Tag Archives: exercise

Joyful Movement Taught by 14 Month-Old Ivo

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babydance

Click on the photo to see a beautiful video…

A friend recently sent me a link to this fabulous video on facebook.  Apparently some dancers were looking for some inspiration for their new dance piece.  And as they were dancing, 14-month old Ivo wandered in and started doing his thing.  The dancers decided to let him lead and the result is the above linked facebook video which is rapidly going viral.

And why is that?  He’s not a world celebrated choreographer.  He never danced at the Bolshoi or studied with Fosse or Graham.  So what is it about this little guy that has made him a facebook phenom at such a tender age?

I admit that I smiled and even giggled a little as I watched this video.  Ivo is terribly cute!  But I think what attracted me most is the idea that Ivo’s performance perfectly embodies joyful movement.  Ivo is not calculating how many fat grams he’s burning or working on his “core”.  Ivo is not wondering about calories or carb loading or fast twitch muscle fibers.  Nope.  Ivo is just dancing because he hears some music and because it feels good and because it’s fun.  The fact that all the bigger people joined in is just an extra bonus feature as far as Ivo is concerned.  Ivo is dancing because Ivo wants to dance.

I think children have so much to teach us about what joyful movement is and what if feels like.  I was inspired by a talk given by the ever-fabulous Deb Burgard at last Saturday’s A Fatty Affair in San Jose (which totally rocked by the way).  In her talk, Deb talked about how as an adult, she wants to bring recess back.  She asks us to remember how great it felt to hear the bell ring and run outside and jump on the swings or the merry-go-round or teeter-totter.  She reminds us of the release that came from just moving our bodies because it felt good, because it was a reprieve from studies and books and because it was fun!

Outside of borrowing a 14-month old kid to teach our fitness classes, I wonder how we can find our way back to this feeling again.  Can we just hop on a swing and pump our legs as we taste the sky?  Can we feel the whoosh of air going by as we spin on the merry-go-round?  Can we respond to an elegant Cello solo by flopping on the floor and kicking our legs in the air?

Look, I’m a fitness professional.  Obviously I believe there is a time and a place for integrating exercise science into our workouts.  Science can help lead us to exercise and help shape our exercise plans so we can exercise safely and effectively.  But I don’t think it’s the science that keeps us exercising.  I think it’s the sky tasting, whoop and swoop and kicking that does it.  So that’s the challenge I’d like to offer you right now.  I’d like to invite you to let Ivo, and your old playground self to inform your next workout.  Then, if you like, you could drop me an email or post in the comments to let us know how it went.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Exercising Through the Long Night

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winter_treeThe long winter nights can really take a toll on your fitness routine.  For many of us, it’s already dark when we begin our commute home from work.  Coming home to a dark house, we yearn for the comforts of a blankie, the couch, some soup and the remote.  And if you’re an early morning exerciser, you may find it dark out when you get up as well as when you drive home from work.  It’s no wonder the bears hibernate at this time of year.

But this is also a time of year when exercise is especially important.  Lack of sunlight can cause depression and lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  And for many of us, the reduced access to sunlight leads to a drop in Vitamin D levels which can lead to fatigue and depression.  And since exercise is a great way to battle depression, it’s especially helpful when the nights are long.

So naturally, I have a few tips to help keep your workout on track even on the shortest days of the year:

1.  BE SAFE: If your normal daytime workout is now happening in the dark, you may need to take extra precautions.  If you exercise outdoors, wear reflective clothing so others can see you.  It’s especially important to have a charged cell phone with you at all times.  (Lots of cell phones have neat-o apps or music programs available that can track your workout miles and pace or offer special motivational talk or songs.)  Even if you exercise inside, you may  be traveling to and from the gym in the dark.  Be aware of your surroundings, walk in with a buddy if you can, and it’s always a good idea to have some self defense training.

2.  EXERCISE IN SHORTER BURSTS: One of the best ways to take advantage of the limited light is to squeeze in a lunchtime workout.  But it’s pretty tough to get in whole hour or even 45 minutes of exercise and still manage to eat some lunch.  Lunch time is great for a 15-minute burst of more intense exercise.  Put on your tennis shoes and go for a power walk.  You can also potentially get in even shorter (5-10 minute bursts) during your morning or afternoon coffee breaks.  New research is coming on line that indicates shorter more intense bursts of exercise may actually be better for your health than long and slow workouts.  PLUS as an added bonus, short winter workouts are less likely to leave you hot and sweaty.

