Boosting Energy: the Dangers of the Quick Fix

Breakfast for Elliot is a bowl of frosted corn flakes with skim milk and a cup of black coffee. Zinging he hits the highway for work. By 10am he’s been to the break room twice for coffee and nibbles from the birthday cake left in the staff fridge. 12:30 lunch meeting where he eats a store-bought roast beef sandwich that is more bread than beef. Now it’s 3pm. Thinking is getting hard. Elliot is dragging and looking at the clock every 5 minutes wishing he could speed up time... He reaches for a cola/latte/mocha/chocolate bar to accelerate himself through to quitting time... Blood sugar surges, heart rate increases, insulin jets through the bloodstream trying to manage glucose...

Ok, let’s rewind all the way back to breakfast and see if we can’t help Elliot set himself up for a productive and energetic day...

Breakfast really is one of the most important meals of the day. It sets the stage for the rest of his day. Will he have enough fuel to keep his brain functioning on high when he needs it? If he breaks the fast he endured between 7am and dinner the night before with a balance of nutrients from each major food category he will stand a good chance. Good breakfast choices include low-glycemic carbohydrates like old fashioned oatmeal or 9-grain cereal, or low-sugar granola without dried fruit. Add to that a source of protein to give the body base materials for cell signally, nutrient transport and tissue repair such as eggs, nuts, or plain whole milk yogurt. Don’t leave out the healthy fats! Dietary fats act as the oak log on the bonfire that burns in the hours after the carbohydrate fuel has burnt off. Healthy fats include butter and whole milk fat from organic grass-fed cows, the oils found in nuts that can be put on oatmeal or in granola, and the fat found in whole coconut milk.

Coffee or tea can be beneficial, but it is advisable to be careful about adding sugar and avoid using sugar substitutes if you want to keep your brain healthy and your body trim. Caffeine and sugar together can help the brain be efficient and may be a good combination in small quantities prior to a strenuous thinking task such as taking and exam. But, in slightly larger quantities and frequencies, the sugar that comes in with the caffeine is more prone to become body fat than be used as fuel for speedy thought processes. Remember to keep drinking water though because caffeine will dehydrate the body and brain. Water is essential to efficient conduction of the electrical impulses that make up thoughts and nerve function.

Having access to healthy snacks at work or school is essential to keeping the brain happy and functioning without getting fuzzy. It is important to keep fuel coming in and not go more than about 3-4 hours without eating anything for brain performance and metabolism to stay high. Good choices to take along include trail mix (without candy), fresh fruit and a small pack of nuts or nut butter, hard boiled egg and crackers, or humus and sliced veggies.

Lunch should consist primarily of vegetables and protein with a sauce or dressing that includes a healthy fat. Examples might be a big salad with grilled salmon and hollandaise sauce, vegetable stir fry with chicken (skip the rice), or black bean and veggie soup or chili. By taking out the “white” food group of highly processed grains (bread, white rice, potatoes, pasta) you remove the culprit for the 3pm slump and the 5pm need to eat the couch before dinner.

Dinners for most of us need to be rearranged. This should not be our largest meal of the day after which we then slump mentally exhausted onto the couch and channel surf for 3 hours before bed. Dinners should be more like the “suppers” of old -- a lighter meal than lunch with more veggies than starches and a keen attention to lean healthy proteins for the body to use throughout the night as it moves into rest and repair mode. Loading up on high glycemic carbohydrates and grains is the wrong move for most people. These are the faster burning fuels that are better used during the day when we are vertical and exerting ourselves (hopefully!) physically. It is the proteins and vitamins and minerals and enzymes that are most useful to our bodies at night.

These are very general suggestions! For more details on how your own particular body utilizes foods and which sort of eating plan would work best for you, please consult with a nutritionist who understands that you are your own personal Universe. If there was a single “diet book” that worked for everyone, we wouldn’t have shelves full of different options. A qualified professional can help create meal plans and menus that will work for your whole family and not turn you into a short-order cook for each member of the household. It doesn’t have to be hard.

Get curious. Get informed. Get REAL.

Vanquishing the Dragons: Migraines and Chronic Headaches

So many people I know (myself included) are plagued by migraines or by chronic debilitating headaches. I have found that in many cases once the detective work has been done effectively, we can eradicate the causes of these inner fire breathing dragons that hold so many of us hostage.

