Most readers don’t know this but my first symptoms of illness that led to meningitis occurred in an airplane – one that I was piloting alone.  April 1st, 2011 I realized one of my dreams in my ‘bucket list’ – that is, to fly an aircraft solo.  I have been dreaming of learning how to fly since I was a little kid.  Later that same month I was on my fourth solo training flight when I started to feel really lousy.  I landed the aircraft early – and when I took my headset off – I was completely deaf in my left ear.  Three days later I was in hospital and……well, you know the story.

So back to neuro-associations.  Meningitis, as you can imagine was a trial to say the least.  I have a new definition for “pain”.  In the early days of recovery I replayed the events of realizing I was deaf, getting really sick, losing my vision etc.  I replayed it over and over again – and the story starts with me flying…and so I developed a connection between flying and misery.  Repetition (reliving the story over and over again) and intensity are two of the factors that make up a neuro-association.

How we think has a huge effect on our health.

On one hand I wanted to go back to flying and on the other hand, the very thought of it would make my ear ache, my heart race and even a bit nauseous.  Today I broke through the cycle of fear and went flying…..it was freakin’ awesome.    Was it a risk?  Sure.  My intellect tells me that the likelihood of getting sick after flying again is silly.  My heart told a different story.  Either I was willing to take the risk of repeating the illness and regain a love of flying OR remain captive to a fear.

F.E.A.R.   False Evidence that Appears Real.  Another author wrote that our fears are images being projected onto a screen made of mist.  As soon as you step into your fear – it vaporizes.  It’s true.  I went flying and it was freakin’ awesome.

To recap a couple of key points.

1. Ditch the high intensity cardio.  Keep your heart rate in zone one for the most part.  Not sure how to calculate that?  I’ll post the question to Pierre below.
2. Post work-out nutrition.  Timing is everything.  Within 15 minutes of your workout you should take-in some carbohydrates and protein.  The ratio is 2 or 3:1 carbs to protein.  That was a shocker for me in that I always assumed a ‘protein shake’ was the thing to drink.  Not so.  Carb it up.  What kind of carbs?  The easiest is frozen fruit in the blender plus protein powder.  I will have a whole other post about protein powders but for now – suffice it to say that you want protein and nothing else.  No stevia, no aspartame, sucralose – none of that.  Easy way to avoid the additives is to get a powder that has no flavoring.  The fruit will add the flavor.  Also, add the protein at the end of the blender fiasco.  The heat from the blender motor can denature the protein.
3.  Do I recommend the chocolate milk?  No.  Will it “work” – yes.  Use the fruit.  Another alternative and probably a better one will be to eat some sweet potato or yam or squash instead of the fruit smoothie.  Definitely not as appetizing or convenient but more effective overall in terms of recovery. Fructose is the form of sugar in fruit and by it’s chemical nature it tends to favor replenishing the sugar in the liver instead of the muscle.  The carbs in sweet potatoes yams and squash metabolize nicely to replenish the energy in the muscle.  Both methods work.
4. Resistance training.  This is the key.  No matter what your goals are, resistance training is a must.  You don’t have to get fancy.  Keep it simple and old-school.  Here are a couple of exercises I started out with when I was feeeeeble.

You get the idea.  Please use your common sense while exercising.  If it hurts, stop. Training in the pain is……crap.

Please….post your questions.

http://tinyurl.com/ottawachiropractor

“Never have I worked-out at such a low intensity and made so many gains – I haven’t gained this much muscle mass in such a short time since I was a teenager…and I just turned 42.”

Your Speaker:  Pierre Gaudet holds a Master’s degree in Kinesiology, he is one of the original founders of Peak Performance and he has trained professional as well as Olympic athletes – Pierre knows his business. Come and meet him on October the 11th for a one-time-only, FREE workshop.

Whether you are looking to get stronger and gain muscle mass or just lose weight and feel great, Pierre will share his secrets to help you DO WHAT WORKS and STOP THE MADNESS!

