It’s been one of those months again.  You know…when I go to a million different places and have a million different conversations with a million different people.  How’s that for exaggerating?  I am serious, though.  I feel like I’ve spent the whole month talking which is kind of funny because I am one serious introvert.  I know—it’s hard for you to believe–but I am.  If you leave me to my own devices, I’ll stay in my office all day long alone with the ringer off on my phone.  That is pure heaven to me.   But I didn’t stay in my office; instead I was out and about being pegged with a bunch of questions I feel are more on the review side but worth a quick mention again:

Do I need a multi vitamin?

Yes!  And get a good one, too.  Good does not mean expensive.  My favorite?  GNC Ultra Mega for Women original.  They got all crazy and started coming out with ridiculous variations such as one for dog walkers, those who use hair gel and for anyone who still watches Survivor.  Honestly, you don’t need all that.  Plus the amounts that they add for things like that are so small it’s not worth it.

Do I need to take __________?

Most likely no.  This conversation usually starts off with all the things you need to take/buy and then ends a little later on with you telling me that you don’t have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of.  Let me say this for the record:  unless you are in a MAJOR endurance event , cutting for a MAJOR event or just won the lottery save your money.  There are only 4 things I advise people to take long term:  multi, BCAA’s, fish oil and magnesium.  Anything else is a specialty item that is being taken for a specific reason.

I hate swallowing pills.

Really?  Because I know of at least 10 people who’ve told me how much they love it and wish that their food came that way, too.  Ok, done with the sarcasm but this really is a non issue nowadays.  You can get just about anything as a tincture/liquid or a chewable online or in a vitamin store so knock yourself out finding what you need.

What’s a good brand?

Who the heck knows!  Seriously!  They change vitamin brands by the hour.  I have been in stores standing in front of a display and someone has come over and relabeled the vitamins while I stood there.  Ok, that’s a lie but I have been pumping gas before while the price was going up.  You get my point, though.  So here are some general tips that I’m sure if you try hard enough you can find the exception to the rule so please bear with me:  go national (Nature’s Way) but not commercial (One A Day).  Do not buy the 50 pound container of vitamins at Costco or BJ’s.  Go middle of the road for price.  Too expensive is usually over the top (USANA or Nutralife—the Coach brand of vitamins) and too cheap is just that (Walgreen’s version).   Don’t read the label like you know what you’re doing, you have not a clue what you’re looking at.  Admit it.  Go for sustained release if you can find it and last but not least, if you can get pregnancy vitamins do it because they are typically of great quality.

Do you recommend any fat burners?

WHAT?  Put the crack pipe down girl!  No!  Listen, I spent a very long time at a weight that I wished to holy heck I was never at and STILL didn’t take a fat burner then.  THAT alone should tell you how I feel about them!  Put the bottle down and run.

What should I take post workout?

This will be a series.  Hang tight for this.

There’s more.  Today was all the supplement questions.  I had others and I’ll post those tomorrow.  It’s been a busy month.  If you have any questions I don’t answer over the next few days, hit me up via email and I’ll see what I can do.  Woop woop!

Next Post in Series

Since I laid some ground rules down for nutrition in terms of an obstacle race, I feel it only prudent to do the same for active recovery and injuries.  The only thing that tops being injured is being sick.  I have had a sick 6 year old at home now for 3 days and he is reminding how miserable it is to be sick.  But injuries are annoying because you really want to work out at full capacity but you can’t and the whole time you can hear the pounds collecting on the scale.  So let’s put this in perspective, shall we?

Active Recovery

Active recovery is a fancy schmancy word for “knock it off and rest, will ya?”  In support of us psychos who feel like we’re being lazy because we only worked out 7 days this week (as opposed to the 8 days available to us overachievers), this is a vital tool to be added to our tool box.  Unlike a regular athlete who has full calories available to them at all times, we have to recover in two ways:  fake “high” caloric days and consolidating exercise.

Since our lives are guided by the motto “less is more”, our prep for the race should be a bit less than the average athlete.  For one, a ton of running will kill a physique.  Therefore, that should cut the schedule back a bit.  Secondly, we will need to consolidate lifts with functional training because lifting more would be hard to due to the lack of food in the diet.  And lastly, we do not have enough starch in the diet to go hog wild in terms of energy output without wondering if we’re burning through some major muscle so we need to get smart about adding fat.  Here are some ways to manipulate your schedule:

• Go to full body lifts for now.
• Add functional movements in between the lifts.
• Wear a weighted vest in your workout instead of heavy DB’s or BB’s.
• Leave at least 2 days completely free from all exercise and instead, make them stretch days.
• Eat the most on those days, but not so much that you break the caloric bank.
• Add sprints to your schedule (like 200’s and 400’s) but do not put them after a killer leg workout.  Even if you are doing full body workouts, you may have more of a “leg day” than another day.  Avoid sprinting after that.
• You can make the high cal days high by adding more Omega 3 fats instead of adding more starch.  This will definitely aid in active recovery.
• Drop a day of cardio and make your lifts more dynamic so you suck wind during them.

