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. )

It’s 3 pounds per starch serving!

No, honestly.  Some of y’alls think you gain 3 pounds per starch serving.  Sound familiar?

• “My body is just sensitive to carbohydrates.”
• “Every time I eat a carb I gain weight.”
• “I think I’m gluten intolerant because I become puffy and bloated when I eat bread.”

This scary thing about these statements is that I think some of you are actually standing on the scale while eating and give me an up-to-the-minute report as to what that number is doing.  It’s frightening.  And very few of us are truly “sensitive” to carbohydrates.  First, let’s be honest and say when we turn the carb fountain on, we don’t shut it off.  The only sensitivity we have is that we can detect one in the room if we were blindfolded and devoid of smell.  Law enforcement should use us for our carb tracking abilities with the TSA or something.  There has to be a use for that kind of sensitivity to starch.  I pray that you know by now that we do not instantaneously gain weight from starch, we gain water.  One of the best tools that you have for making your body look great at an event is the manipulation of starch in your diet.  If you take that away permanently, that’s a huge loss for the dress up world.  Lastly, you are not gluten intolerant because you had bread; you are puffy because you had the LOAF of bread.  Just sayin’.  Flour absolutely can wreak havoc on you more than sweet potatoes or oatmeal, but that’s only when you initially bring it back into your diet (I will explain this one day—I promise).  I am not advocating eating bread every day, I am just not going to let you poo poo it for the wrong reasons.

You know I had to go there because for us to be able to do an obstacle course race, we need to eat some starch.  However, this is easier said than done if you are in the middle of a diet or if you are carb-phobic.  Signing up for an endurance event while dieting is like a guy trying to maintain bachelor status as he’s planning his wedding.  Sounds good in theory but…

There is a huge difference between the leanness of an elite endurance athlete who got that way in spite of eating a high carb diet to an amateur physique athlete who wants to maintain the leanness while entering in to a high carb diet.  They are not the same and you will be very disappointed about your results if you do not know that before training starts.  More than I want to yap your ears off for hours about starches and such, I want to give you some ground rules:

Bring starches into your diet at least 4 weeks before the event. You do this because your body must get used to processing them again.  You will find that you will be tired the first week you bring them in.  You do not need a lot so easy, killah.  Whoa, Nelly.  Steady as she goes…  An extra 50g of carbohydrates can seriously go a long way in our training.  We have trained our bodies to do more on less so it is not necessary to go crazy here.

Eat the heartier starches on the days you train hard. Limit heavy starches like bread, rice or oatmeal to the days you train.  Have them first thing in the morning and post workout.  I would fool around with pre-workout starches first before relying on them because we tend to not draw our energy directly from starches.  We are low carb on a natural basis, so having them pre can sometimes bog you down.  I find fruit works best here but see what works for you.

Up until 75 minutes, it’s still just cardio. Don’t get drawn into the hype that you need to eat extra and do all kinds of gu’s and gels just because you are doing an endurance event.  For us, it’s just cardio until the 75 min mark and then we need to think about supplementation.

Sodium is a necessity in your diet. Eating clean means we do not get enough sodium in our diets.  If I had my way, you would keep a salt lick by your bed and run your tongue down it every morning.  Now there’s a nasty visual for you. (Speaking of that, I’m short on an “I’d rather”.  I’ll work one in this series somehow, hang on.)  But this is where we get into trouble.  We mistake the negative effects of not enough sodium (dizziness and lethargy) with not enough sugar so when the symptoms hit, we’re eating the wrong thing.  Make sure you have enough electrolytes in your body before you train.

Have a separate menu for the different training days. You should eat the most on days you lift and the day after your long run or hardest training.  You eat moderately on the long run or hardest training day and you eat the least on every other day.  This keeps your physique sharp and your hunger dull.  It also stabilizes your energy levels so that you’re not all hyped up at the wrong time.   Nothing is more annoying than an overly hyped athlete on a non-training day.  We drive our family nuts.   Honestly.

So there you have it.  Tomorrow we talk about active recovery and injuries.  Remember who you are and you will head into this the right way.  Cool?  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!

I know you heard the saying “you are what you eat” but I am here to take it a bit further and say you are what you do, as well.

I think many of us sort of evolved down the same path to the way we eat and workout:  we wanted more out of our body and whatever we were doing at the time just didn’t cut it.  Like I mentioned in my last post, there are two types of weight gain out there and you would probably think then that there would be two types of weight loss, too, but no…there’s a bunch.  (There are also more types of weight gain but that really gives a good synopsis.)

