The Fitness Guru

We all try to do the right thing. Time and again, I will ask people, “which is healthier, an apple or a Snickers bar?” There isn’t much confusion. As tempting as the Snickers bar might be, we all know that the apple is the healthier choice. The problem is that we are offered so many choices throughout the day that, if we’re not careful, we can be making bad choices without even knowing it.

Take, for example, heading off into a restaurant. There are certain words that we recognize as healthy: salad, smoothie, grilled etc. We hear those words and immediately think, “ah, that’s a healthy choice.” And we try to teach our kids to recognize the same words as being preferable food choices.

So what happens when it turns out that one of those “healthy” buzz words is actually packing more sugar than you know what to do with? All of the sudden, a healthy snack could turn into two or three days worth of dessert.

Diets that are high in sugar can lead to weight gain and various weigh-related diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. To address some guidelines, women should probably keep their sugar intake to 25 grams per day; men to 37.5 grams per day; and children to roughly 6 grams per day.

So MIchael and Elle decided to have a look at a very popular smoothie to see how much sugar is in each serving. As Elle mentions, smoothies are drinks with fruit and vegetables– sounds healthy, right? But have a look and see just how much sugar can be found in these smoothies…… and before you watch, take a little guess, knowing what you now know about recommended daily intake.

For more healthy ideas, join the Fitness Guru community on Facebook. And if you have any questions about family health and fitness, shoot me an email at Michael@fitnessgurunyc.com and Elle and I will try to answer it in an upcoming video.

Rock on!!

As most parents know, getting our kids to drink water can be a little difficult at times. One reason is that water spends far fewer dollars on marketing than most carbonated sodas. Another is that, in the grander scheme of taste spectrums, water can come across as boring. And that makes perfect sense– soft drink companies spend millions to develop tastes that keep consumers coming back for more.

So in an effort to make water a little more fun, Michael and Elle experiment with some natural flavors. Check it out……. and if you have your own creative ideas to make water more enjoyable, shoot me an email at dad@fitnessgurunyc.com.

As many of you may have heard by now, Paula Deen, the celebrity chef known for her Southern menu of high-fat cooking, has come forward to announce that, not only does she have Type 2 Diabetes, also known as “adult onset” diabetes, but that she is also partnering up with Novo Nordisk in a campaign to promote their diabetes drug, Victoza.

Hmmm…..where to begin?……

We could begin with the fact that Ms. Deen has kept her condition quiet for a few years. Certainly, it is a personal issue and need not be discussed publicly. That is, until it is time to collect a check from a major pharmaceutical company.

We could begin with the fact that she continued pitching her brand of cooking– high-fat and high-sugar– when her condition could have prompted her to come forward and help create a change in the way many people view their plates and indulge their palates.

We could start by saying that she is the victim here and that the diet does not necessarily cause diabetes, that there is a genetic factor that must be taken into account.

Here’s where I’ll start: yes, there is a genetic factor and it is unfortunate when people develop this illness later in life. But serving up a menu of buttermilk fried chicken is beyond irresponsible. If there are individuals, Ms. Deen included, who are genetically predisposed to type 2 diabetes, then her manner of culinary expertise is the equivalent of a loaded cross bow– may not kill ya, could kill ya but maybe not. And her response to the accusations of irresponsibility? “I always preach moderation, y’all!” As if adding her li’l southern “y’all” is just going to make it so damn cute, well, hell, let’s just drop the whole thing. We’re talking about high fat and sugar contents. Moderation is pretty tough with these substances that our brains crave. And once our taste buds become trained to seek these foods, it becomes even harder. So the idea of a great frisee salad with a side of buttermilk fried chicken is pretty amusing.

No, this irresponsible individual decided to keep right on serving up her Southern cuisine, avoiding the high road and the ability to initiate change. That is until she is given the opportunity to make some money pitching Victoza. Hey, anybody mention that FDA has warned about possible thyroid cancer in animal studies? I know, I know– the animals were probably going to get thyroid cancer anyway so a little bit of the old drug, in moderation y’all, ain’t going to do all that bad, will it?

Anthony Bourdain, another celebrity chef with no shortage of opinions, went off the deep end about Deen. “I would think twice before telling an already obese nation that it’s okay to eat food that is killing us,” he told TV Guide in an interview, calling her “the worst, most dangerous person to America.” I love Anthony Bourdain. But it’s a bit much. I don’t think she is the worst. In an age of ponzi schemes, it seems like she has stumbled onto a culinary cash cow– selling the poison and the cure.

But what do you think? Time for a poll…..

