Category: Willpower

September 3, 2018

The Shovel will Fail You in Obesity, Finances & Life

A few years ago, my family and I set out to build a pond.

I have always loved Koi and the serenity of a Koi pond in my own back yard was very enticing. I spent about a year planning my design and the location. I dreamed of a serene evening after a very long, hectic day seeing patients relaxing beside the pond. The sound of trickling water, the occasional splash from fish, the cool breeze passing over the mist from a water-fall would sooth my soul after a busy day in the office.

I envisioned the perfect area. An unused access path, previously worn by the previous owner with truck and trailer traffic, beside my now expanded patio. Twenty feet wide, thirty feet long and four feet deep. . . that seems just perfect.

I pulled out my shovel and set about digging. Eager to begin and filled with the energy of the final product, I set to digging. What could be so hard about digging my own pond? Think of the exercise I will be getting. Thoughts spurred me on.

Minutes later, chest heaving, face glistening with sweat, I stared in dismay at the ground. All I had to show for my wild digging was a small 1/2 inch dent in the dusty Arizona top soil.

Sonoran Clay

Over time, calcium-carbonate, along with other minerals, accumulates and dissolves into the topsoil of the very arid regions of Arizona Sonoran Desert. It forms a two to three-foot layer of soil called “caliche.” Periodic rains carry the calcium as far as three feet down into the soil, then the water rapidly evaporates in the blistering Arizona heat. This often forms two to three feet of soil that is “literally” harder than concrete.

With tremendous zeal, a great deal of sweat and a round of painful blisters, I broke my third shovel on this impenetrable ground. I realized this was much more difficult than I thought. I pulled out the back-hoe attachment for my small farm tractor. After a few hours and few gallons of diesel fuel later, still very little progress occurred.

Multiple weekends and evenings of digging in the Arizona caliche left me with three broken shovels, a ruptured hydrolic line in my tractor, anger that my expensive back-hoe attachment didn’t work, and only a small dent in the ground near my patio. Even the brute force from the tractor would not budge the clay. I wondered if dynamite would be effective? (My wife would have none of this idea).

With my exuberance quashed, I concluded that this would require much more measured exhuming.

Escape From the Prison

We often imagine, with great delight, the removal or destruction of that which enslaves or imprisons us. We dream that just a little sweat, exertion of a few shovel scoops of dirt and the foundation to our prison of obesity, addiction, debt, and depression are exposed. A few extra scoops and we imagine freedom from that prison cell.

If only I had a jack hammer and a bigger, more powerful scoop, I imagine . . . I could make short work of these manacles that bind me.

But, our manacles and prison cells do not so easily give way.

The failings of our sharpened spades and powerful back-hoes form a new, even stronger fetter – the belief that our prison cell is unbreakable, that our challenge is just too great. These failings usually leave a person cured of any further desire to break free. It quashs the dream and solidifying the depression of stagnation.

The in-fecundity of my shovel, no matter the strength and effort put behind it, was not cause to quit. It was life’s lesson that prisons and shackles often only need a simple tool.

Enter the pick-axe. During this process my wife said, “Honey, why don’t you use the pick in the garage?”

“If my shovel and the back-hoe didn’t work, there was no way I was going to break through this clay with a pick axe.” That was absurd, I thought.

Yet when I humbled myself to try, it was simple. The pick-axe was unpretentious. This simple tool allowed for an almost effortless stroke to a small area of weakness in the caliche. A large flake of soil would pop free with each stroke. The process was repeated.

Scale by scale, the dragon’s flank was exposed. Careful work of the pick-axe began to loosen layer after layer, section after section, pellicle after pellicle. Yes, it was slow work. But, each swing was a small victory.

At each little victory, my heart would leap, the dream would become ever clearer.

Working this magic again and again until finally the specter was weakened enough to pull out the shovel. And, further work, allowed for bringing back the powerful back-hoe, in gratifying scoops.

The excavation that I thought would take two months took me fourteen. But, it was gratifying.

I learned a powerful lesson. Wherever life has pinned you, fettered you or barred you in, put down the shovel, and pick up the pick-axe. Second, if you really listen, your spouse may point out the tool you really need. Don’t be afraid to chip away at it a piece at a time.

