Every Gym’s Nightmare

I’m about ready to make my announcement, but I’m running into some issues getting it posted (not with the announcement itself.) I’ll make it as soon as possible, and then get to all your Q and A’s. I know a lot of you are waiting on some.

Thanks for your patience! It will be worth the wait!

New Healthy Giveaways!!
Goji Gourmet Cookies Giveaway
Valerie Bertinelli Fitness DVD Giveaway

and

P90X Week 1 Recap

www.nataliedee.com

Im 23 today, so Im taking the day off! Back tomorrow with more Q and A’s!

Also, Im an idiot and accidentally deleted all the comments from the previous post. Sorry

Hi Kelly,

Ally

First- congrats on your recovery and doing so well. 8 days may not seem like much to other people, but for a binger, that seems like an eternity.

I can’t give you specific advice, because everyone that suffers from an eating disorder responds to different treatments differently, but what I can do is tell you how I handled food during recovery, and tell that for your specific situation only you are your psychologist are going to be able to figure out whats best for you.

Generally, for bingers and bulimics, strict in terms of food is your friend. Generally, a binge (and purge, if applicable, as in my case) is caused by feeling like you ate too much and “blew it” already, triggering your anxiety. Once that anxiety is triggered and burning in the pit of your stomach and clogging your brain, you do the only thing you know how to make it go away: eat more. That seems stupid to people that dont understand, and even to me now as I am recovered, but food is what bingers use to make them feel good- either numb or calm.

The only way I could explain a binge/purge episode to someone that didnt understand an had it make sense was this:

I would start out eating a normal meal, doing my best to eat healthy. Suddenly, I would feel like I ate too, much and the anxiety would set in. I had that full stomach feeling, which equalled weak and fat, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, obsessing about it, beating myself up, and I could not stop the anxiety, it consumed me. I knew that the only way I could stop thinking about food, was to not want food anymore, so I would eat everything insight until I was so full I couldn’t walk. Right after a binge was the only time I felt calm because i didnt want want food- and every other second of every day I always thought about food. I knew i was going to purge afterward so the calories didnt bother me, so I would sit for about 5 minutes enjoying my clam, and then the fear of digesting the calories sets in and I have to go purge. The calm, or high, whatever you call it, only lasts a few minutes, which is why bulimics binge and purge over and over again, up to 8 times a days.

My counselor made me eat strictly- but under my own terms. I had to keep a food journal, and he gave me a calorie goal and as long as I stayed there and didnt purge, we called it a good day. eventually, we incorporated more healthy foods and slowly upped my intake to not trigger me. The first hurdle is to stop the binges, and the only way to do that is to stop before you get to far which takes more self control than anyone can imagine, but eventually it get easier.

Your counselor and you will come up with strategies to stop binges and eat healthily. You wont have to go it alone, and you will find some thing that will work for you but might not for anyone else. The binges are the first thing to tackle, so dont over obsess about your everyday calories- thats what sends you into a binge episode in the first place.

Good luck!

GIVEAWAYS!
EZ Rider Radio Flyer Scooter
Fluxus Clothing Giveaway!

Check out my P90X Product Overview post, and ask questions! Ill answer them in the following post, with links to your blogs, if you’ve got em.

Also, expect an announcement about probably the most exciting thing to happen to me all year, and how you can get in on it, too!

I have a question (shocker, right?). In my day-to-day life, I get a lot of exercise. I walk everywhere, so probably anywhere between an hour to three hours of walking most days, plus I serve three times a week (so I’m walking around, carrying heavy trays, etc.) and I stretch when I first get out of bed in the mornings, so I’m curious as to whether this all counts towards the exercise that professionals say you should be getting every day. I’m not trying to lose weight (actually right now I’m trying to gain weight) and I’m healthy (normal blood pressure, cholestrol, etc.) so if my day-to-day life gives me enough fitness should I still be heading to the gym?

SarahF

Sadly, no, being active in your everyday life isn’t enough in terms of exercise.

People tend to get caught thinking about exercise as a way to burn calories- and if they are burning those calories through their everyday activity, which is entirely possible to do, that you don;t have to exercise. The truth is, exercise is vital for many different reasons, not just weight.

I myself got trapped in this way of thinking for a while. I used to wear a pedometer constantly to make sure I was walking enough. I would aim for 17,000 steps everyday, which is pretty high, but I would use that goal as a replacement for real cardio, thinking as long as it added up in the end, whats the difference?

