Page 46 of 65

Step by Step – Taking the Stairs

May 11, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Do you take the stairs or the elevator? The thing I like about stair workouts is that the act of climbing stairs is so practical. What I don’t like, well the huffing and puffing when I haven’t been doing it.

It’s easy to feel like you’re making progress when there are stairs that make you huff and puff. And then a few weeks/months later, you notice that it doesn’t even effect you at all to go up the stairs.

When I was actively trying to lose weight, I felt a huge “non-scale” victory when I realized that I just had run up some stairs without even thinking about it or realizing that I ran up them.

Some friends of mine went on a major hike last summer to the White Mountains on the Appalachian Trail. Some of them practiced on these stairs in the Cleveland Metroparks that over look the Rocky River.

There are several reasons why a stair workout is a good idea:

Stairs are good for you
You can build up to them
Stairs or steps are everywhere
Stairs work the glutes, hamstrings and calves.
They provide a great feeling of accomplishment
It’s natural workout, not something that you don’t do in real life

Things to be cautious about:

If you wear eyeglasses with progressive bifocals, try not to look down when you walk down
It’s fair to use the hand rail, in fact a good idea. You don’t want a “quick trip” down or up!
Your heart will really start to beat quickly. On the way up, it’s okay to pause on a landing to catch your breath.
It’s a good idea to step aside, if someone is behind you to let them pass.
Don’t try to do it all at once, better to build up your stamina over time.

From age 35 to 50 I was definitely an elevator taker. I often looked for an elevator. If there was no elevator, my attitude was “oh boy, here we go!”(not in a good way.) It wasn’t until I turned 50 and decided I was going to get into shape that I embraced the stairs.

At first when I turned 50, I decided to get started on the Stairmaster at the gym. That didn’t last long. I found it was too boring and too much effort to get dressed in my workout clothes, drive to the gym and then only be able to accomplish 5 minutes or so on the Stairmaster. Of course, I put it on the highest level. Not the best idea.

I found better success by using stairs right near me.

Taking the three flights of stairs everyday in my office building became part of my new routine. I would park in the spot farthest away from the door and then take the 3 flights up to the office. If I was going to use the restroom, I’d go to the first floor and walk back up to the office. At lunch I’d do another set or two. Soon I was doing about 15 flights a day.

I got the idea because I used to regularly do 12 floors in college. The Kent State library was the tallest building around at 177 feet. Every day I’d walk by the library several times between classes and my dorm. After a while, I’d just walk in and do the stairs. After a while, I could do all 12 floors. Not a big deal in my late teens and early 20’s. I found that it was a great stress relief.

Of course, I’m not always near a tall building, but one set of stairs still works. I live in a one story house and the laundry is in the basement. My FitBit has a 10 floor goal. Okay, I’ll agree that is a lot of laundry to do each day, but I have found that just loading the washer is one, switching to dryer is two and bringing up from the basement is three. So, if I turn around and go up and down two more times for each one trip, I can just about get my goal pretty easily. Plus clean the cat box each morning which is also in the basement. And boom, I’ve got my 10 stair steps.

Where are stairs near you? Do you use them to do a “natural” work out?

Sampling a Pilates Exercise Class

May 4, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

I recently had a trial class here in my town, at a relatively new exercise studio called Club Pilates.

While over the years, I have taken a few Pilates classes at the health and fitness center where I’ve belonged almost continuously since 1994, it’s hard to pass up a free class to check out something new.

Regular readers may remember my CycleBar experience and Jill’s workout at this Pilates studio when it had just opened.

Sample Class
I got a ticket to a sample class during one of the community expo/showcases held locally. The Club Pilates runs a special 30 minute sample class for a group of people who have expressed interest. There were 8 people in the class, including me.

Facility Set Up
The facility location is in shopping plaza. The exercise room is set behind the front desk and has a wall with curtains to separate the waiting area from the work out area. You put your personal items in open faced wooden cubbies that are located up in the front. Because a curtain separates the front from the workout area, I wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on them, so I ended up keeping my phone and keys with me in the work out room.

Each personalized station is set up for one person. And I believe that there were 12 stations in the club.

