Hack Your Life To Curb Sugar Cravings

Wouldn’t it be great if we all had an endless supply of willpower? No amount of temptation or distraction could throw us off course. Making a change in our habits would be as simple as deciding to do it. Unfortunately, this is not how human behavior works, which is evident by how hard it is for many of us to break bad habits, even when we understand the harm they are causing us.

One of the most prevalent bad habits affecting our health is sugar addiction. When people hear the word addiction, they think of chemical addictions like prescription pain killers, or behavioral addictions like gambling. But sugar addiction is just as serious an issue.Because of the ubiquity of sugar in our food supply, it is by far the most common addiction, even more than nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, or other drugs.

Bingeing on candy or slamming high-sugar energy drinks all day seems harmless compared to something like an opioid overdose. But even if your life is not in immediate danger, a chronic high-sugar diet will take its toll on your health, and can lead to serious conditions down the road. Besides just being a major impediment to achieving your physique and fitness goals, there is strong evidence linking excessive sugar intake with type 2 diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia, to name a few.

Willpower Is A Finite Resource

Once you get a taste for sugar, the cravings can become overwhelming. Resisting them becomes especially difficult when we see candy and junk food sold and advertised everywhere we go, and when so many of our foods have added sugar.

 

Relying on willpower alone requires huge amounts of mental energy, which is inevitably in low supply at the end of a long day or during stressful times. Instead, set yourself up for success by assuming that you won't be able to avoid sugar through sheer determination. Have a plan in place that will help you to stop, or at least diminish sugar cravings before they even start, so you don’t end up bingeing on Hershey bars and Sour Patch Kids when you get home from work (not that I would know anything about that!).

 

I divide these prevention strategies into three different categories:

 

1. Lifestyle factors
2. Meal choices
3. Nutritional supplements 

 

When deciding which of these strategies to implement, remember we are not trying to just eliminate a bad habit. We must replace a bad habit with a good one. For most of us, making small, sustainable changes will be more successful in the long run than trying to implement all of these strategies at once and becoming overwhelmed.

 

Get Consistent, Quality Sleep

One of the most important things you can do to prevent sugar cravings is get enough sleep every night. Sleep is when your body restores the brain and your neurotransmitter levels. When you don’t get enough sleep, you will be low on serotonin, the primary neurotransmitter responsible for a positive mood and overall feeling of well-being. Since carbohydrate consumption promotes the release of serotonin in the brain, you will naturally want to eat more carbs in order to balance your mood. Additionally, sleep deprivation also results in decreased levels of the hormone leptin, which signals satiety, and increased levels of ghrelin, which is a hormone that increases appetite.

 

Good sleep hygiene will be key in your battle against sugar cravings. Here are the behaviors that are the most help for me:

 

• Turn off anything with a glowing screen an hour before I should be asleep.
• Use that hour to unwind by doing something not work related. I find reading fiction and listening to instrumental music (like jazz or classical) helps to prepare me for sleep.
• Have my schedule for the next day already planned out so that I’m not lying in bed thinking about what I need to do.

Allow Yourself a Cheat Meal

Cutting out sugar and excessive carbs is much easier if you know that you’ll be able to enjoy them from time to time. The use of a cheat meal (one meal, not an entire cheat day) is a great way to satisfy a sweet tooth but still stay on track with your diet. You will also increase your leptin levels which will decrease your feelings of hunger. The only two rules that I have for the cheat meal are to keep it to a one hour window of time, and make it the last meal of the day. As long as you stick to those, you can eat whatever you want.

 

If you want to get creative and keep things a bit healthier, I recommend making your cheat meal from scratch. That way you will know exactly what is in your food, and you can choose higher quality ingredients compared to what you will find in most stores or restaurants. This is especially useful if you want to enjoy your cheat meal but avoid allergens such as gluten or dairy. Pancakes, pizza, cornbread, brownies, and sweet potato fries are some of my favorite gluten free cheat meals.

 

Get Breakfast Right

Some people handle carbs and insulin differently than others. But in my experience, the best breakfast to give you energy and keep the carb cravings at bay throughout the day is one that is low in carbs, high in protein and fat, and includes a variety of nutrients.

