Vibrant Sexy Strong

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When I was an intermediate school teacher, I tried to make my classroom active. PE was twice a week, recess wasn’t permitted, and there wasn’t an outdoor break before school, after lunch, or after school.

There was a latent energy amongst the 1,000 adolescents that was suppressed for social convention, safety, and practicality. The students did their best to find ways around this and I watched in amusement. There wasn’t a doorway that could be passed through without the boys trying to jump to reach the top. The girls taught each other the newest dances. And an empty corridor between classes always found one student sprinting or jogging.

Even my most inactive, sedentary students seemed to want to move and it was contagious. I wanted to move too, but felt trapped. After school ended, I sprinted up and down those halls where I so often instructed, “Walk!”

Our True Nature is to Move

After my MovNat workshop in January, I began to understand these feelings—movement is part of my true nature and an innate response in human beings. Since the announcement of a MovNat Certified Trainer program, my bucket list won’t be complete until I am certified.

Unfortunately, being so foreign to natural movement (or all exercise, for that matter), I didn’t know where to start in order to gain the physical skills needed to move like my inner gazelle.

But today is my lucky day! Erwan Le Corre, founder of MovNat, began publishing a four-week program at Breaking Muscle last week, complete with videos for the novice and advanced . I started this morning and I’m excited to keep moving. Perhaps one day I will move like these gorgeous ladies. I can only imagine how much fun they have with their children:

To access the MovNat training program (for novice or advanced alike), click here.

To get a better idea of what MovNat is, read Erwan’s explanation here.

Happy Training!

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When I switched hosts a few months back, my email subscribers were left behind. I’ve missed you these past two months and am delighted we are finally reunited!

Here’s what you may have missed while I was semi-away.

Big News

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Announcement: Online PCOS Course Coming Soon. I am creating a FREE online PCOS lifestyle management course. Please hop on over to the post and leave a comment about what you’d like to see addressed.

Review of PCOS Unlocked: The Manual. Stefani Ruper of Paleo for Women wrote an eBook about PCOS. It’s pretty great.

Emotional Health, Paleo, and PCOS

Image by donjd2

A Confessional: I Am Enough. An epiphany that I am good enough just as I am.

Finding Your WHY for Healthy Eating. Every time I try to eat healthy for the “right” reasons, I fail. But there is something that makes me succeed.

A Bucket List: Because There’s More to Life than Paleo. Sometimes PCOS and Paleo and health is so all-consuming that I have to step back and examine what I really want out of life. Do I want the focus of my life to be on cooking meat or do I want to learn samba in Brasil?

Chapter 7: The Hysterosalpingogram. Resuming my story where I left off last year.

The Practical Side of Paleo Parenting

How to Travel with Kids and Special Diets. My daughter is on a diet of meat and cooked vegetables. How in the world did we go on a month-long road trip?

Five Unexpected Ways Paleo Makes Parenting Easier. Being a Paleo parent with Paleo kids isn’t easy, but there are some surprising bright spots.

An Update on Baby Mimi’s Gut Saga. My baby’s health and the protocol she’s on. Though I suppose she’s not technically a baby since she’s two.

Guest Posting Here and There

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Potty Talk: A Primer on Bowel Movements and Digestive Health. I talk about what your poop wants you to know about  your intestines on Modern Alternative Health

Organizing the Home: Cut the Clutter. Tips on clearing your mind by clearing our your house

How Strength Training Improves Your Health: 6 Myths Debunked. Why ladies won’t get bulky lifting weights

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I don’t talk much about exercise on this blog because, shhhhh {furtive glance}, I don’t really like it.

BUT…I do like being insulin-sensitive and not insulin-resistant. So exercise, I must.

To commemorate my 30th birthday, I decided to do 900 push-ups. For 30 days before I turn 30, I am doing 30 push-ups each day. I’m at 570 and the lessons are abundant.

