June's Great Fitness Experiment: Eating Like a Normal Person (Plus Pilates Experiment Results)

And this is why your mom told you not to swallow your gum.

Friday found me curled in the fetal position, succumbed to the dreaded body image double whammy. Chances are you've been there too. It's the one-two punch of ill-fitting clothes and an unexplained jump on the scale. The upper cross to my jaw was the arrival of an adorable workout skirt that I ordered in my usual size, only to discover it is uncomfortably tight through the hip/thigh area. The sucker punch to my stomach though was the overnight - and I kid you not - arrival of 6 pounds. I did the ugly cry (mad props to Oprah, by the way, for introducing that phrase into the lexicon); both my mascara and my nose did runneth mightily.

For some reason - and I don't blame the Pilates but more on that later - this month I've gained back every single pound I've lost since January. As you may recall (or not, I can't imagine you are nearly as interested in my weight as I am) since Jelly Bean was born, I have been losing steadily at about 1 pound... a month. Most diet plans say you can safely lose 1-2 pounds per week but no matter, as long as the numbers were trending down rather than up I could keep a lid on the Boy George histrionics. And then. All that hard work - 6 months of working out 6 days a week and recording every calorie and being way under my maintenance allotment (even without adding in the nursing calories) - was erased in just a few short weeks. The worst part? It was for no good reason. This is the part in the weight-loss movie where I shake my fist at the sky and scream BUT I AM DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT!!! According to MyPlate (you all were right - that really is the best calorie tracker), I should have been losing 2.5 pounds a week. For everyone who says that weight loss is simply a matter of calories in/calories out I offer myself up as a living rebuttal.

This tear-soaked weekend has lead me to two conclusions and I think they may surprise you.

1. I'm done dieting. I'm so tired of being wrecked every time the scale goes up. It's ridiculous and heart breaking and infuriating to me that I am 31 years old and am still in the thrall of this thinner-is-better ideal. The only thing I have lost with this manic devotion to weight loss would be my mind. Some people take a declaration of "I'm done dieting" to being tantamount to "I don't care about my health." For me, giving up dieting is embracing my health. I have to believe that my body wants to run faster than a speeding toddler, leap park benches in a single bound and heft heavy grocery bags with one arm.

2. I don't know how to eat normally. I've mentioned Geneen Roth's book Women, Food and God on here so many times in the past few weeks that you probably think I'm schilling for her (I'm not. And FCC - I bought the book myself.) but reading it made me realize that I am completely ignorant of basic facts about my body. What does hungry feel like to me? What does full feel like? Why do I want to crawl out of my skin with anxiety if I have to eat without any distractions? Why have all my recent binges - and I use that word loosely in this context - been brought on by whole wheat muffins, whole wheat bread and whole wheat pasta? Can I possibly be addicted to whole wheat?! (And also, why do I get the full-body shudders when seeing someone pull fabric through their teeth? Okay so this one doesn't have anything to do with the book but I've wondered about this for a long time. Nails on the chalkboard? No problemo. A toddler chewing on a washrag? You will find me rocking back and forth in the corner screaming with horror. I cannot be the only one who has this phobia, right?)

Ms. Roth has 7 guidelines for eating like a normal person. For the month of June, I am going to try to follow her guidelines for eating. Some of you may think this Experiment is a cop out but I'm telling you that I have never - and I'm including the time I went Primal - been so scared to do an Experiment. And I have never wanted so badly for an Experiment to work. Because I cannot - I will not - keep bawling my eyes out over my stupid weight.

Geneen Roth's 7 Guidelines for Eating

1. Eat when you are hungry. (You say duh, I say I have never eaten to hunger since I first knew what a diet was. I'm not even sure I know when I'm truly hungry! What if my body wants to eat every hour?)
2. Eat sitting down in a calm environment. (Calm environment with 4 kids is asking a bit much but I'll do my best. I can at least sit down at the table as opposed to hunched over the counter or keyboard, per my usual.)
3. Eat without distractions. No TV, radio, computer, books or magazines. (I hate this guideline. HATE it. Which makes me think it's probably really important that I do it. Sigh.)
4. Eat what your body wants. (My body really likes to eat healthy. That won't be the hard part. This whole wheat thing though - that's going to be tricky.)
5. Eat until you're satisfied. (In the past, I eat until my allotted portion is finished whether or not I'm full. Just like I'm not sure if I can recognize hunger, I'm also not sure I can recognize satiety. Which is probably the whole point of guideline #3.)
6. Eat in full view of others. (Are you a secret eater? I am, sometimes. In my daily life I'm not but I do have episodes of secret eating that almost always follow eating at a party or with friends. I feel deprived that I can't eat all the rich food that my (skinny) friends do and then go home and eat an entire package of vegan chocolate. Nice.)
7. Eat with enjoyment. (WHAT? Since when is food enjoyable?? I'm the girl who still thinks that given the choice I'd take a pill for all my daily sustenance and avoid food altogether. And I hate this about me.)

So I wrote down these guidelines on a cute little card and tacked it to my fridge. For June's GFE, I'm going to try to eat. Like a normal person.

(For our workouts this month, the Gym Buddies have requested a return to Heavy Lifting. Which means we'll be doing CrossFit this month. It's a killer workout - it's one of the few past Experiments that we keep going back to over and over.)

Pilates Results
There appear to be two kinds of people in the fitness world, those who love Pilates and those who hate it. I am in the former camp but unfortunately most of the Gym Buddies are in the latter which meant I spent most of this month hundred-ing and scooping out my stomach by myself. For a girl who works out in no small part due to the social aspects, this was a serious blow.

A lot of the Gym Buddies' apathy has to do with the quality of the Pilates instruction, I think. The instructor and their willingness to teach and correct make a huge difference in how well Pilates works. I learned that I am NOT a good Pilates instructor. I hadn't intended to be one but due to the dearth of available classes at our gym and my unwillingness to pay for private lessons, it ended up being me trying to teach the Gym Buddies the Pilates technique out of books. That went very badly - and hilariously - so I take full responsibility for their non-love.

Fortunately for me, there are some great Pilates instructors out there who really know their stuff and three of them took pity on me and spent some time helping me out. For those of you in the Minneapolis area, Melissa Schenck, Ann Flynn and Jennie Berglund are excellent and dedicated instructors. When I got to take their classes, which wasn't often enough, they worked me out good and hard - I was SORE sore. (I won't mention by name the other instructors except to say that one class was so horrible we ended up walking out early. I only say this here to warn you that Pilates is not the kind of thing you can learn in a two-hour workshop one weekend.)

Melissa taught me probably the most valuable thing I learned from the whole Pilates Experiment: how to find a neutral spine. I've heard instructors talk about having a "neutral" spine or pelvis hundreds of times but it turns out that what I think is neutral is actually a huge curve in my lower back (think Keri Strug after landing her one-legged vault). I blame gymnastics. And the six-fingered man. At any rate, she taught me how to lay on my back and put my hands in a diamond shape with my thumbs on my belly button and my index fingers right on top of my pubic bone. When my hands are flat, my spine is neutral. When my thumbs are higher, I'm arching my back (a no-no in everything from Pilates to weight lifting). And when my index fingers are higher, my spine is "imprinted" or pushed into the floor - a position good for protecting your back when your abs are weak. (And yes I actually had to lift my head and look at my hands to see what position they were in.) Knowing how to put your spine into neutral is important for doing any kind of ab work but even better, standing with a neutral spine makes you look 10 pounds thinner instantly!

