Jillian Michaels Can Kick My Butt

The Food
I have weird taste. I admit that. But tastes issues aside, her food plan sucked. Problemo numero uno: the insanely low daily calorie allotment. She expected me to not only wake up every morning and take care of my house and kids but to work out on my BMR: a measly 1300 calories a day. Even refugee camps provide 1800.

Secondly, I don't know if I buy her whole "oxidation type" theory. I (kinda) get the science behind it but just because something sounds scientifically correct doesn't make it so. There are a lot of variables in metabolism and upping my carb intake by a lot didn't help my weight or my muscle at all.

Third, the food tasted terrible. Not to mention the overabundance of mercury-contaminated large fish (one day in my menu plan called for 6 oz. of swordfish followed up the next day with the same - the FDA recommends avoiding swordfish altogether as it is one of the most heavily contaminated fish in the ocean.)

Fourth, she came from a totally California rich girl mentality where organic produce grows on trees (hee!) and tempeh is at the corner gas station.

The Exercise
This part was obviously Jillian's field of expertise. She provided two new workouts per week, each repeated twice. The exercises were varied and worked out the entire body. She relied mostly on tried-and-true body builder standards like the squat and the bench press but added in some novelties I'd never tried before.

At first I thought her workouts were too easy until you guys pointed out to me that I could do them twice in a row. Once the Gym Buddies and I did that, we consistently got our butts kicked. Although I had to up all her recommended weights, speeds and inclines.

The one thing I didn't like, and I know I'm being nit picky here, was that her exercise program felt a little bit "old school" and not in a good way. Her reliance on the Swiss ball and push-pull technique were all very hot a few years ago but have since been relegated to the what-were-we-thinking bin. It was only after I looked back at the copyright date that I realized the book actually is several years old. So it was probably cutting edge... when it came out. (So don't ask me why they are marketing it like it's new now.)

My Results
Weight: +9 FREAKING pounds (but we've already discussed that that was probably due to the over training and not to Ms. Michaels)
Body fat: +2% (sigh)
Measurements (ready for some weirdness?)
Waist: -1/2 inch (after gaining 9 lbs???)
Arm: +3/4 inch - goooooo biceps!
Hips: +1.5 inches
Butt: +1 inch (which I admit that I kind of like. I don't have much of a butt usually)
Thigh: +1.25 inches

Gym Buddy Allison's weight and measurements stayed constant.

My Conclusions
There was nothing really exciting or earth shattering in here. The strength of the book lies in Ms. Michaels' considerable charisma. I loved her honesty about how hard she and other H'wood types work for their physiques. I loved her no-nonsense no-coddling here tone. And, since I now own the book, I will probably continue to use some of her workouts (slightly adapted, natch) to break up my routine. But the food plan - blech. And I have to say that I will NOT miss her smirk on her cover photo. Seriously, after a few days I started turning it over just so she'd stop looking at me like that.

I know a bunch of you tried this one with me - what were your thoughts? Results? Anyone end up with Jillian's abs??

Fiber: Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing?

When it comes to eating disorders I often have a been-there-done-that-bought-the-t-shirt attitude. What I forget is that despite being around since at least the Greeks, these pernicious disorders are constantly evolving to take advantage of current trends and products. So it was with some surprise I read an e-mail from a brave and beautiful reader. She writes:

The past few days I've been extremely bloated with water weight, edema I suppose. It's everywhere, but most noticeable in my legs, fingers and belly, but definitely water weight. I know you've done a lot of reading on eating healthy and on different diets and such, so if it's okay and not too triggering for you, I was curious about your opinion about what might be causing this. I don't eat a lot of salt - I don't like salty-tasting things and try to eat as little preservatives as possible, so I'm definitely not consuming excess sodium, and I drink several liters of water a day (usually 6 or so), so I'm not dehydrated. I do binge and purge; I had it under control for a bit but the fast few days have been doing it again, but it has NEVER in all my years of ED behavior made me this bloated with water weight. I've recently been taking fiber powder as a laxative, and I suppose taking an excess amount (a cup and a half some days, and a serving is two spoonfulls). It's weird - I always said I would never take laxatives because it's not "real" weight loss, yet I'm taking insane amounts of fiber (though in my head that's not a laxative, just has a laxative effect). Part of me just wants to make the bloat from the b/p go away (and somehow thinks fiber will make that better instead of worse). A friend mentioned that excess fiber can actually cause bloating, and too much can have the reverse effect if you don't drink enough water... but I do, and this is more water weight bloating than food weight. Is it possibly related to the fiber still, and do you have any ideas of what it could be or how to make it better? It's been messing with my head since all my clothes are tight and it affects the number on the scale and is just plain uncomfortable. I don't know if you have any experience with this or have read anything about this in all your research, but if you have any thoughts about it or ways to make it go away.

Can You Have Too Much Fiber?
The Harvard School of Public Health recommends 20-25 grams of fiber a day for women and 30-35 grams for men. However, they don't really set an upper limit. For most of history getting too much roughage in one's diet was not really a problem. In fact, most Americans get far less than the recommended daily amount. People eating real food find that fiber ends up being self-limiting. Sure lentils pack a whopping 16 grams of fiber per cup but anyone who has eaten an entire cup of lentils can tell you how that feels - after they return from multiple trips to the bathroom, that is. But in this day of Metamucil, Benefiber, and fiber-fortified cereals, granola bars, pop tarts, waters and even soups, people who trend towards the more-is-always-better school of thought can easily overdose on the stuff.

Fiber is a tricky thing. Too little and you end up being constipated - as all those strangely invasive commercials will tell you - not to mention that fiber helps with heart health, reduces diabetes and helps with irritable bowel symptoms among other things. But can you have too much fiber?

Excess fiber, generally defined as greater than 50 grams per day, has several well-documented effects. Besides the gastronomical effects (everything from explosive diarrhea, gas, and cramping), it can lead to vitamin deficiencies as it interferes with their absorption. Not to mention the excess bloating mentioned by the writer of the e-mail.

Using Fiber To Purge
The part of the e-mail that really caught my eye though was using fiber as a purging technique. Bulimics have long used emetics, laxatives, diuretics, exercise and even feeding tubes as ways of purging food from their systems. But taking a cup and a half of fiber powder (the equivalent of 90 grams of fiber) to achieve the laxative effect is one I'd never heard of before.

After thinking about it though, I can certainly see where the temptation lies. Both Gym Buddy Allison and I have O.D.'ed on fiber powder - weirdly on the exact same day, you should have heard that conversation at the gym! - and both of us did it out of a desire to use fiber to control our weight. The problem is that everywhere you look, fiber is the new "it" word for weight loss. Fiber "fills you up" and "triggers satiety" and even, as evidenced by Fiber Choice's Weight Management tablets, help you "control your weight."

I've bought into that marketing mania. If I have a choice between buying a regular granola bar or a "fiber bar", I pick the fiber bar every time. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Except that all the extra fiber adds up and now my body is used to a lot of fiber and needs it to, you know, keep things moving. It's funny how these things sneak up on you. Everything I've read says that if you eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains you'll get all the fiber you need from your diet. So why the huge boom in fiber-enhanced products? I'm guessing it's for the money. Either that or some ConAgra CEO finds "sharts" funny.

If you've never seen this Sarah Haskins video before, it's a must-watch! Warning: use the potty first if you have a weak bladder.

My Great Dietary Fat Experiment: How eating more fat made me healthier

Betrayed by my body. Well it wouldn't be the first time, I thought grimly as I sat in my flimsy paper gown listening to the doctor explain the results of my previous testing. (Dear doctor, please at least allow me the dignity of being lectured with my clothes on next time.) Seriously rank flatulence in a crowded TurboKick class, rogue panty liners, acrobatic falls off the treadmill - really I could go on all day - but this time I was torpedoed by own blood.

