Fresh Intensity for a Healthy Summer 2012

Intensity in training and mindful eating are great equalizers. It is because of this that even a mundane physique stands a greater chance of being transformed. Without it you flat line, stay stuck in rut, or hit a plateau. A lot of us have been there or are there right now! We THINK we are working hard with our efforts to be healthy, but in reality we are not making noteworthy changes in our bodies. You must consider your intensity with each workout and with each meal choice. Performed with clogged focus (aka your mind in la-la land), you get so-so results, physically speaking. The intensity-the challenge at the cellular level-can be increased in one of accountability. A committed friend or a professional can keep you on track with your nutrition and fitness intensity! They will push you to do more than you would on your own. Here are a few options to keep your Summer 2012 healthy living, FRESH!

Hire A Pro: Hire the services of a personal trainer, strength coach, and or a Registered Dietitian. Trainers and RD's, like myself, have a huge database of nutrition & fitness expertise that they live to share. No one ever said you have to hire them more than a few times. Spend 1-3 sessions with a professional and learn new ways of eating and exercising to incorporate into your fresh summer routine. No need to join gyms, they sometimes come to you! You may even find that a monthly session with a dietitian and or a trainer helps keep you on track and adds a continuous flow of education. Think of a these professionals as your teachers. We all continue to learn. Chances are we don't EVER know everything! Therefore, its worthwhile to see what the pro's are saying.

Take A Class: If you have been working out in a gym or health club on the treadmill or elliptical, then mix it up by taking an exercise class. A class adds the excitement of an instructor, upbeat music, variety, group support, and a specific exercise time to keep you on track.

Get Outdoors: We are live in a beautiful county! Hunterdon County has professionals offering Boot camps, Hikoga and Fitness in the Park options. Their limited seasonal time frame is a great way to add fresh variety to your workout routine for the summer.

Bringing fresh intensity into your nutrition and exercise plan will facilitate a focus on your efforts that are sure to yield improvement in your health. Intensity reads like passion, but feels like power! It is considered hard work, but most would agree that everything ever worth doing was not easy! You are worth it!

Danielle Fryer, RD, CFT

Metamorphosis Fitness & Nutrition LLC

evolvehealthy.com

Staying Motivated

Motivation is an essential part of long term weight loss success. Everybody loses motivation to exercise from time to time, and it is often a result of a lack of variety in their routine. The key is to know how to respond. Below are suggestions of ways to increase your variety and motivation.


Find An Exercise Partner: Those who have an exercise partner increase their adherence to their routine by almost 90 percent. Choose someone who has similar goals and is at a similar fitness level. Make a commitment to each other to show for workouts. Your workout partner will provide

Exercise Videos: The biggest problem with an exercise video is that most people never use them! Whether you purchase them, or borrow them from your local library, videos can be a great way to add variety to your exercise program. Try exchanging one day at the gym for a home exercise video workout.

Cut Your Time: Yes, I am suggesting you spend less time at the gym, but do the same workout. So if you have a set weight lifting routine, stay with it, but lighten the weights a bit and reduce your breaks in-between. You will be going from one exercise into another with minimal rest. It will be a change not just for your body, but also for your mind. Try completing the same distance that you normally do on the treadmill or elliptical for 45 minutes in just 30 minutes. Increase your intensity, and reduce your time.

Do The Opposite: If you have been weight training via a total body routine, break up your workouts into upper body and lower body. If you have been breaking up your body parts, try training the whole body in one routine. If you perform aerobic exercise and weights in the same workout, try doing workouts that are either just aerobic, or just weights. If you normally stay on one machine for your aerobic workouts, mix it up by using 3 different machines in one workout session. These changes in your workout routine will give your mind a much needed break, and will also give your body a much needed change as well. I suggest changing it up every 2-4 weeks.

Change Your Workout Time: Try going to the gym at a different time of day. If you normally exercise in the mornings, switch to afternoons or evenings and vice versa. Seeing different people can make a big difference in your motivation. It will be like being at a different gym!

Motivation is the result of having an interest in what you are doing. If you have been doing the same exercise routine and you notice your motivation slipping, mix it up! A little change can go a long way. Changing your routine for just one week can make a big difference in your enthusiasm, and who knows, you might find that you like the new routine better than your old one!

If I can help in organizing, instructing, or directing your fitness & nutrition goals, give me a call or email. I'd love to help you get or stay, and love "healthy.

July 2007 Editorial for The Greenwich Gazette
by Danielle Fryer, RD

In addition to the nutrition articles below, we have compiled several pages of healthy, clean recipes and snack ideas (even desserts). Would you like a copy? Request one via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or all us at 908.574.5345.