Melissa also did a killer workout with Gym Buddy Megan and I on the Reformer. That shoulder workout rivaled anything CrossFit or P90X has thrown at us. I would love to do more on the Reformer in the future - it seems like a great fitness tool. Gotta save up first though as that thing ain't cheap. Ann introduced me to a device called a Core Pole - a big metal pole with resistance bands attached to it - that can be used to simulate a lot of the moves done on the Reformer, especially when you add a Swiss ball. Her classes also made me Good Sore (plus I got to tell people I was going to my Pole class - awesome.) Lastly, Jennie (also known as Turbo Jennie when she's in round-housing mode) teaches a class called PiYo, a blend of Pilates and Yoga moves. The class is fast paced and challenging and the leg-butt routine was so hard that it took an entire week for me to stop walking like I had a Core Pole jammed up my heinie.

My verdict: Pilates can be a fantastic workout with the right instructor. Doing it from videos and/or books without prior instruction probably won't give you good results. It's worth the time and money to find a really good teacher.

Hold me, I'm scared!
Who's getting down with me with the Guidelines for June's GFE? Can I really learn how to eat like a normal human?? Anyone have any experience with wheat addiction (i.e. Am I crazy to think I'm addicted to wheat?)? Can you tell when you are hungry and when you are full? Pilates: Are you a lover or a hater? Wanna do CrossFit with us this month?

Back to basics. Happy Memorial day!

Back training is very important for the following reasons:

1. It adds to side-view thickness.
2. It enhances the all-important V-taper.
3. It creates muscle balance with chest musculature.
4. It gives the body a symmetrical appearance
5. It prevents shoulder impingement issues by playing an integral role in preventing forward shoulder.

The keys to developing an awesome back are shrugs, rows, and pull-ups. Good trap development comes from heavy barbell shrugs and the indirect effect of overhead shoulder presses and upright rows. However, to directly stimulate the traps for mass and to develop shoulder thickness, one needs to shrug heavy at times and at other times, shrug for the "feel."

I like to do traps with back training. For my back day, I train my mid-back mainly and the two key priorities in my back days are lat width and upper-mid back definition. Find what works best for you, however don't over-complicate things, keep it simple.

Richard-

How Many People Can YOU Cram Into a Kiddie Pool?

In celebration of Memorial Day, I'm partying with my peeps!

Coming up this week: a supercute giveaway! Pilates Experiment Results and June's Great Fitness Experiment! One of the strangest weight-loss methods you've ever seen (and yet has helped one Gym Buddy lose 20 pounds)!

Don't forget to enter my General Mills Giveaway for a free $25 gift card! It ends Tuesday.

Jelly Bean did not enjoy her first time swimming. Not one little bit. (But she did get her first tooth this week! You can baaaarely see it down there on the bottom. If you squint. And are good at imagining.)

Here's one last little hint about something I've been working on for you guys (and no I'm not running away to join the circus - although some days that does sound nice!) And yes my bedroom really is this boring.

Why Do You Exercise?

Mostly I exercise so I can make faces like this. Gets me my own treadmill any time of day.

Librarians love me. Having cultivated a lifelong belief that everyone knows how to run my life better than I do, one of my favorite activities is begging people more knowledgeable than I am to tell me what to do. Which is how the venerable MizFit found herself on the receiving end of an emotional e-mail asking her why it is so hard for me to take a rest from exercise. She, not wanting another life to run in addition to her own, returned my question with a question asking me "First, why do you exercise?"

It hadn't even occurred to me to consider that I'd be doing it for any other reason than the obvious: to get healthy. Or that people might exercise for reasons different than mine. So then, list lover that I am, I set out to enumerate my reasons for exercising. I surprised myself. (Not unlike that time I drank a full bottle of water and then realized I was wearing tights, a leotard, bike shorts, a skirt AND suspenders. And my competition was in 5 minutes. If you're really nice to me, one day I will post the pic.)

Why I Exercise
The short, brutally honest answer: Working out is the only time I truly feel good about myself.

Low self-esteem duly noted and need for continuing therapy acknowledged, I'm moving on to the more nuanced answer.

1. It makes me feel safer. After being sexually assaulted and the ensuing court case, I went on a mission to get stronger, tougher and look as least victim-like as is possible for a girl of my proportions. I think it works. After beefing up my bi's with pull-ups and taking up kick boxing, instead of repeat nightmares of the assault now I have repeat fantasies of head strikes and throat crushing. And in a parking lot the other night, when a man jumped in the passenger side of my door my first instinct was to scream an obscenity and throw my book at him. (Note to all of my now-panicked family and friends: it was a total accident. There were two dark colored Honda Accords parked side by side and it was quite dark. I scared the little green apples out of him. And his wife - sitting in the almost identical car next to me - was laughing so hard she almost fell out of her car. There was much apologizing and no harm done on either side.)

2. It makes me feel saner. I am a girl of very intense emotions. (*gasp* No!) I have a lot of both anxiety and exuberance and I use my workouts as a way to temper them. Cheaper than therapy!

3. It makes me feel like a better mom. Mothering does not come naturally to me. I don't know why. Many things in life that I wish I were really good at (hip hop dancing, rock climbing, bread baking, toe painting) do not come naturally to me. But one thing I can do is set a healthy example for my kids and show them how make eating right and exercising a priority. Hopefully I won't go too far the other way and teach them how to be compulsive but that's another worry for another day.

4. It makes me happy. I get a huge kick out of my experiments. I love to get really sweaty. I love the camaraderie of doing something really difficult with a bunch of other people and everyone coming out stronger for it. Plus, in the winter, I swear I get SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and exercise ameliorates mild depression.

5. My gym has free child care. If that isn't reason enough to work out, I don't know what is!

And of course mixed in to all that is a smidgen of post-anorexia "must work out to have permission to eat" nonsense. But thankfully those voices are getting quieter these days.

The Surprise Ending
I didn't even notice, until MizFit pointed it out to me (not only is she a darned good personal trainer but she's a stellar therapist as well), that everything on my list has to do with mental reasons. Not one item in my top five has to do with looking smokin' in a bikini or even anything particularly physical (not that I would mind being a hot mama!). All of which might explain my proclivities for over exercising. After a certain point, if you are working out to look good you reach a point of diminishing returns. A less-is-more approach makes sense. You want to do the least amount of work to get the result you desire. But when you depend on exercise for psychological reasons then less-is-more only feels like crazy. The trick for me is to find other outlets that meet those needs that don't wear my body down so much.

I'm thinking synchronized treadmill dancing. You think the gym buddies would be up for it?


You? So tell me, why do you work out? Do you work out mainly for physical reasons or for emotional/mental ones? Anyone else convinced that everyone else knows them better than they know themselves?

The positive effects on strength, size and even fat loss.....Branched-chain amino acids.

Before creatine, arginine and whey protein ranked supreme as popular bodybuilding supplements, the branched-chain amino acids were the hot ticket for bodybuilders. Today, BCAAs are back on the must-have list of supplements because bodybuilders have found that they work well to enhance muscle growth, strength, energy and even fat loss. If you're not using them, here's your guide to why you should.

