Move Your Body

Here is an article from Newsweek that I recently found on digg about toning your abs and why crunches may not work.  It states that repetitive crunches may even be damaging to your back!  The article also gives some interesting information on alternative exercises (like the plank) and some overall info on getting toner abs.   Take the info for what it’s worth – another alternative fitness viewpoint.  Read it here.

There are a number of ways people can go wrong on their path to better health and a sexier bod.  Here are some common mistakes people make when trying get fit and ways that you can avoid them:

Not setting a goal: Of course, it’s great to workout.  But exercising without a plan isn’t going to cut it.  It’s important to set a realistic fitness goal so you actually have something to work toward.  Coming up with a  goal gives you something to keep you motivated and going back to the gym each day.  Measuring success is very important.

Setting an unrealistic fitness goal: You might already know that it’s important to set a fitness goal.  So you went ahead and wrote down somewhere that you are going to lose 15 pounds this month.   Not only is this unrealistic, it will only set you up for disappointment.  It could be dangerous to your health if you are striving for a goal that is far too aggressive.  A more attainable and healthy weight loss goal is more like 1-2 pounds a week.  Maybe your goal doesn’t involve weight loss at all.  Another great goal would be to have more energy during the day or to be able to run around with your kids without being out of breath.

Skipping the warm-up or cool down:  Skipping a warm up or cool down can cause injury.  Take 5-10 minutes to stretch your muscles to get them ready for your workout.  Before you begin your peak cardio period, make sure you walk or jog at a slower pace to gradually increase your heart rate and blood pressure.  Cooling down allows your heart rate and blood pressure to return to its resting state.  A good stretch after a workout can reduce stiffness and cramping.

Never changing your routine: Your body gets used to doing the same exercises day in and day out.  After a while, you will not get much out of your workout if you do not switch it up.  As a certain exercise becomes easier, increase the weight, reps or find a completely new exercise to target the area you are working on.

Working only one part of the body (aka “believing the spot-reducing myth”):  Spot reducing, or only losing weight/toning one specific part of your body, doesn’t work.  Even if you work your abs for 30 minutes a day, every day, you will not get a six pack.  You must do a combination of cardiovascular, endurance, strength, and core training as well eat a healthy diet to see overall results.

Keep an eye out for these common mistakes that can derail your health and fitness goals.  Finding ways to avoid them will surely put you on the path to a toner body and an overall healthier lifestyle.

Research suggests that keeping a food diary can lead to successful weight loss.  A weight loss study published in last year’s August edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine included 1,685 overweight or obese U.S. adults aged 25 and older.  Participants were encouraged to eat a healthy diet, exercise and keep a food diary.  Those that wrote down everything they ate for six days or more a week lost twice as much weight as those who wrote only one or two days a week.

Why do food diaries work?  Well, writing down everything you eat and drink can be eye-opening.  You might not realize how much you’re eating in a day, or how often you snack on goodies your co-workers bring to the office.   Even if you don’t consider yourself a person who overeats, you may not realize how one snack can throw off your calorie intake for the day. A food diary makes you aware of where those extra calories are coming from – whether it be snacking, or just taking in more calories than you realized at a particular meal.  Keeping a consistent food diary makes you accountable to your eating habits and helps you actually SEE where you can make improvements.

We have personally used a food diary in the past, at the suggestion of the American Heart Association’s No Fad Diet, and found that it was key to eventually achieving weight loss goals.  I had no idea how many times I was snacking during the day, or that Chinese food for dinner, if not eaten in the correct portion sizes, could be killer!

Even if you are not necessarily looking to lose weight, a food diary may still be an interesting experience.  You may find that you are not getting enough protein, fruits or veggies during the day, for example.  It can be a good way just to start eating healthier.

So how do you start keeping a food diary?  Here are some helpful tips from WebMd, as well as some of our own:

Write as you go:  Don’t wait until the end of the day to record your food – or you’ll never remember everything you ate.

Pay attention to portion sizes:  Try practicing measuring your portion sizes at home using measuring cups, scales, etc.  If you don’t have access to those things (while eating at work or out, for example), use this handy chart about estimating portion sizes.

Be specific! Be sure to add any condiments, for example, mustard or mayo,  the type of bread you’re using on your sandwich or even the veggies and dressing on your salad.  Also, if you are a coffee drinker, don’t forget to count the calories from cream and/or sugar.