There is a big difference. There are certain health benefits you can only get from exercise, which is why its can’t be skipped.

Elevated Heart Rate: Getting your heart rate up is probably the biggest reason to do traditional exercise. Getting your heart rate up will not only burn fat and calories, it increases oxygen production to your muscles and pumps blood through your arteries and veins. Why is this important? It increases your cardiovascular endurance, which trains your heart to beat stronger and last longer. Blood pumping hard through your veins breaks up cholesterol deposits, lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure- which is are huge risks for women. Heart disease is the number one killer of women, and cardiovascular exercise is the best way to prevent that. The harder you push your body, the better it rises to the challenge which it means it learns how to function with less effort- lowering your resting heart rate. The lower your resting heart, the longer it takes for your heart to eventually give out, adding years to your life.

Increased Bone Density: Another huge issue for women is bone density. As we age, our bone density decreases, and the only way to not only hold off the loss, but to improve bone density is through strength training. Usually with our bodies, as in the case of muscles, the more strain you put on them, the more likely you will cause injury (muscle pull or tear.) Bones are special- they stick to the “form follows function” rule, which means the harder you are on them, the stronger they become. If you break a bone, it grows back stronger than before. You need to put pressure on your bones to ensure that they become stronger- either through weight training, or medium-high impact cardio. Of course, be careful as your joints don’t always like to keep up with your bones, but ask any doctor and the number one way to prevent bone loss and osteoporosis is through exercise.

Increased Muscle Size and Strength: Some people are born thin, but no one is born muscular. Aside from giving you a killer frame, building muscle is very important to your health. Some people can develop muscle through incidental exercise, like people that haul heavy boxes all day, or do hard manual labor, but even then, they are not going to strengthen every muscle evenly. Muscle strength will not only prevent injury from day to day, it will also help improve your every day performance. The stronger you are, the easier every day tasks will be, and the more energy you will have.

Weight: There are certain added benefits exercise provides you when it comes to weight loss and keeping a healthy body fat percentage that just every day activity can’t provide. The more muscle you have on your body, and the harder you push your body through intense exercise, the higher your metabolism will become at rest. While indicental exercise will burn some calories, it will do very little to actually change the composition of your body, which will replace fat with muscle.

Long story short- yes, you need to exercise. There is no better way to prevent disease, prolong your life, and change your body composition for the better. Its about your health.

GIVEAWAYS!
EZ Rider Radio Flyer Scooter
Fluxus Clothing Giveaway!

Check out my P90X Product Overview post, and ask questions! Ill answer them in the following post, with links to your blogs, if you’ve got em.

Also, expect an announcement about probably the most exciting thing to happen to me all year, and how you can get in on it, too!

Good Morning Kelly! I have a question for you I’m 30 (omg I can’t believe I said that out loud!) and have three children. I am in pretty good shape, run 5 or 6 mornings, along with some ab workouts, light yoga..and so on. But, I can’t seem to get rid of the “pouch” on my stomach. I am sure you have heard this before..the little belly from having three kids kind of pouch! Do you have any suggestions or workouts that I can try!

Thanks!
Donna

Here’s the deal: if you are talking about loose SKIN, you can’t really do anything about it. Its a skin elasticity issue, and its part of being a mommy and making 3 beautiful kids (i’be never seen them, but Im assuming.) Some extra muscle tone underneath can help tighten the appearance, but won’t bring the spring back. Its a sucky fact of life.

If it is excess fat, you simply need to burn the fat. The only thing that blasts belly fat, or any fat really, is cardio. You need to be doing at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity cardio exercise (elliptical, walking at a fast pace, jogging, bike, spin class, etc) 5-6 days a week. That will get rid of the fat around your middle, and everywhere else. There really isnt a specific workout that will help more than another- you need to up the intensity of your workouts. If you do the 5-6 days of cardio consistently for a few months and still don’t notice a change, then I would look to your diet. Diets high in saturated fat cause people to gain weight around their middle more than anywhere else, so you should be conscious of that as well. Ab and core exercises are of course important, but you can;t show off your muscle tone if you have residual fat covering it up, so cardio, cardio, cardio.

Here is a good list of exercises to try to target your abs.Ab Stuff. ‘Nuff Said.

Don’t miss my first post on my P90X Challenge.

There is also a new giveawaygoing on my other sites:
Ez Rider Radio Flyer Scooter Giveaway!