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‎“I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”"- Muhammad Ali

Today is Ali’s 70th birthday! A tip of the hat to the Greatest, a man whose athletic achievements are so famous that they need no mention on this page. He has been called by many the most famous person on the planet. If that ain’t the truth, it certainly is close.

In an attempt to celebrate the man, I searched for a quote to post on the Fitness Guru Facebook page and I came up with the one above. The man has had many, many famous quotes, but this one hi me hard this morning, I think, perhaps, because we are still in the midst of the Resolution Revolution.

Here’s the thing about working out: it just isn’t pleasant. Not in the traditional sense. Sure, there is the endorphin high (and my friend Chris writes about the biochemical effects of exercise brilliantly in his book, The Athlete’s Way). But for the little investment that you make working out on a regular basis, you will feel better. The effects of exercise on every aspect of your life are tremendous: more energy, less pain, even psychological benefits like…..what’s that word?…….joy!

So maybe you won’t be calling yourself Champion for the rest of your life (but you should). The quality of life will be improved greatly simply by exercising. So as we get deeper and deeper into the Resolution, and all your friends who started out the year with the very best of intentions start to drop by the wayside, remember the words of the Greatest. Have a workout or two where you don’t care about calories or burn or sweat. Do it just to get the blood flowing. Your body will thank you, your mind will thank you. And, most importantly, it will keep you solidly on track this year, making it the healthiest year of your life.

Rock on!!

With the holidays right around the corner, I thought I would give you some great ideas for presents and stocking stuffers for those fitness enthusiasts and wanna-be-enthusiasts in your life. Have a look…. and if you have any ideas you want to share, let me now with a comment below!!

The Pelican i1050 iPhone Case:
Having problems working out with your iPhone? The Pelican i1050
case offers water resistant, crushproof and dustproof protection for your iPhone, iPod touch, Blackberry and other smart phones. Fitted rubber liner cradles your music player to protect it from damage. Easy-opening, lockable latch releases lid; mesh pocket under lid helps organize small items like earbuds. Earphones plug into protective right-angle jack on side for no-fuss listening; built-in cable manager holds earphones and cable. There is also an exterior carabiner clip and strap attachment point.

The Garmin Forerunner 405:
For the runner in the family who wants to take it up a notch, here ya go…..with the Forerunner 405
, Garmin has finally put thepower of GPS location-based date into a sleek sport watch that can be worn all day. Runners no longer have to choose between function and fashion. Garmin’s ANT + Sport wireless platform that wirelessly sends your data to your computer and a touch bezel that lets you change screens with a simple tap (no more fumbling for buttons) run make this not just a leap forward in GPS-enabled fitness devices, but in training devices period. Forerunner 405 comes in two color options — black or green.

Powerblocks:
If you enjoy working out at home, but don’t enjoy the idea of having four or five pair of dumbbells littering your bedroom floor, check out Powerblock. I’ve been loving these adjustable dumbbells for years. Two simple dumbbells will give you a variety of various weights, starting at 3 pounds and moving all the way up to 125. The perfect exercise answer for home workouts!

Gloves:
My personal favorite of the season. How many times are you outside running and jumping about and a less-than-thrilling song comes on? You have to take off your gloves to fumble with your digital music device. No more! Not with the North Face E Tip Gloves
!! The design of the finger tips allows you to use your touch screen with your gloves on!! No more chilly hands just to have better music!! There has to be a Nobel Prize in that somewhere!

DVD:
Stuff that loved ones stocking with The Fitness Guru presents Everyday Pilates!! The five different workouts on this DVD will get you in tip top shape with the Fitness Guru right in the comfort of your own home! Happy Holidays!!

On Monday,The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) announced that they are entering into a partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA “to provide a turnkey customization of three Journey books (the national Girl Scout leadership curriculum) that will offer a focus on health and wellness. This will enable Daisies, Brownies and Juniors to learn how to be leaders who take care of themselves and inspire others to do the same.” Awesome!! Our children are in need of pro-active strategies to help fight very unhealthy trends that have just been gaining momentum over the past few decades. One British study I read recently talked of the growing waist circumference in children under 14. And all these facts are extremely disturbing, as they lead to life altering health issues down the road. Steps must be taken to help our kids, and partnerships such as this one are fantastic steps in the right direction.

But…….

