The Truth About Habits....

If you missed it last week, we started an important series on Habits- Why we create them, and what we can do about it.  Dr. Eric Cobb, of Z Health, has put together an excellent video series talking about this subject.  If you missed last week's video, click on the link below: 

The Truth About Habits: Why We Start Them and How We Can Change Them

This week, Dr. Cobb goes back into the why to help us understand the reasoning behind our habits.  We create habits as a means of survival- both healthy and unhealthy.  This video contains great, easy to understand information on the why, and some great tips to help us get started onsuccessfully starting or changing whatever habits we want to work on. 

Click here to watch this video:

The Huge Reason Your Brain Wants to Sabotage Your Health

Creating Stories that Change Lives...

 

Many of our members, graciously, allowed us to film them during their workouts and also were kind enough to go on camera and give some pretty powerful testimonials.  There were 3 videos made in total.  Some of you may have seen some of them.   In case you missed them, we're going to show them to you this week.  Thank you for your time and generosity! 

P.S.  Some of you have expressed difficulty explaining our gym and what we do here to your friends and family.  These videos are great tools that will allow them to see what Fitness Evolved has to offer, and what you've been up to!

Video 1.

Fitness Evolved Intro Video

Video 2.

Fitness Evolved Testimonials

Video 3.

Success Stories - Heather

Thank you, again, to all who participated.  An especially huge thank you to Raymond Daigle of Daigle Digital for your incredible work in helping us tell our story.  If you need any sort of video work, we highly recommend Raymond!  

The Hormone Conundrum...

Understanding Hormone Changes in Women and their Impact on Health and Fitness Part 2.

Last week we gave a lesser-known and broader definition of stress.  We also talked about what happens during menopause, and 2 of the main hormones at play in this event:  Progesterone and Estrogen.  We talked about how the ratio of progesterone (our most protective hormone) and estrogen (a stress hormone and catalyst of many other stress hormones) shifts to a more estrogen-dominant profile and the possible health consequences of this shift (increased risk for breast and other cancers, heart disease, insulin resistance/diabetes, and other "lifestyle diseases").

This week, we're going to look a little more into the "Stress Hormone Cascade" that happens in response to any type of stress, and is elevated in menopausal women do to the aforementioned hormonal shift.  So, here are a few more definitions:

Cortisol:  hormone that is released by the adrenal glands in response to any stress such as exercise, lack of sleep, low blood sugar, etc.  Cortisol breaks down proteins from muscles and organs (usually the thymus gland- our immune system control- first!) into amino acids to be converted into glucose (sugar) by the liver for energy to overcome the current stress.

Adrenaline:  hormone released by the adrenal glands to signal the liver to release additional glucose (liver glycogen) for fuel.  Adrenaline also mobilizes free fatty acids ("triglycerides") for fuel when glycogen stores have been depleted.  Symptoms of adrenaline release are cold extremites and nose compared to the rest of the body.

Serotonin:  an adaptive stress hormone released by the small intestine in response to stress, and is triggered by increased estrogen.  One of serotonin's main functions is smooth muscle contraction (ie. gut motility in response to stress, blood vessels- high blood pressure, etc) as well as activating the pituitary gland, otherwise known as "stress central."  

Triiodothyronine (T3 or Thyroid Hormone):  T3 is the "active" form of thyroid hormone.  T3 is created in the liver by an enzymatic conversion of T4 (glucose (sugar) + selenium + enzymes).  T3 elevates the metabolism, and is combined with Vitamin A and LDL cholesterol in the liver to create Pregnenolone- our most youthful, "mother hormone" that gets converted into all of our anti-stress hormones such as Progesterone, Testosterone, and DHEA.  These, along with T3 are what the body needs more of and less of the others for optimal health, high metabolism, and function.

As we said earlier, this response is continually happening in us all of the time.  It is intensified as the hormone profile shifts.  Menopause is one of the "symptoms" of chronic exposure to these stress hormones without the proper balance of the youthful, protective hormones.  The result being low metabolism, inefficient use of glucose and oxygen for energy production, inflammation, a suppressed immune system, and in our context, decreased ability to adapt to exercise.

