The most recent statistics for those who sit for 11 hours or more during the day having a 40% increase in dying within the next three years compared to those who sat for less than 4 hours are scary to say the least. Pretty scary if you are someone who sits at a desk for most of the day.  What are your choices?  How do you prevent from being a prt of these statistics?  Join the revolution, the ‘RANDOM ACTS OF FITNESS” revolution.  It’s about finding opportunities during the day to stand up and get more movement in.  Walking the extra few feet in the parking lot, store or wherever.  Taking the stairs instead of the escalator.  Some may think this video below is stupid and a waste of time.  If you do than you should be reading something else.  But in light of the most recent stats posted about sedentary living and mortaility, I see it as anything but stupid.  I see it as life saving.

Find opportunities during the day to get more movement in.  You’ll feel better, have less joint and muscle pain, have better circulation, sleep better due to the increased work and the list goes on and on.

Here is a link to a very good tomato, barley and chick pea soup my wife and I made last week.  We made a double batch because we weren’t sure how much that would yield, or how much we would consume at a time.  It turned out to be more than we needed, but that is okay we froze some of it and will use later on in time.  After the 2nd say we could experience the ” cleansing” affect from the fiber content in the barley.  And… that is a good thing!  The average western diet doesn’t contain enough good dietary fiber sources.  Here is a list of where most of the dietary fiber currently comes from for the average American.

COMMON SOURCES FOR AMERICANS

1.  White flour

2.  Potatoes

Pretty short list huh?  And it isn’t due to the fact that these foods have a high fiber content, it is mainly due to the fact that we are consuming high amounts of these foods.  Legumes only make up 6% of the fiber intake for the average American.  Here is a list where our fiber should come from on a daily basis.

1.  Beans

2.  Split peas

3.  Lentils

4.  Dried prunes

5.  Orange

6.  Apple (with skin)

7.  Strawberries

8.  Figs

9.  Pears

FIBER AND FAT LOSS

Fiber increases dietary bulk, decreases  energy density and decreases energy intake.  So, you take in less food to get same amount of energy and consume less food in overall.  This would certainly help the 75% of Americans who are over-fat.  A diet rich in plant based foods/fiber have also been shown to decrease cardiovascular risk and type 2 diabetes risk.

*  Avergae current consumption for americans = 15 grams/day for men.  13 grams/day for women.

*  Ideal consumption for Americans = 40 grams/day for men.  30 grams/day for women.

Here is a great 5 minute meal that should ideally be consumed after a strength training, or anaerobic conditioning workout when the metabolism is elevated and nutrients can be used for repair.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup skim milk

Dash salt

Dash cinnamon

1/2 cup berries (fresh or frozen, your choice of berries)

Splenda or stevia, to taste

1 scoop vanilla protein

Combine oats, milk, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Microwave for one minute, stir, then microwave for one additional minute.  Stir in berries and stevia or splenda.  Allow the oatmeal to cool slightly before the protein is added.  Very hot oatmeal can damage protein powder, causing it to lump and sour.  Once oatmeal is warm ( but not hot) add protein and mix completely.  Makes one serving.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Per serving

Calories 580

Protein (g) 45

Carbohydrates (g) 83

Fiber (g) 14

Sugars (g) 20

Fat (g) 7

SFA (g) 2

MUFA (g) 2

PUFA (g) 3

omega-3(g) 0.2

omega-6 2.1

You’ve seen Survivor on TV?  You’ve seen Fear Factor and the MTV Challenges?  But you’ve never seen the CORE Boot Camp fitness scavenger hunt.  BOOM!  Here is the low down:  Two teams of 6 players competed against each other to gather the most fitness equipment.  The team with the most fitness equipment/poundage won the competition.  The playing field was a (just under) a half mile around playground.  Kettle bells, dumb bells, water bags, battling ropes and medicine balls were scattered all over this field.  The object was for each team to collect the most equipment in pounds.  There were a couple of stipulations:

1.  Each team had to travel as one unit.  Meaning, the team couldn’t separate and gather multiple pieces of equipment at once, they had to travel together without leaving each other’s sides.

2.  Each team could only collect one item at a time.

So, after 30 minutes of running between 100-300 yards out and back, it became the survival of the fittest.  A test of endurance.

Here are the team’s respective piles of equipment they had assembled after about 45 minutes of action.

Here we have a team working very nicely together to score some very good points by picking a 40 lb water bag and returning it to their pile.  Nice score team! 

More good team work as this team decides to carry a 70lb sled, as opposed to dragging or pushing like it is intended to be.
 

As we have seen, team work was a big theme of the day for our competitors.  Here the ladies do a nice job bringing a battling rope in from about 300 yards out.

Lastly, we see the competition taking it’s toll.  This is one of the last runs in and you can see fatigue setting in. 

We do one event like this each month between the months of April and November.  An event that is outside of the normal exercise class format that really challenges people physically while providing a fun atmosphere.

It’s all good clean fitness fun!

Check out our website and sign up for your free trial:

www.newtonmabootcamp.com

INGREDIENTS

Olive oil cooking spray

4 oz smoked turkey ” ham “, chopped

1/3 chopped onion

1 handful fresh spinach ( or 1/3 cup frozen, thawed and drained)

1/3 cup mushrooms. sliced

1 cup eggbeaters, plus one whole omega – 3 egg beaten

1 slice fat free cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

Stir fry the chopped turkey, onions, spinach, and mushrooms in a skillet coated with cooking spray on medium high heat for 3 minutes, until spinach becomes dark green and condensed.  Add the eggs and cheese to the skillet and continue stirring for an additional2 minutes, just until eggs are cooked.  Makes 1 serving.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

PER SERVING

Calories (K/cal) 408

Protein (g) 58

Carbohydrates (g) 14

Fiber (g) 4

Sugars (g) 7

Fat (g) 12

SFA (g) 3.6

MUFA (g) 4.5

PUFA (g) 3.9

omega 3 (g) 0.59

omega 6 (g) 3.03

Fruits and vegetables provide an alkaline load to the blood. Proteins and grains provide an acid load. Too much acid without alkaline will lead to bone strength and muscle mass loss.

