Last week I was a nudge, this week I am a nag.  Sorry, but she’s climbing out through the afro please make room for her.

This is the last post in this series and I have a few things to say but my mind is everywhere right now.  Have you ever suffered from, “…and another thing”?  I am suffering from that right now.  I have a bunch of little things to add in but not enough to make it a coherent post so I’m going to do the Tourette’s thing right now and just blurt a bunch of stuff at you.  Bear with me while I do this.

Starch vs. No starch

Not everyone should be zero starch.  I know folks like to tell you that it’s the best way to lose body fat and yadda yadda yadda but I have been in the business for 15 years and from all that I know and have seen I can absolutely tell you that that’s not true.  What I have noticed though is that some do better with lower starch than others.  Here’s a very simplified overview for you (shamefully simple):

Bubble—Starch is not going to make a huge impact on you in terms of having it in your diet until you want lines.  Try not to live without it every day because you limit the effectiveness of it as an aesthetic tool later on.

Butter—Starch must, I repeat, must stay in your diet.  Not a ton.  At least a serving a day should be in there.  You will never be rock hard so there is absolutely zero point in going starch free.  What it really does is set you up for a midnight carb binge that rivals anything the food network could conjure up and that’s saying a lot.

Befuddled—you are like the bubbles.  Dowhatchalike.

Dairy

Nice and easy and always portable, dairy is a great protein option…if you like carrying a gallon of water under your skin and 2 pounds of mucous in your sinuses.  But some of us are addicted so I’m not going to go on an anti-dairy rant.  I’ll save that for another post but…

Butters—avoid dairy like a moldy dish of food lodged in the back of your refrigerator.   Especially cheese which is the anti-butt food.

Supplementation

My audio post for Butters spoke about high dose fish oil and how it can help you reduce the effects of cellulite on the bum.  Done correctly and with supervision, you can really make some great changes in the appearance of your back side and also lighten up any stretch marks.  I am a lover of Omega 3.  Here are some more of my thoughts:

Magnesium—is a must in any physique athlete’s diet.  If you’re taking it as a cal/mag—stop.  You have plenty of calcium in your diet and do not need more.  However, you do not have enough Mg.  Try it as Mg glycinate, taurate or malate because they are easily digested and will give you less rumbly tumbly.  Mg can wreak havoc on your tummy and make you feel like you are going to release your colon in public without any notice—oh the thought!  Why Mg?  Great for the metabolism and insulin sensitivity and helps with anxiety/depression which is common among us athletes.

B Complex—add this in if you’re not taking more pills than a 70 year old man.  Honestly, it can be overwhelming.  Great for metabolism and your skin.

BCAA’s–Here’s another one that’s good for everyone.  Add them in prudently.  If money is an issue, have them on training days only and do it in 3 month stints.  If it’s not an issue, call me so we can have lunch and talk about angel investing–just throwing that out there.  But then have it daily and your dosage will change based on your workouts and rest time.

This is not my official supplementation post, this is only in context of making a smooth but plump rump so if something is missing that you think should be here let me help you with that by saying, “No it’s not.”

Cautionary Note

You can get on the web now and see amazing pictures of butts everywhere.  They will be smooth, perky, strong, super human and most of all naked so you can see every detail and feel bad about every dimple you don’t see, as well.  Let me remind you of something you may already know but maybe think you’re exaggerating or are not quite sure of:  very few people are natural anymore.  If you aspire to do this without the aid of anything besides food, vitamins and minerals then you have to be careful of what you use as a pin-up for success.  At the very least, they will be taking a fat burner, at the very most it can be scary.  You cannot be in this industry (clean eating) long term and have to be lean time and time again without some kind of “help”.  With that being said, you may not be able to achieve naturally what others have done with chemical assistance and it helps to know that when you’re in the middle of picking yourself apart for the 3^rd time that day.  If being natural matters (and it does to Jodiojo & Co.) then tuck this away in your mind for safe keeping or you may find yourself compromising your beliefs further down the road in pursuit of something that’s not attainable naturally.

