9 Personal Trainer Hints

By Tom Storms, CPT (for eDiets.com)

Don't you wish sometimes that you had your own personal trainer to guide you through your workout and give you hints about getting more out of your exercise? You may not be able to afford a trainer of your own, but by incorporating these trainer hints and tips into your day, you'll be on your way to making your workout even more effective!

1. Buddy up. One of the best benefits of having a personal trainer is having someone to hold you accountable for your exercise. A trainer is paid to do this for you, but the easy (and free!) solution is within your own circle of friends. Ask a reliable friend to be your workout partner and just the knowledge that they are depending on you to work out will increase your odds of staying on track with your exercise.

A unique way of ensuring success is to allow each partner a certain number of cuts per month at a price. Failing to show up for a session with your trainer still costs you money and so should skipping your workout with your friend. Pony up $10 for each cut and let it accumulate for six months or longer. At the end of a predetermined time frame, count the money and use it to treat you and your workout partner to a luxurious splurge.

2. Shorter workouts can be as effective as longer ones. Sure, everyone would like to be able to workout for 45 minutes of uninterrupted time, but let's be serious! With today's busy schedules and demanding jobs, finding time to exercise can be a struggle. The good news is that you don't need a huge block of time to see results. Studies have shown that workouts as short as 10 - 15 minutes can strengthen the body and improve your health.

Fit several brief workouts in your day and you not only increase your metabolism, but you also reach the ideal activity level of 45 minutes to one hour. Don't let yourself be discouraged by a lack of time; do the best with what you've got.

3. Gym membership isn't required. It's too easy to use lack of a gym membership as an excuse for not getting it done. The fact is, bodyweight workouts are just as effective, if not more than conventional gym equipment. It reduces the risk of injury, and everybody has one! I have quite a few clients who've seen tremendous results while working out at home, with or without equipment!

4. Add variety to see results. Undoubtedly the fastest way to see changes in your body is to keep surprising it. Changing up your routine every few days prevents your body from becoming conditioned to the same exercise day after day and requires it to call on different muscles for different activities. This means more muscles are worked over the course of just a few days, so you see the effects on your body in much less time than usual. An excellent method of adding variety is to incorporate weight lifting into your cardio routine. This requires the body to respond to challenges to balance. It speeds up your results, too!

5. Intensify for more strength. Most trainers recommend increasing the intensity of your workout to see improvement in your strength and aerobic capability. Too often people become comfortable with their level of exertion and aren't working as hard. Boosting the intensity keeps the body challenged and working harder. Taking deep, wide steps during aerobics and squeezing the buttock and thigh muscles challenge the body to a higher level of exertion and produce some amazing changes in just a few workouts. Those of you who weight train should try adding 3-5 pounds to your current weight and see the difference in toning and strength after a few sessions.

6. Know your excuses and head them off. As a personal trainer I often deal with clients who make all kinds of excuses to get out of a session or to avoid a certain exercise, and I must keep the client on track without offending. When you are your own personal trainer, it can be difficult to discipline yourself to your exercise schedule unless you give yourself an advantage. Sit and write down all the excuses you would use to avoid exercising or eating better. Once you've done that, go back and counter all your excuses. If you wrote down lack of time as an excuse, oppose it with suggestions for short, frequent workouts rather than one long session. If you wrote down sugar cravings in the evenings, be prepared for those by having a pre-determined meal plan. If you can anticipate your own excuses and know how to respond to them, you've won half the battle.

7. Make it fun! Perhaps the most common complaint about exercise is that it becomes boring too quickly. Personal trainers help you get through boredom by changing your routine or offering you new choices for activities. Help yourself break out of the boredom by choosing activities that appeal to you. Instead of spending 30 minutes inside on the treadmill, go for a hike on a local nature path. Rather than doing your aerobics video for the millionth time, go outside with your kids and jump on the trampoline for a while. The goal is to choose an activity that you enjoy and that requires physical activity.

