Jillian Michaels’ Master Your Metabolism
Several months ago, I quit sugar and wheat flour. This has been one of the best choices I’ve made, for mental reasons as much as for physical ones; I don’t have to put all that effort into attempting to be moderate (I failed most of the time, anyway). Eating a cookie or a piece of bread just isn’t an option, so I don’t have to think about it or stress out over it. Abstention works best for me.
If you are able to be moderate in your consumption of such substances, my hat is off to you. I’ve come to believe that many people are not able to do this. I’d go so far as to say that the “moderation myth” is the biggest reason why so many people are so fat: They really think that diet sodas, fat-free processed foods, and “cheat days” are the way to good health. One can hardly fault such thinking, since it is what is peddled to us by supposed experts and the multi-billion-dollar diet industry. (Full disclosure: diet pop is one of my guilty pleasures, except I don’t feel that guilty about drinking it. So I guess it’s an I-should-feel-guilty-but-don’t pleasure.)
I’ve lost more weight since dropping sugar and wheat flour, but that’s not really enough for me. I almost begged my doctor to give me a target weight to aim for, and he refused. He said to focus on peak overall health if I really wanted a goal. Well, duh.
Even though I weigh more than I’d like, I’m very fortunate to be in relatively good health. My only real issue is low blood pressure, for which my doctor directed me to eat more salt. (I was tested for thyroid problems and anemia, and both came back negative. During the course of that barrage of tests, all my other results came back exactly where they should be.) Until very recently, I had built a moderate amount of exercise into my daily life, walking or jogging at least four miles. But now I live about a 12 minute walk from both Menlo Park and Palo Alto train stations, and I sit at a desk all day. I eat lunch in a restaurant at least four days a week, and often dinner is a meal out, too. I chug espresso (which I don’t even like the taste of) and Diet Dr. Pepper up until 3PM. Mid-afternoon, I feel so sluggish that I have to get up and go for a walk. Although I’ve improved in the sleep department, getting at least seven hours a night most nights, something’s just not right here. I can feel it on a cellular level.
Like I said, abstention works best for me, and so do rules. If I follow the rules, the results follow. Concentrating my mind on the desired result is just crazy-making. (I find this to be true in all areas of life, not just health.) So I have been looking for a very rules-based plan for health that I can follow. After a weekend of study, I’ve decided to try one that I’ve had on my Kindle for iPhone app for several months: Jillian Michaels’ Master Your Metabolism, which is based on hormone-friendly diet and exercise. PLEASE NOTE: I am not endorsing this book or its methods. I haven’t even tried them out yet. But the plan seems sensible to me, so I am going to test it out.
I spent a lot of time writing down all of the rules of Master Your Metabolism, and I thought I could save others some time by organizing them all in one place.
The rules - self-care
- You must eat breakfast, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, and dinner.
- You must eat every four hours.
- You must NOT eat after 9PM.
- Eat breakfast as early as possible, within an hour of waking.
- Breakfast should be the biggest meal of your day.
- Dinner should be protein-heavy but light.
- No carbs at night.
- Non-starchy vegetables can be consumed in unlimited quantities.
- As little processed food as possible - NO processed meats.
- Organic meat and produce only.
- No dairy made with thickeners or gums.
- Canola or extra-virgin olive oil are the only vegetable fats allowed.
- No soy milk, soy cheese, or other concentrated soy.
- Eat until you’re full, but not stuffed.
- Each meal should contain 40% carbs (mostly non-starchy vegetables), 30% fat, and 30% protein.
- Take a good multivitamin, calcium supplement, and fish oil supplement daily.
- Minimum seven hours sleep per night.
- 4 to 5 hours of exercise per week, including strength training, circuit training, and intervals.
- Meditate daily.
- Get a massage weekly.
- Eat in restaurants as seldom as you can get away with, as you never really know what’s in your food, and it’s usually not the best ingredients.
Banned substances
Hydrogenated fats, refined grains, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, diet sodas, artificial colors and preservatives, glutamates.
Substances to be consumed in strict moderation
Starchy vegetables, tropical fruits, dried fruits, canned fruits, concentrated soy (soy milk, soy cheese, etc), alcohol, full-fat dairy, fatty meats, canned foods, caffeine.
Organic rules
MUST BE ORGANIC: Meats, poultry, eggs, and dairy; peaches and nectarines; apples; bell peppers; celery; berries; lettuce; grapes, and any produce you eat a lot.
