Feel Good Friday

Good morning! On Wednesday afternoon, I had the chance to attend a conference with Dr. Robert Cooper, a renowned neuroscientist turned Fortune-100 business coach. He is actually my boss’s mentor. It was neat to hear all of his insights about how the brain works, how each of us is hardwired for one thing but then defaults to other things, how the brain is a forgetting instrument but how we can make changes and differences in our thought processes in increase our innovation in half the time. He’s the author of a book called Get Out of Your Own Way, which is one I plan on reading sometime soon.


One section of his presentation was all about metabolism, which I think really applies to our blog! He has teams of researchers dedicated to various research fields and projects for him. One such team is dedicated to researching just metabolism, the MetRev© team. They have discovered through their research a list of the following MetRev© Metabolic Prompts, or in other words, things that increase your metabolism, burning more calories resting:

• Breathing/Posture (Take deep breathes more often, increase the flow of oxygen, don’t cock your head to the side or forward when sitting or reading b/c 30% of your collective intelligence is determined by your shoulder to head position, decreasing the flow of oxygen and blood)

• Bright Light (Looking 5 seconds at a light will raise your metabolism 30% for the following hour, change your light often)

• Smart Snacks (smart snacks and light meals aren’t universal and what works for one doesn’t work for another, if you LOVE a snack then it doubles your metabolic rate, so if you hate rice cakes, don’t force yourself to eat them! Find a healthy snack you love to eat)

• Light Meals (higher protein adds mental alertness, complex carbs add mental calmness, fruits and veggies are mentally neutral, high fat foods are mentally fatiguing)

• Muscle Toning (our muscle fibers are metabolic furnaces)

• Physical Activity (exercise makes you sleep deeper)

• Hot Spices (I was thinking about this last night when Abrey was describing her way too firey dinner she made- hehehe)

• Ice-cold Water (the key here is SIPPING, if you sip 6 glasses of ice-cold water a day, you’ll burn 226.7 extra calories per day average, and the preferred place your body pulls calories from to heat the water within your stomach before it can be absorbed/digested is the belly fat)

• Non-Hurtful Humor

• Work-to-Home Transition

• Cool Temperature for Sleeping (1-5 am is the critical time for deep sleep, you’ll sleep deeper if it’s cooler in your bedroom, healing process of your muscles speeds up, metabolism roars, better recovery)



All of these things dial in your senses more and increase your metabolism. Another interesting tid bit was that half of all arguments are hunger related. Keep that at bay w/ the almost constant light snacking, or at least feed the one you’re about to fight with. Jk



What do you guys thing of that? I for one am really going to implement the cooler sleeping temperature, the ice cold water sipping, and looking at lights once in a while!!!!!!  Though maybe I won't go to the extreme of making an ice bed... :)

Feel the Burn Thursday

Hellooooo :)  How are you ladies all doing?  So the name of the game with workouts in my opinion is perseverance.  How many times have we all started workout regimes, they only last a week, and then you peter out?!  It takes your body six weeks to begin to develop a good habit, so we're never giving our body the CHANCE it deserves if we don't stick to something for at least six weeks.  Give it a try with this 10 in 6 challenge.  Our bodies are so amazing.  They can do so much.  They are more powerful and able to endure and succeed than we give them credit for.  Don't take for granted the gift of our bodies.  Here are some fun perseverance quotes that I found- think of them in light of how our fitness journeys are marathons not sprints:

• "I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature." -John D. Rockefeller.
• "Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves." -Dale Carnegie
• "Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain." -Author Unknown
• "The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground." -Author Unknown
• "Fall seven times, stand up eight." -Japanese Proverb
• "He conquers who endures." -Persius
• "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." -Albert Einstein
• "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." -G.B. Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893
• "The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling." -Lucretius
• "If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking." -Buddhist Saying
• "Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down." -Charles F. Kettering
• "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
• "With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable." -Thomas Foxwell Buxton
• "Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second." -William James
• "Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use." -Earl Nightingale
• "Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go." -William Feather
• "Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before." -Jacob A. Riis
• "Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries." -John Albert Michener
• “How long should you try? Until.” -Jim Rohn
• “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” -Benjamin Franklin
• “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other” -Walter Elliott

What workouts have you been doing this week and what do you have planned for this weekend?  Every little bit helps, even just fitting in an extra minute or two of moving around during your usual day.

Whatcha Eatin' Wednesday?

Good morning!  :)  I hope you all are making it a beautiful day.  So, pulling from Lance's comment yesterday that the more knowledge you have concerning your challenges, the more successful you'll be at pulling yourself through them with flying colors, here's a little Nutrition 101 for you that I've spent some time looking up.  Some may be common sense, some may be news, and ALL of it definitely needs your input, knowledge, and help to complete b/c I am no expert.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Water 101: Drink LOTS of water. The old addage is 8 glasses (one glass being commonly defined as 8 ounces).  A newer article that I found interesting has a calculator for determining the right amount of water for you to aim for each day, dependent upon gender and weight.  I think we'd all be doing just fine to aim for somewhere between the two.  Just do the best you can :)  Benefits of cold water drinking include:

• Revving up your metabolism to burn more calories,
• Eleviating/preventing headaches, migraines, chronic fatigue, and depression,
• Lessening the burden on our kidneys to flush out body toxins,
• Decreasing the risk of heart attacks,
• Maintainnig good digestion for better utilization of the nutrients you consume resulting in more energy,
• Relaxing and invigorating the body,
• Easing joint pain,
• and Preventing overeating when we subconsciously are driven to eat more to gain the necessary water supply (b/c we can confuse the thirst feeling with the hunger feeling).

How do you get in your water each day?

