Cali Diet

Bettering your health while keeping your weight under control

You are here: Home / Archives for Joey Thurman

About Joey Thurman

Joey Thurman is a health, fitness, and nutrition expert and the creator of The Lifestyle Renovation, a website dedicated to helping people achieve their health and fitness goals. He has appeared on CBS, FOX, ABC, and WCIU sharing his insights as a celebrity fitness trainer and published author. Joey’s work has been featured in publications such as BodyBuilding.com, Racked, TimeOut Chicago, RedEye, and American Global Traveler. Joey is a fashion model represented by Chosen Model Management where he works with brands including Neiman Marcus, Abercrombie, Jockey, and Carson Pirie Scott. He has also appeared on the covers of Healthy for Menand TimeOut Chicago. Joey is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) with the American Council on Exercise, a Fitness Nutrition Specialist (FNS) and a FITchef. For more information, please visit www.thelifestylerenovation.com and follow Joey on Instagram and Twitter at @JoeyThurmanFit.

Eat Clean to Be Healthy and Lean!

By Leave a Comment

clean eatingWe all do it. We constantly make up excuses as to why we haven’t reached our health and fitness goals.  We are a nation that LOVES to complain about our woes.  We put on a little weight and run to the first person that will console our insecurities and say, “I’ve put on some weight, I need to lose it!” When in reality all we are doing is fishing for a compliment from our loved ones in the hopes that they will say, “oh no, you look great, you don’t need to lose weight.”  Now that you have received that self-sought out validation, you can now go back to the same routine, eating the same old crap that can make you look, but more importantly, FEEL terrible!

We want to complain about things, and some of us actually want to make changes, but we are afraid or don’t know how to actually do something about it!  Well, I’m here to help you begin a journey away from the Standard American Diet and towards healthier cleaner eating.  Let’s take a moment to discuss the Standard American Diet, or what I like to call the SAD diet, because, well, that’s exactly what it is; filled with processed foods and prepackaged meals with ingredient lists that sounds more like a science experiment than  something we should be consuming. A SAD diet filled with added sugars, refined carbohydrates, hydrogenated vegetable oils, Trans fats, and GMO’s (genetically modified organisms).  We are a SAD nation in that we say it’s too hard to eat clean, it’s too expensive to eat clean, we can’t cook, we don’t have time, the list goes on and on; and as a nation our excuses keep growing in direct proportion to our waistlines!  The truth is JUST BECAUSE YOU AREN’T SICK DOESN’T MEAN YOU ARE HEALTHY!!!

Its 2015 people, we have NO EXCUSE! Gone are the days when you have to go to the library and search the endless card catalog by way of the Dewey Decimal System for a healthy nutrition book! We have access to a myriad of information on “how to” just about anything right at our finger tips; access to millions of healthy recipes at the swipe of a button and articles written by nutrition and fitness experts to help educate, guide and keep you motivated along the way. Before we use having access to too much information as an excuse, because yes, things can get a bit overwhelming, I’m here to help simplify clean eating for you.

Now that I’ve called us out on all of our excuses on how to avoid EATING CLEAN, I may have lost of few who would like to stay in that SAD world a bit longer, but those of you who do not, welcome, you are ready to RENOVATE YOUR LIFE. Eating clean can be quite simple if you follow these steps for a healthier, better YOU!!!!

No matter what your nutritional preference is or whatever diet you are following right now you MUST eliminate these four things, no matter what!

