REDEFINING WHY PART 2

Back in part 1 of my 2 part series on REDEFINING WHY, I attempted to define how I was able to be lean & athletic and remain that way through incredible stresses up to about 10 years ago and more importantly why this seems more difficult currently (at 41 years).  In part 2, I’m hoping to take you through the process of establishing my new WHYs and creating my specific goals for the next few months. This might take this post & one more.

Out of Date WHYs:

A) Be the leanest & fittest man I can be in order to attract the woman of my dreams.

B) Be as healthy & strong as I can be in case MS strikes me down, I will be in better position to maintain strength & function, etc…

C) Be Warrior Fit.

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Why these WHYs are obsolete to me now:

A) I’ve met & married the woman of my dreams.

B) My mother passed away of complications relating to her (30 year bout with) MS 2 years ago & my priorities have shifted from avoiding disease, to earning a living & caring for my family.

C) I have not consistently practiced martial arts for the last decade and a half & I’m no longer as focused on preparation for spontaneous kumites.  

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Tony Robbins discusses 6 Master Steps to Change in a Powertalk session. I’ve adapted those here to walk you through how I developed my WHYs & how I intend to change my behaviors and start heading towards the attainment of my goals.  

6 Steps to Change:

1) Decide what DO you want & what might prevent you from getting it.

2) Create leverage (on yourself) to make the change a must.

3) Interrupt the current pattern.

A) Visualization

B) Experience

4) Implement the change using a positive behavior in place of the negative one (if applicable).

5) Condition the new behavior pattern, so it remains consistent.

A) Visualization

B) Role-Playing

6) Test the new behavior (pattern).

A) Visualization

B) Experience

Newer, more relevant WHYs:

A) Be the best living example of healthy, lean and strong man who is living the Paleo/Primal lifestyle for my family, friends, clients & the world.

B) Be a living example of what kind of change is possible through a well planned Paleo/Primal lifestyle for my family, friends, clients & the world.

C) Be the best example of health, fitness & longevity that I can be for my kids so they will be proud & strive to emulate my lifestyle.

D) Become as Warrior Fit as I can because I want to be able to defend my family at any moment, whatever comes.

These are WHYs that touch me more viscerally currently, so I know they’ll be more effective.

Now, if only this lifestyle could morph my face into Jason Statham's (at right) then my acting career would really take off!!

My Leverage:

For making the changes - I must achieve these changes because I have always been a man of my word. I am a healthy, lean & fit man who is a living example for those around him of what a healthy lifestyle can do. I now understand the importance of living a Paleo/Primal lifestyle & need to now implement these principles fully into my lifestyle in order be the living model of health, fitness & longevity! I need to become a living example of health, fitness & longevity & the power of the Paleo/Primal lifestyle in order to effect change at the policy level & to lead the charge amongst my fellow RDs.

I need to be a living example for my family and especially my kids in order for them to strive to emulate my lifestyle!  

Against not making the changes - If I don’t achieve my goals and successfully implement these lifestyle strategies then I will lose the respect of my friends & family and most importantly myself. My business & services will not thrive if I can’t be a living example of my lifestyle strategies. I will not be able to successfully effect changes at the policy level & amongst fellow RDs unless I am a living example of health, fitness & longevity!

My specific goals: Over the next 4 months, I will:

1) lose 4 inches off my waist (aiming for 1/2 inch every 2 weeks).

2) go to at least 2 CrossFit classes per week & will add in physical play activity (increasing weekly as weather here in Canada improves - horrible winter here this year.

3) consume a Paleo/Primal diet daily with on non-Gluten containing one cheat meal per week.

4) consume 100 g of carbohydrates or less daily.

These goals are mostly behavioral, meaning that I’m able to track my progress daily by seeing if I’m on track or not using a behavioral checklist. I discussed this in a previous post.

Although, this doesn’t guarantee success, since it can't remove the daily stressors of a newborn + a 2 year old, working full time, pursuing a PhD (due end of 2015), blogging & running my business; these goals should increase my odds for success because of the 6 keys to psychological success as reported in Prev Medicine in 2004 which were:

A) Using Proven Strategy - Paleo/Primal has worked for thousands, why NOT me!

