HEALTH
Summer Bodies Are Made in Winter By Nick Yasinosky
W
ant to get a jump on that summer body? Yes, I said summer. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “It’s the middle of winter. I have plenty of time until the summer.” Maybe. But what if I told you that summer bodies are made in the winter? All too often, we get caught up in the mainstream mentality of the winter. We may think we are going to “bulk“ up, that we are hibernating, that our metabolism slows down, or the age-old “it’s the holidays” excuse. This mindset will only lead us to the road of uncertainty because there is no plan. Allowing this to happen to our bodies is a slippery slope of overeating foods that are full of empty carbohydrates, processed sugars, and bad fats. There is an imbalance between the “hunger hormones” leptin and ghrelin that causes us to either still feel hungry or feel content. Leptin, being an appetite suppressor, makes fat cells decrease our appetite. When we eat foods that are nutritionally dense, we feel full and will tend not to keep eating. A good example would be eating a bowl of oatmeal with mixed berries on top. The opposite is true for ghrelin, which is an appetite increaser. Ghrelin is released in the stomach and sends signals to the brain that we are still hungry when we are either overeating or undereating foods that do not possess quality nutrients. A good example of this is eating a whole box of sugary breakfast cereals, which are not nutritionally dense. Because of ghrelin, we keep eating bowl after bowl and therefore increase our caloric intake. The over-consumption or overindulgence of caloric intake, whether it is food or drink, is the number one contributor to weight retention or weight gain. During the holiday season, the increased temptation of fatty, high sugar foods, plus less physical activity will lead to the weight gain that most of us experience. We then make empty New Year’s resolutions and broken promises to ourselves, usually under the influence of alcohol. Those resolutions typically fall through and may last a week if we are lucky. It is then a mad dash to “diet” or try to lose weight to gain it
32 truelifestylemagazine.com
