Remember: It's a Holiday Season, not an Eating Season.
If you don't want to derail your own weight loss efforts, you are going to have to take ownership of your eating for the next month. Scratch that..... You are going to have to take ownership of your eating for the REST OF YOUR LIFE!
Yeah.... I know this reality sucks, but it's where we are- We didn't get fat by being careful throughout the Holiday Seasons prior, so we sure as heck aren't going to get (or stay) skinny by eating whatever the devil we please until January 2nd. Plus, if you DO eat whatever you desire for the next month it's going to be even harder to lose the cravings for the simple carbs when the four-week binge is over.
I have so many tempting food thingys coming up I can't even tell you. But I don't need to, because you can identify- You have them, too! Look folks, we can't make the tempting foods or fancy schmancy occasions with butter and sugar dripping from them go away. We are going to have to deal. And most of the time we are going to have to say "It looks marvelous! So tempting, but NO, and thank you very much for your efforts"- sometimes over and over. We're going to be confronted with food pushers. But if we cave it isn't their fault, it's our own: WE are responsible for the bodies God has entrusted us with, not them.
The fact is that we are going to have to develop backbones if we aren't going to seriously derail our own efforts by January second, and potentially longer if we have a hard time getting back on track. It's tough to say "No" when faced with yummy food you only get once a year. But what do you want more? The yummy food, or the yummy body? It's your choice, but personally, I'll take the bod, thank you.
So I'm allowing myself a few MEALS this month where I am allowed to eat and not count macro nutrients. But the rest of the time I am going to practice complete avoidance.
I seriously doubt any of us will look back a few months from now and say "I so regret not eating more garbage this past Holiday season".
So if you've been binging, knock it off! Stop! Today! Right now! Go back to the basics! Claim whole, clean foods as your friend, and treat the next minute like a new chapter in life.
The year is too short to spend more than a full month of it destroying your health.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Enjoy Your Weight Loss Journey
This may sound ridiculous, but try to enjoy the process of losing your weight and obtaining fitness.
No, I have not lost my mind. :-D
Celebrate the little victories: Relish being in the next size down, at the 5-pound mark you were waiting to get to, being in the 190's and 180's and 170's (or whatever numbers you need to get through). Gloat a little about the scale going down. Look at your emerging waistline or trimmer arms or thinner face with admiration. Enjoy the process! Because if you don't, that's going to be a lot of time you spend half-living, and I can't think of one good reason to do that willingly. Can you?
This is a journey that is uniquely yours. No one else can travel it for you. Enjoy it.
It took me about a year to lose about 45 pounds of excess weight, and although there were some moments of angst ("Why can't I get down below 166???"), I am glad that overall I enjoyed the process and celebrated little victories along the way. Otherwise, it would have been a year of wasted negativity.
No matter how much weight you have to lose, chances are you aren't going to lose it quickly. Life is too short to be waiting for "When I lose this weight". Live life RIGHT NOW, at your current weight, to it's fullest potential. Don't wait to have nice hair, wear stylish clothes, learn to do your makeup, or anything else that you think could make you feel better about yourself. Regardless of your weight, you have every right to feel good about yourself right where you are. And besides, it's good for you! Like I said in my blog "Love Yourself In Your Current Condition", posted back in April, the better you feel about yourself right now, the more likely you will be to see your weight loss efforts through.
How much of your life are you willing to live miserable?
No, I have not lost my mind. :-D
Celebrate the little victories: Relish being in the next size down, at the 5-pound mark you were waiting to get to, being in the 190's and 180's and 170's (or whatever numbers you need to get through). Gloat a little about the scale going down. Look at your emerging waistline or trimmer arms or thinner face with admiration. Enjoy the process! Because if you don't, that's going to be a lot of time you spend half-living, and I can't think of one good reason to do that willingly. Can you?
This is a journey that is uniquely yours. No one else can travel it for you. Enjoy it.
It took me about a year to lose about 45 pounds of excess weight, and although there were some moments of angst ("Why can't I get down below 166???"), I am glad that overall I enjoyed the process and celebrated little victories along the way. Otherwise, it would have been a year of wasted negativity.
No matter how much weight you have to lose, chances are you aren't going to lose it quickly. Life is too short to be waiting for "When I lose this weight". Live life RIGHT NOW, at your current weight, to it's fullest potential. Don't wait to have nice hair, wear stylish clothes, learn to do your makeup, or anything else that you think could make you feel better about yourself. Regardless of your weight, you have every right to feel good about yourself right where you are. And besides, it's good for you! Like I said in my blog "Love Yourself In Your Current Condition", posted back in April, the better you feel about yourself right now, the more likely you will be to see your weight loss efforts through.
How much of your life are you willing to live miserable?
Monday, November 15, 2010
Rules Are Sometimes Meant To Be Broken
I love rules and find contentment in knowing I am following them. I think it's the German in me. At any rate, even I believe that there are times it's beneficial to break the rules, particularly when it comes to exercise. So, as promised in my last blog, here are some general rules of weight lifting and why I like to break them sometimes.
Rule:
Work specific body parts together. (Back with biceps, Chest with shoulders and delts, etc)
When you work the bigger muscle groups (Quads, Hams, Chest, and Back), the smaller muscle groups assist you in the motion. So, it stands to reason that working the Quads and Hamstrings with the Calves and Abs is a wise idea (calves get pulled into most thigh exercises, and abs are used to stabilize heavily on them, as well). Similarly, the "pushing" motion of chest exercises engages the triceps and shoulders, and the "pulling" motion of back exercises engages the biceps, so working those muscle groups together can thoroughly exhaust the smaller muscle groups and require less exercises to finish them off, therefore saving time. This rule of thumb is terrific, but sometimes you may want to break the body parts up differently based on your goals and objectives.
For instance, I am always working to thicken my shoulders, which are naturally very slight, so I keep my shoulders as far away in my weekly split as possible from chest day (shoulders are now Monday and Friday with my thighs, and chest is Wednesday). This not only gives me two days to work shoulders (most of my body parts get hit once a week), but it also give them a "mini" workout between my two "big" shoulder days, with ample time to recover between all of them.
Rule:
Work the big body parts first, then work the smaller ones.
For instance, when working the chest and triceps, always work the chest first. The reasoning here is that if you work the triceps first, they will be too tired to fully assist in your chest and you won't get as good a chest workout. Breaking this rule makes sense when the assisting muscle is the one that you want to build up more than the bigger muscle group. So if you are someone with underdeveloped triceps but your chest is coming along pretty good, I'd advise working triceps first, while they are fresh, to get maximum muscle stimulation in them.
I did something similar this morning: Generally it is advised to work quadriceps before hamstrings, but I hit hamstrings first so that they could give lift the most weight with the best form possible on an exercise isolating them away from quads (hyperextensions). I couldn't have given the effort I did on hyperextensions had I done the hack squats and plie squats that came later on in the workout first.
Rule:
Work each body part at least 2 times per week.
For a beginner, this is a fine rule. But once you start really pushing your muscles this one doesn't work out very well for a couple of reasons: The first one is that its hard to find time to work every muscle group to the point where it will reach peak growth twice a week. The second reason is that often, after a grueling workout session, it takes a full week to recover the muscle group enough to hammer it again.
The fact is that most body builders and figure gals work most body parts once a week. This is proof that you can achieve muscle growth by breaking the minimum-twice-weekly rule. Like I mentioned above, my thighs and shoulders get hit twice a week, but everything else just once.
There are more, but this blog is long enough............
It might be worth noting that my weight lifting partner, the most muscular man I have ever known personally, breaks just about all of these rules routinely. He works legs together, but chest, back, and shoulders each get their own day. Abs get tossed in at will, and he does arms by themselves. When he works his arms, he usually works biceps (the smaller muscle group) before triceps. (And his horseshoe is the size of a Clydesdale's!) He never warms up with cardio (another weight lifting "rule") and he frequently goes more than a week between body parts, since they are broken down into just one or two muscle groups for each workout session (However, I have never seen him do less than 5 exercises per body part, and multiple sets per exercise). He might work his legs every two weeks, and they are the size of tree trunks! He spends a majority of time on his chest and shoulders and (this makes me nutz!), he has virtually no weight lifting schedule. I'm walking around with my training notebook that has my pre-planned routine, and he struts into the gym and says "I think I'll work back today!". He's doesn't care about the rules because he's been doing this long enough that he knows what works for him.
The point of this blog is this: When you hear a rule or general guideline for exercise, ask yourself if it is conducive to your own goals and objectives for exercise. As long as it does not compromise your safety, you may find you need to adjust accordingly. And sometimes it's nice to change the rules simply to break the monotony and keep things interesting. Even my lifting partner will take a routine out of Flex magazine and do it for several weeks, just to change things up.
Any other rules you've heard that you'd like me to address in this blog? Please ask- I'm sure I'll have something to say about it. :-D
Rule:
Work specific body parts together. (Back with biceps, Chest with shoulders and delts, etc)
When you work the bigger muscle groups (Quads, Hams, Chest, and Back), the smaller muscle groups assist you in the motion. So, it stands to reason that working the Quads and Hamstrings with the Calves and Abs is a wise idea (calves get pulled into most thigh exercises, and abs are used to stabilize heavily on them, as well). Similarly, the "pushing" motion of chest exercises engages the triceps and shoulders, and the "pulling" motion of back exercises engages the biceps, so working those muscle groups together can thoroughly exhaust the smaller muscle groups and require less exercises to finish them off, therefore saving time. This rule of thumb is terrific, but sometimes you may want to break the body parts up differently based on your goals and objectives.
For instance, I am always working to thicken my shoulders, which are naturally very slight, so I keep my shoulders as far away in my weekly split as possible from chest day (shoulders are now Monday and Friday with my thighs, and chest is Wednesday). This not only gives me two days to work shoulders (most of my body parts get hit once a week), but it also give them a "mini" workout between my two "big" shoulder days, with ample time to recover between all of them.
Rule:
Work the big body parts first, then work the smaller ones.
For instance, when working the chest and triceps, always work the chest first. The reasoning here is that if you work the triceps first, they will be too tired to fully assist in your chest and you won't get as good a chest workout. Breaking this rule makes sense when the assisting muscle is the one that you want to build up more than the bigger muscle group. So if you are someone with underdeveloped triceps but your chest is coming along pretty good, I'd advise working triceps first, while they are fresh, to get maximum muscle stimulation in them.
I did something similar this morning: Generally it is advised to work quadriceps before hamstrings, but I hit hamstrings first so that they could give lift the most weight with the best form possible on an exercise isolating them away from quads (hyperextensions). I couldn't have given the effort I did on hyperextensions had I done the hack squats and plie squats that came later on in the workout first.
Rule:
Work each body part at least 2 times per week.
For a beginner, this is a fine rule. But once you start really pushing your muscles this one doesn't work out very well for a couple of reasons: The first one is that its hard to find time to work every muscle group to the point where it will reach peak growth twice a week. The second reason is that often, after a grueling workout session, it takes a full week to recover the muscle group enough to hammer it again.
The fact is that most body builders and figure gals work most body parts once a week. This is proof that you can achieve muscle growth by breaking the minimum-twice-weekly rule. Like I mentioned above, my thighs and shoulders get hit twice a week, but everything else just once.
There are more, but this blog is long enough............
It might be worth noting that my weight lifting partner, the most muscular man I have ever known personally, breaks just about all of these rules routinely. He works legs together, but chest, back, and shoulders each get their own day. Abs get tossed in at will, and he does arms by themselves. When he works his arms, he usually works biceps (the smaller muscle group) before triceps. (And his horseshoe is the size of a Clydesdale's!) He never warms up with cardio (another weight lifting "rule") and he frequently goes more than a week between body parts, since they are broken down into just one or two muscle groups for each workout session (However, I have never seen him do less than 5 exercises per body part, and multiple sets per exercise). He might work his legs every two weeks, and they are the size of tree trunks! He spends a majority of time on his chest and shoulders and (this makes me nutz!), he has virtually no weight lifting schedule. I'm walking around with my training notebook that has my pre-planned routine, and he struts into the gym and says "I think I'll work back today!". He's doesn't care about the rules because he's been doing this long enough that he knows what works for him.
The point of this blog is this: When you hear a rule or general guideline for exercise, ask yourself if it is conducive to your own goals and objectives for exercise. As long as it does not compromise your safety, you may find you need to adjust accordingly. And sometimes it's nice to change the rules simply to break the monotony and keep things interesting. Even my lifting partner will take a routine out of Flex magazine and do it for several weeks, just to change things up.
Any other rules you've heard that you'd like me to address in this blog? Please ask- I'm sure I'll have something to say about it. :-D
Thursday, October 21, 2010
In Defense of the Workout Split
I have had several people inquire about using whole-body exercises as opposed to working separate body parts. Many times it seems the whole-body camp gets almost charismatic about how their way is better. Me? I don't see it that way. I like separating body parts instead of working all, or most, of them at once.
There is nothing wrong with whole-body exercises. If this is what trips your trigger and keeps you going to the gym, by all means: Do whole body exercises! We all gotta do what works for us. But me? I'm splitting them up. Here's why:
- First and foremost, for me personally I get better muscle definition and size this way.
- It allows me to spend more time on lagging parts and lets the parts the are more developed (namely, my back) hang tight until the other body parts catch up.
- When I work body parts separately I can "custom form" my body more to my own taste. For instance: I've mentioned in prior blogs that I naturally have very slight shoulders. By working shoulders separate I've been able to add width to them, therefore helping to balance my wide hips and turn my bowling-pin body into a true hourglass.
- When I do enough whole-body exercises to make me feel like all of my body got hit as hard as I'd like, it takes a REALLY long time. Splitting things up helps me either do less exercises at a time and get out of the gym faster, or hone in and do a LOT of exercises on one part to thoroughly exhaust it.
- I bore easily. There are only so many whole-body-type moves out there. With splitting things up I'm not stuck doing the same moves over and over, so it helps to keep things interesting for me.
Here is my current split (a split is what they call it when you "split" body parts up into different days), and why:
- Monday- Quadriceps, Hamstrings, and Delts (These are all body parts that I need to build up more, so I work them twice a week. For this reason, I put them on Mondays and Fridays, to maximize healing time between workout sessions.)
- Tuesday, early AM- Abs (On Tuesdays I have a Weight Watchers meeting and do yoga, so I try to keep it minimal to allow time for the rest of my life to happen. I would do no body parts this day, but I like to try and work abs twice, if I can [as far as I am concerned, one cannot have ripped enough abs], and this puts them far away from my other ab day on Friday, again for max muscle repair)
- Wednesday- Chest, Triceps, and Calves (None of these body parts need to play "catch up", so they all get worked just once a week. I put calves here to keep them away from my quad days on Monday and Friday, when they usually get hit as a secondary muscle. This gives them suffecient repair time before they are singled out)
- Thursday- Back and Biceps (Again, I don't need to build either of these, so once a week is sufficient.)
- Friday- Quads, Hams, Delts, and Abs (All body parts that need to be hit a second time to build. If I'm short on time, I'll do less sets of these and leave abs out.)
- Weekends- Off
I also do cardio, but this blog is about weight lifting splits, not cardio.
I no longer worry about only doing some body parts once a week and here's why: Most figure and body building competitors only work each muscle group once a week. My workout partner is the most muscular person I know, and sometimes he goes MORE than a week between working body parts. The thing is, when he works any body part, he really goes at it: Multiple exercises (I've never seen him do any less than 5 for any given muscle group), and max effort.
If you are just starting out and want to try splits, I'd advise hitting all body parts twice a week. I did this for years, until my imbalances became apparent. The good news is that the body can be shaped according to how you'd like it to look with splits, so there is no need for these imbalances to be permanent things.
Here is that split. When I used it, I usually did just two exercises per body part (abs I did 6- two for each obliques, upper, and lower). It was quite effective:
-Monday- Legs and abs (Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, obliques, upper abs, lower abs)
-Tuesday- Upper body (Pecs, Back, Delts, Biceps, Triceps)
-Friday- Repeat legs and abs
-The next Monday- Repeat Wednesday from week prior
You continue alternating upper with legs and abs, which means that one week you are doing legs and abs on Wednesday, and the next on Monday and Friday (or whichever days of the week you choose to work out). This still hits all body parts twice within a seven-day period.
If you want to lift four days a week and hit everything twice in a calender week, you could still do the above split, but do legs/abs days 1 and 3 and upper days 2 and 4 (or vice verse).
The following split would be good if you want to lift weights 5 days a calendar week while hitting all body parts twice in a 7 day period. With this split you won't be spending hours in the gym each session:
-Day 1- Quads, Biceps
-Day 2- Hamstrings, Calves, Chest
-Day 3- Back, Delts
-Day 4- Abs, Triceps
With this split, you would just start back with day one the next scheduled lifting day after you have completed day 4. Also with this split, personally I would NOT do cardio on day two, because that's a longer lifting day with three body parts.
The above split would also work if you want to lift 4 days a week and hit each body part once. If that were the case, I'd do more exercises per body part (at least 3) to really give it something to recover from before it gets worked again.
I just came up with this last split off of the top of my head. There are no "Hard and fast" rules to setting up a split. There are some general rules, but it's good to even change those up sometimes, just to keep your body guessing. (I'll blog about that next.)
I know this is a lot of information and I hope I haven't overwhelmed, over-informed, or over-bored you. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me and I'll try my best to answer them. I love helping!
There is nothing wrong with whole-body exercises. If this is what trips your trigger and keeps you going to the gym, by all means: Do whole body exercises! We all gotta do what works for us. But me? I'm splitting them up. Here's why:
- First and foremost, for me personally I get better muscle definition and size this way.
- It allows me to spend more time on lagging parts and lets the parts the are more developed (namely, my back) hang tight until the other body parts catch up.
- When I work body parts separately I can "custom form" my body more to my own taste. For instance: I've mentioned in prior blogs that I naturally have very slight shoulders. By working shoulders separate I've been able to add width to them, therefore helping to balance my wide hips and turn my bowling-pin body into a true hourglass.
