Stepping Out For A Cure 2011

Martha Leta, Maureen Sullivan, Medtronic's Lenny the Lion, Steve Lichtman and Vance Varian

News From The Front Lines by Martha Hicks Leta

All in all, Saturday October 22 was a great day for a walk, especially when it meant raising money and awareness to put an end to diabetes. While the showing from Fitness Together wasn’t as strong as last year, (we’ll hang that on the timing of our PACK Training rollouts) it was still pretty darn respectable.

Steve Lichtman, team captain for Cohasset, led our rag tag band of warriors, arriving at the crack of dawn to trick out the Fitness Together tent with banners, brochures, clipboards and flags. The team filled out nicely as the morning warmed with Maureen Sullivan from North Andover; Cathy Schaum, Marianne Cristello, Linda Morancy, Jean McQuestion, Irene Rossi, Michelle Rossi and trainer Vance Varian from Tyngsboro/Nashua. The Leta Family (Yours Truly with husband Lou, and daughters Bonnie and Caroline) carried the banner for Team Norwell; Representin’ for Notorious Team Westford was the ever-intrepid Ken Ballou and trainer Kati Salowski. Closing the age gap was baby Kaden Cardoza from Dedham, who had to be pushed in his stroller by parents Lisa and Michael Cardoza because, at two months old, apparently he’s “too little” to walk yet. (Whatever. We want to see him doing mountain climbers by Christmas, Michael.)

The Fitness Together tent, set in a primo location next to the registration area, attracted a fascinating variety of people who stopped by throughout the day to learn about our programs and to share their personal stories.

Maureen Sullivan chatted with a young woman who, while signing up her father to win some PACK training sessions, told Maureen about the difficulties of getting her rambunctious young cousin to sit still for his daily insulin injections. Maureen says, “The woman told me that the young boy turned to his older brother one day and said, ‘When I grow up, there will be a cure for my disease and I’ll be normal just like you.’ Here we are years later,” says Maureen, “Closer to a cure, but still with a high number of people suffering from the disease. That is why she walks every year.”

After the walk we were joined for lunch by Barbara, a woman with type 2 diabetes who’d been crippled by polio during her childhood in Italy in the 1960s. She said that in the early 1990’s several of her family members developed diabetes in quick succession. She wants to find a cure. Despite her dependence on a wheelchair, she came to volunteer for the walk and refused my offer to carry her trash to the waste barrel. “No, thanks. I’m perfectly capable of doing it myself.” And off she went.

We also met Noah, a young lad who went from table to table handing out temporary tattoos and Silly Bands shaped like blue flamingos. He calls himself “The Diabetes Dude” and says, “I have diabetes, but diabetes doesn’t have me.” At the age of 10, the Diabetes Dude has made it his personal business to travel the country telling his story. “I spend my time raising awareness of diabetes wherever I go, every chance I get and will continue to do so until there is a cure.”

Clearly, this cause matters a lot to a lot of people and the money raised is a big part of it. MC’d by Mix 104 morning drive disc jockey Karson, the opening ceremony featured team leaders and corporate sponsor presentations. FT’s own Steve Lichtman presented a check to the ADA for $20,000, an amount that roughly represents the collective contributions, thus far, from all Fitness Together Studios participating in the 2011 ADA co-operative program.

Patriot's defensive lineman Vince Wilfork | Darrell Lavoie Photography darrell.lavoie@yahoo.com

Patriot’s defensive lineman Vince Wilfork, who is raising money for his own diabetes foundation, said a few words about his late father, who was stricken by diabetes before he ever got the chance to see his son turn pro. “I had to give him shots at times, he was so weak,” said Wilfork. “I had to bathe him, had to take him to the restroom. There was a lot going on that my brother and I had to deal with. That’s why this is really close and dear to my heart.”

