Ambassador of Wellness

After 12 weeks of using the bodybugg, I've achieved my goal weight. If someone had told me that I would have been able to lose almost a pound a week without starving myself or working out for 2 hours a day, I would have told them that they just didn't know my body. My body is different. It's very efficient & doesn't like to give up it's calories & fat. It's impossible for me. I know this because I've tried.

I guess I really don't know this because after using the bodybugg, it proved that I'm wrong. I competed in a bodybuilding contest about 3 years ago. I competed in the figure division, which the judging favors the athletic female form rather than the overly muscled women that you think of when you think of women's bodybuilding. When competing in bodybuilding, the competitor must get his/her body fat down to very low levels. In straight bodybuilding, body fat needs to be around 3%, in figure or fitness, close to 8%. Although each person has her own set point at which her body functions well - ranging from 12% - 30%, a healthy body fat for a woman is around 20%.

During my competition, my body fat was probably around 9%. In order to get to that level, I strength trained for an hour a day 6 days a week & performed cardio twice daily for about 1.5 hours total. My calorie intake had slowly dwindled to roughly 1350 calories daily. After the competition, I wasn't exercising as much as before, and I pretty much allowed myself to eat freely. As a result, I quickly regained weight.

Over the past 3 years I've tried to take it off. My diet is very clean; I don't eat processed foods, I drink alcohol only once a week, and I rarely eat at restaurants. I exercise daily & my job is active.

So what was the problem? Honestly, I still don't know. However, I do know that now that I have the bodybugg, it's no longer an issue. I now know how many calories I'm burning, and I know how many calories I'm eating. As long as those two numbers are in balance, I'm good.

My next phase in my bodybugg adventure is to maintain my weight for just a little bit; I need to taper my running and slowly increase my calories until my body is used to maintenance energy output.

Once I feel comfortable maintaining, I will start to focus on building some more muscle. I'm so excited that I have the bodybugg so that I can easily accomplish my goals.

I really love my bodybugg! I love it because I am so close to achieving my goal. And that's exciting. It's exciting to know that as a personal trainer and nutritionist, I'm not a failure at losing weight -- I just didn't have the proper tools before. And it's amazing to me how easy it is.

As I've said before, I've always had a rather clean diet, and I've journaled my food for years -- nothing new there. I don't think I'm exercising more either. I haven't given up carbohydrates, and I still pretty much eat chocolate every day. I have become more aware of my hunger, and I try to eat to that, however whenever I had tried to eat according to my hunger cues in the past, it had led to eventual overeating. I think there were days that I certainly didn't eat enough for my activity level, and then the following day I would be ravenous, practically eating the drywall off the walls.

Since I've started using the bodybugg, I really haven't had any major swings in appetite. I'm rarely hungry because I'm eating an appropriate amount of food to fuel my activity; and I feel more energetic too!

So, the bodybugg tracks how many calories I burn in a day. By keeping my calorie intake just below my calorie burn, not only am I rarely hungry, but when I am, it is so slight that I am able to control the urge. By knowing how many calories my body needs, and controlling that threshold of the calorie deficit, I'm able to break free of the cycle of under-eating, over-eating, guilt, even more under-eating, and so on...

I am now finally in control of what I eat instead of my diet controlling me!

For years, I've heard the argument that eating healthier foods is more expensive. It's hard to argue with that when you have McDonalds and Burger King supersizing meals for a measly $0.39, yet a salad can run you $9.00 at a to go restaurant.

Not too long ago, I saw a post on what 200 calories of food looks like. I wondered what 200 calories of food cost. Lucky for me, someone already did that.

As a general rule, you want to "eat from the rainbow". Foods that have lots of color have more nutritional value. Unfortunately, everything looks pretty beige (except for the brightly colored candies, cereals, and chips) until you get to just above the "Cost of 200 Calories: Over $1.00" category. The Avocado makes it's debut at $0.99.

