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Why Diet Is Just As Important As Fitness

Why Diet Is Just As Important As Fitness

People are frequently surprised that Next Level Fitness in Irvine, CA, offers nutritional meal planning besides personalized workouts. They shouldn’t be. Diet is as important as fitness to be your best self. If weight loss or muscle building are your goals, getting adequate nutrition and eating healthy, low-calorie foods is 80% of the challenge. You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. It’s also true that you can’t build muscles just by lifting a spoon. Exercise also plays a vital role in weight loss.

Building muscles and losing weight efforts improve when you eat healthy and exercise.

Weight gain or loss boils down to calorie surplus or calorie deficit. If you want to lose a pound, you need to eat 3500 calories than you burn. You can do it in three ways. You can maintain your calorie intake and exercise to boost the calories you expend, reduce your calorie intake, or increase your exercise time and the number of calories you burn as you reduce the calories you consume. If you do both, you’ll lose weight faster. Exercise builds muscle tissue, but you also need building blocks for muscle. A healthy diet provides that.

A healthy lifestyle improves your longevity.

A healthy lifestyle can extend your life. Adequate sleep, a nutritious diet, and regular exercise are good ways to start your program. Exercise keeps you looking and feeling younger. It affects the body on a cellular level by creating longer telomeres. Telomeres are at the end of chromosomes and prevent them from unraveling, protecting them from damage or death. Exercise also increases the body’s stem cells, which replace damaged cells.

What you eat makes a difference. ‘

Your body is a complex machine. Just getting up in the morning requires thousands of messages sent to various parts. Hormones and enzymes help transport these messages. The body needs the proper nutrients to create the enzymes or hormones. Gut microbes produce some of them. They play a vital role in your body’s health. The diversity and number of microbes determine digestive health, immunity, metabolism, and mood. A well-balanced microbiome largely depends on diet, although fitness does play a role. Fiber feeds beneficial microbes. Sugar feeds harmful ones. Sugar also causes inflammation, while a diet containing certain fruits and vegetables can reduce inflammation.

  • A diet high in sugar causes blood glucose levels to spike. Insulin opens cells to uptake blood glucose, so it increases insulin. That leads to inflammation, obesity, and insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes.
  • A healthy diet contains antioxidants that prevent oxidation, which causes cell damage and death. Phytochemicals that give plants their color provide those antioxidants. Each color has different benefits. It’s why your plate should contain a variety of colors.
  • You don’t have to diet or go on a strict exercise program to get benefits. Cutting out highly processed food or food with added sugar and increasing your activity is beneficial.
  • You don’t need a full half-hour to an hour straight to exercise. You can break it up into ten to fifteen-minute sections. Instead of exercising a half-hour all at once, break it into ten-minute sessions you do when time is available.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


How Sugar Increases Anxiety

How Sugar Increases Anxiety

Your diet plays a big role in your mental health. Too much omega-6 compared to your intake of omega-3 can lead to more aggressive behavior. Too much sugar leads to hyperactivity, but it also can cause depression and anxiety. With sugar, it becomes a vicious cycle. You get a sugar high from eating it, which drops quickly to a low when you need another hit. Eventually, like many drugs, it takes more and more sugar hits to get the same high. Studies show that eating a diet higher in sugar can lead to depression or anxiety. One study shows consuming sugar is the cause of the problem, not the result.

Sugar is in everything!

If you’ve noticed people seem heavier than they were just a few decades earlier, your observation is correct. Americans are heavier than several decades ago. Part of it is consuming more calories, but that’s not the entire story. Part of the problem is the change in the gut microbiome—which includes the virus, bacteria, fungi, and other microbes in the intestines. The populations of these microbes change for many reasons: medication like antibiotics, environmental factors, and diet. A diet high in sugary junk food dramatically affects them.

The microbes do more than help digest food.

The microbes digest food that the body can’t. They eat soluble fiber and change it into a gel that helps keep you regular. They help release nutrients for your body that affect your brain. They also produce a substance that sends signals to the brain, controlling your appetite and affecting your mood. Too much sugar diminishes the beneficial microbes that can improve your mood while increasing the ones that negatively affect health. Junk food is high in sugar but low in fiber, both of which can cause an imbalance and increase both anxiety and depression.

