As a personal trainer and the owner of Define Fitness Studio, I always get asked for nutritional advice.  Remember getting fit and healthy is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise.

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Here is an interesting podcast on the Paleo Diet from the Paleo Solution.
http://robbwolf.com/2011/07/12/the-paleo-solution-episode-88/
I think the most informative parts are :
Topics:
1. [8:55] Eggs
2. [15:19] Caffeine
3. [18:17] Sugar Addition
4. [25:53] Spinach: Oxalates & Phytates

 

 

You may want to open in a new window. You can feel free to fast forward past the back and forth word play between the hosts to skip forward to the important parts.

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July 25th, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized, working out, Workout, yoga . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments

As a personal trainer and the owner of Define Fitness Studio, I train many people who have sedentary jobs.  They come in and complain about back aches, neck aches and headaches that I believe could be alleviated simply by stretching and remembering to get up and move at work. Making healthy choices about your life is not only about the choices you make at home but also the choices you make while at work and that isn’t just about what you eat for lunch every day.

7 Easy Stretches to Do at Work

By: Jeff Csatari; Photographs by: Beth Bischoff

7. Corner Chest Stretch

Stand facing the corner of a room. Raise your hands to shoulder height, and place your forearms, elbows, and hands against each wall. Lean inward to stretch your chest muscles. Hold for 15 seconds (or until you feel loose).

Tip: By raising or lowering the position of your arms, you can alter the stretch to focus on different parts of the pectorals.

July 17th, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized, working out, Workout, yoga . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments

As a personal trainer and the owner of Define Fitness Studio, I always get asked this exact question or other variations such as what is the single best exercise for losing belly fat?

Read the article below and I would like some feed back. Tell me what is your favorite form of exercise and what is your least favorite and why.

Define Fitness Studio- personal training

Promote Your Page Too

 

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What’s the Single Best Exercise?
adapted from an article By Gretchen Reynolds of the NY Times

 

Let’s consider the butterfly. One of the most taxing movements in sports, the butterfly requires greater energy than bicycling at 14 miles per hour, running a 10-minute mile, playing competitive basketball or carrying furniture upstairs. It burns more calories, demands larger doses of oxygen and elicits more fatigue than those other activities, meaning that over time it should increase a swimmer’s endurance and contribute to weight control.

 

So is the butterfly the best single exercise that there is? Well, no. The butterfly “would probably get my vote for the worst” exercise, said Greg Whyte, a professor of sport and exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University in England.  The butterfly, he said, is “miserable, isolating, painful.” It requires a coach, a pool and ideally supplemental weight and flexibility training to reduce the high risk of injury.

 

Ask a dozen physiologists which exercise is best, and you’ll get a dozen wildly divergent replies. “Trying to choose” a single best exercise is “like trying to condense the entire field” of exercise science, said Martin Gibala, the chairman of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

 

But when pressed, he suggested one of the foundations of old-fashioned calisthenics: the burpee, in which you drop to the ground, kick your feet out behind you, pull your feet back in and leap up as high as you can. “It builds muscles. It builds endurance.” He paused. “But it’s hard to imagine most people enjoying” an all-burpees program, “or sticking with it for long.”

 

And sticking with an exercise is key, even if you don’t spend a lot of time working out. The health benefits of activity follow a breathtakingly steep curve.  A sedentary person’s risk of dying prematurely from any cause plummeted by nearly 20 percent if he or she began brisk walking (or the equivalent) for 30 minutes five times a week. So the one indisputable aspect of the single best exercise is that it be sustainable.

“I personally think that brisk walking is far and away the single best exercise,” said Michael Joyner, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a leading researcher in the field of endurance exercise. But let’s face it, walking holds little appeal for anyone who already exercises.

 

“I nominate the squat,” said Stuart Phillips, Ph.D. The squat “activates the body’s biggest muscles, those in the buttocks, back and legs.” It’s simple. “Just fold your arms across your chest,” he said, “bend your knees and lower your trunk until your thighs are about parallel with the floor. Do that 25 times. It’s a very potent exercise.” Use a barbell once the body-weight squats grow easy.

 

Resistance training is good for weight control, as well. In studies conducted by other researchers, a regimen of simple weight training by sedentary men and women led to a significant decrease in waist circumference and abdominal fat. It also has been found to lower the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Counterintuitively, weight training may even improve cardiovascular fitness, Phillips said, as measured by changes in a person’s maximum amount of oxygen that the heart and lungs can deliver to the muscles.

 

But there’s something undignified and boring about a squats-only routine. And the science supporting weight training as an all-purpose exercise approach, while provocative, remains inconclusive. Is there a single activity that has proved to be, at once, more strenuous than walking while building power like the squat?