It makes me sad that not only is bad for you food cheaper, but it's so readily available - within reach. Healthier options are also perishable. Fruits, vegetables & meats have an expiration date (unless they're canned). Twinkies? not so much. Frozen foods are a great way of extending the shelf life of your healthier foods, however you may sacrifice a bit of taste quality in the process. I suppose folks who are opting for fast food & junk foods though aren't worried about taste though since those foods are enhanced with chemical flavoring. And who wants to eat chemicals?

The Wii Fit (different from WWEE or Absolutely Fit) is a new video game launched from Nintendo to get people to move more. For years now there have been reports of folks who have dropped dramatic weight by using video games such as Dance Dance Revolution or some of the other Wii games.

As a wellness professional, my first thought is, "That's great! It's getting people up & moving around -- off the couch & that's just fantastic!"

But then thinking about it for a bit, I start to get sad because it's a video game. I laugh when I think about my massage therapist, Annie. One of the newest hit video games is Guitar Hero. She says that "By the time one gets good at Guitar Hero, they could actually have learned the guitar!" Which is true.

But I think that the Wii Fit is a little different. People are exercising. They're not pretending to exercise; they're actually doing it. Also, take it to account that exercise videos are a huge industry with credits to Jane Fonda, Billy Blanks & Cathe Friedrich to name just a few. Is it that much different? As far as exercising to the television in the privacy of your own space - no. But in concept it is a HUGE difference. The Wii comes up with a different program each time you use it. Much better than doing the same thing with the same music & the same commentary that you get with an exercise video.
 

I do my personal training out of a small personal training studio in the heart of Austin. The studio is called Absolutely Fit! & has recently launched it's website. You can only workout there if you're working with your personal trainer. What I love about working there is that it's a little like The Island of Misfit Toys -- Everyone belongs. And because everyone belongs there, my clients & I don't feel uncomfortable. Ever.

The studio is fantastic because it's just the right size, it has all of the necessary equipment, the location is perfect & clients don't have to pay for a membership. Sometimes we have complete privacy, other times we share a space with a few trainers & their clients. It all depends on the time of day. Everyone knows everyone else & share in group discussions (or eavesdrop if that's your thing). 

It really is awesome. Thank you Jeff for giving us a space to call home. 

I've recently purchased the URL WhatWouldElizabethEat.com. Right now it just redirects to my recipes page, however I have lots of clever things in mind for it in the future. Unfortunately, WWEE.com is taken by Worldwide Entertainment Events. They're not even using it! ugh.

But anyway - Yippee! 

Just in case you wanted to remember the insecurity that you felt in grade school gym class, the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports has just re-issued the Presidential Physical Fitness Test for Adults.

The test measures your aerobic capacity, flexibility, muscular strength (sit-ups & push-ups), and body composition. Unfortunately, you won't get a certificate signed by Dubyuh, but you can see where you rank in relation to others across the nation. 

Step 1: Print the data collection form 

Step 2: Enter the data online for your results 

Here's what I got:

It's not that people lie on purpose; when it comes to weight loss, the most recent statistics show overweight people underreporting daily food intake by 30-40% while normal weight individuals underreport by 16%. Virtually no one over-reports their food intake. Additionally, they'll overestimate how much they move. The combination of those two little white lies that folks tell themselves is partially to blame the expanding waistline of the American public.

I'm not immune to these lies. I feel like I've struggled with my weight for years. Well, wait... let me back up there. For most of my life I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. It wasn't until I was in my first marriage that I used food to emotionally cope with my problems. Although I wasn't fit when I got married, I was thin, and when I got divorced,I was definitely fat. Here's my transformation in case you've missed it.

Since I've taken the bulk of the weight off, I've still struggled; my weight has fluctuated no more than 20 lbs for the past few years.  Still, I'd like it to be more stable. Recent attempts to lower my weight on my own have been half successful. Now I admittedly have very little weight to lose; I just want my clothes to fit better - a little roomier.

