Baby Weight: Where to Start

New mothers face a different set of challenges than others. You've just had a baby in you for nine months, which means you probably have not been able to work as hard on your body as you usually would. Your middle area is bigger than you could have ever imagined, and of course, if you had to push, down there is a little less tight.

Getting back into your program is never easy, but you have to consider a couple of things: Your body needs time to recover, so give it about 6 weeks; And you need to understand how different your body is now from how it was prior to the baby. Plus, you now have a baby to take care of, so your time challenges are different.

Fret not though. It is achievable. You should focus on the following as you rebuild your training program:

Incorporate Kegels into your training: Childbirth weakens the pelvic floor muscles. For those who do not know, Kegels are meant to help strengthen these muscles, allowing for increased sexual pleasure and to tighten up the area down there. Kegels simply involve contracting and relaxing the pelvic floor muscles (in your vaginal area). As you do any ab or lower body exercises, contract your pelvic muscles as you contract any other muscle, and then relax these muscles as you would relax other muscles as well. For example, as you bend into a squat, tighten up, and then as you lift up, relax the pelvic floor muscles.

Focus on cardio for fat burn: As a new mum, you've gained weight all over, and so it is important to do workouts that burn fat all over. Do something very high-energy that also forces you to use your core for balance, like taking a hip-hop or zumba dance class, swimming, or doing kick boxing.

Ease into the workout: Your body is like a machine. It needs to be charged, properly oiled, and heated up when necessary. Since you have had a foetus feeding off you for nine months, you now need to focus on eating right for your routine, and getting your body slowly charged as you fully get back into your workout regimen. Don't force your body to go lengths that it cannot yet achieve and then break yourself. Ease into the workout.

Don't hold out on the core exercises: There is no doubt about it - the midsection is one of the most problematic areas for mums. And if you take to long to work it out, you could risk making it harder to lose. So make ab exercises your best friend, especially ones for your lower abs like leg raises, reverse crunches, and six-inches off the ground. Also, make sure you incorporate core exercises into every single routine you do. Hold your abs tight in every pose, twist to work on your obliques when you can, and always sit upright with your abs in.

Manage your expectations: It took your body nine months to get where it is, and so it is important to be patient with it. You are not going to be able to run 10 miles a week after your delivery or get that butt that you were known for the minute the baby pops out. In fact, for the first few months, you'd have to work harder than you did before to get to the same level of fitness. So make sure you are prepared!

You can get your body back. You just need some patience and hard work. But you can do it!

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: MadameNoire.com

Tips to Stay Fuller Longer

Food is one of or biggest issues. It's difficult to understand what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat. The good thing is Eights & Weights is here to make the process less complicated :)

If you didn't know, there are foods out there that help you feel like you're full for a longer time. It is less about the nutrients and more about the feeling sometimes because we may have our 3 regular meals, and still feel like we need to eat even when we're really not that hungry.

So what are some of the foods you can eat or things you can do to fight that deceptive need to eat?

Chew sugar-free gum: Yes, I said that will a straight face. Chewing gum actually reduces the need to chew since you have something flavorful in your mouth. If you really are starving, that's a different issue, but if you just felt like you needed to eat, then the gum should help your brain have time to process that you really aren't hungry. Just make sure it's sugarless so you're not defeating the purpose :)

Eat your complex carbs: There is a reason we keeping forcing whole grain down your throat. Not only is it healthier, it keeps you fuller longer because it doesn't just ease through your digestive system. However, complex carbs are not only found in whole grains; you can also eat foods like sweet potatoes and vegetables to stay full. Complex carbs also tend to contain more fiber, which keeps you fuller longer and contains fewer calories than simple carbs.

Fruit it, don't juice it: When you eat an apple, do you notice you are fuller than when you buy a cup of apple juice? But somehow, the cup of apple juice seems to contain more calories because they say it is more concentrated. Hmmm... Here's what I say: Eat the apple rather than drink the juice. And if you must, blend the juice yourself. Because it comes out thicker, more satisfying, and more natural than buying it from a store. And guess what? You stay fuller longer.

Control the smells around you: When you're out, you can't really control other people, but when you're home, this is a great trick. Rather than have citrus, coffee, cupcake, or other 'foody' scents at home, stick to flowery or other non-food scents. The smell of food triggers your appetite.

Add lots of protein to your diet: You probably already know this by now: protein contains fewer calories than carbs and reduces the feeling of hunger later on. But it's not just any protein you should be targeting. Things like almonds and beans are your best bets. However, be conscious about how many almonds you eat because nuts do have a high fat content, and so eating too much could defeat the purpose.

