Operation Get Lean - Week 1 Recap + TREADMILL SPRINT INTERVALS

Last week, starting Sunday, I began training and eating to get lean and add muscle with a goal of looking something like the photos below.  I'm crazy for those shoulders and abs!  I've never really had nice shoulders and arms like that and I want to see if I can get them.  

via

Via source searched for and not found

via

Slightly embarrassing to post my pic, but I wanted to document my progress, so here's where I'm starting. 

I have been doing a lot of reading, researching, and remembering what trainers and fitness competitors I've known have told me throughout the years.  To get results like that, you have to lift weights, do cardio, and eat clean.  There's really no secret.   

A few days ago, I posted my current eating regimen and I'm happy to report I have stuck to it 100%.  I have planned a cheat meal for Saturday night, but plan to continue my clean eating Saturday day and on Sunday and the next week, etc.  I really want to see what eating like this COMBINED WITH the working out and cardio do for me in the next few months. 

I'm planning to workout 5 days a week (Mon-Thurs, Saturday, and off Friday and Sunday).  This week I'm taking off Friday (so that will be 6 days this week).  The cool thing for me is that I added 20 minutes of cardio to the end of every workout.  I've never done that before.  And I'm talking hard cardio, keeping the heart rate up the whole time.  (I'm not monitoring it with a device but can tell by the way I feel). 

Go HERE to see what I ate this week.  The big changes for me were giving up my afternoon coffee (I drank hot tea instead) and my late night bowl of cereal.  I used to always eat a bowl of something like Cheerios before bed.  Now if I'm hungry, I'll eat one serving of greek yogurt.  It's also challenging to eat every 2-3 hours, reminds me of breastfeeding.  It feels like as soon as you're finished eating, it's time to eat again.  But, I liked my meals, so it wasn't too bad.  I just keep thinking

THE WORKOUTS

I'm not following any specific program, just making sure I hit every body part hard each week.  For convenience, this week, I followed 5 workouts from the Jamie Eason Live Fit plan.  But, I also added 20 minutes of cardio on the treadmill at the end.  For 5 of the days, I just kept adjusting the treadmill to do my own made-up intervals.  For instance:

Minute 1:  4.0 mph at 0 incline

Minutes 2-4:  2.5 mph at 15 incline (don't hold on!)

Minute 5:  4 mph at 0 incline

Minutes 6-7:  6.5 at 0 incline 

and then repeat for 20 minutes total. 

One day, I did treadmill sprint intervals.  Since I've never done this before, I set the treadmill speed to 7.5 mph and did 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.  Basically, you crank the treadmill to your desired speed and run for 30 seconds, then grab the side rails and jump to the side, keeping the treadmill going at that speed and rest for 30 seconds.  Moving the speed up and down takes too long.  

I did that for 20 minutes.  The first 9 minutes weren't too bad, and the iPod helped.  Minutes 11 and 12 felt super hard.  Minutes 13-15 I was like, "Why am I doing this f*#k*ng thing?"  But the last 4 minutes, I'm thinking, "I'm almost done, I can do this, I AM doing this! I'm strong!"  I swear working out is such a mental and physical sport.  I never thought I could consistently do cardio after a hard weight lifting workout and now I've done it 5 times in one week.  I learn that you have to train your mind and your body at the same time.  

For weight training, I did: 

SUNDAY- back

MONDAY - legs 

TUESDAY - biceps and triceps 

WEDNESDAY - shoulders + planks (3 sets, 45 seconds to 1 minute)

THURSDAY - back and biceps + planks (3 sets, 45 seconds to 1 minute)

SATURDAY- legs 

Go HERE for the exact workouts with pinnable images, except I added one more not shown.

I have been tired at a reasonable time at night (thank God, sometimes I get a "second wind" right before bed and can't sleep) and woken up so SORE every morning that I was immediately taking 2 Advil.  I just ordered a nighttime recovery supplement that is supposed to help with soreness- it's by Advocare.  I haven't taken it yet, so I can't tell you if it helps or not, but I'm crossing my fingers! 

You can follow my Pinterest FITNESS inspiration board for more motivation and fitness tools. 

Have a great weekend!

Mysteries of Energy Balance and Weight Loss

How to Lose Weight Effortlessly

 

You've probably seen this claim many times: a pound of fat contains 3,500 kilocalories (kcal).  A slice of toast is 80 kcal.  All you have to do is forego one slice of toast per day-- just a few percent of your total calorie intake-- and you will lose 8.3 lbs of fat per year.  Fat loss is so easy!

