How Much to Exercise Each Day

You may have heard the U.S. Surgeon General’s recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week (and that breaks down to just 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week). What’s important to understand is that this is intended for people who want to maintain the most basic level of fitness — but not for people who want to lose weight. But if you want to drop those pounds, you’re going to have to be prepared for a bit more work and a healthy diet.

We much prefer the World Health Organization’s recommendation of between 50-60 minutes at a time for our members which is ideal to get the most out of your workout and see significant results. This was a major factor when we established the LAB5 classes and workouts!  Your LAB5 50-minute workout sessions should always include a 5-minute warm-up, followed by 40 minutes of the workout, followed by 5 minutes of cooling down and stretching.

Of course, putting in more time will get you more results — but there’s a limit. Excessive intense physical activity releases stress hormones, such as cortisol, into the body. This can actually inhibit weight loss, causing your body to react by storing fat and retaining water out of self-protection.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask any of our great instructors.

 

Alan and Bonnie Cashman

Co-Founders, LAB5 Fitness

Please take a moment to review this very important material and you are never to young to understand the importance of detecting skin cancer early.  If you have questions for Bonnie please feel free to ask!

Click Here to read NBC’s article, Look Everywhere: How to Check For Skin Cancer

 

The new movie, FED UP, out May 9, finally tells the truth about food and childhood obesity. It is the movie we have been waiting for. It will change how we think and act forever about this problem. It is a powerful indictment of how the food industry hooks us on addicted processed foods laden with hidden sugars. The movie is coming out not a day to soon. This week, a new study came out showing a 30 percent increase in type 2 diabetes in children since 2001. This is completely preventable, and it is criminal. Now, one in four teenagers has pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes and one in 10 kids has a fatty liver and many have cirrhosis from drinking soda and eating sugar.

Click Here to learn more about FED UP. And when it opens on May 9, bring 10 people to the movie, bring it to your schools and communities and let’s start to tell the truth about how the food industry has taken our children hostage, that food terrorism is at the root of our current health and economic crisis and learn how we can take back our health.Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD

Consider how much time and money is spent in our country about dieting, exercising and overall health. The census for the Disease Control and Prevention states “that obesity in the United States has stood at 34% for adults the past five years.” How can this be with all the smart doctors, exercise gurus, and nutritionists, etc. giving advice?

When we retired from our financial service companies almost seven years ago Alan decided he would commit to regular workouts which he had avoided for many years.  Workouts  included walking a minimum of 4 miles per day, Pilates 5 times per week, and golf 3 days per week.  He started this routine in the fall of 2007 and by March 2008 had gained 25 pounds! Really? Yes, a true story with too much good food and did not lose 25 pounds but gained!  How could this be true? The good news he has continued the walking and Pilates but changed his eating habits; lost and kept the weight off.

How did he do it? He met a doctor, Steven Gundry, in Palm Springs, California who had at that time recently published a book “The Diet Evolution.”  By adopting and following many of the recommendations in the book the weight came off in 90 days and most important his blood profile changed so much for the better. The biggest take away from the book was how bad sugar is for you overall health, including weight issues, and minimizing sugar will produce valuable benefits for your health.

There must always be a balance between diet and exercise.  Even though we are now in the fitness business the answer for long term weigh management is certainly more proper diet than exercise. There are many different options regarding how to lose and keep weight off but so much misinformation. Something is terribly wrong with this picture today and it shouldn’t be that difficult and its really not once you take the time to understand some basic concepts and decide its important enough for you to change your lifestyle for the betterment of your health and longevity. More and more diets, medication, exercise gurus, fitness fads, packaged meals, etc. are not the answer. Diets don’t work. America needs to be educated and not follow all the hype about dieting and exercising today. The effort by most manufacturers of food products, drug companies and restaurants will do everything they can to make us fat and happy because that’s what sells and makes the most profit for them.

In our weekly newsletters we attempt to provide certain sections related to proper dieting, recipes and a healthy lifestyle from sources that we believe have merit.  We hope you enjoy the newsletters and welcome any feedback.  We are also happy to share details about our lifestyle if you have an interest.

Here’s to your great health and happiness!

Alan and Bonnie Cashman

Co-Founders, LAB5 Fitness

1. Enjoy each day to the fullest.

2. Choose your friends carefully.

3. Work at something you enjoy. Life is too short not to enjoy every moment.

4. Weigh yourself each day. If you weigh is going up what are you doing to cause the change and get back on the track immediately to fix it.

5. Take your blood pressure daily. Normal blood pressure is 120/80.

6. Do something nice for at least one person each day.

7. Keep a positive attitude.

8. When problems arise don’t let them side track you. Find the solution and keep going! If you had a flat tire would you not fix the tire and keep going? Of course you would. You might be late getting to where you were going but late is better than nothing!

9. Save something out of each paycheck for yourself. Pay yourself first!

10. Be open to change.

11. Walk at least 30 minutes each day.

12. Have an annual physical.

13. See your dentist at least annually.

14. Eat the right healthy foods for your body.

15. Don’t stress out. Ask yourself when stressing “Will it really matter 100 years from now?”

16. Find someone or something to give back too.

17. Get a good nights sleep of between seven and eight hours every night

18. Make some time for yourself each day.

19. Learn from your mistakes. We all make them but do better the next time.

20. Act and look your best at all times. You never know who you may run into. First impressions are so important.

 

Alan and Bonnie Cashman

Co-Founders LAB5 Fitness

“be fit, be healthy, be happy”

You’re been working out religiously, you’ve been trying to eat right, but you’re still not getting results. Many people never stop to think of other factors that might influence their lack of results.

We have outlined 5 reasons why you might not be getting results and how to solve them.

