That’s High Quality Water…Errr, Gatorade…Errr Coconut Water!

Which is really the best for fueling you?

Seems like these days everyone is drinking something different to fuel their workouts. From Gatorade to coconut water, everyone has their own secret mix of high performance beverages. But are they really any better than water? Can a bottle of Gatorade, really make your grueling runs and arduous bike rides more enjoyable? As I am always looking for more something to make me feel less like throwing up during a workout, I looked into the science behind the products and consumer reviews.

Water

Water is crucial to any diet. Think of water as your base, it can help support your body with the other performance beverages that you may be drinking.

There are a ton of benefits to water, here’s a neat diagram from howstuffworks.com showing the most common benefits:

Water can also help you lose weight (makes you feel fuller), Exercise easier, boost your mood, and stave off DEHYDRATION (perhaps the biggest perk of water!) ALSO…ZERO CALORIES! WHAT, WHAT?!

Gatorade

Originally, Gatorade was composed of salt, sugar, water, food coloring, and citrus flavoring. Now every line of Gatorade differs on their ingredients list. Most Gatorade still contains those base ingredients and a few flavor variations contain brominated vegetable oil used as a stabilizer. SCARY! Brominated vegetable oil has been linked to cramping, blurred vision, and vomiting!

On a positive note, they have begun to use stevia sugar to sweeten some of their low calorie drinks.

Stevia has yet to be linked to any major health issues (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatorade)

The beautiful thing about Gatorade is that it contains carbohydrates (Sugar has a place in our diets!). The sugar (or carbohydrates, essentially the same thing in the body) breaks down very quickly and gives us the energy that is in great demand when we work out. Also, the electrolytes (salt, potassium and chloride) found in Gatorade replaces those same minerals we are losing through sweat.

If you aren’t workout, Gatorade should not be part of your diet, unless you are severely dehydrated for some other reason.

Coconut Water

I recently discovered the beauty of coconut water. It is slightly bitter when not mixed with other things. I actually love the vitacoco flavors pineapple and mango. Coconut water has less sugar than other sports drinks, like Gatorade, but you can still drink way too much of the stuff. Again, it’s one of those things that you should only drink if you are dehydrated or need to perform at an optimal level during exercise. It is alos rich in sodium and postassium (replace those electrolytes baby!). Plus, it’s all natural!

So Which is best?

From multiple confirming sources including the Huffington Post and the New York Times, coconut water was better, but not by much, at fluid retention through a workout. For exercise performance, there was little to no difference between water, sports drinks, and coconut water.

A good point to mention that the New York Times stated is that sports drinks (including coconut water) serve a purpose for those who exercise for long periods of time (longer than an hour) but water was probably the best option for shorter periods of exercise.

What’s your favorite way of fueling during a workout?

Shut Up and WORK IT!

My college softball team used to say this chant before every game. We huddle together and say some motivational words sprinkled with smiles and winks and then we would put our hands in and someone would, "Ladies, lets get to..." and we'd all shout back a resounding, "WORK!" It made sense, we were about to do something that required a tremendous amount of focus, tenacity, and teamwork. It always got us going and ready to play.

Now out of school for two years now (I'm SO old, I know!), I had almost forgotten about the battle cry, until I read a post by the Fitness Nerd entitled "The Three Real Reasons People Succeed" (read it here: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/10/22/3-reasons-people-succeed/). Great article! (I actually recommend that you read anything from the Fitness Nerd and his troops of rebellious nerds. He is so inspiring and will make you want to change your life!) Anyhow, after reading the article, I remembered how empowered and excited I felt when we acknowledged the amount of work we were about to take on and we "put on our hard hats" and got to work!

I think the same concept rings true for anything you want to accomplish in life, such as my journey to my fittest self. You must start out accepting, acknowledging, and fervently launching yourself into the work that must be done. Any path worth following will surely have some obstacles and work will need to be done.

I know myself well enough to shamefully admit that I start out projects with such gusto, like the hey-i'm-going-to-JUST-DO-IT, nose to grindstone, get work done! After a short duration, reality sets in and I start to get back to my normal half-arsed, “I don't need to put all of myself into this” attitude. And it happened with THIS fitness journey all too quickly! I once again followed in my normal path of jumping in feet first only to have my excitement wane as the weeks wore on, and it was only three weeks! First, my self-talk (you know, those little things you think about yourself) and the way I talk to others goes way negative, then my attitude begins to change from positive to nearly-pessimistic. It’s not long after that that my original mission nearly goes down the toilet!

So it all comes down to attitude.

