Shaping Up At The National Institute of Health And Fitness, Part I

I recently spent a day and a half at the National Institute of Health and Fitness in Midway, Utah.  Run by health gurus Marc and Vicki Sorenson, this health program is headquartered at the Zermatt Resort.

The guests were there to get in shape, and some had health issues they wanted to control, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease or arthritis. I was there to write a story, and I also got a good jumpstart for my own fitness program just by observing and participating in classes, lectures, and meals.

The back story: During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Sorensons built the National Institute of Fitness in Ivins (near St. George) into an internationally known health spa. They were pretty revolutionary for their time, because most “fat farms” of that era were known for pampering treatments, starvation diets, and exorbitant prices. NIF was more like a fitness boot camp, with a lot of exercise, hearty vegan meals, and a relatively lower price.  And more importantly, results, with guests losing weight and improving their health.

The Sorensons sold NIF in the 1990s, and it eventually became the Red Mountain Spa. Now they’ve back in the spa business, with their guests staying either at Zermatt or The Homestead.  Prices start at $1,499 per week if you’re sharing a room with two others.  That includes your hotel room and amenities, meals, exercise classes, hikes, lectures, cooking classes, etc.

I counted eight guests for the week, some from New Jersey, Colorado, and California.  It was a pretty diverse group, ranging in age from 13 to about 60, with a variety of fitness levels from former couch potatoes to a former college football player.

Here’s how I spent my time:

9 a.m. I arrived at Zermatt just in time for a lecture from Dr. Sorenson about cutting cancer risks.  He cited a lot of research showing that fitness helps reduce cancer risk. Also, he said, dairy products are linked to prostate cancer, and colorful veggies are protective against many cancers, including skin cancer. He cited a study where people who consistently consumed tomato paste were able to increase their sunburn resistance time. Also, he showed a picture of a huge, muscle-y gorilla and noted that he has all this great muscle tone without eating any meat at all. He said that we don’t need as much protein as the high-protein diet advocates say, and that broccoli has more protein in it, per weight, than a steak, so we don’t need to eat meat.  (Did I mention that the diet plan here is vegan?)

10:45: Cardio circuit class taught by trainer McKenna Strong. (Great name for an athletic trainer, right?) We started on the treadmill, moved to the stationery bikes, then did upper body weight training, then abdominals.  Thankfully, she showed several different options for each ab exercise, depending on your fitness level. When we did planks, I surprised myself by holding the “regular option” without my muscles faltering too much.

12:30: We had a boxed lunch of a salad (black beans, garbanzos, lettuce) and a really satisfying whole-wheat wrap filled with squash, mushrooms and other veggies. Several of us sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the sun while we ate.

1:30: Trainer Jared Jones’ class on setting goals. We were encouraged to set SMART goals  (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based.) Instead of saying “I want to get in shape,” I should say, “I want to lose 10 pounds by Sept. 25.” (Actually I want to lose more than that, but it’s probably not attainable in that amount of time. But I digress.)

2:30 p.m. Next came the Aqua Interval class with Jared, using foam weights and something Jared called Tabata interval training. He said it was named after the guy who developed it…. I wondered if this Tabata guy worked in torture camps? Anyway, you exercise (such as swinging your arms while jogging in the water) really hard and fast for just 20 seconds. Then you rest for 10 seconds. Then you repeat this maybe 8 more times. (I’ll be talking more about this theory of high intensity intervals later.) Although the foam dumbbells are lightweight, when you’re trying to move them against the water as fast as you can, your muscles get a pretty good workout.

3:45 p.m. Grocery “shopping” with Jared. No, we didn’t buy anything. He showed us some of the bad stuff to avoid, such as trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, and additives with long unpronounceable names. Jared said  100% whole wheat bread is good, but Ezekiel bread (sprouted grain) is best. However, you can only find it in the frozen foods section because it goes bad quickly. (I remember hearing about Ezekiel bread from Jackson, a contestant on “The Biggest Loser,” reality series, who mentioned that’s the kind of bread they eat on the show.)

Also, the best peanut butter only contains nuts, and it SHOULD have the oil separated and floating on top because that means it doesn’t have any additives to mix it together. Since this is a vegan program, we completely skipped the meat, seafood and dairy departments. But we did look at soy, rice and almond milk.  Jared’s family makes its own almond milk by soaking almonds in water until they’re soft, and the whirring it in the blender until dissolved. It’s less expensive than the commercial brands.

5:30 p.m.: Dinner began with a pass-around salad platter. One curious item at EVERY meal is diced nopal, or prickly pear cactus. Dr. Sorenson said studies have shown that nopal helps regulate blood sugar levels, a boon for diabetics.

We also had a veggie/tofu stir-fry, with a scoop of brown rice.  A lot of commercial dressings and condiments have oil, sugar, excess salt and other stuff that’s not on the NIHF diet, so the chefs have made “legal” versions. The “legal” teriyaki sauce added a lot more flavor to the brown rice.

For dessert there was a half-dollar size “cookie” made with organic chocolate chips, but no eggs, white flour or white sugar. It was better than I thought it would be, but pretty far removed from Mrs. Fields or Chips Ahoy.

6:30 p.m. For after-dinner entertainment, the group was going to watch a DVD of “Food, Inc.” a movie about the sinister side of America’s agribusiness.  Since I’ve already seen the movie, I opted to go back to the pool and swim laps. Then I sat in the hot tub to ease my tired muscles before bedtime.

More about NIHF in Part II…..