Fab Fit Squad

After October 2011

This past weekend I competed in my third Women’s Tri Fitness. This was a long term goal of mine and when I did it for the first time I got hooked! This weekend I went to Tampa and competed with my husband. It was so my fun to complete a goal with him, plus he is all fired up to do it again! I really get excited when I turn people on to fitness and they achieve their goals.

I tell you this, not to brag, but inspire you to take action. It’s been about 1 year since I had something that I had a goal that I was really jazzed about. When my husband asked if we could do it together, it was just the kick in the pants I needed.

Back in August I put on my game face and signed up.  For me one of the most challenging parts is the bench press. You need to bench press 60% of your bodyweight for 50 reps. So.. you must decide what you want to lift and how much weight you can reasonably lose.  I wanted to weigh 15 pounds lighter.

Before -- July 2011

So.. I had 8 weeks to drop 15 pounds! I had to work cut out for me and LITERALLY had to work my butt off!  No matter what happened at the show if I dropped those 15 pounds I WON! Guess what — on October 20th it happened I stepped on the scale and saw that I dropped 15 pounds I was so PSYCHED!! Plus I only had to lift 75 pounds!

I’m telling you my story because I want you know that I practice what I preach! I typically give myself 5-7 pounds over my goal weight, but this year I got a little off track and used this goal to bring me back.

If you are ready to serious about your weight loss, let me know!

I have 2 programs that I will be running to help you to Hold The Stuffing through the holidays.

•  Hold The Stuffing Fat Blaster
• 6 weeks
• 2 strength training programs
• 6 weekly emails
• (3) 15 min private phone calls
• 30 day Athlete’s pack
• Meal plan
• Grocery List
• For more information, shoot me an email.  This program is for the committed! If you are ready to end 2011 with a little less weight the time is now!

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is arguably the one of the best basketball players in the world.  So you may ask yourself, what kind of problems could this guy have! Deciding who the pass the ball to, or just drive the ball to the basket himself.

If Michael Jordan had a challenge and stared them down, what are you doing about challenges.  Do you find a way around them, or do you just throw your hands up and decide that it wasn’t meant to be?

When of my favorite expressions I like to say whenever someone tells me they have a fitness challenge I say “It’s not like you’re climbing Mt. Everest in a bikini.” Most people laugh and really think their fitness challenge isn’t that huge.

Whenever I’m faced with a fitness challenge, here are a few things I do to help turn the mountain into a mole hill.

• Workout — this is my favorite, I come up with some of my best ideas this way.
• Talk it out with a friend — sometimes when you say it out loud your challenge(s) doesn’t seem that the bad.
• Break problems into smaller chunks — when you look at the problem as a whole it may seem like Mt. Everest, (sorry I have a thing about Everest) but then you sit down and break it down it, again it doesn’t seem that bad.

Tell me your fitness challenge. I’d love to help you solve it.

For years we’ve heard that we need to add GOOD fat into our diets, but do you really know what that means? Did you even know that there were different variety’s of good fats? Well let me break it down for you.

• Omega 3 — we get them mainly from cold water fishes — salmon, blue fish, sardines, herring. You get the picture. Yes supplementation can help, but you really need to get it from the source.  When consuming these fish be sure that you are eating the wild version of these fishes vs. farm raised.  Farm raised tend to have less Omega 3 and less protein.  Go figure. For my vegetarian friends you can find good sources in flax and walnuts.  Sadly the average American isn’t getting nearly enough of this good fat. Why do we need omega 3s? They help reduce inflammation in the body, assist with mental health as well as heart health.  Omega 3s are also used to produce hormones in the body. For a complete listing of food that contains Omega 3.
• Omega 6 — can be found very easily in the typical American diet.  The average American consumes 10x the recommended amount of this essential fatty acid. You can find omega 6s in soybean oil, nuts and seeds. These types of oils are found in 20% of all processed foods. Omega 6s are used to make hormones as well, but these types of fats tend to cause inflammation if not taken in the correct balance with omega 3. To help balance out your omega 6s & omega 3s aim to reduce your dependence on processed foods including margarine, bottled salad dressings and mayonnaise. Sorry ladies this DOES include olive oil.  For a complete listing of foods that contain Omega 6.
• Omega 9 — plays a smaller role than 3 and 6 and small quantities of this acid can be produced by the body. Because our bodies can produce this, when we are deficient in either omega 3 or omega 6 our body will produce extra Omega 9 to compensate.  Omega 9 does have it place, but its not as powerful as omega 3 or omega 6.  Omega 9 does play a role in reducing cholesterol in the body as well as improve our immune systems.  For those of you with small children, you’ll do what ever you can do improve your immune system.  For a list of food that contain Omega 9.