 

“I think, actually, that you can make a strong case for H.I.T.,” Gibala said. High-intensity interval training, or H.I.T. is essentially all-interval exercise.  In his first experiments, riders completed 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the volunteers repeated the interval several times, for a total of two to three minutes of extremely intense exercise. After two weeks, the H.I.T. riders, with less than 20 minutes of hard effort behind them, had increased their aerobic capacity as much as riders who had pedaled leisurely for more than 10 hours.

 

The approach seems promising, since most of us have minimal time to exercise each week. Gibala last month published a new study of H.I.T., requiring only a stationary bicycle and some degree of grit. In this modified version, you sprint for 60 seconds at a pace that feels unpleasant but sustainable, followed by 60 seconds of pedaling easily, then another 60-second sprint and recovery, 10 times in all. “There’s no particular reason why” H.I.T. shouldn’t be adaptable to almost any sport, Gibala said, as long as you adequately push yourself.

 

The only glaring inadequacy of H.I.T. is that it builds muscular strength less effectively than, say, the squat. But even that can be partially remedied, Gibala said: “Sprinting up stairs is a power workout and interval session simultaneously.” Meaning that running up steps just might be the single best exercise of all.

 

Great news for those of us who could never master the butterfly.

 

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July 12th, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized, working out, Workout, yoga . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments

As a personal trainer and the owner of Define Fitness Studio, I always get asked for nutritional advice.  In a world of excess and super sized portions being aware of what and how much you are putting in your mouth is critical to your fitness and weight loss goals.

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It’s hard to keep track of what a normal portion size looks like these days – take time to reconnect with standard portions by trying the following ideas:

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1. Measure foods at home at least once a week. Let’s face it we can’t rely on pre-portioned foods all of the time. So break out the measuring cups and see how much you’re eating.

2. Use a smaller plate. Just as portion sizes have grown outside the home, so has the size of a dinner plate. Antique shops even have customers asking where the dinner plates are because the size of dinner plates then is what we consider a salad plate now! It’s a fact that we eat more when we’re served more – using a smaller plate is instant and easy portion control.

3. Use snack size zip-top baggies for snacks like crackers, trail mix or nuts to keep your portions to a real snack size.

4. Use this handy guide shows you how to compare standard serving sizes to common objects.

Quick Method of Estimating Portions

Grain Group
1 serving = a slice of bread the size of a cassette tape
2 servings = a bagel the size of a hockey puck
1 serving = a large handful of cereal
1 serving = cooked cereal, rice, or pasta the size of a cupcake wrapper

Vegetable Group
1 serving = raw leafy vegetables equivalent to 4 outer romaine or iceberg leaves
1 serving = other vegetables, cooked or raw, the size of a small fist
2 servings = a medium potato the size of a computer mouse

Fruit Group
1 serving = a medium apple, orange, pear or peach the size of a tennis ball
2 servings = chopped, cooked, or canned fruit the size of a baseball

Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese Group
1 serving = natural cheese the size of a 9-volt battery
1 serving milk = 1 cup

Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans & Nuts Group
1 serving = cooked lean meat, fish, or poultry the size of a deck of cards
1 serving = peanut butter the size of a ping-pong ball
1 serving = a small handful of nuts or seeds


5. Understand how big restaurant and fast food portions really are. Consider this:

–a standard serving for a muffin is 1 ounce (think mini muffin). A typical store bought muffin these days is 5-6 oz.

–a standard serving of rice is 1/2 cup. The typical amount of rice served at a Chinese restaurant is 2-3 cups.

–A typical burrito eaten out can average around 1,000 calories!

 

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Take time to measure at home, look up nutrition info for restaurants when you can and fill half your plate with veggies and you’ll be on the way to being portion savvy!

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July 8th, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments

As a personal trainer and the owner of Define Fitness Studio, I always get asked for nutritional advice.  This is a great article borrowed from Eat this Not that. Remember the less ingredients in your food, the healthier it is for you.  Just by being aware of what and how much you are putting in your mouth may be enough to make you stop and think about how much exercise you would have to do to work it off!

18 Supermarket Lies Revealed

 

18.  Take a stroll through your grocery store’s candy aisle. There, on the labels of such products as Mike and Ike and Good & Plenty.

If you want some insight into the food industry, you’ll find what perhaps is a surprising claim: “Fat free.” This is completely true, but it’s also utterly insulting. These empty-calorie junk foods are almost 100 percent sugar and processed carbs. You’d be better off eating fat.

Food manufacturers think you’re stupid. In fact, their marketing strategies rely on it. In the case of candy makers, they’re hoping you’ll equate “fat free” with “healthy” or “nonfattening”—so that you forget about all the sugar these products contain. It’s a classic bait and switch.