The reason I don’t like a high carb/high protein/low fat breakfast (like egg whites and oatmeal) is because it can lead to a big spike in insulin and blood sugar. This can lead to reactive hypoglycemia, which results in low energy and hunger an hour or two later. Instead, I prefer a breakfast that is high in protein and fat, but low in carbs. This provides steady blood sugar levels and energy throughout the day because of the low glycemic load of those foods, which in turn keeps me from craving sugary junk foods.

 

High fat and high protein doesn’t mean that you are limited to bacon and eggs every morning. In fact, my ideal breakfast includes much more variety. I prefer to have a big salad with a variety of greens and veggies with olive oil and lemon juice dressing, along with a good source of protein, either mixed into the salad or eaten separately. The protein source could be eggs, but since eggs are such a common breakfast food, I like to mix it up. Foods like canned mackerel, herring, and ground beef patties require little to no prep time and are easily digestible in the morning.

 

Stick to Solid Meals Over Liquid Calories

Liquid meals like protein shakes and smoothies are convenient, but it is best to stick to solid meals if you are looking to stay more satisfied and keep your cravings at bay. Solid food takes longer to digest, is more satiating, and keeps your blood sugar stable for a longer period of time. Including a good balance of fats, protein, and fiber will keep you feeling satisfied and will keep your cravings down.

 

Hydration Is Key

Hydrate first thing in the morning. Drink a big glass of lemon or lime water as a habit to get the day started right. The lemon or lime juice will actually lower the glycemic index of your meal if you have it with food. It will also help prevent the temptation to drink a big glass of fruit juice. Add some good quality salt (e.g. Himalayan or Celtic salt) to improve hydration, especially if you are sweating a lot throughout the day.

Use Supplements Strategically 

Changing your lifestyle and overall eating habits will have a bigger impact in the long run on subduing your sugar cravings. That said, nutritional supplements are much easier to implement into your routine, so it can be a good first step when you are trying to limit your sugar intake. I have found the following supplements to be very effective and fast-acting to calm sugar cravings both in the short term and long term, depending on how they are used.

 

• Glycine: This amino acid has a sweet taste, which can help to satisfy you craving for sugar. More importantly, it has a strong effect on reducing your levels of cortisol, which will help you to fall asleep. And if you’re sleeping, you are not eating candy bars! You might notice that your dreams are more vivid as well, which I think of as a bonus. A 5-10g dose in your evening tea is good for most people, but take a smaller dose if you experience any nausea.
   
• Glutamine: This amino acid is an especially useful tool post workout. Even though glutamine is not a carbohydrate, it helps your body to efficiently replenish glycogen stores. The amount of glutamine you use post workout should be adjusted to the volume of training, meaning that the higher the volume of training on a given day, the more glutamine you should use. A good starting point would be to include 0.1g of glutamine per pound of body weight in your post workout protein shake, and increase from there if you feel like your recovery is lacking.
   
• Inositol: This supplement that can help you to manage carb cravings by balancing your neurotransmitter levels. It can reduce symptoms of depression, calm mood swings, reduce cravings associated with PMS, and improve sleep quality. Be conservative with your dosing when taking inositol. If you take too much in the evening, you might feel mentally foggy and sluggish the next day or have a bit of nausea. Start with 1/4tsp of powder before bed, and work your way up as necessary. If you wake up feeling unwell or your sleep is disrupted, you know that your dosage is likely too high.

 

It Gets Easier

The encouraging thing is that the longer you stay off sugar, the less cravings you will have. Feeling good on a day-to-day basis will eventually displace the temporary pleasure you get from sugar. You’ll even get to the point where you can enjoy a sweet treat once in a while without going overboard. Until you get there, make use of these tips and strategies to help you stay on the right track.

 

By : Javier Garza

http://breakingmuscle.co.uk/uk/fuel/hack-your-life-to-curb-sugar-cravings

The Grip Test: Can You Hold Your Own

Grip strength keeps popping up in fitness-related headlines. Why? Because it is so fundamental to daily function and it has been shown to be a clear indicator of cardiovascular health and mortality. Plus, it’s obviously cool—many classic strongman feats involved grip; an impressive grip is baked into our social norms as something extraordinary and impressive.

