Good news for your sugar: Shakeology

Just yesterday a guy I met at the airport asked me about Shakeology in people with diabetes. I often get asked about Shakeology and blood sugar- both in people with diabetes and others who are just looking to stabilize their blood sugar and prevent big swings.




Shakeology scored 24 on the glycemic index scale. That put it midway between broccoli and apples, only about 1/4th the blood sugar response of a baked potato, and earned Shakeology Low-Glycemic food certification. it is why Shakeology makes you feel satisfied without that awful, energy sucking, blah feeling you get with a sugar rush.

Of course, if you have diabetes, especially type one, you know that you should check with your doctor about Shakeology. If any of my readers with diabetes have a Shakeology story to share, I'd love to hear it and share it on the blog. Email me at Kevin@TheFitDoc.com

For more about why eating low glycemic index foods like Shakeology is critical for your health, click the video below.

Lack of Sleep: A Dieter's Worst Nightmare

Is sleep-loss sabotaging your weight-loss?

Lack of sleep appears to sabotage the effectiveness of dieting, according to new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The hormonal changes that happen with lack of sleep mess with your diet in a ways that are far worse than you think.



It is not so much you lose less weight when you diet sleep deprived, it appears you lose the wrong kind of weight. Insomnia can lead to losing 4 times more muscle than fat! And muscle is one of the main drivers of your metabolism! So less sleep means less fat loss and slowing metabolism.

Plus, the hormone changes that occur make you more hungry if you lose sleep.

Less fat loss, slower metabolism, and more hunger. Lack of sleep is a dieter's worst nightmare.

Here are the specifics:

The study looked at sleep deprivation and whether it affected the amount and composition of weight lost when dieting, hunger levels, and levels of certain weight and metabolism related hormones.

Researchers randomized 10 overweight adults to 2 weeks of dieting with normal sleep (8.5 hours/night) or 2 weeks of dieting with 5.5 hours per night of sleep.

Reduced sleep decreased the proportion of weight lost as fat by 55%.
-Sleepers lost 1.4 kg of fat, insomniacs lost 0.6 kg of fat.

It also increased the amount of fat free tissue loss (muscle) by 60%!
-Sleepers lost 1.5 kg of muscle, and insomniacs lost 2.4 kg of muscle!

So in this study, dieters who were sleep deprived lost 400% more muscle than fat!

Less sleep led to higher ghrelin levels (the hunger hormone) and increased feelings of hunger.


"Among other hormonal effects, we found that sleep restriction caused an increase in ghrelin levels in the blood. Ghrelin is a hormone that has been shown to reduce energy expenditure, stimulate hunger and food intake, promote retention of fat, and increase glucose production in the body. This could explain why sleep-deprived participants also reported feeling hungrier during the study," senior study author Plamen Penev, MD, PhD, University of Chicago, said in a statement.

It also lowered resting metabolic rate and epinephrine concentration (a fat burning, metabolism revving hormone).

The main limits to the study were the very small sample size and short duration of the study.

"These results highlight the importance of adequate sleep for maintenance of fat-free body mass when dieting to lose weight," according to Dr. Penev.
In an accompanying editorial, Shahrad Taheri, MBBS, PhD, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, and Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD, Stanford Sleep Medicine Center in California, agree that adequate sleep might be an important factor in successful weight loss and suggest sleep might be part of a lifestyle package that has traditionally focused on diet and exercise.

Dr. Taheri and Dr. Mignot conclude that replicating the findings from this study in clinical trials is "a critical next step in addressing important questions about sleep and body weight."

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Ann Intern Med. 2010;153:435-441, 475-476.

So get out there, push play, then go take a nap!

-

Who's behind the P90X craze?

Several you you hard working, sweaty people have asked me about the company behind the fitness DVD's.

Here's the scoop!

Beachbody was founded in 1998 by Jon Congden and Carl Daikeler as a direct sales company making fitness infomercials.  Their first product I believe was called Great Body Guaranteed.  It was followed up with Slim in 6, and Power 90 - the precursor of P90X. 

