Three Classic Weight Loss Stories

December 2009, I have an opportunity to expand my services outside the Sports Center again. This time it's an insurance company that has a fitness room in their building. Of the 90-some employees, six ladies sign up to train with me. My baseline and recurring test numbers revolve around simply a weekly weigh-in and 5-site circumference measurements. Could have gone more tech but a third party is doing the bodyfat percentages, besides women want to know two things with fitness results: weight loss & size or inches lost.

I tell clients in this demographic that one of three things will happen with embarking on a fitness/ weight loss program with me. The following are three distinctly different real world stories.

JD

Started and ended at the same weight over the course of 2 months. Even though JD didn't experience an overall weight loss over the Christmas Holiday season she lost a total of 2 inches. What happened? JD was consistent in her workouts, She did the strength training and the interval running on treadmill as well as elliptical and recumbent bike. However, she didn't clean up her diet. Bright side was she lost inches primarily in the waist, didn't gain weight over the holidays, improved her stamina, balance, coordination and gained strength. Age mid 30's

KB

Took off like a jackrabbit! She lost 5 pounds the first week. She did the same workout routine as JD (5 days a week, about 40 minutes each day). The difference. KB got serious about her eating habits. It became a lifestyle. Sure KB hit plateaus with weight loss and losing inches. But overall she steadily improved. After 3 months KB lost 20 pounds, lost a total of six inches on her body circumference measurements with the majority being in hips and thighs. I now have her on a 5K race training routine (keeping in mind she has exercise induced asthma) in addition to challenging her on strength training. KB proudly wears better fitting clothes- and she should be proud. Age just under 50.

JP

The most classic story and such a great story to tell; JP made sure that I went easy on her. She gave me the laundry list of limiting conditions. Specifically, HER RUNNING DAYS ARE BEHIND HER, so just walk on treadmill and negotiate speed & elevation. With JP the workouts were modified to activities that were appropriate for her fitness level. The first six weeks JP gained 2 inches overall and gained 5 pounds. Her strength and stamina improved and arthritic knee pain was alleviating.

Here's what happened:

Increased activities stimulated increased appetite, but she didn't have the eating habits corrected yet (and yes it is a lifestyle change which takes time).

People new to strength training or re-introduced after a long hiatus will store more water in the muscles as it requires water uptake to allow the muscles to recover.

Together the increased appetite without diet modification and water intake for recovery makes for weight gain.

Next, JP turned the corner. She cleaned up her diet more than she thought she needed to… until we had some talks about the crap that is packaged and sold to us as "food" or rather belly fillers. As JP's weight began to drop and lost some inches, her confidence increased. Being in a group setting with colleagues who were also experiencing life changing results for the better, and a few ladies starting to run intervals or do the 5K training program I set up for them; JP had a "What-If" moment and tried running on the treadmill. She did just fine and the arthritic knee felt good. No flare ups. When I called JP out and reminded her what she said from the beginning about how I would not get her to ever do (RUNNING); She proceeded to reflect and we had this talk.

You know when you get to a certain point where you're at your heaviest and limiting health conditions arise, it's easy to hide inside yourself and accept that the days of fitness and being healthy are over.

It's only until you start thinking about how you take care of yourself directly affects everyone who is important to you. Being overweight comes with the burden of lack of self-esteem.

The paradox is it takes self-esteem to better yourself. This is why it is so difficult to start a fit & healthy lifestyle, in addition to the programming (habits) people have been submitting themselves to for so long.

Thankfully momentum works in both directions (like a pendulum). If you can muster up enough courage and self-preservation to commit to taking back your life, there will be immediate and encouraging results. And as the body adapts to the challenges of exercise along with eating to nourish, you will stop fighting your body and start to become in-tuned with yourself.

As JP said, "I have just experienced a new kind of freedom, realizing I can run again."

Wow! Fitness related to a feeling of freedom.