It was my yearly physical and my cholesterol, while below normal, showed a disturbingly low level of HDL or "good cholesterol." The doctor told me to eat better (hah - that was coming off my orthorexic phase, if I ate any cleaner I'd squeak!), get more fiber (my colon is so radiant so you can see it from space - I'm a natural wonder, right up there with the Great Wall of China) and exercise more (hello, it says compulsive over-exerciser right there on my chart that you're holding!). But then he added, "Eat more good fats."

At that point in time - yes, just two years ago - I was still afraid of fat. I know. This will be hard to understand for those of you that did not come of age in the fat-phobic '90's but back then fat was public enemy #1. Eating fat makes you fat - makes perfect sense, right? I learned to count fat grams before I learned to count calories. (Thank heavens I got that pricey graduate degree so I could learn how to make Excel spreadsheets to tabulate all my macronutrients!) And while the zeitgeist in the health community had changed - Dr. Oz went on Oprah and explained to a nation of women about the wonders of extra virgin olive oil and avocados and we all got breathless over the 7 continents study - there was still a lingering fear of fat.

For one thing, we were told there were "good" fats - pretty much anything plant based - and "bad" fats - anything animal based or man made. That made sense to me. At that time I was hovering between being a vegetarian and a vegan (more on that struggle later) and didn't like animal products anyhow. The health community still instructed us to drink skim milk and eat fat-free cottage cheese and yogurt. We were still warned to keep fat calories under 30% of our daily total. And I'd been doing all that! Perfectly! (That's me, Type A all the way!) And then here I was with an "extremely low" freaking HDL? I was irate.

So I did what I always do when I'm upset. I called my sister (you have no idea how many ledges she has talked me off of - love you Laura!) and then I made an offering at the altar of the almighty Google. What I discovered after weeks of studying the issue shocked me. Here's what I learned, in a nutshell: Fat does not make you fat, not even lots of it. The only truly "bad" fats out there are transfats because they're an unholy abomination created in a lab. American diets are very heavy in Omega-6's and low in Omega-3's and while both are good for you, you should be eating much more of the latter than the former.

I read Gary Taubes, Michael Pollan, Dr. Eades and (warning: blog crush ahead) Mark's Daily Apple. They told me to eat fat. Lots of it. All kinds of it. But to stick to whole foods sources. I decided to try an Experiment but I knew this one had to be longer than 30 days to see an effect. So for the past year I've been eating a crap-ton of fat.

Veggies are stir fried in coconut oil, butter is slathered on oatmeal, olive oil is generously poured over salad greens, meat is eaten with the fat intact, all my dairy is full-fat (bonus: new research shows that full-fat dairy can reduce your risk of type II diabetes), popcorn is coated in coconut oil (before being dusted in chili powder and lime which is a-MAY-zing if you've never tried it) and nuts are eaten by the bucket. Every meal I eat has a lot of fat in it. (How much I'm not exactly sure as I stopped counting calories a while ago as it's my one-way ticket back to eating disorder land but I can guarantee you it's well over the 30% recommended by the American Heart Association.) Heavens to Betsy, I eat my two morning eggs whole, yolks and everything!

I certainly enjoyed my trip to Fat Heaven - my skin felt better, I stayed full after meals longer and by golly everything tastes better with coconut on it! But how was it affecting my health?

Diet Tweaks: Carb Cycling and Protein Shakes

This can't have ended well. And also, why is there a can of whipped cream??

photo credit: professional recreationalist

"Chug, chug, chug!" "Just slam it!" and my personal fave: "I should have brought my beer helmet." This month's Great Fitness Experiment, continued from last month's Rachel Cosgrove: The Female Body Breakthrough*, has the Gym Buddies and I releasing our inner frat boy. Not that that's hard to do what with all the burping, pit sniffing, grunting and "adjusting"- albeit more northern than southern -going on in our group. (Side note: Speaking of bizarre noises in the gym, you should have heard Gym Buddy Krista and I trying to explain to the others what Zuzana sounds like in all her videos. We got more weird looks than usual that day. The girl has crazyintense workouts but take my advice and watch them with the volume turned waaaay down.)