- When I do enough whole-body exercises to make me feel like all of my body got hit as hard as I'd like, it takes a REALLY long time. Splitting things up helps me either do less exercises at a time and get out of the gym faster, or hone in and do a LOT of exercises on one part to thoroughly exhaust it.
- I bore easily. There are only so many whole-body-type moves out there. With splitting things up I'm not stuck doing the same moves over and over, so it helps to keep things interesting for me.
Here is my current split (a split is what they call it when you "split" body parts up into different days), and why:
- Monday- Quadriceps, Hamstrings, and Delts (These are all body parts that I need to build up more, so I work them twice a week. For this reason, I put them on Mondays and Fridays, to maximize healing time between workout sessions.)
- Tuesday, early AM- Abs (On Tuesdays I have a Weight Watchers meeting and do yoga, so I try to keep it minimal to allow time for the rest of my life to happen. I would do no body parts this day, but I like to try and work abs twice, if I can [as far as I am concerned, one cannot have ripped enough abs], and this puts them far away from my other ab day on Friday, again for max muscle repair)
- Wednesday- Chest, Triceps, and Calves (None of these body parts need to play "catch up", so they all get worked just once a week. I put calves here to keep them away from my quad days on Monday and Friday, when they usually get hit as a secondary muscle. This gives them suffecient repair time before they are singled out)
- Thursday- Back and Biceps (Again, I don't need to build either of these, so once a week is sufficient.)
- Friday- Quads, Hams, Delts, and Abs (All body parts that need to be hit a second time to build. If I'm short on time, I'll do less sets of these and leave abs out.)
- Weekends- Off
I also do cardio, but this blog is about weight lifting splits, not cardio.
I no longer worry about only doing some body parts once a week and here's why: Most figure and body building competitors only work each muscle group once a week. My workout partner is the most muscular person I know, and sometimes he goes MORE than a week between working body parts. The thing is, when he works any body part, he really goes at it: Multiple exercises (I've never seen him do any less than 5 for any given muscle group), and max effort.
If you are just starting out and want to try splits, I'd advise hitting all body parts twice a week. I did this for years, until my imbalances became apparent. The good news is that the body can be shaped according to how you'd like it to look with splits, so there is no need for these imbalances to be permanent things.
Here is that split. When I used it, I usually did just two exercises per body part (abs I did 6- two for each obliques, upper, and lower). It was quite effective:
-Monday- Legs and abs (Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, obliques, upper abs, lower abs)
-Tuesday- Upper body (Pecs, Back, Delts, Biceps, Triceps)
-Friday- Repeat legs and abs
-The next Monday- Repeat Wednesday from week prior
You continue alternating upper with legs and abs, which means that one week you are doing legs and abs on Wednesday, and the next on Monday and Friday (or whichever days of the week you choose to work out). This still hits all body parts twice within a seven-day period.
If you want to lift four days a week and hit everything twice in a calender week, you could still do the above split, but do legs/abs days 1 and 3 and upper days 2 and 4 (or vice verse).
The following split would be good if you want to lift weights 5 days a calendar week while hitting all body parts twice in a 7 day period. With this split you won't be spending hours in the gym each session:
-Day 1- Quads, Biceps
-Day 2- Hamstrings, Calves, Chest
-Day 3- Back, Delts
-Day 4- Abs, Triceps
With this split, you would just start back with day one the next scheduled lifting day after you have completed day 4. Also with this split, personally I would NOT do cardio on day two, because that's a longer lifting day with three body parts.
The above split would also work if you want to lift 4 days a week and hit each body part once. If that were the case, I'd do more exercises per body part (at least 3) to really give it something to recover from before it gets worked again.
I just came up with this last split off of the top of my head. There are no "Hard and fast" rules to setting up a split. There are some general rules, but it's good to even change those up sometimes, just to keep your body guessing. (I'll blog about that next.)
I know this is a lot of information and I hope I haven't overwhelmed, over-informed, or over-bored you. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me and I'll try my best to answer them. I love helping!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Here I am..... AGAIN!
Okay, I have a big confession: As of this morning I am at 160.4 pounds. This is about 3 pounds over where I was allowing myself to be for the purpose of muscle gain, 8 pounds over the top of where I would like to "normally" be, and 12 pounds over where I would truly like to hold my weight on a permanant basis.
There is a bit of a history to this: I started German Volume Training (you can read about it here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/luis13.htm ) almost 6 weeks ago in an effort to gain some muscle in my legs, chest, and delts. I was only going to do this for 6 weeks, so this is the last week. At any rate, bodies tend to gain muscle better when they are carrying a little extra weight, so I made the choice to allow myself to hover around 157. My plan was, and still is, to get through the training, then take a week off and start working on losing the weight in fairly short order. I had it worked out so that I could still weigh at Weight Watchers once a month, but had time to get down to my goal weight before I had to do my October weigh-in. Or so I thought. The thing is, I gained 3 pounds more than I had intended, and I'm having a real issue with getting it off. 3 pounds may not sound like a lot, but when you add it to the original planned gain, I'm getting off into some dangerous (for me) territory, here.
I know another part of the reason I am at this weight is because of PMS bloat (Sorry to any guys reading this), but the truth is that this isn't a good enough excuse, because my "normal" weight should be low enough to give wiggle room for this.
The fact is that the REAL reason I am up higher is that because I have let myself have a little too much of this here and that there, and it's adding up. And I've been eating more carbs lately, which really holds water and makes me look a lot "fluffier".
And I love baking! I've started doing that again. Of course, I always want to eat what I bake.....
It also hasn't helped that I have been struggling with finding a goal right now. I made the decision not to do figure competition, which I blogged about last. So I lost that goal.
Then I thought I'd found a photographer to do fitness photos on my 44th birthday, but he started showing signs of not being very reliable, and was going to charge me a pretty penny. (As a friend of mine said "That's a lot of cheese for 2 hours of time in front of the camera!") I felt uneasy about using him for my photos.
So I've been a bit adrift, not feeling anything looming over me as far as a goal.
Regardless of the excuse (and these are all excuses), the fact is I am simply too heavy right now. It not only shows on the scale, but also in the mirror.
So I'm back to the old grindstone of being in weight-loss mode.
I guess for now, weekly weigh-ins with Weight Watchers will have to be motivation enough. And next week I WILL BE weighing in, regardless of whether I have to pay dues for being over my goal or not. With WW the highest I can be is 157 (dressed, or course). So unless I lose about 5 1/2 pounds in the next 5 days, I'll be shelling out $12 in dues next Tuesday.
Yay.
Additionally, as much as I would like to work with a nutritionist again, budget won't allow it, so I'm on my own. It's a LOT harder to self-diagnose than it is to help others, I am finding. But I'm giving it a shot......
Here's my game plan:
- Keep up my lifting and cardio. Honestly, it'd be hard to do much better in this department than I already am. Lack of exercise is NOT why I am where I am. Diet is.
- I'm going to clean up my food choices. Refined carbs are going to all but leave my diet.
- I'm back to a minimum of a gallon of water a day. Water. Not unsweetened tea w/ Splenda. Water.
- I will continue to log my food by writing it down in my WW Journal.
- I will go back to weekly weigh-ins with Weight Watchers, and will continue to do this every week for eternity, as well as continue to stay for the meetings.
- Daily weigh-ins at home until I am down to where I want to be, and I will daily change my weight on the tracker here on Spark to reflect that number.
So here I am, a little back slidden, but not defeated.
Onward and up......er....... DOWNward!!!!!!!!
There is a bit of a history to this: I started German Volume Training (you can read about it here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/luis13.htm ) almost 6 weeks ago in an effort to gain some muscle in my legs, chest, and delts. I was only going to do this for 6 weeks, so this is the last week. At any rate, bodies tend to gain muscle better when they are carrying a little extra weight, so I made the choice to allow myself to hover around 157. My plan was, and still is, to get through the training, then take a week off and start working on losing the weight in fairly short order. I had it worked out so that I could still weigh at Weight Watchers once a month, but had time to get down to my goal weight before I had to do my October weigh-in. Or so I thought. The thing is, I gained 3 pounds more than I had intended, and I'm having a real issue with getting it off. 3 pounds may not sound like a lot, but when you add it to the original planned gain, I'm getting off into some dangerous (for me) territory, here.
I know another part of the reason I am at this weight is because of PMS bloat (Sorry to any guys reading this), but the truth is that this isn't a good enough excuse, because my "normal" weight should be low enough to give wiggle room for this.
The fact is that the REAL reason I am up higher is that because I have let myself have a little too much of this here and that there, and it's adding up. And I've been eating more carbs lately, which really holds water and makes me look a lot "fluffier".
And I love baking! I've started doing that again. Of course, I always want to eat what I bake.....
It also hasn't helped that I have been struggling with finding a goal right now. I made the decision not to do figure competition, which I blogged about last. So I lost that goal.
Then I thought I'd found a photographer to do fitness photos on my 44th birthday, but he started showing signs of not being very reliable, and was going to charge me a pretty penny. (As a friend of mine said "That's a lot of cheese for 2 hours of time in front of the camera!") I felt uneasy about using him for my photos.
So I've been a bit adrift, not feeling anything looming over me as far as a goal.
Regardless of the excuse (and these are all excuses), the fact is I am simply too heavy right now. It not only shows on the scale, but also in the mirror.
So I'm back to the old grindstone of being in weight-loss mode.
I guess for now, weekly weigh-ins with Weight Watchers will have to be motivation enough. And next week I WILL BE weighing in, regardless of whether I have to pay dues for being over my goal or not. With WW the highest I can be is 157 (dressed, or course). So unless I lose about 5 1/2 pounds in the next 5 days, I'll be shelling out $12 in dues next Tuesday.
Yay.
Additionally, as much as I would like to work with a nutritionist again, budget won't allow it, so I'm on my own. It's a LOT harder to self-diagnose than it is to help others, I am finding. But I'm giving it a shot......
Here's my game plan:
- Keep up my lifting and cardio. Honestly, it'd be hard to do much better in this department than I already am. Lack of exercise is NOT why I am where I am. Diet is.
- I'm going to clean up my food choices. Refined carbs are going to all but leave my diet.
- I'm back to a minimum of a gallon of water a day. Water. Not unsweetened tea w/ Splenda. Water.
- I will continue to log my food by writing it down in my WW Journal.
- I will go back to weekly weigh-ins with Weight Watchers, and will continue to do this every week for eternity, as well as continue to stay for the meetings.
- Daily weigh-ins at home until I am down to where I want to be, and I will daily change my weight on the tracker here on Spark to reflect that number.
So here I am, a little back slidden, but not defeated.
Onward and up......er....... DOWNward!!!!!!!!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Why I've Decided NOT To Compete In Figure
I frequently have people asking me when I will do my first show, or as someone at the gym asked today my "next show" (like there ever was a first!). I had every intention of competing just a few months ago, but my mind has changed on this. Instead of typing out the reasons over and over again, I thought I would blog about it and have a place to send people to read my reasons. I know this doesn't really go along with the general direction of my blog, so please forgive the diversion.
In posting this blog I want to make it very clear that I don't want to discourage anyone else from competing. It's a marvelous venture for so many and if you want to do it, I say go for it! My reasons are simply that: MY reasons. We all have to do what is right for us individually.
When I did my 12-week cutting diet last spring, life became very much about me. I called it the Nancy Show. It had to be: I've never been one who can partly immerse myself in something and still get full benefit. I knew if I was going to be successful I would have to eat, breath, and live training and eating plan. So I did. And I was successful. But in being very honest with myself I had to admit being that self-focused felt extremely phony for me. You see, I had come to realize before I made the decision to undertake the cutting diet that one of the big purposes my Creator put me here on this earth for is to help others. I had a very hard time being empathetic and giving practical advice when my own life was being lived at such an extreme. (It's hard not to think EVERYONE should abandon carbs after noon if I am doing so.) It felt like I had lost my balance, to a large degree. It really bothered me that my focus was on myself and not others.
Secondly, my main reason for losing all that weight in the first place was to get healthier. While most of the cutting diet was perfectly healthy, there at the end the diet was extremely limited. My coach had me supplementing well, but there wasn't a very wide variety of food, which I think is important for the best nutrient balance. Additionally, in an effort to show as much muscle as possible, I was pretty danged dehydrated by the time the final photos were taken. Quite frankly, I felt weak and like I was about to collapse. This didn't seem to me to be in line with my main directive to be as healthy as possible.
Now, don't get me wrong: This is the very nature of cutting diets (or "leaning in", as most figure competitors call it), and pretty much what people in the industry accept across the board as necessary to look stage-ready. My coaches diet was the most generous and varied of any I have heard of.
The other big reason I decided not to compete is one that I almost hesitate to mention because it's a very hush-hush subject in the figure world, but one that I found out through some research is extremely common: Steroid use among figure competitors. It's present at all levels, but it's downright common and accepted among the figure pros. As a matter of fact, I've read from more than one source that virtually all of the pro figure competitors are using steroids. One gal in my own gym who competes pretty much copped to the fact that she used them, and seemed to have the attitude that if I wanted to seriously compete I would, too. Another gal at our gym didn't have to admit she did them: We could all tell just by looking at her that she used them before her last show. And this time she finally placed. Go figure. (No pun intended!)
Figure competitors don't use steroids (it's generally very low doses) for the purpose of muscle gain so much as for the purpose of fat loss quickly before a show. While I had my issues with my coach and wouldn't use him again, to his credit he does not employ the use of steroids and gets some pretty stinkin' impressive results (One of his clients, took first in her first body-building competition steroid-free).
At any rate, I don't see any point in dropping a lot of money (the least amount I've heard of anyone I know spending for all of the stuff needed to compete in a show was almost $900), to participate in something I simply can't win. I may look good for 43, but I know darned well that with my body type (all my fat on the bottom) the likelihood of me placing without steroid use is slim.
I've never done an illegal drug in my life, and I don't want to be borrow trouble by intentionally exposing myself to others who use steroids.
Lastly, there is the financial aspect. This is a very distant reason for not competing, but it does factor in. At this stage of the game our family needs to be concentrating our finances elsewhere.
I had first considered competing so I could have a goal looming out in front of me to help keep me from gaining weight back. Now I don't know what I will do for a goal, but please don't think I have quit! I'll think about it and find something.
Even though I don't plan to be a figure competitor, I sure as heck want to continue to be mistaken for one!
I know this blog will stir up a lot of controversy, angering some people and making others look at figure competitors in a new light. Please believe me: There are plenty of amateur and near-pro competitors who are not doing steroids, and the figure industry is a marvelous thing that allows women to celebrate and show off their hard work. But for this woman, it's not the right choice. I am going to return to my purpose: Setting an example for and helping others.
Let me know what you think! I always appreciate your comments!
In posting this blog I want to make it very clear that I don't want to discourage anyone else from competing. It's a marvelous venture for so many and if you want to do it, I say go for it! My reasons are simply that: MY reasons. We all have to do what is right for us individually.
When I did my 12-week cutting diet last spring, life became very much about me. I called it the Nancy Show. It had to be: I've never been one who can partly immerse myself in something and still get full benefit. I knew if I was going to be successful I would have to eat, breath, and live training and eating plan. So I did. And I was successful. But in being very honest with myself I had to admit being that self-focused felt extremely phony for me. You see, I had come to realize before I made the decision to undertake the cutting diet that one of the big purposes my Creator put me here on this earth for is to help others. I had a very hard time being empathetic and giving practical advice when my own life was being lived at such an extreme. (It's hard not to think EVERYONE should abandon carbs after noon if I am doing so.) It felt like I had lost my balance, to a large degree. It really bothered me that my focus was on myself and not others.
Secondly, my main reason for losing all that weight in the first place was to get healthier. While most of the cutting diet was perfectly healthy, there at the end the diet was extremely limited. My coach had me supplementing well, but there wasn't a very wide variety of food, which I think is important for the best nutrient balance. Additionally, in an effort to show as much muscle as possible, I was pretty danged dehydrated by the time the final photos were taken. Quite frankly, I felt weak and like I was about to collapse. This didn't seem to me to be in line with my main directive to be as healthy as possible.
Now, don't get me wrong: This is the very nature of cutting diets (or "leaning in", as most figure competitors call it), and pretty much what people in the industry accept across the board as necessary to look stage-ready. My coaches diet was the most generous and varied of any I have heard of.
The other big reason I decided not to compete is one that I almost hesitate to mention because it's a very hush-hush subject in the figure world, but one that I found out through some research is extremely common: Steroid use among figure competitors. It's present at all levels, but it's downright common and accepted among the figure pros. As a matter of fact, I've read from more than one source that virtually all of the pro figure competitors are using steroids. One gal in my own gym who competes pretty much copped to the fact that she used them, and seemed to have the attitude that if I wanted to seriously compete I would, too. Another gal at our gym didn't have to admit she did them: We could all tell just by looking at her that she used them before her last show. And this time she finally placed. Go figure. (No pun intended!)
Figure competitors don't use steroids (it's generally very low doses) for the purpose of muscle gain so much as for the purpose of fat loss quickly before a show. While I had my issues with my coach and wouldn't use him again, to his credit he does not employ the use of steroids and gets some pretty stinkin' impressive results (One of his clients, took first in her first body-building competition steroid-free).
At any rate, I don't see any point in dropping a lot of money (the least amount I've heard of anyone I know spending for all of the stuff needed to compete in a show was almost $900), to participate in something I simply can't win. I may look good for 43, but I know darned well that with my body type (all my fat on the bottom) the likelihood of me placing without steroid use is slim.
I've never done an illegal drug in my life, and I don't want to be borrow trouble by intentionally exposing myself to others who use steroids.
Lastly, there is the financial aspect. This is a very distant reason for not competing, but it does factor in. At this stage of the game our family needs to be concentrating our finances elsewhere.
I had first considered competing so I could have a goal looming out in front of me to help keep me from gaining weight back. Now I don't know what I will do for a goal, but please don't think I have quit! I'll think about it and find something.
Even though I don't plan to be a figure competitor, I sure as heck want to continue to be mistaken for one!
