September 2014 – Beth Burns Fitness

How much cardio should I do?

September 24, 2014/2,695 Comments/in Fitness /by Beth Burns

Another email question from a reader:

Hey Beth! Are there benefits to doing both short high intensity workouts, then slower longer intensity workouts? Or alternating every day? My main goal would be to get leaner and stronger. I guess I’m wondering if there’s any point to doing longer cardio sessions if they’re not doing me any better (calorie-wise) than 15-30 minute intervals?

Ah yes. I get this question ALL the time. Especially since it’s become a pretty hot topic in the last few years. With all the hoopla, I get how you could feel confused about how much and what kind of cardio you should be doing. Believe me, I get it. Back in college, I too was a cardio queen. I ran 6 days a week religiously. So when I was first introduced to the concept of intervals, I was pretty hesitant to give up my steady-state cardio!!

So allow me to break it down for ya, short and sweet, right here, right now….

Reasons to do steady-state cardio

1) You simply enjoy it. It’s true , there really are people out there that do! (Just kidding…sort of. 😉 ) Seriously though, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: THE best way to stay motivated and consistent is to do what you love.

2) Stress management – The answer to your first question is, yes, there are some benefits to steady-state cardio! Getting outside, alone with your thoughts, and sweating it out can definitely relieve stress. But again, ONLY if you enjoy it! If you despise it and only do it because you think you have to then it’s likely to make you more stressed out instead of less.

Reasons NOT to do steady-state cardio

1) Joint health – High impact, repetitive movements wear down your joints big time. Especially if you’re overweight! If you want to be a runner, prepare your body for it first by strengthening the leg and core muscles and losing weight. If you are a runner, give your body a break and switch it up some!

2) To counteract overeating – Honestly steady-state cardio just doesn’t burn that many calories. So if you think you can throw down a crap ton of pizza and then go run or ‘elliptical’ it off, you are sorely mistaken…no matter how long you go. Calorie burning pretty much stops the minute you stop. With intervals, you will increase your calorie burn for the next 24 hours! That means a MUCH higher amount of calories burned.

3) To lose weight – The reason steady-state cardio has been getting such a bad rap lately is because we have found a better way for people to lose weight and get in shape and yet most people still try to run it off. Yes, you can lose fat by running. Unfortunately the longer you go, the more efficient your body becomes and the less calories you will burn running the same amount!

4) To tone up – If you’re looking to tone up your legs, your best option is getting in the weight room! Period. If you’re looking to tone up your arms, best option is to pick up some heavy stuff. Want to lift and tone your butt? Squats, Deadlifts, lunges, swings, is where it’s at. You get the idea…. 🙂

So is there any point in doing longer cardio sessions instead of intervals?

The answer is no, you do not need to do any steady-state cardio in order to get leaner and stronger. While managing stress is, I think, essential for fat loss and overall health, there are many ways to do that.

So how much cardio should you do?

Basically you’re looking for the minimum effective dosage. I’ve yet to have a client who needed to do any steady-state cardio to reach their fat loss goals. If you are my client and your #1 goal is fat loss and/or strength, then here’s what your priorities are gonna look like:

#1. Nutrition
#2. Lifting
#3. Intervals
#4. Steady-state cardio

**Learn to train smarter, not harder, and you can most likely get away with just 1-2 interval sessions a week and zero steady-state cardio. Woo hoo!

So what can I do if I love to run, but would still like to get leaner and stronger?

The good news is there is a way! They’re called sprints!

Sprints are basically the best of both worlds as they are, in fact, just running intervals! So here are three of my favorite ways to do sprints:

Hill sprints – Find a hill, sprint up it, walk down it, repeat for 5-15 reps. 🙂
Rest-based sprints – Got this from Jill Coleman and I love it. Sprint for 30 seconds, rest as long as you need. Sprint 45 seconds, rest as long as you need. Sprint 60 seconds, rest as long as you need. Repeat as many times as you can in 20 minutes.
Sports/Games – basketball, soccer, football, ultimate frisbee, red rover….need I go on? 😉

For those who are NOT interested in running, I give you this little number:

*By the way, this is a pretty intense interval workout. If you are a beginner, you might want to cut it back to 2-3 rounds to start!

One last note and then I will be done. I think most of us think of lifting for building muscle and cardio for burning fat. This is quite over simplified and just not true. You’d be much better off taking all that time and energy you’re putting into your cardio sessions and put that into improving your diet instead.

