Transformation!
What a transformation!
How did we do it?!
I got her on a specific style of diet geared specifically for diabetics. The main focus of this program was getting her to eat whole, homemade foods, without preservatives, the least amount of processing as possible. Also, organic and raw when possible. There was lots of fresh salads with Greek yogurt dressing. Additionally, apples, hummus, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables were a main part of her diet.
Smoothies with chia for increased fiber were also utilized. Fiber helps keep you filling full and fiber also slows the absorption of carbohydrates and sugars. All bread was substituted with whole grain wraps or sprouted bread, those kind of carbs were cut back to once a day, maybe twice. The carbs were eaten earlier in the day.
Pasta was substituted with spaghetti squash. Her main sources of protein came from eggs, fish, and organic, free range chicken. Clean eating and exercise every day got us the results we wanted. With some knowledge and the desire to meal prep it is really amazing what diet can do for your well-being. Not only did she lose weight but we were also successful in decreasing her A1C level with food modification.
The A1C number is the percentage of glucose (sugar) circulating in the blood. We tested her A1C tested prior to my program and after my program and it went from 6.8% to 5.9%. A value of 5.7% or below of sugar in the blood is what we want and is out of the diabetic range.
Great job Bekki! Keep it up 👏🏼
- Published in Public Blog
Agility Ladder!
Agility Ladder! Great footwork practice. Great for precision training, as well as, cardiovascular conditioning. Use as a warm up or use as an activity to get your heart rate back up after weight training.
Agility Ladder! Great footwork practice. Great for precision training, as well as, cardiovascular conditioning. Use as a warm up or use as an activity to get your heart rate back up after weight training.
Posted by Pivot Holistic Health on Sunday, October 1, 2017
- Published in Fitness, Public Blog
Post Hurricane Irma Update
- Published in Fitness, Public Blog
High Blood Pressure
Welcome to a little crash course on blood pressure:
Why High Blood Pressure is bad for you:
High blood pressure can damage heart, brain, kidneys, peripheral vascular system, can cause thickening of left ventricle (due to increase resistance it has to work harder), increased risk of stroke, heart attack, kidney disease, and vision problems. [1]
This is definitely not something to take lightly. If you have high blood pressure it is time to make some changes…
These are some of the top things you can do to help get you on the right track [1]:
- Lose weight
- Exercise 30-45 min four or more days (get DR clearance)
- Decrease sodium
- Get enough potassium
- Limit alcohol intake
- Limit saturated fat
- Limit cholesterol (choose meat free meals more often)
- Quit smoking
References
- NSCA’S Essentials of Personal Training – 2nd Edition
- Published in Eating for Health, Fitness, Public Blog
Program Design
For me the one of most rewarding parts of training is developing exercise programs. Program design is vital because we want to be sure it is varied enough to keep the muscles adapting to new stresses. The intensity must be challenging but no so much that there is an overuse or injury caused by fatigue.
Incorporating new exercises is important to prevent boredom. Thankfully, I have spent years upon years the gym, in fitness classes, on the court, and on the field. I have an unlimited amount of exercises, warm ups, strengthening protocols, agility drills, and even rehabilitation exercises in my knowledge base. Another benefit of knowing many different exercises is knowing many different ways to target the same muscle groups. What works best for one person to target a muscle group might not be the best method for another person.
Every pivot towards good health is a step in the right direction, no matter how big or how small. Please call to schedule your complimentary initial consultation and sample 1 on 1 training session.
Call or text: 407-205-7488
- Published in Fitness, Public Blog
B12 Deficiency
According to the CDC, vitamin B12 deficiency ranks sixth in the most common nutritional deficiencies in the USA. B12 has had a lot of attention because it is very common for vegetarians, vegans, and the elderly population to have B12 deficiency. Weakness, numbness/tingling in hands in feet, loss of balance, depression, the tongue can become red and swollen. [1] Also, confusion, mind fog, and forgetfulness may be symptoms of B12 deficiency. [1] B12 is used to produce blood cells, DNA, and for proper nerve function. [1]
Vegans must get B12 through supplements because B12 is found in animal products only.
Medications can affect B12 deficiency. Aspirin, antacids, and metformin is a common culprit that can cause B12 absorption problems. [1]
According to the NIH, liver, eggs, clams, trout, salmon, tuna, beef, milk, yogurt, ham and chicken are all good sources of B12. [2] When making your smoothies look for almond milk that has been fortified with B12 and you can also add yogurt to your smoothies. Also, some cereals have been fortified with B12. Tip: look for methylcobalamin over cyanocobalamin because cyanocobalamin is made in a lab and methylcobalamin is naturally occurring.
Every pivot towards good health is a step in the right direction, no matter how big or how small. Please call to schedule your complimentary initial consultation and sample 1 on 1 eating for health consultation.
Call or text: 407-205-7488
Further reading:
- http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/americas-b12-deficiency?video_id=1847956079001
- https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-HealthProfessional/
- Published in Public Blog, Smoothie Making
Why Form is Important During Exercise
There are few things more important while exercising than form. Let’s define what I mean by form before we move forward. When we exercise there are several things we want to keep in mind. I always tell my clients to keep their core tight during all exercises. When we tighten our abdominal muscles we help to protect our spine from injury. Almost all exercises have a specific body positioning that is optimal for targeting certain muscles or muscle groups. Most importantly, form helps us to prevent injuries.
Another example, is when I have my clients pull their shoulder blades back while doing overhead exercises. This is because there is a very small space in between the bones of your shoulder. When you pull your shoulders back you help relieve some of the space issues at the front of your shoulder. Ligaments, nerves, arteries, tendons, bursa, and muscles of the shoulder can get impinged, or irritated from improper shoulder motion and posture. Having a trained professional teach you proper form can save you from injuries and help you get the best outcomes from your workout.
Every pivot towards good health is a step in the right direction, no matter how big or how small. Please call to schedule your complimentary initial consultation and sample 1 on 1 training session.
Call or text: 407-205-7488
- Published in Fitness, Public Blog
How Mindfulness Can Enrich Your Experiences
Have you ever been experiencing a moment so good you took time to stop and just enjoy it? Maybe it was a sunset, a dinner with family, maybe even a moment you accomplished a goal. It was an experience you knew would mean a lot to you when you thought about it in the future.
The truth is we are experiencing these moments more than we realize but we are just too preoccupied to enjoy them. You have seen or been a part of it as it happens, two people are spending time together one or both of the people are deep into their phone, they are ignoring one another. We are all guilty of it.
Between tv, music, work, social media…it seems like our minds are every where except where we are right now. We are anxious about the future, sad about or longing for the past, and completely ignoring the present moment.
What mindfulness training does is help us practice having a single point of focus, free of distractions. Just like any exercise, it gets easier with practice. Once we know what it is like to be completely immersed in a thought or moment, we notice more often when we are distracted and it will be easier to bring yourself back to into a more focused state. This can become a useful tool when spending time with family, when you are trying clear your mind of an unpleasant experience, or when you trying to enjoy a vacation.
Every pivot towards good health is a step in the right direction, no matter how big or how small. Please call to schedule your complimentary initial consultation and sample 1 on 1 mindfulness training session.
Call or text: 407-205-7488
- Published in Mindfulness Training, Public Blog
Lifestyle Choices and Health
Something I love is that my clients are very honest with me. I am not the judgmental type and knowing which lifestyle habits my clients partake in actually helps me form their workout for that day.
For instance, I trained a college student while she was on spring break. She was honest with me and told me she had drank heavily the nights before our workouts that week. I altered my workout from some high intensity protocols I had planned and moved to a more steady state but mildly cardiovascular taxing exercises. My strategy was to get her sweating to get out some toxins but I didn’t push her so hard she cramped or get nauseous.
I decided to write a blog about common substances people use and how they affect your body and your workouts.
Cigarettes: There is no doubt this is probably the worst one because it decreases your overall oxygen transportation while also increasing your hearts demand for oxygen. Lung capacity will not be as good as a non-smoker so you will get winded quicker, resulting in less intense workouts. Free radicals are in the smoke and free radicals damage healthy tissue. Damaged tissue from free radicals has been known to lead to cancer. This one vice I would recommend giving up or at least cutting far down as soon as possible.
Alcohol: Obviously if you are using alcohol at the time you are working out you increase risk of injury due to spatial and balance abnormalities. Also, the breaking down of alcohol post consumption competes with your body producing energy for exercise. This is certainly not recommended.
Many people however, are working out the following day after drinking. This puts our body at an increased risk for dehydration. Alcohol makes us produce more urine output and has metabolic byproducts we must break down, both can interfere with performance.
Interestingly, according to Dr. Emmanuel Stamatakis, if you are a drinker, moderate exercise can help prevent the increased risk of developing cancer and other increases in mortality that is associated with alcohol use. [1] It is also possible that light drinking (not every week) may help reduce risk of cardiovascular disease. [1] What about drinking after a workout? Sorry, it looks like alcohol might hamper muscle recovery. [2]
Marijuana: With widespread legalization of cannabis for recreational use, I think it is appropriate to evaluate cannabis along side with tobacco and alcohol. Additionally, it is no secret some of the world’s most elite athletes claim it helps them, either therapeutically, by reducing anxiety, or improving their performance. These are highly subjective measurements and surely varies person to person.
There is some evidence that cannabis can help bronchospasm, something that affects asthmatics and those who suffer from bouts of panic attacks “2.0 percent marijuana and isoproterenol caused an immediate reversal of exercise-induced asthma and hyperinflation.” [3] Long term cannabis use might present a downside however. Ingesting any smoke is hard on your body, period. “A recent review reported that marijuana smoking was associated with airway inflammation, acute bronchospasm, airflow obstruction, diffusion impairment, and emphysema.” [4] Keep in mind there are alternate ways of ingesting cannabis such as vaporizing, edibles, etc.
Additionally, there are some studies that claim marijuana activates our endocannabinoid system in interesting ways. The endocannabinoid system influences energy metabolism, sleep, mood, memory, even appetite. Plant cannabinoids may have an affect on this system.
According to Murray Mittleman, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, ” current users of marijuana appeared to have better carbohydrate metabolism than nonusers”. Also, “their fasting insulin levels were lower, and they appeared to be less resistant to the insulin produced by their body to maintain a normal blood-sugar level”.
I think it is fair to say there is a lot we don’t know about cannabis and with the legalization, it would be prudent to conduct more studies to get the facts we just don’t currently have.
The overall walk away message from this post is to find a trainer you are comfortable talking with. A trainer that understands and respects your unique circumstances will only benefit you in innumerable ways. By customizing a protocol that is appropriate for you, you can progress safely towards a goal of health. Remember there is no good and bad, there is only improvement.
Every pivot towards good health is a step in the right direction, no matter how big or how small. Please call to schedule your complimentary initial consultation and sample 1 on 1 training session.
Call or text: 407-205-7488
Resources:
- http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/07/health/exercise-alcohol-and-death-risk/index.html
- http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088384
- http://www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1164/arrd.1975.112.3.377
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720277/
- Published in Fitness, Public Blog
Fitness For Beginners to Elite Athletes
Come workout!
Nice, new, private gym facility located in Maitland/Winter Park area.
Personalized protocols, diet modification, as well as, joint strengthening, cardiovascular conditioning and injury prevention are my specialties. All fitness levels welcome.😊
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