O2 for You You

Get moving, people! Forget about outward appearances for a minute, let's look at your insides. Aerobic exercise increases blood flow to your entire body. And, key point here, blood carries oxygen. This oxygen helps preserve your body's tissue. Your muscles are preserved better; your joints (tendons, ligaments and cartilage) are preserved better; your skin, organs and brain are preserved better. I coincidentally read the following little blurb in Women's Health magazine's January/February issue~check it out:

"Weight gain could increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease. Overweight people have an average of 4% less brain tissue than normal weight people. Obese people have 8 % less! 'A high fat diet clogs arteries so oxygen can't reach brain cells and they die' Paul Thompson, PhD, UCLA study."

Wow.
So: you move, the blood circulates, the oxygen gets delivered, the body parts are happy and fulfilled, the body parts perform optimally. You move less, this happens less.

Oh Dear.

‘Biggest Loser’ trainer sued for diet supplement. Lawsuit says Jillian Michaels' weight loss pills made false claims.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35334490/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/

Dee Kelly Comfort Foods

So all of these cold, windy, snowy days have me eating lots of warm and cozy food. I have invented a few healthy comfort foods that are really hitting the spot right now; protein rich but not too calorie-rich. Enjoy!

One small can of Healthy Request cream of chicken soup. When this came out of the microwave, I added 2 scrambled eggs that I had already cooked, 1 serving of canned chicken breast, 1 serving of squished-up tofu and some crumbled-up whole grain crackers. I have never made this concoction before but I will definitely do so again. Here are the rough numbers for it:
calories~384
protein~29 g
fat~11.25 g
sugar~18.5 g (all but 1 g was from the soup; who adds sugar to soup? Argh...)

Add all of these ingredients to a frying pan and cook until the liquid is gone: 3 servings of canned chicken breast and its juice, 1/2 of an eggplant (chopped up), 5 stalks of chopped-up asparagus, 1 rounded tablespoon of minced garlic, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of water. The beautiful thing about this dish is that the eggplant, asparagus, garlic and lemon juice are all foods that help keep your bloating/water-retention down. Bonus! Here are the numbers:
calories~251
protein~27 g
fat~4 g
sugar~19 g (none of this is refined, it is all natural sugar)

So, I'm Annoyed...

...don't you just hate when someone who you think is promoting a healthy lifestyle turns out to be a sham? Like you, I have public personalities that I look up to for various reasons. For example, I think the fitness industry and general population has greatly benefitted from the show The Biggest Loser. Their stories are inspirational, their trainers are motivational and the participants are raw and real.

Jillian Michaels promotes her workout videos which are phenom, tough, challenging, innovative; I likey. She has also added a 14 Day cleanse to her line of merchandise; red flag. And now she has a miraculous little pill that you can make you burn and melt your fat away; are you kidding me?! This baffles me...Jillian is a huge name in the health and fitness industry and has earned her reputation by setting people on the right track to a healthy lifestyle. With this little "fat-burner" she is confusing all of these people and sending the industry back to the 80s diet pill era.

What the heck are people supposed to believe? If you are following the exercises and nutritioinal plan that she has been prescribing for the last few years then why would you need a "fat-burning" pill? You don't. Isn't exercise and proper nutrition enough to achieve a healthy lifestyle and fit body? Uh...YEAH. Wouldn't the ingestion of unknown pills be pushing the health envelope and at the very least be throwing money out the window? Definitely.

On a more selfish level, I am frustrated by this because of all the questions I am going to have to field from clients about yet another "magic pill". Lots of people regard The Biggest Loser trainers, Jillian and Bob, as professionals who have knowledge and level-headed approaches to weight loss. When these types of role models go and do something stupid, by definition, their followers will follow. And the sensible trainers and nutritionists around the world are going to have to play that broken old record about the "magic pill" one more time. Aren't you sick of hearing that record, cause I am sure tired of playing it. It seems like I just get through to people when someone like Jillian Michaels goes and reneges it all with one 30 second commercial. Sigh.

"Fat-burning" pills are not approved by the FDA. They can contain any number of crazy additives that make your heart race and your blood pressure climb. Just because you feel these effects doesn't mean that you are burning fat. It means you have put unnatural stresses on your body. Health and fitness is about cleansing the body and making your stronger and more efficient; "fat-burning" pills are the farthest thing away from this. Sure, she may say that her "fat-burners" are all natural, but right on the label, it says that no one under the age of 18 should consume these pills. Why not? If it is natural than it should be safe for my kid to take. Oh, it might do damage to a child's system? Then why wouldn't people think that it could do damage to an adult's system?

These pills promote a small body, they are saying that you should go to any means necessary in order to be a tiny size. Does this sound a little warped to you? It sounds obsessive to me. It's such a shame: Jillian Michaels started out leading people in the right direction and because of her success, she got a lot of exposure for it. This sensible, back-to-basics approach has put her on my admiration list. A little extra cash, though, has her feeding our country's frenetic obsession to be thin. She has gone from health promoter to frenzy promoter with the popping of one little pill. Ugh. (Picture me rolling my eyes.)

Cool Website

One of my boot campers introduced me to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/. This site is a great way to journal your calorie intake. When you set up your account (which is free, by the way), you include your weight loss goal and myfitnesspal will calculate your BMR for you and set a calorie guideline for each day. It also breaks down these calories in protein, carbs, fat and sugar guidelines based on your goal.