She followed up, "I was trapped inside my own body for so long." "Now it makes me wonder what else I can do." The whole emotional side of making the transition to a healthy lifestyle is that we need to address our self worth. Are you emotionally prepared to spend time and energy on improving yourself? You should be. After all you are worth it. And to put it bluntly, you are worthless to everyone else if you become so sickly out of shape that you become the one who needs cared for on a variety of levels. Contribute to others by contributing to bettering yourself.

In 3 months, JP lost 14 pounds and 6 inches. Age Lower 50's.

* Just prior to posting this, I happened to visit with JD. She is working out on her own now. The eating habits are still an issue. But she is now off of her cholesterol lowering medication. Next goal is get her blood pressure under control and go off those meds. She replied she's not sure if that will ever happen because it's genetic (whole family has high blood pressure).

My response, "JD don't play that card!" High blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes... all of these are reversible. Just need to follow the white rabbit to a new world of thinking.

Fitness During Pregnancy

This topic is so big and so very important that I recruited an expert to guest write. Erin is a nutritionist as well as a nurse and proud mother of a charming 1 yr old.

Erin Blackwell Igo

Fitness in pregnancy can be challenging thing. You are not only responsible for your own well-being, but now you are entrusted with the sole responsibility of growing another human being. For some people, pregnancy can be a very difficult time. We spend our entire adult lives trying to be "fit" and maintain an ideal weight. Then one day, we wake up pregnant and are told we must gain weight, let our abdomens grow so we can't see our toes, and buy new HUGE clothes. This can be a struggle in two different ways:

1. We are so excited for it to be socially acceptable to gain weight that we take "eating for two" literally and gain too much.
   

or

1. We know that we are supposed to gain weight, but have such a hard time giving up our normal jean, that we decide to restrict our diets which can cause substantial harm to the baby.
   

   
   

   The International Organization of Health has set the following pregnancy weight gain guidelines:
   Underweight women- 28 to 40 lbs
   Normal weight women- 25-35 lbs
   Overweight women 15-25 lb
   Obese women 11-20 lbs (although, this is under scrutiny as many studies are showing that obese women can have healthy babies without gaining any weight).
   

   
   This weight should not all be gained in the first week. We shouldn't pull out the ice cream claiming we need to gain 35 lbs. In fact, in the first trimester weight gain should only be about 2-5 lbs and caloric intake does not need to be increased. If you are hungry- you are lucky! Eat! But continue to make wise choices. Because calcium and protein needs are greater during pregnancy (protein needs increase to 60 g/day), choose to have a glass of skim milk or opt for a protein snack. After the first 16 weeks, weight gain should average one pound per week and you can increase your calorie intake 300 calories per day. Once again- this shouldn't be seen as opportunity to eat a candy bar everyday because there are 300 extra calories to consume. Add two healthy snacks a day- yogurt, cottage cheese, a handful of nuts, or even a tablespoon of peanut butter.
   
   Some people follow another train of thought. Instead of "I get to gain 30 pounds??? Bring on the bacon!" they think "I have to be fat and gain how much??" This is normal. In my first trimester I gained 5 lbs, couldn't fit in to any of my clothes, and felt like a fat slob. I knew that the fetus weight was about an ounce at this point and had a really hard time justifying how large I was getting so quickly. But, this is how the weight gain plays out by the end:
   

   
   8 lb of baby
   3 lb of amniotic fluid and placenta
   2 lb of uterus
   4 lb of extra blood
   3 lb of extra breast tissue
   5-10 lb of "maternal stores"
   

   
   So even though that fetus is 1 oz and you have gained 5 lbs, that is 5 lbs of extra fluid and tissue that is being laid down to appropriately create and develop another organism. The hardest part to swallow is the 5- 10 lbs of "maternal stores." It is a pleasant way of saying "fat." This is necessary, though (unless you are already overweight or obese.) The belief used to be that this fetus was a parasite- it took everything first and mom got the leftovers. This is true in terms of vitamins and minerals, but not calories. Studies have shown that if mom doesn't have a high enough body fat percentage, the baby will break down mom's muscle tissue to use as energy while mom's body uses the calories consumed to increase her body fat. This is not good for your baby's developing brain. While you aren't looking forward to laying down 5-10 lbs of fat, it is good for your baby. Also, if you cautious not to lay down more than that- you will be able to easily get rid of it by breastfeeding and chasing your baby around within the first year.
   