I know this blog will stir up a lot of controversy, angering some people and making others look at figure competitors in a new light. Please believe me: There are plenty of amateur and near-pro competitors who are not doing steroids, and the figure industry is a marvelous thing that allows women to celebrate and show off their hard work. But for this woman, it's not the right choice. I am going to return to my purpose: Setting an example for and helping others.
Let me know what you think! I always appreciate your comments!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
You Haven't Failed Until You've Stopped Trying
The title of this blog was posted as a comment on one of my earlier blogs by Christy, one of my blog followers. It struck a cord with me and has been rambling around in my head ever since.
I think too many of us have decided that we've failed in the health game. I know I had! I looked at the fact that I was fat and didn't look the way I wanted as failure. But the fact is that I'd never really given up on myself enough to stop trying to be fit and a healthy weight, so I was never officially at "failure" status. And unless you've thrown up your hands and said "I'm never trying to get healthy again.... Please pass the cupcakes!", you aren't a failure, either.
I've said before and I will say again that unless a doctor has said to you "It is unwise for you to eat healthy foods at a calorie level that will enable you to lose weight, and you should not do any physical activity of any kind", any reason you have for not taking care of yourself isn't a reason: It's an excuse.
When I tore my rotator cuff I was informed that lifting weights and any jarring motions would be bad for me. The only exercise I was cleared to do was walking.
So I walked.
When I was recovering from surgery, 3 of them in the past 3 1/2 years, I was only approved by my surgeons to walk for exercise.
So I walked.
Did I like walking? No. Did I feel like it was really exercise, after being accustomed to hitting the weights and doing the elliptical at a vigorous pace? No. But did I understand that not following my doctors' orders and doing any more physical activity besides walking could result in big problems for my body? Yes. Did I want to give my body the benefits that would come from something even as simple as walking? Yes.
So I walked.
A lot.
And I'd like to point out that none of my doctors gave me a free pass to eat crap. I probably don't need to list reasons why feeding your body garbage while it's trying to repair itself is not a good idea. So I tried to keep my diet high in nutrient-rich foods.
My point is that I did what I could. And I wasn't failing, even though I was fat for two of the three surgeries, because I had not stopped trying.
As long as you are still trying, there is still hope for you. And there is ALWAYS hope for you.
Youu ARE worth the effort: This is something you have to tell yourself if you are to make positive changes. But whatever you want to achieve CAN be accomplished, one way or the other.
It's never to late!
One foot in front of the other. That's trying..... And that's success!
I think too many of us have decided that we've failed in the health game. I know I had! I looked at the fact that I was fat and didn't look the way I wanted as failure. But the fact is that I'd never really given up on myself enough to stop trying to be fit and a healthy weight, so I was never officially at "failure" status. And unless you've thrown up your hands and said "I'm never trying to get healthy again.... Please pass the cupcakes!", you aren't a failure, either.
I've said before and I will say again that unless a doctor has said to you "It is unwise for you to eat healthy foods at a calorie level that will enable you to lose weight, and you should not do any physical activity of any kind", any reason you have for not taking care of yourself isn't a reason: It's an excuse.
When I tore my rotator cuff I was informed that lifting weights and any jarring motions would be bad for me. The only exercise I was cleared to do was walking.
So I walked.
When I was recovering from surgery, 3 of them in the past 3 1/2 years, I was only approved by my surgeons to walk for exercise.
So I walked.
Did I like walking? No. Did I feel like it was really exercise, after being accustomed to hitting the weights and doing the elliptical at a vigorous pace? No. But did I understand that not following my doctors' orders and doing any more physical activity besides walking could result in big problems for my body? Yes. Did I want to give my body the benefits that would come from something even as simple as walking? Yes.
So I walked.
A lot.
And I'd like to point out that none of my doctors gave me a free pass to eat crap. I probably don't need to list reasons why feeding your body garbage while it's trying to repair itself is not a good idea. So I tried to keep my diet high in nutrient-rich foods.
My point is that I did what I could. And I wasn't failing, even though I was fat for two of the three surgeries, because I had not stopped trying.
As long as you are still trying, there is still hope for you. And there is ALWAYS hope for you.
Youu ARE worth the effort: This is something you have to tell yourself if you are to make positive changes. But whatever you want to achieve CAN be accomplished, one way or the other.
It's never to late!
One foot in front of the other. That's trying..... And that's success!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Start Slow!
I am a huge proponent of weight lifting heavy weights for women, but one point I have not focused on at all is that if you are just starting with lifting (or any kind of exercise for that matter), or it has been a while since you've lifted, it's really important that you start slow.
Muscles need time to adapt, and lifting too heavy too soon will fail to give the muscles the time they need to adjust and grow to the load and could very possibly lead to injury.
Also, if you are very heavy, you are already weight lifting on a daily basis- Just your body weight alone is a lot for your skeleton to bear. You really need to be cautious about how much weight you start lifting when your body fat is very high.
A few times in my life I got away from weight lifting for an extended period of time, and each time I came back to lifting gradually, starting with very small weights (10 pounds and below) and building up as my muscles strengthened. For many exercises I started off with no weights at all. For instance, for squats and lunges I just used my own body weight.
I am not meaning that you shouldn't progress, or that some muscle soreness after you've worked out is not a good thing: It is! This usually means that your muscles are repairing stronger, which is a marvelous thing. I'm saying that when you first start out, you really need to ease into it.
I said before and will say again that muscles adapt very quickly. When a weight no longer feels challenging, it's time to up the ante. Challenge yourself! But when you first start, even if it feels too easy, start with low weights. There is no shame in this and you might be surprised how sore you are the next day. And this will give your nervous system time to adapt, as well.
Muscles need time to adapt, and lifting too heavy too soon will fail to give the muscles the time they need to adjust and grow to the load and could very possibly lead to injury.
Also, if you are very heavy, you are already weight lifting on a daily basis- Just your body weight alone is a lot for your skeleton to bear. You really need to be cautious about how much weight you start lifting when your body fat is very high.
A few times in my life I got away from weight lifting for an extended period of time, and each time I came back to lifting gradually, starting with very small weights (10 pounds and below) and building up as my muscles strengthened. For many exercises I started off with no weights at all. For instance, for squats and lunges I just used my own body weight.
I am not meaning that you shouldn't progress, or that some muscle soreness after you've worked out is not a good thing: It is! This usually means that your muscles are repairing stronger, which is a marvelous thing. I'm saying that when you first start out, you really need to ease into it.
I said before and will say again that muscles adapt very quickly. When a weight no longer feels challenging, it's time to up the ante. Challenge yourself! But when you first start, even if it feels too easy, start with low weights. There is no shame in this and you might be surprised how sore you are the next day. And this will give your nervous system time to adapt, as well.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Maintenance- The Work Will Never End!
I don't mean to be a big downer with this blog, but I want to point something out to help keep people from slipping into the "When I lose this weight I can eat whatever I want" mode: It just ain't true!
The honest truth is that, while I am enjoying being (pretty much) at my goal weight, staying here is a LOT harder than getting here was. I liken it to a balancing beam: It's easier to keep walking than it is to stay in one spot.
The fact is that while I can eat more than I did while losing, I still have to log my food or else I see a rise in the scale pretty quickly. I know this because I've done it in the past. (I'd lost a substantial amount of weight, then gained it all back, plus about 20 pounds. Took me years to be ready to lose it again.) So I know I'll always have to be accountable for what I put in my mouth. And I'll always have to be careful that what I am putting in my mouth is almost all clean foods with plenty of protein. I just feel better and gain muscle better when I eat this way.
Even with these precautions I still find myself creeping up the scale a bit, then having to reign it in and bring it back down again. I've finally come to understand and accept that I will probably be losing and gaining the same five pounds or so for the rest of my life.
And exercise? THAT will never end! Of course, who that knows me is surprised to hear me make that statement? I plan to be the grandma with muscles who can do pull-ups and strait-leg push-ups. No kidding! Watch me.
So here I am, in maintenance, still doing all of the same things I did while losing. And to stay slim I know I will have to keep it up forever.
But you want to know the truth? It's worth it. Every minute of it- Not only to look in the mirror and like what I see, but also to know that I am doing everything I can to keep diabetes and heart disease, both of which run heavily in my family, at bay.
I'd rather be where I am doing what I am doing than heavy and doing not doing it. It's more work being fit, but it's so very worthwhile.
The honest truth is that, while I am enjoying being (pretty much) at my goal weight, staying here is a LOT harder than getting here was. I liken it to a balancing beam: It's easier to keep walking than it is to stay in one spot.
The fact is that while I can eat more than I did while losing, I still have to log my food or else I see a rise in the scale pretty quickly. I know this because I've done it in the past. (I'd lost a substantial amount of weight, then gained it all back, plus about 20 pounds. Took me years to be ready to lose it again.) So I know I'll always have to be accountable for what I put in my mouth. And I'll always have to be careful that what I am putting in my mouth is almost all clean foods with plenty of protein. I just feel better and gain muscle better when I eat this way.
Even with these precautions I still find myself creeping up the scale a bit, then having to reign it in and bring it back down again. I've finally come to understand and accept that I will probably be losing and gaining the same five pounds or so for the rest of my life.
And exercise? THAT will never end! Of course, who that knows me is surprised to hear me make that statement? I plan to be the grandma with muscles who can do pull-ups and strait-leg push-ups. No kidding! Watch me.
So here I am, in maintenance, still doing all of the same things I did while losing. And to stay slim I know I will have to keep it up forever.
But you want to know the truth? It's worth it. Every minute of it- Not only to look in the mirror and like what I see, but also to know that I am doing everything I can to keep diabetes and heart disease, both of which run heavily in my family, at bay.
I'd rather be where I am doing what I am doing than heavy and doing not doing it. It's more work being fit, but it's so very worthwhile.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
My Favorite Protein Shake Recipe
This is a diverse recipe I came up with that even my kids like. Everyone I've made it for asks me for it. I drink it most often post-workout.
The secret to making it a milkshake consistency is using frozen fruit. Any kind will work, but my favorite is the berries.
Into a blender put:
1/2 C plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 C skim milk or cold water
1 C frozen mixed berries
1 scoop whey protein powder, flavor of choice (I like chocolate the best)
1 tsp. olive oil (this can be left out- it's not imperative to the recipe)
Sweetener to taste (I use Splenda)
If I'm post workout I'll toss my powdered L-glutamine in, too.
Blend on high. If it won't move through the blender easily enough, add some cold water until it blends.
This is approximately 345 calories when made with the milk and equal amount of carbs and protein with about 7g of healthy fat. If you leave the olive oil out, it's 305 calories and no fat. If you are on Weight Watchers it is a serving of dairy, 2 fruit/veggie servings, a lean protein, and a serving of healthy fat.
Let me know what you think!
The secret to making it a milkshake consistency is using frozen fruit. Any kind will work, but my favorite is the berries.
Into a blender put:
1/2 C plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 C skim milk or cold water
1 C frozen mixed berries
1 scoop whey protein powder, flavor of choice (I like chocolate the best)
1 tsp. olive oil (this can be left out- it's not imperative to the recipe)
Sweetener to taste (I use Splenda)
If I'm post workout I'll toss my powdered L-glutamine in, too.
Blend on high. If it won't move through the blender easily enough, add some cold water until it blends.
This is approximately 345 calories when made with the milk and equal amount of carbs and protein with about 7g of healthy fat. If you leave the olive oil out, it's 305 calories and no fat. If you are on Weight Watchers it is a serving of dairy, 2 fruit/veggie servings, a lean protein, and a serving of healthy fat.
Let me know what you think!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Don't Work Your Abs.... Say WHAT?
I am going to address something I have heard lately that I think is complete hogwash. And I am sure I will take some flack for this, but I'm going to say it anyhow:
I've been reading people advising others not to work their abs. The thought seems to be that if you do squats and deadlifts and other exercises that require core stabilization, that is enough ab work. I've also been hearing that you should not use weights when you work abs because it will make them look too thick, especially the obliques. To which I respond........
ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?
Let me ask you a question: When was the last time you saw someone with ab muscles that were just too big? Go on.... Rack your brain...... Now think some more....... Try even harder to recall..... You can't, can you? Yeah... so let's just forget the notion that working abs with weights will make them too big and thick. It's silly.
I work my abs with weights frequently. Have for years. My waist currently measures 26 1/2 inches. And let's entertain the notion for a minute that you could make them too big by working them with weights... Let's just let our minds go there and envision it has happened to you..... Are you there mentally? If this is the case STOP WORKING THEM WITH WEIGHTS!
Yeesh!
You can always deflate a muscle group by reducing the stress put on it. Reduce the amount of weight that a muscle group is bearing, reduce the size of the muscle group. It's that simple.
'Nuff said on that subject.....
Okay, now for this notion that you shouldn't work your abs at all:
This idea makes as much sense as saying that your triceps get hit working chest (they do) so they shouldn't be worked separately. We all want toned tri's, yes? Don't we even more-so want toned abs? Then why wouldn't we target them?
Abs are a muscle, like any other They need to be targeted. They need their own special spot in your weekly split. I often work mine twice a week. One day, the day I do them for sure, is unweighted at home with a DVD. The other day is usually heavy weighted in the gym. Ask my workout partner. I make that big muscle-bound boy cry on ab day! My abs are smaller than his, and my abs are STRONGER than his!
The only time I see an exception to this rule is if you are one of these rare individuals who has naturally defined abs. These are the people I'd imagine started the "don't specify your abs" theory. Lucky them. The rest of us have to work abs. Period.
I have naturally strong abs but I'm telling you that when I don't work them they stop showing muscle tone.
Look, there are some smaller muscle groups, like forearms and inner and outer thighs, that most people can bypass when working out because they get adequately hit when other body parts are worked. But abs? The midsection is the place people usually most want to see definition. If YOU want to see definition there, I'd advise you target them babies.
There is no place to see true fitness in the body like in the abdominal area. IMHO, you can't see the results of strong abs without working them.
I've been reading people advising others not to work their abs. The thought seems to be that if you do squats and deadlifts and other exercises that require core stabilization, that is enough ab work. I've also been hearing that you should not use weights when you work abs because it will make them look too thick, especially the obliques. To which I respond........
ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?
Let me ask you a question: When was the last time you saw someone with ab muscles that were just too big? Go on.... Rack your brain...... Now think some more....... Try even harder to recall..... You can't, can you? Yeah... so let's just forget the notion that working abs with weights will make them too big and thick. It's silly.
I work my abs with weights frequently. Have for years. My waist currently measures 26 1/2 inches. And let's entertain the notion for a minute that you could make them too big by working them with weights... Let's just let our minds go there and envision it has happened to you..... Are you there mentally? If this is the case STOP WORKING THEM WITH WEIGHTS!
Yeesh!
You can always deflate a muscle group by reducing the stress put on it. Reduce the amount of weight that a muscle group is bearing, reduce the size of the muscle group. It's that simple.
'Nuff said on that subject.....
Okay, now for this notion that you shouldn't work your abs at all:
This idea makes as much sense as saying that your triceps get hit working chest (they do) so they shouldn't be worked separately. We all want toned tri's, yes? Don't we even more-so want toned abs? Then why wouldn't we target them?
Abs are a muscle, like any other They need to be targeted. They need their own special spot in your weekly split. I often work mine twice a week. One day, the day I do them for sure, is unweighted at home with a DVD. The other day is usually heavy weighted in the gym. Ask my workout partner. I make that big muscle-bound boy cry on ab day! My abs are smaller than his, and my abs are STRONGER than his!
The only time I see an exception to this rule is if you are one of these rare individuals who has naturally defined abs. These are the people I'd imagine started the "don't specify your abs" theory. Lucky them. The rest of us have to work abs. Period.
I have naturally strong abs but I'm telling you that when I don't work them they stop showing muscle tone.
Look, there are some smaller muscle groups, like forearms and inner and outer thighs, that most people can bypass when working out because they get adequately hit when other body parts are worked. But abs? The midsection is the place people usually most want to see definition. If YOU want to see definition there, I'd advise you target them babies.
There is no place to see true fitness in the body like in the abdominal area. IMHO, you can't see the results of strong abs without working them.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Calf 21's (or 30's)
I've had a couple of different people who look at my workouts on Spark as me what "Calf 21's" are. I also call these "Calf 30's". I think calves are the most boring body part to work, so maybe this will give someone else a new spin on a way to work their calves.
You know how you can do a calf lift and put a variation on the move by turning your heels in or out? This has always stressed my knees. My first trainer, Ross, taught me to do this move to still work all areas of the calf but eliminate the potential knee pain. Here is how it's executed:
Start in the machine with a slightly light load selected. There are so many reps in this that you will burn out very quickly and be screaming in pain if you start out too heavy. First, put your feet about three inches apart and lift and lower your heels for 7 reps, leaning on the inside edges of the balls of your feet. Then separate them to about 12 inches apart and lift for 7 more reps with the weight evenly distributed across the ball of your foot. Then, maintaining the 12-inch spread between your feet, lean on the outside edges of the balls of your feet and lift for another 7 reps.
Next, jump off the machine and hop around the gym saying "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!", like I do, until the pain in your calves goes away.
Repeat until you've had enough torture for one day. I usually do three sets.
I change the order I do the inside/flat/outside pressure on my feet, too. Muscles adapt very quickly and I like to keep 'em guessing.
For 30's, you do the same exercise, but 10 times for each position. This is usually done with lighter weight yet.
You can do this on any type calf press (standing, seated, on a leg press machine, or on a step holding a dumbbell).
Let me know what you think!
You know how you can do a calf lift and put a variation on the move by turning your heels in or out? This has always stressed my knees. My first trainer, Ross, taught me to do this move to still work all areas of the calf but eliminate the potential knee pain. Here is how it's executed:
Start in the machine with a slightly light load selected. There are so many reps in this that you will burn out very quickly and be screaming in pain if you start out too heavy. First, put your feet about three inches apart and lift and lower your heels for 7 reps, leaning on the inside edges of the balls of your feet. Then separate them to about 12 inches apart and lift for 7 more reps with the weight evenly distributed across the ball of your foot. Then, maintaining the 12-inch spread between your feet, lean on the outside edges of the balls of your feet and lift for another 7 reps.
