Isn't Cardio The Best Way For A Woman To Lose Weight?

I found this old Q&A from Jillian Michaels and wanted to share :)

 

Why does my online workout program consist of just one day of pure cardio and four days of weight training? Although I love weight training, I've always thought it's the cardio that really helps a woman like me lose the weight. Why so little pure cardio?
 

ASK JILLIAN: Okay — I love dispelling this myth. Resistance training when done in circuits with cardio intervals is the best way to lose weight for the following reasons:

1. Resistance training will help burn intramuscular fat and create lean muscle tissue, but you can't build muscle mass unless you are lifting extremely heavy weights and eating more calories than you are burning in a day. Additionally, it is VERY difficult for a woman to gain muscle mass because we simply don't have the testosterone needed to build muscle tissue the way men do.

2. Resistance circuit training burns more calories than straight cardio both during the workout and after. This is because you are getting the benefits of a resistance-training workout and a cardio workout all in one. Additionally, you will burn more calories for up to 24 hours after weight lifting than you would with cardio alone because your body has to work hard to return your muscles to a pre-lactate state (the state before training).

Here is what cardio is good for: weight-loss extra credit. In other words, you can only train your muscles so many times in a week without overtraining them, which is counterproductive. Your muscles need adequate rest and recovery time for best results, but you can do as much cardio as you want. I mean, you can't run a marathon every day, but you can jog, bike, use the elliptical machine, or swim pretty much as often as you want.

 

Long Distance Parenting - How Do You Deal?

This is Novali's 2nd year spending the summer with her dad, Sam.  At least I think it's her second, maybe third, after a while it's hard to keep track.  She typically goes to stay with him in Indiana as soon as the school year lets out and then I get her for the weekend every 2-3 weeks.  She then comes back when school is ready to start up again.  Granted it's a short summer, it really flies by.  But for a kid, it's an eternity without mom!  She was here for the long  4th of July weekend, now it will be almost 3 weeks from then until she will be back home for another weekend.  She is starting to get homesick and it breaks my heart when she says she misses me and doesn't want to wait so long to see me.  I talk to her just about every day and Skype a few times a week, so that we can at least see each other (the beauty of technology).  So when she says she misses me, I have to be strong and reassure her that while I miss her a ton too, it's good for her to be spending this time with her dad, stepmom, and new little brother! 

 

For those that don't know the background, the relationship has always been long distance.  When I met Sam we were in college, he was living in Michigan where he grew up and I was and always have been in Chicago.  So when she was born it was long drives every other weekend or so.  It's all she's ever known.  Sam is a great dad and very involved in her life, from day one he has made the effort to see her as often as possible.  So it's been a lot of miles in the past 10 years.  I am grateful that we have a good relationship, all of the adults involved are very respectful of each other, we work well together, and we put her needs first, always!  So we make it work well.  A few years ago Sam moved closer, he is in Indiana now, he bought a home with his wife and they have a son, so Novali is excited to have a little brother.  Every 2 weeks, on Friday nights we drive to a meeting place half way between Chicago and South Bend, she goes with him for the weekend, and on Sundays we meet up again and she comes home.  Now for the summer it's pretty much the reverse.  So I tell her it's only fair, during most of the year she does 2, ocassionally 3 weeks, without seeing him, now the summer is his time to spend with her.  He has her enrolled in some great summer programs and she is having fun.

 

Of course, and nothing at all against dads, but nobody can replace mami when you are homesick, not feeling well, nervous, hurt, have a tummy ache... it's when we want our moms. It's a natural instinct.

 

Do any of you have similar experiences where the other parent lives in another state, and your child goes between homes?  Did you have that experience growing up?  How do you deal with the transitions, the questions or objections as they get older?  I'd love to hear your stories and tips. 

 

 

Why I'm Earning A Presidential Active Lifestyle Award

I thought this was super cool, and wanted to share! (yes I just said super cool) :P

Beachbody^® Joins President's Challenge

Beachbody has been recognized as an advocate of the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA), created by the Presidential Council on Fitness.

How it works:
Between July 15th and August 17th, the Presidential Council will recognize:

• All customers who buy a Beachbody fitness program or order Shakeology^® 
• All current Coaches
• All new Coach signups

Each of these Coaches and customers will receive a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award issued by the Presidential Council.

We hope you'll join the mission by spreading the news and inspiring as many people as you can to get healthy and fit. Stay tuned for more info to come over the next couple of weeks.

Let's do our part to get America moving!

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P.S. To learn more about the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award, go to www.millionpalachallenge.org. Please note that you're not required to follow their sign-up instructions. Beachbody will be taking care of everything for you.

Getting Our Parents Healthy, 10 Minutes At A Time

Syed and I have been talking a lot about our parent's health.  They are getting older, they are overweight, and are having the health issues that come along with that.  Coming from Hispanic/Indian backgrounds, our food is not the healthiest.  The foods that our parents traditionally eat are very rich, fatty, fried.  Case in point, the first thing Syed's mom asked was if she can still have her empanadas...

So Syed decided to order 10 Minute Trainer for his parents.  It's a program developed by Tony Horton of P90X fame and it's awesome because it's broken up into 10 minute segments that work all your major body parts.  For someone that has no time to workout, or has to start off really slow, 10 minutes may be more than enough!  But for someone that is more advanced, you can stack the workouts and do 20-30 minutes.  

We went to their house on Tuesday to get them started.  We did the first 10 minutes with his mom and man did she struggle.  But she got through it and we were really proud.  It gave me an appreciation for how blessed I am to be able to do what I do.  I do very intense workouts regularly and I think I take it for granted.  If I want to help others, I have to remember that for many people just doing a few jumping jacks may be a HUGE struggle.  I have to take myself back to when I could barely do a push up, on my knees!  Or when my knees used to hurt soooo bad because I was weak and out of shape.  

The next day she attempted the whole body workout and couldn't do it, but instead of giving up she did a lower body workout.  Proud of her!  We are going to support her and push her to see that as long as she is consistent and tries her best every day, she will get better at it, healthier and stronger!!!

As Tony says, "DO YOUR BEST AND FORGET THE REST"

All of this has made me decide that I want to start a 10 Minute Trainer Group on August 1, for anyone that wants to join in and we will keep each other accountable.  The biggest struggle that I hear in terms of exercise is "I have no time".  Well we all have 10 minutes.  That's one less snooze on your alarm, 2 commercial breaks, 10 minutes less spent browsing Facebook.   If our parents can do it, anyone can!

If you're interested in joining in, hit me up at www.facebook.com/tamaragomez18 or tamara.gomez18@gmail.com.