PJ's Fitness Blog – Page 31 – A blog about a fitter you. Come find out what is on the cutting edge of fitness science and be a part of the ongoing conversation.

X Gym DVD Now Available!

It’s done! I’m super excited about it, and it’s just in time for the holidays!

You can now take the X Gym workout home with you or on a trip! No equipment is required, so anyone can do it anywhere. Since the workout takes only 20 minutes, and the frequency is merely twice a week, getting in shape has never been quicker!

The special introductory price is only $19.95 (plus tax, shipping and handling)! Get a copy for yourself, your friends, family, travel buddies, kids in college, and anyone else who wants to get in shape fast with very little time required.

Just click the “Buy Now” button below to have it shipped to your door within 2-3 weeks, or stop by the Alki or Kirkland X Gym to get your copy today!

Is Chocolate Really a Health Food?

Me, Steve and Kourt eating Taz's truffles!

Raw cacao (the chocolate bean) certainly is! In fact, cacao packs the most potent antioxidant punch of any food on the planet. It stomps all over acai berry and leaves blueberries in the dust.It’s vital to choose the right chocolate however, because most commercially prepared varieties are just plain toxic because of all the sugar, processing and additives.

So how do you get the good stuff? I tell you, but first, check out some of the health (and fitness) benefits I have found, with the research studies to back them up. Just click the last word in each sentence to hyperlink to the study reference:

Increases your metabolism and reduces stress hormone levels.
Helps prevent
[Read more…] about Is Chocolate Really a Health Food?

X Gym Schools Seattle Stairclimbers

Allrightythen! It looks like X Gym put on another stairclimbing clinic tonight (12/3/09) in the 56 floor WaMu tower. The credit really has to go to God though, because we even stomped on our own times from last year by miraculous margins! Thanks to everyone who was praying for us! It obviously worked!

Here are the awards they offered tonight and who won them:

1st place male: Jesse Berg (X Gym Friends and Alumni team)

2nd place male: Kevin Crossman (X Gym Team)

1st place female: Kourtney Dexter (X Gym Team)

2nd place female: Jamela Leddy (X Gym Team)

1st place team: X Gym Friends and Alumni

2nd place team: X Gym

1st place relay team: X Gym

2nd place relay team: “Loaded for Bear”. Sorry X Gymers- we only had one relay team. My bad! I didn’t know they were awarding a 2nd place relay team this year (they didn’t last year). If I would have known, I would have formed another one (Kailyn Jeff and John were chomping at the bit). Then again, it was nice to let some other people win something 🙂 Loaded for Bear was actually really fast, so good job guys!

1st place trainer: Kevin Crossman (X Gym). Kevin isn’t actually a trainer, but that’s OK. X Gym still got the award. Jesse is a spin instructor in Chicago, so technically he won this award, but that still would have given us the award, since he was on the X Gym Friends and Alumni team.

1st place gym: X Gym

I should also mention that between the two X Gym teams, we won 8 of the top 10 overall best times, and:

Use Thanksgiving to Train Your Brain

Most people think of food when the word Thanksgiving is uttered. Their next thought is usually about family and who they will be with. Unfortunately, most people surveyed have negative associations with holiday family gatherings and focus mostly on what they can do to avoid conflicts, uneasy dynamics and tension. These associations are also tied to food patterns, so family gatherings can cause an unhealthy emotional chain of events that result in unhealthy eating and overindulgence.

The reason for such a reaction is because food is medicine. We medicate our brains with food. Certain foods (i.e fast carbs, sugar and starches) do make us feel better in the moment, but cause us to feel worse soon after. Food is the most powerful drug there is, and some foods are even more addictive than cocaine.

The good news is that food addictions have a physical component that last only 3 days or less, so as far as your cells are concerned, they don’t crave it for long after they stop getting a certain food. The psychological component on the other hand, takes longer to break, especially if it is tied to patterns associated with family, established over long periods of time.

This psychological aspect can easily be overcome though. One extremely effective technique is to crowd your mind with