I think that what motivates us (me) is not so much the actual work, but the results that we see. I have to confess that I’ve been a little less than strict on my diet for the past few weeks…which has lead to my realization that fitness needs to be a mind/body/food marriage, and I seem to keep forgetting that. Most of you know that I became vegan for health reasons, and have stayed vegan not only because a whole new world of food (that I LOVE!!) has opened up AND because it’s a personal choice. I realized this morning that while I’ve been working out, I’ve been eating lots of (vegan) junk food…like Oreos and Fritos (darn only needing 1/2 the bag to make my Enchilada Bake!!)…while it’s technically vegan, that DOES NOT mean that it’s healthy for me. So…I’ve come to the conclusion that in order to be healthy, I need to focus from the inside out. I know that I keep talking about eating raw (which I am proud to report that I HAVE eaten 90% raw so far this month!! GO ME!!), but it’s really hitting me that one of the benefits of eating vegan is all the wonderful produce available. Today, I’ve enjoyed a fresh smoothie (strawberries, spinach, silken tofu & soymilk), banana, salad, nectarines, oranges, and some baby carrots. SUPER delicous!! I also had one of my cherry pie larabars, which is ALSO raw! If you can’t tell, I’m feeling pretty pumped about my renewed motivation. Having had a great run this morning (after which I felt so great that I’m GIVING AWAY an interval timer! To enter, click here!!), and doing Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Stronger (fitness workout) lower body…which, by the way, is absolutely KILLER!! After the pretzel/clam combo I always have jell-o legs. If you haven’t tried it, you absolutely MUST!! Okay, back to my realization…I’ve KNOWN for a very, very long time that fitness is a mind-body-food connection, but it’s a totally different thing to wake up and know exactly what you MUST do to feel (and look…which definitely doesn’t hurt things) great. I’ve set a goal to try a different fruit/veggie/legume each week, and so far this week, I’ve tried white nectarines, a pluot (YUM!) and I’m going to have collard greens for the first time tomorrow!! I am SO very excited (stay tuned for the post about the collard green experiment) for the rest of the month!!

Training takes alot out of you, especially if you spent over 2 hours exercising the day before…while I truly enjoyed my cardio (30 minutes), The Bar Method Accelerated Workout (45 minutes), and then a 45 minute walk with Ish, my body is having some issues catching up. What’s strange is that my workout yesterday would normally have been a “light” day by my previous standards. Odd. So, I tried to make sure that today was a shorter day. Ish and I got up early for a 30 minute run, doing 3:1 intervals (3 minutes running, 1 minute walking), which I timed using my Gymboss GB2009 SILVER. Have I mentioned how much I love my Gymboss? It’s one of the best pieces of equipment that I own! It helps me to stay on track with my running, and allows me to push myself without burning out. The timer buzzes when it’s time to change your pace (it can also beep incredibly loudly…but since I normally run before 6 am in a neighborhood, I thought that I would be polite and avoid lound beeping…). LOVE IT! After our run, we walked for another 5 minutes as a cool-down, and I got home just in time to fit in Power Squeeze from Squeeze: The Complete Workout with Tracy Effinger. The Power Squeeze segment is a great 20 minute workout that incorporates arms (pushups and tricep dips), legs (isometric exercises using a playground ball), glutes (pretzel & a back dancing variation), abs (situps using the playground ball) and some good stretching. I love this workout for days where I am genuinely pressed for time OR those days (like today) where I’m sore from my previous workout. I don’t generally workout if I’m in lots of pain, but since I was just achy this morning, I went for it. I also took Mr. Brazier’s advice about fueling withing 45 minutes of finishing your workout and made myself a chocolate/strawberry shake. SO DELISH!! In his book, Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life, Brendan stresses the importance of fueling with the proper nutrients before, during and after workouts. I have noticed that since I’ve started paying attention to what I’m using to fuel my body, I have FAR more energy, and I’m sleeping better…all things that Brendan Brazier promises in his book. Interesting. I’m not sure how far I buy into making your own energy gels…but once I start to increase my distance past 6 miles, I’m probably going to break down and try them. He also has a recipe for some awesome-sounding Power Pancakes…must try those sometime soon…maybe this weekend. I think that the best thing I’m taking out of reading this book is a better understanding of how my digestive system functions and how I can eat the right types of foods to help my system work at its peak. I’m really loving how I’m feeling…and although this smoothie recipe is one of my own creation, it has a nice blend of protein/fat/carbs for a post-workout power boost.