Injuries

Injuries are a pain in the butt.  And I mean that literally!  I would rather (yes! I got my “I’d rather” in) remove a deep splinter with a butter knife than sit through my summer (again!) with a major injury like a broken limb.  I broke my foot last June and it was miserable.  I refused to be sidelined so I hobbled all over Boston with a huge boot, but it still wasn’t the same.  Because we are on a compromised diet in the first place, our joints and tendons are ripe for the picking in terms of injury.  Fat is scarce in our diet and it is what lubricates our joint capsules  so we have little give and take when we misstep or land funny.  Rolling ankles are almost a given as well as rotator cuff issues.  Be smart!  Make sure you recover and get plenty of sleep.  Should an injury occur, here is what you need to know:

• Your first reaction is to cut all the starch out of your diet.  Don’t do it.  Go to 1/day at least 4 days/week.
• Eat exactly what you need each day.  This means do not go to bed hungry or full.  Either one is bad for different reasons.
• Do not work out on the injured body part until you are completely well.  Trust me when I say this.  We heal jacked up if we do not fully recover.  For the rest of your life, your knee will ache every time you turn on the garbage disposal.  Seriously.
• You will not gain weight if you keep the junk out.  This is not the time to “munchy” yourself into next week.   With that being said, do not try to starve yourself, either.  See above.
• You will feel smooshy.  Itiswhatitis.  You are not losing muscle.  You are losing your “pump”.  Accept it and just know when you lift the right way again, all will be well.
• Don’t be a cardio hero.  If you can’t lift right but somehow can still do cardio, don’t try to make up for lifting with cardio.  Baaaaaaad decision right there.  Just say no.

I feel better now that I put this on paper.  If you go out and act crazy on the course, I have nothing to do with it.   You have been warned.  Hahaha!  Let me know if you are doing one any time soon.  I’d love to know.  Woop woop. )

Ahhh…there’s nothing like a fresh batch of peer pressure to make us do something completely uninformed and irrational.  Gotta love it.

Everybody loves a challenge—especially us.  We love them more than the average person does, to be honest with you.  We can seriously get a little sick with it by setting crazy goals like 5 marathons in 5 weeks and of course, at the time it sounds completely rational.  It even sounds doable.  However, about halfway through the goal we know we are in trouble but we keep on going for pride sake. How about we avoid this calamity by giving you some things to take into account as we head into another year of the obstacle course races?

Let me remind you of who you are.   If you are reading this blog, then you are someone who may or may not realize that you are an athlete but you definitely realize that your physique is part of your overall health and fitness goal.  So it’s not ‘by any means necessary’ to reach the finish line because none of us here would be willing to go up 10 pounds to make the goal happen.  Instead, we will rethink it when we realize that it could take weeks to get the 10 pounds off again and we’ll most likely move on to another goal.  It is what it is.  This gives you an idea of what this series is about because it is not about getting you ready for the Tough Mudder or any other killer race.  No, it is about getting you ready for them safely while taking into account that you will need to be smart about how you fuel for the training, actively recover from the training and psychologically deal with the training. This is not the same as just plain old running or bodybuilding type lifting and if you are not aware of that you may either blow your diet, go crazy or the worst of them all: get injured.

Over the next three days I want to tackle 4 things:

• Tough Guy syndrome
• Nutritional challenges (how to work the STarch thing)
• Active recovery
• Injuries and their ramifications

In less than a month I turn 42 years old.  WOW.  I don’t feel a day over 41 30 yo when I do things, but the next day I feel like I am 75.  I honestly remember the time when I could wake up, decide to run a 10K that day (even though I was not training for one and never ran more than the 10 feet it takes me to get into the shower) and then get up the next morning and do it all over again.  Crazy.  If I did that today someone would be peeling me off the asphalt—and that would be at registration!  Shame.  I need to warm up for my warm up and I know that’s from years of abuse brought on by Tough Guy syndrome.  This malady affects almost all trainers, some group fitness instructors, avid runners and nearly every single physique athlete out there.

Tough Guy syndrome (TGS) is a peculiar syndrome because it crosses the blood brain barrier and renders us dumb as dirt as to the workings of the body and metabolism even though we could school a client on it in a heartbeat.  Somehow, we’re impervious to this information.  We can dispense it, but we can’t use it and because of this, we tend to do some of the dumbest things known to mankind.  It’s unbelievable.

TGS’s power is exacted by finding the weak spot in our immune systems: our egos.  Once it finds that chink in the armor, it quickly spreads throughout the Central Nervous System causing awful symptoms like signing up for and completing the Tough Mudder without any training for it and then systematically bragging about it like you’re a hero or something.  Frightening.  Fevers and chills can result if it goes undetected as people are hot with jealously or cold with disdain around you because you decided to just “pop into” the race.  And because TGS is a syndrome, there is no “one-size-fits-all” cure and normally diagnosis comes only with the egregious symptoms coming to light such as injury or accidents.

