The Health and Fitness Truth Blog

Last week, I took my Mother up to the hospital for some  doctor appointments. While waiting in the lobby and doctor waiting rooms, I had the opportunity to observe customers and patients throughout the hospital. What I saw was very sad. Patients, as well as those accompanying patients,  as well as hospital staff, were overwhelmingly overweight. Some could barely walk due to their obesity. My observations confimed national statistics- 60-70% of Americans  are overweight/obese. Normal weight citizens, or those only slightly overweight, are now the minority.

 WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO OURSELVES?

• We’ve eaten with abandon. We’ve ignored our natural hunger and fullness cues and have no idea of how much food is normal and what types of food best feed us.
• We don’t care what is in our food, as long as it tastes greasy and filling.  Sugar, preservatives, chemicals, saturated and trans fats fill our foods. And we don’t care.
• We’ve allowed chain and fast food restaurants to create huge fat filled meals and we still eat them without complaint.
• We don’t want to do the real nutrition work- we look for diets, cleanses, the quick fix, none of which work.
• We avoid the discomfort of exercise, even minimal exercise like walking. Exercise is hard work- get over it!

SO WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?     TODAY:

• You can stop eating at chain and fast food restaurants. This will send the message that we are no longer going to tolerate crappy, artificial food!
• You can choose whole foods- from the ground, from nature. No chemicals, preservatives or processed foods. If we all ate fruits, veggies, lean meats and dairy and healthy fats, NO ONE would be overweight. NO ONE.
• You can begin exercising- any small amount is a step forward. Something is always better than nothing.
• You can stop dieting and start creating personal awareness around your food choices by keeping a food log. The truth hurts! But until you know where you are, you can not know where to go!
• You can slow down, stay present and become more aware when you are full and when you are hungry. Sit to eat. Eat slowly, enjoy every bite-  but do it with knowledge and awareness.

It is estimated that by the year 2040, 80% of all children will   be overweight. Is this the legacy we really want to leave our children?

Personal Best is “best” known for it’s one-on-one training, but did you know we offer a variety of workshops and classes?

This summer, Karen Scafidi of Personal Best, will offer Bootcamp Classes through Hudson Park and Recreation Department. Classes will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6am. 

Nordic Walking Classes will be offered throughout the spring and summer as well, with classes being held on Wednesday evenings at 5:15 beginning in May, and Saturday mornings throughout the spring and summer. Saturday mornings are run by Sheri Rohr, currently at 10:30am, but will move to an earlier time for the summer.

Personal Best is also holding self-esteem workshops for teen age girls. Karen and I are “Dove Real Beauty Workshop” facilitators, holding our first workshop on May 19th at JFK Middle School in Hudson. This workshop is free to teen girls ages 11-13 and their Moms or other female mentors.

Finally, during these tough economic times,  consider GROUP personal training as a great way to stay motivated at a cost effective price. GROUP training offers great results, fun workouts and comraderie at half the price per person of traditional one-one-one training.  There is no need to forgo good health just because we need to tighten our economic belts.

For more information on these workshops and classes email me at Kathy@personalbestpersonaltraining.com

Welcome to my first attempt at uploading video to my blog!

This exercise, adapted from physical therapy, is great for people who are not sure how to activate their transverse abdominus muscle. 

Through a deep exhale, and brief posterior pelvic tilt, (also activating internal obliques), most will finally feel the TA and surrounding muscles contract.

While this is not optimal for spinal/core stability itself, it can be used as an inital tool to create the sensation of activation that many people are unable to feel.

I prefer the use of planks, side bridges, “”Palloff” presses and stability ball rollouts for true spinal stabilization. Watch for these exercises soon!

Personal Best is offering a series of workshops this spring for  both clients and non clients.

-Nordic Walking Classes begin in April through Assabet After Dark Adult Ed Programs in Marlborough, Mass. Classes will be held on Saturdays from 9:30-10:30am starting Saturday, April, 18th , 2009. Register through Assabet After Dark Adult Ed.

-Personal Best is offering The Dove Real Beauty Self Esteem Workshop for girls ages 8-12. If you have a group of young ladies who would be interested in this program, please contact us at Personal Best.

- The Personal Best Spring Nutrition Series begins this month! Relaxing, informative presentations will be held at the home of Kathy Ekdahl, Personal Best President, starting Tuesday, February 24th from 6:30-8pm. Topics discussed will be varied, ranging from the latest in nutritional research, to getting sugar out of your diet, as well as a workshop on a holistic food cleanse and lastly, healthy self care for women.

- Both Yoga Classes and Bootcamp Classes are offered throughout the year by Personal Best.

Contact us at kathy@personalbestpersonaltraining.com for more information. 

January 2, 2009. D-day. Got on the scale first thing in the morning. AAAHHHHHH!!!! I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!

Perhaps some of you have felt this way after getting on the scale?  I could not believe the number I was seeing. Boy, had I been in denial!

Now, I am not a big proponent of obsessive scale weighing, because many people equate weight with self worth, and this obsessive pattern can enhance low self esteem, especially in women. But, I do believe it is essential we get on the scale every now and then to know whether our eating habits have resulted in weight gain, weight loss, or no change. Recent research has shown that people who weigh themselves frequently, are less likely to gain weight- and I do know this to be true- as I have friends and clients who never weigh themselves, and then are shocked to find they have gained so much weight!  It’s easy to ignore unhealthy eating when you do not know it’s impact on your weight.

Anyway, it had been awhile for me since I weighed myself, and the number I saw was way out of line! For the first time since my early 20’s, I decided to follow a strict diet regimen. Although I was angry at myself for eating so poorly over the holidays, I also knew that berating myself won’t change anything. Action does.

So, in the month of January I embarked on a low carb “diet”. I lost 6 pounds in one month-  a record amount of weight for me, as usually I can only lose about 2-3 pounds/month.  More importantly, along the way, I learned alot about myself.

I learned:

1-For normal thinking, healthy self-esteem people, a diet can be a great tool to jumpstart your way to healthier eating. I say “healthy self-esteem people”, because dieting can, for many people, be a very self destructive exercise.  Young girls and teens or, people with food addictions, eating disorders, or disordered eating patterns, should never diet.

2- I was eating way too much carbs and ,in particular, doing it without conscious thought. By following a “diet” I realized how often I was reaching for crap even if I was not hungry. I know now that I CAN eat fewer starchy carbs and still have plenty of energy!

3- It is OK to be a bit hungry every now and then. I was always afraid of being hungry- because I was afraid it would lead to over eating eventually. But, there is a big difference between mild hunger and feeling starved. Feeling starved is never good. Never. 

4- Using the excuse “I have no time to prepare healthy food” is a cop-out. I am a pretty busy person, but I had fooled myself into thinking I didn’t have time to prepare nice healthy breakfast and lunches. The diet taught me that I do have time!

5-There’s absolutely NO SENSE in going on a diet if you don’t learn something from it. Use the diet as a time for self-reflection. Do I use food for comfort? Am I unconscious when I eat? Am I eating for other reasons than  healthy refueling and as a response to hunger?

This diet really opened my eyes to how far off healthy my nutrition had become. As a mature women in her late 40’s- I approached this diet very differently than I did last time I dieted- at age 24.  I  now have the self-esteem to weigh myself occasionally and, if necessary, change my food intake to adjust my weight to a healthier place!