Q&A with Deborah Klein

• Q: Do you have tips on how to jump into Organic Liaison? I want to start strong!

  A: 1. Eat your recommended calories.

  2. Exercise daily.

  3. Choose organic as much as possible, especially produce, dairy, meat and peanut butter.

  4. Take your Organic Liaison supplements.

  5. Focus on non-food related actions.

• Q: What are your overall weight loss tips, to keep this excess weight off for life?

  A: 1. Increase your fiber, aim for 3 grams fiber per snack, 5 grams or more per meal. Eat fruit and veggies twice per day! Enjoy your free food veggies as much as you want.

  2. Drink lots of water, keep sipping throughout the day, have your urine be clear like water.

  3. Eat low sodium (<140 mg/serving). Eat more fresh foods; shop around the perimeter of the store.

  4. Eat one vegetarian meal per day most often. If you eat turkey at lunch go for a palm of fish or a bean based or low fat dairy meal at dinner. We have lots of vegetarian/vegan recipes for you to try on the OL website: http://www.organicliaison.com/recipes.

  5. Increase your duration of exercise, minimum an hour a day, work up a healthy perspiration, keep breathing, get good oxygenation for optimal fat burning. Add weight lifting 3 to 4 times per week for 15 to 20 minutes, lift 10 to 12 repetitions 3 times, 3 body parts. Do your larger body parts first, back, chest, biceps, triceps.

  6. Eat 5 to 6 small meals/snacks daily. Keep that metabolism up, enjoy the “thermic effect” of food, burn more of the calories that you eat by spreading them throughout the day, ~every 4 hours.

• Q: I’m thinking of joining Organic Liaison, but I’m just wondering if there are any banned foods. Is it low fat? Low carb?

  A: Organic Liaison is a lifestyle program, not a diet, so there’s no deprivation—or banning—here.  The focus is on eating the dishes you enjoy, figuring out an optimally-balanced diet that’s right for you, choosing organic foods whenever possible, and exercising (MOVING!) daily.

  With our easy-to-use online menu-planning tool, you can customize your diet plan with just a click. You can select from many preference filters, including low carb, heart-healthy, vegetarian, and more! The recipe suggestions that pop up will fit in with your choices!

  We also recommend eating small meals/snacks (including high fiber carb and low fat protein foods) about 6 times per day to keep your metabolism up! This goes a long way towards helping you feeling satisfied and energized all day.

• Q: I want to do the program, but I live in a very rural area and don’t seem to have much access to organic food. I’m just wondering if I could do this.

  A: Absolutely! Do the best you can with what is available, work with your reality; try to find a store that has some organic foods with the help of our Organic Network Locator (http://www.organicliaison.com/locator). If the drive is a little far, pack a cooler and buy organic produce & meats... that you can store in the freezer when you get home, so shop once a month and stock up, freeze, defrost meats in the refrigerator the night before and enjoy! Focus on eating fresh food; stay clear from processed foods, artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners. Eat clean to be lean!

• Q: What are some tips that can help reduce belly fat?

  A: For reducing belly fat, the key is daily: do an hour of cardio, sit ups, focus on good posture (keep the tummy tight throughout the day), eat small portions within an hour after waking and every 4 hours. Prevent the overload, when we wait too long to eat, we set ourselves up for overeating = which equates to increased belly fat. So eat a fist full of high fiber carbs with a palm of protein at meals and lots of vegetables. Then for a snack have a piece of fruit with about 12 nuts or a string cheese. Also, eating meat one time a day and fish or bean based meal (e.g., bean based soup and salad) the other meal. The key to having a lean tummy is to eat small quantities throughout the day, the AMAZING GRAZE works! Also, stay clear of sweets and alcohol during the week, save an indulgence for a weekend day staying within your recommended daily calories.

• Q: Do you have some advice on how to treat yourself to dessert while keeping on-track with a healthy diet?