8. Schedule and commit. Signing up for a personal trainer is a commitment of your time, money and energy, and perhaps because of that commitment people with personal trainers tend to stick with the program and get results. Apply that same sense of obligation to your personal at-home exercise program and you'll increase your chances of having a consistent workout plan.

Schedule your workouts just like any other appointment and write it on your calendar or Palm. Knowing that you have set aside time for exercise can help you follow through and stick to a successful program.

9. Reward yourself. Set checkpoints throughout your exercise program to assess your progress. Whether your goal is to lose weight, build muscle, or simply improve your health, take the time to check up on your improvement and then reward yourself for all the hard work!

Tom Storms is a nationally certified personal trainer/fitness consultant and author. He has been training private clients full time for the last 12 years and is recognized as a fitness expert. Specializing in personal training products and services from his web site; http://www.personaltrainingfitness.com, Tom offers his services, books and products worldwide.

Trans Fats & Other Label Must-Knows

From eDiets.com:

The New Year 2006 means changes to the Nutrition Facts label, changes you can use to make intelligent choices.

Americans cherish their freedom to choose, but with choice comes responsibility. We can choose to eat healthfully, or we can choose to ignore the information. Since as citizens we are required to pay taxes to support expert agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration, I think we should pay attention. The FDA has announced changes to the Nutrition Facts label, a great resource to make wise choices.

Trans Fat

The Nutrition Facts label for 2006 now includes grams of trans fat per serving. Health organizations have for years recommended limiting or eliminating trans fat from your diet. Trans fat is linked to increased levels of unhealthy LDL cholesterol and contributes to heart disease.

Tara Gidus, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, says, “Previously, consumers had to read the ingredient list and look for hydrogenated oils, but now it will be easier to see exactly how much trans fat is in the product simply by reading the Nutrition Facts panel. Try to keep trans fat intake to as little as possible.”

Reading the label tells you approximately how much trans fat in a serving of food.

# Grams of trans fat will be included under total fat.

# Read the package from back to front! Flip it over and read the ingredient label: Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat means trans fat.

# Your best bet for a spread are soft or liquid margarines labeled “trans fat-free.”

# Although butter has less trans fat than margarine, it’s high in saturated fat, linked to high cholesterol.

# Use nonstick cooking spray when "greasing" the pan.

# Fried fast food is the largest source of trans fat in the average consumer’s diet; also packaged and boxed cookies, cakes and crackers.

# Companies are allowed to label the product “trans fat free” if there is less than half a gram of trans fats per serving. If the ingredient label indicates hydrogenated fat, limit the servings per day to one.

# The FDA recommends mono- and polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated and trans fats. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston suggest that replacing trans fats in the diet with polyunsaturated fats such as vegetable oils, salmon, etc., can reduce diabetes risk by as much as 40 percent. Sources of monounsaturated fats include olive and canola oils. Polyunsaturated fats include soybean, corn, sunflower oils, and nuts.

Food Allergies

You may recall a recent story about a teenage girl who died after kissing her boyfriend. She had a peanut allergy, and he’d eaten something with peanuts, earlier that day. For 11 million Americans, food allergies are quite serious. We’re not talking “intolerance" as in lactose intolerance, which causes bloating, gas or diarrhea. A true allergy, such as an allergy to the protein in milk, causes anaphylaxis, a most serious and deadly reaction to a protein in food.

As of January 1, 2006, manufacturers will be required to say on the food label if the product contains one of the following foods:

• milk
• egg
• fish
• Crustacean shellfish
• tree nuts
• wheat
• peanuts
• soybeans

Approximately 2 percent of adults and about five percent of infants and young children in the United States suffer from food allergies. Approximately 30,000 consumers require emergency room treatment and 150 Americans die each year because of allergic reactions to food. Take food allergies seriously.

# In the case of tree nuts, the specific type of nut must be declared (e.g., almonds, pecans or walnuts). The species must be declared for fish (e.g., bass, flounder or cod) and Crustacean shellfish (crab, lobster or shrimp).

