Boost Immunity

What is leptin and why is it important and most of all, how does it affect my metabolism?

Leptin is considered the satiety hormone; the hormone is in our fat cells. It regulates our hunger and has a lot to do with our energy balance. When we lose weight " body fat" we feel less hunger but this Naturally decreases our energy balance. Leptin is one of the Key player in our body's homeostasis. So even when we lose weight our body still thinks it's homeostasis is our starting weight. Therefor your brain is continually fight you get you back to homeostasis. That is why the human yo-yo, is so coming. That is why statics show 95% of people regain the weight within 3 years of losing it. There are some other contributing factors, however leptin is the main player.

Most people have no clue how their body work or their anatomy, it is very important to now the mechanic of driving a car before you get behind a wheel. To be a good drive, you must learn to be an offensive and defensive driver. Understanding the hormones and how they interplay with insulin and metabolism is essential to building a sustainable lifestyle.

RYSE is a program to educate and to help my client build a tool belt to they can live the lifestyle they want to live and be free to make a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable and is manageable.

It's me? Or is it your HORMONES?

“Leptin” 

Leptin is a hormone that is produced by the body’s fat cells.

It is often referred to as the “satiety hormone” or the “starvation hormone.”

Leptin’s primary target is in the brain, particularly an area called the hypothalamus.

Leptin is supposed to tell the brain that we have enough fat stored, that we don’t need to eat, and that we can burn calories at a normal rate.

It also has many other functions related to fertility, immunity, brain function and others (5).

However, leptin’s main role is long-term regulation of energy balance… the amount of calories we eat and expend, and how much fat we store on our bodies .

The leptin system evolved to keep us from starving or overeating, both of which would have made us less likely to survive in the natural environment.

These days, leptin is very effective at keeping us from starving. But something is broken in the mechanism that is supposed to prevent us from overeating.

Bottom Line: Leptin is a hormone that is produced by the fat cells in the body. Its main role is regulating how many calories we eat and burn, as well as how much fat we carry on our bodies.

Losing Weight Reduces Leptin, so The Brain Tries to Gain The Weight Back

Most “diets” don’t provide good long-term results. This is a well known problem in weight loss studies.

Diets are so ineffective that whenever someone goes from obese to thin, it is seen as newsworthy material.

The truth is… when it comes to losing weight, long-term success is the exception, NOT the rule.

There are many possible reasons for this, but the research is showing that leptin may have a lot to do with it

Losing weight reduces fat mass, which leads to a significant reduction in leptin levels, but the brain doesn’t necessarily reverse its leptin resistance.

When leptin goes down, this leads to hunger, increased appetite, reduced motivation to exercise and decreased amount of calories burned at rest .

Basically, the reduced leptin makes the brain think it is starving… so it initiates all sorts of powerful mechanisms to regain that lost body fat, erroneously thinking that it is protecting us from starvation.

In other words, the brain actively defends the higher amount of fat mass, using strong biochemical forces that compel us to eat back the lost weight.

The majority of dieters will be familiar with this… weight loss is often easy in the beginning, especially when motivation is high, but very soon hunger, cravings and a reduced desire for exercise set in.

This is the main reason so many people “yo-yo” diet… they lose a significant amount of weight, only to gain it back (and then some).

Bottom Line: When people lose fat, leptin levels decrease significantly. The brain interprets this as a starvation signal, changing our biology and behavior to make us regain the lost fat.

What causes Leptin Resistance

Inflammation: Inflammatory signalling in the hypothalamus is likely an important cause of leptin resistance in both animals and humans.

Free Fatty Acids: Having elevated free fatty acids in the bloodstream may increase fat metabolites in the brain and interfere with leptin signalling.

Having high leptin: Having elevated levels of leptin in the first place seems to cause leptin resistance.

Pretty much all of these factors are increased in obesity… so this may form a vicious cycle where people get fatter and increasingly more leptin resistant over time.

Bottom Line: Potential causes of leptin resistance include inflammation, elevated free fatty acids and high leptin levels. All three are increased in obesity.

