We DID find some sunshine :-)

This shoot was particularly special to me for a few reasons.

1) I peaked right along with my Lean Eating ladies from Team Iron Phoenix.
2) The vision for the shoot was mine, creatively and I had alot of fun with hair (thanks to Lara!), accessories and clothing.
3) I didn't follow any strict photo shoot diet and this was not synced with a physique contest. This represents me - just being real... always aiming to unite strength and beauty ... yin and yang.

You can see "me" coming out through my eyes. And it really does help that my photographer is my love. He truly does bring out my best in all ways.

K

SNOW BIRD Shoot Continued

Do you get it? Canadian girl... goes south... for the winter.

Ok, good. I didn't want the theme to get lost on you. :-)

SUPER FUN!

K

SNOW BIRD Photo Shoot

This was super fun theme. Even though the California weather didn't cooperate, that didn't stop us from showing off our Canadian colours on Huntington Beach last week. It was a windy and slightly rainy 60 degrees. Still quite warm from Canadian standards in November!

Thanks Scott! You always bring out my best.

Krista & Jen hit Muscle Beach!

I managed to squeeze a bucket list item into my California get away last week thanks to good friends and colleagues, Jen Cooper and her husband John Goldthrop who invited us to Venice Beach and of course Muscle Beach for some pictures. I thought we can to better! WE MUST TRAIN!

We felt the spirits of the founders of the Iron Game and got a little extra MOJO into those muscle.

That's a memory I won't soon forget!

From DIM Dosage to "Ask Why 5 Times"

Hello,

I wondered if you could help me at all with a slight concern I have. I have supplemented with DIM achieved some fat loss results. I used a high dose of around 3 tablets 3 times a day as part of a strategy to cut my body fat down. My girlfriend saw how this had worked and herself decided to use 2 tablets twice a day.

She also saw positive results and decided to up the dose to 3 tablets twice a day with breakfast and dinner.

She also takes the contraceptive pill to stop her getting pregnant and her periods have always been regular, however when the cycle of contraceptive pills finished her period did not come, it is now just over a week late and I wondered if Dim can counteract the pill?

Can supplementing with DIM effect a females Menstrual cycle or the estrogens needed in females for optimum fertility?

What would you advise at this stage, we will take another pregnancy test and have booked a Doctors appointment but are also keen for your advice.

My girlfriend is 34 and hopes to have children next year and we wondered what your thoughts are on the best course of action from here?

Many thanks for any advice you can offer on this.

**********************************************************************************

My simple response:

Consider the dosage for her. She is not the same gender or size as you thus would perhaps benefit from a lower dose:

Patients should expect to get therapeutic results taking DIM•AvailTM at the recommended dose of 1 to 2 soft gels per day taken with breakfast or dinner. (Charles Poliquin)

My not so simple response:

Nice work with your goals and progress.

The simple answer to this question (Can Dim effect a females Menstrual cycle) is yes. Why? Well 2 reasons (which is where I will get to the not-so-simple stuff):

1) DIM is an estrogen modulator. It takes up the parking space so to speak for estrogen in the body and has a favorable impact on estrogen / androgen balance favoring the body to less estrogen dominance and brings androgen into a more favorable position (increased relative to estrogen)

2) Because of her informal study :-)... she started taking DIM and missed a menstrual cycle. However for there to be cause for concern it would take 3-5 missed cycles to be deemed necessary of further investigation.

You need to keep in mind that when some sort of hormone balancing is the objective, the pendulum will swing all over. You basically are rocking the system... something may have been stuck and you dislodged it... now that estrogen / androgen ball is swinging. So it is over to the other side. If you allow it the time it is worthy of to truly balance (3-6 months... perhaps 2 years in some cases), that ball will land in a new middle (balanced) position.

Does this make sense?

I used to caution my BioSignature clients that things may get seemingly worse before they get better.

But that's not really the case - we simply started moving that ball of the pendulum which is a MUST for there to eventually be balance.



On that note, the thing that is more problematic from a hormonal imbalance perspective is oral contraceptives. Your gal may want to investigate other means of birth control that allow her hormone profile to be natural and healthy. Giving the body more / extra estrogen is not the best choice for women. We are becoming more and more educated and aware in this area.

Here is an article from Dr. John Berardi about birth control and progress.

