Fitness Expert Tosca Reno
October 31, 2011 by Mark Kravjansky
Filed under The Fit Guru
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Exclusive Interview With Tosca Reno
Tosca Reno is an author, professional speaker, fitness expert and swimsuit model. Currently in her late 40s, you can find Tosca gracing the covers of fitness magazines, speaking at seminars across the country, and promoting her best selling books including The Butt Book, The Eat Clean Diet, and The Eat Clean Diet Workout Journal. With more books on the way, I had a chance to speak with Tosca and learn about her amazing story.
KRIS – Thanks again, Tosca, for taking the time to speak with me. Why don’t you start by telling our readers about your life ‘before’ your transformation.
TOSCA – Sure. Like a lot of North Americans, I was overweight. At one point I weighed over 200 pounds. I wasn’t happy, I ate whatever I wanted, and I didn’t have much focus in my life. I would try a lot of different diets, and I never questioned what I ate.
K – What was the turning point for you?
T – It was 10 years ago, when I had a chance encounter with Robert Kennedy whom is the publisher of many fitness magazines including Oxygen Fitness. At the time I was a teacher, and I was working with his daughter. He saw how unhappy I was, and issued me a challenge to compete in a bodybuilding competition! As crazy as it sounded, I followed his advice, step by step, and it worked!
K – What exactly was his advice to you?
T – He basically introduced me to 2 concepts – clean eating, and weight training. Up to that point I was doing a lot of cardio. I started weight training 5 times per week, and decreased my cardio to twice per week. I learned that you can ‘cardio’ yourself to death, but it won’t shape your body. To get definition, and nice curves, you must include weight training in your program!
K – Your new books are all about ‘eating clean.’ What is the ‘Eat Clean Diet’?
T – Well, I must admit that it’s not a diet at all. It’s not about giving up one food group for another. It’s about giving your body what it needs to thrive, but eating the food that God gave us, and not the ‘food’ that humans created in a lab.
K – I’m sure there were obstacles along the way. What kept you motivated?
T – Initially, I knew that I wasn’t healthy, but I was really concerned that I had three beautiful daughters, and I wanted to take care of myself to live a long, healthy life. I wanted to leave a legacy for them so they could also take care of themselves. My biggest obstacle was my family, since I was making changes to my eating and lifestyle, which meant that they had to make changes as well. But that soon passed, and now everybody eats the same way. We all lead clean, healthy lives.
K – Describe a typical day in the life of Tosca Reno. How do you stay in shape?
T – I typically wake up around 6:30 a.m. and have coffee with my hubby. Afterwards, I’ll do 35-40 minutes of cardio on my elliptical or treadmill. Breakfast is usually at 8:15 a.m., and then I’ll eat a meal every 3 hours consisting of lean protein and complex carbs. Dinner is at 6:30 p.m. with the family, and it’s always pre-planned with no distractions (like TV) so that we can spend time talking about our day. Then at 8 p.m. I’ll start my weight training – usually 2 body parts per day.
K – What is the one tip that our readers need to know?
T- I think the key is to give yourself permission to enjoy the gym, and enjoy the benefits of going to the gym. Don’t be freaked out — love the results that comes out of it.
K – Where can our readers learn more about you?
T – They can visit my websites, www.eatcleandiet.com and www.toscanreno.com. They can find my ‘Eat Clean’ books on my website, including the Workout Book and the new Training Journal. I’m also proud to be on the cover of FIRST Magazine with Eva Longoria this month.
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High-Protein Pumpkin Pancakes
Protein Pumpkin Pancakes (Serves: 1)
Ingredients:
- 6 servings egg whites
- 1 serving oat bran cereal
- 1/2 serving ground flaxseeds
- 1 serving ground cinnamon
- 1 serving pancake syrup
- 2 tsps bee pollen
- 1/2 cup stokley’s canned 100% pure pumpkin
Cooking Instructions:
- 1.Mix all dry ingredients together in a small mixing bowl.
- 2.Add egg whites and pumpkin with whisk or whisk with fork until thoroughly mixed. Let mixture sit for 5 minutes.
- 3.Heat non-stick skillet over medium heat.
- 4.Using a ladle, pour pancake mixture on to skillet. Let cook 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden and then flip.
- 5.Place on plates, sprinkle with cinnamon and serve with Pancake Syrup. If desired, add 1/2 cup of wild blueberries, raspberries or blackberries for some extra antioxidant power!
Meal Type:
- Breakfast/ Snack
Cooking Prep:
- 10 Minutes
Cooking Time:
- 5 Minutes
Savory Balsamic Herb Chicken
Savory Balsamic Herb Chicken (Serves: 4)
Bodies by Design Recipes
Ingredients:
- 32 oz boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 cups fat free reduced sodium chicken broth
- 4 tbsps balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsps minced garlic
- 2 tbsps whole wheat flour
- 2 tsps leaves thyme
- 1 tbsp olive
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1.Coat the chicken with the flour. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.
- 2.Add the chicken in 2 batches and cook until well browned on both sides.
- 3.Remove the chicken from the skillet, cover with foil.
- 4.Add the onion and garlic to the skillet and cook until tender.
- 5.Stir the broth, vinegar and thyme in the skillet and heat to a boil. Return the chicken to the skillet.
- 6.Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- 7.Serve the chicken and sauce with rice or mashed potatoes.
- Dinner
- 10 Minutes
- 25 Minutes
- 4 oz lowfat plain yogurt
- 2 tsps garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp leaves oregano
- 1 sprig dill
- 2 tsps olive oil
- 16 oz chicken
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup pared, chopped cucumber, shredded
- 2 tbsps soy sauce, low sodium
- 1 large whole wheat pita
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1.Preheat oven to 400 °F (200 °C).
- 2.In a shallow baking pan, whisk together lemon juice, soy sauce, honey, minced garlic, oil and oregano.
- 3.Add chicken and turn to coat.
- 4.Bake until chicken is cooked through, about 25 to 30 minutes, spooning sauce over chicken once or twice during cooking.
- 5.Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine yogurt, cucumber, dill and garlic powder.
- 6.When chicken is cool enough to handle, slice each piece crosswise into thin strips and place inside pita pocket halves.
- 7.Spoon 2 tablespoons of yogurt sauce into each pita half. Yields 2 halves per serving
- Lunch/ Dinner
- 15 Minutes
- 45 Minutes
- 4 cups grape nuts cereal
- 3/4 cup reduced fat peanut butter
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 1.Microwave peanut butter, corn syrup and sugar in large bowl on high for 2 minutes or until just boiling. Stir well after each minute.
- 2.Add grape-nuts cereal and dried fruit, then mix well.
- 3.Press into greased 13×9″ pan and cool completely.
- 4.Cut into 30 bars and wrap individually in plastic or wax paper.
- 5.Store in tight container at room temperature and enjoy!
- Breakfast
- 10 Minutes
Meal Type:
Cooking Prep:
Cooking Time:
Chicken Souvlaki Sandwich
Chicken Souvlaki Sandwich (Serves: 4)
Ingredients:
Cooking Instructions:
Meal Type:
Cooking Prep:
Cooking Time:
Peanut Butter Raisin Cereal Bar
Peanut Butter Raisin Cereal Bar (Yields: 30 Servings)
Ingredients:
Cooking Instructions:
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Cooking Time:
Homeopath Bryce Wylde
October 21, 2011 by Mark Kravjansky
Filed under The Fit Guru
Bryce Wylde is one of Canada’s leading alternative health experts and a respected homeopathic doctor and nutritionist. He is the director of the Vaughan Medical Centre, and has his own call-in TV show, Wylde on Health, on CP24. His book, The Antioxidant Prescription, is a best-seller.
Kris Simpson interviews homeopathic doctor and nutritionist Bryce Wylde
KRIS – What are the 3 top tips for living the better lifestyle?
BRYCE – Number 1: good cholesterol levels, so get that HDL as high as you possibly can. Outside of diet, exercise is one of the best ways to get HDLs up. Number 2: Aim to incorporate a nutritional protocol in your life that is essentially going to give you the best glycemic index in your diet. It’s studying foods for their antioxidant capacity within each of the categories. Choose proteins with the highest antioxidant capacity, choose fruits and vegetables with the highest antioxidant capacity, choose your grains this way, and choose your drinks this way. It’s called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) dieting. Number 3: understand your life’s agenda. Have some good ideas as to what motivates you, thrives you and what your long-term goals are.
K – What motivated you to become a homeopathic doctor?
B – It was really by virtue of upbringing that my original exposure came. My mother, a single parent, was very much into first-line therapy using natural alternatives, as far back as I can remember really. If it was a cold or a flu, her first go-to would be the herbal or homeopathic medicine cabinet, perhaps some cold-stop therapy or whatever was the latest or greatest in the realm of alternative healing. Her philosophy was always helping the body to work as best as it can on its own as a first.
K – What are the main differences between homeopathic medicine and traditional medicine?
B – Traditional, which is absolutely needed by the way … is not really good at managing chronic issues, like the defunct immune systems perhaps, or the never-well-fit scenarios where – by virtue of genetic predisposition, on top of a stressful lifestyle, on top of a poor diet – your bad genes start to express, and you develop chronicities based on our predisposition. [Traditional doctors] like to be palliative – suppress pain, control pain, suppress this, kill that, eradicate this bacteria or virus – where we’re more of the focus that is the natural medicine at large – homeopathic, naturopathic, nutrition, and certainly what you do Kris, in getting the body fit.
K – Where do you see the future of medicine, because I know prescription drugs will be part of our future, but to what extent?
B – Well, we’ll never get away from prescription medication, and that’s fine, but what we need to do is qualify use of specific prescription medication. Take cholesterol medication for example. “High cholesterol levels” is not much of an epidemic as we’re led to believe. I think it’s much more fuelled by the pharmaceutical industry than really exists …. Lipitor, for example, is the number one selling drug in North America, accounting for more than $13 billion in sales last year, and that’s disproportionate to how many people have elevated cholesterol, plus should otherwise have been given lifestyle and diet recommendations that simply weren’t. If people were compliant, then we would probably be a huge difference and success rate in alternative health care as well as fitness recommendations, but even more so, if people just knew and were educated as to their options.
K – Do you think conditions such as heart disease, cancer and the leading diseases could be cured or decreased?
B – There’s no miracle to natural medicine. There’s no miracle to homeopathy or herbology or even nutrition. The body is the miracle. We have these ingenious machines that we get to use for the course of our lifetimes and if we treat them well, give it the information it requires to run effectively, that’s when the miracles occur. We’re able to get over things like cancer, given the right information and nutrients that our bodies require in those situations. Here’s what we know about genetics. We know we can’t change our genetic predisposition – you can’t change the cards that mom and dad have dealt you – but what we have now learned through epigenetics and nutrigenomics is that you can actually modify your genetic expression through diet, exercise and lifestyle.
K – Is there a secret to anti-aging, from a natural standpoint?
B – Absolutely. If you study the Blue Zones (regions of the world where people commonly live active lives past the age of 100) there’s a lot of documentation written on that, and the focus there was good vs. bad cholesterol, and good cholesterol being the common denominator of importance …. This and other studies are all reflective of diet and lifestyle and leading lives that contributed to less free radical activity …. There’s proof now that while we can’t change our genes, we can absolute influence how they express themselves, and there are genes that essentially control aging – whether it’s slowing down or speeding it up – and those are directly related to free radicals and antioxidants.
For more information on Bryce Wylde visit Vaughanmedicalcentre.com
Fitness Expert Paul Plakas
October 11, 2011 by admin
Filed under The Fit Guru
Exclusive Interview With Paul Plakas
Paul Plakas has been in the fitness industry for over 18 years. Co-owner of Custom Fit Personal Training Studio in Edmonton, Alberta, Paul splits his time between training clients, and hosting his hit TV series “X-Weighted” which can be seen on the Slice Network. I had a chance to speak with Paul to learn more about his incredible journey.
KRIS – Good morning, Paul. Why don’t you start by telling us what happened in high school that started you on your path to fitness.
PAUL – No problem, Kris! When I was a boy, my parents opened a restaurant where they had to work long hours. That meant I spent a lot of time, and ate a lot of meals there. Unfortunately, a typical lunch would be a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake, and I really started to gain weight. During grade 10 I had a traumatic incident – I went to school that day in a tank top and remember the entire school making fun of how I looked. At that time I thought “I’m sick and tired of looking this way” so I convinced my parents to buy me a weight lifting set and started training in their basement.
K – How did you get into the ‘biz’?
P – I graduated in 1990 from the University of Alberta with a Phys Ed degree and started at a local club as a fitness instructor. From there I joined up with some friends and started the first personal training studio in Edmonton, then went on my own to start Custom Fit Personal Training Studio in 1999.
K – So tell us about “X-Weighted.” How did you manage to start a TV show?
P – One of my personal training clients has been in TV her whole life and had an idea for doing a weight loss show where they have cameras follow people around for 6 months to see if they could lose weight. She approached me to host, and the first show was called “Taking it Off” which lasted four years. Then we changed the format of the show and called it “X-Weighted.” We’re about to start filming the fourth season, called “X-Weighted Families.”
K – On your website, you mention the Top 10 Rules on Exercising. Why don’t you share your favourite with our readers?
P – Sure. I suggest that you avoid lying down or seated movements – they are the two laziest positions that the human body can be in. Most people sit down or lie down already too much so why do the same at the gym? If you want to expend energy and be a functional person, I suggest training with multidirectional movement patterns that have you on your feet.
K – Any last words of wisdom for our readers?
P – Yes. If your goal is weight loss, I recommend that you try to hang out with people who have like-minded goals – if you hang out with people who are interested in keeping in shape, they care about their health and are into fitness, then you are more likely to do the same thing – try to hang out with more ‘fit’ people.
K- Thanks Paul!
