Grass-Fed-Strength: September 2014

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Gym-Trepidation...It's Real, It's Ugly And We're Going to Squash It

Recently, I had a conversation with someone who said they prefer to work out at home alone, stating they are fearful of all the gym equipment. I thought "Ya, no joke!" I decided most people feel at least a little timid at the gym, no matter what they look like. I think it's mostly the notion that people are watching and/or judging you. But I also think you can turn that around and begin to LOVE that people are watching you. Let's get to business and make some tweaks to help you destroy that fear and trample over some fitness goals.

IT STARTS WITH FAILING

FEAR HOLDS US BACK.
How can we get over that fear so we can reach our dreams? I am a HUGE believer that what you do in the gym (or during your work outs if you don't do the gym) is symbolic for what you do in life. How often do you push yourself out of your comfort zone? When you start moving away from your current comfort level at the gym, you get stronger emotionally and physically. Now imagine what you can do outside the gym with that new strength.

One of my favorite quotes I heard at my first Tough Mudder was, "When was the Last time you did something for the First time?" Doing things for the first time can be scary, no doubt there, but the longer/more you do them, the less scary they become. And it all starts with the first time. Was I scared before my first Tough Mudder? You betcha! All the better rewards though because I faced that fear head on.

I feel very firmly that when you stretch out of your comfort zone, your excess body weight magically falls off. Fat on our body serves as a protector for us, keeping us nice and warm and safe...But it doesn't allow us to grow and move passed our fear. It's kind of like the over-protective mother who smothers you with love when you fall off your bike. Then, Instead of brushing you off and getting you back on the bike, she takes the bike away.

Sometimes you need to be a little uncomfortable to get what you REALLY want. And I know you really want to be fit and get rid of the excess weight that haunts you. Don't forget the gym can be the medium that gets you there. Now, what are you willing to do to get it? When you want it bad enough, nothing can stop you. What if facing your gym fear was all that was holding you back from reaching your goals?

Curtail fear of the gym:

(for use in your arsenal)

1. Plan your workouts in advance. Know before you go in there what you are going to work on. Make it outside your comfort zone, even just a little. Baby steps are OK!

2. Testosterone building. Ever heard of the wonder woman pose? Turns out it actually builds testosterone (testosterone=confidence - I freakin' LOVE you, testosterone.) Hold this pose for two minutes. Use that two minutes to face a mirror and repeat some positive self talk. Testosterone is for us girls too, don't think the boys get to have all the fun! Testosterone makes you feel happy,energetic and confident. A fun read about what testosterone can do for you here.

(I am strong, I am powerful, I am hot, I am fearless, etc.)

An excellent video on body language. Ted Talks

3. Walk into the gym with a SMILE! Smile some of that yucky cortisol away. A smile never looks bad on anyone, trust me. A study showing smiling reduces cortisol and lowers your heart rate. Good for the old ticker=good for me!

4. Run or walk to the gym! Open up your energy channels, take deep refreshing breaths to expand your lungs and allow those endorphins to help you feel warm fuzzies inside

5. Try some cedarwood essential oil on your wrist. It's an essential oil that is known to increase courage while giving you self confidence and strength. Apply a drop or two to your wrist and be prepared to casually take a whiff when you feel intimidated

6. Laugh it off. Everyone feels a little timid trying new things, being in a new place around new faces. We’re human. Just know that the way you feel about the gym is the way someone else has felt before you. But the key here is to FOCUS on your goals. You’re at the gym to lose weight, look better, make friends? Well do that.

7. We learn so much from our dogs. Downward dog yoga poses helps to ground us and ease anxiety. Try this before or while at the gym.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Cover Me! I'm Going In (the DUNK Tank) Body Fat Test Time

My first time...dunking!

There are several ways to determine precise body fat in us humans, here are the ones I know about:
1) Air Compression Chamber

This makes me laugh

2) Calipers (those naughty squeezers have NO right to pinch me in those places!)

Oh hell no.

This is not me

3) A warm big-ass bath tub AKA a dunk tank, or hydrostatic body fat test. I chose this way because it was half price testing day, $25 and it was with a mobile testing facility. This meant I got to watch the Crossfit Masters Event at Front Range Crossfit, catch up with some old friends and get my dunk on. Indeed, good day in the life of Steph.