B) Using all available resources - Quality food obtained & source identified, Kitchen & Pantry cleaned out, Cooking tools ready to rock.

C) Integrated Social Support Structure for behavior change - My wife is doing this with me + accountability to my readers = ultimate support system.

D) Self-Efficacy - my goals are broken down into smaller chunks to gain momentum & confidence.

E) Greater Outcome Expectations - 4 inches is significant.

F) Adequate time to form habit - I’m giving myself 4 months to fully embrace the lifestyle, but know that actual permanent change can take 1-2 years to become ingrained.

Well, I'm off & running (pun intended).

If you would like to do this also, feel free to share your step by step goals in the comments section!

Let’s rock this!

Take care,

Dan T

REDEFINING WHY!

Hi Everyone,

Bear with me on this one. This is my over-tired (due to new baby care) attempt at soul searching & sincere self-examination. There is a lot more to the story, but I’m trying to stay on point with main things that have either directly or indirectly affected my body composition over the years.

I was always a lean & athletic guy. Growing up in a farming area, we ate pretty well (farm fresh side of beef, pig & chickens in the deep freeze, free range chicken eggs, fresh dairy, etc...) and throughout high school I did competitive Rowing, Karate, Kick boxing, Volleyball and of course all the pick up games of roller hockey, ice hockey, street hockey, football and soccer that my cousin & I could arrange! I pretty much trained all year long for rowing (dryland training) including tons of running, ergometers & weights (light circuits & heavy weights also). Therefore, I was doing a huge volume of work at this point in my life. I was 145 lbs until my senior year in high school and when I left for University I was 155 lbs.

This trend continued to University where I found competitive coed cheerleading (awesome sport for those of you who don’t know about it) & I practiced Japanese Jiu Jitsu & Capoeira. Of course, I learned some weight training from more senior guys on the Cheerleading team & started banging on those. Hitting the heavier weights, I bulked up to 175 lbs and remained here for the next decade and a half.

By the time I went to Montreal for my professional degree, I was still around 170 lbs and with some dietary manipulation & body weight training courtesy of Matt Furey (combat conditioning), I leaned down to 8% body fat. Then I started hitting the weights again, and seeing as how I was studying Human Nutrition & Dietetics I started experimenting with different strategies to add mass, as I had always been a “hard gainer”. Unfortunately, the techniques mostly involved eating higher carbohydrate, lower fat diet as a backbone, and using protein & mass gain shakes and things after my heavy weight workouts, so all of that combined with being over 30 years old at that time all lead me to increase my weight up to about 185 lbs and of course my body fat went up as well (to around 17%).

When I got into my Masters degree in Montreal, I was able to workout with and join the Cheerleading squad there, however, the team was mostly women & there were only 2 of us dudes (actually as I write that I realize, it wasn’t all that bad ;-) . It was great fun & actually with my heavier frame (190 lbs at this point) I was able to do some more advanced stunting that had escaped me at 175 lbs. My tumbling suffered a lot though. At one point at 175 lbs, I was able to do a roundoff, back handspring, back tuck fairly routinely and the same sequence with a back layout in place of the tuck with a bit more effort. However, at 190 lbs, this was much more difficult to do. I essentially, had to relearn the moves at my new heavier weight. In the end, I was able to do standing back handspring, back tucks routinely, but it did take a fair amount of effort and I’m sure my technique was sucking quite profoundly.

Next, my funding ran out for my Masters and I returned home to find work as a Registered Dietitian. I was able to find a one year mat leave for the first year, and of course had to live at home. During this time, I was able to get down to 180 lbs by participating in the Body for life challenge. I also started working in Hamilton at an Obesity clinic one day per week.

At the conclusion of that one year contract, I obtained a permanent position as a Registered Dietitian in Hamilton at a Mental Health Facility, and am still there now. In addition to completing my Masters, I was able to propose and initiate a PhD through my same University supervisor located at this hospital, but unfortunately, due to changes in drug purchasing contracts (move to generics) the funding was pulled by the drug company that had originally committed, and so I am pursuing my PhD in a topic similar but more complex & advanced of my Masters.

