Take a look at how he did it.

We’ve blogged on the Soda Tax in New York before, but now it’s getting personal. Proposed legislation will eliminate salt from restaurants! That’s right ban the use of sodium in restaurant cooking. This is taking it a little too far. Land of the Free anyone? Fox 5 reports:

“
Some New York City chefs and restaurant owners are taking aim at a bill introduced in the New York Legislature that, if passed, would ban the use of salt in restaurant cooking.

“No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises,” the bill, A. 10129 , states in part.

The legislation, which Assemblyman Felix Ortiz , D-Brooklyn, introduced on March 5, would fine restaurants $1,000 for each violation.

“The consumer needs to make their own health choices. Just as doctors and the occasional visit to a hospital can’t truly control how a person chooses to maintain their health, neither can chefs nor the occasional visit to a restaurant,” said Jeff Nathan, the executive chef and co-owner of Abigael’s on Broadway. “Modifying trans fats and sodium intake needs to be home based for optimal health. Regulating restaurants will not solve this health issue.”

Nathan is part of the group My Food My Choice , which calls itself a coalition of chefs, restaurant owners, and consumers, called the proposed law “absurd” in a press release issued on its Facebook page.

Ortiz has said the salt ban would allow restaurant patrons to decide how salty they want their meals to be.

“In this way, consumers have more control over the amount of sodium they intake, and are given the option to exercise healthier diets and healthier lifestyles,” Ortiz said, according to a Nation’s Restaurant News report.

But many chefs and restaurant owners said they are tired of politicians dictating what they can serve and what people can eat. They have opposed the city’s anti-sodium and anti-transfat campaigns.

“Chefs would be handcuffed in their food preparation, and many are already in open rebellion over this legislation,” said Orit Sklar, of My Food My Choice. “Ortiz and fellow anti-salt zealot Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City seek to undermine the food and restaurant business in the entire state.”

The American Heart Association encourages Americans to reduce their sodium intake and has advocated the reduction of sodium used by food manufacturers and restaurants by 50 percent over a 10-year period.

”

Another fitness legend lends her thoughts to Jorie’s journey.

Nita Marquez is a world accomplished fitness competitor, business owner, motivational speaker, author, and mother. An IFBB Pro who has conquered the fitness landscape, Nita wanted to share with Jorie a little about what got her to where she is.

*You can buy Nita’s book, Fit For Combat, on Fittron and learn how to train like a Marine. Nita is also available for speaking and sponsorship events, so contact her through her profile if you need a professional and accomplished fitness representative.*

———————————————————————————

Being on the journey into figure greatness is a path more highly tread now than ever before, as there are many more opportunities to compete with increasing show (figure competitions) availability nationwide. However, the road many choose to travel is not always traveled with efficiency and much less, with effectiveness.

Training with the best helps, and even being the best on paper is a wonderful thing, but mentally, there is a place commonly referred to by all athletes as “the zone” wherein its space a competitor must live full-time in order to feel their best while being in the race to show up the best. It has been spelled out countless times over the past century since the first pioneers of the “positive thinking movement” coined the phrase, “YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE IN LIFE.” None but those who have accomplished true greatness will tell you that the tools to keeping your mind focused in training for any prize come from keeping your mind clean. This means to remove the unnecessary distractions from your thoughts and rid your daily activities of useless makings while also practicing activities of mental building to the point of making those things habitual.

A few tools I have learned in the history of my career to winning the Overall National Title in my sport have been tools I learned from people like Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, and James Allen, along with numerous sports psychologists who have guided the greatest Olympic, PGA Golf and NBA Athletes. I went from being the short chubby girl with no self-esteem in school to becoming one of the world’s top 10 greatest athletes in my field, and being able to accomplish a National Title was beyond dreaming for me. How did I do it? What turn of events took place that “made” me into a champion? The only answer is that I changed my thoughts and my actions.

