​H​ello, my friends! I hope y’all have had just an amazing week! The weather has been out of the 90’s and 100’s, so I am BEYOND happy about that! I know for many of you runners *cough*cough* Angie, Jack* this is terrible news. I’m sorry but I’m ready for sweater weather, as I’m sure many of you are. 
 
My family and I have had a very relaxing few weeks, we are preparing for the storm that is wrestling season. Only 6 weeks left of freedom before we have to fully commit our lives once again to God’s favorite sport.
 
Hopefully by now, you are seeing the benefits of exercise while we age, if not then you need to re-read the past blogs! Today I want to talk about exercise and its effects on telomeres. Before I get there let me explain to you why we are talking about them and the importance they play to our body. 
Telomeres are these protective caps on our DNA, think about them like the caps over the ends of our shoelaces, or think of them like that plastic your grandma has over those couches in her living room- except not as ugly. So, these caps are what protect our DNA (hopefully we all remember what DNA is) from degradation and cell aging. As we get older these caps shorten, therefore not protecting our genetic material the same as it once did in our younger years, thus leaving us vulnerable. The vulnerability effects our cellular function. This means you won’t move, heal, function as you did when these caps were protecting you. It also effects cell division, they can become unstable and cause genetic mutations (cancer), and it can affect our organs. These caps shortening are linked to Alzheimer’s, heart disease and a decreased immune system. That’s all, as they say in my motherland-no bueno. 
 
It sucks I know but sadly this is a normal part of the aging process. Now let me tell you what you already know…. drum roll please…. Exercise can help, I’m sorry does help, I’m sorry has been scientifically proven to help lengthen your telomeres shelf life time. I’m not talking about just a few years either.
 
A study done by Brigham Young University found that people who take part in high levels of physical activity had significantly longer telomeres than their sedentary counterpart. Biologically speaking, they were NINE YEARS YOUNGER than their counterpart. Guys that is a decade younger biologically. Think about it like this, hypothetically my friend- I’ll make up a fake name- Llamas is a sedentary adult, I partake in exercise as I do. While he may be easier on the eyes than I am, on the inside- yes, I’m uglier on the inside too, but my body is a decade younger than his. SO, while he may be dealing with the effects of aging, I won’t be feeling like his sedentary but for anther 9 years!
 
This is due to exercise slowing down the shortening process, telomerase activity being improved- telomerase is the enzyme that lengthens telomeres, if shortening them is what leads to aging complications, then lengthening them would do the opposite.  Also reduces oxidative stress, this is a major contributor to telomere shortening.
 
I know dude, it sounds too good to be true. Now I will admit there is a catch. This huge difference was found in people who partake in 30-40 minutes of “High Intensity” workouts as opposed to moderate exercise. 
You may be wondering; do you partake in high intensity? Well, if you see me on a weekly basis the answer is your welcome. You do in fact participate in high intensity, so net time y’all are trying to catch your breath and complaining, cough* cough* Nat, Ashley * cough just remember- I’m trying to give you another 10 years of good quality of life. 
 
For those that aren’t sure, high intensity would be a workout where you work up quite a bit of sweat, typically it is almost impossible to keep a conversation while training like this.
 
Your body will literally be a decade younger with a great exercise routine and pushing yourself a little harder than you normally would. It’s a pretty fair trade if you ask me, 30-40 minutes of hard work, 3-5 days a week and you get to enjoy that body of yours for a decade longer. Hope y’all have been enjoying this series of blogs. Have a great week and as always, I love you for reading this.

​In the words of my 9-year-old son, Sup Ladies?

Okay he doesn’t say that - YET! ( Fingers crossed he becomes a ladies man) He does say, what’s up guys. and I'll continue off that.

I hope you have had a great week. Truly I want to thank all you that read last week’s blog, it gives me a reason to continue nerding out and using this brain of mine that up to last week was just collecting dust and cobwebs. 
 
