Fitness on Vacation!

Here we are in the middle of summer travel and everyone is asking how do I exercise while on vacation. Luckily, I’m leaving on my own vacation tomorrow so I’ll be able to post a couple of lessons learned all week long. Today I want to focus on a full body strength routine you can do on the road that requires ZERO equipment. All you need is a hallway (hello…hotel hallways are the best), your Ipod for inspiration, and a go-getter attitude.

The following routine is inspired by my own Work Your Butt Off book and Fat Blasting Strength Training schedules. If you need to order one while I’m on vacation, I will be checking email but give me a little extra time as I answer all of my email personally. Now, the routine…

Start your stopwatch and walk up and down the hallway for 2 min. as your warm up.

1 min. – Walking Lunges
1 min. – Stationary Squats shoulder width leg
1 min. – Walk the hall
1 min. – Walking Lunges (side to side – step out to 10 o’clock and then 2 o’clock)
1 min. – Stationary Squats wide leg
1 min. – Walk the hall
1 min. – Push Ups with hands wide
1 min. – Crunches
1 min. – High Knee Run the hall
1 min. – Push Ups with hands in a triangle
1 min. – Bicycle Crunches
1 min. – High Knee Runs the hall
1 min. – Bearcrawls (get on your hands and feet face down and start crawling down the hall)
1 min. – Leg In and Outs
1 min. – Spiderwalk (get on your hands and feet face up and crawl down the hall)

You can repeat this one time for a 30 minute kick butt routine or you can add in the following if you have your resistance bands and a stairwell…

10 Overhead Presses with band
1 min. of stairs two at a time
10 Overhead Presses with band
1 min. of stairs two at a time
10 Overhead Presses with band
1 min. of stairs two at a time
10-15 Bicep Curls with band
10-15 Dips on stairs
10-15 Bicep Curls with band
10-15 Dips on stairs
10-15 Bicep Curls with band
10-15 Dips on stairs
Wrap resistance band around stair rail and do three sets of resistance band rows with 1 min. of jumping jacks in between each set.

There you have it. A travel routine you can do every other day you are on vacation. For the “off” days feel free to do some walking or running. Have fun!

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Daily Workout: Legs and bike riding
I did a circuit style leg day that was low impact but weighted. It’s been a long time since I did circuit legs and it was hard! I didn’t get to do any plyometric work. I can add that in next week when I’m cleared to do some jumping around! I did lots of lunges, walking squats, and step ups. I then rode hills on the recumbant bike.

Daily Food Journal: GARBAGE! I’m running the food out of the house so I’m down to just throwing together stuff.

B – Fiber One and last of the milk
S – 1 Gluten-free Waffle with Fage
L – SBD Pizza
S – Choco Protein Shake
D – Cottage Cheese, 2 Boca Patties, carrot sticks with hummus
S – Apple slices and SF/FF Pudding

100 Reps???

100 reps is a concept I caught a glimpse of in an Oxygen Magazine a couple of months ago. Since going heavy I’ve been reluctant to dedicate a training session to it.

Now that I’m in “recovery” from the redo on my girls, I decided today was a good day to give 100 reps a try with my own trainer since the weight load is light. It’s all about gutting through the pain. Instead of writing a big article about it…you can check out this excellent link that discusses the method.

While doing the various exercises I was allowed to do (still in recovery) my trainer and I discussed something very interesting. I am the type of client that pushes hard. Often I underestimate the intensity of my sets because in my book, if I ain’t dying, I ain’t working hard enough. This leads me to understate my intensity rating in my personal logs.

He commented that he notices that most people are the opposite. They never hit the wall or push through the burn during workouts. Most of the time, especially women, they start feeling muscle burn or the slightest discomfort and then stop. Essentially they stop short of the point where the “real work” is done.

The reps that really matter are the ones you perform in your discomfort zone. Pushing through some burn or struggling to get past sticking moments is where you get the work done that changes your shape and burns the fat.

