WHEN IT COMES TO HEART HEALTH, DON’T MISS A BEAT

Some good news has come out of a new study that looked into most effective ways to prevent sudden cardiac death: maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise significantly reduces the risk of this condition. The research, published in the recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, focused on women. However, its findings are also relevant for men. This is yet another body of medical evidence that clearly shows the benefits of a healthy lifestyle that includes physical fitness.

In the United States, sudden cardiac arrest, a condition in which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating, causes more than 300,000 deaths every year. Among main risk factors are heart disease, obesity, smoking, and inactivity. All these factors are inter-related. Sedentary lifestyle leads to obesity, which, in turn, can cause heart disease – the leading killer of Americans. And, of course, smoking is harmful to health in general. The new study, however, found that those who don’t smoke, eat sensibly, maintain healthy weight, and exercise regularly, can lower their risk of sudden cardiac death by more than 90 percent.

Sometimes, even the simplest preventive measures can go a long way. These new findings prove once again that physical activity and other healthy habits are real lifesavers. When it comes to preventing potentially serious complications of  disease – including sudden cardiac arrest – regular exercise is beneficial in several ways. If you are overweight, it will help you lose the extra pounds and maintain a healthy weight. It will also strengthen your cardiovascular system.

While any regimen that keeps you moving is beneficial, interval training, which alternates a high-intensity workout with periods of low-intensity activity or rest, is especially effective in improving cardiovascular fitness and the body’s potential to burn fat. It provides a great workout for your heart, dramatic weight loss results, and a leaner shape in less time than many other programs.

Those who already have heart disease or any other medical condition should consult a doctor before starting interval training. In any case, there are plenty of other, less strenuous exercises that you could safely do to get yourself – and your heart – in the best possible shape.

Dehydration can it be chronic?

Well we are in the midst of another heat wave here on the East Coast and the biggest concern for us, is staying hydrated. Be sure to drink enough water throughout the day, especially if you are exercising outside. So we emphasize greatly to our Boot campers to hydrate, stay away from caffeine, alcohol and sugary drinks and stick with fresh water, fresh fruits and veggies to help you hydrate.  Yet ironically enough you could already be dehydrated before the heat wave started?

How is that possible? And how do you know?

Many things can be a factor in causing your body to be in a state of dehydration, the obvious things would be caffeine, alcohol, soda pop.  But have you ever taken a medication that has a warning label stating it may cause dry mouth?  Or do you find it difficult to consume just plain old water, so you add a little flavoring in the form of a powder and you think that will help you get hydrated?  Are you currently consuming prepackaged, processed foods such as hot dogs or lunch meats? Or maybe you are someone who likes to add salt even before tasting your food.  Anything that has high levels of sodium could be depleting your body of water as well.

Unfortunately there are quite a few factors that can contribute to dehydration; but their are quite a few symptoms you could be experiencing that could tell you if you are dehydrated.

1. Fatigue and Energy loss
2. Constipation
3. Digestive Disorders
4. High or low blood pressure
5. Gastritis or stomach ulcers
6. Respiratory troubles (even misdiagnosed asthma)
7. Acid-Alkaline imbalance
8. Excess weight and obesity
9.  Excema
10.Cystitis, urinary infections
11. High Cholesterol
12. Rheumatism
13. Early Aging

So take the time today to notice if you are experiencing any of these symptoms.  Be aware of what are the factors causing your dehydration.  Remember if you are experiencing fatigue and hunger you might just be thirsty. If you are experiencing excessive joint pain you could be lacking on water. So don't discount the healing factors of water, just start drinking.
You should start by moderately increasing your water intake, everything in moderation.

One thing I do need to disclaim, anything in excess can be detrimental, so chugging gallons of water all in one sitting will not help you get hydrated it can be deadly.

Till next time or the next heat wave.

Try to maintain a healthy balance in your life with regular exercise, healthy eating and drinking lots of water...

Most know about YO-YO Dieting, but do you know about YO-YO Exercising?

So we all know by now that YO-YO dieting has the reputation of adding pounds to your frame but did you know so can YO-YO exercising.  Besides adding pounds it can add excess stress to your heart and lungs by stopping and starting those intense exercise programs needed to lose the pounds.  I highly advocate going the distance and going all out with your exercise, but not at the expense of finding yourself back on the couch in 6 months packing on the winter weight again. 
And yes that is why the couch potatoes of the world are having heart attacks during these unusual boughts of winter blizzards.  Think about it most people have to remove the snow from their car, driveway, or even their sidewalk.  Whether they use a snow blower or a shovel it takes some exertion, and that exertion can be 3 x greater on the person who remains adverse to any consistent exercise program.  So next time you consider taking a few days off of working out or taking a break think about the potential consequences if you never go back.  You may need to move the snow off our sidewalk again, and it would be a real tragedy if you suffered a heart attack because you just didn't feel like working out for the last year or two.... 
So when you are deciding on what you should do to get started, think about this...Proven and sustaniable exercise programs can come in short bursts of energy which include cardiovascular and resistance (weight) training.  In order to maintain or improve your metabolism it is imperative to move with a little bit of resistance.  Without realizing it you can improve your overall health by increasing resistance and time incrementally.  One thing you need to remember is consistency, try starting a minimum of 3 days a week. Going all out when you haven't done anything in months or years, is like shoveling 18 inches of snow from a 1/4 mile driveway, just not a real good idea.  Make it a priority in your life and give up something that isn't so important, like watching 1hour of T.V.  Stop the cycle of YO-YO Exercising, stay on track,schedule your exercise into your daily calendar and make yourself a priority.

