Sport Fitness & Physique

Archive for August, 2009

I spoke to Keylea’s Grandma a minute ago….stage 4 cancer…she doesn’t sound very strong today.

~Makes me sad.

You know folks….

-You can avoid it -cancer…

You can do things -change your diet -change your behaviors -change your lifestyle…

You can keep that gene from expressing itself within you…

You can save yourself from cancer.

You can….

You control how your life plays out….

Cancer may be in your “cards” -it may be within your genetic expression…..but that doesn’t mean it has to happen….

You don’t have to experience cancer…..or the life altering -completely devastating effects of that disease.

Take good care of  yourself….Prevent that nauseous, debilitating, devastating  disease.

Eat right.

Fortify yourself.

Protect yourself.

You are ultimately in control.

Save yourself….Save your family -protect them from the grief of endless days and nights at the hospital -an early funeral…..

Protect yourself…..

To your Good Health….

……..ask me

-just ask……………      please?

Here’s a Helpful, Healthful Tip for Better Health and Improved Body Composition:

Stop eating at least three hours before bed.

Your body needs time to rest, recuperate and rebuild.

These important functions occur primarily at night as we sleep, but are inhibited when the body has food to digest.

So let your body do what it needs to do.

Stop eating at least 3 hours before bed and watch your health improve and your waistline shrink!

To your Good Health!

Just like diamonds -our inner strength and endurance are the result of incredible heat, stress and pressure.

Multi-faceted -Hard -Beautiful

But these external forces are not enough….

We provide the raw materials for our own self-creation.

What are you made of?

Is it enough?

Are you satisfied?

You really do control the final creation.

What you ultimately become …is completely up to you.

Sure it’s tough….it’s supposed to be.

Without pressure -without stress -without enormous heat and agonizing strain …..diamonds are never formed.

Embrace the process.

You are Multi-faceted, Hard and Beautiful…..

It took a long time to create you…..now we just need to polish you up a bit

Conventional wisdom seems to advocate that if you want to lose weight and get into shape –all you need to do is eat less and exercise more.

Really?

I’m afraid that just isn’t true.

Not by a long shot.

It’s just not that simple.

I see people every day clinging to that belief and getting nowhere….making zero progress towards their goals. They are working very, very hard and eating less and less and still….they do not have the health or physique they want.

There is something else holding them back.

There is another way….a better way.

You’ve probably heard me say that the human body is an amazing organism…marvelously adapted for survival.

The human body is able to withstand enormous stress, illness, excess and deprivation and still keep on keepin’ on.

Our bodies are Experts of Survival!

We survive because our bodies are very, very efficient at adapting to the environment.

We adapt so well, because our bodies are very, very efficient at maintaining  ……maintaining  ….maintaining

If we eat less….our bodies simply conserve whatever fuel we give them….and maintain the same weight.

If we exercise more our bodies simply conserve their resources…stealing resources from other aspects of our survival if necessary ….and we maintain the same weight.

Here’s the thing though….

If we give the body what it needs not only to survive, but thrive!  -then the body is not in a ‘threatened state’ of survival.

If the body is not ‘preoccupied’ with survival…it will adapt to suit our goals.

Did you happen to see any of the Olympic events televised from China?

Weren’t those athletes spectacular to watch?

Didn’t they have incredible physiques?

Do you think that they “ate less and exercised more” to reach that state of physical and mental preparedness?

I don’t think so either…

Those athletes know that in order to adapt to the demands of their sport, they need to feed their bodies and feed them well.

They also know that they need to exercise specifically in order to excel at their sport.

We can mimic that.

We can take advantage of the human body’s amazing ability to adapt.

Eating less and exercising more doesn’t work

But giving our body what it ‘needs to succeed’ does work and it works very, very well.

Are you giving your body what it needs to succeed?

Let’s do that, shall we?

~To your Good Health!

Is it in you?

Behavioral change and the desire to push one’s self, absolutely MUST come from within.

As a professional trainer and Poliquin BioSignature practitioner, I can help you -guide you and assure that you get the best results possible in less time…

But the decision to win is yours.

Have you decided to Win?

The biggest challenge you will ever face when deciding to make lifestyle changes…is you.

You are your own biggest asset and your own biggest liability.

Your strengths are also your weaknesses.

In the field of brain research the Hebbian Theory states that: “Brain cells that fire together –wire together”

Brain neurons -hard at work -creating actions -creating your life!

All that means is, when we make the same choices over and over -the random chemical reactions in our brains begin to fire as if there is no other alternative -like they are not ‘random’ anymore.

It’s like we no longer have ‘choice.’

We seem to feel that we have to act in these same, predictable patterns, these same predictable ways -making the same predictable unhealthy choices.

So what used to be random…..is now “automatic”

We can also call these are our habits.

But in reality our habits are just the choices we make and the and actions we take…that’s all.  They can be changed.

We really can ‘re-wire’ the neurons in our brains to ‘re-fire’ in different order and in different sequence to create new and different actions, behaviors and habits.

We have that power! -It’s true!

I get all ‘goose-bumpy’ just thinking about it! (I am such a nerd)

So new habits may be difficult to get into and you may not ‘think’ you’re enjoying them but there’s more going on inside that head of yours than you may realize.

You’re fighting with yourself and there is a battle going on inside your brain.

Remember…..

“Brain cells that fire together –wire together”

Just start ‘firing’ new experiences and eventually those experiences will become habit and then……

–The sky is the limit!

You can ultimately do whatever you want to do.

(See? -now YOU have the goosebumps!)

To your good health!

You gonna eat that?

Follow this tip for better health:

Do not eat anything from a box, a bag, a tube, a can or a wrapper.  Avoid eating anything processed, preserved and anything with ingredients label. Sound harsh?  Think again.

