Spoke too soon - found out why my posts were not posting and fixed it

Holiday party tips

Hello, So now that Christmas is upon us, the holiday parties are the focus of spreading that cheer. And really, it is hard to pass them up. Let me give some quick tips and revelations.

The average alcohol drink will set you back from 100 to 800 calories! And that is just for one drink. HO Ho doesn’t sound so fun the next day after you gained a few pounds for a few hours of joy. And that yummy spiked eggnog comes in around 400+ calories!

Now lets add in the holiday cookies and cakes and well it goes on and on.

How does one have fun and still stay on target?

1) Between each drink of alcohol drink a glass or bottle water. This helps with keeping your more sober as well.

2) If you will be going to many parties set up a food theme strategy. For one party tell yourself that this will be your sweets events and have your sweets – hopefully within reason. Same goes for other parties. Maybe one you will indulge more with the drinks, another maybe take the healthy road and eat the veggies and dips if available.

3) While mingling stay close to the healthy foods since you will be apt to pick as you mingle.

4) And if you are dedicated and stick to the healthy food go for it. Your goals will stay true to the body you want inside and out.

5) Eat first before you start drinking. You’ll be least apt to consume those high calorie drinks.

6) Dance the night away if available. A sure way to burn calories and limit access to that food and drink.

My answers might surprise but I have learned that if you take away guilt and empower an individual during these types of events you will have a greater chance of success. In my business I have had great success with these types of strategies.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Blog technical issues

To all, I am having difficulties posting large posts so until I can get this solved there will be no posts. Sorry.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto

Thanksgiving

Now that Thanksgiving is over I want you all to take a moment and ponder the following.

How much love and happiness did you experience when you saw family and friends as well as others when they saw you?

Exercise and good health allow us to continue to spend many "Thanksgiving Days" with the ones we love. As well as they with us. Never forget your health goals and work it all year to be healthy. And never hesitate to reach out to the friends and family you saw over the holiday to assure they are as healthy and fit as possible as well. It could just be your simple words that make all the difference for their current or future goals.

Remember you ALWAYS matter to somebody. And so does anyone else.

All my best Perfect You followers.

All my love and respect,

Eddie Camaroto

Thanksgiving survival guide

Ah, the joy of stuffing our faces among great company. Yes Thanksgiving is a few days away and for most of my clients this time scares them.

You see they have been on target with all their goals and they know that Thanksgiving is a day to EAT.

I will share some tips that I relate to them to make this day of thanks happy and not stressful.

1) The average person will consume 3,000 calories at the dinner. WOW! It takes 3,500 calories to gain a pound so this number is significant.

2) Do not skip breakfast or a small lunch before the feast. If you think that this will save you calories you are off track. It will make you more hungry later and you will then over eat. Plus no matter how much you starve yourself realize that ingesting 3,000 calories is way more then the body can handle at a sitting so it will be put away in the fat stores of your body. So by "saving" those calories you have done nothing but make you eat more. Eating before will make you less hungry and yes likely to over-indulge. I am sure this bursts a few bubbles of your Thanksgiving attack.

3) Sample everything. What I mean by that is take a small helping of "everything". By engaging your taste buds to a variety of foods and textures you are less likely to over indulge in 4 helpings of sweet potatoes. Plus you are more likely to eat more healthy choices.

4) Watch the bread it is the killer of many successful diet strategies. If you love bread choose a multi-grain variety and dip in olive oil or use a butter substitute. Any never touch your bread till you have eaten 2/3 of your meal. By the time you get to your bread your feeling of fullness should just be about starting to register.

5) Don't skip the desserts. But rather use the same strategy you used with your meal plate. Take a lot of different items just assure that they are small slices or portions. And use a napkin to hold them all (if possible). This forces you to manage those portions more effectively then a plate where you could layer the sweets on to.

6) If there is a fat-free option available jump at it: Example: fat-free ice cream to top that apple pie etc.

7) Eat your meal as some traditional Italian families do: Eat in small focused sittings. Like soup/salad first then leave the table and come back 1 hour later and eat the main course etc. The same applies to waiting 1 hour for the dessert. This strategy works so well that this one step alone could make your day must more pleasant and less stomach bulging.

I hope my tips help you out and actually allow you to enjoy a day of feasting without all the guilt.
And for all you hard-core exercisers out there I remind you of my TV workout. In the search window in the top left corner (of my BLOG) just type in tv workout and you will be taken to the article.

Enjoy and I wish all my followers a rewarding Thanksgiving Day.

All my best,

Eddie Camaroto

Second opinions

Second opinions matter

Even though I have my own in-home Personal Training business I still continue to work at one of the best “medically” structured gyms in the state. And because of my position there I see dozens of members daily and many share with me their stories of dismay.

I meet people whose Physical Therapy was cut off too soon and they never questioned why. Or others that were told nothing further could be done for them and they would just have to live it. We, as a society, for the most part, have forgotten that we are empowered to take ownership over our health and quality of life.

But sad as it is I meet TOO many that just accepted what they were told. I see this more with the older population who grew up with the belief that doctors were the experts and the final say on care.

Let me share some personal stories of clients that were told nothing else could be done and then they were lucky enough to see me.

1) One client just went through breast cancer surgery and was given the drug Tamoxin. It is given as preventative maintenance for 5 years after breast cancer surgery. Standard protocol. My client was told that the Charlie horses that were keeping her up every night and I mean every night would be something that she had to live with – it was a known side effect. After three sessions with me she sleeps through every night and is still on the medication. I have given back her life when others said deal with it. All she needed was the proper massage to fix her. She was looking at 5 years of this. I fixed her in three hours.
2) My stroke victim client has her right side paralyzed from a stroke 11 years ago. She was told she would never walk, talk, or move again. Guess what after 4 months with me she talks, walks, and is fast becoming a survivor. Our sessions end in tears of joy with every little progress.
3) Or my client that was told nothing could be done about their skin infections that crippled their legs every month or two. After the proper exercise regiment and a simple application of Vaseline to their legs they have been pain and symptom free for 2 months now. He has lived with this condition HIS WHOLE LIFE! Not so anymore.

I consider myself more educated then most Personal Trainers. I have skills in massage, chiropractic and holistic healing but the fact that I hope I have driven home here is you need to get second opinions (one pro and one con). They only believe the con if you fail at your resolve to get better. I have only taken three clients of mine but I have dozens of stories that all ring the same bell. I fixed them when another professional said they couldn’t. If they never met that second opinion (ME) they would still be in the crippled states. So many clients have come to me with years of trying to battle weight gain and after a month or two with me they see 30-50 pounds off their bodies (and it STAYS off). I gave them hope and never ever said there was nothing else I could do for them. I do not believe in failure – period. There is ALWAYS a way folks. Always!

Please take a hard look at any condition that some professional told you to live with and see if just maybe there is hope with asking the same questions again with someone else.
Please NEVER EVER give up hope.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Perfect You LLC

Long road its been

My mom finally is recovering and at home. The Physical Therapist has started coming to the house twice a week for therapy.

I apologize for not writing again in this dry spell but between her injury and support for her as well as my little sisters wedding in another state it was impoosible to find time for even my own family.

Next week I will be writing again. The theme will be doctors and Physical Therapists.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CEO
Perfect You LLC

No post this week due to an emergency

To all, My mom was involved in a serious car accident on Friday night and is recovering from surgery after todays operation. She suffered a Tibial plateau fracture. She now has plates and screws holding her knee and shin together.

I will not be writing an article this week. I am sure all understand.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto

Sayreville Library Fitness lecture series

To all, I have postponed my Sayreville Library fitness lecture series until the begining of the new year. I will post the actual dates when I know them.

