No, I really mean it! 

Man, I wish I had a calorie free chocolate cup cake that tasted oh-so buttery topped with guilt free vanilla cream cheese frosting and washed down with calorie free and artificial sweetener free Raspberry Lime Ricky soda for every time a woman told me they wanted nice legs or a tight bum.  But you know what I am going to say…nothing that good comes that easy unless you are A) genetically gifted or B) working in a morgue and you took matters into your own hands (yikes).   

The pursuit of hot legs/tight bum for some women is almost a full time job with most of them honestly just wasting a lot of time in the gym doing useless workouts and following the advice of girls with already nice legs!  Biggest mistake you could ever make:  asking the hot girl in the gym what she does for her legs.  That’s like asking a six foot woman what she did to get tall!  Leave that chic alone!  She’s about as helpful as a one armed man at a cup stacking contest.  Who you need to be asking is the girl who has slowly but surely come into the gym—your gym—month after month consistently looking better.  Right now you don’t think too much of her, but in 12 months she’ll probably be your hero.

Lower body takes time to change.  Period.  In fact, if you do not have at least 18 months to spare you might as well stop reading now and head back to the morgue looking for a ready made pair of legs.  It also requires consistency far more than any other body composition trek that you may be on.  Yes, getting rid of saggy tummy skin is tough (and a post I will do some time soon) and so isn’t adding muscle on a not-so-muscle-ly-girl, but nothing beats ridding the bum of cheese and adding shape to your quads. 

So let’s jump right into it:

BIGGEST MISTAKE

Besides talking to the 5’9” hot mama with gazelle like legs thinking she’s going to impart some world knowledge on you, not lifting heavy enough.  In fact, this is the mistake women make for all body parts.  If you cannot say that you have had at least one training session where you lifted lower body and farted, you have no idea what it is to lift heavy.  I know what you’re thinking:  I don’t have a spot.  I am worried I am going to hurt myself.  I don’t trust lifting the weight by myself. 

Whatever.

Slowly increase your weight per set and per workout (by 2.5# per set) until you reach a point where you could let go and fuel a small bio/green peace type community with one whole set.  I am not kidding.  Shoot for a rep max of about 4 to 5 reps and really do some damage.  Stop messing around with the 15 pound weights and the ten hours of walking lunges.  WASTE OF YOUR TIME.  Either buy yourself a can of beans or man-up and lift heavy!  It’s not that hard!

Rep Range= 5 to 15 reps most of the time at 70 to 95% max weight.

IF ONE WORKS, THEN 5 WILL BE AWESOME!

I am not sure when this started but it had to be in the over-indulgent 80’s.  There was just something about that era that screamed “excess” (maybe the hair…or the black eyeliner phase…who knows?) and made people believe that if something worked by doing it one time, then doing it X amount of times had to be that much better!  This brings us to plyometrics.

I love plyos.  I am a plyo loving and plyo giving whore.  I won’t lie to you.  The only thing I love more than plyos are sprints.  You want nice legs, these must to be in your program…but not 5 days a week.  The minute you tell a girl that plyos will shape her legs or that sprints will tighten her bum, she will all of a sudden transform into Tigger right in front of you and then proceed to bounce her way into knee issues and a sore back before you can say, “Bonita Applebum!”  Whoa Tonto!!  Get a hold of yourself.  Doing plyos 3 days/week and sprinting twice is NOT going to get you the bum you want.  It will, however, get you some shrapnel—formerly known as your legs. 

Never forget:  You do not grow, change, lose weight or what have you when you work out.  You do it when you recover.  A true workout=workout plus recovery.

Plyos= 1 time/week  Sprints=1 time/week

TAKING IT A BIT TOO FAR

Now you know I really wasn’t joking about how heavy I truly want you to lift but I also do not want to come across as if I am telling you to throw caution to the wind and blow out your low back.  Use common sense here.  One of the easiest ways to do this and to stream line your legs at the same time is to do everything unilaterally.  Single leg everything!

Single leg training truly allows you to target your glutes better because you can go deeper in the exercise with less risk of injury and it ensures that one leg is not taking over.  Also, your peak weight with one leg is clearly less than your peak weight with two legs so you are not going to release this big torrent of growth hormone and therefore make “bigger” legs.  (Who truly knows that that wouldn’t happen anyway?)  Instead, you are going to wipe out your legs enough to encourage a rebuild (aka tightening) but stop short of being Arnold.  You also double the amount of work that you are doing.  So if a leg workout is a killer and causes you to sweat like Ruben Studdard on an 80 degree day, you are going to reap twice the benefits in one workout without going overboard.  Sweet!

Great weapons of choice:  lunges, bridges, deadlifts—all single leg

Next week we’ll actually put this together and see what it looks like for real.  It’s great to have parameters but having your week laid out for you is completely fabulous. 

Until then, lift heavy…eat clean…and enjoy life.  And avoid all hot girls with training advice…bwahahaha!!:o)

P.S. No, you are not crazy.  I have doubled posted today.  I am aiming for posts M-F now because you folks are demanding it.  I am so appreciative of all the people reading the blog now and how many of you hunt me down and request topics as well as telling me how much you like it.  I missed putting the Perform Beautifully series on yesterday as planned so I tossed it on this morning and bumped this one up to the afternoon.  Enjoy!

