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

I Go On Vacation 12 Times A DAY...

How often does an average American go on vacation per year? One week? Two weeks? Maybe a month, if you’re lucky. How would you like to go on vacation multiple times a day? This is not some fast scheme marketing program, this is for real. Watch this 2 MINUTE VIDEO. If you don't have 2 minutes then you can fast forward to the 1 min and 30 second mark.

Now I know that is not the vacation you were thinking of, but this vacation may be even better for you than most vacations you take now. It does not require any packing, traveling, money expenditure or anything else that comes along with going on vacation. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking going on vacation, I'm just saying there is now a better way for you to do it all the time. Mental vacations are a must, especially if you have a stressful job. And I know we all have stressful jobs at one point or another. This vacation will help us cope with those stresses. One of my favorite vacations is a 2-3 day outdoor camping trip where I unplug from the world. I turn off my phone, throw it in the back of the tent, read a book and relax. Gathering wood for the fire, catching fish so that we have food to eat, and preparing food over a real fire also helps me relax. I go to sleep when it gets dark and I wake up when it gets light. This recharges me mentally so I can get back to the real world and tackle all the things I need to get done. EVERYONE needs their own daily mental vacation. Come up with a great mental vacation and comment below to give other readers some great ideas.



P.S. this mental vacation can be used to help you relax before going to sleep.

Contact me with any questions 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

Distractions And Excuses

We all have things that we must do daily that sometimes we are not so eager to do. That something for me is chores. Today I had to vacuum and mop the floors in my house, a task that should have taken about an hour. I managed to prolong this grueling ordeal, taking 2 to 2.5 hours to finish it. It took me so long to complete this task because I got distracted way too easily. In the time that I was doing my chores I checked my emails 3 times, and answered some of them. Then I checked my texts and phone calls about 4 times. I found any and every excuse to distract myself from the task at hand. I’d rather answer my emails then finish the chores. I found distraction everywhere. It was way too easy.

At the end of last year I had said that I would increase my blogging to at least once a week, and so far I have more then delivered. I used to find it difficult to come up with my blog topics and it was hard to find the time to sit down and write them. I have been doing it for about a month now, and it's become part of my pattern to sit down and get my thoughts down on paper. Ever since then, the topics are coming to me more easily. The only thing that changed from then until now is the fact that I apply all of my energy to writing my blog while I'm writing it. That keeps me focused, and prevents me from becoming easily distracted. Now I enjoy doing something that not even a month ago I found so difficult.

How do you minimize the distractions and excuses that you come up with? No matter what task you are doing; whether it's cooking, shopping, working, training, your nutrition, even chores, put 100 % of your energy into whatever your task is. If you do this for 2 weeks, it will become part of your daily pattern. My dad always says "if you are going to do something, fully commit to it and do it right" (this was spoken to me in Russian but carried the same message). This advice comes easy to us for the things that we like to do, but extremely difficult when we need to get out of our comfort zone and do the things that we don’t like to do.

Get out of your comfort zone more often. That is the only time that we grow as human beings.


Contact me with any questions at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

F*ck Calories

How easily are you offended by bad language? How interested are you in learning the proper way to view food and how to eat? The reason I ask these questions is because I recently read the EBook called Fuck Calories. The author uses a bit of profanity, but I think that it portrays the message more than taking away from it.

This EBook is a great read, and should only take you an hour or so to read. I’m a slow reader because I take my time reading and digesting everything that I read, taking in as much information as possible. Also, English is my fourth language, so reading and writing takes me longer than most. What does that have to do with anything? The point that I'm trying to make is that if an immigrant like me can read this EBook in one hour, then all of you at home should have no problem polishing off this easy to read guide book. No Excuses! Even if you read 5 minutes each night before you go to sleep, you will be done by the end of the week. Take the time to learn, take the time to better yourself. Those 5 minutes spent reading can be more important than anything else you might be doing at that time.

Follow the link; give them your email address, and bam! Download and learn. Once you’ve downloaded the EBook you can unsubscribe from any future emails from them if you choose to do so.

Enjoy the read. I’m looking forward to hearing your opinions on this EBook.
http://www.stumptuous.com/fuck-calories

Contact me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

SOPA and PIPA Fail!

I would like to take a second to thank the Internet. Do you know how lucky you all are to have this wonderful invention at the tip of your fingers? Think about this, not even 20 years ago, if you needed to find information on something, you went to your local library. Now anything you need is on the web, all you have to do is type what you’re looking for into a search engine. Books can be downloaded right to your computer or delivered straight to your door. That way of life was threatened recently by the SOPA and the PIPA. I just want to say thank you to all of you that fought to make sure that this information remains free.

But just like anything else, when something good happens, there is always the bad that comes along with it. Since the internet is so readily available to everyone, everyone has an opinion. Now, that's not necessarily bad, but then we are bombarded with a ton of information and it's extremely difficult for us to figure out which is a reliable source and which is not.

So it is my job to sift through all the material that’s out there and provide you with the best sources. But don't just take my word for it. Do your own research. Question everything and everyone. Form your own opinion.

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

What Is Your Excuse?

My grandmother is 86 years old. She still goes out every morning or afternoon for at least a 20 minute walk and soaks up the sun rays if it's sunny out.

Many NEW studies show that if you walk for 20- 30 min a day 3 times a week, your cardiovascular system improves, and the likely- hood of developing other diseases decreases as well.
The reason why I have the word NEW capitalized is that it’s not a new study at all. This information has been around for ages. When you exercise more, you become healthier. This is especially important for the elderly. Walking is a low impact exercise, especially if done outside, and it can recharge the body the mind and the soul. (If you do not know what I'm talking about, take a nice peaceful walk on the beach, in the park, in a forest, or in the mountains. Wherever you think you would enjoy it the most. You will see how at peace you are afterwards). My grandmother does not know about all these new studies. She goes for a walk because she knows that she feels better when she does.

Watch this short 10 min video to see one of the scientific studies. This is beautifully illustrated and simply explained.


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