Merritt Clubs Blog

Recently I asked a friend what they thought I should blog about. “Sex” was the answer. I laughed. All I could think was fitness is more than looking good naked. If that is your only motivation to get fit, you will most likely never get there. You have to find something that challenges you, inspires you and motivates you to get your lazy behind off the couch every day. Trust me. Looking good naked, isn’t enough.

On second thought, however I remembered that Valentine's Day is coming up and realized that sex is actually a perfect topic.

For a lot of people going to the gym is like unsuccessful online dating. You are trying so hard to get in shape, or find the right mate, but nothing is working. You can’t seem to get what you want no matter how hard you try...and it seems like you’ve tried EVERYTHING. Strangely, we often find someone worth dating in the weirdest places when we aren’t looking for them at all. What gives?

The truth is if you are looking for someone else to fulfill you, then you are doomed to be unhappy. It starts with you. You have to love yourself before you can love anyone else. A welcomed side effect of self-improvement, of loving yourself first, is that others find you more desirable. Fitness is no different; the side effect of being fit, is a rocking body that you worked hard to earn. If you are trying to get the rocking body without being fit - without earning it - you may be that desperate online single looking for love in all the wrong places.

And, to satisfy my friend, the fitter you are, the better your sex life will be. Research shows sexual dysfunction is more likely among women and men with poor physical and emotional health. Moreover, sexual dysfunction is highly associated with overall well-being. In the United States there is a surprisingly high prevalence of sexual dysfunction in both sexes. It is estimated that 31% of men and 43% of women experience some form of sexual dysfunction. That’s right - more women than men experience sexual dysfunction. Your physical and emotional health are the key.

Want to get a date, look better naked, have better sex, and generally improve all aspects of life? Focus on taking care of yourself first; loving yourself and prioritizing your fitness will take care of most of your problems. It’s that simple, and yet so difficult.

Joanna Meade (view bio) is a NSCA Certified Personal Trainer at the Downtown Athletic Club. She is a Level OneCrossFit instructor and competitor. She can be reached at Merritt Athletic Clubs Downtown Club at 410-332-0906 or click here for a Free CrossFit Session.

Fitness is more than looking good naked. Granted, looking good naked is a welcomed side effect of being fit, but it shouldn’t be your only motivation to put down that cookie and lace up your sneakers. Weight, or more appropriately body fat, is only one measure of your health. It’s the one everyone obsesses about. However, there is so much more to it. Blood pressure, body fat, bone density, triglycerides, posture, flexibility, muscle mass, good and bad cholesterol, even your mental health are things we can observe to determine your overall health.

You have to think of your health as a continuum. Every night you don’t get enough sleep, every day you don’t drink enough water, every hangover, every skipped workout and extra slice of pizza; they may not look like they are affecting you now, but rest assured they are. Everything we do, or don’t do, gradually pushes us toward greater fitness or toward morbidity. Being fit is the best way to protect yourself against disease. It's not just something you do to look good for bikini season.

Fitness is a way of life. It has to be a habit. Otherwise, you’ll never gain any traction.

The next time you feel intimidated by some hoss deadlifting 500 pounds, or that gazelle of a woman effortlessly bounding along on her treadmill, remember that we are not all starting from the same point on the continuum. Fitness is a journey. Everyone’s is different. Regardless of where you are on your journey, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Don’t despair that you’ll never look as good as that hoss or gazelle across the gym. Your workout is moving you a step in the right direction on the health continuum. And the next time you tell yourself you’ll make up for that overindulgence at the gym tomorrow, remember that it all adds up. You can't out exercise a bad diet. All your actions outside of the gym need to support your efforts inside the gym to make any progress on the continuum. Keep moving toward fitness and you'll have much more than a beach body. You'll safeguard your life.

There are a host of resources at Merritt Athletic Clubs that can help you continually progress your fitness. We have excellent personal trainers, group fitness instructors, massage therapists, dietitians, a meal service and even physical therapists, all on site. Improve your overall health by taking advantage of these available resources.

Joanna Meade (view bio) is a NSCA Certified Personal Trainer at the Downtown Athletic Club. She is a Level OneCrossFit instructor and competitor. She can be reached at Merritt Athletic Clubs Downtown Club at 410-332-0906 or click here for a Free CrossFit Session.

One of the most popular diet plans out there today is the Paleo Diet, which focuses on lean meat, vegetables, fish, eggs, and nuts. The concept is based on what our Paleolithic ancestors supposedly ate, and has garnered a lot of attention in fitness circles and the press as the perfect answer to the highly processed foods we consume in the modern world. The Paleo diet might support a healthy lifestyle, but is the Paleo diet also an effective way to lose weight?

A panel of diet experts was hired by U.S. News & World Report to review 28 popular diets to determine if they were effective for both long-term and short-term weight loss. They also looked at the safety, nutrition statistics of the diet, and whether it was easy to follow.

The top-rated diet on the list was the DASH diet, and last on the list was the Paleo diet, which was cited as having studies that were “few, small, and short.”

Three of the five studies on the Paleo diet plan had no control group that randomly assigned them to either the Paleo diet or another diet. As a result, without the corresponding control group following another diet, study researchers could not tell if people lost weight because they were simply participating in a study or on a particular diet.

Two other studies that did have control groups assigned participants with heart disease or type 2 diabetes to either a Paleo diet or a Mediterranean diet consisting of whole grains, fruit, olive oil, fish, vegetables and low-fat dairy products. After 12 weeks, the Paleo eaters had lower blood sugar levels, but did not lose any more weight than the Mediterranean group.

