronically elevated blood glucose or lipid levels wreak havoc on your brain and contribute to memory loss. Studies show that people who are obese during their youth and middle age are 40% to 80% more likely to develop dementia than their healthy-weight counterparts.

More of us are living longer these days, and there’s no reason to believe you won’t be one of them. Making smart lifestyle choices right now just might keep you sharp-witted well into your twilight years.  Don’t let poor lifestyle habits today rob you of the only thing of true value in your future....your lifelong memories. 

Enjoy the Ride....Rob