Long Time No Type!

OKAY! My long lost blog is one of my New Year's Resolutions. I will aim to post at least once a week. It will be easy now since my school is on hiatus until mid-January; after that we will see. But isn't that when most New Year's Resolutions are challenged? Hmmmm...
I have posted a new quiz here on the site above the blog archive. I still even have any of you readers left out there, please take a minute to answer since this is often how I get my inspiration to post. Here's to a happy 2010. May you be healthier this year than last year and may you be healthier each year to come after that. Cheers!

Wow! American Heart Association issues first-ever guidelines for daily added sugar

I saw this article on www.cnn.com today and I celebrated! Here are some of the important points:

"If you're like most Americans, you will consume 22 teaspoons of added sugar today. Now, the American Heart Association would like you to cut back dramatically.

For the first time, the group has issued guidelines that say women should consume no more then 6 teaspoons (25 grams) of added sugar daily, and men no more than 9 teaspoons (37.5 grams)."

I have talked about added sugars versus natural sugars with you guys before. Natural sugars are the good guys and these are not to be limited to 6-9 teaspoons per day! Limit the crappy, added sugars that fill you up with empty calories taking the place of nutrient rich calories that you could be eating instead.

"Some of the most common added sugars are corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, sucrose, and syrup.

In contrast, the most common naturally occurring sugars are fructose and lactose, found in fruit and dairy products, respectively. Foods with naturally occurring sugars deliver nutrients while still satisfying our craving for sweetness. For example, fruits have essential vitamins and minerals as well as protective agents known as phytonutrients, such as carotenoids and polyphenols; dairy products contain calcium, protein, vitamin D, and more."

So look at what you eat with a close eye. Added sugar is associated with heart disease risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure and high levels of triglycerides. Limit processed foods, sodas and fruit drinks. Opt for as many fresh, whole, unpackaged, and unprocessed foods as you can, such as fruits (100% fruit juices), veggies, grains, nuts, and seeds.
"Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian and ADA spokesperson, says staying away from heavily refined foods means 'you'll not only save yourself from too much sugar, but you'll also reduce the risk of overloading on sodium and fat and calories in general.' "

Moving = Crosstraining

For the last two-three weeks I have done very little else besides move in to our new house across town. With the military moving us, a move can be a little bit tiring, but we moved ourselves for the first time in 15 years. Holy exhaustion! It was smart for me to stay out of the gym since each day has been like a boot camp workout. Climbing and descending stairs in the rental house, loading the truck, climbing and descending stairs in the new house; my body was drained and I slept like a baby!

As the move approached, I was kind of concerned with how my muscles would feel since I just hit that big forty landmark. I was preparing myself for a really sore and achy body. I was pleasantly suprised that, although I felt heavy and thoroughly tired at the end of each day, nothing was sore including my lower back. Hooray! I feel like all of my exercising and eating well paid off when it was put to the test, day after day, in this long and grueling event. I am so grateful for my healthy body that can move heavy objects with little recovery time. I feel like I was a real contributor when it came to hauling the furniture; we didn't have to always wait for one of Brian's buddies to come help so things ended up getting done faster. I was proud of my strength and proud that it accomplished something other than lifting dumbbells in the gym.

So I guess this is kind of a bragging post from me but it is important for you to realize that (1) not all workouts are found in the gym and (2) your strength and power will carry you through life, allowing you to take part in more activities and accomplish more goals. Continuing to take care of your body as you age prolongs your youth and energy. There is nothing more important than maintaining the vessel that carries you along your way.

DO I HAVE REFERENCES?

Check out what previous clients had to say about working with me!http://bodytightpt.blogspot.com/2008/06/setting-up-shop.html

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right."~Napolean Hill

There will always be something big and busy in your life. There will always be more crazy weeks than non-crazy weeks. But before you know it, a month has gone by, a year has gone by and you are still waiting for just the right time to make a change in your health. Crazy-ness and busy-ness is part of life. Take the bull by the horns and manage it, organize it, and make it work for you. Put your body first now; a little maintenance each day is much more convenient that an unexpected health problem later that forces you to put everything on hold in an instant.

BodyTight PT ~ from the beginner to the buff.

I have officially started to take on new clients again after almost a full year off from personal training. This past year has been one of relocating, settling my family and re establishing my personal goals. I have mentioned previously that I have returned to school to pursue a degree as a physical therapist assistant and possibly continue on in the future to a full physical therapist degree. We also have been building a house and I have been teaching some group fitness classes. I am currently in the middle of my Kid Power Sports Speed Camp (which I love running!!). While teaching does motivate and excite me, I have a yearning to get back to the one-on-one "teaching" on the gym floor. With so much going on in my life, it was nice to have work be a little less demanding, but I have missed working as a trainer more and more lately. I absolutely love being in the gym and showing people the way to a helathy and fit lifestyle. My clients are very individual, yet they all seem to motivate me in some way. It is such a wonderful and rewarding way to make a living!