Next, jump off the machine and hop around the gym saying "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!", like I do, until the pain in your calves goes away.
Repeat until you've had enough torture for one day. I usually do three sets.
I change the order I do the inside/flat/outside pressure on my feet, too. Muscles adapt very quickly and I like to keep 'em guessing.
For 30's, you do the same exercise, but 10 times for each position. This is usually done with lighter weight yet.
You can do this on any type calf press (standing, seated, on a leg press machine, or on a step holding a dumbbell).
Let me know what you think!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Take the Occasional Exercise Break
Did you know that if you are a regular exerciser, taking the occasional week-long break is good for you?
I lift weights very hard, and schedule a week off of training every 10 weeks. Back in the days when I wasn't maxing out on my weights and just working out 4 days a week I took my break about once every four months. As my intensity has increased I have lessened the time in-between breaks.
Some people I know who lift weights or train extremely hard will take a week off every 8 weeks. It all depends on your intensity of training.
Taking a break accomplishes several things: First and foremost, it allows the nervous system to repair from the same routine all the time. Secondly, it can let little injuries you don't even know are in your body repair themselves. And thirdly, it can rejuvenate your enthusiasm for your workouts again. I always come back from my breaks rarin' to go!
You don't have to take a total break. You can try something gentle you don't normally do like yoga or walking. Or you can do what I do, turn into a complete sloth, and totally give up exercise altogether.
Sometimes my break is built into my life, like a vacation. Most times I have to put it on the calendar. Almost every time my body starts "asking" for a break about the time I am due one: My enthusiasm for exercise starts to wane, I start having little joint aches and getting little sore in places I hadn't been sore before, my performance and enthusiasm start to suffer, I begin to dread cardio... I just generally feel like I need a break. I have to be careful not to confuse these feelings with just general laziness, though. This is why scheduling a break helps me..... I know I can take it without guilt, knowing it is actually good for my body.
I look forward to my breaks, but I also look forward to returning to my routine after a break. It's good for my frame of mind. How long has it been since you took a week off?
I lift weights very hard, and schedule a week off of training every 10 weeks. Back in the days when I wasn't maxing out on my weights and just working out 4 days a week I took my break about once every four months. As my intensity has increased I have lessened the time in-between breaks.
Some people I know who lift weights or train extremely hard will take a week off every 8 weeks. It all depends on your intensity of training.
Taking a break accomplishes several things: First and foremost, it allows the nervous system to repair from the same routine all the time. Secondly, it can let little injuries you don't even know are in your body repair themselves. And thirdly, it can rejuvenate your enthusiasm for your workouts again. I always come back from my breaks rarin' to go!
You don't have to take a total break. You can try something gentle you don't normally do like yoga or walking. Or you can do what I do, turn into a complete sloth, and totally give up exercise altogether.
Sometimes my break is built into my life, like a vacation. Most times I have to put it on the calendar. Almost every time my body starts "asking" for a break about the time I am due one: My enthusiasm for exercise starts to wane, I start having little joint aches and getting little sore in places I hadn't been sore before, my performance and enthusiasm start to suffer, I begin to dread cardio... I just generally feel like I need a break. I have to be careful not to confuse these feelings with just general laziness, though. This is why scheduling a break helps me..... I know I can take it without guilt, knowing it is actually good for my body.
I look forward to my breaks, but I also look forward to returning to my routine after a break. It's good for my frame of mind. How long has it been since you took a week off?
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Vacation Eating Part 4: Tourist Trap Survival
The part of the vacation we look forward to the most is also the part that I dread the most when it comes to eating: The Theme Park!
Let's face it, they really don't cater towards healthy eating at theme parks. To make matters worse, they often won't let you bring your own food in. I know this was the case with the water park (Hurricane Harbor, Arlington, Texas) my daughter and I went to a couple of weekends ago.
So let's start at the gate:
I knew they didn't allow food, but I was gonna try, anyhow. My daughter and I packed protein bars and jerky and water bottles in a bag we were bringing in the park. When they went to check our bag I explained to the guy that when both my daughter and I don't eat regularly I have blood sugar issues, and that protein best keeps my sugar steady. This is true, and you have the same condition: It's called hunger.
At any rate, I told the poor boy at the gate checking bags that if the park sold lean jerky and my brand of protein bars I'd be happy to take mine back to the truck and purchase theirs, regardless of price. This was true- I would have. But I knew I had him over a barrel and they wouldn't. He called ahead to his supervisor and got permission to put a medical sticker on our bag with the food in it. Problem #1 solved. For some reason he let us keep the water bottles. (I think he was so confused with all of my big words that he just wanted me out of his hair.) This was find with me!
We paid $14 for locker rental for the day (high, but not as high as snacks in the park), and put all of our stuff in there. Throughout the day we went back to grab a bite to eat and guzzle some water. We kept refilling the bottles from the water fountain.
Lunch I was a little worried about. I resigned myself to thoroughly examining the menu and making the best choice possible, even though it probably wouldn't be wonderful. We found a Papa Johns Pizza place. I'm not kidding you- I read over ever single item on the menu. Not that it was a huge menu, but I didn't want to leave any stone unturned.
I saw that they had a side salad for $3.99. Right above it was a "family salad" for $6.99. It was meant to go with an order of pizza and bread sticks to feed a family of 3 or 4. Suddenly it hit me that the Family Salad was probably the size of one of my regular meal salads. And seven bucks for lunch in a tourist trap isn't a bad price! So I ordered the family salad.
Much to may amazement, they assembled the salad right there out of a limited selection of fresh veggies, banana peppers, and mozzarella cheese. Not too bad! And, to make matters better, they had fat-free Italian dressing. Yay! I figured if I felt I was still hungry and felt I needed more protein I could run back to the locker and scarf down some jerky after lunch. But the salad was a very nice size and filled me up. Combined with a diet coke (I'll have one on occasion as a treat), the whole thing was perhaps 250 calories.
My daughter had pizza, so she was happy. We enjoyed our lunch, then went off to play in the water again when we were done.
Had they not let me bring my bag in and had there not been a salad at lunch I would have tried to have hunt down some peanuts at the gift shop to help get me through the hungry times between meals, then probably would have purchased a sandwich for lunch with the leanest meat I could find (often this is a burger), and taken the bottom bun off. And drank a LOT of water. No fries! Fries hold almost no nutritional value and do all kinds of crummy things to your body. Forget ordering fries!.......... Forever!
I will say that I have seen in some amusement parks that some of the vendors offer fresh fruit. This, of course, would make a great snack or side dish for the sandwich. You just gotta keep your eyes peeled!
So my biggest tip in tourist traps, in addition to bringing snacks and drinking water, is to examine your choices thoroughly and think outside the box. If there are no healthy options, just do the best you can and don't kick yourself, because you know you made the best choice possible.
And have fun! The reason you're there is for the fun, not the food.... Right?
Let's face it, they really don't cater towards healthy eating at theme parks. To make matters worse, they often won't let you bring your own food in. I know this was the case with the water park (Hurricane Harbor, Arlington, Texas) my daughter and I went to a couple of weekends ago.
So let's start at the gate:
I knew they didn't allow food, but I was gonna try, anyhow. My daughter and I packed protein bars and jerky and water bottles in a bag we were bringing in the park. When they went to check our bag I explained to the guy that when both my daughter and I don't eat regularly I have blood sugar issues, and that protein best keeps my sugar steady. This is true, and you have the same condition: It's called hunger.
At any rate, I told the poor boy at the gate checking bags that if the park sold lean jerky and my brand of protein bars I'd be happy to take mine back to the truck and purchase theirs, regardless of price. This was true- I would have. But I knew I had him over a barrel and they wouldn't. He called ahead to his supervisor and got permission to put a medical sticker on our bag with the food in it. Problem #1 solved. For some reason he let us keep the water bottles. (I think he was so confused with all of my big words that he just wanted me out of his hair.) This was find with me!
We paid $14 for locker rental for the day (high, but not as high as snacks in the park), and put all of our stuff in there. Throughout the day we went back to grab a bite to eat and guzzle some water. We kept refilling the bottles from the water fountain.
Lunch I was a little worried about. I resigned myself to thoroughly examining the menu and making the best choice possible, even though it probably wouldn't be wonderful. We found a Papa Johns Pizza place. I'm not kidding you- I read over ever single item on the menu. Not that it was a huge menu, but I didn't want to leave any stone unturned.
I saw that they had a side salad for $3.99. Right above it was a "family salad" for $6.99. It was meant to go with an order of pizza and bread sticks to feed a family of 3 or 4. Suddenly it hit me that the Family Salad was probably the size of one of my regular meal salads. And seven bucks for lunch in a tourist trap isn't a bad price! So I ordered the family salad.
Much to may amazement, they assembled the salad right there out of a limited selection of fresh veggies, banana peppers, and mozzarella cheese. Not too bad! And, to make matters better, they had fat-free Italian dressing. Yay! I figured if I felt I was still hungry and felt I needed more protein I could run back to the locker and scarf down some jerky after lunch. But the salad was a very nice size and filled me up. Combined with a diet coke (I'll have one on occasion as a treat), the whole thing was perhaps 250 calories.
My daughter had pizza, so she was happy. We enjoyed our lunch, then went off to play in the water again when we were done.
Had they not let me bring my bag in and had there not been a salad at lunch I would have tried to have hunt down some peanuts at the gift shop to help get me through the hungry times between meals, then probably would have purchased a sandwich for lunch with the leanest meat I could find (often this is a burger), and taken the bottom bun off. And drank a LOT of water. No fries! Fries hold almost no nutritional value and do all kinds of crummy things to your body. Forget ordering fries!.......... Forever!
I will say that I have seen in some amusement parks that some of the vendors offer fresh fruit. This, of course, would make a great snack or side dish for the sandwich. You just gotta keep your eyes peeled!
So my biggest tip in tourist traps, in addition to bringing snacks and drinking water, is to examine your choices thoroughly and think outside the box. If there are no healthy options, just do the best you can and don't kick yourself, because you know you made the best choice possible.
And have fun! The reason you're there is for the fun, not the food.... Right?
Vacation Eating Part 3: Hotel Breakfast Survival
The hotel breakfast..... You find yourself surrounded by free waffles and danishes and sausage.... Oh my!
I know that at first glance the hotel breakfast looks like a lost cause for a health-conscience eating, but it all reality, you can probably make some good choices here. The biggest key? Don't let your grumbling stomach rule.....Take a deep breath and investigate!
The very first thing I do when I get to the hotel breakfast is peruse the offerings and see if I can't find some healthier options. Sometimes they're buried, but they're almost always there.
One side note that I found amusing is that each of the three mornings I got breakfast on this last trip I found myself being intently watched by the other diners. I don't know if it's because I was making such a scene going back and forth to get what I needed or if they were actually interested in WHAT I was eating, but I found myself have a little more sympathy for zoo animals!
Anyhow......
While instant isn't my preferred method of eating oatmeal (the slow cook kind is the best for you), un-flavored instant oatmeal (you note I said UNflavored! If the only thing they have is flavored, it's back to the drawing board!) is usually a better choice than any cold cereal. It was almost hidden behind the packets of instant hot cocoa when I took my latest trip out of town, but I found it there! I checked the back of a packet and read that they were 100 calories a piece. I wanted to get 150 calories for my starchy carbs, so I used the only two packets there (trust me- no one else wanted them), added hot water to cook and ate 3/4 of it.
So there I'd overcome the biggest hurdle of healthy carbs.
For protein they had scrambled eggs. Okay- so I'm pretty sure they weren't real eggs they were cracking and scrambling back there, but whatever that stuff was it had to have had a fair amount of protein, so I put about two eggs worth on my plate.
Next order of business was finding some kind of fresh fruit, if at all possible. There were grapefruit halves, but I am not a big fan of grapefruit. I kept looking. At the end of the buffet, on a separate little table, next to the garbage (why?) was a bowl of bananas. Bananas aren't my favorite, but they looked the better option than the fruit salad, which I was fairly sure was in some kind of a sugary syrup. So bananas it was.
Poured a glass of 2% milk(would have preferred skim, but it wasn't available), got a cup of coffee (don't usually drink coffee, but treated myself since it was vacation), and some artificial sweetener (I know, not a clean food. So shoot me!) for both the coffee and the oatmeal, as well as a pat of butter (also for the oatmeal), and was all set.
I skipped any of the breakfast meats, which were either link or smoked sausage. Fat was just too high for these options. Although if they'd of had crisp-cooked bacon, I'd of probably grabbed a couple of pieces of it.
I also avoided any pastries (duh!), breads (wheat toast in hotel breakfasts usually has more white than wheat flour in it), and the juices and cereals. Both are highly processed and very low in nutrients. Had there been waffles offered, I'd of avoided those, too. Same reason I wouldn't have eaten the pastries. To me, anything you put syrup on or has the first two ingredients as "sugar" and "flour" aren't breakfast, they're dessert.
Oh, and none of the peanut butter was getting into my oatmeal. It was Skippy- sugar added and fats made hydrogenated (NOT healthy!). Butter was my better option.
I'll be the first to admit that I got lucky in this hotel. Often the selection is not this good. Sometimes I get REALLY lucky and it's better- They'll have slow cooked oatmeal and skim milk and hard boiled eggs. But all in all I was in pretty good shape at this particular hotel (Hawthorne Inns and Suites in Arlington, Texas). I stuck with the same menu all three mornings.
Had my choices been more limited, which they often are, I'd of gone for the raisin bran with skim milk and run back up to the room for protein powder to put in the milk.
Again, I think breakfast is the trickiest meal to eat out. And free hotel breakfasts make it even tougher. But it's hard to pass up a free option when you are already spending a fortune on the vacation itself. If all the hotel had to offer was danishes and Sunny Delight, we'd of had no choice but to eat out. But usually you can do a little investigation and come up with a decent breakfast right there for no additional cost. You just gotta go in with the mindset that YOU are in control, not the buffet!
I know that at first glance the hotel breakfast looks like a lost cause for a health-conscience eating, but it all reality, you can probably make some good choices here. The biggest key? Don't let your grumbling stomach rule.....Take a deep breath and investigate!
The very first thing I do when I get to the hotel breakfast is peruse the offerings and see if I can't find some healthier options. Sometimes they're buried, but they're almost always there.
One side note that I found amusing is that each of the three mornings I got breakfast on this last trip I found myself being intently watched by the other diners. I don't know if it's because I was making such a scene going back and forth to get what I needed or if they were actually interested in WHAT I was eating, but I found myself have a little more sympathy for zoo animals!
Anyhow......
While instant isn't my preferred method of eating oatmeal (the slow cook kind is the best for you), un-flavored instant oatmeal (you note I said UNflavored! If the only thing they have is flavored, it's back to the drawing board!) is usually a better choice than any cold cereal. It was almost hidden behind the packets of instant hot cocoa when I took my latest trip out of town, but I found it there! I checked the back of a packet and read that they were 100 calories a piece. I wanted to get 150 calories for my starchy carbs, so I used the only two packets there (trust me- no one else wanted them), added hot water to cook and ate 3/4 of it.
So there I'd overcome the biggest hurdle of healthy carbs.
For protein they had scrambled eggs. Okay- so I'm pretty sure they weren't real eggs they were cracking and scrambling back there, but whatever that stuff was it had to have had a fair amount of protein, so I put about two eggs worth on my plate.
Next order of business was finding some kind of fresh fruit, if at all possible. There were grapefruit halves, but I am not a big fan of grapefruit. I kept looking. At the end of the buffet, on a separate little table, next to the garbage (why?) was a bowl of bananas. Bananas aren't my favorite, but they looked the better option than the fruit salad, which I was fairly sure was in some kind of a sugary syrup. So bananas it was.
Poured a glass of 2% milk(would have preferred skim, but it wasn't available), got a cup of coffee (don't usually drink coffee, but treated myself since it was vacation), and some artificial sweetener (I know, not a clean food. So shoot me!) for both the coffee and the oatmeal, as well as a pat of butter (also for the oatmeal), and was all set.
I skipped any of the breakfast meats, which were either link or smoked sausage. Fat was just too high for these options. Although if they'd of had crisp-cooked bacon, I'd of probably grabbed a couple of pieces of it.
I also avoided any pastries (duh!), breads (wheat toast in hotel breakfasts usually has more white than wheat flour in it), and the juices and cereals. Both are highly processed and very low in nutrients. Had there been waffles offered, I'd of avoided those, too. Same reason I wouldn't have eaten the pastries. To me, anything you put syrup on or has the first two ingredients as "sugar" and "flour" aren't breakfast, they're dessert.
Oh, and none of the peanut butter was getting into my oatmeal. It was Skippy- sugar added and fats made hydrogenated (NOT healthy!). Butter was my better option.
I'll be the first to admit that I got lucky in this hotel. Often the selection is not this good. Sometimes I get REALLY lucky and it's better- They'll have slow cooked oatmeal and skim milk and hard boiled eggs. But all in all I was in pretty good shape at this particular hotel (Hawthorne Inns and Suites in Arlington, Texas). I stuck with the same menu all three mornings.
Had my choices been more limited, which they often are, I'd of gone for the raisin bran with skim milk and run back up to the room for protein powder to put in the milk.
Again, I think breakfast is the trickiest meal to eat out. And free hotel breakfasts make it even tougher. But it's hard to pass up a free option when you are already spending a fortune on the vacation itself. If all the hotel had to offer was danishes and Sunny Delight, we'd of had no choice but to eat out. But usually you can do a little investigation and come up with a decent breakfast right there for no additional cost. You just gotta go in with the mindset that YOU are in control, not the buffet!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Vacation Eating Part 2: Eating out
Okay, so you have prepped by having good snacks along with you, but you are still going to have to eat out. More than likely your first meal in a restaurant will be while traveling to your destination. You need to get it in your head from this very moment that you are going to make good choices! This first meal out, I've found, sets the tone for the entire rest of my vacation.
