Sarah’s Blog

That’s me. I have a love/hate relationship with all cardio training.

Hate it because it’s basically boring. Let’s face it, walking, biking, stepping, "ellipticalling" for 30-45 minutes non stop without getting anywhere … not very inspiring, to say the least. And when the program on my elliptical start with warm-ups of 8 minutes at a 0.5 mph speed, I almost fall asleep! Come on, whoever programmed the thing, I do my grocery shopping at 1.2 mph for crying out loud! That’s the average speed, stops to grab the food worked into it! And here I am supposed to glide at 0.5 mph? I’d stall if I was a car with a manual transmission. Seriously. OK, I ignore the virtual trainer and go at 1.2 mph for my warm-up. Ignoring also the flashing arrow pointing down for me to slow my pace. I simply cannot walk that slowly, unless I’ve got a one-year-old by the hand, teaching them to walk!

So that’s the hate part.

On the other hand, there is the great feeling of waking up, of feeling my body start to function after the night, moving, sweating, burning excess fat. The feeling for the rest of day of an accomplishement. I did it, despite the fact that it’s not something I like to do. Or do I?

Seriously. I’m sitting here, thinking. If I don’t do the morning cardio, for whatever reason, I have trouble getting back to the gym for the weight session afterwards. I’m usually caught up in somehting and skip a meal. Everything is just … a mess really.

On the other hand, when I do the cardio, how does that affect me and my day? I have my breakfast right after. I spend some productive time on the computer, getting e-mails answered, forum postings done and answered, clients taken care of. I go back to the gym for my weight training half an hour before my next meal, beat my previous week’s performance one way or the other (weight load or reps, or both sometimes), have my second meal, and get back to the computer until lunch which I usually have in front of the TV, checking things like The Biggest Loser (also the Australian one), What Not To Wear (on TLC) and Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp that I just discovered. Sometimes, I even have a 10-15 minute power-nap, but not often.

And the best part? When the weekend comes around and I weigh myself, take the calipers out for a bodyfat test, and check the results, that cardio has always the same result: lowered bodyfat percentages (BFPs). Always. Skip 2-3 cardio sessions and the BFP is either not moving, or just slightly reduced. Sometimes, it even goes up (horror).

Yes, cardio for the sake of cardio, is boring. But if you put on some nice music – I’ve found that a disco-medley works best for me – and envisage the fat cells in your body shrinking while they scream in agony of being draines, squeezed dry, it makes the whole experience much more enjoyable! And at the end of the week, you get that good, nice and warm feeling of having done the right thing for yourself, looking at the results on your charts.

One last thing … I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m doing. Steady state cardio, or HIIT. I’ve done both. I mean, all these "gurus" swearing by the "time-saving" HIIT training, and saying it was just as good as the long-winded steady state, how the after-burn lasts longer, etc etc, blah-blah! Personal experience: HIIT did not burn one gram of fat off of me. Zilch, nada, zero! Steady state cardio does, from the word go. As far as the after-burn goes, I’ve recently heard and read that there is no significantly longer after-burn from HIIT. And worse, HIIT will use more body-sugars than body-fats as fuel. In other words, bllod sugar (glucose) and muscle sugar (glycogen). Who wants to burn muscle? Not me. Steady state burns more fats, sub-cutaneous (the visible flab under your skin) and visceral (the dangerous layer around your inner organs). Just a couple of numbers there: HIIT – 75% sugars, 25% fats. Steady state – 50% fats (and 50% sugars of course). I don’t know about you, but 25% more fat burned … yes please.

Spring is coming in the north. We can start walking outside in the mornings and listening to nature waking up, birds chirping; soon we can wipe the dust off our bicycles and use them as well for a variation in type of cardio. In the south, fall is coming (or do you use the word autumn?), cooler mornings making it easier to take the cardio outside. Heck, if you live close to a body of water, you can even buy a canoe or kayak and paddle for your cardio. Is there a riding school near you? Ride a horse in the morning, bond with an animal at the same time. There is just so much you can do. Cardio – outside – does not have to be boring. You might even grow to love it … wouldn’t you just hate that?

Winter cardio, with snow, sends a lot of us inside, to the more boring machines. Boring? Only if you let it be. Mix it up! Even in one session, you can do two, three, four different things, switching from one to the other. Like … 10 minutes treadmill, 10 minutes jump-rope, 10 minutes stepper, 10 minutes boxing a bag, 10 minutes elliptical. Or you switch from one day to another, doing a pre-programmed workout on one machine per day. Maybe you’re one of those outdoors-in-winter types. Try snow-shoeing, cross country skiing, ski-joring either behind a horse or even your own dog (unless you have a yorkie!), or skating, or snow-jogging (except power-walking speed is better).

