Elite Fitness Solutions

Everyone has their own personal obstacles when it comes to achieving their goals. When it comes to fitness and fat loss, some find getting started with and sticking to a workout routine to be the “sticking point”. For others, the nutritional aspect is where they have the most difficulty. I find that in our facility for most, it’s the nutrition that needs the work.

I guess in hindsight, that would be because we take the guesswork out of the workout…

Nutrition on the other hand, is something that they have to be accountable for. We give them guidelines, but can’t be there all day giving direction as far as what to eat and when.

This keeps me thinking about how to make nutrition easier to handle, stick to, and be successful with. I recently sat down with a client that has been having difficulty to come up with a strategy for her nutrition.

Here are the three steps we used.

1. Keep at least a week’s worth of food logs, including time of meal, and what the meal was.

2. Review the food log to see the following

~What types of foods you eat regularly

~Where are your biggest obstacles during the day?

3. Based on the review of your food log, come up with 2-3 options for each meal time.

This client walked away no longer feeling lost with her nutrition. We made it simple, we gave her realistic options based on her current food likes and dislikes, and I’ll be checking back in next week to see if there’s anything that needs to be re-visited.

I suggest that if nutrition is your stumbling block, you use the three strategies above, and follow the nutrition guidelines listed here to come up with your own simple, personalized nutritional plan.

9 times out of 10, it’s not having any sort of strategy or plan that will sabotage your success!

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Generally, pancakes are something to avoid when looking to achieve fat loss goals. The version grandma used to make is typically low in protein and fiber, and very high in simple carbs, which equals increased cravings and a diet disaster later in the day.

However, with these two recipes, pancakes can now be added back into the nutritional mix! They’re easy to make, and best of all delicious to eat!

The first recipe is compliments of Jayson Hunter, Registered Dietition, and co-owner of the supplement line that we carry called ProGrade. To get the recipe, CLICK HERE.

The second recipe is by yours truly, and goes as follows…

2 C whole wheat flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 Scoop Vanilla Protein powder

2 C skim or 2% milk (more if needed to thin)

3 egg white

1/4 C EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) or Canola Oil

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat skillet or griddle to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear.  Pour about 1/4 cup batter into hot skillet. Turn pancakes when edges look cooked and bubbles begin break on surface.

You can also add 1/2 C fresh blueberries to either recipe.

Make sure not to drown your pancakes in syrup… and to use pure maple syrup, not maple flavored syrup…

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If that’s you, I challenge you to hold you, your child and your family to a higher standard when it comes to nutrition.

Trust me, this isn’t a judgement. I have to constantly remind myself of this as well. Running a business full time, keeping up with the demands of a household, raising a four year old, and cooking meals seven days a week allows for many moments of “let’s just go out to eat”. Moments that I am usually able to talk myself out of, and feel better for having done so on the flip side.

Childeren are precious little people that are growing! Let’s ensure that it’s up and down, and not side to side. Nutrition can make a huge impact on them both mentally and physically.

Take one study for instance that shows that children who eat more than 12 hot dogs in a month have nine times the risk of developing childhood leukemia! Now, that’s something that didn’t sit lightly with me. I know parents (myself included) that at times fall back on quick and easy as I mentioned above, and know that there are certain things (like hot dogs) that kids will eat almost every time.

Something like this study just magnifies how nutrition and sometimes more importantly, the lack of it can impact a child’s life!

“But my kid is a very picky eater”.

This is a tough one. Especially for tired, worn out moms that don’t want to deal with the impending “fight” that this can cause.

Well, here’s 5 ways I’ve gotten my four year old involved to make her excited about eating fruits and veggies that she’d otherwise turn her nose up at…

1. Put them in charge. Every time she goes shopping with me, she’s got her own “list”. I’ll even have her write them down on her own piece of paper (I write them down as well on my list so that I can later translate her list in the store).

When I can, I put her in charge of things that she can also choose out a flavor or type, such as apples or yogurt.

This not only makes her excited about what she’s chosen, but makes the trip to the grocery store more interesting for her as well.

2. Make them sous chef. Shilo even has her own apron, which she is proud to wear. I found hers at Ross for about $10. You can also get a safe kid’s knife from Pampered Chef for $3 that can be used to cut apples, potatoes, cheese, etc.

Shilo helps me pour ingredients in to be mixed, and will help with the mixing, cutting, and preparation of most meals. By getting them involved, the meal becomes something they are proud of, and excited to eat, rather than some mystery dish they’re unsure of that you’ve set in front of them to eat.

Shilo at times will run to find James to let him know when dinner is ready, watch him take his first bite and eagerly ask him how he likes the dinner she helped make.

