To be a life-changing fitness pro, you need to take responsibility for both the advice you offer, and your client’s ability to follow that advice. Yes, even those “difficult clients.” The ones other fitness professionals tell you to fire.

Here at Precision Nutrition, we don’t fire our clients. We take a completely different approach.

In this 4 part video series – filmed live at the 2011 Perform Better Summit in Long Beach, California – we’ll share that approach with you. And, by the end of the series, you’ll be better equipped to get unbelievable results with every type of client you work with. Even the challenging ones.

For now, simply click the play button below to get started with Part 2 of The Compliance Solution.  (If you missed part 1, click here).  The video is about 15 minutes in length.

For the past four years now, Precision Nutrition has coached over 8,000 clients to lose over 150,000 pounds of fat. Weight is lost, behaviors are slowly modified, and lives are changed for the better.

The really cool thing is, our coaches rarely meet clients in person — all coaching is done online.

Now these results wouldn’t have been possible without understanding the power of change psychology, specifically helping clients modify their daily practices and get past common stumbling blocks.  Indeed, it’s only when we switched from an exercise and nutrition focus to a change focus that we saw a huge leap forward in our success rate.

Of course, our data support this approach.  Compared to our earlier example – where only 55% of patients are compliant with their life-saving medications – our coaching system yields, on average, over 70% compliance.

In other words, for every 10 workouts or nutrition habits prescribed, our clients do about 7 of them.

That’s a pretty awesome accomplishment considering that people take their prescription medications only 5 out of 10 times. Plus, we’re asking a lot more of them than to swallow some magic pill.

The question, however, is this: how do we get these kinds of results? Well, there are four key lessons I’d like to share with you over the course of the next few videos.

First up…

Lesson #1: Coach To Both Sides of the Brain

You may have heard that the brain can be split up into two sides: a left side (or hemisphere) and a right side (or hemisphere). You may have also learned that everyone is dominant in one side or the other. While things are a bit more complicated than that, we can use this as an interesting model for coaching change.

According to the hemispheric model…the left brain is the logical side and it’s responsible for:

• Logic and analytical thinking
• Rationality and reason
• Forming strategies and creating structure

On the other side is the right brain, and it’s responsible for:

• Intuition and emotion
• Holistic thinking and pattern recognition
• Creating art, beauty, and using imagination

Unfortunately, most of us spend all our time appealing to the left side. We talk sets and reps, calorie expenditure, disease risk rates, macronutrients, target heart rate, and nutrient timing.

It’s a lot like math. And when clients fail to understand and appreciate a subject we think is especially important, we give them an equally left-brained handout or website to read.

The problem? Most of our decision making (whether we like it or not) is more right-brained than left. So, by appealing to reason alone, we get the classic situation where clients think they know exactly what to do. But they simply feel like they can’t do it.

The solution? Start speaking to their right brain.

In the great book Switch, authors Chip and Dan Heath use the metaphor of a rider with a whip, steering an elephant.

• The elephant is the emotional brain.
• The rider with the whip is the logical brain.
• The path they’re walking is the environment.

As with any new change scenario, the elephant (emotional brain) may be scared, especially when it perceives the change to be difficult or uncomfortable. And fear brings resistance.

Of course, the rider (logical brain) has the reigns and a whip. So he can steer, prod, and lash that frightened elephant. However, that never lasts long. The rider always gets tired and, after that, the elephant goes where it wants.

Here’s the point: the rational brain can only control the emotional brain for so long, and that’s exhausting to do. As a coach, it’s far more effective to get the elephant and the rider on the same page by minimizing fear.

In addition, the Heath brothers introduce another concept called “shaping the path.” In essence, it means helping clear away of temptations and roadblocks before they become an issue. It means helping make daily practices automatic so that they’re habitual and don’t use up our precious willpower reserves.

Here are just a few examples of strategies for shaping the path:

• To stay committed to a morning workout, lay out your workout clothes the night before.
• To avoid food temptations, get rid of the cookie jar and candy bowls around the office.
• To avoid skipping workouts, pay for training sessions in advance.

There are hundreds of other examples we could use here but the point is this: most fitness professionals have spent their careers focusing exclusively on their own left-brained learning.  And while their heads are full of interesting physiology, biochemistry, and mathematics, they’re poorly equipped when it comes to helping real people make meaningful change.

To overcome this problem, it’s essential to spend some time doing some right-brained work.  As a professional, this time spent will mean a huge leap forward in client results.

Wrap-Up and Today’s Takeaways

That’s it for Part 2 of The Compliance Solution. In just a few days we’ll be back with Part 3 of the video series, and a few additional lessons.

In the meantime, here are four important takeaway messages for you to think about.

• Switching from a focus on exercise physiology alone to a balanced focus on physiology and change psychology is an important first step to getting remarkable client results.

• As a coach, you must focus on both sides of the brain. Taking a strictly rational/logical approach to behavior change will create clients who think they know what to do. But feel like they can’t do it.

• By working with deep motivation and recognizing the role of the emotional brain in decision-making we can prevent rider fatigue and better facilitate change.

• We can also go one step further by helping clients shape the path to health and fitness.

PN Certification Program begins Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 — waiting list now open.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to deliver life-changing, research-driven nutrition coaching – so that you can help each and every type of client that comes to you for advice – the PN Certification program is perfect for you.

Based on over 10 years of research and statistical data from over 8,000 clients, the certification is a comprehensive nutrition coaching course designed specifically to teach professionals working in a personal training or strength coaching environment how to get clients in the best shape of their lives.

We’ve opened the waiting list for the March 2012 program. I strongly recommend you get your name on the list now because spots are limited and typically sell out within hours each time we run the program.

Click here to join the waiting list.

To be a life-changing fitness pro, you need to take responsibility for both the advice you offer, and your client’s ability to follow that advice.  Yes, even those “difficult clients.” The ones other fitness professionals tell you to fire.

Here at Precision Nutrition, we don’t fire our clients.  We take a completely different approach.

In this 4 part video series – filmed live at the 2011 Perform Better Summit in Long Beach, California – we’ll share that approach with you.  And, by the end of the series, you’ll be better equipped to get unbelievable results with every type of client you work with.  Even the challenging ones.

For now, simply click the play button below to get started with Part 1 of The Compliance Solution.  The video is about 15 minutes in length.

Problem clients…it’s okay to admit it, we all have them.

Some appear to be “great clients” at first. They show up for all their training appointments. They listen attentively when we talk about nutrition and lifestyle. Some even memorize shopping lists, calorie counts, and meal plans.

Despite all this, they sometimes get poor results.

So we push them harder during the workouts, give them less food, add more cardio, and cycle their calories. But, as the weeks turn into months, nothing changes.

The client is frustrated, we’re frustrated, and left with only one logical explanation: they’re lying. They can’t possibly be doing what we recommend.

Other clients never even get that far.

While they’re present for all training appointments, they won’t even pretend to care about nutrition and lifestyle change. Indeed, when it’s time to talk their diet and their daily practices: They. Just. Never. Listen.

We’re Not Just Educators; We’re Coaches

When faced with difficult clients, many of us throw up our hands. “It’s not our fault!” we exclaim. We can only provide the education. It’s our client’s job to do the rest. Right?

Well, not exactly.

Over the past 10 years, the Precision Nutrition team has coached thousands of people in what many people consider to be the World’s Largest Body Transformation Program. We’ve helped them lose fat, get healthy, and change their lives.  The results have been incredible. To date, over 150,000 pounds have been lost and thousands of lives changed.

We’ve also spent a tremendous amount of time learning subjects that traditionally go beyond the boundaries of exercise and nutrition; including coaching theory, change psychology, and neuroscience.

And, after working with all these people, charting their progress and behavior changes, and applying the latest exercise, nutrition, and coaching strategies — only one conclusion can be drawn. Helping clients change, using the best practices of change psychology, is the only way to have long-term success in this field.

In other words, helping clients take the next positive step in their lives — and knowing what steps are right for them — is the key to becoming a life-changing fitness professional.

Compliance and The Medical Field

Make no mistake, coaching people through their struggles with compliance isn’t always easy. However, it’s not a challenge reserved for fitness pros.