(you know, at times I hate being the “half empty, half full” guy)

…..are these the same Girl Scouts who are wandering hill and dale selling their cookies by the pallat-full. Yes. And some of those cookies are wonderful little snacks that are, by and large, not all that bad when eaten in moderation. But many of those cookies are still baked with high fructose corn syrup. Now, there is the ever present debate that maybe, just maybe, high fructose corn syrup isn’t the evil entity that some people fear it to be. That scary old house on the corner is just in need of a new coat of paint. I don’t want to enter that debate– though, I will note that obesity trends increased at a RIDICULOUS rate moving forward from the early 1980′s when high fructose corn syrup was introduced as a sweetener in processed foods. The Girl Scout web site says that they leave it to their bakers to decide on ingredients for the cookies, and that the corn syrup is necessary to give the cookies that wonderful crispy brown coloring.

Okay…….

But I’m not buying. Girl Scouts: I salute you for getting the ball rolling. You are responsible for the development of many of our children and helping them grow into the strong women of this nation. But don’t pass the buck and say you leave it up to your bakers to make these decisions. If you are committed– and I mean TRULY committed to the well being of our kids (and, let’s face it, some of the adults end up eating the cookies too)– then take the bull by the horns and start making serious changes. Create healthier cookie options; educate the consumers as to the fact that cookies are a treat and should be consumed according to the serving size (anyone every read the serving size on the side of a cookie box?). Or how about finding a new means for the Girl Scouts to raise funds that drive the healthy message home? Yes, cookies have a low production cost and high sales appeal and you can sell millions and millions of boxes. But dammit, if you are going to try and build this message, build it from a firm foundation and drive it home. Anything less is hypocritical.

Rock on!!

Maybe you’re just starting an exercise program or maybe you have been at it a very long time, but in either case, the idea of hiring a personal trainer may have crossed you mind. It is always great to have a personal trainer, for two main reasons: technique and motivation. A well-educated instructor can help you develop an exercise program that is geared toward helping you attain and maintain your goals, teach the program in a way that is efficient and specific with regard to safe technique and motivate you to help inspire you past obstacles that might otherwise stop you dead in your tracks.

Though opinions may run from “uncertain results” to “unnecessary luxury”, both of which I understand, there are many instances when hiring a personal trainer may be in best interest.

• Starting a fitness program.

If you have decided that now is the time and you want to get going, but you are not too certain as to how to begin, a trainer can help you create a program that best suits your needs.

• Plateauing

If you’ve been working out for a while, and at the outset you saw fantastic results but now you are sort of coasting, a trainer can help you with new ideas and insights that can help lift you off that plateau.

• Training for something sports-specific

If you’ve decided that it’s time to run that half-marathon or marathon, or maybe a triathlon is in your future, a trainer who specializes in these sports can help you train safely and efficiently for best results.

But buyer beware! There is a very low barrier of entry into the world of professional personal training: there is no set state or federal criteria that dictates who may call him or herself a trainer. Therefore be very thorough when starting out looking for that special someone.

• Education

There are many different forms of trainer education, from weekend internet certifications through PhDs in exercise science, and everything in between. Find out as much as you can about your potential trainers background and then go home and do a little research: what criteria did they have to fulfill to become certified? How much time was spent in the education process? Do they seek out forms of continuing education and further certification to learn more about how to help you? Remember: you’re trusting your physical well-being to this person. Make sure they have understanding of how the body works.

• Discussion

Have a talk with this person before the session. Tell them what it is you want to accomplish and find out how they work. Remember: you are interviewing, not just being interviewed. It’s important that they ask questions to learn about you, but it is just as important that you also ask questions about their background.

• Game Plan

Once you have had the conversation, discuss what the course of action will be. And listen to what they have to say. Do you feel that they are proposing a game plan that takes into account both your present condition and your goals? The key to a personal trainer is the word “personal”. If you feel you are simply being sold a bill of goods, this person may not be right for you.

Keep in mind that when you sign up for training, you don’t have to sign up for an indefinite period — such a thing can be costly in terms of time and money. But even two or three sessions with a really good trainer can help you get started, get out of your rut, or start out on a whole new experience that you had never even considered.

And lastly, remember: when you do hire the trainer, you are hiring them to educate and motivate you, not to do the exercises for you. Learn all that you can and put that knowledge to work for you. No brain, No gain! And that will take you where you want to go.

If you have any questions about trainers, or anything fitness or nutrition-oriented, shoot me an email at michael@fitnessgurunyc.com.

Rock on!!

Staying hydrated is always a challenge when you are facing a regular program of exercise. It becomes even more challenging when the weather is sooooo hot and humid. So how do you know if you’re dehydrated? Check it out……

It seems that every couple of months I keep coming back to the idea of walking. Would it be too much to say that we all probably take walking for granted?

But, amusingly, walking can be the fast track to better health and weight loss– or, at the very least, weight management.