I should mention that during all of the above times my free time got less and less as my responsibilities increased. Additionally, I realize now in retrospect that my WHY for pretty much the bulk of my physical activity/working out thing was actually extrinsic, all about the ladies (attracting my dream girl), so to speak. I was a young guy & I loved women & wanted to meet as many as possible so I could finally meet the one.

When I started my permanent position as an RD in Hamilton, I met my (to be) wife at my orientation. We connected at a deep level immediately & she was the sexiest, most intelligent, kindest women I had ever met in my life (still is actually)! I proposed a little over 1 year after we met & we were married one year later. Interestingly, we found our dream home in a beautiful location, the unfortunate part was that it was a 1 hour drive from work. I commuted 2 hours/ day x 5 days / week for 5 years and during this time my weight skyrocketed to 225 lbs with obviously a huge shift in my body comp to fat mass (around 25%) with a waist circumference of 39.5” :-(. We were blessed as well with our first daughter during this time, and since, we’ve been blessed again. The massive increase in my body weight (& fatness) was obviously due to my decreased physical activity. Interestingly, I was actually working out pretty hard regularly for 2.5 years of our 5 with the 1 hour commute including rediscovering Japanese Jiu Jitsu (until our first daughter was born, then sleep went bye bye) but my weight still remained at best around 210 lbs. Honestly, I knew that my commute was killing me. Thankfully, my health was fine, no issues of note, but I knew that I was on the roadway to Diaobesity! My wife and I decided to move closer to work (decreased commute=more family time) & her family (greater support for our kids & connectedness with their cousins). We were expecting our second child while we listed our home (with countless open houses) & while we were searching for our new home. It was challenging & time consuming since we lived about an hour from where we were searching & we were both working full time. Additionally, I had to prepare for my PhD oral comprehensive exam right after we were slated to move into our new home. Additionally, we planned for a significant renovation on our new home once we moved in & had to start purchasing items & reviewing options after work in the months leading up to the move. Bottom line, we were living fast & hard, with very little time to dedicate to exercise/fitness. The only saving grace was that we walked daily together each evening as a family. Of course, this became harder as the Canadian Winter set in. 

Now, all things considered, my experiences started to make me question all the strategies I had learned & had been taught in school. I started to hit the research & I mean individual blogs, books, etc… Then I verified what I was seeing by perusing various scientific studies using similar principles. Shockingly, at least to me, I started to discover that most of the info that I was finding on “unreliable” (at least we’d been told in school) sites were actually validated by clinical research, and that we had never been taught any of these principles. This was my discovery of the Paleo/Primal/low carb lifestyle. This fascinated me, and it definitely made logical sense. Unlike, fad diets though that can often make some logical sense on the surface, this seemed to have no downside. It baffled me why we never learned anything about this during my clinical nutrition classes & also why not one of my colleagues seemed to even know what I was talking about when I mentioned it to them. Anyway, I plowed through all the podcasts (Robb Wolf first, then Jimmy Moore, Abel James, Mark Sisson etc…) & blogs (Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, etc…) & then books including but not limited to The Paleo Solution, The Primal Blueprint, The Paleo Diet, The Paleo Answer, and The New Evolution Diet. Not to mention countless Paleo/Primal guides. 

Anyway, we are now living closer to work (20 min drive each way), the initial renovations are done, we had our second daughter & she is now about 6 weeks old and I have about 4 more months off from my PhD (paternity leave). This year, I even started attending 2 cross fit classes per week at a local box, but that was put on hold when our second daughter was born (less sleep & more to do around our new home). At this point, my wife & daughters’ happiness are far more important to me than my body composition. And then, suddenly, all at once, I realize why I’m not chomping at the bit to get back into the gym/workout/exercise whatever you want to call it. This had always been my way throughout my graduate degree, what the heck gives? 

