All posts by Ben Sammut

About Ben Sammut

Australia's leading health and fitness consultant, author and columnist.

The Top 10 Things To Avoid When Detoxing

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An alkaline detox is a key ingredient to you achieving improved health, well being and weight loss and food plays a vital role in this process.

Detoxing whilst common in Spring, should be completed every three months. This will ensure you keep toxicity to a minimum and continue to operate in a healthy and efficient way.

For those who are suffering from chronic illness a detox should be achieved more regularly.

Certain foods will assist in the detoxification process while others will not.

Alkaline foods assist in increasing the pH levels of the body and lead to improved internal body systems, our desired result.

Acidic foods however generally cause lethargy, tiredness, skin conditions and weight gain.

So what are these the acidic foods I should stay away from and is my body acidic as a result of my previous lifestyle?

Below is a list of the top 10 acidic food items that you should avoided. Also included in this list are additional lifestyle related habits and activities that may also contribute to a spike in your internal acid levels.

Simple Carbohydrates (bread, pasta & cereal)

Sugar

Caffeine (including tea)

Alcohol or Recreational Drugs

Soft Drink

Dairy Products

Meat Products

Processed or Fast Food

Yeast

Fungus

White (processed) Foods

Stress

Exposure to Heavy Pollution

Little or No Exercise

Consume little or no Water

Tobacco

 

Generally speaking if you consume or experience 4 or more of those items listed above your body system will be acidic.

You must immediately remove these problematic foods and lifestyle habits if you wish to avoid sickness, lethargy, tiredness, skin conditions and weight gain.

If you take nothing else from this site remember the following point….

Poor health, sickness and weight gain has nothing to do with fat! It is caused by a build up of acid within our body system.

The Top 9 Reasons Why Your Body Refuses To Lose Weight

 

FAT PINCHED

 

There are quite a few quality diets currently on the market, however what if you have tried everything out there and are still not seeing any results?

 

What is the cause of this and why does it only seem to happen to you?

 

There are a number of key factors that may be contributing to your weight loss failure. Some key elements must be included, and others avoided, for any diet to succeed.

 

These key elements include:

 

Poor Health – Your body will refuse to reduce the size of your fat cells whilst you are experiencing poor health. The key focus of any weight loss program should be improve the cellular health of the body and for that improved health to provide the foundation of future, long-term weight reduction.

 

Excessive Protein Consumption – Protein is vital for muscle repair. However how much protein is enough? The body can only process 25-30 grams of protein in any one meal, yet many personal trainers, whilst not legally allowed to prescribe nutritional programs, are advocating excessive protein consumption (around 250 – 300 grams per day). The by-product of excess protein, in particular animal protein, is acid and toxins and the only place the human body can store acid and toxins is inside a fat cell. Is it any wonder  your diet isn’t working and you have problem areas like the stomach, thighs and bottom, if you are consuming high amounts of protein.

 

Water Consumption – Water is one of the key factors of ineffective weight loss. Over-eating and sugar cravings are usually a sign of de-hydration. Many people believe that 2  litres per day provides sufficient hydration.  Where did this magic number of 2 litres originate? If I told you that we lose 2-3 litres every day due to respiration (breathing) alone, would it help to emphasis the point that 4 litres plus is optimal to ensure correct hydration? Hydration is vital in building the foundation of good health required for rapid weight loss.

 

What Type Of Water – We often pay more for bottled water than we do petrol. What makes this fact even more damaging, is that the water we purchase contains the acids that we are trying to remove from our system to provide the foundation of good health. It is therefore the body’s version of filling up with petrol. To avoid this, alkaline water must be consumed. The word ‘alkaline’ simply means the opposite of ‘acid’. If we want to remove acid from our body ( that is being stored inside your fat cells) why would you want to consume more of it? Alkaline water can be purchased in health food and supermarket chains, through an ionising water filter or via the cost-effective Living Lean Water Wands.

 

Are You Eating Alkaline Fruits and Vegetables – Real food, in particular alkaline fruits and vegetables provide many of the vitamins and minerals required for optimal health. These particular fruits and vegetables assist in removing acid and toxins from fat cells. Any fruit or vegetable that is green in colour contains large amounts of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll acts in a similar way to haemoglobin in the blood, assisting in the transportation of oxygen around the body.