What Is Healthy Food?

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard from clients and friends, “I was so bad yesterday…I ate french fries with the kids” or “I totally cheated and had a piece of birthday cake.” We’ve all heard it, right? And actually, we have probably all said it. But, there is a fundamental problem with this line of thinking that works against each and every one of us.

Food and eating are not ethical issues! You are not good or evil because of what you eat. If you allow yourself to attach such negative values to certain foods and to yourself for eating them (i.e., I’m a cheater, I failed, I can never have another brownie), you are setting yourself up for failure. And when we think we have failed, we feel guilty and tend to give up.

Remember, a healthy lifestyle is about balance, calculated choices and motivation. It is a way of living not a “quick fix.” If you want to transform your eating habits, you need to start “eating to live” not “living to eat.”

Women especially seem to have this innate tendency to beat themselves up when it comes to eating. And it’s no wonder. Look at our society—it’s filled with mixed-up eating images. From the time we are small children we are inundated with unhealthy messages about food. Parents start urging their children to clean their plates at an early age, our celebrity-crazed culture places pressure on young adults to severely restrict their food to look a certain way, yet our restaurants serve portions fit for an army. It is easy to see why a lot of us grow up to be adults with a lot of guilt, shame and confusion about our eating habits.

So let’s change our thinking!

While I am a Dietitian/Nutritionist & Personal Trainer and am in the business of creating specific and scientific meal plans, I mainly advocate a philosophy that I call “Mindful Clean Eating”. It is actually quite simple. It means you focus on eating things that come from plants, animals or trees rather than from boxes, bags, and take-out containers. Look down at your plate…is most of your food alive or dead? Is it nutrient dense or void of nutrients? This translates to getting a majority of your daily calories from fresh fruits and vegetables, minimally processed whole grains, low-fat dairy, nuts, seeds and lean meats and fish. Clean eating minimizes the presence of preservatives, chemically altered fats, extra sodium and artificial ingredients. In addition to this, pay careful attention to portions, and eating while you eat (mindful). It is often not what you are eating, it’s how much and not paying much attention to the act of eating. We have adapted the bigger is better attitude and much to our dismay many prepackaged snack foods can actually stimulate your appetite. So go for moderation – do a reality check and give yourself one serving not three. This takes education, discipline and practice (my expertise.)

Clean eating, however, doesn’t mean “perfect” eating. It doesn’t mean that you will never consume another bag of chips or another brownie. What it means is that you are aware that some food choices are more ideal than others when it comes to fueling your body and you are able to adjust your habits accordingly. Don’t attach guilt to your choices, accept them! Better yet, plan for them. I advocate a scheduled "cheat meal" each week. Enjoy that brownie while you are eating it and learn to have confidence that you will return to your healthy eating habits at the very next meal.

We all know life is full of distractions, changes and temptations. Being realistic and being prepared for them with a general attitude of clean eating is much more realistic than participating in the “good vs evil” food war. When you look at your eating plan this way, there is no such thing as cheating!

If you are in need of accountability and guidance with any fitness and/or nutrition plan, I was born to help! -Danielle Fryer, RD                        

A Calorie for a Calorie?

As a practicing Registered Dietitian and Personal Fitness Trainer, I often am asked the question, “Does the caloric quality of my food choices or the caloric quantity of my food choices matter more?” This question is asked often due to the overall abundance of ideas, theories, perceptions, media response, and opinions of the general “nutrition aware” population. Allow me to break down the facts, in layman’s terms, and point you to a TRUTH that holds the foundation of the human body’s intelligent metabolism.

The metabolism of the human body consists of many vast functions. I will point to Carbohydrate (glucose) digestion, (Glycogenolysis) Protein digestion, (Amino Acid Catabolism), and Fat digestion, (Lipolysis) and their contribution to breaking down energy (calories). These three digestive pathways are the body’s involvement to nourish your life form, your body. They all contribute in varying amounts to the total energy pool of the intelligent watery arena of metabolism. The forms that the energy yields are all in the same; however, utilization and conservation of this energy requires involvement of vitamins and minerals, generally found, in their purest state, only in whole foods.

