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January 15th, 2015 …It’s NOT All About That Scale!
The question I get the most from my members now that I’m half way through the 21 Day Fat Burn Booster is Did you lose any weight? My answer is It is sooo not about the scale weight!
Everyone has a different body composition. Everyone has a an eBMI (enhanced body mass index) that is unique to their physical make-up. For instance, when I am in my Koko fit zone, my eBMI should be 28.9 or less. When I measure others on the fit check machine (which is NOT a scale and does not measure weight) and they have an eBMI of 27.1, I think Wow! They are probably in their fit zone already! Guess what? When I show them their website, it indicates they are a well above what should be THEIR fit zone. So now I tell people when they go home, log onto their own website that Koko provides them to track their fitness, and they will see a dial and Koko will show them where their fit zone is and plus or minus how close they are to it.
So there’s the skinny on the numbers. So, if it’s not scale weight, then what is it we should be focusing on? Easy – how we look, how we fit into our clothes, and how much energy we have (especially at 3pm). For energy, 3pm is a good indicator. That is my time I want to crawl into my easy-chair, curl up under my blanket, and take a 20 minute nap. I do have to say that eating differently and exercising makes a real difference in how I feel at that time – on weekdays. On weekends I do give in to some “chair time” as a reward, but also because I have a lot of things sitting there waiting to be read.
As far as looks go, when I look in the mirror, all dressed for my day, I think: this is MY unique body type. I eat well and exercise and for my age and metabolism, this is how my body should truly look. I am not 5’7″. I will never be a size 5 or 6. I have muscles and a more athletic type body than a model type. This reflection is me and it’s okay. Koko has taught me to stop chasing that image in a magazine and accept the image in the mirror. Once I stopped obsessing about this roll or that bulge, stood up straight, with shoulders back, I became more confident and better able to focus on all the other points of self-care not related to the scale. I buy food and clothes and eat and dress in a manner that makes me feel good.
Which brings me to the part about how clothes fit. Clothes sizes are a nightmare. A size ten in one store is a twelve in another and so on. I don’t worry about sizes anymore. As long as the piece of clothing fits well, not tight and constricting, I buy it. Once again, it’s not in the numbers. When I exercise and eat well, even the clothes I already have fit better and it has nothing to do with my scale weight. As a matter of fact, my scale weight, which gets checked yearly at the doctor’s and sometimes at my dad’s house (he has a real doctor scale), has not changed much in all my years of exercising, but I have changed. Muscles have been developed in places like my legs, making a size 6 jeans no longer possible, but I look just as good in a size 12 and my scale weight has not changed.
Now you might ask What did change? A lot. And none of it has anything to do with how much weight I lost. Proper diet and exercise lead to the building of lean muscle and loss of fat. A pound is a pound. I don’t care if it’s rocks or feathers, but a pound of rocks is going to take up a lot less room than a pound of feathers. So goes it with muscle and fat. A pound of lean muscle is going to take up a lot less room than a pound of fat on my body. Through the proper diet and exercise, fat is being lost and lean muscle is being built pound per pound and no actual scale weight is being lost, resulting in having more energy (your amount of lean muscle determines the speed of your metabolism, which in turn determines your energy level), how you look and how your clothes feel, regardless of what the scale says.
I have one piece of advice out of all this: Remember – the amount of lean muscle you have determines your destiny. You lose up to 10 pounds of it a decade. Guess what you replace it with? Correct! Ten pounds of fat per decade. By age 70 you need a cane just to hold yourself up. So my advice? Get off the scale and get to the gym. Get a good trainer and get on a program to start building that lean muscle. If you live on Cape Cod get to a Koko FitClub (we have 5 of them right here) and see a FitCoach about your customized program today.
And so, as another day goes by, once again I remember my old adage: If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live? And…I have written.
January 13th, 2015 Here I sit on day 10 of the Koko 21 Day Fat Burn Booster Program. What I have I learned so far? I learned to vary my cardio and not get stuck in a rut – but the best thing about that is I learned not to HATE cardio the way I used to. By looking forward to a new program each time, I learned to actually LIKE it. (Notice I didn’t say LOVE. We still have another 11 days to go before I can make that decision.)
