– Pete Piranio, BS, CSC, Owner of Fitness Together and Piranio Fitness Systems, Inc is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, from the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

The time of the year when stress can really build has now arrived. It’s a time to prepare for the holidays, a time to prepare the New Year’s budgets and a time to finish all the “to dos” on this year’s list.

Unfortunately, as stress accumulates our own health and fitness goals are often sidelined. We again place what we desire and want for ourselves back on the shelf, because our lives become over stimulated with other obligations. Beating stress is a difficult task, but we have the power and control to survive the holidays and the end of the year frenzy by making just a few changes in our own habits and ways of thinking.

Stress is defined as anything that stimulates you and increases your level of alertness. Life without this stimulus would be incredibly dull and boring, but with too much of this stimulus, life becomes unpleasant, tiring and eventually damaging to our health and well- being. As stress builds, we are at a higher risk of fatigue, depression, burn out, sudden loss of self-control and weight gain. In order to keep this stimulus at a healthy and enjoyable level, we must master the art of stress management by making a few small changes in our habits and ways of thinking.

There are four main habits we need to consider when conquering stress. These habits are meditation and relaxation, exercise, good nutrition and self-control. Each habit listed is easily forgotten and given up when additional stress enters our lives. We tend to put each of these techniques on the shelf, even though they are solutions to making ourselves feel better both emotionally and physically.

Meditation and relaxation is a good place to begin, since they teach us to take time for ourselves. It is easy to stretch our limits by promising to accomplish everything other people ask of us. Unfortunately, there are only 24-hours in a day, and usually that isn’t enough time to meet all the deadlines and activities on our calendars. That’s when meditation and other relaxation practices are particularly useful in controlling stress. They help slow down breathing, reduce blood pressure, relax tense muscles, eliminate stressful thoughts, reduce anxiety, help with concentration and give the body time to eliminate lactic acid and other waste products that accumulate.

The essence of meditation is to silence your thoughts by focusing completely on just one focal point. I suggest trying yoga or silent breathing exercises to experience this form of meditation. One breathing exercise worth trying involves concentrating on your breaths in and out while lying down in a quiet place, or where there is soft music playing in the background. You can accompany this by counting your breaths using the numbers 0 to 9 or you can visualize health and relaxation flowing in with each inhale and stress or pain flowing out with each exhale. In all cases, forms of meditation help your body relax and release the stress within.

Besides meditation, participating in frequent effective exercise is probably one of the best physical stress-reduction techniques available. The only downfall with exercise is how easy it is to push it last on our priority list and say “it can be done later” and “there is no time to fit that into my schedule.” I often get concerned hearing comments like those because taking exercise out of our lives tends to have an opposite effect from what we think it will. In other words, we haven’t helped our situation, but only added more stress to our lives and bodies.

Exercise has several positive benefits that most people are not aware of. Exercise improves blood flow to your brain bringing additional sugars and oxygen to your brain, which aids thinking and concentration. By exercising, you speed the flow of blood through your brain, moving waste products due to neurons of the brain functioning more intensely, and it can cause the release of chemicals called endorphins into your bloodstream and decreases “stress hormones” like cortisol. Those hormones give you a feeling of happiness and well-being.

Without exercise, we also add more physical stress on our bodies. Someone who is physically fit has an organ system functioning at an optimal level. If this individual should become ill or injured, they will have a stronger immune system to fight off the discomfort and recover quickly. So improving your overall health and vitality with exercise can also save you a great deal of stress by strengthening your immunity to colds, the flu and other minor illnesses. Along with exercise comes nutrition, which is another habit change we can work on during the holidays.

A surprising amount of stress we may experience on a daily basis can be caused by what we eat. By eating and drinking certain foods, we actually put our bodies under chemical stress. So why do we stop making the effort to write in our food journals, why do we stop making the best choices at a party or holiday gathering, and why do we stop feeling the need to eat unhealthy food?

