In continuing with the Transformation Tuesday theme, the following is a guest post by Rachael Maresh.  Rachael is an Austin attorney that recently experienced how Efficient Exercise coupled with proper nutrition can be an effective and powerful solution.  She will continue to provide guest posts here on the EE blog to keep us updated on her progress and offer up a real-world client’s perspective on her EE Experience.  Rachael writes on her own blog, The Paleo Review, so be sure to check out tasty Paleo-friendly recipes and other features too.

I Might have Missed Something.

I found the Paleo way of eating almost two years ago.  At the beginning, I was a paleo information sponge.  In addition to scouring the internet, I bought  Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution.  Sure, sure, I saw the chapter on “Ancestral Fitness” and all the recommendations on the paleo blogosphere to lift heavy, but I had my exercise routine – Masters Swimming. So, I completely ignored that information.  In fact, I think I completely skipped the Ancestral Fitness chapter in Robb Wolf’s book as I would have remembered the awesome Battlestar Galactic reference I discovered when I read it recently.

My typical routine was to swim an interval based coached 1.5 hour swim practice 6 days a week. I’d average 4000-4500 yards a practice.  I would do a traditional strength training circuit every once and a while but certainly not with any regularity.  Over my first seven months of adopting a strict measured/weighed Paleo diet, I leaned out and got very close to what I thought my goal weight was.  I was ecstatic, but eating strictly was wearing on me, so I loosened up a bit.  I didn’t weigh everything; I had some sweet potato with dinner (instead of just post workout); had a few nuts; and some fruit.  I was a wild woman let me tell you.  What happened?

My weight started nudging up.  I was still swimming, so in my mind exercise wasn’t an issue.  And then a cycle, which I think is familiar to many who have struggled with their weight, occurred.  I buckled down to strict Paleo again and then got upset when the results weren’t happening, so I’d binge on some really un-paleo things.  Back and forth, buckle down then binge.  Very quickly, I had put all the weight back on that I lost, didn’t swim regularly and my IBS symptoms that Paleo had made disappear came back with a vengeance.

New Year’s Resolutions Sabotaged.

January 2013, I did as many do and decided to go strict Paleo (weighed/measured Robb Wolf-ian Paleo template plus- no fruit, no nuts, starchy carbs only post workout) and swim 6 times a week.  I did allow myself 2 glasses of wine a week.  At the end of the month, I had logged just over 50 miles in the pool and lost 7.1 pounds.  Then everything went wrong.  January 30, I came down with Norovirus.  It took me a good two weeks to recover from that horrid experience.  My first day back at the pool, I had trouble breathing –  I had bronchitis.  I soon found myself right back where I was on January 1, plus a little.

When Opportunity Knocks, Take a Leap of Faith.

One afternoon in March, I recieved an invitation through Amy Kubal for an informational meeting for a Project Transformation at Efficient Exercise.  At that information meeting, Keith Norris laid out the basics of the methodology used at the gym, High Intensity Interval Resistance Training (HIIRT), the hormonal changes it facilitates, and Amy Kubal talked about the basics of eating a Paleo and whole foods based diet, the preferred nutrition plan/template of the gym.  While I’ll get into more specifics in a future post, the program was essentially 8 weeks of group training, 2 – 30 minute workouts a week for the very reasonable price of $150.

During the question and answer session, someone asked about cardio and additional activity.  The answer?  Basically, other than the hour of workouts at the gym, additional heavy cardio was not recommended.  How about Masters Swimming?  One of the trainers explained it was fine to take a walks and participate in activities that you enjoy, but heavy cardio was not recommended.   What about masters swimming? *Crickets*  Not recommended.

Starting this program would require me to, at least temporarily, abandon my lifetime primary mode of exercise and my primary social group.  At first I thought, “what do they know, I’ll keep swimming.”  But then I realized, if I did this, I needed to go all in or I’d potentially sabotage myself.  I thought about the fact that what I had done in the past had worked in that I could lean out, but didn’t cause the shift I needed to make it such that I could easily maintain a healthier body composition.  This was an awesome opportunity.  I took a leap of faith, and followed Efficient Exercise’s recommendations.  No swimming.

The Numbers Don’t Lie.

