Old Habits Die Hard, Folks…

Old Habits Die Hard in the Mommy World…..

Nine months of no gym, healthy eating or thinking about calories!  Nine months of a “get out of jail free” card.  In reality, the day your baby is born, all you can think about (besides this tiny person) is your CLOSET!!  How am I ever going to fit into all of these things again?  Seeing that I have been on ‘sabbatical’, surely these clothes are out of style, and I won’t have to face them!  I can still eat what I want, be lazy and buy new clothes!  GENIUS!

Let’s get back to reality – I do not want to get nominated for the “Biggest Loser” or other terrible fat person reality show (and being humiliated on TV is certainly not motivating).  Some days I do not eat; other days, maybe a Starburst or two or the ol’ Bell is ringing in my head for a burrito!  HOW DO I MAKE IT ALL STOP?!  Where is the girl that used to eat only whole, natural foods and avoided white sugar and processed foods like the plague?!  I think the baby smothered her with two buns from Whataburger to shut her up!  Pregnancy is tough; all of a sudden you are unrecognizable, finding yourself wanting foods that were once taboo and shunned from your diet.  Suddenly these unhealthy ‘foods’ are a “must”; eaten in mass quantities just to get through all of the morning sickness. But what does one do when the queasiness is gone and the baby is no longer an excuse to eat it all?

I find that I am full of excuses!  They including the following…

- Too tired (living on 3-4 hours of sleep)

- Too HOT (it’s 103 degrees out with high humidity; I mean, seriously, people)

- No time to cook (the Baby NEEDS me)

- Too sore (C-Section)

- Dirty house (how can I work out when my house looks like this?!)

- Did I mention that the baby needs me?!  (This is ALL Day, ALL The Time, Folks!)

It is so frustrating to flip open a magazine and read about Kendra Wilkinson or Kourtney Kardashian. Their babies are 5 minutes old, and they are back to a size 0, fitting in all of their pre-baby clothes. Bitches. The reality is, I don’t have a maid, nanny, chef, or a personal trainer. All I have is me.  I need to whip my own ass back into shape versus relying on someone else to do it for me.  I have found little to no time for myself, while adjusting to being a mother.  I hope to ‘find myself’ again and incorporate the “old” me with the mom and wife that I have now become.

- Emily Rannebarger

Junk Food Momma… Emily Rannebarger on Reclaiming Your Body, Your Life, Your Health….

Who knew Taco Bell was this good or that ‘Jack’ hadn’t been lying about their ‘tasty’ food all these years!  For the last several years, I have been cooking my meals and staying away from fast food, only to find these foods oh-so-tempting while my baby bump grew.  The ‘bump’ is still here, but the baby is now in his crib, not my belly!  I still hear the not so distant bell ring for me at Taco Bell, and the egg rolls at Jack in the Box calling my name. Mr. Jim’s (pizza) has become a close friend; I feel as if I am betraying him if I don’t call once a week.  ‘Wendy’ has been good to me, too, as have the roller girls at Sonic, who quickly skate my grilled cheese right to my car window.

I have now seen how the ‘other half’ lives, the half that doesn’t work out, eat nutritious meals or generally care about their health.  We are not talking about the occasional treat.  We are talking about a lifestyle, specifically, a lifestyle of drive-through windows and plastic playgrounds – children running around screaming from a sugar-high have become my worst nightmare.

The girl who religiously went to the gym, eating protein bars/drinks and chicken breasts has fallen into a quick and easy trap. So ‘easy’ to drive-thru and yell out for something cheesy and greasy.  No messy kitchen, no dishes to clean; that will be someone else’s problem tonight.  Yet the decision to not eat ‘clean’ is a CHOICE.  And it is the choice millions of Americans are making every day, ‘filling up’ on fatty, super-size meals; we our leading ourselves in the direction of an obesity epidemic.  We are teaching our children that clowns should make our meal choices for us and that talking Jack ‘heads’ have the answer to  nutrition.  Really?  Is this what life and health have come to?  Sure, fast food restaurants all have healthy choices, but who wants em’; let’s face it salads are scary at these places. I’ll take my chances on fried and greasy before I eat out of a plastic container they call ‘salad’.

My husband and I now are working hard to keep away from the temptation, and drive past these places and not ‘thru’ them. They are a trap, leading you to addiction that is not only costly to your body, but your wallet as well (in ultimate health toll and expenses)  I ask you all to look over your bank statement and see the reality in cost of these ‘friends’.  Maybe your health isn’t a wakeup call, but your wallet just might be!

Want a Great Physique? Try Wave Loading…

Performing the standard 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps of the same weight sound familiar to you?  This is not an efficient way to train if your goal is to gain size or strength.  There are other, better ways to train that will speed up your results.  One method to include in your tool kit is wave loading, which we’ll cover here.

Wave  loading involves moving the weight up or down within subsequent sets of the same exercise.  The goal with this approach is to “trick” yourself into lifting heavier loads or more reps at a given weight.  Why does tricking yourself into lifting more matter?  Because you need to lift heavier if your goal is to make size or strength gains.

Ladies, I’m talking to you, too.  You’re going to need to lift more than just the 5 lb. dumbbells in the gym if your goal is to make physique gains. , e. g., strong glutes or abs, etc.  Dont worry, you won’t become an amazon by lifting heavy weights.  THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE.  The large women you see are all on various forms of supplementation.

You can perform single or multiple ‘waves’.  Ill share with you an example of wave loading I did the other night for back – with one arm dumbbell rows.  Wave loading is taxing.  I wouldn’t do these for each exercise in a workout.  They could probably be done a few times per week.  More than this might be overtraining, so use them thoughtfully and sporadically.

I did 2 waves (multiple waves) of 4 sets each for 8 total sets of this particular exercise; within these ‘waves, I performed 5 reps, then 4, then 3, then 2, for both waves.  I took about a minute break in between each set.  I took a 2-3 minute break in between waves 1 and 2.  The second wave consisted of the same sets/reps, but in the second wave, I increased the weights  by about 5-10 pounds compared to previous wave.  It’s a bit confusing; please see my example that follows.  Let me know if any questions or how it works for you!

One Arm Dumbbell Rows done via Wave Loading -

Wave 1:

1st set – 5 reps – 60 lb. dumbbells

2nd set – 4 reps – 70 lb. dumbbells

3rd set – 3 reps – 80 lb. dumbbells

4th (final set for wave 1) – 2 reps – 90 lb. dumbbells

Wave 2:

1st set – 5 reps – 65 lb. dumbbells  (IMPORTANT NOTE: Because my last set was 9o pounds, even though I increased the weight this set as compared to the 1st set of wave one, this is going to feel relatively light in comparison.  This is the concept of neural disinhibition (Ian King; see attached link).

2nd set – 4 reps – 80 lb. dumbbells

3rd set – 3 reps – 90 lb. dumbbells

4th and final set for first wave – 2 reps – 100 lb. dumbbells

Check out wave loading for yourself and let us know what you think.  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_wave_loading_manifesto;jsessionid=F2AC668E1AAB30D543434AD579176F97.hydra