Phit-N-Phat...Making Fitness and Weightloss a Lifestyle

Food That Has Power Over You

We often think of food as the enemy. When I say food has power over you...what pops in your head? Be honest!

- Do you think about wild needs for chocolate at night?

- Does a bag of chips on the counter render you munching your way through cooking dinner?

- When you go out to Mexican the chips in the basket just can't be turned down?

Food DOES have incredible power over us. If we aren't planning and prepping for our week it can have the wrong kind of power.

But I want to talk about the positive power food has. I am working with a group training for the Country Music Half Marathon. This message inspired this post.

Corinne, I wanted to give you a special thanks for all the training tips and the tips for eating prior to and after walking/running. I feel so much better than I did the last time I trained and I know it is because of the things you have shared with us. Recovery is much easier and I don't feel like I need to go to bed when I am finished!!

We too often sit around thinking about all the negatives with living the lifestyle and fueling our bodies that we forget just how great good food can make us feel. I know that the day you stop seeing food as your enemy and embrace it as part of what your body needs, YOU DO BETTER!

So many of us grow up in the mentality that more is not better with food so we should starve to lose weight. Less must mean I'll lose. Most of the time it means you starve a few days, overeat the others, and either gain weight or stall all while busting your ass and feeling like shit. We don't know how to figure calories so we go with what we know: starve and then let food have POWER over us.

I believe the best thing for your body is easy; listen to it and give it enough food to do it's job. If the job right now is to workout and lose weight, then you gotta give it enough FOOD to do that and it's more than a lot of you think on a DAY to DAY basis. 

Notice I didn't mention you can't eat carbs, you should avoid fat, never do this or that. If you want to have loads of food rules go ahead but I can tell you to lose weight there aren't that many. The body wants healthy food and it rewards you when you eat a lot of it. Things like...

• regular poops (you can set a freaking watch to mine)
• increased energy
• prettier skin
• better workouts
• a happy mom and wife
• a worker who can THINK

and lots of other things.

I could get into a lot of detail on how to eat healthy but this blog is about embracing good, natural foods to feel the positive power food has over you. If you are tired of feeling like crap then quit eating it. 

And, feel free to ask questions in the comments of the blog. I'm happy to tell you my "food rules" for your situation. :)

Related Articles...

Wasted Calories

Journal Review: Body Minder

 

Creative Walk and Treadmill Routines to Burn Fat

The other day I talked about doing things outside of the norm to get the results you need. When I checked in on my Facebook weightloss accountability groups, I had this from one of members...

I was thinking this morning while getting ready for some kind of workout in my basement while out of town from my normal schedule and remembered I had a resistance band and went to Pnp and found the travel phit section! Corinne really gives you no excuse to workout in most situations! We give ourselves excuses! If you take time to look for help it's right there! Thanks Corinne!

I love this! It's why I created something called a hood workout a long time ago for my clients on PNP. A lot of my clients can't run but they are some MAD WALKERS. But, they also get adapted quick to walking and rather than going LONGER I have them go HARDER with creative breaks in their walks. Thus, we call it a hood walk because you just need to hit the street and get busy.

This video is one of me a few years ago discussing a hood walk. 

Intro to Hood Walk

The Circuits

Conclusion

I also found this article on Women's Health that has several types of circuit finishers to a walk. What I would do is pick one and do a ROUND ever 3-5 minutes of your 30-60 minute walk depending on fitness level. You can even do this by hopping on and off the treadmill if you can't get outside.

Hot Tip! Buy a 3-ring binder. When you come across creative workouts you like, type it up, print it off, and then put in the binder. Each day it's time for cardio, open the book, and then choose a workout. You can make a cardio calendar at the beginning of the month listing each workout OR you can have a goal to not repeat a workout for 7,15, 30 days once you collect plenty!

And, a long-time client and now dear friend wrote a blog about hood walks last week. Give her blog a read. If you like the Queen you will love Angela!

For my PNP private members you have the Work Your Butt Off Book and all kinds of fun and creative workouts in your materails I give you with enrollment. If you don't know where to find them, just ask in the forums and we will hook you up with awesome workouts to keep you busy. I come out with new workouts frequently so take advantage of them to shrink THY BOOTY!

Beachbody Challenge Starts October 3 and I'm READY.

Tomorrow I start the Beachbody Challenge on PNP with some lovely ladies and today we all had to weigh, measure, and take those starting pictures.

I decided to track my stuff here for the world to see...all my glory! It's a good record for me to use in the future and might help some of you see more of how I live. Most of my readers have watched me journey for a LONG time so I think this might be the first time you've seen me run and do videos. I'm always keeping it fresh!

My starting stats sort of spooked me a bit to be honest. All last year I worked on a huge build phase. I purposely put on 30lbs to gain some muscle. I went from this...in September of 2010...

 To this...by the end of my build in January of 2011.

There was no way I would get in a bikini in January and not because it was cold!

I currently weigh 3lbs less than I did in September 2101of last year in maintenance but my measurements are bigger. Even though my head knows I have more muscle than ever I still was like DANG I am a big girl! I thought on it all day with Chris and he said the most awesome thing, "This just proves you can't quantify how you look with any set of numbers." So true and thankfully I am married to such a wise man. 

