The Fitness Guru

Ooo It’s mid-afternoon! Almost time for that mid-afternoon snack! Whacha gonna have? Bagel? A couple of Twizzlers you found stuffed in the back of your desk? How about a muffin?

I’ve often told clients that muffins are the baked good of Satan. Calories and fat hiding, masquerading as baked wholesome goodness. But this muffin takes the cake.

Ladies and gentlemen…….the Double Chocolate Chunk Muffin from Au Bon Pain.

Sure, it looks harmless enough, right? It’s just a muffin, right?!? How bad can it be?!? Really…….

Well, let’s take a look:

• Calories 620
• Fat 25g (sat 8g)
• Sodium 540mg
• Sugar 47 g

Mmmmmmmmmm………..delicious! And why not? The damn thing has been constructed to make you go crazy.

First the calories: at 620 calories per muffin, you could chop down two and half Snickers bars and you would almost have the same caloric intake. Also, in a healthy world of 2000 calories per day, this li’l beauty will run up about one third of your tab. 540 mg of sodium? Even with very liberal calculations, this is about a quarter of your daily salt intake. And 47 g of sugar? Ha! That’s amazing! I would think there would be enough room for anything else. It makes me want to find the Chairman of Au Bon Pain, cover his hand in honey and chocolate and make him eat it. Honestly, it should be illegal to sell this sort of thing outside of a candy store……and even then…….

So buyer beware, gang. In the Satanic world of baked goods, there is a new Prince of Darkness. It might taste real good, but, oh, it’s doing it’s fair share of harm. Puttin’ the pain back in Pain.

I had a very busy weekend as the Nutrition Guru. It seems like everyone is looking to readjust their eating habits right now. I’m not quite sure what that’s about– perhaps a delayed Resolution action, perhaps the fear of Bathing Suit Season. Dunno. But it’s happening.

And whenever I get this involved in so much nutritious talk in such a short period of time, I always find myself surfing an old favorite. I check in on this site every so often just to see what’s going on in the United Eats of America.

Ladies and Gentlemen……….

This Is Why You’re Fat………., a beautiful web site dedicated to all the culinary joys of this great country.

Surprisingly, there haven’t been any entries in the past couple of months (insert your own joke here). I hope this is not the end of this stroke of brilliance. Check it out……..

In a presentation to the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a researcher reported that stretching prior to running did not help to prevent running related injuries. Chalk it up to another bold step the medial community is taking in catching up with the fitness community. Doctors, puleeese…….

In a three-month randomized trial, self-reported injury rates that prevented running for more than three days were 16% both among the 600 participants who stretched before starting their regular runs and in the 798 who were told not to stretch.

Edward McDevitt, MD, a sports medicine specialist in Arnold, Md., said that that it’s hard to imagine that stretching wouldn’t be beneficial. “I don’t have to believe every study I read,” he joked. McDevitt, who called himself an advocate of stretching, said he couldn’t find fault with the new study’s methodology but nevertheless was reluctant to accept the results. But he said the findings suggested that more research is warranted.

I’m not a doctor, just a humble country trainer, but here’s how it works: if you want your body to be prepared for exercise, you must warm the body up and send it a message that you’re about to start exercising. Stretching is great for releasing tensions and allowing the free flow of blood, fluid and nutrients throughout the body. But if you are about to run, ya gotta get those muscles fired up to work. Period.

Here’s a video we shot a while back with a bunch of great pre-running exercises…………

And if you want a great read about running techniques including warm ups, check out Chi Running by Danny Dreyer. This is the perfect book if you are looking toward improving your running technique.

ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running

But you keep researching, doctors. We’re behind you 100%

Rock on!

Lance Armstrong announced his retirement from competitive cycling yesterday.