DON’T BOTHER WITH ORGANIC: Seafood and water.
Allowed foods
Beans (red, black, garbanzo, kidney, navy - dried and soaked, not canned); lentils (dried), wild Alaskan salmon; berries (frozen or fresh), garlic; onions; leeks; cabbage; eggs; organic, grass-fed beef; other organic, fat-trimmed meats and poultry; organic, free-range, low-fat cheese, yogurt, and cottage cheese; apples; barley; green tea (in small doses, before noon only); broccoli; kale; Brussels sprouts; pomegranate seeds and juice; flaxseed (freshly ground); bean sprouts; extra virgin olive oil; avocadoes; raw nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, Brazil, peanuts); citrus fruits; beets; carrots; turnips; cauliflower; mackerel; spinach (frozen is fine); mesclun mixes and a variety of lettuces; tomatoes; capsicum; sweet potatoes; yams; cantaloupe; whey protein; oat bran; oatmeal (preferably steel-cut); rice bran; brown rice; quinoa, spelt; brown rice pasta; quinoa pasta; spelt pasta; grapes (purple); olives (purple); sugar-free, organic ketchup; salsa (fresh, preservative-free); pears; tomato juice; anchovies; black sea bass; halibut; oysters (farmed); crab; Pacific fish such as cod; snapper; tuna (light or albacore); sardines; herring; turkey; almond butter; coconut oil; hummus; rutabaga; peas (small doses); mango (small doses); artichokes; Metamucil (crushed psyllium seeds); plums; prunes; figs; kiwi; sunflower seeds; Swiss chard; pine nuts; kefir; edamame; miso; tempeh; buttermilk; crème fraîche; Greek yogurt; amaranth; whole grains; agave nectar, and (THANK GOD) xylitol (a natural sweetener).
Note that there are more allowed foods than in the list above; this is just what I jotted down while reading the book. It’s a not very original whole foods diet in which processed foods are shunned, with specific whole foods also being frowned upon (corn and Jerusalem artichokes, for example).
There are also a bunch of environment-related rules that I am dubious about; some of them I can get with, others not. I am only sharing a fraction of the environmental rules from the book, because a lot of it is ignorant, anti-progress hokum. Buy the book if you want to get sucked into that. Here are a few rules I will aim to follow:
- Filter water, preferably through two filters (tap-fitted carbon filter plus reverse osmosis filter).
- No plastic containers - use glass or ceramic. Foil, Saran Premium, and Saran Cling Plus are safe wraps.
- Never microwave food in plastic containers - use parchment or wax paper to cover glass or ceramic containers.
- Eggs from cardboard containers only.
- No Teflon - use cast iron, porcelain-coated, stainless steel, or glass pans.
- For plastics, use only PLA - not PC, PVC, or V.
- Stainless steel water bottles only.
- Buy only cooking oil in glass bottles.
- No “anti-bacterial” ANYTHING in the house.
- Buy only chlorine-free paper towels and toilet paper (PCF).
I have a few dinners out with friends this week, and no time to go grocery shopping for a few days, so will get going on this by next weekend. The hardest part will be giving up my beloved diet pop and Splenda, as well as making myself go to the gym every day (I have to go every day or I won’t go at all). I really hate exercise for the sake of exercise, but I really enjoy movement that has a POINT - which is why walking or jogging somewhere, to do something, is easy for me. But I have to throw myself into this, even if I hate it. (Jillian says she hates it. Somehow, I doubt that.) I’ll report back in a month or so on how I’ve done.
Filed under: Life
You should see if you can cut down on the coffee. I know that sounds like you’ll get even sleepier, but I’ll bet it will help. And, not to beat this to death–get more early morning sun on your skin and retinas (really helps with sleep). No sunglasses and no sunblock.
Between 30 and 45 minutes of exposure to bright early morning sun can help decrease melatonin, causing more alertness throughout the day. At the end of the day, when you want melatonin levels to rise again, dim lights will help bring on that sleepy feeling.
And I’ll bet your thyroid isn’t just tip-top. You might want to test again.
Kate, I’m going to cut the coffee completely. I don’t even like it. I just drink it because I’m cold and tired.
Sounds like I need to go and do some exercise in the sun before I shower and get ready for work, to get that melatonin thing right. Hmm.
As for more thyroid tests, I don’t feel up to paying another $300+ for those.
Kate is absolutely right about morning sun. Best of all, combine the two with a quick burst of exercise in the morning.
Ugh, looks like I need to wake up an hour earlier and get myself outside to run before I get ready for work. Thanks, guys! (I mean it! I may not like the new routine, but if it helps me feel better, I’ll stick with it.)
Jackie: The last bit drew my attention instantly. I can see why a dubious-science suspicion arises. I think it helps to have grown up (and never forgotten some of the good habits cultivated thereby) in a poor, “3rd world” country. I never use any plastics because growing up, I rarely saw any in our house. In poor countries, people reduce and reuse a lot more and dare I say, we recycled a lot more too than I now do in the UK where the collection process is so cumbersome and inspires no confidence whatsoever that my carefully sorted recyclable rubbish is being recycled actually. So the glass, steel and cast iron preferences come naturally to me. Covering the containers with their own lids (in the same materials normally) while microwaving or storing also comes naturally. The challenge for most in this respect may be to unlearn set behaviours and then to learn the new ones which may need them to get more organised and buy new pots/ pans/ containers.
Interesting post overall.
I’m sure you’re on the right track. Most books like that add in all sorts of stuff, some unfounded and some useful, IME (I took a dietary approach, among others, to really bad ongoing fatigue and it helped massively); I think because the research may not be there yet, so it may be worth trying things that could help, in an experimental way.
I tried something like this for chronic fatigue a while back, with great results (although I do lapse) including focussing my weight (it was annoying to vary by up to a stone). I’m fairly convinced that increased energy has to be linked to weight loss, because health is a dynamic thing with the goal of maximum strength, fitness, & good energy (why mental illnesses have physical symptoms).
Best of luck! :-)
I tend to favour an eating pattern that could probably be called moderation: I restrict the treats for the weekends and keep things reasonably healthy during the week. At the moment I’m doing no exercise at all and so I’ve adjusted the amount I’m eating accordingly, but when I get back into the swing of marathon training in late January I’ll have to up the food intake a bit - I don’t want to lose weight. I have such a sweet tooth, so I find that ‘nothing during the week and some sweets in the weekend’ works for me.
As far as what I eat: well, never enough vegetables, and I don’t eat enough water as well. But I try to keep it all as simple as possible and go with the ‘only eat food that your great-grandmother would recognise’ approach. It helps that I don’t like fried food and really processed food!
Haha - that should read ‘drink enough water’, JD: I don’t crunch ice cubes…
Wow Jack, quite an undertaking. Why no soy I wonder? Too strict for me but good for you.
I guess I am a moderation eater, but I certainly had to learn and it took years…..
I’ve also learned that exercise that is fun is doable, like you it has to have a purpose so now I drag…..true, drag…my little beagle/jack russell Lilly to walk; she’s overweight so her energy is not where it used to be.
Pilates is my choice, you can literally do whenever you think about it during the day, core exercises, stretching slowly, breathing correctly whatever you do. It all helps, awareness helps! Good luck.
You are beautiful physically, mentally and spiritually in my eyes - especially because you make the effort to be better each day. xox
Sorry I had to add - when I said “good for you” I meant “way to go” - not “I couldn’t do but you should…..
sorry I reread and it sounded like I was saying you must do, didn’t want to be misunderstood dear friend.
For the coffee lovers and morning caffeine addicts try drinking water with a splash of lemon or another citrus! It definitely wakes you up and is refreshing!
I also read Jillian’s book and loved it. However, a lot of scheduling issues have arisen for me. First of all, eat breakfast and make it your biggest meal. How does that work if you want to exercise in the morning? Do you have to find something to do for an hour between eating and working out so you can digest properly? She says in the book not to work out on an empty stomach, but you’re supposed to eat something as soon as you get up, but it should be your biggest meal, and, and, and….!! (Also, the breakfast meal suggestions she gives are rather puny.) Then there’s eat every four hours. So, if I have breakfast at 7am, then I eat lunch at 11am, snack at 3pm, and dinner at 7pm? I don’t see how you can do this and still get ready for work in time. Eat a breakfast at 7am, wait for an hour, work out from 8-9, then shower, get ready, be to work by what…10:30? It takes three and half hours just to get your day started! Then 1/2 hour into work it’s be time for lunch! Also, if you wait until 7pm to eat dinner, then wait an hour and work out at night instead, you are done with your work out by maybe 9pm. How does this work with the no eating after 9pm, but have protein right after a work out rules? Do you take a break from work in the middle of the day to exercise, which is the worst time of day they say. I don’t know. I’m far too OCD to figure this out so somebody help!