But there is hope.  You can take preventative measures to keep from developing this syndrome by realizing a few things:

1)      If you are under 18% bodyfat, you are of the lean community.  You cannot, and should not, put your body to the ultimate test without properly preparing it and fueling it.  Do not eat the same diet you are used to now and then just “jump into” an obstacle course type race.

2)      If you are allergic to starchy carbohydrates because you think they make you gain weight and want to just eat starch the week of the event, you’re in for a big surprise.  We’ll talk about this tomorrow.  Just know that you need to eat them long before the week of the event if you want to use them to fuel your race.

3)      You do not recover the same when you are lean.  You have fewer reserves in the tank and you must keep that in mind.  If you deplete them now, they will not be available to you when go back to working on your physique or just even maintaining it.

4)      You run the risk of injury—major injury—when you are leaner.  This truth comes in handy when you feel the urge to bounce out of bed and conquer the world.  One day of heroism could cost you 10 weeks of working out.  There’s a sobering thought.

This will be a short series.  I am only going to yell at you a little bit (I’m really yelling at myself but I’m using you as the punching bag.  Sorry.) so meet me here for the next 2 days as we get ready for an obstacle race.  Cool?  Woop woop!

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I workout in the morning.  I wake up somewhere between 4:50 and 5:30 and head over to the gym.  The number of times dictates when I actually get up, but if everything goes according to plan, I get up at 5 am.  I’ve been a morning-workout-person for the past 9 or 10 years (just figuring that out is crazy to me, I started morning training back in college).

 While morning workouts are my preference, there is usually one day per week that is either my rest day, and as such I don’t workout; or I just can’t get up, no matter how hard I try.  Well, last week did not go according to plan, at all!  Now that tax season is over, I actually have time after-work to have a life.  As a result, I can go to a yoga class or go back to the gym and do cardio.  This is a luxury I did not have Feb-Apr. 

 So last week went a little something like this; Monday my alarm went off, I rolled over and after hitting snooze 8 times, decided I was too exhausted to get up  – so I went to the gym after work.  Tuesday it took all my mental strength to get up, but I did, and I made it to the gym.  Wednesday, no matter what I wanted, there was no getting up.  The same for Thursday (and actually, by this point, I had given up on even trying).  And Friday was a moot point.  Granted I went to the gym after work, but it was not according to plan. 

 Thankfully by Wednesday I had given up and decided to just let this week be.  My body clearly wanted the extra sleep, and since I was able to get to the gym after work, no harm done.  Further, I knew I would start fresh this week and get back to it.  But without the foresight to let it go, I would have tortured myself all week about not getting up for the gym. 

 The body has this amazing ability of forcing us to listen to it when we are in need of things like sleep, rest, and recovery.  While all I needed was a few extra hours of sleep, there have been times when I needed to cease all activity and recover; and despite the fact that I didn’t want to, my body forced it. 

Twice now, once when training for the half marathon and once, a few years later when running with a friend, my body just flat out said stop.  Most of the time I will push through most workout fatigue/pain/suffering and I was trying to do so on both these occasions.  I had mentally turned off the little voice telling me I needed to stop.  Yet, all of a sudden, unconsciously, I just stopped.  The first time it happened I was completely shocked, it was not a conscious decision and after, there was nothing I could to do to get running again.  The same thing happened the second time and I was no less surprised that my body just stopped. 

 I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but it is the body saying “you need to knock it off, and since you aren’t listening, I’m taking over.”  If this hasn’t happened to you during a run/sprint/cardio bout, maybe it has during a lift.  Have you ever been on a roll, lifting like a psycho, making amazing gains; and then all of a sudden – bam – you’ve got nothing and no matter how hard you try, you are not lifting anything else.  It is wild.

 Well, as I get older (and hopefully wiser) I have learned to listen and to be thankful that I have such a wise body that takes control when I’m acting a fool.  For those of you who might not have listened, I wonder soon thereafter an injury popped up?  If you are nursing an injury or remember an injury, what were you doing the months prior to the injury?  Were you training like a psycho and not resting?  Training for a race but also drinking with your buddies at night?  Pushing yourself physically and not eating to support that effort?  I bet you were.  And I bet you can pinpoint the time your body told you to stop or even forced you to stop; yet you didn’t heed the warning.  Even if you took the day off, you went right back to it, without making any modification for the thing your body was trying to tell you (more food/rest) and soon thereafter got injured. 

 If this is you, and the light bulb just went on, try to remember this the next time your body is trying to tell you something.  I know that I certainly am trying, although I know it is easier said than done.  And that is why, last week, I decided to give in to needing extra sleep.  It wasn’t like my body was telling me I needed a week off from training, just that I needed to sleep in – a much easier pill to swallow than having to sit out an entire season/miss the race/take a long hiatus. 

