Max Wettstein's weight loss tips

Hi everyone,

Please check out the following tips from Max Wettstein and check out the support group on facebook for more ideas! Enjoy!

Share the Health,
Karen Herrmann-Doolan, NSP District Manager

Nature's Sunshine Herb Specialist

Natural Health Educator

herbsplus@mynsp.com

H: 704-588-7638

Visit my Nature's Sunshine Online Store:
www.mynsp.com/herbsplus

Welcome to those of you who have joined the Sunshine Friends Weight Loss Group! Congratulations to you for kicking off the NEW year with courage & motivation, and stepping up for a challenging yet fun weight-loss contest beginning now and lasting for 90 days! My name is Max Wettstein & I will be your resident fat-loss advisor during your health & physique transforming journey! I will be providing tips and encouragement to you and your team all along the way, helping you work smarter AND harder, to achieve your weight-loss goals!

I promise to help keep you charged with motivation & enthusiasm, and to give you priceless knowledge and even a few secrets to becoming leaner and toned while you lose FAT. I'll arm you with the tools you need to bust through those plateaus you WILL encounter, and help you get back on the slimming 'wagon' WHEN you fall off – because let's face it – it's not going to be a smooth ride to our destination – what a boring challenge that would be! We've got to earn our leaner physique so we can feel proud!

Let's take this holistic health & weight-loss quest together in 2010 and see what we can do! Have you ever TRULY achieved your potential? This could be your year!

Sincerely,
Max Wettstein
Fitness Professional
"Optimum health is a method of life."


Become a fan of our facebook fan page - Sunshine Friends

Long Term Strategy By my count we're going on at least week #6 of our weight-loss program, which also happens to be a competition to some members in case you weren't aware! If you're still with us at this point that that tells me you're serious about at least losing some significant FAT and maybe about even winning this contest. And if you're just joining Sunshine Friends, well that is okay too! As we progress further along this journey my goal is that some of you eventually may no longer think of this is as a finite weight-loss contest, but rather will seamlessly transition into a new, healthier lifestyle. A leaner, fitter & healthier method of life! Though there are some differences between how you should diet & train for acute weight-loss as opposed to simply maintaining your final transformed, leaner physique, those differences are not monumental. What I'm trying to say here is that the weight-loss/FAT-loss strategies & methods you're currently applying should be sustainable & not extreme by any standard. Extreme weight-loss tactics should only be administered & monitored by a Bariatric Physician for those medically diagnosed as severely obese. These extreme methods are not sustainable and are beyond the scope of this group! There are some who may be here for the other short-term weight-loss goals, such as a wedding or class-reunion. But to be sure, the spirit & mission of this Sunshine Friends contest & group is geared towards long-term, gradual yet sustainable FAT-loss that is intended on transforming your body over a 6 month period while simultaneously teaching you how to maintain. So what then, is realistic, sustainable & most importantly, healthy weight-loss? Of course this depends to some degree on how much excess fat you begin with. But for a general guideline, let's try for 1 to 2 pounds per week. In 6 months' time that can really add up to a significant amount of fat loss! Almost 50 pounds! Of course your weight-loss rate will not be perfectly linear, but will fluctuate as you hit plateaus, or go on a vacation, fall ill, etc. Rapid weight-loss usually is followed by rebound weight gain also known as classic 'yo-yo dieting'. This is what we want to avoid! Here is a link to some healthy, 'Max-tested-&-approved' snack options to help you keep your sanity! http://www.maxwettsteinfitness.com/Training Plan/Healthy Snacks.htm

