Learn Your Habits and How To Manage Them

"It would be so nice if something made sense for a change." -- Alice from Alice in Wonderland

When you stop and look at your life and where this journey has brought you do you ever think this exact thing? I know I do. Especially when I remember my youth and all the opportunity the world was filled with because I knew I could accomplish anything.   It has taken a while but I am slowly coming back around to realizing I CAN accomplish anything and each day I push myself to prove just that.

When I first started this fat loss journey I never had any hope to run 5k's let alone finish a triathlon! Yet I have and it all started with one small desire, or one huge undesirable ideal of myself. I would look in the mirror and think to myself, "how did I get here?" Almost like Alice in Wonderland trying to figure it all out, as if she hadn't herself chased a rabbit down a hole and lead herself into Wonderland all on her own in the first place.

So how did I get to that place I was so certain I hadn't brought myself to?  Well, once I answered that question honestly I was able to really look at the rabbit hole I had gone down and step by step I deconstructed the path I had taken and I found out how to start following a new one. A path that I am creating each day. A path all my own.

You can create your path to!

One of the simplest and most effective ways to start is by learning about the rabbit hole you are currently following. One of the best tools I know of for doing this is to journal what you eat. In fact, as I am sure you have heard me say millions of times now, "experts agree and studies show that people who have successfully lost the fat and kept it off show are those who journal their eating habits."

I know I have mentioned SparkPeople.com a few times and I have to say it is a great tool to help you learn about the rabbit hole trail of food you are currently following and in essence help you learn how to create your own food path as well.

This site is completely free and completely worth any money you might be spending on other tools right now. I promise you that it is site you can use to change your life and have the tools you need for success ALWAYS at your fingertips.  Because new sites are always a challenge to learn I am providing this direct link to their getting started tutorials - Spark People Intro Tutorials 

This site already breaks down everything you are eating into the food groups we have already been discussing. It shows you what you are getting enough of, what you are not getting enough of and what you are getting too much of. It also allows you to add ANY nutrient you want to track to the list as well and monitor it.

You can also monitor all of your activity on Spark People. The nice thing is that once you put in all your info and tell Spark People what your weight loss goal is it will TELL you how much activity you need to get a week and what a healthy range of calories for you to be eating per day is. Hell, they will even make your meal and activity plans for you to guarantee success. Or you can just op to use the guideline goals and plan your own meal and activities to meet these goals. I do a combo of each and find myself really appreciative of having meal ideas when I feel like I have fallen into a rut of chicken and rice. And I LOVE the fact that all of their activity options come with imaged demo's and sometimes videos of exactly how to do them.

I would honestly love to see ALL of us join and start a small group on the site together. A place we can work together to help keep each other motivated and connected. Because the other thing successful people have behind them is friends.

So, get signed up on Spark People today and lets bring our ScreenNames to the next get together so we can find each other on the site! I bet you guys can already guess mine ...

~TigressSky~

Running Clinic - Week Four

This week I got to work one on one with someone and it made me realize how fast I talk! Here is the Workout Log for week four.  We are up to running for 2 minutes on and 2 minutes off for a total of 20 minutes now. You will also see that the challenge has changed up just a bit.

As for nutrition you guys should be doing a pretty good job at keeping a journal of what you eat. At lunch tomorrow I will post about the BEST (and I do not say this lightly I am absolutely serious) website available to help you lose the fat and keep it off.  Even better this site is 100% free! So, go sign up at SparkPeople.com and look for tomorrows blog post with links to tutorials on how to use the site.

The only way to lose the fat and keep it off is to learn what it is you are currently doing that is stopping you from achieving that goal and change it. One habit at a time. The simplest way to do this is to journal your food and start finding activities you can do to wake your body back up and getting moving more. It really is this simple and yes you really can do it!

I look forward to writing tomorrows blog focusing on people who have and are doing it and giving you all a glimpse into a tool I think is the best thing out there.

~TigressSky~

Running Clinic - Week Three

Hey all!

Here is the Workout Log for week 3. More write up to come! Just wanted to get this out quickly. Take a look as I added some time to each listed activity and our run and challenges changed!

~TigressSky~

Want to lose fat? Put down the soda!

This is one of those touchy subjects as we have become a society trained on a preference for sugary sweetened drinks; overlooking just a simple glass of life giving water as a viable drink option. As this image demonstrates, soda causes heroin like reactions in our body. Yes, this is saying and I am agreeing that, quite frankly, soda and sugar-sweetened drinks are a drug and the majority of the U.S. population are addicts.



