The Summer Slimdown Meal Plan is structured to follow the 16/8 intermittent fasting way of eating. What you eat is important. We all know that. What most people overlook is when to start eating and when to stop. I feel it is a game changer when it comes to fat loss. You will see results without question. Most important, this is a lifestyle change that you can do forever unlike most fad diets and drugs. 

 I wrote an Ebook on the 16/8 fasting structure. You can read it on the homepage. It is a fast read. It should help you understand this meal plan for our Summer Slimdown.

The meal plan that I created can be a guide for you when shopping for food and preparing meals. The attached sheets are designed to teach you balance. You will notice that the plan does not include fast food or even medium-chain (chiles, pf changs, etc.) food guidance. The meal sheets are designed for eating at home. I realize that most of you reading this are likely eating 80 percent of your calories from fast food or medium-chain places.  No worries. The idea of nutrition is a lot like workout programs. Try to get a little better each week. Try and work towards the ultimate goal of eating at home 80 percent while eating out only 20 percent of your week. You will feel better. You will lose weight and keep it off. Without any doubt, you will get healthy. When I say healthy I mean medically. Normal blood sugar. Normal cholesterol. Normal body fat percentage etc. Normal blood pressure. Following this 80/20 rule is easy to do when you follow the Time Restricted Eating Plan. Time restricted eatin is not intermittent fasting. It is simply a set of boundaries that you try and stick with daily. An example is to start eating at 7 am and and be done with dinner by 7 pm. A 12 hour window done 7 days per week will help you lose weight and reset your bodies cycle. Please read it by clicking below.

The meal plan that we offer gives you portion sizes for each meal. Our meal plan is set up with the idea that you are preparing food from home.  If you want to tighten that up even more click below on the link. This link will lead you to the macro calculator provided by Precision Nutrition. I am a certified coach through Precision. This is a tool that I use with new Nutrition coaching clients. Click Here To Calculate Your Portion Sizes 

If you are eating out more often than eating food from home try and use the meal plan as a guide for ordering. You can read my free E-Book that I wrote to help you make better choices when eating out. There are hundreds of places to eat out in Bakersfield  

Another good tool to put on your phone is the Lose It App. Click Here To Get It 

Having an app like Lose It will help you learn your habits. Are you hitting your calorie goals? Are you over on a macronutrient like fat or carbs? You do not have to be obsessive with a food app. Just use it from time to time to stay on track.

The meal plan sheets give you ideas on what to eat and you will notice that I do not suggest exactly when to eat. This will be up to you. If you are trying to lose bodyfat I strongly suggest reading the E-book that I wrote here. Time Restricted Eating 

Here are your meal plans based on your weight. If you weigh 150, use the 130 plan to help you drop bodyfat. If you are trying to put on some muscle, eat right at or above your weight. Click and print out your plan or just save it to your phone. If you have questions, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or come see me after class. 

130 lb meal plan Click for 130 lbs

150 lb meal plan Click for 150 lbs

180 lb meal plan Click for 180 lbs

200 lb meal plan Click for 200 plus lbs

Be patient with yourself. Use this guide to get a little better with your nutrition each day. You will have setbacks. That is just life. Reset by going back to the plan. Keep showing up to your workouts. Consistent workouts will eventually lead to better eating, sleeping, water consumption, avoiding sweets etc. 

Click Here For E-Book - Eating Out

Proper nutrition to fuel your exercise is often overlooked. In fact, many people look at exercise as a way to "erase" their poor nutrition choices. Would you purposefully put the wrong fuel in your car before a long road trip? Not likely. So why would you eat the wrong foods before and after your workout? Just like having the right type of gasoline for your car, your body needs the right fuel for optimal performance in the gym.

At Fit for Life, we have a variety of classes that work to improve all aspects of your physical health. Our Fat Loss class helps you burn body fat through longer duration exercises, as well as increase your muscular endurance. Metabolic Blast stokes your fat burning metabolism and improves your overall fitness level. Sculpt and Tone, as the name suggests, will help you to build muscle through laser focused strength training.

While these classes are geared to give you the most bang for your buck, proper nutrition is the foundation to achieving your own personal health goals. If you feel stuck, your pant size isn't changing, or your body composition hasn't shifted in a positive direction, there is a good chance your nutrition needs a tune up.

In addition, if you have noticed that you don't have the same level of fitness that you use to, or maybe you are dragging yourself through one of our workouts, it would be wise to look to your nutrition first. Rarely do I see people who have poor workout performance with a solid nutrition plan. Our Fit for Life X-Treme Fat Loss Meal Sheet, which has recently been revised to reflect our new Time Restricted Eating Plan, is the perfect set up for improving your nutrition while burning fat and increasing exercise performance.