Was my faith rewarded?  Remember my New Year’s Resolution month in January where I swam 50 miles doing strict paleo and lost 7.1 pounds? During a month of the Transformation Program, exercising just 1 hour a week and eating strict paleo in the same way I did, except for omitting alcohol and starchy carbs altogether, 11.3 pounds gone.  By the end of the 8 week program, I had lost 17 pounds and I’m still losing.What’s even better is that my IBS symptoms are again gone and I feel very solid from a digestion standpoint.  I also am starting to feel physically stronger.  Really, there’s no other way to say it - I feel FANTASTIC.Now I know that weight isn’t the end-all be-all metric one should be concerned with and many paleo authorities say to throw out your scale, but, for my purposes, while I have a fair amount of leaning out to do, it’s a good indication of my progress.  I use a Withings Scale, which shows me my weight broken down into lean mass and fat.  I recently had a DEXA Scan and found that this scale is actually pretty darn accurate.  The top line represents my total weight and the bottom line represents pounds of fat lost.  You can see that the downward slopes nearly match and the majority of my loss has in fact been fat.

I love that slope!

Staying the Course.

While I miss the pool, I can’t argue with the results that Efficient Exercise’s Transformation Program gave me.  I’m amazed.  I will go back to the pool eventually and Efficient Exercise actually tailors programs to help athletes enhance their sport performance, but, for now, I’m going to focus on continuing with Efficient Exercise in one on one and group training.

As we quickly approach the inaugural Health, Science, and History Symposium in Austin on June 22, 2013, I wanted to continue to introduce those organizing and presenting at the event.

Next up is Keith Norris.  Keith brings more than three decades of training experience to the team at Efficient Exercise.

After a distinguished military and corporate career, Keith walked away from a cushy gig in the pharmaceutical industry to join Efficient Exercise to focus on personalized fitness training. Since then, Keith has become a thought leader on Paleo nutrition including being a founder of Paleo f(x), and his blog, Ancestral Momentum ­- Theory to Practice, is consistently ranked as one of the Top Fitness Blogs and in top 20 by BreakingMuscle.

Keith was recently featured in Breaking Muscle discussing how ancestral living should be implemented in today’s modern world.  Click Here to read the article.

Please join us for the Health, Science, and History Symposium by Clicking Here To Register!

As we approach the inaugural Health, Science, and History Symposium, I wanted to continue to introduce those organizing and presenting at the event.

Next up is Skyler Tanner.  Skyler has more than a decade of training experience with focus on acute and chronic physiological responses and adaptations of strength training, nutrition physiology and fitness psychology has given him a unique perspective – one that helps his clients improve health, function, and longevity.

The basis of Skyler’s approach to health and helping others achieve health is accomplished through a proper resistance training program.  This will be the emphasis of the message Skyler will be communicating on during the symposium.  You can Click Here to check out Skyler teaching to a group of young men at a recent conference which was subsequently featured on the prominent health web site of Dr. Mercola.

Please join us for the Health, Science, and History Symposium by Clicking Here To Register!

An underlying problem in the health, fitness, and wellness industry is not a lack of information, but rather a cluttering of information that seems to have no real direction.  We have a mission to help people filter through all of the noise to become clear on their personal journey towards optimum health.  How do we do that?  By understanding that health is an individual n=1 experience and applying new emergent science within the proper historical context.  There truly is nothing new under the sun even though the fitness marketers would like to make you think otherwise.  So we look at fitness through the proven historical context and allow emergent genetic based science to guide us in discoveries whether they confirm or change our chosen pathways.

As part of fulfilling this mission to be a proven filter in the health, fitness, and wellness world, we have decided to launch the Health, Science, and History series.  Led by the team of exercise veteran and historian Ken O’Neill, emerging exercise scientist Skyler Tanner, long-time physical culture enthusiast Keith Norris, and EE founder Mark Alexander, the team weaves together experience where the rubber meets the road in implementation along with the historical context and application of emergent science.

In this first part of the series introduction to Health, Science, and History, I thought it would be valuable to better understand each team member starting with Ken O’Neill.

Click on the image below and take a look at page 44 of the latest edition of Naturally Fit Magazine.  Ken’s article features his own historical perspective of the modern health dilemma.

Also, please consider joining us for the inaugural Health, Science, and History event hosted by Efficient Exercise – Click Here To Register!

There are many reasons why people seek out physical therapy.  For some, it might be the treatment of an acute injury and for others it might help alleviate chronic aches and pains.  No matter the reason, physical therapy has limitations.  Often times, the limitations are placed on the therapist by the insurance companies only willing to pay for a very narrow scope of services and limited time.  Another limitation of physical therapy is the frequent use of low-tech equipment often ineffective and inefficient at best.  The therapist has no financial incentive to purchase higher tech and possibly more effective equipment because of the manner they are paid by the insurance companies.  Furthermore, the job of the physical therapist is to improve the person back to baseline.  What if that baseline was poor to begin with?  What if there are a handful of postural and muscular imbalance issues to attend to?  How would a physical therapist, or anyone for that matter, accomplish all of these objectives in a short window of time with ineffective equipment?  The answer?  They cannot.

