I just read an amazing report. It's on the psychology behind why it is so hard to win the battle of the bulge.
I didn't realize all of the things in modern society that make it so difficult for us to do a simple thing like control the portion sizes of what we eat. And you know that controlling the portion sizes of what you eat is one of the most important things you can do for your health (and your looks!).
The author, Dr. Roberta Temes, is on the faculty of the Psychiatry Department in the Medical School of the SUNY Health Science Center.
Strategies in this report are based on research, not just the intuition of the author as you will find in most books or reports discussing the psychology of this difficult issue. What I am saying is that this isn't the normal ''pop psychology'' stuff you see in all of the magazines - it's the real deal.
In this report, for example, Dr. Temes gives you a strategy that can reduce your portion sizes by up to 73% without you noticing the difference.
You will also learn how restaurants are overfeeding you and your children (and how to protect yourself), why variety is NOT ''the spice of life,'' and how to create meals that will leave YOU in control.
There are 20 strategies in all, and I'll bet at least 15 of them will be new to you!
I asked the publisher if they would provide this report at no cost to my readers for a certain amount of time, and to my surprise they agreed. I think they know that after reading this report, you'll want to try out the products they actually charge for!
That is all up to you, but given there is no cost, it's worth a look.
Scientific Weight Control Secrets: Tips from the Psychological Research
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Imperceptible Vibrations Slow Weight Gain
By Morgen E. Peck
Low-level mechanical signals inhibit fat-cell production in mice
It’s the diet that we dare not even dream of—eat like a medieval lord, then simply command the body not to produce fat—but new research by engineers and scientists in New York and Maine gives reason to dream.
According to a report to be published this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, imperceptible vibrations transmitted through the whole body could help prevent weight gain in mice by inhibiting the production of fat cells in their bone marrow.
Staying slim may be as simple as standing still…oh, and exercising too.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/oct07/5659
Sunday, February 17, 2008
When Your Boss Won't Share the Spotlight
Everyone has dealt with a credit-stealing coworker. And while wrestling recognition for your hard work and bright ideas from a glory-grabbing colleague can be tricky, you can usually resolve the situation by tactfully confronting the individual or, if that fails, bringing the issue to the attention of your manager.
But what do you do when your boss -- the person who has significant control over your career -- is the one taking credit for your ideas? After all, being too direct or going over his or her head can get you into trouble. Following are a few strategies that might help.
Read on ...
But what do you do when your boss -- the person who has significant control over your career -- is the one taking credit for your ideas? After all, being too direct or going over his or her head can get you into trouble. Following are a few strategies that might help.
Read on ...
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Plateaus - why your fat loss stops
Today I'm posting an excerpt from one of two recent teleseminars featuring fat loss excerpt Tom Venuto. Tom had them transcribed and turned into ebooks and MP3 audios that he's actually giving away for free as part of a 3 day special promotion ending February 14th. Go to http://www.consultpivotal.com/Aburn_the_fat.htm for more information on that.
I wanted to share this excerpt from the seminar with you in particular (I got permission from Tom to reprint this). I think you’ll find it fascinating because it explains the real reasons why people hit fat loss plateaus. It happens especially when you get down to that “last 10 lbs” or when you drop a lot of weight, and you hit the “good” body fat category, but you’re an “overachiever” and you still want to get even leaner… all the way to “ripped”, or at least lean enough to see your abs.
Breaking through plateaus is a challenge, but there IS something you can do about them... read on and see what Tom says about it.
EXCERPT FROM THE "SUPER LEAN" SEMINAR
QUESTION: "Our first question says, “Tom, I know you often say that to get to the point to be able to see your abs, you need to get to single-digit body fat. What if I hit a plateau at about 12% body fat? What do I need to do to break the plateau and get my fat% down to single digits? Should I do more cardio, more weight-training, manipulate my diet somehow?”
ANSWER: "You could do any of the above. You could manipulate your calories, change type of cardio, add cardio duration or frequency. You could increase cardio intensity. You could change your weight-training. You shouldn’t limit yourself.
One of the problems I see with quite a few programs is that they’re too dogmatic. If you hit a plateau, the person with the most flexibility in their approach is the person who’s going to be most likely to get through that plateau.