I have sent my Menu Planning series to the “Keeper of My List” (do you like how mysterious that sounds?) so that she may send out the final few posts to those that are signed up on my blog to make way for us to begin the next series:  Perform Beautifully.  If you are signed up you will receive how to liven up your menu and how to optimize your menu, the last two letters of the C.O.L.O.R. series.  For the rest of us, it is that time to move on.

I want to really take time in this post to really touch upon where I want to go with this and to whom I am actually speaking.  The minute I roll out the word beautiful I feel as if every man turns his ears off and every woman begins to think cosmetics or heavy creams.  You cannot be further from the truth for either.  For my male clients, I am going to hit you where it counts:  skin, hormones (i.e. sexlife—did I say that?) and your athletic performance.  For my female clients, I am going to hit you where I know you are sensitive:  emotions (hormones), overall outward appearance (skin/hair/nails/teeth) and your athletic performance. 

There is much to talk about with this topic but I am going to try to keep it brief in that this series will be no longer than 8 posts, most likely about 6 or so.  I am going to center them all on Tuesdays and Thursdays (off to a great start, *sigh*) so you know when to tune in to them.  I am interested in what you may want to know about in terms of performance nutrition so please feel free to either email me at Jodi@jodiojo.com or leave a comment below.  Much of what I will speak about will be in relation to you performing at your best while still maintaining your physique or getting the physique you have always wanted through performance, but I am willing to touch upon anything else if I can fit it into the lecture series. 

Perform beautifully.  You have heard me mention this before and now I have a whole series dedicated to it.  I love to see a body in motion operating to its fullest capacity.  I have been in the business of bodies for over 15 years now.  When I first began I really had no idea how much I was eventually going to love what I do.  I won’t go so far as to say it was a hobby, but I certainly did not think it was going to become my career.  I was a Mechanical Engineer who was very much in love with human side of the mechanics (I pursued biomechanical engineering—I have an extensive biology, anatomy, physiology and chemistry background) but truly missed the boat back then of how much poetry in motion surrounded me.  I had set in my mind that I was going to do prosthetics for a major company or design sneakers and etc. and I also taught aerobics and trained clients on the side.  As my engineering career developed I realized I had more of an impact on the bodies I love personally training them than I did developing products for them.  Enter a husband and some children and the rest is history as they say.

The human body is a true wonder that needs to be respected.  One of the themes that you will continually hear from me in this series is how much control we *don’t* have over our bodies.  Somehow, long ago, we became arrogant in believing that we control the inner workings of our body and that we can will it to do as we please.  With all the obesity and sickness in this world it is blaringly obvious how far from the truth this is so as we talk about what makes this gorgeous vessel of ours function, you are also going to learn how to respect it.  I have had my @ss handed to me by my body (now there’s a visual) and nothing will teach you humility more than stubborn weight loss, physical goals that you cannot accomplish or a disease. 

Let’s first start by just acknowledging what I mean by “you do not control your body so you will learn to respect it by the end of this series.”   Go grab a piece of candy.  Like a butterscotch or something.  Go ahead, eat it.  Now, stop your pancreas from secreting insulin.  Go ahead.  Stop it.  Oh, you can’t?  Ok, how about…don’t go to bed tonight or any other night this week.  Tell your body you are staying up and then try functioning at work. Futile?  Please lose 2 pounds by the time you are done reading this article.  Can’t?  I wonder why…  Ok, slow your breathing for 2 min. and then accelerate it for 3 min. without using exercise.  Can’t?  Hmph.   I thought you controlled your body?  No?  Then why are you so pissed when you cannot lose weight?  Why do you force yourself to workout aimlessly without off days or neglect to properly fuel it when it is obvious it needs replenishing?  I don’t understand…

If you want to master your body and push it to the farthest reaching point then you are going to have to realize that you have been given a gift (your body) and it is up to you to respect it and obey its limitations.  Bowing to the master of all masters requires you to fill it with the best foods for the activities you want to participate in, rest it when it needs to be rested and push it when it needs to be challenged.  After you have done all that, then it needs you to nurture it with love and affection (such as vitamins, post workout foods and etc.).  Does this sound like something you can handle?  Then let’s get to Performing Beautifully.  See you tomorrow..   

Next Post in Series

If you are anything like me (and Lord have mercy if you are!), you are one active son of a gun.  You most likely do more in one day than the average person does in 3 days.  Knowing this, sleep may not always be your priority.  And if this is the case, you are really doing yourself a disservice.

Honestly, I can almost say with some level of certainty that the majority of us know that we should get a good amount of sleep every night and how truly important it is to our success.  And if you truly do not know and are sitting there still scratching your head as to what I am talking about, here are some quick facts for you:

*        You do not grow, lose weight or repair muscle tissue while you are awake—you do it when you sleep.

*        You eat more junk when you are tired—whether you want to or not—due to elevated cortisol levels.

*        You have better cognitive function after a full night’s rest.

*        Your workouts are better.  Your diet is better.  Your mood is better.  Must I go on?

Knowing all these things, I am not going to lecture you about the health benefits of sleep.  Instead, I am going to appeal to your sense of vanity and tell you what you are missing out on when you do not get a full 8 hours of sleep a night:

Ø  Tight abs

Ø  Tight butt

Ø  Bigger shoulders

Ø  Leaner physique

Ø  Better perf4mance

Then, I am going to proceed to yell at you to go to bed.  No need to beat around the bush!

