In commenting the other day on a Facebook post about the credibility of organic foods, I dusted off my copy of Michael Pollan’s, In Defense of Food, and I have to say, it is really a spellbinding look at the overly complex world of nutrients, food technology, and the food industry (read: $$$). By all means, take a few days and pour through it. It isn’t a long book, and despite the somewhat arcane topic, it is SO not boring.

To me, it’s a page turner, with every revelation of how the food industry began lobbying to pull butter off the market and replace it with margarine, to the reversal of fortune margarine experienced when we really understood the dangers of hydrogenated oils.

The message is simple, and it should be a message you start each day with: eat food, mostly from plants, and not too much.

Enjoy your weekend,
Kim Watkins
www.inshapellc.com

p.s. Don’t miss my new workout this week - Winter Belly Burn (free podcast training session).

I do have a request for you, however. It’s a small one, and one that you can include your whole family in on. Here goes: take a good look at your cupboard and head to a market where you can stock up on the items you need to start our Four Point Four Day Energy Boost on Monday. It doesn’t matter where you live or who you are, your body could use a little jumpstart to feel better and turn to February with zest and energy.

You will need to open up this link and either bookmark the pdf or go old school and print it out, but before you read the entire Four Point plan, make a meal plan for Monday-Thursday. By this time next Friday, I will anoint you an inSHAPE Energy Boost Ambassador, and there are free prizes and other fun accolades on their way. Here are a few items you want to include on your grocery list:

Food is only one part of the four part plan but as you will see on the official guidelines for the Challenge, we didn’t specifically suggest a menu plan. Well, here it is. Best wishes as you consider the inSHAPE Four Point Four Day Energy Boost Challenge. I hope that you’ll give it a try.

Kim
inSHAPE Fitness Head Trainer and Owner

Here’s the deal - we have created a Four Point-Four Day Energy Boost Challenge. Here’s the link to a pdf that spells out the simple requirements:

inSHAPE’s Four Point Four Day Energy Boost Challenge

It’s a totally FREE program, and after you complete the four day adventure, register here so that we can honor you on our website and any other way you allow us to honor you :).

We are on a mission at inSHAPE to help you learn a new way to feel great all day long, and we promise that this will help you jumpstart new behaviors, and learn about new choices. If not, you will get two free personal training sessions via Skype with inSHAPE Head Trainer, Kim Watkins (that’s me!).

So please download the pdf or visit our website for the details of the Challenge and let us know how you do. We would also love to help you through any part of the challenge so send a note to info@inshapellc.com if you need anything.

Have a great night, Kim

The choice to be active is hardly ever an easy one. For millions and millions of people, it’s extremely difficult in fact. However, days like yesterday are awe-inspiring for those of us dedicated to helping people learn how to find motivation and make that choice regularly.

Thank you to everyone who made it out! Have a fantastic rest of the weekend, Kim

Visit www.inshapellc.com for information about our non-gym fitness programming!

Governor Christie Needs a Wake Up Call

Here’s a link to the video if you’re interested.

Late last night, her channel broadcast an interview with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. She did her work on political issues, but she failed miserably on an issue that is a major concern for a public figure. Governor Christie is obese, his wife appears to be vastly overweight if not obese as well, and three of his four children look like they are all in danger of experiencing life-long significant health issues due to poor diet and insufficient exercise.

It’s a sensitive subject for sure, but just last year he was hospitalized for an asthma attack. Talking about it in the video, he expresses irritation that media attention was given to the episode. And he was despondent that the media were suggesting other possible scenarios such as a heart attack, embolism, etc. Here’s the thing, and I’m hope in the confines of the emergency room, a medical professional whispered into the Governor’s ear: “Mr. Christie, if you exercised, your lungs would get stronger and you could be less at risk for hospitalization due to an asthma attack.

Check out this article about recent studies connecting asthma to obesity.

Governor Christie is a smart man and clearly a good human being, but he is sending the wrong message out by avoiding the issue. Whether he charts a course to the White House or sticks with the state of New Jersey, his political future is tied to his health. What’s more - his kids appear to be following in his footsteps, exponentially worsening the tragedy.

Have a great morning,

Kim Watkins
inSHAPE Fitness
www.inshapellc.com

All of the colors of the rainbow show up in my exercise day, and it’s exhausting. However I finish up, arrive at my Manhattan apartment to a giggly toddler and need to prepare a healthy dinner, draw a bath, and read Curious George.

I am dead tired but just sat down to complete a few business owner-related duties. I completed the newsletter article and tip, then I thought about this week’s workout. And NOW, I’m so excited, I don’t know if I will be able to go to sleep.

The AB Sandwich Workout is up on the site! You absolutely have to check it out. Like all inSHAPE Fitness Weekly Workouts, it requires nothing more than your living room floor. No shoes, no equipment, no nonsense! Get up tomorrow and give it a shot. I’ll be on Spreaker broadcasting one set at 9:30 am EST, and if you need help with any of the moves, let us know.

Have a great night,

Kim Watkins
inSHAPE Fitness

I can’t imagine chucking a box of any Hostess product into my shopping cart. I honestly don’t even know if I’d know where in a grocery store they would be located. I rarely venture into the aisles, except to procure a few key items we keep in our home: beans, spices, and pasta.  I spend the majority of my food shopping time inspecting vegetables and fruit - and I relish my well developed skills in this area.

