Trying to find the time to workout when you have kids can be quite challenging at times. Trying to find a babysitter or a gym that has a play are the kids like can be challenging at times, but have you tried working out with your kids before? No, I mean really working out with your kids. Small children can actually be used as resistance as you do a workout. Maren Sederquist, a Medical Exercise Specialist in California, developed a program that uses your kids to workout with. And while, this will only work when the kids are young, for a busy mom, it might be just what you need. Here’s a video Serderquist developed that demonstrates how to exercise with your kids.
We all know that soft drinks are bad for us, but does one coke really hurt us?
I found this on blisstree and it was a fascinating article.
Have you ever wondered why Coke comes with a smile? It’s because it gets you high. They took the cocaine out almost a hundred years ago. You know why? It was redundant.
In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to urinate.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, urinated away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend a conference by Dr. Caroline Leaf. She specializes in studying the brain and the chemistry behind it. She explained how the various chemicals interact in the brain, the role stress plays on the brain, what exercise does for the brain, and how nutrition affects memory. I like to think that I have a fair amount of knowledge about a variety of subjects, but I learned a lot of things I had never heard before. So because I learned some new things that I thought were pretty fascinating, I decided that I would share it with all of you.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had several people asking me about the nervous system and the function of the brain lately. Many people fear Alzheimer’s Disease and our deteriorating memory, and I was really looking for something to help them. Are there some things you can do to improve your brain function? Well, last Saturday gave me the answers I had been looking for. And while I promised in the last newsletter that I wouldn’t focus on nutrition for a while, there are some things that will creep back in with this particular topic. But I find that absolutely fascinating that the brain can be affected by what you eat.
In relation to the way we age, brain function is very important. Personally, I feel it’s very important to understand what we are dealing with, and then go into more and more specifics over time.
Are you Right or Left Brained?
It’s a common miconception to hear that we are either Right Brained (creative) or Left Brained (academic). However, recent research has shown this isn’t exactly true. What actually happens is the left side of the brain looks at the details first, and the right side looks at the big picture first. Dr. Leaf gave an example of this in her seminar and in her books:
Take the equation 2 X 2 = 4
The left side of the brain sees this as 2 X 2 = 4 and the right side of the brain sees this formula as 4 = 2 groups of 2. Dr. Leaf’s research concludes, “When you put these two together, you have deep understanding. If you don’t, you will only have partial understanding.”
For instance, play the video below. Which way is she turning?
Are you sure? Maybe you should look again.
The Corpus Callosum is the structure in the brain the connects the two together and allows us to make sense of things.
I know what you are thinking. Jason, stop with all of the information….I can only hold so much in my head. Actually, research is now showing we only use 0.001 percent of our brain. If we were to use our brain to the full capactiy, we could hold 3 millions years worth of data. “So when you feel like you cannot fit another thing into your brain, it’s not because it’s full; it’s because you have built your memory poorly”, says Leaf. It’s a shame we can’t defrag our brain like we can a computer. But maybe you can.
A lot of what I’m going to talk about in the newsletter in the coming weeks deal with brain function, memory, how you can improve it, and the things that you are doing that is destroying it. Interestingly, a lot of it has to do with Dendrites, seen in the video below.
Interesting Fact: “Up to 35 to 75 percent of information can be lost if the memory is incorrectly built.” Let’s see if we can improve your memory over the next few weeks.
If you are impatient and want more information, you can visit Dr. Leaf’s website and order the products I have as well. (I have all of them, but you can pick the one’s that you feel will be the most beneficial for you.)
Alzheimer’s Disease is a disease that many people are afraid of. I did some research and found a video about Alzheimer’s. If you want to leran more about this disease, I hope this will explain it a little more.
I recently had someone ask me recently about proper body proportions. I did some searching and found a couple of things that might be helpful if you are looking to find the right proportions of various bodyparts to one another.
Disclaimer: This is not for everyone. Considering we live in a world that is obsessed with having a perfect body, some of this information might be a little too much for you. If you can enjoy it and appreciate it for what it is, without being down on yourself because you don’t fit the “perfection” mold, read on…..
Why is this important?
That really depends on the individual. For most people, this isn’t important at all, for others, it will be just what you are looking for.
Who is this not for?
If you just want to be healthy, this might not be important to you at all. It’s so much more important to move than to look a particular way. Also, if you have a tendency to go a little overboard at times with your health and fitness, don’t let this cause another obsession for you.
Who is this for?
I would say this is for those who want to look their best. They are in great shape and want to take things to a new level.
How does this work?
It’s all based on math. Just like pyramids or Leonarda Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man, there are proper proportions to create balance and some would say beauty. People have applied this idealogy to bone structure, the face, and muscles.
What are some examples?
