Say Buh-bye to the treadmill

treadmill

I hate to say it, but it is time to let your treadmill go. Not forever, but for awhile because it is time for you take on new obstacles and new adventures with different cardio workouts. In my opinion the treadmill is an excuse to keep from having to push yourself, you set the time, the incline and the pace you want to go and you have no goals, because there is no finish line. Don’t get me wrong, it comes handy for cool-downs and warm-up exercises, but it becomes a go to for people who are afraid to explore other options. Not saying the elliptical or arc trainer are any better necessarily, but they are because they force you to use your arms, force you to go at a faster pace because going at a slow and steady walk will not get you anywhere on either one of those machines – in my opinion.  In fact I used to make the treadmill my go to cardio workout as well, but I noticed something, I noticed that I would tell myself to run 1 mile with no incline and at 6 speed and what would happen? I would either stop before making it to my goal or I would decide “eh half a mile”, why? because I had no motivation to continue that mile most days, I had the control over how fast I wanted to go, how long, and the amount of time and if I decided I didn’t want to follow through, I could choose to walk instead and get a “basic” exercise done. 

This isn’t saying, all of you have the same problems as I did, hell I see people going to town on the treadmill every few weeks, but most people use it as a walking machine and don’t use their arms and go at a very slow pace, a pace that isn’t going to do much if they plan on losing weight. However, some people can and should make use of the treadmill depending on their fitness level and depending on their circumstances, but some people know better and run to the treadmill to keep from doing any hardy work because they can negotiate whether they want to run or walk that day. Why use a machine to limit your capabilities, when you are capable of doing so much more. I will commend the ones who  will get on the treadmill and use it wisely in order to maintain or reach goals, but the ones using it to avoid other exercises, we need to get you out of your shell. The world offers many ways to get in shape utilizing cardio, and the majority of people have chosen the treadmill. After learning why some people I know use the treadmill, I gathered these three main reasons:

  1. Easy to use
  2. I feel comfortable on the treadmill
  3. I want to lose weight – cardio
Weird thing is, this was my reasoning for using the treadmill as well when I started my journey. So, I totally get it, I get that it is easy, the feeling of not being judged, and simply helps with weight loss. All great reasons to start at the treadmill, but at some point, you need to either overload or change your cardio routine, otherwise getting the most out of your workout is not going to happen. It is simply a machine that hinders people from pushing themselves because you are comfortable being at a certain pace, you are comfortable at stopping at 30 minutes, and you are uncomfortable about trying something new.  Time to rise and shine and gather some things before deciding to hop on the treadmill again today:
  1. Have you plateaued? 
  2. Are you bored?
  3. What are your goals?
These three questions may be the boost of inspiration you need in order to decide what needs to be done so that you can avoid plateauing so much, being bored and unmotivated and not meeting goals. Like I have mentioned previously, using the treadmill as a warm up or cool down is great, using it appropriately to meet your needs is great as well and using it but making sure to add variety is also good. “The best athletes had to try something new when shit stopped working”-Shay-lon Moss, this means that the best athletes had to change up their routine, their pace, their time, their distance, their methods, in order to see results. Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed this post, share, like, comment and follow. 
Your fitness blogger, 
Shay-lon xoxo
P.S I am not a treadmill hater, I just taught myself it isn’t the only mode of cardio. 

When you are called upon as the HELP

friendship

I can only hope that when things get harder, they decide to push through instead of giving up.  Sometimes I feel compelled to help those close to me in thinking that I am obligated and other times  I just assume if I have the time, why not. In the past 2 days I have had two friends come to me about wanting to get shape and lose weight. I figured this would be a fun opportunity to help someone who I consider a friend and lead them on a path where they can feel confident.  It has occur to me that this would be a sacrifice in friendship in order to get them where they want to be, because I can’t be there friend at the gym during the session, I have to be their trainer. I have to treat them as I would anyone else I would be training, while having fun is on the agenda, it cannot be the basis of the workout all the time.  This may seem harsh, but in order for people to take me seriously as a trainer, I have to take their goals seriously and put them through the motions because otherwise we are at square one where our gym session is all laughs and no work.  While this journey I am starting with two friends will be essentially helping them, it will be helping me to build my resume and create a portfolio showing what I am capable of if given a chance, with that being said, I am going to take this opportunity fairly seriously, as I can only hope they do as well. I am not yet certified, so nothing I do will be charged and nothing I do will be 100 percent, because I am still learning and bettering myself but this gives me an opportunity to practice and tweak things as I go. I have sent my “terms and conditions” to one of my friends who wants to start on Monday, because I want to treat this as I would if I was working anyone in the community as a personal trainer and since that will be my career soon, why not make the most of it now. 

