New York Fashion Diary
While I didn’t have the honor of attending any of the New York Fashion Week Spring 2013 shows – SOB – I was lucky enough to spend four days in the city that never sleeps right before the shows, parties, and FNO kicked off, and it gave me a unique chance to witness the city amping up to the fashionable frenzy that is Fashion Month.
And please believe me when I say that four days of glorious walking , exploring, shopping, eating, drinking, and aimless wandering are this city were four days very well spent!
{A little jewelry shopping at the MET – We definitely got some funny looks!}
{Yes, we are complete and utter nerds. Since 7th grade.}
{Lincoln Center, Far West Chelsea, Meatpacking District}
We also ate at three vegan restaurants, walked through Central Park twice, sprinted through Central Park once, and had a little quality retail therapy in Soho.
Check out my previous NYC posts to see what else I was up to during this trip: Weekends Away – Styling, Deciding & Packing, IFBCON Preparation, MCLV Style: IFBCON Day One, IFBCON – Trends, Styles & Inspiration, and MCLV Style: IFBCON Day Two.
When you travel to a city during a trip do you like to do “touristy” things like go to museums? Do you like to walk around a new city to get to know it and familiarize yourself with the neighborhoods?
Weekend Adventures
Over the weekend this little city girl escaped San Francisco for a weekend of wind, water, and family at dreamy Fallen Leaf Lake near South Lake Tahoe – Virtually the same weekend as last year actually.
After a short stop in sweltering Sacramento we headed up to the breezy, welcoming mountain air of Tahoe. I’ve been visiting my family’s cabin on Fallen Leaf Lake since I was a baby and it holds so many memories.
Day-long hikes gone awry with their destinations never discovered, swimming in the freezing snow-melt lake, climbing up waterfalls, boating on the lake in everything from a canoe to a kayak to a Sun Fish sailboat, and even flipping one of the boats & getting stranded at the opposite end of the lake with a friend.
Needless to say a jolt of excitement and anticipation always thrills through me as soon as I can see the distinctive roof top and the vacation actually begins.
And this was an especially fun weekend as the boy and I joined my parents, aunt, uncle, and grandparents at the cabin for a relaxed weekend of hikes, boat rides, reading on the deck, vino, and huge family meals. I mean the amount of food, not the number of people by the way. 🙂
How was everyone’s weekend? Do you like to get out of your hometown on occasion and relax in the country or are you a city mouse through-and-through?
Links You’ll Love
Let’s start this Sunday off with some INSPIRATION – Wise Words: 24 Inspiring Prints to Start Your Day
Fashion:
I’d hate to label myself as lazy, but even I have to admit that I definitely get into fashion ruts so… Stop Being Lazy: 7 Chic AND Easy Switch-Outs from Refinery 29 with fun new options like trading your old, torn cut-offs for some adorable printed shorts or trying cropped trousers so you can give up your legging habit. Definitely some great ideas!
If you’re looking for some new products to add to your skin care routine why not take some Kiehl’s suggestions from Italian blogger and fashion It Girl Eleonora Carisi – I Can’t Live Without.
Need some fabulous fashion inspiration for your next tropical vacation? Unstoppable Style: Poppy Delevingne Shares Her Ultimate Summer Wish List.
Want to create the perfect pair of jean shorts this Summer? Follow The Glamourai’s step by step instructions and enjoy the fabulous results! { DIY } Denim Cut-Offs.
If you’re in the market for updating your accessories stash or just looking for some advice on styling, why not turn to a professional? Anna Dello Russo – 10 TOP Rules for ACCESSORIES.
Health & Fitness:
A major part of finding internal motivation to hit the gym or trails is feeling comfortable and confident in your workout clothes. A great pair of pants that highlight your assets are going to get you out the door much faster than a tattered, stretched out pair of yoga pants. Trust me. Check out The Fitnessista’s recommendations – Summer Workout Gear.