Do you remember this picture of me?

Well, let me confess something - part of what gave me this fat-figure was my drinking a case of Mt Dew EVERYDAY! Diet or regular it doesn't matter. Soda, Crystal Light, energy & sports drinks, bottled teas, flavored waters and most fruit juices are loaded with "sugar", "sugar substitutes" or "non-caloric sweeteners". These are just plain bad for us in more ways than just their overwhelming fat production in our bodies. These addictive drugs lead to heart disease, severe renal problems, diabetes and obesity just to list some of the bad things these sweet drinks do to us.

If you do the math you find that each 12oz can of soda has 10-12 teaspoons of sugar in it! Get out a glass of water and try and mix in that much sugar. Not even the WATER can concentrate that much sugar. What do you think our bodies can do to process it? Not much. Take a sip of this concoction if you are brave - it  is disgusting!

Each one of these cans is also about 150 calories at the minimum. Do you know how long it takes to burn through 150 calories? Well, get ready to either:

• jump rope for 15 minutes straight,  
• run for a mile and a half,
• or swim at high intensity for 10 full laps in the pool

And if you think that choosing the non-caloric sweetened drinks (such as sucralose, aspartame, stevia) is better think again. Science has found (although has not come to full agreement) that consumption of non-caloric sweeteners actually PROMOTES FAT GAIN.  Isn't this what we are trying to avoid?

As well, we consider a 12 oz can of soda to be a measly and sadly small serving. Yet a can of soda is already 4oz more than a serving. How many people actually consume their soda in a single, already over a serving, can size? The answer is pretty much no one. On average we all choose a 20oz bottle of soda to drink. This soda size is 12oz over that of a regular serving. It equates to consumption of 25 to 30 teaspoons of sugar per serving as well as 375 calories! And we drink it all!

In consuming 3 times the normal beverage serving size are you ready to -

• jump rope for 37.5 minutes straight,  
• run for four and a half miles,
• or swim at high intensity for 30 full laps in the pool

just to work off the calories? I know I'm not.

Just take a look at how sweet some of our top drink choices are:

Eliminating soda and sweetened drinks from my diet was one of the first things I tried when I began this fat loss journey. In less than a month I had lost just over 10 pounds from doing absolutely nothing else.

It is not an easy task to change such an addictive habit but you CAN do it!

Harvard's School of Public Health's Healthy Drinks website has many informative articles on doing just that.  In fact they created a Beverage Plan to help!

Remember it takes 21 days to change a habit. So give yourself time to feel good about this change. Plain water is of course the best choice but, if you need some help here are some great low-to-no-sugar drinks you can substitute with: Six Ideas for Low-Sugar Drinks.

Try getting 8-12 glasses of water a day. As you make this change you may only notice a slight decrease in your fat loss efforts but you will notice a huge increase in your enjoyment of how the things you put in your mouth taste! You will also find yourself feeling full and satisfied throughout the day and when it comes time to make the choice you will actually find you prefer the water over most any other drink choice. Your body will crave the good!

~TigressSky~

Running Clinic Week Two

So lets start out with how awesome week two went! It was a smaller group as there were weddings and graduations many people had to attend, but we still did it and pushed it hard! Especially considering that we had to brave running past "The Bite of Oregon" and all those yummy food smells and ales calling to us!

Based on how week one went overall I worked up a small change in the format for the overall workout and i think it went much smoother this week.  Doing this accomplished two things: 1) we got through the circuit in a more timely manner and 2) we were able to complete the entire waterfront loop! This loop, as it turns out, is the Run Like Hell Zombie 5k! route, so by chance we are training on our actual route! This will put us that much further ahead of the game come race day. The biggest challenge of race day really is starting to be all about the costumes as we are steadily working to have everything else down!  

So here is the Workout Log for Week Two . Try and get this done two more times before next Saturday when we will up our running time and change our workout just a bit. Again if you have any questions about any of it just ask. I am hoping to get my apartment completely rearranged and have space to demonstrate the exercise and stretches on video for everyone soon! Until then, feel free to bug me about learning them.

Also, at the end of our workout I asked people to let me know areas they continue to feel "tight" or "sore" in after running so we can add some stretches or focus our workouts on some of those areas. This is actually a continual request, so, let me know how you all feel each week and Ill try and build plans to help us work with and strengthen those areas.

