The body is very complex and when it deems an outside stimuli harmful it has a response to try and fix the "problem". This response is called the inflammatory response and is brought on by numerous things including exercise and poor diet. Yes inflammation is necessary for our body to fight off disease, heal, and (when pertaining to exercise) to make progress in the gym. We need to stress the body to allow for the breakdown and build up of muscle tissue but the problem arises when we don't give our body enough recovery time. Without proper recovery we just continue breaking down the muscle tissue and we see no progress.

Inflammation due to poor diet on the other hand is not necessary. It can easily and likely will lead to chronic inflammation if nothing is done to fix the problem. Chronic inflammation has been linked to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Let's go over some foods that trigger this response, foods that should be avoided.

-highly processed foods are on top of the list. These foods usually contain all the offenders; high content of saturated fat, sugar, and lack of nutrients.

-simple carbohydrates like white breads, cookies, candy, white rice, anything not whole grain in the cereal/granola bar section, soda.

-meats and dairy high in fat content including whole fat milk and cheese, butter, red meat, bacon, sausage, greasy foods.

-instead stick to the perimeter of the store and go with the lean meats, fruits and veggies, fat free dairy, and whole grains.

Your body's response to food is more complex than just how many calories you eat. How your body runs depends entirely on how you treat it. Eat crappy, workout sporadically, sleep erratically and you're not going to meet your goals whether it be lose weight, gain muscle, perform better, or just be healthy. Eat good and feel better is as simple as it is!

1. -Keep a food journal for 3-7 days. Write down EVERYTHING you take in (even those 2 oreos you HAD to have). You'll look it over and realize what you are actually consuming.
2. -Next take one thing from that journal and remove it the first week. Slowly make one to two goals for every new week. (remove soda, reduce portion size, increase veggie intake, try meal prep for the week, etc.)
3. -If you haven't been to the gym as much as you want write it into your schedule for the week so there are already times set aside where you know you will be able to make it.
4. -If you liked keeping the food journal continue with that but maybe download one of the fitness/nutrition apps; my fitness pal, lost it, etc. These will help you keep track of your food intake and it allows you to log your exercise as well.
5. -If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed take a step back, just don’t quit. No one's perfect and one bad day or week won't erase all your hard work, only quiting and going back to old habits will do that.
6. -Make a lot of small goals instead of one monstrous goal that could take a year to reach. You need little victories to celebrate which will help you realize why you are working hard in the kitchen, avoiding the sweets, and dragging yourself out of bed to make the gym at 6am! 

Eating right and still not seeing results?

You decided you’re going to do it right this time and stay away from the fad diets and magic pills; you’re going to go for the real whole food and exercise. Hell yes!! You made the right choice. It’s been a couple months and you aren’t seeing the results you want, there are a few things that could be holding you up that you didn’t even think of. This whole lifestyle change thing can be tricky at first and the first few months are the most important to stay consistent and get on the right track. Let’s go over a few things that could be messing with you reaching your goals.

• Are you eating enough? I’ve gone over the importance of consuming enough calories so that your body’s metabolism doesn’t slow down to a snail’s pace to conserve energy.
• Are you eating the right foods? A good general rule to follow is somewhere in the range of 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein, and 20% fats. The carbohydrates should be complex carbohydrates, the protein should be lean quality protein from lean meats, fish, beans and legumes, or high quality whey/casein/soy/pea/egg protein powder, the fat should be from vegetable oils, omega 3 fatty acids, fats from avocados and nuts.
• Are you sleeping enough? Lack of sleep causes hormonal imbalances and an inflammatory response that is not weight loss friendly. When you don’t get enough sleep your body is under more stress than usual since it did not get the rest and recovery at the cellular level it needs. Coritsol (your stress hormone) is released at the wrong time and increases your blood sugar level which causes your body to release insulin when it is not needed. Insulin causes excess fat to be stored because it brings excess sugar into your cells to be converted to fat.
• Gut health is very important; your GI tract is where digestion, absorption, and elimination occur. If your digestive tract is not in proper working order, think of a traffic jam due to a bunch of road work, it’s going to cause some issues on the weight loss front. There are cleanses (a few days, I don’t like any longer than that) that can be helpful and probiotics from yogurt (a supplement if you are dairy free) are some ways to get your GI tract back to working properly.
• Start writing everything down, you may think you only “cheat” very rarely but you could be lying to yourself. We tend to do things mindlessly and forget about them, write EVERYTHING down and you can’t really forget. You also can’t have cheat weekends; your body needs consistency when you are trying to “reboot” it. FYI…you can have cheat meals, don’t restrict too much!
• Alcohol…yes I said it. Alcohol can be a huge road block on your weight loss journey. It causes blood sugar levels to rise and drop drastically and this will increase the amount of insulin secreted and cause unnecessary hormonal imbalances. Your liver is what metabolizes fat as well as alcohol, if your liver is busy metabolizing alcohol it puts fat burning on the back burner.
• Last but definitely not least is exercise! Exercise is super important when trying to transform your body. I have always believed you can’t really just rely on exercise or healthy eating, you need both. I could go into the science behind the benefits of both but let’s just say exercise helps control hormone levels, increases lean body mass, decreases body fat, and helps you be a better mover which will keep you active throughout your life. You need a healthy balance between resistance training and high intensity interval training for cardio to increase your metabolism. Remember to rest or else your body can’t recover and we can start talking about hormone imbalances and stress again.

