How Nutrition Has Direct Influence on Performance

Anyone who is serious about their health and fitness goals realizes by now that nutrition is what drives their progress. This is what sets you up for success or failure. How you prepare your meals and what you put into your system has a huge and direct effect on the work out. For example, I have a new client who is out of shape and overweight. I’ll call this client Bob. I discussed the importance of nutrition with him and everyone in his life that wants him to succeed. We have been training for 3 months now and slow, steady progression has been shown in both strength and in weight loss. Where this turned into an experiment is when I had Bob do burpees for time. Remember this is the first time that my client was introduced to this exercise, so it was expected that his first time should be the slowest, with the assumption that as this exercise is performed more often, the times should improve. So here is the work out as follows:

On Wednesday, 45 burpees took 16:45; first attempt at the exercise.
He ate a good breakfast, consisting of eggs and sausage.

The following Monday, 50 burpees took 22:06. Only 5 more burpees than the first workout and it took almost 6 minutes longer.
He felt lightheaded throughout the exercise.
He ate a poor breakfast; only had potatoes and orange juice.

Then Wednesday he performed 80 burpees for time. And since he was doing well, I decided to record the times for the 45 and 50 reps as well.
So for 45 reps, his time was 11:36, which is a great improvement from the first time doing it.
For 50 reps, it was 12:51 which is a 10 minute difference from the 50 reps 2 days prior. Finally, 80 reps for. 19:49; which crushed his time from the Monday work out by 3 minutes less with 30 extra reps of burpees.
His breakfast consisted of eggs and bacon with orange juice. A complete breakfast. All the macronutrients were present; protein, fats and carbs. This breakfast was exactly what his body needed to outperform his previous workouts, which is what’s to be expected when eating well and exercising: Improvement.

Many people exercise, but they don't realize how important nutrition is to their performance and results. Anyone can go to the gym and throw weights around, but for it to be an effective exercise program, many other aspects need to be filtered in, such as flexibly and mobility, nutrition, rest and recovery and the actual set up of the exercise program.

Train for success; don't waste your valuable time and effort at the gym.
This little experiment was a great way to demonstrate that what we do outside the gym such as sleep, rest, food and nourishment for the body is what gets us the most results especially when it comes to training at the gym.

Always go back to the basics. For a good basic guide on nutrition check out Nutrition101.

Choices We Make....

Many people dislike me for my ability to always stay slim. No matter what I eat, it’s extremely difficult for me to gain weight. Back when I was younger, I was on a "see food diet". For those of you that don't know what that means; it means that any food I saw I ate it. I was never much into junk food or fast food, because my parents raised me well by keeping me away from it, and I thank them for that, but I did have a huge sweet tooth. I used to eat lots of sweets, and so my dentist thanked me for that. Now even though I did not gain any fat, my slim appearance did not mean I was healthy. I used to get sick a lot in the winter and walk around looking sickeningly pale during those months. Not the best look.

Finally, when I started making changes in my lifestyle; sleeping better, recovering and stretching from workouts better and most importantly, eating better, my health began to improve. I stopped getting sick, and if I did, it was an extremely mild case and I would bounce back in a couple of days without using any medications. The reason I started thinking about this is because people are always looking at me and calling me a health nut or say I’m extremely lucky because of my genetics. What people don't realize is that I'm just like them. I too, love sweet things and junk food or whatever else that is bad for us, but I CHOOSE to stay away from it because I enjoy my health and my vitality MORE than the crap food. I also found out that there are many alternative ways to substitute things that I love. It has improved my performance tremendously and gives me way more energy through out the day. So I get to live a healthy lifestyle and still enjoy myself. Now that's the type of "diet" I can get behind.



To learn more about living a healthy lifestyle check out Nutrition 101.


Questions or comments email me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Peer Pressure

Peer-pressure is a serious thing, especially since it does not stop at the childhood or teenage years, it continues on into our adulthood. Most peer pressure is on young girls and women who see all of the magazines, the beauty products, the commercials and bulletin boards on how to stay young and good looking. Men and women in general are always bombarded with images from the media that make them feel inadequate. For a person who is out of shape and overweight, it is tough enough to be starting on the journey to better health and the look that they desire. So as soon as they start eating better, exercising and making some real progress, they go out with their friends and choose to get a healthy dish from the menu, and are looked at as a "health nut" and pretty much ridiculed or made fun of by their friends for making the healthy choice. For someone who has just begun this long journey, it can be extremely easy to succumb to the peer pressure and give into eating bad for one day, then two, then three, and before they know it they are back to where they started.

My question is when did being called a "health nut" become such a bad thing? And why do people consider being called a "health nut" a negative label? Let me tell you something; because you CHOSE to eat better and healthier, to train regularly and improve your health, you should be proud of the label "health nut". Think of it as a badge of honor that you worked really hard to get. The people that are calling you that recognize your hard work and that is why they say it. But they are a little jealous because it is really hard for them to turn down that piece of cake or the 7th cocktail that they are having at the office party. You do what you intended to do. Stay the course. Keep your goal in mind, which is getting healthier, living a better and longer life. Every time you are called a "health nut", take it as the highest compliment. Once you see things from this perspective there won't be any peer pressure for you and you will only do what you choose to do. Don't get me wrong, the peer pressure is for both women and men. For men it's mostly about looking macho and most of it stems from drinking. Who can out drink who? You would think that this behavior would be over in college. But that is just wishful thinking.