And you may want to learn more from Dr Bryan Walsh about the synergy of hormones.

Lastly, Charles Poliquin is a big fan of DIM and you could learn more from him on the subject.

However, I would not be quick to blame DIM specifically or as a lone suspect. I always dig deeper and look to stuff like:

*Stress
*Sleep
*SELF (root emotions, thoughts and feelings about self)

WE hold the answers to all our "problems" and imbalances deep within our self and at a much deeper level.

DIM may simply be working in partnership with many other physical and metaphysical stimuli and influences on the body.

Look at every thing... every angle... every facet of self to get to the ROOT of the issue or at least a 360 degree perspective before jumping to any conclusions.

Here is a good exercise.

Ask Why 5 Times

With your partner's permission and when feeling comfortable and open, start with a very simple and surface level question then keep giving the answer back in a question that is a why.

Example:

QU1 - Why is taking DIM important to you?

To get leaner and healthier

QU2 - Why is getting leaner and healthier important to you?

To look and feel my best and to be able to have a healthy baby

QU3 - Why is looking and feeling your best important to you?

(she pauses... tears start coming.. you do not interrupt her or say anything... just have supportive patient energy)
Because it makes me feel good about myself

QU3B - Why is having a healthy baby important to you?

(more tears... hard to answer... be patient... hand on her shoulder for a moment only)
Because I feel it is my time... I am worried I won't be a mother and it's a very strong part of me... I feel a pull to be a Mom. .... pauses a gain... (there is more)

QU4 - Why is it important to you to feel good about yourself?

... hard to answer.... the truth is close... "Because I don't... I always feel that I am not worthy... not good enough... need to be more, to be leaner, to be more accomplished. I don't feel quite ME yet."

QU4B - Why is it important to you to be a good mother?

So I can be the Mom for my child that my Mother could not be for me.

BOOM!

We are getting somewhere... the truth. The CORE truth. Truth capital T.

"So what I am hearing is that you don't feel worthy... you don't feel good enough and you were lacking things from your Mother when you were younger. Does this sound about right? Would you like to talk more about both of those? Let's start with your Mom when you were younger and our childhood."

Supplements are important but the Truth is more important. You can be a great partner by not only helping her with her nutritional needs and supplement strategy, but helping her unlock the mysteries of her True Self and her deep level needs.



Hope this helps in some way.

Namaste,

Krista

It is NEVER to late to face your fears

Hi Krista,

Here are my thoughts on recent Difficult-Difficult that I tackled:

Photo Shoot

I was part of the Lean Eating 2010 group and decided not to do my photo shoot assignment in the time frame the assignment requested. I recently completed the assignment Oct 8th and felt like a million bucks doing it!!!!

In trying to process why it took me so long I came across these answers:

WHAT WERE MY FEARS/CONCERNS?

a) I'm a perfectionist....I have an all or nothing mentality. I struggle frequently with just letting things be or the best they can be for the 'moment'. Many of my goals and intentions get derailed or go uncompleted because I want the outcome to be perfect. My most important learning from LE is that health and fitness, the person I want to be is a journey. How I respond to the bumps, curves and uphill climbs ARE where the greatest learning will take place. Pushing past the difficult-difficults are where the fruits of my labors are realized. AMAZING how I've learned that the destination is not the endpoint....it is the launching pad for the next journey and the next set of difficult-difficults - it's a life long journey.

b) Fear. I was afraid to be disappointed. I had specific expectations of what my measurement should be, my body weight, my body fat percentage and what the picture should look like. Months in advance of the photo shoot I was already developing a backup plan. I was setting myself up for failure already. I was discounting the hard work put into the workouts. I was protecting myself from the fall, even before there could be a fall. If I didn't like what I saw, how could I recover from it, would I fall completely off the wagon, would I binge or use food as the comfort? I know now, that I didn't want to face dealing with those emotions so I pushed them back by not 'going through' my difficult-difficulthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

WHAT INSPIRED ME?

Meeting the wonderful ladies and coaches of LE in Niagara June 2011 at the LE Gathering. What an AWESOME experience, uplifting to the core! I realized at the brief day and a half gathering that "cheerleading does not make you http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbetter" (Krista Schaus). If I signed up to be on the team, come ready to play! Secondly, "underestimating leads to underachieving" (Gino Arcaro) - if I'm dressed to play, play to WIN!