Leonardo described the proportions in this way:
a palm is the width of four fingers
a foot is the width of four palms (i.e., 12 inches)
a cubit is the width of six palms
a pace is four cubits
a man’s height is four cubits (and thus 24 palms)
the length of a man’s outspread arms is equal to his height
the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth of a man’s height
the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is one-eighth of a man’s height
the distance from the bottom of the neck to the hairline is one-sixth of a man’s height
the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of a man’s height
the distance from the middle of the chest to the top of the head is a quarter of a man’s height
the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is one-fourth of a man’s height
the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eighth of a man’s height
the length of the hand is one-tenth of a man’s height
the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose is one-third of the length of the head
the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is one-third of the length of the face
the length of the ear is one-third of the length of the face
the length of a man’s foot is one-sixth of his height
There is a lot of research out there based off Fibonacci, the Golden Ratio, Divine Proportion, etc…
I have seen the proper body proportions of muscles for males and females and it was based off pyramids, ratios, and a host of other things. So if I find them, I’ll be sure to update this post. But there are general rules for proper proportions for the human body. One was done by the US Army in the 1970’s. The link will take you to a calculator that will determine the proper proportions for the human body. Bodybuilders have also come up with their own ratios for competing.
In regards to the every day, normal fitness enthusiast, the only person I know who dug deeply into this subject was Dr. Bruce Nadler. He was a plastic surgeon that changed his career into personal training. He wrote a book entitled The Nip Tuck Workout. I have not read the book, so I don’t know how deep he dives into the subject in it. I do have a DVD of a seminar of him speaking one time. I’ll pull it out one day and see if he gets deeper into the subject. If anyone has an interest in learning more about this subject, let me know and I will share what I find with you.
Diabetes is a very real thing that a lot of people in the Katy area are dealing with. If left untreated, Diabates can lead to more health problems, potentially amputation, and eventually premature death. Diabetes is preventable with proper diet and exercise in most cases. However, if you feel that you might have diabetes, please visit with your physician. Half of the people who have diabetes don’t even know it. Avoiding finding out the answer if you have it or not, is not the solution. You must treat your diabetes if you want to keep healthy. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Get checked today. Below is a short video about how diabetes works in the body.
I know it’s kind of odd for me to talk about soft drinks on my blog, but I found some new news about pure sugar soft drinks to be interesting. It turns out there are a few new pure sugar soft drinks coming to the market soon. If you aren’t sure why pure sugar soft drinks are a big deal, it’s because they don’t contain high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. While I still won’t buy pure sugar soft drinks for myself, I would suggest these soft drinks over the regular soft drinks, anyday. There are two major companies
Pepsi is one of the companies coming out with new Pure Sugar Soft Drinks
moving this way right now. Two of the pure sugar soft drinks comes from Pepsi and Mountain Dew. These are produced by the same company. The pure sugar soft drinks they are producing will start coming out around April, but will only be available for a limited time. They are called Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback.
Snapple is the other group coming out with a new pure sugar version of their drink. While it’s not exaclty a soft drink, it does get away from the high fructose corn syrup.
I’m not sure if this is going to be a new trend or a temporary fad, but I think that will be determined by the sales of the pure sugar soft drinks that hit the market.
I love supporting local Katy Auctions. I always support local elementary schools by donating personal training sessions to help them raise money for anything they want to raise money for. Katy is my home, my community, and I want to do everything I can to support it. But lately, I’m wondering if others in the Katy area that donate to auctions really understand the point of it. I’ve had two bad experiences lately with auctions. I won’t name any names or businesses, but if you are a business that donates to auctions consider a few things.
1) Don’t donate something that you give away for free on a normal basis. If you list on your website that you are giving away a certain item to everyone that gives you their e-mail address, no one should pay money to get it an auction. Because the moment they see that they paid for something they could have had for free, you lost the respect of that individual.
2) If someone wins your auction item, they shouldn’t have to pay for something to use it. My wife recently won something. We paid for it, outbid everyone else, and was ready to redeem it, only to find out there was a catch. It turns out that she had to purchase something at the store in order to get the raffle item. Now I can understand if she had to purchase something in order to use it on what she won, but this wasn’t the case. She just had to buy something, completely unrelated to what she won, just so she could be put in their computer system to redeem the prize. This makes no sense to me, but if someone can explain it to me, please do.
With all that being said, I am donating to some local auctions. I donated personal training sessions to the Katy Chamber Gala recently, I am donating to Bonnie Holland Elementary, and I have another auction I will be donating to soon as well. I almost always donate several personal training sessions to these auctions. (By the way, if you have a fundraiser that you would like a donation for, let me know. I’d be glad to help.) I never discount my personal training sesssions, but sometimes you can get a great deal on a block of personal training sessions with me when you go to one of the auctions. So bid on them when you see them, and let’s raise some money for some good causes. I look forward to helping the winners of the auctions get in great shape, and I can assure you, you will get your money’s worth.
