White rice or Brown rice... that is the question.

Ron, one of my clients asked me this question the other day and then deemed the answer blog-worthy, so here we go. When rice is harvested from the field it is brown rice, all of it. This rice is then taken and processed, polished, and stripped of nearly all fiber and nutrient value. The “fortified” rice is then covered in a nutrient powder to try and replace the vitamins lost during processing. The end result is a high glycemic product with only a fraction of the nutrients it started with. WAIT high gly-what??

 Time for a quick lesson on the physiology of nutrient metabolism. The Glycemic index or GI is a scale that nutritionists have created to determine a carbohydrates effect on blood sugar levels. It is no secret that foods that spike insulin levels are not going to be great for you and in the long run cause diabetes. A food item that is high on the GI will be quickly digested and realesed into the blood stream and since nutrients can only be absorbed at a gradual rate much of the calories will be wasted and stored, guess where they get stored. Adipose tissue or fat stores have the ability to rabidly absorb these extra sugars that got shot into the blood stream, how convenient. On the flip side foods low on the GI will take longer to digest and slowly release into the blood stream. In turn the body will use much more energy digesting it and gain more nutrients from the food.

Now how does all of this scientific crap relate to Ron’s question about rice? Simple. Brown rice is low on the GI scale where as white rice is high. The food companies take a perfectly good staple like brown rice and process the crap out of it till it is no longer of good use to the body. Your digestive systems job is to process food, if the food you take in is already processed then the body’s natural reaction is to get it through the system quickly as possible and store it. So the moral of the story is the more unrefined and natural a food item is, the better use your body can make of it. Generations of humans lived long healthy lives before processed foods, now obesity, heart problems, and diabetes kill more people than anything… coincidence? I think not. If you want help with your eating habits please feel free to contact me at jr.oliver@att.net for more information.

5 New Years Nutrition tips for weight loss

So the new year will be here before you know it and with that comes an opportunity to forge a healthy lifestyle. If your resolution is weight loss you will have to couple hitting the gym with some healthy eating. These five tips will help you get on the right track.

1. Eat Breakfast- If you are like most people you sleep for 6-8 hours then wake up to a day chocked full of things to do. Starting your day with a meal is important for a number of reasons. First of all by eating breakfast you are doing just that, breaking the 8 hour fast from sleeping. Your metabolism is what burns the calories in you take in. If you wake up and don't eat then your metabolism pretty much stays asleep. Make sure you are eating things like eggs and oatmeal with fruit. A pop tart does not really "jump start" your body in he morning.

2. Eat more- By more I mean more often. Since you got your metabolism started at breakfast you want to keep it going by eating every three hours or so. Now eating 5-6 meals a day may sound daunting but once you get in the habit of eating more, smaller meals your metabolism will stay roaring all day and increase calorie burn.

3. Don't Drink your Calories- since the average soda is packed with about 150 calories per 12 ounces I recommend nixing them from your diet completely. Water is one of the best things you can possibly put in your body. Do you get in your 8 cups a day? Not doing so will cause your body to retain water and make weight loss even harder.

4. Look out for Sugar- Fat doesn't make you fat, sugar makes you fat. The calories you get from the majority of sugars are of no use to the body, so they get stored, as fat. Now this isn't to say that you cant indulge in cheesecake(my favorite) every now and then but you really should keep sweets to a minimum. Oh and the fact that Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the country should motivate you as well.

5. Portion Size- I have personally witnessed someone lose 15 lbs by changing nothing but the portion sizes they ate. Now this isn't to say that that happens for everyone but if you are eating 5-6 times a day smaller portions shouldn't be an issue. Pay attention to the food labels, they are there for a reason!

Now that you have a better understanding of how to eat right, hit the gym and lets get rid of those extra pounds!!!

Please feel free to contact me at jr.oliver@att.net with questions or to set up a FREE consultation.

Setting Goals

"I want to get in shape!" This is probably the number one new years resolution in the country. The only problem is that "getting in shape" is a very vauge statement, how will you know when you have arrived? The soloution here is to set short terma attinable goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, and timely.

I always recommend to new clients that the sit down and make a six week and a six month goal. Now this goal can be any number of things from pounds/inches lost, to the number of push ups you can do. First the goal has to be specific, just saying "I want to lose weight." isnt. That brings us to measureable. In order to stay motivated you must me able to measure progress. Now we know the changes dont happen overnight but over the course of six weeks you can start to notice some changes in your body if you are working hard and following your program. Making your goals attainable is of equal importance. This is where thinking realisticly comes into play. Knowing that healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs per week, it would not be attainable to set a 20 lbs weight loss goal for 6 weeks. On the flip side of that make it timely, dont say i want to lose 5lbs over the next year or you will just procrastinate and ill see you again next January with a 10lbs goal.

No matter the goal, if your are smart about it you can get there. Whether you think you can or you cant your right.

Jeremy Oliver CPT
757.351.9587

Healthy Chili Recipie

"I dont have time to cook." That is no excuse to eat fast food every night. Didnt you see that SuperSize Me movie? The solution is to prepare food in bulk and have it ready. Do you have one hour a week you can dedicate to cooking a healthy meal that will last you all week? I made this chili tonight and it came out absoulutly delicious...