  A: Choose organic, low fat desserts, have a dessert as part of a meal. Count the dessert as the carbohydrate source, balancing that sugar with fiber and protein. Example, have a grilled chicken on top of a bed of mixed greens with a little vinaigrette dressing, then you have room for a 1/2 cup of sorbet/frozen yogurt/a cookie...

• Q: I wake up early most days... around 7AM, and I always make it a point to eat breakfast! Usually that’s around 10AM for me. Is there a best time to eat the first meal of the day?

  A: It’s best to eat within an hour after waking to get your metabolism up, to get your furnace burning! Keeping the stomach coals hot promotes more caloric burning during the day. Eat every 3 to 4 hours throughout the day to keep your metabolism up, to maintain satisfaction/energy all day and to prevent overloading.

• Q: Is it true that it’s better to eat after exercise, so your body can burn through the calories faster?

  A: It’s essential to eat within 2 hours after exercise, to replete your glycogen stores (your muscle fuel) and to promote muscle growth, get the benefits of that awesome work out that you did! Yes, you do have a caloric benefit after exercising, so the calories you eat will be burned faster than if you didn’t work out. The exercise has a “thermic effect” (increased caloric burning) for about 2 hours post exercise.

• Q: I like trying new exercise routines! What are activities that you recommend for changing it up?

  A: Turn on music and dance. Try a new work out video or check out a TV workout channel, do interval training, walk-run, go up and down stairs, go to a new aerobic class, try a new dance class, do aqua jogging-pushing those knees up, while moving down the pool lane.

• Q: How do we overcome our plateaus? I only have 18 lbs. more to lose....

  A: The key to overcoming that plateau is making sure that you are eating enough calories—yes there is such a thing as not eating enough calories (it can sabotage your weight loss efforts). You need a sufficient amount of daily calories to support your body and a properly balanced diet to power your muscles. Your muscles need to be fueled with enough carbs and protein to optimize the benefit of increased metabolism (fat-burning) that comes along with increased exercise.

  It’s pretty fantastic to see how those pounds can come off again when you simply add another snack into your day! This snack usually includes a high fiber carb and a low fat protein (e.g. an organic apple with organic string cheese).

  So, let’s focus on getting your metabolism up! This keeps your body from hoarding the calories you consume. Instead, a higher metabolism will put those calories to weight-loss work—burning fat! To further increase your metabolism: Eat within an hour after waking and every 3 to 4 hrs throughout the day.

  For a big boost: Drink 2 daily servings of Organic Liaison Rescue Me Weight Loss Elixir, finishing before dinner; take 2 capsules of Pagoda (natural green tea extract) with your daily lunch; and take 2 capsules of Relieve Me (herbal colon cleanser), daily, if needed.

  Organic Liaison supplementation gives you the extra support needed to keep fat burning and weight loss happening.

• Q: What are your recommendations for getting rid of cellulite?

  A: Cellulite is fat that is just beneath the skin and tends to bulge out – definitely not what we want. Your best tactics for reducing cellulite:

  1. Drinking a lot of water. Since dehydration can contribute to the bulging aspect of cellulite, keep sipping water throughout the day (drinking 2 servings of Rescue Me). If your urine is clear, then know you are drinking enough water.

  2. Being active for 1 hour/day. Start with a brisk, 1 hour walk. Be active at your own pace, but aim to work up a good sweat. Cardio helps reduce overall body fat, which helps to reduce cellulite.

  3. Lifting weights/doing resistance training. Building your muscle mass is important for leanness, because the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you will burn, even while you are resting/sleeping. Focus on your derriere area by doing squats, and target your hamstrings with leg lifts/curls. Use the weight machines that focus on the areas on your body where you would like to reduce cellulite.

• Q: My blood sugar levels are too high. What do you recommend to help lower my glucose levels?

  A: To keep your blood sugar levels stabilized, your best friends are high fiber with low fat protein food sources, MOVING (exercise lowers blood glucose, burn those calories, you’ll be lowering your glucose) and keep sipping water throughout the day.