And you now how it goes - people take their eating habits very personally and a lot of times aren’t willing to or are very slow to change.

I’m happy to say that I’m pretty successful in winning this battle and turning my clients into very health eaters - my success record wouldn’t be possible if I wasn’t.

What it all comes down to is a better understanding of portion size, and a better overall strategy of macro-nutrient (protein, carbs, fat) balance.

Once you understand what proportion of each of your meals should be carbs, protein, and fat, and you have an idea of the approximate quantity of each is present in your meal, you’re set.  This of course is much easier if you’re cooking for yourself, so you know what you’re putting in to the food.

Here’s an example of a recent meal of mine which is pretty indicative of my average meals.  I have about 25 grams of chicken (Purdue ready-cooked chicken in a bag), and about 45 grams of a  special beans and fat-free cheese brown rice that my brother cooked. 

If the rice looks good, that’s because it is - besides being a trainer, he’s now becoming an aspiring chef (really just a food channel junkie).  He’s come a very long way from being an obese, 315 pound 15 year old.  I’ve got no problem with that because he cooks some healthy, unbelievable tasting stuff!

Yeah, so back to what I was saying, a portion of the rice was also protein, so that brought this meal to a near 50:50 ration of carbs to protein, slightly more on to the side of carbs and with about 30 grams of protein, which were all of my goals for this meal.  I didn’t measure any of the portions - this was all done by eye.

You’ll get a good eyeball for what’s in your food if you take the time to measure it a few times, or you buy a few low-fat TV dinners and pay attention to the portion sizes they have in there.

Their of course was fat in my meal, but none was added so I’d call it negligible.  I don’t look to add any additional fat to any of my meals except for some peanut butter and flax seeds thrown into my morning oatmeal, and fish which I have a couple of times a week.   

So eating healthy doesn’t have to be a pain in the butt - it becomes a habit and all of the people I work with can attest to this.  Now I can’t look at a plate and not start doing the calculations in my head of how much of what I’m eating.  This is especially useful when you eat at a restaurant - just assume there’s always a lot more fat in the meal.

For those of you that live in or visit Northern Queens, you know that the Taco Bell on Northern Boulevard is open again! Happy day!

I love Mexican Food – in fact, I hardly know anyone that doesn’t - although I’m not sure if this place qualifies as typical Mexican cuisine …

Beyond that Taco Bell does it’s part to maintain the body-fat percentage of the American population. Special thanks too to my buddy George, who recently sold his two Subway locations and instead opened to new Coldstone Creameries - I’ve noticed a slight increase in my client load as a result -

I don’t think man has yet invented a denser way to pack fat and calories into a smaller package than the Crunch Wrap Supreme -

BUT, there were a couple of things on their menu which are open to us as physique enthusiasts ….

They put up a new Fresco Style Menu, where they take all of the sour cream and cheese out of their menu items. Sure there’s still a lot of starch and salt in the flour tortilla and beans, but that’s about it.

And there is ONE time when we can have a little bit more starch and simple sugar in our diet, and that’s post-workout –

The timing of the relative proportions of CARBS, PROTEIN, and FAT and when to have them falls into the area of sports nutrition. This is the effort to optimize our eating with the body’s hormonal state and nutrient delivery process in order to get the most out of our recovery and performance.

For a long time this has been ignored by the popular nutritional community, but it’s slowly gaining much more attention. It was recently covered in detail by the New York Times – thanks to my buddy and fellow trainer Eugene Thong in Manhattan for bringing the article to my attention.

In the article their was some questioning of the need to take nutritional supplements to replenish the body after a workout, or whether real food would do the trick. The ratio of carbs to protein were also brought into question, but there were some important points made -

About protein:
Just after exercise, perhaps for a period no longer than a couple of hours, the protein-building processes of muscle cells are especially receptive to amino acids. That means that if you consume protein, your muscles will use it to quickly replenish proteins that were not made during exercise.

And about carbs:

Muscles also need to replenish glycogen, their fuel supply, after a long exercise session — two hours of running, for example. For that they need carbohydrates. Muscle cells are especially efficient in absorbing carbohydrates from the blood just after exercise.

Here’s a link to the article.

For a 176 pound man, they recommended an approximate ratio of 20 grams of protein to 80 grams of carbs . However it needs to be pointed out that they were looking at the needs of endurance athletes - for strength athletes, the protein needs after exercise have been shown to be even greater.