Muscle Drives Your Resting Metabolism I've been talking about how we need to get the fundamental lifestyle basics established and working correctly before we can move on to more advanced strategies, supplements or any other shortcuts to weight-loss. This is because we are not only a long term weight-loss group, but we're also a very holistic-health conscientious group who are interested in not just losing the FAT, but also keeping it off! In Fit-tip #3, I touched on how dieting alone without considering exercise is a quick road to slowing your metabolism & ultimately failure. Now I want to explain the absolutely DIRECT connection between the amount of your lean-body mass (or non-fat body mass) and your resting metabolism, also known as your basal metabolic rate or BMR. To get to the point: Above all else your muscle mass directly drives your resting metabolism. Sure there are many other factors that determine your resting or basal metabolic rate, including genetics, age, gender etc. – but you do not have any control over most of these other factors so why should we waste our time discussing them? ! To some, especially perhaps women or those who just desire to be a smaller person, "muscle MASS", is something that is often ignored or even perhaps carries a derogatory ring to it, as it implies more BODY- mass, which doesn't exactly sound appealing in the short term when one is trying to shrink in size!! But your body-composition needs to be analyzed, tracked & considered throughout your entire weight-loss journey to benchmark initial muscle & fat mass ratios and make sure you're reducing fat while preserving your precious muscle as you lose weight! Remember, muscle actively burns calories at rest while fat tissue NEVER burns calories! Fat cells are simply storage lipids with no cell-mitochondria to produce energy! Fat lipids can only STORE energy. There is only one way to preserve & maintain muscle tissue during restricted-calorie dieting, when it can easily become catabolized as an energy source just like fat-mass: Thru exercise, specifically strength or resistance type exercise. Our muscle-mass already naturally atrophies with age, and during dieting the risk of depleting our very own muscle for energy becomes an even greater risk, and nothing will shut down your metabolism quicker than losing your muscle mass! Not to mention it is ore muscles that give us an aesthetically pleasing toned appearance. Sincerely, Max Deep-Sleep. Fundamental to a leaner body Obviously all of us here on Sunshine Friends not only know the benefits of supplements and our big users of them, but we also trust & LOVE Nature's Sunshine supplements. And don't get me wrong – supplements can make a dramatic impact in weight-loss results for sure. In fact, I plan to specifically address some key supplement players down the road but first, we need to ensure we have the fundamental weight-loss basics optimized. In fact did you know that these basic weight-loss fundamentals are the same for optimal holistic-health in general?! A healthy lifestyle is also a lean-body lifestyle! Today's fundamental tip focuses on the sleep-component. This is above all else in my humble opinion the most important lifestyle factor for not only weight-loss but for optimal health period! If you're not sleeping DEEP or long enough, every other area of your life will be negatively affected. When I say "deep" I'm not just talking soundly, I'm speaking about a specific phase of sleep. Generally speaking we have 3 phases of sleep that occur in repetitive cycles throughout the night and they are Deep, Light & R.E.M. (Rapid-Eye-Movement). Deep & REM phases are the most important, but our DEEP-sleep phase really has a significant role in weight-loss or as I like to say, improving our lean-body mass. Deep-sleep phase usually sets in typically about 45 mins after we first fall asleep and only lasts for about 20 mins before transitioning back into light-sleep, followed by REM. This cycle repeats over and over again, but with each cycle the deep-phase gets shorter and shorter, for a total of only about 45 minutes of deep-sleep in middle-aged adults. Deep-sleep phase is critical to weight-loss and improving lean-body mass because it is when we get our major Growth-Hormone secretion. Growth Hormone not only restores and repairs our soft-tissues and muscles, but is also a major fat-burning hormone! What's more, inadequate deep-sleep phase has also been associated with higher levels of Ghrelin which is our primary circulating HUNGER hormone! So just remember this: If you're not sleeping DEEP enough or long enough (which are both quantified specifically & relative to you and your age & lifestyle), not only will you tend to be deficient in Growth Hormone secretion, but you will likely be more hungry throughout the day! Be aware of your sleeping habits and establish discipline in your sleep-hygiene & bedtime routine. You may think you're more productive by sleeping less than the rest of us, but really you're shortening your life span so you pay in the end! Sincerely, Max Don't