1) No overall plan.

Good intentions are great, but if you’re serious about reaching a goal, you must have a plan.

First, decide what is important to you!  For fitness it might be strength, balance, core, toning, sculpting, mental well-being, cardio, flexibility or range of motion. It could be a combination but you need to set clear specific goals.   When you set you goals monitor your results and commit to a workout at least 3 times a week.

For your nutrition start by monitoring one thing.  For example, we try to avoid sugar as much as possible as a result we read labels very carefully and try not to eat more than 5 grams of sugar in whatever we eat and no more than 40 total grams per day. Also, try to avoid processed foods and high fat snacks.

2) Lack of follow-through.

Anyone can set a goal, but it takes a real commitment to follow-through. Once the goals are set the real work begins.  You have to push through all the excuses that present themselves and make your fitness and nutrition plans a top priority.  Decide in the beginning what’s really important to you and how committed you are to succeed especially in those times you want to skip a workout or have another slice of pizza.

3) Bad or incorrect advice.

If you were given advice that has not worked for you in the past look for new advice from professionals that have proven track records and not just trying to sell you something. There is so much wrong information about fitness and nutrition it’s totally understandable why many people do not succeed.

4) You don’t take your nutrition seriously.

We have encountered many members who think all they have to do to change their bodies is go to our studio for great workouts. But they don’t change their eating habits. They sweat and toil during their workouts and wonder why they’re not seeing results, get fed up, and quit.

Nutrition is responsible for at least 80% of your results not your workouts!

You may expend plenty of calories in the gym, but if you’re not altering the number or quality of calories you’re putting in your mouth, you’re not going to get the results you want.

If you owned a high performance car like a Mercedes would you put the inexpensive oil and gas in it?  Would you keep the tires without proper air pressure or inadequate water in the radiator? No, of course not especially if you paid $100,000 plus for the car and you wanted it to run smoothly.  Think of your body as that high performance vehicle much like the Mercedes, so it’s only fair that you nourish it and treat it like one.

5) You’re not having fun.

For both your fitness and nutrition plans you need to have fun to stick with it.

Find a fitness program that you like and have fun doing.  If you’re not having fun and getting results you won’t stick with it.  Hop online to check out classes, gyms and studios that offer programs you like and encourage your partner or friends to workout with you.

For your nutrition plan learn to eat quality food and avoid sugar as much as possible. If you get off the track for a while or occasionally eat the wrong food don’t beat yourself up. Enjoy and get back on track at the next opportunity!

Alan and Bonnie Cashman

Co-Founders LAB5 Fitness

www.lab5fitness.com

Be fit, be healthy, be happy

Whether it’s weight loss, fitness, career, or life goals, you can’t achieve success if you’re not moving toward something. The key is to take some time strategizing. Think about your ultimate long-term goal and break it down into less overwhelming mini-goals. Then find some incentives to help you stay the course. What kinds of goals are we talking about? The ambitious and attainable ones.

First: Think long and hard about what you want. Make sure your goals are actually things you want to achieve, not what society dictates or what your family or friends want for you. Ultimately your life is yours and you must live it for yourself. We know you might be thinking that’s selfish, but so what? Sometimes being a little selfish is a good thing, especially if it enables you to take care of yourself.

Second: Remember, goals are not inflexible roadblocks meant to make you feel badly about yourself. If you don’t accomplish a goal exactly on schedule, so what? You can’t predict what life is going to throw your way — but you CAN choose the way you react to situations that come up. That is where your power lies. If you fall off the wagon, just get back on — no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Third: We all have to be realistic when we set our goals. We are now both in our early 60′s and not likely to be elite athletes, no matter how hard we work. We set goals that are realistic and productive for us.  We might not be elite athletes, but we can share with our members how to be healthier and happier through fitness based on our personal experiences.

Make sense? The bottom line is that goals provide direction. They help bring a focus to our lives so that we can live our dreams — no matter how big or how small they may be.

Alan and Bonnie Cashman

Co- Founders LAB5 Fitness

5 Simple Truths About Exercise That Nobody Wants to Believe 

Success with fitness, as with most things in life, comes down to mastering the basics.  After three years in our new fitness business here at LAB5 there are some things we have learned that we believe apply to most people and everyone should follow.

Take these ideas to heart and you’ll reap major benefits. While most people waste time debating the endless stream of  “new” workout programs and diet plans, all you really have to do is focus on these simple concepts and you’ll see results.

1. You need to commit for the long term.

Most people work out with a short-term goal in mind. We like looking at health and fitness in a different way.

Alan and Bonnie Cashman
Co-Founders LAB5 Fitness
www.lab5fitness.com

Be fit, be healthy, be happy

As many of you know, we spend part of the winter and spring in Palm Springs California.  This is where we were first introduced to Pilates in 2008. As a result of our great experiences and finding nothing similar for fitness in Seattle we opened LAB5 Fitness April 2011.  

Many of our members now are also finding time to visit Palm Springs. If at anytime we can be of help with any tips for things to do and favorite restaurants please let the front desk know of your interest and how to get in touch with us.  We usually spend some time between October and May each season.

Some members ask where we practice Pilates in Palm Springs and our two favorite spots are the following:

1.  Pilates Plus

611 S. Palm Canyon Drive #14

Palm Springs, CA 92264

760.325.8052

http://www.pilatespluspalmsprings.com/

2.  AB Solute Pilates

333 North Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 204

Palm Springs, CA 92262
760.668.7944
www.absolutepilatesps.com

Both offer great workouts.  Please check out their websites for details, scheduling and pricing to fit your needs. We hope our paths cross in the desert and warm sun!!!

Alan and Bonnie Cashman
Co-Founders, LAB5