All of these stress hormones are catalysts of each other.  If we're breaking down our own proteins (muscle tissue) and mobilizing fat stores for energy because our "chemistry" is not optimal, building muscle and gaining strength becomes very difficult unless you eat enough protein to counteract this response (150+ grams/day!), which is still less than ideal.  Muscle is what burns fat while we're resting, so if you want to be lean, you want to build muscle!

As we saw last week, this response (menopause) doesn't always happen.  So how can we delay it or minimize it?  Last week we started with assessing first:  See just where your metabolic state is which will give you an idea of how your thyroid and hormone system are performing.  Body temperature and heart rate were our 2 measures.  (98.6-99.5 degrees, and 85-95 beats per minute are optimal)  Today, we've learned of another marker:  coldness of the extremities and nose.

If your thyroid/metabolism are "underperforming" and you've found evidence of increased stress hormones, we now have some clues as to how we can improve them.  If you look at the definitions above, and those from last week, we see that "stress" is a requirement of extra energy- the ultimate effect of these hormones is the creation of glucose for energy at the expense of our own tissues.  Energy is produced in our cells by breaking down glucose (sugar) and oxygen.  In the absence of these, metabolism is slowed and the stress hormone response is increased to make up for it.  

Supplementation can be helpful to give your body the proper tools and building blocks to create these protective hormones, and is sometimes necessary.  However, how you fuel your body with the food you eat is still the most important factor in creating the hormone profile you desire.  The foundation of the correct nutrients from diet has to be in place before you can apply the mortar of supplements.  **Notice we used the word "correct" instead of "healthy."  There are thousands of foods that are considered healthy and unhealthy.  What makes them "healthy?" Your body's response to those foods!  Everyone responds to foods a little differently.  So finding the right types and right amounts foryour body is the key making a food healthy or not.

Our first "magic remedy":  Orange Juice (not from concentrate and pulp free!)  Orange juice is full of important vitamins and minerals.  We'll highlight 2 for you:  fructose and potassium.  Fructose is similar to glucose as far as energy production goes, but is slightly different than the glucose molecule and is treated differently.  Many people who have blood sugar control problems mostly have problems controlling glucose, which makes fructose a better option.*  Fructose has also been shown to rebuild liver glycogen stores very efficiently.  Potassium is also a very important mineral for many processes in the body.  One of its key functions is blood sugar control.  Potassium actually plays a lager part than insulin in transporting glucose into the cells for use.**  High potassium helps minimize insulin dependency for those who are pre-diabetic and showing signs of "insulin resistance."  Those who are worried about the effects of increased insulin do well with orange juice due to the high amount of potassium.  

Our stress hormones are released in when we don't have sufficient resources to handle a stressor.  Having a glass (or bottle) of orange juice with you to sip on throughout the day, or having frequent snacks of OJ with some milk or cheese can give you a very pure, healthy, and protective fuel source to help fuel the conversion of your youthful, protective hormones and minimize the estrogen, cortisol, adrenaline response.  Trust your brain, and use taste as your guide.  If it doesn't taste sweet enough that day, you're likely low on fuel, so add a little white sugar (sucrose) to the juice**.  If it's too acidic, add a tiny pinch of baking soda to neutralize the acid.  OJ also makes a great "sports drink" during your workouts.  

There's more to come of tips and strategies to improve your hormone profile.  Until then....

Keep Moving!

*Click here if you need to see the science that confirms this.

**Click here for more reading on potassium and blood sugar control

***Click here for the sucrose science

The Hormone Conundrum...

Understanding Hormone Changes in Women and their Impact on Health and Fitness Part 1.

By popular demand, we're going to attempt the tackle the complex and, unfortunately, confusing issue of hormone changes in women and how it affects your metabolism, health, and fitness.  This is a complex issue, and willprobably be unrolled in multiple parts.  

To start, this week we'll start with defining some terms and concepts to give the rest of this conversation context.  

