You want to exercise regularly, but you keep encountering roadblocks—those creative, persuasive excuses you come up with for not sticking to your plan. It’s a lifestyle! Identify what is in your way and charge ahead! I wanted to share with you a few tips that may help you keep your fitness goals on track. Some days or weeks feel like a huge mountain before you. Schedules, lack of sleep and other demands of life can creep in.

Don’t get discouraged and if you have one day that’s off, simply regroup and begin again.

Here are a few tips that I think might help:

 A perceived lack of time is a common excuse for not exercising. When life gets hectic, exercise is usually the first thing to go. It’s easy to convince yourself that the morning jog can wait until lunchtime or after dinner, and then tomorrow!

Not enough time!

Excuse #1: I Don’t Have Enough Time.

Solution. Commitments, responsibilities and the demands of work, family and social life are always going to be there. You can choose to prioritize exercise now—or you can wait until you are forced to make it a priority. You will be more productive! Even just 10 to 30 minutes a day of exercise, if done consistently, can provide heath benefits. How about scheduling 30-minute appointments with yourself in your day planner?

Excuse #2: I Have No Energy. When you have had a long day at work, it’s tempting to want to go home, sit down on the coach and “zone out” in front of the television.

Solution. Schedule your workout for a different time. Get up 45 minutes earlier and go for a walk. Or keep your fitness gear in the car and go straight to the gym on the way home. It may be a good idea to schedule workouts with a friend—you won’t want to disappoint your buddy by not showing up. Know, too, that exercise gives you more energy!

Excuse #3: I Hate Exercise. Exercise can seem like a chore if the activity you’ve chosen doesn’t appeal to you.

Solution. Find something you really enjoy! If you can discover a type of exercise you enjoy and stick to it, eventually you will find you need exercise—physically and mentally. What activities have you tried? Do you like hiking or walking with friends?

Excuse #4: I Can’t See Any Results. You’ve been exercising religiously for five weeks and you haven’t lost any weight. You give up because you’re frustrated.

Solution. Stay off the scale! Weight is not an accurate way of measuring your progress. Think about the progress you have made. Maybe you can walk 20 minutes longer or lift heavier weights than you could in the beginning. You are making progress, even though you may not see it on the scale.

Excuse #5: I’ll Never Be Perfect. You have an all-or-nothing attitude. You think it’s not worth exercising because your body will never be perfect. Or you plan to work out for an hour and when something comes up that keeps you from getting to the gym for that amount of time, you skip the workout.

Solution. When it comes to exercise, any activity is better than none. Sometimes, striving for perfection is what leads to failure. Focus on how your body feels, not how it looks. The trick in trying to stick to a long-term plan is learning to compromise. If you don’t have a full hour, just go for 30 minutes, or even 15.

Excuse #6: I Feel Deprived. The chocolate cake staring you in the face is too great a temptation to resist in exchange for potential weight loss down the road. You eat three pieces and feel too bloated to exercise. You feel deprived if you have to resist high-fat foods or give up other activities to fit exercise into your schedule.

 Solution. Imagine that each time you work out you refrain from overeating, you are not

depriving yourself, but actually giving yourself something—spiritually, emotionally and physically.

I can help you remove your obstacles that are blocking you from your success. Not every has self-discipline and needs the know how to uncover and discover, what is preventing you from losing weight, getting in better shape and feeling overall, healthy!

You CAN be healthy and fit.  Call me today! I can help!  808-283-2121

Suzie Cooney, CPT

Or visit my website: http//:www.suzietrainsmaui.com

Follow me on Face Book, http://www:facebook.com/suzietrainsmaui

Kevin and I at the time were helping rehab a dear friend and former US Ski Team member, Chris McCutcheon, an amazing athlete.  I have to wonder how his knees are holding up these days Kevin?

