The Concentrated Effort of Obtaining a Warrior Mind Frame

I have been inundated with catchy slogans and phrases lately there is “Strong is the new Skinny” “Girls Gone Strong” “Fit. Fierce. Fearless.” Heck I have one of my own; Wimp to Warrior. I’ve “liked” these websites on Facebook and browsed through the site owner’s postings and the member’s. Most of it is quotes or videos of girls training or recipes and nutrition tips– hey same basic stuff I have on my site!

But then I start to read through the posts and I come to the realization that a majority the girls on these sites have serious body issues or are recovering (or trying to recover) anorexics. They are using “being strong” as a replacement for their obsessive tendencies. Instead of restricting food they are precisely calculating macronutrients (carbs, protein and fat, commonly referred to as macros) for what they refer to as “strength gains and goals” which is a viable term. However my problem with this is that they are still obsessing about what they look like, just using this mantra of “I’m getting strong” as their justification to obsess about never being happy with their body.

Their friends and family frowned, scowled and/or threw their ass into some form of rehab because they were committing suicide slowly by starving their organs and forcing their bodies to cannibalize their own muscle and organs (and remember the heart is a muscle), but their new obsession is going to the gym and lifting heavy to add “muscle”, however their precisely calculated macros are at about 1300 calories of plain chicken breast, egg whites, salad, green beans (broccoli bloats), some oats mixed with some flavor of sugar free Walden’s farm syrups, sugar free jello with sugar free whipped cream and the never ending low carb/net carb protein shakes mixed with water or turned into some sort of pudding, or cookie, or muffin. These women aren’t cured of anorexia; they’ve just found a new avenue to carry on their obsessive traits, they still hate their bodies; their real health problem has not been addressed or cured; and even worse they openly educate on these forums for other women who have body issues to jump on this “I hate myself so much that I will eat nothing but chemicals and obsess over every fake food morsel macro I put in my mouth and sit around and design workouts that will burn x amount of calories while only consuming x amount of calories to be perfect” bandwagon of neurotic-ness. But hell it’s really popular these pages have THOUSANDS of members eating this shit up with a spoon.

My Wimp to Warrior slogan is more a frame of mind to obtain - a concentrated effort of discipline, dedication and really hard work. Which will reflect in all aspects of your life...not just in the gym.

Don’t get me wrong, I think a girl with some muscle is much better than a girl that looks like a skeleton. But let’s clarify here…neurotic is neurotic. And it’s not attractive. Period. Let’s face it, if us girls could be skinny we would. That’s a no brainer. Maybe it was playing with Barbie as little girls that put this magical glow around being 5’8” and 120#s. I get it, there is always something that seems extra attractive about a girl that looks great in skinny jeans. And you know what? That is fantastic. Great for her! But that’s not me.

We seriously need to stop caring so much what others think and we especially need to stop caring what we think others think. If someone feels the need to compare and or knock you down to feel better about themselves there will be absolutely nothing you can do other than MAYBE sitting down and giving this person an earful of a daily walk in your shoes and the world according to you. And even THEN you have a 50/50 chance of winning them over to see things from your perspective.

That’s a lot of time spent for little value. One of the most important themes I carry in my hip pocket is “I cannot control others, I can only control how I react to them.” I have better things to do with my time than to justify my existence to someone that has absolutely zero impact on my life. Not to be an ass…I’m jus sayin’.
I found the most attractive thing to a man is NOT being neurotic. Trust me I’ve been 12% body fat, I’ve been 25% body fat, I’ve been pregnant and bloated and not able to see my toes; I’ve had blonde hair, red hair, brown hair, black hair and the one time I accidentally dyed it silver; I’ve had short hair, long hair and in between hair, it’s been curly, strait and there were even times it was so dry I thought I might have to shave it all off…..my husband loves me regardless….he can tolerate me a whole helluva lot more when the main conversation doesn’t revolve around my waist circumference, triceps fat, wing span and the length or the color of my hair. I know he enjoys spending time with me most when I am being goofy and not taking myself seriously. He’d much rather sit around and laugh with me than try and bring me out of an imagined sulk that I’m somehow less worthy of a human because I don’t look as good in skinny jeans as Justin Bieber.

If I spend even 20 percent of my time focused on pleasing others and let’s be honest I probably don’t even have a good idea of what would please someone else, I’d have to make an educated guess and who knows how long it would even take to come up with the guesstimate. Well that’s 20 percent of time plus however long it took me to take an “educated” guess at what this asshole wants, of my time wasted. And time thieves come in all shapes and sizes and unfortunately they usually come in the form of our mothers, and close friends. It is okay to accept and acknowledge that some people are just poison and sometimes those people just happen to be related to you. I am not saying you have to disown them but I am suggesting that you recognize it and take their suggestions and comments for face value and it never hurts to tell them exactly how, what they say is making you feel. If they truly love you and value you your relationship they will at the very least listen to you – will they change, meh, probably not, but at least you didn’t let someone roll over on ya. Having a strong backbone is essential in the concentrated effort to have discipline and dedication ;-)

It’s time for you to focus on productive thoughts, positive energy and plans. Let go of the animosity, resentment, envy, jealousy….these are all negative thoughts that will tear you down in a heartbeat. They can ruin a good day. So let go of it whether you are imposing these feelings on yourself or you feel these energies coming from others.

I know this is more easily said than done. It’s going to take a concentrated effort. I recognize this. But I am also going to tell you that this concentrated effort that you will have to take to love yourself and avoid negative attitudes, behavior and energy you are going to need to apply to all aspects of your life to include your food choices and getting your butt up off the couch to move! Yep, I said it….no magic pill, no amount of coffee, no special mix of bananas and water….just a hard core concentrated effort to have discipline and dedication. Sorry they don’t sell it at GNC, QVC, HSN or the Vitamin Shoppe.

Some pulled pork and mashed cauliflower (as much as you’d like to eat) or 400 points worth of a Jenny Craig frozen chicken alfredo. And hell this might mean that 30# pork shoulder you smoked on Sunday is what you eat everyday for lunch that week. I know this isn’t as exciting as being awarded 1000 points and being able to eat whatever you want as long as you stay in your 1000 point range – but I guarantee you will be more satiated.

Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig are excuses to eat shit food. An excuse to fill ourselves with 1000 points of junk; of course you’ll lose some weight, you are restricting calories. That’s simple calories in versus calories out for losing weight. If you consume less energy than you expend then you lose weight. However this DOES NOT mean you’ll be healthy or look good naked….but more importantly you won’t be able stick with it. Junk makes you hungry for more junk – so when you embark on these adventures of 1750 calorie diets, or Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig it’s a numbers game – you eat your allotted number and then fight the hunger beast the rest of the day. And the hunger beast will be there because junk food, especially foods made with sugar and grain are designed to make you hungry. I can’t sell you more Oreos if you only eat one cookie and are satisfied now can I?

But our need to make excuses for filling ourselves with junk doesn’t just rotate around our kitchen; it spills into the rest of our lives. We fill our minds full of garbage all the time. I cannot tell you how many times I have overheard people concerned with how many days Kim Kardashian was married. REALLY? Why the fawk do you care? Does her marriage impact yours? Does it somehow make YOU feel better about yourself because you have been married longer? Or that you aren’t married at all? If I am going to have a conversation with someone I’d like it to be a positive and thought provoking conversation. We start talking about what Michelle Obama is wearing instead of her husband’s policies I am going to glaze over like a jelly donut. This trash doesn’t enrich anyone’s life….well it is certainly “in-riching” Kim Kardashian….you making her popular in turn E! pays her more money to do more stupid ass shows.

By watching these shows and increasing their ratings, by buying these rag magazines and increasing their sales you are endorsing this lewd behavior. By endorsing this lewd behavior you encourage your children to act this way. This behavior is rewarded with popularity and a pay check. Think I am crazy….ummm…ok, explain Jersey Shore, Basketball Wives, Real Housewives of ANY county, RealWorld, Wild Girls, Bad Girls, The Braxtons, The Kardashians, 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, America’s Next Top Model, Anything for Love, the Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Big Brother, Jon and Kate….OK, really, have I made my point yet? Shut this shit off and become a good role model for your kids or kids in your life. There certainly isn’t enough out there, especially female role models.

I’m getting side tracked….I’m never going to make a living off coaching; it’s my hobby. I only make money off the sessions I sell and even if I did this full time I couldn’t train someone every hour – that is where I would have to “supplement” my income with some sort of gimmick. Well I don’t have a gimmick. I mean Work. Really. Hard. Isn’t really for sale now is it. I do love cheesy t-shirts; but seriously you can’t make any money off shirts. I’m proud as hell to see someone I have touched in a positive way in regards to health and exercise sport one of my shirts. I do not expect to get any business off my dad running around Altoona, PA sporting a Gym Cellar shirt. I was just super flattered he wanted to buy a few of them to start with. If you can print enough shirts you can probably make about $4 off of each one – hardly paying the mortgage.

