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The Weekly Burn

October 13th Fall Nutrition Workshop

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Join Linnea Laverty and special guest Jackie Landry on October 13th at 1:30 pm for a Fall Nutrition Workshop

Topics Will Include:
  • Pre- and post-workout fueling
    • The best foods to help you power through your workout
    • What to eat to promote the best recovery
    • Foods to avoid!
  • Our emotional connection to food
    • Why do we use food as a reward?
    • How to change your mindset
We’ll feature an extended Q&A which is YOUR time to address what’s important to you and share your goals.
Linnea Lavery is a certified nutritionist and trainer with a degree in nutritional science. She develops personalized nutrition programs that help people hit their weight loss and fitness goals without feeling deprived.
Jackie Landry is a health and wellness consultant who helps clients in the Boston area find and stay on their paths to a healthy and whole lifestyle.
Sign up through MindBody.

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Portion (Out of) Control

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We’ve all heard the old adage that bigger is better. Over the last 40 years or so, it seems the American public has applied this to just about everything. A bigger car is better. A bigger house is better. A bigger job is better. But, there’s one thing that has ballooned over the years and the increase is definitely not for the better. It’s portion sizes. As portion sizes have gotten bigger our waistlines have too. There is a direct correlation between the increase in portion sizes and the rate of obesity in this country.

Just a quick peek at social media will show you the evidence. Foodies post pics of plates overflowing with food. Steaks the size of your head. Wine glasses that look more like decanters. Even health blogs will show a giant sized smoothie that’s big enough for three. It seems that across the board, whether we’re talking about fast food or health food, our measures of what makes a portion are entirely off.

Based on research, our activity levels have not changed much over the last 40 years, but our dietary intake certainly has. While it’s impossible to calculate a precise number,

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Screen Time is Bad for Your Health

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There’s been tons written about the negative effects of too much digital screen time on children. Research has shown that it’s bad for their developing brains, increases their risks of  childhood obesity tenfold and can even damage their social development. So, it’s not that big of a stretch to assume that the same can be said for adults.

I think we all intuitively know that too much screen time can’t be good for us. But as a gym owner, I wanted to know more specifically about how our health and fitness might be impacted by all the time we spend staring at a screen.  Here are the basics of what I found.

  • First off, here’s a scary statistic. The average adult in America spends about 11 hours a day looking at a screen and checks their phone every 10 minutes. That means that we spend much more than half of our awake time on a computer or mobile device or watching TV. Wow! For some, much of that screen time is related to work, so it can be hard to bring those numbers down. But many others are consuming all that digital media as part of their leisure time.

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Here’s What Losing 5% of Your Body Weight Can Do

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Sometimes when you’re at the beginning of your fitness journey the idea of all the “work” you have to do to get to where you want to be can be a little daunting. This can be especially true if you have a substantial amount of weight to lose. I always tell members who are just starting out not to let their end goal intimidate them. Because the truth is, even just the littlest bit of weight loss has been shown to make a big difference in your health.

Losing just 5% of your body weight — that’s just 10 pounds if you’re 200 pounds — results in lots of benefits on your body.

  • If you’re walking around with even just 10 pounds of extra weight that puts an additional 40 pounds of pressure on your knees and other lower body joints. Losing that really eases the pressure on your joints and reduces the likelihood that you’ll develop arthritis later in life.
  • People who are at risk for type 2 diabetes can do themselves a huge favor by losing weight. Shaving just 8-12 pounds of a 160 pound frame substantially lowers your risk of getting diabetes.

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HIIT – Big Benefits in a Little Time

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There’s a long held misconception that if you want to get in shape you have to work out long and hard. This belief is what holds many people back from starting on their fitness journey. They think, “I’m too busy to spend hours at the gym,” or “I just don’t have the time.” Well, I’m here to tell you that’s false. In fact, I started Synergy based on my knowledge that there is a better way to get fit that doesn’t require that you live at the gym.

One of the ways to make big progress in just a little time is with HIIT training. HIIT stands for high intensity interval training. And if you’re a Synergy member, you’ve probably done a HIIT workout maybe without even realizing it. A typical HIIT workout is a series of short bursts of exercises followed by a brief period of rest. In research, HIIT has been shown to give the same health benefits as a moderate intensity workout that is twice as long.

