Blogs / From Tish

Moving After Marriage

I apologize in advance for yet another bridal-inspired rant, but I’ve noticed a trend in the wedding community that’s made my fit bottom twitch a number of times: the issue of the boot camp bride-to-be marrying and then quitting the gym like it’s a bad habit.

I’m trying to figure out why in the world this would be. Is marriage such a prize that we honor that one stinking day (wedding day) and then we can just let ourselves go because we’ve finally gotten the darn ring on our finger? Is health only a ploy to getting the guy or gal? That kind of logic makes me want to barf and then some.

Yeah, marrying my guy is something I’ve dreamed about since the minute I first knew he was the one, but I never day-dreamed about what size the dress was. Instead, I looked beyond that to years and years spent with a guy who likes to get up and play and have fun and make life better. Me working out isn’t a symptom of getting married. It’s Fit Bottomed Girl ish! I want to be fit, healthy and strong like an ox for my happily ever after.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love that getting married entices women who were never really into breaking a sweat to get active. Whatever inspires you to keep on pushing. But, ladies, don’t stop loving your fit and healthy self just because you said “I do.” I hear ridiculous logic like, “Well, I’m off the market now.” And that’s just a feminist’s nightmare if you ask me.

Mark, my fiance, manages a corporate fitness gym, and he sees it all the time. Girls go cray in the gym leading up to the wedding, and then once the day comes, it’s cricket-time at the health club. He never sees them again. That is my nightmare! I work out like a champ right now, and I plan to keep that up for the rest of my life. We women need to learn that looking like someone society has deemed acceptable can’t be and shouldn’t be the prize. The prize is years and years of active and easier living because we keep our bodies healthy and strong.

My mom keeps asking me if I’m making sure to think of the marriage and not just the wedding day. She’s worried I’m gonna be one of those gals who gets married and then says “Now what?” I’m not a “Now what?” woman! I’m a gal with a plan—and that plan involves thinking of my relationship with Mark and myself as a work in forever progress. I’m going to be moving and shaking for the rest of my happy, long life!

What about you? Have you seen this trend? What are your thoughts on post wedding fitness? —Tish

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Chillin’ With My God-Dog

This week in celebration of Fit Bottomed Pets’ Week, each FBG is writing about her experience with pets and how they make us healthier, happier and generally more awesome. 

I swear I’m the black sheep (no pun intended) out of all the FBGs. I’m the only gal who doesn’t have a pet, and it drives me insane. I’ve wanted a pup for YEARS…a small French Bulldog that I would promptly name Petunia and my life would be complete, but my fiance, as swell as he is, isn’t down with dogs at this point. So I just collect god-dogs instead. I have two actually; one in the D.C. area named Kiwi (her name alone makes me swoon since I have a thing for kiwi) and a pup here in Los Angeles named Dolly.

Dolly is one hilarious little piece of pup. She’s the craziest, cutest looking mutt I’ve ever seen. The first time I laid eyes on her, I said to her mama, “She looks like Sir Didymus!” and it stuck. She’s now my little Sir Diddy, and there’s no going back.

The thing is, people and pups always live up to their names. It’s just the rule. Yes, Dolly acts like a Dolly (feisty country singer), but she’s totally a Sir Didymus, too. She’s feisty and totally alpha female extraordinaire. I get to take her for walks when her mama can’t make it home for lunch, and that little heifer always has to be in front of me. I’ll start running, and she will take off just so she can be in the front. It’s adorable to watch the little rat run as fast as she does (definitely has some terrier in her!).

She can only run for a block before she poops out on me or stops to smell the umpteenth blade of grass along our path, but for that glorious minute, she’s sprinting and I’m sprinting and we’re a team. An awkward team, but a team nonetheless. So if you really want to run with a dog but don’t own one, you can. Just grab yourself a god-dog!

What about you? Do you borrow dogs to play with? Run with a tiny dog? Care to share ways to get them to run for more than a minute? God-dog mamas want to know! —Tish

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21 Meditations to Make You Love Yo’Self!

Why is it so hard to be kind to ourselves?! Why is it so hard to wake up in the morning and give a little Jessica-like loving? I don’t know the answer to this quite yet. I do know we choose people who love us the way we think we deserve to be treated…so maybe that translates to self love as well.