Take a look at a typical ingredient label. Would you eat each and every one of those ingredients all by themselves? Could you even get your hands on each one of those ingredients? Not likely, not unless you’re a chemist working in a lab.

Do you know what sodium benzoate is? It’s a food preservative. It’s an ingredient in countless food items at your local grocery or convenience store. –Just look on a label –you’ll see it. Sodium benzoate keeps prepackaged food from going rotten for a long…long….long…time.

Rocket Fuel in your Food?

Sodium benzoate is also an active ingredient used in the production of fireworks. It’s packed into the business-end of rockets to provide propulsion and as an added bonus it makes a whistling sound as it burns.  That’s in your food. How well do you think your immune system is handling that?

I’m sure you’ve seen sodium phosphate listed on ingredient labels too. Sodium phosphate is used to keep oils from separating in their packaging. Sodium phosphate keeps your canned soup looking like soup and your packaged cheese looking like cheese.  It’s also a cleaning agent, stain remover and an industrial de-greaser used for prepping surfaces prior to paint.

The point is, if your food has an ingredients label, you had better be willing to eat each and every ingredient on that label because like it or not –you are and it’s not doing your health a bit of good. In fact, it’s slowly killing you. Stay away from food in a box, bag, can, tube or wrapper. “Eat from a box, you’ll end up in a box –a big, fat, over-sized box.

Can the bags and pitch the box…. stick to fresh, whole foods.

Choose lean meats, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and be sure to drink plenty of fresh, clean water.

To your Good Health!

Inches off your waist!

8 pounds and 5 inches….

Another one of my clients just lost 8 pounds of fat and 5 inches off her waistline!

Well, it didn’t “just happen”

She’s been working on it for a while now….

How long has she been working on it?

How long do you think it should take?

How long should you have to work to lose 8 pounds of fat and 5 inches off your waistline?

8 pounds of fat contains 28,000 calories….whoa! ~ 28,000!

“How long does it take to burn 28,000 calories anyway? Yeesh! She must have been a marathon runner!”

Nope…

She works in an office environment…she’s a busy lady, no doubt. But I know for a fact that she’s no marathon runner….not even close!

So what did she do to burn off 28,000 calories of fat from her body and drop 5 pant sizes?

Not much really….

She tried to keep up with her grandchildren.
She worked very hard at her job.
She tried to walk and take the stairs as much as possible and just generally move her body as much as she could –whenever she could.

But she didn’t do anything all that strenuous or extreme.

She did greatly improve her nutrition…..she did do that.

But she didn’t starve herself –no way. Not with me she didn’t.
I don’t advocate “hungry” –we don’t do “hungry” –no need for it.

• She ate all the lean meat, fresh fruits and fresh vegetables she cared to eat.
• She drank at least 8-10 eight ounce glasses of fresh, clean water every day.
• She made a point to eat full, protein-based breakfast every day…(no excuses!)
• And she stopped eating at least three hours before bed (this was the hard part –but she worked at it and she was successful)

That’s all she did to burn 28,000 calories of fat (8lbs) and drop 5 pant sizes…..

And she did all that in just one month….One Month!

Does losing 8 pounds of fat and dropping 5 pant sizes in one month sound like slow progress to you?

Not to me it doesn’t!
That’s the kind of progress I like to see!
A person could safely and effectively lose 96 pounds of fat in one year with that kind of slow and steady progress….that’s good stuff!

So….how long does it take to lose the fat you want to lose?

Not as long as you think.

It may seem like it’s taking f o r e v e r while it’s happening….but keep working ….it’s happening!

Won’t it feel great to reach your goal?

It does!

It will!…..keep working

It’s happening!

To your Good Health!

Back ache?

Do you suffer from back pain?

Do you wake up with a backache?

Uncomfortable lying down?

Lose sleep because of it?

Is standing for long periods uncomfortable?

If you’re like most folks, you probably spend a lot of time in the seated position -working from a desk, sitting at a computer terminal, driving, commuting, watching television in the evening etc…

When our bodies are in the seated position day in and day out we lose elasticity in our muscles, tendons and connective tissue.

Muscles begin to shrink -to adapt to the seated positioning we adopt so often. This shrinkage causes our posture to change and will even begin to shift our pelvis into a forward alignment called hyperlordosis.

This exaggerated alignment causes compression on our lumbar spine which in turn gives us pain.

Do you have excessive, compressive lordosis of the lumbar spine?

Take a look at your waistline from the side.

Is your belt or waistband parallel to the floor -or is it angled forward?

A healthy alignment would be parallel.

Chances are if you suffer from back pain, your pelvis has a forward alignment…..but we can fix that.

Physical therapy and corrective stretching and strengthening exercises provide relief in over 75% of back pain sufferers.

Take a look at this short video series and take action!

Hip Activation

Hurdler Stretches

Hip and hamstring series

Use these stretches and strengthening movements and stay with it.

You will be surprised at how a little rehab can go a long way to correcting your lower back pain problem.

~To your Good Health!

Swordfish is loaded with muscle building protein and heart healthy fats

Starting to get bored with summer burgers and brats?

Here’s a nutritious recipe I’m sure you’ll enjoy!

Begin with fresh swordfish fillets, drizzled with olive oil.

Sprinkle fresh chive, green onion, salt pepper and spices to flavor.

Place the fillets on the grill for 2-3 mintues. Carefully turn the fillets with a spatula and tongs.

Grill for just a few more minutes until done.

For your side dishes, gently steam one head of chopped cauliflower and mash as you would potatoes.
Add chopped chives, salt and butter to taste.

If you’ve never had it, it’s quite delicious and satisfies that creamy, starchy, fill-up-my-belly craving very well.

Grilled bell peppers are also a tasty treat and go great with this recipe.

To your Good Health!