The answer is because it’s probably easier just to do what is habit, even though they are habits that we do not like. And, in the end, we are disappointed with ourselves and stressed because of the extra pounds we have gained. Similarly, if we are eating an unbalanced diet, we may be stressing our bodies by depriving them of essential nutrients and eating too large a portion, which causes weight gain and puts additional stress on our hearts and lungs.

During this season, it is also important to be aware of the effects of certain foods, including caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and sugar. If you eat well-balanced meals consisting of one-third portions of protein, complex carbohydrates and fibrous carbohydrates, you will minimize this chemical stress and feel good about yourself at the same time. And instead of gaining five to 10 pounds, you may actually lose five pounds.

Lastly, I want to emphasize the importance of self-control in reducing stress. When under stress, it is very easy to lose perspective of what is important and what can wait until later. Problems that seem small can take on an apparent size that makes them seem difficult and intimidating. Naturally, this will increase your stress level and will feed your feeling of stress.

If you take a positive approach to life, take time for yourself to get what your body needs and wants, try to find a good side to every situation, then you will find that you are less likely to feel stressed. You will worry less, sleep better, exercise more, eat healthier, and enjoy the holiday season. An important part of making habitual changes is learning to view mistakes as learning experiences. We won’t always stay perfect with our exercise and nutrition commitments. There will always be an occasion we travel off the path. But when you are in control of your life, you can control the level of stress you face and get right back on the right path. But when you are out of control and find the only way to escape is by pushing aside all of your health and fitness goals, than you cannot prevent stress from building on top of stress. Often the difference between being in control and out of control comes down to making an investment of the little free time you have by doing something that will benefit your long-term health.

Now is the time of year to start eliminating stress by taking control of your life, staying committed to your exercise and nutritional programs and taking time out to relax. In the end, you will be healthier, stronger and happier-and can enjoy the holiday season.

–Pete Piranio BS, CSC, Owner of Fitness Together and Piranio Fitness Systems, Inc is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, from the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Among the numerous products available promising to help slim your waist is a bold new concept – bottled diet water. Diet water? Water, the naturally occurring compound that accounts for the vast majority of composition in all organic matter, is totally void of caloric content in its ordinary state. So how does one take an abundant naturally occurring compound that contains zero calories and make it “diet”? Actually it’s quite simple – marketing.

Bottled water is the world’s fastest growing beverage industry sector valued upwards of $46 billion annually. In 2004, global consumption of bottled water reached a staggering 154 billion liters, or 41 billion gallons. Americans, alone, accounted for about 26 billion liters, making us the world’s leading consumer of bottled water. And with over 150 different bottles waters on the market, beverage companies had to come up with a new sales pitch in order to gain a competitive advantage. Hence, “healthier” water products.

The multitude of enriched and vitamin fortified waters from numerous major beverage companies are targeted at the health and fitness enthusiast. Among these new chic waters are products claiming to promote weight loss. Jana’s newest product, Skinny Water, makes the claim that it blocks the absorption of carbohydrates, increases metabolism and makes you feel less hungry.

Scientists at Jana add an ingredient to their water (water that comes from an artesian well in Croatia) identified only as Super CitriMax. Jana recommends four bottles daily to be consumed 30 minutes before meals. Jana’s only claim that can be truly substantiated is that it reduces hunger when consumed 30 minutes before mealtime – although, the same claim can be made of water that comes from the tap or any other source of water.

Jana’s advertising cites proof of its claims based on the results of a study conducted at the Georgetown University Medical Center showing that after eight weeks, users experienced an average weight loss of 10 pounds. When contacted for a story airing on WPIX-CW11, in New York, Dr. Harry Preuss, the lead researcher in the Georgetown Study said, “I hate to talk about Skinny Water because I really don’t know much about Skinny Water.” In fact, Dr. Preuss’ research didn’t investigate Skinny Water, only hydroxycitric acid, the active ingredient in CitriMax. However, The Journal of the American Medical Association published a separate study with a larger group of concluded users of CitriMax experienced no significant difference in weight loss compared to a placebo.