Whats On Your Plate?

To follow up with our nutrition handout from last week I gave everyone a copy of the How to Build Your Plate image from the USDA's new "Choose My Plate" campaign. I think this is a much better way to help people make informed choices about how much and what foods to eat then the classic food pyramid we all grew up with is.

So how does this "plate" fit in with the information we gained from David Knowle's article? Well, what David told us was to make sure each meal/snack was built to contain the following percent of nutrients:

• 50-60% of calories should come from carbohydrate.
• 20-30% of calories should come from fat.
• 10-20% of calories should come from proteins

When you look at this plate you can actual decipher how these percents match with whats on the plate:

• 50-60% of calories come from carbohydrates - Fruits, Veggies, Grains
• 20-30% of calories come from fat - Protein, Dairy and a small amount of Grains
• 10-20% of calories come from proteins - Protein and a bit of Dairy

Work on adjusting and building a healthy and complete diet by trying to build your meal selections to match these ideals. Week One's blog post discusses a little more about what some healthy food choices for each of these groups is, so review it again as you think more about how you can build your meals.  Also, the USDA "Choose My Plate" website has more detailed info about each category as well. I have not fully reviewed each section of this site yet, but I am fairly positive from what I have seen that the info is solid and beneficial.

Nutrition Homework - One

It is at this point that you should really start to journal what it is you are eating.  I want everyone to start a food log of everything you eat. EVERYTHING! If you take a bite, write it down. This food journal does not have to be shared with anyone it is for you and so it is important you are honest with yourself about what it is you are currently eating.

If there is one thing every nutrition expert and person who has lost fat and maintains keeping the fat off agree on it is food journaling. One of the quickest and best ways to guarantee you will be successful in your fat loss journey is to keep an honest food journal.  This journal will help you in so many ways, most important it will help you understand your relationship with food and how to make that relationship healthy and positive for you.

So, this first week I ask you to journal very simply. Write down everything you eat and drink. Write down what time of day you consumed these items and, if you can, try and take note of how you were feeling at the time you ate. Also, try and be aware of how you ate, did you eat until you were satisfied or did you eat until you were stuffed and felt bad.

On top of this journaling I want everyone to try and drink at least 8 glasses of water a day (preferably 12). Yes I know studies are in and out on water consumption needs, but, speaking from purely personal experience, I am on the side that says you should have 8-12 glasses of water a day. So, I am building my nutritional info with this ideal in mind.

Have fun with your homework, both the workout and the journaling!

~TigressSky~

Food is Fuel!

Food is fuel for our bodies, yet how do I fuel my body to get me through a workout? More importantly how do I fuel my body to recover quickly after a workout? 

Everyone knows that athletes must plan what and when to eat to fuel thier body but what about the rest of us? If you are just squeezing in a 30-60 minute work out a few days a week then do you really have to worry about what you eat before and after the workout. The answer will actually be up to what you notice your body telling you honestly. Usually, if you are already eating a healthy diet and maintaining a good caloric intake and expenditure level then you don't have to worry about this question. Just keep doing what you are doing and the added workout should just aid in fat loss overall.  However, if you are not already following a healthy diet and you notice your body giving signs that it is having issues with your workouts then you may want to look at what you are fueling it with.

What Do I Eat Before I Workout? After?

Experience has shown me that figuring out what to eat before and after a work out is always a challenge whether you are new to exercise or a seasoned veteran. What you eat does affect your performance during your workout as well as your recovery after. Also, each type of workout is going to challenge you in different ways and may require more or less fuel to get you through it and help you recover after (example: 20 minutes of walking compared to 20 minutes running -or- 60 minutes in an indoor spin class compared to 60 minutes riding your bike outside, etc). So, for each work out, or challenge, you put your body through you will need to personally figure out WHAT you should fuel your body with.  However, the same key concepts hold true no matter what you discover your fuel should be:

1. Always eat a combination of carb, protein and fat for every meal or snack you have; always.
2. Always eat more carbs BEFORE a workout.
3. Always eat more protein AFTER a workout.
4. Always drink plenty of fluids BEFORE, AFTER and sometimes DURING a workout.
5. Save your coffee, tea or caffeinated beverages for AFTER your workout.