I already know what you are going to say because I used to say it to so let me just beat you to the punch, “But Jodi, I don’t need that much sleep.  I function fine on 5 to 6 hours a night.  When I sleep more than that, I am actually tired.”  I knew you were going to say that!  However, it’s not true.  You really do need about 8 hours per night—if not more—if you truly want to Look Good Naked.  You can get away with 6 to 7 for a while, but true success comes from 7 to 9 hours every night consistently.  Having one random 8 hour night only increases your fatigue because you begin the process of healing (i.e. catching up on the lost sleep) and then cut it short before you truly finish the task.  You then believe because you are more tired that you slept “too much” and somehow you are now suffering for it.

I say this all the time but it bears repeating, if you go on vacation and you lose weight, you are not getting enough sleep.  If you take a week off from the gym and you lose weight, you are not getting enough sleep.  If you feel like Night of the Living Dead after a full weekend of sleeping, you are not getting enough sleep.   I am sure right now that you are reading saying to yourself, “Thanks Capt. Obvious, I know I am not getting enough sleep!  But…”

There are no “buts”.  I have spent the past 4 years of my life saying BUT.  There is no time like the present.  At this point you are a hamster in a wheel.  All I can hear is George Jetson yelling, “Jane, stop this crazy thing!”.  Remember when I spoke about ‘I want what I want’…here is a perfect case.  You will not achieve what you want to achieve without going to sleep so…

ü  Create a schedule that truly works and is realistic.  If you cannot make it happen right now, don’t write it down.  This isn’t the Make A Wish Foundation so be honest and forthcoming with your daily schedule.

ü  Set real boundaries that you will honor.  If you know you have to watch a certain show or go to a certain class and etc., don’t try to cut that out and think you will stick with it.  You won’t!

ü  Do not try to radically change your schedule.  Life is habitual.  Trust me, you won’t do it if it causes you mental stress just trying to remember all that you have changed.

ü  Cut the stimulants at night: caffeine, thought provoking shows, bill paying (oy vey)…  Start winding down at least an hour before you want to go to bed.  Invest in some fuzzy slippers.  Buy a Snuggie (I’m obsessed).  Put on some Jammies.  Get comfy and you will knock out.  Better yet, simulate your desk at work in your home somewhere and sit at it.  I give you 5 min. and you’ll be out! J

ü  Try audio books.  I know folks say reading puts them out.  Not me.  You want to knock me out?  Have me try to concentrate on listening to an audio book.  There is something about listening to someone blather on and on about a topic without being able to see them or read the words that just knock you right out.  It’s a shame!   

It took me a long time before I was truly honest with myself as to how important sleep was to my everyday bodily functions.  My brain power alone improved by leaps and bounds just by getting 8 hours of sleep every night.  This is not a lecture folks, this is a demand.  And this is not a fluffy, “How sleep can benefit you…” type of article.  This is me yelling at you with my finger pointing in your face saying, “Stop lifting more!  Stop doing more cardio!  Stop trying to cut your cals!  Stop looking for the next best supplement to increase your run time!  Your biggest hold up is your lack of sleep—not your program!  Go to bed and make a hot body, will ya?”

We had so much fun didn’t we?  We would hang out and be care free.  Ahhh, the days.

We would get up and just go run down the street to our girlfriend’s house for the heck sake of it.  No, not walk—run…like a bat out of hell!…in shoes…from Coquettes…LOL!! 

Life was spontaneous.  We were spontaneous.  We were in constant movement.  Never ever sat down. 

Being young was a gift that was taken so much for granted.  Not thinking too much about the next day because we couldn’t stop laughing that day.  Everything was fun, carefree and active.  Vibrant.

Remember when we just ate?  We didn’t care what we ate every day.  Uncomplicated.  Back then processed food just wasn’t an issue.  We didn’t think twice about it.  Food was on the table every day freshly cooked and healthy.  We had a great childhood like that. 

Unassuming.

The goal of every day was to top the joy of the day before.  Sure we had bad times here and there (Hawaii, July ’81) but they lasted only as long as the event.  Right after that we were back to loving life.

No post workout shakes.  No amazing glute exercises, our butt cheeks already sat on our necks they were so tight!  No worries about mixing foods, eating bad fats, varying cardio, making a PR, scale weight, skinny jeans and the like!  It was just us with our endless love of activity (we didn’t call it exercise because we LOVED to do it incessantly) and our healthy relationship with food—all day long.  

Our youth seemed endless. 

Where did time go?  Not sure how much we can reverse… L

It was amazing to have that time with you.  I am sure we can get it back if we just try. 

I really miss you, Jodi…

With all my love,

Your Alter Ego

P.S.  Can you relate to the message behind this post?  Not all of that pertains to me as I am sure the same for you but the essence is there.  Tell me what you miss about you.  Do you remember when?   And can you bring it back?  I am close to finding that woman again.  She is in there peeking her little head out.  And every so often I find myself skipping for no reason or playing tag with my kids (Who cheat btw, haha!) and think, “this is the life!”  Drop some of what is weighing you down today and find her/him.  And when you find them, hug them tight because they have missed you dearly!

So unrelated to this post but so worth sharing, this morning my husband was in the kitchen making my youngest son’s lunch (yes, read that and weep—woop woop!) when he dropped some of what he was putting in the lunch box on the floor.  My son, in the sweetest tone and facial expression said to him, ”It’s ok daddy.  It’s your fault, but it’s ok any way.” 

Honestly, don’t you wish you could have someone like that follow you around in life and just make you feel better about anything you may do “wrong” knowing you’d have that kind of support? 

