Finding Myself: On Medicating and Meditating

For the record, I consider Alice in Wonderland a memoir.

Oh, ohm already. This concludes February's Great Mediation Experiment and despite the placid front, it's been a doozie. It ended in a good place with me discovering that meditation is a far more powerful tool than I previously ever gave it credit for. It helped me find a place of peace in myself that I didn't even know existed. But before I can begin to tell you about the finding, I must first tell you about the losing. Allow me to back up.

I am not a peaceful person.

I have been many things: Energetic, morose. Friendly, moody. Gregarious, overly sensitive. Dramatic, empathetic. But never peaceful. As my father put it, I'm a thrasher. It took me 25 years to figure out that not everyone walks around feeling like their skin is on wrong ways out. But as is often the case, that which we lack is what we need the most.

And so I have sought peace - and found it with varying degrees of success - in many different places over the years. In high school I was a mess. I don't know that anyone who knew me in high school reads this blog with any regularity (if you're out there, feel free to shout it out in the comments!) but it's true. I was the class Valedictorian. But with ulcers and an eating disorder and, of all things, an illiterate boyfriend. One of the most common things people said to me then was, "Just when I think I get to know you, I realize I don't know anything about you at all." Which is because I didn't know anything about me. There was no peace for me in high school.

In college, I found a measure of peace in cognitive behavioral therapy and volunteering in the campus crisis center and dancing and a troupe of friends who managed to be both hilariously insane and functional. And then the Very Bad Boyfriend arrived to steal my fledgling sense of self and left me dashed on the rocks of my own self-doubt. Graduate school gave my manic energy an outlet but revived the ulcers and, unsupervised, took the eating disorder to a whole new level. This is also the time in my life where I first started having horrible panic attacks, later "diagnosed" (if one can really diagnose a syndrome) as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, that would send me to the hospital multiple times; my only complaint being that my body was trying to eat itself from the inside out. There was little peace for me in college.

After college there were many who worked hard to stabilize me. My life, as it has always been, was enacted against the ethereal backdrop of my faith, bordered on each side by the tightly-woven curtain of my family. Which is why it always pains me to talk of my deep sadness. Because it causes them to cry, "How did we fail you?" when the truth is that they never did. Well, no more than what is merely human, anyhow. The failing - or the falling - was all mine. It was my crazy wacked out high strung self. Blame it on brain chemicals, hormones, genetics or - my personal favorite - a deep seated fatal flaw, but don't ever blame it on them.

It wasn't until the tailspin brought on by my first miscarriage and then the death of my first child, a daughter Faith (also known as the reason why I often write on here that I have birthed four children and yet when you look at my FAQs page, you'll only see three cherubic boys), that I ever considered medication. I don't even remember how the conversation came about - perhaps it is de rigeur for mothers of dead babies - but my family doctor gave me a prescription for Celexa. I took it. It made me dizzy. But it also evened me out. It didn't take much; I am what they consider a "responder" to medicine. One Vicodin renders me unconscious for 6 hours. Narcotics are so overwhelming to my system that I refuse to take them ever, for anything, even after childbirth. And so it was with the Celexa. Within a couple of months I began to chafe at the chemical bonds that bound in my euphoria as much as they bound up my tears. I quit it cold turkey after three short months. Every medical professional will tell you that you are never to do this. I had a rough month or so but then it was out and I was fine. And I was me again. I took up yoga to help quell the panic that had come back but, in my frenetic spirit, I only did the kind of yoga that made you sweat and shake and count your breaths in your head.

The next time I took an anti-depressant was Wellbutrin. The need came after more than a year of caring for a dear family member with a chronic illness. In addition, I was overwhelmed after my son's recent birth, sad to have recently moved, sad that it was winter. My gynecologist prescribed it to me. That was a mistake. Wellbutrin is not for people with a history of eating disorders. It is also not for people with anxiety problems. I took it for six months until I was so irritable that I irritated myself with how I brushed my teeth. I went cold turkey. Again. Fortunately, for me anyhow, it was easy to stop taking it. In fact, I immediately felt better. I was me again.

Third time's the charm right? If you will recall, last November I started taking Cymbalta - this time prescribed to me by an actual psychiatrist - to help with the anxiety brought on by the dark days and also to help ameliorate my compulsion to over exercise. It helped. But I didn't like the side effects. After several months of going back and forth over the cost-benefit analysis of the meds, I decided it wasn't worth it. And did it again. Cold turkey. This time it was a total freaking rush. Two weeks of "brain shivers" - an event I can only describe as exactly that: as if my brain were shivering inside my skull and isn't as unpleasant as it sounds. I got my energy back, my sex life improved and my thoughts were no longer fragmented into a puff of paper snowflakes that swirled around me with every eddy, never settling and never coalescing. It was so great, I was tempted to go back on the Cymbalta just so I could have the pleasure of going off of it again. That was a month ago.

So why do I tell you all this? Well, for one, I have a penchant for oversharing. You may have noticed. But mostly I wanted to say that if there ever was a girl who needed meditation, it would have been me. In this time and this place. And I think it's working. I really do.

The best part of this Experiment is that it didn't work in the way I wanted it to. I lost no weight (gained 3 lbs actually!), I had no life-changing epiphanies, and I had no better luck regulating my breathing while running through side stitches. But it gave me something better - the realization that I do have the potential, nay even the ability, to be peaceful in myself. And I have the rest of my life to keep working on it.

How did your month of meditation go? Anyone else have a love-hate with their anti-depressant medication?

Achieve Homeostasis, Richard Seymour's/fit school

Homeostasis is the body’s ability to maintain a normal physiological state when external conditions change. When external conditions like extreme changes in the weather have an effect on the body, the body can become stressed because it has to work harder to keep all systems running smoothly. To help the body maintain a healthy state, measures should be taken to assist the body in attaining balance on the emotional and physical level. When the systems in the body work together harmoniously and are balanced, homeostasis is achieved. There are many ways you can achieve a state of homeostasis

Step 1 Diet. A healthy diet is crucial if you wants to achieve homeostasis. When food consumption deviates from the guidelines of a healthy diet, a balanced state of health can become unbalanced. If you want to play a part in keeping your body in a healthy state, consult with a nutritionist who can create a diet plan especially for your needs.


Step 2 Chiropractic. Spinal manipulation is believed to bring about good health and keep you in a healthy state. When the spine is misaligned, immune function becomes impaired. Regular chiropractic adjustments can help you achieve a state of homeostasis by putting the spine back into alignment.


Step 3 Meditation. On an emotional level, meditation can promote feelings of well-being. Meditation also assists with achieving physical health, because there is a mind and body connection. By learning how to control the mind through meditation, you can achieve homeostasis. Negative thoughts can cause health problems. Bringing forth a peaceful state of mind through the practice of meditation will bring with it balance on all levels.


Step 4 own a dog. Science has proven our four legged friends allow us to reap numerous health benefits. Yes it's true. from mental well being to weight lose.


Step 5 Reflexology. A healthy mind and body can be attained through reflexology. By working the reflexes in the feet, the body’s innate ability to heal itself is enhanced. Regular reflexology sessions may help balance the body that is out of balance and keep it that way.


Step 6 Reiki. Reiki is the channeling of energy. A reiki session will give you the energy needed to help your body repair itself on the emotional, spiritual and physical level. A qualified reiki practitioner can give you a series of reiki sessions that can take you to a higher level of self-healing.

Step 7 Acupuncture. When an acupuncturist inserts needles into various acupuncture points on the body, the flow of energy (chi) is affected to bring about a balanced state. Acupuncture is a form of Chinese medicine that can be used to achieve homeostasis.

life-long love for fitness and wellness, be the fittest you can be!

The mission of AbFitt is to provide information & environment where athletes and individuals can learn to train and recover to achieve their dreams, not just their potential. I will assist you to maximize your health and guide you to reach beyond your ability in developing a life-long love for fitness and wellness.


