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…..

Okay. Here we are. 2012.

What’s your Resolution?

I’m not going to bore you with the statistics on Resolutions and how many people drop their health and fitness Resolutions before the end of January. There really is no need: you all have friends who you have watched make and break those promises. You may have made the promises to yourself, only to decide in the first few weeks of the year that life was better without being burdened with all those chains.

But the start of the New Year is a brilliant time to turn over a new leaf. Here’s the catch: the leaf is delicate and if you turn it over with a big iron fist, it’s going to tear (oooooh imagery!). Most of us will come out of the gate way too fast and burn up just as quickly. We try to change everything we are eating, we try to workout far beyond our personal capacity, and the reward at the end of the day is exhaustion and a sense of defeat.

So enter Zen. We all know Zen. It’s that thing where you sit and stare at a stream.

Well, yes, but a little bit more. Zen is a school of Buddhism and the word itself is a derivation of the Sanskrit word for “meditation”. Part of the Zen practice is a voyage of introspection, discovering the nature of oneself. It is a slow and patient journey, one that leads the practitioner to enlightenment. Here’s the catch: there is no time line for enlightenment. If you wanted to enroll in a 12-week course in Zen meditation because the teacher promised enlightenment at the end of 12 weeks, I’d say stay away. That’s not the nature of the beast.

So how does that relate to your Resolution? We tend to attack our Resolutions like a hungry animal. We are driven by some sense that we are lacking something, some quality (think “thin”) and assume that if we take all our energy and throw it in some direction, we will attain that missing element. It’s firing a shot gun at a target while blindfolded. Some people who are patient enough will keep firing the shotgun and eventually hit something. But most of us lose our patience.

I had an interesting talk with a young woman the other night. She had just had a baby eight weeks ago and she and her husband decided to sign up for personal training sessions at their local gym in order to get in top shape for parenthood. Her husband wanted to take off a few pounds around his middle (let’s call it his sympathy belly) and put on some upper body muscle. She wanted to 1) recover from the physical exhaustion of pregnancy and childbirth and 2)prepare for her first half marathon she is going to run in May. Excellent goals for both of them. The trainer had them doing exactly the same workouts, which consisted of heaving around lots of weight.

What?

Yup. So she is tired and sore and ready to throw in the towel, while her husband, somewhat less frustrated, is hoping that he will get the results that he is paying a great deal of money to have.

This is a situation where the trainer is blindfolded and firing a shotgun at the clients, hoping that his particular pattern of training will help them achieve their goals.

Ain’t going to happen.

Back to Zen. The first step is patience. It doesn’t take any sort of thought or plan to get out of shape. We can do that very easily. But to get yourself in shape takes a great deal of thought and knowledge, both of the science itself and of your own body. You don’t have to enroll in any sort of graduate program, but you do have to become more introspective. Most people will say that they eat healthy, but when pressed, have no idea how many calories they consume daily; rarely get their recommended intake of fruits and vegetables; miss out on all the joys of fiber; and tend to snack as though the snacks don’t count. Workouts are an all-or-nothing affair that leave them depleted and drawn to all the wrong foods when they sit at the table.

So the three steps to the successful Resolution:

1. Journals. Keep track of what you eat by writing it down. Yes, there are apps you can use to track your food, but most of us will never open the app as often as we open our mouths. Go the old fashioned way and write it down in a notebook with a pen. Then seek the advice of a nutritionist who can help you sort out the patterns you have created and give you a little guidance as to how to change course. Don’t get involved in someone who wants you to visit every week for the next 400 weeks. That isn’t necessary. What you need are some simple steps to get you on the right track. It’s all about a little education.

2. Spend some money on a skilled trainer. And buyer beware. You know that uneasy feeling you get when someone is trying to sell you a car and it just doesn’t seem right? Do you buy the car? Well, just because someone has pumped up biceps and a wash board stomach doesn’t mean that they are a quality trainer who can help you with your personal situation. Ask question, take a trial session. And if it doesn’t feel right, speak up or move on. Otherwise, you’ll end up deflated and depressed like my new mom friend.