Darn, I’m taking the boring out of cardio! With all this choice, how can cardio stay boring? The bodyfat is going to melt, even in the cold winters. The clothes size will diminish. Energy levels will soar. Looks … heck, we’ll look like models at this rate! I’m going to love it. Chances are you will too. Holy fatburn, don’t you just hate the idea of loving cardio?

Actually … not really …

I’ve seen a lot of women at a lot of gyms, doing the exact same workout routine they were given when they took their memberships. Not just the same machines/ stations, but the same weights/ loads.

And when you listen to them, you hear comments like

"I don’t see any difference" or

"I don’t think I’m getting stronger" or

"those chicken-wing arms are still flapping" and

"My stomach isn’t getting any smaller, even though I do 2-300 sit-ups every day!" 

If someone was to  tell them to use heavier weights, the answer is almost always the same.

They are afraid of getting bulky;

The trainer told them to use this weight (yes, 12 months ago!);

or worse …

"It’s too hard" if they do go up a couple of pounds on the weights.

The thing is, if you want to see a difference, get stronger, and see a tightening of "flappy" areas, you have to have progression. There is no two ways about it. Once the 5-pound Dbs are easy to manipulate for a c.url or an overhead extension or whatever, go to the next one you have available. An 8 pound Db? Fine, take that.

True, you may only get half the reps you were used to with the 5-pounder, but a few weeks down the road, you’re back to the same reps again, with 8 pounds! Time for a new switch. 10 lbs, lower reps, back up to your normal reps, 12 pounds this time etc. etc.

Do not be afraid of the weights. You won’t get bulky. You may not get to the low overall weight you thought you had as a goal, but more muscle burns more fat. More muscle turns you into a couple of sizes smaller (depending on where you started from). Muscle – for the same weight – takes up less space than fat!

Want to get rid of the chicken-wing arms? Bench dips. They hurt, they’re a pain, but they are the best for the triceps. Combined with a few other exercises for the fun of it, like … overhead extension, cable push-downs, French Press …

Just try the next weight on for size, see how it feels. I remember sitting there with my 7kg (15.5 lbs) Dbs doing hammer c.urls, eyeing the 10 kg (22 lbs) ones and promising myself that soon I’d be using them for all three sets. When I got there, it was the 13.5 kg (29.8 lbs) Dbs I was looking at, etc.

Same for the Arnold Press, the 1-arm Db row, any exercise at all. Ambition. Competition – but against yourself! Keep a journal, bring it with you to the gym, see what you did last time, top it – by one rep even, but top it, and write down the workout of the day as you go along.

And also for push-ups! Most men at the gym will not go down on his knees for a push-up. No way. Too much ego that he forgot to leave in the car before coming in. So when you as a woman do that, you’ll get snickering, comments of "sissy-push-ups" etc. The funny thing is, that a month later, when you start doing straight push-ups, those ego0guys aren’t snickering anymore! They still can’t do a straight push-up, because they are in fact the sissies who don’t dare start on their knees! (OK, there are exceptions, and all my admiration goes to you, guys! Seriously).

Never mind those who pride themselves on knowing their workout by heart and not needing a paper. That’s the same ones I talked about at the beginning. The ones who wonder, one year down the line, why they see no difference. Write it down, aim to overdo yourself the next time you go to the gym, let the snickering continue (you don’t even hear them, you know you are right), and be the one who walks around with a changed and changing body withing a few months, leaving the above-mentionned women either

Gaping, impressed; or

Sour-puss commenting on how you must "be on something";

and in any case

They are still in the same shape they were last year!

Go have fun, beat yourself

I found this nice quote today, I do believe it’s going to become a favourite:

"My feeling is you have to deal with reality as it is, but not accept it as permanent". Christopher Reeve

OK, I know there will be guys peeking in, just too curious over this title 

I have nothing but ladies on my client list this week -and one visitor, and was asked a question about what to do with the following, more female-oriented subjects.

I’d like to address one issue many of us have. That one week a month when everything goes backwards! You know, pre-menstrual week? Not just the PMS the guys gripe about – bad mood, emotional, etc – but what really bugs us serious fat burners (actually, I like Adam Waters’ “Shredders” better!).

