Fitness Alliance Newsletter
optimal health tools for the modern human
                                                                                            June 2014
In This Issue
Reliability
Paleo
Suncreen
Structure lean fuel
Nutrition Facts
Quick Links
Reliability 

A pretty cool word, right? Everybody likes it. It could go hand-in-hand with dependable, secure, solid, trustworthy, or got your back. Maybe it refers to your best friend or employee that you can count on time in and time out to be there for you, help out, and exceed your expectations. What about your car, lawnmower, or computer?

 

With regard to exercise and health though, how important is it to have a body that is reliable...have you ever thought about that? At the end of the day, having a body that is there when you need it: to carry groceries, do some yard work, go for a hike, hoist your grandbaby, or just get off the toilet is pretty damn important. The question is: how do you obtain and maintain a body that can consistently carry you through life to perform the tasks you demand of it?

 

In a nutshell most people would agree  

on these 5 things:

1)    Don't get Hurt

2)    Don't get Sick

3)    Don't get Overweight

4)    Eat Right

5)    Exercise Consistently

 

But in asking 10 people how you stick to these 5 things you'll usually get 10 different answers. So, without personal bias or opinion, here's how.

 

1) Don't Get Hurt

Nobody likes to get hurt but most of us will at some point, and, accidents do happen. Hurt can also mean degeneration of your skeleton and joints which is what we as exercise professionals try and get across to our clients. Too much of anything in an exercise program will tear your body apart: running, cycling, or lifting too heavy, even too much flexibility can induce joint laxity. The key is to vary your exercise strategy and incorporate rest, hydration, nutrition, and recuperation as part of it.

 

2) Don't Get Sick

Sickness could be gauged on a low to high spectrum: Low, a common cold, High, cancer or organ failure. The important thing to consider is the profound effect food selection has on your overall health and whether you get sick or not. Most major diseases start out as conditions and manifest themselves into something more serious. Simple signs of asthma, acne, IBS, or joint pain are warning signs and a cry for help that the things you are putting in your body aren't agreeing with you. Inflammation inside the body happens in joints, arteries, organs, and other tissues and is basically the body's way of rebelling and crying out for help. If you constantly inundate you body with inflammatory foods such as grains, dairy, vegetable oils, and sugar day in and day out, your body will erode. Add in stress and you're headed downhill quickly.

 

3) Don't Get Overweight

Everybody knows it; nobody wants it, a thousand different 'experts' tell you how to get it off. Really, if you eat the right foods and exercise consistently your body, will find its optimal frame. The $3 billion diet industry is a joke, when eating as we're supposed to, as we're designed to, is really quite simple. In fact, if we as humans eat what we are supposed to eat like every other animal on the planet there wouldn't be a problem. Bears don't get cancer!

 

4) Eat Right

Evolutionary Accordance, Biologically Appropriate, Responsible, Simply, Food is Fuel, are the best terms I've heard regarding the human diet. Eat these six things and chances are everything else falls into place. Keeping your body away from the acidic side by making sure you eat alkaline forming foods, maintaining hydration by drinking water and not so much diuretic beverages are also good ideas.

 

5) Exercise Consistently 

Working out is a funny thing. Over the past 18 yrs being in the business, and another 10 regularly exercising, I've seen, heard, and watched some funky things. Mostly, it's the division of exercise camps: weight lifters, yoga, step aerobic class, runners, swimmers, cardio machine nuts, pilates, circuit & crosstrainers, crossfitters, and for the most part, they do not intermingle! You'd be hard pressed to find a weight lifter in a Yoga or Barre Method class even to this day! The thing though, is that all of these modalities are the same...just on a different level of intensity and perhaps mindset. Joints and the skeleton are moving, force is involved, whether it be weights or bodyweight, air is being moved, and they are all cardio vascular exercise. The key is to vary the intensity and modality to create a full spectrum of health, and perhaps try something new. Who knows, maybe you like Pilates and you never knew it! Whatever you decide, exercise consistently, effectively, efficiently, incorporate variation and respect progression to minimize risk to enhance benefit.