Finances

Stop waiting for the sharper shovel or the bigger back-hoe to dig yourself out of your harrowing debt, mega mortgage, or your income dwarfing spending. The jackpot or financial windfall won’t come. While others await the jackpot, put down your shovel and shoulder your pick-axe.

Pick one small debt and begin to pick at it by applying just a little extra each month until it is gone.
Cancel your extra cable, sell the motorcycle and payoff the 21% interest credit card.
If you must, pick up a side-hustle for extra to sharpen the pick.

Once you’ve lifted one flake, chip away at the next. Making progress will make it easier to continue. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, just keep at it.

Marriage

You long for resolution of the apathy, progressive resentment and mutual stalemate that permeates your relationship. You look in vain for the bigger shovel that will uncover the treasure that years of apathy have buried. You long to uncover your dreams and needs that have been covered and hardened under the clay of resentment. The shovel and the back-hoe won’t help you here.

Drop the shovel. Shoulder your pick-axe.

Kiss your wife every time you leave, even if it’s just for a ten minutes to run to the convenience store.
Hold her for five seconds longer every time you hug.
Find a gift you can give her once a week, just because.
Put down your phone and look her in the eyes when she talks to you and listen. Really listen and the flakes of hard clay will unveil the beauty of her soul.
Find a way to praise her every day, even if it is through a simple text.

Health

You long to rid yourself of your addiction to sugar, bread, stress, and sleep deprivation. You’ve tried to scoop them out of your life. You even hired a trainer with some muscle to force you to change. You’ve tried in vain to save yourself from yourself.

Trying to use the shovel here is like trying to use the shovel on steel forged walls of your life’s prison fortress. Forget the shovel. Shoulder your pick-axe.

Start with one meal and make some substitutions. My dietary plan can help you with this.
Go to bed an hour earlier. Really, you’ll be surprised that the focus you have will more than compensate for the hour of lost time in the evening.
Add a quality vitamin to your morning routine.
Take ten minutes and do 20 push-ups and 20 sit-ups, then take a 10-minute walk.
Simply remove the “white stuff” from your meals. You will be amazed at the results.
Put down your phone for 30 minutes and read that book you’ve been meaning to read, instead of surfing Facebook.

Grand-standing with your back-hoe doesn’t help you. Just swing the pick-axe once or twice. Simple daily picking with the sharp point weakens the hardest of ground and the prison walls in our lives. It takes time, so be patient.

Find the weak point, apply the pick. Day by day, little by little you will be free.

I’ve been there. I’m with you. Keep me posted on your journey.

If you’re looking for a program that teaches you how to do this, check out my membership site.

August 23, 2017

Willpower & Self-Discipline in a Ketogenic Lifestyle

Hundreds of people come to my office each month desiring to lose weight. Among the challenges they experience is the complaint that they lack willpower and/or self-discipline. Many people feel they cannot lose weight because they don’t have the self-control to do so. However you define it, willpower, self-discipline, or self-control, is an elusive and mysterious thing. Scientists have been trying to find out what willpower & self-discipline is and how to improve it since the early 1960’s. “If only I had more self-control,” people lament, “I could . . . lose weight, exercise regularly, eat right, avoid drugs and alcohol, save for retirement, enjoy more bacon, stop procrastinating, . . . . or even achieve the noble peace prize.” A 2011 American Psychological Association study reveals that almost 30% of those interviewed felt that their lack of willpower was the greatest barrier to making a change in any of these areas.

Excellence Comes From Habit

Excellence is not an act . . . it is a habit of repetitive action. To understand willpower & self-discipline, you have to understand habit. Habits emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort or conserve energy. Left to it’s own devises, your sub-conscious brain will attempt to take any routine and turn it into a habit. Our brains do this to conserve mental effort and energy. This allows us to stop thinking about basic behaviors like walking and eating, so that we can devote mental fuel to doing important things like making spears, finding bacon, creating irrigation systems, building airplanes and, for some, designing video games.