If you have to do cardio, what’s your favorite way to get it done? Share below!

3 crockpot recipes and 2 BIG reasons why you need one

September 17, 2014/5,170 Comments/in Food /by Beth Burns

I think I had my crock pot for about 3 years before I ever used it for the first time. Once I finally did, it was like the movie where the girl realizes that the person she’s in love with is the guy who’s been there all along. I couldn’t believe that I had this hidden treasure sitting right under my nose for all those years.

Here’s the thing about the crock pot: it’s kind of a game-changer when it comes to making a healthy diet easier.

How so? Sure, we all know that cooking takes time, energy, and a whole bunch of dishes. 🙂 The crock pot pretty much does away with all of that. It’s less time-consuming, budget-friendly, and usually provides some leftovers as well. But that’s not even what I’m talking about! There are 2 reasons why I especially love the crock pot.

#1. It takes willpower out of the equation. Willpower is like a battery….a cell phone battery unfortunately. You start out fully charged in the morning, but you use it up throughout the day. By dinner time, most of us are running pretty low. This is the reason most people cite breakfast as their healthiest meal of the day and dinner as the hardest.

The crock pot allows you to take your end-of-day willpower out of the equation.

Just throw everything in first thing in the morning when you’re still fresh and energetic and it’s done. Come home to a delicious & healthy meal ready and waiting. No extra energy required and no fighting the mental war of pizza delivery versus making a meal at home. Not sure if it gets much better than that. 😉

#2. PROTEIN. Protein is so important to a healthy diet. It helps you avoid overeating by filling you up quicker and keeping you full for longer. Plus, it’s a lot less likely to be stored as fat because the body burns extra calories just working to digest it. The crock pot allows for a super easy way to cook meat until it’s tender and juicy.

*I strongly suggest you get a crock pot with a timer, so that it will automatically switch over to warm after the allotted time.

To get you started, here are 3 delicious crock pot recipes to try. (Disclaimer, I did not come up with any of these! Two are from friends and one’s from a magazine. 🙂 )

Mexican Chicken

4 chicken breasts
1-2 cans rotel
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 onion, diced
1 T adobo seasoning
~1/2 C water (just enough so chicken won’t burn)

– Everything in crock pot for 2 hours on high
– Pull meat apart
– Cook on low for additional 2 hours
– Serve w/rice and a sprinkle of cheese & sour cream

Pulled Chicken (I got this recipe from Shira Nelson over at Mom Beyond Baby)

6-8 chicken breasts
1 large jalapeno, finely chopped, seeds removed
1 yellow onion, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
+ 1-2 cloves, smashed (and just thrown in the crock pot)
1 T sea salt
1 1/2 T chili powder
1 1/2 T lime juice
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T olive oil

– Throw everything but chicken into the crock pot and stir it all together.
– Add chicken & coat with mixture
– Cook on high ~2.5-3 hours if thawed or 4 hours if frozen (depending on your crock pot)- When chicken starts to pull apart take it off the heat so it won’t dry out
– Love this with a big salad and some avocado!

BBQ Pulled Pork

2-lb boneless pork roast
1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
2/3 C chili sauce
1/2 C cola
1/4 C ketchup
1 T. yellow mustard
1 1/2 t. chili powder
1 1/2 t. apple cider vinegar
1 t. cumin
1/2 t. paprika
1/4 t. salt & pepper
1/8 t. ground red pepper

– Trim fat from meat
– Meat and onion in crock pot
– Combine everything else in small bowl and pour over meat
– Cook on low for 12 hours or high for 6 hours
– Slice thinly or shred
I love this as an open faced sandwich with cucumbers and a little bit of bbq sauce and a salad on the side. So Good!

Hey, let’s help each other out! I would LOVE for you guys to share your favorite crock pot recipes with me and everyone else who might be reading over on my facebook page or in the comment section below!!

Help! I can’t stop eating!

September 8, 2014/520 Comments/in Food, Lifestyle /by Beth Burns

Recently I received an email from a reader that I wanted to share with you guys….