Instructor
Our instructor was a former ballet dancer, who was in terrific shape. Unlike many group exercise instructors, he had us do the exercises very slowly so he could monitor and correct our form.

He explained what the benefits to the body Pilates provided and discussed ways to modify the exercises to be more or less difficult depending on each of our fitness level and experience with Pilates type exercises. Because it was only a sample class, he was going easy on us.

Equipment
There was lots of very new equipment in top condition. If I wasn’t familiar with it, I might have been intimidated. Among the items at each station was a Pilates reformer machine, bosu, TRX straps with several places to hook them, circle, a small stability ball and a Pilates chair.
The only piece that was new to me was the Pilates chair which looks a bit like a padded bench with springs. They had the bosus sitting on top of the chairs and I didn’t get a great photo of them, but click through on this link to see what they look like and how they work.

They insisted you wear socks with non-skid treads or they would let you buy some from them. I noticed two people wearing some Sky Zone trampoline park socks. I had looked for some of those in the bottom of my sock drawer, but couldn’t find my pair from the time I tried Sky Zone.

Exercises
While the majority of the exercises involved putting your foot in a strap and manipulating the spring under the equipment, many of the exercises were similar to ones that I’ve done in my gym.

Plank – with elbows on the bosu
One foot on the bosu, knee up, balance by touching the wall
Bridge – lying on my back with arms at the sides
Sit on the padded Pilates stool, bend sideways at the hips and press down the spring loaded bar with my hand
The ballet move where you stand and Plié slowly. It’s definitely NOT a squat.

Evidently ballet dancers have issues with squats and prefer the Plié where the dancer stands with the heels together and the toes pointing out, then and bends at the knees.

Individual Training Room
After the sample group class, we were ushered into the back to see the individual personal training area and equipment. There are sales person explained the different membership programs, pricing, requirements and time frames.

I remember she said that they gave a discount to veterans, those in the armed services and to first responders. I thought “Wow, very generous!”

Then one of the women in my class piped up and wanted to know about doctors and nurses as well, “Don’t forget about us!” I don’t know why, but that was a turn off to me. I guess you could make a case for a lot of other professions as well.

During the hour that we were there, that is the only thing that I can remember that any of the other people who didn’t work there actually said. It was a very quiet group.

The biggest positive is the equipment. It looks super brand new like it has never been touched. I believe that the facility opened in September 2018, so it still is very new.

The biggest negative to me is the lack of interaction between the other people. Even though it was a group class, during class it was obvious that there isn’t the joking around. It was very serious and not as much fun.

While I guess I shouldn’t judge the place on how the participants act. Maybe that is how you act during Pilates. However to me if working out isn’t something that I look forward to, I’m not going to do it.

Perhaps I’ll give Pilates another try sometime in the future. Right now it didn’t have the attraction to me compared to so many other types of exercise. How about you? Do you love Pilates? What do you love about it?

Five Ways to Track Your Fitness Progress

May 3, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Regardless of where you are in your fitness journey, it’s a good idea to track your fitness progress. It can make you feel proud of your accomplishments or make you realize that maybe taking that month off wasn’t such a hot idea.

You may feel like you just know where you are but I think most of us don’t realize how we’re actually doing. This is where it pays off to track your fitness progress.

Take Measurements.

I’ve discussed the value of measurements before. I really like being able to see how I’m doing. I have a journal where I track my weight. I also include my measurements every few weeks. It’s a good idea to get a measuring tape and measure your waist, hips and maybe your thigh. Other parts of your body are difficult to measure on your own but if you have someone to help, you could throw in measuring your chest and your biceps.

You certainly don’t need to measure every day but maybe once a month, look and see where you are. Even changing by half an inch may be a great sign of progress.

This might be where you track other measurements too. This can be numbers provided by your doctor from blood work or tracking your blood pressure or resting heart rate.

Take photos

Many of us hate to have our pictures taken, especially when we’re wearing our workout clothes. I urge you to get over that and take pictures of yourself. If you’re doing a selfie, you want to try to get most of your body in the shot so you may need to use a mirror for the shot.

Save your photos from races and group runs or group fitness events.

