Your Best Body Ever

7 Oct 2009

Easy Ways to go Veggie!

Following up on my post the other day about Vegetarian Awareness Month, I thought I would write today on a few easy recipes and some other ideas to get you motivated to give up meat for a month. It’s only a month, after all…and I know you can do it.

I realize that it might be pretty hard to give up meat cold turkey (no pun intended, ha!) So to begin with, you’re going to have to plan a little bit. If you’re like me, you can still have your eggs at breakfast, and milk products as well. This is a personal choice, but I find most women don’t get enough calcium so I do try to keep milk in my diet. Eggs are also a great source of protein, and I consider them “pre-meat”, so to speak, although I know a lot of vegetarians won’t eat them. I do try to get organic, free range eggs whenever possible, however.

It’s also important to know that there are several products on the market that mimic meat products. These are generally made out of soy, tempeh, or TVP (textured vegetable protein), and believe me, they’ve come a long way since I became a vegetarian. It’s now possible to get soy bacon, soy hot dogs, and soy chicken fingers that really taste a lot like the real thing. In fact, I have a friend who actually prefers the soy hot dogs to the real thing – he says they taste better! And he’s a die hard meat eater, so that’s a pretty good review.

A few of my favorite vegetarian items include Amy’s Kitchen products, Smart Dogs, Boca Burgers, and Gardenburgers. You can find these at almost any large grocery store chain in the health food aisle and/or the frozen food section. They’re healthy, convenient, and completely delicious.

A few other things you can do to help yourself go “no meat” – when eating out, order certain things without the meat, if it can be. For example, if I see something on the menu that lists bacon (like a salad, for example) I’ll ask for it to be made without it. I’ve even asked for a “cheeseburger without the burger” before! To most meat eaters, a cheese sandwich can sound pretty dull, but topped with some delicious roasted veggies and some yummy sauce, it can be amazing.

This is something you can try at home as well. If a recipe calls for ground meat, search for crumbled TVP instead, and add it in. I often do this with tomato sauce or pasta dishes, as it really does add some flavor and knocks up the protein content a bit.

This is also a great time to try some new recipes. Here’s on of my all time favorites – I’ve been eating this since I was 6 years old, and before I became a vegetarian, and it was my favorite meal then (I guess I was destined to be a veggie!) but it’s a tasty quick meal that you can put together in no time. And despite the skeptical looks from your family, I promise you, they’ll like it.

Tofu Sloppy Joes
1 cup of diced onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 14 oz pkg of firm tofu, drained
1 ½ cups of your favorite tomato sauce
4 English muffins, cut in half and lightly toasted
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Grated parmesan cheese
Basil leaves (optional)

First, put your oven on the broil setting. Then, spray a non-stick pan with an oil spray like Pam, or warm up a little olive oil, on medium heat. Cook the onions until they become softer, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic, and cook for another 5 minutes or until they start to brown. Add the tofu, and break up the tofu with a fork in the pan, so the block becomes completely dissolved. Then add the tomato sauce, turn the heat down to low, and cook, covered, for about 15 minutes so the flavors meld together. Toast your English muffins at this time, and place those on a piece of tinfoil on top of a broiler pan or baking sheet. Place a few big spoonfuls of the tofu mixture on each English muffin, enough so they’re covered but not so it’s not falling off too much. Sprinkle on a little bit of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese on each, and top with a basil leave, if using. Place them under the broiler for around a minute, until the cheese melts.


And voila! An easy vegetarian meal everyone will enjoy. If you really want to go hard core, use soy cheese. Yum!

5 Oct 2009

October is Vegetarian Awareness Month!

I bet most of you probably didn’t know this – the month of October is dedicated to celebrating a plant based diet and making people aware about its benefits.

I myself have been mostly a vegetarian for many, many years. I do eat fish, but no poultry or meat. There are different kinds of vegetarian eating, the most common probably being the lacto-ovo vegetarian, which allows milk and egg products into the diet. A total vegan diet doesn’t include any animal products at all, including things like honey. It’s a very strict diet and can be hard to follow, as well as get all your essential nutrients. But it can be done, you just have to work very hard to have a balanced diet.

The benefits of a vegetarian diet are many. Regarding your health, this kind of diet can help reduce your risk of heart disease, strokes, and certain kinds of cancers, as you’re eating less saturated fat and cholesterol. It can also help you lose weight, as you’re mostly consuming lower calorie vegetables and fruits. Studies have also shown that vegetarians live longer than meat eaters, approximately 7 years longer.

