Diets through the years

History of Diets

There have been many crazy diets through the years starting with a vinegar and water diet.  Is that any less crazy than the HCG diet that was popularized recently?

This article touches on how much diets have changed over the years.  Take a look and see how far things have come. 

Quick Fix Society

It seems like we are always looking for that quick fix, that one magic pill that will help us obtain the body we always wanted.  We live in a fast paced society that wants solutions yesterday, however when it comes to the game of fat loss and getting healthier, its a slow and steady race.  No one wants to hear that because its not what you want to hear.  You want to hear "oh you can drop 10 lbs in 5 days" which isn't realistic and I always hear comparisons to The Biggest Loser, where they drop like 10-15 lbs a week.  Again unrealistic.  First off, that's their full time job, 7 hrs of working out, second, they have people cooking for them, third, their weight loss can be attributed to fat loss, muscle loss, and water weight, so the show isn't great to compare yourself to. 

Anyway I'm stopping myself before I go on a complete BL rant.  My main focus is the fact that we are now bombarded with ads for medication that will help with weight loss. 

Ever hear of Alli, Sensa, or Lipozene?  I see commercials for these 3 all the time. 
Alli is a lipase inhibitor, meaning it blocks your body from absorbing fat that you eat.  Only problem there is that eating fat isn't the main reason you're overweight or obese.  Yea it could be partially to blame, but my guess is its the overeating that's doing it.  Second problem is that your body needs to absorb fat because contrary to popular belief your body needs fat to function.  Specifically neurological function.  Blocking fat absorption also affects the absorption of several key vitamins, like A, D, E, and K, all fat soluble vitamins.  Not to mention all the possible side effects that come with taking this medication.  Which leaves me asking, "is it really worth it?'  Or could you just clean up your diet and get a little more active. 

Sensa is an appetite suppressant designed to trick your body into thinking its had enough to eat.  Basically since you cant control yourself around food, sprinkle this on top of it and poof, you wont eat as much.  You still could eat garbage, but at least it wont be as much. 

Just one last example, Lipozene.  I'm sure you've seen the commercials.  What it really is is glucomannan and what it does is form a thick, viscous paste in your digestive system which could give you the feeling of being full.  Sounds pretty safe right? 

So pills aren't the quick fix.  No duh!!!

Lets take a look at 2 other "surgical" solutions that provide a quick fix.

Bypass surgery and now news of this food pump. 
Bypass surgery usually works, but if there is no change in dietary habits, the weight can come back, and in most cases it does.  The body is quite resilient and can adapt to any situation.  If you continually over eat or eat crappy foods, your weight loss will still hit a snag, or even worse, go in reverse. 
This food pump is just insane.  It pretty much allows you to continue your bad dietary habits, but guess what, you can hook up a bag and drain about 1/3 of the food you just ate.  So binge and then drain before you absorb all the fat.  Why not just throw up?  Seems about the same to me.  Is this the new kind of bulimia? 

What happened to actually putting in the effort to train hard, eat right, and get results?  Leave out the quick fixes that usually don't end up working in the end, and do what you know is right.  Everyone knows what they SHOULD do, but never get around to actually doing it. 


Stay Active! Get Moving! Perform your best!

Motivational Monday

Today's motivation is less of a quote and more a motto to live by.

"Strive to get 1% better every day. Small improvements add up in the end."

No matter what, do your best every day. Every day won't be perfect but if you can make it 1% better than the day before, you're ahead of the game

Fitness Friday

Fitness Friday


50 tips for fat loss.  The last one is my favorite.  You control what you put in your mouth.  If you want success, you are in complete control, no one else.  The best training program is worthless if what youre eating is garbage.
http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Blog/tabid/130/EntryId/1174/Fifty-Fat-Loss-Tips.aspx


I would also add something to open up the chest and move increase shoulder mobility like wall slides and some sort of glute/piriformis stretch.  But yea, get moving while at work and fight against those bad posture habits.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/559401-work-out-at-work-yes/

Motivational Monday

"Great moments are born from great opportunity"

 

 

I love this movie.  Not only because its a hockey movie, but there;s just so much inspiration to be drawn from it. 
This team didn't belong in the game.  They didn't have the talent to win this game.  But they did.
Hard work, and taking advantage of a great opportunity brought on one of the greatest moments in sports history. 

This is your time, go out and take it


Stay Active, Get Moving, Perform your best!!

Fitness Friday

Fitness Friday is back with some awesome articles.  If anything i recommend the 4 articles by Molly Galbraith.  They are amazing and super helpful.