1. Always eat a combination of carb, protein and fat for every meal or snack you have; always.

- Why is this so important? Because it is this combination of nutrients that help your body process and distribute your fuel properly. Carbs give us energy, protein gives us muscle and rebuilds our cells, and fat helps you feel full, store energy and absorb vitamins.

2. Always eat more carbs BEFORE a workout.

- Yes, by now we all know carbs are not our enemy, but we also know that it is our habit of overeating carbs that has caused us to have this fat enemy we are trying to get rid of now. The majority of the foods we eat are nothing but carbs, that is how carbs got such a bad rap. Yet carbs are not the enemy, they are actually our bodies number one fuel source. If you want we can look at carbs as the octane of our nutrients, they are what give us the ability to explosively push our bodies to do so much. The higher the octane the greater the output.

3. Always eat more protein AFTER a workout.

- Protein is full of amino acids. Amino acids are used by our bodies to rebuild the protein our body's cells, organs and tissues are made of. Our bodily proteins are constantly being broken down and used by our body to survive through growth. When we workout we break down the protein in our body's cells, tissue and organs much faster and therefore we need to replace them much faster as well.

4. Always drink plenty of fluids BEFORE, AFTER and sometimes DURING a workout.

- You have heard the saying that you can survive 7 days without eating but will die within 2 days of not drinking right? Well, now you have! Keeping the body hydrated is enormously important. In fact water is the second most important nutrient for the body (oxygen being number one!). Water is used by the body for circulation, respiration and converting food nutrients into energy(fuel). When you work out your body ups all of these processes that need water - your circulation increase, your respiration increases and your body converts nutrients quicker to create more fuel. When you work out you also sweat, meaning you use and lose water faster than you do at rest. If you lose more water than you take in dehydration begins to occur in the body. Dehydration will deplete all of your energy reserves and make you "bonk" quicker than anything else. In fact if you have to make a choice between fluid and food before working out choose the fluid, WATER IS THAT IMPORTANT!

5.  Save your coffee, tea or caffeinated beverages for AFTER your workout.

- To put it bluntly caffeinated drinks mixed with physical activity equate to a sort of systemic laxative (i.e. you will need to have a bowel movement, fast!). Also, caffeine is a diaheretic so it depletes your body quickly of precious fluids, which we just learned are the most important nutrient (after oxygen) that your body has.  Wait til after the workout to enjoy your caffeinated beverages, they really do taste better then as well!

When should I fuel my body?

Before a Workout: It is important to give your body time to process the fuel you are giving it so that it can use this fuel when you need it; during your workout. 

Before Hydration - Try to drink 16-20 ounces of water 1-2 hours before you workout.

Before Meal - 1-2 hours prior to the workout. Most of the fuel you get to workout comes from the stored fat and carbs your body has already had a chance to process. Therefore if you eat RIGHT before a workout your body does not have time to process the food and most likely you are just going to upset your stomach. If you eat 1-2 hours prior and you still have a sick stomach during the workout then this may mean that your body already has the energy stores it needs to workout with and you do not need to eat before you workout. If you get hungry during the workout or feel ravenous after then you should pre-fuel. Again, watch and listen to your body to figure out what you need to do.

Before Snack - 20-30 minutes prior to your workout. If you workout at a fairly high intensity and you find that, more often than not, you are hungry during the workouts or starving after then you should look into having a small and quick pre-fuel snack. This needs to be something very simple, high gylcemic index carbohydrates and low in fat - meaning they digest very quickly turning into fuel. (Ex. Fruit Juice, Fruit Smoothie, Pineapple, Banana, Watermelon, Mango, Apricot, Pretzel, Bagel (no whole grains!), Sports Bars (with low fat 3-5 grams and high carbs 15+) 

After a Workout: Do not tell yourself that now you can go on a free-for-all and eat whatever you want. Most often you will be hungry after a workout but you want to eat food that will refuel and repair your muscles not cause you to store fat. 

After Hydration - You will most likely go through that 16-20 ounces of fluid and should very shortly after the workout consume the same 16-20 ounces. A good way to figure out exactly what your fluid loss is would be to weigh yourself before and after a workout. You will want to drink an ounce of water for each pound you have lost to replenish.

After Snack - 30 minutes after a workout is optimal to eat something to begin refueling your body. Follow the same guidelines as the before snack with your choice here. Something high in carbs and low in fat. Your body will use this snack to refuel it's energy stores so what you eat now most likely will not be expended quickly. So the healthier choice is always best here.  You may find you are not hungry immediately after the workout though, if this is the case then wait until you have your meal to refuel.  Again, listen to your body.

