I love the Health section of the New York Times. It has a great selection of articles on a variety of topics. This week, for example, there were stories about how coffee may be linked to lower dementia risk, the versatility of cooking with lentils (including a recipe for minestrone), and the campaign to lower the amount of sodium America eats being waged by the commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. And with my new iPhone, I can read all these stories while driving my car

However, the story that most intrigued me this week was one about how long it really takes to see changes in your body as a result of engaging in an exercise program. Excerpts from the article are below.

Carl Foster, an exercise physiologist at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, was amused by ads for a popular piece of exercise equipment. Before-and-after photos showed pudgy men and women turned into athletes with ripped bodies of steel. And it all happened after just 12 weeks of exercising for 30 minutes three times a week. Then there was the popular book, with its own before-and-after photos, promoting a program that would totally change your body in six weeks with three 20-minute exercise sessions a week.

There are many examples of people who took up exercise and markedly changed their appearance. But how long does it take? And how much time and effort are required? Six weeks sounded crazy to Dr. Foster.

“We said: ‘Wait a minute. You can’t change yourself that much,’ ” Dr. Foster said. So he and his colleagues decided to experiment. Suppose they recruited sedentary people for a six-week exercise program. Would objective observers notice any changes in their bodies?

Results were not surprising. Over all, the subjects’ ratings barely changed, if at all, after their exercise program. And neither did objective measures, like weight or percentage of body fat, or waist size or the size of the bicep or thigh.

Exercise physiologists approach the whole new year, new you, total body transformation mania with a jaundiced eye. Yes, they said, people can change the way they look. But not overnight.

“I think it’s pretty clear,” said William Kraemer, a kinesiology professor at the University of Connecticut. Often the promises are just marketing, he said. “A lot of times when you are dealing with health clubs, they are trying to get new members who have made New Year’s resolutions.”

“To make a change in how you look, you are talking about a significant period of training,” Dr. Kraemer said. “In our studies it takes six months to a year.” And, he added, that is with regular strength-training workouts, using the appropriate weights and with a carefully designed individualized program. “That is what the reality is,” he said. (I could not have said it better myself. JB)

And genetic differences among individuals mean some people respond much better to exercise than others, said Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, an exercise researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

People who did change their bodies say six months is a bare minimum to see real change.

Jim Lisowski, 45, the owner and chief executive of SciTec, a research and development company in Montgomery, N.J., said he had let himself slip out of shape, going from 189 pounds to 225 pounds. He is 5-foot-10 1/2. Then his wife bought a joint membership at a gym within walking distance of his office. At first, he went sporadically, but he decided to get serious after about three years.

That was the end of February 2005. By the start of 2006, Mr. Lisowski, who goes to one of my gyms and whose company employs one of my best friends, was a changed man. He weighed 184 pounds and had a muscular, utterly transformed body. He did it with a routine he continues to this day – working out five or six days a week with more than an hour of hard cardio, first on an elliptical cross-trainer and then a rowing machine followed by lifting weights for about an hour.

“My approach was to get fit,” Mr. Lisowski said. “I knew I would lose weight.” He attributes part of his success to his attitude. “You can go to a gym and spend time there and not make changes,” he said. “You’ve got to break a sweat, you have to increase the weights. You’ve got to challenge yourself.”

Then there’s Charles Reilly, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and a marathon runner who took a 10-year hiatus from the sport and ballooned from 159 pounds to 282. “It came on gradually, but it came on,” Mr. Reilly said of the weight.

In April 2005, Mr. Reilly decided to start running again. His first time out he ran for half a mile, but then had to stop and walk. But he kept trying. A month later, he could run three miles without stopping. After three or four months, he says, he could run for five miles. By the end of 2006, he ran 10 miles. In the meantime, he also changed his diet. “My goal was to lose 100 pounds,” Mr. Reilly said. He did it, hitting his goal on Feb. 3, 2007, in a little over 21 months. Reilly never believed those ads saying you can transform yourself almost overnight. “It’s not really possible,” he said.