3. Patience. I can’t stress this enough. It took you a while to get out of shape. It’s going to take a while to get into shape. Don’t expect huge changes in a few short weeks. In fact, if you have huge changes in a short period of time, you are far more likely to snap back like a rubber band and find yourself in exactly the same position next January. Create a three month fitness schedule for yourself. Try to vary the workouts across the board: take a class, throw a frisbee…..it’s not just logging mindless hours on a treadmill. Place the workouts at times when you know there is little chance you will have to reschedule. But set it up for yourself in advance, so you see the path that you are going to follow. This is going to make it far less likely you will consider each workout an all or nothing event.

And if you have questions, hit me with them, sooner rather than later. Nothing worse than fitness frustration. michael@fitnessgurunyc.com

Rock on!!

In a new study authored by two researchers at American University, there is a link drawn between the growing obesity epidemic and increased stress and a sense of powerlessness and insecurity. The authors, Jon D. Wisman and Kevin W. Capehart, point out that on the calorie intake side, economic progress and technological dynamism have increased incomes and lowered the price of food, prompting greater consumption. And on the calorie expenditure side, economic progress and technological dynamism have reduced energy expenditure doing physical labor, while also decreasing the need to expend calories to move about (automobiles, remote controls, etc.).

But, simultaneous with this growth, is the growth of greater societal stress. Many of the economic safety nets developed in the 1960′s have started to erode in the past 30 years, leading to a greater feeling of instability and economic unease.

And all this stress leads us to our foe, cortisol. I have written about this hormone many times. Often, I feel like cortisol is the Professor Moriarty to my Holmes. Cortisol is one of those great Darwinian developments. Thousands of years ago, when we were hunting antelope on the open plains, cortisol was a fantastic gift. In the event we were unable to find food, our bodies would release cortisol, which in turn, would trigger our bodies to hold onto fat. This fantastic chain would help prevent starvation during those times when the antelope proved just a little smarter than the hunters.

Over the centuries, we have outsmarted the antelope: first we developed bows, then guns, then Quickie Marts on every corner where we could buy blueberry muffins and Super Large Slushies 24 hours a day. Success! Hunger slowly becomes a thing of the past. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell cortisol. So in periods of high stress, our bodies STILL release the hormone, taking those muffins and converting them to fat which the body then fights to hold onto. High stress + high fat/sugar foods= obesity epidemic. And epidemic it is, with 7 out of 10 adults in the United States now overweight or obese.

So whacha gonna do? In the midst of creating that super fitness routine and rigorous eating plan that are going to help you shed the pounds, you must also develop that third part of the magic triangle: some form of stress reduction. Some people find that going for a run helps combat their stress. Others find that sitting and meditating is the best form of stress reduction. It may take some experimentation, but finding that means of stress reduction is going to be key to your successful weight loss.

Here’s a great place to start. Check out the Fitness Guru Relaxation podcast. Yes, it may drive you nuts. You will actually have to sit and breathe and relax. But, hey, it’s a starting point. And from that starting point you can start to experiment with what works for you.

Relax and rock on!!

The Fitness Guru

 

www.fitnessgurunyc.com

In the five year period from 2005 to 2010, the number of businesses approved to take food stamps increased by a third, according to the US Department of Agriculture. USDA records show food stamp benefits swelled from $28.5 billion to $64.7billion in that period. So that means there is big money at stake.

Entering into the picture is Lousiville-based Yum! Brands. Don’t know Yum!? Yes ya do. They’re the big parent corporation of some of my favorites: Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Long John Silver’s. Yum! Is lobbying hard to get restaurants more involved. What’s at issue is the fact that Food Stamps are not allowed to be used for prepared foods. However, an amendment to the rule in the 1970′s allowed states to allow restaurants to serve disabled, elderly and homeless people. Now the good folks at Yum!, smelling billions of dollars of blood in the water, are making a play for a piece of the pie.

Now, as The Fitness Guru, I would hope that Food Stamps would be used in the best interest of health. Fast food doesn’t fall into that category. Many health advocates would agree with me: by giving people easier access to fast food, we are increasing the likelihood of further health problems down the road and an even greater economic problem. But the pro-restaurant lobby would argue that many people don’t live near fresh food supplies. (Author’s note: that argument bugs the hell out of me. Maybe it would work in 1853, but in 2011, with one out of five New Yorkers on Food Stamps, that argument doesn’t wash).

Four states– California, Arizona, Michigan and Florida– have all allowed restaurants to accept Food Stamps.

So here’s today’s question:

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……

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

A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that sleep deprivation led to increased calorie consumption. What does that mean exactly? It means that as you deprive yourself of a full night’s sleep, the result can be that you will eat more the following day.