And the candy aisle is just the start. That’s why the Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide has scoured the supermarket to crack the packaged food labeling code—now you can make sure you get exactly what you’re paying for. Never be fooled by misleading labels again!

17. Organic Junk Food

Kraft Original Macaroni and Cheese

The Claim: “USDA organic”

The Truth: It’s organic so it must be healthy, right? Not so much. For an extra 60 cents per box, consumers save 20 calories and 1 gram of fat. They also gain 2 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, and 50 milligrams of sodium and they lose 6 percent of their daily iron. The point is, even organic junk food is still junk food. Your body processes organic refined flour and powdered cheese the same way it does conventional, so at the end of the day it’s still a high-calorie, low-nutrient letdown.

What You Really Want: If you must have mac, pick one with a label that reads like the recipe you’d use to fix it at home. Annie’s line of macaroni and cheese contains about eight ingredients per box and cuts the fat by 72 percent over Kraft Organic.

16. 100 Percent Misleading

Tropicana Pure 100% Juice Pomegranate Blueberry

The Claim: “100% juice pomegranate blueberry”

The Truth: Drinks may be labeled 100 percent pure juice, but that doesn’t mean they’re made exclusively with the advertised juice. Pomegranate and blueberry get top billing here, even though the ingredient list reveals that par, apple, and grape juices are among the first four ingredients. These juices are used because they’re cheap to produce and because they’re very sweet-likely to keep you coming back for more. Labels loaded with of-the-moment superfoods like acai and pomegranate are especially susceptible to this type of trickery.

What You Really Want: To avoid the huge sugar surge, pick single-fruit juices. POM and R.W. Knudsen both make some reliably pure products.

15. A Not-So-Juicy Cocktail

Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry

The Claim: “Juice drink”

The Truth: Words like “juice drink” and “juice cocktail” are industry euphemisms for a huge dose of sugar water. In this case, the product is also adorned with a cluster of other claims that attempt to hide this simple fact. (Most of Ocean Spray’s juice products suffer from a serious lack of juice; this particular one, with just 18 percent juice, is one of the worst offenders.) Ocean Spray, to be sure, is not the only juice purveyor guilty of this sleight of hand: Dozens of manufacturers, including Welch’s, Minute Maid, and SunnyD, perpetrate similar nutritional injustices.

What You Really Want: Every juice that hits your lips should be 100 percent juice. Period.

 

14. Got Milk?

Yoo-Hoo

The Claim: “Chocolate drink”

The Truth: Ever notice the conspicuous absence of milk in the title of this popular drink? The first ingredient in this kid-favorite is water, the second high-fructose corn syrup; in fact, nonfat dry milk does not appear until the ninth ingredient, three slots below partially hydrogenated soybean oil. As a result, Yoo-Hoo offers less than half the calcium and vitamin D provided by the real thing.

What You Really Want: Yoo-Hoo is fine for the occasional indulgence, but for a kid in need of nutrition, real milk will always be the better choice. Organic Valley’s Chocolate Lowfat Milk comes in 8-ounc cartons for automatic portion control.

 

13. All-Natural Disaster

7UP

The Claim: “All Natural Flavors”

The Truth: The FDA doesn’t have a definition for this claim. Case in point: 7UP now boasts that it’s made with 100 percent natural ingredients. That’s because they’ve switched from carbonated water to filtered water, from citric acid to natural citric acid, and from calcium disodium EDT to natural potassium citrate. Got it? Here’s the kicker: The soft drink is still sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, which can’t be made without the help of a centrifuge.

What You Really Want: A healthy choice, like lemon and seltzer. 7UP’s tactic is employed primarily by companies making junk food (see also: Natural Cheetos). Considering that the calorie counts are nearly always identical with their “unnatural” brethren (in the case of 7UP, calories and sugar counts are the exact same), concentrate on the bigger issues and find reliably healthy drinks and snacks.

 

12. The “Health” Food That Isn’t

Healthy Choice Sweet & Sour Chicken

The Claim: “Healthy Choice”

The Truth: A company can call itself whatever it wants, but that doesn’t give credence to the name. Healthy Choice even provides a handful of nutritional stats-430 calories, 9 grams fat, 600 milligrams sodium-to back up the name, but they neglect to mention the 29 grams of added sugars used in this dish. The six different forms of sweeteners in the ingredient list combine to give this less-than-healthy choice almost the same amount of sugar as a Snickers bar. Many Healthy Choice selections are reliably nutritious; this is not one of them.

What You Really Want: Dinner that doesn’t taste like a bowl of ice cream. While fat and calories are important considerations in everything you eat, be sure to read the fine print. Companies with healthy label claims often pull the bait and switch, going low in fat but then elevating the sugar or sodium to up the flavor quotient.

