Bless Her Heart

“Bless your heart, you are gonna dry up and blow away!”  That’s the usual response from my loving Memaw when I come visit.  She’s convinced I’m starving.  I appreciate her sentiment (and the once a year feast of homemade biscuits and sausage gravy she so lovingly prepares) but in reality, I do eat.  (Pretty much all day).  Growing up, if it wasn’t prepared in lard, smothered in gravy, or deep fried,  it probably wasn’t on my plate.  My mother is from a long line of down home, southern soul cooks.  Southern Fried Chicken, Biscuits and Gravy, and pretty much Crisco laden deliciousness were on the everyday menu.  Paula Deen has nothing on my Memaw and her cooking, but unfortunately, that food isn’t good for my health or my waist line.  Now that I’m eating healthy and exercising regularly, I eat differently to foster my new healthy lifestyle.  

I’m definitely not starving.  I honestly eat every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day.  The more often you eat, the better.  It keeps your metabolism fired up and discourages extra energy storage because your body isn’t apt to think it’s going to be a while before your next meal.  So what do I eat?  I eat small, healthy, (and delicious!) meals throughout the day.  I also make sure I enjoy each bite.  Fuel your body, but also fuel your mind.  Here’s what a typical day of meals looks like for me:

Breakfast:  A scrambled egg,  2% milk cheese and a couple of slices of lean turkey on a bagel thin (or sandwich thin, or English muffin, whatever Publix has on BOGO special *lol*)

Post-workout snack:  Protein shake or Greek Yogurt

Mid-morning snack:  Apple with 1 TBS of peanut butter

Lunch:  Field greens with half a cup of strawberries and chicken breast with my favorite dressing (right now I’m loving raspberry vinaigrette),and a greek yogurt (told you I’m obsessed)

Afternoon snack:  A banana

Dinner:  Lean protein (chicken, lean beef, pork, etc) with rice (I love basmati, jasmine and brown and wild rice mix.  Ah, let’s be honest, I love all rice) and a vegetable (Green beans and asparagus are my favorites)

Evening snack:  100 calorie popcorn, ¾ cup of Kashi cereal or any number of low sugar snacks.  Find what you like the best.  Even frozen yogurt is good on occasion to get your ice cream fix without all of the calories and fat.

You can tweak this to fit your tastes.  Enjoy your food and you won’t feel like you are depriving yourself.  The feeling of deprivation will usually lead to a Ben and Jerry’s binge followed by an ice cream headache and stuffed rumbling belly.  

One last note:  Every once in a while, eat that cupcake/cookie/brownie.  If you eat healthy most of time the time, that occasional “splurge” isn’t going to kill you or pack on the pounds.  Just exercise, eat a healthy diet, and on those special days when your loving mother-in-law/husband/co-worker makes red velvet cupcakes stuffed and covered with cream cheese frosting, you can indulge and eat one.  Moderation is the key.  Eat.  Be healthy.  Be happy. Take a look in the mirror and like what you see.  Ultimately, you are doing this for you and no one else.  

 "...I am the master of my fate.  I am the captain of my soul." - taken from Invictus by W.E. Henley

Run for your Life

Cardio, cardio, cardio!  That's the name of the game to burn through that fat right?  Wrong.  Now, before you think I've been standing in front of the microwave too long without my tin foil hat, just hear me out.  I am not telling you cardio is bad, I'm just saying that excessive cardio is counter productive and could be slowing down your slim down.  Now I know what you are thinking, "This looney woman runs 13 miles, voluntarily, more than once and she's telling me I do too much cardio?!  I might as well stop reading now."  That first statement is true.  I do run.  A lot more than most of the people who give this blog the time of day, but I don't spend all of my time running and I alter my workout depending on whether or not I'm actually training for a distance race.  So, let's get to the real issue today.  How to use cardio to compliment your workout, not be the bulk of it.

