Pilates 1901 is using David Zincenkdo and Matt Goulding's excellent book series, EAT THIS, NOT THAT as part of our upcoming LEANER STRONGER SOONER FAT LOSS PROGRAM. We chose these books because they are packed full of nutrition nuggets that are not only easy to assimilate but easy to implement. And that means you are one step closer to making the lifestyle changes that add up to a leaner, longer, healthy sculpted body.

It really doesn't have to get complicated. And that's what LSS is all about: combining the fitness benefits of regular pilates and cardio exercise with informed food choices. It works. And we have the clients results to prove it. I want to tell you more about our Fall session of LSS but first, this excerpt about the food we are eating and why we need to become more aware of what we are putting into our mouths.

"When we were little kids, having dinner was simple three part process:
1. meat and potatoes
2. take all the green stuff and feed it to the dogs
3. ask for dessert.

This system worked great for generations of kids- although not so great for a generation of dogs. We grew up pretty happy and healthy, and Mom and Dad were right; when we go older we actually tried, and liked, some of the green stuff.

But then, a couple of things happened:
1. a lot of people in our neighborhood started to get fat.
2. a lot of people in the government developed an opinion about why all the people were getting fat.

And suddenly food go really complicated. Something that ought to be easy as pie (literally), became fraught with challenges, shrouded in myth, and obscured by a combination of complicated government regulation, marketing mystique and dietary hysteria.

How something EASY got so COMPLICATED

There's an old saying that 'a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.' And nowhere can that point be illustrated more clearly than in the American dietary attitudes- in particular our attitudes about fat.

In an effort to help its citizens eat more healthfully, the USDA issued guidelines back in the 1970's that recommended against eating too much saturated fat because saturated fat can raise cholesterol, and high cholesterol can lead to heart disease. Pretty simple, right?

The USDA's recommendation drove people to abandon saturated fat, like butter and replace it with substitutes that seemed pretty harmless: transfats (the kind you find in many margerines.) Indeed food marketers scrambled to take advantage of the healthy properties of transfat- and what a coup that was! Unlike normal fats, transfat stays solid at room temperature so you can turn it into cookies, muffins, cupcakes, and hundreds of other supermarket staples... and it will never leak into its cardboard box container- GENIUS!

But the case closed before all the evidence was in and it turns out that saturated fat isn't quite as bad for you as our 'government experts' decided. While it does raise bad cholesterol, is also raises good cholesterol. So the link between saturated fat and heart disease is less clear cut that originally thought.

There's still a case against saturated fat- it doesn't do a whole lot for your body nutritionally and it's easily stored in your belly, your butt or the handbags where your triceps used to be. But it's not the time bomb for your ticker that it's been made out to be. What can really damage your heart, raise your cholesterol and increase your risk of stroke? You guessed it: Trans fat.

Yes, as it turns out trans fat, the 'heart healthy' alternative you ate in your margarine all these years is the deadliest fat known to man! It's not even natural- it's a substance concocted, marketed, and consumed by people and it's caused alot of damage.

Today the USDA recommends limiting transfat to less than 2 grams per day. But it's not as simple as looking for those "No Transfat labels" on the packages of your favorite supermarket. In fact the US government ruled that convenience foods can claim the no trans fat label if it carries less than .5 grams of trans fat. In other words, you could eat four servings of convenience foods that say "no trans fat" on the label and still come close to exceeding your daily value of trans fat! Even if you ate nothing else all day. That's how much it has become part of our food industry landscape.

Try a simple test. Put a stick of butter and a stick of margarine on the kitchen counter. Wait an hour. Now look-the butter is a bit runny and soft; which is what natural fat is supposed to look like. The margarine looks unnaturally firm- and plastic... because it is. Anything with partially hydrogenated oil or shortening is cursed with the stuff.

Wow! Did we get the shaft or what? Here's the actual good news. So much of the confusion about what to eat and how much to eat surrounds the stuff that's pre-packaged or cooked up in restaurants. COOK AT HOME and you'll automatically put a damper on your trans fat consumption. At home you are in full control of your food. No secret fats, no hidden sugars, no misleading menu descriptions: Just you and the simple building blocks of your next meal: REAL FOOD."

Stay tuned for more from the EAT THIS, NOT THAT book series. Next week, we'll be detailing what every healthy cook needs to have in their pantry and kitchen. Being prepared is 80% of any successful program and we want all of you to be successful in your fat loss goals.

Our FALL LEANER STRONGER SOONER program begins . This is a FREE workshop open to anyone who wants to know why we are fat and how not to be! And it is the first in our FALL LSS Workshop series- a 14 part educational series for our LSS Clients to keep them motivated and inspired to reach their weight loss goals.

Click here to upload the complete Fall workshop schedule.

Call Tina at 913 499 7510 for more information or drop her an email at tina@pilates1901.com The kids are back in school - isn't time for a little ME TIME? We can help you with that and get you incredible results too! And there's not a thing wrong with that!

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