HIIT Explanation and My Favorite HIIT Method.

One of the big buzzes in the fitness world today is HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training.  What this means is working at super-high intensities for a short period, then at a lower recovery intensity for a short period, over and over, again for about 20 minutes or so.

There are several advantages to this, but here are my three favorites:
1. It helps to develop your system to be able to do longer, steady-state cardio at a higher intensity, therefore increasing your heart strength.  This has the domino effect of burning more of calories during ALL of your cardio sessions, even the longer, steady-state ones.
2. According to studies, it keeps you burning calories longer AFTER the workout than regular steady-state cardio does. (This "after burn", by the way, is referred to EPOC.  For the life of me, I can never remember what that acronym stands for.)
3. It gets the misery over quicker.

A good way to get started with HIIT sessions is to do a 3 minute warm-up, then move on to 15 seconds of all-out effort, followed by 1 minute and 45 seconds of a recovery jog pace.  Repeat this 2-minute cycle (15 seconds fast, 1:45 jog) until you get to the 20 minute mark, then do a 2-minute cool down.

Over time you can increase the work phase by 15 seconds and decrease the jog phase by 15 seconds, until you get to a minute of each.  This is very effective.  It also starts to get boring.

So here is a HIIT plan I adapted from something I read in one of my fitness publications.  The beauty of it is that as your strength increases, your pace will, too.  It grows with you.  I'll post it like you are on a bike, but you can adapt this for any piece of cardio equipment:

- Start through 3:00- Warmup
- For each minute through 8:00, increase the intensity  by 1-2 levels, keeping your RPM's between 60 and 70. By the time you get to minute 8:00, you should be struggling to keep your RPM's in the target range of 60-70.
- 8:00-10:00 Lower the resistance to your warm-up level and free wheel at a recovery jog pace.
- 10:00-11:00, move the level up to what your highest level was in the first round (minute 7:00-8:00) and pedal as fast as you can.  (This should be REALLY hard by the end of the minute- Push through!)
- 11:00-12:00, back to recovery jog level/pace
- Repeat those two minutes (1 minute hard as possible at highest level with 1 minute recovery) four more times.  This should bring you to 20:00 on your timer. 
- 20:00-22:00 cool down.

At this point, you should be dripping in sweat and more than ready for the blessed cardio session to end already.  If you aren't, you didn't work hard enough.

And if you were able to keep up with an episode of "I didn't know I was pregnant" while doing this routine, you weren't working hard enough, either.  :-D

I'd recommend giving at least 48 hours between HIIT sessions.  Especially to start.  Or at least switch machines frequently.  Just like any other exercise strategy, mixing it up is always the safest thing for the body. While it's a wonderful form of cardio, I've found HIIT can be pretty taxing on the system and injuries are more likely if there is not adequate rest between sessions.

Let me know what you think!

Respect Your Limitations

I so admire the people who can keep weight off without logging food.  How much more convenient life must be without having to write it all down!  But I'm not one of them. 

Rarely can I let junk food in the house.  It's just to hard for me to keep my mitts (and tongue) off of it.

I've had people question and challenge me on both of these issues.  In years gone by I have let others bully me into bringing foods that were not in my best interest into my home when I knew I wasn't strong enough to resist them.  I've also felt ashamed that I planned to log my food even after I lost my weight, despite knowing it would help me to maintain, because someone told me that wasn't a realistic way to live.

But not anymore:  These are two limitations I've had to acknowledge and respect about myself.

I have a friend who does what is necessary to keep her body fat at a healthy level when she pays a trainer/coach to help her.  It's something she has to work into her budget to stay successful.  She's not weaker than anyone else.  Quite the opposite: She is strong enough to recognize and respect her own unique needs and then implement them.

Another person I know has to to to Weight Watchers meetings and weigh-in on a weekly basis in order to not gain her weight back.

Some do best avoiding restaurants; others can't stay home because they eat out of boredom.  Some do best if they plan their meals ahead, while others will rebel and overeat if their foods are strictly dictated:  They do better with a little (or a lot) more give in their eating plan.  Still others do better if they avoid things like white flour or sugar all together, while there are those who find success when they can indulge a little from time to time.

Your picture of success will not look like that of anyone else.  This is a good thing and as it should be.  You have to be true to your personality and respect your own limitations.  Maybe these boundaries will change with time.  Maybe they won't.  But for lasting success in the weight loss and fitness game, you are going to have to be honest and true with yourself about what works for you. 

If someone else doesn't like it? Well....... Let them eat cake........

Or not......

Accept Your Body Type

"I want your abs!".

I get this comment a lot.  While I know it's meant as a compliment, some of the people who say this are seriously trying to get abs just like mine.  They will write me telling me they've eaten what I eat, exercised like I exercise, and done their level best to emulate me.  And still they don't have my abs.  They want to know what they are doing wrong.

And here is my answer: Nothing.  They are doing nothing wrong.

See, other people doing what I do to get my abs is the equivalent of me doing what Figure Pro Erin Stern does to get her legs.  Try as I might, I'll never have Erin's legs, because I am not Erin.

