The two biggest stories we hear when talking to prospective clients are:

1. My nutrition is “pretty good.”
2. My workout is “pretty good.”

In the most kind, understanding and polite way possible, no…no they (nutrition and workout) aren’t but we only
have time to focus on one topic, so this month, it is your workout.

Most of the time we run into folks who are still breaking down body parts (Monday-chest, Tues-legs) or perform what I have come to label as the throwing darts workout. It is the kind of workout where you select a myriad of exercises that either do not compliment one another, arranged the exercises poorly or the workout simply do not make sense. Kind of like random hits on a dart board.

After 21 years as a personal trainer coaching clients all over the country and even a few internationally, I get it. When one walks into a fitness center or gym, the equipment options can be overwhelming and when we are overwhelmed, we naturally gravitate to what we know and are comfortable with. I think this is why everyone flocks to the bench press on Mondays or jumps on a treadmill for their 30 minutes of cardio. It is familiar and in their mind, safe.

What we want you to realize is that you can piece together a very effective workout and it might only include 4-6 exercises. Sometimes, less is more and not only could this workout be effective than a bunch of random exercises, you will get a better result and will become more efficient limiting your time in the gym.

The first thing we must do is to get you thinking about movement patterns vs. body parts. Each and every day we push, pull, stand up, sit down and rotate. These elements should always be a part of your strength training workout. The problem with body part workouts lies in if you miss a workout. For example, if you always hit chest day but consistently miss back day it is only a matter of time before an
overuse injury or poor posture results. Stick to movement patterns instead of body parts as you plan your routine.

Second, we will need you to suspend what you think you know about strength training or workout out in general. Smash workouts, the kind where you cannot walk for six days, are good for one thing. Encouraging you to quit. Of course you have to work hard to see results, but if you go after lower body fat or a more toned backside with reckless abandon, you risk both injury and dropping out. Why?

Because your tendons and ligaments cannot catch up a fast as your muscles when it comes to conditioning; this promotes tendinitis. And soreness that requires helping getting off the toilet does not motivate the vast majority of us to get back out and repeat the workout over and over. Results come through consistency. Not smash workouts.

Finally, start with a base program that will allow you to get foundational moves honed. If you can perform a body weight squat, push-up, front plank and split squat, you are ready for the next evolution of exercises. These movements form the base or foundation for a myriad of different progressions which will increase not only your conditioning, but your enjoyment of the routine. As your conditioning and confidence improve, you will be able to work at higher intensities and perform more advanced exercises. Base programs typically take four to six weeks, so be patient. 

If you are stuck, the team at Integrated Wellness Concepts can help. We have the ability to create exercise programming that is specific to your abilities, skill set, condition and level of experience. All of which will ensure you are not throwing random darts in the gym.

You know, when I started in the fitness industry this kind of nutrition plan was blasphemy. Oh how times have changed. The personal trainers and fitness coaches at Integrated Wellness Concepts still believe “diets” are not the best idea (everyone who goes on a diet eventually has to come off said diet) but there are some benefits of going keto. First, let’s define what the Ketogenic diet actually does to
help us lose weight.

The Keto diet is a very low carb diet similar to parts of the Atkins or other low-carb ways of eating. The diet drastically limits carbohydrates and replaces them with fats. This will cause your body to go into a state called Ketosis which makes your body very, very good at burning fat. This, in turn, can cause vast improvements in blood sugar and insulin levels, improve weight loss and believe it or not, may positively affect cholesterol and triglyceride numbers. But, going from your regular eating plan to Keto takes a transition period and some additional knowledge. Here are some tips you can use if you are planning to make the move to Keto.

1. Keep the net carbs to 20-30 per day:
If you do this you will get your body transitioned to burning fat vs. glucose for fuel.
This will take some practice and you becoming disciplined at reading food labels.

2. Ditch the junk:
If you have sugary treats in the house, get them out. Like way out.
You don’t need temptation as you make the transition.

3. Watch out for side effects:
As you make the transition there may be several days where you feel worse instead of better (mentally foggy, low energy levels, poor athletic performance, sleep problems and nausea).
If this happens boost your carb intake slightly and consider a product like Keto-Nootropic (see below).

4. Stay hydrated:
Drinking plenty of water will aid in the transition to the keto diet. Really, this is a good rule of thumb Keto or no Keto.
Divide your weight in half; that is the number of ounces you should be consuming each day (Ex: 150 pounds /2 = 75 ounces per day).

