Non-Fiction Fitness

Turn On Muscles-Turn On Healing: How To Address The Root Cause Of Many Common Physical Ailments

2011-11-02T21:21:00.003-04:00

Watch this video presentation to find out about my background, my training, how MAT works, why MAT works and to hear from people in your community talk about how much it has helped them.

Be sure to stay tuned until the end to find out how you can receive a complete MAT Evaluation and Demonstration (a $70 value) FREE

MAT Success Stories: Real People With Common Ailments Talk About How Much MAT Helped Them

2011-08-12T14:01:00.010-04:00

MAT Success Stories (my personal clients)

New York Yankee Mark Texiera Talks About MAT On Baseball Tonight

A Little Known Way To Lose Weight, Restore Health and Increase Energy

2011-01-31T13:05:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was an interesting one for me. As of Thursday I was getting a little sick with a cough and a runny nose. I was under rested, feeling burned out and not very motivated to do much other than sit and wait for it to clear up.

At the beginning of the month I had made a New Years Resolution that included having only 2 "cheat" meals per month and doing one weekend of juice fasting per month. Seeing as how I was feeling sick, i figured it would be the perfect time to do it.

I went to Whole Foods on Friday and I got sweet potatos, carrots, celery, pinapple, apples, cucumbers and I already had oranges and grapefruit at home.

The first juice I made that night was a sweet potato/apple juice. It was awesome! I also had carrot/pinapple, cucumber/apple and carrot/apple, all which were so good and so refreshing.

It was almost immediate that I started to feel more energized and as the fast progressed my cough and runny nose started to clear up alot. After about 18 hours on the fast (which included a nights sleep) I was about 80% recovered from the sickness.

When all was said and done I was about 95% recovered from the sickness, had more energy and motivation than I'd had in over a year, and I lost 7 pounds! All after just 60 hours of juicing!

Juice fasting does so much for our bodies. When we ingest juice and forsake food we are giving our digestive system a rest from its usual job of having to process and assimilate the food we eat. This allows for its energies to be completely devoted to repairing and restoring itself and its functions. On top of that the super concentrated juice concoctions contain valuable vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and enzymes that feed and nourish the digestive system and the other organs of the body.

Simulataneously while this is happening your body releases many of its stored toxins that it has accumulated through the air, water, food that you ingest and the daily care products that you use on a regular basis. This allows for the "trash" to come out of your body which boosts the immune system and makes sickness and disease less likely to come upon you.

At the same time your body sheds some excess water, waste and fat weight that causes you to drop pounds very quickly. This is an excellent way to lose a significant amount of weight if done properly in conjunction with a detox diet and done on a regular basis. In fact the last time I did a juice fast I did it for 10 days and by day 6 I had lost 17 pounds!!

A detox diet includes a diet rich in natural foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, healthy oils and lean meats in moderation. If you eat this way for 3-4 weeks then follow it with a 2-3 day juice fast it will be no time at all before you are losing significant amounts of weight and restoring your health to its prime.

It struck me as very funny that Jack Lalanne, the original juice evangelist died the same weekend I decided to do the juice fast. I guess I'm gonna have to take over the reins and get America juicing!

My recommended resource for more information on juicing and a specific program to get all the benefits I've described is the book "Toxic Relief" by Dr. Don Colbert. Or contact me and I can advise you 941-735-6223

Be blessed, be fit
Chris Vercelli RTS, MAT, CPT

One of the Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes

2010-10-24T13:47:00.002-04:00

A few days ago I gave a lecture called "The 8 Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes and How To Avoid Them To Get The Body You Want" to a group of people at The Meadows Country Club. There were so many questions asked about mistake number 3 that I barely had enough time to finish the other 5.

What was this mistake? It was going on a low-carb or low-fat diet. You see, so often people gravitate to the low-carb or low fat diet, simply because we have been conditioned to think of these two vital nutrients as enemies of a lean body. Lets take the low-carb diet for example.

The low-carb craze really started in the mid 90's when Dr. Robert Atkins got tons of media publicity for his new book and subsequent diet plan called "The Atkins Diet". Dr. Atkins claimed that carbohydrates were an enemy of a weight loss diet and therefore advised many people to give them up in favor of high fat and high protein foods.

His "diet" quickly became very popular because people loved the idea of eating sausage, bacon, cheese, steak and other high fat, high protein foods all day while still dropping pounds. In fairness to him, his approach did work, people did lose weight. However, the majority of them lost a large amount of water weight, a small amount of muscle weight and a small amount of fat weight very quickly which gave them the illusion they were getting closer to reaching their goal.