Here’s what the research of Peter W.R. Lemon, PhD showed in his recent article in The Journal of The American College of Nutrition:

Timing of Macronutrient Intake
It is clear that carbohydrate intake immediately following glycogen-depleting exercise can enhance subsequent muscle glycogen resynthesis when compared to the same intake several hours later [59]. Similarly, it could be possible to stimulate muscle growth (by minimizing degradation and/or maximizing synthesis) via carbohydrate or amino acid ingestion following a strength exercise session [60,61]. This is likely due to insulin-stimulated [62,63] changes in muscle amino acid uptake and protein synthesis (Fig. 10 [62]). Further, it appears that the nonessential (dispensable) amino acids are unnecessary (Fig. 11 [62]). We know that a strength training session affects both muscle protein degradation and synthesis (Fig. 12), but the precise magnitude of the responses and the time course is yet to be determined [64,65]. As these responses become clear, it might be possible to make very precise recommendations to maximize the anabolic stimulus following strength training.

The trainer Jason Ferrugia, who’s known well known in the industry for a lot of his anecdotal information from observing and training athletes, also questioned the need to quickly down a protein shake after a workout - he pointed out that a big, well balanced meal can do the same thing in replenishing the body and creating the optimal environment for recovery and subsequent growth.

So how does this all relate to Taco Bell?!?!

Well, on their Fresco Menu are a few items that fall into this somewhat ideal ratio of carbs to protein, and under 10 grams of fat - here’s a look at the menu:

The category I highlighted in red is fat, in orange is carbs, and green is protein -

From these numbers, it looks like my recent habit of a fiesta chicken burrito and grilled steak soft taco immediately after my workout are perfect for my needs - and the fat is at about 13 grams, which is manageable.

So if you needed a little bit of an excuse to cheat, here you go - see, I’m not as bad as most of my clients think!

But be careful - in the area of nutrition, there is a large gray area of cheating and rationalizing to look out for. In general, follow some proven principles strictly and measure their results towards achieving your goals. If they aren’t achieving the results you’re looking for, then modify. But don’t scatter your eating all over the place just because there’s some out of context info that you’re using to back it up.

So the bottom line is if I see at you Taco Bell that’s fine - just don’t eat every meal there!

All the important information was contained in the last few paragraphs - I’ve cut and pasted them here - the important things that were discussed in these paragraphs are:

• the important difference in the body’s hormonal state at breakfast time

• the best foods to eat

• a quick explanation of the glycemic index

And yet, even as they disagree on the specifics, the majority of researchers seem to agree that what we put into our bodies in the morning is a critical decision. Because it occurs after eight, ten, or even twelve hours of sleep, the breakfasting moment is physiologically unique. “The nature of the food we eat affects hormones in profound ways for many hours after a meal, and that’s more important after breakfast,” said Dr. David Ludwig, associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and author of Ending the Food Fight. “We’ve been fasting and stress hormones are elevated and we’re insulin-resistant, so we can use the properties of food at this time to our benefit or our detriment.” A fasting body is particularly sensitive to, say, a sugary, refined-starch, low-fiber muffin; blood sugar will soar and then plummet, leaving you famished once again.

What’s preferable, according to Ludwig, is to choose breakfast foods with a low glycemic index (GI). The term refers to the rate at which glucose is absorbed from carbohydrates—or, put another way, how rapidly carbohydrates affect blood sugar. This is important because controlling insulin and blood-glucose levels in turn controls appetite and, ultimately, weight. In a 1999 study led by Ludwig, twelve obese teenage boys were fed at various occasions high-GI (“instant oatmeal”), medium-GI (“steel-cut oats”), and low-GI (“a vegetable omelette and fruit”) breakfasts and lunches, and then were allowed to consume all the food they wanted for the rest of the day. The high-GI cohort, in a state of crashing blood sugar and surging adrenaline induced by the instant oatmeal, devoured 500 to 600 extra calories. (This phenomenon likely explains that postprandial ravenousness I often experience—my morning mainstays, toaster waffles and quick-cooking oats, rank fairly high on the GI list.) Low-glycemic foods may even help breakfasters achieve that dietary holy grail: speeding up metabolism. In another study, subjects kept on such a diet saw their metabolic rate shift slightly to burn approximately 80 more calories per day—not a lot, but every little bit helps.

How to tell if a food has a low glycemic index? A quick rule of thumb: The more processed the food, the higher its GI; the higher a food’s fiber content, the lower its GI. Breakfast, in other words, should be a high-fiber affair. This means vegetables and fruits (but not juices—the fiber is in the pulp and skin) and whole grains. For the record, a whole grain is an intact, unrefined grain that retains the bran and germ, its nutrient- and fiber-rich components.