Jail clerk, “It’s ok Ms. Jones.  You did take a baseball bat to the car in front of you at the light because it cut you off at the previous intersection—so yes it is your fault, but it’s ok any way.  Let me get you a soft pillow for your cell.”  *Sigh*

On to other things like six pack abs and a stellar performance!

“Ordering” your food (and I don’t mean, “I’ll take a large steak and cheese with pickles and tomatoes”) can make the difference in the outcome you want to achieve either aesthetically or performance-wise.  There are many different ways to align your food choices to elicit a different effect such as more definition, greater muscle gain and excellent recovery.  The following will give you some guidance as to how to put your menu together to get the most out of it:

Six Pack Abs:

I am constantly asked not ‘how can I get six pack abs?’ or even ‘can I get six pack abs?’ but ‘Can I have her six pack abs?  I want hers.’  I say the same thing every time I am asked, “Sure, go find her parents and ask them if they have any spare DNA.”  When it comes to definition, musculature, symmetry and etc. you are at the mercy of the genetic gods.  Get over it.  Wait…you missed this…

GET OVER IT.

If you have abs, you have them.  If you don’t, you don’t.  If you are female and 10% bodyfat and smooth as smooth in the belly but ripped up shoulders—guess what…you missed the ab boat.  If you are 18% bodyfat, large on the bottom, nice shoulders with a visible outline of a 6 pack—guess what…you just hit the lottery.  Where you wear your bodyfat is specific to you.  You can alter this (although be careful of what you wish for sometimes) if you stick with it long enough, but it requires due diligence.  So how can you maximize the chances of getting 6 pack abs?  Do not mix your starches with your fats. 

When you order your foods for the day, put a protein and a fruit/veggie in every meal and then decide which meal will get the starch that day and which meal will get the fat.  i.e.

MEAL 1                        ST

MEAL 2                        ST

MEAL 3                       

MEAL 4                        GFAT

MEAL 5                                               

Do you need to have your starches all in the morning?  Not necessarily, depends on when you are working out.  But I would separate them from your major serving of fat by at least one meal.  This does not kick into effect until you get within 5 to 10 pounds of goal weight.  If you have 30 to lose, head over to Order In the Court.

Stronger, Faster:

I am sure you have figured out by now that I do not believe that you need to sacrifice your physique to perform well.  I believe you can go for both without having to have to choose until you want to go to the highest level for either.  Whenever I say this I always get the person who points out many an athlete who is on the national circuit who looks fabulous.  These athletes are always the elite athletes who again, were blessed by the genetic gods in both talent and body.  They don’t count.  However, their parents DNA is for sale–hurry up and get it while it’s in stock. 

Now, if you’re reading this you are not one of them therefore you must think about you and your situation which requires a bit more attention than theirs does.  If you want to perform beautifully, then you need to think in terms of recovering and in terms of dieting.  So you end up with a hodge podge of days:

                    TRAINING                    TRANSITION                    DIETING

MEAL 1             ST                                ST                                ST

MEAL 2             ST                                ST                                ST

MEAL 3             ST/GFAT                      (GFAT)                        

MEAL 4                                                ST                               GFAT

MEAL 5             ST/GFAT                      (GFAT)                                    

MEAL 6 (TR)

Training is a day where your activity extends longer than 90 min. and you need maximum recovery.  Transition is an active day where your training is 90min. or less so you need to fuel but not too much.  Dieting is a day where your activity is an hour or less and you are just like everybody else doing cardio. 

When you mix up your days like this, you are truly serious about performing well and looking good both at the same time.

Behemoth:

Muscle gain.  Man is this a loaded subject or what?  It’s the hardest thing to get folks to understand–even more so than the elusive 6 pack abs.  If you want more muscle you need to eat more food. Simple as that. You know and I know there is more to it than that but 9 out of ten times when I get a client, male or female, who wants to get “bigger” and I check out their diet they are not eating enough.  Why?  “I want to get bigger but I don’t want to gain any weight.”  Really?  I want to pay my mortgage but I don’t want to use my money.  Do you think the bank wants a great diet plan to help them out instead?

I don’t know where this started but I honestly would pay money to make it go away.  Please, resign yourself to the fact that if you want to put on muscle, you will have to gain some weight.  Do you need to go up 25?  No, total waste of your time because you will lose much of what you gain in muscle having to diet that long to get off all that extra poundage.  But you will need to go up by *something*.  That means you cannot have 6 pack abs during a building phase.  So…

GET OVER IT.

Same concept as stronger faster but no transition day:

                        TRAINING                               DIETING

MEAL 1               ST                                          ST

MEAL 2               ST/GFAT                                ST

MEAL 3               ST                                                       

MEAL 4                                                            GFAT

MEAL 5               ST/GFAT                                                         

MEAL 6(TR)     

I Want What I Want

I do understand how this may seem easy to me because I do this all day long and so much work for you because this is the first time you are seeing it, but I cannot stress enough that if you want something more than what you have right now you are going to have to WORK for it.  If you want to do this on your own, you will truly have to learn how to do it.  There are short cuts and diet programs and etc. but they are made for the masses.  If you want to just complete the goal then please go that route.  It will simplify things and give you a foundation for you to build upon.  But if you have done that already and are looking for more, take the time to learn about what works for you and what does not.  You can do it with someone’s guidance or without.  To me, that’s a preference thing. Regardless, it will be work for you none-the-less.  Remember, there is JOY in the completion!