Personal Trainers own journey with getting healthy...join me today

So here we go, here is another person's story, why would anyone care?  I may not be famous but I have a story just like you have a story to tell.  I just turned 40 and realized that my life has only just begun. Yes I am a Personal Trainer and an Adventure Boot Camp owner, but I am still a person that has a story that I believe needs to be told....
I would like to invite you on my journey or my story of getting healthy.  Have I arrived today? Not at all... am I closer than I was a year ago, yes I believe I am.  Is this another story about a person who loses weight, runs a marathon, completes a triathlon, overcomes some major health crisis, or tragedy?  Well it could be if you choose to read and follow my own journey for the next year... See I have started a journey and I am inviting you to come along for the ride.  For years I have tried to connect with that one part of myself that I lost due to my own life experiences.  I am seeking peace in my own world of self turmoil.  I have been afraid to embrace that one side of myself that I felt has failed me... my spiritual side...As I embark on this new stage of my journey, I am putting my story out on a limb that hopefully you may connect or relate to your own journey.  So join me on this journey of spiritual self discovery and pay attention to my posts... give me your comments and your own stories that may relate. Believe me it can be very therapeutic to connect with others who have experienced life in a similar way...

"Confessions of a Realilty Show Loser", the real story behind "Biggest Loser"

Biggest Loser, anyone heard of it?? Silly question right!? So what happens to all those winners or "losers" as they would call them after the show? No longer in the fishbowl of the cameras, no longer on the "ranch" with Jillian or Bob coaching or yelling, giving them their workouts, no longer provided with a pantry full of the right foods, no longer the support of others trying to reach the same goal. What truly happens to them?


If you are truly curious, you need to catch the new show on Discovery Health about Eric Chopin, Season 3 winner named "Confessions of a Reality Show Loser".

Wow, talk about reality check. Not to give the whole show away but Eric has succeeded in returning to his former self, the man he was that brought him to the "Biggest Loser" in the first place. He not only gained almost (just under 40lbs of his previous weight) all his weight back, but he has managed to find himself in a place of no purpose, working for his father-in-law and hating it, a man struggling to find himself. Or is it, that he never truly lost that man with the excess weight, he only lost the weight?...

What I have learned with my own struggles in the world of weight loss is that you are human and that your journey never ends when the weight comes off. If some of you know me, know that I was once a bodybuilder and trained just as hard as Eric did on the "Biggest Loser" and achieved what some may call the perfect body. Yet achieving the perfect body means that you are expecting perfection from yourself each and everyday. And although you may look the part you certainly don't feel the part of the perfect body.

See the belief is that if you look good on the outside then everything is perfect, you are a successful, happy and you have no worries or problems. So if you are overweight and see someone with the "perfect" body you want to achieve that "perfect" body to make all your troubles go away. But did you know that you still take the mind of your "fat" self with you. Politically incorrect or not when someone is truly overweight the thoughts they experience are loaded with unwanted fat, garbage, trash. Yes there are some who experience weight gain due to medical conditions etc. however they are few and far between.

In a journey to “lose weight” one needs to address those “fat” thoughts in order to achieve a sustained and maintainable “weight loss”. As you will see in Eric’s journey back to “weight loss” he is addressing his true realities of being “fat” in his thoughts.

Although I am not a big fan of the “Biggest Loser” on many levels I do see some lesson’s to be learned. You can see the show addressing on a small scale the emotional “fat loss” journey, as well as this year they addressed the financial “fat loss” journey. However the need, for emotional and physical fat loss, that brings most of the contestants to the show gets lost in the game for the big bucks, as Eric Chopin learned the hard way.

If you are a fan or not a fan of the “Biggest Loser” I recommend you catch an episode of “Confessions of a Reality Show Loser” and what it really takes to lose weight.

Hope the message of this holiday season

Well I heard a very powerful message this past weekend that impacted me to my inner core.  Now I am not talking about my muscle core but my soul core.  Hope is one of the gifts of this season.  Wow, I never really thought of hope being a gift.

