PTI Tucson Blog

When we hear the word addiction, we think of alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, cigarettes…  We rarely think of food.  The truth is, food can be an addiction, a deadly one.  In fact, food is the only addiction that is blatantly thrown in our faces every second of the day.  Everywhere we turn we are being sold the addiction that is food.  Encouraged to indulge, practically given for free the foods that are worst for us, rewarded by convenience, comfort and cost.  Unlike other addictions, we actually need food to survive.  It’s not something that we can cut out of our lives.  We can’t just avoid grocery stores and restaurants and vow never to eat again.  We need to make a change.  To make that change, a lasting change, we need to get to the root of the addiction.

For me, when I think about food, it’s like remembering an old friend.  As stupid as this may sound, food has always been there for me.  No matter what I was feeling, I could always count on food to make me feel better.  If I was alone, depressed, happy, nervous, afraid, sick, angry, in love, sad, stressed, bored… I could always count on food to medicate my emotions, take away the edge of pain, reward myself for a job well done, distract myself from whatever was going on.  Unlike people, food never judged me, never criticized me, never made me feel unwanted, never rejected me.  It gave me exactly what I needed in that moment; a feeling of happiness, relief, and satisfaction.  It gave me an excuse to ignore the issues going on inside, and cover them up with pounds and pounds of weight.  I am currently 295 pounds, and it has been so hard to move away from that 300 pound mark.  It’s like my body knows that there are things I have to deal with as the weight comes off and it doesn’t want to make itself vulnerable and give up the “security” of the weight.  There are issues buried so deep inside that as they begin to poke their ugly little heads up, they’re things I had totally forgotten about, things I had pushed down; but they’re still there… and they still need to be dealt with.  Part of my problem is that I don’t really know how to deal with those things.  A friend of mine helped me realize that I am good at thinking it, acting like it, feeling it – but I have never truly vocalized it.  I will get there, I think most of it is fighting through that fear of being vulnerable, of being stripped down to who I really am.

When we get to the root of the addiction, that is when we can really take control of it altogether.  Food isn’t evil, but it isn’t a drug either.  We can diet and exercise all we want, but until we deal with what is on the inside… it will never match what is on the outside.

Congratulations to our own Jessica Swanson, Personal Training Institute’s Director of Training.  This past weekend, Jess ran her fastest yet Iron Man Competition in Lake Placid clocking in at 12 hours and 47 seconds.

We’re all so  proud of her and her passion for fitness.  GREAT JOB JESS!

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There are a lot of frozen dessert choices out there, but a lot of them are packed with fat and calories.  Try some of these tasty frozen treats on a hot summer day.  They taste great and they won’t wreck your fitness and nutrition plan!

You know you want one!

• Breyers Light Double Churned: 120 to 130 calories per serving
• Breyers Light No Sugar Added: 80 to 120 calories per serving
• Edy’s/ Dryer’s Slow Churned Ice Cream: 100 to 130 calories per serving
• Edy’s/ Dryer’s Fat-Free Frozen Yogurt: 90 to 100 calories per serving
• Healthy Choice: 100 to 120 calories per serving
• Stonyfield Farm Nonfat Frozen Yogurt: 120 to 140 calories per serving
• Healthy Choice ice cream bars and sandwiches: 80 to 140 calories each
• Klondike Slim-a-Bar – Fudge Bar No Sugar Added: 90 to 110 calories each
• Klondike Slim-a-Bar – Ice Cream Sandwiches: 110 to 130 calories
• Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich: 140 calories each, all flavors
• Starbucks Frappuccino Bars: 110 to 130 calories each
• Weight Watchers: bars, cones, sandwiches, 60 to 140 calories each

Fitness Fast Fact: Play some Beach volleyball and burn 280 calories in 30 minutes!

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So it has been two months since I started my weight loss journey.  I am officially under 300 pounds now, weighing 298 pounds!  I have lost a total of 24 pounds and about 18 inches off my body!  I haven’t been under 300 pounds in about two years, so it feels good.  All of my size 28 clothes are now too big for me – it’s a good feeling to have to change an outfit that doesn’t fit because it’s too big, not because it’s too small.

When I look at the past two months put together, I have to say it hasn’t been as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Yes, it’s been hard – but it’s not been the impossible feat I had always led myself to believe it would be.  That’s one of the main excuses I had always told myself… “It’s too hard.”  When you’re 322 pounds and you need to lose over half your body weight, losing weight becomes this looming cloud of dread that has you defeated before you ever even try.  It only took me two months to lose the weight that took me two years to put on.  When you think about how quickly you can turn your life around and make a change for the better, it is all worth it.  The only thing is, you are the only person who can make that change and sometimes we are our own worst enemies.