The brain creates time saving patterns in it’s thought processes in a similar way to what happens when a few drops of water are dropped on the top of a mound of dirt. As each drop hits the top of the mound, the water runs down the side where it finds the least resistance. Each drop of water erodes a little channel down the side of the mound of dirt. The more water drops you release, the deeper the channel is carved in the little hill, and after a while all the water runs down the same path over and over. To get the water to run down the path, the water has to drop on to the top of the path. This starting point for thought is actually a “cue” or a “trigger.” Once the water, or in our example the thought, hits the trigger point, it always follows the same path. Always.

Habits are Repetitive Thought Channels

It takes great effort to turn the water out of the path. This can be likened to our habits. Habits are neural impulse channels in our brain that follow a path leading to the same outcome every time without much effort. All that is necessary is to trigger the neural impulse. The neural impulse follows the channel in the brain effortlessly causing a mental or physical routine to occur leading to a end point or reward. Some researchers call this a “habit loop.” Trigger-Routine-Reward.

What is Willpower?

So what is willpower & self-discipline? It is the ability to resist the unproductive patterns of though and redirect the neural impulse that was triggered down the channel. Redirecting this habit takes a great deal of mental energy. The first studies on willpower like Walter Mischel’s famous study of Four Year Olds & Marshmallows gave the impression that willpower was a learned skill.

Henry P Liddon said, “What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.” This means that willpower or self-control can be learned or improved. The more you repeat a task, the easier and less effort it takes to complete it. Thus, excellence isn’t an act . . . it is a habit of repetitive action.

But, this doesn’t explain why one day you eat healthy, and the next day, when you are tired, you raid the freezer and down the entire quart of ice cream. You may find that you exercise one day without any problem, but the following day you can’t seem to get yourself off the couch. If exerting willpower to exercise were a skill, it wouldn’t be so difficult to do it everyday, once the skill is learned. The problem with the self-discipline theory is that you don’t forget a skill overnight.

Willpower is Like a Muscle

More recently, Mark Muraven found that willpower is actually more like a muscle. He wondered, as we did above, that if willpower was a skill, then why doesn’t it remain constant from day to day?

Muraven decided to conduct an experiment by placing a bowl of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies next to a bowl of radishes. The room containing the bowls was a closet with a two-way mirror, a table, a wooden chair, a bell and a toaster oven. Sixty-seven undergraduate students at Case Western were recruited and told to skip a meal. One by one, the students filed in and sat in front of the two bowls. They were told by a researcher that the experiment was about taste perception, which was untrue. The experiment was to force half the students to exert their willpower & self-discipline.

Half of the students were instructed to eat the cookies and ignore the radishes. The other half were instructed to eat the radishes, but ignore the cookies. Muraven’s theory was that it was difficult, requiring mental energy and willpower, to ignore the cookies. Ignoring radishes takes absolutely no energy when there is a full bowl of warm cookies overflowing with chocolate chips.

“Remember,” the researcher instructed, “you can only eat the food that has been assigned to you.” Then the researcher left the room.

After five minutes, the cookie eaters were in heaven and the radish eaters were experiencing mental agony.

Researchers stated that one of the radish eaters went so far as to pick up a cookie, smell it longingly, and put it back in the bowl. Another grabbed a few cookies, wolfed them down, and licked the chocolate off of his fingers. Muraven estimated that after five minutes, the radish eaters willpower would have been fully taxed by eating a bitter vegetable and ignoring treats, where the cookie eaters hardly used any of their self-discipline.

The research then entered the room and asked them to “wait 15 minute for the sensory memory of the food that was eaten to fade.” To pass the time they were each asked to complete a puzzle that looked fairly simple. They were to trace a geometric shape without lifting the pencil from the page or going over the same line twice. If you want to quit, the researcher left a bell to ring. The researcher then implied the puzzle wouldn’t take long. In truth, the puzzle was impossible to solve.

The puzzle was the most important part of the experiment. It took enormous willpower to keep working the puzzle. Particularly after each attempt failed.

What they found from behind the two-way mirror was that the cookie eaters with their reserve of will power and self-discipline worked the puzzle even after hitting road block after road block for over 30 minutes.

The radish eaters, with their already depleted willpower, muttered, showed immediate signs of frustration, and complained loudly to themselves. A few of them even closed their eyes and put their heads on the desk. One even snapped at the researcher when she walked back into the room. On average the radish eaters lasted only eight minutes. When asked how they felt, one complained that he was sick of such a dumb experiment.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Fatigue

By forcing the use of willpower & self-discipline to ignore cookies, it placed the radish eaters into a state of willingness to quit much faster. More than 200 studies like this have been completed since this test was done. All of them found the same conclusion – willpower is like a muscle. It’s not just a skill. Willpower fatigues.