Jon and Carl realized a few things that led them to expanding their business model. 

1. The saw that selling videos is easy, but people push play and get results was tougher.  Even the world's greatest video on the shelf collecting dust didn't work!
2. Their customers getting the best results were the ones actively engaged not only with the products, but also on the Team Beachbody message board community. This was around 2005/2006- pre-facebook ;-)
3. They themselves got the best fitness results when they were financially involved.  When they started the company they had to get fit to show that the products worked.

So they decided to get people involved and give them a financial stake in the business by opening up a network marketing opportunity within Beachbody. 

In 2007, Team Beachbody, the first MLM opportunity focused on holistic fitness and weight loss was born.  "By putting the rewards for living a healthy lifestyle into the hands of the people who have the most to gain by getting healthy, Team Beachbody added the first scalable financial incentive to the obesity problem, which has reached epic proportions."  (200 million Americans obese or overweight)

Now they are the best selling fitness program company in America.  They have 260 employees, and 35,000 independent distributors called 'Coaches' throughout the US.  Beachbody still continues it's own direct sales efforts with over $100 million spent annually on advertising and sales of $319 million in 2009.

Current best selling products include P90X, Shakeology (health shake), Insanity, Turbo Jam, Turbo Fire, Ten-Minute Trainer, and Hip-hop Abs.

Now towel off. If you have any other questions about the company, as always, I can be reached at kevin@thefitdoc.com

Keep Pushing Play,

Kevin

Eating Healthy for Life

Hi Doc,
I have a problem with getting started.  My son and I both need to lose alot of weight over a 100 lbs each. But I don't like the recipes for those low carb or calorie diets some of that food we just can't eat. So I don't know what to change our life styles around and cook healthy to make a difference.  The Shakeology mix you sent me was great but I can only use the mix as a meal replacement for one or two meals.  I needs some help to learn how to cook healthy and be able to have food that we can eat. We don't like oatmeal or eggs for breakfast. We don't like turkey. Stuff like that. Doc can you help us? 
B.



HI

Sure I can help.  Together we'll figure this out for you two. 

I'd like you to start out by recording our food intake for a day, then send it to me.  It is a good way to start looking for changes.

I have a few questions and suggestions for you already, though:

Which workout program do you use?  How many workouts per week have you been getting in? 

Most of them have a recommended meal plan.  Have you tried any of the recipes in it?

What do you normally have for breakfast?  Do you like cereal?  I suggest shredded wheat for breakfast (regular, not frosted) because it has no added sugar and is high in fiber.   This means it will stick with you and it will not raise your blood sugar too much.

The problem with shredded wheat is that it tastes boring.  To get around that, top it off with a scoop of chocolate or vanilla protein powder, and/or a banana or berries. 

Keep drinking Shakeology as a lunch-time meal replacement.

Then we just have to come up with healthy snacks and healthy dinners that you guys can stomach.

You might want to check out is "Clean Eating" magazine.  It is full of healthy choices, that are not too diety, but will still help you lose weight.  The pictures in there look fantastic!  It is super source of good ideas to help you learn to cook healthy.

And don't worry about taking it all off overnight.  It took you a while to put the weight on, so it will probably take a while getting it off.  What we really are looking for is lifestyle change- that you can adopt and live with long-term.  That is the best way to keep the weight off.

To your success,

-Doc

Kevin J. Kane, MD
Independent Beachbody Star-Diamond Coach
www.TheFitDoc.com

Balloon Chest

Whew! I just finished P90X Chest and Back- the mother of all P90X workouts! I have not done it for a while, but since I got my new XtremeFit workout tracker, I decided to give it a go.

Three thoughts as I type here with shaky arms:

1. I'm gonna be sore! Newbies, take it easy your first few weeks. Give your body time to adjust. It is a lot of reps. I'm going to feel it in 24 hours!

