Beat the Heat

Another day in the 90 degree range, are you kidding me?! It's a never ending cycle where we are from in Kansas. The weather is so bipolar here, currently as we type this it in the 70's. Is mother nature even aware of what she is doing? Whatever the temps are we can all agree most of the time we are dealing with much warmer weather in the summer.

Heat normally stops many of us dead in our tracks before we even walk out the door for a workout. However, it doesn't have to! You can use the heat to your advantage. It's a great way to sweat out the toxins in our bodies to help us feel amazing. This is as long as we know how to watch ourselves and we listen to our bodies.

Here are a few suggestions to think about before you do your next workout outside in the summer:

1. HYDRATION: Drinking enough water is probably the most important thing during any work out but it's even more important during a workout in the heat. When you head out on those longer walks or runs, make sure you are bringing water with you. There are several water bottles that can hook to your pants, arm or hands if you don't like carrying one. Just find something you are comfortable with. For those of you who aren't water drinkers you have options to help you stay hydrated. Try adding fruit to your water, Crystal Light packet are a great way to add flavor without adding a lot of calories or indulge in a light iced green tea. When you worked out in the heat, you need to be drinking more than your recommended 64 ounces of water a day.  

2. REPLENISH NUTRIENTS: The heat really takes it out of us and without the proper nutrition, you'll easily feel run down and tired. A lot people aren't hungry after working out, but you need to make sure you eat something to start the recovery process. If you really don't want to eat something try drinking a protein drink. Part of the replenishment process comes along with replacing the electrolytes you sweat out. Last week we talked about using something like Emergen-C after a workout, it's for sure our go to, but there are other options like the Gatorades, Powerades, etc. You just have to be careful about the sugar and carbohydrates in some sports drinks. Search for something you like the flavor of so you will be more inclined to drink it. 

3. EARLY MORNING/LATE EVENING WORKOUTS: Plan your workouts according to the forecasts. Mid afternoon is usually the hottest point of the day, it's fine to work out then but that's when hydration becomes even more important. If you choose the hot points in the day to work out really monitor how much you drink, before, during and after your work out. Make sure you are getting those electrolytes back in your body. Earlier morning or later evening workouts when it is cooler is ideal. A 10-15 degree cooler temp is going to feel like a miracle when compared to a run in the 90s!

3. GYM WORKOUTS: Not everyone enjoys working out in the gym. We totally get that! Tegan especially hates running on the treadmill. Although, she recently discovered she can watch full concerts on YouTube, thanks to the Y's internet getting better, and the runs aren't nearly as bad now. Whereas Andrea doesn't mind them as much since she can catch up on some shows! It's all about finding ways to distract your mind from staying in one place. We are both in agreement that long runs on the treadmills can be the pits but sometimes it is necessary. Many times we have been in the position where the only time we could fit a workout in was in the heat of the day, so the gym it was. As a forewarning though, the gym sometimes can feel like a sauna all in it's self.  Most of the time it is a much cooler option. It can also be a great option for cross training days, grab a friend and hit the track or treadmill together, take a class or lift weights. If you are really looking for a way to beat the heat, but still get a full body workout in, hop into the lap pool and get a few laps in.

4. INDOOR HOUSE WORKOUTS: Not all of us have gym memberships and that's completely okay! Your home can provide endless options for you. Perhaps you have workout equipment of your own, like a treadmill, stationary bike, weights or a workout video. Jillian Michaels can really hurt you over a workout video, Andrea has experienced this herself! There are now even different apps which will tell you how to work out as well, such as Swork It. Have a set of stairs? Instant StairMaster, walk up and down those for 10-30 minutes. You will for sure feel that in the morning, not to mention if you are using a pedometer you will also be getting some steps in. Give something else a try and just remember you don't have to leave your house or even your bedroom to stay in shape! Nothing is nicer than breaking the sweat in the cool of your own home and then hopping into your own relaxing shower. 

Don't let the heat be the end of you or your workout!You've got this!

The Fitster Sisters 

These Shoes Were Made For Walking

One of the most common statements we get all the time is I could never run like you do, or you ran how far, are you crazy? We would be the first to tell you that we might be a little crazy, and have asked that many times during our longer training runs! But what we want you to now is that we also didn't get up one day and decide to go out and run a half marathon. In fact Tegan was one of those and said those exact words to Andrea, pretty sure she even threw in "my knees would NEVER allow me to run like you do." It took months, lets us say that again, it took us MONTHS from the time we made the decision to get health to actually running. If we are keeping track about six months for Tegan and four months for Andrea. In all seriousness though, it's so important to realize how much a little bit of walking can improve overall health. Physical activity of any type is not only important for your physical health but your mental health as well. We just found that walking was the easiest place for us to start. In several of our earlier blogs we have mentioned that we started with a Fitbit. Again, we would recommend some type of pedometer to hold yourself accountable to a goal. 