Watch what you drink: Soda has so much sugar in it that it flows through your system pretty quickly, and then comes the slump. With the slump usually comes the desire to eat. Drinking lots of water, tea, and even dark cocoa help maintain that slow-releasing energy to keep you feeling full and refreshed.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Womenshealthmag.com

Eights & Weights Video - Side Plank

Yes, I know it will no longer officially be summer tomorrow morning (*sobs*), but autumn is still a great season to work out since the winter coats haven't come out yet. Here is a video I made to help you work on your obliques. Working on your obliques help create than total ab definition that we all want. You don't have to do a push-up as you switch from side to side. Watch and try it at home.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Healthy Nigerian Recipe: Baked Plantain Chips

So I sometimes watch videos by another fitness blogger Adura, and in watching some of the videos yesterday, I wanted to share one I thought was great. In Africa, the Caribbean, and South America, a lot of countries eat deep fried plantain as one of the staples. Needless to say, it contains a lot of oil, and regardless of what oil you use, too much oil could pose a caloric problem.

I watched this video, and really wanted to share with you because it is an easy alternative for those who love plantains. For more information on Adura, visit her website here or check it out on my blog list on the side bar. Check out the video on Youtube to see calorie information as well, and while you're there, subscribe to her channel!

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Video credit: Adura-o.com

You Can't Out-Train a Bad Diet

So we talk about exercise. A LOT. And the fittest folks are usually looked at as the folks who exercise all the time. But to get your body healthy, burning the right amount of calories and losing weight or staying toned, diet plays such a huge role. And that is where most people face problems. People don't seem to understand that exercise is not magic; it does not erase a bad diet.

It sometimes seems like because eating right takes willpower, we slack off big time. Exercise takes willpower too. But slacking off on exercise does not feel good. Whereas eating bad food? Well, I don't need to say more. Plus as you sweat and hurt all over from exercise, you literally feel the calories going away.

But let me ask you this? Do you realize that you would achieve more eating healthier than exercising? Think about it. For example, you slave for an hour and burn 500 calories (depending on your body weight and what you do), and so if you eat a 1,000 calorie meal, that would be about 2 hours worth of exercise to burn off. How many times a day would you be able to keep it up?

Now, if you eat a 500 calorie meal instead of 1,000 by controlling your portions and picking better options, that would save a lot of time, and would melt off weight faster. So when you do work out for an hour, you're reaching your goal much quicker.

Additionally, food affects your mood and could be the difference between being sluggish or energized. Eating loads of burgers and high-fat foods usually slows you down and makes you less likely to work out. Or if you do work out, you're pushing yourself too hard for too long because you are determined to burn it off. And then you could hurt yourself.

Usually, people tend to overestimate how much they burn, and underestimate how much they eat. It's human nature.  I have read a few studies where Americans were polled and the result was that most Americans think they eat healthy. Yet, Americans are among the most obese in the world. This shows that people really do underestimate how much they eat. Thus, if you are eating wrong, and then you think you're burning more than you actually are, you see how that can be a problem for your weight loss goals? This is probably one of the reasons why people don't see results.

So what should you do? Starve yourself? Heck no. But you should be putting just as much effort into your nutrition as you are putting into your exercise regimen. Inform yourself about better food choices, and know what you are actually putting into your body. And you should start to see the results you my not have been seeing.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Forbes.com

Insanity Workout Program Review

Have you ever started a conversation with “So I just completed the Insanity workout program”? I did that last week with a dude. His response? “Well, you don’t need to work out for the rest of your life then.” This has been the kind of attention the Insanity program has gotten: that it’s incredibly difficult, almost impossible, and requires a lot of effort and dedication. Well, all these things are true. I mean, what did you expect? It is called ‘Insanity’ so you’d have to be insane to do it.

The Insanity program was created by fitness instructor Shaun T. and the Beach Body crew. If you have every tried any other exercise videos by Beach Body, you’d know that they push the limit with their workouts.

The slogan for the workout program is “Dig Deeper”. The premise is that you can push yourself farther and farther doing interval and plyometric training to achieve the best shape of your life in 60 days. To do this, you would have to garner up strength and endurance you never knew you had every single day.

The program comes with a nutrition guide, a calendar, and support from the Beach Body team on their website. It is a 60 day program, with 6 days a week of intense work and 1 day a week of rest. Before you start the program, you are required to take a “Fit Test”, which you take about every 2 weeks on the program to gauge your fitness level. The Fit Test consists of doing as many repetitions as possible of particular exercises within a span of time. As you get fitter, obviously, the more you should be able to do.

