Game on!

It is that time of the year again… Time to compete to raise money for breast cancer research.

This is the 4th Annual Competition for a Cure honoring Dianna Burke. Check out our video trailer:

Get your teams together and compete for a great cause!

We still need sponsors for the event so please consider taking a bigger role in the event.

Which type of cardio is king? Part 1

I have been in the industry long enough to see trends come and go. People get on the wagon then off. Most of the people I am speaking of are those that are just looking for the next best thing and not sticking to any type of philosophy or methodology. In my programming I get a lot of people that ask me about what the best type or “cardio” is for them but also in general; is it steady state/long distance or interval based high intensity. Although my answer is still the same as it was 5 years ago, it has evolved slightly.

There is clear evidence across the board, whether you are looking for overall health, weight loss or performance, interval training is king. BUT… Just like the hierarchy in a kingdom you have different stages of development before you can purely get into an interval base program.

If you have never worked out before and or have not in over 6 months, start with a longer distance program to get your base established. For example, I have people ride the bike or run for a mile. Over the course of their training I want to see a better time for that 1 mile. The distance stays the same but the intensity gets greater. They are getting their body used to working at a greater pace. This will last up to 4 weeks, each week seeing improvement in time.

After that 4 week period I will start to incorporate some mid distance or time intervals that will help with their transition. This will last about another 4 weeks.

Finally, after about 8 weeks someone is ready for a purely interval based conditioning program. BUT… I will also have them 1-2days a week incorporate a longer distance interval. So it may be 4 days of short high intensity work and 1 day of a 5 mile airdyne bike for time (believe me, this is no cup of tea).

For those of you that are very big into long distance conditioning, let me leave you with this. There was a study done of two groups of people. One group did steady state conditioning only. In other words, they just went for long distance runs at a steady pace and never exceeded any intense threshold. The other group did a pure interval based program of high intensity work followed buy periods of rest. At the end of the study, the first group work over twice as long and burned twice as many calories. Whereas the second group, the interval based group, worked less than half of the time and burned half the calories, BUT they burned 9x more fat then the steady state group. 9x!

How is that possible?

Find out in the next part…

P.S. If you have a child that is going to play sports in college or know someone that will I am holding a 1-day prep clinic on Saturday March 17th at 930am for all college bound athletes. If you or someone you know is interested please email me to reserve your spot.

Are you getting enough of this in your diet?

When I am giving nutritional coaching advice some of my clients ask me for concrete numbers of exactly how much protein, carbohydrates and fats should they be shooting for on a daily basis. Although each person differs with their exact number the percentages still hold true for each population. If I had to put the above three in order of importance; it would go protein, fat then carbohydrates. We will focus on protein today. Let’s take a look at some different populations and see what is needed in protein consumption based on age and activity level. There are plenty of other factors but these are the 2 biggest.

Children from birth through elementary school:
These kids, even babies are in such a developmental stage and high activity level that they need close to 100% of their body weight in grams of protein a day. Infants have that easily taken care of through the purest source of protein on the planet; mother’s breast milk. Toddlers and school age kids need to get that from foods. Since they are eating similar foods as their parents they should be getting close to that percentage purely based on the fact they weight less. For example, if your child has a piece of chicken breast, which is about 20g of protein, and they weight 40-50lbs it is easy to make up the 100%. This age is very active which means they need it for development and recovery.

Middle school through high school:
This becomes a wide range because it is completely dependant on activity level. There are some kids that play a sport all year round and are constantly doing activities. Then, there are kids that don’t do much but play video games. In this field it ranges from 50-100%. Those that are inactive need at least 50 and those very active still need the 100%. I was talking with some parents the other day about protein supplements for their kids that are in high school and was it safe and necessary. My response was that it was safe and should be taken after a practice or game. It will give the kids immediate replenishment of vital nutrients that will help in their recovery and rebuilding.

After high school:
Again, depending on your activity level if you are playing sports throughout college or beyond or if you are not will depend on your intake. The same percentages hold true as above for all adults. There are some exceptions but for the most part it is a general guideline.

So take a look at your daily nutrition and see how close you come to your right percentage.

P.S. REMEMBER THIS SATURDAY AT 930AM IS OUR CHARITY WORKOUT TO RAISE MONEY FOR LAMB’S FARM!

If you were given a magic pill would you take it?

I was reflecting on my studies from the nutritional certification since I have started a new Transformation Contest leading up to spring break.

I saw a staggering figure that I can’t believe I forgot. Before I reveal it to you I have some questions for you:

If you had a disease that could be cured or managed with a pill, would you take it? Diabetes? Cancer? Heart disease? MS?