When we first started we had a goal of hitting 10,000 steps a day. If you really want to put a friendship to a test take two highly competitive people and have them be friends on the Fitbit app. Tegan use to joke that if the friendship ended it would be because of Fitbit and trying to out do the other ones steps. There would be a day that one of us outranked the other one and then the following day the other one would be ahead. Let's not even discuss when one of us would get sick and it would take a week for us to get our steps back up to where we were competitive again. On more than one occasion we would be walking beside our beds trying to get those last 1,000 steps in, or to pad the little lead we did have just in case the other one hadn't updated their app yet. We would be lying if a year into this we told you that we still don't do this a time or two... or four!

As great and fun as the above things were, the actual best thing about the pedometer is it made us more aware of our overall activity level. It was no longer a pain to park further away from the store, we were going to get some steps in. The bosses office was no longer a phone call away, have a question, walk down there and ask it, more steps! For us one of the greatest benefits was we started scheduling walks together, not only were we getting a little exercise in but we were getting to spend quality time together.

The nice thing about walking is that you can do this at any level of intensity you want to. Your goal needs to be something you can attain, maybe it's a minute a day that you will walk or certain amount of steps you want to get like we did. Whatever your goal is, just make sure you have a goal! The American Heart Association and The Mayo Clinic provides valuable information on the benefits of just walking a few times a week if you are interested in more information. Your doctor is always a good resource as well. But for now to sum up what we have learned: Research indicates taking regular brisk walks can reduce your risk for heart disease, decrease your chance for dementia, improves joint and muscle tone, helps maintain weight or helps with weight loss, helps tighter your tough areas (bottom, legs, and even arms depending on how you swing those darlings!), and HONESTLY it just makes you happier! Exercise gives you endorphins, and endorphins make you happy. Anyone else just quote Legally Blonde along with us?

One of the most important things is to not jump into anything too quickly and we encourage you to listen to your body; especially if it has been a while since you've done any type of physical activity. Don't get in a hurry once you are ready to start walking or running. A great place to start is three times a week for thirty minutes. Walking always needs to come steadily before trying to run. Include a warming up, cool down and stretching even when walking. If you plan on a brisk walk, a 5-10 minute warm up and cool down is needed to help your body recover from your workout. Stretching can be simple but very important, we will go over some easy stretching exercises in a upcoming post.

Lastly, we learned the benefit of having really good shoes early on. When we both started we were wearing the wrong shoes which was keeping us from enjoying our walks.  It's amazing the wear and tear the wrong shoes can have on your body; from shin splints to lower back, hip, knee and ankle issues. If you aren't sure what type of shoes you should be wearing we recommend checking out some of your local running stores for assistance. They are trained to look at how you walk and how your current shoes are wearing to help you get the best fitting shoe for the type of feet you have. We will warn you they can be a bit expensive but well worth the investment!

Remember you got this take it one step at a time! Grab a girlfriend and take a walk this week. 

The Fitster Sisters

Face It You Will Get Sick

Okay lets get real for a few minutes, getting sick as an adult is AWFUL, and being a woman and getting sick is the worst. Sorry guys but if we are being honest man sick versus woman sick is pretty different. Most of the time we still have to function, if you have kids you still have to be a mom when all you want to do is crawl into a hole and never return to the real world. If you are single there isn't anyone to take care of you, unless you have an awesome roommate. This usually results in a pathetic call to your mom, one in where you make yourself sound worse than you really are and you're secretly hoping she offers to bring you some provisions and if you are really lucky a back rub. Nothing will derail your training or lifestyle adjustment like getting sick.

Recently, we both were sick in the same week, and we are talking in bed with a fever not moving sick. Being sick is very hard for us because we are such active people and it drives us nuts to be off our training schedule. Not to mention when you check your steps to see you have had a grand total of 700 steps for the day. Yep that will really help out your ranking among friends! But if you really think about it getting sick might just be a good thing and it might be our bodies way of telling you a few things.

While being sick is an inconvenience of the largest kind, it's also your bodies way of telling you to slow down and take some time for yourself. It is so easy to get into a training schedule, or a routine of working out; then forget to give yourself those rest days. Tegan is the worst at this! You get in a groove and you're feeling good, starting to see those numbers on the scale come down, so it's only natural to start to push your body. To a degree you do need to push your body but if you push too hard or too fast, your body will push back. Hence getting sick.