What happens? We’re logging in constant results for 3 weeks straight, no trouble staying motivated when you see the bodyfat, centimetres/inches, total weight go the right way (down!), so you stick to the nutrition plan, get the cardio in, pump weights with the best of them, and get more results. Yayy!! And then … what the f*** ?!? 

You didn’t cheat, you kept the workouts going, everything was as usual, and you see a weight gain!? Bodyfat even seems like it’s up? The tape measure is laughing at your sad and confused face as it shows you higher numbers … crap! That red visitor again! You’d forgotten about that in the euphoria of the past three weeks! The numbers remind you it‘s right around the corner.

What to do?

Well, for starters, record the numbers you get, regardless, but make a note on that line of TOM (time of month) or P (period) or R (red) whatever works for you, you can even write the whole line in red to make it easier to pick out next month.

After 3-4-5 months, you’ll begin to see a pattern in those red lines. They may be higher than the previous week, but they keep getting lower than each other! And the week after is usually lower than just a one-week result right? It’s close to a two-week result in fact. Strange?

Not really. Think about it. The added red numbers come from hormonal fluctuations which in turn hold on to more water, refuse to let go of the fat, etc. Your body is getting ready to let you get pregnant, you need fat and water for the baby! Oops, no baby, period arrived instead. OK, the body doesn‘t need the excesses any more, and lets it go! Yes, very simplified, but we don’t need the entire process in detail with hormone names and which one tells the other what. The mechanics of it all as whole is enough to get our heads back on the straight and narrow.

By noting, but ignoring, the red line numbers, keeping up the nutrition and training that pre-week, we still burn fat and feed muscle; make no mistake about it!

Right, but then there are those who really are sick the first day or two of the actual period. I remember before I went on the Pill, I was in bed, keeping warm, doubled over in pain the first day. After that it was just bearable cramps for a day or two, and simply a total nuisance for the remaining 5 days. 8 days!? Crap! With the Pill, 4 days, no pain, just have to remember to change the tampon (oops). In other words, for me there is no problem training.

I still have a lower-energy day 1, but not enough to make me stop. I know there is no real reason to stay out of the gym, so I make myself go. However, if you are among the ones who actually have to take a sick-day off work/school, then take it off gym as well! It’s not that you shouldn’t do anything, but your concentration won’t be as good and you risk a silly injury as a result. Relax, have an extra off-day, cut back a little on the calories (preferably by cutting the complex carbs back), pamper yourself with a bubble bath, a scented shower, a facial since you have the time, and read up on some passages of BFFM. Chill 

If you need two days like that, take ‘em. Really, do, and with no feeling of “being bad”. If you need the rest, you need it.  But do not let the period become a “crutch” and an excuse to take a whole week off! You can go a little easier on the cardio (down one resistance level) and ease up on the weights IF you notice that you can’t get the usual reps (you do have a training journal, right?!)

Just as an incentive to those of you ladies who are hesitant about using heavier weights, think that push-ups are for the military only, and stick to the machines and smaller dumbbells because you were shown those initially and no one told you to progress with heavier loads, here is my workout for today:

Push ups 11-10-8 (last week was 8-7-6!) straight, yes!

Incline Db flies 30 lbs 8-6 reps 27.5 lbs 6 reps (last week 17.5 lbs x 10, 20 lbs x 10, 25 lbs x

Flat Db press 27.5 lbs 8-7-7 reps (last week 25 lbs x 10-10, 27.5 lbs x

Leg lift/ candle combo 8-8-7 (last week 8-7ish-5)

And last week was … period week. OK, it was also my first week of going from doing my push-ups on my knees (20 reps!) to doing them straight, and I also switched from lower weights and high reps to higher weights and 5-8 reps (which to me is more fun, personal preference).

The best advise I can give you for those first days with regards to training is: listen to your body. Make sure you distinguish between the “this hurts, takes too much out of me” feeling and the “poor little me, I’m in pain and don’t feel good” feeling. Often, that last one will actually go away with the training! I’ve had clients who have set new PBs (personal bests) on these “I feel awful” days, so make sure you really ask your body what it is up to, and up for!

Remember the final goal :  a slim and trim and lean body for this summer’s vacation, be that at a beach or a pool or both !  We have 15 more weeks till the end of May girls. Let’s make the most of them! Remember, most challenges are over a 12-week period, we have 3 more! GOAL in sight !! We just have to get through this tunnel, that’s all. The new bikini/ swim suit is hanging there at the other end, with the new jeans and slinky top. Go for it !!!