Don’t Wait until it’s too late, or until something bad happens.  The recent death of Davy Jones has opened many people’s eyes.  So far all accounts have reported he was a vegetarian and very active with exercise.  There maybe some other skeletons in the closet, or older skeletons from his younger days.  Nonetheless he has passed and it is tragic.

I was just abut to start with a new client a couple of weeks back on a Tuesday.  The Monday before his wife called me and left a message on my voicemeail saying he had suffered a mild heart attack and needs to postpone starting a program until he is recovered.  This gentleman is in his 60′s.  Why has he waited this long to make lifestyle changes?  Why wait to improve your life and longevity?  Why wait until something bad happens?  So many people do it week in and week out.  Unhealthy meal planning, sedentary living etc.  These are the only two things we have complete control over when it comes the overall good health.  Diseases like cancer and luekemia can strike without warning no matter what your lifestyle is.

If you’ve read my bio on this site you will know that my father passed away due to a heart attack at the age of 45.  A very young age.  This was before people knew what a calorie was, before we knew what high cholestorol was, when you were considered weird if you were spotted running for exercise down the street.  With all the information and awareness we have today about health and fitness it is irresponsible to not make every effort you can to obtain a healthy lifestyle.

I often get a lot of questions and concerns about what kind of fat clients have around their midsection.  It comes mostly from the wives of my mail clients.  The concern is whether or not the extra inches around their waist is visceral (dangerous fat) or subcutaneous (less dangerous).

Subcutaneous fat – Can be grasped with a pinching action by the fingers and pulled away from the body.  It’s softer.

Visceral fat – is intertwined in the organs of the body, deeper and harder to touch and harder to grab with a finger pinch.

The big reason visceral fat is so dangerous relies on the concept of lipotoxicity. Unlike Subcutaneous fat, visceral fat cells release their metabolic products directly into the portal circulation, which carries blood straight to the liver.  As a result, visceral fat cells that are enlarged and stuffed with excess triglycerides pour free fatty acids into the liver. Free fatty acids also accumulate in the pancreas, heart, and other organs. In all these locations, the free fatty acids accumulate in cells that are not engineered to store fat. The result is organ dysfunction, which produces impaired regulation of insulin, blood sugar, and cholesterol, as well as abnormal heart function.

The good news is that visceral fat yields fairly easily to exercise and diet,  with benefits ranging from lower blood pressure to more favorable cholesterol  levels. Subcutaneous fat located at the waist — the pinchable stuff — can be frustratingly difficult to budge, but in normal-weight people, it’s generally not considered as much of a health threat as visceral fat is.

MEASURING YOUR LEVEL OF RISK

The most accurate method is to use computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the amount of visceral fat. But they’re expensive and require sophisticated equipment.

A far simpler method is to determine the waist-to-hip ratio. With your abdomen relaxed, measure your waist at the navel. Next, measure your hips at their widest point, usually at the bony prominences. Finally, divide your waist size by your hip size:  Waist (in inches) / Hips (in inches) = ratio

How does your ratio translate into health risk? The chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke increases steadily as a man’s ratio rises above 0.95; for women, risk begins to rise above 0.85.

The waist-to-hip ratio is a very useful tool. But many experts are now turning to an even simpler technique: waist circumference. Because it involves one measurement instead of two, it’s more accurate and reproducible than the waist-to-hip ratio.

To measure your waist circumference properly, take your shoes off and stand with your feet together. Be sure your belly is bare. Relax and exhale. Using a cloth measuring tape that can’t be stretched, not the stiff metal tape from your toolbox, measure your waist at the navel. Be sure to keep the tape parallel to the ground. Record the measurement to the nearest one-tenth of an inch.

Measuring your waist to learn if you have abdominal obesity and excess
visceral fat is easy — but doing something about it is much harder.

Remember the basics. The only way to reduce visceral fat is to lose weight —
and the only way to do that is to burn up more calories with exercise than you
take in from food. Sustained weight loss requires both caloric restriction and
increased exercise

The BMI is more complex, but waist measurement is more prone to errors than
measuring height and weight. So for the time being, you should use both
standards. Your BMI will give you the best estimate of your total body fatness,
while your waist measurement will give you the best estimate of your visceral
fat and risk of obesity-related disease.

RESOURCES:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Womens_Health_Watch/2010/August/taking-aim-at-belly-fat

I’ve been working with this client since the fall of last year.  He had told me that he had tried to start an exercise program in the past with trainers and on his own but could never get started due to hurting himself.  This left him hesitant to try again and certainly made him timid about working with a trainer.  When I first started with him he was very tight around the hips and glutes.   I had him on the foam roller and when he got on it for the very first time, the look of anguish on his face was memorable to say the least.  It was hard to get anything done with him because even the slightest bit of exercise seem to bother an old injury whether it be muscle or joint related.  So, for the first month of training we did nothing but myofascial release with the foam roller, mobility drills, flexibility exercises and core activation.

Now, we have him doing some very aggresive modalities like dumb bell complexes and tabata protocols.  Here is what he has to say about his experience.