We are pleased to announce that Jennifer Powter will be joining the FitMetabolism team this October.  Jennifer shares in our passion for health!  This is an exciting time as we look forward to the vast knowledge and experiential background that she will bring to both our patients and staff in the coming months.

Want to know more about Jennifer?

Jennifer is the leading expert in creating personal health transformation success stories for individuals who are ready to make their physical health and emotional well being a priority in their lives. Having worked with top executives to entrepreneurs to busy stay at home moms, her services are built upon her core belief that long lasting health, happiness and fulfillment in life come about when people step out of their comfort zone, curb their excuses and make a commitment to oneself  to get healthy and she’s there to educate, support, and encourage along the way.

Jennifer brings over 15 years of knowledge and experience in the areas of health & wellness, personal leadership, development & growth, and behavior change management.  She has been featured in over 30 different print & online journals, and interviewed on CTV, Global and CityTV for her ground breaking workshops in these areas.

Jennifer holds a Master’s of Science degree in Exercise Physiology from the University of Victoria and a Bachelor of Physical Education Degree from the University of Alberta. She’s also a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and an AFLCA Fitness Instructor. As a two time Ironman athlete, multi-marathoner, friend, wife and mom to two little ones Jennifer has managed to really hone in on what it takes to be fully engaged in life and walks her talk.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/09/14/heart-disease-lung-cancer-un.html

We don’t succumb to promote health with cheesy before and after bikini photos.  Instead meet the brave faces of FitMetabolism’s Better Health Ambassadors.  Otherwise ordinary human beings, now marked by the pursuit of the extraordinary, are rallying together to create a positive culture of better health.  Join in as they share their accomplishments and lessons learned along the way!

This is meant to be a showcase of possibility for better health made real with the right tools- a program matched to your needs and a network of encouragement!  There are simply too many people who because of fear, limited access to support or knowledge remain prisoner to poor health.  It is our hope that in sharing these inspirational stories, we can offer a nudge of motivation to seek the courage to take responsibility for the little things that can combine to make a big difference.

Congratulations to all our ambassadors for making a committment to yourselves and others- improving your health by improving your environment!

If you have had similar success, we would like to hear from you.  Make sure to leave your comments below!

You can view all of our better health ambassadors on our facebook page!

The Problem with Body Mass Index

Many people are familiar with the Body Mass Index (BMI).  It is the primary tool used by family doctors to determine your health rating and predict an ideal weight.

But the problem with BMI is that it defines ideal weight based ONLY on height where there are many other variables that must be considered such as body composition and body fat distribution.

BMI= Weight (kg)/Height2 (meters)

1. Underweight = <18.5
2. Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
3. Overweight = 25–29.9
4. Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

The reality is that many people should not take the BMI to heart.  The BMI is a crude measurement created a longtime ago as a blanket way of classifying large groups of people.  When BMI is used in this way it does group the population fairly accurately.

When BMI is used on an individual level it can incorrectly classify over-fat people as healthy and healthy people as over-fat. This error would not be revealed without measuring your body fat.

Body composition is more important than body weight

People have varying amounts of muscle, bone, and organ tissue, which comprises their lean mass, that should be considered when defining an ideal weight.

Your lean mass depends on genetics, gender, age, and fitness status.  Males typically have higher amounts of lean mass than females.  As you age, muscle and bone mass can decrease.  Strength training can build bone and muscle mass, even counteracting normal age related losses.  Disease or extreme dieting can cause losses in your lean mass.  Therefore, your lean mass can change in a relatively short period of time making it important to test after significant changes in your weight, age, health, or fitness.

Body fat taken as a percentage of your lean mass can be used to provide a more accurate picture of ideal weight.

Measuring your body fat percentage

Body fat measured using Bioelectical Impedance Analysis (BIA)* is a quick and easy method that measures both the lean and fat mass.

Humans need fat.  We can’t live without it.  But how much fat do we need?

In recent years, more and more research has been done to understand the relationship between body fat and health.

1. General Classification of Body Fat Percentage (American Council on Exercise)

• There are other tools such as Dual X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) that can measure the body in more detail.  They are able to see differences in the lean component (ie bone vs muscle) but these methods are highly expensive and very impractical for ongoing measurement.

Where can I get my body fat tested?

There are BIA’s available on the retail market however, accuracy is quite poor because they measure a small section of the body.  Plus. they can also be very unreliable due to changes with your body water (see below).