Don’t forget water.  Water intake is VERY important.  Be sure to track everything you drink.  You should drink eight 8 oz glasses of water a day, and even more if you’re exercising a lot.

Use the format that works for you:  Scribble your food diary in a notebook (if you are an organized scribbler), on some scrap paper, type it into your computer or, if you have an iPhone, you can use a cool app to track your food.  You really don’t need anything fancy to keep track of your food, though.  Just make sure you are recording what you ate and how much of it.

Don’t beat yourself up! The food diary exercise is not supposed to make you feel badly about what you are eating.  You are taking the first steps toward building a healthy lifestyle.  So you find out that you eat a bag of M&Ms during your stressful Monday morning meeting.  Don’t be too hard on yourself.  You are now becoming more conscious of your habits and can begin to make choices to change them for the better.

If you’re still not convinced, here’s a few more reasons to keep a food diary, from dietblog.

[Article courtesy of allrecipes.com and Reader's Digest: Cut Your Cholesterol.]

Eliminating those calories (as well as burning more through exercise) doesn’t have to be painful. Starvation and deprivation diets simply don’t work. Instead, the little things are what matter. Here are seven ideas to get you started:

1. Eat breakfast.

A study published in the February 2002 journal Obesity Research found that eating breakfast was a key behavior among people who averaged a 60-pound weight loss and kept it off an average of six years. Participants told researchers that skipping breakfast made them so hungry that they overate during other meals and snacked on unhealthy, high-calorie foods.

2. Measure that cereal.

The average serving of cereal is 1 cup. Yet most adults pour out at least twice that.

3. Scoop and save.

Every now and then someone comes up with such a cool kitchen utensil that you just have to rush right out and buy it. That’s the Lê Scoop. Its function: to scoop out the inside dough from a bagel, leaving you with the outer crust (and, of course, less fat and fewer calories). Fill the inside with nonfat cottage cheese sprinkled with ground flaxseeds for an easy, low-fat, low-calorie breakfast.

4. Buy the smaller size.

The larger the portion in front of you, the more you’ll eat. It’s a proven fact. When researchers sent 79 parents home with a video and either 1- or 2-pound bags of M&Ms along with either a medium or jumbo size tub of popcorn for each family member, they ate more M&M’s from the 2-pound bag than the 1-pound bag, and about half a tub of popcorn, regardless of the tub size.

5. Make smart switches.

See how much you can save by switching from high-fat, high-calorie indulgences to lower-fat, lower-calorie options. Just by making the following substitutions, you could lose 25 pounds a year:

6. Skip the soda.

If you drink non-diet soda, you can cut 160 calories (per 16 ounces) out of your day just by switching to diet soda. Better yet, drink green tea or water flavored with a squeeze of lemon or lime.

7. Start with soup.

Studies show that people who start a meal with soup–especially broth-based soup–end up eating fewer calories by the end of the day without feeling hungrier.

Source: Allrecipes.com, From Reader’s Digest Cut Your Cholesterol.

I never had to make it a point to exercise when I was younger. I was involved in sports, I danced a lot, and really, I could eat what I wanted without really paying for it. When I got to college I gained a little weight, but nothing to be too worried about. I was busy running from place to place and staying busy, so it wasn’t too much of a challenge to say at a weight that was comfortable to me. It wasn’t until I got my first desk job that I really started to notice my body changing. I shouldn’t have been surprised, I was sitting behind a desk for 8+ hours a day! I was no longer running across campus from class to class, and certainly not dancing four days a week like I did in high school. No, the most exercise I got was the walk to and from the bus every morning. Although my exercise habits had nearly become non-existent, my eating habits hadn’t changed and arguably got worse. I was eating garbage, really. The diet of a kid right out of college who is still acting like they need to subsist on Ramen noodles and Cheetos.

I began to dread shopping for clothes, as I watched myself go from a size 8 to 10 to 12 to 14 and so on. My self esteem had plummeted and I was self- conscious when I would go out. It was then that I realized that I needed to change something. I have never been a big believer in dieting. I love food, quite honestly, and I find it difficult to put such limitations on myself. It also never seemed to make sense to me to eliminate certain foods from my diet completely, especially if I liked them. But I wanted to learn more about what I could do in order to lose weight, eat healthier and begin to make exercise a part of my life again.

