Dr. Counet: Mr. Gardellini, first of all, I want to wish you a happy 84th birthday today. I can report that indeed you have the physical and mental equivalence of a healthy man in his late forties or early fifties. Congratulations!

Carlos Gardellini: Thanks, Doc. I’m very lucky. Actually, it was back at the turn of the century when I truly discovered the secret of exercise: it’s the fountain of youth!

Dr. Counet: I have seen your holopage – what we used to call a webpage – from that era. I must point out, www.BodyByCarlos.com was certainly way ahead of its time. The beginning of this century was revolutionary for brain science. At that time, we’d known for centuries that exercise was the key to maintaining physical youth. However, it was only in the 2nd decade that we discovered that our knowledge of the brain was flawed.

Carlos Gardellini: That’s right. Back in 2014, when I started studying for my first certification in personal training, I stumbled across this very flaw. Since the time of the ancient pharaohs we had always believed that we have all the neurons we’ll ever have by age five. But we were wrong! Brain researchers were fully convinced this was so, until we were finally able to develop the necessary tools and discovered that we can grow our brains continuously. There is no reason that a person of any age cannot develop and grow adolescent brain cells – neurons – through exercise.

Dr. Counet: And this knowledge changed your life?

Carlos Gardellini: Well, yes and no. In general – with a single exception – I’ve always kept myself in pretty good shape. Why? Before the cancer-curing nanotech breakthroughs of the 2030s, cancer devastated my family. One oncologist told my uncle four decades ago, “these cancers should have killed you. They didn’t for two reasons: modern medicine and your fantastic shape, even in your eighties.” So I’ve always had the personal motivation to stay fit. And, professionally, I’ve had access to incredible NASA studies. A 40-year old can become 70+ physically after just several months in space. Decades of data on earth shows that a 70-year-old has a 1-in-2 chance of breaking a hip, and a 1-in-5 chance of dying, after just a simple fall. NASA’s conclusion? Exercise and trick a body in its seventies into becoming decades younger.

Dr. Counet: What was that exception?

Carlos Gardellini: Back in 2008 I appeared in a multiple-award-winning documentary, Orphans of Apollo, which chronicled a project I worked on at the turn of the century. It scared me, seeing two vastly different versions of myself on the big screen, just seven years apart. Old friends didn’t recognize the present – fat – Gardellini! New friends didn’t recognize the younger – fit – Gardellini! Stress, age, aches, pains and laziness had taken their toll. So I set myself a goal: I’d use all my hi-tech knowledge to develop the world’s most efficient-and-safe training program. And in 2011, at the age of 50, I returned to the Haley’s Comet Marathon I’d run at 25, and beat my own time from 1986. I ran 12 minutes faster and have never looked back. All my training and life-extension tricks have been on BodyByCarlos.com for decades.

Dr. Counet: Is that what made you decide to become a Private Trainer (PT) in middle-age?

Carlos Gardellini: Only partly. The real blame lies with Mr. Lucas Kohlberg, who was the boss at the World Class Fitness Center in Brussels. Lucas had known me since my Fat Gardellini days, when I first started working out there with my own PT, Mr. Lynx Teta-Delozege Tepatondele. In early 2014, I first approached Lucas with an idea for the club to offer a version of one of my high-efficiency training regimes, “The 7-Minute Workout”. Lucas shared The Big Secret with me: worldwide there is a chronic shortage of middle-aged PTs offering specialized instruction for an increasingly older clientele. It was Lucas, with substantial encouragement from Lynx, who convinced me to get fully certified as a full-time PT and begin teaching classes and offering private training. That’s when I devoted myself to specialist training, literally offering people the mental, physical and spiritual fountain of youth. I knew it right there and then: now I get to enjoy the life of a young man, all over again! I’ve actually spent over half of my adult life getting paid to stay young and helping others to do the same thing. If that doesn’t motivate a person to get out of bed in the morning, what will?

Dr. Counet: Any current goal(s)?

Carlos Gardellini: Sure. Haley’s Comet returns in just 16 years, in 2061. How cool would it be to run a marathon underneath it again, at age 100, and beat my times at 25, 50 and 75?

‘Suddenly’, topics like wellness, workplace wellness, burnout prevention and work-life balance seem to be hot. Why the inverted commas?

