We’re back with another Thursday episode of the Addicted to Fitness podcast, which means another interview with a health & fitness pro. This week’s guest is yoga instructor, wellness blogger and world traveler Lauren Shuster.
Lauren is also a Tampa resident, which means we were able record our conversation face to face outside a local coffee shop. Lauren and I discuss teaching yoga to toddlers, exercises you can do on a plane and her memorable trip to New Zealand.
Make sure you listen to the entire episode to hear the rest of the health & wellness topics Lauren and I explore. If you’re interested in viewing more content from Lauren, subscribe to her newsletter at loelizabeth.com and follow her on Instagram (@loelizabethblog).
Don’t forget that we’re always looking for suggestions on compelling individuals from the field of health & fitness to ask to come on the podcast. Please send your recommendations to TheATFpodcast@gmail.com and don’t forget to rate, review and share the podcast.
On the road again, I can’t wait to take Addicted to Fitness on the road again.
I’m no Willie Nelson, but I am very excited for this special “on the road” ATF episode. Shannon and I decided to podcast during our recent trip up North to visit my relatives for Easter. Here are the highlights
Listeners Talk Back
ETTampa member and close friend Adrien (@authenticadrien) is showing us tons of love by frequently commenting on ETT (@ettampa) and ATF (@TheATFPodcast) Twitter posts. She loves the fact that we’re always investigating new health trends & stories.
We also received a comment from Tampa International Airport when we posted the pic of Ella and I (which you can see in the episode pic below) on my personal Facebook page. They apparently thought that Ella was the “cutest luggage” they had ever seen. I’m bias but I have to agree.
Staying Healthy While Traveling
This was Ella’s first plane ride. We know her immune system is still developing, which is why we wiped down all the chairs, arm rests and tray tables with antibacterial wipes. We wanted all her surroundings to be sanitized since she is in a “put everything in her mouth” phase. The good news is that Shannon discovered that her saliva can act as a partial barrier against germs.
I was fighting a head cold while on the trip which, in addition to the dehydration associated with air travel, compelled Shannon and I to drink a giant bottle of water while on the flight. I focused on eating non-inflammatory foods, which included lots of protein, healthy fats and veggies & fruits, for most of the trip. I also doubled down on immune boosting supplements (probiotics & herbs).
This was a two-part podcast and in the second half we give a wrap up of our first multi-day trip with Ella and admit to indulging in holiday treats. If you did some traveling during the recent holiday weekend, we’d love to hear how your experience went. Drop us a line on the Addicted to Fitness podcast Facebook page.
You should also bookmark our new podcast website, addictedtofitnesspodcast.com, and our sponsors website, hempcoffeeexchange.com. As ATF listeners you can get 20% off The Hemp & Coffee Exchange’s awesome super coffee by simply entering the promo code “ATF” at checkout. Consider it a little thank you gift for the iTunes rating & review that you’ll be giving us in the near future.
Have you ever tried to balance on one leg for 60 seconds? If not, go ahead and try it now, I’ll wait……..
Not that easy right? Single leg exercises are great for enhancing stability and allowing you to build strength independently between legs, which is why the weekend workout below is full of them .
Head to the Tampa Strength YouTube channel (link) if you need further instruction on several of the exercises listed below. I recommend performing the workout in interval format (45 sec work/15 sec rest) for 16-24 minutes. Don’t forget to warmup and modify the workout to match your fitness level.
Let us know in the comment section below if you completed this or any weekend workout. ENJOY!
THE DAY HAS FINALLY COME! The inaugural Thursday edition of the Addicted to Fitness podcast has arrived. These episodes will be dedicated to conversations with professionals, experts and compelling individuals from the world of health and fitness.
The first individual I have the pleasure of speaking with is personal trainer, certified Precision Nutrition coach and Stick Mobility & FRC specialist Alexis Rivera. Alexis and I chat about his past struggles with body image, the benefits mobility training can have for all fitness levels and how “small victories” can be the key to a successful nutrition plan.
Listen to the entire episode for more useful health info from Alexis and check out his awesome Instagram feed @the_holistic_hipster (love that handle). If you’re interested in utilizing his online personal training services, click here to contact him directly.
