Obviously I have a wise-guy side to me and I occasionally let her loose.  But just as much as I can joke about dieting, I can switch up real quick and become serious about it.  This is one of those days.

January marks a time when we make statements like ‘this is my year’ and ‘I’m not going to be X anymore’ and so on.  It’s a time of declaration of absolutes and professing our allegiance to steadfast mindsets that may or may not be healthy.  We feel the pressure of the world bearing down on us to be healthier, have a better body, fulfill our bucket lists and ‘get-er-done’.  Suddenly we look back on the year in regret instead of thankfulness; disdain instead of pleasure.  As great as Facebook and Twitter are in terms of keeping us connected to our great aunt once removed who lives in Alaska, they are caustic to our self esteem and inner peace because of the constant conflicting chatter that seems to remind us every day how much we have failed.  Everyone seems more successful than us and everyone certainly has a better body.  Somehow, we missed the boat yet again so this is the year that we don’t miss it.  This is the year that we’ll maintain our weight all year long or get those ab lines that we desire.  But as those thoughts circulate in your mind, I ask you quietly, “At what cost?”

Being lean is more than just suffering for the cause.  It’s more than a secret society of really tough chics who talk big talk.  Get on any forum right about now and you have girls lamenting about how hard it is to work out day in and day out and if only the general public adopted their level of discipline.  OH how the world would be different and no one understands how hard it is to workout and diet like they do. If you listen to that long enough, you’re going to begin to think you don’t do enough.  That you’re not good enough.  That you need to diet a little harder, a little longer, lose a little more and so on.  The problem with this is that they are headed down a dark road that has almost no healthy way of return and you are now headed down that road with them, but faster.

I get it that as women we need support.  If we didn’t this blog wouldn’t exist.  But let’s make sure that what we are seeking from the internet is in fact support.  Finding likeminded individuals is key to our survival and making sure we are up on the latest diet/research information is a must.  Sharing successes and woes is a part of this lifestyle as well as subscribing to all the magazines that support clean eating and living.  But there is a limit and that limit is reached when the rhetoric becomes acerbic and you are no longer making decisions based on solid feedback from your pictures/stats/coach but on insecure comparisons coming from the web.  There will always be those louder-than-normal leaders of the pack that update more than the Wall St. ticker tape, post more pics than the Wonderwall website and claim more success than Ed McMahon out patrolling with a cardboard check so don’t allow them to change who you are and how you do things.  They are doing all that because they themselves are insecure.  You hopping in and joining means you are trying to out “insecure” them.  It’s craziness.  Whatever path your diet takes you on, stick with it until you have credible information that says otherwise.  Whatever you originally intended to lose, stick with it unless you have an objective third party say to you, “No, you should lose more.”  Write down all the goals that you want to achieve now and then have them validated by someone sane before you go to put them into action.  I’m telling you, many a metabolism has been broken during this fragile time.

One of the main objectives of this blog and of Jodiojo as a company is to keep you safe and healthy while dieting.  I have given you my story, I have spared you my pain.  Extreme dieting (my downfall), fat burners, questionable ergogenic aids and eventually, hardcore substances, may seem so foreign to you at this moment.  But when you get knee deep in dieting, say mid February, and you have not lost a pound because this is the second, third or maybe fourth time you are “dieting” to get lean, they will become quite attractive to you and I am here to scream “Get your head out of your behind, girl, and get some sense in your head!”.    Here is the way it may play out for you this year:

TWENTY SOMETHING

The majority of your weight is lower body but the more you lose/gain you begin to see that it shifts.  This is a good thing.  You will be slow to lose in the beginning, but it will become more rapid by the end.  Do not come out the gate at full blast.  Increase cardio as you go through your program with it peaking by 8 weeks into your program.  Anything sooner and you’ll screech to a halt.  On average, 1.2 pounds/week will be lost but it won’t come off linearly like that.  It’ll come off in spurts but by the end of 12 weeks, you can be down 14 pounds safely without major rebound.

THIRTY SOMETHING

You are not much different than the 20 something girls except you lose a bit slower.  You average about 0.9 pounds per week with a total weight loss of 11 pounds in 12 weeks without having to kill yourself.  You clean up your lower body faster at this age as this is the ultimate muscle building time.

FORTY SOMETHING AND BEYOND

I made the mistake of not saying and beyond the other day and all my 50 something ladies beat me up in my email.  First, I had no idea there were that many of you reading and second, I will never make that mistake again. In terms of weight loss, though, it is slower.  Much much slower.  The cool thing is you do not lose as much muscle dieting as you do in your 30’s, the crappy thing is that you lose 0.67 pounds per week with a total weight loss of 8 pounds in 12 weeks.  And for some of you, you might have to kick up the intensity to make sure that that happens.

For all age groups, you must:

• Keep your diet open in the beginning and then begin to take away choices as you go along.  Taking out too much too soon stifles progress.

• Increase intensity as the weeks go by.  Do not start your program where you last left off.  Big mistake.

• If you have only had a few months off from dieting, don’t start now.  Wait.  You need at least 4 months in between major dieting programs to achieve any kind of results.  If you start too soon you will stunt your progress and truly frustrate yourself.

• You will not lose weight doing less than what you did before so do not expect much in the beginning of your program.  Give it time for your body to respond.

We owe it to ourselves to do it the right way since we have come this far.  Protect that blessed vessel that you have been gifted with by making sound, prudent decisions during this time of transition.  Honor your health with common sense and emotional well being.  If you need someone to chat with, hit me up.  I’m always around.

Last up…skinny fat.  This is a tough one but shorter than all the rest.  If you see anything not covered but would like more info, let me know below in the comment section.  Woop woop!

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Recently I read an article that debunked the statement that the world is getting dumber every year.  This has been going on for some time now because many people claim that our children are not as smart as generations before them since they can no longer do math by hand or type a straightforward letter.  Simply not true says the article and how they clear this myth up is by saying that the measuring rod is moved up every year to keep the kids looking dumb but in reality their IQ scores are actually 24 points higher than ours were back in the day.  (I, personally, find that hard to believe since rap has eroded into a hodge podge of non-sense otherwise known as Lil’ Wayne and TV has shows like the Kardashians and Jersey Shore dominate the air waves—but hey, what do I know?)  But something is up because I feel like I am caught in a time warp labeled Ground Hog Day and my days are filled with having the same conversation over and over again.  Can’t some things just go away?

I have spoken about Snopes.com and UrbanLegend.com and really love them for getting rid of internet hoax stuff but why can’t we have one for exercise and nutrition?  There would be some serious information removed from the web if this was enacted and it would probably put some magazines out of business. It would also create peace of mind for those of us who are in the business of making hot bodies so we could exit the Vortex of bad information and never ending myths.  I honestly feel like there is some high level conspiracy out there that keeps these myths-a-coming at a rate faster than the average trainer can quench.  (Hence the woman at the gym who still does side bends with weights.)

Seeing as this week is all about reality, it’s only appropriate to continue on from building into the most controversial topics of all, dieting.  We need to dispel some hype behind dieting so that on Monday, when you become the most focused woman to ever hit the planet, it lasts long enough to take you into Tuesday.  Cool?

WHAT IT IS

Dieting is a way of life that starts every Monday.  Somewhere between the ages of 0 and 4 we are taught that anything that tastes good needs to be severely restricted.  By 7 we are fully dieting even though we don’t even need to lose weight.  It is now taught as a part of science in the 7^th grade and shows up at times on the SATs as a “test” question (you know, the ones that don’t count):  “If Jane spends 2 hours on the TM per day, eats only lettuce and chicken for every meal except breakfast for which she has sawdust and pushes her car to work, how much weight will she lose by the end of the week?” Pick from one of the following:

• 1 pound

• 2 pounds

• 3 pounds

• None—she lost her mind on the 2^nd day and tore through her refrigerator like the Tazmanian Devil on crack.  Now she’s up 5.  Is it Monday yet?

TECHNICAL FACTS TO CHEW ON

Training:  Fast and furious.  No circuit training!!  Metabolic confusion all the way.

Food:  Some…but not much.  No matter how much you are told not to, you will over diet.

Supplements:  A few but nothing like building.  Fish oil is a must.

Rest:  As much as possible but since you’ll be ready to digest your innards, you’ll have a hard time sleeping.  Herbal tea comes in handy here.

THE FINE PRINT

All kidding aside (for maybe one paragraph, I can’t promise), there is nothing romantic about dieting.  Some of us begin the dreams of tricked out Coach coolers with designer chicken in them complete with matching Lulu Lemon pants and tops as if that combo has guaranteed a certain amount of weight loss.  And depending on where you are in your weight loss journey, nothing—not even dieting—can guarantee you some weight loss.  However, none of that is going to help you out when you find yourself in week 5 of dieting, down only a pound and fully frustrated that it seemed much easier the first time around.  Psst…it was easier.

First, whatever you did before to get lean is not going to work this time.  Wait, let me repeat that because I know you didn’t hear that and you’re going to shoot me an email that says, “I did such and such before so I’m going to do it again.  Could you tell me…”  and I’m going to be forced to jump through my computer screen and give you a noogie.  Whatever…you did…prior to today…to get lean…will not…that means won’t… “work”…the second time around.  I don’t care if you don’t use marinade on your meat or if you wear a weight vest during cardio; whatever you do the second time around better be better than the first.  Period.

Second, you will not lose like the first time around.  So as you gear up for next week as the week you’re about to put  the smack down on those 13 pounds you deposited this season, know that it will not come off like some kind of linear magic:  Week 1= 2 #, Week 2=2#, Week 3=1#  and so on.  Instead, it will look more like

(X² + Y² – Z_happiness)/significant other = I ^{meltdown at the mall}

and you will lose nothing for about 3 weeks and then suddenly drop 4 pounds in two days and so the madness continues.

Just like building, there are some things you need to consider when embarking on a 12 week diet to lean out:

• You will automatically forget how hard it was the first time and think it should come off easier and faster than it does.

• You have less patience.

• It’s not fun anymore so you are less willing to suffer for the cause.  You will cut corners, nibble, complain, nag, question and doubt from day 1.  This is the same for having babies.  When you get pregnant with number 2, you are in your doctor’s office trying to get an epidural at week 10 of your pregnancy talking about your back hurts already.  It’s a long haul.

• Give yourself an extra 14 days to get back in the groove.  You will be RUSTY on Monday.

• For the first month you will have at least 10 engagements to go to that involve open bar, buffet, dim sum and any other smorgasbord type of arrangement that’s going to remind you how long 12 weeks really is.

• You will lose in the mirror before you do on the scale!!!!!!!  Do not forget this or you will sabotage your progress!

• You will think you are fatter than you really are which will make you make bad dieting decisions.  This is the weight loss factor.  Multiply it by the number of pounds you have to lose and that’s how big you think you are.  WLF=3.  Have to lose 10.  Crap, I’m up 30.

Ok…you know the deal.  Tomorrow I put numbers to this and break it down because as funny as this is, it really is scary and this is where we lose our minds as sane, informed women.  You can diet successfully the second time around; it’s just not as easy as it sounds.  But the good news is it’s doable!  Armed with the right information, you can absolutely make this goal happen as opposed to going in blindsided and crashing and burning by week 4.  Cool?  See you tomorrow.  Woop woop!

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I think one of the things that plague us as women is constantly wondering if what we are doing is enough.  Honestly, I could also go so far as to say it is just constantly wondering X and then you insert the fear here (x=if I’m good enough, if I’m the only one who…, if I’ll ever be…) but that’s been brought up here so I’m going to be more specific today in referring to if what we are doing measures up to “enough”.

The obvious question here is enough for what?  Enough for weight loss?  Enough for muscle gain?  And boy is this a tough question to have you answer just off the cuff.  If I ask you ‘enough for what’,  you will say in one breath that you want to get lean, add muscle, be more athletic and have 2 babies all before lunch time.  And I have learned not to be so silly as to say, “Which one means the most to you?”, because that question opens up a one hour dialogue about the meaning of life that you were not ready to answer thereby sending you into a tail spin (and me for a drink).   I’m not going to do that today so you can calm down and keep reading.  I am sure you did a nose dive under your table getting ready to rock back and forth in fetal position fearing one my probing moments with you (unless you’ve never spoken with me before and then you’re an innocent victim waiting to be had by one of my conversations. Hehe…) but I can assure you that is not the point of this.  Today is all about defining—but you know me…this may go further after that—and the next few posts are about the actual guidelines.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT HERE?

First, let me just say before I even begin to talk about what’s enough, no whining!  NONE.  I already know the texts, calls and emails are about to follow when I put this out here that ask me, “Do I really have to do all that?”  Yes.  You do.  Now knock it off.  What?  Do you think I’m writing for some sick sadist side of me that needs appeasing?  I’ll admit I have my days but for the love of all that’s holy I’d never put those days in print.  So, yes, you must do all to get what I am saying—if you are the genetically average.   If you have anything exceptional in your genes, then you need to “chew the meat and spit out the fat” as they say as to what pertains to you or not.  But other than that, there is no compromise.

Second, I am going to break this down by goal and within each goal I am going to further delineate it by age group.  For instance, I may give a general over view of what ‘building’ is and then go into what that looks like for a 40-50 year old, a 30-40 year old and a twenty something because it is dramatically different for all three.   If you are 45 and think you want to “build” like a 20 year old, you’re in for a big disappointment and most likely major weight gain in the process.  Our needs are different and need to be acknowledged as being different.

Lastly, I’m going to do this in a way that is very different from what you are probably used to seeing.  I promise to be somewhat technical, but I’m mostly going to be realistic.  Meaning that I want you to know what it really looks like to put these goals in action.   The burnout, the discipline required, the places you could awry, potential weight gain and other issues that crop up when we put this into effect.   They are way more important than any technical information and let me give you an idea of what this looks like:

Say I am talking about building muscle.  Most women think that you just lift heavy for 12 weeks and then you build a ton of muscle.  Seriously, I have people say I want to build my shoulders this winter.  Um…good luck with that.  It takes a whole lot more than a winter to build great shoulders.  But they’ve read somewhere that they need to eat X amount of calories more and set their lifting up in such a way that they get the max recovery and take advantage of the EPOC and so on.  Good info for sure and I will certainly have some of that info in there, as well, but I will also have a whole section called “Walking This Out”.  This section forces you to think about the emotional cost of gaining weight over the winter and all that comes with a building program.  It sounds romantic and fun when presented as this “amazing 12-week program to shape you”, it’s a whole other thing when you are at your holiday Christmas party up 10 pounds and feeling puffy.  At that point, you couldn’t care less about your shoulders and you are more worried that someone’s going to shoot your picture and put it in the company newsletter.

ARE YOU JUST GOING TO DEPRESS ME?

No!  Let me say this as nicely as I can… NO, now stop looking for an excuse to stop pursuing your goal!  Why are our New Year’s Resolutions never successful?  (Besides the fact that people bite off more than they can chew and the whole concept in and of itself is so cliché…) Because we do not count the cost ahead of time.  Some of us rush out into excitement and hop on the latest and greatest fad but that’s not normally the clean eating community.  For us it is more like whatever we choose we choose it because it is solving that current problem.  “If I just lose some body fat, I’ll be able to fit into my jeans and then I’ll be happy…”  But then in the middle of that quest, you realize that toting all your food around and not going to social functions made you more unhappy than the ten pounds you wanted to lose in the first place so you end up abandoning that goal in midstride.  For every goal you abandon, there is a closet in your mind that opens up and accepts that failure and piles it on top of all the others and then just when you need confidence the most—the door pops open and reminds you just how good you aren’t.  Let’s avoid that this year by knowing what we’re getting into when we set our goals and then putting the appropriate things in place to deal with the drawbacks.

For instance, in the case above we would talk about short term pain vs. long term gain.  What does it matter what people thought of you (and I really make you answer this and warning: it can be eye opening) and truth be told, you being 10 pounds up is still better than 80% of the office staff so why the worry.   When you think this through BEFORE you get to the party and BEFORE you put the goal in motion, it changes the entire situation and you are able to deal with it head on instead of being blindsided by it while holding a shrimp cocktail in your hand.

How about we get on with it already then?  Look forward to this being my next mini-series and I hope you enjoy.  I am not sure that I will start it tomorrow or Monday but you know if you are signed up on my blog or if you get me via RSS, you will be notified.   Until we meet again, start pondering ‘what’s the goal?’.  Cool?  WOOP WOOP!:o)

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I wrote this back in the winter time and it was the last email I sent out from Jodiojo.  I never had the chance to follow up with the series and put on paper all that I see day to day with clean eaters.  I am sending them out in the beginning of next week.  If you are not signed up on the blog, yet, you still have time.  This is an eye opening series that I am sure at some time in your clean living history you will experience.  Sign up and find out what you don’t even know you don’t know.

One of the most frightening things that I could ever read is an email from someone who wants to works with us that starts out with, “I run/bike/do cardio/whatever 7 days a week for at least an hour, eat clean, lift 4 to 5 days a week and want to lose X amount of pounds for my sister’s wedding in 8 weeks.  Can you help me?”  Ummm…

Getting lean the first time around is not that hard.  For some people it is a chore but for many of us, it is the most magical time period ever because you are on top of the world and you are invincible.  You look great, you feel great, all is well in the land and you think this will never end.  In fact, you walk around speaking “truth” to everyone about ‘how they need to clean up their act’ and ‘they should get in shape’ and ‘how it’s not that hard’.  You have become a walking billboard for the American Heart Association and you shun those that take elevators and eat junk food.  At some point we all lose our minds and become, even if just a little bit, self righteous and pious in our fitness.  It happens to the best of us; don’t think about it too much about it.

But then trouble begins to brew in paradise.  We start to have little things here and there that undermine our progress or even worse, jeopardize our maintenance levels.   This sets off a conundrum known as, “Oh I’ll just…” which is one of the most damaging phenomenoms  known to woman-kind because it takes all logical, rational thought and turns it on its head.  Basically, you’re going down hard because you begin to lose control and you think “you will just do XYZ” to get it back but it doesn’t work.  Somehow, someway you pushed it and the result of that is either plateau or dangerous territory known as weight gain.  None of us really want to admit that we’ve gotten to that place so I am going to spell it out for you so you can connect the dots.  Here are 3 common scenarios for you in terms of pushing it:

1. You cannot stop cheating for the life of you. In the beginning it wasn’t so bad because it didn’t affect your weight or your leanness so who cared, right?  But now, you’re softer and up a few pounds and you cannot “fix it” no matter what you do.  Sugar or salt can send you into a fit of nibbles that is essentially uncontrollable and mentally debilitating and happens way more often than you would like to admit.
2. You are falling apart at the seams. Because of the endless cardio and workouts, there is not a part of you that doesn’t ache.  You have just about every “itis” you can think of:  bursitis, tendonitis, shin splints, rotator cuff and so on.  You feel like a walking zombie because you are in perpetual motion and after a while you don’t even notice the pain anymore.
3. You are an emotional wreck. Can I just admit to you that I am a crier?  It takes nothing to make me cry—in private.  In public, I can hold it together like duct tape on a kid’s toy but you…you can’t hold *anything* together.  You cry at Bud Light commercials (those dogs are cute, though) for Heaven’s sake!  Anxiety, irrational behavior, drama and crankiness define your life now.  Girl, you are not happy and we can’t leave you like that.  There’s not enough tissues in the world.

If you have any one of those scenarios, are very lean and are working out hard…you are who I am talking to right now.   Fighting for leanness is bad business…seriously…knock it off now.  Instead, let’s talk about our options and what that really looks in the world of clean living.   There are 3 different situations you may find yourself in or have found yourself in already and handling them in the best possible manner could save you hours of cardio and pounds of regret.  Each one of these situations represents an email in this series and will have real guidelines in them to help you navigate your journey from lean to not so lean to lean again.

Email #1               Being Realistic:  What true maintenance looks like.

Email #2               Being Diligent:  Getting back to lean after gaining a few pounds.

Email #3               Being Smart:  Knowing when to say ‘uncle’.

If I do nothing else I want to impress this upon you:  There are a lot of ‘gurus’ in this industry.  Many of them are very good at what they do but very few of them do this.  Make sure all the blogs that you are reading and all the articles you are absorbing are talking about lean folk trying to get lean again.  Most of them are always referring to the first time around and like I said before, that is easy.  What worked before will not necessarily work again—or at least not without a fight.  We are all about balance here at Jodiojo.  All of us in some way, shape or form have had this struggle so we are more than qualified to talk to you about it.  If you have any questions during this series, feel free to hit us up at Jodi@trans4mationstation.com.   Please note:  the emails are not the same as the blog.  Don’t forget to check us out at www.jodiojo.com/blog  Monday through Friday for articles on living clean beautifully.

Honestly, you women are crazy.  Last night I was on the phone with Kas (former Tuesday blogger) chatting away just catching up when I casually mentioned that I was blogging again.  Well she nearly flipped her lid and yelled at me saying that I never told her and why was I holding out.  But wait it gets better…  She’s on the phone with me, clearly agitated that she is now strapped in by this call that we’re on because she wants to…yes, wait for it…hang up to go read what I wrote.  WHAT?  Why not just ask me while you have me on the phone?  Hahahaha!!  Needless to say, we got a good laugh over that but she still hung up on me to read my blogs.  Ummm…whatever.

I am not sure if it’s me or what but this just makes no sense!

But this is our life, ladies.  We do things that do not make a lot of sense a lot of the times thereby wasting precious time.  But what if there were some things out there that do not make a lot of sense but somehow are beneficial for us?  Would you do them then?  Probably not but it’s worth a try:

1. Eat more to break a plateau: No matter how much I try to convince people this works, they still treat me like a dude with a big poster on himself that claims the world is ending tomorrow.  If you find yourself lifting 3 to 5 days per week, doing cardio even more than that and eating next to nothing and your body fat loss has come to a hault—consider eating more before eating less.  See most of you start off dieting and training with parameters that you should have at the *end* of your dieting and training season—not at the beginning.  If your goal date is 12 weeks away and you are already starving to death doing endless cardio and lifting like a fool, you’ve got a long, wasteful road ahead of you.  There is no doubt that somewhere in there you will hit a plateau.  When that happens  EAT MORE…not less!  Let me explain what this looks like:  all clean food, over a set amount of time, at least 50% more of your present intake and then go back to your original diet.  You’ll drop right away and be shocked.
2. Go on vacation to lose weight: Say you are the girl above and not only are you stuck in a rut, you are also exhausted.  Here is a little known secret:  you lose weight when you sleep, not when you move.  So if you never sleep, you never lose.  This is for the girl right now who is reading this and is getting 4 to 6 hours of sleep/night and can’t figure out what is wrong.  A surefire way of knowing if this is you is if you decide to go on vacation and you come back 5 pounds lighter after fully enjoying yourself for the week—this was you.  Ladies, give your adrenals a break and go to bed.
3. Can’t stop cheating?  EAT THE TREAT!: Deprivation causes madness.  Hands down.  ‘The more you deny, the more you will try’ and it can become all consuming if you allow it to be.  What’s the answer?  Take the temptation out by scheduling the treat in the diet.  And don’t just schedule it.  BE OK WITH IT.  *KNOW* that it’s fine.  Know that you are allowed to have this thing and it’s not going to do any damage.  If you don’t know it on the heart level not just the mind level, you will continue to snack uncontrollably.  TAKE THE TEMPTATION OUT and you will knock it off!

I know it seems outrageous and sometimes even gloomy.  But hang in there…it really does work!

We will do just about anything over here to help you ladies see how destructive your behaviors can become if you are not careful.  Maintaining a great body with definition and tightness takes a healthy balance between workout, nutrition and emotional health.  Many talk about it but very few have it.  We have been where you are and know all of what you are going through—trust us.  It seems so simple but it really isn’t.

Keep checking in as we go through all the things that you need to do to make it through eating clean and clean dieting the healthy way.  THAT’s the difference here.  Ciao for now!  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

I go to the gym every morning right after I throw my kids out of the car while it’s still moving drop my kids off at school.  Today was no different (although I will say they landed much better today).  So here I am, minding my own business (who believes this?) and I catch a glimpse of a man with an extended belly on one of the 100 TV screens going across the wall.  (Seriously, I am all for a bit of TV but jeez louise!)

First, I have to say I do not watch TV.  Not my thing.  So it’s a big deal that I “caught” this news story while it was on.  Second, I loathe ANYTHING fitness on TV—hence my last post—so to know I stopped long enough to know what it was about is a miracle.  But there is a trainer out there somewhere who was a hot body but has purposefully gained 80 pounds so he could see what his clients are currently going through and to inspire them along as he loses it with them.

I truly applaud your efforts and your honesty about how hard this has been but volunteering to be heavy is not the same thing as being heavy and judgment against heavy men is no where NEAR as bad as judgment against heavy women.

Ok…my mind is everywhere right now so let me get this out slowly.

1. WOW!!  Are YOU full of yourself or what?  Now, granted…he admits in the clip that he did not expect to go through the emotional stuff that he has gone through but STILL!  WOW!  Ahh-Row-Gance!
2. The majority of his clients are most likely women (we are 80% of the training market) so the point would have been made better if his WIFE did it but I’m sure she told him to go fly a kite and where to fly it too!!
3. This is only relevant if he is stressed to the max, has 2 kids hanging off his leg and was infused with estrogen when we weren’t looking.
4. This is the hugest smack in the face to anybody who has gained a ton of weight.  There are 2 kinds of weight gain: 0-20 and sometimes up to 30lbs is normally a case of “I have no idea how that happened” and all you need to do is get your head out of your behind and get going.  Then there is “30 and above” which is more of an indication that something isn’t right somewhere.  Could be emotional, could be physical, most likely it’s both.  But the point is, you don’t get to 80 pounds overweight because you love bread.

ANYBODY?  CAN I GET A WITNESS HERE?

I am having a MOMENT right now in my office.  Oh we have SO MUCH to talk about!!

When’s the last time you looked at a man’s weight loss and got inspired? PLEASE!  I love my husband with everything I have.  We have been together 24 years this coming February.  There is no other for me.  But when he gets up in the morning on a Monday and says he’s up a few pounds and needs to do something about it and then on TUESDAY—read that…TUESDAY—says he’s down 4 pounds since the day before, I want to impale him with stick of salami!  Anyone?!  I could be talking to him and he will lose weight as I’m speaking:  “Baby…did you…just drop…a few pounds…while I was…NEVERMIND.  Pick those few pounds up off the carpet before it leaves a stain.  Jerk.”  GRRRR!

Losing weight the first time around is EASY!  Piece of cake!!  Seriously!  You are almost afraid to jump out of bed in the morning for fear a piece of your butt might go flying!!  But every time you gain back a few of those pounds you lose, it becomes harder and harder to take off again.  Suddenly the tricks no longer work:  cutting out carbs, eating just chicken and green beans for 5 weeks, lots of cardio…you name it.  Then it turns from shock to frustration and from frustration to panic and from panic to either depression or depravity.  Either way, it’s not a good scene.

Oh it is time, ladies, to learn how the body really works for us.  To understand what it takes to get a fit body, be fit and stay fit and what to do if we deviate a little and want to come back to being fit without selling our soul to the scale.  And to realize there is a WOMAN attached to that goal.  You know…one who has feelings…one who is self conscious…one who just wants this to be over…

I want to be very clear as I wrap this up.  First, I hold no ill will towards this man and truly, truly pray that someone is blessed by his journey.  I honestly know that he has no idea how he is coming across to those of us who work with women all time and that he has the best intentions with his efforts.  If you leave knowing anything after reading today’s post, I pray you know that.  Second, there is a battle out there, ladies.  It’s called sanity and it is a fleeting target.  Try to get through a day without losing your mind watching all the madness out there.  Pour that frustration into a sensible, hard workout and a clean eating day and you will make it through.  And thirdly, I promise I will begin to tell you how to lose body fat, truly be healthy–not just thin and sick and keep your sanity while doing it over and over and over and over (did I say over?) again.  Cool?

Ciao for now!!  Woop woop!!

Every so often I think about professions that have it tough because of TV:  Doctors, cops, teachers…you get the idea.  TV adds this flare to their occupation that makes it hard for them to do their job in real life.  Either they make it seem super simple to solve a crime or they have these miraculous diagnoses for patients in a nick of time so that when you go through something like it in real life, your view is jaded.  It has to make a doctor’s life impossible or a detective’s job stressful dealing with folks who have outrageous expectations because every week they look at life packed up nice and neat in an one hour TV show.  There’s no fuss, no muss…nothing.  You have an issue, the team will solve it.  You have a missing child, look—we found them!  But reality is so much more different for those folks:  crimes go unsolved, people get sick with things that are not always “solvable” and are sometimes fatal and the people who work there are not happy-go-lucky robots loving every minute of their jobs. 

 Ok, now that I have sufficiently set you up in fear as to where this article is going, let me move on and make my point.  TV is to doctors as the Six O’Clock news is to fitness professionals.

 I cannot watch the “healthbeat” section of any news broadcast because of the blatant misinformation and I cry any time a medical study comes out because they butcher the conclusion of the study to create a sensational news story.  Let me say this right now and be very clear:

 YOU CAN FIND A STUDY TO SUPPORT *ANY*–I REPEAT–*ANY* COCKAMAMIE THEORY YOU HAVE ABOUT HEALTH AND FITNESS AND A COMMERCIAL DIET TO BACK IT UP.  THAT DOES NOT MEAN IT REALLY WORKS.  JUST SAYIN’. 

 I also loathe magazines.  I will not name any in particular because they are all the same to me but just know that they have to say the same thing to you month after month after month so to keep it “fresh”  they begin to add twists and catches to their stories to keep you coming back.  Because let’s face it, how many different ways can you “tighten” the booty or “flatten” the tummy?   Although they have the right to make a living, they do it at the expense of their honesty and your health.  

 When it comes to general weight loss information, you can find it anywhere.  In fact, it’s getting beyond old and moving into nauseating.  But when it comes to crafting a beautiful body from nature’s resources (devoid of fat burners, diet shakes and pre packaged meals), the nation is severely lacking.  I cannot tell you how stressful that is. 

•  You will find very few studies on how to lose the last five pounds or how to lift your butt up off of your ankles so you can at least walk without tripping. 
• There are no studies on lean going leaner or what it takes to get rid of stretch marks and so on. 
• You will not find much truth about what running REALLY does to the body or how much weight you will gain running your first marathon. 
• There aren’t any resources around that are going to tell you how to lose weight the second time around and how hard it really is because we all gain at least 5 pounds back in our lifetime (I know it’s way more than that but I felt I’d ease up on the doom and gloom). 
• And you definitely aren’t going to find any sites to tell you about what to do when things go wrong (you push it too far) or if you have a special issue (pcos, hypothyroid, etc).   

Why?  Because the mainstream media only cares about losing weight *at any cost* and having the hottest story out there.   Those of us who care about losing body fat and looking good at the end are few and far between but we do exist.  We are out here for sure, but we’re a lonely breed of professionals who rely more on our expertise than we do on studies because the studies just do not exist.  What separates us from the others out there is what we primarily focus on:  realistically looking good naked through all natural means of clean eating and supplementation for those who want the stage body without the stage.

Right now there is this new trend of running articles and information flooding the news circuit.  I am going to assume it’s because the economy is bad and people have to do something.  So they’ve left their gyms and took to the pavement.  That’s not a bad thing and I am glad folks aren’t just lying around but what is a bad thing is the junk the media is now pumping out there about running.  Here’s a news flash:  it is not an effective *long* term weight loss/look good naked solution.  Don’t believe the hype!  We have much to talk about this but for now, just know, this is not your long term solution for keeping the weight off and making a hot body.  Can it be part of it?  Absolutely!  But is it the answer they are toting it as?  NO. And you’ll be mad as a hornet when you have to put humpty dumpty back together again after listening to their advice.

No…don’t believe the hype that you are reading out there.  You aren’t crazy.  These things really happen and no one is talking about them.  And those that are talking, aren’t talking reality.  How about we put some facts out there and have some fun while we’re doing it? 

So you know that means there’s much more to come.   I can’t wait.  Hang tight because we will be solving some problems and answering some nagging issues that main stream media wants to ignore.  I promise I won’t leave you hanging.

As always, keep it clean and keep it active.  Woop woop!

One of the most awesome things about working with awesome people is they always expose you to awesome opportunities that end up being awesome for everyone involved. (Ok, I’ll stop with the awesome…but I was having fun for a second there.) Heather, our Monday girl, is the Chief Kahuna in her workplace for fitness. She smacks everyone around to keep it in gear, stay focused and continually reach for more. About 3 months ago she started a “Leanest Winner” contest in the office and recruited folks to set a goal (lose body fat) and to stick to it (for 12 weeks) with the foreknowledge that they would be “judged” at the end and win a prize—and no, it was not a date with Heather or winning any of her amazing hats, either. Upon putting that contest in motion, Heather had to pick a judging panel…you guessed it…us girlies!! YIPPY!! We have the privilege of judging everyone’s entries over the next week to see who, out of all them, will be the leanest winner. I’m super excited—you have no idea!

A contest like this, though, requires some set guidelines for judging so as to be fair and consistent throughout. For us to ensure this, I have to create a score sheet–for lack of a better word—that will give points for things such as pounds lost, pounds of muscle gained and so on. Having to do this brought me to this post: after all these years, I am still amazed at the bad information that is still in the world today about health and fitness. And even more bad info when it comes to changing the appearance of your body (ie. lose body fat, gain muscle). Can we just all take a moment to review?…

Yeah I know I mentioned Megan Fox and this is a picture of Jessica Alba.  I ran out of time.  What are you gonna do about it?  Right.  I didn’t think so.

Losing Weight vs. Losing Body Fat
Losing weight is easy. If you want to lose weight, cut off a limb. Really. Twenty pounds will drop off of you faster than you can say anesthesia. No fuss, no muss. All jokes aside, losing weight is simple when that’s your main goal and you do not care how you look when you are done. This is “The Biggest Loser” mentality. Endless cardio, starvation and some weights here and there make for an ugly shar pei at the end. However, if you want to lose body fat get ready to work hard by dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s. The most prevalent mistake/issue that I run into with this situation is pride and arrogance. Everyone thinks ‘what they gave up/where they came from’ should automatically put them in a position for a hot body. So because you stopped eating pizza for breakfast, drinking every weekend and scoffing pints of B & J at one sitting, you should automatically have a body like Megan Fox. Umm…no…sorry. Now the real work begins and it is not fun. Who has this the worse? Girls who are on the thin side already but are “skinny fat”. Probably one of the hardest things to stay focused for because you have nothing to tell you that you are on point but body fat and most folks never accurately find theirs out. Thin girls have to lift like Arnold, eat like a saint and endure the jeers of those who don’t get how hard it is what they’re doing. Sigh.

Ask Amy–Tuesday blogger–just how hard it is to gain muscle.  Strong as an ox, as streamlined as the yogi nut that she is.

Gaining Muscle
Men are bad with this but not as bad as women. For some strange reason there is this psycho sect of women who believe if you just lift heavy for 12 weeks, you can somehow enter a figure contest and win. It blows my mind. Some even think, “Well, I know that that’s not true. I need at least a year.” Hold on, I am trying to stop laughing to finish this post. Honestly, good solid muscle that is noticeable in terms of density and structure takes about 2 to 3 years to develop. You are lifting that entire time. So…not…3—12 week cycles of lifting, but the ENTIRE time. And you are eating right that whole time, as well. Can you gain some muscle before then? Of course. Will you look like it? Um, maybe—but not the way you think. Ask any NATURAL—hold on, that bears repeating…any NATURAL–that means drug free…including growth hormone because you have those that will tell you that growth is natural (rolling my eyes)—girl that has any amount of muscle or size how long it took her to gain muscle and she’ll tell you years. If it took anything less than that, they were a gymnast.

There was NO WAY I was doing an article like this without pulling her out of retirement.  What an era!

Losing Muscle vs. Losing Earned Muscle
About 4 or 5 years ago there was a frenzy on the internet among the “gurus” where they literally had you petrified to work out or do cardio for fear of “losing muscle”. It is still around today but nowhere near as bad as back then. People were waking in the middle of the night to eat because they would be “catabolic” if not and so on. It was crazy. This spurred the whole supplement frenzy of either hanging on to your “hard earned muscle” or losing body fat without much effort. I am so glad we have moved on to bigger and better things like cave men vs dead doctors. (Back to rolling my eyes again.)

Let’s just put this out there right now: there is a big difference between losing muscle, losing size and losing earned muscle.

If you are a “big girl”—you know, the kind I want to go drinking with on a Friday night in a not-so-safe area of town—then you know what I am about to say is true: losing muscle is HARD. A muscular girl who wants to be done with her muscle and move on to a more ‘sleek’ look is in for the battle of her life. You are essentially re-programming your DNA. Everything you do to lose body fat and muscle will promote even more.

If you suddenly find yourself with a good amount of muscle and you decide to go starchless for a while, you will lose SIZE. Your pump. Your mojo. But you did not lose your MUSCLE. One cheeseburger with sodium and a bun and you’ll be back to normal. Starches do not make or keep muscle. They just fill ‘em up like an Easter basket.

If you are an “olive oil” type girl who put on a few pounds of muscle—bless you, girl—everything you do will cause you to lose muscle. You have to hold on to that muscle like a barnacle on a boat if you want to keep any of it—in the beginning. But after a year or so, it’s yours. This is important to know because I think a few of you are still getting up at 3 am to eat. OY!

This is just a snap shot of body composition myths that are out there. There are many more that I may tackle one day. Until then, wish the folks at Heather’s job good luck as we head into the ‘back room’ and begin the judging process. Woop woop!

A false sense of security mixed with a fragile self image makes for a desperate woman on cardio.

Last week I spoke of how hard it is to get lean the second time around. How you think you will just do all that you did the weeks before and it will just magically fall off again. Umm…WRONG. As we go full steam ahead into this series, let me dispel some myths so we can all be on the same page for this series:

Law of Equitability
Basically, you cannot ask the body to less and somehow you miraculously get more out of it without some type of major “reset” in your system. This is a very hard concept to get through to people but I will try my hardest to explain.

If you just spent 12 to 16 weeks eating 1200 cals/day, doing 60 min of cardio/day, lifting 4 days/week, you are not going to lose weight doing anything less than that any time soon. So let’s say you gain 10 pounds back and you are ready to lose it again. It’s been about 2 to 3 months since you hit goal weight and you have been at this new weight that long. You decide it is time to get back to that miraculous weight you were at before and you think you are just going to start back up again and the weight will fall off. Most of us now know that it does not and what actually happens is that we can stay at that weight doing all that we were doing before forever. Why? Because your body responds to *change*–not absolutes. Whatever you were doing before now must be equal or greater to be able to affect a change in your body. The danger in this is that you can find yourself down to 1000, 900, 800 calories while doing 1, 2, possibly 3 hours of cardio/day to get the scale to move. Do not fall into this trap.

No matter how much water you pour in here, it can only hold 20 ounces.

Law of Diminishing Return
There is a point where no matter how much more you do, you got whatchu got. You ain’t gettin’ no mo. Got me? If you are lean for the first time, hear me as I speak: Pull back on what you are doing to do the least amount that you need to do to get what you want. Don’t get on a cardio “high” and start banging out more than necessary. Or even worse, don’t become paranoid that you need to do a small Olympic trial every week to maintain what you have. You are setting yourself up for failure when you go to lose weight again—and I can guarantee you you will have to lose weight again. The more you do now, you will have to do at least that and most likely more to get lean again. So if you start out gang busters at an hour of cardio/day, guess what? You own that now and then some later on and that is a slippery slope that is not going anywhere good, fast.

Law of Continuation
Taking a fat burner? Tried some other stuff here and there? Messing around with hormones or supplements? If you have introduced them into your diet for any significant amount of time (and this varies/substance) they directly reduce your chances of being able to lose the weight again without them. And just like the law of equitability, you must have more, use more, etc. to get more.

Yes, we’re jackasses.  But we’re still cute.

Law of JackAssery
Unfortunately, we all suffer from this one. Here is what this looks like…

You lose a ton of weight and you look great. To do this you are doing cardio 7 days/week, eating very clean—almost no cheats and lifting like a pscycho. You hit goal weight and your event/wedding/vacation comes and goes. You begin to slip on your program. At this point, what we all should do is enter into a place of maintenance where we back our plan down a bit and settle into a comfortable weight we can maintain. Sometimes that might be 2 or 3 pounds more than what you are right now but you still look good. But mentally we can’t do that. We’ve either been beaten into submission by the scale or have such a fragile self image now that the mere thought of giving up where we are sends us right to the stair master. So we begin to cheat and fall apart WHILE still doing 7 days of cardio, super clean diet and lifting like a psycho. We have more and more days of cheating, we become more and more tired and then suddenly we are up 7 to 10 pounds. But now, shoot to the law of equitability and we see that we’re in trouble. We have gained weight *within* our “cleanness” and now there’s nowhere to go but extreme. Whatever you do, when you know you cannot hang on or it is time to call “uncle”, open up your diet and back your cardio down. Let me repeat that, open up your diet and back your cardio down.

So much to talk about and so little time!

I want to welcome all the new people to the blog, we appreciate you reading us. And we want to welcome all the new ladies who have signed up for updates, we appreciate you as well. I have not sent out anything on this series, yet, because so many new folks were signing up but I will now. Too much to talk about!

Start looking at where you are in your plan right now. Is it sustainable? Is it reasonable? Do you need an intervention? If you can relate to any of this, I want to hear about it below or email me at Jodi@trans4mationstation.com and I will be happy to chat with you.