This one is from the June 2011 edition of Men’s Health magazine.

The Write Meal Plan.

Eating better starts with a pen. Writing down and visualizing your goals may help you reach them, a Canadian study finds. Study participants who vowed in writing to eat more fruit increased their intake twice as much as those who just set a goal.

I tend to get lazy about writing a food journal but I have to admit that I do much better when I track what I’m eating. I’ve also put a few food daily reminders in my phone so that I remember to eat certain things every single day. Examples are: Eat an apple and Drink a Green Smoothie.

If you have any tips that you’d like for me to share on my blog, please comment here or email me at tracy@tracystanley.com.

This is from the June 13, 2011 issue of Life and Style magazine.

Beyonce knows that switching up her workout routine is the key to seeing change. According to the article, Beyonce’s trainer Marco Borges tells Life and Style that they do a combination of cardio, resistance exercises, and yoga. Her sessions are 60 to 80 minutes, four to five days a week. Beyonce does 100 reps of reverse lunges, plies, squarest. He considers this workout to be an extension of her card. To learn more, read Marco Borges’s book, Power Moves. Here’s the recipe for Borges’s Detox One-Day Juice that Beyonce drinks.

Detox One-Day Juice:

Celery, ginger, spinach, parsley, cucumbers, lemon, beets, and carrots.

This is from The Forbidden Book of Getting What You Want by J K Ellis. The basic idea is to take responsibility for your own thoughts and to choose how you feel about something. That being said, it means that all of your actions and thoughts are your responsibility. Remember what Spiderman said. ”

“With great power, comes great responsibility.”

One way to take control of your thoughts is to simply ask the right questions. Questions direct your attention and focus you toward solutions and away from problems.

Question: How can I make today..right now…my best day yet?

Presupposition: I can make today the best day yet.

Presupposition: I can do it right now.

Presupposition: There is a way to do it.

Question: What is good about this and how can I use it?

Presupposition: There is something good in this.

Presupposition: There is something useful that I can use.

Question: What do I LOVE about this very moment?

Presupposition: There is something to love.

Presupposition: I can find it.

Question: How is right now a clear stepping stone to my destiny?

Presupposition: I have a destiny.

Presupposition: Right now is a stepping stop to my destiny.

Presupposition: I can find a way to link this moment, right now, to my destiny.

Question: What would the very best me do, right now?

Presupposition: There is an even better ‘me’ than right now.

Presupposition: I can be that ‘me’.

Question: What one thing, no matter how small, can I do right now to positively impact my goals?

Presupposition: I can do something, even small that will positively impact my goals?

Presupposition: I can do it right now.

Presupposition: Even a small influence toward my goals is important.

Question: How can I make this moment a memorable moment toward my destiny.

Presupposition: There is something I can do right now toward my destiny.

Presupposition: I can do something right now toward my destiny.

By meditating on these questions the mind will begin to focus more clearly on what needs to take place. You’ll notice a growing sense of powerful resources. Some of these resources will be obvious, others will be there more as a feeling that encourages you.

Mike: Your logic is on the right track, but I can show you how to optimize your late-night feedings in order to best achieve your goal. The two keys for a pre-bedtime meal are to stimulate muscle growth and set the stage nutritionally to minimize protein breakdown while you’re sleeping.

Research shows us that stimulating protein synthesis is all about spikes in essential amino acids (especially leucine) and not necessarily keeping the amino acids levels in your blood elevated for long periods of time. But in order to minimize protein breakdown, we want to make sure that you have a surplus of amino acids in your blood stream as long as possible.

To recap, we want a meal that will deliver a spike of essential amino acids and then a slow drip of amino acids overtime. To do this I’m going to select foods for you based on their rates of digestion and amino acid profile. If we can build a meal that would deliver a slow infusion of glucose, not causing a big spike insulin, that is a bonus as insulin and squash growth hormone release. Growth hormone levels are naturally elevated while you are sleeping, providing an addition level of muscle protein sparing.

First let’s look at what impacts speed of digestion. There are 4 main factors that I like to consider:

Numerous studies have looked at how long it takes the amino acids from different forms of whey and casein proteins to get into our bodies and then what happens when the amino acids get there. Generally these studies show that whey protein is digested faster than casein protein (meaning that the amino acid levels peak in your blood quicker). They also show that whey and casein hydrosylates are digested faster than their whole protein counterparts. Whey protein, due to its high concentrations of leucine, maximally stimulates muscle protein synthesis while casein has been shown to prevent protein breakdown overtime.

PROTEINGetting sufficient protein is a must if you want to maximize your results. Protein supplements can make it easier!