So even though you may think you’re doing everything right there’s usually something that can be changed and it will give your body that kick start it needs. Think of your body as a car, when one little thing in your car isn’t working properly it effects the way your car runs. Your body is the same way, if one system is down and needs repair it affects everything, everything is connected. Treat your body right consistently and I promise you will see the results you are looking for.

At some point we're all confronted with set-backs, injuries, sickness, and unforeseen adversity getting in the way or slowing us down from reaching our goals. When you're in the midst of a set-back it's crucial to think about WHAT YOU STILL CAN DO. Not only is this important in preventing you from getting mentally discouraged, but it also helps you pick back up quicker and get back on your path more effectively when the time's right.

As an athlete and coach all my life I've had friends, training partners, teammates, athletes and clients who I've watched get frustrated and disappointed to the brink of quitting...all the while in a dark cloud of negativity surrounding the limitation or set-back they're experiencing. It's like getting sucked in a vortex that you wind up participating in, adding strength to the set-back. When associated with situations like this, whether personally, or helping someone cope, I like to think of all the elements, factors, and parts that contribute to the whole (person, plan, and environment) and conceptualize how small a percent of that whole a broken finger, sprained ankle, or 2 sick days represent in retrospect...they're tiny! This obviously doesn't apply on game-day, or 2 days prior to national championships, but really during training, and in some day to day life situations. 

During a gymnastics practice in college I once confronted a teammate who was sitting out of practice pouting in frustration about a broken toe...sitting out of a 3 hour practice!! After talking to him about how many other things he could be working on to strengthen his upper body, core, flexibility...even doing mental routines and visualization drills, the broken toe really seemed dwarfed by all of the other positive constructive things that didn't require the king toe. After a few days my teammate came back with more drive and focus than most could remember him having prior to getting injured. So, sometimes our set-backs can be blessings in disguise...but only if you stay POSITIVE & PERSISTENT!

First off, I’m really thankful and excited for the chance to contribute to Mobile Fitness. I’ve known Greg starting with our time at Springfield College together, and was able to see the inception of the Mobile Fitness concept. It’s amazing to see it transform from post-it note drawings on his desk to the successful business it is today. Greg’s vision and philosophy is something I share with my own work, so I’m looking forward to sharing some thoughts.

My name is Dr. David Tilley, and I live in the North Shore of Boston. I was a gymnast for 18 years, 4 of which were at Springfield College while doing my doctoral work in Physical Therapy. I have been coaching gymnastics for just over 11 years, and still currently help coach a women’s optional team. Along with coaching I work as a Physical Therapist in an outpatient orthopedic clinic and also own a company/blog called The Hybrid Perspective (www.HybridPerspective.com).  My patient population is really all over the place. I work with everything from the average mother with back pain, to the highly competitive Olympic weight lifting athlete, to people looking to get screened for preventive measures. Given my background in gymnastics and still being a coach, I do have a large niche specialty in working with gymnasts. I split my weeks treating between the regular clinic most days and spending two afternoons a week treating at Tree House Training (Danvers, MA). Tree House Training is owned by my friend Dave Picardy and has a variety of training programs at his facility including a running club, an Olympic Weight Lifting Team, a Cross Fit program known as North Shore Cross Fit, various high school athletic training programs, individualized personal training, and more.

I started The Hybrid Perspective as a blog 2 years ago in an effort to share some thoughts I have related to my work, and also start networking with other like minded individuals. I use the blog as a vessel to share my viewpoint on how people can increase their performance while also reduce their injury risk. I strongly feel that by learning more about human movement and also the rehabilitation - performance spectrum, someone can really tap into their full potential. I also feel that there are many parts to injuries that are preventable. It just takes someone with a trained eye, some experience with the current literature, and the skills to reverse engineering problematic movement patterns.  I try to share some of my experiences in this department with weekly blog postings on different drills, training tips, videos, random thoughts, and so on. Check them out @ www.HybridPerspective.com 

When it down to it, I really just want people to be able to do what they love and stay healthy in the process. Helping people achieve their goals, be it basic daily activities or high-end performance, is something that I am passionate about. Being a former athlete myself and also still currently perusing fitness goals, I know first hand how difficult facing both injuries and tough training can be.  Sometimes it can be complicated with all the healthcare information available these days. I try my best to take the academic world and translate it into useful information for people to take advantage of.

This post just really serves as an introduction, but I hope that through some intermittent blog posts on the MFS/E site I can share what has helped me work with patients, clients, and the gymnasts I coach.  I’m definitely looking forward to contributing. Thanks again to Greg, and I hope everyone has a great weekend!

- Dr. Dave Tilley, DPT