We are victims of evolution.  Our ancestors spend a good chunk of their day using valuable energy searching for food sources.  When they finally did eat, their bodies held on to as much of that as possible, storing it up for what could be another significant chunk of time before the next meal.  We have 21st century, first world problems now, but like anything in evolution, our bodies have not fully adapted to letting go of that extra fat it's storing for "hard times".  The answer to this predicament is twofold:  Eat more often (which I will dive into detail more in the next installment of my madness) and do more strength training, with cardio sprinkled in.  If you eat every 2-3 hours, your body will be less likely to go into starvation mode and want to store those calories.  If you limit your cardio, your body is also less likely to hold on to what you eat for the long haul.  So what can you do to get out of the cardio rut?  Well let me share a few tips.  You see, I was a victim of the cardio mantra for quite sometime and the last 10 lbs (which eventually melted off when I tried this) were very stubborn.  Here is what I did to break through the cardio plateau.

First, get off the elliptical.  Seriously.  If you've been on there for more than 30 minutes, get off.  The longer you stay, the more your body will just want to store fuel to gear up for a big hunt that is never going to happen.

Let me paint you a picture:

You arrive at the gym.  Do not stop at the Cardio Mecca.  Instead, take your fine self over to the free weights (or if you are still uncomfortable with those, the machines will be fine).

Pick out 9 separate strength training exercises for this day.  (I usually did one day for upper body, one for lower).  They can include pushups, curls, tricep dips, flies, etc.  Now I have the tendency to walk into the gym and immediately feel overwhelmed.  This can lead to some serious ADD on my part and I would often resort to jumping on the Elliptical.  You may find my method of writing down your exercises on a post it note before you go very helpful to combat this problem.  To be honest, my gym bag still has about 25 colorful post-it notes I can cycle through when I've got a bad case of the "Oooh shiny things!".

Make the BOSU ball your friend.  Try standing on the BOSU while doing curls, this lets you work your core at the same time.  Now, do three different exercises in succession, quickly.  Repeat three times.  Try not to take too long of a break between them, you want to keep that heart rate up.   Take a brief break for water at the end of the third set then go on to your second set of three.  All 9 exercises should take you about half an hour.  Feeling beastly yet?  You should be.  But you aren't quite finished.  Now it's time to do the beloved cardio.

Go find an open treadmill and get ready to get your sprint on.  (If your knees aren't quite up to this yet, you can do the same sort of workout on an ARC trainer or elliptical machine)

I know you are tired but give this all you've got left.  You are 15 minutes from post workout glory.

Spend the first 1:30 at a jog/slow run pace (fast walking is OK too if you are a beginner).  At the 1:30 mark, sprint (or jog/run if you are a beginner) for 30 seconds then return to your beginning pace.  Repeat this sprint every 1:30 until that timer says 15 minutes.  

Congratulations.  You've just done some High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and are on your way to breaking out of the cardio rut.  Now do a nice 5 minute cool down, stretch out, and hit the showers. Seriously, go shower. You're drenched and smelly :).

Elvis and Girl Scouts

Raise your hand if you love peanut butter?  *Two hands high in the air!* I love peanut butter…  peanut butter cookies, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, apples and peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly and my arch nemesis this time of year, “Tagalongs” peddled by those wonderful little humans dressed in green sashes and a smile.  I can just pass by the Girl Scout Cookie booth at the nearest Publix Supermarket and feel my behind getting bigger.  

My husband works out.  A lot.  And his metabolism must be much better than mine.  He can afford to consume a few extra calories in the form of processed, chocolate covered, peanut buttery tagalong goodness.  I on the other hand am trying to lose a few more body fat percentage points, so I can’t be settling in to watch Duck Dynasty with a box of cookies and a glass of milk.  I am also trying to supplement more protein in my diet (time to build lean muscle!).  That in itself is a challenge when trying to consume less calories during the day. 

The solution?  “The Elvis” protein shake.  Now I have some form of a protein shake everyday with variations depending on the type of fruit/milk/etc. we have in the house.  Now I know what you are thinking… Elvis must mean peanut butter and banana.  Crazy woman, don’t you know how many calories are in just one serving of peanut butter?!  Why yes, yes I do.  While perusing the isles at Whole Foods, I came across a peanut butter lover’s best friend, PB2.  They’ve packed all the peanuty (yes, peanuty) goodness into powder form with only 45 calories per 2 TBS serving.  If you love Peanut Butter but could stand to lose the extra calories and fats from your diet, this stuff is for you.  It’s my latest obsession addition to my protein shakes.