Ok, so maybe you’re not running in the Olympics but some of you are racking up that kind of mileage without any “Olympic” results.

One of the ways I see all the time (and watch endless frustration with) is running to get a great body.  Now notice I did not say to lose weight.  You definitely can decide to get up tomorrow and start running and possibly lose some weight but the odds of you getting that body that you desire are slim and the risk you run with injury and overuse is quite high.  Running for a hot body without a concise plan is like heading to the bakery “to pick something up” for a party you’re going to later on—we all know that ends badly with bread tasting and cupcake snacking so let’s just be honest about it.  Go with a dessert already set in your mind, get in and get out or bring someone with you to bail you out when you go down hard.

Running is addictive to many women.  It’s easy, cheap, hard in the beginning so it is a great challenge, relaxing, rewarding and… *completely unsatisfying in the weight maintenance department* so the more we run, the more we have to.  We keep looking at the covers of the running magazines wondering why they have a hot body and we don’t although we log mile after mile after mile.  Yes, from the waist up you are getting there…from the waist down though you look like a Land O Lakes advertisement for their latest cheese product.  With cellulite and dimples abound, you run and run and run and run.  You have every color capris there is to own and you are an expert at tying your jacket around your waist.

But now you have solved that problem—or so you thought–because you became a savvy reader.  You started following the girls out there who have the hot bodies and began to mimic what they do.  You dropped your starches, cleaned up the diet, you lift now and yet, still…nothing.  Instead, you have no energy, you binge on carbs every 2 or 3 days because you just can’t take not eating them and you don’t know how to fit lifting into your schedule the way they do it.  What gives??

YOU HAVE AN IDENTITY CRISIS

• You are not a runner. You are a woman who enjoys using running as a means to getting the body that she desires.

• You are not a figure girl. You have no desire to get on stage—you want to run—but you want that body too.

• You are not your average consumer. You are willing to put in the work of eating clean and working out so following magazines that are telling you the same ole same ole like “top 10 superfoods” and so on is not helping much.

• You’re not a world class runner. You are quite competitive and have no desire to be the slowest runner out there but you are not a run-nut either.  You don’t own the latest heart rate monitor and you just want to enjoy your run.

Honestly, girl.  You need to know who you are so you can get what you want.  Taking pieces of everyone’s plans and trying to make them work is frustrating and unproductive.  I’m sure you’ve also noticed that the more you run the harder it is to lose weight.  So what does the running world say about that?  Run more.  Ummm…how’s that working for you?  Because at some point, you need to go to work.

We have much to develop over the next few weeks: nutrition, training, psychological warfare, supplements and so on.

Obviously this is an issue we need to really put on the table with some serious solutions for you.  This is one of the top questions I am asking no matter where I go.  Follow this series that I will talk about over the next few weeks and we’ll talk about taking off 5 pounds per 5K and tightening that bum.  Cool?

I’m looking forward to it!!  Woop woop!

Next Post in Series

Holy moly!  When did it become October?  I would love to say ‘welcome back’ to Jodiojo but you must be saying that to me! Ha!  So where have I been and what’s new on this end, you ask?

Jodiojo the Blog

I am back on the blogging scene and truly looking forward to the next year.  My goal is to deposit some info into your mind that will pay it forward to your thighs—is it ok for me to do that?  I come back, though, by myself this time.  The girls have been with me on the blog for over a year and a half and it was time for them to focus on their full time obligations and the summer was a great opportunity for us to make that happen.  They are still very much a part of Jodiojo and have not gone anywhere so if you are wondering if they still contribute to the company—they do.  I speak to all four of them every week (Heather, Kas, Seanna and Nicole) and their roles in the company are still the same, you just won’t be seeing them post weekly anymore.  I may bug them to guest post here and there so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Always Evolving

Can I admit something to you?  I spent a good portion of my summer wondering what I was going to be when I grew up.  Literally.  It was wild.  Here’s the deal:  I know the majority of you have no idea what my company does and who we do it for.  I promise I will change that. 