The first thing though is to understand what a plateau really is. This is important, because if you were losing weight, but now you’re not, there’s only one thing that that could mean; you were in a calorie deficit but you’re no longer in a calorie deficit.
You may be wondering why that happens.
There are four primary reasons you hit a plateau:
The first reason you hit a plateau is because your metabolism decreases. While this does not completely stop fat loss, it does slow down fat loss. If you’ve been cutting calories, especially if you cut them severely, your body adapts by decreasing the metabolic rate. That’s sometimes known as the “starvation response” or “Adaptive thermogenesis.”
The second reason is that you need fewer calories after you lose weight. Calorie needs are directly tied into your body weight. One problem is that after people lose a lot of weight, they tend to keep eating the same way they were eating when they were heavier.
So they’re feeding a smaller person the way they were when they were a bigger person, but when you’re a smaller person, you don’t need as many calories, even at rest (your basal metabolic rate is lower).
A third reason is that when you move that smaller body, you’re not burning as many calories. If you strap on a weighted vest or heavy backpack and go out and hike up a hill, you can tell, obviously, that if you’re lugging around extra weight, you’re burning more calories. So now can you see why, after you lose weight, you burn fewer calories?
The fourth reason is that most people either cheat on their diets or they forget to record part of their food intake. This one requires a little bit of honesty with yourself. Even if you don’t do it intentionally and you don’t “cheat” per se, unconsciously, we’re all terrible at estimating how much food we eat.
Some studies have even showed underreporting calorie intake as much as 50%. In other words, you say, “I’m only eating 1,200 calories a day, but i’m stuck at a plateau!” but you’re really eating 1,800 calories a day which doesn’t give you much of a deficit.
All of these reasons for plateaus get amplified in the later stages of a diet, because biologically speaking, your body is doing everything it possibly can to get you to go off your diet and to get weight to stabilize.
After a long period of dieting and after a large weight loss, your body cranks up the appetite, stimulates cravings and tries to trick you into eating more.
The leaner you get, the longer youve been dieting and the more aggressively you cut calories, the more your body tends to defend its weight, and hold on to remaining body fat.
So it’s really common to hit that plateau when you’re dieted down and leaner. Usually it’s nowhere near as difficult for the overweight person to start losing weight as it is for the lean person to get even more lean. The last 10 lbs is usually a lot harder than the first 10.
If you think about it, it’s pretty unnatural from a biological perspective to walk around with really low single-digit body fat. It’s not beneficial from a survival-of-the-species point of view to have low body fat. So this metabolic adaptation becomes more pronounced the leaner you get.
You’re also at a higher risk of losing muscle, because extra muscle is not econmical when there’s a calorie shortage. Having extra muscle is like having an engine that’s bigger than you need - It’s like a gas guzzler.
The ultimate answer to why you plateau, why that last 10 pounds is so hard to lose and why it’s hard to break into those single digits is that you were in a calorie deficit but for all of the reasons mentioned above, you’re no longer in deficit.
The way to break the plateau then is to:
(1) re-stimulate metabolism and re-set fat-burning and starvation hormones, and
(2) re-establish the deficit.
(3) KEEP AFTER IT!
The question was, “How do I do that? More cardio, more weight training, manipulate my diet?”
You could do all of the above. Eating less or exercising more can both increase a deficit. But one thing you might want to do first, is give yourself a little break. Take your calories up to maintenance level, maybe for a week.
The idea there is not to try to accelerate fat loss, because what you’re actually doing is removing your calorie deficit for a short period of time. What you’re trying to do is facilitate the fat loss when you jump back into it.
It gives your body a physiological break from the stress of dieting; it resets some of those starvation hormones and stimulates your metabolism so when you go back to the calorie deficit, your body responds again.
You also get mental break from the diet as well, which makes it easier to stick with the program when you go back to it.
You could also use a calorie cycling approach, to help prevent yourself from hitting another plateau, and we already covered calorie and carb cycling in the last call.
I also recommend, because so many people underestimate how much they eat, don’t take any chances. Count your calories, or at least become really aware of the portion sizes and maybe even consider keeping a journal.
You’ve probably been told many times by a lot of different “experts” that you don’t have to count calories. But when you’re in a plateau, I’d recommend that you stop guessing and really get serious about what you’re taking in.