Other designer waters claiming to promote weight loss add stimulants to their bottled water. Stimulants can sometimes be effective at reducing appetite. Among their many drawbacks is the very hungry appetite that you are left with in the evening as the stimulant wears off. Another side effect is the moderate to sever disruptions in one’s sleep patterns that often occur as a result of taking stimulant drugs. Stimulant drugs disturb your body’s homeostasis and prevent you from getting the appropriate amount of sleep. This causes your Leptin levels to be out of balance and your appetite will actually increase while your metabolism is slowing down.

The intention here isn’t to single out any particular brand or product, but to address the issue of water products that include ingredients other than H20. A good rule of thumb – if what you’re drinking has an ingredients list on the label, it’s probably not the best choice. Beverages are one of the easiest ways to rack up excess calories throughout the day.

With so many weight loss products on the market promising a quick fix, it’s all the more important for everyone to be skeptics. There is no path to fitness and well-being that bypasses hard work and a commitment to change. By drinking water without any additives you ensure that you stay properly hydrated, minimize your intake of empty calories, keep your appetite regulated and minimize “bored” snacking. The best additive for drinking water is probably an ice cube. There is some research that suggests that drinking water at cold temperatures can cause the body to expend calories in order to raise that temperature of the cold water to one more suitable to our bodies. Now, that’s diet water.

– Pete Piranio

Any diet that leaves you feeling hungry will ultimately backfire, you’ll regain what little weight you’ve lost, and more importantly, you will have deprived your body of vital nutrients. Believe it or not, it IS possible to eat enough to feel satisfied, not to mention the fact that you’ll also be doing your body a favor by consuming the essential vitamins and minerals that your body craves. The key here is not only how much you eat, but WHAT you’re eating. What you need to do is fill up on foods with high nutrient density, but low calorie density.

Calorie density, also known as energy density, is the amount of calories of a food per gram. Foods that are high in water, air or fiber are less calorie dense than those that are dried or high in fat. So if you want to eat enough food to satisfy your hunger, at the base of your diet should be vegetables, fruits and whole grains.

Unfortunately, the problem with our lifestyle today is that we’re always on the go, which leaves us little time to think about the food we’re eating. So we pull through the drive-thru or go out to lunch. The portion sizes at most restaurants and the supersized “value” meals at fast food chains lead you to double trouble. Let’s face it, when you’re served more food, you eat more, without stopping to think about how full you are. And chances are, the calorie dense foods most restaurants serve are doing nothing to help shrink your waistline. Not only are we eating too much, but we’re eating too much of the wrong kinds of food.

Barbara Rolls, PhD, a nutrition researcher at Penn State University, has been studying the effects of portion control, food choices and calorie density in foods for nearly three decades. Her findings are simple. People will eat the same volume of food regardless if it is of high calorie density, or of low calorie density. Her research subjects were consistently fed the same amount (three pounds) of food daily. Even though the amount of food they consumed was the same, the research subjects on the low calorie density diet ate 30 percent fewer calories.

Perhaps even more important, both groups felt equally satisfied on the amount they were served per day – regardless of the amount of total calories consumed. Foods with a greater volume, therefore, tell both your eyes and your stomach that you are eating enough. Dr. Rolls has concluded that the key to lifelong weight management is finding foods that will keep you full with fewer calories.

Let’s look at some comparisons to give you an idea of just how important this concept of energy density is:

1 cup of cantaloupe (56 calories) VS ¼ cup of dried apricots (77 calories)

The cantaloupe offers ¾ cup more for 21 fewer calories. Fresh fruits are packed with water and fiber and are a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Calorie per calorie, fresh fruit is always a smarter choice than dried fruits or fruit juices. So put away that apple juice and grab an apple instead.

Vegetables and dip: 1 cup of carrots, 1 cup of bell peppers and 2 tbsp. of French onion dip (142 calories) VS Potato chips and dip: 1 oz. potato chips and 2 tbsp. French onion dip (200 calories)

For fresh veggies and dip you can allow approximately 1 ¾ cup more per serving for 58 fewer calories. Finger food is always easy to overeat, so if you’re looking for something to munch on, choose snacks with plenty of fiber and water, such as fresh veggies. Potato chips are dry, compact and loaded with fat, but low on fiber.

