No B.S. Blueprint: Eat Like A Beast!

If you apply these principles of eating with an effective , science based training program you are destined to see results you have never experienced before. Take a look at our Super-Effective training program Complete Athlete Formula!

Are the foods you are bringing home the cause of you and your child’s uncontrollable weight gain? Have you been tricked into buying foods that are touted as healthy and eating yourself and your family directly into Diabetes? Have you been consuming foods you’re told are “healthy” but still gained weight, had higher blood sugar, or even developed metabolic diseases? If you’re following the current guidelines of “health food” you are feeding your family in a way that is making yourself and them SICK!

This may seem like a lot to take in, and it is. Remember that it is your quality of life and well-being you are fighting for here and that’s worth putting a ton of energy into if you ask me! So remember that while reading what I’ve written below.

As added bonuses I provide a downloadable food list and at the end of this post I provide 4 tips to help you start eating for mental and physical performance immediately!

I'd like to say something important; Dietary fat will NOT make you fat. There are three macronutrients: Protein, Fat, and Carbohydrate. Dietary fat is something we will cover later on in detail in this document. Refined and processed carbohydates = problems. Fats, proteins, and unrefined carbohydrates = solutions

So, basically the issue is refined and processed carbohydrates containing no fiber. Things like ALL breads, rice, cereal, pasta, ALL types of crackers, hot pockets, pizza, doughnuts, ice cream, almost anything that’s labeled as a breakfast or health snack bar, flavored yogurts, ALL pops (diet and regular), any type of fruit juice, jams and jelly, syrup, ANYTHING that is marketed as reduced fat; reduced fat means they took the good stuff (fat) out of the food and have most likely DOUBLED the sugar content, not good. Other problem foods include: starches (white potatoes, white and brown rice, corn)

Another confusing marketing trick companies use is the whole grain or multi grain option for pastas and breads. Your body does not care if it’s white, whole grain, or multigrain, it will break it down into sugar and cause insulin to spike rapidly.

None of these options are any healthier than ice cream.  Carbohydates of all forms are broken down into sugar. Cheez-its, oreos, cheerios, pop-tarts (just to name a few) and all of the other items that are refined or processed carbohydrates will turn directly into sugar and cause you massive problems.

SUGAR= POISON

Remember that.

In high doses, sugar is a toxin. According to the American Heart association, moderate consumption of sugar is 5-9 teaspoons a day. 4 grams of sugar is one teaspoon and in most typical American diets that “moderate” amount is reached before breakfast alone is over.

Like I stated before, all of those processed carbohydrate foods are not blatantly white table sugar, but they eventually turn into nearly the same thing inside of your body so you must limit or eliminate the intake in the way you eat. Sugar is snuck into almost all foods. Read nutrition fact labels and ingredient lists and you’ll see it’s in ketchup, salad dressings, and spaghetti sauces in HIGH amounts so be wary of those as well.

Sugar can be hidden in almost every food you eat if you’re not alert to the all the ways sugar is added to the food at the supermarket. It’s hidden by many different names, listed as other ingredients, and there is also no recommended daily percentage next to the amount on labels. All of these things are confusing, misleading, and they are meant to be that way.

Sugar: The Ingredient with Aliases

Sugar is undoubtedly snuck into our food. The process of getting more sugar into food is simply performed by renaming sugar. Large food companies are aware of the claims that sugar is linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and many other metabolic diseases like fatty liver disease, overactive and underactive thyroid. When the public started avoiding sugar, The Sugar Association (that’s a real association) had to figure out ways to keep adding it in mass quantities to our food.

Knowing sugar is a buzz word people will avoid forced the association to develop up to 56 different names for sugar! For quick identification of sugar look for ingredients with the suffix –ose. Glucose, high fructose corn syrup, maltose, dextrose, lactose, and fructose. Not all the names for sugar end in –ose though.