Kevin has always been on the cutting edge of superior orthopedic technology and advances.  As an athlete himself, he understands how important it is to get his patients back on the water, or on the slopes of Lake Tahoe.  Patients arrive to his San Fransisco Clinic from all over the world and all get treated like first class athletes. 

Kevin Stone, MD

“Many patients with healthy knees, but who are missing a portion of their meniscus, will benefit from a segmental re-growth,” Dr. Stone said.

Click here to watch video of Kevin R Stone, MD. speaking about the Biological Joint Replacement: Meniscus Cartilage Replacement for Arthritis
 

Collagen Meniscus Implant Opens New Vista for Knee Repair SAN FRANCISCO, August 18, 2009 - The Stone Clinic in San Francisco reported it implanted the first commercially available meniscus templates in California this past week, opening up a whole new field of meniscus reconstruction. The implant permits segmental rebuilding of portions damaged or missing meniscus cartilage, the fibrous shock absorber of the knee.To date doctors have only been able to remove, suture repair or replace the whole meniscus with cadaver tissue.  There was no method of rebuilding or regenerating missing and torn segments. Torn meniscus cartilage leads to more than 1.4 million knee arthroscopies each year in the U.S. alone.  Most commonly, surgeons just remove the damage tissue leaving the knee exposed to wear and tear arthritis. The new medical procedure – collagen meniscus implant – literally allows tissue in the knee to re-grow. Menaflex Collegan Meniscus Implant The patients who received the first implants – one a women in her sixties, who hurt her knee ballroom dancing, a 46 year-old chiropractor, who hurt his knee weightlifting, and a 26 year-old male who hurt his knee surfing — were able to resume physical therapy on day one after surgery. “This new implant is similar to a rose trellis, acting as a guide for the new tissue growth,” said Kevin R. Stone MD, who heads the Stone Clinic. ”The implant reinforces and repairs existing tissue and literally becomes part of the body. There are no artificial devices. The collagen implant is  a temporary template and serves as a scaffold for tissue re-growth.” Many patients with healthy knees, but who are missing a portion of their meniscus, will benefit from a segmental re-growth, Dr. Stone said. The device is the only one engineered for patients missing meniscus tissue.  It is also a great repair device for difficult-to-repair meniscus tears, such as bucket-handle tears and horizontal cleavage tears with missing volume.  This new implant which Stone calls a “regeneration template” was invented by him in 1986 and used in his first human patient trial in 1990, but then took a lengthy course through the FDA. The implant marketed by ReGen Biologics Inc. and called “Menaflex” received recent press for the way the FDA handled the approval process.   Background Twenty-five years ago, orthopedic surgeon Kevin R. Stone, MD, of The Stone Clinic in San Francisco, answered the challenge of his mentor: “If you could repair the meniscus cartilage, you would make a big contribution to people’s lives.” This week, that challenge came to fruition when Stone implanted the first commercially available collagen meniscus implant into the knees of two patients. The journey from medical challenge to medical solution has not been easy. “Early on, I realized that I could not replace the meniscus with artificial material because no artificial material was soft enough, yet durable and slick enough not to damage the opposing articular cartilage in peoples’ knees,” Stone said. ”So, I sought to re-grow the meniscus and did so in 1986 by designing the first tissue engineering product in orthopedics:  the collagen meniscus implant.”  Stone, who won the International Society of the Knee’s Albert Trillat Young Investigator’s Award for his meniscus regeneration work in 1989 and then the American Orthopedics Society for Sports Medicine’s Cabaud Award in 1990, never imagined the process would take 22 years from invention to FDA-approval in the U.S.   The implant, now marketed by ReGen Biologics, Inc., the company Stone co-founded with colleague Richard Steadman M.D, in 1989, underwent a tortuous course.  The initial clinical trial in 10 patients was completed at The Stone Clinic in San Francisco in the early 1990s with successful results.  Trials were repeated again with successful results, leading to a wide clinical trial in the U.S. and approval in Europe where more than 3,000 implants have already been performed.  The U.S. trial and gaining FDA approval took until the end of 2008.  Now, over 20 years later, Stone has the joy of implanting his device in his own patients.  “We have become very skilled at complete replacement of the meniscus cartilage with allograft menisci, even in patients with arthritis,” Stone said. ”However, many patients with healthy knees – but who are still missing a portion of their meniscus – will benefit from a segmental re-growth.  The device is perfectly engineered for this type of procedure.  It is also a great repair device for difficult-to-repair meniscus tears, such as bucket-handle tears and horizontal cleavage tears with missing volume.  Stone’s medical odyssey demonstrates how long the process of invention can be, but the outcome is worth it for those willing to persevere.

