What would light a fire in you?

Usually I have a little tidbit to share with you.  A new way to look at exercise, health or nutrition.  But when the Olympics come around, I just sit on my couch in awe at what those bodies … all of those bodies can do.

Training to be an Olympic athlete is a life-consuming choice.  You eat, sleep, walk, and work towards your dreams 24/7.  There is just nothing like it.  As a fitness person I have a pretty good idea what it takes to throw yourself in the air and spin around three times, landing perfectly on the opposite foot while you’re on skates.  Or how to haul ass through a cross-country course, stop on a dime, aim at a target with a gun and hit it dead on.

The courage of the skiiers at the top of the hill, peering down at moguls or steep slopes and not just wanting to go down it, needing to go down it.  The boarders in the half pipes flinging themselves 10, 15, 20 feet above terra firma for the thrill of hurling their bodies through space.

It’s spectacular, it’s beautiful, it gives us true hope, we see spirits soar as athletes triumph and we see the dashed hopes of a simple mistake easily overlooked on any other day.

We can tap into that energy ourselves.  When was the last time you had pure joy just from moving?  What sport would get you out of bed early in the morning for extra training sessions?  I bet you have one … for me it was rowing crew, the fluidity of the boat in the water, I love the synchronicity of the rowers, we had to move in unison to succeed and we did ~ it was magical.

These days I’m into hula hooping.  Easy to dismiss I know, but there are so many things you can do with a hoop, if I had 5 minutes to show you the possibilities you’d be pretty impressed with what it can do.

I’d love for people to share what makes their heart sing when their bodies move.  Is it something you’d like to do again?  What would it take for you to be able to do that?

Let’s start a discussion.  I’m happy to help wherever I can with advice or training suggestions.

Thanks,

Lisa

1. Lose 5 pounds. DON’T resolve to lose 100, just lose 5 pounds at a time.  It’s relatively quick and achievable.
2. One family day each month. Plan a day with your family that’s just for fun.  Go to a museum, have a picnic, play touch football at a nearby park, visit your cousins.  This requires only a small amount of planning and results in a lot of fun and great memories.
3. Sign up for a class. This is another short-term goal that’s easily achieved.  Sign up for a sewing class to tap your inner crafter.  Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn about interior design, so look at offerings at local community schools and adult ed courses.  Many local groups offer one-day classes on topics as diverse as Tuscan cooking or make your own soap.  Enlist a friend for even more fun.
4. Lose one dress size. Dropping from a 14 to a 12 is much more realistic than going from a 14 to a 4!  Once you fit into a 12, you can start to work down to a 10.  Baby steps guarantee success.
5. Eat vegetarian one day a week. This is an easy eco-friendly change that helps your waistline, your wallet, and the planet. All it takes is a dish like pasta primavera or veggie pizza for dinner.
6. Track your spending for one month. Wonder where the money is going? Write down all your expenses for 30 days to get an eye-opening view of what your budget really is.  Then you can make simple adjustments to help save more money and spend it on what you really want, like a fabulous vacation!  Speaking of which…
7. Plan a vacation. We all work so hard and don’t take the time to unplug and relax! Plan at least one vacation a year and, if you can, throw in one or two long weekends, too.  It doesn’t have to be expensive; a tent pitched in the woods is dirt-cheap and can be a blast with the right travel companions.
8. Lose the fabric softener. Fabric softener, especially most dryer sheets, are loaded with chemicals, which you then wear against your body 24/7. Buy some dryer balls which make your clothes just as soft as before but without that chemical smell. You’ll save money and the effort needed to meet your resolution is practically nil!
9. Read a book a month. This one is especially for the Moms who miss their reading habit.  Buy a book (or check one out from the library), and after the little ones go to bed, take some you time to work through the chapters.  It might not be like those “lost weekends” of the past when you’d get lost in a book, but it can still be entertaining and you’ll get a little piece of your “old self” back.
10. Sign up for an RSS feed for this site! It only takes a minute and you’ll automatically receive useful fitness information delivered with a sense of humor.  Think about it: a resolution you can have successfully completed by 12:01 am on January 1! How easy is that?

