Sayonara, Sister!

It is with tears in my eyes that I write this blog.  Christen McCool, the amazing instructor (she is certified to teach Attack, Step, Pump, CXWORX, Flow, and RPM!), is leaving us.  After three and a half years here, her family is off to Okinawa, Japan, where her Marine husband, Sean, will be stationed.  Although they don't actually hit the road until August 1 (they're driving cross country back to their hometown in Washington state before they hop a plane across the ocean), Christen's last official class on the schedule is Pump tomorrow night (Thursday, 7/25) at 5:30 pm (she'll probably team teach a couple other classes before she actually leaves, but this is her last solo gig).  Let's pack the house to say goodbye to her!

I wish I could take credit for this little collage, but it was a friend of hers in
Kalamazoo Area runners who posted it.  I think this about sums it up!

I can't say enough good things about Christen.  As an instructor, she has inspired me so much.  She always seems to say exactly what I need to hear, whether it's about form, technique, or just finding the motivation to complete another rep.  Sometimes she sings along to the music while she teaches, and although she denies it, she has an awesome voice that I love to hear (and, by the way, I'm a choir teacher - so I'm right and she's wrong!).  She remains positive and "in the essence" of each class.  She is flawless in knowing her choreography, and her overall abilities as a teacher are amazing.

As an athlete, she is just as inspiring as she is as an instructor.  Running is her first love, I think, and she is an amazing racer.  The first time she did a marathon (the inaugural Kalamazoo one in 2011), she was the 6th female overall!  She always places in the top in shorter races, and although she must be working incredibly hard, she runs lightly on her toes and with a smile on her face (earning her the nickname "Twinkle Toes").  She also got into doing triathlons while she was here, and she managed to place in those, too!

As a friend, what can I say... we click!  She's a kindred spirit, a sister from another mister.  We are both teachers, we have many common interests, we have similar parenting styles, and we share a lot of the same opinions (even on tough stuff, like religion and politics!).  Our husbands and children are friends (in fact, her kids are at my house as I write this, and I'm going to miss the noisy chaos that comes when they're all together!).  Over our whole friendship, she has inspired me to be better, as an athlete, in my eating, in the way I interact with others, and, most importantly, in the way I view myself.  I know I wouldn't be this sad about her leaving if we weren't such great friends, so in that, I am lucky.  

Christen, thanks for all you have done for our SWAT community.  When it's time for Sean to be transferred again in a few years, put in a request to come back here, okay?

Today's HIIT

I didn't have much time to work out this morning, so I decided I'd do a 5-minute warmup on the elliptical, then I'd head to the HIIT room and do just a few different exercises.  I was honestly dreading it; I don't know if it's worse to have a trainer pushing you in HIIT class or to have to push yourself.  Anyway, I was good and sweaty when it was done, and I really only spent about 15-20 minutes in the HIIT room.  Here is what I did:

15 squat jumps on the TRX
15 20-lb kettlebell swings
(3 rounds of the above, no rest in between)

15 standing mountain climbers (1 rep equals both sides, not just one leg)
15 reps of sitting on the exercise ball, touching the kettlebell side to side (oblique workout)
(3 rounds of the above, no rest in between)

15 reps holding a 45-weight plate in one arm (by my side), other hand by my head, small bend sideways
15 pushups on the TRX
1 round of the peak of track 9 from Body Attack class (20 tuck jumps, broken up into groups of 4, with running forward and backward in between, followed by 32 jumping jacks)
(3 rounds of the above...DEFINITELY rested in between, since that Attack combo makes me feel like I'm going to puke!)

1 set of 50 mountain climbers on the floor (counting 1 each time both legs completed a climb, not just when one leg did it)
(2 rounds of the above)

JOIN US: Wildcat Road and Trail 5K

SWAT Member Scott VanLoo - runner extraordinaire, marathon maniac, Body Pumper - is coordinating the Wildcat Road and Trail 5K in Mattawan!  It's at 8:00 am on Saturday, August 3 at Mattawan High School.  Click HERE to register for what is sure to be a fun time, and click HERE to see the event page on Facebook!

Good Times

If you weren't able to make any of the big Launch event this past Saturday, you definitely missed out!  It was a great event, one that a lot of people put a lot of hard work into, and it turned out to be super fun.

There were a lot of brave, tenacious souls participating in the Launch challenge (which was to do every class from 7 am - 1 pm), and I was definitely not one of them.  I walked from my house in the morning and arrived during Zumba, the second class of the day; I have to say that it looked awesome to see a ton of people exercising together in the parking lot!  

