Woman of Fitness: Robbin U.

My name is Robbin. My life, for the last 32 years, has been divided between raising my two children and working as a nurse on a labor and delivery unit of a local hospital. I cannot remember a week that I have not worked at least 50 or so hours. Overtime always helped make ends meet. A little over 5 years ago, I went into management on the same unit. The hours remained the same, but the stress level went up exponentially! It was that same year that I decided to take care of me.

I had stepped onto a scale at the doctors office and could not believe what I saw. I had been on Weight Watchers most of my life and decided to add exercise. I took a Zumba class at the local park district and the instructor told me that she taught the class at Women’s Workout World as well, and I joined soon after. I never imagined that Zumba would take me where I wanted to go, but slow and steady won the race.

As I started losing weight I started new classes. I tried Turbokick early on, but I could not hang. 65 pounds later I was running back to Turbo because I wanted that challenge. Some of the weight crept back on, and I am determined to not allow that to happen. So at almost 60, I am going to kick it up and I started to take team training.

I have always been a strong-minded person, and now I am going to let the trainers at W3 help me to become strong in body as well! I used to say that I wanted to lose weight and get healthy for my kids. They are grown now, and I truly believe that when I really do it for myself, I feel better. I do not feel my age, and that is a great feeling!!

Oh… and did I mention that I am a HUGE Cubs fan??? 🙂

-Robbin

7 Weight Loss Myths

Ever find yourself following every rule in the book yet the scale won’t budge?
You feel as if you’re doing everything you’re supposed to but still look the same? Let me tell you, we’ve all been there. Unfortunately there is a lot if misinformation out there that may be throwing a roadblock in front of your weight loss. We all seem to believe that the same rules apply to everybody, yet we are all different in our own ways. Some have slow metabolisms while others (the lucky ones) have fast ones. Some benefit more from cardio while others find success in strength training.
Below are seven of the most common misconceptions women believe to be true about weight loss.

#1
You Have to Work Out to Lose Weight
While it’s true that exercise burns calories, many are able to shed pounds without it. “Weight loss is a simple matter of calories in versus calories out” (Karen Ansel). For some who lack restraint, exercise may cause overeating from feeling hungrier. Weight loss aside, all experts agree that working out it good for you in more ways than one. To create a healthy balance is to consume filling foods that are healthy and lean. Veggies, complex carbohydrates, and lean proteins will leave you full for longer and more energetic.

#2
Eating After 6pm or 8pm Causes Weight Gain
There is no evidence out there stating that eating after a certain time causes weight gain. The truth is that eating oversized portions at night usually indicates that you ate badly throughout the day. The best way to control how much you eat at night is to manage and space out your meals evenly throughout the day.

#3
Your Metabolism Slows With Age
Although most people tend to go up on the scale with each passing year, age is not the cause of weight gain itself. Most people pack on the pounds/fat mass due to muscle loss. Our metabolic system is consistently adjustable. This is why strength training is so important as we age. It will help protect our muscle mass while refining our diet.

#4
Carbohydrates Make You Fat
With so much fuss going on about cutting carbs or not eating them at all, it’s so hard to know what to believe. The confusion stems from the fact that many Carb foods are comfort foods that are very high in calories. However we find ourselves in a world of scientific research claiming that “cutting carbs under 130 grams a day can affect your brain function due to the lack of serotonin production.” The best way to eat carbs is to eat the healthy ones like fruits, veggies, and whole grains.

#5
Drink Water and Lose Weight
Water is essential but not a magical way to weight loss. It is commonly believed that the intake of water will flush toxins and fat from your body, but “the toxin fat connection does not have a scientific basis.” What happens is that consuming water replaces other beverages, reducing caloric intake.

#6
Just Eat Healthy Food and Lose Weight
Eating high portions of high-quality foods such as olive oil, some fish, brown rice, or nuts can cause just as much damage on your body as eating butter, pizza, fries, or cookies. The lesson in all of this is portion control. When you are not hungry, stop eating! Many people think they are hungry but really are dehydrated. Balancing is the key to weight loss. No one says you can’t have a slice of pizza here and there but don’t eat the entire box!

#7
Eating Small, Frequent Meals will Boost your Metabolism.
News flash! While the messege is right, the reasoning is reasonably off. We hear it and think, “oh yeah, it makes sense, in order to keep things moving you have to have them working.”
Wrong.
Eating portion controlled meals every three to four hours doesn’t actually boost your metabolism. It only helps prevent cravings that make healthy food choices more difficult. However eating small meals has many other benefits. It fuels your body in short intervals keeping it alert and awake. When we are deprived of food we become cranky and lack energy. Eating healthy and frequently in smaller amounts make you happy while creating a positive energy- increasing the chances you’ll make healthier choices!

Learning how to properly lose weight is tough. With the amount of diets, books, and misconceptions we have out there, no wonder we have an obesity epidemic. When it comes to yourself and your meal of choice, ask yourself will you be happy after the meal is over?
Another thing to keep in mind no matter how short or long a workout is, a workout and your body can only benefit!
Love yourself, love your body, and treat it well- it’s the only one you have.

Chicago Bootcamps at W3

Looking for a Chicago Bootcamp? Look no further! We have bootcamps at our W3 locations on the north side of Chicago, south side, in the Loop, Tinley Park & Berwyn!