Quick Definitions:
A migraine is not just a really bad headache. Migraines involve a whole host of other systems and symptoms that can range from visual disturbances such as the illusion of flickering lights or auras, to severe light induced nausea, to hemi-facial (“half the face”) pain, numbness or nerve dysfunction. Often pain is actually less of a problem than the other symptoms which can drive some sufferers into dark silent rooms for days. Most people who are susceptible will experience their first migraine right around puberty.

Chronic daily headaches (CDH) are defined by their frequency (15 or more days out of each month for more than 3 months) and the primacy of blinding pain as the key symptom. Chronic tension-induced headaches typically hurt on both sides of the head and evolve from tension of the muscular structures of the head, neck and/or shoulders.

Common Causes:
Medication misuse or overuse; allergies and toxic exposures; stress; sleep issues; caffeine withdrawal or overindulgence; illness; infection; skipping meals; chronic dehydration; and obesity. Often there is a hormonal influence that comes into play (especially for women). Testing is an important part of the detective work to get to the root cause.

My Own Story:
As a child and then teen I began noticing that I had worsening headaches every time I ate conventionally raised beef. In college I decided to try vegetarianism and took a few years off of all meats and the headaches disappeared. I then was traveling and opted to try a hamburger with a couple of glasses of cabernet right after a week of high stress, little sleep and food poisoning. Needless to say my body went into conniptions. I gave myself my first classic migraine and ended up in the hospital for five days while a multitude of tests were run to determine that I wasn’t having a brain hemorrhage. My symptoms: flickering visual aura in my right eye, extreme light sensitivity, nausea, numbness and tingling on the right side of my face, and a strange “far away” feeling headache. Once I eliminated conventionally grown beef from my life and took a break from the red wine, chocolate, aged cheeses and coffee, and learned how to manage my stress, I have only experienced a handful of migraines since.

3 Things to Try Now:

1. ALWAYS start with a big glass of water. We are a chronically dehydrated culture. See what 16 ounces of cool water (not iced) does before diving into medications.
2. Test for food allergies. Typical foods that drive the headache/migraine response include all those on my list above: red wines, aged cheeses, chocolate, caffeine, and cured meats as well as preservatives, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, and the toxins in conventionally raised foods (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and hormone residues).
3. Breathe. We forget to simply breathe in our rush rush rush way of living. Take time to just focus on the breath taking clean life-giving oxygen in deeply and exhaling equally deeply for a few minutes each day. If you don’t have any other stress-reduction technique, at least incorporate this one! You can do it anywhere!

Re - Solutions

OK. You made it though the holidaze. Congratulations. Now what? Now comes that nagging feeling that you've overindulged and have to repent. This usually centers on creating some sort of austere diet and exercise plan that your "Super Self" will coerce your "Evil Twin" into following for "your own good".  Aahh... and here is where it all goes down the drain before you even get started.

DIET is a Four Letter Word. Back when I was a kid, a "four letter word" was a "bad word". The word "diet" has all the negative connotations that are associated with punishment and deprivation. It is based on willpower and internal motivational strength. It is a period of time that is book-ended and taken out of a person's "normal" life during which they force themselves into a very tight small box of behaviors and usually without any internal or external support. Put simply: IF YOU DIET YOU ARE DESTINED TO FAIL unless you happen to have the will of an automaton, the emotional range of a barbell, and live in a bunker with no temptations to stray from the tight-rope thin path to your goal weight.

The reality is that we humans are complicated, have stressful lives that overlap and interact with other complicated and stressful lives. We are continuously bombarded with advertisements for weight loss miracle pills/shakes/frozen meals/supplements/medications/surgeries at the same time we are assaulted with advertising for the "return of the McRib", "I-dare-you-to-eat-just-one" chips, 2-for-1 large so-there's-no-need-to-share pizzas, and super-sized fries for the same price as regular. Mixed messages? Yup. One set appeals to your inner parent and the other to the inner child. You are being set up. Who benefits? The pharmaceutical industry, the food industry and the diet industry. You read that right. The Diet Industry. There are huge amounts of money to be made on you. This industry is there to help your wallet lose weight, not you.