These issues are, of course, not sudden at all. For quite some time, therapists, counselors and GPs have been seeing an increase in mental health problems resulting in burnout. That’s no surprise in a world with ever-increasing pressures on our work-life balance.

Fitness is a crucial part of wellness, but a person who is fit doesn’t necessarily feel well. Wellness is a much more complex subject that poses such life questions as: what motivates me, what makes me tick, how do I relate to the people around me, am I happy with my social life, how do I cope with stress, how do I maintain work-life balance.

Countless books have been written on these subjects. Yet in the end books are geared towards a mass audience. What counts is how we go about integrating book wisdom in our daily lives and how well we succeed in doing so.

The EU has now acknowledged that the rapidly increasing number of people experiencing burnout is not so much a question of fitness as a question of wellness.

In June 2014, the European Commission (OSHA) published a report calculating the cost of work-related stress. It concluded that “stress is the second most frequently reported work-related health problem in Europe.” Work-related health problems refer generally to mental health problems, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders and diabetes, to name but a few on the list. Estimated at €617 billion for 2013 alone, this cost is comprised of factors such as absenteeism, health care costs, social welfare costs and loss of productivity. That’s kind of a big deal.

Belgian Wellness Law (Welzijnswet)

Belgium has now become the first country to create a law specifically addressing the prevention of burnout. This law states that companies on Belgian soil must offer workers protection against psycho-social risks* (the fancy term used for risk factors affecting Burnout). By 1 March 2015 organizations must have made a so-called psychosocial risk assessment in their organization to help their employees in ‘being well’ and to help minimize their risk of becoming ill. Other countries are sure to follow suit quickly in my opinion (for more information check www.life5.eu/wellness-law2015).

So what’s the missing piece of the puzzle?

Often ‘reduction of absenteeism’ seems the common way to measure how ‘well’ an organization is doing. Yet that’s a one-dimensional way of looking through the lens. What’s needed is for organizations to embrace mental and physical wellness of their employees in a broader, more long-term way.

This should include top-down strategies aimed at things such as healthy aging, harassment prevention, burnout recovery, integrative nutrition and stress resilience. We should stop separating ‘Work’ and ‘Life’ artificially when seeking a balance and start focusing on the whole person.

The company Life5 will give workshops in WorldClass about work-life balance, stress management, burnout prevention, and healthy ageing. Check at reception for the schedule or on www.worldclassfitness.be. These will be half-day seminars during weekends.

About Paul Schuchhard

Over the years I have worked with numerous organisations and individuals to support, educate and motivate them to redefine their purpose and goals. As a qualified counselor and coach I work with different psychological tools (CBT, NLP, Systems, TA). As a certified sports-nutritionist and trainer I help people deal with the physical symptoms brought on by stress and an inactive lifestyle.

I suspect that many of us have recently made New Year’s resolutions to change or to improve something in our lives. Such intentions usually take one of two forms:

• either we resolve to quit something such as smoking, snacking, working overtime and weekends, staying up too late, watching too much TV, procrastinating on jobs that need doing…the list can be quite long!
• or we resolve to start doing something new or to improve on an already established habit such as diet, exercise, making time for friends, reading more books, taking up a hobby, or getting back to a hobby that has given you pleasure in the past.

Whatever your resolutions may be, they all have one thing in common: they all involve a desire and willingness to CHANGE.

Stage One:

This is the stage of initial inspiration fueled by enthusiasm and excitement at the possibility of accomplishing something new and different. It is a stage of Hope and Belief. This is where we need to identify quite concretely WHAT we want to change and exactly WHY. Here is where setting a well-defined goal is needed. Make it realistic! Many people set goals that are so far beyond anybody’s reach that they set themselves up for guaranteed failure. Be brutally honest with yourself. Many of us have ‘desires’ that we would like to have instantly delivered by some magical means. We would ‘like’ to have it but really don’t want to have to do anything for it. How badly do you really want this goal? Do you want it and value it enough to put some real personal energy into making it happen for you?

Once you have identified and visualized your goal and motivation, break the project down into smaller steps and stages. A mix of final and intermediate goals seems to work well in keeping people motivated. Make each step towards the final goal measurable. If you are giving up smoking, you could smoke one less cigarette a day until you get down to a certain number. This makes the behavioral change very visible. When you reach any interim goal, reward yourself with something meaningful. Believe it or not, rewarding success and compliance still highly motivates us human beings!