Everyone there, LE coaches and LE women were so open about their journey, truly genuine and so willing to pay it forward. Renee Willis sharing her story, she was not afraid to allow us into to her core being. She walked us through her darkness and vulnerabilities as if I was the only one in the room with her. These were the same women in our forums!!!! How could I not WIN with so many people sharing their stories so I can learn from their journey.

P.S. The photo shoot demo WITH the music ROCKED!! That is the only thing I wished I had at my shoot....music is truly a reflection of one's soul.

KEY LEARNING POINTS

Change IS uncomfortable! I went through many sessions of positive self talk!....., set yourself up so it is difficult for you to back out.

Tell people your goals. For me this shoots the accountability factor way UP! I want to be a woman of my words. I had an LE friend email me about my shoot to followup, crazy how these LE woman can hold you accountable!

THE ADRENALINE RUSH IS UNBELIEVABLE. I was on a natural high for weeks, the day of the photo shoot, the day the photographer loaded the proofs, the day I received the disk AND today as you are reading this because I CAN PAY IT FORWARD.

Thank you Krista for allowing me to share, I hope your Iron Phoenix team can use my story to help in some way on a part of their own journey.

Annie Kasper (akasper)

LE August 2010 - Team Barbelles

BEFORE (August 2010) & AFTER (October 2011)

Precision Power Workshop

Many thanks to Linda McFeeters - Precision Nutrition Moderator and Lean Eating Mentor - for her part in making our combined vision of PRECISION POWER a reality.

We had a great group of members that was small enough to be intimate and allow each person to go through the main lifts and benefit from some expert guidance and tweaking.


TOP 5 TWEAKS & TIPS to turn a standard squat into a powerlifting squat were:

1) Set the chin / create a neutral spin (Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength is a great resource to learn more). I call it a humbled chin. Like you just ate something gross or really sour or you are trying to make a double chin. That means CHIN down, not just eyes.





















2) Bar Position - Bring the bar down in the squat from the standar an upper trap position and use the rear delts as a ledge for the bar.

3) Use the breath! Inhale BEFORE the lift; HOLD the breath on the way down (squat and bench press), EXHALE explosively during the concentric porition of the left (the press or upward portion of the squat). Fill the lungs; expand the chest - breath = strength!

4) Think LOCKED & LOADED: "The tighter the set up the smoother the lift", "the more time given to the set up, the quicker and more explosive the lift", "the more painful the set up, the easier the lift"

5) Powerlifting is all about the MOVEMENT, not the MUSCLES. Take your attention and put it into the bar and into the lift itself. Use every muscle of the body and every system of the body (including the MIND) to executive this lift.

Important Note when learning a new method or variation of a lift: Bring the weight / load down and execute proper and near perfect form before aiming to increase. "Form first; then weight." "Strength first, then speed."

Carb Drunkeness Confessions - POST HALLOWEEN

Halloween - How did you fare on the GOOD, BETTER, BEST Scale?

I enjoyed a few of my favorites on Sunday (Reeces Peices) and had one cup cake the day before that was pretty heavenly and immediately induced a wave of carb drunkeness.

But applying "good, better, best" measuring stick, this year was much better in that I struck a healthy balance.

I feel that a handful of Reeces Peices and a cupcake over the course of 2 days was a normal indulgence from a mindful Lean Eating coach. VICTORY!

MENTALLY (the THINKING)

- It was premeditated and planned.
- I felt very in control of my choices.
- I also accepted (and totally expected) the bump up on the scale the following day and the evidence of an imbalance of healthy flora (I get little bumps like pimples on the inside of my nose when I eat too much sugar... dates set it off big time).



Strike a balance between good and evil (bacteria) with BioK

PHYSICALLY (the DOING)

- I countered with an entire container of Bio-K (1/4 is the recommended serving), a Clean Slate mentality and an exceptional eating day on Monday.
- I also decided to focus on increasing my compliance nutritionaly from about 80% to 90% for the next phase (2 weeks at a time is my "look ahead")



Busting a move to break out of the 80's and get into the 90's





Today is November 1st - the 4th Quarter of the Lean Eating Game!

So let's empty the closet and dump any confessions of a Carb Drunk Lean Eater, post Halloween and JUMP ON and JUMP IN the "go for it!" movement with me.