Going for more!!  The last stretch!

Dr. Saman Bakhtiar is an Ontario Personal Trainer and Boot Camp Instructor.

If you know anyone looking for personal training in the Inland Empire, send them to Fitness Concepts.

We will take good care of them. He is ‘thee’ Fitness Expert and Body Transformation Specialist this side of Los Angeles and Inland Empire.

Here at our amazing Health Club we are the gym of all gyms….or also referred to as the Gem of all Gyms.

We offer Boot Camps, Fitness Training, Nutritional Consultations and a friendly awesome staff ready to take on all weight loss and fat loss challenges.

The new year is approaching fast and year after year “the new year resolution people” are gung ho about going to the gym and getting in shape for the new year.

We already know 95% fail because of lack of accountability.

“The Boiling Fog Phenomenon” is another reason that the 95% quite after only a few weeks.

As your personal trainer and coach it is my duty to educate you for long term success.

If you’ve ever yo-yo’d on a diet or tried to start an exercise program, but couldn’t stick to it, this one is for you.

The following single bit of information has been a “game changer” for many who used to struggle.

It all boils down to …

“The Boiling Frog Phenomenon”

It’s a psychological phenomenon that dates back to research conducted at Johns Hopkins University way back in 1882.

Here’s how it works.

Imagine you want to cook a frog …

If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out. But if you place a frog into a pot of lukewarm water and slowly turn up the heat, it will stay happily inside the pot … and before the frog realizes what is happening … you have frog soup.

The human nervous system works much the same way.

If you try to introduce a radical change in your life, your system fights back – much like the frog jumping out of the pot of boiling water.

To create lasting change – you simply have to slowly turn up the heat …

Over time, these tiny changes are almost imperceptible to your nervous system, but over time they add up to HUGE transformations.

This is similar to the Japanese concept of “kaizen” whereby one makes small constant improvements that eventually add up and make a radical difference.

Want to see how it works?

Let’s say you want to lose 10 pounds.

Knowing the Boiling Frog technique, you know that making a sudden, dramatic change in your diet and exercise habits won’t likely stick.

It’s too much of a shock to the system.

A smarter way to go is make a more gradual change like this:

Week 1 – Stop drinking canned sodas. Instead drink water.

That’s it! Don’t do anything else. Just that one change.

Then …

Week 2 – Take long brisk walks every other day

And so on …

At the end of a year you’ll have a whole new set of habits and you’ll be a totally different person.

And you know what?

It will stick!

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Corona Personal Training

WATCH OUT FOR THOSE SNEAKY FALL FAVORITES!!

During Halloween, there are lots of fun treats!! High fat high empty calories and unnecessary sugars!!

Halloween marks the beginning of a two-month season packed with parties and desserts.  Now that’s the scary!

Halloween treats are big on calories. Look out for these  high-cal Halloween treats.  Calories add on FAST!!

Pumpkin Flavored Baked Goods

Pumpkin itself is a healthful food. Plain pumpkin puree contains a dose of vitamin A and fiber for a small amount of calories. But pair it with sugar, cream cheese frosting, shortening and butter and you’ve got a high-cal treat dressed in a healthy-looking orange outfit. Restaurants and coffee shops are the biggest villains, promoting their pumpkin scones, muffins, donuts and breads, which can contain up to 630 calories per serving.

TRICK: You can bake your own pumpkin treats using less sugar and fat, plus whole-grain goodness. Use a mini muffin tin to help with keep your portions in check and steer clear of these traditional seasonal baked goods!

Food Item Calories Fat Sugars

Hot Seasonal Beverages

Sometimes there is nothing more enjoyable than sipping a hot drink on a crisp fall day. Many coffee joints offer special seasonal beverages during the holidays. While plain coffee is low-cal, seasonal lattes and drinks contain a lot of sugar, and most boast a heavy dose of cream, too. A medium pumpkin spice latte with whole milk is 410 calories at Starbucks, and its competitors don’t do much better. As liquid calories do not aid in fullness or satiety, these calories probably are not worth it!