I was shocked when I first learned that doctors report embarrassingly low compliance rates when prescribing life-saving heart disease, diabetes, and cancer medications. In fact, the latest data suggest that patients take these medications only half the time.

Scary, for sure.  Also a little intimidating since, as fitness pros, we’re asking our clients to do much more than swallow a magic pill. Exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle changes; they’re a bit more involved.

What’s Your Success Rate?

Keeping compliance issues in mind, typically, if a trainer has 20 clients in their roster, their client breakdown looks something like this:

• 1 client experiences jaw-dropping results
• 9 clients experience decent results, but could be better
• 6 clients experience poor results
• 5 clients drop out

It’s a little disturbing.  And I should know, I’ve been there.

I began my career as a trainer and I can tell you that I struggled through the same challenges.  I wondered: why are more than half my clients getting poor results or dropping out?  And why are so few of my clients achieving jaw-dropping transformations?

At the time, my solution was to learn more.  So off to grad school I went.

What I Didn’t Learn In Grad School

After a few years in the field, I decided to go back to graduate school.  I figured I needed to learn more about exercise and nutrition so I could help my clients achieve those jaw-dropping transformations they were all after.

Five years later, after spending a ridiculous amount of time and money earning a PhD in exercise and nutritional science, I was a little disappointed. While I wouldn’t trade my grad school experiences for the world, when I got back out into the field I wasn’t much further along.

I learned that it wasn’t the high level physiology stuff that was tripping my clients up.  Instead, it was the simple habits and practices built into their daily lives.  Unfortunately I hadn’t learned anything about helping clients with those.

In other words, I can tell you something with authority: what’s missing from your programs isn’t a mystery nutrient or exercise protocol.  What’s missing is something called change psychology.

For me, when I realized this, I completely reworked our coaching approach here at Precision Nutrition. And the more we learned about change psychology, the better the results our clients achieved.

Learning The Basics of Change Psychology

If you’re interested in learning more about this dynamic field, the best way to get acquainted is to read a few excellent, and landmark, books:

• The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
• Influence by Robert Cialdini
• Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson and colleagues
• Switch by Chip and Dan Heath
• The Blackmail Diet by John Bear
• Motivational Interviewing by William R. Miller PhD, Stephen Rollnick PhD.

These books will open your eyes to a whole new way of coaching.

For example, one of my biggest ah-ha moments came when reading Motivational Interviewing.  Until I read this book it never really occurred to me that with my coaching strategies I could be making my clients less likely to change.

That’s right, even with the best of intentions, even if I deeply care about helping my clients, my own agenda, even my language, could literally make my clients less able to make important changes in their lives.

Powerful stuff.  Lessons we all need to learn if we want to be the best fitness pros we can be.

Wrap-Up and Today’s Takeaways

That’s it for Part 1 of The Compliance Solution.  In just a few days we’ll be back with Part 2 of the video series.

In the meantime, here are three important takeaway messages for you to think about.

• Real world coaching requires a mix of physiology and psychology. And psychology is perhaps the most important of the two.

• To improve your knowledge of change psychology, I recommend starting with Motivational Interviewing.  It’s the best book on coaching behavior change that I’ve ever read; the insights come fast and furious.

• For most clients their biggest stumbling block is compliance, the ability to do what they know they should do. Understanding how to help them overcome their limiting factors is the most important skill you can have as a coach.

PN Certification Program begins Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 — waiting list now open.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to deliver life-changing, research-driven nutrition coaching – so that you can help each and every type of client that comes to you for advice – the PN Certification program is perfect for you.

Based on over 10 years of research and statistical data from over 8,000 clients, the certification is a comprehensive nutrition coaching course designed specifically to teach professionals working in a personal training or strength coaching environment how to get clients in the best shape of their lives.

We’ve opened the waiting list for the March 2012 program. I strongly recommend you get your name on the list now because spots are limited and typically sell out within hours each time we run the program.

Click here to join the waiting list.

Our goal?

To teach elite fitness professionals — personal trainers, strength coaches, therapists, nutritionists — a nutrition coaching system that can transform the bodies of their clients in the shortest time possible.

Our Precision Nutrition community has been abuzz with discussion about this upcoming program. So I decided to answer some of the key questions here, to help those interested learn more about the program.

Q. Why offer a certification like this?

Q. What do you mean when you say, “Exercise alone doesn’t work”?

Q. What results can I expect when I integrate nutrition coaching into my practice?

Q. What qualifies you to teach a course / offer a certification like this?

Q. How does the PN Certification compare to other nutrition education options?

Q. How thorough is the PN Certification?

Q. Will there be multiple levels of certification?

Q. Do I need to have a science degree to become certified?

Q. Once I’m PN Certified, will I be listed on your site?

Q. Would nutritionists and dietitians benefit from this program as well?

Q. Is the PN Certification program accredited by one of the national education boards?

Q. What about those people specifically looking for national accreditation?

Q. Can I earn CEUs from my personal training organization with this program?

Q. How long does it take to complete the Level 1 program?

Q. How about Level 2?

Q. What advice will someone be able to offer clients after completing the course?

Q. When does the PN Certification program begin?

Q. How many people are you accepting in the program?

Q: How can people find out more?

Click here to join the waiting list.

Over 5 years in the making, the PN Certification is the synthesis of everything we’ve learned during the last 15 years of coaching and research in the nutrition field.

Designed specifically for elite fitness professionals working with clients in a personal training or coaching environment, it’s based on the university nutrition courses we teach and the data we’ve collected from thousands of Precision Nutrition clients over the years.

And there’s nothing else like it, anywhere.

Nutrition certification for elite fitness professionals.

I’ve always felt that nutrition is the missing component in the fitness profession; without it, a client will simply not see results, and a coach will simply not be able to generate them.

But where would you go to learn the essentials of sport and exercise nutrition, and how to coach it?

Everything that exists is usually re-purposed material from clinical dietetics (i.e., feeding people in hospital situations) or is more suited to advanced academic study (i.e., post-graduate research).

Nothing, and I mean nothing, deals with the problem we face every day: how to use nutrition coaching to elicit marked improvements in health, performance and (especially) body composition in an exercising client.

We literally wrote the book on it.

So we literally wrote the book: finding no suitable textbook, we created one from scratch: The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition a 500-page opus, now in it’s second edition, covering every aspect of the science and practice of nutrition coaching.

In addition, we’ve created a whole video lesson curriculum, a challenging exam to test your mettle, and in general, a contribution to the betterment of the fitness industry as a whole.

Basically, we’re going to do everything in our power to change the game. We’re out to train a new kind of fitness professional. And the certification is a massive step in that direction.

More details, and how to join the waiting list:

If you’re interested in finding out more, we’ve set up a pre-registration page with more info about the program. There, you can also get on the waiting list.

Since, in our last group, we filled every spot in less than 24 hours, the current spots will go quickly. So everyone on the waiting list gets a 24 hour “presale” window to reserve a spot before we open it to the general public.

There’s no charge to be on the waiting list, so if you’re interested in the certification program I highly recommend you get on it, because your chance of getting a spot will be much, much better.

Click here to join the waiting list.

What is the top New Year’s resolution? Lose weight.

Every year, people with good intentions set out to lose weight, only to have even more weight to lose the next year later. (Resolutions seem like such a good idea when you’ve got a party horn in your hand and a gold cardboard top hat on your head, swimming in a champagne-induced fog.)

One problem is that people try to lose weight quickly. Unfortunately, even if they manage to drop a few pounds fast, they bounce right back… and often, keep on gaining.

By slowing down the weight loss process and teaching life-long healthy habits, PN’s very own Lean Eating program is designed to avoid the cycle of perpetual weight loss.

Now, research confirms our methods. (But we knew that already.) Only slow and steady progress leads to lasting change. Why?

Appetite hormones: Why self control is not the problem

Myth: weight loss is all about self control.

People berate themselves or are judged by others for carrying a few extra pounds. To be fat means you’re weak-willed, spineless, and/or impulsive.

Fact: Powerful hormones control our perception of appetite and hunger, as well as our eating behaviour.

While you still have the option of self-control, your body definitely has a strong voice in the matter. And “willpower” breaks down easily under stress; when blood sugar is low; and/or in environments that don’t support weight loss (like an office where everyone has a candy dish and it seems like someone has a birthday cake every day).