But that’s not all. You’ll spend less at the grocery store, as produce costs less than meat. You’ll also protect your bones, as eating meat (and we eat more protein than we should, which I recently wrote about) can leach valuable nutrients from your bones as your body. The average bone loss for a 65 year old vegetarian is about 18 percent, for a meat eater the same age, it’s double that. Pretty amazing, right?

Going vegetarian can also help you avoid toxins in meat, such as hormones and steroids. It will also help you avoid food-borne illnesses, as most of these are found in meat products.

And let’s not forget the benefits to planet Earth! Going veggie helps prevent global warming, as cows, goats, and other animals emit methane, which is a huge destroyer of the ozone layer. Less demand for meat means fewer animals in the world. It also helps prevent deforestation for animal grazing. Water preservation is also affected. One pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water, whereas one pound of wheat takes only 25 gallons.

You can also help reduce world famine. Currently, 72 percent of grains grown in the US are fed to animals raised for slaughter. It takes 15 pounds of feed to produce one pound of meat. But if these grains were given directly to the world’s people, famine would all but be eradicated.

So have I convinced you enough yet? And if you’re thinking that a vegetarian diet is bland and boring, think again! There are plenty of wonderful and tasty recipes out there to try, and it’s anything but boring. It’s also a lot easier than you think, as there are a ton of products now available at the grocery store (some even taste like real meat, if you really can’t go without…) and most restaurants also offer vegetarian options.

Tomorrow, I’ll go over some great recipe ideas to get you started. I’m trying to convince my clients at the Diversified Health and Fitness gyms to give up meat for just this month, so I am giving you the same challenge. Think you can do it?

23 Sep 2009

Understanding Protein – Part 1

For the last several years, there’s been a lot of hype surrounding protein. Most people know they need it, that it helps build your muscles, and can help you lose weight, should you decide to eat it exclusively. However, as a personal trainer, I find that most of my clients at Diversified Health and Fitness gyms are somewhat misinformed or confused about this nutritional powerhouse.

Protein is considered one of the three main macronutrients, fat and carbohydrates being the others. As an energy source, it’s the one that is used last, as the body has a harder time converting it from protein to energy. Stored in the muscles, it’s necessary for maintaining the body’s normal growth and muscle mass, the immune system, and heart and regulatory functions. It’s safe to say that you can’t live without it.

Most Americans typically eat more protein than they need. We’re a burger and cheese loving nation, and you won’t find too many protein deficient people here. In developing countries, though, it is a chronic problem and sadly, can be a cause of death.

So how much protein do you really need? The standard rule of thumb is 5 – 15% of your total daily caloric intake. So if you normally consume 2,000 calories per day, 200 of those calories should come from protein, or about 50 grams. You should be eating about 1 gram of protein per one Kilogram of body weight. An easier way to figure this out is to take your weight, divide it in half, and then subtract 10. This should give you your recommended daily amount, if you’re exercising at a moderate level (two and a half hours or so per week).

With these numbers in mind, it’s easy to understand that most Americans generally eat way more than this amount of protein in a given day. Is this harmful to your health? Generally speaking, it’s not. Unless you have a kidney or liver disease, such as cirrhosis, then it could be dangerous. These two organs process protein and could be hurt by an abundance of it. If you have these issues, talk to your doctor for more information.

Protein is made up of amino acids, of which there are 20 different kinds. These are the building blocks of protein, and you need all of them to fulfill your body’s needs. The combination of amino acids determines the type of protein. Amino acids are also broken down into essential and non-essential, and these can come from either plant or animal sources. Essential acids are those that cannot be gained except from food sources. These essential amino acids can then be broken down into the non-essential type.

Your body requires all these amino acids. Animal proteins are typically also known as “complete” proteins, meaning that you body can get all the amino acids from this kind of protein. This is one reason why being a vegan (eating absolutely no meat) can be quite difficult. Eggs are known as having the most complete amino acid structure out of all the animal protein sources, and are the standard by which the others are measured.

The “incomplete” amino acids come from plant sources, meaning that they’re missing some amino acids that your body still needs. These include things such as legumes, nuts, and seeds. These need to be consumed together in a complementary fashion to ensure that the needs of the body are met. For example, you could eat beans with rice, or hummus and pita bread – these combined will give the body a more complete source of all its requirements. Soy and protein bars and powders are also great sources of complete aminos.