Designed with performance and fat loss in mind, the Fit for Life X-Treme Fat Loss Meal Sheet is your guide for not only burning body fat and staying lean, but also killing it in the gym. If you are not motivated by losing fat, know that good nutrition will make your workouts more enjoyable and successful. Many times while working with clients, their strength and endurance increase by simply working on following the meal sheet. It is the consistency of sticking to the meal sheet that produces the results you are looking for no matter which goal you are trying to achieve.

If you have used the meal sheet in the past and still need help understanding how to set up your meals, consider scheduling a nutrition session with Tim or I. Just one, one-hour session can set you up for success for the long haul. If you feel you need more attention and need help with accountability, we have a more frequent session plan where you can get the attention and accountability you need.

To schedule an appointment with Tim or I, call the front desk at 325-0900 to check our availability. We have morning and afternoon time slots available! 

Shane Hubbard
NASM-CPT, PN1, HLC 2

This article will serve as a resource for better understanding not only your cholesterol levels, but what you can do to manage and bring your cholesterol numbers into a healthy range. This article will focus on methods related to nutrition and exercise for lowering your cholesterol. It is important you seek the counsel of your doctor before going off or on any medication related to lowering your cholesterol.

What is the Truth About Cholesterol?

Cholesterol has been a somewhat misleading and confusing topic for a lot of people ever since it became the go-to-method for determining early detection of heart disease, stroke, and arteriosclerosis. Since it’s wide spread focus as the cause of early death due to heart disease in the 1960s, science has come a long way in understanding more about the true nature and effects that cholesterol has in the body. Cholesterol is complicated, to say the least, so the lack of clarity on the subject of how cholesterol affects our health is not a surprise. With that said, modern science has a much better understanding of what we need to do bring our cholesterol number into a healthy range.

Going forward, I will break down the complexity of cholesterol into parts that are much more digestible. First we will go over the different types of cholesterol, then talk about what we can do to raise good cholesterol (HDL), lower bad cholesterol (LDL), as well as answering common questions about cholesterol.

The Different Types of Cholesterol

Many people are not aware that you do not have one big cholesterol number, but rather several types of cholesterol. These break down into two major categories:

• HDL cholesterol
• LDL cholesterol

Within HDL and LDL, you have a further breakdown of cholesterol particles called small dense apolipoproteins and large buoyant apolipoproteins. For now, let’s focus on the two major types of cholesterol, HDL and LDL.

High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL)

HDL cholesterol is also known as the “good” cholesterol because of the purpose it serves in the body. HDL cholesterol acts as the police of the cholesterol world. It cleans up the arteries and blood vessels of LDL cholesterol and brings it back to the liver where it can be broken down. This is why you want to have a higher level of HDL than LDL. The more HDL you have, the more protection you have against heart disease, strokes, and arteriosclerosis. That being said, this is not an end all be all approach to staying heathy. While you want to have a higher level of HDL than LDL, lowering your LDL is much more important, and should be a priority when looking to improve your cholesterol numbers.

Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL)

LDL is often considered as the “bad guy” in the cholesterol world. It is the harmful type of cholesterol that sticks to the bottom of our arteries and gunks them up. It is the chronic build up of LDL cholesterol that leads to blocked arteries and eventually heart disease and strokes. These conditions are also often made worse by Type II diabetes and pre-diabetes. As mentioned before, HDL cholesterol has a tendency to be protective against the effects of LDL cholesterol.

When looking at strategies for reducing your LDL cholesterol, exercise and diet play the biggest role. It is also important to realize that you should not simply try to increase your HDL cholesterol in hopes that it will police the LDL cholesterol. If you have high levels of LDL, lowering your LDL should be your main priority.

What’s The Deal With Triglycerides?

Triglycerides are another marker a long with cholesterol to determine what direction your health is going. High levels of triglycerides in the bloodstream typically indicated an increase in calorie consumption and weight gain. They also rise when we over consume refined carbohydrates, trans fats, and sugar. In high amounts, our livers struggle to convert these calories into useable energy and instead stores them as fat. Just like LDL cholesterol, high levels of triglycerides can stick to the walls of our arteries and eventually make our blood thicker. Thicker blood and plaque build up in our arteries increase the risk of heart attack and strokes by as much as 50%. Indeed, keeping our blood levels of triglycerides low should be just as important as reducing our LDL cholesterol! It is worth noting that Fish oil, which we recommend you take on our Fit for Life Meal sheets, has been shown in numerous studies to significantly lower triglyceride levels. Fish oil also helps with inflammation and blood pressure, two body conditions that when managed can reduce your risk of heart disease and death related to high cholesterol.

Does Nutrition Affect My HDL and LDL Cholesterol?

