Erin Sabin

When you start with Genesis Transformation you are promised an education.  We spend our lives focused on the importance of education.  The prospect of learning can be daunting, but the exciting thing about the Genesis Transformation education that you are the subject.  Where in life are you promised a degree in yourself?  What I have found as I have been receiving this in depth education in my body is that this in depth education has opened me up to personal empowerment.  Personal empowerment is what you have to look forward to as you delve into your own Genesis Transformation.
As with any education, challenges will arise.  These challenges are both mental and physical.  Some days the physical obstacles are small like the last set of exercises on a resistance day at the gym.  Some days they are a bit more difficult.  The good thing about physical challenges is that once you have overcome one, you automatically feel better and you give your ego a boost!  When you are faced with the next physical obstacle, you have your history to fall back on and suddenly you and your body are achieving things that you never thought possible.
The mental hurdles are the whammies.  We as humans are great at sabotaging our success.  Trying new things is scary and when you look in the mirror and start to see a new, empowered person that can be terrifying.  You may also scare your friends and family.  For some reason, as we begin to change our lives, overcoming seemingly impossible physical challenges and doing crazy things like drinking a gallon of water in ONE day, we set those around us spinning.
I have learned is that my mind will try and mess up the success of my transformation. There are patterns that have been a part of me for a long time when I get into a good rhythm, I find a way to set myself off track.  Recently I started telling myself that there were days when I just DID NOT want to track my calories.  It got to the point where every 10 days or so I was giving myself a free day of sorts.  My “free” days would come and go and I would eat clean foods but I certainly wasn’t exact.  It didn’t matter how clean my food was, I got off track, lost control and started making excuses.
We all have our stumbling blocks, we lose sight of our goals and we get off track.  That is a part of human nature.  The empowerment comes from recognizing our weaknesses, accepting them and changing our behavior so that when we are faced with the next set of challenges we are able to look them head on and keep on walking.  The empowerment comes when we log back on to Genesis and track our food, when we are honest and accept ourselves for who we are.
When venturing out on the path of Genesis Transformation, I would offer these words.  Great job!    You are setting yourself up to receive the most valuable education of your life.  You will learn that you have strengths beyond your imagination. Your successes will scare your friends and family because their own weaknesses will come to light.  Set your sights high.  You are about to achieve things you never thought possible and grab a pen and start taking notes!  You are a great text book and this will be a fascinating read.

Robert has cancer – lymphoma of the liver – and is waiting for a liver transplant.  We spoke at length about nutrition.  He’s highly nutrition aware these days, and this is what he told me:  “Basically, I’m living on a lot of raw veggies and fruit, and I had to cut my protein down from meat and raise my intake of powdered protein because with my liver so compromised, regular processing of animal foods is harder.  Sugar, random chemicals, trans-fats, wheat, corn, soy – these things are literally fuel for cancer – and I won’t let anything mess with me.  You know, Sheri, it used to be that I ate out all the time on the road (Robert travels extensively for his work) and I ate as ‘clean as I could’ for general health reasons.  I’d eat a random sugar thing and not think twice.  I ate french fries, tortilla chips, and I thought eating 1/2 hamburger bun was doing pretty good.  My world is so different now!”  I asked him how.

“Right now, I am in line for a liver transplant in the next 8-12 months.  If I eat in a restaurant and I eat one wrong thing, one tiny thing I didn’t know was in the food – I’ll need a liver transplant in 72 HOURS.”

We moved on to talking about the actual transplant, and Robert shared something interesting with me.  It turns out he doesn’t need a WHOLE liver from a donor.  He can actually use 1/3 liver of a live donor, and that will be enough to regenerate a new liver in his body – plus the donor’s liver will regenerate fully.  But that live donor has to be stellar healthy – no history of diabetes, for instance, or any other of the big diseases that compromise the liver (and most do) – and of course the right blood type for Robert.

Yes, your liver does regenerate.  Your entire body regenerates, on a cellular level.  What we do in the Fueling process in Genesis Transformation is to begin that regeneration, which ramps up your  metabolism and sets the stage for fat loss.  If your body has been compromised on any level – if you’ve been medicated for metabolic diseases (high blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid etc) or have a history of dieting/fasting/cleansing -  then this process is going to be a little slower.   Fat loss will happen but it’s not going to be overnight because your body will be busy regenerating.  YOU’LL FEEL FANTASTIC and stronger, more vibrant as your body shifts.  You’re going to have to be patient as your body heals – which it will – and understand the intense chemical cellular processing going on.  This might take a few months before the scale moves regularly as it burns fat.   Listen – there is no faster way.  There isn’t.