I was also fascinated by the comments people posted in response to this article. Here are two of my favorites:

“I’m 61 and have been a regular exerciser for over 30 years. The brutal reality, as was posted early on in this thread is that it’s 70% food (maybe 80%). If you workout and then eat what you want, you’re doomed to maintain your current weight. The ONLY way to do this is with some kind of progressively strenuous exercise whereby you push yourself to a higher lever of effort and moderate, healthy eating habits. I see people come to my gym and leave day after day without breaking a sweat, who then rationalize three beers and a pizza as something they earned. And do I have this right? The guy in the article did an hour of aerobics and an hour of weights every day? That’s not an exercise plan. That’s a part time job.”

“… on September 30, I joined a 12-week transformation contest (late, so I only had 10.5 weeks), that incorporated a really healthy diet (limiting processed foods) with both weight training and high intensity interval training. I worked out 3 days per week for 30-40 minutes of weight training and 20 minutes of interval training. By the end of my 10.5 weeks, I was down 2 clothing sizes, and my body fat had dramatically changed, dropping 5% (a change of about 25% from the previous level). I had also lost 7% of my body weight. My personal experience, and those of the other people in the contest (my transformation wasn’t even one of those selected as finalists) tells me that with the right program and personal commitment, it is possible to make significant changes over a 3 month period.”

So the bottom line is that you can’t change your body overnight, but with proper nutrition (ask us about our Vitabot program) and a well-designed exercise program, it is possible to see some positive changes after a few months. However, even if you achieve the changes you are working towards, it still requires a life-time commitment to eating right and exercising to maintain that “new you”.

To your health and happiness.

P.S. The Vitabot nutrition program is a big hit! Our trainers have been showing their clients how to use the Vitabot nutrition program to effectively manage their nutrition needs, and the clients have responded quite favorably to this new service. If you have any questions about this program, please be sure to ask your trainer. Here’s to better eating!

P.P.S. I want to thank all of you who took the time to visit our new web site and offer such positive feedback. If you have not had the chance, please take a few minutes to watch the brief video at www.ftmainline.com. You can then enter your name and email to gain full access to the video testimonials of these clients as well as information about our programs and services. Be sure to read Chris’ blog, to see the challenge he has set for himself for the new year. It has created quite a buzz around the studio!

This blog finds me three weeks into the program. Not much has changed except for the fact I feel like I am on the brink of over-training. I preach to clients the virtue of patience when starting a workout program, but I can see how it becomes frustrating. Many times, new clients report some serious weight loss after the initial honeymoon period(first 3 weeks or so) of their program. Shortly thereafter, this honeymoon period comes to an abrupt end, and gives way to the beloved plateau stage where it becomes more difficult to stimulate weight loss. The goal of our program design is to avoid this stage completely. Strength and cardiovascular improvement can hit a similar plateau to that of weight loss. The number one way to bust through a weight loss plateau is to increase frequency of workouts(2 times a week to 3) or increase amount and intensity of cardiovascular activity. (Don’t hesitate to pick your trainer’s brain about this. Many times there is a disproportion between goals and number of workouts/week).

As I said before, I feel like I am on the brink of over-training(My knees are starting to bother me), which in turn is really driving a wooden stake into the heart of my energy and eagerness to work out. Everyone goes through this after the initial thrill wears off. What separates the successful from the unsuccessful is their willingness to stick with it and persevere despite unfavorable circumstances. Everyone goes through it, I’m in it right now. Taking an unscheduled day off, or just blowing off a workout doesn’t cross my mind. If I ever did my entire mental state is thrown for a loop. Our goal is to get our clients to that point. The point where an individual is on the other side of the inertia fence I spoke about in the first blog. Not seeing immediate or drastic results shouldn’t drive you to quit, it should piss you off enough to work harder.(Sorry had to be blunt about it).

In the middle of last week, the last thing in the world I felt like doing was working out. My body was tired, my usual aches were screaming, and my performance was downright crappy. At that point, I contemplated taking a week off to get myself back together. Different studies indicate that after a period of intense training one should allow a week for full recuperation and muscle growth. The problem I have is I’ve been working out straight for months and just started my new program. Way to think this one through Chris. Fact of the matter is; I am probably overdue for a little break, but I will wait until March 1st as planned, and deal with it. The show must go on.

