Shake It Up or Chew It Up? Tips: Protein Shakes vs Whole Foods

Should I drink a protein shake after exercise?

Whey protein shakes are a great source of protein, but whole foods are great too.

After exercise, it is actually more important to refuel with carbohydrates, but combining protein with that is even better. There should be a 2:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein after exercise because:

• Carbohydrates stored in the muscle are called glycogen and fat. Glycogen is what the body uses during exercise as its energy source. So, it needs to be replenished for proper recovery.
• Protein kicks in when the glycogen is depleted. This happens when the activity is continuous, lasting more than an hour OR if carbohydrates have been restricted from your diet.

After  exercise, you could eat a couple handfuls of pistachios, which have 8 grams of carbohydrates and 6 grams of protein per serving.  Combine this with a piece of fruit, which increases my carbohydrate intake.

Another option would be an apple with a tablespoon of natural peanut butter. Whole food options also fit into your lifestyle change, instead of a shake, which can feel like a diet – because you get to chew!

What is a good protein shake choice?

Protein shakes can be either whey or soy based. Choose WHEY! Whey is a great source of protein, because it has a very high biological value in absorption, retention, and actual use in the body. Be careful in choosing your whey protein shake to look for amount of calories per serving, artificial sugar, and flavoring.

But again, the egg (straight from God), has the best ratio of amino acids on the biological value of protein!

Eating soy foods such as edamame or tofu is a great and safe addition to your diet. But high concentrations of soy protein, such as a soy protein shake, is NOT recommended for women over 40. There is an increased risk of uterine hyperplasia and even cancer. Be careful not to add too much to your diet.   

So, what will you choose? Healthy dietary choices are just as important as the exercise we add to our lifestyle.  Need more tips? Ask us for more healthy diet tips.  We are here to help! 

LUNGES! Are they hurting your knees? Keep reading!

How do I do lunges without hurting my knees?

To start learning the proper form, you may want to hold onto something to keep yourself safe.

Start with your feet a slightly wider than your natural width apart, one foot in front of the other with both toes pointing forward. The back toe will have a strong tendency to turn out because that is your body’s natural response to help balance yourself. But, keep it forward.

You will keep your back tall and abs tight, and bend both knees. The back knee will get about 1-2 inches from the floor when your front leg is parallel with the floor. Getting the front leg parallel to the floor is something to work toward with a lunge, so it may not be appropriate for you if you are just beginning.

Make sure you never bend the front leg so much the knee comes out over the toes. Now, press back up to your starting position, concentrating slightly more on the front leg to get you up. If you press up too hard with the back leg, you are working more of that leg’s calf muscle instead of your front leg’s hamstrings, quadriceps, and glutes.

3 of the biggest mistakes with lunges

3 of the biggest mistakes I see people make while performing lunges are:

• Taking too small of a step forward to start the lunge. This small step almost ensures that the knee will bend first and end up over your toes. Take a wider step and begin bending the hip slightly before your knee.
• Turning the back hip and foot out for stability. Keep both hips and feet forward.
• Bending the chest forward over the front leg. That adds stress to the knee.

Don’t forget to:

• Keep the chest back to help you work your core.
• Keep your abs tight. This will provide you with stability.
• Check yourself in the mirror to see if you’re doing your lunges safely and effectively.   
  

Now, take these skills and practice, practice, practice! Check our schedule and join us for a class soon!

Praise for Personal Training: One Customer's "Aha" Moment

We received such a wonderful note from a customer who wanted to thank us for helping her during personal training sessions; this customer was completely OK with letting us share her feedback with you, and we are so glad!   Her view of the training sessions may help put into perspective the benefits of working along side a professional who is there to help you reach a goal, better yourself, and feel your best.  We hope this may reach someone who is "on the fence" about trying personal training or had not thought of the benefits! We appreciate our customers so very, very much - and their feedback!!!!!!  Here are her words in a specific note to a trainer at Giverny:

First of all I want to express how very much I appreciate and respect your gifts as a personal trainer.  I know that you have an understanding of the fear and uncertainties that a new client probably brings along when they sign-up to take the steps to get back "in shape".   My experience, while one of the hardest things I've ever done, was one of the most gratifying and empowering.   I know I worked hard, but somehow through your focus and attention to my strengths and weaknesses, you pulled the best out of me.  That is a skill set that you should be proud of - it was and is the motivation and encouragement that makes me have hope and determination to "stay the course", no matter my few detours along the way.