THE THREE AMINOS The BCAAs comprise three essential amino acids--leucine, isoleucine and valine. The name "branched-chain amino acids" is derived from the structure of these aminos--each has a forked outcropping that looks a bit like a branch. How essential are these three aminos? Well, although there are about 20 amino acids that the muscles use for muscle growth, the three BCAAs make up one-third of the total amino acids in the body's muscles.


What's really special about these three aminos is how the body handles them. When you ingest amino acids (as individual aminos or as protein), they first travel to the liver, which immediately breaks them down and uses them for fuel if the body needs them for energy rather than for rebuilding muscle and other tissues. Yet, the liver tends to spare BCAAs, sending them directly to the muscles to be used for building muscle or for fuel.

The muscles can use BCAAs, unlike other aminos, directly for fuel. This gives BCAAs two unique properties. First, during workouts, muscles readily use BCAAs for fuel. Second, during rest, such as after workouts, BCAAs are used for building muscle. These are two important considerations when it comes to the timing of supplementation: they make pre-and postworkout the critical time periods for taking BCAAs. ENERGY BOOST BCAAs are readily used for fuel by the muscles during workouts; thus, intense and longer workouts will rob more BCAAs from your muscles. To counteract this, take a BCAA supplement right before you train--because supplemental BCAAs are readily available to the muscle as a direct source of energy, your energy levels will be higher during the workout than if you had not done so.

Reverse Airbrushing: Photoshop Jumps the Shark

Now this is an appropriate use of photoshop, children.

This will be the most head-spinning quote you will read all week (unless you read that story about the "new teen trend" of drinking vodka through their eyeballs - that one's got a couple of doozies that'll make you grab the nearest adolescent and shake them): "The editor of the top-selling health and fitness magazine in the U.S., Self, has admitted: 'We retouch to make the models look bigger and healthier.'" Keep in mind this is the same mag that skinnified Kelly Clarkson to the point of unrecognizability not long ago. Sure you knew that everyone from catalog models to Demi Moore to WWF wrestlers is photoshopped to have thinner waists, less hip and, in the case of the wrestlers, no nipples (seriously), but did you know about the increasingly common practice of reverse photoshopping?

Robin Derrick, creative director of Vogue, explains, "I spent the first ten years of my career making girls look thinner -and the last ten making them look larger." This isn't the first time reverse photoshopping has appeared in the news - Cameron Diaz got her "manly" lower ab definition smoothed out for Cosmo - but the controversy erupted all over again earlier this week when this:

was transformed into this:

British mag Healthy admitted to adding about 30 pounds to model Kamila because she showed up to the photo shoot looking "really ill and unwell." This scandal caused Leah Hardy, a former editor at Cosmopolitan, to write an article for the Daily Mail first explaining this bizarre practice (it has something to do with designer sample sizes being designed for boys needing to be modeled by women who look like boys but then photoshopped to approximate some features of a real woman so as to appeal to the real women who buy the magazines, with nary a mention of Victoria Beckham which must have taken immense restraint) and apologizing for her part in it.

I, for one, appreciate her apology. For one thing Cosmo got me into serious trouble with my parents growing up when I took a picture of my then 14-year-old sister holding my contraband Cosmo with the title "Your Orgasm" prominently displayed on the cover. It might have ended there had I not sent the picture to a few of our friends - and this being before Facebook, I actually printed it out and sent it (can you imagine?) - who then passed it to a few more friends who then... well, it got back to my parents. I don't remember how my sister felt about her instant - and unintentional - celebrity but my parents sure weren't amused. I had to write everyone involved letters of apology. Oh yes I did. Had it been ten years later my sister would have gone viral and I would have had to pay a professional to scrub her Google results. Who knew that Cosmo would be what makes me appreciate being old? But that is neither here nor there. It was this quote from Ms. Hardy that warmed my fashion mag-deadened heart:

"At the time, when we pored over the raw images, creating the appearance of smooth flesh over protruding ribs, softening the look of collarbones that stuck out like coat hangers, adding curves to flat bottoms and cleavage to pigeon chests, we felt we were doing the right thing. [...] But now, I wonder. Because for all our retouching, it was still clear to the reader that these women were very, very thin. But, hey, they still looked great! They had 22-inch waists (those were never made bigger), but they also had breasts and great skin. They had teeny tiny ankles and thin thighs, but they still had luscious hair and full cheeks.Thanks to retouching, our readers - and those of Vogue, and Self, and Healthy magazine – never saw the horrible, hungry downside of skinny. That these underweight girls didn't look glamorous in the flesh. Their skeletal bodies, dull, thinning hair, spots and dark circles under their eyes were magicked away by technology, leaving only the allure of coltish limbs and Bambi eyes. A vision of perfection that simply didn't exist. No wonder women yearn to be super-thin when they never see how ugly thin can be."

Did you ever think you'd live to see the day when a Cosmo editrix says, "How ugly thin can be"? Do you think we are finally realizing that there is such a thing as "too thin"? Does reverse airbrushing surprise you?

Foreman vs Cotto 6-5-10

Yuri Foreman,




WBA Super Welterweight champion, spars during his workout at Gleason's Gym in New York, Tuesday, May 25, 2010. Foreman, from Brooklyn, N.Y., is the first orthodox Jew to win a world championship in 75 years. He will defend the title against former three time world champion Miguel Cotto June 5, at Yankee Stadium.

Food for thought!

Guest model: Rachel Aust
http://www.rachelatkcfit.com/


As you proceed along the fitness lifestyle, it is inevitable that at some point you will desire to display your physique in the best way possible. Whether your goal is to compete, look better at the beach, special occasion, be more attractive to the opposite sex or to simply take pride in your hard work and accomplishments. Nutritional manipulation through dieting as well as dedication to a rational plan–remains the best route to revealing the fruits of your labor.

The Role Of Protein

Of the three sources of energy (carbohydrates, protein and dietary fat), protein has the least impact on fat storage. Overeating calories from carbs and dietary fat will lead to their accumulation as bodyfat. That’s not to say you can, or should, gorge on protein. It means you should add more protein from chicken, turkey or fish instead of snacking on additional carbs or fat to satiate hunger.

Ratios Are Important

Calories count, and so does the source of the calories. Check out this study. Two groups of women followed a 1,600-calorie daily diet that included 50 g of fat. The difference was that one group went with higher protein and fewer carbs, while the other followed a higher-carb, lower-protein menu. After 10 weeks, both segments lost a similar amount of weight, but a closer look reveals that the higher-protein group had higher thyroid levels and metabolic rates, lost 18% more fat and retained 27% more muscle. The takeaway message: the type of calories affects fat loss. When in doubt, the way to go is more protein and fewer carbs.

Frequent Meals

If you are eating fewer weekly calories than your body is accustomed to, nothing beats eating at least five times a day. Small meals impact fat loss by preventing the metabolism from slowing. They also keep energy levels more stable and ward off feelings of hunger.