I then looked through past pictures and he was so right. I look my most athletic today. The scale and inches are, like I tell you all the time, the indicators of where you are going. The mirror is where you decide if those numbers need to change.

I took my starting pics and I like what I see. I am proud of the hard work I put in weekly to improve my running, lift harder, exercise differently, and be a work in progress. That's it for me. I WILL never have the dream body but there is a lot of fun to be had just working hard to be my best. That's what I have to accept...I can only aim to be my best and that doesn't mean perfect!

So in this challenge I have a couple of goals. One is to run 20 miles a week until Christmas week. Two is after I finish Chalene Extreme with running that I am the same as I am today. No bigger and if I am smaller it's not by much. I DO LIKE HOW I LOOK TODAY and I have to quit equating success with losing weight. It's a hard habit to break. I've only ever known dieting my WHOLE life.

But, looking at all the pictures I have come along way since I started working the muscles!

First pic is me before I started my first ever build muscle season way back in Christmast 2008. I competed that year in August but was just super lean without much muscle. I had gone back to my fighting weight of 143-148lbs (my happy range).

A lot of vegetables, lean protein, almonds, protein shakes, oats, sweet potatoes, and fruit this is where I am today...

Here are my starting stats and it's go time! I'm ready to get stronger and faster with my girlies!

Body Part	9.16.08	9.22.09	9.13.10	10.2.11
Shoulders	39.5 in	40	39.5	41
Ribcage	30.5 in	29.5	30	30.5
Belly Button	34.5 in	36	34	36
Hips	38.5 in	38.5	38	39.5
Thigh (Right)	22 in	20.5	22	23
Calf (Right)	15.5 in	15	16	17
Arm (Right)	10.5 in	10.5	11	12.75
Weight	143 lbs	144.2	150.00	147

Now the whole world knows all they need to about the Queen of PNP! Hope we all have fun during the next three months!

Weekend or Weakend?

My friend and orignial PNP crew member sent this to me first thing this morning. She read it from a Dairy Queen sign and make it PNP!

"Seven days without PNP makes one weak."

It was so appropriate for today's topic: turning your WEAKend into a WEEKend.

I shot a little video explaining some curious coincidences and ideas I have on changing the pitfalls into successes.  

 

I INVITE all of you to share your successes OR tell me what your biggest pitfall is and what you can do to change it. I'm always here to help.

I've also included after the video a copy of a past blog I wrote about dieting. I hope it inspires you to dig a little deeper and be the woman you want to be.

 

www.phit-n-phat.com

 

Defining Your Diet Success - Oct. 7, 2007

Chris Rock did a comedy special years ago where he was joking on men who brag…

“I takes care of my kids.”

“I pay my child support.”

“I ain’t ever been to jail.”

He said in a way only Chris Rock can say, “What? You are bragging about the things you are SUPPOSED TO DO!?!” “You are SUPPOSED TO take care of your kids, you aren’t supposed to go to jail…” It was hilarious but it also rings true in the diet world.

There is a common theme I’ve noticed through my reading of journals and answering questions daily on the Weight Watcher’s Fitness Getting Started board. People tend to celebrate the 90% of the stuff they turn down that is tempting and minimize the 10% they do eat.

“I didn’t touch the chips, dips, soda, wings, and hamburgers…(sheepishly) but I had a couple of cookies.”

“I didn’t have the pizza, cookies, and snacks…but I had a sliver of birthday cake.”

I’m not trying to be a food nazi here, and I am not knocking anyone for making lots of good choices. What I am saying is that you don’t get a medal for turning down foods that make you fat when you do in fact indulge in an unplanned bite. That’s what changing your lifestyle is all about. Learning to control those impulsive bites and behaviors that lead you to your current state of fitness.

My deal is that you get a splurge meal each week or you get a treat each day built into your points or calories. If your nibbles were planned…good for you and brag all you want because you are making big changes in lifestyle. But, if you find yourself patting yourself on the back for not consuming the whole cake but only part of it, well, just make sure it is well deserved and that you aren’t just fooling yourself.

Most people who have a tough time losing fat are the people who lose their calories in the details. They workout hard, make good choices “most of the time”, and still can’t get the scale to budge. If this stuff rings true, think honestly about what success really is. It only takes a mere 200 calories a day of unplanned bites or oops moments to throw you into maintenace living.

Losing fat isn’t easy. It’s hard work! It takes determination, saying no to things you like, busting your rump (if you aren’t busting your rump…let me show you how with my training programs ), and living unlike your friends and family. Face it, if it was easy everyone would be hot!

Today, look at yourself honestly and decide if you are truly doing all you can or if you are just telling yourself you are doing all you can.

Ya’ll get out there and make this an active and healthy day!

__________________

Workout Journal: Today is a run only and an easy one. My quads are pretty fried from yesterday’s leg workout so a light run should make them feel better. No lifting today.

Food Journal:
B – Oatmeal with Fage and Peanut Butter
S – Cantaloupe and Cheese Stick
L – SBD Pizza and green salad
S – SBD Protein Bar (I’ll be getting my hair done all afternoon…it’s a lot of work)
D – Ground Turkey and Marinara Pasta with green salad
S – Fage