Then what you need to do is reestablish that calorie deficit using every tool at your disposal.
Use nutrition by pulling back your portion sizes. Or use cardio. And by increased cardio, I mean increasing energy expenditure. You could increase your frequency. You could increase your duration.
But increasing energy expenditure is not necessarily doing longer workouts, just burning more calories. You could also take the same amount of time that you’re spending right now and increase your intensity.
The whole idea is just burn more calories and stimulate metabolism, which gives you your deficit back again or you can pull back your food intake and give yourself a deficit again from the food side.
There’s more than one way to do it and I don’t think that you should lock yourself in. Use all of the variables and remember that there are TWO sides to the energy balance equation, not one."
# # #
I Hope you enjoyed this excerpt, and mostly, I hope you put the information to good use!
This was just one short excerpt from almost two hours of audio in Tom's new "Super Lean" seminar. Tom is giving away the entire seminar for free with the purchase of his ebook Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, but only until February 13th."
You can get more information on Tom's Burn The Fat program AND his new "Super Lean" seminar at: http://www.consultpivotal.com/Aburn_the_fat.htm
I wanted to share this excerpt from the seminar with you in particular (I got permission from Tom to reprint this). I think you’ll find it fascinating because it explains the real reasons why people hit fat loss plateaus. It happens especially when you get down to that “last 10 lbs” or when you drop a lot of weight, and you hit the “good” body fat category, but you’re an “overachiever” and you still want to get even leaner… all the way to “ripped”, or at least lean enough to see your abs.
Breaking through plateaus is a challenge, but there IS something you can do about them... read on and see what Tom says about it.
EXCERPT FROM THE "SUPER LEAN" SEMINAR
QUESTION: "Our first question says, “Tom, I know you often say that to get to the point to be able to see your abs, you need to get to single-digit body fat. What if I hit a plateau at about 12% body fat? What do I need to do to break the plateau and get my fat% down to single digits? Should I do more cardio, more weight-training, manipulate my diet somehow?”ANSWER: "You could do any of the above. You could manipulate your calories, change type of cardio, add cardio duration or frequency. You could increase cardio intensity. You could change your weight-training. You shouldn’t limit yourself.
One of the problems I see with quite a few programs is that they’re too dogmatic. If you hit a plateau, the person with the most flexibility in their approach is the person who’s going to be most likely to get through that plateau.
The first thing though is to understand what a plateau really is. This is important, because if you were losing weight, but now you’re not, there’s only one thing that that could mean; you were in a calorie deficit but you’re no longer in a calorie deficit.
You may be wondering why that happens.
There are four primary reasons you hit a plateau:
The first reason you hit a plateau is because your metabolism decreases. While this does not completely stop fat loss, it does slow down fat loss. If you’ve been cutting calories, especially if you cut them severely, your body adapts by decreasing the metabolic rate. That’s sometimes known as the “starvation response” or “Adaptive thermogenesis.”
The second reason is that you need fewer calories after you lose weight. Calorie needs are directly tied into your body weight. One problem is that after people lose a lot of weight, they tend to keep eating the same way they were eating when they were heavier.
So they’re feeding a smaller person the way they were when they were a bigger person, but when you’re a smaller person, you don’t need as many calories, even at rest (your basal metabolic rate is lower).
A third reason is that when you move that smaller body, you’re not burning as many calories. If you strap on a weighted vest or heavy backpack and go out and hike up a hill, you can tell, obviously, that if you’re lugging around extra weight, you’re burning more calories. So now can you see why, after you lose weight, you burn fewer calories?
The fourth reason is that most people either cheat on their diets or they forget to record part of their food intake. This one requires a little bit of honesty with yourself. Even if you don’t do it intentionally and you don’t “cheat” per se, unconsciously, we’re all terrible at estimating how much food we eat.
Some studies have even showed underreporting calorie intake as much as 50%. In other words, you say, “I’m only eating 1,200 calories a day, but i’m stuck at a plateau!” but you’re really eating 1,800 calories a day which doesn’t give you much of a deficit.
All of these reasons for plateaus get amplified in the later stages of a diet, because biologically speaking, your body is doing everything it possibly can to get you to go off your diet and to get weight to stabilize.
After a long period of dieting and after a large weight loss, your body cranks up the appetite, stimulates cravings and tries to trick you into eating more.
