1 Down 11 To Go!

We made it through the tunnels of Hunt Midwest Cave this weekend to the finish line of our first 5K race this year. A pre-race picture of me and the hubby!


Sharon, a former client, also ran the 5K with us. I have to brag on Sharon because just 1 year ago she was a completely different person. Here's her story:

My name is Sharon Muir. I am 36 years old. I am the wife of Rob and mother of 4 year old, Ethan. I have rheumatoid arthritis. I was diagnosed with this chronic illness 10 years ago. I take many medications to control my disease. My goal more than weight loss is to live a healthy life in a more healthy body. I am achieving that goal by eating healthy including adding more veggies to my daily diet and eating smaller portions. In January 2007, I began taking the Women's Equilibrium Class. I took the class for 8 months and went from a size 16 to a size 10. Since the year 2005, I have slowly lost a total of 35 lbs. The most current 20 lbs. just melted off due to reshaping my body and reshaping my daily diet. My new hobby is exercise. I have made exercise a social and stress relieving part of my life. I am part of a small group of ladies who have a 2008 goal to run/walk at least one organized 5K race every month. With my current combination of weight loss, exercise, healthy eating and arthritis medications I am in the best mental and physical shape I have been in since being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

Sharon shaved 10 minutes off her 5K race time at the Groundhog run. Way to go Sharon....I am so proud of you!!


Here's Sharon's Before Picture

And Here's Sharon Now!!!

Weight Gain Advice

Mostly, I'm preaching on what not to do in order to lose weight. I thought I would take a different approach. These are 5 tips on what Sumo Wrestlers do in order to gain weight for competition.

1. Skip breakfast. By depriving their bodies of food after eight hours of sleep, their metabolic rates stay low.

2. Exercise on an empty stomach. If their bodies have
no food, their metabolic thermostats are turned down even lower to conserve fuel.

3. Take a nap after eating. The Sumo secret for gaining weight is that, after eating, they sleep for at least four hours.

4. Eat late in the day. Going to bed with full stomachs means that their bodies must respond to the huge flood of nutrients with a rush of insulin, forcing their bodies to store some of it in the cells as fat instead of in the muscles and organs as nutrients.

5. Always eat with others in a social atmosphere. According to leading researchers, a meal eaten with others can be at least 44 percent larger and with 30 percent more calories and fat.


Hmmmm...

February Freeze

Here's the scoop:

I haven't been able to locate a 5K in February (that I can attend) so instead of giving up on my "New Year's Goal" of a race per month I decided to get a (very informal) walk/run in place. Basically it will be a bunch of great people (that's you and your friends) together in order to get some walking or jogging or combination of the two in that makes up the distance of a 5K (or 3.1 miles). It's less than an hour of walking (or the equivelent an afternoon at the mall) if your friends give you any excuses that their "out-of-shape." You do not need to be in amazing shape to do this. Your assignment, as an friend of mine is to spread the cardio love and invite someone you care about to join with you.

I'm working on getting some "February Freeze" t-shirts made as well. That way there's proof you did a 5K!

It will be on February 23rd at 9am at the Liberty High School Track. It's a great, no-pressure, social environment that should be fun for everyone. Who knows, we may even get some out-of-the-ordinary warm February weather and have to change the race name. I hope you will consider joining me and grabbing some friends-mark your calendar and start recruiting.

More information to come soon!

Mindless Eaters

Here it is, the trick to long-term weight loss for anyone. I've been listening to the book on tape Mindless Eating by Dr. Brian Wansink. I've only made it through the first half of the book but I would highly recommend it. Summarizing all the statistics, facts, research, numbers, and experiments Dr. Wansink explained the ultimate "trick" to weight loss is no more diets. This concept, of course, is not a new one. Many many times I have gained clients who would be okay living off lettuce for a month just to see the scale move in their favor. No I do not allow this as you might be thinking, "what kind of trainer is she?" Rather I work feverishly to illustrate the importance of small changes over a long period of time. Thus making a...deep breath..lifestyle change. Maybe you know this from personal experience but the more we deprive ourselves of something we like, the more we think about it and the more we completely pig out on that very item once our "diet" is terminated. Dr. Wansink explains that if we can un-noticeably decrease our intake of bad foods(processed) and increase good foods (veggies) weight loss over a period of time will un-noticeably be achieved. He notes that our bodies will not recognize a 20% decrease in portion size because it's too small of a change. We can do this by simply eating off smaller plates (research shows that eating off bigger plates increases food consumption).