On the other side of this computer is a company that has a word of mouth referral system that is alive and thriving.  We work with women (and men) who’s primary desire is to look good naked healthily.  However, the person looking for that service is a wide customer base for us:  runners, athletes in general, housewives, fitness/figure competitors needing metabolic repair, those who want to look a specific way without the stage, everyday folks and so on.  Our expertise is carving out a gorgeous body the healthiest way possible—for just about anyone.   This means we understand what it takes to make a body that looks good with or without clothes on, whether size 2 or size 22, whether you are an athlete or not and even if you only have “X” amount a days a week to commit.  This is huge!  If you are a runner and you have tried using running as a weight loss tool and found that you may have gotten smaller but you do not look better—you understand what we do.  If you are a busy woman who has a demanding job and you have tried dieting but still hate the little “pooch” you have but do not have one more ounce of time to spare—you understand what we do.  Or if you have never been small and being small isn’t your number 1 wish but ridding yourself of stretch marks, saggy skin and the like is—you understand what we do. 

Really?

I know, I know.  You’re reading this going, “I still don’t get it.”  Oh but you will.  I promise.  Our message through our posts for the last 2 years has been very consistent but we have done a poor job of giving you our philosophy in straight terms and for you busy folk that’s not good.  In a nutshell, here it is:

EVERYONE CAN AND SHOULD LOOK GOOD NAKED, HEALTHILY, OVER AND OVER AGAIN WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE THEY ARE 110 YRS OLD

You may think that that’s a strange philosophy and wonder where did it come from.  Keep reading and we will make sure that you know as you come visit us weekly.  For starters, though:

The more you diet, the older you look:  You ever run into someone who’s lost a ton of weight and think that their bodies look great but now they look like your grandmother?  Yeah, she wasn’t with us.

The more you diet, the harder it gets:  Yes, I know you vowed you’d never gain the weight back but a year later you are up 20 pounds and what you did the first time to lose weight isn’t “working” anymore.  Yep, we know and we’ll tell you why, too.

The cleaner you eat, the more things you are allergic/intolerant to:  I am sure you have said things such as ‘I’m carb sensitive’, ‘sugar sensitive’, ‘gluten sensitive’ and the like and think it’s because of some unknown cause.  Nope.  We’ll walk you through this one, too, and free you from the fear of your cheat meal.

The more conditioned you are (runner/athlete), the harder it is to lose weight:  Ever watch a marathon?  After the elite runners (read that as skinny) come over the finish line, they are followed by a sea of women in capris who either gained at least 8 pounds to run the marathon or did not lose a pound during the entire training process but realized that gravity is a true force and it has hijacked their bum! OY!

Does It Really Matter?

YES!  OH MY GOODNESS…YES!

Do you know how many of you are flippin’ miserable? 

You are afraid to eat a starch.

You are a slave to cardio.

You are suffering from dry skin, thinning hair, premature wrinkles, stretch marks and so on.

You are a slave to the scale!!

You refuse to buy another size of clothing.

You are BORED with your workouts and definitely with your food options. (Bread anyone?)

You are tired of being driven by your anxiety of how you look.

You have lost weight and STILL don’t like what you see.

I could go on for days but I will save it all for later.  Are you on board to who we are?  I hope so.

It’ll take me a few months to really give you the full monty and I hope that you hang around during that time to find out who I am as well as who is Jodiojo the company.  If you have any questions about our services, email me at Jodi@trans4mationstation.com and I will be happy to chat with you. 

If you want to receive special emails that detail the things I speak about on the blog or any programming I send out, sign up on the right and white list us in your email and you’ll be in the loop.

Until we meet again! Ciao for now!  Woop woop!

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!!

Life has a funny way of happening. Just when you think you know what’s going on in the world, it all changes on you…

If you are popping over here for the first time from Model Per4mance, welcome, this is your new home. If you were already reading Jodiojo before Model Per4mance, hi, it’s good to see you again. It feels good to be back and even better to bring my closest friends with me.

I remember a time when I was a brand new trainer—straight from the world of group fitness—and I absolutely loved the craft. I was a full time engineer during the day and would leave my job to head right to the gym for the rest of the night to train clients and teach class. Eventually I ended up leaving my engineering position to become a full time trainer at night and a stay at home mommy by day. That time was magical. I could not learn enough, fast enough and it was awesome.

As time went on I ventured into nutrition and became a Nutrition Manager at a time when very few people were even thinking about mixing nutrition and personal training. It was still very taboo back then due to liability reasons, lack of adequate certifications and so on. It was a very different time. But it was an exciting time: the industry was booming, information was new and accurate, people really cared about the welfare of the client, there was a tradeshow around every corner to get the newest info out there and it was hot. Flash forward to today and you have a very different picture of the industry. Trust me when I say I am not going to sit here and go on and on about all of the things that are wrong with my true passion today–I honestly love it too much to do that. But I will say that it is not the same and I know that you notice it, too.

