My Blog

Just so you know who's behind your Jumpstarts... me with Suzanne Cook (Amazing Office Manager) and Kate Henderson (Dynamo Jumpstart Coordinator) out to lunch today.

We now need to decide on the super powers of Mr Metabolism and The Metabolic Woman. Any ideas?

Click comment below, Join me on Facebook or Sign-in and see the Discussion to give us you ideas.

On today's Morning Show I got the opportunity to promote nutrient-rich foods again. This is something I never tire of. Here's a check list of my top picks for what to eat when.  

Watch today's Morning Show segment

7am Breakfast - Rolled oats for low-GI sustained energy and B-vitamins to help you concentrate.

10am Morning Tea - Blueberries for a phenol antioxidant boost to help fight stress reactions in the body.

1opm Lunch - Salmon to top up omega-3 healthy fish oils.

3pm Afternoon tea - Almonds to help keen the fat-craving hunger hormone 'galanin' under control. 

7pm Dinner - Broccoli for a high dose of the antioxidant sulforophane to help reduce inflamation while you sleep.

10pm Supper - Yoghurt to curb late night munchies with just a table spoon or two and give you a calcium top up late in the day.

Whenever I see someone chugging down a bottle of sugary soft drink I wonder would they if knew how many empty calories they were consuming?

To show you, this week’s episode of MJTV demonstrates the sugar content and discusses taxing soft drinks to fight obesity.

Click to watch. What do you think? Add a comment below. 

The statistics: 

• 375 mL can = 9 teaspoons sugar = 739 kJ = 177 cal
• 600 mL bottle = 16 teaspoons = 1332 kJ = 319 cal
• 1.25 litre bottle = 37 teaspoons = 2900 kJ = 694 cal
• 2 litre bottle = 48 teaspoons = 3600 kJ = 861 cal
• In the last 30 years, average energy intake has risen by around 150 – 300 calories (600 – 1200 kilojoules).
• 50% of the extra calories we consume have come from liquid calories, including sugary soft drinks.
• In the 30 years between 1970 and 2000 consumption of calorific soft drinks rose by 70%.
• In the same period in Australia, average annual soft drink consumption more than doubled, increasing from 47.3 litres in 1969 to 113 litres in 1999. For a 13% sugar soft drink this supplies 13.5 kilograms of added sugar per year.
• On August 24, the American Heart Association (AHA) released new guidelines recommending a daily cap on added sugars of 100 calories for most women and 150 calories for men. This equals a 5 and 7.5 teaspoon sugar limit for women and men respectively.
• One 375 mL can of sugared soft drink contains 8-9 teaspoons of sugar, so exceeds the daily sugar cap in one drink. A 2 litre bottle of soft drink contains around 40 teaspoons of sugar.
• On September 16 in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Professor Kelly Brownell and colleagues called again for a tax on drinks with added sugar to fund public health, especially anti-obesity campaigns. It has been reported that a 1% tax per ounce (30mL) of soft drink would raise $50 billion over 10 years.

My view: A tax on sugary “empty calorie” soft drinks would help fund campaigns to fight childhood obesity and give the next generation a better chance of living a healthy life.

What do you think?

In Metabolic Jumpstart, I show how a nutrient-rich, energy-sparse diet the best approach to eating. Sugary soft drinks are Extras. To see how many Extras your plan allows, click here to register and click here to subscribe for Blog updates.

What's your diet personality? Read the groups below and pick which one fits you the best.  

I did a TV segment on this topic yesterday and it's one of my favourites because it shows you how to manage yourself and your natural eating tendencies so you can be successful at eat well and staying in shape.  

Watch yesterday's Morning Show segment

Regimented - Likes order, follows the rules, needs clear targets. But can struggle with flexibility.  In Metabolic Jumpstart, I give you my rules to follow and then show you when you can break them.

Relaxed - Likes broad structure, can adapt diets, needs flexibility. But can stray from the plan. In Metabolic Jumpstart, I show you how to Mix & Match your Plan, but also keep you on Target.

Routine - Likes a set routine, can eat the same food, needs limited choices. But can lack variety. In Metabolic Jumpstart, I show you key nutrient-rich foods to eat every day and show you new choices.

Relationship - Likes to connect with people, can energise others, needs emotional support. But can find comfort food challenging. In Metabolic Jumpstart, you can connect with other Jumpstarters and myself in the Discussion and show you how to manage your mood for more success. 

