Hi everyone!

The seat.  Yes, I am talking about the butt, the glutes, the tush.  However you choose to identify your back end, I have got the absolute two best exercises to creat a long thigh that blends into a high round asset for a great shape for the back of the body.  The most important thing to remember:  Whatever you want your target to be, focus your attention there!

1.  Floor seatwork: Start on your hands and knees.  Extend one leg out behind you and point your toes.  Pull the navel into the spine and gently curl the tail under.  Lift the leg up from the seat muscles and hold.  Lift and hold from the seat for 30 repetitions.  Bend the same knee bringing your heel to the seat.  Rescoop your abs and curl the tail under and lift the leg up and hold. From the seat and hamstring lift and hold for 30-50 reps.  Switch legs and repeat work.  Your supporting seat will feel the work too. 

2.  Standing Seat and Thigh work:  Stand with feet wider than shoulders with a natural turnout of feet.  Bend your knees to lower seat to a challenging level.  Lift and lower body while maintaining an overall low level.  The lower your can stay the bigger your results will be!  Repeat 30 times, then 20 times with right heel raised and 20 times with left heel raised. 

 Crank up some fun tunes and get moving!

Happy Jumping!

Tressa

I saw a news story today on Fox asking if you’re “skinny fat”. The story was all about people who didn’t think they were overweight, or were only slightly overweight, but their fat pecentage indicated that they had way too much fat. Their fat percentage, in this case, was assessed using a “bod pod”. You can get similar results through BIA testing, which I do at my office. All body fat assessments are indirect methods, with an error of +/- 2-4%. The bottom line of this story is that people reduced their body fat percentage significantly through a combination of lower calorie, low-fat eating, cardiovascular exercise, and strength training. You can learn how to do all of this in my program, The Lifestyle Program for Weight Loss, www.thelifestyleprogram.com.

A second thing that I read today was that the state of Alabama is starting an interesting initiative with their employees. All state employees are required to have a health screening, which includes a BMI (body mass index) test. If your BMI indicates that you are obese, you have 1 year to lose the weight. If, next year, you’re still obese, you will pay an additional $25 a month for your health insurance. I think this is a great step in making people aware that being severely overweight is far, far more than a cosmetic problem; it has far-reaching health implications. You can find the whole story at http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080825/alabama-obesity-penalty-stirs-debate?ecd=wnl_nrn_082508.

You can check your BMI on my web site, www.lifestyleconsulting.com, under “weight calculator”.

You’ve always heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But many of us don’t take or make the time to get a healthy breakfast. If you’re driving through, here are some of your best and worst choices.

McDonald’s:
Worst–Deluxe Breakfast or Big Breakfast 790 cals., 51 grams fat
Best–Egg Mc Muffin 300 cals., 12 grams fat, 2 grams fiber, 820 mg. sodium
My favorite is also a good choice–the Fruit and Yogurt Parfait, but that might not be enough of a meal for many

Burger King:
Worst–Enormous Omelet Sandwich 730 cals., 45 grams fat, 1949 mg. sdoium
Best–Ham Omelet Sandwich 290 cals., 13 grams fat, 870 mg. sodium, 1 gram fiber

Jack in the Box:
Worst–Sirloin Steak and Egg Burrito 790 cals, 48 grams fat, 6 grams fiber
Best–Breakfast Jack 290 cals., 12 grams fat, 760 mg. sodium, 1 gram fiber

Dunkin Donuts:
Worst–triple chocolate muffin 660 cals., 33 grams fat, 4 grams fiber
Best–Wheat bagel 330 cals., 4 grams fat, 4 grams fiber

Starbucks:
Worst–Classic Coffee Cake 570 cals., 28 grams fat, 7 grams protein
Best–Spinach Roasted tomato, feta, and egg wrap 240 cals., 10 grams fat, 4 grams protein, 1 gram fiber

Subway(yes, they have breakfast sandwiches):
Worst–Chipotle Steak and Cheese Breakfast Sandwich 600 cals., 32 grams fat, 1470 mg. sodium 6 grams fiber
Best–Cheese Breakfast Sandwich 410 calsk, 18 grams fat, 23 grams protein , 1010 mg. sdodium, 5 grams fiber

These are by no means the only bad or good choices at these restaurants. All of them provide nutritional information, whether on their web site or in a leaflet at the store location. Be sure to ask, and to look at the numbers.
For reference, on a 1500 calorie per day diet, you should be eating about 40-45 grams of fat per day. A low-sodium diet is 2000-3000 mg. per day.

