Happy Holidays from the Transformation Fitness and Wellness Team!

Presenting the 12 Days of Fitness

  It’s never too late to start.

It’s always too late to wait.

 

What You Do Matters…

 

I am as passionate about personal health and fitness as I am about financial health.  I believe your health is your most prized possession. It amazes me how many people pay no attention to their health.

 

Do you know anyone who would eat a quart of Crisco or a pound of butter a day?  Hey, my cholesterol’s down to 239, I need to get it up over 400.  There are still a few arteries flowing and I need to get ‘em all clogged, right now, today!  Does anyone believe that’s the way to good health?  If course not.  Then why do we act like we do?

 

You know what you’re supposed to eat.  We all do.  Fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbs, salads, whole foods, lean meats, more fish and poultry than beef…You know it, I know it, we all know it.  So why do so many of us still go out and chow down cheeseburgers and fries every day?

 

I’ll tell you why: because it won’t kill us.  Not today.

If you ate a cheeseburger and immediately suffered a near-fatal heart attack, would you ever go near a cheeseburger again?  I doubt it.  It may take twenty or thirty years, but when you add up the compounded interest on all the high-fat, artery-clogging dietary mayhem, eventually your poor overworked heart just quits, stops dead.  And so do you.  It has been said that we dig our graves with our teeth.

 

It’s easy to eat well.  And it’s easy not to.

 

It’s not the one junk-food meal; it’s the thousands, over time.  Eating the burger is just a simple error in judgment.  Not eating it, a simple positive action.  Eating it won’t kill you—today.  But compounded over time, it can and will.  Not eating it won’t save you—today.  But compounded over time, it can and will.

 

A simple, positive action.  A simple error in judgment.  Either way, it’s the Slight Edge at work—working for you or working against you.  For example, if you read 10 pages of a good book today will you see success?  No.  If you don’t read 10 pages of a good book a day will you see failure?  No.  They look the same today.

 

Invisible results.

 

Why do you walk past the exercise bike?  Because it’s easy.  If you don’t exercise today, will that kill you?  No, of course not.  You know what you need to do to stay healthy and feel fit and live a long life.  Get your heart rate up, a little over normal, for twenty minutes, three times a week.  You know it, I know it, everyone knows it.  And it’s easy to do.

 

But it’s also easy not to do.  And if you don’t do it today, or tomorrow, or the next day, you won’t suddenly drop dead, and you won’t suddenly put on twenty pounds, and you won’t suddenly lose all your muscle tone and flop around like a marionette with his strings cut off.  But that simple error in judgment, compounded over time, will take you down and out.

 

It is the same with your health, your diet, your exercise, your financial habits, your knowledge, your relationships, your marriage.  With anything and everything.  With your life.

 

The difference between success and failure is not dramatic.  In fact, the difference between success and failure is so subtle, most people miss it.  They hold the philosophy that what they do doesn’t really matter.  It’s not hard to see how people come to this understanding of life.  I don’t blame them.  It’s completely understandable.  It’s just not the truth.

 

The truth is, what you do matters.  What you do today matters.  What you do every day matters.

 

                Successful people just do the things that seem to make no difference in the act of doing them and they do them over and over and over until the compound effect kicks in.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this clip taken from: The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.  This book has had great impact on my life and I want to keep sharing its tremendous value.  I know fitness is not always easy to start, but with trained professionals it can be easier.  Some people are unsure where to start, I get that.

 

So if you are looking to do the small insignificant things each day to make a huge impact on your life but you need the support and accountability, we can and will be there for you!  It a Free Consultation, a first step toward success, asking for help is not always easy but we can help make it the single best decision you have ever made!

 

Your time is now!

 

Have a wonderful Holiday Season and reach out!  I promise you will not regret it.

