This is a concept I have studied for myself and problem solved with many clients. From a training and competing perspective, I look to see if the back of the legs are what I call “clean”. This is an area that many bodies tend to hold body fat and not just body fat, cellulite. Can you relate?
The culprit? No one tells us this, but it is Refined Oils. Dr. Cate Shanihan at drcate.com has some interesting facts:
•”Vegetable Oils” are refined oils in the Omega-6 family and cause cell degradation (oxidative stress) in the body, releasing free radicals
•These oils include: Canola, Soy Oil, Cottonseed Oil, Corn Oil, Safflower Oil, and Sunflower Oils. They are everywhere! <Cheap and easy to use!>
•These oils make up 30-60% of our daily calories
•We eat 1000x more Soy Oil than we did in the early 1900s
•Canola was invented in 1985, so our ancestors never digested this <and why our health is where it is>.
•Human fat tissue now has more Omega-6 fatty acids than ever before in history. Ingestion of these oils produces a liquidy fat tissue in the cell known as cellulite
•Cellulite is visual thru the skin due to the break down in the collagen and elastin in the cell wall, from the poor nutrient quality of the oils
At my start, I found that going in to “detective mode” away from “self-judgment mode” and really diving in to the ingredients I was regularly choosing helped me find the hidden culprits in baked goods, bars, coffee creamers <Sorry International Delight!>, shakes, condiments, and every day grab-and-go foods. The more I looked, the more I found.
Whoa! It was EVERYWHERE, so seeing all that, I walked away from many of the foods I chose daily and evolved to eating mainly real, one-ingredient foods with a focus on vegetables.
Why? Vegetables bring antioxidants into the body and help to lower the presence of free radicals that are launched from ingesting the oils. Many restaurants cook our “healthy foods” in oils, so it is still a set-back even when we work to choose wisely.
However, if I cook more vegetables at home, then I’m lessening my refined oil intake and helping my system to repair and heal from the inflammatory breakdown. Doing this over time is what changed my body composition!
Another way to assist the issue is to weight train and grow the muscle underneath. As seen in the video below, two ways I train hamstrings are with 1-leg RDLs (Romanian Deadlifts) and Straight-Leg Bench Hip Extensions. The deadlifts require attention to the hip hinge and I like to do unilateral work on one leg at a time.
The hip extensions look easy, but really hit the hamstrings fast. Use anything stable about 18” high, I take feet wide and dive my heels into the bench with a slight bend at the knee to protect that joint. Pause at the top for the burn!
Please don’t give up just because you didn’t get a 6-week transformation. Change starts and lasts at the cellular level, what we cannot see.
This is why the repetition of these nutritional systems over time is where the impact resides. We get a nutrient baseline of where we trend. We eat differently, change the body from within, and we feel better first.
Work the plan *consistently over lots of time* and THEN the exterior (our clothes, the scale, and our bodies) get the memo and begin to follow suit.
Above, down. Inside, out. Just keep going!
Picture credit: Unmasking Images, 11/2016
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Great sources:
http://drcate.com/…/why-vegetable-oils-are-toxic-and-why-k…/
https://itunes.apple.com/…/p…/bulletproof-radio/id451295014…
To Your Wellness,
-Mindy
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