And the winner is: Hydrostatic body fat testing

Two things that made my test more amiable:

1) You get to wear your swim suit - YES!

2) Got to hold my nose under water - Can't take life too seriously when you are plugging your nose

Mobile Body Fat testing, bring it!

The test began with me sitting in a tub of warm water (swim suit required!) then you loop your feet under a bar to keep you secure. You can chose to wear a heavy weight "belt" across your lap to help remind you to stay under the water. When in the dunk tank, AIR=FAT so you want to get rid of all the air in your lungs. You get 3 dunks (or more if needed) to exhale all you've got in your lung reserves.Your goal is to try to get rid of most of your air while above water since it's less time under the water.

As you feel you are getting close to emptying your lungs, slowly lay down on your back under the water (with your nose plugged!) and continue breathing air out. Once you think you are out of air, and have used your abs to push it all out, then give yourself 2 last seconds under the water before coming up for breath. Totally painless but being out of oxygen still messes with your head.

My body fat average came to 17.9% body fat. Happy Steph. Here are my results below:
Resting Metabolic Rate: 1574 Calories - This is my calories burned if I was in a coma or just laying
in bed all day. Not gonna happen.
Daily Calories burned: 2249 Calories (this is without exercise) Bring on the steak and potatoes, this is more than I thought!

Did some math and determined:
Burning 2249 Calories means I could:
A) Eat 11.5 Donuts a day
B) Eat 59 Cups of Brussell sprouts - imagine the orchestra of music I could play if I did this.
C) Almost an entire large pepperoni pizza, tempting
D) Eat a whole jar of Almond butter **

** Not ideal but yummy for sure **
I suggest this for everyone not just because it's fun but because you can also find out how many calories you burn during exercise, specifically tailored to you. I burned over 3500 calories during my Pikes Peak hike. No wonder I was hungry!

Monday, September 22, 2014

SPRINTS...You Becoming A Cheetah

Let’s talk about sprints!!

Sprints are explosive, and make you feel like a total badass, all the while they are amazing body shapers!! It’s like getting to play God with your body composition! Let's find your inner cheetah and bring him out to play...

SPRINTS WILL:1. Burn fat 2. Build a 6-pack 3. Build and strengthen your fast-twitch muscles 4. Quickly turn you into a beast!!

I didn’t even talk about what sprints do for your hormones - Human Growth Hormone (HGH- the good stuff!) increases by 530% during a 30-second all-out sprint. How do I know this? Because HGH is produced when you are getting worked, when you are struggling to take a breath, then you know HGH has just been activated.

Now, anyone up for running sprints today?

1. Start with a 10 minute warm up first- warm up your muscles so you don't break them
2. Run as fast as you can for 30-seconds
3. Run/jog for a minute
4. Run as fast as you can for 30-seconds, repeat for a total of 6 times

Aim to do a slow run/jog between sprints but know it's OK if you need to walk in between them too! The more "active" you are between sprints the better, this is called active recovery. But just starting off, you can get used to the ides of just sprinting at top notch speed and work on active recovery later.

Did Sprints yesterday and was red in the face beyond recognition! Now that’s a workout to feel good about.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Increase Your Human Growth Hormone...Naturally. Trust Me, You Want This Stuff. Part 5 of Making Your Meat Suit Habitable

It's funny when you're playing something fun, like racquetball, and you're smiling at your opponent, saying the score but on the inside you're feeling aggressive, like you kinda want to slam that racquetball and hurt it. And maybe you are ever so slightly squinting at your opponent. I feel so sneaky when I when I feel that way, playing a semi-leisure game of racquetball. Nothing to do with Human Growth Hormone, but sharing none the less.

This is hot! A fit, lean machine

BENEFITS OF HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE:

Decrease fat accumulation (A FAVORITE!!)
Keep your body lean
Strengthen your bones
Promote rapid hair and nail growth

Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is also known as the youth hormone, she is our friend. Let it be known, HGH alone DOES NOT make your muscles huge, instead HGH is on a mission to make you lean. Human Growth Hormone is a VERY kind hormone, and believe me, you want this stuff in your body and you also want to work to get it. Please don't try to supplement Human Growth Hormone (steroids), it's cheating, it's lame and it's gross.