The three classes I took were Pump, CXWORX, and Attack; Asa (my hubby) did those in addition to Step and Vive.  Emma has been saying for weeks how great the new music is in all the releases, and she was definitely right!  The choreography was awesome, too.

In Pump, I really liked the tricep and chest tracks.  The chest track has a new move, pec flies, which has always been one of my favorite things to do when I'm lifting on my own.  In CX, there was some really difficult stuff in track 2 (the hover/plank track).  Attack, which is always my favorite, has great music and is probably one of the hardest releases ever (the plyo track has burpees going into tuck jumps, and the peak track has lots and lots of tuck jumps!).  I felt like I was going to puke, both a combination of the difficulty of the release and the fact that it was about 85 degrees outside.

Other than the new releases, there was lots of other fun stuff going on.  My kiddos loved the bounce house and the dunk tank (special shout out to all the SWAT staff people who braved the tank...they definitely got soaked).  There were various vendors, 103.3 was there, and overall, it was a success!  Thanks, SWAT!!!

Metabolic Effect

My friend Megan gave me the book The Metabolic Effect Diet a few months ago, and it has been really eye-opening.  Ever since I had my RMR (resting metabolic rate) tested a little over a year ago and was told I have a pretty low RMR (I burn only 1,302 calories at rest per day), I have considered myself metabolically damaged.  I need to figure out how to speed up my metabolism and still burn fat and lose weight without doing any more damage (which is what traditional restriction of calories does).  

Besides reading the book, I've been reading articles on their website.  The style of the writers is open, friendly, and real.  I also "liked" their Facebook page, and I've found that to be the most helpful.  Once or twice in my daily newsfeed are reminders from the Metabolic Effect people to keep being my own metabolic detective and find out what works for me.  

The basic premise of the Metabolic Effect (ME) diet is this: traditional calorie in/calorie out weight management approaches do not necessarily encourage fat loss, though they may lead to weight loss (usually in the form of breaking down muscle).  Instead, we should be approaching fat burning and muscle building from a hormonal perspective based on our individual metabolic type.  People who restrict calories alone, without determining which foods are right for their metabolic type first, often spend hours burning calories doing moderate intensity exercise while at the same time restricting calories severely, thus creating a muscle breakdown and a metabolic slow-down that can be permanent (and can also lead to almost irresistable cravings for the exact foods that will lead to fat gain!).  The ME people encourage lean proteins, low-sugar fruits, and lots of low-starch veggies...common sense, right?  These foods create a hormonal response that helps you burn fat instead of muscle.  They also encourage short duration, high intensity exercise (think HIIT and weight-lifting instead of 45 minutes on the elliptical machine!) that makes you work in your anaerobic zone and build muscle, paired with 30-60 minutes of low-intensity, aerobic exercise (i.e., WALKING briskly) per day.  This is almost exactly what I was told to do when I had my EMA (Exercise Metabolic Assessment) done last year!!!

The ME people also stress the importance of getting enough sleep.  In both the book and in the Facebook posts, they will ask you, what is more important to you: watching your TV shows or getting enough sleep?  Here is a Facebook post from yesterday: 

"I can improve your mood, burn fat, and slow the aging process. I also lower leptin, 

insulin, and cortisol levels while also elevating hormones such as HGH and testosterone. 

Think of me like a hormonal reset button for your body. I may not have any calories, 

but I can greatly impact your fat loss efforts and your over all health.  What am I?"

The answer, of course, was sleep!!



This is my favorite article on the ME website.  Excerpts like this one speak the truth:

"Too often people simply say “i am eating right” and they don’t realize this simple fact: if you are not getting results then you are not eating right.  If you are not getting results in fat loss, then no matter how good you are eating, it is not good enough for you and you are going to have to take it to the next level. This is just the way it is. Your metabolic formula is different from everyone else and you need to stop being the dieter and start being the fat loss detective. We all need to look at ourselves and realize while we may be comfortable with our current diet practices and be convinced it is enough, it simply may not be.  The point of your nutrition practices where you start seeing losses in belly fat is the point where you start seeing results NOT the place you are comfortable with. "

I'm still (as always) having a hard time totally adopting this lifestyle because, with what I've done to my metabolism with all the past calorie restriction and eating the wrong foods for me, it really is going to be a tough road!  I have to take it hour by hour sometimes, and sometimes, I lose the fight to my cravings.  I still feel like I'm just eating too much, and not necessarily too much of the right foods for me.  However, the good thing about the Metabolic Effect lifestyle is that it is a meal by meal approach - if you fall off the wagon for one meal, then you just make the right choices the next one.  You haven't totally ruined anything (which is how I always felt when I was restricting my calories and went over even by 50!).