Here are some of the more well-known hormones that influence appetite, hunger, and satiety.

For more about leptin and ghrelin take a look at another research review of mine on leptin and ghrelin.

The ideal hormone combo to suppress appetite and help you lose weight would be:

• more CCK, GLP-1, PYY, and leptin
• less ghrelin

What happens to hormones over the long haul?

The study I’m reviewing this week looks at what happens to appetite hormones after 10 weeks of dieting up to 1 year later. Yup, your lemon-cayenne diet from last year may be making you feel more hungry this year.

Sumithran P, Prendergast LA, Delbridge E, Purcell K, Shulkes A, Kriketos A, Proietto J. Long-term persistence of hormonal adaptations to weight loss. N Engl J Med. 2011 Oct 27;365(17):1597-604.

Methods

This year-long study involved 50 people with BMI between 27 and 40 (classified as overweight and obese), who went on a crazy low-calorie diet for 10 weeks (though the researchers called it a very-low energy diet).

What’s a crazy low calorie diet? Oh, say 500-550 kcal for people that had an average weight of 95 kg (209 lb), which is one-third of their basal metabolic rate. To live without moving at all, these volunteers would need about 1700 kcal on average. No question they were really hungry and needed a hell of a lot of will power to stay on this diet.

The problem with calorie math

This intake of 500-550 kcal means that each day these volunteers are eating at least 1200 kcal less than they need.

Since fat has 3600 kcal/pound, you could use basic (and flawed) calorie counting to figure they should lose a pound (0.45 kg) of fat every three days. At the end of 10 weeks (70 days) they should lose just over 23 pounds (10.6 kg), or 11% body weight in fat.

The problem with thinking of yourself as just fat that’s burned like a candle is that you overlook things like hormones that through evolution respond to starvation by storing calories more efficiently.

A few hundred years ago, it was a good thing that your body responded to starvation by storing as much fat as possible. Thrifty hormones saved lives. Now when starvation is self-induced in a sea of food it causes problems.

Results

During the first 10 weeks of the study, when the volunteers were eating a very low calorie diet, they lost 9.4 kg (20.7 lb) of fat and 4.1 kg (9 lb) of lean body mass, but that didn’t last over the next year.

As the year went on after the diet, they slowly gained half the weight they lost. At first glance, that doesn’t sound too bad. They lost a fair bit of weight in a short period, and then a year later, they were still ahead of the game.

Hormonal effects: short term

The problem is what happens to these volunteers’ hormones — the hormones like leptin, ghrelin, peptide YY, etc. — that regulate appetite, hunger, and satiety.

After 10 weeks of starvation the volunteers had less leptin, peptide YY, and cholecystrokinin, as well as more ghrelin and gastric inhibitory polypeptide. The result: The volunteers felt more hungry. Cue the need for even more will power to keep the weight off. Sound familiar?

Hormonal effects: long term

We knew that crash dieting messes up appetite regulatory hormones for a short period, but until now, nobody had looked at the long-term effects of very low calories on these hormones.

Why didn’t anyone look at what happened a year or more later?

Well, it’s hard to get people signed up for a year-long anything, let alone having them go on a starvation diet for over two months first. Plus, it’s a bit of a surprise that a short term diet would do much a year later. These scientists must have had to convince a lot of people that this study was worth doing.

One year after dieting the volunteers still had less leptin, peptide YY, and cholecystokinin; and more ghrelin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide and pancreatic polypeptide.

What happened to hunger? Still higher after a year. Think about that. A full year after dieting, the volunteers still felt more hungry. No surprise that most dieters regain weight lost and more… eventually.

Conclusion

If you try to lose weight quickly, you’ll end up trying to lose it every year instead of taking a year to lose the weight once.

It’s clear that very low calorie dieting has long term impact on hunger and appetite hormones lasting at least a year. Now imagine what multiple crash diets might do.

By the way, stringent and chronic restriction also affects hormones that control gastric motility (the speed at which food is processed) and neurotransmitters (brain chemicals).

Thus, if you regularly “diet”, not only do you end up always hungry, you have indigestion and “brain hamsters” like anxiety or depression, and you rarely feel psychologically satisfied by eating — you always want more, or have strong cravings. Show me a “professional dieter” and I’ll show you someone who feels generally lousy physically, mentally, and emotionally. Hormonal disruption is strong stuff.

Could yo-yo dieting lead to cumulative changes in appetite regulation hormones? Very likely. Several years of yo-yo dieting later, you may feel much more hungry than when you started. Good luck with willpower then.

Bottom line

Lose weight quickly while nearly starving, only to gain most of it back (or more) and feel hungrier than when you started. Or lose weight slowly, for good, and feel better than ever… eventually.

What would you choose? If you want door #2… well… have we got a program for you.

Click here to join the waiting list.

Eat less and exercise more.  It’s generally a great prescription for improving health and improving body composition.  However, it doesn’t always work.

In a small number of people, even with an awesome exercise plan and a rock-solid diet, the results are less than stellar.  They suffer from mysterious symptoms and complaints that they just shouldn’t be experiencing based on how much effort they put into their fitness and health. 

Make no mistake; exercise and nutrition can make everyone better.  But, for some people, it doesn’t take them all the way.  Because there’s a physiological log-jam.  Something on the inside that’s preventing their progress.

Here at Precision Nutrition, when we meet clients who have issues that exercise and nutrition – not to mention their own doctors – can’t seem to solve, there’s one guy we call.  His name is Bryan Walsh. 

Dr. Walsh has a sharp mind, a fitness background, a degree in naturopathic medicine, and extensive additional training and certifications. His wife is a naturopath too. (We bet his kids are the healthiest on the planet.)

So, when clients have nowhere else to turn, Dr. Walsh turns from mild-mannered dad and husband into forensic physiologist. He pulls out his microscope, analyzes blood, saliva, urine, lifestyle – whatever he has to. And he frees up the physiological jam.

That’s why, when Dr. Walsh volunteered to work on a monthly case study feature with us, we jumped at the chance. By following along with these fascinating cases, you’ll see exactly how a talented practitioner thinks; and you’ll also learn how to improve your own health.

In today’s case, we’ll meet a client who came to Dr. Walsh with a single complaint: adult acne. However, upon further investigation, Dr. Walsh discovered that she was suffering from problems with her sex hormones, blood sugar, and stress hormones.

Learn how “Doctor Detective” Walsh unraveled the mystery and helped this client achieve surprising results.

The client

It’s not every day that a young woman with a great diet, exercise plan, and attitude walks into my office with health complaints. Lots of them, in fact. That got my attention right away.

Jill was 34 and healthy. But she had adult acne. Yeah, acne – y’know, the stuff you’re supposed to grow out of, right around the time you lose your crush on Justin Bieber and quit breaking into your parents’ liquor cabinet? Well, Jill’s acne never got the memo that it was time to move on.

Jill was a woman on a mission. She’d been to many conventional doctors who merely put her on a variety of topical and oral medications, which included antibiotics (minocycline, tetracycline, clindamycin), as well as Differin®, Retin A, and azelaic acid. When that didn’t work, she tried alternative treatments such as natural acne washes, zinc and chromium supplementation, and honey masks.

Nothing helped. Doctors told her nothing was wrong, and that she’d just have to live with the breakouts.

After two years of trying everything, not only was her acne unimproved, but she now experienced frequent urinary tract infections (likely from the antibiotics). She was frustrated. She knew something was wrong.

But what? She looked fit and healthy. She ate well on an organic diet. She exercised regularly. At 5’9” and 130 lb, her weight was normal. She was even upbeat and positive.

Yet acne was only one of her issues.

Jill believed she also had hormone imbalances. She’d been trying to get pregnant for 10 years with no luck. She and her husband had pretty much given up on her dream of having a baby.

The client’s signs and symptoms

I examined Jill when she came into my office. She had significant acne and mild facial hair growth. Other than low blood pressure (100/70), all other physical exam findings were normal.

I dug deeper, scribbling notes as I went. Jill described the following:

Aha, I thought. Based on her medical history, her signs and her symptoms thus far, Jill’s probably experiencing blood sugar issues (i.e. reactive hypoglycemia), sex hormone imbalances, digestive dysfunction, and possible adrenal hormone imbalances.