# The label language is written so even a 7-year-old should be able to understand it. For example, if a product contains the milk-derived protein, casein, the product's label will have to use the term "milk" in addition to the term "casein" so that those with milk allergies can clearly understand the presence of the allergen they need to avoid.

# Wheat means presence of the protein gluten; eggs means presence of the protein whey; and "soybean," "soy" and "soya" may be used to identify the food source of the major food allergen "soybeans."

# Since the new law doesn’t apply to products that have been manufactured before January 1, 2006, the FDA cautions consumers to read the ingredient label. If you’re worried about allergic food ingredients, only buy items manufactured after the effective date.

Beware! Label lunacy.

A food labeled “low fat” or “fat free” does not make it calorie free. Calories also come from carbohydrate and protein. Check out the serving size before anything else. When you know the serving size, then you know what you’re eating. A 20-ounce bottle of sweetened iced tea has, for example, 200 calories and 22 grams of sugar per serving. Make sure you read the number of servings in one bottle -- most 20 ounce bottles contain 2.5 servings, multiply calories and grams of sugar by 2.5, 500 calories and 55 grams of sugar.

Anticipate more changes to the Nutrition Facts label. The FDA is considering new rules to require more realistic calorie counts, including giving calories for the entire package, not just a single serving, as well as printing calorie numbers in larger type.

Read labels to make healthy choices

The Food & Drug Administration provides this explanation of Food Labels:

• Calorie free -- Less than 5 calories per serving. • Fat free/sugar free -- Less than ½ gram fat or sugar per serving.

• Low sodium -- Less than 140 mg. of salt per serving.

• Low calorie -- Less than 40 calories per serving.

• Low cholesterol -- Less than 20 mg. of cholesterol and 2 gm. of fat/serving.

• Reduced -- 25-percent less of the specified nutrient or calories than the
usual product.

• Good source of... -- Provides at least 10 percent of the Daily Value of a particular vitamin or nutrient per serving.

• High in… -- Provides 20 percent or more of the Daily Value of a specified nutrient per serving.

• High fiber -- 5 or more grams of fiber per serving.

• Lean (meat, poultry, seafood) -- 10 grams of fat or less, 4 1/2 grams of saturated fat, and less than 95 mg. cholesterol per 3 1/2 serving.

• Light -- 1/3 fewer calories or half the fat of the usual food.

• Healthy -- Decreased fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol and at least 10 percent of the Daily Value of vitamins A, C, iron, protein, calcium and fiber.

About the Author:

eDiets Chief Nutritionist, Susan L. Burke is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian, and a Certified Diabetes Educator who specializes in both general and diabetes-related weight management.

Other Great Health & Fitness Blogs

Anyone who visits this blog regularly knows that we don't update it nearly as often as we used to. Simply put, we're just too darn busy with other projects -- mainly other health and fitness web sites. But the good news is that there are several other useful, regularly-updated fitness and health blogs out there. Here are a few of our favorites:

Mercola.com/blog -- A wonderful health-related blog from a highly-regarded natural health expert.

Diet-Blog.com -- One of the web's top diet and weight loss-related blogs.

TheCardioBlog.com -- A very good health and fitness blog from the Weblogs Inc. network, often updated multiple times per day!

FreshHealthyUseful.com -- A simple and useful guide to health and fitness information from around the world.

Do you know of another great blog that should be listed here? Let us know about it at: submit @ fitfaq.com.... thanks!

Study: High Fiber Diet & Exercise Can Reverse Metabolic Syndrome

Just 3 weeks of a high-fiber / low-fat diet, combined with a regular exercise program, can reverse metabolic syndrome in many people. That's the rather amazing finding of a study published this month in the Journal of Applied Physiology...

From the American Physiological Society:

Three-week diet/exercise study shows 50 percent reversal in metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes

Obese and overweight individuals suffering metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes showed significant health improvements after only three weeks of diet and moderate exercise even though the participants remained overweight.