It is advised to have your body fat measured by a trained professional using a clinical grade machine.  A couple of times is better than once.  Then have a physiologist show you what your ranges are for a healthy body weight.

Body Fat Distribution

BMI does not account for body fat distribution the body.  It is known that fat carried in the central region, known as abdominal obesity, bears a much higher health risk than fat stored in other areas of the body.

Waist Circumference can classify your risk but it will not tell you what to weigh.

An ideal weight is a range not a fixed number

Disease risk increases with both very low body weight and high body weight, and lowest for the healthy range.  The relationship between disease risk and body weight forms a j-curve, with the highest risk associated with the highest weight.

Within the optimal range there is very little variability in risk.  The disease risks for females at 20% body fat are minimally less than those at 28% body fat.

People choose where they want to be within the healthy range for various reasons.

Factors most often considered are weight history, comfort level, presence of other risks, and/or performance demands.

Runners would typically go lower in the range.  It doesn’t make them all that much healthier so to speak but it helps them in other ways by allowing them to run faster and minimizing the load on the joints preventing injury.

An exercise physiologist can help you make an informed decision.

Example:

Males, 6’0” tall are considered healthy, according to BMI, between 140-177 pounds of body weight.

Females, 5’3” tall are considered healthy, by the same standard, between 107-135 pounds of body weight.

Using the female example, lets look at two women, one with 80 lbs of lean mass (LM) and one with 110 lbs LM.  These are both very common for females of that height.

If the above individuals weighed 110 lbs as suggested by BMI standards, based on their amounts of lean mass the associated body fat percentages would be:

• Person A = 27% fat
• Person B = 0% fat (an impossibility)

If they weighed 130 lbs:

• Person A= 38% fat (over fat)
• Person B= 15%

It is likely that Person B will always be classified as overweight by BMI standards, while Person A could be incorrectly classified as healthy.  BMI would separate these women by a mere 20 lbs.

Goal Weight Range using 20-30% body fat added to their LM:

• Person A (80 lbs LM)= 101-114 lbs
• Person B (110 lbs LM)= 139-157 lbs

Using the body fat offers more insight into the individual nature of these two women, suggesting that females, 5’3” tall can be healthy at either 150 lbs or 101 lbs depending on their quantity of lean mass.

Conclusion

Get more information

• Know your body fat percentage
• Measure your waist circumference

Pick your body weight goal within the healthy range based on the presence of other defining criteria.

Meet with an exercise physiologist to track your changes.

Water- The other variable

BIA is not a perfect science.  Your amount of body water will significantly effect your measurement.  High levels of water will underestimate body fat, whereas low levels of water will overestimate body fat.  Because changes in water are common from hour to hour, day to day, and week to week, it is very important to understand the relationship between water and the BIA’s measurement of body fat.  Several factors are known to effect your body water including food type and volume, activity, and a host of other variables.

It has taken us years as practicing exercise physiologists to comprehend the structure and significance of this relationship.  We have come to understand how to interpret results on a weekly basis, formulate trends in water with respect to fat loss changes, and even predict future changes in response to your lifestyle alterations.  We are still learning.  BIA has become a powerful tool within the FitMetabolism Method and due to it’s intrinsic technical nature, it is rarely replicated.

I’ve been thinking about aging these days and wondering if the idea of anti-aging is the right way to view better health.

It seems society’s general consensus is that aging, like the plague,  is something which should be prevented at all costs.  Therefore, the emphasis has become achieving some kind of end result in healthy living.  I find this ironic because the end result is the same for everyone.  We all get older.  Aging happens.

Focusing on anti-aging is just like the problem of focusing on getting a bikini body for the summer.  The goal cheapens the value of what health is really about.  Health isn’t about being a size zero, using pills and who knows what to achieve that, especially if comparing yourself to someone else and feel just miserable about it. And it isn’t about staying young forever.  Both of these ideas aren’t real.  They are manufactured myths created to make us vulnerable consumers that will buy into the marketing mantra’s of anti-aging and bikini bodies believing that our life will only be good- we will only be good, if we faithfully serve those ideals.  But there is far more to life that a bikini body or a face without wrinkles.

Maybe the focus shouldn’t be about aging at all, like it shouldn’t be about a number on a scale.  I think that our focus should be how we live our life.

I think what we actually desire and more so what we need, is an emphasis on the processes of healthy living.  What we eat, do, how we care for ourselves, how we care for our living.