If you are the kind of person who doesn’t know if you are really pushing your limits each time you workout, try doing a couple of things to test your usual workout:

1. If you are experienced in strength training, give 100 reps a try like the article discusses. It will humble you.

2. If you are a relative newbie to strength training, on the last set of each of your usual routines keep going until you can’t anymore. If you do more than 18 reps without struggle then you need to increase the amount of weight you are using.

Both ways will give you a solid example of what real fatigue and burn should feel like. The best way to burn off fat and build lean muscle is to make those workouts count. And, to make them count you shouldn’t be comfy.

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Daily Food Journal:

B – Fage and Melon
S – Mixed Nuts and Apple
L – Subway wrap without cheese and a sugar free cappucino (travel)
S – Cantaloupe (travel)
D – Carrots and Hummus with Beef Marinara served over cottage cheese
S – Protein Bar (homemade)

Basic Eating Stragtegies 101

A common question to my workout routines is how do I incorporate eating with the schedule so that I lose weight? Many of you are on Weight Watchers and other various diets that can easily be mixed with my workouts, but you do need some help in making sure you are eating ENOUGH foods, the RIGHT foods, and at the correct TIMES.

Let’s talk about my basics to eating to lose the most fat. Now, this is designed to be coupled with a targeted strength and cardio plan so if you are not exercising you do not need to worry with these suggestions.

1. Eat every 2-3 hours; about five to six meals a day. Each meal, or eating opportunity, should be similar in size and calories.

2. Eat complete, lean protein each time you eat. Complete proteins are: lean read meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, and dairy products. Protein Powder (whey) can be used but whole food is preferred for the majority of your meals.

3. Eat two servings of vegetables during as many of your meal opportunities as you can. Fruits can be eaten 1-3 times a day, but veggies should be your primary source of good, fresh, wholesome foods. Don’t drink juice. If you want Vitamin C…peel an orange.

4. Eat the starchy carbs (potatoes, oats, rice, grains, breads, cereals…not beans, carrots, and corn because you can have them anytime) within three hours POST exercise. 

5. Learn to love healthy fats. Enjoy mixed nuts, olives, and olive oil. Incorporate flaxseed oil, fish oil, or ground flax seed into your daily regimine.

6. Rather than having a treat (100 cal snack pack, pudding, Skinny Cow, etc.) each day, have one or two splurge meals a week where you eat rich satisfying foods. Then get right back on track.

7. Develop food preparation strategies. Read my blogs regarding bulk meal prepping and carrying coolers.

8. Have healthy variety but make sure you can live with it. I eat the same foods day in and day out for one week. The next week I try to eat a different set of foods to keep myself from getting bored and nutritionally in a rut. 

9. When you workout, get in a protein/carb shake IMMEDIATELY after your workout. Around 200 cals should do it for most people. Not eating after a workout of more than 30 minutes of moderate-high intensity will cause you to burn LESS CALORIES during the next 24 hours. 

Try doing the above with counting calories. If you are math nerd and need the facts…I rarely advise a client to be under 1400 cals a day. Most active women should eat between 1400-1750 cals a day. 1400 for non-active days and 1750 for active days. For WW members that is between 23 points for non-active days and 29 points for active days. Non-active days are your days off and active days are considered as 30+ min. of moderate-high intensity work or better.

If you take your diet a step further (but is not necessary following the guidelines), you will eat your macronutrient breakdown into: 25-30% fats, 30-40% protein, 30-40% carbs. Using a software like sparkpeople.com will allow you to see your macro breakdown. Again, this isn’t necessary but can be useful if you are interested.

I hope this helps and feel free to ask questions. But remember, keep it simple. We overthink it too much. The main things are: journal, exercise, and eat. Do the basics without cheating a single one and you will change your life.

Workout Journal: No exercise today unless I can get in a treadmill walk. I have a doc appointment and still recovering so I may just take a DOR.

 

Food Journal:

B – egg white and spin omelet
S – homemade protein bar
L – chicken salad and cantaloupe
S – protein shake
D – sir tips salad with baby carrots and hummus
S – Fage and apple

High Intensity, Fat Blasting Leg Routine

For pear shaped women your lower body drives you absolutely crazy. We all know that while you diet and exercise you lose weight throughout your chest, arms, back, and shoulders first. The legs will stubbornly hang onto every ounce of fat and cellulite to the bitter end.