There have been moments these past two months that have been very hard.  I have been going hiking with my dad, and let’s just say that me dragging my 300 pound body up the side of a mountain doesn’t make me feel sentimental, warm and cozy inside.  It’s freaking hard.  Some of the strength training exercises that I have to do make me think that after this, child-birth can’t be so bad.  One thing I am grateful for though, is that I actually feel alive again.  I can’t tell you how many months/years I was just existing, barely living.  Day after day, just going through the motions, wasting away watching hours and hours of TV, not even able to lift my head up and look at the world around me.  Even after losing only 24 pounds, I have so much more energy and desire to get out and do things.  It is so good to be able to feel again – even if it is pain.

After so much success, it’s not to say that there haven’t been bumps in the road and times where I have made the wrong decisions.  A couple of weeks ago after a long night with friends, I decided to stop by Jack in the Box simply because someone had mentioned it that night, and I couldn’t get the thought out of my head.  So around midnight, I ordered a jr. bacon cheeseburger, two tacos, jalapeno poppers, and curly fries… of course, can’t go to Jack in the Box without eating curly fries.  This has been a life long struggle of mine.  Once a certain food pops into my mind, I can’t get rid of the craving until I give in and go get it.  Good thing for me this bad decision actually helped me and after 5-6 weeks of eating only healthy foods, the high calorie meal actually shocked my system and I dropped 3 pounds in the next two days (not that it was a good idea… bad idea.. bad).  Then there was Harry Potter Week (which was amazing by the way) where I ate popcorn pretty much every night.  I was still counting calories, but the sodium overload definitely slowed down my weight loss progress and made my ankles non-existent.  Bottom line is that this is life and you can’t expect never to eat anything “bad” ever again.  More important than always making good decisions is the decision you make after you make the bad one; to either let things go back to the way they were, or get back on track.

I said I would always be honest.  This isn’t a perfect journey, but it’s my journey, and I’m grateful for every second of it.

Check out these super cool superfoods this summer.  Have you tried any of these already? Let us know what you liked or disliked about them.

Sea Buckthorn Berries- contains Omega-7 fatty acids

Cupuaçu

Mangosteen – best for anti-aging

Cinnamon – excellent anti-inflammatory

Mulberries – high content of Vitamin C

Chia seeds – reduce Cholesterol and high in fiber

Black Garlic – higher anitoxidant value than regular garlic

Cupuaçu – new from the Amazon, high in anti-oxidant

Teff – whole grain that is also gluten free

Skyr – Icelandic yogurt packed with protein

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We know the best way to stay hydrated this summer is good ole water. However, as it gets hotter, we seem to grab and go with drinks that may be very unhealthy and we don’t even know it.

Here are some of the worst types of drinks to consume in place of water.

It gives you wings….oh and love handles!

• Juice drinks that are not 100% juice
• Whipped coffee drinks
• Flavored water
• Diet soda
• Frozen mixed drinks
• Fruit smoothies – can have as many as 700 calories
• High calorie sports drinks
• Soft drinks
• Energy drinks – mostly caffeine and sugar

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Sushi comes in all shapes and sizes but not all sushi is created equally when it comes to nutritional content.  See the table below for nutritional information on many popular sushi rolls.

Click for full size image

As you can see not all sushi is created equal. When ordering your favorite kind of rolls, be aware of the calories.  The more you “layer” a roll with, tempura flakes, spicy mayo, special sauces and more, the more calories it will contain.

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PTI-Encino voted #1 in personal training!

Encino, CA, July 6, 2011 – Personal Training Institute-Encino has won top honors for “Best Personal Training” in the 2011 “Best of Our Ventura Blvd” contest, as voted by members of the community. Results are currently published on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OurVenturaBlvd by clicking on the “Best of Our Ventura Blvd” tab and scrolling down to “M is for Muscle.” The complete list of winners and finalists will be published in the “Best of Ventura” issue of Ventura Blvd Magazine. PTI-Encino is located at 16350 Ventura Boulevard, Suite C in the Avalon Bay Encino shopping center.

“This award is truly gratifying,” comments Joe Hlavenka, President of PTI-Encino. “While we are new in the community (PTI-Encino opened in March 2011), our combination of one-to-one strength training combined with nutritional counseling is making a difference in people’s lives. This award reflects the enthusiasm of our clients and is a testament to our strong PTI team.”

Personal Training Institute co-founder Carol Kur, MSRD, remarks, “I am thrilled for Joe and his Encino location! We are all so proud of how Joe has proved to be a great franchisee and to have such a great honor bestowed upon his facility so early in the game. We expect more great things to follow.”

