Wasteful Wednesday - Not too bad...

So, remember my earlier post last week sometime about how I cleaned my fridge out and realized the ridiculous amount of food we waste! Well, I am going to try to do that every Wednesday and am calling it: Wasteful Wednesday. I will try to remember to clean out my fridge/freezer/pantry and take a picture of the items I have to get rid of. Hopefully it will go down to nothing eventually! At least that is my goal! So this week, I have the following picture. MUCH better than the previous post, but still too much! I don't know if I forget I have these things in there or what, but I would have totally eaten it if I would have paid more attention! It is about 1/2 of a 1/2 gallon of 2% milk, some oatmeal I pre-cook to eat for breakfasts, a little bit of Madison's food that she didn't eat all of and a lonely jalapeno.. And I do have to confess, I did throw out a little bag of shredded coconut earlier this week. It was like a rock! So, off to get groceries for the week. I have actually planned out my menu for 7 days and am only getting what groceries I need for the meals and a few staples. We will see how it goes!

Clean out your fridge/freezer/pantry and see what you had to throw away... Even better take a picture and email it to me and we can add it to the blog! See if we can change the amout of waste we have! I look forward to seeing what you have. fsquaredfitness@gmail.com

"You can't out exercise a poor diet"

So I am doing some research about golf conditioning, (which I am in the process of putting a program together...) and I was off topic for a minute and saw this great quote from a lady named Nancy. She said "You can't out exercise a poor diet". I love it! It is so true. Are you working hard, but not really paying attention (or knowingly ignoring) to what you are putting in your mouth? Are you thinking you are eating decent, but really, if you wrote it all down, it wouldn't be so great? This is something to think about if you really want to see the results you are working so hard to get!

Lower Body Blast

Ready for a lower body workout that will test your muscles? Remember, the majority of your large muscles are located in your lower body and working them really burns some major calories! Plus, working these muscles in a functional way, will help you in daily activities like squatting to pick something heavy up, any lifting and twisting action, pulling weeds (hello hamstrings!), even just getting out of a chair. So lets get going!

AFTER WARMING UP (see warm-up post):


1. Wall Squat - 12-15 reps - 2 sets --- Grab a large Swiss ball, (also known as an exercise ball, stability ball, etc.) and place it between you and a sturdy wall. Place it on the lower part of your back. Feet shoulder width apart, hands straight out in front of you, or if you want a little bit more of a workout, grab some dumbbells and hold them to your side. Make sure the dumbbells are on the heavier side like 10 lbs or more. Squat down making sure your knees are not over your toes, with weight on your heels of your feet.



2. Standing Calf Raises - 20 reps- 2 sets --- Grab a set of heavier dumbbells and stand tall. If you have a platform that you can stand on and let your heels hang off of that would be even better to use. Raise up onto your toes as far as you can go and lower down as far as you can off the platform edge or if you are on the ground, back to the ground. Continue to lift and lower and you will feel a burn in your calves!



3. Alternating Legs, Reverse Lunge - 15 each leg - 2 sets --- Stand with feet together and take one step backward with one of your legs and drop down into a lunge. Make sure your front knee is over your ankle and not your toes. You should feel your muscles in your front leg working. Your back leg is there just so you don't fall over! Use the front leg to stand up and bring that back leg back into standing position. Reverse legs and repeat on the other side.

4. Hamstring Roll Outs - 12-15 reps - 2 sets --- Grab a stability ball and lie on your back on a mat. Make sure the ball is also on the mat so it doesn't slip out from under you. Place the stability ball under your heels (heels on the top of the stability ball with legs stretched out). Lift your pelvis off the floor and hold up. Tighten your hamstrings, and roll the ball toward your butt. Roll back out without lowering your hips. Continue to do this for 12-15 reps.

5. Adductor Squeeze - 15 reps with hold - 2 sets --- Keep that stability ball! Lying on your back, put the stability ball between your legs between your knees and ankles and squeeze to hold in place. Lift your legs up trying to keep your legs as straight as you can. Squeeze the ball and release. Don't let the ball drop!! Repeat for 15 reps, and after 15 hold in a squeeze for 10 seconds.

Remember, this is not a full body workout, just a short lower routine. In a different post, I will add some upper body exercises that we can add to these to make it a full body workout. And there are a bazillion different exercises you can do if you are focusing on lower body... Do some research on the links I provided on the home page (ACE, IDEA, Oxygen, etc.). They are loaded with information and details on how to do the moves properly! Now get going!!

Warm-up that body!

