Before

In August of 2011, I went to my doctor and he told me I had to lose weight. I weighted 305 pounds and my blood pressure was very high. I started to lose on my own and then in January of 2012 I decided to get a personal trainer for three months. Since then, with working out and following the nutrition that my trainer provided for me, I have lost 70 pounds!
Thanks to my trainers for all the help they give me. I will continue to work on getting to my goal I have set for myself with the help form the great staff here at Fit For You!

Jim Johnson

Ingredients

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions

Season chicken breasts with ground black pepper and garlic salt. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet, and brown the onion and seasoned chicken breasts.
Pour tomatoes and balsamic vinegar over chicken, and season with basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Simmer until chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 15 minutes.

Nutritional Information Amount Per Serving

Calories: 206 | Total Fat: 6.1g | Cholesterol: 68mg

Scroll down for  Ginny’s recipe for Oatmeal Power Cookies

Ginny’s Oatmeal Power Cookies:

Ingredients

• 1 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 3/4 cup firmly packed Splenda Brand Brown Sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 scoops protein powder (any flavor)
• 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• ½ cup chopped almonds
• ½ cup raisins

Directions

1. HEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Coat baking sheets with no-stick cooking spray.

2. BEAT applesauce, sugar and brown sugar in large bowl at medium speed of electric mixer until blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine protein powder, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small bowl. Beat into shortening mixture until smooth. Stir in oats, dried cranberries, raisins, almonds, and walnuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2-inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

3. BAKE 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. Cool on baking sheets 2 minutes. Place on cooling rack to cool completely.

Serves 24

Calories 173/Carbs 27/ Fat 4/ Protein 6

Before

After

I came to Fit For You because I had severe pain from my neck all the way down to my leg. I felt as I was losing my mobility. I have had four Rotator Cuff operations on my right shoulder leaving me with full rotation but no strength from the shoulder upward. I tried massage therapy and that had helped a bit. I tried Chiropractic doctor but I had only received limited, short-term success. I was looking for something that would offer me a better way of living.

My personal trainer sat me down and we developed goals for our workouts. At this point all I was looking for was some stretching and developing an exercise routine that would maintain me as I progressed in my “senior” years. She not only developed an exercise program for me including stretching exercises, she developed a nutrition program for me, and together we developed some realistic goals that I felt were achievable. She also encouraged me to set a few goals that I thought might be out of reach and see where we would end up.

February 19^th, 2012 I fell on the ice and tore the quadriceps muscles in both knees. I spent four days in the hospital and 4 weeks in a nursing home. This set my exercise program back, but because I went into my fall with such good strength I was able to recover much faster. My personal trainer was able to reconfigure my exercise program to develop my upper body strength while my knees healed.

Today I have reached most of my goals. I am in much better physical condition. The nutrition has changed the whole way I look at food and life. I have lost about 25 lbs. I am down two pants sizes. I have more energy and I can touch my toes for the first time in 30 years. I have improved not only physically, but also mentally, and spiritually as well. I have a new enthusiasm for life that I received from Fit For You!
George McKay

Before

After

Over the years I have tried many different diets and video workout tapes with limited results. To add to this dilemma, I am aging and having more trouble taking off the weight. A friend told me about her positive experience at Fit for You and talked with me about the importance of building muscle as the body ages. My initial reason for starting at Fit For You, unlike all my other attempts to look better in the past, was actually for my health. I have been with Fit For You since October, 2011 and my life has changed. Not only I have lost weight and inches, my confidence, self-esteem, energy level, and overall mood has increased. Although it is tough for me to identify one exercise I like the best, I like the creative approach that one of the personal trainers provides in all of his workouts. I have never had the same work out in the past 6 months, which makes it fun each time.

Judy Strait

 Cellulite Removal With Exercise

 So what type of exercise program can address all of the above in parallel? A resistance training program that uses a combination of total body exercises and specialized stabilization exercises for your legs and butt.  Follow a generic program and you will be sorely disappointed.

But why not just do a bunch of lower body exercises, why do you have to do total body exercises? Because you cannot spot reduce fat. You have to burn a lot of calories on a consistent basis and wait until your body taps into those stores of dimply cellulite fat.

You could potentially notice a difference by only doing lower body exercises, but if you are going to put forth the effort anyways you might as well give yourself the greatest probability of success.

Now in terms of the total body exercises you don’t need anything fancy. Basic pushing, pulling and squatting movements will do just fine here. A combination of chest presses, pull-ups and dumbbell squats would be a great starting point.  And remember to do these in circuit fashion, one after the other with minimal rest. Avoid following a generic body building routine – you need to burn as many calories and activate as much muscle as possible in the shortest amount of time possible.

In terms of the lower body exercises, you need to incorporate a lot of balance training. The instability that balance training provides will make it much easier for you to target all those smaller, more elusive muscles in your lower body.  And it’s critical that you target all of these to give yourself the greatest chance of “smoothing out” your lower body as you simultaneously burn off the dimply fat.

In a nutshell, this is a two-tiered approach: you burn away the uneven fat while making the underlying muscle smooth and toned.

As a general rule of thumb, you want to do two to three resistance training workouts per week. Do more and you could over fatigue your body, do less and you won’t notice any change. Give yourself 1-2 days of rest in between each workout.

