Yiska and Sarah

Hi everyone, Ana Nieto here, our friend Yiska from RedefiningDiet.com wants to share with you a few enlightening ideas for 2010. Enjoy this message.

Here we are in a new year and there’s a certain sense of rebirthing that goes with that newness. The image that keeps appearing in my life is of an egg being hatched. All around me and within me there seems to be a desire for a new self-expression to be birthed. The thing about being born is that it either takes us through a place of extreme constriction and contraction or it feels like a shell around us is cracking and life as we know it seems broken. This is the experience of new life emerging, and it hurts!

Years ago when my weight was at an all time high, my father said to me, why are you burying yourself? Hearing that was both incredibly painful and also one of the biggest gifts of my life, because it was true. My excess fat was a shell I had been using to cover and protect myself. Inside and underneath was a voice wanting, though terrified, to be born. The overeating was like a plug stopping up my desire for self-expression. The fear of wanting and being rejected felt too great. I was so afraid of showing a part of myself that would not be wanted, so sure I was too much! The weight felt protective, but I realized if I tried to stay in the womb forever I would die there. Greeted with the fear of being too much again this week I recognized an even fuller authentic self-expression longing to be birthed.

Also this week, a friend shared her strongly emerging desire to be expressed more fully as a woman, to feel and be more feminine and strong. In that space though, she was experiencing the pain of her imagined limitations, instead seeing herself as fragile and weak. Add to it that she had not been eating or sleeping, her self image of fragility and weakness were slowly being met in reality. Her mind was the contracted place, the place where the certainty she isn’t strong lived. Set up with the intention to protect her and keep her safe in the womb, this belief was both starving the growing chick inside of her and not allowing that possibility emerging within to be born. The cracking egg felt frustrating, stuck, vulnerable, scared, and hopeless.

I think the reason our new year’s resolutions so often fail is because we try to live out a new reality from within the womb, instead of feeding and connecting with the new life that wants to be born and letting it push past our fears and old, limited, constricted self-images. When a resolution stems from an alignment with our emerging self, however bold, our follow through is inevitable. But even when the chick has hatched, it can take some time to stand steady. There is a lot of new learning and practicing involved, so as a loving parent does with any newborn, we need to hold this emerging self both gently and firmly as it learns the ways of its new reality.

So let this be an invitation to connect with your own emerging self. Ask yourself the question, what wants to be born within me? Take a look at where you hold back, where you “starve” yourself or “weigh” yourself down. Allow all that wants to be born in you, your passion, your love, your creativity, your power, your desire, your gift, to be expressed. Seek out your midwife, be it a coach, supportive community, or a good friend, to help you move through the contractions, the thoughts and fears that tell you, it’s too scary, you can’t possibly…, don’t risk it, and dare to truly let yourself give birth to something new this year and watch the “baby weight” melt off! – Yiska

For all questions or comments, please send an email to: info@turtleshellhealth.com
If you need immediate assistance, please call 212-644-2604

Ana Nieto

Create Your Badge

From the desk of Ana Nieto:
Not too long ago I struck up a conversation with one of my clients who expressed disappointment with her posture. I shared with her the problems I used to suffer in the past from scoliosis including back pain, misalignment, and a horrible state of self consciousness. I felt like a hump backed caveman.

But it was only after a few months of high intensity strength training that my pain disappeared forever. Soon after I noticed my chiropractor was a bit shocked to discover how the muscles on the right and left side of my body were almost equally balanced given my previous diagnosis. I had evolved back to a modern-day homo sapien.

I had also encountered a profound epiphany – if high intensity training works for me, then it’s probably working wonders for the rest of my clients too.

Not only should exercise feel good in the short term, but it should help reduce, and very often even eliminate pain for a long time. I frequently get clients who report experiencing terrible neck, shoulder or low back pains, which prompts me to ask the following questions:

• How do you sit at your work desk? Is the chair high enough? Do you feel that the position of your body is correct? Do you catch yourself hunching over your computer like a caveman?
• How comfortably do you sleep? Is the mattress surface soft or firm? Switching to a more firm mattress can greatly help reduce pain.

Next week I’ll be traveling to Spain and my mind’s already preparing a “comfort strategy” for my flight. Sitting inside a plane for 7 hours can really take a toll on anyone’s neck and back muscles, especially for those people who are not in optimal physical fitness. Paying attention to your posture in this setting is the key to walking out of a long flight pain free.

It’s important to recognize that fitness training doesn’t stop at the gym, but should be a continual process throughout your daily life. Form is everything, all the time. It doesn’t matter if you are at work, taking a walk, jogging, sitting, brushing your teeth, or taking out the trash…our body suffers with every bit of “misalignment” we put it through.

Evolution is an ongoing process that needs attention to keep it on the path to progress. Stay fit, stay in form, and say goodbye to that nagging caveman.

