I speak often about high intensity interval training (HIIT) on Catapult Fitness Blog. HIIT is done by alternating brief periods or high intensity work (85% or more) with a brief recovery period. HIIT is an example of an anaerobic exercise, which means that an inadequate amount of oxygen is being delivered to working muscles during the course of the exercise.

When inadequate oxygen is available lactic acid is produced. Lactic acid is what gives you that burning feeling during a workout. It leads to muscle fatigue and must be burned up by the body during a recovery period before another anaerobic bout of exercise can be attempted. This recovery period also allows the muscles to use oxygen to replenish the energy used during HIIT.

Conversely, aerobic or steady-state exercise uses oxygen at a constant rate with no accumulation of lactic acid.

While both anaerobic and aerobic exercise burn calories and create some EPOC effect, EPOC increases dramatically with intensity thus making anaerobic exercise a more effective means for fat loss.

A commentary in the December 9, 2005 of the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition examined aerobic and anaerobic energy expenditure for two exercise tasks of equal work using a treadmill.

The results of the study showed that the steady-state exercise tends to burn more calories during the actual exercise than interval training, while interval training generates a higher EPOC leading to a much larger number of total calories burned.

Ultimately, HIIT results in significantly more calories burned in a much condensed period of exercise.

This is not to say that steady-state cardio does not have a place in your workout routine. Interval training should be limited to 2 3 times per week to lessen the risk of injury and allow for an adequate recovery period.

Steady-state cardio on the other hand can be performed daily, depending on duration and intensity level.

There are a myriad of HIIT exercises that can be found on the Web.

Hopefully you can use this information to maximize your workouts and turn your body into a fat burning machine!

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan

It was inevitable. Sleep deprivation from finishing my book manuscript and the Jelly Bean combined with a very weight intensive P90X workout and the fact that jelly bean season is now in full throttle found me slumped over my table this afternoon in a sugar coma. I downed an entire bag of SweeTart jelly beans. And I’m not talking the little portion-controlled bag. I ate the whole 300 (or whatever) serving bag. By myself. Today. Man those jelly beans go down easy.

As I sat nursing a sugar headache and regretting every last high-fructose bite, it made me remember some research I read recently about how eating sugary and fatty foods becomes a self reinforcing cycle. (Of course I only remember this after the jelly beans have been eaten.) The authors of the study postulated that there is a tipping point with these foods and once you pass it an internal fat switch is flipped and your body goes into crazy fat-storing mode. Basically, the more you eat it the more you want it, hunger cues be darned. Nobody eats an entire bag of jelly beans because they’re hungry. And it takes a lot of hard work and time to reset that switch once it’s been flipped. So how did scientist discover this switch? With rodents, of course!

Does your liver glow in the dark? These mice are genetically engineered with firefly juice to have livers that glow when CRTC2, also known as the fasting switch, is turned on. It all gets very techy but here’s what you need to know:

Our bodies run on fat and sugar (glucose). When we eat, we have a rise in our blood sugar. When we aren’t eating (like when we are sleeping or starving), our bodies primarily burn fat as fuel. All well and good except that the hothouses that sit on our shoulders (our brains) require a measure of glucose to function. It’s the reason that you feel all foggy and confused when you are carb depleted. So when you aren’t eating and your brain needs glucose, a little switch in your liver (CRTC2) starts pumping out the glucose stored in your liver. Hurray for the little Star Wars dude in your gut!

The problem arises (and the mice with the glowing livers get involved) when CRTC2 gets activated and, like a 12-year-old with a cell phone, won’t shut up – causing excess amounts of glucose to be constantly circulating in your blood (known as high blood sugar). How does this happen? Insulin resistance, primarily from overeating and obesity. From insulin resistance comes the dreaded diabetes and the host of ills that comes with it.

The mice with the glowing livers were not just for the researcher’s entertainment (although, admit it, you really want to see one now). The researchers fattened up a bunch of firefly-mice and then waited until their livers lit up like your check-oil light. When their livers turned on it meant that the switch was no longer functioning and sugar was being pumped out 24-7. This allowed the researchers to identify exactly how and when the switch gets permanently stuck in the on position.

