Don't Be Afraid to Pump Some Iron

It seems that women are so afraid of looking bulky when it comes to lifting weights. In reality, our estrogen makes it so that we don't build muscle in the same way that men do. And muscle burns way more calories than fat. That's right, building muscle will help your metabolism to work faster ... score!

Use a combination of strength training and cardio and you'll have the best results. Find out about a new study supporting what we have known for years: http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/fitness/exercise/2010-10-11-fabfitdoctorsorder11_ST_N.htm?csp=usat.me
There are many strength training classes and DVDs that are geared toward women. One of my favs is Chalean Extreme.

Ladies, Look at Your Man, Now Back at Me!

Have you seen this commercial? It's hilarious!



Love it! He recently did an interview on Jay Leno and talked about how he stays in such great shape. Guess what his answer was??? P90X!

The story is here:

You’ve seen him in the shower, riding a horse, on a yacht and other exotic locales as the shirtless pitchman in the Emmy-nominated Old Spice body wash commercials. Guess how he got (and keeps) the body that has helped make him instantly recognizable?

P90X!

Isaiah Mustafa, the 36 year-old model, actor and former NFL wide receiver is everywhere lately - online, in print and on TV, including an appearance this week on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. One of the questions everyone asks him is how he keeps his body looking so great. Thankfully, he isn’t shy about sharing his secret!

“I’m fortunate enough to work out with Tony Horton of P90X fame and he keeps me ripped,” Isaiah replied to Jay Leno’s question about his ripped bod. Isaiah then spent a healthy chunk of his precious couch time outlining the P90X nutrition plan that helps deliver such buzz-worthy results, impressing both Jay Leno and Eva Mendes.

Though he trains in person with Tony Horton twice a week, Isaiah has been a devoted P90X-er for over three years, adhering to the nutrition plan and intense total body workout that has helped him transform his body and his career. In addition to his Old Spice gig, he just landed a role in the upcoming film “Horrible Bosses,” starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman.

Maybe it takes a bottle of body wash to smell like him, but if you want to look like Isaiah, you gotta BRING IT

Awwwww, now I really want to get this program! Hubby and I are thinking of doing this rotation together ... anyone want to join us?

10 Ways to Avoid Injury When Resistance Training

For me, strength (or resistance) training really is key to losing weight and having less pain (residual back pain from car accident). It really is important to have proper form especially when you start doing workouts that use heavier weights.

I saw this great article in a recent Beachbody newsletter:

Love it!

So let's look at 10 ways to avoid upping your insurance premium while still obtaining the physique of your dreams:

1. Warm up. Yes, you've heard "warm up before exercising" since junior-high PE class, although most of us looked at it as a way for lazy instructors to burn up class time. But are we really aware of the benefits of warming up before resistance training? Increased muscle and body temperature reduces the risk of strains and sprains, and also allows the muscle to contract more forcefully. Warming up creates less overall stress on the heart and activates your body's natural cooling system, a.k.a. sweat, to prevent overheating. Warming up creates greater range of motion around a joint and helps us get mentally prepared for the task at hand. So take 5 minutes, jump on a treadmill, and give your muscles a chance to wake up.
2. Use your thumbs. What gives us greater dexterity than most animals on the planet? Yes, it's our opposable thumbs. And yet, a great number of people do not include this strongest of digits in their weight lifting routines. It's similar to the way the British upper class sips their tea, only no one needs their pinky to stabilize a teacup. Without your thumb, your fingers cannot create a complete circle, which in turn means a dumbbell could go flying. So stop trying to look pristine and actually grip the weight with all five digits. 
   

Not too shabby!

So the DVDs are still hiding from me (grrrrrrr). Last night I considered my options (do my own thing, do one of my, oh I don't know, 50+workout DVDs that I CAN find, etc.). I decided to do something I haven't done since before I was married (ummm, 12 years now!) ... take a LIVE class! It was a body pump class working biceps, triceps & hamstrings.

We joined the local Rec. Center this year, so we could go swimming all summer long. I've toyed with the idea of taking some live classes (I've been doing DVD's for years). I was very happy with it ... great instructor, great routine, time flew. And I'll be feeling it later. ;)

Getting fit, what works for me ...

Now that the cycle is broken, I need to declare my new goals. Consistency is important to me, losing weight is up there too. Here's what works for me:

• A structured program, so I don't have to decide each day what I am doing. Although I do like a little flexibility since life happens!
• Weights - I need to use weights, I feel stronger and get better results (both visual and weight loss)

I love running and doing races, but it seems when I am training for a half marathon, that I don't make the time for weights, since the running takes up so much time. My best results were from doing a 3 month rotation of Chalean Extreme. I think it's time for another one!