What goes up must come down.

Eating sugar spikes your energy. It’s called a spike because it rises rapidly and descends as quickly. When blood sugar drops suddenly, it causes the body to alert the brain there’s a problem. Epinephrine, a stress hormone, does that. It tells the liver to release more glucose. That stress releases adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline can cause your heart to race and give you sweaty palms. That’s starting to sound like a panic attack from an anxiety issue. The process completes when cortisol, another fight-or-flight hormone, is released. It can also lead to anxiety.

  • There’s a brain-gut connection. The gut bacteria help create neurotransmitters, like serotonin, and reduce inflammation. Serotonin can help you feel less stressed, anxious, or depressed.
  • If you’re eating junk food and foods high in sugar, you’re missing whole foods in your diet and the nutrients they contain. Foods containing omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins D, B6, B12, and probiotics help fight anxiety.
  • Sugar causes inflammation. Inflammation can increase the risk of heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. It can put you at risk for mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
  • Withdrawal from a high-sugar diet can be difficult. Take it slowly. Include plenty of fresh fruit in your diet to replace the food with added sugar, like cookies, cakes, and candy.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Ever Tried Dance As Exercise?

Ever Tried Dance As Exercise?

Exercising doesn’t have to be boring or even done in the gym. You can get exercise doing things you love. Whether you play basketball, do nature walks, or dance, if you love it and it gets you moving, do it. It can be an option for those days away from the gym or another way to increase your activity level. Dancing is perfect for improving flexibility, balance, and strength. Most people don’t realize how long they’ve danced once they get into the music, so it’s exceptional for boosting your endurance.

Check out the cardio workout you’ll get.

Like any exercise, the more intense the dancing, the more benefits you’ll reap. Fast dancing will provide more cardio benefits than slow dancing. Dance gets your heart pumping and works many muscles on various planes. That workout includes large muscle groups, which maximizes the nitric oxide that relaxes the arteries and lowers blood pressure. The nitric oxide also smooths the interior artery walls to reduce the potential for plaque build-up and blood clots. It helps send oxygen and nutrient-rich blood throughout the body.

You’ll get a full-body workout that includes strength building.

The style of dancing you do determines how much strength-building occurs. All types of dance provide some. If you’re doing social dance, it includes some strength-building, while pose-and-hold dance styles, like ballet or the slow, deliberate movements of a waltz, can provide more. Small studies have shown most dance builds leg muscles, while some also build upper body strength. Dance works your core muscles and upper and lower body. It works muscles on various planes.

Flexibility can prevent injury.

Dancing increases flexibility and balance. The more you do it, the more graceful and flexible you become. It also improves balance, which is particularly important the older you are. It helps reduce the potential for life-altering falls. It boosts functional fitness as well as some traditional workouts. Best of all, when you dance, especially freeform dancing, you automatically modify it to your fitness level and needs.

  • If you’re taking a dance class or learning a new move, it builds new neural pathways. Dancing improves mental abilities and memory. It helps slow mental ageing.
  • You won’t notice how long you’ve been working out if you’re having fun. If you dance because you enjoy it, like any pastime, time seems to fly by while you’re doing it. You may even exercise longer than you would otherwise.
  • Dancing can be a social activity or one done in private. You can join dance groups and add to your social life, which is also good for your health, or turn up the volume when you’re alone and boogie down.
  • You don’t need special equipment to dance. If you have a computer, cell phone, or TV that links to the internet, you can play your favorite songs or go old school with a tape, record player, or radio.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Adding Steps To Your Days Can Extend Your Life Span

Adding Steps To Your Days Can Extend Your Life Span

Several people in Irvine, CA, have asked how to increase their gains at the gym without spending more time there. I always suggest adding steps to their daily routine. It’s perfect for people who don’t have a workout plan yet and want to extend their life span by getting fitter. It’s free. You can do it anywhere and modify it based on your fitness level. The more you exercise, the further or faster you can walk. It’s easy to combine with your regular fitness program, so it’s a great supplement.

If an intense workout is too much, try walking.