 

Supplementation – Many synthetic supplements are counterproductive to achieving good health and weight loss. Supplements must be 100% natural and  have a specific purpose. A good example is pea or hemp protein (muscle repair) or the Living Lean Weight Loss Formula (improves alkalinity and cellular health resulting in fast and effective weight loss).

 

Over-training – Closely linked to, or playing a major role in poor health, over-training places enormous stress on the body. When the body is stressed is produces cortisol, which will result in an inability to lose weight.

 

Stress – Cortisol, is not only produced by physical exertion as outlined above, it is also produced by mental exertion, hence why it is known as the stress hormone. Cortisol is another toxin that the body must deal in its quest to find optimal health and weight loss.

 

Sleep – Sleep is where we give our body down-time to repair and recover. Improved health is not going to be achieved without regular, quality sleep.

 

Treat your body well and improved health and weight loss will occur naturally.

 

The Living Lean Natural Weight Loss Formula provides a fool-proof ,step-by-step plan to get the best from yourself and enable you to finally achieve the results you deserve.

 

For more information visit www.livinglean.net.au

 

 

 

Fundies Paddington hosts the Living Lean Natural Weight Loss Seminar

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Another successful Living Lean Natural Weight Loss Seminars featuring Inbody Bio-impedence scans has been completed.

 

Wednesday night, the Living Lean team ventured to the wonderful Fundies store in Paddington in Brisbane to present our Natural Weight Loss seminar and showcase the Inbody Bio-Impedance Body Scanning technology.

 

The event was a great success mainly due to the warm, caring and welcoming nature of our hosts and store owners Mike and Lu Shanley.

 

Living Lean-approved cold-pressed juices and amazing cuisine were provided by the incredible staff at this industry leading outlet.

 

Customers were engaged and knowledgeable about health-based nutrition and were genuinely intrigued by the cutting edge research and information contained in the Living Lean presentation.

 

The Inbody bio-impedance scanner provided medical grade profiles of all customer body health and provided a starting platform to work from.

 

Sales were strong and the team at Fundies have identified a specific starting date for the ‘Living Lean Natural Weight Loss Program’ to begin. Completing the program together ensures customers are able to provide a support network for each other whilst ensuring accountability to the program. A private Facebook page is being established to be the hub of all activity with the Living Lean team being included to provide expert advice and support.

 

The Inbody scanner will return to the store on the 8th December to measure and outline all of the positive changes the Living Lean program has been able to create.

 

Well done Mike and Lu and the whole Fundies team. What a night!

The Protein Myth – The Facts.

Meat vs Veges

 

When presenting a Living Lean Natural Weight Loss Formula seminar, I often hear, “ My personal trainer says that I need to consume 200 grams of protein per day. So where do I get my protein from if I am not eating animal protein? ”

 

This is a great question.  We have been led to believe, often by poorly educated personal trainers and supplement companies, that animal protein or whey protein (as found in protein shakes) is the ONLY way for you to absorb muscle building protein and stop muscle ‘wastage’ or ‘atrophy’.

 

This is a huge misconception. Processing protein from animal sources is incredibly inefficient when compared to processing protein coming from plant sources.

 

To further explain, let me ask you this question…….Where do animals like cows obtain the protein that builds their muscle tissue (which we then consume for our own muscle growth)?

 

Of course the answer is grass or some form of plant matter.

 

Where do we as humans obtain the majority of our protein? Primarily this comes from animals, like cows, chicken, fish, lamb and  pork.

 

Did you know that we can lose between 80 – 95% of the real protein value at each of these steps (when the cow eats the grass and when humans eat the cow).

 

Therefore is this process  assisting us in obtaining ‘quality’ protein?

 

Definitely not!

 

If obtaining high quality, real protein that is easily absorbed by our body, plant matter wins by some distance over animal protein.

 

Consuming plant matter (vegetables, fruits, salads) is a much more efficient way of ensuring we maximise not only the amount, but quality of the protein we consume, and avoid the dreaded by-product of animal protein, which is acid. (As previously explained, acidosis leads to disease and weight gain.)

