​Metabolic health or what I call fitness is a concept that I have been using in my health, wellness and weight loss coaching as a part of what I believe is crucial in losing weight for good and/or gaining or even optimizing health via the process of UNDIETING. Undieting is a method I use to help people lose weight for good and keep it off while gaining, instead of losing health, which often happens in the process of wanting to lose weight as fast as possible. Trying to lose weight as fast as possible, in fact, most of the time backfires or comes back with a vengeance. It is something that is backed up by science, but many people sadly do not "bother" to understand because it takes time that does not translate into immediate gratifications. Who has time to 'undiet' if our human nature seeks out immediate gratification!?


Undieting takes time nobody wants to take and it involves a mindset shift and switching the focus from what is on the outside, and for example the external fitness (what we look like and how physically we are), to what is on the inside, and what I call our INTETRNAL FITNESS. Internal fitness is how we feel and how our body is functioning and METABOLIC FITNESS is one if its most crucial components. This mindset shift, which happens through self-awareness and proper often basic knowledge, is the foundation of my coaching. It is something that will set the trajectory of your health, wellness and weight loss up for success and not yet another failure.


It is the reason why while on a health, wellness and weight loss journey with me, I make sure people understand the concept of INTERNAL and METABOLIC fitness as it is something that in fact, drives their weight and chronic health issues and will be the foundation of their weight loss transformation or health and wellness optimization. If people do not prioritize it, they will eventually end up making it so much harder on themselves to lose weight at some point when they are "finally" put on medications and when they will have "finally" acquired ICD 10 - coded ailments. It is your choice if you want to start NOW or wait till then.


Internal fitness, and especially metabolic fitness, is so important in longevity, health, wellness and weight loss. While fitness awareness, as a part of the diet culture we are living in, has been on the rise and everyone understands the benefits of exercise for healthy weight especially, barely anyone focuses on internal fitness thinking it is their doctor's job. I like to think that I am here to help you make an educated decision because diet mindset and the actions that follow are taking people further and further away from their goal and losing weight and gaining health!


In fact, 3 trillion dollars are spent on what can be mostly prevented with lifestyle interventions and on chronic conditions and who knows how much on weight loss drugs that have quickly become the blockbusters people are willing to pay much more than what they would spend on a healthy lifestyle as a result of the "diet culture" we are living in. The World Obesity Federation (2023) predicts that 51% of the world will be obese or overweight within the next 12 years! Do you want to be the 51%?


Do you maybe want to be the 88% of the American population that displays at least one biomarker of metabolic dysfunction such as blood sugar, LDL or triglycerides levels, which means that only 1 in 8 people is metabolically healthy? Even those who are thin, and who exercise, have issues that are often a result of over-exercising. Amenorrhea or lack of menstruation, fertility issues are often a result of women’s unhealthy relationship with food and exercise.


It is thus not only those who are lazy, unmotivated that suffer from poor metabolic health. In fact, it is mostly not laziness and lack of motivation that contributes to the dysfunction, but lack of awareness, knowledge and the environment that enables the behaviors that bring on poor internal and metabolic fitness that leads to poor health and weight issues. Once you understand this and start taking proper steps towards your improved internal and metabolic fitness, your body will thank you for it as well. You will naturally and without dieting look better, but as a pleasant side effect.


If you are sick and tired of dieting or yoyo-dieting or if you are sick and tired of not being able to lose weight in spite of trying, it is adamant to understand the concept of metabolic health or fitness. Understanding it and being able to see beyond weight issues, could not only finally help you lose weight once and for all, but also change many aspects of wellness including your physical, emotional and mental health.


It is because a disturbed metabolic function leads to hormonal imbalances, inflammation, oxidative stress and brings on diseases and weight issues. When this happens, your energy producing pathways, and how your body generates energy from glucose (blood sugar) mainly, and sometimes from fat, to power every single cell in our body, no longer runs smoothly. This can manifest itself as not feeling or sleeping well, not being able to sustain energy throughout the day aka energy slumps, constantly feeling hungry or angry, having brain fog and headaches, mood swings, skin issues and of course extra pounds.


