Category Fit Attitudes

Making Regular Exercise A Priority

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I wish I had the time

I freely admit that I chuckle to myself whenever I hear people say that they wish they had the discipline to work out on a consistent basis. It’s not that I am insensitive to the rigors of busy schedules, because I spend my days running from place to place, multitasking and barreling through tons of tasks, errands and responsibilities. But I set aside about two hours per day, six days per week, to go to the gym, and I train HARD and HEAVY every time. The main reason why I am so consistent about hitting the gym consistently is that it is a priority, as important as brushing my teeth and showering on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, I look forward to my gym sessions as a way to begin each day, which is why Sunday, my rest day, is a bit rough for me and throws me off my usual daily pattern of waking up and heading straight to the gym.

Perhaps you are one of those people who believes that there isn’t time to work out, and you continue to allow your schedule to annihilate any chance of working out. The thing is, if you actually made working out a MUST instead of something to fit into your schedule as it allowed, you would find a way to get your butt to the gym and follow a plan. I have definitely noticed that people who want to reach certain fitness goals are much more successful in reaching them when they follow a specific regimen which provides guidance and structure. Making promises to yourself like, “I will go to the gym on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 6 am to 7:30 am”, or “I will drive straight to the gym after work every day” can be a great start to adding discipline and consistency, but you need to follow through and hold yourself accountable.

I am not kidding when I say that you need to put your workouts into your schedule! Enter your workouts on your iPhone or your Google calendar so that you have the time blocked out in your schedule. Don’t allow other things to interfere with the time you have allotted for exercise either, because when you do that, you reinforce the idea that exercise is not that important and can be pushed off. Those of us who are committed to a fitness way of life don’t allow life’s little hiccups to interfere with our gym time. It’s that simple.

The Value Of Having A Meal Prep Service

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As a competitor and fitness professional, I follow a clean meal plan throughout the year, regardless of whether I am training for a competition or just going through an off-season maintenance or growth plan. I am very familiar with the hassle of earmarking an entire Sunday afternoon to prep all my food for the week. For the past few years, it had become such a ritual that I planned my weekend around it, despite the fact that it cut into my time significantly.

Thankfully, there are meal prep services which do all the prep, freeing people from the shackles of the kitchen. Some people complain that such services are expensive, but when the costs of buying pre-measured and prepared food from one of these companies is compared to the costs of buying all the ingredients and spending half a day cooking them, the difference isn’t that significant. Ordering from a meal prep service takes the guesswork out of planning clean, healthy meals, and it is an incredible timesaver!

Check out MAW Nutrition Inc. for a completely clean meal prep service which offers protein, carb and veggie options a la carte so that you can fully customize your meals! This is great if you carb cycle or practice a certain degree of variation within your meal plan. For example, I will alternate between turkey loin and beef loin for one of my meals, and I have two days during the week when I spike my carb intake.

When ordering, enter the code NAITO10 at checkout for 10% off your order!

http://www.MAWnutritioninc.com

Red CJ’s Elite Suit For Sale…Great Price

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This beautiful suit gave me a lot of good luck, with a first place finish and an overall at NPC Pittsburgh and a fourth place finish at NPC Masters Nationals. This is a $1,300 suit!

As time went on I added about $150 worth of Swarovski crystals to the suit to make it pop more onstage, with the result being a dense crystal scatter. The cups will fit a full D cup and the bottoms will fit someone who wears a size zero. When I competed in this suit I was 114 to 116 lbs., 32 inch hips, 35 inch booty. However, I also currently fit in this suit, and am 121 lbs., with a 36-1/2 booty.

PRICE: $250

Women’s Health & Fitness: Relationship-Based Solutions For Female Clientele Of Any Age

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Please click on this link to read the original blog submission for the month of May in which I was a featured contributor:

http://us9.campaign-archive2.com/?u=2a517c301526ee432715a7f55&id=a975e73eed&e=fe80cede46

Many women can often be intimidated by health club or gym environments for a multitude of reasons. Women who don’t have a clue how to use unfamiliar exercise machines may find the experience of navigating through a whole collection of them rather terrifying.