I also learned a ton about food. By following the advice of a member who did the program last November I was able to stay on track. She told me her rule was “if it isn’t on that paper, I can’t eat it.” So, other than a few celebratory drinks during the playoff games, I’m pretty much sticking to the food plan. Instead of telling myself, and you, that I hate shopping and cutting and packing, I told myself to stop bitching and just try it. I surprised myself. I limited myself to just 3 breakfasts, one lunch and a few dinners to repeat throughout the week so I wasn’t overwhelmed. I prepared and packed my food all week for work. I am eating real food instead of pre-packaged protein diet food. The result? Just what Michael Wood predicted in the first cardio session – my energy level went through the roof. While I go home pleasantly tired, it’s a far cry from extremely exhausted. I feel better during the day, especially around that 2-3pm slump time. I love having to eat every three hours. For me that keeps my blood sugar level throughout the day and that is the true key to my energy level. Maybe next week I’ll even vary the menu a bit more. (Really – the store is right next door to work – I can do this.)
My goal in doing this program was not to lose weight, although if that happens, it’s not a bad thing. My goal was to push myself to try new things and step outside of my comfort level and have it result in a positive lifestyle change. Sometimes we get so comfortable in our proverbial rut that we hunker down and life begins to lose a bit of it’s luster. Doing something out of the box jump starts not only our metabolism, but our brains. The word challenge take on new meaning and life perks up in the gray light of January.
How about you? If you’re a member in my club, why not jump on the Fat Burn Booster band wagon now? It can be any 21 days you choose. If you’re not a member here, then think about what you can do in these dark days of winter to perk up your life. Even if it is something as simple as reading a type of book you usually don’t read, do it. See where it takes you.
And so, as another January day goes by, winter is a time to incubate growth that will burst forth in the spring, and …I have written.
January 9th, 2015 In the continuing saga of my 21 Day Fat Burn Booster, day 3 was the first elliptical cardio. I am used to the elliptical, but veering off my usual program that I know I can handle, was a bit intimidating. Turns out I loved the program and the strength workout that followed it was just as awesome.
Wednesday was day 4 and it was a rest day. I woke to a house slightly cooler than it normally was in the morning. The temperature on the thermostat was 60 even though the set point temperature was 68. Clearly something was not right and I called the plumber who installed the unit. I had to get coverage at work and leave early to meet him at my house. He worked on the furnace for two hours and then came upstairs to tell me I was better off before he came and now we need to call Cape Cod Gas. You know that sinking feeling you get when you can just feel a situation going downhill? Yup. I was on a slide. He needs to order a new computer board and now I have no heat instead of the little trickle I had before he came. Of course this happens on the coldest night of the year and of course there is nothing he can do that night as the part won't be in until the next day.
THE NEXT DAY? Below zero temps and I'm not going to have heat all night? Then I'll need to take more time off from work to have them come and put the part in? You would think, in this situation, my first thoughts would be how I'm going to stay warm all night, right? Nope. My first thought was THIS is going to mess up my workout schedule. The next day was day 5 and I was now excited about trying the next treadmill workout and couldn't wait to to do the second strength workout, and now, just as I'm beginning to feel the effects of the good food and changed up exercises, I'm going to be relegated to sitting all day in a chair under an electric blanket, not to mention inconveniencing people at work as they try to scramble to cover my club.
Did I care about spending a night and a day in frigid weather with no heat? No. My pipes were luke warm because the water temp in the furnace was 118 degrees and the hot water part worked just fine, so my pipes weren't going to freeze. My biggest problem was missing my workout the next morning.
I settled myself in for the evening under my electric throw, turned the oven on 400 degrees which really warmed up the kitchen/family room, poured a glas of wine and fretted about the fragmented day on the horizon. At bedtime I climbed under a big warm electric blanket and had a thought. Since the part wasn't even coming in until 10 am, I could get up and go right to Koko and get the workout in and be back home easily before ten. After all, the club will be a lot warmer than my house and there's no reason to sit there from 6-10 waiting for the part.
Day 5 was saved. I loved both the treadmill and strength workouts and felt wonderful when I was done. I was less anxious about spending the day in a chair. Nothing is going to get in the way of me staying on track and completing this 21 day program – except maybe the glass of wine – but hey, I think even Michael Wood would have to agree it was a wine moment.
As for the furnace? Well, I sat ALL day and waited for a part that never came until noon and then sat some more waiting until 5:30 for the guy to come put it in, only to find out that it was the WRONG part and I was going have another night without heat. I told the guy I wasn't sitting home again and he can chase the part all day on Friday, but don't come back until 6:30 pm to put it in. My co-workers and family were worried about me, and made me feel loved and cared for, but I was fine. I had power, the pipes were still luke warm, the house was holding temperature at a toasty 45 degrees – even through the extreme outdoor temperatures – and as my husband says, I'm the queen of electric blankets.