The sooner you realize you are in poor metabolic health or on the way to be, the better, but it is never too late to start addressing it. By doing so, you will be able to prevent many conditions that are a result of genetics, but also your own personal choices. Even if you are already under your doctor’s care for your metabolic conditions, it is not too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle with mindful action steps to help the treatment. These steps should include a holistic wellness approach and:

• making right nutrition choices, not counting calories or not even carbs, and not only focus on macros, but also and especially on micronutrients and their effect on your internal and metabolic fitness.
• proper exercise that will help your hormones instead of messing them up, which often happens when you overexercise or do not exercise properly.
• getting enough quality sleep
• learning how to manage stress better.
• avoiding toxins that disrupt metabolic function by avoiding alcohol, cigarettes, and using healthy beauty, skincare (such as www.dermattude.com ), as well as cleaning products, and consuming organic non-GMO and without pesticides non processed foods.

Sounds easy, but only 6% of the US population eats and sleeps well, exercises for health, and does not smoke nor drinks. We all can make healthier and more educated choices. If you would like to work with me or any other coaches who understand metabolic health, let me know. My coaching focuses on embracing health, wellness and weight loss holistically and prioritizes metabolic and internal fitness not all the coaches and/or especially fitness trainers understand. As a result of UNDIETING with MAR, you will:

• lower our risks for chronic conditions, such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, fatty liver disease, heart disease, stroke, dementia and more, which are brought on by excess glucose in the bloodstream which causes inflammation or oxidative stress and hormone imbalances or glycation that makes everything stick in our body and throw things off.
• improve our immune system.
• have sustained energy throughout the day. 
• better memory and less brain fog
• better and stable mood
• less anxiety and depression
• healthy weight
• less wrinkles
• fertility and sex drive
• look and feel your best.
• and more.

​
Yours in health and metabolic fitness,
 Marta or MAR
www.MindsetActionResults.com
 

“Old habits die hard” – yet most people want to make drastic changes in their lives fast. Slow down! 


​
Acting on an impulse is what have gotten many people out of shape or in trouble in the first place. It probably took you years to develop habits that are now a part of you and your subconscious. They are simply a part of who you are. Some of those habits might have been even with you ever since you were a child and you subconsciously absorbed them from your surroundings without knowing any better. Some of those habits you might have picked up from your family or other people you surrounded yourself with. Others are a part of your own doing. Bottom line is that the habits you formed as a child would live on with you forever if it were not for the fact that you have decided to change them. So, how can you be successful in changing your old habits?


Take time to examine the patterns that have shaped you in a negative way, so you can understand where they come from better, and what you will need to do to replace them with positive ones. Understand that this will not happen overnight. There is actually a part of our brain that is responsible for habit formation and addictions. It is called basal ganglia. In order for you to develop a new habit that will stick with you like the old ones, you need to fire that part of the brain on until it forms the same long- lasting connections the habits you want to change had formed over time. If some of those habits include your eating habits, you will need to work on breaking them down mindfully and replacing with new ones one step at a time. There is really no short cuts to forming new habits.


Experts say that for a new habit to be fully integrated, 60-90 days must pass. This is why, during this time, you will need to be truly mindful of what you do, so you do not fall back to your old habits that negatively impact your health and your life. This will take lots of self-awareness, honesty to be able to look at yourself, and mindfulness. All three are so important in order to transform for life, and not to fall off the wagon. 


Here is a task that will help you gain self-awareness, and lay foundation for your transformation. Take time to examine your bad/unhealthy habits you would like to change. This exercise is about honestly and self-awareness. It is about whether you are ready to face the challenge from the inside out by taking an honest look at yourself. Here goes your task: 
Be honest with yourself and brainstorm all the bad habits that you think you have that prevent you from reaching your goal. Let's say: weight loss. Put as many of those bad habits you think you have that have led you to become overweight. Be specific in trying to address the habits you would like to transform, improve or get rid of and why. For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds, focus on writing the habits you think you need to change in order to lose them. It is because these habits got you in the first place. 


 For example:

 MY BAD HABITS & what I’d like to do with them: 

  . Eating late at night - not eat after dinner and eat only within 12-hour window.

·    Not getting enough exercise – I feel like I do not exercise enough. I need some direction on what is it that I need to be doing because it is confusing. Maybe I should hire a coach or a trainer. 

