Obesity And Choice

The motivation to write this post came from an unlikely source this time ... a television show. I recently stumbled across an episode of Dr.Phil called the "FAT" debate. The show featured a panel of celebrity trainers and on the flip side, activists for the acceptance of obese people. Each of them giving their individual opinions on the subject of living obese/over weight. Obviously, the points of views between the fitness professionals and the activists were quite different. This wasn't anything I didn't expect! What DID shocked me was the out right anger and ignorance that came from the audience ... the majority of whom were very, very over weight. Slews of insults towards were hurled at the fitness professionals, massive excuses were made for why they were all obese, and even delusional arguments about how their current weight was healthy. I have never seen so many people fail to take responsibility for where their current body composition stands.  Lets face it people, no one ... and I mean no one is born obese! There are factors that contribute to gaining weight easier than others and genetics do play a roll in how lean you can become. However, no one and I mean NO ONE needs to feel that they're stuck living a life of obesity.

Here are my thoughts on this subject. Everything you do in your life with your body is a decision. You must know that you are making a decision between staying over weight/obese or to take action and change your body/life. When you make a decision it is best to know the facts and to accept the benefits and risks. If you are obese/over weight and/or eating a poor diet you must accept the inherent risks that are involved. Just as their are risks involved with smoking, drinking, or driving without your seat belt, their are risks involved with living overweight and having a poor diet! Every day you're making a conscious decision to live with those risks of being overweight/obese and not taking action. You're accepting the risk that you may have bone/joint problems at a much younger age, you're the risk of developing things such as type 2 diabetes, hyper tension, high blood pressure, chronic lung ailments, syndrome x and much much more! Not to mention that your children will learn by example, they'll see mom or dad eating less than favorable foods and living a sedentary life style and will follow in those foot steps. You must accept the fact that you're actions may very well lead your child down a path of disease as well! You must take a good look at your life, current state of health, and body composition ... ask yourself if you are truly happy. Are you able to do all the things you would like to do in life? Are you living your life to its absolute fullest?

 I'm in NO WAY saying that we should all look the same or strive to look like fitness models!  In fact, it's unrealistic for most people to walk around with your body fat at such a low percentage, and having one that low comes with health risks as well. What I AM saying is that we all have the ability to be lean, fit, and healthy! We are all born to live a strong, lean, healthy life full of activity and joy! We should all be at a weight that we can maintain comfortably and feel good about how we look in the mirror. We are born to move with ease and grace. No one is forced to be "stuck" living in an obese body. If this feels like I'm talking about your current situation, than you need to know that no one made you this way. You need to take responsibility for your actions and life. I know it's hard to hear, but you've put yourself there through a combination of poor food choices and little to no exercise/activity.  So the question now is ... what do you want to do?

It's all about what is right for you. Look at yourself and your life, ask yourself if you are 100% happy with your body. Can you accept the risks of being obese/overweight, are you prepared to live that life style and shorten your life span? If the answer is yes, then there is no need to change, you're obviously happy with what you have and the future you will live. But, if you're not happy, and you want get off your path of disease and pain. If you don't' want to pass your unhealthy lifestyle on to future generations, and you want to start living your life to the fullest, then make the change! Get help, get active, get your nutrition on track and change your life!

Remember ... it's all a choice, it's all your choice.

- Tim

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Why Attend The Jungle Fit Work Shop?

A little bit of shameless self promotion here! As many of you know coming up very soon on April 24th at the Kingston Sustainability Centre I will be holding a Jungle Fit workshop starting at 1pm. So that might leave two big questions in your head ... what's a Jungle Fit workshop and what's in it for me?

Well, the Jungle Fit workshop will be divided into two parts, first there will be an information session describing the many facts and practices of Jungle Fit and how they can change your life. The second half will be an outdoor boot camp held at City Park. Now that we have that cleared up, what's in it for you? Well, you'll learn a whole lot and gain a more in depth look into Jungle Fit when I cover a host of topics such as ...

- Who I am and what I do

- An in depth look at the approach to fitness that is Jungle Fit

- The differences between Conventional Fitness and Jungle Fit

- How you can get faster results from body weight training that you have ever had from a gym

- An deeper look/discussion about the caveman diet

- How the Jungle Fit can teach you to maintain top level fitness and a healthy body fat level for life.

- You'll get to take part in the 1st Outdoor Boot Camp of 2010 and it's FREE!

- Most importantly it's going to be fun and you'll be donating to the Sustainability Centre

... So get your friends, family, or co workers together. Grab some shoes, water, and comfortable exercise clothing and head down to the Sustainability Centre on April 24th for a great time. For more info just e-mail me at tim@jungle-fit.com . Hope to see you all there!

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Watch the video for more details!