Most pear shaped women make the mistake of doing extensions, inner and outer thigh work, and leg presses with lots of weight on those fancy gym machines trying to “spot reduce the fat on their legs” while totally ignoring their upper body. Don’t fall into this trap! The best way to attack your legs is a two-pronged approach:

1. Get off the machines and into body weight, high-intensity circuit leg training.

2. Work your upper body heavy with targeted arms and shoulders cardio pops.

By keeping leg day as high-intensity as you can, you will really see changes by including fat blasting circuit work like those in my Fat Blasting Training Schedules. Here’s an example of a late beginner to intermediate leg routine you can try to see if you are ready for PNP style work. If this routine is too tough, you are a beginner and need the Let’s Get It Started to work your way into these workouts.

Find a long hallway where you can do 15 walking lunges down and 15 walking lunges back. This is your leg day runway! Each down and back is considered a pass. Do each of the following groups of exercises back-to-back only taking a 30-60 second break between each set of three.

Group One: Repeat three times with a 30-60 break between each repeat (or set)
1 pass walking lunges
1 pass walking squats
2 passes of sprints

Group Two: Repeat three times with a 30-60 break between each repeat (or set)
1 pass squat shuffle (squat and walk in squat position without coming up)
1 pass walking lunge pumps (do a walking lunge but double pump yourself each step)
2 passes sprints

Next…
Find a set of stairs and climb two at a time for thirty seconds. March in place for thirty seconds. Repeat stairs for ten minutes. OR, you can use a stairmaster and do 30 seconds of deep climbing mixed with 30 seconds of easy climbing for 30 seconds.

If you are really motivated…
To finish off the legs you can do my classic Baby’s Got Back from the Work Your Butt Off Book. If you don’t have the book (why?) you can simply find a treadmill and walk backwards at a low speed on a nice incline for five to ten minutes.

Now, this is a high-intensity but sculpting leg workout. Enjoy!

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Daily Workout: 45 min. of bike at an easy pace….still recovering

Daily Food:
B – Eggs and spinach omelet
S – Fruit Protein Shake
L – Chicken and spinach salad with cantaloupe
S – Protein Bar and apple
D – Sir tips Salad
S – Fage

Fat Girl Thinking Rears It’s Big Ole Head

This morning I’m feeling a little out of sorts. I have to be very honest with everyone; fat girl thinking seems like it is never going away. Maybe it never really does and we have talked about that before, but it makes me sad to think there is a chance I will wake up every morning of my life expecting to be disappointed in myself or feeling as if I don’t measure up in some way.

For the life of me I cannot figure out how eternally optimistic people do it. I see the Olly Girls on Sunset Tan and think maybe you just need to be blissfully ignorant. Then I see my husband who’s a stinking certified genius and that theory is shot to heck. So what is it about me that is so hard to make the permanent switch? I mean, I’m genius if you count the commonsense smarts and a ignorant fool if you consider I’m busty and blonde. Surely that counts for something.

This morning I’m feeling lots of things but the two big ones are:

1. Guilt. This year for the first time in my son’s life I have taken back my life. I started PNP which took off crazy fast. I LOVE it, but it certainly has taken me away from him and he’s showing all sorts of signs that he ain’t happy about it. I also have gotten terribly close to the body I want and that’s time consuming between gym time, food prepping, and plastic surgery. Chalk up another mommy being selfish moment.

2. Exhaustion. I’m not talking physically but mentally. Maintenance is so hard in this lifestyle when you come from a background of being a fat girl. When you are losing weight, you get milestones and yahoos almost weekly. In maintenance you fight the good fight day in and day out in the struggle to keep things in balance. Your reward? Nothing. You don’t want to see the scale move so losses make everyone think you have an eating disorder and a gain they all say, “See, I knew she would never make it.” Nice, huh?