·   Overeating to the point of feeling nauseous – I’d like not to ever do it. I always feel so bad after I overeat. Every time I want to overeat, I will take 10 deep breaths and have a glass of water. 

·    Always having a dessert – this makes me gain weight. Not sure what I can do. Maybe just have it once or twice a week instead of every day or switching to something healthy and do not know what.

·      Processed foods like salami or deli meat – needs to go because it is unhealthy. Need healthy substitutes. Maybe I can work with a trainer or browse healthy recipes instead of watching a lot of Netflix. I will look for a Facebook group that will help me choose healthier choices and teach me how to make healthy foods or I will hire a coach.

 Your turn!

If you are looking for help in your transformation, reach out to me for a free initial consultation. I look forward to hearing from you!

    Yours in Health & Wellness
    MAR 


                                            

Unexpected catastrophic volcanic eruptions rarely happen, just like rare and sudden diseases do not just show up out of the blue. Still, an epic disaster happened in my family when my 7 year old niece Lilly got diagnosed with a rare brain tumor DIPG, and there was nothing we could and could have done to prevent the catastrophic “eruption “and to save her life. A, what we thought was, perfectly healthy child turned out to be carrying catastrophic genetic mutations. That was a rare disease just like rare are unexpected volcanic eruptions. Usually, there is steam coming out of the crater at least before an eruption. 

Most volcanos do not just all of sudden start spewing lava, and most diseases also do not happen overnight. They creep up on us over time and are usually preceded by symptoms that are not yet recognized as illnesses or diseases and ones that are even often too soon to be treated by doctors. There might not even be an approved treatment for something that might be bothering you at the time being, and your doctors might not even know what to do about it or choose not to until something more serious happens down the road they will have an ICD -10 code or conventional treatment for.

An example of it might be an overweight person with a fasting glucose of 99 at one annual appointment, but full-blown diabetes 2 years later. Had the doctor checked the patient’s insulin levels, he or she would have known that the patients’ beta cells were about to become exhausted from pumping too much insulin to keep that blood sugar down at 99. Before lava spews (e.g. diabetes type II in this example), there can usually be fumarolic activity detected earlier (e.g. high insulin). There might even be smoke or steam coming out of the crater, or even an earthquake (e.g. obesity) that are signs that an eruption is about to come. In this example, it is a diagnosis of diabetes type 2.

Detecting “fumarolic” activities in the body and paying attention to symptoms that might indicate future eruptions is very important in preventative care and if you want to live a long life and most of it in health. Weight issues, low energy or fatigue, low mood, headaches, migraines, mucus, congestion, dizziness, faintness, brain fog, memory loss, itchy eyes, blurred vision, gas, bloating, belching, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pains, irritability, anxiety, being overwhelmed, depression, sad for no reason, sleep issues are only some of those signs of some sort of pressure building up in the “volcano”. This pressure is to the volcano what stress is to the body.

You want to make sure you keep that “pressure” down. Lots of pressure can cause even the toughest body or “volcanic rock” to crack causing lava or diseases to spew out. No matter how solid and tough your body is and how good your cells, tissues, and organs are, high stress or pressure can break them down causing illnesses. This pressure is caused by stressors that include not only the emotional and mental stress in our life, or subconscious stressful thoughts, but also bad inflammatory diet, smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise or too much of it, lack of sleep, environmental toxins, pollution, heavy metals, bacteria, candida, parasites, inflammation, mold, extra weight to name a few. They all add “pressure” to the volcano.

If you want to live a long and healthy life, you need to make your body rock and keep the pressure down, so you can prevent or nip diseases in the bud and not allow for the lava to spew out. Most of the time it is possible even if you have a genetic makeup that is predisposing you to diseases. Your genetic makeup is like the rocks that volcanic magma is made out of. These rocks when melted in high temperature (methylation and de-methylation that tell your DNA to read or not to read genes), become volcanic magma or your epigenome. You can turn the heat up and down and regulate its consistency making your epigenome more or less susceptible to diseases. The sticky and thick magma is the most dangerous and explosive kind, but even this kind, without a trigger or a stressor, will not spew lava out.

