While everyone has different motives for exercise, they also have different ways to prepare themselves for exercise. While I prefer stretching and fifteen minutes of cardio to get the blood pumping, that doesn’t work for everyone. Smoothie shakes, fresh fruit, granola bars soon escalate to power energy bars, caffeine loaded drinks and finally powdered mixes with long lists of warnings and enough caffeine in them to power a compact car for a couple days. And not one of those electric ones, but one of the older Cavaliers or something similar. Maybe a Volkswagen Thing. The point is, and this may be my unofficial not scientifically supported opinion, that shit is dangerous. For example, this is the warning on a pouch of [brand redacted so I don't get sued for slander]; “DO NOT EXCEED RECOMMENDED DOSAGE. EVER.”

Mind the “ever” part. That’s quite important. One serving contains the equivalent of 1 1/2 cups of coffee. Sure, that’s not too much. But we sip coffee, not chug it right before a workout. Not to mention all the other fun stuff listed as ingredients on the bag. None of which have any value as far as vitamins or actual nutrition are concerned. Instead, it’s full of guanosine, Creatine and a bunch of other stuff that sounds like a biologist got together with a chemist and started making up words. I just don’t trust it. But a lot of people do, they see all the exciting stuff on the front of the bag, all those big words that must mean the product is awesome. Right? Frankly, it reads like a used car advertisement sounds.

For instance (words moved around to again avoid slander):

“Pre-workout Psychoactive matrix ignites white-hot intensity and explosive strength*”

The asterisk is to indicate reference to a small phrase on the back of the package which states that the statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. But hey, your pre-workout matrix will totally be psychoactive. What exactly does that mean? It means that all the caffeine in there will chemically mess with your brain so that you feel like you can lift anything. Because caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world. Behind that? Opiates, cocaine, anti-depressants and of course LSD. This package claims to have a whole matrix of psychoactive. Is that the kind of workout some people are looking for? The psychoactive one? Sounds abnormally violent.

Of course it’s all marketing. Hence the comparison to the used car advertisement. Not to come down too hard on the general audience for these products, but most of them don’t know what half of the words on the packaging mean. Hell, even I had to look some of the phrases on these packets up to be sure. Vaso-Muscular? Just a fancy way of saying blood vessels in muscles. Yes, last I checked they were there. However, if you add caffeine to them, they restrict. What’s that? There is also nitric oxide in the mix?

Well, that opens up blood vessels. So let me see if I’ve got this math right. Caffeine + nitric oxide = right back where you started but with a giant caffeine buzz.

Perhaps that’s what some people are looking for, that mega jolt to get them super pumped – to the maxx – before they go into the gym. I can see that. I commute for an hour to and from work, I’m worn out by the time I get to the gym. I could use a boost; usually it comes from a protein bar an hour before and a can of diet Mountain Dew. At least I don’t have to worry about liver damage and the other multitude of side effects from the pre-workout supplements. Putting any amount of chemicals in your body – including caffeine – puts extra stress on your liver. I drink my 80 ounces of water a day, but if you are taking those things, you better chug down no less than 100 ounces.

So then you are suddenly carrying some extra water weight, which can be mistaken for muscle gains on a scale. To be sure I wasn’t off base with this, I asked one of the many personal trainers that I know who informed me that creatine (a major ingredient in most pre-workout supplements) creates nothing but water weight. She also added that fat burner pills simply dehydrate you and are nothing more than a scam. If you saw her and how she’s sculpted her body through natural remedies such as eating healthy and exercise, you’d believe her too.

Anyone reading this blog probably already knows all this, mostly I just wanted to crack jokes about the outlandish claims on all these pre-workout supplements. So here’s another one that I found amusing:

“The most advanced intra-workout muscle growth amplifier in the world.”

Intra-workout means during the workout. Muscle growth amplifier means that while you are lifting weights, already amplifying your muscles, this stuff will further amplify that growth – with water weight. Oh, it doesn’t say that does it? Imagine if apples or bananas were advertised this way? It would be hard to keep them on the shelves and they could jack the prices up ten-fold.