You Don't Have To Eat Like A Rabbit!

The first wall that many people run into when they start eating a paleo/primal diet is boredom. I'm sure many of you have thought to your self "If I eat one more salad or chicken breast I'm going snap!". Well this really doesn't have to be the case ... remember that just because you've cut grains, legumes, and almost all dairy out of your diet doesn't mean that your meals have to be boring!

Everyone is different, some of you have no problem eating dry chicken breast and raw veggies each day, others might like a little more spice and variety to their meals. That's where getting creative with your food comes into play! Play around with your food (forget what mom told you when you were a kid!), try new things, think of meals you enjoy that do involve grain and see how you can make them work without any.

For example, this morning I made Jungle Fit pancakes for breakfast! They have no grains or flour in them at all. Just click this link to take a look (jungle fit pancakes video link). All they involve is 1 banana, one big spoon of almond butter, 1 large egg, 1 scoop of protein powder (optional), and a splash of coconut milk. Mash together all the ingredients until it becomes liquid and pour it into your frying pan! Once the pancakes are finished cooking you can top them with fresh berries and maybe even a little bit of natural butter. Done and done!!

Or how about just simple changes in your meals ... why not have steak and b.b.q veggies for supper now that spring is here! Throw some pork chops into a freezer bag and pour in some olive oil based salad dressing, let it marinate in your fridge all day and then b.b.q. them for delicious results! Try new types of meat such as rabbit or bison, both are an excellent alternative to chicken or beef. There are tons of ways to cook your food and endless possibilities for meals. Get those ideas flowing, try new things, buy new veggies and fruit and try some new meals ... after all you don't have to eat like a rabbit just because your eating more veggies!

Remember that April 24th at 1pm Jungle Fit will be holding a workshop on body weight training and paleo/primal nutrition at the Kingston Sustainability Centre. Make sure to bring a donation for the Sustainability Centre and tell friends and family. For more info just e-mail me at tim@jungle-fit.com

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Fitness ... It's Simple!

The world of health and fitness is vast, and can be more than a little confusing some times. With all the different points of views from "experts, new videos and books being put out faster than you can blink, and a ton of fitness studios/gyms in your home town it's enough to make your head spin! Heck it can even make me want to tear my hair out from time to time! It seems that there's a new "fitness guru" pushing some training program touted as the end all be all of fat loss, and just when you think that you've got this whole fitness thing figured out another "expert" comes out with something new to throw you off your game again!

I say ENOUGH! I say enough with the new contraptions (machines are junk anyways), fad diets (the never work), and trainers eating up every new thing that comes their way and spitting it out to their clients! Fitness doesn't have to be complicated, in fact it's my personal aim to make it a simple as possible for all my clients to understand. It's Jungle Fit's goal to not just train you but to teach you how to eat, sleep, and move just like a caveman and never have weight issues ever again or the health problems that come along with them!

If I can give you the most simple advice, just forget machines and other gimmicks you see on television. Learn how to use your body as your machine, master your own body weight and you will never be in need of a gym membership ever again! Eat only real foods, if you can't kill it, pick it off a tree/vine, or rip it from the ground then don't put it in your mouth. Avoid poisonous things like junk food, fast food, alcohol, grains, beans, and keep dairy to a minimum! Last but not least, play ... I mean physically get outside and play! Do something that makes you happy, run sprints, play basketball or go for a hike!

Yes, it's that simple! No machines, no gimmicks, stupid sales pitches or pre made programs! Eat how you're designed to eat, move how you're designed to move, get lots of sleep and your body will thank you ... NO ... your body will reward you! Your body will give you a gift ... years of health, pain free movement, great sleep, and more years of active living.

It's simple, but someone needs to teach you how. Come down to the Kingston Sustainability Centre April 24th starting at 1pm to take part in the 1st ever Jungle Fit Workshop (video link for info). You'll learn a lot more about Jungle Fit and what I have to offer you, what you can learn about your self, and how to change your own life through natural fitness. After the indoor presentation we'll be heading to City Park for an Outdoor Boot Camp class. I hope to see you there, if you have questions then just e-mail me at the address found on the website http://www.jungle-fit.com/ .

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Getting Creative With Your Workout!

Spring is here ... uhhh sort of ... so that means warm weather and a whole lot more sun shine than we've been having. There is no two ways about it, everyone wants to get out side and start enjoying the friendly weather. I'm sure you've already been out walking the down town streets shopping, going for lunch, or just enjoying some time in the park, but don't forget about one of the best parts of spring/summer ... outdoor workouts!