 

11. The Freezer Burn

Tofutti Vanilla Almond Bark

The Claims: “No butterfat”; “no cholesterol”

The Truth: Though both of these claims are technically true, they paint a false sense of security in the person looking for a healthy indulgence. Ignore front label claims (Tofutti is not made with dairy, so by definition it can’t have butterfat or cholesterol) and flip the package for the straight scoop; here you’ll see that this ice cream substitute still has 15 grams of fat and 16 grams of sugar per serving-as high as most full-fledged ice creams.

What You Really Want: If you’re lactose intolerant, both Soy Delicious and Soy Dream make reliably low-cal non-dairy creams. If you’re just looking for a healthy ice cream fix, try Breyers Double Churn.

 

10. (Kind of) “Real” Food

Kid Cuisine All Star Chicken Nuggets

The Claims: “Made with real chicken”; “made with real cheese”

The Truth: Yes, there is actual chicken in these “nugget-shaped patties,” but it shares space with 17 other ingredients, including textured soy protein and modified food starch. The mac with “real cheese” does have cheddar, but it also has 34 other ingredients, including the carb filler maltodextrin. Rule of thumb: If a product makes claims about its realness on the package, be skeptical.

What You Really Want: To eat more food and fewer science experiments. While it’s tricky with our industrialized food complex, stick to items with as few ingredients as possible. If they’re chicken nuggets, that means chicken, bread crumbs, and oil. Foster Farms Breast Nuggets fit the bill.

 

9. The Cheeseless Cheese Pizza

Mama Celeste Original Pizza

The Claim: “Original Pizza”

The Truth: Ever had a pizza without cheese? Well, if you eat this one you will have, since Mama Celeste doesn’t use a single shred of real cheese in making this problematic pie. What does she use? Imitation mozzarella, which is the second ingredient on the list and is composed mostly of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, endowing each serving with 5 grams of nasty trans fats. Also watch out for the attachment of the word “flavored,” as in “strawberry-flavored”; it’s a surefire sign that the product is utterly fruitless.

What You Really Want: Cheese, strawberries, or whatever you think it is you’re getting. If the name or flavor in the food’s title isn’t one of the first few ingredients, find another product.

 

8. The Absent Avocado

Dean’s Guacamole

The Claim: “Guacamole”

The Truth: This “guacamole” dip is comprised of less than 2 percent avocado; the rest of the green goo is a cluster of fillers and chemicals, including modified food starch, soybean oils, locust bean gum, and food coloring. Dean’s isn’t alone in this guacamole caper; most guacs with the word “dip” attached to them suffer from a lack of avocado. This was brought to light when a California woman filed a lawsuit against Dean’s after she noticed “it just didn’t taste avocado-y.” Similarly, a British judge ruled that Pringles are not technically chips, being that they have only 42 percent potato in them.

What You Really Want: If you want the heart-healthy fat, you’ll need avocado. Wholly Guacamole makes a great guac, or mash up a bowl yourself.

 

7. The Unnatural Fruit

Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bar

The Claim: “Naturally and artificially flavored”

The Truth: While the FDA requires manufacturers to disclose the use of artificial flavoring on the front of the box, the requirements for what is considered “natural” and “real” are not strict: Even trace amounts of the essence or extract of fruit counts as natural. So yes, there is fruit in this bar, but it falls third in the ingredients list, behind HFCS and corn syrup.

What You Really Want: An honest snack with nothing to hide. Lärabars, one of our favorite snacks in the aisle, are made with nothing more than dried fruit and nuts.

 

6. The Hidden Trans Fats

Cheetos Crunchy

The Claim: “Zero gram trans fats”

The Truth: FDA allows manufacturers to make this claim when their products contain less than 0.5 gram of trans fats per serving. It may seem insignificant, but 0.49 gram of this nefarious fat can add up quickly.

What You Really Want: Keep total trans fat intake to no more than 1 percent of total calories-about 2.5 grams per day for most adults. That means reading the ingredients list (especially those that proclaim to be trans-fat free) looking for “partially hydrogenated,” “shortening,” or “interesterified.”

 

5. The Conspicuous Trans Fats

Pop Secret Homestyle Popcorn

The Claim: “Made with a sprinkle of salt and a taste of butter”

The Truth: The taste of the butter is actually the taste of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which imbues on this greasy bag a total of 18 grams of trans fats-more than seven times what you should safely consume in a day, according to the American Heart Association. No area of the supermarket is more riddles with these fats-proven to increase the risk of coronary heart disease-than the snack aisles, so be on high alert.

What You Really Want: Unadulterated popcorn. Buy a low-calorie bag like Smart Balance Smart Movie-Style, then flavor it at home with a bit of heart-healthy olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, and fresh herbs.

