Perfectly Natural Fuel

Perfectly Natural Fuel     If you are interested in getting in shape or are dedicated workout person..... you have to read this Great Article on how to eat.

By Hana A. Feeney, MS, RD, CSSD •

Red 40 modified food starch, high-fructose corn syrup, glycerol ester, aspartame…fuel for optimal performance? Think again! You are an athlete! You understand that what you put into your body makes a difference. So when choosing sports products, make sure to read the ingredient list.

The ingredient list is the key to identifying high-quality sports products to optimally fuel your workouts. Natural products will give you an edge during exercise, support improved recovery, and keep you fit. You exercise to stay healthy--there’s no reason to be filling your tank with unhealthy and unnatural ingredients.

More: 10 Natural Race Food Alternatives

Fueling Fundamentals

When using a sports drink, gel or chew, keep a few basics in mind. You will need to replenish fluid, carbohydrate and sodium during any activity lasting longer than 60-90 minutes. Fluid comes from either sport drinks or water. Carbohydrate and sodium come from sport drinks, gels and chews. It’s up to you to find the right combination of these products.

The biggest factor in choosing a natural product is to understand the type of carbohydrate being used. Then assess the additives: some for performance such as ginseng or green tea extract and others which are potentially harmful such as synthetic food dye and artificial sweeteners.

More: How Much Water Should You Drink?

Type of Carbohydrate

There are various options for naturally derived carbohydrates in sports products. The most refined carbohydrate source is high-fructose corn syrup--avoid this. Look for evaporated cane juice, brown rice syrup, or fruit concentrates to sweeten your fuel. Dextrose and fructose are other added sugars that you might see in natural products. Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate used in many drinks and gels—it has no flavor and is preferred for those who don’t like super-sweet products.

Choose a product that has multiple naturally derived carbohydrate sources for better absorption and reduced stomach issues during exercise. For example, a product that only uses maltodextrin will have a light flavor but absorption of carbohydrate can’t be maximized. This will impair performance when exercising for longer than three hours but is fine for a shorter workout.

More: Are You Eating Enough Carbs?

Products that have a blend of carbohydrates, such as maltodextrin, fructose, dextrose and fruit concentrate provide four different sources of carbohydrate. Multiple types of carbohydrate are preferred for ultra-endurance exercise or if you have a sensitive stomach.

Unnecessary Additives

Scan the ingredient list for unnecessary additives. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that provides sweetness without adding sugar. Sounds good? Your stomach may not agree-watch out for gas and bloating with xylitol. Artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame and acesulfame potassium are added to sports products for sweetness with zero calories.

This makes the product super-sweet, which is a major complaint of many exercisers and the reason why so many people avoid sports drinks. There is no place for artificial sweeteners or synthetic food dyes in a sport product. Avoid Red 40--an example of a synthetic food dye. Look for beet juice instead--an example of a natural red dye.

Better Brands

There are a few brands that include natural ingredients in their sports products and do not use high-fructose corn syrup, food dyes or artificial sweeteners. Look for these sport product lines:

• Carb Boom!
• Clif
• Gu

More: Avoid Junk Fitness Foods for Weight Loss

Make Your Own!

Get in the kitchen and be creative! You can make your own sport drink with the best quality juices, water and sea salt. Completely natural, tasty and you’ll save a buck! Test it out to make sure it is palatable at various temperatures and doesn’t cause any stomach upset. Here are couple recipes to start with:

Tart Cherry Sport Drink

Tart cherries help to reduce inflammation associated with exercise.

• 32 ounces water
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 24 ounces Knudsen Tart Cherry Juice (if this is too tart for you use regular cherry juice instead)
• ¼ cup lemon juice

Makes seven 8-ounce servings
60 calories, 177 mg sodium, 186 mg potassium, 15 grams carbohydrate

Pina Colada Sport Drink

The coconut water gives a light flavor, a few carbohydrates and tons of potassium.