2. Hit pause when you need to. Tony and the folks will be there. I hit pause after the second round of Heavy Pants when I puked a little bit in my mouth. :-)

3. C&B blows your chest up like balloons!

New Round of P90X!

I am officially getting ripped for summer! I just started a new round of P90X. The soreness is not as bad as I remember it. I'm wondering if it is because I changed my diet this time. In the P90X nutrition plan, it calls for a low-carb diet for the first 30 days. (Phase 1). For the first 30 days, I'm only allowed one 220-calorie serving of carbs. If I had my usual cereal in the morning, that would be all the carbs I get all day.

So, I decided to drink Shakeology every morning. I load it up with extra peanut butter, whey protein, creatine, and a banana. That gives me a big, healthy start to my day that is super high in protein and veggies, but low in carbs.

I can't say for sure, but since my soreness is less on the shakeology plan, it might be the difference. I know that proanthrocyanins, have been shown in some studies to lessen soreness after workouts, and Shakeology is packed with them. So maybe that is the reason.

In any case, I'm all in for my P90X round. Why don't you join us?! We have a super active P90X support thread at the TeamBeachbody.com called R2R (Regular to Ripped)! Everyone is welcome.

Tony's Rant of the Day

Weight-loss success story, awesome Beachbody Coach, and friend of mine, Jodi Myers sent me this motivational rant from Tony Horton. I hope you like it!


Doing the Right Thing—For the Right Reasons
By Tony Horton, creator of P90X®

We have become the United States of Quick Fixes.

Why are we so addicted to shortcuts, tricks, and magic potions? Far
too many people in this country live in some kind of wannabe
fantasyland. We're trying to keep up with the Joneses without working
as hard as they do. This bigger, badder, and faster world doesn't give
us an opportunity to stop and look at real and authentic ways to
achieve greatness.

How many people have you talked to about P90X® who, when they find out
they have to exercise and eat right say, "Forget it!" There are
millions of people in this country who have absolutely no clue that
you have to work hard, take risks, and be willing to fail over and
over again to earn what's worth having. Hard work, risk, and failure .
. . "Forget it!"

This is a very sad commentary that reveals what we've become in this
country. We have the best of the best in the U.S. of A., but we hold
the record for the highest percentage of fat people. Why do we reach
for drugs, alcohol, sex, food, lies, blame, anger, hate, guilt, and
self-pity far more often than power, courage, discipline, forgiveness,
wisdom, and self-reliance? We've become a bunch of crybabies, filled
with excuses, blaming everyone else for our problems!

The freedoms and conveniences we now enjoy were fought for by men and
women who didn't think twice when it came to working hard, taking
risks, and failing over and over again. This generation's selfish,
lethargic, "woe-is-me" mentality is creating a country filled with
folks who live in a constant state of quiet desperation. Our ancestors
worked very hard to create a world with less stress and strife. So why
are we more stressed out than ever?

The pendulum has swung way too far in the wrong direction. It's time
to stop all the bitching and moaning and wanting, and the just wishing
and hoping and dreaming things will change. We need to start living in
the real world and begin to take some responsibility for what goes on
in our lives. It's time to start exploring and searching and devoting
and sharing and growing and working for what you want in this world.

It's really a matter of right and wrong. We know the difference
between the two, but we still fail to behave in ways that allow us to
be great human beings.

Right                          Wrong
Work out                    Don't work out
Eat healthy                 Eat junk
Fail and try again         Fail and quit
Persevere                    Blow it off
Forgive yourself            Blame others
Listen                         Complain
Be kind                       Be right (all the time)
Find out what you love  Ignore your greatness

This is a short list, but I think you get the point.

The list on the right will lead you down the road of endless
short-lived pleasures that result in lifelong pain, fear, and sadness.
The list on the left (which can be hard at first) will open you up to
a world filled with happiness, joy, and fulfillment.

You might want to ask yourself how history will see you after you're
gone. If you don't like the answer today, then it might be time to do
the right thing.

Peace,
Tony H.