CONSISTENT by Primal Potential

Latest Episodes:

182: Meat Buying Guide May 24, 2016

Show notes

There are so many awesome questions out there about animal products, fat loss and health. Questions about whether or not eating animal products is healthy, how important it is to make organic choices and if we'd be better off without the animal fats and proteins.

We're going to tackle those questions today and I'm providing you with a free meat buying guide. Well, it's a little more than that. It's a general guide to buying animal products - fish, poultry, meat and dairy.

In today's episode we'll be talking about what has been omitted from most conversations about animal products and that is quality.

Studies looking at health profiles and animal product consumption avoid looking at the quality of the animals consumed.

We won't make that mistake. We are what we eat, but we're also what we eat eats, therefore, quality absolutely matters.

http://primalpotential.com/182-meat-buying-guide/

Are Your "Healthy" Groceries Making You Fat (Or Sick)?

We absolutely must consider what what we're eating is eating.

Are the animal products you're consuming coming from grain fed animals?

These animals will be much higher in pro-inflammatory omega 6 fatty acids and much lower in anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids.

Grain fed animals also have higher levels of insulin, cortisol, herbicides, pesticides and other toxins.

These toxins are stored in the fat tissue of the animal and they intoxicate us when we consume them. Toxic accumulation in our fat tissue impairs fat burning.

Conventionally raised animals are also polluted with antibiotics & growth hormones. These antibiotics and growth hormones are present when we consume meat and other products from these animals.

Be ware of marketing catch phrases that mean nothing including:

Natural
Grass-finished

When buying fish, look for wild-caught fish.

When buying beef, pork or poultry, look for:

Organic
Grass-fed
Pasture raised
Hormone free
Not treated with antibiotics

If you're consuming products from conventionally raised animals,

Buy lower fat cuts of meat
Trim any excess fat
Discard any fat that cooks off the animal
Avoid eating dairy products from conventionally raised animals

181: Sleep, Hormones & Fat Loss May 21, 2016

Show notes

We aren't getting enough sleep. We wear our fatigue (and talk about it) like it is a badge of honor. It's not. You're not tough. You're not hardcore. You're damaging your long-term health and dramatically impeding your fat loss.

If you haven't guessed, we're talking about sleep, hormones and fat loss on today's episode.

The average American is only getting 5-7 hours of sleep each night. That doesn't make a warrior, it makes a hormonally imbalanced, hungry person prone to fat storage, muscle loss and disease.

I hope that late-night TV is worth it!

Seriously though - this is really important stuff. Sleep deprivation, even moderate sleep deprivation over just a few short days impacts your hormones, impairs your metabolism, increases your appetite and changes the way the food you eat is metabolized.

In today's episode I'll be talking about 3 of the significant fat loss related changes initiated by mild sleep deprivation.

http://primalpotential.com/181-sleep-hormones-fat-loss

Sleep, Hormones and Fat Loss

Today we're diving into the nitty gritty of how sleep deprivation impacts your hormones and fat loss.

Lack of sleep changes how the food you eat is metabolized Mild sleep deprivation exaggerates the post-prandial blood sugar response. This means that when sleep deprived, you'll see a more significant blood sugar increase than you would after eating the same meal when well rested. Lack of sleep also impairs pancreatic function, leading to insulin resistance. These effects are seen after just a few days of mild sleep deprivation.
Lack of sleep increases your appetite & decreases your feelings of satiety Lack of sleep disturbs the ratio of ghrelin to leptin, the hormones which manage hunger and satiety. This means that when you are even mildly sleep deprived, you experience more hunger and less satiety. Human studies show increases in appetite up to 40% after mild, short-term sleep deprivation.
Lack of sleep impairs your cellular fat burning machinery Human growth hormone is one of our night-shift hormones. It is primarily produced & secreted while we sleep and is responsible for growth, recovery and cellular repair. When we aren't getting enough sleep, we aren't allowing growth hormone to do it's job, resulting in lower muscle mass, higher fat mass and reduced fat burning abilities.

180: Every Choice Is A Chance May 19, 2016

Show notes

Guys: Every choice is a chance. You aren't stuck. You can't be stuck. Stop telling yourself that you're stuck or that you aren't motivated. Every single moment is a new chance, a new opportunity and a blank slate.

In today's motivational minisode, I'm providing you with an attitude adjustment and a powerful perspective shift.

Stop focusing on everything you've done "wrong" and on all the chances you've missed. Who cares? It's done. This next choice right in front of you is your next chance.