do it. Don't make losing weight – losing FAT - more difficult than it has to be. Food is yummy. It is satisfying & comforting. It brings us together with our family & friends. Preparing, serving & enjoying meals is nurturing and is good for the soul. Positive neurotransmitters such as dopamine are literally released just by thinking of our favorite foods. So it doesn't make sense to completely cut out an entire food group, or deprive ourselves of some of the foods we love most. It doesn't make sense to starve ourselves. So do NOT attempt to lose weight – to lose FAT – through dieting alone. It won't work, you'll be setting yourself up for failure and it's unhealthy! So what's another major component in losing weight that we actually have a lot of control over? You guessed it. You know where I'm headed: EXERCISE! The more time you can spend exercising the more compromise you will be able to allow within your diet. We all love food, so why not take some of the emphasis off dieting & make room for some moderate indulgence by increasing your time spent exercising or being more active? It's a tradeoff for sure, and if you're not willing to completely give up some of your favorite foods or pass on dinner engagements then you need to pay your dues & account for those calories via exercise. Remember also that a sedentary lifestyle by far imposes the most risk to one's health, not necessarily being over weight! I cannot stress this point enough! If you're still not convinced of the significance of incorporating adequate exercise into your weight-loss plan then consider this: Exercise directly & immediately boosts your metabolism not only during exercise, but also following while your body is recovering. Restricting food & cutting calories (while necessary to some degree), eventually slows your resting metabolism. So if all you do is diet, then ultimately your weight-loss efforts are doomed for failure and your health is more at risk due to sedentary lifestyle. So get up & get your body in motion doing hopefully some kind of physical activity you enjoy, but knowing sometimes you just have to pay your dues & get it done! Sincerely, Max Greetings Sunshine Friends! Okay so our weight-loss (FAT-loss) contest is officially under way & believe me, there is no better source of motivation to lose some pounds than a public competition that even offers reward incentives. Two of the biggest factors in successfully losing weight you now have going for you: Motivation (via contest) and Accountability! These two key components trump almost all other dieting factors, so once you have them in place you are seriously off to a good start. One thing you'll notice that many of you might have noticed from previous dieting efforts is that during the first 2 weeks the weight starts coming off quickly! This is due to many reasons, certainly including the fact that starting out is when your motivation is strongest. But also due to the fact that physiologically your metabolism has not recognized that you're on a long term lower calorie diet yet, so it hasn't had a chance to slow down. And also because much of the initial weight lost is not just from fat, but actually glycogen (stored carbohydrates within your muscles) and water. Did you know that for every gram of glycogen that is stored in your body, three grams of water are required to store it?! So take serious advantage of this initial rapid weight-loss and ride the wave as long as you can. Even if the weight you're losing is only 50% fat, you're still getting slimmer and lighter and attaining positive feelings & psychological benefits that will accumulate into the momentum you will need to carry you into weeks 3 and 4. A few tips you can start doing RIGHT NOW to directly lose fat & promote a more thermogenic state in your body: Triple your water intake. Stop drinking all soda AND JUICE, but if you must it better be 'Diet'. Especially slam a full glass of water when you start feeling hungry – this will fill your stomach and dilute stomach acids. Sounds simple but it works! Soda, energy-drinks, and JUICE are loaded with sugar. Drink 5 cups of Green Tea each day, OR, take 4 capsules of NSP's Green-Tea extract. Green Teas is healthy in every way & contains only 40 mg of caffeine per cup & NSP's capsules are actually caffeine-free! Eat breakfast, and make it a high-protein/health-fat breakfast, for sustained energy and to kick-start your metabolism! Exercise in some form at least 30 minutes each day or whatever amount you're able to. THIS IS CRITICAL to healthy long-term weight loss & to preserve muscle & sustain your resting-metabolism!! Get a training partner from your group to hold you accountable to this and keep you company. Okay, plenty more tips like this to come each week! Keep me in the loop – and let's DO THIS! -Max Getting Started Goal setting: Think big, but start small. Set reasonable goals. Be committed for the long run. Remind yourself that lasting weight loss requires a lifestyle change. Be accountable. This will help you stick to your plan and overcome temptations.