One of my problems has always been that I scoffed at the calorie estimators that said that I probably needed about 2000 calories in order to maintain my weight. I swore that 2000 calories was waayy too many calories; I'd balloon back up to 175 lbs if I ate that much. I have a slower metabolism than the calculators are estimating.

Another one of my problems is that I gave myself an entire cheat day on Saturdays. Anything I wanted, I ate. And let me tell you that I can eat a lot! The concept of a cheat day is that one day of overeating is good for a person who is restricting their calorie intake as it gives the body and brain a break. Too low of a caloric intake for too long could cause the body to stop shedding fat, and rather try to preserve it in order to stay alive. Although I have kept an electronic journal of my food consumption for years, I never tracked my food for those "cheat" days because 1) it was too difficult to estimate, and  2) it would have been too difficult to admit to how many (empty & junk food) calories I was really eating. Ignorance is bliss, you know.

So the tool that I am now using to manage my weight is called the bodybugg. I've been using the bodybugg since March 19th (just over 7 weeks). Within that time, I've lost 6 lbs!

I would love to tell you that the bodybugg has made me lose the weight, but the truth is that it's just a tool. One thing that I really like about it is that it cuts through the bull crap that a dieter can dish out: "I have a slow metabolism!" Because the bodybugg knows how many calories you're burning, the only real variable is the food that you're journaling. So, as you progress towards your goal, when you weigh yourself weekly, the application will give you feedback as to how accurately you're tracking your calories.

Here's a screen shot of one of the reports that is useful to see how realistic you are being with the foods that you consume. 

So in this graphic, the light green bars represent the number of calories I logged each day. The dark green line is the number of calories that the application estimates that I ate based on my weekly weigh-ins. Overall, I"m not doing too badly. I'm underestimating my calories by 111 per day, or 16% - just under the average.

"What have you been doing that's different?" That's a question that I've been getting recently as people are noticing the decrease in my size. Well a couple of things:

1. Although I allow myself to eat anything I want, I have gotten a little more precise about measuring & weighing my food portions. And, thanks to the bodybugg, I'm journaling my food again - which, by the way the application makes it very easy to do. It's a really nice interface.
   
2. I've been pretty strict about asking myself "Am I hungry?" when I'm eating; AND stopping eating when I'm no longer hungry. Which is different than stopping when I'm full.
3. I don't save my cheats for one day a week anymore. As you can see from the graphic above, I have a higher calorie day on Saturdays, but I eat chocolate pretty much every day. I just don't have a whole bar; I leave it to about 100 calories. I sprinkle treats in throughout the week, and I make them work with my calorie budget for the day.
   
4. I've been moving more. When you upload the data from the armband to the bodybugg application, it charts your movement across 24 hours of the day. When I'm sitting, I only burn about 1 calorie per minute. When I run, I burn about 11 c/m. When I'm just moving around the house cleaning up or doing basic chores, I burn about 3 c/m. I HATE seeing those 1 calorie per minute lines. So, instead of just sitting on the couch, I'm up & doing more. It's extremely motivating!

"People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true."

 - Robert J. Ringer

I found this new exercise that I really like a lot. It's called Nino. I found it on the UWL Exercise Video Index. I like it because it is a very simple exercise in concept, however it is very intense in practice. It works the legs, core, arms & is surprisingly aerobic.

There are just a couple points of form that I want make:

1. Your legs start out parallel to each other & just over shoulder width apart. Between each action, your legs should come back to this starting position.
2. Keep your back straight at all times. Never round your back. It doesn't matter how close the bar comes to the ground - just make sure that your chest is forward, shoulders are back, & back is straight.
3. When in the down position, you want your hips, feet, knees, shoulders to all be facing perpendicular to the direction your toes were facing at the beginning of the exercise.
4. When in the down position, your knee should not extend over the plane of your toe.