After being “Doctor Detective” for many years, I like to think my instincts are pretty good. Still, I’m a cautious guy. I don’t like to jump to conclusions. So I turned to the diagnostic tests for confirmation.

The tests and assessments

Taking a good medical history and critically evaluating symptoms often tells you everything you need to know about a case. However, there are some things you can’t learn just from asking questions.

I can’t see into clients’ blood vessels or cells, or guess the chemistry of their urine. Lab testing gives me insight that I can’t get from conversation. In fact, labwork is one of the most useful tools in my arsenal.

I like to start small with some basic tests. Sometimes these are all I need. I always start with a good blood chemistry panel plus a salivary hormone panel. Jill is also a candidate for a digestive function panel, but we opted against it for now.

The test results

Blood chemistry panel

When read correctly, a good blood chemistry panel speaks volumes about a patient’s internal physiological processes. Here are some of the significant findings from Jill’s blood chemistry panel:

You’ll notice that even though none of these values were outside the lab reference range, I still flagged some of them as problematic. Why?

Well, what most people don’t realize is that, except for lipids (cholesterol, HDL, LDL, etc), the range provided by the laboratory is derived from blood samples taken from people visiting their doctor. In other words, sick people. Healthy people go to the doctor far less often than sick ones do.

Therefore when your doctor says your blood work is “normal”, s/he’s really saying: “You are as healthy as 90 percent of people visiting the doctor today” and “Congratulations! You probably don’t have a weird unusual disease!”

That’s not enough for me. I don’t just want to know that people are surviving. I want to know how to make them thrive.

So we look at blood panels a different way: as a means to evaluate health and optimal function.

In addition to the findings above, we also saw evidence of possible dehydration (slightly elevated albumin, hemoglobin and hematocrit) on the blood chemistry, which could be masking an anemic tendency on her blood work. If someone is dehydrated, their anemia will be harder, if not impossible, to spot on a blood chemistry test.

Is it plausible there are a lot of dehydrated anemic patients walking around today being told there is nothing wrong with them today? You bet. More than most people realize.

Hormone panel

Hormonally, Jill had a number of things going on.

We ran a month-long female hormone panel to track her hormones over the course of an entire month. The results appear in the graph below. Note that normal estrogen for a female cycle is in blue, normal progesterone is in red. Jill’s results are in dashed green.

Hormone panel results - click to enlarge

Based on this graph, you can see that Jill has fairly normal progesterone levels and timing, but estrogen starts and ends elevated throughout the entire month. This tells us that estrogen is dominant. This consistently high level of estrogen, and its effects on her tissues, helps explain many of her symptoms during menses.

But perhaps the most significant finding with regard to her acne was what we found when testing her testosterone.

Although many people assume that testosterone is a “male” hormone and estrogen is a “female” hormone, both men and women produce both types of hormones. They just differ in the relative amounts.

Elevated testosterone in women is more common than people realize. High testosterone causes everything from infertility, low libido, mood issues, difficulty losing weight, to the more obvious signs like acne and facial hair growth.

As far as Jill’s acne was concerned, we felt this was the smoking gun we were looking for.

Cortisol panel

To add insult to injury, Jill also showed chronically low cortisol levels throughout the day (as you can see below — her results are mapped on the blue line), which is consistent with reactive hypoglycemia.

Cortisol, also known as a glucocorticoid, has powerful influences on maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. When people with low cortisol skip meals, their blood sugar drops too low, and epinephrine is released as a backup plan to increase glucose. It is epinephrine that causing the shakiness, lightheadedness, and irritability experienced between meals.

Cortisol panel results - click to enlarge

The prescription

We may be “health gunslingers for hire”, but we ain’t supplement junkies. Nor do we respect practitioners that send patients out with grocery bags of supplements. It’s simply not necessary. Some people need more than others, but there is no need to take a supplement without proof that you need it.

We also don’t believe in protocols for specific conditions. For example we don’t have an acne protocol, or even an acne supplement. Instead, we look at which physiological pathways are dysfunctional and seek to improve those pathways using targeted nutritional approaches.

That being said, let’s find out what we did for Jill.

Issue #1 – Blood sugar imbalances

Her symptoms and blood work (low LDH) suggested reactive hypoglycemia, otherwise known as excessive blood sugar fluctuations. This is critical to address, as reactive hypoglycemia in women often increases testosterone production.

It’s crucial for women with this condition to eat small, frequent meals, whether they feel hungry or not. Anytime Jill feels lightheaded or shaky between meals, she’s waited too long and created hormone havoc in her body. Addressing low cortisol will also help correct her blood sugar fluctuations.

Issue #2 – Vitamin deficiencies

Jill seemed to be deficient in a number of nutrients (vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin C, zinc) solely based on her blood work, so we gave her a high-potency multivitamin-mineral called Complete Multi by Designs for Health (2 caps, three times a day).

We also gave her additional sublingual vitamin B12 (1mg three times a day), as digestive issues can inhibit vitamin B12 absorption. This was designed to help what appeared to be a sub-clinical macrocytic anemia.

Issue #3 – Digestive dysfunction

We had Jill start with a three-week elimination diet to help reduce gut inflammation caused by possible food sensitivities. We also supplemented digestive enzymes (Digestzyme by Designs for Health, 2-3 capsule per meal). Later in her protocol, we also put her on Designs for Health Probiotics Supreme (2 caps a day) to help combat the assumed dysbiosis she had from antibiotic use.

Issue #4 – Hormone imbalances

We needed to eliminate her excess hormones, specifically estrogen and testosterone. This is most easily accomplished by improving liver and gall bladder detoxification pathways, since this is the primary pathway steroid hormones are cleared out of the body. Specifically we used Designs for Health Amino-D-Tox (2 caps, three times a day), LV/GB (one cap three times a day) and Clearvite by Apex Energetics (one scoop three times a day, which also addresses gastrointestinal health).

Issue #5 – Adrenal imbalances

Normally we don’t address adrenal imbalances right away. Rather we support other systems for a period of time, re-evaluate, and see if anything improved. However, given that high testosterone was a key finding, we needed to address the low cortisol to stop the vicious hormonal cycle happening anytime her blood sugar got too low. We prescribed an adaptogenic formula called Adaptocrine by Apex Energetics (2 caps, three times a day) designed to help support the body’s stress response.

Obviously there were other things to address, and additional directions we could go, but this was enough for the next 12 weeks, at which time we’d redo lab testing and evaluate her symptoms.

While this may seem like a lot, it’s all for good reason. For example, if her testosterone is high, we need to stop its overproduction (i.e. due to blood sugar fluctuations) and get rid of the excess levels (i.e. liver support).

The outcome

A few weeks after finishing the protocol, Jill submitted follow-up blood chemistry panel and salivary hormone testing. However, while we were pleased with her symptom improvement, we were initially puzzled by the lab results.

Symptomatically, Jill reported a complete resolution of her acne. She also had an “abundance of energy”, no more gas and bloating, emotional balance for the first time in 10 years, and she felt “happier and more alive” than she had in a long time.

Mission accomplished, right? Not really.

Her testosterone had lowered considerably from 67 pg/ml down to 15 pg/ml, which is a good thing. However her estrogen and progesterone remained very elevated. And now she had high glucose, alkaline phosphatase, white blood cells, and lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides).

Not exactly the direction we wanted to go. Scratching our head we wondered where we went wrong, and where we were going to go next.

But then we got our answer.

One week later, we had our answer. Jill was finally pregnant! As she told us in an excited email:

“…Yet the best, most joyous and most unexpected result was … I found out that I was pregnant! Never in million years did my husband and I think we could fall pregnant with the current state of my hormones and so quickly, after addressing my health concerns.”

Her pregnancy explained the odd lab values that came back post testing. So yes, apparently mission accomplished.

Summary

So what can we take away from Jill’s story?

1. Symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia, including shakiness, lightheadedness and irritability between meals are often correlated with low cortisol.
2. Blood sugar fluctuations will almost always cause hormone imbalances in women, specifically elevated testosterone.
3. High testosterone in women can result in mood issues (i.e. depression), infertility, difficulty losing weight, low libido, as well as external manifestations such as acne and facial hair growth.
4. Getting rid of excess testosterone requires balancing blood sugar to slow down its production, and supporting liver detoxification pathways to clear out the excess that is already present.

