Becoming a Corporate Athlete

A while ago, while studying for my Wellcoaching certification, I ran across an article called The Making of a Corporate Athlete. The basic premise was that sustained high achievement demands physical and emotional strength as well as a sharp intellect. To bring mind, body, and spirit to peak condition, executives need to learn what world-class athletes already know: recovering energy is as important as expending it.

Interestingly enough, the article applied the principles of High Intensity Interval Training that I use to physically train my clients to the executive work day.

It recommended that after periods of intense focus on a singular task, you take a short break, get up and walk around, hydrate, or eat something of nutritional value, fueling yourself for the next intentional focused task. The research showed that it is a simple and easy way to increase work efficiency and decrease stress levels!

I love simple!

Exercise is extremely beneficial to our productivity at work as it increases the blood and therefore oxygen flow to our brains, and releases those ‘feel good hormones,’ endorphins, keeping us in a good mood.

Here are some simple, practical ways that we can introduce more physical activity into our work life.

Choose one or two that you can incorporate seamlessly.

1. Use your legs!- walk or bike to work. Many of us actually live relatively close to our jobs. Sometimes the traffic is so bad, that it would actually be a quicker commute to use your own horse power, be it cycling or walking. Be sure to wear appropriate shoes. You can stash a spare pair at the office.

2. Stair climbing – take the stairs instead of the elevator. Stair climbing burns significantly more calories than jogging at a moderate pace for half of the time.

3. Replace your chair with a physioball – This is one of my favorite tips for my executive clients! Using a ball as your “chair” forces you to work the core, thereby improving balance, tone and burning calories!

4. Schedule a walk over lunch- Many of my most successful clients schedule a 10 minute brisk walk during a coffee or lunch break every day. (Sometimes two) Take it outside and get your 15 minutes of sun to build some Vitamin D reserves! Consider walking to the sandwich bar, but remember to pick something healthy, or if you bring lunch with you, walk to the local park and eat it there.

5. Start a lunch-time exercise group – try to get other co-workers involved, having a regular routine, and the support from your friends, will help you to stick with your exercise program. You’ll be surprised how many “takers” you’ll have in January! I have a few clients in town that work for a large corporation and they meet to “do stairs”.

6. Personal delivery service – rather than sending an email, deliver messages, or discuss issues, in person with your co-workers. The additional exercise will really add up over the course of a week.

7. Make an exercise schedule – plan for your physical activity just as you would any other appointment during the day. Don’t allow interruptions to change your plans. If you exercise after work, plan ahead the night before by packing your gym clothes. If you wait until morning, you’ll be REALLY lucky if you can find both socks and shoes, your favorite workout shorts AND your water bottle. It pays to be ready the night before. Do all you can to minimize excuses!

8. Join a Boot Camp Class (Or Lean Out Lakeland if you live in Central Florida) where you will have a group of people expecting you, holding you accountable and providing you support and planned workouts and hopefully solid nutritional guidance.

What will YOU choose to seamlessly integrate more exercise into your work day and become a more productive and healthy Corporate Athlete?

Tags: boot camp, bootcamp, Corporate Athlete, Florida, healthy eating, HIIT, Lakeland, Lean Out Lakeland, Weight Loss, Whitney Cabrera BSN
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Lose Some Serious Fat!

Are you desperate to lose fat?

Have joined the ranks of the insanely bored, yet focused cardio worshippers?

Do you feel guilty if you have not spent your hour a day rocking the elliptical machine?

Is your whole workout ruined if someone beat you to the only functioning, coveted
“revolving stair case” ? (Otherwise known as the death mill)

If so, then allow me to be sac-religious for a moment:

“Endurance Exercise is NOT a necessity for fat loss.”

Yes, I said it.

If you don’t like doing endurance work, stop doing it!

You can lose fat rapidly either WITH it or WITHOUT it!

You choose.

Exercising is about being healthy. And we all know that if we don’t like something, the chances of us continuing to do it after the novelty has worn off, is nil, and we NEED to continue doing it for our health’s sake.

Don’t you have anything you’d like to spend those extra hours doing besides ‘penance’ for eating an extra cookie at the office Christmas party? (We’ll talk about your unhealthy relationship with food at a later date.)

Now, I realize there is a place for endurance work. You may be training for a distance challenge, or possibly even really ENJOY the exercise itself. But this indeed would be a rarity. Most of us just either want to get in shape, or stay that way.