The art of weight loss isn't rocket science, however given the fact that weight loss is a multi-billion dollar industry, we can see that it eludes quite a number of folks. Weight maintenance/loss/gain is simply a matter of "calories in" versus "calories out". On the nutrition side, if you eat more calories than your body needs, you'll gain weight; if you eat the same number of calories that your body needs, then you will maintain your weight; and if you consume fewer calories than your body needs to maintain it's weight, you will lose weight. But, how do you know how many calories your body needs to maintain it's weight?

In But ... how do you know? Part 1, I explained that our metabolism (BMR),depending on how active a person is, can make up for approximately 75% or less of our calories burned. I also explained how we can estimate our BMR. So, that gives us a starting point.

The thing is, the body is a very complex sophisticated organism. In order to lose weight, you want to take in fewer calories than your body needs. But, take in too few & the body thinks that it is going to starve, so it starts doing 2 things: 1) slowing the metabolism so that it's able to work on fewer calories, and 2) starts burning off muscle which is more expensive for the body to maintain than fat (since muscle consumes more calories than fat, it makes sense for the body to get rid of those things that are going to allow it to stay around the longest).  So there's a very fine line between maximizing your weight loss, and stunting it.

The calories that create that buffer between healthy weight loss & danger are created by Thermic Effect of Food(TEF) & Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA). They are the calories that our bodies burn by eating & digesting food, and movement.

So, how do you know what your burn? Up until recently, there have only been estimations available - based on your daily activity/job (office worker versus waitress). Heart Rate Monitors do a pretty good job estimating calories burned during exercise, however it's estimate is only based on heart rate, which isn't always accurate; for example, it doesn't take into account body fat percentage.

I was thrilled when I found out about the bodybugg by Apex Fitness (which is a division of 24 Hour Fitness). The bodybugg is a device that you wear on your arm (similar to an iPod) that records your movement. It completely takes the guess work out of the "calories in" versus "calories out" equation.

This is what I see when I login to the web application that goes along with the bodybugg device. It's got a great interface - it's really easy to use. You can upload your activity from the device multiple times a day or save it up for several days. Then, you log your food for each meal & see how it relates to your calorie needs for the day.

Now, I've logged my food on & off for years. At the beginning, I was very diligent about measuring & weighing my foods prior to eating them, but then I thought that I had a good handle on what a Tablespoon of dressing/peanut butter looked like, so I stopped. Gradually, those two Tablespoons of peanut butter grew to be a 1/4 cup! I thought I was eating two tablespoons, but I was eating twice that much!

What's cool about the bodybugg application, is that because we underestimate how much food we eat by at least 20%, when we weigh in, it compares how much we said that we ate to and estimate of how much we ate based on the weight.

In this article, I've been focused on weight loss, but there are lots of programs for folks who want to improve sports performance, or maintain their weight, and even for those who we are jealous of because they're trying to gain weight.

This is a tool that I am really impressed by. I think it can really help those folks who are ready to make a serious change. In fact, I've decided to add the bodybugg to my business, and start distributing it to help my clients.
 

I brought my cat & dog to the vet the other day to get their annual exams. I mean, who wouldn't want to keep a face like that healthy?

Anyway, because Lucy is aging, the vet suggested that we give her both fish oil & glucosamine. I take both of these supplements myself & figured that I could just give her what I take myself. Yeah - I thought wrong.

I am an avid label reader - it's my job & it's what I do. The vet informed me that just because the label on the supplements says that it has 500mg of whatever it says that it has in it, it really doesn't have to. He then told me about a kids vitamin that when tested, actually had lead in it. Yes - LEAD! and a brand of glucosamine that when tested, didn't have ANY glucosamine in it.

So then, what's in that pill that I take every morning? fillers? poison? He turned me on to an organization similar to Consumer Reports, except it's called Consumer Labs. It only deals with supplements.

I find it amazing what companies will do in order to make money - and the reason that they can get away with it is that supplements aren't regulated by the FDA or USDA. 

So look for information that I find through this organization. I'm sure to be reporting on it! 

