More Advanced Fat Burning Cardio!

Here is what I have been doing the last week, with awesome results!

First, I set the incline to 1% on the treadmill to simulate outdoor difficulty.
5 minute warmup walk
90 seconds of running (moderate pace)
30 seconds of sprinting (as fast as I can maintain)
repeat 10x for a total of 20 minutes
Then, I set the speed to 3.5mph and incline 5%.
Walk 5 minutes 
For the next 25 minutes, I drop the speed by .1 and raise the incline by 1% every 5 minutes

I've been doing this 3x a week, with the stairclimber and elliptical on the fat burner setting the other 2 days.

You Don't Win Friends with Salad

I had a friend ask me today what I normally eat. She said she hates salad and it's so easy to get around that! I hardly ever feel like eating salad (I force myself at work sometimes) so I made a list of good stuff! Some of this came from my wonderful trainer, Amy. The rest is stuff that I found on my own that works for me and have been doing since the beginning. The main thing to keep in mind is portion control. I'm horrible at keeping my portions small, but the best thing to do is a handfull of food every two hours or so. I'm realistic, so I try to eat 3 small meals and 3 snacks a day. It's not easy but if I really try I can stick to it.

Awesome foods:
avocado (in moderation)
unsalted almonds
Smuckers All Natural Peanut Butter
Smuckers sugar free jelly
Carb control whole wheat tortillas (instead of bread)
whole grain bread (low sugar, in moderation. The bigger the chunks of grains, the better it is)
turkey
grilled chicken
Ken's Lite Honey Mustard dressing
blueberries
strawberries
Jello sugar free, fat free pudding (made with skim milk)
sugar free Jello
Muscle Milk Light (I mix it with flaxseed, berries, banana and almond milk)
Almond Milk (unsweetened)
Special K (one handful with skim milk)
Goldfish crackers
bananas
low fat cottage cheese
low fat, low sugar yogurt
pretty much any vegetables (potatoes in moderation)
whole grain pasta (one handful a few times a week max)
olive oil and garlic (instead of pasta sauce)
pizza sauce (lower sugar than marinara)
veggie dogs
veggie burgers (Boca are fine)
low fat cheese
Miracle Whip Light
Cool Whip Light (with strawberries or pudding)
watermelon (in moderation)
Propel Zero (if you don't like water by itself)


That's not a complete list, but you get the idea. If I can't fit in a meal I try to have a protein shake. The goal is to keep yourself full, but not stuff yourself. Keep snacking and try not to let yourself get hungry. My problem is that this makes me ravenous and I tend to eat everything in sight the first few days of a hardcore cycle. I let myself cheat once a week and I find that I use that day as my carrot on a stick. The whole week is spent looking forward to it and I really enjoy that meal more than I would without the diet. I also find myself eating less of the bad food on that day and craving good stuff. The key thing to remember is that even if you mess up, you can ALWAYS get back on track with your next meal!

Ab Workouts

A few people have asked me what I do for abs, so I'll post some good links here! There are so many things you can do without workout equipment to strengthen the core! I like to do abs about 3x a week. Normally my trainer has me doing them on my cardio only days.

My personal favorite are hanging leg raises. There are two ways to do them. I don't have the arm strength yet to do them completely hanging, so I do them on a parallel bar. Most gyms have this equipment available.I do 3 sets of 12 with my legs going straight out and 3 sets of 12 lifting my knees.

If you have access to an exercise ball, pull ins are freaking awesome. I do 3 sets of 20, but if you're just starting out you may not be able to do many. I suggest doing what you are comfortable with and working your way up to doing more.

Decline crunches are nice, but if you have back issues like me, you may not be able to do as many as you would like. I only go about halfway down due to my back cracking, but I set it on the highest incline and can still feel my abs working. If you ever feel pain like that, it's best not to continue that particular exercise. I can normally manage to do three sets of 15 without too many problems.

If you don't have any gym equipment, planks are an awesome way to strengthen your entire core. My trainer started me slow with doing them for 30 seconds, progressing up to a minute and beyond. The most important thing is to make sure your back and butt are completely straight. If you are having issues holding yourself up, put more weight on your elbows and rock back and forth slightly on your toes. This reduces the strain on your back slightly.

There are several varieties of crunches to do if you don't have gym equipment. Don't just do straight crunches 500 times a day. Make sure you have enough variety that you are working your muscles in different ways. Just doing crunches will never give you a flat stomach or a six pack. This article has a lot of good exercises. I highly suggest switching up your routine frequently to make sure you are getting the most out of it and working yourself in different ways. Whether it's adding weight, adding time or reps or simply adding a few more challenging exercises, you can't go wrong with mixing things up occasionally!

Excellent fat burning workout!

I thought I would post this here since I have a few followers that are trying to lose weight. This is an excellent cardio workout, courtesy of my wonderful personal trainer, Amy. It's best done on a treadmill at a 1% incline, but can be done outside as well.


Minutes 1 and 2- walk
3- jog
4- jog faster
5- run
6- sprint

repeat 4x for a total of 20 minutes (walk the last two).

The goal is to eventually jog the walking minutes and just run faster for the rest. Combine this with some ab exercises and you have an awesome total body cardio day! I do this twice a week (and use the stair climber or elliptical on the other days).