I’m the queen bee of negative inner chit-chat (which I’m not proud of), so I’ve been actively trying to be as kind to my body as I can muster. Right when I decided I needed to start practicing more self-love, Oprah and Deepak Chopra’s 21-Day Meditation Challenge about perfect health fell serendipitously into my life. So I figured that was a good sign to start. Each day, Deepak guides listeners through a sweet and simple 15-minute meditation. My day dreaming and tangents are infamous, so if I can manage 15 peaceful minutes, I know y’all can!

I was hooked by the first mediation. Chopra discussed the perfection of the body and asked for those meditating to repeat the mantra, “I am perfection. I am healthy. I am strong.”  When you’ve gone so far off the negative deep end of funk, it’s hard to remember what words work. These were perfect because they’re all something we can all say—and if you think about it hard enough, believe.

According to Chopra, we should all imagine our illnesses as a friend. And as a friend, we wouldn’t ignore her. We’d embrace her and offer her encouragement and love. When we have an ache, pain or perceived imperfection, it’s important to acknowledge those areas and offer them love. So here I am…hands resting on my legs, eyes closed, ready for some good self-sweet nothings.

What about you? Do you wake up in the morning with a positive affirmation for your body and overall health? Need some help? If you’re like me and need a bit of guidance, Deepak is your guru. —Tish

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Workout I Did: Supersets Are Super (Hard)

Just a reminder that this is our new feature called Workout I Did. Read them all and feel the workout love here!

Each month I meet with Nicole the trainer at my gym and we take my measurements and all that jazz to see how my workouts are coming along. This last time I plateaued, so my fiance (the trainer) decided to shake things up a bit to get my body back to making muscle like a pro. Sometimes you just have to add some zings, you know? The logical choice was introducing my body to the world of supersets. I had never heard of the darn stuff, but apparently supersets are great for muscle building.

What are supersets, you ask? Supersets are two exercises performed back to back that target opposing muscle groups (i.e. biceps then triceps…pushing and pulling). The key to supersetting, though is not resting in between the two moves, which makes for one big, say it with us now…superset! Supersets increase lactic acid production (never thought I’d want to increase that!). Plus, they’re time efficient. You’ll develop muscle more quickly, which is always a plus in my book!

Supersets Workout

Two-mile run—with intervals: For this run, I try my hardest to do 15 minutes of intervals, meaning I will run as fast as I can for one minute then come down to a jog for the next minute; repeating this until the 15 minutes are up. It is hard. Your legs will burn like fiya but according to Nicole, it kicks your metabolism up a couple notches.

Stretch: I do a round of stretches that hit all the main areas of my body, making sure to do each twice. Mark is a firm believer in stretching twice.

Superset 1: Two sets of 15 each, no rest between moves

Push-ups
Pull-up row with bar

Superset 2: Four sets of 10 to 12, no rest between moves

Chest press on bench
Lat Pulldown Machine
Incline chest press with dumbbells

Superset 3: Four sets of 10 to 12, no rest between moves

Back row Machine
Triceps dips
Bicep curls standing on a Bosu

This one’s definitely a doozy! I am more sore than I care to share, but hopefully that time pays off in the form of awesomesauce arm muscles!

Have you ever tried supersets? —Tish

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The Movie (or TV Show) That Makes Me Want to Be Fitter

Seeing that the gals were so into the Oscars this year and I LIVE for all things film-related, we thought that for this Question of the Week we’d keep the movie-love going by asking each FBG: What movie motivates you to be fitter? Enjoy the responses, and be sure to leave your own fave fit movie in the comment.

I had to cheat on this one. It was first a TV series that motivated me to want to be fitter. For all my fellow Carrie Bradshaw lovers, you know what I’m talking about when I say that Sex and the City was THE breath of fresh air for oodles of women in the world. We got to see beautiful, intelligent women doing the damn thing, and talking about the damn thing, and it was damn awesome. Beyond the fashion and cosmos though, I loved seeing the girls in their fitness element.

