Body By Design

Working out is the best skin care, here’s why:

• Sport simulates your blood flow –> your skin gets more oxygen
• Sweat helps your skin to expel toxins.
• Movement stimulates your skin to produce more collagen, a protein that prevents wrinkles.
• Sport relaxes your face muscles –> prevents crow’s feet

Some tips:

• Before working out, remove your make up, it blocks your pores and impedes the sweat flow.
• Use a moisturizer after the shower.
• Drink plenty of water before and after your workout.

Agave nectar aka agave syrup came of the shelves of your local health shop to the mainstream supermarkets and grocery stores.  It’s easy to see why, it’s sweet as hell, tastes good and this supposedly without the disadvantages of refined sugar.

But is agave really safe to use?

Here are the claimed health benefits of Agave and my thoughts about them:

• Agave nectar is natural and organic.  Not!  Agave syrup is filtered and hydrolyzed into a complex form of fructose.  It is a highly processed form of sugar.  Depending on the processing, agave nectar can contain between 55 to 90% fructose, the rest is glucose.
• Agave syrup has a low glycemic index.  This is true in some cases because agave nectar contains so much fructose and fructose has a low glycemic index.  But this doesn’t mean that agave syrup is healthy, fructose contributes to increased food intake and weight gain.
• Agave nectar is low calorie.  Not!  It contains 16 calories/teaspoon, about the same as white sugar.

Here are some other dangers of fructose:

• Fructose malabsorption: digestive disorder of the small intestine.  People with fructose malabsorption don’t digest fructose well, leading to general ill health, poor skin and hair, anaemia (deficiency of red blood cells), osteoporosis, fatigue, …
• Decreased glucose tolerance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.
• Increased levels of uric acid, which can lead to heart diseases.
• Processed fructose has been stripped from all minerals, vitamins and enzymes.  To assimilate itself, it robs your body from these nutrients, which can lead to loss of zinc, iron, magnesium and calcium.

Conclusion: agave nectar is a scam –> avoid it at all costs!

A better, more healthy sweetener: Blackstrap Molasses

Contrary to popular belief, it are not the calories in alcohol that produce a beer belly.  The problem with alcohol is that it reduces the amount of fat your body burns to get energy.

Here’s how it works:

• Only a small percentage of your alcohol intake turns into fat.
• The liver converts a major portion of the alcohol in acetate, which enters your blood.
• Your body uses the acetate as a source of energy instead of fat.

The second problem with alcohol is that it is a strong appetizer and increases your calorie intake.

Alcohol also raises levels of the hormone called cortisol (“stress hormone”), which increases the breakdown of testosterone.  People who drink a lot have smaller muscles because of this.  Muscles have a positive effect on weight loss because they burn a lot of calories and keep your metabolism up (more about this here: Build Muscle to Burn Fat).

Now, you can ask yourself the question why some heavy drinkers don’t get fat.  Simple: most alcoholics skip meals and replace food with alcoholic drinks.

What about the positive effects of alcohol on your cardiovascular health?  I wouldn’t recommend daily drinking… Despite of the positive effects, alcohol has many negative effects that outweigh the advantages.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a drink now and then, just don’t make it a habit!

A recent American study shows that eating fat food increases the desire to eat more food.  Fat foods trigger the release of a hormone called ghrelin.  This hormone is produced in the stomach and pancreas and stimulates hunger, increases food intake and fat mass.  You usually have higher levels of ghrelin before meals and lower levels after meals.

Until recently it was thought that ghrelin kicked into action in case of an empty stomach, but this theory seems to be obsolete.  The new study shows that ghrelin only increases while eating fat food.  Our brains then get the signal to store these fats.

Not all fats trigger ghrelin production though.  Like you now, there are good fats and there are bad fats.  ghrelin production is only triggered by saturated fats (the bad ones, think butter, ground beef, chocolate, fats in fast food, …).  Unsaturated fats (Omega 3, think fish oil, linseed oil, butternuts, …) have no impact on ghrelin levels.

So, a good tip for fat loss: go easy on saturated fats…

This is exactly what Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere And Join The New Rich (great book btw), did when he competed in the Sanshou (an eclectic form of kung fu) national championship in 1999.

When arriving on the site he weighed 187 lbs and wanted to loose weight so he could compete in the 165-lb weight class.  He lost 22 lbs (about 10kg)  in 20 hours by severely dehydrating himself (80% of you is water).

To achieve this, he combined:

• Temperature treatments (very hot baths) to loose water through the skin.
• Using diuretics (dandelion root and caffeine) to loose water through urination

After the weigh-in, he gained 28 lbs (about 12kg) by rapid hydration so  he would be in optimal condition to compete.