Find the best protein products for you

The addition to dietary fat to a meal causes the release of the hormone cholecystokinin, which slows down digestion.

The addition of fiber, specifically soluble fiber, to a meal will also slow down the rate in which food is digested.

Food form is an often-overlooked factor, but the form in which you eat food will impact how fast your body digests it. A steak will take your body longer to digest than a whey protein shake, as with the steak your body needs to go through the mechanical process of breaking down the food in order to extract the nutrients. When you drink a whey protein shake, the nutrients are more readily available and thus taken up faster.

Click To Enlarge.
Protein shakes are much easier to prepare
and will be absorbed easier than steak.

Here are the ingredients for your optimized pre-bedtime meal and what they are bringing to the table nutritionally.

Fat Free Greek Yogurt

It has twice the protein and half the carbohydrates of regular yogurt. It can take up to 4 pounds of milk to make just one pound of Greek yogurt, so the end product contains high concentrations of casein protein.

Coconut Milk

This provides us with added fat to slow digestion, additional creamy flavor, and a unique blend of fats not common in the average diet.

Flaxseed Meal

One of my 30 “power foods,” flaxseed meal is a nutritionally powerhouse. Flaxseeds contain fiber for slowing digestion, alpha linolenic acid (the plant based omega-3 fat) which studies show reduce C-reactive protein (a blood marker of systemic inflammation), plus addition protein, and a unique class of antioxidants called lignans.

Vanilla Whey Protein

Since Greek yogurt contains high levels of the slower-digesting and sustaining casein protein, we will add whey to your meal to spike your blood amino acids levels, maximizing your rates of muscle protein synthesis as you go to sleep.

Raspberries

Blueberries get most of the nutritional attention in the berry family but raspberries contain more fiber per serving than any other berry, and their rich red color is a sign that they are loaded with the antioxidants called anthycyanins. These antioxidants are perfect for scavenging and neutralizing the free radicals generated during your workout earlier in the day.

Below are 350 kcal and 500 kcal versions of this killer bed time snack for you to use depending on your calorie needs. Just mix up all the ingredients in a bowl and you’re ready to eat!

Click To Enlarge.
Just mix up this killer snack in a
bowl and you’re ready to eat!

• 3 TBSP coconut milk
• 2 TBSP flaxseed meal
• 1 cup Fat Free Greek Yogurt
• ½ scoop vanilla whey protein powder
• ½ cup fresh raspberries

• ¼ cup coconut milk
• 2 TBSP flaxseed meal
• 1 ½ cup fat free Greek yogurt
• 1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
• 1 cup fresh raspberries

• Improves your decision making abilities
• Improves your self-esteem
• Helps boost creativity
• Improves your physical appearance
• Improves mental alertness
• Helps you sleep easier and better
• Enhances sexual desire, performance and satisfaction
• Improves posture
• Improves athletic performance
• Assists in efforts to stop smoking
• Gives you more energy to meet the demands of daily life

I just saw an inspiring film and I’m about to read the companion book that goes with it. Both are called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead by Joe Cross. This film has motivated me to do a long smoothie/juice fast. The last time I attempted it, my thyroid medication was off (I didn’t know) so I had to end the fast. The weather is becoming beautiful in NY so I feel like doing this. Here’s what the film and book are about.

At the age of 40, Joe Cross weighed 300 plus pounds and was on the steroid Prednisone to control an autoimmune condition that was ruining his life. He realized that he wasn’t getting better and he was sick of taking medication. He remembered that when he was a kid, if he hurt himself (banged a knee, that type of thing) his body would heal itself. He decided that in order to “Reboot” his body and give it a chance to heal and detoxify it was time to do something he radical. He decided to embark on a 60 day (2 month) juice fast. He only had fruit and vegetable juice and water. He drank no soda or coffee.

I think you can guess what happens from here. He lost a ton of weight and he eventually gets off the medication about 4 months after starting this journey. After the two months of juice, he continues with the juice, nuts, and beans. He heals himself by sticking with a diet entirely made up of micro nutrients. In short, micro nutrients are found in fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and beans and macro nutrients are found in everything else. The cleanest diet you can have is a micro nutrient dense diet.

Joe made a film about his journey. He traceless across the US and meets all sorts of people. He shares his story and his learnings. He meets a trucker named Phil who happens to have the same autoimmune condition that he does. Phil ends up calling Joe and asking for help. He embarks on a juicing “reboot” program of his own and the results are remarkable. I highly recommend this film.

For more information about the film, go to www.fatsickandnearlydead.com and to start a reboot program of your own go to www.jointhereboot.com. For one on one health coaching, send me an email at tracy@tracystanley.com. I know how hard this process can be and I’m here to help.