So, I challenge all of you to think back to a time you didn’t listen.  Take stock of the outcome.  And try to be more perceptive the next time it happens.

Seanna is wrapping up her R & R this week so I thought re-posting her thoughts on balance from MP4 might be especially relevant this week.  Enjoy!–Jodi

I know someone who has struggled his whole life with psoriasis. This someone went to the dermatologist (again) for help treating a mean outbreak of the itchy, red spots. I was sharing with Jodi and she mentioned that this person is more than likely, due to the inflammatory nature of psoriasis and his typical, albeit fancy, western diet, chronically heavy in omega 6 and deficient in omega 3, ie. his omega 3-6 ratio is way out of balance, and that daily doses of omega-3 will in time help keep the psoriasis under control. (I’m giving my dog omega-3 every other day for a similar reason.)

This got me thinking about equilibrium in all areas of life. When things are out of whack, man do we know it. I’m convinced that our minds and bodies want to exist in a peaceful stability. For me, the keys to staying in balance are enough physical activity, clean eating, lots of sleep and a peaceful day-to-day outlook.

Physical

Take training for example. The MP4 call last week was about recovery. Heather does this and Amy likes that, and then there’s me. I was the “control” group because I always feel pretty good. Recovery for me isn’t so much of a thought out thing, but obviously I do recover because for the most part I always feel pretty great. I feel like this is due to me not pushing myself as hard as they do in the training ring because I know myself. I exert myself as much as I need to for my purposes (health and physique maintenance), and that’s all. Mostly because I don’t want to do more, I don’t need to do more, but also, who has time? In other words, I know my personal limits and myself. I’m meeting my needs and so feel good physically most of the time. When I up the ante and take on more (for a specific purpose and stated time frame), I feel it, and so have to plan around this so that the rest of my life isn’t sacrificed to the increased physical demands from a new goal.

Nutrition

A very big piece to being able to stay well, recovered, and in balance is a great diet. We’ve all talked about this to death but it bears repeating, you won’t feel or look your best, let alone be able to really get it done for your sport if you eat like crap, not enough, too much, etc. You’ve also got to know what you need. What sits well in your tummy, what doesn’t? What weighs you down or makes you feel alive? Knowing yourself and what you thrive on is important with eating too. I’ve walked this clean eating walk for a long time (at MP4 we all have) and could probably plan meals in my sleep. I know what I need and what I can get away with adding in or leaving out. But clean eating, with a few treats sprinkled in as life offers, is key to my steady state of being recovered and feeling great.

This is a classic!

Sleep

Oh man, I love to sleep! I love when I can go to bed early, like by an hour, even if I’m not tired, because I’ll fall right to sleep. Can I just add that after sleeping a solid 9 hrs or so, your skin glows and your eyes sparkle. Well, mine do, but then I thrive on lots of sleep. You may not need as much and glow and sparkle with 7 hrs. Like eating, sleep is one of the areas that I’ll have to plan to tweak due to increased activity demands. I can’t increase my activity output and not also compensate with a bit more sleep. When that’s impossible, the sleep I do get must be quality. I’m not a frequent nap taker, but occasionally my body will force one out of me. That’s my rather obvious clue that I’m getting out of balance.

If you’re like me you may have thought she was blowing her nose in her hand, but she’s not.  She’s crying.  Hope that helps you out in your travels today.

Emotional

I won’t get into this too much, except to say that emotional balance is precious to me. All of us that have lived through a season of emotional upheaval know what I’m talking about. I’m convinced that emotional and physical health go hand in hand, one greatly enhancing the other. For me and mine, a peaceful existence is a priority.

So the take home message from today’s post is this … stay in balance – know yourself and give your body and mind what it needs – activity, nourishment, rest, peace.

What are some of the ways you keep your life in balance? What activities specifically address this for you? Thanks ya’ll. Have a great day!

If you haven’t noticed by my past few posts, right now is a busy time for me.  With the amount I am working, the stress levels that come with work deadlines, and the lack of sleep; it is no wonder I am worn out.  Couple that with the fact that I really don’t like to miss workouts and will get up to get my butt to the gym, even if I haven’t slept enough; and you have a recipe for disaster.

 Of all people out there, I know how important sleep is.  When all is right with the world, I get to bed around 10pm and get up at 5am.  When all is really right with the world, I’ll go to bed at 9pm.  But when stress kicks in and I don’t get home from work until 8 pm or later, I end up staying up until 11pm or; dare I say it, midnight.  I can keep this going (the stress and staying up that late 1-2 times/week) for about 2 weeks and then it catches up with me like a bad hangover.  Add on a lack of weekends because I am working, and it gets really ugly. 

 Last week was my breaking point.  I ended up taking 2 rest days instead of 1 (oh the horror) and pushed the snooze button more times than should be legal.  Despite repeated conversations with friends and family that I needed to take time to rest, I kept pressing forward.  Thankfully, I completed three large projects last week which allowed my 80-hour weeks to slow down to a 55-hour week.  My mind and body must have sensed the ability to rest and took full advantage. 