Eggs too may help to control blood sugar (protein stimulates the release of glucagon, a hormone that counterbalances insulin), but don’t defect to the Atkins camp just yet. Eggs are also high in cholesterol. Many doctors, noting that sensitivity to dietary cholesterol varies, advise limiting eggs to several per week.

So what, then, to eat? The path of bread crumbs—or cereal flakes—through the thicket of breakfast suggestions is this: Breakfast is not dessert. Most muffins and bagels are out, as are those breakfast bars with the creepy strip of ersatz milk, and the many cereals that claim to be “whole grain” but are in fact sugary and fiberless. Out too are my beloved toaster waffles, unless I find a version containing the recommended five grams of fiber per serving. What remains are the foods that we probably should have been eating all along: unprocessed, low-GI, fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables (in omelettes if nowhere else), oatmeal (slow-cooking or steel-cut rather than instant), whole-grain breads and cereals (that are also high in fiber and low in sugar), protein in the form of low-fat dairy, and eggs in moderation. Nothing too exciting, but then, breakfast is all business. If you’re looking for thrills, try dinner.

The rest of the article talked about some of the sometimes contradictory info on what to eat for breakfast, but there’s no controversy on whether it’s important for better thinking or preventing obesity - it of course is.

But the question for most of my clients is it’s impact on general fat-loss and optimum body-fat percentage. What they pointed out is that consuming breakfast will have you make more sensible eating decisions for your first few meals of the day because you won’t be as hungry.

So in terms of the foods to eat, controlling the glycemic index of the meal is important - this can be achieved through eating whole grains and incorporating protein into the meal.

And consuming frequent meals, especially one after going the entire night without food, fits into a plan of keeping your metabolism high and maintaining muscle mass.

Funny how diet and exercise has become such a big part of the articles in New York Magazine - I guess it’s just the importance of looking good to New Yorkers.

All my clients, friends, and some people I’ve never met have been asking me what happened to the blog - they used to enjoy how I used to answer their questions and address their fitness in-depth, while at the same time broadcasting the whole thing to the world -

I don’t really know why it went on hiatus - I guess I was too busy living it for the past few months instead of talking about it - all of my clients know I’ve been kick-boxing intensely over the past few months, and been involved with more training industry events -

But those aren’t excuses - there really aren’t any - this is a necessary part of what I do and will be keeping up with it for the future -

To kick things off, let me share this pic from my trip to Vegas over Memorial Day Weekend - there was a lot of partying and even a few times I broke out of my stoic shell if you’ll believe it!

But that’s enough vay-cay for now - back to kicking ass!

My buddy Phil has captured this self-consciousness in a humorous and sarcastic video - that’s him in the video by the way -

I’ve got no comment -

The motto of the gym is the “Judgement Free Zone”, and I think what they mean is they’ve used no good judgment in creating their rules. For one thing, they don’t allow any noise or grunting of any kind. I’m like most people and find most moaning and grunting during exercise very annoying, but every now and then, we all do make some noise on the last rep of our hardest set.

But if you do that here, the most unbelievable thing happens; they have a huge alarm on the front wall of the gym, called the lunk alarm. Under it is the definition of lunk, which they’ve defined as “anyone who grunts, drops weights or judges (whatever that means)” - if you do any of that, the alarm immediately goes off for the whole gym to hear and a staff member comes over and gives you a warning.

Here’s a news story about a Planet Fitness in our area:

That lunk alarm is ridiculous, but not the end of the strange practices at this place. Unbelievably, the gym hosts a “pizza day” the first Monday of the month, where they offer free, unlimited pizza to their members. Shahed actually told me that he was trying real hard to stay on his diet, but when he saw all the free pizza in front of him, he had to have some. When he asked the front desk employee why they were serving pizza in a gym, he was chastised and ridiculed. There’s also a bagel morning the first Tuesday of every month and an ever present bowl of tootsie roles at the front desk.

I’m not the first to blog about this place - a search on the web will find you many other reviews talking about the strange practices here. In Shahed’s opinion, the staff is also rude and grossly out of shape and it’s really hard to find a positive review. If judgement free means that you’re not encouraged to set goals, push yourself, or make any progress at all, then why bother to go?

It’s really something out of a sci-fi movie - it can’t be real that this level of behavior control and mediocrity is enforced in America. Shahed’s never seen personal trainer at the gym, and I think it would probably be against the rules of the place for someone to push you harder and give you a good exercise routine - that would be considered “judgment”.

