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Here is my first podcast - listen at your own risk

BTW, the material is intriguing and will give you some clues as to why your body fat may be hard to shift and why your constant diet and exercise attempts are still failing
AND
some solutions.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Hi and thanks for turning up and reading…

I sometimes wonder why biographies are so popular. And why we like to read or hear about the successes of others…

I think it is because we identify with the characters in the stories. Their hopes and fears - we feel their pain because sometimes it is our own. We enjoy and share their successes because in the end, we live our lives vicariously through others. (Think of the joys your spouse or children brought you in the past when they shared their successes)

I love Fitness by Phone success stories - they bring tears of joy whenever I read them. Knowing that I, Rick Rakauskas, have helped another human being to live a better life in some small way.

That is truly satisfying for me…

And because I want my clients to have and enjoy the success they deserve, I can only serve a limited number of women at any one time.

Please read the success stories here of women just like you here. See how they got their figures back, and turned their lives around. Imagine your life once you achieve your own goals… 

I saw a program on the box last night which was very useful. You might have seen it yourself “Trinny and Susannah”. They are two women in their 40’s who spend a lot of time trying to educate folks who have no fashion sense stand out.

Despite my personal viewpoint regarding what they wear themselves, last nights program was all about feeling good if you are a size 16.

They took 50 “size 16″ ladies of various ages and dressed them in a shapeless white shift. Only one woman stood out as fitting the shift and looking nice in it.

Why?

Becasue it is not about dress size - it is about body shape. Oh by the way, they reckoned that the average size in Great Britain now is size 16. That is alarming in itself.

But I couldn’t help but cheer them on in their quest to educate and then dress for the body shape, because in the end, it is all abut feeling good about yourself. And if you dress in a flattering manner according to your body shape, you can’t help but add to your self esteem.

Anyway there is a great article here, with pics and fashion recommendations for the 12 basic body shapes explored in last nights program.

Enjoy…

 

Thanks for reading…

Everyone knows this inescapable fact - the metabolism slows down as we age. It’s one of the reasons why baby boomer women get fatter as they get older.

Really?

Unless you understand what affects the speed at which you burn fat (metabolism) how can you believe such blanket statements. I know a lot of women who are over 40, some in their 70’s who are leaner now than when they were in their 20’s and 30’s.

So how do they do it? How can you do it too?

Here are some of the major metabolic facts…

Heredity.

You can’t do anything to change your heredity, but you sure as eggs can change the way you approach your lifestyle if you come from a long line of larger women.

It just may take more work by you, or you may find something like an inherited problem (a sluggish thyroid gland can run in families for instance). Whatever the cause of overweight in your family, you can take steps to counteract it by properly investigating why.

Muscle Loss.

This is probably the major cause of a low metabolic rate in everyone to a greater or lesser degree. First muscle is an active tissue - every pound takes 40-60 calories a day just to stay alive.

Thus the more of it you have, the more energy it burns.

And it is a lie that you will look like the muscly body builders - they are dedicated to their art 24 hours a day. Remember muscle is more compact than fat too.

You as a woman can pack on quite a bit before it shows up. So the simple fact is, the more muscle you have, the more fat it burns.

And don’t believe for a minute that we naturally lose muscle as we age. We don’t. It is just because we get more sedentary as we age. Lazier. Means you have to work out.

Hormones.

This is actually a symbiotic partner to more muscle. The more muscle you have, the more growth hormone you will produce. The more of that you get, the more of all the other hormones your body produces, to keep you in balance and burning fat properly.

Hormone imbalances are a primary cause of weight gain, even after menopause.

Note that growth hormone is produced under 2 circumstances… After a heavy duty strength workout and during sleep. Means you have to work out. Which leads us to…

Not enough deep sleep.

Researchers are proving with more and more studies that people who don’t get enough sleep get fattter than those who do (all other things being equal).

It seems that modern women are existing on about 1 hour less a night than previous generations.

Trouble is we are all different. I need eight hours a night. Yet one of my clients is quite happy with three hours and catnaps during the day. You have to figure out what is your ideal amount of sleep. I suspect it is more than you are getting at the moment.

Toxicity in your environment.

There is a growing body of research that shows toxins the body can’t excrete are stored in fat (adipose) tissue.