So, today is the first day of new Chalean Extreme rotation. Here's what the next month will look like

• Monday - Burn Circuit 1 (BC1)
• Tuesday - Burn It Off
• Wednesday - Burn Circuit 2 (BC2)
• Thursday - Burn Intervals & Ab Burner
• Friday - Burn Circuit 3 (BC3)
• Saturday - Recharge

I'd also love to add in some yoga as time permits. (And my body allows!)

As far as eating goes, I am going to maintain at least a 750 calorie deficit per day using my BodyBugg to track my calories in/calories out.

Muscle Burns Fat

Since I have been in the mindset of losing weight and being healthy, I have been reading lots of information to keep me motivated and knowing the best way to achieve the results I want. These are thoughts I have put together and are my opinion based on what I've read.

You always hear about metabolisms, right? Like some people have really good metabolisms and can eat anything they want and are skinny, others eat like birds and are overweight. To me, this has always seemed be something out of our control ... something we were either blessed with or cursed with.

Each day, our bodies burn calories just to exist. Our fat cells burn calories and our muscle cells burn calories. But did you know that one lb. of muscle burns at least 3X more calories than 1 lb. of fat? (Numbers vary, but this is the low estimate.) So, if we lose 1 lb. of fat and gain 1 lb. of fat, we are in essence "raising our metabolism" as our bodies are burning more calories just to exist. The other cool thing is, muscle takes up less space than fat, so you could weigh the same, but your measurements are small (and less flabby!)

Many people are still doing tons and tons of cardio with little to no strength training. There are many reports that show that you can and will actually lose muscle, not just fat, by training this way. In Chalene's blog, she talks about a woman who was a yo yo dieter and spent hours doing cardio. She could never lose weight and keep it off. They tested her BMR at the beginning of her 90 day rotation, and she was only burning 700 calories a day!!! I don't know about you, but I could not live on that little. That means that she could "diet" and eat a low 1,000 calorie a day diet and STILL gain weight. She followed the CLX 90 day rotation and initially gained weight, but as she built muscle and followed the nutritional guide, she ended up losing 40 lbs. and the coolest part is she raised her BMR to 1400 calories a day!!! She was able to turn around the years of abuse to her system and retrain it. You can ready the whole story with more details on Chalene's blog.

From Chalene:

When working to increase your metabolism (which is ultimately the goal if you want to eat more and come in a smaller package) remember that muscle is an active tissue. It's requirements are far greater than fat. Fat is this mushy, lumpy, yellowy stuff that requires very little to sustain itself, but takes up a lot of space. Lean muscle tissue on the other hand requires are great deal of calories to sustain. It's firm! It's tight! It's red with blood and healthy tissue that makes life easier and fat burning a breeze! Muscle burns fat!

From About.com article:

Even though muscle doesn't burn a huge number of calories on its own, it's still more metabolically active than fat and very important for weight loss. In fact, one study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology [6] found that, though weight training doesn't burn as many calories as cardio, it significantly increases average daily metabolic rate - the perfect foundation for losing fat.

And remember the other benefits of weight training:

• Prevents loss of lean body mass that happens from dieting and/or aging
• Weight training workouts burn calories
• Helps change your body composition, which helps shape your body and keep you healthy
• Strenghtens bones and connective tissue along with muscles
• Helps keep you strong and active as you get older

The bottom line is, strength training is important for almost any fitness goal, whether you want to lose fat, gain muscle or just get in better condition.

From a Mayo Clinic article:

Weight training can help you tone your muscles, improve your appearance and fight age-related muscle loss. And it doesn't take as long as you might think...

Lean muscle mass naturally decreases with age. If you don't do anything to replace the muscle loss, it'll be replaced with fat. But weight training can help you reverse the trend — at any age. Studies show that weight training and other types of strength training can improve quality of life and the ability to complete daily tasks for adults even in their 80s and 90s.

As your muscle mass increases, you'll be able to work harder and longer before you get tired. You'll maintain joint flexibility, increase bone density and better manage your weight. You may even improve your mental health and reduce the risk of depression — all heavy reasons to include weight training in your fitness program.

Tuesday Triumphs ...

I think the forces were aligned for me to workout this morning. I knew I had a PTA meeting this morning, so I wouldn't be able to workout at the regular time (right after Aubrey leaves for school), so I had decided to either workout this afternoon or this evening. Well, Braden came wandering into my room at 6am this morning (unusual for this kid). After going potty (he wore undies to bed!) and tucking him back in bed, I just couldn't fall back asleep, so I got up and did my workout before school today! I did my go to strength video ... MBS, it's a 45 minutes all over strength with spurts of cardio.

