Monthly Archives: August 2011
The Fat Burning Zone Lies
I just received a facebook message question about their “target heart rate”. I believe this is one of the most deceiving fitness principles so I’m going to attempt to explain exactly what the “target heart rate” is and the truth (more like a lie) behind the “fat burning zone”.
Learning Your Maximum Heart Rate
You may have heard the term, Maximum Heart Rate, but most people have no clue what that is. We see stickers on treadmills saying “65% of your maximum heat rate”, but that’s basically a foreign language to most people. Here’s the answer: your maximum heart rate is always 220 minus your age.
My Maximum Heart Rate is: 220 – my age (_____) = ___________
The Fat-Burning Zone
The quote unquote Fat Burning Zone is 65-75% of your maximum heart rate. This is the zone where your body burns a higher percentage of calories from fat. This is where I start getting mad and here’s why. Stay with me. We need to work through this math so you can follow me here. Trust me – it will be worth it! Read the rest of this entry
5 Simple Pain Prevention Tips
Pain is a very powerful thing. It can change your attitude, bank account, happiness, focus and entire lifestyle. Although you may not be able to completely control the actual pain itself, you can often control what causes it.
Poor posture is responsible for a large majority of neck and back problems. People hunch over the computer, and slouch on the couch for hours. After extended periods of time back muscles begin painful spasms, which pull on other muscles and vertebra. Before you know it you’re running to the doctor for help.
Here are 5 simple tips to becoming pain-free: Read the rest of this entry
Back to School Back to YOU: 10 Tips for a New You
There’s something about getting back into a routine that makes you feel normal again. Sure, parents complain about dragging their kids to and from school and all their extracurricular activities – football, band, ballet, cheer, piano, church, etc. However, there is something very good about being forced into a solid (even if seemingly binding) routine.
We humans need structure.
Although I’m not a mom, I had the unique opportunity to be a mom for almost 2 years when my 12 year old sister came to live with us (or you could say she came for a summer to visit and never left! ha!). With band, basketball, church and all the other activities she was involved with, I became a part-time taxi and cheerleader. It was like taking a second job – but secretly, I liked it. Having structure forced me to manage my time better.
Sure, we’d all like to complain about it and talk about how great the summer was – free of the taxi job and stress of school. But the truth is, our body NEEDS a tighter schedule. Even if you don’t have kids like me, I still am impacted by school starting back up and the world around me being back in a steady rhythm. Read the rest of this entry
Diet: What you DON’T know CAN hurt you
Wouldn’t it be nice if every food item came with a label on it? If only we knew how many calories were each home-cooked meal, baked good and menu item, many of us would make much better decisions. The hardest part about dieting is trying to guess how many calories are in these types of foods. We tend to underestimate calories when we leave it up to our own guess work. We want to believe certain foods are OK to eat. Then after we talk our self in to believing we’ve made the right choice we expect to lose weight as if our guess was always accurate.
I did something the other day that enlightened me on this very subject. I picked up a low-calorie snack on a recent road trip. I noticed the snack was a little over 200 calories. I wasn’t too thrilled about this since I try to keep my snacks to 150 calories or less but I thought I should bring it in case I got hungry. I found myself picking up the snack while I was driving along, re-reading the package over and over – contemplating whether it was worth it or not. I ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it and would prefer to eat something better later. Read the rest of this entry
Complacency Kills
This cartoon by Randy Glasbergen says it all! Why is it we convince ourselves that exercise is an option. Do we really have such a low of self-worth that we like being lazy and complacent over being dead?! Maybe the problem is we’ve gotten used to mediocrity and settled on having less than we want. Maybe not looking as good, not feeling as good or not being as healthy as we would like is OK. NO! IT’S NOT OK!
Maybe you just haven’t had your ‘wake-up call’ or maybe you aren’t quite uncomfortable enough and need to put on another 10lbs until you’re REALLY sick of yourself! I’VE been there!! I think, “exactly how crappy do I have to feel to get my butt in gear?! And when was not being happy with myself OK?” HOW RIDICULOUS AND STUPID OF ME!!
Obesity continues to climb the charts. Just this week our local headlines read “15 years ago Florida’s obesity rate was 49.1%. Now the state waddles in at a gut busting 62.6%”. Maybe the headline should have read “OBESITY KILLS: Only 37.4% of Floridians are safe from the epidemic”.
What is wrong with America? I think it’s pretty simple. We’ve taken this whole freedom and rights thing to an extreme. We’ve become greedy, self-indulging, rebelling and selfish beings who don’t want to practice self-control in any area of our lives. We want to have our cake and eat it too. Well, so do I – but in the end, I’m just left with is icing on my face and fat on my hips…and I don’t even remember what it tasted like! (meaning it’s not worth it!) Read the rest of this entry
How Bad Do You Really Want It?
Have you ever really, REALLY, REAAALLLY thought about what you want? Sure, everyone would say they don’t want to be fat and would love to have a great physique – but do they REALLY WANT IT? Maybe we should change the question.
“Do you want to give up your favorite junk food, alcohol and sodas? Do you want to give up some of your valuable time to spend in the gym training, sweating and occasionally (OK, often) hurting? Do you want to run even if it’s hot outside, workout even when you are tired, and eat small portions even when you are starved? That’s the reality behind wanting to get fit.” Sure, there are awesome rewards to being fit too, but you have to get through the ‘getting fit’ before you start ‘feeling fit’.
Let’s break it down like this. When Steve and I were preparing to buy our lake house, he told me we’d have to be really frugal to save and pay down some debt. This was much easier said than done. Since I love to shop, this was a challenge for me. My instinct was to live life like I always had – but Steve would stop me in my tracks with this question: “Do you want to buy a house or do you want to buy some clothes – ’cause you can’t do both?” Read the rest of this entry
Grab the Rake, it’s Time for Some ‘Life Work’!
“An ignored life is like an ignored yard – it can quickly grow out of control.”
Many people spend more time maintaining their yard than they do maintaining their lives. When I first moved to Vero Beach, I was amazed by the manicured yards filled with a blanket of 4-inch thick grass, lush shrubbery, and vibrant flowers. This was very different than the yards I ever had in Tallahassee, but they still had to be maintained too.
An ignored life is like an ignored yard – it can quickly grow out of control if you let it. Keeping life under control requires constant work.
Here is a maintenance list for a well-manicured life:
1. Maintain life’s lawn. Think of the lawn as our foundation, or our home. Just as our lawn provides a safe place to play, our life requires a safe, healthy place too. The same way we look for ant hills and harmful objects, we too should constantly be looking for harmful things that enter our life’s lawn and remove them.
2. Trim life’s hedges. Sometimes we need a little shaping up. When we are healthy, our muscles are more pronounced and shapely, but as we let ourselves go we lose our original shape. This applies to our spiritual lives as well. The things that once defined us can quickly become lost or overgrown if it’s not maintained. Read the rest of this entry
How Much Protein Do I Need?
QUESTION: How much protein do I need?
ANSWER: That depends on your goals. ACSM recommends you take no more than 1gm per poud of body weight, although body builders are known for taking up to 2gms per pound of body weight. I am a 145lbs and I try to get a third of my calories from protein, which (when dieting) equals 100gms of protein or .7gms per pound of my body weight. (THE MATH: 1200 calories x 1/3 = 400 calories divided by 4 (4 calories per gram of protein) = 100gms of protein). The most protein I get is around 130gms of protein while Steve probably gets more like . (I normally have one post workout shake and another shake either in the morning after my run or before bed. Steve averages 190-210gms of protein a day.
Most trainers in the industry suggest .5-.75gms per pound of your ideal body weight for women and 1-2gm per pound of ideal body weight for me. I would say anyone’s minimum should be .5gms of protein per pound of “IDEAL” body weight. For instance, if you are 200lbs but you want to be 150lbs, I’d suggest never dropping below 75gms of protein if you are actively workout. Of course this varies with people’s training, weight goals, existing lean mass, gender, etc – but it’s a good general rule of thumb. Read the rest of this entry
‘High Protein’ Foods Exposed
1st blog in this week’s series: “Eating for Success”
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QUESTION: “I want to increase my protein so I can lose fat and gain muscle. What foods besides eggs, peanut butter, chicken, lima beans are high in protein?” Darryl
ANSWER: Darryl, there’s a difference between a food having protein in it and a food actually being considered a good ‘protein source’. In my opinion, I don’t consider a protein ‘high-protein’ unless it has at least a third of the calories coming from protein.
It’s hard to determine what’s high in protein without looking at all the substrates. There are approximately 4 calories in one gram of protein, 4 calories in one gram of a carbohydrate, 7 calories in a gram of alcohol and 9 calories in a gram of fat. Below are graphs of the foods mentioned so you can visually see the breakdown of each food. Now, let’s see how some of the foods you mentioned weigh in. Read the rest of this entry
Tips to Fueling for Fitness
Choosing the right fuel for a workout depends on the workout you’re fueling up for. It’s like fueling up a car. The fuel used for drag racing is totally different than fuel used for Nascar. Dragsters just need to get to the finish line as fast as possible, which is only about a thousand feet away. Nascar fuel needs to help you go fast, steady and strong so you can go the distance. In many ways the same principles apply to fitness.
Fueling up for fitness and weight loss can be very different. For instance, if you need to make it through an intense workout, like weight training or our BCx boot camp, you’ll need something that can power you through your entire workout. Lifting a weight or powering a jump requires blood sugar readily available. Read the rest of this entry