If you're struggling with your results and progress, maybe you should seek out a nutritionist to help clean up the diet aspect of your life.  Remember weight loss starts and ends in the kitchen and you cannot out train a crap diet.
http://www.hivehealthmedia.com/top-8-reasons-visit-nutritionist/

Myths of weight loss.  There's way too much misinformation telling people the wrong thing
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/myths-of-weight-loss-are-plentiful-researcher-says/


Part 1 and 2 of breaking through plateaus
http://mollygalbraith.com/blog/weekly-reader-question-8-bust-through-your-fat-loss-plateau-part-1/
http://mollygalbraith.com/blog/weekly-reader-question-8-bust-through-your-fat-loss-plateau-part-2/

Part 1 and 2 of measuring progress by not looking at the scale and finding other ways to measure success.
http://mollygalbraith.com/blog/measuring-progress-beyond-the-scale-part-1/
http://mollygalbraith.com/blog/measuring-progress-beyond-the-scale-part-2/

Soda is just not good for you no matter if its regular or diet.  They both screw you up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/diet-soda-diabetes-risk-type-2-artificially-sweetened-sugar_n_2663247.html

Stay Active, Get Moving, Perform your best!!

Stop taking NSAIDS!!

NSAIDS

I've written about this before, linking to an article on T-Nation by Brad Schoenfeld, who is awesome by the way, mostly because I think it's very prevalent amongst clients to take some sort of pain reliever because they are sore. Soreness is a good thing. It's your bodies natural response. It's gonna happen.  Deal with it. 
Taking NSAIDS is only going to delay full muscle/tendon/soft tissue repair and in the long run, that it's a bad thing. A very bad thing. We want full recovery.

Sure pain meds will take away the temporary pain from muscle soreness, but at what expense to your long term success. Even worse are the possible negative effects NSAIDS have on your gut, and really is it really worth popping a few pills to ease the pain that will go away in a day anyway?

Looking out for you everyday.

Stay Active, Get Moving, Perform your best.

P90X cert?

In the latest edition of what the hell are we doing as an industry comes a P90X certification. Are you serious?

I get it, its a great home workout and has no doubtingly helped thousands of people get in shape.

I have three issues with this. 
One it is a home workout system.  Has society gotten so lazy and unmotivated to do things on their own that they need a "trainer" to put them through the P90X workouts? 

Why would any fitness professional want to use this and pawn off someone elses program?

Lastly is my issue with big gyms that will certainly offer this as a group class and get members and prospective members all hyped up on a name,(and whats bigger than P90X right now) and over promise on results and under deliver.  This happens with many group classes that gyms offer. 
I see this as trying to "cash in" on the name. 


I get that P90X is trying to broaden their product and appeal to trainers. I get it.  If we have trainers buying this certification, then we can sell the licensing name to the gyms and the trainers.  Its a great job by the makers of P90X, I just hope that we as an industry hold ourselves to a higher standard than taking an at home program and using it in the gym.

Its funny I had a conversation about this a few months ago about how gyms in NYC were starting up "P90X" classes, where they would just copy the DVD workout and sell it to their members as a group class.  It really does seem like a money grab to me. 

Im already prepared for the counter argument of "oh what about TRX, ViPR, or Kettlebells?"
Yea those are tools in the bag for trainers to use with their clients.  Its not a premade program.  Yea I learn certain exercises using those tools, and I have, but an entire at home program?  Somehow i feel that is a little different. 

Do you agree?  Or is this P90X cert another tool in a trainers bag of tricks?

Motivational Monday

“When you say “It’s hard”, it actually means “I’m not strong enough to fight for it”. Stop saying its hard. Think positive"



I hate when people say "it's too hard" or "I can't do it.". Fight for it.
News flash: not everything is easy.

Especially when it comes to reshaping you body. It takes hard work and sometimes you have to do what is hard to get something you really want.

So get out there, suck it up, and work hard.

Get Off Your Butt

Move your butt!!  You can't afford not too. 

With reference to the common theme of this blog about moving more, and not sitting as much comes this article about replacing a lot of sitting with standing. 
When you sit, a lot of muscles "turn off" and become inactive.  I cant tell you how many times I have to retrain a clients glutes to fire doing bridges.  Usually i get the quads firing or the hamstrings taking over resulting in massive cramping throughout the muscle.  Hip extension is a primary movement performed by the glutes.  When they are not firing properly, or even at all, it results in imbalances. 

Anyway, back to the article.  What it boils down to is that our muscles are inactive about 7.5 hours a day.  More specifically, the muscles that control movement, quads, glutes, and hamstrings.  The advice this article gives is to stand more, thus resulting in some contractions through the muscles of the legs and a more cumulative daily muscle activity. 

Stay Active. Get Moving.  Perform Your Best

Motivational Monday Get Moving

You only get one body, its up to you how you use it. I choose to use mine for movement.

640 muscles in the body, more than 250 joints combining to keep you moving, keep you active. How are you choosing to use your body?

Stay Active, get Moving, Perform at your best.