 

But the point is, its not just for stunts and tricks and strongman feats. Grip strength makes your daily life better and gives your a healthier future.

 

Let’s take a look at what the research shows and at how to train grip strength.

Grip Strength Points to Heart Health

Grip strength, as recent Harvard Medical School research confirms, means more than just being able to deliver a firm handshake. In fact, there's a growing body of research that points to grip being a predictor of one’s risk for having a heart attack or stroke, or dying from cardiovascular disease.

 

For example, as part of the ongoing, international Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study, researchers used a dynamometer to measure grip strength in almost 140,000 adults in 17 countries, and they followed their health for an average of four years.

 

The results? Over the time span of the study, every 11 pounds of grip strength lost was linked to:

 

• 16% greater risk of dying from any cause
• 17% greater risk of dying from heart disease
• 9% greater risk of stroke
• 7% increased risk of heart attack

 

Another example can be found in results published in The Lancet, even accounting for other factors such as smoking, exercise, age, etc., researchers still found that grip strength’s relationship to cardiovascular disease and death remained strong. So much so that even blood pressure was found to be a weaker predictor of cardiovascular health and death than grip strength.

 

Researchers are also confirming what seems obvious: this is a cheap and easy way to add valuable data to health assessments. In a statement released to the press, lead author Dr. Darryl Leong, from the Population Health Research Institute at Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University in Canada, said, “Grip strength could be an easy and inexpensive test to assess an individual’s risk of death and cardiovascular disease.”

 

The PURE study’s findings are not unique and are not new. The connection that grip strength has with future disease/disability, death, and the likelihood of cardiovascular disease in adults has been documented in other research. But the PURE study is the largest one to have confirmed this connection. And if that weren’t enough, the study found that grip strength’s significance was consistent across high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries, lending further credence to the findings.

 

Is Grip Strength a Measure of Biological Age?

The idea of “biological age” is not precisely defined. It just points to how the body is functioning in comparison to its chronological age (which we can know precisely).

The key things that influence biological age are just what you’d expect: things like overall physical fitness, the presence or absence of certain medical conditions, and muscle strength. And grip strength seems to be another key factor in determining biologocial age.

Researchers Avan Aihie Sayer and Thomas Kirkwood of the University of Southampton and Newcastle University, both in the United Kingdom, published an editorial along with the PURE results. In it, they state plainly that “grip strength might act as a biomarker of ageing across the life course.”

 

How to Train Grip Strength

Grip training can be less programmatic that other types of strength training yet still be quite successful. Grip legend Odd Haugen (the "Visegrip Viking"), when asked what exercises to prioritize or how to structure one’s efforts when starting grip training, gave this advice: Just start using your grip, all the time. He then turned the question around, asking who were the people in the world with strong grips? Of course, it’s people who work with their hands, who use their brawn in their daily laboring—fishermen, construction workers, and such. His point was, that by simply picking up hard-to-grip objects, trying to hold on to things for long periods of time, or maintaining grip against a rotational or torque force, you can improve your grip strength. For everyday folks, it really does not need to be much more complicated than that.

 

You can think of grip more as a capacity than a specific “exercise.” As such, grip does not have a lot of technique or fine points that might need coaching or remediation. Can you pick up the Thomas Inch Dumbell? Then you have that amount of grip strength. If you can’t pick it up, then you don’t. There’s no measure of degree; it’s a pass-fail test and there’s no prize for “almost.” And to improve, all you need to do is keep on picking up something you can barely lift until it gets easier, then move to the next thing that’s challenging. Just keep trying to pick stuff up or hold onto stuff, and rest adequately between efforts.

 

Of course, at a competitive level, you can’t train so randomly. You’ll need a good coach and a solid program to assess your specific strengths and weaknesses as relates to the events you will compete in.

 

But for the rest of us, we can start grip training right now, and keep training pretty much all the time.