My mission is to provide each individual/athlete with all of the necessary physical and mental tools they require to perform at peak levels, maintain a lean muscular body. To do this, I employ a comprehensive, unique and scientifically proven approach to developing success called ( H.I.G.T ) high intensity group training. Learning to train in this fashion starts with a thorough education, consisting of various insight into flexibility, functional movement, strength, power and performance all found here on the pages of Abfitt, because I know there is far more to developing and insuring continued whole body fitness & health success than just running and jumping.

Richard

How To Play Bootcamp (and a Giveaway!)

My Bootcamp Buddies!
My fave part about this pic is that when I said "look tough" all the girls broke out their guns but the men just stood there. But, you know, it's very tough standing. PS> Greg - don't worry, no one will run over your pecs at night.

Gym Buddies Krista, Lisseth, Bill, me, and Allison

What I really wanted to title this post was "Wild Bootcamp Bill and How the West Was Won." But in spite of what all you East Coasters think, Minnesota is not actually considered part of "the west" and I was afraid the bootcamp message would get confused for some kind of war talk. But it was kinda wild (on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is Farkle with your grandparents and 10 is the cantina scene from Star Wars reenacted by a frat house then I'd put this at about a 3 - you know, like buying a beret and wearing it out of the house wild.) AND there is winning involved!

How To Play Bootcamp
There are several hard-and-fast rules to my workouts: 1) Try everything, 2) Laugh lots and 3) Buddies make everything better. So when Nuru planet sent me their "Exercise Anywhere" cards - a deck of card with different exercises printed on them - to try out, I knew I had 1 and 2 covered but with rule #3, the more the merrier. I roped in my bootcamp teacher Bill and the rest of my class into helping me out. For all of you that would like to join in, here's how to play bootcamp!

Step 1: Find a drill sergeant, er, instructor. Bootcamp Bill was perfect for this because while he's not very mean, he still has plenty of ways to motivate us. (Funny Bill Story: the first time I took his class, we were running warm-up laps on the track and as he ran past me he smacked the rear of the woman in front of me. She seemed non-plussed but I was aghast. He must've seen my face because on the next lap - as he passed me again - he said, "You know I'm married to her right? I don't just randomly spank people." Good to know, Bill, good to know.)

See? Now Bill and I are friends. Look at us lunging all happy like! (Side note to Nuru: You probably don't need to have cards for squatting and lunging. I think it's safe to say most of us master those skills in the toddler stage.)

Step 2: Find classmates. Sure you can do the Exercise Anywhere cards by yourself but... why? Thankfully my bootcamp class is made up of adventerous folk who are not afraid of a good sweat.

Check out all those fitness fiends doing their wall jumps!

Step 3: Pull a card out of the deck and do it! Bootcamp Bill decided to have us do 2 sets of 10 reps of whichever card a random classmember chose. In between sets, we ran shuttles.

Gym Buddy Krista demonstrates the Bird Dog (a.k.a. spinal balance from yoga) and not only nails it but manages to smile and wave too! Now that's good balance.

Gym Buddy Allison is Superman! That is if Superman were a woman. And pregnant. Now that I think about it, Superman could only hope to be as super as Allison!

What is this blog without the obligatory weird pose picture? Gym Buddy Lisseth and I do Pike Push-ups. (You will thank me for not posting the orignal shot of this pic - taken from behind us, thank you very much Allison.)

Just like those chicks in the fitness magazines, Lisseth and I demonstrate the different parts of an exercise. I've got part A of the burpee with the jump while she's got part B - the ending position. For the record, neither of us are burping.

Step 4: Don't forget to properly cool down with some walking & light stretching (read: sit on a foam roller and discuss how The View loses a lot of its appeal when viewed entirely in closed captioning and/or also who's child is more likely to pee on the floor first and/or who has embarrassing sweat stains.)

I have a freakishly small head. Seriously.

You want a chance to Play Bootcamp too? Leave me a comment with your fave bootcamp-style move and you'll be entered to win a pack of Nuru's Exercise Anywhere cards! Note: Gym Buddies are not included. (Want a second chance? MizFit's got a deck to give away as well!)

Lifestyle is a result of your beliefs

The choices you are making create your reality, either consciously or unconsciously. You are manifesting your potential right now which means you are also choosing your state of health. Free will and the ability to make choices for health and well-being is the ultimate privilege and freedom.

Lifestyle is a result of your beliefs. These beliefs reflect your priorities, habits, conditions and particular perception of self. Lifestyle can either bring you into alignment or detract from the potential inherent in your life’s purpose. If your body begins to feel chronically fatigued, stressed, shows symptoms of breaking down and aging then your lifestyle is NOT in accordance with your true purpose. Seven critical principles of conscious lifestyle are: thoughts, managing stress, breath, diet/hydration, sleep, right exercise and creating a non-toxic environment. Through our comprehensive, practical and personalized program, we will explore the relationship of these factors in your own life and address appropriate changes to maximize your vitality. We will work together as a team to establish a framework for helping you make honest, informed and conscious choices in your daily life.

Nutrition is the fuel of life for each experience. The intake of energy improves your overall wellbeing or it decreases it. Our coaching program takes a holistic overview of your lifestyle and diet to address imbalance and maximize your wellness potential by creating an individualized eating program.

This system is NOT a temporary fix! This is a lifestyle change to rebalance your body for a lifetime of feeling great! Most nutritional diets are generic fads created with one-size-fits-all techniques which do not examine the unique needs of each individual’s genetic and biochemical make-up. Our protocols are based on the scientific research known as Metabolic Typing.

The principles of metabolic typing apply this idea to the functioning of the physical body. Each individual has a unique biochemical make-up based on two factors: genetic inheritance and the accumulative effects of nutrition. Every cell in your body has its own unique vibration. Therefore, the daily needs and demands of the body are completely unique from individual to individual. This also means that nutrients (the fuel you are putting in) have different effects on different bodies. Nutrition either maximizes or minimizes your genetic DNA’s potential and possible evolution. The body is not a linear system and it is important to understand that the body functions as an energetic field. You cannot change/influence one part of the body, without effecting the whole.

The energetic field of the body is like a spider web: once a vibration is set in motion, the vibration affects the other side. As a culture, we are inundated with advertising that attempts to trick us into seeing it otherwise by exaggerating the success of the latest diet technique, the newest pharmaceutical fix -it pill or the latest exercise fad to isolate trouble spots. The assumption that the body works in this way is a deception. These generic systems make money on keeping you from the truth and knowing that your lack of knowledge will keep you buying these products while making you sick and diseased.

The sad truth is that generic systems are limited, detrimental and lethal to your health.



What symptoms can be helped by a Holistic Nutritional Program?


The human body does not work in a linear way. It is a multidimensional system based on a collection of variables unique to each individual. Illness occurs as a dramatic wake-up call from your body. Often enough, most folks who become ill have been running on empty, ignoring the responsibility of proper care for the body and thus, gets run down by all of the imbalances in their system. Not so suddenly, they experience symptoms that cause them discomfort and pain and which they now want the magic doctor or pill to fix. Only when our bodies send more dramatic signals, do we seem to finally listen. Holistic nutrition is about teaching you how to take care of your body’s fundamental homeostasis before there is a health crisis. We treat the whole person and the underlying causes of imbalance, not just symptoms. However, by working with this protocol, you will re-establish your health’s foundation and re-address, symptomatic issues you may be experiencing. Some side effects of right nutrition may be renewed vigour, increase in energy, weight balance, improved mood and the ability to free yourself from a stressed life and transform it into one that is a true expression of your divine potential. Remember: we specialize in Total Wellness!

Clients cite improvement with the following conditions: Allergies, asthma, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, food sensitivity/intolerance, digestive health (heartburn, bloating, gas, indigestion), anxiety, stress, depression, high blood pressure, low sex drive, hormonal imbalance, p.m.s, skin rashes, yeast and fungal infections, mood fluctuations, depression, ADHD, immune system disorders, insomnia, organ problems, menstrual pain, premenstrual syndrome, sinusitis, nervous system imbalances, cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritis and inflammation.