Previous Series Post

You know I ended my last post with me telling you to enjoy life and if you are like most people I am sure you did not think too much about that statement.  I really want you to think about that statement.

You know I am an engineer (oh wait, you might not because my About page isn’t finished yet…GRRRR;) and I cannot help but think like an engineer all the time.  One of the most beautiful, yet simple, concepts of engineering is inertia:.  A body in motion will continue in motion until acted upon by an external force.  This could mean many things like: 1) You are on your way to the freezer with the ice cream in it until the phone rings. (Yes! Saved by the bell!)  2)  You were about to head to your co-worker’s cubicle to tell her to mind her own business and pull her weight in the project and if she just got off the phone maybe she could get—and then your boss calls your name or 3) You start on a little project that you complete, which makes you feel good, so you continue on to bigger and better projects.  Let’s focus on the last one since you ran out of ice cream and your co-worker was laid off…cool?

There are some things in life that just feel good.  And with that good feeling, they bring joy to your life.  Simple things like:

A good workout.

The shower after a good workout.

A good workout, a hot shower and a great lunch with a friend.

A good workout, a hot shower, a great lunch with a friend ending with mani/pedi’s for the day.

Wait, all that and a COUPON or TWOFOR special with the mani/pedi’s AND free parking.

Oh the endless permutations!!!!!!!!!!!

And completing a task.

Checking off the to-do’s for the day feels good but take that one step further: completing a full task/project feels even better.  So this isn’t dropping off the dry cleaning or cleaning the bathroom, this is making it to 5 push ups, doing 3 pull ups, organizing a whole closet or clearing out the draw (you know, everyone has the draw with all the stuff in it).  This is a task that you set out to achieve and when you complete it you not only feel good about it, you feel accomplished.

Now I know what you are going to say, “Jodi, I set goals all the time.  I am organized and driven and accomplish more in one day than you do in a week you once-every-few-days-blog-poster.” (Oh the hostility!)  Really?  How many of them are complete?  And how many of them span more than a day?  (again, the go-to-the-gym/complete-all-workouts-for-the-week type checklist is not what I am referring to).  When is the last time you set a lofty (or even mambi pambi) performance/physique goal and achieved it?  Do you know how good that feels? 

We like to start things, but we do not like to finish them.

Am I speaking to you with this one?  (Oh sing it sistah!  Oh Lord, break me down and…focus—sorry.)  Do you have 9 projects going at one time thinking you are “movin’ and a shakin’” when really you are just “wigglin’ and a strugglin’”?  When is the last time you really completed something?  I mean really completed it?  THERE IS JOY IN THE COMPLETION!  Honestly. Finish it.  Take it all the way to the end and then celebrate it. 

I know, I get it…starting something new is energizing.   The beginning of the week is always better than Thursday afternoon when you are just praying for Friday.  Diets are better on Monday than Saturday.  A new weight program is fun but 2 weeks later you need to be threatened within an inch of your life just to go to the gym.  Your start is always amazing; but what about the finish?  What’s up with that?   Do you blur your finish by morphing it into a new goal and calling it by a new name so you never have to admit that you didn’t finish it?  Talk to me about the finish! 

Why?  Because there is JOY in the completion and if you do not have glimpses of JOY in your life you stop caring, fighting, wanting, driving, being.

Every time you do not accomplish something it takes a tiny piece from you.  So that half done quilt in your bedroom that is under the half read book you started 3 months ago is reminding you day in and day out that you are not successful.  And feeling successful is just as important as BEING successful.  You must complete something soon!

Now I am not looking down my nose at you.  In fact, I have a nerve!  I am sitting in my office next to my brand new bookcase that is only half filled with books because I have not finished putting them in the case in the order that I want. (Read b/w the lines there and you see glimpses of “Sleeping with the Enemy” with the cans in the cabinet!lol)   And if you knew how many books I had, you would understand!  So now it is taking away from my joy!  I need to complete this.  In fact, I need to complete a few things in here or I am heading down an ugly path of joylessness. 

So what am I asking you to do?  I want you to complete something this week.  Do not start something new.  Complete something old.  Have you been meaning to “fill in the blank here” for a while and just haven’t?  Do you have a book you can finish?  Or a goal that you keep tabling?  Finish it!  But don’t just mindlessly pick up the project and chip away at it.  Set out on a path of completion.  Mark check points on your calendar so you can stay on task.  Tell your friend so they can keep you accountable.  This can be gym related or just house related—who cares!  Finish a project that’s big enough to create a tsunami of successful feelings but small enough to fit within a 2 week time frame. 

I, myself, am giddy with anticipation over a project I have looming in the background.  It is honestly about 6 months away from being done and if you are a personal trainer looking to bring your clients to the next level—you’ll want to follow this project.  But in the mean time, I need to create some serious inertia for that to happen because that’s a long way away.  So I am setting smaller, more achievable goals to give me that successful feeling I crave…   

We need a rhythm, a flow, an accomplished feeling…

…because once we have it, we are on such a high for at least a week (most likely more than that) that we can conquer just about anything! 

…then we’ll capitalize on our inertia and set our sights higher!

Are you ready? 

I am often asked, “Does it matter what order I put my foods in?”  And my answer to that is like my answer to so many other questions asked of me, “Honestly officer, I didn’t see the stop sign.”  Oops…wrong situation.  No, my answer is normally, “Depends, what’s your goal?” 