 

I think I mentioned how I came to realize that more than hitting some magical weight or trying to achieve some unrealistic magazine version of what a good body looks like, my "aha" moment has been recognizing that I just want to be strong.   I realize that, even at 49, after so many years of never caring about my intake of calories and non-existent exercies routine, I could and was recovering my strength and athleticism.   The weight loss has become a bonus and secondary to my desire to continue to feel the energy, strength and positive vibe that comes along with a new healthy lifestyle.

 

I continue to work on re-wiring my brain to prioritize the discipline sticking with exercise in my schedule.  Life is always going to be busy, but I only have this one body, right?!  :-)

We love the "aha" moment!   Again, we are so thankful to our customers for sharing feedback.  It helps shape us into the trainers/instructors/leaders that we need and want to be! 

More Than Just a Customer....

What comes to mind when we think of the people we see throughout the week at Giverny? Certainly, we are proud of and thankful for our talented instructors and personal trainers, and we enjoy seeing these people so much! But, one of the reasons we all LOVE our job so much at Giverny is due to THE CUSTOMERS!  Those who walk through our front door are more than just customers to us.  In fact, we have a hard time even using that word to describe them.  Once you attend classes for a while, you will see what we mean.  We genuinely melt into a family here. We care about you when you are sick or absent from class. We pray for you and think of your well-being.  We have witnessed circles of prayer after class before. We laugh together, cry together, defend each other, and tease each other.  We are a family that ALWAYS welcomes in someone new. It is impossible to say how many times we have seen a current customer welcome a new customer and begin to do whatever they can to make them feel comfortable and at home.  We strive to make this our difference; we enjoy people and hope they enjoy us, too.  We will never go out of the way to make you the center of attention if you aren't interested in extra attention, of course, (we know some of you prefer to slip in and slip out again, which is just fine!) but if you need a friend, an accountability partner, encouragement, hope, fellowship, or if you just enjoy a smiling face next to you in class, you WILL find this within our walls, we guarantee it.  We are so proud of all of you that fill our classes each day! Thank you for being the wonderful people you are!

What is Special About Giverny?

So many things are special about Giverny! We'd like to share some of our thoughts on this.  Besides the beautiful space that we've been so lucky to utilize, we think the most special thing about Giverny is certainly the people!  The heart of Giverny lies in the instructors and personal trainers that are so talented and dedicated in guiding customers each day in to a fit lifestyle.  All of our instructors are trained to modify a large class to fit many fitness levels, so everyone feels welcome and encouraged.  Of course, each instructor has their own personality and brings their own, unique qualities to their class, but in addition to this, each one is loving, empathetic, and full of energy, which brings life and soul to the classes we offer.  Each instructor or personal trainer you see at Giverny is truly the backbone of our business!

Personal Coach is another specialty we offer; it is the ingenious idea of Jim Mills.  It's on the first floor and consists of top quality Nautilus exercise equipment.  What is so unique about Jim's idea? The removal of the main roadblock in personal training - finding time to meet that fits the trainer AND customer's schedule!  With Personal Coach, a certified, professional trainer will give you an initial assessment and plan, and then you as the customer can come in and workout any day or time during business hours.  The trainers will set up the equipment for you each time you come in, and every two weeks they will change your weights and repetition limits for lifting.  Personal Coach also has a full selection of cardio equipment, including treadmills, stair climbers, stepmills, elliptical machines, and bikes.  The Personal Coach area can also be used as a fitness center where our customers can utilize the cardio and strengthening machines without the assistance of a personal trainer.  This service can be used in place of a class if we do not have a class to meet your schedule or need that day. 