Food that Harms; Food that Heals

Can you spot the superfood in this picture? Look closely! Trust me, it's pretty darn super.

Vomit. That's what you get when you combine two tasty "superfoods" in excess and swallow. The e-mail, brought to my attention by the charming Bag Lady, promised a whole slew of benefits for consuming this "Bam ran medicine" including the grammatically incorrect "saving the patient from heart attack", the miraculous "curing chronic arthritis", the dubious "killing germs in the bladder", and the enigmatic "strengthening the white blood corpuscles," not to mention everything else from pneumonia to influenza to acne. But the one that got me was, naturally, weight loss. Ready for the recipe?

Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast on an empty stomach and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. If taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.

Bag Lady clarified on her blog that this meant one tablespoon honey combined with one teaspoon cinnamon powder in one cup of water. Cinnamon and honey! What's not to love?

Those of you who are better cooks than I am (i.e. everyone) are probably slapping your screen right now and yelling, "For the love of little green apples, Charlotte, one whole teaspoon is a lot of cinnamon!" (What - doesn't everyone curse like I do? No??) You would be correct. But the poorly worded e-mail specifically said I could eat a high-calorie diet and still lose weight! And both honey and cinnamon are known superfoods, with research on the former proclaiming its antibiotic properties and research on the latter extolling its ability to improve insulin sensitiviy. Besides, everyone knows that badly written e-mails just mean the writer is some kind of savant who simply can't be bothered with grammar. Or fact checking.

Here's how it went down (and then up): Tasted like dirt. Burned going down. Overly sweet. Nausea. Reappearance. End scene. For the record, not only did it look exactly the same the second time around but it tasted the same too. I suppose I ought to consider myself lucky though. If I'd been looking to "kill germs" in my bladder the prescription is "Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it." Nature's emetic is what that is.

I e-mailed the Bag Lady to tell her of my puke-tastic morning. Her verdict? "I gained three pounds." I believe this is what the kids call an Epic Fail.

Despite starting my day with a good food that harmed me, paradoxically I ended my day with a bad food that healed me. This afternoon I got a phone call from an old friend I had not talked to in ten years. We had parted under less-than-ideal circumstances. In fact, it doesn't get much worse than what drove us apart. But then in a fluke of the universe that can be described as downright Providential or the biggest confluence of coincidences since the Lincoln/Kennedy affair (also known as the reason why Snopes was invented) we were brought together again.

The conversation, involving two international phonecalls and the phrase "I wish I'd known that then" repeated at least 100 times, lasted almost two hours. By the time it was finished, I was a jittery shaky worked-up, albeit relieved, bundle of nerves. My normal respite from such anxiety is, of course, exercise. But due to a napping baby and child due home soon on the school bus, this wasn't readily availble. I sat in a patch of sunlight and meditated until my breathing evened out. And then my body said, "You know what I really want? Buttered popcorn and a good book in this patch of sunlight."

"But nooooo!" I argued schizophrenically. "What about the kids? And the chores? I am busy! Besides, buttered popcorn is pretty much the apothesis of evil according to every diet in print! The only thing worse would be if I deep fried it, wrapped it in bacon and slapped it on a stick!!" (Someone somewhere has undoubtedly already done this I'm sure.)

My body answered, "This is what I want."

And so I did. I ate buttered popcorn in the sunlight and immersed myself in a biography of Albert Einstein (fascinating book, totally recommend it) until my muscles unclenched and my thoughts stopped racing. I felt soothed in ways I didn't even know needed soothing.

While the ability of food to heal physical ailments is widely discussed, one does not often hear of food's remarkable power over mental illness. Another book I recently read, Michael Greenberg's Hurry Down, Sunshine, a memoir of his daughter's psychotic break and subsequent struggles with Bipolar Disorder (fantastic read, totally recommend it), gives a poignant example of the ability of food to help heal the mind. The doctors in charge of Greenberg's daughter Sally's fragile mental state recommend she follow "the manic-depressive diet" described as "as little refined flour as possible, but potatoes are okay. Lots of vegetables and protein. Two tablespoons of flaxseed oil per day, nine hours of sleep without interruption, and no naps."

There is a reason food holds so much power over us.

I'm curious - have you ever eaten something "healthy" that in fact made you sick? Conversely, have you ever found a food that acted as a cure, particularly for a mental problem? And yes, of course, chocolate counts;) (Want an interesting place to start? Reader Dennis just sent me this article about a healing food.)

How To Recognize a Healthy Human

Washboard abs. Quads of steel. White Chiclet teeth. Itty bitty clothes. A tan so dark and glossy that Crayola weeps with jealousy. These are the symbols that magazines and advertisers use to sell us the picture of health. And yet, strangely, not only can these things be faked but even if they are legit, are often not indications of a healthy lifestyle at all. So today at the gym while struggling through the Monkey Bar Gym's "Deck of Cards" workout (today's special torture: divebomber, a.k.a. floor humper, push ups! In the middle of a crowded weight floor with no wall to turn our butts toward!) I was thinking of what are good indicators that someone works out and eats right.

Charlotte's Field Guide to the Healthy Human
I came up with a list of things to look for when identifying healthy humans in the wild. While often considered an endangered species, I find that they occur far more frequently than one would expect. Especially once you stop focusing on bikinis and skinny jeans. Do not limit yourself to one location. While healthy humans are often found in gyms and on outdoor trails, they also frequent regular human hangouts like grocery stores, restaurants and even parties.

Bear in mind that you must be careful when approaching a healthy human as reactions to the outside world vary. Some are overeager, like puppies, and will jump all over you at the merest invitation to "talk split times." Others have been burned by their interactions with folks and are hesitant to open up lest they are mocked for their "clean diets". Like all lists of this nature, this list is not meant to be exclusive and not all traits will apply to all healthy humans. Also be aware of impostors. These faux healthy humans can be difficult to spot at first glance. Don't be discouraged though. With these tips and a some common sense, you too can find your own healthy human.

Can you spot the faux healthy human?

1. Healthy Humans look younger than their chronological age. This is due to all the exercise and antioxidants in their diets. You can observe this effect in the wild by going to any gym and listening in when people talk about their ages. Guaranteed you will hear, "But, you can't possibly be 48! You don't look a day older than 30!" or some such. Most healthy humans respond well to this, the one exception being the youngest of the set. 18 year olds are often relegated to looking like baby faced pre-teens and will not appreciate you directing them to the junior locker room.

2. Healthy Humans stand at the ready. While not necessarily possessing ramrod-straight posture (unless they are of the ballerina subset), these humans naturally stand in an alert manner: head held high, shoulders back and with an air of a crouched leopard ready to spring at any passing prey.

3. Healthy Humans have a high pain threshold. Due to the grueling workouts these types do, they often posses greater than average tolerance for discomfort. This can be hard to see at a glance however, so it is encouraged to experiment. Carry a supply of small sharp objects (pins, tacks, etc.) and surreptitiously poke the subject until they yelp. Note how many times and how hard you poke them before they give a reaction. In deference to #2 on this list, you might want to rig the sharp objects with string in order to stay out of arm's reach.

4. Healthy Humans are stronger than they look. The fastest way to test this assertion is to roll a car at a small human child and see who in the vicinity responds with a Herculean clean and jerk. (The child being kept clean and you being the jerk.) Unfortunately law enforcement does not share our love of research and so it is advisable to choose a less dramatic method of experimentation. A backpack full of books dropped on an old lady should do the trick.

