Everyone is doing it these days; How about you? I'm of course talking about Twitter! Twitter is best described as a micro-blog. Everything must fit within 140 characters or less. Where a blog allows one to express thoughts and opinions, and expand on it, "tweeting" is short & concise & basically what's interesting to you at that minute. Honestly, I didn't get twitter when Gary first introduced it to me; "I don't care that John is going to the grocery store! I don't need to know that." but as I started "following" interesting folks in my industry, I realized that it's a way of connecting with others that is completely unique. Occasionally folks who are on Twitter will have a TweetUp. It's where folks who tweet get together & meet face to face. Stephanie, from Venus Envy Training (@venusenvyaustin) and I (@esherman) have organized a Tweetup with a Workout. Read More . . .
Which Burns More Calories?
I was talking to one of my clients yesterday about what great exercise walking is, when I realized that everyone else might want to know too! Years ago, when I started my quest for fitness, I would walk my neighborhood. Eventually, I got an elliptical machine and a treadmill – I had always wanted to be a runner, and was finally able to make that happen through the help of the treadmill. I spent hours on each of those until I started running outside & the rest is history. I was a gym rat for a really long time, spending countless hours on the cardio machines – even on perfectly beautiful days because I thought that I was burning tons of calories that way. One of the most fun aspects of the bodybugg, is discovering how many calories each of my activities burns. For example: cleaning the house can burn Read More . . .
3 Tips for Increasing Activity
Part 3 in the Runtex University Bucky & Bob Speaking Series In the ongoing debate of whether someone can be overweight and be healthy, one thing is clear: Being active and incorporating intentional exercise into your lifestyle is going to positively contribute to your quality of life as you age. It may or may not help you live longer, but then who wants to live until the age of 150 if you’re strapped to a wheelchair and feeding tube? The body and mind are so tightly inter-connected that regular, intentional exercise improves mood, quality of sleep, decreases stress and the risk of disease. What I have also found intriguing is that as individuals become more active, their bodies start to crave healthier options. Don’t be surprised if you start craving broccoli or salmon once you incorporate activity into your day. Your body was meant to move; treat your body well Read More . . .
Do You Want To Do It On Your Own?
People have been asking me lately what makes me different. What differentiates me from other personal trainers? Well first, I am not "just a personal trainer". I am a nutritionist & wellness coach as well. Each of these skills allows me to have different relationships with my clients. Nutritionist When I’m a nutritionist, I inform, educate & give feedback. Depending on the client, and what their goals are, I will do as much education as I need to in order to get the client to a point where they’re able to make good decisions. The second step is to do weekly check-ins, where the client keeps an online food journal & we review those food choices; discovering how different foods affect mood, energy, sleep, etc. and also reflecting on any emotional eating that may have popped up. Personal Trainer As a personal trainer, I am focused on working my client Read More . . .
The Best Kept Secret in Austin
I’ve lived in Austin for almost 8 years (yikes! has it been that long?). I’ve been actively engaged in the fitness community for about 3 years now. When you come to Austin, you can’t help but know about RunTex & the running community here – Runtex has such a presence here. I think they sponsor absolutely every race imaginable; they provide cold water on the town lake hike & bike trail; through word of mouth, they are THE store for runners, everyone talks about RunTex; and they have RunTex University, which I had heard of but never understood: until now. RunTex University’s mission is to improve the fitness of our community, state and nation through the support of endurance events and training programs. We look forward to sharing our passion with each of you. I was confused about RunTexU because when I went to look at their training programs, I Read More . . .
You Can’t Fool Mother Nature
Last night I saw this commercial for the Jenny Craig weight loss system. It's Valerie Bertinelli stating that for the first year in 20 years that she will not be making a new year's resolution for weight loss, because she has hit her goal & maintained it. The commercial kind of hit a chord with me because I feel very similarly. For the first time since I've been on my nutrition journey, I feel like I'm not 'white knuckling' it. People who know me probably want to smack me right now. They'd probably say, "What the h*ll are you talking about? You're not fat." I was over-fat 10 years ago & came to my smaller resting size about 6-7 years ago. To the unobserving eye, although my weight has shifted in small increments (maybe not even enough to notice), I haven't had huge fluctuations; I am at a good size Read More . . .
In the interest of Self-Disclosure
To so many folks battling with their weight, next month’s O Magazine cover shows an unre-touched Oprah at her current weight, next to a photo taken 4 years ago, is like reading a page from their own diary. It’s an all too familiar story of weight lost, feeling confidence & power over food, and then regaining the weight. Oprah: "I’m mad at myself. I’m embarrassed. I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, ‘How did I let this happen again?’" I empathize with Oprah’s struggle, and anyone else who has struggled with their eating and health habits. And HABIT is the key word there. We are the size and shape we are because of our habits. As a Wellness Coach I help people change their behaviors, or rather, Read More . . .
Why Vicky won’t sustain her weight loss
In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m a HUGE fan of NBC’s reality weight loss show, The Biggest Loser. I think Jillian totally Rocks! Last night was the last pre-taped show before the season finale being held live next week. Although I am fascinated by the dramatic weight loss & transformations that the contestants go through, we assume that once the cameras & lights go off, that the contestants live happily ever after, maintaining their weight loss. The truth is that although some have maintained their weight loss, many have regained some of the weight, and some have regained most of their weight. Why? Well, I suppose that there are a few contributing factors, and therefore ways to learn from their mistakes if weight loss is on your list of to do’s in 2009. Neither Vicky nor her husband Brady like vegetables. Last night she said that her kids Read More . . .