I am not sure if you are like me, but I am going to have to go out on a limb and think that you are pretty close and assume that you are bombarded day after day with this harsh world. In fact, traffic alone could beat you down for the day never mind coming in contact with folks at the grocery store who are in a hurry or the six o’clock news tragedies which bring us down even further. Then when we arrive home we have to face the mail, a demanding house of laundry, etc. and for some of us, little ones who need us to encourage and edify their lives. Oh, and can you hurry up and make dinner? By the end of the night we fall into bed wondering what in Heaven’s name we are doing and is this all that life has truly promised us? Really?

Somewhere in all that mess of the day you find yourself wanting more for your health and your body. You’re not happy with the way it looks: it’s either out of shape from neglect/illness/medication, not what it used to be no matter what you try, heavier than you would like although you continue to try every diet/exercise program or right size but nothing is in the same place anymore. What’s your answer? This current industry which seems to have the quick fix for you or the latest scientific reason as to “why” you are not losing weight: you should be eating like a caveman, enjoying South Beach, running from starches, no wait—it’s dairy, sugar, gluten, fill-in-the-blank and for some us it’s everything I just listed?! They are shouting from every roof top and they are getting louder by the minute. Meanwhile, you’re getting a headache or heavier—or both. You are not sure which one to try or you are tired of trying them all because no matter what happens you don’t have the time to cook, track, pay attention, keep up with, follow, stay consistent with and so on. So the industry tries to answer that problem by making each diet plan/exercise plan either more extreme to beat you into shape faster (doing high intensity workouts 5 days/week for 3 months straight is not the answer) or more restrictive to make it easier for you to follow (limiting you to 3 out of the 4 food groups with a bunch of rules is a great way to set up some eating issues instead long term success). What really ends up happening is you just become a bucket of guilt because you can’t stay focused and you think everyone else can and how is everyone else getting it done and why can’t you get it done and is it my metabolism or I’m not working out hard enough or…is this sounding familiar?

Let me let you in on a secret: you don’t live in a vacuum. Honestly. You do not live independent of your surroundings and they are going to affect you much more than you give them credit for. You are also not a motor moron. You really do want to learn some truth out there without having to take a course in physiology 101 (I know it helps to understand why you do what you do, but can we at least make it fun?) from your local trainer but where in heaven’s name can you do that? Jeez! I thought you would never ask (and quite frankly, I couldn’t go on too much longer with the story, haha!)…

Welcome to JODIOJO and Company. We are a group of women dedicated to nutrition, training and lifestyle and not in the way that you are used to seeing it. Whenever you find a lifestyle site it is always something like ‘choose this more often’ or ‘walk instead of blah blah’ or very rudimentary tips that you have moved past years ago. And actually, even better example of what I mean is they are always in the form of “tips”. I love a good tip just as much as the next gal but when I have 10 tips and no cohesive way to put them together, what I really have is frustration about 2 weeks later when I can now only remember 3 of 10 tips I was just given. How about learning how to live life an effective way? A healthy way. A sustainable way. There is more to life than just choosing the right foods. There is choosing the right foods after a long day when you failed to plan ahead because your son told you the night before that he needed help with a project he just started and it was due the next day and he told you while you sitting in the middle of your daughter’s recital that was going until 8 pm and you, yourself, have to at least start laundry because you are down to your last pair of underwear and *gasp* (take in as much air as possible here)… have I made my point? How do you continue to get it done when life won’t let you and why do you not have the motivation to do so?

Journey with us as we find our voice here, introduce ourselves to you—5 very unique women with very different stories of how to get it done—and teach you a thing or two about health and fitness in the process.

Monday Heather
Tuesday Amy
Wednesday Seanna
Thursday Jodi
Friday Nicole

For the next four days I will tell you all about our passions through the companies all of us represent through Jodiojo:

www.ModelPer4mance.com
Thinking about a 5K, 10K or ½ marathon? Avid skier? Want the career and the recreational goal to keep you going? I will talk about this one tomorrow.

www.trans4mationstation.com (coming Jan 2011)
Want a body that looks good in or out of the jeans? If looking good naked is a thing that you desire, here’s your solution. I will tell you all about this on Wednesday.

www.jonesin4fitness.com (coming Mar 2011 or sooner)
Have you already reached your goal and just want to some fun workouts? Do you want to know how to fit it all in through hearing someone talk about it? Or maybe just learn some new stuff in the industry? This is our online store of workout packs, mp3’s, webinars and so on. More info and background on how this all fits together on Thursday.

www.Body4Christonline.com (blog coming Jan 2011, site Feb 2011)
I have so much to say on this one that I invite you to join me on Friday as to what this is going to be and what it’s all about. I cannot wait!

