Tee Times!

Today I was teaching our sixth session of boot camp marveling at how much improvement I see in the campers’ form, strength, and stamina. I was impressed with their dedication and struck with how special it was that each day we add another child to the camp. After all, we workout on a playground; therefore it is very fitting that we are joined by children.  On Tuesday we had four babies in attendance and today we had three. I think it is organic that women can come workout and bring their children with them fusing two of the most important elements of their life together for one hour.

As we were doing our stretching and cool down I was offering some advice on diet and suggesting some cardio for the weekend (okay by some I mean  30-45 minutes of walking, jogging, running or a combo) and I found myself telling the campers that they deserve to exercise. That despite having children, houses, jobs in addition to the obligatory birthday parties, trips to Target and  family dinners, they actually deserved time to themselves to exercise. I reminded them that their husbands were sure to schedule in their tee times over the weekend and that as women we need to be more assertive in carving out our time to exercise. It brought me back to when I had my second son, only 16 months after my first, and I was sitting in my family room in cold gray February in Atlanta staring at two babies wondering how the hell they had gotten there.  I felt claustrophobic, scared and was in shock. I was 35 pounds overweight (I had gained 55 in pregnancy) and donning some baggy Juicy velour pants and Ugg slippers feeling as if I was wading through life underwater. I was foggy from the second delivery; I was overweight and I was overwhelmed. Although my husband was a good father and loved his sons he was typically overworked, over golfed and not very understanding of what my job entailed. He liked to “babysit” (aka care for his children) occasionally but more under the “enter stage left, exit stage right” guise. It was obvious that on weekends I was going to have to fend for myself.

I poured a glass of wine one night (yes, I was going to pump and dump after all it wasn’t baby number three yet and I was still by the book) and I went on line and ordered the biggest, baddest, toughest, coolest jogging stroller on the market. It arrived a few days and $500 later and the bright red fabric was symbolic as I was about to break out of my torpor. I tricked it out with a fuzzy sleep sac that I could zip my new baby into and loaded up a snack trap with some sugary carbs (hey, my son had years before his weight would be an issue and I was trying to lose some of my own) and stuck my headphones in my ears. I had loaded up my iPod with some good Hip Hop and the battery life read full. I was off. I ran that day for thirty minutes pushing two babies, one weighing in at 16 pounds, the other at 30 plus the 26 pound stroller frame and somehow made it up some of Atlanta’s hellacious hills. When I arrived back home I was out of breath; I was flushed but I was euphoric because I had broken free. I was out of my rut.

I ran every other day thereafter and peppered in two days a week with a personal trainer. I started to feel good again. It wasn’t about shedding the sloppy Juicy pants or shedding the padding that covered me like a Snuggie; it was about freedom. I was free to walk out the door and exercise while caring for my children. During those runs I felt complete. I had my two children with me and could literally look down to determine they were okay and I was exercising.  It was nirvana. As the running bug began to bite I started negotiating on weekends for time to exercise without the children. I won’t reveal all of what I bartered for time alone to run; however I will say that I stood my ground and could usually score an hour at least once a weekend if not twice. Usually it coincided with a football game that my husband wanted to watch on TV and it took me 30 minutes to fill bottles, write down notes on how to care for the children and point him towards the diapers and wipes. (he lived in the house yet he had no idea where we kept masking tape or diapers).

I began scheduling my week around my workouts and the children’s routine including naps and feedings. I kept up my bargaining with their father for time to go running alone on weekends. I started using my gym’s nursery which I had feared like the plague with one baby, but realized that you cannot live in a vacuum and any germs my sons caught in that nursery would help build immunity not kill them.  Mama wanted to be skinny! Is that a crime?

Today as we stretched I told the campers that they should plan their weekends now as not to lose momentum. Start thinking about when you can get out to run or walk and to prevail upon family or husbands to care for children if need be. I told them they deserve to exercise. They deserve to feel good. When a woman feels good she can be a better mother. Children are intuitive. They pick up on undercurrents. If you are tired, depressed or feel badly about themselves children know it. So when I look around at all the babies who accompany their mothers to our camp I smile because I have been there and it is wonderful to see women prioritize time to exercise and do so with their children.

Remember, there are tee times being set all over the town today for this weekend; go ahead and reserve yours! Line up your childcare, lace up your shoes, kiss your baby, and walk out the door-do not look back. You are free!