Here are the common additional names sugar goes by on our food labels:

Cane juice, Dehydrated cane juice, Cane juice solids, Cane juice crystals, Dextrin, Maltodextrin, Dextran, Barley malt, Beet sugar, Corn syrup, Corn syrup solids, Caramel, Buttered syrup, Carob syrup, Brown sugar, Date sugar, Malt syrup, Diatase, Diatastic malt, Fruit juice, Fruit juice concentrate, Dehydrated fruit juice, Fruit juice crystals, Golden syrup, Turbinado, Sorghum syrup, Refiner's syrup, Ethyl maltol, Maple syrup, Yellow sugar

Without even knowing it you could be consuming insane amounts of sugar on a daily basis and have no clue. You must be aware of how much sugar you eat in a day if you want to be truly healthy and avoid blood glucose levels that are regularly pre-diabetic.

 Just to reiterate this point; low fat, reduced fat, and no fat food (this includes skim milk) items are complete bullshit and they are basically the cause of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. Low, reduced, or no fat means tons of sugar. Avoid this marketing trap like the plague.

Now you’re probably saying, “Well jeez Shae, can I eat anything at all?” The good news is, yes you can!

There are a ton of things that are going to help stabilize your blood sugar and promote weight loss. These foods will also increase your body composition which means more muscle and less body fat.

Download this food list HERE. Print it off and take it with you to the store. Start buying quality food as soon as possible.

Carbohydrate Sources

You want to be eating a diet with tons of colorful and leafy green vegetables, spinach, kale, collards, chard, lettuce, bok choy, mixed greens salad with arugula, spring greens, baby spinach, and any herbs or spices you enjoy.

Include broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, cabbage, artichoke, sauerkraut, mushrooms of any kind, cucumbers, onions, carrots, radishes, asparagus, brussels sprouts, garlic, tomatoes, and any other non-starchy vegetables you enjoy or find at the store.

You can include fruits, but only in smaller amounts, things like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, oranges, zucchini, and squash (Last two are low sugar fruits). Fruit still contains a good amount of sugar and can cause spikes in insulin but you’re getting the fiber as well so that is a benefit.

Protein

Next up, protein. The sources of protein you choose should be from whole sources such as chicken breast, steaks, roasts, lean ground beef, ground turkey, pork chops, filets of any kind of fish, or tuna in water, shrimp with no breading.  

Lamb, whole organ meats, bison, chicken, turkey, duck, ostrich, veal; wild game. Lean lunch meat is acceptable but know that it is processed and whole sources are a better option. Lunch meat would still be a better option than any form of processed carbohydrate so keep it handy when you’re in a pinch.

Eggs are a fantastic source of protein and healthy fats. The yolks are the most nutrient dense part of the egg and are necessary for your health, remember dietary fats are good for you. Use eggs in any fashion you can think of, hardboiled, scrambled, over-easy, poached. A good reminder for protein is; Meat, Fish, Fowl, Eggs.

Fats

Lastly we cover fats. It’s unfortunate that body fat and the macronutrient fat have the same name because they are very, very different. Dietary fat is necessary for your body to build hormones and key for many vital functions. We’ve been tricked into believing that fat is the enemy and this is a lie. Fat is a little more calorically dense than the other macronutrients, but that small fact pales in comparison to the health benefits.

Eating a diet high in dietary fats has been shown to decrease a whole host life threatening diseases and ailments.

Healthy sources of fat include: Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil (great option to cook eggs in and other foods as well), avocados, grass-fed tallow and or pasture-fed butter, ghee, almond milk, coconuts, olives, nuts and nut butters (almonds, walnut, brazil, pecan, pistachios, cashews), cheese (except for blue cheeses), and seeds (flaxseed, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds)

Tips for Actually Purchasing, Eating, and Living Healthy

How do you actually avoid causing inflammation, uncontrollable weight gain, low mental performance, and lack of energy in your life? Start to change the way you eat and look at food for starters. I wrote a post suggesting 5 documentaries to help you do just that.