3. Have a “No thank you” bite rule. This is something I had picked up on from the pre-school that Shilo goes to.

Instead of the children just being allowed to dismiss something as unedible, they must first take a “no thank you” bite. Many times the child will still dismiss it after choking that bite down, but there are times that they realize that what they were disgusted by really isn’t half bad.

4. Explain your reasoning. Many times “because I said so”, or “because it’s good for you” are easy default answers. However, curious, intelligent minds respond so much better to an explanation. It does take a minute to do this, but I’ve explained the benefit of eating spinach, or broccoli, or tomatoes, etc. to Shilo and she now eats all three.

5. Don’t be the “short order cook”. As stated above, our children are intelligent, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of this.

If given alternatives, they’ll take it. If you say “this is all that I’m going to make”, and 15 minutes after dinner allow them to have something of their choosing, they’ll remember that and default to their post dinner meal.

However, making the sometimes difficult decision to hold your ground on what’s being served will in the long run work to your advantage.

Trust me, kids are resilient and won’t starve to death, inspite of the trauma they seem to be in the first few evenings this rule is set.

They’ll learn that you’re serious and start taking advantage of the nutritious meal you’ve prepared. This isn’t mean or cruel, it’s being a loving parent, and doing what is best for your child inspite of them thinking otherwise.

We all want the best for our children, and when mealtime comes around, what they think is best and what you know is best can be two completely opposite things. Start establishing good habits while they’re young and you’ll have a thriving, healthy individual!

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With Thanksgiving done, and Christmas and dare I say it…2010 looming just around the corner, I pretty much end each and every day wondering where it went? And often wishing I had a way to fit more hours into the day.

I know that I am not the only one with this delima this time of year. Let’s face it. There’s lots of important things that need to get done, and they all have a strict, non-negotiable deadline…

~Shopping

~Cleaning

~Decorating

~Traveling

~Parties and functions

~Pictures

~Writing and sending cards, etc.

I know I’ve missed a few things in that list, the obvious being training and gym time. For many of us, this goes completely by the wayside as we prioritize our day. Many rationalize this as they think “I’ll get started over in the New Year”.

Well, there’s another way to look at this. By prioritizing your workout time into your busy and hectic schedule, you may actually be creating more time for yourself. “How?” you may ask?

There’s studies showing that executives that take time to work out on a regular basis are more productive than those that don’t. Exercise on a regular basis gives you more energy, puts you in a better mood, and helps you stay healthy to fight off sickness and viruses better.

So, no matter how hectic your schedule seems, do your best to find 30-60 minutes 3-5 times a week to do your body some good! Trust me, the ”post holiday” you will be thankful that you did.

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Alright, it’s here! Thursday…Thanksgiving…the mother of all Eat Everything in Site Indulgent Holidays!

As a fitness expert, what would my advice to you be? To go for the veggies…to skip the sweets…to use your iron clad will power and be the “sensible” one in your group?

Well, Yes, however on the other hand, I also think you should Enjoy!!!! If you have some of your family’s traditional home made pumpkin pie, with whipped cream, then don’t guilt trip yourself for the rest of the afternoon!

Here’s three tips to enjoy the holiday to the fullest, and be able to wake up the next morning without a raging binge induced hang over.

1. Eat before eating. Studies show that consumption of fiber or healthy fat about 30 minutes prior to a meal will decrease your caloric consumption during the following meal. That calorie reduction includes the pre-meal snack.

How is that? Well, fiber and fat will slow your digestion, and make you feel full faster, and for longer, ensuring that your inclination to over eat will be minimal.

So before you sit down to the Thanksgiving feast, have an apple and handful of raw almonds or walnuts.

2. Don’t let your eyes be bigger than your stomach. This isn’t anything new, but something I feel gets tossed out of the window at a “special” ocassion such as this. Instead of heaping as much of everything as you’re able to fit onto your already oversized plate, try putting smal portions of everything. That way you won’t feel inclined to over eat because you’ve hit the full level and there’s still a pile of food on your plate.

If you still feel like having more, go back for what you enjoyed the most.

3. Slow down and drink up! No, not your aunt’s “special” egg-nog, I’m talking about water or green tea! Make sure to pace yourself throughout the meal, take breaks to enjoy the company of family and friends and drink plenty of water. This will give your body the opportunity to let you know when you truly have had enough. Rather than a non-stop race to the finish where you skip your body’s natural ability to say stop and end up having to loosen your pants…!

I am thankful that you alllow me the opportunity to share in your journy to health and overall well being! Enjoy your holiday!