We’ll be bringing you interviews with health & fitness pros each week, which means we’d love to hear your suggestions on who we should have on ATF. Send your recommendations to TheATFpodcast@gmail.com and don’t forget to rate, review and share the podcast.
What’s up peeps! We’ve got another exciting and informative episode of Addicted to Fitness this week. Before we jump into all our intriguing health topics, we lead off the podcast by telling you all about our awesome sponsors.
The Hemp & Coffee Exchange is dedicated to providing “high-quality consumables” like their super coffee, which combines the nutritional benefits of hemp hearts/seeds with single origin green coffee beans that they roast themselves. Do yourself a favor and visit hempcoffeeexchange.com and get 20% off your order by using our exclusive “ATF” promo code.
After giving our sponsors the love they so rightly deserve, we dive into the helpful fitness info with our training recaps.
My training recap consists of two BIG announcements. First off, starting Saturday, March 24th, I’ll be leading a group Stick Mobility (pictured above) class at Tampa Strength. If you live in the Tampa Bay Area, contact me at nick@elementaltampa.com to learn all the details about this innovative training modality.
The second big announcement has to do with this very podcast. I want to let all the dedicated listeners know that you’ll no longer get one ATF episode a week……you’ll be getting TWO! That’s right, starting this Thursday (March 22nd), we’ll be posting two episodes a week filled with useful health & fitness info.
Shannon’s week of training includes daily yoga practice, periodic HIIT workouts and dancing her socks off at our friends’ wedding. She danced so hard that she had to ice her knee for several days after the wedding. My lady goes hard on the dance floor!
After our training recaps, we do a quick overview of the effectiveness of generic multivitamins. A 2013 editorial from the Annals of Internal Medicine claimed that multivitamins purchased over the counter provide no significant benefit to preventing chronic diseases. However, several rebuttals, including one from my platonic woman crush Dr. Rhonda Patrick, claim that the scientific research used by the editorial did not tell the whole story.
The bottom line is that multivitamins can benefit certain individuals, but they are not a miracle cure. You are probably better off finding out which vitamins & minerals you actually need opposed to taking a daily dose of multiple ones and hoping it helps. Which is a perfect segue to the “unboxing” of Shannon’s personalized vitamins from Care/of.
Shannon took the quiz on the Care/of website and based on her lifestyle & health goals, she was prescribed a month’s worth of customized daily vitamin packs that included substantial info about the effectiveness of each vitamin along with links to all the research associated with them.
She spent around $50 for her monthly subscription but was able to get half off her first month thanks to a promo code from another podcast. If you want to see the entire unboxing video, head to the ATF podcast Facebook page and make sure you follow Care/of on Instagram (@careofvitamins) to learn more about their products.
Last, but certainly not least, we taste test a very unique health food. Since bringing Ella home from the hospital, Shannon has had the challenging endeavor of providing her with her exclusive source of nutrition. Yes folks, I’m talking about breastfeeding.
Shannon and I are super stoked that she has been able to feed Ella only breast milk for the first 5 months of her life. We’re introducing new sources of nutrition, but Shannon and I still want breast milk to be a large part of Ella’s diet. Which is why Shannon is willing to try anything that claims to increase breast milk production, like Booby Boons – Lactation Cookies from Stork and Dove.
These cookies are made with ingredients (nutritional yeast, oats and flax) that research suggest can help stimulate breast milk production. We both gave them a try (yes both of us) and found that they were quite tasty. You’ll have to keep listening to find out if they were effective or not.
In the meantime, please visit the ATF podcast Facebook page and leave us a comment, which we’ll feature in a future Listeners Talk Back segment. We’d also appreciate you giving us a rating & review on iTunes. May not seem like a big deal but it’s a quick, easy task that can really help us reach more people.
If I had to pick which exercise I hate performing the most, it would have to be the lunge. My body, and mind, hate seeing it in my workout programming, but I love the benefits this compound exercise can provide. I decided that this edition of the weekend workout should be dedicated to the exercise I love to hate & works multiple muscle groups simultaneously.
Head to the ETT YouTube channel (link) if you need further instruction on several of the exercises listed below. I recommend performing the workout in interval format (45 sec work/15 sec rest) for 16-24 minutes. Don’t forget to warmup and modify the workout to match your fitness level.