There are several things you can do:

Avoid processed food: Highly processed foods may compromise the integrity of the gut and drive inflammation .

Eat Soluble Fiber: Eating soluble fiber can help improve gut health and may protect against obesity .

Exercise: Physical activity may help to reverse leptin resistance .

Sleep: Poor sleep has been implicated in problems with leptin .

Lower your triglycerides: Having high blood triglycerides can prevent the transport of leptin from blood and into the brain. The best way to lower triglycerides is to reduce carbohydrate intake.

Eat Protein: Eating plenty of protein can cause automatic weight loss. There are many reason for that, one of them may be an improvement in leptin sensitivity .

Bittersweet

 I placed 7th at nationals,  I feel a little bittersweet about it, I was the sickest I have ever been, and grateful for this moment this is what drove me to find a new solution! I did NOT want to be that coach to do what was taught to me to others., I struggled for years after with severe metabolic "damage". My hormones were shot and my thyroid is permanently damaged now.  Today I however am the healthiest I have ever been. I am able to teach client how to live a sustainable healthy lifestyle, how to diet and how NOT to diet....Through Reverse dieting and flexible dieting, I have been able to live a life that I never thought possible. Today I am leaner, stronger, and healthier woman, I never thought I could be free of the obsessive compulsive racket that lived in my head.

If you're eating a restricted diet, wow, I have lived that life, am it may work the first time but boy does it backfire. The chicken or fish with asparagus and rice, I have lived it.... If you can't see yourself on the "diet you're currently on in 6 months from now, you will regain the weight, and every time you do that YO YO you damage or you metabolism adapts to your current lifestyle and caloric intake.. So now that is your new set point!  So you can either do more cardio or eat less right.. WRONG... for how long till you  hurt yourself, that's what I did... there is another way but it takes work. And I would encourage you to do it with a coach that has walked in your shoes.

Diet's don't work, find a lifestyle that works for you..that you can maintain. If you don't have the tools find someone that does and that you can trust, someone that  listens to YOUR NEEDS and has your health first and foremost there main concern.

Wendy Sebastian

www.wendysebastian.com

Top 5 things for a Healthy Digestion

1.    Digestive enzymes – Intolerance Complete

·         Digestive enzymes digest all food, and our bodies make digestive enzymes mainly in the pancreas, the stomach, the small intestine, and the mouth.

·         There are 22 known digestive enzymes with names that end on “-ase” such as:

o    Amylase (digests carbohydrates)

o    Lipase (digests fats)

o    Protease (digests proteins)

o    Disaccharides (digest sugars)

·         Enzymes are essential for every chemical reaction in the body and for the normal activity of cells, tissues, fluids, and organs.

·         All food, vitamins, minerals, hormones require enzymes to be processed and absorbed.

2.    A Refrigerated probiotic-*  Resistant to stomach acid and bile  Dr. Formulated 90 billion 

·         Probiotics are live microorganisms (in most cases, bacteria) that are similar to the beneficial microorganisms naturally found in the human gut.

·         Our gut is home to over 500 bacterial species

·         These “good bacteria” are used to prevent and alleviate many different conditions, but particularly those that affect the gastrointestinal tract.

·         Only live cultures are true probiotics; look for high Bifidobacterium in a probiotic

3.     Fiber- Raw Fiber Garden of Life — High quality Psyllium free fiber

·         Psyllium Free fiber maintains healthy digestion and colon care, which is simply challenging to do through diet.

4.     Ionic Magnesium Citrate-Calm- by Natural Vitality

·         Magnesium and minerals aid in digestion, calm and relax our muscles and mind, and balance our minerals (electrolytes) in our body.

·         Magnesium deficiency is common cause of chronic constipation and is key to healthy bowl movements.

5.    Omega Oils

·         Healthy fats lubricate our intestines.

·         When we fuel ourselves with health fats our body is able to release the unhealthy stored fats and learns to burn fat, not muscle.

