April Challenge: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred

Who wants to do a challenge with me? Beginning on April 1, I challenge you (and myself) to do the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred video for 30 consecutive days.

Why? Because I need the motivation and accountability.

What? The Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred is an exercise video workout. Each workout lasts about 24 minutes. It can be intense...but it can also be toned down if you have a back, hip, knee, ankle injury. The are three levels to the video, Level 1 is the lowest in intensity and Level 3 would be the most challenging. She uses hand weights, but you could certainly get a good workout without using weights.

If you don't already own the video, you can purchase it from Walmart, Target, etc. for about $8-10. But each level can also be found on YouTube if you don't want to make the purchase.

How will the challenge work? I will post on Facebook each day, something to the effect of "I completed JM 30 day shred today." To participate, all you have to do is comment on my post that you have also completed the workout. I will keep a spreadsheet and mark the days that everyone completes the workout.

There will be no punishment or lashing if you miss a day. The accountability part will just help you get back on track the following day.

Let me know what other questions/recimmendations you have. The idea is for it to be super simple.

Blood Pressure 101

High Blood Pressure...I am sure we have all heard of someone with it, medicated for it, or even have it ourselves.  Maybe you have heard it called Hypertension. 

Have you had your Blood Pressure checked recently?

High Blood Pressure is often called the silent killer because it can be present for years without causing other symptoms.  Blood pressure is the measure of the force of blood pushing against blood vessel walls.  High blood pressure is dangerous because it makes the heart work harder to pump blood to the body. The only way to know whether your blood pressure is high is to have a health professional measure it with a blood pressure cuff. The result is expressed as two numbers. The top number, called the systolic pressure, represents the pressure when the heart is beating. The bottom number, called the diastolic pressure, shows the pressure when the heart is resting between beats.

High Blood Pressure is a serious condition that affects 1 in 3 Americans.  Untreated, it can lead to Coronary Artery Disease (hardening of the arteries), heart failure, stroke, kidney failure among other health problems.

Have you had your blood pressure checked recently?

 

What is normal blood pressure?

Category                      Systolic / Diastolic
Normal                           less than 120/80
Prehypertention             120-139 / 80-89
Stage 1 hypertension     140-459 / 90-99
Stage 2 hypertension     higher than 160/100

Several things can contribute to high blood pressure:

• Stress - Stressful situations causes your blood pressure to spike temporarily.  Researchers aren't sure if stress also cause long-term high blood pressure. Alcohol consumption  - more than 1-2 drinks per day)
• Chronic kidney disease -  If the blood vessels in the kidneys are damaged, they may stop removing wastes and extra fluid from the body. The extra fluid in the blood vessels may then raise blood pressure even more.
• Adrenal and thyroid gland disorders - The endocrine glads such as adrenal and thyroid, secrete hormones and when there are too few or too many of these hormones, high blood pressure can be the result. 
• Obesity - Blood pressure rises as body weight increases.
• Smoking
• Inactivity
• Genetics - High blood pressure tends to run in families.  Having one or more close family members with high blood pressure before the age of 60 means you have two times the risk of having it as well.
• Aging - The chance of having high blood pressure increases as you get older starting at about age 35.
• Too much sodium in diet -  Lower sodium diets can keep blood pressure from rising and help blood pressure medicines work better. 
• Asthma and cold relief products can sometimes elevate blood pressure.
• Birth Control Pills, pregnancy and hormone therapy can also elevate blood pressure

Have you had your Blood Pressure checked recently?

How can you prevent high blood pressure?

• Stay or get physically active - Start with doing 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity on most, but preferably all days of the week. 
• Limit alcohol intake - Besides, causing a rise in blood pressure, alcohol can also interfere with the effectiveness and increase the side effects of some blood pressure medications.
• Maintain a healthy weight - Losing even 10 pounds can lower blood pressure — and it has the greatest effect for those who are overweight and already have hypertension.
• Learn how to manage stress effectively -   Doing activities to reduce your blood pressure, such as exercising 30 to 60 minutes a day, can reduce your stress level. And if you've been diagnosed with high blood pressure, doing activities that can help you manage your stress and improve your health can make a long-term difference in lowering your blood pressure.
• Quit smoking
• Limit sodium intake - Recent research has shown that people consuming diets of 1,500 mg of sodium had even better blood pressure lowering benefits. Limit frozen foods and trips to fast food restaurants. Read nutrition labels on packaged foods to learn how much sodium is in one serving. Keep a sodium diary can help monitor sodium intake.