That is why so many trainers resort to the supplements. The shakes, smoothies, pills….they make a few bucks from the company for selling the garbage. The more they sell the less actual coaching they have to do. And I’ll be honest with you coaching is a hard, hard job. Anyone that thinks it is easy has never done it or never done it correctly. There are nights after my clients are all gone I sit in my gym and look around and have to gather myself before I can go upstairs and spend time with my family. I get emotionally wiped out. If my client comes in and is upset it is my job to lift their spirits and get them focused. If they come in and don’t want to get out of their comfort zone it’s my job to pull them kicking and screaming out of it so they make progress so the hard earned money they are paying me is worth it to them. If they have questions I need to have answers or I need to find the answer for them. I need to be able to demonstrate an exercise using simple terms and break it down into simple steps. I need to chew their ass when they aren’t doing what they are supposed to do when they leave me.

It’s HARD work! And its work I am not going to make a living (or at least a living I can’t pay MY mortgage with…damn housing market crash….). And I am OK with that….well actually not really, I’d love to be able to do just this – but here’s the problem….no one wants to Work. Really. Hard. No one wants to make that concentrated effort at discipline and dedication. We are indoctrinated to think we will fail when we should win every single time….with a concentrated effort at discipline, dedication, and hard work. But hey, if you get sick of failing with what you are doing and you want to try my way – shoot me an email – I’ll hook you up.

Pissing on your health? Not with my consent!

“You seem mad about it?” This was the question posed to me recently when I had yet another vehement rant with the same client about taking care of their body. This particular client has a tendency to think money will buy their health. They pay me lots of money to train them; have bought stacks of books, dvd’s and gadgets; have bought supplements, shakes and pills; and of course has subscriptions to several popular fitness magazines.

“You are damn right I am upset. You are spitting on your health. Do you hate yourself?” “No, of course not,” they say, and give me this strange offended look that I even asked them that question. “OK, well you are all talk, no walk. We have come to a point where I need progress from you, YOU need to do your part in this relationship or it is over. I can beat you up in here (my gym) and I can hammer you with knowledge, lend you every book I have, and send you endless emails and text messages and you still won’t listen!” “Angela, PLEASE don’t fire me, I’ll do my part. I promise.” “Do you understand how emotionally invested I get in your success? Do you understand how it pains me when you GAIN weight after all of MY efforts and you walk out my gym door and kick me in the teeth?” “I know, I know.” They put their head down, then they walk out the door. Nothing has changed with this client; I have to fire this client. It saddens me and makes me feel like a huge failure as a coach every time I break up with a client.

This above back and forth is why my clients love and hate me. I hold them accountable, I invest in them, I spend time educating them, I check on them, and I will end the relationship and they know this. I refuse to take people’s money for the hell of it, I have what you call a severe conscience. I WANT them to succeed. I only take on a few clients and I invest A LOT in them. But I am intelligent enough to know when someone just isn’t going to change no matter how much I beg, plead, rationalize, educate or scream.

It infuriates me to watch anyone self destruct their health on purpose. Infuriates me! This picture is of my husband in ICU right after his open heart surgery. He was 32 years young. He was born with a bicuspid aortic heart valve. Your aortic heart valve is supposed to be tricuspid. Because his was bi (two) vice tri (three) it didn’t close correctly when his heart beat and blood that had been pumped up would trickle back down. When he was a young lad it wasn’t such a big deal. His heart was young and could do the double work, as he aged his heart started to get tired of doing all that extra work. Eventually it would have quit – but that is where replacing the valve came into play. The cardiologist monitored his heart for about 10 years every six months we went to get it measured and do a stress test. They would measure his heart because the heart is a muscle and like any muscle that is worked it enlarges. This is great for your biceps, not so cool for your heart. For the stress test they would hook him up to all kinds of gadgets and have him walk, then walk on an incline then speed it up to almost a run and see how long he could go. Even though he aced the stress test (they would stop him) the heart measurements said at the very tender age of 32 his aortic heart valve had to be replaced. There was no diet, no exercise no “cure” for this.

We did massive research to determine the best valve replacement. I hunted for the best surgeon and on 1 May 2008 he was wheeled in, sawed in half and had the valve replaced. From the time they wheeled him out of the prep room to ICU was about six hours. His sister and brother were there with me and it was the longest six hours of my life. Our future was hanging on that surgeon in that operating room cutting my husband open with a Craftsman electric hand saw. We were either going to have a lifetime of him being tired, grumpy and sick or this was going to be one of the many small hitches that we tackled together and adapted to.

Needless to say (note date of picture above) it was just a small hitch we adapted to. But we are still plagued with the annual cardiology appointment. We are reminded when they draw his blood that the medicine he takes to prevent clots from developing and causing a heart attack or a stroke, could be damaging his liver and kidneys. We stare at each other in silence and wonder how having to take poison at such a young age will affect him at 60 or 70 or 80 (if we are lucky enough to live til then). We wait with stress, sweat and anxiety as the technician waves that magical wand over his chest to make sure the valve is holding up and doing its part. We talk about consequences, we reassure each other, we hug each other and then when the cardiologist blesses him with a clean bill of health we push it to the back of our minds until next year.

Although it is pushed to the back of our minds the steps we take daily are not. No smoking, moderate alcohol, regular exercise and eating real food are daily habits so that when that annual doctor visit rolls around we are slightly assured; a number of things we can’t prepare for could happen. The valve could “come loose”, or the plavix could be ruining his liver; we are doing are part and we keep our fingers crossed that science doesn’t fawk us up.

Now…..

Imagine this is the condition your loved ones get to see you in but not because you have a congenital problem that you cannot control, but because you just blatantly don’t take care of your body. You smoke cigarettes, chew tobacco, drink too much alcohol, eat too much junk food and sugar, you don’t exercise and your body has had enough and quits. YOU have to have open heart surgery, or have pieces or organs cut off from cancer or diabetes, or an organ replaced. YOU are lying there with a breathing tube down your throat, a catheter in your neck the size of a garden hose, machines are blinking and beeping and monitors are flashing. The smell of antiseptic and sick pollutes their throats and nose. The taste of despair and what will come of their life with you as a sick person. You can’t work and help support the household; your medical expenses are expensive; you cannot help with the kids or the dog or simple tasks such as laundry.

YOU have changed their entire life because you couldn’t take care of yourself. How would that guilt feel? Or switch shoes, how you would feel about tagging along with a partner who has blatantly no disdain for their health. They treat their health as if it is owed to them, they smoke, don’t get proper sleep, they drink too much alcohol or soda, they don’t wear their seat belt, they don’t exercise, they vegetate in front of the TV, they eat pizza and chips as if they were the only two food groups. They ache, they are tired, they complain, they don’t want to go do anything that life has to offer because TV, work and a sloth lifestyle has consumed them. You are a prisoner of your own home because your partner won’t take care of them self. How does that sound? Does that sound resemble love?

Doesn’t sound like it to me. It sounds like a jealous, lazy, bum.
Now you know why I get so upset when someone blatantly pisses on their health remember there are people out there like Ray with a congenital health problem they can’t control and it weighs on their mind and those that love them and you take it for granted as if it is owed to you to have good health. Just remember NOTHING is owed to you in this life; you have to work and work really hard for everything. Be good to yourself, love yourself, no one else can do it for you – so if these words are hitting home then quit being a fud king health bum!

STRESS!!!

We all have it; we all talk about it; complain about it; and most of the time we just embrace it as part of life. The holiday season is at our feet! Monday is the official start of the holiday season. People start taking leave from work, kids are off for school, we shop for food for Turkey Day, the sales flyers start pouring in the mailbox to promote Black Friday (like you really didn’t know it was coming) and your stress level starts to rise. You start thinking about all the people you have to buy Christmas presents for, the thought of going shopping during the Christmas season bristles the hairs on the back of your neck (in a good way or a bad way), party invitations start filling your inbox, your parents and in-laws start the great debate of whose house you will spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at. “But you went to HER parent’s house last year.”

So what do you do? I know a lot of you are saying you put your head down and push through and hope to make it to January slightly in tact with your sanity. I say no way! Let’s come up with a plan so that you can minimize the stress this year. Stress causes wrinkles, and creates cortisol (which makes you fat and gooey) you can’t enjoy the holidays because you are thinking of the 12 other things that need to be done so that everyone else enjoys themselves. ENOUGH!

