Archive for Christina's Advice
The Dynamic Solutions 60 Day Transformation Challenge is about to come to an end but Megan’s journey towards optimal health and weight loss will continue well in 2010.
Megan’s current weight is 191.4 lbs and she is at 31.2% body fat. While her weight has dropped her body fat has increased. Some of you reading this may scratch your heads and wonder how this can be? Well, this is typical as the body begins to detoxify. Our bodies protect ourselves from toxins by sweeping them away and storing them in our body fat. As Megan continues to work towards making more permanent lifestyle changes in the way she eats, sleeps, exercises and reduces the emotional and physical stress in her life her body will begin to heal on the inside and weight will continue to come off over time.
The five organs of detoxification are the skin, lungs, liver, gallbladder and colon. As human beings, we are all designed to detoxify naturally IF all of our systems are in balance and working correctly. Megan has been working on eating according to her Metabolic Type ® as well as exercising and drinking half her body weight in ounces of water each day. She still needs to focus on getting to bed on time and reducing stress. Megan just became a first time home buyer…Congratulations Megan! so some of her current stress has been removed and she is now enjoying sleeping in her own bed!
However, as I tell my clients all the time, we never have our ducks in a row. Life always delivers stressful events. However, if we have the tools in our tool chest to combat stress, we are that much better off at overcoming anything life throws at us!
This past Sunday, Megan took Mary Johlf’s yoga class at Dynamic Solutions. Mary took the class through a series of postures such as inversions and twists that help the body detoxify. Yoga makes you sweat and your body releases toxins through your skin. Also, the inversions and twists help with elimination (colon). Yoga is also a wonderful energy cultivating form of exercise, that allows your body to SLOW DOWN! We need to slow down and rest and sleep in order for our bodies to BURN FAT.
I am very proud of Megan! She continues to learn and make the necessary lifestyle changes needed to achieve her goals. It is not easy but as my mentor Ingo Loge says “With Perserverance The Snail Reached The Arc”.
The benefits of a soothing Yoga class cannot be overestimated. In our class we use bolsters, yoga bricks, blankets, and yoga straps to help with flexibility issues that many of us have. Mary’s class on Sunday at 1pm is a great way to slow down and really give back to yourself the energy you need to combat stress. Give yourself the tools to be successful in your own journey in achieving optimal health and wellness!
Christina Smith
C.O.O. Dynamic Solutions
RKC, C.H.E.K. HLC 2, MTA 2, A.C.E. PT
Don’t Be Fooled By The Snake Oil Salesman!!
Posted by: | CommentsThe term “snake oil” comes from the 1800s in which elixirs and potions of all kinds, even ones that supposedly included the oils from snakes, were sold as a cure for everything that ailed a person. We still use the term today to describe gadgets that claim to do it all. At Dynamic Solutions we tell our clients that there is no substitiute for hard work and perserverence when it comes to making the lifestyle changes neccessary to get healthy and strong.
You cannot possible get the results you are looking for without making some serious changes in the way you exercise, eat and sleep. There are NO SHORT CUTS when it comes to being healthy. Like I tell my clients all the time, “convenience makes us unhealthy”. Yet, so many people seek out convenient ways to get healthy. Take for instance the vibrating dumbell video below or the abdominal belt that vibrates or even better the cookie diet as a “convenient” way to get all the nutrients your body needs to do what? Power a kettlebell? I DON’T THINK SO! There is NO SUBSTITUTE for exercise that requires you to move dynamically, real food that does not come out of a box or can and a good nights rest! Yet, it amazes me how people continue on to search for a quick fix approach to looking and feeling better.
As we round the corner to the half way mark for the Dynamic Solutions 60 Day Body Transformation Challenge, Darius and I once again want to encourage everyone to really buckle down and look at some of the self defeating habits that may be holding you back from making this a successful body transformation. Ask yourself some really hard questions about the intensity of your exercise program, the food you are eating, what you’re drinking (if its not water) and if you are getting to bed on time!