 

4. Bogus Bread

Home Pride Wheat Bread

The Claims: “1 gram of fat per slice”; “wheat bread”

The Truth: This over-trumpeted claim (since when has bread contained much fat, anyway?) tries to distract from the fact that each slice has three times more sugar than fiber. Whatever wheat that went into this bread was stripped of all of its meaningful nutrients. Perhaps most concerning, the ingredients list here is more than a dozen items long, many of them unpronounceable additives, chemicals, and preservatives. Whatever happened to the days when bread was just flour, water, and yeast?

What You Really Want: Ignore fat when it comes to bread; there’s rarely enough in a slice to make a real difference. More important, seek out a bread with more fiber per slice than sugar and with as few ingredients as possible.

 

3. The Fat Fake-Out

Smucker’s Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter

The Claim: “25% less fat than regular natural peanut butter”

The Truth: Smucker’s has indeed removed some of the fat from the peanut butter, but they’ve replaced it with maltodextrin, a carbohydrate used as a cheap filler in many processed foods. This means you’re trading the healthy fat from peanuts for empty carbs, double the sugar, and a savings of a meager 10 calories.

What You Really Want: The real stuff: no oils, fillers, or added sugars. Just peanuts and salt. Smucker’s Natural fits the bill, as do many other peanut butters out there.

 

1. The Vitamin Vacuum

Kelloggs Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop-Tarts

The Claim: “Good source of 7 vitamins and minerals”

The Truth: Five of the seven vitamins and minerals are derived from this product’s first ingredient-enriched flour. That’s the code word for “refined flour that’s had nutrients added to it after it’s been stripped of fiber.”

What You Really Want: A breakfast without the nutritional profile of a dessert. Studies show that people who opt for high-quality protein (eggs, yogurt) over refined carbohydrates (pancakes, bagels, Pop-Tarts) lose weight faster and maintain higher levels of energy throughout the day.

Thanks for reading!

2. The Cereal Conundrum

Kellogg’s Smart Start Cereal

The Claim: “Lightly sweetened”

The Truth: Unregulated by the USDA, the word “lightly” gets tossed around like a Frisbee in the food packaging world. Always take it with a grain of salt; in many instances, “light” is the first sign of trouble. With this healthy-sounding cereal, “lightly” means 14 grams of sugar from 5 different sources, all of which adds up to a cereal with more added sugars per serving than Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, or Apple Jacks.

What You Really Want: A cereal with less than 10 grams of sugar per serving (and ideally less than 5), with at least 3 grams of fiber per serving. Look at cereal as a sugar-to-fiber ratio; you want a ratio no higher than two to one.

July 4th, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized, working out, Workout, yoga . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments

As a personal trainer and the owner of Define Fitness Studio, I always get asked for nutritional advice. The simplest and best advice is read the label on what you are eating and understand the portion size!  Just by being aware of what and how much you are putting in your mouth may be enough to make you stop and think about how much exercise you would have to do to work it off!

The Truth about Serving Sizes

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  Want some fiction to read at the beach this summer? Look no further than your cooler. With cans of iced tea that are meant to serve three people and “individual” snack packs that harbor extra servings, it’s no wonder the FDA’s latest Health and Diet Survey found that consumers are skeptical of food labels. 

  Fortunately, the FDA is taking steps to clear up some of the misleading information and pushing for clear, user-friendly frontof- package labeling. In the meantime, we’re exposing some sneaky diet wreckers.

• Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey
  Serving size: 8 ounces
  (approximately 3 servings per 23-ounce can)
  Calories per serving: 70 

  Most of us overlook liquid calories entirely, so you may not notice that this can supposedly serves three. “When you buy any drink in a can, you assume it’s a single serving,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, R.D., author of Read It Before You Eat It. And while antioxidant-rich green tea has a virtuous rep, this particular one packs almost 12 (12!) teaspoons of sugar per can.

• Snyder’s of Hanover Mini Pretzels
  Serving size: 20 pretzels (about 3 servings per bag)
  Calories per serving: 110 

  The small bag these come in is emblazoned with the words “fat free,” but if you polish off every last pretzel, you’ll have consumed about a third of the carbs you need in a day. The diminutive size of these salty snacks doesn’t help matters either. “It’s easy to overeat miniature items, because our minds equate the small size with fewer calories,” says Lisa Young, Ph.D., R.D., author of The Portion Teller Plan, “even if that isn’t necessarily true.”

• Post 100% Natural Grape-Nuts Cereal
  Serving size: 1/2 cup
  (12 servings per 24-ounce box)
  Calories per serving: 200 

  “Cereal in general can be confusing because the serving sizes are based on weight, not volume, so they tend to vary a lot,” says Young. “And when you have a small, dense cereal like Grape-Nuts, people always seem to pour at least double the amount they’re supposed to.” Adding to the problem: Your average cereal bowl is large enough to hold more than the recommended serving, and people are inclined to fill it to the brim. The end result? Your breakfast is way more than you bargained for—and that doesn’t even include the calories from the milk.

