Bouncing Back: Nutrition Hacks for Mounjaro Butt and Ozempic Face

You’ve gotten great results after going on GLP-1 medications for weight loss or to control diabetes, which feels excellent, but there’s a surprise side effect (or two) that isn’t so great: a flat butt and/or saggy skin on your face! Not super fun, but those problems are common after semaglutide weight loss.

It’s not just about looks — it’s about health, too. The decreased muscle mass that comes with appetite-suppressing weight loss medications can lead to osteoporosis and frailty during old age. And the sagging features of “Ozempic Face” correlate to decrease collagen production, which also affects joint health. That’s a recipe for a disaster if I ever heard one!

Move It: How to Get More Activity in Your Day

It is common (but definitely not normal) that we find ourselves more sedentary than we’d like to be. There are moments where it becomes more obvious:

Maybe your doctor has told you to move more. Or maybe you want to lose weight. Or maybe, if you have ADHD like me, you want to jump out of your skin after sitting still for a while and you know moving around makes you feel better. BTW, if you have ADHD or are on the autism spectrum this feeling is pretty normal (although still annoying).

According to a study published in 2023, high step count populations (>8,763 steps a day) have a 60% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to low step populations (<2k steps a day) and a 51% lower risk of developing Cardiovascular disease. Even small amounts make a big difference. Participants who got 2500-2800 steps per day decrease risk of CVD by 11% and death by 8%. What this means is that moving more makes you healthier, feel better, and less likely to die for any reason.

Get Better Results from Your Workouts With This Time-Tested Method

Ever wonder why some people seem to get better results out of their workouts than other people? Chances are, if you talk to a gym rat who knows what they’re doing, they’ll tell you about the strategy behind their workouts — periodization.

Kind of like how babies learn to crawl before they learn to walk, a good workout program should build on itself in a systematic way. Another way to think about it is like gears on a 10-speed bike (or in a car). You start out in the lowest gear, which gets you ready for the next gear, and so on.

There are all sorts of ways to build periodized programs, but just so we don’t get in the weeds, I’ll focus on only one way: a workout program built for my typical client.

5 Reasons Why Sleep Is the Best Health Hack

“Coffee: because I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” said the smiling Don Draper-looking man, gesturing carelessly with his mug of black coffee, which caused a little to splash out. This was on a magnet at a coffee shop I worked at when I was younger. Funny, yes. True, also yes.

Sleep is one of the most important things a person can do to live linger, get better results in the gym, be more productive, and be happier all around. It’s also my favorite way to be healthier! As a personal trainer and nutrition coach, I recommend it to literally every single client I work with.

Fitness Trackers - Top Picks for 2024-2025

Fitness trackers are everywhere these days, and it can be overwhelming to choose the right one for you. In this post, we’ll look at several top trackers based on features, versatility, budget, and app integration. I’ll also add a little paragraph about who each of these watches might be best for, since that’s not often something you see in blogs. And if you’re anything like me, making sure I get something that fits my needs is super important. There’s something for everyone here, so let’s dive in!

5 Supplements Most People Should Take

Vitamins and supplements are a hotly contested topic in the health and fitness world, with some claiming they are a worthless way to have expensive pee, while others claim they are absolutely essential. The fact of the matter is that both can be true, depending on the product, how it is made, and who is taking them.

In this blog post, we’ll explore five core supplements that most people should take, overview what to look for when choosing supplements, and how to decide how much (if any) of these is right for you.

Spice Up Your Healthy Meals: Flavor Combinations That Transform Your Cooking

Recipes are great and all, but sometimes you just need to make something quick and dirty. The problem is, most people don’t understand what flavor combinations will get the desired result, so we end up sticking to salt and pepper. As a result of that, we think healthy home-cooked meals are boring and end up ordering out.

But what if everything you need for mouth-watering flavor is already in your pantry? With just a little direction, you can have variety in your life — without ordering take-out!

Recover Better to Max Out Your Workouts (And Your Life)

You know that phrase “less is more?” It’s kind of a metaphor for recovery activities. You can go balls-to-the-wall in your workouts, but if you aren’t recovering optimally, your efforts in the gym might be wasted — or at least diminished.

Easy Meals You Can Make In 15 Minutes

These days, it’s pretty common to have a schedule that’s busting at the seams. It’s easy to just give up and pick up dinner somewhere — but that can get expensive and it’s usually not very healthy.

In this blog post, I’ll give you the formula for making fast, healthy meals at home. Are they perfect? No, but they are better than picking up take-out somewhere. Do they taste good? Yes!

The formula is simple — protein, veggie, carb, and sauce. Here’s the skinny:

How to Meal Prep Like a Champ by Batch Cooking

Nobody has enough time to do everything — we have jobs, families and social obligations on top of the basic things we need to do to take care of ourselves. It’s no wonder that people tend to lean so heavily on fast food, even though we know it’s bad for us!

In this blog post, we’ll look at a few different methods of batch cooking, a meal prep method that helps you save time while preparing tasty meals that also happen to be healthy. Are you ready?

Make Your Own Fresh Gluten-Free Pasta

Fresh pasta shouldn’t be a luxury — it should be a human right. As part of the healthy Mediterranean diet, pasta is meant to be celebrated and enjoyed. But what about those of us who can’t eat gluten due to celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity? There is a serious gluten-free foods deficiency happening in some parts of the United States right now (especially in Memphis, Tennessee — where I live), which is something I’d like to see corrected. Honestly, it’s as though people decided you aren’t eating gluten just to annoy them or something. So, what do you do when nobody gives you what you want? You make the thing you want while cussing those insensitive gluten-eaters!

Why Water Is Awesome, How to Drink More of It, and How to Optimize Hydration

It’s easy to think about macronutrients like protein, fat and carbs, and overlook the most important nutrient – water. Water helps the body move better, decreases pain, boosts brain function, increases alertness, relieves gas and constipation, and so much more. People have written entire books about the benefits of water, and for good reason — it’s awesome.

How I Lowered My High Cholesterol Without Meds - 10 Key Factors Your Doctor May Not Tell You

I was 33 when my doctor’s office called and told me that I had high cholesterol, and they were calling me in a prescription for statins.

“Sometimes it’s just genetic,“ they said, but I knew the side effects of statin medications were not something I wanted. So if going on Lipitor was something that could be prevented with diet and exercise, that’s what I wanted to do.

To be fair, most patients aren’t willing to make the lifestyle changes necessary to control their cholesterol naturally, so I’m not going to go down the path of blaming the doctors and big pharma. There’s a time and a place for what they do. But not for me, an otherwise healthy adult male.

Home Workout Must-Haves: Essential Amazon Finds for Fitness Enthusiasts

At-home workout programs are here to stay, and the trend is only getting bigger. The past few years have made people realize how much time and money they can save by doing their workouts at home, rolling that extra time they save into doing the things they love.

While it is true that you can get a great bodyweight workout, sooner or later you’re going to want to shake things up. For anybody looking to add a few tools to the toolbox, this guide is for you.

Let’s explore a few things you’ll want to have for great at-home workouts that keep you progressing and give you great results. Now all you’ll need to do is figure out what to do with all that extra time!

Gary BerglundApril 17, 2024home gym, home workout, amazon, best amazon finds

7 Moves to Beat Back Pain

Back pain sucks, but that’s not news. About 80% of all people will experience it at some point in their lives, and most of the time it will be lower back pain.

Why is it so common? Lots of reasons: poor posture, sitting, sitting, and sitting. That’s not a typo.

Sitting places the structures in your body into weird positions and lets certain muscles get used to staying in shortened and tight positions. for low back pain, the main muscles affected are usually the hip flexors and hamstrings, which affect the position of the pelvis, which the affects the position of the backbone (yes, I’m using a colloquial term for spinal column, because science terms tend to make normal people’s eyes glaze over like a Krispy Kreme donut). Your glutes and hip rotators (especially piriformis) can get super tight, too!

Folate Facts: What It Is, What It Does, Where to Get It, and Where NOT to (You might Be Surprised)

Overlooking the boring-sounding Vitamin B9, also called folate, is the biggest mistake you could make when fine-tuning your nutrition and supplement routine.

This nutrient does a lot. It helps DNA replicate for repairs, helps red blood cells multiply, slows aging, promotes muscle growth, acts as an antioxidant, helps make neurotransmitters like dopamine, helps make hemoglobin, improves fertility, and reduces the risk of birth defects and cancer.

health, mental health, nutrition, mthfrGary BerglundMarch 6, 2024mthfr, folate, folic acid, Methylation

Before You Change What You Eat, Change HOW You Eat - A Case for Eating Slowly

Did you know that it was fashionable for people in the Victorian era to chew their food to absolute mush before swallowing it? 2,000 years before that, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates recommended thoroughly chewing food before swallowing and consuming it in moderation for good health. Turns out, they were onto something.

Boujee-But-Simple French Lentils

The only thing fancy about this recipe is that it uses French Mirepoix. But first, some nerdy education about why you should be using lentils, which are a powerhouse of nutrition and are known for their numerous health benefits.

gut health, nutrition, plant based, recipesGary BerglundJanuary 23, 2024lentils, fiber, gut health, bean recipes, recipes

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