You are also MORE obsessed with your body than before. You daydream when you are fat that you will be walking on clouds when you get “skinny” and that the whole world seems to fall into place. LOL! Reality smacks you in the face hard with your body ain’t what you thought it would be, you notice every little imperfection, and you have a hard time accepting the fact that you DO LOOK better than before. Just because the scale and your clothes size cooperate it doesn’t mean your mind is ready to accept the new image staring back.

So, what’s a girl to do? Honestly I want to write a short workbook and personal stories book about this. Sounds crazy but I can’t be the only person who goes through this. I’ve noticed that as my clients get closer to their goals they get more anxious, scared, and overly analytical about themselves. How the heck do we deal with this?

I’ve got ideas, goal setting, postive thinking tactics, etc., but I really want to hear from all of you. I might be asking for an ENORMOUS amount of email, but I’d love to hear your personal stories, battles, wins, anything you would want to contribute to this book. It won’t be fancy but I think we all need something to help us navigate our way through the “diet” minefields of our minds. So, hit me with your contribution and maybe you’ll get in there and be fabulously famous in the PNP world. Deadline for entry will be July 31, 2007.

My email address: corinne@phit-n-phat.com

I look forward to all us all helping each other.

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Daily Workout: Recumbant Bike for 40 minutes. Easy pace…still in recovery phase.

Daily Food Journal: Travel and Family Reunion Day

B – Oatmeal and Fage, Berries
S – Carrots and Hummus, fruit
L – Turkey Breast Wrap, salad with nuts and lite asian dressing (before leaving house)
S – Homemade Protein Bar (upon arrival at fam reunion)
S - celery with p butter (cooler)
D – squash with beef marinara (was going to be Subway but we’re going to at the place later than expected. I’m brining this with me in the cooler.)
S – Fage with and apple (before bed)

Bulk Meal Prepping for Weight Loss…Lessons Learned

Yesterday was week three of full menu planning and prepping meals. This week presents me new challenges. Due to limited activity I have to cut my calories so my portions and options had to change. I am also travelling all day Tuesday and will be out of town Friday and Saturday. This week my focus is to choose items I could pack in a cooler easily. 

As usual I started with my blank Excel template and filled in all the meals I knew I would eat and repeat. Breakfast is almost always the same so that’s a no brainer. Next, I tackled my travel days by planning foods I could eat while driving and incorporating splurge meals. This allowes me to spread my calories appropriately through the week. Last, I filled in the holes. DONE!

I pulled together my shopping list, hit the store, and came home for two hours of chopping, boiling, and storing. Here’s a few lessons I learned this week that is making each week easier and easier to incorporate into my life.

• Start with a clean kitchen. All dishes put away or in the dishwasher. You run out of room fast so you want all the available space you can get.
• A slicer is invaluable. I have one from Pampered Chef and it slices my veggies in no time.
• Keep a strainer in the sink on the disposal side. You can rinse all veggies in this one, throw the ends in it, and then dispose quickly of your mess.
• Keep the dishwasher open and as you finish with a dish, rinse it out, and throw it in the dishwasher. As soon as it is full, run it.
• Buy a large cutting board. Wow. This is the first week I had a big one and it was sweet living.

Those are my tips this week. My other little secrets are to have all of my dirty clothes in the floor of my laundry room so that I’m washing and drying during dead time. I also keep my laptop nearby to quickly look up recipes or check business email. Never a dull moment.

Recipe: Homemade Protein Bars

3 cups Quick Cook Oats
2 cups Skim Milk
8 scoops of Whey Protein Powder (flavor of choice)
1 packet of Sugar Free/Fat Free Instant Pudding (flavor of choice)

Combine all ingredients together and mix until it becomes sticky. You may need to use a little less milk. Pour into a spray coated pan and place into fridge overnight. Cut into 10 pieces. **I have read that adding Xanthum Gum will make them hold better and be less sticky. I didn’t have XG so I cannot say. They are sticky, but delicious.

Each piece is approximately 200 cals, 23g of protein, 22g of carbs, and 2.5g of fat. It is a good choice for pre and post workout recovery. It can also be altered easily with add-ins like dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter, flax seed, etc., if you need more calories.