Or you COULD go waste your body some more on yet another diet promising fast results – and lose more muscle, get deeper in the hole with your health, age quicker, and deal surgically with loose skin.  It’s the average route folks take.

Robert doesn’t give a holy rotten crap about the scale right now.

So I got out the scale today and weighed myself. Then I took off my jeans and belt and weighed myself again, thinking it would drop at least a pound. Unfortunately, not even a tenth of a pound. I wasn’t too shocked at the number and not even upset about it. At my biggest a few years ago, I was in the 180s, which caused me to freak and immediately pushed me into gear. This time it wasn’t so bad, and I’m less than 15 pounds from my goal.

What is a little embarrassing is the measurements. I know I’ve been slacking with exercise, but seeing the effect in inches is a little off-putting and also energizing. It’s nice to have something to work toward. Also, I wasn’t sure where exactly you’re supposed to measure for the waist measurement, but eHow.com pulled through.

Starting measurements:
Waist: 33.5 inches
Hips: 40 inches (!)
Bust: 37 inches
Weight: 166.4 pounds

Goal weight: 150 pounds

I don’t have a goal for the inches because I’m not sure what would be healthy, but I measured in order to see the progress.

Exercise progress: I ran (well, mostly walked) three miles on the trail yesterday. My legs felt sore in a great way, and I really enjoyed looking at the water and being around so many active people. It was very motivating! I think I will go back today.

Food progress: Not so successful. It’s not that I eat bad – most days I start with oatmeal and bananas or a hard boiled egg and fruit. Lunch is usually a sandwich with carrots and an apple. Dinner is where I go wrong, and now that I am actually writing this, it seems that maybe I need more protein and carbs throughout the day so I’m not craving popcorn and cookies and bread and butter and cheese at dinner. Last night I had two beers and a big bowl of queso with guacamole and chorizo mixed in. Splurging wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t happen every day.

I need ideas on how to get motivated to exercise and healthy but filling food to eat during the day.

The current enrollment in many gymnasiums and fitness centers immediately tells us that more and more people are realizing that being over Weight is a burden not just to their health but it may also endanger their very lives. A total of 300,000 or more people die each year simply because they are overweight. This means that they succumbed to illnesses which were directly caused by their having a BMI that is higher than is recommended by nutritionists.

People who are overweight also struggle with issues such as chronic fatigue, sleeping disorders, risk of heart diseases and also low self esteem which is amplified by the general media in that it portrays the skinny models or males with six-packs as being the ideal standard.

There are a few ways you can take to win the battle against weight gain. One of them is exercise. A sizeable number of people are overweight because they live a sedentary lifestyle, that is, a life that is devoid of exercise or much physical exertion. Nowhere is that so than in the US where there is a vehicle for every two people and people prefer to drive even for ridiculously short distances.

This, coupled with a junk food society, causes people to become overweight easily. Enrolling in a gym is ideal because it helps you shed the excess weight. In case your budget does not allow you to enroll in a quality fitness club, you can easily take matters into your own hands and jog on your own or simply walk around the block.

Eating Right is also a great way to fight weight gain. Choosing foods that have low fats and low carbohydrates is the way to smart shopping.

I’ve covered the importance of drinking water earlier on this blog. I know it’s easy to let go of the habit, especially in the winter months when drinking something cold is furthest from our mind. However, my ever-creative clients have given me some structures that have enabled them to remember to drink water, and I share them with you in this video.

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapists, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

So you are in a hurry and want to grab a quick bite. What’s your best bet calorie for dollar? Men’s Health magazine does such a  great job of explaining which fast food meal selections are better for you with their “Eat This Not That “column. They now made it into a  book.

A sample of the trade off between a few extra cents or bucks and the increase to your fat and calorie consumption from the Men’s Health article, “4 Must-Know Restaurant Secret’s,” By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding -  here.

