Surviving Summer Workouts

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- Beth Beauchemin (Read About Beth)

Whoo-hooo!  Summer has officially arrived (this week, anyway)!  Long sunny days, warm nights, daily gelato runs (the power walk to the gelato café“justifies” the calories…. or something like that…).  I am so excited that summer is here, and with it the season for rock star outdoor workouts.  Well, right now I’m busy teaching rock star Belly Bootcamp stroller classes, and hoping to join them by mid-August after baby #2 is born… fingers crossed!

With today’s unseasonally high temperature, the ladies and I played it cool in the shade – lots of strength work with our very portable elastic tubing and utilizing all the great surfaces that Toronto’s parks provide us with (love picnic benches to get legs looking great!) However, sooner or later, it’s inevitable that we will be exercising under the hot summer sun.  With all the recent controversy about how to play it safe in the sun, what’s a gal to do? (Don’t know about all the recent sunscreen controversy?  You may be interested in checking Environmental Work Group’s recent posts on sunscreen:  http://www.ewg.org/2010sunscreen)

Here are our tips to surviving summer workouts safely, and in better shape than ever!

1.  Build up to it gradually.  After Canada’s long and cold winter, this sudden switch to summer has everyone jumping for joy.  But….  remember that our bodies have had the past 8 months to get used to being in the cold – take time to acclimatize to our new season, and give yourself a few weeks of more moderate workouts to get your body ready and able to handle the heat.

2.  Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate!!! Aim to drink about 2 cups of water 2 hours before the workout, and then continue to sip water throughout the workout.  Always be sure to drink water after each workout to replace fluids lost.  If you have been exercising for a long time or in extreme heat, consider weighing yourself before and after the workout, and drink 2 cups of water for every pound lost.  If you are nursing this is even more important, because mommy needs to be hydrated in order to produce milk.

3.  Avoid exercising between the hours of 12 and 2pm.  Exercising during the hottest part of the day puts you at a greater risk for dehydration, heat illness (exhaustion or stroke), and overall bad workouts.  My ideal day has my workout earlier in the morning, then a fabulous nap with the terrible toddler at mid-day.   It’s one of my favourite indulgences!

4.  Stay in the shade or “create” shade by covering up. Stay in the shade is pretty evident, but if you are going to be in the sun try to wear more than just a sports bra and shorts.  Experts are divided on sunscreen, but they are unanimous in saying that the best sun protection is to reduce your exposure.  Long sleeved “surf” shirts are a great (and trendy) way to stay cool and protected in the sun.  Your shades are also more than just a fashion accessory – they are a “must have” in the summer to protect your eyes from the sun’s dangerous rays.  Last, but not least, don’t forget your hat!  We make our kids wear hats for a reason – because it’s VERY important!

5.  Find a good sunscreen, buy 5 of them (one for every bag…. just like lip gloss!), and slather it on! No need to go out and buy the latest SPF 100+ (yes, they make that).  Find something you like between SPF 15 and 50, and wear it!  Sunscreen needs about 30 minutes to be effective, so aim to put it on a bit before you head out the door, and make sure to reapply at least every 2 hours, or every hour if you are working up a sweat.

That’s it!  Have a fabulous summer of outdoor fun – I’m looking forward to seeing you lunging up one of Toronto’s many hills with the other Belly Bootcamp mommies!

Finally Fit in 2010: Secrets from Belly Bootcamp

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We'll bet the farm this resolution is on your list....

Resolution déjà vu?  Make that fitness resolution for the last time this year and finally achieve it with these secrets from the popular Belly Bootcamp fitness classes for modern mommies.

Start by choosing a realistic goal with a specific timeline – instead of “I want to lose all my baby weight,” try “I will weigh 145 pounds by April 1” or “I will run a 10K race on May 20.”  Then break that goal down into manageable steps – figure out how many pounds you need to lose per week or per month, or how many minutes you need to run each week as you work your way up to your jogging goal, for example.