I also decided I would email him Monday’s workout plan, and since I am not sure where his fitness level is, I will have Monday be a typical cardiovascular workout and once I add strength training then we will need to start from scratch there as well. I am not performing any assessments, as I normally would on a client because I don’t have all the means in doing so, even at our gym, so this means I will need be creative and use what I do have in order to make the best judgments. Nothing is expected to be perfect the first day or any day after that, I will eventually mess up, he will eventually complain and this could lead to “friendship self destruction”; which I want to avoid during this journey. In order to avoid that happening, we will need to learn to respect each other as friends, but also have a level of respect for each other on a client-trainer basis, this is very important and I outlined that in the terms and conditions when I sent it to him.  As long as he is gives me permission, I will outline his workout on my blogs and keep everyone informed of all the good and bad, and share with you our workout sessions, I am hoping he will also eventually allow me to do an interview with him that goes along with one of my topics I plan on discussing in the future. I have some other ideas flying around, which I will be sure to give all of you a heads up on when these ideas launch. 

We pretty much have a plan set in place as to what needs to happen and how to go about it, but it will take some work because he lacks motivation and willpower, and that is hard to get back sometimes, so that will be another goal, to keep him motivated so that eventually this all becomes routine and habit.  I have him keeping track of his diet and workouts in a notebook, along with his moods and sleep patterns, because I want to know all of this, and make my decisions based on it (no worries he has a fitbit so he practically can keep track of all it the easy way), I just want him to write it down so that he can pay more attention to it. He seems  very excited about starting this adventure with me, not only as his friend but now trainer in practice. 

As for the other friend, who is a female, she wants to start sometime in October instead for her own reasons I will not disclose, but that is fine, she also wants to lose weight and needs the extra boost of motivation and wants to make it routine and habit.  I have yet to send her any term and conditions until I sit down and have a one on one chit chat about her goals and thoughts, and questions she may have for me. I want to make the best of this opportunity with her because she seems to really want this and has made some better decisions, but still feels as though it isn’t getting her very far yet. I hope that with my help and guide, she will eventually feel more confident with herself and begin to shine. 

With all this being said, I can only hope that they both see the results they want, but also that I see my strengths and weaknesses and work on them to better myself, I hope that while on this ride, I can develop great testimonies and build a stronger bond with my friends in and out of the gym. I hope that when we fall or collide, we can work through it together and not divided.  “I think everything will be just fine once the rain stops” -Shay-lon Moss

Thank you for reading, I hope that if you enjoyed this, you will continue to follow me as I take this leap with two friends, feel free to share, comment or like. 

Your fitness blogger,

Shay-lon xoxo

Meet and Greet: 9/10/16

This is going to be a fun little activity to get people talking and following! great idea!

thehangryrunner's avatarThe Hangry Runner

Meet and Greet: 9/10/16 (OK so I’m a little late but I had a good excuse)

Dreambigdreamoften.com and lifeexperimentblog.com

It’s the Meet and Greet weekend!!

Ok so here are the rules:

  1. Leave a link to your page or post in the comments of this post.
  2. Reblog this post.  It helps you, it helps me, it helps everyone!
  3. Edit your reblog post and add tags.

  4. Feel free to leave your link multiple times!  It is okay to update your link for more exposure every day if you want.  It is up to you!

  5. Share this post on social media.  Many of my non-blogger friends love that I put the Meet n Greet on Facebook and Twitter because they find new blogs to follow.

Now that all the rules have been clearly explained get out there and Meet and Greet your tails off!

Cheers all!

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Got milk?

milk

Have you ever been to the grocery store to pick up some milk and noticed how the majority of the skim milk is gone and wonder why? Well, so have I. I mean we assume because it is “healthier” and has less fat in it, which it does contain less fat in skim, but who is to say it is “healthier”. I mean in my opinion, milk isn’t so bad when you drink it in moderation and if you don’t have a lactose intolerance like myself. So what is up with all the skim milk being gone? people have this thought that the less fat something has, the healthier it is for you in ALL cases, and sometimes that isn’t so. 

 

Man, oh, man do we have a fun topic today, because I am going to hear about all your choices when it comes to milk and why you choose one over the other, if you are a milk drinker. Don’t be scared, no judgement here, just curious what milk everyone prefers. 

 

Now I know we also have 1%, rice milk, coconut milk, and raw milk, soy milk. Among many other types of milk, but I didn’t want to spend all day on a post going through every single type of milk available to man-kind so I chose the ones that I think are more popular than others. Not to mention, I listed one of my favorite milks, can you guess which one? Keep in mind, I may spend time on these other types of milk in a different post, but for now lets stick with the ones at the top. 