Natural HGH. Go Rich Froning!

Increase Your Human Growth Hormone, Naturally:

1. Get Your Sleep On! Night time is the most common time HGH is produced in the body. It's best to sleep in a cool, dark room for deep sleep benefits. Get Your Best Night of Sleep

2. Monitor your sugar/glycemic intake and keep your insulin levels low, HGH and insulin work against each other. Welcome the low-insulin paleo diet. Need more motivation to avoid sugar? Got you covered here with 9 Reasons to Avoid Sugar Like Your Life Depended on It.

No fruit 2 hours post workout

3. Just say NO to fructose (fruit sugar) after workouts. For a full 2 hours following a workout, ditch the fructose and sugar. I saw dramatic muscle gains after I stopped eating fruit post workout, not a coincidence AT ALL! This also includes HONEY, do not eat honey after you put in all that hard work. For a great recovery drink, go here. Not convinced yet? Read on my friend...

"Fructose fools your metabolism and essentially tricks your body into gaining weight by turning off your body's appetite-control system. It also rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity ("beer belly"), decreased HDL, increased LDL, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure -- i.e., classic metabolic syndrome. Additionally, consuming fructose, including that from fruit juices, within two hours of a high-intensity workout will decimate your natural human growth hormone (HGH) production - a MAJOR benefit of interval training." (excerpt from Fitness.Mercola.com)

4. Intermittent Fasting - I am a huge advocate of fasting! Fasting causes your body to use your stored body fat as a fuel source. YES! Applause!! You can easily do a fast by consuming an early dinner at 5pm and then the next day eating breakfast at 9am. Done, you just fasted 16 hours and it was painless. Fasting info here. I noticed I have an increase in power and energy when I workout in a fasted state, it's true. A bonus, give yourself about 15 hours of fasting and you might just reach ketosis.

A hairy, happy grass eating cow.

5. Eat your grass fed beef. It will create a chemical which will encourage the pituitary gland to produce more HGH. Benefits of grass fed beef can be read about here.

6. Keep your liver happy. Even if you are producing HGH by the bucketful, if you have a fatty or dirty liver from drinking or toxins, your body won't absorb the HGH. RESPECT your liver and your liver will do you a lot of favors in a lot of areas.

7. Eat Fava Beans. Multiple sources have confirmed this to give you huge increases of HGH though I am personally not a fan. A recipe here for you.

8. Let it Burn! The burning sensation you feel when you are pushing yourself hard in a workout is lactic acid.

When you feel the burn, it means your body is going to produce HGH. It could makes you think, "it burns so good" More info on HGH and exercise here.

9. Avoid eating 3 hours before you go to sleep, good for your HGH and for your gastrointestinal tract (GI). Happy GI=Happy Me

10. If you're into supplements, I suggest L'Argine and GABA, though I've never tried these myself

Feel a little behind the 8-Ball on the Weight Loss Series?
Making Your Meat Suit Habitable, catch up:

Part 1: Starting the Weight Loss Wheels in Motion
Part 2: Proper Care And Feeding of Your Liver
Part 3: Body Fat Map
Part 4: Exercise on A Mission

References:
http://www.nowloss.com/increase-human-growth-hormone-hgh-naturally.htm
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/04/13/fructose-post-workout-meal-support.aspx

Exercise On a Mission: Workout Like You Mean To Lose Weight. Part 4, Making Your Meat Suit Habitable

Exercise was not something I grew up doing, it wasn't a huge part of my life as a kid. While I briefly played soccer growing up, it wasn't until I was in my early 20's that my fitness journey began. Once I discovered trail running and felt the glorious feeling of conquering a mountain; I was hooked for life. After trail running, I dabbled in yoga, then Crossfit and now I love mud races and being a gym rat. Fitness never ends and there's always something new and exciting to learn. Being fit allows you to be a jack of all trades in fitness. My point is that you don't have to have a fitness background, you don't have to be a natural; it's all teachable and I'm about to make fitness more fun for you.