BOOT CAMP: Session 4

Good morning from Boot Camp!
One of the many babies that attend is sleeping away in the sunshine.

You can't beat having a boot camp in the sunshine on the water!

"Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance."

— Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose)

Timing is everything in life. I happened to pick up Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth a few short weeks before I was blindsided by a terrifying event threatening my life and that of my un born son. It took me a while to really get into the book. It starts out slow and I made the mistake of reading it poolside on a girl’s weekend in which my attention span was as short as the text in an US Weekly Magazine. I read aloud phrases to my girlfriends as they snickered. Phrases like (to paraphrase) “…to separate from the ego one must give away all material things and focus on fulfillment from within….from nature.” They laughed and one friend threw out the snide comment “Ya Megan, that sounds great for you…..sell your house, give up your pedicures and take a walk in the woods…then let me know if you miss your ego.” Well, truth be told, yes Tolle’s words reminded me quite a bit of Existentialism, which I had studied as an English Major in college. You know, Emerson, Thoreau. Those guys. The basic tenement was that ego was what got us in trouble; it was the devil on our shoulder. That in order to experience true happiness in life we must separate from materialism and derive joy from nature and our inner beauty. Actually, as I tuned out the laughter of my girl friends, I kept reading and got hooked on what Tolle was saying. It made sense; however , HOW was I going to separate from my ego?

Tolle had an answer for me. He said that in order to separate from one’s ego one must focus on the here and now-the moment. Not the past, not the future. He said we are constantly regretting or romanticizing the past which kept us “stuck” there and we are also guilty of projecting forward to the future which ultimately means we cannot live fully in the moment. Evidently, the moment is all we are guaranteed in life.

We have all watched enough Dateline NBC to know that in a flash our life can end. Car accident, disease, the list is long. I began to think about this concept of living in the moment and I was intrigued. The caveat of course is that you cannot hurt others in doing so. Tolle is not suggesting you run out, grab a drink with the pool boy, skip carpool and roll in around 3 am to an angry husband and a straight jacket. He is merely suggesting that we become more cognizant of appreciating the here and now and making the most out of what we have because theoretically all you are guaranteed is what you have now.

Weeks later I began hemorrhaging in my 32 week of pregnancy with my son Kane and was rushed to the ER and sentenced to bed rest until I delivered him in week 36 (if I made it). I was told that although he would be fine I might not live. The specialists marched in and out of my room and each time they left and the door clicked softly I broke down in fear. But then, thanks to Tolle, something switched on inside me and I had an epiphany: if I was going to die in a month I was going to live now and be thankful for what I had in the moment. I had everything. I had two healthy sons, a husband and a wonderful family. No one had cancer. No one was homeless. Life was good. In the moment I was perfect. I was blessed. It was simple. Someone was bringing me food, I had clothes, and I was pain free. What else could I ask for? I knew my baby would be healthy and had been told he would survive delivery even if I didn’t. MY LIFE WAS PERFECT!

In the hospital you have no identity. You are a number. A chart. You are not known for the neighborhood in which you live, the car you drive, the school your child attends, or where you vacation or work. You are a patient linked to a social security number. In essence, unwittingly, I had separated from my ego. All of my happiness had to be gleaned from within.

Each day a nurse would come in and change the number on my dry erase board which read “Baby due in………….(fill in the blank) days”. Each day I was one day closer to possibly dying. But each day was perfect because as she changed the number and opened the blinds I went through my mental inventory: the boys are healthy, my unborn child is healthy, my husband is healthy, my family is healthy, I have food and I am pain free. I repeated it over and over in my head. When I slipped into self pity as the hours dragged on, the days seemed eternal, my view of the parking lot had me down or my tanned friends dropped by with cupcakes and apologetic pitiful looks, I would repeat my new mantra. I was living in the moment. It was all I had. I was grateful for the moment in which my life was perfect.

Tolle’s book saved me that month from a deep dark depression and of course I lived to tell about it. I survived delivery but only barely having lost all of my blood and being only seconds from the death they had warned me about. A friend of mine is married to a partner in the Anesthesiologist group that worked on me and months later told me what had really happened in the OR, all the little twists and turns that saved my life including a coincidence which was the elusive hand of fate in the end allotting me more time on earth.

I don’t recommend hanging out teetering on the edge of life or death or jumping out of a plane to create an environment in which you are forced to appreciate the moment and to separate from your ego.  I experience it each time I run, each time I exercise.

