Health: It's more than #'s on a scale

tobj-0106, originally uploaded by befiitter.

The scale is a liar.

You've probably been using it for years to gauge a variety of things from your health to your self-image. While the scale may be a good way to keep yourself in check from time to time and monitor when you need to cut back it really doesn't give the complete picture of health. In fact, many people who would register as being in an acceptable weight range for their size may in fact be "skinny-fat". Skinny-Fat is a term that I use to describe people who are naturally trim without even trying. They are the ones who eat cheeseburgers at every meal, never exercise, and yet never seem to gain an ounce of weight. So, although they may be thin they are anything but healthy. It is quite possible to be very thin but have a very high percentage of body fat. It is also possible to be classified as overweight on the BMI scale but have a very low percentage of body fat.

Now I'm not suggesting that you throw out your scale but I am suggesting that you gauge your progress in other ways. Are you able to walk for longer periods of time without getting breathless? Are your jeans fitting more loosely? Do you find that you can carry your children around with ease? Are you lifting heavier weights today than you were 12-weeks ago? Are you exercising for at least 30 minutes 5 times or more per week? Are your eating habits improving? Are you sleeping 8 hours each night? These are all pieces of a healthy lifestyle.

Alright so maybe your numbers on your scale could stand to be a little lower, but just for today, instead of obsessing about numbers and getting down on yourself, go ahead and congratulate yourself for the others ways that you have made healthy progress. Health it's so much more than numbers on a scale.

Saying Goodbye to My 20s

This is it. I'm embarking on the last week of my 20s. My 30th birthday is saturday so I thought it might be a good time to reflect on the last decade, who I was, who I am, and a few things I might have learned along the way.

You know, it's a funny thing, getting older. Yes I realize that I'm not OLD, per say but I am getting OLDER and this does funny things to you. For instance, when I was 20 I remember thinking about what it would be like to be 30 someday. At that time it seemed so far off in the future as to be incomprehensible. I've never been one to have a set planned future so I'm definitely not facing 30 feeling like a failure or as if I haven't accomplished what I thought I would accomplish. I do however remember thinking that by 30 I would have everything all figured out. Boy was I wrong! Life can really throw you some curve balls in that area.

This past year has been HARD. This is not an overstatement. The things that I've gone through are very personal so I won't share them in detail. I've learned a lot about myself and about my relationships. I use to have a ton of friends or acquaintances, now I'm happy to have a couple very close friends. Andrew and I finally have a mature relationship and a very deep love and respect for one another. He is my rock and the highlight of my day. Relationships grow up and mature as you grow up and mature. That has been a very nice side effect of growing older.

I've also come to a place of acceptance in my life. Acceptance has taken shape in a lot of places. I used to be very hard on myself and on my body. I was very judgmental of my body if it wasn't exactly the perfect size or the perfect shape. I was constantly disappointed with myself if I didn't run my set race time. I continually felt like a failure. Now, I've learned to accept myself. I can push myself hard when I run or workout but I can also do it simply for the shear enjoyment of it. I'm OK if there is a little bit of jiggle around my waist. My boobs will never be big and that's OK too. I'm learning to let go of perfection in favor of balance. If I want to have a brownie sundae and a glass of wine than damnit I'm going to enjoy it, guilt free.

I've also come to realize that sometimes people don't like me and that's OK. My profession, personal training, is well, very PERSONAL. There have been times in the past in which I didn't have a good fit with a client and for one reason or another they decided to let me go as their trainer. Initially I took this to heart as a personal assault on who I was. Today, I chalk it up to the fact that some personalities just don't jive. It's not a direct reflection of me as a person nor is it a direct reflection of my skill as a personal trainer.

Another word that comes to mind is appreciation. I appreciate things much more than I did when I was in my early 20s. I use to take my family and friends for granted. Now I realize how important they are. I really appreciate simple moments; a walk to the coffee shop with my husband on a crisp saturday morning, a trip to the local bakery with my father, lounging on the couch with my mom, taking a walk on the bike path with my in-laws,a night out with girlfriends. I greatly appreciate my husband who has been my constant cheerleader and support as I forged my way as a small business owner over the last 5 years. My business would have failed many times without him.

