Recent blog posts - Fitness and Nutrition Tips

Water, Water, and more Water!

Posted by Tony Nichols on Tuesday, 14 May 2013 in Uncategorized

Prepare the Water
It's been a hot May so far and we hope you're staying hydrated during these 90* days. We know it can be difficult to guzzle down the usual eight glasses of water per day but our team at Axiom has put together some tips and helpful info to keep you hydrated and healthy.

Morning
You should try and consume at least two glasses of water in the early morning when you wake up. Why? Your body is actually very dehydrated when you sleep and full of toxins. So, drink some water to help flush those toxins and kick start your day, daily water intake needs, and metabolism.

Meals
Drinking water before, during, and after your meals not only helps your body meet its required need for water consumption but will help move the nutrients from your food sources throughout your body. Water is an amazing vehicle for nutrition once inside the body. It helps get those macros inside muscles, vital bodily organs, and helps with other important physical & mental functionality.

Workouts
We hope you're outside enjoying the lovely weather and if you're under the sun make sure you have plenty of fluids. When you're exercising your body needs water and this is a great time to drink as much as you can while you work out. Have trouble drinking water during exercise? Try this:

- Drink water after each exercise
-Set a goal to fill up your water bottle at least twice during your workout
-Add some flavor like a lemon, cucumber, or sports supplement to your water

Hopefully these tips will help you stay hydrated and full during the next few warm months. Remember, if you ever have any questions about your nutrition, you can always ask an Axiom Fitness staff member for help.

Stay fit Idaho!

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Introducing our NEW Location!

Posted by Tony Nichols on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 in Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday Idaho!

It’s nearing the beginning of May 2013 and Axiom Fitness is better than ever! If you haven’t already heard the fantastic news we announced last week then hopefully it will cheer your Monday up even more. We’re bringing the Treasure Valley another location, another club to call home, another place to accelerate your fitness goals. Coming Quarter One of 2014, the intersection at Eagle & Fairview will be home to the most advanced fitness center in the state.

The Village at Meridian will provide a fantastic location for the newest addition to the Axiom family and we are beyond excited for this to happen, and hope you are too! We are going to be offering many great new things at this new club, and some incredible membership opportunities as well!

To learn more about the new club and its exciting new amenities - follow this LINK and prepare yourself for 2014!

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Axiom Weekly Motivational Email January 25, 2013

Posted by Mike Bal on Friday, 25 January 2013 in Uncategorized

Wellness Tips

ACHOO! Bless you. Does this sound familiar? Maybe you, or someone in your family, has a cold or the flu. Maybe your annoying coworker keeps coughing and sneezing without covering his or her mouth. Either way, it's cold and flu season and we need to protect ourselves as much as possible. Aside from chronically washing your hands and not touching your face, there are specific nutrients and foods that help boost your immune system and may help ward off the flu.

Vitamin D - The "Sunshine" vitamin is impossible to get during winter in the northern hemisphere - not that it matters due to this never-ending inversion... This powerhouse vitamin is not easy to get through food, either. Still, that does not mean you don't need it. Study after study suggests that taking a vitamin D supplement may help boost your immune system. In one study of more than 300 children, those who took daily vitamin D supplements (1,200 IU) were 40 percent less likely to get a common flu virus than kids who took a placebo. Laboratory studies indicate that the nutrient may help immune cells identify and destroy bacteria and viruses that make us sick. Choose Vitamin D3 cholecalciferol as it is more highly absorbable and take 1,000 IU/day.

Probiotics - These healthy gut bacteria help balance out the delicate digestive system, which houses 60-70% of your immune system. Isn't that cool? If your digestion is out of whack your immune system will not be working at it's peak. The result of digestive bacterial imbalance causes upset tummies and that can be caused by antibiotic use, poor food choices, a bout with illness and general bad health. Probiotics insipire your intestines to release white blood cells which identify and attack viral invaders. Take a supplement that has 5-10 million live active cultures and follow dosage instructions on the bottle.

