Stop the Insanity! Take off the blinders!

Reality Check. . . It is all lies!  
Counting calories is like counting your breathes for the day - time consuming and pointless.  Cortisol raises belly fat (or so the infomercial says) and counting calories raises cortisol!  
Follow leaders with a proven track record; Charles Poliqin goes as far as if you count calories; he will not work with you.
A faster gauge is to take a picture of your meal and the snapshot will reveal it is either junk or high quality, neurotransmitter raising, health beneficial food. 

In fact, you would be much smarter to learn about the hormone response from food and start counting the fat pounds you will loose.

P.S.  If you eat an inflammatory food (no matter how few the calories) you will raise your cortisol.  This stressful situation signals the body to be carb resistant or to put it more bluntly: leads to diabetes.

Still not convinced?  Still thinking counting those calories is going to save your waistline?
Practicing counting makes you smarter, counting calories is practicing stupid!

Check out this article & video by Charles Poliquin on the wasted efforts of counting calories:

Why the Caloric Approach to weight loss doesn't work: Calories are Stupid

One powerful hormone that can make you fat or lean

Have you had your insulin levels checked?  This is one hormone that has a dramatic impact on your health; it can make you anabolic (lean & muscular) or make your waistline as big as an oompa loompah.  Many people know that carbohydrates affect your insulin levels – carbs give you an insulin response where you either use glucose for energy or store it as body fat.  The problem is your insulin can stay elevated if the carbs are refined or too sugary; which is much like a tropical storm raging out of control eating up everything in it’s path.  When you add in stress it goes from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane fast as stress is cortisol which raises insulin. 

I recently ran labs on myself as I frequently do and found my fasting insulin to be 8.  Whoa!  I have been eating healthy and avoiding refined carbs so how can this be?  I quickly realized the master of disaster is stress.  It is time to take my own advice and control my stress.  You may be seeing less of me as I have to take a much needed sabbatical, lower my stress and train for my physical needs and if everything goes well, you will literally be seeing less of me.  My goal is simple, my waistline needs to be lower than my age.  --JROD

What have you done lately to ensure sunny, blue skies? 

 Do you know what your fasting insulin level is?