Glutamine Boosts Recovery & Conserves BCAA’s

Glutamine spares the burning of branched-chain amino acids, which are used in greater amounts when calories decline. Glutamine has also been found to increase metabolic rate and fat burning. Try 5 g of BCAAs before training and another 5 g after training, as well as with breakfast and before bed.

Abfitt-

The Number One Most Effective Weight Loss Tip [Giveaway!]

"50 Ways To Burn More Calories" is the biggest, boldest headline on this month's Allure magazine (the one with a spacey Megan Fox on the cover where she says that she can't stand looking at herself and the thing she loves most is to be alone so she often spaces out to block out crowds - good thing she chose Hollywood as her lifelong career then!) The list of 50 tips mostly includes non-stunners like "get more sleep" "walk more" "watch less TV" and "eat whole foods." Salmon and brown rice, the cure-all for everything! Thankfully they also include some downright idiotic suggestions for your entertainment: "Wear stillettos - they work your calves!" (and give you bunions and shorted tendons!), "Pop a pill - glutamate supps burn an extra 20 calories!" (20 calories?! You probably burn that just by wrestling off the child-proof cap) and my personal fave "Avoid eating any kind of fat within two hours of a workout - or your body will burn the fat in your protein bar instead of the fat on your butt!" (This cannot possibly be true).

Strangely, the number one way to get thin didn't even get an honorable mention in Allure's Top 50. It doesn't get a lot of press but there is one way to get thin that has a proven and impressive track record in both real life and the research. It's not a pill or a powder. As much as MeMe Roth would like you to believe it's not willpower. Much to my dismay it's not exercise either. Want to know the number one way to a flat belly?

Get rich.

What, you were expecting something to do with calories in/calories out? It has been shown time and time again that income is the single strongest predictor of body weight. A Seattle study from two years ago showed that 22% of people making less that $15,000 a year are obese (defined as having a BMI over 29) compared with just 15% of those making $50,000 or more a year. If you crack six digits your chance of being obese drops to under 10%. A new Seattle study (being from Seattle I can attest to the plethora of research scientists out there!) extrapolates on why this might be. You may think that it's your dedication to local food or your passion for exercise or even your obsession with Nicole Richie that keeps you thin - and undoubtedly they do - but it takes money to do those kinds of healthy activities.

MSN reports that lower-end grocery stores have ten times the number of obese patrons as more expensive markets. In the already-svelte Seattle (the city has an obesity rate of just 2o%), 40% of Albertson's shoppers were obese compared with less than 4% of Whole Foods shoppers.

"It’s not a matter of availability, lead researcher Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington said. All of the stores in his study stocked a wide range of nutritious food, including plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Instead, he contends it’s because healthy, low-calorie foods cost more money and take more effort to prepare than processed, high-calorie foods. In a separate study two years ago, Drewnowski estimated that a calorie-dense diet cost $3.52 a day compared with $36.32 a day for a low-calorie diet."

$36.32 a DAY?! I eat a very healthy diet and my budget for my family is $3-5 per person per day. Sure there are ways to be healthy on a budget but learning those tricks often takes education and time... both of which require money.

Fortunately people are starting to catch on to the great poverty divide in the obesity wars. The government recently passed "the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, to spend $400 million starting next year to bring supermarkets to low-income areas." In addition, General Mills - who in the past has gotten a bad rap for sugary cereals but is also the purveyor of Green Giant frozen veggies - has started a get-healthy initiative called Eat Better America. You can sign up on their site to win $1500 plus a variety of other prizes. You can also follow them on Twitter and friend them on Facebook. To help you finance your healthy eats, General Mills would like to give one of you a $25 gift card. To enter, just leave me a comment below telling me your best eating healthy on a budget tip!

Anyone else read that Allure article and want to smack them for writing "Eat less sugar" as if it's actual news and then making it the top headline?" What kind of grocery store do you shop at? Does the rich = thin connection surprise you? How do you eat healthy on a budget?

Your Period Cramping Your Workout Style? There's a Shoe For That!

If you are a woman, you must watch this video. I dare you not to laugh inappropriately loud.

Benjamin Franklin forgot something when he said "nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes." He forgot menstrual cycles. Being that he's a man, I suppose I'll have to forgive him for not knowing what millenia of women do: That every month the majority of us women between 12 and 50 will spew stain-inducing bodily fluids with a regularity and frequency that put both death and taxes to shame (after all, unless you're Elvis you'll only die once.)

The worst thing about Aunt Flo, Aunt Rosie, My Friend, Mother Nature's Visit, My Present - besides the stupid nicknames we give it - isn't that it knows no regard for expensive cruises, athletic tournaments or white dresses being worn while riding a white horse on a white beach inexplicably holding a white badminton racket; it's the hormone fluctuations that go up and down behind the scenes. At their very worst, out-of-control progesterone and estrogen fluctuations cause misery ranging from wicked PMS/PMDD to cystic acne to unwanted facial hair. (side note: Ever notice how it's always "unwanted facial hair"? Is there such a thing as wanted facial hair? Eyebrows, I suppose. But even those we pluck, wax or thread into submission.) But we know all this already. The part we rarely talk about is the effect of our monthly hormone cycles - and you still have some hormone fluctuations even if you're on a hormonal birth control method that lessens or eliminates your period - on our workouts.

I once had a yoga teacher ask me if I was menstruating. No, I hadn't leaked all over my yoga mat (although that would have made for one heck of a story) but we were getting ready to do headstand inversions and she wanted to make sure none of the women were bleeding because - and I swear she actually said this to me - going upside down would inhibit my uterus from being able to expel the blood because of gravity working against it. I did not retort that seeing as my uterus is a very large powerful muscle capable of expelling whole human beings, it would probably be okay with a few extra g's pulling on that blood. Not to mention that if our hearts can still pump while we are upside down I don't see why the rest of our body wouldn't be similarly able. Needless to say I did the headstands anyways. And yes, I did happen to be "men-stroo-ating." While my period hasn't affected my yoga practice much, it has put a crimp in some of my other workouts.

Period-induced weakness is a topic that comes up with the Gym Buddies and I about once a month - our bodies have all been kind enough to synch up our cycles (you know you are close friends when you even menstruate together). All of us swear that in the few days right before the Crimson Tide (I love you Cher Horowitz!) crashes over us, we lose stamina in our cardio, strength in our weight lifting and the final kick in our chocolate-stained teeth: our pain threshold is lowered. To say nothing of feeling bloated in our spandex Nike leggings. Lest you think this is a mass hysteria (hysteria: translated from Greek meaning literally "roving uterus"), science backs us up. Well, sort of.

While exercising while shedding your uterine lining can be uncomfortable and inconvenient (although this can be mitigated by using a Diva Cup - I cannot tell you enough how much I love that thing!), thanks to both progesterone and estrogen being at their lowest right before the blood hits, the most deleterious effects from your cycle are usually experienced in the pre-menstruating phase. There aren't that many studies on menstruating female athletes but the few that exist do seem to show "best performances during the intermediate postmenstrual days and worse performances during premenstrual and initial-flow days." Women exercising in this phase can expect to feel "increased fatigue" "slight decreases in aerobic capacity and strength" as well as "an increase in perceived exertion" (i.e. you get whiny because doing your usual workout feels twice as hard). To add insult to injury - literally - we're also more susceptible to injury during the menstrual phase of cycle thanks to the work of another hormone, relaxin, that peaks during this phase.

