Book Review - Fitness Confidential by Vinnie Tortorich with Dean Lorey

Known as "America's Angriest Trainer," Vinnie Tortorich has been training celebrities and athletes for more than twenty years, becoming the go-to guy in Hollywood. Relatively unknown to most everyone less than a year ago, Tortorich has written a no nonsense, blunt assessment of just about everything fitness in America.

After reading the book I don't think he is as angry as he is mad. Mad at a fitness industry that has led many of us astray. Maybe disappointed with the world that we live in. Vinnie (can I call you Vinnie?) is a man who is dedicated his life to fitness and his clients needs. He is an athlete, he is a trainer. After 22 years in the business he has a knowledge base that few if any can compete with.

The book is under 200 pages and is a quick read, packed with personal stories that relate to the topic at hand. It reads quick for two reasons - the style of the writing and the compelling story it tells. There is an amazing amount of information packed into the pages with something for everyone.

When he was a young man growing up in Louisiana, Tortorich was a bit of an outcast, finding solace the day he found his local gym. For those of you who haven't been around the scene for 30 years, the gym of the 1980s is not your present day health club ... nor is it your current health club experience. The place where he started his fitness journey was full of large men and free weights. In the Summer it was hot and freezing cold in the winter. It was also a place where, for the first time in his life, someone other than his parents treated him well. I can totally relate.

Back in 1984 I walked into a place called Ottmer's Ironden in my hometown of Lakewood, NJ. It was the same type of place that Tortorich was training in, just in a different town. I was "the kid" who was always there, hanging out with the local bodybuilders and powerlifters. They took me serious as I did them. For me, like Tortorich, it was a place I could go and feel comfortable; it was a place that shaped me.

Which made me laugh when I read the pages dedicated to helping you get the most out of your health club membership. He is spot on when discussing the role of the "trainers" and the current layout of your standard health club facility. Which made me laugh a little harder when I think back to my former business, Body Dynamics. BodyD was a "health club," but I ran it like a gym. Did I offer aerobics classes? Absolutely. Did I have a fair amount of treadmills, stairclimbers, elliptical trainers? Heck yeah. Even machines by Icarian, Body Masters and Hammer Strength. But well more than half the floor space was dedicated to free weights and basic machines. Unlike your LA Fitness and 24/7s of the world, I was able to balance what people were led to believe they needed with what was actually needed. I think Tortorich would have appreciated BodyD.

If you are at all serious about fitness and maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle I recommend you read this book. You will find out where we are going wrong with both diet and exercise, and why the latest fad is nonsense you should ignore. Read. This. Book.

You can pick up your own copy here.

Disclaimer: I purchased this book on my own and love the fact that the author was inspired by Jack LaLane.

Train hard. Stay Focused.
Jon

Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss ... or Why You Should Stop Eating Processed Food

My reading list is always diverse, but has been filled with books related to food and the food industry for the past year or so. A few weeks ago I reviewed In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, whose main them is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That book helped lead me in a different direction with my eating habits. I have always been a fan of "real food" so in a way it was like preaching to the choir.

But what is "real food?" Yes we all know that an ear of corn or a piece fruit is real food. Here in the Lehigh Valley you can't go a day without seeing a corn field, and I cannot think of a place in this country where you cannot find some kind of fruit trees. But what about that Mango Fruit Bar? It sounds healthy. It sounds real. Even sounds like it comes from the ground. But ... it doesn't. Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss goes the next step and gives the insight into exactly how processed food is produced.

What Moss does over 264 pages is take you behind the scenes of the corporate food industry and shows the process of how the food they sell to consumers is designed, created, and then marketed to you and me. Based on extensive research and fist hand discussions with big players in the industry, the author paints a picture that is frightening. It is truly eye opening on so many levels. Here are five things that are surprising but that I didn't necessarily find a surprise:

1. The increase in obesity coincides with the increase in processed food consumption. This is not a coincidence.

2. The food companies have done extensive research on exactly how much sugar/fat/salt they need to put into a product to get you to the "bliss point," or the point where you will ingest the maximum calories. Essentially, they design foods that make you want to keep eating and eating and eating ... You would be amazed at the amount of sugar that is added to almost everything, and one of the main reasons salt is loaded into many foods (read the book).

3. Chances are you are eating something that you really don't want to eat and probably shouldn't.

4. Marketing:  Many of us are looking for the quick, easy solution and they use this to make sales. Also, they will do whatever they can to market a product as "healthy," because we all want to be healthy, right? Of course, what the food companies consider healthy and what actually is health aren't exactly the same thing.

5. Quantity: It is amazing how much of some products we as a people eat compared to what we did a few decades ago. For example, Americans eat 33 pounds of cheese and "cheese products" per year, three times the consumption rate in the 1970s.

6. Many of the people behind the creation of processed food honestly admit that they won't eat their own products. If you read the book this will not come as a surprise.

Needless to say I recommend reading this book ... but there is more to do than just reading. Making better food decisions creates change in a number of different ways. From a health perspective, eating more nutrient dense, high quality foods is better than ingesting man-made foodstuff. The secondary, and just as important change that can result, if the quality of food we are offered by the food manufactures will change if it is in their best interest to do so. And the more people who vote with their pocketbook by not buying their products, the quicker that change can/will occur. The American public has some responsible for what we have available in grocery stores simply because as a people we have bought into their products and marketing.

Please don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of chips (especially Fritos!!!), and have been known to make a bad food decision or two. It has taken time to get to where most of what I ingest is real food. Moss gives a clear understanding of where the products we eat come from, how they were developed, and how they have marketed the products to the American public. If you have even a remote interest in your health Salt Sugar Fat is worth a read.

Train Hard, Stay Focused.
Jon