The reason is not as simple as “well, I have a little more time on my hands, maybe I’ll grab a bite.” Sleep deprivation plays with two key hormone levels: leptin and ghrelin. Grehlin is a clever little hormone that increases your hunger. Skip those extra couple hours of shut eye and your grehlin levels increase, convincing your body that you are hungrier that necessary. And leptin, a powerful little hormone that tells your body its full and shuts your mouth, drops dramatically. In other words, your appetite will increase and there won’t be the usual shut off valve.

Interestingly, among the test subjects, the activity level of the people who slept fewer hours was much higher than the activity level of those that had a full night’s sleep.

But most of the activity was going to and from the refrigerator. And they were very grouchy and humorless.

So? What to do?

Get your 8 hours of sleep. If it is an issue for you, try a White Noise Machine (it will drown out all the annoying sounds that can wake you up before your time) or even the Olde School Sleep Mask.

The key is to remember we are talking about biochemistry here. You may think that you can get away with fewer hours and just try calorie restriction, but in the end, the hormones will get the better of you. That’s what they are there for.

So sleep up!……and rock on!!

You can’t pass a newsstand, or even go on many of the popular web sites, without being barraged by “New Celebrity Diets”. You can have so-and-so’s waist and whats-her-names legs. Even many of the really good fitness publications, like Men’s Health, will show you how you can Ryan Reynolds’ abs if you just do these four exercises and eat oatmeal for the rest of your life.

And for the most part, I don’t pay attention. If I did, I’d go nuts. It’s a part of the popular culture and I always reassure myself that is something people will try on, but probably not develop as a lifestyle. Distracting, yes, but rarely immediately dangerous. (article continued below)

Then a friend sent me an article from the Daily Mail. The journalist, a very funny writer, having been inspired by bikini pictures of Gwyneth Paltrow, had decided to go on a 30-day plan designed by Gwyneth and her trainer, Tracey Anderson. Now, Gwyenth is an actress– I thoroughly enjoyed her performance in “Shakespeare in Love”– and Tracey is her trainer who has achieved some notoriety working with her and Madonna et al. This journalist followed th 30-day plan, which included focusing her eating on only seven different foods and a substantial amount of exercise. And she found that she started to feel weak, often feeling like she might blackout, and her body changed, though not as she had anticipated– her hair lost its luster and her nails became brittle. She visited her doctor and found that she had been surviving on about 700 calories a day, and her protein and calcium intake were dangerously low. Not the healthy of choices to be sure.

Wandering into the world of Celebrity Diets, it is incredibly important to remember that these stars are in the business of looking a certain way: when they are not filming a movie, they can spend hours every day exercsing and be fed on a very regular basis by personal chefs. That is, very unfortunately, not possibly for almost all of the rest of us. So what do we do?

I contacted my friend, Dr. Mike Moreno. Mike is interesting because he is a celebrity in his own right: his book, “The 17 Day Diet“, has been very popular and Mike has been a guest on many talk shows. But Mike is first and foremost a doctor. He wrote the book because it was drawn from years of working with patients one-on-one and helping people develop healthy habits. Here’s what Mike said: “The goal of any good diet plan should focus on reestablishing a healthy relationship with food again. This includes food types, portion control, and strategic placement of these foods in our busy lives. The body is a complex entity, but with a little discipline and a structured, yet reasonable meal plan, and a little bit of exercise, success is inevitable.”

Think of your body like a car: put sugar in the gas tank, you ain’t going far. Weight and health are a result of balance in our lifestyles. If you go in any one direction, either binging on all the wrong things like cake and ice cream, or starving yourself on 700 calories a day, your body is going to respond very poorly.

The best way to achieve balance is not be reaching to extremes, but by simplifying: remove all the foods you know you shouldn’t be eating from your diet and replace them with whole foods. Yes, I know that takes some thought and some work. But if you want good health and you want the change, you need to invest in yourself.

Not sure what those bad choices are? Educate yourself. Seek out reliable literature (this does not include US Weekly) to learn more about nutrition and, if necessary, speak to an educated professional who has the ability to communicate with you and help you with your personal needs.

The most important factor: have faith. A little education, a little focus and patience and you will find that success can be yours.

Do you have any questions or comments regarding Celeb Diets? Shoot me an email at michael@fitnessgurunyc.com.

Rock on!!