Even if you are predisposed to certain diseases by your genetic makeup and its modifications known as your epigenome, or the sticky hot volcanic substance called magma, you can change the trajectory of your health and aging by understanding that you can regulate the temperature and change the consistency of the magma by making improvements to your epigenome and giving instructions to your genes (the rocks magma is made out of) how to read your DNA. By keeping the temperature up or down, you can make your epigenome (magma) less sticky and thick and the less dangerous one. Your thoughts, mindset, digestion, detoxification practices, your connections to people and environment, they can all influence how your genes read the instructions in your DNA and make your magma more explosive or not. Understanding this will influence your wellness mindset and how much of a control you can have over your health. You are in control even if not always.


Even if your genetic makeup (the rocks) and epigenome (the volcanic magma) are of a thick and sticky consistency that is more explosive than the thin one, by paying extra attention to it and keeping pressure down and removing stressors from your body, you can change the trajectory and age less, feel and look better as well as delay or prevent future volcanic eruptions. By making sure and trying to keep your body solid like a rock, so it can withstand the pressure, you can build healthier cells, tissues and organs that will help you withstand more pressure. This takes much more than resistance training and having big muscles but many other components of wellness that can  help your cells and your body function better longer. By remembering that even the toughest and most solid rock will crumble under a lot of pressure, you want to make stress reduction your health & wellness priority. As an Integrative Health Practitioner, I am here to help you make "your body rock" and find out what causes stress to it, and finally help you destress it. Whether it is helping you lose weight the healthy way and getting rid of not only extra pounds by inflammatory cytokines, or by getting to the root cause of your digestive issues, headaches, low energy, fatigue or sleepless nights, my goal is to help you lay foundation for your healing to take place, and optimize your body by making investments in many areas of wellness that will support your overall balance and create strength in your physiology. 

This cake or even birthday cake is not only guilt free, but also nutritious and delicious. It rich in healthy fats, fiber, protein, and many other nutrients. Instead of spiking your sugar and insulin, this dessert will most likely help you lower it. It will also help you reduce your inflammation and possibly cholesterol. Instead of making you feel sluggish, this treat will give you energy and prolong feeling of satiety. Are you ready to try it?


 YOU WILL NEED:

1.   2 cups of CASHEWS (soaked in water overnight or at least for 4 hours)
2.   1 cup of WALNUTS or PECANS or a mix of both
3.   1 cup of ALMONDS or CASHEWS (so you would need 3 cups of those total)
4.   About 12 DATES
5.   1/3rd cup of COCOA POWDER(UNSWEETENED)
6.   1.5 cans of COCONUT MILK
7.   COCONUT OIL
8.   VANILLA EXTRACT
9.   Maple Syrup (optional)
10. 1 tsp of unflavored Gelatin
11. Salt
12. FRUIT of your choice


HOW TO MAKE IT:

1. Mix walnuts and almonds and 6 dates with 1/3 of a cup of coconut milk and 1/3 of a cup of coconut oil and a pinch of salt in a food processor. This is your base. Press it into the bottom of the prepared spring form.  Flatten the surface with your hands (or using the bottom of a glass/cup). Put it to the freezer while preparing the rest.
2. Heat up 1.5 cans of coconut milk and slowly add gelatin to the mix and 1 tsp. of vanilla extract and maple syrup to the taste. I only use 2 Tbsp, but you might want more. Stir the mixture while on a very low heat until it all dissolves. Let the mixture cool off.
3. In the food processor, combine together the cashews, 6 dates, 1/2 of a cup of coconut milk and 1/3 of a cup of coconut oil, 1 Tbsp. of maple syrup and 1/3 of a cup of cacao powder and vanilla extract. Mix all the ingredients until silky smooth, rich, and creamy. This will yield a lovely cheesecake like filling.
4. After the gelatin layer cools off, pour it over the nutty base and put it in the freezer for half an hour or just a refrigerator until it sets. Then, spread the chocolate layer over and put in the freezer for half an hour and then keep it in the refrigerator.
5. Dress it up with more nuts and/or fruit to your liking and enjoy this healthy, delicious, and nutritious cake without any guilt. If you are following keto diet, you can use monk fruit or nothing in place of maple syrup.

Enjoy!