I hope you found this helpful. I’d love to hear what you think. Please leave me some comments below.

I’m really fortunate that the people who read my site have two things in common:

• a passion to lead a healthy lifestyle
• goal(s) that they are striving to achieve

One of things I hope that I can provide to my readers as well as my clients is prescriptive guidance to help them achieve their goals. One of their main question is cardio?

I live in Boston right next to the Charles River as soon as the snow melts the runners, joggers and walkers come out in droves.  Do you know why they run — I mean at least 85% of them, come on you the answer, think about it!! That’s right its to LOSE WEIGHT!

Running is cardio right, running is hard for me so it must be good for me, running will help me lose weight, right.  Well…. Long distance running is the worst thing for weight loss.

SAY WHAT!!!

Most of you run because you’ve seen pictures of elite runners who are lean and mean and want to get the physique or you have a friend who has the physique that you want and you ask hey what are you doing and then they say or I just run x number of miles a day. You think to yourself — running that’s easy I’ll lace up and get moving.

I’m here to tell you unless you competing in an endurance event, running will not give you that lean toned physique. I’m sorry to report that continuous long slow steady state cardio just doesn’t get the metabolism fired up the way a strength training session coupled with interval training does.  Did know that interval training is 9xs more effective than steady state cardio? Getting your metabolism fired up is EXACTLY what is needed to get that lean and toned physique. Intervals keep your body guessing and stops it from going on autopilot.

Long slow steady state cardio does just that, it puts the body on autopilot. Your body knows exactly what to expect, how much effort to give you and therefore only gives you what you need. I’m not saying these workouts won’t be hard, but your body doesn’t have to give you as much. What’s even worse as you build up your mileage you begin to burn more fat, but guess what your body adapts to help you become more efficient at running so it begins to “store more fat”!  Yup — you heard that right.  Don’t believe me take a look at any finish line of any race; you’ll see far more average Joe physiques than you’ll see Kara Goucher physiques. They’ll be a few Kara Goucher’s, but I’ll let you in on little secret they looked like that before they started running.

You can’t run to get fit; you need to be fit to run.” – Diane Lee, Canadian Physical Therapist

When you are training for a long distance endurance race your body is recruiting different muscles to make sure that you are efficient at running.  When you are training to change your body composition you are looking to make your body’s efficient at strength training. Training for both throws your body into tug of war.  As you get more efficient at running you may experience that your fat stores tend overtake your muscle stores. Most people experience loss of muscularity in their quads and then in their tushies. Now depending on where you hold your weight, you may also experience fat gains around your mid-section.

I don’t say this to discourage your fitness goals. I tell you this so that you can make informed choices.

Need more proof – here are a few studies.

• J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Jan 2
  Effect of calorie restriction with or without exercise on body composition and fat distribution.
  This is a six month study. Aerobic training group performed 50 minutes of aerobics 5 times a week for the entire duration. Results:  No additional effects of aerobic exercise on weight or body fat levels.
• Obesity 2007 June – 15:1496-1512.
  Exercise Effect on Weight and Body Fat in Men and Women.
• McTiernan et al
  For 1 year they had a test group do six hours of steady state cardio for 60 min, six days per week. In one year, the group lost 3 lbs.
• According to a British study, levels of Human Growth Hormone, which assists in building muscle and burning fat, skyrocketed 530% in subjects after just thirty seconds of sprinting as fast as they could on a stationary bike.

I would love to hear your thoughts leave me some comments below.