• Seneca Crispy Apple Chips
  Serving size: 12 chips
  (2 1/2 servings per bag)
  Calories per serving: 150 

  You wouldn’t eat four apples in one sitting, but that’s the caloric equivalent of what’s in this bag. Because we don’t often think—much less eat— in fractions, “small bags of snack foods that contain ‘half’ servings are the ultimate visual deception,” says Young. You’d be better off with potato chips, which have, ounce for ounce, just as many calories and almost seven teaspoons less sugar.

• Amy’s No Cheese Roasted Vegetable Pizza
  Serving size: 1/3 pizza
  (3 servings per pizza)
  Calories per serving: 270 

  “Regardless of what it says on the package, this smallish pizza is designed to feed one person,” says Young. You aren’t likely to think of cutting it into thirds. And who would ever guess that an all-natural organic pizza (without cheese!) could pack more calories (810!) and almost as much fat as half a Domino’s medium cheese pie? Blame it on the dense crust and a copious amount of olive oil.

• Sunkist Premium Mandarin Oranges
  Serving size: 1/2 cup
  (about 2 servings per container)
  Calories per serving: 70 

  You could eat two whole navel oranges for the calories in this little container. The reason: These innocent wedges are soaking in a pool of pear juice concentrate, which is a sneaky source of added sugar.

• Uncle Wally’s Fat Free Gourmet Corn Muffins
  Serving size: 1/2 muffin
  (2 servings per muffin)
  Calories per serving: 130 

  Looks like good old Uncle Wally is trying to pull a fast one on you. “Come on, who eats half a muffin?” asks Taub-Dix. And while the muffins may be fatfree, each one still has as many calories as three ears of corn.

• Tribe Hummus Snackers
  Serving size: 2 Tbsp
  (2 servings per container)
  Calories per serving: 50 

  “This is the ultimate ‘health halo’ food,” says Taub-Dix. “You think it’s healthy, and because it comes in an itty-bitty package, you wolf down the whole thing.” And you end up consuming an extra 50-calorie serving on top of whatever you’re dipping into it.

• Blue Bunny Personals Premium Ice Cream (Banana Split Flavor)
  Serving size: 1/2 container
  (2 servings per bowl)
  Calories per serving: 170 

  They come in tiny packaging and are called “personals,” so why wouldn’t you eat every last bite? Do it and you’ll inhale a whopping 16 grams of fat and nearly 15 percent more calories than you’d get from a Haagen-Dazs dark-chocolate-covered vanilla ice-cream bar.

• Annie Chun’s Garlic Scallion Noodle Bowl
  Serving size: 1/2 bowl
  (2 servings per bowl)
  Calories per serving: 310 

  For those who struggle with portion control, this meal-in-a-bowl can seem like a savior. But read the fine print and you’ll see it’s actually two servings that pack 620 calories and a staggering 1,960 milligrams of sodium (dangerously close to your 2,300-milligram daily limit).

July 3rd, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized, working out, Workout . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments

As a personal trainer and the owner of Define Fitness Studio, I always get asked what are my favorite fruit and veggies. One of my clients saw this article on Womens Health. I thought it was a great way to switch up what might becoming a routine with choosing the right foods for optimum health and fitness.

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NEW FOOD IDEAS: Eat Healthy: Like This Veggie? Try That One!

Healthy eating tips to keep your food ideas fresh. If you’re tired of the same-old produce picks, switch ‘em out for these delicious and super healthy alternatives.

Like Carrots? Try Parsnips.

This cousin of the carrot has a more complex, sweet, nutty flavor. And one cup packs a whopping seven grams of fiber (double that of carrots), which fends off hunger pangs. Other perks: a stellar amount of vitamin C and folate, plus almost 40 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin K, a hard-to-get nutrient that researchers are realizing may improve bone health and control blood sugar.

Serve them up Toss parsnips into salads and stir-fries as you would carrots, or make parsnip cakes by combining 1 pound peeled and grated parsnips, 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 3 eggs, and 1/4 cup fat-free milk. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and spoon onto a skillet lightly coated with vegetable oil. Brown on both sides.

 

 

Like Plums? Try Figs.

You get the sweetness of plums without all the drippy juice. “Fresh figs have a deliciously sweet pulp and are a good source of potassium, dietary fiber, calcium, and manganese,” says Elizabeth Pivonka, Ph.D., R.D., president and CEO of the Produce for Better Health Foundation.