You may not be ready to do push-ups or pull-ups and burpees are out of the question. Walking is a good starting point that almost everyone can do. It increases leg strength and cardio. If you pump your arms or carry weights when swinging them, build upper body strength. It’s not the best exercise to become your best self, but an excellent place to start. The Department of Health and Human Services suggests each person gets 150 to 300 minutes a week at a moderate pace or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous exercise. If you can’t do a full 25 or 30 minutes, break it up into 5-minute sessions you do throughout the day.

Walking more can reduce the potential for certain health conditions and improve those you have.

Walking can increase your bone density or prevent bone density loss. That lowers your risk for osteoporosis. It boosts circulation and respiration, making it a heart-healthy activity. Walking improves balance and helps reduce the potential for falls. It also can improve leg strength and functional fitness. The stronger you are, the longer you’ll be able to live unassisted as you age.

Walking won’t replace a total fitness program.

Walking is a good supplement and an excellent place to start but it isn’t the ultimate fitness program. Fitness training should include endurance, flexibility, balance, and strength exercises. While walking can help in those areas, it doesn’t provide all the benefits of a complete workout. You can increase the benefits by wearing ankle weights or arm weights. You can also turn your walk into a HIIT—high intensity interval training—workout by walking at a high-intensity pace for a short time, then reducing your speed to a recovery pace for an equal time and alternating.

  • Add swimming and aquatic exercises, bicycling, and dancing into your daily schedule when you want more, but aren’t yet gym-ready.
  • Increase your steps without interfering with your present schedule. Parking further from the store or your destination and walking is one. Walking to lunch or taking the stairs instead of the elevator also helps.
  • When you increase walking, you’ll burn more calories. That makes losing weight easier. You don’t have to start by walking far if you’re completely out of shape. Just increase it as you get fitter.
  • Always focus on form, no matter what exercise you do, even walking. Your posture is important. Keep your shoulders back and head up, swinging your arms naturally as you walk.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Drop The Fries And Move Those Thighs

Drop The Fries And Move Those Thighs

If you want to lose weight, you have to eat healthier and move more. For sleek, toned thighs and the flat belly you want, eating healthy and exercising is the answer. It doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to eat fries again, just don’t do it frequently. Instead, focus on healthy food and healthy ways to make that food. You also need to increase your activity. Whether it’s a formal exercise program, walking, biking, or dancing, moving more makes a difference.

Change your diet.

You don’t have to eat a strict diet to shed those extra pounds. Start by making some simple changes. Avoid highly processed food and opt for many fruits and vegetables. Cut out food high in sugar and depend on natural sources of sweetness, such as fruit, for your sugar fix. Cook your food in healthier ways. Steam, broil, boil, or roast food, but don’t fry it. Avoid heavy sauces that contain sugar and fat. Opt for less processed grain. Use brown rice instead of white rice. Choose whole-grain bread instead of white bread. Avoid other foods using white bleached flour.

Start a program of exercise.

You can’t decide where you’re going to lose fat. When you lose weight, it comes off your entire body, not just one spot, no matter how many spot exercises you do. You can tone the thighs or any other part while you burn extra calories to help you shed pounds. Develop a complete workout that includes all types of fitness: aerobics, strength, balance, and flexibility. Make an appointment with yourself to exercise. Do it at the same time every day so it becomes a habit.

Enjoy life.

Increase your activity level by doing fun things. You can tone your whole body when you dance. Riding a bike may be your passion, so plan a short trip to the park. Pack a healthy lunch and make it a family ride. If you find your energy drooping or your stomach growling mid-morning or afternoon, take a healthy snack to satisfy it. You’ll be less likely to eat unhealthy snacks.