This past week was a good one for the family, we spent some time with friends, we FINALLY finished our X- Men marathon – I didn’t realize there were so many of them. Lastly, we ended the week with the OG of all superhero movies, Iron Man. We hope to continue this Marvel marathon this weekend, it will surely take us a year to finish them all. I hope all of you had similar relaxing weekends. If your kid is in the middle of sports, I just want to say, you’ll get through this- I’m praying for you.
 
Last week we covered exercise and its effects on our skin. This week we are looking internal. As you know by now, our bodies are amazing! The way it adjusts, evolves, and changes during our lifetime. From Birth to adolescent growth, to puberty, to adulthood, my gosh our bodies are truly amazing *snorts in geek, pushes up glasses* - I can go on and on. One thing our body does is create senescent cells in response to cellular stress. These are cells that remain alive but no longer divide. The reason the body does this- again amazing- is to protect us from cells with DNA damage that can cause potentially harmful mutations. In short, this process protects us from “bad cells” dividing and spreading disease.
 
While this is great for us in our youth, unfortunately as we get older these senescent cells do more harm than good. When they accumulate in excess these cells release inflammatory molecules that damage the tissues around it. This contributes to many of the age-related complications we develop in our old age. Conditions like Arthritis, Cardiovascular disease, and the worst neurodegenerative disorders (Alzimers, Parkinsons, MS, ALS).
It's scary right? How something the body does to protect us will harm us in the long run. 
 
Okay stop being depressed, this is where I – rather I’ll let Blake (my middle daughter) sing you her favorite song.
“Hey dear, don’t you fear, remember that your friends are near” – or whatever that dumb Super Kitties song says.
 
Your friend Exercise is the friend that is near in that stupid song. This study is very new it’s not even a year old, but it’s exciting research for trainers such as myself. *Geeks out again* This study involved almost 1400 men and women; it measured the harmful toxins released by the senescent cells in each person. These are the same toxins that contribute to age related complications. 
 
Okay, this is the good stuff, after 12 months they found a significant reduction in these “toxin levels” at 24 months the reduction of these same toxins was drastic. Drastic to a level that we can say with certainty that exercise will combat the effects of these senescent cells. 
 
Research has also shown exercise will lead to a decrease in the need for the body to produce these cells. If that isn’t reason enough to add exercise as a daily routine, here’s this- exercise in fact can eliminate and get rid of senescent cells through a process called senolysis.
 
Guys, I don’t know about you, but I know I’m gonna stay pretty- my mommy told me so- the things I worry about most is developing an age-related condition. Knowing exercise will reduce the amount of cells that lead to this, reduce the toxins already in my body from the past and completely eliminate them from my body makes me want to exercise 7 days a week. I hope you feel the same, share this someone you care about and encourage them to begin exercising. We all want our loved ones to grow old with us and stay free from complications.
 
I love you guys, thanks for reading.

School is back in session, the young adults are back in college, which means life can resume as usual. For many of us that is a great feeling, for me personally there is NO better feeling than being in your usual routine. For my Boujee Girls, that means you have no more excuses to miss the gym! – yes, I definitely just called y’all out lol
 
It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog; to be honest the addition of a 3rd child has made me greedy about my free time, mainly it caused me to take A LOT more naps. I heard the old cliché of three kids feeling more like having 100 kids, and now from experience I can honestly say it is not a lie- so you parents debating on having a 3rd, THINK ABOUT IT!
 
Okay so let’s get to the reason we are here, todays topic, Exercise and its effects on aging, primarily, how it reduces the effects of aging. Yes, I know, that is a bold statement. Essentially, I’m calling exercise the modern-day fountain of youth, and you know what, I stand by that statement. 
 
Many of my clients have been with me for years, every time a birthday comes, I am more and more shocked when I hear their age. It is a shock due to them not looking, acting or moving the way you would expect your typical person of that age to be. It also doesn’t help that most of my 50+ outwork me day in and day out. I had hopes to cover all of this in 1 blog, but after doing research, it is such a broad and huge topic, I will be breaking down each point throughout the month of August and September.
 