After Meal - 1-2 hours after the workout.  It is at this point that your body will need more protein to rebuild with. Carbs and fat at this point will be processed and stored as fuel for use later. It is important to make sure you are eating a complete protein during this time to rebuild with and that you focus on complex carbs (low gylcemic index) for this meal.

Listen to YOUR Body

Just to reiterate it is important that you listen to your body. It really will tell you what it needs and when. All of the above advice may be too much for certain workouts and it may be perfect to follow for others. It really is about you and figuring out what your body needs to run as efficiently as possible. 

~TigressSky~ 

The Before Run Stretches

Since we will ALWAYS do these stretches before our runs/walks I decided to give them their own referenced post. Enjoy the stick figures I personally drew for you! I had fun trying to figure out how to better demonstrate these.

Pre-Run Stretches - Protect the Knees  

·     Seated Lean (Each Knee)

      Sit on the edge something flat and sturdy that raises you about as high off the ground as a small stool or regular size couch. Your entire butt should be on this item but your legs should be off of it altogether. Bend one knee and put your foot flat on the ground. Place your other leg straight out in front of you resting your leg on your heel so your foot is pointing up and out. Place your hand behind you so you sit perfectly straight.

      Now, "hinge" only at the hips and lean forward, place your hands on your hips for support if need be. ONLY lean as far forward as is needed to feel the stretch in the back of your knee and hamstrings (the back of your thigh). This is not the time to try and touch your toes. You should feel the stretch pretty quickly upon first lean. Lean as far forward as needed for it to feel "good" and not "hurt." Hold for 20-30 seconds then switch legs.

·     Flat Knee Downs

      If you are double-jointed in your knees like I am these feel so fabulous! Also, you can pretty much bend your knee backwards like you have turkey legs naturally and you need to talk to me about watching that phenomenon while you run! However, for this stretch just enjoy your double jointed skill.

      For this stretch you want to sit up tall and straight on the ground with your legs flat out in front of you, heels on the ground toes up - you can put your hands behind you for support. Try and sit as tall as possible. In this position simply push your knees down toward the ground. Just push until you feel a light stretch, this should not hurt you, if it does you are pushing to hard. You should be pushing with your quads (upper thighs) and pulling with your calves to just move your knee "down" toward the ground more. Your knee most likely will NOT ever go flat to the ground, that is not the goal. The goal is simply to "press and release" in short burst.

      Do about 30 of these total and then stop. You can do both knees at once or one knee at a time if you need to.

·     Flat Leg Lifts (Seated or Laying Down)

      To start with you will want to do these lying down. As you build strength you will be able to do them sitting up. You can try them both ways to feel the difference in each position but I recommend those who are just starting do these lying down.

      For these stretches you will lay flat with your heels on ground and toes pointed up (or sit up tall and straight on the ground with your legs flat out in front of you, heels on the ground toes up - you can put your hands behind you for support). Start out with one leg and lift it to were the heel of the leg being lifted goes no higher then the toe of the leg remain flat. Lower the leg back to the ground but do NOT touch the ground, just hover your foot and lift again. Do about 12-15 reps per leg.
   

·     Side Legs Lifts (Jane Fondas!)

      I call this the Jane Fonda move because it is something we always saw them do on those aerobics videos on the TV in the 80's. Only they exaggerated the movement and raised the legs way to high.    

It was like midnight when I drew Jane Fonda!

       For this stretch lay flat on one side, prop yourself up on one arm, place legs on top of each other with heels together and toes facing forward. Raise the top leg only.  Raise this leg straight up using mainly your hip muscles. Only lift about a foots width apart from the leg below. Lower the leg back down to hover above but not touch the lower leg. Raise up again and repeat for about 12-15 reps. 

      Switch to lay on opposite side and complete reps for other leg as well.

·    Side Circles (Forward & Back)

      Lay on your side again as demonstrated above in the "Jane Fonda" move except this time place your legs straight out in front of you rather than in line with you. As if you had been sitting up tall and then just fell over.

The drawings just got real good here! 

Notice the emphasized baboon butt!

      Prop yourself up on your arms like you do in the "Jane Fonda" stretch above. Raise your top leg straight up from the leg below it as high as is comfortable. From this position bring the leg towards you and with a circular motion lower it and bring it back in line with the bottom leg. Repeat for about 8-12 reps. In essence you will be making small forward circles with your leg.