Our knees take a beating in all the sports we enjoy.  Having a well-rounded workout program may help reduce injuries and allow you to perform the activities you enjoy. 

Please call me if I can help you get your knees stronger you can last longer doing what you love!

Suzie Cooney, CPT

www.suzietrainsmaui.com

Race Results August 23, 2009 Cycle to the Sun Maui’s 36 Mile Race to the top of Haleakala Volcano

It was a great day with many great finishes, as the bright-eyed and some still sleepy-eyed, cycling enthusiasts prepared at the starting line of Maui’s, special annual, Cycle to the Sun.  A light drizzle came upon the sleepy town of Maui’s famous N. Shore surf town, Paia, but soon faded before the start. A Hawaiian priest gathered at the starting line to offer his prayers of a great race day for all. ( see lots of photos below ) For race results, click here.

The event was very well organized and went off very smoothly.

Check In

 The organizer and sponsor, Donnie Arnoult, of Go Cycling Maui and wife Michele, greeted the competitors as they signed in, and assured a smooth finish at the top!

People attended from all over the globe as far as Tokyo and Toronto.  This for sure was a backyard event, as many locals proved their strength and stamina. 

I was co-supporting along with Randy, and Michelle Wagner, for number 128, Gary Tuttle, who by the way rode up on a late model Bontrager, mountain bike! This was Gary’s first race up and with a fantastic time of 4:38, hopefully he’ll be back again next year! Stayed tuned for Gary’s story.

The support stations were fantastic. Station # 2 had a little Lenny Kravtiz and more fresh packs of gel.  I had fun working with Richard and young Will Spork, while mixing bottles and bottles of Heed and fresh water. Klaus was mixing the tunes and chasing cyclists with smooth hand offs too!

Local Pukalani hero Bart Zawacki of BartBuilds.com did great too for his fourth year. Check out the cool bicycle design he shaved on his head! Only Bart would do this!  He got awesome support too from girlfriend, Kiegan!

Checking in with them both today, legs are a bit tired, but they feel great!

Leave a comment for your support for all of these great athletes!

Here are some more fun photos of the day’s event:

Photos by Neal Wagner, of Neal Wagner Productions and Suzie Cooney.

Thanks Donnie and Michele for your tireless efforts!

Suzie Cooney, CPT  Suzie Trains Maui

Choosing the Right Sports Drink

Selecting the right sports drink that isn’t loaded with sugar and allows your body to tolerate doesn’t have to be confusing.  It’s amazing how many products claim to be the miracle energy savior. Some products that I’ve tried make me feel like I want to immediately brush my teeth, and after I drank them, I craved water to wash them down.

Studies have shown that a fluid loss of just 2% of your body weight can have a negative impact on performance and recovery. For example, dehydration increases your core temperature, decreases blood flow to the skin, can increase your heart rate and the list goes on. Also if you are training in a humid environment like Maui, I encourage my clients to really increase their fluid intake.

Whether you’re just starting to build your endurance/fitness training, or you are training for your 10^th triathalon, sports drinks are designed to help replace the water that is lost when you sweat. They provide carbohydrates that supplement those that are being used up by the body during physical activity. In addition, they help rebuild the electrolytes that are also lost when you sweat.