But who needs research when you have a good PR firm? In our ongoing effort to medicalize and then advertise every normal bodily function, Asics has recently come out with a new shoe designed specifically to adjust to a woman's hormone cycles. When you're on your period and your feet swell, the shoe automatically alters its padding to accommodate your hobbit feet. And then when you've finished bloating like you're your own flotation device, they shrink back down again.

Nobody - not the experts, not me and certainly not the shoe companies - is going to tell you to skip exercise just because you're on the rag. In fact, I personally have found vigorous exercise to be the best way to relieve cramps. But I do give you full permission to be cranky while you work out. And the experts recommend easing up a bit during the week right before, and the first few days of, your period. Olympic powerlifting coaches recommend lifting a little lighter either by decreasing your reps or your weight loads. Also, don't feel bad about listening to your body. If you feel more fatigued than normal, scale back that long run. Don't try and push through - this is not the time to try for that PR or up your one-rep max - because you are at a greater risk of injury. Just remember, no period lasts forever and you will fit back into your pants again.

Birth Control Update TMI
In case I haven't sent you all running yet, you're about to get even more up close and personal with my (vacant, yay!) uterus. A while back I wrote a post about trying to figure out the best birth control method and received quite a large number of informative, opinionated and impassioned comments. I ended up choosing to get the Mirena IUD (a.k.a. the "hormonal" intrauterine device). I was worried due to a lot of anecdotal reports I'd heard about it leading to weight gain or making it hard to lose weight after the baby is born. While I can't make any conclusive statements - I have NOT lost all my baby weight yet (which I'm trying to be zen about but you know is driving me nuts) - I've had it in for about 5 months now and have lost some weight. I certainly haven't gained any since having it put it in. Thanks for tuning in to this unscheduled uterine update!

So, Ladies (every time I say that I want to finish it with "you wanna roll my Mercedes?") - any of you noticed a difference in your workouts right before and during your period? Would you still do handstands? Would you buy special "period sensitive" workout shoes? So, Men - have I made you really uncomfortable yet? Just made you glad all over again you're not a girl?

Rich Fit / Tip of The Day. Less cardio, please.

Despite what the masses tell you, limit your cardio! Yes that's right ease up a bit on all the steady state cardio. Science tells us after about 20 minutes your body has used up all stored carbs for energy. what happens next is the body then begins to tap into fat stores and your most important fat burning tool, muscle!!!

Muscle is what shapes our bodies and keeps our metabolism moving efficiently if you are constantly using it to fuel your cardio habit you simplyare never going to achieve the body you desire!!! Answer....build lean muscle tissue and keep it by limiting your cardio to short intense 20 minute bursts.

Richard

Triceps, Please no pressdowns!!!!

Pressdowns are the most popular triceps movement. They’re great because they put you in a position that makes it easy to scope out that lingerie model doing cable crossovers. Unfortunately, that’s about all pressdowns are good for. Have you looked at the triceps of powerlifters and strongmen competitors recently? They’re plenty massive, but very few of them will waste their time on pressdowns. Now look at your average gymnasts: most have massive triceps that were built largely by doing dips and pressing motions. Ditch the pressdowns and use these instead:

* Parallel dips
* Close-grip bench presses
* Decline close-grip bench presses
* Seated EZ-bar French presses
* Decline dumbbell triceps extensions

Rich Fit / Torch fat!!!

High Intensity Group Cardio

Unless you have a tremendous metabolic rate, you’ll need cardio work to augment your progress. I recommend only high intensity group cardio to create the greatest calorie burn possible and to stimulate glycogen-storing enzymes.

The harder you work, the more calories you’ll burn plus, you’ll increase the activity of glycogen synthase, the enzyme that stores carbohydrates as muscle glycogen. The more you can coax the body to store carbohydrates in muscle, the less likely it will store them as bodyfat.

Build up from your current level to performing cardio at least five days a week for 30-45 minutes. If you have a sluggish metabolic rate, you may need to do even more.

The One Piece of Gym Equipment I've Never Tried

You'd think that I of all people would have tried every conceivable piece of gym equipment out there. And trust me, that's on my list of 100 things to do before I die. It falls somewhere after making a cheese souffle (which requires something called a "ramekin" which I totally don't have) and before figuring out who killed JFK (somebody did it, by golly). So it is with some embarrassment that I tell you that I only recently discovered the joy of the rowing machine.

Gym Buddy Allison and I were a little baffled when "rowing" showed up on our CrossFit WOD (workout of the day). It didn't say how heavy we were supposed to go or whether we were doing body rows, upright rows, bent over rows, single arm rows or frat rows. Which is odd for CrossFit since they usually spell it out for you to the letter, i.e. "deadlift 1.5 times your bodyweight." Seeing as I have a hard enough time deadlifting my toddler (although to be fair he's WIGGLY), I think somewhere CrossFit is having a good laugh at my expense.

Anyhow, after a minute or two it finally dawned us. They meant the row, row, row your boat kind of row. Allison and I stared suspiciously at the rowing machines, of which our Y has exactly two shoved back in a corner by the stretching mats. Finally we walked over and sat down on the slidey seats.
"How do they work?"

"Like I know."

"How do you change the resistance?"

"Can you?"

"What do those numbers mean?"

"It means we're slow."

"So go faster already!"

Why? Is someone chasing us?"

"Probably just some local fisherman, out for a pleasure cruise, at night... in... eel-infested waters... "

And then I looked over at Allison intently rowing her way across a fake lake to the island of Guilder and burst out laughing. Hilarity ensued. We raced. She "won." But only because I fell off my seat giggling. (Aw who am I kidding? She won outright, fair and square; that girl is crazy strong.) Then we tried synchronized rowing. With arm movements. I was about to "splash" her with the dregs from my water bottle but people on treadmills were staring. And I do have some sense of propriety. Somewhere.

It was fun!

After our CrossFit was done for the day (I still can't lift my arms over my head, thank you very much), we headed back over to canoe side-by-side across the still waters of our Cybex lake. Until we hit the rapids. And then I might've fallen off again. I can't believe it has taken me this long to try these things! It was awesome!

I don't know why but it never occurred to me to try it before. Maybe I thought it was just for old people - you know, like those bikes that you pedal with your hands. Or maybe it was just because I've never actually seen anyone on them before. Or maybe - shhh - I was secretly scared of a big ol' contraption that I had no idea how to use.

But no matter, Allison and I are going back tomorrow - to see if we can row fast enough to tow a skier. I'm going slalom. (Which is lucky for me since I cannot water ski for real. For some reason I missed that developmental milestone growing up.)

So what piece of gym equipment have you been avoiding? Do you like to row? Anyone else not know how to water ski? And, also, does anyone have a ramekin?

Remember Office rowing?? (click through to see video)

Are you guilty of performing cardio before weight training ?

Some silly folks like to shamelessly exploit a fundamental training mantra that you should always train for priorities. If losing bodyfat is your primary goal, for example, then cardio should be your primary focus in the gym, right? This is one case where your priorities are just backward, no matter what those late night infomercials and P 90X may tell you. While cardio by itself is certainly productive, doing cardio after your weight-training session is almost twice as productive at burning fat.

