Saturday Dec 26, 2009

Hamster Wheel – from a female perspective
By Erin Carter BS CrossFit Level 1 Coach

Let me just take this time to say, I am Guilty - 100 % to the core guilty. Guilty of believing I could work off bad nutrition, guilty of doing hours of cardio, of being frightened of everything I put into my mouth,...


Run it again

My name is Erin Carter and I am a hamster-ette. Last year I began a quest for a Master’s Degree Kinesiology, the study of human movement, and was challenged and shocked by the myths I had allowed myself to believe about fitness and the science that completely threw all those beliefs out the window.
It’s a hamster wheel……eat, feel bad about what you ate, work out to burn off what you eat and repeat! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could work out to get stronger, leaner, and faster, instead of working out to try and undo damage we have created over the past 10 years. Ok now listen, please, hear me out because this is going to hurt a little but give me a chance and I promise it will change your life. Ok, careful, here we go…. Its all myths…all of it…all the fitness things that we have created and held onto for the last 10 years, its all a myth…ok so maybe I exaggerated a tad, maybe some of the fitness things we have held onto is tried and true, but there are three myths I would like to put to rest once and for all. Myth number one, if I weight train I am going to look like a man. Myth number two, I have to work out for 2 hours (an hour of cardio and an hour of weight training-low intensity of course) everyday just to stay “thin”. Myth number three, eating less is going to make me thin.

Let me just take this time to say, I’m Guilty - 100 % to the core guilty. Guilty of believing I could work off bad nutrition, guilty of doing hours of cardio, of being frightened of everything I put into my mouth, and lastly being guilty of shying away from weight training.

Myth number one: I will get big and bulky if I weight train at maximal loads.
Scientific fact: women produce a very small amount of testosterone and are not scientifically made to become big and bulky. Before you start the resounding, “ok but I’ve seen the women on TV and they look huge” let me give explanations for that. There are three reasons women may get big and bulky.
They are an athlete that spends 4-5 hours a day in the gym
They are predisposed genetically and
They are taking steroids
Now that we have dispelled that myth here are the scientific facts about weight training with intensity:

Weight training builds muscle and muscle burns more fat at resting state.
Weight training builds strong bones keeping you healthy into older age.

Weight training lowers blood pressure, builds strength and improves moods.
So Myth gone…start weight training!

Myth number two: I have to kill myself in the gym for hours to stay thin. Here’s the truth, study after study after study has proved that short burst of intense cardio will burn the same amount of calories as long, slow cardio. Think about it like this if you spend an hour on the treadmill or in a class working at 50-70% of your VO2 you might burn 300-400 calories but you can also spend 20-30 minutes doing high intensity training at 70-85% of VO2 and also burn 300-400 calories. Intensity will burn higher calories… that's just science!

Myth number three, eating less makes me thin….FALSE to the tenth degree! Your body is a machine. A machine that must be well taken care of and fueled and when you stop eating proper nutrition your body is smart and goes into the slowest metabolizing state it can in order to survive… why in the world would you ever want to slow your metabolism down? Now this was the biggest “Erin issue” of all time. For years food was my nemesis! I ate whatever I wanted, was in good shape and if I had a bad eating day I would just recover with some cardio….what a silly girl I was. It wasn’t until I took a challenge from a dear friend, who is an avid Paleost and a certified nutritionist that my whole world was shocked. After months of hearing about how the Paleo diet had changed people’s lives and thinking it was all bull I decided to put it to test in order to prove it wrong. 30 days, yes 30 days I promised that I would eat nothing but what God himself placed on the earth for me to eat. No sodas, no artificial sweeteners, nothing processed, nothing but lean meats, fruits, veggies, and nuts. Within 30 days my world was changed. Not only had I lost 12 pounds (that I didn’t even know I could lose) but I was stronger, leaner, and faster than I ever had been before. I SAW ABS-yeah that’s right a six pack…what! Better than all that I felt great because I was off the hamster wheel. If I missed a workout it was ok I didn’t feel guilty and there was no need to spend hours in the gym doing cardio because I was able to get full capacity out of my 30 minute workouts because I could place full and total effort into it. It was and still is life changing.

My challenge to you is to challenge me! Give me 30 days…. just 30 days, prove me wrong. Here is what the challenge entails….
1: Change your nutrition. For 30 days eat no processed food, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no sodas, nothing but lean meat, fruits veggies and nuts.
2: Do Crossfit 3-4 days a week (AND THAT’S ALL). That’s the challenge. In 30 days of truly doing those two things I would love to know your results! Aren’t you tired of doing the same thing and getting the same results? Test me. See what happens I promise you wont be disappointed! Go ahead you know you want to, get off the HAMSTER WHEEL and start a new path a path that will forever change your life.