Archive for the 'Nutrition' Category

What moms should eat when strength training – By team member: Michelle Crispe

This largely depends on what your goal is and if you are still pregnant and/or breast feeding. I used to be a huge advocate of eating 5-6 times daily until I realized it just isn’t feasible for most people, especially moms with abundant schedules. I have found no matter how good a plan is in theory, if you cannot stick to it, who cares how good it is.

Generally, and there are exceptions always, if you are trying to burn fat, you should eat 4 times daily with at least two of the meals coming from whole food sources and possibly two in shake form for convenience and adequate protein intake. Moms are busy(or abundant as I like to say) and I have found personally shakes are a miracle.

Protein is the most thermogenic of all macro-nutrients which means it takes a lot of energy to be broken down which is good. It also happens to be the most important macro-nutrient for human life. Everything in your precious body is made of it, right down to your DNA so you need to get enough. Make sure you get a serving of it at each meal and no, peanut butter is not a protein. You need at least 20-30g per serving of high quality absorbable protein. Read the rest of this entry »

Injury prevention for the postnatal client – by team member: Alycia Spadafora

As a trainer I see injuries happen day to day that can often be prevented.  Listed below are few steps that I implement in all my client programs and that you can follow in-order-to prevent an injury from happening or reoccurring.

Creating a Foundational Exercise Program

Approaching exercise at any time must be done first with an assessment. This assessment would evaluate your present fitness state. After having a baby, there can be little or a lot of difference from your pre-pregnancy state depending on whether or not you exercised during pregnancy.

This assessment should be completed through a series of exercises that set a value and correlate to your body. Such exercises would include, squats or wall push ups because these exercises are functional to our daily lives. I specifically look for proper execution of the movement and the muscles endurance (how long or how many can be performed before your body starts to compensate).  These exercises would be retested at a later time to see the muscular adaptions that your body has made.  This will allow you to make changes to your exercise program to continue on your fitness journey. Read the rest of this entry »

Breastfeeding and fat loss: by team member – Frances Lea

You’ve done it!  You ran the marathon of your life and now you want to get back into shape.  WHAT????

What the hell am I talking about? How could you have run a marathon and need to get back into shape?  I’m talking about the marathon of GIVING BIRTH.  Whether it was vaginal or c-section and even if you were in tip top shape, you will probably still need to do some work to get back to they way you were (or even better).

Most women are carrying a bit of extra weight around before getting pregnant.  Add pregnancy, then delivery to the mix and you could be carrying a lot more weight around in the end.

It is suggested that lactating women consume an extra 300-500 calories to provide an adequate amount of milk to their babies.  That can be done easily with a few thought out snacks (listed below).   If you are overweight you may not need to add the extra calories to your diet.  If you are underweight you need to aim for the higher end. In general, however, you should aim for between 1800-2200 calories per day. The main thing is to consume nutritious foods and stay away from empty calories: Read the rest of this entry »

Spring Cleanse 101

Every year spring offers us the chance for a new beginning. A time to plant seeds and see what grows. After a long, dreary and sometimes sluggish winter, spring is a fabulous time to clean up parts of our lives, and our diets are no exception.

People are always asking me what my thoughts are on nutritional ‘detoxing’. It certainly is a term you are hearing more of, and it makes me wonder how many people are using it and selling it as the next weight loss fad.

With popularity comes a lot of misconceptions, so I’m here to clear up a few facts for you this spring. See if you know which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. You have to go on a detoxification program in order for your body to detoxify.

False. Your body was built to detoxify. Our liver is our master detoxifier, filtering external toxins such as air pollution, food additives, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and industrial toxins; and internal toxins such as the by-products of metabolism. Your body is detoxifying 24/7.

2. Your liver needs specific nutrients to detoxify properly.

True. There are two phases of detoxification in the liver and each phase needs a handful of different nutrients as co-factors for chemical processes. B vitamins, folic acid, antioxidants, vitamin E, vitamin C, amino acids, selenium and zinc are just a few needed for each pathway.

3. Since our bodies are detoxifying all the time, we don’t need to do seasonal cleanses.

False. In theory, we shouldn’t need to do anything special, but unfortunately our bodies have never been under such stress as we are in today’s world. Thousands of new chemicals are introduced into our environments, food and beauty products each year. We overburden our liver with these toxins and heavy diets full of processed food. There are numerous studies showing our high levels of toxicity in our blood which means our bodies have more than they can handle. If our bodies cannot detoxify and eliminate effectively, these toxins will re-circulate.

4. Cleansing involves fasting and starvation.

False. Fasts and starvation diets don’t provide the nutrients and fiber you need to cleanse efficiently. Most people feel ill on a low calorie, nutrient poor diet, while cleansing is supposed to make you feel energized, happy and clear headed. While short term fasting can rest your digestive system, it is not recommended unless you are experienced at cleanses, have a strong disposition with no pre existing health problems.

Tips for Safe and Effective Cleansing

1. Start with your diet. Increase your supply of antioxidant and fiber rich fruits and vegetables, including lots of raw vegetables. Remove processed foods and other sources of artificial ingredients and additives, and lighten your load on heavy or hard to digest foods such as red meat.