Stress: any event or situation that requires the body to create extra sugar for energy.  Stress can be our traditional view: difficult situations, busyness, adverse relationships.  That's just a small part of the large list of things the brain interprets as stress.  Also included can be:  poor food choices, lack of sleep, environmental/air quality, lack of proper light, fasting or limited calorie intake, exercise, illness, and many others.

Menopause:  from wikipedia, "literally means the "end of monthly cycles" (the end of monthly periods aka menstruation), from the Greek word pausis(cessation) and the root men- (month). Menopause is an event that typically (but not always) occurs in women in midlife, during their late 40's or early 50's, and it signals the end of the fertile phase of a woman's life."  We've traditionally considered menopause as an inevetable  part of aging.  Hormonally, menopause occurs when the ovaries stop producing progesterone.

Progesterone:  often referred to as the "pregnancy hormone" by pharmaceutical companies, but is actually the true female hormone.  It's the body's most protective, ant-stress hormone.  It's an anti-testosterone, anti-estrogen, made from -cholesterol, pro-gestational hormone.

Estrogen:  often referred to as the "female" hormone, but in reality yields more male characteristics.  Estrogen is a stress hormone involved in increasing blood sugar by slowing metabolism, breaking down proteins into sugar, blocking the cells' use of oxygen, and mobilizing free-fatty-acids in the blood stream ("trans-fatty acids"), among many other processes.  High levels of estrogen in women has been shown to expedite menopause, increase risk of breast cancer and uterine cancers, ovarian cysts and fibroids, heart disease, diabetes, and other "lifestyle diseases." 

More terms will come as this series unfolds, but we'll start here.  At the onset of menopause, progesterone production by the ovaries stops, though estrogen production continues.  Progesterone is still produced elsewhere, but at a much lower level.  A healthy ratio of progesterone:estrogen is 3:1.  However, due to chronic stress of lifestyle, dietary choices, chronic exercise, etc., this ratio shifts dramatically the other way triggering menopause and/or other lifestyle diseases (it's been shown and widely accepted that post-menopausal women are at higher risk of breast cancer due to this ratio shift). 

Estrogen is also a synergist for a multitude of other stress hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, prolactin, serotonin, pituitary stimulating hormone (PTSH) and others.  All of these hormones play a part in our stress response system.  These hormones are activated by and activate a response in the body that halts a lot of our developmental processes, changes our energy production to a less efficient and inflammatory process, and slows the metabolism (the cell's ability to produce energy) in order to overcome the current stress.  

As this hormonal shift takes place, symptoms such as night sweats, hot flashes, increased anxiety and irritability- all effects of the above mentioned stress hormones- become common.  There is also a slowing down of the metabolism as these hormones decrease the cells' ability to produce energy.   Adaptation (increasing strength and muscle mass) is also slowed as our youthful, adaptive hormones are less and the brain is not getting a proper "fuel mix" to make the adaptation.  

So what can we do about this?  Is this just inevitable, or can something be done to delay or at least minimize the effects?  If you read the definition above, there is the parenthasesed (is that a word?) section that says "but not always."  If it doesn't always happen, that would suggest it isn't inevitable, right?  How can we optimize the body and minimize the effects?  Well, it's complicated but can be done. 

Step 1: Assess.  We never do anything at Fitness Evolved until we assess first.  Then, we try a course of action, and re-assess.  The number one driver of our metabolism and producer of the youthful, protective hormones is the thyroid.  Many are not clinically "hypothyroid," but sub-optminal thyroid function results in a slow metabolism, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, low energy, poor digestion, and sub-optimal immune function.  We're not looking for a diagnosis, but wanting to assess thyroid function.  Dr. Broda Barnes showed that the best way to assess thyroid function is by testing body temperature and resting heart rate.  So, if you're experiencing any of these symptoms (males or females!), are going through or post-menopausal, or if you eat food and want to be healthy ;), this is the place to start. 

