August 2011
Issue: # 2
Happy, Healthy, Living

 

Welcome to Happy, Healthy, Living were we strive to help you live a happy, healthy, life through education.  When we are educated, then we are able to make better choices.  We will be sharing information on total wellness that covers article that talk about information to help you have better health, improve your mental and emotional well being, as well as information on fitness, so that you can have a strong healthy body.  We hope you will share this with your friends.  
Have a great week.
In This Issue
How Eating Affects Your Sex Hormones
Living Your Truth
Michelle's Chocolate Protein Cake
Metabolic Training- Know the Rules!
How Eating Affects Your Sex Hormones Dr. McCarthy

 

   We have all heard the saying, "You are what you eat." Another extension of that phrase is, "Your sex life is dependant on what you eat." Have I got your attention? The key to eating properly is to maintain a steady supply of glucose (blood sugar) to all the cells of your body. The problem is the average American does a very poor job of maintaining their blood sugar. Instead, they suck down a donut and coffee in the morning and their blood sugar rises rapidly. Mid-morning the blood sugar drops, they get more coffee, a soft drink or candy bar. Guess what? Blood sugar spikes up again. Lunchtime rolls around, blood sugar crashing, we chow down a huge Sub sandwich. Get the picture? Blood sugar going up and down all day, every day, month after month, year after year is very bad. When the blood sugar spikes a hormone named insulin is released in large quantities. When you live on this blood sugar roller coaster long enough it leads to a condition known as Insulin Resistance. Insulin is the hormone that carries glucose into the cells of your body. When you become Insulin Resistant, insulin cannot carry glucose into your cells and you start the downward health spiral.

   Another major problem caused by repeated insulin surges is a change in your sex hormones. The major sex hormones are estrogen and testosterone. Both hormones are present and needed by both males and females. Estrogen is the predominant hormone in females and Testosterone is predominant in males. When we have these repeated insulin surges over the course of our lives it will activate special enzymes in our bodies that convert our sex hormones. Insulin surges in a female convert the estrogen into testosterone. This leads to unwanted hair growth on the face, hair loss on the head, fatigue, depression and infertility. In males, the insulin surges convert testosterone into estrogen. This creates a condition known as Andropause that is characterized by male breast tissue growth, enlarged belly, weight gain, depression, and low libido. We see these conditions in men and women regularly in our office. Imagine the frustration of a young couple trying to have a baby. She is infertile because of insulin surges and he has no libido. Thankfully, we have been successful in helping many get their blood sugar stabilized, health restored and achieve pregnancy.

   If you want to maintain your health and keep a proper balance of sex hormones, you must learn to stabilize your blood sugar. Some techniques we use in our practice are eating smaller, more frequent meals, as well as avoiding refined carbohydrates as these cause a huge insulin surge. If you balance your blood sugar you will keep all the cells in your body healthy. You will also keep your love life alive.

 

 


Dr. Robert McCarthy

Board Certified Chiropractor

 

www.greenvillehealth.com

 

http://www.greenvillefibrocare.com

http://www.pittthyroid.com

http://www.pittneuropathy.com

http://www.pittmigraine.com

http://www.pittsd.com

  

 

  LIVING YOUR TRUTH  Carol Witaker

Living your truth means to live through your spirit ~ your true essence.  By learning to live through your higher self you will balance your body, mind and spirit.  You will have unconditional love for you and others.  Your willpower will increase substantially.  Your body will become healthier and you will be able to accomplish your fitness goals with less effort.

 

Learning to control your thoughts is the first step to living your truth.  By choosing to have optimistic thoughts and feelings, you will have inner peace, better health and more abundance in all areas of your life.

 

Being the master of your mind is liberating!  It will free you from limiting thoughts that no longer serve you.  Your body is very smart; it manifests your inner thoughts into your reality.  Take a moment to ponder how you feel... How do you feel about your body image?  How is your health?  What is your inner dialog?  Are your thoughts positive or are they self-sabotaging?

 

Choosing on a conscious level to be grateful for your body, life and relationships will profoundly have an affirmative effect on the world around you.  Learning to be the master of your mind takes time, perseverance and commitment.  If practiced daily over time it will become natural to see a glass as "half full" rather than "half empty."

 

Meditation is an excellent way to learn to control your mind. Take time each day to meditate.  Concentrate on your dreams in the present tense and see yourself as you wish to be.  When negative thoughts enter your mind, let them go, then replace them with happy thoughts that bring you joy. 

 

By living your truth you will be able to create the body and life of your dreams.  Believe in your magnificence.  Allow all good to come to you as you radiate your beautiful light from within.

 

Carol Whitaker

LivFit Fitness

Lifestyle Fitness Consultant & Coach

www.LiveSkinnyNow.com

 

 

Metabolic Training-- Know the Rules!   Tana Gabriel

With all the different training styles to choose from, interval style, or "metabolic" training programs are becoming increasingly popular. These workouts are fashioned circuit style, with little to no rest in between exercises to accomplish a much larger calorie expenditure, in much less time than traditional body part splits. Most metabolic workouts work the entire body or focus on specific planes of motion within a single workout. While I personally use this style of training a few times a week, here are a few very beneficial "rules" that should be followed to ensure you are gaining the most out of your routine.