To the task at hand:  Make a delicious and good for you protein shake that you can consume after a hard workout or if you are in a hurry (always on the go right?), lunch.  I make this for my husband and I to share so you can half the ingredients if needed.   Sub in Silk or 1% milk and any of your favorite fruits to make this your own.

“The Elvis” Protein Shake

4 Scoops True Athlete Chocolate Protein Powder

2 TBS PB2

4 Cups Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

1 Ripe Banana

Place the powdered ingredients into the blender first.  Throw in a banana, pour in the almond milk and pulse a few times to get the powder to mix.  You may have to scrape the sides with a spoon a couple of times to mix in the PB2.  Blend thoroughly.

I usually put mine in a to-go container to take with me in my lunch box or drink in the car on the way to work.  Now, go forth and enjoy!  

Calories:  510 (255 per serving)

Carbohydrates: 48 g (24g per serving)

Fat: 18g (9g per serving)

Protein:  50g (25g per serving)

Sodium: 1135g (568g per serving)

Sugars: 20g (10g per serving)

What would *you* know about being overweight?

If you’ve only known me for the past couple of years, you may be asking yourself “What does she know about being overweight?!?”  Well as a matter of fact I know quite a bit.  You see, that was me in 2006 when I started college.  My 5’3’’ frame was tipping the scales at 180lbs and I was struggling to fit into a size 15 pair of jeans.  A few years of some medications, poor nutrition habits and eating my feelings had destroyed the petite body I had at the beginning of my teen years.  Every look in the mirror was disappointing.  But it wasn’t just my body image, it was my health.  I had several instances of hypoglycemia episodes, headaches and my knees ached.  Struggling to climb the four flights of stairs to my class, I knew I needed to make a change.  My loving boyfriend (turned fiancé, then husband) was studying physical education as well as preparing to be a personal trainer.  He agreed to show me a program that wouldn’t exasperate my then very troublesome Fibromyalgia symptoms but would get me where I wanted to be both for my body image and to salvage my health before it was too late.

The first step was to cut out junk.  No more hoarding Little Debbie snack cakes in my dorm, no guzzling a soda before class and no daily trips to DQ for a chicken strip basket and an Ale-8 (that’s blasphemy, right!)  I was successful in tweaking my diet but by 2008, the year I got married, I had only lost about 15 lbs.  Looking at myself in all my wedding photos, I wanted needed more. It was time to start working on the fitness aspect.  I made myself get up every morning, 5 days a week and head to Seabury Center at Berea College.  I did cardio on the treadmill and utilized the various free weights and machines for the strength training.  By the time we went on vacation to Jacksonville in 2009, I was down to 150lbs.  Happy?  Yes.  Satisfied?  No.  Our bodies are remarkable machines, capable of so much.  I wanted mine to be as fine tuned and as powerful as it could be.  I kept hitting the gym, and tried to eat healthier than I had been. 

By the time I reached college graduation, I was down to 140 lbs and proudly wore a size 8 dress across the stage to receive my diploma (covered by an over sized gown that hid all of my hard work of course).  My health had improved greatly and I spent less time aching and more time “aching” to get out and run.  After graduation, my husband and I moved to Florida in the Summer of 2010.  I had achieved a lot in weight loss, now it was time to tone up (Beach body time, right!)

In the past two years, I have tweaked my diet to fit my metabolism needs.  I eat 5-6 small meals a day to keep my metabolism fired up.  Two days of strength training a week, plus my favorite cardio (who would have thought I would ever say that!), running.  I supplement that with group fitness classes such as Spin and Bootcamp at BullFitness a couple of blocks from my home.  Running has become my new passion.  Since my move, I’ve completed 3 half marathons and plan to complete a full one in December of this year.  I have also competed in various mud runs and obstacle courses, the most recent being the Super Spartan race in Miami, Florida.  My first mile I completed at the beginning of this journey took me 16 minutes.  I have come a long way, but I’m not finished.  I am still tweaking my diet, still changing up my workouts and still striving for more.  I am so happy with how far I’ve come but I want more.  I want to be my best.   I am still on the journey to being healthy and fit.  Won’t you take this journey with me?