Sitting is the New Smoking

Last week was a whirlwind. It went by in the blink of an eye. The Fitness Magazine Blogger Meet and Tweet happened so quick and then I was headed back to Boston for the Reebok Blogger event that I wasn’t able to fully share some of the helpful insight and tips that I picked up.

So what exactly was this event? It was for bloggers and featured dieticians, nutritionists, personal trainers, authors, successful bloggers and one soccer star. There were panel discussions that featured Fitness editors asking the experts questions. We were able to ask our own at the end.

Tip #1 from Drop Dead Health author AJ Jacobs

Sitting is the new smoking. It’s a serious health hazard that has gone largely unnoticed until now and being blamed for a number of ailments, including the obvious, Obesity. AJ told us that he actually wrote his book on a desk treadmill. Twelve hundred miles later, he finished.

Tip #2 from Drop Dead Health author AJ Jacobs

AJ has tried almost every diet and fad exercise. Here are the answers he discovered along his journey: Squeeze contextual exercise into every part of your day. Contextual exercise is making daily tasks into fitness. Literally run your errands instead of walking. When you squat down to talk eye to eye level with your child, squat as you would in the gym and stand back up. Make movement count and do it often. Quantify the amount of exercise you do. Wear a heart rate monitor, write down what you eat, wear a Fitbit, etc. Harness the power of peer pressure, using social media if you are a blogger. Tell people about your goals and make them help you stick to them. Eat a diet mostly in plants and low in refined carbs. Respect your older self. Studies have shown that people eat healthier when they image themselves in the future. Get a picture made online aging yourself and post it to the fridge! Reduce the noise in your life. People who work in noisy environments tend to have worse heart health. Reduce stress in your life and don’t obsess over what you eat!

Tip #3 from Keri Gans & Tanya Zuckerbrot

Cleanses are a waste of money! You cannot stay doing it for a long period of time and the weight will come back. You lose fat and muscle and then just gain back it all in form of fat!

Tip #4 from Keri Gans & Tanya Zuckerbrot

If you are trying to lose weight, working out on an empty stomach in the morning helps you burn more fat for fuel. Otherwise, snack on carbs before your workout and eat protein after. See what my top pre and post workout meals are here.

Tip #5 from Personal Trainer Joe Dowdell

If you are trying to change your body, doing a different program every day is not helpful. Your muscles need to actually remember what they are doing and it will be less effective if you change your workout every session. Joe said if your trainer walks into a session without a program in hand, and doesn’t keep track of weight lifted, number or sets or reps, to walk out. It’s time to get a new one. Aim to do the same program for at least 3-4 weeks.

Tip #6 from Personal Trainer Joe Dowdell

If your goal is to get leaner your number one priority should be diet. Second, should be getting enough sleep. Third is to moderate strength training with short resting periods. Fourth is interval training, which is cardio with short intervals, think sprint for one minute, recover for 90 seconds repeat 10 times with a 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down. Fifth is aerobic intervals which are long intervals such as 5 minutes of challenging cardio followed by 2 minutes of easy pace exercise, repeat 3 times with a warm up and cool down. Lastly, steady state cardio should be what you do if you want to lean out. This is a long cardio workout at the same intensity the entire time. This is similar to the program Joe gave me last June.

I had an amazing day catching up with pals Theodora and Tina, and meeting blog buddies Julie, Courtney and Ashley for the first time! I’m running Reach The Beach with Theodora, Ashley and Tina next week! Afterwards, we all went to dinner organized by the lovely Natasha of Physique 57 at Tortilla Flats. I opted for the shrimp fajitas which were delicious and filling! It went nicely with the pitcher of margaritas I shared with Tina and Theodora.  Going out to dinner with 15 ladies is never an easy task. Usually it gives me anxiety but we were able to split the bill without drama and all was well! Female victory in my opinion if you ask.

A few of us headed out to another bar afterwards for one last beer, snapping a picture along the way. Props to Natasha for bringing me to a place where I requested I could “drink a beer and watch sports.”

Although the sports were MIA, the beer was amazing and so was this spot. We arrived at the Standard Beer Garden and were happy to see a packed house. In Boston, places rarely get this crowded on a Wednesday at 10:30 PM. I got the blonde beer, posed for a creepy picture, drank it quickly and called it a night.