The first P90X post is up at Twirlit!

I really encourage you to ask any questions you have in the comment section of the article. I’ll answer them in the following week’s post.

I joined a gym 5 weeks ago and have been training with a female trainer 2 days a week, doing 30 minutes weight training sessions. I’m so sick of people in the business saying women can’t get bigger because I am. I told her I don’t want to be any bigger in terms of total size. I want to be smaller but firm! Now, my jeans are so tight in my thighs that I really can’t wear them, even though I see fat loss around my belly and firmness everywhere. What is happening? Is this just not for me? Should I be doing pilates? Is my genetic makeup for getting muscular more easily? I want to give this a fair chance, but I’m so annoyed that my clothes aren’t fitting! It’s very inconvenient to say the least. Any thoughts?
Caroline, Sacramento, CA

You didnt give me the specifics of your routine, so without knowing what you are doing, I can only make general suggestions.

The first thing I would point to is that you aren’t doing enough cardio. I dont know if you are or aren’t, but you should be getting in at least 30 minutes 5 days a week (or an hour 3 days, etc- you can slice it up however you want.) Lifting weights is given too much credit in the calorie burning department, even though yes more muscle burns calories at rest, and you CAN get your heart rate up high enough during weight training that it can count as cardio, but you really have to work at it and basically never let your heart rate drop. You have to burn calories to drop weight (or prevent weight gain), and you have to do cardio in order to do that.

You also might be eating too much. If you have adjusted your intake because of your workouts, primarily to eat more calories, this can be the culprit (especially if not doing cardio.) Again, people overestimate calorie burn, and unless you are burning more than 500 calories a day, you usually don’t need to eat more (this is a general statement for the average exerciser- athletes are different.)

2 days week, 30 minutes of weights is not enough to be gaining enough muscle size. You can be gaining muscle, especially if you weren’t lifting weights prior, but you shouldnt be gaining size- you are gaining strength. If your rep range for your exercises is around 10-15, this is definately true. If you are lifting weights heavy enough that you can only do 6-8 reps, then lighten the weights. Some women are more easily able to get muscular than other women, its a hormone thing, but even for them, they have to be doing a lot more weight lifting than that- thats barely the recommended amount of strength training just to be healthy (medical and fitness professionals recommend 2-3 days of strength training per week.)

Be honest with your trainer- thats what they are there for, and that’s why you are paying them. Tell them you are uncomfortable, and you want answers. Ask why you are doing everything you are doing- and tell them the results you want. Something is missing- my guess is its cardio or food, but they may have you lifting too heavy of weights. Tell your trainer you want to switch it up, try more cardio based exercises (which you can still do while lifting weights- like doing circuits or cutting the weights down real low and doing plyometrics, or full body, fast paced movements with weights to get your heart rate up.) If you arent exercising beyond your two day a week sessions, you really need to be. Get in some cardio, try a pilates class, which developes muscles differently (longer and leaner) or find something else, but you really need to be working out 4-5 days a week.

I know thats a frustrating answer, but I dont know your workout routine- your trainer does. If you dont trust them, or if they cant answer your questions to your satisfaction, or you feel like they dont listen to you- you need to move on from them. Training isnt really a “Im the prfessional, do as I say” type relationship, its a “im here to help you, tell me what you want, Ill do my best to get you there, but we are probably going to have to make some changes along the way.” They should be responsive to that, so if not, again, move on.

I have a ton of work to do today, some of which has to do with yesterday’s entry (!!!) I know a few of you are waiting for your Q and A post, and I’ll start chipping away at them on Monday! Have a great weekend!

…but I can’t yet.

I’ve mentioned it before…

and can give you a few more hints now.

A lot of you have said you want to train with me, and wish you could have the opportunity.

Now, you can…

While spending 7 days in Costa Rica

Hiking

Yoga

Getting Massages

White Water Rafting

Zip Lining (I don’t think that’s actually how you say it)

Wanna find out how? Patience, my friends…..

I like to track my workouts but don’t know of any good online resources that are free. Do you use one?

Thanks!!
-Ashley

I don’t track my workouts, and I don’t really know of any sites to find them for free, either. What do you guys use?

There is a great giveaway going on over at Twirlit, hosted by yours truly, giving away several boxes of Celestial Seasonings new line of green teas, and Sleepytime Vanilla. Make sure you go enter!

And if you have kiddies, I am giving away a free Halloween costume at Kidglue!