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The Importance of Dropping Bad Habits & Learning Good Habits
We all have bad habits in our lives that we struggle to overcome. We say we are going to change them, but find ourselves falling back into the same old pattern. At eat. Fuel to Perform we have the tools to assist you in fueling your body. You will work with a nutrition coach to learn and practice the habits necessary to live your best live. Cutting back on sugars and intermittent fasting are two the practices that we teach, but beyond that there are other simple daily habits that you can focus on. Sustainable habits can change your life, and it all starts with how you eat. Habit Based Training capitalizes on only the things most necessary. There is no use forming habits for things that yield very little in actual outcomes. That is why our weight loss coaches focus on what matters most. The Importance of Blood Sugar Levels It doesn’t take a nutritionist to know that a healthy diet can lead to a lot of health benefit; better mood, energy, and overall healthy vitals. One other benefit you’ll find from a healthy diet is safe average blood sugar levels. A healthy diet allows red blood cells to live longer, and can help lower your A1c. The amount you eat can certainly have an impact on your hemoglobin and A1c levels. Eating too much food, particularly fats and proteins, can be associated with higher A1c levels. A1c levels can be affected by anemia too. However, the results on the effects of anemia on hemoglobin A1c are somewhat mixed. Learn more about what is known about anemia and A1c. What Are the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting? Intermittent Fasting is the practice of taking long periods of time without eating. Here is a list of benefits that motivate people to get started with intermittent fasting.
While there are many great benefits from trying this form of dieting, it’s not for everyone. It’s important to note that these benefits come with some risks, particularly for women as it tends to affect women’s health more than men’s. Learn more about what the potential effects of intermittent fasting are for women and women’s weight loss. Other Habits to Kick Based On Your Lifestyle There are plenty of smaller habits that you can incorporate into your daily life. With our Habit Based Training program, you work with a nutrition coach are presented with a new habit every two weeks, which you are asked to practice every day to develop a particular nutritional or lifestyle skill. To support the daily habits, the programs comes with a variety of helpful resources so that you can stay on track. Precision Changing your habits will help to change the way you think, and in doing so will change your life for the better. Interested in Kicking Your Bad Habits for Good? We can help you with that! Take control of your life and learn some sustainable habits. Sign up for our 12 Month Habit Training to get access to our nutrition coaching program for an entire year!
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How Healthy Eating Can Help to Lower Your A1C It goes without saying that a healthy diet can lead to a lot of health benefits. Better mood, energy, and overall healthy vitals. One other benefit you’ll find from a healthy diet is safe average blood sugar levels. With a healthy diet, you can expect to see a gradual lowering of your blood sugar, rather than the quick lowering levels you see with exercise. But before we can understand how this can help lower our A1C, it’s important to understand a few things. 1. Testing Blood Sugar Can Be Tricky These levels are ever changing. Your blood sugar can be raised and lowered day to day, meal to meal, and basically any second of the day. Depending on what you’re eating and whether or not you’re exercising. Additionally, the testing meters that many Type 1 diabetics use merely give us a glimpse into these levels rather than how your blood sugar levels change over time. 2. There Are Two Tests
Other Important Factors Healthier blood sugar levels may have longer-lived red blood cells than those with poor regulation. This is why managing and maintaining healthy blood glucose levels is so important, as this allows red blood cells to live longer. Fat Intake and Your A1c The amount you eat can certainly have an impact on your hemoglobin and A1c levels. In a recent study, it was discovered that fat intake is associated with higher A1c levels. A similar study showed similar A1c levels were associated with saturated fan intake as well while on the other hand, those who took in more polyunsaturated fat had lower A1c levels. High Protein Intake and A1c Those who take in a high protein diet are likely to have a high serum urea which increases glycation. This could lead to much higher A1c levels. Antioxidant Supplementation and A1c While more research is needed to confirm and deny this, there is still early research that does at least suggest that vitamin C, E, and coenzyme Q10 can decrease your hemoglobin A1c levels. Anemia and A1c The results on the effects of armenia on hemoglobin A1c are somewhat mixed. Those with untreated b12, folic acid, hemolytic, or iron deficiency anemia will artificially show lowered A1c levels even if they show high glucose levels and while this may be true, it’s also true that iron deficiency anemia can also higher the levels of hemoglobin A1c. This is due to a compound known as malondialdehyde which is also known to increase glycation. When it comes to determining A1c, there are many factors to consider. However, when it comes to specific reactions to certain diets, high levels of anything can affect how your body reacts. It’s important to keep a balanced diet whether you’re diabetic, predisposed to diabetes, or completely healthy. By eating healthy and exercising frequently, you can maintain the healthy happy balances you need. If you need help with creating a diet plan with health coaching and nutrition, don’t hesitate to sign up for a 15-minute consultation with eat. Fuel to perform today! When first talking about intermittent fasting, it’s important to understand just what it is, what the benefits may be, and why people choose to do it. Here is a breakdown of understanding intermittent fasting on a surface level.