Many products contain carbohydrates. Again, not important for shorter distances or exercise sessions, but it becomes more important at longer distances when hypoglycemia becomes an issue. Anyone experiencing “bonking” during long training runs can vouch for this. The exact distance with be different for each individual, but it’s a good idea to have a drink with carbs on hand when going over 10 miles.

Electrolytes (salt and potassium) are important because they help to promote fluid retention, prevent hyponatremia (low blood sodium) and muscle cramps. Potassium is an essential nutrient for a healthy body. It’s one of the main electrolytes you need for proper fluid balance within the body, and it’s also important for proper kidney function. I found that electrolytes really help me with intense cramping and nausea.

A note about cramping. Cramping is your body’s final warning signal that you’re on empty electrolyte wise. However, your performance is deteriorating and you are slowing down long before you feel the slightest twinge of a cramp. To keep your body’s muscular, digestive, nervous, and cardiac systems firing on all cylinders you need a consistent supply of all electrolytic minerals, not just sodium and potassium.

Thirst alone is not the best indicator of how much water to drink. On average, one should consume about 96 oz. or 3 quarts of water per day. Roughly the guidelines for an athlete are:

Consume 16 oz of fluid 2 hours before your workout. An additional 8-16 oz may be needed in warmer weather.

Drink 20-40z of fluid for every hour of training.

Fluids should be cold because of more rapid gastric emptying

If you train more than 60 minutes, definitely consume a sports drink (about 8% carbs) to replace both fluid stores and dwindling muscle glycogen stores.

The goal is to replace sweat and urine losses.

Ingest 20 oz of fluid for every pound of body weight lost after an event or training.

What to Look for

The bestsports drink should give you an energy lift as well as hydration. The difference between sports drinks and other beverages such as soda is that they provide the hydration that is needed without the added sugar. The typical ingredients in sports drinks include: water, sugars in the form of carbohydrates, electrolytes and other things such as flavor and coloring.

I like to recommend the carbohydrate content to be 6-8%. The higher concentrate a sport drink is, the better it will be at replenishing nutrients and providing hydration.

My favorite sports recovery drink is called Recharge. I am not getting paid or compensated to promote it. I discovered that compared to many other brands that have flooded the market, Recharge, made by Knudsen is very low in sugar, tastes great and does not contain sucrose or high fructose corn syrup.

Nor does it contain artificial flavors or sodium citrate.  Recharge contains, filtered water, white grape and apple juice concentrates, herbal tea ( water hibiscus tea)natural flavors and sea salt. It comes in many delicious flavors. Click here, to check out all the flavors.  On Maui, you can buy Recharge at Mana Foods in Paia, Down to Earth and Hawaiian Moon in Kihei.

Common Misconceptions

Don’t be mislead of the idea that sports drinks are the choice for hydration. Sports nutrition specialists still agree, that unless you are burning a high amount of energy and calories as the pros, water is still the preferred way to hydrate.

Interestingly, when some people  drink sports drinks, they tend to drink in larger volumes which in the end tends to lead to better hydration. So, maybe that’s okay. Most of my clients will fall in this category. I often hear that water is boring! I also like to suggest for shorter workouts, mix the two together, if you won’t drink water alone.

Lastly, be careful to watch the energy spikes and crashes in the sports drinks that contain mostly caffeine and lots of sugar. Some contain high doses of niacin which can have side effects, like your skin feeling hot. No thanks!

If you have a comment or would like to recommend a sports drink, we’d like to hear from you.

Suzie

Suzie Trains Maui

Ref: NASM Third Edition

Knudsen Juices

8 Common Nutrition Mistakes…and How to Fix Them

No time is No Excuse!

By Nancy Clark, MS RD CSSD
For Active.com

Nutrition may be your missing link in training. Here are eight common nutrition mistakes many athletes make with tips and recipes for how to solve them.