 But prior to that rest, I have to set the tone with my Friday and Saturday workouts.  On Friday I had every intention of getting up (like I normally do) and getting to the gym.  That didn’t happen.  Instead, I went to the gym after work all set to get in a lift AND cardio.  Well, half-way through my lift I could barely move.  I started trying to try and figure out ways to cut the lift short.  The very thought of cardio was a distant memory.  I managed to finish my lift and made it home to bed.  Unfortunately, I was still high-strung from the weeks of stress.  My brain couldn’t stop trying to think of something to stress over and I didn’t get to bed until 11:30. 

 Cut to Saturday morning.  Granted I slept for 7 hours, but that clearly wasn’t enough.  I woke up and dragged myself to Jodi’s Beyond Bootcamp class.  Have you ever gone to do a burpee or a squat jump and no matter how hard you try, you cannot get your body to move quickly?  It feels like you are moving through quicksand.  Well, that is how I felt.  I got through the workout, went out for breakfast and was home on the couch by 11:30am. 

 I did not move from the couch except to go to the grocery store and get food.  Other than that, I had a date with my DVR, curtains drawn, no lights on, snuggled under a blanket, in and out of consciousness, for the remainder of my day.  I was fast asleep at 9 and slept until 9 the next morning.  Now that was the recovery and sleep I needed.  However, I never should have let it get that far. 

 The way the past three weeks should have gone down is a different story.  I should have adhered to a strict bedtime.  I should have allowed myself extra rest days if necessary (although I must say the gym tends to set the tone for my day) or at least eased up on the workouts.  I should have built in extra time to decompress.  But we live and learn.  And since there are still 7 more weeks until the end of this tax season, I will have plenty of time to implement this strategy. 

 The point, however, is that there comes a time when you are so worn down that your workouts are pointless.  Your returns diminish to the point o being nonexistent.  That is where I was last week and knowing that, I can’t even worry about taking more than one rest day.  I had nothing to give and pushing myself any harder would do nothing but hurt me.  Those are the times we need to realize it is time to say uncle.

Maybe it’s me, but as I age I want to keep everything where it is started: high. I’m just sayin’. I have no desire to get up in the morning and locate my backside, unravel my middle and fold up my arms to bring them with me wherever I go. And let us all be so honest and say this happens! Gravity is more powerful than we like to admit and it’s constant; it never gives up. Knowing this, we need to be prepared for the battle and for those of you who have already succumbed to the grips of gravity, there is help.
I am going to spare you a long, drawn out story that I am good for telling. I am not going to tell you anything about someone’s childhood when their butt was high or anything like that and now it’s their my basement and they visit it every-so-often. Nor am I going to describe what happens as you age and have babies or age and don’t have babies but how you may have an accordion for a belly now, a flour sack for a bum or mud flaps for arms. I refuse to give in to the strong desire to provide visuals of examples or horrifying details of how it can happen and scary stories from high school reunions. I had to talk myself out of giving you a two paragraph anatomy and physiology lesson about brown fat, insulin resistance and cavemen (insert whatever else is a popular topic right now…I’m drawing a blank) because it seems the industry demands this. Basically, I was having massive drama when I sat down to write this post and I decided to keep it simple. Here it is in a nutbag—shell, shell…sorry…here it is in a nutshell. Whoopsie.

• You care about how you look in AND out of clothes.
• You work hard in the gym and you watch what you eat. But it’s not enough. There’s something missing.
• You have had a few babies or were/are once heavier than you like and it left you with loose, sagging skin that does not seem to ever go away.
• You workout like a madman but you are not interested in competing in any sport so you really would not consider yourself an athlete per se. But you love a good workout and you diet like a pro.
• You want to lose the weight once and for all and you want someone to walk you through it every step of the way because you do great the first (X) amount of weeks and then it’s in the crapper from there.
• You have a wedding/shower/vacation/maternity leave coming and want to look great for it. I mean not just in your clothes, but the body parts that are not covered, too (arms, legs, abs, etc.).
• You like living on the wild side and think there’s something about this wack ball chic writing that’s appealing to you…like picking a scab or chewing on a hang nail. Hey…I’m being honest here. I will say, though, the other girls are much more sane than I.

Whatever the case may be, here it is: Trans4mation Station.

We set your goal together, we agree upon it and then we put it into action. We ask for at least 3 months full dedication and will tell you if we need more time than that, how long it may take and how it plays out. We are more concerned with your health than we are your results and we will tell you that. If what you desire is extreme, we’ll shut you down from the beginning. This is why we agree upon the goal together. Again, we’re women. We get it. We’ve either been there or are fighting like mad not to be and know what you fear. Happy, well adjusted women are our passion and hope to get you there by the end of your journey with us.
This site will be launching in the next few weeks although the business has been in existence for over a year now. This is what you can expect from a plan:
A customized nutrition plan
Weight training program
Functional Training program
Cardio schedule
Supplementation recommendations (all natural)
Snack list and recipes
Glossary of exercises
A bi-weekly phone call

The training changes monthly, the nutrition changes when necessary (sooner or later than a month, your results decide). I am sure at this point you are thinking, “Sounds great…how much? A million bucks?” Nope.