There are only 6 days left to order The Lifestyle Program for Weight Loss at the discounted price of $139. To order, visit www.thelifestyleprogram.com.

Hi all!

 I am always being stopped in the gym and asked if I could put together a abdominal workout for someone.  I completely believe in the less is more approach to ab training (less meaning range of motion for complete control), but truly think the best exersise for great abs is training your diet.  How you fuel your body will do more for the waistline then any type of exercise.  So after I give the nutrition/bodyfat/ no such thing as spot reduction lecture, I will offer these exercises for tone and shape. 

1.  Moutain Climbers:  Start on hands and knees.  Extend the legs out into a full plank position.  Your shoulders and hips should share the same plane of movment.  Using your abdominals, pull your right knee in towards your chest (the tail should tuck under a little and hips low in line with shoulders) and pulse in for 10 counts.  The take the same knee and pulse in towards your left shoulder to target the obliques for 10 counts.  Try to do the same thing on the other side without resting.  One set is good!

2.  Lower Ab Pelvic tucks:  Lay on your back and support your pelvis by framing your hands around your hips.  Extend legs to the cieling above hips.  Do not worry about lifting hips, instead scoop your abs in so much that your pelvis tucks toward you (the legs will lengthen up and in just a little as a result) and release.  Repeat pelvic tuck 20-30 times.  After your do the pelvic tuck then lift your head and shoulders up and reach arms to your toes.  Pulse up 20-30 times. 

3.  Oblique Crunches:  Lie on right side with knees bent, right arm on the floor in front of you, left hand behind head.  Crunch, lifting knees straight up and bringing left shoulder toward them; pause, lower and repeat.  Do 15 times then switch sides.

 To flatten out the midsection, do these three moves three times a week!

Happy Jumping!

Tressa

I have never met anyone who has never had back or neck discomfort.  We ask our bodies to repeatedly do things that are unnatural, which in my humble opinion can account for many of these chronic issues.  For example, sitting in a chair or in the car for long hours, hunching over as we do our daily tasks and for some of us exercising in a very repetitive fashion puts us in a compromising form.  Counterbalancing these movements with the fit ball, yoga or pilates is necessary to help restore the spine to its optimum health.  At the least, try some of the following exercises throughout the day to revive the spine. 

1. Neck Stretch:   Sit tall in a chair.  Extend your right arm to the ceiling, bend the elbow and place your right hand over your left ear. Gently guide your head and neck to the right.  Be careful to not tense your right side.  The stretch is on the left side of the neck and felt more if you lengthen your left arm down.  Hold for five breath and switch sides.

1. Extending your Thoracic Spine: Sit tall in a chair. Place your palms on your lower back with your fingers pointing down.  Pull your abdominals in to sit taller and lift your rib cage up, your breastbone up and slightly back.  Hold for a few seconds, and then return back to upright to repeat twice more.

3. Nourishing Twist:  Sit tall in a chair or cross legged on the floor.  Place your right hand behind the base of your spin on the floor.  Lift the spine and twist the waist to the right bringing your left hand to the outside of your right thigh.  Create torque to twist deeper and with control return to center.  Do 3 on each side.

4. Legs up the wall:  Lie on the floor and lift your legs onto a wall.  Your seat should be at the edge of the floor and wall.  Scan your body and release tension in your jaw, neck, low back, hips, and legs.  Allow gravity to take over.  Rest here for several minutes while breathing deeply. 

