Check Out the New TriValleyWellness.com!

Hi Folks!

Thank you so much for becoming followers of the TriValleyWellness.com blog.

As you know, not long after I started writing this blog, it came to an abrupt halt. There were two reasons for this:

1. My core business (fitness training and specialty group classes) slowed down significantly in the summer of '09, and that required me to turn my attention to that business (which puts a roof over my family's head!)

2. It was simply too difficult to keep up with generating both a daily blog and a weekly wellness video.

Since that time, my training business has rebounded, both my kids are now in school six hours a day and I have combined the blog and video into a single Vblog that I'll be changing out every few days.

I'm now in the process of re-launching the new and improved TriValleyWellness.com website, and I encourage you to visit and share your thoughts and recommendations.

Here's the link: http://trivalleywellness.com/

Thanks again for your loyalty!

The Red Zone

If you're trying to lose body fat and you've already implemented the major recommendations I've listed here (eating small, frequent meal/snacks of nutrient-dense food; following a balanced, challenging and progressive fitness program) it may come down to how you eat in the last third of the waking day.

What makes the last third of the day so important? Well, the closer you get to bed time, the more influence the calories you take in will have on your daily equation (in versus out or eaten versus burned). So, while it's not that easy to create a 500 calorie shortfall (which equals a pound of fat loss each week), it's very easy to consume 1500 calories too many (a few slices of pizza and a couple of beers will more than cover that margin.)

If you did the quick math in your head just now, you know that three days of being good can net out with one "whoops!" day to leave you with a big goose egg for the four days - no weight lost after more than half a week of being on your best nutrition behavior!

What's frustrating for many people who are working out hard and eating pretty clean and light during the week, but get a little crazy over the weekend, is that you can easily counteract the effects of the week with a weekend of indulgence.

I tell my clients to have a mid or late afternoon snack with fat, fiber and protein (fruit and a cheese stick or small hand full of nuts are good choices), then have a big glass of water before dinner and keep dinner a very small portion of 2/3 veggies and 1/3 lean protein. The no more calories after dinner!

If you do that, you'll start to see that stubborn fat finally hit the road.

New Pilates Class in Livermore!

Check it out... http://tvtevents.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-pilates-class-at-cosmic-dog-yoga.html

Is it a snack? A meal? Who cares?

This is one of mine and my kids' favorite "modular meals":

Stacey's Garlic Paremsan Baked Pita Chips dipped in

Knudsen Lowfat Cotttage Cheese

plus

Broccoli and Cauliflower tips dipped in Sabra Garlic Hummus

It's got it all - protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber. And it's very low in calories.

Add some nuts or cheese and fresh berries and it's perfect for a sunset park picnic!

Darell's Victory

Earlier this year, I got the opportunity to work with a company conducting a three-month employee weight loss contest. There was lots of enthusiasm and a surprisingly high percentage of employees (nearly 70%) signed up at the start. I visited the site weekly with nutrition and healthy lifestyle small group coaching and led weekly exercises classes. I also offered e-mail support for those who had questions along the way.

Darell (pictured above before [left] and after [right] the contest), was the one person who took advantage of everything. He showed up for all the classes. He implemented the eating changes. He asked additional questions about how to improve his workouts. He ran changes by me that he'd made to some of his eating practices for my feedback. And because his company subsidized my services, he didn't spend a dime on that guidance.

How did Darell do in the contest? He won - and by a pretty fair margin. He lost nearly a fifth of his body weight in fat and six inches in his waist in three short months.

So what makes Darell different than so many people out there who try and fail to lose weight over and over and then finally give up altogether? Well, I'd like to believe that the guidance and motivation I provided were critical elements in the mix. But that was available to all the employees.

Darell simply believed it was important enough to devote his time and energy to this effort. He wanted a better life now, while he was still young. He wanted to serve as an example to his friends, his family and his coworkers. But most of all, he just wanted to have control over his health and wellness.

I was glad to be a part of that.

Reps? Sets? Loads? Who Cares?

Not me.

Well, let me be more specific: reps, sets and loads, while important tools in the strength training toolbox, are simply that - tools. They do not define the ultimate goal. They are pathways you can use, but they shouldn't be your main focus.

What do I mean by that? Here's the strength training equation:

Relative intensity x time under load = muscle training productivity

That means that there is some combination of a percentage of maximum load the muscle can bear and the total time the muscle will bear that load that is optimal for training either for muscle power, muscle endurance, or some combination of the two.

So, while a jockey or tennis player might pick a load that he/she can handle for 20+ reps but stay a few to several reps short of complete muscle exhaustion, a sumo wrestler or football lineman might work with a load he can only press a handful of times. They have different purposes so they approach strength training differently. And there's basically an inverse relationship between how much weight you lift and how many times you can lift the load. So each of those variables (load vs. number of reps in a single set) has the nice quality of pretty much defining the other.

As for volume (number of sets), the more you do, the more aggressively you'll be training the muscles. There's a corresponding growth/strength increase relationship with volume, to a certain point of diminishing returns. Over training is a real pitfall to avoid for bodybuilders and power lifters, but that's the subject of another post.

The bottom line is that if you go into the gym planning to do three sets of 10 reps, you're missing the point. Do you want to get stronger, bigger or have more muscle stamina? Both?

Then pick a load you with which you can do somewhere between 8-12 reps, and go as close to failure (exhaustion) on each set, for one to three sets per muscle group. If you're executing with consistently excellent quality, each set should have a drop off of at least a few reps.

And if you're really hitting the muscles hard, one or two sets should be plenty.

A Challenge to Face the Truth

One thing that I know saddens and frustrates a lot of trainers is their clients' unwillingness, in some cases, to be honest with themselves. There are predictable excuses for many people that have pretty obvious translations. Here are a few:

"Diets don't work for me" = (I don't have the discipline to consistently eat healthfully)
"I don't have time to exercise" = (Other things I enjoy doing are more important to me.)
"I'm too old for that stuff" = (I've earned the right to blow off what I don't really want to do.)

But these avoidance tactics actually just make us feel even less powerful, because deep down we know that a challenge is the only way to grow, and we were built to grow. Denial and self delusion are just little tricks we need to play on ourselves because we're too smart to ignore an unpleasant but controllable situation without them.

Sounds harsh? Here's a direct challenge:

If your waist is much more than half your height in inches, you are probably at least overweight, if not obese. If you're completely honest with yourself, you probably have a good idea about roughly how much weight you could stand to lose. If it's around 30 lbs, try this - get a couple of long pillow cases, and put two gallons of water in each. Tie off the ends to make a handle behind the knot, and find a nice long hill or a few flights of stairs. Go up and down a few times, hoisting a weighted-down pillow case over each shoulder.

That's how much harder on your heart another 30 lbs would be. Now imagine how losing the thirty you currently have to spare would feel. And imagine how much less of a load you'd put on that heart you've grown so fond of (and dependent on).

Isn't it time to start being honest with yourself?


Check your own body fat using the online calculator listed third on the "Cool Tools" section of this page: http://trivalleywellness.com/hiddengems.html