“Apples – scientifically proven to enhance your intra-workout muscle amplification to the maxx with mega Amino acids! To the Maxx!”

Curtis Silver is a core contributor to Wired’s GeekDad blog, a founder of the daddy blog Everyotherthursday.com, a contributor at Shamable.com and trolling the internets on his blog. Follow on Twitter @cebsilver for regular cynicism and “them jokes.”

Guest Post by Tracey from I’m Not Superhuman

Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not a fitness junkie or a superstar runner. I have 80-year-old knees (or so says my doctor) and I’m about as nimble as a sumo wrestler. I downed an entire chocolate bar today—and not dark chocolate or the kind that helps little rain forest animals.

So I’m not the most perfect healthy living example out there. For the past seven years, I’ve been dealing with knee pain that’s made running impossible, walking painful, and shopping nonexistent. (And, no, clicking around Amazon.com doesn’t count.)

Up until a year ago, I knew my place. A friend wanted to meet up? Not if it involved walking a few blocks to the restaurant. I needed a new pair of shoes? No way am I brutalizing my knees at the store. Yup, I pretty much knew that I was a good-for-nothin’ gimp.

And then something happened.

After a train-so-hard-your-muscles-burn physical therapy session, I went to the grocery store. (Don’t roll your eyes—that’s a big deal for these achy breaky knees.) Not only did I go in, but I shopped every aisle. And my knees didn’t crunch themselves into red, hot discs of pain. I realized that maybe I wasn’t giving myself enough credit. Maybe I’m stronger than I think. Maybe my injuries are healing after all.

Fact is, we don’t give our bodies due praise. I say mine’s too broken. Someone else says theirs is too big. Another person says theirs is too weak. And so on. I’ve learned that my body is in pain, but it can do more than sit around on the couch all day. (Not that I don’t do that every once in a while. Ahem, today.)

Our bodies do some pretty amazing things, and we need to recognize that. Here are three ways to notice your body’s potential:

1. Push Yourself.
You don’t know what your body can do until you try, right? Maybe some athletes spring out of the womb with a deep understanding of their talents, but most people find out just how far they can run, swim, hike, or pedal by doing it. I might not be pushing myself to learn whether I’ll one day scale Mt. Everest (baby steps, folks) but I can try to learn just how far I can walk without my knees flaring up. And if that means I have to canvas the entire mall doing it, then so be it. There are no limits to my rehab dedication.

2. Ask Friends.
Some time in January my mother told me that she saw a ton of improvement in my knees over the past year. I had been visiting my parents for the holidays and both noticed how much longer I could stand, how much further I could walk, and how much less inflamed my knees got. We’re the best at noticing our flaws, so why wouldn’t we assume our weight isn’t budging or our muscles aren’t getting more toned? But sometimes we lie. For real, honest-to-goodness answers, ask someone you trust. (And, no, no one else thinks your nose is big.)

3. Trust Strangers.
I’ll never forget the woman with auburn hair and black warm-up pants who passed me in the gym and said, “That looks hard! You go girl.” That’s right, another human who wasn’t injured thought an exercise I was doing was hard. Chances are, there are strangers out there who think you run far (I do!) even if you haven’t hit your goal. There are people who think you’re skinny even if you pledge to lose another five pounds. And there are strangers who think your dinner last night was healthy—even if you splurged.

Of course, the hard part is actually giving yourself praise. So, I’ll go first: These two crotchety knees may cause me a lot of grief, but they got me through the grocery store. And they’re awesome for that.

Your turn.

photo cred: dideo

I’ll bet you’ll say no. You don’t feed your kids candy, soda or cookies. You know too much sugar is bad. Right? You’re just not a freak about it. Am I right?

Well, listen up. I use to be just like you. A good mama — buying organic, eating healthy, giving my kids Annie’s and Cascadian Farms stuff, all that. Until last week. That’s when I pulled my four year old off sugar and learned the biggest surprise of my life.

Okay, two biggest surprises.

1. Sugar is like crack. Detox is hell.
2. I am a sugar pimp. Who knew?

Here’s a typical eating day at my house for my 4 year old. For the sake of exemplification, I’m going to tell you the sugars for 1 “serving.” See how you compare to me. (We don’t do dairy – but you can be assured that milk also has sugar in it!) P.S. We don’t do veggies well either.