No. 1: Beneficial Protein Intake

Some athletes eat too little protein; others eat too much. For example, a 150 lb (68 kg) athlete may need 0.5 to 0.75 g pro/lb (1-1.5 g pro/kg); this translates into about 75 to 105 g pro/day. This athlete can easily consume too much protein if the foundation of the menu is:

This amount of protein is excessive, to the point some of the protein could be wisely traded for more carbs to better fuel the workouts.

In contrast, a vegetarian athlete on a reducing diet could easily under consume protein if foundation of the menu is:

Too little protein contributes to poor recovery, muscle wasting, and sub optimal results from hard training.

Solution: By meeting with a sports dietitian, you can learn your protein requirement and how to translate that into food.

No. 2: Iron to Prevent Fatigue From Anemia

Iron-deficiency anemia is common, particularly in females. Anemia causes needless fatigue and reduced performance. A survey of collegiate athletes indicates 20 percent of the female volleyball and basketball players were anemic, as were 50 percent of the soccer team. (1)

Anemia is particularly common among women who have heavy menstrual blood losses, but eat neither red meat nor iron-enriched breakfast cereal.

Solution: If you feel needlessly tired, get your blood tested by your doctor and be sure to get your serum ferritin measured. To help prevent anemia, strive to eat an iron-rich diet of:

red meat, or iron-rich alternatives (dark-meat chicken or turkey, salmon, tuna) iron-fortified cereals (Wheaties, Raisin Bran, Total)

To enhance iron absorption, include with each meal a source of vitamin C, such as orange juice, berries, broccoli, tomato or other fruits and vegetables.

No. 3: Post-exercise Food

At the end of a hard workout, you haven’t finished your training until you have refueled. Don’t rush off to work or school, with “no time to eat” as the excuse.

Solution: Plan ahead, so you have recovery foods readily available. Even in a time-crunch, you should be able refuel your muscles properly. “No time” is no excuse.

No. 4: Recovering With Both Carbs + Protein

Recovery foods should offer a foundation of carbs with protein as the accompaniment. A reasonable target is about 240 calories of carbs (60 g carb) and about 80 calories (20 g) of protein. Some popular choices include Greek yogurt with honey, chocolate milk, cereal with milk, and pasta with meat sauce. You need not buy engineered recovery foods; standard fare works fine.

Note that recovery foods can be eaten pre-exercise. That is, a pre-exercise yogurt gets digested into amino acids and glucose; those food components will be ready and waiting to be put into use when you stop exercising. In a 10-week study with recreational body builders, those who consumed a protein-carb supplement both immediately before and right after the mid-afternoon strength training session gained 2.3 pounds more muscle and 7 pounds more in strength (as measured by bench press), compared to the group without the pre- and post-exercise fuel. (2)

Athletes who do two workouts a day really need to rapidly refuel with a proper recovery diet. A six-week study with swimmers reports those who did two workouts (morning and afternoon) sprinted slower than those who swam only in the afternoon (3). If nutrition is your missing link, don’t even think about double workouts.

Solution: You may not feel hungry for solid foods after a hard bout of exercise, but you are likely thirsty. A fruit smoothie (made with yogurt) is excellent for recovery, as is a chug of chocolate milk. Both contain carbs to refuel, and protein to build and repair muscles and reduce muscle soreness.

Last Friday was time to hit the road again on the bike and get a short bike workout in. Headed out early from Paia and went across to Kihie. I hit 40 MPH on the way across and then heading back I realized why, it was very very windy. So I put my head down and kept pedaling until I got to Kahului, going about 10 MPH at times, man that is hard work. A good hour and a half by the time I got back to Paia. Now rest for the day and get in some stretching and recovery time.