• 12 ounces water
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 32 ounces O.N.E. Coconut water
• 12 ounces 100% pineapple juice
• ¼ cup lemon juice

Makes seven 8-ounce servings
60 calories, 194 mg sodium, 352 mg potassium, 15 grams carbohydrate

Directions for making your own sport drink:

Bring the tap or bottled water to a boil. Dissolve the salt in the water. Mix in juice and coconut water (if using). Chill and consume.


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What Runners Should Know About Protein

What Runners Should Know About Protein

I have been a runner for my whole life and love it. I am always looking for help on the nutrition side of the equation. Here is a great helpful article.
By Karla Bruning

Every runner knows they need carbs, but protein is just as crucial to muscle recovery after a workout. It repairs muscle damage, diminishes the effects of cortisol—the so-called “stress” hormone that breaks down muscle—and, when taken with carbohydrates, speeds your body’s ability to replenish its glycogen stores, your all-important energy source for those long runs during marathon season. If you’ve ever “hit the wall” or “bonked” in a marathon, you know what it feels like to deplete your glycogen reserves.

The 30/30 Rule

To gain the full benefits of protein’s power, most sports dieticians and nutritionists recommend getting 10-20 grams of protein within 30 minutes of finishing a run, and some say even sooner—that’s when your muscles are the most receptive to a helping hand.

More: How Much Protein During a Workout?

The amount of protein you eat matters; 10 grams is a baseline and 20 grams is optimal, according to Deborah Shulman, who holds a doctorate in physiology. Much more protein than that won’t do you any good. A 2009 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that consuming more than 30 grams of protein in a single sitting didn’t help muscles any further than more moderate amounts. Call it the 30/30 Rule: eat less than 30 grams of protein in less than 30 minutes post-run.

Healthy Protein

What kind of protein is best? The folks at the Harvard School of Public Health recommend fish, poultry and beans. Sure, a big juicy steak will do the trick, but it comes with a price: loads of saturated fat. A 3-ounce serving of salmon (about the size of a deck of cards or a woman’s palm) gives you 17 grams of protein and only 2 grams of saturated fat. Beans do fish one better: a cup of cooked lentils has 18 grams of protein and less than 1 gram of fat.

More: Turn 5 Main Ingredients Into 25 Dinners
Don’t have the time or inclination to cook up a meal? Many athletes fuel post-run with a smoothie or protein shake. Just be sure to watch those protein amounts—some shakes carry a wallop. According to dietician Matthew Kadey, excess protein, like excess everything else, can be converted into fat.

Carb-to-Protein Ratio
Be sure to hydrate and eat plenty of carbs too. Remember, carbs and protein work together to replenish your glycogen stores more efficiently. The jury is still out on the ideal ratio of carbs to protein, but most sports nutritionists say to aim for a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio for your post-run meal, especially when you’ve run for an hour or longer.

More: Are You Eating Enough Carbs?

Here’s a handy formula from Running Times magazine to figure out how many carbs you should be eating at mealtime: divide your weight in half. That’s your magic carb number. You can extrapolate your protein intake from there by dividing that number by three or four.
For a 125-pound runner:
63 grams of carbs, 21 grams of protein in a 3:1 ratio
63 grams of carbs, 16 grams of protein in a 4:1 ratio
And when in doubt, just remember the 30/30 Rule: eat less than 30 grams of protein in less than 30 minutes after a run.

Eat right and perform better. Find a nutrition plan for you.

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Winter and Nutrition: Fueling for Cold Weather Exercise

Winter and Nutrition: Fueling for Cold Weather Exercise

By Nancy Clark, MS, RD •

Some athletes embrace winter's chill as a welcome change from exercising in summer's heat. But others complain about hating cold weather.

If that's your stance, remember that exercising with proper nutrition (and layers of dry clothing) offers the opportunity to chase away the chills.

