How Many Calories Should I Eat?

Finding how many calories you should eat each day is not as hard as many of us make it out to be. Most women who spend time pouring over trying to find the exact amount of calories they should eat either go on food binges which throws water on their metabolism fire, or chronically undereat because they never believe they can truly eat that much and lose weight.

Before I explain how to come up with a good calorie range for you to lose fat, I want you to stop and do a couple of things:

1. Get out your food journal. What? You don’t have one? Then go no further. Go buy a journal or create an online version so that you can actually use the information I’m going to give you. If you aren’t writing down your foods you’ll never stick to your ranges.

2. Accept the fact that to lose fat and not just weight you have to eat. I don’t want a single woman out there trying to lose fat by starving or undereating and feeling miserable. That’s ridiculous!

3. Repeat after me: I will create my daily 500 calorie deficit by combining a little calorie restriction with daily activity (cough, strength training too, cough).

OK…I think we are ready to do the numbers.

Determine Your Daily Calorie Goal
We will estimate your daily calorie needs to maintain your current weight. 

• Take your present weight and multiply by 13. That number covers your metabolic needs for the day, factoring in a bit of light activity. If you weigh 150 pounds, you need about 1950 calories per day. If you weigh 200 pounds you need 2600 calories per day.
• To create your calorie deficit, subtract 500 calories from your maintenance number on non-workout days and 200 calories from your number on workout days. Our 150 lb friend would eat in a range of 1450-1750 calories during the week depending on their workout schedule.

Your goal is to create the bulk of your deficit through your activity and not through reducing the fuel you put into your body. For my calculations above, I factored in you will burn on average about 300 calories per workout. That could be 30 minutes or running or 45 minutes of walking. If you do my strength training workouts that’s an average for one session. Some burn more but 300 is good for those doing PNP workout schedules.

How many calories you can cut from your diet depends a lot on how much you’re eating and how much weight you have to lose. If you have more than 25lbs to lose, you could subtract 750-1000 calories from your maintenance calories. With each 10lbs you lose you will need to refigure your ranges to keep losing the most amount of fat.

That’s it! Don’t make it harder than that. By eating just under what you need you will see inches melt off your body because you are in fat burning mode and not muscle burning mode.

For information on how to do meal timing, etc., search the clean eating and workout nutrition categories.

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Daily Workout: Legs! Dear God, please don’t let Bill cripple me again this week. I know I have to go very heavy to achieve my sexy legs but I also enjoy walking and using the bathroom.

We’ll do more of the same: a boatload of free squats with the barbell. Five to six sets, 10-12 reps or to failure (don’t do failure reps on free squats unless you have a partner to assist with lifting the bar), four sets of leg presses (feet angles varied each week), finish with hamstring curls to fry the hammies.

Cardio…I may try to walk some before we start but that will be it for the day.

Daily Food:

B – Oatmeal and Fage
S - post workout Orange Creme Protein Shake mixed with Fruit Punch Crystal Light
L – Carrots and Hummus, Thai Tuna on baked potato
S – Protein Bar and Apple
D – Fruit, SBD Pizza
S – Orange Creme Protein Shake blended with cottage cheese

Leptin Levels and Obesity

First, I’m no doctor so I’m attaching a link that goes into the science. Click here to get the “wordy” version of Leptin.

With that out of the way, here’s an answer to a question posed to me in the Cheat Meal post of a couple of days ago.

“Anyway, this article doesn’t mention leptin levels, which as I understand it, are the hormones that create “famine brain” where your body believes it’s starving. The way I understand it is a splurge meal fools the brain into thinking that it’s not starving after all. Am I totally wrong?”

No, you are not wrong that leptin levels trigger the faminine response in the brain. Excellent question.

What I believe is that people mistake the splurge meal as the only way to counteract this effect. One big meal a week isn’t going to do that for a long period of time. The BEST way to avoid the leptin effect is to eat slightly in caloric deficit filling your body with good, clean, healthy foods.

Most people believe they can’t lose fat without starving. They want to cut calories down to ridiculous levels like 1200 calories a day. Then they start an exercise program that is vigorous and like no other attempted in their life. This is a recipe to crash and burn with diet and exercise. Not only are you starving your body, but you send yourself into deep punishment and deprivation mode. Your body starts screaming at you for some food and rather than just upping your calories with good food, what do you do? Fat Girl Thinking kicks in and you start having all the comfort foods, feel horrible about it, and give up.