On top of all this fun, I am having trouble with the diet. Like I said before, my diet was never bad, but amping it up for this takes a lot of work. It’s a complete pain in the ass to be 100% honest. I don’t have a lot of free time, so getting to the store, cooking, and prepping food for the following day is driving me to drink.(just kidding, remember we outlawed drinking). I can see why people choose to eat three meals a day, as it makes everything more simple. I eat probably around 8 times a day. Sounds like fun right? Not really. A few of those meals are just fruit and/or veggies, but regardless it still is such a pain to always make sure you have enough food and the right stuff. This is really where the rubber meets the road. You cannot waiver with your diet. Yes, it would be easy for me to not pack all my food and just go to WaWa, but that isn’t what this commitment entails. I’m not saying you can’t find healthy options at WaWa, but for me to have peace of mind my diet needs to be consistent and premeditated. Imagine standing behind me in Wawa as I ask the deli worker to measure my meat, etc. The extra effort put into food planning and resistance to the easy road is the difference between success stories and failures.

So where are we right now?? What do I have going….
1.) Intense working out, with little rest, and coping with minor aches and pains
2.) Strict Diet. Tons of effort required to balance out every day’s intake
3.) Zero fun
4.) ZERO FUN

Why am I doing this again? Because it’s fun:)

I hope you had a chance to catch some of the inauguration ceremonies yesterday; it was wonderful seeing all the ex-Presidents and their wives as well as the millions of people who braved the cold weather to witness the historic event.

I found Barack’s speech inspiring yet grounded in the reality of the difficult situations we face. These are traits we want in our trainers as well – the ability to inspire you to be your best, but being realistic about your current situation and telling you some things you may not want to hear. However, a recent study by the Consumer Reports National Research Center reports that having such support plays a key role in the success of individuals looking to lose weight. (Please be sure to read the P.S. at the end of this newsletter for information about our new and improved web site!)

The February 2009 issue of Consumer Reports has a special section titled “Dieting on a budget, Plus the secrets of thin people, based on our survey of 21,000 readers.” The Research Center asked subscribers to Consumer Reports about their lifetime weight history and their eating, dieting, and exercising habits. Below are some of the results they found.

People who have never become overweight aren’t sitting in recliners with a bowl of corn chips in their laps. In the group of always-slim respondents, a mere 3 percent reported that they never exercised and that they ate whatever they pleased. The eating and exercise habits of the vast majority of the always-slim group look surprisingly like those of people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off.

Both groups eat healthful foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and eschew excessive dietary fat; practice portion control; and exercise vigorously and regularly. The only advantage the always-slim have over the successful dieters is that those habits seem to come a bit more naturally to them.

An encouraging note: More than half of the successful losers reported shedding the weight themselves, without aid of a commercial diet program, a medical treatment, a book, or diet pills. That confirms what was found in their last large diet survey, in 2002, in which 83 percent of “superlosers” – people who’d lost at least 10 percent of their starting weight and kept it off for five years or more – had used the same approach.

6 secrets of the slim for your diet plan

Through statistical analyses, the researchers were able to identify six key behaviors that correlated the most strongly with having a healthy body mass index (BMI). By following the behaviors, you can, quite literally, live like a thin person.

1. Watch portions
2. Limit fat
3. Eat fruits and vegetables
4. Choose whole grains over refined
5. Eat at home
6. Exercise, exercise, exercise – including the benefits of strength training

You can read more about each of these 6 habits by clicking here.

Other important factors identified in the research for successful weight management were the following:

- setting realistic goals
- not getting discouraged
- asking for support
- getting up and moving

In closing, I would like to paraphrase a couple of quotes from President Obama’s inaugural speech that I believe can be applied to our health and fitness needs:

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this – they will be met.”

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking ourselves.”

“All this we can do. All this we will do.”

To your health and happiness.

P.S. Thank you for reading this far! We would like to make you aware of our newly designed web site at ftmainline.com When you arrive at this page, you can click on the photos to view a one-minute video of some of our clients. When you enter your name and email you will gain access to the full video testimonials of these clients as well as information about our programs and services. In addition, Chris has started a blog where he will share his thoughts about the health and fitness journey he has committed to this year. We’d love to hear what you think about the new site, so if you get us a chance, send an email to jamesborden@fitnesstogether.com with your feedback.

Here’s the start up energy! I’m excited to get this underway, and see where it takes me. It’s going to be a challenge since I enjoyed the holidays and had a great time New Years Eve. And we’re off January 2nd, 2009…..