Again, photos can be motivating because you may see progress or you may see backsliding. You know that old saying, cameras never lie. Of course that saying is definitely old because now with PhotoShop and filters and everything, many photos do lie but try to keep the originals so you can track your progress.

Write Down Your Strength Workouts

I love weight lifting. If I could only choose one thing to do, I suspect that I would opt to just lift weights. One reason I like weight lifting is that it’s so easy to track your results. Why? Because you’re lifting WEIGHT and it’s easy to measure.

Today I did deadlifts in a fitness class and my max was 105 pounds. Now I know that last year I deadlifted 150 pounds so it’s easy for me to see that I either was slacking today or have lost some strength. I suspect that it’s a bit of both.

If you lift weights, keep track of your sets and what you’re actually lifting. Over time you can see how you’re gaining strength.

Record Weight and Body Fat

This is similar to taking measurements. Jump on a scale periodically. We’ve talked about weighing ourselves every day but many people dislike that. I suggest that you weigh yourself regularly and record it. It’s an easy way to see what your body is doing.

Perhaps more importantly is to track your body fat if you can. I get this checked at my gym every so often using a hand-held device.

Many scales are now available that also provide you with body fat numbers. I know many say that these scales aren’t accurate but I think they’re great for watching trends. As long as you’re using the same scale, you can see if that percentage is going up or down.

Test Yourself

Once a month or so, test yourself. See if you can lift more weight or do more reps in a set. You can do something like set a timer for a minute and see how many push ups you can do. Or you can do the opposite and do 20 burpees and track how much time it takes. If you do this regularly, you will probably begin to see improvements. You might get to the point where you think, “I hate doing 20 burpees” and then you’ll know it’s time to change the test.

Track Your Fitness Progress

It pays to track your progress. Whether it’s seeing that you’re an inch smaller at the waist or that you can do 3 more push ups than you did last month, it’s motivating to know that you’re improving.

Be sure to write this information down because, trust me, you won’t remember the details.

If you’re on this fitness journey long enough, you’ll eventually have photos going back years and that is invaluable.

Let me know if you do any of these things or if you’re going to add them to your routine. I’d love to hear how it works for you.

Snap Peas – Veggie Challenge

April 29, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Snap Peas are crunchy and delicious. Although the peas are inside, you can eat the pea pod as well.

I think their name comes from the way you prepare them. It doesn’t take much. You snap the stem off and pull the thread like fiber that runs down the side of the pea pod to prepare them. I also cut them into four pieces or so to make their size more like a bite size and match the rest of the salad.

I put them in my potluck salad and they added a perfect crunchy texture.

Here’s what is in the salad:

Celery
Carrots
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Blueberries
Yellow peppers
Cucumbers
Olives
Snap peas

Dressing: Olive oil, cider vinegar, and lemon juice. I don’t usually measure carefully, but put enough into the bowl to coat the vegetables without drowning them!

Salt and pepper to taste. I think having it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours made it absorb more of the dressing. The beauty of this potluck salad is that you don’t have to worry about refrigerating it and things going bad. It makes a great salad to put out on the table for the afternoon buffet at a potluck.

Gotta admit I love, love, love this salad! And I think I know why: it has all the taste sensations! Bitter – salty – savory – sweet – sour… Plus zesty, zippy, crunchy, and the blueberries even added a little bit of creamy.

Next time I will consider adding some protein with maybe tuna, walnuts or quinoa.

Ups and Downs of Fitness Past 50

April 25, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Let’s talk about some of the ups and downs of fitness past 50. A few things happened this week that made me feel good and then not so good. There were definitely some ups and downs of fitness this week.

Ups and Downs of Fitness

First, I signed up for a small group training class at my gym. The seven-week class starts and ends with measurements so we can track our progress. The measurements included weight, body fat percentage (oh, it’s been a rough year!), blood pressure, and actual body measurements. You know, the measuring tape around your chest, abdomen, waist, hips, thighs, and upper arm. Not really a good time.

This was followed by a brief physical test. We did inclined push ups. Inclined means we rested our hands on an elevated surface and did a full push up. The test was to see how many we could do in a minute. The other test was four minutes on the rowing machine.