Ever seen competitive Crossfitters? If not, let me enlighten you. The look of fit:

Christmas Abbott, Um Merry Christmas...AMAZING

Some of the Best Crossfitters are motivating to watch and just plain fun to look at

Fitness models have nothing on them these muscles are functional

Exercise. The fast track cure to a plethora of hormonal imbalances. Exercise can:

Increase your human growth hormone (youth hormone! the good guy)
Reduce excess estrogen (the bad guy when in excess)
Increase testosterone for strength and confidence
Lower cortisol
Reduce blood sugar imbalances

Want fast and furious changes to your body composition? AND feel like a warrior while doing it? EXERCISE with a PURPOSE! Your goal with exercise is to tweak your hormones by causing a neuroendocrine response. What, what did you say? A neuroendocrine response means you are shifting your hormones into badass-motha fat-loss mode. This is why Crossfit athletes are super fit machines.

This idea of changing your hormones far surpasses the notion of going to the gym just to burn calories. This means you go to the gym to build muscle, change your body composition and become super fit! Doing intense exercise will increase your Human Growth Hormone and testosterone, thus your body will effortlessly reduce fat storage in areas like your thighs, belly and chest. In fact, a friend of mine very recently started going to Crossfit and like magic, dropped 5 pounds in her first two weeks. That's getting results! You don't have to go to Crossfit to make this happen for you, I'm going to help show you how you can do it on your own.

Exercise Powerhouses:

1. HIIT - High Intensity Interval Training. This means intervals. You don't stay at the same speed on the bike, you do speed work, then you rest or you do less hard work and you cycle through that. This is how you burn fat: you get your heart rate up, then you let it fall down again in cycles. You could even run Sprints!

What can HIIT do for you:

Keeps your fat burning furnace on full blast even AFTER you have left the gym/stopped working out
Makes you POWERFUL like a bear, STRONG like a lion and FAST like a cheetah

BEST HIT Workout of all Time!

Pull Ups for a sexy upper body

2. Compound Movements Picture deadlifts, squats, and pull ups and all the muscles and joints you use for those moves. Compound moves does you a huge favor by allowing you to steer clear of isolation movements and all the strange equipment at the gym. The hamstring curl machine, bicep curls and lat pull down machines can gather dust for all I care; unless you're training for a figure competition or need to work just one muscle. Where isolation moves are working each individual muscle at a time, compound movements work multiple muscles at one time- TA-DA! You get stronger FASTER and you have way more fun! The best part about functional, compound movements is you are training your body for the real world. How do you pick up something heavy? You deadlift it. How do you pull yourself over a wall? You pull yourself up. How do you sit down? You squat. This is what functional fitness is all about.

How many muscles are being used here?

Benefits of Compound Movements:

Works your core. No more need to separate ab work from your workout. Compound movements will indirectly build your 6-pack abs while making other parts of you strong. WINNING.
Reduce body fat fast because compound movements demand a lot of energy output
Allows you to lift heavier things thus building more lean muscle

Coming to the gym to get super fit? Say NO to hamy curls

Compound Movements:

Barbell anything
Kettlebell swings, snatches
Squats
Deadlifts
Pull ups
Power Cleans
Burpees
Push presses
Dips

3. Tabata Is the 'wham, bam thank you ma'am' of workouts. It's a 4 minute fat-blasting workout. A version of HIIT, tabata is 20 seconds of work followed immediately by 10 seconds of rest, then repeated for a total of 8 rounds. Download a Tabata song onto your IPOD so you know when to stop and start working & don't have to be a slave to the clock. Download here.

"A study by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata, who founded Tabata training, found that high intensity training improved VO2 max (or your maximal oxygen consumption) by about 14%, while anaerobic capacity improved by 28%. These effects will help you shed those extra pounds of fat, while also building lean muscle. " - Muscle and Fitness Magazine

Remember! The key is to workout with intensity and do it consistency. One killer workout a week won't cut it, you need more than that to get into beast mode. Your workouts need to be intense 3 times a week, consistently. This means you need to find something you love to do, because if you hate it- you can't make it happen regularly. Sure, you can force the issue for a while, but we're not talking about a while, we are talking long term.

A Beckham workout? Got it right here!