Here’s Contestant # 1
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By: Christina SmithMetabolic Typing Advisor Level 2C.H.E.K HLC2RKC, A.C.E. PTI would like to introduce you all to Megan Hare. She is a client of mine who has agreed to take the Dynamic Solutions 60 Day Body Transformation Challenge. Megan, like so many of us has struggled and fluctuated with her weight. Megan has always been very active, involved in gymnastics from the age of 4 – 13 and than shifted gears to play fast pitch softball where she made the Regional Team in high school. Later, in her first year of college at George Mason, she walked on the team to play 3rd base and shortstop.Megan currently weighs 193 lbs and her body fat is 32.7%. Megan’s ideal weight is 165 lbs. Let’s see how close we get to that within the next couple of months!The Dynamic Solutions 60 Day Body Transformation Challenge is not just about exercise but eating and making the necessary lifestyle changes that need to be made to truly get healthy. Clients participating in the Dynamic Solutions 60 Day Body Transformation Challenge will learn what it means to “work in” to lose their weight and not just “work out”. In the next few weeks everyone will have a clearer picture of just what it takes to lose weight and keep it off, not for a week or a month or a year, but an entire lifetime!The first thing I had Megan do was complete her online questionnaire through HealthExcel to determine her Metabolic Type®. Megan has been suffering from severe migraine headaches since 2001 and would get about 5 migraines a week. The migraines were intense, the kind that would make the room spin, cause her to vomit and force her to lie down in a dark room. Prescription medications she would try either would not work and if they did, the side effects made her very uncomfortable. After analyzing Meg’s diet, I quickly discovered she was very deficient in meat protein and I was not surprised at all when her Metabolic Type ® Results showed she was a Parasympathetic Dominant, Protein Type. That means she will eat approximately 30% carbohydrates, 40% proteins and 30% fats for each meal and snack as well as eat foods off of the ideal foods list specifically for her Metabolic Type ® . Megan will eat foods lower in carbohydrates, higher in fats and proteins with an emphasis on proteins higher in purines. Since introducing her to more meat protein her headaches have gone away and she no longer needs her prescription meds for migraines unless she skips a meal or eats all carbohydrates. The consequences of her not eating more meat protein result in her spending the rest of the day sick, in bed and kicking herself for not taking the time to chow down on a good piece of meat! I have Megan filling out eating, exercise and sleep diaries each day and we review her entries on a weekly basis. As I write more on Megan’s journey towards weight loss and optimal health I will share with you all just how important eating exercise and sleep are to the body and “working in”.Some of Megan’s first diaries revealed she is going to bed sometime between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. Because the body burns fat during the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. one of Megan’s biggest challenges will be to get to bed on time!! So if your a friend of Megan Hare please call her before 10:00 p.m. and make it a quick call because she needs her sleep!Other diary entries showed that Megan is still taking in to many carbohydrates for her Metabolic Type ® so she is working on removing bread, pasta and boxed cereals from her diet and replacing them with fruits, vegetables and grains like wild rice, millet and quinoa…Go Meg! She will also be removing the bottled tea during the day and instead drinking half her body weight in ounces of bottled water. Lastly, she is working on reducing sugar from her diet (oh the evils of sugar!).Megan also filled out some health and lifestyle questionnaires to help me see what systems of the body (musculoskeletal, limbic/emotional, hormonal and visceral) maybe under some stress. Those questionnaires revealed a very healthy Meg with only some moderate concerns with her liver/gallbladder and glucose regulation. Both of these moderate concerns will be addressed as Meg begins to make steps towards healthier lifestyle changes.Take a look at the video below of Megan’s workout the other day! She is just a beginner with the kettlebell, but boy, does she catch on quick!! Over the course of the next month, you will see her strength increase as well as her technique. Megan has agreed to 4 kettlebell workouts a week. Because of her body shape, she will perform more body weight leg and unilateral lower body exercises like lunges, split squats and RDL’s. Megan is naturally strong, her program design incorporates a mixture of light to moderate ballistic and grind exercises with plenty of rest between sets to focus on full recovery. We will do another weigh-in within the next 2 weeks so everyone can see how she has progressed towards her goal of 165 lbs!