Who better to give health & fitness tips than someone whose livelihood is based on their body? Top model Izabel Goulart shares her Five Minute Brazilian Butt Workout with Modelinia. What else does she mention? Walking! I just can’t recommend it enough – Low Intensity Fasted Cardio!
If you need to amp up the healthy fats in your diet avocados are the perfect choice during Summer, so pick some up next time you’re at the store and take of these recipes for a spin – 5 New Ways to Use Avocado.
Finding the right snack to give you energy and satisfy you before a workout without causing a sugar crash or an upset or overly filled stomach is a balancing act. See what Fit Bottomed Girls suggest – 4 New Healthy Snacks to Put in Your Gym Bag.
In the mood to get a little creative in the kitchen? Why not whip up some healthy desserts in the form of vegan ice cream? I made Choosing Raw’s Blueberry Ginger Ice Cream and it was divine, so follow my lead and give one of these tasty recipes a try – Veg Out: Dairy-Free and Delish Ice Cream Recipes.
No matter what your diet is, putting together a good grocery list is a Must. Check out FitSugar’s 7 Grocery Shopping Tips For a Plant-Based Approach or Caveman Strong’s Grocery List Paleo Style.
I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend and has a great Sunday! I’ll be back tomorrow to share with you all weekend in sunny, secluded Fallen Leaf Lake.
The Man Behind The Camera
Other than my dear friend Liz, the remainder of the MCLV Personal Style photographs are taken by the current boyfriend Sean. He has written a guest post for us in the past and trained me in the ways of CrossFit, but has never been featured on the blog for his fashion prowess before.
That is, until today.
True, he spends the majority of his waking hours in workout clothes, but when he does deign to put on street clothes, he has a great personal style.
When we initially met in our senior year of high school he was extremely preppy – Polo shirts, button downs, and wool or cashmere collared coats. But over the years his style relaxed, becoming more and more low-key, and when we got back together two years ago he wore very little other than t-shirts, jeans, and flip-flops.
But miracle of miracles, over the last two years his sense of style has begun evolving again. And more than that, he has actually started to enjoy clothes and fashion more, like he did when he was younger. Now he shops online, asks for advice on putting together pieces in his wardrobe & picking things out, and genuinely has an interest in shopping and expanding his wardrobe.
These days he prefers to keep his daily look low-key and minimal, and primarily wears black, white, and navy. Jeans are usually his preference and he traditionally pairs them with a Lacoste Pima V-Neck, a button down, or a Polo shirt. As for brands, we’ve found that the shirts that fit him best are Express for Men and Lacoste, they both have slim fit versions that work well for his frame.
When it comes to shoes he’s tried virtually everything, from boots to slip-ons to boat shoes to loafers. He loves slip ons and its all I can do to make sure he doesn’t wear his rubber soled slippers out of the house. The most worn pair of shoes he has are his tan, lace-up Banana Republic loafers, but he did just get a new pair of slip-on boat shoes that are very versatile.
They can even be worn with pink!
And a style post wouldn’t be complete without mentioned his creativity, he picked a kick-ass Halloween costume last year that suited him quite well despite being an incredibly last-minute choice – The Travelocity Gnome! 🙂
In the mood for more? Check out my Let’s Hear It For The Boys post filled with tips, ideas, and inspiration for putting together a complete and stylish wardrobe.
What do you like most on the men in your life? Are there certain styles that appeal to you more than others? When it comes to mens accessories, do you think less is more?
Listing…
Everyone seems to be in the mood for lists right now. A handful of bloggers that I adore have published list posts lately: The Life & Lessons of Rachel Wilkerson’s What I’ve Been Eating, What I’ve Been Reading, What I’ve Been Writing, What I’ve Been Wearing, Holly Would If She Could’s 16 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Me, and SnackFace’s This Week’s Sounds, Scents, Sips, Snacks & Sights…
And with my hectic schedule lately, both at work and personally, I’ve been living and dying by my daily To Do lists. First thing in the morning I make a list of all the things that need to get done that day and before I leave the office for the day I take the list of tasks and put them in chronological order. Don’t worry, I’m not going to share my daily To Do lists with you. I thought I’d take a cue from my blogging idols though and share some of the details of what’s going on in my life these days.
What I’ve Been Eating:
I didn’t do a great job following a healthy diet in April or May, as I confessed, so I’ve been doing my best to rectify that over the last few weeks. Tons of fruits and veggies, and smoothies galore. Green smoothies, berry-based smoothies, and even peanut butter smoothies. Yum!
What I’ve Been Reading:
My boyfriend’s mother insisted that I read The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato, and I ended up reading all 544 pages over the course of a weekend because I couldn’t put it down. Botticelli’s Primavera has been my favorite painting of his since I saw it in Florence when I was 21 so I was especially drawn to the storyline. I’ve also just finished Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink and was stunned by how much I related to each and every study that he discussed. Definitely keep an eye out for a Book Report on this! I’ve also just started Add More -Ing to Your Life: A Hip Guide to Happiness by Gabrielle Bernstein, which isn’t a self-help book – I swear – it’s a self-transformation book. 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing how it impacts my daily approach to life as part of my #1 2012 goal to Be Positive.
Oh, and I have a serious fashion magazine problem. Like a – I need a 12 step program type of problem.
What I’ve Been Writing:
One of my goals for 2012 is to publish a piece of my writing and while this has been a personal goal for years, this is the first time I’ve officially written it down. Not to make excuses, but as a result of my spinal injury and my laptop dying earlier this year, I haven’t worked on this goal much so far in 2012. Hopefully this post will serve as motivation for me to start editing my first novel, I started writing it when I was 20 and wrote a large chunk of it while I was traveling around Europe by myself when I was 21.
What I’ve Been Wearing:
During May I submitted a handful of looks to a fashion challenge run by Definitely RA, you can so you can check out some of those looks – Mission: Put Together 2012 – Part I and Mission: Put Together 2012 – Part II. The challenge was great and I wish I’d had time to participate more, but even putting together a few looks was fun. And as part of my goals for June I wanted to make an effort to wear less black, especially on sunny weekends, so that’s been a major factor in choosing my daily looks. Definitely an adjustment not to automatically reach for the black pieces!
Some Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Me:
- I don’t actively follow astrology but I’ve always believed that I embody many of the traits of my Scorpio sign – Determined, loyal, suspicious, discreet, introverted, dramatic, passionate, possessive…
- I originally hurt my back springboard diving in college when I was 18
- If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life it would be sweet potatoes. There’s an endless number of ways to cook them… Chips, fries, baked, mashed, in pudding. They can be sweet or savory. Hmmm… Now I kind of want to spend a weekend eating only sweet potatoes and blog about all the recipes I come up with! 🙂
- Sometimes I forget that I don’t really “know” bloggers. I begin to feel like I’m friends with people whose lives I read about every day. Does that happen to anyone else?
- I have three tattoos.
And so that we can continue to get to know each other, I’m going to re-start my short-lived Les Confessions series, where I post some “confessions” about myself and my life on a regular basis.
Sounds:
I’ve been listening to 70’s and 80’s music non-stop. From vintage Bon Jovi, Kenny Loggins, and Twisted Sister to fabulous 80’s movie soundtracks – Footloose, Pretty In Pink, Breakfast Club. The upside is that it’s really upbeat music that wakes me up and makes me smile every morning, the downside is that I dance at my desk. A lot.
Scents:
I’m a peppermint junkie! Candles, air fresheners, essential oils… Whatever I can find. I’ve also been baking up a storm and I love the scent of raw cacao and carob powders as their heating up.
Sips:
Peppermint tea – duh – and I have to confess that my guilty pleasure these days is Cherry Coke Zero or Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper. My boyfriend is horrified by the red color from the syrup but I treat myself to one a week! I’ve also rediscovered the Synergy Kombucha drinks, and I laugh every time I get carded buying them!
Snacks:
I seem to have almost forgotten about hummus when the weather was cooler but now that it’s warming up I’m craving hummus daily. Carrots, celery, sugar snap peas, and radishes dipped in spicy hummus is favorite after-work snack. I’ve also been eating my bodyweight in fruit on virtually a daily basis – pounds of grapes, cherries, apples, and bananas. Just can’t get enough!
Sights:
This Spring was amazing with weekends in Sonoma, San Diego, and Sea Ranch, but June has been a gorgeous month in San Francisco and I’ve been really enjoying spending time in my favorite city. Walking everywhere, trips to the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market, lazy days spent shopping and wandering around the sun-drenched streets… Amazing!
So tell me, what have you been up to? Do you like to make lists to ensure that you get everything done that needs to be done each day?
Health & Your Relationship
When I read Rachel Wilkerson’s How CrossFit Has Helped My Relationship it got me thinking.
A lot.
Rachel said that by encouraging her boyfriend to take up a healthy hobby – in this instance CrossFit – their relationship ultimately benefited despite the fact that in the end it actually meant less alone time. I have no trouble at all believing this. In my experience, if there’s a substantial disconnect between how much two people value health & nutrition in their lives it can potentially lead to problems down the road.
I don’t believe that you need have all the same views, do the same workouts, or approach food the same way. But if only one person takes their health seriously and devotes time, energy, and effort to maintaining said health, the other individual may become resentful, jealous, threatened etc. Or things can go the other way around and as one person becomes healthier and more fit they begin to pity, worry about, and/or neglect their partner.
Take a look at this piece by the Primal Parent entitled When Good Health Destroys a Marriage. It’s written from the perspective of a woman who changed her diet and was feeling her best, while her husband was… Not. Ultimately their marriage couldn’t survive because she has a strong, well-tested belief in the importance of good health & nutrition, and refused to settle for someone who couldn’t – or wouldn’t – put forth the effort to investigate improving his own health.
{Kyle & Rochelle – The authors of Eat Drink Paleo}
If you can find someone who shares your views, that’s fantastic – like my friend Kyle & his lady-love who write the oh-so-entertaining Eat. Drink. Paleo – Two foodies who fell in love and are now transitioning to a paleo lifestyle. But at a minimum you need to show an interest in the other’s routines and goals, and be able to talk about and share your successes and failures.
Take my relationship for example, on the surface my boyfriend and I have virtually opposite views on all facets of fitness and nutrition:
- He eats an incredibly regimented high protein, low carb diet composed primarily of chicken, eggs, and vegetables which he tracks on a daily basis. I eat a mostly vegan, gluten-free, high raw diet.
- He does intermittent fasting – meaning that he doesn’t eat until early afternoon & only eats three meals a day. While I eat at least every two hours after my 4am wakeup time.
- He follows a lifting schedule & does CrossFit-style workouts that leave him wheezing, covered in bruises, scrapes, and rope burns, and stress his nervous system for days. I run, do circuit workouts & go to Pilates, martial arts & boxing classes.
- His ultimate goal with his work outs and eating regime is to retain & increase strength while dropping body fat. I’m only interested in being healthy and not having daily back pain.
Pretty different, right? But the truth is that those are fairly superficial differences – underneath it all we’re both incredibly passionate about health and fitness, and that’s what really matters.
We love going for walks & hikes, cooking, eating, going to the farmer’s market, and planning our meals and workouts for the week, and most of all, we love debating our positions on these topics. If you looked through our emails, Facebook messages, Tweets, and text logs you’d find photos of our meals, new recipes to try, books to add to our Amazon basket, articles to read, great blogs we’ve found, documentaries & movies to add to our Netflix queue, and questions about what we’ve eaten, what workouts we’ve done, and how far we’ve walked that day.
Every day.
{Hers vs His}
It doesn’t matter that we’re not spending our days doing the same things, what matters is that we both approach our lives with a profound respect for our bodies, what we put them through, and how we fuel them. Yes, we debate topics like veganism versus paleo eating, different types of fat, which oils to use in cooking, fasting, detox programs & cleanses, and strength training. Yes, sometimes I question his sanity when he comes home with his hands shredded from doing hundreds of pull-ups or muscle-ups or toes-to-bars. But mostly, we just talk about it.
Our shared passion for health and nutrition was not what brought us together 12 years ago, nor is it what has kept up together, but it does give us something to talk about and share every single day. And because it’s important to us both, we appreciate the other’s routines and ambitions, even though they’re different.
Like Rachel said:
One more lovely side effect of the fitness revival: Eric and I are back to bonding through nerdy, fitness-related conversations. (We’re also bonding over our sore muscles.) I’m really enjoying little things like talking about our workouts and progress, discussing an article about diet or exercise, trying new healthy foods together, or going shoe shopping for new athletic shoes.
You don’t need to be 100% in sync with your partner, you just need to be with someone who has the same appreciation and respect for health and fitness as you do. Added bonus if it becomes something that you can share and bond over!
MCLV’s Holiday Survivial Guide
The holiday season can be memorable and fun, but it can also be hectic, stressful and exhausting. It’s easy to let yourself go and enjoy every minute, only to realize when New Years Eve rolls around that you don’t fit into any of your party clothes.
I’m of the mindset that you should enjoy yourself, but try to keep up with your fitness and healthy eating regimes, at least in part. That works better for me than skipping all the festivities and moping while I’m at the gym, or crash dieting in January to get the unwanted weight off .
Below are some of the habits that I’ve learned over the years to help survive the holidays.
Cocktail Parties/Mixers/Work Events:
- Drink as much water as you can. A glass between each cocktail or glass of wine is ideal, but at the very least start with a large glass and have one before bed.
- Trays of appetizers and buffets have ruined many of us, the key to coming out unscathed is to focus your munching on the least processed foods and snacks. Fill your plate or napkin with fresh fruit, raw veggies, nuts, seafood, unpasteurized cheeses & unprocessed meats first. Try to stay away from thick dips, creamy sauces, bread and glazed meats.
- Stick to champagne, red wine or juice-based mixed drinks. Caffeine, syrup-based cocktails and white wine are all higher in sugar and can leave you feeling bloated and more hungover than warranted the following day.
Dinners:
- Concentrate on filling your plate with as many vegetables & whole grains as possible. Opt for Brussels sprouts, green beans (not green bean casserole!) and salad with brown rice, quinoa or risotto first. After you’ve filled up on high fiber and nutrient-rich foods, then allow yourself to partake of the more caloric sides like mashed potatoes and meats if you’re an omni.
- If you’re worried about your calories or have a restrictive diet or allergies, offer to bring a dish. I’ve never had a host or hostess take offense to my offer to bring something to add to their spread. Usually, they’re relieved since it takes some of the pressure off of them. Plus, it gives you a great opportunity to wow them with something they’ve never tried before!
- If you’re not comfortable bringing this up or if you’re a plus one and aren’t afforded the opportunity to speak with you host/hostess in advance, eat before you go. I always carry healthy, portable snacks with me (check out some options here) to eat either before or after a meal if I’m unsure what I’ll be served. Have a Larabar first and a huge plate of salad at dinner and you’ll be fine. And no one will be the wiser!
Exercise tips:
- Fit a workout in WHENEVER you can. Even if you only have 15 minutes to dedicate, do some HIIT (intervals) or a quick circuit with some walking lunges. Women’s Health even offers you a handful of 15 minute workouts each month, so grab an issue and squeeze in a little training session. You’ll be less stressed & calmer by the end, promise!
- Walk, walk, walk. Skip your morning taxi to work, leave your car at home when you run errands, walk to the mall, take a family stroll after dinner… Whatever it takes to get some walking in each day. It’s especially great if you can work in some Low-Intensity Fasted Cardio in the AM.
- Take the stairs! Just say NO to elevators and escalators and walk up the stairs to your apartment or office building each day.
Want some expert advice? Here are 5 things to keep in mind for the holiday season from a certified CrossFit trainer:
1. Maintain regular healthy habits. People will often eschew normal healthy habits during the holidays for all sorts of reasons. Traveling, social obligations and family stress, amongst other changes to our normal schedule can make it easy to disregard some of the healthier aspects of our lifestyles. But if your anything like me, it is substantially more difficult to implement new healthy lifestyle practices than it is to maintain existing ones. So if you regularly abstain from bread, always go for a walk first thing in the morning, or anything of the sort, do your best to stick to those same routines through the holiday season.
2. Do not fast in anticipation of a binge. In theory this makes sense, if you or your family is planning a huge feast its logical to try to compensate for the boat load of calories you’re going to consume at the end of the day by not eating anything before hand. But odds are if you walk into Thanksgiving dinner starving you’ll end up doing just as much, if not more, damage than you normally would by over-consuming and making poor food choices. It’s easier to justify four pieces of cheesecake instead of the one you would normally have if you starved yourself all day. Instead eat the healthy meals you would normally consume before dinner and that elusive holiday self-control might be a little easier to maintain when the main meal is served.
3. Try to do something active before and after a large binge. This is a good way to help mitigate the inevitable energy surplus and doesn’t have to be anything extreme or inconvenient. Something like walking an hour before and after you splurge is a perfect example. It can be done with a group, wont leave you sweaty, and you don’t have to pass a sobriety test in order to do it safely.
4. Not all booze is created equal. Alcohol is a very common nutritional land mine during the holidays and if your family is like mine, the notion of not drinking to excess during the holidays will get you blacklisted faster than being a communist. But just because you hit the sauce a little more than usual doesn’t mean there aren’t better choices that can be made. Quick explanation. When you eat or drink anything your body metabolizes the nutrients and either uses them or stores them in the form of fat. Alcohol is unique in that our bodies lack a mechanism to convert the alcohol to fat, so when alcohol is present our bodies metabolize and burn alcohol before anything else. While your body is busy trying to burn off the alcohol, which it cannot store, it is busy storing the other macronutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates) which it cannot yet use. This isn’t a great of scenario, especially after you’ve spent the night stuffing your face with mashed potatoes. So how do you mitigate this during the holidays? First, if possible try to limit booze intake (as I said, not always an option). Secondly, try to separate drinking events and eating events. If you have an early Thanksgiving dinner planned, try putting the drinking off until a few hours later. Finally, try to pick drinks lower in carbohydrates. Spirits and dry red wines are better choices than Ales or sugary mixed drinks.
5. Be realistic. The holidays should be fun. It’s the time of year where its acceptable to be gluttonous and drunk at unusual times. Dont stress over having a drink or two too many or an extra turkey leg. Life is supposed to be lived, not scrutinized.
I hope you find some of these tips useful, and definitely share any holiday habits you have that you think others might find helpful.
Bottoms up!
Guest Post: Low-Intensity Fasted Cardio
For Moi Contre La Vie’s first guest post please welcome Sean, a certified CrossFit instructor and self-taught health & nutrition guru, who will be discussing low-intensity fasted cardio. When he first mentioned this topic to me I thought it was extraordinarily interesting and immediately pounced on him to put it into writing.
{Yes – That’s Sean}
Enjoy!
For quite some time, i have prided myself in being physically capable of overcoming demanding physical challenges at will. Whether it be lifting heavy weights, running long distances, or some other overtly masculine challenge. For this reason, i use to laugh at myself when i was humbled by seemingly simple tasks, which in my goal of attaining general physical athleticism, i would overlook. This was never more apparent than when i would visit places like San Francisco where walking for an afternoon, yes walking, would leave me feeling beaten down and exhausted (my tiny girlfriend waiting for me to pant my way up every hill was demoralizing in itself). Little did I realize, that in neglecting one of the most fundamental forms of human locomotion, I was passing up a potent and extremely valuable health and fitness tool. One that requires a little time and very little effort.