Assess your thyroid function and metabolism by taking your temperature and resting heart rate 2-3 times a day.  Write it down, and look for trends.  One measurement is never enough (for this or any other lab test)!  The body is constantly changing, so taking frequent measurements and looking for trends is the only way to get an accurate assessment of function. 

Next week we'll talk more about this process and give you tips and ideas on what to do with it.  Until then......

Keep Moving!

Why We Do What We Do...

Fitness Evolved was created with two purposes in mind: 

1.  To help as many people as possible improve their quality of life through increased health and fitness.

2.  To be a part of

 transforming the fitness industry by creating a new model of gym:  One that's more concerned with member results than membership numbers.  And one that's committed to continually learning and improving the way we do things to make sure we're on the forefront of the training industry and can give our members the best experience possible.

We've invested tens of thousands of dollars in continuing our education, as well as countless hours researching, practicing, and applying in order to become the best coaches we can be for our members.  We've chosen to "buck" the mainstream industry that doesn't seem to be working based on the increasing levels of obesity and disease, and look for a more evolved approach that can truly create lasting and sustainable results along with a pleasant experience.  

This approach, admittedly, set us into "crisis" as we completely overhauled our training system and years of education just months after opening our business.  It was incredibly threatening and risky, but we knew we had to make the change if we were truly going to give our clients the best available.  In hindsight, we're so glad we did!

We're always willing to take the risk and put in the hard work if it's going to result in the opportunity to help more people, better.  Currently, our culture is being sold a bill of goods that says we have to punish ourselves through exercise and crash diets in order to become "healthy" (if you view skinny and malnourished as "healthy," but that's another topic for another day!) when dietary changes will help to lose the weight, and improving movement quality will lead to decreased pain and increased fun activities and quality of life.  "Punishing" ourselves is not the path to optimal health and wellness.

We were recently confronted by some questions in one of courses that challenged us:  "How many of you think you have helped somebody over your career?"  Obviously, we all raised our hands.  "How many of you believe you could help more people if they came to you?"  Again, we raised our hands.  "If they don't know who you are or how to get to you, then you're actually doing them a disservice."  This was followed by a collective "Oh....."

We started this business to help as many people as possible, to show them there's a better way, and to change the current model for the better.  We're calling on you, our current and former members, to help us help others like you.  If you've benefitted (or not!) from our services, please take a few minutes and complete a survey that will help us better structure ourselves so we can help you and others.  

Help Us Help You Survey

Thank you for all of your support and for making Fitness Evolved the best gym in Berkeley!

New Year, New Goals, New You!

This week we're focusing on goal setting, how motivation works in our brains, and tips to give you the best chance to achieve your goals.

Neurology of Motivation Part 2

Motivation still lives in the brain, like all other skills.  A large determining factor for your success is being as specific as possible when setting a goal, or "target" to aim at.  30 mindless minutes on the elliptical machine is doable for a while, but if there's no end target, we just become a hamster on a wheel and get tired of it after a few weeks.  If there's an end goal, or finish line, in site and you can track your progress towards that goal, the brain stays more engaged and it's easier to stay on track and keep it up until you hit your target.    

 

Practicing "Aiming"

How do we practice "aiming" differently than in the past?  

Set specific goals and targets to train for.  

Many people join gyms or start new training programs at the beginning of the year in hopes of "getting in shape," or "feeing better." 

What does that mean?  What does being "in shape" look like to you?  Is it a certain weight, body-fat percentage, able to run a certain distance or swing a kettlebell for a certain amount of time?   Do you want do do a certain amount of push ups?  A pull up?  Whatever that picture of being "in shape" looks like to you, write it down.  

"The clarity with which you define something determines its usefulness."- Tony Blauer

The more clear your goals are, the easier they are to train for, and accomplish! 

Break It Up!

Whatever your end goal, or big goal, is, you should have milestones or smaller "chunks" you reach along the way.  Why?   Small, attainable goals make things more manageable and help you gain and keep momentum towards your larger goal.  

