BKNY Fitclub Special

This week only (Aug 30 - Sept 5) BKNY Fitclub is offering a $5, thats right $5 special for all fitness classes. You can't beat that with a bat! Booty-Camp meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday @ 6am at The Energy School of Dance located at 495 Flatbush Avenue. Rutland Warriors meets Tuesday and Thursday @ 10am in Prospect Park (meet at the Lincoln Road entrance). And last but not least, Sunday Brunch meets @ 9am also in Prospect Park (same meeting place). Don't miss this opportunity to get a great workout at an insanely low price. For more info please check out the BKNY Fitclub website.

Wear A Bike Helmet

This morning I was riding my bike on my way to train a couple of clients when I got hit by an SUV. The lady ran a red light and plowed right into me! My shoulder, hip and leg are pretty banged up. I hit my head pretty hard on the ground and have a headache, but my helmet definitely saved me from splitting my skull open. So remember kids, always, always wear a helmet, no matter how dorky you think they look.

Eating Disorders

I received some really good and important information on athletes and eating disorders, but it can apply to anyone. Coming off of the Master Cleanse is the perfect time to bring up the issue of eating disorders since I know first had how quickly the body can lose weight to dangerous levels when you deny your body the nutrition it needs. It is often a subject that doesn't get the discussion it deserves.

The National Eating Disorders Association (NationalEatingDisorders.org) has created an education toolkit to educate and raise awareness of eating disorders to support their "It's Time To Talk About It" campaign. It discusses the facts behind eating disorders as well as how to recognize the symptoms, early prevention, intervention, and treatment. It isn't always easy to approach someone with an eating disorder and this toolkit gives great tips on how to approach and deal with the situation.

With society's constant pressure to be thin, this is an excellent resource that can save lives, maybe even your own. Check it out here...

The Master Cleanse - Day 5 - Last Day

I decided today was my last day on the cleanse. I did the 5 days I set out to do, I still feel great, have a lot of energy and could easily do it for the full 10 days, but I'm actually scared that I'm loosing too much weight. I was already pretty skinny to begin with but I have lost 7 pounds in 5 days and am at 5% body fat which is pretty close to unhealthy. I think if I keep going I will waste away to nothing! Plus the lack of protein really concerns me since I exercise so much.

As far as how my day went, it was pretty much par for the course. The tea woke me up in the middle of the night with cramps. I did the salt water flush this morning after riding my bike into the city to train 2 clients and had at least 10 eliminations again. I might not be 100% clean but I think I flushed out a good amount of waste and toxins.

It was an awesome experience though. I really did it for the detox and the mental/physical challenge. It was good to find out that I could actually do it and suffer no ill effects. I found out that I am not addicted to caffeine and processed sugar like I thought I was. It was very simple to just drop them cold turkey. The cleanse also made me realize just how little we as humans need to survive. Society has taught us that overindulgence is normal. I will continue to watch what I put in my body and maintain my cleanliness.

Now for the ease out. It can be very harmful to start consuming solid food immediately so it is recommended to start with orange juice for a day and then soup the next. Then you can start introducing fruits and vegetables.


In closing, was it a good experience? Yes. Would I recommend it for others? Not if you are doing it strictly for weight loss. I think crash diets like this can cause you loose weight, but you are likely to gain it back in the long run unless you can be very disciplined with your diet. I think making gradual lifestyle changes that you can sustain are the way to go. As far as doing it for a cleanse, I don't think it can hurt if you are healthy but use you discretion and maybe even check with a doctor before jumping in. The master cleanse does what it claims!

The Master Cleanse - Day 4

Before bed last night I drank the laxative tea (as usual) and got woken up by a crazy rumbling in my stomach at around 3am. I'm finding that the laxative tea gives me stomach cramps. I went to the bathroom and had an elimination, and then again when I woke up for the day. I skipped the salt water flush and just drank the tea again. The tea really kicked in and I am starting to eliminate more solids. I had about 5 eliminations throughout the day. The eliminations aren't completely solid but more loose and watery. I did feel a little weak this morning but my energy returned a bit after I drank the lemonade with a tiny bit more maple syrup. The syrup has a high sugar content (2 tablespoons has 100 calories and 26.5 grams of sugar) but a shot of it seems to be a pretty good energy boost. Around 4pm I was feeling a little lethargic but had to train a client and then rode my bike into the city to train another client. After I started working out with my clients I started feeling better and got more and more energy. The bike ride home was a breeze.

So tomorrow is day 5. I set out to only do 5 days and am debating weather I should keep going. I feel like I can but I am really starting to miss the sensation of eating food and the lemonade is getting really boring. But I still don't feel hungry or ill. I am a little concerned about the lack of protein since I'm still working out quite a bit. Maybe I will just keep it up through the weekend and stop after 7 days.

Don't Have Access To A Gym?

Use the best piece of equipment on the planet that everyone has... your own body! Body weight exercises are just as good as any fancy gym equipment at getting a lean and tone body. Here is a quick body weight exercise routine that you can do anywhere in 30 minutes, so no more excuses. Enjoy!