I am back with a renewed energy in the gym this summer. And when I start school again in September, it will be on Mondays and Wednesdays only, which leaves Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays open to train clients. Right now I have space available for you whether you are looking to begin your fitness journey, find a rhythm after a gym hiatus, or revamp your current workout. Bring a friend and get some buddy workouts, get one session a week for accountability's sake, or hit it with me on a regular basis. Either way I will push you past your comfort zone and toward success. My contact numbers are listed to the left; join the many satisfied clients from my BodyTight team!

This Week's Goal

Think of those diagrams of the muscle man that hang on the wall in some gyms. If you look closely, you will see how all of the muscles attach to a bone. They all also attach to other muscles. A tight muscle can pull its bone out of proper alignment. It can also pull on other muscles which will pull their bones out of alignment. Keeping your muscles long and stretchy is important to your body's entire dynamic and should be a goal for all of us. Stretching is often the first thing that gets cut when we are pressed for time during a workout. A good way to prevent this is to stretch during your workout, so if you have to cut it short you will still have gotten in some stretching. It is best to stretch when your muscles are warm (after/during a workout), but another good way to get your stretching in is to do it at a separate time in your day. Everyday this week, set aside 15 minutes, maybe before dinner, and start out slowly with a shallow stretch before you ease in to deeper, longer stretches. Have the kids join in and make it your summer stretching time. Kids love to do stuff like this and you will be setting such a great example for them!

Because of the way we typically move, sit and stand, human bodies have the most tightness in the lower back, hip flexors and hamstrings. Here is a quick and easy stretching routine to hit these major areas. Ease into each stretch and hold for at least 20 seconds; think "relaxing, slow and controlled."
Hip Flexor: This is where your quad attaches to your hip.) Stand tall with your right hand on the wall for support. Bend your left knee and raise your left foot behind you. Grab your left foot with your left hand. Keep your knees in the same plane and a small space between your heel and your left glute. Think about pressing the top of your foot into your palm while pushing your hips toward the wall in front of you to feel this stretch from the top of your knee all the way up to your hip. Hold with a nice, tall, straight posture and then switch sides.
Hamstrings and Back: Stand with your feet hip width apart and your knees ever-so-slightly bent (soft knee). Slowly round your back and reach for the floor. Hang your head so that you are looking at the wall behind you and feel this stretch in your hamstrings while you decompress your back.
Back: Sit with your heels on the floor and your toes pointing up to the ceiling. Spread your feet and bend your knees enough so you can grab the bottoms of your feet. Drop your chin to your chest and round your upper and lower back as you pull against your feet to stretch across the back of both shoulders and all the way down to your lower back.
Hamstrings: Keeping your hands here, sit up tall and slowly straighten your legs as you feel the stretch move to your hamstrings. When you can't straighten them anymore, exaggerate the straightening of your back by sticking your chest out to increase the stretch on your hamstrings. (You may not be able to reach as far with a straight back.)
Back/Core: Release your feet and sit with a tall torso, left knee bent and with your left foot flat on the floor. Put your right hand on your left knee and twist your body to the left. With your shoulders and upper body relaxed, hold and then switch sides.
Finish: Lie on your back with your arms out to either side, your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Drop your knees to the floor on the left side while keeping your shoulders on the ground. Relax, hold and then switch sides.

Stretching:
~Reduces muscle tension which leads to...
~Decreased stress.
~Increases range of movement in the joints.
~Enhances muscular coordination!
~Increases circulation of the blood to the body which leads to...
~Increased energy levels.

I like to separate my workouts from my stretching sometimes because it puts my health back on the forefront of my thoughts, where it should be. It puts me back in touch with my body. When I am stretching, I imagine my muscles getting longer and releasing their tightness of the day. I picture them to be like the guy's in the muscle poster: sturdy, strong, pink and healthy. I always finish with a tall glass of ice water and a renewed gratefulness for what my body can do and for its ability to get me through each day.

This Week's Goal

Water is your body’s best friend. A well hydrated body is the perfect environment to build lean tissue, i.e. muscle. And the more muscle your body has, the more calories you will burn while you are resting. The problem is getting these fluids in; most people walk around their entire lives in a semi-dehydrated state. Isn’t that crazy?! A non athlete of any age needs half of their body weight in fluid ounces each day. So my 90 pound son needs 45 ounces of liquids each day. I can count his meal time milk in this number and I can also count 100% fruit juice (no sugar added). If he has the rare soda, it does not count. Other things that don’t count are drinks loaded with refined sugar, coffee that has real cream in it and any coffee that is over 16 ounces. So your first two cups of coffee do count toward your total fluid intake if you don’t use cream. After that the caffeine acts as a dehydrator and your fluid intake will need to be increased to compensate for it.