Garlic - Not only is this kitchen staple delicious, it is also very nutritious. Along with warding off vampires, garlic is a health tonic due to its immune-boosting properties. It has been shown to battle bacterial, viral and fungal infections when consumed in its raw form. Garlic contains allicin, ajoene and thiosulfinates - three powerful compounds that help the body prevent and fight infections. The compounds are so strong that consuming raw garlic juice is nearly as effective as Neosporin is for disinfecting minor wounds. When applied to the skin, garlic beats topical creams like Tinactin and other antifungal agents in fighting athlete’s foot. Evidence has been documented suggesting that people who consume large quantities of garlic on the onset of a cold will reduce the amount of time it takes them to heal. Garlic is at its best wen chopped, left to sit for 5-10 minutes and consumed raw.

Happy Friday, everyone. Stay safe and healthy this weekend!

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Axiom Weekly Motivational Email January 18, 2013

Posted by Mike Bal on Friday, 18 January 2013 in Uncategorized

Hello, fit people! I hope you are all staying warm and motivated with your health and fitness goals. You are at an important turning point in your journey in terms of making wellness your lifestyle and not just something you will do for a few weeks until next January. It takes a month to create a habit, "they" say, so stick with your healthy routines and believe that you can do it -- because you can!

Fitness Tips

Today's fitness tips are all about your core. This term refers to the muscles in your trunk that stabilize your entire body, prevent back pain, and maintain proper posture and mobility throughout our lives. The core consists of your abdominals and low back, with a little bit of lats and glutes thrown in for fun. As a good visualization, think of a corset around your body and that is what we are talking about.

Core strength is very important for everday body movements like leaning over, twisting sideways, and standing upright - but it is also imperative for maintaining good posture and reducing back pain due to improper movements. Luckily, there is nothing fancy about strengthing your core so use the following three exercises to help improve your strength, whittle your waist, and reduce back pain.

1. Glute Bridge - Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet planted flat under your knees. Slowly tuck your tailbone, push in to your heels and lift your rear end off the floor, keeping your knees hip-distance apart. Hold this position for 30 seconds and slowly lower yourself down to the ground. Repeat 2 more times. To increase the intensity, hold for a longer period of time or pick up one foot while maintaining your body position.

2. Plank - Lie on your stomach with your arms bent at a 90 degree angle under your shoulders. Tuck your toes under and use your core to lift up your body so only your toes and forearms are touching the ground. Keep your body in a straight line from head to toe - do not hang your head (!) - and your glutes squeezed for proper form. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat 2 more times. Increase the intensity by holding for a longer time period.

3. Seated Rotation - Grab a small medicine ball that is of moderate weight. (If you are at home you can use a backpack, bag of dog food, or laundry detergent container!) Sit on your rear end with your knees bent and your back straight and shoulders relaxed. Straighten your arms and push the medicine ball out in front of your chest. Keeping your heels on the ground, twist to the right and touch the gound with the medicine ball. Immediately rotate to the left and touch the ball to the gound. Complete 20 twists (10 on each side) for 3 total rounds. Make this exercise more difficult by picking up your feet and balancing only on your rear end while twisting.

These three exercises will work the back, front and sides of your core to help improve your posture and reduce back pain. Add them to your exercise routine and complete them 2 or 3 times per week for maximum benefit.

Best of luck and have a great weekend!

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Axiom Weekly Motivational Email January 11th, 2013

Posted by Mike Bal on Friday, 11 January 2013 in Uncategorized

Wellness Tips

Holy Snow, Batman! I hope you are all safe and sound out there on those icy Idaho roads. I also hope you are taking the best care of yourself during this hectic New Year's, back-to-school, winter routine time. Part of taking the best care of yourself and your family is making sure you are meeting your nutritional goals through food and supplements. It is especially important that you supplement your diet if you are restricting calories or your diet is not all that varied.

The nutrients we need to live, function and thrive are all found in the foods that we eat -- in theory. There are some common reasons why we just are not meeting our nutritional goals, however. First, we tend to eat foods that are low quality and highly processed. The grinding, processing, and milling processes deplete food items of their natural nutrients. Whole wheat bread, still a processed food, has many more nutrients than white bread which is processed to within an inch of its life. Try eating foods that are as close to their natural form as possible to ensure the most nutrients.

Secondly, we repeatedly eat the same 10 foods over and over. Think about the foods you have consumed this week. You probably had the same breakfast at least three times, your snacks do not vary all that much, and dinners are where you likely get the most variety. Someone a lot wiser than me once said, "Variety is the spice of life", and that is true for food and nutrition as well. Important nutrients come from brightly-colored and vibrant foods and even if you eat orange carrots, green spinach, and red meat you will still miss out on a lot of needed nutrients. Try eating every color of food on a daily basis. Someone a lot richer than me once said, "Taste the Rainbow" (the Skittles tag line!), and he's right too!

