Your Body Is Like An Iceberg

When I first started Weight Watchers, I heard a quote that has really stuck with me through the years. I don't remember now if it was a published quote or just something someone said to me once, but I think it's a great reminder of how our bodies work. The quote was more or less, "Your body is like an iceberg. You've got the small part that sticks above the water and the thick part that sinks below the surface. As much as you want to melt that thick part (i.e. hips), the smaller parts will always melt first (i.e. boobs, arms, etc.)."

I think everyone is guilty of wishing that they could lose weight in one particular area and maybe have even tried targeting one area to lose that weight first, for example, doing 100 crunches every day. But, unfortunately, that isn't possible. Our bodies are like the icebergs; the thinnest part of us is always the first to go. And unfortunately, it is often in our boobs!! How unfair is that?

So, how can we get rid of that stubborn belly fat or the jiggly under arms (which I like to call my "bat wings")? We've got to focus on the whole body rather than just that one spot. This goes back to my post on variety. And it includes fitness, but also nutrition. They say abs are built 80% in the kitchen, 20% in the gym... and it's true! In order to get the defined abs you always dreamed of, you've got to get rid of that layer of fat. You do that by watching what you eat, getting rid of the processed foods, the sugar, the hydrogenated ingredients. Instead, fill your body with fresh fruits and veggies, good protein, and yes, even healthy fats! You need them all to get a good balance. You will lose weight, and will be losing fat, not muscle.

Speaking of muscle, you need some of that to help you get rid of that belly or thigh jiggle too. It may seem a bit backwards to lift weights in order to get that toned tummy you're after, but muscle burns fat much more quickly, so the more you have it, the more tools you've got in your tool belt, so to speak, to get the job done. The Mayo Clinic states, "Research shows that 1 lb. of muscle burns seven to 10 calories per day, while 1 lb. of fat burns only 2 to 3 calories, according to the American Council on Exercise."

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/447243-is-it-a-myth-that-muscle-burns-more-calories-than-fat/#ixzz2K53dr2xw

Plus, with eating healthy, you'll be losing that protective layer of fat and you'd prefer to have a nice set of defined abs underneath rather than being thin, but having a squishy set, right? Same goes for thighs or any other area on your body. Building muscle as you lose the fat will give you that slender look you want, but will also create definition, which is much better than soft, squishy bodies. I'm not saying body builder stuff, unless that's what you prefer, but somewhere in the middle is nice!

And if you're like me, having lost a large amount of weight, you may have some excess skin once you're done losing weight. Building muscle helps fill in that gap between where the fat used to take up so much space, and makes your arms look nice instead of the bat wings. I haven't done as well in this respect as I could, but I'm working on it now. Those pushups will help get your chest back looking more full and even perkier too. That's always a plus! : )

So instead of torturing yourself with 100 squats every morning or 200 crunches before bed in hopes of trimming down the booty or tummy fat, stick to a healthy, balanced diet, get in a variety of workouts (cardio, strength training, stretching, and HIIT [high intensity interval training]) and you will lose it where you may feel you don't exactly need to first, but keep it up and your trouble areas will disappear too! Not only that, but you'll feel so much better for having eaten healthy and will be much stronger and fit too! Win/win, I'd say!

P90x Review

When I first started losing weight, I focused on what I was eating first. I didn't actually start any kind of working out until after I had lost about 50 pounds. After that I started walking, then tried jogging briefly, and then I was introduced to P90x.

P90x is a 90 day fitness program sold by Beach Body, a large company that sells both nutritional products and workout programs. They've made quite a name for themselves and many, many people have lost weight using their products. I would say that P90x is not a program that I would recommend for a very beginner. I think I could have done well to start with something a bit less extreme, but I wasn't really all that aware of what was out there, so I jumped right in.

When you buy P90x, you pay $140 and you get 12 DVDs, a nutritional guide, a workout calendar, and access to an online community for support and guidance. The  DVDs include:

*Chest & Back                                          * X Stretch
* Plyometrics                                              * Core Synergistics
* Shoulders & Arms                                   * Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps
* Yoga X                                                   * Back & Biceps
* Legs & Back                                           * Cardio X
* Kenpo X                                                 * Ab Ripper X

You can CLICK HERE for a sample view of each of the discs.

The program follows a concept of muscle confusion, meaning you won't be working the same muscle areas two days in a row. You work one area enough and then let it rest and move on to another area. In this theory, the body never gets accustomed to what is thrown at it, and therefore you won't plateau. It also gives your sore muscles a chance to recover before hitting them hard again. The program lasts a total of 13 weeks. I can definitely guarantee that you will get results if you follow this program. Of course, you need to follow the nutritional side of things too, but the workouts are enough to get major results.

With the discs, you have to watch to make sure that you perform the moves with good form though, or you may end up hurting yourself. The Plyometric DVD can also be hard on your knees if you have bad knees, as it involves jump training. I've never typically had bad knees, but did notice a bit of tenderness when doing the jumping and twisting motions, so you will want to watch that. I think that if I were to try it now, I would have better success though, since I'm at a lighter weight than when I first tried P90x. The jump training does not require any equipment, but many of the DVDs do. In most cases you can get away with most of them with a good set of workout bands. However, if you don't want to do the band version, the program calls for free weights and a pull-up bar.

A great thing about the program is that there is a lot of variety. You will be doing 12 discs over the course of 13 weeks, so it's much favorable to doing the same workout every day, back to back. I can also say that it is fun. I know you don't typically think of working out as fun, and it may not be quite the same as a dance workout or sports, but Tony Horton, the instructor in the DVDs keeps things lively and if you're not grunting from the workout, you'll be giggling. He's a hoot! He can get a bit chatty though, which leads me to another negative for the program. The workouts are typically an hour long, which can be a bit more than most people can fit into their daily schedules. I have found though, that once you get a handle on the workouts, you can fast forward a bit through the instructional part of the DVDs and chop off quite a bit of time. You should never rush a workout, and always should strive for good form, but there's nothing wrong with skipping the "how-to" part of a DVD when you've done it five times.

To sum it up:

Postives

• Full of variety
• Guaranteed to get you results
• You get a lot in the package
• The online community is a great resource
• Tony is an entertaining instructor
• Comes with a 90 Day - Money Back Guarantee

 Negatives

•  A bit expensive
• Workouts run a little long (one hour)
• You will need equipment (free weights or bands, pull up bar or bands)
• Tony can get a bit chatty
• It will make you hurt (but that's a good thing, so should probably be in my positives list!)

Beach Body offers a wide variety of workout programs for people of all fitness levels. In addition to P90x, there is also  P90X2 (more difficult), P90X Plus (more difficult), Power 90 (less difficult). If you're looking for something with dance, they've got Hip Hop Abs. If you want High Intensity Interval Training, they've got Insanity. If you want something to boost your booty, they've got Brazil Butt Lift. I can almost guarantee they have a product for you if you look. I think the programs are a bit expensive, but I've seen the results. They are going to get you where you want to go, if you follow the program. So I give them, and specifically P90x, a thumbs up!

I hope you enjoyed my first product review. I hope to share more as I get into writing more in the blog. Have a great week!

Motivational Monday

When I look for motivation to keep me on track, I find it everywhere. It's in the upbeat music that has me tapping my toes, motivational quotes that make me think about what I really want and deserve, and even inspirational pictures that make me want to push harder to make pictures of my own. Sometimes my motivation comes from family and friends too.

I find that I really start to lose my will power when I go grocery shopping. There are so many bad choices or even just not-great choices out there to tempt you. Yesterday is a great example; my husband and I were out picking up a few things at the grocery store. I told him one of those Cadbury Cream-filled eggs sounded wonderful and I bet him we would be able to find one if we looked. He didn't even hesitate before asking me if I really wanted one more shot of drugs or one more hit of the cigarette. It may seem a bit extreme, but let me tell you that it sure did the trick!