Other trials have tried to answer the question of how a particular diet stacks up in the long run. Comparisons of diets such as Atkins, Weight Watchers, or the Zone diet have shown that none of them were better than others. The most important factor in the success of the diet was whether people stuck to them, with more extreme diets like the high-protein Atkins diet being harder to stay on.

If you are trying to lose extra weight, there is no hard evidence that a Paleo diet will get rid of those extra pounds.

For more information on how we can help you reach your fitness goals, please contact us.

“If you never had problems losing or maintaining your weight in your 20s or even in your early 30s, you may not be ready for what happens next,” warns Madelyn H. Fernstrom, Ph.D., director of the Weight Management Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Your metabolism slows by 5 percent each decade. Compared to age 25, you’ll burn about 100 fewer calories a day at 35 and 200 fewer at 45. Do nothing, and you could gain eight to 12 pounds a year.”

Read more: Boost Metabolism - Lose Weight - Middle-Age Weight Loss - Good Housekeeping

Is this where you find yourself? Running just to stay in place? It may not be your metabolism slowing down at all. It may be about body fat. The more body fat you have, the fewer calories you will burn. As we age, our bodies develop more fat than muscle unless we work at building muscle and keeping fit. Merritt Athletic Clubs are a great place to get help.

Ask for a body-fat reading at your health club or from your doctor. Then chart your progress approximately every three months. You can also check for a general idea of body fat. If you can pinch an inch or more of fat at your waist or upper arm, you are carrying more fat than you should.

Then it's time to set up workouts with an expert to gradually lose weight and build muscle. The key is to lose the weight slowly so it stays off and to develop the habit of a regular fitness routine. Many weight loss plans fail because healthy eating and healthy workouts never become a habit. Just as we can have a habit of snacking and late night pizzas, we can develop the habit of exercising and eating appropriately. It has to become a lifestyle change and not just a weight loss plan.

Exercise has so many side benefits beyond weight loss that it should be an easy habit for us to develop. We just plain feel better when we move more and sit less. Merritt Athletic Clubs can help you feel good and lose weight all at the same time.

For more information, http://www.merrittclubs.com/contact-us/index.html

or visit our website http://www.merrittclubs.com/

A healthy lifestyle will make you look and feel good. Eating right and exercising will give you a naturally high amount of energy to keep you active throughout the day. If you want to change your lifestyle and follow a healthy regimen, try these simple steps.

Get Enough Sleep

Your body depends on a full night’s rest to gain the strength it needs for the next day. Insufficient sleep will cause your body to feel run down and sluggish, even if you miss just an hour. Keep your sleep schedule as balanced as you possibly can to boost your energy level up.

Mental Health

Using your brain and exercising its ability is a key factor in eliminating stress. Reading a good book will allow your body to relax and keep your mind from thinking about the stressors in your life. Yoga and Pilates are excellent forms of exercise that release stress as well. Positive relationships with friends and family actually do the body good as well. Smiling and laughing reduces stress while negative relationships can cause worry and physical conditions such as headaches and stomachaches.

Good Diet

Eating nutritious meals full of fruits, vegetables, nuts, lean meats, and grains will keep you on the right track. Try to avoid sodium high and greasy foods as much as you can. These foods will also increase your physical performance and you’ll notice the difference week by week. Remember to drink plenty of water to provide nourishment to your body and flush out toxins.

Physical Exercise

You can prevent health issues by working out at least 3 days a week. Mild to moderate exercise is all you need to keep up with your healthy lifestyle. At Merritt Athletic Clubs, we have all different forms of exercise for you to participate in. You can choose from core, cardio, strength and interval training. We also have sports clubs such as running, aquatics, swim team, and basketball to keep your energy levels balanced.

If you’d love to participate in one or more of our clubs, contact us!

"Keeping a strict workout routine at Merritt Athletic Club in Eldersburg of four-hour sessions five-days-a-week, Kendir cut all carbohydrates from his diet and replaced them with protein and vegetables.

One year later, Kendir is now 120 pounds lighter and in the best shape of his life.

“It’s a huge euphoria,” he said. “I can’t even explain how amazing it feels. After 120 pounds, I’m a completely different person.”

The weight loss sparked to a holistic change in his life. Kendir is a lot more confident, those social issues have evaporated, and he feels great physically, emotionally and mentally.

It all began with the New Year’s resolution one year ago.

Resolutions are a big driver of new members at the Eldersburg Merritt Athletic Club, according to programs manager Andrew Dibble.

The gym sees an annual influx of members in the first few weeks of the new year, as people are holding true to their resolutions of weight loss and increased health, Dibble said.

Kendir’s success story is one that can give anyone hope, Dibble said.

“Stories like his are what make people walk through the door every day. It gives that belief that anybody can do it,” Dibble said.

Kendir now works as a staff member at the place he lost all that weight.

As for a 2013 New Year’s resolution, Kendir is still pondering his next self-made promise.

“It’s hard to come up with one, I have accomplished so much in the last year that, you know, what do I set for myself now? So I haven’t set any yet,” he said."

-Brett Lake, Carroll County Times

The weight loss game can be very frustrating and overwhelming.

We hear so many different ideas and theories that are supposed to control weight gain but we are all different and the same thing does not work for all of us.

For some of us it is not just about calories in and calories out. Especially woman over the age of 40.

Hormones have a great effect on weight and fat loss.

The way to understand what works for us as an individual is to understand the concept of HEC : Hunger , Energy , and Cravings

Of the 3 food groups that are essential for every meal ...Protein, Fibrous Carbs, and Starchy Carbs , adjusting the amounts of each according to our hunger, energy and cravings is the way to control fat loss and weight gain.

We have to be our own detectives to discover the best amounts of each for every meal to control weight and fat loss.

Please refer to Metaboliceffect.com for more information on this concept.

Written by: Michele Mandel

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