3.  TAKE VITAMIN D: As I mentioned earlier, the shorter days mean that many of us get less access to sunlight (a primary source of Vitamin D for most people).  Vitamin D deficiency can make you feel depressed and fatigued which can affect your exercise motivation.  Now might be a great time to talk to your doctor or pharmacist and explore whether a Vitamin D supplement is for you.

4.  DRESS FOR SUCCESS: Make sure if you’re exercising outside in the winter that you are properly dressed.  That means wear layers that you can put on or take off as you feel too hot or too cold.  Make sure to protect hands, ears and other areas sensitive to cold.  And it can be especially important to wear sweat-wicking, technical fabrics in the winter, as sweat soaked cotton can leave you dangerously chilled at the end of your workout.

5.  EXERCISE IN THE MORNING: I know that all you night owls are groaning right now.  But after we set the clocks back in the fall, you tend to have more access to daylight in the hours before work than after.  Now’s a great time to get up just a little earlier in the morning, and get in a short burst of exercise right before you head off to work.  If you have a long commute, you could leave for work a half-hour earlier and get in a quick walk or jog somewhere near the office.

6.  CHANGE AT WORK: If you are a night exerciser, it can be especially challenging to get in a workout when it’s dark after work.  Once you get home and start checking your email and spend a few minutes/hours on facebook, getting changed for a workout can seem like a monumental task.  And let’s face it, exercise clothes are just as comfy for sitting on the couch and watching some tube as they are for exercising.  One strategy that seems to work for a lot of people is to change into your workout clothes before leaving work and exercise before arriving at home.

These are just a few strategies to help keep you enjoying the lifelong benefits of exercise even when the days are super short.  And don’t forget the main strategy: have fun!

Love,

The Fat Chick

Women’s Wednesday: Exercise as Medicine for Perimenopause

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The Fat Chick leads a group of laughing and dancing menopausal and perimenopausal women in a Hot Flash Mob in Manhattan.

Are you perimenopausal?  Many of us have come to think of menopause as something that happens to “older women”.  Many of us don’t believe that we are old enough to be experiencing perimenopausal symptoms.  But denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, ladies.  As my Mom once told me, “I had been talking about ‘those old ladies’ as if it was a group that didn’t include me.  I had kind of a rough day when I realized I needed to start saying ‘we old ladies’!”  But denial aside, this condition can begin long before the moniker of old lady could reasonably apply.  Perimenopause is the segment in your life between when your periods start to change and up to a year after they have ended completely.  This process typically begins in your 40s, but may begin in your thirties.  It typically lasts five to fifteen years.  Some women have significant symptoms and some women have no symptoms at all.

Some typical symptoms of perimenopause include:

  • Vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats and simply sweating more.
  • Psychosocial symptoms like anxiety, impatience, poor memory and depression.
  • And physical symptoms like body aches, fatigue, and insomnia.

There is a lot of debate about treatment for menopausal and perimenopausal symptoms.  While some doctors suggest hormone replacement therapy (HRT), there may be significant risks associated with that approach.  Some studies indicate that HRT is effective for treating the vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats. However, other studies indicate that HRT may increase risk for breast cancer and cardiovascular disease.  And HRT hasn’t proved very effective at coping with psychosocial or physical symptoms like body aches, fatigue, weight gain or insomnia.

But do not despair.  There is significant and growing evidence that regular, moderate exercise can be extremely effective in improving Quality of Life (QOL) and relieving perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms.  Regular fitness activities have been show to increase brain function and offer relief from depression and anxiety.  Exercise can improve overall mood even 24 hours after the original exercise session.  A recent study indicates that women who engaged in moderate physical activity had significantly reduced hot flashes, sweating, weight gain, bloating and issues with intimacy.

