Ugh! I hate when I get a cramp so I thought I’d share remedy this with you to stop a muscle cramp. Q: What can I do to stop a muscle cramp (Charlie Horse)? A: Eat mustard.  Plain, yellow mustard by the packet or spoonful.  Serious.  Is this gross?  Yes, and that’s why it works*.  Muscle cramps happen when the nerves that control that muscle turn all the way on and stay on.  The mustard speeds up** the rate at which those nerves calm down because it is noxious (or awful).  It’s sorta, kinda like frightening someone with hiccu ..read more

Q & A: Should I still workout if I feel bad (or am under the weather)? A: Yes.  Exercise is one of the most powerful and important tools available to help your immune system step up.  The harder the better. Intense exercise is like giving your immune system a cup of coffee, and inactivity is like giving it a whole rack of ribs… the first gets it going and working, and the other puts it to sleep.  More specifically intense exercise boosts the number of immune cells circulating in your blood stream 10x, and pushes them to the places where they are needed most like yo ..read more

Just the other day a member was saying she decided to pour her drink down the drain instead of having the extra calories one evening.  She also asked if she was going to enjoy a drink, beer or wine, what would be better for her weight loss goals.  This is what we shared. Q & A: What is better for weight loss between beer and wine? A: The answer is water… There are no calories that you can add to your diet that will actually help you lose weight.  That is a bit like someone struggling to get out debt asking if a Coach or Gucci purse would help their financial situation m ..read more

Q & A:  Which one is better for me?  Whole eggs or egg whites? A:  Egg whites hands down.  I don’t know anyone who doesn’t struggle to get enough protein without going overboard on calories, which is why egg whites win. A large whole egg only has 6.3g of protein for 71 calories.  The same number of calories of egg whites would have about 15g of protein.  Too Little Protein Per Calorie Eggs, like steak, are mostly fat not protein.  To be specific, whole eggs are 60% fat by calories. Most women need ~35 of protein per meal if e ..read more

Q & A: Which type of protein supplement is best?  I’ve heard that whey isolate is better than other types of whey, and that it helps you feel fullest longest? A: Good question: ·      There isn’t one best protein, but there is a worst (collagen). ·      All types of whey protein (concentrate, isolate and hydrolysate) are excellent sources of protein.  ·      All protein helps people feel fuller, and the differences between protein sources will be very small. Which Whey Should You Go? There are 3 types of whey protei ..read more

Q & A: How sore should I be after I workout?  Is it bad to be too sore?  Is it bad to not be sore at all? A: You should often know that you did something somewhere, it shouldn’t be debilitating, and sometimes you might have surprise of bonus soreness somewhere(s).  Who doesn’t appreciate a nice bonus*? *I can hear our psychiatrist client asking me if anyone has ever said I was a sadist. Why do we get sore?  What does it mean? A century ago scientists said it was lactic acid*, but that theory was debunked in the 1940’s.  After that scientist ..read more

Q & A: Bone broth and collagen.  It’s everywhere that we need to be drinking bone broth and taking collagen! Do we?  A: Bone broth and collagen are super trendy, and promoted for improving joint health, gut health, improving skin elasticity, improving bone health, providing electrolytes, and providing high quality protein.  Most of these claims do not hold up to scrutiny.  Let’s take a closer look: 1.     Providing high quality protein.  FALSE.  The protein in bone broth is mostly from collagen, and as we’ve discussed co ..read more

How After Dinner Snacking Can Kill Your Waistline! The American obesity epidemic has been driven by snacking. The average American weighs 22 pounds more than they did in the late 1970’s.  All of the extra calories that have led to American weight gain has come from snacking. Not some of the extra calories but ALL of them. This means that anything you can do to manage snacking will be crucial in helping you reach or maintain a healthy weight.  For most of our clients after dinner snacking is one of the biggest challenges. Here are 6 powerful strategies: #1. Removal: anyth ..read more

Q & A: Exercise and Dementia Q: If dementia runs in my family can exercise help me? A: Yes.  We’ve had a handful of clients who started out unable to remember a single exercise – meaning if we gave them squats for 15 reps they would forget what they were doing around rep #5 and ask “what was I doing?” I was worried because they’d have zero recollection of instructions from 30 seconds ago, however with time, consistency, and high expectations for them they have all been able to remember at least 3 exercises to rotate between.  I am beyond proud of them.  Train Your ..read more

Q & A: Is the “quality” of my calories more important than the quantity of calories I eat? A: The short answer is that the quantity of calories is always the most important thing.  Always, not sometimes.  (Question was asked in the context of weight loss and/or maintenance.) Quick background on the question: I was asked about this article that asserts eating “more high-quality calories [will] speed up [your] metabolism”. Main Myth: Low carbohydrate diets boost your metabolism by 325 calories per day To quote the article “those who chose fewer carbs and ate more high-quality ca ..read more