   The last thing is exercise. It is important to exercise during pregnancy, but I cannot stress enough that every person is different. Some women can run marathons while pregnant (although, I don't recommend it), while some can't find the energy to walk down the block. I am an avid runner and before I was pregnant I ran about 20 miles per week. By the 4th month, I had stopped all together. I was TIRED, and the extra weight made me feel like I was running through mud. So, I switched it up. I walked a lot, I did prenatal yoga, and most importantly- I did what felt right. If your body is screaming, "Stop! This is too much!" then it probably is. As you gain weight, the activities you do burn more calories. Therefore, you can take it down a notch and still have an equally as effective exercise routine. Also remember, the point of exercise during pregnancy is not to lose weight- it is to be healthy.
   

Monty Moran's Notes

Thanks Erin. In addition, I would recommend the protein intake increased to at least 60 g and up to 120 g per day depending on your lean body weight. More lean body mass requires more protein. Go with whole milk, there is a reason why it started out that way… more proteins and healthy fats that all work together to nourish the body. Obviously omit if milk allergies are an issue and those with diabetic conditions definitely need to stay away from skim milk because it's basically white colored sugar water. Healthy fats are vital for baby's development and NO – healthy fat in meals does not beget fat moms.

After bouncing some theories off of Aaron Jones (a chiropractor here in the Fargo-Moorhead area) we agreed I should address a few more things. With exercise, I wouldn't recommend starting a running routine during 2^nd trimester and on. However if you are a runner, keep these things in mind as you progress through your pregnancy term:

You will gain weight which obviously adds a form of resistance training to your running.
Your center of balance will change which will change your running mechanics.
Like Erin said, you may not have the energy to run like you did and may need to either cut the mileage back or cut the frequency down to recover between runs.
There are other options or complimentary activities such as yoga, Pilates, strength training, biking and so on.
With strength training, the same issues apply. Weights may not be as heavy but higher reps can suffice. Certain exercises will not be comfortable to perform for obvious reasons.
Luckily, maintaining a fitness routine is somewhat easy as it is a way of your life, your body changes gradually and fit people are more in tune with their bodies and know what works or as Erin said, "I did what felt right."

As far as taking vitamins & minerals consult somebody who knows what they're talking about, mega vitamins are not the answer. Quality, absorbable, well balanced, non-toxic vitamin/mineral supplements should be sought after – with that said, by all means don't go shopping in the Wal-Mart aisles for anything health related.

If you are not in a fitness routine and want to start (even during pregnancy) consult your OB/GYN and a competent fitness professional to put you on the right track and monitor your progress.

Client Performance Results

In the attached pdf's are two compiled data sheets for overall results of my clients.
It's brutally honest. Some are some amazing numbers. While the high school boys typically re-tested during the first two weeks of their sport starting, resulting in down numbers from fatigue of coming in right after practice to test out. Oh well.

If you are looking for results in performance, I can deliver.
Personal records and phenomenal increases in strength, vertical and speed happen all the time with me and my clients.
Enjoy!!

Cormax West Personal Training Client Performance Results- Overall

Cormax West Personal Training Client Performance Results- Age groups

Oh and let me know when you are ready to get serious and train with a real pro, ME!!

P.S. When Emily Gunkelman came out of college basketball and decided to train for the WNBA with me she went from a 12" vertical to 24" in 4 months. I went with the younger girl for most improved because... well I don't know ?? My bad, Em.