5. Healthy Humans carry a lot of baggies. This habit occasionally gets them mistaken for drug dealers but once you examine the content of the baggies, you will discover an assortment of nuts, dried fruits, and jerky. If you do happen across some powder, give it a quick whiff - if it smells like "very speedy vanilla" or "double pump chocolate" then it is likely just protein powder. Gregarious healthy humans will usually try and share some of their baggies with you. Take them with a polite smile as The Sharing of the Trail-Mix Baggie is an important cultural ritual in their society. Do not offend.

After these top 5 indicators are met, you may wish to look for some second-tier attributes to strengthen your conclusions. These include bright skin, lustrous hair, a happy grin, the ability to sleep nine straight hours next to a jackhammer and the uncanny ability to name the bpm (beats per minute) of any pop song and do a coordinated one-two step up, step down, L-step, around-the-world to that rhythm. And yes, many of them do have Chiclet-esque teeth.

So what common attributes of healthy people have you noticed? What's your favorite thing about being a healthy human?

Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton: A Show of Speed and Power

Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao admits that Britain's Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton is a tougher opponent than either David Diaz, whom he demolished in nine rounds or Oscar De La Hoya, who quit in eight.

Pacquiao who flies to London and Manchester at the end of February to kick-start a promotional tour for their "Battle of East and West" in Las Vegas on May 2 said, "I consider this my hardest fight because Hatton doesn't know anything else other than to keep throwing punches."

Pacquiao said that in addition Hatton "is strong and an excellent boxer and I cannot be overconfident." He said "it's my honor to fight Hatton who is one of the great fighters and we will soon know who is the best on top of the ring."

Pacquiao stressed that he was both physically and mentally ready to take on Hatton would "train hard and I'm not nervous or afraid."

When reminded that he is considered the world's No.1 pound-for-pound fighter Pacquiao replied with a broad grin and said, "I am just an ordinary fighter but I can beat a good fighter" and then burst out laughing.

Absolute fitness, goes absolutely world wide!! The fastest rising fitness site on the web.

Absolute fitness, goes absolutely world wide!!


Abfitt has reached it's 10,000 readership mark. Into our third year of promoting fitness & positive living. Thanks to all of you who have made Abfitt one of the fastest rising free fitness sites on the web.

Richard

PS. Did you train hard today? The Best Abs Workout You've Never Done

If it weren't for dead guys, we'd probably never have started doing crunches. That's because for years, much of our knowledge of the way muscles work was based on the study of human cadavers. By looking at the anatomy of corpses, modern scientists figured that the function of our abdominal muscles must be to flex the spine. Which is exactly what you do when you perform a crunch, a sit-up, or any other move that requires you to round your lower back. As a result, these exercises were popularized as the best way to work your abs.

But the reality is that your abs have a more critical function than flexing your spine: Their main job is to stabilize it. In fact, your midsection muscles are the reason your torso stays upright instead of falling forward due to gravity. So your abs actually prevent your spine from flexing.

The upshot is that if you want better results from your core workout, you need to train your abs for stability. And the best part? You'll hardly have to move.

Your hard-core training plan

Fair warning: This workout may not feel like your usual abs routine. Because the exercises focus on spinal stabilization instead of spinal flexion, they don't create the same type of abdominal-muscle soreness you might feel from traditional core moves. But that doesn't mean they're not working. In fact, since I began using this method in my gym, my clients are seeing faster progress than ever. So don't worry—not only will this workout make your core strong and stable, it'll also make your abs pop. For the best results, do the workout that matches your training level—beginner, intermediate, or advanced—twice a week. Simply perform the exercises below in the order shown, using the prescribed sets, reps, and rest.

Beginner workout

Exercise 1: Plank on Elbows

Assume a pushup position, but with your elbows bent and your weight resting on your forearms. Your body should form a straight line. Now brace your abs as if someone were about to punch you in the gut. Hold for 30 seconds. Rest 30 seconds, and repeat once.

Exercise 2: Mountain Climber with Hands on Bench

In push-up position with your hands on a bench, brace your abs and slowly lift your left knee toward your chest. Pause two seconds, lower it slowly, and then raise your right knee. Alternate for 30 seconds, rest 30, and repeat once.

Exercise 3: Side Plank

Lie on your left side and prop your upper body up on your left forearm. Raise your hips until your body forms a straight line from ankles to shoulders. Now brace your abs and hold for 30 seconds. Roll over onto your right side and repeat. Rest 30 seconds, and do one more set.




Intermediate workout

Exercise 1: Plank with Feet Elevated

Use the guidelines for the beginner version of the exercise, but with both of your feet on a bench.

Exercise 2: Mountain Climber with Hands on Swiss Ball

Follow the beginner instructions, but place your hands on a Swiss ball instead of a bench.

Advanced
Exercise 1: Extended Plank

place your weight on your hands, which should be positioned about 6 to 8 inches in front of your shoulders.

Exercise 2: Swiss-Ball Jackknife

In pushup position with your feet on a Swiss ball, raise your hips and pull the ball forward. Do two sets of 15 reps, with 30 seconds of rest.

Exercise 3: Single-Leg Side Plank

Do the beginner version, but once you're in position, raise your top leg and keep it raised for the duration of the set.

When Food Is The New Sex

Interview anyone these days about food and no matter what their gastronomic predilections, chances are they will speak of them with a fervor bordering on religiosity. The vegan preaches her diet - nay, lifestyle in the truest sense of the word: it is not just food but an overarching style of life - with a proselytizing zeal reserved in earlier times for Christian missionaries in Africa. The low-carb Paleo follower punctuates his scientific claims with rhapsodic sermons about miracles although the results skew more towards reappearing abdominal muscles than healing leprosy. Consider the last time you were "preached" to about your diet. I'm betting it was fairly recent.

It seems almost impossible for people to talk about their food without invoking a larger meaning. I do not know anyone for whom food is simply sustenance. And perhaps it has always been this way; a cellular mechanism designed for survival in lean times. The colloquial term for this is food porn. And our infatuation with it is growing. If the proliferation of food blogs is any indication, then food has become the new sex and our obsession with regulating food, the new national religion.

Mary Eberstadt of the Stanford-based think tank the Hoover Institute, has noticed this change but in addition to the deifying of food she adds the secularization of that other great appetite: sex. In an interesting switch, food and sex have completely reversed their roles in society. And all within only a matter of two generations.

Think of it: what if humans were given access to limitless food and sex. The bottomless cup of hedonism, if you will. What does common sense dictate that we would do? Most would think we would become unrestrained in both areas, succumbing with equal glee to both gluttony and promiscuity. Yet for the first time in history we have a very large society in exactly this situation and the answer is not what anyone expected.

Eberstadt illustrates her point by using the example of Betty, a 1950's housewife, and her contemporary granddaughter Jennifer summing up their attitudes by saying, "Betty thinks food is a matter of taste, whereas sex is governed by universal moral law; and Jennifer thinks exactly the reverse."

There are many implications stemming from such a startling conclusion but one in particular has been weighing heavily on my mind: the idea of fat discrimination. While Eberstadt refrains from moralizing, I cannot help myself. If food is the new sex, meaning in the sense that our society has constructed strict mores about its consumption, followed by swift repercussions when those mores are broken, then publicly pillorying fat people is the modern equivalent of sending away a pregnant teen until her shame resolves itself. There is a new scarlet letter in town: it's spelled XXL.

Take this picture currently making the Internet rounds:


I've come across this picture in at least 4 different occasions this weekend, each time under an increasingly insulting heading. It first showed up on Reddit under "If a single image ever stood for a generation..." and getting progressively worse as it made its way through various social media before ending up in the geek-chic clearing house of "cool" Google recommends, officially jumping the shark before it was even 48 hours cold.

What makes it so compelling? Certainly not that it is a picture of two obese people on a motorized scooter. Nothing inherently humorous is happening in the picture. But it certainly has the ability to garner attention. This, my friends, is the modern equivalent of the stocks. We have put this couple in the public eye, allowing the citizenry to bombard them with verbal stones as a punishment for their crime. Take some of the following comments, for example:

"There are three cows in this picture!" Immediately followed by, "Hey! Hey! Don't insult bovines that way!"