The leaner you get, the longer youve been dieting and the more aggressively you cut calories, the more your body tends to defend its weight, and hold on to remaining body fat.
So it’s really common to hit that plateau when you’re dieted down and leaner. Usually it’s nowhere near as difficult for the overweight person to start losing weight as it is for the lean person to get even more lean. The last 10 lbs is usually a lot harder than the first 10.
If you think about it, it’s pretty unnatural from a biological perspective to walk around with really low single-digit body fat. It’s not beneficial from a survival-of-the-species point of view to have low body fat. So this metabolic adaptation becomes more pronounced the leaner you get.
You’re also at a higher risk of losing muscle, because extra muscle is not econmical when there’s a calorie shortage. Having extra muscle is like having an engine that’s bigger than you need - It’s like a gas guzzler.
The ultimate answer to why you plateau, why that last 10 pounds is so hard to lose and why it’s hard to break into those single digits is that you were in a calorie deficit but for all of the reasons mentioned above, you’re no longer in deficit.
The way to break the plateau then is to:
(1) re-stimulate metabolism and re-set fat-burning and starvation hormones, and
(2) re-establish the deficit.
(3) KEEP AFTER IT!
The question was, “How do I do that? More cardio, more weight training, manipulate my diet?”
You could do all of the above. Eating less or exercising more can both increase a deficit. But one thing you might want to do first, is give yourself a little break. Take your calories up to maintenance level, maybe for a week.
The idea there is not to try to accelerate fat loss, because what you’re actually doing is removing your calorie deficit for a short period of time. What you’re trying to do is facilitate the fat loss when you jump back into it.
It gives your body a physiological break from the stress of dieting; it resets some of those starvation hormones and stimulates your metabolism so when you go back to the calorie deficit, your body responds again.
You also get mental break from the diet as well, which makes it easier to stick with the program when you go back to it.
You could also use a calorie cycling approach, to help prevent yourself from hitting another plateau, and we already covered calorie and carb cycling in the last call.
I also recommend, because so many people underestimate how much they eat, don’t take any chances. Count your calories, or at least become really aware of the portion sizes and maybe even consider keeping a journal.
You’ve probably been told many times by a lot of different “experts” that you don’t have to count calories. But when you’re in a plateau, I’d recommend that you stop guessing and really get serious about what you’re taking in.
Then what you need to do is reestablish that calorie deficit using every tool at your disposal.
Use nutrition by pulling back your portion sizes. Or use cardio. And by increased cardio, I mean increasing energy expenditure. You could increase your frequency. You could increase your duration.
But increasing energy expenditure is not necessarily doing longer workouts, just burning more calories. You could also take the same amount of time that you’re spending right now and increase your intensity.
The whole idea is just burn more calories and stimulate metabolism, which gives you your deficit back again or you can pull back your food intake and give yourself a deficit again from the food side.
There’s more than one way to do it and I don’t think that you should lock yourself in. Use all of the variables and remember that there are TWO sides to the energy balance equation, not one."
# # #
I Hope you enjoyed this excerpt, and mostly, I hope you put the information to good use!
This was just one short excerpt from almost two hours of audio in Tom's new "Super Lean" seminar. Tom is giving away the entire seminar for free with the purchase of his ebook Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, but only until February 13th."
You can get more information on Tom's Burn The Fat program AND his new "Super Lean" seminar at: http://www.consultpivotal.com/Aburn_the_fat.htm
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
How to Apply "Less-is-More" Thinking When Creating Daily Actions and 3 Ways to Leverage it to Get More Done!
We’ve all felt that at one time or another.
There are our priorities, our boss’s priorities, our family priorities and the priorities that seem to land in our lap at the last minute - like a leaky toilet that floods, dropping water from the ceiling.
But there is a way to manage all of this effectively and I’m going to show you how in this article:
http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/2008/01/how-to-apply-less-is-more-thinking-when-creating-daily-actions-and-3-ways-to-leverage-it-to-get-more-done/
There are our priorities, our boss’s priorities, our family priorities and the priorities that seem to land in our lap at the last minute - like a leaky toilet that floods, dropping water from the ceiling.