In the next article . . .

Jill contacted us a year later, elated with a new baby boy, but with a whole new set of symptoms: extreme fatigue, depression, and difficult weight loss.

We ran a blood chemistry, and it showed a very high TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) coupled with low thyroxine and T3 (Thyroid hormones).  However, low thyroid hormone was not her primary issue.  Her problems were being caused by something very common today, which we’ll cover next month.

Stay tuned, detectives.

Click here to join the waiting list.

We’re bombarded with images of unattainable, unrealistic, and unhealthy beauty. Start with an average model, who has a BMI of 16.5. Add lots of computer software and hours of editing. You end up with a distorted, imaginary, arguably non-human view of what purports to be a “normal” and beautiful body.

For some perspective, at my height of 5’8″ (173 cm), I would have to weigh 107.5 lb to have a BMI of 16.5. Since my normal weight is about 140 lb, I would have to lose all my body fat plus nearly 10 pounds of lean body tissue.

Then of course, I’d be airbrushed into oblivion. (To get an idea what is possible with digital enhancement, take a look at a weight loss session done with Adobe Photoshop software).

But here’s the paradox. Bizarrely, impossibly thin images are all around us. Yet more people are overweight and obese than ever before. Seems odd. You’d think that having more pressure would push people into the direction of losing weight, but the opposite is happening instead. Why?

Being a biologist I like to think that biology matters and can explain things more than, say, squishy things like feelings and perceptions. So I might have argued that weight loss was simply energy in (food) versus energy out (movement).

Looks like us geeks might have been a little simplistic.

In this week’s research review, we see that for people struggling with their weight, how they see their body is just as important as — if not more important than — the biology of their body.

Body image: evaluation and investment

We all went through an awkward stage as a teenagers. Heck, you may still be in an awkward stage 30 years later.

Looking in the mirror or fretting over a picture. Is that what I really look like?! The horror! If I could just lose/gain x pounds, lift this, and tuck that, THEN I would be happy. You know the drill.

Body image is how we perceive our physical appearance — good or bad — as well as how important your body perceptions are to you.  Body image is separated into two parts (aka attitudinal dimensions):

1. Evaluative body image: How you think and feel you look, as well as how happy you are with your body. This is your cognitive appraisal and associated emotions (aka what you think or feel). It doesn’t necessarily mean this is reality.

2. Body image investment: How important body image is to you and how much body image affects your daily life. Being preoccupied with the way your body looks (body concern) is a hallmark of dysfunctional body image investment. Another part of body image investment is social physique anxiety, which makes you anxious in social settings and during interactions with others because you feel that others are judging your body.

So, you might not like your body much (evaluation) but not really care an awful lot (investment). This might mean you treat your body like an ugly but necessary inconvenience, like having to clean out the cat’s litter box. Gross, but what are ya gonna do, you think.

Or, you might think you look great (evaluation) and find that greatness really, really important as well (investment), which might mean that you spend a lot of time being afraid of losing that hot bod.

Of course, many of us have the worst of both worlds. We don’t like our bodies, and because we’re so invested in body image, our perceived-grotesque physiques make us want to hide under a rock.

Whether evaluation and/or investment, we tend to think of “body image” as something that happens inside our head. But could it affect our actual bodies?

What role does body image play in weight loss?

In this week’s review, I look at whether improving body image may help women lose weight over a year-long behaviour change program.

Carraça EV, Silva MN, Markland D, Vieira PN, Minderico CS, Sardinha LB, Teixeira PJ. Body image change and improved eating self-regulation in a weight management intervention in women. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011 Jul 18;8:75.

Methods

A group of obese women went through a year-long weight loss program that focused on behaviour changes.

You may be thinking, Well aren’t all weight loss programs behaviour changes? Yes, but this one focused on self-regulation of eating (with an approach known as self-determination theory) rather than calorie counting or specific meal plans.

Our own Lean Eating program at PN focuses on eating self-regulation, which bothers some people who may be expecting a auto-pilot type of approach. What — I don’t get a list of meals? Or a meal plan to follow? You mean I have to pay attention to how my body feels and I have to make decisions!?

Now, I get that it’s often easier to let other people make decisions for you. However, the advantage of self-regulated eating is that mindful, voluntary and self-directed eating is more sustainable long-term, while fostering independence. You learn the skills you need to eat better… for life… without someone else looking over your shoulder.

Scary at first, but a lot more sustainable and useful. (Trust us. We’ve helped thousands of clients.)

Self-regulation

Several factors guide self-regulation of eating:

• confidence that you can do it (eating self-efficacy);
• consciously controlled eating that isn’t too rigid (highly flexible cognitive restraint );
• less emotional eating; less eating triggered by specific situations; and less eating because of habits (reduced disinhibition including emotional, situational and habitual cues); and
• less perceived hunger.

The women also increased their level of physical activity, but as with the eating, there were no specific prescriptions for what to do each day.

Body image sessions

Half the women also went to body image enhancement sessions to improve their body acceptance and satisfaction (evaluative body image) and decrease their over-preoccupation with appearance (investment in body image).

Exercises to improve body acceptance and evaluation included:

• looking at a mirror and systematically looking at body parts;
• making realistic goals and expectations for their bodies; and
• creating a realistic ideal body based on their parents’ weight history and their body type.

Exercises to improve investment in appearance included:

• understanding body image;
• finding the cause of the disorder (what situations — social and personal — triggered dysfunction?);
• keeping a diary to record negative self-talk and the feelings it causes;
• helping the women to cope with prejudice;
• helping the women let go of the belief they need to look different in order to be happy.

How do you measure body image?

You might be wondering how you measure body image and the different parts that make it up. There are a series of questionnaires and scales to indicate someone’s body image.

For evaluative body image, one of the more interesting and easy scales to use and understand is the figure rating scale (Figure 1). This provides a series of body outlines numbered 1 (very thin) to 9 (very heavy).

Participants pick the number they think fits their actual body size, and then they pick the number that represents their ideal body size. The bigger the difference (self-ideal discrepancy) the more body image issues a participant has.

Keep in mind this is perceived body size, not real body size. People may actually be their ideal body size but not think so. If you think you’re a 9 on the scale but you’re really a 1, you’ve definitely got a problem.

Body image investment is assessed using questionnaires that ask things like:

• How often do you feel fat when taking a bath?
• How often has your body shape/size kept you from concentrating?
• How nervous do you feel about your body in social settings?

Figure 1: Figure Rating Scale. From Bhuiyan et al, 2003.

Results

Improved body image

The body image sessions worked. The women in these sessions improved both evaluative body image and body image investment.

Improved eating self-regulation & weight loss

Improving body image also improved eating self-regulation. With better eating, there was better weight loss.

The body image group lost 7.3% of their body weight, while the control group lost only 1.7% of their body weight.

It makes sense that better eating means more weight loss, but seems odd that a better body image would help weight loss. Wouldn’t you think that people should lose weight first… and then feel better about their bodies?

Not in this case. The group that got care, counselling, and compassion kicked ass. Goes against the drill sergeant/tough love approach, doesn’t it?

Using a mathematical model (partial least squares) the researchers found that changes in body image investment was a little more important for weight loss than body image evaluation. In other words, to lose weight, it’s more important to let go of rigid investment in body size and shape than it is to always feel great about yourself.

(After all, remember our hypothetical people who feel good about their body, but are afraid of losing it? They’re much more likely to rigidly control their eating and exercise, which sets them up for problems like diet rebounds, exercise compulsions, and binge eating later on. Plus, if you’re not as invested in your body image, you realize that small things like day-to-day weight fluctuations aren’t that big a deal.)

Conclusion

You’d think people would be motivated to change if they were unhappy with their body. In fact, the opposite is true: Greater body image dissatisfaction actually hinders weight loss.

You may need a certain amount of dissatisfaction with your current body if you want to change it, but more isn’t better. Pointing out that someone is overweight or obese, or beating up on yourself, doesn’t make you more motivated. Nor does it help you get leaner.

