Sugar Challenge Follow-Up and Fitness Q & A
When I saw this message from my twitter friend @lizwicksteed, I knew I had to share it with all of you:
Hi Sagan
I’m now on day 6 of the challenge and have been amazed how quickly it’s going. We’ve eaten some delicious food (especially your recipes hehe) and I haven’t missed the sugar at all. One evening I did eat 8 dates in a fairly mindless way but other than that I haven’t felt any particular cravings and have even had to remind myself to eat my lunch a couple of times, which is so not me! It kind of levels out your mood too, doesn’t it? Like Julie I’m wondering about my balsamic vinegar – it’s extraordinary what foods contain sugar – even water biscuits, would you believe! I’m definitely going to keep added sugars to a minimum from now on. Thanks for having the idea and thanks for doing the hard work of giving a starter list of the kinds of meals you can eat. Off now for a breakfast of pitta stuffed with mashed banana, apple sauce and cinnamon….. By the way everyone the best chocolate bars in the world are sugar-free! My one big worry about the week was what I was going to do for breakfast on working days, when I often took a cereal bar and ate it at my desk – I hate eating soon after I get up. In the health food shop I found Nak*d fruit bars and bought some of those. There’s a cocoa one which is mostly dates, raisins, apple juice, walnut, almond, etc, and a little cocoa powder – it is pure heaven and far more satisfying than an ordinary chocolate bar… and guaranteed no added sugar!
– Liz
Thanks for the feedback, Liz! I love hearing about other people trying these experiments and challenges and to learn about how it affects each of us.
An interview revisited
Remember when I interviewed Kelly from Every Gym’s Nightmare for an article about personal trainers and fitness*? I really felt that she gave so much wonderful information that couldn’t be included in the article (word limits can’t be ignored, after all), so here is the rest of the interview for all of you to enjoy!
I think one of the biggest motivators is focusing on the immediate positive. Too many people use long term goals, like losing a certain amount of weight, as motivation to get into the gym everyday. The problem with that is, weight loss takes a while to develop, which means you can get discouraged and start to skip your workouts. People are result focused, so focusing on the benefits you receive immediately from exercise, like increased mood and energy, stress relief and better sleep will better motivate you to get your workout in each day.
According to the ACSM, the recommended guidelines for healthy adults is 20-60 min of continuous or intermittent (minimum of 10-min bouts accumulated throughout the day) aerobic (cardiovascular) activity most days of the week (5-6), one set of 8-10 exercises that conditions the major muscle groups 2-3 days a week for strength training, and stretch the major muscle groups a minimum of 2-3 days per week for flexibility. These guidelines are to get health benefits from exercise. For weight loss or specific goals, like increasing muscle strength or size, in most cases you will need workout more frequently, but each person is different. In order to get a full picture of how to achieve your goals, you will have to sit down with a personal trainer or coach and develop a unique plan for you.
Weights and reps are a delicate balance. You should be lifting enough weight that the last rep you do of each exercise is the last rep you can do with proper form. Once your form starts to slip, you are recruiting other muscle units which is ineffective and, in some cases, dangerous. If you can perform over about 25 reps and still have good form, it’s probably time to up the weight to get more of a challenge. You often hear about people doing 100 pushups or 100 crunches in a sitting- if you can do that many, it isn’t effective for you anymore and you need to increase the intensity by either adding weight, or performing a more difficult modification of the exercise.
4. Are body weight exercises as effective as weight lifting?
It depends by what you mean by “effective.” Everyone works out for different reasons. If you primary concern is muscle tone, or fat loss, yes, body weight resistance will do the trick- as long as the exercises you are performing get you to exhaustion (the last rep is the last one you can complete with proper form.) If your primary goal is to increase the size of your muscles or to gain strength, weights is probably your most effective way to go, as the more weight you use, the more overload is applied to the muscle.
