Celebrity fitness trainer Harley Pasternak offers diet and exercise tips. Harley has personally trained Rihanna, Katy Perry, Megan Fox, Jessica Simpson and MANY more celebrities. I had a chance to interview him about about diet and fitness tips for moms.
Lisa LaGrou of Oakland County Moms – Can you tell us about some of the celebrities you’ve worked with, and who’s the most challenging, and who’s the most willing?
Celebrity Trainer Harley Pasternak: All of my clients are easy to work with. Any of them who are not, are no longer my clients. I work with over 150 celebs. You can go to HarleyPasternak.com and you can see who they are there. They range from Megan Fox and Katy Perry to Rihanna and Lady Gaga to Halle Berry, John Mayer and everyone in between. So it’s been a fun ride so far.
Lisa LaGrou of Oakland County Moms – How do you get celebrities fit in the shortest period of time?
Celebrity Trainer Harley Pasternak – I use a three-pronged approach. Number one is Diet – There’s no amount of exercise in the world that can make up for a poor diet. I try to get them to eat five times a day… breakfast, lunch, and dinner and a snack between each. And, every time they eat, there needs to be protein (like chicken, fish, eggs), there needs to be a fibrous carbohydrate (fruits, vegetables, whole grains), there needs to be a calorie free beverage like a vitamin water zero, fruit water, or smart water, there needs to be a healthy fat (like an avocado or salmon or olive oil). I’ve created thousands of really simple five minute recipes so my clients always have something easy they can prepare and they don’t have an excuse for why they couldn’t put it together. So that’s the first part; that’s the diet. If you pick up a copy of the Body Reset Diet that came out a few months ago, I’ve had incredible success with that eating plan for fifteen days to a real transformation. The second part is movement; chronic movement. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed. Fitness is not just about what you do in a gym. In fact, if you live an active enough life you don’t need a gym as much. I tell everyone to grab a pedometer. A little tiny device that goes in your pocket and counts how many steps you take a day. Or, it can go on your wrist. I use a FitBit. I try to take 10,000 steps a day, and just move more. Be active. And, make fitness something that is included and incorporated into everything you do. And, the third part is resistance exercise; creating toning, sculpting, tightening exercises – using resistance, whether it be a pair of hand weights, bottles of water, laundry detergent, your own body weight, whatever you have accessible and doing short resistance exercise workouts 5 days a week if you can. You can look in my books – I’ve got all different kinds of workout programs that are really simple. So, it’s eating better, it’s moving more throughout the day, and it’s doing your resitance workouts. That’s the three-pronged approach.
And, making sure you’re not bored with your workouts. Lisa, you saw Vitamin water did a survey on why people are bored with their workouts. 50% of people are bored. And, most people get bored at the 30-minute mark. Most people found that the treadmill was the most boring part of a workout. And, we look at all of this data and it helps me create solutions for any road blocks people may have. So, if you’re bored with the treadmill, ditch the treadmill. Try the elliptical, try the stationary bike… or how about just leave the gym and go for a walk outside? Walk places, walk where you have an end goal… go see a friend of yours, walk with a friend. For people who are bored at the 30-minute mark of the workout, how about making your workouts 25 minutes or 20 minutes? Superset your exercises so you don’t have a rest period in between. Your heart is elevated the whole time and you get out of the gym faster. Or, you’re out of your basement where you use as your gym. Being smarter throughout the day with how about the music you listen to during your workout. Studies show that different music creates a totally different exercise experience. The workout partner you’re with… change out the workout partner. The outfit you’re wearing. How about what you drink. People are bored with water during their workouts we found. Studies show that if you drink a flavored beverage you tend to drink more during your workout. So, grab yourself a fruit water or vitamin water zero, or something that will make you drink more. And, just constantly keep changing things about your workout.
OLisa LaGrou of Oakland County Moms – I once heard a statistic that weight loss is 20% about fitness and exercise and 80% about diet. Would you agree with this statement?
Celebrity Trainer Harley Pasternak – I agree. There’s no way to know definitively what number is which, but I would agree it’s somewhere around there. Definitely.
Lisa LaGrou of Oakland County Moms – Finding that balance is important. If you’re doing the right diet, what’s the healthiest amount of exercise you need?
Celebrity Trainer Harley Pasternak – I tell people they need to take at least 10,000 steps a day, whatever that means to them. That’s everything from the stuff they do in the gym, the stuff they do all throughout the day, to going for a walk, wherever you are – just 10,000 steps a day at least. And, I tell people they need to do resistance training each day. And, if you’re a beginner, at least 5 minutes of resistance exercise a day; and as you become more advanced, 25 minutes of resistance exercise a day.
See related posts below for more Oakland County Moms celebrity interviews.
For more on Harley Pasternak, visit his website.
