By Guy Lawrence

Does this sound familiar? You get home late after hitting the gym, you are tired, hungry and really don’t feel like cooking. You want food that serves you and helps your recovery the best you can. There’s no way you’re gonna do a microwave frozen lasagne or some synthetic chemical laden protein supplement. How about a meal replacement shake that’s totally natural in under 5 minutes?

In this video I show you what I do every time I get back from CrossFit Bare Sydney late in the evening. This is my saviour and it works for me every time. My best late night post WOD (workout) meal replacement shake. Continue reading →

By Guy Lawrence

          “Health is a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living.” -
… Health Promotion

My mate was faced with something that he felt was a serious problem, his job demanded lot’s of hours, blood, sweat and tears on a weekly basis. He loved his job but his health was beginning to suffer. He’d been at it for four years and whenever he fitted exercise into his routine it became too much and simply exhausted him.

When we met up one evening, he told me that he had a 6.30am spin class that morning with a jog lined up for the following night. He also looked like he was going to have to crawl home like a lizard as he was that tired! I did feel for him.

After discussing the food pyramid at length and coming to the conclusion it sucked, I really felt we’d need to look at his exercise regime too.

I asked him why he was exercising?

After a bit of a dumbfounded look he said he wanted to be fitter, leaner, toned and healthier. He was feeling like a slug with no backbone when he sat in his office chair and he desperately wanted it to change.

From where I was sitting, his road to greater health wasn’t looking pretty. All I could see for him was fatigue, burnout, frustration, possible injury and an attitude that said ‘screw you’ to exercise with a million justifications on why he can’t do it anymore.

Do you like the idea of exercising less & becoming a lean mean health machine in the process?

He did… Continue reading →

By Guy Lawrence

“…an 8 oz /230g serving of hamburger daily, is technically permitted under the pyramid.” - Harvard nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett

Have you ever had one of those moments… Someone asks you a question which seems to be really simple, yet you know if you answer it, it opens up for a 100 more questions?

After explaining to my friend about my feelings on why counting calories doesn’t work (you can read my thoughts on calorie counting here), I think he was having a little bit of a paradigm shift regarding his health, nutrition and weight loss. I had just created a monster and I knew more questions would come flying at me!

The penny had dropped and all was not as it seemed in the world of weight loss and marketing. He began to understand that nutrient dense food was of the upmost importance when it came to weight loss, not counting calories. He also began to realise that most of his daily diet consisted of food that was not nutrient dense. It was loaded with refined grains, white flour and starch like breads, pastas, rice etc.

So here came the next question… What about the food pyramid? He was actually eating in no greater quantity than what is recommended by the somewhat vague prescription advocated by the food pyramid. Yet he wasn’t losing weight.

This was my answer to why I thought the food pyramid sucked. Here’s why… Continue reading →

By Guy Lawrence

I’ve recently been reading David Gillespie’s book – Big Fat Lies. It’s certainly a book I’m happy to recommend. It make’s some interesting points on counting calories, weight loss and the general public perception of it all (points that I happen to agree with I may add). This got me thinking as I have never counted a calorie in my life, and I have no problem with my weight or health.

So after walking through Sydney Central Station tunnel to meet my friend with David Gillespie’s book in hand, I was blown away by how many people had some form of diet soda in their hands. I’m quietly thinking to myself: are they drinking it because they think it’s healthy? Seeing my friend make the switch to diet sodas because they are ‘zero’ calorie (learn more about the switch here), got me thinking it’s very possible that they do.

It was good to see my friend had stopped the diet sodas after my last blog post. As he sat there drinking his herbal tea he started picking my brains about calorie consumption. The serendipity of me thinking about counting calories and my mate quizzing me was to coincidental.

After his ‘diet’ soda incident and aspartame he began to realise not all was as it seemed in the world of weight loss and calories.  Hence this blog post. Continue reading →

Photo source: Facebook

By Guy Lawrence

Not sure who Zyzz is? Just ask any twenty year old in Sydney and they will easily tell you.

A pin up boy using his ‘body builders’ physic and good looks along with the use of the internet and social media (no easy task!) to reach cult status popularity. Along with this Zyzz had even created his own branded protein powder and body building eBook. Continue reading →

Weight training gives your body muscle tone and makes it shapelier — as long as it’s done properly.

“Unfortunately many women use light weights and lots of repetitive movements because they’re afraid of getting large muscles,” says Professor Martina Herget from Germany’s High School of Prevention and Health Management in Saarbruecken. But women need not share this concern as the prerequisite hormonal make-up for large muscles is missing in females.