There are 14 videos in the series, and a calendar is provided to tell you what video to do on what day. The first month is made up of total body cardio conditioning workouts that go from 30 to 40 minutes each. And then you get a rest week where you focus on balance and your core before you get back into the 2nd month. Month 2 is intense. You get high intensity workouts. The workouts get longer consisting of about 45 to 60 minutes each. So there is a bit of shock going from month 1 to month 2, especially with that rest week in between.

Let me add a disclaimer here to state that I couldn’t actually take the week off between month 1 and 2 as I was training for a few races and so still had to run consistently, and I also did not consider the Insanity workout as my full workout program for those 60 days. I did all the videos every day, but I also supplemented with other workouts as well. Yea, I know, I’m crazy. 

If you start the program and have a hard time even though you thought you were pretty fit, that is absolutely normal. The intensity of just the warm-ups can be a bit challenging until you get used to it. It usually starts with 3 rounds of a warm-up circuit, consisting of sprints, jumping jacks, butt kicks, high knee runs, and a bunch of other exercises involving jumping, power, and fast movements. Then you stretch for about 4 minutes before you really get into the workout. Each workout consists of circuits with about a 30 second water break in between circuits. Some videos don’t have designated water breaks, but you are instructed to take breaks when you feel you need to. After it all, there is another few minutes of stretching, and then you’re done.

Pros of the Workout Program

1. Unlike the P90x and some other intense workout programs, there is no equipment necessary! So you can do it at home, take it on trips, etc.
2. The videos are long so it can be considered your whole workout.
3. All the folks in the video are fit! So it pushes you to do as much as they are doing.
4. Shaun T’s attitude just makes me want to exercise! As he keeps yelling “Ah! You can do it!”, you actually start believing you can.
5. Unlike many workout programs where you kind of wing it, you have a structured calendar that tells you exactly what to do when. 
6. It comes with a great nutrition program to help you get where you need to be (Note: I did not follow the nutrition program)
7. It involves a lot of powerful movements, and you know I love my power workouts.
8. The Fit Test allows you to see your progress periodically so you’re sort of competing with yourself.

Cons of the Workout Program

1. I wake up in the morning now after I’ve just had a dream where someone was yelling “Dig Deeper” at me in Shaun T’s voice. It’s pretty bad.
2. Well, it does cost almost $120, which is pretty steep. 
3. There is no substitution so it’s either you can do something or you can’t. Some trainers like Jackie Warner give you substitute positions if you are not yet strong enough to do the regular version.
4. The exercises are very similar across the videos. For example, the warm-ups are the same for most videos in month 1, and then most videos in month 2. You can lose your excitement if every video is similar.
5. It would help if they gave an estimate of how many calories it burns for a particular body weight and gender. I know some folks say it’s not about the calories, but if part of the point is to get a great body, knowing how much you are burning is important. But I guess you can measure your own heart rate and figure the calories out.
6. Because it does involve a lot of jumping and quick movements, it can be very hard on the joints. So it is not a workout you should be on forever because it is very high impact.
7. This workout is not for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of dedication, which is what makes me like it. But I see how this can make others easily fall off of it if they hadn’t prepared themselves for the craziness before starting.

The Insanity workout is not for everyone, and so you should know your body and take the Fit Test to determine if it is for you. I know folks always seem to want results pronto, but my advice is that you should have already been doing some sort of exercise before you start this program. Don’t just jump into it without any prior experience because you could hurt yourself and you could lose focus.

But if you do have some exercise experience, you should definitely try it out and push your body. And let me know how you do! I finished it, but I still incorporate a video here and a video there into my daily workout routine.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

PS. My favorite person on the DVDs is Tanya. She is awesome! You know what I mean if you've done the program.

Green Booster Shake Recipe

So everyone has their own green drink, right? I woke up this morning not feeling quite so energetic, and I thought I'd pump myself up with greens to start my day. You know you can get a pseudo "high" from taking a concentrated amount of greens all at once.

My shake really consists of 4 things:

• 1 Small Banana (70 calories)
• Half a Golden Delicious Apple (40 calories)
• As much spinach as I can fit into the blender (about 30 calories)
• Half a cup of Organic Unsweetened Soy Milk (about 40 calories)
• Water to get to whatever consistency I am in the mood for

Remember the blender I talked about yesterday? I blended it all up, and got this green goodness. The spinach barely contains any calories, and the apple is to give it that tang (plus, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, right?). The banana is obviously to give it a little sweetness and the potassium in the banana helps protect your muscles from cramps if you exercise hard. The soy milk is for a little protein and creamy consistency.

That's a total of about 180 calories and gave me 2 full glasses. That's not a bad breakfast, right? Try it and enjoy!

Cheers Eights & Weights!