Currently, for the holidays, we are running a specific challenge bootcamp for those women looking to fit in their holiday dresses this year. This Chicago Bootcamp is called W3’s Little Black Dress Challenge! It’s open to our members but also non-members as well. If you’re looking for a flexible Chicago Bootcamp, check out this challenge… it’s all of our TEAM training which uses functional training techniques. Max of 12 women in a class with a coach. The beauty of this bootcamp is that it’s flexible. We KNOW our members and their friends are BUSY during the holidays… traveling, family parties, cooking, shopping, etc. SO we decided that we aren’t going to hold anyone to a particular time frame. You just tell us how many classes you can do between now and December 31st, and we’ll set you up on the best bootcamp for you. Remember… it’s best to get those classes done sooner rather than later. 3x/week is the ideal bootcamp because you can really start to see a change.

Chicago bootcamps are for Chicagoland women looking to get RESULTS… and that’s exactly what you’ll get at W3! 

So do you need to lose weight for that holiday dress? Tighten up that tummy? Tone your arms for a sleek sleeveless dress? No problem! Just search Chicago Bootcamps and find us. Enroll in our Little Black Dress Challenge today!

Is Diet Green Tea Good for You?

I was in one of our W3 locations the other day, and a member approached me with a nutrition question. She asked me what I thought about diet green tea and is it good for you? Interesting question I thought…. Anything with the word “diet” in it is usually altered in some way, usually more than one, so no, it’s not good for you. I went on to explain…

Natural green tea has zero calories in it. “Diet” usually means that it is reduced in calories, oftentimes to zero, so if natural green tea has zero calories, diet green tea shouldn’t exist. She looked perplexed.

Basically, it’s backwards, and kind of sad that the food/diet industry would take such a great, natural product and morph it into something unhealthy… and then marketing it to the public as if it’s going to help them lose weight. WRONG!

Basically, unnatural green tea products, so any type of bottled green tea that is sweet, was created by adding tons of sugar. This sugar=calories. In today’s world, every sugary drink needs a diet version, right? So the food/drink industry went on to create a diet version of green tea, so they basically do the same thing that you would do to make Coke “diet.” You take out the cane sugar and replace it with additives and fake sugar/aspartame, making it zero calories and extremely (unnaturally) sweet…. basically this makes drinking diet green tea equivalent to drinking diet coke. I don’t recommend it.

It’s unfortunate that it’s marketed in such a way that it’s good for you. Green tea IS good for you and has great health benefits; it’s even linked to helping you lose weight! But that’s natural green tea. I have a great recommendation for you. Buy unsweetened, natural green tea. The bottle should literally read 0 calories and the only ingredients should be green tea and water. If you don’t like the way it tastes, add zero calorie, natural sweetener, such as Truvia or Stevia. It has zero calories and doesn’t include the dangerous aspartame. It’ll make it sweet and keep it healthy!

There you go- hopefully that answers the question!

Stay focused, stay fit~

 

Why Do We Insist on ONE Hour Workouts? Quality over Quantity!

Where did this misconception come from that we must workout for exactly ONE hour? I’m going to do weights for 30 minutes then hop on the treadmill for 30 minutes… Or I’m going to take a 45-minute class and then do 15 extra minutes of cardio…or I’m going to divide up my 1 hour of cardio into 20-minute segments on different machines, so I don’t get bored.. we’ve all been there, but do we know why? Why do we think we didn’t have a great gym session unless we stayed on the elliptical for at least 60 minutes? This is a very common misconception with people who exercise regardless of if their goal is to lose weight, get healthy, stay healthy, tone, etc. Let’s crack this weight loss myth!

First, it is important to realize that no workout is a bad workout. If you’re debating coming into W3 to workout, and you decide not to for reasons other than an injury or sickness, you will most likely regret it later (but you’ll never regret a workout). So, coming to the gym for 30 minutes is definitely better than not at all. But the question is still “why do we think that 60 minutes is necessary?” Maybe it was a goal that you decided to work up to, starting out at walking at 10 minutes and now you can do the elliptical for 60 minutes- great! But it may not be necessary. Quality over quantity in exercise oftentimes fares better than thinking how long you exercise is going to allow you to achieve your goals. Especially for weight loss, lifting a 10 lb dumbbell 10x over a 2 lb dumbbell 30x is going to get you results a lot faster. The quality of lifting a heavier weight will build your muscle, increase your metabolism and therefore, aid in your weight loss a lot faster.

Lastly, to demonstrate our point that a longer workout (such as 60 minutes) vs. a shorter workout is not necessarily better is the concept of HIIT- high intensity interval training. A lot of W3’s small group functional training is based around this concept of bringing your heart rate up for quick intervals and then back down again. The benefits of high intensity interval training and the speed at which this helps you achieve your goals far outnumber other types of exercise, such as steady state cardio on a treadmill. (and these workouts are definitely less than 60 minutes!) The benefits of HIIT, such as Tabata training, include time- efficient workouts, fat-burning during and after workouts, healthy heart, and weight loss (not muscle loss!) The fact of the matter is that during these short, intense workouts, most of your weight loss is coming from fat stores whereas steady-state cardio usually burns at least some muscle. If you’re looking to lose weight, just remember that longer does not always mean better, and you don’t have to stick to any specific (60 minute) rule. Get a good, strength training, fat-burning workout in, and you’re good to go. If you haven’t already, just try one of our functional training workouts. Don’t be intimidated. There are levels and modifications for everyone. Just try it- you’ll be amazed by how you feel afterwards and the results your body will see, too!