Chocolate-Strawberry Smoothie
(serves 1)

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. Chocolate Silken Tofu
3/4 c. Spinach
4 LG Frozen Strawberries
1 tbsp Ground Flaxseed
8 oz Plain Soymilk

Method:

Toss everything in the blender and blend until incorporated. Enjoy!

After coming home from vacation, and losing my job, I realized that everything happens for a reason…at least I realized that yesterday morning when I decided to do the NEW Pure Barre workout. I realized that my definition of continuing exercise is NOT the same as continuing my DVD workouts that I love so much. IT HURT. So, today I decided to go back to Carrie’s original workout: Pure Barre: Ballet, Dance & Pilates Fusion. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be as difficult as the new workout…I was very, very wrong. It’s a great workout, and every time I do it, I enjoy it a little bit more. The things that bothered me at first don’t seem like such a big deal, and I do enjoy that Carrie uses two sets of weights for the upper arm exercises in this workout, whereas the new workouts rely on push ups and tricep dips…I get tired of doing the same thing. I do like that the new workout uses a small playground ball…but you could easily modify her orginal workout to use it as well. I highly recommend this workout, especially if you’re a Tracy Effinger fan. I absolutley adore the leg work in Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Stronger (fitness workout) & Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Lower Body Challenge DVD (which many of you received recently thanks to my very FIRST free giveaway…dont’ worry if you missed it…there are many more to come!!)…. That being said, there isn’t a barre workout out there that makes my thighs shake and work like Pure Barre. It really is amazing how “in shape” I think I am, and then every time I do one of Carrie’s workouts, I get my thighs handed to me. I think it’s just a reminder that there is always, always room for improvement.

Getting fit is a journey, and it takes time, energy and a LOT of effort. In order to make real change, you have to make a real commitment. I am someone who likes variety in my workouts, especially if I’m not seeing results. Reflecting on this, I realize that I’ve had quite a few workout “phases”. The one workout that I keep coming back to is Squeeze. I starting using Squeeze Stronger because I enjoy barre workouts, and it looked like a huge challenge. I was NOT disappointed. The DVD has 3 preset workout options, which provides variety: full workout, lower body and abs or upper body and waist. The full workout is over an hour, and there is NOT a muscle that doesn’t get worked. The first time I did  Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Stronger (fitness workout), I was sore for almost a week. Not sore in a bad way, but the muscles that hurt were new to me. I’ve since figured out (for me, at least) that alternating the upper and lower body workouts every other day seems to work best. I absolutely LOVE the shoulder work in Squeeze Stronger! I have yet to use more than 3 pound weights, though. IT IS TOUGH!! My favorite segment for lower body is the pretzel/clam combo. It targets your glutes from EVERY angle. Not kidding. The stretching afterward is WONDERFUL, too!! I am finding that I am increasing my flexibility as a result of these workouts, which was a nice (and unexpected) bonus. I love this workout so much, I wanted to share it with everyone. When I asked if I could possibly give a copy away, Tracy Effinger (the creator) said YES! AND the giveaway includes a copy of her amazing book: The Squeeze Down e-book! The Squeeze Down includes diet tips, with a focus on clean eating. It also details out a 5 week, change-your-body rotation. The book is INDISPENSIBLE! Diet is a huge part of changing your body. When you combine clean eating with Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Stronger (fitness workout), you WILL see results! Tracy’s advice is easy to follow, with lots of great whole foods choices (which I get REALLY excited about). Now that you absolutely HAVE TO HAVE this great combination, you’re probably wondering what you have to do to be entered in this amazing opportunity…and it’s pretty simple:

To enter to win a FREE copy of the ebook The Squeeze Down AND Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Stronger (fitness workout), simply respond to this post with the reasons behind your motivation to Squeeze…. Do you want to lose weight? Tone up? Start a new workout program? Improve your diet? Share your goals! And be detailed…why do you need to Squeeze yourself STRONGER?

…now for the technical stuff:

1. Contest is open Sunday, June 21st, 2009 @ midnight EST through Sunday, June 28th, 2009 @ midnight EST to all US residents 18 and older.
2. Eligible entries will include a short essay, story or comment about why you want the Squeeze Stronger workout DVD and Squeeze Down ebook.
3. Tracy will be picking the winner after all eligible entries are submitted.
4. Winner will be notified by email and announced on the website  July 5, 2009.
5. No purchase necessary, only 1 entry per person, please.

