An early New Years brings great results

Volume 1, Number 53 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | September 21 - 27, 2007

By Greg Rothman, M.S. P.T.

As New Yorkers return from their summer vacations. something interesting happens in my fitness studio. The phones start ringing off the hook. Many people who have been unhappy with their bodies during the summer are vowing to make changes now. Problem is, by the end of October, the folks will inevitably disappear as fast as they showed up.

What can we learn from this? That many of us fail to reach our fitness goals because of our inconsistency. The same thing takes place on January 2 each year, as gyms fill to capacity with the sound of New Years resolutions in the air, only to empty out six weeks later.

But here’s a radical idea: Why not celebrate the New Year early?

This column and my next will help you set your fitness goals and make small changes in your nutrition and exercise strategies that you can take into the new year, so that you’ll become fitter during the holidays, rather than pack on an extra five or 10 pounds.

Most people need to make small, incremental changes if they are going to stick with them and improve the way their bodies look, feel and function in the short- and long-term. So, here are this week’s changes.

• Make sure you are drinking one ounce of water for every half-pound of body weight. If you weigh 150 lbs. s, drink 75 oz. of water daily.

• Take a daily multi-vitamin, multi-mineral supplement formulated for your gender.

• Start to cut simple sugars out of your diet

• Add one supportive meal a day to the number you are eating now. If you eat three meals a day, start eating four. A supportive meal should contain visually equal portions of a protein, a starchy carbohydrate and a fibrous carbohydrate (vegetable). For a list of the best sources of each, go to the nutrition guide on my Website at:

www.emPowerFitnessNYC.com/diet_nutrition. Each meal should be satisfying but not make you feel ‘full’. Eating regularly stabilizes the blood sugar and allows the bodies fat-burning engine to work at full throttle.

• Start doing some cardio. Begin with 15 minutes, three times each week. If you are already doing cardio, add 15 minutes to each of your workouts, but do not exceed 45 minutes per workout.

• Do your cardio as ‘interval training’. If you need a primer on this, see my cardio column at http://chelseanow.com/cn_21/makingthemostofyour.html.

In addition, it’s also time to change your outlook and your expectations. Around 95 percent of all dieters fail to get the results they seek, and most actually regain the weight they lost and then some. It’s the same in the gym: A large percentage of people who join gyms stop using them six weeks after they joined.

The reason for this is that we have been conditioned to believe that diets and gyms are solutions: They are not. A diet is a restriction in calories that almost nobody can stick with in the long run and that ultimately destroys your metabolism and makes you fatter. A gym is a facility containing exercise equipment. Joining a gym won’t help you get fit any more than reading a diet book will.

Instead, begin to make small, incremental changes in your lifestyle, changes you can stay with in the long run—and adopt a program that works, one that incorporates the synergy featured in my past columns. The program includes supportive nutrition that maintains, rather than starves, your body of the energy it needs to function; a progressive strength-training program that adds and/or maintains your lean muscle and stimulates your metabolism; and moderate cardiovascular exercise to help you burn off excess calories and keep your heart strong.

The only other thing you need is to believe that you can succeed in reaching your fitness goals. Start to change your mindset now. Think about how your body is going to look and feel when you’ve started to implement a program that works. Plan to be fitter at the end of the holiday season than you are right now. Start your New Year early and get a jump on all those people who will be filling your gym to capacity on January 2.

Greg Rothman, M.S. P.T., is the owner of emPower Fitness Studios (emPowerFitnessNYC.com). He received his masters degree in physical therapy from Columbia University and has 15 years’ experience in the rehabilitation and fitness fields, most recently as the personal training manager and top-level trainer for Equinox Fitness Clubs in New York City. SEND YOUR QUESTIONS about nutrition, fitness and sports injuries/rehabilitation to Greg at emPowerFitness@aol.com.