Reservations are absolutely required and seating is limited for this one-time-only event.  

Oct 11th at Crestview Family Chiropractic.  6:10 pm sharp.

Call 613-224-5400 right now or book online.

http://tinyurl.com/ottawachiropractor

http://tinyurl.com/ottawachiropractor

I have never enjoyed working out at a gym.  But NOT working out is not an option.  A few bucks on some simple gear is all you need to get in shape.  You can absolutely transform your body without a gym membership and with only a few dollars invested.

NEVER have I worked out with such LOW intensity, spent so little money and made so many gains.

Check out this link from the Mayo Clinic for some great tips.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fitness/HQ00694_D/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=Fitness&utm_campaign=GPS

Fish oil is, in my not always humble opinion, the MOST important supplement we need to take – I’ll let the video explain that.  I will say that not all fish oils are created equally, so the video will explain which brand I take, why I like that brand so much, and where you can find it (aside from my office).

There is one other supplement I take from the fall until late spring – that, my friends, is Vitamin D.  The cool thing about vitamin d supplements is that they are super cheap and you don’t really have to get the boutique version like you should with fish oil. Vitamin D could save your life.  Check out the links for Vitamin D here and here.

And now for my AMAZING video on The ONE (or two) Supplement I Take Without Fail. Make sure you watch the whole thing – you will learn a lot.

As always – please click the Facebook and Twitter buttons below.  Your mama taught you to share didn’t she?

Have a Cracker-Jack Day!! – Paul

http://tinyurl.com/ottawachiropractor

http://tinyurl.com/ottawachiropractor

Upper Body:  Ugh.  14 push-ups in 30 seconds.  Embarrassing.  I plan on smoking this test at re-eval time.  Although not part of the testing, I know I can’t do a chin-up.  Never could. This is one of my goals:  to knock out 10 chin-ups by this time next year.

Lower Body: Squats.  25 in 30 seconds.  ”Excellent”

Curl-ups – a bit like crunches: 44 in 60 seconds.  ”Above Average”

Balance Tests:  ”Excellent”….I was happy with this one.  Not bad for one eye and vertigo.

Flexibility Tests: “Poor”.  Can’t stress enough how “poor” it was.  I don’t even come close to touching my toes.  A lot of work to be done here.  Learned something about stretching too.  For years fitness gurus told us to stretch before engaging in any kind of activity – them we learned that stretching should be done only AFTER a warm-up.  Truth is although stretching is optimal when your muscles are warm, you can stretch cold – just don’t ask your muscles to work hard afterward – great recipe for injury.  If you stretch cold – do it at the end of the day when the post-stretch demands are low.

Lactate Threshold and Perceived Exertion:  This was the most interesting part of the evaluation.  I touched on it in the last post but I reached threshold when my perception of exertion was actually quite low.  I have never enjoyed calisthenics and weight lifting (pretty obvious by my fitness assessment results) but I have always enjoyed endurance activities.  Remember the Canada Fitness Test days at school?  The only event that would get an Award of Excellence in was the endurance run.  Anyhow, what the testing revealed is that I can’t trust my perceived exertion.  I thought it was low and in reality I blew past lactate threshold and my heart rate was in Zone 4 (out of 5).

The workout.  Sadly, there is no running – in fact, I am to avoid it completely.  My short term fitness goal is to gain muscle mass (remember I lost 25+ pounds of muscle mass in the hospital).  Running tends to be catabolic.  I need anabolic.  Point final.  Over the next three months, I am to do nothing but resistance training with essentially no cardio at all.  Seems extreme…but so was my weight loss – so I have decided that I am just going to follow his lead and do what is recommended.

Onward!

PS – post workout nutrition was a bit of a surprise.  I always thought that the best post workout nutrition would be a protein shake of some kind.  It turns out the best for me and my goals is to down mostly carbs post workout!  2:1 carbs to protein preferably in liquid form and within 15 minutes of the workout.

http://tinyurl.com/ottawachiropractor

http://tinyurl.com/ottawachiropractor