My lower half will always be my weak point, the place where I will always wish I could improve.  There are broken veins and even at 10% body fat, when they are looking the best they can, there is always at least a little cellulite.  To add insult to injury, at body fat that low there's also saggy skin right under my glutes.

So what's a bottom-heavy girl to do?  I capitalize on my abs, arms, shoulders, and back (I have awesome back muscles!).  I show these parts off.  I hide my legs as much as I need to so that they don't take away from the beauty of my upper body.

This doesn't mean I don't work on my lower body, because I do.  I work REALLY hard on it, because not only do I want to see improvement there, but also because those big muscles burn the most fat.  And I need to keep my fat levels low for the sake of my health.  So for me, it's about more way more than appearance- It's about being healthy and balanced.

But I have accepted that my legs and glutes will never be my strong suit.  And you may need to accept that your abs will never be yours. Or whatever body part makes you crazy.

There are parts of your physique you can reshape:  My shoulders are naturally very slight.  I have worked to build muscle on them to help balance my wide hips. I've built up my back for the same reason.  I've added muscle, and therefore definition, to my arms.

But some things (like wide waists, big calves, and bubble butts) can't be changed with diet and exercise.  You might be very lean and still have a waist measurement almost the same as your hips, a bust line that is more than generous, or muscular calves that will never fit into a pair of skinny jeans.  Like me, you might have to get down to an unsustainable and unhealthy body fat level to get true symmetry to your physique.  The sooner you accept that the healthiest thing may for you may not be the most asthetically pleasing, the sooner you will be content with your body.

Change what you can, accept what you can't, aim for health over all, and celebrate the uniqueness of YOU!

Don't Jack With Your Program!

You know what I think is one of the biggest reasons people don't lose weight on a program?  Because they don't follow the program in it's entirity.  They do part of it, but not all of it.  They hire a coach and do the exercises he says but don't follow the eating plan.  Or do a pretty good job of following the eating plan 5 days out of the week, but go off the rails and eat whatever they darned well please two.  Or follow the eating plan perfectly but don't exercise the way he tells you to.  Or decide they're going to have rice with dinner even though the coach told them to just have asparagus and fish.  You get the idea.

Here's the thing: With most programs, whether they are a company-owned plan like Jenny Craig or a pricey one made by a coach personally for you, your best success is dependent on doing ALL of said program.  It's made to work as a whole.  You take one part of it out, and like the gears in a watch, either the whole mechanism stops working or it isn't nearly as effective as if you did the program in it's entirety.

If you are working with a coach, I would advise to put blinders on and just DO it.  Don't read Weight Watchers material if you are following Julie Lohre's program.  (But if you are doing Weight Watchers, read ALL of the material.) Don't decide it's time to brush up on the Paleo diet or read "The New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women" when you are paying Mike Davies to make a program for you.  Why?  Because in there somewhere is going to be something that isn't going to be what your coach or program has lined up for you.  You will start to doubt the effectiveness of what they have you doing.  And with doubt comes lack of enthusiasm. And with lack of enthusiasm comes lack of adherence.  And with lack of adherence comes lack of results.

Commit to whatever plan you are doing in it's entirety.  Focus like a laser beam, block everything else out, and just GO!  Pick a plan, follow the WHOLE plan, and stick with it.  You'll be the one getting the results while others are saying "This plan just doesn't work for me."

Have You Heard of Baking Eggs Instead of Boiling Them?

I love having hard boiled eggs around, but they can be a pain in the tush to make.  The pot can boil over if the eggs break in there, making a horrible mess to clean up; there is a risk of not getting them done enough; and there is always the chance that I'll forget about them and wind up with smelly, exploded egg on the ceiling (now THAT'S a riot to clean up!).

Then I read about baking whole eggs, in-shell, on-line and gave it a try.  I gotta tell ya- I was nervous.  But amazingly, it worked!  I am certainly not the first person to blog about this, but thought I would pass this on to my readers in case they did not know about it.

Here's how it's done:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Put an egg into each of either a regular sized or mini muffing tin.  I have two muffin tins that make 12 muffins each, so I can either cook one or two dozen eggs at a time.  (Alternately, you can put the eggs right on the racks in the oven, but if one of the eggs cracks I'd rather clean up a muffin tin than the bottom of my oven.)

Stick the tin in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.  (Now you have something screaming at you at the end of the cook time, so you won't forget and boil all the water out of the pot and risk your whole kitchen smell like burnt egg shells.  Nasty!) 

Hang on to your egg cartons- You'll store the cooked eggs in them when they are done.

When the timer goes off, take your eggs out of the oven, but leave them in the tin for 5 minutes at room temp.  They will have little brown spots on them, but don't worry about it:  They will come off in the next step.

In the meantime, fill something with cold water (I just plug up my sink and turn the water on, filling it enough to just cover the eggs).    At the end of 5 minutes, put the eggs into the cold water.  (I use tongs if they are still too hot to handle.)

The muffin tin is usually clean still, so I just put it back in my cabinet.