Let us know in the comment section below if you completed this or any weekend workout. ENJOY!
Chances are that you or someone you know were affected by the flu in recent months. The 2017-2018 flu season was so devastating that Shannon and I decided to share any helpful information we could find on combating it on this week’s Addicted to Fitness podcast.
Before doling out our natural flu prevention remedies, we share what are listeners have been saying on the ATF Facebook page.
We recently celebrated getting 100 likes on our Facebook page by completing a 100 push up challenge on Facebook Live. We had several people cheer us on from the comment section including my first martial arts instructor and past ATF guest Master Amir Ardebily. Master Amir has a tremendous story and I encourage you to go back and listen to ourinterview with him.
After the Listeners Talk Back segment we dive into our training recaps for the week. I’ve been busy building new workout programs including one for an ETTampa group workout in Shannon and I’s neighborhood of Seminole Heights. The owner of Essential Balance Tampa Hayden Sutherland, who you may remember from a past ATF episode, asked if I’d be interested in offering a group class to members of my community and of course I jumped at the opportunity.
If you live in the Tampa Bay Area and are interested in attending this class, visit Essential Balance Tampa’s website and reserve your spot.
Shannon has also been busy finishing up the required teaching she needs to perform to receive her “diploma” for her yoga teacher training. She led her mom through a 45 minute yoga session that was cut short by the same person you’ll hear when you listen to this week’s episode.
We wrap up our training recaps and jump right into our flu discussion. Ella, Shannon and I have all avoided the flu so far, but the following statistics show that we are very fortunate:
Doctor visits for flu related symptoms at his highest rate since 2009 swine flu & this flu season lasting much longer than normal (New York Post article Feb 2018)
CDC reported 36% effectiveness for this year’s vaccine (Fortune Feb 2016)
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We want to make sure you make it through this and following flu & cold seasons healthy, which is why we shared several common practices from a 2018 Well and Good on how to stay healthy during this time of the year:
Drink lots of water
Diligently wash hands
Don’t touch your face
Eat right and workout
Carry antiviral cleaning supplies
We also discussed several lesser known flu prevention methods including:
Far-UVC light has ability to kill airborne viruses like influenza & tuberculosis in indoor public locations like subways and airports
Unlike conventional UVC light sources, which can be carcinogenic & cataractogenic, far-UVC light’s wavelength is so small that it can’t penetrate human skin or eyes
Whole food micronutrient flu treatments
Quercetin – contained in foods like apples, plums, red grapes, green tea, elder flower and onions. Inhibits the virus’ ability to infect cells, inhibits replication of already infected cells and reduces infected cells’ resistance to treatment with antiviral medication (Mercola Feb 2018)
Allicin – contained in garlic, onions, shallots, Chinese chives and leeks. Studies show that regularly eating allicin containing whole foods may help prevent the common cold or the flu. If you do get sick, eating these items can reduce the severity of your symptoms and help you recover faster
Probiotics and zinc supplements also recommended
We really hope that you and your loved ones made it through this flu season as healthy as possible. If you’re looking for another nutritious whole food item that could help give your immune system a boost, grab some sustainable super coffee from the Hemp & Coffe Exchange. Visit their website, hempcoffeeexchange.com, and when you place your order, make sure you use the promo code “ATF” at checkout to get 20% off your order.
We’d also really appreciate it if you leave us a rating & review on our Facebook page and in iTunes. It only takes a few minutes and really helps us reach more listeners.
Yes, all those ab exercises, along with proper nutrition, can help develop that always enticing 6-pack. But a strong, stable core has more benefits than just aesthetics. According to an article from active.com, your core creates “a solid base for your body, allowing you to stay upright and stand strong on your two feet.”
That’s why this weekend workout is full of core strengthening exercises. I recommend performing five 10 rep supersets of these exercises with at least 60 seconds of rest in between sets. Don’t forget to warmup and modify the workout to match your fitness level.
If you complete this or any weekend workout, please let us know in the comment section below OR you can send us a pic/video of you doing the workout on social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter). ENJOY!
Elemental Training Tampa 