 

 

 

 

Apple-Bacon Turkey Burgers

Serving size: 2

Ingredients:

2 Slices bacon

1/2 onion Chopped

1/4 medium apple, finely chopped

1 Teaspoon chopped fresh sage

1/4 Teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 Teaspoon pepper

1/2 lb lean ground turkey

1 large egg

Instructions:

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until crisp; crumble bacon and reserve drippings.  Cook onion, apple, sage, garlic salt and pepper in hot drippings 7 minutes or until apple is soft; remove from heat.  Combine turkey, egg, bacon and onion mixture; shape mixture into 2 (1/2-inch thick) patties.

Place on grill rack coated with oil.  Grill burgers, covered with grill lid, 5 to 6 minutes per side or until done.

 

Easy Braised Spinach

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:

2 slices bacon

1/4 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 (10-oz) package baby spinach

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper

Instructions:

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until crisp; crumble bacon and reserve drippings.  Cook onion and garlic in hot drippings 6 minutes or until onion is tender.  Add vinegar, spinach, salt and lemon pepper; cook 3 to 4 minutes or until spinach wilts.

 

 

***Recipe provided by emeals.com***

 

 

At Transformation Fitness and Wellness we take so much pride in our Fitness Professionals and the level at which they are able to help our clients.  We highly value the education, certifications and continued education our staff has and continues to grow from.  It is extremely interesting that in the world of fitness and wellness, we have no certain standards, board certified tests, etc.

But we work with clients who are post surgery, through pregnancies,  we work with morbidly obese, and we work with the professional, just trying to squeeze a quick workout in.

What I am getting at is we work with all different clients and we would not be able to transform these lives without the knowledge and the experience we have.

So in today’s blog post our message is meant to help our audience better understand how we are different, why you should work with us, and also why our Indianapolis Community should only trust us with their health and wellness goals!

Not all programs are created equal!

We highly regard several direct competitors, because honestly at the end of the day we are just trying to help people become a healthier version of themselves, feel good, have energy and live a healthy, rewarding life!

But not all programs are created equal!  We want to help educate you on why we have a set structure to our programs and it is not a bunch of random workouts!

Many times people do not understand that consistency of an exercise movement(s) should have a specific goal.  The goal may be to drop body fat, run faster, increase muscle tissue, or just have more energy.  When a combination of exercise movements are planned and designed to create a specific goal it is called periodization.

Most people do not understand periodization or they have been misinformed with the P90x and CrossFit craze.  These two specific programs have used the terms “muscle confusion” or “random exposure to a variety of movements” to explain their “periodization” style or methods.

If you use the random exposure to a variety of different movements at different intensities, most of which are done for time, i.e. as many reps as possible in a specific time period or a specific number of reps done as fast as possible;  the program becomes random exercise…not training.

Training has a specific goal and requires periodization to get ready for a specific task.  Different physical tasks require different physical adaptations; running 26.2 miles is obviously a different task than squatting 700 pounds, and the two efforts require completely different physical adaptations and periodization.  If a program of physical activity is not designed to get you stronger or faster or better conditioned by producing a specific stress to which a specific desirable adaptation can occur, you do not get to call it training.  It is just exercise.

For many people who participate in these programs that are designed off random exercise they will see results in the first 6 months but, will hit a plateau shortly there after.  Then, progress slows, since the Laws of Physiology cannot be ignored.  The more you adapt to physical stress, the stronger and fitter you become.   And the stronger and fitter you become, the more difficult it is to get stronger and fitter, because the easy part of the process has already occurred.  The great Dan John says “Any program will work for the first 6 weeks.”

Once a person has adapted beyond the ability of random stress, applied frequently under time constraints to cause further improvement…progress stalls.  And increasing the intensity of the random stress doesn’t work either – that just gets you hurt because you have not gotten stronger, and your heart and lungs can only work at about 200 BPM and about 50 RPM.

To continue to see results and stay injury free a  program must have proper periodazation to obtain the desired goal.  Beyond a certain point, random physical stress fails to continue to elicit a favorable adaptation.  Many times this random physical stress is too high and the body cannot recover.  If the body cannot recover the injuries will start to appear.