For My Jammers

I said in a previous post that I would give you a place to go for help with your butt training.  If you want get specific with the information I provided about weaknesses and technique, go here.  He is great.  I ran into his site a while ago from Nick T.’s site (he’s another guy I really like) and instantly fell in love.  Not because of his training info, although that’s great too, but because he is humble and he gets it.  Both Nick and Brett are a breath of fresh air in a crowded industry of shouters.  Get on their sites and absorb.

If you are signed up for extra info from my blog, then you received the email with my 3 favorite exercises.  Let me know yours when you can.

This has been a great series and I’m really glad y’alls like it, as well.  Hit me up below with any thoughts.  I’d love to hear them.  The next series is Failing Forward.  Let’s make the best of all the mistakes we do while dieting.  How do you salvage your diet when everything seems to be going wrong?  If you have anything in particular that you want me to cover in this, let me know!  Woop woop!

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No, that’s not me.  My hair is not that long. Plus I am not a fan of strings on a bikini.

You’ve surely noticed that Miss Jodi has posted for me the last few weeks. (Isn’t she awesome!) I was away with my fam on vacation in Costa Rica. It is a beautiful country with great folk and we had a wonderful time. My favorite part is that I learned (kind of) to do a cool new thing, surfing. It’s weird because I didn’t even know that I was interested in surfing. I knew that we were in a place that has great conditions for surfing almost all the time, but I’m an indoor girl. I am so not an ocean person; I even have to keep water out of one of my ears. How much more not the surfing type could I possibly be?

More than that, I have been thinking about how at 42, a prissy stay at home mom shouldn’t be able to do something so physically unfamiliar, you know? At my age and knowing me, I should be too intimidated to even try, let alone make enough progress to want to keep trying. The energized confidence in my physical ability to realistically work towards something new and really different, I think is a very happy result of being committed to being super fit. Like all of you reading this, I train hard, recover well, and eat like a champion (most of the time). While I don’t have a specific sport, I train like an athlete (and if you’re a client, so do you). Jodi throws a crazy variety of things at us resulting in being strong, agile, flexible, fit, as well as feeling/looking pretty good in a bikini AND confident enough about all of that to try surfing. I just love feeling sure about my body in ways that go beyond just how it looks. Very cool.

So about surfing …

Anyway, in the beginning stage, there really isn’t too much to do but get up on the board, which isn’t easy, but it’s not exactly strenuous. You’re lying face down, paddling a little with your arms to get in front of the wave, the instructor shoves you off and then you push up into a downward dog sort of position, and spring onto your feet. Once you’re up, balance and body awareness are important so in general, there is some exertion, but not a lot. Staying alive in the ocean is what is tiring. It being in the water and all, there is a learning curve with how to deal with the ocean, which is no joke. The instructors tell you not to put the board between you and the incoming waves, but of course, that’s easier said than done for a while until you figure out what he’s talking about. After the first lesson, my legs were pretty beat up and bruised because I wasn’t handing the board right when walking it back out into the water. Once I finally get out there, lay on the board, get shoved off and try to get on my feet, of course I get thrown off most of the time. I came away with scrapes and scratches on both of my knees, my butt and the tops of a few toes from being knocked around. Another time, the instructor and I were walking out to the deeper water and a wave came and knocked us both off our feet. Well, he lost hold of the board and the leash (the cord that is attached to the board at one end and my back foot on the other) cut across and down my quad hard, leaving a big hideous purple bruise. Then yesterday, after getting thrown off the board, when coming up from under water, I got smacked across the bridge of my nose leaving, yep, a bruise. Fortunately my nose didn’t bleed or swell, and there is no cut, so once the bruise goes away, I should be fine. Needless to say, in a bikini, my physique may be where I look ok, but I’m black and blue and that is never pretty. Oh well.

My melasma reared its ugly head again on my vacation.  Pardon the pun. (That was for you, Heather.