We know this to be true. In Lean Eating, we use an “awesomeness-based coaching” approach. We don’t spend time pointing out your “flaws” or “problem areas” (imaginary or otherwise). We find what’s already awesome about you, right now, no matter what your body looks like… and help you do and feel more of that.

(And just a warning: We have a Five-Pushup Rule in Lean Eating: Self-criticism gets you five pushups. We know that negative self-talk doesn’t do you any good. So we pushup that nasty stuff right outta you.)

This study shows that improving body image helps with weight loss. And it seems that spending less time worrying about how your body looks and how other people may scrutinize your body is a bigger part of the puzzle than how unhappy you are about your body.

Want to lose weight?

• Stop obsessing about your body. If possible, try to get “outside yourself” — into a bigger world full of activities, experiences, social causes, and other things more interesting than whether you can see your abs.
• Pursue self-acceptance, self-care and self-compassion… not self-criticism.
• Pay more attention to what you eat — eat slowly and mindfully.
• Move your body more.

Simple, but not necessarily easy.

Bottom line

Whether you’re coaching a client or are interesting in losing weight yourself, improving body image can help you lose weight.

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, accepting your body as it is and spending less time thinking about your body can improve your weight loss. You still have to eat a little less and move around a little more… but at the very least, you’ll also like yourself at the end of the day.

References

Bhuiyan AR, Gustat J, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS. Differences in body shape representations among young adults from a biracial (Black-White), semirural community: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2003 Oct 15;158(8):792-7.

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Last week, we accepted a new group of clients into our January 2012 Lean Eating Coaching Program. This one looks to be our best yet: we’ve got a motivated group (the women’s group sold out in minutes!), numerous improvements to the program based on our ongoing research, and the best coaches in the world.

From all of us at PN, a warm welcome to all our new clients. This is going to be a great year; a challenging one, to be sure, but more than worth it.

This most recent group includes men and women from 27 different countries, from all walks of life, from age 21 to 68. And among those new clients is a special group of 45 young adult cancer survivors.

Cancer. The C-word.

Hear it spoken in hushed tones in a doctor’s office, or over the phone, and you’ll feel for a moment like your heart has already stopped.

I remember that phone call, from my mother, saying that C-word. She survived her cancer. So did our colleague and client Alwyn Cosgrove. So have many of our Lean Eaters.

But first, we had to roll that horrible C-word around in our mouths an awful lot, along with similarly repugnant words like malignant. Stage 3. Chemotherapy. Stochastic.

Cancer touches almost all of us in some way.

A cancer diagnosis — whether for you, or a loved one — is life-changing.

If folks survive, they’re often left with bodies ravaged by medication, radiation, and surgery. Bodies that may often look lean, but that suffer from sarcopenic obesity — wasted muscle, fragile bones, softened tissues. Frail. Skinny-fat… or just regular over-fat after enduring the side effects of medications. Metabolically disrupted. In women, maybe prematurely menopausal.

Perhaps these bodies are now missing something, such as a chunk of flesh. Missing their freedom to move without restrictions. Missing their appetite or proper nutrition. Missing a sense of what’s “normal” and “healthy”, which got lost somewhere between the 32nd doctor’s visit and sorting out handfuls of multi-coloured pills on the kitchen table.

Cancer survivors must get used to a new way of life along with a new body.

Yet often, although they’ve gotten up close and personal with their own fragility, cancer survivors’ spirits remain tough as old shoe leather. No bloody way they’re going to let cancer get them again, they say. This time, they think, they’re gonna throw everything they’ve got into rebuilding their battered bodies.

This is especially true for young cancer survivors, women with early breast cancer or men with testicular cancer. They have their whole lives ahead of them. They’ve got decades full of things to do ahead of them, damn it!

Carrie Stricker, PhD, RN and Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, both researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, are hard at work leading a team to investigate whether the Lean Eating Coaching Program could be one strategy to improve their chances.  To this end, they’ll be supervising as 45 young cancer survivors go through Lean Eating from beginning to end.

Helping cancer survivors get healthy

Shannon Lynch is a doctoral student and part of the Penn research team.  Shannon remembers her own Lean Eating experience well, having been a client last year. She’s also working on a PhD in epidemiology, with a growing interest in helping cancer survivors adopt healthy lifestyles post-treatment.

“A lot of folks who’ve survived cancer want to know what they can do next to help themselves. They want to do more — to feel like they’re doing everything they can to give themselves the very best chance and quality of life.”

Through her studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Shannon came to know Dr. Schmitz, an associate professor at Penn, well-known for research on physical activity and breast cancer survivors, and learned that she had written a grant proposal for an internet-based program to help testicular cancer survivors.

“I looked at her proposal,” recalls Shannon, “and said, ‘I think there’s a program out there for this already.’” Dr. Schmitz and Shannon brought Dr. Stricker, a clinical assistant professor of nursing at Penn, in on these discussions, given her ongoing program of research and clinical care in cancer survivorship.

Then they got in touch with Dr. John Berardi. He was just as excited about the possibilities as they were. After all, it’s not every day that a world-class authority on cancer research, leading innovative and ground-breaking projects, wants to know about Lean Eating

And as it so happens, JB had just come up with PN’s new mantra: Life-changing, research-driven nutrition coaching for everyone.

Yes, everyone. Now including young cancer survivors.

Can Lean Eating work for cancer survivors?

First comes the study. The first step is to see if this program is not only workable, safe, and adaptable for cancer survivors, but also to explore if the Internet-based exercise program and nutrition coaching that Lean Eating offers can help young cancer survivors look, feel, and perform better, even after a potentially devastating illness.

It’s a tall order. Although we’ve supported many of our Lean Eaters through a cancer diagnosis and recovery, we’ve never tried specifically to seek out and help young cancer survivors in particular.

So, like Lean Eating’s “one habit at a time” coaching method, the Penn team is starting small.

They’re beginning with a pilot study: The January 2012 round of Lean Eating will host a cohort of female survivors of breast cancer, and male survivors of testicular cancer.

Just like our other Lean Eating clients, they’ll work with a coach; get lessons, workouts, and habits; and participate on the support forum — with one key difference: We want to know if Lean Eating helps improve their health and wellness after going through cancer treatment.

The Penn team will gather important feedback from participants, such as:

• What’s unique about young cancer survivors?
• What are their demands, concerns, and experiences?
• What do they need from the Lean Eating program? What do they like/dislike about it?
• How can the program be better tailored to cancer survivors?

They will use this information, along with other metrics like body measurements and health indicators, to see if this program can help young cancer survivors.

What do cancer survivors need and want?

As the Penn team reaches out into the community of young cancer survivors, they’re testing assumptions about what barriers people might face.

“We were concerned that people might say no to the program because they didn’t have the Internet, or had financial constraints. In fact, right now people say no because of a perceived time commitment. They have children; they work; they travel, and so forth.”

“However, we know that all kinds of people go through the program, and the coaches are there to help. Plus there are lessons on traveling, balancing work demands, care-giving, etc. There are all kinds of lessons and strategies.”

“Sure, it’s an exercise and nutrition program, but it’s also a lifestyle management program.”

Interested survivors get more information about Lean Eating, decide whether they want to join, go through informed consent procedures, and schedule appointments to get baseline measurements done (such as weight, body measurements, and body fat). As participants go through the program, coaches carefully monitor their health and ability to do the workouts, with the Penn team carefully monitoring participants’ health and safety as well.

This is especially important for cancer survivors who may be on medications that affect body fat and hormones.

“Many people are on treatments right now or have undergone treatments that make them gain weight, or for women, put them into premature menopause — which again makes them gain weight,” explains Shannon. “They may be frustrated with changes in their body, and would like something to do about it.”

And, Shannon notes, Lean Eating may help with the mental and emotional aspects of cancer survival as well.

“Lean Eating was a mental exercise for me as well.. The lessons speak to things like body image; or if you’re feeling stressed, how to handle it. These are lessons cancer survivors may appreciate given what they have been through.We are conducting this study to see what survivors need and want from a program like this.”

What makes Lean Eating special?

Shannon is eager to see if survivors will benefit from the in-depth coaching that Precision Nutrition offers.

“To me, other diet programs aren’t sustainable in the long run — all those meal plans and prepackaged meals. In Lean Eating, you are offered tools you need to sustain good health within your own daily routine. It’s not a short-term solution. You just do a little something every day.”