There were fun conversations over yoga, Charlotte and her pregnant running, Miranda and her marathon training…goddess hip thrusts to all of that! I loved seeing the women getting together and making fitness such a normal part of their routine. I loved that they worked out together and that it was totally normal for them. And let’s not forget all the walking they did all over that town! Because of that show, I giggle like a school girl when any of my buds agree to try something new with me. The SATC ladies showed us that fitness could be as sweet, endearing and fabulous as we need it to be.

Do you have a movie or TV show that inspires you to be fitter? —Tish

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Workout I Did: The Nike Santa Monica 10K

Just a reminder that this is our new feature called Workout I Did. Read them all and feel the workout love here!

I love when I prove my inner Negative Nancy wrong. You’d think that because I’ve chosen to live a healthy lifestyle that I’d be the most positive gal when it comes to trying new things and pushing myself physically, but I can be quite the whiner. I admit this freely. And this couldn’t have been more true two weeks ago when a rep from Nike contacted me to run an impromptu 10K in Santa Monica.

I immediately groaned and said no. (The most I’ve run recently is four miles, and I’m a stickler for proper race training.) The Nike fellow wasn’t having it though. He told me I could walk the darn thing, so I agreed, grabbed my pal Jackie (who makes an appearance in this video) and headed on down for my 6.2-mile walk…which I ended up RUNNING.

There you have it. The girl who believed with all her might that she couldn’t run, ran the 10K and survived. I was so proud of myself after the race and then bummed that I had so easily discredited myself from being able to do it in the first place.

The run was peaceful, relaxing and fun as heck. Jackie and I were lucky enough to grab a great pacer named Ryan, and the three of us moved along like happy little fitties.

I’m so thankful I didn’t listen to that voice telling me I couldn’t. I don’t even know where that nasty ‘tude came from! We can do whatever we put our mind to and running is no different. I have silenced the Debbie Downer once and for all.

Has there been a time when you ever got in your own way? How did you overcome it? —Tish

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FBG Tish’s Letter to Dudes Everywhere: The Not-So-Sweet Smell of Hard Work

Remember how last year Gal Josefsberg wrote this amazingly inspiring letter to women of the world telling us all that we are perfect as we are? Well, this year for Fit Bottomed Dude’s Week we’re taking that concept and flipping it. Every day this week each FBG will share her very own personal letter to the guys of the world.

Dear Men of the World,

Oh, how I love thee, let me count the ways! Because I love you, I think I can share some truth with you. The gym is for working out and getting your sweat on. We women know this. We expect stink and funk. But remember that the next time you try to holla at the chest-press machine. While we appreciate the hard workout you’ve just completed to earn that stink, it’s not the time or place (literally since my face is uncomfortably close to your brand of junk) to woo me with words.

If you must talk to the dream girl you saw squatting ridiculous amounts of weight, wait until the pivotal moment…the moment you’ve showered. To further drive home my plea I give thee a poem:

Man, oh man, there’s no question at all

Your workout ethic is sexy, but your nose has some gall.

How dare it not smell what we girls smelled today

There were hints of booty…your armpits made me sway.

So take my advice. When we turn away and scowl

It’s not you we detest, it’s your funk that’s so foul.

So hit us up before the workout. Or post-shower is fine.

It’s sweet to meet at the gym, but ball stink crosses the line.

—Tish

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My Dirty Thirties

Oh, the dirty 30s. Growing older has never really bothered me that much. I’m a self-professed “kidult.” I’ve always felt perpetually 14, so birthdays never really fazed me. But they’re starting to faze my body.

Here I am, 32 today, and my body has decided to pay attention. No. 1 sign my body has caught on: adult acne. Mmm, it’s oh-so fun! For the last couple of weeks my skin has gone berserk with the planet-sized boils on my grill. I finally went to a dermatologist. She kindly recommended a new skin regimen and then reluctantly gave me the WORST news known to woman. She said that because I’m older (and she stumbled over that older part!) my skin won’t heal as fast as it used to, so all of the acne scars I’ve accumulated as of late will take even longer to go away. Go aging!