Intermittent Fasting is the practice of taking long periods of time without eating. There are different ways you can go about this. One way is to not eat for hours at a time every day while another way to fast is to go every other day without fasting at all, while fasting the entire day the next. At times, intermittent fasting can be difficult but the rewards can be large. Here is a list of benefits that motivate people to get started with intermittent fasting.
When you consider how many different types of benefits you may get from intermittent fasting, it’s easy to see why it’s become such a popular health trend. However, while there may seem to be many benefits, it’s important to note that these benefits may come with some risks involved, and oddly enough, tend to affect women’s health more than men’s. Here is a list of issues that have been associated with women who are attempting the new health and diet fad. How Intermittent Fasting Affects Women Put frankly, intermittent fasting can have a serious effect on women’s hormones, causing issues with reproductive hormones. This can cause even further issues with things like ovulation, metabolism and mood, and even some women reported seeing issues with their periods completely stopping, thus leading to not being able to get pregnant. One of the reasons for this is because of the fact that scientists believed for many years that if a woman’s body fat percentage dipped below 11 percent, their hormones would drop and then cause their periods to stop. And while this may be somewhat true, it’s more important to understand that with lower fat, less lean bodies, you’ll see that their ovulation levels drop, which then leads to a lack of ability to conceive, rather than just stop the period all together. It is this factor directly that causes issues for women. What Else Can Affect Women’s Weight Loss? One of the most important factors to consider is the fact that when you’re not taking in as much energy as you’re expelling, you can see issues with weight loss, hormones, mood, and metabolism. And one of these factors that tends to quite the energy suck is stress. Stress can be a huge strain on your body but there are some other factors such as:
While the signs of intermittent fasting seem bad, it’s actually just a matter of the fact that it just isn’t for everyone. Pregnant women, those with chronic stress issues, don’t often diet or exercise, those who don’t sleep well and those with a history of eating disorders should not try it. But for everyone else, it’s most certainly worth a shot. When it comes to trying new diets, it’s important to make sure that you do your research. Stay tuned for our next blog in which we talk about the benefits of intermittent fasting and who would be best suited to try it out. Hit a plateau? Indulged a little too much over the holiday? Just getting started? Lets get real, when it comes to living the keto lifestyle, we can hit speed bumps along the way. Getting back to keto, or getting there for the first time can be a tedious and, for some, painful process. I am here to give you the good news that there is a 2-4 day fat fast that will reset your body to ketosis, or will get you kick started into ketosis at a quicker rate.
Fat fasting was introduced to us by Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, used by individuals whom contest ketosis activation. A fat fast is not recommended for just anyone, there are 2, and only 2, groups of individuals that should partake in a fat fast. They are as follows:
The fat fast is meant to ONLY be used as a last ditch effort in pushing through a 2 week plateau, activating ketosis for the first time, or reactivation ketosis. It is NOT meant to be used routinely. Fat fasting is the process of burning up glycogen stores, and using fat as fuel. In order to get into this state of burning, the body must be pushed into Lipolysis. Lipolysis is a process involved in the breakdown of fats, converting triglycerides into glycerol and free fatty acids. The more consistent, and routine the body is fasting, the more the free fatty acids are released. Ketosis is the result of fatty acids being used by the liver creating the fuel, or energy. This process can not happen if glucose is part of the equation. By reducing the glucose (carbohydrates), increasing fat % to 80%-90%, and minimal protein (10%) the body can quickly be catapulted into ketosis. What does the process entail? The fat fast is a 2-4 day process. Going beyond 4 days your body will go into starvation mode, and muscle will begin to be metabolized as energy, something we need to avoid. The caloric range is 1000-1200, with macros at 0% carbohydrates, 80%-90% fat, 10% proteins. Hunger levels will diminish after the first day, with the increased fat % and as the body shifts from burning glycogen, to burning fat, which allows for less of an appetite and satiety levels at a premium. Now, what to eat. I will give you a quick glance of what a fat fast looks like in my world. I would highly recommend plugging in some of your favorite fats into a macro tracker (www.myfitnesspal.com is my go to) to gauge what works best for you, and to ensure you obtain the results you are working for. Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snack:
Dinner:
My macro % is as follows: 0% Carbs 90% Fat 10% Protein It is not recommended to do hard workouts, or a labor intensive work while you are doing the fast. Choose a 2-4 day window that you are able to get ample rest, limited activity, and consistent fluids. And as stated previously, the fat fast is meant to ONLY be used as a last ditch effort in pushing through a 2 week plateau, activating ketosis for the first time, or reactivation ketosis. It is NOT meant to be used routinely. Client x is a young lady that approached me after she had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She came to me after trying, and failing, for several months to live what most people consider a “healthy” lifestyle. She believed that with exercise--a LOT of exercise--and healthy eating, she would get her diabetes and weight under control.