We’re excited, and proud to play a part. Her participants are excited. (And maybe a little nervous. That’s normal.) Of course, Shannon’s excited too.

“If this pilot program is successful, I think this could be huge. And it’s a population that really wants something like this, who needs something like this. There’s so much that could be done.”

Click here to join the waiting list.

“A microwave dinner appeals to us because it takes only a few minutes to prepare; yet it took nature millions of years to produce the oil for the plastic wrapper and make the soil that grew the trees for the cardboard tray.”
– David Wann

Folks, we have a trash problem.

The average American creates 4.5 pounds (2 kg) of trash per day. This means the United States dumps 1.4 billion pounds of trash into landfills every 24 hours. That’s billion, with a “b”.

40% of this trash is packaging — often just one-time-use packaging from processed foods.

Food packaging doesn’t dematerialize into nothingness. It has to go somewhere.

Overconsumption of processed food is a problem for our body, and the packaging is a problem for our planet.

My trash-free eating experiment

For the past few years I’ve been experimenting with ways to limit my food packaging and overall trash production while still maintaining a nutritious food intake and not relocating to a yurt in the mountains.

I’ve spent weeks collecting my trash and seeing where I could improve.

I’ve kept trash logs and taken photos.

I’ve toured recycling facilities and interviewed experts about using plastic protein jugs.

Now – to be clear, I’m not talking about food scraps (e.g., citrus rinds, apple cores, etc.).  That’s another issue (see here: All About Food Waste). I’m talking about the packaging that food comes in.

I have an acronym for my current nutrition goal: PALTAP.

Produce
As
Little
Trash
As
Possible

This baby goes at the top of each grocery list. And yes, only cool people come up with acronyms for their nutrition goals.

Here’s what I found out along the way.

The big Kahuna: plastic

Every piece of plastic made still exists today. Nobody’s really sure how long plastic takes to break down, but guesses range from 500 to 1000 years for things like polyethylene plastic grocery bags.

Do you know where plastic comes from? Oil. 7-8% of world oil production goes to manufacturing plastics.

We’ve produced nearly as much plastic in the last 10 years as we have in all previous decades put together.

But can’t we just recycle it?  Not so fast. Depending on prices, plastic is sometimes shipped to China for recycling. In case you need my commentary here: This isn’t a very sustainable solution.

Further, a glass jar is often recycled into another glass jar. An aluminum can is often recycled into another aluminum can. A plastic bottle isn’t recycled into another plastic bottle. It’s molded into a less-durable product until one day it’s dumped in a landfill.

So while I’m all about PALTAP, minimizing plastic is even more of a priority.

Lessons learned

Dear diary,

It seems like only yesterday that I started keeping my first trash journal. Three minutes into the experiment I was already responsible for two pieces of trash (a plastic strawberry container and a kale twist tie).

Then I realized that perhaps my protein powder packets were also an issue.

Needless to say, it was a long week.

My first offenses

Recycling guy helps me decide on bagged vs. plastic-jugged protein

Offender #1: Convenience foods

We often avoid convenience foods because of their preservatives, additives, salt, sugar, etc. But my new reason to avoid them is the trash: plastic wrappers, plastic/cardboard trays, boxes. Yikes.

Even “healthy”, “whole food” type convenience foods get in on the act.

Offender #2: Takeout food

Restaurants are great. They use real plates, glasses and silverware. But carryout boxes for leftovers can be an issue. Whenever I get takeout it’s a trash extravaganza: paper/plastic bowls, plastic utensils, mustard packets, bags, Styrofoam (a plastic), napkins, etc.

If you order food from a restaurant, try bringing your own container to bring the food home.

Recycling guy explains the problem of Styrofoam to me

Offender #3: Bulk food

For several years, I think I missed the point with bulk food. I would go to the store, pull some fresh plastic bags from the roll, and feel like I was doing something positive – after all, I was buying in bulk.

But I was still creating a demand for more plastic/trash. It’s all about reusing here. Get a couple bags and jars you can refill, keep them in your car/purse/backpack, and be the coolest person in your neighbourhood.

Operation No-Plastic Man

After this wake-up call about my plastic buying habits (even the ones I thought were “responsible” and “healthy”), I got serious. Here are some strategies for cutting down on your plastic packaging.

Strategy 1: Use non-plastic bags at the grocery store

When getting fruits and vegetables from the grocery store, don’t worry about putting them in plastic bags. You can bring your own bags from home, or just set the produce directly in the basket/cart (and then into your reusable bag after checking out).

Otherwise, we use the plastic bag for about 15 minutes to carry apples, then the bag hangs around for about 1,000 years in a landfill. Not worth it.

I now carry dry beans, grains, bread, vegetables and fruits in fabric produce bags like those in the photos above and below. The bags even air dry after washing.

Strategy 2: Get a reusable water bottle

Old school?  Yes. Effective?  Yes.

Americans use about 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour.  I like Life Factory because they offer glass bottles protected by a silicone sleeve. If you only drink from your reusable bottle and water fountains, you are saving lots of potential trash.

And don’t forget about one-time-use cups.  If you go out for coffee/tea, bring a reusable mug/thermos. If you go out for soda, well, you’re living in the 1950s. Nobody goes to a soda shop any more.

Strategy 3: Bulk loose leaf tea

Instead of buying a box of tea bags (with the box wrapped in plastic and each tea bag wrapped in paper), how about bringing your own tin/jar to the store for a refill?  If you are a heavy tea drinker (like me), this saves LOTS of packaging. You can do this with bulk coffee too.

Strategy 4: Reusable shopping bags

Let me stop right here. If you don’t carry groceries in reusable shopping bags, introduce yourself to 2005.

Strategy 5: Fresh bread

You can bring a reusable bread bag to a bakery or grocery store that makes fresh bread. Then take the bread home and freeze it in a freezer-safe bag for long-term storage (slice before freezing).

Strategy 6: Refill your nut butter

I was on a nut butter squeeze pack kick for about one year. Thanks to me, there are now 365 little empty nut butter squeeze packs in landfills. Way to go, Ryan.

But I do have good news: I learned that you can refill your own jar with nut butter in the bulk department. It’s often less expensive.

And yes, when you come to the store carrying a jar to refill with nut butter, your chances of getting asked out by a cute girl (or guy) go up dramatically. Trust me.

Strategy 7: Chew less plastic

I love fresh breath as much as the next suave gentleman, but chewing gum often contains plastic. I’ve weaned myself down to 1-2 pieces daily (and use herbal breath spray when needed).

Strategy 8: Pick your frozen packages carefully

If you get frozen fruits/veggies, try to find brands that use less packaging (like 365 organic) or brands that have biodegradable packaging (like Stahlbush Farms).

Strategy 9: Reusable utensils

Are you 10% more hippie when you carry around reusable bamboo utensils?  Yes. But the planet won’t explode in 5 years. (At least not because of something you did.)

Shopping list mission

On your shopping list include how you plan to purchase and transport your food (e.g., bulk organic walnuts in reusable bag). And in big bold letters at the top, write PALTAP. Walk around with your head held high, my no-plastic friend.

Milk

Milk (non-dairy and cow’s) often comes in cardboard or plastic containers. More trash.

My solution?  About 50% of the time I just add a couple handfuls of whole almonds or spoonfuls of hempseeds to the blender with some water – ta da – homemade almond or hemp milk without the trash (I do this with Super Shakes – I don’t drink milk otherwise).

Note: if you do homemade nut milk, you won’t be getting added vitamins and minerals that are often included in store bought products, so if you rely on these, you should replace them with a supplement. If you drink cow’s milk, consider finding a product in refillable glass bottles.

Have (non-plastic) containers

Keep some large food storage jars at home for dry goods. I keep dry beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, and grains in jars. It makes for easy access and when friends/family come over they think I have my life together.

If you have any old glass food jars, wash them, dry them, and re-use them for storing bulk dry goods.

Canned foods

I used to eat a can of beans nearly every day. Something about it didn’t feel right.

Finally I realized it was the empty can just staring back at me afterwards. I was generating a tin can each day.