And so, as day five goes by, not even a broken furnace in frigid weather drailed my 21 day commitment, and…I have written.
January 7th, 2015 Monday was Day 2 of my 21 Day Fat Burn Booster. Tuesday was rest day. I kind of liked not having to leave the house until 9:15. Maybe this is a hidden reward for doing the program.
Day 1: I had to do the first cardio treadmill program and I was a bit nervous. (I hate cardio and I don't do treadmills.) I put on my workout clothes, shut down the computer (I was working) locked the cabinets and took a deep breath. 5 minutes into the program I was pleasantly surprised to find Michael Wood, the coach in my ear, included settings for all three levels so I could see just how far apart and moderate and intermediate were. His coaching was awesome. He was gentle and made me feel like I didn't have to do everything all at once. He paced me so I could have ample time to warm up and lose my fear. By the time I got to the real work part of the program, I was thinking I could almost do intermediate. (I also didn't feel I hated cardio so much anymore.) After the cardio I was feeling buoyed and was ready to tackle the first strength workout. My excitement was dimmed by the fact that it made me do a strength test since I hadn't had one in 3 weeks. Oh well, I rebounded quickly and gave it my all.
Day 2: Rest day from exercise, but I still have to grapple with the food. Those of you who read this blog regularly know I don't grocery shop or cook and what should this food plan have? You guessed it – recipes and a shopping list. The main reason I want to conquer this is because something has to force me to give up the packaged protein diet and learn to eat real food and do it right. Well, it turns out the dinners are mainly protein and vegetables similar to the protein diet and my husband has that covered, but the rest is up to me. I have to eat things like whole grain waffles and eggs for breakfast instead of a package cereal. I have to have things like carrots and hummus for snack and things like turkey slices and a ton of vegetables in a pita for lunch. And if it's not enough that I have to shop for it and make it, I have to pack it each morning for work instead of just throwing a few packages in my bag. Well now we know where the challenge lies for me these 21 days.
But I was resolute. I vowed not to get anxious or overwhelmed when face with the shopping list. I picked something for lunch, breakfast and snacks for the week and just went to the store next door to the club and bought only what I needed for those meals. After I finished the afternoon snack, I have to admit, I really enjoyed having real food all day.
And so, as days one and two go by, I think I just might survive, and…I have written.
January 4th, 2015 Okay, so I made a simple resolution. Bump up my cardio. According to Michael Wood, I followed his suggestions and I should be able to do this. (But you know I hate cardio.) Michael suggests using Dr. Carr's SCRAM method when crafting a new year resolution: Make a goal that is Specific, Consistent, Reasonable, Attainable, and Measurable.
Bumping up my cardio certainly is all of those things. (I still hate cardio – maybe this resolution will help change that?) I needed to make it measurable, so I decided to try to do cardio six days out of seven. Already I was setting myself up to fail. No way was I going to do it six out of seven days. It's impossible for me to workout on Wednesdays for starters, due to my schedule.
Another reason I was a sure fail is that I pick one elliptical program and stay on it until they take it away from me – only then am I forced to venture on to something new. I would hate doing this six days in a row. Then I had an idea. Koko has a special 21 Day Fat Burn Booster Program, complete with special workouts, and cardio on both the treadmill and the elliptical to go with them, AND it includes a 21 day food plan. This is exactly what I needed. I am good with a calendar. I love checking off days and accomplishing something. Also calendars make me accountable. I can't stand to see a day not checked off, so I will plan my time to make sure I get each day done. The other nice thing about the 21 Day Fat Burn Booster program is that it is not everyday. It has rest days in between to keep me from failing.
I have been a Koko member for over two years now, so it's not like I didn't know this program existed and I could have tried it long before now. Why didn't I? I was scared. I was scared the cardio would be too hard for me, so I never gave it a chance. For some reason I had it in my head that the cardio workouts were all like intermediate and advanced and I was nowhere near ready for that. Then I had the brilliant idea to ask members in my club to do it with me, and of course they had all sorts of questions about it. In order to answer their questions I had to really delve into it. Low and behold what did I find? The Fat Burn Booster Cardios are on the there for EVERY level. I could just stay in my moderate zone and still do the program. That encouraged me. Look at that, will you? I haven't even started and I am encouraged and my fear is lessened already.
Today is day 1. I will blog my days and invite you to come along on my journey. Once again, change and standing on the precipice of something new is exhilarating. I am not so naive as to think this is going to be an easy journey. (I still hate cardio and am afraid of hopping on that treadmill – which I never use – for my first session.) Tomorrow I'll let you know how it went.