When you are actually sick the best thing you can do is get as much rest as you can. We understand that this is easier said than done, things still have to be accomplished, kids still have to be taken care of. However important those things are, we recommend to try and stay down as much as possible. These automatically become rest days, allow your body to recover and push those fluids. Both of us have had very stern talking tos from our doctors about going back to training too soon. Take at least two days after being sick to get back into things. The longer you are sick the more days you will need to recover. When you do get back into it don't just jump right back into things. You will need to work back into it slowly. Take the first day to just walk and get your steps in or however you count done, don't do much more than that. If you are training for a race, the next day you can start back with a SHORT and SLOW run! If you get back into it too fast you risk making yourself sick again. 

Prevention becomes very important when you are training, while this won't keep you from getting sick it might help you not get as sick. When you are training you are essentially breaking down and building your body up over and over again. This can cause your immune system to not always be at it's best so anything you can do to aid will be helpful. Both of us take a multivitamin everyday. This seems like such a simple thing, seriously our moms had us do it when we were younger, but let's be honest this is something as an adult most of us aren't very good at doing. Women, no matter what your age a prenatal vitamin is one of the best you can take because these usually are the most well rounded vitamins, espically if it has DHA, folic acid and iron in it, they also tend to be gentler on your stomach. Tegan's doctor even recommended she take one even though she isn't pregnant and not planning on getting pregnant anytime soon.

One of our favorite tricks we have learned is to drink Emergen-C, or something similar, after our work outs. We can not begin to tell you how useful this product can be. Not only do you get a great dose of Vitamin C, helping your body to absorb the nutrients you are taking in better, but it also helps to put electrolytes back in your system. Many people will reach for a Gatorade, or PowerAid to help replenish themselves after a work out, while these things are great they also tend to be really high in sugars and carbs. For those of us who aren't Michael Phelps or an elite level athlete those sugars and carbs can actually do more damage than good.

Stay healthy, but if you do sick take a few rest days and get caught up on all those shows in your Netflix account you've been meaning to watch!

Remember we aren't medical professionals, so always check in with your doctors for further advice. Take care of yourselves, you got this!

The Fitster Sisters

Dieting Again?!...

Have you ever had that thought? Ugh... Not again, time to start that pesky "diet" thing again! The food part can be so difficult and so easy if we know what is good for us to eat. Yet we all know temptation is difficult and it is EVERYWHERE. Even last weekend over the 4th of July holiday weekend (Aren't holidays the worst?), we had so much junk food! Don't judge us as we may or may not have eaten numerous hot dogs and cookies! The important thing we focus on is that this isn't a diet, so we can have those cookies. It's a lifestyle change and commitment we make to try to improve our overall eating styles.

So here are a few things we have learned about food along the way.

1. ACCOUNTABILITY: This goes back to our first tips to use some type of system to track what you eat. We aren't going to beat the horse on this one but find something that works for you and TRACK! Myfitnesspal is very user friendly but there are lots of different apps. Even using paper and pencil will work. Track anything you put in your mouth.

2. CALORIE COUNT: Eat all your calories each day but don't try to eat all your exercise calories you gain. But if you need to eat them then that's completely okay, we would just suggest not making a habit of it. The exercise calories help you lose weight so not eating those will help you in the long run.

3. PROTEIN/FIBER: Part of eating right is obviously hitting your daily calorie goal. This is something you need to be aware of each day. The average goal for Protein is 120 grams a day and for Fiber is 30 grams. Take a minute to look at the nutrition information on the food you buy to know what the grams are. If you use an app, it will normally tell you the goal you should try to reach for each of these each day and how close you are to the goal as you log your food. There are some great fiber gummy supplements to help with that part of it. Working out will raise the goal of fiber and protein you need to eat, again most apps will track that for you for ease.

4. WEIGHING IN: For many of you weight loss or maintaining your weight is important to you. It's important to us as well, but the numbers can drive you insane! Pick one day a week that will be your official weigh in date and time. Weigh in the exact same weekly, such as similar clothes or if you prefer naked freedom; whatever works for you, just always do the same! Right now you need to focus on healthy eating. Lots of studies are showing people who are overweight can still be healthy and those who are at a healthy weight or under weight can be very unhealthy. It's all about how you take care of yourself and your perspective. If it's not about weight for you but about living a healthy lifestyle, all of this pertains to you as well!

5. INDULGE: The one big thing that we have come to learn in this whole process is that depriving yourself from what you love is not going to be helpful. Tegan loves to eat chocolate and Andrea loves Doritos. We both indulge in these things but in moderation. We've also found useful foods that can be substituted at times. Andrea loves the salt and crunch, so she now loves to eat protein potato chips. These can be found online if interested. Tegan will eat three Oreos a day as her treat, it's allotted into her calories each night. Don't take away what you love, eat it in moderation. The more you deny yourself something the more your body will crave it. If you put off a craving for too long you will end up over indulging and may do more damage than good. We have know some people who will have a cheat meal or even a cheat day, these can be helpful in allowing you to indulge in what you are craving, but be carful and don't let it go too far. We also recommend not weighing in the next day, we've had some scary scale moments when we have done that! 