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When working with people at my facility I always need to help them get over the “no pain, no gain” myth. Actually, I guess I should say that I need to help them understand it better. You see, muscular “pain” and discomfort are alright and needed – if you are not uncomfortable you are not pushing hard enough to elicit a change in the body.

 However, joint pain is a totally different thing. Joint pain is a sign that your body is not moving correctly and is much like the “check engine soon” light has gone on in your car. You can ignore it for a while but a break down is going to eventually occur.

 So, gutting through an exercise when your knee, low back or shoulder are talking to you is not the type of “no pain, no gain” you want. The vast majority of surgeries and rehabbing going on in the sports arena are not acute, traumatic injuries like those that occur when you crash on a bike. Most of them followed a pattern similar to this:

 Step 1: You notice a little pain in an area while you are participating in a sport or working out but it goes away after you get into your workout a bit.

 Step 2: The pain doesn’t go away as fast and now it tends to linger for a while after training, sometimes for a day or two afterwards. You can still work through it; it is just a bit more annoying now.

 Step 3: You have to pop a few Advil before training in order to keep the pain under control. Without some sort of pain reliever you just couldn’t train as hard. You are also much more likely to need a day or two off after a hard workout to let the painful area recover.

 Step 4: You are forced to go see your doctor after the pain relievers stop working as well and you can not get through a workout without some serious consequences. Your doctor says that you have some sort of tendonitis or bursitis or some other “fill in the blank-itus”. You get some physical therapy prescribed and you do the work but it doesn’t seem to get a whole lot better.

 Step 5: You are now scheduled for surgery. Maybe the pain just got so bad you couldn’t take it any more or a minor impact injury caused something to “break” but you now have some serious damage to a key joint that is going to impact you for the rest of your life.

 This process may take years to get through but the sad part is that a lot of active people tend to go through this cycle a couple of times in their lifetime. Think about how many people you know that have had a knee “cleaned up” or a shoulder “tightened”. This speaks volumes about the poor level of understanding about preventing these injuries in the first place.

 With rare exception, bad movement causes pain. In addition, where the pain shows up is usually not where the real problem is. Look at the joint above or below the area that is painful for dysfunction and you will find the real culprit. The low back is a great example of this – low back pain is not caused by a “weak” low back but instead from poor hip function and mobility. Ignoring the hips role in low back pain will never take care of the problem and will result in a lot of pain relieving drugs or, God forbid, surgery.

 Don’t spend the next few months ignoring the pain and simply popping some pain relievers or just sitting on the couch to “let it rest”. Work on your mobility and core strength. Clean up your movement and get strong on that movement.

 The secret to progressing each year is to address things when they are still in the Step 1 or Step 2 phase of the pain-injury-surgery cycle. You’re stuck with your body for a long time so take good care of it – you’ll be stoked when you’re 70 and can still be active and have fun!

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“The important thing is this:

To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we

are for what we could become.”

~Charles du Bois

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1. Have a support system Whether be friends, family, a fitness professional, or all of the above, if you surround yourself with people that are just as excited about your goal as you are, you will be able to utilize them when the going gets rough. Call on them, make them hold you accountable, and you will be glad you did in the long run.

2. Start keeping a food log You are what you eat, and how can you know what you are if you don’t keep track? That quick handful of M&M’s you had at 2pm when you were “crashing” can be easily forgotten the next day when you think back if you haven’t written it down! You can also use free online journal sites like the one at www.FitDay.com.

3. Keep your head in the right place Especially women. I don’t know what it is, but we tend to have a self destructive attitude. If you are constantly telling yourself that you look terrible, that you’ll never lose your fat butt, that this is never going to happen, then guess what??? I think you know where I’m going with this… From day one, you have to know without a doubt that you can do this, and that you will succeed!

4. Get a plan I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If you fail to plan, you can plan to fail. Think ahead to what your day will bring the night before. Do you have a busy schedule? Prepare for your day nutritionally. Think about what you can pack so that you are prepared to make good nutritional choices? Even going as far as setting one day a week aside to do your grocery shopping and meal planning a week will work wonders for you.

Think about your workouts. They need to become a non-negotiable item on your schedule. We ask our clients to get on our schedule Monday for the coming week. If you have something scheduled, you are more likely to stick to it and make other things work around it, rather than having it be the variable, and fitting it if and/or when you can.

The more you have planned, the easier your new lifestyle will become, and the less likely you are to “fall off the nutritional wagon”.

