Category Archives: weight loss

gobble, gobble

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Gobble, Gobble Turkey Toss, Give to Hungry Learn Fat Loss


Friday, November 16, 2012 @ 7pm

At the Mackenzie Center, 1337 Centre St, Newton Centre, MA  02459

Presented by Mike Alves of Change Your Body Boot Camps

To Benefit the MHSA/Bristol Lodge of Waltham.

 

Mike Alves of Change Your Body Boot Camps is announcing the turkey donation fat loss workout event to remember with the 4th Gobble, Gobble Turkey Toss, Give to Hungry, Learn Fat Loss Charity Boot Camp Workout.  This event will provide food to hundreds of people during the Thanksgiving holiday and take the givers through a great fat loss routine they can do anytime, anywhere with most any object, even a back pack filled with canned goods or books.

 

 

The fat loss routine will be 45 minutes of total body interval training using only your body weight and the weight of the loaded back pack you bring. You’ll be warmed up and cooled down; we’ll address every functional movement pattern, work your holiday storage system (e.g. your core) and end with a “finisher”. The best part is, it will allow people of different levels of fitness to train together because it is time based and includes exercises for beginners to advance. It will be fast, fun and you’ll understand how to exercise to lose fat in the shortest amount of time.

 

 

The MHSA/Bristol Loge Meals of Waltham is a soup kitchen that will be providing Thanksgiving Day meals to individuals and families in need. Help ensure that no person is turned away this holiday season.

 

 

All attendees are asked to do the following:

 

 

  • Donate a FROZEN turkey which will be “tossed” from person to person at the end of the workout while loading the giving truck. All sizes of turkeys welcome.
  • bring a water bottle, hand towel and gloves (your hands will get cold passing what could be 100 turkeys)
  • a cooler to keep your FROZEN turkey frozen while we exercise.  please bring labeled cooler (so you don’t mix up your cooler w/ someone else) w/ turkey inside.
  • a back pack filled with dumbbells, weights, a medicine ball, a pumpkin or canned goods that you will use to exercise with (15-30lbs for women, 30-60lbs for men)
  • wear fitness attire
  • Rsvp by filling out contact form below to reserve your spot as there are only 100 spaces available.

 

 

 
Frequently Asked Questions:

 

“Mike, why are you doing all these charity events?” Why not? Seriously, Getting people in shape is what I do for a living. Getting you to break habits like overeating and not burning & earning is all part of it. Giving to others is a way to make you feel good about yourself and tie it into something you may not love yet, like exercise.

 

“Mike, why do I need to bring a labeled cooler?” Great question. The Mackenzie Center, our host venue has many services and programs to offer, but a walk-in freezer is not one of them. I could have the “giving truck” arrive for the start, but I feel the minor inconvenience of lugging a cooler, will be worth the experience of the turkey toss. That’s when you’ll really feel the power of celebrating the holidays, exercise and giving.

 

“Mike, what’s the workout going to be like?” Fast and as challenging as you are willing to make it. There will be music playing in the background, the exercises will be time based, each person will have a choice of 3 different levels to choose from for each exercise. You’ll be warmed up, train your core, do a total body strength circuit, experience a finisher, do the turkey toss and conclude with a static stretch.

 

“Mike, why do I need to bring a weighted backpack?” The backpack and your body weight will serve as your resistance for the day. It is also a symbol that you can exercise anywhere, anytime, with most any object, even a weighted back pack.

 

“Mike, what should I put in the back pack?” You can put books, a medicine ball, dumbbells, canned goods, a pumpkin, anything really.

 

“Mike, what if I want to do more or less weight than you recommended?” Go for it. Use less weight if you are in less shape and more weight if you are in better shape. The heavier weight you use, the faster your results will occur. If you choose too little weight and it’s too easy, strive to do as many reps as possible. If you choose too much weight and its too heavy, that’s o.k. too. Just do your best, rest as needed and keep going. Good things will happen faster.

 

“Mike, what if I get tired?” Great. Do your best to push through it. Challenge yourself, see what you really can do. Then if you need to rest, rest. Just stay where you are, grab a sip of water and rejoin when you can. If you need to sit down, then sit down.

