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Guest Testimonials: Ali MacKellar

I would like to start off by saying that training at PhuketFit has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. For as long as I can remember I have always struggled with my weight, for numerous reasons varying from my job, my habits and health issues that combined to make me feel as if weight loss was always going to be unattainable for me. My decision to go to Phuket Fit was my last hope for achieving a healthy lifestyle.

My first class was Bodyfit and boy was it a wake up a call. I couldnt run the warm up lap of 400 meters without stopping to gasp for air, I struggled to complete most exercises and was almost always 5 steps behind everyone else. After speaking to the trainers they helped me to adjust the exercises to meet my level of fitness, and day by day I noticed my fitness starting to improve.

It took six weeks for me to build my fitness up to the point where I could properly participate in classes, but once I was there I found that I had made a change within myself. I was no longer the miserable unfit girl who had arrived at the camp, unable to keep up with the rest of the class. Instead I began to enjoy the classes, I could not only complete them, but I could perform at the same level as everyone else. I began to enjoy being challenged and was driven to achieve more. Instead of feeling like I HAD to eat healthy to lose weight, I WANTED to eat healthy, and exercise became a welcome part of my daily routine.

Id be lying if I said there werent days when I thought it was too hard, when I wanted to give up when even after all the hard work, I still wasnt getting the results I wanted. The drive to continue came in the form of my personal trainer, Alecia, whose constant support motivated me to change my attitude and reinforced my determination to make the change I wanted to see in myself a reality.

Now at Week 12 I have a lost a total of 13.5kg, I can slam medicine balls like a machine, can do burpees like theyre a full time job and can run a full lap of camp without breaking a sweat. Phuket Fit provided the perfect environment to attain the healthy lifestyle Id always wanted, but never been able to achieve back home in Australia. This is only the start of my weight loss journey, but the passionate trainers, healthy eating plan and all the friends that I have made at the camp who formed my support system are what have made it possible for me to achieve my goals, and I would recommend it to anyone who is struggling to get started and make the change.

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Weekly Weight Loss Seminar Emily Farish

Every Wednesday night at Phuket Fit, MMA & Fitness Camp, we offer a weekly weight loss lecture presented by a variety of guest speakers. Trainers, nutritional experts and guests from the community are just a few of the guests you might discover by attending one of the weekly presentations. Every Wednesday night at 7 P.M. on the fitness mats.

Last weeks presenter was Emily Farish. Shes a a licensed Primary Health Care provider who is also a licensed Acupuncturist, Traditional Chinese Medicine specialist, medical herbalist with herb-drug interaction training who also synthesizes a western medicine background into her practice. She is a consultant for Atmanjai wellness center which offers a “boxer detox” program for those staying at Phuket Fit. Her specialty is in functional medicine, weight loss, pain management, and customizing food as medicine plans that are tailored to the individual depending on their health and wellness goals.

Here is a brief summary of what she spoke about

How to overcome and address plateaus that can hinder from further weight loss

(Healthy, sustained weight loss)

Important things to consider: Health and fitness go hand in hand in order to address any weight loss or fitness plateaus you might be experiencing. You might be doing all the “right things” yet that pesky weight can’t seem shift no matter what you do.

Don’t be discouraged. Getting out of a weight loss plateau affects many people. Keep doing all the healthy habits that you are implementing at Phuket Fit and consider the following:

Chronic long term conditions that may be keeping you at weight loss plateau:

–Insomnia, and or sleep issues. While taking a sleeping pill can be helpful for the short term, long term use of sleeping pills doesn’t address the “root” of the underlying issue which robs your body of necessary energy it needs to repair, rebuild and lose weight.  Not only do we accomplish less with sleep, but one also burns less calories. The body’s long term reaction as a result of this is to hoard calories as fat, making our weight loss goals more difficult than they need to be.

Lack of sleep also decreases growth hormone levels. Growth hormone is a protein that helps regulate the body’s proportions of fat and muscle in adults. With less growth hormone, we reduce the ability to lose fat and grow muscle.

Consider supplements: GABA (amino acid before bed) or melatonin. Keep to a regular sleep schedule (as much as possible).

–Fatigue (are you exercising too much, and or are you just plain tired and wired?) One way to ask you self (and be honest) is if you have chronic sugar cravings, NEED to start your day with coffee, or around 4pm you MUST have coffee or some sort of sweet thing to get you through. When your body suffers from long term fatigue, it is not able to metabolize carbohydrates as well. This leads to an increased storage of fats and higher levels of blood sugar in the body which can contribute to your weight plateau.

Consider: Eating more protein throughout the day to stabilize blood sugar levels. Taking Vitamin C daily either in tablet or from food can boost your immune system and help fight fatigue (Vitamin C is an important “food” for your adrenal glands, which are responsible for synthesis of many different hormones and stress responses in the body). When you give your body the “right” source of energy, it can work for you rather than against you.

Foods high in Vitamin C: Broccoli, green, red, and yellow bell peppers, kale, papaya, strawberries, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, and kiwi (yes all of these foods have more vitamin C than oranges).

–PAIN-if your body is suffering from any chronic, acute, or long term pain (ex: injury, PMS, or structural) your body will make this a PRIORITY over your weight loss (Just like humans, immune systems also have numbered priority lists). By addressing the pain, your body can move out of “guarding” mode and into “weight loss” mode.