The postponment was due to a variety of reasons: The program director got fired, the advertisments for the lectures never got to press, and I am working on a huge project in my in-home Personal Training business.

Add all those together and the best move was to postpone rather then trying to band-aid the situation.

If you want to be on my lecture email list just send me your email to perfect-you@comcast.net

I send out this list with updates to my lectures and unfortunately forgot to post my postponment on here as well.

Regards,

Eddie

Case study of a real client of mine

As I stated last posting I will be showing you how a Personal Trainer works with clients with a variety of conditions. Below I start with talking about a real client of mine:

CONDITION: Stroke victim with paralysis down entire right side of body. Though facial mobility is unaffected.
AGE: 57
YEARS WITH CONDITION: 11 years
HOW LONG TRAINING WITH ME: 13 months. Two ½ hour sessions with me a week.
GOAL OF TRAINING: Range of motion and possible increased mobility.
WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING: First I started with range of motion movements with her right side. All with the intent of breaking up frozen limb conditions. Then we moved into deep tissue massage and light Rolfing of her dead side. After about 5 months she started to “feel” in her arm and legs. What this meant was I was starting to elicit nerve regeneration. At times her arm and leg would shake uncontrollably (this is a GREAT THING) on the dead side. We started squats against a wall and other muscle building exercises to increase strength in her legs (she wears a brace on her right side that prevents movements of her ankle). I then started her on walking without her cane but with the brace on. She is now able to walk up and down 4 flights of stairs and walk 450 feet at a time without that cane. I have recently started reflexology, deep tissue massage and ankle and arch mobility range of motion on her dead side and am seeing great success as her dead side feels more and more. Recently I have been taking off her ankle brace and making her walk without it (this is a challenge) but one she is ready for. She is extremely happy with her progress – she actually requested that her husband watch our last PT session so he could see how wonderfully she is progressing. He was amazed.

I told her that she and I would ballroom dance a few dances at the gym under the lights and I have to tell you that I expect that to happen within the next 6 months.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Perfect You LLC

I am back

To all, I have returned from my self-imposed vacation. Personal Training really burns you out - more mentally then physically. But I must admit it feels good to be back. I am refreshed and ready again to take on the world.

In my time off I have not been idle. I may of landed the biggest contract a Personal Trainer firm like mine can wish for. We are in talks with a certain department for the state of NJ to provide exclusive Personal Training for this group. If I land this I may just be set for a lifetime. To make matters even sweeter my virtual training workouts have started to sell more and more. My clients are seeing a real benefit to distance training at a huge discount. And my method of delivery and support I provide has made them happy with their decision. I have recently been asked to build a fitness lecture series for a library in my community and I will be getting paid for my efforts. I am set to start my talks in a few weeks.

Good times are ahead and I wanted to share them with you.

Starting next week I will be going off my usual format and addressing real world cases from my clients and how I took their conditions and made them realize their goals. In this way you can see how a Personal Trainer addresses issues and manages ones care. I expect that some of you may have the same conditions and it might be great for you to see how I deal with overcoming them thru solid science and proper training techniques.

I have been performing miracles for my clients so stay tuned to see just how I made them better.

And hey, I was just picked by the gym I work at (I provide in-home training on the side) to be Personal Trainer of the month. I beat out over 120 trainers for that honor.

All my best,

Eddie Camaroto
Perfect You LLC

P.S. It appears that I have some personal trainers following this Blog. Please reach out to me so we can share info and become better at our crafts. Just send me email at Perfect-you@comcast.net. Together we can share stories and maybe I can help you increase your sales as well. I look forward to hearing from my peers.

Time off

To all my followers I will be taking the next three weeks off to enjoy the rest of the summer and to assure I stay fresh with my content. I will return in October.

My first post will be October 2nd.

If anyone has any fitness questions during this time just send them to perfect-you@comcast.net.

All my best,

Eddie Camaroto

I am moving on up

I just wanted to share some great things that my Personal Training company; Perfect You, is currently experiencing.

1) Perfect You continues to provide world-class fitness lectures at the East Brunswick library. My last lecture brought in 51 participants. Every lecture I give is being well received and the numbers are growing.
2) The Sayreville library, upon hearing about the successful fitness lectures I was giving and the turn-out, have asked me to design their health and fitness lecture series for the year. I have accepted their offer and my first lecture will be on October 14th. I will be giving talks every Wednesday from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.
3) I have been asked to promote my lectures and personal training business on our local TV (TV3). I am super stoked about this one.
4) And finally a local paper (50,000 readership) has sought me out to have them write an article about me and my business - Perfect You.

I now have 40+ Personal Training clients and am starting to experience big growing pains as I am trying to manage and do it all.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CEO
Perfect You LLC

Your dog and you - a way to exercise together

How to elicit your pet into your exercise program

If you have a dog you have an eager and ready at a moments notice partner for your exercise goals. Below I will outline a few ways to utilize your dog into your exercise routines. You both will benefit from your partnership.

1) First, just walk your dog. Strive for a 3 – 5 mile trek (daily if your schedule permits). I suggest taking your dog to parks for the walks since it will be a more pleasant experience for both of you.
2) Take your dog to pet friendly beach or other secluded beach and run on the sand and from time to time run through the water as well. Your dog will go bananas for this one.
3) Play catch with your dog put after you throw that Frisbee or ball run after it as well. Challenge yourself to keep up with your dog.
4) If you have a bigger dog play some tug of war with a large towel and get some incredible core and legwork. But please let the dog pull the towel and do not pull towards you otherwise you may hurt your dogs teeth.

As you hydrate yourself during your exercises please make sure to bring plenty of water for your faithful companion as well and maybe even a few small treats. And if you dog starts panting heavily or looks tired let them rest. Dogs cannot sweat and their only method of cooling themselves off is through panting and in humid air this is very hard for them.

Though these are all simple ideas and you probably have heard of some of the before, don’t forget that a lot of things qualify as exercise and go a long way to improve your health as well as your pets.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Exercise anywhere

How to utilize your environment to exercise

There are many ways to utilize an environment to exercise in if you are creative. Below I outline a few to get you started.

1) Stairs – walk them, run them, do incline or decline pushups off of them, split lunges, do calf raises off of them, put your feet on them as you lie down and do crunches, jump on the first step and then off again for some muscle and cardio work, do mountain climbing off of them to name just a few.
2) Strong small diameter branches – do pull-ups off of them, hang from them and raise your knees to your chest for a great abdominal workout.
3) Chairs – do some dips off of them, chair squats for the legs, do some incline or decline pushups off of them, and if you’re strong enough do some hammer type curls with them.

Never feel exercise is limited to weights and machines. If you look around a little you will see that exercise opportunities welcome you from all directions.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

How to make simple exercise equipment

Ways to create exercise equipment from everyday items

With the ever-growing economy meltdown and societies growing waistline exercise is becoming hard from all fronts.

Today I wanted to show some creative ways to create gym equipment from everyday items. Saves your budget and gets you exercising. No excuses.

Chest/arms/triceps/shoulders/core – basic pushups (no equipment needed).

Core – simple ab crunches (no equipment needed). Or hold a jug close to the chest and do some crunches.

