Coach J's Diet and Nutrition Advice

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My energetic, ambitious wife once introduced me to the following idea:

“I’ll sleep when I die. For now, I’m going to get shit done.”

Some of you are nodding; some are groaning. How many of you have ever come to the box at Firebreather Fitness after a short night…on minimal sleep? What was your workout  that day? I’ll bet your timing was off. I’ll bet your endurance wasn’t what it should have been. I’ll also bet that if you were attempting an Olympic lift, your 1RM wasn’t as high as it should have been.

I confess: I used to come to the box in a sleep-deprived state two to three times a week. Hey, I’m a chronic night-owl (and a parent, business owner, author, blogger, entrepreneur). Like many of you, I wear several hats, and I do some of my best work after 11:30 p.m. For me, I’d stay up late Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night… catching 4-6 hours of sleep, only to crash at 9:30 on Thursday night. I would chronically head into the weekend “tuckered out” and hoping for a couple of naps. What I’ve learned now is that I was really penalizing myself!

Robb Wolf says that sleep is incredibly important, only exceeded in importance by oxygen and water. He holds sleep as important or slightly more important than food!

The Washington Post hits the nail on the head, in my opinion, about sleep deprivation:

The newest study on obesity, from Columbia University, is just the latest to find that adults who sleep the least appear to be the most likely to gain weight and to become obese.

Other researchers have found that even mild sleep deprivation quickly disrupts normal levels of the recently discovered hormones ghrelin and leptin, which regulate appetite. In addition, studies show sleep-deprived people tend to develop problems regulating their blood sugar, which may put them at increased risk for diabetes.

Physiologic studies suggest that a sleep deficit may put the body into a state of high alert, increasing the production of stress hormones and driving up blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. Moreover, people who are sleep-deprived have elevated levels of substances in the blood that indicate a heightened state of inflammation in the body, which has also recently emerged as a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.

Did you hear that? Sleep deprivation = inflammation and dispruption of proper maintenance of blood sugar = weight gain and disease.

As if that weren’t enough to send you sprinting to the mattress for a solid 8 to 10 hours of sleep, here’s what researchers at Stanford University found with regard to sleep and athletic performance:

The amount of sleep an athlete gets appears to have a large impact on sports performance. Cheri Mah of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory has been following the sleep patterns and athletic performance of Stanford athletes for years. Her research continues to show that getting more sleep leads to better sports performance for all types of athletes.

One study she authored, published in 2009, followed the Stanford University women’s tennis team for five weeks as they attempted to get 10 hours of sleep each night. Those who increased their sleep time ran faster sprints and hit more accurate tennis shots than while getting their usual amount of sleep. Mah’s research is some of the first to specifically look at the impact of extra hours of sleep on athletic performance and suggests that sleep is a significant factor in achieving peak athletic performance. This is particularly important for collegiate and professional athletes who have full schedules and often travel for games and competitions. Athletes can easily fail to get regular, consistent hours of sleep. This lack of sleep, or “sleep debt,” appears to have a negative effect on sports performance, as well as cognitive function, mood, and reaction time. Much of this can be avoided by making regular sleep as much of a priority for athletes as practicing their sport and eating right.

According to Mah, many of the athletes have set new personal bests and broken long-standing records while participating in these studies. Researchers speculate that deep sleep helps improve athletic performance because this is the time when growth hormone is released. Growth hormone stimulates muscle growth and repair, bone building and fat burning, and helps athletes recover. Studies show that sleep deprivation slows the release of growth hormone. Sleep is also necessary for learning a new skill, so this phase of sleep may be critical for some athletes. The amount of sleep an athlete gets appears to have a large impact on sports performance.

A quick summary:  sleep = growth hormone = muscle repair + recovery + growth!

So get your sleep.  And start logging your sleep here on the CoachJDietRx site–along with posting your meals daily!

Contributed by the Once-Sleep-Deprived Tin Man Skip

Many of us associate inflammation with what happens when a mosquito bites you on the arm, and that area gets inflamed. Eating certain foods causes inflammation to happen internally – at a CELLULAR level. The cells in your body literally get irritated and swell. Glutens, saturated fats, high-glycemic foods, and high-carb/low protein diets are main causes of inflammation, and unfortunately very common in today’s eating culture. Studies show that inflammation continues to be linked to a laundry list of chronic diseases. Reducing inflammation will ensure health and longevity, and even alleviate joint pain and stiffness.