Our program here at Transformation Fitness and Wellness utilizes periodization in 4- week blocks.  This type of periodization is designed to improve specific exercise movement(s) to accomplish a specific goal for each client.

Our periodization looks like this:

• Metabolic
• Endurance
• Hypertrophy
• Strength
• Power

Each of the 4- week blocks have specific rep schemes and time ratios along with specific exercise movements to accomplish the desired goal(s).  A client may perform similar exercise movements within a 4- week period.  You need to have consistency within a program in order to make improvements with  your personal goals.  Even if you are a more advanced lifter you should have consistency in exercise movements.

In closing, we are here to help you through your fitness journey and keep the random workouts that do not get results, out!  We work tirelessly to help each client obtain their desired level of health and wellness.  This is your goal, your workout and we will help you through the process!

Just sign-up for our Free Consultation and we will make sure our program is a good fit for you personally!

 

I would like to begin by saying Happy Holiday Season! And before you read this article, remember you should always eat a balanced diet for optimum health. That doesn’t mean stopping by McDonalds for a burger, hitting up Wendy’s for French fries, popping over to the TacoHut for some tacos and breadsticks, then a quick drive thru at DQ for a blizzard. No…..Just…. (sigh)…..Just no. I mean fruits, veggies, carbs (yes carbs) and always sources of lean protein, especially if you are exercising regularly.

You hear the word ‘protein’ all the time. It is a big-time “buzz” word in the health and fitness industry these days. But what does it really mean? What foods have protein in them? How can I get more protein into my diet and what are the benefits? I will cover some of the fundamental questions about nutrition and protein specifically in this blog.

The science:

Proteins are a building block for your body and are contained in every single cell you have. The body needs protein to maintain and repair cells as well as make new ones. It is important for growth during childhood, adolescence, pregnancy, and during times of physical, emotional, and other types of stress.

Fun fact:

Some proteins are “conditional” proteins. Which means that usually the body makes them and does not need to get them from food. EXCEPT during times of stress or illness. So, when you are under stress or are sick, keeping a steady diet high in protein will help keep you more focused and aid your immune system in fighting off evil spirits.

 

What foods are high in protein?

Before we jump into this answer, first you must know a little about amino acids. Proteins are made up of amino acids. Think of amino acids as the building blocks. There are 20 different amino acids that join together to make all types of protein. Some of these amino acids can’t be made by our bodies. These are known as essential amino acids. It’s essential that our diet provide these.

Protein sources are labeled according to how many amino acids they contain.

A complete protein source is one that provides all of the essential amino acids. Some sources are: meat, poultry, eggs, fish, milk, and cheese.

On the flip side, an incomplete protein source is one that is low in one or more of the essential amino acids. Complimentary proteins are two or more incomplete proteins that together provide all of the necessary amino acids. As an example: Rice does not contain some essential amino acids that are found in greater amounts of beans. Rice and beans together makes for an extremely good snack or meal that is high in protein.

 

How can I get more protein in my diet?

Here is a list of foods and snacks that are high in protein:

• Greek yogurt (flavored or plain – doesn’t matter for protein content, but be aware of sugar!)
• Turkey breast
• Chicken breast
• Fish
• Eggs
• Low fat cheeses – mozzarella, cottage, or string cheese
• Tofu
• Soy beans
• Milk
• Soymilk
• Nuts and seeds – pumpkin, squash, almond, peanuts, pistachios.

Keep in mind that there are MANY more foods out there that are good sources of nutrient and protein – these are only some!

Protein is Not all the Same

For example Nuts and Beans, can provide a good amount of protein, but the best sources are dairy products, eggs, meat, and fish.  Animal protein is complete, it contains the right proportions of the essential amino acids.  To build a complete protein from plant-based foods you need to consume 20-25% more plant-based protein to reap the benefits that animal-derived sources provide.

Timing is Important

Your body is constantly breaking down and building protein.  Remember for every 30 grams of protein you are triggering approximately 3 hrs of protein synthesis.  Most people consume the largest amount of protein at dinner, so this means you are only fueling muscle growth for only a few hours a day.  Try to spread your protein intake out throughout the day.