 

“Mike, why the Bristol Loge Soup Kitchen?” I read a couple of articles in the Boston Globe about Soup Kitchens not having enough food to meet the demand of applicants requesting assistance. I couldn’t imagine not (1) having a place to go for Thanksgiving and (2) not being able to feed myself or my family. So…Gobble, Gobble. We’re going to give 100’s of pounds of turkeys and feed over a 100 hungry people. It will be awesome. Article #1, Article #2

 

“Mike, can I make a cash donation instead or as well?” Of course. You can make a cash donation to the MHSA Bristol Lodge Soup Kitchen of Waltham. You don’t have to bring a frozen turkey to participate, but you’ll be glad if you did.

 

“Mike, what if I haven’t exercised in a while, I’m really out of shape or I have an injury?” Good questions. Well its up to you. This will be a challenging workout, I will show 3 different levels for each exercise and I expect you to do your best. If you think you can’t, then you probably can’t. If you think you can, then come on down. You and I will do our best to get you a great workout.

 

“O.K. how do I sign up?” Fill out the contact form above. You can also contact me with questions on my contact page.


Change Your Body Boot Camps is a fun, challenging and dynamic body transformation exercise class for busy people looking to change their bodies and their lives. This class is perfect for people looking to be led, supported by peers and can make time to exercise either before or after work after school drop off. Participants will use their body weight, dumbbells and bands as resistance in an interval workout that incorporates exercise regressions and progressions to address different fitness levels. To learn more about Change Your Body Boot Camps go to bootcampboston.com.

How do I lose 5-10 lbs?

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Question: How do I lose the last 5-10 lbs?…or…How do I gain 5-10 lbs?

Answer:  It has to do with liquid calories and new research backs up what many coaches & people already knew.  Continue reading to find your answer.

Water: a non-caloric beverage

 VS.

Soda: A caloric beverage

How to gain weight?

What seems like a lifetime ago now, I used to work with professional, college & high school athletes and to help them not only keep weight on, but gain weight I’d have them drink liquid calories in addition to their meals because it was a great way to sneak in extra calories. I did the same myself when I was in a weight gain phase back in college. (I entered college at 147 lbs. and left college at 195 lbs.)

 

How to lose weight?

However if you’re looking to lose weight, you definitely want to skip the calorie drinking and replace it with water while focusing on “solid” whole foods.

Dr. Tom Halton, the author of The Weight Loss Triad, just wrote an article on this subject and cited new research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Tate, et.al., reported subjects who replaced their caloric beverages with non-caloric beverages lost 5% of their body weight over 6-months vs. the control groups who didn’t replace their caloric beverages. If you’re 185 lbs and you’re looking to lose the last 9.25 lbs, or if you’re 130 lbs looking to lose the last 6.5 lbs and you want an easy way to do it, switching your cocktails for club soda w/ lime, your beers for seltzer water, your latte for “black” coffee or green tea and your O.J. for water w/ lemon are some simple yet still pleasurable ways to be social and still enjoy hydrating & meal consumption.

In summary

Drinking caloric beverages or liquid calories is great for weight gain, but bad for for weight loss.

If you want to gain weight, drink liquid calories like smoothies, shakes, juices, alcohol, creamer, half & half, etc…

If you want to lose weight, don’t drink calories & instead drink water or its derivatives (tap, seltzer, mineral, ice, club soda, coffee, green tea …).

Yours living the active life,

Mike Alves

Tate, DF., et. Al. Replacing caloric beverages with water or diet beverages for weight loss in adults: main results of the Choose Healthy Options Consciously Everyday (CHOICE) randomized clinical trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012; 95(3): 555-63.


How to sleep better. 33 Sleep Aids for better sleep by Dr. Mercola

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Have you ever had trouble sleeping?  Sleep can help and hurt you in many ways.  Instead of reinventing the wheel on what a lack of sleep does for your health, performance and body composition and how to get more and better sleep, here is a great article from Dr. Mercola, of mercola.com, The World’s #1 Natural Health Website.

