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Fitness Test 2016

January 3, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Happy New Year!!!

Take the test along with Jenn and Peter to track your progress over the first 90 days of the new year.

#TeamJenn • #TeamPetah

Here’s how it works:

Warm up with some mobility and a few, light practice reps of the following exercises.

The 4 Exercises

Barbell Back Squat Choose a weight you think you can do approximately 12-15 reps with and do a set aiming for 20.
Push-ups  You have 60 seconds to do as many push-ups as possible.  Time yourself and go!  You can pike your butt into the air or sag in the middle to rest during the 60 second, BUT you can’t rest your body on the floor.
Deadlifts
Choose a weight you think you can do approximately 12-15 reps with and do a set aiming for 20.
Plank  Plank as long as you can and record your time.

When it comes to the Squats and Deadlifts, once you’ve reached 20 reps with the weight you’ve designated, add 5 or 10 pounds and work your way up to 20 again.  Everytime you make it to 20 reps add a small amount of weight.  Next month we’ll take the test again and see how far you’ve come!

Good Luck!

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Call Me a Liar #1: Lose Weight Fast (Warning!)

November 9, 2015 By Leave a Comment
“Call Me A Liar” #1:  Rapid Fat Loss (Warning!)
Understanding Metabolism.  It’s not exactly what you think it is. 

If you want to lose weight fast, and I mean really fast then you NEED to read this!

Let this serve as a friendly warning to those seeking rapid weight loss.  Please before you decide which path you’ll travel to get health, lose weight, speed up your metabolism or reach any other health and fitness goal take this information I’m about to present to you into consideration before moving forward. 

Everyone refers to weight loss as a means of getting healthy.  IT IS NOT!  Look, I’m not telling you you have to be happy with the fat that you’ve accrued over the years, I’m just saying you’re placing blame in the wrong spot.  It’s confusing because we have been told for decades that in order to be healthy we must maintain a certain body fat percentage or BMI (body mass index).  Even as a country we have declared war on obesity.  We listen to the evening news anchor reporting the new highs the our country is hitting as the sickest, fattest country in the world while displaying clips of crowds of fat Americans from the neck down walking down the sidewalks.  
You know the one’s I’m talking about…
obesity on the street

image source http://bbc.com

Now here’s an interesting statistic.  The based on consumer reviews the US is on of the most health conscious countries in the world.  In 2009 over 75% of americans were more concerned about their health when purchasing foods compared to poles in 2007 and it’s only been growing since.  We’ve also been battling Mexico for the #1 spot for the fattest country in the world.  So how does one of the most health conscious countries in the world maintain a status as one of the sickest, fattest countries in the world?  That answer, in my opinion, is pretty simple… WE’RE DOING IT WRONG! Guys, really… we’re doing it wrong.  We’ve being targeting fat as the enemy for years and it’s not.  Fat is a symptom of metabolic disfunction, like low energy, hair and skin problems, and constipation.  If we just focus on the fat, if we only focus on losing weight as the end-all way of measuring how healthy a person is we degrade the quality of our lives far more than you could ever expect.  Fat is the result of when your day to day bodily functions are being fueled improperly and therefore your metabolism has to literally rescue you from malnourishment and low blood-sugar levels.

What is metabolism?
Your body is a giant ball of energy.  How efficiently your body creates energy on a daily basis is what determines whether you’re benefiting from a fast metabolism or suffering from a slow one.  When most people think of metabolism they think of calories in, calories out or displacement of water, etc.  And when these so-called “fitness professionals” discuss metabolism they do so by describing short and easy ways to boost your metabolism.  For example…

“Drink 20oz of ice cold water first thing in the morning and you’ll boost your metabolism by blah-blah percentage for the next 24 hours!”

“Fasted exercise before eating breakfast can speed up your metabolism by over 30% each day”

“Drink green tea and lemon juice by the bucket!”