3500 calories = 1 pound of fat

This means that increasing 10 calories per day (either eating more or burning off less) in one year will add 1 pound of fat to your body.

Adversely, eating 100 less calories per day would equal a weight loss of 10 pounds per year. Something to think about as you look at where your weight is in comparison to 1998.

A goal: this week work on un-noticeably eating less. Maybe that means not cleaning your plate as usual.

What can we expect for 2008?

The leading Fitness Authority in American, ACE, releases the top 10 exercise trends of 2008. To see if you fall into one of the categories, click here.

Boredom Free Cardio Workout

Warm Up: 5 minutes

6 minutes of 1 min. fast/1 min slow

20 mountain climbers
50 Jumping Jacks
10 Flying Angels
50 Jump Rope

5 minutes on any machine

20 mountain climbers (what's a mountain climber?)
50 Jumping Jacks
10 Flying Angels
50 Jump Rope
5 laps around gym

15-10-15Pilates Criss-Cross Crunches
Full crunches

Hold a plank for 30 seconds (what's a plank?)

Goals for 2008-The Dave Way

As most of you know, I love Dave Ramsey and the advice he gives on finances. I was looking around his website today and wanted to share his printable baby steps page.

Click here to view.

In a nutshell, these are tiny goals that help people get on the road to financial freedom. It's also really interesting to listen to his radio show that airs on 710am from 11-2 weekdays. On the show, people call in with their financial questions and Dave gives his "if I were in your shoes" answer. One of the most interesting concepts I've taken away from the show is you don't have to be in the upper tax bracket to be financially free. The other day a caller told Dave her household income was over $250K but she was virtually broke. She had 3 car payments, a huge mortgage and credit card debt. And then it clicked...ah-ha! It's not about how much a person makes but how they decide to spend what the money. She has a great income, but no more financially healthy than someone making $40K a year.

My link to health from this financial gibberish (my soapbox) is all about the choices we make. In the book, "Mindless Eating" Dr. Brian Wansink talks about the psychology of eating and how we make over 100 choices/day (or more) about food. Think about it, you decide what you will eat, when you will eat, do or don't you skip the mini-snickers on the receptionists desk. We either choose to eat more than our bodies can burn off or we eat less and workout (the key ingredients to losing weight).

In conclusion (to my array of thoughts), if your 2008 goal is losing weight; make the CHOICE to stick with it. I'm not going to lie, if you want results: eating, breathing and sleeping the goal AND always acting on it for several, several months is the path that lies ahead. My hope is that this statement will help you realize there's no magic pill or no mystical infomercial machine that's going to easily get you where you want to be.

Anyone I've worked with that was successful in losing weight diligently works for their goal. Last year after gaining 50 pounds by carrying my beautiful son Jax, I literally ate, slept, dreamt, and breathed my goal until I made it. I found what motivated me (fitting into my old clothes) and used it to empower me so my days were filled with healthy eating and working my booty off. Get this-I didn't buy a single piece of clothing until I could fit into my old stuff. I didn't reward myself until I made my goal. I wore basically the same thing for 3 months day after day. Seem extreme? Probably but I had to trick myself into success because I didn't want to buy the bigger size, because I didn't want to be the bigger size. Figure yourself out.

Please contact me if you have questions or want ideas on how to trick yourself.

Welcome 2008!

It's here whether we like it or not, hello 2008! Another January, another do-over, another new beginning or whatever you want to call it. Have you made your resolutions for this year? Or better yet, did you keep last years? I don't believe I made one for 2007 but I have a couple I'll share for 2008...but only if you do too! Post your resolutions in the comments section, I would love to hear what you have in mind for yourself and how you're going to keep that commitment. This way we can have a self check mid-way through the year.

Mandy's Resolutions:
1) Participate in a running/walking race each month-yes, that's 12 races for 2008!
2) Take more deep breaths (patience and relaxation)