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Want a Good Night’s Sleep? Then Never Do These Things Before Bed

Posted By Dr. Mercola | October 02 2010 | 873,263 views

By Dr. Mercola

slepping in bed Continue reading →

Fighting the Freshman 15 / Getting Real World Ready

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60 lbs in 6-months
Way back in the early 2000’s I was honored to get to train a forward thinking high school graduate that was looking to get in his best shape for college.  This young man who is now a strong adult, desired to lose weight, get strong and get lean, which I assume would only compliment his great personality as he moved forward.   His result was 60 lbs of weight loss in 6-months.  I’d like to take some of the credit for his success, but I can’t because we both know he was super motivated to change and his nutrition was dialed in.  Plus I know that my programming then vs. my programming now was far inferior, so it really was a super motivated person, training 4x/wk/1hr each with me on strength and then doing additional cardio on his own.  He made the time for both training and in the kitchen and had an outstanding first semester and college experience.  If you’re reading this, way to go AC!
30 lbs Gained in 24 weeks
Also back in the early 2000’s I was honored to get to train another super motivated high school kid, we’ll call him J. Flavor, who was tired of being skinny and wanted to get strong, put on muscle and increase his body weight.  After his first, 12 week program he had put on 20 lbs and after his second 12 week program he put on at least another 10 lbs.  Again, it was this young man’s desire to change and get better that earned him results.  He could of have done it with anyone, but I was the lucky coach he chose.
Peak for Sports Seasons
Also back in the 2000’s I had the honor of co-starting a high school strength & conditioning program called Pride Sports Performance (Pride is the Team Name for Springfield College, my alma mater) and volunteering at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning, where I had the opportunity to train super motivated high school and college athletes that either wanted to peak for their upcoming high school / college season, to get noticed by college recruiters / pro scouts or to prepare to play at the next level.  I can’t again take credit for any of their successes, I was just lucky to work with them, but each of these kids went on to have improved seasons.
Body Changes = Increased Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence
And there were numerous handfuls of other awesome, smart and motivated high school and college kids who I’ve had the pleasure of working with privately over my last 12 years as a coach, who hired me not only for body changes, but for what those changes could do for their self-esteem and confidence.  How they would feel more secure in meeting new people while living away from home for the first time or entering the “real world” and becoming fully independent.  How they would walk taller and not second guess themselves when speaking or taking action, which allowed the life skills instilled by their parents, the education they’ve worked hard to accumulate and their own personal life experiences to shine through without hesitation.  
1st Impressions
If you’ve graduated from high school and had the new / scary / exciting experience of being a college freshman as a dependent / independent or if you’ve graduated college and had the new / scary / exciting experience of entering the real world as an independent (or maybe still co-dependent), you know that there are some big butterflies and that you wanted to make a great impression.  
From 147 – 185 in 1 Semester
When I graduated from high school, I weighed 147 lbs. and was a ½” shy of 6 feet.  I was SKINNY!  I knew that when I got to college, I wanted to be more attractive to the female co-eds and if I put on some muscle and weight so I wasn’t skinny anymore, I’d have the confidence and self-esteem to go with my already outgoing personality (my blog, I can boast).  What happened?  I trained every day from Monday – Friday following the good ole body building / body part routines that were sadly too common then, with next to no cardio and an occasional weekend day of shooting hoops.  I made time to get to breakfast at 7am before my 8am classes (what college kids make time to get up these days), always went to lunch and dinner in Cheney Hall (the cafeteria) and stocked my dorm fridge and cubbies with food (thanks mom & dad) so I would never have to worry about being hungry, plus I was a partier then so I had my share of pizza and beer.  Result:  I went home for winter break and weighed 185 lbs.  That’s 38 lbs of mostly muscle with some fat gained in 1 semester.  I had to get a bunch of new clothes because I outgrew a lot of things.  My waist went from 30” to a 34/35” waist and my shirts went from M-L to L-XL.  It was cool.  Academically I was kicking butt, socially I knew everyone’s names even if people didn’t remember mine (I’m great with names) and I was definitely more attractive to and confident with the females on campus.  Life was great.
Lost & Found:  Self Confidence / Body Weight
When I finished my internship (I graduated college upon completion) with the Boston Red Sox’s minor league affiliates the Sarasota / Fort Meyers Red Sox, I had lost a bunch of weight and with it some confidence.  This time I arrived to Spring Training weighing 195 lbs and when I returned up north 6-months later, I was under 180 lbs and my primary responsibility was to be the Strength & Conditioning Coach for my teams, so it’s not like I didn’t have access.  My clothes were hanging, I was tired and I wasn’t happy and I had to prepare for my boards, my National Athletic Training Association Certification.  After I passed my exams (first try), it was time to get my confidence back and my weight back, by getting in the gym and training.  This time I was at Umass Amherst as an assistant strength & conditioning coach working with their Division 1 athletes / teams.  This was awesome, I got right back into shape fast and only had to lift weight 4x/wk now to make fast gains.  I was ready for the real world and good karma had followed me once again when I had the confidence and high self-esteem to believe in myself and let my talents and work ethic shine through.
Special Offer for 2011 Grads ONLY
Circling back to the present, I now want to provide an opportunity for motivated, 2011 high school and college graduates (New Customers Only), who are looking to change their bodies, get in their best shapes and increase their self-esteem and self-confidence so their natural talents can shine through without hesitation or second guessing.  From now until midnight on Memorial Monday, I’ll be offering the following Grad Bootcamp Packages for the summer: 
Grad (3-Month) Summer Bootcamp Package (June 19 – September 3)- $97/month (Typically $246/month)