If you are a beginner here, you may need to rest more in between workouts. It takes about two weeks for your body to get better at assimilating protein and accelerating recovery if you are just starting out.

Here is a sample schedule you could potentially implement for cellulite removal:

Day 1: resistance training workout

Day 2: rest

Day 3: resistance training workout

Day 4: rest

Day 5: resistance training workout

Day 6: rest

Day 7: rest

Looking Like A Man

Don’t worry about looking like a man because of resistance training. Your body does not have the skeletal structure or hormonal load to gain man-like amounts of muscle.  In fact, the muscle building process is extremely slow.  And if you are really concerned here simply keep all your exercise sets to 15 repetitions or more. This will keep you out of the muscle building zone.

What About Running On A Treadmill All Day?

Cardio does have its place in your routine if you have more free time. If you can only commit to three workouts per week, stick with resistance training workouts only.

However, if you have more time than that you can start sprinkling your schedule with cardio sessions.

I say “sprinkling” because cardio is a double edged sword. It can accelerate results, but when done in excess (no more than 30 min per session) it can make cellulite worse.

You see, too much cardio will interfere with your results from resistance training (a whole different article) – and you cannot afford this because resistance training will create the most change.  So just make sure you do a combination of low, medium and high intensity cardio depending on how your body is reacting to the program. The good thing about cardio is that it will help you burn some additional calories (and cellulite fat) while strengthening the heart and lungs and making your body more efficient at burning calories.

Follow these two simple rules: never do more than 30 minutes at a time and never do a session before resistance training.

Cellulite Removal With Nutrition

Exercise alone is not enough to remove all your cellulite; you also need to adjust your nutrition. After all, it’s very easy to “out eat” the amount of exercise you do if you aren’t following some type of structured meal plan.

And even if you are thin you should still focus on your nutrition because it will improve circulation and make it easier for your body to break down cellulite fatty acids.

The easiest way to manage your nutrition is to assemble your meals from the following groups: protein, carbohydrates, vegetables and fat.  Having this type of balance between the groups will keep your insulin low and make it easier to maintain a caloric deficit. – Two essential requirements for any successful cellulite elimination plan.

Avoid eliminating any single food group because each one plays an important role. Combining all the groups slows down digestion and keeps insulin lower.   And lower levels of insulin translate into faster fat loss.  The best sources of protein have a complete amino acid profile. A good example here would be wild salmon or white poultry.

The best sources of carbohydrates are low in sugar and high in fiber. A good example here would be stone ground oatmeal or yams.

The best sources of vegetables are darkest in colors. A good example here would be broccoli or kale.

In terms of fat, you need to eat a combination of Saturated, Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated.

Here are good examples of each:

1. Saturated: These fats are derived from animal products such as meat, dairy and eggs. But they are also found in some plant-based sources such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils.
2. Monounsaturated:  This type of fat is preferable to other types of fat and can be found in olives, olive oil, nuts, peanut oil, canola oil and avocados. Some studies have shown that these kinds of fats can actually lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and maintain HDL (good) cholesterol.
3. Polyunsaturated: These are found in safflower, sesame, corn, cottonseed and soybean oils. This type of fat has also been shown to reduce levels of LDL cholesterol, but too much can also lower your HDL cholesterol.
4. Trans Fats or Hydrogenated Fats:  Are actually unsaturated fats, but they can raise total and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels while also lowering HDL (good) cholesterol levels. Trans fats are used to extend the shelf life of processed foods, typically cookies, cakes, fries and donuts. Any item that contains “hydrogenated oil” or “partially hydrogenated oil” likely contains trans fats. Hydrogenation is the chemical process that changes liquid oils into solid fats. The tide is turning against trans fats. Since January 2006, all food manufacturers are required to list trans fat content on food labels. Keep away from these!
5. Omega-3 fatty acids: These include an “essential” fatty acid, which means it’s critical for our health but cannot be manufactured by our bodies. Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include cold-water fish, flax seed, hemp seed, soy, and walnuts. These fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and also boost our immune systems.

You have two choices here: you can try to remove your cellulite overnight by continually purchasing gimmicky “treatments” that will get you nowhere, or you can get rid of your cellulite permanently with the exercise and nutrition methods outlined above.  The choice is yours.  Yes, the latter requires more effort – but at least you know for sure that the cellulite will go away.

Avoid perpetually spinning your wheels and simply take action!

Before

During

After struggling with various diets throughout the years I decided to have Bariatric Surgery in December 2011. Fit For You offers a free 3 month membership to all post-op patients. I have to admit I was reluctant to try the gym because I thought it was for “body builders”…that is, until I heard Vern speak at one of the post-op monthly meetings. My husband and I scheduled a meeting with Michele and after talking with her I decided to sign up with trainers twice a week. I meet with my personal trainers and really do enjoy it! They know what I’m capable of and push me further that I ever would on my own. I’ve come to realize that trainers aren’t just for the rich and famous…They are for anyone who is serious about getting in shape.
My only regret is that I didn’t discover Fit For You year ago! The staff really does care about you, your nutrition, and your future.
Thanks Fit For You Staff – I’m already losing weight and inches and gaining strength and I’m just beginning!

Karen Reidel