I did not feel great about the weight and body fat percentage. I definitely have some work to do there. Too much time dealing with injuries and too much time traveling and having fun last year. It’s certainly an incentive to pay attention to this.

I did feel pretty good that, although I am clearly the oldest person in the training group, I was not the worst at the push ups and rowing. There were a couple young women there who looked very fit and said they go to bootcamp classes three times a week, but they couldn’t do the push ups. They said they always do pushups on their knees in boot camp. I don’t want to sound petty but that made me feel better that I managed to do some.

Oh NO! A Photo!

The second thing I did this week was scary. I took a selfie of myself while I was out running. It was a sunny day and the selfie of course was a close-up. Oh my, what a shock when I looked at the photo. I did not upload it to Strava where I log my runs. Yikes, I looked so much older than I felt. I know it was a sunny day so I was squinting and it was not a flattering shot but boy it knocked me for a loop. Fortunately, I didn’t see the photo until after I finished my run.

I know it’s more important to have completed my run successfully than to look good in a photograph but I still have some vanity left and that was painful.

Recovery

OK, so this week has had its ups and downs. I’m carrying around more weight than I like and I know I’ll feel better if I get it off. I prefer to focus on the body fat percentage, but I definitely need to lower that number.

I looked like a zombie in my selfie. Note to self, avoid selfies in the bright sunlight while running. It’s not a good look. All future sellfies should be taken after recovery from running, preferably after a shower, combing the hair, and maybe even using some makeup.

On the plus side, I successfully completed some pushups and rowed for four minutes. I ran my Couch to 5K session without problem and felt good afterwards. I’m choosing to focus on that. You know, the “be fit and strong” thing.

I guess all we can do is continue to work on being fit and strong and try to improve where we can. Set those goals and don’t feel bad about what you can’t control.

If anyone has any ideas on improving the selfie look, let me know. More importantly, let me know if you’ve had some successes this week in your fitness regime.

Veggie Challenge with Sauerkraut

April 24, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 1 Comment

Yes, my entry this week in the veggie challenge involves sauerkraut. I think fermented vegetables can count for the challenge. I’ve certainly eaten sauerkraut before but I came up with a new way to eat it.

I know this is not a pretty dish. In fact, the photo is pretty bad but it ended up tasting better than it looks.

I thought of this and then I googled it. I discovered that I’m not the first person to think of it but I did think of it without prompting.

We’ve talked about fermented vegetables before and I’m trying to add at least one serving of fermented food into my day.

Sauerkraut with Sardines

This is a simple recipe.

Mash up some sardines and mix them with some sauerkraut.

That’s it. When I made it, I used about a cup of sauerkraut and a full can of sardines. The nutrition label on the sardines said the can was one serving so I used all of it.6

I think that mixing the sauerkraut with the sardines really made two servings. I couldn’t finish the whole serving. Let’s face it, a cup of sauerkraut is a lot of sauerkraut.

I usually buy sardines with the bones but this time I ended up with skinless and boneless sardines. They mixed well with the sauerkraut.

This recipe includes fermented cabbage which is supposed to be good for you and sardines which are also supposed to be good for you. Sardines are small fish so are unlikely to have mercury in them and have lots of good Omega 3 fats for you.

So, how was it? Actually, pretty good. The two ingredients both have strong flavors but combined together well.

I think this would be great on some pumpernickel rye bread because it also has a strong flavor that would complement this dish.

Next time, I’ll try wrapping it up in some romaine leaves to add a bit more crunch to it.

Tap Into Your True Strength with Tammy Wise Podcast

April 23, 2019 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

In episode 32 Jill and Chris interview Tammy Wise, a Mind-Body Fitness Expert. A Broadway dancer turned Tao minister, Tammy describes how you can tap into your true strength.

