08.06.08
Review: Red Carpet Ready
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| Photo by extranoise |
I’ve had my mom on NROLFW, Stage 1, since April. She keeps dropping off the program for a few weeks and hasn’t really wanted to move on and learn new moves with more weight. She’d never really lifted before I put her on NROLFW; she usually just walks on the treadmill. And she works out in the morning, in the basement, by herself. So she really needs a program that she can do without supervision.
I first really noticed Valerie Waters’ Red Carpet Ready a while back when Skwigg blogged about her experiences with the program. And anything that gets Skwigg’s recommendation is worth trying out. I bought the RCR e-book last weekend and read through it with the intention of putting my mom on the program. (Ha! My own personal guinea pig!)
Goals section. The first part of RCR is about setting goals, preparing for the program, and really committing yourself to following the program. Because, obviously, if you don’t follow the program, you can’t expect the results of the program. (Don’t just say, “Well, duh,” because too many people think that just because they’re kinda sort “on” a program that the program should magically work.)
Nutrition section. Valerie makes it clear that “Nutrition accounts for about 80% of the program.” Eat every 3 hours, eat protein at every meal, drinks lotsa water, plan out your meals: all that important stuff is there. Valerie’s not a calorie counter, so instead she gives recommendations on sample meals, portion size, and plate coverage (the % of your plate that each macro should cover). (If you do need to calorie count, as some of us do, or need to know why you’re “hardly eating” but not losing weight, then check out Leigh Peele’s Fat Loss Troubleshooter for more nutrition advice. RCR would probably work well with FLTS.)
Workout section. There are two workouts, A & B, that are alternated, and the workouts themselves change after 3 weeks. Each workout has 3 circuits that you repeat 2-3 times, doing most moves 12-15 times per circuit, for a total workout of about an hour. The highest weight listed on the movements is 10 lbs; however, movements include single-leg Romanian deadlifts, planks, Y & T (from the YTWL), step ups, lunges, single-leg squats, and push ups. In other words, most of the movements are challenging enough as body-weight exercises, so having lighter weights isn’t hindering your progress. A few exercises require a resistance band or the “ValSlide” (it’s kind of like a pad that slides across any surface, so whatever limb is on the ValSlide is having to work harder to stay in place). All exercises include a description of where you should be feeling the work.
Cardio: In addition to the weight exercises, you do cardio on your “off” days (with one day a week completely off). There are 3 cardio workouts to choose from, all of them an interval workout. The first cardio workout is the easiest, the second is medium, and the third is more advanced. All cardio workouts are presented by “perceived exertion,” and a chart is included to help you figure out each level.
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So who could benefit from RCR? (Obviously Skwigg did, so right away that means that everyone can.) If you’re not focused on gaining much strength, don’t have access to heavier weights, or only have 6 weeks, then give this a go. And/or if you’re following fat loss advice like Fat Loss Troubleshooter and so need a program that doesn’t drain you and doesn’t need lots of recovery, I think RCR would be a good complement.* (As many of us trying to do NROLFW and follow FLTS found out, NROLFW is too much on fewer-than-maintenance calories.)
My mom was actually very excited when I first told her the name of the program. She kept bugging me until I finally downloaded it, and she had it in the page protectors and in a notebook within a few minutes of getting the hard copy. She’s buying a small step today for the step ups (I use the weight bench) and is looking at resistance bands. This week is her prep week: making sure she has everything, getting used to eating lunch again, and going to bed earlier/getting up earlier. She’s been through Workouts A1 & B1, one time through each circuit; her first response was, “I have to do those more than once?!” She’s never tried intervals before, but she was up to jogging on the treadmill, so she should be alright with those.
Mom update, 08-08-08: She not only bought a step, she also found the actual Valslides at Target and bought them. (I haven’t played with them yet.) Couldn’t find the Valband, though. I’ll try a few other places for a resistance band for her.
*To be fair, I haven’t tried the RCR workouts myself yet, so I don’t know how draining the workouts might be. If they leave you completely wiped out, wanting only to crawl back in bed and unable to go on with the rest of your day, then okay, they’re intense and probably wouldn’t work well with an extreme deficit. (For the record, the previous description is how I felt on NROLFW when I did it in the morning on maintenance calories. Tired, sluggish, and grumpy all day.)
