Friday, October 30, 2009

JOINED A NEW GYM

Today I joined a new gym - the YMCA.  The YMCA has really come a long way.  This place is affordable and has brand new equipment that fits today's lifestyle.  I've been a member at some pretty Posh gyms including MIDTOWN athletic club and EQUINOX Fitness (although if equinox had a place in Rochester NY I would join in a second).  It all comes down to great customer service - let's face it...gyms are a dime a dozen.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A CHANGE IN THINGS TO DO

Well the outdoor pool is officially closed at my gym.  They don't have an indoor pool so in my case I'll be without swimming for a few months except for my occasional visits to the local YMCA where there is an indoor pool.  I've figured that I need to intake 3000 calories per day to sustain my winter months 2-a-day workouts.  I have been able to get some good photos of the fall foliage.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

WAKING UP EARLY

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.  I've always been an early bird - a person who wakes up at 5am in the morning.  When I'm really motivated I jump out of bed and head to the gym.  Waking up early and going to the gym helps to speed up my metabolism - it goes hand in hand with getting to bed early.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

MY DIET PHILOSOPHY - A SERIES PART V (final episode)


Expending all this energy you need to make sure you're intaking your necessary vitamins and minerals. This is where the juicing comes in as well as taking a multivitamin. I take my multivitamin in powder form and drink it at least 30 minutes before my morning workout. The brand I use for multi-vitamin is "ALL-ONE". Water intake is important because you'll need it to make sure you are hydrated properly for the treadmill and especially the spin class days (I drink gatorade during spin class). I would suggest at most 4 normal sized bottles per day (16 oz).

An easy thing to eliminate is soda. Also try to minimize your dairy intake. Collard greens are a good source of calcium - on par with milk so that why when I juice I add the collard greens. Collard greens are also a good source of magnesium which is essential for a healthy heart. I personally also eat all bran in the morning so my mid morning snack usually ends up being oatmeal.

Another dietary essential that I adopted in 1994 was I cut out cooking with vegetable oil and switched over to extra virgin olive oil.

To help minimize my dairy I switched over to soy milk but if you don't like the taste 1% cows milk would be a good idea.

Just thought of another snack idea - hard shelled nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, etc.)

I think that covers my basic philosophy. Hope it helps and I will remember to look for a good description of some ab excercises for you.

Friday, October 9, 2009

MY DIET PHILOSOPHY - A SERIES PART IV


If you want to tone up then keep the weight slightly lighter than manageable and increase your reps. Do 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps I suggest. Now one of my techniques when I go twice a day is to split an hour workout into two 30 minute sessions (my light week). Another is to split a 2 hour workout into 1 hour sessions (my heavy week).

Time in the steam room or sauna is also great - if you can start at 5 minutes and work up to 15 minutes. After my workout, I spend my time in the steam room contracting my stomach and sometimes doing some yoga moves.

Trying a spin class at least once a week will help as well...you can trade a treadmill day for a spin class day. I personally need music for the treadmill so getting some sort of mp3 player would be helpful for your times on the treadmill.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

MY DIET PHILOSOPHY - A SERIES PART III
Time on the treadmill also is important. I select the interval workout selection but to start I would set your pace at something comfortable. be sure to warm up prior to running on the treadmill as well as start out at a walking pace and then increase it up to a run. Some people go in the steamroom or sauna prior to the workout to warm up as well. To start try 10mins every other day at zero incline and then increase time each week if you can by 5 minutes till you can get it up to 30 minutes - try a pace of 4.5 or 5.0 on the lifetime fitness brand of treadmill. Before your daily workout, warm-up for 5 mins on the treadmill by walking.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

MY DIET PHILOSOPHY - A SERIES PART II


My heavy meal would be at lunchtime and in the am I would have oatmeal or a high fiber cereal like all-bran. I would have an in-between meal in the am and it would either be another oatmeal packet or a nutrigrain bar or granola bar. Same thing for the mid afternoon snack.

Again.. for dinner I would juice a combination of collard greens, spinach, grapefruit, carrots, and blueberries. You dont want to juice too much green leafy vegetables...only enough to fill a glass to a height of a quarter inch from the base of the glass - so in order to do this I always juice the greens first.

if you feel hungry after 9pm - drink water (Evian, aquafina are my choices). alot of times when we feel hunger it is really thirst.

Now in the meantime you want to add an ab workout routine to your workout. I got alot of ideas (enough to fill an hour) from taking an ab clinic class at the gym as well as looking online. But a good tool I use is the BALL. So basically along with leg day, chest day, back day, etc... you need an ab day. I will see if I can find some pics of ab excercises for you.

Friday, October 2, 2009

MY DIET PHILOSOPHY - A SERIES PART 1

OK... to start it is my belief that if you're trying to lose your gut 75% of the battle requires a change in your diet. If you can describe to me what you eat each day for a week maybe I can make some suggestions.

In my case in order to lose my gut I stopped eating past 9pm and I also bought myself a juicer from walmart about 7 years ago. It's a plain jane model but I think the jack lalane model is good enough for what you need.

The thing about juicing is that yes it takes alot of discipline and determination to stick to this diet but if you can do it for 1 month you will see quick results. In my case I started to only have a Juice combination of fruits and vegetables for dinner. Presently I juice a couple times a week but to start I suggest you replace dinner with some juice combination each day for a month.