 

1) Wear a heart rate monitor-- the effectiveness of metabolic workouts is in the calorie burn. Until you learn instinctively what zone your body is in during training, it is wise to track your heart rate after each set or two to ensure you are keeping your heart rate high enough during the work portion and also low enough to ensure some recovery between rounds.

 

2) Be sure your diet supports this style of training, especially where carbs are concerned.  Depending on what your caloric intake is (mild-severe deficit) if you are restricting carbohydrate sources with a goal of fat loss, it is IMPERATIVE you take in just enough to support proper blood sugar regulation, while still allowing the body to tap into fat stores. This is where it gets quite complicated biochemically, but the bottom line is- high intensity training uses mostly GLUCOSE as a fuel source. Training at this level of intensity on low carbs can have disastrous results if you ignore this important rule!  The body will create glucose from protein and even your muscles if need be. Over time, exercising under these conditions will lead to overtraining syndrome and a complete deregulation of your endocrine and metabolic systems. You will know when this is happening when you start to experience frequent blood sugar crashes, anxiety, chronic fatigue, restless sleep, achy joints, or uncontrollable sweet cravings. This is a clear sign that your diet needs to include more carbs. My best advice is to aim for around 1 gram per pound of bodyweight (this is on the low end) and try "cycling" your intake by lowering your carbohydrates on non-training days (while increasing healthy fats)  and slightly increasing on the days you train. You will want to experiment with this to find the "threshold" that keeps all systems running smoothly.

 

3) Keep workouts intense but BRIEF-around 45 minutes. Again, this is relative to your caloric intake but generally, the bigger the calorie deficit, the shorter your workout should be. You are playing a balancing act of stress and fat burning hormones here so there is a fine line between what makes metabolic training beneficial or detrimental to your health! Any session that lasts longer than around 45-50 minutes appears to have a negative effect on the secretion of human growth hormone and testosterone in both men and women. Rising cortisol levels begin to cause some major damage at this point as well. (That is an article in itself!) Case in point- more is NOT better!  

 

Metabolic training CAN be a very useful tool in your body-sculpting arsenal. Used wisely, it can turn your body into a muscle building, fat burning machine!  Just be mindful of the relationship between proper program design and your nutrition and you will probably find it is the most efficient means of creating the body that you want without having to live in the gym or on the treadmill! Here is a great full body metabolic conditioning workout that can be done two times per week or on days you are crunched for time. Use a quick pace and perform each exercise consecutively in each round with little rest in between. Rest one minute in between sets and between the two rounds. All of these exercises can be found on YouTube.

 

(Round 1)

DB Push Press x 15

2 Point DB Rows (unsupported) x 15 each arm

Mountain Climbers x 25-50

T-Stab Pushups

 

REST 1 min.

 

(Round 2)

Stiff Leg DB Deadlifts x 15

Plank Pull-Ins with DB x 15 each side

Single Arm DB Snatch x 15 each side

Alternating Lunge Jumps x 20

 


Tana Gabrielle is a Bodybuilding.com Team Athlete/ National Level Physique Competitor and Fitness Model. She is currently a student at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition studying Holistic Health. 

www.facebook.com/TanaGabrielleFitness

www.twitter.com/TanaGFitness

www.youtube.com/TanaGabrielle

http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/TanaGabrielle

 

  

 

Have a great week and hope this information is helpful.

 

Sincerely,

 


The Only ProteinTeam
Michelle's Chocolate Protein Cake
Chocolate protein cake

1 C. Gluten free Oat flour (you can grind up in blender if you have the oats) 

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 

1 teaspoon pumpkin spice (You can use cinnamon if you don't have this)

 

� teaspoon salt

 

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

 

1 scoop chocolate protein powder ( I like the Only Protein.  No artificial sweeteners)

 

1 scoop wonder slim chocolate (this can be purchased on amazon and is cheap, I use for many things)

 

3 egg whites or 3 oz egg whites in a carton

 

� C. Xylitol

 

� C. Fat free or low fat Ricotta Cheese (see what you can find the fat free is hard to find)

 

1 C. Grated zucchini (I put this in my bullet and add a little water and grind up)


Non fat stick spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8X8 pan with the non stick spray. 

Mix first 7 ingredients in a bowl and whisk. In a separate bowl mix the remaining ingredients and whisk.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk well.  Pour in to an 8�8 pan and bake for 30 min or until tooth pick comes out clean.  Let cool and cut into 16 4�4 pieces

2 squares give you.  

 

97 Calories, 1.25 g Fat, 11g Carbs, 10g protein.

 

*You can find Only Protein at http://shop.buyonlyprotein.com/retail-products.html

 

 

 
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