Though the big man was a hard act to follow, Tyngsboro/Nashua’s own big man, trainer Vance Varian, got the crowd fired up with a warm-up to Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.” Said Vance’s boss, Cathy Schaum, “I was very proud of my young trainer leading the warm-ups. I thought he was very poised and enthusiastic in leading the crowd and represented the entire FT organization very well.”

Along with Fitness Together’s sizable group donation to the ADA, the organization can be especially proud of Fitness Together Westford, which came in third place for individual corporate fundraising at $5,115, trailing Walgreen’s Boston North and Waters Corporation. Westford owner Greg Briggle is also listed among the top 20 individual fundraisers. Greg’s talent and enthusiasm for fundraising for this cause is inspirational.

The number of walkers estimated at the event came in around 3,000. To date the ADA is at 59% of their total goal of $500,000.

You can still donate for the cause through our page at FTMass

View more photos from the walk on Facebook

For more information about Fitness Together in Massachusetts please go to FTGetsResults.com

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

from FT Mountain Brook’s (Birmingham Alabama)  Nutrition Togetherpage on FaceBook

Here is my adaptation of a James Beard classic. Notice that the chicken parts are skinless–this way you do away with a prime source of saturated fat. Garlic has many notable health benefits plus its flavorful role in many dishes make this herb a valuable addition to both your medicine chest and culinary creations.

Food weight: 5.0

Ingredients
Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1/6thof the recipe)

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 ½ – 3 pounds of skinless chicken parts (preferably free range chicken raised without antibiotics or hormones)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 40 cloves of garlic
• 12 ounce package of sliced white mushrooms
• 1 pound red potatoes, washed, scrubbed and halved
• 2 whole medium onions
• 2 cups burgundy cooking wine
• 2 cups organic chicken broth
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme

Directions
Preheat oven to 350º. Rinse chicken and pat dry. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat. Add chicken parts and season with salt and pepper on both sides. Sauté chicken on both sides until just brown and remove chicken from fry pan and set in a large baking dish suitable for cooking in the oven. In the same skillet, add the 40 cloves of garlic and cook in the oil and juice from the chicken until brown on both sides. Add garlic to baking pot. Add mushrooms to skillet and cook over medium high heat until much of the water has evaporated and the mushrooms are brown. Remove mushrooms and add to the baking pot. Add one tablespoon olive oil into skillet, add potatoes and cook over medium high heat until both sides are brown. Add potatoes into baking pot. Add onions, burgundy wine, chicken broth, rosemary and thyme into casserole dish. Cover and place in oven. Cook for 60 minutes, basting once during cooking.

Nutritional Information per Serving (1/6thof the recipe): Food weight: 5.0, Calories: 502, Fat: 10 g, Cholesterol: 133 mg, Sodium: 1220 mg,Carbohydrate: 38 g, Dietary Fiber: 3 g, Sugars: 7 g, Protein: 57 g

All Fitness Together studios offer comprehensive nutrition guidance for our clients to help attain and maintain Fitness Success.

To find an FT Studio in Northern New England check out FTGetsResults.com

Helping To Cure Diabetes One Step At A Time

Troy Allard, Jess DeVoid and Megan Anderson lead warmup with assistance from Steve Lichtman

The ground was soggy and the rain came down hard, but that didn’t stop Fitness Together trainers Jess DeVoid, Troy Allard and Megan Anderson from getting the crowds riled up for the walk that lay ahead. With Pink’s “Get this Party Started” blasting in the background, the three led participants for the American Diabetes Association’s Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes through stretches, jumping jacks and other exercises as onlookers cheered from the sidelines.

Steve Lichtman, owner of Fitness Together Westborough gets walkers fired up.

Held on October 1 at Worcester’s UMass Medical School Campus, the walk raised awareness and funds to research, prevent, cure and manage diabetes. Steve Lichtman, whose Fitness Together Studio in Westborough is listed among the top corporate fundraisers for the event, said, “We really have two objectives here: one, for people to raise money and awareness to find a cure for diabetes, but also there’s a huge growing population of people with pre-diabetes and if we don’t do something about that from an exercise perspective, were going to see some problems in the years to come.”

