Thursday, 14 October 2010
Written by: Krista Reader
Many believe personal health is the most valuable asset we possess. More and more of us are increasing our awareness on diet and lifestyle. Our quest to live happy and healthy lives for in important for and in support of the needs of our loved ones. If you seek fearless health, vibrant energy, and the optimal solutions that empower you to reach your health goals, keep reading. Much of what we experience today (food industry, social pressures, time demands, etc.) can make our health goals very challenging, but we are finding a better way. It is our goal to not only continue to educate our clients and followers on the importance of making your health a priority, but we have developed an industry leading program to better help you with your goals.
If you are still reading, you are part of a growing section of the U.S. population that is in fact, becoming more health conscious. Confirming this higher level of awareness, the Gallup™ researchers have embarked on a long term project that rates and monitors the overall health-related status, beliefs, and behaviors in the U.S. They call it the Well-Being Index™ and since 2008 our nation is getting slightly more health conscious each year.
For further evidence of heightened heath awareness (and advances in pharmaceutical therapy), we can look to the health statistics from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Data here represents that over the last 15 years, fewer Americans are dying because heart disease, cancer, and stroke (the 3 leading causes of death in the U.S.) .
While the overall health landscape for Americans looks promising, it is important to also consider the state of obesity and diabetes, both of which can be greatly attributed to lifestyle choices. Although the rates of obesity are slowing, 68% of U.S. adults over the age of 20 remain overweight or obese . Additionally, the fastest growing population of obesity is our youth, which has more than tripled in last 30 years .
Even though we see a slow, but positive trend in the right direction, it is still essential that we continue to provide and utilize even better, more innovative solutions to make an even bigger impact against unhealthy lifestyles.
Outlined below is an element of why we believe our nation still suffers from high, dangerous, health related issue statistics.
Let us examine one of the most prevalent ways you are treated in today’s medical system. For many of you, your current health strategy follows something similar to….
….You go to your physician for your annual physical exam. Physician administers normal blood test to review your current cholesterol levels, triglycerides, blood glucose level, blood pressure, lung function, weight and body composition, other inflammatory markers.
As it turns out, you may not be in perfect health. Appropriate medication is prescribed along with general recommendations for exercise and diet.
From there you may decide to finally take advantage of the gym membership you’ve had since college but have only used a dozen times and you start a self-guided regimen you got from a popular fitness magazine.
You start ordering more salads at restaurants. Or, maybe you up the ante, and hire a personal trainer that keeps you accountable. Trainer will make sure you don’t hurt yourself on the machines, and hopefully designs you a program to increase fitness and lose weight.
Most likely, your trainer will never actually speak to your physician to review your medical situation and ensure that your program is customized to your needs.
Best case scenario, you stick with exercise and diet program for an entire year. Your weight is down, and you’re feeling fit and confident for your next annual physical exam with your physician. As a result, your health metrics have improved and your physician gives you a clean bill of health. Job well done.
But, the common scenario that we all have experienced is that your fitness and nutrition regimen is hit-and-miss throughout the year. You go back into your physical exam not really knowing where you stand from a health perspective. As it turns out, you’re still not in perfect health.
At Personalcare Physicians, we believe there is another way. We have created a program that provides a new option that produces significantly more “best case scenarios” and the results you desire. Our Healthfit 4 Life program is designed for the health conscious person that is serious about fixing or improving their health. In this program we design a customized program that is tailored just for you and is under the guidance and direction of your personal physician. We use a team approach, leveraging your medical history against your physical goals; all supervised by one of our Healthfit 4 Life trainers. We will not only develop your plan, but we are here for you throughout the year to help monitor, coach, and adjust the program as necessary. If you are ready for a new solution and to get serious about your goals, please give us a call at (949) 706-3300 or contact us to learn more about this industry leading program.
We invite you to also sign up for our Health and Fitness blogs where we will continue to share fun and exciting information and tips to keep you engaged in your quest for better health.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Written by: Dr. Marcia Whalen
Not only am I lucky enough to be able to practice medicine the way it should be, with dedicated time and personal relationships with all of my patients, I’m also fortunate enough to have served as the Head Team Physician for USA Water Polo for the past couple of years. This is an incredibly rewarding role and I couldn’t be more honored to join them on their exciting journey to the 2012 Olympics in London, England. My plan is to use our new web platform to share this exciting journey, as well as to use this opportunity to educate people on what is really required from a health, fitness, and nutritional perspective to be a professional athlete.
I recently returned from Christchurch, New Zealand where I was on a trip with the gold medal winners USA women’s senior water polo team for the FINA World Cup championship. It was the first time since 1979 that the USA has won this championship. Needless to say, it was one of the most exciting wins I have seen with this team!