So, how can we lose fat rapidly without doing copious amounts of cardio?

Simple: Incorporate a nutritionally dense eating style and learn to implement anaerobic exercise. (The kind that leaves you gasping for breath!)

It’s not a single answer. You can’t lose your fat and keep your muscle without making changes in your diet, AND building some sweat equity working with weights.

So, here’s the bottom line:

Get a plan, a strategy together to make these two things happen in your life.

1. Eat a nutrient rich diet with 90% of your foods coming from plants. (Soups and Salads are a GREAT way to get this accomplished.)

2. Learn to perform High Intensity Interval Training.

If you are new to the concept of eating clean, and eating for nutritional excellence, I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Joel Fuhrman who is providing an important catalyst for a much needed paradigm shift in our approach to healthcare and weight loss.

Purchase any of his books, or even his audio book, Eat for Health (my personal favorite) as a gift for yourself for Christmas and spend the holidays becoming educated in what it will take to implement the most effective weight loss and disease prevention and reversal method ever.

But beware of the side effects!

Incorporating a Nutrient Dense Eating Style may cause unintentional reversal of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, arthritis, IBS, wrinkling skin, allergies and many other annoying and life threatening issues.

As for Learning to perform High Intensity Interval Training, let’s start very simply:

As applies to any exercise prescription, please check with your doctor to be sure this will be a safe activity for you. I know very few doctors who wouldn’t want their clients to walk…so don’t use this as an excuse to delay beginning your wellness journey.

Lace up your tennis shoes, grab a watch with a second hand and walk out your front door.

Step One: Walk for 5 minutes just to warm up your joints. Easy does it.

Step Two: Walk as fast as you can (and I do mean fast) for 1 full minute.

Step Three: Walk slowly to recover for 2 full minutes.

That’s Round One.

Repeat Step Two and Three 4 more times for a total of 15 minutes of Interval Training.

Step Four: Walk for 5 minutes to cool down.

That’s it.

Now, for those of you who are much more advanced and accomplished. Implement this same protocol, but utilize a more strenuous approach:

Jumproping (Fast Jumping 1 minute/Slow jumping 2 minutes)

Treadmill running (Sprint speed 1 minute/Jogging speed 2 minutes)

Cycling: (Fast and difficult gear for 1 minute/Slower and easier gear for 2 minutes.)

You get the idea. Anything that will bring your heart rate up will suffice.

I will post other HIIT workout ideas utilizing weights and cardio throughout the holiday season. Stay tuned.

Spend your holiday season getting prepared for a Fit and Fabulous 2010. Read, practice eating with nutrient density in mind and practice some HIIT.

If you live in Lakeland, Florida and you’re looking for some guidance in holistic dramatic fat loss utilizing the principles I mention here, you will want to check out this opportunity:

Here’s the Website with all the information you need to participate in the premiere weight loss and educational event in Lakeland, Florida.

Lean Out Lakeland

Beginning January 18th, 100 Lakeland individuals will be participating in a Team Weight Loss Contest geared to educate and empower their health and wellness. We have a few places left.

Are you ready to change? We’re here to help you make the permanent lifestyle change you know you need. Stop the endless treadmill cycle. Get it done! Lose the fat and improve your health!

It’s time for your own personal Wellness Revolution.

Tags: Florida, healthy eating, HIIT, Joel Fuhrman, Lakeland, Lakeland Boot Camp, Lakeland Personal Trainer, Lean Out Lakeland, Nutrient Dense Living, Strategic Boot Camp, Whitney Cabrera
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Need some new shoes?

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The Trick to Managing Treats

Halloween is almost here!

Do you have a plan?

Do the words, Eat-Repent-Repeat resound with you?

Get your strategy together. Pre-decide what you will be doing when the precious little goblins come a-knockin or your own precious pirates return home with their sweet bounty! Enjoy your Halloween and come out on the other side feeling empowered!

This article has been provided, with generous permission, by one of my mentors, Michelle May, M.D. She is a self-proclaimed recovered yo-yo dieter and author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat. Fantastic read on having a healthy relationship with food.

“Halloween candy showed up in August (as though we needed to get a jump on our holiday shopping!) and will still be on sale in November. What is the trick to eating what you love when it is everywhere?

