Banana Split with Muscles!

Do you think there is ice cream in there? NO... but it tastes damn good, is cold and does much more for the body than ice cream ever will: )

Whats in it?
-1 Fuji Apple
-1 Banana
-1/3cup 2% Low Fat Greek Yogurt
-1tbsp Peanut Butter w Flaxseed
-1tbsp Almonds
-1tbsp Sunflower Seeds
-Dash of Cinnamon

400 calories, 30g Protein, 55g Carbohydrates, 10g Fiber, 12g Healthy Fats
*Try half the recipe if you are cutting calories.

This bowl of fun supplies a good amount of energy to get you out of that afternoon slump. The vitamin C is a great antioxidant, potassium will keep your muscles loose, and fiber will keep you regular. The healthy fats will give you sustaining energy and the protein will repair your muscles.

Try it the next time you have a craving or get tired in the mid-afternoon.

Good Dr Oz episode: Health Risks by Looking in the Mirror

Can you detect health risks by looking at your smile?

Dr Oz says you can detect high cholesterol, allergies, Vitamin B deficiencies, or heart disease if you look closer in the mirror. If you have a red/white ring around your pupil you may have high cholesterol. Remember, keep your LDL below 100 and total cholesterol below 200. You may have undiagnosed allergies if you have bumps under your eyelid. You may have a B-Vitamin deficiency if the corners of your mouth/lips are dry and cracking. B-Vitamins help to reproduce cells and will keep your metabolism up. Lastly, you may have a high risk of heart disease if you have a vertical crease in your ear-lobe! Remember to do 30 minutes of activity daily to prevent and reduce the risks of heart disease: )

What costs more Money to eat Healthy or Not?

My clients Melissa and Diana brought up a great question at dinner... Is it more expensive to eat healthy or not? I am going to compare the diet in calories and cost, the results are interesting:

Lets take an average day of healthy food for an active 180lb man or 2500 calorie diet:

Apple $.50 & 50cals
Banana $.19 & 100cals
2 packets of oatmeal .75 & 200cals
1/4 cup of Nuts .50 & 100cals
1/4 cup Raisins .25 $ 100cals
10 Baby Carrots .50 & 25cals
Celery .25 & 10cals
1tbsp Peanut Butter .25 & 100cals
2 slices whole wheat bread .25 & 200cals
2oz Turkey 1.00 & 150cals
1oz cheese .25 & 75cals
1 Tomato .50 & 50cals
1 Granola Bar .25 & 100cals
1 cup chicken soup 1.00 & 100cals
1 cup brown rice .50 & 300cals
1 Bell Pepper 1.00 & 100cals
1/2 Onion .50 & 10cals
4oz Steak 1.00 & 250cals
1 cup spinach .50 & 50cals
1/4 cup walnuts .25 & 100cals
1/4 cup dried cranberries .25 & 25cals
2tbsp Olive Oil .25 & 200cals
8oz Milk .25 & 100cals

Total $10.50 & 2500 calories
*Great source of vitamins, minerals, high in potassium, fiber and healthy fats.
**This diet will give you energy throughout the day, increase focus, help to prevent sickness and disease (the list goes on).

VS

Now, Lets take the diet of a 300lb lethargic man eating 3000 calories/day:

1 McDonald's McFrappe $2.00 & 400calories
1 Diet Coke .50 & 0calories
1 Big Mac combo meal 6.50 & 1200cals
1 bag Doritos .75 & 150cals
1 Chicken Parmigiana Frozen Dinner 4.00 & 750cals
5 Oreos 1.00 & 250cals
3 beers 1.50 & 300cals

Total $16.25 & 3000 Calories
*Minimal vitamins, minerals, high amounts of trans fats, sugar/sodium and are low in potassium.
**A diet like this will increase your chances of sickness, disease and lethargy.

You can save $5/day or $35/week or $140/month in groceries if you eat closer to the first option. Plus, eating closer to the active mans 2500 calorie diet will save time and money going to the doctor, on medicine and will save you time from increasing your productivity.

To take this investigation even further... I will look at the time accumulated to prepare and eat meals for each person in the next blog!

Here are some tips for helping your kids or significant other pack a lunch:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/menus/lunch-box-pictures1.htm

Thanksgiving Feast

Have you been training Hard with me? Then you deserve a good meal and an active recovery!

Eat up and Enjoy this Thanksgiving. Think of it as a chance to 'recharge your batteries' as my Dad would say! One of my idols Tracy Anderson and trainer to Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow writes:

"Of all of the holidays throughout a given year, the one that seems to give people the most anxiety about missing their workout (and packing on pounds) is always Thanksgiving.  I am here to tell you to not worry, to enjoy yourselves tomorrow, and to eat all the stuffing and pumpkin pie that you need.  It's only 1 meal out of the year, and as I mentioned in my previous post, our social and emotional connection to food is so strong and it is important to not deprive yourself of the family table.  Don't make 100 calorie stuffing, reduced fat gravy, or gluten free pie (trust me, you will go to bed wishing you had had the real stuff).  Enjoy yourself, and on Friday, after you are ready for a little break, put on your workout clothes" and try a new physical activity or play a sport you enjoy!

