So, the answer is...all of the above, or really "a" through "c". I'm pretty certain that "d" won't help you get that kind of six-pack at all but depending on your personal goals, if could technically be correct. What is surprising is that while all three of these things help (when did good genetics ever fail anybody?), the LEAST important of the three is ab-specific exercises!
According to Craig Ballantyne, author of The Truth About Six-Pack Abs and frequent contributor to Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine "losing the stomach fat that is covering the abs is the MOST important aspect - full body training programs (read cardio and strength training) and proper nutrition (don't we all know what to do by now?) are the only way to strip off that stubborn belly fat".
I already knew the answer to this question from conversations with people who actually have those abs! It would be so easy to do some crunches and bicycles every day to get that ripped look, but alas, that just won't cut it . We can tone those muscles all day long, but if you have a big ole layer of fat over the top of them, who can see em? And frankly, I just didn't get those genes and I assume if you're reading this, neither did you.
On the bright side, after all of the crunching and core work I've done over the years, I'm happy to know that I do have six-pack abs! You just can't see them. Yet.
Tami
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Not Quite Ready for Prime Time......
The GPL Fit for Life cable access show (kinda sounds like a weird euphemism for something, doesn't it?) will air tomorrow at 12:15 and 9:00 PM on channel 5, featuring none other than moi and my partner-in-crime Brandy.
Throughout the year, Brandy and Tami will try different recipes, exercises and more. We'll report on the Fit for Life and Walk Across Alabama program, interview health and fitness professionals and try to answer any burning questions sent in by you.
Show will also air on Saturday at 9:45 AM and Sunday at 9:30 PM through February. Check us out and give us your feedback.
Don't have cable? We'll post a link to view over the internet on the Fit for Life page later this week!
TTFN,
Tami
Throughout the year, Brandy and Tami will try different recipes, exercises and more. We'll report on the Fit for Life and Walk Across Alabama program, interview health and fitness professionals and try to answer any burning questions sent in by you.
Show will also air on Saturday at 9:45 AM and Sunday at 9:30 PM through February. Check us out and give us your feedback.
Don't have cable? We'll post a link to view over the internet on the Fit for Life page later this week!
TTFN,
Tami
Friday, January 23, 2009
Survey says....
Last week I put up a survey asking which of these items from McDonald's has the least amount of calories; the Big Mac, grilled chicken club, 20 piece McNuggets or a large order of fries? 4% of you said the Big Mac, 38% the chicken club, 33% the McNuggets and 23% went with the fries. Turns out it's the fries, weighing in at 500 calories. A little disclaimer here...that is for the large fries, if you go for the super-size you're on your own, facts for that are not listed on the McDonald's site.
What was interesting to me was the tie for second place between the grilled chicken club and the Big Mac. Both items come in at 540 calories and the 20 piece McNuggets have a whopping 920 calories and 59 grams of fat! Check out some of the fast food restaurants websites, you may be surprised. Another good source is the "Eat This, Not That" book series by David Zinczenko. You can check out a copy here at the library or check David out at www.menshealth.com.
Browsing around, I found some other surprising facts. This one's for you, Carol. At Taco Bell the Fiesta Taco Salad has 850 calories and 45 grams of fat (this is a perfact example of how a salad is NOT always the healthiest option), while the 7 layer burrito has 480 calories, 17 grams and fat and 10 grams of healthy fiber making it a far better choice. You should also probably skip any "value" meals. Most come close to and some even exceed the daily calorie requirement for a typical American! And the fat (especially the saturated fat) in those meals essentially make them a heart attack in a bag! There are decent choices available if you just do a little research.
Take this week's survey, I'll post the results and answer next week. Our group has walked 885 since January 6! Keep up the good work and have a great weekend.
Tami
What was interesting to me was the tie for second place between the grilled chicken club and the Big Mac. Both items come in at 540 calories and the 20 piece McNuggets have a whopping 920 calories and 59 grams of fat! Check out some of the fast food restaurants websites, you may be surprised. Another good source is the "Eat This, Not That" book series by David Zinczenko. You can check out a copy here at the library or check David out at www.menshealth.com.
Browsing around, I found some other surprising facts. This one's for you, Carol. At Taco Bell the Fiesta Taco Salad has 850 calories and 45 grams of fat (this is a perfact example of how a salad is NOT always the healthiest option), while the 7 layer burrito has 480 calories, 17 grams and fat and 10 grams of healthy fiber making it a far better choice. You should also probably skip any "value" meals. Most come close to and some even exceed the daily calorie requirement for a typical American! And the fat (especially the saturated fat) in those meals essentially make them a heart attack in a bag! There are decent choices available if you just do a little research.
Take this week's survey, I'll post the results and answer next week. Our group has walked 885 since January 6! Keep up the good work and have a great weekend.
Tami
Monday, January 19, 2009
Cheesecake Anyone?
If you are one of my Facebook friends, you may have noticed that I was pondering what effect a trip to The Cheesecake Factory would have on my weight loss efforts on Saturday. You may have also noticed that Sunday was my birthday, so... after much deliberation (okay, not really that much) off we went in the spirit of celebration.
I did, however, attempt to be prepared. I ate a sensible breakfast of oatmeal, did a 60 minute kickboxing workout (the only butt that got kicked was mine), had some veggie soup and Kashi whole-grain crackers for lunch so I wouldn't be ravenous when I arrived, which I was anyway. But the real question is, since when does being hungry or not hungry have anything to do with eating cheesecake?