The plan was to run this morning…and when that didn’t happen (darned snooze button!), I decided to do a barre workout. The only problem was that I only had about 30 minutes…. None of my barre workouts are 30 minutes long (at least, none of them get your whole body in 30 minutes)…at least that’s what I was thinking as I rolled out of bed. Then I remembered that Squeeze: The Complete Workout with Tracy Effinger has a “Power Squeeze” option. YES! So, I pulled out my fluidity bar and got to work. I must say that I was pretty impressed. Tracy manages to hit your entire body with isometric exercises (and some push-ups) in just under 30 minutes. That’s including a long stretch at the end. The Power workout starts with a “quick” warm up (40 leg lifts!) and then moves on to push-ups and tricep dips. No weights needed…that may make this a new on the road favorite…. After you work your upper body, there’s a nice hamstring and leg stretch, and then it’s on to thigh work. You WILL need a playground ball. And IT BURNS!! I was disappointed to discover that there was a serious lack of thigh stretching in the workout. Read this as NONE. AT ALL. Thankfully, I’m resourceful and reached for the pause button. After I finished stretching my thighs, it’s on to the pretzel (yay!) and then some abs work. She does get a quick glute and ab stretch in…but I prefer the longer sequences (YAY for pause!). And then it’s on to more seat work. She has your feet up on a wall (if you don’t have one (I didn’t), you could do this just fine with your feet on the floor), squeezing the playground ball between your knees. In fact, she uses that ball more in this workout than in the full 60 minute Squeeze: The Complete Workout with Tracy Effinger! That being said, it’s a good workout, and I am so thankful that there is a shorter barre workout out there. Tomorrow I’ll have to do something longer…maybe The Tracy Anderson Method Presents Mat Workout DVD…. I guess we’ll just have to see!

I got home from my run early this morning and decided that I should venture away from my normal Bar Method workout. So I decided to do Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Stronger (fitness workout). OH. MY. ACHING. BUNS. Serioulsy. This is a KILLER workout, and it WILL change your body.I know that I’ve reviewed it before, but this IS something that bears repeating. GET THIS WORKOUT!! You will NOT be sorry. The pretzel/clamshell combo is enough of a reason to worship your aching hips and buns. Honestly, this workout is tough, but SO worth it. It is LONG (almost 90 minutes), but has pre-segmented options (Upper body/waist and Lower body/abs), and also has a mix & match offering. I haven’t mixed/matched yet, but I do LOVE doing the lower body then the upper body (that way I continue to work my legs through the Bar Method tuck…although Tracy doesn’t call it that). I usually skip her waist/abs segment, not because they don’t work (I was sore for DAYS last time I attempted them), but because I’m very limited on space in my living room. I just don’t have enough room to do the waist bends without hurting/breaking something. So for now I’ll stick to The Bar Method Body – Fat Free‘s abs workout. It is KILLER!! If you’re thinking about buying the workout, check out this video (Then go to amazon and BUY IT:Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Stronger (fitness workout)):  

Let’s face facts: we all have cellulite. It’s a sad fact, but true. And no matter what the lotion-potion companies tell you, there’s no way to make it disappear…I thought. Now I’m not saying that I’ve found a miracle cure that just makes cellulite go away…BUT, with lots of hard work you CAN reduce the appearance of it. REALLY. It is happening to me. If you’ve been following my blog, you knwo that I am addicted to barre workouts. They focus on isometric exercises that target deep in the muscle. If you’ve read about the Tracy Anderson Method lately, you know that she touts ‘waking up your accessory muscles’…which is basically what isometrics do. They make everything smaller and tighter. EVEN YOUR TOOSH. Yup. I said it. YOUR TOOSH. So…my realization came this morning as I was getting out of the shower. I noticed that my backside is nearly deviod of those hideous dimples. WHAT?! So I moved closer to the mirror for a better look. My skin has gotten smoother, and my legs/toosh have gotten smaller, and where there used to be a virtual plethora of dimples, now there’s 1. That’s right: 1. I was overjoyed and felt the need to share. So I’m sharing. It takes TONS of hard work, doing your barre workouts regularly, and incorporating cardio. I am sure that diet has something to do with it…and a vegan diet is very low in fat compared to SAD (Standard American Diet)…so the combination works! TRULY! Try it. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it when you can shake your cellulite-free tooshie at the beach this summer!

I was planning a run this morning, but a day of laying by the pool put that idea seriously out of my head. With a painfully sunburned chest, shoulders and back, I couldn’t bear the though of putting on a compression sports bra, let alone having my shirt seams rub my poor shoulders. So, rather than running and THEN doing a barre workout, I just went straight to my second workout: The Bar Method Body – Fat Free. I cannot emphasize enough how amazing the barre workouts are. I am watching my body change every day. My seat is more lifted, my arms are getting slimmer, my hips are slowly disappearing…. I honestly credit this last change with my hips to the Bar Method Tuck. It’s a position that most of the barre workouts, including Squeeze, Exhale, Cardio Barre, Fluidity and Pure Barre use. The only barre workout that does not emphasize the tuck the The Tracy Anderson Method…I couldn’t tell you why…but now I’ve got myself wondering. I’ll have to see what I can find out…but that’s another blog for another day.

