The Triaxiom Pyramid - Understanding How the Body Works
Q and A with Trainer Chris Powell
Sweet Connection Trainer Chris Powell has developed the Triaxiom Pyramid to help explain how the body works for weight loss and how we can work with our bodies to succeed at losing weight.
The Triaxiom Pyramid
Our lifestyles today are build on instant gratification. If we need food, we go to the grocery store and buy it. If we need to contact someone, we pick up a cell phone. As quick and easy as our lifestyles are in the 21st century, our bodies are still programmed like our ancestors. Food is easy to obtain, dense in calories, and processed (unlike any foods that occur in nature). Our stressful lifestyles have us eating once or twice daily, as opposed to the grazing of our ancestors. In addition, our lifestyles have become sedentary with machines now occupying the former roles of manual labor. In summary, we gorge ourselves with dense calories once or twice daily, and move as little as possible!
That ‘instant gratification’ mentality that we have learned, carries over into our views on body transformation and weight loss – we are all looking for the quick fix and a drop on the scale.
Our bodies are amazing machines that need to move slowly through weight loss... it cannot be forced! Many of us have a tendency to jump quickly into extreme diet, extreme exercise, or both – only to find ourselves more lost and hopeless than before.
This is why: In order to survive famine, disease, predatory animals and extreme conditions, we have developed amazing abilities to adapt to our environment and the conditions imposed on our bodies. When food became scarce, our ancestors developed the ability to slow our metabolism in preparation for famine. In essence, we developed the ability to ‘hibernate’. In times of plenty, we had the ability to raise our metabolism to burn the extra calories we were taking in without suffering the health problems associated with modern-day obesity.
Over the last hundred years, manufacturers have found ways to process our food to create calorie-dense foods, unlike any other we have ever eaten in our history. We have the ability to choose which foods we eat, but once that food is swallowed, it is beyond our control. The body follows the ‘rules’ engrained in its genetic code for feeding and survival. These processed foods are quickly digested, absorbed, and stored in our bodies as fats. As a result, we have grown more obese than ever before in the history of human kind. For those of us who try to retaliate and ‘diet’, our body once again follows the ‘rules’ engrained in our genetics, and slows its metabolism to prepare for famine. We slow our metabolism to a point at which the weight loss stops altogether. We become frustrated and then overload our bodies with the processed foods once again and we gain the weight back at an incredible rate…plus more. So begins the downward spiral of yo-yo dieting.
Time to take control
By understanding your body and how it works, we can finally play by our genetic ‘rules’ to trick ourselves into weight loss. When it comes to full and complete control of your weight loss, the key to success is structure and consistency! By tailoring and customizing a structured exercise and nutrition regimen into your lifestyle, you will gain a whole new appreciation and understanding for your amazing body.
To help understand the key ingredients to a structured and consistent weight loss lifestyle, I have created the TRIAXIOM Pyramid: It consists of the three (TRI) fundamentals (AXIOM) that are necessary for complete control of your body.
Nutrition is the base of the pyramid. It accounts for at least 75% of our success. We control our metabolism with the foods we eat, how often we eat, and the size of our food portions. To ensure maximum control over our bodies, we need to make sure that our metabolism is running at full speed.
Here are some basic tips for setting a strong and sound nutrition base, maximizing your metabolism for weight loss success:
- Eat 5 to 6 smaller meals every day
- DRINK AT LEAST A GALLON OF WATER EVERY DAY!
- For each meal, eat a balance of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates
- Choose Lean Proteins:
- Egg whites
- Whey protein
- Cottage cheese
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Lean beef/steak
- Tofu
- Choose Complex Carbohydrates:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Whole grain breads and pastas
- Legumes (beans & lentils)
- Choose Monounsaturated Fats (healthy fats)
- avocado
- walnuts
- almonds
- almond butter
- olive oil
- fish oil
- flaxseed oil
- Eliminate Fatty Proteins such as hot dogs, bacon, sausage, prime rib, ground beef
- Eliminate all 'white carbs' from your diet such as sugar and flour (all white baked goods, pastas, etc)
- Eliminate saturated fats and trans fats such as vegetable oil, lard, processed peanut butter, cream fillings, Crisco, etc.)
Development is the center of the pyramid and accounts for roughly 15% of our success. ‘Development’ refers to strength and resistance training stimulating the muscles of our body for development and shape. Our muscles account for the majority of calories our body burns, so working the muscles through a full range of motion, stimulating them for shape and development, is of utmost importance when we are looking to lose weight and increase calorie burn. As I answer viewer and web questions, I will refer to the development phase and give exercise examples and tips for you to maximize your workouts and experiment with the latest methods!
Cardio is the top of the pyramid and accounts for roughly 10% of our success. Cardio is an incredibly effective way to burn extra calories, and especially burn the fuel in the muscles – to ensure that the body will begin to use its other fuel (fat) for energy. (we will discuss this further in future articles).
Now that we have laid the groundwork for understanding your amazing body, stay tuned to future articles in which I will teach you how to customize each section of the pyramid to create your own TRIAXIOM lifestyle!
Don’t forget, you can get in shape in the cool comfort of home with Chris' Home workout
Learn more about Chris
The information presented and the opinions expressed are those of the content provider. KTVK-TV and KASW-TV do not endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information by the content provider. You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, or information shall be at your sole risk.
|