And finally...

Have you had your Blood Pressure checked recently?

A great source for information on lowering your blood pressure can be found here.

Are you in the mood for love?

I realize I am a couple of days late, but I just came across this article. "Aphrodisiac Foods for Valentine's Day" in the February 2013 IDEA Fitness Journal.

Of course, it is a list of healthy foods and there is no scientific support of the love potion in these foods. Regardless, it sounded like a fun list.
Almonds
Aniseed
Arugula
Asparagus
Avocado
Bananas
Sweet basil
Broccoli rabe
Carrots
Chocolate 😄
Coffee
Coriander
Fennel
Figs
Garlic
Ginger
Honey
Hot peppers
Licorice
Mustard
Nutmeg
Oysters
Pineapple
Pine nuts
Raspberries
Strawberries
Truffles
Vanilla
Watermelon

Have fun with that list!
Milli

February is Heart Health Month

Since it is February and Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I thought it would be fitting that I write about your heart, maybe even a couple of times before the month is over.

Heart Disease, not just cardiovascular disease, is everywhere.  I can name at least 5-10 people close to me that have heart disease or who have passed away due to heart disease and I am not even including my grandparents.  How about you?  I am betting you could do the same.

Did you know that your heart is a muscle?  It is, and just like every other muscle it needs to be exercised in order to work in the most efficient manner.  Even though your heart is only about the size of an adult fist weighs less than 1 pound, it is obvious to state the importance.  The hearts primary purpose is to deliver oxygen.  The oxygen is necessary for every life-sustaining process that happens within your body.

Cardio training makes your heart stronger, so that it can pump more blood.  Cardio training also increases the size of your left ventricle, which is responsible for delivering all the oxygen saturated blood to the organs, tissues and cells of your body.  Resistance training is also helpful in strengthening your heart.  Regular resistance training increases your hearts ability to contract and send blood to the muscles you are working. 

So, what are you going to do for your heart this February?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  Are you going to add ONE day of exercise to your week?  Are you going to add some strength training?  Set a goal and commit to it!  If you leave me a comment I promise to check up on you.

My goal right now is to complete the Master the Met.  On March 23, I will be climbing the 42 floors of the Metropolitan Square Building in downtown St. Louis.  I have a website set up where I am collecting donations to the American Lung Association.  I have to raise $100.  Please consider contributing a small amount.  I would be forever grateful.

Craving Carbs

This post is written in dedication to my good friend Jody, she asked this question, but I am sure that we can all relate.

Why do we crave Carbs?

First of all, let's just say that craving carbs is not about lack of discipline. You are not lazy or just not motivated.

There are several reasons why you might crave carbs.

Glycemic Index (GI)
The glycemic index is a tool that is used to determine which carbohydrate containing foods are best to include or avoid in your diet. Processed and sugary foods are high glycemic. High glycemic foods make your blood sugar rise really high and really quick. Think about when you are hungry and you eat a candy bar, your blood sugar rises pretty quick and you get a shot of energy. Because the candy bar is made of mostly simple sugars, the insulin, your body produces, can metabolize that sugar pretty fast, leaving you with a sugar crash. That drop in blood sugar will cause you to feel hungry soon after you've eaten.

Low Serotonin Levels
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that stabilizes mood and makes you feel calm and relaxed.  Low serotonin levels lead to carbohydrate cravings because the body is looking for other ways to increase serotonin. Prozac and many other antidepressants increase brain serotonin levels. So eating carbohydrates is like taking Prozac. People feel better after they eat carbohydrates. 
 Carbohydrate Restriction
Following a diet that is extremely low in carbs and calories can trigger cravings for carbohydrate rich foods. Carbohydrate restriction reduces serotonin production in your brain. Low serotonin can make you feel low and moody, ready to reach for the foods you have been trying to avoid. Your body requires adequate serotonin for a healthy mood.  

Hormones
Hormones are the chemical messengers in your body that play important roles in most bodily functions, including your appetite. Many women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) have imbalanced sexual hormones which in turn causes carbohydrate cravings. Women also crave carbs as their bodies shift through the normal hormone changes associated with menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause or with hypothyroidism. 

What can we do about Carb Cravings?