I picked up the book, “The No-Fad Diet” by the American Heart Association. It was the best thing I could have done and as cliché as it sounds, it changed my life. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to live a healthier lifestyle – whether your challenges lie in exercising, eating healthy, or the mental and emotional work it takes just to begin. This book offers a no-nonsense approach to losing weight and healthy living.

One of the things that I really found attractive about the book is that it’s written by the American Heart Association. The American Heart Association is the “nation’s most trusted authority on heart-healthy living.” Who better to write a diet book? With the American Heart Association behind this book, you know you will be getting an authoritative and comprehensive solution to your weight loss goals.

The No-Fad Diet is broken up into two parts: losing weight and menu planning/recipes. The book markets itself as a “no-fad” approach to weight loss and healthy living. I think this is the best possible message to follow when looking to live a healthier lifestyle. Weight loss cannot be thought of in a vacuum. Your ways of thinking about your body, your approach to exercise, and your eating habits all need to be examined in order to achieve success.

The “No-Fad Diet” helps you change your thoughts about dieting and exercise and helps you combat negative thoughts that block your progress. It explains the methods in detail and offers quizzes and checklists so that you can personalize your program. The second half of the book contains hundreds of recipes and menus. There are recipes for appetizers, soups, salads, poultry, steak, vegetarian entreés, desserts and more! I have personally tried many of the recipes in this book and they are great! Certainly not lacking in taste. For each recipe, you will see how many calories per serving, total fat, cholesterol, sodium and more stats to help you keep things in check.

The aim of The No-Fad Diet is to help you change your lifestyle and teach you to lose weight in a healthy way that will last. And I can tell you from experience that it can be a great tool to kick start your way to a healthier life!

Although I am a huge advocate of belonging to a gym, I realize people’s reasons for not joining. Maybe spending an extra $30-$100 a month (depending on membership fees in your area) just isn’t doable right now. Perhaps you are a little self-conscious about working out in front of other people, and you just prefer getting exercise in other ways. If a gym isn’t an option for you right now, for whatever reason, you might try work-out DVDs. Work-out DVDs can be great to add to your toolkit of things you use to get in shape – whether you belong to a gym or not. Having a great DVD around can be a good way to supplement your gym membership, if you do have one, when you have to stay late at work and can’t make your favorite class, for example. Or, like me, when it’s just too rainy to leave the house, but you still want to get in a work-out.

I have always been skeptical of certain work-out DVDs, because many of the ones I have tried have been very cheesy. You know the type: usually an unbelievably in-shape woman leading a class of other unbelievably in-shape people who are all smiling and laughing while they “work-out,” while you are at home getting your butt kicked and feeling a little stupid about it. Not to mention all of the “feel the burn” types of encouragements coming from the instructor.

Despite these preconceived notions about work-out DVDs, we decided to give Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred a try at the recommendation of a friend. As you know we are huge fans of The Biggest Loser, and so already have been exposed to Jillian’s training techniques. Jillian has a reputation for success, so we thought this would be a good DVD to try.

The set-up

30 Day Shred is broken up into three levels – 1 (Beginner), 2 (Intermediate) and 3 (Advanced). You are encouraged to start at level one, and progress your way up to level three. I started at level two yesterday and found it fairly difficult. I do not usually take classes – I usually run and do strength training on my own. Maybe if you frequent a lot of work out classes, you won’t find this as challenging, but I’ll bet you’ll get a good work-out.

Each level is a complete 20 minute work-out that follows Jillian’s “3-2-1 Interval System.” For each level, there are three, six-minute circuits. Each circuit is composed of three minutes of strength exercises, two minutes of cardio, and one minute of abs. There is a brief warm-up and cool down for each workout.

Important to note that you will need hand weights to participate in the class. I recommend five pound weights or under if you are just starting out or at least until you get a feel for the DVD. I tried eight pounds because that’s all we had at home, and I found it very difficult to sustain most of the exercises.

The class
There are only three people in this video. Jillian, and two other unbelievably in shape women mimicking her moves. What I really liked about this DVD is that one of the women is doing modified versions of Jillian’s exercises throughout the whole class. So, if you are a beginner or need to modify the exercises due to an injury, you can follow her and still participate. This comes in handy when some of the exercises get difficult, and trust me, they do. The other woman in the DVD is doing the more advanced version of Jillian’s exercises. So, when you feel like pushing yourself, or if you’ve mastered a particular level and want a little higher intensity, you can follow her. I really liked that these two options were available, and I think this makes it more accessible to people working out at all levels.