I order a chicken dish and as prescribed in one of the books I've been reading, ate only half and had the waiter box up the other half. I will consider this a Fit for Life triumph, but if you've ever seen the gargantuan portions at the Cheesecake Factory you'll know this was not extremely difficult. But chalk one up for me anyway! Now it's time for the dessert. I look at my husband and ask is he would like to split a piece. He looks at me as if I've lost my mind - this response may stem from a rather ugly incident several years ago involving a lemon torte and a fork stabbing. So...I'm on my own. I order the Dulce de Leche and it is fantastic. I savor every bite and figure I'll just deal with it tomorrow.
Tomorrow is here and I've gone to CalorieKing, the online food database, to assess the damage. The entree weighs in at 940 calories, but since I only ate half, I think that's pretty reasonable. One piece of Dulce de Leche cheesecake weighs in at an astounding 1010 calories! 74 grams of fat and 42 grams of saturated fat. That's 114% and 210% of the daily value respectively. It did have 200 mg of calcium which is twice the daily recommendation for a woman my age - so it's kinda healthy, right?
CalorieKing has some recommendations to burn these calories off, all I have to do is choose one of these activities:
280 minutes of walking - in case you don't want to do the math, that's 4 hours and 40 minutes
84 minutes of swimming - I'm pretty certain hypothermia would set in within 2
116 minutes of jogging - if I could jog for 116 minutes I probably wouldn't be in this position in the first place
154 minutes of cycling - at least I could be done before dark
Still, I have no regrets, birthdays come but once a year, and it was soooooo worth it for me. I read something this morning written by a man who lost 300 pounds (that's not a typo - 300) and he said one of his strategies was that after any kind of "cheat" meal he made sure that his next five meals were all really healthy. That sounds good to me, we're all gonna splurge or slip-up from time to time and this seems like a reasonable way to deal with that.
So..I'll be carefully planning my next five meals and in the words of Freddie Mercury, I'm gonna "get on my bike and ride"!
Tami
I did, however, attempt to be prepared. I ate a sensible breakfast of oatmeal, did a 60 minute kickboxing workout (the only butt that got kicked was mine), had some veggie soup and Kashi whole-grain crackers for lunch so I wouldn't be ravenous when I arrived, which I was anyway. But the real question is, since when does being hungry or not hungry have anything to do with eating cheesecake?
I order a chicken dish and as prescribed in one of the books I've been reading, ate only half and had the waiter box up the other half. I will consider this a Fit for Life triumph, but if you've ever seen the gargantuan portions at the Cheesecake Factory you'll know this was not extremely difficult. But chalk one up for me anyway! Now it's time for the dessert. I look at my husband and ask is he would like to split a piece. He looks at me as if I've lost my mind - this response may stem from a rather ugly incident several years ago involving a lemon torte and a fork stabbing. So...I'm on my own. I order the Dulce de Leche and it is fantastic. I savor every bite and figure I'll just deal with it tomorrow.
Tomorrow is here and I've gone to CalorieKing, the online food database, to assess the damage. The entree weighs in at 940 calories, but since I only ate half, I think that's pretty reasonable. One piece of Dulce de Leche cheesecake weighs in at an astounding 1010 calories! 74 grams of fat and 42 grams of saturated fat. That's 114% and 210% of the daily value respectively. It did have 200 mg of calcium which is twice the daily recommendation for a woman my age - so it's kinda healthy, right?
CalorieKing has some recommendations to burn these calories off, all I have to do is choose one of these activities:
280 minutes of walking - in case you don't want to do the math, that's 4 hours and 40 minutes
84 minutes of swimming - I'm pretty certain hypothermia would set in within 2
116 minutes of jogging - if I could jog for 116 minutes I probably wouldn't be in this position in the first place
154 minutes of cycling - at least I could be done before dark
Still, I have no regrets, birthdays come but once a year, and it was soooooo worth it for me. I read something this morning written by a man who lost 300 pounds (that's not a typo - 300) and he said one of his strategies was that after any kind of "cheat" meal he made sure that his next five meals were all really healthy. That sounds good to me, we're all gonna splurge or slip-up from time to time and this seems like a reasonable way to deal with that.
So..I'll be carefully planning my next five meals and in the words of Freddie Mercury, I'm gonna "get on my bike and ride"!
Tami
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The "F" Word
Okay, it's not what you think. Last week was crazy with Fit for Life kick-off and registration, stormy weather, tornado warnings and a collapsing, leaky roof in the Lena Martin room. In the middle of all of that, we saw some video footage for the GPL Fit for Life show that will air in late January and that's when I said the "F" word. You can call it what you want: chunky, heavy, plump, portly or even rotund, but there comes a time when you just gotta say "Hey, I'm fat!".
I've justified gaining weight over time. You know, I'm tall - that's why I weigh what I do, it's only a couple of pounds, I've had two kids, I'm getting older and my metabolism is slowing or my personal favorite - the camera adds ten pounds. The trouble with that is that in group photos it only seems to add the pounds to me, everyone else looks the same.
So no more excuses. I've let this weight creep up on me and now it seems to be residing around my mid-section, but it's going to have to find some new digs. I'm going to start removing this excess fat from my body today and make 2009 the year that I achieve my health and fitness goals.
Tami
I've justified gaining weight over time. You know, I'm tall - that's why I weigh what I do, it's only a couple of pounds, I've had two kids, I'm getting older and my metabolism is slowing or my personal favorite - the camera adds ten pounds. The trouble with that is that in group photos it only seems to add the pounds to me, everyone else looks the same.
So no more excuses. I've let this weight creep up on me and now it seems to be residing around my mid-section, but it's going to have to find some new digs. I'm going to start removing this excess fat from my body today and make 2009 the year that I achieve my health and fitness goals.
Tami
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Here We Go!
Tonight is the kick-off for the Gadsden Public Library's Fit for Life and Walk Across Alabama program. I'll be trying a lot of new things throughout this program and will be blogging about them here. I hope you'll check back often and join me on my year-long health and fitness journey. See you soon!
Tami
Tami
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