All of this is basically a cliff/coles notes (depending on where you are from) version of my weight & body comp history as it pertains to significant life events. Interestingly, there’s a critical message hidden throughout the story. Did you figure it out? It’s painfully obvious, once you see it.

At every point in my life when I was working out super hard & absolutely committed I had a compelling WHY, to attract the woman of my dreams! So once I found her, married her & we started having children, that WHY was achieved and no longer drove me. I became more focused on surviving our new hectic schedule including a then 2 hour commute, helping care for my wife & our child, as well as maintaining my job, business, studies & our home. Now that the commute has been reduced, that’s one less thing, but with a newborn in the house & a 2 year old, my WHY shifts to include helping with the care of the entire expanded family & maintaining and doing some smaller renovations to our new home. I think about working out, my wife and I discuss how to fit everything in, and at long last my wife’s agreed to come aboard the S.S. Paleo/Primal and eventually we will convert our 2 year old as well. Our hope is that once we introduce solids to our second daughter she won’t even know what a grain product is. So, in that way I was able to integrate my primary WHY for caring for my family to include a healthy diet that will help me lean out. However, the exercise thing bothers me, because I know I’m not a lazy person. So why am I not leaping back to the gym to whip myself back in shape? The short answer is that in my current life with the new set of circumstances (married to the woman of my dreams, 2 beautiful children, working full time, pursuing PhD, Blogging & starting online business), I have not taken the time to update/re-define my WHY.

I mean, think about it. At this point, I haven’t returned to working out yet, because in my mind right now, I want to spend my time with my wife & daughters, building my online business & of course (feel I have to) work since we’re currently limited to only my income. So what I need to do is layout my new WHY given my new set of life circumstances. I think it’s key to remember that a WHY that drove us phenomenally for decades might be completely powerless once circumstances change (i.e. Pursuing the woman of my dreams & then me finding her & marrying her). But as Tony Robbins says in his audio programs, I have been caught up living day to day and forgot to design my life (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist).

Anyway, the take away message is that for any change, lifestyle or otherwise, we need to have a clearly defined WHY, or we are doomed to not achieve our goal!

I will redefine my WHY related to exercise in my life & post it next week to show the process that I used, in case anyone wants to do it also. If you are in a similar boat, I suggest you do this too!

Together, as a community, there’s nothing that we can’t overcome!

Have a great weekend!

Dan T

It has to be a lifestyle change!

Hi everyone!

The end of January is upon us & hopefully you're all well into adopting your new lifestyle goals as I am!  Progress report to follow later with pics & metrics.

Anybody who has been playing this lifestyle change game for any length of time knows as well as I do that the odds of making a successful change seem stacked against anyone.

I think it comes down to the framing of the persons' beliefs about what they are attempting to do.  Over the decades that I've been helping people make changes to their lifestyles (the last 10 of which as an RD) I can tell you that one common theme has emerged to those who were successful vs. those who were not.  This belief was that those who were successful were able to mentally wrap their heads around & commit to the fact that they were making a lifestyle change and not just forgoing some things they like for a bit.  Furthermore, these individuals were also able to replace the intent of the original behavior and avoid the usual roadblocks & pitfalls that more often than not occur with lifestyle changes.  As anecdotal as that is, it's based on 10 + years of experience and real results.  Let's call it results based practice.

Let's break down how these people succeeded.

1) They truly understood and committed to a holistic lifestyle change - therefore, they adopted new daily habits in the realm of activity, eating & sleeping. This means that essentially they redesigned their life with their ultimate outcomes in mind.  This requires time & effort & commitment.  Tim Ferris explains the concept of redesigning ones' life extremely thoroughly in his 4 hour book series.  However, you can do it simply by considering what your goals are & then planning out daily behaviors each week that will move you towards your lifestyle goals (i.e. consuming half my plate in low carb vegetables at every meal, etc...).  The other important concept here is that these people embrace a HOLISTIC change and therefore were exercising more and consuming better quality food at the same time.  Each behavior can feed forward on the other.  For example, if you start your day, as I did this morning, with a 6 am CrossFit class, I am much less likely to each a load of crappy food later in the day, because I believe that would undo most of my hard work & don't want to risk that!