10 tips to Living a healthy Lifestyle

1.       Exercise consistently: Find one that you love and do it consistently. Just move, get out in nature hike, bike ride, dance!

2.       Don’t Diet: They don’t work, Live a healthy Life style! Diets promote eating disorders and binge eating, and worst metabolic damage. Its yo-yo life styles. Look at Oprah, When has one truly been sustainable.

3.       What we eat matters! Greasy, salty, sugary, chemically made highly proceeded food has no nutritional value.  This goes back to eating to live or living to eat.  Let’s go back to the basics  Health organic whole foods

4.       We all fail, We all fail.. Let go of being perfect! Enjoy life….

5.       Water.. Water.. Water.. Especially first thing in the morning we think we are starving, uh no we are thirsty usually.. drink  and drink more

6.       Cook for yourself. “Pride of ownership” It’s so empowering. You will tend to eat more wholefood and less packaged foods, and save money

7.       Wear fitted clothes- don’t hide… even if you want to

8.       Eat 5 times a day- small meals not a rule, be mindful about it but every 3 hours

9.       Sleep. It’s good for you over all well being

Meditation.. I can’t say enough about this one. Calm the mind

Why I hate diets, Why they don't' work!

It’s time to talk about diets in America. The fact is they are set up for you to fail. The diet industry is all about making money. They create these diets knowing you will eventually fall back to your old behaviors and lifestyle; regaining the weight you lost, plus some. Then, you will look for another diet or solution only to continue on the journey of insanity of the yo-yo world of dieting.

I know this happens, because I used to live this life. I have tried vegan, raw, vegetarian, paleo, South Beach, Atkins, and ketogenic diet, to name a few. I have done countless detoxes, which can also be a form of dieting. I am a national fitness competitor and the ultimate diets I suffered from were anorexia and bulimia. Needless to say, I have tried them all. I can tell you, they don’t work. Another form of an eating disorder is over exercising. I have suffered from this as well. It all stemmed from trying to heal myself from the outside in. After placing 7^th nationally, I was at the lowest point I have ever been emotionally. Many of us use diet and exercise to fill a hole that cannot be filled no matter how good we look on the outside. Some people may think from the exterior I look less attractive, less lean, I am not the blonde bombshell I once was. However, I can tell you I am more confident, relaxed, and comfortable in my own skin now than I have been in my entire life. It has everything to do with self-acceptance and loving myself no matter where I am at in life.

After competing, I hit rock bottom. Some of you may relate to this, whether you are a competitor or not. I was fearful of gaining weight and body fat because I was so used to the pressure of competing and having to maintain a specific image and appearance. I had not taken a break from competing in four years because I loved the look of being lean and shredded all the time. It is very healthy for a woman to be under 12% body fat for a period of time and I was really low at 8.5%. I was unable to fully surrender to my bulimia. In some ways I felt like a hypocrite in the industry and I am sure many women who compete struggle with the same issues as me.

After my last show I decided it was time to get healthy. After over a decade of not having a menstrual cycle and dealing with the demon of the eating disorder, I wanted to entirely put it to rest. I never could have predicted something like this would happen to me. As I am sure a lot of women who struggle with that have been “serial dieters.”

Forward to two years later and I was fatter, heavier, and eating less than I ever ate when I was competing. I was doing as much if not more cardio than I was prior to my last show to maintain an image. This is called metabolic adaptation. My body had adapted and become a very efficient burner, which is not good as far as metabolism is concerned. Just like a car, the more mileage we can get per gallon, the better! My hormones were shot, I did not have my menstrual cycle, and I was in full sw

ing pre-menopause at age 35. I was so frustrated. All of the things I knew went out the window due to my fear of gaining weight. I knew enough to know I was in serious trouble, but I was in denial. Even with my educational background I didn’t know how to get myself out of it. I was scared.