My best tip for eating out is to peruse the menu before you eat. I give it a pretty good scan before I finally hone in on a few things I feel safe choosing. Of course I look at the salads, and they are usually my choice, but I will also look at other areas of the menu, as well.
Soups: Anything that starts with the words "Cream of" I immediately reject. Broth-based soups are usually relatively safe, and I've found some marvelous chicken tortilla soups that are surprisingly healthy. And I sometimes a bowl of chili can be a good choice, but I always ask how it's cooked. What makes or breaks chili is usually whether it's swimming in fat or not, so asking about how it's prepared is really important.
Having said that, usually a bowl of soup is not enough food for me, so sometimes I will ask them to substitute a lower-fat soup for fries with a sandwich, or have the soup with a side salad, hold the crackers (I've never seen a good cracker choice in a restaurant).
Salads are pretty much my go-to meal in restaurants, but I have to be really careful to make sure that none of the meats on the salad are fried and that the lettuce is not bathed in dressing. The only time I don't ask for dressing on the side is when I forget, which has only happened once in recent history and, fortunately enough, happened on one of my splurge meals on my last little trip out of town, so I didn't bother sending the salad back (which I normally would have done, with apologies). When I get the dressing on the side I do the old trick of dipping my fork in the dressing before sticking it in the lettuce. This winds up using almost a negligible amount of dressing. It was hard to get used to having so little dressing with my salad when I first started eating it this way, but now I enjoy the flavor of the ingredients without the dressing most times and only do the fork-dip when I get down to just lettuce.
Ordering sandwiches I never choose fried meats and always ask them to leave the mayonnaise or any fattening sauces off. Mustard is my go-to sandwich lubrication, if I feel I need it. And usually I ask them to omit the cheese. Sometimes I can talk them into extra veggies on the sandwich. If I'm in a burger joint and just can't bear another grilled chicken sandwich or salad, I'll order a burger, but apply the above techniques to clean it up. And a lot of times I take off the bottom bun, because that's where a lot of the fat drains off into. Yeah, it's messy, but it's worth it to avoid the extra calories and simple carbs.
I never order fries anymore (I know too much about how damaging fried foods are to my body in more ways than one), and I never order an appetizer for my main dish. Why? They're almost always fried. A small appetizer is often more calories and fat than many of the main dishes on the menu, and it's not a healthy fat. The only appetizer I can remember seeing on a restaurant menu recently that was healthy was shrimp cocktail. Ordering Shrimp cocktail in addition to your main dish is a good way to raise the protein level of the meal, by the way.
Sirloin steak and Filet Mignon are good steak choices, but I'll ask them to leave off any toppings. Even the mushrooms are usually braised in butter.
Of course, broiled or baked fishes are good choices- just be careful of what they are coated in. And forget fried fish! You're better off health-wise getting a sirloin steak than you are any kind of fried fish (or fried anything else, for that matter).
Mexican places are about the hardest to navigate, IMHO. Fajitas are a lifesaver! I ALWAYS get the chicken fajitas and eat just the skillet, guacamole, and pico. I don't roll the contents up in the tortillas- Instead, I use one of the tortillas rolled up as a "pusher" to get the meat and veggies onto my fork, then eat only it if I am still feeling the need for a few carbs when the rest of the food is eaten. But often the skillet is enough.
For side dishes, I always get the steamed veggies and a baked sweet potato, if they are available. A baked regular spud is not a bad choice, either, but with any kind of potato be very mindful of your toppings! Butter, sour cream, and bacon bits can add tremendous amounts of calories in no time flat. I'll usually ask for sour cream OR butter (not both) on the side, then use either sparingly with salt and pepper for flavor. With sweet potatoes I ask for cinnamon only (not cinnamon sugar!), for the topping.
Breakfast is a bit trickier. I've had to learn to get aggressive with asking how my food is cooked. This can be a bit irritating to my dining companions, but it's me who has to live with my body, not them, and they'll get over it. Let them poke fun while I have the hot body! Anyhow, I always ask if they can make my eggs with either a whole egg and several egg whites, or if they have egg beaters, or if they can just use whites only. I'll either have them scramble my eggs, however I am able to get them, or sub them in a veggie omelet, hold the cheese. Breakfast calories can add up very quickly, so it's paramount to be careful!
I've also learned to inquire about oatmeal at breakfast. Most restaurants that serve breakfast have oatmeal. No, it's not a very fun breakfast food, but it sure is a good-for-me choice. I ask them to serve the butter on the side and I add a little bit along with some sugar-free sweetener. And I always ask if they have a milk that is either skim or reduced fat. Any kind is better than whole!
Ideally, my restaurant breakfast will have a whole egg with four egg-whites vegetable omelet and a serving of oatmeal as described above.
Whole-grain toast can be an acceptable choice with the eggs instead of the oatmeal (not in addition to), but when I make this choice I always ask for it dry. Usually the eggs are cooked in butter and I don't need any additional fat from the bread coursing through my body.
If I'm forced to go to a fast food restaurant for breakfast, I'll try to encourage everyone to go to McD's and I'll get the egg McMuffin without butter or cheese and a small orange juice. Not the best choice, but it could be worse. This at least gives me a fairly decend amount of protein and some nutrients. Most fast-food breakfasts are calorie laden fat-bombs with almost zero nurtients.
And dessert? Forget it- Unless it's a planned splurge, I simply don't order dessert in restaurants. I may take a bite or two of one of my kids desserts if it looks really good, but I limit myself to that. It's just food territory that is too dangerous for me to be venturing into and has the potential to open a pandora's box of bad food choices. I wish I had more control than with sweets, but I don't and I have to respect that about myself.
Staying vigilant about what I eat on vacation is not easy, and not always fun, but it IS always worth it when I come home and don't see the big jump on the scale that my travel companions often have. I guess I'd rather be careful for the short duration of the vacation than have to do weeks (or months!) of work to get the weight off that I gained over a very brief period of time.
My best tip for eating out is to peruse the menu before you eat. I give it a pretty good scan before I finally hone in on a few things I feel safe choosing. Of course I look at the salads, and they are usually my choice, but I will also look at other areas of the menu, as well.
Soups: Anything that starts with the words "Cream of" I immediately reject. Broth-based soups are usually relatively safe, and I've found some marvelous chicken tortilla soups that are surprisingly healthy. And I sometimes a bowl of chili can be a good choice, but I always ask how it's cooked. What makes or breaks chili is usually whether it's swimming in fat or not, so asking about how it's prepared is really important.
Having said that, usually a bowl of soup is not enough food for me, so sometimes I will ask them to substitute a lower-fat soup for fries with a sandwich, or have the soup with a side salad, hold the crackers (I've never seen a good cracker choice in a restaurant).
Salads are pretty much my go-to meal in restaurants, but I have to be really careful to make sure that none of the meats on the salad are fried and that the lettuce is not bathed in dressing. The only time I don't ask for dressing on the side is when I forget, which has only happened once in recent history and, fortunately enough, happened on one of my splurge meals on my last little trip out of town, so I didn't bother sending the salad back (which I normally would have done, with apologies). When I get the dressing on the side I do the old trick of dipping my fork in the dressing before sticking it in the lettuce. This winds up using almost a negligible amount of dressing. It was hard to get used to having so little dressing with my salad when I first started eating it this way, but now I enjoy the flavor of the ingredients without the dressing most times and only do the fork-dip when I get down to just lettuce.
Ordering sandwiches I never choose fried meats and always ask them to leave the mayonnaise or any fattening sauces off. Mustard is my go-to sandwich lubrication, if I feel I need it. And usually I ask them to omit the cheese. Sometimes I can talk them into extra veggies on the sandwich. If I'm in a burger joint and just can't bear another grilled chicken sandwich or salad, I'll order a burger, but apply the above techniques to clean it up. And a lot of times I take off the bottom bun, because that's where a lot of the fat drains off into. Yeah, it's messy, but it's worth it to avoid the extra calories and simple carbs.
I never order fries anymore (I know too much about how damaging fried foods are to my body in more ways than one), and I never order an appetizer for my main dish. Why? They're almost always fried. A small appetizer is often more calories and fat than many of the main dishes on the menu, and it's not a healthy fat. The only appetizer I can remember seeing on a restaurant menu recently that was healthy was shrimp cocktail. Ordering Shrimp cocktail in addition to your main dish is a good way to raise the protein level of the meal, by the way.
Sirloin steak and Filet Mignon are good steak choices, but I'll ask them to leave off any toppings. Even the mushrooms are usually braised in butter.
Of course, broiled or baked fishes are good choices- just be careful of what they are coated in. And forget fried fish! You're better off health-wise getting a sirloin steak than you are any kind of fried fish (or fried anything else, for that matter).
Mexican places are about the hardest to navigate, IMHO. Fajitas are a lifesaver! I ALWAYS get the chicken fajitas and eat just the skillet, guacamole, and pico. I don't roll the contents up in the tortillas- Instead, I use one of the tortillas rolled up as a "pusher" to get the meat and veggies onto my fork, then eat only it if I am still feeling the need for a few carbs when the rest of the food is eaten. But often the skillet is enough.
For side dishes, I always get the steamed veggies and a baked sweet potato, if they are available. A baked regular spud is not a bad choice, either, but with any kind of potato be very mindful of your toppings! Butter, sour cream, and bacon bits can add tremendous amounts of calories in no time flat. I'll usually ask for sour cream OR butter (not both) on the side, then use either sparingly with salt and pepper for flavor. With sweet potatoes I ask for cinnamon only (not cinnamon sugar!), for the topping.
Breakfast is a bit trickier. I've had to learn to get aggressive with asking how my food is cooked. This can be a bit irritating to my dining companions, but it's me who has to live with my body, not them, and they'll get over it. Let them poke fun while I have the hot body! Anyhow, I always ask if they can make my eggs with either a whole egg and several egg whites, or if they have egg beaters, or if they can just use whites only. I'll either have them scramble my eggs, however I am able to get them, or sub them in a veggie omelet, hold the cheese. Breakfast calories can add up very quickly, so it's paramount to be careful!
I've also learned to inquire about oatmeal at breakfast. Most restaurants that serve breakfast have oatmeal. No, it's not a very fun breakfast food, but it sure is a good-for-me choice. I ask them to serve the butter on the side and I add a little bit along with some sugar-free sweetener. And I always ask if they have a milk that is either skim or reduced fat. Any kind is better than whole!
Ideally, my restaurant breakfast will have a whole egg with four egg-whites vegetable omelet and a serving of oatmeal as described above.
Whole-grain toast can be an acceptable choice with the eggs instead of the oatmeal (not in addition to), but when I make this choice I always ask for it dry. Usually the eggs are cooked in butter and I don't need any additional fat from the bread coursing through my body.
If I'm forced to go to a fast food restaurant for breakfast, I'll try to encourage everyone to go to McD's and I'll get the egg McMuffin without butter or cheese and a small orange juice. Not the best choice, but it could be worse. This at least gives me a fairly decend amount of protein and some nutrients. Most fast-food breakfasts are calorie laden fat-bombs with almost zero nurtients.
And dessert? Forget it- Unless it's a planned splurge, I simply don't order dessert in restaurants. I may take a bite or two of one of my kids desserts if it looks really good, but I limit myself to that. It's just food territory that is too dangerous for me to be venturing into and has the potential to open a pandora's box of bad food choices. I wish I had more control than with sweets, but I don't and I have to respect that about myself.
Staying vigilant about what I eat on vacation is not easy, and not always fun, but it IS always worth it when I come home and don't see the big jump on the scale that my travel companions often have. I guess I'd rather be careful for the short duration of the vacation than have to do weeks (or months!) of work to get the weight off that I gained over a very brief period of time.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Vacation Eating, Part 1: Preparation
I was originally going to do a blog on vacation eating in general, but realized it would make a very lengthy blog, so I'm going to break it down into several parts.
Today is Part 1: Preparation.
My 13-year old daughter, Lane, and I recently took a long weekend away. I brought along several things that made eating healthy and not going overboard with eating on the trip a whole lot easier:
1. My tried-and-true favorite protein bars, Wonderslim Crispy meal replacement bars: (www.dietdirect.com/wonderslim-crispy-protein-diet-bars.html) These were a lifesaver when I got a little hungry and there was nothing healthy around (or nothing around, period).
2. Beef Jerky. We like the peppered, but you can get any flavor you prefer. Be careful to check the nutrition labels to make sure it has almost no fat. I like to keep my protein level about equal to my carbs, if not a little higher, and in a pinch beef jerky is a great way to make that happen without adding a tremendous amount of fat to my diet. The cost of Jerky can be on the high side, but I've found I can save money by looking for store brands (Wal-Mart has a good one) and buying large amounts. Regardless of cost, Jerky is always less expensive than most snacks at tourist traps. And Jerky travels well when it's hot outside.
3. Bottled water. It's a LOT less expensive to tote your own in a small cooler than it is to buy it on the road. Here in Texas it's very hot, so we were chug-a-lugging water constantly. And it's waaaaaaay healthier than soda, diet or not. If we drank it all we just refilled the bottles in a water fountain.
4. Low-fat String Cheese. This is a great way for me to meet my calcium and protein needs while still keeping carbs low. I toss it in the cooler with the water.
I've found it's best to bring along a bit more of the above items than I think I will need. Not only do I wind up relying on them more than I anticipate I will (amazing the rotten selection of healthy food out there!), but also that my travel companions will often snack on these foods. They get tired of eating junk, too.
I did NOT bring any exercise equipment. Not even workout shoes, even though our hotel had a workout room. Why? Because first of all, this was a short vacation of only a few days. I had managed to lift weights for my entire body the days before we left so I was able to take a break without feeling guilty. And secondly, our activities included a water park, swimming in the hotel pool, and walking a TON. I didn't need any more activity than what we already had planned.
However, if I were going to be gone more than a few days not only would I have brought along workout clothes and exercise bands, but I also would have called ahead to the hotel to find out exactly what the hotel had to offer in it's workout room (sometimes it's simply a treadmill, which doesn't do the trick for me). If what the hotel had it wasn't adequate for my needs I would have then found a nearby gym, called ahead and inquired as to a temporary membership. I did this when we went to Las Vegas for two weeks last summer. I got up before the family woke up and put in a good, hard workout.
The other tip I'll throw out in the preparation department is to plan when you will have your splurge meals. Four days of going off half-cocked and eating whatever I wanted could have seriously undermined my health and fitness goals. So I decided to plan a splurge meal each of the first two nights of the trip, then be extremely mindful of what I was eating the rest of the time. The reason I decided the first two nights was because I wanted to have a chance, through the activity we would be getting, to work off the glycogen and consequently inevitable water weight gain that would come with the splurge.
And it was worth it when at the water park, while wearing a bikini and eating a salad for lunch, my daughter said to me "Mom, I am proud of you for losing all that weight and now working so hard to stay healthy. I love having a trophy mother!"
If that's not motivation to keep up the good fight, I don't know what is!
Today is Part 1: Preparation.
My 13-year old daughter, Lane, and I recently took a long weekend away. I brought along several things that made eating healthy and not going overboard with eating on the trip a whole lot easier:
1. My tried-and-true favorite protein bars, Wonderslim Crispy meal replacement bars: (www.dietdirect.com/wonderslim-crispy-protein-diet-bars.html) These were a lifesaver when I got a little hungry and there was nothing healthy around (or nothing around, period).
2. Beef Jerky. We like the peppered, but you can get any flavor you prefer. Be careful to check the nutrition labels to make sure it has almost no fat. I like to keep my protein level about equal to my carbs, if not a little higher, and in a pinch beef jerky is a great way to make that happen without adding a tremendous amount of fat to my diet. The cost of Jerky can be on the high side, but I've found I can save money by looking for store brands (Wal-Mart has a good one) and buying large amounts. Regardless of cost, Jerky is always less expensive than most snacks at tourist traps. And Jerky travels well when it's hot outside.
3. Bottled water. It's a LOT less expensive to tote your own in a small cooler than it is to buy it on the road. Here in Texas it's very hot, so we were chug-a-lugging water constantly. And it's waaaaaaay healthier than soda, diet or not. If we drank it all we just refilled the bottles in a water fountain.
4. Low-fat String Cheese. This is a great way for me to meet my calcium and protein needs while still keeping carbs low. I toss it in the cooler with the water.
I've found it's best to bring along a bit more of the above items than I think I will need. Not only do I wind up relying on them more than I anticipate I will (amazing the rotten selection of healthy food out there!), but also that my travel companions will often snack on these foods. They get tired of eating junk, too.
I did NOT bring any exercise equipment. Not even workout shoes, even though our hotel had a workout room. Why? Because first of all, this was a short vacation of only a few days. I had managed to lift weights for my entire body the days before we left so I was able to take a break without feeling guilty. And secondly, our activities included a water park, swimming in the hotel pool, and walking a TON. I didn't need any more activity than what we already had planned.
However, if I were going to be gone more than a few days not only would I have brought along workout clothes and exercise bands, but I also would have called ahead to the hotel to find out exactly what the hotel had to offer in it's workout room (sometimes it's simply a treadmill, which doesn't do the trick for me). If what the hotel had it wasn't adequate for my needs I would have then found a nearby gym, called ahead and inquired as to a temporary membership. I did this when we went to Las Vegas for two weeks last summer. I got up before the family woke up and put in a good, hard workout.
The other tip I'll throw out in the preparation department is to plan when you will have your splurge meals. Four days of going off half-cocked and eating whatever I wanted could have seriously undermined my health and fitness goals. So I decided to plan a splurge meal each of the first two nights of the trip, then be extremely mindful of what I was eating the rest of the time. The reason I decided the first two nights was because I wanted to have a chance, through the activity we would be getting, to work off the glycogen and consequently inevitable water weight gain that would come with the splurge.
And it was worth it when at the water park, while wearing a bikini and eating a salad for lunch, my daughter said to me "Mom, I am proud of you for losing all that weight and now working so hard to stay healthy. I love having a trophy mother!"
If that's not motivation to keep up the good fight, I don't know what is!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Emulate those you want to look like.