"One word: Forklift"

"How do they f***?" Rejoinder: "Hopefully they don't." And the final crack: "They get mixed up with whose boob is whose."

"Fake! -notice lack of BIG GULP cup holders -notice lack of Beef Jerky wrappers in fat folds -notice buildings and cow not leaning into their gravitational pull."

And last but not least a plethora of Yo Mamma jokes, middle-school style.

So what is their crime? Being fat? Rather, being caught being fat. These people symbolize to our strangely moralistic-about-food society the sluts of gluttony. Not only can they not temper their appetites but they have the nerve to go out in public and flaunt their food-whorishness on a scooter. Picture instead of two heavies on a bike, a pregnant woman sans wedding ring. Would we ridicule her in such a manner? Would we teach our children to make jokes about her? The thought is absurd. Such a woman today would be entirely unremarkable - unless of course she managed to pop out eight babies at one time in addition to her other six. We mock them because we are so afraid of becoming them. And we fear them because being fat has become the worst sin you can commit today.

Which is worse these days: Being called fat or whore? If magazines are any indication, every woman in America would rather be known for being promiscuous than being a porker. Praise be to Nelly Furtado for making that distinction into a catchy little tune so we can all internalize it.

Happy Eating Disorder Awareness Week everyone!

Stupid Things I Have Done in the Name of Fitness

Reader Sarah asked an interesting question in the comments the other day. Actually, she asked me three questions but it was the last one that made me realize she is truly my soul sister of fitness fanaticism. Sarah writes:

1)What are your favorite foods/things you eat everyday?
2)Do you count calories?
3)Do you suppose I could wear a backpack during plank positions to up the resistance?

Let's get numbers one and two out of the way fairly quickly. One: I eat a ton of produce. A ton. Eggs, beans, nuts, Greek yogurt, fish, oatmeal and dark chocolate round out my top ten list. (Or top seven. Whatevs, I'm lazy.) But I'm a recovering orthorexic so I'm trying to get more flexible about what I'll eat. Last night for dinner I had peanut butter cup ice cream. No lie. Two: No I don't and here's why.

Now on to question number three which made my whole day. I have done what you are suggesting. Sort of. One day one of the personal trainers left a weighted vest sitting out on the gym floor so in a fit of kleptomania, I tried it on. Much to the Gym Buddies amusement I decided to try out every exercise I could think of as quickly as possible to see what difference the weighted vest made. I ran on the treadmill (okay), did squats (good), jumping jacks (bad) and mountain climbers (very bad). I also did a plank. Let me tell you, Sarah, weighted torso + plank = back pain. (Mothers please note, the same principle applies if it is your own cutie-pie offspring jumping on your back.)

But don't despair, my sweet reader! There are many many ways to make plank harder. You can put your feet on a power wheel (also known as an ab wheel or a unicycle for midgets) or Swiss ball and hold plank. Add in pike ups if you're still not feeling it. Put your hands on a 6-lb medicine ball and hold plank. Hold a tricep hover plank (also known as chaturanga in yoga). Put a 25-lb weight plate under your feet and then walk forward on your hands dragging your feet - and the weight - behind you like the Sea Witch on The Little Mermaid. You can do walking Bosu plank where you walk your hands up and over a Bosu ball while holding plank. Do plank and lift one leg in the air, then the other leg, then your arms in an around-the-world fashion. Really good? Lift opposite arm and leg at the same time. Do side plank and lift your top leg in the air. Do plank on the decline bench (just make sure your hands aren't sweaty or you'll eat it face-first). Hold plank on your hands and then go down to your elbows and then back up to your hands, repeating for one minute. Not to get all Dr. Seuss on you but oh the places your plank can go! Just don't put a weight on your back.

Other Stupid Things I Have in the Name of Fitness
All of this got me to thinking about the other dumb things I have done in my attempts to up my workout ante.

1. Grab more weight than I can safely control. Some people may do this one out of a misguided desire to impress onlookers. Me? I do it because I routinely overestimate my own strength. In my mind, I am She-Ra Princess of Power, arm bands and everything. The net result of this insane lack of body awareness has been me dropping weights on myself in every conceivable manner. I've bounced a 30-lb dumbbell off my shoulder, pinned myself to the weight bench with a too-heavy weight bar and no spotter, scraped 95 lbs of iron from my clavicle to my knees in an aborted attempt at a clean and press and for the grand finale dropped one-and-a-half times my body weight while trying to deadlift it... and then forgot to let go when the bar hit the floor thereby pulling myself over the top of the bar and ending up nose to the mat in what must have appeared to be the worst circus act of all time. The best part was when I stood up, I was so embarrassed and in so much pain that I tripped over the bar again bruising my shins and ego for weeks to come. Want some cheap entertainment? Load up a bar and ask me, "Hey Charlotte, think you can lift that?" You won't be disappointed.

2. Attempt moves I have no business doing. Whether due to lack of training in that area or underestimating my current state of fatigue, I have caused myself many a mishap by trying to do things I ought not to do. Case in point: The back walkover was my first serious trick in gymnastics so when I finally got it, my coach told me if I would do one every day then I would never lose the skill. I took him at his word, doing one nearly every day since - even at nine months pregnant! Now that I've done thousands of them I've gotten careless. So after Turbokick one day, I attempted to do one - in the front of the room no less - and got dizzy from laying down too fast. I did a weird pirouette on my hands before crashing sideways in a heap and scaring the person next to me half to death. I have also attempted to do a cherry drop from the chin-up bar and landed on my hands and knees instead. I have walked into an elevator while doing handstands. I have flipped myself off of the back of a treadmill while doing hill sprints. And my favorite one - attempted to show a friend that I could still do all my splits and then got stuck in them, requiring her to hoist me by my armpits. Oh and about half of Hip Hop Hustle probably falls in this category!

3. Never backing down from a dare. Call it hubris, call it my fatal flaw, call it my eagerness to try new things but I have such a hard time backing away from a challenge. I went spelunking with no real equipment, save a repelling harness and rope, despite the fact that neither myself nor my partner knew anything about spelunking and also my greatest fear is getting trapped in a cave (underwater, if you want to be really specific.) I attempted to do a flip on a 100-foot free repel and instead caught my hair in my figure eight necessitating the hacking off of my waist-length braid with a pocket knife that my friends lowered to me in a hiking boot. I agreed to do a lift with a swing dance partner that I'd never tried before and ended up not only taking the both of us down in a painful ignominious heap but also managed to flash my bright red undies at everyone in the packed joint. And if you think those are bad, you don't even want to hear the non-fitness related dares I've taken.

Now I dare you! Tell me the stupidest, craziest, most embarrassing thing you've ever done in the name of fitness! Did you get headlocked by a weight machine? Hamstrung by a jump rope? Use the thigh master for more nefarious purposes? Do, share! (and enjoy the videos!)

1 Dumbbell, 650 Muscles, It's the simplest total-body workout ever.

Here's a new approach for the new year: Use one dumbbell instead of two. By not tracking reps in this fast routine, you'll focus on form and trigger more muscle fibers, Complete the circuit by doing each exercise for 45 seconds. Rest one minute. Repeat two or three times.

Start with a 15-pound dumbbell. Add weight as you progress, but don't go so heavy that you need to rest between exercises.

1. Woodchopper
With arms nearly straight and feet just beyond shoulder-width apart, hold a dumbbell over your right shoulder. Bend your knees and forcefully rotate your torso left as you draw your arms down and across your body. When your hands go past your left ankle, reverse the motion. Then switch sides. Keep your abs tight to prevent injury.



2. Arms-Out Squat

Standing with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, grasp a dumbbell by the ends and hold it straight out from your eyes. Now try to press the ends together as you simultaneously push your hips back, bend your knees, and lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Pause, and push back up.