      Do not make the circles any bigger than is comfortable for you. If this means you just hold your leg above the one below it and make tiny circular motions barely moving it then let it work itself out that way.

      Once you complete the forward circle always bring the leg straight up from the leg below it and begin again. You are in essence making a giant letter D in front of you with the flat of your foot.  If I were sitting in front of you I would see the D being drawn with the flat of your foot.
   D
   
     You will feel this intensely in your hips and since no one ever focuses on hip work I expect these to be hard to begin with meaning your circles will be much smaller than you may imagine being able to do them as. If it hurts and causes pain then DO NOT DO IT. 

     

      Once you have done one set going forward then move to doing the circles away from you, or "backward".

     
      Again only make the circles as big (high and wide) as is comfortable for you and if it causes you pain DONT DO IT!

      Roll to your other side when done and complete the same sets (forward and backward circles) on the other leg.

·         Side Thigh Lifts

      Lay flat on your side, legs in front of you, the same as the Side Leg Lifts above except this time bend your knees.

      Raise your upper leg so your knee is one fist space apart from the lower leg. Raise the leg using your thigh and glute (butt) muscles. It should feel like you are pushing your leg up through a pool of water. Raise it about one foot and then lower it back to the starting position (which is one fist space apart from lower leg) do this about 12-15 times. When done ball up your hand into a fist and rub your glute muscle to relax it.

      

     Roll to the opposite side and repeat with opposite leg.

I want to emphasize the importance of these stretches. They help build the supporting muscles that keep your knee protected. As well they loosening and strengthening your hips and glutes which are key components to comfort for proper running form. I am a strong believer that doing these stretches before any form of cardio exercise can only help you in protecting your body and readying these joint and muscle areas to work for you.

I know my drawings are crap and my descriptions may be worse. So, please, let me know anything you may still have question with. My hope is to find someone to film and help me learn to edit and then I can just post this series of stretches (and all workouts we do) as one video example from now on. Anyone want to volunteer to work with me on that? I have a Flip video camera and AVS For You video software, just need to find time with someone, (or on my own) to figure out how to use them together! :)

~TigressSky~

Running Clinic: Week One

At the finish of our first day!

Hoo-rah! (as the marines would say)

Week One of the Running Clinic has started! We had an excellent turn out for our first week and the group did an impressive job especially when it came to challenging themselves.

For those of you who could not make it out, for whatever reasons, here is the link to the Workout Log for Week One. It describes what work we did Saturday morning. This can also be used as an aid for the homework as everyone will be doing this at least two more times before next Saturday when we increase our running and change up our workout just a bit.

Please let me know if there are any questions. I want to make sure everyone understands the excercises and gets through them properly. Doing it right will help guarantee safety from injuries but, more importantly, it will also help guarantee proper form which in turn will build the muscle and endurance correctly. So ask away! Thats what Im here for!

Pain in my Shin! OW!

One topic that did come up for quite a few people was pain in the shins (front of lower leg).  This type of pain typically occurs when you are running on your toes and not landing in the larger, more supportive areas of your feet - the mid-ball or heel.

Proper Running Foot Landing.

When you are running you should try to land in the mid-ball of your foot.

Proper Running Foot Landing.

When you are power-walking or lightly jogging you should try land on the heel of your foot.

Also, you need to watch your stride. Your stride should not feel like you are leaping forward as you go. To measure a proper stride for yourself stand still and stand up tall, begin to lean forward and when you feel yourself starting to fall take a step to stop yourself. This should be the length of your stride. Start out smaller if you need to, but don't extend yourself beyond this point. Using the right stride is going to decrease the movement in your major running joints (hips, knees & ankles) which in turn means less injury potential and a longer life for the joints themselves.

Nutrtition! There is so much info, where do I start!?!
Everyone seemed interested in focusing a bit of our time on nutrition. To aid in giving everyone some basics to go off of I grabbed this article by David Knowles, a body-builder, called Fat Loss Through Nutrition. This is a quick overview of what and how you should be eating. This article should aid you in reviewing and recreating your diet (not dieting!).

At the end of the article David breaks down the three main nutrients you should have on your plate:

• 50-60% of calories should come from carbohydrate.
• 20-30% of calories should come from fat.
• 10-20% of calories should come from proteins

 So, what are some actual foods that are good carbs?