Here’s exactly how expensive it really is whenever you go for the “bargain”:

• 7-Eleven: Gulp to Double Gulp Coca-Cola Classic: 37 cents extra buys 450 more calories.
• Cinnabon: Minibon to Classic Cinnabon: 48 more cents buys 370 more calories.
• Movie theater: Small to medium unbuttered popcorn: 71 additional cents buys you 500 more calories.
• Convenience store: Regular to “The Big One” Snickers: 33 more cents packs on 230 more calories.
• McDonald’s: Quarter Pounder with Cheese to Medium Quarter Pounder with Cheese Extra Value Meal: An additional $1.41 gets you 660 more calories.
• Subway: 6-inch to 12-inch Tuna Sub: $1.53 more buys 420 more calories.
• Wendy’s: Classic Double with Cheese to Classic Double with Cheese Old Fashioned Combo Meal: $1.57 extra buys you 600 more calories.
• Baskin Robbins: Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Kids’ Scoop, to Double Scoop: For another $1.62, you’ve added 390 calories.

Want the Eat This, Not That info but don’t want to carry around a book. Men’s Health has a solution for you: the new Eat This, Not That iphone app. Check it out here.

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Did you know it takes up to 20 minutes for the brain to register that the stomach is full?  So if, like me, you eat fast then you’ll eat more than you should, which means that you’ll eat more calories than you need and pile on the pounds.  Therefore, if you want to lose weight you should eat slowly because then you’ll eat less. Simple!

Well, no, not really.  Believe me, if it was easy to eat slowly society wouldn’t have the weight problems that are evident today.  I have real difficulty eating slowly.  I eat to live, not live to eat, so food is just something that has to be done – rather like washing and ironing.  Therefore I eat as I approach any household chore – get it done in the minimum of time necessary to do the job.  I keep promising to eat the next meal more slowly but, come meal time, I forget.  Then afterwards I remember and berate myself for being so pathetic.

So, losing weight is really simple.  Eat less calories than you expend and, to help you, eat your meals slowly to allow the ‘full’ signals to get to your brain before you are actually stuffed. 

Except that we all know it’s really not that simple at all.

The importance of self-acceptance

Self-acceptance is the first step in body composition change. If you want to look great Nekkid, you gotta want it bad enough.

You also need to accept where you currently stand. Don’t lie to yourself and don’t rationalize. Kyle Armstrong once mentioned the NADS (Norther Abs Delusion Syndrome), in which men rationalize their high body fat levels with shadows of the upper four abs, while the lower four are nowhere to be found. Have you ever heard a fat ass say, “I’m bulking, I’ll cut later.” Right on, fat ass.

Self-acceptance is key to setting goals and finding and creating motivation, because if you can’t admit where you’re currently at, you can’t possibly progress.

Step 1: Look in the mirror and judge yourself objectively. Damn, you’re a fat ass huh? Me too. Sometimes the truth hurts, but it’s necessary for improvement.

The importance of motivation

There are three constituents of motivation that I find extremely relevant to fat loss.

1. Inspiration: This could also be classified as intrinsic motivation. This comes from within and is defined as something that motivates you to act a certain way in order to accomplish something important to you.
2. Commitment/Consistency: Hey check this out. Tell all of your close friends and family that you’re going to lose 10 pounds of fat in the next month. Write it down on a piece of paper and sign your name. Now if you screw up and are still fat at the end of the month, you’re going to look like a jackass who can’t do what he says when he says it. And nobody wants to be known as a pussy. So many up and make some promises, then make damn sure you keep em’.
3. Success: Motivation is accelerated by success. In other words, think in terms of results. When someone works their ass off (pun intended) and observes some solid results in the mirror, that motivates them to keep it up and push harder, primarily because what they’re doing is clearly working. Unfortunately, perceived failure is just as powerful as actual failure and has the power to decelerate motivation just as much as success can accelerate it. The psychophysiological response your body produces to a perceived stimulus has been proven to be equally as strong as a response to a real stimulus. In other words, if you think your diet is not working and you’re not looking leaner, even when you’re making progress (possibly becoming over obsessed and looking in the mirror every 2 hours will give you different images varying with water weight or possibly pure delusion), then you won’t be as motivated to work out or continue the war against fat.

Step 2: Once you’ve accepted who you are, make some changes. Along your journey, don’t get caught up looking in the mirror, unless the lighting is favorable, because you don’t want to risk becoming discouraged. Realize water weight fluctuations play a big role on the scale and doesn’t always reflect your true weight.

A personal anecdote

You know how I got myself motivated to lose fat? I objectively evaluated myself in the mirror and realized that under honest criticism I was a fat f$%#. And I made fun of my fat ass in the mirror. I called myself names and laughed at how f$%#ing ridiculously fat I was. How nonathletic looking I was. How disgusted with myself I was.