These methods can be effective in your efforts to lose weight, but here’s the thing… they are also very effective methods of stressing your body out,  driving your metabolism into the ground, forcing you into the dreaded “yo-yo” pattern, and causing long term health problems.  That’s not how your metabolism works!
In the graphic below (fig 1) you’ll see the two means in which your body makes energy.
The 1st and most efficient way your body makes energy is through what’s called oxidative metabolism. Your body uses glucose (sugar) within the cell, combines it with oxygen and so begins the process of glucose oxidation.  The result of this is energy production and carbon dioxide.  It is this process that allows us organisms to co-exist so well on this planet.  We inhale and utilize oxygen to create energy and exhale carbon dioxide which then plant life consumes and through the process of photosynthesis results in oxygen production.  It’s a nice planetary balance we’re able to maintain.Metabolism graphic
When your body experiences stress (which is described in greater detail in another article in this series) the requirement for energy production increases.  Your body will rapidly burn through glucose in your blood stream causing low blood sugar which the medical community refers to as hypoglycemia.  If your blood sugar gets too low you can pass out, go into shock, and possibly die.  Luckily for us we have a back-up system for this.  Your body can actually break down pieces of itself to create more of the nutrients our cells need to replenish sugars in your blood stream and continue making energy.  Most of us know this, yet we take for granted the reality of this degenerative process if we rely on it for long periods of time.
Let’s talk about this degenerative, yet life saving process.  We call it “gluconeogenesis”.  GLUCO = sugar,  NEO = new, GENESIS = creation.  There is a sea-saw like balancing act your body is able to maintain going back and forth between oxidative metabolism and gluconeogenisis.  The problem lies in how much stress we present to our body on a daily basis by eating the wrong types of foods, not eating enough food, eating foods in the wrong macronutrient (protein, fat, carb) ratio, or just not eating frequently enough throughout the day.  Instead of maintaining a happy balance in your energy production your body has to hormonally regulate your blood-sugar. Here’s the process:
Your blood sugar begins to run low and you begin to make the following hormones:
1. Adrenaline – this hormone references your liver for glycogen (back-up sugars).
2. Cortisol – breaks down tissue in your body like muscle and fat to bring them to the liver which acts like a magic machine turning them into sugar.
  • The following hormones, just to mention a few, are designed to inflame and steal nutrients like vitamins and minerals to keep the energy process going:
    • Estrogen
    • Aldosterone
    • Serotonin
    • Prolactin
3.  Parathyroid Hormone – breaks down bone in order to get calcium out of them.  Calcium is also an important piece in cellular metabolism.
Now call me a liar, BUT… if you look up “effects of prolonged, excess (fill in the blank here with any of the above mentioned hormones)” you won’t find many positive symptoms.  
So here’s the moral of the story. 
The rapid fat loss tips people are being fed by these self proclaimed fitness gurus are forcing you into hypoglycemia resulting in the secretion of a boat load of hormones which break your body down.  You’ll lose weight alright, but at what cost?
Think about it.  Just about any method a person uses to lose weight fast is just a series of different ways to make you drop in blood sugar so their body has to compensate by eating itself.  Drinking ice cold water first thing in the morning before you eat breakfast for instance adds stress on your body by making it work hard to warm up the water in your stomach before you can utilize it.  Then take into consideration that you haven’t eaten anything for the last 6 to 8 hours and you have a situation where you have an increased need for energy production (draw blood to your stomach to warm the water) and a decrease intake of fuel (sugar from foods).  Fasted exercise in the morning achieves the same thing.  Eating low carb achieves the same thing.  Eating a diet high in polyunsaturated fat achieves the same thing.  And people do practice such habits to months and even years in belief that they support a healthy lifestyle.  Over time it stresses your metabolism out so greatly that your body’s response to all the stress is to slow down the speed at which is operates.  This is what we call hypothyroidism, or low metabolism. 
