PART 1: Working with the general population provides me a source of great joy if I were to be candid with you reading this.
There is nothing greater nor more awesome to me than seeing Mr. or Mrs. Jones believe in him/herself again.
You know the underdogs of looks, physical fitness, and effort as judged by those who do not have such deficits. Often when Mr. or Mrs. Jones signs up with me they are motivated and ready to work. Some results come quickly, for others they do not, which becomes a source of frustration usually resulting in the client quitting or giving up on the journey because they do not understand the process. Do not worry, we as coaches/trainers did not understand the process really either until recently.
Enter your gut health as a key component of the understanding we need.
It would make sense that our gut could be trashed over time through food and water, but to really know the impact was not realized until late. Now, there is a whole new world known as the "gut microbiome." Think of this place like the rainforest in your gut. It has all sorts of things in it, but most importantly it does have good guys and bad guys in there too. Bacteria live in your stomach, but not all of these micro-organisms are bad guys, some are good guys doing all they can to be your front line of defense – keeping your body healthy and thriving. The bad bugs in there are just rowdy school kids, looking to always run amok and dirty the place up. They do not mind some anarchy in the rainforest and do all they can to keep things exciting for you.
This rainforest is a constantly changing environment that interacts with your environment which, well we all know how that is. Things like exposure to heavy metals, man-made chemicals that illicit hormonal changes, along with degradation of water and our food supply combined with the rise and easy accessibility to processed foods, have led to your rainforest slowly over time, become an environment that isn't conducive to the good guys winning as much as it is the bad guys. The exposure and constant punishment we put our bodies through is something we can no longer deny. If you want to lose weight and feel better you have to begin to recognize a few things.
The media and the news you are exposed to are lying to you about whatever study you want to stake your non-educated based self on to prove that your way of dieting or what you are doing works. The fact is, I can show you so many different studies proving anything I want to that you have to throw those out at the very front line of this battle. Keto, which is being touted heavily as a miracle in media-land is great in certain settings, but it is far from a lifestyle diet to sustain forever and a day. Also, regardless of what your friends are telling you, carbs are not making you fat. Other things come into play such as your sleep hygiene not being the best and stress. The growing stress we are all under is causing your body to be on guard, making the condition chronic and through chronic stress comes the rise of inflammation. That is when things begin to really go towards suck.
In the next installment, I am going to expound more about gut health and key pieces involved in maintaining its health. I am also going to be discussing stress and the impact that it can have on you by understanding something known as "allostatic load." Understanding allostatic load is key when trying to improve your "Heart Rate Variability", other known as "HRV" , which is a new and developing frontier in understanding our body's fight or flight response.
I am also going to dive into the water, food, xenobiotics, and xenoestrogens. Most importantly how our detoxification process needs a closer look based on our environment and what we consume.
There is a lot for us to cover in the coming months, and I look forward to sharing 15 years of knowledge and processes that have worked for the hundreds of clients I have worked with.