Stage Two:

This can be the most difficult one. At this stage you still have the ‘ghost of the past habit’ looming, ready to sneak in at any time of confusion, uncertainty or emotional stress. The new habit is still young and not fully established, so most of us have a tendency to fall back on the familiarity of the ‘old’ pattern. Here we have to continuously push ourselves and remind ourselves of the long-term (if not immediate) benefits to our happiness and overall well-being that this particular change of behavior will bring. We need to be convinced that we deserve the very Best! ‘I AM WORTH IT!’

This is also where we are vulnerable to saboteurs and distractions. Well-wishing friends will often tell you things like: “Oh, you look great! You don’t need to exercise SO much”; “Here, have some dessert. One piece of cake can’t hurt”; “You know you are always the first person to leave the office in the evening”; “Come on, it’s HOLIDAY!” Most often, these things are said with no malice at all. Yet whenever you change from the predictable pattern of ‘You’, it can threaten others by causing them to look critically at their own behavior patterns.

There is a wonderful folk tale from Africa that can inspire us here:

“An Ant found the carcass of an elephant. The Head Ant told him that he had to dispose of it by eating it! This seemed like an undoable and daunting task. He started out one bite at a time but he was overwhelmed at the enormity of the task! The ant began to despair. He took some time to think and eventually he called all his friends who were so very happy to help a friend in need! In no time the elephant carcass was consumed.”

Moral of the story? Enlist a support network of friends who can help remind you of the WHAT and the WHY and who can motivate you and encourage you when hurdles arise and motivation starts to falter!

At Stage One you are encouraged to reward yourself; at Stage Two you are encouraged NOT to punish yourself for any setbacks. Life happens. It is not so important that you fell off the bicycle; the important thing is that you get back on it. And that you are now aware of the potatoes that can possibly hurt you and interrupt your journey. Every misstep is an opportunity to learn more about yourself.

Stage Three:

Maintenance equals practice, practice, practice! The day that you wake up and think ‘of course, it goes without saying’ you realize that you have established a new pattern of behavior. You have changed the programming and now have a default setting. Rather than being seen as a good reason not to behave in a certain way, any ‘excuse’ now becomes an annoyance in itself! That is not to say the temptations won’t arise and relapses won’t happen. They will. But the desire to behave in a certain way has become ingrained in the psyche and the behavior has now become habitual. In other words, a consciously and consistently practiced behavior has now become an unconscious pattern of behavior. Once established, that New Habit needs to be paid attention to every day. But that’s what you’ll want to do anyway. Why? Because it makes you feel so good about yourself!

1. Physical

When we are asleep, our bodies are actually very busy doing necessary repair work, rebuilding and regenerating themselves after a day of wear and tear. General tissue repair, skin regeneration (yes, “beauty sleep” is real), and heart and vascular rest and repair are all among the benefits of a good  night’s sleep. During sleep, our bodies are producing necessary hormones. Two of the more interesting hormones currently receiving a lot of study are cortisol (anti-inflammatory and linked to eating behavior). Studies are showing that sleep deprivation leads to disruptions in the levels of these two hormones. They are also suggesting strong links to increased appetite, metabolic changes and weight gain (which might be due to the midnight snacking!). Have you ever noticed how we tend to sleep more when we are feeling ill? This is nature’s way of making sure that our immune system gets the extra boost of energy and support that it needs to fight off germs and infections. So, lack of sleep leaves us sluggish and slow, contributes to obesity and makes us open to whatever bug is going around.

2. Mental

Studies have shown that people who are well rested have better cognitive performance. They learn and process information faster, and retain it in the memory better. Motor performance, both in speed and accuracy, is better in a rested state when compared with impaired performance when tired. Judgment and decision making is often slower and less effective, and we are more prone to accidents when dealing with a state of sleep deprivation. So, lack of sleep can impair our concentration, slow or reflexes, influence our judgments, and even jeopardize our personal safety and the safety of others. The warning “Don’t drive or operate heavy machinery when drowsy” is there for a good reason.