What’s your resolution?  Please share here :-)

Lisa

Getting Ready for Your New Year's Resolution

I’ve been asking friends and colleagues about their New Year’s resolutions and getting a lot of eye rolling and “why bother” comments in response.  At the same time, I’ve been receiving emails and Twitter messages from people who really want to achieve their goals this year. So which type of person are you: jaded or jazzed?

Here’s a sobering statistic which might explain so many folks’ blase attitudes:  a survey conducted at this time last year found that 66% of Americans have made New Year’s resolutions and only 17% actually manage to keep them.  Full disclosure: my own track record isn’t perfect; I’d say I have about a 50% success rate on my New Year’s Resolutions, which turns out to be three times the national average.

So how do you make sure that the promise you make to yourself during the last week of December is one you’re still fulfilling at the end of January and beyond? Take a little time to think about the right goals and you’ll greatly increase your success rate.

1.  Make a small goal.  ”I vow to go to one yoga class a week” is a much more realistic goal than “I’ll lose three dress sizes in a month.”  Set yourself up to succeed rather than to fail with an easy, achievable goal that helps lead to a healthier lifestyle. Who knows where that one yoga class could take you; the great vibe you create there might help you to live better in a myriad of other ways.

2.  Do not make a goal that significantly alters your life. “I’ll quit my day job and become an Etsy crafter!” This might sound adventurous, but do you have any idea how to actually accomplish that?  What if it turns out you like crafting as a hobby but hate it as a 40+ hour a week career?  Instead, take a little step in that direction like, “I’ll take a class on a new sewing technique.” This will give you the chance to see if you like the idea and let you explore it further. Plug in your own “adventure” for the word crafting in the paragraph above and the same rules apply.

3.  Make a one-time, short-term goal. “I’ll throw a dinner party” is a one-time event that moves you down the road of building community and perhaps cooking new recipes.  ”I’ll vacation in Italy this year” is a bigger goal but one with a shelf life.  What’s the one thing that you’ve wanted to do but have been stalling at achieving?  As long as it is a one-off event, make it your goal for the year and start taking the steps needed to make it happen.

4.  I’ll lose only five pounds. Do me a favor and don’t make a weight loss goal bigger than five pounds!  You can always make another goal to lose a second five pounds, but please, don’t step on the scale, remember how much you weighed in high school and decide that must be your goal weight.  You can lose five pounds comfortably in four to six weeks.  This requires time carved out of your already hectic schedule for a short burst of cardio activity and resistance training as well as rethinking grocery purchases. If you successfully lose the five pounds, by all means go for the next five and give yourself a huge pat on the back.  Small successes will lead to bigger ones.

5.  Plan a reward.  ”When I reach my goal I’m going to treat myself to _______.”  Treat yourself to a reward when you achieve your goal (and I don’t recommend the reward be related to the goal).  If you’re trying to lose five pounds, don’t treat yourself to an ice cream sundae; instead make your reward a girls’ night out or a pedicure or a new book.  If you’re close to your goal but thinking of wavering, the reward might be the extra incentive you need to get there.

I hope my five steps help you shape your successful New Year’s resolutions.  And please share them with me.  I’m happy to be your cheerleader and maybe even help you achieve them!

Thanks,

Lisa

Valerie’s weight loss can be broken down into two phases: the 40 pounds she lost through Jenny Craig, and the additional 9 pounds she lost by stepping up her game.  Here’s how she did it. 

For the first nine months, Valerie stuck to her Jenny Craig meal plan and strapped on a pedometer, walking 10,000 steps a day.  That dropped the first 40 pounds. She was thrilled, I’m sure, but apparently not done yet.  She swapped her walking routine for running five times a week, plus she started working with a personal trainer.  That allowed her to lose the additional nine pounds as well as get the tone you see on her body. 

Valerie perfectly demonstrates two points:

• You have to raise your game if you plateau and want to continue to shed pounds to reach your goal weight.
• You won’t get toned if you don’t add weight training. 

Walking over four miles a day (the equivalent of 10,000 steps) will definitely get the weight off your frame, but it comes with some drawbacks.  Over time, as your body becomes lighter and lighter, you burn less calories walking those same 10,000 steps. You’re no longer working to propel 170 pounds down the street, and wind up burning about 50 less calories a day at a weight of 130. 