Nutrition plays the biggest role in determining your LDL cholesterol. With the exception of rare genetic predispositions, many people can lower their LDL cholesterol by proper nutrition alone. When it comes to lowering your LDL, the strategy has more to do with limiting the frequency of certain foods than it has to do with eating specific foods all the time. Indeed, eating a diet high in fiber and plants will do amazing things for lowering your LDL cholesterol, but on top of that, managing the amount of junk foods you consume will be highly beneficial.

Believe it or not, dietary fat and cholesterol from foods like eggs and red meat has not been shown to raise your cholesterol. This contradicts the common belief that fat from food makes your cholesterol go up. In fact, most the cholesterol in your body is made by the body itself! 75% of all cholesterol found in your body is made in the body, not form the food you eat. Cholesterol from food only accounts for 25% of total cholesterol. If you don’t eat enough cholesterol rich foods, your body simply makes more cholesterol. If you eat enough cholesterol rich foods, your body doesn’t need to make as much.

Does Exercise Affect My HDL and LDL Cholesterol?

Yes. Physical activity is one of the best ways to raise your HDL cholesterol and lower your LDL. One of the best ways you can manage your LDL cholesterol is by keeping your body fat levels within healthy ranges. For men this is anywhere between 10-20%, and for women 17-24% is ideal for optimal health. Although exercise can have an effect on your LDL levels by way of lowering body fat, your nutrition plays a much bigger role in lowering your LDL cholesterol than exercise. Exercise is a much more effective tool for raising your HDL cholesterol.

What Types of Foods Affect HDL Cholesterol?

Healthy fats and lean proteins are the best foods for improving your good cholesterol. Remember, cholesterol rich foods are not going to effect your cholesterol negatively. Foods like whole eggs, red meat, avocados, nuts, seeds, and saturated fat like butter and coconuts are actually good for you. These foods help keep the cholesterol in our bodies in the healthy ranges. Fish oil also helps keep the ratio of good fat to bad fat in your body balanced. By getting more omega 3s found in fish oil and flax seeds, you reduce your overall risk of disease substantially.

What Types of Food Affect LDL Cholesterol?

The biggest culprit in raising your LDL cholesterol are highly refined foods like sugar, trans fats, and highly progressed carbohydrates like donuts, cakes, cookies, potato chips, french fries, and the like. When consumed in large quantities and frequently, these foods will push your LDL cholesterol through the roof! On a positive note, fiber has been shown to bind to LDL cholesterol and take it out of the body, effectively keeping it from circulating back into the body to be resorbed and used. Indeed, fiber missing from our diets has contributed to a national rise in LDL cholesterol.

What Are Healthy Levels of HDL and LDL Cholesterol?

As a general rule of thumb, you want HDL to be higher than LDL cholesterol. In terms of numbers, here are some examples so you know what to aim for when improving your cholesterol profile.

Total Cholesterol Level

Less than 200mg/dL (Desirable)

200-239mg/dL (Borderline High)

240mg/dL and above (High)

LDL Cholesterol Levels

Less than 100mg/dL (Optimal)

100-129mg/dL (Good)

130-159mg/dL (Borderline High)

160-189mg/dL (High)

190mg/dL and above (Very High)

HDL Cholesterol Levels

Less than 40 mg/dL (Major Risk for Heart Disease)

40-59 mg/dL (Lower Risk for Heart Disease)

60 mg/dL and higher (Considered Protective Against Heart Disease)

Factors That Affect LDL Cholesterol Outside of Nutrition and Exercise

Age

As men and women get older, their cholesterol levels naturally rise. While this is normal, it is still important to manage the balance of HDL and LDL. As we get older, we have to work more diligently on nutrition because our bodies don’t function the same in our 40s, 50s, and 60s as they do in our 20s and 30s.

Family History

If you have a family history of high cholesterol, it is important that you find out if you have a naturally high cholesterol number. You may be predisposed to a high cholesterol level due to genetics, but that doesn’t mean you are at the mercy of your genes. You have more control than you might think. To be safe, ask your doctor to be tested for Familial hypercholesterolemia. This is a genetic condition that severally limits the natural elimination of LDL cholesterol. This defect can keep your LDL cholesterol high no matter how sound your nutrition plan.

High Blood Pressure

This is usually caused by stress, obesity, lack of exercise, and a poor diet. Improving your stress levels, sleeping better, exercising more, and eating more whole foods can help lower your blood pressure

Smoking

This one is self explanatory. You should not be smoking at all.

Shane Hubbard

NASM-CPT

PN Level 1 Nutrition Coach

Holistic Lifestyle Coach Level 2

Are Artificial Sweetners Safe to Use?

Reports have come out in the past that artificial sweetners are bad for your health and that you should avoid them at all costs. The issue with those reports are that they were vague and lacked creditable resources. In fact, many of the meantioned claims were subjective, meaning they were not proven with measurable or repeatable results. 