  • Have a preworkout and post workout snack. It should be high in carbs and protein and contain approximately 100 calories. It helps build muscles and boost recovery.
  • As you build muscle tissue, you’ll notice it’s easier to lose weight. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat does. The more muscle tissue you have, the higher your metabolism will be.
  • Find other ways to increase the calories you burn. Instead of circling the parking lot, trying to find a closer space, park further from the store and walk more. Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
  • Don’t try to do it all at once. Cut out sugar first. It takes a few weeks for your body to quit craving it. Then, increase fruits and vegetables in your diet. Increase your activity but take it slowly. When you exercise, focus on form first.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Eat Right, Live Strong

Eat Right, Live Strong

Our personal trainers in Irvine, CA, focus on making healthy lifestyle changes. Learning to eat right, exercising regularly, and getting adequate sleep are three things that will make a difference in your life and help you live strong. Many of the habits, big or small, decide your future health. If you enjoy walking and take a walk regularly, you’ll have an improved chance of living longer and healthier. There’s a reason certain foods are part of a healthy diet. They keep you healthier.

Eating healthy isn’t dieting.

When you diet, you deprive yourself, count calories, and stick with a regimented menu. Diets always end. When they end, you go back to the old habits of high-calorie junk food. If you lose weight, you regain it. Eating healthy provides your body with the nutrients it requires for peak performance. It’s often lower in calories since it contains filling, less fattening foods. You can make some small changes to start, like switching out white processed rice with brown rice.

Watch out for empty calories.

What are empty calories? They’re foods that just supply calories with no other nutrients. Some, like food high in sugar, can also cause damage to your body if you eat it too frequently. Sugar is addictive and triggers the opioid receptors, causing your body to react as it does to drugs. Your tastebuds become desensitized to sugar, so you have to eat more to get the sweet taste. Sugar also affects your health in other ways besides weight gain. It can cause heart and kidney issues, increase your risk for diabetes, and damage collagen. That can make your veins weaker and cause wrinkles.

You can make eating healthier easy by following a few simple rules.

Plan your meals so you use ingredients that are closest to their natural state. It’s often referred to as eating whole foods. Start your meal with a big salad containing many vegetables and fruits. When your plate is full it should be a rainbow of colors. Phytonutrients give the plants their color and offer benefits for the animals or people that eat them. Each color does something beneficial but different. Eating colorful fruits and vegetables benefits your entire body. Many of the nutrients are destroyed or removed through processing. Many processed foods are missing those nutrients and contain chemicals or sugar. The more you eat, the more you want, and the more weight you gain.

  • Stay hydrated. Even mild dehydration can cause health issues, such as dementia-like symptoms, decreased kidney functioning, hypertension, kidney stones, UTIs, and intestinal failure.
  • Make sure you have adequate fiber in your diet. Fiber is a prebiotic that can boost beneficial microbes. High-fiber foods also fill you up and keep you full longer. You’ll also stay regular when you eat more fiber.
  • Before you exercise and after you’ve finished, eating a snack that contains carbs and proteins can help boost recovery and build muscle tissue.
  • Besides a healthy diet, a healthy lifestyle includes exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep, and avoiding nicotine, illegal drugs, and excess alcohol consumption. Our trainers can help you with diet and exercise programs.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Common Diet Mistakes

Common Diet Mistakes

If weight loss is your goal and it’s going slow or not happening at all, even though you think you’ve done everything right, you may unwittingly be making diet mistakes that can halt or slow your progress. Some things may be old habits you never thought about much, like that spoonful or two of leftovers you eat instead of throwing away, or the portion size of your meals.

Watch out for “gimmick” food.

Some manufacturers tout their food as low-fat or no-fat to make you believe somehow that it’s healthier or better for weight loss. If you think that taking the fat out of food makes it lower in calories or more likely to help you lose weight, you’d be wrong. Studies show people consuming full-fat dairy lost more weight than those consuming low or no-fat dairy. The fat fills you and keeps you full longer. It’s also necessary to help burn fat. When manufacturers remove fat, it also affects the flavor and texture of the product. They replace it with sugar and chemicals to make it more palatable. It’s worse for weight loss.

Eating too few calories can slow your metabolism and make weight loss more difficult.

Sometimes, trying too hard or going to extremes to lose weight sabotages your efforts. You can slow weight loss by eating too few calories. First, find the number of calories necessary for maintenance for your ideal weight and consume that, or cut your calorie intake by 500 calories. Just cutting 500 calories daily can help you lose a pound a week. Be careful not to reduce your calorie intake too much. It causes your body to go into starvation mode and slows your metabolism.

