It’s time to stop burning calories and start burning HABITS.
Let me explain…
When it comes to weight loss I’d rather talk to you about burning HABITS, instead of calories. I can predict a woman’s fat loss success, NOT by how many calories she eats in a day or burns during a workout, rather by how many of these 8 so-called healthy habits she is doing.
About 10 years ago, WAY before I started Upgraded Health or launched my best selling program The 3-Week Metabolism Diet, I was coaching a woman named Debra. Debra was a self-proclaimed “hot mess”, but then again aren’t we all?
She wanted me track EVERY single calorie she ate and burned, pound or inch she lost by the decimal point, and minutes she worked out per week, and much more. She wasn’t an ideal client, but I happily did it, because I was a young personal trainer and I needed money to support my organic food addiction.
Although I complied to her obsessive approach to weight loss (she needed to lose quite a bit of weight, 150 pounds), deep down I knew she was setting herself up for failure.
After 3 months of very little progress, Debra finally gave in to my equally obsessive requests to focus on her lifestyle habits.
I suggested we focus on just one simple habit every single week, starting with the most destructive one, her need to track everything.
The week after we moved to her bread/pasta eating at night and switched to rice based pasta and spaghetti squash.
The 3rd week was drinking more water and eliminating Gatorade. And so on…
1 year later she had successfully changed 52 habits and lost over 70 pounds. Success!
7 years ago, I wasn’t as good of a weight loss coach as I am today, but I tried everything in my power to get her to focus on her HABITS instead of all of the numbers.
Numbers have a kind of destructive nature about them. For example:
- Imagine you weigh yourself in the morning before work and the number of the scale isn’t what you wanted to see, you might let that number influence your entire day and this can cause a “what the hell, I’m not seeing any progress anyway” approach to your eating…
- If you haven’t developed a deep understanding of calories, you might think that eating 1000 calories a day will lead to weight loss, so you focus on that number all day long, planning on your next eating experience around a NUMBER, instead of the actual experience, this is stressful and self-destructive…
Do you see what I mean about numbers?
Sure, scale weight, calorie counting, and measuring inches CAN be great tools for measuring progress. In my experience, focusing on behavior goals instead of numbers goals leads to great weight loss success.
Certain habits turn your fat cells [ON], causing them to release inflammatory hormones that interfere with your appetite, detoxification, and cellular health.
Since, I believe focusing on your habits will help you move the scale and tighten the measuring tape, let’s look at 8 of the most fat-gain promoting habits.
In other words, these 8 habits are a fat cells BFF (best friend for life). I’ll also teach you how to become a FWFL (fit women for life.)
Learn how The 3-Week Metabolism Diet ELIMINATES destructive habits and helps you lose weight
These 8 habits I’ve seen time and time again in the over 3,000 women I’ve coached and helped over the years:
Habit #1: Dieting
Simply put, diets, don’t work.
Most women who start diets either fail at them, causing frustration and loss of motivation or they succeed at short-term weight loss, damage their metabolism, and gain the weight back.
Do any of these scenarios look attractive to you?
Wouldn’t you rather figure out how to eat great food, still enjoy any food you want, and never feel guilty or obsess about calories ever again?
That seems like a wonderful alternative.
Stop looking for the short-term solutions to problems (i.e. being overweight) that require long-term healthy habits.
Habit #2: Overeating
Yes calories matter, even if it’s gluten-free, organic, and/or a superfood. You CAN gain weight from eating too much coconut oil and goji berries.
However, most people aren’t bingeing on organic strawberries or grass-fed beef. The majority of people overeating, are eating junk foods.
When you eat more calories than your body needs, your fat-storing enzymes are activated. These enzymes are known as lipogenic enzymes and lipogenesis means “storage of fat.”
Although you’ll make your fat cells happy overeating any food, the fact is, not all calories are created equal. When you eat high-quality, nutritious foods you’re less likely to overeat, since you’re nourishing your body.
When you eat low-quality, low-nutrient dense foods, your body will never become satisfied, so it will continue to “ask” you for more food in hopes you’ll actually feed it nutrients.
The best way to avoid overeating is to eat a real food, high-protein, high-fat diet, like the 21 days of done-for-you meal plan I provide you in The 3-Week Metabolism Diet.
Habit #3: Skipping Meals
If you want to lower your metabolic rate, skip meals and restrict calories.
Consistently skipping meals will lead to a consistently low metabolism, which will lead to consistently gaining fat.
On the flip side, consistently eating real good quality food that keeps your blood sugar and hormones happy will lead to a consistently stable and strong metabolism, which leads to consistently burning fat and maintaining lean muscles.
Remember, you can’t starve a fat cell. Preparation and always being ready no matter what the situation is the key to eating enough food to sustain a healthy metabolic rate and shrink your fat cells.
Habit #4: High PUFA intake
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are unsaturated vegetable oils that cause more damage to your metabolism than you realize.
Oils like canola, soybean, peanut, safflower, sunflower, etc…slow down your thyroid by blocking mitochondrial respiration. That’s a scientific term for producing energy (ATP). The less energy (ATP) you produce, the slower your metabolic rate, the fewer calories you burn.