  1. ELIMINATE ADDED SUGAR: Added Sugar is exactly what it sounds like, sugar added to a product to make it sweeter. This can include but not limited to soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, and desserts by adding sugars like corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, and maltose, to name a few. And our current SAD diet is filled to brim with this stuff and we as a nation are addicted to it. With all this sugar in the world, I can’t afford to sugar coat anything any longer. Added sugar is the ABSOLUTE WORST. I’m sick and tired of hearing diets that include “cheat days” or “reward days” if you have been good. Here’s the deal. If you are having a problem with your weight and health due to your overeating of sweets then why in the world would you think it would be OK for you to have the one thing that was causing your downfall in the first place?  That slice of cake turns in to two slices and before you know it you have eaten the entire thing. Then the shame sets in followed by the excuse; healthy eating is too hard. Here’s a thought, do not have the vice that caused your problem in the first place! A “treat” or “cheat” meal, is like giving an alcoholic a shot after being sober for a week; it simply doesn’t make sense! Addiction is addiction. The thing with added sugar is that it when people eat too much sugar; it overloads the liver, which is then forced to turn the sugar into fat. It also causes a chemical response in your brain called the neuropeptide response telling you that you NEED MORE sugar. This is the same response cocaine addicts get when they need another bump of cocaine…..seriously!
  2. ELIMINATE REFINED CARBOHYDRATES:  Our SAD diets are full of grains, such as refined flours, instant oatmeal, and processed cereals that have had all the beneficial ingredients/nutrients removed. Refined carbs get broken down into sugars when metabolized creating the same liver and neuropeptide response discussed above. We are supposed to eat for nutrition, that’s right, our food is supposed to provide us nutrients, but how can we get those nutrients if they have been stripped of them beforehand? Refined carbohydrates provide us with energy, but no essential nutrients; we call these empty calories. Our bodies are like a vehicle. Owning a vehicle requires you to take care of your car by using the proper oil and fuel, rotating its tires, checking your fluids, and taking it in for periodic checkups. Much like a car, your bodies will initially continue to run if you neglect it, or fuel it with products disguised as food, but it’s only a matter of time before it breaks down and requires the proper maintenance, which will cost you much more in the long run.
  3. ELIMINATE INDUSTRIAL VEGETABLE OILS: This list includes but is not limited to canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, and cottonseed oil. Much like our refined carbohydrates, these oils are often genetically modified and have been stripped of any nutritional value and are deemed empty calories. Our nation markets these as heart healthy oils that should be incorporated in our daily diets due to having low saturated fat and high polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acids. Sounds great, right? Wrong! What they neglect to tell you is having too much polyunsaturated fat is detrimental to our health and a major contributor to obesity. Industrial vegetable oils oxidize in heat very easily. So cooking with these oils creates large amounts of oxidized fatty acids that cause inflammation and are known carcinogens (cancer causing agents).
  4. ELIMINATE TRANS FAT: Trans fats are made by a chemical process that adds hydrogen to the oils to make them solid at room temperature increasing their shelf life. Trans fat (hydrogenated oils) are unnatural, toxic, harbor no nutritional value, and much like industrial vegetable oils, are linked to inflammation and heart disease.

So now that you know what to cut out of your diet, what should you be eating?  I’m not saying you should follow a restricted diet that is impossible to attain; I’m talking to you fad diets.  I’m not here to tell you to eat Paleo, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, or be on the cookie diet (yes, that was a real thing at it made millions). Clean eating shouldn’t be viewed as a restricted diet; it should be viewed as a lifestyle change. I’m here to provide you with the tools necessary to make that healthy lifestyle shift that you can easily sustain throughout your lifetime.

  1. EAT SIMPLE AND COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES: No, carbs are NOT evil if you stick with clean carbs that will fuel your body!!! Eat carbs in the morning and before and after your workouts to provide you with the most energy and nutrient replenishment.  These clean carbs include complex carbs (slow digesting) to provide you energy and simple carbs (fast digesting) to provide you with quick energy. Complex carbs include but not limited to: baked potatoes, barley, beans, brown rice (steamed), oatmeal (plain), pumpkin, sweet potatoes / yams, squash, quinoa, and wild Rice (steamed). Simple carbs include but not limited to: apples, bananas, any berries (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries), grapefruit, melons, oranges, fat?free yogurt, greek yogurt unsweetened (add fruit to it, don’t but fruit added).
  2. EAT PROTEIN: We all need protein to provide our bodies with proper energy, but we don’t all need to eat like bodybuilders. Try to include some form of lean protein with every meal to help limit the insulin spike (sugar spike) of food and burn more calories through to the digestion of the protein itself.  Some great choices are: beans, buffalo, chicken breast (whole or ground), low fat or skim dairy (milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese), eggs (whole, egg whites), lean ground beef, lean ham, Nondairy milk (almond milk, coconut milk, hemp milk), Nuts and nut butters (almond, cashew, peanut), protein powder (casein, whey), seafood (crab, haddock, lobster, salmon, shrimp, swordfish, tuna), steak (top round or top sirloin), and turkey breast (whole or ground). Any nut butters and milks choose the Organic, unsweetened and lower sodium options.
  3. EAT FATS: Yes, we NEED to eat Fat to LOSE FAT. Wait, what?!!! Crazy, I know! But not all fats are created equal!  Stick with these healthy nutrient packed fats (includes but not limited to): almond oil, avocados, avocado oil (also great for high heat cooking), coconut oil (great for high heat cooking), fish oil, olive oil, nut and nut butters.
  4. EAT VEGETABLES: Load up on lots and lots of veggies! The amazing thing about most vegetables is that they are a guilt free food! Have you ever seen someone OVER indulge on spinach? Aim for 3 cups of vegetables a day (and 1.5-2 cups of fruit)! Focus on eating more vegetables than fruit; you will get abundance and vitamins and nutrients and less sugar.  I myself, hated vegetables years ago and now I prefer, no my body craves, a salad most of the time, and I’m not talking the one smothered in processed cheese and ranch dressing. An easy way to get your vegetables in is to throw them in a blender with some cucumber, lemon, or lime, and maybe a fruit like grapefruit or berries for a delicious smoothie! Vegetables include: asparagus, artichoke, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, leafy greens (collard greens, kale, romaine, spinach, etc), green beans, green peppers, mushrooms, onion, peas, tomato, and zucchini. This is not an exhaustive list, for the most part any vegetable will be acceptable, the darker and leafier the better.

By cutting added sugar, refined carbs, vegetables oils, and trans fat out of your diet and focusing on incorporating lots of lean meats, vegetables, fiber, and fruits you will be on your way to a great Lifestyle Renovation! If you want a specific eating plan check out my nutrition plans on my site thelifestylerenovation.com and use code ‘Calidiet’ for 10% off!  I believe in you, now it’s time for you to believe in yourself!

Yours in health,
Joey Thurman
@JoeyThurmanFit

Ditch The Pills And Hit The Treadmill – Exercise and Depression

By Leave a Comment

Depression and Exercise

Celebrity Personal Trainer Explains How Exercise Is Beneficial To Your Mental Health

We are a nation of pill poppers, excuse makers, fat shamers, skinny shamers, pretty shamers, ugly shamers, ageists, youngists (that might be a thing) and we look down on anything else that doesn’t fit within our own “acceptable” mold.  We sit behind our laptops, tablets, smart devices, and “I” whatever and think we can justify making fun of anything and anyone else that is different than we are.  We spend time looking at the lives of others on social media seeing the highlight reel of the lives of everyone else around us and wonder why we can’t have that, why can’t we go to that Island, why doesn’t my husband do that for me, why aren’t my parents buying me a new car, the list goes on and on and on!  It’s no wonder why so many of us are becoming depressed, in fact now more than 12 million Americans are suffering from mental illness and 1/12 Americans over the age of 12 have had symptoms of depressions with less than 39% of them having ANY sort of treatment for their symptoms!

For years pharmaceutical companies have been making billions upon billions for having doctors prescribe antidepressant medications that are proven to work (or so big pharma wants you to think).  In fact, it’s published knowledge that pharmaceutical companies only publish the positive results in clinical trials for their antidepressant medications and methodically omit the “bad” or results that show the medications aren’t any more effective than the placebo and in many cases worse due to side effects. (In July, GlaxoSmithKline plead guilty and agreed to pay a total of $3 billion in fines to three counts of criminal misdemeanor and other civil liabilities relating to the prescription drugs Paxil, Wellbutrin and Avandia. In 2009 Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company illegally promoted uses of four of its drugs, including their antipsychotic drug Geodon).

Personal Experience with Depression

I have struggled with depression during my life and have had thoughts of suicide as a teenager; I had moments of doubt, self-blame, regret, and an immense sense of hopelessness until I took charge of my life and found my solution! This solution that I found and the solution to your depression problems will rival ANY doctor, or treatment and won’t require you to pop a pill, or have any negative side effects, sign me up you would say, and the solution….exercise!

I have been telling people for years if they would come in to see me or use one of my programs that would solve a lot of life’s problems.  More and more research is coming out that exercise is the key to mental health!  When you exercise you immediately start to feel better about yourself, and not simply because of the physical change that is occurring to your body but because of a chemical response in your brain.  Molecular biologists and neurologists are now showing a direct response to exercise the same way that antidepressants regulate serotonin “feel good hormone” and norepinephrine.  Since exercise isn’t big business for the government funding has been limited in this area, and of course big pharma will do everything it can to prevent the results of these studies being published.  When studies are performed against exercise and medication exercise comes out on top every time!

Recently British doctors have started prescribing exercise INSTEAD of medication for those suffering depression symptoms for the first time.  Patients get a discounted rate on a gym membership or training program and begin to start feeling like they are EMPOWERED to take control of their lives instead of feeling like they have an illness!  When this program was first introduced in Britain only 4% of doctors prescribed exercise, it’s now up to more than 25%; the Brits are getting it right!

Depression and Exercise 

If you don’t live in the UK and want some tips to make sure you don’t have to feel weighed down by depression and can only turn to medication here you go:

  1. One study showed you can cut depressive symptoms by 50% with 30 minutes of cardio 3-5 times a week. This can be any sort of cardio, sprints, jumping rope, swimming, hiking, or even weight lifting in a circuit (one exercise after another).
  2. Stretch for 15-20 minutes a day 3 days a week to decrease symptoms by 29%
  3. Increase your HGH (Human Growth Hormone) which is key for health, strength, and longevity by doing interval training. Perform 30 seconds of an exercise to get your heart rate elevated to a level you can’t talk (any exercise, jumping jacks, running in place, sprints, etc) then take a 90 second breather, repeat this cycle a total of 8 times and get on with your happy day!
  4. Eat a healthy diet. Exercise will lower your symptoms of depression and when you accompany a healthy diet with your exercise you will feel better, more energized, and alert.  Eat a diet low in sugar and processed foods, I have great diets and workout plans on my website listed below.
  5. With your healthy diet add essential omega 3 fatty acids like Krill Oil for optimal brain functioning.

Now that you have the tools necessary to lower your symptoms of depression make sure to address your stress!  We all have periods of happy days and sad days, but we must face these head on!  Exercising and eating well is a MAJOR role in combating your depression levels but don’t be afraid to talk about your feelings to your loved ones or a health professional.  We must treat health and wellness as an overall system and not one singular aspect in life.  For more information on how to balance your life and get proper workouts, nutrition, and health visit my website at www.TheLifestyleRenovation.com and take control of your Renovation!

10 Ways Cocktail Hour Is Destroying Your Fitness Efforts

By Leave a Comment

alcohol and weight gain
Celebrity Personal Trainer and Nutrition Expert Explains
Why You Need To Pass On Cocktails

Liquid courage, my best friend, uncle Jack, and a party in a bottle are all names that we love to use when it comes to our National Pastime…drinking!  Alcohol is the main attraction at most sporting events, parties, and gatherings, but something that we aren’t aware of is how alcohol truly affects externally in our waistlines by what it’s doing us internally from that first drink.  We all have seen the commercials where we can keep our ripped abs all while enjoying that low calorie, low carb, no guilt beverage; but there’s a few sneaky little tricks happening inside of us from the first sip of our best friend that will IMMEDIATELY cause our hard earned results in our health journey to stop and possibly take a turn for the worst!

Several aspects about alcohol are beginning to become common knowledge among the masses, alcohol has “empty” calories, stay away from mixed beverages with lots of sweeteners in them, and if you do drink make sure to eat something beforehand, these are all somewhat true, but I’m here to give you the “not so ordinary’ reasons why alcohol will wreak havoc on your waist, and could possibly lead to other health problems.