Got your goal set and your path laid out?  Every fitness achievement starts with effective workouts (and a healthy dose of willpower).  Take a page from the Belly Bootcamp bible and steal these women’s fitness secrets that help our mommies get their fittest ever:

1. super sets (and circuits) are super. Structure your workout so you perform two exercises working different muscles back-to-back.  Try pairing up one leg exercise with one upper body exercise or one core exercise with any large muscle move using the legs, back or chest.  Complete one set of each in succession, then rest 30-60 seconds before your next set. Cardio junkies will love squeezing in 1-5 minutes of sprinting, cycling or stepping as well – try completing one circuit of 8-10 different exercises, then a bit of cardio before completing a final set of each exercise.
2. power up your cardio. Interval training uses short bouts of high-intensity cardio (approximately 85% of maximum heart rate) with periods of active rest (65-75% of MHR) to blast off more calories in less time and boost your metabolism for hours after you step off the treadmill.  After a 5-10 minute warmup, try 1 minute running as hard as you can with 2 minutes jogging or speedwalking; repeat 6 times and cool down.
3. use your downtime. Instead of completing a set and resting 1-2 minutes before starting again, recover those lost minutes by performing a lighter exercise while you recover from your main move.  Try a standing shoulder press while you rest your legs or some crunches while you rest your back.  By the time you finish those crunches your back will be ready to go again! 
4. go for compound moves. These are the moves that really get your heart rate up in half the time and burn tons of calories by incorporating two exercises into one, such as a squat with a shoulder press or a bent-over row with a triceps kickback. Perform these moves as you would any others, in succession with no rest until you complete the set.  Not for the faint of heart!
5. know how much is too much. There is a difference between feeling “the burn” and feeling like you’re about to pass out.  Your workout should be challenging enough to make you grit your teeth a bit as you finish those last few reps or the last few minutes of your cardio.  If you breeze through it, it’s not stimulating your muscles and brain enough to make the impact you’re looking for.  If it’s downright painful or causes faintness, dizziness, or extreme fatigue, chances are you’ll burn out or become injured long before you’ve had a chance to reach that goal of yours. 

One last secret of Belly Bootcampers?  You can get fit without a gym membership, without much equipment and without spending a lot of money.  For tons of trainer-tested exercises you can do at home or to try a Belly Bootcamp class near you, visit www.fitfamily.ca or www.bellybootcamp.ca.

I don’t remember my jeans being THIS tight…

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- Beth Beauchemin (Read About Beth)

Wow!  Who can believe that the leaves have changed, the jack o lanterns are out with the compost, and November is upon us.  It feels like only yesterday that Max and I were still bouncing out the door in shorts and tee-shirts.  Now it’s coats, sweaters and jeans!  I love fall (it’s my favourite season!), but the cooler (grey!) days often leave me wanting more fatty foods and less runs around the neighbourhood.  The 2 of those combined (plus a few yummy Thanksgiving and birthday meals, along with Halloween goodies!) usually have my jeans feeling a “little” tighter than I like them to!

So, what’s a girl to do? Well, if these were my pre-baby days it would be MUCH easier – cut down on carbs after lunch, slightly increase my protein intake, increase my water consumption, eliminate “white (sugar, flour, etc), and throw in a few more workouts.  Humph, sometimes I miss the ease of my pre-baby life!  Max is a very healthy eater, but I think I would have a revolt if supper turned into chicken (or fish!) and steamed veggies every night of the week.  Exercise is another story:  I now dream of getting 3 workouts in a week, let along the 5-6 that I easily pumped out in my former life.   And cut out sugar?  Are you crazy? How are you supposed to drink coffee (which is a new life necessity!) without any sugar in it?  You must agree… this is quite a dilemma!  It’s also one that I can’t afford to get too lazy on.  Christmas is around the corner and the last thing I want to do is to go into Christmas already worrying about how tight my jeans are. That means they definitely won’t fit come Jan 2!

It’s clear my old tricks won’t work.  Let’s have a serious look now at what I can do within the boundaries of my current life as a mom.

