San Diego Personal Trainer Shares Secrets

We all have heard that carrots are great for your eyes, but what other benefits do carrots have?

1. Energizing properties
2. Cleanses the system of impurities
3. Contains calcium, which benefits the skin, hair, and bones
4. May help in the treatment of eye problems
5. Useful in the treatment of respiratory conditions
6. May help relieve skin disorders
7. May help to overcome many glandular disorders
8. Carrots may help to regulate the menstrual cycle
9. Anti-inflammatory
10. Antiseptic

Caution: Eating an excessive amount of carrots may turn your skin orange. Also avoid eating large quantities during pregnancy.

Recommendations: Drink fresh, raw carrot juice daily to energize and cleanse the body. It will help to relieve the effects of stress and fatigue, and boost the body after illness.

Once you start feeding the body the right nutrients, you will see and feel the difference. The energy alone is worth it. So what's stopping you?

Most people want to lose weight and usually as fast as possible.

Here are 7 ways to lose weight fast.

1. Cut out soda, yes that means the diet sodas too.
2. Stop drinking those high calorie coffee drinks. These drinks promote weight gain. The calories are empty, which means no nutritional value.
3. Learn to read a food label and find what foods your putting in your body( if you cant pronounce the ingredients they probably aren't good for you). Those ingredients might be causing weight gain.
4. Exercise more than what your doing. 10 minutes a day can make all the difference.
5. Resistance training/weight training- this will elevate your metabolism up to 24 hours after your workout. Resistance Training burns more calories than you can imagine.
6. No more sugar & sweeteners-donuts, candy bars, energy drinks, etc.
7. Eat small frequent healthy meals(4-5 a day) 300-500 calories. Try a balance of carbs, protein, and fats in each meal. You might not see the weight come off as quick with this tip, although it will set your metabolism up to lose weight in the future.

These simple tips will help you lose the weight and set you up for years of success. If you have any questions please let me know.

Is tea better than coffee? Tea is the beverage made when the processed leaves of the tea plant are infused with boiling water. Green tea is made from the tips of the shrub Camellia sinensis, black tea is made from fermented dried leaves. An essential oil, called tea absolute, is distilled from black tea. Both are used for medicinal purposes.

This is why should switch your coffee for tea.

• Provides folic acid, some potassium, and magnesium.
• Contains flouride which will help with dental issues.
• Acts on the nervous system to control the respiratory and digestive systems. The tea may help in the treatment of diarrhea, hepatitis, and gastroenteritis.
• The flavonoids in tea may destroy bacteria and viruses.
• Teas astringent properties make tea bags useful for minor injuries and insect bites.
• The leaves of green and black tea may be beneficial in the prevention of heart disease and stroke.
• Green tea may help prevent cancer if it consumed on a regular basis.

Few concerns:

• It can prevent the absorption of iron and interfere with the effectiveness of sedative drugs.
• Drinking tea to excess can cause constipation, indigestion, dizziness, palpation's, irritability, and insomnia.

Next time your about to order a coffee drink, try a tea, its really that much better for your health. Hope everyone is having a Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

There are many benefits of aerobic activity. Lets first define aerobic. Aerobic literally means "with oxygen", and refers to the use of oxygen in muscles' energy-generating process. Aerobic exercise includes any type of exercise, typically those performed at moderate levels of intensity for extended periods of time, that maintains an increased heart rate.

In such exercise, oxygen is used to "burn" fats and glucose in order to produce adenosine triphosphate, the basic energy carrier for all cells. Initially during aerobic exercise, glycogen is broken down to produce glucose, but in its absence, fat metabolism is initiated instead.

A few Benefits Of Aerobic Activity:

1.Strengthen your heart muscle(which is the most important muscle in your body).
2. Resting heart rate slows, less than 60 beats per minute indicates great physical fitness.
3. Oxygen is used more efficiently resulting in increased fat burning during exercise
4. Reduced risks in developing diabetes, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, & some cancers, (including breast, colon, prostate and endometrial cancer).
5. Faster recovery after exercise which will also provide faster results with your exercise goals.
6. A positive body composition change, more muscle less fat.
7. Better chance of maintaining healthy weight later in life.
8. Help in coping with all other emotional and psychological stress, also sleep better.

The benefits to aerobic activity are endless. You can see how beneficial they are for the quality of your life. Isn't that what we all want, quality of life?

What are the benefits of taking omega 3 fatty acids? There are so many amazing benefits of taking omega 3's.

I would have to say that 95% of my new clients have never taken omega 3 fatty acids and have no idea what their benefits are. Once I explain the benefits, they usually go out and buy them immediately.

My nutritionist states that one the best ways to get a good source of omega 3's would be through supplementation. I know most people think that eating fish might be good enough, it's not enough and actually maybe causing more harm than good.

She explained that most fish are high in omega 6's, but not omega 3's. This ratio can cause inflammation in the body and actually promote disease. The way the fish are raised and what hormones they consume determines if this ratio right. When eating fish, try eating more fresh water fish and/or organic fish.

Here are a just few of the benefits of taking omega 3 fatty acids

• Reduces High cholesterol
• Reduces High blood pressure
• Helps Control Heart disease
• Can help prevent Diabetes
• Helps with Weight loss
• Reduce Arthritis
• Helps with Osteoporosis
• Can help with Depression

I think you get the point. Start taking your omega 3's NOW!!!

These Top 7 Foam Roller Exercises to reduce pain should be done every night before bedtime. This will help the body prepare for relaxation and reduce stress.

Why you need the Foam Roller?

The foam roller technique that I'm performing is called Myofascial release, which is a form of soft tissue therapy used to treat somatic dysfunction and accompanying pain and restriction of motion. Making it simple, it reduces pain by loosening the fascia on the body. Fascia is a connective tissue throughout the body that holds your muscles, ligaments, and tendons together.