1. Practice does indeed work. I could do 2 push-ups before I started and my form was horrific. After building more strength, I can now do 5 with very pretty form (and I suspect at least 20 if I was still doing them the way I started). I’m hoping to hit 10 by my birthday.
2. I don’t have to be sore to get stronger. I’m essentially doing a Grease the Groove program and my favorite thing is getting stronger without getting sore. Some people love that hurts-so-good feeling after a workout, but my pain threshold is about -8.
3. I like skill work. Getting strict push-ups under my belt makes me want to perfect my double-unders too. They are both coming along nicely. Met-cons, on the other hand, hold less appeal than ever.
4. Sleep matters. I can hardly get enough depth on one push-up when I don’t get at least 8 hours of sleep. My body moves inefficiently and even the simplest movements are an impossible feat.
5. I need to reassess my goals. I always thought my ultimate goal was to be fit. In reality, I want to want it (probably because I think it’s the right thing to want), but there’s something else motivating me. I just don’t know what. I suspect it has something to do with natural movement opportunities and nothing to do with gym time.

I am enjoying this little experiment and may continue it with other skills once my push-ups are over. On the radar: pull-up, OH squat, deadlift, clean, and Turkish getup.

What is your workout routine? Any tips for a fledgling exerciser like myself?

All gorgeous photos courtesy of the incredible Omar Foster. If you are in the Las Vegas area, check him out at Camp Fit Force. All photos of my gorgeous children courtesy of my phone.

How did this happen?

On a windy January day in Las Vegas, I found myself asking, “How did I get in this tree?”

It was one of those refocusing, defining moments. Me–the quintessential non-athlete–trying to activate muscles I never even knew existed and swing my leg onto an uneven tree branch. With total clarity and flow a la Csikzentmihalyi, I felt powerful. Nay, I was powerful. I’d transcended the limiting beliefs about my capabilities and was acting on my true nature. This was MovNat.

My love affair with MovNat began on Halloween day, 2010. I was at Robb Wolf’s Paleolithic Solution Seminar in Houston and Erwan Le Corre (MovNat founder) was visiting. His quiet and humble presence drew me in. I could feel his energy and I observed him the entire day. Simply striking.

We hardly spoke–an unfortunate mistake on my end since he was entirely approachable. He smiled for, cooed at, and doted on my 4-month-old baby who came in twice to nurse and make googly eyes at all the Fitness Hounds in the room. But since I’d never heard of him or MovNat, I didn’t recognize my opportunity. I could feel that he was doing something special, but didn’t know how to say: “Hey Mr. Erwan, I can read your energy and my intuition is telling me you are going to change the world and my life.” The more I learn about him and his mission though, the less embarrassed I would be to make that statement.

From that point forward, I pined for a MovNat seminar. I wanted it badly despite my vehement dislike for physical activity and conventional exercise. I have absolutely no confidence in my athletic capabilities and believed MovNat could be the key to helping me become more physically adept. I almost registered for the session right after the Ancestral Health Symposium, but working out with a bunch of Paleo fitness fanatics was too terrifying of a prospect. Fourteen months later, my intuition finally won me over and I registered for the Las Vegas workshop.

I almost didn’t go. Two days prior, my baby got sick. And goodness knows I was looking for an out. But she healed miraculously and I found myself working out at Legacy Park with seven men.

7 Lessons

1. My body is strong and beautiful. Brian Tabor (MovNat instructor) moves like a cat-gazelle crossbreed. It’s glorious to watch and I found myself in awe when he would jump onto a trash can or leap through the air, landing in a diving roll. As we moved throughout the day, the bodies of the participants (including my own) transformed into something similar. Strong and beautiful, even if they were untrained or still building their physical fitness. Because they are human, they have the capacity to move naturally. There is an underlying strength that may have been forgotten, but it is present nonetheless. And that is beautiful.

MovNat Las Vegas. The strong and beautiful bodies.

