My friend Scott once coined the term "Go Piggy" when he embarked on resparking his exercise routine. Now it's my turn!

DAY 1 & DAY 3

60 mins Aerobics + 30-40 mins Strength

DAY 2 & DAY 4

60-90 minutes climbing

30-60 mins cardio cross-training

DAY 5

REST

DAY 6 & DAY 7

Hike/Climb

Last week I decided to try two new classes in lieu of my aerobics class: Spinning (bike) & Cardio Explosion (cardio machine - e.g. treadmill). They are both cardio classes with an instructor & we did intervals on both days. I think my Tues/Thurs aerobics class was a little too easy for me, because these other two classes kicked my butt! My quads were burning like no tomorrow! On Friday, I learned one (of two) of my new strength routines. It consists of a variety of leg/upper body excerises which specifically target rock climbing. The hardest element at this point are the pull ups! At some point during these sessions I started to realize: I'm not paying for a personal trainer. I'm paying to get my butt kicked!  I told my trainer - wow, I may not be able to walk tomorrow! He looked at me and said: Yeah, really. I chuckled. Then he said: No, seriously.  I paused to see if he'd laugh ... but he didn't. Doh!

I don't think it will take me long to adapt, but this weekend ... it was pretty much ->

Admittedly, it's a bit fun to crush your own peanut butter ... but I really couldn't help but think it looked like ... well ... dog poo ... while coming out.

• Avoid salt! - many now come with no added salt. The American diet has a ton of salt added to food and it's not needed. If you want to avoid extra water weight, start cutting down the salt. Here's an area to do it.
• Avoid hydrodgenated oils! - Unfortunately, most peanut butter on the market has hydrogenated oil. This is a man-made fat that helps products stay on the shelf longer, but really is not good on the body. Just search hydrogenated fats on the web to get more info. Rule of thumb? If you have to stir the peanut butter, it's good. If you don't, it's hydrogenated. Stiring peanut butter is a bit of a pain, but you only have to do it once per jar. Don't be a baby - stir for your health! :)
• Avoid large quanities! - Peanuts are still high in fat. Don't be changing to the "peanut butter diet" and expect good health. "Too much of a good thing" applies here.

• High-glycemic carbs release sugar into the blood-stream quickly. They usually give you a quick burst of energy and/or might improve your mood. The effects are short lived though, usually lasting 1-2 hours. Generally, you'll find yourself hungry and needing to eat again. You may feel tired or moody. Also remember, the body will attempt to compensate for too much insulin. It may store sugar as fat if you're continually consuming carbs that spike up insulin levels. At the end of the day, you may end up eating way more calories simply because you're hungry or tired - also equating to weight gain. Refined carbohydrates which will have this affect should be avoided or make up a very small portion of one's daily diet. Examples: Cake, candy, soda, sugar, white bread, white pasta, white rice
• Low-glycemic carbs release sugar into the blood-stream more slowly and controlled. Optimal to maintain energy throughout the day, especially during moderate+ activity. The body burns the energy in ~3 hours before you'll starting getting hungry again. Low glycmeic carbs generally come in the form of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Avoid juice (canned or self-made), dried fruit, bananas, cherries, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, winter squash) - all of which have high glycemic loads. Watch for whole wheat vs. whole grain!
• Protein can last in the body for about 4 hours. Choose protein sources that are lean such as poultry or fish. Don't forget about beans, lentils, non-fat or low-fat cheese, and soy. Limit red meat as it's high in saturated fat, which can increase LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides.
• Fat is burned the longest in the body, but also provides a long-term store of energy over time, not immediate. Dietary fat lasts about 6 hours in the body. Eating a diet full of fat will likely make you tired most of the time. Fat should be a small portion of the one's diet, but not eliminated. Everyone needs some fat in their diet to ward off hunger, maintain energy, and leverage it's role in the body (such as the absorption of other nutrients/vitamins (such as vitamin A, D, E, and K)). Remember, low fat doesn't necessarily mean low-calorie. Often times low-fat foods are supplemented with extra sugar. Check the labels! Lastly, not all fats are created equal. I won't cover it all here, but basically: avoid saturated fats and focus on unsaturated. Focus on eating fats such as canola, olive, or peanut oils, avocados, most nuts, fish, and chicken. My biggest avoidance with fats = hydrogenated fats (trans fatty acids). A lot of shelf food has hydrogenated oil, so read that ingredient list! Don't even get me started on oreos, twinkies, and the like. Barf!