The truth is, I wasn’t alone. Three of my close competitors went through the exact same thing. I witnessed their struggle. I watched them blow up, struggle, and climb out of it. They are educated business owners in the field. One competitor I was close with was Jamie Debarnard at Fit Body Fusion. We shared the same coach, so naturally we shared the same techniques. We were passing on some of the very things that do not work—meals plans and tons of cardio. This may work for a while, but it is not sustainable. Most of us have lived that life. I was fed up and wanted to find a different way.

Jamie led the way. A couple years ago she started training with Dr. Layne Norton and developed her own version of the reverse diet. I took  classes she offered and  I  found Dr. Layne Norton whom I started studying .  I surrendered, realizing that I could no longer act like I was prepping for a show. My body would not shed a percent in body fat and I simply could not do any more cardio. I knew there had to be another way. I had metabolic adaptation. My hormones were so messed up; I had not had a menstrual cycle for most of my life. I became willing to do something completely different.

I loved Dr. Norton’s teachings and incorporated some of Jamie’s in as well. I began the journey of reverse dieting and flexible dieting. I found it to be empowering and rewarding. I was amazed; this was how my diet used to be when I first started training. I was saddened… How had I gotten so off track?!

I was slowly able to cut my cardio in half and my food intake was almost doubled. I wasn’t gaining any weight. In fact, my body was looking more muscular than ever! My sister told me, “You look great! You look like an athlete again.” I couldn’t believe how great I felt and I was eating what I wanted as long as I hit my macros. Don’t get me wrong, I eat very well. I eat organic, whole foods all the time, but I get to give myself treats. I just calculate them in to my day. I loved this so much and it almost instantly took away the obsessiveness of my disease that has lived in my head since I was a little girl.

I feel that if you have ever had an eating disorder, struggled with your weight, or are tired of yo-yo dieting and want to live a healthy lifestyle, this is something everyone can do. It is not easy and does take time. Dr. Norton says it all the time. It’s a hard sell because we aren’t selling you a quick fix. In fact, this may take a very long time depending on where you are at in your personal situation. A quick fix may work the first time, the problem is the time after and so on. Your metabolism doesn’t recover and your fat cells increase when you stop the diet or program you are on. Most people do this over and over again causing metabolic adaptation. Your metabolism needs time to adjust, and the more time you give it, the better metabolic capacity you will retain. Most coaches today give their clients a 1200 calorie diet and 6 days a week of cardio. They are setting their clients up for disaster! As Dr. Norton says, there is no way you can eat tilapia and broccoli for the rest of your life. People will deviate. This is not a lifestyle people can maintain or sustain. Reversing your way out of this is the only way and a lot of my clients have been able to find a healthy balance and lifestyle. This is a slow process, but it is sustainable and it works! The focus is to build your metabolism to run like a blazing fire. This has changed my life and given me my life back. It is something that everyone can benefit from. If there is a gift I can give to people as a wellness consultant, this is it!

I started at 127 pounds, eating 1400 calories a day, doing cardio 6 days a week, training my muscles at least an hour a day in the gym. Years ago I would have been shredded doing that much cardio.

Today I weigh 127.4 pounds, I am eating 2000 calories a day, going to the gym 5 days a week. I do 2  cardio sessions for 22 minutes and my body fat is the same as  when I started, at 17.4%. I have more energy and I feel great! I look more muscular and my measurements have decreased.

I have several clients that have had experiences with similar results.

I will give you one more example of a client of mine who is not an athlete. She came to me eating hamburgers and Taco Bell. She would maybe eat two meals a day and would constantly drink soda. She was in love with the HCG Diet and would continually loose large amounts of weight only to gain it back. She is 5’8”, 50 years old and solidly built. She started at 260 pounds eating 1000 calories a day. She was eating 100g of carbohydrates, 100g of protein and 22g of fat. She was complaining about eating too much.

Today she is 232 pounds, eating 2066 calories a day. She eats 202g of carbohydrates, 195g of protein, and 50g of fat. She is hungry all the time because her metabolism is burning. She has been with me a little over four months. Her results are with no physical activity. We will be introducing that this month. If you fuel your body properly, it is amazing what it will do.