And so, as the fourth day of this new year goes by, I stand on cliff and remember that life begins on the edge of your comfort zone, and…I have written.
I only put this up on Friday and two people hopped on board already! Yay! We can support each other! How about you? Wanna try? 🙂
January 1st, 2015
Happy everything. That is my wish for all of you for 2015. I like that word everything. Somehow it's more all-encompassing than the traditional Happy New Year greeting. To me, the luster of the concept of a “new year” begins to wane along about February first. Not my resolutions, mind you. I'm pretty good at meaning what I say, sticking to them and making them happen. It's the “new” part that slowly ebbs away much like the tide in my photo above and as the months go on, the year is no longer new. It's just 2015 and before I know it, Fourth of July is on the horizon. The year is no longer new, but everything I'm thinking about today is still very much there.
I usually pack a lot into my resolutions. I spend time dismantling myself piece by piece, carefully examining each fragment and crafting resolutions about putting myself back together in some improved way. Not this year. This year I feel whole and happy with myself just the way I am. The last four “New Years” have taken me on quite a journey from teaching to retirement. Each year was a breaking down and building back up of will and spirit. This year I want it simple. One resolution. Something totally measurable. Something easy to fail at one day and get up and try again the next. A short list with one item on it. This year I'm just going to make an effort to bump up my cardio at the gym. That's it. No deep thinking. Just get on the damn elliptical for fifteen minutes at least six days a week. Weight training three times a week is no problem. Over my two years at Koko that has become as much a part of my days as brushing my teeth. Why? Because that part is fun. Cardio, for me, is not fun, although I love the feeling of accomplishment I get after put in those fifteen minutes. I admire my members who come into the club and regularly do one cardio before their weight session, and after their weight session go and do one or two more cardios. These people are my heroes. So that's it – very simple – one cardio six times a week.
That might seem like such a little thing. Some would say Linda, where's the challenge in that? When I think of it in fifteen minute sound bites, I agree. It's not much. But when I think of it as blocks of fifteen minutes stacked up over the course of the next year, the multiple effect is huge. Huge in the sense that my heart will gradually grow stronger instead of weaker as I grow another year older. It's those tiny things you do consistently, day to day, that stack up and cause enormous growth and change that translate into your everything, for your whole year – even when the year is no longer new.
And so, as another year goes by, Happy Evertyhing for you this year, and…for the first time in 2015, I have written.
December 24th, 2014 How tranquil will your Christmas be? Thanks to this post I came across a few days ago by Harriet Stack, mine will be very tranquil. Harriet reminds me of three things I have come to learn over the last five years. I loved her post so much and found it such a calming reminder of how I should think today and tomorrow, that I kept it in my email so I could read it everyday. It did me so much good, that I have to share it with you.
Go to: How To Have A Tranquil Christmas and have a truly peaceful two days!
And so, as another Christmas Eve goes by, I'd like to wish all of you a merry and peaceful holiday, and…I have written.
December 21st, 2014 This morning I went to do my usual vacuuming when I spotted tiny black dots all over the floor. I called my husband into the room and the investigation began. The dots were little bugs that appeared to be dead. Husband gets out the magnifying glass and they were moving their tiny legs. The bugs were strewn around the Xmas tree. Oh no. My beautiful little tree was infested with something.
The investigation moved to the tree branches with an iPhone flashlight.
There it is. Right in the middle of the picture. Some kind of wood tick or aphid was living in my tree.
Three days til Xmas and we had to take down our tree. Go back to Home Depot and get our money back. Shop for an artificial tree when there are almost none left. Found one in K-Marts. It's 7.5 feet tall as opposed to my perfect little six footer. Oh well, on December 21 one cannot be too picky. The children are coming for the hoilday week and we need a tree.
We buy the big tree and hurry home. Now comes the extensive spraying and cleaning and steam mopping after removing the old tree. We decided not to take the lights off of it to minimize any more creatures dropping out of it. Husband had a good idea. He said, “Since it has lights on it, let's just put it outside and plug it in.” I was happy with that idea – I loved this little tree and wasn't ready to let it go.
After moving the little tree to its new outdoor home, we unboxed and set up the new one. Two thirds of it was up and I was almost in tears. It was too big and too tall and the top wasn't even on it yet. My husband saw my despair and said, “Hey it's too late to do anything about it this year. Next year we'll donate this one to a family who needs one.” Still glum and teary-eyed, I finished redecorating the new tree.
