Happy December everyone!

Did you see those lines at the mall this past weekend? Crazy. I honestly have never been a post-Thanksgiving weekend shopper and for the past few years I’ve done about 90% of my holiday shopping online. Over the next couple of weeks most of my shopping will take place over my morning cup of coffee or after 11 pm and my holiday gifts will arrive (many beautifully gift-wrapped) at my doorstep.

On that note, I thought I would share some of my best buy/low cost gifts I’m handing out this holiday season to my fitness friends. My goal – finding real value for not alot of money!

In no particular order …

The Gymboss Interval Timer. No kidding, I think this gadget is just an incredible value for the money. Cost – $19.95 + shipping (shipping is under $3 per order). You can check out the full review I wrote on the Gymboss HERE.

Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred. I was kind of surprised to see this on my list, but here it is! I’ve given out a bunch of the 30-Day Shred DVDs over the past year to family and friends. At $9.49 the price can’t be beat to have Jillian Michaels whip you in to shape. And yes, I personally go back to this particular workout several times over the course of the year.

A Turbulence Training Workout. I say it time and time again. To gain the most benefit from a workout you have to have a plan. The individual Turbulence Training workouts are a great way to get family and friends on the right path come January 1, and at $9.95 apiece (no shipping fee since it’s a digital download!), you can get them workouts for both January and February and still be under $20.

A Foam Roller. Myofascial release not only helps to limit injury but it has an incredibly positive impact on recovering from workouts. Any fitness buff from cycling enthusiasts to powerlifters can benefit from the use of a foam roller and the $19.95 price tag is a heck of alot cheaper than a visit to a massage therapist!

A Jump Rope. There’s a reason why jumping rope is a staple in every boxer’s conditioning program – it works! You can find a good jump rope for well under $10 (the Valeo Deluxe Speed Rope I’m linking to costs $6.30) and there is no better conditioning tool for the money. Another bonus, you can pack it up and take it with you anywhere you go.

Items such as the Jump Rope, Foam Roller and the 30 Day Shred DVD are all available from Amazon.com and eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping. If you have at least $25 of eligible items in your shopping cart when checking out, shipping is free so no harm, no foul in not fighting the crowds at the mall

What did I miss? There’s still plenty of shopping days to go and cyber-space is open 24/7! What fitness gifts will you be buying for family and friends this holiday season?

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan

As we enter in to the holiday season you will likely find yourself over-committed with office functions, family dinners, holiday shopping, and the typical end of year revelry.

It’s difficult enough to find time to prepare healthy meals and get to the gym the other 11 months out of the year. Between Thanksgiving and New Years it seems nearly impossible.

Now more than ever, you need to prioritize. First and foremost, be realistic in regards to your fat loss efforts. Rather than focusing on weight loss, for the next several weeks focus on maintaining your current weight. Keep in mind that maintaining your weight still requires planning, so the next issue to address is how you should best utilize your limited time.

As your Mother may have told you, you are what you eat.

Your first priority should be your diet. A good nutrition program will enable you to

• improve your body composition
• improve your health
• improve your stamina

Fact is you cannot out train a bad diet. However, you can lose/maintain weight without exercise. If you have limited time on your hands my suggestion is to focus that time on meal planning and preparation.

Keep up with your food journaling and take adequate time to prepare healthy meals. The effort it takes to eat healthy, nutritious meals now is much less than the effort it will take to burn off a Whopper and fries later on.

If time allows, you certainly want to continue with your workouts. If those workouts will be limited use this time to focus on strength training. Why? Because over the course of any given day the bulk of the calories we burn is based on our Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). The more muscle mass we have, the higher our RMR.

If twice per week you can squeeze in an extra 20 minutes at the gym, focus on High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

HIIT is done by alternating brief periods or high intensity work (85% or more) with a brief recovery period. HIIT is an example of an anaerobic exercise, which means that an inadequate amount of oxygen is being delivered to working muscles during the course of the exercise.

When compared to steady-state cardio, HIIT results in significantly more calories burned in a much condensed period of exercise.

To summarize, if you find yourself with limited time over the remainder of this year and are concerned about packing on pounds, your order of priority should be:

1. A focused nutrition plan
2. Strength training
3. High Intensity Interval Training

Catapult Fitness Blog will be taking the week off in celebration of Thanksgiving. I am heading down to Florida and looking forward to cooking a traditional (healthy) Thanksgiving meal for family and friends.

Wishing those celebrating a very happy holiday!

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan

I was chatting with someone yesterday and they mentioned to me that they do 100 sit-ups every night before they go to bed.