Needless to say this is not healthy and in fact very dangerous (some athletes die doing this).  These techniques don’t make you lose fat, only water and are only useful for competition sports.  Don’t try this at home!

Read more on Tim Ferris’ blog here.

Here’s a video of a Sanshou competition:

"Tofi = Thin on the Outside, Fat on the Inside"

Tofis are people who appear thin, but have lots of internal fat.  Too much internal fat (aka visceral fat) is hazardous to your health because it is situated around the organs.  Tofis look healthy, but are not…

What are the causes?

• Not enough exercise.  Although they appear slim, most tofis have little or no exercise.
• Bad eating habits. They say that some people can eat all they want without getting fat.  Well, it may appear this way, but now we know this is not always the case.  It’s not always over-eating though, even people who are underweight can have lots of internal fat.  The key is to change your diet: eat healthy and regularly.
• Doing crash diets.
• Genes.  Not a lot you can do about this…

Tofis need to worry about their health, because the hidden fat around the organs is of a dangerous kind.  Situated around the heart, the muscles, the liver, …, this kind of fat is more dangerous than fat that is under the skin and can lead to diabetes, heart problems and cancer.

This also means that BMI is not a good method of measuring fat in relation to health.  The important thing to know is where the fat is situated.  Sumo wrestlers, who have a lot of external fat, are generally healthy people with low cholesterol, low insulin resistance and a low level of fatty acids.  That is because although they have a lot of fat under their skin, they hardly have any internal fat.  That is because, besides eating up to 5000 calories/day,  they have a lot of exercise.

Once again it comes down to 2 basic things: a healthy diet and lots of exercise…

There’s a "new" diet in town and it’s becoming a hype because people like Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry picked it up.  It’s called the eat-clean diet.  I apostrophized the word "new" in the first sentence because this diet is nothing new in my eyes, it’s just common sense and boils down to what most health practitioners have been advising the last couple of decades.

The Eat Clean diet was developed by Tosca Reno and is meant to give you more energy and a shiny appearance. 

Here are some of the basic guidelines:

• Eat 6 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner and 3 in-betweens.  This helps to promote a higher metabolism.
• Drink 2 to 3 liter of water a day.
• Avoid processed food: sugar, white bread, potato chips, blue apples …
• Eat whole grains.  Remember that most brown bread is not made of whole grains.
• Eat lean proteins like fish or chicken.
• Eats lots of fruit and vegetables
• Once in a while you can eat something sweet, but choose dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and don’t eat the whole thing, just a piece of it.
• Choose biofood

Do you see anything new here??

Does water help you lose weight?  To be short: yes, there is a relation between drinking water and weight loss.

How does it work?

Water Increases Your Metabolism

That’s right, water increases your metabolism.

What exactly is this "metabolism" you might wonder (in relation to weight loss)…

Your "fat" metabolism is the amount of calories your burn while being in rest.

This is also called the metabolic rate.  Obviously, the more calories you burn, the more weight you will lose.  It’s your liver’s job to burn fat and turn it into energy.  Drinking water helps your liver (and kidneys) do their job more efficiently and thus speeds up your metabolism.

Water Helps You Feel "Full"

2 ways water helps in this regard:

• It lessens your feeling of hunger.  Every time you feel like getting a snack, try to drink a glass of water first.
• It lessens your thirst and keeps you from drinking juices and soda (which make you fat)

How Much Water Should You Drink To Lose Weight?

8 to 12 glasses/day is safe, 8 is recommended.  I say safe because you can get an overdose of water and die as a result of it.  Don’t overdo it!!  The optimal amount of water intake depends on your level of physical activity and the climate you live in.  You’ll need to drink more if you’re a marathon runner in the Sahara dessert, less if you have a desk job on the North Pole…

The key is to make drinking enough water a part of your lifestyle.  Drinking water won’t help you lose weight if you only do it for 2 weeks, you need to keep drinking water the rest of your life, only then it will make a difference.

Note: coffee is not water!  Coffee is diuretic, it drives the water out of your body…

Some people don’t like the taste of water…  I’d say: grow up or add a slice of lemon

A "Green" Note

Please don’t buy water in plastic bottles, they are a menace to our environment.  Buy a water filter, it’s easy and much cheaper!