This may explain why people, who succumb to extramarital affairs, are usually likely to start them late at night, after a long day of work. It explains why good physicians make dumb mistakes after a long, very complicated task that requires intense focus. It also points to reasons why people are more likely to lose control over their drinking or cheat on their ketogenic diet.

I meet and work with people every day who feel they have no willpower. In actuality, will power and self-control are learned behaviors that develop over time, but are greatly effected by fatigue. Anyone can have willpower, you just have to understand how willpower can be strengthened and what makes it weak.

Willpower is More Important than IQ

A 2005 study showed that willpower & self-discipline was more important than IQ in academic successes. This study also found that increased self-discipline lead to less binge eating, higher self-esteem, higher grade point averages, better relationship skills and less alcoholism. Fascinating isn’t it!?

Willpower strengthens with use, but has a daily “shelf-life.” It is always greater or stronger in the first part of the day. Willpower declines over the course of the day as you fatigue.

How Do You Improved the Self-Discipline Muscle?

First, you must establish and write down a reason or motivation for change. In addition, that change must fulfill a clear goal. Just wanting to lose weight isn’t good enough. You have to be motivated because of a consequence that arises from the obesity or overweight. Just “losing weight” isn’t a clear goal. You must set a (1) specific weight reduction goal. It has to be clearly written down with your (2) motivational reason. “I will lose (1) 30 pounds to prevent (2) diabetes,” is a great written goal. Willpower or self-control cannot begin to form until these two steps occur. Writing the goal with these two specifics and re-reading the goal regularly is the essence of multiple drops of water running down the hill forming the channel. This also creates a trigger by setting specifics about the goal.

Second, you must begin to monitor your behavior toward that goal. When it comes to weight loss, I ask all of my patient’s to keep a diet journal. In your journal, write down every thing you eat and drink. This evening, write down your plan for tomorrow’s meals, then the next evening, you account to yourself for your success or failure by journaling on that same page what you actually ate and drank. Tomorrow evening, compare what you did, as you plan for tomorrow and journal why you were successful or why you were not successful. It’s that last part that is so powerful, a short 3-5 minutes of self-introspection. Self-introspection is the key to behavioral change. It is the key that allows a person to see their habits, and then make very small changes that break bad habits, solidify good habits and strengthen willpower. This time of self-introspection is re-enforcing the desired channel of flow.

Third, willpower is developed and strengthened over time. It is developed by being accountable to ones-self on very little things every single day. But it MUST be written down. If I planned to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and I didn’t, why? When I look at my day, I may realize that I went to bed too late to get up early and cook bacon and eggs. So, instead, I ate a yogurt that was in the fridge. I am accountable to myself. If I plan to eat bacon and eggs tomorrow, I must either go to bed earlier, prepare them the night before, or throw out the yogurt . . . so not to be a temptation again. Planning re-enforces the triggers, and takes away the mental energy required to have self-discipline when you lack sleep, are feeling stress from waking up late, or running out of bacon in the fridge. it also provides more willpower to be available for other decisions later in the day. Pre-planning by writing down tomorrows tasks provides you strength for future willpower and eliminates fatigue when needing to make a large or small change tomorrow.

Over time, this self-introspection becomes easier and easier, to the point that you do it sub-consciously. It is this sub-conscious self-introspection and change will be seen by others as self-control or willpower. Just like exercising or strengthening a muscle, recording short goals and and accounting for them makes your self-discipline stronger. The self-discipline muscle becomes more powerful. In time, you’ll be able to make a split second decisions about a piece of cake. Strong willpower will be perceived by those around you. You’ll recognize that it’s just flexing your well rested self-discipline muscle.

Fourth, plan or attack the hardest decisions of your day, those things that require the greatest energy, in the morning when your fresh. This allows you to have the strength to maintain willpower. In the evening, when your willpower muscle is the weakest, have rescue foods available so you’re less likely to cheat. Pre-cooked bacon, pork rinds, guacamole, macadamia nuts (the highest in fat), rolled meats and hard cheeses are in my fridge and pantry for this reason. This is where fat bombs in the fridge at the end of a long day allow you to snack when you’re hungry at the time willpower is weakest.