Good Heavens! I am giving all the FUN up for 2 months. Man, my life is going to be boring

The good news is that I roped in one of my buddies to go along with this(I can be persuasive). Having a buddy system for something like this can’t hurt. I can’t foresee myself wanting to cheat or needing motivation, but misery loves company. Maybe subconsciously it was just one less person asking me to go out on weekends. We won’t be training together because are abilities are different(he’s brutally strong and I’m in better cardiovascular shape), but we’ll be following the same progression.

The 300 Workout. January 2nd, 2009. I have mixed emotions about today. I am content with my time (20:32), BUT I really don’t want to do this workout again for several weeks, and I have to do it every 2 weeks. I always tell people that the sign of a great workout is that feeling of nausea that develops mid-workout then lingers with you a while after you are done. Well, we got there. It’s pretty clear you have to be a little off in the mind to take pleasure in something like this. Don’t get me wrong I don’t look for exercise induced nausea every time I work out, however I’m not upset when it occurs. It’s a sign you’ve pushed yourself beyond your fitness level. Way beyond. Now listen, I don’t want everyone to get nauseous, but you do want to push yourself to break through and make improvements. Studies have shown that exercise releases endorphins, which are responsible for that sense of well-being and analgesia post-workout(Runner’s High). When you go too hard you may produce an excess of these endorphins(which are associated with nausea and vomiting). However, the research on this is inconclusive at this time. Exercise Induced Nausea can also occur if you aren’t properly nourished prior to a workout, you ingested too much caffeine or ephedra, or you didn’t warm up properly. None of the above, except over-exertion will be responsible for my EIN. Like I said, you have to be a little sick in the head. I laid on the ground for a few minutes, thought it was funny, and was content knowing the level of work I did. Half-assed workouts won’t get you anywhere.

The subsequent workouts took place Saturday and Sunday. My weekend was boring as hell. Boring… as… hell… 57 more days of this. YIKES. My workouts went well. I had some juice Saturday to finish “Fight Gone Bad” a CROSSFIT workout appropriately named, and Sunday was less intense cardiovascularly, but required heavy lifting. Any questions about “Fight Gone Bad” ask Dan, he is the king of that workout. At some point I will produce a sheet with all my workouts for those that are curious.

Toward the end of the week I found myself struggling with fatigue. My muscles didn’t recover as I would have liked, which means I need to refine my diet. The only supplement I am taking is Fish oil because I do not get enough Omega 3′s in my diet, and there has to be a proper balance of Omega 6′s and 3′s. Fish Oil has many benefits. The one that stands out the most is it’s positive effects on the heart. As far as the diet, you always walk a fine line between getting a substantial amount of calories and gaining weight. People, including myself, have become so cognizant of gaining weight that they often slight themselves in getting enough on a daily basis. This behavior prevents weight loss, and, in my case, necessary muscle recovery and health. I’ve discussed this time and time again, your body is a machine and will adapt to too few calories by STORING…… FAT. So while you are trying to burn something off your body is holding onto it for dear life. Good luck. Just in case you are wondering, you are going to lose that battle. So it’s very important to eat and eat the right things. Bottomline is change will occur with hard work and frequency. Working out twice a week isn’t going to build Rome anytime soon. Eating properly piggybacks on hard work. It’s 1:30 pm right now. I’ve eaten 4 meals already. My target is about 2800 calories a day. As I move along this process I will keep you posted on fluctuations with my weight and body fat.

Week 1 in the books. The first weekend went great, but I wasn’t too encouraged by the middle of the week workouts. I usually perform better on weekends because of added rest and less stressors around so I’m not too worried. Next week, I will evaluate my progress with another 300, and some measurements. Good Luck and Stay the Course!!

Inertia is the property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force. This isn’t a Physics lesson, I hated that class in college. Let’s just say the laws of inertia apply to our lives emotionally, intellectually, and physically.  It is the consistent bad habits or laziness we have the most trouble permanently changing. For me, like most people I can list every single one of my bad habits in 40 seconds, but would need some time to list all of my good habits. If I know what bad habits are standing in my way, why don’t I just change them? Inertia.