Stop Buying Carbs

Obviously, if you have high carbohydrate foods in your house, you'll be more likely to eat them. Foods like cookies, ice cream, chips and cakes will spike blood sugar levels. The more high carbohydrate foods you eat, the more likely you will crave them. 

Get Plenty of Sleep

One of the main reasons people crave carbohydrates is because they give you quick energy. Simple carbs are an easy way to get an energy boost, but that boost will be quickly followed by an energy crash. Getting enough sleep will help you maintain your energy without seeking a quick energy burst.   
Increase Serotonin levels

• Sunlight. Natural sunlight converts to vitamin D in the body.  Vitamin D naturally boosts serotonin levels. 
• Typtophan.Tryptophan is that essential amino acid that is found in turkey.  Eating foods that are high in tryptophan produces a sense of calm and alleviates mood swings, all because serotonin levels increase with an intake of tryptophan.  A diet deficient in tryptophan may lead to low levels of serotonin.
• Protein.  Protein blocks serotonin production.  To avoid the mood swings that come with eating simple carbs, always eat a protein with carbs.  For example: cereal and milk or cheese and crackers.

Eat Regular, Healthy Meals

Eating small meals every few hours will help keep your sugar levels stable.  When you go all day without eating, your blood sugar levels drop, causing you to look for foods that give instant energy. 

Eat the Right Carbohydrates

Not all carbohydrates are bad.  Look for those foods that have a high glycemic index, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables.  These foods provide complex carbohydrates, which are slowly absorbed and do not cause dramatic rises in blood sugar.  Complex carbohydrates also provide fiber, which will keep you feeling full longer. 

Milli

After Burn

There is a new buzz word out there, after burn.  OK, maybe it is only new-ish to me.

The clinical term for after burn is excess post exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC.  The EPOC level is represented by the oxygen consumption or the energy expenditure that is above the pre-exercise level after an exercise bout.  In English, after burn is the additional energy that is required by your body to restore itself to pre-exercise levels.  Your body has to restore its oxygen stores, remove lactate and return ventilation, circulation and body temperature all back to pre-exercise levels.  In the last article, we learned that energy is burned in the form of calories.  So, another way of describing after burn is the increased level of your metabolism (calorie burn) following exercise.  That's what exercise is all about, right?

Studies have shown the the magnitude and duration of after burn depends on the intensity and the duration of the exercise session.  Fitness level and gender will also influence the magnitude and duration of the after burn.  Generally it takes 15 minutes to 48 hours for the body to recover to it's resting state. This explains where the recommendation to allow 48 hours of rest between strength training a particular muscle group was derived.

According to this article by Dr. Len Kravitz, aerobic or cardiovascular exercise has the greatest impact on EPOC.  Multiple studies have shown that the higher intensity of your cardio workout, the greater the after burn or the greater the caloric expenditure after exercise.  Additionally, research has also shown a direct relationship between duration of exercise and EPOC.  The longer the duration of your cardiovascular session, the higher the after burn.  Studies have also show that cardiovascular intervals elicit a greater EPOC response when compared to continuous exercise.  After burn is directly influenced by resistance or strength training.  It has been difficult to say if resistance or cardiovascular exercise is more influential on EPOC because of the challenge to equalize resistance training and aerobic exercise.

The take home applications for all this new information is as follows:

• Make your focus to develop your cardiovascular exercise so that you can perform higher intensity exercise for 30 minutes or more. 
• Regularly incorporate interval training into your workouts.  This is a fantastic way to increase your capacity for higher intensity exercise. 
• Perform strength training at least 2-3 times per week. 

I typically do really well with the cardiovascular exercise.  The strength training part, I am incredibly inconsistent with.  My goal is to get those 2 days per week completed! 

Milli

How much do you have to move for weight loss?

Losing weight has always been basic math to me.  The calories out have to be more than the calories in.  For years, we have heard, to burn fat you must use cardiovascular exercise and for durations longer than 30 minutes.  Strength training is helpful because it will raise the level at which your body burns calories while at rest.  That is what I was taught anyway.  That is the mentality I used all summer to lose weight.  In fact, I  park my booty on the elliptical with my nook reader for 45-50 minutes and I actually enjoy it.  And then I read this article: Lower Caloric Expenditure = Better Weight Loss Results? in the IDEA Fitness Journal, January 2012, page 15.  (I tried to link to it, but it is a professional journal and unless you buy a membership you can't view the article online.)