Serve them up Remove the stems, then cut an “X” into one end without slicing all the way through. Pinch to open the flesh and fill with a small dollop of low-fat ricotta cheese, 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup, and a dusting of cinnamon.

 

Like Lettuce? Try Bok Choy

The stalks of this Asian leafy green are crunchy and mild, and the leaves are more cabbage like. Bok choy is among the top cancer-fighting picks in the produce aisle, thanks to its high levels of the antioxidants glucosinolate and indole.

Serve it up Stir-fry in a few drops of sesame oil with onion and vegetables. Add chopped toasted peanuts, soy sauce, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

 

 

Like Potatoes? Try Sunchokes.

With its mellow taste and flaky texture, the sunchoke (aka Jerusalem artichoke) is easy to pair with any main dish. The tuber is also brimming with five grams of energy-boosting iron per serving (massive for a veggie that isn’t a bean) and inulin, a soluble fiber that may help lower blood cholesterol and stabilize blood glucose levels.

Serve them up For more bikini-friendly fries, slice sunchokes into matchsticks, toss with vegetable oil, rosemary, cayenne, salt, and pepper, and bake at 350°F for 15 minutes

 

 

 

Like Spinach? Try Swiss Chard

An even bigger vitamin powerhouse and with a more intense flavor than spinach, Swiss chard adds zing to any dish. Chard has huge amounts of vitamins A and K and more of the vision-protecting antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin than spinach. More great news: A 2009 study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that boosting your intake of nutrient-dense greens such as chard will also help you dodge heart disease, the leading killer of women in the U.S.

Serve it up Saute in a little olive oil, garlic, and salt and serve as a bed for fish. Or steam and toss with pasta along with shrimp, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, and lemon juice. Stalks can be sliced raw and served with hummus for a standout snack.

 

 

July 1st, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized, working out, Workout, yoga . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

 

This is a long video, but if you have the interest and attention span it is definitely worth watching.

June 28th, 2011
Categories: diet, healthy living, nutrition, obesity . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments

This is a  foolproof plan to keep hunger from gnawing away at your weight-loss goals.  You’re driving along on your way to work, to the gym, or to pick up the kids and—bam—it hits you—that overwhelming gnawing hunger. The next thing you know, you’re pulling into a drive through and ordering up a storm. Here at Define Fitness Studio, we believe in news you can use to help you reach your goals!

 

Tips

• Eat on Time. Scientists say that failing to eat regularly scheduled meals can boost the body’s output of insulin, which can, in turn, increase appetite and slow calorie burn.
• Plan Ahead. Don’t wait until you’re starving to think about food: Tuck portable snacks like jerky, apples or almonds in your purse so you’ll be ready when hunger strikes.

Isn’t it fascinating (and frustrating) how the “I have to eat now!” feeling can hit even if you’ve been making good nutrition a top priority? Experts are discovering that when you eat, what your food tastes like, and even how much you drink can have a major impact on how often hunger pangs strike.

We asked leading nutritionists to share with us the five most common reasons you’re frequently famished, as well as their top tips for maximizing satisfaction and keeping hunger at bay.

 

1. You eat the right foods at the wrong times.
Eating at different times every day can make it difficult for you to tune in to your body’s hunger signals, says Cindy Moore, MS, RD, director of Nutrition Therapy at the Cleveland Clinic. Haphazard eating can hurt your metabolism as well. When British researchers asked women to eat meals at either the same time or at different times each day, those who followed a predictable pattern ate less and burned more calories than those who ate at a different time every day.

 

 

The Solution: Plan ahead.
Reviewing your nutrition journal helps you zero in on when you’re most likely to fall prey to eating at erratic times. (If you haven’t been tracking your food consistently, try doing so for a few days.) Then, says Moore, create a schedule that focuses on eating within 2 hours of waking up and every 3 to 5 hours after that for the rest of the day. If you tend to lose track of time, set your watch or cell phone to beep when you should eat.

 

2. You eat breakfast, just not the right kind.
Although any breakfast is better than none, the foods you choose can have a major impact on how satisfied you feel for the rest of the day. Take convenient foods like cereal, cereal bars, toast, lattes, commercial  juices and smoothies.  It might appear to be a healthy choice when you don’t have time for a sit-down meal, but its mega-dose of simple sugars and total carbohydrates may have you feeling ravenously hungry in an hour or two.

 

The Solution: Build a better balance of nutrients.
The key to making your breakfast hold your appetite at bay until lunch is building a morning meal that contains a balance of protein, fat and carbs. It’s important to combine adequate amounts of protein along with some carbohydrate high in fiber, and some healthy fats to provide sustained energy throughout the morning. Opt for quick easy healthy choices such as 10-15 raw unsalted almonds, 2 to 3 hard boiled eggs, and  1-2 cups of raw or steamed broccoli.  These foods are quick and easy to prepare, but if you are really in a time crunch in the mornings, prepare your breakfast the night before.