The bottom line is that no matter what kind of peer pressure you are exposed to, know that you are the one who is in control, because you are the one who chooses what to eat and what to drink. Make the right choice.

Questions or comments please contact me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

What Am I Doing Wrong?....

I eat right and exercise a ton but I still cannot lose weight. What am I doing wrong? Sound familiar to anyone? I have been asked this question countless times and I always respond by asking some of my own questions. Everyone’s definition of eating healthy and working out properly is different. To see what my definition of health is check out my blog called “Different levels of health”. So I need to understand what their definition of healthy is. Most likely it is not what my definition is, and that is the "Aha" moment when we pinpoint the issue and can now hone in on it and fix it. What I'm getting at is that if you have been doing something for a very long time and you are not getting the results you want, the obvious answer is that it's not working for you. Whether you think you are working out hard or eating healthy, your body is telling you otherwise. Listen to it, your body does not lie. The simplest way to make a difference in your goals is to apply change in your life. That could mean better eating habits, workout routines, recovery, etc. etc. Books and well known health websites are great sources to use, (notice I did not say bodybuilding magazines because all they do is promote supplements that will magically turn you into hulk or a playboy bunny or both). If the amount of information is too much, then work with a professional who can narrow down your goals for you.

A great place to start on your nutrition is “Nutrition 101” and “Different Levels Of Health?”

Questions or comments email at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Who Do We Need to Listen to About Health Advice...

In our society, celebrities are looked at as role models. In general, male athletes are role models for young boys and female celebrities are role models for women of all ages. Since these celebrities are looked up to, when they become a spokesperson for some sort of diet or product, or do a "health cleanse", many people follow in their footsteps.

Celebrities are just regular people who are fortunate enough to be in the spotlight. Just because they have all this money does not mean they are the healthiest, or that they make proper decisions. Oprah is a great example. She is a great person who has done so much with her life. She built a huge company from the bottom up, and has been a tremendous voice that has reached out to people for years. However, this does not mean she is the person to look to or listen to about nutrition. She has battled weight issues all of her life, always going from one diet to the next, or trying different master cleanses and exercise programs. Now mind you, this is Oprah. She has the best doctors money can buy, the best nutritionists and the best personal trainers. Yet still, for some reason, it's difficult for her to stay healthy and keep the unwanted weight off. Most of us are not fortunate enough to have all the money and help that she has, which is why we should not try to imitate the crazy diet fads that the celebrities are trying.



Keep it simple. Eating whole fresh foods is all you have to do to start your journey toward a healthier lifestyle. Do not follow crazy diets and master cleanses, because they do a lot of damage to the body. Adopt a diet that you can use for the rest of your life, and make it a part of your healthy lifestyle.

Check out Nutrition 101 and Different Levels of Health

Questions or comments eamil me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Malnourished

These two images have something in common. Can you guess what it is? Both of these images are of malnourished kids. They both have severe health issues, and the only way to get them healthy is by getting them nourished. Now you’re asking yourself, if they are malnourished, then why is one overweight and the other one extremely skinny?

In order to answer these questions, I will need to define a couple of words.

Nutrient- A substance that provides nourishment essential for growth and the maintenance of life. Ex, vitamins, minerals, water, etc.

Calorie- (definition that many people are familiar with) a unit equal to the kilocalorie, used to express the heat output of an organism and the fuel or energy value of food.

Every food that we eat has a specified amount of calories, but not necessarily nutrients. (Ex: processed floury and sugary foods). So the issue with overweight kids is that they are not getting enough nutrients into their body and their body is asking for more nourishment. Because they are eating crap food, such as fast food and junk food, their bodies are only receiving calories with little to no nourishment. The end result being, they gain extreme weight.

On the other hand, not only are the starving children not receiving any nutrients, but they are not receiving any calories either. This leads the body to cannibalize (eat away) its own tissues. Both of these are cases of malnourishment.

Before I defined these terms and explained how both children are malnourished, many people would never look at an overweight child or person and say they are malnourished. They would automatically say that the overweight person needs to stop eating so much and cut down on calories etc. etc.

The last thing we want to do with anyone who is overweight is to cut calories. For anyone who is trying to lose weight, listen up!! Instead of cutting calories, how about we start eating better by focusing on getting NUTRIENTS into our bodies. The most simple and most popular lifestyle out there now is the Paleo lifestyle. This lifestyle consists of meat, vegetables, fruits and....... that’s it. All of these foods are loaded with nutrients. For better nutrient content, seek out organic foods and grass fed meats.