2. It’s all in my head. The first person I saw was Paul. He is an enormous mass of muscle and was wearing a shirt that looked like something from the periodic table (It read “Ow: The Element for Pain“). I looked over at my husband and shook my head saying I couldn’t do this. I wouldn’t fit in here. I don’t like exercise, I am not strong, and I really really really hate pain. He let me blabber until I could pull myself out of the car. But there was nothing intimidating about these guys. There was an atmosphere of camaraderie (of which I attribute to Brian’s ability to build a safe culture in such a short amount of time) and my fears dissipated by the end of the breathing exercises. Any ability I thought I couldn’t develop was all in my head. I could do this. I was made to move.

Our true nature is to move

3. I am afraid of my body. I was born massively pigeon-toed and required special shoes to shape my hips. The shoes were removed early and my hips/coordination are still paying for it. Even more, I got glasses in second grade (bifocals in fourth) and my optometrist said my poor depth perception would prevent me from ever being able to play sports that involved hand-eye coordination (i.e. anything with a ball). These early experiences shaped the last 20+ years of body image and I never got to know my capabilities very well. The unknown is frightening, so my body was frightening. Even at the end of the workshop, I was still timid about catching a ball (thankfully Robert went easy on me).

My special shoes

4. My children are inheriting my fear. The biggest motivator to finally get to a workshop was watching my children. Because I parrot the safety mantra “Be careful. Don’t break that. That’s dangerous” all day long, my kids started to exhibit more fear and timidity. I was creating a very pseudo-dangerous world for them. At the park, I would have minor panic attacks when my son climbed the big rocks because I was afraid he would fall and crack his head open. I always envied my husband’s ability to just let our kids be kids. But because I didn’t know what my body could do, I didn’t know what my children were perfectly capable of either. Luckily, that’s starting to fade.

My 3yo son climbing those big scary rocks.

5. MovNat is for moms. And everyone else, yes, but I’m particularly interested in moms. I don’t know how to play with my children very well. I’m great on academics and great at loving them, but having pure, unadulterated fun is hard for me. MovNat showed me how to awaken my body, play with my kids, and create stronger bonds with my Littles. Eight hours well-spent. More on this next Tuesday.

Hiking Zion barefoot with the baby wrapped in a sling on my chest

6. I could stand to do a few more squats, lunges, and push-ups. Sigh. No surprise there. From a purely functional standpoint, it would be in my best interest if I gained a bit more strength. I was able to hold myself on the pole, but couldn’t shimmy my way up at all.

Paul on a pole in a totally non-Las Vegas kind of way

7. Exercise ain’t so bad. Please don’t tell. I have spent so long hating it, I am almost having an identity crisis.

The Best Part of MovNat

…was walking away a new woman. I found someone who was hiding deep inside of me, and I really like her. More confidence, more joy, more love.

And in case you’re wondering…When I finally managed to pull myself up onto that tree branch with the help of the mighty Brian Tabor, everyone cheered enthusiastically. I am so proud.

Big thanks to Brian, Robert, Tim, Phil, Phil, Omar, and Paul who all helped me find myself that day. And to think I almost didn’t get out of the car.

MovNat with Brian Tabor in Las Vegas

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Well how about that? I ended up on the MovNat website this weekend. In case you were wondering about the one-day workshops…they’re awesome.

Continuing the binge/disordered eating series on Mondays starting next week.

Spoiler Alert: This video takes totally dry, boring, redundant information and completely captivates the viewer with illustrations.

Can all of my textbooks look like this?

* For the record, I still think proper nutrition is the single best thing we can do for our health, but the presented information is still good.

*Update from Dr. Rochelle Parks-Yancy herself at the bottom of the post

When I saw this photo in a “health and fitness” magazine replete with cosmetic surgery ads, I giggled. I’d be willing to bet Dr. Rochelle Parks-Yancy lifts a lot heavier weights than those 5-pound neoprenes in her hands to achieve that smokin’ hot bod of hers.