Here are the key things that have been proven to reduce inflammation:

• Take your Omega 3’s
• Balance your meals (to avoid insulin spikes which put the immune system on high alert, thus creating an inflammatory cellular reaction)
• Eliminate glutens, and replace it with fruits and vegetables.
• Eat lots of leafy green vegetables, minimize starchy vegetables (i.e. potatoes)
• Come to Firebreather Fitness 

Ultimately, following the Zoleo (Zone/Paleo)  lifestyle ensures you are on the right track. Here’s a great article on the causes of inflammation.

The New Year is upon us and like most people; you have probably already started setting goals and making resolutions for 2010. But don’t set yourself up to fail. Set realistic expectations for yourself. Most of us have unrealistic expectations when it comes to food and nutrition. So let’s look at some tips to keep it simple for the next 361 days:

 

~ Post your daily diet on Coach J’s nutrition site!

~ Be accountable.

~ Have 1-2 cheat meals per month rather than a cheat day. You won’t feel so guilty by overdoing it. 

~ If you are reducing caloric intake for weight loss, don’t confuse thirst for hunger.

~ If you are not satiated after eating a meal then try a glass of filtered water before eating. In other words, listen to your body. 

~ If you want to make changes to your diet, start gradually.  Try omitting processed foods for a few weeks, then sugar, and so on, until you reach optimal eating.

~ Don’t load up at the local health food store on lots of expensive supplements that promise perfection and ultimate fitness. 

~ If you eat compulsively, don’t keep trigger foods around the house and tell yourself it will be different this year.  

~ Don’t think that if you reduce your overall fat intake, you will necessarily lose weight or be healthy. Fat is not the villain and a lot of people assume it is. Taking in healthy fat actually helps you to maintain a healthy weight.

~ Insulin is the villain!  Overeating on carbohydrates that gets broken down in the pancreas and converted into sugar makes us fat and vulnerable to diabetes, inflammation and other health issues, the bottom line is to control your intake of carbs.

~ Overtraining is not the answer to overeating. 

~ Eat whole, natural foods.

~ Use only traditional fats and oils, including butter and other animal fats, extra virgin olive oil, expeller-expressed sesame and flax oil and the tropical oils (coconut and palm).

~ Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, in salads and soups, or lightly steamed.

~ If you cannot pronounce an ingredient on a package, don’t eat it.

~ Try and focus on a life change with food and nutrition, not a quick fix just to loose a few pounds. Get with the nutrition team (Coach J, Lis, Carla and Wally) to help you get started with you own personal diet.

~ Choose a Nutrition Buddy. For example, team up with someone at the box to hold your daily diet accountable.  

~ Show up to Firebreather Fitness, show up to Firebreather Fitness and Show up to Firebreather Fitness and make this your mantra.

~ And Finally – Burpees make you fat. (Just Kidding)

Have a Wonderful New Year!     

What is Glucagon?

Glucagon is the counter-regulatory hormone for insulin. It is an important hormone involved in carbohydrate metabolism. Produced by the pancreas, it is released when the glucose level in the blood is low (hypoglycemia), causing the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose and release it into the bloodstream. The action of glucagon is thus opposite to that of insulin, which instructs the body’s cells to take in glucose from the blood in times of satiation. It is also released in response to a protein meal or hunger. It also releases fatty acids used for energy. High levels of glucagon oppose insulin resistance.

Why would high levels of Glucagon be optimal in our systems?

We know that high levels of glucagon oppose insulin resistance, so it stands to reason that the higher levels of glucagon in the system the less likely someone is to becoming insulin resistant. We know that glucagon is released during a high protein meal and hunger. This would lay claim to two practices that we promote on this site. The eating of protein…and when we  say protein we mean “something with a face or soul”, not beans or tofu; these vegetable based proteins are pretenders and are not to be trusted. The second practice is intermittent fasting. Both have shown to stimulate the production of glucagon thus helping us avoid insulin sensitivity and eventual diabetes.