You don’t have to eat all the amino acids everyday. Interestingly, we do have a biological drive to get what we need from our food sources; so typically, we’re not deficient in most amino acids. I tell my clients at the gyms I work at to try to get what they need on a monthly basis, and to listen to your body. If you’re craving a hamburger or eggs for breakfast, listen to it!

Tomorrow – Protein and the athlete, how much do they need?

17 Sep 2009

Proper footwear: An important part of your workout

Today I posted a quote on the importance of bringing your old running shoes with you to the store when you’re shopping for new ones. I’d like to elaborate on this topic, as I do feel it’s something that a lot of people don’t understand or overlook, no matter what kind of exercise they’re doing.

If you’re a runner like I am, the proper running shoes can be crucial to your performance and preventing injury. I know a lot of newbie runners who will start out in whatever athletic shoes they have lying around, who end up being discouraged and then injured with shin splints or strained muscles because the shoes didn’t offer them proper support.

Your structural body isn’t perfect, of course. How our hips are placed will affect how are knees are, and in turn, how our feet are. Most people have feet that pronate, meaning that they roll outwards or inwards. A lot of people also have either flat or high arches too, making that part of the foot painful if there is too much or too little support.

We’re pretty lucky in this day and age, though – so many companies have spent a lot of time and money making shoes for runners and other sports that are specific to your body’s needs and the needs of that sport. Now, I’m not saying you should go out there and buy a bunch of different sneakers if you’re playing tennis one day and doing aerobics the next. It’s just a good idea to have proper sneakers that offer you the support you need to enable you to do the activities you want without injury.

For example, the other day one of my clients at Butterfly Life walked in with some pretty cute sneakers. She had gotten them on sale at the local department store. And although they matched with her outfit (yes, this is important to some people), they were woefully unsupportive and not built for a strenuous workout. I had to tell her to stop wearing them in the gym and invest in some better sneakers for her workouts.

Great sneakers can be expensive, especially if you’re a long distance runner like I am and need to shell out $140 every few months. But listen up – it’s going to be a lot more expensive to have to deal with a medical problem you might have because you aren’t wearing the right shoes! I’ve seen this happen with my clients at my gyms so I know firsthand that it’s no joke.

If you’re a runner, or thinking about running, make sure you go to a proper running store and get fitted for shoes. They’ll watch you run, analyze your gait, and have you try on several pairs for fit. I go to Fleet Feet, which is an excellent store that allows you to return your shoes if they end up not working out.

If you’re not a runner, I still urge you to go to an athletic shoe store like Foot Locker or the Sports Authority and get a good pair of shoes. Your feet and body will thank you for it!

14 Sep 2009

The Elusive 6 Pack…

One of the most common requests I hear at Diversified Health and Fitness gym is the request for “6 Pack Abs”. These, besides the perfect butt, seem to be the Holy Grail of working out. And while there are many things you can do to get your abs in gear, it’s important to understand the abs and how to best acheive results.

Your abs are not just the space between your chest and your bikini line. Your abdominal muscles are a part of your core muscles, which is the group that supports your entire middle zone. That’s pretty much the neck down to the mid part of your thigh. You core is vitally important in almost every exercise you perform, so strengthening this entire area is, without a doubt, a very important goal. You engage your entire core in everyday movements, all the time.

But let’s focus on your front abdominal muscles, the ones that you’d like to look like a washboard. A lot of my clients think that if they just do 100 crunches a day, they’ll be well on their way. And while this can help a little, it’s not going to help if you have a layer of fat over your muscles, and if you’re only doing crunches. So it’s important to attack this from all sides: proper nutrition, smart exercise, and minimizing stress. Why the last one? Studies have shown that increased stress packs on the midsection pounds.

It’s also important to know that some abdominal exercises are much more effective than others. It’s also better to really work out your abs in a short amount of time with highly effective exercises than to waste time and energy on the aforementioned 100 daily crunches.

According to research, the single best move you can do for your abs is the device in your gym called “The Captain’s Chair.” This is a great piece of equipment that you hoist yourself between the two side supports on your elbows and forearms, which will cause your legs to dangle. Now bring your legs up from the waist for as long as you can to work those rectus abdominals, and then turn to the side and work those obliques. This is an AB KILLER, and believe me, yours will be burning in no time! My clients hate it when I put them on here, but they’re not paying me to not get them results. You’ll see some results too when you’re on here for awhile, I promise!

The second best thing you can do is use an inflatable exercise ball. Besides being a lot of fun, these work on your stabilizer muscles as well, and those sometimes get less use than they should. For core work, the ball is a must, and it’s very versatile. Tomorrow I’ll go over some more exercises on the ball, but most gyms have them and they should not be ignored.

The traditional crunch can still work wonders, it’s true. However, it’s important to switch up that crunch a little so you get the most out of the exercise (we’ll also touch on form for crunches tomorrow) and also work all the various areas of your abdominals. And unlike the others, the crunch is easy to do in a hotel room or when you’re at home, during TV commercials (hint, hint!)

So tune in tomorrow for my favorite ab blasting exercises!

12 Sep 2009

“Read labels on muffins. A bran muffin may not even contain whole-wheat flour, and may have excessive amounts of eggs, butter, and oil, as well as sugar, honey, and other sweeteners. Some have more than 20 grams of fat - as much as a Big Mac - and more than 500 calories.”
— University of California, Berkeley. 365 Tips for Better Health.

11 Sep 2009

“Eat to win. The high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet that everyone should be eating for good health can actually help improve your athletic performance.”
— University of California, Berkeley. 365 Tips for Better Health.
Tags: diet. health.

10 Sep 2009

Working out when sick – a good idea?

As summer comes to an end, flu and cold season is rapidly approaching. While you may be speeding steadily along on your workout schedule, and rarely missing a day, chances are that you may, at some point this fall or winter, be sidelined with some kind of illness.

I often see a lot of clients at the Diversified Health and Fitness gyms wiping their noses and coughing into their hands. While it’s not a bad idea to work out while slightly under the weather – say, a mild cold – there are some general guidelines to whether or not you should work out or just sit it out until you feel better.

So let’s say you feel like you’re coming down with something. This can vary from anything to a slight cold to a flu. Some experts think that if you even feel something coming on, you should avoid working out and go home and rest – if you’re sick, your body is trying to tell you something.

Perhaps you think you can make it to the gym that day, though. Maybe it’s just a little tickle in your throat, a little hacking cough. Working out with a mild cold is probably ok, most experts agree. And it can be hard to want to miss a day when you’re really feeling like you can do it.

If you’re running a fever, however, it’s best to skip the gym. Working out puts more stress on the heart, which is already beating faster due to your higher body temperature. If you’re taking certain kinds of medication, your heart rate can also increase, and combined with exercise, this can be dangerous. And if you’re suffering from chest congestion or a cough, or shortness of breath, it’s definitely better to skip your workout. I think it also goes without saying that if you have stomach flu symptoms, you’re probably not going to want to step foot in the gym either.

A lot of people mistakenly believe that exercising while working out sweats out the “toxins” in your system, and can actually help you get rid of a cold or flu faster. This is completely false, as toxins in your system do not leave your body through your sweat glands. Working out while sick can often prolong your illness as well, as your body doesn’t need the extra stress and should be using its energy reserves to fight off the illness.

When you’re feeling good enough to make it to the gym again, make sure you don’t go 100% your first time there, even if you’re really tempted to. I had a client today at Butterfly Life that recently got over the flu, and today we focused only on 10 minutes of light cardio (walking on the treadmill), some light weightlifting, and stretching. Next week, when she’s feeling even better, we’ll get back into her normal, intensive routine.

Exercise is great for boosting your immune system, it’s true. But when an illness comes on, listen to your body and take care of yourself! It’s not worth making yourself even sicker just so you don’t miss a workout.

9 Sep 2009

“If you eat lots of margarine and other processed foods containing hydrogenated fats, cut back. When the fat in food is hydrogenated, some of it becomes “trans” fats, which may increase the risk of heart disease just like the saturated fat in butter.”
— University of California, Berkeley. 365 Tips for Better Health.
Tags: nutrition. health.

7 Sep 2009

“Though nothing cures a cold, some home remedies do help: hot drinks, especially chicken soup, can increase the flow of nasal secretions. Tea with honey temporarily relieves a sore throat. Saltwater gargles (a quarter teaspoon of salt in 8 ounces warm water) are also helpful, as are homemade saline nosedrops (same formula as the gargle).”
— University of California, Berkeley. 365 Tips for Better Health.
Tags: colds. remedies. health.