Make sure and do a warm-up first! We have to get the blood flowing to these lower body muscles and get them warm so you don't pull anything. Some examples of a warm-up are:

*Controlled high-knees ~ 30 seconds
-Like you are in a high knee march. This warms up the hip flexors, core, knees.
*Controlled heels to butt, also known as butt kickers ~ 30 seconds
-Try to hit your heels to your butt area with out stressing your knee. Warms up your hamstrings, and quads.
*Jumping Jacks or Modified Jacks (dont jump off floor and one leg "jacks" at a time)
- Full body warm-up
*Repeat above for a total of two times. Then do a little bit of dynamic stretching:

-Roll upper body down to touch toes and roll back up into a back bend. Repeat a few times.
-Stand tall with feet a bit wider than shoulder width. Slowly lunge to one side and then the other. This is a fluid, controlled movement. Repeat 3 or 4 times and feel the stretch down the inside of your legs. Hold to one side and stretch, and move to the other side. and hold.
-Stop in the middle roll up slowly again to standing position.

Wasteful

OMG. I am actually embarrassed to do this post, but I think it is important in recognizing what we, as families, waste in just food! Especially in this time of the devastation in Haiti and around the world. I subscribe to a website, The Frugal Girl, www.thefrugalgirl.com and once a week, she takes a photo and posts it of what her family wastes for food. There is hardly anything! But to her it is alot. So, I decided to clean out my fridge today and this is what we have wasted. Disgusting! Take a minute to evaluate what you and your family wastes, and think about what you need to do to make it less. Maybe, make smaller portions, (hey, isn't that one of the keys to losing weight??), maybe freeze some of it for later. Anyway, think about it! Feel free to take pictures and post them on my facebook group, f squared fitness, or email them to me at: fsquaredfitness@gmail.com and I can post them for you. On a good note... Happy Valentines Day!

Interesting Nutrition information

“Losing weight is 20% exercise and 80% proper eating” – Robert Kennedy, Publisher Oxygen Magazine

**Calorie = Kcal = unit of energy (measurment)**

Calories are not our enemies! However, you have to burn more than you take in to lose weight! 3,500 calories = 1 lb. of fat. So, to lose 1 lb. you have to burn 3,500 calories. DON’T get frustrated! It can be done! Safe and long lasting weight loss is losing 1-2 lbs per week. (NOT 20 OR SO LIKE ON THE BIGGEST LOSER!) so if you burn or save 500 calories/day for 7 days = 1 lb. 500 Calories in not very much… It is like 1 snickers, and one Pepsi in a bottle. Or sometimes a Grande Mocha Frap from your favorite coffee shop! So, easy right? Just don’t eat. Or if you “only eat one or two meals a day”… then you are also making it harder to lose weight. Why? Read on:

Your body is a furnace and needs fuel to keep it going. If you don’t eat enough “fuel” then the fire (energy) will go out. Sounds Cliché but it is true. Experts agree, despite my wrestling diet minded father, that we eat5 - 6 mini meals per day. Now I say MINI meals… For example, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and if necessary, snack. What it does is starts and keeps your metabolism running all day. When you don’t eat enough, and start to make your body hungry, your body goes into starvation mode, and hangs on to every last calorie it can! It isn’t going to starve to death!!

Now, keep in mind Women that are trying to lose weight should try to keep their calorie intake between 1200 – 1600 calories. If you are very active, you can up it to 1800 – 2000 calories to keep your energy going with your major workouts. So, you have to split up 1600 calories between 5-6 meals. Make sure to keep snacks around 100 calories, and have a bit of protein, carbohydrate, and good fat in each meal and snack.

One thing I do listen to my father on, (ok and maybe it is proven too, but I don’t let him know that it isn’t his idea), is cutting your portions in half will make a dramatic difference! We as a society, eat WAY to much in our portions! Just think, by cutting your portion in half, you save so many calories and probably make it way closer to the proper serving size!

New blog spot for F Squared Fitness! Yippee!

So, instead of a website, I chose a blog. Not that I have a clue how to run a blog, but I can give it a shot! So this blogspot will be the new home of F Squared Fitness. Why the heck the name F Squared? Because I believe Fitness and Function are so important in living a rewarding life (hence f to the power of 2). Now, I am obviously not talking about fitness to the extreme, (have you seen me lately?) but a healthy functional life. Being able to do everyday things in your life without getting injured and frankly, out of breath! You all know what I mean. Aren't there just some days where walking up stairs, or lifting kids makes you out of breath! So, here on this site, we will focus on tidbits of fitness related information that I think is important, and also will keep you informed of my different classes I will be offering. And I promise there will be more as I get more time! (More time? What is that!)

Right now, I am in the beginning of an entry level fitness class. Which I have to say is going well! (Good job ladies!) And soon I may be adding a "get ready for golf season" class and of course in the spring, Bootcamp! Yae! And hopefully more fun stuff!

Feel Free to email me at fsquaredfitness@gmail.com anytime if you have any questions, comments, or complaints!