Obviously, the focus of this blog is going to be on the physical conditioning. So here’s the plan; take the first 59 days to overcome my own personal inertia, and document it. Everyone says it takes 21 days to break a habit, so I’ll do 59. Why? Because 21 days is nothing. I have to be very clear and concise about my goals. I’ve been talking for a long time about doing a Triathlon, so I am going to try and do 3 this summer. One in June, July, and August. I also want to be able to dunk a basketball again. This just goes to show there is no such thing as a stupid goal when your talking about your health or fitness. Sit there for a second, ask yourself what you want(strictly on a health and fitness level). Then ask yourself why don’t you have it. The answer is the same for everybody from myself to the person who walks in the studio off the street and has never worked out before in their life; Lack of Commitment, Discipline, and Will power. There isn’t a single excuse except a serious injury that is acceptable. I have a tremendous amount of jump start energy, but my follow through is lacking. This will be the true test. I need to overcome this inertia.

My training is going to get amped up, and be more intense(more details will be in upcoming blogs). As many know, I am a huge fan of Crossfit/Turbulence Training, which is an effective fusion of intense strength and cardiovascular activity. I am going to use the 300 workout (http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/the-300-workout-can-you-handle-it) as my measuring stick every two weeks. Typically, two weeks isn’t enough time to see substantial results, but this will keep me on track. (And oh by the way, the workout is a puker so that won’t hurt.) My training schedule is going to be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. One of the biggest issues I am running into is my fading basketball career. I usually play twice a week, and more often then not I find myself training in the morning and playing at night, which makes it more difficult for my body to recover. After college, I soon began to find that days where I didn’t have some kind of muscle soreness, or kink here and there were few and far between. That’s just part of intense training, and something you just have to deal with.

So my workouts are getting harder but, where’s the REAL sacrifice? It’s in the diet, which, in my opinion, has to be air tight. Monday through Friday my diet is pretty much right in line with what I am trying to do. I have a strong balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, and I never slip. We are releasing a new software (Stay tuned…) to help with dieting, and when I entered my diet into it, I wasn’t too far off from what would be considered balanced. However, after the school bell sounds on Friday afternoon things get a little fuzzy. Saturday night is when the fall of the Roman Empire takes place. I enjoy going out with my friends, but the consequences have become quite glaring. Basically, it’s a vicious cycle and it’s gotten me frustrated to a point where I have enough force to overcome inertia. I usually work Saturday mornings, which is my excuse to my friends not to go out Friday night. Saturday has been the problem. Going out with friends to the bar and staying up late is having detrimental effects on my PROGRESS. Hard to believe right? The sheer thought is aggravating because you work hard all week on your training and diet and then you are back at the starting line on Monday. What’s worse is it’s just one night, you will never find me having anything to drink during the week. One night and I am stuck in a cycle without progress! I know I am not going to get worse, but I also know I am not going to take it to the highest level. That is what I want. People have such a hard time getting results with their training and diet because it’s so hard to make improvements, and so easy to lose it. This isn’t meant to discourage anyone, but to open eyes to the level of commitment needed to enact serious change. Inertia is no joke. I can simply retain my current course, and continue to hover within a certain degree of where I am now, but I don’t want to do that. I want to get better. So I’ve made the choice. A choice that is going to aggravate a lot of my friends(yes, I am the life of the party) and also make my life a lot less social. Not to worry, it’s only for a little while and I’m certain the permanent results will outweigh the 3-4 hours of fun I am forfeiting.

My goal and what I want are always in my mind somewhere. I’ve used the phrase “I want” a lot because it’s important. Your fitness is one of the few areas of life you have complete control over. Just like when somebody walks in the studio and says, “I want to lose weight, I want to tone up, etc” If you want it, you can have it. If you really want it, why let anything get in the way? I use anything to motivate me. Any emotion can fuel the fire and drive me to work harder or avoid slip ups. So my mission is pretty clear; Triathlons, regaining my old form on the basketball court, and also dropping some body composition numbers and building significant strength. We’ll see how it goes…………………………..

In honor of the upcoming inauguration, I wanted to share with you this article that appeared recently in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The story focused on how important working out is to President-elect Obama, examples of his workout routines, and the benefits he gets from placing such a high priority on his health. After reading the article I thought to myself, “If someone as busy as Barack Obama can find the time to work out up to 90 minutes a day, six days per week, then how could I ever say I don’t have the time to exercise?” Perhaps you could ask that same question yourself.