I can understand having a no loud grunting rule, or rules against unruly behavior or dropping weights; those are the rules of the gym where I train, the Evolution Fitness Club in Astoria. In cases where I have dropped weights or forgot to return them to the racks, the owner or manager has politely reminded me, and I didn’t do it again. But if an alarm went off every time I did it, or if they were serving pizza in the gym, that’s just criminal.

On the opposite end of the spectrum of Planet Fitness is the Powerhouse Gym in Bayside. I think the rules of Planet Fitness were created with the members at Powerhouse in mind, many of whom yell for really no reason at all and love to get into staring contests. Funny enough, Powerhouse was shut down last week in a steroid raid and deemed a public nuisance. I’m not surprised at all because that gym had a toxic vibe and enforced a different kind of mediocrity, one of self-absorption and mindless ritual.

But most other gyms where I’ve been in my life fall in the middle zone of sanity where the rest of us in society live. Where we can accept our differences and respect our boundaries. There are always some people that cross the line and they need to be reminded, but I think the rest of us don’t need that kind of constant, heavy policing when we train.

Roddick threw everything he had at Roger, and got wiped out in three sets. The first two went to a tie breaker, but Roger didn’t seem to have been challenged at all during them. The last set was business as usual for this amazing athlete.

Not since Michael Jordan have I seen an athlete so far head and shoulders above his competition. Even the legends Andre Agassi and John Macenroe, who were commentating the match, were gushing. You could have put two teenage fans in there for a similar call of the game, but those guy obviously know great tennis and had to give credit where it was due.

Funny enough, Federer’s training regimen was brought up in the post-match interview. Roger credited lots of running, hitting the weights, and luckily staying injury free as the keys to his success. However, all elite level athletes train very hard; Roger seems to have discovered a secret regimen that’s giving him an edge. It was mentioned several times in the match that he doesn’t seem to sweat, nor does he ever seem out of breath.

Tennis is an interesting sport, requiring speed, power, and endurance, all in almost equal measure. Unlike Roddick, who’s legs are huge and his fast twitch fibers are plentiful, as apparent in his powerful serve, Roger has a very slight frame, even by tennis standards. I can only guess, but keeping that light body-weight may be a strategy for him, because although slight, he is by no means weak; he has a lot of power in his strokes, and is very fast. His weight training regimen must be focused on building the power of his strokes, but not building his body. He doesn’t look like he’s touched a weight in his life, but his power shows that this obviously isn’t the case.

I tried to find information on Roger’s Personal Trainer or Fitness Coach and could find none. I don’t think he even has a Tennis Coach right now, which adds more to his mystique.

Federer’s a unique and amazing athlete; truly one of kind. He’s 25 now, which is nearing old age by tennis standards, so everyone should drop whatever they’re doing the nights he’s playing. There probably won’t be another like him ever again; effortless, artistic, powerful, and skillful all at the same time.

Today, on Labor Day, I’ve had the same experience so not only can I relate, but I can tell you the reasons why. I push to the limit every training session, and with my clients I accept nothing less - with that type of training, there are certain precautions we need to take or we’ll be messing up our gym clothes every single time we go to the gym.

First off, you need to eat at least an hour before going to the gym for you food to digest. As you all already know, the pre-workout meal is a relatively large, well-balanced meal. It needs to be consumed with ample time for digestion or your body will feel the need to purge it during a hard workout. I’ve gotten away with eating right before a workout many times before, but if you’re engaging in a very intense session that’s pushing your limits, you’ll inevitably have to go! In my case, I woke up late and the gym was closing early; combine that with a big leg workout for me today, and the causes are obvious.

What is it about the training that may cause nausea and how can we prevent it? When we’re training at our highest level of ability, the exercise tests not only our muscle strength, but the work capacity of our entire central nervous system. It’s this type of training that creates the best results, but also requires the most recovery time between workouts. For my clients, I don’t want them to have to work out endlessly when they’re not with me, so I go for the most “bang for your buck” so to speak, with an intensity level that will produce the most adaptation and will also allow them to spend their own free time for recovery rather than more training.