During exercise you are forced to block out the loud voice in your head nagging you about all the tedious tasks you left undone or how bad you think you look in your jeans, or that fight with your best friend or husband. You are forced to concentrate. On balance. On breathing. On the here and the now. It is during exercise that I truly live in the moment. Each one is perfect. I am healthy;  I am moving;  I am alive.

Most importantly, during exercise, you have to separate from your ego. You are just another girl in black capris. You are not your house, your car, your children’s school; you are just you, sweaty, breathing hard-you. The moment is perfect when you are running across a field in the sunshine. The moment is perfect when you are doing sit ups. The moment is perfect when you are making your heart work hard as nature intended it to do.

BOOT CAMP: Session 3

Radioactive………..Kings of Leon’s new single made it onto the play list for our third boot camp because, well because I LOVE KINGS OF LEON.  It’s a great song to workout to. Great tempo. They sing, “It’s in the water………..it’s in the story of where you came from….”

And that’s how I feel about exercise. It immediately transports us back to where we came from. It’s like jumping into a time machine and traveling backwards to childhood. To the innocence of long full days, running until you collapse, laughing until your sides hurt, climbing, crawling, rolling-continuous movement. One can only learn from movement, from change. From birth to childhood to adulthood we glean wisdom from that which forces us to travel beyond our boundaries. Lou Holtz once said, “you are either growing or dying.” You are either changing or moving or dying. Exercise changes us. It changes our cardiovascular capabilities, it changes our muscle tone, it changes our chemical makeup, it changes our appearance and transports us to places we never knew we could go.

Our boot camp shares the playground and field with the students of First Baptist and towards the end of our workout yesterday something caught my eye-the beautiful brightly colored parachute used by gym teachers. Back in grade school I had loved when the teacher dragged out the parachute in gym class.  There was always something about the panorama of colors that contrasted greatly with the drab gym floor and walls.  The First Baptist students giggled as the wind lifted the parachute and then it floated gently back down to cover their heads. The other students ran and frolicked on the playground and I was instantly struck with the thought that all of us at Hazel Parker were privileged to be out there on such an extraordinarily beautiful day enjoying the simplest of pleasures, sunshine and exercise. There were flushed cheeks and smiling faces everywhere on both the children and the boot campers and it dawned on me; we were one. They were young, we were older, but we were all co existing in childhood, in movement, in change.

I am going through a period in my personal life right now of tremendous change. I am having to travel beyond my boundaries to see what I am capable of and it is scary but it is also exciting because I am learning. Any pain I experience as a result of my life shift will be temporary. All pain is. Much like childbirth, it hurts, we recover and most of us go on to do it again. Thank you Mother Nature for helping us to forget! When I encourage the campers as they are moving through their challenging work out it is the following sentiment that I try to impart.; pain is temporary. You will recover; you will forget.  I encourage them to race towards their boundaries and peer over the edge. I tell them they will survive. And they do.

Tidbit:

According to Dr. Randy Eichner, a Sports Medicine Expert, most subjects ate 1000 more calories than they reported and burned 250 less calories than they reported.

Recipe:

Salmon is nature’s perfect fish packed with Omega 3’s. I love Rachel Ray’s low carb recipe below which can be served with a simple spinach (always go dark green) salad on the side.

Rachael Ray’s Well Dressed Salmon

•    1/2 English (seedless) cucumber

•    2 small plum tomatoes

•    1 shallot or 1/4 red onion, finely chopped, divided

•    2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

•    2 tablespoons sugar

•    1/4 cup white wine vinegar

•    1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus a drizzle

•    1/4 cup fresh dill, finely chopped

•    Salt and freshly ground black pepper

•    4 skinless salmon fillets (6 ounces each)

•    Seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay brand

PREPARATION

On a cutting board, dice the cucumber into quarter-inch pieces – to peel or not to peel is up to you. Seed and dice the tomatoes into quarter-inch pieces. Combine the cucumber, tomatoes and half of the shallot or red onion in a bowl and reserve.

In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, sugar and white wine vinegar and the remaining half of the shallots. Stream in the EVOO while continuing to whisk. Stir in the dill and season the dressing with salt and pepper, to taste.

