Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - Annamaria Poluha, Socal.com Contributor
To understand nutrition and fitness seems like a never ending topic and for many people very confronting or challenging. In our society today, we are bombarded with articles, books, TV shows advertising new products for the never ending topic; how to lose weight and keep it off.
After struggling with my own weight and body image for many years, I was fortunate to meet Mark Macdonald, the creator of Venice Nutrition Systems a few years ago and have since graduated as a client and became myself a nutritionist and the business owner of the
Recently I teamed up with Mark to launch a virtual online nutrition & fitness coach as well as a supplement line with the intention to teach more people how to make nutrition work in their life as well as having all people reach their fitness and nutrition goals.
To truly understand nutrition, I sat down with the founder himself and asked him to explain to the average person how to achieve permanent results, about he birth of the Venice Nutrition Systems as well as how the virtual online nutrition coach; “Club Venice” came about:
A: Let’s go back to your early beginnings; what truly inspired you to dedicate your life to nutrition?
M: Growing up I witnessed my mother struggle with weight –she tried every diet and like everybody else, she initially would lose, and then, when she returned to her normal way of eating, she’d gain the weight back. With every attempt, I saw her getting bigger and bigger as well as less and less confident that she could achieve permanent weight loss. It puzzled me that she couldn’t keep the weight off as it was easy for me to stay lean so I decided in that moment to dedicate my life to find a solution and today I believe I have.
A: What’s your answer to all diets and programs available today?
M: Lessons in physiology have taught us that it is impossible to achieve long term nutrition and fitness goals with:
- Restriction of calories
- Restriction of carbohydrates
- Appetite suppressants/stimulants
These approaches may work for the short term, 3-6 months, and eventually your body fat level returns to where you started, or worse, gets even higher.
A; So, what’s the solution?
M; You must brake the pattern, and learn the only way to obtain permanent results is by implementing a nutrition and fitness system centered on blood sugar stabilization. When the blood sugar is stable, the body is in a balanced state, i.e. homeostasis. The result is:
- Zero cravings
- Limitless energy
- Enhanced mental alertness
- Consistent body fat and weight loss.
These results will shift your body –it’ll increase your metabolism allowing the body to work for you. The VN Systems teaches each client how to make nutrition work into their life style.
A; What factors come into play along with blood sugar stabilization?
M: Genetics play a crucial role in how compliant somebody needs to be to achieve permanent results. Everybody has different metabolism thus exercise plays a huge part. A person with slow metabolism can achieve permanent results; however, it’ll require a higher level of compliance. The second aspect is a person’s life style; from level of stress and how to control it, to level of activity and choice of nutrition. When a person understands what adjustments to make in their nutrition from day to day, they will understand how to fuel their body the most efficient for their life style and their goals.
A; Explain how you learned about blood sugar stabilization?
M: Well it’s a journey. Throughout school I played collegiate soccer and when finished with school, I wanted to take a break from exercising – so I did, however I ate the same way as I always had. Within 8 months, I went from 180 lbs / 10% body fat to 240 lbs / 18% body fat. My energy was low and I was depressed. At that time, I didn’t know what adjustments to make, however, I was determined to find the solution so I tried everything know to mankind and it’s through all these various attempts; from a “Ketogetic diet” which is high protein & high fat, to calorie and carbohydrate restriction to increased exercise. I dropped the weight and body fat and I looked fantastic, however, I felt the worst I had ever felt. So again, I was searching for the solution; how to look great, stay healthy and feel great at the same time. Determined to find the solution, I started to study blood sugar stabilization along with understanding that life always comes in the way of a person’s results thus it pushed me to develop a system that would work for all people regardless of life style thus the birth of the VN Systems.
A: What is the VN Systems?
M; The VN Systems is a lifestyle. It doesn’t only take into account height, weight, pounds of lean mass and pounds of body fat. It also takes into account past and current nutrition and exercise history, current eating patterns, current lifestyle, sleep schedule, supplementation and genetic history.
A: So the VN system came to be, can you explain how it turned from a one person’s business to a licensee system?
M: I started teaching it at Gold’s gym in Northridge and our success rate went to 98% giving clients tools they could implant for the rest of their life. So I took it to one of the biggest gyms in the world; Gold’s Gym in
A: So what’s next for you?
M: What’s next is to continue to teach and educate people about nutrition; thus the birth of Club Venice, our online virtual nutrition & fitness coach. We have developed a system that is proven to work and now we have made that system available to all people regardless income and whether they live close to one of our centers or not. I’ve met so many people who aren’t able to come in to a center or who cannot afford our one-on-one program –now anybody can take on their health in the convenience of their own home at a very low cost. We are also working with many facilities that are looking to implement nutrition as an additional service for their clients. The launch of our supplements is also another field in which we are expanding with the intention of providing the purest and most effective supplements meant stabilize a client’s blood sugar in those hard cases when the person is unable to eat regular food.
What is Venice Nutrition Systems?
The Venice Nutrition Systems (VNS) is a holistic approach to nutrition implementing five phases of health; sleep, nutrition, exercise, supplementation and water. It teaches people how to make nutrition part of their life, regardless of lifestyle. The foundation of VN Systems is blood sugar stabilization –internal balance- and the application is set by the person’s goal, by its current and past nutrition and exercise habits as well as lifestyle.
Being able to understand scientifically how the body works in conjunction with our genetic make-up and individuality makes this a unique program geared toward the individual’s independence and goal attainment.
What is Club Venice?
Club
A “Club Venice” membership includes:
• Virtual Venice Nutrition Coach
• On-Line Interactive Software
• Personalized Health Structure
• Full support from Club Venice and Your Network, & 24 hr. email support
• Bi-weekly Newsletter from top Nutrition & Fitness experts. Also articles from fellow Club Venice members.
• 30% off all purchases of Club Venice supplements
The Features of ClubVenice.com, Your On-Line interactive software:
• Interactive guides that help you achieve your goals
• On-line access to the Venice Nutrition Client Handbook
• Full support section, including FAQ and Tutorial
• Customized:
o Meal Plan
o Grocery Shopping List
o Cardiovascular Exercise Plan
o Sample Weekly Meal Schedule
o Favorite Foods
• Daily Journaling of nutrition, exercise and diary
• Extremely user friendly
o Automated calculation exchange options for all foods and exercise
o Search through food data base with ease
o Full calendars to review past nutrition and exercise journals
• Discussion Forum to communicate with all Club Venice members
For
If
www.venicenutrition.com or www.clubvenice.com
About the author;
Growing up in
http://www.socal.com/