Menopause and perimenopause can be a difficult time in a woman’s life, but it doesn’t have to be.  This time can also be a time of great creativity, strength and power.  And, as the women who have participated in The Hot Flash Mob Movement (created with partner Dr. Eve Agee) have learned, it can also be a lot of fun.  And whether you are pre-menopausal, perimenopausal, menopausal or post-menopausal, exercise is a safe, effective, inexpensive and fun way to have a better quality of life.  So ladies, why not gather up some girlfriends, lace up your sneakers and get to it!  You’ll be so glad you did!
Love,

The Fat Chick

Thursday Theater: Pets Help Keep Us Fit

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While not all pets are as “talented” as the one pictured in this video, it is clear that pets (especially dogs) help us to keep fit. It is difficult to find a more willing, available and awesome exercise partner than my fabulous dog, Max. He’s definitely getting a little grey about the muzzle and long in the tooth. But all I have to do is say the word “walk” and he nearly loses his little doggy mind with excitement. In fact, we use the phrase, “start the countdown” in our household to indicate the microscopic amount of time between saying the word “walk” and Max going crazy. So it’s pretty typical for my husband and I to ask each other questions like, “Got the leash? Got your keys? Are we ready to start the countdown?” We’ve learned to do this because it’s pretty hard to put on a coat and seek earnestly for your keys when you have a critter pulling on the leash and generally causing absolute mayhem in his urgency to get OUTSIDE.

Maybe we could all learn something from Max. Wouldn’t it be great if we all felt that level of excitement over exercise? Even when we’re older and our hips don’t work so well, regardless of the weather and what else is on our schedule, wouldn’t it be great to feel that worked up about working out? All I can say is, I’m working on it.

Love,
The Fat Chick

Caution: Medications May Cause Problems During Exercise

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In our current western culture, it seems that many–if not most of us are taking some sort of medication.  In 2007-2008, 1 out of every 5 children and 9 out of 10 older Americans reported using at least one prescription drug in the past month.  You may have thought about how these medications interact with one another.  But have you thought about how your medications may interact with exercise?  Both prescription and over-the-counter medications can have a significant effect on your workout.  Here are some of the more common medications that can change the way you experience exercise.

May Cause Drowsiness: A whole host of medications from pain killers to cold medications (especially antihistamines) to blood pressure medicines can cause drowsiness. Often the medication will have a label that states this and recommends against operating heavy machinery.  These medications may affect your balance and hand/eye coordination.  So you should use care when operating treadmills, stair steppers, doing any sort of aerobics class and especially riding a bicycle.  When trying a new medicine that “can cause drowsiness” you may want to use extra care when approaching your workout.  And it’s important to keep in mind that taking two or more medications that can cause drowsiness can really increase the side effects.

Cipro: is an antibiotic used to treat respiratory, urinary and skin infections.  This drug has also been linked (in relatively rare cases) to inflammation of the tendons in athletes.  If you are on Cipro and you experience pain in your tendons or joints, you may want to tone down or even cut out exercise altogether until the infection has passed and your course of antibiotics is over.  Remember to always follow your doctor’s directions with antibiotics and take the entire course that is prescribed to you.

Pain Killers: Keep in mind that pain killers of all sorts, from aspirin to opiates can mask some of the aches and twinges that warn you that there are problems in your body.  While taking a NSAID can make an exercise session less painful, remember that pain can play an important role–letting us know when there are problems in the body.  Don’t use pain killers to ignore pain signals that should be telling you to rest or to deal with the underlying cause of joint or muscle pain before it becomes a major injury that could sideline you for months.

Stimulants: In addition to caffeine, many medications can raise your heart rate during exercise.  In particular cold medications (especially decongestants), allergy medications and diet pills can raise your resting heart rate and make your heart pump even faster during your workout.  If you are taking one of these medications, you should monitor your heart rate during your workout and take care not to exceed the recommended maximum heart rate for your age and condition.  You can find a handy maximum heart rate calculator here.  Just please keep in mind that various conditions may change your maximum recommended heart rate.  I’m not a doctor, so you may wish to check with your physician to see if any special restrictions or recommendations for maximum  heart rate may apply to you.

Dehydration: Keep in mind that many medicines are somewhat dehydrating.  It’s a good idea to drink lots of water before, during and after exercise in any case.  But you may want to pay special attention to keeping fluid levels topped up while taking medications of any kind.

For more information about specific medications, you might want to refer to this chart.  But keep in mind that neither the aforementioned chart nor this blog post are exhaustive guides to this topic.  And as a further disclaimer, I am not a doctor. Your local pharmacist can be helpful for general information.  For specific information about how medications and your condition are affected by exercise, don’t hesitate to call your doctor.

With the cautions listed above, you may be tempted to skip exercise altogether.  But please remember, that exercise is one of the best prescriptions available for good health.  With the prudent help of your medical team and a little bit of common sense, you should be able to enjoy the awesomeness of exercise for a lifetime.

