Family & F.I.T. | Debbie Hatch
- Seeing old friends and meeting new ones.
- Listening and learning about health & fitness from some of the best in the industry.
- Being surrounded by about 175 strong, inclusionary women of all ages, size, color, and ethnicity.
the fact (fact) that thoughts drive our feelings ==> feelings drive our behaviors ==> and behaviors drive our results. The problem is we rarely take the time to identify the thoughts that are ultimately leading to our behavior. What is the internal story we’re playing in our heads? For me, personally, this is so incredibly important. I’m my own worst critic. I frequently think “I can’t do this” “I’m not good at that”. If I stop there, without questioning the story, I feel like this thing is out of my control. “If I’m not good at this, there’s nothing I can do about it. That’s just the way it is……” Which, I KNOW – when I take the time to really examine the thought – is BS. I’m not good at it yet…..Repeat after me: “Motivation doesn’t come first. Action comes first. Motivation is the result of action.”
- We started with diaphragmatic breathing (aka belly breathing) and, holy cow, I need to work on this!!!! A lot.
- Kettlebell arm bars were next. These can improve mobility and rotary capacity through the thoracic spine. Strongfirst calls them, “the single best shoulder mobility and stability drill you can practice”.
- Tension is key for max exercises so we worked on a variety of plank (tailbone tucked; pulling elbows toward toes, and toes toward elbows) and push up (lowering slowly, raising quickly) exercises.
- From there, it was on to hollow body holds with a piece of PVC pipe.
As much as I hated to leave JVB’s session, my next workshop was high intensity interval training with Elisabeth Akinwale.
Whew! Mountain climbers, burpees, squats, and v-ups, oh my. It was fantastic!! What are the benefits of HIIT? It’s quick (so you’re less likely to get bored), can improve your endurance, and 15 minutes of high intensity interval training can burn some major calories! High intensity means moving quickly, it doesn’t mean moving frantically. It means pushing yourself out of your comfort zone but it’s not the same as “no pain, no gain”. In fact, the quality of movement (your form) is very important because we can’t be fit if we don’t have a basic level of health and wellness.
We actually get a lot, mentally and physically, by pushing ourselves out of the comfort zone. We have to be willing to embrace being uncomfortable and know that that is what’s going to make us better.”
- The FDA allows a +/- 20% inaccuracy on food labels!! First, it’s difficult to get people to look at nutritional labels; but even when we do, there’s no guarantee they’re accurate. If an item lists at 250 calories, it could be as low as 200 and as high as 300!!!! That’s a pretty big difference.
- Not only that, but how we cook our food can change the calories.
- Ladies, there can be a 10% difference in your resting metabolic rate (the number of calories your body uses to support organ function) depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle. It can be different if you’ve never been pregnant, during pregnancy, peri-menopause, menopause, and post-menopause.
- Using your Fitbit to track trends may be helpful. Did you exercise more today than yesterday or last week? But…relying on it to tell you how many calories you burned doesn’t do much for you. It has a +/-30% variability.
- Want to burn extra calories but don’t feel like exercising? It seems NASA did a study that shows, doing math problems can allow you to burn an extra 20 calories a day. (lol…..) OR
- Get some sleep! A single night of sleep deprivation results in a 5-20% decrease in calories burned the next day!
It seems the act of simply counting “calories in” vs “calories out” is a little more complicated than initially thought. What should we do? Just give up?
Dr.Kollias recommends being mindful of our body’s messages. She explained it this way, “When you go outside, you might look at the weather. You grab a jacket – or you don’t. When you get outside, you might find that you weren’t correct. You can either go back inside and grab a heavier coat, or take your jacket off. It’s the same with food. Eat mostly vegetables. Get some lean protein. Eat when you’re hungry but check in with your body. Are you full? Stop eating. The problem is that we frequently eating without thinking.” We eat ‘because it is time to eat’ or to make ourselves ‘feel better’. We eat because the food is on our plate. We eat standing up, or rushing around, and barely even take time to chew our food.
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I hope you enjoyed reading about these sessions. I definitely enjoyed attending them! Please let me know if you have questions or would like further information.