 

It should be noted that the studies mentioned above, like most such studies, used a dynamometer, which only measures one kind of grip strength. But to build real-world grip strength and enjoy the benefits of a well-rounded strong grip, you’ll want to train all three of the main grip-strength categories. According to nail-bending, phonebook-tearing strongwoman and hard-rocker Melody Schoenfeld, these are:

 

• The Crush Grip is the grip between your fingers and your palm—the one you use for shaking hands and crumpling beer cans.
• The Pinch Grip is the grip between your fingers and your thumb. This can be further subcategorized into individual fingers + thumb grip.
• The Support Grip is the ability to maintain a hold on something for a while—think pull ups or long and productive shopping trips.

 

Of course, this variety of types of grip ties into a whole range of daily activities and lifestyle choices you can make that will yield huge benefits. Building grip exercises in to your daily routine can be a very effective way to improve this important function. And there’s lots of ways to do that.

 

The point is, to improve grip strength, you don’t have to spend the money to go to a gym and you don’t even have to set aside the time for working out. Sure, training this way, you’ll probably never reach a competitive level. But you can make significant improvements in grip strength—and in many aspects of your fitness—through simple, daily activities that challenge you. For example:

 

• Park further from the entrance of the grocery store, and carry your bags to the car.
• When you’re on the phone or standing around – like in line or when pumping gas – find a way to work your grip. A simple way is to simply hold onto something and lean back (a fingertip grip on a doorjamb is great). Start slow, you don’t want to lose your grip and fall.
• For those especially deconditioned or elderly, it can be as simple as lifting the milk carton for several reps every time you take it out or put in back in the fridge.
• Get something squishy or pliable, or shop for something purpose-built at and keep it handy with you or on your desk. Use it throughout the day. Just type "grip strength tools" into the search field, and your browser will show you a wide world of options.

 

A Few Caveats

Change equipment and movements from day-to-day to avoid repetive-stress injuries and make sure you rest your grip between hard efforts. Varied practice also helps avoid boredom and plateaus.

In attending to grip strength, it’s like anything else. If you have a condition or injury that will limit you or that poses special considerations, check with a qualified professional for advice.

 

And you can’t ignore nutrition and sleep. If your diet is not optimal, you might want to research fish oil and other supplements to support your body’s healing fight inflammation, and support joint health. Adequate sleep is vital for recovery and healing of stressed tissues. Aim for seven to eight hours per night. That will give your body time to repair muscle tissue and replenish your muscle’s energy stores.

 

So let's go. Grab something and hold on... for your life.

 

By Dan Kallen

References:

1. LeWine, Howard, M.D., Grip strength may provide clues to heart health. Harvard Health Publications, Harvard medical School, Posted May 19, 2015, 12:11 PM , Updated September 08, 2016, 5:16 PM

2. Leong, Darryl P., Koon K. Teo, Sumathy Rangarajan, Patricio Lopez-Jaramillo, Alvaro Avezum, Andres Orlandini, Pamela Seron et al. "Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study." The Lancet 386, no. 9990 (2015): 266-273.

3. Leong, Darryl, “Your handshake tells the story of your health.” McMaster University news (http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/main/news/news_2015/handgrip_study.html), May 13, 2015

4. Sayer, Avan Aihie, and T. B. Kirkwood. "Grip strength and mortality: a biomarker of ageing?." Lancet (London, England) 386, no. 9990 (2015): 

226.

http://breakingmuscle.co.uk/uk/workouts/the-grip-test-can-you-hold-your-own

 

Happy Christmas 2016 from The Real Fitness Ninja

Happy Christmas from The Real Fitness Ninja. 

Good morning to you all and a very merry Christmas, I would like to wish each and every one of you a bountiful day with, Love, Friendship, Laughter, Food, Drink and health. Today for many people will be difficult, my thoughts are with all of you and I hope that today is still a great day for you however you celebrate.

Today will no doubtably be one of indulgence as we celebrate and I ask one thing... 

"Don't feel guilty"

We spend 364 other days feeling guilty for what we eat and exercise or don't. Think of this as your one true rest day!! Today you should enjoy every moment, mouthful and experience as 

"I PROMISE YOU" 

One day will not destroy the hard work of every other day of the year. If you haven't been so mindful this year then use it as a purge before getting things back under control. Its never as difficult as you think. One step at a time like going for a walk, just one with purpose.