Season the salmon with seafood seasoning and a little black pepper. Heat a nonstick skillet with a drizzle of EVOO over medium-high heat. Place the salmon rounded side down and cook until golden and a little crispy at the edges, 3-4 minutes. Flip and cook for 2 minutes more for a pink center, or 4 minutes for opaque fish.

Transfer the salmon to dinner or serving plates; top with the cucumber-tomato relish and cover with a liberal amount of dill dressing.

BOOT CAMP: Session 2

Quote of the day:

"Self delusion is the most popular indoor sport."

Session 2:

Say hello to my little friend....Scramble and Ramble. We rounded the corner on our second day of boot camp and we had a few regulars return plus several newbies who impressed me with their hard work. Beneath a gray haze threatening rain we began our workout and some of my regulars winced as they began their Squats because the burning sensation hurt so good. We performed a series of timed moves and I was very pleased to see campers labor over their breathing because that meant I was doing my job. We plowed through each body part and got to my all time favorite.....(check out the "fun facts" portion of the blog for more info) Burpees! I just love them. They are the excercise to top all exercises targeting rear delts, hamstrings and abs torching 50% more fat than other strength training maneuvers. Love me some Burpees. The recruits are getting good at them though so I issued a friendly warning: "next week we are going from four count Burpees to five count so enjoy these." They are going to get harder. We completed the first segment of camp and after a generous two minute rest (what? We can't let the hear rate drop too much!) it was time for some fun. My former trainer, who was the strength coach for Georgia Tech Football, Lawton Heidrick, introduced me to his little friend called Scramble and Ramble. It was from his old football days and it is fun (fun like Pap Smears, and the Throw Up Virus) .The campers partnered up and one partner held Plank position while the other did push ups, crawled on all fours, then did more push ups, crawled some more..you get the gist. (and you are probably tired thinking about it). Then they sprinted back to their partner who was relieved to come out of Plank. I won't tell you how many times we did this. I will tell you their abs will thank me. And their shoulders....and their arms..... watching them reminded me of when I first began working out after having my second son and having to scramble around the floor doing this excercise thinking "gross my muffin top is hanging over my work out pants". I felt frustrated, fatigued and annoyed (because I was a germ a phobe and my hands were on the dirty gym floor). One day a couple months later I had gotten proficient at Scramble and Ramble and stopped worrying about muffin top because it was gone. The germ a phobia remained however. At least our campers get to scramble on the nice clean grass at Hazel Parker Playground in beautiful Charleston. See you Tuesday for Day Three. Get your cardio in over the weekend campers. Its free! Its your homework. Break up that lactic acid. Come back for more. I am proud of you.

Tidbit:

Try Agave all natural sweetener in lieu of sugar. It's three times as sweet and a third of the sugar on the glycemic index.

BOOT CAMP: Session 1

Quote of the day:

“If you keep doing what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten. “~Annonymous

Eating Tips:

Focus on the 10 Power Foods which fill you up and help build lean muscle:

Plain or Low fat Yogurt, Eggs, Nuts, Kiwi, Quinoa, Beans, Salmon, Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes and Berries.  Eat 1 gram protein per pound of body weight to build lean muscle mass (approx). 

Session 1:

Tuesday was our very first boot camp and it was uncharacteristically cold for Charleston or maybe we are just spoiled and when our weather has the audacity to turn from Indian Summer to true fall we are shocked despite the fact the rest of the country is already in sweaters and socks. The inaugural boot campers approached the field and I was excited to see friendly faces including two family members who shall remain nameless. Think Post Baby Family Member and Resulting Baby who by the way is absolutely beautiful. Actually on that note the “Post Baby Family Member” was my inspiration for starting my boot camp. I can recall the frustrated feeling I experienced after having my babies as I looked in the mirror and saw a shell of a body with traces of the old me. I felt used. I wanted myself back. I remember when I had my three babies and gained excessive amounts of weight the first two times. I managed to pack on 55 extra pounds with my first and second sons and laugh at how I was in denial about just how much weight I had really gained. In fact I came across an old photo of me from a Thanksgiving, in what I thought was an edgy maternity top back when the lacy lingerie style was in, and although I am convinced the camera angle was less than flattering , there I was literally bulging out of my lacy top looking like an overstuffed turkey. Thanks Pea in A Pod. So as my anonymous family member approached the field where we were going to workout I was transported back to the days when my post baby weight abounded and decided to do something about it and I got excited because I knew what she didn’t, that if she did my boot camp twice a week consistently she was going to drop the pounds quickly. It was time to get to work.