Good luck and Happy Jumping!Tressa

There is nothing quite like a craving which will completely wreck a diet.  All the motivation in the world and good intentions fall apart when a craving pops up.  The need to satisfy a craving is so strong, it will make you smoke during pregnancy, eat french fries if you have high blood pressure, and eat a whole tub of icecream on day 2 of a diet! For the dieters out there who know exactly what I am talking about- read on for some helpful tips.

There’s many nuances to mastering the most difficult task on Earth: Battling cravings.

Step 1 Avoidance.  If you see or smell chocolate, leave the room, refuse to inhale, avoid the vapors and run like the wind.  Avoid your favorite restaurants if you have difficulty making healthy choices and select other restaurants that you like and that have healthy options. Dump your friends who insist on eating out all the time and make new friends. Change your phone number, STAT.

Step 2 Substitution.  If you crave something sweet, substitute a food that tastes sweet but has less calories.  Consider: sweet potato, sugar free J-ello, etc.  If you crave something salty, consider a pickle or salted nuts.  Drink plenty of water because thirst will make you over eat.

Step 3 Moderation. If you like chocolate, allow yourself small bites of Hershey Kisses. Satisfy your tastes buds and move on. The craving will stop, but make sure you feel full before you start snacking. If you are hungry and then have chocolate you will over indulge.  A fiber supplement such as psyllium taken with plenty of water taken before a snack will help a person feel full and lower the glycemic index of a carbohydrate snack. Lower glycemic index means lower insulin levels and thus a lower hunger level.

Step 4.  Discovery. Find out why your body is craving certain foods? 

Vitamin Deficiency. Our bodies crave food sometimes because there is some nutritional vitamin that we are lacking. (For more info: www.spectracell.com) For instance, iron deficient pregnant women will eat dirt and corn starch! Some women crave chocolate because female bodies need more Magnesium before menstration each month.  This is fascinating! Women are not really chocolate deficient or chocaholics, but really Magnesium deficient and magnesoholics but do not even know it! Sooooooooooooooooo, if you feel a need to eat three chocolate bars and you really do not want to, feed your craving with seeds and nuts or a magnesium supplement and see if the cravings subside.

Thist. Sometimes our body is thirsty, and we interpret that is hunger.  Make your goal this week to get in more water!

Carbs.  The brain needs carbs for energy. When you are stuck at the computer or studying for a test, snack on carboydrates such as snap peas and low glycemic carbs to prevent a feeding frenzy. I know that in medical school with hours of sitting and reading, I used to think that boredom triggered a craving, but it’s really the brain’s cry for more energy, and it is very specific in its needs, ie carbs!

Salt cravings.  Salt is an amazing flavor enhancer and many people crave it.  Some people such as people with adrenal fatigue will crave it more, because weak adrenals will cause a salt craving flare up!  Instead of battling this urge time after time, get an adrenal gland work up!  If your adrenal glands are weak, salt is actually recommended. I actually recommend salt, salted seaweed and salted nuts for adrenal fatigue!  If you have low blood pressure 90/50 or 100/50, get a work up, you may have this condition and need more salt!

Listen to your body. What is it craving?

Food, sleep, rest, relaxation, exercise, healthy loving relationships?

We all give our bodies an abundance of what it doesn’t need: stress, negative imagery from TV and the news, saturated fats, etc.  We can work on reducing exposure to that, but we have to work harder to make sure we give our body not what it craves, but what it needs to survive and generate better health.

From the desk of Dr. Wells

That’s right. If you want to look as ripped and thin as Michael Phelps, simply eat 12,000 calories per day. Uh huh, a mere 6 times the USDA recommended 2,000 calorie per day diet. But look at him, don’t you want long and lean muscles with not just a 6-pack but easily a 8 or 10 pack in your abs? What’s his secret you ask? He eats 12,000 calories per day or as much as he possibly can consume. I’m talking heaping stacks of pancakes, links upon links of sausage, waffles, pizza, pizza and more pizza. “I try and I try to gain weight but I can’t” proclaims Phelps. If it works for the most decorated Olympian of all time then surely it will work for us.