She was hitting spin classes everyday at 530am (and she would sometimes attend a second class later that day), and eating lean meats, low carb bread, and low fat spreads. But she was seeing little to no results. Her weight was not budging, and her blood sugar levels were not improving. She was exhausted, and was at her wits end. She approached me in need of direction in her nutrition program. She needed to see results. eat. caters to your lifestyle, whether you're looking for weight loss, muscle gain, more energy, or in this client’s case, a solution to her type 2 diabetes. eat. provided her with an intake form that captured a snapshot of her daily lifestyle, including nutrition, activity, and energy levels. This evaluation helped us put a solid plan together for her to reach her goals. With the assistance of a solid nutrition plan that was specifically designed to address her blood sugar levels, her energy levels, and her weight, she was able to reduce her blood glucose levels from mid the 250s to below 100. After five days on her new program, she was advised by her doctors to discontinue taking Glipizide, one of the two diabetes medicines she was taking. After one week, she went from 205 lbs. to 199 lbs. After two weeks, she was advised by her doctors to discontinue taking Metformin, the second, and last diabetic medicine she had been taking. Her results have been astonishing. She is not running to the gym to kill herself and getting zero results, she is able to sleep in, getting upwards of seven hours of sleep a night, and is not experiencing the crashes in the mid morning and early afternoon that she experienced prior to getting on the eat. program. eat. is founded on core nutritional ideals of a low carb, low sugar, moderate protein, and healthy fats. eat. employs one-on-one coaching strategies to keep clients focused, and provides the support and tools they need to succeed. At eat. we’re savvy when it comes to portions and eating the right foods at the right time to keep you fueled. We are deeply passionate about coaching clients to find the lifestyle shift they truly need and desire. When I was 18, I stumbled into my very first gym, where adults go to work out. Because I was an adult, and that is what adulting is about, right? I jumped in with both feet, taking classes and signing up with their nutritionist. It was the first experience I’d ever had learning about nutrition, macros--what carbs, protein, and fat were--and how they all come together to either enhance your day, or ruin it. I remember that first meeting, where they took all my measurements; circumferences, weight, and body fat % with a caliper. I was hooked. We had weekly check weigh ins, and monthly measurements. My passion for nutrition had begun!!!!
After a couple of weeks on this new workout regimen and nutrition program, I could see and feel the difference. When I was first advised that I needed to eat a LOT more fat, I was like, WTH!?!?!?!?!?!? And when I was told to eliminate bread? OH HELL no. They didn’t understand; I had a relationship with bread. I knew this had just gone from easy to devastating. But, I did it. I ate more fat, and I broke up with bread. Fast forward three months, I had lost 30 pounds. True story. Went from 160 to 130 pounds. I was on cloud nine. I felt my figure come back. I felt alive, light on my feet, clear headed, and, most importantly, I felt HEALTHY. I had this burning desire to learn more about nutrition. What does it mean? What was the science behind it? Why did timing matter? Why were macros so important? Wasn’t a calorie, a calorie? I went to OSU to study Health and Human Kinetics. LOVED IT. I loved everything about the human body. I graduated with a BS in Human Development, and entered the world of sports and nutrition. I loved how nutrition made a difference in the sport. What you put in your body can either slay or destroy your performance. I wanted more of this. I wanted to challenge others to be better at their sport, to feel better, and to be healthier. eat. is founded on core nutritional ideals of a low carb, low sugar, moderate protein, and healthy fats. eat. employs one-on-one coaching strategies to keep clients focused, and provides the support and tools you need to succeed. At eat. we’re savvy when it comes to portions and eating the right foods at the right time to keep you fueled. I am deeply passionate about coaching clients to find the lifestyle shift they truly need and desire. You’ve likely heard of Intermittent Fasting (IF), but you might now know much about it. What is it? What are the benefits? How long do you fast? I want to address all of these questions, as well as add some of my own personal experiences with it.
IF is a way of eating, not a diet. IF is when you establish specific windows of feasting and fasting (i.e. not eating). The feasting window is shorter than the fasting window; in some cases, it is half the time of the fasting window. Intermittent Fasting has been shown to have a positive impact on insulin resistance, and can lead to reductions in blood sugar levels. IF has also been shown to improve a number of risk factors in heart disease patients such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and triglycerides. Here are a few examples of how clients implement IF into their daily routine are as follows:
I personally have seen great things come out of intermittent fasting. Initially it was a intimidating idea--to not eat for 16 hours. But once I started doing it, I learned a lot about my eating patterns. My fasting window is from 5p-9a. I have always had one time of day that I am the hungriest, at 3p. Once I started intermittent fasting, my food fell in line with what my body wanted. Now I fuel my body at the right time of day to drive my performance. I am on the go for the most of my feasting window, so grab-and-go foods are a must. I also work a couple evenings out of the week, so I have to be strategic with my schedule. I hope this helps in understanding IF. If you are looking for more guidance, contact me for your free 15-minute consultation! Blessings, MacKenzie
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AuthorMacKenzie Patrick Archives
May 2021
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