03.31.08
Women and Exercise
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| Photo by heavyweightgeek |
I’ve noticed that women usually hear the word “exercise” or “workout” and immediately jump to “losing weight.” We’ve been convinced that exercise is only good for changing the number on the scale.
Eat less, exercise more. It’s the mantra we’ve been taught. I’m too fat. It’s what we tell ourselves every day. So when we see a program like New Rules of Lifting for Women, we jump on board and expect weight loss to follow quickly.
And then… Weeks pass, and we look the same. The scale has gone up instead of down. We compare our “before” and “current” pictures, and we look the same. Even when other people tell us that there’s more definition in our abs/legs/face or that our butt looks higher, we don’t believe them. “Those pants” still don’t fit–or are even tighter!
I’m exercising, we think. Why am I not losing weight? We worry that the program isn’t working, that it’s another gimmick and we’ve been had. Sure, we can lift heavier weights than we thought; we’re sore in muscles we didn’t know we had; we have more energy than ever before. But still we long for hours of cardio and high reps with pink dumbbells; at least the scale moved in the “right” direction back then.
This isn’t just a physical transformation we’re going through. It’s a mental and a physiological one, as well. We must retrain our minds to focus on the goal and not current obstacles; we must learn patience and trust. We must learn that the standards we’re using to judge our progress may not be accurate. We must teach our bodies to adjust to the new demands on them; we must fuel our bodies for the activities we put them through. This is a metamorphosis.
What are we becoming?
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02.12.08
Calories in = Calories out?
You hear that, to lose weight, your “calories in” has to be less than your “calories out”. That is, you have to eat fewer than you burn off. And that’s true. But people don’t seem to have a reasonable idea of how many “calories out” they have every day. They seem to think they have to purposely cut out or burn off every “calorie in”.
Your body uses energy every day. If you did nothing all day long, your body would still use energy; this is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). My BMR is about 1200 calories (calculated with the Owen’s Equation: 795 + (7.18 * body weight in kg)).
So if I do nothing all day, I need to somehow get about 1200 calories. (“Nothing” here includes eating. I guess I get an IV or something… eek, needles 
… but I’d get to sleep all day. Mmm, sleep, lovely. Oops, nodded off there. Wait, where was I? Oh, right…)
Sadly, I can’t do nothing all day. I have to go to work, eat food, cook, wash clothes–all that, er, fun stuff that makes up my day. So I use an activity coefficient to approximate the amount of extra energy my body needs to get me through a day. To sit at my desk all day, I need about 1900 calories.
(The activity coefficient I used (1.6) came from The New Rules of Lifting For Women. You may need slightly fewer calories if you’re very sedentary or slightly more if you’re very active. And remember, equations and coefficients are averages, not absolutely correct measurements. But those cost a lot of $$!)
Think about that for a moment. I’m 5′2″, ~130 lbs, and I need about 1900 calories per day.
Most diets tell you to limit yourself to, what, 1200-1400 calories? That’s a huge difference!
If I need 1900 calories just to go to work, but I only eat 1200, then I’m dipping below my BMR calories–that is, the basic energy that my heart, brain, lungs, etc. need. Anyone else see a problem here?!
My 1900 calorie daily calculation might look like a huge number of calories, especially if you’re used to “dieting” numbers. But remember, that equation tells me that I’m already burning that many calories per day. In other words, I eat 1900 calories and I’m also burning 1900 calories. So at the end of the day, I’m even.
If I want to lose weight (and not even exercise!), I can trim a few calories from that final number. Down to 1700 calories–I’m cutting 200 calories/day. I won’t drop huge amounts of fat each week, but I will slowly shed those excess pounds.
Too many diets set an absolute calorie range without accounting for the calories that you burn just by being you. They have you eat close to or below your BMR, but then you get out of bed and might even work out. So you’re in “calorie debt” (starvation): you’re eating fewer calories than your body requires for its basic keeping-you-alive function.
Sure, your body will lose weight on a starvation diet. And it will use what’s readily available: the energy in stored carbohydrates (glycogen) and in stored protein (muscles). What about stored fat? It gets saved for later.
Here’s my point: your BMR calories are sacred and already accounted for. Eat them every day. Do not burn them, do not cut them. Get at least this much energy so that your body continues to work properly. If you go to work, eat more–you’re burning it off just by going to work. (Hey, Mondays don’t look so bad now. Gotta go to work, honey. Gonna burn me some calories.) If you work out, eat some more, so that your muscle has fuel to burn.
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