Hey look on the bright side, at least you don't have this problem.

You may be asking how making fun of yourself could possibly do any good. Well you know what? It got me pissed. And I mean really pissed. After I was done laughing I slammed both my fists on the counter and grunted, scaring the shit out of my roommate who was peacefully minding his own business, jolted by the wild animal in the bathroom laughing and yelling.

I got motivated. Incredibly motivated. I had to be honest with myself in order to reconcile the weeks of pain and suffering ahead. I knew if I wanted to look lean, athletic, and desirable, I had to wage a true war with fat.

I said to myself, “You fat ass you don’t deserve dressing on your salad. You don’t deserve artificial sweeteners in your coffee. You don’t deserve treats and goodies and anything else you like.” You know what I deserved? Plain fish, mixed nuts minus the soaked oils, canned sardines dipped in EVOO, and plain raw broccoli stalks.

The war against fat

Okay, I’m going to keep this one short. The war against fat is simple. Very simple. Do everything you can to beat fat. You’re at a civil war with yourself and your muscles are the Union and your fat is the Confederacy. Are you going to let those bastards have any chance at beating you? Hell no. You won’t give up no matter what. You’ll go the extra mile to surprise fat at 6 AM with fasted workouts, and eat broccoli stalks (I love this one).

Embrace the Abe Lincoln of Fat Loss

After my body’s congress declared a war on fat, I woke up the next morning and walked 5 miles. Then I ate sardines soaked in EVOO for breakfast. And you know what? I liked it.

Later that day I had a salad with no dressing. And I liked it even more.

When you go to an extreme two things happen. One, you separate yourself from the rules that govern everybody else. You aren’t playing with a full deck of cards anymore, but rather two stacked decks with extra Jokers. You’re the man, and nobody can stop you. Two, things start changing fast, and I mean f#$%ing fast.

After seven days of war I lost more fat then I had in the previous three months of ups and downs. I also gained some muscle. I couldn’t tell if this was from all the raw milk I was drinking, or the 4 heavy weight sessions, 4 sprint sessions, 35 stadium laps, or 60 incline miles I walked on the treadmill that week. But when your feet bleed and your ankles blister, and you can’t walk anymore because your hamstrings are about to fall off, your body starts to adapt. You become a lean athletic beast because you have to in order to survive. And it feels incredible.

If fat could talk, mine would have said, “f#$% this, this guy is crazy, I’m outta here.”

Wage war and look good Nekkid. Everyone wages war differently. Just don’t be a pussy about it. War is war and this war shouldn’t last long.

The Skinny

1. There is something magical about walking to class or work while munching on a broccoli stalk. Everyone thinks your crazy, including yourself, it motivates you to keep it lean, and it lets you know that if you can do this, you can do anything.

Go to war with fat and look incredible Nekkid friends.

Well, I’ve been hovering between 147-150 lbs.  I must admit I have been allowing myself too many cheats.  Of course, when my husband points this out, I declare that I am not! 

Since I’m not gaining weight and losing a little (albeit a little), I’ve been allowing myself some treats.  For instance, I bought my grandmother a box of truffles, knowing full well that when I visited her, we would open the box and eat them together.  I think I must have had 5 truffles that day because I figured, “When else am I going to have the chance to eat truffles!” 

Then there’s the snacking with the kids.  If they sit down for graham crackers and milk, I have a few crackers too. 

Well, I know in my mind all these “little” things are stalling my weight loss.  I realized that most of my snacking was done in secret (foraging for anything sweet when my kids were napping and I was all alone in the kitchen).  Or when I saw a limited opportunity (like the truffles) and I jumped at it. 

So I decided this week to try something new – and it has totally worked!  I wrote down my allowances on little slips of paper:

• Coffee drink
• Dessert
• Sun chips
• 20 chocolate chips
• Wild card

This is what I am allowed to cheat on during one week.  Just giving myself permission to eat these foods has helped me to control my desire for them!  Since I’m frugal, I save up my cheats and then try not to use them.  But I know if I need them, they are there and I like that feeling.  So far, in my first week of doing this, I only used 2 cards:  the dessert card (I had chocolate cake at a church banquet) and the sun chips one afternoon.

What do you like to eat?  Make yourself some cheat cards to use during the week.  Use moderation of course!    See how many cards you can leave unused and of course, stop eating treats if you do end up using all your cards.