Breakfast:
• GoLean Crunch 13 g or Gorilla Munch 8 g with Pacific organic almond milk 6 g
• Scrambled eggs 0 g
• (weekends: Ian’s French Toast Sticks 5 g plus Aunt Jemima Lite Syrup 25 g)

Lunch:
• Oroweat multi-grain sandwich thins 2 g with Smucker’s Low Sugar Strawberry Preserves 5 g
• ½ apple 7 g
• FruitaBu Fruit rolls 13 g
• Apple juice 28 g

Snack:
• Cascadian Farm Organic chocolate chip granola bar 12 g Or
• Craisins 26 g and cashews 0 g

Dinner:
• Chicken hot dogs 0 g
• Apple juice 28 g
• Cantaloupe / grapes 10g
• Bread 2 g and Olivio spread 0 g

Holy Sugar, Batman! This is between 100 g to 150 g of sugar a day.

I’m not going to lie. It was torture removing sugar from my 4 year olds’ diet. You will hate your life. But it’s only for a few days. (Have you watched those television shows? Expect some serious mood swings.)

Now, you may be wondering why I put myself through this craziness. Well, health reasons like . . . food allergies, concentration, fatigue, headaches, fat storage, hyperactivity, . . . the list goes on and on. Plain and simple, less sugar = a healthier child. For us, I’m hoping it will help my baby girl with seizures, migraines and constant fatigue.

Still not convinced? Email me and I’ll give you a homework assignment of reading to convince you.

Then, when you decide to believe me, here’s what you do . . .

1. Take sugar out of your child’s diet. No sugar. (white sugar, honey, maltodextrin, malted barley, brown sugar, sucrose, fructose and high fructose corn syrup.)
2. Read all labels. Grams of sugar? Ingredients? Look carefully, most prepackaged foods have sugar.
3. White flour and corn act like sugar in the body. Don’t eat.
4. Take up cooking. (Sorry.)
5. Use sweeteners like agave, Stevia and Xylitol.

Where to start? Here’s some suggestions approved by my four year old.

• brown rice spaghetti noodles with Olivio spread
• egg white shake (vanilla)
• eggs – scrambled and hard boiled w/ salt
• So Delicious yogurt (vanilla)
• Think Thin bars (green packaging – white choc chip is a favorite)
• cashews (salted & toasted)
• rice crackers and hummus
• chicken hot dogs
• Ezekiel tortilla pizza: no sugar red sauce + rice cheese
• oatmeal w/ Stevia
• brown rice tortilla or brown rice cake with Sun butter

You will notice a HUGE energy increase in your child – it’s been an incredible difference in my little one. Before the sugar detox, she’d get so tired in the morning she’d say, “Mommy, my legs say they have to lay down now” or “I feel like I need to lay down.” That is not normal four year old behavior!

The good news is that I haven’t heard her say those things lately. She’s not lying down in the middle of the grocery store. (Dirty, I know!) She’s participating in her gymnastics class again instead of asking to lie down. She has energy back in her body. I’m beyond thrilled. I will never give her that amount of sugar again. Ever. (Me, either for that matter!)

Although I’m not a nutritionist, I’m happy to support you if you have any questions. Melissa@imaginationsoup.net May the sugarless force be with you. You can totally do this!

Melissa is an expert parenting and education writer with a M.A. in Education from the University of Denver. As a classroom teacher for many years, she lived the educator’s life. Now, as a mom, she knows and experiences education from a parent’s perspective. In May 2009, she created Imagination Soup — a blog about fun ways to learn at home in math, science, reading and writing. Melissa’s writing portfolio is online at http://melissatayloronline.com .

(I have been a long time fan of Patricia Moreno’s and used to take her classes religiously when I lived in New York. Please check out her site SatiLife to learn more about her fabulous program intenSati)

This month is about being daring enough to tell yourself the truth about what you really want. Sometimes we don’t even let ourselves dream big because we have too long of of list of reasons why we are sure we can have it. Often the reasons are something like, I am not good enough, smart enough, it’s never happened before or it’s just too hard.