Let me take it further…

If you were given a pill that would give you the body and health you desired, would you take it?

Think of the power you would have. Think of how good you would look and feel. Think of the relief that you would no longer feel the need to struggle to get and feel fit.

So here is the figure… Since the magic pill for health and fitness doesn’t exist I can only go off other scientific things like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. People only take their medication 55% of the time! 55%! That is basically saying that half the time they don’t care if they get better or not. Taking a pill is less than 20 seconds yet it is only successfully done 55% of the time.

If we translate that to health and fitness it is no wonder that people struggle and fail miserably at getting healthy and fit. There is no magic pill. There is work involved. There is accountability. There is thinking. There is peer pressure. Let’s just agree that there are a ton of things to juggle.

So how can you do it successfully and be better than the 55%?

Pick one thing at a time and do it until you master it. In other words do it until it becomes a unconscious action. For example, if exercise was something you wanted to focus on, then we could have a goal of 5 hours of exercise a week. The exercise can vary but 5 hours total is the goal. Then we map it out on a weekly schedule for when it works best and what days work best. Then take action and do it. Start with day 1 and accomplish that, then move to day 2, and so on. Much easier said then done for most especially since some do nothing. The point is if I gave you 5 things or even 2 things to do most would fail after day 1. I would venture to say that most of all of us can accomplish 1 thing with some consistency.

Once you have completed one then move to the next and the next and the next. It is not an over night thing, BUT, if you look at the big picture and your objective is to lose weight, 1 pound a week for a year is 52 pounds! Even if it was 1/2 pound a week, that’s 26 pounds in a year!

P.S. If you want to take a step in the right exercise direction and help a great cause mark your calendars for next Saturday the 18th, at 930am for the charity workout supporting Lamb’s Farm.

2 Major Announcements!

I know all of you stayed up for the past 2 nights waiting for the 2 big announcements that I told you about earlier in the week. If you lost sleep, quickly read through this and then take a quick power nap.

1. I want to reveal the winners of the transformation contest. Before I do, I want to shed a quick background. This contest started October 31st and went until January 1st. Yes, do the thinking… That is through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, which I think is the toughest stretch of the year to take care of yourself. Everyone that participated won in someway. For some it was the education, for others it was the accountability through the time of the year. Remember, the winner gets a 3 month nutritional coaching membership and $100 credit at the gym, which values around $500.

Male winner- Steve Grunow lost 17lbs and 4 total inches off his body. He changed some simple things in his diet and saw massive results. To be honest, way more than we both thought. He has more energy and his strength actually went up in addition.

Female winner- Jade Leasure lost 4lbs and 4 total inches of her body. Plus, she even hurt herself during the 8-weeks and still managed to stay on track which is why you see a high loss in the inches.

The contest was for 8 weeks and although weight loss is a component for both winners it was also about a lifestyle change.

Here is the second announcement… Dun dun dun…

2. I am hosting another transformation contest starting next week. That’s right, next week! This will get you ready for spring break and will be the last time I will offer it until the end of the year. These contests will only happen 2x/year and are open to everyone. If you want to get yourself into spring break form, now is the time to start. It is also a big priority to look good for the Easter bunny too!

Return this email to sign up right away since spots are limited!

Are you at a high risk of cancer?

Are we just destined to get diseases based on DNA?

In other words, from the time we are born have we already been programmed to be more susceptible to one disease over another?

Let me take it one step further, can we prevent cancer just like we can prevent Type II diabetes?

I am going to make the argument YES. Now this yes comes with some caveats. There are some things that are built into our DNA that do make us more susceptible to certain things. I am speaking of things that we have control over and can prevent. I am making the argument that we can prevent cancer in each and every one of us.

Let’s look at this from 2 angles: the nutrition we put into our body and the fitness we put our body through.

If I had to pick one thing that you can do today to make a positive impact on your body’s nutrition, it would be to eliminate or severely reduce the amount of sugar you consume. This is sugar in any form other than whole fruit. Sugar is the silent killer for everyone. The North American diet is riddled with it and I mean it is in everything from obvious things like ice cream and cookies to crackers, cereal, bread and even pickles!