Your warm up and cool down should be a less intense version of whatever your workout was or is going to be. Whatever muscles you are going to use during your workout should be the primary focus of your warm up. Walking or jogging is usually sufficient. Warm ups get your muscles and circulatory system ready for what’s about to come, and should last anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Cool downs are to help the blood redistribute to the rest of your body, so a nice slow walk will do the trick. Always remember to stretch, too, but do it after your warm up or cool down when your muscles are warm to avoid pulling anything.
No. I hate that term, “bulky.” First of all- muscle isn’t a gross thing; it’s something to be proud of, because you earned it through hard work. But, no matter how much I say that, women’s main concern is probably always going to be to get thin. The fact of the matter is, women do not produce enough testosterone to achieve significant hypertrophy, or gain in muscle size. Quite the contrary: women who replace body fat with lean muscle not only drop inches, but they have a higher metabolism, which means they burn more calories throughout the day, which can aid in weight loss. Strength training is important to not only reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass, but it also strengthens your bones- a huge priority for women. It’s a shame so many shy away from weights.
There’s no one size fits all exercise- everyone is at a different fitness level, has different limitations and different goals. For cardio, anything that gets your heart rate up is going to improve your heart and lung function and burn calories. For strength training, anything that overloads your muscle to the point of failure is going to get results, but to save time, I recommend combining upper and lower body exercise, like lunges with bicep curls, to get the most bang for your buck. As far as stretching goes, you should always stretch your major muscle groups to maintain or increase your flexibility, making sure to hit hamstrings, glutes, quads, back, chest, and arms.
I’m a firm believer that motivation is the biggest indicator of when you should switch up your routine. I mainly work with deconditioned, reluctant exercisers, so I have to switch up the routine quite often to keep them motivated and interested. From a results standpoint, there is differing opinions, but I find that about every 4 weeks, assuming the individual is strength training 3 times a week, is a good time frame. Switching up your workout, to create muscle confusion, doesn’t have to mean all new exercises though. Sometimes just switching the order you perform them is enough to kick start your results again.
I wouldn’t say there is a specific food, but there are certain nutrients you need to get the most from your work out. Protein, for muscle repair from your strength training, and carbohydrates for energy, are vital to keep your energy levels up and to keep your body running as efficiently as possible. When you eat these is a little bit more of a grey area: many people say you need to eat a snack of protein and carbs right after working out, but as long as you get your recommended daily amount sometime throughout the day, you will be fine. A lot of people tend to over eat after a workout because they over estimate how many calories they actually burned. Some don’t like to workout on a full stomach and eat afterwards- some prefer to eat before for the energy. It depends on what feels right to you.
Ah, protein. I think we are a protein obsessed society. I’ve written numerous articles and pieces on this and every time I do it seems to get people up in arms. You need a certain amount of protein per day, 0.8-1 gram per kilogram of body weight, and any extra is stored in your body as fat. “The more, the better” is the wrong attitude with protein. Most people eat more protein than they need in a day from natural sources, so in most cases protein shakes and bars are unnecessary, unless they are to supplement missing protein from your diet.
Use what you have around. Common, everyday household items make great workout equipment. Use your stairs for calf raises, or to run up and down, do pushups against a sturdy counter top or table. Water and milk jugs make great weights, use walls for wall sits, chairs for tricep dips, paper plates for mountain climbers- there is no reason to spend a ton of money on equipment. You can definitely get just as good a workout in the comfort of your home.
College kids are some of the busiest people around. Make incidental exercise a big part of your day. Try and walk whenever you can, sneak in crunches and push up breaks during your study time, and calf raises while you are waiting for your roomie to get out of the bathroom. You’ll be surprised how quickly it adds up without having to block out a huge chunk of time for a workout.
Thanks again, Kelly!