TRICK: Order a small beverage (if you must) and lighten the load by requesting fat free milk and holding any whipped topping. Freshly brewed chai tea can be a great alternative that is virtually calorie-free, but look out for blended drinks that are ready to serve; they often contain cream, syrups and lots of added sugar. Many coffeehouses use a sugar syrup as the base for their chai; ask that yours be made with real tea and no added sugar. Request hot water and a teabag of chai tea (black tea with spices) with some low-fat milk on the side. Watch out for these high-cal hot beverages!

Food Item Calories Fat
Sugars

Caramel Apple Anything

Yes, it’s obvious. If you cover a healthy fruit with sugar, it becomes a less healthy choice. Simple caramel apples seem innocent, but they can pack 300 calories onto that little wooden stick. Pop extra sprinkles, candies or nuts onto the outside of the apple and it’ll amp the calorie level even further. It’s also good practice to avoid caramel apple desserts and baked goods from most restaurants. Most don’t even contain a single serving of fruit and more than their fair share of calories and fat (see chart below).

TRICK: Enjoy your apples by cutting them into wedges and dipping them into low fat caramel dip, fat free vanilla yogurt or peanut butter. The following high-cal treats are far from healthy.

Food Item Calories Fat
Sugars

Chocolate Fun Size Candies

At an average of about 100 calories a pop, these popular fun-size treats can really add up! Sure they’re smaller than a full size bar and offer built-in portion control, but how often do you stop after just one? It’s far too easy to eat four of five “little” candies, thinking you’re not doing much damage, but that can easily add up to 400 or 500 calories in a matter of minutes. The bars that hide the most calories are those that contain peanut butter, coconut, chocolate, caramel, and nuts.

TRICK: Start reading fun-size labels before throwing out the package so that you’re not eating blindly; these calories do count. Figure out the best choice for you and stick with that particular treat. Fun-size peppermint patties and Twizzlers have about half of the calories of the average chocolate bar but keep in mind these can still add up! Here are 11 fun-size treats that all contain 100 calories or fewer.

Please remember to think before you bite!!

It may look “healthful”  because apple or pumpkin is in the name but monitor your intake of these tiny-size treats. It  easily adds up to BIG numbers of calories. Think about what these seasonal treats are doing for your body and put your label reading skills to work and stay in control of your choices.

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Chino Hills Fitness Trainers

The question was sure to come up …

… what about calorie free sweeteners?  Stevia, sucralose, and the rest of the bunch?

Are they a better option than calorie containing sugar options when trying to lose weight and burn belly fat?

Let’s delve into them a bit and discuss some of the realities and myths with calorie free sweeteners.

First, when I say “artificial sweetener” what am I talking about?  There are a bunch, but the most commonly used are Acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), Sucralose, Saccharin,  and Aspartame.

And then there’s this “new” guy on the scene, Stevia (it’s not artificial, but it IS a sweetener).

And each of the artificial sweeteners has an “acceptable daily intake” (ADI) – meaning according to the FDA, you should not consume MORE than the amounts listed below per day.

* Aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal) = 18-19 cans of diet cola
* Saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low) = 9 to 12 packets
* Acesulfame K (Sunett, Sweet One) = 30-32 cans diet lemon-lime soda
* Sucralose (Splenda) = 6 cans diet cola

Fair enough?  Now depending on who you talk to, or what you read, you’ll hear all different opinions – “I only use sucralose, because xxxx” or “stevia is natural, so I use that…”

If you look at the values above, you may notice that according to the ADIs, the max for Splenda is just 6 cans of diet cola/day, whereas Equal is 18-19 cans.  Does that mean Splenda is more of a concern than Equal?  It might.

But as a side note, if you’re drinking THAT many diet colas/day, your diet needs an overhaul as there are absolutely zero positive qualities to diet colas (or any diet soda for that matter).

Let’s cover a few of these in more detail.

Sucralose (Splenda):

While this one has received safety approval from the FDA, it’s surely not without controversy.  Picking sides with this is like jumping in to the Health Care Reform debate!

