Food shopping tips

I can’t believe how long it has been since I’ve posted a blog.  I’ve been really busy lately training athletes and teaching kinesiology courses.  In addition I’ve got my Advanced Training Workshop coming up next Saturday so that has taken much of my extra business time.  If you are interested attending, I have a few spots left. 

While these tips may be just a good reminder for many of you, you would be surprised at how many people don’t follow these.  Here are some tips to share with your clients and participants:

1. Never shop when hungry.  When you are hungry EVERYTHING looks good.  Have a good meal before you go and you will be much stronger at resisting the temptation to get the garbage foods. 
2. Stick to the outside.  Food is always on the outside of a grocery store.  That is where you find your produce, dairy, eggs, meat and if you look closely, your whole grains.  While there are a few exceptions on the middle isles (e.g. brown & wild rice, natural peanut butter, raw nuts, olive oil, etc), most of what is on the middle isles is not food – it is what Dr. Lonney Lowery would call “Frankenfood” and it will destroy your health, your performance and your waist line.
3. Be careful with labels.  Labels are designed to hook you into purchasing the product.  Just because something is low fat, high protein, “made with whole grains” does not mean it is healthy.  You need to find out the nutritional information to get the full picture.
4. Check ingredients & nutritional info.  This is where you go for information.  The ingredients will tell you what is in the product and is listed in order the most to the least in comparison to the other ingredients.  If you see words like “enriched”, “hydrogenated vegetable oil”, “partially hydrogenated oil”, shortening, sugar (or other similar things), then leave the product on the shelf!
5. Buy in bulk.  Whether you pool your money together with family, friend or training partners or just stalk up in your deep freeze, this will save you a tone of money!
6. Shop around.  If you are cheap like me or just on a tight budget, it can be hard to get the best deal on all foods at the same place.  Find the best at each place.
7. Make a list.  No one has time these days to wander aimlessly up and down the isles to find something that looks good.  Make a list of what you need then go into the store as a man/woman on a mission.  Complete the list and get on with the rest of your busy life.  A list will save you tones of time and money. 

Many students call asking for suggestions on how to get a job.  As it seems in the industry (at least for the time being), jobs for aerobics instructors are in abundance.  So, getting a job isn’t necessarily the problem.  It’s getting the job you want for the wage you want.

If you have a particular wage in mind when entering the interview process with a potential employer, it’s not enough to justify that wage with a ‘well, I’m worth it’ attitude. Be prepared to demonstrate your skills by bringing music and having a few patterns in the back of your mind ready to present to your interviewer.

Dress for success.  No, you don’t have to go in a business suit, however, I still recommend you dress presentably, are properly groomed and wear proper footwear~just as if you are ready to teach a class!

Go with copies of your resume, fitness certifications, and first aid/CPR copies.  It shows you are prepared and ready to work.  I stress ‘copies’ for the obvious reasons of what can happen when you use originals.

Remind yourself what sets you apart from the rest.  Everyone can learn a skill, however it’s the presentation and delivery of that skill that makes the difference.  What is it about you that makes you worth X dollars per hour and capitalize on that.

Finally, research the company before you go to the interview. Nothing says ‘I really don’t care’ like someone who can’t answer the questions ‘What do you know about our company?’ and ‘Why do you want to work here?’.  If you can’t answer those before the interview, perhaps it’s not the best fit.

Happy interviewing!

Daniela Tempesta

What a great weekend!  For those of you at the conference, I hope you had a great time.  For those who missed, I hope you can make it next year.  I had such a fun time presenting!  It is so great to be around so many fitness leaders at one time.  I’m already brainstorming presentation topics for next year!

What an exciting weekend!  The BCRPA conference this year was held at Simon Fraser University and the tradeshow was a great success!  We enjoyed the demos and seeing what was being offered at the other booths.  But, the most exciting part of the weekend was the ability to connect with YOU!  Our students are very important to us and it was so nice to see those that we’ve met along the way in our in-class courses as well as ‘putting a face to the name’ of our online students.  We emphasize the value of follow-up with our students to ensure their fitness careers are meeting their expectations and it was great to see our students were realizing their goals.

Yours in health,

Daniela Tempesta

When it comes to nutrition, some trainers, authors and nutritionists get way too carried away.  They come up with these overwhelmingly complex diets where you can ONLY eat organic, raw food that is grown within 5 miles of your house, vine-ripened and picked on a full moon, eaten within 30 minutes of picking and then rotated with other foods so each food is not eaten more than once every 28 days. 

Now I know that some of these concepts are good and that I exaggerated these recommendations, but the point is, the stuff the average person hears about “good” nutrition is often totally overwhelming. 

I have found that a key to nutrition coaching for most people is to treat nutrition the same way we would training.  For example, if a beginner walks in who is only able to bench press the bar and says he wants to bench 300, would you go over to the rack, load up the bar to 300lbs and have the client get in there are keep trying until he can make it?  Of course not!  Then why do we try to do this same thing with nutrition?