Do the math. Let’s just say you wanted to eat a doughnut. It has 100 calories and 0 nutrients. Since the first thing we decided to do is cut calories, we now eat only half of the doughnut. Now we take in 50 calories but still 0 nutrients. There is absolutely NO nourishment for your body. Half of nothing is still nothing. So when you are trying to lose weight, don't focus on the calories. Focus on eating more nourishing food.

For more nutrition help take a look at Nutrition101Comments or questions contact at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Nutrition 101

This article is the Holy Grail to health. For many people, just following these guidelines can make huge changes in their bodies and their health. So the first thing to eat is water. What did I just say? Eat water? Yes water is extremely important for our overall health and is important for our digestion of food, as well as the absorption and transportation of nutrients. For more details on water, check out Secret to Looking Ageless
So make sure you hydrate well.
 A good rule to follow is to drink half your bodyweight in ounces of water a day.
The second, and most important piece of advice, listen up people; make sure you only eat food that spoils within a week if not eaten.

 

The image on the left is the food you should eat. The image on the right is the food you should stay away from. Most things that come in a box are severely packaged and have a ton of preservatives in them to make sure they don’t spoil. A definite game changer; going from eating packaged foods to foods that actually have life in them.
The third piece of advice is movement or exercise. Now many might say that this is not nutrition advice, but it is. Your food is being moved around in the digestive tract, such as your small intestine and the colon, by smooth muscles. They are the peristalsis muscles that pump our food through our digestive tract, turning and mixing it so that we can absorb it. This action works best with our own natural body movement. Unfortunately, in our sedentary society, we don't move enough and our food does not get digested as much as we would like. After your meal, go for a nice calm walk for about 30 minutes. This will aid in the digestion of your food.


Follow this simple advice and you will start seeing and feeling results. If you have mastered these basics and would like to take it a step further, contact a professional and start working with them.

To get more information on how to progress even further then the basic results contact me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Mysteries of Cholesterol (Part 3)

In Part Two of the Mysteries of Cholesterol, we discovered that the actual culprit of heart disease and many other major illnesses is chronic inflammation. Inflammation is our bodies’ protective mechanism that is activated anytime any tissue sustains any type of damage.

What causes inflammation and how do we treat it/diminish it?


Causes of inflammation include:

Food allergies and sensitivities that may not present with heavy symptoms.

Having bacterial, viral, fungal infections.

Stress is a major contributor of inflammation;

Mental, psychological, chemical, and environmental.

Physical stress- too little exercise: such as lack of movement, or too much exercise: overtraining.

Exercise always leads to a mild case of inflammation because you break down and tear your muscles while exercising, and then repair to make the muscle bigger and stronger. That is why overtraining is extremely counterproductive. When there is too much inflammation, the muscle tissue is not repaired and the organism stops progressing, usually leading to illness or injury.

Nutrition- Too little good sugar, protein and fat and too much of bad sugar, fat and protein.

Let’s not forget all the processed foods/grains and sugars.

Lifestyle- drinking, smoking, too much consumption of sodas and other caffeinated drinks, too much caffeine.

Most if not all the inflammation processes is from the choices that we make. Which is great news means that we have the power to lower the inflammation ourselves without any help from drugs.

Now a couple of ways to lower inflammation the natural way:

Get good quality sleep!

If you do not exercise, start to do so, preferably strength training. If you currently exercise, then take a look at your training regiment and make sure you are not over training.

(Signs of overtraining: lack of energy throughout the day, not enough sleep, training 7 days a week unless you are a professional athlete is way too much, getting ill all the time, not making progress in the gym etc...)

Start making healthy lifestyle choices: cutting down on alcohol consumption, smoking etc… Tackle one lifestyle choice at a time because too much change is a huge stress on the body. Start with adding whole foods back into your diet; such as vegetables, fruits and meat. Increase your intake of good quality fats. Lower the consumption of processed grains and sugars. And learn to deal with life stresses by either meditating, breathing techniques, massages, etc...

What happens when cholesterol levels are lowered to low? Lots of body functions cannot proceed the way they are supposed to, since cholesterol is needed for every cell in the body. There are also numerous cases that show that with a cholesterol level that’s too low, there are more incidences of cancer. So do not be afraid of the yolk in the egg, or red meat, and coconut oil. This food has helped us survive for thousands of years before the chemists decided to make our food "better" by processing everything.

Finally, let’s discuss what to get tested for when getting your blood work done.

Obviously they will look at your total Cholesterol and your LDL and your HDL. If the number is above three hundred, that is a definite indication of severe inflammation in the body and time to make lifestyle changes to fix that. The other thing that will be tested is the triglycerides. That is a great test because if triglycerides are too high, anything above 200, and that number is not the best approximation, that means that you are consuming way too much processed food in your diet and it’s time to start limiting it or taking it out of your diet altogether. High Triglycerides have been shown to increase the risk of heart issues, which is definitely something to look at. And a great test that many physicians neglect to test for is the actual test for inflammation in the body. The test usually used to determine if you have chronic inflammation is a C-reactive protein (CRP) blood test. Your CRP level is used as a marker of inflammation in your arteries.