She goes on "I believe that we all have a strong connection to family tradition and our roots, but we all want to look and feel our best.  It's important to stay fit, confident, and young at heart, but to also enjoy life through food.  The trends, education, and research on nutritional ways to lose weight, fight disease, and enhance longevity are ever-evolving.  While we can come together and make healthy changes, we also aren't programmed to forget our past.  We have an emotional connection to how we grew up and traditions - most of which have to do with food.  
I eat healthily most of the time and I don't eat processed foods, but I love all food groups.  I am a huge supporter of the family table and it is so important to enjoy meals with the great people in our lives.  However, that shouldn't mean that you can't also look and feel your best (even when indulging)"...

I definitely agree with Tracy and find importance in enjoying the foods you might have grown up with. All the foods rich in color(pumpkin, broccoli, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, cranberries, etc) are much better for you than the white refined foods (stuffing, gravy, butter, cream, cookies, cheeses, alcohol, etc)... But each of us have our own "comfort foods". For me, I like my Moms-Butternut Squash/Pumpkin Soup, her gravy, homemade stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce and of course homemade pumpkin pie w graham cracker crust with homemade whip cream... Mm, mmm, mmm! Damn, I was spoiled-haha!

Dr Joe Nutritionist in NY also recommends a big meal/week to spike your metabolism. Further, another one of my idols, celebrity trainer Jackie Warner of Sky Sport(where I now work) and TV show 'Workout', recommends not only one but two big(1200-1500 calorie) meals/week to help satisfy cravings.

These bigger meals paired with exercise and a clean diet the rest of the week Equal a healthy metabolism! Let this Thanksgiving "recharge your batteries" for more effective workouts, more focus finishing out the year and to help satiate your gut and soul: )

KFC is it worth it?

I am a personal trainer in Los Angeles and was low on groceries and only had two days of lunch and dinner left for the week.. I had a craving for KFC. I ordered 8 pieces of Original Recipe Chicken, 4 Biscuits, 2 corn on the cob and coleslaw. I highly regret getting KFC because the instant side affects were a crash of energy and feeling of sickness. The food is so loaded with salt and preservatives it sucked the life right out of me. The preservatives are meant to preserve the food, so naturally there is some resistance once it enters your stomach to being digested.

Maybe it is because I am not used to Fried and Fast foods but I had some seriously terrible feelings after eating it. I listed the ingredients below and there are a lot of them. When I make chicken... There is normally only 4 or 5 ingredients (chicken, salt, pepper, onions and garlic). The same with coleslaw and biscuits... Below I list the ingredients and there are a minimum of 10 ingredients/menu item. The staple ingredients in all of the items are salt, sugar and flour.

If you look at the complexity or simplicity of a piece of salt, sugar or flour VS say any other natural whole food ingredient it is much smaller and broken down. There is no nutritional value from any one of these. We do need sodium, but the amount eaten from natural foods is more than enough for us. One piece of chicken has more than 700mg of sodium. The RDA's (recomended daily allowance) is 2400mg but in Canada it is 500mg/day.

Biscuit
Enriched Flour Bleached (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel, Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Buttermilk, Sugar, Baking Soda, Salt, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Nonfat Milk, Sodium Caseinate, DATEM, Whey Protein Concentrate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Whey, Wheat Protein Isolate, Natural Flavor. Liquid and Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Soybean Lecithin, Natural and Artificial Flavor, TBHO and Citric Acid Added to Protect Flavor, Beta Carotene (Color), Dimethylpolysidoxane, an Anti-foaming Agent Added. 530mg sodium/biscuit.

Cole Slaw
Vegetables: Chopped Cabbage, Carrots, and Onions. Sauce: Sugar, Soybean Oil, Vinegar (Distilled Vinegar, Corn and Cider Vinegar, Malt Vinegar, And Natural Flavors), Water, Salt, Whole Eggs, Modified Corn Starch, Mustard Flour, Xanthan Gum, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Paprika Extractives, Paprika, And Caramel Color.
Contains Egg. 180mg or sodium/serving of coleslaw.

Original Recipe® Chicken
Fresh Chicken Marinated With: Salt, Sodium Phosphate and Monosodium Glutamate. Breaded With: Wheat Flour, Sodium Chloride and Anti-caking agent (Tricalcium Phosphate), Nonfat Milk, Egg Whites, Colonel’s Secret Original Recipe Seasoning. 710mg sodium/piece of fried chicken breast.

