The election is just around the corner.   By this time next week, we are going to know who our next president is going to be.

I just received my sample ballot in the mail.   Among our choice of voting for a new president, there are also many other offices, judicial positions and legislature that we are supposed to vote for.

It’s overwhelming, really.  Those other votes are important but they really require you to do some research on your own
to learn more about those candidates since the presidential race trumps them in size and magnitude.

We are living in an interesting time.   In the middle of a global economic crisis.   These things happen about every 20 years or so and we always bounce back from them.   We did so in the 30′s, 50′s, 80′s, and will today.   This one is no different and it too will pass.

Financial and government leaders are doing what they can to resuscitate it.  The market will adjust and correct itself back to normal.   You and I have no control over it.  The only thing we can control is how we let it affect us.   We must continue to be consumers and not rattle the system by being fearful and losing confidence in it.

So who am I voting for?

ME!

Me, Myself, and I.  Me, Me, Me, Me, Me!

No, this is not some arrogant ploy to say I could do things better.  No way!  Those guys are warriors.  They go into office for 4 years but come out looking 10 years older.  No thanks!

I’m voting to concern myself with improving the things I can control.

Last time I checked, those were my health, my fitness, my mindset and my education.

Watching the financial news takes me on a roller coaster ride that makes me feel helpless.  Therefore, I’ve limited my exposure to it.  I won’t give the news media the satisfaction of letting myself fear and worry.   I will not be their puppet.

Therefore, I’m investing in me – because that’s all any of us ever really ‘have’.

Your health is our wealth.

Put it first.

I’m sure you’ve heard the quote…

“You spend your health acquiring your wealth, only to spend your wealth later in life in an attempt to re-acquire your health”

One thing is true: No matter what happens this November, I’ll still have my mind and body to deal with – so that’s where I’m putting all my focus.

What about you?

Are you voting for everyone else but forgetting yourself?  If so, there’s still time to adjust your vote so that you include YOURSELF in the process.

‘write in’ and check off YOURSELF today.

Take control of your body, mind and soul.  Stay sharp, stay focused, stay healthy.

Please, do not let the MOST precious thing you own slide under the crisis bandwagon of the financial times.  You may not have much control over these trying times, but you have a ton of control over how you regard yourself.  Your health. Your mind. Your internal peace. Your state of gratitude.

Use this time to take control of you.  And be thankful for the health you have.  It’s your real treasure here on earth.  The other stuff just makes it that much more fun to be healthy.

If you’ve been voting for others before voting for yourself, let us match you up with one of our personal trainers to re-align your focus on the things you can control and get you back on track.  Being fit and being healthy is extremely gratifying.

We live in a beautiful country with lots of freedoms and you have the freedom to put yourself first.  Exercise that freedom.

Be true to yourself,

Dennys Passeto, CPT
Achieve Fitness Personal Training, LLC
www.achieve-fitness.com
1-888-872-7961

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Winter is upon us and like clockwork, we are being bombarded from the media about getting a flu shot.

Every year, roughly 1 million people get the flu.  Almost half of them become hospitalized by it, and over 30,000 die from it.

However, if you look more closely at that data, only 3% of those deaths are actually caused by the flu.  The rest, whom were all elderly, died from pneumonia.  The elderly are much more susceptible because of their weakened immune system.  Worse yet, the flu vaccine has not been proven to help prevent pneumonia.  So why take it?

I’m going to give you several reasons why you shouldn’t…

Flu is the name used to describe Influenza which is a disease caused by a weakness in the immune system.  More so, it has been linked to being caused by a deficiency in Vitamin D.

The best way to get Vitamin D is to expose yourself to the sun.  The sun aids your body in the production and absorption of vitamin D.  And coincidentally, this is the time of year where we begin to be deprived of sunlight.