But that doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy sugary snacks in my relatively fit household. We do. Even thinking about the Twinkie brings back fond memories of the airy, spongy cake and the somewhat gritty but always fluffy filling. As a kid, I may have eaten several a week. Between Twinkies, HoHos, Donuts, and Whoopie Pies, I probably consumed at least one a day.

I suspect that many adults share these pleasant memories with me, which is one of the main reasons why we have such a difficult time instructing children that they cannot make the same choices. But the truth is that times have changed. Products have changed, for one. Recipes are modified all of the time to account for price increases of certain ingredients. Such modifications almost always end meaning same or better taste and the expense of nutrition.

More than this, kids’ lives are far more sedentary than ours were. They watch television, play video games, and use the Internet more and more. They engage in less physical activity, both inside and outside of school. In short, they burn few calories. They simply can’t afford the kind of indulgences that we had in terms of bottomless pit eating, particularly in the snack area.

Their little bodies need our resolve. Whole grapes and apple slices, instead of grape flavored gummies and apple juice. Cucumber, celery, and carrot sticks instead of organic crackers.  Nuts and avocado instead of puffs and pretzels. In return, perhaps we adults will start eating a little better ourselves.

I bid a fond farewell to Hostess and their Twinkies. Thanks for the memories, but please don’t come back.

Kim

Kim Watkins
inSHAPE Managing Partner and Head Trainer
www.inshapellc.com
www.facebook.com/inshapefitnessnyc

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2012/01/jessica_simpson_on_fashion_star_and_pregnancy_cravings.php

I take such offense at the sentiment expressed not only by Ms. Simpson, but also by the very nature of a media outlet, which would glorify such blatant disregard for the health of an innocent baby. Sure, we were given the description of a tiny part of her diet. She probably has the greatest of medical care, she probably takes her pre-natal vitamins religiously, and I’ll bed she’s working with a trainer for exercise (though I’d be interested in seeing the regimen).

The problem is in the eye of the beholder. One look at Ms. Simpson perfectly illustrates that she is over-doing it when it comes to food during her pregnancy. For a normal sized woman (with a BMI of 25-29.9, which I’d estimate is what her’s was before she got pregnant), she should gain 15-25 pounds during pregnancy. It doesn’t take an expert to see that she is clearly way past this.

It seems everywhere we turn, there’s is some lack of interest in the subject of the effect of excess sugars, related hormone changes, and long term risks associated with pregnancy nutrition. We are ALL subject to cravings. Sure, spiked hormone levels, fatigue and other bodily changes play a major role in the decision making skills of a woman with child. But this does not mean that you are absolved of responsibility.

What’s worse of course is that what Ms. Simpson does is inevitably viewed by many impressionable young women as acceptable. This is where the problem comes into play with Extra TV. Entertainment television can be great, and Ms. Simpson’s beautiful smile and pregnancy glow make us all warm inside. Plus, she’s admitting that she’s vulnerable and therefore like the rest of us. But in the end, someone has to stand up for the little ones who have no voices yet.

I posted the video to Facebook yesterday and Tweeted about it as well….I’ll let it rest now. Tomorrow, read our newsletter article about injury-free warm ups and getting ready for a ski vacation. Ciao!

Today, however, I had a rude awakening. When I left my apartment it was 14-degrees out (more on that in a second), and as I was finishing up my run, I saw a lovely stalactite made of ice on a rock formation and took my phone out of my pocket to snap a photo of it. To my surprise, the iphone shut down suddenly and would not turn back on. It was like he said, “no way am I being exposed to this arctic air…bye bye!”

So much for chronicling my endeavors to make fitness work in any condition, which brings me to my run. Yes, my face was cold, and yes, it was a challenge to breathe. However, I do not belong to a gym and running is my favorite exercise. What am I to do? Skip my workout because it’s cold? Not me. It was a shorter run that I might have run otherwise, and I did a longer warm up routine indoors first, but people need to realize that the beauty of health is about living it everyday.

Whether you like it or not, your body needs to move, to be challenged. Once inertia steps in and takes control of your physique, your metabolism slows, your joints stiffen, your muscles atrophy, and your chance of optimal health diminishes. So don’t let Old Man Winter scare you off.  Face him head on.  -  Kim

The first day of the year inspires us all to start fresh, set goals, work harder, and be better. Today has me thinking about two important elements in everyone’s lives: priorities and practice. The rest of this week will be your first opportunity to start practicing, but today should be a day about setting priorities. Sit down and make a list of the seven most important aspects of your life.  And over the next seven days, practice one specific behavior that will enhance each of the seven priorities.

Realize this: you have more than seven priorities! Parsing a list of scores of responsibilities down to the seven most essential is an exercise in and of itself. However, you have to learn to spend the most amount of time on the most important parts of your life. Do you spend several hours a day watching the news and/or pouring over newspapers and magazines - fretting over the housing market, foreign affairs, celebrity behavior (or lack thereof), etc?  Logged into Facebook? Perhaps it’s time to map your day out a bit better and focus in on the elements of your life that will bring you closer to the achievement of your goals.

We are obviously hoping that the health of your body makes the cut, and this week’s newsletter will focus in on specific (and slightly unorthodox) ways to start practicing new behaviors in terms of diet and exercise, but in the meantime, enjoy a wonderful first day of January!

In peace and health, Kim Watkins