Some insight from the lovely Jillian Michaels!!!

Q: Why does my online workout program consist of just one day of pure cardio and four days of weight training? Although I love weight training, I've always thought it's the cardio that really helps a woman like me lose the weight. Why so little pure cardio?

ASK JILLIAN: Okay — I love dispelling this myth. Resistance training when done in circuits with cardio intervals is the best way to lose weight for the following reasons:

1. Resistance training will help burn intramuscular fat and create lean muscle tissue, but you can’t build muscle mass unless you are lifting extremely heavy weights and eating more calories than you are burning in a day. Additionally, it is VERY difficult for a woman to gain muscle mass because we simply don’t have the testosterone needed to build muscle tissue the way men do.

2. Resistance circuit training burns more calories than straight cardio both during the workout and after. This is because you are getting the benefits of a resistance-training workout and a cardio workout all in one. Additionally, you will burn more calories for up to 24 hours after weight lifting than you would with cardio alone because your body has to work hard to return your muscles to a pre-lactate state (the state before training).

Here is what cardio is good for: weight-loss extra credit. In other words, you can only train your muscles so many times in a week without overtraining them, which is counterproductive. Your muscles need adequate rest and recovery time for best results, but you can do as much cardio as you want. I mean, you can’t run a marathon every day, but you can jog, bike, use the elliptical machine, or swim pretty much as often as you want.

From December 1st to now.

I've always loved people dedicated enough to continually blog. I've never been able to keep up on a blog for longer than two weeks, but, this time I'm blogging about something I'm really passionate about; weight loss.

For anyone that's known me longer than a second, it's pretty evident that I struggle with my weight. First of all, I was HUGE. Second of all, I eat like a pig. And third of all, I'm self conscious about it. I cannot count how many times I've taken a picture, then looked at it on the screen and deleted it right away... demanding that we take another picture. I constantly ask "Am I as big as that person??" I need to be compared to everyone.

As I was writing up my Christmas wish list for my mom and Mathew (my boyfriend), I HATED that for the second year in a row, I was putting down my size as an 18. Or an x-large top. xxl if the top runs a bit small. I felt disgusted by myself.

When I was in grade 12 (2004-2005), I decided to start a diet. I was graduating high school and wanted to fit into a prom dress. And at a size 16 (what I was at the time), you barely fit into anything prom related. I was 225 pounds and my mom, my dad, and I all said no more. We dived into our healthy eating (no exercise!!) and I lost FIFTY pounds by my prom! In fact, I had to have my dress taken in!!! I was a size 12 and felt happy at that size. As soon as I'd had my last dress fitting, I abandoned the diet and started a new diet... the fast food diet. I ate everything I'd craved for the last six months while dieting. And continued. (I'm really trying to find some photos but this may have to wait until next week when I can do a more thorough search!!)

I moved onto res at ABU in 2006 and I started to gain more weight. Now into a size 14, I was still happy with where I had been, and knew I could lose the weight I wanted to... when I wanted to. I'd proven my determination before and lost 50 pounds!!!

Well, flash forward 4 more years, and I had gone from 175 pounds in 2005 to 245 pounds in 2010. It was time to stop. I weighed more than my mom. I weighed more than all three of my brothers (and some of them are six feet tall!!!) and I weight around the same amount as my dad. I was disgusted with myself.

The breaking point was when I had travelled home in November for a long weekend and got on the scale and it read "245.5". In October when I had gotten weighed, I had been 242. I started to panic as I realized that until I CHANGED something, this number would continue to grow.

Here are the things I changed:

I started small. I watched portion sizes. I stopped eating fastfood. I made stir fry pretty much every night. And by the time I got home for Christmas, I was wearing a size 16 (from my 18) and was down to 228!!! 16.5 pounds in less than two months, and all I'd done was start to pay attention to what I was shoving in my mouth.

My brother bought me a scale for Christmas, which was a huge blessing. Having a scale in my apartment in Moncton made me accountable to it. He got me the fancy "Biggest Loser" scale that tracks your weight, etc.... but it didn't come with an instruction book and I've never figured out how to use it. I get weighed EVERY day... eek! I know people say not to do this, but let me tell you the NUMBER ONE THING I've learned in MY weight loss journey... it's all about what makes YOU comfortable and what suits YOU best!!! People say not to get weighed every day because you can become discouraged if you're up from the day before. My scale weighs to even decimal numbers (.2, .4, .6 etc) The way I see it (and this isn't for everyone, but it is what works for me).... if I haven't lost at least .2 pounds in a day, I'm not doing something right. If it is healthy to lose 2 pounds a week, then I should be able to lose at least .2 pounds a day!!!