6. FIND FOODS TO LOVE: We each have found foods we love now from certain protein drinks to chips to different yummy recipes. Share these with friends when you find them. We will be sharing some of these over our next few posts.

Remember this is a lifestyle change, not a diet. It's all about changing your mindset to commit to the change. It gets easier overtime. You got this!

The Fitster Sisters

The First Step is the Hardest

Isn't that a lyric from a song or something? We're pretty sure it is. Although, it's possible that we have it mixed up with something else. Regardless it is pretty much the truth. Starting on a healthier lifestyle is difficult and if you don't know where to start it can be completely overwhelming.

Luckily, we both had our sports backgrounds to fall back on when we started but if you don't have that like we did then hopefully this will help you out a bit.

1) COMMITMENT: Make sure you are really ready to make the change. This isn't going to be an easy journey, and you are going to hate your life sometimes. Trust me when you are hangry and all you want is that doughnut in the break room (this is currently happening FYI) you are going to question why you are even doing this. While it is okay to give in every once in a while you need to be really committed or you won't continue.

2) MORAL SUPPORT: Enlist someone to do it with you or at least help keep you on the path. For us we had the support of each other and most of our families. If those around you aren't on board they may be sabotaging you without even knowing it. Tegan's roommate has never had to worry about her calorie intake and cooks like it, while Andrea's husband is able to eat whatever he wants, when ever he wants without gaining a pound. Had we been left with just the two of them we would have fallen off the wagon in week one. Luckily after several vent sessions to each other and a little "training" of those in our lives they are more aware of what they are doing.

3) ACCOUNTABILITY: Find a way to hold your self accountable. We both use the myfitnesspal app to track what we are eating and a Fitbit to count our steps during the day. Each of these are a great way for us to know what we are actually doing during the day. Both are just tools, you have to be the one to ultimatly log everything and be truthful about it. This can actually be one of the hardest parts. The great things about Myfitnesspal is that it will set your calorie intake for you based on your current weight, how much you want to lose per week and how active you are.

4) DOCTOR: We highly recommend that before you start anything you consult with your doctor, especially if it has been a while since you have done any physical exercise. For us there is no way we could have done any of what we have done without our doctors. Both of us have spent several appointments talking with our doctors about what we found while doing research, what someone suggested to us or even what the other ones doctor told her. They were basically on speed dial for us! We owe a lot of our success to the patience they had with us, answering all our crazy questions and really for their overall encouragement. If you don't have a doctor or don't have a doctor you feel you can walk through all this with we highly recommend that you fine one. They are invaluable in this process!

5) EXERCISE: Let's us be frank, exercise can a little intimidating to anyone starting out. But it really can be so many things that are easy. One of the biggest things we've heard during this process is "I'll never be able to run" or "I can't work out." Let us tell you that you CAN! Exercise includes walking, running, swimming, exercise classes, videos, jump rope, lifting weights etc. You need to find something you enjoy and can commit to with your life. Both of us started with trying to hit our 10,000 steps on our Fitbit daily, just by adding walking. There were more than a couple nights we found ourselves walking by our beds while watching TV just to hit our steps for the day. Start EASY then add on later, you don't want to do too much to fast and burn yourself out. We would recommend a small daily activity of exercise but commit to at least three days a week. Put this in your schedule, then you won't have an excuse to not do it.  There will be more on exercise later, but right now start with "I CAN, I WILL!"

6) FOOD: Right now focus on meeting the calorie intake you are attempting to meet. Eat them all and try not to go over. If you aren't putting enough calories in you body each day it will actually work against you. We know this sounds counterproductive but it's the truth. Certain apps (Myfitnesspal) will help you come up with a good amount of calories for your goals or talk to your doctor about this. Later we will focus on the importance of fiber and protein intake, but for now get into the routine of keeping track of your food intake. If you go over your calories don't freak out! We've down it on numerous occasions, you aren't expected to be perfect every single day. Remember if you aren't seeing results, an evaluation on what you are eating might be helpful! One of our biggest mistakes was taking random bites here and there but but not adding it to our caloric intake. Being honest on what you are eating is key, if you aren't then don't be surprised when you don't see the numbers on the scale do down. Don't withhold food from yourself, it can make you fail, but refer back to ACCOUNTABILITY!

7) SMILE: Smile and give yourself a pat on the back for taking the first step in a healthy lifestyle. This isn't about weight loss, though that might be your goal, it's about being healthy and being able to make this a lifestyle!

Remember, You've got this!

The Fitster Sisters