4. Sprints! Sprints make you feel like a warrior, a sweaty badass warrior who wins all battles. You can't lose when sprinting. Doesn't matter your speed, it's a customized speed that you decide is hardest for that particular sprinting day. It's going ALL out, multiple times. And I suggest not stopping or walking between sprints but instead keeping with a slow jog or walk. Sprints are intervals at their finest moments of glory.

Need workout ideas?

1. Follow my Tumblr blog where I post a lot of my workouts here.
2. Get years of workouts for free on Crossfit.com in their archives
3. Bob Harper's Deck of Cards
4. Check out Healthy Habits Exercise page
5. Crossfit Travel workouts (WODS), 100 of them

Feel a little behind the 8-Ball on the Weight Loss Series?
Making Your Meat Suit Habitable, catch up:

Part 1: Starting the Weight Loss Wheels in Motion
Part 2: Proper Care And Feeding of Your Liver
Part 3: Body Fat Map

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Mud Which Binds Us: Conquering The Colorado Tough Mudder

The Mud Mile. Trenches of butt grabs!

The Tough Mudder in Colorado was a dirty 11-mile obstacle course in the mountains of Snowmass, near Aspen. Over 8,000 of us Tough Mudders were fueled by crisp-morning-mountain-air-energy and motivational words. We were all ready to get sweaty and muddy in with a playground of obstacles at our disposal! The quote I decided to hijack from the Tough Mudder start line speech was "Give it your best because NO BODY CAN BEAT YOUR BEST!"

The first time I heard of the Tough Mudder was three years ago and I thought the whole concept was insane. I didn't think I could ever do something so crazy! It's so funny how much your opinion can change through the years. Now a Tough Mudder doesn't seem crazy at all. There were Moms, Grandparents and people in wheelchairs completing the course. That's a lesson for us in not letting our minds place limits on our abilities. Be LIMITLESS.

Since I ran the course, I have been asked by people what my favorite part of the Tough Mudder was and every time I came up with a different answer. So I decided the camaraderie was what impressed me the most, and so I'd say that was my favorite piece. Hands down, the most camaraderie I experienced was during the mud mile. The trenches of the Mud Mile were full of murky water and a muddy bottom that limited your movement and climbing. Us ladies were putting out a hand to help big men dig in and climb over. This is where butt-hoists were labeled "helpful" and were actually justified. Strength alone could not get you over the mud walls, but a helping hand could. It was this team atmosphere that melted my heart, well that and the mostly innocent booty hoists.

Tough Mudder Moments to Remember:

Walk The Plank. Hell Ya.

1. Walk the Plank was the most paralyzing because the height (a 20ft jump into water) but I had the least amount of time to think about it so it was almost painless.

2. Pole Dancer was the most physically challenging because I could only move inches at a time while I was holding myself up on two paralette bars over water. The pain was lengthy but I had a huge amount of support from my group who cheered me on until the bittersweet end.

Pole dancer. No Legs allowed!

3. The most premeditated was Everest as I went last. I ran up the half pipe at my top speed (full speed ahead!) and as I went to grab for my teammate's hand, he pulled it away. My first thought was, "What the Eff!" and my next was, "Oh Crap, I need to grab onto something!" And guess who made it up on their own, this girl with her best beaming smile.

Everest. This is not me, just a sweet pic!

4. I looped up and over the Berlin walls multiple times because I considered it something that "can't be duplicated in the gym" and was excited that I had the strength to climb them solo

Berlin Wall

Just The Tip (Top)of Balls to the Wall

5. Balls to the Wall happened twice because I heart rope climbing AND I happened to overhear a fellow Tough Mudder mention "legless rope climbs" so I had to try climbing the rope without using the wall for support. The legless idea lasted about one arm reach before I decided I was probably born with legs for this very event and should use them.

Funky Monkey. You had me at Funky.

6. The most mentally-daunting was the Funky Monkey because the risk of falling into ice water below is very real. The monkey bars are slippery with mud and water and there was some distance, probably 20 feet of maneuvering above the water. Your arms get tired and your hands are slippery, but it sure feels good to make it to the other side.

You can see I'm getting shocked if you look at my neck. Can you say Tendons?