As a team physician, a successful trip usually means no trips to the emergency room in a foreign country, air evacuations back to the states or team flu epidemics! This indeed was a successful trip for me as well. Yet, it was so much more. The winning team was a mix of veterans like Brenda Villa who already holds 2 Olympic medals and 17 year old high school senior Maggie Steffens whose older sister, Jessica, is also on the team but had to stay home to recover from an injury. It was a team that had only been together for a few months and in the end, they pulled off a huge win!!!! I’m not just saying that because they beat the Australian team 6-3 in the final game. (for those of you who know I am married to an Aussie, you understand the extreme joy in this for me!) If you are not familliar with the amazing growth of this sport, please check out Greg Mescal’s recent article .
As there were few medical issues for me to deal with on this trip, it allowed me to focus on different aspects of traveling with elite athletes during a world competition. Nutrition for these women is so important, especially with a practice and a game every day and even two games in one day! What they eat and when they eat became critically important for their peak performance.
What you eat greatly determines how hard and how long the body can perform at a high level and can be the difference between a silver and gold medal.
As a personal physician, I spend a lot of time discussing this with my patients. The importance of what and when you eat is not only important for elite athletes to achieve optimal performance but also for me and my patients and our quest to achieve optimal health. I use the same basic principles from my favorite food book Food Rules by Michael Pollan for all of my patients, elite athletes or CEO’s. For example, the importance of eating a proper amount of protein after a strength workout is essential to the repair of injured muscles and build muscles. I encourage “real food” protein instead of protein bars and shakes. This allows you to control how much sugar and fat go in with the protein. In a recent article that I wrote on sports nutrition, I further highlighted some examples of great post exercise snacks and meals.
Whether you are training for a competitive event, or just looking to optimize your workout, nutrition is the most critical element of your program. Studies show that what you eat can be responsible for up to 80% of your results. Fitness and nutrition are critical to long term disease prevention and understanding what to do and how to do it can be very confusing. Join my blog, join me on the US Water Polo journey to the 2012 Olympics in London and together we can work on your quest for health!
- Dr. Marcia Whalen
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Written by: Dr. Marcia Whalen
The most important thing to replace during and immediately after practice or a game is WATER. To optimize your performance and recover for your next session, you must replace any fluid that has been lost through sweat (you do sweat in the pool with a hard workout!). You want to avoid more than 2% loss of body weight while training so waiting until after practice instead of trying to gradually replace your fluids during practice can result in fatigue and ultimately will slow your recovery. If you are training continuously in the pool for 60 minutes or more, it becomes important to replace the sugar that your body has depleted as well. This should be replaced in the form of carbohydrates, most readily in a sports drink so you can get the fluid back at the same time. Consuming sports drinks during exercise is even more important in the athlete that has not “carb loaded” or had a pre exercise meal.The timing of the post-exercise meal depends greatly on the timing and intensity of the next work out. If there is more than one work out or competition in the same day, the timing of the meal is most important to maximize recovery.
There are two phases to recovery nutrition:
- The first is immediately after exercise. It is critical to replace carbohydrates and protein within in the first 30-60 minutes post workout with a snack. Carb replacement is important to maintain energy levels every day in training and especially on days with double workouts. Protein at meals/snacks is important to repair muscle breakdown after a game or training session in the pool and muscle building after strength training sessions.
- The second phase in post recovery nutrition is a full meal. This should be consumed 2-3 hours later. It should be balanced with healthy fats, carbohydrates and protein.
Additional sample nutrition plan for training:
Immediately consume 16-24 oz of water (one regular size bottle of water) for every pound lost after training or competition. Within the first 30-60 minutes it is important to get about .5g of carbs per lb of your own body wt and 10-20 g of protein. Whole foods are best. There is a place for sports bars, they should be low in fat and used when nothing else is available.
Some suggestions for a low fat, carbohydrate and protein rich snack 30-60 minutes post exercise (1-2 bottles of water should be consumed with all of these):
- Yogurt , banana, milk-separate or as a smoothie
- Chocolate milk with some granola
- Banana/Apple and peanut butter
- Pretzels with hummus
- Bowl of cereal with milk(add protein powder to milk for extra protein after a strength workout)
- Cottage cheese and berries
- Hard boiled egg with toast
2-3 hours post workout you should have a full meal. Moderate healthy fats, carbs and protein.
- Salmon with brown rice and veggies
- Whole grain bulgar wheat with feta cheese and edamame
- Whole wheat pasta, turkey meatballs, chunky marinara sauce with garden salad
- Barbecued pork loin, baked sweet potato(microwave), grilled zucchini
- Baked chicken breast, roasted brussel sprouts , butternut squash and fingerling potatoes
- Turkey burger on a bun, baked sweet potato fries, Asian cole slaw
If you are interested in learning more about training and the importance of nutrition, please give me a call at (949) 706-3300 or contact me here.