Generally speaking:

A CRP level less than 1 milligram per liter of blood means you have a low risk for cardiovascular disease; 1 to 3 milligrams means your risk is intermediate; and more than 3 milligrams is high risk. There are a couple of things that can raise this test level, such as being pregnant and birth control pills. This is a great test, but again all it will tell you is whether or not you have huge amount of inflammation in the body. It will not tell you where and what is inflamed. This test needs to be asked for, since most of the time it is not offered unless the physician suspects tissue damage or bacterial infections.

To sum up: When getting tested, take a look at your Triglyceride levels and get the CRP blood test. These will be an indication of the inflammation in your body. When the physician decides to prescribe you a cholesterol lowering drug, remember whether the risk is worth the reward, and whether this drug will help in lowering the inflammation in the body. Begin with making positive lifestyle changes and start lowering the stress in your life, or learn how to deal with the stress.

If you know of anyone who is on cholesterol medication, please share these articles with them:


Mysteries of Cholesterol Part 1 Click Here
Mysteries of Cholesterol Part 2 Click Here


Resources

http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/crp/tab/test

http://bodyecology.com/articles/inflammation_cause_of_disease_how_to_prevent.php

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/08/10/making-sense-of-your-cholesterol-numbers.aspx

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_04/b4068052092994_page_2.htm



Comments or questions contact me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Mysteries Of Cholesterol (Part 2)

Now that we know what cholesterol is from Part One of my cholesterol article, lets discuss why it’s so important and how we should treat it, if at all.


Unlike the popular belief of modern medicine, cholesterol is not the bad guy. As mentioned before, cholesterol is part of every cell. We need it for our survival.

A prime example of how important cholesterol is; breast milk. From the first day that babies are born, they start consuming their mother’s breast milk. That is their sole food source for the first 4-5 months of their life, until they can start eating baby foods. So what is actually in breast milk? Water, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals, and more than half of it is fat. Fat that is loaded with cholesterol. This cholesterol is needed for proper brain development and for all the other cells in the body. As you can see, in the evolutionary process, we as humans have adapted the highest possible way to survive. Everything that is provided in a mother’s breast milk is there in order to make sure that infants grow into a big strong babies or toddlers ready to consume regular food.

Question: Why is cholesterol viewed as the enemy and often lowered with medication?

There are a couple of answers to that question. The first being that it is a great scapegoat for physicians and a great profit making machine for drug companies. Why is it such a profitable market? Because we all produce cholesterol, and since we all have it, it is extremely easy to test for it in our blood and set a "norm" for what the total cholesterol should be, then start lowering it with medication.

Here is a history of normal cholesterol levels and how they were established:

As stated by medical world, the normal cholesterol levels should be lower than 200; With LDL "bad" levels being lower than 100 and HDL "good" being higher than 60. These are the new stats after they changed them in 2004, when the LDL level was 130. This change was voted on by a board or doctors to lower the standard, with 8 out of 9 of those doctors also making money from the drug companies that were making statin cholesterol-lowering drugs. This brings us to our current state: Our war on cholesterol. Let's lower this evil substance until there is nothing left. Now let's see if the cholesterol lowering drugs help in preventing heart attacks.

"The second crucial point is hiding in plain sight in Pfizer's own Lipitor newspaper ad. The dramatic 36% figure has an asterisk. Read the smaller type. It says: "That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor.

The numbers in that sentence mean that for every 100 people in the trial, which lasted 3 1/3 years, three people on placebos and two people on Lipitor had heart attacks. The difference credited to the drug? There was one less heart attack per 100 people. So to spare one person a heart attack, 100 people had to take Lipitor for more than three years. The other 99 got no measurable benefit. Or to put it in terms of a little-known but useful statistic, the number needed to treat (or NNT) for one person to benefit is 100.

Compare that with say, today's standard antibiotic therapy to eradicate ulcer-causing H. pylori stomach bacteria. The NNT is 1.1. Give the drugs to 11 people, and 10 will be cured." One out of 100 people is helped by taking this drug! And the commercial on tv claims that it is 36% effective? Wow that is something.

A great question comes to mind. "Is the risk worth the reward"? In this instance, no it is not.

What is the connection of High Cholesterol and inflammation of the body?
Definition of inflammation - the reaction of living tissue to injury or infection characterized by heat, redness, swelling, and pain.

Chronic levels of Inflammation are now being recognized as one of the leading causes of heart disease. Cholesterol is being blamed for this.

An example that best describes inflammation is when you get a cut. The inflammation process is activated, and that is what helps us heal.

Specifically during inflammation:

-- Your blood vessels constrict to keep you from bleeding to death.

-- Your blood becomes thicker so it can clot.

-- Your immune system sends cells and chemicals to fight viruses, bacteria and other "bad guys" that could infect the area.

-- Cells multiply to repair the damage.


Ultimately, the cut is healed and a protective scar may form over the area.

The image below shows how inflammation is the first and second step of the healing process.

The process of inflammation is activated when our arteries sustain damage, forming scar tissue called plague. The reason why cholesterol is called upon is to repair the damaged cells. Remember that without cholesterol no repairing can be done.