It has been recommended to consume protein before and after a workout for best results.  A total of 10 to 20 grams of protein is ideal.  Also add a few carbs in as well, this slows down protein breakdown, which speeds up muscle growth after a workout.

Studies have shown 20 grams post workout is the best for muscle growth.  There is still several studies out but when you strength train you break the muscle down.  Then you need fresh amino acids to repair it.

Powders…Good for Everyone

Everyone…not just gym rats!  You can benefit from a quick hit of amino acids provided by a supplement Bar or Shake.  Your best bet is a fast-absorbing, high-quality kind like whey protein powder.  It has been shown that this type of protein can show in your bloodstream in 15 minutes after you consume it.

At Transformation Fitness and Wellness we exclusively use AdvoCare  Products.  The products are formulated by an elite Scientific and Medical Advisory Board with over 200 years combined experience in pharmacology, toxicology, nutrition, sports performance and pediatrics.

We recommend:

Muscle Gain

Post Workout Recovery

Pro 20

What if I need more help or have more questions?

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or would like to discuss more about protein!  We try to keep it simple yet effective!  We offer a Free Consultation, either click here or call 317-927-9689.

Have a great day!

 

 

I went to the annual conference for trigger point therapy about a month ago. It was great to learn new techniques from other therapists for treating musculoskeletal pain. I was very excited to attend all the lectures because they were all about pain management, but the approach to the treatment was quite different: aroma therapy, plant based diet to avoid inflammation of your body, how to realign the pelvis, etc. Above all, one lecture really attracted me; it was a “Laughter Workshop” by James Masica, who is a state-licensed clinical mental health counselor and organizational development consultant. Does laughing have anything to do with pain management? Yes! There is scientific evidence that suggests laughing actually helps your overall health and treatment for your pain. I would like to share some of the experiences that I had at the conference. I hope it will help you want to smile more for your health!

At the beginning of the lecture, we all practiced “How to laugh”

“Hee Hee Hee”

“Ha Ha Ha”

“Ho Ho Ho”

You can’t be shy! We were laughing really hard and loud for NO REASON (at first), which cracked everybody up and we were laughing even more. Then he told us that we have spent our lives confusing laughter with humor. Laughter is physical; humor is mental. Human beings are “hard wired” to laugh from birth. It’s something nature has built into every one of us. Even little babies laugh; obviously it’s not in response to something “funny.” Laughing is a physical act that makes us feel good.

 

Children laugh 150-200 times a day; adults laugh just 15-20 times a day. That’s a lot of missing laughter! But no worries, it hasn’t actually gone away, and it’s surprisingly easy to re-discover our laughter capacity. It has been covered over with our ideas about adulthood and responsibility. Growing up, we don’t get many messages about the importance of retaining our capacity to laugh. We might have even been discouraged from laughter. But medical and organizational sciences are proving what we sense intuitively- laughter is an important ingredient in optimal functioning. A lack of laughter is a warning sign– for organizations, individuals, and relationships.

 

The physical act of laughter causes a whole spectrum of changes in the body and therefore the mind. Catecholamines, a type of brain chemical, are increased, which boosts mental functioning across the board. Alertness, memory, generosity and cooperation are all increased. The feel-good brain hormones called endorphins flood into the body. These are the brain’s natural pain-killers, and part of the reason why we feel so good after a good laugh.

 

The body’s immune system also gets stronger with laughter, as the T-cell count and other immune functions work better. One reason for this is that laughter decreases stress hormones, such as cortisol, which are associated with the flight-or fight response. Stressful modern lifestyles tend to feed this response, which is sometimes compared to driving with your feet on the accelerator and brakes at the same time!

 

A University of Maryland School of Medicine study found people with serious heart disease laughed significantly less in everyday situations. Another found 40% less risk of a second heart attack for people who participated in a laughter study. There are many, many more instances of health benefits associated with laughter.