When the eggs have cooled, put them in the saved egg carton.  Be sure to mark it, so that you know which eggs are hard boiled and which are not in your fridge.  I put an "HB" on the sides of mine with a sharpie so I can see it easily when I open the fridge.

That's it- Perfectly cooked "hard boiled" eggs without the watch-time and potential mess of doing them on the stove.  Yay!

For the Guys, On Behalf Of Women Everywhere

I want to apologize- This blog was published in draft stage, before I was done with it.  Embarrassing!

I'll come right to the point: Guys, we women like for you to have butts. And it seems that as you age, if you don't get your.... er... butts into the gym, you wind up with flat backsides.

This flattening pretty much expressly comes from sitting a lot.  I can spot a guy with a desk job who never visits the gym within 100 feet: Wide, flat, and almost narrow at the very bottom. Yeah, guys- We women notice nice butts on men that are in their 40's and beyond. It impresses us.  If you have one, endeavor to keep it.  If you don't, get to the gym and get one!

Now, I'm a gal who loves a nicely defined upper body.  I'm a self-admitted chest girl. But true fitness is displayed in a man in his midsection and his butt.  That's the area that takes the most self discipline for you guys to build up and maintain.  So while a moundy muscular chest gets my initial attention, I have respect for a man in mid-life with nice glutes.

Not only is it about appearance, but having a well-developed lower body is good for your health and quality of life.  A strong lower body will carry you around longer, be less likely to suffer things like back problems in the lumbar spine that so often start hitting men in their 40's, and greatly reduce your likelihood of suffering broken bones when you fall as you age. (Does hip replacement surgery sound like fun?)

Chances are that if I have inspired you to go to the gym, you will head for variations on the squat and leg press, because not only are those the grand-daddy of moves to develop the lower body, but they're also done on masculine equipment:  REAL men use the big plates.  (Insert caveman-type laugh here.)

But the fact is that the guys I see with good butts in midlife and beyond are the ones in the gym that aren't too proud to do lunges, step-ups, all variations of split squats, and cable kickbacks.  And you'll see them getting cardio sometimes on the step-type equipment.  Yeah, I know all those have the rep of being girly, but they do NOT create a girly look for you guys!  They create a butt that gets our attention.

We women miss your butts!  Please, bring them back!

Guys, are you listening?  And women, do you agree?

Coconut Oil- Try it and You'll Never Go Back!

Have you ever heard of coconut oil?  I hadn't either, until I read about it in Tosca Reno's "Eat Clean" books. She says she eats 3 Tablespoons of it a day.  Now, Tosca doesn't eat any foods that are not clean, so I'm sure that 360 calories of a good source of fat don't hurt her. But for the rest of us it might not be the best idea to consume this quantity if we are trying to lose weight.  However, it's a great food to substitute for some other fats in your diet for a myriad of reasons.   Here's an article that goes into detail, because I am too lazy to type it all out:  www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

At any rate, I have discovered how versatile this oil is and how wonderful it makes food taste!  I have tried substituting it in a myriad of recipes, from stir-fries to baked goods, and every time, without exception, it improves the recipe tremendously.  The  texture makes even recipes where whole-wheat flour is subbed in for regular white (which usually results in a tougher product) melt-in-your-mouth.

Case in point:  I'm GREAT at making pie crust, but have always had to use refined white flour for it to be flaky enough to grant my approval.  Last night I made my traditional pie crust (my own recipe and technique), but substituted 1/4 of the white flour for whole-wheat and all of the shortening with coconut oil.  It was wonderful!  Next time I am going to try it with all whole-wheat flour.  I'll bet it turns out terrific.

Coconut oil can be substituted strait over for any kind of fat a recipe calls for, but is especially good in recipes that call for butter or shortening, the latter of which is particularly bad for your heart and arteries.

An unusual property of coconut oil is that it holds solid at temperatures 76 degrees Fahrenheit and below.  Above that and it starts to melt.  I was keeping it in the same cabinet I always had, but mysteriously it was beginning to liquify.  It finally occurred to me that it was being stored next to an exterior wall:  With the Texas summer heat on the other side of the wall the coconut oil was getting a little too warm to hold it's solid state.  I moved it to my pantry, which is on an inside wall, and it went back to solid.

If you want to use it in a recipe that calls for liquid oil, just melt it first.  In a recipe that calls for a solid fat (butter, margarine, or shortening), use it strait out of the jar.

Unlike olive oil (which is also heart healthy), coconut oil is heat stable.  So you can use it for types of cooking that call for prolonged exposure to heat and it won't destroy the flavor of your food.

And it's not just good for cooking- I like to stir a teaspoon of it into my oats or whole-grain cream of what in the mornings.  It adds a nice flavor and texture to it, and the added fat slows digestion and helps to keep me full longer.

Most stores carry coconut oil on the shelves with other types of cooking oils.

One caveat of coconut oil is that it is more expensive than most other commonly-used fat sources.   But I think that once you've tried it you'll be sold and never go back to shortening, at least, again.   It's worth the investment to get that artery-clogging stuff out of the diets of you and your family.