Breakfast Cookie
It seems as though you can’t be a food blogger unless you’ve made the infamous Breakfast Cookie and featured it on your blog. As far as I can tell, it’s basically a bowl of oatmeal in cookie form. But although I’ve tried making one for myself before and it has somewhat worked and been quite tasty, I’m not exactly sure of the best “procedure” for making a Breakfast Cookie. Do you heat it up in the microwave? Or do you refrigerate it so it will harden and then eat it cold? Inquisitive minds want to know. Hit me up in the comments with your Breakfast Cookie recipes!
*If you’re interested in more fitness type information, check out my Push ups aren’t just for body builders piece.
Great interview! I especially like the advice about using short-term goals to stay motivated to work out. Less stress and more energy keep me exercising every day. And kudos for bringing up that most Americans put too much emphasis on protein. There is scientific research pointing to too much protein (especially from animal sources) as one reason for the explosion in heart disease and cancer.
FABULOUS Q&A/interview!!
I certainly enjoyed reading the interview! I agree with most of it. I’ve always focused on the short term goal, or even in the moment goal. In medical school, I would think of the song, “Every day is one more yard, you take it by the yard..” That may not be an exact quote, but hey, I graduated so it must be close enough 🙂
I love Kelly! She really has great advice… I particularly like her first answer, since I also have a large amount of weight to lose and realize that that alone wouldn’t motivate me, so I’ve had to find short term goals & rewards.
That is so good to know about the sugar free chocolate (*salvation!*)
I want to know about the breakfast cookie, too, as I’m a fellow BC virgin.
Love the interview.
And you’re really catching me with this sugar thing. Lately I’ve been paying more attention to how much sugar I consume… and for something that does me no good, I definitely consume too much!
I may have already shared this…when i was off at college i took my mountain bike with me, and would bike up the canyon and put my feet in the river and do my homework sitting on the bank. It was a great way to clear my head before and after homework, and was always much quieter then my apartment of 4 girls =)
Diane- Kelly is full of wisdom!
VeggieGirl- am glad you enjoyed!
Dr. J- so if I repeat that mantra to myself can you guarantee that I’ll graduate? 😉
Hanlie- it’s always those baby steps that make the difference.
Holly- chocolate! Cookies! What more could a girl ask for? 😀
Ashley- hehe that’s so good to hear.
Fitness Surfer- aw that’s so nice. It sounds lovely.
aw thanks for posting this! and thanks for interviewing me, it was fun to be in your paper!
I say skip the breakfast cookie and just eat the oatmeal. But what do I know?
peace,
mike
livelife365
Oh my goodness, the breakfast cookie! I can’t believe I forgot about it. LOL I remember the first time I saw the recipe, I knew that I would be a True Fitness Geek if I only would prepare a breakfast cookie. I’ll take care of that this weekend!
have a great weekend, Sagan!
Great workout suggestions! I try to do the treadmill every morning for half an hour, then do floor, aerobic type exercises, the mat excercises, all of which total about an hour. it seems to help from putting on too much extra weight, and I do love my food. My mornings used to start at 3:55 a.m., for years, but now it’s usually 7:00.
great info, but I think protein is super important when working out. Never heard of the breakfast cookie. I like how lack of motivation is a good indicator to switch up workout routine…so true.
great q & a, love kelly 🙂
I’ve never heard of the breakfast cookie. I look forward to seeing yours. The interview was really interesting. I’ve actually started doing some random exercises on my stairs at home. It is like a built-in gym. 🙂 Hope you had a great weekend!
Kelly- it was fun!
Mike- well that’s the point of the breakfast cookie- it IS a bowl of oatmeal, but just less liquidy so that it’s shaped like a cookie.
Cammy- tasty tasty 🙂
Redbush- an early morning workout is nice.
Kristisummer- yes, protein is important, but I think what Kelly is getting at (and what I believe too) is that we waaaay overemphasize the need for protein these days. We have to remember the importance of carbs and fats too.
ttfn300- me too 😀
Juliet- I like the at-home workouts! Such fun.
Dear Sagan,
Great interview! I’m a total newbie in the fitness world, and it gave me lots of valuable information!
Thank you,
Anna