Fitness For Freedom Tips

297: The Ridiculous Notion of Moderation 0

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Aug 28, 2017

Have you ever heard this expression, ‘Everything in moderation, except moderation.’ I’ve heard this expression several times and I don’t know where it comes from or who started it, but the first time I heard it I agreed with it and thought - you know everything should be done in moderation, but then I heard it again in a slightly different context and decided I didn’t like it as much and now I’ve been thinking about it for several years (I know I’m a bit weird like that, but sometimes little things bother me for a really long time and it takes me some time to figure out why they bother me so much and I just need to reflect on them), anyways now that I’ve reflected on it, I’ve decided I don’t really like it at all and I just want to dig into why, let’s start with the definition.

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296: what are some beginner pulling exercises? 0

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Aug 23, 2017

Master Chef - What are some good foods I can make from scratch at home? We want to eat healthier and I only have so much time to cook, are there any quick meals that can be made easy that are also good for you?

Amanda - I’m trying to learn proper movements for exercises, but don’t really have anyone who can tell me if I’m doing it right. Will practising in front of a mirror by myself help me improve? Assuming I have a general idea what the exercise should look like.

Flimsy Arms - I have watched a lot of your videos, you put a lot of emphasis on pulling exercises. For someone like me who has poor upper body strength, they can be very hard - what are some beginner pulling exercises?

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295: The Lost Strategy That Will Help You Lose Weight 0

Steps to a Pull-Up

Shoulder Mobility

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Aug 21, 2017

Last week I made this huge giant salad. I used spinach as the base, with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers from our garden and then I put some olives cashews, hemp and chia seeds to top it all off with some balsamic vinaigrette. Of course, what I intended to be a modest lunch salad quickly turned into a giant beast of a salad, but I felt up to the challenge and started eating it with the intent of finishing the whole thing, but halfway through my son Cooper started to cry and I had to take an intermission from my salad to change his not so clean diaper, which took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. But here's the interesting thing that happened, when I sat down to finish my salad I was no longer hungry and instead of finishing it off like I would have in the past I put it in a container and ate it a couple of hours later when I was hungry again.

I don’t know if something like this has ever happened to you before where you’re famished at the start of a meal and get interrupted part way through only to realize when you come back to it that you’re not actually hungry anymore and you don’t need to finish all the food you prepared yourself. But it got me thinking about something, how often does the opposite happen, where you’re hungry, so you ram a bunch of food into you as fast as you can only to feel not only full, but stuffed 20 minutes or so after you finish your meal, I think for most people this secondary scenario is much more common. I know when I was a teenager I fell into this category, because when I came home from school almost everyday I would devour an entire box of crackers as a snack, but then be so full after I would unable to move or do anything productive, until dinner time when I would eat again.

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294: How long does it take for weight loss to show? 0

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Aug 16, 2017

Mandy - I’ve been losing weight doing exercise, and I know I have because I’ve been weighing myself every day, but I can’t really see the difference. I feel better, but I want to look better as well. How long does it take for weight loss to show?

Sleepy Sally - I work long shifts on my feet all day. I want to exercise but when I get home I’m just so tired. I also don’t have much time in the morning unless I want to wake up really early. What should I do?

Down with Doritos - I live with people who really like to eat junk. I’m working on my weight but sometimes it’s hard to resist when they have a bag of chips out watching a movie. They can have junk if they want to, but I want to build up my ability to say no - how can I do that?

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293: The Shocking Difference in Protein Vegetables vs Meat 0

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Aug 14, 2017

Protein, Protein, Protein - Protein is incredibly important, your body uses it to synthesize or build muscle, your cells use it to duplicate themselves and to grow, as well as many other functions, in fact you could call protein the building block or foundation to which every function in your body is built and if we get outside your body for just a second, foods that are high in protein also tend to taste really good and keep you feeling full for longer periods of time.

The average person usually needs somewhere between 50 and 100g of protein or about 1g per kg of body weight in a day. This is enough to maintain all your bodily functions as well as grow some muscle, if you’re into that sort of thing. If you're incredibly athletic, do a lot of strength training, powerlifting or bodybuilding and you want to build a lot of muscle, you may want to push your protein uptake to 100 to 200g of protein a day or 1 to 2g per kg of body weight, but keep in mind that for most people that’s around the top end of what your body can absorb for muscle building and that’s only if you’re consistently doing strength training. Once you go much beyond that the protein is more likely going to be used as energy, this means used as glucose or stored as fat for a later date.

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292: What’s the Deal with Eating According to Your Macros? 0

Episode 118

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Aug 9, 2017

Jeannine - For the last 3-5 years it seems like eating according to your macros is all the rage. What I don’t understand is what ratio is best for me, and why does it matter for optimal body function and weight loss? I eat 1400 calories, but I noticed it’s mostly of fats. I love avocados, nuts, and good quality cheese. Could this be a reason why I am stagnate with my body composition?

Jeannine - I feel like exercise has a lot to do with mental toughness. It is the ability to manage some discomfort for a trade-off of stronger muscles etc. I find my mind gives up before I do. I am curious as to what your mental process is with regards to pushing yourself?

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291: The End of Diabetes a Must Read Episode 0

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Aug 7, 2017

If you’re new to the show welcome, if you’ve been listening for a while thanks for coming back we appreciate that you’ve taken time out of your busy day to listen and hope that in return you get some valuable information and some things that you can apply into your everyday life to be the healthiest and most active version of yourself.

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve done a must read episode and that’s simply because I haven’t read a book that I felt was compelling enough to feature, until now. I got ahold of this book and have been recommending it to many of our clients because it’s that good - The End of Diabetes by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

I know, diabetes is scary, lots of people have it, lots of people are susceptible to it and most people think the only thing you can do about it is take lots of medication. Of course the way things are set up in the medical system doesn’t help, because that’s how most doctors manage it with their patients, they prescribe drugs like metformin and insulin, which in most cases does help someone with Type 2 Diabetes control their blood sugar, but what makes matters worse is this gives someone with diabetes the false sense that everything is okay, because the numbers on their glucometer say everything is okay, but the reality is it’s only a bandaid solution that in the long run makes the situation much, much worse and if you’re a Type 2 diabetic that requires insulin it’s the beginning of the end for you and that’s a harsh reality that most people aren’t willing to face. If you have Type 2 diabetes you’re at an increased risk of having a heart attack and getting kidney disease, both of which have the negative side effect of death. There’s also the less deadly, but still severe increased risk of nerve damage which will make it harder to walk and hold things in your hands, as well, amputations and vision loss are also more likely to happen if you have diabetes. That’s how the book starts, well it’s a summary of how it starts, but I think you get the gist of it.

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290: are there certain types of exercises I should avoid doing for a full body workout? 0

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Aug 2, 2017

Leg Laments - I have bowed legs, are there certain types of exercises I should avoid doing for a full body workout?

Can’t Stay Still - I find exercises like the plank or wall sit - where I’m just standing still - pretty boring and hard to maintain because I get so bored. Are there more active alternatives?

Andrew - How soon after a broken foot injury should I be getting back into exercise? I play soccer and while I definitely won’t be playing this summer I don’t want to lose my ability over time.

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