How do you know if this has happened to you?  Well here are a few of the symptoms of a low metabolism:
  • Low body temperature (lower than 97.9 F in the morning and below 98.6 mid-day)
  • Low pulse rate (below 75)
  • Feel cold often.  Cold hands, fee, or nose.
  • Low or dragging energy.  Energy highs and lows.  Mid-day energy crash. Tired, but wired at night.
  • Chronic thirst
  • Urinating often (if you’re peeing more that 4 or 5 times per day, it’s a problem, especially if you’re waking up to pee in the middle of the night)
  • Constipation, bloating, gas, diarrhea (1-3 bowel movements per day is healthy)
  • Sleep is restless, interrupted, feel exhausted when you wake up
  • Low libido, lack sex drive
  • Overwhelming PMS symptoms
  • Infertility
  • Get sick often (suppressed immune system)
  • Never get sick (overactive immune system)
  • Skin problems like eczema, psoriasis, rashes,Hair thinning, falling out, brittle nails, slow growing
  • Anxiety, depression, irritable, sad
  • Gain weight easily
  • Edema, swelling, inflammation issues
  • Difficulty losing weight even with diet and exercise
I don’t know about you, but knowing this makes me mad.  I mean really MAD!  To think that you may have paid someone to teach you how to slowly murder your metabolism… it’s infuriating!  
You’ll only be able to keep this stuff up for so long.  We all know that when we are young our youthful metabolism is very resilient.  What we don’t realize is that our resiliency begins to crap out on us around 25 years old or so; especially if we’re stressing our bodies out from an early age with bad foods, overtraining, lack of sleep, and so on.  
The signs of a healthy and high metabolic rate are:
  • Feel warm all day (not hot)
  • Pulse rate between 75-90 bpm
  • Good energy consistently throughout your day
  • Restful, interrupted Seep
  • Healthy skin, strong nails, shiny hair
  • Healthy sex drive, no PMS, fertile
  • Regular bowel movements
  • Urinating 4 or 5 times per day, not at night
  • Maintain weight with exercising and dieting like crazy
  • Feel calm, happy, relaxed, focused
“So what do I have to know about my IMG_1519metabolism???”
The healthiest way of thinking about metabolism is by asking yourself, “Am I giving my body the right amount of materials, specific to me, that it needs to go through the many processes of metabolism?”  If you’re not, you’re likely on a path of illness, a laundry list medications, and pain problems for the majority of the second half of your life.
Keep this stuff in mind in the following articles.  This is the platform from which we’ll be discussing everything nutritionally.  Whenever we talk about food types, ratios of macronutrients (protein,fat,sugar) or frequency of meals look at it from a perspective of whether or not you’re giving your body the materials it needs to function optimally.  Optimal function may not mean rapid fat loss in the beginning for most people due to the years of damage done to their metabolism so don’t look at it from a weight loss perspective at first.  Depending on the state of your metabolism you may need to do some repair work, but think about it for a second.  What if your were able to have and maintain a youthful, protective metabolism through most of your life?  In a sense just by using food, sleep, and the right amount of exercise you become more effective than your physician at keeping yourself healthy, happy and mobile.    
Main points to take away:
  • 2 Methods of Energy Production:
    • Oxidative Metabolism = efficient/regenerative
    • Glycolysis & Gluconeogenesis = very inefficient/degenerative
  • In the efficient means of making energy your body maintains level blood sugar throughout the day avoiding the overproduction of degenerative (but lifesaving) hormones.
  • Rapid fat loss methods used by trainers far and wide are really just ways of forcing your body into hypoglycemia resulting in loss of tissue to include fat, muscle and even bone density.  THIS IS NOT HEALTHY WEIGHT LOSS!
  • Figure out whether or not you need to repair your metabolism before setting out to lose weight.
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How to Avoid Additives that Wreak Havoc in Your Body