Dear God! No! 

Just when I thought that there were no more food atrocities to commit against the human race, along comes hamburger in a can. It makes me realize that I am just not creative enough to come up with disgusting and evil foodstuffs.

I'm speechless. I'm shaking my head as it is buried in my palms.

Just make sure that you watch the videos to gain the entire experience.
 

A few weeks back, my husband, Gary & I were walking into Sports Authority when we saw the dreaded folding table set up in front of the entrance surrounded by little girls holding boxes of cookies! Girlscout cookie season has started. What really struck me about it was that this occurred just 3 weeks after the New Year.

I thought about all of those people who had made resolutions to "eat healthy" this year, or "give up junk food". I thought about them because after three weeks of eating differently; depriving yourself of everything that you think is good (because that's what healthy eating is. Isn't it?), all that is needed is one innocent little girl selling something that only comes around once a year to derail you from your commitment to your health.

Two weeks later was the SuperBowl. It is now said that the SuperBowl is the 2nd biggest eating holiday; just after Thanksgiving. Article here  So if the Girlscout cookies weren't bad enough, here comes the Super Bowl with promises of little hot dogs wrapped in pastry, nachos, buffalo wings and pizza. What's someone who is trying to maintain their weight to do?

The following weekend was Mardi Gras. Then, the nail in the coffin had to have been Valentine's day two weeks later. conversation hearts, chocolate covered strawberries, and heart shaped confections anywhere the eye could see.

When I worked in corporate world, I realized this phenomenon of the endless sweets and parties. There was always someone's birthday, or a project that was just completed & launched, or a lunch meeting where pizza was invited.

My point is that there are always going to be temptations and celebrations. There is always going to be some upcomming event that is going to make it difficult for you to start your goal today. The real key is planning & moving on. Know that there will be lots of foods available to you that maybe aren't the healthiest. Try to make the best choices that you can make. Then, when it's all over, get back on track. One party does not make anyone a failure. One party that lasts a week doesn't even make you a failure. What makes you a failure is giving up; thinking that because you had a piece of cake, you may as well have the 1/2 gallon of ice cream that goes with it.

Every day you make the committment to your goals - whether it's to quit smoking, eat healthier foods, or become more active. You cannot make a real commitment unless you accept that it's a choice that you keep making again and again and again.

Back in September I tried Bikram Yoga for the first time. I was undecided as far as the benefits go, and was pretty sure that my body was not meant to contort into some of the positions that the class was doing (specifically Eagle Pose & Fixed Firm); however, I decided to give it a try. I signed up for an unlimited 30 day membership (at an unbelievably affordable rate) & made the commitment to go.

Now, at this point, I need to confess that I have inherited frugality from my father. Or rather, I'm cheap. Plus, since I'm a personal trainer, I hate having to pay to exercise. There are lots of personal trainers who have separate gym memberships from where they work - that just seems crazy & a waste of money to me. But I digress... Because I hate paying to exercise, and because I am cheap, I went to yoga pretty much every day that my schedule afforded me to go - which ended up being 5-6 days per week.

What happened was amazing! Within the first 10 classes I saw vast improvements over my range of motion for many of the postures. What's really interesting is that soon thereafter it was as if my body said "Wait a minute - I gave up too much too soon," and I started backsliding. Since then, I've learned to really respect where my body is on any given day as far as what it is capable of doing. There are so many factors that seem to go into having a good class; sleep, prior day's workout, time of day, my diet.

Since January 1, 2008, I've committed to 30 classes within 30 days. I'm close to the end of that, but am considering extending to see if I can do 60! At this point, I'm not making huge strides in any particular pose, but am making noticeable changes  - nuances - as I am corrected my the instructors.

Oh yeah - and Eagle Pose & Fixed Firm? I can actually do those poses. My body is opening up & becoming more flexible so that postures I never thought were possible - are. Now if I could only get my head on the ground during Separate Leg Stretching... but I am getting close.