Believe me when I started to write this post I didn't think it will be this long so be prepared it takes a few minutes but it will be worth it. I am working against myself here because you will get a pretty good idea how to write yourself a health program it won't be 100% but can still kickstart your "new you" program. For more info on diet and lifestyle secure your place for my workshop that will be held on Wednesday 05/05/10  19.00 - 21.00 at Expression Studios (Highgate Rd, NW5), workshop, healthy welcome drinks, snacks, a 60 minute private consultation all for £12. Call now on 07894990655.

Mr Dave Graham asks me if I could help him lose a stone, in his opinion his diet is quite good and stress levels are mild but he considers it as normal in today’s world.

As we go through all the questionnaires and assessment we find that at the moment he is mixed type regarding his metabolic type, he has a lot of stress in his life with regards to work and finance and his flexibility is less than optimal, he eats 3 meals a day, eating mainly free range and organic food, dinner being his biggest meal and skipping breakfast once or twice a week, meaning his first meal is either lunch or some biscuits and coffee around 10 am. He does not smoke and drinks only a glass of wine at dinner or a bit more over the weekend.
His lunch is normally a sandwich with wholemeal bread, never white and a bottle of water or juice bought from the shop nearby. Together with commuting every day he is in a seated position for 9 - 10 hours / day. He started running to shift some weight but he had to replace it with cycling since his lower back started to hurt above a certain speed, and since he's started cycling his hips feel really tight and suffers from cramps. He ran out of options as he has never been good at lifting weights. He goes to bed around mid-night and often wakes up tired even when not waking up during the night.

His anxiety over work and money could be amplified by inadequate recovery and nutritional deficiencies, meaning that he goes to bed to late, doesn’t recover properly and doesn’t eat enough, that’s right, his diet does not supply enough nutrients, vitamins, minerals, secondary nutrients and his training regime doesn’t support his health even though it works for his friends who run regularly and look much fitter than him.

Now, instead of starting a weight training routine with light weights and high repetitions we start with almost no exercise, as he needs a lot of stretching and changing his diet, his first sessions will be spent on learning what stretches to do while discussing a plan for every lifestyle and diet related change to come up with ideas that work for him and are realistic.

As he craves certain carbohydrates and coffee I advise him to drink more water, eat according to his metabolic type, which in his case is 50% meat and other proteins to 50% carbohydrates such as vegetables, seasonal fruits and less bread than before and supplement with some over-the-counter pro-biotic formula that will support his immune system and improve his digestion.

Because I found his shoulders imbalanced and very tight, I send him to a sport massage therapist for soft tissue release once every two weeks to improve his flexibility.


He has so called anytime/anywhere stretches to do during the day that can be done seated or standing without any equipment, a great way to stretch in the office or at home. This allows us to do some exercise. He has problems with his breathing patterns, he cannot perform diaphragmatic breathing meaning cannot relax so we do some breathing exercises, I ask him to do these at home before going to bed creating a pattern so he can wind down sooner and go to bed around 11pm.
           *By the way, it's easy to test whether you have normal breathing patterns or not, put your hand or hands on your tummy and breath in, see what you feel, if your tummy expands pushing your hands away from you while you are breathing in then you have optimal breathing patterns. If nothing happens to your tummy when you breath put one hand on your chest and see what happens, if your chest rises while your stomach doesn't you will need to do some breathing exercises. We should breath the first two thirds into the stomach and only the last third into the chest. Join a Qi Gong or Thai Chi class or contact me to build these exercises into your program.


Back to Dave, after 4 weeks his flexibility improves and his stress levels drop, he feels more alive and balanced. He says even his colleagues have noticed the change, he hasn’t lost weight but looks happier and healthier. Because we only need to stretch 20 minutes by now and his stress levels are low to moderate we start to do more exercise focusing on the core and posture to eliminate the tension on his lower back, after a month or so session by session we progress from floor and bodyweight exercises to big compound movements using all the breathing and core stabilizing techniques we have learned with the floor exercises while further improving his diet, meaning big breakfasts, lots of water, healthy snacks and more raw food then ever, all according to his metabolic type. By now he has lost 3 kg by doing nothing but breathing, core and posture improving workouts, this is less than he first wanted but he is happy with the results because he has never felt so energetic and motivated.
His stress levels are low and its time to increase one source of stress, exercise, with circuits he really likes short but challenging cardio sessions he manages to lose 6 kilos by the end of the 4th month, so we are a month behind his original plan but he would like to tone up and maybe lose another 3 kilos, time for building some muscle, we use primal patterns using a mixture of complicated exercises that challenge balance and co-ordination and some good old body building exercises to keep workouts interesting, I asked him to eat more meat with every meal,  lots of vegetables, and very little fruits and only after training, avoid protein shakes and drink more water. After two months, so at the end of the 6 month training he weighs only 3 kg less than he did on day 1, but his body fat dropped by 10% and he changed his body shape, his wife said he looks 10 years younger and a 100 times happier.
Now he sees me every now and then for a session to spice up his routine, but he knows how to organize his diet, what’s good for his body and why, he completed the holistic lifestyle coach course and helps his family and friends out with fitness and diet, he is thinking about changing his full time position to a part time one so he can work as a lifestyle coach at his local gym.

Happy End But...

using the very same approach, the same person could end up with less than optimal results if he was not open for the advice on lifestyle and diet I gave him. Instead of changing his diet and certain things in his lifestyle he asks me to forget the diet as his diet is healthier than many of his colleagues and they still managed to keep trim. He wants me to increase the intensity of the workouts, I don’t agree and now he joins a boot-camp, he is confident that the regime will work, after 3 months he lost 6 kilos, but he’s back still hurts, his shoulders and hips are constantly tight and now his tendons at the back of his ankles hurt after training, he still has stomach problems and wakes up tired as always, he is happy about his weight loss but he is not satisfied with his health, during one of the boot-camp sessions he “pulls” a muscle in his back and can’t do much for 2 weeks, his motivation drops as he realises that he’s put on 2 kilos, he thinks its too early to start the regime again so he treats himself with a few night outs and a bit of restaurant food, 4 weeks after his injury he is almost back to square one, he starts training again, goes to a physio with his back, and one day while playing tennis the tendon at the back of ankle snaps….and so on and so forth.

This could of course happen over a longer period of time making it harder for him to realise the things like diet and lifestyle and the way we feel and perform physically and mentally are related to each other and that he cannot outsmart the body with a "more is be better", "no pain no gain" approach to fitness.

 
Thanks for reading our message.

Matyas Torok and Aniko Hadnagy

See you in two weeks, don't forget to book your place by calling 07894990655