Anyway, here is the article, I hope you find some motivation in it to keep you going or get you started on an exercise program. If you need help getting started, do not hesitate to call or email us.
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He makes time for the court, the weights, the treadmill and the bike.

By Eli Saslow, Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Being elected president forces a man to take inventory of his life, so Barack Obama has trimmed his schedule to the bare essentials.He’s not in the White House yet, but gone are the hours he once spent reading novels, watching television, and obsessing over the daily transactions of Chicago’s sports teams. He eats out only once every few weeks.
But one habit endures: Obama has gone to the gym, for about 90 minutes a day, for dozens of days in a row. He has always treated exercise less as recreation than as requirement, but his devotion has intensified in the last few months.

Between workouts during his Hawaii vacation this last week, he was photographed looking like the paradigm of a new kind of presidential fitness, one geared less toward preventing heart attacks than winning swimsuit competitions. The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.

The more Obama’s life intensifies, friends said, the more he relies on the gym – which is why he might be taking office in the best shape of his life.
The gym is where he releases stress, maintains a routine, and thinks without interruption. He sometimes wears headphones and barricades the outside world.

“He does it every day like clockwork,” said Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama’s closest friends from Chicago. “He doesn’t think of it as something he has to do – it’s his time for himself, a chance for him to reflect. It’s his break.”

To accommodate Obama during the 18-month presidential campaign, aides arranged workouts for him in several dozen states. The staff called gyms a few days before his arrival and persuaded them to close late or open early to oblige the candidate’s schedule. Once, on July 17, Obama visited a gym three times within 16 hours. Other days – often before primary election nights – he flew in half a dozen friends to play a few hours of pickup basketball.

“That’s one of the first things you learn working for him: You better make sure he gets his workout,” said Jim Cauley, who managed Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign. “If there isn’t any time, he’s not going to feel his best that day. . . . You have to make time for him to exercise, at least an hour or so.”

Since the election, Obama’s daily schedule has shown an intense focus. Until he went to Hawaii for the holidays, his routine in Chicago was unchanging: breakfast at home with his family before heading to his downtown transition office, where he puts in as many as 10 hours a day. At night, dinner at his Hyde Park home, and more talking to advisers and reading preparatory documents. On some days, he spent as little as five or 10 minutes outdoors.

But every morning around 7:30, he traveled by motorcade to the gym at Regents Park, a luxury apartment complex where his friend Michael Signator owns a condominium, and where he usually worked out with Reggie Love, a personal aide and a former Duke University basketball player, or with Marvin Nicholson, his travel coordinator.

The members-only gym features a sauna, a whirlpool, and a row of machines against a bay of windows overlooking Lake Michigan. Obama, 47, devotes half his workout to weightlifting and the other half to a cardiovascular rotation that includes a stationary bicycle, elliptical machine and treadmill. Between his warm-up and cool-down, he sometimes moves through a dozen exercises in an hour.

“It’s something he takes seriously, and that’s why he’s in great shape,” said Alexi Giannoulias, a friend of Obama’s and a former professional basketball player.

Even Obama’s closest friends said they marvel at how he has maintained his commitment. He went to Regents Park at 9 a.m. the day after his victory rally in Grant Park, on Thanksgiving Day, and hours before traveling to Washington for his first tour of the White House. On Dec. 19, Obama rushed to the gym before boarding a plane for his 12-day stay in Hawaii. He woke up the next morning on vacation, and went to a gym.

For the small group of reporters tasked with following Obama’s every move, his fitness has become a running joke repeated in the stories they file. They sit at McDonald’s while he exercises in Hawaii. They eat calorie-rich scones while he sweats at Regents Park. One reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, filing his report about one of the gym trips last month, noted: “While
Mr. Obama worked at maintaining his lithe look, your pear-shaped pooler spent quality time at a local coffee shop.”

Obama still suffers from one vice – smoking – although he has worked hard to quit since he started the presidential campaign. He’s down from three or four cigarettes each day to what he terms the occasional “slip.”

When Obama visited the White House in November, he toured the gym with President Bush and talked about exercise, said his wife, Michelle. Bush equipped Air Force One with a stationary bicycle, and he spends weekends biking at Camp David. He has often said that exercise has helped him cope with the pressures of the job.