"Old habits die hard” – yet we all want to make drastic changes in our lives fast. Slow down! Acting on an impulse is what have gotten many people out of shape or in trouble in the first place.  It probably took you years to develop habits that are now a part of you and your subconscious. They are simply a part of who you are. Some of those habits might have been even with you since you were a child and since you subconsciously absorbed them from your surroundings and your family. Others were a part of your own doing.  Bottom line is that the habits you formed as a child would live on with you forever if it were not for the fact that you have decided to change them. So how can you be successful in changing your old habits?

​
Take time to examine the patterns that have shaped you in a negative way, so you can understand where they come from better, and what you will need to do to replace them with positive ones.  Understand that this will not happen overnight. There is actually a part of our brain that is responsible for habit formation and addictions. It is called basal ganglia. In order for you to develop a new habit that will stick with you like the old ones, you need to fire that part of the brain on until it forms the same long- lasting connections the habits you want to change had formed over time.  If some of those habits include your eating habits, you will need to work on breaking them down mindfully and replacing with new ones one step at a time. There is  really no short cuts to forming new habits.


Experts say that for a new habit to be fully integrated, 60-90 days must pass. This is why, during this time, you will need to be truly mindful of what you do, so you do not fall back to your old habits that negatively impact your health and your life. This will take lots of self-awareness, honesty to be able to look at yourself, and mindfulness. All three are so important  in order to transform for life, and not to fall off the wagon. 


Here is a task that will help you gain self-awareness, and lay foundation for your transformation. Take time to examine your bad/unhealthy habits you would like to change. This exercise is about honestly and self-awareness. It is about whether you are ready to face the challenge from the inside out by taking an honest look at yourself.  Here goes your task: 


Be honest with yourself and brainstorm all the bad habits that you think you have that prevent you from reaching your goal.  Let's say: weight loss.  Put as many of those bad habits you think you have that have led you  to become overweight.  Be specific in trying to address the habits you would like to transform, improve or get rid of  and why. For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds, focus on  writing the habits you think you need to change in order to lose them. It is because these habits got you in the first place. 
 

For example:
​
         
        MY BAD HABITS & what I’d like to do with them: 
 
·       Eating late at night - not eat after dinner and eat only within 12-hour window.
·       
·      Not getting enough exercise – I feel like I do not exercise enough. I need some direction on what is it
       that I need to be doing because it is confusing.  Maybe I should hire a coach or a trainer. 

·      Overeating to the point of feeling nauseous – I’d like not to ever do it. I always feel so bad after I overeat.
       Every time I want to overeat, I will take 10 deep breaths and have a glass of water. 
·       
·       Always having a dessert – this makes me gain weight. Not sure what I can do. Maybe just have it
       once or twice a week instead of every day or switching to something healthy and do not know what.
·        
·      Processed foods like salami or deli meat – needs to go because it is unhealthy. Need
       healthy substitutes. Maybe I can work with a trainer or browse healthy recipes instead of watching a
       lot of Netflix.

         
        Your turn!

        The above is a part of a workbook I am working on and "52-week long total wellness transformation"
       
        Yours in Health & Wellness
        MAR 

                                                                                                                                                                       

     
Most people want immediate results and to lose weight too fast. They take up a diet and/or an exercise program that is not only not sustainable, but also often not healthy no fun, and one that will 99% of times backfire.  An example of this is the famous Biggest Loser show where after all, all the winners gained their weight back plus more. The crash diets and unsustainable exercise regimens were not only exhausting, but also at the end decreased the contestants’ metabolic rate, which made their body hold on to every possible calorie they had worked so hard to burn. Additionally, the exercise regimen that the contestants were put on, not only beat their bodies up, but had it lasted longer, it could have probably caused long term injuries. The program was only sustainable short term and under the circumstances the contestants were while on TV. The Biggest Loser made for a great show, but definitely not for a sustainable lifestyle change. Not for a reason there has never been a reunion of the Biggest Loser.


 The show no longer airs, but there are still so many people out there with the same mindset of losing lots of weigh as fast as they can by working out "to death" and starving their bodies.  Little do they know that this method only not only sets them up for a failure, and gaining all their weight back, but can also contribute to things such as anxiety, stress, insulin resistance, being tired or fatigue, heart burn, sleeplessness, lower immunity, and of course problems with lowered muscle mass, or for women lack of period. Do you really want to lose weight like this? Do you really want to go through all that work and then go back to not only where you came from, and gaining your weight back, but also often a few extra pounds that your body will accumulate from all the metabolic adaptations that will happen in your body that will be trying to hold on to its set point weight. Especially if you have been overweighed for a while, and your body has adapted to that weight, and any attempts to lose weight, will make it work harder to keep it there.  Have you ever wondered why you have plateaued and can’t lose weight even though on only 1500 calories a day?