As if that isn’t enough, some women question their ability to perform exercises with the necessary degree of coordination, balance and strength. Other women may hold onto the common misconception that lifting weights will make them extremely muscular and masculine, so they will shy away from free weights and weight machines, opting instead for more aerobic style activities. What is remarkable is that once these women are educated on the importance of regular exercise and proper nutrition, they experience profound health benefits which impact every aspect of their lives.

Gym owners who are willing to make an effort to address the unique concerns of women have a wonderful opportunity to build trust in their female clients, while also potentially increasing revenue by offering classes, training packages, classes, supplements and apparel which are designed for women.

If one-on-one training is offered at your facility, make sure to develop a group of trainers which can motivate female clients and address their unique concerns without making them feel inadequate or overwhelmed. Women also tend to have more questions about how to eat healthy, and often practice chronic caloric restriction which their bodies eventually adapt to, making it more difficult to drop those last few pounds, so it also makes sense to offer nutritional advice or refer female clients out to a dietician or nutritionist who is affiliated with your facility. Once the clients begin to experience physical and mental transformations, they become great cheerleaders for the gyms in which they train.

On a personal note, I am a proponent of weight training and supportive nutrition, especially in older individuals. One of the cruel consequences of aging is that a progressive loss of muscle occurs, beginning as early as one’s 20’s. I explain to clients that resistance training and an increase in protein intake are both critical for combating the insidious deflation of muscle and sagging skin which are the dreaded signs of advancing age.

It is important to make clients aware of the fact that resistance training will increase muscle-fiber diameter and overall strength, as well as naturally boost growth hormone and testosterone levels in the body.

Such hormonal and metabolic boosts can be incredible blessings for a menopausal woman who has been riding the unpredictable and often uncomfortable wave of hormonal decline, which is fraught with hot flashes, mood swings and, insomnia.

Basically, it is never too late to begin strength training!

For more information on age-related muscle loss in older women, please read my feature article in the September 2014 issue of Muscle & Body Magazine.

Which Is More Effective For Weight Loss: Diet or Exercise?

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As a physician and fitness professional I regularly evaluate people who want to lose weight and have often been asked whether diet or exercise is more effective in helping them to reach their goals.  If I had to choose which type of weight loss strategy was more important, I would say that about 80 percent depends on diet.  In fact, research has shown that the majority of weight loss programs which focused on dietary changes produced 2-3 times greater weight loss than programs focused on exercise.  However, long term management of weight loss can be optimized by a consistent exercise program. 

The fact is that most people are prone to consuming foods which contain large amounts of fat, hidden sugar and salt, and preservatives.  Quite often the portions consumed at one sitting are so large that the body ends up in storage mode which can lead to weight gain.  By becoming aware of the value of nutrient-dense foods and re-patterning one’s eating habits so that such foods form the foundation of a daily meal plan, long-term weight loss and maintenance of a healthy weight can be accomplished.  However, the media pushes “quick fixes” by promoting severe caloric restriction and plans which are nutritionally unbalanced, thus creating a state of malnutrition.  For this reason I discourage fad diets as they almost invariably cause rebound weight gain to occur.  There are also different types of pills which by various mechanisms can assist in weight loss.  However, a number of such products can have deleterious adverse effects and should be taken with caution, if at all.  I do make an exception with thermogenics, which, if used properly, can serve as an effective aid in weight loss. 

But what about exercise?  It is true that exercise can often stimulate hunger, but it also boosts metabolism, has a positive effect on brain function, and builds muscle.  There is also some evidence that intense exercise may lower levels of ghrelin (an appetite stimulant) while raising levels of peptide YY (which suppresses appetite).  In other words, if you plan to incorporate exercise into a weight loss regimen (and I highly suggest that you do), make sure to engage in workouts which are intense and challenging.  One caveat:  the aforementioned satiating effect on hunger is short-lived, so don’t be surprised when your body begins to crave food in an effort to replenish depleted energy stores.  Before you begin to think that exercise is a bad idea when trying to lose weight, consider this: apparently, frequent exercise restores sensitivity to brain neurons that control satiety, thus placing you more in tune with your hunger signals. 

Over the long term, the combination of smaller, more frequent meals, nutrient-rich foods and regular exercise can act as an insurance policy of sorts which will protect your weight loss or weight maintenance efforts.

New York Pro…In New Jersey?