Fill two empty milk containers (plastic gallon size) with sand and you will have each milk jug weighing 12.5 pounds each. Of course you can adjust the weight of the jugs by filling them up to your level of fitness.
1) Do some shoulder presses with the jugs for shoulder work.
2) Do some bench presses with them for a chest, arm, and shoulder workout.
3) Raise them in front of you (shoulder height) for shoulder raises or to your sides for lateral raises for a challenging shoulder workout.
4) Hold one jug in each hand and do squats or calf raises for legwork.
5) Hold one jug on one side of your body and do side bends for terrific Oblique work.
6) Hold one jug in one hand and do one-arm rows for Lat and back work.
7) Hold a jug in each hand and do some hammer curls for your bicep.
8) Hold a jug in each hand and do simulated punches for total shoulder work (make sure your shoulders can handle this and that you do not have any conditions that might be harmed by the motion).
9) Hold a jug in each hand and do shrugs for traps work.
10) Tie a small bit of rope around a jug and take a wood dowel (about 1 foot long), drill a hole thru it and tie the rope to it and you have a great device to increase your forearm and wrist strength. Hold the roller in front of you and move your wrists to roll it up to your shoulders then back and then repeat. The burn you will feel will be incredible. I have one of these at home that I made as well.

Wow, look at that you CAN get a total body workout by just using common household items. Of course there are many more I could of stated but I hope you get the picture.

Now there is no more reason to not exercise (at least from a monetary standpoint).

By the way if you fill the jugs with water instead of sand they will weigh roughly 8.5 pounds instead of 12.5 pounds.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Fitness theme for the month of August

Creative ways to exercise
Week 1: Ways to create exercise equipment from everyday items.
Week 2: How to utilize your environment to exercise.
Week 3: How to elicit your pet into your exercise program.
Week 4: How to elicit your kids into your exercise program.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Diet plans

Current diet plans

This week I wanted to touch a little upon some current diet plans. By no means could I touch upon all of them since there are literally hundreds.

As a Personal Trainer it is my duty to coach my clients in proper nutrition. After all I can train them to success but if they go home and eat three pizzas a night they will never see true results.

I do need to state to you all that while I am very knowledgeable about nutrition I am NOT a certified nutritionist or dietician. We all need to protect our liability. Please take any of my advice and confer with your doctor or nutritional expert.

Weight Watchers:
All and all the best diet plan I have seen and the one that all of my clients have seen success with. It is also the one I see the longest weight loss with.
Pros:
1) Actually teach their members how to eat and match foods.
2) Great meeting support system.
3) Great website loaded with great recipes and support channels to help your success.
4) Allows one to eat normally (within a point range) thus boosting acceptance to new eating patterns.

Cons:
1) Their packaged food is very high in sodium and even Weight Watchers admits this and states to use their food in moderation.

South Beach:
Many have had success with this program but not as much success long term like the Weight Watcher approach.
Pros:
1) Attempts to teach its members about food sources and nutrition.
2) Great website with many tools to help you succeed.

Cons:
1) Expects its members to eat from their packaged food (most times). In my opinion the food is way too high in sodium and once one stops eating the pre-packaged food they are left with the possibility of eating wrong again and misjudging portions.
2) Food from them is expensive over the long haul. Take that money and use it for a gym membership and you will see more permanent weight loss.
3) A high percentage of clients regain their weight after 2 years. Some even more then when they started.

Atkins:
Based on a low-carb diet and this diet scares me very much. It forces you to eat more protein sources then most older people can handle due to liver and kidney issues. I DO NOT recommend this diet for anyone. Your body needs carbs. In fact the recommendation is 150 grams of carbs a day and optimally up to 350 grams a day. Your muscles use carbs as their primary energy source (glucose break-down) and this diet limits your energy for muscle growth.
Pros:
1) People do lose weight on this diet – especially in the first 1-2 months but then it slows and success rates start to falter.
2) It is rather easy to follow and makes eating more pleasurable. In this diet meats are good.

Cons:
1) Very risky for a big slice of the population. Could cause health issues.
2) Does a poor job at teaching “correct” eating habits.
3) In my opinion is based on pseudo-science. Yes, you will lose weight limiting carbs but the potential health risks far out weigh the diets pluses.


Lets do Lunch:
This is a new diet one of clients has started and it really has some appeal to it. Though I have not researched it enough to give an opinion on it yet. I do like what I have seen and read about it. Plus my client is loosing a phenomenal amount of weight with it in a very healthy way. I will report on it later when I feel more comfortable with its success.

Grapefruit, Pineapple, Cabbage soup, Mickey Mouse surprise:
Please if you are doing any of these crazy un-sound diets please stop. Yes you will loose weight in the first two weeks or so because of their nature but these diets are silly and over time you will only do you body harm.
P.S. No there is no Mickey Mouse surprise diet but I thought I would throw it in because the other diets are just as silly.

I am sure I will see rebuttal about how some of these diets did work for some of you. But whenever I hear that I always ask about the exercise routine, the healthier habits they started while dieting, etc. In must all cases it is these other changes that truly made the difference.

The point is if you just watch what you eat, eat a variety of foods, and keep a food log all of you (except in rare cases) will see weight loss.

The reason you always hear this same message for all of these years is because it WORKS.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Perfect You LLC

Weight loss 101

Food Diaries

Hello, one of the most successful things you can do for yourself in your quest to loose weight is to keep a food diary. Though, I have written about this in the past I am compelled to keep pushing it on you all again and again. It really makes all the difference in keeping weight off and learning to eat right.

With the advent of the Internet and sites that track your food it has become even easier to accomplish this. A few posts ago I outlined three sites that provide excellent food tracking logs.

One real world example I can give you is that I have a client that is training with me currently. They give 110% during our two 1-hour sessions a week but every now and then they would put on 3-4 pounds overnight. Well it wasn’t until they accepted my advice and started logging their food that we discovered the culprit. In their case I discovered – after careful examination – that on the days they gained weight they were taking in over 4,000mg of sodium and over 50 grams of saturated fat. They “thought” they were eating healthy and for the most part they were. But we all underestimate the impact of what is contained in our foods. That is why a diary becomes so magical when loosing weight. It allows us to see everything in detail and make conclusions.

I challenge you to keep a food diary for just week through the sites I recommended. I will even sweeten the pot and offer you the benefit of sharing that log and letting me review it for you so I can point or uncover eating trends. I usual charge $50 dollars for this service but I am willing to forgo that to help you out.

By the way my client no longer sees any weight gain and continues to keep a diary daily. In their case I discovered that sodium was making them retain water. Some of the population is susceptible to that and they were one of them. They have learned what a powerful tool a log is to their success.

As a Personal Trainer I give people back their lives, I mend them and make them stronger and healthier. My clients call me a magician because of the results they see when they work with me. But really it is always my clients that have the magical art – I just show then how to conjure up a healthy potion and spell to succeed.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Perfect You LLC

Fitness lecture at the East Brunswick library

To anyone interested I will be giving a fitness lecture at the East Brunswick Library on how to write an effective workout program. I will be sitting with each participant (depending on turnout) one-on-one to design a fitness program that will allow them to progress their goals.



Send me an email to perfect-you@comcast.net if you are interested.



The lecture is free and will be on August 5th from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. You do NOT have to be a resident of East Brunswick to attend.

No post this week - sorry

To all my readers of my BLOG I apologize but I have been ridden with a kick-butt illness. And I have been pretty much down.

I will return next week with a new post.

Regards,

Eddie

Nutrition websites

Websites that can help your nutritional goals

This will be a very small article tonight since I want to only address some really great sites that I use daily with my clients to help them with their nutritional goals.

1) http://www.sparkpeople.com/
2) http://www.mypyramid.gov
3) http://www.weightwatchers.com/

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Perfect You LLC

General Nutrition

What is nutrition

When I start training a new client the biggest barrier to their success is nutrition. It always seems that a person will let me put them through a very challenging workout but they will not let me dictate what they can eat. Food it seems has a very powerful connection that is hard to change.

Over time I AM able to change their habits but it is really hard to do.

So let me write this article, as I would talk to my clients.