Now, I know that none of you fall under the non-athlete category; you guys are active! To keep things simple, this is when we go to urine color to check our hydration level. Fluids should be taken continuously, all day long (think of a slow i.v. drip) so that urine remains slightly tinted yellow.

It is interesting to first go through a day simply taking note of how much you normally drink and comparing it to what the guideline is. You may feel like you are getting along just fine where you are, but if you are even 2% dehydrated, you have a 20% decline in performance. You surely can get away with this, but I am talking about what is optimal for your body. You wouldn't wash 5 loads of laundry with the same batch of recycled water. It would get darker and murkier as you went along and the clothes wouldn't get clean at all. Give your body new, fresh water to work with everyday. Your body is approximately 60% water. Water is used in every single chemical reaction in your body. It is the most important nutrient that your body gets; so important in fact that you can only last about 3-5 days without it.

Now that you are all produce-aholics after last week's fruit and veggie goal, increase your fluids and give your body what it is thirsting for. Good luck!

Does It Work?

I was walking uphill on the treadmill the other day at the gym and there was in infomercial on the tv selling TonyHorton's"10 Minute Workout" program. After watching for a bit and seeing several before and after photos, the girl next to me said, "do you think that really works...ten minutes?!"

Well, sure it works; in fact all of the workout programs out there work. The main secret to their success is that they all pitch the importance of following a healthy diet in conjunction with their exercise program. The program gets you to move your body in some way, shape, or form on a consistent basis. They try to make it sound like this will be the key to your succcess~only ten minutes of moving~but the real key to your success will be moving consistently while following their sensible diet plan. They spend 95% of the time talking about how quick and effective the workout is and then spend only a minute or two talking about the nutrition portion of the program. Think about it: if they spent a big chunk of their commercial talking about the healthy eating required, no one would buy the program. Healthy eating takes thought, planning and discipline. People know that and they hate that. But without that, fitness only takes a body to a certain level (not a very high level at only ten minutes a day!) and it hovers there indefinitely until the nutrition gets in gear. People will consider committing to a ten minute exercise program, yet they won't commit to the healthy diet that they know is important to their body's function. Why is that? Why the resistance? It continues to baffle me.

And here's me, a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, and forever-proud gym rat saying that the nutrition is more important than the workout. Wow. But really, my body wouldn't last through my workouts without good nutrition to back it up. I am always working out to achieve some sort of fitness goal, so if my workouts failed, I wouldn't reach my goal. The nutrition helps my workout, the workout helps my goal. I love that commercial for a post-recovery workout shake (can't remember the name) that has a bunch of pro athletes saying something like, "You're not done working out until you refuel. Finish your workout and then finish your workout with ________ recovery drink." Love that. It very simply supports the ever-important nutrition piece of the puzzle. These professionals are serious about their nutrition, why shouldn't you be?

The next time you see an exercise infomercial, watch it through to the bitter end and you will always see a quick little blurb about following the sensible diet that is included with their program. They all do this: P90X, Hip Hop Abs, Slim in 6, TurboJam Maximum Results, etc. They know that their programs won't work if they are followed by a greasy, sugary, processed diet. The programs that don't include a sensible meal plan are the ones that don't work.

This Week's Goal

How many servings of fruits and veggies do you eat? You should be getting at least seven everyday. Fruits and vegetables are loaded with vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fiber and clean calories that your body needs to function optimally. They also contain lots of water which will help in your ongoing quest to stay hydrated.

Getting them all in sounds hard, but when you look at exactly what a serving size is, you will see that it can be done with just a little bit of tweaking.

Each of these listed below counts as one serving:
~1 medium banana
~6 medium strawberries
~15 grapes
~1 inch thick slice of watermelon
~tennis ball-sized apple, peach, orange
~1 cup of blueberries
~10 baby carrots
~5 broccoli florets
~baseball-sized pile of green salad
~1 small boxof raisins
~12 grape tomatoes
~6 asparagus spears
~6 oz. fruit or veggie juice

Box them up and throw them in your purse, add them to your oatmeal, keep them washed and ready in a bowl in your fridge, mix textures (combine the crunchy with the juicy and the creamy), freeze 100% juice for an icy treat; be creative and do whatever you need to do to make it convenient to eat them up. Summer is the perfect time to become a produce-aholic. I love to browse through my grocery store's produce section this time of year and see the mountains of strawberries, blueberries and watermelon. It's enough to make fruit freaks like me giddy!

