Elite Fitness Solutions

Halloween…This holiday is synonymous with dressing up, having a scary good time, and mostly…candy!

Did you know that on average, people gain 10 lbs. during the “Holiday Season”?

Many people think of the “Holiday Season” starting with the feast of all feasts…Thanksgiving. Wrong! In my humble opinion, Halloween in fact marks the beginning of the end for many where the traditional winter weight gain begins.

In fact, James was just on KREX News channel 5 discussing this.

So, what can you do to get your holiday season started right, and stay ahead of the curve?

Here’s 5 simple tips to make sure that you not only keep those 10 lbs off all winter, but maybe even get a head start on your New Year’s resolutions!

1. Don’t go out on an empty stomach! If you’re hungry, your ability to make good nutritional choices will fly by the wayside.

Before going out with the kids trick or treating, or to that party, have a good snack. Something like trail mix and an apple, or a protein shake like the one listed here. That way, you will feel satisfied with just one piece, instead of one handful!

2. Get a workout in! Nothing will boost your metabolism like a great workout! Whether it be a quick round of intense intervals, or a more traditional strength training session, get your blood flowing and your body working. That will ensure that even though you indulge a little, your metabolism will be geared up and ready to burn the extra calories! *Just be sure that you’re not running on the treadmill or elliptical. That’s not going to be as effective.

3. Even if you start today, know that if you have a diet of primarily “good” food, a little bad food here and there isn’t going to be that big of a deal. However, if your diet consists of mostly bad food, the extra indulgences during the holiday season are going to make a bad situation worse!

4. Plan on giving out non-candy items from your home. That way when the evening is over, you aren’t left with extra temptations. Here’s a few ideas that kids will enjoy:

• Goldfish
• Single serve mini popcorn packs
• Glow in the dark spiders, ghosts, worms, etc.
• Bubbles
• Fruit snacks
• Gingersnaps
• Halloween pencils
• Glow sticks
• Stickers

The last tip is primarily for those of you with children that plan on trick or treating.

I am always amazed at the amount of sweets we return with! The generosity of the holiday is amazing, and the fun of taking a four year old dressed as “B O B the Blob” will not be replaced by anything!

However, the following tip should help soften the sugar blow in your household.

5. Have a “Candy Plan” when you return home. Have your child dump out all the loot on the table and sort them into 3 piles.

• Favorites
• Ones they just like
• Ones they don’t care much for

Plan on only keeping the favorites out, getting rid of the ones they don’t care for, and stashing the ones they “just like” to be rationed out and maybe even forgotten about and discarded.

This way, there isn’t an all out free for all, over-consumption that evening.

I hope this helps you get your holiday season started right where your physique and fitness are concerned!

I’d love to hear if you have any additional tips you use to keep your health and fitness on track during this festive time!

Be safe, have fun and feel great!

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With Halloween just around the corner… and the onslaught of sweet treats

and sugar, I thought I’d give a quick glimpse into the reality of our childrens nutrition.

Not to be a buzz kill, but to remind you that everything is ok, in moderation!

Enjoy the holiday, just be sure that the rest of you and your family’s nutrition is healthy and nutritious, not something similar to the indulgences Halloween brings about.

Here’s a quick glimpse into the daily needs of children. Do you know roughly where yours would fall?

2-3 years

Boys & Girls 1,200 calories

1 C of fruits

1.4 C of veggies

4 oz whole grains

3 oz meat and beans

2 C milk

4 t oils

4-8 years

Girls 1500 calories

Boys 1700 calories

1/5 C fruits

2-2.5 C veggies

5-5.5 oz whole grains

5 oz meat and beans

2.5-3 C milk

4-5 t oils

9-13 years

Girls 1900 calories

Boys 2100 calories

2 C fruits

2.5-3 C veggies

6-6.5 oz whole grains

5.5-6.5 oz meat and beans

3 C milk

5-6 tsp oils

No, juice doesn’t fall into the fruits category!

I hear all too often “Well they’re kids…” in regards to sugary snacks and quick, easy meals.

Yes, they are kids, and their brains and bodies are growing rapidly! All the more reason to make sure we make the hard choices and decisions that they won’t and can’t make! Shame on you if you allow your child to dictate their own nutrition! Your child is establishing values now, and will have a very difficult time “growing out” of them!

Sorry for the rant, but most colds, disease and mental disorders can be avoided with proper nutrition from the beginning!

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The following description is taken from Wikipedia.com.

Quinoa (pronounced /ˈkiːnoʊ.ə/ or /kwɨˈnoʊ.ə/, Spanish quinua, from Quechua kinwa), a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a grass. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach and tumbleweeds.

This “super grain” has been used for thousands of years as an important part of the human diet.  The ancient Incas called quinoa the “mother grain” and revered it as sacred.

It is one of the only grains considered to be a “complete” protein, containing a balanced set of essential amino acids. This makes it a great choice for vegans and vegetarians.