Finally we get to the root of the problem; inflammation. It would be a better idea to lower the inflammation, since that is the cause of high cholesterol, instead of taking medication to lower cholesterol which is causing more inflammation in the body.

In my next article, I will discuss how to lower the inflammation of the body and what to test for when getting blood drawn.

For those who missed Mysteries of Cholesterol (Part 1) CLICK HERE.

Resources.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_04/b4068052092994_page_2.htm

Sally Fallon. Nourishing Traditions

http://www.crestor.com/c/your-arteries/manage-cholesterol.aspx?WT.mc_id=CRTCC13181&source=CRTCC13181&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&umedium=cpc&uadpub=google&utm_campaign=U_Cholesterol&ucampaign=U_Cholesterol&utm_content=Levels/Numbers&ucreative=Levels/Numbers&utm_term=cholesterol%20levels_Phrase&pkw=cholesterol%20levels_Phrase

www.articles.mercola.com


Questions or comments email me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Happy Valentines Day. My Gift to You...

Valentine’s Day: a day of love; of sharing and caring. Well I have some love and some sharing to spread, and a gift to give to all of you. That gift is knowledge. And my dear friends, knowledge is power (if it is applied). After the information I present to you today, I'm sure that you will apply this power. In my search for better health, I have come across a bunch of fun facts on how the food industry, how to put this lightly, does not give a damn about the well being of anyone, as long as they make money. Here is an example of what I'm talking about.


"Another unpublished experiment was carried out in 1960. Researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor were given eighteen laboratory rats. These were divided into three groups: one group received cornflakes and water; a second group was given the cardboard box that the cornflakes came in and water; the control group received rat chow and water. The rats in the control group remained in good health throughout the experiment. The rats eating the box became lethargic and eventually died of malnutrition. The rats receiving the cornflakes and water died before the rats that were eating the box! (The first box rat died the day the last cornflake rat died.) Furthermore, before death, the cornflakes-eating rats developed aberrant behavior, threw fits, bit each other and finally went into convulsions. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves of the spine, all signs of insulin shock. The startling conclusion of this study was that there was more nourishment in the box than in the cornflakes. This experiment was designed as a joke, but the results were far from funny." for the rest of this article Click Here.



For those of you who did not want to read the lengthy article, I will sum it up for you. There were three groups of rats. One group was given cereal, the second the cardboard the cereal came from and the third, rat chow. All three groups were given water as well. The group that received the cereal died the fastest. This basically means that the cardboard has more nutritional value than the cereal that is in the box. BOOM! That's some heavy knowledge being dropped on you. Digest this for a minute. Now you will look twice at the box of Cheerios that claims that it lowers cholesterol. Or is it heart disease? They can claim anything they like on these boxes, and they do.



Here’s more information that some of you may enjoy; most breads, muffins and other processed packaged floury substances that people buy have cellulose added to it. Cellulose is wood chips. So basically we are eating the cardboard that the cereal came from. Here is a great article on Cellulose that was in the Wall Street Journal.
There are tons of others, just type in ‘cellulose in food’ in your favorite search engine and you will get tons of hits.



Knowledge is power. How will you use yours? Share this with your loved ones. Prevent them from eating cardboard.



Comments and questions contact me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Prepare For The Super Bowl

Are you ready for some football? Super Bowl Sunday is almost here! That means junk food, fast food, and all the beer you can handle. Meanwhile, Monday morning, you wake up with a food and alcohol hangover and you don’t even remember the game.

Well I have a couple of ideas to make your Super Bowl experience more enjoyable. You can host it at your house and still serve all your favorite foods, but just make it a healthier version of them.


For your main dish, which is most likely chicken wings, make them yourself instead of buying them fried in God knows what. You can either bake them or grill them, and top it off with the sauce of your choice. Make sure the sauce does not have too many ingredients on the label and that it is not too calorie dense, because that's how calories sneak up on most people.



What kind of super bowl party would it be without chips? Here is a recipe to make your own. Take sweet potatoes or yams and slice them up extremely thin. Coat a baking pan with coconut oil and then place the slices in the pan. Make sure that each yam is making direct contact with the pan. This will take lots of surface area, so it would be better to have more than one pan in the oven, otherwise you will be making many batches. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place the pans in the oven. They should not cook for more than 10 min. If you want a bit more flavor, sprinkle Celtic sea salt on top of them. MAKE SURE TO KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THEM BECAUSE THEY WILL BURN QUICKLY IF YOU DONT TAKE THEM OUT IN TIME. They come out delicious because of the coconut oil. You won't be able to buy anything of that quality and taste at the store.



For the dip, good old guacamole will do. The better and fresher the ingredients, the better the food tastes.



If the weather is nice and you decide to grill, you can grill up some burgers, and use eggplant slices in place of the buns. Slice them up thick enough for you to hold it as a bun, throw them on the grill and enjoy a nice tasty burger. (It really does taste great).



Baby carrots and celery sticks are always a crowd pleaser. As for the dip, good quality humus will do.