A great way to pre-plan is to go to the KetoKart and order your pre-packaged 1, 3, or 6 month program that will provide you with the supplements necessary to stabilize insulin and ketones on a daily basis. This is one decision you don’t have to try to make ahead of time.

So, my question for you is which KetoKart package did you choose and . . . where’s your diet journal?

(Stay tuned for the second part of this series: Fixing the Habit Loop Cycle.)

January 12, 2017

Three Things . . .

Are you interested in controlling your weight? It revolves around thought, speech and behavior. Sign up for my FREE six-part weight loss mini-course above and find out how.

December 13, 2015

Caffeine . . . Weight Loss Wonder Boy or Sneaky Scoundrel?

I’ve been looking for the answer for quite some time. . . what role does caffeine play in your and my weight management journey? The answer gave me a headache. . . literally and figuratively.

As many of you, including my office staff, know, I love my Diet Dr. Pepper (and my bacon). I found that being able to sip on a little soda throughout the day significantly helped the carbohydrate cravings and munchies during a busy and stressful day at the office. Diet Dr. Pepper contains caffeine, however, I wasn’t really worried. Caffeine has been well know to have a thermogenic effect which increases your metabolism and has been thought for many years to help with weight loss among the weight loss community.

Diet Dr. Pepper is, also, one of only four diet sodas on the grocery store shelves that doesn’t contain acesulfame potassium (click here to see why most artificial sweeteners cause weight gain). The four diet sodas that I have been comfortable with my patients using are Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke, Diet Mug Root-beer and Diet A&W Cream Soda. These are the last four hold out diet sodas that still use NutraSweet (aspartame) as the sweetener. Most of the soda companies have switched the sweetener in their diet sodas to the insulinogenic acesulfame potassium because it tastes more natural and aspartame has been given a media black eye of late. However, NutraSweet (aspartame) is the only sweetener that doesn’t spike your insulin or raise blood sugar (click here to find out why that is important).

Yes, I know. The ingestion of 600 times the approved amount of aspartame causes blindness in lab rats (but we’re not lab rats, and . . . have you ever met someone that drinks 600 Diet Dr. Peppers in a day? The lethal dose of bananas, which are high in potassium that will stop your heart, is 400). Aspartame can also exacerbate headaches in some (about 5% of people) and I’ve had a few patients with amplified fibromyalgia symptoms when they use aspartame. But for most of us, its a useful sweetener that doesn’t spike your insulin response, halting or causing weight gain.

But, over the last few years, I’ve noticed that increased amounts of Diet Dr. Pepper & Diet Coke seem to cause plateauing of weight and decreasing the ability to shift into ketosis, especially mine. I’ve also noticed (in my personal n=1 experimentation) that my ability to fast after using caffeine regularly seems to be less tolerable, causing headaches and fatigue 8-10 hours into the fast, symptoms that don’t seem to let up until eating. Through the process of elimination, caffeine seems to be the culprit.

After mulling through the last 10 years of caffeine research, most of which were small studies, had mixed results, used coffee as the caffeine delivery system (coffee has over 50 trace minerals that has the potential to skew the results based on the brand) and never seemed to ask the right questions, the ink from a study in the August 2004 Diabetes Care Journal screamed for my attention.

It appears that caffeine actually stimulates a glucose and insulin response through a secondary mechanism. The insulin surge and glucose response is dramatically amplified in patients who are insulin resistant. Caffeine doesn’t effect glucose or insulin if taken while fasting; however, when taken with a meal, glucose responses are 21% higher than normal, and insulin responses are 48% higher in the insulin resistant patient. Caffeine seems to only effect the postprandial (2 hours after a meal) glucose and insulin levels. The literature shows mixed responses in patients when caffeine is in coffee or tea, probably due to the effect of other organic compounds (1).

Caffeine effect on plasma glucose and plasma insulin compared to placebo (1).

