No Equipment Necessary

The September Challenge makes it very easy to get in your workouts just about everywhere. All of the exercises this month are designed with your own bodyweight. YOU are the perfect gym! Each week there are different challenges, so you can time yourself if you want to to see if you can get a better time by the end of the week (remember, don't sacrifice your form). I have incorporated rest days into the schedule, these are great days to practice yoga, meditation, or prepare meals ahead of time for the next day.

August Challenge

Do you ever really think about the food you put into your mouth? During the month of August, I challenge all of you to keep a record of everything that goes into your mouth for the next 31 days. At the end of each week take a moment and a RED pen and review everything you have written down. Circle anything that you need to eliminate from your diet (pop, diet pop, beer, wine, cigarettes, candy, fried foods, butter, processed foods, etc.) and try not to consume that the remainder of the month. You might be surprised by how much sugar you consume, or how many cigarettes you smoke on a daily basis. 

Try to replace white rice with brown rice, white potatoes with sweet potatoes, whole milk with skim milk. Ask yourself these questions: Are you eating enough whole grains? Are you eating enough vegetables? Are you eating small meals every three hours? What do your portion sizes look like? Do you skip breakfast and have a huge dinner? How big are your dinner plates? How many times do you chew your food before you swallow it? Do you chew? OK, that last one was suppose to be funny, but on a serious note...slow down! Enjoy your food and get in the habit of setting your fork down between bites. 

Try to identify patterns or feelings that might steer you into eating certain foods, or activities that may lead you to drink or smoking at certain times of the days. 

Here are some links you might find useful to get started: 

EXAMPLE FOOD LOG

HOW TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU EAT

Don't get caught up in the latest "diet". It is important to eat 5-6 small meals everyday spaced out about every 3 hours. Everyone has different dietary needs and if you have concerns, you should consult with someone who has a degree in Nutrition (www.personaltrainerforhire.com) who can help you with the correct portion sizes based on your goals and activity levels. 

A simple thing to keep in mind is if it comes in a box don't eat it. If it has an expiration date, you don't need it. 

The next part of the challenge is to work on your cardio during the month increasing the frequency and intensity each week. The fourth week, you will choose an alternate form of cardio to do once a day for twenty minutes, something that challenges you or that you do not do very often or did not do the first three weeks of the month. For me, it might be jumping rope for a full 20 minutes or running, because I usually ride the bike for the majority of my cardio work. 

Good Luck!

Eating is a key component in addition to training.

Eating is just as important as a good training session, they go hand in hand. You will not achieve the results you are looking for if you only eat well, or only train hard. You need to eat regularly and you need to eat complete meals. Your body was not designed to survive only on liquid diets just as it was not designed to survive by eliminating carbohydrates from your diet. Regular eating, knowing your serving sizes and eating clean are important when adopting a healthy eating plan.

When I trained for my body building competitions, I had to change up my eating habits in a big way. I was eating Burger King Chicken sandwiches, french fries and drinking Root beer like it was going out of style.  I thought that because I was working out to the latest fitness video, rollerblading and riding my bike 12+ miles a day with 3 small children and a dog in tow I had a license to eat as I wanted. While I was in my late 20's during this time, running around raising a family I had no idea what healthy eating really looked like.

When I decided to commit myself to a healthy lifestyle, I did it and while it had some challenges, I did not let anything stop me. There was no more fast food, no more ice cream, no more pop. I cut it all out when I decided to do my first competition. I began eating every 3 hours and spent time measuring my foods, journaling and preparing food for the days ahead. Immediately I noticed a big change in the way I felt and I like it. Here is what a typical day looked like for me when I was training and eating during that first 12 weeks leading up to my first show (I found one of  my journal sheets) :

3:30am 1/4 cup dry oatmeal with water and 1/2 small banana; 2 egg whites scrambled with 1 cup wilted spinach
4:00am 1.5 liters of water
4:30am go to gym and train: 20 minutes of cardio with sprints on the bike and weight training for 1 hour
6:30am 3 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup wild rice, 1 cup mixed vegetables 
7:00am 1.5 liters of water
8:30am 20 minutes of cardio and 1 hour of weight training
9:45am  3 cups spinach with 3 hard boiled eggs and only 1 yolk, beets, chick peas, cucumbers, bean sprouts, peas
10:00am 1.5 liters of water
12:45pm 3 cups of spinach with 3 oz of chicken, 1 cup steamed broccoli & cauliflower
4:45pm 3 oz of canned white tuna stuffed in a tomato 
5:00pm 1.5 liter of water
6:30pm 20 minutes of cardio on the bike
7:45pm 3 cups of spinach salad with 3 oz. of canned white tuna, 1 cup steamed asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers
8:00pm 1.5 liters of water
10:00pm bed

For me, that was a typical day of eating during my training. It wasn't too difficult to adjust to, and I didn't miss any of the fast food or pop. In fact, after my first competition, I tried to drink a root beer and it tasted like syrup, I couldn't do it and never again went back to drinking pop or eating Burger King. I can't even tolerate milk chocolate, if I want chocolate it has to be dark chocolate; the milk is just too sweet for me. 

Here is what I ate yesterday:

6:15am 8 oz. Water

7:45am cardio & Workout 

8:45am 2 eggs plus 1 white; 1/2 whole grain toast dry, 1/2 cup orange juice;

9am Black  coffee 9:00 am

11:15am Black coffee 11:15am

11:30 8 oz. Water

11:45  1/2 chicken sausage, 1 cup mixed broccoli, beans and while grain rice

NOON  16 oz. Water

1:30pm 6 whole grain crackers, licorice & 8 oz. water 

3:00pm 1 egg plus 1 white mixed with 3/4 cup wild rice, broccoli and beans

4:20pm black coffee

5:10pm 8 oz. water

5:15pm cardio & monthly challenge

7:00pm 8 oz. water

8:00pm 3 oz venison with 1/2 oz of shredded cheese, 1 cup yellow cherry tomatoes & 1/2 Roma tomato 

8:30pm 4 oz. glass dry red wine

10:00pm bed

Yesterday could have been a little better. Notice anything? No salads at all and I've taken up drinking black coffee too. I didn't drink nearly as much water as I did back then either. And while this may not have been the best example to use, I didn't want to "plan" something to post.

Do you journal what you eat and drink and how you train during the day? If not, grab a notebook and start. Journaling makes a great tool to use to look back and see where you can make improvements and sheds light on what you may or may not be eating on a regular basis. Research has shown that people who journal on a regular basis lose more weight and keep it off than those who don't. What do you have to lose by keeping track of what goes into your mouth?

In fact, this gives me a great idea for the August monthly challenge. Maybe instead of a fitness challenge this month, I will challenge all my followers to journal everything they eat and drink during the day for the entire month. Will you join us?

Follow me on Facebook at Get Fit with Ris - Marissa Jarrett Certified Personal Trainer

Working out and Relaxation

My Monday would not have been the same had I not gotten in a great workout first thing in the morning. Later in the day, I did my monthly challenge which included 50 squats, 25 crunches and 25 burpees. This morning I rode the bike for 20 minutes and then I did the monthly challenge. This is the workout that I did yesterday morning. Back in November, a friend of mine and I did a squat challenge where we did 120 squats 3x a week for 90 days. It was a great challenge. I challenged myself by doing them with weights ranging from 45 pounds to 95 pounds. During the last 2 weeks, we upped the challenge to 150 squats. After taking a month and a half off, I've started it back up because I noticed a significant different in my back end from all the squats and additional challenges I did throughout the week in addition to my regular training. 

After my morning workout yesterday, I came in and relaxed by painting for a few hours. I am not an artist by any stretch, but about 3 years ago I stumbled across a new interest, painting on canvas with acrylic paints. I usually paint with my friends out at a painting establishment where you paint with the instruction of an artist and enjoy sipping wine with your friends which is exactly what I did on Friday and Saturday night in Pontiac at the Grand Opening of some good friends new place, The Artist's Lounge, a new establishment where you can go and paint and have loads of fun. However, yesterday's painting took place in the comfort of my own home listening to some music. I painted this relaxing sunset or moonrise over the water all on my own. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out and already had a friend say they wanted it for their wall.  Today, my husband and I escaped the heat and went to an afternoon showing of "The Heat" and then came home and enjoyed an hour long nap. We are now back at work training clients for the remainder of the night. I actually have this hour sitting at the coffee shop overlooking the St. Clair River to myself to blog, before heading home to train a client later this evening. 

Yesterday among my meals I enjoyed a pita filled with hummus, tabbouleh and meat grape leaves. This has been a favorite sandwich of mine in recent months, it is easy and healthy. When it came time for dinner, my husband combined some left over cubed chicken,  black beans, baked beans, chick peas, corn and peas. It was a tasty dish and easy to make. (Pictured) This morning I enjoyed some leftovers mixed in with my eggs. 

Tomorrow is another day and I am looking forward to some relief from this heat so I can get back to my outdoor workouts and running the trails that run through our property. Have a FIT night! 

It has been a while

I haven't blogged in a very long time. I thought about starting it up again as a journal to record my daily happenings, including my exercise routine, work schedule, eating plans and maybe a photo here and there.  Years ago, I competed in my first body building competition, it was a ton of hard work and a lot of training; but I was determined and dedicated. I enjoyed everything involved and was very fortunate to have the ability to devote to the entire process including the workouts, the posing, the routine, the tanning, regular weekly massages, the ability to eat properly and afford the absolute best training to help me reach my goals. And reach them I did! I was the 1998 Flint Mid-Michigan First Place and Overall Winner for Women's Bodybuilding.  

Let's talk about yesterday's workout. In between my morning clients I had 30 minutes (6:30am-7am) to get in a workout so I did the following: 120 reps of back squats with 95# bar, 120 lateral raises with 8lb. dumbbells, 120 bicep curls with 15lb. dumbbells and 120 stability ball crunches. I also rode the air dyne bike with my client at 7am for 20 minutes. At 9am I went to my CrossFit gym and did the following workout: "Angie" 100 pull ups, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups and 100 squats. My time was 22:08 (I used assistance straps for my pull ups). 

Later that day about 6pm I had to complete my monthly challenge that I put out for the month of July which included 50 squats, 25 crunches and 15 burpees (but I do 25 burpees because I promised my followers on my Facebook page I would 10 extra if they could guess one of the exercises that was going to be on the monthly challenge). I also had to do 10 extra burpees for a new page Like on my Facebook page from a new follower. 

As for what I had to eat yesterday, lets just say it ended very well with a grilled chicken breast and fresh grilled zucchini and squash from our garden. Earlier I had tuna on a piece of pita bread, and after my morning workout I had a whole wheat bagel with egg white, lettuce & tomato with a black coffee. I also had some licorice that I have lingering in the house, some dark chocolate with a glass of wine and hummus and pretzels. Yes, I will admit, I do have to get my eating back in check. :) 

So, I think I will use this as another tool to help keep me accountable with my workouts and my eating and to continue helping to inspire other people. I will share recipes and links, workout routines, monthly challenges and answer questions. You can follow me on Facebook at Get Fit With Ris - Certified Personal Trainer

Good luck on your fitness journey!