It started out really simple, I was looking for a new mid morning snack. I feel into a rut and was looking to branch out.  Then we had a bit of a heat wave and I didn’t feel like cooking anything. It’s one of the few times a year that not having an air conditioner in New England is a bad thing.

Any who.. I started making smoothies and I can’t stop! My smoothies have taken on a life of their own.  My latest creation.

1 T powdered greens
1/2 c greek yogurt
1 kiwi peeled
1 t Udo’s oil
4 oz sweet potato (yes a sweet potato) — previously roasted
1/2 c water
handful ice cubes

Take all of this mix in a blender and blend until smooth.  The shake will be green, but will taste great.  If you feel that you need it, you make add 1/2 t honey to add some sweetness.

So here were are 6 months into 2011 and I’m revisiting what I’m doing for me this year. This is the longest that I have gone without a fitness goal.  I got to tell you I’m a feeling a little out of sorts.

This past week I sat down and got clear about what I want to accomplish between now and the end of 2011.

1. Finish the Falmouth Road Race

• I’d like to run this in under 1 hour
• I’d like to properly train for this race, the past few years I’ve done a half ass job training for it. (more…)

The magical way to lose weight is taking consistent action.  My favorite quote is by Cher ~

If having a perfect body was easy everyone would have one.

To have your perfect body, you will need to take consistent action. Taking consistent action requires the following.

• Change your eating habits
  • remove sugary drinks – sorry ladies, those sweet coffee drinks sure look and taste great but they can pack on the pounds. (more…)

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

I am a personal weight loss coach. This is my job to help you succeed at your weight loss goals. What’s really interesting is that when it’s time for the rubber to meet the road a few of my clients retreat into excuseville.

This is what it’s like to live in excuseville. You can’t workout or take care of yourself because….

Your kids need your help with _____________.

Your husband comes home with ___________ take out and  you don’t want it to go to waste.

It’s your friend’s ________________ and you’d be rude if you didn’t.

You’ll start ______________.

It’s only one______________. It can’t hurt, right?

What excuse are you using to keep you from living a healthy lifestyle?

Here’s one way to get started. You don’t need to do every thing at once, commit to change one thing! If you tomorrow was day 1 what is the one thing you would change?  Now that you make that change can you keep it up for 21 days.  It take 21 days to make a habit.

Are you done making excuses and ready to get real? Give me a call.

Feeling exhausted?  Pop a handful of blueberries in your mouth and enjoy a little energy boost, along with a ton of nutrients. Blueberries contain anthocyanins and other pigments high in antioxidant properties possibly having a role in reducing risks of inflammatory diseases and certain cancers. Let me put on my big brain and tell you that blueberries contain pterostilbene, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, and resveratrol (yes that stuff that stops wrinkles), all which inhibit the cell development of cancers.

Blueberries are also a good source of vitamin C, manganese, fiber, and vitamin E , and are low in calories! Many studies have found that blueberry consumption lowers cholesterol and total blood lipid levels, possibly reducing the risks of heart disease and high blood pressure. Even more studies have found that a diet rich in blueberries may enhance short-term memory in older adults while reducing symptoms of depression.

Fresh blueberries keep very well and can be packaged and stored easily. Blueberries usually hit the peak of their season, depending on the region, sometime between May and October.

I love heading to Farmer’s Markets this time of year and get fresh blueberries and putting them on my oatmeal, cottage cheese, plain yogurt or just eating them out of the container.

If you have any recipes you’d like to share leave the comments below.

No matter what the temperature is outside, I can always eat soup. The thing I love most about soup is that it’s freezable and you can add any cooked meat you like to it to make it a complete meal. Here are a few quick soups that I make regularly.

Beef and Vegetable Soup
Brown some lean hamburger meat, onion and garlic in a large pot. Once the meat is completely cooked drain any excess fat add any frozen/canned vegetables you like. I usually add chopped canned tomatoes, green beans, white beans, broccoli or stewed canned tomatoes chopped into bite size pieces.  Just throw the meal together and add a bit of some seasonings, I like mine on the spicy side so I’m always adding a little crushed red pepper. Play with varying spices to see which ones you really like the best. (more…)