Which type of physique do you admire and wish you looked like? Is it the people who run all the time? Bike? Sit on the couch with a remote in one hand and a bag of pork skins in the other? The ones who spend all their time at the gym in cardio classes? Doing Pilate's or Yoga? Those who spend most of their workout time on weight lifting machines? Or the ones who spend their time on the grunt-end of the gym with the heavy free weights and bare-bones machines?
None of these answers are wrong (except for perhaps the couch potato one, simply because it will lead you to an early grave). The answer, though, should clearly show you what it is you need to be doing to obtain a body most closely resembling the one you desire.
Me? I took a look around many years ago and decided I'd most like to look like the gals who compete in figure and bikini competitions. Upon a little investigation I discovered those ladies spend a bulk of their exercise time lifting heavy weights, and a moderate amount of time doing both cardio and stretching, while completely avoiding steroids. (I did NOT want to look like a freaky manly-muscled she-male- Gross!) They eat really clean and keep a good amount of protein in their diets. So I decided to do what they do and see how close to looking like them I could come. I've never regretted that decision. It's yielded me results that I am really happy with.
So if you like the way gymnasts look, take a look at how they train (and eat!) and see if you can't implement some of those principles into your own exercise time. If want a runners legs, run! (And if you don't like the way runners legs look, why are you running?) Like the way yoga enthusiasts look? Yep- Do yoga! But if if you want muscle tone, even a little, you're going to have to get on down where the big boys work out and start picking up really heavy stuff. I've never seen someone with substantial muscle tone who only does group exercise classes! Am I dogging group classes? No! I love them and take them occasionally. But they aren't going to get the kinds of results alone that adding weight lifting into the equation will.
If you want to look fit, though, you're gonna have to do something more than just have low body fat. You're going to have to find time to exercise. And how you exercise will eventually dictate the way your body looks, so choose how to spend your exercise time wisely.
None of these answers are wrong (except for perhaps the couch potato one, simply because it will lead you to an early grave). The answer, though, should clearly show you what it is you need to be doing to obtain a body most closely resembling the one you desire.
Me? I took a look around many years ago and decided I'd most like to look like the gals who compete in figure and bikini competitions. Upon a little investigation I discovered those ladies spend a bulk of their exercise time lifting heavy weights, and a moderate amount of time doing both cardio and stretching, while completely avoiding steroids. (I did NOT want to look like a freaky manly-muscled she-male- Gross!) They eat really clean and keep a good amount of protein in their diets. So I decided to do what they do and see how close to looking like them I could come. I've never regretted that decision. It's yielded me results that I am really happy with.
So if you like the way gymnasts look, take a look at how they train (and eat!) and see if you can't implement some of those principles into your own exercise time. If want a runners legs, run! (And if you don't like the way runners legs look, why are you running?) Like the way yoga enthusiasts look? Yep- Do yoga! But if if you want muscle tone, even a little, you're going to have to get on down where the big boys work out and start picking up really heavy stuff. I've never seen someone with substantial muscle tone who only does group exercise classes! Am I dogging group classes? No! I love them and take them occasionally. But they aren't going to get the kinds of results alone that adding weight lifting into the equation will.
If you want to look fit, though, you're gonna have to do something more than just have low body fat. You're going to have to find time to exercise. And how you exercise will eventually dictate the way your body looks, so choose how to spend your exercise time wisely.
Friday, June 25, 2010
My Least and Most Favorite Lifting Moves
Here are my favorite moves for different body parts when lifting weights, along with my least favs and the ones I feel are most effective for me personally. Thought this might get people thinking about how they can change their routines up!
Starting from the top:
Delts:
Fav move- Lateral Raises
Least Fav Move- Dumbbell bent-over Rear Delt raises (awkward!)
Most effective move- Probably Arnold Presses
Triceps:
Fav move- Overhead rope cable extensions (don't remember the real name, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about)
Least Fav- Barbell Skull Crushers (hard to keep my elbows in alignment)
Most effective- Probably bench dips.
Biceps:
Fav Move- 21's
Least Fav Move- Seated Incline DB Curls. (Don't feel right on my formerly torn rotator cuff)
Most effective- 21's
Pecs:
Fav Move- Dumbbell Flyes
Least Fav- Machine Flyes (hard to get the seat the right height)
Most effective- Dumbbell Bench press
Back: (My fav body part to work, by the way)
Fav Move- Strait-arm lat pull-downs (LOVE the way these feel!)
Least Fav- Good mornings. Feels like they are putting too much stress in the wrong places
Most effective- Wide-grip chin-ups with palms facing forward
Abs:
Fav Move- Cable Crunches
Least Fav- Planks (these stress my shoulders way before I feel anything in my abs)
Most effective- Hanging Leg Raises
Hams/glutes:
Fave move- Standing Leg Curls
Least Fav- Weighted Hyperextensions
Most effective- Stiff-legged deadlifts
Quads:
Fave Move- Extensions
Least Fav- Squats
Most effective- Squats
Exercise I do most often for entire lower body- Squats
Exercise I would do if I only had time to do one for lower body- Squats (It's the granddaddy of lower body exercises, and what I believe has been the most instrumental in reshaping my bottom half. I have a true love/hate relationship with Squats.)
Calves:
Fav move- Standing Calf Raises on Smith Machine
Least Fav- Any calf move done Reeeealllllly slowly. Youch!
Most effective- Standing Calf 21's
Was this a completely useless blog? Tell me what you think!
Starting from the top:
Delts:
Fav move- Lateral Raises
Least Fav Move- Dumbbell bent-over Rear Delt raises (awkward!)
Most effective move- Probably Arnold Presses
Triceps:
Fav move- Overhead rope cable extensions (don't remember the real name, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about)
Least Fav- Barbell Skull Crushers (hard to keep my elbows in alignment)
Most effective- Probably bench dips.
Biceps:
Fav Move- 21's
Least Fav Move- Seated Incline DB Curls. (Don't feel right on my formerly torn rotator cuff)
Most effective- 21's
Pecs:
Fav Move- Dumbbell Flyes
Least Fav- Machine Flyes (hard to get the seat the right height)
Most effective- Dumbbell Bench press
Back: (My fav body part to work, by the way)
Fav Move- Strait-arm lat pull-downs (LOVE the way these feel!)
Least Fav- Good mornings. Feels like they are putting too much stress in the wrong places
Most effective- Wide-grip chin-ups with palms facing forward
Abs:
Fav Move- Cable Crunches
Least Fav- Planks (these stress my shoulders way before I feel anything in my abs)
Most effective- Hanging Leg Raises
Hams/glutes:
Fave move- Standing Leg Curls
Least Fav- Weighted Hyperextensions
Most effective- Stiff-legged deadlifts
Quads:
Fave Move- Extensions
Least Fav- Squats
Most effective- Squats
Exercise I do most often for entire lower body- Squats
Exercise I would do if I only had time to do one for lower body- Squats (It's the granddaddy of lower body exercises, and what I believe has been the most instrumental in reshaping my bottom half. I have a true love/hate relationship with Squats.)
Calves:
Fav move- Standing Calf Raises on Smith Machine
Least Fav- Any calf move done Reeeealllllly slowly. Youch!
Most effective- Standing Calf 21's
Was this a completely useless blog? Tell me what you think!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Creating Abs You can Be Proud Of.
I have received multiple inquiries as to how I've managed to get my abs into the condition they are after birthing four babies and spending forty-three years on this earth. What I am about to share is nothing earth shattering or new, and you've probably heard it all before, but I thought I'd blog about it so that I can give people my own recipe for ab success when they ask me how to get a nice midsection.
The first thing I want to point out is that there is no magic bullet for getting good abs. I think people really want me to share some literal secret, like drinking a weird vinegar or doing some super-off-the-wall ab move to have tight abs, and that's just not the case. It really is a multi-faceted, yet still simple, approach.
In order from most important to least, here is what I do for a tight midsection.
#1. Diet- Bring your body fat down! It does not matter how well all the tips following this are working- If your beautiful abs are hidden by fat, no one (including you) will be able to see and appreciate them.
#2. Hold 'em in! All the time. As often as you can think of it. Honestly, I'm almost always in an isometric ab contraction. It's a habit. The more you do it, the more automatic it becomes. There is not a single ab exercise out there that does as much for ab flatness and definition as simply contracting your abs as much and as often as possible. Reason? Ab exercises last for just a few minutes. Holding your abs in lasts all day long.
3. Cardio. Same reason as #1. Cardio helps burn fat. Lack of fat means ab visibility.
4. Hold 'em in while doing ab exercises. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone doing an ab exercise with their abs protruded. The tighter you hold your abs in while working them, the more effective (and harder!) the ab exercise will be.
5. Strengthen your lower back. Your ab and lower back muscles cross over each other. To to have tight abs, you MUST have tight lower back muscles. If you have tight abs and a weak lower back, your abs will have the appearance of being wide, no matter how strong they are. Plus, you will have created a skeletal imbalance. I can't tell you the people I've given this advice to, and after strengthening their lower back they begin to see the V-taper they've been unable to obtain until then.
6. For my actual ab workouts, once a week I usually do 20 minutes of an ab tape. My favorite is Kari Anderson's Curl DVD. But sometimes I will choose two of the ten-minute sections in either Kathy Smith's Tummy Trimmer DVD or 10-Minute Solution Quick Tummy Toners DVD. There are other DVD's out there you could use.
Often I will add another ab workout in the gym a couple of days later (abs are like every other muscle group and need plenty of time to recover between targeted ab workouts). When I do this, I treat them as two different muscle groups: Middle abs (always including both upper and lower in the move), and obliques. I don't isolate upper abs because they are the same muscle running between the rib cage and pelvic bone. Upper abs are not my issue- lower are. So it is much more efficient for me to spend my workout time targeting the area of the muscle that is weakest. I've found that upper abs get tightened in the process.
I do at least three exercises for the middle abs, and two for obliques. Sometimes, I will work them between other muscle groups (for instance, super-set them between back or bicep exercises), and other times I do them back to back to really burn them up. A sample ab workout for me looks like this:
3 Super sets of:
- Reverse Crunch on bench (feet coming down all the way to the ground with control at all times)- 20 reps
- Weighted side bends- 20 reps, each side (challenging weight- you want to FEEL this in the obliques!)
Then 3 Super sets of:
- Captains Chair leg lifts (curl your legs toward your knees, don't just lift them- it's supposed to resemble a reverse crunch!)- 12 reps
- Cable Rope Crunches- 20 reps (weight should be challenging)
Finish with:
- Bicycle Crunches 3x15, alternating sides (15 on each side)
And if I haven't hit lower back by doing something like deadlifts or squats some other time in the week, I'll do 3 sets of a targeted lower back exercise like Supermans or weighted hyperextensions on a Roman Chair.
The only thing I'd say that is negotiable, here, is #6. I know of others who do their ab workout quite differently and get similar results. This is just simply how I prefer to work my abs. In all reality, the way you target exercises for the abs is really just the gravy of the whole process. The meat and potatoes of having beautiful abs lies in the other five steps.
The first thing I want to point out is that there is no magic bullet for getting good abs. I think people really want me to share some literal secret, like drinking a weird vinegar or doing some super-off-the-wall ab move to have tight abs, and that's just not the case. It really is a multi-faceted, yet still simple, approach.
In order from most important to least, here is what I do for a tight midsection.
#1. Diet- Bring your body fat down! It does not matter how well all the tips following this are working- If your beautiful abs are hidden by fat, no one (including you) will be able to see and appreciate them.
#2. Hold 'em in! All the time. As often as you can think of it. Honestly, I'm almost always in an isometric ab contraction. It's a habit. The more you do it, the more automatic it becomes. There is not a single ab exercise out there that does as much for ab flatness and definition as simply contracting your abs as much and as often as possible. Reason? Ab exercises last for just a few minutes. Holding your abs in lasts all day long.
3. Cardio. Same reason as #1. Cardio helps burn fat. Lack of fat means ab visibility.
4. Hold 'em in while doing ab exercises. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone doing an ab exercise with their abs protruded. The tighter you hold your abs in while working them, the more effective (and harder!) the ab exercise will be.
5. Strengthen your lower back. Your ab and lower back muscles cross over each other. To to have tight abs, you MUST have tight lower back muscles. If you have tight abs and a weak lower back, your abs will have the appearance of being wide, no matter how strong they are. Plus, you will have created a skeletal imbalance. I can't tell you the people I've given this advice to, and after strengthening their lower back they begin to see the V-taper they've been unable to obtain until then.
6. For my actual ab workouts, once a week I usually do 20 minutes of an ab tape. My favorite is Kari Anderson's Curl DVD. But sometimes I will choose two of the ten-minute sections in either Kathy Smith's Tummy Trimmer DVD or 10-Minute Solution Quick Tummy Toners DVD. There are other DVD's out there you could use.
Often I will add another ab workout in the gym a couple of days later (abs are like every other muscle group and need plenty of time to recover between targeted ab workouts). When I do this, I treat them as two different muscle groups: Middle abs (always including both upper and lower in the move), and obliques. I don't isolate upper abs because they are the same muscle running between the rib cage and pelvic bone. Upper abs are not my issue- lower are. So it is much more efficient for me to spend my workout time targeting the area of the muscle that is weakest. I've found that upper abs get tightened in the process.
I do at least three exercises for the middle abs, and two for obliques. Sometimes, I will work them between other muscle groups (for instance, super-set them between back or bicep exercises), and other times I do them back to back to really burn them up. A sample ab workout for me looks like this:
3 Super sets of:
- Reverse Crunch on bench (feet coming down all the way to the ground with control at all times)- 20 reps
- Weighted side bends- 20 reps, each side (challenging weight- you want to FEEL this in the obliques!)
Then 3 Super sets of:
- Captains Chair leg lifts (curl your legs toward your knees, don't just lift them- it's supposed to resemble a reverse crunch!)- 12 reps
- Cable Rope Crunches- 20 reps (weight should be challenging)
Finish with:
- Bicycle Crunches 3x15, alternating sides (15 on each side)
And if I haven't hit lower back by doing something like deadlifts or squats some other time in the week, I'll do 3 sets of a targeted lower back exercise like Supermans or weighted hyperextensions on a Roman Chair.
The only thing I'd say that is negotiable, here, is #6. I know of others who do their ab workout quite differently and get similar results. This is just simply how I prefer to work my abs. In all reality, the way you target exercises for the abs is really just the gravy of the whole process. The meat and potatoes of having beautiful abs lies in the other five steps.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Lessons Learned and Still Applied From my Cutting Diet
So as many know, I've completed a couple of cutting diets. I'm surprised to say that my eating now more resembles the cutting diet than it does the way I ate BEFORE the cutting diet, which was really not that bad.
Here are some valuable things I learned that I thought I'd share:
- I cook ahead. This is something I told my coach, Ruben, I didn't want to do in the start. I'd rather just cook what I was going to for that day. But it didn't take me long to figure out that it took just about the same amount of time to make a big pot of brown rice as a small one. Last night my daughter and I had sweet potatoes for dinner. I threw extra into the oven and then tossed it into the fridge when the meal was over. I don't set aside a time on the weekends to cook for the week like a lot of people do, but now when I do cook something I can use for meals later on, I'll make extra.
- I have started to eat more "real" food and less protein powder and protein bars, which are convenient but leave me hungrier than whole foods.
- I eat a great, big breakfast. Before breakfast was maybe a small bowl of whole-grain cereal with raisins and a cup of milk. Now it's slow-cook oatmeal with natural peanut butter stirred in, a whole egg with several (usually 5) egg whites, and often a piece of fruit. This helps me to not be as hungry the rest of the day and really fuels me well for my usually up-coming weight lifting session. Breakfast is usually now my biggest meal of the day. (For a very convincing reason to eat breakfast, I'd encourage you to read this blog by Ruben: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=2898374)
- I occasionally eat fish now, voluntarily. It's not my favorite, but I don't despise it anymore. (Yes, Ruben.... you read that right!) Tilapia is my favorite. Maybe one day soon I'll work up the nerve to try salmon again......
- Before I go to bed I have a scoop of protein powder, in milk if my daily calories allow it, or water if they don't. Ruben had me doing this to give my body something to gnaw on other than muscle while I slept. I'd rather like my muscles and endeavor to keep them, so I've kept it up.
- I usually drink at least a gallon of water a day. I can't remember if Ruben had me start this or if it just kinda came along with the cutting territory, but I find my body does a lot better with plenty of plain old water coursing through it. I am not as likely to binge, have fewer cravings, and feel less lethargic when I drink this much. My complexion is the clearest it's been since I was about eleven, and I often wonder if the water is a lot of the reason why.
- I don't eat as many carbs in the evening as I used to. I won't go into the specifics because this blog is long enough, but I prefer to get my starchier carbs early in the day, when they can be burned off by fueling me through my activities.
I hope that you picked up a thing or two here that you can implement into your own diet to help you along on your journey to fitness. As always, I love getting your comments and feed back, so please don't hesitate to respond!
Here are some valuable things I learned that I thought I'd share:
- I cook ahead. This is something I told my coach, Ruben, I didn't want to do in the start. I'd rather just cook what I was going to for that day. But it didn't take me long to figure out that it took just about the same amount of time to make a big pot of brown rice as a small one. Last night my daughter and I had sweet potatoes for dinner. I threw extra into the oven and then tossed it into the fridge when the meal was over. I don't set aside a time on the weekends to cook for the week like a lot of people do, but now when I do cook something I can use for meals later on, I'll make extra.
- I have started to eat more "real" food and less protein powder and protein bars, which are convenient but leave me hungrier than whole foods.
- I eat a great, big breakfast. Before breakfast was maybe a small bowl of whole-grain cereal with raisins and a cup of milk. Now it's slow-cook oatmeal with natural peanut butter stirred in, a whole egg with several (usually 5) egg whites, and often a piece of fruit. This helps me to not be as hungry the rest of the day and really fuels me well for my usually up-coming weight lifting session. Breakfast is usually now my biggest meal of the day. (For a very convincing reason to eat breakfast, I'd encourage you to read this blog by Ruben: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=2898374)
- I occasionally eat fish now, voluntarily. It's not my favorite, but I don't despise it anymore. (Yes, Ruben.... you read that right!) Tilapia is my favorite. Maybe one day soon I'll work up the nerve to try salmon again......
