I just got back from a yoga class that totally kicked my ass.

It was a “flow” class, which meant we never stopped for an hour and fifteen minutes.

I know i have had a love/hate relationship with yoga in the past. Right now, it’s a love, especially when it is a well thought out and executed.

Jim

Here we go, another holiday season.

Here are your Halloween rules:

1. Don’t buy what you like to give out. Buy what you hate and that way, you won’t get into what’s leftover.

2. Don’t eat the kids candy. Most of it is crap anyway.

3. Drink a ton of water tonight at the parties and tomorrow.

4. Watch the booze. ALWAYS be a two fisted drinker, which means drink 2 ounces of water for every ounce of alcohol.

5. Get to bed tonight. If you are sleep deprived tomorrow, you will dive into the candy.

6. Exercise, both today and tomorrow.

Good luck.

I am horrified as I watch a news report showing the deeply damaging high impact aerobics of the 1980s. I’m especially disturbed as I used to teach EXACTLY those types of classes.

How can you possibly disregard over two decades of research that proves that all the pounding destroys your body in many ways.

It’s as bad and possibly even worse than running. It should never be done. The only time to run is when you are running out of a burning building or have a monster chasing you!

Jim

Here are the reasons why light weights are all wrong:

1. You HAVE to hit failure to cause muscle to rebuild, which is what strength training is all about. With light weights, you have to perform FAR too many repetitions, and this will only lead to injury.

2. ALL the research says that you should perform no more than 10 reps to hit failure. Without heavier weights, this is impossible.

3. MANY of these programs urge you to exercise for 2 hours – A DAY – 6 days a week. That’s crazy and terribly stressful to your body.

4. Ladies, you will NOT get big from heavier weights. It’s virtually impossible. On the contrary, the heavier weights will make you long and lean.

5. If you don’t believe me, google the old picture of Diane Sawyer and Gayle King. Both of them looked amazing when they were following my plan. Diane took 4 inches off of each arm. That’s a huge amount. Gayle’s lower half also shrunk. ALL this was from heavier weights/tensions.

5. You can also get great results from the heavier tensions of the SPRI tubing. Start with green, but also get the red, blue and purple bands.

I hope this makes sense.

Jim

As “supposed” fitness expert, Tracy Anderson is on.

Listen to what she has to say, then do the EXACT OPPOSITE as everything she recommends in generally wrong.

I was in Chicago all weekend, doing things with my kids, running errands, etc.

At virtually every hour of the day that they were open, two cupcake stores in the city had lines going out the front door.

I know I have blogged about this trend, but when will the insanity of eating cupcakes stop. Sure, have a cupcake on your birthday or on a special occasion, but you CANNOT tell me that all those people waiting in line are celebrating.

Funny, some were fat and some were thin, but if they keep eating this way, the thinner ones will grow. That’s what has been happening to our country over the past three decades. People are overwhelming their bodies with too many calories, and that will lead to obesity.

So, today on Good Morning America, Dr. Richard Besser tells us that 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes by 2050.

WE ALREADY KNEW THAT!

Then he goes on to say that obesity is the problem.

WE ALREADY KNEW THAT.

And he states the obvious when he says that our health care system will crumble under the weight of the cost of diabetes.

WE ALREADY KNEW THAT.

What we don’t appear to know is how to reverse this obesity trend.

I say we do it one pound at a time.

That’s right, every pound you lose makes a difference.

Jim

This just in from the Nutrition Action Newsletter:

Dieters lose more fat and less muscle if they get enough sleep.

Researchers put 10 sedentary overweight middle-aged men and women on a lower-calorie diet. For 2 weeks, half were allowed to sleep 5.5 hour and the other half got to sleep 8.5 hours. Then they switched.

Sleep did NOT impact weight loss BUT, when sleep deprived, they lost 55% less fat AND 60% MORE muscle than when they slept more.

That’s a HUGE difference. NEVER, ever skimp on sleep as it will cause you to lose less fat and MORE muscle.

Jim

Just today i had another conversation with a former client that gained all her weight back, and then some.

My first question is always, “weren’t you weighing yourself?” to which she replied, “no.”

If you get on the scale and your weight is up, even a few pounds, then you KNOW you have to get back into the weight loss business.

If you avoid the scale, then the pounds will just keep piling on.

I know there is a lot of controversy about weighing in. I don’t want people to be at risk of an eating disorder, but if you are gaining a lot of weight and can’t get a handle on it, then let’s be honest, there is some type of disorder going on and you are using food in an unhealthy way.

Now, don’t jump down my throat when I say eating disorder. We all think of it only as anorexia or bulemia but overeating, especially excessive overeating, is also a disorder.

Get on the scale EVERYDAY. Don’t avoid it. It could make a huge difference.

Vanity Fair magazine reports that 59% of men and 39% of women say seeing calories counts does NOT affect eating habits.

That’s a HUGE problem as the calorie is key when it comes to weight loss.

I wish we cold devise an ankle bracelet like Lindsay Lohan’s. Here’s detects when she drinks. What if this ankle bracelet detects when you have consumed too many calories and it sets off an alarm. I bet that would solve our obesity AND health care epidemic.