Okay let’s get down to the research. Point one, and ladies you will love this. The combination of Resistance training and Aerobic training has been scientifically proven to reduce the effects of skin aging. A 16-week study of 61 sedentary, healthy women who began a exercise routine to see the effect on skin. After the 16 weeks every woman showed a significant improvement in their skin elasticity, dermal structure and dermal thickness. After exercise the expression of dermal extracellular matrix-related genes was increased in normal human primary dermal fibroblasts. Training also had effects on cytokines, hormones, metabolites and an increase in dermal biglycan.   
        
Okay, okay, okay, let me break down those fancy words that scientists use to make the rest of us praise their fancy degrees. 

Skin elasticity refers to an Increased flexibility and resilience of the skin. Kind of like Mr. Fantastic from the fantastic 4.

Dermal structure is the organization and composition of the skin's connective tissue.

Dermal thickness refers to the skin's middle layer thickening, this contributes to improved skin firmness and resilience. Basically, you’re becoming like colossus from the xmen.
Now let’s breakdown HOW exercise does this:

Increased gene expression: the exercise stimulates the production of proteins essential for skin structure (extracellular matrix proteins).

Cytokine and hormone regulation: Exercise alters the levels of signaling molecules that impact skin health. (thickness, structure, elasticity)

Biglycan increase: This very important protein is involved in skin structure and hydration. This protein becomes elevated following exercise. so, every time you exercise, you elevate the protein that helps the structure and hydration of your beautiful skin, kind of makes you want to hit the gym right now, doesn’t it?

So, there you have it, folks! Exercise isn't just about burning calories and getting fit; it's also a secret weapon for looking younger and feeling fabulous. Who knew hitting the gym could be such a fountain of youth? So, pump up those sneakers, grab your favorite workout playlist (slipknot preferred), and get ready to combat aging one rep at a time. Your skin will thank you!

I can’t wait to cover the next chapter in our exercise- the fountain of youth blog series. Until then, I hope you guys learned something. Feel free to message me with any questions about fitness and health. I would love to cover them in a blog.

 
 

Hey guys and gals!

Hope your summer has been epic to say the least. Hopefully your life calms down some with school starting back up, for all you parents may you have more peaceful days as your child goes back to school. For all you college kids may you slow down a bit and get back to hitting those books instead of... well lets just call them extra curriculars. My summer was great, I went home to visit family, did some hiking, surfing, did some Jiu Jitsu tournaments, got bossed around by Logan (my 3 year old boss). So it was a good summer. In this blog and the coming ones, I’d like to cover “diets,” specifically how they work, their guidelines, and if they really work. For me the most often question I get asked is:” what’s the best diet?”
 
I never have the answer, mainly because I don’t have knowledge on all the diets out there. So this mini-series as we will call it, will be informative to you as well as me.

​Guys! It has been a while. Things have been pretty hectic for myself here lately, between moving, family visiting, training Madi (our newest trainer), and trying not to crash off energy drinks I have in my mind slacked! Life has finally slowed down a bit and thanks to my son and fiancé have a desk to do my work at, needless to say I will certainly stay up to par with my blogs and tutorials in the future. I’m sorry, but I am going to be selfish this week and blog about a topic that I have been dying to learn more about; The Ketogenic Diet, more specifically what it is exactly and if it works. I know I preach about performing good eating habits and not doing so much of a “specific diet” but I had too. You see my favorite scientists swear by this so I deemed it worth looking over.

​First thing first, the breakdown of the ketogenic diet. In a nut shell, it’s a diet (more like a lifestyle change) that consists of consuming 5-10% of your calories from Carbohydrates, 15-30% of your calories from proteins, and lastly 60-80% of your calories from fats. To make it easier, if you are on a daily caloric intake of 2000 calories and you eat 10% as carbohydrates it would be 200 calories worth of carbs. 30% as protein would be 600 calories, leaving 60% of your calories as fats; a whopping 1200 calories from fat! It is very similar if not identical to the “counting your macros method,” (macronutrients).