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15nypro-winners

This year’s New York Pro was held on a Sunday, which is rather unusual since bodybuilding events characteristically take place on a Friday or Saturday. Another odd feature about the date selected for the New York Pro was that it coincided with Mother’s Day. I can’t imagine trying to tell my mother that I couldn’t come out to see her on Mother’s Day because I had to compete on that day! At any rate, there was a great turnout for this event:

11 Men’s Bodybuilding competitors
11 Men’s 212 competitors
44 Men’s Physique competitors
32 Women’s Physique competitors
34 Figure competitors
22 Bikini competitors

I find it odd that the New York Pro was moved to Teaneck, New Jersey this year. I have nothing whatsoever against Teaneck, because I won my Pro Card there, but it makes no sense to keep calling this event the New York Pro if it no longer takes place in New York.

Regardless of the name and location of this highly respected bodybuilding event, some very worthy competitors won titles and Olympia qualifications for 2015:

Men’s Bodybuilding: Juan Morel
Men’s 212: Guy Cisterino, Jr.
Men’s Physique: George Brown
Women’s Physique: Michelle Cummings
Figure: Latorya Watts
Bikini: India Paulino

http://www.flexonline.com/ifbb/2015-new-york-pro-results-are?t=2

Clean Eating or Eating Disorder?

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Muscle-Building-Dietfood-and-exercies

Most people are familiar with anorexia and bulimia, but there is a lesser known eating disorder which has high prevalence in the world of competitive bodybuilding.  Though it is not classified as an official eating disorder, orthorexia meets the criteria of one:  obsession, social isolation, and emotional lability.

Orthorexia is an obsessive-compulsive disorder which involves an obsession with healthy eating.  The orthorexic will go to great lengths to avoid foods which contain substances he determines to be unhealthy, such as fats, preservatives, processed foods, etc.  For an orthorexic individual, the focus is on the quality of food, which is in stark contrast to the anorexic’s focus on quantity.  Frequently this disorder may begin as a normal diet or an effort to eat in a healthier fashion, but after some time is taken to the extreme.  In the quest for pure, clean foods, the sufferer becomes obsessed and self-imposed food restrictions become a primary focus.

The distinction between normal individuals and orthorexics is that the health conscious person will practice moderation and won’t wallow in guilt if they indulge in a food which may be deficient in healthy nutrients.  In contrast, the orthorexic individual will obsess about the quality of food and will feel extremely guilty after straying from a self-imposed rigid diet.

Physical Signs and Symptoms of Orthorexia:

  • Because orthorexics limit themselves to foods they deem healthy, they may appear emaciated or malnourished

Behavioral Signs and Symptoms of Orthorexia:

  • Social isolation
  • A tendency to eat alone
  • Aversion to certain foods which have been deemed dangerous or disgusting
  • Criticism of people who don’t engage in healthy eating
  • Experience extreme pleasure in eating properly
  • Feel guilty when they deviate from a rigid diet
  • Strong desire to eat forbidden foods when under stress
  • Has difficulty eating foods prepared in a restaurant or by another person

Medical Signs and Symptoms of Orthorexia:

  • Malnutrition
  • Hypotension
  • Weakness
  • Calcium deficieny
  • Anemia in those who avoid animal protein
  • Decreased gastric motility
  • Abdominal bloating
  • Constipation

An essential element in contest preparation for competitive bodybuilding, physique, fitness, figure and bikini divisions is rigid meal planning.  As a result of this, competitors often dance along, and sometimes cross, the fine line that separates clean eating from a psychopathological relationship with food.  When taken to the extreme, sufferers may experience medical signs of malnutrition similar to anorexia.  While it is common for a competitor to experience feelings of guilt when a specific contest prep meal plan is not adhered to, warning flags should go up when a competitor becomes so obsessed with such transgressions that compensatory behaviors are adopted, such as excessive cardio sessions, laxative usage or starvation.   If such behaviors are commonplace for an individual, behavioral intervention will become necessary in order to restore one’s emotional and physical well-being.

Since prepping for competitions places excessive pressure on an individual and underscores the pursuit of “perfection” in the sport, orthorexic behavior may be so irresistible that it is rationalized as a necessary component of one’s prep.  This in and of itself makes orthorexia particularly insidious and dangerous.