In fact some scientists are now calling adipose tissue a gland, just like the pituitary or thyroid. So if you are carrying toxins, your body is smart enough to not let them go once stored away.

This may be a reason why some women can’t shift stubborn fat even though they eat correctly, and exercise a lot. Fat also produces certain hormones linked to insulin resistance- a key factor in a lower metabolic rate.

Insulin resistance.

Insulin is the hormone responsible for shoving the blood sugar into your cells so they burn it. If your cells become resistant to insulin doing its job, caused by other hormones over produced from your body fat, the pancreas has to produce more.

It becomes a vicious cycle with the poor pancreas giving up eventually. And then you get Type 2 diabetes.

This has a huge impact on your metabolic rate. It is why overweight women feel so much better when they lose all that body fat. Their cells are burning energy more efficiently, the load on the pancreas is decreased, and the missing fat is not producing an overload of “bad” hormones any more.

So your body balances up.

Eating the wrong foods.

Protein that has 100 calories takes about 30 calories to digest and absorb. Carbohydrate with 100 calories takes about 7 calories to digest and consume. Sugar even less. You might think that the secret is having a protein only diet like Atkins et. al. so you lose even more weight.

Sure that works for a while, but the energy you need for optimal brain activity comes from carbohydrates, not protein (that’s why folks on high protein diets get grouchy and mean). In other words you must eat a balanced diet to sustain and grow.

The secret to keeping your metabolic rate up is eating a lot of small meals during the day. This also keeps your blood suger levels balanced, so you don’t overwork your pancreas, which if overworked for too long can fail giving you Type 2 Diabetes.

As you can see, all your body systems are like a set of dominoes.

Any negative effect on one system is reflected in all the others eventually. Losing fat through diet and exercise is a simple balancing act if you want to get it right and do it for the rest of your life.

It isn’t hard to do, just requires a change in thinking and creation of some better habits.

At Fitness by Phone we teach you how your body really works, so you can make the best lifestyle decisions for you.

Buddah: The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings (including yourself).

Says it all when you are looking at losing weight and living a better life.

 

Live life.

Rick

Vibration training seems to be a good thing on the surface of it. I know women who have dumped cellulite where nothing else has ever worked, and swear by it for overall fitness training.

But is it doing you harm long term?

Well the answer is - maybe…

Studies done since World War 2 show that chronic exposure to vibration increases stress hormones like cortisol (a known precursor for type 2 diabetes), adds to anxiety, can increase coronary artery disease and impair skin circulation. It is also linked to spinal disc injury and arthritis.

And vibration transmitted to the head via the spinal column has caused hearing loss, balance problems, visual impairment and bleeding on the brain.

Researchers at NASA and Houston University have concluded that whole body vibration training has the potential to do harm. But remember, 30 minutes of vibration training is not the same as a full day working a jackhammer, or operating machinery or truck driving for long shifts.

My take is a lot more research needs to be done. Before committing to a wholesale vibration training program, I would want a couple more years to go by and a few more studies before  did it.

The old standbys we use here are conservative, but proven safe and that is what I want for my clients at Fitness by Phone - results you can trust long term.

Have a great day.

Rick Rakauskas

I am doing some interesting research at the moment regarding fat that won’t shift despite the best intents of great diet and rigorous exercise.

Seems to point in this direction.

Our envirnoment is so laden with toxins that the liver and other excretory organs can’t get rid of them. What to do with the nasty stuff then?

The body effectively “buries” the nasty stuff in adipose tissue i.e. fat.

And becasue it knows this tissue is poisoned, the body then holds onto it come what may, rather then release it back into the body.

At this stage I am still exploring this issue, and will write a report in the near future on ways you can eliminate these types of toxins so you don’t store them in fat!!

Remember to “swap fat for shape” right here with Fitness by Phone

 

Rick Rakauskas

 

 

Passionate when they get the bit between their teeth.

Quietly go about achieving their goals.

Overcome any setbacks without complaining

Have belief in themselves. Even when they are really down.

All the women I have mentored  with fitness by Phone thought they were at the end of their tether, but each still had a spark.

Together we fanned that into a flame, and they are all achieving a new figure and better life.

Becky now fits into size 8 jeans from a size 14 just 4 months ago.

What about you? Still got a spark buried in there somewhere?