You know stress is coming so let’s plan for it. Prepare against it. Avoid it!

Plan for it. If you cannot afford to buy your brothers, sisters, all their spawn, your mom, your dad, your in-laws and their spawn, your co-workers, your best friends, your best friends spawn and the neighbors gifts – THEN DON’T!! Let’s face it folks, our economy sucks. The last thing you need to be doing is racking up personal debt and credit card debt just so you can buy your brother’s three year old a gift. That is stupid; plain and simple. Not just because they the three year old has no clue as to what is going on (and they probably don’t need any more shit anyways) but because YOU CANNOT AFFORD IT. And do not let the fact that your brother’s wife thinks because you live in a nice house, or drive a nice car or don’t have children of your own that it is somehow your duty to buy their kid their every whim and wish.

Buy gifts that you can afford – don’t charge anything this holiday season. Or if you do charge something make sure it is on a six month same as cash plan and arrange a payment plan in your budget to pay it off in that allotted time.

I am not buying anyone, besides my kids and my husband, presents this year. I know at first the thought of that comes across as un-Christmas-spirit like, but think about it. Who all did you buy gifts for last year? Can you remember what you bought them? Can THEY remember what you bought them? In most cases probably not. It’s just STUFF, and it’s stuff you have to PAY for. And if you don’t have the money than it is foolish. What is more foolish is stressing how you will pay that enormous credit card bill when the holidays are over. Plan ahead and avoid it!

Prepare for it. Does going to your in-laws or to your mom’s create a tad bit of anxiety? Here my story for you – if you know me personally then you know my mom is a diagnosed, however untreated bipolar. My step-father chooses to let her antics run ramped and every year (hell every month) she gets worse. My mom’s personal favorite attack against me is I am a thief. Every time I step foot in her house I steal something. Now around Christmas time it is always her Christmas decor. This has become somewhat of a “boiling point” moment for me. I can proudly say I have NEVER stolen anything in my entire life and I certainly wouldn’t steal from the person who gave me life. We’d visit and celebrate Christmas, exchange gifts, smile and nod at her awful cookies then leave. A day or two later I’d get a call where she simply states something is “missing”. She doesn’t accuse me of it, just states “it’s missing.” Then she does her sneaky trick where she calls my cell phone when she knows I won’t answer and leaves me a voicemail about how she knows I took it and goes on and on. If you would ever like to see me with “feathers ruffled” this is the time. Now I have tried to explain and rationalize to her for many years that I wouldn’t and haven’t stolen from her but because of her untreated bipolar it always falls on deaf ears. So to cure this problem I don’t go to my mother’s house; especially when she has her Christmas decorations out.

That is ME preparing for it. Which ties into AVOID it. Now not everyone has such an extreme case as mine. Some it is just that sister-in-law that points out you “gained a few pounds since last she saw you” or “your new hair cut is interesting”. Snide remarks that’s sole purpose is to make you feel bad. Maybe your husband says she doesn’t mean anything by it, and his advice is just ignore her. Well these remarks are probably meant and it is near impossible to ignore. Perhaps avoiding the trip is not possible, but limiting your exposure to it is. Set boundaries. We are only going for “x” amount of hours – and also growing a backbone and sticking up for yourself. For example, if sister-in-law or mom says “oh that’s an interesting hair cut” You could say, thank you, I am trying something new and your brother/son loves the look and he’s the only one I have to please. Or if they say “you’ve put on a few pounds since last I saw you” You can reply with yes, I have but I am doing a Holiday Challenge to better my health so you won’t mind that I don’t eat any of your cookies, right? You wouldn’t try and sabotage me trying to obtain better health.

OK, so now I have gone over some of the more extreme stressors that maybe don’t apply to you. But what about multi-tasking? Every mom I know takes pride in her ability to multi-task. And being able to hold the baby and cook dinner is great. But what about these multi-tasks? Facebooking while holding a conversation; texting and driving; checking email while having dinner with your family? Multi-tasking is a good skill but when it comes down to you accomplishing three tasks half-assed or one task correctly it’s time to re-evaluate. You can read these three “multi-tasks” I listed and say to yourself that is super rude – but honestly you’re probably guilty of doing it. QUIT IT. One task at a time. You will feel much better when you have had dinner with your husband and/or family and was able to look them each in the eye, ask about their day, laugh and joke with each other. You will feel much better if you have lunch with your friend and are able to catch up and laugh and smile than if you were facebooking about the entire adventure while it was happening. Sometimes you just need to unplug.

Grocery shopping. If you eat REAL FOOD then you have to go grocery shopping frequently. And this can stress you out if you don’t add it to your schedule. You know it needs done so schedule it into your daily activities. That way you aren’t sitting at home wondering what everyone is going to eat and risk getting so hungry that you end up giving in and ordering junk (pizza, Chinese, etc).

There is no need to cook a five course meal. Keep it simple. The best approach is to cook enough meat on Sunday to last the week and just cook up veggies or sides during the week when time is short.

And last but not least – take a nap or a recharge. Turn your phone off, get off the laptop and reflect. Sometimes a problem pops up and it may seem like world will come to an end right then and there. However, there is always a solution. You may just need to quiet all the external noise for awhile to figure it out. Have you ever had a fight with a friend and then went to bed and in the morning you felt silly? When stress levels are high it is not a good time to make decisions. Sometimes sitting down in a nice quiet place and de-stressing, reflecting and recharging your “inner battery” is the only fix. Allow yourself that privilege.

I think I have covered all the stresses of the holiday. If I missed one – please send me a comment! Happy Holidays =)

Only an hour of TeeeVeee....but,but,but Annnnnnggggg

The biggest challenge that is keeping people from playing The Gym Cellar’s Holiday Challenge is the television restriction.

The basic reason for the TV restriction in the Challenge is because you sit too long when you watch hours of television. When we are in the sitting posture we’re not using our muscles and extensive medical evidence proves that muscle contractions are important for the body’s regulatory process such as the ability to break down glucose and use it for energy cause insulin resistance, spiked blood glucose levels and can eventually lead to Type II diabetes. When you sit too long your muscles become deconditioned and cause these harmful physiological changes, i.e. decreased metabolism, inability to break down glucose, inability to synthesize cholesterol, etc.

OK, so that is the medical reasoning for why too much sitting is bad for you. And I am well aware that people can sit at a computer for hours on end as well. Hence the part of the challenge that while you are sitting at your desk you must get up every 60 minutes and stretch.

Let’s look at the affects television has on your brain. Watching TV puts the viewer in a hypnotic and highly suggestive state. Making “mind control” easy. There are endless advertisements for unhealthy foods.

Reality TV has brought out the inner Peeping Tom in us. The appeal of reality TV shows is that the average viewer can relate to the reality star over an actor/actress. The problem with this is the behavior that draws you into the reality show becomes acceptable behavior. You watch lewd and crass behavior in one reality show after another and it somehow becomes a standard. You can rationalize that these reality stars have the worst traits possible; however it doesn’t stop you from becoming absorbed in their life while you abandon your own.

These reality shows set a moral that social status and vengeance are more important than self discipline and honor.

Now I am going to get from the guys out there I watch football and sports. I don’t watch that reality garbage, why should I curb my television habits. This one is super easy!! The subliminal messages you receive while you are watching a football game are out of control. The beer commercials, the pizza commercials, the Hooter’s wing commercials, the nachos, Doritos and Frito’s commercials. You are better off listening to the football game on the radio, reading the highlights in the paper, or catching the highlights on ESPN.

The sad part about “having your shows” is you are completely unapproachable during this time frame. Mom’s tell their kids “Let me watch my show!” Dad sits and screams and yells and becomes VISIBLY unapproachable as his team loses. And this becomes “normal” behavior to the kids. No activities can be planned from 1:00 and beyond on Sunday because Dad is lost to the “games.” Mom can’t be bothered from 8:00 on each night because there is one show after another on that consumes her time.

This is a bullshit way to live. I don’t want to hear but I work all day or all week I deserve to be able to relax and watch TV. That is fine – in The Gym Cellar Holiday Challenge you are still able to watch ONE hour of television each day.

Activities to do besides watch TV
Listen to the radio (and dance!)
Try a new hobby: sewing, woodworking, kayaking, hiking, karate, kick boxing
Learn to play an instrument
Read a good book
Read to your kids
Take a walk
Repair the house: replace burnt out light bulbs, fix nicks, scrapes and holes in the wall, touch-up paint, knobs that need tightened.
Cook an elaborate meal (and take pictures to post on The Gym Cellar Facebook page!)
Join a club: local communities have all kinds of clubs to join
Become a volunteer fireman/woman
Roller skating
Clean out the fridge
Clean out a closet
Clean the house: dust stuff you never dust, scrub carpets, wipe down light fixtures – GO CRAZY!
Take a college course
Write a story/book or start a journal
Sort and organize pictures
Puzzles
Set a goal and train for it: a 5k, Metro Dash (www.metrodash.com)
Paint a room
Plan an event: Family reunion, a dance, raise money for a charity, etc
Play tag with your kids.