The article discusses a study that took place at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.  The scientists tested the differences in workout length and caloric expenditure and how it affected weight loss.  Sixty-one moderately overweight young men were separated into 3 groups for thirteen weeks.  The three groups included: non exercisers, moderate exercisers (about 30 minutes or 300 calories burned) and high exercisers (about 60 minutes and 600 calories burned).  The participants were instructed to maintain their current dietary intake.  At the end of the study, the moderate exercisers had shed and average of  8 pounds of body weight and 8.8 pounds of fat.  The high exercisers lost an average of 6 pounds of body weight and 8.4 pounds of fat. 

So basically, the high exercisers worked twice as hard, but had the same results as the moderate exercisers.  Hmmm...makes me wonder why I am spending 45-50 minutes on the elliptical, if I could get the same results in 30 minutes.  Time for me to look a little closer at the current recommendations.

In February of 2009, ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine), aka the gold standard in the fitness industry, released a Position Stand regarding "Appropriate Physical Activity Intervention Strategies for Weight Loss and Prevention of Weight Regain for Adults".  The recommendations issued by the ACSM are as follows:

For Weight loss: 150-250 minutes/week of moderate-intensity physical activity provides only modest weight loss. Greater amounts (ie. >250) provide clinically significant weight loss. 

What does that say to me?  250 minutes divided by 5 days a week = 50 minutes of moderate intensity exercise.  So the 45 minutes, 5 days a week that I have been putting in do follow the current recommendations.

All that being said, weight loss still goes back to basic math.  To lose weight, your body must burn (or metabolize) more calories than what you are eating.  A calorie is a unit of energy. Specifically, a calorie is actually a kilocalorie and it is the amount of energy, or heat, it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. (I feel like Charlie Brown's teacher here.)  You increase the number of calories you burn through exercise. Higher intensity exercise will certainly burn more calories than lower intensity, but higher intensity exercise cannot typically be maintained for long durations of time. 

I think that this study proves how important diet is in the weight loss equation. There was no change in the dietary intake, the weight loss recorded was with exercise alone.  Six to eight pounds in 13 weeks, is about 1/2 pound a week.  For most people, I am not sure this would be enough of a loss to stay motivated. 

At this point, I am not ready to give up my long duration exercise just yet. I am reading a ton of good books.  I will continue to follow the ACSM recommendations, though I will begin to interval some higher and lower intensities into my workout.

Back 2 Being Fit

That's me!  I have been inspired.  After being on the fringe of the fitness field for the past 7 years, I am making a real effort at getting Back 2 Being Fit.

First of all, where have the past 7 years gone?  After my second daughter was born, I mistakenly let my personal trainer certification lapse.  Boy was that a mistake!  Two years ago, I re-certified with the American Council on Exercise as a Personal Trainer.  That was a toughie!  Things that once came so easily to me, were suddenly really challenging.

As stated, I am a certified personal trainer. But I am on the fringe. In addition to letting my personal trainer certification lapse 7 years ago and having 2 children under the age of two, I let myself go.  I lost the focus on myself, and focused completely on helping and caring for everyone around me.  These are the same habits that I told others for years to lose.  I would preach, "you have to take care of yourself first".  I would tell this to the folks who had aging parents and were dealing with their health issues.  I would tell this to new moms that were caring for several young children in their household.  I would tell this to full-time employed adults.  Anyone who had the excuse "I don't have time".  Wow, did I have a lot to learn. 

Last summer, I joined a weight loss competition with some friends.  I kicked myself in to booty and made myself have time!  I lost 30 pounds and gained a new perspective on my life.  I never had to work at maintaining my weight previously.  I was 30 years old, had no children and my occupation was fitness.  Now, I found myself a stay at home mom, turning 40, with two young children and 30 pounds to lose.  Those words that I once preached to people still haunt me today.  I was so naive!  I feel like now I have a much better perspective on my health and fitness. 

So where does the blog come in?  I am ultra motivated to learn all that I have missed in the fitness industry over the past few years.  Exercise is a science, and with that comes change and evolution.  I am teaching myself where fitness has evolved and where it is currently evolving.  In doing so, I would love to share what I learn. 

My goal is to research, read and study about current fitness trends and write at least three posts a week.  I want to get off the fringe and Back 2 Being Fit.

Milli