This diet must accompany 5 hours of excruciating training every day of the week for years on end with no breaks

Oops, I forgot to mention the disclaimer. That’s right, Michael Phelps burns at least 12,000 calories per day during his workouts which is why he doesn’t gain weight. Even with this extreme example, the fundamentals of weight loss and weight gain still hold true: 3,500 calories = 1 lb.

How about a Gold Medal Update:

Sat - :45 of kayaking

Sun - :30 of JumpSnap

Mon - :60 of kayaking

Tues - :90 of yoga

Wed - :30 strength training

I can taste the Gold Medal!

Healthy Jumping…

Who is watching the Olympics or perhaps a better question is, who isn’t? I don’t know about you but that opening cerimony was unbelievable. I guess for $300 million, it should be but I was still really impressed. I think it set the tone for an outrageous Olympic games.

As much as I love to watch the actual events themselves, I find great inspiration in the back stories. You know, the ones about all the sacrafice and years upon years upon years of training. It gives me that extra kick in the butt to think these athletes train hours every day, even when they don’t want to. I was watching a great interview with Michael Phelps talking about his quest for Olympic supreme status as the most decorated athelete of all times. Think about that for a minute. Phelps will not only eclipse the 3 other athletes who achieved 9 gold medals in their Olympic career but he has the chance to shatter it. In fact, he could double it by the time he’s all done - - wow.

What I loved most about his interview however was when he was asked about the 2012 Games and his swimming schedule. He quickly answered that he would not be maintaining this rigorous schedule. Why? Because it takes a huge strain on his body and it’s incredibly demanding. That almost made him sound human. Michael Phelps admitted he doens’t want to put his body through the extreme rigors of training another 4 years to compete in 8 events. I can’t blame him but he’s no less of an inspiration for anyone who doesn’t feel like working out for an hour one day.

Here’s my Gold Medal challenge for myself and you if you choose to accept it. From today through the end of the Olympics on Sunday August 24th, exercise every day. That’s it, I want you to workout every day while the Olympics are in progress. Push through the aches and pain, the “I’m tired’s” and the “I’ll do it tomorrow’s” and strive for your own version of Olympic Gold. That’s only 14 straight days and compared to what these athletes go through, it’s nothing.

If you really want to get into the spirit of the Games, workout while watching them. It will give you a greater appreciation for their achievement and the time will go by much faster. I started my quest on Saturday and I can assure you that watching the swimming events providing enough adrenlin to make me workout stronger.

The Gold Medal is within reach -  - go after it and enjoy hearing our national anthem on Sunday August 24th!

Healthy Jumping…

Well the summer isn’t over yet.  There is still time to fit in some reading material that may just change your life.  Head over to local bookstore or check out www.amazon.com for an incredible amount of insight, all for under twenty bucks.

Female Hormones:
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: The Breakthrough Book on Natural Hormone Balance
by John R. Lee MD and Virginia Hopkins

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause: Balance Your Hormones and Your Life from Thirty to Fifty
by John R, Lee MD, Jesse Hanley, and Virginia Hopkins

Male Hormones
The Testosterone Syndrome
by Eugene Shippen, William Fryer

Adrenal Glands
Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st-Century Stress Syndrome
by James L. Wilson

Safe Uses of Cortisol
by William McK. Jefferies MD

Thyroid
Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness
by Broda Barnes

Diet and Nutrition
The China Study : The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term HealthK
by T. Colin Campbell, Thomas M. Campbell II

Other Resources
Root Canal Cover-Up
by GeorgeMeinig

These books will motivate you to strive for quality of life and better health despite fatigue, toxins, and dimishing hormone levels.

