When Snacks Replace Meals

OK, although I make all of my own meals, my snacking is starting to get a little out of hand.....I say this as I'm just returning from the Whole Foods "bulk aisle", my mouth still burning from the crystalized ginger candy I can't seem to keep my hands out of! I've already banned myself from the bulk aisle of Mollie Stones (in PA) because in addition to crystalized ginger candy they have those little, carob energy nuggets......yikes! As much as I bitch about "energy bars", these are basically the same thing.....ok, that's it, I'll never eat them again, lol!

I've lightened up on my diet quite a bit this last year because micro-managing every morsel of food wasn't working for me. And what I mean by "not working" is, it didn't make me feel good about myself. It made me feel as if I was becoming my own food prison guard. I know exactly when I'm eating too much. I know when I'm not hungry, but eat something anyway. And I know it's my choice, I'm not in denial about anything.....I eat what I want, when I want to, knowing full well any consequences I may "suffer"....suffering is also a choice btw.

I never used to snack more than my one, pre-designated, snack, which was something like a apple, or serving of fruit, PNB and celery/carrots, small sucker, etc., but lately I find myself eating more traditional snack foods like corn chips....thanks alot Fawn, lol! No seriously, I'm pretty good about eating a small amount of snack foods, like chips or crackers, it's not a problem, but this silly crystalized ginger candy keeps "zinging" me....literally!

Isn't the definition of a "snack" a small sumpin'-sumpin'? In fact I looked at the calories in a serving of some of my favorite multigrain chips and one serving has 140 calories, not a problem, I can ususally take a handful and be doen with it. 140 isn't bad, and I think it certainly qualifies as a snack, but if you can't stop yourself after 10 chips (yep, I said 10....one-zero, lol), then what do you do? Well, you probalby eat 20, then 30, hopefully you can stop at this point, because your snack just turned into your meal! And that's pretty much what I've been doing.....eating meal sized amounts of snacks!

Sometimes I consciously choose this. For example, I've been making my own kettlecorn (sugary popcorn....blogpost to come....), and some days I chose to eat it for dinner.....but guess what? It's a trade off, kettlecorn will literally be my dinner and nothing else, nothing more nutritious, just fat, sugar, corn and salt....it's my choice. Crystalized ginger candy was my lunch today!

Most days I know I have good food waiting at home for me, and I can calm myself down long enough to drive home, warm it up, or toss it together, and I feel so much better. Or like today I threw a couple of persimmons in my gym bag to make sure I had something after my workouts, instead of being lured by the peppermint patties, I don't even like, at the yoga studio (the damn little things are free! Argg...)

But for now, as I drink my wine and write this blogpost, I'm cooking a large turkey thigh in the PC while making stock for the lentil mushroom soup I'm making for dinner later on ( or maybe I'll use some black eyed peas and throw some bacon in it, lol). Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed the ginger candy.....

If you want to follow along you can.....or just come to my class, lol!

12 kg 10 2 hd sw, 15 sec work/rest x 5 (50 sw)
12 kg 10 tr, 15 sec work/rest x 5 (50 sw)
12 kg 10 1 sw/1 tr, 30 sec work/rest x 5 (100 sw)
12kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, 1 min work/30 sec rest, x 5 (200 sw)

repeat w/16kg

16 kg 10 2 hd sw, 15 sec work/rest x 5 (50 sw)
16 kg 10 tr, 15 sec work/rest x 5 (50 sw)
16 kg 10 1 sw/1 tr, 30 sec work/rest x 5 (100 sw)
16 kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, 1 min work/30 sec rest, x 5 (200 sw)

repeat w 12kg, but increase each 15 sec interval by 2 reps, speed swings

12 kg 12 2 hd sw, 15 sec work/rest x 5 (60 sw)
12 kg 12 tr, 15 sec work/rest x 5 (60 sw)
12 kg 12 1 sw/1 tr, 30 sec work/rest x 5 (120 sw)
12kg 12 2 hd sw, 12 tr, 12 1 sw/tr, 1 min work/30 sec rest, x 5 (240 sw)