Where the Sidewalk Ends
When I was a kid, I remember having this really cool book of poems by Shel Silverstein called Where the Sidewalk Ends. I loved this book because it addressed things that kids care about: boogers, & daydreaming, & annoying brothers & sisters, just to name a few. I grew up in a suburb just West of Chicago. Every street had a sidewalk on both sides. I remember looking at the drawing on the cover of the book, thinking, "That’s silly. Sidewalks don’t end. There are sidewalks EVERYWHERE." And to me, there were. Now I live in Austin, Texas. I moved here about 7.5 years ago. I run on the streets in my neighborhood & surrounding areas. I wear a Road ID because I’m afraid of getting clipped by some distracted driver, and since I run from my home, I don’t carry ID or keys with me. So, you might ask, Read More . . .
What do you say to yourself?
Have I mentioned lately how much I love my bodybugg? I also have the display device which, when I originally got it, didn't think it was that useful. After all, I uploaded my information on a pretty consistent basis – twice or three times a day. Since it doesn't take that long to upload the data from the armband, it was really easy for me to keep track of the number of calories I was burning. Well, once I got the digital display, I realized that I didn't need to update as often as I had been doing, because the digital display allows me to see almost real time how many calories I'm burning. Yes, Exactly! It allows me to be even more anal retentive than I had been before! So anyway, I recently set a goal to burn 100 calories per hour, or 2400 calories per day. I burn Read More . . .
3 pounds
One of my guilty pleasures is that I watch Oprah. No, I'm usually not home at that time of the day, but thank goodness for DVRs so that I can record it; saves a lot of time skipping over commercials, but also, if I'm not interested in the topic being aired that day, I'll just delete it. Yesterday she had Gwyneth Paltrow & Mario Batali on her show to promote a new series that is coming out where Gwyneth & Mario travel around Spain eating their hearts out. The first segment of the show was an interview with Gwyneth about her workout routine (see the video). I can only imagine that they did that so that America wouldn't curse Gwyneth after seeing her eating her way through Spain; giving rise to the fact that no one gets a free ride as far as the calorie formula goes – Calories In Read More . . .
Wii Fit
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 Read More . . .
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
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 Read More . . .
El Nino
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: 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. 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. When in the down position, you want your hips, feet, knees, shoulders to all be facing perpendicular to the direction your toes Read More . . .
But … how do you know? Part 2
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 Read More . . .
I don’t think my body is supposed to do that
On Labor Day, Yoga studios around Austin sponsored “A Free Day of Yoga“. I used that opportunity to try Bikram Yoga. Many people that I had talked to about Bikram Yoga loved it, for various reasons, but mainly because it was a really good workout for a yoga class. Bikram yoga is held in a room at 105 degrees & 40% humidity, and consists of the same 26 postures performed 2 times, in the same order, for the same duration each class. I was expecting it to be hot. I was expecting it to be difficult. I was expecting not to like it. I was not expecting to leave class. I was not expecting to be the best one in the class. I was expecting to be able to hold my own – and I think I did hold my own. My initial thoughts were “I don’t think that my Read More . . .
But … how do you know? Part 1
On the bottom of every nutritional facts label there is a foot note. The footnote tells us that diets based on 2000 & 2500 Calories should have "x" amount of Total Fat, Saturated Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium, Total Carbohydrates and Fiber respectively. That's great, but how do you know which one you should abide by? How many Calories do you need in a day? Three things influence how many calories you need in order to maintain your weight. Your Metabolism (aka: Basal Metabolic Rate – BMR) The amount of activity that you get on a daily basis (aka: Thermic Effect of Activity – TEA) How many Calories your body uses to process the foods that you eat (aka: Thermic Effect of Food – TEF) Your metabolism is responsible for using the bulk of your calories in a day – roughly 75%. A few things contribute to your metabolism: Genetics Age Weight Read More . . .
MapMyRun ROCKS
This is the route I ran this morning: Around the Golf Course & through the Neighborhood MapMyRun is a great site for runners or bikers or walkers or anyone who wants to map out the route theyhave or want to take! Read More . . .
New Year’s Resolutions
I am typically not a person who makes New Year's Resolutions. I definitely make goals, but I guess that I've never put much stock in New Year’s Resolutions because I am continually evaluating my life, where it is and where I want it to be, that I don’t wait for the beginning of the new year to set my goals and start working towards them. I think that the New Year is a good time for reflection; looking back on what has happened over the past year, observing which aspects of my life are better, which have stayed the same, and which are worse off. I’ll often try to imagine myself at the end of this year. What do I want to be different? Just imagining what my life is going to be like in a year, five years or ten sets the foundation for my life; because if I Read More . . .
You don’t look like a body builder
For the first time in my life I feel like I can call myself an athlete. I competed in two figure body building competitions 1 week apart from one another at the beginning of November 2005. Did I win? No, but I got up there & did it, I am in the best shape of my life, and for that, I won something for myself – something that no one could give me. There are a couple of different reactions that I get from people when I tell them that I am a competitive body builder. First, they look me up & down & state: “You don’t look like a body builder.” I’m never quite sure how to take this comment. Is it a compliment? Or an insult? I assume that “You don’t look like a body builder.” means that I don’t look like a man, so I thank them Read More . . .