It is also a good source of dietary fiber, calcium, Vitamin E and many of the B vitamins, and is high in phosphorus, magnesium and iron.

This seed is gluten free and easy to digest, making it a great choice those with sensitivity to common grains.

As with most grains and seeds, quinoa isn’t the most flavorful thing in the world. I use it as a substitution to rice with meals. I also put it in soups and stews.

Where to buy? Quinoa can be found in the Vitamin Cottage in the grains section, as well as City Market and Safeway in the organic foods section. Ask someone to help you if you can’t find it.

When looking for optimal health and nutrition, replacing white rice for superior grains like quinoa is a great way to reach your goals!

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You know you’ve wanted to say that to at least one person in your life…

Well, this is a great book that I am in the process of listening to as part of my “Automible U”.

~On a quick side note, did you know that the amount of time the average person spends driving in the car is equal to the time spent obtaining two PhD’s? Start filling your i-pod with audiobooks and be on your way to a higher education!

Larry Winget bills himself as not a motivational speaker, but an irritational speaker.

This book is not only blunt in pointing out that many people are not succesful because of one of the following reasons

- They are stupid

- They are lazy

- They just don’t give a damn

but it also gives encouraging insight into how to get things headed in a different direction.

Here’s a great snipet from this book:

“This Day”

This day, I thankfully accept all of the good things that are coming my way.

 This day is full of excitement, love, energy, health and prosperity.

 This day, people are calling on me to be of service to them and I respond by giving them my very best.

This day, I think and practice health in my life, refusing to accept anything less than perfect health.

This day, I accept the abundance of prosperity that is mine and willingly share it with others.

This day, I focus on the moment and give no thought to the past or to the future.

This day, I spend in total enjoyment of what I do.

This day, I fill with loving thoughts and actions toward all other people and myself.

This day, I spend in grateful appreciation of all that is mine.

This day, this hour, this minute, this moment is all that I have and I choose to use it in celebration!

Start your day off with this mindset, and see how your new outlook has an impact on your outcome.

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“Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me day and night, if I did not laugh, I should die.”

~Abraham Lincoln

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America…as a whole, we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world.

Even when times are tough, I think it’s safe to say we still have more than some of the poverty stricken nations in the world.

Yet among the world, North Americans are some of the fattest, unhealthiest, malnutritioned people.

That may sound harsh, but it is the truth.

Why? Not because we have a lack of resources provided to us. I believe it’s a lack of information, and an over-indulgant addiction to quick, easy and convenient.

Put the next two facts together and you gain a lot of perspective on why we are where we are at as a nation.

#1: One out of every two dollars spent on food in the US is spent in a restaurant.

#2: If you eat out two or more times a week, your chances of obesity increase by 50%.

Number two can be attributed to the fact that there are billion dollar companies like Panda Express that pre-fry all their food, then refry it on site. Can you say increased pant size and heart disease???

Or ordering an “innocent” chicken salad at a restaurant when that “healthy” choice you made has the following nutritional profile:

Calories: 1070

Fat: 77

Sodium: 4380 g (over 2 x’s the RDA…in one sitting!)

Note: This is an actual nutritional profile for a chicken salad at a popular restaurant.

Our bodies simply are not made to process the fake food found in many convenient food sources! The closer you can get your nutrition to its original state found in nature, the better off you will be when it comes to both your health and physique.

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Certain subjects just never seem to get old. Nutrition, supplements, cardio and core training are things that I could probably write about every day and people would still be interested in them. The other night James gave another talk on core training to a group at our chiropractor’s office and, as usual, had a great turn out and got to share some great info.

The first thing James covered was what exactly the core is. Core training is a huge buzz word that has been used to sell magazines, books, videos and late night television products. It is also one of the most important areas to understand and train. While most people think of the midsection (basically the abs, low back and obliques), we also include the hips and upper back. In essence, if you cut off your head, arms and legs you would be left with your core. 

The core is important because it is the center of your body and if it is weak it will affect everything else. For example, if you do an exercise like a lateral raise (where you raise a dumbbell out to your side) it is traditionally looked at as a shoulder exercise. However, if you had an injured rib you would not be able to lift nearly as much weight. Same shoulder but a “weaker” core which resulted in the arm not being able to lift as much weight.

The next thing covered was the difference in how we trained the core back in the 80’s and 90’s vs. our current understanding of how the human body works. It used to be that if you wanted to get a muscle stronger you picked exercises that allowed you to move that muscle and then you used sets, reps and load with those movements. Crunches, side bends and back extensions are prime examples of this “old school” methodology.

However, we now understand that some areas want to be mobile and some want to be stable. Training all joints in the body the same way is a recipe for pain and decreased performance. For our purposes here, the hips want to be mobile, the lumbar spine (low back) wants to be stable and the thoracic spine (upper back) wants to be mobile. So, based on this understanding of functional anatomy we can see that we want to train the midsection to resist movement, not create it.