I was walking through the bookstore and came across this book, “How the anti-aging industry made a disease of getting older and made billions.”  I stopped to think about this idea of aging as a disease.  I realized society is missing the point,  aging isn’t a disease.

At FM, we have focused our efforts on health promotion through the vehicles of exercise and nutrition, not to avoid or overcome the natural process of life (i.e. aging) but rather to celebrate it by living life well.  We get ecstatic about our clients who challenge the status quo, parasailing at 70, accomplishing things we would naturally expect from those much younger.  The reality is everyone, no matter their age, can do those things if they want to.

Aging is not like cancer.  They didn’t beat aging.  They ARE aging well.  We aren’t cheering because they are pausing life or turning back the clock.  We are thrilled because they are living higher, wider, and fuller!  They are happy because their clocks are ticking forward!

I get that those myths of a perfect body and perpetual youth, are deeply ingrained in our culture and probably, if at all will take years to change.  It takes a large amount of confidence to wear a bikini these days. But I think in many ways a person who does shows more signs of health than someone who is too afraid.   But behind all of this, there is a truth to better health that we can not ignore.  We can’t simply eat french fries and pop and sit on the couch while proudly touting our healthy state of mind.

If we exercise, eat well, and maintain a healthy body weight, we can maintain a high functioning body, irrespective of the boundaries we ourselves place on age, and we can reduce our risks of associated diseases like heart disease and diabetes.  We can age like well-oiled machines if we commit to the process of living with health.

Further, if we do, we can take that discipline deeper to develop a strong life fitness so that we can do more than run fast or lift heavy weights. We can give more, love more, and we can live better, giving worth to the fact that we lived at all.

We are all going to get older.  It isn’t a question of aging.  The question is better stated, what kind of life will we live and why?

Take 5 minutes to watch this video today.  I love this video because it uses art to inspire, to remind us the true context of aging in life.  He states, “the whole of our life is our work of art….the way we live day to day. The way we live with integrity, how much we give to our work and our world.”

To me, this is the point that we are all missing.  Your life is your masterpiece.   Treat your body and your mind well.  Feed yourself as much as possible with health (physical, emotional, spiritual, mental) so that you may give something beautiful for others.  Go for a long walk, a run, a swim, call your friends, have a healthy body weight and believe you’re good for what you give to this world and not what you look like.

I am inspired everyday at Fm by our clients who commit themselves to better health.  I am also inspired by my grandma.  She rocks! She is almost seventy and she cycled 196km last weekend with her daughters and grandkids in the MS bike tour.  She’s old. She has wrinkles and yet she gives of herself everyday.  Thanks for showing me that you don’t have to sit in a rocker and knit- but that if you work at it, you can keep up to the young folks at any age!

LIVE Well.   Your life is your masterpiece!

Welcome to June!

The Bearspaw Farmer’s Market opens this weekend.  I can’t wait to browse the vendors, from the fresh food to the handcrafted gems.  Markets epitomize everything that is summer.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been screaming for it! For those long warm days where it feels as if the world’s equilibrium shifts to a simple, take your time, stroll in the park, great music, vintage bikes, bright early morning runs, and a farmer’s market fresh kind of life!

Be sure to take your own bags or baskets, cash, and give yourself lots of time to take in the sights, sounds, and smells of the best time of the year.  Know you’re eating healthy, supporting local businesses, and tasting the most delicious food our earth provides.  Don’t be afraid to buy extra.  You get the cost savings and can freeze, dry, or can to stock up your supply.  I suggest making a small meal plan ahead of time so you know what you’re looking for.

In season in Alberta:

Asparagus, broccoli, cherries, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peas, rhubarb, field tomatoes, radish, wild mushrooms

Expect to find BC farmers too with berries, herbs, beets, summer squash, and my personal favourite, carrots.

Other Alberta Markets to check out!

Happy shopping!  Happy eating too!  Let us know what you found and how you prepared it!

In times of crisis, the weak shirk responsibility and blame the other guy.

As the problem of obesity trickles, rather, rushes with massive flood like pressure towards our children, McDonald’s shrugs their responsibility, instead, saying “we don’t market unhealthy products to children.  Parents are able to choose whether or not to feed McDonald’s to their kids.”

To my dismay, this blogger agrees in her article “Don’t Blame McDonalds”.

What follows is my emotionally charged rebuttal.

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