• Avoid high-glycemic foods. Avoid refined carbohydrates. They are all-around bad. Not only are you eating empty calories (not useful for the body) but some can negatively impact your body chemisty. Eating these in higher quanities wiill make you hungry and want more. Your body will become resistant to insulin and you'll need to eat more food to gain the same amount of energy. Like many Americans, this was my primary diet before. It was harder to exercise self control over a diet of junk food. -- not to mention the extra poundage, setting my BMI to "overweight" ... doh.
• Read the food labels & monitor portion size. I don't usually count calories (though it's useful for short period if you're not familiar with portions), but I do check labels. Despite the low-carb fads, carbs (fruit, veggies, and grains) make up the majority of my daily diet. The food marketplace is filled with a lot of crap that plays on lack of information. For example, whole wheat, doesn't mean whole grain. You might be eating "whole wheat" because you think it's better, but it won't be as healthful and may have the same blood sugar impact as eating white bread. I read labels and substitute better foods in. Good food can be hard to find amongt a sea of options and advertising. If you look hard enough though, you can find options in most large grocery store chains.
• Eat breakfast. In the morning, the body has not has food in 7+ hours if you're getting the sleep you need. Remember what I said about compensation? The body will more likely store energy as fat if it's used to not receiving proper energy on a regular basis. This means you have to eat! Don't send your body the wrong message by skipping breakfast. Make it small, make it quick, but eat something useful!
• Eat little, eat often. I generally eat every 4 hours. If I don't, I start getting hungry after 5-6 hours and then any care about food quality will start going out the window. If I get hungry before that (eg 2 hours), I know I'm doing something wrong. One of my biggest bad habit was not eating for very long stretches at a time. If I went to bed at midnight, skip breakfast, and eat lunch at 12, that's 12 hours of no food. If dinner was somewhere between 6-8 PM, that's another 6-8 hours. Maybe some junk food in between. Not good! If your body doesn't get regular fuel, it will start storing energy as fat as a way to compensate. By eating more often, the body is trained to burn off what it has instead of store it. Today I eat 3 solid meals and about 2 snacks. I try to balance carb, protein, and fat in each meal/snack to keep the energy going. I avoid eating about 3 hours before bed, and I try to eat a light snack about 1-2 hours before a work out.
• Drink water! Water is really underrated. The majority of our body is water, and it's necessary to maintain most bodily functions. I find most people are drinking plenty of fluids but it's not water. There is no substituion for water. Watch out for caffeine, which is a diuretic and can aid in the dehydration process. I pretty much only drink water on a daily basis, and try to get in at least 64 oz a day. I use a nalgene to help track it all. Remember, if you're ever thirsty, you're already dehydrated!

• More on Insulin & Resistance: http://www.diabetes.org/uedocuments/05-Insulin-Resistance.pdf
• More on Insulin & Resistance: http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/insulinresistance/
• How the body digests food: http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/yrdd/
• Good summary on carbs: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates.html
• Whole grains: http://my.webmd.com/content/article/97/104060.htm
• Facts on fat: http://sportmed.usfencing.org/docs/Nutrition/FatFacts2.pdf
• Basics about water: http://nutrition.about.com/od/hydrationwater/a/waterarticle.htm
• The problem with high protein diets: http://blueprint.bluecrossmn.com/topic/highproteindiet

A few years ago a very close loved one become critically ill from a bacterial infection. Within 72 hours he went from talking and laughing to full life support. It was the most amazing and scary thing I've ever seen. Scenes from the movie Outbreak seem to come to mind ... It changed my life.

Ever since that happened, I've become more fascinated by the mechanics of the body. In particular, diet and exercise. Neither of these would have prevented the issue, but it certainly became critical in his six month - one year recovery. Doctors, nurses, physical therapists, nutritionists, all educated us very quickly - not because it's good know, but because it was a matter of life or death.

Over the years I've maintained those habits. As a nice side effect, I've lost some weight and dropped several sizes. Many of my friends ask me about how they can do it - some even asking me to take them grocery shopping. haha. So, I thought I could blog about what I do. My friends who wanna know can read it, and maybe someone will be inspired to share their ideas/things to try with me. Please note though, I'm not an expert. I'm just interested in the idea of being healthier. I play around with it and experiment. Maybe that works for you, maybe it doesn't. For me, healthier means happier - so I go for it.

Some initial thoughts and things I've come to believe to kick off this new blog category:

• Nobody is perfect. Don't beat yourself up about food. It's not like you have to eat (what one coworker once said ...) "hippie food". Get educated about the foods you do eat. Maybe you'll still eat it because you love it, but at least you can make informed choices. The "ignorance is bliss" excuse only works if you don't really care.
• Start small. Breaking habits is hard since they didn't happen overnight. Build new habits slowly and methodically.
• Keep an open mind and try new things. It's easy to get stuck in a rut with your existing food. Perhaps try eating the same food but different (healthier) brand. For example, I love bread. However, I've moved mostly to whole grains. Some whole grain bread can be dry and horrible, others are great. Experiment. It's okay to not like it, but don't cancel out all whole grains breads just because you didn't like a particular type or brand. Another example: yogurt - look for ones with less sugar. I thought I was being "healthier" with yoguart, but that damn Yoplait is like eating candy. Once I realized this, I tried others. Definitely not all yoguarts are created equal. Main point: don't dismiss them in general simply because you tried one that stinks. Keep trying!

OK, enough blogging ... onto WoW. :P