5. What to eat:
The top of the list includes items such as grass fed and wild animal proteins, healthy fats (Absolutely no trans fats), non-starchy vegetables, avocados, water, coffee or tea.

6. Supplement Smart:
Products like Designs For Health Keto-Nootropic is a great way to stay hydrated and boost energy as you make the transition to a low carb diet. Great tasting, this product helps support memory and mental clarity, enhances physical performance and helps
curb hunger. This product is available through Integrated Wellness Concepts HERE.

7. Exercise:
You are probably doing Keto because you want to lose weight or improve your health and regular exercise is a key component to both. Time limited? Consider a High Intensity Interval Training program (HIIT) to maximize the time you have and boost results.

8. Think ahead:
Like any nutrition plan, you need to think about meal planning/prep, finding recipes and how to stay on track
with your Keto diet when traveling or forced to eat out at restaurants.
Keto or not, this is a staple to being successful with any nutritional change, program or lifestyle.

If you plan to implement this diet, we encourage you to have a conversation with your physician or a registered dietitian. While there are certainly many benefits to the Keto diet, it is always a good idea to cover your bases to make sure it is the right plan for you.

Are you currently doing the Keto diet? We would love to hear how it is working for you!
Leave a comment below and share your experience!

​1.  Start moving:
Regular physical activity (3-5 days per week) is an absolute must if you want to lose weight before the 2017 holiday run.  We recommend activities that will give you the biggest bang for your buck such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Spinning, Zumba and/or small group or 1-on- 1 training.  Oh, and if you want max results we suggest 5 days of activity.  Yes, you are busy but this is war against weight gain! You can also ask an IWC professional to help create an in-home tabata workout that requires little to no equipment for when you don’t have time to make it to the gym!

2. Shake it up:
Do you skip breakfast or make bad choices for lunch?  To jump start your weight loss, use meal replacement shakes to get the ball rolling.  We recommend Designs for Health Plain Whey Cool Shakes.  (They also have Chocolate or Vanilla flavors available) They taste great, mix well into smoothie recipes, are produced from hormone-free, grass-fed cows and are higher quality than the products you are purchasing at the super cheap super store.  You can get your whey cool by clicking here.

For the 1st five days of your strike have a shake for breakfast, a mid-morning snack (Greek Yogurt and a piece of fruit), a shake for lunch, a mid-afternoon snack (almonds and a piece of fruit) and a healthy, properly portioned dinner).  After the 1st 5 days, continue replacing breakfast with a Whey Cool shake and start planning healthy, properly portioned lunches.  It will take some work on your end, but if you can master this you will lose weight and save money by not eating out every day. 

Remember to use promo code: FIRST20 at checkout to get 20% off your initial order. Shipping is always FREE.

3. Get water logged:
The formula is simple.  Divide your weight in half and that is the number of ounces you need each day.  For example, if you weigh
150 pounds you need to drink 75 ounces of water each day.  Yes you will be in the bathroom a lot in the beginning but your body will adjust and you will jump start weight loss.

4. Plan parties around physical activity:
Social events will begin gearing up but that isn't an excuse.  If you know you will be in a setting where extra calories will be consumed hit the gym a little longer and a bit harder to offset the damage.  Parties and social events are a problem only if you let them become a problem.  

5. Actively manage stress:
Uncontrolled stress causes increased levels of cortisol production which promotes belly fat and slows your metabolism.  You are already
exercising (a great stress eradicator) but other strategies such as meditation, air breaks (getting up and away from your work station) or massage therapy are awesome ways to manage stress.

6. Find a buddy:
Corner a pal and get him/her to commit to gaining ZERO pounds over the holidays. The power of accountability has resulted in many weight loss success stories.  Get a friend, family member or co-worker to join you in the preemptive strike!

Follow these six tips and you will be lean, mean and looking good on January 1, 2018 which will give you even more to be thankful for!

Week one of your program might look like this:
➪ Meal prep on Sunday
➪ Zumba Tuesday and Thursday
➪ Strength Training Mon, Wed & Fri
➪ Log food intake into phone app

Week two you have to run the kids to the doctor and have a late meeting so….
➪ Meal Prep on Sunday
➪ Zumba on Tuesday
➪ Strength Train Wednesday
➪ Log Food in Monday-Thursday

Week three you have to travel out of town, the car needs an oil change and your week looks like…
➪ Zumba on Thursday

As a result you gain three to five pounds and are disappointed, frustrated and on the verge of giving up but if you look at the scenario above, there is a logical reason for weight gain. You aren’t doing the things that are pertinent for success. Without even being aware of what it means, you have fallen victim to avoidance.