 

This reasoning is extremely common both in the popular media and among researchers.  Here's an example from the otherwise excellent book Mindless Eating, by researcher Brian Wansink:

...the difference between 1,900 and 2,000 calories is one we cannot detect, nor can we detect the difference between 2,000 and 2,100 calories.  But over the course of a year, this mindless margin would either cause us to lose ten pounds or to gain ten pounds.  It takes 3,500 extra calories to equal one pound.  It doesn't matter if we eat these extra 3,500 calories in one week or gradually over the entire year.  They'll add up to one pound.

This is the danger of creeping calories.  Just 10 extra calories a day-- one stick of Doublemint gum or three small Jelly Belly jelly beans-- will make you a pound more portly one year from today.  Only three Jelly Bellys a day.

According to this reasoning, if I reduced my calorie intake by 80 kcal per day, I'd become skeletal in two years and vanish in a puff of smoke within 10 years*.  All from a meager 3 percent reduction in calorie intake! 

 

What's wrong here?

Read more »

NutriScience Seminar in Lisbon with Lindeberg, Fontes, and Bastos

My friend Pedro Bastos has asked me to spread the word about a seminar he's organizing in Lisbon titled "Evidence and Evolution-based Nutrition".  It will include Staffan Lindeberg, Maelan Fontes, and Pedro Bastos-- three quality researchers in the area of evolutionary health-- I'm sure it will be interesting.  Here's the flier:

 

 

Before & After with Andrea from Worley House

Andrea of Worley House is sharing her weight loss success story with us today.  I'm super proud of this girl.  She lost 68 pounds by eating healthy and working out AT HOME.  If you have weight to lose, take heart, Andrea saw big improvements in just three months!  She's got two kids (one my son's age) and a younger one as well.  Please leave Andrea a comment on this post so that she knows she has inspired you.  It's brave of her to share her story!  Also, check out her blog- I think you'll like it! 

Hi Honey We're Healthy Readers! My name is Andrea Worley, I blog over at my little slice of the Internet called Worley House! I'm so honored that Megan asked me to share a bit of my story here, on a topic I never thought I'd ever share about; weight loss and becoming healthy. 

I had my second baby in December 2012, my pregnancy with #2 was much harder on my body, I gained about the same amount of weight that I did with my first but I was already over weight and not very healthy when I got pregnant the second time around. So I think that those things combined with a difficult pregnancy added to my discomfort. 

On delivery day I weighed in at 190 pounds. I knew that some of that weight was baby, excess water and fluids. Couple weeks after having my second baby I weighed myself, 168 pounds on my 5'2'' frame. At that point I knew that I needed to change a lot of habits if I wanted to lose the weight and become healthy. 

I started working out and changing what I was eating. I don't have a gym membership, I'm just a woman and a mother using what she has to make her life healthier and better. I dusted off my DVD of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and used it daily. Well past the 30 days. It was 20 minutes, but certainly not easy for me. It was a great starting point, and I knew I needed to make time for myself if I was going to reach my goals.

I set small goals for myself when I first started losing weight. I also started tracking everything I ate through My Fitness Pal. This was a good visual for me to see the calories I was consuming. To learn portion control and because I was still breast feeding as well I needed to make sure I was eating enough calories to still produce and not reduce my supply. 

After three months of eating well and daily exercise.

After three months of eating well and daily exercise I started to see some major results. It gave me to motivation to keep going and set new goals. My healthy lifestyle change has spilled over into every area of my life and to my family. 

I started drinking tons and tons of water. I believe water intake is huge for weight loss and flushing out your system. I omitted all dairy from my diet as well, started cutting out sweets and sugary drinks. I also eat five small meals a day. My diet is mostly clean, and when I say that I mean I am human. I have a cookie sometimes. I strive for consistency in this- not perfection. 

Once I started making changes to my eating habits and working out I noticed right away that I was sleeping better and easier at night. The headaches that I was getting often were gone, and over all I had a better outlook on life and on myself. 

I also believe that my lifestyle change also helped get me out of my post baby funk. My whole outlook changed. 

The picture on the left is my "before" picture taken in May 2013, and the one on the right was taken at the end of October 2013. I'm down 68 pounds now and have reached the goal weight that I wanted to be at.