First and the most important component of nutrition is discovering what your BMR is (Basal Metabolic Rate). There are multiple sites on the web that you can enter in specific information and uncover your BMR. Basically, your BMR is the absolute minimum calories you need to take in EVERY day to satisfy your bodies operating requirements “if you do absolute nothing per day but breath etc.” And I have to tell you that 75% of all of my clients that are trying to diet do not come close to their BMR. When one takes in fewer calories then their BMR they are going to keep gaining weight. This is biological science. You cannot fight the laws of nature! So for ¾ of my clients, I need to tell them to eat more. Well, you can imagine how that goes. But for the clients that heed my words - they discover weight loss is rather easy. Give the body what it wants and it will regulate your weight, as it should. Of course such things a thyroid issues etc. can prevent this but for the most part the statement is true. You need to eat to lose weight.

Get your BMR reading ASAP and start eating at least that to be successful in your weight control goals. Don’t do it and the statistics will be your enemy and you will not lose the weight you so eagerly desire.

CARBS:
So many of us have had it drilled into our heads that CARBS are bad and yes, the simple carbs are bad (sometimes) but complex carbs are what your body uses as fuel. Cut them out and you will suffer – I promise you that. You will suffer with reduced energy (muscles use carbs as their fuel source and you cannot change that). So what is the recommended carbs per day for a healthy individual? 125 grams a day but optimally it should be 350 – 400 grams or 55 – 65% of your daily caloric intake. After an intense workout the recommended carb intake is simple carbs. A bagel or white bread is actually a good thing to refuel your muscles.

FAT:
No more then 25 – 65 grams a day or no more then 25 – 30% of your daily caloric intake.

PROTEIN:
No more then 50 to 70 grams per day or 12 – 20% of your caloric intake. The media has conditioned us to eat more protein for greater muscles size etc. We have been introduced to the Atkins Diet that states that protein is good. And yes you will lose weight by increasing your protein intake for the short term but of the long term you will gain all that weight back. Don’t take my word for it - there is 10 years of solid science to back up my claims.

WATER:
Though no study to date has established an absolute requirement I do believe that 1-ounce of water per body pound is solid and safe. Again, this is based on solid science of what normal bodies require.

Some of you reading this article are going to snicker and do what they always do but for the few that heed my advice I will be hearing from you about how you finally lost that weight.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Theme for the month of July

Hello, I thought I would do a fun topic for this month that focuses of nutrition. I will be going in depth about nurtrition and hopefully debunk so many of the myths out there that are really confusing many as well as my clients.

Week 1: What is nutrition?
Week 2: Web sites to improve your progress.
Week 3: Why a food diary could be the greatest thing you ever did for yourself.
Week 4: A discussion about current diet plans.

Regards,

Eddie

Multiple movement exercises

Maximizing your workouts with multiple move exercises

When I have clients that renew with me for months at a time I am able to start challenging them with exercises that involve multiple muscle groups. When I first start training a client I need to build their balance, stability, core strength, increase strength, and certainly increase their endurance.

But after I have met those goals I want to start challenging them with “real world” moments. And that involves doing exercises that involve multiple muscle groups.

For example when you do a squat to pick up a box and then press it over your head to put on a shelf you are doing a multiple muscle movement. And if I want to give my clients training that make their life better I choose multiple movements.

I will list a few below. But before you try this – seriously – please ask a gym trainer to demonstrate them to you. Because if you do them wrong YOU WILL HURT YOURSELF.

1) Do a lunge, rise up into a two-arm curl, and press dumbbells above your head. Repeat.
2) Do a pushup then squat thrust into the air and break out to a few jumping jacks. Repeat.
3) Do a pull-up, drop down to a squat and then do a pushup before squat thrusting up to the pull-up bar. Repeat.
4) Utilize a Reebok step and side lunge then jump over step and do side lunge on other side.
5) Dumbbell clean and jerk. Repeat.
6) Do reverse ab lifts off a bench then do a Bench press. Repeat.

I stress that you MUST be at a high level of conditioning to try these and not get hurt over the long term. Please do not attempt them unless you are absolutely sure you can do them and do them perfectly.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Working out while Pregnant

Working out while pregnant

For most woman that are into fitness there is going to come a time when you will be pregnant and want to continue your fitness. You CAN still workout but the WAY you workout and the intensity of your workouts will change drastically.

I put this article in with the series of working out with another rather then special population type workouts because the theme this month was working out with another. And – well – a baby is another.

Here are the guidelines for pregnant woman to workout based on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 2002.

1) Any exercise goals must be discussed with your physician. Everyone woman is different and only your doctor knows you best.
2) If you have not been doing a vigorous workout before your became pregnant now IS NOT the time to start one. Keep up with your normal exercise regiment.
3) Gradually reduce the intensity, duration, and frequency of exercise during the second and third trimesters.
4) Avoid exercise when the temperature or humidity is high.
5) Try to run or walk on flat, even surfaces
6) Always wear supportive shoes while exercising.
7) During the second and third trimesters try other forms of aerobic exercises like swimming, bicycling, or even running in water.
8) Do not do any exercises that require lying down after the first trimester. Modify existing exercises to do standing up if possible. Utilize machines if possible.
9) Extend your warm-up and cool-down periods.
10) Never let your body temperature exceed 100 degrees.
11) Reduce your intensity and monitor it by never letting yourself get to a state of a pounding heart, breathlessness, or dizziness.
12) Eat a small snack before exercise to help avoid hypoglycemia.
13) Drink plenty of water before, during, and after exercise. Roughly one ounce (one filled mouthful) every 15 minutes.
14) Avoid overstretching or going beyond normal range of motion.
15) If you experience any unusual physical changes such as vaginal bleeding, severe fatigue, joint pain, or irregular heart beats see your doctor immediately!

There are many other restrictions that one needs to follow as well such as watching that your heart rate does not exceed a certain limit. Please reach out to your doctor for a full script to follow.

Training a pregnant woman is a very rewarding experience that I have been lucky to do quite a bit of times. As a Personal Trainer you are making two healthy at the same time.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Perfect You LLC

Working out with your significant other

At lot of times the best way to start exercising is by enlisting the help of your significant other. Maybe you both are sick of feeling un-fit or you just made fitness your New Years resolution. Whatever the reason the fact is you both want to train together and that can prove to push you both farther and see better results.

I have addressed in a previous posting how to do some exercises together so this time I will address a few simple cardio routines for partners.

1) Jumping rope together has always been a proven way to push each other. There are so many routines you both can do – I urge you to seek some out.
2) Group classes together. There are so many out there – even dance type ones. Take a relaxing Yoga class together and be relaxed and at peace the rest of the day.
3) One you probably never thought of but it provides a huge cardio benefit. Go play some Frisbee together.
4) Do some interval jogging/walking together. Five minutes waking to every one-minute jogging is a good formula.
5) Use some resistance bands and wrap one around your waist, face away from your partner and do hop away as they pull on the band. Not only is this cardio for both of you but you will also get a whole body workout. Try to go three minutes each.

A short article this week but none the less important for spicing up your partner workouts in a cardio sense.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Workouts with a partner

There are many times a client will come to me and request that they train with another at the same time. For one it is much cheaper for each to train this way plus it gives the added benefit of having each other push each other. I personally love training two for ones as we call it in the biz.

One of the first things that comes up though is how can I get two different people to train the same even though they possibly are at different fitness levels.

Well, it is pretty easy actually. I formulate a fitness program that allows each of them to “need” the other for most exercises. Let me explain.

Lets take a real world situation of a program I just designed for a couple at Bayshore.

SPECS:
1) They well both around the same age.
2) It was a man and his wife.
3) They both were super-charged in starting their program.
4) The both agreed to workout together.