Scaring Away the Cravings

Halloween can be a scary time of year for those trapped in an eat-repent-repeat cycle. You seem to be haunted by all that candy in the house, leading to a full-blown candy binge, chocolate hangover, and vows to do better tomorrow.

The tricky part is that labeling the foods you love as evil actually increases their power over you. When what you really crave is “bad,” you feel guilty for even wanting it and deprived because you can’t have it.
The result: You find yourself foraging treats from the pumpkin basket and burying the candy wrappers at the bottom of the garbage can so your kids won’t find out. And what does this say to your kids when they inevitably find out that you’ve been sneaking and stealing their candy? Talk about guilt!

How to stop raiding your kid’s Trick-or-Treat loot!

Minimize your exposure. Wait until the last minute to buy Halloween candy then buy only what you really think you’ll need for the big night. Get the stuff kids love rather than bags and bags of your favorites.

Remember, it’s not your food. All too often we eat whatever shows up–Halloween candy, donuts in the break room, or samples in the grocery store. But you didn’t choose to put it there so stop mindlessly putting it in your mouth!

Get your own. You’ll be less tempted to get into the kid’s holiday candy if stop depriving yourself the rest of the year. Scary, I know.

Share! If you really want some candy, ask your child to share a few pieces with you. Through observation, they learn that it is possible to balance eating for nourishment with eating for enjoyment.
Eat what you love. Skip the sugary kid candy (unless that’s what you love) and instead choose a few that you really love. Set them aside to eat when you really want them (I like to keep mine in a plastic bag in the freezer).

Save room for dessert. If you’re going to eat Halloween candy (you know you are!), then adjust for it. After all, does it really make sense to eat all your dinner to earn dessert?
If you love it that much, act like it! Enjoy those M&Ms one at a time, mindfully without distractions.
Just right! The fun-sized treats are the perfect size for a few mindful bites of heaven. And those first few bites are always the best, so think before you dive in for more.

Eat fearlessly without guilt. We all know that guilt leads to more eating, not less, so let it go.
Don’t torture yourself with exercise. Being physically active feels good and provides numerous benefits for your health; don’t turn it into punishment for eating.

Pass it on. Halloween is a great time to teach your kids how to enjoy a little candy as part of a healthy and active lifestyle.”

Happy Halloween!

Enjoying the journey,

Whitney Cabrera RN, BSN

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(Not) for Women Only

It is breast cancer awareness month.

Most of us think of breast cancer as a woman’s disease.

It’s not.

Men do indeed, have breasts.

In our country, the ration of women to men with breast cancer is 100:1. This is not an astonishing statistic, unless you happen to be one of the 2,000 men a year that are absolutely shocked to hear the words, “You have breast cancer” from their physicians.

While it is rare, our men: our husbands, fathers, sons, nephews, grandfathers, all need to be aware of the possibility that they in fact can get breast cancer.

I’m fully aware.

My Father has Breast Cancer.

Post a mastectomy, multiple rounds of chemo, and unabashedly changing his diet to a plant based one, he is getting back to normal.

Finally.

We are awaiting the results of his yearly PET scan, and are quite hopeful things are fine.

Here are some facts for you:

Symptoms of male breast cancer include the same as symptoms in women: Breast lump, changes to the nipple or breast skin, or even discharge of fluid from the nipple. The treatment is usually a mastectomy and any combination of radiation, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.

Our men don’t sit for routine screening mammograms. BUT, they should perform routine breast exams, just like you, once a month. Most male breast cancer is found between the ages of 60-70.

Pull your man aside and teach him how to do the following. You could be saving his life.

You DO know how to do this for yourself, don’t you?

Here’s the technique for teaching a man to do a self breast exam:

1. Make yourself soapy.

2. Place your left arm above and behind your head. With the three middle fingers of your right hand, press your breast against your chest wall.

3. In a circular motion, feel small portions of your left breast, going around until you have covered the entire breast and underarm. Make sure you do it slowly.

4. Repeat using your left hand to examine your right breast.

Look for lumps, nipple discharge, or breast changes. Tell your doctor about the changes!

What an encouraging thing it has been this month to see all of the pink appearing on so many products across the country! I even saw Cat Food today in a pink bag! Go Purina! Thank you.

My prayers are with all of the victims!

Let’s get a little shot of blue in with all that pink!

Yours in Health,

Whitney Cabrera RN, BSN

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