1 1/3 cups of bran flakes (125 calories) VS 1/3 cup of granola (160 calories)

You can eat a full cup of bran flakes more than granola, but still save 35 calories. The calorie densities of cereal vary greatly and most people fill their cereal bowls up the same no matter which cereal they choose, so pick your cereal carefully. Skip the high fat, sugar loaded cereals in favor of low sugar, whole grain cereals. And to keep the calories low, make sure you top them with skim milk.

2 cups strawberry-banana smoothie made with yogurt, low-fat milk, ice cubes, strawberries and a banana (215 calories) VS 1 cup milk shake made with vanilla ice cream, whole milk and chocolate syrup (410 calories)

The smoothie saves you 195 calories and you get twice as much. Once again, the fruit adds sweetness and the ice adds to the water content. Allowing the blender to whirl for an extra minute or two will add even more air to the mix, boosting the volume without added fat or calories.

5 oz. turkey breast (221 calories) VS 3 oz. Italian pork sausage (275 calories)

We know protein is an important part of a healthy diet to repair our muscles and help us feel fuller longer. But not all protein is created equal. As you can see, the turkey breast offers two oz. more for 54 fewer calories. Always choose lean cuts of meat to keep the protein content up and calorie content down.

The bottom line is that satiety is the most important factor as to whether or not you’ll be able to stick to a diet plan and finally lose the weight you’ve been struggling with. Dieters’ biggest mistakes are eating less and skipping meals, which only leads them to eat more later when their hunger becomes out of control. Diets that leave you feeling deprived are not the answer and will never be the ultimate weight loss solution. Choosing mostly high fat, calorie dense foods will never keep you satisfied at minimal calories. Instead, go for the low calorie dense foods that have been proven to keep those hunger pains at bay. Only if you keep yourself feeling satisfied will you be able to lose the weight and keep it off for good!

– Pete Piranio, BS, CSC, Owner of Fitness Together

When you started your journey to a healthier new you, you were ready to take on the world. At that moment you were ready to workout five times per week, plan and prepare nutritious meals and make the necessary changes needed to achieve your goals.

Then life happened: your children’s after school activities made you cancel a few workouts, your job became more hectic, you stopped focusing on getting five balanced meals and you caught a cold virus that made it hard for you to find the motivation to exercise daily.

Eventually, negative thoughts started to frequent your mind during your workouts. Why do I struggle to change when everyone around me does it so easily? Why is it so hard for me to stick with my workouts and so simple for everyone else? Why can’t I get the results like others I see?

Every year these same thoughts keep millions of Americans from reaching their weight loss and athletic goals. The reason is because we give up; we start listening to our own negative thoughts. We convince ourselves when obstacles arise that we have failed. We hold these negative thoughts as “proof” we don’t have what it takes to succeed. And with each failure, we see ourselves getting further away from our goals. The truth is the success thrives on failure. In order to achieve getting the body and healthier lifestyle we want, we have to accept setbacks and obstacles as part of the game of changing old habits into new.

Once we start believing that change means overcoming setbacks to our workout and nutrition plan, then we can start preparing for any obstacle thrown our way. No longer will we feel we can’t succeed. Instead, we will know it is all part of the process and find a way to move past it to reach our goals. Failure is the “proof” that we are part of a changing process – a life altering change in our health. “Proof” that we are on the right path to reaching our ultimate goal. The choice is ours: either we whine, give up and run scared when obstacles arise, or we take charge and find a way around the setback and continue on our way. Like the saying goes, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Meaning, you have the choice to give up, or you can acknowledge what you have already achieved, how far you’ve come and what the future still holds. And by doing this, no longer is there reason to give up but further reason to persist.

And, when the going gets tough, we all have to remember six important tips to help us succeed and surpass our obstacles.

1. Don’t give up: The minute you give up is the minute you have let your failure control you. Instead, take control and remember why you want to change. Then find a way to get there. Consult your trainer on ways you can overcome barriers.