What happened to most of these folks is that after a few weeks or at best a few months on this diet, they would have uncontrollable cravings for carbohydrates. This was no surprise since it is your bodies preferred energy source. These cravings would lead them to binge eat foods refined foods like white pastas, white breads, and sugary desserts.

Once this happened the majority of the water weight would come back almost immediately (because your body stores water and sugar together as glycogen) and much of the fat would come back as well because the calorie consumption would be far higher than the individuals ability to burn them.

This is what happened to one man in the audience of my lecture. He shared with us that his experience was very similar to what I've just explained and that it has happened to him more than once. He also shared that his heartfelt belief was that the problem was not the diet, but his inability to stick to it.

I told him with all sincerity that it was not his fault. There are few people who could even keep that diet for a few weeks, let alone a few months. I also explained that his body was designed to consume carbohydrates because that is what we make our fuel out of. I also explained that the results he got were probably not what he wanted (losing mostly water instead of fat) and that he needed a more balanced approach to achieve long term success.

You see, there are 6 macro nutrients your body needs for optimum function- they are fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water. If you lack any one of these your body will not function properly and you will not lose weight and keep it off.

In the previous post I spoke about the power of eating 6 meals per day. These 6 macro nutrients should be present in each and every meal you eat. Over consumption of any of these will be dangerous as well, so there is a definite balance you need to keep.

Most healthy ranges for these nutrients go something like this:

40-60% of total calories should be carbohydrates
15-30% of total calories should be protein
20-30% of total calories should be fats
1 oz of water for every 2 pounds of body weight per day
RDA for all vitamins and minerals per day (based on age, weight and gender)

The exact numbers are based on your activity level, your goals, your age and your gender. This is something you want to get some counsel on.

If you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off, make sure that you are getting adequate amounts of each of these macro nutrients. In another post I will answer the burning question of "which foods are good and which are bad?"

Til then, be fit and be blessed.
Chris Vercelli RTS, MAT, CPT

The Power Of 6 Meals a Day

2010-10-10T19:14:00.001-04:00

Most people who try to lose weight think they need to eat less. Some even go so far as to skip one or sometimes two meals a day thinking that it will help them get faster results. This is not the case at all, in fact just the opposite is true.

It sounds counter intuitive but to lose the right kind of weight- the fat- you actually need to eat more meals each day. These meals should be small and consist of healthy carbs, proteins and fats. Every 2-3 hours you should be consuming a small meal, before you actually feel yourself getting hungry.

Eating this way does a few very important things that help your fat loss efforts

1. It reduces your chances of overeating at any one meal. Because you are not waiting until hunger pains set in, you are less likely to be craving food and much less likely to eat alot of food quickly before the "full message" reaches your brain, as is the case with people who skip meals. This also minimizes blood sugar spikes and insulin secretion, both of which will slow fat loss in most people.

2. It maximizes the "digestive cost" of food. Eating smaller meals makes it easier on your bodies digestive system. Your digestive system will quickly digest and assimilate the food from a small meal, but it takes much longer with a larger meal. Eating this way will cause your body to expend a significant amount of calories just breaking down and digesting this food-upwards of 10-30% of what it contains.

3. It psychologically "tricks" you into thinking your eating more, so you don't feel as deprived. When you are eating something every few hours it is very hard to feel like you are on a "diet", especially since you are eating before any hunger sets in. This will greatly improve your long term success and adherence.

This point can be best illustrated by a campfire. Imagine a campfire that is burning at a good rate. As it starts to die down, you have 3 options

1. let it die out and do nothing
2. throw a long thick log on the fire
3. throw small branches on it frequently

If you have ever built a campfire you know that you should never choose option 1 because it won't be long before you have no fire left. You also know that if you choose option 2 it will smother the fire and it will take a long time before it will it finally break down and burns evenly again. You would have to choose option 3, because each branch burns up quickly and if you continue to add small branches frequently than it wont be long before the fire is burning at an optimal rate.

This is how your metabolism works, if you starve it it will die out, just like the campfire. If you throw huge logs (meals) on it it gets smothered and takes along time to get back to normal (which explains why big meals usually make you tired afterwards). But, if you eat small meals frequently than you will keep your metabolic fire burning at a good, high rate and you will avoid any lags.