If I can think of 20 different things off the top of my head so can you! It’s time to start living YOUR life and stop living vicariously through people on TV. Make your mark on this world, when you die and people are standing around talking about the life you lived give them something good to talk about. Wouldn’t you rather them be talking about the adventurous life you lead hiking and bike riding across a state. Not your ability to watch marathon episodes of Jersey Shore.


When your kids grow up and talk about their childhood memories do you really want them saying the thing I remember most about Dad is that you couldn’t approach him during the football game or the thing I remember most about Mom was her love of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; these actors and actresses on TV, especially the reality ones, don’t give a rat’s ass about you – why do YOU care so much about them? By watching their nonsense you are making them rich. Do their pockets deserve to be full of cash? Or do YOU deserve to be healthy, vibrant and living an active life?

Turn off the TV and live YOUR life. The Gym Cellar Holiday Challenge!! Get in on it – it’s free and if you win you get stuff!! How simple is that?

The Gym Cellar’s Holiday Challenge!!

We are on the crest of the season for holiday cheer; a plethora of co-worker’s fudge; pretty and shiny holiday colored Hershey Kisses; eggnog and stuffing; in-law induced boozing; gingerbread flavored lattes; candy canes and pumpkin pie; “I don’t have enough money” induced boozing; the work Christmas party; the family Thanksgiving dinner; the in-laws Thanksgiving dinner; the family Christmas party; the in-laws Christmas party; the left overs.

Holiday cheer comes in every flavor the only thing you need to add is an elastic waist band to every pair of pants you own. January rolls around and you are about 10-12 pounds heavier, you joke you are carrying your hibernation weight. But fast forward to August and you still have that extra 10-12 pounds of weight. You ain’t doing it this year!! Take a stand!!

Here is the plan. The Gym Cellar’s Holiday Challenge. If you would like to play send me your email address: w8isgr8@gmail.com and “Like” The Gym Cellar on FaceBook and watch for your daily challenges. You have to specifically let me know you are playing =)

The rules of The Gym Cellar’s Holiday Challenge will not be easy – if you want easy head on over to Weight Watchers – they will allow you to eat fake food to quench your carb craving for 30 minutes until your inner fat girl/guy is squealing for more. All for the bargain holiday price of $99 a month plus the price of food.

The Challenge starts on 21 November as soon as your eyes open. Daily you will be required to stay away from sugar to include: sucrose, fructose, dextrose, turbanado, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, maltose, glucose; yeah…so you might have to start reading labels.
No non-foods: anything made with artificial sweetners: splenda, sucralose, saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame potassium. Basically if you can’t pronounce it, you can’t eat it.

No grains to include: wheat, flour, bread, pizza, tortilla, sandwiches, oats, grits, cream of wheat, cereal (all kinds), ice cream sandwiches, cookies, crackers, pasta, noodles, macaroni, couscous, cornbread, buckwheat, cracked wheat, quinoa, sorghum, millet, amaranth. I’m sure I forgot one – if it is made with flour it is a no-no.

Drink water – how much – well that depends on you – I can’t prescribe an amount. You may need 64 ounces or you may need more. A good number to reach for is 32 ounces and then anything on top of that is a bonus.

You cannot sit for more than 60 minutes at a time. If you have to wear a watch and set the timer then do it. My desk jockeys can sit at their desk all day without ever getting up. Not this holiday season. Every 60 minutes you need to get up and stretch your legs, stretch your spine and more importantly shake the cobwebs out of your brain.

Television – this is where some of you are going to be heartbroken – one hour of television a day. That is IT! I promise you – you will not die if you do not know what is going on with the Real Housewives of Butthead County.

The kitchen push-up. What is a kitchen push-up? Every time you walk into your kitchen you will be required to do at least FIVE push-ups. I don’t care if they are rock hard hand-release push-ups or gilry on your knee push-ups. I want FIVE push-ups EVERY TIME you walk into your kitchen- even if you are not going in there to eat.

Sleep – 6-8 hours a night. Get yourself some melatonin and some GABA. But get your sleep!

This is what you will be required to do DAILY.

I will also post a daily challenge on FaceBook and send the challenge via email. The daily challenges will be something like 30 minutes of a walk/jog on top of your usual fitness routine. You will also be required to interact with the other members of the Holiday Challenge – cause misery enjoys company ;-)

I am sure a lot of you are wondering about Thanksgiving dinner – what to do, what to do?! Enjoy it! You read that right. Enjoy it. On Thanksgiving you get to eat whatever meal you plan that is your holiday tradition in being thankful for the things you have in your life; complete with shots of whiskey so you can tolerate your in-laws. The only restriction is that’s it – no leftover stuffing or bread to fuel Black Friday Shopping on the 25th. If you’d like to shove a turkey leg in your pocket and some broccoli in the other pockets that is fair game.

Christmas party rules. You can celebrate Christmas with ONE party. Again this is a restriction free celebration. The only rule is that you celebrate at this ONE party for 4 hours only.

Christmas dinner rules. Same as Thanksgiving dinner. You celebrate the day the way you normally would celebrate. Christmas bread, jams and rolls; cookies, fudge and booze. If you celebrate on Christmas Eve that is fine – but then you don’t get to celebrate on Christmas. This is an either or; you don’t get both.

The Holiday Challenge ends on 31 December. The winner is the person who stuck to the challenge 100 percent. This is an honor system. So if you don’t have any honor don’t bother signing up to play. You will have two chances during the challenge to redeem yourself if you “fall off the proverbial Holiday Challenge wagon”.

How you redeem yourself? You must write a paper on why you cheated on the Holiday Challenge. The paper must include specific details about the cheat. What it was; why you decided you had to cheat; how cheating made you feel before, during and after. The purpose of the paper is reflection on your emotional eating. This challenge is about eating real food through the holidays and refusing temptation even when it is easily accessible. We all have the willpower and discipline to do this because there is no starving involved in this challenge. I am not asking you to eat 1300 calories a day – you can eat as much as you want as long as the foods do not contain grains or sugar. So you will never be physically hungry.

Emotionally hungry? Probably – this challenge is about getting over that and becoming stronger and controlling your emotion.

The prize – the winner will receive a basket of my favorite things. Now you are probably thinking that sounds like horse shit! I promise some of my favorite things are walnut and brown sugar candles; oatmeal raisin scented soaps; cool gym wear gear and the like.

You do NOT have to be a member of The Gym Cellar to play – you can live in Canada and play! If you win I just need your address!

LET’S DO THIS!!! HEALTH FOR THE HOLIDAYS!! WHO IS IN???

Friday Rant

This post won’t be for the faint of heart or a liberal. If you are easily offended stop reading. There is your warning.

So what a great picture, huh? I know it’s a little hard to see, this is what I saw yesterday driving home from work. I look over and here is this guy with visibly TOO much chin slurping down something (XLARGE CUP I might add) from McDonald’s. Yuck.

Where have all the men gone? I see two types of men all around either those with bitch tits, big bellies and no ass or those that would sag in MY jeans and no ass.

Let me tell you guys, and hell you may not give a shit anyways, but my blog, my bitch; if we can share clothes – you’re out. If you have no ass – you’re out. If you have a limp dick – you’re out. If your tits are bigger than mine – you’re out. I guess really all I can say is thank god I am married and not on the market. I’d be really lonely or a lesbian.

This is not attractive.

THIS is attractive.

And this.

These are guys you will not catch trying to wear my clothes.
If you need to pop a blue pill to get your dick hard for four hours you’re in trouble. That’s not sexy. Come on baby hurry up and ride the viagra train we have 3 hours and 36 minutes! Yuck.

I want my man to chase me around the room when I come home and start taking off my socks. I am not retarded – I know the sight of me taking off my socks isn’t sexy; but he’s a man and that is what a man with a healthy functioning body does and regardless that I KNOW taking off my socks isn’t sexy it is one helluva an ego boost to know that just shedding off my socks gets off his rocks. It’d be a huge ego deflator to know that the sight of me naked can’t get it up for him. That I somehow have to stroke him into the mood or wait for his magical blue unicorn pill to work. No thanks. I’m a woman, I want a man. Not a eunuch.