My friend introduced me to www.loseit.com - WOW. This website is incredible! If you're reading this now and you're not on it... JOIN! It's easy to use... and it's free. Some of my friends have said to me they stopped using it because they couldn't find the food they'd been eating, or the restaurants they'd been to. Well, there's a solution for that. EVERY SINGLE THING YOU EAT (with the exception of fresh food :) has a calorie count on it. You can add foods in! Keep track of how much you're eating so you can add in the portion sizes and everything. And, if you're eating out... most restaurants have their nutritional info available online so you can get an idea of how many calories you're eating from their website! And, when all else fails... I just google it! Google always has the answers. Loseit.com even allows you to enter your exercise in and it subtracts the calories to show you how many more calories you have to eat (I try to refrain from eating the calories I've burnt off, unless I've had a really insane day at the gym. If I burn more than 400 calories at the gym, then I start to eat back the calories I burnt off!!)

I got a gym membership! First at Goodlife, but then I cancelled that and joined the YMCA. I LOVE the Y! They have tons of classes, an incredibly friendly staff, tons of machines... and a POOL! You CAN lose weight without going to the gym, but somewheres along the way... my losing weight became a lot more than just losing weight, it became becoming healthy. I bought a heart rate monitor and whenever I exercise I closely watch it. You're supposed to maintain a level of 85% of your maximum heart rate when working out. For me, thats 165 beats per minute. I try not to go below 150 or above 175.

I fell in love with Jillian Michaels. Anyone that talks to me can tell you I quote Jillian Michaels at least 5 times in any given conversation. I joined her website (it was 52 dollars for 13 weeks but has been hugely helpful). I use some of her recipes, but don't follow her meal plan to a tee. I mostly use her website to learn different things to do during exercise. The first thing I learned was that cardio is not the best way to lose weight. I was SHOCKED! I always assumed that cardio cardio cardio was the way to go. No. Using a method of cardio interspersed with different strength moves is the best way. So, I'll do two strength moves, like bicep curls with lunges and then basic crunches, and then one minute of jumping jacks or skipping rope. This is good for you because it keeps your heart rate up constantly. I do about 30 minutes of this and can burn around 350 calories just by doing this! I always do cardio, too, though! It's a great way to strengthen your heart and its good for your joints. I prefer the elliptical because its a total body work out. I try to do half an hour of cardio every day. After my cardio, and my calisthenics (by the way, you can do this at home. If you're looking to lose weight, Jillian Michaels has a work out video called the 30 day shred and it is absolutely fabulous! You can get it at wal-mart or chapters. The only thing you need to do the video is hand weights. I know you're going to go to the store and go straight for the five pound hand weights. PUT THEM DOWN. Two pounds IS WAY MORE than enough for someone just starting out!!!!!) I then hit the pool. I try to swim some laps (not very good at it) and when I'm not doing laps, I just try to stay constantly moving in the pool. You're probably reading all this and thinking "wow, so much time". It's not. I spend an hour and a half at the gym five days a week. How much time did you spend in front of your computer today?? Or in front of the tv??

... I understand people need down time, I really, really do. But the benefits of a healthy lifestyle are UNREAL. I am constantly reading new statistics and am shocked at all the great things my body's going through!!! I am the happiest I've been in a long, long time. I have more energy, I need less sleep. I fight less often. And when I go off my diet (or "program" as I like to call it because its so much more than just a diet) I can tell. I don't mean just once, I mean for a couple days. Which brings me to one of the last changes I made.

I treat myself once a week! Unless I've been cheating and treating myself all week, hehe! But usually on Friday or Saturday I take a day off the gym and eat a couple foods I've been craving. I try to keep my treat under the 1000 calorie mark (which sounds really high, I know!! But a bonus 1000 calories a week if you've been doing really well is very, very okay. And is equal to about .3 of a pound.)

I have one more change in my "program", but its something I believe to be the most important so I don't want to just throw it in here. I'll do a new blog for it in a couple days. It's about proper nutrition!!

So, where am I now? From 245.5 on November 14 to March 30th, I'm down to 204.4. I've lost 40.1 pounds. I am incredibly proud of myself! People that are jealous say things to me like, "It's not healthy to lose that much weight that fast". And that may be true if you weigh 150 pounds. But I am losing weight in an incredibly healthy way. I eat a totally balanced diet, following the Canada Food Guide portion suggestions to a tee. I eat three meals a day, plus snacks. I consume 1400 calories a day (at least!!!). And I'm working out. I know when people say things like that they just don't understand the dedication that comes with PUSHING yourself to do something that means a lot to you.

My goal weight right now is 165 pounds and according to my loseit account, if I keep up the way I've been going, I'll be at my goal weight by August 16th, just in time for my birthday! And in time for me to start a new goal weight.

Jillian Michaels says it's just as important to have a fitness goal as it is to have a weight goal, and so I share with you, my friends, my fitness goal.

Next May, I will be running the Bluenose marathon (half-marathon!!!) I've started training and WOW is it hard!!! But I know it will be so worth it... to know I went from the girl who wouldn't even get off the couch to get my own drink.... to the girl that ran a half marathon!!!

I'm a little wordy tonight but I promise I won't always be! I just had so much to share with you for my first blog!!!

I hope you keep coming back and reading about my healthy lifestyle journey! and if you'd like to talk about you and your options with me, I'd LOVE to chat with you. I am incredibly passionate about helping people make choices that will change their life like they've changed mine.