After all, an aerobic workout can increase your metabolism by seven to 10 times above the resting level.
This means that if you were to exercise hard for an hour and dissipate no heat, you could raise your body temperature from 98.6 to 140 degrees F. (You'd cook yourself in the process!)

In the summer, your body sweats heavily to dissipate this heat. But in the winter, the warmth helps you survive in a cold environment. Runners can enjoy a tropical environment in their running suit within minutes of starting exercise.

Because food provides the fuel needed to generate this heat, the right sports diet is particularly important for skiers, skaters, runners and other athletes who are exposed to extreme cold.
This article addresses some common questions and concerns about winter and nutrition and offers tips to help you enjoy the season.

For safety's sake, winter athletes should always carry with them some source of fuel in case of an unexpected slip on the ice or other incident that leaves them static in a frigid environment.

Winter campers, for example, commonly keep a supply of dried fruit, chocolate or cookies near by for fuel if they wake up cold in the middle of the night. You want to have an emergency energy bar tucked in your pocket, just in case.

Why do I feel hungrier in the winter than in the summer?

A drop in body temperature stimulates the appetite and you experience hunger. Hence, if you become chilled during winter exercise (or when swimming at any time of year, for that matter), you'll likely find yourself searching for food.

Eating "stokes the furnace," generates heat, and helps warm your body.
Food's overall warming effect is known as thermogenesis (that is, "heat making"). Thirty to 60 minutes after you eat, your body generates about 10 percent more heat than when you have an empty stomach.

This increased metabolism stems primarily from energy released during digestion. Hence, eating not only provides fuel but also increases heat production (warmth).

Do I burn more calories when I exercise in the cold?

Cold weather itself does not increase calorie needs. You don't burn extra calories unless your body temperature drops and you start to shiver. (And remember: The weather can actually be tropical inside your exercise outfit.)

Your body does use a considerable amount of energy to warm and humidify the air you breathe when you exercise in the cold.

For example, if you were to burn 600 calories while cross-country skiing for an hour in 0-degree F weather, you may use about 23 percent of those calories to warm the inspired air.

In summer, you would have dissipated this heat via sweat. In winter, you sweat less.

If you are wearing a lot of winter gear, you will burn a few more calories to carry the extra weight of layers of clothes, or skis, boots, heavy parka, snow shoes, etc. The Army allows 10 percent more calories for the heavily clad troops who exercise in the cold.

But the weight of extra clothing on, let's say, winter runners, is generally minimal.

Why do I find myself shivering when I get cold?

Shivering is involuntary muscle tensing that generates heat and offers a warming effect. When you first become slightly chilled (such as when watching a football game outdoors), you'll find yourself doing an isometric type of muscle tensing that can increase your metabolic rate two to four times.

As you get further chilled, you'll find yourself hopping from foot to foot and jumping around. This is Nature's way to get you to generate heat and warm your body.

If you become so cold that you start to shiver, these vigorous muscular contractions generate lots of heat--perhaps 400 calories per hour.

Such intense shivering quickly depletes your muscle glycogen stores and drains your energy. This is when you'll be glad you have some emergency food in your pocket!

What's a big nutritional mistake winter athletes make?

Failing to drink enough fluids is a major problem among winter athletes--hockey players, skiers, runners and winter hikers alike. Cold blunts the thirst mechanism; you'll feel less thirsty despite significant sweat loss (if you overdress), to say nothing of respiratory fluid loss.

That is, winter athletes need to consciously consume fluids to replace the water that gets lost via breathing. When you breathe in cold, dry air, your body warms and humidifies that air. As you exhale, you lose significant amounts of water.

Some winter athletes purposefully skimp on fluids because urinating can be problematic--too much hassle to shed layers of clothing (ski suit, hockey gear, snow pants, etc.) Yet, dehydration hurts performance and is one cause of failed mountaineering adventures.

What's best to eat to warm myself up?