3. Standing Pressout

With your feet shoulder-width apart, hold a dumbbell by its ends and next to your chest. Try to press the ends together as you simultaneously push the dumbbell away from your body and slightly up (to eye level) until your arms are straight. Pause, and pull the dumbbell back as you squeeze your shoulder blades together.



4. Towel Row

Secure a towel around a dumbbell's handle. Grab an end of the towel with each hand and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Bend at your hips, keep your lower back flat, and lower your torso until it's almost parallel to the floor. Pull the towel ends to either side of your abdomen. Pause and lower the towel.

The Strength Training Wars: Pilates vs. Kettlebells

Branching out beyond the adorable-yet-small-thinking tiny tots with their eyes all aglow crowd, Santa Claus made a pit stop at the YMCA this year. In an effort to reach an older and more lucrative crowd, while coal was not on the agenda - although I'm sure the resourceful and charitable Y folk would have found some use for it that would not have ended in pollution (new class! Functional fitness by pitching coal!) - lots of good fitness girls and boys were rewarded with exercise toys galore. A full line of TRXs were hung by the chimney with care and visions of kettlebells danced in the air. (And that, friends, is the closest to poetry I will ever get. I hope you enjoyed it.)

New fitness gadgets! Be still my heart. As you will recall, the versatile TRX is my number one recommendation for people looking for a home or traveling strength training system and kettlebells are one of the best workouts combining strength training and cardio that I've ever tried. So I was very excited to see that the fitness director was offering free classes throughout the month of February in not only the TRX and kettlebells but also something else I've long fantasized about: the Pilates Reformer. I promptly signed up all the Gym Buddies and myself for the Reformer and the kettlebells classes. (Seeing as my TRX Great Fitness Experiment was so recent, I didn't do that class.) I was specifically interested in pitting these two classes back to back - on the same day, even - as I get so many questions on this website about the opposing training methodologies that underlie each type of training.


Kettlebells
First up was kettlebells. My number one complaint about my Great Fitness Kettlebell Experiment last September was that I never got any live instruction with the little iron wonders and while they have similar properties to a dumbbell, they are not used in the same way a dumbbell is. Hours of reading and Go Fit! videos and online tutorials by the KB Queen notwithstanding, I still felt like I would have used them better with a little in-person help. Enter my free lesson.

It started off well with Gym Buddy Allison and I forgetting that I had signed us up for the class. Thankfully Krista was on the ball and reminded us by shooting emphatic looks at us through the studio windows until we clued in. We made it in at the last second. Warm-ups were light floor aerobics, entertaining mostly because Allison forgot she wasn't in Hip Hop Hustle and did a very cool dip in the middle of her grapevine left. Which would've looked cool if she weren't the only one dipping. And if we'd had Turbo Jennie's disco ball going. As it was, we just giggled a lot.

The class itself was a 30-minute butt-kicker. I knew the power of kettlebells to get the heart rate pumping but it was even better having someone else kick my butt rather than me yelling random instructions at the Gym Buddies. I completely pitted out my shirt in the first 10 minutes. The rest was just sweaty gravy. In addition to the KB swings, lunges and presses that we were used to, we got to try out a few new moves, my favorite being the one where you hold the handle and rotate the 'bell around your head. I believe the move was called an "around the world" and not only was it a great shoulder burn but it was also good for my ego. (My head being the world. Get it??) My only complaint with the class was that the instructors didn't do much to teach proper kettlebell form resulting in one Gym Buddy with bad back pain, a common first-time kettlebell complaint. Although the teacher later told me that in the paid classes, emphasizing and correcting proper form would be a priority.

The underlying principle of kettlebells, as I understand it, is twofold: a) whatever you do, keep moving and b) lift heavy. Other proponents of the lift-heavy and don't-rest-between-sets crowd include my fave The Monkey Bar Gym, my love-to-hate CrossFit and traditional body builders everywhere. They promise a lean, cut, muscular look sculpted in a short but intense workout. You remember CrossFit chick right?


Pilates Reformer
On the complete other end of the fitness spectrum is the Pilates Reformer. The underlying principles of Pilates include breathing, centering, concentration, control, precision and flowing movement. Less explicitly stated is the reliance on higher reps and lower weight with resistance provided primarily by the person's body weight and the Reformer machine. Proponents of this school of thought include the ubiquitous Tracey Anderson (trainer of Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow and author of last year's Ballerina Fitness Experiment). Anderson recommends never lifting any weight more than 3 pounds, doing lots of dance cardio and the Pilates Reformer at least twice a week.

Being leery of celebrity trainer types, I was excited to see what our Y Pilates Reformer instructor would have to say on the subject. Long, lean & toned - the quintessential Pilates bod - she made a good argument in favor of Pilates without even saying a word. When I asked her what her personal workout routine looked like she answered that, like Anderson, she advocates at least two days a week on the Reformer all though she did accede that for some of us that might be cost prohibitive. In addition she does a couple of mat Pilates classes and occasionally mixes it up with Free Motion machines (strength machines that focus on weight training without limiting your range of motion like traditional weight machines do) and some cardio on the elliptical.

The workout was quiet and relaxed compared to the Kettlebell class we had just completed and yet my muscles, especially my core, still quaked with each exertion. Rather than motion, there was a lot of emphasis on control and synchronizing the movements with our breathing. My favorite move was a sliding plank that hit everything from my core to my butt to my shoulders. We only had to do six reps and I grateful for that as I was quite sure I could not have eked out even one more. It doesn't help that the Reformer even looks like a medieval torture device.

After the workout, I hit the teacher with the question I'd been waiting all day to ask - one that I get from you guys with some frequency - "Do you think that Pilates and yoga on their own are enough strength training?" Her answer? "Yes." While she didn't specifically speak against traditional weight lifting, like Anderson does, she did say that she has gotten great results for herself and her clients with just Pilates. It made me think Experiment Time! (Anyone have a free Reformer they want to lend me for a month?? I'll take really good care of it and promise to never ever hang my clothing on it or make jokes about the Bowflex in its presence!)

The False Dichotomy
Despite the title of my post, I do believe there is room in a person's training regimen for both kettlebells and Pilates if they so wish. I thoroughly enjoyed both classes and would do either one again in a heartbeat (especially when my money from Nigeria comes through!) However, it seems to me that people tend to gravitate towards one methodology over the other. Some people just seem to enjoy lifting hard and heavy while others really like slower and lighter. For myself, if left to my own devices, I would do yoga all day every day and nothing else. Sadly, my genetics do not seem to agree with my idea of a yoga body. And let's be honest, I'm way too ADD to stick with one thing.

So what is it for you? Do you prefer the kettlebell way of working out or the Pilates method? Or do you consider yourself a jack of all fitness trades? Do you think Pilates/yoga is enough when it comes to strength training? Anyone else want Gwyneth Paltrow to just shut up already about how "normal" and "average" she is and just admit she's got rockstar genes and piles of cash and she likes it?

Beckham coming back to LA Galaxy

David Beckham is coming back to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The English midfielder will return to the MLS team next month as scheduled after his two-month loan agreement with AC Milan ends despite his wish to stay in Italy.

Tim Leiweke, president of Galaxy parent AEG, said Friday the Italian club didn't make a second offer to the Galaxy to keep Beckham so the team will adhere to MLS commissioner Don Garber's Friday deadline to resolve the situation.

The Galaxy had earlier rejected Milan's only offer.

"We didn't receive an offer today," Leiweke told The Associated Press by phone from Colorado. "We will abide by the commissioner's wishes, so we are clear at this point that we don't want to have any further conversations."

Leiweke said he had discussions with Milan officials earlier in the week, but heard nothing from them Friday.

"They clearly were looking at this as a football decision and we were looking at it as a football and business decision," he said.

"I'm not sure they ever quite understood the magnitude of the losses the Galaxy and the league would have had to bear this season. They were very respectful discussions. We're fine. There's no issues here."