Next, surfing is an only in the daytime, and only outside sport – so you’re in the sun constantly. You guys know how I feel about the sun exposure and skin health. A little sunshine is good for you; a lot increases your risk of problems and in time will destroy your looks. I’m diligent with sunscreen use and hang out in the shade whenever possible, but especially being near the equator. While out there learning to surf, I was coated head to toe with sunscreen, but even then I took on more sun and tan on my face and body than I wanted to. In fact, the melasma on my forehead came back – grrrr – and my kids keep asking me what that brown swatch on my forehead is. I also learned a lesson about sunscreen during my adventures: they are not all created equally. We have sunblocks and screens with chemical blockers that rub in invisibly that performed as promised – they stayed waterproof and provided high spf when reapplied as directed. We also had sunscreen that act as a physical block with zinc oxide, the kind that coat on white and rub in kind of purplish that kept us protected beautifully, as well. But I had one kind – Aveeno Baby Continuous Protection spf 55 – that utterly failed me, which I used yesterday. While out there in the water, waiting around with tummy down on the board, rear-end up, my butt, lower back and back of my legs got totally burned (I had on a long rash-guard shirt so my back, shoulders and arms were protected). I’m kind of mad about it too. This was a new bottle of sunscreen that was supposed to protect me from uva/uvb, be waterproof and have high spf. I will never use Aveeno sun protection products again.

There is just no way to not take on sun exposure and damage when you’re out there. Everyone here (not so much the tourists) is very, very tan. Most of them are young and it looks gorgeous, but I’m old enough to know that things change as time passes. The sexy tan on a 25 year old makes her blue eyes really stand out now, but at age 45, not so much. I’ve seen a few older women year-round ex-pats that look weathered and leathery. Keep up the surfer girl, sun goddess lifestyle for years on end and it will show. Looking older than you are is the least of the effects of an in-the-sun-all-the-time way of life. I’m just saying. Please protect your skin. Wear clothing that covers you up (your body is still smoking hot even if it’s not on full display), smear on zinc oxide even though it gives a smurfish hue, wear a hat (always cute), and find sunglasses that protect from uva and uvb rays. Be willing to give up a little bit of style to take care of your skin while enjoying the sunshine. Then find some shade and get under it!

All in all, I’m so glad I tried surfing. I had no expectations of being able to–even a little. I’m so glad that I had the strength and energy to hang out in the ocean for hours at a time. I’m glad I had the chance and the guts to take it. Pretty cool.

And now, after two weeks of being brutalized by the sun and surf, I’ll be so glad to sleep in my own bed, hug my dog, get a pedicure, a deep condition and fresh color on my hair, laser on the melasma, and be in a climate that is conducive to wearing make up again. It’s still me after all!

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!

It’s the fall right now but winter is around the corner in New England.  We will go from balmy and 70 degrees one day to dry and 30 degrees the next.  When that happens, the first thing on your body to “complain” is your skin.

I’m going to let you in on a secret:  my skin is a source of stress for me.  There is very little in my life that bothers me quite like my skin does.  Now you know I am going to tell you it is all my fault—because I am my own worst enemy.  So I am a sun lover for sure!  Nothing I love more than lying out in the sun…in Aruba…on the equator…with oil on me…and a meat thermometer to make sure I’m not overcooked. Hehe.

Yeah, I know, read me the riot act.  But I am now paying for my over indulgence of the big fireball in the sky with age spots.  Now truth be told, it could be worse.  I could have a whole host of things cropping up left and right for as much as I abused the gift of the sun, but I do not because of my insatiable love of omega 3 fatty acids.  Besides keeping my wrinkles at bay and smoothing out the texture of my skin, EFAs provide the structure necessary for skin with “snap”.  You know, non saggy skin.  So let’s get right into it and talk about what you might be going through this winter:

Dry skin:

Ignoring the fact that you want to shower with molten lava and wash your skin with heavily perfumed soap, you may find that no matter what you do you cannot rid yourself of dry skin.  The first place to look is your diet.  Are you hydrated and are you eating fats?  You want to have at least ¾ of a gallon of water per day and at least 3 to 5 servings of a good omega 3 rich fat source preferably in the form of an oil.  A long time ago I was told by a well known naturopath that you should have as much oil as you can tolerate that leaves your skin moistened after coming out of the shower.  I can tell you right now, none of y’all will try that, so let me ease your burden a bit with this recommendation:  if one serving of good fat per day does not help, add a ½ serving per day until it does.  Give it as much as a week to kick in before going up in the fat and cut a little bit of something else out during the day to make up for the extra cals.