I advocate eating as much as you can while losing fat so that you have success. Example: I have many Weight Watcher people plead for help because they are exercising for an hour five times a week, eat 20 points a day, and they are tired, hungry, and not losing. They just don’t get why they can’t have long-term success.

20 points a day is eating 1200 calories a day. The average woman needs 1400 just to lay in bed, have three squares, and make a poop. Pile 300-500 cals burned in exercise and this person is giving their body a whopping 700-900 cals a day to function. You know what? We haven’t even added in calories to go to work and chase kids! No wonder their body thinks they are starving. They are!!!

I would have the same person eat activity points and divide out their weekly flex points so that each day they are eating 25 points on non-exercise days and 28-30 points on exercise days. In regular terms that’s 1500-1800 calories a day. On top of that, you have one splurge meal a week. 60 minutes of fun if you want it. You’ll still lose. It’s exactly what I did before I even knew what I was really doing. LOL!

Now, I assume you are strength training with good, heavy weight and doing moderate high cardio…right? If not, dig through this blog for articles on that.

So, to sum it up:

- Leptin levels do effect obesity.

- Leptin levels wouldn’t be your issue if you eat right under your fat burning zone.

- Leptin levels are not effected enough by splurge meals to make a big difference in the long-term.

- Eat clean, exercise, and don’t starve. You will lose fat.

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Daily Workout: Shoulders and 40 min. of Mod High Intensity Cardio. I’ll probably do the elliptical tonight since I ran yesterday.

Seated OH Presses SS with Leg Raises
Front Plate Raises SS with Lateral Raises
Bent Over Rear Delts SS with Crunches
Front Rope Pull SS with Bike Crunches
1/2 Way to Top Straight Bar Curls SS Hammer Curls

Daily Food:
B – Energy Bar and coffee
S – Protein Shake
L – Eating Out - probably nice salad somewhere or grilled fish and veggies
S – Peanut Butter and Apple pre evening cardio
D – EAS Shake right after workout and then 30 min later eat tuna on salad with WW toast
S – Fage

Mind Over Matter

On our private message board here at PNP a moderator posted a load of great running quotes. This one was particularly special to many of my clients.“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the MIND run the body. Never let the body tell the MIND what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired, in the morning, noon and night. But the body is never tired if the MIND is not tired.”

George S Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

Patton was an Olympian? Wow, two lessons today…but I digress. How true is that statement? Our minds are the most important factor in our efforts to lead a healthy lifestyle. For women especially, our minds have to b in the game if we are going to win. We have too many distractions around us to make us “think” our body is unable to perform.

Kids waking up in the middle night.
Husbands who feel the housework is “your” work regardless if you have job too.
Friends that need to talk to you right when they know you are supposed to be working out.
Bosses who don’t understand that lunch really is the only time you can exercise so they ask you to do a special project.
We have loads of excuses to be tired, exhausted, and fed up. It’s RARE that we are ever going to have a day where we got enough sleep, no one stressed us out, and our eating is tip-top. It’s just part of life to be stretched thin, but it doesn’t mean you throw in the towel on taking care of yourself!

Stop waking up each morning thinking you are tired. Go to bed with purpose each night and wake up with desire to get things done. Don’t lay there and mentally whine about your exhaustion. Honey, don’t fool yourself. Every person who drags their tail out of bed to exercise is tired. The difference is they wake up focused on what they have to do and not focused on what they don’t want to do.

Start telling yourself all the things you can do today you will find yourself able to do more. Turn off the TV, put down your magazines, and get off my blog. Those are things that you do to avoid your workout. If you have time for that stuff, you have time to lift.

I’ll leave you with one more quote that sums it all up.

“Someone busier than you are is running right now.” –Nike

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Workout Journal: Long run…going for six but will only have to do five. I’ll see how hot it is and decide on the trail when I get there. The route I want to run is a six miler so I thought it would be fun to tack one more mile on if I’m up to it.

Food Journal:

B – Protein Bar and coffee
S – post run EAS Shake and then Fiber One when I get home
L – Marinara and beef squash mix
S – choco protein shake
S – Fruit cup
D – Tuna salad and carrots with hummus
S – Fage

Splurge or Cheat Meal…What You Need To Know

The Splurge Meal can save you when you are in the dreaded “diet mode.” I find that many people need to be on top of their game all through the week and allow themselves a single meal where they don’t count points, cals, macros, or anything else. They need the mental break and their lifestyle has committments like weddings and parties.The splurge meal has rules. You have 60 minutes from start to finish to eat whatever you want. The key is that when that meal is over, IT IS OVER! This ensures you get right back on program and aren’t allowed a full day’s worth of craziness. The first couple of times it is difficult because you tend to go whole hog and eat a little too much. After that, you learn that no one will take your splurge meal away and you can eat reasonably feeling confident that the meal will happen again next week. It’s just a nice way to allow yourself that mental break each week from following your normal, healthy lifestyle.