I’m certain they were expecting me to respond with a resounding WOW, but the best I could do was muster a shrug and ask them ‘why’?

There are several inherent problems with sit-ups and crunches:

1. The movement actually strains the back at it’s weakest point and can cause disk damage
2. The movement is limited to targeting the rectus abdominus muscles which can ultimately lead to a distended stomach appearance
3. The movement is contrary to how we typically use our abdominal muscles and is not at all functional in nature

If you’re going to take the time to work your core, work it in a way that is going to benefit your overall health and give your mid-section the overall toned look you’re striving for.

To achieve this, work your core muscles – back extenders, rectus abdominus, transversus abdominus, obliques, hip flexors – as a group.

Some of my favorite core exercises include:

The Plank – I have found the plank to be one of the most effective core exercises around. You can modify this exercise to make it more difficult by using a stability ball, but this is definitely a no-equipment-required exercise. Remember not to let your hips or back sag!

The Overhead Squat – I bet you were not expecting this one! The overhead squat engages all of your core muscles as once that bar is over your head, it seems to have a mind of it’s own. Caution – this exercise should only be used by those of you who are more ‘advanced’ lifters with good squatting form.

Turkish Get-Up – Another over-head exercise that engages all of your core muscles and requires precision balancing from start to finish. I love this video and how it breaks the movement down in to several drills. Keep in mind that you do not need a Kettlebell to perform a Turkish Get-Up. A dumbbell works just fine!

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan

I found this article on the Vital Choice Seafood site. If you’re not familiar with Vital Choice Seafood, check out the company’s offerings!

I became familiar with Vital Choice several years ago after reading one of Dr. Nicholas Perricone’s articles. I now get regular shipments from the company. The seafood is delicious, sustainable, and top quality. Do a little Google search and you can even find discount coupons that can be applied to your order.

But I digress … back to the article.

As if we need another reason to add more fish in to our diet (heart healthy, low in saturated fat), research now indicates that fish may actually make us happier (and who can’t stand to be a little bit happier these days?).

Fish and Olive Oil Linked To Better Mood
Study among older Greeks links fish and olive oil to being happier.
by Craig Weatherby

Two years ago, we reported the conclusions of an expert panel of the American Psychiatric Association, which concluded that omega-3s from fish are capable of reducing depression risks.

Now, Greek researchers have reported the results of two population studies … one that links fish to better mood, and one that does the same for olive oil.

Fish may fuel better mood

The first study involved people living in various Greek islands and in Cyprus (Bountziouka V et al. 2009).

They recruited 1,190 men and women aged over 65, and gathered data on the participants’ diets, lifestyles and personal characteristics.

The Greek team then administered a psychological test designed to detect depression, called the validated Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS).

People who had the healthiest GDS scores were more educated and physically active, but they also reported higher fish consumption that their sadder peers.

Importantly, the study detected a “dose-response” effect that strengthens the association between eating more fish and being less prone to depression.

After adjusting for various factors associated with depression, their analysis showed that each extra portion of fish a participant reported eating per week further lowered their chances of having a GDS score above the “clinical threshold” that indicates depression.

As the Greek team concluded, “These findings may assist public health policy makers in better preventing emotional disorders among the elderly by promoting healthier eating habits.” (Bountziouka V et al. 2009).

Olive Oil may help mood … other vegetable oils may harm it

Several studies have linked the standard American diet’s imbalance between omega-6 (too many) and omega-3 fats (too few) to increased risk of depression.

Now a study from the Athens area of Greece suggests that diets high in olive oil may boost mood, while diets high in omega-6-rich vegetable oils may promote depression (Kyrozis A et al. 2009).

Researchers from the University of Athens Medical School recruited 610 healthy men and women aged 60 years or older and gathered data on the participants’ diets, lifestyles, and personal characteristics.

Six to 13 years later, their mood was evaluated using the same GDS test used in the fish study.

Their analysis showed that people who consumed more olive oil had healthier GDS scores, while people who consumed lots of cheap “seed oils” – that is corn, soy, safflower, sunflower, and cottonseed oils – had worse scores.

To be precise, the link was between monosaturated fats and mood. And olive oil – specifically extra virgin grade oil – was by far the main source of monosaturated fats in the diets of the participants who had the highest intakes.

As they wrote, “We conclude that … lower intake of [omega-6-rich] seed oils and higher intake of olive oil … predict a healther affective [mood] state.” (Kyrozis A et al. 2009)

We take their results as positive affirmation that extra virgin olive oil helps make people feel good!

Train hard; stay strong; eat more fish!

Peace.

Susan