Don't count calories. Count blessings. Get REAL. Take back your power and live your life with the passion, verve and vitality you were meant to have! How, you ask? Simple really. Focus on these five things with gentleness towards yourself and gratitude:
1 - Eat REAL foods. Give up processed foods, anything that you only have to microwave and serve, excess sugars (not all sugars!), damaged fats and poisoned proteins. Eat a rainbow of veggies, fruits, healthy meats/fish/poultry (if you aren't vegetarian of course), organic whole dairy products, whole grains and healthy fats. YES FATS. Fats are what triggers the sense of satiety and tells your body you can stop eating. Without fat in your meal you will be hungry again very quickly. And yes, the occasional dessert! But eat it right up next to your meal. And by the way, occasional means just that, not after (or instead of) every meal as we've been told by the marketing agencies we can do...
2 - Move. It's what you were built to do. You weren't built to run marathons weekly or to swim the English Channel. You were built to trudge. You were built to move all day every day. You were not built to sit. Move your body through space under your own power for at least 60 minutes per day at a pace that suggests you might have just been hung up on AGAIN by AT&T after being on hold for 45 minutes. Grrr!
3 - Drink water. Just water. Clean water. Cool, not iced, water. Drink one ounce for every half-pound of you. If you weigh 200 pounds, your daily intake should be 100 ounces. If you must, have herbal tea or a squeeze of lemon in your water. If you have caffeine or alcohol, remember it sets you back and you have to drink that much more to get back to square one.
4 - Eliminate as much added sugar as possible. Naturally occurring sweetness in fruits and veggies are fine. Artificial sweeteners offer you nothing but health problems and a continuing addiction to extreme sweetness. Cut it back. Use sugar if you must but do so knowing that's what you're using and be sensible. No agave is not the answer. This is another case of "natural" does not equal "healthy".
5 - Breathe. Yup, you read that right. Breathe. We forget that one of THE most important things we can do is change the air. Clear your head. Oxygenate your brain. Wake up your muscles. Crank up your metabolism. Expel toxins that are released in the breath. Consciously taking a few breaths reduces your stress levels instantly. Try it. It's something you can literally do any time. Important times to implement taking a few conscious breaths are: before beginning a meal, before a potentially stressful meeting, while sitting in traffic, before going to bed at night, and before engaging in your day in the morning.

You can do these things! If you focus on these 5 things rather than trying to make unsustainable and doomed resolutions, you can change the course of your history from this day forward. I dare you to try it. Take pictures, take measurements, then put the scale in the garage, keep a journal and let me know how you feel this time next year. Thumb your nose at the expensive diet plans and gym memberships. Laugh at the ridiculous advertising that makes no rational sense. Take your power and money back from Big Pharma and Big Agra. Get Sensible. Get Healthy. Get REAL.

Road Food

So I've been on a destination-free road trip through some of the southwest with a dear friend who proposed we "get outa Dodge" for about 10 days. We piled sleeping bags, pads, pillows and bags into her vehicle and set out from the foothills of California for points south along highway 395 and beyond. This posed a few challenges not the least of which was considering food both for the road and on the road. Eating while traveling in unfamiliar territory can be a daunting prospect and is a concern for many of my clients. Our journey offers the additional challenges of l-o-n-g distances between towns and cross-roads that pose as towns, sometimes with many miles between stops to even get ice for the cooler. So what's a foodie-nutritionist to do? Here are a few tips and tricks that have made our adventure work well so far, and a few additional ones that have worked for previous solo trips:

1 - Bring that cooler, yes, the big one. Get block ice and wrap it in a brown paper bag tightly this will help a little with slowing down the rate of melt. Have freezer strength zip-lock bags for storing things in the cooler that you don't want to get wet as the ice melts.

2 - Bring enough water for at least two days. How much is that? The rule of thumb is to take your body weight and divide that in half. That's the number of ounces you should be shooting for each day just for drinking. If you're going to be cooking, washing up, or doing a sponge-bath or two, be sure to add another two gallons per day.

3 - Don't just nosh your way through the day! Have set amounts of your snacks or food available and eat at intervals, not just because you're bored or need something to do with your hands. Good ways to regulate snacking is to pre-package your noshing items into serving sizes using half-size ziplock baggies. For a nut mix, that would be about 1/4-1/3 cup. For fruit, about 1/2-3/4 cup cut up or a medium apple or banana, or 1 cup veggies such as carrots, celery, jicama, or green beans.

4 - Have a thick dip or spread available for veggies. If it's too thin, I promise you'll end up wearing it as you drive... Humus or other bean dips work well for this purpose.

5 - Minimize the chips and pretzels, they won't do you any favors. They will actually make you hungry in the long run as well as increase the likelihood of creating edema (water retention) in your feet and ankles.

6 - When you need to stop for food, seek out a grocery store rather than a fast food place. You will save money and have a much higher quality meal, even if it's only an apple and cheese!

