Namita Nayyar:
Nike tapped you to become the first female athlete to design a shoe, and, for six straight years (1993-99), you served as the company’s cross-training spokesperson. How did you feel about this great achievement and inspiring so many like you?
Gabrielle Reece:
I had the great fortune of having a relationship with Nike. I was in the right place at the right time.
All of the female athletes before me, the culture and everything, it created a ground for me to be able to be in the position to have my first signature shoe and be their first female athlete.
Hatfield was the designers of my shoe, he was the person who really was the main force behind brand Jordan. This relationship was similar to a team sport, you realize you’re more successful than you can ever be on your own, when you’re surrounded by really good people.
Wieden+Kennedy, the ad agency with Nike always did fun and creative things with me and then again, like I said, I had Tinker and so I felt really honored to have that opportunity with Nike, I love the brand and again they put their very best people all around me, so it made the opportunity to be successful and certainly more achievable.
Namita Nayyar:
Give us your Top 5 Health & Nutrition Tips to fight off obesity.
Gabrielle Reece:
I think obesity is such a broad term. I’m six three and I weigh hundred and almost 80 pounds, so this is what I believe is, first of all, you have to look at people’s genetics.
Secondly when being on any prescription medication makes it challenging to lose weight. Women going through menopause, being hormonally imbalanced can be challenging to maintain a healthy weight.
Studies say Americans drink twenty percent of their calories so clearly getting rid of all drinks including juices because they’re just loaded with sugar. Drinking sugar or consuming sugar without fiber goes straight to the liver so obviously this creates havoc on your system.
So for me I would avoid the sugary drinks, I would move on a regular basis, I would avoid processed foods and I know people are going to kill me but avoid microwaveing all these foods because this depletes nutrients, there’s no minerals, no enzymes, so now what you’re getting are empty calories. Also I think if somebody is having this issue to see if there’s something in their past or their childhood, a trauma of sorts that triggered this mechanism of protection which would be understandable but I think that sometimes we analyze just their exterior lifestyle and I think sometimes if there has been a trauma that’s unaddressed, it makes it challenging As far as having been successful, this is what I say, I don’t wake up each day thinking I can’t wait not to eat all the things that I think taste great and kill myself in training, what I do know how to do very well, is I learned how to create a system and I’ve put that in place so I can be successful.
The other thing I would suggest is to have somebody you’ve got to check in with and be accountable. Certainly food journaling is essential to this because it starts to let you really notice your habits and see like, oh when I was stressed out that day, look at how it changed my eating, so I think food journaling is also a great tool.
Namita Nayyar:
Tell us more about XPT – Extreme Performance Training.
Gabrielle Reece:
XPT is just an extension of what my husband, Laird Hamilton and I have been doing for a lot of years. So the notion of, we say this first and foremost, we really don’t know anything and we’re going to share what we know today and in a year hopefully, because you keep learning, it’s different.
XPT involves breathing routines for health and fitness I love sharing how to breathe properly is, you can do it anywhere, it’s cheap and you go figure it is the essence of life and it really can be a tool to either ramp you up and put you in your sympathetic system, get you ready to move down, put you into your parasympathetic before bed, get you to relax and things like that so I love the breathing.
We do a thermo regulation system which involves heat and ice.
I do heat and ice 2-3 times a week. There are benefits both mentally and physically from thermo regulation, I encourage everyone to look into it.
We also do pool training (underwater fitness) which is sort of the most unique part. We have developed over thirty underwater exercises, where you can work on your lung expansion and capacity but also you can do ballistic movements without pounding your joints. It’s for people of all ages and we have shallow up to deep water exercises.
People that like to do different exercises, that I don’t do, or vice versa so the ultimate thing behind XPT is also to encourage people to remember that they are uniquely different and can they take that time to figure out what really does work best for them.
We really feel to have a quality fitness program it needs to be scalable. It needs to benefit people of all ages and abilities. One thing great about XPT is that it is beneficial for everyone. The breathing, the water fitness, the heat and ice are incredible techniques for beginners all the way up to tactical forces.
Disclaimer
The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