The question now becomes, “How does one change their thoughts and actions such to the point that it makes them the champion?” Tremendous efforts under the guise and wisdom taught in many books are helpful. For myself, from such works, I have learned the habits that made the champions. As a result of many years of such research, experimentation, and practice, I have a list of things that became habits for me in training. As such things became habitual, the thoughts those habits produced became my modus operandi, which led me to the championship I eventually procured for myself. Here is the list:

1) Have a clear vision of the goal

-What does the environment look like? How do you look? How does the audience appear at the time you win the goal?

2) Daily, upon waking, take 10 minutes to meditate & visualize as you “feel” the goal.

-Sense the emotions that will come from experiencing the reality of that vision.

-Note the senses that come from that reality: How it smells in the room, what your mouth feels like, what you hear, and how your muscles feels throughout your entire body (from your smile to your toes!).

3) Make time twice daily to sit quietly and undistracted as you visualize & experience the goal’s sensory results.

4) Take 10-30 minutes daily (preferably at waking moments) to repetitiously write affirmations of the goal.

-”I, ____(your full name) , have won the (your goal’s title) .”

-”I, (your full name) , have (your bodyfat/measurements).”

-”I, …”come up with one to 5 affirmations that you can write repeatedly every day that you have these sessions.

5) READ BOOKS/ARTICLES that reiterate your championship mindset habits and ideas to continue to grow in the “championship mindset.” Listen to audio books as you drive or as you are at home or even as you are working out or during stretching. Program your muscle memory to operate within these thoughts.

6) Avoid drama by being PROACTIVE rather that reactive to life’s challenging moments. Always remember what matters is your goal; and in your proactive moments, visualize and feel the goal.

7) Have a motto. My motto has always been: “Persistence Always Prevails.”

8 ) Persist

9) Tune into your goal experience thought processes in order to stay tuned out to negative situations, discussions, or people.

10) Train with your core purpose as the “soul” of the training. Accomplish the goal because of why it matters to you and stay passionate. Many people get out into the forest and they miss the trees. Always remember why you first fell into love with your sport, and why it matters to you to be a part of that sport.

Nita Marquez

Miss anything from Jorie’s journey? Read the rest here:

A Fitness Journey-Meet Jorie

A Fitness Journey- Week 1

A Fitness Journey- Gina Aliotti Lends Her Thoughts

A Fitness Journey- Pictures

A Fitness Journey- Ramping It Up

“
You’ve been exercising your butt off for weeks and not seeing any results from your workout.

Maybe it’s your form, said Stacy Berman, a New York City personal trainer and founder of Stacy’s Boot Camp and Infinite Balance Yoga Fusion.

“If you’re not in the proper position, you’re probably not working on the muscles you want to work on,” she said. “If you’re doing leg lifts because you want to work on your abs but you’re lifting your lower back, you may only be working your back so you get into a negative workout pattern. It’s all about being in the right form.”

Here are five common exercises people do wrong:

1. Squats. Berman said squats are a basic exercise that people do wrong all the time.

“With squats, you work your quads, the back of your legs; butt and hamstrings,” she said.

Doing squats improperly can lead to sore knees. To avoid this, keep the body straight while bending and make sure your knees never go over your toes.

“To get the right movement, stand 6 inches in front of a bench and lower onto a bench,” Berman said. “This will ensure you’re straight. You’re body will naturally pitch forward when you squat but make sure you don’t lean forward. You should always be able to see your feet. This will ensure you’re doing them the right way.”

2. Lunges. This is another movement that can injure the knees if done improperly. Done correctly, the move can strengthen and tone the quads, butt and hamstrings, as well as the abdominals.

The movement should start with the feet apart and continue with the person moving one leg forward at a time and bending at the knee. Again, the body should stay in a straight line and the knee should remain at a 90-degree angle and never hang over the foot, Berman said.

3. Sit-ups. Proper sit-ups, as opposed to crunches, work the entire abdominal core, but often people will “cheat” using their neck and arms for better momentum.