 

And over the past 5 years my thoughts on exercise have evolved. The biggest revelation and discovery to me was that the foundation of an exercise process should be long, slow, and deliberate. The high intensity type stuff such as sprinting occupies the smallest once a week maybe, whereas the medium intensity 3-4 x's per week, and the longs walks, everyday. Read more about that HERE

Oh, and get outside gym rats!

What is this Paleo Thing Anyway? 
 

It is called, described, and labeled many different things  by different camps: Paleo, Primal, Hunter-Gatherer, Prehistoric, Ancestral Health, even the Caveman diet.

 
Why would anyone want to adopt the lifestyle of a previous time in human development to get healthy? Who was Paleolithic Man and why is it important to us now?

 

The Same Body

Our genetic recipe is virtually unchanged from 2.5 million years ago and the goal in adopting a Paleo Lifestyle is about identifying and implementing the Primal Principles of our not-so-distant ancestors.

Whatever you decide to call it, all camps agree it is eating, exercising, and living in evolutionary accordance as our bodies are biologically designed. Paleo is not some underground movement or new diet, it is a lifestyle that simply looks back and discusses what kept us alive and in optimal health before the advent of modern agriculture.

 

To...

 Eat Simply, enjoying meats, vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts, oils, while avoiding grains, legumes, refined sugars, heavily processed foods, chemicals and preservatives  

Exercise Daily and be more Active Be Productive but  

Sleep Well


Paleolithic Man, though a primitive culture by our modern standards, was tall, active, strong, and nearly disease free, compared to today's human culture that opts for lifestyle choices that make us sick, overweight, and stressed. How sad is it? With all of the advances in medicine, what we have discovered and know about the bodily sciences, we have become a sedentary, fat, and sick culture who relies on pills rather than a lifestyle adaptation.

 

The Sunscreen Myth

The sun, which sustains all of life, is a powerful force. Limited sun exposure is beneficial to our overall health assisting the body in producing bone benefiting vitamin D and assisting in healthy brain and hormonal chemistry. We only need about 10 minutes of sunshine per day. But excessive sun exposure is the number one cause of extrinsic (external) aging and can breakdown the skin's immunity to the sun leading to skin cancer.

While these sunscreens protect against sunburn, there is no scientific research that chemical sunscreen protects the individual against melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, or premature aging. Chemical sunscreens encourage individuals to prolong their sun exposure, increasing their risk of skin caner and premature aging.

A suntan is actually your body's way of trying to protect tissue. When excessive sunlight absorbs into our skin free radicals and enzymes are formed. The enzymes break down fat that then produces arachidonic acid.  Arachidonic acid is a precursor to the inflammatory response which is linked directly to aging.  When free radicals are formed, a chain reaction begins, triggering "transcription factors" that lead to damage to the collagen cells. This damage is called microscarring, and is the actually forming of a wrinkle. Damaged collagen looses its flexibility and resilience.

Add Some Structure to Your Mornings

 
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Nutrition Fact: Vegetable Oils 
"Vegetable Oils, particularly commercial soybean, safflower, sunflower, corn, cottonseed, and canola oils are an unnatural, very recent addition to the human diet. They are extremely prone to rancidity and case mutagenic and atherogenic changes in the human body. Mutagenic changes result in damage to  DNA that can lead to various cancers and atherogenic changes result in the building of arterial plaques associated with cardiovascualr disease. High levels of consumption of these oils contribute to premature aging, wrinkles, cancers, and many inflammtory processes. They should never, ever, be used in cooking"
- Nora Gedgaudas author Primal Body Primal Mind

 

See you next month
...thanks for reading
...spread the word 
...forward to friends
...be happy & stay healthy
                                       
 -Bill The Urban Caveman