Plus, how else would you know that you're on the right track?  If you don't have milestones or ways to re-assess throughout the process, you could be way off the mark and never even know it until it's too late.  Re-assessments aren't gauges of success or failure, they're information.  A good re-assessment of your progress let's you know if you're on the right track or if something's not working and you need to take a different course.  Shift your mindset- if something's not working, don't take it as failure.  Take it as important information that tells you what you're doing doesn't work for your nervous system, and you need to try something else.  Everything "works" all the time because it's telling us "yes, this is good" or "no, try something else."

Murphy Proof

We're not always on top of our games 100% of the time.  There are times when we slip or circumstances beyond our control knock us off course.  It happens- we're human!  Remember Murphy's Law:  "anything that can go wrong will go wrong."  Plan for it!  Once you're brain knows it can and will happen, and you have a strategy to get back on track, all of the sudden those slips and road blocks aren't so big because you already know what you need to do.  

Write 'em Down and Post 'em

Statistically, 89% of the goals that are written down and reviewed regularly are achieved within 12 months.  Let us help you!  Print out your 2013 Targets sheet below, write down your goals for the year, and bring them in and post them on our target board.  This is a great opportunity for you to write them down and see them regularly as you come to the gym, but also get encouragement, support, and tips from your community.  After all, everyone of us in the FE Community share one common goal:  We All Want to be Better Than We Currently Are.

That's why we come here and continue to work and learn.

New Year, New Goals, New You!

Happy New Year!  We hope everyone had a great Holiday Season.  We're excited to have you all back around the gym and getting back on track.  What a great year 2012 was- a year full of new adventures, and lots of goals achieved!  It was great to have a board on the wall with with "Targets" for the year, and even better to see how many were actually checked off throughout the year.  

We're going to start the 2013 off with an exercise we did last year that worked very well.  First, we'd like you to print out the "2012 Accomplishments" sheet and think through all of the goals you set for yourself and accomplished last year- either in the gym, in life, or both. 

As you're thinking through and setting your goals for 2013, go through this exercise first, and here's why:

Neurology of Motivation

Motivation lives in the brain, like all other skills. One of biggest players in motivation, and a large determiner of how successful you will be, isconfidence in your ability to actually achieve the goals you've set for yourself.

Reflecting on your past accomplishments, and knowing you're able to achieve what you've set out to achieve puts your brain in a "success mindset."  Focusing only on what's ahead and where you're not merely provides a seemingly endless, daunting task for your brain that loses momentum over time.  As you continue to hit goals, or reach milestones, take time to celebrate and enjoy them.  Give your brain that satisfaction of accomplishment that will result in a greater drive to do more- it's a cycle!

 

Practicing Acknowledgement

As you've read in numerous previous newsletters, everything is a skill that requires intentional practice in order for us to "master" it.  Reflection on your accomplishments and successes is an incredible gift for yourself that has the potential to spark many future successes.  

Research has shown time and again that we are communal beings and people thrive when they're placed in the right environment with a strong supportive community surrounding them.   At Fitness Evolved, we've intentionally built a community environment that encourages, supports, and motivates.   We've enjoyed watching the camaraderie grow at training sessions and classes- the fun kidding with each other, congratulating and checking in on gym and life successes, and celebrating and mourning life events with each other.  We couldn't ask for a better and more fun group! 

This week, we're going to put "practicing acknowledgement" into action

and prime the motivation centers of the brain (the "limbic system or" which is modulated by the frontal lobe, in case you were wondering.  :) See the picture above.)  It's important to future successes that you build the skill of acknowledging accomplishments, as well as accepting acknowledgement from others.   

Below, you'll find a link to a document.  Click on it and print it out.  This sheet is for you to write at least one accomplishment you've achieved either in the gym, or even in life!, this year.  It can be anything- a goal number of push ups/pull ups, a certain weight or body composition percentage, # of pounds lost, a hike/race/event you completed, a new job or promotion.... Anything!  Bring it in to your next session or class, share it with us, and we'll put it on our "Success Board," to share with everyone.  (It can be anonymous if you really want, but we'd rather be able to congratulate you!)  Make sure you keep a copy for yourself, as well, so you can keep track of how far you've come