Here is an example of some of the exercises I had them do together.
1) Partner pushups where each partner claps the opposite hands of their partner when they come up from the pushup.
2) Medicine ball ab lifts. One partner does an AB crunch while throwing the medicine ball to their partner. Then the partner throws it back to them when they are about to descend.
3) Flexibility ball knockouts. One partner holds a flexibility ball while the other try’s to knock it out of their hands. It sounds silly but if you have never tried this it is so intense.
4) Hand presses while your partner provides resistance.

Though there were a few others I hope you get my point. Many exercises can become partner required if you think them out. And the benefit of working with another could really blast your workouts and take them to another level.

I have only touched upon the workout philosophy of partners. Other times I will create programs for partners that require super-setting and pyramiding type workouts. The possibilities are really endless.

If you can get another person to workout with you and you incorporate the “need” for each other. Not only will you see amazing results you will also start to rely on each other for that needed push to make you stick with it.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Exercise theme for June

The next fitness theme will be working out with someone and the last article of the month will be how to incorporate exercises that have mutliple moves to work multiple body areas at the same time.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

TV workout

Workouts while watching TV

On my final article for this month’s theme I wanted to talk about how to squeeze in some precious exercising while watching TV.

The average commercial break for most TV shows that run one hour is 12 minutes (about 4 minutes each 15 minute mark). That gives plenty of opportunity for some circuit training during those breaks.

So here is a simplified workout to get you further in your fitness needs.

I have broken up the workout into three parts to capitalize on the three 4 minute breaks.

First commercial (there is no break between exercises): LOWER BODY WORK
1) 25 squats.
2) 20 lunges.
3) 50 calf raises on one foot.
4) 20 leg planks off of the couch.

Second commercial (there is no break between exercises): CORE AND BACK WORK
1) 20 Bird/dogs.
2) 25 bicycles on the ground while moving your elbow to opposite leg.
3) Inner/Outer Oblique rise while on your side.
4) Cobra off floor.

Third commercial (there is no break between exercises): UPPER BODY WORK
1) 25 pushups.
2) 20 dips off of a chair.
3) 25 side planks with twist.
4) 20 punches into a cushion.

During just one 1-hour TV show you can get a total body workout minus the cardio. Hard to give excuses when you can do this and still appear lazy or relaxed.

I realize that some of you may have no idea what some of these exercises mean or how to do them. If you would like clarification just reach out to me and I will describe more in detail.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Perfect You LLC

Workouts for the seasons

This week I thought I would show you the creative side of workouts. I have devised a few fun things to do for each season. Though you may never have realized that these things produce fitness they do indeed. Hope you enjoy.

Winter:
1) Go build a snowman. Rolling a big ball of snow till it collects more and more snow is an incredible lower AND upper body workout. Plus you will burn an estimated 280 calories.
2) Do some snow shoveling for an hour and you will burn an estimated 400 calories.
3) Make some snow angels for an hour and you will burn an estimated 218 calories.
4) Best yet have a snowball fight and you will burn a whopping estimated 318 calories per hour plus let out some stress.

Spring:
1) Do some light yard work or gardening and you will burn an estimated 250 calories per hour.
2) Go for a nice bike ride at a moderate pace and you will burn an estimated 238 calories per hour.
3) If you are a golfer go play a round of golf and carry your own clubs to spark an estimated 265 calories per hour.
4) Pick your favorite trail or mountain path and go hiking for an estimated and whopping 380 calories per hour.

Summer:
1) Go for a refreshing swim and you will burn an estimated 413 calories per hour.
2) Go for an intense jog and you will burn an estimated 472 calories per hour.
3) Head down to the basketball courts and dribble your way to an estimated 472 calories per hour.
4) Take your usual aerobic routine outside and let the sun shine on you. Doing so will burn an estimated 413 calories.

Fall:
1) Go for a walk in your community and admire the beauty of nature and the colored leaves. All while burning an estimated 240 calories per hour.
2) Rake up some of those leaves for an hour and you will burn an estimated 218 calories per hour.
3) If you clean out your own gutters from all those leaves for an hour you will burn an estimated 250 calories.
4) And if you are trying to get in the last few lawn mows of the year take heart that you will burn an estimated 202 calories per hour.

All of the items above do indeed burn calories but they also get work your body in different ways that is great for fitness.

I am sure you can think of much more items that should be on this list. I have provided just a sampling. Be creative in your exercise approach and you will never get bored and you will always be at the top of your game.

Note: Most of the calories were calculated using the following profile:
135 pound female age 35 and five foot five. They were provided for example only. Your profile may be more or less then my example.

P.S. for the romantics out there squeeze in a minute kiss here and there and you will burn an estimated 26 calories. J

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Working out while sick. Good thing or bad thing?

On our road to greater fitness and health sometimes we become hard-core in our training philosophy. We don’t miss a day, utilize every opportunity to bring fitness into our lives and get stressed whenever anything gets in the way of us doing our daily workout.

But even the fittest of us are going to get sick once in a while. Thank goodness that the fitter and healthier we get the less downtime from a sickness we realize.

But, the golden rule of exercising while your sick is pretty straight forward. If you only have mild symptoms and you generally fill good then exercising while sick will actually boost your immune system and help you fight off your ills. But if you are felling pretty bad then exercising will weaken your immune system and make your illness possibly last longer.

But for some of us, we get scared that maybe we will lose all those results that we have gained while we take a few days or week off. Take solace, it is actually a GOOD thing to skip a week every now and then as long as you exercise regularly. In fact it is actually a GREAT thing to reach your maximum potential.

In my personal training business I usually give my clients off a week for every three months they work with me (depending on hard I have been working them). Not only do they see it as a reward for their progress but it also makes them stronger and fitter by resting their muscles and allowing their bodies a full recovery week to reach their potential. There is proven science behind the rest a week every now and then.

Some of my clients are ultra hard-core and will never take off no matter what I say to them. For them I do a high repetition and easy workout. We move the muscles in a less stressed way and work on proper technique for the week instead. They still receive most of the benefits and their body recovers nicely for it.

So my expert advice to you is if you are sick and need to take off for a week – do it. Your body may just surprise you and be even stronger when you return.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Simple exercises to do on the job

Hello, what if you are a workaholic and are finding it hard to get to the gym and by the time you do get home at night you are exhausted.

Maybe the following advice will help you. Try some of the following exercise and cardio movements at work. They are all simple, easy, and beneficial to do. And all except the walking ones can be done during a simple 15-minute break during your busy day.

1) Do some old-fashioned push-ups. They are a good core and upper body workout.
2) Do some squats for a great lower body workout.
3) Do some one leg calf raises for some calf work.
4) Do some rotating side planks for arm and core work.
5) Do some isometric holds for various parts of the body. CAUTION – IF YOU HAVE ANY BLOOD PRESSURE ISSUES DO NOT DO ISOMETRICS HOLDS. ISOMETRICS CAN RAISE THE BLOOD PRESSURE TO DANGEROUS LEVELS IN CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS – ESPECIALLY THE ELDERELY!
6) For some quick cardio find some stairs and walk them up and down for a few minutes.
7) For a greater cardio experience go for a walk around your office/campus or take a walk outside during your lunch break.
8) If your job has a gym on site or there is a gym close by – utilize it.

So even though we all think there is no time for fitness I hope I have shown you that doing these simple tips during your day can go a far way in making you feel better, be more fit, and hopefully relieve some of your stress. I had jobs where I worked 15 hours a day and still found simple 15 minute blocks of time to get healthier – you should be able to.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Support channels for your fitness goals

Hello, So you tried to get all of your friends and family to workout with you or support you but it hasn’t worked out like you planned. Now what do you do?

