a little umph

The difference between try and triumph is a little umph. Striving for ultimate health through better nutrition and effective exercise. And don't forget the fun. Have a question? ASK On a non-fitness related note: First A Whisper, Then It Grows

[agustofstrength]

I have become convinced that the most overlooked tool in our medical arsenal is harnesing the body’s own ability to heal through nutritional excellence.

Dr Mehemet Oz (via agustofhealth)

[yogadudes]

[alittleumph-blog]

Two words for why I will never be 100% vegan ....

SMOKED GOUDA!

[mercurialmemetics-blog]

[browndresswithwhitedots]

[alittleumph-blog]

fuckthereallife:

marleyandme:

Avocados are a piece of heaven.

agreed 100%

[alittleumph-blog]

A pretty extensive list of ideas on how to reuse/recycle your old yoga mats.

[alittleumph-blog]

Eleven ...

workouts this week. Three of them were today (Saturday) before breakfast.

I'm fucking exhausted.

As soon as I finish this beer in my hand, I'm going to pass out and not wake up until my body assures me that it's had enough rest.

p.s. NSV (non-scale victory) this week: I walked around pulling up my jeans, which fit me snugly at Christmas. I even pulled them on without unbuttoning them. Take that, you stupid scales!

[alittleumph-blog]

Hitting the afternoon lull ...

and desperately trying to push past it.

I'm not sure what in the hell is going on with me. Every afternoon around 2:00pm until 3:30pm, I hit this wall and all I really want to do is take a nap.

It's not going tohappen, though. I have an indoor cycling (RPM) class to teach this afternoon and then it's yoga (BODYFLOW) right after. I'm a little disappointed, though, because I was really looking forward to doing Zumba this afternoon. Unfortunately, our RPM instructor called in and I'm the only one who can cover. So cycling it is.

And since I haven't checked in lately, let me just give you the run down for this week so you know that I haven't been slacking:

Monday - Elliptical in am, ZUMBA in pm

Tuesday - RPM at 7:00am and RPM at 4:30pm

Wednesday - FatX101, workout #1 (second round) - elliptical 30 minutes

Thursday - RPM, BODYFLOW

Friday - FatX101, workout #2

Saturday - RPM at 7am, BODYFLOW at 9:15am, and ZUMBA at 10:30am

[alittleumph-blog]

Ahhh, yes!  This is what we are having for dessert today.

[fuckyeahmyhealth]

[alittleumph-blog]

fuckyeahhealth:

(by Les Stockton)

I can't wait until the produce section in the local grocery looks like this because right now it is a pretty sorry display they have going on.

[higherarchivesii-deactivated201]

[alittleumph-blog]

Staying physically fit may reduce your time spent sick during cold and flu season by nearly 50 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers from Appalachian State University and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Researchers followed 1,002 adults younger than age 86 for 12 weeks in either the fall or winter of 2008. Participants reported how much time they spent exercising and rated their own fitness on a 10-point scale. The researchers found that after adjusting for potentially complicating factors such as age, body mass index, education, fruit intake, marital status, mental stress and sex, people who exercised at least five days per week spent 43 percent less time with an upper respiratory tract infection than people who exercised one or fewer days per week. The reduction in sick time was caused both by lower infection and quicker recovery rates.

[alittleumph-blog]

Slammed: An Update

Where am I? Where are the updates? Is this still a fitblr page or what?

Believe me, I feel bad that I'm only being a bit sporadic with updates lately. Unfortunately, I have no choice right now. All of the New Year's Resolution people are slamming me on a daily basis at the gym (I manage the front desk at my fitness center, among other things).

This is a good thing for several reasons:

1.) It's good for business and provides me job security.

2.) More people are coming to the gym to meet some kind of "healthy" need they are experiencing.

3.) The group fitness classes go from a few diehards that are always there to a packed room of enthusiastic people (which is awesome from an instructor's standpoint).

This is a bad thing for several reasons:

1.) Unfortunately, 90% of them will no longer be coming to the gym by the end of March. So they will slam me again by calling and insisting to get out of their contract with us and receive a full refund because they aren't using the facility. *sigh*

2.) Because they will stop coming in March, this will only serve as fuel to their notion that joining a gym, exercising, and eating right does not work and that they will never be able to lose all that weight and/or get healthy.

3.) We are in the middle of trying to get a new program ---- ZUMBA ---- launched in our club, which means I am double slammed with making advertisements and flyers to promote, trying to get the website updated to promote, and decorating the inside of the club for the two classes this Saturday morning.

Add to this that I am getting up six mornings a week and being at the gym by 6:45am in order to get my workouts in BEFORE all the craziness of the average day sets in and leaves me with no time to exercise.

I often wonder how I'm doing it all but then Saturday night rolls around and I crash so hard that I'm not waking up until almost 9am on Sunday morning (which NEVER happens).

So forgive me for not updating often right now. Please do not mistake my lack of updates for me slacking off with my eating/exercise. I am still tracking with MyFitnessPal. I am still working out six days a week. Overall, I am feeling so much better. In fact, I'm attributing my consistency with working out as the only thing keeping me going right now without being extremely wiped out and stressed out.

Amazing how that works, isn't it?

How are you guys doing?

[alittleumph-blog]

RIP Jack!

Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru who inspired television viewers to trim down, eat well and pump iron for decades before diet and exercise became a national obsession, died Sunday. He was 96. LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast, his longtime agent Rick Hersh said. LaLanne ate healthy and exercised every day of his life up until the end, Hersh said.

[my-own-evolution-deactivated201]

[alittleumph-blog]

from-flab-to-fab:

I’ve been increasingly bothered by the amount of claims many are making on this site in weightloss blogs that on their quest to lose weight, they want to be thin because being thin is “perfect”. That having thigh gaps is “perfect”. That they won’t be happy until they are “thin and perfect”. I’ve...

Oh, I don't know. I think perfection does exist ... in this beautiful post. Thank you. So much.

[internerd-deactivated20130412]

[alittleumph-blog]

from-flab-to-fab:

internerd:

A little motivation…

This is such a disturbing message.

Exercising when you push yourself harder than you’re used to will normally feel uncomfortable. It should NOT feel painful. Discomfort becomes less uncomfortable the more your body adjusts to the exercise you’re doing. Discomfort is something to work past; pain is not. The moment you feel pain, you should stop immediately. Pain means there is something not right. 

If you are ignoring pain and exercising to the point of exhaustion… you are doing it very, very wrong.

I must agree.

If it hurts, don't do it.

I also believe, however, that many people have misconceptions of pain and often mistake it for discomfort because they can not differentiate between the two. Only those who are tuned in to their bodies and fully understand their capabilities and limitations will know the difference and be able to adhere safely to the advice above.

Often times when I am instructing/coaching/motivating others at the gym, I ask them to simply step outside their comfort zone. Explaining to them that we all have a "box" of comfort that we like to stay inside while exercising and it is important to step outside of it occasionally is a lot more helpful than telling them to "push past the pain". It is something they can wrap their heads around and understand. Not to mention it creates less injuries.

[my-own-evolution-deactivated201]

If you're a fitblr doing it the HEALTHY way, like or reblog this post so that others looking for inspiration and encouragement can find and follow you, and so you can find others to inspire and encourage you.