Give yourself a better mat

NEW! Eco Yoga Mat -- Good for you and the earth

One of the most environmentally friendly yoga mats, this new Eco Yoga Mat is excellent for any consistent practice of Yoga. Its rubber underside grips the floor and jute fabric/rubber mix on top offers superb traction. The fabric gives a highly durable, tactile and pleasantly natural surface to practice on and the rubber gives excellent grip. A mat ideal for all Yogis and Yoginis as the Jute mat combines a cloth surface and sticky mat in one and might remind you of walking barefoot on the earth. (contains latex). 74" x 24" -- 4mm Thickness

FAT VERSUS LEAN BODY MASS

The scale is NOT a true indicator of whether or not you are losing fat. Your weight is divided into two separate and distinct groups: fat and lean body mass. Let's elaborate briefly on the two...

FAT: In a nutshell, fat is stored energy for the day you have no food. Waaaaaaay back in the caveman days, we hunted for our meals and had no idea where (or when) the next piece of food was coming from. Consequently, we evolved into creatures that stored excess calories in preparation for those lapses in feeding. Fat is what excess calories are converted to for storage. Fast forward to today and guess what --- there's food EVERYWHERE! We consume so many excess calories that we (get this) BECOME OVERWEIGHT!!! All this excess energy is metabolically inactive (i.e, not living tissue)-- that is, fat does not require any energy to survive in your body.

LEAN BODY MASS: This one is easy to explain -- lean body mass is everything in your body that is not fat. Skin, muscle, bone, organs -- all these things are metabolically active (i.e., living) tissue and thus require calories to exist.

Considering the aforementioned, it stands to reason that the more lean body mass we have on our body, the more calories we will burn each day. When you start burning more calories than you eat every day, you will force your body to dip into that storage bin of energy called "fat."

Once we reach adulthood, the only aspect of lean body mass that we can increase is muscle. This is why resistance training is just as important as cardiovascular training when fat loss is one's goal. This is also why we cannot rely solely on the scale in determining whether we are losing fat. Body composition assessments distinguish between fat and lean body mass and therefore serve and a more accurate indicator of fat loss, muscle increase, or both.

In my next posting, I will go into detail about the various methods used to perform body composition assessments.

Healthy cereal

Kashi GOLEAN Crunch! Cereal, Honey Almond Flax, 15-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 4)

Case of four 15-ounce boxes of seven-grain almond and flax cereal (60 total ounces). Made with honey-sweetened seven-grain clusters, sliced almonds, and whole flax seeds, Naturally sweetened with honey and cinnamon. 15 grams of whole grains, eight grams fiber, nine grams of protein, and 500 mg Omega-3s per serving. Made in USA

Addition to the family

On August 16th, 2007 we welcomed our baby girl Victoria.
Thank you for the warmed wishes,
Jeff

Why Evaluations are so important? :)

March 18, 2007

Attached please find the results of you initial fitness evaluation...

What I want you to realize is that we are trying to lose fat without losing any muscle mass. This is why it is important to measure bodyfat. It is also why it is important to use a heart rate monitor.

At present, 32.1% of your total weight is fat. Consequently, the American Council on Exercise classifies you as obese. In order to get you out of the "obese" category and into the "acceptable" category, We must get you down to 221 pounds without losing any muscle mass.

So in essense our short-term goal will be for you to lose 26.6 pounds.

This can realistically be accomplished between 13 and 26 weeks. As we work together, I will explain the reasoning behind this and steps you can take to ensure you are doing everything you need to to stay on track.

I look forward to working with you.

Jeff Mendoza, CPT, HFS


May 8, 2007

The following are significant changes since your previous evaluation:

• Overall weight decreased by 5 lbs.
• Bodyfat decreased by 1% (i.e., 4lbs.)
  
• Lean body mass decreased by 1lb.
• ALL circumference measurements except the waist decreased.
• Exercise heart rate decreased significantly
• Recovery heart rate decreased significantly
• Upper body strength increased
• Flexibility improved
  

Cesar, you improved in EVERY area except one....... you lost one pound of muscle. But you know what? I am not worried about that . All that means is that you have been pushing yourself perhaps a little too much. When you consider that our present focus is to lose fat, I can live with a loss of a pound of muscle -- for now.

I am EXTREMELY proud of your efforts and honored to be a part of this change in your life. Keep up the good work... for there is still much work to do.

Respectfully,

Jeff MEndoza, CPT, HFS