1) Go to the website http://www.presidentschallenge.org/ and pick a challenge for you to complete. This site is really cool and you can even track your success. You can do these challenges all by yourself or you can even gather a group together to perform the challenge as a group effort.
2) Get a virtual Personal Training program. This is a program (usually 8 weeks) that a certified Personal Trainer creates for you. You and the Personal trainer communicate over email to track and support your goals together. Better yet hire a Personal Trainer that will assure you are never alone or lax in your fitness goals.
3) Send out a flyer to your neighbors and see if anyone is interested in creating a walking group for fitness.
4) If you belong to Weight Watchers or another weight loss group see what kind of eager members might love to have a workout partner. I am sure you will have lots of willing participants.
5) Team up with someone who will never say no to you for a good walk. Your dog.
6) Join a sport. Some gyms have racquetball courts, basketball, or even outside bicycling weekly events and almost all of them have single member signup sheets.
7) Join a group exercise class at your gym. If you have never participated in a group exercise class you will find that for the most part the group becomes very tight and supportive of each other.
8) There are a lot of websites that offer support specifically geared for motivation.

I have just touched upon a few ways to garner support your fitness goals when you feel all alone in your quest.

Next months theme will be (Making fitness a part of your daily living).

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

What happens when your fitness support dries up

What happens when your support dries up

Hello, for this week I wanted to talk about a real concern for some exercisers. What happens when your support stream dries up? What happens when the people you depend on for your fitness support goes away?

For many of us we find that we need the support of others to continue on our fitness quest. We like hearing their positive admiration as we progress to fit and fitter individuals. Maybe these same individuals also exercise with us or are our walking partner. What do we do when they “fail us”?

First and foremost as I have cautioned before (http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/04/support-for-your-fitness-goals.html) you should always be exercising for your OWN goals. Be your OWN support mechanism. Anything less then exercising for you puts the rate of failure higher.

Maybe you relied on Mary from accounting to walk with you during lunch – but now she cannot. Do you stop walking and getting fitter because of Mary? Of course not! Take some initiative and go to Human Resources and get their buy-in for a walking club at work. Maybe have the company sweeten the pot by giving the top walkers certain benefits (better parking spot, vacation time, free meal at the cafeteria, a plaque highlighting the top walkers, etc.). I have YET to find a company that would not buy-in to this. Now you are the HERO. And you will have lots of walkers to reach your goals.

Grab your IPOD and listen to some great music and walk alone.

But what happens if the partner you go to gym with fails you. Well, first do you really need a partner? If you do then go to some group classes and find that “someone”. Ask your spouse to try the gym with you. It will be quality time you both can share and you will BOTH be getting fitter for it. If the club has a Jacuzzi like my club – that only sweetens the pot for your spouse and you. Make the gym a special time for you both.

Start walking the dog at home if that is your only avenue. The point I hope I keep making is work the problem and find solutions. Never – ever give up your fitness goals.

I really could’ve written a volume on this topic but I kept it short. There are so many roadblocks that I hear from potential clients on this. In fact some clients of mine that have signed on for my Personal Trainer services do it because they want accountability and a partner during their workouts. They love the idea of someone looking out for them and pushing them to their limit.

Always remember that YOU started your fitness goals with YOU in mind. Never let someone else take that away from you!

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

Tools to help you make exercise a part of your life.

Hello, this week I would talk about some tools to make your exercise and fitness goals easier.

1) One thing ALL successful dieters have utilized to make their weight loss efforts stick is to keep a food log. With the advent of the Internet this is easier than ever. Most sites allow you to just drag and drop your meals based on a food database. If you need help finding one reach out to me about what I feel are the best.
2) Even if weight loss is not your goal keeping a food log goes far in showing you exactly what you are eating and how balanced your nutrients are for a given day. Below is what each of you should strive for per day.
a) PROTEIN: 50 to 70 grams per day or 12% to 20% of total caloric intake.
b) CARBOHYDRATES: A minimum of 125 grams per day, optimally 350 to 400 grams or 555 to 65% of total caloric intake.
c) FATS: Approximately 30 to 65 grams per day or 25% to 30% of total caloric intake.
d) WATER: At least 1 ounce per pound of weight.
3) Get a jump rope – and us it daily! Why? Because it is still one of the best ways of getting an intense cardio and building lower body strength. If you do not have a jump rope you still can pretend and go through the motions as if you did have one to supercharge your cardio.
4) Buy a cheap pedometer to assure you are getting 10,000 steps a day. By taking 10,000 steps a day you will burn an additional 500 calories a day. See my post http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/03/walking-as-part-of-your-fitness-goals.html
5) Take a multi-vitamin daily. Very FEW of us ever get all the required nutrients we need daily. Buy the store brand multi (with minerals) – they work just as well as the pricier ones.
6) Write into your calendar/planner set times to exercise and OBEY the appointment you have with yourself. Research has shown that this little step goes far in your goals for obtaining a fit body.
7) Buy some Personal Trainer sessions (Believe me I am not trying to self-promote myself here). When you are accountable to another about your fitness goals research has shown you are more apt to go the distance to achieve your goals. I have some clients that only see me once a month to assure they are at their best. Others only buy ½ hour sessions with me weekly. The point is my clients realize that having a professional review and work with them really makes a BIG difference. Again, research shows that people who utilize a Personal Trainer are happier with their exercise experience and obtain results MUCH quicker then if they tried to go it alone.
8) Plan on two days away from the gym to achieve your goals. On these days walk your neighborhood. What this does is get you into the mindset that the gym is NOT the only place to get fit.
9) Keep an exercise diary. Map out your goals, what you did, how many sets/reps and pounds, and write how you felt before and afterward. Strive to better your results daily.
10) Make exercise a part of your favorite TV show. If you watch a 1-hour sitcom plan on either stretching or doing easy exercises while you watch it. I use this technique with all my clients and they are amazed how good they feel about themselves when then do this.
11) Fit exercise into everything you do.
a) Park farther away from your destination.
b) Bike more.
c) Take the stairs more.
d) During your lunch break grab a willing partner and walk.
e) Do some sort of stretch every 45 minutes while at work. See my post for some simple all body stretches. http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/02/basic-stretches-to-keep-you-relaxed.html

12) And lastly – love your body. It is the only one you will ever have – make it ready for the challenges that life demands.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Why so quiet out there in cyber land

Hello, I have over 50+ members (and it grows by about 5 new members a month) to this BLOG but so many of you are SO silent and never comment etc.

So to sweeten to the pot I will be offering an 8 week virtual trainer session to the subscriber that comments the most for the month of April.

The subscriber that comments the most in this month will be offered a full Personal Trainer program that will show them the results they want.

The winner will be offered email support for the duration of their program. This is a $350.00 value.

I look forward to awarding this to a lucky subscriber to my BLOG.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Support for your fitness goals

Hello, Some of the toughest barriers you may encounter when you are working towards your fitness goals is lack of support from those around you. Below I will talk about some obstacles you may encounter and offer some steps and hints that hopefully will get the needed support you want. I have picked some of the most common arguments I get from my Personal Training business to show you how I answer to them.

Dilemma: Your spouse thinks you are trying to get fit to leave them or test the waters (You would not believe how many times I hear this one).
Response: You should reassure your spouse that rather then testing the waters you are assuring that you will be around for a long time and that you care about them enough to make a change to make that possible. That you are making yourself into a healthy person that can keep up with them (even if you feel they are of shape) to have the best possible life. Try to get them to do a few workout moves with you like partner push ups, medicine ball twists, etc. Your goal here is to make them feel good about your efforts while drawing them in to the benefits. With the right coaxing you will snag them into your fitness web. I caution you to not give the answer that you are doing this for them. Don't ever ever forget that you are doing this for YOU!