Taken from an article by Dr. John Berardi, the following info is good to consider if a splurge or cheat meal is right for you:

“Cheat or Splurge Meals are right for some people and wrong for others. Cheat meals eaten once per week or once every two weeks are fine, depending on your goals or your body-fat percentage. The leaner you are, the more often you can cheat. But don’t force it. Calling the binge session a “splurge meal” and using it as an excuse to eat a bunch of junk food is not the way to get to your goals.

From what I’ve seen, the following always holds true. If you’re honestly overeating large amounts of good foods on a regular basis, you’ll certainly be getting all the good calories you need to grow. And you won’t be hungry for crappy food. In fact, one way I assess whether my clients are eating enough good bodybuilding food each week is whether they are craving cheat foods. If so, they need more calories through the week. Scientifically, this makes sense since chronic overfeeding causes the brain to realease satiety hormones and these hormones signals tell the brain’s hunger centers to “shut up and sit down.”

Splurge meal frequency and/or size should be minimized when over 15-20% body fat. Basically, the bigger you are, the more likely that any excess food will be shuttled toward body-fat storage rather than muscle tissue. So, if you’re overweight, minimize your over eating.

Don’t have cheat days or meals while you’re trying to lose weight. I know, I know, you’ve always heard talk about “stoking the metabolic fire” or some nonsense like that, but simply put, that’s bunk. First, psychologically, it’s very difficult to stay disciplined after a cheat meal. After weeks of dieting, the taste buds, which have all but given up hope, are stirred back to life. Each time you cheat on the diet, it’s more difficult to stay strict when next you’re being tested by the devil on your shoulder. “Come on you know you want a slice of pizza. Remember, you didn’t get fat after your cheat meal on Sunday. This one time will be fine, too.”

And physiologically, there’s no sound reason to have a cheat meal. One meal will not upregulate your sluggish dieter’s metabolism, despite what you’ve heard. Sure, the metabolic rate gets upregulated for a few short hours after the big meal, but no way will this thermogenesis account for the large caloric load you’ll be dumping into the gut at once.

So my final answer is that it’s okay for some people to “believe in” the splurge meal. Others however, should categorize the splurge meal right up there with the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot.”

I think this advice is solid. If you are early in your journey you need to worry more about establishing good habits, reframing what your indulgent foods are, desensitizing your taste buds to sugars and salt, and staying focused. Splurge meals can possibly be too much temptation for you. If you are the kind of person who goes nuts if they don’t get to have some of the foods they enjoy, then you need to build some splurges into your week. Figure out what will work better for you. It’s like quitting smoking: are you a cold turkey person or a nicotine patch kind of girl?

As I have gone through my journey I have found my splurge meals get better and better and I take them when I need them. Sometimes I need two or three small splurges a week, sometimes it’s one big one a week, and other times it’s weeks before I take one.

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Daily Workout: Chest and Tris with my short run.

Warm up with two sets of full push ups
Incline Bench Presses at 45 degree angle SS with Planks
Flat Bench Presses SS with Full Range Weighted Sit Ups
Seated OH Extensions SS with Decline Bench Oblique Twists Weighted

Daily Food Journal:

B – Oatmeal with Fage
S – Postworkout Smoothie
L – Beef and Squash Marinara with green salad
S – Peanut Butter
S – 1/2 bottle of Accelerade
S – EAS Shake and apple post workout
D – Shrimp Slaw and Toasted Eng Muffin with Cheese
S – Fage

Preparing for Another Week of Fitness and Health

Yesterday I did my first outside run since spring, I suppose, since I had quit running shortly after that. It felt amazing, I was faster than last year, and it made me think why.

There could be a ton of reasons. It surely wasn’t the weather because it was hot at 7:00 a.m. I tried Jeff Galloway’s pre-run strategy: a protein/carb bar and a cup of coffee. He says the caffine and fuel give you some pep in your step. I also took a rest day on Saturday. Wow…I was just physically sore and decided not to push. It helped my run on Sunday, too.