Here are some tips I’ve found helpful for buying and eating quality sources of food.

1. Sticking to the outside edges of the store.

The interior aisles are just filled up with processed, packaged junk food. Stick to the outer edges of the store for fresh produce.

2. Shopping at local farmers markets.

This is a great way to get QUALITY sources of food at a VERY cheap price. Utilize this resource.

3. Starting a garden.

Play a role in the procurement of your food and the growing process, it’s incredibly rewarding and you know exactly whats been put on your food. This is a huge one, get the whole family involved.

 4. Always reading ingredient labels.

Do not just look at nutrition facts, read the ingredients list to find hidden chemicals and sugar in your food.

There you have it! Follow this and you will be thinking, performing, and looking like a total BEAST!

In summary we are trying to remove sugar laden foods that contain absolutely NO fiber from your lifestyle.

Basically you should be striving to eat a lot of lean meat & vegetables (low starch), healthy sources of fat, some fruit and NO sugar.

This will be difficult at first, but if you stick to it you will ABSOLUTELY see results and feel better!

The Real Reasons You Can't Lose the Weight: 5 Documentaries To Help You Seize Your Health

If you're looking for a way to change your life around after you watch these, take a look at our SUPER-Effective training program Complete Athlete Formula!

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Obesity is an epidemic in America. There' no doubt about that.

Unhealthy lifestyles and poor diets are leading to obesity, metabolic syndrome, erectile dysfunction, heart disease, fatty liver disease, and diabetes. 1 in every 10 adults age 20 or older suffers from diabetes. In seniors the number rises to over 1 in 4! That’s a real issue and I hate to tell you but it’s not slowing down.

People want to blame large food corporations, businesses, gigantic company owners, CEO’s, and sugar lobbyists like The Sugar Association. They would not be incorrect in doing so because these companies have deceived the public and deliberately tricked us in order to have higher profits. They absolutely put money before human health and poured chemicals and sugar into our food without telling us, use different names for sugar, and are dishonest about ingredients.

What they are doing is wrong, but blaming them does not get our current health epidemic under control. The real issue now, is not just as simple as blaming companies for ruining our food. The real issue we have is an EDUCATION issue.

You must take control by educating yourself and learning what will keep you and your family healthy and safe.

People cannot eat healthy if they don’t know what REAL healthy eating is. People can’t avoid unhealthy food if they don’t know what in their food is shit and that it’s killing them. It does us no good to place the blame on those associations, companies, or people and take no action for ourselves. The problem is already amidst us so we need solutions and action in this dire time.

Taking action by learning how to truly eat healthy is how you will seize your health. The solution is EDUCATION. People need to be educated on how they are being tricked and fed directly into metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity.

We don’t all have time to sit down and read multiple books, take classes, or get certified in nutrition courses. Great starting places that I have found were these powerful educational documentaries. These are full of facts and real, useful information to help you live a healthier life.

We live in a time where information is easily distributed. I want to share with you some of the resources I have found to be very helpful and changed the way I looked at food and eating habits permanently. In addition numbers 5, 3, 2, and 1 are all available on Netflix so you can find them easily.

Here are 5 documentaries to change the way you look at and consume food forever.

5. Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead 

4. Hungry for Change

3. Food Inc.

2. Sugar Coated

1. Fed Up

The links on these titles will lead you to the documentaries websites which provide facts, resources, recipes, and lifestyle changing habits.  I highly recommend that you take a look at these websites to help with making changes in your life.

While you and I may not agree with everything these documentaries state there are bits of good information in all of them. I think it’s healthy to keep your mind open to other sides of arguments as well, if only to better understand the other side.

Let me know what you guys think over on our Facebook page, Instagram, and Twitter! If you know anybody out there that could benefit from these documentaries or our website please send this to them or SHARE it on social media!

The Real Reasons You Can't Lose the Weight: 5 Documentaries to Help You Seize Your Health

If you haven’t yet, sign up for our newsletter HERE to stay up to date when we have new posts, products, and information for you guys!