Oh, I really didn't like it. It was too tall, too wide and too green, but I had to find a way to make this work. The first thing I did was chide myself. Do you remember that Facebook thing you made this morning about your year in review? Do you remember how thankful you felt for your life? Yes. Yes, I did, but my tree is still too big. Then I had an idea. I think what was making it too big and appear to takeover the room was it's positioning. I knelt down, pushed the stand further into the corner. Slid the couch closer and voila! The big tree suddenly fit. It was still too green and a bit too tall, but it was growing on me.
We finished up in time to watch the second half of the Pat's game. I sat back in my chair and snapped a photo of tree number two.
It's tall. It's very green, but when it was placed in its proper spot – just a very minor adjustment – it took it's rightful place in the room. It looks…kind of regal. I like it. Maybe not as much as I loved my little tree, but enough to enjoy it and be thankful for it. (The store shelves were really empty – there was almost going to be no tree at all.)
And so, as another day goes by, I took a breath, stood back, didn't freak out, made a minor adjustment and suddenly all was back in focus and right again. I'm always telling my members at the club when I'm giving them a form tip how one tiny adjustment in their form will make all the difference in the world. So as it is with exercises and Xmas trees, it is also true in life…one minor adjustment puts it all back in focus, and…I have written.
Little bug ridden tree, keeping watch over the lonely fire pit …
December 19th, 2014 Over the course of my 60 plus years I must have gained and lost 20-30 pounds over and over. When I lost those pounds, I never stopped to think about where they went, I was just glad they were gone.
The other day Michael Wood tweeted out an article that piqued my curiosity about that question: Where Does The Fat Go When You Lose Weight? I kind of thought it always just disappeared into thin air. And you know what? I was right. According to this article, you exhale most of the weight you lose.
It turns out your lungs play a major factor in your weight loss. (Aren’t you glad you hit that treadmill a few more times this month?) The article does a great job of explaining the finer details of how our bodies work, but the gist of it is that the triglycerides stored in fat cells have to be broken back down into what they were made up of – namely oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, releasing the carbon to be exhaled as carbon dioxide.
The major point that this drove home for me is that you can’t break down those triglycerides by sitting in your easy chair (my favorite place to be) but unfortunately the most unhealthy place to be. You need movement for those triglycerides to be broken down so they can be exhaled and excreted. And what does that mean to me? It means I need to bump up my cardio.
What do you know, my first New Year’s Resolution just landed in my lap – or, on my laptop, I should say. It never fails, December always presents my goals for the upcoming New Year in one way or another. This one came in the form of a tweet.
And so, as another day goes by, once again knowing the science behind how my body works motivates me to take better care of it, and…I have written.
December 17th, 2014 Hope. It IS a fitting topic for this time of year. Hope is often knitted with the thought that good things will happen in one's future. This morning, Anne Lamott once again graced my newsfeed with just about the best definition of hope I've ever come across. She said:
Hope is not based on circumstances. It is based on paying attention.
Paying attention. Who would've thought. It's not about sitting around and doing a lot of hand-wringing, just looking for something good to happen. It's about taking the time to look around a see what is already happening. Anne's post taught me that I hold hope in my hands everyday. There is hope in the huge bag of Christmas gifts for two little girls that I'm dragging to Organic Market today for the Christmas Wishes program they sponsor for Cape Families. There is hope in the bag of food I place in our food pantry box in my club. There is hope when I reach up and move the press arm for an elderly person who made the effort to get to the club and begin an exercise program, even if they are not as nimble as they used to be. Anne also told me that though I hold hope in my hands everyday, I can't receive hope if I don't give away that which I hold.
A wonderful concept in which to view hope this holiday season. Pay attention today. How many times will you hold hope in your hands and give it away? My daughter Erin is a teacher, and having spent 35 years in a classroom myself, I can just picture her gentle touch on a little one's shoulder today for encouragement. If she pays attention, she will hold and give away a ton of hope in the next 8 hours. Maybe my Boston daughter, Ashley, will let a mother struggling with young children in line in a shop go before her. Maybe my husband will give a sympathetic ear to an employee trying to make ends meet this holiday season or have the need for time off for a family situation. And that's just the hope that could be given away today in my family. When I think of you and all the people in your family, I just imagine the mountain of hope that will be bestowed today. And to see it, all you have to do is pay attention.
And so, as another day goes by, once again I thank Anne Lamott for uncovering the simple truths in our lives, and…I have written.
Hope still sits on my doorstep…
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