I had carefully selected my play list because everyone who knows me knows that I’m the whitest white girl who loves hip hop and having moved back from Atlanta to Charleston I had to remind myself I was no longer in the hip hop capital of the world. My audience may not share my fondness for the music I associated with working out. I mixed up some strong female artists, Keri Hilson, La Roux, Fergie, Rhianna and threw in some tried and true male artists like Diddy and Luda. (I even shared my birthday story in which I celebrated it last year with Luda in Atlanta at his restaurant-more on this later). I hit play on the I Pod and my first class began.

My clients were all in remarkably good shape and very lean so what was left to be seen was their cardiovascular endurance. I had a few runners and some yoga and Pilates devotees so it was quite a mix. The workout I designed however was strategically all over the map and high intensity so there was very little recovery time for these lean girls.

As La Roux belted out Bulletproof (she’s been there done that) we moved through 12 timed exercises using both body weight and free weights. The girls who arrived bundled up didn’t look cold anymore. I explained that we were doing “hidden ab” work by using our core on each exercise. There was a lot of squatting and lunging so I warned them that the next day would pose a challenge in walking down the stairs. I was focusing on the two parts every woman is obsessed with: abs and butt. Everyone seemed to be working hard but handling it well and then we moved to our second segment which we kicked off with lunges. Down the length of the field and back. One of our recruits’ daughters joined her in lunging which I found adorable because it takes a village to work out. They seemed mildly annoyed when I told them they were doing two sets of lunges; however I knew what they didn’t which was the lunges were easy compared to what lie ahead-the Crab Walk. Yes, you heard me correctly. The dreaded Crab Walk circa Eighth Grade Gym Class. Hey, I was wearing a stopwatch so I was going to exploit my power. Plus, it’s a great Tricep move. As long as you keep your hands facing forward and don’t cheat.  The precious little girl mentioned above decided to assist her mother in getting the most out of her workout by lying on her stomach as she” crab walked” thereby adding a whole new balance component. The recruits laughed as they ambled in the grass on their hands backwards occasionally collapsing but smiling all the while. (or was that me because I had the stopwatch?) They were troopers.  Afterwards I threw in some cone drills channeling my inner football coach and then we moved on to abs.

Thoughts on abs, I’ve always been told that in order to have great abs you have to burn through the layer of fat  on the surface so that you can see the muscle that lies below. This must be true because I know quite a few people who work out 7 days a week but still feel insecure about their abs. A great way to burn through this fat is jogging or running. It’s free and it works. It will rev up your metabolism like nothing else (Yes I am a runner and therefore I believe that it is superior to any other form of cardio period end of story you will not convince me otherwise unless both my legs are broken). If you focus on increasing cardio on your “off” strength training days and EAT RIGHT you can eliminate that unwanted padding on your stomach and once you build muscle it will finally show and VOILA-you have the abs you have always wanted. We worked through our ab segment focusing on crunches (which I had done the day before and still felt sore) and still my recruits fought through. A tip on most ab exercise to make them more effective: keep your shoulder blades off the ground as this forces the contraction during the crunch. As I watched Post Baby Family Member diligently fight through her crunches (please note Resulting Baby slumbered in his stroller several feet away) I recalled my first attempt at abs after having my second son and I could not complete one single sit up. Not one. It was as if my brain could not transmit the impulse to the muscles to contract. I knew what I needed to do but could not execute the move. Kind of like a sci fi movie. I felt proud of Post Baby Family Member who was able to do most of the crunches which I believe may stem from her days as MVP in soccer back in high school. On a serious note, whenever you physically cannot perform an exercise or you do so to fatigue you experience one of the most beneficial effects of exercise-humility. When I first began working out after having babies I had to fight to complete each move but in doing so I was stripped of my ego. And it is when you are stripped of your ego that you leave yourself open to new experiences because all the noise in your head and junk in you mind is cleared out. I think experiencing humility is probably the driving force behind my love of exercising. After all, it is during the quiet moments when you can hear the most.

The recruits were warm, glowing and relieved we were nearing the end of our workout. I instructed them to do one cool down lap encouraging some active rest to bring down their heart rates and even wiped the grass off their backs as they struggled to get up. 

In closing, our first day was fun and challenging and I look forward to tomorrow. These recruits were so good however I had to step up our workout  a notch so stay tuned………………..