This is from Hollywoodlife.com.

Sorry Jennifer Hudson and Weight Watchers, but the Jenny Craig diet — represented by Valerie Bertinelli — has been rated the #1 way to drop pounds by a new study from Consumer Reports.

“The concept behind [Jenny Craig] is portion control,” Nancy Metcalf, senior program editor of Consumer Reports, tells the New York Post. “These are nutrionally balanced meals. You can’t mess up.”

What also makes Jenny Craig the number one winner is that more people tend to stick to this plan for the long run, versus dumping it in six months.

Weight Watchers goes by a points system. You can only eat a certain amount of points in a given day. “The weight loss results are never spectacular,” says Nancy.

According to the Consumer Reports, here are the rankings of the diet plans:

1. Jenny Craig

2. Slim-Fast

3. Weight Watchers

4. The Zone diet

5. Dr. Dean Ornish‘s diet from his book, Eat More, Weigh Less & the Atkins diet tied

Jennifer Hudson lost 80 pounds on Weight Watchers. Valerie Bertinelli shed 47, but stuck with it for two years.

• First thing when you wake up, drink a glass of water with fresh-squeezed organic lemon mixed with a serving of a fiber supplement.
• Then drink an Acai juice (small bottle or a glass)http://superfoods.genesistoday.com/products/juices/acai-berry-juice
• Next line up shots of pure liquid Noni, Goji and Mangosteen

• A shot each of the Noni, Goji and Mangosteen
• A Rainbow Salad: Choose from every color of the rainbow, like fresh berries, melons, red, yellow and orange peppers, Spinach and leafy greens to mix into your salad. Add some nuts and seeds to up the protein level (but go light!) and top it off with a healthy squeeze of Fresh Lemon juice and/or some olive oil. You can also use a Balsamic Vinaigrette (like Newman’s Own).

• Be careful here — after a long (and cold) winter, we have all eased the winter blues with a few too many nights of comfort foods.  Make sure what you put in your body is worth the calories, so pick nutrient rich snacks like Organic Apples, Carrots or low-calorie chews loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidantshttp://superfoods.genesistoday.com/products/chews

• A shot each of the Noni, Goji and Mangosteen
• A Second Rainbow salad (mix it up from the lunchtime version!) OR a plate of steamed veggies

• Drink as much water (with fresh lemon juice if it makes it easier to drink) as you can all day to flush out toxins
• Once a day you can add a shot of Resveratrol (30mg a day is all you need to slow down the aging process by 30%!)http://superfoods.genesistoday.com/superfruit-products/resveratrol/resveratrol-supplement
• Get out and get moving, try to get in at least 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week.  Just make sure to hydrate.  To keep your energy up and your body in top shape, try drinking coconut water which is lower calorie than a sports drink and has even more electrolytes – best of all, it’s all-natural.

Right now I’m reading Kelly Cutrone’s new book, Normal Gets You Nowhere. Within the first few pages of the book, she states the dictionary definition of normal as defined by Merriam-Webster. People don’t realize that normal essentially means average. If you want to be “more” in this world, you are going to stand out and you can’t be average. Here’s the definition.

Normal: 1. according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle; 2. conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern; 3. of relating to, or characterized by average intelligence or development.

“When you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.” Tom Stoppard, British playwright

This quote came from Bethenny Frankel’s book, A Place of Yes. Many people get stuck in their lives because they’re carrying around baggage from childhood. Everyone has some type of mental garbage from childhood. Yes, some childhoods are much, much worse than others. No matter what happened and how you feel about what happened, you are now an adult. As an adult, you can decide who you want to be. No one else gets to tell you who you are and what you should do with your life.

Here’s an example of what not letting go of childhood looks like. A guy I knew in the past completely lacked ambition and he was a bit socially awkward. He also had terrible anger issues. He also had loads of talent and, when you got to know him, he was a pretty fun guy. He could do anything he wanted but he was stuck living the same life that he had been living since he was a teenager. When I asked him what was going on, he said that as a child both of his parents were abusive and when he wasn’t being abused, he was basically ignored. He was allowed to run wild and do whatever he wanted to do. He went on to say that as a result of this, he was “never given the tools” to function normally in world.

The guy didn’t have a disability and he actually had some advantages that people would love to have. He could easily have gotten the “tools” he needed on his own in his adult life. He refused to do it because in his mind, he was still living his childhood life.

The point of this is to accept whatever happened to you, accept that your parents are what they are, and keep moving forward. Read the quote again. It’s about maturity,