Watch this video and see how you can reduce pain.

The Best Stretching Routines to reduce injuries are done after a 10 minute warm-up.

This video demonstrates some static stretches for the neck, shoulder, triceps, hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexor muscles. Hold each stretch for 20 seconds and always breath in through the nose for 3 seconds and out the mouth for 6 seconds. These are great breathing technique to increase relaxation.

If you would like more stretching videos for other muscles please let me know.

If you're strength training with resistance bands, I recommend buying at least four bands with different tensions. Many of you have asked where you can buy resistance bands. You can NOW purchase them on my website for $39.97 with FREE SHIPPING.

A few years ago I was introduced to resistance bands and love how convenient they are to use. You can use them almost anywhere; a park, at work, or in your home.

Some of the guys out there say resistance bands are just for the women, I would have to disagree. I have been training over 15 years and can get a great workout with resistance bands.

Not only are they easy and convenient, they are great for circuit training workouts. Check out this video and see how you can do strength training with resistance bands. For best results, do multiple exercises with different tensions.

I've personally never used the Nike Ipod, although I thought I would share a testimonial from one of my clients.

My client likes to run outside when she’s not working out with me. I asked her if she used anything to help with her run. The Nike Ipod was her device of choice.

This is her explanation of how it helps with her run. "I love that it tells me just how far I have run. I can check in during the run and tell how far I have gone and how far I have to go. If you run by distance it updates you during the run (1 km, 2 km, 2.5 km, 3 km, 4km, 400 meters to go, 300, 200, 100, 5k completed).

There are motivational messages after the run from folks like Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, etc., (sometimes . . . not enough in my opinion). If you upload the data to www.nike.com it keeps track of your progress and you can look at all of the data in nice little charts.

You can challenge another Nike Ipod person – ex. Let’s see who does the most miles in the next 30 days, etc., and you can see their progress as well as your own.

My friend in Colorado and I did that last year, and it was really motivational. You can do a run by time, distance or calories. You can have a special "run" playlist other than your usual playlists, or just shuffle the songs. I don't like it - I love it. It is absolutely essential - I could not run without it. I just couldn't do it.” Jill

Thanks Jill for this great feedback. I'm glad to see it has worked well for you. Keep up the good work.

5 Hour Energy is a drink that has taken the country by storm. When this product first came out, I was like yeah right, nice gimmick, it won't last. Boy was I wrong. Now, I see this drink everywhere, gas stations, 7-11's, and even Costco.

I have consumed this drink and I do like it on occasion. It's a drink that does give you a good amount of energy, but be careful not to drink too frequently. Like all those energy drinks out there, the more you drink it, the more you will need.

Here's my video review of this product. Let me know what you think about the 5-Hour Energy drink.

The other day I was at Starbucks and I happen to see their, Nutrition by the Cup pamphlet. It's so interesting to actually see how many calories is in each drink. The drink that stands out the most and has the highest calories is the Venti Frappuccino Double Chocolate Chip(without whipped cream).

Check this out:

Calories - 550
Calories From Fat - 100
Total Fat - 11 grams
Sodium - 410 mg
Total carbohydrates - 104 grams
Sugars - 79 grams
Protein - 18 grams
Caffeine - 35 mg


The statistic that stands out the most to me is how many grams of sugar it has, 79 grams, HOLY SH**. Do you know what that will do to your insulin levels? Do you know what kind of stress that puts on your body? Do you know that for hours on end you'll be in a fat storing mode? This drink = Stress!!!

If your looking for an alternative with less sugar, try a Venti Caffe Americano. I'll have to warn you, the caffeine in this drink might make you vacuum the ceiling.

Calories - 25
Fat - 0 grams
Sodium - 10 mg
Total Carbohydrates - 4 grams
Sugar - 0 grams
Protein - 1 grams
Caffeine - 300 mg

Hello everyone, I want to share a question I received from one of my subscribers. I think it helps to see what others are trying to do with staying fit.

"Hey Kevin!

How familiar are you with the Couch-to-5K program?? I had tried it a number of years back and fell apart at week four, making the jump from 3 minute runs to 5 minute runs.

I'm giving the program another try right now (although at a slower pace, doing each week for two weeks instead of just one) and am just finishing up my second week of week 3. (Yes, I've been working out regularly for 6 weeks now... in itself, that's a huge accomplishment for me!)

I'm stressing, perhaps more than I should be, about attempting week 4 when I get on my treadmill Thursday morning... 5 minutes seems like so long when I've only been doing 3. I wouldn't call the current 3 minutes a "struggle", but it still is a challenge. :-) It would help so much if I wasn't carrying all this extra weight, but I figured getting started on a regular workout program was a great way to start losing weight. I've lost about 9 pounds, which doesn't seem all that much for six weeks when I have so much to lose, but I am trying to be patient with the weight loss, figuring the exercise is the key...

I have been contemplating making my own "transition week" between the two that would increase to just 4 minute run intervals, but I'm not sure whether I'm just procrastinating by doing so or if it would really help. I really just don't want to find myself failing again, particularly at the same point I did previously...

What would you recommend? Have you had clients try the Couch-to-5K program? Do they struggle with week 4?"

My response:

For one thing, great job on starting a fitness program. I have heard of this program and I think its great. Make sure you don't self sabotage yourself, It's so easy to be telling yourself what your not doing, rather than telling yourself the good that you are doing.

Go at your own pace, but increase in smaller increments. If its 30 seconds, then its 30 seconds. Try to occupy yourself with something once your on the treadmill, either music or TV, but don't give up. Once you accomplish this, you'll be able to do anything. I know you have it in you.