As a personal trainer and fitness coach in St. Louis, MO for twenty years, I see this all too often. In fact, I would say it is the most common problem that faces you and I when it comes to achieving weight loss and better health; sticking to your program in the face of barriers, challenges and adversity. 

Here are some tips to help you avoid avoidance and meet your health and fitness goals.

Start small:
​One of the biggest reasons people fall into avoidance is they bite off more than they can chew by having too many strategies. If you are just starting out and trying to balance work, kids, a social life, sporting events and health strategies (exercise, meal prep, logging food) you may be better off starting with one strategy. Once you master that and assimilate it into your busy life, add strategy number 2 and so on.

Make time:
Most people who fail at exercise, meal prep or logging food intake do so because they believe time will magically be created in their already jammed schedule for these activities. It is a killer of goals and motivation and almost always leads to failure. Remember, you have to make time for these activities and even when you do, something will pop up to derail you. Make a plan, then make plan B so
you have a fall-back strategy.

Keep doing what makes you successful:
Recently I had a conversation with a frustrated online personal training client who had gained three pounds. After a few minutes of conversation the answer was glaring. She had quit doing all of the things that made her successful at losing weight. One never wants
to become obsessive but if weighing in the morning keeps you aware of what is going on, weigh in the morning. Why? It is so easy to get derailed but if you find the scale going up, that should be an automatic red beeping alarm to say “hey me….what am I doing or not doing that is making this scale go up?” Be honest, be aware and follow the next tip!

Take action:
If you have one strategy or ten you have to take action and be disciplined enough to repeat over and over. There is no magic or secret sauce here. So long as you are following a program that is rooted in science or has been put together by an experienced and certified personal trainer, coach or registered dietitian (all of which we have at Integrated Wellness Concepts) you simply have to perform the strategies over and over and over….

Life happens and even personal trainers and health coaches are not immune to the stresses of the daily grind.
​Use these tips to avoid avoidance and you will find you meet you goals much sooner!

Those of you who personal train with us at Integrated Wellness Concepts or follow us on our social media feeds can get a decent idea of how many hours per week my team and I put into our clients and into providing top-flight content to help inspire people to get healthy and achieve their goals.

For myself, it is something that drives me and it is common to find me answering emails at 5:00am before I see our first wave of clients. I have learned the hard way that most people do not want their texts answered in the middle of the night. We now wait until later in the morning to reply. It also means answering texts and emails from our online clients until the time I drop off for the evening. We put in long days but we thrive on watching people like you achieve things they felt unreachable. We are sort of addicted to it.

You see, I want to be able to help you integrate concepts of health and wellness into your life for life. All of this depends on your goals, your readiness to make those changes, and your mindset at the time we start your journey. In fact, there are at least 101 different ways to make that happen.

Most people think that as a personal trainer in St. Louis, MO for the last 20 years and coaching people all over the globe, we would have developed a set formula for success. You might think that there is a blueprint that would allow everyone we touch to immediately find success…and you would be wrong.

Mainly because of the uncanny number of ways a person needs help. Physical wellness is just one piece of the puzzle. In order to find balanced wellness you need to take into consideration these eight dimensions:

1. Physical Wellness
2. Occupational Wellness
3. Environmental Wellness
4. Emotional Wellness
5. Financial Wellness
6. Spiritual Wellness
7. Intellectual Wellness
8. Social Wellness

Most people come to us because they want to lose weight and find that they cannot stay motivated or stay consistent with a program. What we find very quickly, in most cases, is that one or more of the eight dimensions listed above are out of whack. And when we are unbalanced, we cannot work the way we were meant to function. It is like a tire that is either under or overinflated; it simply will not roll the way it is supposed to.

The same can go for your personal trainer and wellness coach.

I never have trouble staying on top of my game for our clients and followers. My family on the other hand, has been close (at times) to punting me out of the house for everything from failing to put down my phone (I have to see what you are writing in regard to that question on Facebook asking how many pieces of fruit you eat per day and what kinds), answering emails, making social media posts and that is the easy stuff.

Like I said, I can always be on top of my game for you. I can be quite grouchy and introverted at the end of the day when I walk into my own home. It was making them miserable and I myself was not finding a lot of happiness outside of the work. I was also getting tired; Physically and mentally tired. Then the worst part happened. I dreaded going to work. I went through the motions. I was not happy
at all and I could not figure out why. Who knew the answer would be found in a game of recreational softball, better sleep and Wonder Woman.