While I have mainly focused my posts on the workout portion of Cosgrove's book (this last phase is killing us! Send help, and Icy Hot, stat!), she does include a section on diet. It's nothing you haven't heard before: eat 5-6 mini meals a day with a protein and fat at each meal, eat lots of veggies, watch the fruit, ditch the sugar. She tells you to strive to eat healthy 80% of the time. Some of you asked me how this fit in with my Intuitive Eating. I did - and am - sticking with IE as it has been so successful for me, both mentally and physically but I will say that the way I eat intuitively matches up pretty well with her recommendations. There were only two dietary points I had problems with: the protein shakes and the carb cycling.

Protein Shakes for Better Muscle Growth and Recovery

The source of all the aforementioned beverage-induced chanting is our daily protein shakes. R.Cos instructs you to drink a protein shake within 15 minutes of finishing each weight-lifting workout. Her reasoning is that some studies have shown that eating a blend of quick absorbing protein and carbs right after a weight workout builds more lean muscle than with no post-workout refuel or with just a carb drink like Gatorade. Not being a fan of protein powder, I originally considered showing up to the gym with a chicken breast and an apple but apparently "quick absorbing" macronutrients is the key so it had to be a shake. Another option is chocolate milk but I'm not a huge fan of drinking milk and I'd prefer to get my sugar from fruit rather than high fructose corn syrup.

Many of you love your protein shakes. Whole blogs are dedicated just to the art of shaking. I, however, am the girl who made turd cookies so clearly I can't be trusted with fancy recipes. Here's my super uncreative shake recipe: handful of frozen berries, couple chunks of frozen avocado, BIG handful of spinach, big scoop of full fat plain yogurt, 1 scoop protein powder and enough water so my Vita-Mix (also known as the only appliance that has a permanent home on my countertop, I love it that much) doesn't have a heart attack. Deb the Smoothie Girl even took pity on me and sent me a package of xanthan gum and guar gum which are supposed to improve the texture of the shake. (Dear Post Office: please ignore the shipments of baggies filled with white powder arriving at my door. Thank you.)

I still don't love my protein shakes and here's why: I like to chew. Nay, I need to chew. I still chew my protein shake even though there is nothing to bite down on and this makes me sad for my poor deluded jaw muscles. I'm not the only quirky one though. Gym Buddy Jeni insists on plopping a scoop of protein powder straight into her water bottle and shaking it up: baby formula for grown-ups! Krista cannot be bothered to make a shake but she does love protein bars and even brings some to share. It's like a big, unhygienic protein potluck on the stretching mats! Allison, also a big fan of chewing, absolutely refuses to have anything to do with the protein shakes.

In the end, I decided to go ahead and stick with the shakes because while I don't really love them, the research is pretty compelling and frankly I feel better when I eat right after my workout. I'd often leave the gym feeling a little light-headed and shaky and if I had to run errands that meant I wouldn't eat lunch until a couple of hours later. The shakes fixed that problem right up!

Carb Cycling for Greater Fat Loss

The other interesting dietary tidbit in Cosgrove's book is the age-old bodybuilding concept of carb cycling. The gist of it is that you have a certain number of low-carb days - three is popular - followed by one high-carb day with the theory being that you'll lose fat on the low-carb days but get the crucial glycogen to your brain and muscles on the high-carb day. Another reason bodybuilders use this to lean out is because they say carbs cause your body to retain extra water to store them so when you drop the carbs, it can help you de-bloat as well.

I didn't do this. First because it wouldn't work at all with my IE and second because I have already tried this. And tried this. And tried this. Back in my macronutrient-tracking days I did many iterations of carb cycling. It didn't seem to do much for my body except to make me binge on carbs on the high days. I know some bodybuilders swear by this - Cosgrove does - but I haven't had much success with it physically and it also makes me crazy.

Conclusion: protein shakes, surprisingly, thumbs up! Carb cycling, thumbs down.

Do you have a fave smoothie recipe that's simple enough even I can't screw it up? (Feel free to leave links in the comments!) Have you ever tried carb cycling? How did it work for you? Do you have any frat boy gym habits??