From the desk of Dr Wells

Hello Everyone, 

Success leaves clues and there are 7 SECRETS, 7 patterns of behavior and thoughts, that highly healthy people, people who have achieved health success, live by. Learn to adopt the following 7 SECRETS and make them your own so that when opportunity knocks you’ll be ready to open the door.

1. Set Goals With Self-Honesty
2. Make Health A Habit
3. Greet The Day
4. Be Passionate, But Patient With Proper Perspective
5. Reward Yourself Along The Way
6. Surround Yourself With Healthy People
7. Expect Turbulence Along The Way

Set Goals With Self-Honesty
Goals create your future in advance. Goals initiate growth. Goals help develop success. Goals should be realistic, attainable. The first step in setting goals is to be honest about where you are at right now. The next step is to decide where you want to go. Next, understand why you want to achieve the goal. If the reason is important enough to you, you will make it happen. Finally, determine the simplest, straightest path to achieving your goal.

Goals typically come in two forms, process and results. Process goals focus on how you are going to get what you want, the specific, realistic, practical, challenging but achievable things you can do each and every day to get closer to where you want to be. Example: I will exercise 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week. Results goals answer the question of what you want to achieve. Example: I will lose twenty pounds.

Make Health A Habit
Consistency of action creates lasting change. Just like every other part of your daily routine, from brushing your teeth to combing your hair, taking care of your health needs to be a daily habit. Prepare and eat healthy food. Exercise daily. Take the time to energize your mind, body and soul. There are few things in life with substantial returns on investment. Physical health is one. Consistent investments in your health and well-being will transform your life.

Greet The Day
Give yourself at least 30 minutes of “YOU-time” first thing in the morning. Not only does it ignite your metabolism so that it is firing for the rest of the day, but more importantly you will put positive energy in motion for the rest of your day. Think of it as a way of saying thank you for your life. Every day is a gift and be grateful for the ability to start your day this way.

“The Morning Minute” Exercise
Before you get out of bed in the morning, begin each and every day with 1 minute of gratitude. Sincerely express gratitude for your life and the fact that you have woken up to the sound of the alarm to live yet another day. (At a subconscious level, this exercise sets positive energy in motion)

Be Passionate, But Patient With Proper Perspective
Move forward with great enthusiasm but don’t expect change overnight. Mirror the rhythm of life and affect profound change- crawl, walk, jog, run! Or, as some put it, plant, water, maintain, harvest! Far too often steps are skipped in haste. Remember, the goal is to reduce stress, not add to it. Go easy on yourself!

Reward Yourself Along The Way
Everyone needs to take time to enjoy life. When you accomplish a goal, reward yourself. Just make sure the reward is still consistent with being healthy. Take a moment RIGHT NOW and think of at least 12 things that you truly enjoy doing that compliment and support healthy, balanced life. Having said this, we are all human and we all have our vices. For many, it is fast food, chocolate, or some other edible delight. It is ok to make things like this one of your rewards. Just keep it in moderation, balance. Moderation is the key with most things. Now, come up with your list of 12 positive rewards you desire for accomplishing your goals.

Surround Yourself With Healthy People
As you attempt to adopt this new healthy approach to living, it is important to set up a support group of people around you that will reinforce your efforts. This group typically consists of a coach/trainer (you now have me, and BootCampConnect), friends and/or family. If possible, seek out at least one person who will have your back no matter what- someone who won’t try to get you to eat a Big Mac and super-sized fries when you should be having a chicken salad and soup. Avoid spending too much time with those who constantly try to bring you down or tell you can’t pull this off. Consider joining a gym or some sort of club. Certainly, here at BootCampConnect, you will find others who have similar goals and who are attempting to walk the walk.

Expect Turbulence Along The Way
Mentally prepare yourself for interruptions. Know that there will be missteps, set backs, and plateaus. It happens to everyone. You are not alone. It is a natural part of the growth process. Through it all, remember that you are not defined by these set-backs. Instead, it is how you choose to respond to them that defines character. Finally, no set-back is ever too great to reverse. Period.

Wishing You Well,

Adam