If you want to lose weight and keep it off, instead of killing yourself with exercise and starving "to death", you will actually need to undiet your body, and make sure that you are helping your metabolism instead if damaging it even more. You will need to start with understanding of what is going on inside of your body and how dysregulated it possibly is from yoyo dieting, or being overweight and obese for a prolonged period of time and how this might have caused changes not only in your waist, but also in your microbiome, your hormones, your cells and organs, including your brain, that make it even harder to lose weight and keep it off.  If you have chronic conditions, you will need to accept that 80% of them come from your lifestyle and your habits because even if you have the genes that can predispose you to certain conditions, you can turn down down and up by the way you live.  In other words, you will need to take a deep and honest look at yourself to understand what got you to the place are in now, for example 50 pounds heavier, in the first place. 


Everyone always assumes it is calories and eating too much of wrong foods, but it is not that simple.  You want to be able to understand WHY you eat the way you do, so you can approach the root cause of your weight gain properly and with the right for you action plan. You want to be able to understand if the extra pounds are a result of just a temporary situation that has made you gain that extra 10 pounds or is it something that is a result of something that has been going on long term? Is it Covid that has made you stay home, move less and eat more? Have you been trying to eat your worries or self-soothe? Is something missing in your life, and you are trying to fill the void with food?   Is it maybe your medications? Is it depression that made you gain weight or the other weight around and your weight has made you depressed ? Is it your hormones and your microbiome that finally as you have gotten older are catching up?  When we are young, and are organs are still young, our bodies can take a lot of “abuse”, but when we get older, and things just all of sudden start breaking down, it is often because of our lifestyle that we were once able to get away with.  


Understanding the above will help a person become more realistic about their goals and hopefully choose their wellness plan more mindfully.  Most people will blindly follow fitness trends or crash diet programs without even knowing what those do and the effect they will have on one’s body beyond weight loss.  They hear about diets that helped others lose weight and decide to take up a certain challenge themselves without any regard for their individual differences and their health, lifestyle, habits, and things such as age, physical fitness level, but also their metabolic fitness, and without any regard for the above mentions WHY. Truth is that we are all different on both the outside, but also on the inside. Our hormones our different, we have different gut bacteria, nutrient deficiencies that are all related to how our body functions and food we eat affects it more than anything else, so you will need to stop thinking in terms of food as being calories, but as a way to a better functioning body. Once your body functions better, you will lose weight naturally without worrying about weight loss and dieting. A well-functioning body craves healthy foods rather then unhealthy junk.


When you go in on your wellness journey with a mindset of repairing your body, and bringing it as close as possible to the state of homeostasis, you are setting yourself up for a long term success, and not a failure and an obsessive weight loss mindset.  You are also going to be more realistic, and will not expect change overnight. Moreover, you will even understand that it is healthier to drop weigh overtime. You will understand that change on the outside will need to go along your change on the inside. You will understand that your best bet is to probably transform step by step and not at once because the habits that contributed to your weight problem, and health issues, have been with you for years on auto-pilot, and it is impossible to break them and sustain overnight. You will also understand that your body might be dysregulated, and that it will take time to bring it to its most optimal state. You will understand that diets are not going to do that and that only fueling your body with the right foods, the right amount of exercise, sleep and finding coping mechanisms will be your best bet. Sometimes, lifestyle might not be enough, but it is the basis of any transformation and basis of health, wellness, and a sustainable weight loss, not as a means to an end, but a pleasant side effect.  

​
If you understand this article and if you do not want to be another Biggest Loser, and need help with undieting yourself and your body, feel free to reach out to me for a free consultation. My take on weight loss, and any wellness journey is that it should be healthy, sustainable, and that it should even be a fun adventure you look forward to and not a dread. It should be a journey to better understanding your body, and yourself in order to function better on many different levels, and not only being slimmer.