“When you’re doing a sit-up your head should be straight; never round your shoulders and never yank your head to your chest,” Berman said. “If you’re doing a sit-up properly, you should be able to keep your hands on your head the whole time. … You also want to breathe properly. You should exhale on the way up and inhale on the way down.”

4. Leg lifts. This is another movement that helps tone your abdominals, but if you’re placing your hands underneath your butt or back, you’re taking the stress off of the core and placing it on the lower back.

“You should keep your hands by your side the whole time,” Berman said. “You also want to make sure your legs are totally straight through the entire range of motion . If you can’t do that, try keeping both legs raised in the air and alternating the legs by lifting them one at a time.”

5. Push-ups. This exercise not only works your arms but also your core and upper back muscles. The body should remain in a straight line while you’re doing push-ups, Berman said.

“You want to imagine yourself as a plank while you’re lowering and raising back up,” she said. “If you round your shoulders while you’re doing push ups you’re only working on the neck muscle. You also want to keep the hands in line with the shoulders … and avoid moving your hips up and down. If you’re having trouble with the movement, practice being in the plank position for one minute to get used to the movement.”

”

What’s the best diet for you? Is it low fat or low carb? The answer may lie with what’s inside. The Wall Street Journal reports.

“
SAN FRANCISCO—In the long-running debate over diets—low-fat or low-carb—Stanford University researchers reported Wednesday that a genetic test can help people choose which one works best for them.

In a study involving 133 overweight women, those with a genetic predisposition to benefit from a low-carbohydrate diet lost 2 1/2 times as much weight as those on the same diet without the predisposition. Similarly, women with a genetic makeup that favored a low-fat diet lost substantially more weight than women who curbed fat calories without low-fat genes. The women were followed for a year.

“Knowing your genotype for low-carb or low-fat diets could help you increase your weight-loss success,” said Christopher Gardner, an associate professor of medicine at Stanford and a co-author of the study.

Data from a separate study indicate that 45% of white women have a low-carb genotype while 39% are predisposed to a low-fat diet, suggesting the test has the potential to yield a useful result for much of the population. The test is based on variations in three genes known to regulate how the body metabolizes fat and carbohydrates.

The findings need confirmation in a larger study, and additional research is also necessary to more clearly determine the usefulness of the test, including how it applies to men and different racial groups.

The results help explain a common phenomenon in the weight-loss wars: why two people decide to lose weight and go on the same diet and exercise plan, only to have one succeed while the other is frustrated.

The results suggest even strict adherence to a diet won’t matter if people’s diets are out of synch with their genetics, he added.

The test was developed by Interleukin Genetics Inc., a Waltham, Mass., developer of genetic tests that sponsored the study. The test uses a cheek swab to obtain cells for DNA analysis, and is on the market for $149.

In the past decade, about a dozen studies pitting low-fat vs. low-carb diets have been published in major medical journals. For the most part, no winner has emerged, and none of the diets resulted, on average, in weight loss exceeding 10 pounds in a year. Experts began to believe the type of diet didn’t matter.

A study suggests a test will tell you which kind of diet is best for weight loss. WSJ Deputy Editor Stefanie Ilgenfritz has more.

“This makes the whole topic relevant again,” Dr. Gardner said.

Researchers said that determining a person’s genetic predisposition could become a new tool in the battle against overweight and obesity.

“This is one step forward to realizing personalized nutrition for weight loss,” said Mindy Dopler Nelson, a researcher at Stanford and lead author of the report. The researchers said they didn’t have any financial interest in the Interleukin Genetics test.

“To match individuals with a diet type will help us to better target interventions and help them be successful,” added Sachiko St. Jeor, a professor in the division of endocrinology, nutrition and metabolism at University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno. Dr. St. Jeor wasn’t involved with the study.

The study, presented at the American Heart Association’s annual epidemiology and prevention conference, has just been submitted to a medical journal and thus hasn’t yet cleared rigorous peer review that precedes publication. But it was reviewed by a committee that approves papers for presentation at the meeting.