Watch your labels of the food you are purchasing. Make sure you are getting the food you are paying for and there is no sugar added. For the foods that do have sugar make sure they are 5 grams of sugar or less per serving. Without getting too scientific on you, the additional sugar affects your hormones and insulin levels which sets of other chemical reactions. Cancer cells feed off of glucose (sugar) like it is candy. The more we eat sugar the more we are feeding the cancer cells. By reducing the amount of sugar, you will see other noticeable changes in your health. Your skin, energy, and waistline will all see positive effects. In addition it will reduce the amount of natural inflammation we have in our cells making it easier to get around, move and feel mobile, which leads us into exercise…

Exercise is one of the easiest ways to impact your risk levels. When you exercise multiple chemical reactions occur in our body. Many of them affect our insulin levels and liver. Basically our sugar and metabolism. The more we exercise the greater our metabolism will be which leads to greater fat burn which leads to lower risk levels.

Now, I have simplified this down drastically into the important nuggets. I invite you to take these nuggets and use them in your life.

P.S.- there will be 2 big announcements this week so watch out for details!

$11,950

Last year BeWell Fitness and all its clients and friends help to raise over $11,950 for charity!

That is truly are astounding number and I am very grateful to all that have helping in that process. 2012 will be nothing short of amazing in itself for charities. We have some great things lined up and I wanted to preview the first half of the year.

First up will be Lamb’s Farm in February. For those of you not familiar with Lamb’s Farm it is a organization and community that helps mentally challenged people of all ages. They have some wonderful people that live in their community and the more we can help them live their best life the better. They have huge hearts and this will hopefully help them.

A couple months later is our HUGE event… Competition for a Cure. This year will be just as big as last and we expect to have national support from Susan G. Koman and Yoplait Yogurt. We started this event to honor those that have lost, battling or surviving breast cancer. This is very near and dear to our family and hope to see you all their competing.

In May will be Young Life. Young Life is a national organization that has local chapters set in place to give teens an outlet to grow in a safe way. They are religious based but not tied to any one denomination. They promote a healthy lifestyle and a place that fun can be had without the typical teen drama like peer pressure, hazing, etc. because let’s be honest, being a teenager is not the easiest thing in the world to be. They face a number of social, physical and mental challenges. This will be to help fund their events and outings.

Again, thank you for the help in raising almost $12,000 and I hope to see or hear from you in support for 2012.

Jump Start Your Program in 2012

So its a new year and so many of us want to get off to a clean start with new resolutions and changes. We want to get out of bed running and hit the day with force… And then day 2 comes and we may re-think our plans. We have great intentions and we want things to be better. So where and how do we start?

First, and foremost start small. Slowly ramp up the changes so you get some victories under your belt. Feel good about the small things you are doing better. It could be drinking more water. It could be getting up before the alarm rings. It could be sticking with that extra rep to finish strong. Whatever it is and however big or small make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Second, take a look at the exercise routines you are currently doing and see if there is room to make some changes. Its kind of a rhetorical statement because there is always room for change and improvement. If you are currently not doing anything, do something. Simple as that. It could be something as simple as going to an exercise class to see what that’s like. If you are more advanced then change the reps and sets that you have in your program. Change the speed or tempo of the lift. If you are used to a slow tempo of lifting then speed it up. If you are used to sets and reps then try training by time. Get as many reps in as you can in 20 seconds for example.

Third, track as much as you can. This means food, exercise, days in a row of getting up before the alarm, etc. Get a journal and track it. This way you can look back after a week, a month a quarter and see what progress you have made.

Lastly, don’t be afraid or shy to ask for help or direction. If you don’t know or are not sure, ask! Hopefully you have come to trust the information I give you and would feel comfortable asking me a question. If not, then find a professional that you do trust and ask them.

P.S.- remember I have new year deals going on for new and inactive past clients as well as my nutritional coaching program. If you want to take advantage of them please respond to ben@bewellfitness.com NOW since there are not many spots open for each opportunity.

Last Minute Deal

Starting January 1st, I am offering a MASSIVE opportunity to you.

If you have never been in a program here I am opening a select number of spots for $1.

That’s right, it will be $1 for the first month of training when you commit to either a 3 or 12 month agreement in the fit club group sessions.

You get unlimited group training each month with the programs changing on a monthly basis to maximize performance and results.

For those of you that have been in a program here before, I still want to give you the opportunity to come back. Your first month will be $49.

So you can experience the programs here for either $1 or $49.

If you want to take advantage of this opportunity please return the email and we can set it up for you. But you better act NOW because I am only allowing a small number of these out.

Make sure you take advantage

Make sure you take advantage of the Early Bird special for the Precision Nutrition Coaching Program.

Check out the link below for all the details:

http://bewellfitness.wordpress.com/precision-nutritional-coaching/

The special is up on January 1st. This is a great way to get started in the new year:

http://bewellfitness.wordpress.com/precision-nutritional-coaching/