Let's snap ourselves out of the powerless funk and start getting results by taking control of each choice as it arises.

http://primalpotential.com/180-every-choice-is-a-chance/

179: 3 Fat Loss Hormones May 17, 2016

Show notes

If you've listened to much of the Primal Potential podcast, you understand that fat loss is very much about hormones. There are 3 hormones in particular that we can consider "the fat loss hormones". If we understand how they work and what specific choices we can make to make sure these fat loss hormones are working our favor, we're well on our way to our best health & the achievement of our goals.

We'll be talking a lot more about hormones in the next few weeks but for today I want to begin with an overview of these 3 powerhouse fat loss hormones: cortisol, leptin & insulin.

http://primalpotential.com/179-fat-loss-hormones/

Fat Loss Hormones

Leptin - leptin is a hormone produced by your fat cells that acts as a messenger between your body fat and your brain. When working properly, leptin works with your brain to regulate your appetite. As your body fat increases, leptin production increases and tells your body to increase metabolism and decrease appetite. As body fat decreases, leptin secretion decreases so the brain triggers an increase in appetite and decrease in metabolism. Unfortunately, leptin can quickly become disregulated with both crash dieting and weight gain, causing leptin resistance and impairing the brain's ability to receive signals from leptin.

Cortisol - cortisol is a stress hormone released by the adrenal glands in response to physical, emotional or mental stress. Cortisol's job is to prepare your body for the fight-or-flight emergency response. One of the ways it prepares your body is by making sure there is plenty of sugar (glucose) in your blood stream so you're able to escape from the threat. Unfortunately, in this day & age, the threat is often a traffic jam, losing your keys or a fight with your spouse and no escape is necessary. Sure, you might see that as a good thing, but it means you're left with unneeded sugar in your blood stream that has to be stored. Many people get frustrated with lack of fat loss results despite eating clean & managing blood sugar. They tend to overlook the stress effect. Cortisol will break down muscle glycogen or muscle tissue to provide sugar for the blood, regardless of your diet. Because of this, stress management is a critical part of fat loss.

Insulin - I'll join the ranks of those who refer to insulin as the master fat loss hormone. It's critically important. You can listen to an episode all about insulin here. The point of today's episode is to show you that caring for your carb strategy isn't enough if you want to achieve your health & fat loss potential. You can mess with insulin if you aren't caring for cortisol, which is where most people pay little to no attention. Insulin is secreted by the pancreas in response to elevated blood sugar. Insulin's job is to usher the blood sugar out of the blood to either provide immediate fuel for cells or to be stored for later use. The presence of insulin puts the body in storage mode. Because cortisol can increase blood sugar independent of diet, managing insulin is about both diet & lifestyle.

Definitely listen to the full episode for a conversation about what we can do, from a diet & lifestyle perspective, to help these hormones work in our favor! There's a lot we can do!

178: Success Triple Threat May 14, 2016

Show notes

Success in any endeavor, as Tony Robbins says, is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. Unfortunately, most of us spend the majority of our focus on the mechanics and very little on mindset.

In today's episode I want to introduce you to the triple threat of success: right strategy, right mindset and right effort.

I know, that begs the question: what in the world is the right strategy? There's so much conflicting information out there! We're going to get into how you can identify YOUR right strategy - not mine, not anyone else's, just yours.

http://primalpotential.com/178-triple-threat-right-strategy-right-mindset-right-effort/

The Triple Threat of Weight Loss Success

Right strategy - how to listen to your body, increase energy and decrease hunger. How to balance your hormones, support your metabolism, burn more fat and know when you're giving YOUR body what it needs.
Right attitude - you can't create a positive life with a negative attitude. Let's reframe your attitude with this triple threat approach to weight loss success!
Right effort - how to get consistent, do the work and bring your focus & energy to each day, whether you're "in the mood" or not!

177: 5 Ways To Crush Your Goals While Traveling May 12, 2016

Show notes

Let's talk travel and weight loss today, okay? It's a busy season of travel for me and on today's show I want to share with you some of my most effective strategies for traveling without disregarding my goals. In fact, these travel strategies help me make progress towards my goals no matter where I am!

If you have travel coming up and you're feeling anxious about it, I totally understand and I hope you'll listen to this episode in full!

http://primalpotential.com/177-travel-and-weight-loss/

Travel and Weight Loss

In today's episode I'm diving deep into several strategies that will help you transform your experience of travel and boost your confidence that you can lose weight no matter where you are or what is going on around you.

CREATE STRUCTURE

Yes, there's a lot you can't control when you're on the road and away from your normal surroundings. However, that doesn't mean you need to surrender all your control. What elements of your normal routine can you maintain?