I’ve never been a big fan of the flu shot.  Primarily because of the ingredients. The flu shot is a cocktail of many things you’d never think of putting your body.   At least not while you’re alive.   Here are some of the ingredients…

Formaldehyde(embalming fluid)
Mercury(associated with Autism and alzherimers)
Ethylene glycol(antifreeze)

Have you ever noticed how some people report feeling sick and like their energy has been drained from them immediately after taking the vaccine?

The vaccine also only protects against certain strands of the virus.  It is never known which strand will be in your area.  It’s an educated guess.

The vaccine is mostly marketed to children and the elderly who are at higher risks of acquiring the virus.

If you were to get sick, the vaccine also reduces the effectiveness of anti-biotic treatments because it contains several.   This reduces the effectiveness when necessary antibiotics are put into your body at the time of illness.

And most of all, at least for me anyway, I hate needles!  Yikes, I’d rather let someone kick me in the ‘you know what’.

So how do you naturally prevent the flu without a vaccine?

Rest -  Make sure you’re getting at least 6 hours of sleep per night.  Optimal is 8 as everyone knows but who has time for that.  Just trying to be realistic.

Get some exposure to the sun.  Go for a walk after lunch at work, take your dog for a longer walk, make an effort to do more outdoor activities.

And best of all, exercise!  While at it, why not make it an outdoor workout like Hiking, biking, jogging, etc…   It’s multi-tasking.  Our Outdoor Women’s Only boot camps are a great way to get an outdoor workout with some exposure to the sun and fresh non-recycled air.

Research has proven that exercise prevents illness and strengthens the immune system.  If you need help setting up an exercise plan, give us a call.  We’ll be glad to help get you on the way to great health.

It’s also recommended that you take an oral Vitamin D supplement to make up for the deficiency this time of year.  Don’t just count on the amount you get in your multivitamin.  Take an additional supplement.

Nutrition is also a big key in your well-being.  Make sure you are eating foods that are high in quality nutrient value; vitamins, minerals, fiber, quality fats, quality proteins, etc…

With a healthy lifestyle consisting of sound nutrition, exercise, and sleep, you have at your disposal the best natural vaccine for preventing the flu and other illnesses.   This has been my practice and I’ve never had the flu and couldn’t tell you the  last time I even had a cold.

To your continued good health,

Dennys Passeto, CPT
www.achieve-fitness.com
Personal Training In Maryland, DC and Virginia
1-888-872-7961

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They are at it again…Trying to poison you and I while covering it up!

Have you seen the commercials lately by the High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) industry?

The one I saw was pretty clever.  It was a couple sitting at a park having a picnic.  When the girl was about to have a
swig of a typical artificially colored fruit flavored drink, the guy said “Don’t drink that, it has High Fructose Corn
Syrup!”.  She the asked “What’s bad about that?”.  He just starred blankly back at her with a stumped and puzzled look
on his face and said “I don’t know?!?!”

This is big business’ clever way calling us dumb.  They know that many people have heard from someone or somebody that
HFCS is bad for you but don’t know why.  So the industry logic is to try and play to that ignorance by saying if you don’t know why its bad, why would you stop consuming it.   This is clever reverse psychology and I’m sure it works on many people.  What this does is make me mad and want to inform as many people as I can of the dangers of HFCS.

As my own personal training clients know, I’ve advised for a long time to stay away from HFCS.  Here today, I’m going
to tell you why.  Let’s begin with what is HFCS…

HFCS is an essentially corn syrup(extracted from corn) turned into fructose(sugar) through a pretty complicated process involving fermentation, addition of fungus, genetically altered enzymes and altering its chemical structure.  I don’t know about you but I love a little fungus in my beverage.  Yuck

The reason HFCS is so appealing is that it is cheaper to produce than to grow sugar cane process it and transport it.  HFCS also has a longer shelf life than regular traditionally sweetned products.  It also has given government subsidised corn industry a new use for corn which had lost its appeal as the process of hydrogenation became more popular and the use for corn greatly diminished.  Hydrogenated Oils is something else that I’ll be covering in an upcoming post.

