Body Fat Check In...For Real

Checked in on the old body fat this morning and I was happy to see 24.9%. I'm down 1%, with only .9% to go to hit my first goal and get into the fitness range.

Here's how it's been happening:

1) I've been eating lean protein with fruits and veggies for breakfast, because seriously, who says breakfast needs to look like breakfast? Cereal is not required by law, people! I usually eat a baked chicken breast or some hard boiled eggs, a piece of fruit, and some carrots. A nice omelet would give me the same effect while being more 'breakfasty,' but in my world, that's a lot of dirty dishes for a weekday morning. I make my eggs and chicken breasts at the beginning of the week, and they're always right there, super easy to grab.

2) I've been adding strength training or pilates after my runs 3 days a week.

3) I've been running faster on all my training runs and doing HIIT at least once a week.

4) I've been watching my portion sizes and saying no to more things.

What little tweaks could you make to change up your body composition?

By the way, I'm heading down to Florida tomorrow to run the Disney World Half Marathon with an old friend who also happens to be a Kennebec Valley Coacher. I've got a long layover in Boston, so guess what? You're gonna get to see me exercise in an airport. Like real exercise, no fluff.

Body Fat Check In

I'm 1 week into my body fat experiment, and so far I'm down from 25.9% to 25.4%. I've still got 5 weeks to go to hit my goal of 24%. I think that's pretty good!

There's been no magic trick to make it happen, just more strength training, more protein, more fruits and vegetables, less sugar, and almost no flour. My sweet treats have shifted from baked stuff like cookies and brownies to a few squares of dark chocolate, or a 1/2 cup of ice cream. Also, I've upped my running pace a few notches.

I'm especially happy since I went to a weekend-long family Christmas party this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I tried to load my plate with protein and veggies, and only make it to the dessert table once a day. I had to have a slice of my aunt's famous red velvet cake, but I only had a little piece--major victory in Amyland.

My goal this week, given the fact that I'm making a huge batch of Pioneer Woman cinnamon buns tonight and Christmas falls on Sunday, is to make it down to 25.2%. I'll keep you posted.

Body Fat

I'm 25.9% body fat. For a woman like me, who weighs 150 pounds, that means that my body has 38.85 pounds of fat. The other 111.15 pounds is muscle, bones, organs, and a heart of gold (kidding). As a 30 year old female, this means I fall into the 'average range'--not the 'fitness range' and definitely not the 'athlete range.'

Aw dang.

For me, it's all around the middle. I've got the pooch, the muffin top, love handles, jelly belly. I have 'em all.

Here's a chart about body composition that's put out by the American Council on Exercise:

In order to get into the fitness range, which is where I want to be, I need to alter my body composition so that I'm made up of 24% body fat. If I stay at a weight of 150, this means converting 2.85 pounds of fat into lean muscle mass, so that I have 36 pounds of fat.

The other alternative is to lose a few pounds of fat. For example, if I lose 4 pounds of fat, I would weight 146 and have 34.85 pounds of body fat--23.8%.

This is my immediate fitness goal--to move from 25.9% body fat to 24% body fat.

Why? Well, two reasons. Falling into the fitness range decreases my risk of illnesses like heart disease and cancer, and sometimes, when I accidentally shut my belly fat in a window I think "This has got to go."

Okay fine, I've never shut my belly fat in a window, but once upon a time, I did get it stuck between the handle of a grocery cart and a Sam's Club sized case of olive oil. True story.

So. How do I do this?

Welp, there are 3 things that people--including me--need to do:

1. Improve my diet by staying in a healthy calorie range, dramatically reducing refined sugar and carbs, eating smaller, but more frequent meals, and eating more lean protein and vegetables.

2. Strength train by lifting weights or by using the resistance of body weight (like push-ups and squats).

3. Engage in regular aerobic activity.

As trainers, we learn to set attainable and measurable goals, with a date of completion for clients. So I'll follow my own advice.

My goal is to lose 1.9% body fat by January 23rd (6 weeks)

Let's see what this really takes.

Do you know your body fat percentage?

HIIT Me Baby One More Time: A Guide to High Intensity Interval Training for Normal People

Over at Kennebec Valley Coaching (yes, it's a real place, with real people, and a real office...not just a facebook page), people are asking lots of questions about HIIT--High Intensity Interval Training.

Googling HIIT can be two parts confusing and one part frustrating, since it'll usually bring you to a whole mess of bodybuilding websites. Now I don't know about you, but when I see picture of a bodybuilder it usually makes me cock my head to the left and go, "What am I looking at???? I don't think I even have one of those."

Trust me, you don't have one either.

Today, I'm happy to announce that there's no need to look any further because Run Muffin is hooking you up with A Guide to High Intensity Interval Training for Normal People. Like me. And you.

Here we go.

1) HIIT is good for helping you become a faster runner, increasing your anaerobic capacity, boosting your metabolism, and burning fat. Win, win, win, win.

2) HIIT is a quick, but highly effective workout that can be done inside on a treadmill or bike, or outside on a sidewalk or bike--you can even jump rope your HIIT workouts.  But, since I'm quite literally incapable of jumping rope, we'll focus on the running side of this thing.

3) Warm up for 5-10 minutes at an easy pace.

4) Once you've finished your warm-up, you'll start your intervals. 6 intervals for 30 seconds each is a good place to start.

5) For 30 seconds, run like there's a clown chasing you with a knife...or a hungry bear chasing you while you're wearing a bacon hat...or you're about to be run down by an out of control circus train. In other words, YOU SHOULD BE RUNNING AS FAST AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN WITHOUT EXPLODING INTO A MILLION PIECES.

But remember, you need to be able to do it 5 more times.

6) When you finish your interval, rest for 60 seconds with a super easy jog or a walk.

7) Repeat this charade until you've done 6, and cool down for 5-10 minutes with a light jog or a walk.

8) Go eat something protein-ish within 30 minutes.

As HIIT gets easier for you, you can intensify the workout in a couple different way. You can:

1) Run your repeats faster.

2) Run up to 12 intervals in a workout.

3) Increase your intervals up to 1 minute.

4) Put a little bit of incline on your treadmill.

Once you want to push your intervals past a minute, you're looking at a whole different type of workout and you're moving away from the HIIT game, which is fiiiiine. In my world, as long as you're not sitting in a hole, you're amazing.

Just a few more HIIT rules to remember:

1) Take your recovery as slowly as you want. If you need to crawl, you're pushing too hard. But walking is totally fine.

2) Your recovery should always be twice as long as your work interval.

3) If your treadmill goes up to 10mph, and it's not intense enough, up the incline to .1.

Questions? Concerns? Compliments? (just kidding)

Now go get your run on...or your jump rope I guess?