Is your fall schedule already in full swing? Are your kids – or you – back at school? Are you scrambling to complete end-of-year deadlines at work? Are you ready for the frenetic holiday season?

How on earth are you supposed to meet all your obligations and maintain a fitness regimen too?

High-intensity, low-speed strength training workouts (just once or twice a week) are the answer for you! Plus, you get the benefit of reshaping your body while maintaining a healthy fitness baseline. Now if you’d like to take it to the next level, it’s always a good idea to complement this routine with your other favorite types of exercises like yoga, Pilates, dancing, swimming or sports like tennis, squash or basketball.

Do you want to look terrific? A critical aspect to keep in mind is that strength training will not only tone your body, but it’s also a great step towards fortifying your muscles, joints and all structures around them so that they stay strong, healthy, and injury free. Use strength training as a preventative measure from musculo-skeletal problems that can occur in the future.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind:
1. Start with a few private sessions if your going to start yoga or Pilates. This is a great way to learn good form before engaging in group classes where otherwise the teacher may not be able to focus exclusively on you.

2. Start easy on yourself. Increase the effort you place doing these new techniques over time to avoid unnecessary body pains or stress.

3. Stop if it hurts. Exercise should feel good, not bad!  Recently, one of my new clients made this same comment, and I could not agree more.

There was a time when black was the only color I would wear. I was recently separated from my husband at the time and found myself single in the wild New York City landscape for the first time in my life. To top it off, I was just starting my own business….I was, to say the least, super stressed!

During this time I had just begun experimenting with healthy food concepts, dieting, and just about any trend having to do with making a 20-something, single NYC female look and feel good.

Soon enough, I discovered a new diet prescribed to me by a nutritionist (that I still admire and value to this day). But there was a problem. This particular formula limited my choices to only 3 different menus per week. It wasn’t long before the same routine week after week caused me to cave into utter boredom. I strongly desired to taste new ingredients! I missed that part of my lifestyle.

The formula was based on a calorie counting system. The perfectionist in me took full control until I became dangerously obsessed with counting calories in everything I ate. I would even document the calorie count of all my meals into a journal. Then, at the end of each day I would make sure that my intake was not any higher than 1600-1800 calories – which was the amount I was allowed at that time.

Most days I would finish at around 2000-2500. My fast metabolism and my exercising helped to hide my slightly above average weight. But I still felt bloated, heavy, tired during the day, and always hungry.

I realized then why Cortisol was the diet drug of choice. Even though I never condoned its use, I could certainly understand why people would pop a pill every now and then, if only for the temporary relief from that awful bloated feeling.

My maniacal obsession to count calories finally came to a halt after 1 year, when I had my first romantic fling since my separation. There’s nothing like a good old, Manhattan romance to turn your life upside down, inside out, and in every other direction – you get the picture. I let myself completely go – “just eat dammit” was my new beloved mantra. I felt alive again! Yes!

Then one fine summer day my romantic hero moved to another country and that bloated feeling came rushing back again. But then I discovered the miracle of juicing! Wow, it was like I’d discovered the fountain of youth, a virtual life-saver; that is of course, until I found myslef spiraling back into a diet-driven lifestyle…(continue)

Everyone who works out experiences a plateau at some point in their fitness routine. All of the sudden, we may stop losing weight…or we can’t seem to move any further along in our weightlifting levels.

Why do we plateau – especially when we have finally revved ourselves up into a strong regimen of healthy eating, consistent workouts, and awesome energy levels?

Does this sound like you? One day you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror, and see a different person.

What happened to my triceps? I hate myself for eating ice-cream last night. Why do I look so old? Who am I kidding?

But have we really changed? In some cases we truly have let our healthy routine “flat line,” but more often than not this feeling of deflation is mere perception, not reality. We all encounter these dips into depression, stress or doubt, because we feel we have to constantly improve and attain the next level of superiority. These doubtful feelings are absolutely natural

I believe that in life we have to sink down a bit to come up stronger. If the blueprint for health in your mind is written to overcome the set-backs, you’ll be okay.

Here are some tips:

• Before entirely giving up your exercise and nutrition routine due to a “crash,” give yourself a break: Step away for a couple of days to regroup, then come back one step at a time. Look in the mirror and say, “I will do this, it’s written into my new blueprint for health.”
• Change your routine. My suggestion is that you exercise a little more doing something different, eat something completely new and foreign to you. Look in the mirror and say, “Crashing is just a calling to try something different.”
• Obsessing on stress creates stagnation, not movement. You have to let go to achieve what you desire. Be clear in your goals, plan the necessary steps and take the actions you require and time will be your best friend.

A lot of clients have asked me this question: “So, what happens if I start this type of training and after a while I stop? Will I lose everything I’ve gained? Will I get flabbier – the same way athletes do when they stop their training sessions as professionals?”

