Why do I feel sooooo "burned out"?

If you carry weight in your stomach area, you have to read this post.

At the beginning of 2008 my life changed dramatically. My energy levels which used to be very high, hit rock bottom. I used to be up at 6 AM easily without the alarm but it started to get very difficult for me to get out of bed. When I did, I never felt rested. I couldn't really get my ass in gear until mid morning and then I would crash again mid-afternoon. My emotions were raw and my threshold for handling stress was very thin. I relied on coffee to get me through the day and had INTENSE cravings for sugar. When it really hit home that something was seriously wrong was in April when Jon and I hired a personal trainer.

Our trainer would come at 6 am in the morning and really work us out 2-3 days a week. Some days I would be strong, others I could barely squeeze out 5 pushups before collapsing. But EVERYDAY when he left, instead of being energized, I crawled back into bed and slept for an hour or two. After 6 weeks of training, my body was not releasing fat at all in fact I had put an inch on around my stomach. WTF right???? It was then I realized I was suffering from something called ADRENAL FATIGUE.

The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys and their responsability in our bodies is to regulate stress by producing hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. If you experience prolonged or severe periods of stress, your adrenals can become burned out. This stress can be emotional, physical, or psychological. This means a death in the family, stress at work, an infection in the body, an athlete training too hard, or a divorce can all cause adrenal fatigue. In my case, I had a very bad virus prior to my wedding and then my wedding, plus work stress. The personal training was enough to push things over the edge.

Signs to look for are:

• Trouble getting up in the morning even if you went to bed early the night before.
• Never feeling rested and always tired for no reason.
• Feeling overwhelmed with life and all that is on your plate.
• Gaining weight in the stomach area.
• Needing coffee or sugary snacks to keep you functioning. Crave salty foods.
• Feel best after 6 pm.
• Decreased sex drive.

Now, I figured this out on my own and then it was confirmed by my homepathic doctor and generally you can decipher using the symptoms above if it is an issue for you. You can also see your regular or Naturopathic doctor and they can run some tests. When you know what the issue is, you can move forward in treating it. It is virtually impossible to lose weight when you are suffering from Adrenal Fatigue. This is why I was working out more than ever and actually gaining weight, I was putting my body under additional stress that it could not handle.

Digest this stuff and I will write more about how to help rebuild the adrenals later. As Oprah would say "This is HUGE people!!!"

Sushi Aftermath

Ok so I am up 3.5 pounds today. Obviously that is mostly water due to the sodium in the soy sauce and stuff (couldn't possibly be from the 12 pounds of sushi I ate!!). So today is a Cleanse day. What that means is I drink this highly nutritious and somewhat gross juice all day long. It is aloe vera based and contains herbs and nutrients to cleanse the body. I do this once a week although this week I will be cleansing on saturday as well. The rest of the days I drink two shakes a day and eat a regular meal.

Now these aren't your regular diet shakes, I call this stuff super food. It is 100% natural, no chemical crap to preserve it or sweeten it. They actually taste really good suprisingly. We mix them with water or almond milk and ice cubes in the magic bullet blender. It is nice and thick with no aftertaste. I dig these shakes bigtime and actually look forward to it.

What Jon and I have been doing most days is having a shake for breakfast and a shake for dinner and then eating lunch. I throw an apple, yogurt or something in for a snack 1-2 times a day as well. Our energy levels are through the roof. I notice it especially because I have adrenal fatigue (I will blog about this in an upcoming post) and since I started on this program I feel so much better.

You will notice I haven't mentioned the name of the products although if you google 30 day program or cleansing drinks, I am sure you can figure it out. This is because apparently I can get in trouble for talking about these products on blogs or social networking sites like facebook. If you want more info or have any nutrition questions for me just email me at louisevokins@gmail.com and I will respond. If I get some really good nutrition questions, I might answer them right in the blog (without mentioning the person who asked of course) so that everyone can benefit.

Anyways, time for me to get my ass in gear and choke down some cleanse drink. Good times.........

Word of Caution

Last night my hubby and I went to dinner and a comedy club with our friends. We had a great time except for the fact that we all ate WAY too much at dinner.

All You Can Eat Sushi is a bad idea people!! Listen to me dammit, I am a nutritionist and I speak words of reason. Stop after you finish the first boat of sushi, don't feel the need to eat one of everything on the menu, just because you can pop it into your mouth whole doesn't mean you should swallow it whole, and good god people always remember that this is NOT the last time you will ever eat. There will be more sushi in the future.

Now I need to shake off this California Roll hangover....I hope to hell the cure isn't more sushi!

What's the plan man?