At Efficient Exercise, we strive to fill the void between physical therapy and optimum health and performance.  Many people upon completion of physical therapy do not have a reliable choice for continued improvement.  Do they go out on their own and get hurt all over again?  Do they get turned loose in a big globo gym with no real guidance, direction, or objectives?  Or possibly get connected with young, inexperienced, personal trainers or coaches pounding them through the paces?  I hope not, but unfortunately these situations occur all too often.

Here’s a call to all physical therapists, healthcare practitioners, and physical therapy patients: We are here to help!  Our team is experienced in helping bridge the gap between the end of physical therapy and the beginning of a journey to optimum health and peak performance.

How do we accomplish this?  Through scientifically proven, research-based training programs and coaches who know a thing or two about corrective exercises.  We look at the client as a whole – we strive to help them accomplish their goals and objectives while balancing the strength, mobility, and corrective exercises they need in order to accomplish those goals.  Proper resistance training, proper tools, proper programming, and intelligent design help guide the process to fruition.

The bridging the gap concept and practice was highlighted in News Line Magazine featuring Efficient Exercise’s own Gayla Harris, PT.  Gayla has been instrumental in helping Efficient Exercise bridge the gap between physical therapy and personal fitness training with her experience as a physical therapist, massage therapist, and EE coach.  We hope you consider correcting some of the underlying issues you might have while growing stronger for what life might throw your way.

Click the image below for the online PDF version of the magazine and feature article:

As I was preparing for an internal training intensive for our Efficient Exercise tribe, I realized there is no succinct way to describe what we do.  Are we personal trainers?  Coaches?  Exercise instructors?  Educators?  Practitioners?  In a sense, we are a little of everything if the job is done well.

No matter what the title, it is vital to understand that being handed the keys to direct someone’s health is extremely important and should not be taken lightly.  Being fully engaged, fully integrated, fully devoted, and fully open to asking “Why?” and “Why not?” routinely is all part of the equation that makes for a successful process.  Also, keeping the perspective that optimum health is a journey and never something that is fully achieved helps shape the context to successes and failures.

I found it quite interesting that when searching for alternatives to the verb “coach” the antonyms were accept, learn, and listen…wow.  So what I strive for within our EE Tribe is not coaching at all but the opposite?  I cannot think of three better words to describe the concepts we want to integrate into our process: accept, learn, and listen.  Accept the fact that you might be wrong and there could be a better way – even if just for one person’s needs.  Learn from everyone around you – there is something good to garner from almost everyone if you are open to it.  Listen to that internal voice that gives you direction and intentionality as it is usually right – call it your gut, conscience, God, intuition, Spirit, or anything else you see fit.

So I am still not decided on a one word fits all description just like we do not adhere to a one size fits all approach…maybe someone out there can gleam some light for me

Efficient Exercise clients Tom and Vicky share their story of how training hard and consistently pays off for them.  Tom and Vicky have been Efficient Exercise clients for over 6 years.  In that time, they both have vastly improved their strength and muscle mass while maintaining a very active lifestyle.  They enjoy running marathons and use Efficient Exercise as their foundation to run with strength, endurance, and free from injuries. They are active grandparents and know their improved strength and energy pay off as they spend time with their grandchildren.  With only one 30-minute EE workout per week, Tom and Vicky display the benefits of consistently maintaining a proper exercise and resistance training program in conjunction with their active lifestyle.

In this Transformation Tuesday series, we wanted to feature Project Transformation.  Project Transformation is a program we launched at Efficient Exercise to on-ramp clients into healthy lifestyle changes.  As part of the program’s intent and design, clients hold each other accountable, work out together, and encourage each other as they start into their path towards optimum health and fitness.  If you are curious about how to make lasting changes for your health, please consider checking out our next Project Transformation in your area.

Here’s a testimonial from our original Project Transformation.  Enjoy

Next up in our Transformation Tuesday series is Anita. Anita has been working with Efficient Exercise for many years and in that time she has reaped the benefits of a proper resistance training program. She has greatly increased her strength, improved her posture, and avoided many of the aches, pains, and common ailments of aging. Anita’s hard work, dedication, and consistency have paid off and the investment she makes at EE provides a healthy return.

And it doesn’t take too long to warm up!!!