Leiweke said he had not spoken directly to Beckham, but that he informed the player's representatives the loan would not be made permanent. Beckham's five-year Galaxy contract is owned by MLS, and he is due in the team's training camp on March 9.

"I know David is emotionally invested, but I don't think Milan really was that interested in spending the money we would have had to receive to compensate us for our losses," Leiweke said.

"We need David to honor the contract and come home and let's stop the distraction."

Leiweke said Beckham will likely be disappointed by the outcome, but added that "David is a professional. He will get his arms around this and he will come back here."

Beckham had said he wanted to stay with Milan in a bid to play one more World Cup with England in South Africa next year.

"He can probably still accomplish that as well by being here in 2009," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said Friday before the resolution was announced.

"We look forward to having him back with the club," Arena said in a statement issued Friday night.

Leiweke confirmed that Beckham has a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave at the end of this year.

"Clearly the risk is we may lose him at the end of the year," Leiweke said. "Our hope is the team surprises him and we're a lot better than last year."

Beckham arrived injured amid much hoopla in July 2007, but he had no goals and two assists as the Galaxy finished with a 9-14-7 record that was third-worst in the league. Last season, Beckham had five goals and 10 assists, but the Galaxy's 8-13-9 record tied for the worst in MLS.

Beckham was injured last season, when he left the Galaxy at various times for appearances with England's national team.

Garber said this week he wanted Beckham's future resolved by Friday or he would not approve any transfer between the two teams.

"The negotiations are over and we move on," Leiweke said. "We look forward to seeing David back in camp. We need to have a good season and we need to live up to a higher expectation."

Leiweke said the Galaxy's sponsors and season ticket holders were clamoring for a conclusion to the saga.

"We heard loud and clear this week from our contractual partners that they wanted an end to this," he said. "We need to pay a little bit of attention to the league and Galaxy now."

The Galaxy opens the MLS season at home March 22 against DC United.

3 Moves to Rev Your Metabolism

3 Moves to Rev Your Metabolism


Blast Fat Faster than Ever Before
Ignite Your Metabolism
Burn Fat All Day Long

This workout from Craig Ballantyne, C.S.C.S., M.Sc., the owner of turbulencetraining.com, works your entire body in only three exercises. Complete the sequence, rest one minute, and repeat as many times as you can in 15 minutes.

1. Dumbbell Split Squat

Holding a pair of dumbbells with your arms hanging at your sides, stand in a staggered stance, your right foot in front of your left. Keeping your torso upright, lower your body until your front thigh is parallel to the floor. Raise yourself back up into the staggered stance and complete a total of eight repetitions. Switch legs and repeat.



2. Cross-Body Mountain Climber

Assume a pushup position, your body forming a straight line from your head to your heels. Brace your abs—you'll hold them that way for the entire exercise. Now pull your left knee as close as you can to your right shoulder, without allowing your hips to sag. Return to the starting position and repeat, this time raising your right knee toward your left shoulder. That's one rep. Complete a total of 10.



3. Chinup with Kneeup

Grab a chinup bar with an underhand grip (palms facing your body). Do a pullup so your chest reaches the bar, while also raising your knees to your chest. Then slowly lower your body and return to the start. If you can't complete a chinup, simply raise your knees while hanging from the bar. Complete 10 reps, or as many as you can.

Would You Help A Stranger?

The sign reads: "Dial 999 for coast guard, police, fire, or ambulance"

The term "the bystander effect" was coined after Kitty Genovese, a young New Yorker, was brutally stabbed to death over the course of a half an hour while many bystanders (the original count in 1964 was set at 38 although later police determined it to be closer to 12) watched and heard the carnage and did nothing to stop it. The police were not called until Kitty had been raped, robbed and murdered. Once called, they were at the scene within two minutes. The implications of this are staggering, sobering and a bit sickening. I will not judge any of the witnesses to the crime as there are many factors involved but I do consider it one of the great travesties of our time that this could have occurred in our civilized society. This story only bears repeating because of the important lesson it teaches.

I was reminded of this one day in the gym as I saw a man out of the corner of my eye struggling to squat a very heavily loaded bar. I barely had time to wonder if he was going to drop it on himself when the query became a certainty. The bar veered wildly from side to side as he staggered underneath it. He was crouched so far forward in his squat that dropping it on the floor behind him was not possible. I cringe remembering what happened next. He went down forward on his knees, the bar with at least several hundred pounds on it sliding down his neck, and over his head before crashing on the floor in front of him. He could have easily broken or otherwise injured his back or neck but he was fortunate and stood up, shaking it off and, I think, shaking a bit from nerves as well.

Here's the sad part: In addition to myself there were at least 6 other people on the weight floor and not one of us moved a muscle to help him. When it was all said and done, several of us rushed over to see if he was okay but we all watched him go down. It was not a fast fall. Even though I certainly could not lift the kind of weight he was handling, I could have at least helped stabilize the bar enough to help him not roll it over his neck. With the aid of another person, I'm quite sure we could have prevented it from falling on him at all. I went home with my faith in myself badly shaken.

It wasn't long before I had a chance to revisit my demons. On the way out of the gym some time later, a handicapped woman woman walking behind me slipped and fell on the ice. It was one of those dramatic falls that ends with arms akimbo and legs in wrong positions and lots of screaming. I hesitated. I was holding my baby in my arms with the other two children clinging to my legs. It was snowing and bitterly cold. There were several other people walking out at the same time. I was tempted. But I didn't want to be The Bystander again. Commanding my two ambulatory children to stay put, I ran back to her and offered her the hand not holding my baby. "Don't touch me!" she screamed. "You hurt me! You hurt me!!"

"It's okay," I tried to soothe her. She would not be soothed. I yelled at another woman walking out to run back inside and get help. Then, as she was far too big for me to lift (especially with a baby on my hip), I knelt down in the snow next to her and patted her arm. "We're going to get you help. You're going to be okay." I stayed with her until help came. I don't honestly know if I did much for calming her - she screamed non stop the entire time, scaring my kids witless - but I do know that on the car ride home I got to explain to my children how important it is to not be a bystander.

Since then it has become a running joke in my household as to the number of times I have called 911. Afraid to be caught up in "the bystander effect" - meaning that in a group of multiple witnesses to a crime, each person assumes that someone else is taking care of the situation - I have called emergency personnel for a fight I saw break out in a liquor store parking lot, a bike vs. car crash, a lost child (not mine, thank heavens), a bike vs. road crash, a menacing dog in a crowded park, a bike vs. tree crash, and an electrical fire during a thunderstorm among other things. (Although the best emergency call I have ever made was in college when my roommate had an accident lighting a propane barbecue. A gigantic ball of flame rolled up her body. As I wrapped my arms around her to... help her? put out the fire? hug her?... and tried to reassure her that all the singed hair falling off of her over my arms was not actually her singed hair falling off, my gut instinct was to call for help. I called my parents. Who lived miles away. Brilliant. Thankfully other than some minor burns and the hair she was all right, my idiocy not withstanding.)

But it isn't just life or death situations in which the bystander effect occurs. Not every situation is so drastic as to warrant a 911 call. What would you do if you saw these models biting it? Would you offer a hand?



Or what if someone fell next to you in step class? (This happened to me once - we both started laughing so hard when she ate it that I ended up on the floor with her, trying not to pee my pants. I'm sure the teacher loved us.) Would you offer to help a newbie in a Body Pump class, like Gym Buddy Krista does on a regular basis, when they are obviously intimidated by the amount of equipment it requires? Do you offer a spot on the weight floor when someone needs one but is too proud to ask? Do you say hi and smile first?

Ask anyone today about the Kitty Genovese story and almost all will reply that they, certainly, would have helped. At least they would have called the police. And I hope that's true. Obviously there have been no controlled studies done replicating this situation to find out if we would actually do what we say we would. But research done after the fact has shown that there is one significant factor in influencing whether or not people get caught up in the bystander effect. It's education. Once you know about the effect and the problems stemming from it, you are considerably less likely to be caught up in its inertia.