3. Emotional and relational

Research into brain waves during sleep indicates that activity in the centers of the brain that control our emotions and our social interactions is drastically  decreased during deep sleep. This indicates that sleep may help a person rebalance the day’s emotions and thus maintain emotional stability and good social functioning. In contrast, the area of the brain that deals with imagination and dreams is quite active during the REM cycle. Psychologists who work with dreams and do dream analysis suggest that this is the self-regulating center which helps us process current issues in our daily lives.

They also believe that the brain is actively working on coming up with creative solutions and inventive ideas even while we are asleep (more about dreams in a future article). So, lack of sleep can lead to mood swings, increased anxiety, and highly emotional responses to frustrations. When we are exhausted, even the smallest task can look overwhelming. Extreme sleep deprivation has been tentatively linked with depression. On a relational level, we tend to become less patient with the behavior of others when we are not getting enough sleep. We react to people rather than respond to them. Communication and social politeness suffers. Here we often see an increase in anger and aggression in people who are normally mild and easygoing under rested conditions.

How much sleep per night do we actually need?

Most experts recommend 7-8 hours for most adults. However, some people can get along with a few as 5-6 hours, while others may need up to 10 hours. Occasional sleep disturbances are common throughout the population. But when they continue for an extend period of time, we are clearly dealing with sleep deprivation and a specialist should be consulted.

Marcie Sires has been a Psychotherapist-Sexologist, Holistic Wellness Counselor, and Communications trainer for over 25 years. She works with individuals, couples and families. She is also a corporate coach in Life5. For more information, please visit www.life5.eu.

2014: Time for a personal health strategy? This article is NOT about 10 tips to stick to your New Year’s Resolution. But it IS about preventing a disease that millions of people get without knowing it: type 2 diabetes. It creeps up on us because of a lack of exercise, too much refined food, and too much stress.

Diabetes mellitus type 2 is a disease that can largely be prevented. It’s often called a “self-inflicted” or “lifestyle related” disease, and it develops over many years. If you do not know what type 2 diabetes is, I will try to “compact” the explanation at the risk of oversimplification: it’s a disease where your body can no longer adequately process the energy it gets from the food you eat. Normally you eat your food,  it gets converted into sugars (glucose) during digestion, your blood sugar levels rise in response, and a hormone called insulin is released to help get that energy into your cells. In type 2 diabetes patients, however, the cells have become insensitive to opening the door, they don’t “hear” the insulin knocking on the door. This combination of insulin resistance in your muscle cells and a lack of insulin production ultimately creates a vicious and chronic circle where glucose and insulin can build up in the blood to dangerous levels. That’s the story in essence, but Google it to get the full explanation. MayoClinic.com is a good website to visit.

So what approach should you take to avoid getting type 2 diabetes?

Tip 1: Avoid frequent blood sugar and insulin peaks. If you eat too much in a single meal or often eat processed foods (white bread, white pasta, white rice, sugar, juices etc.), then you can bet your blood sugar levels will peak often. To bring these sugar levels down, your body will need to secrete high amounts of insulin to neutralize the elevated blood sugar levels. Do this: have a look at the foods in your daily food plan, and if refined-floor foods, cornflakes, jams, sandwiches, candy and energy bars are a major part of them, think twice and cut them out where you can. Replace them with more wholesome foods. The closer a food is to its natural state, the better. That means it will not spike your blood sugar as much as processed food. In short: if processed it, don’t eat it. So eat more vegetables and foods that slowly release their energy.

Tip 2: Learn to deal with (too much long-term) stress. Stress releases stored sugar in your blood. When you are continuously stressed, your body produces hormones that make you feel edgy to help you complete your deadline or challenge. Stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline flood your system, and as a result your muscles and liver will release stored sugars to enable you to keep working until midnight. Sounds great? Well, the downside is that too much stress over time will burn your body’s organs out from the inside. That’s the part why it is called burnout. If you feel that your stress levels are “always” out of control, I recommend seeking professional help to learn how to cope with and lower them.