In today’s Fit Strong Women Over 50 podcast, we discuss:

Your core supports all the bones and muscles in the top of body and bottom of body.
Your brain recalls the details of your story, but it doesn’t have the emotional memory. That’s found in your body. Soft tissue holds the emotional memory.
Tension and strength have the very same root. While tension is energy that’s stagnant, strength is energy that’s in flow. Strength is connecting to the goal. Tension stands between you and the goal.
Releasing tension builds strength in mind and body. Her strength training method uses alignment, emotional release and outside resistance to reorganize and focus your strength
Body Logos means the body’s divine wisdom
Eating in balance. She prefers to eat several small meals throughout the day.
Peasant bread: dark flour, whole grains

“I’ve made it my personal mission to help people understand–and experience–what real strength feels like. And it’s not the result of bench-pressing a ton of weight or running endless miles. It’s about alignment, and a power that comes from your mind and body being in the same place at the same time.” Tammy Wise

Gift for listeners: Free video on how to release pressure. Go to bodylogos.com, scroll to bottom, and click on graphic at bottom of screen for free video.

Contact Info and Links:

Website and blog: www.bodylogos.com
Book: The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body Train the Mind is available on BodyLogos website, Amazon, Barnes and Noble.
Email: mindthebody@bodylogos.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BodyLogos
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tammy_bodylogos/

Vegetables on Easter for the Veggie Challenge

April 21, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

While I love vegetables, I wasn’t sure I wanted to try something very new for the Easter holiday.

Loyal readers of the Becoming Elli website may recognize my tried and true Roasted Vegetables:

Wash and slice vegetables
Lightly coat with Olive Oil
Roast in 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes
Turn at least once
Arrange on platter

I also made my favorite potluck salad with lots of raw vegetables. I love how colorful this looks on the Easter buffet.

Chop vegetables into similar sized pieces:

Onion
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Sweet Peppers (red, yellow, orange)
Celery
Carrot
Cauliflower
Broccoli

I added one can of Garbanzo Beans AKA Chick Peas for a little protein in the salad.

Mix together into a large bowl and add the spices and dressing.

Spices: salt, pepper, parsley and basil

Dressing:

olive oil
Apple cider vinegar
Lemon juice

I like to make this the night before so the dressing and spice has overnight to soak into the vegetables.
In the morning, stir several times to recoat all the vegetables. Put into a colorful serving bowl.

We celebrated Easter with the extended family on Saturday as a combination birthday party. My Mom turns 88 years old this week! There were 29 family members (including 8 great grandchildren) and 3 dogs! Very fun and hectic.

Getting Inspired by Other Older Women

April 20, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

When I read a story about a woman who is in the second half of life, who is knocking it out of the park, I get inspired!

I don’t about you, but I can’t do what I did when I was younger… but I can do different things now! And finding out about other older women who are working to become fit and strong is a big motivation.

When Jill and I first started Becoming Elli, we were inspired by Elli, the Norse Goddess of Aging, who beat Thor in a wrestling match. Aging is a funny thing. A lot of people complain about it. My 88 year old mom says, “It’s better than the alternative.” I am motivated by women who embrace it.

Every day I am inspired by reading articles, listening to podcasts and watching videos about real-life, older women who are doing amazing things like these:

Joan Benoit Samuelson, 61 years old, ran the Boston Marathon on Monday, finishing the challenging 26.2 mile course in only 3 hours, 4 minutes! When her time is adjusted for her age using the age-graded calculator, she actually won the Boston Marathon this year! She uses the power of story to motivate herself, and set her goal to run “40 minutes slower than 40 years ago” when she won with a finish of 2:35:15 in 1979. She mentioned she did a lot of cross training with Nordic skiing to improve fitness and strengthen her upper body without too much pounding on her legs.
Ernestine Shepherd, age 81, who started working out and exercising at a gym at age 56. Fulfilling a promise she made to her sister right before her sister passed away from a brain aneurysm, Ernestine achieved the world record as the oldest competitive body builder. She is a personal trainer and remembers the mantra from her sister, “Determined, Dedicated, Disciplined.”
Julia Hawkins, 102 years old, who took up competitive running at 100 and competitive cycling at 75 years old. Her children are in their 60’s and 70’s. She does a lot of work in her garden and runs inside when she hears the telephone ring.

What’s their secret? It’s hard to say, but in my opinion, they look forward, not back. They set little goals, then bigger goals. They stay active. They do what they can, when they can.