The biggest reason, I believe, is the care I take of myself these days. At least 80% of my eating decisions are very healthy, clean foods. 10% are almost clean. When I say almost clean I mean a protein bar or some soy crisps. That’s not exactly living the high life.  The other 10% is my scheduled splurge meals. I also cross train more than I have ever before, I strength train my legs which gives me great leg power, and I take those days off when I need them.

All of this is paying off now. In the past I pushed myself way too hard, ate junky foods within my “calories” and didn’t get good results with my body. I stayed flabby and tired all the time. Now, I’m full of energy and ready for new challenges.

This week I’m loaded with my menu all planned out, an exercise plan, and a great attitude. It’s going to be a good week.

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Daily Workout: Back with Trainer – we’re going back to pull-ups. This is the first pull-up session with him since surgery. I’m very excited and can’t wait. Pull-ups make my arms and shoulders look great. I’ll finish with 30 minutes on the elliptical at mod-high pace.

Daily Food:
B – Apple, Egg Whites, 1 pc of WW Toast
S – Protein Shake while on Elliptical
L – Shrimp Slaw
S – Protein Shake
S – Apple
D – Beef Marinara
S – Fage

Best Exercises for Cut Up Arms

Many of us want a sculpted look for our upper body and arms. We all know that in order to see pretty arms we have to burn off the fat, but what exercises are the best for achieving a hot look?

Many of us think we should stand around and do 15-20 reps of 5lb DB curls…right? Wrong! If you read this blog you know it’s low reps and heavy weight, first, and second, curls are the last thing you need to be doing. Let me tell you the best exercises to include in your strength training that will give you sexy arms.

Do your compound movements in the first part of your workout. Compound movement just means you are working more than one muscle group. Example, a Barbell Row is a back exercise but it utilizes your biceps, back, shoulders, and some glutes to execute. Compound moves also work your abs and core. You do enough of them at a good weight and you don’t have to formal ab work.

Start your upper body workout with these moves. 3-4 sets for 10-12 reps is a good rule of thumb for most people. Go until fatigue while able to keep good form.

Chest Press – Flat or Incline
Pull Ups/Chin Ups – these are EXCELLENT for your arms. Do them assisted if you need. This link shows you all you need to know to progress through pull ups if you don’t have an assist machine.
Lat Pulldowns - Wide and Close Grip
Rows – Cable Rows, Single Arm DB Rows, Barbell Rows…they are all good
Push Ups – Check out the push up challenge because it will work you good in just a few weeks.
Overhead Presses – Arnold and Regular Presses
Dips

These are my favorite exercises and I switch out my weekly routines with variations of all of them. I like to start a session off with one or two major compound moves for a few sets and go to failure or sticking. Then I move to exercises like curls or tricep extensions to finish off the muscle.

By incorporating these compound moves you’ll find your workout tougher, higher in intensity (which burns fat), and more productive.

Sample Upper Body Day for Fat Loss:

3 sets of Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns 10-12 reps SUPERSETTED with
   3 sets of Dips

3×10-12 of Chin Ups SS with
   3×10 -12 Bench Presses

3×10-12 of Push Ups SS with
   3×10-12 DB Bicep Curls

3×10-12 OH Extensions SS with
   3×10-12 Kickbacks or OH Presses

Rest 60 seconds between each Superset. That’s all you need. Beginners take the rest. Intermediate exercises, drop and give me abs for 60 seconds – no rest. Advanced or you want to just punish yourself…give me mountain climbers, burpees, bearcrawls, spiderwalks, pop squats, or run stairs between your supersets. You will NOT need cardio afterward. MUWAHAHAHAHAH!

And, don’t forget to drink your post-workout fuel! You don’t want to work this hard and lose your benefits by skimping on your fuel.

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Daily Workout – Legs with trainer. I’m sure we’ll be doing a million free squats, leg presses, and hamstring curls until I puke as usual. I will not do cardio unless I do a 15 min. w/up walk beforehand.

Daily Food -

B – Fiber One and skim
S – Protein Shake with fruit
L – Baker with Chicken, Green Salad topped with Chic Peas and fruit
S – Protein Shake
D – Steak, Green Beans, Steamed Veggies with cheese
S – Fage and Apple

Exercise During the Workday

Leigh emailed me an excellent question this morning concerning exercise during the work day. She is a desk jockey and would like to get in some bonus work. With the heat being MISERABLE right now her lunch time walks are out of the question. Nobody wants a swamp butt sitting next to them all afternoon.

Tips to Exercising At Work:

1.  Focus on body weight, compound sculpting moves. Strength ALWAYS is your bigger pay off because it will slightly elevate your heartrate during the session but give you some post exercise calorie burn.