Second sign my body knows what’s up: workout plans and eating better don’t change my body as quickly as they used to. When I was in my early 20s I could run a couple times a week and see muscle and definition and awesome energy. Now I’m eating cleaner than I ever have, I’m sticking to my workouts religiously, but like my skin, my healing time and physical changes come slowly…like turtle speed. My knees are creaking and cracking after runs. I may be a kidult at heart, but my body’s not buying it. It doesn’t help that I’m a Pisces—a sign known for retaining water, having a low metabolism and extremely sensitive to negative gym energy (more on that in a later post!). I have some interesting hurdles facing me!

So for this birthday, I’m accepting that I can feel and act however old I want, but I need to respect and take care of the body of a 32-year-old. And I’m cool with that. Anything that keeps the moans, groans and planet-sized pimples away! Aging gracefully? Forget that! I want to age fearlessly and strong!

How do you feel about turning another year older? —Tish 

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Ignorance Is Bliss: The Flipside of Eating Well

When you know better, you do better. That’s what Oprah says anyways. So you’d assume that after finding the alkaline diet, eliminating dairy, gluten and sugar from my diet, and witnessing the benefits first hand, I’d never look back to the foods that left me feeling less than wonderful. You’d assume wrong.

I had researched the heck out of gluten and its effects on the body. I then had put my notes to the test and challenged myself to a great alkaline plan for 30 days. At the end of the challenge, I felt clearer, stronger and better overall. I felt fantastic, but that didn’t stop me from picking back up a dang slice of pizza (my favorite food!) and devouring it in a matter of seconds. I felt like poop after (which I knew would happen,) developed a crazy amount of acne and had stomach issues for days. Yet, I still will occasionally (especially on the weekends) feast on gluten-tastic meals sprinkled with zit-inducing dairy (at least for me). How and why is this?!

I know the food is bad for me. I know it’s going to make me feel like crap and take a really long time to get out of my system, yet I eat it anyways. Sometimes I wish I would have never learned what being gluten-, dairy- and sugar-free feels like. Then I could eat all my bad food and assume how I felt was normal…but I know better now…and my body knows better. So now my next act of love is to be kinder to my body and actually listen to it. I don’t know yet how to give up the foods that I enjoy. I know we say “all things in moderation,” but, for me, I’m not sure that applies to foods that make me feel like poop. I simply need to do more research and get cooking in the kitchen to find better-for-me versions of the foods I love!

What about you? Do you give up any and all foods that make you feel worse? Do you indulge occasionally? Hungry, foggy minds want to know. —Tish

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Workout I Did: Strength Circuit-Training for That Muscle!

4 sets of 12

Need workout inspiration? That’s the point of us sharing our Workout I Did series. As always, these are workouts that work for us; use your best judgment if playing along at home!

Many people are surprised I’ve been able to keep allowing my fiance to train me; most couples end up ripping each other a new one by the end of a good day’s sweat. That’s not to say that I’ve never wanted to kick Mark in his delicate areas for making me do extra anything though. I just happen to be addicted to his workouts—and the dang things work!

I’ve been trying to get back in the healthy/good BMI range lately (my body has been flip-flopping like a mother trucker in the higher-end). A couple of weeks ago, I checked back in with the fabulous trainer at my new gym and found that I had lost 1 percent body fat and 5 inches! Talk about seeing some awesome results! The guns are starting to pop a bit more, I’m lifting heavier weights, and I’ve even managed to do two pull-ups! Two! The satisfaction of all that kept me going  long enough for Mark to give me my next six weeks’ workouts: his total-body circuit training.  I do each of the following four times…

Round One

• Push-ups (15 reps)
• Back row with dumbbells (12 reps)
• Push press with bar or dumbbell (12 reps)
• Squat with bar (12 reps)

 Round Two

• Chest press on ball with dumbbell and hip-ups (12 reps)
• Wide-arm back pull down (12 reps)
• Tricep dips off bench (12 reps)
• Back lunges with dumbbells (12 reps)

According to my beloved, you should choose weights that are a bit heavier than you’d normally go. You’re going for strength here. You should start feeling the burn around the ninth or tenth rep. That’s how you know you’re pushing yourself! I just moved up this week in weights and, girls, does my body feel it!

Do you do any of these moves in your workout? Will you try it? —Tish

 

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