May 4, 2015 By Leave a Comment

3 Questions about additives in foods and how to avoid them.

Eva's interview with Peter for her 5th grade science project on additives in food.

Eva’s interview with Peter for her 5th grade science project on additives in food.

This past week one I was paid a visit by a young lady whose 5th grade science experiment was based on preservatives and additives in foods and what they do to our bodies.  She came in very prepared for her interview with me.   Confidently, she asked me question after question writing my responses word for word in her notebook.  In fact, she had good questions.  Her interview inspired me to write a bit on this topic, because her reaction (and her mother’s reaction) was of genuine shock when they heard what I had to say about preservatives. So he
Question 1:  What are preservatives and what do they do to the foods they’re in?
To understand how preservatives preserve food we must first have a basic understanding of what mold, a preservative’s mortal enemy, actually is.  Mold is a fungus.  It’s a micro-organism which travels in the form of spores through our atmosphere.  Mold decomposes dead organic plant material like wood, leaves, and plants. Mold needs a few things to grow.  A food source, oxygen, water, and a temperature somewhere between 40 and 100 degrees.
Preservatives like polysorbates, nitrites, and sulfites are used to combat mold by making the enzymes mold uses to break down food ineffective. Others come in contact with the mold and have an antimicrobial effect entering the cells of the fungus and wreaking havoc essentially killing it.
Question #2:  What do preservatives to our bodies?Remember, our gut has a variety of bacteria and enzymes in it to break down our food sources.  Foods with a whole lot of preservatives causes stress on our digestive track.  If the food is more difficult to break down and go through enzymatic processes then our absorption of the nutrients in the food is negatively affected.
This can also cause an imbalance in our gut flora resulting in the overgrowth of some bacteria in our gut which then can lead to many other illnesses over time.
Preservatives aren’t the only enemies lurking around in our foods.  Other additives like carrageenan and gums are used as thickening agents to make foods and drinks have a creamer texture making them more palatable. These additives can have highly allergenic reactions in our guts causing all kinds of stress and the stress hormone cascades that go along with it.
Our gut is referred to as the “second brain” quite often in the world of physiology.  It has the largest amount of neurons than any other system in our body, second only to the brain.  Our digestive track has a big job to do in breaking down foods and utilizing the nutrients from them. So think twice when putting something in it that may stress it out!
Question 3:  Then what are some good “on the go” options?
This was a tough question.  At first my answers were “fresh fruit, quality cheese, milk and coffee…”  These were not the answers she was looking for.  What she really wanted to know was where could she go to pick up healthy food on the go.  Unfortunately there aren’t a whole lot of places you can grab quick meals on the go because you don’t really know what they have in their foods or what oils their using to cook the food with, etc.  If you are planning on looking for a healthy restaurant of any kind to grab food on the go there’s something you have to keep in mind.  Depending on the restaurant, their objective is to serve thousands of customers per month, and therefor the have to stock a lot of food.  Business varies week to week, month to month, so in order to save money they use foods with the longest shelf life possible.  It only makes sense from a business standpoint, or at least a numbers standpoint, for restaurants to use foods with preservatives in them.  Keeping that in mind it’s hard to trust that you’re going to be able to buy truly healthy food on the go.  In my opinion you can count on the fact that any restaurant is going to sacrifice health for profit margin.
So what can you do?
1.  Keep it simple.
Fresh fruit, cheese, milk, orange juice, carrots, hard boiled or deviled eggs, maybe a little beef jerky from time to time.  These are the things you can grab on the go that are healthy.  The key is to make sure each time you eat you have sugar (carb), protein, and fat (primarily saturated).  Having all of these nutrients in the meal help to keep your metabolism running properly and your blood-sugar level.
2.  Prepare your meals.
Learning to cook a few basic things that you really like can help tremendously.  I feel like society has brain-washed us to believe we don’t have enough time in the week to take care of ourselves.  Cooking for ourselves is seemingly becoming a thing of the past.  Start by trying to few recipes that are quick, easy and something you’d be willing to pack.  You’ll be amazed at how much time you’ll save and work you’ll be able to get done the next day having all your food prepared!
3.  If you are out at a restaurant there are a few things you can do in order to try to get the healthiest meal preparation as possible.
     –  Ask them to cook your food with butter or coconut oil.  Butter is usually the easier request to fulfill.  If they are using vegetable oil or a spray oil ask them to wipe the grip before cooking your meat on it.  These kinds of oils wreak havoc in our body by damaging our immune system and coating our cells, making it difficult for them to respire.
     – Meat, fruit, veggies, starches like potatoes are ok.
     – Keep away from bread and pastas
     – Make sure the meal has all 3 kinds of nutrients in it; sugar, protein, fat.
If you want more information please visit our website www.fitlifefusion.com and contact us for a free consult.
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Your Future-Self Will Thank You

April 14, 2015 By 1 Comment

Hey!
I just wanted to commend everyone on their hard work I’ve been seeing at the gym. I love seeing people who are consistently food journaling and really focusing on their nutrition. Keep up the hard work!