Bottom-line: These vegetable oils destroy your mitochondria and cause cellular inflammation. An inflamed fat cell is a HAPPY fat cell, and a happy fat cell isn’t going away. No matter how many supplements you take, superfoods you try to eat, or exercise you do.
Habit #5: Low Carbohydrate Intake
Avoiding carbs completely will lead you straight to an slow and sluggish metabolic rate, which will cause weight gain and make it virtually impossible to lose weight.
Going low-carb for a short period of time can lead to some weight loss, however, since carbs are your brain and cells primary fuel source, cutting them out completely will slow down your metabolism and decrease performance.
The problem usually isn’t the amount of carbs you’re eating, its the type of carbs that you’re eating. Most people eat way too many simple carbohydrates that spike insulin and drive blood sugar through the roof.
Excess insulin, leads to insulin resistance, which occurs when your cells are already full of glucose, causing more and more insulin to be released. Insulin causes the body to store fat and causes accelerated aging, which leads to metabolic syndrome and obesity. Here’s how to avoid that
The best way to approach carbohydrates is focus on eating vegetables, fruits, starches, gluten-free grains, legumes, and only natural sweeteners.
Habit #6: Inactivity
You have to move in order to keep your fat cells from flourishing. Without exercise, there are few fat-releasing lipolytic enzymes to compete with the fat-storing lipogenic enzymes.
Lipolytic enzymes are enzymes that promote fat-burning. Lipolysis means “the release of fat”, so obviously we want to focus on activities that activate lipolysis.
One of the only factors that consistently influences the lipolytic enzymes for release of fat is regular physical activity, specifically metabolism-stimulating exercise (like this one here.)
Your body is meant to move, to be open, energetic, flexible, and strong. Through the right movement you can move from feeling stiff, old, and overweight to feeling vigorous, healthy, confident, and empowered.
Habit #7: Overexercising
Overexercising can cause just as much metabolic damage as underexercising. Certain forms of exercise trigger the release of excess amounts of cortisol, which can break down lean muscle tissue.
Cortisol blocks growth hormone, one of your main fat-burning, anti-aging hormones. Anti-aging hormones, like growth hormone help keep your cells happy by reducing and killing free radicals.
The more free radicals you have, the happier your fat cells will be because fat cells LOVE inflammation.
If you’re slaving away on the treadmill or exercising for hours a week and you still aren’t seeing results from your efforts, you probably are experiencing the effects of excess cortisol.
Sometimes, less is more. By less, I don’t mean inactivity, since we know that also keeps your fat cells ON and happy.
Stick with high-intensity metabolic style workouts, like the ones I provide you my best-selling program The 3-Week Metabolism Diet. These interval routines are 20-30 minutes and can be performed by anyone with a body, even if you’re not in great shape.
Habit #8: Perfectionism
Perfectionism is a habit, just like smoking or a daily glass of wine (these could have easily made this list of fat-gain promoting habits.)
Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving for excellence, health, or a better body. Most women I meet who struggle with perfectionism, use it as an excuse for not doing the right things.
Perfectionism actually sets us up to feel shame, judgment, and blame, which then leads to even more shame and self-blame: “It’s my fault. I’m feeling this way because I’m not good enough.”
To avoid perfectionism, try to avoid having an “all or nothing mindset.”
Here’s what I mean: Let’s say you eat perfectly, exercise, and make all of the right decisions on Monday. Then Tuesday comes around and you eat a donut at work. Instead of saying “oh well, I might as well eat fast food for lunch and drink wine later, since I already ruined my diet…” say “I ate the donut, next time I’m going to make a better decision because I want to feel and look my best.”
It’s a simple matter of redirecting your negative self-talk.
Repeat after me: Progress. Not Perfection.
One of the first things I teach my clients inside my programs is to focus on ONE habit at a time, instead of trying to fix everything at one time.
Overwhelm leads to frustration, which leads to quitting. Quitting is what your fat cells want you to do. Quitting is not acceptable.
You can do this!
Now that you know everything about a fat cell and how to avoid turning your fat cells [ON], how do you switch your fat cells [OFF] and lose weight?
It’s because of women like Debra and destructive habits like the above 8 that I created the The 3-Week Metabolism Diet, to change the status quo for how society promotes weight loss.
Society says to restrict calories and exercise more, I say to eat for your metabolic needs and exercise efficiently.
Society says to eat low carb and high vegetable oil, I say to avoid inflammatory carbs/eat pro-healthy carbs AND eat high saturated fat and avoid vegetable oils.
Society says to look a certain way, I say look REAL, yourself, and focus on your health and aesthetic goals based on what YOU want.
Society says to lose weight, get-fit using short-term strategies, The 3-Week Metabolism Diet says to eat real food, exercise with metabolic workouts, and give simple and sustainable.
As soon as you start your program, your fat cells will start begging for mercy, because you’ll instantly feel healthier, confident, and you’ll have a sense that you’re FINALLY doing what you know you’ve needed to do for awhile.
I can help you outsmart your fat cells and deactivate your fat-storing hormones, starting TODAY! Click the image below to get your hands on a 21-Day Program you can do for the rest of your life:
