Sunday, January 27, 2013
An Inspiring Fitness Story - What's Yours?
Saturday, January 26, 2013
New Year, Attempting a New Me
Peace and Blessings,
My name is Tiffany and I am a on-and-off dieter. At the end of each year, I look back and say it's time for a change. Well, 2012 was no different, except I had a lot more avenues for support in the area of healthy living. All of a sudden I had Facebook groups and connections on LinkedIn buzzing about healthy living. I thought, Great, this is my time!!! And I am claiming, This is it. So here is my lil' introduction on my journey.
My name is Tiffany and I am a on-and-off dieter. At the end of each year, I look back and say it's time for a change. Well, 2012 was no different, except I had a lot more avenues for support in the area of healthy living. All of a sudden I had Facebook groups and connections on LinkedIn buzzing about healthy living. I thought, Great, this is my time!!! And I am claiming, This is it. So here is my lil' introduction on my journey.
I am more than 100 pounds overweight and very tired of carrying all this stuff around, so I'm guessing with this umteenth' try, and I plan on doing things a little differently. I have always been told that if you write out your journey you have a better chance at succeeding at your goals and this is my journey with the help of +Cindy Barrymore and Herbalife.
Just a little background on me, I have been dieting off and on since high school. When I look back at my pictures I now know I was tripping:
Please don't hate on the 90s' style!
Back then, I was on the cabbage soup and "surgery diet." I also tried Atkins diet, which I hated the most out of all the ones I have tried. But I would lose the 5 to 10 pounds per week, then go back to my same old eating habits. I was thankful for gym class because I had the opportunity to workout daily, which is the only reason I didn't look like I do now. Whew!
Back then, I was on the cabbage soup and "surgery diet." I also tried Atkins diet, which I hated the most out of all the ones I have tried. But I would lose the 5 to 10 pounds per week, then go back to my same old eating habits. I was thankful for gym class because I had the opportunity to workout daily, which is the only reason I didn't look like I do now. Whew!
In 2002, after college graduation and really hating my size, my cousins encouraged me to try the Herballife diet, which was great and had wonderful success with my daily visits to Crunch Gym that I miss dearly. That gym was the bomb and so encouraging. I hate they left the Chicago area.
*Tip - Make sure you join a gym that fits your needs, not just your pockets. A variety of classes and helpful staff will make a huge difference in you wanting to go to the gym on a daily basis.
 |
College Years :(
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But I worked out four to five days a week, sometimes twice a day and lost 25 pounds in two months!!!
Yay for me. But as it always goes... the weight came right back.
Quickly moving to today, my goal is to lose 45 pounds by June 2013. I am now back working with Herbalife armed with knowledge, Coach +Cindy Barrymore and a membership to XSport Fitness. It's an ok gym, but they do have some great classes and I love my trainer, who is very encouraging and doesn't let me boss him around which I appreciate.
Well, this is my story and I'm ready for this change. I've been successful in the past and know it will work going forward.
If you are dieting, here are some good sites I use to help me come up with some different dishes and other sites I use while dieting:
Meal Planning:
- Real Simple - They are sooo easy to search and find good healthy veggie meals
- Fat Secret - All-around great site for anything.
- The Realistic Nutritionist - great recipes that are healthy and good.
Diet Research:
Fitness Program:
- MyFitnesspal.com - Wonderful site to track food from your phone and also has a group feature for you and your friends to encourage each other.
- Fitclick.com - website and app. I use this to find routines when I need to change it up.
- Cardio Trainer - wonderful android app to help you track food, workout and help you during your workout with a program.
- MyJEFIT - an app I use to track my weight training
Do you have have any sites you use or apps that have helped you? Please share. I love finding new resources.
My goal is to update you once a week on my progress. Now, off to the healthy living race.......
With Power & Encouragement,
Tiff
This fat ‘gots’ to go: I'm too cute for it!!!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Poll question correction
The question should read:
What's your favorite exercise or piece of equipment?
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Great Shakes (and not of the delicious McDonald's persuasion either....)
Right now, I'm drinking a couple different kind of shakes from Herbalife, their protein and healthy-meal in vanilla. Of all the flavors, vanilla is the most neutral in that it mixes well with other flavored products besides dairy.
They are delicious, but not quite as yummy as the nicely fat-infused shakes that McDonald's vanilla shake, a full 530 calories, according to the company's website. Fat is delicious.Although the body requires fat, certain types of fat are not good for our bodies.
Wouldn't that be something if fitness shakes were that good? On their own and not wrapped around a recipe? They're great, but in a healthy way. And I'm customizing them as I go along.
The trouble with the McDonald's shakes (or any of the fast-food restaurant shakes) is if there aren't as many essential vitamins and nutrients, in fact hardly any. So that if you're on, let's say, a 1,500-calorie "healthy" diet (for a female), and you eat three full meals or five small meals throughout the day, where does that leave you when consuming the remaining calories: Well, for starters, 1,000 calories spread throughout the rest of the meals that day.
The Master Your Metabolism Calorie Counter By Michaels, Jillian/ Van A (Google Affiliate Ad)
And you see when you're trying to eat better that that shake has to serve as one meal, albeit an unhealthy one as far as steady nutrients go. I'm assuming in this scenario that you're cheating and enjoying a guilty pleasure.
Regardless, the rest of your meals have to be nutritious so that, again, you're getting your recommended allowance of essential vitamins and minerals, which differs among men, women and children.
Most good fitness shakes I've encountered (in addition to those from Herbalife) are not only lesser calories (about 200 when consumed with milk or natural juice), but they're strong on nutrients. Herbalife boasts about 22 essentials. So that you're not enjoying an empty meal. Depending on what fitness goal you're striving for, some fitness buffs I've run into look for shakes with more elevated levels of protein for muscle promotion, as well as in their daily meals. Right now, I opt for no more than about 125 grams a day. Man or woman, bodybuilding requires more protein than other fitness activities, such as when dieting.
Lately, I've grown tired of mixing my shakes with milk, so I've started mixing them with Naked juices. I can't speak for how they taste with shake flavors other than vanilla. Also, shaking the mixture or tossing it in a blender are much better than stirring, which no matter how vigorously you churn never gets all the powder lumps out.
They are delicious, but not quite as yummy as the nicely fat-infused shakes that McDonald's vanilla shake, a full 530 calories, according to the company's website. Fat is delicious.Although the body requires fat, certain types of fat are not good for our bodies.
Wouldn't that be something if fitness shakes were that good? On their own and not wrapped around a recipe? They're great, but in a healthy way. And I'm customizing them as I go along.
The trouble with the McDonald's shakes (or any of the fast-food restaurant shakes) is if there aren't as many essential vitamins and nutrients, in fact hardly any. So that if you're on, let's say, a 1,500-calorie "healthy" diet (for a female), and you eat three full meals or five small meals throughout the day, where does that leave you when consuming the remaining calories: Well, for starters, 1,000 calories spread throughout the rest of the meals that day.
The Master Your Metabolism Calorie Counter By Michaels, Jillian/ Van A (Google Affiliate Ad)
And you see when you're trying to eat better that that shake has to serve as one meal, albeit an unhealthy one as far as steady nutrients go. I'm assuming in this scenario that you're cheating and enjoying a guilty pleasure.
Regardless, the rest of your meals have to be nutritious so that, again, you're getting your recommended allowance of essential vitamins and minerals, which differs among men, women and children.
Lately, I've grown tired of mixing my shakes with milk, so I've started mixing them with Naked juices. I can't speak for how they taste with shake flavors other than vanilla. Also, shaking the mixture or tossing it in a blender are much better than stirring, which no matter how vigorously you churn never gets all the powder lumps out.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
My Fitness Regimen
Right after my grandfather passed away, I decided to get serious about my own health. I'm healthy, but I want to eat and feel better.
Since I don't have a chef (yet) like Oprah, one of my biggest battles is finding time to cook for me and my family. I've never been domestic to begin with because I'm more of a scholar (read: professional student) and (I'm told) an overachiever so time is especially valuable. There are so many things keep me from the kitchen that I had figure out a way to eat better.
I eat out every day, so I can count on eating from the following restaurants:
When I do eat at McDonald's, it's usually an Angus burger (rather than their lesser cuts of beef), a salad, or fish sandwich.
I'm not a vegetarian (and certainly not vegan), as you see, but my consumption of red meat has decreased in the last 10 years. I attribute it a little bit to an interview I had with Karyn Calabrese while writing for the Chicago Tribune. She challenged me to stop eating red meat as a precursor to attempting veganism. I cleared myself of red meat for about three months. I lost my craving somewhat during that time. When I returned to it, I recall purchasing some chili from Wendy's and it made me sick. I couldn't finish the whole container.
I won't say that as I gradually began my return to meat that I lost my desire to eat it entirely, but the compulsion is less. And I now eat better leaner cuts of steak and hamburger a few times a month so that my Vitamin E intake doesn't drop.
I don't drink, smoke, or take aspirin for pain. I've been on a homeopathic kick for about 10 years. Any pain, which is rare, I work through. Right now, my vitamin regimen consists of Herbalife products:
My uncle sells Kyani products, so I also drink Sunrise to boost my fruit intake even more, along following with my Herbalife program. I'm not a huge calorie counter, but I shoot for consuming no more than 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day. Some weeks I'm active at the gym every day. Most times, I hit it three times a week while performing some of my yoga and Pilates at home.
PILATES FOR EVERY BODY BY AUSTIN,DENISE (DVD) (Google Affiliate Ad)
Certainly, I can't speak for anyone else's experience, but since September 2012 to now, I've gone from 23% body fat to between 17% and 18%. My skin looks better and my energy boost enables me to be an "over-overachiever." I work and go to school about 75 hours a week.
My goal to reach 13% is steady but more work than I thought, given my athletic past. I thought I'd have an easier time.
But then I wasn't as calculating in my fitness back then as I am now. Back then, I just trained and at some point my coach measured me and there I was at about 14%. Oh, to be young and spry.
The minimum percentage an athletic woman should reach is 10% to 12%. But I don't want to get there due to the increase in vascularity.
Since I don't have a chef (yet) like Oprah, one of my biggest battles is finding time to cook for me and my family. I've never been domestic to begin with because I'm more of a scholar (read: professional student) and (I'm told) an overachiever so time is especially valuable. There are so many things keep me from the kitchen that I had figure out a way to eat better.
I eat out every day, so I can count on eating from the following restaurants:
- Subway
- Jimmy John's
- Panera Bread
- Potbelly's
- Corner Bakery
When I do eat at McDonald's, it's usually an Angus burger (rather than their lesser cuts of beef), a salad, or fish sandwich.
I'm not a vegetarian (and certainly not vegan), as you see, but my consumption of red meat has decreased in the last 10 years. I attribute it a little bit to an interview I had with Karyn Calabrese while writing for the Chicago Tribune. She challenged me to stop eating red meat as a precursor to attempting veganism. I cleared myself of red meat for about three months. I lost my craving somewhat during that time. When I returned to it, I recall purchasing some chili from Wendy's and it made me sick. I couldn't finish the whole container.
I won't say that as I gradually began my return to meat that I lost my desire to eat it entirely, but the compulsion is less. And I now eat better leaner cuts of steak and hamburger a few times a month so that my Vitamin E intake doesn't drop.
I don't drink, smoke, or take aspirin for pain. I've been on a homeopathic kick for about 10 years. Any pain, which is rare, I work through. Right now, my vitamin regimen consists of Herbalife products:
- Healthy Meal twice a day
- Personalized Protein Powder
- Protein Drink Mix - sometimes drank alone; with 2% milk or natural and fresh-squeezed fruit juice; or mixed with Healthy Meal and protein powder to boost my protein, especially after a vigorous workout. Right now, I'm trying it different ways to see what works and what I like best
- Formula 2 Multivitamin Mineral Complex
- Garden 7 - when taken up as directed provides the daily allowance of up to seven servings of fruits and vegetables
My uncle sells Kyani products, so I also drink Sunrise to boost my fruit intake even more, along following with my Herbalife program. I'm not a huge calorie counter, but I shoot for consuming no more than 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day. Some weeks I'm active at the gym every day. Most times, I hit it three times a week while performing some of my yoga and Pilates at home.
PILATES FOR EVERY BODY BY AUSTIN,DENISE (DVD) (Google Affiliate Ad)
Certainly, I can't speak for anyone else's experience, but since September 2012 to now, I've gone from 23% body fat to between 17% and 18%. My skin looks better and my energy boost enables me to be an "over-overachiever." I work and go to school about 75 hours a week.
My goal to reach 13% is steady but more work than I thought, given my athletic past. I thought I'd have an easier time.
But then I wasn't as calculating in my fitness back then as I am now. Back then, I just trained and at some point my coach measured me and there I was at about 14%. Oh, to be young and spry.
The minimum percentage an athletic woman should reach is 10% to 12%. But I don't want to get there due to the increase in vascularity.
Why This Blog?
People are born and die every day. So my grandfather's death last January, two weeks shy of his 93rd birthday, was of course no anomaly in the grander scheme, especially for his advanced age. Sure, I'm saddened by his death. But I take solace in that he lived the way he wanted. How many of us can say that.
Maybe he didn't do everything the doctors told him, but he did what he thought was right for himself: and that was to live life to the fullest so that when he died, he was exhausted. And when you've reached a certain age and see that whatever you're doing is working, it's hard to tell a person what to do and have them listen.
What saddens me most are the possibilities: What if?
Like, What if he'd obeyed his doctors and ate well and stopped drinking? Could he have lived a longer? Maybe. But he wouldn't have been as happy. Those forms of debauchery made him happy.
I'm sure he wasn't alone in his philosophy. There are plenty of people in the world wanting to just live and not worry about such "minute" activities as calorie counting or eating "rabbit" food. To some degree, many others of us are that way. I recalled reading how even though the runner Jim Fixx died at a tender age doctors speculated that he lived as long as he did because he ran.
Anyhow, my grandfather had stopped smoking several years ago after witnessing an army buddy on his deathbed who'd earned a tracheotomy for all his years of puffing away. That scared my grandfather enough that he quit smoking that day and never returned to it. But those other vices (i.e., eating fattening foods and sipping rot gut), he just couldn't or didn't want to give them up.
I understand: Sometimes I also would rather have a fat juicy steak than a salad.
But had he disciplined himself, how long might he have lived. (That's a question for all of us.) I mean he'd defied the odds before, getting open-heart surgery in his 80s and fully recuperating to live well past the time the heart valves were supposed to give out.
So it is within the spirit of his resilience that I start this blog and my own quest for healthful longevity, to which I gladly bring others along. Also, my maternal grandmother is obese, so if I can encourage her become more active and lose about 20 pounds, I can live (and die) happier. Certainly, if I can get her to lose weight, there isn't any mountain I can't move!
I've been an athlete for most of my life, so I've never had a weight problem. Even when I stopped working out diligently to help care for my grandfather in his last few years of life, I didn't gain much weight. I guess, before he became ill, I wore an double 0. Now, I'm a size 0 in most articles of clothing.
I say this with a grain of salt because I know others don't have it so easy, and I never want to be insensitive to them because through learning so much about health and to some degree food addiction, sometimes it isn't just mind over matter.
Because I raced in swimming as a kid, I have a swimmer's body, very broad shoulders in comparison to my tapered waist. Being a gymnast and ballerina also gave me well-developed quadriceps and calves, which I've maintained fairly well.
The funny thing is is I never ate the healthiest foods. I also recall reading that Olympian Florence Griffith-Joyner was thinking of retiring from running because her training regimen was so restricted in terms of the "fun" foods she wasn't allowed to eat, as well as the actual physicality of what she had to put her body through to remain a world-class athlete.
Which brings me to this blog and my own "What if" question: What if I were more disciplined in how I ate and worked out. Many of us are athletes, but what separates us from the couch potato and the world-class athlete. What am I willing to give up to help others who don't have metabolism I do? What am I willing to give up to be a healthier version of myself?
I hope you ask yourself similar questions, no matter what your level of fitness. Even if the question is never asked, does it not show up in how we look and feel?
Believe me. I have my eating struggles.... As of September 1, 2012, I'd decided to finally battle them head on.
According to most weight analyses, I'm considered fit, but my goal as I start to help and coach others is to reach my ideal physique of 13% body fat—pretty close to my personal best of around 14% when I trained as a teen. To provide some perspective, I've read that Jillian Michaels is about 13%.
I just calipered myself yesterday and found that (since starting my regimen in September 2012) I fluctuate between 17% and 18%.
Fowler FOW74-554-630 6in. Outside Digital Caliper (Google Affiliate Ad)
I rely mostly on horseback riding, some running and swimming, and yoga mixed with Pilates to keep fit. But it looks like I need to step up my pace to incorporate more cardio workouts.
Pushing myself harder isn't that much more difficult than when I was younger. But getting the results I want is.
What I want to do with this blog is not write so much about myself but more about some of the health issues, good and bad, that I and my team members encounter. By "team" I mean folks at my health club and on the running teams I belong to.
I also welcome your comments.
Plus, I'm always on social media getting ideas. Just yesterday I got a couple great sites that friends like to visit. One of my friends from LinkedIn also suggested The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight cookbook, which I'd never heard of (but have added to my favorite books list). I learned it's also a TV show in United Kingdom. I also have a few bodybuilding books that I've read that I'll be adding in a few days.
As I said, you guys are also welcome to suggest topics for discussion, as well as resources you've found valuable within your own fitness journey. Please also share your fitness journey online of offline (if you prefer) or anything interesting about fitness and nutrition.
Here's to your health and mine!