Greasy skin:

You have a sweet tooth, girl.  Knock it off.  Too much sugar and fat helps the body to form a layer on the skin that is shiny.  If you replace those sweets with EFAs, you will fair much better.  Feel free to share those sweets with the rest of us so we may help you to move on from your bad habit.  Hopefully it was brownies you were eating…I’m just sayin.

Bumpy skin:

Increase the amount of orange foods in your diet (Vit A) and ease off the dairy a bit.  These occur more as an allergy to a food and typically dairy is the chief offender.  I know you love your greek yogurt, but 2 in a day is a bit much.  Let’s diversify a bit, shall we?

Acne prone skin:

Just like the greasy skin, walk away from the processed fats and the refined sugar.  They are killing you.  A clean diet with adequate hydration should begin to give you some relief although it is not always the full answer.  Also, a vitamin deficiency will also cause your acne to come out more and you know how I feel about vitamins so this should already be handled! [giving you a hairy eyeball]  If you are an athlete, or as active as one, you will not get all that you need from food alone and then your body begins to give you a hard time.  Listen to it when it talks to you, it knows more than you do.;o)

Nutritionally there is more to it than just EFAs if you want to survive a rough winter.  Vitamin E, Vitamin C, zinc, Vitamin A and selenium all aid in keeping your skin soft and healthy and are abundant in a clean, varied diet.  If you can venture out of your zone and eat more than just the same two veggies and one fruit that you eat every day, you should be well ahead of the game.  Another thing to note is, all those vitamins and minerals also do well for you topically.  So if you can find a good moisturizer with any of those added, grab it.  The more back up you can provide your skin with, the better.

It is a rarity nowadays to speak to any woman who isn’t on some sort of diet.  Low carb, no carb, South Beach, cookie, Blood Type—you name it, they’re on it!  There is no shortage of deprivation and suffering amongst us women!  But there is a very serious shortage of information out there of how to diet to be beautiful.  Face it, when you get to the end of your diet, don’t you want to look good, too?

I have dieted many women in my short 15 year career.  I honestly can put that number in the thousands and still be very accurate.   Over the years I have seen more and more of a sense of desperation among woman:  an “At all cost” approach to dieting.  It really disturbs me simply because when you get to that stage your sense of judgment goes out the window.  When did this become so prevalent?

I don’t know about you but when I reach my diet destination, not only do I want to be the size I desire to be, but I also want to be healthy and beautiful at the same time.  Dieting, however, is not very healthy and you are lucky if you come out of it without a major case of wrinkles, loose skin and brittle hair–or even worse, hormone issues.   What’s missing in our diet adventures that causes us to look like a vagabond when we declare “scale victory”?  I would have to say attention to detail.

The foods you choose (or do not choose) can have more of an impact on your diet experience than the actual diet itself.  I hear so many people going back and forth over carbohydrates and whether they should have grains vs. potatoes but that has so little to do with you looking hot at the end.  And let’s be honest here, how many women really want to suffer through a diet only to come out haggard and beastly?  Why bother?  I would much rather be fat, happy and gorgeous then skinny, deprived and wretched!  Heck—if that was my only choice I would say bring on the Krispy Kreme!  Hair must be shiny, skin has to be dewy, nails long and healthy—and my cycle better be regular! 

I will be talking about this A LOT!  So many foods to cover, so many diets to pick apart…all with one thing in common:  beauty!  You need to look good mama!  And looking good is not about facial features or the prettiest girl in the classroom.  Beauty is about health—inside and out.  Hormones that work properly so that your hair, skin and nails shine;  healthy teeth and bones so they last a long time; make up that compliments your skin and preserves the environment.   Ladies, it’s time to get fit AND gorgeous!!  WOOP WOOP!