Caffeine also diminishes insulin sensitivity and impairs glucose tolerance in normal and already insulin resistant and/or obese patients. This is seen most prominently in patients with diabetes mellitus type II (stage IV insulin resistance). Caffeine causes alterations in glucose homeostasis by decreasing glucose uptake into skeletal muscle, thereby causing elevations in blood glucose concentration and causing an insulin release (2-6).

Studies show that caffeine causes a five fold increase in epinephrine and a smaller, but significant, norepinephrine release. The diminished insulin sensitivity and exaggerated insulin response appears to be mediated by a catacholamine (epinephrine, norepinephrine & dopamine) induced stress response (5). Caffeine has a half life of about 6 hours, that means the caffeine in your system could cause a catacholamine response for up to 72 hours depending upon the amount of caffeine you ingest (7).

The reason for my, and other patient’s, headaches and fatigue after a short fast was due to the exaggerated stress hormone response. Increased levels of insulin were induced by a catacholamine cascade after caffeine ingestion with a meal, dramatically more amplified in a person like me with insulin resistance. The caffeine with the last meal cause hypoglycemia 5-7 hours into the fasting, leading to headaches and fatigue that are only alleviated by eating.

Even when not fasting, the caffeine induced catacholamine cascade causes up to 48% more insulin release with a meal, halting weight loss and in some cases, causing weight gain.

Caffeine is not the “Wonder-Boy” we thought it was.

How much caffeine will cause these symptoms? 50 mg or more per day can have these effects.

Ingestion of caffeine has the following effects:

20-40 mg – increased mental clarity for 2-6 hours
50-100 mg – decreased mental clarity, confusion, catacholamine response
250-700 mg – anxiety, nervousness, hypertension & insomnia
500 mg – relaxation of internal anal sphincter tone (yes . . . you begin to soil yourself)
1000 mg – tachycardia, heart palpitations, insomnia, tinnitus, cognitive difficulty.
10,000 mg (10 grams) – lethal dose (Yes, 25 cups of Starbucks Coffee can kill you)

The equivalent of 100 mg of in a human was given to a spider, you can see the very interesting effect on productivity. How often does the productivity of the day feel like the image below?

Normal Spider (9)

Spider on caffeine (9)

Beware that caffeine is now being added to a number of skin care products including wrinkle creams and makeup. Yes, caffeine is absorbed through the skin, so check the ingredients on your skin care products.

Diet Dr. Pepper, my caffeine delivery system of choice, has slightly less caffeine (39 mg per 12 oz can or 3.25 mg per oz) than regular Dr. Pepper. I found myself drinking 2-3 liters of Diet Dr. Pepper per day (long 16-18 hour work days in the office). After doing my research, I realized that my caffeine tolerance had built up to quite a significant level (230-350 grams per day).

So, a few weeks ago, I quit . . . cold turkey.

Did I mention the 15 withdrawal symptoms of caffeine? (8)

Headache – behind the eyes to the back of the head
Sleepiness – can’t keep your eyes open kind of sleepiness
Irritability – everyone around you thinks you’ve become a bear
Lethargy – feels like your wearing a 70 lb lead vest
Constipation – do I really need to explain this one?
Depression – you may actually feel like giving up on life
Muscle Pain, Stiffness, Cramping – feel like you were run over by a train
Lack of Concentration – don’t plan on studying, doing your taxes or performing brain surgery during this period
Flu Like Illness – sinus pressure and stuffiness that just won’t clear
Insomnia – you feel sleepy, but you can’t sleep
Nausea & Vomiting – You may loose your appetite
Anxiety – amplified panic attacks or feeling like the sky is falling
Brain Fog – can’t hold coherent thoughts or difficulty with common tasks
Dizziness – your sense of equilibrium may be off
Low Blood Pressure & Heart Palpitations – low pressure and abnormal heart rhythm

I experienced 13 of the 15 that lasted for 4 days. I do not recommend quitting cold turkey unless you have a week off and someone to hold your hand, cook your meals and dose your Tylenol or Motrin. My wife thought I was dying. . . I thought I was dying on day two. I actually had a nightmare about buying and getting into my own coffin. It can take up to three weeks to completely recover from caffeine withdrawal.