Did you fail to include exercise in your weight loss plan?

If you want the best results from your dieting efforts, you need exercise, too. Exercise helps you burn extra calories and makes weight loss occur faster. It boosts your energy so you’re more active, burning even more calories. As you build muscle tissue, your body requires even more calories. Muscle tissue needs more calories to maintain than fat tissue does. Don’t just focus on endurance exercises like running. Endurance exercises burn many calories, but some come from lean muscle tissue. Strength-building creates more lean muscle tissue.

  • Don’t forget to include quality protein in your diet. Eating fruits and vegetables is necessary to lose weight and be healthy, but you also need protein. Protein helps maintain muscle tissue.
  • Don’t forget to include fiber in your diet. Too often, radical diets include nothing but liquids or only meat. You need fiber to be healthy, feel full, and reduce the calories absorbed in your intestines.
  • Identify any emotions that cause you to eat more. Do you eat when you’re angry or bored? Does sadness cause you to seek comfort food? Find an alternative that helps you cope or a healthier option.
  • Count your drink of choice as part of your calories. Cutting out a daily cola can help you lose an extra pound in a month. Drink water, unsweetened tea, or coffee. A large glass of cold water a half hour before a meal fills you, so you eat less.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Best Fitness If You're Idle

Best Fitness If You’re Idle

It’s hard for idle people to get fit. Most don’t do or enjoy anything that promotes fitness. If sweating in a gym seems unsavory and you don’t believe that healthy food tastes good, you’ve got a long road ahead if your goal is to lose weight, build endurance, or increase strength. There are some things you can do that make getting fit easier and that fit into your lifestyle. These are healthy ways that don’t involve pills or other drastic measures.

Start by increasing your activity.

If you’re going grocery shopping, park further from the store and walk a few extra feet. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you’re really out of shape, start by taking the elevator and get off the floor before your destination, leaving just one set of stairs to climb. If you ride a bus to work, get off a few stops early and walk the rest of the way. Save yourself money and choose the cheaper option for entertainment apps like Hulu that include commercials. During those commercials, do exercises. You’ll make your wallet fatter and your waist thinner.

Make smarter decisions when you eat.

Learn ways to cut calories and boost nutrition. Keep fresh fruits and vegetables cut and ready for snacks. Avoid buying highly processed snacks that add extra pounds. If you don’t have them in your house, you won’t be tempted to eat them. Eat a large salad before your meal and chew your food longer. When you thoroughly chew each bite until it’s all liquid, it slows you down and gives your stomach time to signal the brain it’s full, so you eat less. Focus on the flavor, texture, and pleasure each bite gives you. It’s called mindful eating.

Keep your body moving, even when you’re sitting.

Tapping your toes or frequently shifting your weight burns extra calories. You can even do sitting leg lifts when you’re sitting at your desk. You may only burn an additional 100 calories a day, but that means you’ll burn an extra 3500 in 35 days. That’s the calorie deficit it takes to lose a pound, and you can accomplish it with little effort. Once every hour, get up and walk around or do an exercise. Studies show that sitting for longer than an hour without moving detracts from your health.

  • Do isometric exercises. The stomach vacuum exercise builds core strength and improves abs. You can do it anywhere. With isometric exercises, you hold a position. Other isometrics include planks, wall squats, and glute bridges.
  • Get adequate sleep. That’s the epitome of the lazy man’s way to fitness, but it works. Lack of sleep causes the body to increase the production of the hunger hormone and make less satiety hormone.
  • Drink a large glass of water a half-hour before your meal. Studies show that you’ll eat fewer calories when you do. Switch out soft drinks for water or other no-calorie drinks.
  • Use smaller plates when you eat. If it involves buying slightly smaller plates, do it. It tricks your brain into thinking you’re eating more.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Your Goals Can Change Your Future

Your Goals Can Change Your Future

You often find the very thing that you focus on. If you see a bright red vehicle you love and want to buy because you think it’s unique, you’ll often start seeing that same bright red car everywhere. Setting a goal has a similar effect. Zeroing in on that goal can change your future. People in Irving, CA know that once you focus on the fitness destination, ways to achieve that goal will suddenly appear, even though they’ve been there all along.

