Tony “Mojo” Lucero paid a visit to Infinite Wellness.  He’s a long-time believer in chiropractic care because he feels it’s important to keep his body a temple for the mind and soul.  You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how old he is.  The guy has amazing energy as one of the original people to promote and create the 90-Day Challenge that we share at Infinite Wellness and he lives the lifestyle as well.  An amazing rock star who plays for Farewell 2 Fear, these guys travel the country promoting health and wellness and the Vi life.

Infinite Wellness proudly supports Metroflex Gym, “Crazy” Ryan Wendt, and all of Metroflex’s trainers and athletes. We are one of Metroflex’s Preferred Chiropractors for sports therapy. Infinite Wellness has a thorough five-step system for keeping you in the game.

Join us for refreshments and snacks and get on our email newsletter to enter our raffle for great health and wellness products and services.

We are conveniently located on I-10 and Campbell Road at 9111 Katy Freeway, Suite 226, Houston, TX 77024.

Please RSVP by filling out the form below and I look forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday.

Namaste,

Dr. Al Jameson, DC

What is a calorie?
A calorie is a unit of stored energy.  What we refer to as a food calorie is actually 1000 calories or 1 kilocalorie.  A food calorie is usually written with a capital C to differentiate it from a regular calorie.  So what is a regular calorie?  A regular calorie is the amount of energy that would be needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree Celsius.  One gram of water is about the size of the tip of your finger down to the bottom of the fingernail.

So every Calorie (notice the capital C) of food you take in actually has enough energy to raise an entire liter of water’s temperature one degree Celsius. There is a lot of energy stored in even a little bit of food.  This is exactly why it takes so much exercise to work off even a few hundred calories.

I’m sure you’ve heard people say that losing weight is a simple matter of burning off more calories than you eat, right? Let me ask you a common sense question, if one person eats exactly 2000 calories of McDonald’s hamburgers, fries, and sodas every day and another person eats exactly 2000 calories of vegetables, legumes, some fruits, and lean meats, do you think they will both be healthy and lose weight after 90 days? The answer is obvious, but let’s get in to the details:

Calories Out

This is the simpler part of the discussion because we can actually do a pretty decent job of estimating how many calories someone can burn throughout the day even by doing nothing. This is referred to as the body’s basal metabolic rate or BMR. This is usually measured by how much carbon dioxide is breathed out through a device strapped to the mouth for a few minutes and can then be calculated for the entire day. Usually, BMR varies by the amount of total body weight – the more you weigh, the higher your BMR.

Different exercises have also been studied to see how many calories each burn on average in an hour. The problem with all these numbers is that they are averages and estimates and not the amount of calories that you specifically burn during exercise or throughout the day. Even if your estimates are off by 10%, this can be the difference between losing weight and gaining weight.

Calories In
When you read a food label and see the calories listed, the way they come up with those values is interesting.  Foods are placed in a box known as a calorimeter and then they are burned.  The amount of heat they give off is then converted into calories.  This is fine and dandy, but the body doesn’t actually burn our food.  We ingest it, the digestive system works on it, the good bacteria in the digestive system interacts with it, it gets absorbed into the blood, and then gets processed in the liver and other organs before it is ever even considered to be used for energy in a cell.

What does this all mean?  Let’s put it this way.  If you wanted to win a battle in a war zone and just dropped in a bunch of guns, ammunition, tanks, and rockets, those items would do absolutely nothing by themselves.  However, if you sent in those items with highly trained soldiers that knew how to use them, they actually can be used to win the battle.  When foods are processed, pasteurized, cooked, and preserved, you are in essence removing those highly trained soldiers.  Those soldiers are the enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and other co-factors that are found in natural foods.  When those are removed, the body has a much harder time trying to process and use those foods for energy, so they are stored as fat instead.  This is exactly what we do when we eat hamburgers and fries all day.  These foods have almost no nutritional value, just calories, so they don’t provide us the soldiers to fire their own weapons.

Wet Log
Another way to look at extra stored fat in the body is like a wet log in the fireplace.  If you are trying to get the log to burn consistently on its own, you have to use some kindling wood, some matches, dry leaves, or other types of flammable materials and invest some time to kickstart that fire.  That kindling is like taking in good food to boost your metabolism to get the fat burning mechanisms in the body going.  Bad food is like dumping gasoline on that log.  It may burn for a short period of time, but it won’t get the log to burn on its own.

Two Shakes A Day
The beauty of following an eating regimen that includes shakes as meals is that by the nature of what you can put in to a shake, you end up eating more raw and wholesome foods that provide the soldiers to win the fat war in your body.  This makes it super easy to get the nutrients your body needs from natural sources without having to over-think a meal, spend a bunch of time preparing meals, or spending a bunch of money on foods that are actually killing you.  This regimen is the simplest and least mentally draining path to a lifestyle of health, happiness and abundance.

So a calorie is a calorie if you are just looking at the amount of stored energy it provides, but your body needs a lot more than stored energy.  It needs the ability to process that energy in a healthy and useful way to maintain all of your body systems.  Now when someone says it’s a simple matter of more calories out than calories in, you can tell them they are absolutely right, but we are not even close to properly calculating the caloric impact of foods on our bodies.

There is no better time to challenge yourself to change your life for the better than right now.  Of course, if you had the motivation to do so, you would have done it by now, right?  Here’s the problem.  When most people think about challenges, they think about how hard the process is going to be and how much of an impact it is going to have on their lives.  I talk all the time about how wellness is the constant, conscious pursuit of living life to its fullest potential.

Living consciously takes effort and also means that pride has to be set aside as well.  Most people think it’s fear that gets in their way – the fear of changing, the fear of the unknown, or the fear of failure.  Pride is what actually gets in the way of most people’s success.  It’s pride that puts us in a comfort zone because change would mean risking looking foolish or not accomplishing our goals.  No one fears success or change, they just don’t want to look silly if they fail.

So how do we get over this foolish pride?  It’s actually pretty simple and takes only two steps.  One, we have to change our environment and surround ourselves with people that will not judge us.  This takes off a lot of pressure.  When I recently went through some difficult times, I joined a gym, started taking their yoga classes, and also got on the 90-Day Challenge mostly to hang out with a group of amazingly positive people that keep me motivated and excited.

The second step is to take small bites.  No one becomes a millionaire overnight, including people who become a millionaire overnight, so you might as well not worry about where you will be 90 days from now once you have decided where you want to be.  What is more important is the small steps you are going to take every day to get there.  Without those small steps, that 90-day goal is just a daydream.  It’s also much easier to take those small steps if they are simple and laid out for you.  Once you pick a challenge kit, it could not be any easier to stick to a daily routine.  I’ve come to view my daily shakes as my security blanket, and security is a good feeling when you are making positive changes in your life.

So the simple answer is get started today because there will be no better day to begin living consciously.  Do it for health, do it for your family, do it for your finances, and most of all, do it because it is too simple not to do.

This shake is a great way to control sugars from fruit and introduce some vegetables in your daily routine.  I promise you will not taste the spinach!

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops Vi-Shape Nutritional Shake Mix
• 1 big handful of fresh organic spinach (you can get the pre-washed and prepared bag)
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 banana (frozen works best if possible)
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (optional)
• 6-8 ice cubes
• Blend well and enjoy!

I love this recipe. It’s a great way to stave off sugar and chocolate cravings and still stick to the plan. These cupcakes are easily prepared in a coffee mug in the microwave. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 scoops Vi Shake Mix
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 2 tblsp unsweetened almond milk (this is my tweak to limit dairy and calories)

Directions:

In a coffee mug, mix all ingredients.  Stir well with a fork and microwave for 2 minutes.  Cover mug with a paper towel to prevent spillage as it rises.  Some peanut butter or almond butter can be added as desired.

1. Set your goal and announce it to the world – The only way to keep yourself honest and keep the encouragement from friends and family coming is to set your intention and your goal for the next 90 days.  Now I’m going to tell you something most people won’t tell you – once you set your goal, forget about it.  Huh?  Too many people set goals and spend all day daydreaming about what is going to happen 90 days from now.  The part I left out is you have to figure out what good daily habits you are going to introduce and focus on those throughout the day.  Keep it simple and ask yourself yes or no questions at the end of the day.  For instance, instead of asking “How many glasses of water did I drink today?”, ask yourself “Did I drink my 75 ounces of water today?”.  You either got it right or you didn’t, so there’s no gray area.  If the answer is no, don’t beat yourself up over it.  Just get the answer to be yes the next day.  Don’t forget to update your progress on your challenge at least every 90 days on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or whatever other social media you use to stay connected to your friends and family.
2. Pick the two meals you want to replace – If you are on the Transformation or Shape Kit, you are most likely trying to lose weight.  If so, my suggestion would be to have one shake for breakfast and then replace your most expensive meal of the day in the beginning.  Why?  80% of people that are overweight skip breakfast.  This is the easiest way to introduce breakfast into your daily routine.  I was one of the 80%, and trust me when I say it’s easy to do and only takes 5 minutes to prepare, especially when you get the hang of it.  Replacing the most expensive meal of the day helps to control and offset the cost of your kit, showing you how you can actually save money on the challenge.  If you are a big going out to lunch person, have a shake for lunch.  If you spend more on big dinners, do a shake for dinner and prepare a lunch to take with you to work.
3. Don’t worry too much about what goes into your shakes – Especially in the first 30 days, what is most important is to get into the habit of doing the two shakes a day and taking the support products if you have the Transformation Kit.  Let’s not kid ourselves.  Almost any shake we make with the exception of maybe dumping ice cream into it is going to be better than what we were going to eat instead for that meal.  Get this – two of your meals a day are going to be vegetarian and raw just by the nature of what you’re doing!  You can now go show off to your friends and tell them how cool you are.  One note, if you are diabetic or have sugar handling problems, minimize the number of fruits you put into your shakes.  The rule of thumb is one half of a whole fruit per shake.  So what do you put in your shake instead?  Try peanut butter, almond butter, hemp seeds, chia seeds, or half an avocado.  These won’t change the taste of the shake but will keep the glycemic index down and control the sugars.
4. Drink lots of water – When you shift your diet to focus on protein and other good nutrients, this requires a lot of water for the body to process these amazing ingredients.  Drink about half of your body weight in ounces a day.  For example, if you weight 150 pounds, drink 75 ounces of water a day.  This is about 9 8-ounce glasses.  This is one of the keys to increasing the metabolism and shifting the body from storing fat to burning fat.
5. Stay engaged – You started this challenge with an amazing group of people who introduced you to it, so stay engaged and involved with them.  This keeps your challenge and your decision to change your life for the better in your conscious mind.  One of the best ways to maintain a high energy level and a positive attitude is to surround yourself with motivated and positive people.  If they’re not contacting you, contact them and get involved.
6. Surround yourself with a good team – As an extension of staying engaged, it is also much easier to reach your challenge goals if you have close friends and family doing a challenge with you.  You will all motivate each other and in the process, you will be helping your loved ones live a long, happy, healthy, and prosperous life.

What I discovered in my relentless research were some amazing systems and products that were working for a some people, so I tried a few myself.  The results met with nominal success.  First, there were the cleanses and detoxes.  The thought behind these is that when we eat like crap, the digestive system and liver become clogged with residue from the junk that we put in our mouths, and this junk needs to be cleared out of the system before any other progress can be made.  The philosophy is sound and it works, but I don’t know too many people that eat pizza and chicken wings all day and wash it down with three beers that are going to make a jump to eating next to nothing for a few days, popping a ridiculous number of herbal pills, and tolerating the potential nausea, headaches, and digestive upset that are part of the cleansing process.  Cleansing is great once good eating habits are in place.

Then there were the fad diets.  Atkins said eat nothing but protein and fat all day and skip all the carbs.  Though the direction and philosophy was a good start, somehow common sense says that in the long run, eating bacon and cheese all day can’t possibly be good for you.  Other plans like the Warrior Diet, the Paleo Diet, the South Beach Diet, going vegan, or eating raw foods are all attempts to go in the right direction but require significant changes to be made in your eating habits.  Most of the time, these changes are so extreme that it’s hard to imagine making them.  They also all have their limitations and potential health drawbacks.

The best and most complete way to get back on track is to take the functional medicine approach, get every blood and urine value measured, balance the system with specifically tailored nutritional supplements and an accompanying eating regimen, and then get retested to make sure everything is back on track.  The only problem is that this approach is very expensive and can be considered medically invasive by some who don’t like needles, all leading to you not taking that first step to success.

So what is the answer?  The answer is two-fold.  First and foremost, losing body fat has to become a conscious and daily task for at least 90 days before it can be set on autopilot.  The best way to accomplish this successfully is to immerse yourself in an environment to make this possible, which means hanging out and communicating with people who are highly motivated and trying to accomplish this task themselves or have recently achieved a successful loss of body fat.  This is more important than the selection of any product or regimen and can even make up for anything they may lack.  In Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, he talks about how all humans are highly affected by their environments, from the way they make decisions to the way they react to the world around them.  What we do have control over is selecting our environment according to the way we want to be affected.  If you want a positive and successful affect, select a positive and successful environment with positive and successful people.

Second, is to follow the KISS principle.  When most people are confronted with big challenges, they try to find big and bold solutions to those problems and don’t take action until they do.  Well I hate to tell you but big and bold solutions are few and far between and they don’t necessarily help everyone.  The best way is to “Keep It Simple Silly” and pick a support product that is easy to use, easy to implement, and doesn’t have too many parts or things to remember.  It is best to take a small step today than no step at all.

The best way I have personally found for this, even with all the knowledge and products that I have researched, is to surround myself with the right positive people and get on the 90-Day Challenge.  This is not a 90-day diet.  This is the beginning of a new lifestyle where you decide to challenge yourself and grow in one or more aspects of your life every 90 days.  In fact, this is the epitome of wellness.  I lost 7 pounds in two weeks, have tons of energy, and am more motivated and positive than ever!

They say that knowledge is power, but that is one of the most untrue and dangerous statements ever uttered.  Acting upon properly evaluated knowledge is power…