$199 down (programming fee), $67/month and you may cancel at any time.

I am sure you are tired of counting points, avoiding food groups and endlessly googling only to end up with the same body you started with but maybe a bit smaller. Let’s really transform that body together and get back to who you were before life hit you with a sack of potatoes . Hit me up as soon as possible: Jodi@trans4mationstation.com.

Because of the phone call and the level of detail we provide, we limit the amount of clients we take on. We only have a few spots open now but because enrollment is ongoing, check in with us whenever you are ready to see if we have new openings. In the mean time, I am going to go lift my derriere with a great metabolic lift this morning. Have a great day!

Today is my youngest child’s birthday; he is officially 5 years old. Honestly, time flies when you spend the majority of your days telling your kids to shut the front door (do they honestly think we live in a barn?), stop sitting on the couch that way (Would you do that at your friend’s house? Then don’t do it here.) and to eat what’s in front of them (I’m sorry…it doesn’t say IHOP on the front door. You’ll eat what we serve.). I love my babies—I still call them babies but they are 12, 10 and 5—because they keep me close to my younger days. Not in terms of mentality, although if you want a sight, watch a grown woman have a temper tantrum like she’s 5 year old…no shame here, but in terms of spirit. Hanging out with them reminds me of the times when I didn’t have to care about the horrible things that happen in this world. I can forget about my mortgage, my responsibilities (aside from cleaning my room), the burdens of life, eating right and exercising… Did I say that?

Come on! You know your mind started to drift and you thought of that for a moment. If you didn’t think that you at least thought: I was in shape back then and I didn’t have to think about it. Either one but the theme is the same: it was way easier then to be in shape when we were kids than it is now and it was a whole lot more fun. Remember we ran for the sake of running…in flats…hair all done up…going to someone’s house to put on make up that we had no business putting on…in the rain…and we didn’t care. I can’t be the only one. Remember we walked in a pack—a respectful pack because we got out of the street when a car came…ugh!—EVERYWHERE we went. I mean everywhere. We logged more miles than the first 100 runners across the Boston Marathon finish line. We were in shape. Not because we tried, but because we had to be! Even the most unfit kid was fit in today’s standards. It was ok to be athletic and to be honest, in my neighborhood, it was expected.

And then what happened? We grew up. We became responsible adults who write 4 page to do lists, who schedule loving the family in between picking up the dry cleaning and scrubbing the toilets and who drive around the gym parking lot looking for a spot closest to the door! We taxi little ones to play dates and older ones to basketball practice and then sit in the car writing out invitations to another’s one birthday party. We live at the mall and text happy birthday to our siblings because we’re not sure if we’ll have time to call. At some point we became…old. Not in body, but in mind. But that feeling of being old only lasted a short time for some of you right? One day you woke up and you thought 2 things: I want my body back (or I refuse to let my body go) and I couldn’t get on the elliptical again if you paid me $1000. Off to Bob’s Stores you go to buy a bargain priced, sensible pair of running sneakers while looking up Model Per4mance on your Blackberry. You go, girl!

Let’s face a fact and this is a hard one for some of you: If you workout then you’re an athlete. If you sweat—and not at 2 in the morning when you rip off all the covers and freeze your husband/mate/pet into oblivion—I mean when working out, you are an athlete. And if you run/jump/hop/bend/lift, etc or even skip out on lunch with your girlfriend…you are an athlete. This is a huge admission whether you realize it or not, mainly because how you diet and/or lose weight is going to be different than the way you would if you didn’t.

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard someone say, “I am going to start running to lose weight.” And normally when I meet these people who say this, who are willing to get up and go out of the house to anywhere in the world faster than if they just walked, they also care about *what* there bodies look like when they are done running. Who wants to do all that work and still have their backside dragging behind them? Amen? The largest growing market in the past 10 years has been the 5k and 10k market and the biggest chunk of that growth is women. Why? To lose weight. But I bet many of you have found out how untrue that can be. The more you run the less weight you lose and the more hungry you become. So your traditional diet mixed with running can be a disaster of epic proportions and to the tune of eight plus pounds per event! Holy moly!
But what if you’re not a runner but a skier? Or a once-a-week hockey player/soccer/player and so on? Your performance is directly tied to what you do eating-wise Monday through Friday. Even if you are not competing in your sport, just playing, you could be jeopardizing your metabolism just from trying to burn the candle on both ends. But do you really need to eat as if you’re about to be drafted into the MLS or an Olympian preparing for the trials? Who represents you ladies in the work force? Who’s providing you with athletic assistance without charging you the Lance Armstrong rate? Girl, you and I both know that you want to take your sport seriously but not to the point where it impedes your lifestyle. You’re busy; you have things to do and they important in your life, but you still need to represent on game day. You know what I’m sayin’.