During a HIIT workout you’ll spend about 45 seconds going all out on an exercise like jump squats or jumping jacks and then about 30 seconds resting before moving on to the next exercise.

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Why Build Up Your Core Strength?

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When most people think about having a strong core, they equate it with having six pack abs or a flat belly. For a lot of people achieving that is a huge motivator for working out. I get that. A tight, trim midsection looks great. But there’s much more benefit to having a strong core that goes beyond just how you look in a swimsuit.

Your core is not just your ab muscles. It starts in your pelvic area and extends all the way up to your sternum and around to your back. Basically it’s everything except your arms and your legs. Core strength has an impact on every single movement you make. In fact, just about every movement originates in your core. Whether you’re mopping the floor or tying your shoes, you’re engaging your core. So, it’s safe to say that strengthening your core will help you do almost everything better.

Here are just a few of the benefits of a strong core:

Better athletic performance – Whether you’re a runner, a swimmer or play recreational sports, improving your core strength with improve your game. If your core is solid you’ll be better able to hold certain body positions.

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Nutrition Workshop with Linnea and Special Guest Melissa D!

The Weekly Burn, Workshops / By

Join Synergy’s Linnea Laverty for her next Nutrition Workshop featuring special guest Melissa Dlugolecki, yoga instructor and life coach of Thrive with Melissa D.

You will love this session which will cover:

  • Reading Nutrition Labels – What to look for and what to avoid
  • Juicing for Gut Health – What are the benefits of this health trend? Is juicing for you?
  • A Goal Setting Refresher – How to set goals that really make a difference in your life. Where are you in progress towards your goals? 

Dress comfortably as this workshop with begin with 20 minutes of light yoga.

Sign up through MindBody.

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The Mother of All Exercises

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about squats. (You laugh, but when you work in fitness these are the things that go through your head.) Because when it comes to exercises, squats are kind of like the holy grail. In fact, if I had to choose one and only exercise to do for the rest of my life, squats would be it.

Let’s start with the obvious benefit. Squatting engages every muscle in your lower body. When you do them you’re using your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. Come to think of it, squatting uses more muscles as a singular move than any other exercise you can do. But, the benefits go so far beyond just giving you toned and lean legs and a firm butt. Squats really can improve your life!
Squats are a compound exercise, meaning they target many muscles. And, they are also a functional exercise meaning they strengthen muscles you need to do things better in every day life. When you’re squatting you’re using your legs, but you’re also firing up your core, your abs and your back as you go through the whole range of motion.

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Ditch the Diet

The Weekly Burn / By
Not to burst your bubble, but dieting does not work and there’s research to prove it. Long term studies that followed dieters and their progress have shown that by and large dieting – the way that most people do it – is ineffective and it may even be counterproductive. Only 5% of dieters are able to maintain their weight loss after 5 years. A 2007 study showed that the majority of people who followed a restrictive diet ended up gaining back more weight than they lost. And, a 2012 study linked dieting to higher incidences of depression, body dissatisfaction and poor self-esteem.

So, despite what the mass media and marketers would have you believe, paleo, vegan, low-calorie, low-carb and all the other fad diets out there will not lead you to lasting weight loss. Then what’s a person to do? Experts say that if you want to lose weight and keep it off, the key is to listen to your gut. They’re calling it intuitive eating (IE). It’s about changing people’s relationship with food and helping them view food as fuel for their bodies. IE encourages people to base their eating on hunger and fullness cues rather than on a restrictive list of good and bad foods.

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Diet Trends Demystified

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If you’re trying to change your eating habits as part of a healthy lifestyle, it can be hard to know what exactly to do. Some people will tell you to avoid carbs, others say it’s all about no sugar and still others say a plant based diet is the best. I get a lot of questions from Synergy members about diets and new ways of eating that are getting attention. Should I go keto? Does intermittent fasting work? In an effort to answer some of those, here are the basics on 3 of the more popular trends today.
The Ketogenic Diet
Doctors actually started using the ketogenic diet in the 1920s as a treatment for epilepsy and more recently it has been considered as a potential treatment for diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. The Atkins diet was the first to make the ketogenic way of eating popular among dieters looking to lose weight. The ketogenic diet is very low in carbs, relatively low in protein and very high in fat. Eating this way leads to low levels of blood glucose and forces the body into a state called ketosis,

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