Research

Researchers recently determined that doing a weight workout before cardio resulted in significantly more fat-burning than doing cardio alone. In the study, a cardio-only group burned just more than 20% of their total calories from fat, while another group who did cardio after weights burned nearly 50% of their total calories from fat. One reason for this amazing disparity is that the body plows through stored glycogen during your weight routine, making fat the primary fuel source once it’s time for your cardio.

Best Tip

Perform cardio when it’ll be most productive for you after you hit the weights. Try mixing in 3-4, 20-30- minute, postlifting cardio sessions per week.

Abfitt

Drink Atleast A Gallon Of Water Every Day

Water is essential for overall health as well as for muscle growth. Keeping your body well hydrated benefits everything from protein synthesis to digestion. Steady water intake keeps nutrients moving in your bloodstream and into muscle cells. Water is also a critical source of many minerals. But don’t drink that gallon-plus in one sitting–gulp it during the course of the day. This is especially important for bodybuilders on high-protein diets, as well as those using creatine, fat burners or other supplements that affect hydration. Remember, water keeps your muscles full. It can also help you stay lean, as research has shown that simply drinking two cups of water between meals boosts metabolic rate. Water is the essence of life, and its importance to bodybuilders can’t be overstressed. Drink a pint of water with main meals and try to exceed the daily one-gallon recommendation.

Hooters Waitress Suspended For Not Fitting Uniform

Hooters made news today by admitting what most of us already know: Despite claims that it is best known for its wings it turns out it is really selling breasts. And the rest of the well-shaped bodies of their famous scantily clad waitstaff. A Hooters in Detroit - does this city really need any more bad publicity? - recently put 20-year-old Cassandra Smith on probation for gaining weight.



The pretty blond waitress and two-year Hooters veteran was called in for her annual review only to be confronted by her manager and a representative from corporate headquarters about her recent weight gain. The company offered her a free gym membership and 30 days to slim back down into tip-top short-shorts shape or face a "separation" from the company. (No word if she would be able to sue for alimony.) While this might seem despicable at first glance, the company defended itself by making the comparison between their waitresses and the Rockettes and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders saying, "We will say that our practice of upholding an image standard based on appearance, attitude, and fitness for Hooters girls is both legal and fair."

Certainly Smith had to know when she was hired that they weren't paying her for her stellar mastery of the menu nor her uncanny ability to remember all her customer's names. So while she doesn't have the paycheck or the celebrity (or the rockin' costumes - those orange shorts are a travesty of American Apparel proportions) of a Rockette or Cheerleader, she shouldn't have been surprised when she was commoditized like one, right? Only two problems with that argument:

1. Smith is 5'8" and 132 pounds. Yeah she's changed since they hired her but she's hardly portly by any stretch of the imagination.


2. Her boss is this guy. Granted he's not the one, er, pushing wings but really the irony had to be rich in that room. Normally I would abstain from making a comment about anyone's weight but since he brought up the topic, I say he is making himself fair game for public scrutiny.


Smith is said to be considering legal options but I'm guessing that the corporate giant is going to win this one. First, it's an industry truism backed by research that the hotter the waiter or waitress, the better the tips and the better the customer perceives the establishment. Hooters just happens to be more honest - and brazen - about that fact. Second, it's certainly not the first company to fire employees based on physical appearance. Even Prada does it. Third, as much as I hate that this is the case, women are sexually objectified in many, many industries. Heck we're even teaching 7-year-olds that the way to be loved and celebrated is to shake it like a stripper:

Do I wish that Cassandra Smith hadn't been suspended from her job for her weight? Absolutely. Do I also think that she should have expected this given the company? Yeah, probably. Do I think that this would be the perfect opportunity for her to find a new career based on something other than her looks? Definitely. Am I done asking myself questions so I can answer them? Apparently not.

What's your take - was Cassandra Smith fairly suspended? Have you ever worked at a job that required you to look a certain way? How did you feel about it? Did you see the "Seven Year Olds Going Hard on Single Ladies" video? (Tough luck if you didn't, it's already been taken off YouTube for copyright violations.) What do you think - little girls just having fun (and being really really talented dancers) or little girls being pornified with the consent of their parents?

Richard Seymour's Fit School/ Arms

Your biceps bend your arms, and you work them with curls. You probably figured this out as a kid when Dad told you to "make a muscle" for one of those photos parents use as blackmail for when their sons start dating. Chances are you did a curl the first time you ever picked up a dumbbell, and you've been doing them ever since. Now ask yourself: When's the last time I increased the weight I use on my arm exercises?

Physiology 201: If you want your arms to grow, you need to create overload and challenge them with progressively heavier weights. They'll adapt by growing bigger and stronger. Since they aren't receiving that overload from curls, you need to recruit bigger muscles to help them grow in tandem.



Start with the chinup. This move forces you to lift your entire body—several times the amount of weight you could curl—on each repetition. Your lats, which are the fan-shaped middle-back muscles that run from your armpits to your spine, do a good deal of the work. But your biceps are more than just bystanders. They're working as hard as they can. Without their help, you couldn't do a single rep.

Target your triceps the same way. Do body-weight dips or close-grip bench presses with a loaded barbell. You'll be able to lift multiples of the weight you use for extensions.

Make these heavy, multimuscle exercises the focus of your upper-body training. After you've performed them, add curls and extensions to give your arms some extra oomph.

What Do You Think About While You're Exercising?

Bloody rampages can really get the blood pumping - in more ways than one. The hottest new fitness trend coming out of Japan (where else do all slightly demented yet meteoric trends come from these days?) is Samurai Training. The aerobics class, which is open to both genders but is almost exclusively dominated by women - and if that doesn't tell you something about modern Japanese culture then I don't know what does - promises to give you a good sweat while you cut a swath through the bad guys with your katana, the traditional weapon of choice for Japanese Samurai. Including Tom Cruise. I mean, he's even got one in the movie poster and everyone knows movie posters are 100% historically accurate. (We'll discuss later how I learned all my important historical facts from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and thereby humiliated myself during a family game of Trivial Pursuit by mispronouncing the famous philosopher as "So-crates.")

A group fit class where you get a sword? Sign me up! Okay, so the sword is plastic but according to devotees of the new sport the emotion is so sharp that even Hello Kitty temporarily sprouts a mouth just so she can snarl while delivering "40 disemboweling thrusts" in rapid succession. Practitioners of the ancient-cum-strip mall sport not only get to disembowel imaginary foes but also get to behead them, stab them through the heart and hack off limbs (presumably the imaginary foes then cry, "Come back, I'll bite your legs off!"). Samurai classes are not for wimps: "The sessions follow Mr Takafuji’s original, punishing take on kenbu — a macabre sword dance that he said was historically performed by samurai around the remains of their recently cleaved opponents."

I want to try this class so bad that I might need to seek comfort in the styrofoam lap of my Japanese legs pillow to calm myself. Anyhow, while I'm waiting for this trend to hop the ocean, it got me thinking about, well, all the things I think about while I'm working out intensely. I don't normally picture "recently cleaved opponents" - although perhaps now I'll try and work that in to my next Turbokick class - but I do have some pretty violent fantasies. Indeed, working out my violent thoughts was one of the initial and very powerful draws of both kickboxing and Karate for me. When Turbo Jennie yells for us to grab someone's head and pull it into our knee, I'm totally picturing it. My favorite is when we do a backhanded punch thingy - I can feel a nose cracking under my knuckles. I used to think this predilection was just me working out my sordid past but after reading this article, apparently I am not alone. Samurai girls don't just kick butt, they slice it off and hand it to you on a platter.