As it turns out, the amount of artificial sweetners you would have to consume for it to be harmful to your health is about the amount you could fit in a bathtub! The drinks you are consuming, like diet coke, zero-carlorie energy drinks, and the like dont have anywhere near that much artificial sweetner in them. That being said, there are healthier options for artificial sweetners when available that we recommend you consume.

Can I Use Artificial Sweetners During My Fasting Time?

Yes! Because artificial sweetners are not broken down by the body like foods or sugar, they do not break your fast. This is great for those who consume coffee or tea in the morning and want a little bit of sweetness to cut the bitter taste. Remember that artificial sweetners are often 100 times sweeter than sugar, so you do not need a lot. We recommend using 1 teaspoon per 1 cup of coffee or tea.

Which Artifical Sweetners To Use

While we don't want you to go mad trying to have the best quality artificial sweetner, it is important to have healthy options when available. Some restuarants might have natrual artificial sweetners like Stevia, but most will have Equal, Nutra Sweet, Sweet & Low, or Splenda.

Stevia (Best Source)

Stevia is a natural sweetner that has zero calories. You can add this to your coffee or tea without losing the sweetness. Because Stevia is so highly concentrated, it is best to use in small amounts.

Other common names for stevia products are Truvia and Pure Via

Splenda

Splenda is another common artificial sweetner you might find in drinks or even foods. Like many other artificial sweetners, Splenda is very sweet, so you don't need a lot of it when using it in coffees, teas, or even in baking. It does well when exposed to high temperatures and wont lose it's sweetness when put in hot coffee or tea.

Aspartame

Aspartame is the most used artificial sweetner out there. You can find it in most diet sodas and zero calorie energy drinks. While not a natural source of artificial sweetner like Stevia, it interacts with the body the same as with other artificial sweetners. One thing to know about aspartame is that it will lose it's sweetness when put in hot liquids, so keep this in mind if you are going to put it in hot coffees or teas.

Shane Hubbard
NASM-CPT, PN1, HLC 2

Apple cider vingear has numerous health benefits. One of its most talked about benefits is it's ability to lower and control blood sugar. With 64% of Bakersfiled diabetic or prediabetic, controlling blood sugar is a serious priority for this city. In fact, studies show that when apple cider viengar becomes a staple in the routines of people with prediabetes and diabetes, their blood sugar levels are reduced by 25-32%.

Keeping blood sugar is not only important for health in general and preventing and controlling diabetes, but also for fat loss. When the body has a blood sugar level that is beyond a base level amount, the body will not burn fat for fuel. This is because it is using the blood sugar for energy instead. Only when your blood sugar is stable can the body burn fat for energy. This is one of the major road blocks for many people when it comes to burning body fat. You can eat all the best foods, exercise every day, but unless you balance your nutrition and keep blood sugar levels low, you will not burn body fat.

Fasting Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe

In a shaker cup or glass put:

Ice (half way)

1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Half a medium lemon 

Fill to the top with water

Feeding Window Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe

In a shaker cup..

Ice

1 teaspoon raw honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 ounce cranberry juice

2 tablesooon Apple cider vinager

Water to top

Shane Hubbard
NASM-CPT, PN1, HLC 2

A traditional Time Restricted Eating (TRE) strategy has you fast in the beginning of the day and feed or eat in the latter part of the day. While this strategy works well for a lot of people, skipping breakfast for many is not an ideal way to start off the day. Sometimes this is due to social conflicts such as company meetings in the mornings, or families bonding over breakfast. Luckily, because of the flexibility of Time Restricted Eating, there is an easy work around for those who want to have breakfast but also get the benefits of this Time Restricted Eating strategy. Here is the solution.

In a typical Time Restricted Eating strategy, you have a 12-16 hour fasting window where you skip breakfast and a mid morning snack, as well as caloric drinks. Then between 10am and 12pm you break your fast with your first meal. After you break your fast, you have an 8 hour window of time to consume your normal meals + a snack if it fits in with your fat loss meal plan type.

Your Feeding Window

For those who want to still have breakfast, your Time Restricted Eating Plan is some what reversed compared to the traditional version. For example, let’s say you have breakfast around 8am before work with your family, a friend, or co-workers. You take your first bite of food and have now just started your feeding window, which is 8 hours long. Within the feeding window you are aiming to eat according to the meal sheet. Now, because Time Restricted Eating is a flexible strategy, their is no shame in trying to follow every recommendation to a tee.

For example, let’s say you have a plan to bring lunch to work the next day but a few co-workers want to go out to lunch. You really want to go, but you packed your lunch. We want you to feel good about ditching what you brought for lunch that day and going to lunch with your co-workers.

A big part of overall health is your social health. Being the person who brings their lunch and foregoes having lunch with your co-workers can cause social stress and make sticking to a healthy plan much harder.