Our society as a whole really needs to stop eating garbage. It is turning us into these trolls. And every time a new diet hits the streets what do people do? This includes me (I am people….on most days), we try and find a way to spice it up. I got fat trying to spice it up. Paleo ice cream, paleo chocolates, bacon, even a paleo cheesecake. So here is the godawful truth of the matter folks.

EAT. REAL. FOOD.

That’s all you have to do if you want to be as lean as your body is designed to be. You’ll never over eat chicken and broccoli, or burger and cauliflower. It just doesn’t happen. Throw in some “Paleo treats” and voila fat ass.

Here is the perfect scenario and example: “So now let’s say I’m addicted to cheesecake. I eat 3 slices everyday and I end up getting fat. So, in an effort to get ‘healthy’, I decide I’m not going to eat junk anymore and I start eating a real food based diet. I eat meat, seafood, veggies, fruit, dairy and some white rice. In about a week, I’m sick of this shit, ‘cos I’m used to eating delectable food and now that my reward centers are not activated as frequently anymore, I don’t really feel good. So I get on the internet and start looking for tips and tricks to make my boring real food diet tasty and boom! I come across a grain free cheesecake recipe! My eyes light up and I’m not quite sure if the food driven depression is making me hallucinate or if this is real food for real! I re-read it and it is indeed a real food cheesecake! I thank my stars and I get to making it. Two hours later, I’ve made a 14″ inch cheesecake… super decadent and yet supremely healthy!

I take a bite and I freakin love it! My reward centers are activated and I eat the whole damn thing. And since all the ingredients are real food healthy ingredients, I make this and other such ‘real food healthy’ stuff primal brownies, paleo ice cream, cholesterol free cocaine etc etc and eat them all week.”

This doesn’t help you get healthy and lean – actually this is going to make your ass just as fat as the shit you were eating before you decided to clean up your diet.

If you eat like this instead of just eating real food you have to count calories. What a fucking bummer. Counting calories suck…but if you have to the rule is 10-12 calories times your ideal body weight. Fun huh? So that means if you are a woman and want to weigh 135# you can have between 1350-1620 calories of your shit food and you will lose weight. Now that might sound mighty ideal. Except I challenge you to survive on hundred calorie snack packs, portioned lasagna at “x” calories, diet soda, and “health” bars at 1500 calories. You will be hungry all the time and you will be tired, perhaps too tired to work out. So when you lose the weight you can be skinny fat – you’ll look great in your skinny jeans this winter but come this summer and you put on a bikini you’ll look like this. YUCK.

Sorry even a tan doesn’t make this look good.

Which brings me to my “I want to be tone” bitch. I’ve actually bitched about this many times before but this seems like a good Segway for me to bitch about it again. I’ve found that if you hear something long enough it becomes the truth….here’s hoping.

At The Gym Cellar I, my husband and all of my clients grimace, grunt, or experiencing some sort of extreme mental discomfort while training. This is because if you are not grunting, grimacing or in mental discomfort you are not fucking training hard enough. If it was easy everyone would look fantastic. If you walk across the finish line vice crawl with bloody knuckles you didn’t give it your all. Why bother.

If you avoid squats and deadlift, because you say you don’t train legs because you play soccer, or run or you only do body weight exercises or my favorite….I don’t want to get big….BITCH PLEASE. There is not one single factor in strength training that delivers more than squatting and deadlifting. Period.

For woman squatting and deadlifting gives your ass the perfect look for jeans or a bikini. For men squatting and deadlifting gives your body a drool worthy shape and increases your testosterone levels.

Squatting and deadlifting are the ultimate body developers but they also provide this incredible mental aspect that will strengthen your other training as a whole and will imprint your life outside the gym.

So what’s my point of this whole post? Stop eating shit – just eat real food. Stop playing this game of feeding your reward sensors – if you need rewards get your body moving and deadlifting something. This shit food we are living on is turning are men into women and our women into trolls. We survive on one pill to bring our cholesterol down, another pill to get our dicks hard, another pill to go to sleep and several cups of coffee to wake our asses up. What the fuck! Just Eat. Real. Food.

Supplements

I frequently get asked my thoughts on supplements. For the most part I think you can save your money. But there are a few that I think are worth the money.

What you should save your money on: protein powders, creatine, energy drinks/formulas, fish oil, and multivitamins.

By and large most protein powders are cheap per shake if you buy a bulk container. However flavored protein powders are packed full of artificial sweeteners and fortified vitamins. I am a huge advocate for avoiding artificial sweeteners, they have not been tested long enough for us to know the true effects of them on our bodies. My theory is don’t eat non-foods; artificial sweeteners are NOT food, they are chemicals. Unless you are trying to stack on mass amounts of muscle, it is best to eat your protein in the forms of eggs, meat, fish and Greek yogurt.

We’ve all seen that douche that walks around carrying his protein bottle everywhere making a big deal out of the fact that they are “bulking”. They’ve got some magic shaker full of some red or purple liquid that they slurp down between “lifts” (and I use that term loosely to describe their efforts on the lat pull down….who knew you could kip on the lat pull down?). Then they are refilling that shaker bottle full of another powder – all in dramatics and theatrics for the young new gym goer to stop and ask. And then they spout off their deep knowledge of Muscle Fitness’ latest article on Muscle Milk (that was paid for by said company). If you pay particular attention to this said gym douche you never see them exercise anything much more than their mouth and air lats. A hard gainer is usually a poor trainer.

Creatine; this is a sticky one. In about 20 percent of people creatine will have immediate and measurable results, but for the rest of us creatine provides no remarkable results other than slight bodyweight increase from water retention but no performance gains. My personal opinion is it is over marketed – some people swear by it, I swear it is mental – but sometimes that placebo affect makes a difference.

Energy drinks/shots are chock full of too much caffeine and a vitamin b complex. Caffeine shots are full of artificial sweeteners and the energy drinks have a ton of sugar. (Eight ounce of: Red Bull has 26 grams of sugar; Monster has 27 grams; Amp has 29 grams…oh and try and find a can of Amp or Monster at 8 ounces) Caffeine at 10 grams is lethal. Most of us don’t get anywhere near this amount in a day. There is about 200mg in an eight ounce cup of coffee (this of course varies on brand). Most coffee cups that you use in your house are 12 ounces and the smallest size of coffee at Dunkin Donuts is 10 ounces. If you start adding energy drinks/shots to your coffee consumption you could experience eye twitching, heart palpitations, nervousness, and sleeplessness.

Fish oil; I was guilty of this until just recently. There was a fancy chart and everything that told you how much fish oil you should take by weight. But the really confusing part was which one should you buy? They ranged from cheap to really expensive and the fancy chart told you that you should take somewhere around 9 capsules a day! So this got to be expensive. The next thing was the ones worth a shit had a short expiration date; so you had to pay attention to that upon purchase. But new evidence suggests you should get your fish oil from fish, who knew. The reason fish oil was suggested was to help with inflammation, most of the inflammation was coming from a diet too high in Omega 6 (corn and vegetable oils). Now we are told to get our Omega 3s (fish oils) from eating fish and to keep our diets low in Omega 6. Please note that flax seed oil and seeds are high in Omega-3 but they also are an irritant to the gut. Win-lose. Eat fish.

Multi-vitamins. My take on a multi is eat a good diet and you don’t need a multi. Especially one that has a shelf life of several years and note that most minerals do not have a shelf life; so they are null and void. Add in the preservatives and coloring and you get a non¬-food. Most importantly the type of vitamins and minerals that are put into a multi do your body no good and are frauds. For example, niacin, in a multi they put niacinamide and it is NOT niacin at all. Vitamin C in a multi comes in the form of ascorbic acid; again this is garbage. You want a Vitamin C with flavonoids. The magnesium is magnesium oxide which is cheap but not well absorbed by the body. The best form of magnesium is magnesium aspartate or chelated magnesium. Chromium as chromium oxide, again a cheap form not well absorbed – a better form is chromium picolinate. Zinc in the form of zinc oxide but again the better form is Zinc mono aspartate. Okaaaaayyy…you get the picture here, right? Multi’s are garbage.

So what supplements do I use and recommend?

#1 – Niacin. This is the best pre-workout supplement out there. When I say Niacin, I mean niacin. The stuff that makes you flush like a ginger in the Florida sun. If you have never taken Niacin before I recommend starting with 250 mg. Then moving up to 500mg. No better motivation than popping a 500mg of niacin if you don’t start moving your body you will become very uncomfortable. Niacin opens up all the capillaries in your body and lets the blood flow better; basically you warm up faster. Other supposed properties are stabilizing blood sugar levels and increasing the good cholesterol.

#2 – Probiotics. Buy in the powder form and the good ones have to be refrigerated. Gut health is essential to health.