Personal Training Institute-Encino opened in March 2011 and is off to a winning start

Personal Training Institute offers personalized programs for multi ages from children to seniors with a goal of producing the best results based upon individual body type and lifestyle.
Programs vary from endurance training and weight loss to strengthening, sculpting and nutritional education. PTI offers family and student discounts and insurance reimbursement to eligible clients.

Personal Training Institute: PTI has been changing lives since 1987 by combining its proven integrated program that encompasses one-to-one strength training and customized nutrition counseling for every client. Ranked in Entrepreneur’s “Franchise 500,” PTI was also named among the “Top 50 Franchises – for franchisee satisfaction” by Franchise Business Review. This results-oriented franchise is growing nationwide to help members and owners to achieve their goals. Visit www.ptifranchise.com for more information.
For further information about this location, call Joe Hlavenka at, 818 783-4792, email him at, Encino@personaltraininginstitute.com or find PTI on Facebook: ttp://www.facebook.com/PersonalTrainingInstituteEncino.

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Last week we talked about the benefits of including more fish in your diet. From both a nutritional and environmental perspective, farmed fish are far inferior to their wild counterparts.

Here’s WHY:

Wild Salmon get more exercise!

• Despite being much fattier, farmed fish provide less usable beneficial omega 3 fats than wild fish
• Due to the feeding conditions of aquafarming, farm-raised fish are filled with antibiotics and exposed to more concentrated pesticides than wild fish
• The fat content of farmed salmon is excessively high–30-35% by weight
• Wild salmon have a 20% higher protein content
• Farmed salmon contains higher concentrations of toxins known as PBDE‘s, a horrible class of carcinogenic compounds.

Fitness Fast Fact: Play 12 minutes of volleyball on the beach and burn 100 calories!

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Today was weigh in day and I have lost another 5.4 pounds!  I lost 7.4 pounds of fat and gained the difference in muscle and water.  PTI uses a Tanita Body Composition scale which can tell you exactly what your body, muscle, and water percentages are, which is great because I know that I really lost 7.4 pounds of fat in the last two weeks even though my total body weight loss is 5.4 pounds.  I also lost another 5 inches off my body!  I have lost a total of 15 pounds so far!

I have never lost more than 10 pounds IN MY LIFE.  It is unbelievable to me, not in the good “Oh my god, that is unbelievable!” way, but in the… “hmm, I can’t really believe that, there must be something wrong” way.  I am a perfectionist (oldest of 4), and not in the good type of way.  I am a perfectionist as in, if I think I am going to fail at something, or not be able to do it perfectly – then I would rather not do it.  Over the last couple weeks, even though I have been sticking to the 1200 calorie diet, exercising and losing weight, I find that I am constantly disappointed in myself.  It is almost impossible for me to me to be excited because I feel like, maybe it wasn’t good enough, or I am waiting to fail.  I went hiking on Saturday with my dad – almost a two hour hike.  I burned 700 calories, and still I felt disappointed that it was so hard for me and that I had to stop multiple times along the way just to catch my breath.  I am not sure how to change that yet, but I know it is something that I will have to deal with at some point.  There are a lot of things that I will have to deal with at some point and most of them have to do with the emotional and mental aspect of weight loss.  I hope to be as honest and open as possible in this blog, so as I deal with these things, I will share them.

This last Sunday for Father’s Day I went and spent the day with my parents and my grandparents doing what else…. eating!  Yay!  Now, every time I have tried to lose weight before I would always make excuses on holidays and say… “It’s a holiday, I can eat whatever I want.”  This time, I still stuck to my 1200 calorie diet and did not go over 1200 calories.  I made turkey enchiladas for only 288 calories a serving.  My mom made more “unhealthy” food, but I still calculated the calories and ate very small portions of what she made – probably about 1/4 cup serving of each.  For dessert I bought an angel food cake – I only ate half a serving, with fresh cut strawberries mixed with lemon juice and Truvia.  I have to say that I didn’t feel like I missed out at all, it was all good food and I was full.  It is all about eating the right portions and eating healthier versions of the food you love.  Another important thing is standing up for yourself and sticking to your decisions.  Don’t let anyone, especially family, deter you from that.  It is easy for them to say, “it’s a holiday,” or “today’s not about counting calories” or “it’s not going to taste as good if you make it healthy,” which were all comments said to me this past weekend.  In the end, I can’t let a holiday throw me off track, for me it IS about counting calories every day and it tasted just as good “healthy”, and everyone loved what I made.

One thing I do know, is that I have lost 15 pounds since I began – and that is 15 pounds I will never see again.  I will never see the number 322 again, and in just a couple weeks I hope to never see the number 300 again!

Here is a pic of my dad and I on our hike!  See you back next week – please subscribe to my blog (click on the Sign Me Up! button on the right hand side of this page) and you will be automatically notified when there is a new post!