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Daily Workout: 30-45 min. of bike riding at the gym. Easing back into things this week so that I’m ready for loads of walking on my Vegas trip.

Daily Food Journal:

B – Egg White Omelet with veggies
S – Protein Shake
L – Spin salad with Beef Marinara and Zuchinni
S – Protein Bar and Apple
D – Sirlion Salad
S – Fage and PP

Breast Implant Redo…Well Worth It

Wow…what a difference a day can make. Yesterday I was busy but down in the dumps. I still had the effects of pain meds, swelling in my breasts and stomach, loads of tenderness, and just general angst about being inactive. I HATE NOT EXERCISING so it really makes the whole recovery process from my breast implant redo tougher.

Today I woke up feeling like a new woman and ready to reclaim my PNP Attitude. Maybe the meds worked themselves out of me, but I feel great, energetic, and ready to kick some you know what this week.

At 6am I made my weekly menu spreadsheet to send to my clients, pulled together the shopping list, and went the to the grocery with my grumpy four year old. OK…he tried all day to rain on the parade but I just wouldn’t let him and now he’s happily playing with Daddy. See…a positive attitude rubs off on everyone around you.

Tomorrow the blogs will get back to normal. Less focus on the surgery and more focus on all of our health. Because I’m a HUGE believer in goal setting, let me put out my own goals for the week:

1. 30-60 min. of very easy cardio five days this week.

2. 1 strength training session (legs and arms) with trainer. We’re doing a 100 rep day and I’ll talk about that after we do it.

3. Eat as close to schedule as possible since I have three days of travel this week.

4. Be my positive, fabulous self to every person I meet.

***Note: Most doctors recommend you take two to three full weeks off from exercise after breast implant redo surgery. I am not. I do have strict guidelines to follow from my doctor on what I can and cannot resume. Because I am in good health I am allowed a little wiggle room, but this is not a recommendation or encouragement. You should follow what YOUR doctor states if you are researching exercise and breast implant surgery. You pay good money for them so don’t ruin them being over anxious to hit the gym.

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Daily Exercise: I walked with my BF today for about 30 min. We had a good walk but I didn’t push the pace. She just had a baby last week and I’m recovering.

Daily Food:

B – Fage
S – Protein Bar (can you tell I was running out of food?)
L – Turkey (organic) wrap with veggies, soy crisps, cantaloupe
S – Nibbles all afternoon during weekly food prep (mostly veggies, fruit and chicken breast)
D – Zuchinni and Squash Marinara with organic ground lean beef
S – Fage

More Lovely Side Effects

So here I sit day four after surgery and still feeling sort of yucky. I just woke up and my girls are swollen and riding high. It takes about a good hour of sitting upright for them to drop into a comfortable position. The good news is that I never had to take a pain pill yesterday or last night so that part is over. My first breast augmentation and lift I was on pain meds for about a week. This is a big improvement.

The worst part is the swelling in my tummy. I know I complained pretty hard about it yesterday, but it really is miserable. It’s like I swallowed a watermelon and it is in my stomach. Finally I did some research last night and found that the swelling commonly moves into the abdominal region for a few days up to a week. That made me feel so much better and it made me deal with the scale a lot better. This morning I did weigh in again but the number had dropped slightly. It didn’t upset me like yesterday.

Today the plan is to go to the gym and ride the recumbant bike at a very easy pace to try to induce a BM. I’m taking Colace but it has yet to work any magic. Afterward I’m going to a friend’s house with Logan to lounge by the pool. My swim suit probably isn’t going to fit so it might be cami and shorts today. I hope to ease myself back into life a little more today and be ready to go on Monday like usual. Workouts – no, but eating and PNP – back to business. I miss all my girls!!!