Asking a blanket question like that without a qualifier is like asking, “Do you think I can wear this tonight?” and you haven’t told the person where you are going!  How are they supposed to answer that?  Yes, the prom dress at your first PTA meeting is appropriate! Make sure you wear a tiara and sparkly shoes, too! [giggling and rolling my eyes]

So we are about to delve into the world of ‘ordering our foods’ for different situations and we are going to tackle “life” first.  This is the same as offseason or maintenance and is characterized by a period of time where you are just either trying to get a rhythm or you are getting ready to go into a season of dieting (and for the record, dieting in this instance means manipulating your food for a specific outcome.  Could be weight loss, building or what have you.) 

Maintenance is a funny word because it is tossed around all the time (“can you tell me how to go into maintenance when I’m done”) as if it is an actual place you go to when you are done dieting: 

“Yo, where you at?”

“I’m in maintenance.”

“Maintenance?  How long are you going to be there?”

“I’ll be out in a week or two.  Just want to hang out here for a while before I start dieting again.” 

“Oh, alright. Well have fun.  Call me.”

What truly makes this funny is if you ask anyone in maintenance mode what they are doing or how they are eating, they will say to you:

“Are you still in maintenance?  How’s that going?”

“Yeah, I’m just eating whatever.  I’m all over the place.  I half diet one day, stuff my face the next.  I’ll get it together soon.”

Ummm…no you won’t.  The problem is not with maintenance.  The problem is not with the diet.  The problem is with YOU. 

YOU don’t know whether you are coming or going.  YOU don’t have a goal.  YOU don’t have a clear cut beginning or end to your maintenance phase so what ensues after this is just mass chaos.  You try to stay in diet mode yet eat like a person not on a diet on some days or if you are prepping for a sport but the training season hasn’t begun yet, you try to keep up with the pace of the sport but eat as if you are sitting on the couch. 

I don’t have many fears—I do have some and we’ve discussed a couple, but man do I fear a client going into maintenance mode.  The only thing worse is a client doing a “building” phase.  Now there’s one that can make me sit in a corner and rock back and forth in fetal position while sucking my thumb!  Very little good comes out of a building season for women (not so much men, they’ve got that covered) and I very rarely see it go all the way to the end, as well.  Just say no to building.

But maintenance does not need to be this hard.  It does not need to be this time of willy nilly behavior with half hearted intentions.  If you truly want to do maintenance, life, offseason (or whatever you want to call it) right, then let’s establish some order in the court!

Here are the rules:

1)       Define how long your maintenance phase is.  Even if you do not know, set a date to revisit your maintenance status in no more than 12 weeks.  So the longest you can stay in that mode before assessing your status is 12 weeks.

2)       TAKE FULL STOCK IN WHAT YOU HAVE!  Oh hear me when I speak!  Much of the dilemma with this time is that you do not appreciate all that you have.  You feel fat, no lumpy, no dimply…or you have performance goals and you want to do them all at once so you are going to yoga, doing speed training, practicing your swing while rehabbing your shoulder, you are everywhere!  Accept where you are RIGHT NOW and that you are GOING TO STAY THERE for a while.  It will make the rest of the time much easier for you.

3)       Begin to put your meals in this order:

            MEAL 1                        PR                   ST                    F/V

            MEAL 2                        PR                   ½ GFAT            F/V

            MEAL 3                        PR                   ST                    V

            MEAL 4                        PR                   ½ GFAT            V

            MEAL 5                        PR                   ST                    V

            Go ahead…ask me why.  Ok, I’ll tell you!;)  You order them this way for 2 reasons:  1) this will make  your meals almost isocaloric—meaning you are not having major ups and downs with cals all day and 2)  it mimics life.  This is what your girlfriends are doing.  This is what your family is doing.  This is doable!  Breakfast, lunch and dinner with 2 snacks.

4)       Lastly, set a work out goal.  It can’t help you to keep your head on straight while dieting, but it will help you pass the time faster while you are in your state of ‘nebulousness’.  This goal can be either performance related or physique related.  Your choice!

Defining parameters in the dreaded maintenance season will help you stay as focused as you can be during that time and it will help you get through it.  It truly is a hard phase to be in for most people.  There is no true definition of maintenance/offseason.  To be honest, most maintenance for folks is really a state of mind brought upon by the fact that they just need a break from actual dieting (dieting in the deprivation sense).  Right then and there you know that since the entrance to the phase is coming from an exhausted, not-necessarily-healthy-place, the existence there is not going to be a walk in the park. 

Hang tight as we get ready to explore other scenarios for ‘ordering’ our foods.  In the mean time, enjoy life will ya?:o)

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I have to say putting this series together has been awesome for me simply for the fact that I have had the chance to become reacquainted with the food that I recommend daily.  I speak food the same way all of you speak English:  fluently.  That’s a good thing and a bad thing.  Good thing because I know so much about food and its benefits so I can help my clients be successful; bad thing because I can sometimes become numb to the same things that I espouse.  So sitting down and analyzing the different ways to characterize food has been a blessing in disguise for me.

After going through light to dark for protein, dark to light for fruits and veggies, rough and ragged to smooth for starches, we have arrived at fats:  thin to thick consistency.  The thinner the fat, the better it is for you.