And I am forgetting the most important thing of all: fun. It has to be fun. When’s the last time you could say your workout was fun? You know…creative without embarrassing you. Interesting without confusing you. Challenging without killing you? Right now you are piecing together workouts like a quilting club in November. A little lifting here, a lot of running here, no stretching there… Doesn’t sound too successful when it’s presented that way so can we all agree that we need something more than the free sites that give us lots of info but no way to put it together for ourselves?

www.modelper4mance.com

Now before you race over there and start clicking away, what we offer is not on the site yet. Yes. I am ashamed to type that. In fact, my embarrassment is going to be your gain because I will make it up to you when the page goes live but in the mean time, here it is in a nutshell:

Running, skiing, playing recreational fill-in-the-blank or a weekend warrior?
We have programs that are as low as $67 down and $39 per month, you can cancel at any time and they include everything under the sun: nutrition, training, cardio, supplementation and stretching and are customized to you. Everything is done for you so all you have to do is make it happen.

Have an actual event planned? Maybe a 5k, 10k or ½ marathon? A tennis tournament? Crossfit Throwdown?
We have plans that count you down to the event (for running we will include the race plan, as well) and fully customized ones that tailor to your every need. These begin at the same price range as above but come may come with time constraints.

Each plan, no matter which you choose, has their training updated monthly and all else when necessary.

We are very unique in that we can customize the package to your needs but are speedy enough to get you up and going almost immediately.

We also care. We can’t help it—we’re women. And softies at that. You, the person, are our first thought and your satisfaction is our first priority. We are consumers just like you. We are moms/entrepreneurs/professionals/girlfriends and so on just like you. We are not some huge site where you are not sure who wrote the plan and no one can answer your question nor are we some rogue trainer that just cropped up with a site last week. If you’re struggling…we’ll call you. If you fall off the wagon…we’ll run you over with it and snap you back in shape. It’s all about you.

If you can’t wait for the page to go live—and honestly I cannot blame you—hit us up at info@modelper4mance.com and I will tell you all about what we offer and how much it costs. If you can wait, though, God bless you because I have as much patience as an empty hospital, then stay tuned because we’re in production now of changing the site over and all of this in its full glory will be there soon enough.

As always, it’s been my pleasure to serve you. Tomorrow I will tell you all about you hot mamas who just like to be hot for the sake of being hot. Woop woop!!

You ever have one of those days when you just “got nothin’”?  Do you force it in the gym or do you know how to adjust your training?  How in tune are you with your body and your goals to be able to change things up at a moment’s notice?  The robot mindset has got to go.  Read on…

 I get lots of questions all the time about people’s training: when they should train harder or how to get stronger and etc.  And if you have ever been unfortunate enough to ask me whether you should train or not when you are sick, you know it can be as painful as performing a bikini wax on Sasquatch—really, don’t ask! 

 People can talk about common sense and intuition and all that jazz but I want to talk about your goals.  Are they really that important that you lose all sanity and consider hacking up a lung on a cardio machine or tossing an 8 pound weight around because you can’t imagine lifting anything heavier?  Really?  No, really?  And do you really have to ask someone if you have to work out or not?  The fact that you look like the poster child for the H1N1 vaccination is not enough of a deterrent for you; no you have to go and do that work out because your paper says so.  See, it says it right here, “Legs on Monday.”

At some point in your training you are going to have to take responsibility for your results…because they are your results.  No matter how good your trainer is, the results you walk around with are yours.  You did the cardio.  You ate the food.  You lifted the weight.  Yes, we guide you and we love to do it, but we are only with you 1 to 3 hours per week and we guide your plan from afar the rest of the time.  If you have any trainer worth their salt then you should be learning as well as you are doing.  We honestly don’t want you as clients for life that just aimlessly move from exercise to exercise in the gym. (Well the paper said leg press 3 X 10 and the machine was broken so I just skipped it.  OY VEY!)  Instead we want you to own your program and all that comes with it.  If you feel like crap—back it down!  If you feel like a hero and it’s an off day, switch your schedule around!  Start listening to your body and all that it tells you so you can help us to help you more.

I’m not saying add in extra volume or begin to make up a new program, I’m saying if you are scheduled to work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and you feel like crap on Wednesday but Superman on Thursday, then switch it up!  Change what you do when you need to so that you have ownership of your results!  Also, if you already know that Thursday is going to be a draining day in work and Friday’s workout is psychotic, change it around ahead of time.