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Workout Journal: easy bike at gym, not enough to even count calories

Food Journal:

B – Fage, coffee
S – Protein shake with fruit
L – Turkey wrap, baby carrots and hummus
S - Protein shake and fruit
D – Tuna Salad with soy crisps
S – Oatmeal and berries

Swelling and Bloating Oh My…

Here I am…day three after my redo from having breast implant exchange. The good news is that I haven’t had a pain pill all day. I’ve switched to Tylenol because the pain meds made me feel terrible. The bad news is that I am swollen EVERYWHERE. My belly is so big right now that I look horrible. OK, horrible is probably an overstatement but between not having a bowel movement, huge new boobs, being on my TOM, and not exercising for three days I feel like a pile of yuck.

Do you know what the worst part is? The SCALE! Good Lord. You would think that I of all freaking people would know better than to be hopping their happy a** up on that thing every morning, but OH NO, I’m just a glutton for punishment. Chris, if you read this blog please take that damn thing to work starting Monday. I don’t need it the house!

My mind is screaming all the right things to me:

1. The meds and trauma of surgery will cause water gain.

2. The implants themselves weigh a little more (I went from 325’s to 650’s LOL!).

3. Can we say CONSTIPATION!

4. TOM…enough said.

But, my evil-fat-girl-stinking-thinking-devil that lives inside me is only seeing a big blob staring back at her. It makes me wonder if you ever truly get over those feelings of insecurity. How many days do I have to be thin to convince myself that I’m not fat or fixing to be fat?

My only answer is this: I was fat or severly obese for close to 25 years. I’ve been thin (at my Weight Watcher Lifetime Goal) for two years. Hopefully it won’t take 23 more years to convince myself that I am healthy, but it is probably unrealistic to think I can erase that self-doubt in two years. The only way to handle it is to accept those feelings when they happen and keep reminding myself of the reality rather than dwelling in my own ridiculous manisfestations.

Speaking of reminding myself of some good news…this month is my two year anniversary of reaching my Weight Watcher Lifetime Status!!! Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s been that long since I reached goal. Here’s to me: healthy, busty, and constantly trying to improve.

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Exercise Journal: Nothing. Nada. Zero. Not allowed. Wahhhh!!!! Honestly, I’m going to start 20 minute short, slow walks on Sunday. Laying around is making me crazy.

Food Journal: My food stinks to say the least. I’m going to start journaling it again to keep myself accountable, but please don’t use this as a template. Protein is making me sick so I’m slowly building back to that.

B – oatmeal with vanilla protein powder and SF jelly
S – veggie and egg white omelet
L – honking bowl of Fiber One and skim milk (chased with a Colace)
S – choco protein shake and fruit cup
D – choco protein shake (no appetite and I have a Board Meeting to attend)
S – crackers and peanut butter

The Day After…

I’m on pain meds so please excuse my typos or possible rambling. Yesterday I had my implant exchange and it all went fabulous. When I had my first lift with implants, I was so miserable for the first week. I’m not going to sugar coat it; the first is terrible, you are in pain, and you can’t even flush a toilet.

This implant exchange is much easier. I was moving around and such yesterday. The only thing that is truly bothering me is the pain pills. I can’t think with them so I’m stopping them today and only having one before bed.

Pictures! This Saturday I will have Chris take a picture of them and then I’ll post the pics starting with Nov. 05 and up until the latest surgery.

Do you know what the toughest part of this recovery is? No exercise, the scale, and lack of appetite. Lately I’ve been weight training very heavy so it’s drilled into me that I have to eat every 2-3 hours. So far I’m living off water, protein bars and shakes, and I did have some fruit. That’s about all I’ve wanted.

The exercise is the real toughie. When I am exercising I feel so good. Just knowing that I have to layoff it for two weeks in order to let things heal is driving me crazy. On week three I can go back to moderate cardio and light lifting until I feel I can push my body. It will take all that’s in me to listen to the doc.

The last thing that is tough is seeing the scale jump up. Between swelling and TOM arriving yesterday my scale read six pounds this morning. Depressing. I know it’s not fat. I just hate the number. It’s funny how the scale can be such an emotional thing for women. We put so much stock into what the scale reads rather than focusing on how we look.

My challenge to all of us is to begin measuring our appearance rather than what the scale says.

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No Exercise or Food Journal today.