So the question becomes both for the lit mice and their human counterparts of lesser organ brilliance, is how do you know when your switch is about to flip? And moreover, how do you flip it back?

Leaving the actual science portion of this post and venturing off into the part where I spout random theories that I make up (my favorite part, naturally) I think that some people have touchier switches than others. One uber-healthy friend of mine said that she has learned she can eat badly for about 3 weeks before she starts to notice serious deleterious effects and so she knows to cut herself off around 2.5 weeks. Myself, I think my internal switch gets flipped at closer to 1 or 2 days of eating crap. Heck, even one good candy binge – like today – seems to set body into cravings overdrive. The only solution I have found for this is to white-knuckle it for 3 or 4 days until my switch goes back.

For those of you good at pattern recognition, you will realize that my switch flippage (actual scientific word, that one is) corresponds neatly to the days of the week. I eat like crap on the weekends, feel like the crap I ate, resolve to do better, white knuckle it Monday through Thursday and then as soon as I start to feel better it’s the weekend again! I’m so tired of this cycle (and add in my other “cycle” for more fun!).

Any of you get thrown off your healthy eating by the weekend? Have you discovered when your switch flips? How do you break the cycle? Anyone else now want a liver that glows in the dark??

Thanks to my handicapped aunt who watched The Sound of Music on permanent repeat, I grew up addicted to the Von Trapps and their be-curtained antics. My favorite song to belt at the top of my lungs was always “My Favorite Things.” (Lie: My secret favorite was the “High on the hill was a lonely goatherd” one – sampled crazily by Gwen Stefani – because I love to yodel but I couldn’t admit to that in public.) For the longest time though, I thought the lyrics were “When the dawn bites, when the beet stings…” I didn’t know what kind of crazy world those German kids (who, oddly, had no accent even though many of the other main characters did – I wonder how the director decided which Germans should have accents? Only the bad ones? Perhaps that is why young Rolf dumps Liesel so unceremoniously.) lived in but boy howdy did I want a sweet little sundress with matching kerchief made out of green ’70’s patterned drapes. The whole hiding-in-a-graveyard scene was pretty awesome too.

ANYHOW.

Two of my favorite things combined to make today pretty darn awesome, no graveyards or drapery dresses needed!

1. My book! Everything for The Great Fitness Experiment Book (Year 1) is at long last signed, sealed and delivered! Without getting into all the gory details, it has been quite the harrowing process and sending off the finished manuscript was one of the coolest moments of my life – hopefully soon to be usurped by that moment when I first hold the actual book in my hand. I don’t have the exact pub date yet but it will be soon!

2. Vegan chocolate might have saved my life. You will recall that I was feeling all bitter and deprived after being forced back into veganism by my adorable-yet-dairy-intolerant Jelly Bean. When to my rescue came Averie of Love Veggies And Yoga. She informed me that not only can you make vegan chocolate, but it is incredibly easy! Here’s what you do:
1. Melt 1 Tbsp of coconut oil in the microwave.
2. Stir in 2 tsp powdered sugar (Averie uses agave syrup because she eats “high raw” vegan – not sure what the “high” means but lots of vegans don’t eat conventional sugar due to it being processed through animal bone char. Me being a forced vegan, I don’t care about the bone char so I use the sugar because it seems to give it a more authentic texture.
3. Stir in 2 Tbsp cocoa powder.
4. Pour into a saran wrap lined bowl and freeze.

That’s it!! In 10 minutes you have real honest-to-goodness (still loaded with 14 grams of fat and sugar) chocolate! It’s DELISH. I even added rice krispies to mine today. I made my own Crunch Bar, y’all!! Tomorrow I’m going to add flaked coconut and roasted almonds to make my own Almond Joy. I may never go back to traditional chocolate again! Averie’s site has tons of yummy healthy recipes – go check them out!

Sadly, my attempts at making my own coconut ice cream have not been as successful. Probably because I don’t have an ice cream maker. Oh well, my mistakes were still pretty tasty. Even if I had to chip them off with an ice pick.

What is your favorite thing today? Anyone else have a favorite mis-heard song lyric that you sang wrong for years?