1. Start looking at what I’m eating. I don’t know about you, but at each meal I was eating my portion, plus often half of Max’s.   If I was to add that all up over the course of the past few months…. (especially including the dessert part) – yikes!  That would explain the tighter pants!  If you are like me, a phrase similar to “we can’t waste food while people are starving” runs through your head when you look at an unfinished plate.  IT’S OK!  People are not going to be any less hungry because you forced yourself to finish not 1, but 2 plates.  In fact, they may even be a little upset with you.  Whatever your child doesn’t eat, either: a) wrap up and save for another meal; or b) toss it into the compost.  Perhaps your servings are too big and you can make them a bit smaller, or perhaps the little one wasn’t hungry.  Either way, keep your fork on your own plate.  It’s much better this way – trust me!
2. Cut out white things. Unfortunately there is no shortcut on this one.  White sugar and white flour (the cornerstone of all things “bad”) are just not good for you, and if you cut them out not only will your midline smooth, but so will your moods.  Need another reason to cut out the white, white sugar has a significant effect on your immune system, and decreases your body’s immune response up to 6hrs after ingesting it.  YIKES!  With the flu scare this season, I need my immune system running at full capacity.  No white for me!  (No, I still haven’t given up on caffeine completely, but I’m taking it in a form that doesn’t need sugar – hello green mint tea!)
3. Increase my water intake. Did you know that the body misreads the “I’m thirsty” trigger, and sends you an “I’m hungry” thought?  When you are hungry, first have a big glass (or two) of water.  If you are still hungry in 20 minutes, then you are really hungry.  If you aren’t, then you were just thirsty!  I’ve just bought a new, really cool stainless steel water bottle – no leaving home without it!
4. Schedule in my workouts. This is an absolute must!  Like anything else, if workouts are not written down they will not happen.  I have found a terrific pilates studio that is on the way from home from where I teach Belly Bootcamp classes (you could just come to our wicked Belly Bootcamp classes – awesome workout AND get to hang with other cool moms!).  It’s a great way for me to sneak my workout and “me time” in!  I also have started to use Max again as a weight… now that he’s a toddler, “games” for him are workouts for me.  Singing “zoom zoom” and lifting him up in the air is a fabulous full body exercise; I combine that with a few (thousand!) laps chasing him around the living room, then finish with him crawling all over me as I try to hold a plank – voila, a very kid and mommy friendly, doable, workout that will make a difference!

So, there is my game plan for the next 6 weeks or so….. stop finishing Max’s food, get rid of white (which also includes that big barrel of Halloween candy that I won’t let my kid eat, but I’m somehow allowed to. What a bummer!), drink even more water (ideally 2-3L/day), and make a promise to myself, via my daytimer, to get my exercise in.  I’ll report back in a few weeks and let you know how it’s going!

Have a great November!

Let Go and Lose Weight

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meet your new workout buddy...

A few weeks ago, I saw a client (let’s call her “J”) who has just had her second son.  She’s just 6 weeks postpartum but very serious about getting back into fighting shape and losing the baby weight.  Before her second son she weighed about 140 pounds.  I was quizzing her about her pregnancy weight gain and her current versus ideal weight.

“So, how much did you gain with this pregnancy?”

J’s eyes roll upward and you can practically SEE mommy brain setting in… “57 pounds.”

My eyes bulge out of my head.  Not because it’s so much weight.  It is a lot of weight to gain in pregnancy but not more than I’ve heard before.  I can’t help my reaction because J doesn’t look to me like she’s got more than 10-15 pounds to lose, max.  Where did all that weight go in 6 weeks?  I envision horrible crash dieting.  “So, at your heaviest you were?…” I wait for J to fill in the blank.

“177 pounds,” J says, a little embarrassed.

A bit of quick math: “So you gained 37 pounds!  Not 57 pounds.”

J is astonished but relieved.  All this time she thought she had gone completely overboard and gained 57 pounds in this pregnancy.   Mommy brain is a powerful thing; J works in business and deals with numbers all the time.  Not even a PhD in Quantum Physics can protect you from mommy brain (okay, okay, J doesn’t have actually have a degree in quantum physics, but you catch my drift…).  A few weeks of sleeplessness and you’re lucky if you can remember your own name.

But now J realizes if she only gained 37 pounds, maybe it hasn’t quite been melting off her as quickly as she thought.  About 20 are gone and the other 15-20 are clinging, as they always do, to her tummy and especially to her hips and thighs.