Obesity is an epidemic in America. There' no doubt about that.

Unhealthy lifestyles and poor diets are leading to obesity, metabolic syndrome, erectile dysfunction, heart disease, fatty liver disease, and diabetes. 1 in every 10 adults age 20 or older suffers from diabetes. In seniors the number rises to over 1 in 4! That’s a real issue and I hate to tell you but it’s not slowing down.

People want to blame large food corporations, businesses, gigantic company owners, CEO’s, and sugar lobbyists like The Sugar Association. They would not be incorrect in doing so because these companies have deceived the public and deliberately tricked us in order to have higher profits. They absolutely put money before human health and poured chemicals and sugar into our food without telling us, use different names for sugar, and are dishonest about ingredients.

What they are doing is wrong, but blaming them does not get our current health epidemic under control. The real issue now, is not just as simple as blaming companies for ruining our food. The real issue we have is an EDUCATION issue.

You must take control by educating yourself and learning what will keep you and your family healthy and safe.

People cannot eat healthy if they don’t know what REAL healthy eating is. People can’t avoid unhealthy food if they don’t know what in their food is shit and that it’s killing them. It does us no good to place the blame on those associations, companies, or people and take no action for ourselves. The problem is already amidst us so we need solutions and action in this dire time.

Taking action by learning how to truly eat healthy is how you will seize your health. The solution is EDUCATION. People need to be educated on how they are being tricked and fed directly into metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity.

We don’t all have time to sit down and read multiple books, take classes, or get certified in nutrition courses. Great starting places that I have found were these powerful educational documentaries. These are full of facts and real, useful information to help you live a healthier life.

We live in a time where information is easily distributed. I want to share with you some of the resources I have found to be very helpful and changed the way I looked at food and eating habits permanently. In addition numbers 5, 3, 2, and 1 are all available on Netflix so you can find them easily.

Here are 5 documentaries to change the way you look at and consume food forever.

5. Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead 

4. Hungry for Change

3. Food Inc.

2. Sugar Coated

1. Fed Up

The links on these titles will lead you to the documentaries websites which provide facts, resources, recipes, and lifestyle changing habits.  I highly recommend that you take a look at these websites to help with making changes in your life.

While you and I may not agree with everything these documentaries state there are bits of good information in all of them. I think it’s healthy to keep your mind open to other sides of arguments as well, if only to better understand the other side.

Let me know what you guys think over on our Facebook page, Instagram, and Twitter! If you know anybody out there that could benefit from these documentaries or our website please send this to them or SHARE it on social media!

4 Major Reasons You're Not Seeing Results

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Hello all of my fitness freaks!

In today’s noisy world of the interwebs you can find evidence to either support or deny almost any piece of evidence. The quality of facts presented can be questionable at best and sometimes the information is completely false. As far as health and fitness goes, there is an epidemic of uneducated fitness wannabes spewing out whatever they can think of on their facebook live video at that moment.

You’ll hear things like, “I don’t recommend riding your bike, it takes too long to get your heart rate up”, as this “fitness guru” is sitting on a stationary bike as they say that. That is ridiculous. My point here is, how do you cut through the overwhelming amount of BS and find valuable information? How do you find sound advice vs. bad advice?

When somebody is consistently inconsistent, stating unfounded generalized useless “hacks”, or uses fitness buzz words to gain attention they are most likely full of it.  The same goes for nutrition, never eat this food or that food if you want to lose body fat. That’s not how the body works; there isn’t one single food that can destroy all of your chances of losing those extra pounds forever. Physiologically it doesn’t add up, it’s all click bait.

I have studied in the field of health and fitness for years. I have my degree in exercise science with a minor in strength and conditioning. I work directly with clients and see the real life struggles they go through. I also see what brings success and what leads to failure. I am constantly consuming new information on both training and nutrition.