Often, and all-too-recently, I forget that my attitude and the words I say physically affect those around me, my stress, and, in this case, my workouts.  Recently, I have found myself stressed and saying negative things about activities I love. I didn't worry about it too much until it reached its pinnacle last Thursday at my kettle bell class. I said something negative about one of the exercises the fitness instructor had us do. I meant it in a kidding kind of way but the instructor snapped back at me and caught me off guard. I didn't understand why he was mad. And then I thought, "Why am I being so negative, why am I making excuses?" This was my fault, this ones on me. So after being pissed at him for awhile because he snapped at me, I let it be a learning lesson that I need to adjust my attitude and my words. For someone who prides herself on having a positive optimistic attitude, I sure have to make that adjustment  an awful lot! I'm reminded of this lesson at least twice a year when my attitude starts to get sh..atty.

It was almost fate that I read this article, if you believe in that sort of thing. Read a snippet from the article below:

Those that fail give up at the slightest sign of resistance.  They willingly accept that “things got busy” or “I had a bad day” or “I don’t have time,” and then they complain that they can’t seem to get healthy. They get overly excited when the scale reads lower than expected, and then they become inconsolable when the scale moves up a single pound the next week.

Those that succeed?  They put on their “hard hats,” and go to work. No complaints. No excuses.  No feeling sorry for themselves.  Just progress.  They understand there will be good days and bad, busy days and slow days, days filled with awesomeness and days filled with sadness. They don’t allow themselves to ride the roller coaster of emotion.  They just shut up and do work.

...

Hard hats go on, clocks get punched, and work gets done.

              

 -Steve at NerdFitness.com

Life hands us attitude checks sometimes and it boils down to whether we accept the lesson or ignore it and continue to be pessimists (as Life Is Good says- there's no sense being pesimistic, it wouldn't work any way). How often do you have to re-apply that hard hat and go to work? Is it time for you to go to WORK?

Attitude check...where's your's today?

I know where mine is, it's time for me to shut up, drop the excuses, scratch the complaints and GET TO WORK!

Weigh In Friday!

It’s weigh in Friday!

I’m uber excited! For the first time since starting my fitness journey, I have some real results to post!

As of October 30, 2013:	As of November 15, 2013:	Changes
Chest:                  32 inches	Chest:                  32 inches	0
Natural Waist:   30 inches	Natural Waist:   28.75 inches	-1.25
Hips:                   38.5 inches	Hips:                   37.75 inches	-0.75
Thighs:               22.75 inches	Thighs:               23 inches	0.25
Upper Arm:         10.75 inches	Upper Arm:         11.25 inches	0.5
Pants Waist:       36 Inches	Pants Waist:       34 Inches	-2
Weight:              142 pounds	Weight:              140 pounds	-2
Body Fat %:       28%	Body Fat %:       26%	-2%

YA! Getting close to my goals and its only the middle of November! This weekend will prove to be challenging though as we are celebrating Thanksgiving with the hubby’s family!

*Fingers crossed* I can get through the weekend virtually weight-gain free.

Although I know that lifting and cardio have made such a difference, I think diet has played a major part in my success so far. Gordon and I have both been following the clean eating diet pretty closely. That means no chemicals, no ingredients we can’t pronounce, and virtually no sugar. If you want more information about clean eating, The Gracious Pantry is a great place to start, she has so much knowledge and great recipes for clean eating (http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating/). There are also a ton of recipes out there on the internet! We have also tried concocting a few of our own, most have been super yummy, and a few have not L Both Gordon and I have said that we feel better, lighter, we sleep better, and find we have more energy. Also, huge plus, we are hardly ever hungry when we eat clean!   I will also say that we don’t follow it exactly to the T. We use as many fresh ingredients as possible but don’t stress out about things like a half a teaspoon of sugar in our morning coffee. Granted, we might not be seeing the accelerated weight loss that we could, but it has also allowed us to keep our sanity as we are both on the run all the time. One of our favorite snacks since eating clean has been popcorn with a little bit of salt (and a very little bit of natural butter!)YUM!

It’s worked for us!

Here’s one of our clean eating meals from earlier this week. It’s parmeasan chicken with a fresh pepper and cucumber salad! So Yummy!

 *Hugs*

Following Through

Another success! Tuesday I attended my lifting class again followed by spinning, although I must admit that after Mental Health Monday, it was incredibly hard to get going agian! But I did it! and plan to repeat the insanity on Thursday!

“I did great, I’m so proud…not so fast!” I accomplished such an amazing work out day but now I don’t know how to follow up on Wednesday! What should follow a full body lift day and intense cardio?!