So many options and so many amazing people make our facility so special to us! We've had wonderful feedback from many of you on our instructor personalities and abilities, our variety of offerings, and our "charm". We very much appreciate that all of YOU feel that we are special as well. We thank you for supporting US as we continue to support YOU!

How Did It All Begin - Part 2: Giverny's Name

Many have wondered not only how to pronounce our unique name (ja-vair-nee!), but where exactly our name comes from.  Read on to learn the answer from Kelly's perspective!

"Missy and I were going crazy trying to come up with the perfect name. We threw out so many options you wouldn't believe!  We decided we wanted the name to reflect the feeling we wanted people to experience when they walked into the door, not the sweat they were dripping with when they left.

One afternoon, at a family gathering, we were looking at pictures from Missy's parents' trip to France.  We were admiring how the painter, Claude Monet, had been inspired from the beautiful gardens of Giverny, France.  That was the feeling - inspiration and beauty!

Many of Monet's famous paintings were from the village of Giverny.  We decorated each room with copies of his paintings and named our studio rooms after our three favorites, "The Waterlily", "The Bridge", and "The Garden".  We were blessed to have two local, wonderful artists offer their services to paint wall murals.  Sherri Johnson painted the picture of France you will see on your right side when you walk into the front door.  She also painted beautiful scenery along with the name of each studio room outside of each door.  Patricia Manich was the other artist who recreated two of Claude Monet's paintings for us.  The first fills the wall in the reception area behind the couch.  The second is the painting of "The Waterlily", appropriately located in the Waterlily studio."

So, as a result of careful and prayerful consideration, we have selected what we feel is just right for our building, our atmosphere, our people, our "vibe".  A special thank you to those local artists who helped in the early days to make our building burst with color and feeling. We feel so fortunate to have had the assistance we've needed along the way to make our studio special and unique! We are so thankful that it has come together so well and makes so many people so happy! 

Giverny: How Did It All Begin?

Have you ever wondered how a business began? How the idea formed? Where the people involved came from?  Giverny (pronounced ja-vair-nee, in case you've ever wondered!) is a locally owned business, started by two people who saw a need for a warm, inviting atmosphere for people to share their fitness goals, desires, needs, & overall journeys. You might be interested to know just how Kelly and Missy took a small idea and created the place we all know and love as Giverny Fitness Studio. Read on to find out more, from Kelly's point of view!

Part 1

God’s will.

I was given the idea and sat on it for awhile. I began talking about it with my family, which happens to include Missy Cook, my sister-in-law.  One afternoon, I called Missy and asked her if she would like to be my partner in this business. Happily, to my surprise, she said, “Yes”!  From that moment on, Missy turned my idea into an actual business. She has an MBA and a Biomedical Engineering degree, so lucky me!!

We began searching locations around Warsaw. Missy created a business plan, and I started recruiting some of the most amazing instructors you will still see today at Giverny. We would teach Zumba in the elementary school gymnasiums, and the body sculpt instructors and I would train together in the basement of Silveus Insurance.

One day, I got a phone call from my neighbor, Theresa Thrasher with a suggestion for our new business. She suggested meeting Jim Mills. Jim was Warsaw High School boys’cross country coach along with running his own business, Personal Coach. He said he was ready to retire from running his business but still loved the fitness side of working with people. And by the way, his family had a building on South Buffalo Street, right next door to Expressions, that just might work for our business.

We loved Jim, and we loved that building! So, we purchased Jim’s equipment, the building, and hired Skyline builders. The building is over 100 years old, and it looked like it!! There was partial renovation already on the first floor, but the 2nd and 3rd floor were 100 years worth of storage of the previous businesses. In fact there wasn’t even access to the 3rd floor except through the freight elevator. We had definite ideas on how we wanted each of the three floors used and how we wanted the rooms set up, and Skyline builders did an amazing job at creating what you see today. God is good!

Want to know more about our story? Keep checking for our next post to hear about our name, our staff, and more. We are excited to be able to share our history with you!