While rolling heads and crushed bones are pretty much the exclusive purview of my martial arts classes, I do have quite the active imaginary life in all my athletic endeavors. When I'm running on a treadmill I'm imagining myself... running outside. Sigh. But when I'm running outside I imagine all kinds of scenarios: that I'm the last person alive running from a village under siege to warn the next village over (this one is particularly awesome for trail runs), that I'm a time traveler running to make my jump back into my own dimension so I can reunite with my lost love, that I'm running to a planet where pee-soaked playlands don't exist and Chuck E. Cheese only exists in nightmares. You know, whatever it takes to get me up that hill. Sometimes I even like to imagine I'm on TV (yes it would be the most boring channel ever but it's my fantasy so get your own cable station) with judges critiquing my form. "Look at that bicep curl! She's so controlled and steady! Can she eke out one more rep? I dunno Bob, I see a bead of sweat... oh there she goes! I was wrong! What a feat! Can you hear the crowd? This is one for the history books!!" Like I said, active imagination.

So what do you think about when you work out? Anyone else fantasize about killing people during kickboxing? Running away from the Nazis during your jog through suburbia? Would you try the Samurai aerobics class with me??

Models Falling From the Sky: Thin is Not the New Black

Suicide is in the air. Kazakh model Ruslana Korshunova dove to her death from her New York balcony. Canadian model Hayley Kohle leapt to a similar fate from a balcony in Milan. On the same day as Kohle, model Randy Johnston died of a drug overdose. Columbian model Lina Marulinda also chose a free fall from a balcony. But there are other ways to die in the air besides jumping. Models Lucy Gordon, Daul Kim and Ambrose Olsen all recently hanged themselves, Olsen just last month. And of course, the inimitable designer Alexander McQueen ended his fashion juggernaut along with himself by hanging last February. Death is not yet in the ground. Just a few days ago model Noemie Lenoir was found in a forest, nearly succumbed to an intentional drug overdose. Mercifully she is recovering. [Source]

These deaths should not have happened.

By all accounts each of these young models and McQueen were at the height of their careers. Not only were they young and impossibly beautiful in a world that values nothing more but they had also achieved a degree of success in a highly competitive, fickle field. Why they would want to end their lives is a personal and, most likely, unanswerable question. And yet if anyone would have a reason to live, you'd think it would be these who were living the very definition of the dream.

Tragically many people every year choose to end their own lives and so I am not sure if this recent spate of model suicides (that looks funny every time I type that, as if they are modelling the proper way to die - setting the fashion to the very end) is disproportionate to that of the general population. But I do know this: if you ever needed proof that being thin and beautiful is not the secret to happiness than this is it.

Most of us can say when confronted with such an obvious example that of course being skinny, young and hot doesn't automatically make you happy- Pamela Anderson alone should be cautionary tale enough - and yet we are sold this exact message in hundreds of insidious ways every day. Many of us buy into it. I buy into it. It's so pervasive that I'm amazed whenever I run into a woman who doesn't believe it. I want to grab her buy the shoulders and ask her where she gets her incredible self confidence, why she hasn't been been beaten down by the relentless message that she isn't enough, but she could be if she just lost weight/erased wrinkles/got bigger boobs/lightened her hair/got a better wardrobe/colored her eyes/toned her tummy (in 10 days! See page 54!)

There isn't anything wrong with trying to be beautiful, to be healthy, to be your best self. And yet this drive to improve - or "addiction to fixing" oneself as one astute e-mailer put it - is a problem when it engenders self hatred. How is anything beautiful supposed to come out of hate? Ironically this tactic of self-hate is often one of the first weapons we employ, turning self improvement into self warfare. It does work. Sort of. You can hate yourself thin. I've done it before. But then you are just thin and unhappy, like so many falling models.

We live in an era where a diet - a diet! - is unironically called "Live Your Best Life." (You can even buy your "Best Life" at your local grocery store, just look for the little green labels on your favorite brands! It doesn't say but I'm assuming if you collect enough of the Best Label boxtops and mail them to Oprah then your Best Life will arrive by mail 4-6 weeks later.) Where losing weight is the fastest way to gain instant celebrity, or if you are already a celebrity to get a magazine cover. Where despite the highest unemployment rate in recent history, cosmetic sales and plastic surgery are increasing at an unprecedented rate. An era where models rain from the sky.

It's sheer craziness. It's jumping-off-a-balcony madness. I know all this and yet, deep down, I still believe if I could just lose these last 10 pounds I'd be happy. But thanks in no small part to you all, I think I'm finally willing to give that belief up. It feels scary to me. For one, I've believed this as long as I can remember. I may have outgrown Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy but I still cling with child-like devotion to the Beauty Bunny. And also, I'm convinced that this perpetual war with myself, this intense hatred, is the only thing between me and weighing 1,000 pounds and being housebound for the rest of my life. I'm afraid that if I give up fighting then I'll lose everything. But I think that too is a myth. By fighting myself how can I do anything but lose? The key to my freedom is to give up the fight. Can I trust my body that it wants to be healthy? I hope I can. Because nobody should be falling; we should be flying.

Anyone else buy into the myth that thinness equates to happiness? Anyone else addicted to fixing themselves? Anybody else convinced that fighting yourself is the only thing keeping you from oblivion? Anybody totally sick of reading about this still?? (Anyone? Bueller? Bueller??)

Rich Fit: bodyfat-fighting strategies

1) Add Intervals To Your Cardio Work

The Caloric Effect: 150 calories

“Interval training burns more calories than steady-state training because you can do more work in the same amount of time,” says Tom Seabourne, who has a PhD in exercise science and is author of Athletic Abs with Scott Cole (Human Kinetics, 2002). To use this calorie-burning technique, Seabourne suggests that you include sprints with your jogging, add jogging to your fast-paced walking or increase the difficulty level or pace when using cardio equipment. “Add 60 seconds of interval training every other minute or so. The harder you work, the more calories you’ll burn,” Seabourne advises.

Comment: Not only do you burn more calories during these intense interval cycles, but they also rev up your calorie-burning during the hours following your training.

2) Increase Your Weights By 5%-10%

The Caloric Effect: 500-600 calories

“This technique shakes up your workout,” says Steve Zim, fitness expert for NBC’s Weekend Today. “A lot of people get stuck using the same weights and reps over and over. Their bodies acclimate to the workload, and they don’t burn as many calories as they would if they provided their body with unexpected stimulation.” Increasing your training weights 5%-10% is a great way to do this.

Comment: Research shows that heavy training (in the 6-8-rep range) increases metabolic rate over the subsequent two days, helping you burn up to 600 calories more than after lightweight training (12-15-rep range). In addition, by raising your weight just 5%, you may find yourself more inspired, encouraging you to work harder and burn even more calories.