The other way to quit is to decrease your caffeine intake by 50 mg every two days. That means decrease caffeine by:

1 can of soda every two days
1/4 cup of coffee every day
1/2 can of Energy Drinks every two days
1 cup of tea every two days

The benefit of this method is that withdrawal symptoms are much less severe without the caffeine headache and the ability to remain productive. It will take longer, but quitting cold turkey is not a pretty picture. Been there . . . done that, . . . and I’m not going back. I actually lost another half inch off my waistline by day 5 of caffeine discontinuation.

What is the take home message here? If you have any degree of insulin resistance, caffeine makes it worse and will amplify your weight gain as well as decrease the productivity of your day.

References:

November 24, 2015

The 5 Myths of Weight Loss

This evening we covered the 5 myths of weight loss identified through the National Weight Control Registry’s research findings. What causes “wrinkle face” for Dr. Nally? We also talked about & answered 20 minutes of rapid fire questions ranging from the amount of protein you need daily to the likelihood a human could be a bomb calorimeter . . . exciting stuff!!

You can watch the video stream below. Or you can Katch the replay with the rapid stream of exciting comments here at Katch.me/docmuscles.

November 20, 2015

How to Stay Motivated on Carbohydrate Restriction

This evening on PeriScope, we talked about the 10 things you can do to stay motivated on your low-carb lifestyle. A number of great questions were asked including:

How much carbohydrate should be restricted?
What labs should you be monitoring regularly?
What’s a normal blood sugar?
Why is Dr. Nally freezing in Denver?
Is fermented food good for you?
Why should you eat pickles and kimchi even when you’re not pregnant?

And, much much more . . . It’s like a college ketogenic course on overdrive . . . for FREE!!!

You can see the PeriScope with the comments rolling in real-time here: katch.me/docmuscles

Or, you can watch the video stream below:

See you next time.

October 19, 2014

Don't Fear Fat

Don’t fear the fat. If you haven’t seen the movie Cereal Killers, you should watch it by clicking here. D.J. O’Neill ditches wheat and sugar in a food plan consisting of 70% fat – under the guidance of legendary South African Sports Scientist Prof. Tim Noakes.

July 19, 2014

Relapse

Did you fall off the low-carbohydrate wagon this week? Did those donuts just call out your name as you walked by the bakery in the grocery store? Maybe you feel like you were shot out of the carbohydrate cannon, landing in the nearby Potato County? If so, you probably had a relapse. You were doing so well, then all the sudden, your will-power caved.

Relapse is not uncommon when making a dietary lifestyle change. What causes relapse? I often see people relapse back to the Standard American Diet, the SAD diet, because of a number of reasons.

Neuro-hormones of Hunger

First, it is important to recognize that there are a milieu of neuro-hormones that drive hunger cravings or suppression. Anything that triggers a change in these hormone levels can cause the carbohydrate cravings to kick in . . . and you find yourself stuffing yourself with “carbage.”

Second, is boredom. Many people find an increased nervousness when they get bored. They find that eating, with it’s calming parasympathetic nervous system effect, diminish the nervousness that arises out of boredom. They often create a near Pavlov’s type trigger to eat when they experience boredom and it is quickly interpreted as hunger. There is actually a release of endorphin associated with eating and chewing that suppresses stress and or anxiety. Reduction of stress, exercise, and journal writing have been found to help patient’s reduce the food cravings associated with boredom. It is important to have “rescue foods” like string cheese, a handful of almonds, beef jerky, or “fat bombs” available that can be used when you experience these symptoms.

Following the line of triggers, Pavlov demonstrated that repeated actions associated with rewarding consequences will form a physiologic trigger. Frequently. our desire to eat carbohydrates (“carb cravings”) are often tied to triggers. For example, growing up in my home as a child, our family frequently would relax by watching prime-time television while eating a large bowl of popcorn and a Pepsi. To this day, whenever I turn on the television in the evening, I get cravings for carbohydrates. It is important to look at what you were doing or what was going on around you at the time the craving occurred. Substitution of foods has helped to solve these cravings by replacing the popcorn and Pepsi with pork rinds and Diet Dr. Pepper. (Don’t cringe, pork rinds and guacamole tastes fantastic and is a very low carbohydrate substitute that works for me.)