Also, the walking you do over the course of a day doesn’t give you a cardiovascular workout. Valerie found that as she got lighter she needed a more strenuous activity, running, to shed additional pounds.  As you lose weight, you’ll need to do this too, and the only way is to either increase the number of daily steps you take or switch to a more aggressive workout. 

Valerie saw how walking created tone in her leg muscles as they got stronger and more sculpted, especially if she was incorporating hill climbing into her routines. But walking would only have a minimal impact on her abs, arms and back.  By hiring a personal trainer and adding weights, Valerie was able to get the abs and arms you see in People. Walking alone didn’t do it. 

Finally, she didn’t go from being a couch potato to an all out hard body.  She took “one day at a time,” getting thinner and stronger slowly.  She averaged a little more than one pound a week of weight loss while she was strictly on the Jenny Craig diet.  

Research has shown that losing weight slowly means it’s much less likely to creep back on.  

Valerie, you’re a smart girl.  Savor your success! You’ve become a great role model and I hope you kept those bikinis; they look great on you. 

Lisa

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), you should perform moderately intense activity 5 days per week for 30 minutes OR intense activity 3 days per week for 20 minutes.

Here’s some examples of moderate to intense activity.

Walking briskly
Gardening with a shovel
Cycling 8 to 11 mph
Roller or Ice skating
Doubles tennis

Here are some examples of intense activity

Jogging
Rowing
Vigorous basketball
Raquetball
Spinning or vigorous cycling

Another way to look at it from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control): if you have a heart rate monitor or use cardio equipment at the gym, moderate activity is between 3.5 and 7.0 calories per minute and intense activity is higher than 7.0 calories per minute. (This is a general guideline based on the average sedentary US adult, if you’re very heavy, or have a health issue, the guidelines could be different for you, check with your doctor!)

The Rules.

1. You must do a minimum of 10 minutes at a time for it to count to your daily total. A two-minute dash to catch the bus doesn’t count.
2. You must break a sweat before you start counting the 10 minutes. The first bead of sweat on your brow is when you should check your watch and begin tracking.
3. Cool down period doesn’t count either. Stretching and slowing down your intensity at the end of your workout is great but it’s not cardio.

So here’s how to structure a brisk walk.

0 to 5 minutes. Start moving slowly to loosen up the joints and then start picking up speed. Somewhere in the first five minutes you should break a sweat. When you do check your watch.

5 to 15/35 minutes. Now you’re in the “cardio zone” keep going for a reasonable time period for you. If it’s 10 minutes and you feel like you’re cooked, fine, just slow down and head home. If you’re more fit or you have more time keep going as long as the 35-minute mark.

The last five minutes. You should be heading back home and walking leisurely. Your heart rate will start to drop off and you’ll feel relaxed.

Some Caveats

1. If you’re very out of shape or have a medical issue such as arthritis, 10 minutes might be too much. Just go as far as you can on the first workout and then add one minute to your time each time you exercise again. Keep adding minutes until you reach 30 minutes per day.

2. The ACSM is a big proponent of 10-minute exercise bouts. As you can see above, that’s really more like a 20-minute commitment if you include warm up and cool down. Try sneaking in 10 minutes by

a. hopping on the exercise bike first thing in the a.m. for a fast 15 minutes, quick stretch, then cool down in the shower.

b. walk the dog briskly in the neighborhood. A 20 minute walk should be enough for the dog to do his business and for you both to get your heart rate up for at least 10 minutes.

c. walk to get your lunch. Remember you have to break a sweat so don’t wear that great silk blouse. You need to walk about 15 minutes away to get your lunch and then 15 minutes back. That’ll count for 20 minutes. Quick stretch and then back to your desk and your lunch!

3. This is only considered the minimum requirements to “maintain health and reduce the risk for chronic disease.” The ACSM adds, “it should be noted that to lose weight or maintain weight loss, 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity most days of the week may be necessary.”

I hope this clarified what can be some confusing guidelines. I’d love any feedback you have. Tomorrow we’ll talk about strength training guidelines.

Lisa