5. Get enough sleep I can’t stress this one enough! If you don’t get enough sleep, your will be mentally un-equipped to make the best choices. Not to mention that lack of sleep is considered stressful to your system, causing your body to release hormones that make losing fat difficult. Making sure you get your 6-8 hours (for most of us it’s eight) will ensure that you’re allowing your body the time it needs to recover, repair and rejuvinate so that you can be at your very best for everything you set out to do!

6. Drink tons of the clear stuff Yes, I mean water. And Green tea as well. Aside from these two, don’t waste your money on anything else! If you don’t have enough energy during the day, chances are that there’s some bigger changes that should be made rather than looking to coffee or worse, some energy drink to boost you along. Are you eating enough of the right foods? Are you drinking enough water to keep yourself well hydrated and mentally alert? Are you getting enough sleep? Even if they’re sugar and calorie free, beverages other than green tea or water should be avoided.

7. Stop drinking What? I thought you just told me to drink water and green tea? Yes, I did. I mean stop drinking alcohol. Even red wine has adverse effects when it comes to fat loss. One of the primary reasons is that your liver is where your body metabolizes fat. So, if you’re having an adult beverage or two or more on a regular basis, guess what? You keep your liver busy with that, and your body is forced to store the fat instead of actively metabolize it. Not to mention the extra calories you could easily cut out by eliminating your beverage of choice.

I know this can be a difficult one for many people. You just have to be realistic. Even if it’s one drink every few nights, if you aren’t seeing the success you want, either you make some tough decisions to achieve your goals, or you decide that you are happy with where you are at.

There you have it! 7 tips to achieve your ideal body!

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The Carbohydrate or “Carb”

This can be such a confusing thing when it comes to how much to consume and what type. There’s “low carb”, “no carb”, “clean” carbs, “complex” carbs, “simple” carbs, and on and on.

So, what is this thing that has so much attention on it?

Well, by Webster’s definition:

Carbohydrate: car-bo-hy-drate

Function: noun

Date: circa 1869

: any of various neutral compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (as sugars, starches, and celluloses) most of which are formed by green plants and which constitute a major class of animal foods.

Okay…

That’s pretty broad. Carbs are our main source of energy, so they are a pretty important element in our daily nutrition. Without them, our body doesn’t function properly, and we can feel sluggish.

Basically, carbs can be divided into two categories: Simple and Complex

Simple: All carbs are made up of units of sugar. Those that contain only one sugar unit (monosaccharides) or two sugar units (disaccharides) are referred to as simple sugars. Simple sugars are sweet in taste and are broken down quickly in the body to release energy. Two of the most common monosaccharides are glucose and fructose. Glucose is the primary form of sugar stored in the human body for energy. Fructose is the main sugar found in most fruits.

Complex: Complex carbohydrates are long chains of simple sugar units bonded together (for this reason the complex carbohydrates are often referred to as polysaccharides).

When you look at your nutrition and where and how to fit carbs into your diet, a good rule of thumb is the less processing that’s put into the item, the better it is going to be for you.

Items that can easily be classified as “simple” carbs to avoid such as cookies, chips, crackers, candy, white bread, rice and pasta, etc. should be included on ocassion.

“But my snack pack only contains 100 calories…it’s good for my diet” you may say. Well, yes if you’re looking at your quantity, and not your quality. This again brings me to my argument that the quality of your nutrition overrides the quantity almost every time.

Simple carbs, even though they’re fat free, and low in calories only give you a temporary energy boost and feeling of satisfaction. What’s worse is when your body realizes that it didn’t recieve anything in the way of nutrition (vitamins, minerals, etc.) and starts to send an even stronger signal that it still needs something.

Add to your new, stronger sensation of hunger the craving that your body addapts for these simple sugars, and you are setting yourself up for a rough ride.

Surround yourself with simple carbs, and you will most likely find yourself being controlled by your food. What you “can” and “can’t” resist, the inner struggle of how much you want something, but shouldn’t…

Complex carbs present a different scenario. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber, and provide a great source of energy and satisfaction, and are a key part of any successful nutrition plan.

Make sure to include a variety of whole grains (such as quinoa, bulgar wheat, wild rice, etc.), fruits (nature’s perfect sweet snack, usually in a convenient easy to carry “package”) and veggies in your daily nutrition, and you will have the energy and mental clarity to successfully achieve your goals!

We ask our clients to completely cut out simple carbs from their diet, with the exception of an ocassional “cheat” meal. Everything is fine in moderation. Shilo and I shared some organic ice cream last night. It was delicious and satisfying.

When you can cut out the processed, nutritionally void foods 90% of the time, you can indulge the other 10% on just about anything you’d like without skippng a beat on your journey to your ideal body!

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