2.Take it 10 minutes at a time. You can carve out three, ten minute sessions through the day. Heck, take a bathroom break, potty, do some strength moves, go back to your desk. That’s a good way to remember and if you work in a cubicle you’ll have a little more privacey.

3. Walk. So right now is not a good time but when the weather breaks I would split my lunch in half: 30 minutes for eating and 30 minutes for walking. You can add those lower body strength moves into the walk every fifth minute for a nice little workout.

10-Minute Routines

Take a 30 second break in between each of these circuits. You will do the listed exercises back-to-back, take a 30 second break to stretch, and repeat for three to four sets depending on when you reach 10 minutes.

Cycle One: Lower Body
10 Lunges Right Leg
10 Lunges Left Leg
20 Alternating Lunges
10-20 Squats – Feet Shoulder Width Apart (depends on your leg strength…basically go to burn)
10 Squat Hovers (go to 90 angle and then hover like you are sitting on the potty and slightly bounce)
10-20 Squats – Feet Wide and turned to 10 and 2 o’clock
10 Squat Hovers
10-20 Squats – Feet Together
10 Squat Hovers

Cycle Two: (You will need a wall and/or floor space) Upper Body
20 Mountain Climbers
10 Push Ups with arms out wide
20 Mountain Climbers
10 Push Ups with arms under shoulders
20 Mountain Climbers
10 Push Ups with hands in a triangle
30 seconds of Dips

Cycle Three: Cardio/Core
30 Sec of Plank
8 Burpees
30 Sec of Plank
6 Burpees
30 Sec of Plank
4 Burpees
Slow Bicycle Crunches until you feel the burn
6 Burpees
Slow Bicycle Crunches until you feel the burn
8 Burpees
1 min of Imaginary Jump Rope

Some of these circuits may be too intense for beginners. Cut the exercises back and just do what you can. Since you are using body weight for these exercises you can do the cycles as is or you can do the upper body twice with the cardio cycle and then the next day do the lower body twice and the cardio cycle. Alternate each day. Loads of options!

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Workout Journal: Back Day on my own. After back I will ride the recumbant bike for cross training for 30 minutes while reading my Galloway book!

3 sets of Wide Lat Pulldowns (still have to go light with these)
5 sets of close grip assisted pull ups
3 sets of close grip rows
3 sets of single arm DB rows with twist at bottom

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Daily Food Journal:

B – Oatmeal with Fage and Flax Seeds
S – Post workout Protein Shake from Smoothie Bar at gym
L – Baked Potato with cottage cheese, green salad
S – Protein Shake
D – Talapia with green beans and an apple
S – Fage

Running and Walking…Together?

If ya’ll could see the PNP message board you would have to laugh at us and our giddy excitement. So many of us are either runners or runners in training. Many of us are planning to do the Vegas 1/2 Marathon in December and so the hot topic these days is…Will I finish without having to walk?

Good gracious this takes me back. When I started running I never thought I could. Hell, my first 5K I finished in a cool 52 minutes and honey, I was crying and beaming with pride with that blistering pace. After that race I dreamed of doing longer distances because my best friend was a long time runner. She finally told me to “man up” and start training. Guess I’m lucky because I’ve always been surrounded by people who believed in me more than I did myself. They made the self-absorbed Diva you all love today.

So, I manned up and started training. She would tell me to back off my training, but I was absolutely convinced I, a fat girl, wouldn’t make it. I ran more than I should, beat myself up for having to take walk breaks, and was fearful of fueling afterward because I would gain weight. This only got me skinny fat and a stinky hamstring that flares up to this day.

The last couple of races I ran I got smarter. I still overtrained to a degree but I did start appreciating post-workout fuel. You know what? My runs got better and my training got easier. Next was adding in purposeful walk breaks inspired by Jeff Galloway. You know what? My runs got faster, my hamstring bothered me less, and my training got easier.

There is no shame in walking and running. Let me say this again…THERE IS NO SHAME IN WALKING AND RUNNING. It’s called smart. Most of us with weight problems just aren’t born with running physiques. If we were, we’d be on the Runner’s World site and not the Phit-N-Phat site. We have to run smart and train smart so that we are running and training smart at 70.

For those who worry about finishing…DON’T! If I have to carry you on my back the last mile I will. All of you will finish without fear or problem. We’ll do it together, get our goofy post race photos made, throw them on the site for the world to see, and then hit a buffet for our post workout refuel. Woohoo! Our motto is this: Last place is the chick on her couch wondering if she can do it versus actually doing it.