It's always this time of year where you see the typical jogger out running in the park or around the block ... but what about us , how can we get outside and get an amazing workout using the things we can find outside? Well, its much easier than you would think to find a whole plethora of things to aid in your Jungle Fit workouts!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, outdoor play parks/jungle gyms are amazing things for getting a great workout! They all have bars to do chin ups on , or polls to climb up and down. If you're really lucky you might even have a park that has some dip bars or even a set of rings to challenge your self. There are a million different workouts you can do with just a pull up bar and a little creativity!

(Take a look at this video for some chin up ideas! )

Where there's a park I bet you can find a picnic table! I love them, they are great for box jumps up onto the seat or the top of the table. Or how about step ups or split squats ... if you're legs are really strong you could even do pistol squats while standing on the seat with your free leg hanging off! Why not grab the table from one end and get in a couple sets of push press?

At some larger parks you may find stairs, these are great for adding depth into your workout and challenging your body in different ways! You could run sprints up the stairs, bear crawl down them, and get in a couple sets up push ups at the bottom. If push ups are a problem you could always use the stairs as a tool to get stronger. Put your hands on a step that allows you to do 8-10 push ups with correct form,(click this link for a video on push up form) then when that becomes too easy just go down one step and so on! Soon enough you'll be doing push ups on the the ground!

So there you have it, with a little creativity and some searching around your local parks you can build a gym out of anything at all! For more great ideas on training both indoors and outside take a look at the new Jungle Fit YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/JungleFit

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The Importance Of Play!

If you have been keeping up with my blog at all then you know that I am a big believer in doing whats natural. After all, that's exactly what Jungle Fit has been built on! Natural movements with a focus on body weight training and a paleo diet is the basis of Jungle Fit.

So with all this focus on natural exercise and movement it can sometimes be very easy to over look one of the most natural things for a person to do ... play.

As we grow up we get so caught up in our lives that are filled with work, kids, school, bills, meetings etc. that the only physical activity a lot of us get is our workout. But what ever happened to just getting outside and getting physical doing something other than your workout? When was the last time you played a sport, went on a hike, or went kayaking? The point of your workout is so you can live life to its fullest potential, to be able to move with ease and be pain free while preventing injury. So if we're on the subject of living life to its fullest doesn't that involve having some fun!?

Life is about more than just work and lets face it, your workout is kind of like work! Don't get me wrong, I love to workout I enjoy it and look forward to my workouts but it's still work. It's great to be pain free and move with ease ... but where's the fun of being functional, strong, and agile without being able to do anything fun with all that fitness!?

So get out there and play! Find something that you love to do, maybe its a sport you used to be active in back in high school, or maybe you just like going out and playing frisbee with the dog! Who cares, all that matters is that you're out and having fun being active and athletic. It's good for your body and it's even better for your soul.

Don't live to workout, workout to live! =)

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The Benefits Of Sprinting

It's February and I for one am getting very excited for spring to hurry up and get here! Just like many of you out there, I can't wait to be able to get back outside and start working out in the fresh air and warm sun. I'm sure many of you can't wait to get back outdoors to your favourite parks, beaches, or outdoor jungle gyms for another season of new challenging workouts and play! I can tell you right now what I am very, very excited for this spring and summer ... sprinting!

I cant wait to get back out on the grass, sand, or track and run top speed feeling the wind whip past my face! Sprinting is one of the most natural forms of exercise you can do, and it has a host of amazing benefits to push your fitness and fat burning potential to new levels. We're designed to sprint, just take a look at our caveman ancestors for example. You never would have seen a caveman running his daily 5k. It would have been a waste of valuable energy and time that could have been better spent building shelter, hunting or gathering food. If he was to run it would more than likely be to save his own life from being eaten or running after an animal he intended on killing to provide food for his family. Both of those scenarios would involve running at top speed and not a casual jog.

Fortunately for us we no longer have to worry about getting eaten or hunting and chasing our food, but that doesn't mean we cant enjoy the health benefits of sprinting! Sprinting is a total body exercise blasting your legs, hips and abs. Have you ever seen an Olympic sprinter without a ripped, lean, and muscular torso? It's well known that high intensity exercise in short bursts is excellent for fat loss and boosting your growth hormone as well reving up your metabolism. I can tell you right now that it doesn't get much more intense than running all out as fast as you can for 100 meters!

As soon as the weather becomes a little more inviting I would suggest to all of you to get out and try some sprints. Start slow, warm up well, and pay attention to your body! Sprinting is a very intense form of exercise and when starting out it can be very easy to injure yourself, so take your time and stretch very well before and after your workouts. A great way to start is 6-10, 100 meter sprints , give yourself enough rest to feel fresh enough to run the next sprint at your max speed.

If you're interested in seeing a sample sprinting routine then take a look at this great little video clip by Mark Sisson!

WWW.JUNGLE-FIT.COM