For dessert, make a party fruit platter. If you don’t have the time to make one, then you can always buy one.



Now since this is the Super Bowl, I know that there will be drinking involved and the most common beverage consumed is beer. Since I know nothing about beer, I have included a great link to an expert on the subject. She wrote a specific blog for the Super Bowl so that you can enjoy the best tasting beers during the big game. Check out this blog entry “It's Better with Beer”. This blog has lots of beer information and lots of good healthy recipes as well.


If anyone has any other great ideas on what to make for the Super Bowl, please comment below.



Questions or comments email at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Different Levels of Health

Here are some levels of health from the worst to the best. Be truthful with yourself and find out exactly which health category you are in. Once you have the answer, your goal should be to get to a better, healthier level.




Fast food and junk food. Eating out at fast food places or when eating at home, eating meals out of a bag, such as chips, frozen dinners, cookies, everything extremely processed. In this category huge alcohol consumption may be added.



Junk food. This level means that you’ve limited your fast food to a couple times a year. But you still have your junk food at home. Ex: cakes, pies, cookies, candy, chocolate, sodas, store bought juice.



Processed food, but without junk food. This means that the junk food from the previous category is gone, but you are still eating lots of processed foods. Processed foods are any foods that come in a box. For example: cereals, breads, pastas or foods that most people consider carbohydrates. (There is more to carbohydrates than these processed ones, look below for answers.)



Switching off to whole foods. You’re starting to eat mostly whole food. This means eating whole vegetables and fruits, meat and fish. Everything is cooked and prepared at home.



Whole foods Raw. Eating mostly whole foods, but instead of cooking your vegetables, you’re eating them raw. Same goes for the fruit. Raw vegetables have a much higher nutrient content than cooked, making it more nutritious for the body.



Whole foods organic. Same as eating whole foods, but you’re slowly switching to organic.



Whole foods organic raw. You’re eating mostly organic with all of the vegetables and fruits raw. Meat can be raw if you choose.



Some of these categories may overlap. That’s fine. The whole goal is to get as much nutritional value out of your food as possible; well that’s my goal anyway. What is yours? To learn more about why nutrients are important, read Surviving or Thriving.



Any questions contact me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Difference between surviving and thriving.

All living creatures do whatever they can to survive. Lions hunt and kill for survival, not knowing when they will feed again. This goes for many other predators as well, even herbivores, which eat plants in order to survive. The sole intent of all living creatures is to survive, and to do so long enough to reproduce. Come to think of it, this is our basic need as well. Survive and have offspring. But since we are humans and are on top of the food chain, shouldn’t we want more than just the need to just survive and reproduce? Our goal is to survive and to thrive while doing it. That means that we should not be eating processed foods that shorten our life span and that are linked to certain diseases. To top it all off, low sperm counts in males are at an all time high. Now this maybe embarrassing for some people to discuss, but it's a huge problem when you cannot reproduce. Not only are you not thriving you are not even surviving.

So which do you prefer?

To survive (dictionary definition):

1. To remain alive or in existence;
2. To carry on despite hardships or trauma;
3. To remain functional or usable.

We as a society have started failing to meet criteria 1 and 3 of the definition.

To thrive (dictionary definition):

1. To make steady progress; prosper;
2. To grow vigorously; flourish.

Next time you are presented with a choice of working longer hours so that you can buy that fancy car, or picking up fast food because it's more convenient, ask yourself if that is helping you to survive or to thrive?

Start living your life so that you can thrive. Wake up every morning pain free. Have more energy throughout the day. Enjoy physical activity that requires you to move, such as walking, hiking, snowboarding, surfing or any other activity that you choose. Start enjoying life. Make it your priority to thrive in this world.

Contact me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

What should I eat when I don't have the time?

I have had this question asked of me by many people: What should you eat when you are unable to eat for a long period of time because of the nature of your work? Well, it’s time to give you guys the answer. Here is the exact question I recently received. "Here’s a topic that I would find interesting because of my job schedule. I normally don't eat dinner until 9pm because my normal hours are 2-9 during the week, and I am running around teaching classes or talking to customers. However, on Friday, I eat at around 6 because I work 7am on Saturday morning. How can I work a nutrition schedule into a weird schedule?"

I'm going to answer this question specifically, and then give a general answer to the rest of you out there that also have a tough schedule. Since you do not start work until 2 pm, you should have eaten at least 2 meals at home before going in to work. The next question I will ask is whether or not you have time to go to the bathroom. This sounds silly, but certain jobs don't give you enough time to even do that. If you get bathroom breaks, then take a good bar/shake with you to the bathroom and eat it there. I happen to like Larabars. They taste good and use few ingredients. Any other good organic bar would do the trick also. I would keep away from meal replacement bars or protein bars, because they are all processed garbage with tons of sugar. Basically they consist of all calories and have no nutritional benefit. I also mentioned shakes. Shakes can be bought or made by you. The following is the recipe for the shake that I make myself: I use 2-3 raw eggs, raw milk, and banana. That's the basic recipe. If I feel like adding more flavor to it, I add raw nuts and sunflower seeds, organic strawberries and raw honey if I want it sweeter. I look for the best quality ingredients to add to my shake. If you don't want to go through all the trouble of making your own shake, then buy a good quality organic shake. Read the labels to make sure it's beneficial for your body, not just empty calories and sugar. Again, I would keep away from ALL meal replacement shakes or protein shakes.