  1. Contrary to what you like to tell yourself alcohol is recognized by your body as a POISON! Once you consume alcohol every single effort is made by your body to GET THE POISON OUT! Alcohol directly affects your bodies’ ability to maintain healthy blood sugar levels by messing with the hormone insulin.  Insulin is important because it’s excreted whenever you have a blood sugar spike by eating something that’s processed by your body as a sugar (carbohydrates, desserts, fruit, etc).  If your body can’t bring down these blood sugar levels due to a decreased effect of insulin you will store those extra sugars in your body in the form of body fat!  Besides the decreased insulin sensitivity alcohol can have on your body it can also lower your blood sugar when you eat on an empty stomach which could lead to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels).  If you have as little as 2 drinks in a day and go to work out your body will have lower blood sugar levels to begin with and working out naturally brings blood sugar levels down.  If you already have low blood sugar levels from alcohol and try to work out you will feel run down and not have enough energy to get a proper session in.  This lack of energy will be a detriment to your fitness goals and possibly cause even more life threatening health problems, besides the possibility of passing out on the treadmill….funny on YouTube, but not in person!
  2. Your body requires a certain amount of calories to maintain your weight based on your height, weight, and gender called your basal metabolic rate (bmr).  A surplus of calories will increase your weight because your body can’t utilize those calories as energy and in turn stores them as fat.  Besides the obvious excess calories and sugar alcohol adds when you drink during a meal it has been shown to increase the amount of calories you eat in that meal by 20%, when you add the calories from the alcohol with the food calories the average individual will have 33% more calories in a meal with alcohol than without.  The “hypothetical” beer belly isn’t so hypothetical at anymore, in fact a study of over 3,000 men who drank on a regular basis had excess amounts of belly fat leading to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.  When we drink our hunger increases and with a lowered inhibition we are more likely to crave bad foods late at night and make bad food choices, a cocktail recipe for disaster!
  3. Another less than obvious risk of alcohol consumption is a decreased level of testosterone! Testosterone is responsible for muscle growth, energy, sex drive, and helps increase metabolism.  When alcohol is consumed it disrupts the release of free testosterone, think of the free testosterone as the fuel in your tank you want to use immediately.  Besides the disruption of testosterone the hops in beer are known to be extremely estrogenic, yes the female hormone!   An elevated level of estrogen in a man will decrease your overall testosterone; hops are even being studied to lower the symptoms of hot flashes in post-menopausal women.
  4. Alcohol affects our circadian rhythm, now why does this matter? When we don’t have a good night sleep our bodies can’t produce growth hormone (responsible for bone and muscle growth), we are more likely to have inflammation, less likely to have muscles repair themselves, and it also increases hunger the next day for not having enough sleep leading to consumption of more calories than our bodies need.
  5. Reason number five for the contribution of alcohol and weight gain is probably the least known, how alcohol is metabolized. We focus on calories, carbs, and sugars in alcohol but never really look at how the alcohol is metabolized by our body.  Once alcohol is consumed our bodies start to make it a priority to get it out, not such a bad thing right, wrong!  Since alcohol can’t be metabolized by our body it will put the brakes on metabolizing protein, carbohydrates, and fat.  So while you are worrying about the amount of calories you are drinking your body simply registers the foreign substance in your body and won’t let you break down any calories, making you more likely to store fat!  Once you stop drinking alcohol leaves your body at about .01% per hour, so if your blood alcohol content is .08 (legally drunk) it will take you 8 hours to get all of the alcohol out of you, then maybe you can start losing some fat!  Don’t think that coffee, a cold shower, or greasy food will help you get rid of the toxins in your body, TIME is the ONLY thing that will help!

Now that you have the reasons why alcohol can contribute to weight gain, lack of testosterone, dehydration, blood pressure issues, and even more (I can keep going)  you won’t drink anymore right?….come on, I’m a realist, we are all going to have another drink at some point, but what can we do to prevent maximal weight gain?

  1. Never drink on an empty stomach!
  2. Do NOT drink before a meal, you will eat even more calories and crap food, save the booze for after the meal!
  3. For every one drink you have drink a glass of water between to stay hydrated and limit the overall amount of alcohol you consume in an evening.
  4. Stay AWAY from sugary mixers; if you want to add something to your drink add water, soda water, lemon, lime, orange slice, or fresh grapefruit juice. Or simply have a vodka or tequila on the rocks, which will save you calories.
  5. Don’t think a bottle of red wine is good for you; yes a glass may have some “beneficial” properties, but so do grapes.
  6. No shots!!! Look, I loved shots in college, but one reason I liked them is because I got drunk faster, before I knew it I had 10-15 drinks in a night, you lose track of how many you have and it’s a detriment to your waistline, health, and your hangover!
  7. Drink slowly, see number 6 above!
  8. Stay away from peer pressure, wait we aren’t in high school anymore! Look, we are social beings, and with that social drinkers.  It’s OK to say NO thanks!  Put on your big boy or big girl pants and politely turn down that drinks your friend just brought you, it will be ok!
  9. Set a limit for yourself! If you say you are only going to have 2 drinks tonight, only have 2, you will be proud of yourself in the morning when you feel great and not like a truck hit you!
  10. Talk to yourself! What?  Next time you get ready to have that occasional drink after work go over this article in your head, is that drink really worth all of the hard work you have put in to get healthy, is it worth me feeling bad about myself when I didn’t reach my goals, is it worth increasing my risk of diabetes, is it worth the hours of fun for the hours of regret the next day?  If so drink away, I am here to give you the tools necessary for you to say yes to a drink……or NO!