Several presidents have found creative ways to stay in shape. John Quincy Adams swam in the Potomac. Theodore Roosevelt boxed. Harry S. Truman installed a horseshoe pit. Bill Clinton liked to jog and then head for breakfast at McDonald’s.

Obama, who favors a post-workout snack of a protein bar and organic iced tea, wants to build a full basketball court where he can hold games on the White House grounds, and to maintain his usual routine of exercising at least six days a week.

“It’s always been a priority in his daily routine,” said Christopher Lu, a marathon runner who worked as Obama’s legislative director in the Senate and will be his White House Cabinet secretary. “I think it’s an example of how disciplined he is. It’s one of the things that really keeps him balanced.”
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To your health and happiness.

P.S. We don’t ask our clients to work out 6 days per week for 90 minutes per session. Three 45-minute sessions per week, plus 20-30 minutes of cardio three times per week, will do wonders for your health and fitness levels. Call us at 610.355.0935 or send an email to jamesborden@fitnesstogether.com to find out more about our programs.

I hope that 2009 is off to a great start for you, and that you are still committed to any resolutions you may have made for the New Year.

It should come as no surprise that losing weight is one of the top three resolutions each year, but that a significant majority of people drop this resolution before the end of January. One of the primary reasons for this will be the focus of an upcoming newsletter, but for now, let me just quote Winston Churchill “Never, never, never give up.”

Anyway, what I would like to talk about this week is the Food Pyramid. As you may be aware, the USDA came out with a revised Food Pyramid in 2005, known as MyPyramid, which was meant to replace the original Food Pyramid that was released in 1992. One of the major problems with either of these pyramids was/is the belief among many that the process was unduly influenced by food lobbyists. As a result, many question the recommendations that were issued by the USDA.

In response to these criticisms, faculty at the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health have created what they refer to as “The Healthy Eating Pyramid”. These nutritionists say their revamped food pyramid is based on the latest science and is “unaffected by businesses and organizations with a stake in its messages.” It starts with exercise and encourages adding more plant-based foods and cutting back on “American staples” like red meat, refined grains, potatoes and sugary drinks.

As you might imagine, as a fitness fanatic and a vegan, the Healthy Eating Pyramid is like music to my ears. It is a simple, trustworthy guide to choosing a healthy diet. Its foundation is daily exercise and weight control, since these two related elements strongly influence your chances of staying healthy. The Healthy Eating Pyramid builds from there, showing that you should eat more foods from the bottom part of the pyramid (vegetables, whole grains) and less from the top (red meat, refined grains).

Here are 5 quick tips for following the Healthy Eating Pyramid:

• Start with exercise.A healthy diet is built on a base of regular exercise, which keeps calories in balance and weight in check.
• Focus on food, not grams. The Healthy Eating Pyramid doesn’t worry about specific servings or grams of food, so neither should you. It’s a simple, general guide to how you should eat when you eat.
• Go with plants. Eating a plant-based diet is healthiest. Choose plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats, like olive and canola oil.
• Cut way back on American staples. Red meat, refined grains, potatoes, sugary drinks, and salty snacks are part of American culture, but they’re also really unhealthy. Go for a plant-based diet rich in non-starchy vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. And if you eat meat, fish and poultry are the best choices.
• Take a multivitamin, and maybe have a drink. Taking a multivitamin can be a good nutrition insurance policy. Moderate drinking for many people can have real health benefits, but it’s not for everyone. Those who don’t drink shouldn’t feel that they need to start.

If you would like to read more about The Healthy Eating Pyramid, I urge you to visit their web site, which is most informative. The site offers guidelines on what specific foods fit in well with the Pyramid as well as which ones should be avoided, advice on how to get to your healthy weight, some great recipes, a set of frequently asked questions on nutrition, and a great deal of other useful information. Here is the link: Healthy Eating Pyramid – good reading and good eating!

At FT, we are committed to helping you achieve your health and fitness goals, and nutrition is a key “ingredient” in helping you to achieve those goals. We are quite excited about a new nutritional program that will be available to all of our clients within the next week or so, so keep an eye out for the details. The program has been successfully used at other Fitness Together studios and we look forward to implementing it at our Frazer and Newtown Square locations.

To your health and happiness.