Sarah C, Hougen, CPT (R.A.)

www.atozfitness.com

www.trainwithsarah.com

www.atozfitness.com/sarahsblog

http://www.healthylivesforyou.com

Today I want to tell you about a new friend I’ve made recently. She even sent me her book to read and comment on, and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing right now.

Cassandra Forsythe www.cassandraforsythe.com has written a book for and with Women’s Health called Perfect Body Diet. OK, a title like that had me both curious and dubious. The word "diet" alone is usually enough to make the small hairs at the back of my neck stand up!

I had a to go to a doctor’s appointment on Friday. Well, not even an appointment, it’s a first-come-first-serve type place. In other words, I could be in for a long wait. So I packed the book in my bag and went. Not stressed about the waiting, because I knew I had something more intelligent to read than the "people" magazines filled with drunk and anorexic starlets no one would look at twice if they didn’t have their dad’s name or some vague, past success.

There I was, nr 11 in line, with what turned out to be a 2-hour wait. Plenty of time to get into the book. I read the first part. Every word. But then I came to a calculation I couldn’t do because 1) I didn’t have a calculator with me, and 2) no tape measure either, so from there on out, I skimmed the rest of the book, stopping here and there as I saw things that looked interesting, novel, different but not crazy; and then I found the treasure-chest: the recipes!

Seriously, this book will take you through the steps to finding your ideal weight with some simple calculations -only problem with that, in my case, is that I’ve already reached that ideal weight in lean mass already, and we do need a minimum amount of fat on our bodies to survive, so I have to make compensations for that, but for most people who aren’t weight training yet, or not as hard as I am, the calculations really make sense and are pretty spot on!

You will then be told how to figure out what’s the ideal diet for you – I prefer calling it a nutrition plan, because that’s what it is. You’re not going to follow this for a short time and then go back to your burgers, pizzas and double fudge sundaes! To me, after looking at the descriptions and doing the test the next day, I can actually use either one, as I’m neither a "pear" not an "apple" but an "avocado" – that one was new to me and quite fun really J and I like avocados!

When it comes to the exercises, this book is written by and for women and although it shows all the great exercises already explained in mens’ programs, the model in the pictures is holding and using smaller dumbbells. This alone will help many women start on a weight training program, because there are so many who are afraid of getting bulky if they touch (or even look at) a dumbbell over 20 lbs in weight. They won’t of course, it’s just not that easy. And to me, these light-weight dumbbells are a thing of the past, I do use 20 pounders and even up to 45 lbs for some exercises.

If you are a woman and scared of the muscle-guys’ (and gals’) books on how to build muscle and burn fat, this could well be the book for you. You will still be told that you need muscle if you want to ever get rid of that fat, but the message is wrapped in a different wrapper from the type the bodybuilders use.

This is a hard copy only, no downloads available, so you have to wait for the FedEx guy to show up at your door with a legal-sized bubble envelope containing the book, but it’s worth the wait.

~ * ~

As for me, other than reading this interesting book, I have been spending the week reading an older book by Carole Jackson. Remember, back in the ’80s? Color Me Beautiful. The book that told you which colors look the best on you and make you look your best? Works for men too incidentally, you don’t have to wear kaki, grey and "mud" or jeans all the time!

I’ve had the book for years, even have the little file-folder with the material swatches! And I know what colors to get, which to stay away from, patterns, styles etc. But that was before. Before I shed the fat and got a more active lifestyle. Which is why I dug the book back out of the shelf again and read it one more time. Of course, the color pallet didn’t change, it never will. But some of the colors are more for a 20-year old than one approaching 50. I have changed my lifestyle and therefore also need to change my clothing style. And there are always little tips that are forgotten, or not noticed the first time(s) you read a book like that.

In any case, I set up a nice little basic wardrobe list, and will start working on that next week and through spring. Many of my present clothes are still more than ok to keep and wear, but there are couple of staples I need to replace (for wear) or add.

~ * ~

To top that off, I’m also working my way though the excellent e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto  http://topptrent.burnthefat.hop.clickbank.net   for the umpteenth time, making some adjustments to my nutrition and training, supplementation and goals. Luckily, the recipes from Perfect Body Diet fit nicely into BFFM’s nutrition plan, so I’m getting a lot of new food ideas, as well as trying out some old recipes I’ve never dared/ wanted to try before.

Spring is not far away – although when I look at the MOUNDS of snow outside my window, it looks like a new ice-age is coming rather than spring – and then it’s going to be summer! 15 weeks. Not a problem.