When you are born, your new body only tolerated breast milk or formula’s that mock a female’s breast milk. After the first 6 months to 1 year, the body’s three pathways of digestion completely developed and became able to digest whole foods. The intelligence of the Human Body is ONE with the totality of the Earth bound foods Mother Nature provides. Eating foods from the Earth contain no additives and preservatives. Naturally occurring foods like, Fruit, Vegetables, Dairy, Fats, Whole Grains, and Protein. When we ingest additives and preservatives into our normal, beautiful, perfect pathways of metabolism, we inhibit the natural flow of digestion. Consider a newborns dirty diaper. Then, consider a child’s diaper after he or she has begun consuming processed foods. Consider the inhibited digestive process (eating processed foods) as the throwing of a monkey wrench into a stable, clean, and properly functioning piece of machinery. Would you put Kerosene in your Gasoline required vehicle? Consider the intelligence of the Body screaming, “What the heck, what do I do with this ingredient?” The Body will digest it, eventually, with much pain and suffering, slowing of the metabolism, uptake of more water, and possible bloating, gas, and other numerous dysfunctions of the collective torture we place on our cells. This occurs from additives even if you do not “feel” it. However, if you are aware of your inner body, you will become more mindful of the rejection of these chemical compounds in your body. So, to answer the question, is a calorie a calorie? No. The body desires clean and whole foods. It is your choice to pollute the body’s natural flow of digestion. It is your mind that decides to choose this for your body, not your body. If you do occasionally eat processed ingredients, don’t make it into an issue of guilt, blame, or resentment, but accept the fact that your body does not desire these types of foods. Your mind does. Thus, this brings in your consciousness toward your overall behavior; therefore, you become transformed just by recognition of your behavior. Consider eating “processed foods” 10% of the time, and eating clean whole foods 90% of the time. Become nutrition aware. Be the watcher of your behavior and relationship to food. In regards to caloric quality or caloric quantity mattering more…It is a fact that both equally are significant in the entire factual realm of the Human metabolism...Bottom line, eat mindfully, choose clean and whole foods most of the time, this will enable your powerful body to run its natural flow of homeostasis, therefore allowing pure health to evolve.           

April 2007 Editorial for The Greenwich Gazette by Danielle Fryer, RD

Trademarked & Copyrighted in 2003, The Mindful Clean Plate is a nutrition program for mindful, clean, and healthy eating. The client is the author and I am the editor of this behavioral, science based, healthy program. This method allows for an on-going relationship between the client and I. The Mindful Clean Plate provides a platform for understanding more about, accounting for, and exploring food and social food behaviors.

I have taken all my expertise as a Registered Dietitian, Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics, and as an accomplished athlete, fitness competitor and Elite Personal Trainer and wrapped it up into one powerful tool for Americans to evolve healthy and strong!

Danielle's Blogspot http://rdxpress.blogspot.com/

How is an RD Different Than a Nutritionist?

The “RD” credential is a legally protected title that can only be used by practitioners who are authorized by the Commission on Dietetic Registration of the American Dietetic Association.

Some RDs may call themselves “nutritionists,” but not all nutritionists are registered dietitians. The definition and requirements for the term “nutritionist” vary. Some states have licensure laws that define the scope of practice for someone using the designation “nutritionist,” but in other states, virtually anyone can call him- or herself a “nutritionist” regardless of education or training.

Individuals with the RD credential have fulfilled specific requirements, including having earned at least a bachelor’s degree (about half of RDs hold advanced degrees), completed a supervised practice program and passed a registration examination—in addition to maintaining continuing education requirements for recertification.

Danielle Fryer provides the following personalized, educational nutrition services for children, adolescents, and adults:

Each nutrition plan is customized to fit the individual's goals.

Counseling Services:

Sports & Fitness. Healthy & Active Lifestyle. Weight Management.
• Medical Nutrition Therapy
• Individual Nutrition Assessment
• Small Group or Family Nutrition Counseling
• Sports Team Nutrition Counseling & Workshops
• Online Nutrition Counseling
• Phone Nutrition Consults
• Nutrition Follow-Up Sessions

Specialities:

• Healthy Living with Diabetes
• Weight loss/Increased ALIVENESS
• Eating Disorders (Emotional Eating, Bulimia, Anorexia, Overeating, etc)
• Healthy Diet Overhaul. Overcoming all the misinformation and Fads!
• Age Defying Nutrition
• Sports Performance Nutrition
• Active Lifestyle
• Senior Nutrition
• Pre and Post Natal
• Fibromyalgia
• Osteoporosis
• LYME Disease
• Celiac Disease
• Arthritis
• Vegetarian and Vegan Lifestyle and Sports Performance
• Raw Diet and Juicing
• Detox

Initial consultation and program set up $125

Call for additional discounted package offers and pricing. 908.894.8700

Sports Nutrition. Who Delivers? Watch this short Youtube video that highlights the role of a CSSD