I am really loving how many people are tuning in to my blog every day getting to know a little bit about me as you learn “a lot bit” about food/dieting/etc.  One thing you will find as you come visit me every day is that I am completely obsessed with good fats.  No, I don’t think you heard me.  Completely obsessed with good fats.  If I could marry them, I would.  The only thing I love more than Omega 3 is butter.  And that’s saying something because I tried trading my 3 year old on the black market for a pound of butter.  Too bad they said he was only worth a tub of Country Crock.  Just know I’m holding out for more!

Fat heals.  Plain and simple, it heals.  It makes what’s wrong, right.  It makes wrinkles disappear and periods resurface.  It calms aching joints and soothes a craving palette.  Fat is beautiful.  From long chain to short chain I just cannot get enough and am blown away when I find someone who won’t eat it.  Is it an Omega 3, 6 or 9?  Do you want it as an oil or as a solid?  Would you like to cure psoriasis or just fix a metabolism?   Whatever you want to do you can do it with fat.  And then if that fat is butter?  Awww sookie sookie now!  Where do I sign up?

So as I sat down to go through fats, I almost had to get up and bake a pound cake, slap a little sumthin’ sumthin’ on my dry elbows and down a fish oil cap…but I held out long enough to at least tell you how to work fats into your menu.

You should have a good fat every day.  Unless you have something going on in your life or you are preparing for something, there should never be a time when you do not eat a good fat.  They are just that important. 

A typical serving of good fat is 14 to 16g.  This is a tablespoon of oil, 2 T of nuts and seeds, ½ avocado, 1c soy beans or 3oz. of wild Alaskan salmon.  When we talk about “ordering” our food, I will address the fat mixed with starch question that I am asked quite frequently.  For now, we’ll just talk about fats and how great they are in your diet.

Thin is in:

Fish oil, flaxseed oil, Udo’s oil, hemp oil, pumpkin oil and walnut oil.  Why these?  Because they are Omega 3 rich.  Next, olive oil, avocado oil, peanut oil and almond oil.  Why these? Because they are rich in Omega 9.  Lastly, safflower, sunflower and sesame oils.  They are rich in Omega 6.

Meaty Thick:

Salmon and Avocado

Pasty Thick:

Peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter, soybeans, nuts and seeds, coconut oil.

Here are the rules:

1)        Your ratio here is 3, 2, 2.  I would do 321 but that’s only 6 days.  Sorry for that extra day.;)  You may choose one from every type of oil to make 3, or you may choose 1 type.  You know I am going to recommend you vary it as much as possible.  But they are listed in order of benefit so keep that in mind.

2)       You must have a good fat everyday but are more than welcome to have more than one in a day.  If that is the case, start from the top with thin and add going down first.

3)       Do not cook your fats.  You may only cook with coconut oil on a regular basis.  You may use Pam to  grease a surface, but try not to cook with oil–even olive oil.  High heat damages the goodness of fat.

4)       Salmon must be Wild Alaskan and you may also have any fatty fish in its place. 

If you do not have fat in your diet and you add it in, you are in for a treat.  If you do have it in your diet, make sure you are mixing it up.  Nothing beats the shine of your hair or the softness of your skin when you are filled to the brim with good fat. 

I hear a mango coconut protein shake calling my name right now!  WOOHOO!!:o)

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Today was an interesting day for me.  I went “home” (it’s 17 min. by highway from where I live—not much for travel this weekend, lol) to a family fun field day at my old neighborhood’s park.  It was great to see so many people that I grew up with at this event and to see their children.  It brought back lots of great memories and it was just a feel good time for everyone. 

For me, that lasted about 30 min.  Then I started taking stock in the joint.  Who was truly taking care of themselves and who was not.  I want to make sure I point out that when I do this, I am not looking at monetary status items or etc.  I am looking at teeth, hair, nails, skin and etc.  This is my job!  Gotta stay on it!

But I began to notice a trend.  The ones that really looked good and were healthy all had some common traits about them.  I will call them the “Beautiful People” and the following is a list of their traits that help their cause.  First, so you know how I came about this list, I surveyed those that I could as to what they were up to nowadays.  Second, I remembered much about them from when we were younger.  Lastly, I have added my experience from working with other BP.  What I ended up with is a top 5 list of things they are doing that you may not be for you to review:

1.        Eating Fat

Honestly if you are not eating a source of good fat everyday you might as well just cut right to the chase by heading to your nearest vacuum cleaner and just manually suck the years off of your life now.  Why wait until your 45-50 years old?  Put a new vacuum cleaner bag on right now and just remove those precious years from your metabolic cup.  Sllllllpppppppppp!  Better yet, go buy a good face paint set from Silly Farms and draw the wrinkles in now.  Put 2 very deep creases on either side of your mouth, crows feet by the eyes and add at least 1 inch of extra skin on the belly that just hangs there.  Pretty huh?

2.       Sleeping

Here’s a hot one for you.  Now I am truly the pot calling the kettle black on this one because Lord help me if I sleep more than 5 hours a night, but I have made this a priority and I have gotten better at it as I am averaging about 7 hrs/night right now.  But if you really want to lose weight, maintain a great body or stay on the young side of life you will get in the bed now.  In fact, you’ll sleep at your desk at work too.  And when your mate breaks into a long winded story, you’ll check out for a few minutes there too.  Just don’t nap while driving because I will drive you right off the road and think nothing of it!  And stay out of rotaries…ugh!