 

Myth unbroken: Whole milk isn’t substantially made of fat (only 3-3.5 percent of fat).

The world “Whole” milk stems from the way it comes from the cow before processing. 

 
 

So just basing it off of Whole, Skim and 2 percent.  People will argue both ways whether one is better for you, but it comes down to what else do you eat that contributes to your diet. Drinking milk in moderation, no matter the fat content is best for you rather than drinking it excessively. Yes, whole milk has higher saturated fats (not the good kind of fats) but this means very little if you are someone who doesn’t drink milk abundantly. I find that the best way to determine which type of milk to drink is to determine which one taste good to you, what are your health goals, and what is your diet like now.  

 

Almond milk

  • Can contain as much calcium and vitamin D as dairy milk 
  • Rich in potassium, magnesium, manganese, Vitamin E, copper and selenium
  • Naturally low in saturated fats
  • no dietary cholesterol
  • Normally few calories
  • Some studies have proven that we absorb the nutrients better in dairy milk vs almond milk
  • Almond milk typically cost more
  • High in omega-3 
  • Contains no animal by-products (if this is important to you)

By the way, if you took a guess at which type of milk is my favorite, the answer is Almond milk, but I grew up on whole milk and I have no issue drinking 2 percent milk, but I am also lactose intolerant so I normally don’t drink dairy milk much anymore, Especially since it makes me bloated. This is not to say that Almond milk is more “healthier” but it does have some great benefits, but this also depends if you buy the sweetened or the unsweetened Almond milk, so take that into consideration. 

 

I figure I would let all of you decide which milk is best for you, because if you leave it up to me, I am going to tell you that it depends on your needs and goals in wanting to be healthy and fit. I will then make mention drink it in moderation and you won’t have to make HUGE decisions at the grocery store when it comes to choosing which milk. Thanks for reading, please feel free to share, comment, like and follow me!

 

Your fitness blogger, 

 

Shay-lon xoxo

Is Water Aerobics better than land based exercises?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veJN-XyYoiM

So I will admit, this is probably bad timing since summer is almost over, but where I live there are gyms that offer indoor pools all year round for those who want to swim for their workout or enjoy the hot tub. I cannot imagine being one of those people, because once summer goes away, I don’t want to even imagine myself in a swimming pool (I can handle being in a hot tub) BRRRRR! With the weather cooling down, I don’t expect many people using this type of workout, but someone can always use it for next year or use it for their indoor pool activities.  I have never participated in any form of water aerobics classes, and so I decided I would look into to, since most people know that swimming is a great total body exercise.  Recently I had someone ask me if I thought water aerobics was a better form of cardio than taking a run or cycling, and to be honest, I didn’t really know off the bat, but told them I would look into it and I am happy I did because I had the chance to learn something new in my field and share with all of you.

 

For starters, swimming is a great at increasing cardiovascular health, joint health and builds upper and lower body strength (which I knew this much already).  Secondly it never crossed my mind but swimming is a great exercise for those easing their way into exercising and need something that is low impact.  Duh, right?! I know. I guess my fitness mentality didn’t kick in right away, don’t blame me, it has been a long week. To be continued… 

 

Benefits:

 
  • Low impact exercise
  • Total body exercise
  • Good cardiovascular exercise
  • builds strength in both the upper and lower body
  • “Calorie Burner”
  • Great for seniors & older adults
  • Helps rehabilitate healing muscles and joints
  • Great for those who live in a hot environment
  • reduced chance of injury

So as you can see water aerobics has many great benefits. Bear in mind that you still need land based exercises in order to get the benefits from a weight bearing exercise to maintain a healthy bone density. All in all, based on this information alone, I think swimming can offer some of the same benefits as those who run or cycle but I would definitely recommend it over running for someone who needs a low impact activity in the beginning, but wouldn’t use it as a supplement to weight bearing exercises. Depending on the clients goals and their fitness level, water aerobics could make for a great strength and cardio exercise.

 

One thing I will mention is so many new water aerobic videos are being posted all over the internet and NOT all of them make sense or have a reasoning behind the movements, I feel as though if you are interested in participating in a water aerobics class, that you speak with someone who is certified in this or a coach who knows what they are talking about. I know we all know not to believe everything we see or hear on the internet but because a lot of these new and improved water aerobics are being advertised, people don’t stop and actually think about the relevance of the exercise and will try anything just because it looks “cool”, not everything that looks cool has a purpose. Thanks for reading, feel free to share, like, comment and follow!

 

Have you done water aerobics? Share with us your experience.

 

Your fitness blogger,

Shay-lon xoxo

Shay-lon is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to [insert the applicable site name Amazon.com