Holistic Lifestyle Confusion!

This post is dedicated to my holistic lifestyle class from last night (and could provide amazing resources for the rest of you too!).
Now that I have thoroughly confused, confounded and contorted your thinking regarding eating, diets, and strategies for remaining fit and healthy, it's time to breath. We have created a space in your brain where you have started to let go of much of the garbage that has been fed into it by the enormous diet economy of our country. Marketing has filled you with garbage and strange thoughts concerning food, lifestyle, supplements...its not your fault but you chose to take the red pill when you stepped into my class and NOW you are deep down the rabbit hole so to speak.
Next week, it gets even crazier but for now sit in that space we created and take this opportunity to re-educate yourself concerning fats, metabolic eating, cholesterol, and calorie deficit diets. Remember that I am not attached to what you conclude, you must make up your mind about what you choose to believe, but I am committed to giving you the information you need to make the right choices for you. Here are a group of links which show the "other side" of the story . The choice is always yours, and there is not real right or wrong but if you are ready to abandon a paradigm which has failed so many (like yourselves), then this is the place to start: My associate Dr. Mercola has a saying on his site it goes like this:

All Truth Goes Through Three Stages

• First it is ridiculed

• Then it is violently opposed

• Finally, it is accepted as self-evident
  

Please note: Dr. Mercola (listed in many links below) takes articles from medical journals and tons of other sources. He has you register to read his articles...DO IT!! You will thank me when you realize that this guy's site is an enormous repository of information..an email address is a small price for access!

Concerning Cholesterol:

Cholesterol is NOT the Cause of Heart Disease by Ron Rosedale, MD

Common Cholesterol Drug Lowers Cholesterol but Not Death Rate

Concerning Dietary Fat:

Moderate-Fat Diet Superior to Low-Fat Diet for Heart Disease

Quality Fat, Not Low-Fat, is the secret to weight loss

Concerning Gluten-Free:

Dangerous Grains

Celiac.com

Concerning Metabolic Eating:

Modify Your Diet so You Feel Terrific

This should get you started. Remember that you are on a journey, take on what you can...the rest will come in it's own time.

The "Pumpod"

I think I have found a tech gadget that I can relate to: The convenience of an i-pod and the know-how of top trainers. Now, several companies have jumped into this format with exercise podcasts and different programs which allow you to customize your exercises before downloading your program onto the ipod. Most show proper biomechanics and feature "famous" trainers in the viewfinder..or hot guys and gals to demonstrate..enough to get me motivated already.

The upside? Convenience and it may help those who would not seek out a trainer to hone their workout skills and avoid injury. If it can get that dude in the corner of the gym to quit doing squats with his knees touching..I'm on board.

The downside? All of these programs treat each client as if they are the same...with predetermined, one-size fits all work outs OR they allow the client to customize their own work outs. The only problem here is that unless a person is able to perform a true exercise assessment on themselves, it is impossible for them to know which exercises or routines will benefit them? The result will probably be guys (with already slumped shoulders and ridiculously out of balance pectorals) choosing even more chest and bicep curls because that is what will make them look good. This is fine until the muscular imbalance reaches a point where it causes shoulder injury or chronic forward head syndrome.

The solution? An assessment by a great exercise coach (yup, I'm pretty partial to CHEK practitioners...with me being one and all..) who can assess postural issues and then CHOOSE your exercises and upload them onto your ipod for you. I think I smell a product idea for my clinic! I am all for anything that makes exercise more accessible and my programs easier to implement! In effect, we can turn this gadget into a tool!

Wow...another fitness video for the record books

OK, so, I have decided to commit some blog space to the super weird world of fitness spin offs. Over time, I will collect some of the newest, best, worst, and most rediculous fitness trends. I don't even think I need to give my opinion on this one..well, maybe an apology for exposing you to this..but from an exercise standpoint, and putting the creepy poodle people aside (how DID they do that??), its just about as useful as many of the mainstream exercise videos I've seen. And those arm and leg lumps are scary reminiscent of misplaced breast implants...like maybe she just waved her arms and legs super fast doing doggy aerobics and they just migrated out to her limbs...humm something to think about before undertaking this exercise routine...

Eat less and move more...NOT

WHY NOT JUST Exercise more and eat less? For some, this will work but for most people I see as clients are already stressed to the hilt and skipping meals. Go ahead and see where this strategy gets you. You will likely lose some weight until your body’s autonomic nervous system becomes overloaded, at which point you can become ill, irritable, sleep deprived, and gain body fat .
Sound familiar? I see it all of the time with people, particularly, with the "Type A" clients who seem to have a need to DO IT ALL. They want to push themselves to the limit with their physical and emotional stress while pretending that they do not even experience stress. Here is a newsflash: Just because you may seem to deal with stress well, does not mean that your body is not experiencing the chemical hormonal response to a stressor. You can rationalize forever but your body is still impacted and your Autonomic nervous system becomes imbalanced. The Key to rebalancing it is the entire focus of the CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coaching we do. It's about bringing your body back to a natural equilibrium so that it can heal itself.

Where can you begin with an imbalance? First, begin to note time in which you experience stress and then become aware of how it is making you feel..the chemical charge you may be in for much of the day. Once this awareness is built, you can do something about it. Deep, diaphragmatic breathing helps. I dare you to try to stay tense after a quick breathing exercise. Tai Chi and meditation are amazing here--unless the pace of the exercise stresses you out even more (slowing down for some is a stress in itself). I will give you more tips and hints in this blog as I start flesh out the holistic lifestyle concept for you. Stay tuned!

It all starts here...and now...

Hello all! I am beginning to blog in order to pass on invaluable information about your health and fitness world. I am speaking particularly to those of you who have seemingly TRIED EVERYTHING to get the results you are seeking; be it health, a great body, or BOTH. I want this to serve as a tool for my clients and for those I have never, and honestly, probably will never meet. I love the idea of spreading health and healing to people all around the world from right here in my sunny Miami Beach Home. So, here it goes.
My view of the world has changed much in the past few years. I have always had a passion for helping people and now feel that I am on that path. I look back to when I first became a personal trainer (after a grueling stint as a corporate project manager) and can not believe that I was able to get results with anyone. It was probably through sheer passion and empathy for my clients that I managed guide them through the maze. I was working with the best knowledge I had at the time and within the bounds of corporate policy for a large, very large, commercial chain on the west coast. I was implementing a "level 4" nutritional program through the club. It was something like a computer generated form letter with calories based on client measurements. Of course, it put everyone into a calorie deficit to lose fat (something I imagine that I will be railing against frequently in this blog). Some managed to lose a little weight or get stronger. But many fluctuated up and down or worse, ran themselves into the ground and even became sick or caught colds due to immune suppression.
Of course, at the time, I had no reason to believe it was the program I was running through this amazing computer system that was contributing to their failure. So, I just tried harder . I was often very gentle..almost to a fault...with my clients and was frustrated my their chronic situations such as cramped muscles or joint pains because I simply had no idea about how I should deal with them. The irony was that, to spite my limited knowledge, I was considered one of the best trainers on staff and in the region because I kept a full book.
It all seems like such a long time ago considering the way I train and the integrated holistic and metabolic typing we do now (Which I will strive to give you access to through this blog, my newsletters and my site ). Yet it is worth mentioning where I came from simply to highlight the fact that SO MANY of you are still training with trainers like I used to be...well intentioned but under skilled. So, I hope that this blog and my newsletters will touch some of you, maybe allow you to teach your trainer something, or at least allow you the presence to think for yourself and listen to your own body--intently. I look forward to this journey together... I am sure that you will teach me as much as I will teach you.

In health and healing

Jim Keizer