Health and Fitness Tips – Your Questions Answered

1. Start calorie counting. Go to the calorie king website, join (its free) and start monitoring your daily intake. Get it down to 1200-1500 cals/day. Thats 3 x 300cal meals and 2 x 150 cal snacks. Use herbal teas and water to overcome the initial hunger pangs.
2. Join Lite and easy: It's a weekly delivery of calorie controlled food. Even if you only do it for two weeks you will start to learn about portion sizes.
3. For an initial boost, replace 1-2 meals per day with weight loss shakes. Complete powder is my favorite (chocolate).

As for your training. The frequency is good (4-5 times/wk) but you need to seriously ramp up your intensity. You need to be at absolute maximum effort at the end of each Pump class. Your muscles should be sore the few days afterwards. RPM is good but again you need to challenge yourself. Reduce the rests between tracks, dial up - big time! Keep your pedal speed in time with instructors legs. 

With your cardio program try this:

• Rower 1000m as fast as you can. Record your time and try to beat it each session
• Treadmill 30min: 10% incline for 3min, flat for 2min. Then 6.8km/hr for 3min, 6.0 for 2 min. Keep alternating those for 30min. Any reason why you aren't jogging - even a little? jogging will get you faster results. Try this, even if you think it's too hard, you can always hop on the side for a quick 10sec rest then keep going. After a few times you will be fit enough to do it without stopping.
• X trainer 15min as per your aerobic program. 

Like I said, diet is the key and you really need to get down to 1200-1500cals per day. Sometimes it takes some mindset training to look at your obstacles and what is holding you back, sometimes it's just education, other times there are some emotional road blocks that need to be cleared.  If you need some support around this I'm here to help.

Amelia

• No bread before bed!
• Train in the morning before breakfast
• Have a killer long session on the weekend

• 4 x cardio sessions (45min-1.5hrs)
• 2 x strength/weights sessions (1hr)

The real key for you Shelley is your diet. I know many people who train twice as hard and long as you and still put on weight. Exercise alone is no garentee of weight loss. Diet is 80% of the equation. The secret with your diet is calorie counting. 1200-1500 calories per day is what the biggest loser contestants are on and they do up to 4hrs per day of exercise! Now Calorie counting may seem easy but it's a bit of a bitch having to write everything you eat down and work out the calories. It does work though and you'll have that knowledge for life.

One suggestion I have for you is to join Lite and Easy. They have a 1500 calorie per day plan whereby you get delivered all your meals and snacks once per week and they are calorie controlled. It takes the guess work out of your diet and is a great way to teach you how big your portion sizes should be. I think it costs about $128 for the week's food which is pretty good I think (I spent that on dinner last Saturday!). If you did it for the whole three months along with your training, I have no doubt you will lose the weight.

The other option is you could do some online training with me. I imagine we'd be focussing mostly on diet as you seem to have your training sorted, but I can design your diet plan and help you stick to it. Here's a link to the online training if you're interested. 

Best of luck

Amelia

1. Pump Class: Due to the high amount of repetitions in this class your muscles tend to firm up instead of grow in size. The weights remain lower than what you would lift in the weights room, yet high enough to stimulate a response in your body. I suggest doing it twice per week for a month or until you are at the desired arm tone, then dropping it back to once per week. Pick someone in the class who looks like your level and copy their weights for the first few classes. It's a great workout!
2. Boxing or cross training: I know you're probably thinking about the size of Hillary Swanks arms in Million dollar baby but she was training 4-6 hours a day for that role! I would suggest 2 boxing classes per week. Boxing works so well becuase it loses weight whilst toning at the same time. Like pump the reps are light and fast which prevents bulk. It's a really fun class but try different instructors because they will either make it or break it with you.
3. Reformer pilates class: I would suggest a semi private format where one instructor is overseeing a group of 1-8 people. You have a specific program that you follow that has been designed with your goals in mind. Pilates often focuses on the core but using your uppoer body to hold you in certain positions. I would let the instructor know that you would speicifcally like to work on your arms.
4. Pushups and tricep dips: If all else fails, the good old fashion body weight exercises work wonders! When you get up in the morning superset pushups then dips. Do 12 of each then repeat for three sets. Try doing the pushups on your toes by lowering yourself down for 5 seconds on your toes, then drop your knees for the up phase (which should last 1-2sec). Do this every second day and I bet in 2 weeks you'll notice a difference
5. Cheaters arm toners #2: Moisturiser. When going out at night rub a more oily based moisturiser on your arms. They'll look great in photos
6. Cheaters arm toners #2: Fake tan. I use Dove's moisuriser with a medium tan every second day. It creates such a nice glow and helps to really define the shape of your arm. There are bronzers you can apply just before you go out as well. I like Model Co Airbrush instant bronzer.

I bet Jen Anniston does most of those things!!!

Send me a finished product pic!

Amelia

Hi Jo, You poor thing. There is nothing worse than an injury to set you on a downward spiral. It is ok to get down about it for a short while, but 10 weeks and 4 kg is well and truly long enough! I think your time is up! Many people lose weight without even exercising so don't let that be an excuse for gaining weight. As you say it's more the fact you are comfort eating than not exercising. My first suggestion is to get your head right. Invest in a self help book or something that will snap you out of this funk. "How full is your bucket" is a nice, easy but insightful read. Any of Tony Robbins books are good. The seven habits of highly effective people is one of my favs. Even the first section of Crunch Time by Michelle bridges rocks. You've got to set some new goals even if they aren't fitness related. My next suggestion would be to start counting your calories. It can be a drag at first but it is really the most successful way to truly understand how much you are eating. Every time you want to comfort eat, have a cup of tea or a low calorie vegetable such as a carrot. If you eat 3 meals per day plus 2 snacks you will be eating every 2-2.5 hrs so you not let yourself eat other than those times. Your snacks should be around 150 cal such as a banana and apple, muesli bar, 1/2 serve protein shake (be sure to check the cals because they can be very dense). My workout suggestions would be cycling for cardio. Not sure if your foot can handle that yet, but it might be worth a try. Also rowing on the ergo machine might work. Try it gently as there is some heel contact but because you are not lifting your bodyweight, it's negligible. I would do 3 x 1000m on the rower (about 15mins) with a 1min rest between each set. I would then use the bike for 15-20mins followed by smashing out some weights. That's a serious workout and will blast some calories. My other workout suggestion would be swimming. If you're like me and the thought of water is about as enticing as a massage from Newman then I'd suggest joining a swim squad. They have beginner - advanced and they teach you stroke correction, varied drills and time trials. Beats traipsing aimlessly up and down the pool. If you're adventurous you could even try deep water aerobics. It is hard when you can't touch the bottom. Just remember Jo getting your head right and setting new goals is the first step, which we all know can be the hardest! Good luck, I am sure you'll be back to your old self in no time... Amelia