 

The Living Lean program provides high amounts of quality, real protein (amino acids) through the plant-based Living Lean Weight Loss and Lifestyle Formula. As human beings can only process between 25 – 30 grams of protein in any one meal, additional protein supplementation is not required when undertaking the Living Lean program.

 

The general public usually over estimate the quantities of protein that the human body requires for growth and maintenance. As previously stated, the billion dollar supplement industry and ill-informed personal trainers have been the cause of this for reasons of obvious self interest.

 

A good analogy to further explain, is to compare the source (quality) of protein you consume to the petrol you put into your car. If you own a Ferrari and want to keep it running at an optimal level, are you going to fill it with poor quality petrol? Of course not. So why do we continue to consume large amounts of animal protein when we can obtain a superior quality protein from plant and vegetable matter.

 

We can take this theory a step further and relate it to the actual amount of energy that is derived from the foods we consume. This theory is explained below.

 

Different categories or levels, exist in determining the body’s ability to convert consumed foods into energy. These levels or theory, as seen below, are referred to as ‘The Tropic Food Chain’.

 

Level 1 Food:   Plants and algae.

 

Plants and algae make their own food and are called primary producers.

 

Level 2 Food:   Herbivores

 

Herbivores eat plants and are called primary consumers.

 

Level 3 Food:   Carnivores

 

Carnivores that eat herbivores are called secondary consumers.

 

Level 4 Food:   Carnivores

 

Carnivores that eat other carnivores are called tertiary consumers.

 

Level 5 Food:   Apex predators

 

Apex predators that have no predators are at the top of the food chain.

 

The Living Lean program harnesses the energy (and protein) of level 1 foods.

 

The energy transferred between levels can also be thought of as approximating to a transfer in biomass.

 

The efficiency in which energy or biomass is transferred from one tropic level to the next is called the ‘ecological efficiency’.

 

The Living Lean program has been designed to maximise ecological efficiency.

 

It is known that humans at each level convert, on average, only about 10% of the chemical energy in their food to their own organic tissue.

 

This level of energy conversion continues to decline the further up the tropic food chain foods are found. Each individual step can see a decline of between 80 – 95% of this energy conversion.

 

The Living Lean Natural Weight Loss and Lifestyle  Formula utilizes Level 1 tropic foods for maximum energy production, maximum protein absorption and improved metabolic functions.

 

Furthermore, the Living Lean customized meal plan focuses on Level 1 tropic foods. These Level 1 foods, or primary producers, unlock the body’s ability to function at an optimal level which will result in more energy, less body fat, improved physiological functions and maximal health.

 

So next time you reach for the animal protein, to fulfil the requirements set by your personal trainer, which by the way probably hasn’t seen you strip the body fat he or she said it would, give an alternate, more efficient protein source a try. What have you got to lose?

 

 

 

Rapid Weight Loss Results Just Keep Coming!

 

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Living Lean is continuing to change the weight loss landscape in Australia.

 

Never-before-seen results are coming thick and fast with Courtney from Wynnum in Brisbane being our latest success story.

 

Having lost 4 kilograms* whilst undertaking the 5 day Living Lean Natural Weight Loss Formula, here is what Courtney had to say:

 

“I really enjoyed the 5 day Living Lean program and it’s something that I will do again.

It has given me a kick start into a summer body and I recommend this to anyone!

If you stick to it and commit for the 5 days – the results will follow.”

 

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Whilst we are focusing on the unique Living Lean 5 day Weight Loss formula let’s also show you some other quality results achieved on our shorter option:

 

Ben lost  5 kgs in 5 days*

 

Kelly lost 2 kgs in 5 days*

 

Stephanie lost 4 kgs in 4 days*

 

Chris lost 3 kgs in 5 days*

 

Anna lost 3 kgs in 4 days*

 

Jason lost 3.5 kgs in 5 days*

 

Sometimes the last few kilograms are the hardest. Not with Living Lean.

 

Why not try this for yourself now spring has hit?

 

I can guarantee you wont be disappointed.

 

Get started now by clicking here.