Sparking Your Metabolism: Part 1

If I had a Benji for each time I heard a woman report having a "slow metabolism..."

Ladies, I come to you as a friend, and as a woman who used to say the same.

I grew up overweight (even though I was a very active athlete) and as time went on, no matter what I did, the only reason I ever seemed to lose weight was when I starved myself.

Fast forward 20 years. At the time I write this blog, I am 10 weeks away from turning 45.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I am faster, leaner, stronger, more agile and explosive than ever before. I literally have to add in more food (and eat before going to sleep) because I trained my metabolism up.

I've trained my metabolism to do what I WANT IT TO DO; and that is, to RUN LIKE A HIGH PERFORMANCE MACHINE.

Now I tell you that not to impress you, but to impress upon you the following: There is no reason why you have to accept "a slow metabolism."

You can train your metabolism to do anything you want it to.

HOW?

By gaining metabolic trust.

Huh?

BE ADVISED: There's a time for me to coach you gently with flowery language, and a time for me to give you the pearl.

HERE'S THE PEARL:

To get your metabolism to go faster, your metabolism has to be able to trust that you won't treat it like an a-hole, otherwise it'll come to resent you and shut down.

Now that I've got your attention, let us move onto the gentle flowery language, shall we? lol

How Your Metabolism Responds To You Is A Reflection Of The Quality Of Your Relationship With It.

YES.

I used the word RELATIONSHIP.

I'm going to repeat it: How your metabolism responds to you is a reflection of the quality of your relationship with it.

And just like any relationship, there must be TRUST.

Have you ever had a relationship where there wasn't trust? How well did that work out?

NOT VERY WELL, RIGHT?

This is the exact same concept, only your metabolism is the one YOU must prove YOUR trustworthiness to. How's that for a spin?

Trust Is Established By Consistency, Care And Love.

Training your metabolism to trust you is done through consistency, care and love. It's done nutritionally by supplying your body with enough nutrients, calories and hydration to fuel its energy demands.

When you curate the relationship with your metabolism with the same attention, care, consistency and love you infuse into your other relationships, it responds in a very positive way.

You start producing hormones like you're supposed to. Your skin looks amazing. Your nails are strong and grow quickly. Your thoughts are clear. You feel alive. And you start looking really good. (Hello!)

Every single person I have ever coached has come to me because they've reached a plateau. A plateau in their athletic performance, aesthetic appearance and/or a plateau in some other area of life.

Regardless of the capacity with which I work with an individual-be it on the muscular development or life coaching side, it all comes down to a person having goals and for whatever reason, coming up short from achieving them.

Wanna know something else? Every single one of those people told me, and I quote: "I know I gotta get my nutrition right."

Every one of them wanted to get their nutrition on track because like a car-the right fuel gives a vehicle energy to produce power and performance.

And that's really what goal attainment is about, right?

Producing power and performance to go out and crush your goals?

So whether we're talking about athletic goals, or other life goals, the first place I ALWAYS look when someone reports "a slow metabolism," or "I hit a plateau," or "I'm unproductive," is NUTRITION and HYDRATION.

Why?

Because improper nutrition and dehydration are the top 2 causes of fatigue. In each of those situations listed above, fatigue is an element. (Now there's a blog post worthy of some attention! We'll hold that for a later date...)

The point is this: You need energy to achieve your goals.

HOWEVER, WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IS THIS: Your body doesn't care about your goals. Your body only cares about keeping you alive.

Slow metabolisms, plateaus in performance are simple to conquer with the right training. BUT, To blast through your plateau with Nutrition (this includes training your metabolism), you have to first supply your body with the energy it needs to keep you alive, AND THEN fuel it ADDITIONALLY with what will meet its energy demands as you do more.

It's like a tiered system:

You first have to give your body what it needs to keep you alive, and we're talking bare basics of keeping you alive-like your heart beating, and your lungs breathing.
Then you have to give it the energy, nutrients and hydration to supply your daily activities-like brushing your teeth, and going to work.
Any extra energy demands you place on your body-mentally and physically-: working out, moving, opening a business, going back to school-require ADDITIONAL energy, nutrients and hydration, and have to be supplied in order for your to see results.

Ladies, I've hit upon the logical side of your brain so you understand why I make the recommendations I do, because there's a lot of fear out there about food, and how much (or little!) one should eat in order to lose body fat.

Traditionally, women (I was not exception to that rule) focus on cutting back on food, and portions to lose weight.

While attention to portion sizes, caloric and macronutrient content are requisite to losing weight, chronically undernourishing your body actually causes your metabolism to come to a screeching halt sooner or later. (Trust me, I've been there; and it ain't pretty!)

Lastly, if you have energy crashes and/or a slow/stalled metabolism, you have to understand something: REGARDLESS OF YOUR GOALS OR THE AMOUNT OF EXTRA BODY FAT ON YOUR FRAME, YOU CANNOT "DIET" THROUGH THE PROCESS OF METABOLIC TRAINING.

As women, we like to have target goals; something to focus on. For this reason, we are shifting our focus into fueling our body's energy demands in order to gain metabolic trust and get it working in our favor. I call this EATING FOR ENERGY.