I believe in always setting new goals for yourself, stretching yourself and making your body work for you and not against you. I still work out daily, I do videos from the comfort of my own home and have now added running into my workouts. I've learned that food is fuel for your body. It's not supposed to make you feel good about yourself, or make you happy. The purpose of food is to nourish our bodies and allow it to do what God created it to do. I really believe you have to change your outlook on food as well.

Almost a year into my fitness journey, I've met some of my original goals. It's time to make new ones and always continue to thrive in living a healthy life. I'm looking forward to running my first 5K ever this March. Don't give up if you don't see results immediately, change takes time. Your body didn't get where it's at over night, so give yourself time to makes the right and healthy changes.

If you're wanting to make a change I encourage you to just start, there's never going to be a "perfect day" to start or a perfect month. Once you start you will never regret it. Once you start to see your body change you won't regret it either. It's easier to not work out, I believed this for far to long but once I started making changes in my habits it gave me a new outlook as well. And, I won't lie it feels pretty great to have nothing that fits and your pants be a little looser than before. It's a great perk!

Thanks Megan for letting me share today! If you're looking for more tips, encouragement and motivation visit me over on my blog, find me on Facebook ,  Twitter or Instagram @worleyhouse.

Lean Body Meal Plan

Despite my valiant efforts to finish 2013 healthy and strong, I find myself here in February a good 5 pounds heavier than I'd like to be.  Five extra pounds on a barely 5'1 woman makes a difference.  I notice it most in that my pants are too tight, even my next-size-up jeans.  I spent last weekend in Las Vegas and I'm sure that didn't help things.  So, I'm back at it determined to shape up this month.  It's my birthday  month too, so that's a perfect time to hit it hard!

I figured I need to get back to basics with my meals and I'm doing a typical lean body meal plan, which consists of eating 5-6 small meals every 3 hours, with 20-30 grams of protein per meal.  The Jamie Eason Live Fit training program recommends the following:

(via Jamie Eason Live Fit Trainer/Bodybuilding.com)

* * * * * * * * 

I started Sunday and for this week, my meals look like this: 

7:00 a.m.  1/2 cup OATMEAL with raisins, sliced almonds, cinnamon and milk.  Coffee and creamer (gotta have it)

10:00 a.m.  Protein shake 

12:00 p.m.  TEX MEX with fresh pico de gallo (but I'm using chicken this time)

3:00 p.m.  Celery or apple or rice cake with peanut putter

5:00 - 6:00 p.m.  TURKEY CHILI

8:00 p.m.  Greek yogurt or egg white omelet 

That's it.  All day every day for a week.  I'll have a "cheat meal" on Friday and probably Saturday too.  Then, back to it the next week and all of February, just switching up the meals with different lean proteins and veggies.  I eat every several hours anyway, so that's not difficult for me.  I have also seen really good results when I've stuck to this kind of eating, so I'm excited to get going again! 

I find it's actually easier (time wise) to follow this plan because I just do one grocery trip on Sunday and make a big batch of chili and Tex Mex and portion it out for the week.  I'm not staring into the fridge wondering what to make each night.  Plus, once the meals are cooked on Sunday, it's just popping them into the microwave to heat up.  Super easy.  People always ask, "But what do you feed your family?"  My husband wants to lose weight too, so he's on board.  If he wants more variety, he'll eat out for lunch.  My son still mainly eats grilled cheese and a side of something like yogurt or an apple for dinner.  

For my workouts, I'm pulling some of the Jamie Eason Live Fit Training workouts being sure to work each body part every week and adding 20 minutes of cardio at the end of the workouts.  Right now, I've been doing my cardio on the stairmaster, alternating the speed to keep it intense.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments and I'll answer them there.  Have a great week!

GOOD HEALTH DOES NOT CARE ABOUT BUSY

Society really needs to stop the glorification of busy, and I am not one who is going to listen and accept all the excuses of not having enough time to care about making health a priority in life.  Let me rephrase that, I may listen to the laundry list, but I will definitely provide the tough questions in response and offer that better time management choices and priorities need to be addressed.  So many people create too much “busy” in life that every second of every hour is consumed by work, overtime, functions, social, social, social, volunteer work,  more work, more functions and the “YES” list goes on and on.  How can anyone pull themselves out of such a drowning pool of stuff, and many times all those so called important things consuming every minute are not even necessary.  Further, many of the things that fill those precious seconds are ways to avoid or hide from just “being”.  What is wrong with society to feel guilty sitting still for an hour alone in a contemplative state, relaxing, meditating, or exercising.  Has it got so bad that avoidance of looking at ourselves is too scary, disappointing, and living in denial has become the “norm”? 