Mind you, while she won the overall 2009 World Cup, she actually only placed first in 2 downhills last year — Lake Louise, Canada and the race I just watched in Are, Sweden (the last downhill event of 2009). The race in Are, Sweden was the start of good things for Lindsey who to date has won 6 downhill events in 2010, not including her Olympic Gold.

I’ve been more than curious in regards to what Lindsey’s workout entails and after a bit of digging came across this video:

A note of caution: Unstable surface training is risky business if you don’t know what you’re doing. Don’t try some of this at home kids! However, there’s plenty that you can take away from this video, not the least being that if you want to be the best you need to put in the sweat!

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan

The net result of all this weird running – besides good stories – is weird foot pain. While I myself have experienced shin splints and corns, and the Gym Buddies have had bouts of plantar fascitis, Reader Joshua’s (of TechnicalParent) pain was all new:

I’ve never been a runner. Exercise wasn’t something my parents instilled in me as a child. So, I’ve just started running and am kind of enjoying it. The only problem is that my feet are starting to hurt; not the arches, but the tops of my feet close to my toe joints. Do you know anything about the physiology of running? Am I doing this wrong in some way (obviously)? I guess I mean in terms of hitting the ground too hard, or not using my full foot and putting too much weight on the balls of my feet. Any help/advice would be appreciated, mostly by my feet, but the rest of me, too.

I replied oh-so-helpfully with three suggestions:

Congrats on taking up running! I’m glad you are enjoying it so far! I’m not an expert on foot pain but I do have a few ideas for you to consider:
1. Your shoes. Are they old? Are they actually running shoes (not cross trainers)?
2. Your stride. Have you ever had your stride analyzed? Are you a mid-foot striker? A heel-striker? Heaven help you, a toe runner? Most specialty running stores will analyze your gait for free and give you suggestions to make it more efficient.
3. Stretching. After each run, do “towel pick ups” to strenghten and stretch your toes. Drop a hand towel on the floor and then pick it up using your toes. Repeat… oh I don’t know, a bunch of times:) I also like to write the alphabet with each foot to stretch my shins & feet.

Don’t continue to run on it though if the pain is getting worse!

I should have just said, “Wow you’re a freak! I’ve never heard of that!” and then shut up because really I have no idea. But I bet one of you knows what he’s talking about! Have you ever had weird foot pain while running? Did you run through it or take a rest? What did you do to get past it?

If you had 50$ to buy yourself any piece of fitness gear you want, what would it be? Boxing gloves? Kettlebell? A racquetball racket? Trail shoes? Snorkel? Down payment on a heart rate monitor (those suckers are pricey!)? That’s because you all are not vain. Me: I want a pair of skapris. Skort-apris. Capriskas? Whatever. I want a workout skirt with attached capri pants. Like these from See Jane Run:
Or these from Skirt Sports:

Or this little Nike number:

I have a thing for workout skirts. I’d blame my ultra girliness on having 3 sons but you can ask my mom, I’ve been this way ever since I could dress myself. My kindergarten year was immortalized as the year I refused to wear anything but dresses even in -30 weather. Even when I was a sad-eyed goth (I woulda been Emo except it hadn’t been invented yet) it was still all skirts all the time except that they were all black. You should see my dress closet now. What, not everyone has a dress closet? (Side note: someone please invite me somewhere I can wear one of my dresses to, stat!)

I know I should say that I want some super geeked out gadget (I DO desperately want a fitbit) but really what I want are new clothes. Don’t worry, I’m appropriately ashamed of my frivolity. It doesn’t matter though because I can’t win the $50 gift card from Dick’s Sporting Goods. But YOU can! And at the same time you can help me by voting me onto Dick’s Sporting Goods Starting Lineup – a panel of fitness folk who get to try out new fitness stuff- by tweeting my Twitter username @CharlotteGFE to @Dickssportcmo! To enter the contest and get all the details, click through to my giveaway page.

Anyone else have a thing for workout skirts or just dresses in general? Feel free to post a link to your fave in the comments!

PS> I didn’t realize until after I’d published this post what Blogger had truncated the URL down to. It’s kinda hilarious, really. (Dear Mom & Dad, please don’t read your address bar, thanks.)

As one poster wrote: I don’t make very much money right now and I don’t have the funds to buy healthy groceries. I don’t want to fail this time, what should I do?