How many steps do you think you take in a day? I mean regular steps, from the moment you stumble out of bed in the morning until the moment you fall back into the same bed at night. My bet is not as many as you think.

Our days are filled with all sorts of gadgets and gizmos that make day-to-day survival much easier. I’m always amused by the looks on my kids’ faces when I regale them with stories about how we used to get up off the sofa and walk across the room to turn the channel on the TV ( the looks get even more amusing when I tell them about the three channels we had to choose from– ah, the good ol’ days….). Nowadays, you don’t have to get up to change the channel, check the weather or even have a cheeseburger delivered right to you– it can all be done from one frozen, sloth-like position on the sofa.

But all those steps that we’ve given up have all added up to those extra pounds that we’ve put on. So whereas decades ago you have to walk to do or get just about anything, such is not the case today.

So what’s the answer? 12,000 steps. 12k is the magic number that will help you turn your life all kinds of healthy. If you are already fit, 12k is that magic number that will keep you on the straight and narrow. And if you’re looking to get healthier, perhaps lose some weight and gain some strength, 12k is an awesome number to shoot for.

Does that mean you have to stop when you reach 12k? Heck no, I say. You can keep going. But I think if you were to gauge how much you are walking now, you would find that the number is far short of 12k. How do you gauge? Pedometer. Relatively inexpensive and fantastic at giving you a very good sense of how much you’re walking in any given day. (Click HERE to find a Pedometer)

So give yourself the Walk Test: strap on a pedometer for a week and see how far you’re walking. And then start to strategize fantastic ways of increasing the steps you take– like getting up to change the channel.

Change is as simple as taking the next step.

Rock on!!

Four years ago, only one state had an obesity rate over 30%. Now, in a new study just published, twelve states top 30%.

The obesity epidemic continues to be most dramatic in the South, which includes nine of the 10 states with the highest adult obesity rates. States in the Northeast and West tend to have lower rates. Mississippi maintained the highest adult obesity rate for the seventh year in a row, and Colorado has the lowest obesity rate and is the only state with a rate under 20 percent.

Here is the state-by-state ranking:

STATE-BY-STATE ADULT OBESITY RANKINGS
Note: 1 = Highest rate of adult obesity, 51 = lowest rate of adult obesity. Rankings are based on combining three years of data (2007-2009) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to “stabilize” data for comparison purposes. This methodology, recommended by the CDC, compensates for any potential anomalies or usual changes due to the specific sample in any given year in any given state. States with statistically significant (p<0.05) increases for one year are noted with an asterisk (*), states with statistically significant increases for two years in a row are noted with two asterisks (**), states with statistically significant increases for three years in a row are noted with three asterisks (***). Additional information about methodologies and confidence intervals is available in the report. Individuals with a body mass index (BMI) (a calculation based on weight and height ratios) of 30 or higher are considered obese.
1. Mississippi (34.4%); 2. Alabama (32.3%); 3. West Virginia* (32.2%); 4. Tennessee (31.9%); 5. Louisiana (31.6%); 6. Kentucky** (31.5%); 7. Oklahoma** (31.4%); 8. South Carolina* (30.9%); 9. Arkansas (30.6%); 10. Michigan* (30.5%); 11. Missouri* (30.3%); 12. Texas** (30.1%); 13. Ohio (29.6%); 14. North Carolina (29.4%); 15. Indiana* (29.1%); 16. Kansas** (29.0%); 17. (tie) Georgia (28.7%); and South Dakota (28.7%); 19. Pennsylvania (28.5%); 20. Iowa (28.1%); 21. (tie) Delaware (28.0%); and North Dakota (28.0%); 23. Illinois** (27.7%); 24. Nebraska (27.6%); 25. Wisconsin (27.4%); 26. Maryland (27.1%); 27. Maine** (26.5%); 28. Washington (26.4%); 29. Florida** (26.1%); 30. (tie) Alaska (25.9%); and Virginia (25.9%); 32. Idaho (25.7%); 33. (tie) New Hampshire (25.6%); and New Mexico (25.6%); 35. (tie) Arizona (25.4%); Oregon (25.4%); and Wyoming (25.4%); 38. Minnesota (25.3%); 39. Nevada (25.0%); 40. California (24.8%); 41. New York (24.7%); 42. Rhode Island** (24.3%); 43. New Jersey (24.1%); 44. Montana (23.8%); 45. Vermont** (23.5%); 46. Utah (23.4%); 47. Hawaii (23.1%); 48. Massachusetts** (22.3%); 49. Connecticut (21.8%); 50. District of Columbia (21.7%); 51. Colorado* (19.8%).

To read more about the study, click HERE