#3 – GABA – this is an amino acid that promotes relaxation. This is perfect before bed. Much better than melatonin. GABA does some fancy stuff with the electricity in your body – I don’t know look it up.
#4- Vitamin C – Flavanoids. The boost to the immune function is still in question; however it does help control cortisol. So it makes a perfect supplement for when you are stressing, and post workout.

#5 – Magnesium aspartate – Magnesium deficiency can cause lots of problems including muscle soreness, muscle cramps, and impaired contraction of the smooth muscle tissue. Basically if you work out and you feel like you are getting extremely sore after the workout or you are getting Charlie horses you need some magnesium.

#6 – Iodine – I buy the liquid and draw a circle on my stomach and let my skin absorb it. Iodine is needed for proper function of the thyroid. America has become salt-phobic and iodine deficiency is on the rise – slow thyroid, goiters and all.

So folks there is my list of my personal essential supplements. Hope you find it useful. I’d love to hear supplements you use and how they work for you.

Fit2Fat2Fit

Fit2Fat2Fit. Have you all seen this? Personal Trainer, Drew, is going on a six month adventure to become obese and then will trim down again. He is almost at the end of his journey of obesity having packed on 70#s. This has become a national sensation. He is on the Today Show, Jay Leno, various websites to include Yahoo and of course his blog and Facebook.

This is almost like a train wreck. Most people are following along to see if Drew fails to lose the weight. Some people are truly inspired by this and are hoping they can mirror his efforts to lose their weight and have success themselves. And some obese people are taking a strong abhorrence to Drew’s efforts.

I have been following Drew’s adventure the last two weeks. He makes a comment on Facebook about trying to find clothes for his television appearance on Jay Leno and gets 267 comments ranging from hostility, kinship and awareness to the plight of obese people trying to find clothes that are descent. You get off colored comments that the fashion industry doesn’t encourage obesity that is why there aren’t any fashionable clothes for heavier folks, to shop at Big Dog or Wal-Mart they expect everyone to be fat. I have been fascinated by Drew’s dedication to be able to identify with his obese clients. I thought wow, here is a man dedicated to his job. I could never do that. I wouldn’t want to risk my health, put undue stress on my skin, ligaments and bones, and I just don’t want to be fat. Period. That simple.

The more I read his posts and the comments the more it got me thinking. I think Drew’s intentions are good and I do think he will help some people out with his journey back to fit. And I have no doubt that he won’t get back to his previous fit form. He has a lot of media attention now, what great motivation! But the comments people are making about Drew’s attempt to appreciate the struggles of someone who is obese are misguided.
America has become the celebration of mediocrity. We celebrate everything: Kindergarten graduations; Tumble with mom medals; graduating elementary school to middle school; t-ball ceremonies. And then we go overboard with celebrations like drug rehab and, weight loss (think Kristie Alley and Oprah). Last time I checked you are expected to make it through kindergarten and elementary school (I actually think there is a law requiring it) t-ball isn’t anything but kids digging in the dirt, chasing bugs, wondering what is for snack and the chance hap that one of them catches the ball and throws it in the right direction. We aren’t supposed to get fat or do drugs. Why are we celebrating so hard? We don’t celebrate when kids don’t get addicted to heroin. We don’t celebrate that stay-at- home- mom who has four kids and a rocking body – most of the time she is ridiculed! We have our priorities wrong people.

Hands down to Drew, but I have to wonder if he just succumbed to the pressure. What pressure am I referring to? Well this is the pressure that people who are obese have already given into. Look around you – there are ads for McDonald’s during the Olympics, Krispy Kreme and Girl Scout Cookie fund raisers, the office donut mess, commercials telling you that high fructose corn syrup is ok for you, Tony the Tiger tells you Frosted Flakes are GRRRRReat and will help you win that soccer game, Gatorade replenishes electrolytes for sports games (and it also sports more calories and sugar than soda), grocery stores with buy one get one free hamburger helpers, or buy one get one free bags of chips, the FDA telling us if your bread is whole wheat and brown it is good for you. I am not saying that Drew just wanted to eat to his heart’s desire for six months, I think he gave into the peer pressure of his overweight clients telling him he doesn’t know what it’s like. And to that he should have told them HORSE SHIT.
If you are in shape you know exactly what it is like to have cravings for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Cap ‘n Crunch, Lucky Charms, calzones, French fries, a Dr. Pepper. Unless this said fit person has lived in a cave their whole life they have partaken in these foods. And yes, sometimes these foods at the right time of the day or the right moment of stress can be a better release than sex.

But fit people make a conscious choice not to eat these foods but in an extreme once in a while (we are talking a few times a YEAR…none of this moderation shit) because we recognize the rat hole these foods will take us down. Diabetes, hypertension, clogged arteries, high cholesterol, heart attack, cancer, arthritis, sleep apnea, lupus, acne, irritable bowel syndrome, and all kinds of weird and strange aliments.

If you are obese and you think a fit person, and I am not saying a skinny person, the kind of skinny that thinks they can put on weight by being a garbage disposal, an actual fit person like Drew was, is an easy life to travel you are hugely mistaken. There are internal battles that rage constantly. Being the odd man out at the morning coffee table when everyone else is indulging in a liquid candy bar from Starbucks and a big old boston cream donut; opting out of football pizza, nachos and, beer party fun with friends every Sunday, being the only person on a business road trip who is concerned about what time they go to bed, where the nearest gym is and not hitting the bars every night with your colleagues. There is the I can’t relate to any of my kids friends parents and they all think I’m freaky. The everyday explanation to your kids why their friends make poor food choices and why they shouldn’t.

Yeah, I am sure if you are obese and you are reading that last paragraph you are rolling your eyes and saying oh poor woe is me, Angela. And that is fine. But here is the thing, these are the hard choices I decide to make the right choice about and if you are obese or overweight you didn’t make that hard choice. You chose the easy way. Well everyone else is having a 2000 calorie coffee and another 2000 calorie donut that has about 109 grams of sugar in it I will too. Or well my husband wants pizza to watch football so I’ll just eat that too. Or my friends are all going out partying and staying up late, I’ll just skip the gym and sleep and go along. An obese/overweight person made the easy choice. I’m not saying the easy choice has easy rewards. Quite the contrary. Having discipline to do the right thing at all the right times is hard. And the fact that I do that every time I need to and an obese/overweight person chooses not to doesn’t make my life easier than yours. It DOES make my life happier than an obese/overweight person. It DOES make my health better than the obese/overweight persons. It DOES let me enjoy my life better than the obese/overweight persons.

I don’t think that someone that is obese/overweight should be pointing fingers at people that are fit, such as Drew and saying, “but you don’t understand, you don’t know what it is like.” That’s HORSE SHIT. I don’t need to walk a mile in someone that is obese/overweight’s shoes to recognize they have health problems ranging from nagging to severe, that they can’t find clothes that are fashionable, that children point at them and laugh, that they are discriminated against at the work place. I KNOW this. I don’t need to be obese/overweight to know this.

What the obese/overweight person needs to know is that it is time to start being disciplined and stop whining how no one understands. Time to stop having that liquid candy bar for a coffee, time to stop having regular meals at Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King and the like. It’s time to make the right decision and get up and get moving even when you just don’t feel like it. When there is something on television that you want to watch or you just want to relax after a long day at work. Relaxing is an easy choice. Television is an easy choice. Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King, liquid candy bar coffees (CARBS) ARE THE EASY CHOICES. It’s time to stop crying that “you don’t know what it’s like” because you make the easy choice all the time. There are more times that I do not want to work out than I do and there are more times than not that while I am working out I just want to scale it back and take it easy. But I don’t. I know that I have to work out, that I have to train hard. I know that I have to make a good healthy dinner for my family, and pack lunches for all of us that are the right foods. No one wants spinach and chicken with a side of mashed cauliflower! But these are the right and hard choices.

And don’t expect results in a few weeks. It took you awhile to become obese/overweight it will probably take you twice as long to get fit. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be hard and even when you get fit it will still remain hard. Because making the right choice is always the harder road to travel. We live in a world with many luxuries, many affordable luxuries, it’s hard to say no to them, especially if you take on the attitude that you are somehow entitled to a luxury because you work, or raise a family. Carry the attitude that you are entitled to work hard and then work really hard and you will never be disappointed in your health, life or body shape.

So hats off to you Drew, I wish you luck and I wish your followers luck.

Barefoot Running

It’s official! I have officially been training with minimal shoes for two years. The only thing I can say about it is….wow, time goes by a helluva fast.