Protein 101:  Eat LOTS of it.  According to this runners' diet article, if you want to lose weight, about 25% of the calories you consume each day should be from protein sources, and furthermore clumped to just after your workout.  Benefits of getting in your daily protein include:

• Making you feel fuller for longer,
• Helping to build and maintain lean muscle mass,
• and Repairing your micro-tears in your muscles following a workout.

How do you get in your protein each day?

Fiber 101:  According to a different runners' diet article, fiber is important to keep in your diet.  It's found mostly in veggies, beans, and whole grains.  Having fiber too close to a workout, though, might cause side stitches or a bloated feeling.  It's best to have it during restful periods of your day.  Benefits of getting in your daily fiber include:

• Making you feel fuller for longer by slowing your digestive process, which also gives your body a steadier stream of nutrient absorption,
• Filling you up with few calories,
• Taking longer to eat,
• and Keeping your colon healthy and thus preventing colon cancer and digestive disorders.

How do you get in your fiber each day?

Carbohydrates 101:  Carbs are the biggest source of fuel for our bodies.  But as much as I'd like to have 100% of my food be carbs, according to this runners' diet article, if you want to lose weight, about 50% of the calories you consume each day should be from carbs, and furthermore clumped to right around the time you're going to be active. Benefits of getting your carbs include:

• Giving you the energy to sustain you during your workouts

Fats 101:  Losing weight doesn't mean cutting all fats.  Again, supposedly up to 25% of your calories should be from healthy fat sources, but they're best consumed during your restful times of the day.  Benefits of fats include:

• Slowing your digestion down to make you feel fuller longer

Sodium 101:  We've been warned to watch our sodium/salt intake, keep it minimal.  There are some good things and some bad things to sodium.   It seems that many processed foods that are low-calorie are also high in sodium b/c the put the sodium in there to compensate for the lack of natural flavor.  Sodium does these things:

• Increases water weight gain, a.k.a. feeling & looking bloated,
• Increases your chances of high blood pressure which leads to a whole host of other problems including increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke, and
• Increases urinary calcium, a.k.a. calcium leaving your body instead of benefiting your bones.

But don't write sodium out completely, because a light amount of sodium is still important for high-intensity workouts and preventing dehydration.  Here are a couple of articles: 1 & 2.

Now I'm very excited to hear all your knowledge, tips, tricks, snacks, & meals you've been preparing this week!!!!  Share away :)

Tuesday Motivation

Good morning, wonderwomen :)

Today's musings are based on three recent things in my life have all centered around living life ALIVE.  First, a family friend passed away last night (Jeanie on this challenge knows him, too), earlier than he should have left this life.   Second, I finished an audio book over our long weekend of driving, Lance Armstrong's story "It's Not About The Bike." He battled and won against cancer and all medical odds, and won the Tour de France (just one time when this book was written) as a greater appreciator of life and human capacity.  Third, I ran a marathon last Saturday, and amongst all the crazy and funny things I heard there, I liked best at the very beginning before we started running when an announcer was commenting on the brisk weather saying, "It's mornings like this that you know you're alive."

Life life ALIVE!  Don't sleep through life, don't procrastinate things you've always wanted to do, don't throw away time being complacent, frumpy, overweight, lazy, or unhappy.  Change something.  Do something to make it unmistakable to yourself that you are ALIVE! 

Here's an excerpt from the very end of Lance's story, and it talks about cancer survival, but think of it in light of this challenge and the fight for our fitness, health, and longevity: “The definition of courage is a quality of spirit that enables one to encounter danger with firmness and without fear…Children have higher cure rates…Adults know too much about failure. They’re more cynical and resigned, fearful….If children have the ability to ignore odds and percentages, maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other chance is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: Give up or fight like hell…anything’s possible…you have to believe and you have to fight…by fight I mean arm yourself with all the available information…the more informed and empowered patient has a better chance at long term survival…What if I had lost?...I still believe I would have gained something in the struggle…In what time I had left, I would have been a more complete, intelligent, and compassionate man, and therefore more alive. The one thing the illness has convinced me of beyond all doubt, more than any experience I’ve had as an athlete, is that we are much better than we know. We have unrealized capacities that sometimes only emerge in a crisis. So if there is a purpose to the suffering that is cancer, it is this: it is meant to improve us.”

From that, I take away the message that we can be overweight, lazy, come up with excuses, become resigned to the fact that we'll always be the way we've always been, think being fit is for other people and we'll just never acheive that OR we can "fight like hell," learn everything we can about our bodies, exercise, nutrition, and live each day with positive hope, energy, faith, and belief.  "WE ARE MUCH BETTER THAN WE KNOW. WE HAVE UNREALIZED CAPACITIES."  Yes, it's hard to day in and day out watch what we eat and find the energy to blast away calories in sweat sessions.  But you are better than you know.  You decide each day if you're going to resign or fight.  Experience and savor every second of life. Be more complete.  Be more alive.  Thank you for fighting with me!  Love you all :)  Make it a fantastic week in the challenge!  What are you going to do this week to wake up your body and show it you're alive? :)

Monday Check-In

Good morning, Ladies!  How was your weekend?  Share with us how much you're up or down in weight and any changes you've noticed.  I can't wait to hear how you all did in your first week!

Also, today's going to start the first side-challenge :) Here it is: There are 13 active participants this time around in the 10 in 6 challenge (I haven't heard from Kim for her info and I haven't heard from Jessie if she'd like to continue from last challenge, so these two aren't counted in the 13).  If, as an entire group of 13 active participants, we collectively lose 26 lbs total (2 lbs per person average), then I'll send you something special in the mail as a prize :)  Yes, I stole this fair and square from BL, but I don't care.  I think 2 lbs for each of us this coming week is definitely do-able.  Your fellow challengers depend on you!  You can do it! Push it extra hard!