The exercises
All three levels of exercise follow the same 3-2-1 format. I think this is an effective organization, as both strength training and cardio are necessary to lose weight and see results. The great thing about the 3-2-1 format is just when you think you are on the brink of death, the exercises change. It definitely keeps it interesting and engaging.

You can expect a lot of arm, shoulder and quad action in the strength portion of the DVD. The exercises are comprised of things like lunges with bicep curls, front raises with hand weights (straight arms raised in front of you to about shoulder level), push-ups, squats, etc. As you progress in levels, you will find that you are sustaining more of the movements instead of coming out of them. So, instead of lunging and coming back up immediately (level one), you might stay engaged in the lunge pose for a few seconds before coming out. This of course is higher intensity.

In the cardio portions, expect a lot of jumping jacks, butt-kicks (running in place while literally kicking your own butt) and jump roping (the motion only, without the actual rope). As you progress in the levels there are things like double jump ropes (jumping even higher), high knees, and more intense moves.

The ab work-outs get progressively harder as you move up in levels, but I found that most of the exercises were helpful and I even learned some that I didn’t know before.

The bottom line

I think this DVD is definitely worth trying. You will get a high-intensity workout in 20 minutes – which is great for those of us who are short on time. You’ll get strength, cardio and abs all in one – and who isn’t looking for all of that? I felt sore the next day in my calves (jumping jacks, jump rope cardio), arms and shoulders.

There is a slight cheesiness factor to the DVD, but there always will be. The instructor has to keep you motivated to keep going, and I think that Jillian does a good job of that. Her main message is that you are challenging your body to make changes. If you do not put stress on your body, it will never adapt. I thought that message was pretty compelling.

The only thing I would be cautious of is just making sure that you are doing the exercises as correctly as possible. If you can, have someone watch you according to Jillian’s instructions so you can avoid injury. Set up a mirror if possible so you can check your posture. If you are feeling stress on your knees or if something just isn’t feeling right – stop. There’s a difference between feeling fatigued because you are working hard and feeling like you are ripping ligaments.  Listen to your body.

Of course, you will only get out of this workout what you put in, so really turn up the heat and give this one a try!

Exercise #2 – Tricep kickbacks using Dumbbells

Personally, this is one of my favorite tricep exercises. While holding 1 dumbbell in each hand, slowly bend at the hips until your chest and eyes are facing the ground. It is very important to keep your back straight with no arch…a staggered pose (pictured below) with one foot in front of the other, rather than feet together, may make that easier. Bend your elbows to 90 degrees and slowly straighten the arms, and exhale, until there is just a slight bend. Keeping the arms close to the torso, inhale, and return to the starting position.

Kickbacks with staggered feet

Knowing the correct portion sizes is the easiest way to help lose those extra pounds. Ever wonder how the heck you’re supposed to know what a serving size really is???

The picture listed below will been very helpful while cooking or even when grabbing a snack on the go.  The picture may be difficult to read – try clicking it and that should help.

Portion size guide

Deck of cards – 3 oz cooked chicken or meat (4 oz raw)

Tennis ball – 1 cup cooked rice, pasta or ice cream

4 dice/1 domino – 1 oz cheese

Baseball – medium piece of fruit

One die – 1 tsp butter or margarine

Computer mouse – 1 small baked potato

Average woman’s fist – 1 cup

Golf ball – 2 tablespoons peanut butter, jam, salad dressing

A packet of dental floss – 1 oz chocolate (good luck!)

Image from www.realwomensfitness.com

Each month, we will highlight one muscle of the body giving you a clear image of where the muscle is located and exercises to help strengthen and tone that muscle.

The Triceps are located at the back of the upper arm. Their main function is extension, or straightening of the arm. Making up more than 1/2 of the upper arm’s muscle mass, it is important to strengthen this muscle by doing a variety of exercises.

Exercise #1 – Dips

Up phase

Down phase

When performing a dip, support yourself on a study surface with your hands shoulder width apart. Lower yourself by slowing bending at the elbows and then push up until you reach the starting position. Important: Do not lock out the elbow joint, always keep a slight bend. To challenge yourself, straighten the legs out in front of you or even lift one leg off the floor. Also, if you do not have access to a bench, a chair or couch will work just as well.