"The study shows, contrary to common belief, that Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome can be reversed solely through lifestyle changes," according to lead researcher Christian Roberts of University of California, Los Angeles.

"This regimen reversed a clinical diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome in about half the participants who had either of those conditions. However, the regimen may not have reversed damage such as plaque development in the arteries," Roberts said. "However, if Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome continue to be controlled, further damage would likely be minimized and it's plausible that continuing to follow the program long-term may result in reversal of atherosclerosis."

"The results are all the more interesting because the changes occurred in the absence of major weight loss, challenging the commonly held belief that individuals must normalize their weight before achieving health benefits," Roberts said. Participants did lose two to three pounds per week, but they were still obese after the 3-week study.

The study, "Effect of a diet and exercise intervention on oxidative stress, inflammation, MMP-9, and monocyte chemotactic activity in men with metabolic syndrome factors," is in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology published by the American Physiological Society. Researchers were Christian K. Roberts, Dean Won, Sandeep Pruthi, Silvia Kurtovic, and R. James Barnard, all of UCLA; Ram K. Sindhu of Charles R. Drew University, Los Angeles; and Nosratola D. Vaziri of University of California, Irvine.

The study involved 31 men who ate a high-fiber, low-fat diet with no limit to the number of calories they could consume. The participants also did 45-60 minutes of aerobic exercise per day on a treadmill.

Fifteen of the men had metabolic syndrome, a condition that is characterized by excessive abdominal fat, insulin resistance, and blood fat disorders such as high levels of triglycerides (fat in the blood) or low levels of HDL (high density lipoprotein, or "good" cholesterol). Thirteen of the participants had Type 2 diabetes. There was also some overlap between the two groups and some participants who had neither metabolic syndrome nor Type 2 diabetes, but were overweight or obese.

"The diet, combined with moderate exercise, improved many factors that contribute to heart disease and that are indirect measures of plaque progression in the arteries, including insulin resistance, high cholesterol, and markers of developing atherosclerosis," Roberts said. "The approach used in this experiment of combining exercise with a diet of unlimited calories is unusual."

Low-calorie foods

The participants in the current study, who ranged in age from 46 to 76 years old, took part in a 21-day residential program at the Pritikin Longevity Center, formerly in Santa Monica, combining the Pritikin diet and exercise program. The daily diet was low fat (12-15% of calories), moderate protein (15-20% of calories), and high in unrefined carbohydrates (65-70% of calories) and fiber (more than 40 grams).

Natural foods -- whole grains (five or more servings daily), vegetables (four or more servings), and fruits (three or more servings) -- were the main source of daily carbohydrates. The sources of protein were plants (such as soy, beans, and nuts), nonfat dairy (up to two servings daily), and fish and poultry (3.5-ounce portion once a week and in soups and casseroles twice a week). The remainder of the calories came from fat with a polyunsaturated-to-saturated fatty acid ratio of 2.4 to 1.

"Aside from meat and dairy, the study participants could eat as much as they wanted," Roberts said. "Because the food was not as high calorie as a typical American diet, the participants ate less before feeling full. This is a departure from most diets, which usually leave the dieter feeling hungry," he said.

The men also exercised daily on a treadmill, including level and graded walking, for 45-60 minutes. The exercise program was tailored to ensure each individual reached 70-85% of maximum heart rate.

Next steps

Trials outside the laboratory environment are needed to test the regimen in the general population. "The findings are likely generalizable, although the magnitude of change is proportional to the degree of abnormality when the person begins the regimen," Roberts added.

Scientists also need to determine whether long-term lifestyle change can prevent or reverse end-organ damage noted in those with metabolic syndrome or Type 2 diabetes, Roberts said. These changes may be difficult to make but the payoff for individuals and society could be enormous.

Further studies are also needed in those who are at risk for metabolic syndrome or Type 2 diabetes. Individuals should still be tested to see if Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome can be prevented in the first place. Individuals may be considered healthy before developing metabolic syndrome but looking healthy does not necessarily mean being healthy, he noted.