Photos and stories that take these awesome bodies and package it into the concept of “light weight, many reps” perpetuate the myth that women shouldn’t lift heavy weights. As I learn more about what it really takes to get a great body, I smile thinking about how long I believed such craziness.

I threw shotput and discus in high school. Never an athlete and certainly not competitive, this itty bitty choir-nerd-turned-thrower was a stretch of the imagination. My reasons were threefold: I didn’t want another year of PE because being so uncoordinated is utterly embarrassing, the track coach was a very young/handsome/nice man, and I wanted buff arms.

I succeeded in opting out of PE, but the buff arms never came (we won’t even talk about the track coach).

I spent the whole season at 24-hour Family Fitness doing 20 reps of bicep curls with 5-pounders, and using those same 5-pounders for tricep extensions, rows, presses, shoulder raises, flys, and lawnmower pulls. I could feel the burn.

All those after-school gym sessions. What a waste of time and lactic acid.

Luckily, Rachel Cosgrove, Lou Schuler, and Mark Sisson found their way into my life, convincing me that I could pick up more than 5 pounds. My husband told me all along, but since “he didn’t know anything about women’s bodies,” I continued to get all of my fitness info straight from the reputable sources on grocery store endcaps. I’ve apologized and we’re good.

Now I deadlift more than my body weight–a total thrill for my inner wimp. My high school self is telling me to drop those weights right now before I turn into a man! But my high school self also sucked at track because she was too weak to do a power clean with a 25-pound bar.

My new self is contemplating making 2012 the year to focus on strength. I live with an awesome coach and there is a power lifting competition in my town every summer. When I start bulking up like a man, I will know it’s time to put down the heavy (for me) weights. Until then, bring on the bumper plates.

*Update from Dr. Rochelle Parks-Yancy

I received an email from Dr. Parks-Yancy on March 21 that read:

Hi,

I just happened to run across your comment about my Health & Fitness article. Thank you. And, yes, you are correct: I lift much heavier weights than the 5 lb dumbbells in my hands in the photo. Those are just easy to hold during hours of posing for photo shoots (smile).

Take care.

Rochelle

Fitness is a family affair. Looks like The Boy is ready for some higher box jumps.

Thanks to the brilliance of social media, college friend Whitney updated her status on facebook indicating the last night to sign up for the Fall Fitness Challenge was rapidly approaching. Every time I check Whitney’s blog, she has either had another beautiful baby or completed another major running event. And she has a pretty rockin’ bod, so my interest was piqued.

The rules:
Off-limits for 6 days every week: no dessert, no soda, no eating after 8 pm
To do for 6 days each week: study scriptures 15 minutes, complete the weekly challenge
For 5 days each week: 30 minutes of exercise

The weekly challenges:
1. Maintain a daily food log
2. Get 7+ hours of sleep each night
3. Eat 5 servings of vegetables daily
4. Drink 64 oz. of water
5. Complete 100 sit-ups and 50 push-ups each day
6. Eat 4 servings of fruit daily
7. Eat 5 small meals daily
8. Walk or run 13.1 miles throughout the course of the week (equivalent of half marathon) in addition to 30 minutes of daily exercise.

This seemed manageable so I signed up. And by manageable, I meant easy.

While this wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever done (ahem…natural childbirth), it certainly created a deeper self-awareness that I wasn’t anticipating. When I looked at the rules, there were certain areas that I thought would be a walk in the park while others would be more difficult. I was wrong on almost everything. Here’s the break down.

Daily stuff.

Initial Thought. Simple. I don’t do a lot of dessert, I haven’t taken a sip of soda since I was 16, and I meet with a group of women to do p90x at 5 am (3 times a week).

Reality. The scripture study was harder to prioritize, but I now do that at 6 while eating my post-workout meal. No eating after 8 was harder, even with the two-hour accommodation for nursing mothers. But the hardest part was the daily grind. I would finish at the eleventh hour, pleased with my accomplishment, only to realize I was starting all over again when I woke up.