However, when this training spills overboard, combined with eating that’s too close to the session, the results can be messy. To avoid this problem, I recommend everyone to bring up their cardiovascular capacity along with their strength. The best way to do this is through interval training, and I don’t mean easy intervals over an hour. After a good 5 minute warm-up, I want you to push your cardiovascular capacity on every interval, followed by a recovery period that’s as short as it needs to be, and then another intense interval. If you’re comfortable jogging for 30 minutes at 6 miles an hour, then your high point in your interval should reach 8 mph, and your recovery speed can be 5 mph or a brisk walk at 4 mph. Keep that up and just 15 minutes of work will leave you exhausted, but will also lead to more progress and calories burned than a full hour at a low intensity. (the only exception is if you’re really out of shape now, spend two weeks on moderate intensity cardio 3-4x per week to build a baseline of aerobic capacity before you begin intervals) This will build up your overall anaerobic threshold and will allow you to work even harder during training sessions, leading to increased ability to reach muscle failure (rather than cardiovascular failure while the target muscle is still strong) and thus much better results.

If you’re so busy that you can’t get in your intervals, that’s fine - you’re CNS capacity will eventually adapt from regular personal training sessions with me, but the process will be much slower and their may be some sessions where you feel queasy or a little light-headed, especially if you’re not timing your eating properly.

That’s what happened to me this morning. In eating so close to my workout time and rushing to get the workout done before the gym closed early, I went beyond my CNS capacity and had the nausea spell I talked about. I won the battle and was able to keep my breakfast down and wait for my queasiness to pass - but I know some of you haven’t been as lucky!

And just like any sport, proper sports nutrition is also vital – I know, the workout was hard enough, now I have to strategize my eating? Well once you start to understand the general concepts they become easy, and through practice they become internalized and a way of life. Knowing what to eat and when will be that edge that will make your results seem “effortless” to others.

What I want to focus on today is the post-workout shake (PWS). The proper supplementation after your workout is absolutely vital to recovery. This information is applicable to both my male and female trainees. Get it right and you’ll see improvements nearly every time you hit the gym.

Despite the progress we’re looking for in the gym, it’s important to realize that high-intensity exercise is largely catabolic (break-down of body tissue). Even though your muscles get pumped and you feel a lot of energy, you’re breaking down muscle tissue and putting a lot of stress on your nervous system. Without the proper nutrition after the workout, this period of breakdown will just continue and may lead to halted progress or even backtracking!

But the bright side is that if done right, this is the one time that your muscles are the most receptive to proper nutrition. Immediately after a tough workout, the muscle cells undergo a change at the cellular level, and essentially become like sponges waiting to absorb any nutrient they can find; the research shows the change is so great that it’s really amazing. It’s during this period that almost everything that is consumed will be shuttled directly into the muscles, not stored as fat, and the groundwork will be set for the progress from your workout to take effect.

Since this high-absorption phase lasts not much longer than an hour, we want to take advantage of it and consume our post workout shake as soon as possible. This will immediately shut-off the catabolic phase of the workout and begin the anabolic (tissue growth) phase of recovery. The post-workout shake is valuable for both female and male trainees equally, even those that are not seeking muscle gain as a goal, and even for those looking for fat-loss! For every one of these cases, muscle preservation is key to fat-loss and strength gain efforts, and therefore the goals in recovery will also be the same. The only thing that will change is the composition of the shake based on body weight.

A shake is preferred to whole food immediately after your workout because of the speed of digestion. Whole food takes much longer to digest than simple liquid sources of nutrition, and for recovery speed is key. Furthermore, the type of liquid we drink is also important – for the protein part of the recovery drink, whey protein isolate is recommended, and for the carbohydrate portion, plain table sugar or dextrose is the way to go. If these ingredients aren’t available to you, you can just mix your usual whey protein with some fruit juice for a similar effect. There is also a great product on the market, Isopure Mass which is designed specifically as a fast-digesting PWS, and has a 53g carbs, 35 g protein breakdown, which is suitable for most athletes.

Now the last question is how much sugar and protein to have? I have a simple formula for you that will work well. The ratio should be 60:40 carbs to protein, and the number of grams depends on your lean body mass. The total grams of the shake should be about 75% of your lean body weight in pounds. So for example, a female athlete weighing 125 pounds with a body-fat of 20% will have a lean body-weight of 100 pounds. Her post-workout drink should be 75 grams, and at the 60:40 breakdown, the carb content will be 45 grams and the protein will be 30 grams.

The only time I would recommend a smaller amount of carbohydrates and a different ratio is for the obese trainee on a serious weight-loss regimen. In nearly all other cases, even in clients on a fat-loss regimen, this ratio will hold true.

And remember, all the calories from the shake will be shuttled into your muscles, so one hour after consuming the shake you can return to your normal eating regimen.

That’s everything you need to know – and not only will having a post-workout shake make you feel stronger, but you’ll also feel like quite the star athlete with all of these sports-nutrition principles, so have fun with it!