Sugar may not seem as dangerous as illegal drugs such as cocaine or even the legal substances such as alcohol, but several studies have shown that sugar addiction can be just as tough to beat as other, harder substances. So use whatever you have to. Write a message on your hand, put post-its on your fridge, or have a buddy system! Keep your focus and you'll reach your goal!!

Potato and Veggie Stir Fry Recipe

I'm going to try to post a recipe or two each week as I get into writing more. Some of them will be recipes that I've come up with and some will be recipes that I've gotten from some of the great blogs and webpages that I like to follow. I have to admit that I don't typically follow a recipe when I cook, but instead end up "guestimating" the amounts and maybe increasing or decreasing them. For example, I LOVE onions so any recipe that calls for 1/2 of an onion will end up getting an entire onion in it. I just figure you can't go wrong with more onion! For the sake of the blog, I'll try to keep track of the amounts I use in case any of you would like to try them out yourself.

For today, I'd like to share one of my main go-to side dishes for a lot of meals. As I've gotten a better grasp on eating clean, I've resorted to a few staple meals and side dishes and have been branching out and getting more creative as I go. So when I don't have a lot of time and don't feel like being too terribly creative, I make my potato/veggie stir fry side dish.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium potatoes (diced, can peel first or leave skin on)

• 1 medium onion (diced)

• 1 (16 oz) bag of frozen vegetable stir fry (I use Great Value brand, but any will do)

• 1/4 cup chopped cheese of your choice (go for the good cheese, with just a few ingredients)
•  Coconut or Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Italian Seasoning to taste
• Onion Powder to taste

Directions:

• Heat up a pan with a little bit of olive oil or coconut oil
• Add the onions and potatoes
• Cover and cook for about 15 minutes or until mostly cooked, stirring occasionally
• Add frozen vegetables
• Cook another 10 minutes or until everything has cooked through and is soft, stirring occasionally
• Add cheese and cook 2 minutes or until it has melted

* May need to add more oil as you cook
* Again, I haven't measured the spices I use while I'm cooking, so you can feel free to play around there
* Serves 2 - 3 (we like big servings)

Typically, I pair this stir fry with a piece of chicken or pork chops and then make a salad on the side. The meat serving is usually 3 - 4 oz (or about the size and thickness of your palm) and the potato/veggie stir fry will take up most of the plate. It is delicious, full of different vegetables, will leave you full, and you can save the leftovers for breakfast the next morning!

I'm always open to suggestions or comments if anyone finds a yummy substitute or can recommend another recipe, so feel free to share!

Friday Weigh In

Fridays are my weigh in days. I'm a bit out of schedule posting this on a Saturday, but I'll get back on track next week!

I've found a really cool website that allows you to join in with friends and family, or even strangers, to create weight loss challengers. The cool thing about it is that you can keep track of your weight, but nobody else can see how much you weigh. All you have to do is sign up (it's free!), create or join a challenge, and put in your info! You can set the challenges to last any number of weeks that you choose and you can also decide which day you'd like to be your weigh in day. There's even an option to have them email you to remind you about your weigh in day. At the bottom of the page is a discussion board for members who want to share motivational words or maybe brag about their weekly losses!

As I said above, nobody else can see your weight. You enter your starting weight, your goal weight, and each week you enter your current weight, but the website converts the numbers to percentages. So all everyone else will see is the % of weight that you want to lose from your total body weight and each week it will report how much weight you lost (in %). It will keep track of each week's loss (or gain) and then keep a total running and arrange the members from top to bottom in order of highest % lost. So it's nice also because you don't have to lose the challenge simply because you have less weight to lose than another person. You can win based on percentage of weight lost per your total starting body weight. It's great!

So what is this website called?

www.thintopia.com

So, I started this year off at a weight of 197.4. Since then, I lost about ten pounds, but then had a slip up and gained it all back, plus some. My weigh in today is my first weigh in back on track since that slip up. I weighed in at 196.5 so I'm slightly under what I was at the beginning of the year, but still higher than I could have been had I not gotten off course. Tomorrow I'll talk about "treating ourselves" and whether it's worth it or not. I hope everyone has a good weigh in and have a good weekend!

Escali Glass Square Digital Bathroom Scale