Herget’s advice is to follow an exercise regime of “maximum strength training.” Experience and research studies show that women in particular can benefit from training with heavy weights and low rates of repetitive movement. A routine like that will firm up muscles and give body shape “without muscles getting much bigger.” The result can be a thinner looking body while wearing clothes and a shapely figure when in a bikini.

Combining weights with interval training, where periods of intense exercise are separated by phases of rest, can also help keep you in shape. But Herget says you must ensure you eat healthily to see the maximum benefit.

Together with a diet of the right types of fat you can switch your metabolism to reducing body weight, according to Herget. “Useful fats to eat are the omega 3 types that are contained in fish oil.”

Read the full article here.

Increase your intake of good fats with 180 Superfood.

As the modern obesity epidemic escalates, medical researchers have discovered your body shape and body composition are much more important than your body weight. How much fat your body harbours and where it lies are critical factors influencing health.

WHAT IS FAT?

Body fat, or as doctors call it adipose tissue, is body tissue composed mainly of fat cells known as adipocytes. The main role of body fat is to store extra energy in the form of substances called lipids, but it also serves to cushion the body and acts as insulation to reduce heat loss. Far from being chemically inert, adipose tissue has, in recent times, been recognised as a very active organ in its own right.

In humans, adipose tissue is located beneath the skin (subcutaneous fat), around internal organs (visceral fat), in bone marrow (yellow bone marrow) and in breast tissue. The visceral or intra-abdominal fat is located inside the abdominal cavity, packed in between organs (stomach, liver, intestines, and kidneys) and is different than subcutaneous fat underneath the skin.

ABDOMINAL FAT

Although we all have our own unique shapes, there is one area where the accumulation of excess fat is a medical disaster: around the waistline. Doctors call this fat truncal, abdominal, visceral or organ fat. Excess truncal fat is referred to as abdominal or central obesity. Abdominal fat has been found to produce a long list of powerful chemicals including several hormones that can create problems. For example, the more belly fat a man sports, the lower his level of the male hormone testosterone falls while his production of the female hormone oestrogen rises. This will seriously impair his health and sexual function.

Young women tend to store fat in the buttocks, thighs and hips while men are more likely to have fat stored in the belly due to differences in sex hormones. However, when women reach menopause and hormonal production declines, fat migrates from their buttocks, hips and thighs up to their waists.

All the evidence points to truncal obesity as the most dangerous type of obesity. Men with a waist measurement greater than 39 inches, and women whose waists are more than 34 inches, have a 500 per cent increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and a long list of other diseases including circulatory disorders, stroke, disturbances of blood cholesterol and triglycerides, hormonal imbalance and inflammatory diseases, to name just a few. In a real way, too much fat around your waist may shorten your life in a haste.

Epicardial adipose tissue is a particular form of visceral fat deposited around the heart. It is a very active and dangerous type of fat that produces various chemicals that might negatively affect heart function.

MEASURE YOUR BODY FAT

Modern technology now allows us to easily measure an individual’s body composition. Using a bio-impedance body scanner in my office, I can determine your actual as well as your ideal body weight, your lean body mass (non-fat weight) as well as your visceral fat level. Even more amazing, the machine gives a read out of your body’s biological age in contrast to your actual chronological age. This helps to provide an objective and realistic evaluation of your overall health.

Using this tool, we frequently find that even underweight individuals can have excess visceral fat and are at increased risk of disease. Fortunately, the solution to excess truncal fat is simple and effective.

Personalise your programme: Having measured your body composition we can use this information to create a customised weight management programme, as one size does not always fit all.

Plan your protein: Your lean body mass will indicate exactly the amount of protein you will need to consume each day in order to lose belly fat but maintain your muscles and lean tissues.

The plan guides you in using healthy, convenient and economical protein foods to achieve your goal. Delicious soy protein based shakes make it easy to personalise your protein intake. Extensive research has demonstrated that properly designed meal replacement shakes are extremely safe and effective for fat loss.

Prioritise fruits and vegetables: Health authorities worldwide now recommend that we consume large amounts of vegetables and fruit. For optimal health, men should aim to eat nine and women seven servings of fruit and vegetables each day. Medical research continues to demonstrate that plants, especially fruit and vegetables, contain a large number of health enhancing substances and are useful for healthy weight loss. However it is important to avoid fruit with a high sugar content like mangoes and bananas.

Put a hold on starch and sugar: Too much of the simple carbohydrates in your diet (starch and sugar) will be converted to fat and stored in the belly. On the other hand seriously restricting your intake of those foods will cause your body’s metabolism to switch to fat burning instead of fat storing and your waistline will shrink.

Read the full article here

Transform your diet with 180 Superfood.