When I first switched over to minimal running I bought a pair of Vibram’s Five Fingers (VFFs). I should’ve invested in some $8 pool shoes from Wal-Mart. They are virtually the same thing, without the longevity of the Vibram sole, but @ $8 you can afford a few pairs.

I really liked my VFFs but then (and this is a pretty common theme with me) I broke myself. My training wasn’t at all different from what I do now, heavy lifting with sprint intervals and an occasional “long” run which is nothing over 2.6 miles. Back in October 2009 I strapped my VFFs on and after about five minutes I got each of my toes in the correct hole, for some reason my baby toe LOVES to share toe holes with the toe beside her, I was off and running like a gazelle. I felt like a chimpanzee (kinda looked like I had their feet….man are these shoes effin ugly!) I was leaned forward, heels kicking up, break neck pace. This, my dear friends, was. Awesome!

I decided it would be a good idea for me to do an actual long run, my good friend Aimee was getting ready to bust out her first marathon and I used her for inspiration. Now I pride myself at being able to judge distance pretty good, I can’t judge pace for shit, but distance I am almost spot on. I took off and when I mapped out the course in my mind I thought it was about four miles….um yea, not so much. I was feeling really good, there were a lot of hills in the course and I loved the challenge, I would lean into them and up I’d go. There was some off-roading and it felt awesome to run on the grass, I was able to literally dig my toes into the ground and push forward. At what I gauged as mile four I realized I was still pretty far from home. Hmmmm…well this can’t be good I thought. But being the bone head that I typically am I said oh well, suck it up, keep running….there will be no walking Marine. I noticed my steps weren’t as light and airy as when I took off on the last mile stretch home and I really tried focusing on pulling my heels up and landing softly. By focusing on pulling your heels up vice how you land, your foot generally produces the correct foot landing.

I finally get home, and I have pain in my right foot on the top. Nothing real bad just a tweak, nothing I shouldn’t expect for having just ran six miles.

Over the next few months I proceeded to train: heavy lifting with sprints and varied running intervals.: one mile sprint, rest, another mile, rest, another mile, stuff like that. The pain in my foot started to increase, I iced it and ignored it. I wasn’t going to stop training over a little “top of the foot pain”. Fast forward to March….I can barely walk. No shoes are comfortable. Not flip flops, not sneakers and certainly not high heels. I can’t walk barefoot, I can’t walk in shoes. I basically cannot walk comfortably. My little nuisance of “top of the foot pain” turned into a full blown stress fracture. Fun, huh!?

I recognize I am not real smart, but like my dad says if you are going to be stupid you have to be tough.

We were visiting my in-laws in Florida and of course there is lots of walking around, we went to the zoo, the aquarium, did an Easter egg hunt, and I even went for a run (I NEVER said I was smart). Now I went out for this run in my regular running shoes. I figured if I stomped my way through it I’d numb it out and get the run done. Which worked really good for me…until I got back and took my shoe off. Game over, folks.

It took me 12 weeks of taping, minimal running, icing, lots of motrin and a lot of swallowing tears before the pain started to back off. In the meantime, I ran across a ton of websites, mostly forums discussing how to break yourself into barefoot/minimal running….oh good, I thought TOFP (top of foot pain) has a cool acronym because it is super common! Dulp!
After this I decided to be a tad smarter – I started running actually barefoot on my treadmill. You see skin has this wonderful way of gauging how much barefoot running you can do at one time. You get cool blister and burn patches when you’ve gone as far as you should. I know this still sounds over the top – but it has been the single greatest change I have made in my workouts in the 18 years I have been doing this. Bold statement. True Statement.

I recommend everyone go barefoot for their runs. But just that BAREFOOT. Not cool shoes – the cool shoes come later; to start invest in those $8 pool shoes at Wal-mart or if you are too snobby for Wal-Mart go to Target. I myself go to Wal-Mart every once in awhile to remind myself “things could be worse” I could be married to a guy who feels the need to go transvestite when stepping into Wally World.

And I can’t tuck my boobs into my pants yet.

And damn it I actually wished I had a goat – not sure I would take it to Wal-Mart though.

Back to barefoot running…..First you need to adapt, and there is no better way to do this then actually being barefoot. I am not suggesting you go to the local grocery store without your shoes – I guess you could go to Wal-Mart without your shoes….hell I don’t even recommend you go to Sport and Health without your shoes (apparently that is frowned upon in these establishments). But walking around your house, or when you are doing yard work is a great place to start. And of course purchasing a pair of pool shoes and wearing them to walk the dogs, or a short and I mean SHORT run. Like if you are going out for a 3 miler, wear your regular shoes out and a quarter mile from the finish stop and put on your minimals (or go bare).

I was actually told one time at the Pentagon Athletic Center that it is unsanitary for me to run barefoot. I thought that was precious – I mean this guy was totally right my feet that have been in socks all day are totally more disgusting than the guy running around in here with dog shit and gum stuck to his shoe. Really?... MY feet have a better chance of getting something off the floor that I see Jose (that’s really his name…I’m not being racist!) washing with a bucket of what appears to be Potomac slime. Let’s be honest…he’s not “cleaning” anything.

I have also been asked if I am nervous I am going to drop a weight on my barefoot. Let’s be honest if you drop a weight on your foot, sneakers aren’t going to help much. This is Chris’ foot after he dropped a 25# plate on it with shoes on. Chris, did your shoes protect your feet?

The best thing I love about barefoot running is I no longer have flat feet or ITB pain. I have been plagued with flat feet, or what I realize is now atrophied feet muscles since I was 11 years old. I even got orthotics at the age of 11 and went to a special foot doctor when I was 24 who was going to slice my foot open and put a piece of silicone in there to hold the bones up. He said he could only do one foot at a time, the recovery was two weeks completely off the foot then eight weeks in an air cast and then he’d slice open the other one. I had two toddlers at home, was active duty and a husband that was on night shift, it was a tad unrealistic and seemed a little extreme so I opted out….boy am I glad I did!!!

I am two years into this game and I still get the occasional top of the foot pain but I have been squatting for 18 years and still get muscle pain from that….it is expected and I can tell it isn’t an “oh shit, I broke myself again” pain. I definitely recommend everyone run barefoot or minimal. One of the things I see the most in my clients is flat feet or they explain they don’t run anymore because of knee pain. Sprints give you a great looking ass and that is what most of them are paying for. So chuck the shoes and sprint! But for the love of your feet…..Go. Sloooooooooowwwwwww.

I am Angela

I haven’t had a desire to share what’s on my mind lately. My thoughts have been consumed with frustration. My frustration has caused the usual suspects to show up envy/turmoil/insecurity/crazy expectations, etc. I was totally pissed off and really no one wanted to hear my thoughts. And I didn’t want to blog on a “I am Paleo” blog anymore.

One thing that constantly plagues me is self-doubt. If you know this about me then you are probably my husband or my dad, no one else really gets that this is something about me. Most people think I am a cocky fuck, who thinks she knows everything and it’s my way or the highway. But the things I am certain of I make sure I research, test and verify before I push like a hobo shoving his piss can at you for spare change. Everything else is a mystery to me and until I figure it out in my thorough approach my peace is in upheaval. I’m not a fan of eating crow.

So why was I in turmoil this time? What was I trying to figure out that had me so perplexed I was praying for a zombie invasion to clean up the population and seclude me with my family?

Crossfit Envy and a lack of Paleo bonding. You see I have this dream that someday I’ll be able to quit my DoD job, take off my suit and wear compression itsy-bitsy shorts and a sports bra, vice sitting at a desk I’ll get to walk around and when the mood hits pound out 10 burpees for fun, chuck the computer…hmmm, I guess I’d have to keep that…but you see where I am going.

I felt that Crossfit is the up and coming fad that would be my ticket out of the desk. There are no Crossfit gyms in my hometown and it’d be ideal to live close to my siblings and dad again and get out of the city and live in a rural area.

I started to have doubts in the way I was running The Gym Cellar. I only have about five clients and that wasn’t going to get me to where I wanted to go – DoD free.

Someone very smart told me just because you do circuit training and Olympic lifts doesn’t mean you are doing Crossfit. I was reminded that I did this sort of training before I knew what Crossfit was. I was also reminded that I only have five clients for a very specific reason.

And if I didn’t believe in Crossfit I wouldn’t be able to sell it in Altoona, PA or anywhere. I have my doubts about Crossfit, but I was willing to sell my soul to get out of the suit.