Dedicated to your performance

Myofascial Release Principles Using Foam Roller

Changing it up.
Instead of talking about health, nutrition, exercise, motivation and showing crazy fun videos - Here's a recovery technique that you can do yourself and really tune into body to heal it.
It's boring, but is good on the instructional/ informational aspect.





The foam roller can be your cheapest and most effective way to "take your therapist home with you!"
In this video Scott van Niekerk of Wholistic Physical Therapy in Brewster, NY. shows this highly effective self treatment tool using Myofascial Release Principles as taught by John Barnes to release pain, tightness and tension from the shins, legs - quads, ITB, Pelvis, back shoulders and neck.

Monty’s Boot Camp

Spring is here!

Once again the top personal trainer in Fargo-Moorhead is holding a Saturday morning one hour bootcamp for 10-weeks this spring.

We have five different outdoor locations, where we meet and get a great workout. Each weekend is a different location. It doesn't matter which gym you belong to or never go to a gym, there are no gym membership fees involved with us. Whether you are physically fit or seriously out of shape, everyone gets an appropriate workout adjusted by Monty Moran who is a seasoned fitness professional with 15+ years experience of training all age groups and fitness levels.

Starting Saturday, April 17 through Saturday, May 15

8:00AM- 9:00AM

$100 / 5 weeks

Rotating outdoor locations each week

Intense, challenging workouts that will give you results – without going to the gym

Suggested Items to bring:

*Wear layers for hot/ chilly mornings and rain/ snow gear

*Appropriate shoes (running shoes, cleats for agility, snow)

*Work/ workout gloves for tires and playground

*Water Bottle

*Sunglasses, sunblock, towel

* I'm notorious for changing things up so be flexible for change in plans

*Let's have fun, and play hard

Text to sign-up: 701-261-9636

E-Mail: monty_moran@yahoo.com

Facebook: Cormax West

Facebook: Monty Moran

Registration Form: Download & Fill Out

Action

Years ago I bought an e-book titled "BANABU." An acronym for Building A New And Better yoU (or Universe) can't remember that last part, I think it was because they were going back and forth with it as well. Anyway the whole point of their e-book project was to basically summarize the take home messages from 1,000's of self-help type books. One of the principles (they have 11 principles outlined) is what is considered the basic building blocks of success. Another acronym called TEAR.

Thought

Emotion

Action

Results

In my newsletter for February 2010 I addressed the emotion part. Now for the second hardest part (I think). Action.

In fitness & health terms it goes like this:

Thought = "I want to be in shape this year."

Emotion = This is the WHY part but with feelings attached. Read my newsletter

Action = Think this as the bridge between dreams and reality. Without action you are simply a dreamer. Without emotion you may act on it but not really know why, lose momentum and fall off the wagon. Action takes planning, scheduling, education, food choice, outsourcing – trainer, classes, nutritionist.

Newton's first law of motion (law of inertia) states that, "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion…"

Watching the World's Strongest Man competitions where these guys pull semi-trucks, planes and trains, you will notice that the successful ones are not taking big steps. Rather it's continuous small determined steps. This builds momentum.

The To Do List or Goals List

So you have the thought in your head to do something great. You put the passion behind the intention as to why you are doing this. So let's do something about it. How?

Create an action plan or to do list. Example (fitness related):

Get educated. Buy books, magazines, videos or browse the internet on exercises and nutrition.

Create workspace. Designate a room for exercise, map walking/ running trails, visit gym to join or classes to take.

Schedule time. Are you going to workout before work, at lunch, after work or around other's schedules? Whatever/ whenever it is stick to it just like you would with an appointment anywhere else, but realize this is the most important appointment. It's you time.

Evaluate. Write down certain personal statistics such as strength, endurance, bodyweight, bodyfat percentages, circumference measurements, clothes sizes or maybe even a before picture.

Determine the next step. "I can leg press 100 pounds, but I want to be able to do 120 pounds in two weeks." "I can run for 30 seconds, but I want to be able do three 1:00 runs in 3 weeks." "I weigh _____ or my measurements are ______ right now, but in a month I want to be at _______."