- Before I go to bed I have a scoop of protein powder, in milk if my daily calories allow it, or water if they don't. Ruben had me doing this to give my body something to gnaw on other than muscle while I slept. I'd rather like my muscles and endeavor to keep them, so I've kept it up.
- I usually drink at least a gallon of water a day. I can't remember if Ruben had me start this or if it just kinda came along with the cutting territory, but I find my body does a lot better with plenty of plain old water coursing through it. I am not as likely to binge, have fewer cravings, and feel less lethargic when I drink this much. My complexion is the clearest it's been since I was about eleven, and I often wonder if the water is a lot of the reason why.
- I don't eat as many carbs in the evening as I used to. I won't go into the specifics because this blog is long enough, but I prefer to get my starchier carbs early in the day, when they can be burned off by fueling me through my activities.
I hope that you picked up a thing or two here that you can implement into your own diet to help you along on your journey to fitness. As always, I love getting your comments and feed back, so please don't hesitate to respond!
Friday, May 14, 2010
An Unexplained Gain is Nothing to Sweat Over
After posting this last night I got to thinking about it and realized I unintentionally misinformed on the issue of carbohydrate water retention. If you have already read this blog, please reread! I may have unwittingly caused you to believe that you can maintain a higher carb level and lose water weight!
As many of you know, I've recently completed a cutting diet. It was an excellent learning experience.
One valuable thing I gleaned is that diet makes a MASSIVE difference in what I weigh from day to day, and while it's generally good for me to weigh a couple of times a week, at least, to keep my head in the game, I don't need to panic when the scale is up a few pounds.
During the process of cutting my nutritionist, Ruben Sandoval, switched me from high-carb to low carb, high protein to low protein, regular sodium to low sodium, and high calorie to low calorie. Each time he told me what my body would probably do on the scale for the next few days, and you know what? He was spot-on every time!
It absolutely astounded me how quickly the body can be manipulated through diet.
The most notable changes: The first one you probably have already guessed. This was when we brought my sodium from lowered levels back up to what I normally consume. But what might surprise you is that big changes also happened when we took me from low carb to high carb. In BOTH instances, I would gain a few pounds of water weight. Even more notable was when I would go from both low carb AND low sodium to raising them simultaneously. When we did that, my scale really jumped- I'm talking 5 or 6 pounds. I could actually see the water weight gain all over my body within just a few hours, as evidenced by lack of muscle definition, particularly in my abs (I hated that!).
There were separate things at work, here:
The first was what we all know, that sodium causes you to retain water. The thing is, the body doesn't like to have it's sodium level off kilter and will fairly quickly (within about 24-48 hours) process the excess water AND sodium out to establish it's balance once again. This is why reducing sodium to low levels for longer than 24-48 hours is counter-productive: The body wises up and replaces the needed sodium in the blood through the kidneys. It also puts unnecessary strain on your system to do so for an extended period of time.
In the case of excess carbs, it's an entirely different issue going on, but with the same outcome- The body stores three grams of water for every gram of glycogen stored in the cells (glycogen comes from carbohydrates). This is why, when your cells aren't 100% full of glycogen, as is usually the case with people who are watching their weight, you aren't holding as much water. Raise your glycogen levels to 100% through a higher-than-normal carb day, and wa-la! Weight gain! Once your carb levels go back down to what you traditionally eat, the body releases the glycogen and the accompanying water weight with it.
So while you may have gained a LITTLE fat from the over-consumption of calories when you have a chocolate-chip-cookie binge, a majority of it is water that will go away when your diet returns to normal.
Therefore, if you have been following an eating plan that should be causing you to either lose or maintain your current weight, yet you suddenly show a gain of a few pounds on the scale, it's almost certain that something has changed in your diet and you are holding water. Don't sweat it! Just keep up or restore your good habits- it will come down eventually.
Also, it almost goes without saying that we women have much wider fluctuations in weight than men. Hormones play a big part in water retention, too.
For the carb-induced weight gain, you can get in a couple of good, hard cardio sesssions to help work it out. And the good news? You'll have plenty of energy for those cadio sessions, because glycogen is fuel used for exercise.
In either case, just keep on drinking lots of water (and by water I mean actual, non-flavored water, not other calorie-free drinks- I get over a gallon a day), and don't worry too much about a sudden rise in scale weight. Your body's natural tendency is to seek normal and stabilize to it's genuine weight in a few days.
As many of you know, I've recently completed a cutting diet. It was an excellent learning experience.
One valuable thing I gleaned is that diet makes a MASSIVE difference in what I weigh from day to day, and while it's generally good for me to weigh a couple of times a week, at least, to keep my head in the game, I don't need to panic when the scale is up a few pounds.
During the process of cutting my nutritionist, Ruben Sandoval, switched me from high-carb to low carb, high protein to low protein, regular sodium to low sodium, and high calorie to low calorie. Each time he told me what my body would probably do on the scale for the next few days, and you know what? He was spot-on every time!
It absolutely astounded me how quickly the body can be manipulated through diet.
The most notable changes: The first one you probably have already guessed. This was when we brought my sodium from lowered levels back up to what I normally consume. But what might surprise you is that big changes also happened when we took me from low carb to high carb. In BOTH instances, I would gain a few pounds of water weight. Even more notable was when I would go from both low carb AND low sodium to raising them simultaneously. When we did that, my scale really jumped- I'm talking 5 or 6 pounds. I could actually see the water weight gain all over my body within just a few hours, as evidenced by lack of muscle definition, particularly in my abs (I hated that!).
There were separate things at work, here:
The first was what we all know, that sodium causes you to retain water. The thing is, the body doesn't like to have it's sodium level off kilter and will fairly quickly (within about 24-48 hours) process the excess water AND sodium out to establish it's balance once again. This is why reducing sodium to low levels for longer than 24-48 hours is counter-productive: The body wises up and replaces the needed sodium in the blood through the kidneys. It also puts unnecessary strain on your system to do so for an extended period of time.
In the case of excess carbs, it's an entirely different issue going on, but with the same outcome- The body stores three grams of water for every gram of glycogen stored in the cells (glycogen comes from carbohydrates). This is why, when your cells aren't 100% full of glycogen, as is usually the case with people who are watching their weight, you aren't holding as much water. Raise your glycogen levels to 100% through a higher-than-normal carb day, and wa-la! Weight gain! Once your carb levels go back down to what you traditionally eat, the body releases the glycogen and the accompanying water weight with it.
So while you may have gained a LITTLE fat from the over-consumption of calories when you have a chocolate-chip-cookie binge, a majority of it is water that will go away when your diet returns to normal.
Therefore, if you have been following an eating plan that should be causing you to either lose or maintain your current weight, yet you suddenly show a gain of a few pounds on the scale, it's almost certain that something has changed in your diet and you are holding water. Don't sweat it! Just keep up or restore your good habits- it will come down eventually.
Also, it almost goes without saying that we women have much wider fluctuations in weight than men. Hormones play a big part in water retention, too.
For the carb-induced weight gain, you can get in a couple of good, hard cardio sesssions to help work it out. And the good news? You'll have plenty of energy for those cadio sessions, because glycogen is fuel used for exercise.
In either case, just keep on drinking lots of water (and by water I mean actual, non-flavored water, not other calorie-free drinks- I get over a gallon a day), and don't worry too much about a sudden rise in scale weight. Your body's natural tendency is to seek normal and stabilize to it's genuine weight in a few days.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Products I have Found Useful
Along the way there have been products and things I have found particularly useful in my quest for fitness. In case it might help others, here are some of them:
-Wonderslim crispy Protein Bars from DietDirect.com (http://www.dietdirect.com/wonderslim-crispy-protein-diet-bars.html) These have a very good balance of carbs (18g) proteins (15g) and fats (5g), a good amount of fiber per bar (5g), and the sugars are relatively low (8g). And at just 160 calories a piece, they taste really good! I can toss one in my purse so that I am never caught without good nutrition, since I try to eat every 3 hours or so. I usually order 11 boxes so that I can take advantage of both the free shipping on orders over $79 AND the 10% bulk discount on orders over $99 (use coupon code saveme10). This, of course, lasts me months.
- The book Sculpting Her Body Perfect by Brad Schoenfeld. This is my favorite female exercise book. He has very good plans explained for both starting and advancing in your weight lifting efforts, as well as demonstrations of the exercises and a DVD of the execution of many of them, as well.
- HERS Magazine, by Muscle and Fitness. This is my favorite women's fitness magazine. It's not fluffy! This is the real deal of how to get fit and stay that way.
- Oxygen Magazine. Also non-fluffy, a close second to HERS. It'd be my first recommendation, were it not for it's unabashed plugging of Tosca Reno's (the wife of the Oxygen Publisher, Robert Kennedy) Eat Clean Diet books.
- Now you're gonna laugh, but Clean Eating Magazine by- you guessed it- Robert Kennedy Publishing. I like the magazine better than her book. Seems somehow more adaptable to real life to me than her actual eating plan in the book.
The three above magazines are the only fitness/food magazines I subscribe to. The rest are just too fluffy for me.
- Natures Own Sandwich Rounds. I think Orowheat makes an almost identical product. At one point (100 cals, 5g fiber, 1g fat) per, these make a fantastic sandwich.
- GNC Whey Protein Powder. It's more cost-effective than many of the protein powders out there, and I think taste better than most. If you have the GNC Gold card you can purchase their products through the 8th of every month, I believe it is, for a 20% discount. For me, the price of the card has more than paid off.
- Moving Comfort Women's Fiona Bra (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AP3SEY/ref=oss_product) This sports bra keeps my girls in check and if I get too hot I can strip down to just it on top in the gym without looking frumpy or like I am wearing my lingerie. I don't bother buying any other, since I am fairly big-busted and positively hate bounce.
- Aussie Sprunch Spray. Works as both a styling product in wet hair and a hairspray. I just toss a full-size bottle of this in my gym bag and it lasts quite a while.
- David Greenwalt's book "The Leanness Lifestyle". This book has a very sound plan for true fitness a lifestyle, not just a temporary fix. I see it is sold on Amazon.com. Although I parted ways with David Greenwalt when I tried his Leanness Lifestyle University on-line (he wasn't quite as gentle as I prefer a coach to be), his book is my fitness bible to this day, and I refer to it often. I actually combined his macro-nutrient suggestion (emphasising more protein than I had been eating) with Weight Watchers point system and accountability for very good results.
Of course, the most important tool in reaching fitness is your own determination and focus. Keep reminding yourself that you are worth it- because you are!
-Wonderslim crispy Protein Bars from DietDirect.com (http://www.dietdirect.com/wonderslim-crispy-protein-diet-bars.html) These have a very good balance of carbs (18g) proteins (15g) and fats (5g), a good amount of fiber per bar (5g), and the sugars are relatively low (8g). And at just 160 calories a piece, they taste really good! I can toss one in my purse so that I am never caught without good nutrition, since I try to eat every 3 hours or so. I usually order 11 boxes so that I can take advantage of both the free shipping on orders over $79 AND the 10% bulk discount on orders over $99 (use coupon code saveme10). This, of course, lasts me months.
- The book Sculpting Her Body Perfect by Brad Schoenfeld. This is my favorite female exercise book. He has very good plans explained for both starting and advancing in your weight lifting efforts, as well as demonstrations of the exercises and a DVD of the execution of many of them, as well.
- HERS Magazine, by Muscle and Fitness. This is my favorite women's fitness magazine. It's not fluffy! This is the real deal of how to get fit and stay that way.
- Oxygen Magazine. Also non-fluffy, a close second to HERS. It'd be my first recommendation, were it not for it's unabashed plugging of Tosca Reno's (the wife of the Oxygen Publisher, Robert Kennedy) Eat Clean Diet books.
- Now you're gonna laugh, but Clean Eating Magazine by- you guessed it- Robert Kennedy Publishing. I like the magazine better than her book. Seems somehow more adaptable to real life to me than her actual eating plan in the book.
The three above magazines are the only fitness/food magazines I subscribe to. The rest are just too fluffy for me.
- Natures Own Sandwich Rounds. I think Orowheat makes an almost identical product. At one point (100 cals, 5g fiber, 1g fat) per, these make a fantastic sandwich.
- GNC Whey Protein Powder. It's more cost-effective than many of the protein powders out there, and I think taste better than most. If you have the GNC Gold card you can purchase their products through the 8th of every month, I believe it is, for a 20% discount. For me, the price of the card has more than paid off.
- Moving Comfort Women's Fiona Bra (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AP3SEY/ref=oss_product) This sports bra keeps my girls in check and if I get too hot I can strip down to just it on top in the gym without looking frumpy or like I am wearing my lingerie. I don't bother buying any other, since I am fairly big-busted and positively hate bounce.
- Aussie Sprunch Spray. Works as both a styling product in wet hair and a hairspray. I just toss a full-size bottle of this in my gym bag and it lasts quite a while.
- David Greenwalt's book "The Leanness Lifestyle". This book has a very sound plan for true fitness a lifestyle, not just a temporary fix. I see it is sold on Amazon.com. Although I parted ways with David Greenwalt when I tried his Leanness Lifestyle University on-line (he wasn't quite as gentle as I prefer a coach to be), his book is my fitness bible to this day, and I refer to it often. I actually combined his macro-nutrient suggestion (emphasising more protein than I had been eating) with Weight Watchers point system and accountability for very good results.
Of course, the most important tool in reaching fitness is your own determination and focus. Keep reminding yourself that you are worth it- because you are!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Final Results of My Cutting Diet
Well, it's over. Twelve weeks of a cutting diet, done. As someone who has been a habitual non-finisher of things started I can honestly say that I am extremely proud of myself.
I wanted to try a cutting diet for several reasons, the biggest one being I desired my body fat as low as possible while maintaining as much of my hard-earned muscle as I could for a corrective surgery scheduled May 6th (tomorrow). The second big reason was because I have in mind to compete in figure down the road and was simply curious as to whether I could hack a cutting diet.
I can.
Ruben Sandoval (you can find him on my friends on FaceBook or here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=FLEXCHEF ) started out as my nutritionist for the diet, and wound up as my trainer also, all the way in California (I'm in Texas), when my in-person trainer and I here broke up for completely amicable reasons. (Still appreciate you, Ross!) It's been a really good arrangement for me, and I hope it's been beneficial to him, as well.
I shared about the experience of having Ruben for a distance trainer in my blog "The Advantages of a Long-Distance Trainer" on SparkPeople.com here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=2906050
Anyhow, the point is that Ruben has been my guru on everything having to do with my body and it's changes over the past 12 weeks. Normally he likes to take a full 16 weeks to cut a competitor in, but he sped up the process with me to accommodate my surgery date.
Let me put in a little aside here: A cutting diet is something you do NOT want to go off and try willy-nilly by yourself. I am glad I had professional help and would not recommend that anyone try something like this the first time around, at least, on their own. It's a balancing act that he has experience in and I don't. I needed his help. (And Ruben, brace yourself: Your inbox is about to explode again, my friend!) Ruben was worth every dime I paid him to help me.
It also might be good to note that because he was trying to keep me in peak health for my surgery, Ruben was more liberal with my calories and didn't have me do as big a reduction in water intake at the tail end as he does with most competitors. Had he been able to do my cutting diet his usual way, I'm sure my results would have been more dramatic than they already are.
I ate weird combinations of foods that would have never occurred to me, but a lot of them I wound up liking. I have eaten so much fish over the course of this thing that I've wondered if I'd grow gills and start making funny kissy motions with my mouth. And I don't even like fish! But one thing I've always believed is that if you are going to do something, you might as well do it right, so I pretty much did what Ruben asked me to almost the whole time. I realized that in order to gain the results we were after it was critical I follow his program in it's entirety. Imagine that! (Remember what I said above about typically not finishing things?)
This isn't to say I didn't ask questions, because I did, but I did what he said, even when I wondered if it was really going to work or not. I didn't want to screw up the grand plan by testing some uneducated hypothesis of my own.
He started my diet out a little more loose and then tightened it up as time went on. At the end, there was almost no wiggle room. I ate EXACTLY what he told me to- No deviation! As a matter of fact, save one big binge on peanut butter and Wheat Thins about 1/3 of the way through the process (which I called and confessed to him, crying- a memory I'd just as soon lose), I did a pretty darned good job of sticking with the plan the entire time, if I do say so myself.
I learned more about how the body breaks down food than I had ever known before. (This stuff fascinates me, so when Ruben was explaining it I was listening with rapt attention- I wanted to know what was going on in there after I swallowed!) I will never look at food the same again.
There are so many other things I took home from this that I am sure I will blog about in the future. But one thing is for sure: It was a valuable experience that I will always be grateful I had the honor to endure. :-)
The hardest part of the whole diet were the third-to-last and second-to-last days of it, which was just day-before-yesterday and the day before that. He had pumped me full of protein and brought my carbs way down for several days in a row, then increased my carbs dramatically while reducing my fats and proteins for the very last 3 days. The lowered fats and proteins combined with the increased carbs left me less satiated, so for those first two days of the 3-day higher-carb-lower-calorie round I was wanting to eat the furniture! Wow! I hadn't felt that hungry in weeks! By the 3rd day and final day of the cutting diet, which was yesterday as of this posting, I was a little more adjusted to it. Either that, or I was so freaked out because we were taking final pics the next day (this morning) and I had surgery the next day (tomorrow), that my nervousness overrode any hunger I was feeling.
And here are the results:
February 11 2010, I started out here, 5'8.5" at 159.4 pounds and 18.42% body fat:
And on May 5th, 2010, I was 147.8 pounds, and 10.89% body fat:
I'm down 11.6 pounds, but more importantly, we hit all of our goals: Ruben's goal of getting me to 11% body fat and mine of getting to 148. Additionally, we both had the collective goals of getting rid of body fat, as opposed to muscle, and keep me extremely healthy in the process.