I am convinced that people think it is impressive to be over busy and brag about it ad nauseam like some sort of “busy” award should be given.  I hope this ruffles a few feathers and causes people to think about their “busy” in the whole big scheme of life.  I mean what is this so “busy” mentality that good health is kicked to the curb and illness is accepted, and further taking pharmaceuticals to take care of the illness and stress caused by the “busy” and that being accepted.  Can you tell I am on a “soap box” on this subject?  I have worked in the health industry for over 30 years, and am strongly stating that the tiresome laundry list of busy needs a good washing out.  I am not talking about busy that may come from handling a temporary crisis, but years of putting off a healthy lifestyle all for the glorification of meaningless busy.   

The hard truth is that good health does not care about busy, and all those things that are cluttering up our time, creating stress, and keeping us from a healthy lifestyle WILL bring the consequence of illness.  Maybe not today or even tomorrow, but all that procrastination of not taking care of YOU will rear its’ ugly head in the form of illness, obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, joint and spinal issues, depression, and that list can go on and on as well.  It is the blow of illness that can rattle a person and finally cause a wake-up call to adapt a healthy lifestyle. Sadly, and many times at this point, permanent damage to body processes have already taken place, and the person that once was can never be again, to the extent of 100% recovery anyway.  It is at that point that the “things” in life become unimportant as the struggle to become healthy, and the regret of not taking care of oneself surfaces to the forefront of one’s life. 

We are all at a point of being able to prevent or greatly reduce illness, and I am and always will be a very candid health professional with you, my family, and all of my clients.  I can write all this to you and hope that you listen, but this is your journey and your decision.  I fear for those who choose to let this go in one ear and out the other, and if I have reached and shaken the limbs of others to start now to live a healthy lifestyle, then I have accomplished the goal I set out to with this write. 

Thanks for stopping by my Blog, hope you enjoy the content, and if you have not become a follower yet, I would love to see your face on my friend's list.  If you are inspired, LIKE my entry, leave a comment and I look forward to responding!

StayHealthy!

Darla

EPA Review of HIAs in the U.S

THE US EPA has published their review of HIAs in the U.S. Definitely worth reading:

Rhodus J, Fulk F, Autrey B, O’Shea S, Roth A: A Review of Health Impact Assessments in the U.S.: Current State-of-Science, Best Practices, and Areas for Improvement. In. Cincinnati: Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; 2013.

Description

A systematic review was conducted of health impact assessments (HIAs) from the U.S. to obtain a clear picture of how HIAs are being implemented nationally and to identify potential areas for improving the HIA community of practice. The review was focused on HIAs from the four sectors that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program has identified as target areas for empowering communities to move toward more sustainable states. These four sectors are Transportation, Housing/Buildings/ Infrastructure, Land Use, and Waste Management/Site Revitalization. The review systematically documented organizations involved in conducting the HIAs; funding sources; the types of community-level decisions being made; data, tools, and models used; self-identified data needs; methods of stakeholder engagement; pathways and endpoints; characterization of impacts; decision-making outcomes and recommendations; monitoring and follow-up measures; prioritization methods employed; HIA defensibility and effectiveness; attainment of the Minimum Elements of HIA; areas for improvement; and identification of best practices. The results of the HIA reviews were synthesized to identify the state of the HIA practice in the U.S., best practices in HIAs, and areas in the overall HIA process that could benefit from enhanced guidance, strategies, and methods for conducting community-based risk assessments and HIAs. While HIAs have helped to raise awareness and bring health into decisions outside traditional health-related fields, the effectiveness of HIAs in bringing health-related changes to pending decisions in the U.S. varies greatly. The review found that there are considerable disparities in the quality and rigor of HIAs being conducted. This, combined with the lack of monitoring, health impact management, and other follow-up in the HIAs could be limiting the overall utilization and effectiveness of this tool in the U.S.

Purpose/Objective

A review was conducted of 81 Health Impact Asessments (HIAs) from the U.S. to obtain a clear picture of how HIAs are being implemented nationally and to identify potential areas for improving the HIA community of practice. Improving HIAs across the US will lead to better informed decisions at the community level and ultimately to improvement in public health and the environment.