​I know what you are thinking because I was thinking the same thing, this sounds crazy right? Well let’s go over the reasoning for this caloric breakdown. The goal of this “diet “is for the body to become “keto-adapted.”
 
Keto Adapted simply means the body has altered its metabolic system (the way energy is produced in the body). In normal human function carbohydrates are the bodies primary source of energy, when becoming Keto adapted the bodies predominant energy source becomes fat. The body then shifts from storing fat normally to fat oxidation. Fat oxidation is basically the body breaking down giant stored lipids (fat) into smaller pieces (Triglycerides for example), this becomes our source of energy to run on throughout the day. Without the fat oxidation, the fat molecules would stay in the bigger stored form as they cannot be used as an energy source if not broken down.
 
I know this sounds like the cure to loosing fat but it is a lot harder than it sounds, the biochemical changes that are necessary to change the body from reliance on glucose for energy (glucocentric metabolism) to a reliance on fats for energy ( adipocentric metabolism) are tough to say the least. It requires the restriction of carbohydrates (thus the 5-10%) for several weeks and depending on the person, even several months or a long period of fasting (In other words starvation). ​First thing first, the breakdown of the ketogenic diet. In a nut shell, it’s a diet (more like a lifestyle change) that consists of consuming 5-10% of your calories from Carbohydrates, 15-30% of your calories from proteins, and lastly 60-80% of your calories from fats. To make it easier, if you are on a daily caloric intake of 2000 calories and you eat 10% as carbohydrates it would be 200 calories worth of carbs. 30% as protein would be 600 calories, leaving 60% of your calories as fats; a whopping 1200 calories from fat! It is very similar if not identical to the “counting your macros method,” (macronutrients).

​First of all, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE STARVE YOURSELF! I cannot make it any more clear, there are so many reasons why but it comes down to this, it is literally the worst thing you can do to your body, well besides tattooing a sports team on your body that ISNT the Dallas Cowboys. That leaves us with restricting carbs for several weeks/months.
 
Have you ever gone a full week without any carbs? Like seriously exercised, worked, and did everything normal just no carbs? If you haven’t, let me tell you IT IS HARD! I would do it to make weight for competitions and I about lost my family after 2 hours. Seriously though, it is difficult to run on little to no carbs, it’s like having a low gas tank and trying to make it last 100 miles, crankiness, irritability, and tiredness are just some of the side effects of a no/low carb diet.
 
After reading TONS of research science shows the claims of the ketogenic diet to be accurate, when followed properly (strict with very minimal ”slip ups”) keto-adapted can be reached and the use of fats as an energy source can be achieved. Now my biggest concern was the loss of muscle mass due to gluconeogenesis and the lack of carbohydrates tearing into our proteins (muscles) as fuel. After reading the research science shows the ketones (broken down fatty acids) preserve and prevent muscle catabolism, furthermore muscle anabolism (muscle mass increase) may occur after one has become “keto-adapted.”
 
Before I give my final thoughts on the Ketogenic diet, I must state that it is very common to experience rapid weight loss-due to water secretion from the lack of carbohydrates- headaches, muscle cramps, fatigue, nausea, lethargy, lack of energy/strength, and something known as the Keto-flu which is every symptom at once.
 
It sounds terrible but once the “infant stage of the ketogenic diet is complete and you become keto-adapted you will be burning your stored fat throughout the day. It is also important to note an increase in energy, appetite con troll, cognitive enhancement, and body composition will all increase as well once “keto-adapted.”
 
My final thoughts are this; using stored fats as fuel is more efficient in the weight/fat loss journey than carbohydrates as fuel. If you have the discipline-remember this can take months of strict discipline before any benefits occur- than it is a great lifestyle change. I personally would love to experiment with this and hope to do so in the near future, that means get ready Kristy because this family is about to make a lifestyle change!
 
I hope somebody out there is disciplined enough to try this with me, please do not hesitate to share your results and progress with me.
 
 
Below is a list of recommended foods and a pie chart of how your calories should be distributed when following the ketogenic diet;