The walk was one of several such events to take place in New England this fall. The Central Massachusetts Step Out Walk, has thus far raised over 60% of their total fundraising goal of $100, 000. Fitness Together in Westborough is one of many Fitness Together studios in New England raising money and awareness for the American Diabetes Association. Last year the group was given an award by the ADA for raising over $54, 000 for diabetes research.

The next such event will take place in Boston on October 22. Go here to participate or donate

FT Westborough

To find an FT Studio go to FTGetsResults

Get With The PACK: Group Training At Its Finest & Fittest

Fitness Together introduces PACK, small group training. All the attention, half the cost.

Stephen Ross of FT Middleton MA explains it all for you in the video above.

PACK Training is small group personal training from the personal training experts. PACK combines the energy and fun of the small group, with the coaching from a FT certified trainer all conducted in a private setting. Or quite simply, PACK is truly personalized group training.

In PACK training, like-minded people begin together, work together and finish together in pursuit of a common purpose and to achieve individual goals.
Great results cannot be achieved with short cuts or gimmicks. Through state of the art techniques and science, Fitness Together combines strength training, cardio conditioning and nutritional guidance for the complete fitness solution.

Whether it is part of PACK training, 1:1 personal training or some combination of the two, FT has the safe and effective solution for people at all levels of conditioning to feel better, look better and perform better than you ever thought was possible.

You’ll be part of the PACK without getting lost in the crowd!

Get Fit. Together.

Find your PACK at an FT Studio near you. FTGetsResults

Stephen Ross, NSCA-CPT
Manager, Certified Personal Trainer

Being healthy makes you happy.  Its cliché, but you never appreciate your good health until it is gone.  When we get consistent and challenging exercise, when we develop a positive relationship with nutrition and when we allow ourselves to get proper rest, we feel better, are happier and have much more energy to devote to our family, friends and careers.  You can only achieve this harmony of exercise, nutrition and rest with a “Complete Fitness Solution” and I am very proud to represent Fitness Together in offering such a solution.

I became a Health and Wellness Professional by graduating the National Personal Training Institute as a Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Nutritional Consultant.  In addition to this training, I am a Professional Member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association and am certified by the NSCA as a Certified Personal Trainer.

I believe everyone can achieve sustainable wellness.  With my help, and the total team effort of my Staff, we educate our clients in all aspects of our “Complete Fitness Solution” to help every client develop lifestyle changes in order to achieve goals.

I welcome you, not only into the Fitness Together program, but to the start of a truly rewarding journey.

Middleton Fitness Together

Taking On U.S. Diabetes Problem One Workout at a Time

Steve Lichtman accepts award from Jamin Reda of the American Diabetes Association Credit Martha Hicks Leta

FT’s Steve Lichtman is the kind of guy who walks the walk when it comes to charitable causes. For the past several years he’s corralled the efforts of Fitness Together studios across New England to raise money and awareness for the American Diabetes Association’s Step Out Walk to Fight Diabetes. But in more important ways, he’s made it his business to show how he and others can dramatically improve the lives of people with type 2 diabetes.

For Lichtman, owner of four Fitness Together studios in Massachusetts, the idea that he might have the answer to our nation’s monumental diabetes problem did not come to him all at once, but over time, kind of like the extra weight that had once gathered around his middle.

Ten years ago, Lichtman was the typical stressed-out guy, traveling all over North America for his corporate training job, hunkering down in airports, conference rooms or motels, never having time to exercise or eat healthy food, all of which compounded his chronic back pain. Then his parents became ill and he had to spend more time travelling to help them, which compounded the worry and stress. “My blood pressure was high, my cholesterol was through the roof and I didn’t know it then, but I was also heading towards becoming diabetic.” When his back pain became so bad that he couldn’t deliver an important presentation, he knew he had to make some changes.