I see many impostors lying to people just to gain followers and it makes me angry. Somebody who understands behavioral change AND the science behind the exercise and nutrition methods can explain things in a way that do not seem complicated. A proficient educator will not try to shield their lack of knowledge with confusing terms and theories causing you to get lost. A proficient educator will make it as simple as possible to understand.

I am not saying that I am the most knowledgeable expert but, I do know I possess information that has helped people in the past. My goal is to help guide as many people as possible to success. I am going to tell you the 4 most common reasons I see people not getting the results they want.

These 4 reasons may seem simple, but that’s the best place to start, pick the lowest hanging fruit first! If this solves the issue you don’t need to worry about getting the best program, or which pair of shoes is best for you, or which supplement. Start with the basics, and always return to the basics! Here’s a quick overview of the 4:

1.      Tracking food intake.

2.      Getting clean sleep.

3.      Prioritizing recovery.

4.      Having defined goals.

1. Lack of tracking food intake.

My guess is most people have no idea how many calories they are taking in each day. I hear guys all the time saying they just can’t gain weight or they can’t build muscle. This simply means you are not eating enough food. If you THINK you’re eating as much food as you need but you’re not tracking your calories, you actually have no idea. You MUST track what you’re eating so you know if you are hitting the necessary amount of calories each day. If you can’t gain muscle you have to eat more.

You should know how many grams of carbohydrates are necessary for your training volume, how much protein you need to achieve your goals, and proper fat intake. There are other important factors relating to general health and body composition goals as well. This can be a daunting path to go down, but you must start if you’re not seeing the results you want.

You must know your basal metabolic rate as a baseline of calories needed to just keep your body functioning. Then decrease or increase calories consumed based on weight loss or weight gain goals. MyFitnessPal app is a fantastic tool I use to track daily intake. Start there and you’re on the path to success.

We offer a service of guiding you through the process of finding your macronutrient ratios, taking all of the stress of off you to figure out how much to eat of which macros each day. See the link below to learn more!

Enlightened Athlete Macronutrient Guidance

2. Getting adequate “clean” sleep.

What the heck is clean sleep? What I am referring to here is something called sleep hygiene. This is the quality of sleep you are getting and the environment in which you do so. You are not getting stronger while you are in the gym, you are getting stronger while you sleep and recover. This is the truth and you HAVE to get enough sleep in order to see results physically. To get clean sleep you have to prepare your bedroom for optimal sleeping conditions.

Your room needs to be completely black out dark when you’re sleeping. Even tiny lights from a smoke detector can interrupt sleep due to the photoreceptors on the skin that pick up light. The standby light on your TV is the same thing, I literally put small pieces of duct tape over the light to black it out. Put up black out curtains that do not all ow light in at all while you’re sleeping, you can get these at almost any major retail store that carries home products. If you increase the quality of sleep you’re getting, it will directly transfer to getting stronger and seeing results in and out of the gym.

3. Failure to prioritize recovery.

As I said before, you are getting stronger and allowing the side effects of exercise take effect when you are recovering. If you have serious goals of making gains in the gym, (building muscle, losing weight, getting stronger, increasing performance), then you need to have a recovery protocol in place as serious as your training program. Recovery not only includes recovering the musculoskeletal system, but managing the amount of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol levels will be raised by physical training, but levels can actually be raised more by just THINKING of a stressful situation while lying in bed.

So to truly push your limits you have to mentally recover as well. There are many different tactics you can use for mental stress relief and recovery. Some of the activities I include are yoga, getting a massage, hanging out with family and friends, going on a walk and listening to an audiobook or podcast, and finally my favorite is meditation.

Meditation is the most beneficial tactic I have been introduced to in my entire life. It is the activity that brings me the best return on my investment. During times of regular meditation I have lasting effects mentally AND physically from this practice. I am calmer, able to think clearly, I am more driven, productive, and creative. Last but not least I am HAPPIER! I enjoy all of the small things in life and I am able to relax and reduce stress levels dramatically.  