We invite you to get to know us here at Jodiojo and if you desire to work with us or learn more from us, the above sites are the way to do it. Over the next 3 months we will unveil all of our new endeavors and what we have been doing behind the scenes for over 5 months now. The blog will cover the same relevant topics and much more as now our scope has broadened and we have much more to focus on.

Thank you so much for making 2010 the best year a new company could ever ask for. Your support has meant everything to us. We know you will love the changes and additions that are coming. See you tomorrow (make sure you do not miss it) as I delve into the world of recreational sports. Bye for now!

Adding supplements to your daily regimen while worthwhile can be expensive and a shot in the dark if you are not sure what you are doing.  Try not to add in every supplement you read about in your favorite monthly magazines.  I find athletes are privy to fake food supplements more than pills and dieters are more likely to pop a pill than select a drink.  Before you decide to put any of these things in your diet, know why you are doing it and how you should put them in to be safe.

The Fabulous Four:

Multivitamins

Although you may hear that you can get all you need from your food that is pure fiction.  You would have to eat the broad side of a barn to get enough vitamins in a multi and that’s not very comfortable.  As an athlete, you need more than the general public in terms of nutrients so find a high quality, USP certified multivitamin to add into your regimen.

Fish Oils

Can’t say enough about fish oil capsules.  Buying a good one goes a long way towards avoiding the burps and such, so look for pharmaceutical grade quality and it should be 3^rd party tested.  Besides making you more insulin sensitive, fish oils help boost your memory, soften your skin and shine up your hair.  They are invaluable but not the same as good fat so don’t try to sub one for the other. 

Calcium

The ultimate fat burner is a definite must in your diet.  Better taken throughout the day than in one big lump, calcium’s primary role is an obvious one with bone health but not so obvious with the other roles it plays in your body.  Flexing muscles, aiding in blood clotting and moving nutrients in and out of cells are other benefits from having enough calcium in your diet.  Since it is not readily absorbed, make sure your supplement has Vitamin D in it to get all the benefits.

BCAA’s

Branched chain amino acids are by far one of the most essential nutrients in an athlete’s diet when it comes to performance.  Leucine, Isoleucine and valine are the amino acids that make up the trio but it’s leucine that’s causing all the hype.  Known to enhance performance in endurance athletes and provide muscle back up for strength athletes, leucine and the other 2 keep the Energizer bunny going long after the energy is gone.

The Notables

Supplement:      Creatine

Worth it?           YES

Backed in studies?        Yes

Benefits:           Athletic performance, increased strength, increased hypertrophy, less muscle soreness, etc.

Downfalls:         Water retention…if you think Willy Wonka with the Oompas you are on the right path…

Supplement:      Caffeine

Worth it?           As a pick me up, yes.  Fat burner? No

Backed in studies:         Yes, but for certain things.  Do your homework here.

Benefits:           Get up and go, improved athletic performance, some weight loss benefit

Downfalls:         There can be many.  When taken in moderation like coffee, not much.  If you decide to venture into the world of designer coffees and energy drinks, know what you are taking before you start.

Supplement:      Glutamine

Worth it?           Yes if you can afford it.  No if you cannot.

Backed in studies:         Yes, but very few correlate directly with exercise.

Benefits:           Increased immunity.  Taking it keeps you from depleting your own.

Downfalls:         You could be increasing the value of your urine and that’s about it.  Very hard to prove it is “working”.

Supplement:      L-Carnitine

Worth it?           Only if you are deficient

Backed in studies:         Not as far as I can see…

Benefits:           Supposed to increase fat burning

Downfalls:         No reported health risks other than what happens to your wallet.

There are many more that I could go on and on with but I am saving that for when I do the series on vitamins and ergogenic aids.  I have not covered any of the performance enhancing supplements or the latest in goos/gels/powders and drinks.  When I do, I will go a bit more into detail and how they are taken.  In the mean time, think about the fab four, run it by your doc and then get to improving your performance immediately!

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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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