 

But the benefits are not only for the individual; groups, organizations and relationships are all improved by laughter. Since it improves a person’s over-all mood, we become more cooperative, generous, and interested in those around us. Laughter is seldom a solitary activity- it almost always is shared with others. It dissolves tensions and makes us more inclined to see others in a positive light. The companies on Forbes Magazine’s “100 Best Places to Work” list have only one thing in common- they are all described as “fun places to work.” And in relationships, the number one characteristic people look for in a partner, “They make me laugh.”

 

So….. We need to laugh more!! What great effects laughter brings to us! By the end of the laughter workshop, sure enough I felt wonderful. Then I questioned myself, “How much do I laugh on a daily basis? I think I am pretty happy…?” As fitness professionals our hours can be tough. We start working pretty early and finish late. Some mornings are tough to have a lot of energy. BUT, I realized I always feel great after I say hi to our clients and smile! I just didn’t know how much our clients giving me energy and helping to increase “feel-good hormones.” Also, I have many friends who make me happy and with whom I am always laughing. I love to laugh! Now, since I know the effects of laughing, I can use it when I don’t feel well! Interestingly, I learned that even fake laughing and smiling has the same effects because the contraction of muscles in the face tricks your brain and “good chemicals” are released.

 

In this holiday season, we get to see family and friends to celebrate the holidays. I hope you can catch up with them with great laughs and smiles, and have a wonderful time!

 

Last but not least, James gave us “The Six Practices of Good-Hearted Living that put more laughter and lightness into your life.” I hope it will enrich your life as well!

“One for every day of the week; they’ll give your attitude a tweak”

Monday is for compliments. Look for the good in others and in yourself. Pay compliments, publicly if appropriate. A compliment means something is going right -acknowledge it!

Antidote for: judgmentalness, being overly critical, overactive ego, pessimism.

 

Tuesday is for flexibility.  Try something new, be it big or small. Try saying “Yes” when you would usually say “no”. Be open to accepting the unexpected. Eat something different for lunch.

Antidote for: hardening of the attitudes, habits turning into ruts, loss of creativity, creeping rigidity.

 

Wednesday is for gratitude. Thank God it’s Wednesday! Cultivate gratitude for things great and small all day. Be grateful you have shoes on your feet. Is that big thing or a little thing? Regardless, be grateful for it. Remember, “Gratitude precedes joy.”

Antidote for: negativity, focusing on lack, consumerism, greed.

 

Thursday is for kindness. Do small things (and occasionally large ones) that make someone else’s life easier. A prime day for random acts of kindness. Extra points for kindness to people that don’t seem to deserve it- the crabby, the rude, the unappealing. (Don’t they need it the most?)

Antidote for: stinginess, mean-spiritedness, generally being a sourpuss.

“We feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”-Mother Theresa

 

Friday is for forgiveness. Let go of resentments, grudges, irritation. Liberate yourself: forgive! Get silly with it. Try radical forgiveness: forgive your shoelace for breaking, the light bulb for burning out. Who knows, maybe you’ll get to the point of being able to forgive the jerk behind you for blowing his horn the instant the traffic light turns green.

Antidote for: anger.

“Holding a grudge is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die.”

 

Weekends are for Chocolate. Do things that make life sweet for you. Chocolate is a metaphor for what makes life worth living for you- whatever restores, refreshes, and revitalizes you. Don’t make the weekend two more days of work. Feed your zest for life, soak up leisure-time pleasures. Do the responsible thing and play: a recent study found NASA technicians were 40% more efficient when they came back from vacation!

Antidote for: Caregiver burn-out, loss of creativity, insufficient episodes of joyfulness.

“Then I commanded mirth because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry” – Ecclesiastes 8:15

 

Taken together, these 6 simple practices will gently permeate your outlook on life. Space can be created for the simple pleasure of frequent laughter. You can laugh more easily and more often. You’ll like the effect it has on your connections with people.