There are fantastic apps out there such as, calm or headspace, to learn to meditate if you don’t know where to start. Try this from 20 minutes a day for 7 days straight and you’ll start to notice the benefits.

4.  Having undefined goals.

One of the most important pieces of reaching any goal related to body composition or physical performance is clearly defined goals. You have to know exactly where you want to go in order to get there. Your goals will dictate what style of training you engage in, what your diet looks like and what kind of results you are going to see.

Understanding what you want the end result of your journey to be will allow you to work backwards from your goal. You will be able to implement all of the tools you need to achieve that end result if you work backwards from your goal to where you are now. You have to be chasing personal goals and aspirations to ensure that what you are doing makes sense and is getting you CLOSER to a well planned out goal.

If you lack clearly defined goals you run the risk of ending up just drifting along jumping from program to program, or fad diet to fad diet. Eventually all of it will seem tedious and you will forget why you are putting in all of this hard work, and at that point you break. You will lose motivation and completely give up.

In order to avoid this scenario it is time for you to WRITE DOWN, that part is important, your clearly defined plan or goals. Once you have them outlined it’s time to decide what steps to take next in order to start getting you closer to those goals. If you know you can’t do it alone immediately reach out for help from somebody who has the skills or knowledge to assist you on your journey to achieving success.

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How To Start Your Day Like A Champion

This experimental post will be to the point, and I'm going to ask a favor of everybody reading at the end of this post today.

I promise to provide you with actionable, real world strategies that you can implement in your life immediately. This exercise is going to be something you can start doing tomorrow and continue doing for the rest of your life if you so choose. I want to perform an exercise in self-awareness with all of my enlightened athletes out there. 

If you have never tried this exercise before, I want to let you know it is a powerful one. It will allow you to begin to take control of your automatic thoughts and TAKE CHARGE of the day ahead of you.

As ass kickers and go-getters we need to be able to control our thoughts and what we are focusing on. Too many of us are drifting along letting our minds wander and letting our situation or environment dictate what our minds are focused on. If you're like me, this can drift into negative territory, focusing on all of the bad things as opposed to controlling and focusing our efforts on productivity.  So what do we do?!

Good news, I have a simple exercise to IMMEDIATELY take charge of your thoughts upon waking.

1. The FIRST thing you are going to do every morning for at least the next week is focus in on what your first thought of the day is. I want you to be conscious of the first thing that runs through your mind. Is it anxiety, worry, fear, or anger about work or other situations? Is it fulfillment, gratitude, or  acknowledgement of your fantastic life?
2. WRITE IT DOWN- we have to document this to review it or we can't analyze and the end of your 5 days. just jot a quick note before you start getting ready, this can be one word or even a sentence
3. Review- after 5 days review the 5 notes you have jotted down and take a look at how you start every one of your days. This gives you an outline of how you approach your days.

If you're constantly having negative thoughts everyday, you're probably in a negative mindset right off the bat. 

After the 5 days you are going to continue focusing on the first thought. If it is negative, you are going to replace it with a POSITIVE one. You are going to practice GRATITUDE. Even if only for 20 seconds. Think of anything in your life that you are proud of, happy to have, or anything else that brings a smile to your face. You can even start replacing the thoughts with positive ones before the 5th day. 

Once you practice gratitude first thing in the morning, notice how this positively affects your entire day! You are going to be more motivated, more productive, and best of all happier!

This is how you are going to TAKE CHARGE of every single day immediately upon waking. There will be no drifting for you!

Time for the favor, all I ask is that you participate in this experiment and let me know what you think. It should take less than 5 minutes of your entire week! 

After you've tried it tell me what you think!! You can comment on this post, post on our Facebook wall, get at us on Twitter or Instagram. You can even send me an E-mail at info@enlightenedathlete.com 

If you enjoyed this post, found it useful, or know of ANYONE that would find this exercise helpful please SHARE it with them and share and repost this with your family, friends, and co-workers.