Its good for the mind and body to have days of anything goes, they might shock your system as you load it with a few days worth of food and drink but hey never mind it is Christmas. 

Today for me will be spent with family and friends and I look forward to seeing my nieces and the happiness that Christmas brings for them. I remember as a child so many fond memories especially around my grandparents coming to stay. Stories of the war and in house jokes that where never very funny but made us laugh all the same. As life has moved on sadly so have they but my thoughts are with them, life presents times that are hard even during the good moments, its the balance of the universe, so try and stay balanced. 

"Enjoy Life and the time with loved ones"

Often in our day to day lives amongst balancing everything that we have going on we forget how important things that we take for granted are. Especially our own health and well being, lucky enough our bodies are generally very adaptive. Always remember and not just for today to enjoy life. Take moments to stop like most of us today and talk to people, who ever they are. Your family, your friends, the homeless person that you might otherwise just walk past, the cashier thats serving you while wishing they was with their own family. People are important and just because we are connected to so many by technology don't forget the art of real communication. For me having a real conversation can make my day. 

Enough waffle from me I am going to go and eat..... A lot and get merry and I wish you all a lot of happiness. I look forward to discovering about you and more from you soon.

"HAPPY CHRISTMAS"

Much Love 

Craig W.

The Real Fitness Ninja 

Why You Still Feel Insecure Even After Getting in Shape

When most people think about having a fit body, they assume it comes with heaps of self-assurance. We’ve been conditioned to believe that when you work hard and transform your body to look a certain way, you will automatically feel happy and secure. Unfortunately, that’s not always how it works.

Having helped hundreds of people go through fitness and weight-loss transformations, I can say with absolute certainty that most people do not automatically arrive at a place of self-love and body confidence when they reach their goals. In fact, fairly often, the exact opposite is true. Many of my clients actually feel worse after reaching their goals—either right away or later down the line.

How are we getting this so wrong?

The biggest reason is that the $60 billion-per-year weight-loss industry floods you with advertising designed to manipulate you into thinking the only thing standing between you and your dream life is the shape of your body. It’s effective marketing, because it’s what people want to believe: Your problem isn’t hard to solve! Self-love is just on the other side of losing a few pounds.

After all, when you see a person who exudes confidence and and is physically fit, you might (incorrectly) assume which quality caused which outcome. “She’s happy and confident because she has that rockin’ bod! If I had her body, I would be happy and confident too!” But more often than not, we get it backward. Maybe joy and self-acceptance made it possible for her to achieve the body she has.

This isn’t to say that nobody feels confident when they change their body. It’s just that the way we think the transformation works is wrong. Figuring out how to take better care of your body and learning to set and reach goals can be an extremely empowering experience. But the confidence that arises throughout that process doesn’t come from the changes to your body. It comes from your ability to shift and improve your self-concept along the way. Without making those deep, internal adjustments, no amount of transforming your body will give you what you’re looking for.

Here are some of the most common reasons people feel insecure, even after reaching their fitness goals.

1. Your expectations were unrealistic.

There is something kind of wonderfully hopeful about believing that if you work hard enough, someday you will look “perfect.” Sure, you don’t look perfect now, but if you find the right workout, diet plan, or supplement, you'll finally look exactly the way you want to.

This already-unrealistic goal is usually compounded by another unfair expectation. Once you achieve that physical goal, you'll feelhow you've always wanted to feel: whole, connected, happy, alive.

I once had a client who was convinced that when she finally got into shape, she would also become an extrovert. It’s pretty humbling to realize that even though you worked hard to succeed, you’re still just… you. Expecting that you’ll suddenly become a different person upon reaching your physical goals sets you up for disappointment and self-criticism.

2. Your self-talk didn’t change.

Plenty of people believe that when they achieve their physical goals, they’ll finally stop being negative and self-critical. They assume their body is the cause of their negative self-talk, so changing their body will automatically change that behavior. But negative self-talk is a well-practiced mental habit.