Cross off achievements. This is gratifyingly addictive. Celebrate the victories!

Determine the next step. Yes keep the momentum going and set more goals. The passion is there because the Results are being realized.

Unorthodox

Recently a member of the Sports Center approached me and acknowledged that he has been watching how I train my clients and the things I have them do. He proceeded to let me know how "unorthodox" I am. My response. Yeah I am. And the results we get are "unorthodox" too. Lose 5 pounds in a week. Lose 20 pounds in 4-6 weeks. Clients losing 60 pounds in 4-6 months. Adding over a foot to vertical jumps. Decreasing sprint times in terms of percentages. Doubling & tripling strength. 0 pull-ups to 3 in 3-4 months. Flexibility increase. Injury decrease. Confidence through the roof by looking, feeling & performing better.
It's just what I do. I am good because I have passion for it. It's my life. I like changing people's lives for the better because I can.

5 Consecutive Long Jumps

I do the jumping knee tuck or hops before I perform any explosive or fast movement. Reason is to lay down muscle motor neuron pathways related to the activity to be performed. Basically telling the body, "Ok we're gonna go hard and fast! Be ready!"
You will never see me hold a stretch before an activity like this. I would be sending the wrong body readiness message as in, "Relax, go easy."




This idea of performing 5 consecutive long jumps (5CLJ) came from a coach at the University of Wisconsin- Lacrosse. The average person should be able to broad jump their own height in distance. He has sufficient data that correlates one's long jump ability to speed. He had a group of world class time 400M sprinters at the time I discovered him. They were jumping around 11 feet. Which is amazing!



But we do 5CLJ's because it brings in a bigger athleticism challenge. The ability to land from an explosive jump, re-coil the muscles and spring forward again repeatedly requires: coordination, the exploitation of the plyometric effect on muscles and tendon and overall body strength (think armswing, core muscles to re-align the body mid-air and obviously legs & glutes).

Those studs from UW-L were jumping 55 feet in the 5CLJ. The end of the tape in my videos was at 45 feet. I have some work to do I guess.

Diabetes and Obesity is a Business

If you have diabetes or know someone with diabetes, understand this. Unless the diabetic has a non-functional pancreas, diabetes is reversible. Yes curable. It's only a disease if you break it down into dis-ease, meaning the body is not as ease. Rather it's overwhelmed. Poor food choices causing the body's hormone system to spin out of control; and this doesn't happen overnight, the culmination of eating habits and lack of knowledge of what is being sold as foods, over time, lead up to this condition.

Your suffering is big business. If diabetes was limited through society's active role in taking care of itself, this business niche would dwindle. The Diabetic Association would be smaller, insulin drug manufacturers, suppliers and "dealers" would lose profits. Magic drug weight loss scams would disappear, diet books and centers would not be so abundant. And the food manufacturers who "feed" us the ingredients (which are generally cheaper in cost to manufacture) would have to re-structure. This is a profitable consumables cycle and we are caught in the middle with no benefit. Maybe KNOWING the difference isn't enough, it might come down to tasting the difference.

The Route to Obesity Passes Through Your Tongue

According to Neuroscientists, obesity gradually numbs the taste sensation of rats to sweet foods, and drives them to consume larger and sweeter meals. This is apparently a critical link between taste and body weight.

Previous studies have suggested that obese persons are less sensitive to sweet taste. In summary of all these studies, chronic overeating is due to a missing satiety signal resulting in obesity and developing diabetes with an increased preference for sweet foods. The mechanism is that about 50% fewer neurons are firing when the tongues of the obese are exposed to sucrose – less sensitive to the taste of sugar.

Conversely, Super tasters who are sensitive to the bitter compounds found in broccoli and other foods were found to be about 20% thinner than non-tasters. Super tasters also tend to have more papillae, the tiny bumps on your tongue that hold taste buds. While non-tasters tend to like much sweeter, hotter and more bitter foods – they simply can't taste the food as well.

