Fitness For Freedom Tips

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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289: How Do You Start an Exercise Program During Cancer Treatments? 0

Episode 118

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Jul 31, 2017

If you’ve been listening for a while we appreciate your continued support and if you’re new to the show, welcome and thanks for stopping by. When most people think about fitness they think of the specific exercises they need to do and they think about having the right equipment to get the most effective workout, but rarely do people take a step back to look at the mental components and the behaviours around fitness that not only help you get faster, stronger or more mobile, but also keep you consistent and motivated. That’s what this show’s all about, we hope you get some valuable information that is both useful and insightful, that will help you be the healthiest and most active version of yourself. Let’s get on it.

A few years ago I started running the fitness fundamentals course at the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation where I work with people that have either gone through some form of cancer treatment or have recently completed their cancer treatments and they want to either start exercising or get back into exercising again. When going through cancer treatments almost everyone experiences unfavourable reactions to chemotherapy or intense radiation, it’s not uncommon to have surgeries that permanently affect your body and the lack of energy or sleepiness can be overwhelming, not to mention all the different psychological effects it can have on you. All this to be said once a person has dealt with these changes their goals and abilities are going to be different, which means most likely their exercises will have to be different or at least modified, today we’re answering this question, how do you start an exercise program when your physical abilities have become different or restricted?

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283: How to Become a Problem Solver 0

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Jul 10, 2017

A few years ago one of my clients asked me to join her facebook group. It was a group of people from all over the world that either had some sort of medical condition or had overcome some sort of adversity in their lives and they were trying to navigate their new lives now that things were different for them. She asked me if I could design some exercise programs that some of the people in the group could do, she thought the exercises might be helpful for many of them, I agreed because consistent exercise is the one thing that can help almost any medical condition, even fix or cure the condition directly, it can still help people become more functional and help them mentally as well. So I wrote a few very basic and short exercise programs that didn’t require any equipment, with relatively easy exercises like arm circles, wall push-ups and practicing standing up out of a chair, things that were probably closer to activities of daily living more so than what most people would consider exercise. I posted them in the group forum and went on with my day. The next day when I checked in to see if anyone had any questions or needed guidance there were about 30 comments that were all some form of this:

I can’t do this exercise routine, because I can’t do this one exercise
This exercise hurts my shoulder, hip, foot, fingers or some other body part
Are there any easier exercises than this, these are too hard?

I understand exercise can be challenging and that this group of people would need something especially gentle, so I gave them a program, that was short, basic and basically the same as a program I would give and have given clients in their 80’s and 90’s.

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218: Quora Style, All About Fat Loss 0

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Dec 7, 2016

When it comes to fat loss is it better to run faster for short distances or slower for longer distances?

Should I skip eating breakfast to lose fat?

How do I lose my leg fat?

199: Sometimes You Just Have to Do the Work 0

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Oct 24, 2016

As most of you know I'm big on controlling your environment and focussing on behaviours to make changes, but sometimes these changes have limitations, sure you can set your alarm 30 minutes earlier, of course you can pack your gym bag the night before so it's ready to grab on your way out the door and yes pre-planning your meals and preparing them as much as possible on the weekend so they’re ready to go through the week will be crucial in determining whether or not you can be successful in achieving the outcomes you want. But sometimes that's just not enough.

171: How Many Reps of an Exercise Should You Do? 0

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Aug 19, 2016

Off the heels of Wednesday’s podcast we’re going to talk about how many reps you should be doing, what the benefits and differences are in each rep zone and how you can figure out where you should spend most of your time.