But I’m ready to go for it.

First, the upside of Sucralose:

* it has virtually no aftertaste
* it’s stable when heated so you can cook and bake with it
* it’s stable at different acidities (pHs) so it can be added to things like lemon juice without affecting its sweetness
* it has a proven track record of safety in many research studies.

Cons:

* anecdotally (meaning personal stories) have tied intake to migraine headaches
* may affect healthy bacteria in the gut, according to animal data
* it may cause weight gain?

This last one is a bit more controversial.  In a nutshell, one study using rats fed them different quantities of sucralose.  At the end of the 24 week study, the rats consuming sucralose gained weight compared to the ones that didn’t take any in.

Weird.  Zero calories, how can it cause dangerous belly fat to creep up on us?

I will say at this time I’m not impressed with the data showing artificial sweeteners cause us to gain belly fat … I clearly need to see more research to support this theory. The thought was that while artificial sweeteners themselves don’t have calories, they “trick” the body into craving more sweet foods…

…voila, belly fat and overall weight gain is through the roof.

It’s correlation data, but if I remember anything from statistics, it’s that correlation doesn’t mean causation.  In a nutshell, the correlation that those who used diet soda weighed more doesn’t mean the diet soda itself caused them to gain weight.  More research clearly needs to expore this.  Keep in mind, also, that the doses used in this particular study were very high if we tried to extrapolate these findings to humans.  At this point I just don’t buy into that conclusions of this data and am surely calling for more.

Again, another red flag for me here is that the “maximum” recommendation is 6 cans of diet cola – for some, that’s a ton, but for others, that’s breakfast.  Regulate your intake!

Aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal):

You’ve seen the little pink packets … pink packets of poison, according to some.  Like the others, this has the stamp of approval from the FDA.  But opponents of this suggest it causes migraines, causes cancer,brain tumors, and evil belly fat.

Like the others, the research is mixed – some studies show a negative effect, others show a positive effect.

I hate to give the “more research is necessary” answer, but, well, it’s the best answer to give.

I talked about my feelings on the weight gain and artificial sweeteners with sucralose.

As for cancer – it’s a hard one to pin down.  These data are all done in animals, usually given very high doses, to see what happens.

For some reason the review boards look very unfavorably at loading up humans with artificial sweeteners and seeing if they cause cancer; therefore, we’re reliant on animal data.  But even if there is that chance, that concerns me … stamp of appro

I don’t like the idea of artificial … I don’t want artificial ingredients in my body and try to limit them as much as possible.  I do that by knowing what I’m eating, being able to pronounce all ingredients, and eating foods as close to the earth as possible.

With that said, I AM supportive of making the transition to calorie free drinks if someone is a regular soft drink (or juice, or sweetened tea) drinker …

…For example, a former client started our relationship with regular stops at 7-11 for Big Gulps, where regular coke was his product of choice.  Several times a day – he drank 3,000 calories EACH day in soda alone.

Would he benefit from switching to diet soda?  For sure!  And he did, greatly.

And overtime I got him to drink less and less diet soda as well, as 1 case each day of that is surely not great for you.

But as a whole, sweeteners aren’t my favorite.

I also have yet to find one without an off flavor.  Call my crazy, but I want to eat a food that, well, tastes like food – not have some bitter aftertaste that’s CLOSE to being real, but not quite there.

I’d personally rather have a REAL sweetener, infrequently.  Moderation.  That’s a very unsexy word in marketing and the media, but it’s true.

You want a cookie?

Eat a cookie – occasionally.

Is a fat free, sugar free, calorie free flavored chocolate chunk piece of cardboard REALLY going to help out your desire for a cookie?

Not a chance.

Eat the real thing, on occasion, then get over it.  Fair enough?

Eating real foods is what will help you live as healthfully as possible, burn belly fat, and look and feel great!

Dr. Saman Bakhtiar is weight loss and fitness expert.

He is truly concerned about each of his clients.

Check out the great results here!

Montclair Personal Training

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