Fact is, you can eat healthy and cost effectively by being a savvy shopper and spending a little time in the kitchen.

Yes, it takes some work and is certainly not as simple as take-out or ‘convenience food’, but it will be well worth the effort not only from a weight loss perspective, but for your general health as well.

Guidelines include:

1. Don’t worry about eating organic. While organic fruits and vegetables are best since they probably have a higher micronutrient count, any fruits and veggies are better than none! Make sure to get plenty of fruits and veggies in your diet before worrying if they’re organic or not.

2. Find a local food co-op in your area. Food co-ops are member run, non-profit organizations that provide you with access to quality, locally grown food at a good value. There are typically nominal fees to join (often based on your income level) and many accept food stamps. You can find a listing of local food co-ops at www.localharvest.org .

3. Buy in-season and be flexible. While not necessarily certified organic, local farmer markets carry fruits and vegetables that may still be pesticide free since these foods are not traveling great distances. Here’s a listing of the least expensive fruits and vegetables by month – Cheapest Produce

4. Consider buying frozen vegetables. Frozen vegetables have the same nutritional benefits as their conventional, fresh counter-parts at a fraction of the cost. Look for sales and coupons.

5. Invest in a crock-pot. Because slow-cookers cook at a low temperature you can use less-costly, flavorful cuts of meat as the cooking process will tenderize them over the course of several hours. Just make certain to blanch or saute vegetables prior to adding to the crock-pot so that they maintain their vitamins and trace minerals. Another benefit – dinner is ready when you get home so you’re less likely to be bringing home “take-out” or grazing while you’re waiting for dinner to cook.

6. Grow your own vegetables. Summer is around the corner so if you have the space, think about creating your own vegetable garden. Even if you live in an apartment as I do, you can grow plenty of herbs right on your windowsill.

7. Buy items in bulk. Healthy items that can be purchased in bulk include dehydrated beans (a great substitute for meat if you’re looking to cut your food budget!), raw nuts in shells, frozen vegetables, skinless chicken breasts, canned tuna or salmon, quinoa, couscous. While there is a greater up-front cost to buying bulk, the price per pound of typically substantially lower. Also, keep in mind that buying in bulk isn’t only for food products — you can save money by purchasing bulk household items such as toilet paper, shampoo and laundry detergent.

8. Be a coupon clipper/look for sales. I’m not suggesting you become one of those individuals who spends hour upon hour scouring the Net for grocery coupons, but clipping coupons from the Sunday paper and checking your grocery store flier simply makes good sense. Plan your meals around products that are on sale and stock up on non-perishable and frozen goods when there is a bargain to be had.

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan

I must admit, it caught my eye. And then I laughed so hard I fell out of my chair. Oh Shape. I understand that it must be really hard coming up with “new” strength moves every month. After all, there are only so many iterations of the basic lifts. But this? Do you really expect any self-respecting woman whose day job does not involve stirrups & a “scoot down” mantra to feel comfortable doing this move on the cable machine in the middle of the weight floor? And even then, those women are trained professionals and should at least get paid. Besides, I’m not even sure how I would get into position for this by myself and I really can’t imagine yelling, “Hey Gym Buddy Allison – come hold my legs open!” while maintaining any level of gym-cred.

Thank You,
Charlotte

PS> Your “trainer’s tip” is very wise. This move could definitely cause pain. On so many levels.

Updated 3/10: Who knew that a short time later I would find myself doing the Gyno move myself? I still heart my TRX though – probably my number 1 favorite piece of fitness equipment that I own. Even if it does embarrass me in public:

More Awkwardness
As if worrying about what you wear and say at the gym isn’t hard enough, you also have to take the actual moves into account. Something that sounds perfectly innocuous in a book or magazine takes on a whole new aspect once you have an audience. I think that I of all people have a very high tolerance for looking like a dork but even I can be pushed over the edge. Some of my favorite embarrassing gym moves (that I still do but, you know, feel really stupid afterward):

Kneeling Ab Curl on the Cable Machine: This ab exercise, a favorite of body builders, requires you to basically bow and kiss the floor in front of whomever happens to be standing in the general vicinity. I imagine they feel like royalty. You? Repressed peasant comes to mind.