2) They also implemented new thinking strategies and beliefs to help them become the best they could be. This keeps their focus on the goal and not the challenges.  This is critical because of our reticular activating system (RAS) that controls our focus (among other things).  This is the system responsible for you noticing the same model of car that you are thinking about buying or same breed of dog that you just got.  Dennis Waitley explained it best when he said it is like the guidance system in a torpedo/missle.  Without it, we just fly around aimlessly.  Unfortunately, the RAS only knows IMPORTANT, not whether it's good or bad (i.e. move towards or away from) and therefore if we focus on the things we are NOT wanting to achieve (i.e. don't eat the cake), our RAS kicks in understanding only that we value CAKE & then we see every crumb of cake from here to Tim Horton's.  The successful people are able to control their mental focus only on the goal or replacement behaviors, which means they did the work to plan out replacement behaviors, etc...

3) One final important distinction is that these successful people reduced their exposure to or eliminated completely processed foods.  This is extremely important because of the fact that processed foods are engineered chemically (that's correct) to stimulate us to over consume them.  It should be illegal, but it's not.  The bottom line is that if you want to maximize your odds for success remove processed foods from your diet while you are trying to burn fat otherwise you will be regularly undoing the progress you have made!

When I say processed foods I am referring to any food that is changed significantly from it's original form before eating. We're talking well beyond junk foods here (those are so obvious I won't mention them here). Examples of processed foods include but are not limited to:

- Sugar - this is a no brainer.  Sugar is refined & this makes it highly processed & therefore highly available carb source to the body, which in fat burning land is NOT A GOOD THING.

- Grain products - think about it, we don't eat any grains right from the ground or off the plant, 95% are ground or milled before preparation for consumption.  This makes them all highly processed.

 - Legume products (lesser extent) - as soon as these become powders & added to other items or pressed into shapes they are essentially as processed as Grain products, but even when consuming them whole they must be cooked for significant lengths of time before consumption, which makes them moderately processed.  A quick caveat is that some people do fine with these included in their diet due to the "safe starches".  However, for fat burning I would include them as a carb and not a protein.

- Dairy (lesser extent) - this is not really true when dairy is RAW from cow, but unless you are getting it directly from your back yard Heffer or a local farmer, it is often illegal (whether just or not) and the market therefore can get sketchy.  If you look at pasteurized milk, what is it, it is de-fatted sugar with some proteins present.  That's it.  Yes, there are some vitamins & minerals present, but they are actually quite unavailable & there's nothing that can't be obtained from other good quality food sources.  I personally have nothing against well raised high fat cheese, grass fed butter or fermented dairy like good quality raw full fat yogurt or Kefir.

Anyway, the bottom line is once you've shifted your thinking/beliefs to make a holistic lifestyle change and then start implementing those daily behaviors, you are making solid progress!  However, limiting your exposure to those processed foods will insure that you are not driven by chemistry to fall back into your old habits/lifestyle.

I hope this info helps you achieve your goal.

Be sure to check out my new website Dietitian Dan T where you can access this blog as well as my new YouTube channel (subscribe today)!  I'm working hard to bring you my view on the latest nutrition research, as well as practical tips to help you achieve your goals & motivation to help kick start your success!

We're expecting our second child in the next week or so, but I will do my best to continue posting blogs & videos as I am able to.  I will probably look a lot more sleep deprived in the next 6 months worth of videos!

Take care & have a great week!

Dan

Time to buckle down...for me too!

Hi everyone!

It's been quite some time since my last post!  I was actively preparing for my Ph.D. Comprehensive exam over the last year and a half or so & I had to fly to Montreal twice for my Oral presentation & my Oral exam in November & December of 2013.  I passed both, so now I'm officially a Ph.D. candidate!! Apparently, I was breaking the law calling myself that before!

My wife & I are expecting our second bundle of joy (in February 2014) & our beautiful girl Keira is growing like a weed (2 years old later this month) & developing so many skills it's tough to keep track.