3.       Dotting Their I’s

These people just do that little extra.  They measure their food, they seek out the best moisturizers, they plan ahead, they find the best places to shop, they get the best deals, they are always 2 steps ahead of you.  They are just connected!  Now…again, I am not casting stones here.  I am not this person.  Getting my underwear on without both legs in the same hole is an accomplishment for me.  It’s funny, I am a makeup junky who will have a perfect face for the day and will leave the house with a big ole’ stain on my shirt from oatmeal that morning.  Clearly I am not one of the Beautiful People.  When you find one, study him/her.  It will amaze you.  BTW, this is my husband.  Can someone just tell him to get over himself?  GRRRRRRRRR.;o)

4.       Optimizing

This is sort of an add on to #3.  Beautiful people are not impatient.  They do not become frustrated over little things.  If they do not like how an outfit looks, they will take it back and get another.  If they cannot find the right hairdo for an event, they try different things every night til they get it.  They take the time to lose weight, they take the time to pick out accessories, they seem to have a silent resolve that just puts a hush in the room.  They know what they want and they are not going to stop until they get it. So they are always improving and optimizing.  They understand that they are not going to get it right the first time around–even if they look like they do.

5.       Restoring

Not the same as sleeping, this one is almost baffling to me because I don’t understand why I do not do this as much as I should.  Beautiful People restore themselves.  They rejuvenate.  If you ever try to clutter up their day with a bunch of things to do, they won’t do it.  They’ll shut you right down before you get to task #3.  They do not over exercise, under eat, worry incessantly over details (because they took care of them already), miss their facials or manicures.  No, these folks understand that their maintenance is priority and you essentially are not.  Do not mess with their schedule, it has been set since last Sunday!

Standing there made me realize that those that were gorgeous when we were younger just “got it”.  They knew what was up.  And the rest of us are now just getting the memo.  Standing their talking to some of them go through their days and how they schedule and manage things made my head spin.  All I could think to myself is, ‘No wonder you are stunning.  I would be too if I could do half of these things.’  Ugh.

If you can get at least 3 out of 5 of these onto your schedule, you will be in good standing with the Beautiful People.  Anything more than that and you are living the life!  Let me know if you think I missed any!  In the mean time, I’m going to get some ketchup off of my pant leg.  *Sigh*

Sorry, it’s the truth. 

I am in a torrid love affair and I do not know what to do about it.  Oh the injustice of it all!

Back in December of 2000, I made a bold decision for me and solid commitment to my children to become a stay at home mom.   One of the best decisions of I have ever made because it taught me so much about myself that I may have never known.  The first thing I learned is I can’t stay home with my children. Bwhahahaha!  Holy moly is that a lesson in patience and gratitude!  I will say I am glad I did it, but I won’t be opening a daycare any time soon! 

All kidding aside on that one, I am still at home with my children.  I never did fully return to the “office life” and I never will.  I love my cherubs.  But I do fear I am on some banned mommy list somewhere at a reading group or Gymboree somewhere. Haha!

The second thing that I learned is that I have a love and knack for gardening. Not a little bit of a love…a big love.  I love to grow my own vegetables.  If you have the space and just a wee bit of time, do it!  The first time you eat your own green beans or broccoli will be the last time you go to Shaw’s.  But life has a funny way of stealing your joys from you and you find yourself on the short end of the ‘hobby stick’.  Not any more, I am resurrecting my garden as I speak.

The best thing out of all of the things that I learned (and there is a slew of them) was that I love to cook.  I love to cook meals and I love to bake desserts.  I love the presentation aspect of it and I like to try new flavors.  I am not a spice type girl; in fact I am spice picky and will turn my nose up to a food if it even looks like it has curry on it.  No, I am more of a flavor kind of girl.  Stew tomatoes into a sauce to change the flavor.  Add caramelized onions to give something depth.  I will reach for a flavorful veggie before I will a pungent spice to add a little sumthin sumthin to a meal.  Try steaming white fish in a pan with orange and red peppers, sweet onions and grape tomatoes sliced thin on top.  Let me know how that tastes.  Add spices if you like but don’t be surprised if you do not need them.

For the past few years, though I have gotten away from my love and oh, how I missed it so! 

So then it happened.

I went to dinner with a friend about a week ago and got a meal that had a homemade mango salsa in it.  I almost died at the table.  And so began the affair…

I’ve tried to block it out of my mind.  Visit with other foods.  Explore other textures.  Nothing works.  I am in a full blown love affair with mango salsa right now.  My hubby has caught me with it twice.  He walked in the kitchen, I looked like a deer caught in a headlight, I denied everything, still had some on the corner of my mouth, he mumbled something about to the effect of when I love something I love it, made me feel like a crack addict in a back alley, but so what I don’t care.  I love it.  So now I’m on the hunt for a good recipe.  Who has one?

If you are a salsa or chutney connoisseur, deposit the recipe below.  PLEASE.  As I seek counseling, help a sister out.  I am back to cooking (and I mean meal events) at least 3 times a week and will just thrive on your suggestions.  So throw them at me and everyone else for that matter.  Or if you have mastered the art of flavor, do share!  The old Jodi is dusting off the cob webs and heading back into the kitchen (btw I just got a new cooking set from my Amex points—those things are awesome!), apron and all!  I am going to try Michelle’s suggestion from “Are you feeling me?” this weekend so give me some more to try with it.

Every so often I will share some good ones that I stumble upon and let you know about them.  Right now I am thinking about experimenting with yummy post workout foods since I am about to start a performance series right after Menu Planning (which will finish this coming week).  I think it’ll be helpful.  Don’t you?

Bon Appetite Y’alls!