 

3. Your diet is clean but flavorless.
If grilled chicken and steamed veggies are staples on your dinner plate, you could be headed for trouble if you’re a hard core foodie, or if you just get bored eating the same thing all the time. We don’t want to give ourselves additional emotional or psychological road blocks to our healthy diet if we don’t have to. We need to remind ourselves sometimes that the purpose of food is to fuel our bodies, but there’s nothing wrong with looking for healthy ways to enjoy our fuel more and get some variety.

 

The Fix: Spice it up.
Getting creative in the kitchen will give your stand-by recipes new life—and keep you more satisfied in the long run. “Experiment with fresh, flavorful herbs, like basil, gingerroot, oregano, and mint. Also, adding acidity (a dash of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar) and sweetness (a teaspoon of honey or stevia) can make your staple dishes more complex in taste—and more satisfying. Texture is also key: Aim for combinations of creamy, crunchy, and chewy. Try tossing chopped walnuts on your greens or mix  macadamia nuts into your yogurt.

 

4. You stockpile your calories.
Do you often eat so sparingly during the day that by the time dinner rolls around you’re famished? That strategy can backfire, leading to uncontrollable overeating in the evening. When you skip meals it’s harder to think straight, so you’re less concerned with the implications of what you eat.

 

The Fix: Frontload those calories.
Eating earlier in the day and not skipping any snacks or meals is a better strategy for most people to head off disaster later on. Even if you’re not hungry, be sure to eat something. Treat yourself the way you’d treat your kids—you wouldn’t let them skip meals.

 

5. You drink your meals.
With the ever-increasing popularity of lattes for breakfast and smoothies for lunch, many of us are drinking our calories away. But drinking too many caloric beverages can ultimately leave you feeling unsatisfied. When researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, gave study participants 450 extra calories daily in the form of either fluid or solid food, those who ate the extra solids ate less later in the day whereas those who drank the extra fluids did not. The reasoning: Chewing causes the release of hormones that signal fullness, and solid food is digested more slowly than liquids.

 

The Fix: Rethink convenience.
Slurping down a meal might seem fast and easy, but in the time it takes to drive to the coffee shop, stand in line, and pay for that latte, you could have had something just as quick—and far more satisfying. Try some apple slices with peanut butter or a cup of greek yogurt with some berries. If it’s the comfort of a hot drink you crave, brew a cup of tea to go with your meal.  If you are going to use shakes or smoothies as a regular part of your nutrition routine, make sure they include an ingredient that contains lots of fiber, so that you will have more of a feeling of fullness. I like to add a tablespoon of almond or peanut butter, and some  fresh or frozen fruit to my shakes and smoothies. In other words, focus on food combinations that will get you through to your next meal—no starving required.

 

June 23rd, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized, working out, Workout, yoga . Author: admin . Comments: 2 Comments

Define Fitness Studio is moving

After 3 great years, the craziest and most sadistic Bellevue personal trainers have outgrown their first location and are moving down the street to a larger space. Yay for us, and yay for you, because now you get to workout, lose weight, and get super strong in a much larger space that has that new car smell. Actually that’s the new floor and new paint smell, but before you get too high on the fumes, I’m bringing in the old air purifier tomorrow to freshen things up. I want to thank all the clients we’ve trained over the last several years. Many of you have become great friends of ours, and we couldn’t have grown like this without all of you. As trainers we definitely feel honored and priveleged to be able to make a difference in your lives, and we are glad you are here to share this great moment in the evolution of Define Fitness. A huge thank you to all of you that are helping us move this weekend. I have a small thank you gift for all of you, and no it’s not 100 burpees or hill sprints………or is it? evil laugh evil laugh. Just kidding.

The new address is 12729 Northup Way Ste 25

Bellevue, Wa 98005

• From Northup turn south onto 127th ave
• The complex we’re in is on your left hand side, and if you turn in the 3rd driveway you’ll find us

What’s in store for 2011

I hope all of you, and the rest of Bellevue, Redmond, and Kirkland are ready, because with the new location comes new ideas for whipping everybody into shape and taking weight loss, strength and conditioning, and general ass kickery to a whole new level. 2011 is going to bring new toys, new coaching team members, and new torture victims….er I mean clients to join in on the fun.

2011 is going to be a great year. Let us know what you’re excited about or looking forward to in 2011, and what you’re looking forward to about the new location. Also for anyone with the courage to let it all hang out, tell us and the rest of the internet what your goals are for 2011. Inquiring minds want to know.

January 21st, 2011
Categories: nutrition, Workout . Author: admin . Comments: No Comments