I dare you to let yourself dream and tell yourself the truth about who you really want to be, do or have. Since you become what you think about all day long, training yourself to hold the real dream and set aside the fear about the ‘how” will allow you to connect to your heart. Once you are living in your heart instead of your head you will find your truth and the way.

So what is your real dream? Do you want to fall in love and have a great relationship? Do you want to make more money, be rich? Do you want to start a business, travel the world, have a baby, get really fit, healthy, or write a book?

Start by simply allowing yourself to really voice what you want.

When you really want something, I absolutely believe that you also have along with the desire, everything it takes to fulfill it.  Your job is to convince yourself that you are deserving of it. As soon as you convince yourself, you will have it. Why not you?

Right now write it down. Be clear about what you want and by when you want it. Then notice all of the negative thoughts that pop up right away. For some of you, you may not even let yourself have a dream.

Then do one thing everyday that will support your dream. Do anything that keeps you in the mindset. More ideas will come as you go along but you have to get into action.

Next part is to make whatever thoughts that do not support your dream “illegal”. You are not allowed to have the thought “I can’t, it’s too hard, I am not good enough, I’ll never make it, etc” delete it from your vocabulary and see what other thoughts you can come up with instead.

I dare you to dream big, fail big, and get up again!
What else is there to do, just pay your bills?

Enjoy it!
Love,
Patricia Moreno

If being a leader is your calling think about the intenSati training. It is my dream to have intenSati in every major club in the country but I need you! If you are interested or you know your gym might be interested send me your contact info at leadertraining@satilife.com  – Thank you for your support!

photo: jillalyn

(originally posted on MizFit)

Now we need to make sure the room is jam-packed.

Consider yourself commanded to be there if you’re at the conference.

Unable to attend?  Feel free (wink) to tweet the session or post about it on your blog.

In my opinion it’s as simple as this:

If we arent willing to step up & guide the next generation as best we can what hope is there for change?

When: Friday July 24th.

What time: 1:15-2:30

What is it?:   Blogs & Body Image: What are we teaching our kids?

In a society where more young girls fear becoming fat than they fear cancer, nuclear war, or losing their parents, some bloggers are taking a stand against teaching their children learned behaviors that affect their body image.

Heather from MAMAvision, Carla Birnberg, aka MizFitOnline, Claire Mysko, Kate Harding, and Roni from Roni’s Weigh have worked hard to improve their own self-esteem, and are asking the question:

How can your blogs be a conduit to transformation?

Join this session to discuss how your writing can impact kids, whether you should think twice before publishing that self-deprecating post, and how you have the power to influence positive change.

photo:mikebaird

Guest post by Kiki of Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat? If you haven’t done so already, you must check these ladies out! This super fun duo ( Kiki & Greta ) are hilarious!

There’s a self help saying that rhymes like this, “name it, claim it.” The theory being how can you get better if you don’t first admit you’re sick? Well I have some long held diet delusions and I’m naming them. I’d like you to take a lighter and burn them okay? Maybe then they can stop slapping me down.

Name It Diet Delusion - I can lose 5 pounds a week.
Now since 1969 this has happened ONCE and I had mono but still. It’s like how I believe I will have that dance with Danny Zucko at the gym sock hop. I can’t let it go. (And young tweens of today flash forward to 2028 and replace Zucko with Zac Efron, also in the gym. What I’m saying here is save your pity you’ll need it for your own future self.)
Claim It
Losing 1 to 2 pounds a week is a healthy pace for permanent weight loss. Losing 1 to 2 pounds a week is a healthy pace for permanent weight loss. Losing 1 to 2 pounds a week… yadayada

Name It Diet Delusion – I will get down to my goal weight by {insert occasion}. When I arrive at {insert occasion} I’ll incite desire in some and rage in others. And I will also instantaneously know how to ballroom dance at this new weight.
Claim It
Healthy eating is about lifestyle change and a lifestyle commitment not careening toward {insert occasion.} And no matter what you weigh ballroom dancing is likely not going to spontaneously break out. ALSO you shouldn’t want others to be enraged by your thinness. It’s about health not jealousy. However it is perfectly fine if everybody wants you. (Ask Billy Squire.)