Lastly, there is a lot of poor quality soil due to over-farming in this country. What was once a fertile farmland has been used and abused over the decades and the foods grown are not getting nutrients from the soil anymore. Choosing organic foods may help this aspect a bit because the organic farms are required to rotate their crops for maximal nutrients but it will not completely solve the problem.

Because of the limited amount of true nutrients coming from the foods we consume, I recommend that all my clients take a good multivitamin and an omega-3 fish oil supplement. The multivitamin will fill in the gaps where our diets are lacking and the fish oil supplement will help decrease inflammation and improve cardiovascular and brain health. Most drugstore brands are not the best quality and do not disintegrate in our stomachs so, in turn, they are not absorbed. At Axiom, we carry the dotFIT brands that are high-quality and highly absorbable.

If you have any questions about your multivitamin or supplement needs do not hesitate to ask our fitness professionals at all three locations. Feel free to email me directly with personal supplement recommendations if you do not already have a trainer.

Happy Friday, everyone! Be safe out there!

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Axiom Weekly Motivational Email January 4, 2013

Posted by Mike Bal on Friday, 04 January 2013 in Uncategorized

Weekly Tips

January is here and statistically 75% of you have a weight loss goal this year and only 20% of you will succeed. I bet the statistics are even higher (and lower!) for those who have had the same goals year after year. What makes us so great at setting a good intention and so bad at following through with our New Year's diet plans? What's worse, how does it affect us physically and emotionally when we put ourselves through this battle of the bulge year after year?

Jessica Bartfield, MD, a specialist in nutrition and weight management at the Loyola enter for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care says, "Dieting is a skill, much like riding a bicycle, and requires practice and good instruction. You're going to fall over and feel frustrated, but eventually you will succeed and it will get easier." That is really great news to hear - dieting is hard, it takes practice, you will fail likely before you succeed. The take-away message is that you have to just keep trying.

There are reasons for dieting failures. See if you fall into any or all of these categories.

1. Underestimating Calories Consumed Each Day. Even experts have a difficult time judging the number of calories they eat or the amount of calories in foods they are served. The best way to get past this obstacle is to keep track of everything you are eating - including sampling, nibbling and drinking. Find a way to track your food that you will stick with and are motivated to use. Many people like using a free online program to track foods and the calories/carb/protein/fat numbers are automatically calculated for you. Check out myfitnesspal.com, livestrong.com, or get set up by one of our personal trainers with our dotFIT program. Successful weight loss clients are adamant about tracking! (Note: When tracking food you have to pay attention to portion sizes. Just writing down "cereal" means nothing. Writing "2 cups Shredded Wheat, 1 cup milk" is perfect!)

2. Not Knowing How Many Calories You Burn Each Day. Weight loss is generally attributed to 80% diet and 20% exercise so to reduce the amount of food you take in you really need to know your baseline caloric burn. In other words, how would you know how much to eat if you do not know how much you burn? Most people assume they burn about 300 more calories per day than they actually do. To lose one pound per week you need to burn off an additional 500 calories per day. If we assume we burn 300 more then our estimation and results are just floundering. For my clients, I recommend a combination of increased exercise and decreased food because it is easier to adhere to than just over-exercising or under-eating. (Nothing is worse that under-eating!) I also recommend wearing a metabolism-tracking armband. These nifty devices track metabolism, steps taken, sleep hours, minutes of physical activity, and nutrition. Ask your trainer or fitness director about our Exerspy armband.

3. Trying Too Hard. We all want to succeed in life and we definitely want to succeed at weight loss so we feel better, look better, and reduce disease risks. Losing weight is hard (can I get an amen?) but it is a process and it can be done. Jumping off of the starting blocks at 1,000 mph with 7 workouts a week and consuming only bird seed will ensure failure. Take a deep breath, understand that the weight did not come on overnight so it will not burn off overnight, and get the help you need. Start with food tracking and a meeting with a personal trainer to increase your accountability. Slowly make progress in any manner tha works for you. Celebrate your small successes and keep chugging along.

Don't forget that weight loss and perfect health do not happen overnight. It takes a month to create a healthy habit so stick with it and we will see you through it every step of the way.

Happy Friday!

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