Action plan-

1. Take the current food you are eating and break each meal in half. Eat one half at your normal mealtime and the other half 2-3 hours later.

2. Make sure to drink 8 oz of water with each meal, it will help make you feel even more full.

3.For convenience keep the other half of your meal in a small Tupperware container and carry it with you where you are going. If it has to be a little earlier or later than the 2-3 hours that's ok, but try to get as close as you can.

4. If you are feel you are unable to stop to eat this often than consider supplementing with nutrition bars or drinks.

In the next post I will expand more on what should comprise the majority of the 3 meals, but this is a good first step.

Til then, Be fit and be blessed.

Chris Vercelli RTS, MAT, CPT

The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Get In Shape

2010-09-28T22:24:00.001-04:00

Everybody these days is talking about the latest diet and exercise fads that are the "secret" to getting in great shape. There are infomercials running all the time for P90x, Insanity, and other workouts on video. There are commercials and magazine ads for things like Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers everywhere you look. There are even still a few Ab Rockers, Rollers and other rediculous fitness contraptions being hocked on every media outlet you can imagine.

Although I'm sure there have been some people somewhere who have used these methods to help themselves get in better shape, what I want to share with you something that is far more important than any diet and any exercise program for reaching your fitness goals.

It is to spend time finding your true motivation for wanting to reach those goals.

Without motivation, nothing happens.
Without a desire to change, nothing changes.
Without a will, you won't.
Without a good why, the how doesn't matter.

This is true in anything. Sports, business, school, ect.

Truly successful people who succeed in any arena of life, only do it because they have an unbridled motivation that fuels them to keep doing what it takes to succeed, even when it gets hard.

Take it from me, a man who as a teenager with cancer, overcame the odds and not only beat the disease, but lost over 100 pounds and transformed my entire life in the process.

How did I do it? With a relentless desire for something better than I had. A desire so great that nothing could stop me.

What about you? Why do you want to get in shape? Do you even know? Have you even thought about it?

This is something that will definitely be worth your time to really think about and do as much soul searching as you can to find a good answer.

Is it because you want to feel more attractive?
Is it because you want to be healthier?
Is it because you want to be able to be more active?
Is it because you want to feel younger and more energetic?

What is it?

Keep in mind too that even these answers will be somewhat superficial. You could go much deeper into them by asking yourself, "why do I want to feel more attractive and healthier?" and "why do I want x?" and so on.

The question of why could be asked dozens of times and you may still not be uncovering your true root of motivation for trying to get in shape.

You might say, "why do I need to do all this thinking, I already want to do it now and thats all that matters"

If this is your attitude, please understand that there will come a day when you will not feel motivated to eat right, exercise or do anything else you need to do to get in shape. What will you do then?

The reason I'm telling you to go this deep now, is so that later on you can draw on these answers and remind yourself why you want this so badly. That will make it much harder to rationalize making the wrong decisions.

Trust me, I've been at that crossroads more times than I can count. Heres what I'd do to fight it-

I used to sit and think about how awesome it would be the day I could go to the beach, feel confident and be proud of my body. I also thought alot about how great it would feel to have unlimited freedom to do any activity I wanted and not get tired. I also spent plenty of time thinking about how horrible my life would be for years to come if I didn't do something about it soon.

Maybe you can relate to those things or maybe your motivation is different. Your motivation will be unique to you and your circumstances. But Those are a few of things that lit a fire under my butt to get in great shape!

So if you want to lay a good foundation for your success, start by taking a few minutes (when you know you wont be distracted) and write down these questions on a single sheet of paper and list as many answers as you can for each one.

Why do I want to get in shape?
Why are these things important to me?
What about my life will be better when I achieve all my goals?
What about my life will get worse if I don't achieve my goals?
Who else in my life will be affected? How will it affect them if I succeed? if I fail?

I would even go so far as to take the answers to these questions and pretend that its a year from now and you've lost all desire to keep going. You are falling right back into your old habits and you see yourself slipping back further and further if you dont do something quick. Write a letter to yourself that would motivate you to get back on track. This will be a very valuable thing to have now and to read again later.

Well, I'll wrap this up because I could leterally write all day about this subject because it is just so vital and so near to my heart. However, if you haven't read my book "The 7 Secrets of Permanent Fat Loss", I highly suggest that you do. I spend an entire chapter uncovering this subject and teaching you how to find and keep your passion for a new you! Definitely worth your time to check out.

Til next time....

Be fit and be blessed,
Chris Vercelli RTS, MAT, CPT