Consider: working with physical therapist, massage therapist, acupuncturist, and or functional medicine specialist to get you out of pain.

–EAT foods that stabilize blood sugar levels so that you don’t have food cravings, and or go into starvation mode (thus, holding onto fat). Eat more meals throughout the day so that your body has the building blocks it needs and can shift accordingly. Have heavier meals during the day, and light meal for dinner if possible.

Consider: digestive enzymes and probiotics to optimize your digestion to decrease any bloating, belching, and or gas. When you don’t digest, you go hungry, and you eat more. Your body then can store this extra energy (that is may not need to use) into your fat cells. It is what you DIGEST rather than what you EAT that matters (well yes, eating healthy matter, but if your digestion is impaired, your efforts are wasted).

–Hormonal Imbalances (this applies to men and women):  Hormonal imbalances can keep your body at a plateau and even make you gain weight (particularly around the abdomen area) even if you are eating right, and exercising on a regular basis. Supplements like Omega 3, Vitamin B complex, and Vitamin D3 are helpful building blocks that all bodies need (regardless of any health issue) in order to shift a plateau. Take with meals to prevent nausea.

Current RDA values for daily amounts for vitamins or supplements intake are not set or studied at “therapeutic values.”—what does this mean? You may say “I am taking vitamins but I don’t know if they work or if they work at all,” yet the amount on the label might be too low for what your body needs.

–If you don’t know how much or what vitamin you should be taking on a daily basis, please consult a medical professional-they can customize the amounts and a health plan specifically to you.

–DON’T MINIMIZE OR IGNORE your health or any symptoms. It is your body telling you something is wrong. It can be something simple that can be fixed right away that might be hindering you from losing the weight that you want.

–Functional medicine understands that while your “lab reports” may be within normal limits, you still are not feeling well or as good as you used to. This is because many western lab reports have a very wide range of numerical values, and something is only treatable when the lab reports are at one end of the spectrum or the other (usually, but not in all cases).  Functional medicine specialists look at lab reports and use their medical training as preventative care—i.e., they see where your health is going and curb it before your lab reports reflect something that is now a MAJOR health issue.

Functional medicine specialists are: Chinese Medicine Doctors, Acupuncturists who are also licensed medical herbalists (with herb and drug interaction training), Naturopaths (N.Ds), and MDs that specialize in “functional medicine”. It could take 3-10 weeks for most people to shift out of a plateau or even sooner by just a few ‘tweaks’ that help your body shift out of its plateau. You are worth it. If you don’t have your health, you can’t do much with your fitness or weight loss goals.

Thanks for the great information Emily, and well see everyone this Wednesday night for another excellent presentation!

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Benchmarks: Aaron Runs A Marathon 14 Weeks Away

Welcome to Phuket Fit’s weight loss and fitness blog. I’m your host, Aaron Rowland. I’m a 28-year-old writer from Los Angeles, California. At my heaviest weight, I weighed 160 KGs (350 LBS).  I’m here at Phuket Fit to lose weight, improve my fitness and have the adventure of a lifetime. I’ve been here seventeen months so far and I’m staying indefinitely. My favorite exercises are the bicycle crunch and the medicine ball slam. Barbell thrusters, suicide planks and burpees give me nightmares.

Wha-Wha-Whatttt?

Over the past year writing this blog, I’ve tried to emphasize the importance of not just paying attention to the scale. There are many ways to track health and fitness and your weight is just one small factor. Things like body-fat percentage, body measurements, photos, how your clothing fits and even timed fitness trials are all great ways to track progress on your weight-loss and fitness journey.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to put my money where my mouth is. No weigh-ins for the next fourteen weeks. Instead, I’ll be focusing on training for the Phuket Marathon, a 26.2-mile (42 KM) test of fitness and endurance. When one of my friends signed up, and asked if I’d be keen to join, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Surely you can’t be serious?

I am serious, and don’t call me Sh… you get the joke. Needless to say, this isn’t going to be easy. I’ve never run in any sort of formal race and I would consider myself a very weak runner at present time. Simply put, I don’t like running. I would much rather glide on a cross trainer or sweat out the calories on a rowing machine, than jog for even a few minutes.

But that why I’m going to do it. If you aren’t willing to train in the areas where you’re weakest, you won’t be able to improve to your peak levels of performance.

What’s the plan?

For the next 14 weeks, I’ll be working on a marathon-training plan I found online. Some days I’ll be doing road runs, while other days I’ll be participating in Phuket Fit’s bodyfit and cross-training classes. It’s difficult for me to even run a 5k without stopping now, so that’s the first benchmark I’m aiming to pass. Right now, my jog/walk 5k time is 38:54, and I’m hoping to get that below 35:00 in the next two weeks. I’m realistic about my ultimate expectations, I doubt I’ll be able to jog the entire marathon after only 14 weeks of training, but if I work hard I know I’ll be fast enough to finish well under the 7.5-hour time limit.

 

So, that’s where things stand currently.

The marathon is June 8th. We’re 14 weeks away.

Have a great week of weight loss! If you set your mind on it, I know you can do it!