Anyway, given my PhD prep schedule & the fact that up until about one month ago, I have been commuting 2 hours per day for work (for five years), and for the last 2 years (with PhD preparations & spending time with my expanding family) I haven't been formally active at all, my health & conditioning has definitely suffered a major blow! 

Last month right before I flew to Montreal for my Oral exam, we moved much closer to my work.  Now my commute is 20 min each way vs. 1 hour each way.  My goal is to spend some of this extra time with my family & some on bettering myself!!

However, I've been developing my plan for the last little while, since I knew that things would be different after the holidays. Today I set my plan in motion. I did my first (in quite sometime) Cross Fit class at a local box.  They seem quite good, they will push you, but also comprehend scaling, which is critical for injury prevention!


I will update you on how this going & post my before & after metrics & photos as things unfold.  In the meantime, I will leave you with this motivational poster I stumbled across.  ENJOY & Go out and get your goal!

I would like to invite you to share your commitments or success stories of change so that we can put them on internet (officially) & then of course, be accountable to them later.


Feel free to share your story or commitment by commenting on this post!  You can also share it via link if you have it on a blog already.




Have a great week!

Catch phrase coming soon!

Dan T

SMART Goal Setting Review

Tis the season for Setting Goals!

Do NOT sell yourself short! You can achieve what you set out to achieve, just be sure to create the right road map (i.e. behaviors to reach the goal).

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel coming in 2014!

www.dietitiandant.com -click on the Video tab.

Sincerely,

Dietitian Dan T

SMART GOAL SETTING

In the spirit of the Holidays, please enjoy my segment on how to set SMART goals.  Adopting this effective strategy should help to optimize your chances of successfully setting and reaching a goal rather than the business as usual New Year’s Resolutions, as you will see.  ENJOY!

Every New Years we do it...  Take a look at our lives and decided to change… something! January has the highest number of people starting lifestyle change plans, etc… However, it also has the highest percentage of these individuals who drop out, or quit!  Therefore, we examine how to set goals in a way that maximizes our chances of following through! 

SMART Acronym:

1)     Specific – Must answer the six “W” questions:

a.    Who – is involved?

b.    What – do I want to accomplish?

c.    Where – Identify a location.

d.    When – Establish a time frame.

e.    Which – Identify requirements and constraints.

f.    Why – Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

Example: SMART Goal regarding health = Do cardio training for 45 minutes 3 days / wk and resistance training for 45 minutes 3 days/wk at XYZ fitness club VS. Get in shape.

2)     Measurable – Concrete criteria for measuring progress towards the attainment of each goal you set & regularly scheduled progress checks.

3)     Attainable – You begin to figure out ways to achieve your goals.  Develop attitudes, abilities and the skills to reach them.  This “development” occurs only when you see goal achievement as possible for you.  Stair steps/Stage wise – over time what was once inconceivable to you becomes well within your achievement.

4)     Realistic – A goal must represent an objective toward which you are both WILLING and ABLE to work.  TEST of Realistic = DO you BELIEVE that the goal is attainable?

5)     Timely – A goal should be grounded with a time frame.  This increases your sense of urgency and can help you tap more of your resources to achieve the goal.

Other tips for Lifestyle Change Goals: 

A) Include adhering to your lifestyle habits as an outcome (i.e. I will consume 8 servings of fruits and vegetables per day; or 5 vegetables and 3 fruits per day; or I will do 3 cardio and 3 resistance training workouts this week (for 30 – 45 min each)).  This is critical, because change in measured parameters may take some time, but this way you know & are recognizing if you are on track behaviorally or not.

B) Research your desired outcomes and be sure to discuss them with a health professional who can help you set a realistic target and timeframe, as well as help you overcome obstacles and use effective, proven strategies.

C) Share your goals with peers who can support you and hold you accountable to your standards.

References:

1) Adapted from: Psycho-education.  2006.  Dr. I. Patelis-Siotis, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

2) Wikipedia entry on SMART/ER - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria.

