Jes Reynolds…Your Fitness Coach

When I first started out in fitness, I often heard (but never believed) the phrase “you can’t out train a bad diet”.  In my opinion the people who said that were kindof full of themselves with their perfect eating habits and nutrition know-how…Wouldn’t you know it…all these years later…they were right (F!).  If you want results, you must do both, you must eat the right amounts of healthy foods and work out.

If you want results, you must focus on both nutrition and exercise (except for a rare few genetic freaks and high school kids who can usually eat whatever they want), implementing a productive routine over time so they become a regular and consistent part of your life.  Being patient and doing things over time is the only way to learn to manage your own psychology as it relates to health habits, to address various circumstances that often lead to over eating, and to find the best way to fit exercise into your lifestyle and improve your health.  I’ve included 5 recipes, one for every meal & snack that fit within the standard nutritional guidelines.  Take a whirl at including these in your nutritional strategy and see what happens!

Breakfast

Breakfast Bacon & Egg Scramble, with “Sweet” Fries

• 3 egg whites, 1 whole egg (4 total eggs whites)
• 2 slices turkey bacon
• 1 small sweet potatoes
• 1 whole roma tomato
• 1/4 tsp. dill

Microwave sweet potato about 1 minute (until soft).  Allow to cool.  Slice sweet potato into 1/8 inch “fries”, toss with 1/2 tbl. Olive oil & salt to taste.  Bake potatoes at 375 for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Microwave or broil turkey bacon and allow to cool on paper towel to drain fat.   Wisk egg together w/salt & pepper to taste, chop & add tomato.  Cook  in skillet sprayed with spray olive oil.  Chop bacon and add to scrambled eggs as cooking.

Snack

Super Smoothie

• ½ apple
• 2 Tbl. Flax meal or 1/2 Tbl. Flax oil
• ½ c. blueberries (frozen)
• 1 c. Almond Milk
• ½ – 1 RAW protein powder
• 5 Ice cubest

Mix all ingredients together in blender. Add water for smoothness (if needed). Enjoy!!!

Lunch

Lunch Broccoli Salad w/Tuna

• 1 ½ c. Broccoli slaw
• ½ can Tuna
• 1/2 Tbl plain yogurt mixed w 1/2 Tbl. Canola Mayo
• Salt and Pepper

Mix tuna with mayo, then add to broccoli slaw. It’s good. Or, if you hate it, experiment by replacing yogurt with mustard.  Serves 1

Dinner

Caribbean Chicken

• 2 chopped chicken breasts
• 1 chopped green bell pepper
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• ½ cup corn
• ½ c. sliced olives
• 1 sliced avocado
• 1 medium tomato diced

Sauce:

• 2 tbl. Honey 2 tbl.
• Olive Oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chili powder
• Juice from two ripe limes

Cook and dice chicken.  Then cook and dice veggies.  Place in bowl.  Shake  all ingredients for sauce together in small container (you may have to heat up  the honey a little) Drizzle sauce over veggies and chicken and mix thoroughly.   Adjust sauce to your taste preference (limey to honey).  Serves 2-3

There are certain things that we all love to eat.  A few of my favorites are chocolate and red wine.  I’ve found a few things that satisfy cravings while keeping you within our meal plan.  If I know I’ll be having a glass of wine with dinner, I might decide to skip the potato or the bread.  If I know I’ll be enjoying chocolate covered fruit, I  might not eat as much during the previous meal.

Dessert

Dark chocolate covered strawberries

• 12 strawberries – washed
• 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips

Melt chocolate in microwave 30 sec. – 1 min. Stir around until smooth.  Dip strawberries in melted chocolate and set on plate or wax paper.  Allow to cool or refrigerate 4-6 strawberries = 1 serving

When I train clients, I often have them do a food log or an online nutritional tracking system that helps me monitor what they eat.  As the days go by, I am able to give practical advice on how to deal with different situations such as family parties, work pot lucks, or working the midnight shift.  Clients get tips and ideas on how they can apply the nutritional guidelines to their own lifestyle.  If you are interested in nutritional counseling, send an email to jes@jesreynolds.com and we can get started today!