If you’ve spent a lifetime focusing on your flaws, comparing yourself to others, and criticizing yourself, then you’re going to be very skilled at doing so. You’ll also probably be unskilled at positive self-talk or self-acceptance. It takes time and conscious practice to break negative mental habits, and even more time and conscious practice to get better at positive ones. If you change your body without changing your mind, your brain will simply find new flaws to focus on, new people to compare yourself against, and new things to criticize.

3. Your new habits weren’t sustainable.

See if this sounds familiar: You get into "the best shape of your life" during a focused time period—a wedding, high-school reunion, spring-break beach vacation. 

But whatever you do to achieve your body transformation, you must continue doing it forever to maintain it. If you work out six days per week, stop boozing, and eat Paleo for six months, you’ll probably need to continue working out six days per week, going booze free, and eating Paleo to maintain that shape. It’s a simple concept, but it's often overlooked. If those habits aren’t sustainable for life, then neither is your shape.

That being said, you’re not necessarily supposed to maintain that shape. People often think there will be an “end point” to their goal, and that when they arrive at their destination, they get to stay there forever. There is no end point though; it’s just one long journey.

Fluctuations happen. Life happens. We're constantly aging and changing, and we’re meant to ebb and flow accordingly. Sometimes health and fitness will be your top priority, and sometimes it won’t. That’s OK. You might gain a little weight when you’re focusing on your career and lose a little weight when you fall in love. You might have a six-pack on a day you wake up dehydrated, but then a round belly later that day after you hydrate and eat something. Fluctuations are normal, and comparing yourself to one exact vision is a recipe for endless self-criticism and insecurity.

4. You focused exclusively on looks.

People who focus on strength or performance gains—like deadlifting a certain weight or running a half-marathon—often experience a much bigger correlation between goal achievement and genuine self-confidence. This is because making yourself “look better” is loaded with heavy emotional baggage. For anyone who has spent years dealing with this insecurity, it’s difficult to focus on changing how your body looks without going down a slippery slope—like thinking your body must be a certain size in order to be loved, or attaching moral labels to certain foods.

On the other hand, when you focus on what your body can do, it’s much easier to celebrate successes! Track your increasing sprint speed or celebrate the fact that you can squat 80 pounds this week when you could only squat 65 last week. Over time, focusing on performance instead of looks tends to shift your self-talk from “I suck” to “Wow, I’m pretty impressive.”

5. You hyper-monitored your own life.

When you begin making changes, the effort is conscious—you’re paying close attention to each behavioral choice. This is normal, but eventually your new behaviors should become second nature, and the focused effort should relax.

When it comes to the body, however, people often become hyper-vigilant about staying on top of the behaviors that brought them success instead. Aware of how much effort it took to get this far, they become very afraid that if they don’t obsessively continue to pay attention to every little detail (think: daily weigh-ins, 45 minutes of cardio, counting calories), they will ruin everything.

In some ways, they might be right. Remember what we said about natural fluctuations? Your body might change a bit if you allow yourself to move from conscious effort to unconscious effort. But if you reject all fluctuations, you’ll end up living in constant fear. For example, if you desperately want visible abs, after losing some body fat and gaining muscle, you might experience more body anxiety than you used to every time you eat a meal and notice your belly puff up.

Focusing on how you look all the time—even in a positive way—strengthens the attachment between appearance and self-worth. Compliments like “Wow, you look so skinny!” are tricky, because while they're intended to be kind, they seem to subconsciously say, “You're so much better/more valuable now than you were before!”

It's easy to ride the high of positive feedback about how you look as you’re losing weight and getting into shape, but what happens when everyone gets used to your new body and the compliments slow down? Who else are you? What else do you have to offer people? What else is your confidence tied to? Your sense of self-worth must be tied to something that can’t be taken away—not to something that is naturally meant to change.

BY JESSI KNEELAND 

http://greatist.com/live/why-you-still-feel-insecure-after-losing-weight

Why some people find exercise harder than others | Emily Balcetis

Ted Talks always get me thinking outside of my usual channels, tell me what you think leave a comment below.

Hacking yourself: Dave Asprey at TEDxConstitutionDrive

Some very interesting ideas and concepts. What do you think? leave a comment below.