J and I worked on a number of things that day, especially how to work with her son in his carrier or in her arms through her workout, something we deal with during our Belly Bootcamp classes.  There were also intermittent breaks for nursing, cuddling, jiggles, bounces and burps.  Sound frustrating?  It can be.  But what’s more frustrating is not making the time at all.  Sure, an uninterrupted workout would be wonderful!  Blissful, even!  (If a workout can be blissful.)  But an interrupted workout is better than no workout at all.

Let go of your idea of a “workout.”  I guarantee you will actually get more exercise if you do.

• Think you can’t stop moving the entire time? Not true.  Break your cardio into 5- or 10-minute chunks with nursing, cuddling and chatting breaks as needed.  Do half your cardio in the morning and half in the afternoon.  Do what you can!  The heart has no stopwatch.

• Think there’s no point in exercising if you can’t do cardio? Not so.  Strength training burns lots of calories and revs your metabolism for up to 72 hours after, working for you long after you stop exercising.  Strength training can be done at home with very little or no equipment.

• Think you can’t get in a good workout without your equipment, gym, trainer or class? Doing the same workout over and over can cause you to stop getting results; when you can’t do your usual thing, take advantage of the opportunity to shock your body by doing something new. 

• Think you won’t get any results if you don’t do a whole 30 (or 40, or 60) minutes? Study after study have shown that even 10-minute workouts produce results – plus, if you are exercising for just 10-20 minutes you can probably exercise every day without having to schedule rest days as you would with longer workouts (not to mention you don’t have to schedule childcare or naps around a 10-minute workout; even the fussiest baby will lay happily for 10 minutes and watch you do jumping jacks and squats).

stress less to lose more

Stop thinking of exercise as a black-and-white part of your life. Not every workout has to be long, organized or planned.  Turn your walk into a workout. Pop in a DVD you haven’t tried in a while and exercise your heart out until the baby (or kids) start fussing.  Plop baby in his carrier or corral the kids into doing squats and lunges with you.  Invite a friend to try a new class. Or just run up and down your stairs for a few minutes, a few times a day.  No exercise is wasted. Each little bit adds up.

And did I mention it helps clear up mommy brain?

I Think I Can, I Think I Can: Workout Mantras

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Some workouts are a breeze.  A jog with a friend on a sunny morning or a favourite fitness class can whiz by in a flash.  Other days, not so much.  Maybe you’re trying to shave a minute or two off your 5K time.  Maybe you’re adding a new, evil – and super effective, your trainer swears – squat exercise to your routine.  Or maybe you’re just not running on a full tank of gas.

How do you motivate yourself?  Well, an iPod comes in handy.  A mirror or a point on the wall to fix your eyes can help you stay focused.  Counting your reps or pacing your breaths are great ways to keep your heart and mind calm while you dig deep and get the job done.  But sometimes, you just need a little something else.  Sometimes you feel desperate.  You want to quit.  You are at the end of your rope.

This is when you need a mantra.  When clients are pushing themselves to complete a speed interval on the treadmill or to finish a set of terrible, evil crunches, I sometimes give them a mantra.  I plant a little thought to inspire their minds and help them finish the task I know they’re capable of finishing.  Here are a few of my favourites, for my clients and myself:

• If I stop I will regret it
• If I stop this will be just as hard the next time
• This will only be a memory in a few minutes/seconds
  

  Sometimes a person or memory can be an inspiration when you need it

• Every step/rep makes me stronger/fitter/faster (choose the adjective that suits your goal)
• In a few minutes this will all be over and the pain with it
• This will get easier but only if I stick with it
• This too shall pass
• I can do anything for 1 minute/5 minutes/3 reps (whatever you are trying to finish)
• I’ve already done 28 minutes/8 reps so I know I can do 2 minutes/4 reps more (wherever you are in your workout/set)
• My body can do this
• I am made for this

And now for my personal workout mantra when I need some perspective and push to reach a goal.  This line never fails me.  If you have any past experience of physical pain and triumph you can use this line – mommies, especially, can relate this line to your experiences in childbirth:

This is not the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

Now I bet you can do anything if you can keep that in mind.