Not all motivating workout songs have to be fast paced and peppy. There are a few slow songs on my playlist that really get me going even though their tempo is rather slow. There is something about the methodical, underlying pulse of these songs that revs me up and makes me feel strong and fast. Maybe it's their message, maybe it's their anthem-like feel, I don't know but I love when these songs start to play on my Ipod and I hate when they're over. I thought I would pass on some of these not-so-common workout songs for your next sweat session. Enjoy!

Halo~Beyonce

Thunder Road~Bruce Springsteen

It's Only Life~Kate Voegele

Spirit in the Sky~Norman Greenbaum

Falling Down~Muse

Me and Bobby McGee~Janis Joplin

Shameless~Billy Joel and Garth Brooks both sing this song very well, but in my opinion, Garth's version is better.

To make a change in your body, you have to make a change in your lifestyle.

Think about that: you can't just wish for it. And if you do the same things over and over again, you can't expect different results.

Make a change to see a change, people.

Plank Perfect

So yesterday, I taught a quick 15 minute ab class. Let me tell you that I haven't been this sore through my core in a long time. Here is my favorite and infamous plank series that I always feel the next day!

1. side plank w/dips

~lie on your side with your right elbow directly below your right shoulder, and your feet and hips stacked. Come up into a side bridge. This side plank is your starting position. Dip your right hip down to the floor and back up to the starting position for 20 reps.

2. plank w/hip twist & dip

~come up into your starting position of a standard plank, facing the floor, on your toes and elbows with your elbows directly below your shoulders. Still working on that right side, rotate and lower your right hip to the floor and then return it to the starting position. Do 2o reps.

3. repeat your side plank dips and twist & dip planks on the right side for 15 reps each and then 10 reps each before you switch to begin on the left side.

The beautiful thing about the plank is that it hits your upper body and lower body while slamming your core. It is one of those wonderful time-saving exercises that works lots of muscle groups at the same time. Be sure to keep your head and neck in a neutral position, especially in the side plank when we tend to bend at the neck.

Kid Power Space Is Going Fast

There are only three more spots available in Session One of my Kid Power Sports Speed Camp which starts in June. Sign up at World Gym, Leonardtown today to claim yours!

Session Two starts in July and has six spots left; plan ahead and reserve yours now. My Florida kids had a great time learning how to push their bodies and work out safely.

KID POWER IS HERE!

Okay, my MD friends...I am running my "Kid Power" Sports and Speed Camp for boys and girls ages 9-14 starting June 16th. It will be on Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 8:30-9:30 am at World Gym in Leonardtown. The three weeks (6 classes) will cost you $40, paid in advance. You do not need to be members of World Gym to register/attend.
I have run this clinic 3 times down in FL, and each time it was a huge success with waiting lists for each session and many back-to back attenders. My Kid Power kids have made me so proud with their focus and enthusiasm. It's amazing to see how much they accomplish in three week's time~so rewarding!
This clinic is designed to improve your child's speed, strength, agility, and flexibility. It will instill a solid foundation for safe and effective weight lifting while giving your child an edge in his or her sport of choice. And for the non-sporty kids, Kid Power is a great chance to introduce them to an active lifestyle and to show them what their healthy bodies are capable of. The clinic is focused and structured, but still fun and interactive. I stress the importance of individual improvement versus competitiveness while challenging every fitness level. Register now at the front desk~for effectiveness and sanity's sake, space is limited to 10 kids!

Here We GO!!

Okay, so it’s been a while…yikes. School had me completely swamped since late January. Any spare time I had between the kids, Brian and gym time~teaching and working out, I spent studying. And if I wasn’t studying I had extreme guilt that I should be studying. I am proud to say that I got 3 As and 1 B this semester, and most importantly, I am done until September~hooray! With all of this behind me, I am back to blogging and I will be updating regularly again.
Today I taught a strength/cardio circuit class and I wore a BodyTight PT shirt that says “Body By Me” on the front. I was thinking about that phrase as I ran around spotting and teaching my class. I was thinking that everyone should wear a “Body By Me” shirt because you are responsible for the body that you have. Again: you are responsible for the body that you have. Sure we all have flaws that are innately beyond our control, but we can control the strength and fitness level of our bodies. The way we treat our bodies, with regard to nutrition, activity, stress and rest, directly affects what our bodies will look like and how they will perform. Someone who eats poorly, exercises little and doesn’t balance stress and rest will be wearing a “Body By Me” shirt over brittle bones, weak muscles, overworked organs, a tired heart and a sluggish body. I say, “yes indeed, that body is by you.”
So what kind of body are you carrying around? A body that would make you proud to wear a “Body By Me” shirt? No? Well get there, gosh darn it; it’s your body, why wouldn’t you?