Influence of Hormones on Your Sweet Tooth

Leptin – a hormone produced by your fat cells – is believed to be a sweet-sensing hormone. With that, it is likely that either a lack of leptin or your body's failure to respond to the hormone contributes to having that sweet tooth. It's already been discovered that animals and humans with low leptin levels, or with defective leptin receptors (leptin resistance), tend to become obese. This hormone signals your brain when your fat cells are full; instructing your body to reduce hunger, increase fat burning and reduce fat storage. So in addition to increasing cravings for sweets, low leptin levels also diminish your feelings of satiety – leading to CONTINUED intake of sweets.

The issue is leptin resistance (similar to insulin resistance). If you eat a diet high in sugar and grains, blood sugar levels rise, insulin kicks in to deliver it to the liver and muscles, once those stores are topped off the excess sugar is metabolized to fat (picture a potbelly). The fat cells become full and trigger a leptin release to tell you to quit feeding your face. But overtime with excess food consumption both insulin and leptin become ignored by the body. These two hormones are around so much that the body doesn't "listen" to them.

Enter insulin resistance and leptin resistance. Insulin resistance develops diabetes, and leptin resistance develops obesity. Not just muffin tops and saddle bags but also that pregnant man look – you know that solid looking potbelly. That's visceral fat, fat surrounding the organs of the abdomen. Yuck!

And to tie everything together, the excess sugar travelling around in your blood stream from the inability of insulin to deliver causes heart disease in that sugar acts as rust on our blood vessels. Elevated blood sugar levels for long periods of time corrode the arteries; cholesterol (which is actually a friend to the body) comes in and patches up the "rust spots" in the blood vessels. And you can only do so many patch jobs.

The Addiction

Making matters worse, refined sugar has been found to be far more addictive than cocaine – one of the most addictive substances currently known! So if you think quitting tobacco is tough, giving up sugar can be even harder.

The Fix

Well from everything I just said taste of foods is not going to be the best indicator for what's good for your body.

Modify your diet by bringing in good fats about a third of your diet worth. No, fat does not beget fat – that's an '80's marketing concept by food manufactures to sell cheap unhealthy fat free foods.

Avoid insulin spikes. Never ever ever drink a soda by itself or just have toast, or just have pasta. The general rule is 4 carbs to 1 protein for insulin to do its work properly. Meaning you need to have some source of protein with every meal or snack.

Re-sensitize your taste buds. Eliminate just one of the food nemeses from your diet for 21 days at least. Then go back and just have a taste. Odds are, it won't taste nearly as good as you remembered it being; and may even be disgusting. Another feedback from my clients who cut out pasta for long period of time is that they notice a bloated gut feeling whenever they eat it again. Good sign to stay off the pasta.

Exercise. Physically demanding activities drain the glycogen (sugar) stores in the muscles. Now the muscles will listen to insulin because it has what the muscles need – more sugar as fuel. The fat cells shrink because insulin isn't visiting them as often with goodies. But another hormone comes along to visit the fat cells mobilizing them to "shape up" and lean out (I will save that for another story) and now, like a well run and efficient business everybody is getting along and doing their jobs right all because you decided to eat right and exercise smart.

Lat Pulldowns Behind Neck

Back to basics.
The lat pull-down behind the neck.
Look at Mikael's form & technique.

• Upright posture
• Chin up and head straight forward
• Appropriate hand grip width to allow for full range of motion
• While pulling down focusing on rotating the shoulder in towards the spine
• While letting the weight up she is controlling it, smoothly and allowing her shoulder blades to rotate up and out... hmmm kinda like angel wings.

When doing this exercise the goal is not how much weight you can do. Rather, it's a mind-on-muscle thing. Feeling the movement. Keeping perfect alignment.

Somedays you just need to go into the gym and connect with your body. Not worry about weights, reps, speed or heart rate. Simply connect. The whole mind, body, spirit thing comes alive when you allow yourself to have one these days.