If you become chilled by the winter weather, as can easily happen if you:

• Wear sweaty, wet clothing that drains body heat
• Fail to wear a hat (30 to 40 percent of body heat can get lost through the head)
• Drink icy water (from a water bottle kept on your bike or outside pocket of your backpack when winter hiking)

... the best way to warm yourself up is to consume warm carbohydrates--hot cocoa, mulled cider, steaming soup, as well as oatmeal, chili, or pasta. The warm food, added to the thermogenic effect of eating, contributes to rapid recovery.

In comparison, cold foods and fluids chill your body. Research subjects who ate a big bowl of ice cream in five minutes experienced a drop in fingertip temperature of 2 degrees F in the first five minutes, 5 degrees in 15 minutes.

In summer, this cooling effect is desirable, but in winter, hot foods are the better way to warm yourself. Bring out the thermos of soup!

Why do I gain weight in the winter?

Some people eat more because they are bored and less active. Instead of playing tennis, they are eating mindlessly in front of the TV.

For others, the change of seasons has a marked affect upon their mood (known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD). Changes in brain chemicals increase carbohydrate cravings and the desire to eat more.

Holiday temptations also contribute to weight gain. A study of 195 people indicates they gained on average 0.8 pounds in the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

Overweight and obese people gained even more, with about 14 percent of the group gaining more than 5 pounds. The problem is, very few of the subjects lost those holiday pounds.

Hence, yearly holiday weight gain--that's 8 pounds in 10 years--becomes a major contributor to America's obesity problem.

One weight-management solution is to stay active in the winter. By investing in proper clothing, you'll be able to stay warm from head to toe. You'll benefit from not only being able to enjoy exercise but also from sunlight--a good way to battle winter depression (and attempts to cheer yourself up with food).

Winter exercise is an asset for managing health, weight and the winter blues. The tricks are to dress right, fuel well, prevent dehydration--and you'll stay warm!

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The Healthiest Carb You're Not Eating

The Healthiest Carb You're Not Eating

Marge Perry

I first heard about the importance of eating whole grains at an otherwise forgettable scientific conference nearly a decade ago. I was so blown away by the accumulating evidence of their protective effect against chronic disease that I made a beeline for the grocery store when I got home and purchased a box of the one brand of whole grain pasta I could find.

Now, I love pasta (and truth be told, all manners of starch). But the gummy, leaden mess that came out of this box had no right to carry such a noble name. Every bite began with paste and ended with grit. I dumped the whole pot and bemoaned my inevitable future of refined flour-induced ill health.

But a funny thing happened over the 10 years that followed: Food manufacturers started catching on to the benefits of whole grains. Dietitians have long known that they retain all the disease-fighting, health-promoting powerhouse nutrients (folate, vitamin E, magnesium, potassium, selenium, lignans, and phenolic compounds) that refining strips away. They also pack more fiber than do refined grains, and large studies have repeatedly shown how consuming enough fiber can help reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes. If that doesn't wow you, try this: Eating whole grains may even help you avoid weight gain. Sold!

Now that cereal, snack food, and tons of other product labels scream "Whole grains!" in all caps, I decided to take another look at the pasta aisle. My, how things have changed. I counted 11 different choices, and the Whole Grains Council, a trade group, tells me that sales of whole grain pasta increased 26 percent last year alone.

What I noticed first were the ingredient lists. I expected whole wheat but—lentils? Chickpeas? Flaxseed? Today's choices run the gamut between pure 100 percent whole wheat, which contains no refined flour, and grain blends, which don't always have as much fiber but make up for it with more pleasant textures and less assertive flavors. The latest blends combine various grain flours with seeds, legumes, and other ingredients to improve the texture while preserving nutrition. Some offer nutrients you aren't likely to find in traditional pasta, such as omega-3 fatty acids (thanks to flax). I tested the whole lot. The four listed here passed muster with my husband (one picky chef), my kids (two even pickier teens), and myself (the pickiest of all). Buon appetito.