52.5 minutes 880 swings so far...... (17.5 minutes per block)

12kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, switch bells
16 kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, 2 min work, 1 min rest

12kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr,
12kg 12 2 hd sw, 12 tr, 12 1 sw/tr, 2 min work, 1 min rest

16 kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, switch bells
12kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, 2 min work, 1 min rest

16 kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, switch bells
12kg 12 2 hd sw, 12 tr, 12 1 sw/tr, 2 min work, 1 min rest

12kg 12 2 hd sw, 12 tr, 12 1 sw/tr,
12kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, 2 min work, 1 min rest

12kg 12 2 hd sw, 12 tr, 12 1 sw/tr, switch bells
16 kg 10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/tr, 2 min work, 1 min rest

512 swings 18 minutes

100 more swings....10 sets of 10....your chioce 15 sec work/rest = 5 minutes.

1 hour 15.5 minutes
1492 swings

Each block of combination swings has 20 sets (4 x 5). Ten 15/15 work/rest sets, five 30/30 work/rest sets, and five 1 min. work/30 sec rest sets, for a total of 17.5 minutes per block).

The first block is done with the 12kg. The second block has a weight increase to the 16kg. The third block goes back down in KB weight, but the intensity is increased by speeding up the pace and increasing the reps by 2 per 15 seconds.

The last 1 minute sets on all three blocks were combined two at a time, alternating all possible pairs, progressively, starting with the "easiet" and ending with the "hardest" (heavy and speed!),to end the workout. And then.....we just finished it all off with 10 sets of 10 swings....any swing movement (1 hand, 2 hand, trans?) and kettlebell weight, individually chosen.

This is not the hardest, heaviest or longest workout we've done, but in my opinion it was designed and paced in a way to go the distance.

PS this swing combination is the combination I just posted in the last swing video a couple of days ago.

Thursdays workouts.....

I started my training this morning with 6am Spin class. I haven't been Spinning much because I've been focusing more on getting Girya's makeover fininshed and I don't have time for every-frickin'-thing......

I teach my Beg/Inter class from 7:00 to 7:30am and usually let them stay 5-10 minutes longer, if they want, as I warm up with my next class. My weekday classes @ Equinox are not very well attended as the Club has not promoted the classes, or me, very well, and I haven't pushed it for various reasons. But anyway, for now I have 2 advanced students on Monday, and on Thursdays it's just me and Brian.

Here was the "meat" of our workout today, which is a heavy day that includes, many times, doubles (like today), cleans, presses and squats. I used double 12's & 16's, and Brian used double 16's & 20's.

#1
10 dbl sw w/12kgs, 15 sec work, 15 sec rest
10 dbl sw w/16kgs, 15 sec work, 15 sec rest
7 dbl cl, dbl press w/ 12kgs, 30 sec work, 30 sec rest
6 cl sq L w/ 16kg, 30 sec work, 30 sec rest
6 cl sq R w/16kg, 30 sec work, 30 sec rest
4 min total

#2
10 dbl sw w/12kgs, 15 sec work, 15 sec rest
10 dbl sw w/16kgs, 15 sec work, 15 sec rest
7 dbl cl, dbl press w/ 12kgs, 30 sec work, 30 sec rest
5 dbl cl sq w/16kg's, 30 sec work, 30 sec rest
3 min total

Repeat 4 x, alternating rotations #1 & #2 (8 rotations)

Total workout 28 minutes

We set 4 bells (2 of each weight) next to eachother, and then moved to the bells we needed for the combinations we were doing. We ended the rotations with the last combination of dbl cl squats with our 2 heaviest bells....whew!

I had do do some extra dbl cl presses, since I missed my "strict press" workout with Mark yesterday, so Brian had no choice but to follow suite. I really liked what we did, and instead of explaining it, I'll tape it for one of my future DVD's!

Got to 9:15am Bikrams yoga.....it was weird, but I got my practice in for the day....maybe I'll explain another time.....