For those of you that have been following the Ray Peat Diet, good job! A lot of questions might pop up when you are first starting this diet so please feel free to pepper us with questions. The more you educate yourself about your metabolism and how your body functions the faster you will heal from an unhealthy metabolic place to a well functioning one. The results of having a healthy metabolism are:

  1. increased energy,
  2. balanced hormone levels,
  3. living pain-free,
  4. healthy digestion, and
  5. being able to lose weight and actually have it STAY off!

Please take a few minutes and meditate on these questions:

  • How do I want to feel emotionally and look physically years from now (imagine how you would feel accomplishing your goal)?
  • Am I eating in a way that supports a healthy lifestyle?
  • Am I open to learning new ways for getting out of pain and living a healthy life?
Fitness at any age. Taken from National Post Sports.

Fitness at any age. Taken from National Post Sports.

Here’s something that I would like you to try, as it has definitely been helping me. Think about 1 small unhealthy habit you may struggle with and replace it with a healthy one.
For example:

  • Instead of eating 5 Oreos eat 3
  • Instead of drinking that 2nd soda replace it with a glass of orange juice.
  • Instead of sitting and watching the commercials on TV do some jumping jacks or push-ups.

Whatever it is that you choose make it small, and don’t expect perfection. Changing habits can be frustrating but it doesn’t have to be. Start out small and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when you make good choices. Again, do something today that your future self will thank you for

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FitLife Fusion Fights MSA with Chef Kerry Simon

April 14, 2015 By Leave a Comment

FitLife Fusion’s owner Peter Pinto was interviewed this month discussing the progress Celebrity Chef Kerry Simon has made with medicinal marijuana…

kerry simon
Here’s the link: http://www.reviewjournal.com/columns-blogs/doug-elfman/medical-marijuana-works-well-celebrity-chef-kerry-simon

First off just let me say “WE LOVE CHEF KERRY SIMON!!!”

Kerry has been a member here at FitLife here in Las Vegas for almost two years and though it’s been a tough battle against a rare disease, Kerry has been one of the hardest working people we’ve ever had in our studio.   We’re happy to have him as a member in our gym and as a leader in our community raising awareness about MSA.

Chef Kerry Simon and coach Peter Pinto rehabilitating walking patterns

Chef Kerry Simon and coach Peter Pinto working on walking patterns

Multiple Systems Atrophy is considered an aggressive form of Parkinson’s Disease.  It’s a degenerative disease which attacks the nervous system.  In our experience with MSA and Chef Kerry we’ve seen some remarkable things happen when using our neurology-driven approach to training.  With recent discoveries in neuroplasticity, we stay hopeful that one day diseases like MSA will be a thing of the past.  Until then we’ll continue to #FIGHTMSA together with Kerry.  We encourage you go on social media and participate in the fight for MSA by following Chef Kerry Simon and his organization, FightMSA!

For more info about MSA awareness visit:

http://www.msaawareness.org/

 

Keep Moving and join in the fight! #FIGHTMSA

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Enter our Monthly Giveaway!

May 14, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Every month we’re giving away cool stuff to keep you healthy on our Facebook page!  facebook.com/thefitlabs

All you need to do is visit our facebook page and click on the tab labeled “Enter to win”.  “Like”, enter your email address, and SHARE A LOT to increase your chances to win.  At the end of the month we’ll choose the person with the most shares/comments/likes in the contest.

Enter The Fit Labs monthly giveaway contest on our facebook page!

Enter The Fit Labs monthly giveaway contest on our facebook page!

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