We want you to have the flexibility to saving your packed lunch for another day and enjoying time with your co-workers outside of work. Does this mean you should throw caution to the wind and order the fattiest food on the menu? No! We want you to still aim to chose healthy options while out to eat. In fact, you can still follow the basic guidelines of our meal plan at any restaurant!

Now that we have talked about your feeding window and how it starts earlier in the day, let’s talk about your fasting window.

A Word About Caffeine And How It Fits Into Your Plan

Because your feeding window is open during the morning and early afternoon hours, you have the ability to add cream or sugar to your caffeinated drink of choice. In a more traditional Time Restricted Eating Plan, cream and sugar, or anything adding calories to your liquids, is not allowed. With that being said, remember to be conservative with how much cream and sugar you put in your drink. Only use as much as you need. When it comes to having caffeine in the morning regardless of fasting or feeding windows, make sure you finish drinking it before 11am.

Fasting Window

From 4pm until 7am the next morning, you will not eat any food and only consume water and/or water with apple cider vinegar. This means you will be skipping dinner as oppose to breakfast in a traditional Time Restricted Eating plan. Be sure to notice that caffeine is not allowed in the afternoon as it will keep you up past the time you should start getting ready to go to bed.

Good quality sleep is another part of fat burning and not getting enough sleep can hinder your fat burning goal. Not only that, but lack of sleep has been shown to disrupt the natural sleep/wake cycle causing your body to store calories regardless of how well you eat. Along with Time Restricted Eating, getting high quality sleep is a great one-two punch for a fat burning lifestyle!

For a lot of people, skipping dinner leads to feeling better in the morning, and so this strategy is flexible for those who experience that. For some, skipping dinner is less in line with their lifestyle and so skipping breakfast works better long term. Regardless of which strategy you use, Time Restricted Eating is a very flexible eating plan that can be adjusted based on your lifestyle.

Time Restricted Eating and Workouts

Knowing how to structure your time restricted eating around your workouts is crucial to the sustainability of your fat burning goals. There are two basic methods we teach at Fit for Life Gym: The morning/lunch workout structure and the evening workout structure.

How to Use Time Restricted Eating If You Workout in the Morning/Lunch

Here is a sample of how to structure your TRE around your workout

4am - Wake, drink 10oz of water

5am - Workout fasted

9am - Break fast with first meal (Feeding window open)

12-1pm - Eat meal two based on meal sheet

6pm - Eat meal three based on meal sheet (Feeding window closed)

8pm-9am - Fasting

How to Use Time Restricted Eating If You Workout in the Evening

Here is a sample of how to structure your TRE around your workout in the evening

4am - Wake, drink 10oz of water (lemon optional)

**Fasting Until First meal around 12-1pm**

12-1pm Break fast. Have meal one based on the meal sheet

4:30/5:30pm - Workout

7:30/8:00pm -Have second meal/ End feeding window

8pm-12pm - Fasting

In-Depth Nutrition Guidance 

While you can certainly lose a ton of body fat using our extreme fat loss meal plan, sometimes more explanation and detailed guidance is needed. 

Both Tim and I are certified nutrition coaches who can help make your journey to a healthier body simplified beyond just the meal sheet. Some times all it takes is a single 30-minute nutrition coaching session to nail even the most confusing topics. Put your mind at ease and schedule one today! See the front desk for scheduling a time to meet with Tim or I.

Shane Hubbard

NASM-CPT, PN1, HLC 2

If you have ever done one of our body fat tests, you know that hydration percentage is just as important as lean mass and body fat percentage. That is because the body functions less optimally at less than 60% hydrated. Very rarely do we see people with hydration percentages that would put them in a group of physiologically hydrated people, which is a major concern for overall health and improving body fat levels. A study done on 3,020 people concluded that 75% of those studied are chronically dehydrated. Most people we test are around this same number, and it is only reasonable to translate this to the American population. The fact is, we are not drinking enough water, and it is impacting our health dramatically. In this article, I am going to explain not only what proper hydration can do for you, but why not being properly hydrated is keeping you from reaching your fitness and body composition goals.

The Effects of Chronic Dehydration

One of the reasons the effects of chronic dehydration are not taken more seriously starts with the simple fact that most people have never been properly hydrated. A recent study done on the effects of dehydration found that a mere 5% drop in water levels in the body can cause a 25-30% loss in energy; even a 3% drop can cause fuzzy thinking, “brain fog” and a slower metabolism. If you are wondering how small a 5% drop in hydration is, exercising intensely for just one hour can decrease your hydration levels by 2-4%! If you are often tired after a good night's sleep or often have a hard time thinking clearly, there is a good chance you are dehydrated. If that doesn’t make you reach for your water bottle, check this out. Dehydration is one of the most common risk factors for kidney stones. This is because being properly hydrated helps filter minerals, specifically calcium, through the kidneys. If calcium builds up in the kidneys due to lack of water, you get kidney stones. Simply adding 50 ounces or more of water a day is a start to keeping kidney stones in your rearview mirror.