“I really can’t say I have any regrets. It’s been an excellent ride,” the 39-year-old said. His record seven consecutive Tour De France wins will likely stand as a record for a very long time to come. His place among the great athletes of his generation, and many others for that matter, is cemented in the record books and the minds of sports fans around the globe. Add to that the brilliant work he has done with his LiveStrong Foundation, and this is a man who carries a mighty mantle with him.

Sure, the glass-half-empty people may deride the fact that he retired before, only to try and stage an unsuccessful comeback. Like so many great athletes– Michael Jordan (happy birthday, Michael), Brett Favre (whose retirement seems an annual event more consistent than Groundhog’s Day)– many people would say he should have left well enough alone and stayed retired at the very pinnacle of success in his sport.

But then he wouldn’t have been Lance. What makes Lance, and so many other athletes, so extraordinary is the drive to attain greatness. He won so many times because he believed if he worked hard enough, trained with enough intensity and wanted it more than anyone else, he could continue winning. But at some point, the athlete must lose. It is an unfortunate consequence of competition.

The doping allegations will continue to plague him, perhaps tarnishing his highlight reel. But the allegations continue to be unproven, and, last time I checked, we are all presumed innocent until proven guilty. He competed in a sport that was riddled with stories of athletes using performance enhancing supplements. Consequently, his work may always carry a whispered question mark.

But today is an opportunity to celebrate a man who was able to rise above his sport and become an inspirational story for people of all walks of life. I read his biography and was struck with his inability to accept defeat, especially in the face of cancer. He fought through illness and rose to the highest levels of performance. And, on top of that, used his incredible status to give back to others through his charitable work.

So I tip my hat: Rock on, Lance! It was great watching you!!

It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Check out the video…….

There was a great little story in the New York Times on Friday regarding trainers and teachers getting physical during sessions and classes. The article focused on yoga teachers making hands-on corrections during classes. Many people find this “touchy” approach to be disorienting at best, and down right intrusive at worst. I must admit that I have been in yoga classes where the teacher has physically adjusted me in ways that I found jarring, though I have also been in classes where the physical adjustments have been subtle and, consequently, greatly appreciated.

Physical adjustments are not just the domain of the yoga instructors. In both my personal training and Pilates practices, I tend to physically adjust people to help them better understand proper placement and activation. When I am teaching teachers, I usually spell out the concept of physical adjustment very clearly: it is absolutely necessary to make the adjustment as impersonal as possible. It is a mechanical adjustment, not the opportunity to bond. I usually tell instructors that, as much as possible, use the heel of their hands and not the fingers or fingertips, as fingers tend to make people slightly more jumpy. As for where and when to use these physical adjustments, please, please, please use some common sense. As one person in the Times article says, “It’s off-limits to approach the genitals and breasts.” Ummmmm DUH! But, sometimes, surprisingly enough, it’s not DUH.

So that leads us to today’s poll:

A little yoga, not quite hands on…….

Through the intense power of Facebook, I was alerted the other morning to a friend’s celebration!

“This McDonald got it! Oatmeal for breakfast!!!!”

Whoot Whoot! Throw up your hands in celebration! That arterial obstructionist, the Egg McMuffin is dead and in it’s place– Oatmeal! Praise Ronald!!

Well, not so fast. I did some quick checks of the nutritional content of this new menu item ( I know, I know– I’m a perpetual buzz kill. Sue me, it’s what I do). First, the oatmeal, just the oatmeal. Here are the contents: Whole grain rolled oats, brown sugar, food starch-modified, salt, natural flavor (plant source), barley malt extract, caramel color. Rolled oats we would probably expect. But brown sugar? Modified food starch? Salt? Ummmmm…….

Then there’s the cranberry raisin blend (yum!): Dried sweetened cranberries (sugar, cranberries), California raisins, golden raisins, sunflower oil, sulfur dioxide (preservative). See the word “sugar”? The light cream you can have added?: Milk, cream, sodium phosphate, datem, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium citrate, carrageenan. Hmmm….