Lastly, many patients fall off the wagon when they visit or have a meal with family. They are often made to feel guilty if they don’t eat Aunt Velda’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. They are afraid of offending their relatives if they don’t partake of those tasty cookies. The challenge is that cheating by eating the cookies causes an insulin spike and leads to 24-72 hours of carbohydrate cravings thereafter. Are those cookies worth 72 hours of carbohydrate cravings? Maybe. But it is important to consider helping Aunt Velda to understand what those cookies will do to you, and that you still care for Aunt Velda even if you don’t eat her chocolate chip cookies.

In many families, food is often associated with love. “If you don’t eat the food I made for you, you don’t really love me” is an underlying tone that can be found in many family dynamics that I see in my office. Some times bringing your own low-carb chocolate chip cookies, and offering one to Aunt Velda, will stimulate a conversation about your dietary changes and diffuse the guilt and offence that might arise.

Often, knowing what will cause you to fall off the wagon, helps to keep you on the wagon. What challenges have you had staying on the wagon?

June 17, 2014

The Self-Discipline Muscle

Many patients come to my office desiring to loose weight, but complain of no self-control. They feel they cannot loose weight because they don’t have the willpower. Willpower, or self-control, is an elusive and mysterious thing. “If only I had more self-control,” I hear people say, “I could . . . ” exercise regularly, eat right, avoid drugs and alcohol, save for retirement, stop procrastinating, achieve a noble goal, or loose weight. A 2011 American Psychological Association study reveals that almost 30% of those interviewed felt that lack of willpower was the greatest barrier to making a change in any of these areas.

So what is “willpower” or “self-control?” It is the ability to resist short-term temptations in order to fulfill a long-term goal.

I meet and work with people every day who feel they have no willpower. In actuality, will power and self-control are learned behaviors that develop over time. Anyone can have willpower, you just have to understand how willpower in certain areas can be strengthened and what makes it weak. In fact, a 2005 study showed that self-discipline or willpower was more important than IQ in academic successes. This study also found that increased self-discipline lead to less binge eating, higher self-esteem, higher grade point averages, better relationship skills and less alcoholism. Fascinating isn’t it!?

The answer can be found in a quote from Henry P Liddon, “What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.” This means that willpower or self-control can be learned or improved. How, you ask?

First, you must establish and write down a reason or motivation for change. In addition, that change must fulfill a clear goal. Just wanting to loose weight isn’t good enough. You have to be motivated because of a consequence that arises from the obesity or overweight. And, you “loosing weight” isn’t a clear goal. You must set a weight reduction goal. It has to be clearly written down with your motivational reason. Willpower or self-control cannot begin to form until these two steps occur.

Second, you must begin to monitor your behavior toward that goal. When it comes to weight loss, I ask every one of my patient’s to keep a diet journal. In this journal they are asked to write down every thing they eat and drink. The night before, they are to write down their plan for tomorrow’s meals, then the next evening, they account for their success or failure by journaling on that same page what they actually ate and drank, then after comparing what they did, they plan for tomorrow and journal why they were successful or why they weren’t. It’s the last part that is so powerful, a short 3-5 minutes of self-introspection. Self-introspection is the key to behavioral change. It is the key that allows a person to see their habits and then make very small changes that break bad habits, solidify good habits and strengthens willpower.

Third, willpower is developed over time. It is developed by being accountable to ones-self on very little things every single day. But it MUST be written down. If I planned to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and I didn’t, why? When I look at my day, I may realize that I went to bed too late to get up early and cook bacon and eggs. So, instead, I ate a yogurt that was in the fridge. I am accountable to myself. If I plan to eat bacon and eggs tomorrow, I must either go to bed earlier, prepare them the night before, or throw out the yogurt . . . so not to be a temptation again. This is written down and I make a very small change tomorrow.

Over time, this self-introspection becomes easier and easier, to the point that you do it sub-consciously. It is this sub-conscious self-introspection and change will be seen by others as self-control or willpower. Just like a working or strengthening a muscle, recording short goals and and accounting for them makes your self-discipline stronger. The self-discipline muscle becomes more powerful. In time, a split second decision not to binge on that piece of cake will be seen as strong willpower by those around you. You’ll recognize that it’s just flexing your self-discipline muscle.

So, my next question to you is . . . where’s your diet journal?