Basically this all comes down to preparation. Prepare yourself for success, and you will succeed. Eating a meal late at night is not a problem. The key is to make sure that you are eating throughout the day. If you skip all your meals in the beginning of the day, and then have one huge meal at night, your body will start storing fat.

If anyone has any good suggestions regarding the bars or shakes that you use, please comment below.

If anyone has any specific questions that they would like answered, please ask away at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Nutrition Seminar VIDEOS

I finally figured out how to upload my videos...with a little help of course. Watch the videos and try to benefit from everything that I discussed. There are a couple of points that I stressed over and over and over and over again.....That is because they are important.

Those points were:

• Learning to listen to your own body, and start interpreting what it means.
• Power of positive thinking
• Incorporating diet into a lifestyle
• Looking for nutritional value in food versus calories
• Rest, meditation and yoga

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting is currently the new health craze. I read a fantastic Ebook on the subject and I will post the link below so that you guys can check it out. This is a free Ebook, and yet at the same time, it’s worth 100,000 dollars.
Why did I give it such a high price especially since it’s free? Is it that effective?
The reason why I enjoyed this book so much is: A) it’s a quick read. So this is the perfect solution for those of you who don’t like to read, or don’t have the time.
B) It is very easily understood. It uses simple terms and flows so easily that it makes you want to keep reading. And finally, the most important reason: C) The way that everything was recorded was extremely detailed. The author of the research is a scientist, and he uses himself to test out different diet crazes. Talk about self sacrifice for a greater cause. He is extremely unbiased and records everything that he encounters, whether it’s positive or negative.
**His approach to finding and handling a problem was the most fascinating. As he only changed one variable at a given time (usually 2 weeks) and studied how his body reacted to it.** This is extremely important for anyone who is trying to get any results.
Let’s use weight loss as the goal that we are trying to reach. Since most people are so eager to get started, especially if it’s a New Year’s resolution, they tackle it full force. This is great if it works and continues to work but sadly most of the time it does not. What they do is they change their diet (or at least I hope they do), they may start a supplement program, and start exercising. Which is all good and great, these are the basics of getting to your goal. But what happens if, after doing all of that, they don’t get any results. What to do next? They have no idea whether it’s their diet that’s bad, if the supplements they are taking are a total waste of money, or the exercise program is boring, stale and is not producing any results because it is the total opposite of what their body needs. To avoid running into this problem, first and foremost, READ THIS EBOOK. As I mentioned before you will feel like you have found 100,000 dollars. And, most importantly, make sure you always work with a professional that can help you with whatever your goals are.

Enjoy the read. And make sure that you apply the knowledge.

Feel Free to contact me with any topics that you would like discussed at
yuri@absolutefitnj.com

The Sweet Smell of Success.....

So I hosted my second nutritional seminar today.

Besides the fact that it was 65 degrees outside, which is unheard of in January, I had a good turnout of about 40 people. I want to thank everyone who attended the seminar, and hope that you were able to learn something from it. For those of you who were not able to make it, I had Tito video tape the seminar so you can thank him for it (he said tips are greatly appreciated), and I will post the videos as soon as I figure out how to upload them on the web. They should be there in the next few blogs that follow, so stay tuned. For those that came, I highly recommend you watch it again, because I'm sure you will get more information out of it the second time around.

We also had a weight lifting clinic with coach Vlad that followed, and everyone that attended was extremely happy with how their form was improving.

Overall, it was a very good and successful day.

We still have a couple of spots open for the Paleo/ Alpo challenge, so if you did not sign up you still have a chance to do so. I will be keeping everyone posted as to when we will begin. Next week I will coordinate the time with all of you to make sure that it works for all of us.

For those that did not make it to the seminar, and would still like to sign up for the challenge, feel free to contact me.

yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Nutrition seminar

I’m quite excited for Saturday, because I will be teaching my second nutrition seminar.
When I taught my first one over a year ago, I had anticipated being nervous, but to my surprise, I was not nervous at all. I had always hated getting up in front of people and speaking it did not happen on that day, I actually enjoyed it.
One of my best friend’s fathers always told me that if you are quite passionate about something, then all the fear dissipates. That was when I realized that this lifestyle of health, fitness, happiness, and vitality is for me. Now why did it take me so long to host another seminar? All of my reasons turned out to be just excuses. Every one of us has fears. Those fears are rationalized to us by our own excuses. Well its 2012, and my excuses and my fears are being subdued by a greater need. That is the need to share my knowledge and to help more people. This revelation was made to me by one of my friends, Sonia, who also happens to be my client. Thank you for that.