Why do you need to avoid it as a consumer?  There are several reasons.  First, the very corn in which they use for this process is different than the everyday corn you and I eat.  It’s genetically modified.  Some experts say as far as 80% of the foods we eat have been genetically modified so this isn’t surprising.  Why put something into your body that has undergone such a radical chemical alteration?  Furthermore, the very enzymes that are used to break down the corn starch are genetically modified to make them more stable.

Diabetic complications are increased due to the composition of the modified fructose in HFCS.  The pancreas have to work much harder to produce the necessary insulin to break down this altered form of Fructose.

The liver is also impacted greatly by ingestion of HFCS.  The rate at which your liver breaks down this sweetener is much faster than if it were in its natural form.  Because it’s broken down so much faster and society continues to be less and less active, it makes a very ood case as to why the general population continues to get fatter.

Many people are misguided because the word fructose is part of the name and listed in the ingredients. Fructose is the natural sugar found in fruit.  However, the two being compared here are hardly the same. The one in fruits is stored in the fiber and takes up to 40% longer or your liver to break down.  This allows it to slowly enter the bloodstream as opposed to a flood of HFCS which forces your liver work much harder and can cause damage, not unlike the type experienced by alcoholics.

Its scary to see so many parents buying soft drinks and juices for their kids lunches and snacks unknowingly feeding poison to their children.   Gatorade is an extremely popular sports drink among athletes and trainees that is produced with HFCS.  I recommend drinking Vitamin Water instead.

So how do you avoid it?  Read labels and stay away from processed foods.  Everything from Canned soup, to juice, to ketchup, pasta sauces, etc… all contain HFCS.  Buy ll-natural organic foods at places like Trader Joes and Whole Foods.  Even Giant Food has begun dedicating an isle to organic and natural foods Since doing their recent renovations.  Most other stores also carry an organic version of just about anything on their shelves.

As I’ve always said, everything you eat should have been hunted, plucked, or picked.  Whole clean foods is the objective here.  Is it more work, you betcha.  But wouldn’t you rather know you are giving your family the best possible cleanest food you possibly can?

So buyer beware, don’t let the industry fool you through heir advertising campaigns that this product is natural and safe.  It’s far from it.  They just know that this is a cash cow for them and they aren’t willing to give that up at the expense of your health.

Dennys Passeto, CPT
Work with the Top Personal Trainers in MD, DC, VA
www.achieve-fitness.com
1-888-872-7961

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Who is likely to have less time to fit in a workout than our current presidential candidates?

Well… maybe some of the guys on wall street right now but that’s a whole ‘nother story…

I am always interested to hear ways in which those who are extremely busy find the time to workout.  With all the talk
in the news these days about the presidential candidates being ‘fit to lead’, I decided to see what I could dig up on their
workout routines.

Turns out, they’re no different than us.  They too struggle with finding the time to work out.  Here are some of Senator
Obama’s comments on his difficulty finding time…
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/10/09/obama_mens_health.html

Some have even spotted his workout routines…
http://meaningfuldistractions.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/news_barack_obama_at_the_gym_86978/
and

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/barack_obamas_workout_no_tape.html

Senator Mccain recently hiked the grand cannyon ‘rim to rim’ with his son in August of 2006…
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/politics/main2397926.shtml
It seems he prefers to stick to the outdoors as opposed to a more traditional gym workout routine.  In a 60 minutes
report I recently saw, he said he enjoys hiking steep grades.  He claims to not be able to do free-weights due to a shoulder
injury he suffered in Vietnam.  I too have a shoulder injury so I understand.  I do believe they can be worked around.
Maybe MCcain needs one of Achieve Fitness’ personal trainers to come and show him how to work around it .

I can’t personally imagine going through the undertaking that these guys are putting themselves through.  It’s impressive
to see that they can still make time for fitness.  This is the kind of stuff that inspires me to keep on pushing.  I hope it does the same for you.

’til next time,

Dennys Passeto, CPT
Achieve Fitness Personal Training
www.achieve-fitness.com
1-888-872-7961

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