3) Mix Up Your Cardio

The Caloric Effect: 50-100 calories

Got a favorite cardio machine in the gym? Ditch it. You may be surprised by how much more beneficial cross-training is vs. performing the same exercise during every cardio session. “When you include a variety of cardio machines in your routines treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical, cross-country ski machine, stair-stepper you stimulate the same muscles in new ways or even work different muscle groups. The more groups you use that are unaccustomed to training, the harder you must work at an exercise, thus you burn more calories,” says Seabourne.

Comment: Use your heart rate as a guide to ensure that you achieve the same level of intensity on different pieces of equipment. Some machines feel more difficult than others, even if they’re set at a level below where you should be training.

4) Avoid Consecutive Days Of Rest

The Caloric Effect: 250-500 calories

“Try to avoid taking more than one rest day at a time,” Zim says. “You need a rest day after every 3-4 days of training in a row, but subsequent rest days can begin to lower your metabolic rate.”

Comment: For the best effect on both metabolism and muscle recovery, strive to train three days on, one day off. To keep up your metabolic rate, take off a second or third day only when you feel overtrained or under the weather. Even though you don’t feel like hitting the gym on those days, try doing some kind of aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes.

5) Split Your Workout Into Two

The Caloric Effect: 100-300 calories

“Instead of doing an hour-and-a-half workout in the morning, try doing 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes after work,” says Zim. This revs up your metabolic rate twice a day instead of once. During the last half of a long training session, you may work out with less intensity because of fatigue; by splitting your training, you recover enough to burn more calories in your second 45-minute installment.

Comment: Calorie-burning can vary based on your intensity. The effects of two metabolism-boosting sessions will stay with you all day.

Exercising With Groceries

Think food is just for eating?? Not if you're the hilarious MizFit!




No post from me today but "please to enjoy" the awesomeness that is Miz + Egg Whites as she shows you how to get a good workout with carton-encased chicken by products! Have a great weekend!

Inside a Residential Eating Disorder Facility

The first thing you notice about The Anna Westin House in rural Minnesota, named for one of the saddest stories in eating disorder lore, is that you don't notice it at all. Two light brick townhouses joined at the kitchen, it blends seamlessly in with the surrounding upper middle class neighborhood. From the green and white porch chairs to the single car in the driveway, nothing sets it apart. There is nothing to tell you that this is where girls who are actively courting death come to live. For many it is their last grab at life.

Passing the unobtrusive shrubbery, I step through the door to find myself standing in an open great room. This is how it must be for the girls who live here, I think. No transition. One moment you are in your own life and then you walk through a door and everything's changed. This is a house of rules, you see.

Rule number one: You cannot come and go as you please. Nor can your friends and family. A soft-spoken older woman, the house matron, smiles and asks me to sign in. I do so, the only person on the fresh sheet. My friend Emily, whom I have come to see, stands awkwardly in front of me, hugging a thick sweatshirt around her despite the moderate 74 degrees the thermostat is set to.

Rule number two: There is a time for everything. And I have come at the end of Seminar Time, just before Visiting Time. As the guest speaker for the evening talks about being "recovered" - a word that causes almost unanimous eye rolling; one girl tells me that her highest hope is to be "recovering" for the rest of her life - I glance around the homey living room. The walls are painted in Model Home colors accented with tasteful furnishings and wall hangings. Flowing uninterrupted from the living room, the kitchen carries on the same post-modern Pottery Barn feeling. The most prominent decoration in the kitchen however is a wall-size antique looking chalkboard. White lines split it into a calendar of sorts. I squint and realize I'm looking at a menu complete with chore assignments. Tonight's dinner was apparently seafood salad with lemon bars for dessert although it smells like spaghetti.

Nobody seems to think it strange that the dominant feature of the first room you see in a house for eating disordered girls is a wall-sized menu. Daily Special: Anxiety on a plate.

"I didn't know how much food they were going to make me eat," Emily says plaintively, her knees tucked up under her chin. We're now sitting outside, on the porch, to let Emily warm up. As she readjusts, I notice how much thinner she is even though I just saw her 2 days ago. Her eyes narrow as she notices the gum in my mouth. "If you have gum, you have to give me a piece."

I hem and haw. Rule number three: Caffeine and gum are specifically banned at the beginning of the program and thereafter meted out on an earned basis only. It makes sense as anorexics typically abuse both. (How does one abuse gum? When you use it to occupy your mouth so you don't eat.) I look down at Emily's cute shoes. "Don't you think your first day is a little early to be breaking the rules? I mean, if you're going to be here you should try and be committed..."

"Oh, I'm committed all right," she says wryly and after a pause we both giggle.

We move on to discuss other things, mostly light-hearted gossipy banter, and my hour passes quickly. The flash in her eyes returns as I sigh and stand. Don't go. She doesn't say it but I can see it in her eyes. She is scared. And alone. And so so tiny. Her fragility overwhelms me. I am loathe to leave her like this.

"Here," I whisper, holding out the pack of gum. "You can have one piece." She takes two, pocketing one and chewing the other. I silently curse myself for not remembering to spit out my gum before coming. For not being strong enough to resist her anorexia-fueled manipulations.

We join the rest of the girls out in front of the house. They are watching a Midwestern thunder storm roll in with all its fury - a row of upturned faces searching for funnel clouds. I notice they are all wearing sweatshirts and pants to ward off the chill of a perfect summer night. I feel fat. A small swell of panic rises in my throat as I look down at my adult-sized jeans completing the row of childish denim. I am not immune. Rule number four: Do not talk about body size. Not yours. Not theirs. Not Angelina Jolie's. I swallow my fear.

An attractive young man sans shirt jogs by. I smile and comment, "Well you guys certainly have nice scenery!" The girls glance briefly at him, confusion playing across their faces.

"What I wouldn't give to run," Emily sighs.

"No cardio until you earn it back," a brunette says curtly and then adds, "You'd better hide that gum too." Emily nods, the shirtless man remembered only in the context of lost exercise.

I don't know how to end this. It seems too abrupt to just toss a casual wave over my shoulder as I head down the driveway, as I would at another friend's house. I know it will get easier after future visits but for now it is awkward. Stepping lightly, I hug Emily - so careful, she is so breakable - but she doesn't hug me back.

"What?" I say urgently. "Are you going to be okay?" What a stupid question.

She shrugs and chews at her nails. "Just something you said..."

"What??" I demand. "What did I say?"

"It's nothing," she turns away, trying to draw me back in.

I won't be played this time. "You'll be fine. Really. I'm proud of you for doing this. I know you can do this."

My resolution affects her. She stands straighter. "Can I?"

"Yes. You are a survivor." I don't add that it's her last chance. Her parents have said if she fails this round of therapy - her third in so many years - then she can't come home again. Meaningless threat? Tough love? Parents simply unable to watch their daughter kill herself by inches as they watch? I don't know.

Emily's eyes cloud over and she chews her lip as if she too is considering her alternatives. Or lack thereof.

I walk away to my car and drive into the night, keenly aware of my freedom. Keenly aware of how very little separates us.

Have you ever had a friend or loved one with an eating disorder? How did you support them? How did it change your relationship?

This post sound familiar? It originally ran in August 2008. Copyrighted by Charlotte Hilton Andersen and The Great Fitness Experiment. Not to be used or republished without permission.