7. The most over amplified obstacle was Electroshock Therapy because it was WAY overdone in my head. Yes it did HURT, and yes it was managable. Sometimes your expectations can throw you for a loop. I only got shocked twice during my go through. Some people didn't get shocked at all and some got blasted 10+ times. Although, I didn't do burpees or hold my arms out Jesus-style like some crazies (true story) but I do consider myself lucky in an electrical sense. And I might have some intense karma shocking coming my way for next Mudder. Stay tuned.

The Warrior Carry, we took turns don't worry!

Overall, the Colorado hills themselves were immense and I didn't feel properly trained to run all of them.Often where a switch back would have been more compassionate to us Tough Mudders, the course opted instead for a direct ascent. We climbed from 8,500 feet up to 9,500 feet, (1000 feet in elevation gain) in the first 7.5 miles. Mostly, we walked the hills but every now and then I got an itching to run them and I didn't hold back. People were handing out "'attaboys" as I slowly "ran" up the hills. Their encouragement gave me more steam. The majority of people were running/walking in single file lines on the trails and following was both relaxing and frustrating. The lines created "no-pass" zones and limited you from keeping any kind of pace, but did also allow you to chill out and enjoy the Tough Mudder experience.

Good times.High Fives and fist bumps. We all made it. The race day ended with boastful grins, deep mountain sunburns and an almost finished bottle of whiskey. I felt both ecstatic and pooped at the same time. Decided I was not completely broken though, I am saving broken status for the World's Toughest Mudder 2015. After the race, I vegged out in my hotel room, ate a crap load of almond butter and slept like a baby tiger.

Tough Mudder gives each of us a headband that is color coded to represent how many times we finished a Tough Mudder. Orange was my color, for first timers. Second-timers got green. I saw black for World's Toughest Mudders. I kinda wanted to ask those people what the hell was wrong with them at the same time as I wanted to pick their brains about this World's Toughest Mudder business. Something so crazy that I can barely wrap my mind around it, kinda like what I used to think of the Tough Mudder. Funny how that works.

You might just be a Tough Mudder First Timer if...

1.You face plant in Electro Shock Therapy. Had I known face-planting was something that could occur I would have been even more terrified. You see, the problem with falling inside ElectroShock therapy is NOBODY wants to get in there to help you. That's a real pickle.

Fire In Your Hole. Legionaire obstacle.

2. You feel excluded from the Leggionaire course but REALLY upset that you don't get to do Fire In Your Hole because Colorado laws won't allow fire on the course. So you sign up for another Tough Mudder in Texas.

3. You drink 4 beers the night before the Tough Mudder. WTH.

4. Your feet go so fast on the downhill that stopping is too much work so you strap on your biggest shit-eating-grin and let go!

5.You shamelessly crack Asian jokes, steal restaurants pens in plain sight, and frequent questionable goth night clubs (not to name any names!)

Chris, making it look casual

Robin getting dirty

Yolanda who gets extra points keeping her sunnies on the whole time

You could be ready for Leggionnaire Status if...

1.You sprint on the steepest part of the course for a $5 bet.

2.You can't reach the bell by mere veritcal jump & request a lift to smack it like you mean it.

3. You wear muddy hand prints on your bright pink yoga pants and can discuss boobs and implant recovery for miles.

4. You say how disgusting a McDonalds is & then someone mentions you ate Wendy's the day before. Thrown.Under.The.Bus.

You are awfully close to World's Toughest Mudder Status if...

1. You are willing to pee yourself to avoid removing your compression pants in a porta potty

2. You participate in the #IWILL challenge following whisky shots, beer, oh, and after the Tough Mudder

Pull ups, box jumps &Tire flips, Oh my!

3.You maintain a "The Show Must Go On" approach despite an injured ankle and knee...Eight people.Two injuries in 11 miles- not bad. And both injured kept the show going, Advil- Free

4. You race through Electro Shock Therapy like this guy, only to crash at the end. "Yes, he's still down folks!" the announcer said

A Beast

You are DEFINITELY World's Toughest Mudder material if:

1. In your attempt to reach the top of Everest, you fall down, smack your boob on the half pipe and get right back up to go again. Yes, Tiffany, you are Tough.