Food log.
Initial thought. Easy-peasy and a good idea so I can dial in my nutrition.
Reality. I am past the stage of needing to write down what I eat and drink. I’m generally making good food choices and since I’m not a big believer in the calories in/calories out theory, the food log became a huge pain in the butt. If it had been included in the entire 8 weeks, I probably would have quit. However, when I am ready to make some serious progress in body composition/performance or work on a particular area of my health, I will keep a food log. Until then, it’s not a sustainable habit for me. Plus, I don’t want to look at fitday.com for a long time.

7 hours of sleep
Initial thought.  Terrified. My babe is not the best sleeper and I felt this challenge would be the one that made me lose since it felt entirely out of my control.
Reality. Awesome blossom. Forcing myself to go to bed earlier than the 7 required hours (because I didn’t know how long I would be up at night with the baby) was liberating. Things were left undone. I started simplifying my life. I rearranged my priorities. Only the most important stuff got done. I eliminated a lot of guilt for self-imposed projects that really weren’t that important to begin with. And I was well-rested. Rested Mama = Happy Mama

5+ servings of veggies per day
Initial thought. Easy.
Reality. Easy. Being a Paleoista who doesn’t like meat makes veggie consumption pretty commonplace.

64 oz. of water
Initial thought. Easy
Reality. HARD. What?! Why?! I’ve spent 29 years not slowing down to drink water so correcting that in a week was a pretty lofty goal. On the plus side, my perpetually chapped lips went away (apparently a sign of dehydration) and my kids started drinking a ton of water throughout the day with me. (Side note: if I were running the challenge, I probably would have changed the amount. Take body weight and divide by two. Drink that amount in fluid ounces. For me, 64 oz was about right, but someone who is 200 pounds needs more water than someone who is 110)

100 sit-ups and 50 push-ups
Initial thought. This will be fun.
Reality. It was fun. My husband and I raced on our sit-ups, discovering I can do 100 in a row without stopping (with room to spare). And the daily push-ups were a great jump start to getting better at true-form push-ups. I performed most of the 50 on my knees, but increased my regular push-ups. I can now go all the way down to my chest (rather than just halfway) and am knocking out 3-4 at a time. Push-ups were the very essence of impossible for me and now I’m hoping to get 10 by the end of the year.

4+ servings of fruit daily
Initial thought. I don’t know if I like this one….PCOS + lots of fruit = bad news.
Reality. Worse than I thought. I started resorting to olives and avocado as my fruit sources since all of that extra sugar reignited my sugar demons. Which fed well into the next challenge…

5 small meals daily
Initial thought. I can do this, but it’s going to be hard since I will be out of town at a training
Reality. I didn’t go out of town–sent my husband in my place. This challenge sort of screwed up the metabolism I’ve been working so hard to reset. Once the sugar addiction is gone, my body doesn’t need to eat every few hours. From the literature I’ve read recently, apparently that is evidence of being a sugar-burner rather than a fat-burner (and is not our body’s natural response if we are eating optimally). I don’t know anything about that. I just know for me, three meals a day is enough. But being the competitive being that I am, I soldiered through and my body took a hit for it. I can’t decide if I regret it or not since the learning experience was valuable.

Half marathon
Initial thought. This is going to be so rad!
Reality. Both kids were sick this week; fitting 13.1 miles in my spare time while the Littles needed extra mom efforts wasn’t ideal, particularly since I wasn’t comfortable taking them out into the freezing-booty-cold weather. I would actually like to complete this challenge again since it made me ask myself why I haven’t been walking more in the first place. My body feels better for it. The grocery store is only about 1.25 miles away, so I could load up the double stroller with my kids, meat, and veggies. The library isn’t far. Our church isn’t far. And importantly, Redbox is only a mile away. It’s invigorating to be outside and once we’re all on the mend, I am going to repeat this challenge to see if it’s a permanent change I’d like to make. I can see it definitely being a summer habit if nothing else.