Time to plan the weekend for my long run (with a short ride before), and long ride (4.5 hours with a half hour run after), a swim workout and the Slalom Race series at Kanaha on Saturday. I’ll get to swim masters at 7.30am on Saturday and get my swim workout out of the way before the slalom racing, that should be doable. So on Saturday I headed up to Pukalani pool and did my swim workout for an hour, then got in my breakfast while driving down to Kanaha and got ready to go windsurfing. A really windy day at Kanaha. We got in the pro division in the morning and the age group races in the afternoon. I did ok in the morning and won my age group in the afternoon, using a 5.9 and sailing super overpowered most of the time. Windsurfing is definitely easier than training for an ironman.

After a relaxing Saturday afternoon and evening I got up early on Fathers day and started my short ride at 7 am from Paia. Too easy!, down to Kahului and back was just about an hour, which I needed to get in before putting on the shoes and then running to lower Kanaha and back behind the airport. Yep this took 2 hours. I felt great on the run, a good even pace with a little kick in the last few miles to put some burn into the legs.

My wonderful daughter, Madison took me out to the Maui Film Festival on Sunday night in Wailea to see the Lebron James movie. What a great story, mostly about this childhood days with his basketball buddies, how they all stayed together through early prep school and then won the state and National championship as seniors. Very inspiring stuff.

I’m going to have to sleep in on Monday to get in my extra sleep after getting home late. Monday arrives about 8am, got in some work, then headed down to Paia to start my long ride. Oh boy, it looks super windy and rainy today. I started off about 10.30 from Baldwin in the rain with the wind on my back. The rain wasn’t fun, but the wind sure makes you feel good doing 30 MPH on the flat into Kahului. Finally the rain stopped in town and the sun came out as I headed across to Wailea. Still warming up as I headed across but I could feel the strength in my legs today, surprising after my long run yesterday and windsurfing on Saturday. Some nice hills to push up as I got to Wailea, got the heart rate in to zone 3 (140-147). Yep all these super athletes talk about zone 1,2,3 and 4 with heart rate and then a lot of them are into the Watt meters as well on the bike, which I have no idea about at the moment. I use a heart rate monitor for most of my workouts, which keeps me in the right zone.

Time to head over to Maalaea, but first I have to get up that windy hill from Kihie to the lights up South Kihie road. Turned left and heading down into Maalaea I could feel the wind on my back about 35 knots, so I put the hammer down to see how fast I could go, I hit my top speed at 42 MPH, feeling well in control. Not looking forward to the ride back into the wind though.

Got to Lahaina and hit the store for a Coke, so I can get a little kick before I have to battle the winds out of Maalaea again. I could see the spray off the tops of the waves coming through “thousand peaks”, it was WINDY and I could feel it blowing me sides ways at times on the bike, having to focus and keep pedaling to stay in control.

Around the corner at Maalaea, now it was time to “get the head down” and start the punishment back to Kahului into the wind. Not fun, but a good workout, the legs were still feeling strong but burning deep in the muscles. Finally turned the corner out of Dairy Road onto Hana Hwy, this was the home stretch, I was already 4 hours, 15 minutes into the ride. Got back to Baldwin and looked down at my trip meter, 77 miles. 4 hours 36 minutes. No time to rest, “get the shoes on Phil and get out on the road for your transition run”. A little less running this week after the long ride, 30 minutes easy. Done, get in some soft stretching and a shower at the beach. What a windy day, but the legs were feeling good. I think I’m going to make it for 112 miles.

Suzie's tough and wants you to be too!

When the Going Gets Tough

“It’s an unusual feeling for a personal trainer: to be down with a broken left leg in two places and a torn ligament in the right leg and once again not to be able to walk. It’s a little discouraging-I have to be honest with you. However, I am not giving up on myself to heal nor on my clients that really need me,” Cooney said during an interview in her Upcountry studio.

 Enjoy and get inspired by this interview with Tom Blackburn-Rodriguez!

Click this link for the full story: http://www.mauiweekly.com/2009/06/11/news/Features/when_the_going_gets_tough/