I've lost 13.3 pounds of body fat, which means that over the past 12 weeks I have gained 1.7 pounds of muscle. For an idea of how hard it is to gain muscle while you lose fat, take a look at my blog titled "Lift! Even if you are overweight!" here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=3183771
AND my complexion is the clearest it's been in my life!
Massive success, IMHO!
Ruben, you done beyond good! :-)
While most people who have lost 11 or 12 pounds would be down one clothing size, I am down two. As a matter of fact, at my height and weight I am a solid size 6 (a 4 in some cases), something that almost seems impossible to the rational mind. I attribute this to not only the fat loss, which takes more space than muscle, but also to Ruben's exercise training plan. The man really does understand the human body and how to manipulate it through natural means.
Speaking of which, Ruben does NOT promote the use of steroids for either muscle gain or fat loss. So if you are thinking we employed some unethical means to get me where I am, think again. He never even asked me to so much as take a diuretic. The supplements I took were things that I was already getting in my diet, just in smaller amounts. They have no ill side effects, and are all as safe and natural as a multivitamin. I know: After he asked me to add something new, I researched it. (I trusted, but not blindly- I felt a responsibility to be educated about what was going on in my own body.)
My advice to anyone working with a nutritionist on a cutting diet? First of all, make sure he or she does not promote the use of steroids or other drugs, and secondly, simply to follow their plan in it's entirety. Don't have days where you go off and take a "break". Don't abandon the parts you don't like. Do ALL of it. Stick with it not matter what. The results are worth it.
I am blessed to have found Ruben.
If you like, you can view more pictures of my progression, as well as more final pics, here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_photo_gallery.asp?id=NANCYANNE55
My reason for making my weight loss journey so public, complete with photos, is that I deeply desire to encourage you that you really CAN make a huge difference in your body through diet and exercise, no matter what your age or condition. I want you to seize your own health by the horns and lay claim to it: Don't sit back passively and act the victim to fat and inactivity! If you put the work in, change will have no choice but to come. But you have to go beyond wanting to change and actually DO something about it.
To very loosely paraphrase my brother-in-law, Charlie: Don't let life happen to you, YOU be the thing that is happening to life!
Next goals? To recover from surgery, then reach 9% body fat while getting these legs and glutes nice and firm.... Just watch me!
I wanted to try a cutting diet for several reasons, the biggest one being I desired my body fat as low as possible while maintaining as much of my hard-earned muscle as I could for a corrective surgery scheduled May 6th (tomorrow). The second big reason was because I have in mind to compete in figure down the road and was simply curious as to whether I could hack a cutting diet.
I can.
Ruben Sandoval (you can find him on my friends on FaceBook or here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=FLEXCHEF ) started out as my nutritionist for the diet, and wound up as my trainer also, all the way in California (I'm in Texas), when my in-person trainer and I here broke up for completely amicable reasons. (Still appreciate you, Ross!) It's been a really good arrangement for me, and I hope it's been beneficial to him, as well.
I shared about the experience of having Ruben for a distance trainer in my blog "The Advantages of a Long-Distance Trainer" on SparkPeople.com here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=2906050
Anyhow, the point is that Ruben has been my guru on everything having to do with my body and it's changes over the past 12 weeks. Normally he likes to take a full 16 weeks to cut a competitor in, but he sped up the process with me to accommodate my surgery date.
Let me put in a little aside here: A cutting diet is something you do NOT want to go off and try willy-nilly by yourself. I am glad I had professional help and would not recommend that anyone try something like this the first time around, at least, on their own. It's a balancing act that he has experience in and I don't. I needed his help. (And Ruben, brace yourself: Your inbox is about to explode again, my friend!) Ruben was worth every dime I paid him to help me.
It also might be good to note that because he was trying to keep me in peak health for my surgery, Ruben was more liberal with my calories and didn't have me do as big a reduction in water intake at the tail end as he does with most competitors. Had he been able to do my cutting diet his usual way, I'm sure my results would have been more dramatic than they already are.
I ate weird combinations of foods that would have never occurred to me, but a lot of them I wound up liking. I have eaten so much fish over the course of this thing that I've wondered if I'd grow gills and start making funny kissy motions with my mouth. And I don't even like fish! But one thing I've always believed is that if you are going to do something, you might as well do it right, so I pretty much did what Ruben asked me to almost the whole time. I realized that in order to gain the results we were after it was critical I follow his program in it's entirety. Imagine that! (Remember what I said above about typically not finishing things?)
This isn't to say I didn't ask questions, because I did, but I did what he said, even when I wondered if it was really going to work or not. I didn't want to screw up the grand plan by testing some uneducated hypothesis of my own.
He started my diet out a little more loose and then tightened it up as time went on. At the end, there was almost no wiggle room. I ate EXACTLY what he told me to- No deviation! As a matter of fact, save one big binge on peanut butter and Wheat Thins about 1/3 of the way through the process (which I called and confessed to him, crying- a memory I'd just as soon lose), I did a pretty darned good job of sticking with the plan the entire time, if I do say so myself.
I learned more about how the body breaks down food than I had ever known before. (This stuff fascinates me, so when Ruben was explaining it I was listening with rapt attention- I wanted to know what was going on in there after I swallowed!) I will never look at food the same again.
There are so many other things I took home from this that I am sure I will blog about in the future. But one thing is for sure: It was a valuable experience that I will always be grateful I had the honor to endure. :-)
The hardest part of the whole diet were the third-to-last and second-to-last days of it, which was just day-before-yesterday and the day before that. He had pumped me full of protein and brought my carbs way down for several days in a row, then increased my carbs dramatically while reducing my fats and proteins for the very last 3 days. The lowered fats and proteins combined with the increased carbs left me less satiated, so for those first two days of the 3-day higher-carb-lower-calorie round I was wanting to eat the furniture! Wow! I hadn't felt that hungry in weeks! By the 3rd day and final day of the cutting diet, which was yesterday as of this posting, I was a little more adjusted to it. Either that, or I was so freaked out because we were taking final pics the next day (this morning) and I had surgery the next day (tomorrow), that my nervousness overrode any hunger I was feeling.
And here are the results:
February 11 2010, I started out here, 5'8.5" at 159.4 pounds and 18.42% body fat:
And on May 5th, 2010, I was 147.8 pounds, and 10.89% body fat:
I'm down 11.6 pounds, but more importantly, we hit all of our goals: Ruben's goal of getting me to 11% body fat and mine of getting to 148. Additionally, we both had the collective goals of getting rid of body fat, as opposed to muscle, and keep me extremely healthy in the process.
I've lost 13.3 pounds of body fat, which means that over the past 12 weeks I have gained 1.7 pounds of muscle. For an idea of how hard it is to gain muscle while you lose fat, take a look at my blog titled "Lift! Even if you are overweight!" here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=3183771
AND my complexion is the clearest it's been in my life!
Massive success, IMHO!
Ruben, you done beyond good! :-)
While most people who have lost 11 or 12 pounds would be down one clothing size, I am down two. As a matter of fact, at my height and weight I am a solid size 6 (a 4 in some cases), something that almost seems impossible to the rational mind. I attribute this to not only the fat loss, which takes more space than muscle, but also to Ruben's exercise training plan. The man really does understand the human body and how to manipulate it through natural means.
Speaking of which, Ruben does NOT promote the use of steroids for either muscle gain or fat loss. So if you are thinking we employed some unethical means to get me where I am, think again. He never even asked me to so much as take a diuretic. The supplements I took were things that I was already getting in my diet, just in smaller amounts. They have no ill side effects, and are all as safe and natural as a multivitamin. I know: After he asked me to add something new, I researched it. (I trusted, but not blindly- I felt a responsibility to be educated about what was going on in my own body.)
My advice to anyone working with a nutritionist on a cutting diet? First of all, make sure he or she does not promote the use of steroids or other drugs, and secondly, simply to follow their plan in it's entirety. Don't have days where you go off and take a "break". Don't abandon the parts you don't like. Do ALL of it. Stick with it not matter what. The results are worth it.
I am blessed to have found Ruben.
If you like, you can view more pictures of my progression, as well as more final pics, here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_photo_gallery.asp?id=NANCYANNE55
My reason for making my weight loss journey so public, complete with photos, is that I deeply desire to encourage you that you really CAN make a huge difference in your body through diet and exercise, no matter what your age or condition. I want you to seize your own health by the horns and lay claim to it: Don't sit back passively and act the victim to fat and inactivity! If you put the work in, change will have no choice but to come. But you have to go beyond wanting to change and actually DO something about it.
To very loosely paraphrase my brother-in-law, Charlie: Don't let life happen to you, YOU be the thing that is happening to life!
Next goals? To recover from surgery, then reach 9% body fat while getting these legs and glutes nice and firm.... Just watch me!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
She said WHAT?????
Today in the locker room at the gym I ran into two gals who are always there, but I've only ever seen on the cardio equipment. Both of these girls appear to be in their 20's and are very heavy. I know how much weight training would benefit them, so I asked, after we'd chatted a couple of minutes, "So how come I never see you girls in the weight lifting area?" Honestly, I was pretty sure I knew the answer, but I wanted to encourage them to venture over there so that they could reap the rewards of going to the gym faster.
One gal, the heaviest of the two, responded honestly that she's a bit intimidated and doesn't feel like she fits in. I told her she pays gym membership, so she has as much a right to be there as anyone else and no one there would think a thing of it- she's working out just like everyone else. Then she said she'd love to try, because she would like to increase her muscle, but that her friend didn't want to go over there.
So naturally, I asked the friend why she felt that way. And she said (this blew me away) "I don't want to be defined." Say WHAT? I tried to keep the look of disbelief off of my face and the sarcastic comment ("Then why are you coming to a gym?") from shooting out of my mouth. Instead I very gently asked "Could you explain what you mean?" I thought for sure she'd tell me I'd misunderstood. She said "I don't want muscle tone."
Nope. I didn't misunderstand.
I told her I look like I do, in part, to lifting weights on and off for 24 years. And she said, no kidding "I don't think that looks good. I don't want to look like you." She looked embarrassed, but she sure as heck said it.
I told her that's okay, she didn't have to look like me if she lifted, and asked her if she understood the benefits of having muscle go beyond appearance and that it will facilitate her weight loss efforts. She said she did, but she had no desire to have muscle tone. Yeesh....
I didn't know what to do with this woman, so I turned my attention to her friend.
Her friend told me she thought I looked great, that she saw me in Walmart on Sunday after church and thought I looked nice in a dress, when I'm not pumped up. She seemed to get the big picture that I didn't walk around with bulging muscles all the time. Thank heavens!
At that point I shared with her that I've done almost all of my workout alone and that she could look similar to me, that it takes time, but it's worth it. That I've lost quite a bit of weight and she can achieve whatever she puts her mind to.
I told told them both that if they had any questions about lifting or wanted to try equipment and didn't know how to use any of it to ask me- I'd be happy to help them. They walked away- to do their cardio, presumably.
I really wish there was something magical I could have said to them- particularly the open minded one.
I know that all too often heavy people think that the people who are at or closer to their ideal weight are looking at them judgmentally when they are in the weight lifting area of the gym. For the record, I don't care how heavy you are- I'm just glad you're there! I'll answer questions if you ask me and help all you'll let me.
And my guess? If you ask anyone in the weight lifting area who looks like they know what they're doing for assistance they'd be happy to help you, too.
You can't get started if you don't start, and the benefits of weight lifting aren't just for those who are already fit. While I understand the reasons for feeling intimidated, I'd like to point out that the only way to stop feeling intimidated is to improve yourself. One of the fastest ways to improve yourself in the gym? Lift weights!
That's all I got for today. I hope this helped somebody!
One gal, the heaviest of the two, responded honestly that she's a bit intimidated and doesn't feel like she fits in. I told her she pays gym membership, so she has as much a right to be there as anyone else and no one there would think a thing of it- she's working out just like everyone else. Then she said she'd love to try, because she would like to increase her muscle, but that her friend didn't want to go over there.
So naturally, I asked the friend why she felt that way. And she said (this blew me away) "I don't want to be defined." Say WHAT? I tried to keep the look of disbelief off of my face and the sarcastic comment ("Then why are you coming to a gym?") from shooting out of my mouth. Instead I very gently asked "Could you explain what you mean?" I thought for sure she'd tell me I'd misunderstood. She said "I don't want muscle tone."
Nope. I didn't misunderstand.
I told her I look like I do, in part, to lifting weights on and off for 24 years. And she said, no kidding "I don't think that looks good. I don't want to look like you." She looked embarrassed, but she sure as heck said it.
I told her that's okay, she didn't have to look like me if she lifted, and asked her if she understood the benefits of having muscle go beyond appearance and that it will facilitate her weight loss efforts. She said she did, but she had no desire to have muscle tone. Yeesh....
I didn't know what to do with this woman, so I turned my attention to her friend.
Her friend told me she thought I looked great, that she saw me in Walmart on Sunday after church and thought I looked nice in a dress, when I'm not pumped up. She seemed to get the big picture that I didn't walk around with bulging muscles all the time. Thank heavens!
At that point I shared with her that I've done almost all of my workout alone and that she could look similar to me, that it takes time, but it's worth it. That I've lost quite a bit of weight and she can achieve whatever she puts her mind to.
I told told them both that if they had any questions about lifting or wanted to try equipment and didn't know how to use any of it to ask me- I'd be happy to help them. They walked away- to do their cardio, presumably.
I really wish there was something magical I could have said to them- particularly the open minded one.
I know that all too often heavy people think that the people who are at or closer to their ideal weight are looking at them judgmentally when they are in the weight lifting area of the gym. For the record, I don't care how heavy you are- I'm just glad you're there! I'll answer questions if you ask me and help all you'll let me.
And my guess? If you ask anyone in the weight lifting area who looks like they know what they're doing for assistance they'd be happy to help you, too.
You can't get started if you don't start, and the benefits of weight lifting aren't just for those who are already fit. While I understand the reasons for feeling intimidated, I'd like to point out that the only way to stop feeling intimidated is to improve yourself. One of the fastest ways to improve yourself in the gym? Lift weights!
That's all I got for today. I hope this helped somebody!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Gift of Self-Forgiveness
In my last blog I started out by saying that it's hard to help someone you don't like. Wouldn't you agree it's just as hard to help, or be good to, someone who continually holds a grudge against you?
For me, self-forgiveness was just as important as talking positively about myself. I needed to forgive myself for the mistreatment I'd committed against my body in the first place.
I've heard it said that you can't change what you won't acknowledge. I've found this to be true, so for me the first step came in admitting that I'd done this to myself, not anyone else:
-I couldn't blame my kids because I had to cook for them all of the time.
-I couldn't blame my husband because he took me out to eat all the time, brought ice cream home, and his favorite activities to do with me were sedentary.
-I couldn't blame my mother because she forced me to clean my plate when I was a kid or my grandma because she fed me goodies to the point where I wanted to vomit when I was young.
The fact is that I was fat and out of shape because I had not used self-control or good judgment in a myriad of circumstances over a long period of time.
Once I arrived at the firm conclusion that my overweight body was MY fault, I started to experience a lot of anger towards myself. I was plain old mad that I'd let myself get into the condition I was in. This went on for quite some time, but I finally came to the conclusion that it was time to forgive myself for getting into rotten shape. I literally had in inner dialogue with myself that went something like this:
"I am sorry, Body, for what I have put you through after all you have done for me. You have carried, delivered into this world, and nursed four other human beings. You have taken me through boot camp and seen me through abusive relationships. You have put up with me under-exercising and not only over-feeding you, but feeding you garbage. You've sustained me throughout life, and I am sorry for abusing you."
Yep, another silly conversation with myself, but one that I felt was necessary.
I'm not going to say that the changes came quickly or instantly, but because of being able to forgive myself I was able to grasp the concept of positive self-talk (blog prior to this) and begin to move on and genuinely embrace the other aspects of getting fit.
If you are anything like me, you won't be able to forgive yourself all at once. Like positive self-talk, self-forgiveness takes time. But forgiveness is a choice, whether towards yourself or another human being. Once you have started the process of forgiveness you will start to move ahead in the journey of getting fit: Good things will follow.
For me, self-forgiveness was just as important as talking positively about myself. I needed to forgive myself for the mistreatment I'd committed against my body in the first place.
I've heard it said that you can't change what you won't acknowledge. I've found this to be true, so for me the first step came in admitting that I'd done this to myself, not anyone else:
-I couldn't blame my kids because I had to cook for them all of the time.
-I couldn't blame my husband because he took me out to eat all the time, brought ice cream home, and his favorite activities to do with me were sedentary.
-I couldn't blame my mother because she forced me to clean my plate when I was a kid or my grandma because she fed me goodies to the point where I wanted to vomit when I was young.
The fact is that I was fat and out of shape because I had not used self-control or good judgment in a myriad of circumstances over a long period of time.
Once I arrived at the firm conclusion that my overweight body was MY fault, I started to experience a lot of anger towards myself. I was plain old mad that I'd let myself get into the condition I was in. This went on for quite some time, but I finally came to the conclusion that it was time to forgive myself for getting into rotten shape. I literally had in inner dialogue with myself that went something like this:
"I am sorry, Body, for what I have put you through after all you have done for me. You have carried, delivered into this world, and nursed four other human beings. You have taken me through boot camp and seen me through abusive relationships. You have put up with me under-exercising and not only over-feeding you, but feeding you garbage. You've sustained me throughout life, and I am sorry for abusing you."
Yep, another silly conversation with myself, but one that I felt was necessary.
I'm not going to say that the changes came quickly or instantly, but because of being able to forgive myself I was able to grasp the concept of positive self-talk (blog prior to this) and begin to move on and genuinely embrace the other aspects of getting fit.
If you are anything like me, you won't be able to forgive yourself all at once. Like positive self-talk, self-forgiveness takes time. But forgiveness is a choice, whether towards yourself or another human being. Once you have started the process of forgiveness you will start to move ahead in the journey of getting fit: Good things will follow.
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