The Standout: Barilla Plus

- A multigrain blend made with oat, spelt, barley, lentil, and chickpea flours.

- Contains flaxseed for added omega-3s.

- Each serving satisfies nearly one-fifth of your daily value for protein.

- Taste and texture is most like refined-flour pasta.

200 cal, 10 g pro, 38 g carb, 1 g fat, 0 g sat fat, 0 mg chol, 4 g fiber, 25 mg sodium*


Highest fiber: De Cecco Whole Wheat

- 100% whole wheat.

- High in fiber, low in calories.

- Fairly assertive wheat flavor that marries well with rich sauces.

180 cal, 8 g pro, 35 g carb, 1.5 g fat, 0 g sat fat, <5 mg chol, 7 g fiber, 0 mg sodium*
Tasty Blend: Ronzoni Healthy Harvest
- Wheat flour blend with additional wheat bran and fiber.

- Slightly chewier and nuttier in flavor than Barilla Plus.

- Best served with robust sauces, such as marinara.

180 cal, 6 g pro, 42 g carb, 1 g fat, 0 g sat fat, 0 mg chol, 6 g fiber, 0 mg sodium*
Organic Pick: 365 Organic Everyday Value Whole Wheat
- 100% organic whole wheat flour; a heartier flavor than most blended brands.

- Firm texture; nutty, slightly sweet taste; great with spicy sauces.

- Available only at Whole Foods Markets.

210 cal, 7 g pro, 42 g carb, 1 g fat, 0 g sat fat, 0 mg chol, 5 g fiber, 0 g sodium*

*Nutrition info is per 2-ounce serving.
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Housing Crisis Could End Suburbia As We Know It