With Perfect Body Diet, you can change your weight in 8 weeks. Most bodybuilder fat-loss challenges are based on 12-week programs. 15 weeks? A luxury! But not a reason to wait another 3 weeks without taking any action! If we can change our bodies in 8 or 12 weeks, just think what we can do in 15!! Go for it!

Buy a new bathing suit right now, 2 sizes too small, and get into it perfectly this summer.

Well, if you look in all and any store, that’s what it seems to be! They are all wrapped in red foil, red plastic, red boxes. They have heart shapes or heart designs on the wrappers. All say something about St. Valentine. Does anyone even care who he was? Not many. Some radio stations mention the anecdote, but who really cares?

The commerces care. Not about St Valentine, but about the card-chocolate-roses-diamond sales they make for this one day of the year when people are told to remember that they love someone.

I don’t know about you, but for my part I’d rather not remember ONE day, than remember only one and forget 364 days of the year that I love someone!

Still, this is Chocolate Day. Love chocolates. In a month we’ll have the yellow, bunny-and-chicken chocolates. A month ago, it was the red-and-green fir-tree and pot-bellied-bearded-old-man chocolates. There always seems to be a reason to throw chocolates at people’s nutrition plans!

I got one too this morning! Chocolate that is. In fact, it was a mug with several things in it. A lollipop, three small bags of some sort of candy, 2 heart-shaped pink-wrapped things I suspected were chocolates, and two Hershey’s kisses – one normal and one red. The candy? Trash-can, direct. Never even liked that as a kid. The pink hearts … I tried half of one, the rest of it and the other one … trash. Disgusting taste, some sort of chemical filling inside.

The kisses? The red wrapper contained a wite chocolate kiss with brown swirls. Tasteless and greasy. The silver one, the normal kiss looking one, was a normal kiss. But the taste? Bland, and also left a greasy feeling in my mouth.  Had there been more of both in that mug, they would have followed the candy and the pink hearts to the trash can.

Does that mean I will not have chocolate? Nope. But I’m not at all a fan of commercial chocolate. Not anymore. When I was growing up, chocolate did not leave that greasy film in my mouth. Not that I don’t remember it, it wasn’t there! I guess it comes from the added soy in today’s chocolates, makes them look the same but they are cheaper to make – yet we pay more … ??? Anyway.

If I actually buy chocolate, I’d rather spend my money on a good, Belgian style chocolate from a speciality store, and get just one or two pieces in a nice wrapper, get the good taste of real chocolate and not that greasy taste and feeling.

Better still, I buy dark chocolate, as close to 100% cocoa as I can get. I melt that in coconut milk, add nut butter, bran, raisins, a little orange juice, sometimes some orange peel (grated), crushed nuts; pour it into a mold, leave to cool and set, and cut squares a little under one inch in size. One per day max, usually two per week is all I’ll have.

Or I buy organic cocoa powder and make hot cocoa with stevia and some plant-milk (rice, oat, soy, almond …) which is really nice after an hour of shovelling snow – like I did yesterday.

No links to anything today surprise! Except … to my http://www.trainwithsarah.com on-line training site, and to my http://www.healthylivesforyou e-book

Have a good Chocolate Day!

Sarah

Fresh in from Lewis at AtoZ Fitness:

http://www.atozfitness.com/downloads/writersbest.pdf 

Just to give you some added motivation.

We are after all, a mere 7 weeks from the first official day of spring 2008, March 21st, which this year falls on a Friday. Depending on how nice (or awful) the weather is, I’m ready to bet there will be numerous parties that weekend.

Will you be looking forward to shedding the large sweaters and other cover-up clothing to show off a slimmer and leaner you that you have been working on for the previous weeks? Or will you be one of those who look for a lighter material baggy top to hide the winter flab under?

Personally, I’m opting for the first bunch, and although most fitness challenge programs are based on 12-week bouts with the exercises and fat combatting eachother, 7 weeks is still enough to make a decent dent in the fat if you get started right now (as in today, the day you read this, regardless of whether it’s a Monday or another day, the bodyfat can’t read the calendar!) and stick with a consistent training program and nutrition program.

At a loss as to what to select from the vast array of programs available? You can ask me at www.trainwithsarah.com and we can work together on getting you in spring shape, and subsequently summer shape!

I have a tough plan in mind for myself, which has been in preparation since January 21st. While I studied it and put it together as an optimally working plan, I stuck to the gym and my healthy kitchen, even added in cardio for the past 10 days! Now that the plan is ready, I can easily see (in my mind) the fat-cells shrinking in screaming agony as I train and eat them into oblivion! I almost feel sorry for them (nah!!)

Operation Lean Spring is officially under way!