So anytime I have ever had real success with weight loss in the past, it has been through low carb dieting. Leading up to our wedding last year, Jon and I both lost 60 pounds and felt great. Well post wedding, the carbs moved back in and we managed to put most of that weight back on. Damn carbs, they are like bad guests who you have a hard time getting rid of. We have dabbled with low carb a few times since but our bodies seem really resistant to the program.

*Let me make a little side note and confession about myself here: I am THE most impatient dieter on earth. I like to see results and I like to see them fast. It drives my husband insane because if I don't see results fast, I change the game plan. Now being a nutritionist, you would think I would know that slow and steady wins the race right? Let's not forget that I am a fat nutritionist and an Aries at that. I want it all and I want it now!!!*

Back to our story and how I ended up on the program I am on now. I went to my Doctor for my yearly physical, knowing she was not going to be a happy camper about my weight being back up. Oddly, my 3 days of near starvation didn't really make a difference on her scale (GRRR!!!). So I went, very hungry and very bitchy. When she walked into the room, she looked awesome. She had lost 50 pounds. Of course I asked her how and she told me.

The program she used was one I was a little familiar with because I had seen it before in some of the health food stores I take care of. I had always ignored it because it was a network marketing product which to me usually means over-priced and under-performing. I thought "Oh you poor fool Dr, you have been drawn in by those evil people and brainwashed" but you can't argue with results so I decided to have an open mind.

So I went home, still unconvinced but with websites to check out and DVD's to watch. I was SHOCKED by what I found. This company has had over 100 people lose over 100 pounds on their products, 7 people lose over 200 pounds and one dude has lost over 300 pounds!! Now outside of gastric bypass, this level of long term success is unheard of! Not only that but the formulas of the products are very impressive. Rich in B vitamins and minerals, good quality protein and fiber. Organic ingredients where possible. It looked like a nutritionists (fat or otherwise) dream program. Likely tasted terrible but I figured it was worth a try so I called my Doctor and said "Hook a sister up with a 30 day program". 2 days later it arrived and so far so good. I will post more later about how it works.

To tell or not to tell....

I am really struggling with whether to share my weight on this public blog. I think I will focus on my goal and getting there rather than the actual number. So my goal is to lose 150 pounds and I am down 20 pounds so therefore *grabs the calculator*....

I have 130 pounds left to lose!!

Maybe soon I will become brave enough to share where I started and where I am at. Time will tell.

How did I become a fat nutritionist?

How did Louise become a fat nutritionist? You might be wondering...or maybe you could care less. Either way, I am gonna tell you.

I have always been a "big" girl. When I was younger I was tall for my age and developed early. In grade six I joined Nutrisystem which was the beginning of a long diet road for me. I weighed 165 pounds. By the time high school hit, I was well over 200 pounds. When university came around I was bordering on 300. Throughout the years I would go up or down 40-60 pounds but I have not been under 200 pounds since Junior high...blows my freaking mind.

I have been on every diet known to man: Weight Watchers (4 times), Nutrisystem, Hypnosis, Atkins, F Plan, GI diet, Protein Power, Grapefruit, Low Fat, High Fat, Low Carb, High Carb I could go on and on. Then there were my stints of starvation/binging and all of my home made diets. Who knew that it wasn't healthy to live on boiled eggs alone??

I decided to study Applied Human Nutrition at University of Guelph. Just like the crazy dude who goes into Psychiatry, I wanted to solve my own problems. Did I figure them out? NO because weight issues are far more than what you eat. But I did gain a lot of insights into how the human body works and what we SHOULD be feeding it to perform optimally. Sadly it is not apple fritters and coffee. Apparently, an apple fritter a day does NOT keep the doctor away!

So here I am today, still figuring myself out but getting closer to the solutions everyday. I have uncovered some health issues which I will discuss in future posts because I know a lot of you are dealing with them as well. I have uncovered emotional tools to help me deal with that HUGE aspect of why I am 150 pounds overweight. And lastly, I have found a plan that seems to be working for me.

Who am I???

Hi there,

My name is Louise and I am a FAT nutritionist. It has been 5 days since my last bagel and cream cheese. Oh who am I kidding, I had one yesterday!

I have decided to blog about life as a Fat Nutritionist and my journey to becoming just a plain old Nutritionist. I live in Toronto with my husband of almost a year, Jon. He is a great guy and I am thoroughly enjoying married life. I have worked in the health food industry since my first year of University and as a sales rep for the last 9. I love my job, my company and my clients most days. It is a pretty good gig and I think I am pretty good at it.

I hope that this blog will help me share my three passions: Health, Food (good and bad) and Helping People. My goal is to lose 150 pounds and I am down 20 as of this morning. I invite you to join me on the journey as long as you PROMISE not to bring me a Blizzard no matter how much I beg!! :)