Dilemma: Your friends and everyone around you think you are perfect just the way you are.
Response: Tell everyone that you truly appreciate that but you are not changing the old you. Your personality will still be the same - except now your body will be able to do more. You may look better but that is just an added benefit of why you are doing this.

Dilemma: Your friends miss the old you. They miss a night of ice cream and sorrow stories with you.
Response: Let them know that they still can have those days with you but you might just eat frozen yogurt instead. Your mind and compassion hasn't changed just your fitness level. Let your friends know how great exercise has been to your well being. Offer to exercise with them and THEN grab that ice cream. Better yet - go for a long walk with that ice cream cone around your neighborhood with them in tow.

Dilemma: Your spouse is suspicious of your gym time.
Response: Invite your spouse to join you. Even if exercise isn't their thing. All gyms offer some sort of free pass to potential members. Show them your workout - your dedication - and show them how great you feel afterwards. Tell them how great you would feel if you could workout with them and them alone. Make them feel special and wanted. For example one of the gyms I work at offers boxing instruction. Not cardio boxing but true boxing instruction. Other gyms offer martial arts training. Maybe this is the hook you need to get your spouse wanting to go with you to the gym. Most gyms have pools as well. Sweeten the experience with your spouse by telling them you both can relax in the jacuzzi after working out. Make it your own private time together.

Dilemma: Your friends tell you that the effort you are putting into your fitness goals is not working and it is a waste of time.
Response: Accept their judgement. And prove them wrong with every clothes size you go down. Never be in their face - let the results talk for you. Before long I can guarantee you (based on past experience) that they will be coming to you for help with their fitness goals.

Dilemma: Your friends and/or spouse tells you that they miss the old you.
Response: Reassure them that you still have the same personality and mind. All they miss is the unhealthy you.

Dilemma: You miss being one of the crowd.
Response: Do not give up. The more fit you get the more opportunities you have to cheat once in a while. Do not be one of the crowd anymore be the leader.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Small things you can do to make your vacation healthier

Hello, One of the toughest things for most of us to do is to find time for some sort of exercise while on vacation. Below I outline some tips to hopefully make it easier.

1) Since you are on vacation try to walk as much as possible. If possible, forget transportation and take in all the sites your destination has to offer. Riding back and forth may be easier but think of all the things you may be missing. Don't forget my article on why getting 10,000 steps a day is awesome to meet your weight loss goals:
http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/03/walking-as-part-of-your-fitness-goals.html
2) Try my hotel workout:
http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/02/hotel-room-workouts.html.
4) Try my hotel stretching routine:
http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2009/02/basic-stretches-to-keep-you-relaxed.html.
5) Use the stairs as much as possible in your hotel. Most times it is the quickest route to the lobby anyway.
6) Take an early morning walk with your spouse or kids.
7) If your hotel has a pool or you are by the ocean go for a swim. Swimming for a hour comes close to the calorie expenditure of jogging for the same time.
8) If your hotel has a fitness center make it a point of exercising at least once every two days. Reward yourself with a massage (f applicable) after each session.
9) Most hotels without fitness centers have agreements with local gyms to allow their guests to exercise at these gyms. Most are priced very cheap. I have used this many times myself and got to see a variety of gyms.
10) If you have kids chances are YOU will be exercising plenty depending on their age. Enjoy the time with them and be a kid yourself again.
11) Vacationing is about having fun so have those ice cream cones and hot dogs just don't over do it. Most people are satisfied with one scoop on a cone just as much as they are with three scoops.

I have only touched upon a small sprinkling of ways you can make a vacation more exercise friendly.

Another article that might help you is one the describes how my wife and I recently handled a vacation to Disney World last year:
http://personal-trainer-nj.blogspot.com/2008/07/back-from-vacation.html

Each vacation brings new and different avenues for fitness. Explore the possibilities and NEVER EVER let ANYTHING get in the way of your health.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Hello, I am currently scheduling out my calendar for the rest of the 2009 year. If you are from the Central New Jersey area and would like me to talk to your organization, club, business, or get together with a group please send me a request and we can start talking about your needs and what kind of fitness-themed lecture(s) I could provide to benefit your group.

I just recently did two fitness lectures at the East Brunswick Library that were about core conditioning and functional training. They were well received and the Library has asked me back to possible do one a month.

If you never attended one of my lectures they are fun, very informative, and very hands-on.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CEO
Perfect You LLC

Walking as a part of your fitness goals

Today, I would like to talk about walking to increase your weight loss goals.

Benefits of walking:
1) Low impact on the joints.
2) Can be done anywhere.
3) Requires little or no equipment.
4) Grab a partner and walking becomes a socializing experience.

The general rule of thumb for walking is that walking is roughly equal to 1/2 the amount you would jog. Example: 1/2 hour of walking is equal to 1 hour of jogging.

The goal of everyone is to get 10,000 steps per day. Let me take apart why this number is so magical.
1) For every 2,000 steps you take you burn roughly 100 calories. Well 2,000 steps divided into 10,000 steps leaves you with 5 and if you take 5 and times it by 100 (calories) you get a loss of 500 calories a day!
2) You need to burn off an additional 3,500 calories to lose one pound.
3) And by taking off additional 500 calories a day for seven days - YOU LOSE one pound.

So just by making 10,000 steps a day you are going to lose a pound a week. Keep up with your fitness and proper eating and you will go far to lose the weight and increase your cardiovascular system.

To track your steps per day pick up a Pedometer. They are sold in any fitness chain (Dicks, Modells, Sports Authority, etc.) Pedometers are cheap and expensive. I got mine for $3.95 and it works perfectly.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

What do you want to see in this BLOG

Hello, Though I have a topic agenda for the year about what I am going to be talking about weekly - I thought I would give a shout out to get any suggestions for articles that you want. Please submit your ideas and I will do my best to write about them.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto

Delay in postings

Sorry for the delay in my postings. In the last two weeks I have taken on 9 new clients and I have been busy setting them up and getting them going. I have also went to a new accounting program and am still in the process of porting over all the data. And got hit with jury duty. Gezzz - when it rains it pours. :)

To tighten up my time even more - I am in the process of giving two fitness lectures at my local library.

I should be back in the Blogging game next weekend.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto

Basic stretches to keep you relaxed during vacation

Here is a list of stretches that one should do to stay limber during a vacation.

If anyone would like to know exactly how to do the stretches let me know and I will email you the correct form.

1) Quadtricep stretch
2) Hamstring stretch
3) Calf stretch
4) Groin stretch
5) Glute stretch
6) Hip flexor stretch
7) Neutral position back decompress
8) Shoulder stretch
9) Pectoralis stretch
10) Trap stretch
11) Scalene stretch

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. My rates are $50.00 per hour for in-person training and $15.00 per hour for email personal training. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

Hotel room workouts

Hotel Workouts

Just because you have no fitness equipment on your vacation does not mean you should be sacrificing your fitness.