Exercising with other people is social. Competing helps to set goals. Trying new things helps me to not compare myself with what I did when I was younger. Becoming inspired by other older women makes me feel hopeful and motivated.

How about you? What motivates you? Do you know of another older woman who is doing something that inspires you? Let us know by sending an email: Chris@becomingelli.com or by posting on our social media!

What is Resistant Starch and Why Should We Eat It?

April 18, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Let’s talk about resistant starch. What is it? Why should we eat it? What do we eat to add it to our diet?

We had a mini-Becoming Elli outing a couple weeks ago and went to see a screening of The Gut Movie. The website adds a subtitle of A Story of Poo and the Future of Medicine. The documentary was an interesting look at research on the microbiome which is the microorganisms living in our intestines and the effect it has on our health. If you have the opportunity to see this movie, take it. I think we all learned something new from watching it.

Here on the Becoming Elli website, we’ve discussed the benefits of eating fermented foods for our bodies and our microbiome. In The Gut Movie, they talked about the benefits of fermented foods and resistant starch. I knew some things about this from reading some recent health foods but in our conversation after the movie, I realized that this is probably worth discussing.

What is Resistant Starch?

Resistant starch is found in carbohydrates that our digestive system doesn’t digest. Instead, this starch passes through the stomach and small intestine and ends up in the large intestine where all of that bacteria live. The bacteria, especially the good kind apparently, loves this type of starch and they digest it and release good enzymes to our bodies.

Eating resistant starch helps to prevent a number of health problems or helps our bodies deal with already existing health problems. Studies indicate that this starch may help to lower your blood sugar levels after meals and help to improve your insulin sensitivity. Because this resistant starch has lots of fiber, it can also help with weight loss and controlling appetite.

Where Do We Find Resistant Starch?

Some good sources of are:

Oats

Cooked oats provide some resistant starch but apparently cooking the oatmeal and then letting it cool increases the amount of starch. This makes me wonder if oatmeal cookies are a good source. If nothing else, my recipe for oatmeal balls suddenly sounds even healthier than I thought.

Raw oatmeal is also high in resistant starch so try making overnight oatmeal instead of cooking the oats. Overnight oatmeal is where you soak the oatmeal in yogurt or milk or nondairy milk overnight in the refrigerator.

Potatoes

The best way to get resistant starch from potatoes is to cook them and then to let them cool. Think potato salad. Or a cold baked potato, I guess, but that doesn’t sound appetizing to me. I think we need to add a good recipe for a healthy version of potato salad to the Becoming Elli website.

Raw potatoes also provide resistant starch. I remember loving to eat raw potato as a kid. I’d beg my mother for a slice of potato. Now, this doesn’t appeal so much to me. If this appeals to you, great. Otherwise, check out the raw potato starch described below.

Rice

Rice is similar to oats and potatoes. It needs to be cooked and then cooled to get the full amount of resistant starch. This makes sushi seem like a good source of resistance starch. I’ve read that you can reheat the rice without destroying the resistant starch.

I don’t think raw rice is an option.

Beans and Legumes

Make sure you cook your beans and legumes thoroughly. These are a good source of resistant starches and apparently you don’t have to cool the beans first to reap the benefits.

Green Bananas and Plantains

The greener the banana, the more resistant starch it has. I’m not a fan of green bananas but maybe try to eat them before they’re fully ripe. As the banana ripens, the resistant starch turns into sugars like fructose and sucrose.

Raw Potato Starch

You can buy bags of raw potato starch. It’s a flour-like substance that can be mixed into smoothies or drinks or added to foods such as yogurt. Don’t heat the raw potato starch so if you decide to add it to soup, do so after you’ve heated the soup. Basically, you treat this as a supplement to increase the amount of resistant starch you get. If you decide to use this, start slowly and gradually increase to 2 to 3 tablespoons per day. You want to avoid overwhelming your digestive system by adding too much too quickly.

Basically, the resistant starch and fiber are related so be sure to drink lots of water if you decide to increase your consumption of these foods. Also, start slowly to give your body time to adjust.

Have you been trying to increase resistant fiber in your diet? What’s working for you?