2. Accept the ups and downs: No journey is perfect so you can’t expect changing old habits into new healthier habits to be without a few bumps. It took years to establish those habits, allow time for your new habits to become easy and natural.

3. Give yourself permission to fail: Sometimes it’s hard not to be perfect. But even the greatest athletes aren’t on their “A” game every practice or event. Learn from what you did wrong and keep going.

4. Work on Positive Thinking: Negative thoughts only lead to a lower self-image. And a lower self-image will make you give up on yourself when you have the power to change.

5. Continue to Just Do It: In order to change, you can’t just stop; you have to do something – and keep doing it – in order to achieve anything.

6. Keep in mind you aren’t alone: All those thoughts about everyone else having it so simple aren’t true. Even personal trainers have obstacles that get in their way and make it hard to stay motivated. The person you think has achieved success so easily may understand more about what you are going through then you think.

There is no secret formula for success, no easy pathway or short cut. Success is, and always will be, one thing – Hard Work – but it’s work worth conquering.

By Pete Piranio

The cost of staying healthy is trumped by the cost of getting sick. Over the past several years I’ve heard many people argue the same point; they muse use a little different verbiage or call on a differing variety of key points to support their claim, but the message remains the same.

Japan has based their entire healthcare system on this premise. Many of us invest a considerable amount of time and effort in this notion: whether it be as seemingly benign as taking the stairs, parking farther away and avoiding the golden arches – or as dramatic as lifting weights, hitting the treadmill, seeing holistic health practitioners, eating whole foods – or supplementing our diet with various nutrition products.

The ever rising cost of healthcare, coupled with the steady decline in the health of the American population, has many of us increasingly disenfranchised with the healthcare system as a whole. A far greater number of people are becoming increasingly interested in Homeopathic and Osteopathic avenues in addition to the traditional Allopathic healthcare. As a result, alternative medicine practitioners are gaining credibility in the marketplace.

This country consumes more medications per-capita than any other – by a huge margin. Furthermore, healthcare costs in this country are the highest in the world. It has been reported that on an average, a 65-year-old American is taking 19 different medications annually!

Peer-reviewed medical journals cite 106,000 deaths annually as a direct result of adverse drug reactions, as well as 98,000 deaths annually from medical errors. According to recent estimates, a minor heart attack resulting in an overnight hospital stay will cost you about $6,000 a night.

Being aware of this, it is surprising that people consider investing a few extra dollars a day in their own overall health to be expensive. Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee invented the multi-vitamin in 1915. Since its creation, the multi-vitamin has increased the quality of nutrition, thereby increasing the quality of life for millions of people. A recent study published in the Nutrition Journal (October 24, 2007) outlines just exactly how beneficial supplements can be to one’s health.

This study, termed the Landmark Study, is also indexed in PubMed Central. The study, which is the first and only one of its kind, examined the overall health of people who used multiple nutritional supplements by Shaklee for 20 years, compared to non-users and those who used only a multi-vitamin. The study followed blood serum nutrient levels and biomarkers to measure health in the respective groups. A biomarker is a tangible characteristic that can be objectively measured, such as the cholesterol level or blood pressure. These biomarkers are good indicators of heart disease risk, cancer, diabetes or braing disorders.

The study found that those who consumed multiple dietary supplements were 75 percent less likely to have diabetes and 39 percent less likely to have high blood pressure than the non-user group. Furthermore, the multiple supplement group was at 52 percent less risk of coronary heart disease and 49 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack. Finally the multi-users were shown to have a 45 percent decrease in risk for emphysema when compared to the non-users.

So, the message is loud and clear: invest in your health and the payoffs will speak for themselves. Shaklee has invested $250 million in scientific research and quality control in their more than 50 years they have been in business. Their supplement products are currently the only ones scientifically proven to have a positive impact on the health of those who regularly use them.

Pete Piranio, BS, CSC, Owner of Fitness Together and Piranio Fitness Systems, Inc is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, from the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

For more information, check our http://www.fitnesstogether.net.

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