Fab Fit Squad

As I train for the Miami half marathon a good friend of mine and an amazing marathon coach, John Furey has told me the secret to running an injury free marathon is cross training and intervals.

I know interval training has been around for awhile and people have been doing them, but are you really getting out of your comfort zone! Really pushing yourself to that 9-10, when you push yourself to the limit. So.. why do we do it.  Interval training helps:

• boost performance, by making the heart become more efficient at pumping blood
• helping increasing our tolerance for lactic acid burn
• we can increase our intensity in a short amount of time without risk of burning out or injury
• most importantly we BURN MORE FAT!!!!  You read correctly… We burn more fat!!!

So I have know this for years, but have I really pushed myself to the 9-10 zone!!! Honestly speaking I think I have been hanging out in the 7-8 zone. So I have been cheating myself of all of the benefits. Okay let me be honest the benefit I really want is FAT BURNING. Okay I’m training for a half marathon, I’d like to be able to be able to cross the finish line on my own 2 feet and not be dragging ass! So.. interval training will be my friend 2x/week until January 31st.
Now my interval will be a combination of cardio machines and metabolic circuits using only my bodyweight and light weights. Check out this one below.  If you have bodyweight circuit that you would like to share tell me about it, just write below in the comments

Here in Boston we are holding out the we are going to have at least 1 day of NO RAIN!!! We have been stuck in a crazy weather pattern and right now the entire city is holing its breath in anticipation of a rain free day.  Do your plans include a picnic? My do, so here are come suggestions to enjoy the day.

Condiments:

• Mustard in my opinion is the underrated condiment. I love and use it everyday!
  

  How Stuff Works

• Ketchup and BBQ  is OK provided you don’t drown your food in them or they don’t contain high fructose corn syrup.
• Salad Dressing– stay away from the CREAMY stuff! Go with the vinaigrette versions
• Mayo –  again creamy stay away; does the thought of coleslaw-less picnic leave you blue — mix 1/2 the amount of mayo in with some vinegar and mustard
• Pickles and relish — YUM! YUM! Give me some!!! They are awesome, enjoy!!!
• Butter — really do we have to talk about it!! I know you are saying what about but corn on the cob! Trust me on this one. Try lime juice and old bay seasoning.  Really tasty, you could also try mixing olive oil, balsamic vinegar and kosher salt.

We all have two choices…We can make a living or we can design a life. ~Jim Rohn

5 ways to avoid weight loss procrastination

Motivation Monday

You’ll never regret it.

Not sure where you are but here in Boston we had the first taste of winter this week. Were you ready to come out from under ALL those winter clothes? I got tell I wasn’t I tried on a pair of pants and OOOps, not what I was expecting, So, if you are like me you’re feeling that Memorial Day is less than a month away.  Every day for the next 30 days, I will be giving you a small simple healthy tip you can easily incorporate into life. If you have any tips you would like to share, please let me know

Add 1 Fruit and 1 Vegetable to your every meal. Please keep the fruit fresh or canned without heavy syrup of added sugars.  Dried fruit may be tasty, but doesn’t count

Here are the list of Fruits and Vegetables that are currently in season:

May
Vegetables

• okra
• zucchini
• rhubarb
• artichokes
• asparagus
• spring peas
• broccoli
• lettuce

Fruit

• cherries
• pineapples
• apricots

image source: Quincy Herald-Whig

I remember when I was in high school and Oprah walked out onto to her talk show in those black Calvin Klein size 10 jeans and boy did she feel like she arrived!  Now fast forward to 2008 and she is now over 200 pounds.  Has this ever happened to you?

You lose some weight and then start to eat everyhting you’ve been mising on your diet?

DIETS DON’T WORK!!!

Oprah has more money and can afford to a trainer everyday, a cook and an in home gym and she still struggles, do you want to know why?

It boils down to change and your commitment to making change, as we approach resolution season ask yourself 3 questions:

1. Why is it important to change
2. What barriers will you encounter
3. How will you over come those barriers

Let’s be honest life happens, but what are prepared to pick yourself up when life knocks you down?

Talk me, how did you answer those 3 questions.

A popular Japanese actress claimed she lost 26 pounds following the Morning Banana Diet.  Now supermarkets in Japan can’t keep bananas in stock, in fact Dole has increased its imports by 25%.

Here are the basics of the diet:

Morning:
banana as many as you want
room temperature water

Lunch:
anything you like

Dinner:
anything you like but eat by 8pm

*3:00 pm snack is okay, but no desserts
Must be in bed by midnight.

So does this sound like a sensible diet?  You’re thinking about it aren’t!  I got news for you NO!!!!!!! This is just another diet fad and when you loose the weight and go back to not eating banana’s for breakfast you gain the weight right back.

Do you disagree, I would love to hear your opinion.

I was watching Sunday Morning on CBS today and they suggesting that the ups and downs of the stock market can be compared to a herd mentality.  A herd mentality is a way to describe how people’s behaviors can influenced by their peers.

So what does this have to do with fitness? Well, how is your fitness influenced by what others are doing?  Has a friend ever called/emailed/text-ed you and asked what you were doing and when you said you were going to workout they mentioned that a group of people (the herd) where doing something else and asked you to come along?  What do you say? Do you stick to your plan or do you go along with the herd?

We may have evolved, but we still like to feel part of a group and fear of not belonging sometimes over takes our need to be our own person. Trust me I know how you feel!

I am a fitness competitor and typically compete in 5 shows/year. The season starts in April runs through June and then I start back up again in the Fall. So trust me there are plenty of times when I get the phone call, have to go to a party, wedding or other social event and I want to follow the herd and play hooky, but this is when you reach inside and is this playing hooky today going to help me reach the goals I have set?  Then ask yourself, how committed are you to reaching your goals?

Let me know do you follow the herd or do you stick to your goals?