We'll tackle this a more in the next post, and in our soon-to-be-released On-Demand Program: The Nutritional Starter Pack for Women.

See ya on the inside!

Sparking Your Metabolism: Part 1

If I had a Benji for each time I heard a woman report having a "slow metabolism..."

Ladies, I come to you as a friend, and as a woman who used to say the same.

I grew up overweight (even though I was a very active athlete) and as time went on, no matter what I did, the only reason I ever seemed to lose weight was when I starved myself.

Fast forward 20 years. At the time I write this blog, I am 10 weeks away from turning 45.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I am faster, leaner, stronger, more agile and explosive than ever before. I literally have to add in more food (and eat before going to sleep) because I trained my metabolism up.

I've trained my metabolism to do what I WANT IT TO DO; and that is, to RUN LIKE A HIGH PERFORMANCE MACHINE.

Now I tell you that not to impress you, but to impress upon you the following: There is no reason why you have to accept "a slow metabolism."

You can train your metabolism to do anything you want it to.

HOW?

By gaining metabolic trust.

Huh?

BE ADVISED: There's a time for me to coach you gently with flowery language, and a time for me to give you the pearl.

HERE'S THE PEARL:

To get your metabolism to go faster, your metabolism has to be able to trust that you won't treat it like an a-hole, otherwise it'll come to resent you and shut down.

Now that I've got your attention, let us move onto the gentle flowery language, shall we? lol

How Your Metabolism Responds To You Is A Reflection Of The Quality Of Your Relationship With It.

YES.

I used the word RELATIONSHIP.

I'm going to repeat it: How your metabolism responds to you is a reflection of the quality of your relationship with it.

And just like any relationship, there must be TRUST.

Have you ever had a relationship where there wasn't trust? How well did that work out?

NOT VERY WELL, RIGHT?

This is the exact same concept, only your metabolism is the one YOU must prove YOUR trustworthiness to. How's that for a spin?

Trust Is Established By Consistency, Care And Love.

Training your metabolism to trust you is done through consistency, care and love. It's done nutritionally by supplying your body with enough nutrients, calories and hydration to fuel its energy demands.

When you curate the relationship with your metabolism with the same attention, care, consistency and love you infuse into your other relationships, it responds in a very positive way.

You start producing hormones like you're supposed to. Your skin looks amazing. Your nails are strong and grow quickly. Your thoughts are clear. You feel alive. And you start looking really good. (Hello!)

Every single person I have ever coached has come to me because they've reached a plateau. A plateau in their athletic performance, aesthetic appearance and/or a plateau in some other area of life.

Regardless of the capacity with which I work with an individual-be it on the muscular development or life coaching side, it all comes down to a person having goals and for whatever reason, coming up short from achieving them.

Wanna know something else? Every single one of those people told me, and I quote: "I know I gotta get my nutrition right."

Every one of them wanted to get their nutrition on track because like a car-the right fuel gives a vehicle energy to produce power and performance.

And that's really what goal attainment is about, right?

Producing power and performance to go out and crush your goals?

So whether we're talking about athletic goals, or other life goals, the first place I ALWAYS look when someone reports "a slow metabolism," or "I hit a plateau," or "I'm unproductive," is NUTRITION and HYDRATION.

Why?

Because improper nutrition and dehydration are the top 2 causes of fatigue. In each of those situations listed above, fatigue is an element. (Now there's a blog post worthy of some attention! We'll hold that for a later date...)

The point is this: You need energy to achieve your goals.

HOWEVER, WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IS THIS: Your body doesn't care about your goals. Your body only cares about keeping you alive.

It's like a tiered system:

You first have to give your body what it needs to keep you alive, and we're talking bare basics of keeping you alive-like your heart beating, and your lungs breathing.

Then you have to give it the energy, nutrients and hydration to supply your daily activities-like brushing your teeth, and going to work.

Any extra energy demands you place on your body-mentally and physically-: working out, moving, opening a business, going back to school-require ADDITIONAL energy, nutrients and hydration, and have to be supplied in order for your to see results.

Ladies, I've hit upon the logical side of your brain so you understand why I make the recommendations I do, because there's a lot of fear out there about food, and how much (or little!) one should eat in order to lose body fat.

Traditionally, women (I was not exception to that rule) focus on cutting back on food, and portions to lose weight.

While attention to portion sizes, caloric and macronutrient content are requisite to losing weight, chronically undernourishing your body actually causes your metabolism to come to a screeching halt sooner or later. (Trust me, I've been there; and it ain't pretty!)

Lastly, if you have energy crashes and/or a slow/stalled metabolism, you have to understand something: REGARDLESS OF YOUR GOALS OR THE AMOUNT OF EXTRA BODY FAT ON YOUR FRAME, YOU CANNOT "DIET" THROUGH THE PROCESS OF METABOLIC TRAINING.

As women, we like to have target goals; something to focus on. For this reason, we are shifting our focus into fueling our body's energy demands in order to gain metabolic trust and get it working in our favor. I call this EATING FOR ENERGY.

We'll tackle this a more in the next post, and in our soon-to-be-released On-Demand Program: The Nutritional Starter Pack for Women.

See ya on the inside!