Some types of exercise that you can do in your hotel room:

1)Squats – Pick a place in your hotel room and do some deep squats.
2)Lunges – Pick a place in your hotel room and do some deep lunges.
3)Calf raises – Place your feet on top of a phone book (most hotels have them tucked away in a drawer – usually next to a bible) and do some calf raises.
4)Abdominal crunches – Place a bath towel on the ground and bang out some tummy tightening abdominal crunches.
5)Inner/outer thigh raises – Place a bath towel on the ground and lie on your side. Make sure both feet are together then move your top foot forward and raise it up as high as you can go for a set amount of repetitions. Next put your feet back together and move your bottom foot forward and raise it up as high as you can for the set amount of repetitions. When done move your body to your other side and repeat.
6)Pushups – Put a bath towel on the ground and do some tried and true old-fashioned push-ups.
7)Chair dips – Grab a chair and step in front of it. Next lower your body so that you can grab the chair with both of your hands from behind. Now move your self forward, away from the chair, and lower your body below the chair, then raise it back up again. Do a set amount of repetitions.
8)Suitcase presses - Fill up your suitcase with some clothes and do some overhead shoulder presses.
9)Suitcase bench presses - Fill up your suitcase with some clothes and do some bench presses on your bed.
10)Jumping jacks – Do this old time gym favorite in your hotel room to get some cardio workout in.
11)Sideways lunges – Do some deep sideways lunges.
12)Pretend jump rope – Go through the motions, with your hands and feet – of jumping rope just as if you had the real thing. This is a great cardio exercise.
13)Hamstring lifts off a mattress – Lie on your bed. Have your feet bent and the bottoms of your feet on the bed. Now raise your butt and lower back off the bed till you form a slanted bridge with your body then lower and repeat.

These exercises can be done anywhere and give you a sense of pride that you are not letting your fitness goals slip away.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. My rates are $50.00 per hour for in-person training and $15.00 per hour for email personal training. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

We missed two articles for the end of January

I wanted to apologize for two missed articles we never posted for the last two weeks of January. We had a hard disk crash and spent the better part of two weeks rebuilding our system from backup media. But we are back again for February.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto
CEO - Perfect You LLC

Fitness Themes for February 2009

Hello, Perfect You LLC will be posting the following theme for the month of February

Working out while on vacation:
Week 1: Hotel room workouts.
Week 2: Stretching routines to get you through your vacation.
Week 3: Walking as a boost to your conditioning.
Week 4: Small ways to improve your fitness level while enjoying your vacation.

Regards,

Eddie
CEO - Perfect You LLC

Anatomy of the Glutes

Hindsight: Intro to & Overview of the Glutes



Some definitions for terms mentioned in this article:
ABDUCTION: Movement away from the body.
EXTENSION: Straightening the joint resulting in an increase of angle.
LATERAL ROTATION: Rotary movement around the longitudinal axis of the bone away from the center of the body; turning the thigh or pelvis outward.

A butt is a butt, right? Well, if you’re not interested in making yours look nicer, then, I suppose you could answer ‘right.’ However, all those in favor of a firmer, rounder booty would be more inclined to want to know a bit more about just what yours is made of.

First of all, the term ‘glutes’ is plural for a reason; there is more than one muscle that makes up what you typically refer to as your butt: Gluteus Minimus, Gluteus Medius & the ever famous Gluteus Maximus. In order to obtain our ‘best butt,’ it is important to consider that all 3 of these muscles must be worked for optimal proportionality & attractive results.

Gluteus Minimus: As the name would suggest, this is the smallest of the three muscles. Located beneath the other two muscles (immediately beneath Gluteus Medius) & connected to the outer part of the ilium (the rounded, flared part of the bones that make up your pelvis – hip). It is involved in movement of the thigh (inward rotation) & is chiefly involved when supporting the body on one leg.

Gluteus Medius: Broader & thicker than the Gluteus Minimus, this muscle is also connected to the ilium, though closer to the crest (uppermost part of the flare). It sits directly above Gluteus Maximus & over Gluteus Minimus. This muscle performs the same actions as Gluteus Minimus but is also involved in hip extension, lateral rotation and abduction, serving as a decelerator of internal rotation of the femur bone (large bone located above the knee, surrounded by the thigh and hamstring muscles) at the end of the swing of your leg during walking/running. The Gluteus Medius helps stabilize the pelvis and aids in lateral movements.

Gluteus Maximus: The largest and topmost muscle of the glutes, this one is a very broad and thick fleshy muscle running from the inner portion of the ilium. This is the muscle that makes up most of the shape & appearance of your butt. The biggest action taken by Gluteus Maximus is erecting the body after stopping by drawing the pelvis backward; it is also involved in any forward bending movements like step-ups, squats or lunges.

Now that you are more familiar with what you’re made of back there, you can begin to better understand why and how certain exercises will give you particular results. In the next blog, we will explore more of the functionality and specifics that will enable you to work all of your glutes.

Melissa, is available for Personal Training at your home or over email.

Melissa COO/CPT
Executive Vice President
Group Exercise, Program Design and Customer Service

Big butts

‘I Like Big Butts...’ Just a Fad of the Times or Timeless Sex Symbol?

It seems as though nowadays, curves are in…. or at least making a comeback. Looking around on TV, in magazines and advertisement venues, there seems to be a trend; after all, just look at the uproar J Lo caused with her particularly ‘well-rounded asset’. Living in America, it’s no secret that we’re obsessed with slim, but historically women who were curvy were always more desirable. This begs several questions. First of all, why did curves go out of style? Second, why are they coming back? And third, are they here to stay?

There are a few theories as to why curves lost their appeal. The one that makes the most sense to me has to do with equality. In the past, a more feminine appearance may have also been associated with incompetence in the professional world (as femininity is classically attributed to mothers – those who traditionally stay home & care for the children, as opposed to the men who were expected to go out in the working world to ‘bring home the bacon’). Hence, as women entered the workforce and naturally wanted to be taken more seriously and attain success, it is more than possible that they subconsciously realized a more masculine appearance could be a key factor.

The appeal of a larger lower body on women goes back to the caveman age. Innately, it is understood that strong legs and glutes would enable a person to run faster & less likely to be the prey of hungry carnivores. Darwin believed that those humans that appeared healthiest would naturally be more suited to find a mate more quickly in order to pass those traits genetically to offspring. Moreover, there is reason to believe that hip-waist ratio plays are large part in the indication of fertility in females – a determining factor on the influence of a male’s mate selection process. All of this is also very apparent in the examination of ancient art and culture (statues and paintings etc. of fertility goddesses & women alike).

Fast forward: in the present day, women are decently integrated into the professional world. (I have my own reservations on this subject matter but that’s for another blog at another time). Having more influence (not to mention laws backing us up that have forced society to strive for fairness), has allowed for less concern over one’s appearance having bearing on qualification. Additionally, more vintage taboos have also faded considerably allowing America to embrace the not-so-secret secret that ‘sex sells’. In that light, many new opportunities have surfaced for those women considered ‘voluptuous’. As women continue to fight for equality and acceptance, they have caught the attention of many companies wishing to capitalize on whatever demand is currently strongest. As society comes out of the super-skinny-waif fad, and more accepting of women who actually look the way they’re supposed to (no offense to those women who are genetically predisposed to a more slender somatotype by the way), Big Business is changing their target demographic, most especially in fashion.

Though it’s impossible to predict the future and the fads that lie in wait, it would seem that curves are finally here to stay. Considering the fact that women are built with wide hips for a very important reason (childbirth), genetically they are most certainly not going anywhere & it is therefore in the best interest of society to understand and accept that fact. In a perfect world, everyone would be A-OK with the way his or her body is built – we are all different & that’s a beautiful thing no matter what; however, it is perhaps human nature to criticize that, which is less conventionally embraced. I look forward to a society that promotes more readily a healthier self-image approach, which will auspiciously lead to a decline in eating disorders and other debilitating habits and issues.

Melissa, is available for Personal Training at your home or over email. This article should show you what a gem Melissa is to your goals. She is a treasured member of my staff. Perfect You looks forward to you debating this article and making this site even better at addressing your unique needs.

Melissa COO/CPT
Executive Vice President
Group Exercise, Program Design and Customer Service