If you want to skip reading and go straight to the action, here’s a good program:  Get Rid Of Your Double Chin

I’ve never really worried about getting fat, I’m a healthy eater and I do a lot of sports, but I’m not getting any younger and while watching the pictures of our latest holiday trip (to India, which was amazing btw) I noticed I’m developing a double chin. It’s not a floppy double chin yet, but let me tell you that I’m not very pleased with that observation, so time to do something about it…

How to get rid of a double chin? I’m not going to give those that are in the same boat as me false hope: although double chins can be reduced by loosing weight and doing facial exercises, complete removal of your double chin requires surgery. Although this cosmetic surgery procedure is moderately priced and not very painful, I don’t think it’s the way to go, I’m not a fan of cosmetic surgery (maybe I’ll be talking different when I get older). Liposuction is not sexy. 

That being said, there are other ways to reduce your double chin.

Let’s first have a look at the reasons your double chin exists:

• Genetic tendency.  There’s not much we can do about that unfortunately…
• Fat and fluid build-up.  There’s something we can do about that…
• Lack of exercise.  Idem.
• Another thing that promotes double chins: excessive tanning: tanning is bad for the elasticity of your skin.

The first thing you should ask yourself: are there other places on your body with excess fat (the belly is the first thing that comes to mind).  If you have to answer yes to this question, the solution is relatively simple: you need to loose weight.  You will tighten your double chin if you loose fat, weight loss helps tremendously. 

You more or less know loosing fat  involves:

• Healthy food
• Regular meals
• Go easy on alcohol, sugar and fats
• Lots of exercise
• Enough sleep (7-8 hours a night)
• If you need more help in this area, I can recommend Fat Loss 4 Idiots

Besides that, there are a couple of hacks you can try:

• Don’t have long hair that finished at the level of your chin, it will draw attention to it.  Have a look at some hairstyles that don’t emphasize your chin (short hair mostly).
• Don’t wear tight dog collars, it also draws attention to your chin area.  The same goes for earrings and necklaces.
• Wear an open neckline.  Ladies have the advantage that they have something not far below the double chin they can emphasize to distract the attention.
• The ladies can also use makeup to cover up the double chin.  Ask a makeup artist for tips.

That being said, these are all just cover ups and not solutions, the diet and exercise will be a lot more help, also for other areas of your body.

Besides getting the usual aerobic exercise (running, biking etc.) and anaerobic exercise (weight lifting), there are also some double chin exercises you can do.  They don’t do wonders, but they sure help.

• Keep your jaws busy: chew some sugar-free chewing gum will keep your jaw muscles working.
• Exercise the platysma muscle (the muscle that’s responsible for the downward movement of your jaw): pull your bottom lip over your bottom teeth and move your jaw up and down.
• Another double chin exercise: slap your chin with the back of your hand in a steady rhythm for a couple of minutes.
• Press your palm on your forehead while resisiting with your head for 10 counts.  Repeat with your hand on the back of your head and on the sides.
• This is also a good exercise for a double chin: lie down on your back and tilt your head of the floor.  Move your head up and down as if you were saying YES, without touching the floor.  Repeat this a couple of times.  Then move your head to the sides as if you were saying NO, also without touching the ground.
• Hold your head in a natural position.  Open your mouth as far as you can and stick out your tongue as far as you can.  Repeat.
• Stretch your jaw muscles by tilting back your head (gently) while keeping your mouth shut. Press your tongue against the roof of your mouth.
• Tilt back your head and turn it to the left.  Then move your lower jaw forward.  Repeat on the right side

The last two double chin exercises are explained in this video (the women are slightly annoying, but it’s a good explanation):

Besides weight loss, surgery and exercises there are of course a lot of commercial products that claim to eliminate your double chin.  Most of them come in the form of gel or cream.  Velform chin wrap is an example of such a product.  I never tried any of those and I’m not planning to either, I don’t believe in short-term remedies.

Many of the reasons we fail to achieve our health goals can be traced back to the very goal itself. There is a fairly common practice of goal setting to enhance your chances of success and this can be done by following the SMART acronym.

S – Specific

Make sure your goal is specific. No more "getting in shape for summer" it should read "want to lose 20 pounds by May 1 and reduce my bodyfat to 15%".

M – Measurable

Using the example above how do you measure "getting in shape". You need to define criteria that can be measured and compared otherwise hopw will you know if you achieve the goal?

A – Achievable

Common sense really. Dont make the goal so unachievable that it depresses you. Make it difficult to attain but possible.

R – Realistic

Similar to achievable but this aspect takes in other areas of your life. Sure you can lose 20 pounds in a month but if you are unable to visit the gym more than twice a month because of other commitments then you are not being realistic.

T – Time

When do you plan to achieve this goal? If you do not have a time frame then essentially you never fail to reach a goal you just havent reached it yet. Make sure you put in a date of whn you want to achieve your goal.

If you follow this principle you are on the right foot to achieving your goal. Now all you need to do is put in the hard work.