Tip 3: Exercise your heart and major muscle groups regularly. If you don’t work out yet, start today and create a regular exercise schedule. Why? 80% to 90% of the glucose (sugars) that gets into your blood normally ends up in your muscle cells if the insulin is doing its work correctly. Exercise helps your cells remain sensitive to the insulin so that they open up. There is plenty of evidence that shows that when we exert our muscle cells those cells become more sensitive to the insulin knocking on the door. If you don’t have time to exercise, then make the time! That may sound hard, but I guarantee that once you are diabetic it will cost you much more time. So see it as an investment.

Tip 4: Avoid weight gain or yo-yoing up and down. The more body fat we accumulate, the more likely we are to become insulin resistant. So keep a healthy weight or get back to it. Yo-yoing causes much stress on your body (see  Tip 3). Moreover, fat around the waist is especially risky for creating metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Do this to check out the current state of your body fat levels. Measure your body fat levels in the gym by asking one of the trainers or myself. We have a handy device that you hold in your hands and that will measure your body fat levels within 10 seconds.

Tip 5: Ask your doctor for a “fasting glucose test”. As I said earlier, type 2 diabetes is not something that you develop overnight. It often takes decades to develop and to be diagnosed as such. Diabetes is a progressive disease. You don’t get it “on a Monday morning” because you had a heavy party over the weekend. Fortunately, there are some early warning signs that can detected in your blood (the pre-diabetic stage or “Syndrome X”). Since prevention is the key, a blood test from your doctor on an empty stomach can establish if your blood sugar levels are elevated when they shouldn’t be (on an empty stomach these levels should be low). It’s also good opportunity to check other indicators of systemics problems, such as elevated cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

Tip 6: Drink more coffee!? Yes that’s right, drink more coffee. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (during an 18 year study) found that coffee drinkers taking between 4 and 6 cups a day had a 29 to 54% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, decaf coffee did not offer any protection nor did 1 to 3 cups of regular coffee…

Come and join one of my seminars at WorldClass (10 euros per participant) every other Tuesday evening from 19:00 to 20:15. I’m looking forward to meeting you there!

NOTE: This article is not medical advice, so please consult a doctor if you have specific questions about diabetes or other medical conditions.

Paul Schuchhard is a qualified counselor, a certified sports nutritionist and personal trainer, and a highly experienced corporate communications adviser and trainer. Visit www.paulschuchhard.com or www.life5.eu to learn more about life coaching, stress and burnout coaching, nutritional coaching, counseling and corporate Away Days focused on well-being.

Add muscle:

Every expert agrees that the most effective way to jack up your metabolism is to add lean muscle mass. Muscle is made up of metabolically active tissue. This means that it requires energy to be built, used and maintained. The best way to develop more muscle mass is by weight training. This should be always a part of your training plan!

Try intense training

There’s nothing better than good high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to boost your metabolism. It combines relatively brief, repeated efforts with periods of recovery. HIIT burns more calories than a normal cardio session.

Once you step off the treadmill after your steady-state training cardio session, the calorie burn also comes to an end. By combining cardio and strength training through IT you will have a double benefit from your workout.

Eat protein

Try a delicious protein-rich breakfast that includes ingredients such as eggs, lean meat or chicken and Greek yogurt. Proteins require a lot of energy to break down and digest. Just the act of eating protein can bring up your metabolism. People who eat protein at breakfast time tend to ingest fewer calories throughout the remainder of the day.

Eat pure whole foods

The act of breaking down nutrients requires energy and burns calories (thermic effect of food). But all foods are mot created equal: some take more energy to break down than others. By choosing unprocessed foods like lean meat, fish, vegetables and fruits, you are driving up the thermic effect of food and utilizing more calories for digestion. Eat mostly foods that have very few ingredients listed on the package. Overly processed foods require little effort to digest, increasing blood sugar and your waistline.

Choose supplements wisely

Many supplements and energy drinks have a thermogenic effect. It means that they drive up the heat in the body, which leads to an increase in your metabolism. Caffeine and taurine are popular thermogenics. But supplements can also overtax your adrenal glands and drive up stress responses in the body. So proceed with caution and be sure not to overdo it when adding supplements.

Stay hydrated

Water is a key player in your digestive process. Essentially, without it, you cannot efficiently and completely extract all the nutrients from the food you take in. Think of the water in your body as if it were oil in a car.

Focus your energy on developing lean muscle and getting more pure foods and protein into your diet. Add some high-intensity training sessions to boost your metabolism and get a lean, ripped body!