The great thing about turning 30 is that I know life is still so full of possibilities. I feel like i'm standing on the cusp of self-realization. I'm looking out on the life that is before me. I can't wait to see what twists and turns it holds. I can't wait to walk it with my husband by my side. I'm not afraid of growing older. In fact, I look forward to it. I would never take back my twenties, fun as they were. I can honestly say that I can't wait for my 40th birthday and what I'll write on that day.

Here's to the life events that have shaped me into who I am. Here's to the friends and family who have brought me through the pain and the laughter. Here's to turning 30 and not looking back!

Got the winter blues? 5 ways to increase exercise adherence

Have you ever noticed that all you feel like doing this time of year is eating carbohydrates and laying around the house? Sometimes just getting to the gym feels like it takes all the energy I can muster. I'm pretty sure I suffer from something called S.A.D. Anyone who lives in Chicago knows what that acronym means. Basically it's depression brought on by lack of sunlight. Last year at this time I remember hearing someone on the radio say that we had experienced only 2 hours of sunlight in the last 30 days. Wow, gee thanks, as if I didn't feel bad enough already, now they had to go and rub it in! But seriously, with the waning levels of energy that lack of sunlight bring about it can be very hard to motivate oneself to workout. Here are a couple of tips for boosting your motivation level and getting back on track.

1. Treat yourself to a new, bright, and colorful workout outfit

2. Buy a new workout DVD that requires you to do something you've never tried before. Look at it this way, you can put down that cupcake, roll of the couch and start working out.

3. Find a workout buddy and hit a new class at the local gym

4. Get out of your cooking rut and try a new healthy recipe. Lots of websites offer healthier versions of your favorite winter comfort foods.

5. Purchase an inexpensive piece of new workout equipment. A brightly colored new band or ball that comes with a workout DVD can be a great motivation. You won't have to leave your living room to use it.

Don't forget that exercise actually increases energy and improves mood.

Do you need to breathe new life in to your fitness program? Have you been doing the same exercises since the Kennedy administration?

You should never do the exact same fitness routine for more than 3-4 weeks at a time. If you do, your body will plateau and you will cease to see any more gains. It's time to mix things up and challenge your body once again! Visit the ACE website and check out their exercise library. Exercises are complete with descriptions, pictures, and demos. They are categorized both by muscle group and level of difficulty.

This program isn't personalized or geared to your specific goals and it can't replace the results you would see with a personal trainer but it can get you out of your fitness rut and re-ignite your interest in exercise again

http://www.acefitness.org/exerciselibrary/default.aspx

Rock climbing - a new fitness challenge

I have started a new fitness endeavor and I want to tell you about it. It seems that my level of enjoyment with physical activity runs in cycles. Sometimes I can go for months on end lifting weights and striding on the eliptical. Then there are the months when the mere thought of the gym makes me cringe. I can't stand the idea of being what feels like a rat in a cage. You know what I mean, rats will run for minutes on end on those funny wheel things. That's exactly how I feel when I'm staring at the same spot on the wall with my legs repeatedly spinning round and round. So, right now I'm in the "rat in a cage" phase and knew that I needed a new activity to spike my motivation.

I chose rock climbing. My gym offers rock climbing and I took a large class last winter to help beat the winter blues. I really enjoyed it and realized that I had a knack for it. So, this time around I signed Andrew and I up for a private lesson. It's just the two of us and an instructor. This has given me just the challenge that I need. Rock climbing is just as much intellectual as it is physical. It's kind of like a puzzle that you have to solve to get to the top. If you don't use the right technique and you try to use brute strength to pull you up you'll find out very quickly that you won't last very long. Andrew and I have come to the conclusion that if we could meld our bodies into one rock climbing body we would have the perfect combination. He with the brute strength and I with the flexibility would make one hell of a climber.

Rock climbing has made me sore in places i've never been sore before. Talk about a challenge for your grip strength. After an aggressive class I have a hard time holding up my water glass without using two hands. It's also challenging my competitive self and allowing me to bond with my husband at the same time. If you've never tried rock climbing I highly suggest that you give it a shot. Who knows you might love it!

How about you? What do you do to beat the gym doldrums or the Chicago winter blues?

I wanna be that lady in the pic at the top. She's bada#$!

Chicken Marrakesh - Easy, Healthy, AND Delicious!

Well, I'm trying to get back in to the blog swing of things. I was dragged away by the holidays and until today have had a hard time coming up with anything "worthwhile" to put down. I made an amazing dish the other day and thought it was definitely worth sharing. It comes to you from the February issue of Oxygen magazine. It was really easy to make. There was minimal prep time and it's a crock pot recipe so you can throw the ingredients in there and come back to a perfectly cooked meal several hours later. Plus, it makes your house smell fantastic while it's cooking.

CHICKEN MARRAKESH

INGREDIENTS:

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 lrg. carrots, diced

2 lrg. sweet potatoes, diced

15 oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts, chopped into 2-3 inch pieces

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

pepper to taste

sea salt to taste

14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine the first 6 ingredients in a crock pot.

2. In a small bowl, mix together the spices. Sprinkle over the food in the crock pot. Add the chopped tomatoes.

3. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours

(I have a slower cooker that seems to run hot, I cooked mine on low for 3.5 hours and that was plenty. Then, I set it to warm until we were ready to eat it.)

*Makes 6 servings

NUTRITION PER SERVING:

CAL: 421, FAT: 15g, SAT. FAT: 3g, CHOLESTEROL: 123mg, CARB: 36g, FIBER: 8g, PRO:37g,

Hard Ball vs. Beach Ball and why diets DON'T work

I'm sorry people but contrary to what every weight-loss product/gimmick would have you believe, diets do NOT work, plain and simple.

The diet industry is a 54 billion dollar industry with a 95% fail rate

Now I ask you? What other business would succeed with those types of numbers? We must stop and think. We must stop being blatantly taken advantage of. Diets are a marketing scheme. They are commercials. They are not factual or scientifically backed.

Now before you decide to throw caution to the wind and eat the nearest pan of brownies, let me explain what I mean.

Low calorie, restricted diets encourage muscle loss.

Yes, if you greatly reduce your caloric intake you will see smaller numbers on the scale. The problem is that you are not losing fat. You are losing precious muscle mass. You are lowering your muscle mass and you are sabotaging your efforts. This is the epitomy of yo-yo dieting. The minute you go back to eating a "normal" diet you will gain all the weight back that you lost plus more because you have lowered your metabolism due to muscle loss. This will begin a vicious cycle of weight loss to weight gain and then a feeling of failure. You are NOT the failure. The diet is failing you.

A calorie, is a calorie, is a calorie. FALSE!

This is a lie promoted by the diet industry. You need to learn to eat a balanced diet that feeds your muscle, stokes your metabolism, burns fat, and prevents precious lean tissue loss. You will not get this by popping a pill or eating 1000 calories per day in the form of 3 brownies and a diet coke. Did you know there is such a thing as the cookie diet? Are you kidding me? The cookie diet!! I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Muscle cell vs. fat cell.

At rest, a muscle cell burns anywhere from 40-60 calories per hour while a fat cell may burn only 1-2 calories per hour. This means, that someone with a leaner body mass (i.e more muscle) will burn more calories sitting on the couch than their friend with a higher percentage of body fat. This is why strength training is crucial for weight loss.

We are far too dependent on the numbers on the scale.

We can have two people who, on the scale, have the exact same numbers but when we visually look at them they are two different people. One of them wears a size 6 and the other wears a size 10. Why is that?

Body composition is what truly matters.

In short, body composition is your percentage of body fat. Let me give you an example, we have two women who both weigh 140 pounds. One of them is 18% body fat and the other is 40% body fat. The woman who is 18% body fat wears a size 8. The woman who is 40% body fat wears a size 12 or 14. The woman who is 18% body fat can eat 800 more calories per day than the woman who is 40% body fat because, at rest, her increased muscle burns more calories.

Hard ball vs. a beach ball. What does that mean?

You want to be the hard ball. Diets promote the beach ball. A 1 lb. hard ball or a 1 lb. beach ball. Which one is visually smaller? What type of body would you rather have?

The bottom line, low calorie diets do not work. Exercise without proper nutrition, does not work. You must pair a balanced diet with exercise in order to see results.

If you'd like to understand more about what it means to gain lean tissue, eat a healthy, balanced diet, that burns fat and improves metabolism please contact me at abby.kurtz@hcfit.com