To be effective, you must be specific.

If your goal is to be fitter, what does that mean? Does it mean you’ll have more endurance? What’s your goal? Is it to lose weight, lower blood glucose, or reduce blood pressure? If it’s weight loss, how much do you want to lose? Be specific about your goal, or you won’t know what route to take or if you reached it. Once a goal is defined, it’s easier to create ways to achieve that goal. Like the red car, you’ll see opportunities everywhere.

When you’re making your goal, make sure it’s realistic and achievable.

If you are a 35-year-old 5’5″ adult and your goal is to become 6’5″, your goal isn’t realistic or achievable. Setting a time frame helps achieve that goal. Without it you’ll never get started. It also must be realistic. If you can’t safely lose 80 pounds in a month. That would mean losing 20 pounds a week! If you were a 320-pound male and active, you’d need 3500 calories a day. To lose one pound, you need a 3500 calorie deficit. So if you ate nothing for a week, the most you could lose permanently is seven pounds. You need more time and a more realistic goal.

Break down your goal into smaller, more easily achieved goals.

Setting the goal to lose 2-pounds a week is more realistic. You have a shorter timeline to reach your mini goal, so you can achieve success quicker and more frequently. There’s nothing more motivating than success. You also need to identify ways to achieve your goal. For fitness goals, eating healthier and exercising are usually the first two things to include. Other aids include drinking more water and getting adequate sleep.

  • Once you set your goals, you’ll find new ways to achieve those goals or increase your potential for achieving them. It could mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator to build endurance.
  • Winners keep score. Track your workout and include the number of reps and sets. When your workout becomes easy, increase the challenge by increasing the number of sets and reps.
  • Celebrate wins. Everyone needs an “atta-boy.” It’s the positive confirmation you receive when you work hard and accomplish your goal. Set a reward that isn’t food-related.
  • If you aren’t sure how to set a fitness goal, our trainers will help you do it. They’ll create a program to help you reach them faster and change your life forever.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Customized Workouts Designed For You

Customized Workouts Designed For You

You are a unique individual. You may look like your parents or even have an identical twin, but your bodies will be different unless you experience everything the same. If identical twins had different exercise habits, one working out regularly and the other barely getting out of the easy chair, their bodies would reflect that difference. That’s why customized workouts can be so beneficial. They focus on areas that need more help and match your fitness level.

If you’ve ever joined a class and felt bored or left behind, you understand.

There’s nothing wrong with joining exercise groups. At least you’re moving, but it’s easy to get discouraged. If the class is too difficult, it can be embarrassing, confusing, and defeating. If it’s too easy, you’re not making progress and most likely getting bored. Both can lead to quitting the classes. If you stick with it, you’ll be getting exercise but not necessarily maximizing your workout to get the most benefit from your time. A customized workout considers your fitness level.

Customized workouts address your goals.

If your goal is weight loss, your workout will contain high-calorie-burning exercises. They’ll focus on burning fat and building muscle tissue since the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn. If it’s to increase your endurance so you don’t huff and puff climbing a flight of stairs, your customized workout will be different. Matching your workout to your goals is one reason to customize.

Customized workouts are constantly changing.

Personal trainers create customized workouts. They also track your progress and make adjustments as you continue. If the workout is accomplishing the goal and it becomes easier, that means you’ve reached a new fitness level. It’s also when the trainer modifies the workout to match that new fitness level. If you aren’t making the progress hoped for, the trainer also adjusts the workout to make it more effective.

  • When you have a customized workout, you’ll progress faster. You won’t waste time doing exercises that don’t address your needs. Trainers who create these workouts also know the exercises that get the best results.
  • Trainers identify weak muscle groups that cause smaller muscles to take over their tasks. That can lead to injuring those muscles. Customized workouts are also tailored to limitations, like knee or back problems.
  • The right type of workout can get better results in less time. Many customized workouts require less time spent in the gym. They are often complex exercises, HIIT workouts, or circuit training.
  • Personal trainers create customized workouts and continually check on your progress. They hold you accountable. You’ll get positive feedback when you accomplish something difficult, too.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness