Pacing yourself (presentations)

Why is it that we give up on things so easily once we start to struggle or experience failure? On New Year's everybody has those awesome wishes to make the upcoming year the greatest. Some people want to quit smoking, others want to exercise more or eat healthier. What happens to these goals? It's June now, about half of the year has passed already. Are those people still smoking, do they eat healthier? No? Why not? Did you fulfill your New Year's goals? If you did, I'm proud of you. If not, think about why you failed. I'm pretty sure those people will wish the same things at the next New Years, "but this time for real". Don't argue that you got distracted, you didn't have time to work out or buy healthier groceries. If you want it, you can do it - you know that. Focus! That's the key. Never lose sight of your goals and dreams. Think about why you set them up in the first place. Why did you lose your motivation to achieve them? Goals are almost never a one-day-thing; they take time and effort. It's about the constant progress to achieve them and change you. Making lists can help you stay focused or write it on post-its and position them all over your home and office. Every day is a new day to turn the wheel around. 

As it is now mid of June, end of semester, pacing yourself is more important than ever. I understand  that this is a very stressful time for many students, but still, do me a favor and put on a little smile. It lightens your mood (as previously discussed in a post) and the mood of the people around you. Even if there is nothing to smile about, do it and you feel better within a second. If you are lacking motivation, think about why you started your studies; why are you doing this? What is your ultimate career goal? Do you have it? Okay, awesome. Then work your butt off to get there - do not fail at the end of the year! Pull yourself together and pace yourself; push yourself! I know you can do it, and so do you! Alright,  I feel better now that I know you'll make your year. So, I know this is a blog about health-related topics but I shortly want to mention some great achievements of my fellow students who kept pacing themselves until the end of this year. This week I was fortunate enough to watch some awesome presentations they gave on American and Irish culture topics. I was pretty impressed by the presentation skills of some students, I definitely hadn't expected that. I started off Monday morning with some Jazz (that sounds awesome), followed by information on Cinco de Mayo and a presentation on Christian colleges and universities in the US. Later that day I heard some interesting information about guns and why Americans are so obsessed with them, about the massacre at

Virginia tech, the smurfs (they are real people!), about the US educational system and lastly political satire. After a loong day of information and presenting my own presentation I finally got to go home, get some rest and do some good studying on other subjects. The second day students provided me with interesting facts about the CIA, F.Scott Fitzgerald and women's will to lead. Later on that day, it was all about Ireland: the Irish language, the educational system in Ireland and the Vikings. I tell ya, those were some awesome presentations! While the majority of students I watched used PowerPoint slides, some also created excellent prezis. I haven't done a prezi myself yet but they definitely inspired me to explore the new form of presenting. I feel very privileged to have been able to hear about these American and Irish topics, I don't know if I would've stumbled across them elsewhere in my life. Thank you my fellow students! I wish

everybody strength and motivation for their last exams. One word keeps up popping in my head: vacation! Yap, I think we all need it and it's coming soon.

Have a good one,
Julia

Buti and Pound

I'm not a big fan of working out with weights; I prefer to use my own bodyweight instead. This post might be more attractive to females, but there also men who enjoy what I'm going to talk about: Buti, and Pound. These are two new fitness brands that have developed in the last five years as a mixture of different workout styles. They don't require weights or even a gym membership as you can order them online and do them at home by yourself (but you don't need to, they are also taught at gyms throughout the States and Europe). Although their popularity might not last, right now people are asking for it around the world. Let's look at each one separately.


Buti
 
Buti is a workout that was founded by Bizzi Gold, a 30-year-old female trainer and mother to two kids. Buti is a mixture of yoga, tribal dance and plyometrics. It is stated that it is an empowering workout that nourishes the female spirit as it focuses on the energy center of women: the hips. A lot of women are very tense in their hips - supposedly that's why they gain most of their weight in this area of their body. Buti works the gluts, upper and lower back, the hips, and of course the butt. As it incorporates many yoga moves, stretching is a major part of the workout. Derived from the Marathi word Buti meaning “the cure to something hidden or kept secret,” the goal is to guide women through movement, nutrition and wellness that supports the female spirit. While some movements might seem a little strange, they are actually quite challenging and effective.   

Pound
 
Pound was created by Kirsten Potenza and Cristina Peerenboom who love drumming and music as well as working out. It is a full-body cardio jam session, combining light resistance with constant simulated drumming. The workout fuses cardio, Pilates, isometric movements, plyometrics and Isometric poses into a 45-minute series. Pound combines cardio moves with strength training and drumming. This combo works the entire body, raises the heart rate to a fat-burning zone, and forces each move to be as precise as a basic beat. You can even work out to your favorite music to get extra motivation.

What do you think of these workouts? Would you pay for them at the gym? They are certainly not the same as reguar aerobic or step classes, but they do work your body and help you get ripped. As you shouldn't do the same workout routine for a longer period of time - your muscles will get bored with the movements - these workouts might be a fun way to squeeze in some extra sweat. Have fun trying them!


Julia




Sources:
http://www.butiyoga.com/
http://www.poundfit.com/

Secret weight loss tips

Now. Summer is on its way and bikinis are waiting to be worn. Since they are enemies to most women, I started looking for some easy weight loss tips to help you/them feel more confident wearing bikinis. I have to say, I'm not a big fan of any last minute 20-pound weight loss tips. Train and work. That's the only way you'll get a bikini body that lasts longer than a week. I find it pathetic when women suck in their tummies at the beach. If you hadn't eaten that burger, you wouldn't have to walk around like a penguin with exaggerated posture. Just be confident about it. Anyway, I found some tips I haven't heard of before. So, I thought I just share them with you.

Exercise
To amp up your workout intensity, keep your core temperature down. Don't heat up the room - no hot yoga! The cooler you train, the harder you train. Drink cold water while you exercise or put a few drops of peppermint oil on your wrists before you start; it enhances your power. 







Tea time
Tea time is great for several reasons: it helps curb appetite, burn fat and boost your metabolism. A caffeinated tea or caffeinated product gives you extra energy for your workout to burn even more calories. Because you know, the more calories you burn, the more you can eat for dinner. ;)





Blue
Have you noticed that the main colors you find at fast food places are orange, yellow and red? These colors stimulate appetite. So, use blue: blue glasses, blue place mats, blue plates and have blue items in your dining room. The whole idea is that it helps you eat less; cooler foods decrease your urge to eat. 




Portion control 
Get yourself a muffin tin and make your quiches, muffins and tars in this tin. Don't waste time counting calories. This way, you know the approximate calories per serving; it's automatic portion control.






 
Spicy food
Spicy food not only boosts you metabolism, it also decreases your appetite. Just add pepper, pepperoni, garlic or cayenne powder to your meal. When they are extremely spicy, you naturally will eat less. So, heat it up!








Chopsticks
It takes 20 minutes for you to feel full. If you're hungry and eating fast, you have a tendency to let your eyes be bigger than your stomache. Eating with chopsticks or your non-dominant hand helps you to eat slower and notice when you're full.







If I spark you eating your meal with blue sunglasses and chopsticks out of a muffin tin this summer, I won't be surprised then. If you got interested in this tips and want more, just search for them on youtube. There are many 'experts' who can provide you with further information.
Julia



Source:
Slim for life by Jillian Michaels

Jillian Michaels

I don't know about you but I love to work out. However, I don't always have the time to go to a gym or a fitness class. So, one day I had the idea of looking through the Internet to find a video online that I could do real quick to move a little. The videos of the fitness trainer Jillian Michaels caught my attention most. First of all, she is not blond, like the majority of the female undernourished trainers I found online, and secondly, she really kicked my butt. Her workouts are a mixture betweencardio, strength and abs - one circuit includes these taking 3, 2 and 1 minutes respectively. While this concept of 3-2-1 itself is relatively short, it repeats throughout the workouts, which range from 20mins to an hour and a half. Exercises are only done once, which really makes me get my head in the game as I want to work my entire body, not just parts of it. Apart from all that, what I liked most about Jillian Michaels is how she motivates me during the workout and afterwards. She points out multiply times that her workouts are not just about fitness and exercising. They are about effort and inner strength - ultimately about stepping out of your own comfort zone. See how perfectly I have memorized that, it works! And honestly, I really does work. I don't know if I should feel embarrassed for exercising at home and feeling great about it, but I couldn't care less - because it works. As I found out later, Jillian Michaels is actually a popular trainer in the US. She can be seen on NBC's The Biggest Loser, where she trains contestants to loose the most amount of weight to win the show, and on Losing it with Jillian, where she focuses on one family to find out what caused their overweight and help them to turn their lives around. On these shows, in her videos and her books, she repeatedly mentions that it's not about fitness. Her philosophy is to use the tool of fitness to push people to their limits and show them that they can be so much more than they think they can be. It's about believing in yourself, she says. And apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks that it works. She has been a very successful personal trainer since she is 17 and turns everything she touches into gold, like her books and TV-shows. Ok, I understand you might argue now that there are many successful trainers from Hollywood who claim to know the fastest way to loose weight. Our magazines are all stuffed with diet plans of celebrities' trainers anyway, so why do we need another one to tells us how to eat and workout? What's so special about this one? Because Jillian Michaels is authentic, that's why. She couldn't care less about magazines, the media or celebrities. She doesn't do commercials or ads. As I said before, for her it's all about being the best version of yourself and in focusing on that you will eat healthier, work out, and eventually loose weight. Reaching your own personal limits will help you to extend them and make more of your life. One way to reach limits is with fitness. Oh boy. When she is in the gym, she turns into a wild animal. She screams, throws things around and challenges people, to say the least. By screaming at people, she says, she intimidates and pushes them to their maximum. She doesn't yell unreasonably, though. Furthermore, she can relate to people's stories as she was an overweight child herself. She got picked on, struggled with loosing weight and had a very unstable personality.  Later, her mother got her into martial arts and she ended up being a personal trainer. Having ADAHD and being openly bisexual makes her a real person and not just another perfect

fitness dimwit. She recently adopted a toddler while having a baby with her partner Heidi Rhoades. As you can see, I'm quite a fan of hers and I really recommend checking out her videos and her book Master your Metabolism. This book discusses the issue of why certain people can eat anything without gaining weight, and others just need to look at food to put pounds on. The issue is about hormones. Your whole body is controlled by hormones; every little action is. Cosmetics, uncontrollable plastic intake, exercise, stress, family situation and a lot more influences our hormones, our fertility and our metabolism. This book is about being healthy, not about another diet. Other books by Jillian Michaels are Unlimited, Winning by Losing and Making the Cut. She has released over 15 DVDs including Body Revolution, Extreme Shred, Killer Abs and Ripped in 30.

'Unless you puke, faint or die, keep running'

In the end, they all thank her. 
Because sometimes you just need somebody to push you. 
Julia