On July 6th, Trent Morris began his Metabolic Jumpstart. Since then, I've had the honour to meet up with Trent, discuss and film his journey.

Ten weeks flies and now its time to start sharing Trent's story beginning with the 5 minute video below. You'll learn Trent's motivators and triggers for losing weight. 

You'll notice straight away that Trent is a big guy and it won't take you long to learn he's a top bloke and has some generous insights to share. 

In the videos that follow each week (and more frequent to catch you up) you'll see Trent's medical tests, body composition scan, metabolic rate testing and weekly video logs.  

I'll explain the science and all the metabolic stuff so you'll learn heaps and see how Metabolic Jumpstart works. More importantly, you'll discover how to approach getting back into shape the right way and deal with unexpected challenges. 

If you haven't already registered for your own Metabolic Jumpstart or subscribed to my free email updates, please do to receive alerts when there is a new video available.

I hope you'll join me to give Trent a big cheer!

Alcohol is a major source of what I call "sneaky calories". These are calories that make their way into your diet without you realising. They get in the way of seeing results and this is why you need to be objective about them.

To see where you store alcohol on your body, what a standard drink really is and how much you can drink and still stay in shape, check out this week's episode of MJTV.

Wednesday's Morning Show segment was a favourite because the topic was metabolism. Here's what I said to pout the record straight.

You have to eliminate carbs to lose weight

If you cut carbs completely you'll put your body into a state of ketosis which means you may be burning up protein from your muscles for fuel to make up for the shortfall in carbohydrate. Taking protein from your muscles will reduce your metabolic rate which is not good and hard to build up again.

The good news is that most people just need to limit carbohydrate rather than cut it out. Focus on eating nutrient-rich, high-fibre wholegrain cereals and breads and going easy on any refined carbohydrates like sugar and white bread.

What about having dinner before you go to bed?

The strange idea here is that your digestion becomes sluggish at night and therefore you are more likely to store dinner calories as body fat. But digestion takes place automatically 24 hours a day and doesn't slacken off at night.

If you think about it, a sluggish digestion would be an advantage for fat loss as you wouldn't digest and absorb all your carbohydrates, fats and therefore calories. I wish!

The real concern about night-time eating is that you just consume too much food. If you've blown your calorie budget for the day with a muffin at afternoon tea, there are only three places for the excess energy in dinner to go - belly, hips and thighs. If you are still well under your calorie budget for the day including dinner then none of the food you eat at dinner can be stored as body fat.

And some people say you shouldn't eat protein and carbohydrate together?

Another weird one... the usual claim here is that you'll overload your digestive enzymes if you eat protein and carbohydrate at the same meal. But what really happens is your stomach and intestines have separate chemicals to digest protein and carbohydrate and more than enough of these.

Once again, if this myth was true it would be a benefit for weight loss. You'd be combining proteins and carbs at meals to overload digestive juices and reduce the number of calories absorbed. It doesn't work this way though, so mixed meals are OK and a normal way to eat.

How about the one that says metabolism slows down as you get larger?

You commonly hear, "There's a big fat guy. He must have a slow metabolism." But his metabolic rate is actually higher than a smaller, leaner person simply due to the amount of weight he's carrying. He may have had a lower than normal metabolism before he got big and that would have made him more likely to gain body fat and become obese.

One advantage of being larger is that you will burn more calories during exercise because you are carrying around more weight. It's just like carrying sand bags. You have to work harder.

What's the truth about whether eating more often will increase your metabolic rate?

What you hear is that you need to eat every three hours otherwise your metabolic rate will drop. However, this is not the case.

It works like a bank balance. If you deposit the same number of calories over a day it doesn't matter whether you go to the bank three times or six times. The balance - the effect on your metabolic rate will be the same as long as the total food is the same.

The problem with this myth is that some people will overeat because they eat every three hours when they may not be hungry or need food. For someone who just wants to get into shape, eating anywhere between three and six meals a day is fine.

Sure, it's easier to get all your nutrient-rich food when it's spread over meals and snacks but just don't stress if you miss a snack. Your metabolic rate will still be OK.

The take-home message with these metabolism myths is that it's time to get back to basics, focus on eating nutrient-rich food whilst staying under for calorie cap for the day if you want to reduce body fat.

Metabolism is complex, but Metabolic Jumpstart makes it simple.