Lessons Learned.
So what’s the take-away message for me? Quit thinking about food all the time, start drinking more water, walk to close places I might normally drive, and practice push-ups if I want to get better at them. Not a bad way to spend 8 weeks. Big thanks to Morgan for organizing the whole sh’bang.

So much to update–Baby’s first appointment with a naturopathic doctor (Tim Gerstmar), PCOS study, Thanksgiving, how we did Halloween, camping-Paleo style, etc….

And believe it or not, I actually wrote a legitimate post this morning that needs a good edit tomorrow. Until then, I had to share this clip of Bob Harper putting Jillian Michaels through a CrossFit-style WOD (workout of the day for you exercisers of a different manner).

I can’t seem to embed the video, so here’s the link:  The Biggest Loser’s Bob Harper’s CrossFit Challenge featured on The Doctors (November 17).

I only watched The Biggest Loser for one season (with Sam and Koli). I don’t know what it is about that show; while it’s incredibly inspiring and leaves me in tears of celebration and sorrow, I can’t seem to get through an episode without eating crap. There’s something very guilt-inducing about sitting in front of a weight loss show, hoovering a pint (or two) of So Delicious Coconut Milk ice-cream. Plus, it wasn’t doing much for my insulin resistance.

Despite my lack of self-control, I like what Jillian and Bob do for thousands of people. Jillian’s 30-Day Shred motivated me to perfect my squats so I could complete the workout without aching knees and Bob’s Weight Loss Yoga helped clear my mind and increase my flexibility. I appreciate those two.

One thing I really respect about the above clip is that Jillian did not rock the WOD like I was expecting. It kicked her butt.

It takes a lot of courage to go on TV and suck at something you are known to excel at*. I applaud her for it.

Even more, I love that this will likely bring more CrossFit-style workouts to the general public. I am not a CrossFit elitist (I don’t think it’s the right workout for everyone…gasp!), but there are a lot of really powerful concepts in it that deserve to reach the women who are trying their hardest, but not achieving any results because they’re sticking to chronic cardio. If Bob or Jillian put that in their next workout videos, everyone wins.

* I do not wish to imply I would have done better, because I would most assuredly not have performed well.

This post was originally published on the now-defunct blog 3strong. All posts have been backdated and appear here.

When I taught middle school, I would occasionally use burpees as a motivational tool. Sometimes as an incentive, sometimes as a way to get their wiggles out. The funny thing about tweens is that it doesn’t really matter what they receive–it’s all about the attitude. I was just as easily fooled by my PE coaches.

If you have never done a burpee, you may recall squat thrusts from high school gym days. Just add in a push-up and that’s all there is to it (muscle-up optional).

Now that I am an adult and adequately jaded in regards to physical fitness, burpees generate a lot of muttering and groaning. For me, they are just plain hard. Especially because they require very little skill or strength. With pull-ups, I can sneak in rests because I’m simply not strong enough to do very many in a row, even with an assistance band. With cleans, I can sneak in a rest in order to maintain proper form and focus on improving my skill.

Burpees, not so much. The limiting factor is aerobic capacity. I won’t have that, “I could have gone longer and my lungs were fine, but I’m just not strong enough” excuse. Burpees grow with you and can be modified for strength. If I can’t do a push-up, I can go to my knees or I can just do squat thrusts. If I am recovering from a minor leg injury, I can go one leg at a time instead of jumping backwards.

There’s not much to them, and yet, they rock my body every time.

Which is exactly why I’m participating in Bridgetown CrossFit and Barbell Club’s Burpee Challenge. I don’t even live in Bridgetown, wherever that is. I just saw a friend sign up on and thought, “hey, I could do that.” There are 95 days left to go, and while I absolutely loathe actually doing them, I love the potential it has for improving my conditioning. Burpees are, in fact, one of my favorite exercises for that very reason. Look at how this woman gets wiped out by doing them:

Do you do burpees? What is your favorite conditioning exercise?