My fix: chant “I’m not worthy” with every rep and make sure to clang the plates together loudly. That way people just assume I’m a monk. With really nice abs.

Happy Baby Pose in Yoga: This move is also known as “Breaking Wind Pose” and for good reason. ‘Nuff said.

My fix: make a lot of noise like rustling my mat, whispering to my neighbor and so forth just in case anything squeaks out. And I know that every yoga teacher will say, “it’s okay if some air passes, that’s natural and we’re all adults.” But I have been in yoga classes where the, um, air is passed and we all giggled like school girls.

The Thigh Abductor/Adductor Machines: (you want to click thru this one) These babies are bad enough on their own but at my gym they are carefully situated so you face the windows to the basketball courts. And I mean you are nose-to-the-window. I don’t know how the people on the basketball courts feel about it (Oh no! Old man alert! Quick – media time out!!) but I know it makes me hope that I remembered to not wear shorts that day.

My fix: I don’t use them. They don’t work anyways.

I know you guys have things to add to this list (and pics?) so shout ‘em out loud and proud! What moves are the most awkward for you in the gym?

For some this might not be a big deal but I pride myself on being very tolerant of all different kinds of weird human afflictions. Bad gas, stinky sweat, singing loudly to a tune only they can hear, talking on their cell phone, heavy breathing, clouds of cologne and even, on occasion, leering. I’m not saying I enjoy any of these things (especially not the leering and especially not when you consider that at the time of day I work out the only men around to be doing the staring are over 70) but we’re all people, right? I’m not going to switch my ‘mill off and start over just because you sneezed into the fan and crop dusted the gym with your germs. In addition to my tolerance, I’m also pretty tough in the ol’ immune system. It takes a lot to get me off my equipment. So what, for the first time in 3 years, drove me across the room quicker than you can say “Which one of these brightly colored buttons is the emergency stop?”?

Cigarette smoke.

And not just a little bit. I can handle a whiff of Marlboro reds – takes me right back to high school where that was the cig of choice for my underage friends – but this was different. It was like the gentleman had chain smoked three packs and then dutch-ovened himself so he could marinate in it all night long. (True story: this past weekend the Turbo girls introduced me to the concepts of a “dutch oven” – where you fart in bed and then hurry and pull the blanket over your bedmate’s head – and a “Conestoga” – where you fart in bed and then flap the covers until they resemble a covered wagon. How have I lived all my 31 years on this planet and never known that bed-farts have names?! I’ve been dying to throw that into a conversation ever since but oddly there hasn’t been much occasion for new fart nomenclature lately so you guys get it instead. You’re welcome!)

I noticed the stench when he got on but I had less than a mile to go so I tried to brush it off – think of happier things, you know, like my grandmother who used to chain smoke with her oxygen tank next to her. And I say “used to” not because she blew herself up (that would NOT be a happy memory) but because at 80+ years she finally kicked her pack-a-day habit! Woo hoo! One of the upsides of Alzheimer’s Disease – probably the only upside – is that you can’t remember where you put your lighter. But back to Cigarette Man. The problem really started when he finished his warm-up, peeled off his sweatshirt (smokeshirt?) and started running. The nicotine sweat started rolling off of him in waves. For the first time since we did Lindsey’s barf circuits last month, I thought I was going to hurl. I threw my sweat towel over my face, grabbed my stuff and high-tailed it to the farthest possible treadmill.

I suppose I should have been happy that he was trying to negate some of that smoking-induced lung damage by getting in some good heart-pumping cardio but instead all I could do was try and think of creative ways to tell him to quit the cancer sticks. Oh and be bitter that he was polluting my hard-earned pink lungs with his toxic sweat gas. In the end I didn’t say anything to him but I kind of hope he got the message when I ran away.

And while I’m on this subject, my second pet gym peeve: tons of cologne or perfume! If I can taste your Drakkar Noir then I cannot be held responsible for tripping you while you run past the toilets (oh yes, at my Y the toilets are right on the track) in the hope that you will fall in and wash some of it off. I’d rather smell your sweaty stank any day of the week.

Was that terribly rude of me? Would you have said something? What’s your pet gym peeve? Anyone have any other bed-fart stories for me?? (I’m puerile. Duly noted.)