Housing Crisis Could End Suburbia As We Know It

If there’s a defining image of the housing crunch, it might be the demolition of four brand-new luxury homes in Victorville, Calif. The developer built them in September 2007 as part of a planned 16-unit project, but abandoned the effort after home prices in the area fell more than 50 percent in 18 months.
After foreclosing, the Texas-based bank, which held the loan, decided it was cheaper to tear them down than to cut prices and sell. So it hired a wrecking crew that flattened the homes and sold off the gorgeous granite countertops, whirlpool baths and double-pane windows to passers-by. That story represents what’s happening to Victorville itself, a fringe suburb of 116,000 in the high desert 100 miles north of Los Angeles as it slides toward higher unemployment, rising crime and increased poverty.
Warren Karlenzig, who runs an urban planning consulting firm, has been watching Victorville as part of his research on the future of suburbs nationally, and has little hope for the area’s recovery. It’s a two-hour drive from most jobs, has little public transportation, claims no downtown to speak of, and has few sidewalks – a package that’s unlikely to attract buyers. Nationally, some experts say that the housing collapse may have tipped far-flung suburbs like Victorville into permanent stagnation. Brookings Institution demographer William Frey cites new census data showing that all of the 100 fastest-growing exurbs and outer suburbs experienced lower growth from 2008 to 2011 compared with 2003 to 2007.
"The heyday of exurbs may well be behind us,” Yale University economist Robert J. Shiller, co-creator of the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, said in April. In 2011, the populations of extreme suburbs like Victorville grew just .4 percent on average, down from more than 2 percent in 2006.
America's Best Kept Secret: Rising Suburban Poverty
Like tree rings, the layers of suburbs around a city say something about its age. Many of the inner suburbs were built before World War II, according to housing expert John McIlwain of the Urban Land Institute. A second ring was started in the ‘50s and saw high growth rates in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The ‘90s and early 2000s saw a new frontier, the outer exurban ring, whose growth was fueled by lower land costs, cheap gas and often-risky loans.
"These are places with mini-McMansions and large lots; it’s where David Brooks’ ‘patio man’ moved out to,” says McIlwain, referring to The New York Times columnist’s archetypal refugee from the inner suburbs who bought a bigger, more affordable house with all the amenities on the fringe.
Over time, the older first- and second-ring suburbs often became more like the cities they border, more “That Girl” than “Leave It to Beaver.” They’re denser, with more high-rise apartments than before. They offer better public transportation. And they have more people working in jobs closer to home. In Victorville, 75 percent of people spend more than 2 hours total getting to and from their jobs daily, and more than half must leave the house before 5 a.m., according to 2010 census figures.
Though the housing crash began the decline in the exurbs’ fortunes, the increase in energy prices starting in late 2007 may have been the trigger. As gas prices in the Los Angeles area went from about $1.25 a gallon to just over $4 between January 2007 and August 2008, commuting costs in Victorville soared. In a paper earlier this year, three economists pointed to evidence that as the rise in pump prices increased the cost of commuting, the value of homes away from city centers fell and foreclosure rates increased. In turn, when housing cratered in Victorville, so did a key source of jobs for its residents, many of them Hispanic immigrants who worked in the construction trades.
Also driving down demand for houses in the outer suburbs are demographic trends. Recent college graduates and young professionals are making the place they live a priority – 77 percent of them say they plan to live in an urban core even if it’s more expensive, according to a February 2010 study by real estate consultancy RCLCO. The study’s author found that more Gen-Y’ers than Gen-X’ers are willing to live in a smaller space if it means they can walk to work or shops. At the other end of the age spectrum, baby boomers are now selling their houses as they retire and are looking to live nearer urban amenities.
Another kind of demographic shift is happening as well. The average household size continues to drop, with a lower proportion of households raising children now than in the past and the percentage of single people at an all-time high. That’s important, since smaller households prefer to live in walkable, higher density places, according to the RCLCO study.
Today, Victorville’s unemployment and poverty rates stand at 14 and 21 percent, respectively, both 6 points higher than the national figures. Housing demand there has shrunk as new buyers have disappeared – prices have plummeted from an average of about $300,000 in 2007 to $109,000 today.And new home permits went from almost 8000 from 2004−2006 to about 750 in 2008−2010, according to a 2010 report by Karlenzig.
Similar stories are playing out in fringe suburbs elsewhere. In Georgia’s Barrow County, 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, tax revenues declined more than 18 percent between 2008 and 2011, and county officials expect a 16 percent drop in the coming year alone. That’s led school officials there to propose cutting the school year by 20 days next year.
In neighboring Jackson County, the number of building permits issued went from 684 in 2006 to just 34 in 2010 and the largest city of Braselton is almost out of money, a quarter of its tax revenues eaten up by debt financing. Part of the area’s problem, according to University of Georgia economist Jeffrey Dorfman, is that Atlanta commuters now can afford to buy closer to the city, so they’re moving.
In the Chicago area, handfuls of houses in some subdivisions of Yorkville, 50 miles southwest of Chicago, sit alone among acres of lots that were cleared for new homes a few years ago at least 10 of Yorkville’s subdivisions are unfinished. Prior to the crash, 3 to 5 percent of the town’s students qualified for subsidized lunches; now that figure is in the double digits, according to the town’s school superintendent. Thirty-five miles north, in the exurb of Hampshire, a brand-new high school built to handle an expected influx of students during the boom years now has 15 shuttered classrooms, and the town is struggling to pay off the resulting debt.
Nationally, the unemployment rate in exurbs rose by 126 percent during the recession, versus 113 percent in urban areas. House prices in the suburban fringes have not come back like those in the city cores, according to a recent Wall Street Journal-Zillow analysis. And while no one has tracked poverty rates in the exurbs themselves, poverty is rising faster in the suburbs as a whole than in cities: The number of suburban households in poverty grew 53 percent between 2000 and 2010, compared with 23 percent in urban areas, according to Brookings.
No one seems willing to bet that exurbs will grow anytime soon. In its 2012 report on real estate trends, the Urban Land Institute notes that real estate investors have no interest in suburban office parks and commercial real estate in farther-out suburbs because they see little chance of economic recovery or higher rents there.
But even as life on the edges gets harder, people who might like to leave for houses closer in are stuck because they can’t sell their homes, says Frey, who recently analyzed new mobility data from the Census Bureau. The twenty- and early thirty-somethings are putting off getting married, having children, and buying homes because they’re not getting well-paying jobs and can’t get mortgages because of tight credit standards, he says. Worse, for the first time since at least the 1930s, a succeeding generation of buyers – Gen X – is smaller than the one that went before it – baby boomers, according to McIlwain. “Even if there were no housing recession, you would still have a drop in demand from those move-up [buyers],” he says.
As long as middle-class incomes stay stagnant, there’s no clear road back to prosperity for exurbs like Victorville, he says. So for now, exurbia may be the new inner city, a place where people who are struggling economically congregate until they can put together enough money to leave for decent paying jobs elsewhere.
"There are a lot of people who say that we’re going to see more of the new ghettos out there [in the exurbs] than anywhere else,” says McIlwain. “I can see the logic of that.”