3 cans diced tomatoes
2 bell peppers
frozen corn
frozen spinach
3 carrots
3 white onions
fresh garlic
2 lbs ground turkey
cumin
black pepper
chili powder

1. Cut up all your veggies and set off to the side.
2. Add tomatoes, corn, and spinach to pot and start to simmer
3. Saute 2 onions and green peppers with some garlic till tender
4. Add sauted veggies to the pot and season to taste with spices.
5. Steam carrots by adding a little water covering and microwave for 3min. add to pot.
6. Put remaining onion and ground turkey in saute pan, cover and cook till meat is brown.
6. Add meat to pot and simmer stirring occasionally

Now I also made some brown rice to eat mine with but that part is up to you. This is a fun recipie to expiriment with and enjoy on a cold night.

Underage and Overweight: A larger problem than you think.

“If the trend of increasing childhood obesity rates continues, it is alarming that this generation of children could be the first to live fewer years on average than their parents.” – VA health commissioner Karen Remely, MD

                This is a topic I feel very strongly about. If you are an adult and you choose to live an unhealthy lifestyle then that is your choice to make. However it is your responsibility as a parent to teach your kids healthy eating habits. When teaching nutrition I often hear the objection “I try to eat healthy, but I have to cook for my kids so I eat what they eat.” Now last time I checked chicken fingers aren’t any better for your kids than they are for you. According to studies done at Eastern Virginia Medical School one in three children in this state are at an unhealthy weight, 4 out of 5 of them will go on to be obese adults. Knowing how much the current obesity rate is costing us in health care cost, not to mention lives, what chance are we giving the next generation by compounding the problem?

Obesity is not a “Dirty” word that we need to sugarcoat or consider hurtful. It is a lifestyle choice that the majority of Americans are making for themselves and passing onto their undeserving children. EVMS has found that 40% of fourth graders in this state are overweight or obese.  I think it is way past time for someone to stand up and say “HEY!!! You’re killing your children by feeding them crap!” An overweight child is 70% more likely to develop heart disease, asthma, sleep apnea, liver disease and depression; and that’s the short list. I’ll say it again, as a parent it is your RESPONSIBILITY to show your kids how to live a healthy lifestyle. Public Schools are feeding them fast food every day and thousands of fast food ads are aimed at children. So if we don’t educate our children at home then they will be left to fend for themselves in the battle against being obese.

The solution is to take charge of what hits the table at home. Getting children involved in sports is also a great way to increase activity levels. If we take action now then the likelihood of our children having a shorter life span than us will diminish greatly. If you are about to feed your child something that doesn’t fit in your diet, time to reconsider. Kids have become so accustomed to sweets and fatty fast foods that it would be out of the ordinary to go an entire week without them. What do you expect them to do with the rest of their lives?

For advice on how to make a change at home or for some healthy recipe ideas please feel free to contact me at 757.351.9587 or email at jr.oliver@att.net

LOSE WEIGHT FAST!!!

It didn’t get there overnight so losing weight the healthy way just isn’t going to happen in a short time frame. The diet industry is capitalizing on the fact that Americans love convenience, so they have come up with an arsenal of pills, shakes, books, and TV shows to show you how to drop pounds fast. After trying three or four of these “quick fixes” and ending up right back where they started, many people throw in the towel completely. The goal shouldn’t be to lose as much weight as fast as possible, but to keep you at a healthy weight long term through lifestyle change. That may sound like a tall order but when you try to do it the “easy way” you can do a lot more harm than good. Let me Explain.


A healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs. per week. I feel as if I should repeat that. Healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs per week. Any more than this and you are probably losing more than just fat. Low Carb diets have gained lots of popularity because it is easy to drop pounds fast by cutting out carbs. Consider this; Carbohydrates are your bodies preferred source of energy. Take them away and you literally force your body to feed on other less potent sources (ex. Proteins, fats) and tissue and muscle. So the weight your losing only partially comes from body fat, your muscle and tissue are getting cannibalized to sustain your body functions. Now that your body is in “survival mode” it wants to store any extra energy because it thinks that food is scarce. So it plays out something like this: First you cut out Carbs, Then you lose 15 lbs in no time. It is very hard to keep a diet without carbs because, let’s face it you’re not left with much. Now you are happy with the weight you have lost and start to eat carbs again and your body rapidly stores them as fat because it is still in survival mode and has been feeding on itself for energy. You gain all the weight back and sometimes more and now you are left back at square one.

A balanced diet, generally speaking of course, is going to consist of about 15-20 percent fat with the rest split up between carbs and protein. Now once again this is a very vague outline as to how you should structure your diet. Any diet or exercise program that promises “fast” weight loss is probably just going to work for you wallet. Remember once you get down to a healthy weight you want to stay there so a radical diet that is going to be impossible to stick too is not the answer. An all-around adaptation to a healthy lifestyle is what it is going to take to keep the weight down and increase your life expectancy. Keep in mind I am not a dietician so I can’t write out your diet for you, but in my experience just making better choices about what you eat can help drastically. If you have any questions or want to make a lifestyle change please contact me at jr.oliver@att.net