Yoga, or Sophia....yoga, or Sophia?....Sophia, of course!

I had to leave my house this morning by 8:00am to get to Fairfield in time to see my baby granddaughter get her 3 month old pictures taken, so yoga class was not going to fit into the schedule today. I also had to skip my workout with Mark this morning....but what's more important? Yoga will aslways be there, but Sophia's 3 month birthday only happens once!

She is such a good baby.....we took her shopping afterwards and out to lunch.....(even though I brought my own lunch I had to take Mom out to spend just a little more time with sophia....no offense, Mom! lol)

Really, she does like me!

Old School

Wednesday 5:07am....check email and one of the two 6:00am KB clients I train in my garage gym is not feeling well.....one down, but one left......6:00am....I'm on my new stationary bike, the one we toook out of Girya to make room to host HKC's, waiting for client #2......6:05am, I know she's not coming (I'm sure I'll get an email soon about how she overslept, lol), but I'm still there, in the cold, 39 degrees actually, like old times, alone......

It doesn't matter though, I've got work to do, and I'll gt it done. Good news....I can do more alone.

So there I am, 20 minutes on the bike (which I really dig BTW), and the plan was to go on a long walk afterwards because I wasn't counting on getting a workout in today, I wanted to go see my baby girl, on her 3 month birthday, get her pictures taken in her Xmas dress, and I had to leave early to get there in time. But as I sat, warming up on the bike I realized....why go on a walk when I can swing for about 20-30 minutes and get a better workout? In fact, since I can get a great workout with KB's in 20 minutes, I can still go for a walk too! Brilliant!

Tomorrow in my Thursday class I usually swing heavy, lots of times it's "doubles" day, so I wanted something quick, efficient, light and long...... Swinging the 12kg for 20 minutes straight is not a big deal for me.....if I swing at my 10 reps per 15 sec pace (also known as "cruising pace"), but if I increase the swing reps by just 2 reps more in the same 15 sec., it totally changes the difficulty of the exercise......change it by an additional 4 reps and then you're smokin'.....but I didn't want to "smoke" this morning!

I know I cannot swing fast for a straight 20 minutes, so I alternated cruising pace with speed swings for 20 minutes with no rest period. 840 swings in 20 minutes (not including the extra 160+ swings I did for the demo tapes, lol)

10 2 hd sw, 10 tr, 10 1 sw/1 tr (20 reps), 1 minute
12 2 hd sw, 12 tr, 12 1 sw/1 tr (24 reps), 1 minute
repeat 10 times = 20 minutes




Man! Talk about "old school"! Training, by myself in the cold and dark garage gym, barefoot, (and in "street clothes"), and then turning on the video camera was a little deja vu! Perfect timing actually, as I get ready to sit down and write how I train the kettlebell swing, how my progressions came to be, and using the magic number of "10" has been, and still is, key for me.....

Powders and Promises

"You don't need real food when you have enough formula."That's what Mark just said when I was reading the nutritious "diet secrets" of website I just checked out about a multi-level marketing type of business that sells fitness programs....and all the "fixin's".....

"Shakeology"
2-Day Fast Formula
ActiVit Multivitamins
Meal Replacement Shake
Results and Recovery Formula
Peak Performance Protein Bars
Performance Formula
Slimming Formula

It just kills me that anyone could think, for one second, that eating shakes, bars and supplements is the way to maintain a healthy bodyweight for the rest of our lives......puh-lease!

People! There is NO getting around real food! And I'm not sorry for saying so. Grow up and learn how to feed yourselves. Feeding yourself doesn't mean tearing open a "bar", or popping the top of a Slimfast. It means learning to cook and prepare the food our bodies were meant to eat 100+ years ago....if it wasn't around 100+ years ago, then don't eat it regularly, much less instead of real food.

Now, I don't have a problem disclosing all of the junk I eat at times, but I don't live on it. OK, I had 2 stinkin', nasty ass suckers that were on the counter at the bank this afternoon.....stinkin' free food. But that was only because I left the house without a snack and I have loads of persimmons at my house and I was too stinkin' cheap (and lazy) to stop and pick up an apple....so sugar is the first thing I grab....arggg!