Other great features:
~you can 'friend' people kind of like FaceBook and leave comments, etc.
~bulletin board type forums with posts about exercise, recipes, motivation, etc.
~success stories
~exercise calculator, heart calculator and general fitness education

Be sure and include your daily exercise when you set up your account so your calculated calorie intake isn't too low. You all know that you need sufficient calories to fuel your body through your workouts. When it gets down to it, YOU are the only one who can make changes in your life. But if you are serious about losing weight and getting healthier this year, myfitnesspal will keep you focused and help you get there!

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

The other day in the gym someone said to me that she loves spin class but that it doesn't "do anything for her" anymore. As she said this she was pointing up and down at her body. She said that she was just not going to go anymore. This is a great example of why you should mix things up! She loved spinning when she first discovered it, so she spent all of her workout time in the spin room day in and day out. Her body got used to the activity and became very efficient at it and her changes became less noticable.

Your body will change when you start something new. The idea is to keep things 'new' by switching them up all the time. Remember that you need cardio, weights and nutrition to continually make progress with your fitness. If you stick to just one (or two) of these (i.e. only spin classes) you will make some progress but then hover there until you change things up again. Your body is smart, you need to confuse it.

Spinning is a fantastic workout and has been a part of my Workout Week for years. But it is a part of my week; not my whole week. Look at your Workout Week; it should include weights for each major muscle group (legs, shoulders, chest, back, biceps, triceps, abs), 3 cardio sessions, 2 rest days and as many stretching sessions as workouts. You can pair muscle groups together like a chest/back day, a legs/shoulders day, etc. to save time since, afterall, there are only seven days in a week! If you're eating right then you don't need cardio to burn fat; use it for your ever-important heart health.

Here is what my current Workout Week looks like.

Mon.~off

Tues.~legs/shoulders/cardio (group fitness class or stair mill)
Wed.~off

Thurs.~light chest/triceps

Fri.~biceps/cardio (spin class)

Sat.~abs/cardio (run)

Sun.~heavy chest/back

I change this up according to what my current goals are. Right now you will see that I have two chest days. My goal is to bench press my body weight so I am focusing extra time there for a while. What is your goal? Plan your Week around it and get busy, girl!

Stand by for Math Class

Get your thinking caps on and let's do some math! Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the amount of calories that your body needs to breathe, pump blood, digest food and basically, stay alive. This does not include any physical activity throughout the day.

Get a rough idea of this number by dividing your weight by 2.2 to transfer it to kilograms. (example: a 135 pound woman weighs 61.4 kg.) Women, multiply this number by .9 and then by 24. Men, multiply your weight in kg by 1 and then by 24. (example: 61.4 x .9 x 24 = 1326.)

Now add in your body fat percentage:
Men 10-14% and women 14-18% multiply by 1
Men 14-20% and women 18-28%, multiply by .95
Men 20-28% and women 28-38%, multiply by .9
Men over 28% and women over 38%, multiply by .85
(example: our 135 pound woman has a body fat % of 23, so her number is now 1260.)

Now add in the amount of activity you do on the majority of the days of the week:
Very light activity~teaching, lab/shop work, walking around, multiply by 1.55
Light activity~gardening, walking as exercise, multiply by 1.55
Moderate activity~jogging, light cycling or swimming, multiply by 1.65
Heavy activity~running, weight lifting, sports teams, multiply by 1.80
Very heavy activity~intense exercise for two hours a day, multiply by 2.00
(example: our woman has a moderate activity level so her number is now 2079.)

The number that you arrive at here is the amount of calories you need each day to maintain the physique you have now. But you don’t want to maintain what you’ve got; you want to lose the squish you put on over the holidays, right? Your metabolism is a touchy thing. It needs to be fed in order to keep burning. But if it is fed too much it will store the extra calories as fat; if it is not fed enough, it will also store each calorie ingested for fear of starvation. A general rule of thumb is to subtract 500 calories from your last number. (example: 2079 - 500 = 1579.) Don’t get carried away and start slashing calories right and left; the lower you cut these calories, the more likely your metabolism is to slow down and hold on to each morsel you eat in order to prevent starvation. Not good, in fact this is the exact opposite of what you are striving for. You don’t want to eat too much but you also don’t want to cut out too much!

So 1579 is the total number of calories needed each day for our example woman to keep her metabolism burning calories all day long. But now we want to divide this number by five since we all know that we should eat five meals each day, right? If you eat six meals a day, then divide it by six. 1579 / 5 = 316 calories that should be eaten at each meal. Every three hours, this woman should be eating 316 calories. There is no small snack mid-morning and there is no big meal at dinner time. These meals should all be the same size. Any calories that are over the 316 calories, her body cannot process and will store as fat. You guys, keep in mind that these are general numbers. If you find that you are still hungry after your allotted calories, try beefing them up a bit. But I recommend waiting a few days so as not to confuse mental hunger habits with what your body’s true caloric needs.

All of these long-winded calculations can get confusing but be diligent; this is great information to know about yourself. Let’s bottom-line it because when it comes to your eating it really is very simple:
~your first meal should be within an hour of waking up
~you should be eating every 3 hours which works out to 5 or 6 meals a day
~figure out your BMR and divide it by the number of meals you are eating each day
~get your 15-20 grams of protein first in each meal as a priority to your muscles
~fill up the remainder of the calories with whole grains, fruits/veggies and healthy fats
~drink water continuously all day long so you are peeing a pale yellow

It takes some thought and planning but once it becomes habit you’re on your way to a burning hot metabolism and a smokin’ hot body.