• Whole Vegetables
• Whole Fruits
• Beans
• Legumes
• Seeds/Nuts
• Whole Grains

Notice that this list is not full carbs as we typically hear and see advertised in America. Things like breads, pastries, crackers and pastas. If you make a choice to have your carbs in one of these forms try and choose whole grain options, but also try and remember that carbs exist in so many other forms! Try and enjoy these other forms as they should be the majority of what is on your plate.

What are some actual foods that are good fats?
The good fats are the unsaturated fats - both poly and mono.

• Polyunsaturated Fats - like: fish (salmon, catfish, trout, mackerel), almonds, flaxseed, walnuts, peanuts, nut butters (peanut, almond), tuna, soybeans, sardines, olive oil
• Monounsaturated Fats - like: lean red meats, whole milk, nuts, olives, avocados, natural nut and vegetable oils, oatmeal, popcorn, whole grain wheat, whole grain cereals

And, what are some actual foods that are good proteins?

• White Meat Poultry
• Milk, Cheese, Yogurt: choose lowfat or skim dairy products, and nonflavored natural yogurt, especially greek style which you can add items to create a really tasty treat!
• Eggs
• Beans: especially black beans; not refried beans though
• Pork Tendlerloin: lean
• Lean Beef

There is a lot of info here for us to start our training with so take your time to go through it and let me know any questions you may have.

Can't wait for week two! See you all this Saturday!

~TigressSky~

Please Note: If you would like to download and save the article and/or workout log for week one you simply need to select the File link in the left hand side of the window and select the Download option you would like from the list.

Today's the Day!

I have walked a long winding road of image issues throughout my life. Starting when I was 16 and approached by a modeling agency with the fancy dreams of being shipped over to Germany to display my very prominent German features.

At the time I was as tall as I am now, 5' 10" yet I weighed only 145 pounds. Even that was to fat for the modeling agencies, they wanted me to lose at least 20 more pounds. I went on a crazy anorexic diet, working out all the time and still only managed to take off 10 additional pounds! It was pretty insane that they wanted me to lose weight at all, but, that seems to be what they want from models anymore.

A very short while after this I ran off with the man of my dreams and spent many abusively controlling years hating myself and in turn gaining a lot of fat.  In fact I went from that very small 145 pounds to a whopping 265 pounds in just a couple of very short years. By the time I was 22 I was wearing the same size clothes as my age and pushing my way to continue growing in age and clothes size for a good long time.

TigressSky @ 22 years old (on left)

Soon after the above picture was taken I left the abusive situation I was in and I began, without much hope, trying to lose the fat I had put on.

Yet slowly I did lose the fat and I was honestly surprised went I from a size 22 to a size 16! For awhile I even managed to get back into a size 12! Yet I was following unhealthy dieting techniques like Atkins and Lean Cuisine. These diet fads are not things that are meant to be long term or maintainable. They do not help you learn healthful living habits and eventually, when you stop using them you simply gain the weight back.

So, for awhile I spent time hovering between 180 and 200 pounds, wearing a size 16 to a 18.  I was never happy or comfortable with were I was at, but I also didn't believe in myself nor have the motivation to make any real change. So I sat uncomfortably at this size for a few years trying to be and feel sexy and confident and never really achieving either.

31 years old

32 years old

Then something happened. One day I just decided to really do it, to really figure out how to change my life. I was not dieting anymore.  I was going to live my life and be happy doing it!

Slowly I built my diet and stopped dieting! My everyday eating choice were soon packed full of smart, healthy, unprocessed nutrition that didn't leave me feeling deprived of anything food wise. As well I added activity to my life and found many more fun and enjoyable ways I could live this adventure called life. Slowly I shed the fat I had put on and suddenly I fit into a size 9, something I never ever dreamed of!

TigressSky - 18 Month Weight Loss Progression - 34 years old 

It is what I accomplished through this experience that filled me with the desire to start working with and helping others. Many of whom have looked at me and said, "how can I do what you did?"

It took me a year to figure out how to start helping people and know what to say to answer their questions.

So begins my foray into testing my ability to be a personal trainer and help keep people motivated by providing them inspiration and information they can use on their own journeys to live their lives and be happy doing it!

So lets get to it!
~TigressSky~




I think that a lot of times we confuse "can't" with "don't care enough to try. --Ben Davis