A Day Without Water Could Kill You

The importance of hydration can be found in the simple fact that a person can go days without food, but a day without water can kill them. Indeed, this is true, and also why it is so important to prioritize water in a healthy lifestyle. In order for our metabolisms to function properly, water intake needs to be high. Tim and I talk about water and proper hydration all the time during our nutrition coaching sessions, especially for those seeking fat loss. Study after study shows that your body won’t let go of fat if you are not properly hydrated. Why? It’s simple, fat stores are essential for survival. Your body already doesn’t have enough water to properly function, why would it give up fat too? Our bodies are not stupid, they are built to survive. If you aren’t getting enough water daily, you won’t reach your fat loss goals. Plain and simple.

What Causes Dehydration?

Dehydration can be caused by sweating, urinating, and digestion without properly putting the water back in the body. Sweating is our body's natural cooling down mechanism that requires water stored in the body to help cool us down in hot weather and when exercising.This is especially true in the scorching Bakersfield summer months. This past summer, we had close to 75+ days with temperatures above 95 degrees. The hotter the weather, the more our body has to regulate the change in body temperature, which can change by simply going from your house to your car!

Caffeine and alcohol are other culprits of causing the body to become more dehydrated. Indeed, caffeine upregulates the adrenal glands which in turn forces “free water” from the body into the bladder. Alcohol does the same thing. It actually takes two water molecules to transport one ethanol molecule out of the body, so alcohol is two fold dehydrating on the body. In fact, many of hangover symptoms people experience after a night of drinking are caused by the dehydration effect of alcohol.

How To Know If You Need To Be Drinking More Water

If you have done a body fat test, Tim or I have already highlighted for you the need to consume more water based on your hydration percentage. For those who don’t know their hydration percentage, here are some tell tale signs you are dehydrated.

Constipation

Constipation or hard to pass stools are a sign that you are not getting enough water. When we digest food, water helps break down and transport food through the small intestine, into the colon. This water is then soaked up in the colon where it is transported to the bladder to be excreted. If you are dehydrated, you have limited water to help push digestion through the system, leading to hard and dry stools. If you have a hard time going to the bathroom, or don’t regularly, there is a good chance you are not drinking enough water.

Dark Urine

Another sign you are not drinking enough water is the color of your urine. The darker your urine is, the more dehydrated you are. The lighter the color, the more hydrated you are. A bit of caution on over hydration. You don’t want to drink too much water too fast. If your pee is too clear, you are depleting your electrolytes too quickly which is not good for staying hydrated or performing in the gym. A light yellow color is optimal for hydration. It is also worth noting that if you take a multivitamin, there is a good chance it is making your urine bright yellow, which will throw off your perceived level of hydration.

A Word on Salt and Electrolytes

Not consuming enough high quality salt is also found to be a form of dehydration. Most of us have been told by doctors to avoid salt because of the worry that consuming high amounts of salt will cause high blood pressure. Like in all things, though, not getting enough salt can also be detrimental to our health. Make it a priority to buy high quality salt, like himalayan or celtic sea salt, and put some on your food. Don’t worry about having too much as our bodies have natural mechanisms for telling us we are getting too much salt. My personal favorite, Redmond's Real Salt, is harvested from an ancient dried up seabed. This ensures that the salt I am getting is of the highest quality.

Drinking Sports Drinks Will Not Keep You Hydrated

We are consistently advertised to that sports drinks are the solution to our dehydration problem. And indeed, sports drinks do have electrolytes in them, but they also have a ton of sugar. Sugar is known to have dehydrating effects on the body. So sports drinks are actually terrible for hydrating the body! This is because consuming high amounts of processed sugar pushes water out of your cells and into the bloodstream which done enough causes your body to excrete the water from your cells. And since the hydration of your cells mirrors the hydration of your body, consuming sports drinks and other sweetened beverages is actually dehydrating. If you are serious about improving your health, sweetened beverages should be consumed infrequently.

Shane Hubbard CPT, PN1

As a nutrition coach, one of my main goals for you is creating or using pre-existing tools that make proper nutrition easy. For the most part, gone are the days of wondering if this vegetable or that vegetable is good for you -- the PSA has always been: If it is a vegetable, just eat it. Unfortunately, that isn’t motivating enough to eat mushrooms with your steak, tomatoes with your salads, or spinach in your omelet. Why? Well, one, because we are lazy. And two, because we are busy. Busy people don’t think they have time to buy, prepare, and consume all these different foods. And to an extent, this is true. But we also have this idea that we have to do everything at once. This overwhelming feeling of not completing the most difficult task first gets the best of us. So, in the long run we stop trying. Then, we get out of routine, get lazy, and stop completely. The secret is to find a middle ground, a solution that takes solid nutrition and easy of implementation. Lucky for you, I’m about to save you more time than it takes to properly do a backward Bear Crawl during one of my Sculpt and Tone workouts.

