Popchips and other great things to try!

Okay, my peeps know I am slightly obsessed with Popchips. I eat at them a lot. The whole bag has 3 servings, 120 calories a serving, 4g of fat, 190mg sodium, 18g of carbs. Now, I am not saying these are “good for you,” because they are still “junk food” but they are a whole heck of a lot better than regular potato chips!

So imagine my delight when I find that my fave health food store Trader Joes, has their own brand of popped chips! For HALF the price I was paying!! I saw them, quickly read the stats and they were near identical, so I grabbed a bag of plain and barbecue.

But it doesn’t stop there!!

Next to them were some chips called “Reduced Guilt Skinny Fries.” It’s described as “air-popped potato sticks with sea salt.” They were the same price as the TJ’s popped chips, and the same amount of servings per bag. The calories are a bit lower at 110 per serving, fat lower at 2g, but the sodium is almost double at 320. I grabbed 2 bags of that anyway. I LOVE salty snacks!

I opened a bag in my car, I couldn’t wait. The sticks were pretty good, not as salty as chips, but enough…with an almost airy taste, which means you will want to eat more. They would be a combination of potato chips and fries.  Love them!  It looks like a lot for 3 servings, so maybe I won’t devour the whole bag in one sitting like the popchips!

Other must grabs when you get to Trader Joes:

Kind bars: If you have a sweet tooth, these are better than ANY candy bar I have ever tasted. Well, my opinion. They even have one drizzled in chocolate. These are addictive! I like to buy them buy the case, about $1.49 per bar.

Raw, unsalted nuts and seeds: I have stock piles of nuts, so I only grabbed some raw, unsalted sunflower seeds this time. But try almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, pumpkin seeds or pistachios (they are roasted, but unsalted)

Hummus: If you never tried this, get thee to Trader Joes and try it! A container is only $1.99

Pizza dough: I didn’t get any this time because I went on my lunch break, but this is great for making homemade pizza.

Edamame: Again, go try these. When I was vegetarian is was a good source of protein for me.

Ezekiel bread: This is one of the very few breads considered “clean” and therefore helpful when trying to live healthier. You’ll have to adjust to the taste, and it’s a bit pricey (TJ has their own brand of sprouted bread).

Pitas: They have various sizes, but I like the mini ones for scooping up hummus, but the regular sized ones are good for stuffing with sandwich fixings.

Tea: Trader Joes has some of the best, cheap tea selections…except they stopped making mine awhile ago and I have yet to find a replacement.

To see big results, get comfortable being uncomfortable

Losing weight is not easy, so get ready for some hard work!

No boo-hooing that drinking 8+ cups of water is too hard! In fact, that is not enough! Half your body weight in ounces…plus more if you work out at a high intensity (which you should be).

No complaining that lifting weights is boring, or hard, or you don’t know what to do! Get a trainer, even just for one session to show you what to do. Lifting weights should be done THREE times a week. And after your body adjusts to doing it, add more weights and/or reps. Yeah, it’ll hurt, but SO WHAT!

Ha ha ha! You really believe that 30 minutes of walking will help you lose weight? Okay, good start, but your body would adjust to that rather quickly, then you will have to pick up the pace. For serious weight loss, 60 minutes or more. I didn’t stutter! If you are just going through the motions to say you did something…expect to be comfortable with no results.

Eeew! My egg whites and chicken breasts are not that great with no salt added! Yep, but guess what, I am comfortable being uncomfortable for a bit. Try new seasonings that give your food flavor without adding sodium. And by the way egg whites? Yes, lose those yolks please.

But everybody else is going out and enjoying McDs and Pizza Hut, it’s no fair! Yep, say bye-bye to all the fast food. Hey, I love the stuff myself, but it does not love me. There are a few fast food places where you can make better choices…find them! Subway is high on my list.

“I give up! It’s just so hard, hard, hard!” How many times do we feel like this? What did I just tell you in my first sentence? “Losing weight is not easy, so get ready for some hard work!” There, I repeated it, now read it, underline it, cut it out, post it on your forehead. Heck, I’m a personal trainer, I KNOW what to do, and this does not make it any easier for me. I get tired…I want some French fries…I want to lay down and read a book instead of working out…I want a handful of Skittles and not munch on these apples…oh well!

I hope I made you mad.

P90X Week 4 Day 24

I’ve skipped too many workouts. More than I wanted to. I was going to repeat week 3, but you know what, I’m going ahead with Week 4 with some modifications. I missed Legs day twice, and have yet to do Kenpo X at all (which happens to be my fave). So I will add those in this week.

Tonight I will do Arms and Shoulders, my second fave. I also will go for a run/walk. I am trying to aim for 120 of exercise minutes...or roughly so. Some of the P90X workouts are not a full 60 minutes…but it sure feels like it.

I’m excited to get to Week 5. I don’t think I made it that far last time. I think I will stick with it better in this next Phase as I really want to see the results, and two, the Just Lose It Challenge has begun and I need some good hardcore workouts in the next 12 weeks.

P90X Week 3 Day 19

Plyometrics is definitely the mother of all X workouts!! Last night I did the complete 50 minutes!! Nearly all straight through, but I took like a 2 minute breather in between. Next, to go all the way through no extended breaks. Hey, but that’s what the pause button is for!

After that, it would be to get my form perfected and punching out each move 100% no gasping for air like I’m about to die. Tony said before the workout, “Get your buckets ready.” Oh yeah, it definitely makes you want to hurl at some points, but I did not. This workout reminded me a lot of the Insanity workouts…which by the way, did make me puke.