Name It Diet Delusion - I will start my diet tomorrow/Monday/January 1st.
Claim It
The choice for a healthy lifestyle starts now, not Monday. Each minute is a choice. Each minute is an opportunity. And each minute those friggin’ cookies sit in the kitchen all naked and exposed they gain strength. Must destroy cookies.

Name It Diet Delusion – I can’t help it. I have no willpower.
Claim It – I AM SHE-RA, PRINCESS OF POWER, MISTRESS OF THE UNIVERSE. MY WILLPOWER CAN RENT THE EARTH ASSUNDER! Sorry. I got a little carried away.

Name It Diet Delusion – I’ve already cheated so I’ll just eat everything since the day’s already ruined.
Claim It- It’s that choice thing again. A mistep shouldn’t lead to totally chucking my progress. A mistep shouldn’t lead to chucking my progress. A mistep yadayadayada

Name It Diet Delusion – I love chocolate. I can’t live without it so much a lot. (My love of chocolate can’t be bound by grammar or sense a lot.)
Claim It – Fat Free Sugar Free Jello with whipped cream is just as good. This is a lie. Chocolate so much a lot is better. God help me if loving it is wrong I don’t want to be right.

Name it Diet Delusion – I’ll start exercising after I lose a few pounds.
Claim It- Exercise is about health and strength. It is not about weight. No matter what size I am exercise needs to be a part of my daily life. Besides if Patrick Swayze and I are really going to get that lift right I’ve got to work on my core.

So everyone – Name Your Diet Delusion and Claim the Solution. There are people out there right? Did I delusion that up too?

And don’t tell the guards but I’ve now lost 13 pounds since January. Keep it to yourself or they’ll make me put it back on. The guards like to boss She-Ra around. Friggin’ Guards.

Guest post by the lovely Rachel from Fitness for Mommies. Rachel is a mom, wife and athlete passionate about fitness, running, cycling, yoga & pilates. I am always inspired to push myself further after reading her blog. She is currently training for the St. George Marathon (October), with a goal to qualify for Boston. I know she will do it! Go Rach!

Yoga. You can either love it or hate it. But, we all need it in our lives. Whether you are a seriously fit gym goer or an avid athlete, you need yoga to balance your body. I learned an incredibly tough lesson recently that I’d like to share with you. A little background, I have been an athlete my whole life. If I wasn’t running, I was cycling, if I wasn’t doing either of those things, then I was hiking 10,000 peaks with my lifetime sierra club member Dad. When I was young, my dad ran his first triathlon at the young age of 43. This has a profound impact on who I am today. Currently training for my fourth marathon and Coach Al always SAID to pay attention to any tightness or twinges that you feel. I paid attention, I just didn’t know what to do about it! Twinges can turn into a serious injury. On a 20 mile run last weekend, I had run 15 miles and then. my. knee. went. out. (Knee pain is never the true cause of the problem- it usually starts in the hips!) Turned into three miles of jog/walking before I got picked up by hubby. Not sure I could have seen this problem coming, but the truth is I have felt weird twinges all through my body on every single long run. Stress, impact, mileage will turn a weakness into an injury. What is the solution? Yoga. But, specifically, yoga and stretches to strengthen YOUR weaknesses. Felt like I was given a piece of cake, when Coach sent me this link. Wish I had been doing this all along!!

Introducing Sage Roundtree: endurance athlete, cycling coach, triathlon coach, and a registered yoga teacher and author of the Athletes Guide to Yoga. I have been particularly excited about the Podcasts on her site. Most are only 5 -10 minutes long (FREE) and they are specifically designed with an athlete in mind. Of all the yoga DVD’s I have been doing, NONE focus only on the hips! Three Cheers for that! Check out Yin Yoga- only 3 or 4 poses but held a really long time for a deep stretch in the hips. Also, check out the Core and More workout. Challenging plank poses that can be done anytime anywhere with your yoga mat or not.

Lesson learned: Listen to your body! It is telling you something. Try to figure out the weakness and work on that!

photo: Tony George