My Paleo drama. First I hate labels. So it was kind of hokie when I decided to label myself Paleo. I was already putting too much pressure on myself. You see I like heavy whipping cream in my coffee, I like bacon and sausage, I like red wine and beer, I also like potatoes and corn. I cannot afford free range meat or range free eggs. I don’t eat potatoes or corn often maybe once or twice a month. I don’t drink beer or wine often, maybe once a week, when it’s either a beer or sell the children or a celebration with a good friend. But I have heavy whipping cream in my coffee everyday sometimes more than once, I have bacon or sausage everyday too. I still don’t eat wheat, sugars, or beans though. They mess up my glucose levels and stomach. And that is what is important to me.
I visit quite a few blogs and have a few feeds on my Facebook page from various Paleo and Primal people. And someone made a comment that feeding a kid McDonald’s is child abuse. Now I think this person in particular is a 22-year old inexperienced in everything, never had a job, stumbled on to Mark Sisson’s Daily Apple blog, fell in love with it and turned into Single White Female with Mark, BUT it sparked a upraised eyebrow with me and got me thinking.

We DO live in the 21st century, it is just a fact I’d love to clue some of these nuts into. It’d be great if we could all shed our suits and shoes and run around in the wild, hunting wild boars, camp fires, fresh plucked berries, baths in the river….and then on Sunday night and we get to go home to air conditioning, toilets, showers, and clean sheets. We evolved for a reason other than marketing a new book and workout scheme. Not everything we evolved to is great – pharmaceutical drugs and most of our medical community, politics and television. But I love my creature comforts and I’m not ready to give them up! I also love that I have a car and can live 300 miles away from my mother!

Then I started paying attention to the Primal/Paleo workout ethic. And I though this is garbage. Jumping over picnic tables in a park, or scaling a 6 foot wall, or crawling like a bear across the yard is just cardio and isn’t going to give you beautiful muscles. These are great exercises to add to intervals after lifting heavy ass weight. I think Parkour is awesome and impressive; but most of the guys that do it are 5’5” 145# guys without jobs. I like my men a tad more manly (even if they are only 5’5”!) and employed. And I want pretty muscles. You can say to me that you don’t want to be bulky and you just want to be tone. But what you are really telling me is you don’t want to be fat, you want to be lean. Please stop spouting this tone shit – a muscle is a muscle. It’s either developed and you are lean enough to see its beautiful developed shape or you aren’t. Adding muscle to your body will make it healthy and feel good. Fat is a metabolic poison and will disease every organ , adding muscle cures you of this disease instantly. Tone is another marketing word that drives me up a wall.

Marketing is amazing. It has a majority of the population convinced if they buy the shake weight, or ab roller, ab lounge, ab rocker, ab horse, ab blaster and anything with Acai in it, that you will lose weight. Most of these products are $40 or more. I’d love for someone to explain how the ab horse is going to make your calves look like pretty little upside down hearts in a pair of high heels. I’d also love for someone to explain to me how we lost weight prior to a berry found in a remote part of the world and is only available through extreme extraction.

I’m just amazed at the logic in this and how anyone could believe it. I really am. I guess I am too simple. I have zero marketing skills. The sad part is that folks are so used to spending their hard earned money on a gimic book, video, supplement one right after another that they have fallen into a zombie pattern of thinking if they spend the money the results will come. (hmmm…I guess that zombie invasion did happen after all) If you come to The Gym Cellar you will be asked to work hard. You will be expected to hold yourself accountable. You will make yourself a priority or I won’t. For me that is the only thing that works. Working. Really. Hard.

I personally love lifting weights, and not just Olympic lifts. I love skull crushers and bicep curls, dips, and stuff on the pulley. And when I was following some Crossfit workouts I wasn’t doing any of these exercises and I can tell you first hand my triceps look like shit right now. It doesn’t seem to matter how much weight I can press, these puppies will only v out if I dip and crush my skull like a mo’fo. That’s just how it is for me.

And that leads me to my other conclusion. Crossfit athletes that make it to the games are all athletes in another sport. Olympic gymnastics, collegiate baseball, tri-athletes, Olympic level biking, the list goes on. Now as sweet as that would be, I am a 33 year old mom, I am not going to be able to commit to a Olympic level of training any time soon and there are more folks out there like me then there are 40 year old former Olympians or 21 year old collegiate athletes. And the folks that are out there that are looking to lose weight and get in shape and aren’t sure how to do it because of the awesome marketing skills of the shake weight and Acai berry have them confused on what they should spend their money on need me, need my approach.

There is a difference between being smart and being successful and combining the two. And that is what I would have to do if I want to be successful in opening my own gym someday. I have to offer what I am good at, what I know 100 percent works. And Crossfit and Paleo don’t work for me.

I am good at Angela’s lifestyle. I have a lot to offer in the knowledge that I have and I continue to learn something new every day. I will never say I know it all, but what I do know I know inside out. So if I shove my cocky, know it all advice at you because you asked for it…..just remember you asked for it.

Shut the f*ck up!

So this is the comment someone left me right before I left for Hawaii a few weeks ago. The anonymous commenter went on to let me know that it is not a parent’s fault their kid is fat. That anonymous’ parents are both obese and that anonymous partakes in cheez-its and granola bars every day and is not fat. This anonymous commenter goes on to tell me how they work out all the time and it just takes “discipline” in working out and that my blog is bullshit.

So the first thing I did after reading this was chuckle; and then I deleted it. That is the great thing about having a blog. It’s MINE. I can delete the useless shit than any commenter leaves, or if someone wants to be an uneducated asshole as is in this case.

So “Anonymous” and I really think that it is precious that you tell me to “shut the fuck up” and can’t even post your name. You are what I like to call a “telephone tough guy”. All tough behind your computer or phone but in person you are for lack of better term a “weenie”.

But Anonymous I’d like to give you a little education on why I won’t “shut the fuck up” and why perhaps you should do a little research before you go spouting diarrhea of the mouth.



I know at 13 or 14 which I am guessing is your age you think you know everything – I’ll just go ahead and let you know up front your life tool box contains how to tie your shoes, “Grapes of Wrath”, brushing your teeth and wiping your ass. Best to practice the two ears one mouth rule and listen twice as much as you spout off.

So (boy can I say “so” one more time? Really…SO…..) in your pancreas you have these fancy little things called beta cells and alpha cells. Beta cells produce a hormone called insulin. Insulin is what scoops the excess glucose (ALL carbohydrates you eat, to include your cheez-its and granola bars, Anonymous, turn into glucose in your body) out of your blood and stores it as fat in your fat cells. You can only have one teaspoon of glucose in your blood stream at one time. And just for a reference look at the picture above – that’s how many teaspoons of sugar are in a can, bottle and 2 liter of coke. Cool, huh! Do you drink soda too, Anonymous?


So back to your beta cells. When you are young your organs are generally pretty resilient. You can, and our youth do, abuse the shit out of them and they can “bounce” back. This abuse is not strictly for the beta cells in your pancreas, but also includes your thyroid gland that produces hormones to that keep your body fat in check, your internal body temperature regulated, cleans your blood of toxins, your stomach which produces acid (and wheat products like your awesome cheez-its, have something called lectin which causes inflammation and eventual tears in your stomach lining – which can allow that cool stomach acid to leak through your body! Cool huh, eat up!) your liver secretes bile and metabolizes glucose and detoxifies harmful stuff by removing it from your blood. All these organs and hormones have to work correctly for you to have proper “metabolism” of foods and maintain a healthy weight. I hear people refer a lot to their metabolism. It is usually in reference that it is slow or doesn’t work properly and they use this phrase in a form of an excuse. Piss poor.

But as you age and this varies person to person, for me I saw a definite difference in my “metabolism” at age 30. Where having bread, chocolate, pepsi and other “treats” really slowed down my digestion in the form of constipation; I felt sluggish and started to get fat around my middle. However, (comma, pause for effect) some people experience this “lack” of metabolism as early as childhood. Or what REALLY started to happen are their hormones and glands stop working properly because of the foods that are consumed, i.e. wheat, and sugar. Like cheez-its and granola bars! Ding, ding, ding!

So Anonymous Commenter, what is probably happening in your case is that your organs are resilient because you are young. Your parents who are obese are not so lucky. After years of abuse of eating shitty food, just like you eat now, their beta cells have died off and they are probably insulin resistant with elevated glucose levels making their blood thick which causes them to get fatter with every cheez-it and granola bar and they are tired and fatigued all the time. See what you have to look forward to!! Eat up – maybe you should practice some discipline in what you put in your mouth, eh?

And sorry, I don’t care how much “discipline” you have in your workouts, when your glucose levels are too high you get so tired you don’t want to move much. When all the hormones and glands in your body work properly getting up and moving is easy, it’s what you WANT to do, what your body is designed to do.

I tried to dumb-down “how your body works” for you; I hope I was successful. If not f*ck off and find another blog or at least have the balls to post your name if you comment.