I love you guys and I can’t wait to experience this with you. 

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Daily Workout Journal: Long run of the week for five miles. I’m at five miles until mid September when the real 1/2 training begins. As I get closer I will blog more about my training schedule. Right now I’m just preparing my body for the race.

Daily Food Journal:

B – Oatmeal with 1/4 cup of cottage cheese and 1 tbsp of Vanilla PP
S – Post Run Strawberry Banana Smoothie with PP
L – McD’s Southwest Salad (no dressing), Ice Cream in cup (treat!)
S – Apple and Protein Bar
D – Spicy Shrimp Sushi
S – Fage

Day Of Rest

Resting your body isn’t easy when you are new to exercise. We all have the fear of, “If I take a day off I might not ever go back to the gym.” Trust me, I’ve thought that many times in the journey of getting phit. It is so easy to let the ole Fat Girl Thinking convince you that you will never have the habit of exercising.

I have found that having my schedule written out each week helps me stay on track. A rest day is always important so I “schedule” that day to make sure I allow my body proper rest and re-building time. Without the rest, your body can’t make gains and burn fat. Muscle ONLY repairs when it has a break so you need to give it rest.

If you are the kind of person who just can’t seem to take a day off or you push hard all the time in the gym, read this article. It is good information on overtraining your body. Many people never have to worry about this, but I find my clients who are the most successful fall into this category a couple of times through the fat loss journey. They get so caught up in their successes that they stumble into the “push myself every single workout” syndrome. They also feel guilty for taking days off.

I suppose for us Fat Girl Thinkers it will always be tough to cut ourselves some slack. We’re used to having to work harder than anyone else and beating ourselves up over all of our decisions. What a concept that laying on the couch might actually make us healthier for once in our life. LOL!

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Daily Workout: Day of Rest! I’m sore, sore, sore and I ran yesterday. I could do cross-training, but I’m taking the day off to play with my kid and give this temple the rest it deserves. So, I’m taking my own great advice. Woot!

Daily Food Journal: Travel Day all afternoon.

B – Fiber One, skim, 1 tbsp of PB
S – None
L – SBD Pizza for the road
S – Protein Bar and Apple (road worthy food)
D – Green Spin Salad with sunflower seeds, raisins, grilled chicken and baby carrots and hummus
S – Fage with blueberries

Heather Is a PNP HOTTIE!

Today is a brag day for Heather. She ordered my Big Mo Training Program eight weeks ago and emailed me these pictures detailing her progress. Look at those guns and shoulders popping!

Heather’s Email to Me…

“Hello! I start week eight on Wednesday, and have LOVED the results. I bought the Clean Eating book yesterday — I’ve been inching my way closer and closer to embracing the concept fully and am now on board. I’ve got twelve days left until the wedding and I’m committed to looking my best.

Here’s a few pictures of my amazingly defined shoulders (those dang bear crawls work!) I’m wearing my wedding dress from our February civil ceremony (no bad luck omens here!). The picture where I’m holding the bow bouquet is the BEFORE shot. Soft and squishy was the old me.

I’ve also set new goals: no diet coke anymore (this is tough for me), work to get in more cardio, and most importantly — look smokin hot in a string bikini by February, when I’m going to Jamaica. GO ME!”

Isn’t this exciting? She also has a blog if you want to check it out…runhlrun.blogspot.com.

I just love her attitude and determination. She has worked hard and deserves all the happiness she is getting from life. I truly believe you receive what you put out into the world and Heather has been putting out a lot of sweat and is getting some cut up shoulders out of it.

Have a wonderful wedding day. You look beautiful and I can’t wait to see what the Level II Big Mo brings!!! Woohoo!

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Workout Journal: Shoulder day with trainer. Wooosh! This was a great workout and here it is.

5 sets of OH Presses Behind Neck with BB
     Supersetted with Lat Raises to stinking burning and failure (15-20 rep ranges)

3 sets of Upright Rows with BB
     Supersetted with more of those stinking Lat Raises and let me tell you it hurt towards the end

2 sets of Single Arm Rear Delts on the Pec Dec

3 mile run of 3 run/2 walk – for speed

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Daily Food Journal:

B – Fiber One and Skim
S – Pink Lady Smoothie
L – Tuna with cottage cheese, carrots and hummus, apple
S – Peanut Butter
D – Chicken and Cot Chz on baked potato, apple
S – Fage and blueberries