But there is a way to manage all of this effectively and I’m going to show you how in this article:
http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/2008/01/how-to-apply-less-is-more-thinking-when-creating-daily-actions-and-3-ways-to-leverage-it-to-get-more-done/
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Think Right Now
Many of you are very familiar with Mike Brescia and ThinkRight Now's line of Accelerated Success ConditioningPrograms.
They are phenomenal products that use thetechnology developed by the famed psychotherapist GeorgiLozanov that allowed people to learn information from 5 to10 times faster than normal teaching methods.
And so you may already be aware that these programs actually teach you the unconscious empowering thought patterns found in people who are the best at a variety of different life disciplines.
In other words, they don't just give you information and leave you on your own. No, they actually install the knowledge into your long-term memory. So you actually learn to think on a moment-by-moment basis like the people you want to be like, so you automatically make similar decisions and thus, get similar results.
Plus, the whole process is the model of simplicity.
The success stories they've got are absolutely astounding. And the REALLY interesting part today is that Think RightNow is running a 3 day sale.
All their Think Right Now and Instant Inner Power programs are 20% off until Thursday at 2pm U.S. Eastern Time.
If you want to experience some truly profound positive change in your life and you love saving money, you should check it out now.
To save 20% on all Think Right Now programs, go here:- http://www.consultpivotal.com/Athinkrightnow.htm
To save 20% on all Instant Inner Power programs, go here:- http://www.consultpivotal.com/Ainstantinnerpower.htm
And remember, on Thursday at 2pm U.S. Eastern Time, they are shutting off the discounts, no exceptions.
I recommend you find out about these products now and use them. I have some of their programs and I love them.
I believe you will love them, too.
Especially since you'll be saving 20%.
All the best,
Bronwyn
P.S. Remember, this sale ends this Thursday (Feb 7th) at 2pm
U.S. Eastern Time.
They are phenomenal products that use thetechnology developed by the famed psychotherapist GeorgiLozanov that allowed people to learn information from 5 to10 times faster than normal teaching methods.
And so you may already be aware that these programs actually teach you the unconscious empowering thought patterns found in people who are the best at a variety of different life disciplines.
In other words, they don't just give you information and leave you on your own. No, they actually install the knowledge into your long-term memory. So you actually learn to think on a moment-by-moment basis like the people you want to be like, so you automatically make similar decisions and thus, get similar results.
Plus, the whole process is the model of simplicity.
The success stories they've got are absolutely astounding. And the REALLY interesting part today is that Think RightNow is running a 3 day sale.
All their Think Right Now and Instant Inner Power programs are 20% off until Thursday at 2pm U.S. Eastern Time.
If you want to experience some truly profound positive change in your life and you love saving money, you should check it out now.
To save 20% on all Think Right Now programs, go here:- http://www.consultpivotal.com/Athinkrightnow.htm
To save 20% on all Instant Inner Power programs, go here:- http://www.consultpivotal.com/Ainstantinnerpower.htm
And remember, on Thursday at 2pm U.S. Eastern Time, they are shutting off the discounts, no exceptions.
I recommend you find out about these products now and use them. I have some of their programs and I love them.
I believe you will love them, too.
Especially since you'll be saving 20%.
All the best,
Bronwyn
P.S. Remember, this sale ends this Thursday (Feb 7th) at 2pm
U.S. Eastern Time.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
What Worked, What Didn't, What's Next?
One of the common denominators of successful people is their ability to persevere when things don't go as planned. Effective people don't allow themselves to get bogged down in feelings that don't serve their purpose.
On the other hand, ineffective, unsuccessful people allow their emotions to rule rather than their rational and objective nature. They lament what happened or what didn't and become victims rather than masters of their circumstances.
We all have disappointments. We all suffer setbacks. If we're going to attempt anything worthwhile, we're going to experience failure. The mature—and ultimately successful person—sees failure as part of success. When one method fails, they try again with a new one. Sometimes it takes many attempts.
Article continues
On the other hand, ineffective, unsuccessful people allow their emotions to rule rather than their rational and objective nature. They lament what happened or what didn't and become victims rather than masters of their circumstances.
We all have disappointments. We all suffer setbacks. If we're going to attempt anything worthwhile, we're going to experience failure. The mature—and ultimately successful person—sees failure as part of success. When one method fails, they try again with a new one. Sometimes it takes many attempts.
Article continues
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