Grad (1-Month) Bootcamp Package (Month Start Date of Choice:  June 19, July 17 or Aug 14)- $137 (Typically $268/month)

Fighting the Freshman 15 / Getting Real World Ready
If you know a motivated 2011, high school or college graduate, who would like to be proactive and fight the freshman 15 and/or would like to enter the real world with peaking self-confidence, please refer them to me or contact me through my website, bootcampboston.com/contact or mikealves.com/contact.html.
Yours changing lives,
Mike Alves
Newton’s Best Boot Camp
Newton’s Best Personal Trainer
Online Personal Training
p.s.  this is a huge deal for those looking to make a change now!
p.p.s.  2011 grads only
p.p.p.s.  last day to order is Midnight, Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 2011.
p.p.p.p.s.  order now at:  bootcampboston.com/contact

Self Image

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Self Image

There are 2 areas I am rapidly learning about to help my clients achieve their goals. Nutrition is one and psychology is the other. I’m confident my strength and conditioning programs do what their designed to do and am working to master these other 2 areas.

Nutrition involves building a network of go to experts to send clients to or ask questions of, as well as learning answers to basic questions/problems and creating systems to ensure success.

Psychology is a whole other world. Here I need to get into my clients heads and understand what they’re thinking, why they do or don’t do what they do (wink) and how they see themselves.

I’ve got a handful of self improvement resources I’m utilizing and a current one is a book called Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz.

Dr. Maltz was an renowned plastic surgeon who was mystified how some patients could have instantaneous personality change after surgery and others would not. The others, would still see themselves as blemished even though the particular area of dislike had been improved. These patients could even view before and after photographs of themselves and still see no change.

Poor Self Image

Dr. Maltz discovered they had a self image problem that plastic surgery could not correct. I’ve only just begun the book (re-reading Chapter 2) so I can’t give a full review, but you may already see what I’m hoping to learn. I’m hoping to learn how to spot people who have a poor self image and learn how to instantaneously change it (or as soon as possible).

Upon dialog with my human blog inspiration client, Lisa, about this topic, I learned about Physiognomy (pronounced with a silent G). Physiognomy is the assessment of a person’s character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face. The term physiognomy can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object or terrain, without reference to its implied characteristics. Basically not only do people judge themselves, but they also judge other people as well.

You: “Duh, Mike! I could have told you that.”

Me: O.K. You’re right. I guess I wanted to share the new vocabulary word.

Anyways, (I’ll get to the point now), I suspect if you can change a person’s or your own self image, not only will it be easier for you to make and accept lasting physical change, but you could potentially alter an observer’s perception of you.

Example: If your countenance or facial expression at rest is one of a frown, sneer or saddness, people may draw the conclusion that your a walking dark cloud and to choose to stay away from you. On the flip side if your countenance at rest is one of a subtle smile or mysterious look, people may draw the conclusion that you’re a happy, attractive or interesting person and be drawn to you.

Not that you judge (wink), but what is your first impression of these countenances?

So in conclusion.

Sometime in the near future I hope to become excellent at instantaneous and sustainable self image corrections for myself, my clients and people I come in contact with. I hope to use this to alter the physiognomies or first impressions of other people. This combined with superior nutritional, strength and conditioning programs should result in a whole lotta people who love themselves and their new bodies/lifestyles.

Your coach,

Mike Alves

Newton Boot Camp

p.s. Speaking of Love, check out what Flo loves.


Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 9:42:36 AM
Subject: Yay Boot Camp!

Hey Mike,
As challenging and hard as it is, I LOVE boot camp!…I’m always surprised by how great I feel at the end of the hour, ready to go and energized for the day.

Just wanted to let you know. 🙂

Thanks!
Flo