Blend Your Way to Lean

The invention of the blender is probably the best tool since the automobile. Blenders are great because you can make whole food really, really easy to prepare and consume, yet not lose any of the key reasons why you are eating vegetables in the first place. Here is an overview of why whole food shakes solve your proper nutrition problems:

• Portability
• Convenient Calories
• Predigested
• Nutrient Dense
• Protein Rich 

Portability

Breakfast is the most rushed meal of the day. In fact, most of us don’t even eat breakfast, which is not bad if we are doing a purposeful fast.This creates an environment that forces us into making bad nutritional choices throughout the day, as well as a higher chance of over consuming junk food calories at night. Whole food shakes solves that problem. The beauty of shakes are indeed in the portability they provide. You can even set up all the ingredients ahead of time, add water or milk in the morning, blend, and be on your way. Or better yet, make the night before and store in the fridge over night. To make it even more convenient, blender companies like Nutribullet are making the blender and the cup one. Healthy, portable food has never been easier.

Nutritious Calories Have Never Been More Convenient

This is likely a no-brainer for most of us. Convenience is why we eat away from home. Cooking is the part most of us don’t enjoy, or if we do enjoy it, the part we don’t have the time for. As someone who loves to cook, I’ll be the first to say that preparation of food does take time to do, something we don’t think we have. I’m going to guess you feel the same way, which is why whole food shakes save us all. Sure, you could just grab a protein bar or some other packaged food claiming to be healthy. But we all know how that goes, they aren’t as good for our health as they say they are, and have little to no true deep nutritional value.

Predigested

This benefit flies under the radar unless you are someone who works in the business of getting people healthier. That being said, on the whole, most of us don’t digest our food well. Why? Because most of us eat too fast, don’t chew our food enough, and are dehydrated among many other reasons. If our food isn’t broken down properly, we don’t absorb the calories, nutrients, vitamins, or minerals we need to function optimally. If we aren’t properly hydrated, it is harder on our digestive system to absorb and transport vitamins, minerals, and key nutrients throughout our body. If that isn’t enough, most of us have compromised stomach acid (most notably due to stress), making the breakdown of food even less efficient. This is why liquid nutrition can be so beneficial, and often why people have more energy consuming a diet higher in whole food liquid nutrition than solid whole food nutrition.

Nutrient Dense

Provided you are making your own whole food shakes and not buying some company’s version of the same thing, you are going to get more nutrients in your diet with whole food shakes. Why? Going back to predigested calories, the availability of your calories are much higher in a whole food liquid shake than even a solid whole food meal. This isn’t to say that liquid meals are better for you than whole food meals. But in times where you are short on time and want a well-rounded nutrient dense meal, whole food shakes are a game changer.

Protein Rich

Whether you are a vegan, vegetarian, or animal eater, you can find a protein powder that will work for you. Everyone will need a different amount per shake depending on bodyweight, metabolism type, and goals, but it is safe to say that every whole food shake should have protein. If you are unsure how much protein you should have in a shake, check the meal sheet you have been given in one of our 6 Week Programs. If you don’t have one, come by our gym to find out more about how much protein you should have in your whole food shakes.

What’s The Difference Between Whole Food Shakes and Juicing?

Juicing has been around for awhile. And while the concept of juicing makes all the sense in the world from a convenience standpoint, there still remains one major flaw: a loss of fiber.

While science still doesn’t know exactly what makes a carrot so great, it is safe to say that the fiber in the carrot is just as important as the carotein that claims to help with eyesight. An isolation of any one nutrient or component of food is never the solution. Rather, the solution lies in the completeness of food as a whole. This is why it turns out juicing isn’t so great, especially when it comes to fruits. The loss of fiber from juicing is like a boat that has a punctured hull: it is going to take water in fast. And when it comes to absorption, faster is not always better. The one exception would be after exercise when your body needs calories fast to recover more efficiently. This is why our whole food shakes are more well-rounded than store bought shakes. The completeness of whole foods and the convenience and portability of shakes is a perfect combination for a solid nutritious meal.

Shane Hubbard CPT, PN1

About 10 years ago, I wrote a blog post that was very popular. In fact, it was the most popular article I have ever written. It was entitled “Where to Eat Out In Bakersfield.” When I wrote the article, people seemed to want to eat out 2 to 3 times per week and needed direction on what foods qualify as healthy. I did make it clear that the number one choice when it comes to eating healthy is to shop and cook rather than eat out. A couple of years after I wrote the article, I started to notice a trend towards people eating out 4 to 5 days per week. As someone who is trying to help people eat healthy, this concerned me. As I saw the trend towards eating out continue to grow, it was no surprise that the fast food chains were growing. If you support them, they grow. Over the past 10 years, we have all seen fast food turn up in every new shopping center. They are on every corner in Bakersfield these days.