I came to Jes to help me deal with advancing arthritis in my hip. When I started with her, I was barely able to climb stairs, I had completely given up running and was struggling even with non-contact aerobic workouts.

I discovered that Jes is incredibly knowledgeable about muscle groups and biomechanics. She has systematically built up the muscles that support my hip and helped me deal with secondary issues resulting from my arthritis like posture and
gait. She designed an exercise and stretching program for me that has made a world of difference in my life so that I now have no hesitation using stairs and I am even starting to jog again!

Jes is outstanding to work with. During workouts, Jes is unfailingly positive and enthusiastic. She has a great sense of how hard to push and what goals to set. She offers advice on diet, on how to stay fit during business travel and she has been flexible on times to meet given my very busy schedule.

I would recommend Jes to anyone. Jes rocks!

(THANKS PHIL…YOU WILL BE MISSED!)

As I mentioned in my last article, effective cardiovascular training is a crucial factor in for many fitness related goals including athletic goals, weight loss and general health. In this post, I’d like to share with you some of my secrets for developing cardio programs.

In order to get the most benefit from cardio training, I recommend making continual adjustments and tweaks to three variables:

-Duration: Length of time spent for each individual cardio session
-Intensity: Level of difficulty achieved during each cardio session
-Variance: Varying the type of cardio performed each session

Duration
Obviously the length of your cardio training sessions has an impact on total calories burned, cardiovascular endurance and cardiovascular health. While basic recommendations from the American College of Sports Medicine and American Heart Association are to do moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day five days a week, or to do vigorously intense cardio 20 minutes a da, three days a week, for healthy adults under the age of 65, it’s also important that your cardio training correlates with your personal fitness goals, whether they involve weight control, fat loss or are more performance oriented.

Intensity:
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT has become a very popular fat burning method. HIIT uses intervals of time and assigns them a personal intensity level. Normally you’ll “max out” and then recover during the next interval. HIIT is great for breaking personal records and gives you a personal challenge during every workout. Not only that, research suggests that HIIT causes the body to burn more energy for a longer period of time after the workout is complete (fat burning while doing nothing!). The main drawback to HIIT is for beginners in fitness. This type of workout can be intimidating, and, if done incorrectly, it could be overly exhausting to the point of becoming nauseating. Whenever performing HIIT, it should always be based on personal intensity index. It is important to understand how hard you can work.

Steady State Training (SST)
SST is a constant, steady effort throughout the entire cardio session. You’ll keep your personal intensity from 7 to 9 (on a scale of 1-10) the entire session. This type of cardio session will also cause the body to demand more energy when your workout is complete, although not as much as HIIT.

Low Intensity Cardio
Low intensity cardio is great for active lifestyle activities, beginners in fitness, those recovering from injury and the elderly. While you do burn mostly fat while doing cardio at a lower intensity level, you will not get the benefits of post-workout energy demand. Because of this, LILT is an inefficient method for burning fat. You can achieve more benefits in a shorter period of time by using the various other methods suggested here.

Variance
One commonly overlooked component of cardio training is variance. By variance I mean using different methods of cardio each time you train in order to elicit an adaptive response. Variance is especially important if your goals include weight loss, fat loss or general fitness. By using different types of cardio such as running, jump rope, step mill, biking, elliptical, etc., your body attempts to become efficient at each activity (as opposed to becoming efficient at just one activity). Continually changing type of cardio you do will not only improve overall fitness level but also will increase your total calories burned.

The method I’ve found to be most effective in getting cardio results is by laying out a weekly a monthly plan that incorporates each of the variables mentioned on different days. Are you wondering how you can use these principles to maximize the effectiveness of your cardio training plan? If so, leave your questions and I will do my best to answer them below.