My solution?  Dry split peas (yellow and green) and lentils (brown and red). These legumes don’t require pre-soaking — split peas can be cooked in 45 minutes or less, brown lentils can be cooked in 30 minutes or less, and red lentils can be cooked in 12 minutes or less.

Foil, plastic wrap, and plastic bags

Believe it or not, we can re-use this stuff. I rinse and dry it – then use it a few times before it’s really mangled.

I used to laugh at my grandma when she did this. Now I’m her.

When I freeze bananas for super shakes, I reuse the same bag several times before discarding it. When I roast veggies, I’ll use the same foil several times before discarding it.

Go biodegradable

If you do buy food with packaging, look for companies that use biodegradable and/or compostable packaging.

Farmers’ markets

At markets, you’ll often find bagless fresh bread, and loads of veggies and fruits. Just bring your own reusable containers/bags.

Straight from the source

Visit (or even better, volunteer at) an organic garden/farm. Bring the stuff directly home – no packaging.

What about recycling?

“Recycling is a rite of atonement for the sin of excess.” – John Tierney

While recycling is a better option than trashing things, we can’t recycle enough to offset our growing consumption. Recycling is great as the final option in the 3 Rs. Remember those from elementary school?  Reduce, reuse … then recycle.

Recycling tips & factoids

• Most facilities will now recycle cardboard milk containers and tetra-paks.
• Plastic numbers 3-7 are the hardest to recycle.
• Styrofoam can be recycled (it is an expanded plastic) but since it is so bulky and light, many centers don’t accept it.
• Aluminum foil isn’t always recyclable.
• Don’t send plastic bags to recycling centers. They clog up the machinery.
• If the container you recycle is dirty or has a label, it doesn’t really matter. It just comes off in the washing and grinding process.
• It’s OK to leave plastic lids on plastic bottles. But take the metal lids off glass jars before you toss them in the blue bin.

My trip to the recycling facility

What does a day of low-trash eating look like?

		Shake & granola for a topper
		Big mixed salad with beans and olives
		Peach and pistachio
		Squash, collards, red lentils, toast with peanut butter
		Lentils, cabbage, peppers, apple with almond butter

The spectrum

All of our choices are on a spectrum. Some choices are better, some worse.

At one end we have pre-packaged foods layered with plastic and paper. At the other end we have growing our own food in the backyard.

Don’t forget about the gray area in between. Any positive step is a positive step. While we can’t do everything, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do something.

How could you move one “notch” along the spectrum today?

Other trash free living tips

Most trash free living ideas just come down to thinking ahead and being prepared.

• Use bar soap and shampoo bars.
• Use Preserve toothbrushes.
• Nix junk mail and phone books. Register to receive less at:
• catalogchoice.org
• yellowpagesoptout.com
• I used to go to conferences, seminars and other events and load up on free stuff. No more. It’s just clutter and eventual trash.
• Maybe you can find a market that is free of packaging.

Trash freedom also comes from greater awareness. Consider keeping track of your food trash for one week, or even one day.

Tips and resources

A documentary about trash

Living plastic free

How to get started reducing trash

Hey, why not build a trash house?

References

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story. Susan Freinkel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; None edition (April 18, 2011)

Infographic – The truth about plastic: http://c1.eatdrinkbetter.com/files/2011/07/plastics.jpg

Stuart T. Waste: Uncovering the global food scandal. 2009. Norton.

Bloom J. American Wasteland. 2010. Da Capo Lifelong Books.

Thomas P. Behind the label: chewing gum. The Ecologist. January 12, 2010.

Tierney J. Recycling is garbage. NY Times. June 30, 1996.

Click here to join the waiting list.

And to make it worth your while, we’re putting up a little bonus: $5,000 signing bonus to each successful candidate, and $5,000 to any person who REFERS us the successful candidate for one of the positions below.

Read on to find out what positions we have available, and how to contact us if you or someone you know would fit the bill.

Working for Precision Nutrition

Couple of quick notes on how we do things at PN:

• We pay in the top 10% in the world for each position
• Four weeks vacation, full benefits and the ability to work remotely included

We’re looking for good people who are among the best in their respective fields, and we compensate accordingly.

Jobs Available

Web Developer (Full-Time Position)

We’re looking for a bright and easy-to-get-along-with candidate to join our web and application development team, help manage the website and develop the the cutting-edge nutrition coaching and research software that underpins all we do at PN.

• Focus: user interface design and front-end web development
• Primary tools: HTML / CSS / Javascript
• 3 years of professional experience required
• Experience with mobile development, graphic design and database design definite pluses.

Nutrition Coach – Lean Eating For Men (Full-Time Position)

Our PN coaches are the best online nutrition coaches in the world. And we’re looking to add an additional male coach to our team. Requirements for the position include all of the following:

• Graduate degree (Masters/PhD) in exercise/nutrition/psychology
• Certification with PN (or the willingness to become certified)
• Experience as a nutrition coach or trainer
• High competency with desktop and web applications
• Excellent communication skills using the internet
• An interest in working with men of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds

Note: this position is done exclusively online. So only apply if you’re prepared to work in this way.

Nutrition Coach – Lean Eating For Women (Full-Time Position)

Our PN coaches are the best online nutrition coaches in the world. And we’re looking to add an additional female coach to our team. Requirements for the position include all of the following:

• Graduate degree (Masters/PhD) in exercise/nutrition/psychology
• Certification with PN (or the willingness to become certified)
• Experience as a nutrition coach or trainer
• High competency with desktop and web applications
• An interest in working with women of all shapes, sizes, and ages

Note: this position is done exclusively online. So only apply if you’re prepared to work in this way.

Feature Writer/Storyteller (Full-Time Position)

PN communicates primarily through the written word. So we’re looking for an experienced writer and storyteller to help us tell the amazing stories of our company, our team, and our clients. Requirements for the position include all of the following:

• Experience working for a major print (magazine/news) publication
• Portfolio of 10 or more articles in a major print publication
• Portfolio of 10 or more articles in a major online publication
• Strong references from previous editors and/or employers

Note: we’re not necessarily looking for fitness writers. We’re looking for true storytellers who can tell engaging, entertaining and empathetic stories about the transformation experiences of our clients, and about the good work PN is doing in the world. That’s why experience plus a strong portfolio is a must. In fact, should you decide to apply, please submit your portfolio pieces (above) along with your resume and cover letter.

Customer Experience Representative (Full-Time Position)

Precision Nutrition does all of our nutrition and customer support in house. And we’re looking to add an experienced customer service candidate to our team to assist in supporting our clients and customers. Requirements for the position include all of the following:

• Undergraduate training in exercise and nutrition
• Experience working as a nutrition/exercise coach
• Customer service experience a strong asset
• Certification with PN (or the willingness to become certified)
• Knowledge and experience with PN products and services
• High competency with desktop and web applications

As you’ll be the “voice” of our company, you must also be sociable, skilled at problem solving, and be able to provide product, exercise and nutrition support effectively by both email and telephone.

Life at Precision Nutrition

Keep in mind, at Precision Nutrition, we offer you the ability to:

• Make your own work schedule.
  At PN, you’re measured by what you produce, not by the time you spend at work. Work when you want, from where you want. As long as your work gets done, and done superbly, you have the freedom to set your own schedule.

• Work from home.
  If you’re in Toronto, our home town, great. If not, no worries. Many of our employees work exclusively from home, from all over the world.

• Work in the fitness and nutrition industry.
  We love exercise, we love nutrition, and we love sport. That’s why we started this company. If you do too, you’ll appreciate how rare it is to do a job you really love. For active, fit people, Precision Nutrition is that opportunity.

• Work with fun, bright and truly talented people.
  We’re a small company, and we’re picky about who we work with, because to us, this isn’t just a job — it’s our life. So as a result, we’ve put together a small group of cool, exceptional people. And in our opinion, that’s a very welcome departure from the large faceless corporations we’ve all worked for.

Interested in one of these positions? Send us a resume and a cover letter detailing why you’re the perfect fit for the position. You can reach us at applications@precisionnutrition.com.

(Applicants for the storyteller position must also include portfolio, as outlined above).

Know someone else that might be interested? Do us a favor and spread the word to your network. And make sure they mention your name as the person who referred them.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Click here to join the waiting list.