7 - The meal that seems to be the least likely to be made poorly is breakfast out. Go ahead and order the eggs, skip the potatoes in favor of a side of veggies or fruit. If you can get some salsa on those eggs you will get a little more vegetable matter in as well. Skip the juice and have water. If you have coffee, use real half-n-half, not the fake stuff. Same with sugar, use the real stuff, not the artificial sweeteners (your poor body doesn't know what to do with those chemicals - more on this topic soon). Skip the bready stuff and the cereal stuff. You'll be amazed at how much longer the meal lasts you!

8 - For dinners and lunches, split an entree and order an extra side of the vegetable or salad. Most places serve enough for a small army anyway! This has proven absolutely true on my current trip. We have saved a bunch of money at each meal this way and have never left a restaurant hungry.

9 - If you are in a new area and don't know the selections, put "best dinner Reno" into google (of course you'll put in the town where you are) and you can get some good ideas and reviews. Other ways to get good beta is to use cell phone applications like Yelp, Bing!, and Around Me to help locate restaurants nearby.

10 - Splurge! You're traveling afterall which means you are either away from home for business and need some comfort, or you are on vacation and celebrating. Allow yourself a couple of splurges on desserts or a meal or two that stray from your normal healthy eating habits (if you don't have healthy normal eating habits we need to talk). The catch? Be really picky! Don't settle for mediocre, get the best of whatever it is you are craving. Don't settle for M&Ms, stop by a local chocolate shop and get an amazing deep dark truffle. Don't grab a Dunkin Doughnut when you can find a fabulous french bakery and have a chocolate croissant. Go for the gusto!

Happy travels! Let me know what wonders you discover on the road!

On Your Mark... Get Set...

In my preparations to put together a workshop series on the proper combination of nutrition and exercise, I have spoken with numerous friends and clients about what sorts of topics might interest them. In the process I have been regaled with some very funny tales of competition and training woes that were related to poor food choices pre or post exertion. One of the ones that had the biggest impact on me was about a guy who had arrived at the starting line for a bike race without properly fueling up in the pre-dawn pre-race hours and now was starving. In a last minute effort to get some sort of fuel in before the starting gun, he inhaled a hot dog with all the fixings from a nearby vendor. You can probably already guess where this story ends up... The interesting thing is this person is a semi-pro rider but never got any guidance about eating to win.

It should be pretty obvious that even if you didn't know about all the chemistry behind digestion and absorption, you might listen to your body when it cringes at the thought of a pre-race hot dog. The brain gets us into trouble in so many ways when it thinks it knows best and over-rides the needs of the body (hence all the various addictions to sugar and caffeine and other potential nutritional pitfalls). What you want immediately prior to a hard workout or competition sporting event is something that the body won't have to work hard to breakdown into fuel. This is why companies like Cliff Bar have developed products like "Gu" which is pretty much straight glucose and some maltodextrin which is a loosely held together starch that the body can work on while the glucose goes straight to the blood stream. That hot dog is a digestive time bomb that first starts out as a barely chewed up lump sitting in the stomach. Once that starting gun fires, the signals from the body are to forget about anything except the adrenaline pumped task at hand: RIDE FAST! A few miles into this endeavor, that hot dog has been jostling around in the stomach waiting to be digested with acid building up by the minute. The time bomb explodes into either vomiting or diarrhea because the body needs to get rid of it in order to continue to push hard in the race. Now, the rider is doubled over, exhausted, and drained of reserves because the last little bit of fuel left from dinner the night before has been used up.

Let's help this poor rider rewind and replay his morning in a way that sets him up to win. Three hours prior to competition (yes, often in the wee hours of the dark), let's be sure to give our rider a well balanced breakfast complete with easy to digest foods like pancakes with bananas and a little almond butter. Two hours prior to the race start, let's be sure our rider has 16 ounces of electrolyte replacement drink (I'll post a recipe for one you can make at home). One hour prior to race start he's warming up his muscles by jogging lightly or riding short distances pushing a little and then backing off. During this warm up, he is drinking about 8 more ounces of water. In the 15 minutes prior to start, nothing should be going into the stomach. Now when the starting gun blasts, our rider doesn't have a lump of undigested food to contend with, and his muscles are bathed in ready glucose with more on the way. The enzyme systems needed to produce this ready supply of fuel are already on line and working at near full capacity.

On your mark.... Get set....