The definition of hope is "A confident expectation and desire for something good in the future."

I can honestly embrace the true definition of hope today, yet my faith in hope was truly tested this past year.
This time last year my family and I were contemplating our hope in my brother's future. My brother had become it seemed hopeless, he was no longer the man we remembered him to be and everything about what we knew of him was different.  My parents, my three sisters and I witnessed my brother crash through a coffee table by simply trying to put on his shoes.  We all asked, was he drunk, was he on drugs, what could be the problem?  Maybe the past year of getting a divorce had a huge toll on him, maybe that is why he failed to take a shower, or couldn't remember to bring all of his children's clothes, why he always had a headache and was often dizzy.

See my brother is a man of great accomplishments (at least to me) my brother is my only brother. So when he graduated from West Point, got his Industrial Engineering Degree while still in the Army, then after he retired from the military he earned his law degree, I marveled at his intellect and perserverance. I aspired to be half of the person he had become.

At the age of 36 he married and proceeded to have 4 wonderful children. Although he and his wife divorced he seemed ready to take on the task of being a single parent. He wanted to be a father to his children whether he was married to their mother or not. Yet he seemed to be making mistakes that didn't seem like him.  He didn't show alot of emotion (what man really does) and looked very disheveled. So my brother was never one to be perfect however his military training taught him to be presentable.  So we knew when he fell through the table it had to be something more...

After a few Dr's appts and Psychologist evaluation, it was determined he was depressed and he was put on anti-depressants.  Things didn't seem to be get any better and he in the meantime lost custody of his children, to only get a few supervised visits.  This was definitely not the man we knew or loved, he would never do anything to lose the custody of his children, there had to be something more...

My sisters with the help of their husbands took my brother to the hospital where they committed him to a Psychiatric ward.  My brother's situation had become so dire that he was living in his own filth and no longer going to work.  No one could get in touch with him because his phone was shut off.  We knew something was wrong yet we didn't think he was going crazy, he was going through a hard time and needed help, that is what we thought.

After 2 weeks in the Psychiatric ward, they released him, yet he still was off balance and he was now vomiting at the drop of a hat.  We had all hoped that he would get better however we failed to really see the true signs of what was really happening.  My parents finally after much probing and prodding of the Dr's asked for my brother to get a CAT scan and low and behold there it was, he had a tumor taking up a large portion of his frontal lobe in his brain.

Within a few days my brother was taken to a Neurologist and it was determined the type of tumor he had was most likely a meningioma, which is usually non cancerous but can be just a dangerous depending on the size.  Surgery was then scheduled for less than a week and now our faith and hope in the Dr's came into play. 

I have found this time of year a time to reflect on the year's that have past and the year's to come.  How can I change myself for the better?  The only thing that can help me make those changes is my hope in my future. 
So any changes I have to make need to be backed by my confident expectation and desires for good in the future.  When one loses hope that is when you find you have lost your confidence in a good future.  You fail to see your desires in a positive way, you lack patience in the process. Often times the hopeless find themselves contemplating their existence and if there is any good in the future.

Just recently I found out a young man of only 31 committed suicide, just 1 week after Thanksgiving.  You would think he had all the hope in the world with a new wife and two beautiful children.  Yet he found no hope in his future and left his family to grieve his loss.  Is there still hope for those left behind?  What can those little girls learn from this horrific event?
How many times have you found yourself deciding to make a change for the better.  You will embark upon a new health and wellness regime to only lose hope that you will ever change.  What most of us forget on our journey is that it takes time and patience to see your desired results.  How many times have you lost focus and hope in your desire to be healthy?

This holiday busy season and your fitness goals....

If anyone knows, owning and running your own business can take many hours of many days and your holidays tend to be working days.  Believe me, I wouldn't trade my business for the world. However, I have found I can totally relate to my clients when they say, "I just can't find any time in the day to exercise".  Yes, I said it, sometimes I do not think I have time to exercise. Yes, I am a dedicated professional that is encouraging all my clients to find the time to exercise while thinking in the back of my mind, "When am I going to get my workout in today?" So, I compromise and I park a little further from the door, I take the stairs and I take the few minutes I may steal to add any exercise into my day.
Maybe I have more opportunities than most to include exercise, however, your workout with me is your workout not mine.  Does that mean I am perfect and I am able to do everything on my list while also getting in my exercise.  No, I am not perfect, I am human and find that I have to prioritize and balance my life just like everyone else. So, my message to you today is to take time this holiday season to slow down and prioritize your life, find balance, don't forget about your own personal needs and take care of your health.  Be sure to include some sort of exercise into your day.  If you just don't want to think how to get started or what to do to incorporate exercise into your life, call a professional a Personal Trainer, or join my next Boot Camp.   
Make the commitment to yourself today! Put balance back into your life and rely on a trained professional to help you meet your goals.