Personally, I maintain my morning routine whenever I can. I get up early, I work for a few hours, workout and have a fat loss friendly breakfast. This helps me begin the day feeling energized, positive, focused and productive.

Maybe it's important for you to maintain your bedtime, or to ensure you always drink enough water or get in a leisure walk.

Either way, look for ways to create structure regardless of where you are and what is going on.

REFRAME INDULGENCES

To me, indulgences were always things like cookies, ice cream, cupcakes and alcohol. But, I want to challenge you to think about what it means to indulge. I think it means to have something special that represents a rare treat. With that definition, it doesn't have to be something misaligned with my goals.

An indulgence can be something that is special & rare but doesn't have to be something that makes you feel full, heavy, or guilty afterwards.

I seek out indulgences that feel really special but make me feel amazing both while I eat it and after. On this particular trip, those were things like octopus carpaccio, snapper ceviche and table side guacamole.

THINK ABOUT VOLUME

Food does not taste better the more of it you eat. In fact, it's kind of the opposite. The first few bites are always the best, and we pay less attention as we continue to eat. For that reason, more isn't better. More is usually less satisfying.

Pay attention as you eat. Are you savoring every bite or are you just going through the motions.

Is the current bite as good as the first? If not, let it go. Move on.

NO EXCUSES NECESSARY

Sure, there are lots of excuses you could make when you're traveling, but you don't have to make them or accept them. You don't have a kitchen. You don't have your normal gym. Your preferred food choices aren't available. Great. Who cares?

What CAN you do? What is within your power? What will you do?

176: 3 Strategies To Avoid Self-Sabotage May 10, 2016

Show notes

I just returned from speaking on Jimmy Moore's Low Carb Cruise about overcoming emotional eating & self-limiting beliefs. I shared with his audience that all the strategies in the world won't help if you don't get out of your own way & do the work consistently.

Though I think strategy matters, most people fail to implement because of their mindset & beliefs, not because of the nuts & bolts of "how" to lose weight.

In today's podcast, I'm going to share with you the presentation I gave on the Low Carb Cruise about strategies to help you avoid self-sabotage & accelerate progress towards your goals.

http://primalpotential.com/176-avoid-self-sabotage

3 Strategies To Avoid Self-Sabotage

There are 3 primary barriers to progress that I talk about in today's episode:

self-doubt
stress & worry
fear (fear of missing out, fear of failure, fear of success)

To overcome these barriers and avoid self-sabotage, you need to make sure to:

Avoid self-limiting beliefs
Don't let your motivation escape by focusing on the past or the future
Show up for practice

I share specific mantras, perspectives and mindset shifts to help you implement these strategies and stay out of your own way! Don't miss the full episode!

175: Rebound Weight Gain, Rapid Weight Loss & The Biggest Loser May 07, 2016

Show notes

In today's episode we're breaking down some recent research about rebound weight gain & the impact of rapid weight loss on hormones & metabolism, courtesy of the popular television show, The Biggest Loser.

This article has spread like wildfire, summarizing a study that followed 14 former Biggest Loser contestants over 6 years, documenting their weight gain & metabolic/hormonal challenges.

Many people read this article and panicked, which is why I'm doing this episode. They feel like the article suggests that weight loss is hopeless and your body will fight back to get to it's original weight.

They feel like the article suggests you can't lose weight without wrecking your metabolism. That's just not true. Take a listen to the full episode to get the facts without the media hype!

http://primalpotential.com/biggest-loser/

174: Hacking Hunger May 05, 2016

Show notes

Let's talk hunger, shall we? It's one of those things that for some unknown reason, we kinda fear. Not anymore. Not after today. Today is all about hacking hunger and improving your response to hunger to increase your peace of mind and accelerate your results.

Have you ever felt like you need to keep snacks around "just in case" you get hungry?

Have you ever told yourself that you can't get too hungry or you'll go off the rails?

I know I have!

In today's episode we're talking about improving our response to hunger so we can understand it & embrace it without panicking or reactive decision making.

http://primalpotential.com/174-hacking-hunger-5-ways-to-improve-your-response/

173: Take It To The Next Level May 03, 2016

Show notes

Today I've got another motivational minisode for you! It's time to take it to the next level. We need to get out of our way, we need to stop making excuses, stop looking for exceptions, stop focusing on all the mistakes and missed opportunities in the past.

What would happen if you brought your level 10 effort to each day for the next 30 days?

Where would be? What would you achieve? How much momentum would you create?

It's a great thought, right?

So do it. Start now. There's no need for more waiting or wishing.

Need a kick in the pants? Listen to today's episode!

http://primalpotential.com/173-take-it-to-the-next-level/