Now, I know what your currently screaming in a THIS-IS-SPARTA, overly dramatic voice, “Pure cardio!” But, there’s another caveat! My Wednesdays are insane! I literally leave the house at 7:30 am and get home around 10 pm, I am not a morning workout type of person (tried it, just can’t get up that early to get a good work out in!). The only time I have to work out is during my lunch hour. But that hour is chopped up because of showering, driving, etc. Down to brass tacks, I have about 20 minutes to work out. GREAT! So I’m thinking cardio circuit, Right?! But…wait… the circuit can’t have push-ups, squats, lunges or abs because I did a butt-load (it’s a real measurement, look it up) during yesterday’s work out! And, hence, frustration ensues! So I need something that’s mostly cardio, that I can do in my living room (no tredmil), and can be done in 20 minutes or less! I’d love to hear any ideas you guys have!

Here’s what I did yesterday as a quick and dirty work out

Quick & Dirty – 5x20 Circuit
Jumping Jacks	5x20
Mountain Climbers	5x20
High Knees	5x20
Burpees	5x10

It got me sweating and kept the “lactic acid” from building. (More on lactic acid in another post, but I’m truly not certain that it even exists, some science is saying it doesn’t!). Also, I lowered the number of burpees from 20 to 10 because of time constraints, if I did 100 burpees, I would literally be there all day! I'll save that for another day!

That’s all for today! I'd love to hear your ideas for a great follow up workout!

Keep it sweaty <3

The Proverbial Wagon

So I fell, you guessed it, off the clean eating wagon this past weekend! BUMMER! ugh! Seriously, weekends are my nemesis! 

Something about the weekend just makes me want to let go of all the work I put in the past week and relax AND EAT MY DARN ICE CREAM!

So now it's Monday and, thanks to a terrible diet all weekend, I have no energy to work out and feel like I am starting back at square one! Not to mention, the weekend stressed me out more than it relaxed me! I feel like I need to take Monday night off and just regain my bearings! I need a day of good diet and some time with the hubby! 

I read an awesome blog post today by Isabel Foxen Duke (http://isabelfoxenduke.com/) that totally inspired me to make peace with my diet this past weekend and perhaps I need to rethink the whole idea of the wagon...there is no wagon grasshopper!  READ THE ARTICLE: http://isabelfoxenduke.com/why-youve-fallen-off-the-wagon-again/ it will change how you think about the wagon! 

So I think Isabel is on to something, although I don't think I can completely give up my wagon and my need to restrict my diet just yet, I think I can start to incorporate some of the ideas Isabel presents in her terrific blog about understanding your mental relationship with food. To tackle next weekend, I think I will try scheduling desserts and special treats in hopes that if i schedule the snacks, I won't throw away my whole eating plan just because I ate half a pint of Ben and Jerry's froyo! I'll keep you updated on how that goes! 

Here's to a Mental Health Monday! Cheers!

Slow Progress Is Still Progress!

Double Yoi! What a crazy two weeks it has been! The official start to my body transformation journey has been slightly rocky and I must apologize for not updating you guys with whats been going on! sorry sorry! Anyhow, my workout plans were slightly thwarted during week 1 as my body got used to the strength training, or shall I say, as my body punished me for being so overly ambitious! I did my first strength training class that Tuesday  and my ARMS, ABS, LEGS were so sore that I couldn't even fathom doing another lifting class until the following Thursday! Mind you, my abs still hurt two weeks later! haha

On the bright side, I was able to get in almost a full week of working out. I alternated between spinning classes and Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred (I skipped the parts the required lifts that engaged the super sore muscles - including the ab portion :-( I love doing abs but it literally felt like someone was tearing my ab muscles apart!) 

The second week was so much more successful! I went to spinning on Monday and did both a lifting class and spinning class on Tuesday and Thursday! I slept like a baby those nights! I was little frustrated with spinning through, my heart rate just doesn't get as high as it should for a 24 year old! (my spinning instructor uses heart rates to lead his classes) There's a lot of different schools of thought when it comes to heart rate, but almost every school says that heart rate is specific to the individual. My spinning instructor/trainer is convinced that mine should be higher and I want it to be higher...Throw another goal on the pile why dont we! here's what my current heart rate looks like during a normal spin class:

145-149 bpm - 65%

160-162 bmp - 80%

185 bmp - COOKED! 

My goal for my future heart rate is....dun dun dun...190! UGH! What the heck is wrong with me! I want to throw up/pass out at 185, heck lets add an extra 5 beats, maybe my heart will explode! haha But seriously, I think I may be able to tap that number within a year, if I keep working toward it and accept the fact that it's going to be extremely painful! 

As for my other goals, not so hot after two weeks! But, it's only been two weeks and I've added lifting to my regimen, so of course the weight loss isn't going to be as accelerated as if I were just cutting calories

(as of 11/7)

Waist: 30 

Hips: 37.75

Arms: 11.25

Thighs: 23

Neck: 12.5

Chest: 31

Weight: 142

Slow progress, still progress! Happy Friday at least!