Living in a place like San Francisco, where walking is a valid method of transportation, is dramatically different from than the suburbs in which i reside. Here, i can not think of a single person that walks, or even rides a bike, outside of the specific purpose of getting exercise. Funny enough, i know overweight people who will ride their bike for two hours straight when it is exercise, but when it comes to the half-mile commute to work or the store, the only option is the SUV. Not to say that i was any different, it is a habit that you learn.
Then, a few months back, I found an article discussing the topic of low-intensity fasted cardio exercise to augment training for gymnast. (I have a strange fascination with gymnastics training methods, the level of skill and strength required for basic competency is astonishing). The highlight of the topic was how low-intensity fasted cardio was a simple and effective way to keep fat off a gymnast, whilst not compromising their performance in the gym and permitting them to eat more. I thought this was very interesting and saw no reason why it would not be just as useful for anyone who was interested in a simple method of losing stubborn fat (who isn’t?).
First off, what is low-intensity fasted cardio? The “fasted” part of the equation should not be taken in any extreme sense of the word. Your body will begin to enter a fasted state about four to five hours after you eat. It takes about that long for your body to either use the nutrients you have eaten or store them. By this time you body begins using alternative sources of fuel which are derived primarily from your liver and increased metabolization of fat. Since most people do not eat while they sleep, they will generally wake up with blood rich in metabolized fat ready to be used for energy (There are numerous other steps in there, but that’s the basics). When you eat first thing in the morning, your body essentially reverses this process, turning to the more energy rich food and re-storing the fats you metabolized. Just because you freed the stored fat (metabolized) doesn’t mean you actually use (oxidize) it. So there is an optimal time (when you wake up or if you want to not eat for a while) for your body to access your stores of fat. This is where the bit about walking comes into play.
Pairing fasting with low-intensity cardio (low-intensity cardio can be just about any steady state exercise that doesn’t require you to breathe heavily – i.e. walking) is an easy way to capitalize on the metabolized fat that i just described. Why walk, when you can do more work in less time by running or some other higher intensity exercise? One, walking is easier to do consistently, especially when you don’t think of it as exercise. I walk to get coffee or to by food for the day, not to work out. For some reason, turning it into a necessity (I must have coffee) changes the walking from an option to a requirement. This makes doing it everyday easy. Second, fat is not the most efficient form of energy for your body to use. Once you begin to cross over into moderate to higher intensity exercise your body’s ability to meet your energy demands through fat metabolism isn’t adequate. It will generally turn to other richer sources of energy like muscle tissue.
First, thank you for the guest post. Second, and more importantly, thank you for calling me tiny. 🙂
While squeezing in some walking time is always good for you, whether you treat it as exercise or just need some time to yourself, low-intensity fasted cardio seems like an extremely beneficial activity to try on for size. I’ll confess, while I don’t read traditional dieting books, I will read almost any silly book that talks about French women and their approach to food {French Women Don’t Get Fat, Two Lipsticks and a Lover, A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl…} The number one tip all of these books give you is: WALK! The French walk everywhere. If there’s a choice between taking the stairs or an elevator, they take the stairs. They walk to work, they walk to the market, they walk around their cities and towns rather than driving. In my mind this reinforces the benefits of walking and illustrates how the French maintain their slim figures.
Can’t go through the drive through if you’re walking!
Sean usually walks to the store in the morning or walks for a few miles along the river with his roommate, which sounds to me like an ideal way to start to the day. Unfortunately with a 4:30am start time for my days a leisurely stroll isn’t in the cards, however I have been lucky enough to live less than two miles from work for the last few years so I usually walk to the office, weather permitting.
So keep Sean’s advice in mind and hit the pavement or trail to burn off some fat in the am before treating yourself to a healthy breakfast.
Moi Contre La Vie 