Love,

The Fat Chick

P.S. Want to learn more about building a successful relationship with your doctor and creating an exercise program that’s just right for you?  Why not pick up a copy of my book: The Fat Chick Works Out! (Fitness that’s Fun and Feasible for Folks of all Ages, Shapes, Sizes and Abilities)?  It also makes a great gift!

Never Good Enough: How a Big Body Means “You’re Doing it Wrong”

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One of the things I find deeply frustrating as a fat woman is the assumption by many complete strangers, that I am not doing enough for my health.  And the more I appear in public and on television, the more I hear this criticism leveled at me. No matter what I’m doing for my health, clearly I’m not doing it enough, because, well look at me.  And if I should claim to be doing something far beyond what another person is doing, then I must be lying.

For example, I am a fitness teacher.  I exercise pretty regularly and moderately.  But many people believe that clearly, I’m neither exercising hard enough, nor the right way, because look at me.  I’m still fat.  I should lift more weights.  I should exercise at a higher intensity.  I should do Fred the Celebrity’s Super Insane Fitness Plan.  Forget that I might get injured.  Forget that I would hate it and quit after a few workouts.  The folks that know everything about everything are glad to let me know that since they are thin and I am fat, I’m not working out as well as them.  And when I tell them, that when I was training for the marathon and walking/running up to 35 miles per week I still maintained this weight, they tell me I was eating 4,000 calories per day, or lying.  People who are conventionally thin, don’t get this treatment.  If a conventionally thin person says that they exercise 45 minutes per week, they are usually told, to keep doing what they are doing because they look great.

The same is true with eating.  Many people assume that since I am big, I eat nothing but junk food, I eat large amounts of food and I eat all the time.  In pre-interviews for certain public appearances, I am grilled over and over about what I eat, when I eat, how much I eat, and so on.  No thin woman is asked these questions.  It is assumed that if they are thin, they are eating well.  But the producers ask these questions of me because A) they think their audience will wonder (and they are probably right about this) and B) they just can’t imagine that I’m not eating the whole house because, well, look at me.  We have been conditioned so deeply to believe that fat people do unhealthy things and fat people do healthy things that we assume that we know, by looking at someone what their habits are.  In the name of full disclosure, I would say that my eating habits are pretty average.  I eat more than some and less than some.  I eat more junk food than some and less than some.  Some of those who eat less than me weigh more than me.  And many people who eat more than me weigh less than me.  As comforting as the idea is that we can control every aspect of our appearance and our health outcomes with our behaviors, it just isn’t true.

So all we can do is what seems to be best for us at the time.  There is no perfect exercise regimen.  There is no perfect diet.  There are no perfect people.  There’s just people.  So the next time you look in the mirror and decide that your size means you aren’t doing the right healthy things or doing enough healthy things, maybe that’s the time to just stop.  You don’t have to put yourself into the same box that society does.  Make your own plans and build your own life.  Build a life that is joyous and right for YOU.

Love,

The Fat Chick

On being a Shameless Woman: How Forbes Got it Right

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Ooooo, I’m so excited about THIS article from the Forbes.com site She Negotiates!  In this piece, author Brooke Axtell talks about why shame doesn’t make us thinner OR healthier, and she rounds up an amazing group of experts including Dr. Michelle Segar and Dr. Linda Bacon.  And I’m resonating so deeply with what is said here that I’m ringing like a big old bell!  The article starts out asking a simple question:

The U.S. Diet and Weight Loss Industry produced over 60 billion dollars in revenue last year. With all the available information and products, why do many intelligent women continue to diet and exercise without achieving lasting results?

Good question!  Why do we keep banging our head on this same wall over and over again?  Why do we keep doing the same things we’ve always done before and expect different results.  Why are we behaving in a way that could be defined as insane?

The article goes on interview Dr. Michelle Segar.  And while I don’t intimately know her work and can’t comment on her personal feelings about weight loss, I couldn’t find much to fault in her interview here.  Basically, her research indicates that if you start trying to change your health and wellness from a point of self-hatred you are doomed to fail before you even start.  The article goes on to state:

Many of the behaviors that improve health, such as getting more sleep and making better eating choices, also lead to experiences, such as reduced stress, that contribute to happier lives. It is the positive experience that we crave and it is far easier to measure on a daily basis. Although many claim that their health is a priority, the truth is that we are far more motivated by wanting to feel good than to improve our health.