On a list of cites all across the United States that rank high with fast food choices, Bakersfield is listed as 16th on the list of 18,443. I have spent the last 19 years in Bakersfield trying to combat obesity with my clients, boot campers, team training groups etc., and of course nutrition talks. When I talk nutrition, I am constantly trying to get people to shop for food and cook. My job has become tremendously hard over the past 8 years due to the overwhelming amount of fast food choices offered in this city. I am not alone. I am sure trainers all over Bakersfield are finding it harder to get people to eat at home. It really is the solution. Eating at home is always going to be lower in sodium, saturated fats, sugars, preservatives, etc. Fast Food chains simply do not care about offering actual healthy items. The items that they claim are healthy are no different. They are simply portioned smaller. A small amount of crap food is still crap food.

All fast food is bad for you. I am sorry if you do not like that statement, but it is true. I am not saying that you have to be perfect and never eat it. If 80 percent of your meals come from home and 20 percent of your meals come from eating out, you are good. Most people that I am trying to help have that equation flipped. That is a serious issue. Here is why:

Fast food beef is very low quality. The fat content is usually 30 percent or higher. Animals that are fed hormones, toxins, cheap food and/or antibiotics store these things in their fat. You eat the meat and their fat and you have now ingested those wonderful additives. Ninety-nine percent of low and medium chain food places offer caged chickens. Caged chickens are fed the same and yet have no way of exercising as they would if they were free range. Caged chickens are pumped with additives and hormones. So your nuggets, sandwiches, salads, etc., all come from that source. In terms of your health, this source of meat no matter how it was prepared, is bad for you.

Fast Food chains love to market using keywords like: grilled, flame broiled, skinless, fat free, etc., to sell the public crap. Grilled crap is still crap. Fat free crap is still crap. If a professional athlete is on a commercial selling you on a sandwich that is served out of a gas station, it does not make it healthy. If that same place is using marketing terms like “eat fresh” and sells you processed, nitrate enriched meat, is not fresh and definitely not healthy.

Here is my list exploiting fast food chains to prove why you should avoid them as often as possible. I will not use real names for obvious reasons.

1. The large M place. The father of all fast food.
a. Cheap processed beef and chicken full of hormones and antibiotics
b. Cheap processed buns full of sugar
c. Horrible choices for kids and yet they market heavy to kids as early as 2 years old to get them hooked.
d. Deceiving marketing to all ages. They spend billions to convince you that they are great for families
e. For their influence and blueprint making other fast food chains all most as popular as they are.
f. Super Sizing

2. Rhymes with Taco Hell
a. Their beans and cheeses all carry transfats. Trans Fats are so bad for human consumption that they are illegal to use in other countries and even some states in the U.S.
b. They use cheap quality beef and add fillers and preservatives to stretch their product. This makes it cheaper to sell, but worse on your health
c. Driving prices down to convince the public it is cheaper for you and your family to eat there instead of going to the store and buying food. I hear this all the time.
d. Claiming to be authentic Mexican food when it is not even close

3. The place that uses commercials claiming you will lose weight eating sandwiches.  I realize the public can make their own choices. When a company spends millions on a message like that, unfortunately it works. Bakersfield people have shown a great love for this fake health food place and sadly they are not offering weight loss sandwiches. Make no mistake, this fast food sandwich chain should be looked at no different than the others I mentioned.

I could list others here and the pattern would be very similar. The burger places follow you know who. The fake Mexican places follow the one above. The sandwich places follow the foot long king. They are all bad for you. No matter how they market, portion or name their food, it is crap food that should be eaten in moderation. If you eat this type of food 5 days a week, you will be unhealthy. The sodium is sure to cause your blood pressure to go up. Your blood sugar is likely to spike towards conditions like diabetes. Your arteries are sure to clog over time. Your weight is very likely to put you in the obese and often morbid obesity category. I know this all sounds daunting and even cynical. Honestly, I am just being truthful. At the same time, I am optimistic that the demand for actual healthy food is going up. Bakersfield people are not quite there yet. We are headed there. The changes will come sooner across the nation due to the demand for healthy fast food in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Colorado, etc. Men’s Health puts out annual fittest cities. The ones at the top are creating a demand for good food. This will influence the fast food industry and at some point reach us.

I will write a follow up to this article that will go over other food options that include prepared meals. As most of you know, I have joined with a great team of people to offer healthy prepared meals. We are called Farm Fit Eats.