You ever have plans to do something and at the last second dread going? That was me on the night I was to take my 11 year old to watch one of our clients play a softball game. Since Jason has been personal training with Integrated Wellness Concepts he has been driving the ball out of the park consistently and playing the defense of a man five years his junior. Knowing my son plays baseball he thought it would be fun for us to come up and watch him play. Only problem is the game didn’t start until 8:30pm.

I hem-hawed around and decided to go. It was the best decision I have made in a long time and I make a lot of decisions on a daily basis so that’s saying something. My son had a blast and I truly enjoyed watching all the hard work Jason puts into his workouts translate perfectly to the softball field. He went 4 for 4 with a single, double and two home runs.

I went to work the next day feeling slightly more motivated and a tad bit happier.

Two nights later it was date night. This is a big deal because date night happens about once every six months. With two boys in sports (whom we also coach), four businesses, two dogs and very little time to ourselves, we do not get out much. Both of us wanted to see the new Wonder Woman flick and it was a really great movie and a fun night.

I went to work the next day feeling even more motivated and a whole lot happier.

Finally, Saturday morning rolled around and I slept until 7:00am and didn’t get out of bed until 7:30am. This is incredibly momentous because I get up between 4:45 and 5:00am almost every day. All the great CEO’s in the world have this trait in common and I also subscribe to the early to bed, early to rise motto. That and I come from a long line of dairy farmers that got up at 3:30am on a daily basis so early mornings and hard works are in my DNA.

And most days I wake up with an idea for a blog to write, exercise programs to design or client emails to answer but not this morning.
I relaxed, drank some coffee and let the day come to me. Now eventually, I got around to some work related tasks but I didn’t get up before the sun to get them done. I felt great and the world did not end because I wasn’t working at 5:00am.

On Monday, I had tons of motivation, was darn near giddy and wanted to go to work. Let me repeat: I wanted to go to work. How many of you reading this can say that you wake up on Monday raring to get to the office?

My physical wellness is on point. So is my financial and occupational wellness. The areas that were shooting craps were my social, emotional and spiritual wellness. Just like the clients we help manage and find balanced wellness to become healthier, more productive
people, I was missing the mark on three out of the eight dimensions of wellness and three pretty big dimensions to boot.

Once I allowed myself to relax and have fun something amazing happened. I became better at my job and a whole heck of a lot more pleasant to be around. My family no longer wanted to kick me out and I began to enjoy life again.

Sometimes the answer is as simple as getting more sleep and having fun and while I cannot promise that is the right combination for you, I can promise that the health and wellness professionals at Integrated Wellness Concepts are master’s at helping you find your balance.
​
If we can be of assistance to you please reach out to us at 314-807- 8634.

​It's stuff like this that make personal trainers cringe but we understand you have goals.

You want to do things like:

 Lose body fat
 Run 5k’s
 Improve aerobic endurance
 Flat out be awesome

You also have to understand there are outdoor exercise enthusiasts all over this great nation who deal with a wide range of elements. Runners in Alaska deal with snow and extreme cold. Runners, cyclists and walkers in Arizona have to deal with extreme heat.

Here is St. Louis, MO, we have the glorious hot, soupy air feel that makes you think you are running inside of a steam room. 

If you want to exercise or play sports in the summer, you have to follow some basic tips to ensure you don't become a victim of heat illness. Here are some of our favorites!

Acclimate to the conditions: Allow your body to adapt gradually to the heat over the course of 10-14 days. Initially, cut back the intensity and duration of your activity, and then slowly build it back up over time. Most heat illness occurs in the first 2-3 days of activity.

Drink Up: Once acclimated, increase your fluid intake because you will sweat more. Make sure you have fluids with you at all times. Thirst is not an indicator of dehydration. If you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated.

For the Long Haul: For activities lasting longer than an hour, consider consuming a sports drink that will replace the sodium and electrolytes you lose when you sweat. Water is sufficient for activities less than an hour. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. These substances increase water loss.

Exercise in the Morning or Evening: Activity performed when the weather is the coolest is the smart way to go if your schedule will accommodate, but if it is necessary to exercise during the hottest part of the day, avoid direct sun and hot surfaces like asphalt.

Break it up: Increase the frequency and duration of rest breaks.

Dress for the Weather: Loose, light colored clothing is the way to go!

Finally...don't forget the sunscreen: Protect yourself from skin cancer by wearing a broad-spectrum sunscreen with a minimum SPF of 30!