Yes, yes and YES!  In my experience with all of the folks that I work with, it’s the immediate pleasure of having fun, of building relationships with classmates, it’s the better sleep and higher confidence and improved sex life that comes with exercise that keeps them exercising.  You can create charts.  You can pull out your calipers and scales.  You can give the “deathfat” speech all you want.  You can even give them a “gold star” for being “good”.  But what keeps exercisers coming back for more is having a good time and feeling good both during and after exercise.  Period.

This is such an important idea.  So often people ask me why I call myself The Fat Chick.  They ask why I can’t just skip over the issue of being “curvy” and tell people to have fun while they are losing weight.  They ask why I can’t just “suggest” that they could or should lose weight.  But I can’t.  Because telling people to have fun while they are on the way to being worthy, while they are in the process of becoming okay just doesn’t work.  I have to tell them that they are okay now.  I have to let them know that they are worthy even if they never achieve the BMI or number on the scale they are seeking.  I have to let them know that we will experience joy right from the beginning of our work together, not after some magic number or arbitrary goal is achieved.  As the article states:

Ultimately, it matters why we exercise and eat healthy foods. This is important not only to sustain our efforts of authentic self-care, but also to resist the toxic messages of a 60 billion dollar industry that depends on women feeling ashamed of their bodies.

Amen, sister.  Amen.  So I’ll keep calling myself The Fat Chick, and I’ll keep focusing on feeling good and having fun.  I will refuse to fuel the industry built on shame that keeps us down and holds us back.  I’ll keep working with people of many different ages, weights and abilities.  I’ll call myself and all of my students worthy on the first day and the last day and every day in between.  To put it simply, that’s what works in the short term, the long term and the whole term.

Thanks for listening.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: A Bicoastal Hot Flash Mob

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Well y’all have been hearing about that bi-coastal Hot Flash Mob we did earlier this month and we finally have the video up for your to share in all it’s awesomeness.  But October has just been designated International Menopause Awareness Month so we’re still right on time, right!?

Special thanks go out to my partner Dr. Eve Agee, to my San Francisco dance leader the always fabulous Ragen Chastain and to my other West Coast Dancers Julianne Wotasik and Deb Burgard. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for coming out and being awesome.  And of course, thanks to all my New York City dancers as well.

Also, I wanted to let all you Southern California girls know that we’re going to be doing ANOTHER Hot Flash Mob at Huntington Beach as part of our Take Back The Beach celebrations this Saturday (tomorrow). Click HERE for more info.

As to the weight of the bi-coastal Hot Flash Mob, I had no scale (Yay! or otherwise) at the event and so some back-of-the-envelope calculations are in order. There were collectively quite a lot of us. I think I can safely say that together, we accumulated over one ton of fun.

Conclusion: A bicoastal Hot Flash Mob weighs more than me. (And it’s too much fun to be contained in one place!)

Love,

The Fat Chick

Thursday Theater: Cats and Treadmills

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Okay, here’s the reality.  I love exercise, but I don’t love every form of exercise.  I love dance classes and I love walking outside and I love cross country skiing.  But when it comes to the treadmill, I have a feeling very much like the cats pictured above. “Hit it! HIT IT!”  I hate the treadmill with a deep, abiding passion.  And for me, even five minutes on that thing can feel like torture.

That’s why it’s so important to explore different kinds of exercise before you get too deeply involved in an exercise program.  If the only exercise I ever did was on a treadmill, I would say that I hated exercise.  And if the only exercise I could ever do was on a treadmill, chances are, I would quit.  Because I HATE the treadmill.

That’s why I often say, that exercise is kinda like sex.  If you hate it, chances are, you aren’t doing it right.  You need to try different things, sometimes a LOT of different things until you find the one that is right for you.

So my little Chicklettes, be bold and adventuresome!  Try a new form of fitness in the next few weeks.  Who knows, it may become your favorite.  If not, you can always smack it like the kitties do.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Booty-shakin’ Good Time in The Big Apple!

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Hey Chicklettes!  Just thought you might like to check out some raw footage of our Hot Flash Mob in Manhattan!  Our Bi-coastal booty-shaking menopause-mamboing selves had a wonderfully good time.  I’ll be happy to share the edited version including fabulous footage from our Bay Area Hot Flash Mobsters as soon as I have it.  But in the meantime, I felt this was just too good not to share.  Have fun!

Love,

The Fat Chick