I thought that KFC for lunch and dinner 2 days in a row would save me time, money and satisfaction. It resulted in a loss of time because I had less energy to accomplish what needed to be done. Extreme lethargy and a feeling of disgust. I had woken with stomach and back pains. As a result, I could have bought a broiled chicken, a bag of potatoes, ingredients for a salad, saved 5-bucks, felt a lot better and most importantly been able to enjoy my life.

This may be surprising to think a personal trainer can be so silly... But we all make mistakes and I was unaware it would affect me so drastically!

Stress---Human Beings are like Tea Bags!

You don't know you're strength until your put in hot water.

"Inner resources are those abstract qualities and characteristics that
become a tangible bridge over the chasm of chaos. These include, among
others, intuition, creativity, willpower, faith, humor, love, courage,
self-reliance, and optimism." In other words, when we have a stressful situation our character and inner character or true strength is brought out. Our ability to deal with certain situations using our character can make any situation a huge problem or a little 'bump in the road'.

Here are some ways to work on your inner character from the book Managing Stress 3rd Edition:

1- Make time for yourself (start with 5 minutes/day and work up to a half hour) to learn about and create yourself to handle stressful situations.

2- Understand your emotions. Figure out what is causing the 'stress'. Most of the time it is an emotion you are not familiar with... Happiness, sadness, fear, anger, excitement.

3- Have self esteem and creativity to deal with situations. This point ties into the previous two pointers. Understand that you are unique and growing towards a better you.

4- Balance your emotional, spiritual and physical self to keep
homeostasis... As stress is sometimes described as the lack of
homeostasis.

5- Be like a Baby. Curiosity, imagination and creativity-key characteristics that can help you deal with any situation.

Bryan from the Shiatsu Massage School of California in Santa Monica describes some people as being addicted to Stress! Cortisol, Epinephrine, Norepinephrine and other hormone levels that raise when we are over stimulated. Some people get addicted to this and need it to feel AWAKE... What a scary thought, because stress is proven to cause hypertension, some cancers, pain and other problems. Anatomical changes are caused by stress. Such as, an increase in sweat and constriction of muscles, making the body work harder. Having control of your mind, emotions, body and spirit (you as a whole) will make dealing with stress more tolerable.

Here are 6 steps to help you deal with stress:

1- Identify your stressors

2- Which of the above stressors cause anger and fear?

3- Try to balance your mind, emotions, body and spirit. Are any of these categories overwhelming or lacking? (ie. If stress occupies 50% or more of your emotions, you are out of balance and should try eliminating or modifying some commitments)

4- Try one of the following coping skills:
Cognitive Restructuring
Behavior Modification
Journal Writing
Art Therapy
Humor Therapy
Creative Problem Solving

5- Try one of the following relaxation techniques:
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Meditation
Hatha Yoga
Mental Imagery and Visualization
Music Therapy
Message Therapy
Tai Chi Ch'uan
Progressive Muscular Relaxation
Autogenic Training
Clinical Biofeedback
Healthy Nutrition
Exercise

6- Create your character to deal with stress... For example, if you like the way Eddie Murphy takes different life problems into perspective, try adapting his humor:)

*Everyone will have a different solution to dealing with stress, take the time to find what works best for you! At a young age, Bill Gates found out it was his intelligence, competitiveness and ambition that are his strengths and helped him achieve success(bizzle.com).

Information taken from and I highly recommend Managing Stress 3rd Ed. It gives great detail on all of these coping and relaxation techniques.

Should I use BMI as a guide? I have a lot of muscle.

How much should I weigh? Whats your Body Mass Index? Click here.

A healthy body weight should be defined by the following criteria:

- Body Fat Percentage. There is an increased risk of illness for young men with a Body Fat Percentage higher than 22 and higher than 25 for older men. There is an increased risk of illness for young women with a Body Fat Percentage higher than 32 and higher than 35 for older women.

- Intra-abdominal fat or central obesity is associated with increased risks of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, and some types of cancer. Waist measurements for men above 40 inches and women above 35 inches are at greater risk of disease.

- Being underweight could be a sign of malnutrition, smoking, disease or a very active lifestyle.

- A medical history that reflects an absence of risk factors associated with obesity, such as elevated blood cholesterol, blood glucose or blood pressure. If she has a medical history of the diseases listed above she should do her best to keep her BMI, Body Fat Percentage and Waist Circumference in the zones listed above.

A 5'1" woman who weighs between 100-132lbs is considered healthy. She should also take into account her body fat percentage, waist circumference and medical history. Her body fat should be between 12-32% and her waist circumference should be smaller than 35 inches.

This information was taken from Understanding Nutrition, Ninth Edition and tops.org.

For nutrition or fitness coaching visit www.individualizedfitness.com
Thank you for reading: )