But I headed straight home, ate a persimmon (OK 1 1/2 persimmons) when I got there, while I was heating up a huge bowl of Turkey soup with chorizo and cabbage (yummm,,,,chorizo....my next blog post!) Yes, I was too cheap and tired to stop for a piece of fruit, but knowing there was plenty of homemade food ready for me at home I never, ever, have to rely on "driving through" someplace for someone else to cook my food......and I use the term "cook" lightly.

But as long as supplement companies give people an easy out with powders and promises.....powders you add water to, or bars you simply tear open.....and let's not forget most of this stuff is chocolate, vanilla, or peanut butter flavored, lol...it just gets more ridiculous doesn't it? Aren't those dessert flavors...Yay....dessert all day long and still be lean, mean, healthy and skinny, forever! Sign me up....NOT!

Monday @ Equinox.....are you "hardcore"?

I wrote this blogpost over one month ago, but never posted it until now......

Two people showed up for class this morning....only one in each of my two classes, and I'll get to that in a second....but first here's what Brian and I did in the inter/adv 7:30am class:

Tracy's warmup, all 2 hand swings before progressing up to the 24kg

5 x 10 w 12kg
3 x 10 w 16kg
2 x 10 w/20kg

work sets

50 x 10 w/24kg =
50 sets = 500 swings w/24kg

Brian's warmup, all 2 hand swings before progressing up to the 28kg & 32 kg

5 x 10 w/ 16kg
3 x 10 w/20 kg
2 x 10 w/ 24 kg

work sets

10 x 10 w/28kg
15 x 10 w/32kg
5 x 10 w/ 28kg....and fininshing
20 x 10 w/32kg

50 sets = 500 swings, 200 w/28kg, 300 w/32kg

Total workout 30 minutes, 600 heavy 2 hand swings

Since I had already been swinging for 30 minutes in my basic beginning class from 7:00-7:30am I was done! So I asked Brian if there was anything else he wanted to work on with KB's that I could help him, since I usually train my Inter/Adv class an additional 10-20 minutes. He wanted to do some "lat work", so we practiced some strict press....I mean he practiced some strict presses and with some coaching and a little "tough love" (RKC's know what that is, lol), Brian pressed the 28kg, a new PR for him for 4 reps, 1/1 x 2, and he said it felt easy! Brian definitely benefitted from the practice and coaching Ive been doing with Mark on my own strict pressing....see how lucky my students are, lol! Now Brian can progress up to the 32kg and then 40kg which is about half of his bodyweight.

OK, so if anyone has actually read the workout details in this blogpost, and is interested in the actual training I do with (and without) my students in a class structure, some may think, "Goodness, is that what she does in her classes? I mean should I pay, or would I pay, a trainer to do nothing but set after set of 2 hand swings?" Well, the question isn't, would you pay someone to take you through this workout, but would you even do it on your own? Probably not. Should you? Well, you should be doing something that is considered exercise, and as I always say...."If there was something better than training kettlebells, then I would be doing it!" So why don't more people train kettlebells, and why don't I have more people show up for my classes?

Because it's hard. Because sometimes it hurts....but I don't mean "hurt/ injure", although it may be physically uncomfortable....the kettlebell doesn't swing itself.....you have to move it, and to move the KB you have to move your body! Moving your body in a way that reminds you how out of shape you are, or how out of shape you'll become, quickly, if you stop moving it, hurts your ego more than anything. Go ahead, lose your mobility, lose conditioning, lose strength.....and you lose quality of life....you just do. So why should you come to one of my classes where I may simply do set after set of 2 hand swings? Because you won't do it on you own, and nothing will get you in shape faster.


Are my classes hard? Yep. Is my own training hard? Yep. This is what Brian said to me one time when I gave him a choice about a particular combination to end the workout with, he said "I don't care....whatever is harder!" I couldn't have said it better myself! Now that's hardcore!