So, I've been doing some thinking about why I have been so on and off about exercise lately. I think there is part of me that just KNEW that I wouldn't actually lose the full 30 pounds by my 30th birthday. How's that for setting yourself up for failure?!? But here's the thing, I may fail at losing 30, by only losing 15 ... but is losing 15 really a failure? Of course not. So, I'm going to leave my goals up and while I may not obtain 30 pounds lost in the next 18 days, I will triumph over the loss that I have seen.

Figuring things out

Okay, so I was keeping track of me weight loss by the week, but I really got thrown off when I was MIA. So, instead I am just keeping track of overall weight loss and I added a countdown ticker. I only have 37 days until I turn 30! YIKES! ;) I've really been stalled in my weight loss this last 1-2 months, but I am going full steam ahead.

I went to bed early last night so that I could get up and do an early morning workout. It was funny, as I set my alarm last night I had the thought, "I'll get up if I feel good in the morning." Well, I totally acknowledged that if I was thinking that I totally would not be getting up. So I sat there for a good ten minutes mulling it back and forth. Taylor asked me what I was thinking. I told him I was trying to decide if I would decide to get up in the morning. Then I busted out realizing how funny it was ... just do it! So I made the decision and feel great for it today! I did a 45 minute all body strength tape (MBS).

I weighed in this morning thinking I would be way up since it has been several weeks since I weighed in and I have not been strict to my goals. I was actually down, which was a pleasant surprise. This is what I can see from this latest hiatus. I feel so much better when I am working out. I am not talking about physically, though that part is of course there. I am talking about emotionally. I feel better about my body ... more confident and less derogatory. I've been stuck in this rut of feeling so "fat" when I was actually weighing a little less. So this is a huge plus to working out. I know you can feel fat at any size, so this is important to remember.

Checking in ...

Before I leave for Logan. I DID get up and I did a killer lower body strength workout. I actually only did half of the DVD, but it still worked out to be 35 minutes. The entire DVD is over an hour and includes standing leg work for just over 30 minutes and floor leg work for just over 30 minutes. It has been a while since I have done leg work, and I was so fatigued just doing the standing work. No point in causing an more injuries at this point!

So off I go. Thanks, Marlies, for keeping me accountable ... I almost put it off but I knew you would be here for me! ;)

Hump Day workout

I have been having the hardest time being consistent lately. I really want a healthy lifestyle, but in the moment I seem to be making a lot of unhealthy choices. Lucky for me, each day is a new day.

I just got done doing a Cathe strength session. Tomorrow I am going up to Logan for the day, which means that I need to get up earlier so that I can get my workout in before I go up. There I said it, that means I am now accountable!

I did it!

I got up this morning even though I wanted to sleep in and did a total body strength tape, MBS. It was 45 minutes of mostly weight work, with some aerobics intervals thrown in to keep the heart rate up. I feel great!!!

This morning the scale was down again, though I won't officially weigh in until Monday. It's very cool to see since this goes beyond my lowest weight from last summer ... WaHOOO!!!

30 by 30 Week 2

6/2/08 -
Exercie - No
I could blame it on the sore shin, which is still sore. But really, I was going to get in a strength workout ... but just kept putting it off until there was no more time left.

Nutrition - Yes
I'm pretty happy with my eating ... it's motivating to be losing weight so fast. It really discourages the cravings to cheat. I didn't plan dinner very well and we didn't get to eat until after I helped Stacey unload the van. We didn't end up eating until after 9pm ... way too late! But I ate within my guidelines.

6/3/08 -
Exercie - Yes
I just got done doing PS Back, Biceps and Abs (PS BBA). It felt good to get in my workout for the day. I love doing strength training ... no dread factor there.

Nutrition - Yes
I had a yogurt this morning and realized that it has high fructose corn syrup. It was weird, because I noticed has it tasted sickeny sweet. It's funny because I have eaten this yogurt for years. Funny how a week and a half of no extra sugars and corn syrups changes the way things taste.

6/4/08 -
Exercie - Yes
I did PS SLA and was so much stronger doing it this week vs. last week. It's all leg work (lunges, squats, floorwork, etc.) and is pretty killer. I had to turn it off before getting to the ab work since I was running out of time (had to run Mom to the chiro) but I got in a great workout! I think I'll do my other upper body strength workout tomorrow and see how my shin feels for running on Friday.

Nutrition - Yes
Did well! I had some lobster bisque soup from Zupas and realized later that it probably had white flour in it (since it's cream based). Besides that I did really well. Made homemade pizza with a wheat crust and it was really good. I had major cravings last night ... not for unhealthy food necessarily, but just to eat. I knew I wasn't hungry, just up late (we were up until 12:30 watching a movie). I pushed through and didn't give in. Felt great to come out the winner!

6/5/08 -
Exercie - Yes
Just got done doing PS CST. Went very well ... this one is the shortest workout of the three and it just zoomed by!

Nutrition - Yes

6/6/08 -
6/7/08 -
6/8/08 -