Pratical Application - My Food Processing Spectrum

My research on choosing the best foods for best results for fat burning & best performance is based on a solid Paleo/Primal research foundation!  With respect to food processing, this translates to our bodies not having the ability to deal with many of the food processing techniques very well.  In some cases food processing increases availability of energy from foods but in many cases our bodies don't recognize the chemical compounds added to foods and often have effects on our bodies that are not good.  However, all of this can often be confusing for some people and put others off completely, therefore, I'm taking a crack at it from a different angle here.

Consider for a moment if everyone limited their exposure to processed foods.  I have discussed this in a previous blog post, which was more theoretical and less practical.  I've gotten a lot of questions about how to apply this and I've come up with my Food Processing Spectrum (below).  This provides a practical tool that people can use to guide them to create the least processed meal options available.

Think of food a spectrum of processing and choose the least processed foods that you can.  I'm not a raw food purist or anything, but be sure to eat more foods that are less processed over those that are more processed.  In fact, for 60 days just omit all foods from the processed side of the spectrum and see how that works for you.

You want to make sure that most of the foods you eat come for the least processed end of the spectrum.  Things that will "process foods" include:

a) Cooking: Bring foods to their safe (bacteria killing) temperatures, but try to avoid overcooking them.  Charring of meats (for example) leads to formation of heterocyclic amines (HCA) that have been shown to be highly carcinogenic compounds.

b) Pasteurization: This is essentially heating to very high temp. Most beverages that were once alive in North America (i.e. Dairy & Fruits beverages) are pasteurized to prevent bacterial growth.  This denatures enzymes that are normally present in the fresh foods. It is currently illegal to sell unpasteurized dairy products in North America.  Putting fruits & vegetables in a blender, however, creates a living smoothie with the entire enzyme profile intact. Canned foods (i.e. fruits and veg) are often pasteurized to prevent bacterial growth, but in doing so many of the plant-derived enzymatic benefits are lost.

c) Blending: Breaks up solids and even cells (depending on your blender).  It can liquefy many of the components and therefore creates a drinkable meal option.  Be VERY careful with smoothies as it's always better to eat your calories vs. drink them!  Depending on the composition of the smoothie, these can be very high in available carbohydrates and therefore cause huge spikes in insulin, therefore stopping fat burning & leading to fat storage!

d) Milling: This is pretty much exactly the same as Blending but with solids (i.e. all grains).  This is used to create flours and much of the original content is removed then added back. However, one of the biggest issues with this process is that it is all done by machine today and the particle size that results from machine milling is so fine that it can penetrate the gut wall and cause overt irritation or at least increase inflammatory response. There is also evidence that some of the naturally occurring irritants in grains (i.e. Lectins, etc...) that are not removed in usual production are causing increased inflammatory responses.  Either way, grains seem to be a bad choice!

d) Freezing: This process cools the food in order to significantly slow down the molecules and enzymes that lead to spoiling.  They are not stopped, but are severely slowed.  The major drawback with freezing some items (i.e. fruits) is that the fluid in the cells freezes and when they are thawed this intra-cellular liquid expands and bursts the plant tissues therefore making things mushy!  Freezing does NOT kill enzymes and is a great second choice to fresh for most people.

e) Chemical additives, preservatives & artificial ingredients: These are the most encountered and least recognized food processing techniques in existence today.  If you eat anything in a package at all, you are consuming these chemical ingredients.  Many are designed to extend shelf-life, decrease cost of production for the food company, and many also have the added benefit of stimulating appetite in consumers can lead to food addiction or over-consumption. Regardless, none of these ingredients are used with your health in mind.  Therefore, we NEED to avoid them as much as possible.

f) Fermentation: This technique is a more natural processing technique. It allows bacteria & enzymes that occur naturally in the foods to work to start breaking down the food into components (example is Eskimos that buried meat & consumed it fermented).  Obviously, this is not without some risk for foodborne illness, but when done properly it can be an awesome way to increase the nutritional value of many food items.

Obviously, there is a lot more to this story, but this seems like a good start.

Be sure to choose the least processed foods that you can on a regular basis.  Try this for 60 days and see how you look, feel & perform!