I must, MUST getting my eating back on track, or else, all this hard work won’t show!

My legs feeling like jello today lets me know I go hard all the time! I also did 20 minutes if Zumba too. Too bad Legs and Back is tonight….this is one of the tougher ones for me. I don’t like this one at all…but I will push myself to do the best and complete the whole workout, with some modifications of course.

I also have a run/walk scheduled for today. I will take things slow this time, but still run a bit. My goal is shortening my 3-mile time. I did about 55 minutes last time, so I am aiming for 50 minutes, mostly fast walking, a few short sprints in there.

Ask the Trainer: How many calories should I eat?

This was a hot topic of discussion yesterday. To a newbie to a healthy lifestyle/weight loss regime, it can be daunting.

And guess what, this Trainer does not have the answer!

I get this question a lot, but because I have not studied nutrition, this is really not my forte. If you listen to my advice, listen with a grain of salt and do your own research or find a nutritionist to help you. All I can offer is my opinion on things.

Okay, that’s my PT disclaimer.

So really, how many calories do you need to lose weight? Going to depend on so many factors: age, height, current weight, goals, activity level, even gender.

In general, men need between 2,000 to 2,400 calories and woman between 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day. Consuming less than 1,200 calories per day can be harmful to your health since it may trigger your body to go into starvation mode, causing your body to actually hold onto calories.

Women in don't need to eat as many calories as men. Also, people who exercise vigorously on a regular basis need to eat more than those who don't.

Me, I’m a fan of calorie cycling. My calorie range is 1300-1600, and most days I stay close to 1300 (I try to never go under 1200), but I must have at least 1-2 days a week where I hit that 1600. Either it’s on my “off day” on the weekend, or a midweek treat. Also, having a high calories day is great if you go off tracked when you did not plan to. The next day, get right back at it and hit that low calorie range and stick to that for a few days.

But listen, if you are extremely overweight, you NEED to eat way more than I do! 1200 calories are not enough and it puts your body in starvation mode…and worse, triggers cravings and binges. If you weigh more, eat more! And for every 10 pounds you lose, recalculate your calories needs. If you increase your activity level, eat more!

Check out this website to calculate your calorie needs: freedieting.com

P90X Week 3 Day 17

Well, honestly, I have missed more days than I planned to with this, but guess what? No worries! I am going to keep pushing through and try my best and do it every day, that’s all I can do!

Last night I did Shoulders and Back. This one is not that bad. I like it enough…though all those push-ups, GEESH! I need to get to the point I can do regular push-ups and not the girl ones all the time. Two, to do a dive-bomber would be heaven. I just look at them on the DVD like, “Yeah, right!”

I can feel my arms, shoulders and back getting stronger. I can’t wait to see my body totally transform! I’m sure I would be seeing better results if my eating was better. I do good during the week….the weekend comes, then its anything goes!

Well, I will be starting another Just Lose It contest starting next week, so ummm, my weekends need to be on point! I will start with a Monday weigh-in like I did last time, but gradually shift over to Thursday like I did before.

This time, I have my sister in it with me, as well as several of my sorority sisters. Friendly competition between us will egg me on! I’m not striving to win this like before….not even second place…..but to be in the Top 10 would be AMAZING!!

So GAME ON!

Ask the Trainer: 10 Minutes 3x a Day or 30 Minutes, What's More Effective?

I thought this was an excellent question! Yes, 10 minutes three times a day can be just effective as 30 minutes!

But you have to make it work, no time for lolly-gagging. If that’s all the time you have, you better MAKE IT WORK! Calories burned is calories burned, right? And if you burn 300 calories walking/jogging on the treadmill, then walking/jogging 10 minutes 3 times a day, should get you a near equal (if not higher) calorie burn.

How is that possible? For me, if I only had 10 minutes, I would go all out, full force and jog for 10 minutes, versus for me (and with many others) jogging for 30 minutes straight is tough and not doable.

So with a 1-2 minute warm-up, I would follow that with a 8 minutes straight jog as fast as my little legs could go, then cool down for one minute, and make sure I get a couple of stretches in. Maybe I do 10 in the morning, 10 in the afternoon, and 10 at night. That’s my MINIMUM of 30 minutes of cardio I suggests everyone does daily.

Here are a couple of other 10 minute workouts you can scatter through-out the day:

• Stationary bike, mine is in my living room, so I can do 10 minutes at a time while watching TV
• Treadmill walk/jog. Start off slow, but then continue to increase your speed every minute going as fast as you can go. For the last minute, go back to a moderate pace.
• Dancing, cut on some music and dance like a rock star for 10 minutes
• Turbo Kick/Fire has a few short videos
• Hip Hop Abs has an awesome 5-minute workout, make sure and do a 2 minute warm-up and 3 minute cool down, even if it’s just walking in place.
• Tae Bo has an 8 minute workout
• Walk stairs! I worked on the 16th floor once, and on breaks, we would go down and up…sometime this took longer than 10 minutes, but whew, this is a workout!
• Create a 10-minute bootcamp style workout, running, jumping jacks, burpees, lunges, squats, shadow boxing, whatever you like.
• Jump rope. This is a tough one, but do three 3-minute increments, and in between do 25 push ups. You will feel the BURN!
• Strength training can be done in 10 minutes too! Do push-ups, lunges and reverse crunches for 30 seconds each. Repeat this sequence for 10 minutes. Alternatively, perform triceps push-ups, body weight squats and Russian twists for 30 seconds each. Repeat this sequence for 10 minutes.