Despite the relatively small number of participants, the findings achieved strong statistical significance, researchers said, meaning it isn’t likely they were the result of chance. The findings are also based in part on an earlier paper, called the A to Z weight-loss study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2007.

Just matching the right diet with your genes doesn’t guarantee significant weight loss for everyone, Dr. Gardner cautioned. If low-carb people make a diet out of low-carb cupcakes, he said, they’re unlikely to see the results they want on a scale.

“It’s not the end of the obesity epidemic,” Dr. Gardner said. “But we need every leg-up we can get.”

The 133 women were among 301 participants in the A to Z study, which compared the effects of four popular weight-loss diets: the Atkins and Zone diets, which are low-carb, and the Learn and Ornish diets, which call for curbing fat calories.

In that study, the Atkins diet was slightly more effective than the other three, but on average, the total weight loss after one year was only about 10 pounds.

Yet, Dr. Nelson pointed out, within each diet group, a handful of women lost more than 30 pounds, while some others gained about 10 pounds. The new study examined whether genetics could explain part of the more than 40-pound swing.

Kenneth S. Kornman, president and chief scientific officer at Interleukin, said the company asked if the Stanford team could use its genetic test on the A to Z participants to see if their genetic makeup predicted their weight-loss experience.

Since Stanford researchers hadn’t obtained any DNA samples in the study, Dr. Nelson led an effort to track down the original participants. She said over 130 agreed to submit cheek swab samples to determine their genetic predisposition. The researchers re-analyzed the study based on the genetic results.

”

“
Obese children as young as age 3 show signs of an inflammatory response that has been linked to heart disease later in life, researchers said, in a finding that is likely to further stoke concerns about childhood obesity.

The results suggest that obesity-related disease processes may start earlier than previously believed. Nearly 30% of obese 3-to-5-year-olds had elevated blood levels of C-reactive protein—a widely studied marker for inflammation—compared with 17% of healthy-weight kids of the same age. The disparities widened as children aged, according to the study, which is being published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

“It’s really important to be concerned about childhood obesity and to even be concerned when they are quite young,” said Asheley Skinner, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, who was the first author of the study. “We can’t wait until they’re adolescents or adults.”

In the U.S., 14% of 2-to-5-year-olds are considered overweight, or at the 85th percentile or greater of weight for height in their age group.

C-reactive protein, or CRP, has been shown to help predict risk of heart disease, stroke and death under certain conditions, according to the American Heart Association. Previous studies have found that overweight and obese adults show elevated levels of CRP, but less has been known about CRP in children.

The study examined three markers that measure different aspects of inflammation, including CRP, in more than 16,000 children nationwide between the ages of 1 and 17. By ages 15 to 17, CRP was elevated in about 60% of obese teens, compared with 18% of teens of healthy weight. The increase was even more pronounced for very obese kids, with nearly 43% of young children and 83% of teens showing CRP elevation.

A similar pattern of elevation was observed for the other two inflammatory markers, though one of the markers wasn’t elevated in obese children until the age of 6.
It isn’t known whether elevated CRP in young children will predict heart disease in adulthood. Such a study, which would involve following overweight and obese children until adulthood, hasn’t been done, Dr. Skinner said. But, she said there wasn’t any evidence to suggest that CRP response would be different in children than in adults; its response in the body is the same regardless of age. Inflammation is the body’s immune response to infection or injury.

The concern of finding CRP elevation in such young children is that its effects could be cumulative. Future research is needed to investigate whether that is the case, and also whether losing weight could reduce CRP response in kids, according to Dr. Skinner. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

”

We’ve written about the NYC Marathon before, but recently have become quite interested in the sport of Triathlons.

Although not as popular as the Marathon, New York actually hosts one of the most acclaimed Triathlon races in the world every summer. This years race is scheduled for July 18, 2010.

So if you’re a serious Triathlete and looking to enter a race with some super athletes, you might want to check out the New York event in July.

Watch the video for some more information. And yes, that is the Hudson River they are swimming in.

Lots of luck. You’ll feel this in the morning.