Consider yourselves taught.

Now - you teach me: Have you ever been caught in the bystander effect? Have you ever reached out to a stranger? Has a stranger ever helped you? Have you ever walked down a slick catwalk in 9-inch platform heels in a dress held together with boob tape and a prayer?

*Note: For all of you on my e-mail list, feedburner had a weird seizure today and sent a phantom post earlier this evening. It was the Heinous Veinous one. I have no idea how or why this happened. My apologies to all who got it and thought I'd lost my mind.

How Much Protein Do You Need?

Possibly the only question more charged in fit-minded circles these days than steady state vs. interval cardio, is the classic and omnipresent Protein Question. The Protein Question, also known as the Great Protein Debate or the Protein Lecture depending on who is doing the speaking, is one of the most-asked, most-studied and least-satisfactorily-answered health questions of all time. In one corner you have PETA and the Skinny Bitches who've popularized their position with the erroneous but catchy "Have you ever seen anyone with a protein deficiency?!?" (Note to SBs: While it is not called a "protein deficiency," there are many adverse health outcomes to not getting enough dietary protein.) In the other corner you have the other PETA, i.e. People Eating Tasty Animals who say that there is no such thing as too much dead flesh.

Being both a vegan and a low-carb meat-a-vore at differing times in my life, I have been subjected to hearing all the arguments on both sides, usually directed at me in an insulting and un-researched manner. Everyone has an opinion. Nobody seems to get it all right. So when I got the following e-mail from Reader N8 (U C D B 2??), I had to take a deep breath before answering.

N8 writes:

Charlotte,
I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to nutrition, but I've been trying to do a little better. I have been keeping a food journal, and tracking the amount of fat/carb/protein I've been eating. I've noticed that I don't eat very much protein, and I'm wondering if you could offer some unbiased suggestions on increasing protein without increasing fat significantly (I know what the guy at GNC is going to tell me... I want to know what's best, not what costs the most). I tried making a bean salad for lunch every day, and that lasted once. I've considered whey protein supplements, but does that provide all essential amino acids? Is there a downside to whey protein? Is there a better way to eat beans without gagging?

[Charlotte's note: after further e-mails with N8, I discovered that his protein consumption falls around 12%. He attributes this to a lack of refrigeration at his office.]

The Simple Answer
For those of you prone to skimming or Protein Debate-induced migraines, here's my short and simple answer:

You need protein. Eat it from whole foods sources. Don't eat crap.

I realize that is not quite as pithy as Michael Pollan but it follows the same general rule. I think the human body has shown a remarkable resiliency over the past few thousand years of recorded history in surviving and thriving on a wide range of diets. You have the Masai who eat nothing but animals products including raw meat, blood and over a liter of whole milk a day and are amazingly healthy. You also have 7th Day Adventists who eat a vegetarian (sometimes vegan) diet with not much fat and they are some of the longest-lived people in the world. Neither group eats a lot of crap. (If you know of a society that subsists on eating fecal matter and is quite healthy, do share.)



The Complex Answer
Usually the simple answer will suffice a newbie for a short while but once one is accustomed to paying attention to macronutrients then one becomes curious about what tweaking their ratios will do. Rather than the question of "How can I be healthy?" it shifts to "How can I be healthiest?" Enter the protein research.

There is a significant volume of research into protein and its effects on the human body. Some diets, like the Zone, are based around a specific proportion of protein (30% in the case of Zone) while other plans like Atkins offer limitless protein but rather limit carbs, another macronutrient, instead. I will now attempt to summarize the current research on protein (after which I will run in a zig-zag pattern, ducking and weaving, until I arrive at my fox hole as I anticipate taking a lot of fire over this one.)

1. You can have too little protein. While protein deficiency to a severe effect is rare in the civilized world, not getting enough protein will cause brittle hair and nails, fatigue, slow-to-heal wounds, edema and decreased muscle mass. As a random aside that I learned from one of my most erudite readers Dr. Jon, in severe cases protein deficiency can cause the hair to lose pigment and look reddish. Not to mention that eating protein with every meal has been shown to increase satiety and decrease caloric intake overall. The recommended daily allowance (a number, by the way, that almost every group from every diet mindset hates with a passion normally reserved for serial killers and people who write in "Mickey Mouse" on the presidential ballot) is 0.8 grams/kg of bodyweight per day. Personally, I shoot for about 30% of my calories to come from protein. And I'm a vegetarian people. If I can do it, so can you. If you don't lift a lot of weights, even 20% is a reasonable number.

2. You can have too much protein. Atkins and Primal lovers, try not to pass out from ketogenic shock. It's true. And you know what happens when you eat too much protein? Besides causing liver and kidney issues, the excess calories get stored as fat. The SB's are right on one point: Americans have a costly - both in terms of health and money - obsession with protein. You probably don't need as much as you think you do. (Although, N8 - 12% is too little, buddy. Amp it up.)

3. The source matters. Now here is where I expect a lot of argument from you guys. I'm not an expert. I'm wrong probably more times than I am right so feel free to correct me. But my theory is that the closer it is to its natural source the better it is for you. If you like meat and want to eat it, then fine. I'm not going to try to talk anyone into vegetarianism. But choose cuts of meat that if you can afford it are organic, grass fed and finished and spit-polished by angels. If you can't afford the royal cow's behind, then at least choose lean whole cuts (the nasty toxins that the animals eat are stored in their fat) and stay away from processed sausages, hot dogs, lunch meat and anything you must squeeze from a tube. However, you can get plenty of protein without butchering a sentient being. Eggs are so good for you that they are actually the standard of protein that everything else is compared against! Not only is the whole egg not bad for you (all you stuck-in-the-'90's egg phobics) but they have lots of good things for you in the yolks and the whites. Greek yogurt, plain yogurt, fish, cottage cheese are other good vegetarian options. In fact, whey protein has been shown in studies to be superior to animal flesh protein.

4. Soy protein is dicey. A lot of vegetarians and most vegans rely on soy to meet their protein needs. Soy, from my research, is tricky. Its a natural estrogenic compound which means that it works on the body sort of how estrogen does. One one hand, many studies extol the benfits of soy. On the other hand, soy products, particularly soy infant formula have been shown to have detrimental side effects. My theory is to eat it as close to the natural source as possible. I regularly enjoy edamame, mukikame, tempeh, and miso. I don't eat a ton of tofu. I never buy processed soy products like protein bars, soy protein powder, soy-enriched breakfast cereals or soy "meat" products of any kind.

5. Protein powder is processed. N8 asked a good question about using a protein powder. I think this is a matter of personal preference. I don't like all the extra junk that gets thrown into it, like artificial sweeteners (often used to keep the carb count low) colors and flavorings. I don't need my protein to taste like candy. But if you do like a nice protein smoothie or a scoop in your oatmeal in the morning or a post-workout protein shake, you'll get no judgement from me. Although if you want my advice, stay away from the soy powders and stick to whey or pea or rice. Be sure to read the labels. Most offer a "complete set" of amino acids. To me, I'd rather get my complete sets in complete foods but a powder can be a nice compromise. Especially if you are refrigerator challenged like N8.

6. Beans, seeds and nuts are not really a protein source. I'm sorry but they're not. Beans are primarily a carb, albeit more protein heavy than most carbs. Seeds and nuts are mostly fat. Don't get me wrong, I love my beans and nuts and eat them every day but I count them as a carb and a fat, respectively.

So, how was that for more than you asked for? Any of you have suggestions for N8 on how to up his protein intake without the benefit of modern appliances? (Ergo, no fridge or microwave although I imagine we could talk him into using an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack.) How do you all feel about protein? Overrated? Can't get enough of it? Hit me baby, one more time. (Oh yeah, I just quoted vintage Britney at you!)