McDonald’s is serving it’s own blend of instant oatmeal. Needless to say, some instant oatmeals are healthier than others. Some processing techniques include adding sugar and salt to the oats. ‘Tis the case with the MCDonald’s Oatmeal. But why, oh why, you ask, would Mc’Donald’s add those things to their oatmeal? The answer is because you have a sweet tooth. And if they can bring you to the counter with the promise of oatmeal, a word that echoes with thoughts of wholesome nutrition, and then serve you something high in sugar, they can pretty guarantee repeat business.

So that begs the question: just how much sugar is there in one serving of McDonald’s oatmeal with the cranberry raisin blend and light cream? That would be 30 grams. To put that in perspective, that is the same amount of sugar found in one and a quarter servings of Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough Ice Cream or a little more than a Snickers bar.

In contrast, McCann’s Irish Steel Cut Oatmeal has zero grams of sugar per serving. Zero. It’s slow cook so it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to cook. So if it’s a question of the economics of time for you in the morning, do what I do: make four or five servings of McCann’s on Sunday night, put it in a large Tupperware container and reheat one serving for yourself every morning. You won’t have the mid-morning sugar crash that will come with the instant oatmeals; you’ll feel more full for a longer period of time; and the high fiber content will do wonders for your cholesterol level. Win win win.

Rock on!!

McCANN’S Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal, 28-Ounce Tins (Pack of 4)

A new combined Australian-Texas study, published in November in The Mayo Clinic Proceedings, suggests that there is reason for great concern regarding the use of energy drinks. We’ve all seen ads for the drinks: a guy wakes up sluggish and irritable, but then he reaches into his cabinet, grabs a 5-Hour Energy, and suddenly, the world is a much brighter and happier place.

We live in a society that grows faster and faster and, with all that speed, comes the constant need to keep up. Starbucks has built an empire on caffeine (and, occasionally, the caffeine/sugar combo). Drinks like Red Bull and Rockstar up the ante. And, like any drug, the high off the energy drinks can become increasingly addictive. It’s the Need for Speed.

You may remember a movement to remove alcohol-and-caffeine drinks from the market, suggesting that was truly unhealthy. But the long term effects of the existing drinks still remains to be seen. The study makes mention of several cases of young people suffering cardiac arrests after consuming the beverages. The companies will be quick to note that those are isolated cases in a market that serves millions annually. However, I think that it’s important to note that every individual has their own personal threshold for additives like caffeine. What might be okay for me might make my neighbor sick or worse. It’s like that favorite great aunt who smoked three packs of cigarettes a day until she was 96, versus the 35-year old who dies of lung cancer. Scientists still don’t understand what creates these varying thresholds.

So, in the midst of this, it would seem that our friends at the FDA should step in and try to regulate the drinks, right? I mean, 11 and 12-year olds can buy them off the shelf and lord only knows what that will do to the developing systems. Doctors still question long term effects like cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and diabetes. The FDA is there to protect us from items in the market that might lead to long term problems.

The problem is that manufacturers label these drinks as “nutritional supplements” so they don’t fall under the same federal guidelines as other beverages. It also allows the manufacturers to use advertising appeals like “Enhances athletic performance” and “Increases caloric burn and mental sharpness.”

Doesn’t quite seem right, does it?

But then, at the same time, they sure do look happy……

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Check out the new Eating Well video, Episode 3: Revenge of the Mac n Cheese.

In this breathtaking new episode, our brave hosts explore the intricacies of Mac n Cheese. Is it possible to make Mac n Cheese that kids will enjoy filled with the nutrients that parents demand?

Michael and Elle turn to Missy Chase Lupine, author of The Sneak Chef. Missy has created dozens of recipes to help sneak healthy ingredients into kids’ less-than-health diet staples. This particular Mac n Cheese is filled with….. well, your just going to have to watch the video to find out…..

And check out the link below for Missy’s book……

Get a copy of Missy’s book today and get Sneaky!

The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals

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