At the behest of his doctor, Lichtman went in search of a good personal trainer. The first two were duds, but he struck gold with the third. When that trainer opened his own Fitness Together studio, Lichtman followed.

Fast forward several years, when Lichtman himself became the proud owner of Fitness Together Studios in Dedham, Westborough, Norwell and Cohasset. He loved the one-on-one workout experience, and the fact that it had helped him with his back pain so much that he no longer needed pain meds. Seeing his parents succumb to their respective illnesses drove home the importance of having a good fitness program, and now he was making it his life’s work to provide that to others. But it soon became clear there was a growing population of the American public that, more than anyone, needed what his studios had to offer: type 2 diabetics.

“About 75% of the people coming to us at Fitness Together are looking to lose a good amount of weight,” Lichtman says. “But in the last few years it became evident that it wasn’t just obesity but problems that go along with it, and in particular type 2 diabetes.”

Partnering with the American Diabetes Association, Lichtman got to work developing a program for people with type 2 diabetes that combined strength and cardiovascular training with nutrition counseling, but he wanted to be sure it was really working. He got the support of other Fitness Together studios in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and enlisted the help of help of registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator, Joan Hill. The result was an observational study that would measure the impact of diet and exercise on diabetes control, high blood pressure, sense of wellbeing. Over the next 6 months, 34 study participants at Fitness Together studios throughout New England were weighed, measured and assessed. And then they were put on the program: 2-3 personal training sessions a week, cardio workouts and nutrition counseling. Their vital statistics were recorded every six weeks, their blood glucose levels monitored periodically by their doctors. They were also asked a series of 6 questions that compared their sense of well-being at the beginning and end of the 26 weeks. Six months later, 24 participants had successfully completed the program, all showing measurably improved numbers, with many even having their medications lowered as a result. (See next week’s blog for more details about the study.)

Lichtman says he hopes the study will help insurance companies and corporations see the value of programs such as this, but he says it’s going to be an uphill battle; people still think one-on-one training is an extravagant expense. But after seeing the study results, he doesn’t agree.

“I’m told the average cost to support a person with type 2 diabetes can be as high as $25,000 per year. So, over next 40 years it is going to cost the system over $1 million dollars for that one person alone. And yet, we can design a program for somebody that, over the next year or so, could help them lose that weight, get their blood sugar under control, lower their meds and stem the risk of heart disease for a heck of a lot less money. I’ve had doctors tell me that what we offer could very well be the most cost effective solution to this healthcare problem. And with our new small group personal training (2-4 people), local HR directors are happy because we now have a fitness program that everyone can afford. And when a company contributes to our program, the cost of a training session for their employees can be less than the cost of a doctor’s visit co-pay.”

Lichtman says that seeing how much the program helped other people inspired him to step up his own commitment to his fitness routine and the American Diabetes Association. In order to raise money for last year’s Step-Out Walk to Fight Diabetes, Steve pledged to walk, bike, kayak or run 200 miles through Fitness Together’s Cardio for a Cure program which raised over $54,000. “What really motivated me was when I saw people wanting to be part of the study. It meant something to them. I thought, ‘If they can do it, I can do it, too.’”

That motivation stayed with him. “I’ve since lost 21 pounds, I’ve reversed any past issues I had with cholesterol, high blood pressure and rising glucose levels. My body fat went from a high of 27% to below 18%. I haven’t been this lean and fit since I was 28 years old,” says the 55 year old. “Who would have thought that in setting out to help others who were worse off than I was, I’d end up helping myself?”

To speak with Steve Lichtman call 781-572-1002. To find out more about Fitness Together’s Type 2 Diabetes program go to ftsouthshore.com

To join the American Diabetes Associations Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes go to Step Out New England

To join a Fitness Together Type 2 Diabetes program in Cohasset call 781-383-8004. In Hingham call 781-749-2511. In Norwell call 781-659-0034 or go to FTGetsResults to find an FT Studio near you.