My answer: Of course your muscles will turn “flabby” if you stop exercising. That’s the way nature works!

Have you ever considered stopping eating? Or sleeping? Of course not – and continued exercise is nearly as vital as eating or sleeping.  The human body is meant to be active.

Further – there is no muscle powder, vitamin, or supplement that will stimulate muscle growth; these items will only support the muscles you build through exercise.

Given the fact that the benefits of strength training – and in particular those of high intensity training – are: increased strength, loss of fat, increased resting metabolism, increased glucose metabolism, increased good cholesterol, decreased blood pressure, and increased bone density, among many others…why would you ever stop training?!

The most important tip I can give this week is:

1. MAKE EXERCISE PART OF YOUR LIFE to achieve results that will last for a lifetime.
2. Create a strong base and maintain it, but remember that the body needs a constant change, the constant challenge. Even if it’s just a tiny change in your exercise routine, keep the stimulus going.
3. Change your doubtful questions into reinforcing ones: i.e. “So what happens if I start this type of training and never stop again?”

A client started with me this summer who could only begin working on her upper body and core during our weekly sessions. She had broken her tibia plateau in early March in a skiing accident and, while she could now walk, she was still undergoing twice-weekly physical therapy to help with balance and strength. The nearly three months of not being able to walk on her left leg at all had really weakened the muscles – in particular the quadriceps.

After about four weeks into our work, we began working on the leg muscles, with the okay of the physical therapist, so that I could take over the strength training completely after the end of the PT sessions. We repeated the exercises given to the client by her therapist.

Last week, however, nearly three months after being allowed to walk on the injured leg, the client was despondent, stating that though walking was no problem, she had not been able to build any appreciable muscle mass – and certainly no strength – in the left quadriceps.

This client, age 41, had led a very active life. She enjoyed a wonderful recovery from the surgery to repair the broken bone – with the exception of this muscle group. It

This was affecting her in many ways: Going up and down stairs was a challenge and she could not skip or run very easily. Walking posed no problem for her at all (she even walked a 5 mile race earlier in the summer, with little difficulty), but she was not able to maintain her full level of activity. She was very worried about the upcoming ski season, as skiing relies heavily on the upper leg muscles.

She had just a few PT sessions left on her insurance, and felt little hope for the full recovery she had anticipated.

During last week’s session, after talking this through, I realized that she was likely experiencing a bit of a “disconnect” – her mind was not connecting properly with the muscle groups in her leg – a common occurrence after several weeks of non-use of a muscle. We needed to re-build that connection, and the SuperSlow technique is perfect for that.

Her leg was not strong enough to do the “up and down” of the quad lift, so we started out instead by focusing on the “negative” part of the exercise: With my help (or that of her “good” leg) to lift the weight, she then held the force of the weight solely on the weak leg, and lowered it very slowly. The SuperSlow movement allows her to take the time to actually feel the relationship between her quadriceps and her mind as she holds the weight and controls the lowering it.

While we have only completed the first session in our efforts, the client was able to feel the muscle working for the first time since the accident. She left with greater hope of a recovery…and that frame of mind is crucial for success.

I’ll continue to report on her progress in future entries.

How many of you exercise on a regular basis?

How many of you don’t exercise because you don’t have time? My name is Ana Nieto; I am a personal trainer and co-founder of Transform Fitness, a training facility in midtown Manhattan. I train my clients with low speed high intensity training, which means lifting heavy weights at a very low pace. This method of training is called “SuperSlow.” I first discovered this training as a client, and I quickly realized one of the main benefits of this technique: a very minimal time commitment of 1-2 times per week. When I began being trained with this method, I worked out just once a week for half an hour. Within three months, I went from a size 8 to a size 6…and I made NO CHANGES in my diet!

The workouts are designed to help a person lose fat and gain muscle. The biggest gains I had personally came from the increased muscle mass and strength all over my body. For example, I suffered from chronic lower back pain from scoliosis, but after I began training it disappeared. For the first time, I was able to beat my father at tennis – and my mother wanted to know what had I done to improve my posture so dramatically. (Being one of the tallest girls among my group of friends, I was always slouching.)

So, with a 30 minute per week workout, I was able to…

1. Lose fat
2. Gain muscle
3. Improve my athletic performance and posture

I was initially attracted to this technique given my nursing background, because it was developed initially to help women with osteoporosis. They discovered that the exercises were causing these women to develop muscle at an incredible rate! This was because they were lifting as such a slow pace. So, interestingly, safety was the motivation for such a slow speed, but incredible muscle gain was an additional result. If you only have only 30 minutes a week to work out, I believe in my heart and soul that this technique is what you should do…in many cases, it is all you will even need. However, if you want to take it to the next level, you can certainly complement this workout with your other favorite form of exercise whether it be yoga, running, or playing sports.