I wish I could predict how you are going to recover from a work out or an activity.  I wish I could look at you and say, “By the 3^rd week you will be ready to progress to the next level.”  Umm, I can’t do that—but you can.  So let’s take this one step further.  What happens if you are on a program that has you upping the intensity the same week that you are moving from one place to another?  Do you really think that you can increase your volume/intensity that week and then on Saturday and Sunday successfully move a bed, 2 couches and a dining room table up two flights of stairs?  Think again killah!  You’ve got another thing coming.  Or better yet, Hercules, you do it but then find yourself on the injured reserve list by Sunday and cannot imagine why.  Now all of the gains you made are out the window because you are now couch bound for 2 weeks.

It’s not that hard to stop and think about what you really want out of your training.  A hot body.  More strength.  Visible muscles.  Basically you want a return for your effort.  You know how I feel about the machine we call the body and how we need to respect it or it will demand that respect from us in a most unpleasant way.  So knowing your goals, your restrictions and knowing that we are entering into the flu/holiday/busy season, all I’m asking is for you to work with us fitness professionals and try a tiny bit of self regulation.  Pull out the common sense, warm up the notion of taking responsibility, shake out the desire to get some real results and become proactive in your life!  Own your training, ya hear me?

With that being said, do you think I should lift tomorrow?  I’m awfully tired…;o)

We’ve talked about sleep before and how important it is to your well being, but now as an athlete it takes on a whole new dimension.  Your workout plus your recovery equal a training effect.  If you have a workout sans recovery, you really did not do much of anything.  Recovery is where the magic happens.  If you desire to be a better athlete and want to Perform Beautifully, it is important for you to realize that recovery is more than just resting, it’s knowing what to eat, when and when to drop back on intensity and volume with your workouts.

I See You One Hour and I Raise You Two

For all intents and purposes in this post today, I will be addressing the recreational athlete.  Since most of the folks out there are not trying to become the next Lance Armstrong, I am going to tailor this to the girl/guy at the office who likes to run a triathlon or two a year as a hobby.  Knowing that, recovery becomes less scientific (i.e. 2.8g of carbs for every blah blah) in the beginning and more about setting and keeping good habits. 

To start, recovery begins before the workout.  Let me say that again.  Recovery begins before the workout.  Before you go for a long run, a tough hockey game, a pickup basketball game or a grueling leg work out, you had better started fueling your body at least an hour before.  Depending on how long you are going to perform, decides what you are going to eat but for us right now, we are going light.  We have a 90 min. run in front of us and we need some fuel.  Sounds like a good time for a quick shake made with protein powder and juice with a 100% SG WW bagel.  Lightly buttered to perfection, toasted just enough to melt the butter.  YUM.  For the pre and post meals you want to think: 

Small amount of protein, 2 to 3 times the amount of carb.  So pp=approx. 20g of protein and the juice and the bagel provide about 60g of carb.  Keep it simple.

What I really want you to remember is for every hour of exercise you do, you need to have that much time in recovery as well.  So we’re going for a 90 min. run, we’re going to recover a bare min. of 90 min.  Let’s see what that looks like:

Immediately after work out:  Gatorade type drink with a bit of protein added (like ½ scoop)*, or chocolate milk

            *premade versions of this exist already,

Within a half hour:  a plate full of food where 1/3 is filled with a pure protein source and 2/3 of your plate is filled with             starches and veggies.  Small chicken breast with brown rice and roasted root veggies.  A grilled chicken sandwich on 100% whole grain bread stuffed with lettuce and tomatoes and a side salad.

Within an hour of that:  a small snack like a yogurt or high protein granola.

This is great if you work out to enjoy yourself but still be competitive amongst your coworkers and friends.  Your reality is much more different than that of a professional athlete.  You still have to go to work and feed your kids every day.  You have obligations outside of yourself that demand your time.  Because of this, you do not have the desire to sit down and calculate pound for pound what you need to succeed.  You are looking for a quick effective formula that is going to give you that edge over the chic that doesn’t have kids and thinks she’s better than you.  (Make sure she doesn’t read this, too;). 

Looking Past Today

The other part of recovery is knowing when to back off so as to improve upon your fitness level.  Almost every athlete I come across thinks the same thing:  every workout needs to harder than hard and the more I do the better I am.  Neither one of these can be further from the truth.  So let’s just cut right to the chase and put it out there:

Yearly

Make sure you have a distinct offseason/recovery time.  It needs to be at least 4 to 8 weeks in length where your exercise does not reach anything close to race/game time or pace. 

Monthly

You need to have one week per month that is easy.  I mean easy.  Go in the gym and kick some tires, run some laps at half of race pace, work on just your shooting—nothing full court, does not matter the sport, just make it easy.  This takes many forms so become a friend of cross training and you will accept this better.

Weekly

You need to have at least one day of a four day schedule to be easy.  You may break a bit of a sweat but you did not set a record here in any way.  In fact, you should feel like you did not work out at all and wonder why you changed your clothes.

If you can incorporate this into your training schedule, you will begin to see changes in your athletic ability and in your body composition as well if your diet is spot on.  That is, of course, assuming you are sleeping and planning your menus!

Stay tuned for more!  WOOP WOOP!:o)

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