The reality is while most people have some head knowledge about nutrition from cocktail parties and the internet; most are horrible in the daily application of good nutrition practices.     

Start them off with basics such as eating breakfast.  Then add in more fruits & veggies.  After that, work on getting rid of some really unhealthy junk foods like candy, pop and donuts.  Stay with these little steps until they are normal for the client, and then make another small, specific change.  While these changes are not that fancy, they will help improve performance, body composition and health.  Sure there are times when a client needs specialized nutrition programming from an appropriate professional, but many people just need someone who can coach them through some fundamentals in a real-life practical way.

For more information, check out my nutrition coaching workshop.

On the weekend we were having a barbeque and I went to the store to pick up a bag of spinach for the salad.  The guy ahead of me in the checkout line had nothing but 7 cans of one of those popular (I won’t say which one) so-called “energy” drinks. 

I was temped to hold up by bag of spinach for him and say: “hey man, if you eat more of this, you won’t need that junk.”  I resisted.

It really concerns me that these “energy” drinks have become so popular and so readily available.  Taking stimulants will raise heart rate and blood pressure.  The also cause increase adrenaline and cortisol levels (cortisol burns away muscle tissue and increases abdominal obesity).  Stimulants can also increase inflammation and lower testosterone levels.  For North Americans, these things are already happening to the body all the time and are paying the price with bigger waistlines and increases in chronic diseases.  North Americans do not need a drink that makes these things worse.  For the athlete or fitness enthusiast, these effects mean slower recovery times, more nagging musculoskeletal problems and less muscle. 

 In addition to these problems, many “energy” drinks are loaded with sugar.  This gives your body the added “bonus” of tooth decay, sugar crashes and fat gain.

To top if off, some of these “energy” drinks are marketed as a “natural health product” – what a load of garbage!  Get a decent night of sleep, eat real food and you will not slurp back all the junk.   

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you all know that we have a bunch of new podcasts up.  If you haven’t checked them out, please do so - there is a link for them on our home page.  Also, if you have a topic that you would like us to talk about, just let us know.  You can email me at Andrew@onlinefitness.ca.

On Sunday afternoon, my lovely wife and did the Grouse Grind.  Most of you living in the Lower Mainland will be familiar with it.  It is a long, hard hike virtually straight up Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver.  At the top you get a beautiful view of Vancouver. 

As we were hiking, the teacher within me stirred and I thought of a few lessons that you can apply to yourself or your clients:

1)       Every once in a while, try something new that is physically & mentally challenging.  Don’t be stupid, but try something that will push you well past your comfort level.  From my own experience and from a decade of training people, I’ve found that most people have no clue how strong they really are.  Having an opportunity to discover this (whether on a hike or in the weight room) is a very rewarding experience.  My wife (who trains regularly) commented that she had never challenged herself like that physically before.  I was so proud of her for having accepted and met the challenge!

2)       Break up your big goal into little goals.  A great thing about the Grind is that it has signs along the way at the ¼, ½ and ¾ mark.  A goal is much more manageable when you break it down into bite-sized chunks.   

3)       Once you are started, keep going.  Mountain climbing is a great example of this.  When you pass the ½ way mark, you realized the closest way to end the hard work is to get to the top.

4)       As we were hiking up, there were many times when all we could see was the trail going up forever.  There will be times when it seems like the end is nowhere in site.  When this happens, just keep going.

5)       Reward yourself.  A great thing about the Grouse Grind is that when you get to the top, the view is amazing and there are a lot of cool things to do.  Once at the top, it was definitely worth it! 

Yesterday was my friend Tracey’s birthday and she invited me to celebrate it by going to Whistler Zip Trekking. I’d heard of it before but I did not know what it entailed. Once we got there, I found out it was going to be a 3 hour ordeal and I was starting to get a bit worried. Watching the promo video didn’t help, it looked a little dangerous. Anyway, I did it and I loved it! Besides all the thrills, the zip guides are awesome and they give you an informational eco tour between zipping lines. It was fantastic and exhilarating and I was glad to learn that a portion of the fee was donated to great environmental causes. Check out our You Tube Chanel link for videos of this and other events.

When it comes to resistance training, there are good and not-so good exercises.  If you are training for performance, fat loss, muscle gain, function, injury prevention or time efficiency, emphasize these 6 basic movements in your resistance training program:

Knee dominant: squats, lunges and single-leg squats variations

Horizontal push: push-ups, chest pressing variations

Horizontal pull: rowing movements

Hip donmiant: deadlift and hip extension variations

Vertical push: overhead and incline pressing variations

Vertical pull: pull-ups, chin-ups, pulldowns

While these may not be the most exciting exercises, these are the ones that deliver the best and fastest results.  Focus on these and feel free to add a small amount of additional accessory exercises such as: abdominals, direct arm training, calves, forearms, grip, neck, etc.  Also, whether training yourself or others, remember that there are countless variations to each of these movements, so be sure to use the ones that are most appropriate.