 Since this is the case we want avoid exercises that encourage movement and instead emphasize exercises that resist movement. A great place to start is with some simple exercises like planks, side planks and bird dogs. If you have not done so already, start incorporating those exercises into your routine. Doing them on a daily basis will really help jump start your core strength.

 -Note: doing crunches on a stability ball is not more functional and still falls under the “creating movement” category.-

 However, there is more to “core strength” than simply doing exercises for the core. The next thing I covered in my talk was how movement ultimately defines your core strength. You can have the strongest core in the world but if it is surrounded by dysfunctional joints then it will have to compensate for that dysfunction no matter how many planks and side planks you do.

 Most people have a lower back that moves too much to compensate for tight hips. If your hips are tight, which describes 90% of everyone I have seen, then you will not be able to shift them back far enough to get the range of motion you need when picking stuff up off the ground. Your body will figure out a way do what you are asking it to do and so it will then get the extra range of motion it needs from your low back.

 This is why you have to look at how your body moves and train it how to move better. For most, this means getting aggressive with your mobility tactics. Stretching, foam rolling and dynamic mobility exercises for the hips and upper back are a must if you really want to break the cycle of bad movement most of us are caught up in. If those areas can not move freely then you are doomed to a lifetime of compensation and, eventually, pain.

 The next step is to utilize exercises that teach your body how to integrate your increased core strength and hip mobility in order to create cleaner, more efficient movement. For most people nothing beats the deadlift for this purpose. It is literally learning how to lift with your hips and legs and not your lower back. This is another reason that machines are sub-par. They do nothing to help you learn how to move better and allow you to take the core out of the equation. Since the core is always part of the equation outside of the gym then you better train it that way in the gym.

 So there you have it – a 21^st century blueprint for creating a strong, high performance, injury resistant core. As you can see there is far more to it than simply doing exercises that target the core. Building core stability, hip mobility and then systematically integrating them together into more complex movements is the only way to truly build a functional, pain free core.

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A new study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Swedish scientists concludes that the “FTO gene” (which has been linked to weight gain in previous studies) will only increase your chance for obesity if your lifestyle is a sedentary one.

Sorry folks, but your parents can no longer be used as an excuse! Get active, clean up your nutrition and enjoy looking better and feeling great!

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I am a mom to a FOUR year old…ok, Four and a half year old. The halves really count, especially when being FIVE is on the line!

Anyways, mom, business owner, wife (which makes me a personal chef, laundry service, cleaning service, yard service, etc.)

I guess my point is I am busy! Not a day goes by where I don’t at some point wish for more hours in it.

When it comes to great nutrition, quick and easy are my motto! I don’t have time to cook three course meals, and scrambled eggs is about the extent of cooking done in the mornings…

Here’s one of my staples, used almost every day. It provides plenty of vitamins and antioxidants, as well as protein and a steady supply of energy.

Frozen mixed berries

Frozen fruit

Lemon flavored Fish Oil

Kefir (a yogurt drink with active cultures to help regulate your digestive system)

Put all ingredients into a blender (I use a Magic Bullet), fill with either green tea or water and blend!

In literally lkess than five minutes, you have a meal that tastes great and is great for you!

Best of all, you can put all the ingredients in the blender the night before and blend in the morning, making your breakfast ready in less than a minute, or better yet, blend and refrigerate.

I’m just saying, isn’t that a better option than the drive through on the run?!?!

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There is always a lot of talk about how to get more out of your workout, but recently a new concept has been introduced to us by Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove of Results Fitness Gym in California.

That concept is releasing the perverbial brakes that are holding you back from outstanding results when it comes to working out.

Think of it like this. When you’re driving your car with the Emergency brake on, you can floor the gas and you won’t get going too quickly.

The same goes for your body when working out. Here are a few brakes you can release to fast-forward your success.

-Working out on an empty stomach. You can do more reps or add in another round of intervals, but if you’re famished and your energy reserves are on empty, you’re only making a bad situation worse.

Making sure that you have a good source of protein and simple carbs pre and post workout will make you ready to work out and push yourself to levels needed to see results.

- Warming up properly. So many people dismiss the importance of warming up. You think “I can just skim over this” and get to the workout. Well, if you’re tight from a long day, or night (whatever the case may be), skimming over your warm up will again make a bad situation worse when you go to workout. You’re piling weight and reps on top of bad movement, which will only lead to injuries.

- Getting enough sleep. I can’t stress the importance of getting enough sleep. I have difficulty with this one. By the time I get Shilo in bed and watch a little TV, it’s way past my bed time! I’ve been making an effort to get in bed and read for 10-15 minutes instead of watching an hour long show on tv. When well rested, your body functions much better, allowing you to get more out of your workout.

Not to mention you will fight off colds and disease better when you allow your body the necessary time to rest at night. Times differ from person to person, but a good standard is 8 hours of sleep!

Let’s re-cap. Fuel your body for your workout, get your body ready for the workout, and make sure you’re allowing your body the rest it needs to recover from and energize for your workouts!

Releasing these Three “brakes” will allow you to work harder, feel better, and look better as well!

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