Thanks for checking out Vertex Fitness's segment on the NBC 10 The 10! Show. Watch Dwayne and Kelly, the Owner and Assistant Manager of Vertex Fitness, demonstrate simple exercises you can do without equipment to strengthen your body without equipment. These workouts are easy to learn and allow you and a friend to work out together and have fun while becoming fit!

January 18, 2010

An Ironic Day

Today was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  A communicator, someone who could speak and people would listen than take action.  A man with a vision who could speak of his vision and as he was speaking people could see what he was seeing.  It seems some people have a gift of communication and others have to constantly work at it.  I do not possess that gift.  I don't lack the vision nor do I lack the drive, ambition or tenacity (I like that word, I borrowed it from someone else's blog I read earlier today), but trying to communicate it to others sometimes seems like I am speaking another language.  Today was one of the hardest days communicating that I have had in a long time.  I have a vision for the business, I know I need a good supporting cast (I think I am on the verge of having the best staff I have had in my 9 years of this business) and I know I need to communicate and educate the people around me to see what I see.  So, I think I have a grasp on what I need to do, but how do I do it.  How do I implement it?  How do I spend my time wisely and continue moving in a positive direction?  Do the great leaders surround themselves with people who believe in their vision before they meet, or do they meet good people and find a way communicate their vision to them?  So many question so few answers.  Tomorrow is a new day.

Something I decided to do in this New Year is to write random thoughts here.  Some will have to do with my passion of helping people understand health and fitness.  Others will have really nothing to do with anything except what I am thinking at the time.  

This is a random thought for Sunday January 17, 2010

Today is my first post...  

I was watching TV this Sunday morning. In resent years I have been getting more and more interested in politics and like watching  George Stephanopoulos on Sunday mornings when I am not working, I think he is brilliant.  Anyway, I heard on one of the shows this morning that it was Muhammad Ali's Birthday.  This got me to thinking about Ali's life.  So, I did a little research on him.  When I was growing up, heavy weight boxing was as big as any sport, all of my friends were talking about Muhammad Ali, you didn't care who would be fighting him.  As an adult I have a totally different respect for the man.  He was a master at playing the game.  His comments and antics were a way of promoting himself and to get inside the head of his opponent.  Everyone knew who he was and when his next fight was.  I am sure he had some help from promoter Don King, but even Don King couldn't tell Ali what to say and not say.  He was a household name because he wanted to be.  He was an amazing promoter of himself and the sport of boxing.  Life after boxing shows what kind of man he is.  

He dedicates time to charities, even though he is becoming more and more disabled himself with Parkinson's disease.  He seems to be a shadow of what he once was as a man, but in my opinion he just continues to grow as a human being.  Muhammad Ali, what a wonderful man.

Owner

Vertex Fitness Personal Training Studio

Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

610 525 6604

Dieters, beware: Food and restaurant labels might be sabotaging your calorie-counting efforts.

So found a study published in the current edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Assn. Researchers from Tufts University took commercially prepared foods -- both prepackaged and from restaurants -- and analyzed them using a bomb calorimeter. The measured energy values of 10 frozen meals purchased from supermarkets averaged 8% more than originally stated, and foods from 29 restaurants (both fast-food and sit-down venues) were on average 18% more than reported.

That hidden -- and unwelcome -- extra can fool dieters who don't have the time to cook their own meals into thinking they're cutting their caloric intake.

It certainly undermined the efforts of Susan B. Roberts, lead author on the study. The Energy Metabolism Laboratory director said she originally conceived of the idea for the experiment after designing two diets -- one that required home-cooked meals and another that did not. Roberts tested the diets out on herself, and her frustration quickly began to mount. In her home-cooked meal diet, she had lost weight consistently and on target. The no-cook regimen, however, was another matter.

"I wasn't losing any weight," Roberts said in an interview. "This was ridiculous. I came into the lab one day and thought, something's not adding up -- I think there's more calories in these foods than there should be."

Roberts put her theory to the test. The results?

A Lean Cuisine shrimp and angel hair pasta label says it's 220 calories (which works out to 250 calories of gross energy, the study calculates). The Tufts team pegged gross energy at 319. Denny's dry toast lists 92 calories. Instead, it let off a whopping 283 calories.

The discrepancies were a little less extreme than those in the Pirate's Booty scandal back in 2002, when a suspicious Good Housekeeping employee tested the apparently low-fat snack (label: 2.5 grams of fat) and found it had 8.5 grams, more than three times the stated amount. And to be fair, some foods came in under caloric value (a serving of Domino's thin crust cheese pizza had 141 calories, 33% less than expected).

But why did most foods seem to err in excess? Roberts said it was likely because "package manufacturers are just playing it safe."

"The FDA regulations are much more punitive, much more stringent on underproviding than overproviding," the scientist said. "It's an old-style mentality: 'People need to be given what they pay for.' "

Roberts' advice to dieters? Don't starve yourself -- just know what you put into your body. "If you want to lose 10 pounds, you can do it with food. Food is the best way. But by eating at home, you'll have a much easier time."

In any case, if you're eating at a place where "dry toast" earns you 283 calories, you're probably not on the low-calorie bandwagon to begin with.

Questionable. That’s how I’ve been feeling about making resolutions for 2010. I could easily relate to what one of my friends wrote on his Facebook status New Year’s Eve, “I don’t make New Year’s resolutions because I prefer not to set myself up for failure.” 

It’s now January 7 and after the past week of being bombarded with non-stop commercials, emails, segments on the Today Show and web advertisements taunting me about making, and more importantly, keeping fitness resolutions. . . I’m finally ready to start my new year. 

I’m not going to fail because I’m not setting unattainable goals. Instead of taking an all or nothing attitude, I’m taking small steps toward a healthier lifestyle that I will build upon. The first three that I’m instituting include:

1. Drink more water. I’m getting off the sugary stuff (bye-bye to two of my favorites Coke and Snapple Lemon Ice Tea) and replacing it with the recommended daily intake of eight, 8-ounce glasses of water. I actually love an ice-cold glass of water. Room temperature water, not so much.

2. Start eating breakfast. This is something I never do. I        can barely get to work on time as it is let alone taking the time out to eat in the morning. This will be an adjustment, but I know I can do it. I’ll pack my breakfast and my lunch if I have to. 

3. Exercise three times a week (at least). I’d like to build this up so that by June I’m doing some kind of physical activity five days a week. I’ll be here at Vertex twice a week strength training and the third day I’ll do another type of exercise like yoga or cardio. 

I think these “resolutions” are more than attainable. What’s that saying—“Slow and steady wins the race”? Well, I’m slowly and steadily going to make this my fittest year yet!

What fitness resolutions have you made this year? Comment below and we can motivate each other!

Cheers to a New (and fitter) Year!