Hey Beth~ Right now I am really struggling with moderation. I eat well and exercise regularly during the week but, for example, on the weekends or Fridays I will hang out with friends (which I don’t want to stop doing) and we eat relatively healthy things (our tradition is the in-house made guac from whole foods) but I have no control on moderation. I just can’t stop eating. I feel full and “gross” until the next day, but for the most part, I will repeat every weekend. It is an internal battle in my head that I mostly lose. I feel like every weekend derails my nutrition goals. I’ve tried writing things down that I don’t want to eat any more. For example, I have been fantastic about not eating any type of chip or fries. But horrible about not eating sugars or peanut butter. Help!

Ugh, we’ve all been there my friend. For some, it’s a weekend thing and for others it’s a nightly ritual….we usually don’t sit down with the intention of eating until we’re sick. But you get home from a long day of work and it feels like all you have the energy to do is sit in front of the tv and eat. So we do. We eat dinner and then dessert and then we’re craving something salty and before we know it, we find ourselves waddling to bed full of food and regret. We scold ourselves for being so weak. We promise ourselves that we’ll remember this feeling and never eat like that again…

Yet, we find ourselves back there more often than we care to admit. Why?

I thought about it and came up with what I believe are the 3 main reasons for why we tend to do this and offer you a tool to help deal with each:

1) Food FOMO

FOMO stands for Fear Of Missing Out. I first heard this used in terms of food by my coach, Jill Coleman. Sometimes it’s being afraid of missing out on the actual food itself and other times I think I’m more worried about missing out on the experience. When you’re at a social event and everyone’s gathered around the buffet table, munching and chatting and laughing, I don’t want to miss out on that so I stay with the group and I munch and chat and munch some more.

The solution to this? Honestly I think it might be the opposite of putting all those foods that tempt you off limits. It’s actually been proven that your desire for something grows when you know you can’t have it. Perhaps, that’s the reason for the weekend binge. You’ve resisted it all week. You know it’s the only time you’re able to have it. So that desire for guacamole goodness that been building all week in anticipation of Friday of course wins out over any kind of reasonable thought process.

*The fix: Allow yourself to have those foods during the week….in specified portions.

DO NOT just grab the bag and sit down on the couch. We all know that never works!

Give yourself a predetermined amount. That means decide now what a reasonable amount is and stick to that. Allowing yourself to have some each day should cure your food FOMO. After all, why would you have it if you know you can have some chips and guac every day?! 🙂

2) Mouth boredom

When there’s tons of amazing food every where you look, it’s hard not to think about it. The more you think about it, you start convincing yourself that you’re still hungry or that you just absolutely MUST have this particular food right now!

*The fix: Sometimes you just need a diversion to get your mind and your mouth off of food!! My two favorite tools for this are mint gum and water/tea. Both of which are natural appetite suppressants. Although usually we don’t need an appetite suppressant as much as just a distraction for our mouth.

3) Habit

I think this is probably the most common reason.

At the end of the day or week, we’re feeling drained and looking to kick back. We don’t want to have to think about food. Our willpower is exhausted and all we have left to fall back on is HABIT. And changing a habit, well, that takes mindfulness and deliberate practice. Moderation is not a switch you can simply flip on and off. It’s a PRACTICE. So here’s my favorite and most helpful way to practice and get better at this (I also learned from this from Jill 🙂 ).

*The practice: Take a third of a protein bar and put the rest back. Savor and enjoy that one third, then go DO SOMETHING for at least 10 minutes. If you’re still thinking about the protein bar after that, go have another third. Then go do something for at least 20 minutes. If you still really want more, then you can go finish the bar. However, you’d be surprised at how many times you’ll forget about it after the first or second helping.

Protein bars can be really addicting which is why I used that example, but in all honesty, I do this practice with cookie dough ice cream. I give myself 2 spoonfuls. 😉 You can do this anywhere with anything, but it’s usually easier to start off practicing it at home!

my favorite treats!

I know this might sound kinda silly, but if you’re serious about wanting to get to a place where you can enjoy food and parties without the uncomfortable stomach feeling or the regret, then you have to find a way to build up your willpower and reset your habits. Imagine being able to have the foods you want and NOT completely derail your goals! THIS is a worthwhile practice!

But it is still a practice. Be ready to mess up. Be willing to look back and figure out how you need to do differently next time. Be patient with yourself. Be persistent and unwilling to give up.

Is this helpful? What tools do you use to prevent yourself from going all in on the weekends?

*Interested in Colorado Springs kettlebell classes? Check out my in-home training studio, Springs Kettlebells!*