Even though I have not hosted a seminar in a year, I am still a year wiser. I have acquired another years worth of knowledge, as well as how to relay it to people so that it’s more easily understood.

This seminar will open your eyes, ears, and maybe even hearts to a better lifestyle. I will be discussing how to reach your goals and also how to make yourself grow as an individual in everyday life. I would like to invite anyone and everyone who is interested in nutrition, health and fitness, to come and join me on January 7th. Click here to get more details.

ATTENTION: as a special bonus we will have an Olympic Weightlifting coach running a free clinic right after the seminar, so bring your work out gear and enjoy the class.

Feel Free to contact me with any topics that you would like discussed at
yuri@absolutefitnj.com

WE ARE AT WAR

During these harsh times, it seems as though any news channel we turn on, we are being exposed to images of war. This is not the war in Iraq or in Pakistan; it’s the one in our own back yard. We are raging a war against obesity, diabetes, cancer and many other countless diseases, but we are losing. How is it that we are able to launch a missile from Washington and hit a target in Iraq but we cannot figure out the cure for cancer?
There are millions and billions of dollars being raised for an elusive cure, but we do not seem to be any closer to finding it than we were 10 years ago. It’s astonishing that millions, if not billions of dollars are spent on the treatment of cancer and yet again the individuals’ chances of survival and quality of life are not guaranteed. Many families are affected by this foreign invader and the only weapons that we are given to fight with are surgery, where we gut the bastard, chemotherapy, where the foreign invader and the host are poisoned by chemicals, and radiation therapy, where you literally nuke yourself. To me, this is unacceptable! How can all that money be placed in research and treatment, and give us a single solution which consists of nuking our body with radiation and chemical warfare.
It seems to me that the only cure for cancer is to evade it all together. But in these modern times, it seems that it is more and more difficult to do so. A couple of strategies that may be useful in dodging this disease are: to eat correct foods that meet your biochemical needs, eating organic non processed foods which will help in keeping the body’s nutrition high and unnecessary chemicals and pesticides low, and finally, drinking plenty of water is key in making sure that your body’s immune system is at an all time high. Also plenty of the right type of exercise or movement.

For any more ideas of what foods are acceptable, email me at yuri@newredefinedwellness.com. To best learn what foods are meant for your body, work with a professional to figure out your biochemical needs.

Touch of Reality

It has come to my attention that there are hundreds, if not thousands of diets out there. There are millions of cook books, health magazines and workout DVD’s sold, yet somehow we still manage to be getting sicker and more overweight than ever before. Since so many products are on the market, many people get confused about what to follow and they begin to jump from using one product to the next without getting any results. The 3 diets I'm going to discuss are the Weight Watchers, the Nutri-System and the starvation diet.

Let’s go into detail about these diets and see whether or not they work.
Weight Watchers claims to help many people by doing lots of tedious work with their counting and calculating points.
Nutri -System is very alluring because it provides all the food, which is made specifically for the dieter and you won’t have to worry about spending the time to cook, simply heat it and eat it. The meals are prepackaged, precooked and all you need to do is pay the fee, pop the food in the microwave and get fit. This is extremely convenient especially in peoples’ busy lives, where it is difficult to find time to prepare meals for oneself.
Starvation diet, an oldie but a goodie. Keep cutting back on the calories until you lose enough weight so that you are able to fit in that dress or that suit for the weekend. Even though I did not particularly see any books written on starving yourself, it seems as though everyone knows about it and many do it. I must stress one major point: ‘losing weight does not necessarily mean you are losing fat’.
All these diets seem different but in fact they are all very similar. They all count calories whether it is in a form of points or actual calories. Definition of a calorie is a "unit equal to the kilocalorie, used to express the heat output of an organism and the fuel or energy value of food." Basically, it is a unit of energy. So why are we calculating units of energy? We are not robots, we do not need energy or batteries, but we do need nutrients. The same nutrients as those you find in live foods. Live food is something that is raw, organic, plant or fresh meat that has not been processed in any way shape or form. Live food gives life. That throws Nutri-System right out of the window since it’s all processed and packaged.
As mentioned earlier we as a country are becoming more and more overweight. Most of those overweight people are starving. How can an overweight person be starving? Well let us go back to the calorie system. Most people just check the label and look at the calories, protein, fats and carbohydrates. So we know they get plenty of calories throughout the day otherwise they would die. But their body is not satisfied with only calories, it wants and needs nutrients. So it starts craving more food, hoping that with the calories there will be a reward of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, which never arrive or are too minuscule to help the body. So what happens is that we keep eating and getting calories and gaining weight. That’s a simple version of it all. And that is how the whole calorie theory came about. That if you take in more calories than you burn, you will gain weight and vice verse.
So instead of counting the number of calories you are taking in, start focusing on eating live food that gives your body lots of nutrients. Eat until your body is satisfied and eventually your own body will regulate itself to where it needs to be.

This is an extremely over simplified article just to open peoples’ eyes to how they should be eating. If interested in receiving more information about the food that is nutrient rich and ones that aren't email at yuri@newredefinedwellness.com. BE WELL.