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When personal training doubles as therapy

When personal training doubles as therapy

By Jenna Wolfe

 

 

A few years ago, my friend and I were at the gym when she asked me if I'd help get her ready for her wedding, which was six weeks away. After giving her the "I'm sorry, what did you say?!" look, I smiled and listened on. She wanted to lose some weight, tone her arms and just lean up a little. And she wanted to do it with someone she trusted and felt comfortable around. Turns out, that was me.

 

But could I just apply the same workout
approach for her that I'd used on myself? I quickly realized that wouldn't work. Our weight loss and toning goals may have been the same, but our bodies, minds, muscles and approaches were totally different.

So we sat down and talked. I asked her about her recent success rate at the gym, what she enjoyed, what she didn't, what she wanted to look and feel like for her wedding and how much time and effort she was willing to put in. But what I was really doing was getting her excited for the six-week journey and ensuring her faith in me. Long story short, when the wedding day rolled around, she looked and felt great But more importantly, it set her on a course of strength training for years to come.

That's when the training bug set in for me. I loved that relationship. I wanted to do it again.

Seven years later, I'm now training 10 clients: Different ages, different genders, different bodies, different goals, different approaches. The one common theme throughout is that there is no common theme throughout. The same way that therapy is catered to the individual, personal training is as well.

I subscribe to a rather simple approach: If I can't connect with you, this won't work. This is not just a physical adventure; it's mental as well. Most of my clients are not prepared for the mental aspect of training, but they quickly realize how important it is when fatigue sets in and they need the extra motivation to keep going.

Before each client's first session with me, we sit down and map out goals – and "I want to lose 10 pounds" isn't enough. Tell me why you want to lose the weight, tell me what you've tried in the past, what's worked, what hasn't, what scares you about the gym and what fires you up. I want to know who you are now so I can help you become who you want to be.Training your body is the easy part; training your heart and soul is the challenge. Once I know you, I can then build a personal workout just for you.

And it's only natural that when you work out with someone, and you get down in the trenches and share sweat, you ultimately bond -- and sometimes, you inadvertently take on the role of therapist. I've helped my clients go through divorces, deal with newborns, breakups, hookups, fights, slights, bad days at work, bad days at home, New Year's resolutions, Thanksgiving overeating, occasional undereating and even a few bouts of PMS.

The only thing we all own outright is our bodies. Do right by it and it'll do right by you. Think of this as an adventure, not a quick weekend getaway. While it's not always pretty, in the end, there's nothing more fulfilling.

Having been a college athlete and former Marine I know the Huge benefits to staying in shape. Your mind and attitude towards life improves as you are in better shape. There is a direct connections with Success in Business and how well you feel in your body.

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