Maybe he didn't do everything the doctors told him, but he did what he thought was right for himself: and that was to live life to the fullest so that when he died, he was exhausted. And when you've reached a certain age and see that whatever you're doing is working, it's hard to tell a person what to do and have them listen.
What saddens me most are the possibilities: What if?
Like, What if he'd obeyed his doctors and ate well and stopped drinking? Could he have lived a longer? Maybe. But he wouldn't have been as happy. Those forms of debauchery made him happy.
I'm sure he wasn't alone in his philosophy. There are plenty of people in the world wanting to just live and not worry about such "minute" activities as calorie counting or eating "rabbit" food. To some degree, many others of us are that way. I recalled reading how even though the runner Jim Fixx died at a tender age doctors speculated that he lived as long as he did because he ran.
Anyhow, my grandfather had stopped smoking several years ago after witnessing an army buddy on his deathbed who'd earned a tracheotomy for all his years of puffing away. That scared my grandfather enough that he quit smoking that day and never returned to it. But those other vices (i.e., eating fattening foods and sipping rot gut), he just couldn't or didn't want to give them up.
I understand: Sometimes I also would rather have a fat juicy steak than a salad.
But had he disciplined himself, how long might he have lived. (That's a question for all of us.) I mean he'd defied the odds before, getting open-heart surgery in his 80s and fully recuperating to live well past the time the heart valves were supposed to give out.
So it is within the spirit of his resilience that I start this blog and my own quest for healthful longevity, to which I gladly bring others along. Also, my maternal grandmother is obese, so if I can encourage her become more active and lose about 20 pounds, I can live (and die) happier. Certainly, if I can get her to lose weight, there isn't any mountain I can't move!
I've been an athlete for most of my life, so I've never had a weight problem. Even when I stopped working out diligently to help care for my grandfather in his last few years of life, I didn't gain much weight. I guess, before he became ill, I wore an double 0. Now, I'm a size 0 in most articles of clothing.
I say this with a grain of salt because I know others don't have it so easy, and I never want to be insensitive to them because through learning so much about health and to some degree food addiction, sometimes it isn't just mind over matter.
Because I raced in swimming as a kid, I have a swimmer's body, very broad shoulders in comparison to my tapered waist. Being a gymnast and ballerina also gave me well-developed quadriceps and calves, which I've maintained fairly well.
The funny thing is is I never ate the healthiest foods. I also recall reading that Olympian Florence Griffith-Joyner was thinking of retiring from running because her training regimen was so restricted in terms of the "fun" foods she wasn't allowed to eat, as well as the actual physicality of what she had to put her body through to remain a world-class athlete.
Which brings me to this blog and my own "What if" question: What if I were more disciplined in how I ate and worked out. Many of us are athletes, but what separates us from the couch potato and the world-class athlete. What am I willing to give up to help others who don't have metabolism I do? What am I willing to give up to be a healthier version of myself?
I hope you ask yourself similar questions, no matter what your level of fitness. Even if the question is never asked, does it not show up in how we look and feel?
Believe me. I have my eating struggles.... As of September 1, 2012, I'd decided to finally battle them head on.
According to most weight analyses, I'm considered fit, but my goal as I start to help and coach others is to reach my ideal physique of 13% body fat—pretty close to my personal best of around 14% when I trained as a teen. To provide some perspective, I've read that Jillian Michaels is about 13%.
I just calipered myself yesterday and found that (since starting my regimen in September 2012) I fluctuate between 17% and 18%.
Fowler FOW74-554-630 6in. Outside Digital Caliper (Google Affiliate Ad)
I rely mostly on horseback riding, some running and swimming, and yoga mixed with Pilates to keep fit. But it looks like I need to step up my pace to incorporate more cardio workouts.
Pushing myself harder isn't that much more difficult than when I was younger. But getting the results I want is.
What I want to do with this blog is not write so much about myself but more about some of the health issues, good and bad, that I and my team members encounter. By "team" I mean folks at my health club and on the running teams I belong to.
I also welcome your comments.
Plus, I'm always on social media getting ideas. Just yesterday I got a couple great sites that friends like to visit. One of my friends from LinkedIn also suggested The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight cookbook, which I'd never heard of (but have added to my favorite books list). I learned it's also a TV show in United Kingdom. I also have a few bodybuilding books that I've read that I'll be adding in a few days.
As I said, you guys are also welcome to suggest topics for discussion, as well as resources you've found valuable within your own fitness journey. Please also share your fitness journey online of offline (if you prefer) or anything interesting about fitness and nutrition.
Here's to your health and mine!
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