Back to Burr’s Method. The Bar Method Tuck is SO very effective, and activates your glutes, thighs and hamstrings in your legs, as well as your ab muscles, so that you’re fully engaged in the exercise. The Tuck involves dropping your tailbone toward the floor, pulling your hips up and in, and shifting your ribcage forward. It takes awhile to get the Tuck right, but once you do, WOW, does it intensify the workout!! I had my legs shaking after only 1 set this morning. And IT FELT SO GOOD!! I did like the fact that The Bar Method Body – Fat Free included some knee dancing, in addition to Burr’s normal back dancing. I like the fact that knee dancing incorporated the tuck, as well as engaging ever other muscle in your torso. I can feel my muscles getting stronger and more sculpted by the day!!

After a running (okay, okay…I walked 20 of the 75 minutes) a 10K with my hubby this morning, we decided to do some strength training. He wants to work on his upper body, so I went though some exercises with him, and then I went to work on my trouble zone: LOWER BODY. I popped Tracy Effinger’s Squeeze Lower Body Challenge into the DVD player and got to work. I like this workout because it’s short and to the point. That said, her choice of warm up really worries me. She wants you to do dead lifts with heavy weights (10+ pounds) on COLD MUSCLES. NOT A GOOD IDEA. This has the potential to cause serious injury. Thankfully, the run had seriously warmed up even the small accessory muscles (thanks, Tracy Anderson!) in my body prior to this workout. After the warm up (which I did using 5 lb weights due to the speed of the dead lifts…I really don’t want to injure my lower back, thank you), she moves on to some wide-plies. These HURT. It’s a good hurt, though. My legs were shaking, as they should be doing an intense lower-body workout. Then it’s on to raised-toe lunges…one word: OUCH. These are different from any other lower body exercise that I’ve done. They work everything from my hip flexors to my calves. GREAT! Then you move on to more thigh work and then some glutes. Overall, this is a good workout. It is done entirely standing, which was a little disappointing, as I would have liked to see the pretzel (there’s a killer pretzel sequence on her Stronger workout that I LOVE).

Things I would change: the warm up (obviously) and more stretching. Although, I have all 3 Squeeze workouts, and they are all lacking on stretching. This is always a frustration of mine.

For only being 30 minutes long, this workout turned my legs into jelly…and hopefully will help to transform them into rock-hard, knock-out sexiness!

I didn’t feel like pulling my barre out today, so I decided that I would do a DVD that doesn’t often get used. Now I remember why: it’s tough. Tough, but doable. Exhale Spa (www.exhalespa.com) came out with a workout that fuses pilates and isometrics. I love isometrics. I’m not terribly flexible, so pilates is slightly difficult for me. That said, I enjoyed this workout. There are some things that bother me…like the voice-over instruction. But I can get beyond that. I really like the fact that this workout is segmented: it has 5 individual 10 minute segments. Each segment has its own warm up and cool down, so they could be stand-alone workouts if you’re crunched for time. The first segment focuses on upper body, with planks, push ups and tricep dips. The next segment has a lower body emphasis. They do some knee dancing-type moves that really worked my quads. After those segments, it’s all about abs!! First, they do seated ab work, and move to flat-back work. You will need to be sure that you have an available wall for this segment. And it’s tough. It not only works your abs, but your hip flexors, quads, inner thighs and forearms. After the seated ab work, the next section includes lots of isometric exercises, very similar to Bar Method or Squeeze. The last segment is a dynamic stretching segment, ending with their “signature” stretch. Try it. I double dare you. I think the multiple warm ups are a bit much. You do the same basic warm up (with variations) in each segment. I would have liked to see a “play all” option with one warm up. I don’t really see the need for 5 warm ups, since each segment keeps your entire body very warm. I also would have liked to have the instructors speaking to me, rather than a voice-over. I felt that their glances at each other were a little much as well…they appeared to be laughing at their own voice overs. On a positive note, they are both in tremendous shape, and they do a great job of showing modifications for every move. I appreciate this. I’m still not strong enough to get all the isometric ab work without holding my thighs. This is a nice, calm workout that left me ready to relax, rather than ramped up. I will do this one again, although it won’t be a go-to workout, as I seem to lean more toward Squeeze, Tracy Anderson and Bar Method lately.