2. Clean up your environment. Check your ingredient list on your cleaning products and beauty products you use daily. These chemicals bi-pass liver detoxification by going directly through your skin into your blood. Are these daily products adding to your toxic load?

3. Open the ‘doors of elimination’. Your ‘doors of elimination’ need to be open in order to ensure toxins are being removed from your body and not being re-absorbed. Your doors include:

a. Bowels. Your liver dumps all your wastes into your bowels to be removed from your body. If your bowels aren’t moving properly (1-3 times a day), some of these toxins could be re-absorbed and re-circulate in your body. Ensure you are eating 30-40 grams of fiber a day from plant foods, or take a natural fiber supplement such as psyllium husk to help move things along. This is always important, but especially during a cleanse.

b. Lungs. Deep breathing and exercise helps remove toxins through your lungs efficiently.

c. Skin. Being your largest organ, a lot of waste is eliminated through your skin. Sweating daily, skin dry brushing and not clogging your pores with lotions and products will help you detoxify much more thoroughly.

d. Lymphatic system. Many toxins are stored in your lymphatic fluid which are eventually dumped into your spleen and bowel for removal. Ensure your lymphatic fluid is moving through movement, exercise and massaging the lymph nodes.

e. Urinary System. Drink lots of pure water until your urine is clear and odourless.

4. Make a sacrifice. Not in biblical terms, but modern terms. Give up at least one thing you feel may becoming a vice, something that may be making you feel sluggish or you could do without temporarily. Coffee, bread, sugar, alcohol, processed foods and or red meat are good options.

5. Support with supplements. Taking a high quality multivitamin and mineral supplement along with digestive support supplements such as probiotics and fiber can ensure you are getting the detoxification support nutrients and eliminating properly.

6. Re-introduce slowly. This is a fantastic and affordable way to test for allergies and sensitivities. Re-introduce any eliminated foods one at a time and watch to see how you feel and react. Take 1-2 days for each suspected food.

Cleansing does not have to be complicated, expensive, or extreme. It is always a good idea to be educated and supported when doing cleanses for the first time. If you have further questions or want to make sure you are doing a cleanse safely and correctly, seek the guidance of a health professional such as a nutritionist or naturopathic doctor

Kerri Cooper BSc., CNP  is a Holistic Nutritionist and a nutrition educator. She has a special interest working with women throughout their reproductive years, advising them on issues related to fertility, pre-conception detoxification, pre and post-natal nutrition and breastfeeding.

Energy survival tips for moms

It makes me giggle sometimes when a client will comment on how “good” I look or how “full of energy” I am. Hey…don’t forget, looks can be deceiving but then I do have a few secrets up my sleeve.

Like every mom on the planet, my days are filled with schedules, routines and lack there of. As much as I try my best to prepare, life still throws me curve balls to keep me on my toes. Having said that, if something does come up out of the blue, I try my best not to panic because we all know what that does; it only creates more panic and the domino’s begin to roll…

Now although we would love to control the way the universe works, there are somethings that we just need to put out there and let things fall where they may. However, we DO have a choice on how good and energetic we feel so we are better prepared for nature’s surprises. Read the rest of this entry »

Postnatal training – Becoming a mother can inspire you! – by team member: Kate Rita

I am very happy to be writing this article as this topic comes up often in my work and this is a perfect forum to share that conversation with many more women.

Women are very understandably concerned about the long lasting impacts of pregnancy on the body. The transformation we undergo physically to carry a baby is staggering; delivery is a difficult, physical, painful although wonderful experience which leaves us injured to some degree without exception. Compound that with the new emotions we must understand, increased
demands on our depleted resources, as well as social pressure to be a bikini babe in 3 months, and we have a potential recipe for an overwhelmed new mom with defeated personal goals becoming increasingly frustrated and resigned to never being as fit as she once was. It can feel insurmountable. Can you relate? Read the rest of this entry »

5 Eating Rules for Losing Weight – by team member: Frances Lea

Well, we have all been there.  We step on the scale after a long break and are shocked at what we see staring back at us!!!!!  That number can’t be true.  So, we get off as quick as we can and reset it.  We step on it again.  WHAT!!!!!  I know, its the batteries!  You change them.  Nope, still the same.  Oh, I know, I had cheesecake last night, and went to the movies the night before.  Before you know it, you start thinking about the how’s, the why’s, the “oh yeah’s” and you think, ok, I’m gonna be better…….

So here’s how you CAN be better.  Health has a snowballing effect;  the more you do good, the more you want good, the more you crave good  – the better good you do!  So let’s start: Read the rest of this entry »

Holiday Survival 101

Ok ok….we’ve heard it all before. The holidays are tough, ya, so what? Well I will tell you what; it’s called guilt, regret and all the other feelings we like to stuff in our mouths the second we have that second helping of pie or just a few too many treats that we swore we wouldn’t touch.

Well that’s the holidays for you and you know what? You’re human that’s all. You can feel comforted to know that you join millions of people every year that go over the top, indulge and sneak in “just one more” just to wish they hadn’t later. But although you may be hanging with the masses, it doesn’t feel any better when you step on the scale or try to do up your jeans after the fact. Read the rest of this entry »