5 Minute Cardio Warmup
10 Squats
10 Forward Lunges
10 Side Lunges (each leg)
10 Reverse Lunges
10 Jump Squats
30 sec Elbow Plank
15 sec Side Elbow Plank (each side)
20 Toe Tap Elbow Planks
30 sec Superman
10 Sea Turtles (jumping jack laying on the floor)
30 sec Hand Plank
10 Push Ups with Hands Wide (can be done on toes or knees)
10 Push Ups with Hands Close to Sides (can be done on toes or knees)
5 Minutes of Stretching (full body)

If you have any questions or are unsure about how to do some of these exercises, please feel free to contact us.

The Master Cleanse - Day 3

I'm still hanging in there. I actually feel pretty normal. No pains, no hunger pangs, nothing. I trained my clients and rode my bike into the city with no problems at all. My energy level might be slightly lower, but not much. I still think about food and I miss the idea of physically eating something, but I don't really feel hungry. I get a slight rumble in my stomach when I exercise which goes away quickly, but otherwise I'm good. The laxative tea worked pretty well for me this morning. I eliminated solid waste before I did the salt water flush. But that was the only solid waste of the day, the rest of my eliminations were only yellow liquid. From what I understand the yellow is bile from the liver. I added a little more salt to the flush today and boy did it work. I went to the bathroom at least 10 times in 4 hours! I don't really like the idea of consuming so much salt (even though the salt supposedly just passes through you) so I think I will cut back to every other day and do the laxative tea in the morning and at night on the days I don't do the flush. Day 4 tomorrow, almost half way there (if I decide to do the whole 10 days).

Turmeric - The Wonder Spice?

A while back I heard that turmeric is an amazing spice with all sorts of health benefits. I've been adding a dash to my Master Cleanse lemonade for no real specific reason.  Today I decided to do a little more research. Although there isn't much scientific data, a lot of people swear by its powers. A few of the health benefits people are claiming are that it fights some cancers, it can be used as an antiseptic, and it is an anti-inflammatory which may ease arthritis pain. Pretty amazing. I encourage you to do your own research, but this is a good place to start...

20 Health Benefits of Turmeric

The Master Cleanse - Day 2

So far so good. Last night before bed I drank the laxative tea, which seemed to have no effect by morning. When I woke up I drank the salt water flush and went for a short jog. By the time I got back home my stomach started to rumble a bit. *Warning, this gets a little bit graphic. About 15 minutes later I had my first elimination. A bit of solid waste came out the first time, but subsequent eliminations were mostly liquid. I wound up having to go to the bathroom about 5 times over a 2 hour period.

At this point I still feel perfectly normal. No aches or pains and my energy is pretty good. I am really surprised I am not having any caffeine withdrawals. Every once in a while I think about food but I don't feel hungry at all. The lemonade actually makes me feel full after I chug it down. A little trick I started doing is to down just the lemon juice, cayenne, and maple syrup in one gulp and chase it with the water. I found it much easier this way than having to drink the whole concoction. We shall see what happens tomorrow!

Reminder - Race For The Cure

It's not too late to join the Active Brooklyn Race Team or just make a donation.  Let's eradicate breast cancer and get some exercise at the same time!

The Master Cleanse - Day 1

Today I decided to start the Master Cleanse. If you haven't heard of the Master Cleanse, it is a 10 day liquid "diet" consisting of 2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, and a dash of cayenne pepper mixed in 8 ounces of water. The lemonade is consumed at least 6 times a day for 10 days (I'm going to start with 5 days and see how i feel from there), and it is all you are allowed to eat/drink, except for all of the water you want, a salt water flush in the morning, and a laxative tea before bed.  For more information a good place to start is http://themastercleanse.org/

A lot of people go on this "diet" to lose-weight-quickly, which will happen if you stop eating solid foods. Beyonce did the cleanse for quick weight loss for her role in Dreamgirls. I do not in any way endorse fad lose weight quick diets.  Most accounts that I have read, people who go on the cleanse and do not make healthy eating choices after quitting the cleanse gain all the weight back and then some!  Weight loss is not why I decided to try it out. I am more curious about the mental and detoxification aspects of the diet. I want to see if I am mentally up to the challenge of quitting my regular eating habits cold turkey, and to be honest I was starting to go down a bad path. Since I exercise so frequently I can afford to eat whatever I want and not gain weight. I was starting to consume more refined sugars, red meat, foods with preservatives, and caffeine than I would like. The cleanse seems like a good way to get back to healthier eating habits while being a mental challenge and ridding my body of built up toxins and waste.

In my research I have come across some warnings and side effects. Some people have experienced hair loss while on the cleanse, which is not cool. It is also recommended that you ease off the cleanse and not go straight back to eating solid foods by starting with just fruit juice and then soup and eventually solid foods again.

The first day went by a lot better than I thought. I was worried about missing my morning cup of joe, but so far no caffeine withdrawal. Surprisingly I haven't felt hungry at all today. The lemonade actually makes me feel full after I chug it down and my energy level is pretty much the same. But it is just day 1. I knew it would be pretty easy to go one day without food. They say getting past day 3 is the hard part. I did feel a little hungry around 4pm and started to feel a little light headed, but it went away in a couple of minutes. Right now I feel like I can easily do this for 10 days. We shall see how tomorrow goes. I am interested to see what happens after the laxative tea and salt water flush.