Personally, I love chinese food. I had the opportunity to have a lot of friends from different cultures (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese), and they introduced me to a lot of different types of food. Some of the foods I loved, and some I will never eat again. Some of the things I ate I still don’t know what it was, and there were other times I wish I hadn’t found out what it was that I ate. But I loved the variety and I really love the opportunity to use chopsticks. I guess because it took so long for me to learn how to use them properly; I like to show off what I learned. =) I have to admit though, I rarely eat many of the foods that I love anymore. The reason is that I won’t eat them unless I can find a way to eat them in a healthy way. I can make my own sticky rice and stirfry, but I admittedly rarely do it. Well, I recently ran across an article from Men’s Health on how to eat healthy Chinese food. If you love Chinese food as much as I do, it might just be worth a look.
Being active is so important, but finding things that won’t hurt when we do them can be challenging at times. However, someone put together the Top 7 Baby Boomer Activites. They are:
Ballroom Dancing
Swimming
Kayaking
Hiking
Tennis
Bicycling
Cardio Video Games
It’s a great list of activties. I’ll add some more detailed Katy information in the near future on some places you can do these activities. Stay tuned.
Knowing about the prescription drugs you are taking is so important.
Do you know what to do if you miss a dose? Do you know what other drugs might interact with your current prescription drugs? Could certain herbs you are taking cause problems as well?
“DrugDigest is a noncommercial, evidence-based, consumer health and drug information site dedicated to empowering consumers to make informed choices about drugs and treatment options.”
Take a few minutes to learn more about the prescription drugs you are taking.
Personally, I think it’s imperative that people take care of their health. But finding the time can seem impossible for business owners. Take a look at a competition that lists that Fittest Executives and learn from them. Many people use their business as an excuse as to why they can’t be in shape. Other business owners use fitness to make sure they do their job to the best of their abilities. Which one describes you?
I’ll be on the radio between 1 and 2 Central today to talk about how busy business owners can be healthy and successful. Listen Live
Being healthy and in shape as a business owner can increase your energy, improve your attitude, decrease stress, decrease you number of sick days, and inspire your employees to live a healthy lifestyle. You have the power to control the atmosphere of your workplace and the health of your employees. At a time when everyone is cutting cost, how can you improve your bottom line?
Studies show that having employees who are overweight or obese, cost the company significantly over a one year period of time.
You have the power to change that though. By setting a good example and incorporating a fitness program into your business, you will see a return on your money greater than the amount you invest into it. The amount of return you can expect to make could be anywhere from 2:1 to 4:1, depending on the program. So if you think fitness is a waste of time, or it’s not worth the money you put into it, you might want to reconsider.
This week’s personal trainer fitness tip is about working the triceps. Many people have a hard time getting toned arms. In this video, I am going to demonstrate how to properly do a tricep pressdown on a machine and a tricep kickback with a dumbbell. I plan to give more personal training fitness tips in the near future. Let me know what you think about this video after watching it.
We (in the U.S.) have sugar consumption more than 170 pounds per person per year! Did you know that average American gets more than 400 calories a day only from sugar?!
I found a great article online about how to read labels and find hidden sugar in your food. If you are interested in finding ways to reduce the amount of sugar in your food, you should read it.
What does the overindulgence of sugar from soft drinks do for you?
1. It weakens the immune system by producing hormones
2. It can change mineral balance in bodily fluids
3. It can effect anxiety, hyperactivity, depression, and thinking abilities.
4. It can increase the number of triglycerides in the blood.
5. Cause Drowsiness and Fatigue
6. Reduces good HDL cholesterol and increases LDL cholesterol (Bad)
7. It can cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
8. Increase the risk of bacterial infection (i.e. diarrhea)
9. It has bad effects on the kidneys
10. Increases risk of cancer, especially pancreatic cancer
11. Can vastly increase the risk of Coronary Heart Disease
12. Lead to several vitamin deficiency
13. Can increase fasting glucose (aka increase risk of diabetes)
14. Promote Dental Problems.
15. Can cause Acidic Stomach
16. Increase the Adrenaline in blood (the stress hormone)
17. Can speed up aging
18. Increase total cholesterol
19. Majorly contributes to obesity
20. Can increase the risk of ulcers disease such as Crohn and Ulcerate Colitis
21. Contributes to Osteoporosis
22. Causes decrease in the production of insulin
23. Can cause cardiovascular disease
24. Increase systolic blood pressure
25. Increase food allergies
26. Can increase the amounts of radicals in the bloodstream
27. Cause Toxemia
28. Over stresses the pancreas resulting in problems resulting the pancreas
29. The build-up of plaque in the arteries
30. Increase the size of the liver
31. Increase the amount of fat in liver
32. Can cause hormonal imbalances
33. Can cause hypertension (high blood pressure)
34. Causes headaches
35. Increase the risk of blood clots and strokes
36. Bacterial infections in the colon
Jason Hodge is a 13 year veteran personal trainer living in Katy, TX. He was chosen as the 2007 and 2008 Katy Personal Trainer of the Year, has numerous articles published in magazines, 7 personal training certifications, and a degree in Kinsiology.Read More About Me
Jason Hodge is a 13 year veteran personal trainer living in Katy, TX. He was chosen as the 2007 and 2008 Katy Personal Trainer of the Year, has numerous articles published in magazines, 7 personal training certifications, and a degree in Kinsiology.
