Back in skinny jeans

Better than Nothin': "Just Move" versus "Exercise"

For Better Than Nothin' Tuesday, the day we celebrate the smallest of changes and effort towards reaching your health goals because anything is better than zero, we are going to do an easy perception exercise.

Sometimes, the only thing you need to do to get motivated to do something is simply change the wording. Yes, sounds ridiculous but how you word something can make a big difference to your Inner Resistance Monster, that force inside you that has the power of the couch potato.

For many, me included, the word "exercise" can bring up all kinds of excuses, procrastination, and resistance. The word can make you feel things like tense, "I dun wanna", or even sad because you have emotional associations to the word "exercise." Logically, you know you need to exercise, and you know a workout is good for you, but, ugh, the resistance is there.

So try this. Instead of saying "exercise" say to yourself "Just move." Do something to just move your body. It doesn't have to be anything big. In fact, you don't even have to change into workout clothes, but do put on comfortable shoes.

Just move

Go walk for 5 minutes. Go up and down a few flights of stairs in your office building. Go to the living room and do some stretches. Get a jump rope and skip for a few minutes. The point is you are moving and getting the heart pumping and the muscles in motion.

What many of you will find is that even a few minutes of just moving, will get you past your resistance, and motivated to keep going farther since you're already out and about. Suddenly, a 5 minute walk can turn into a 20 minute jog. This happens to me every single time, and I always end up happy I did more "moving."

What's next in diet fads: In Japan, it's the "Morning Banana Diet"

Over in Japan the hottest diet in town is the "Morning Banana Diet" which consists of following these basic rules:

• For breakfast eat a banana (or as many as you like) and drink room temperature water
• Eat anything you want for lunch and dinner
• A 3pm snack is okay
• No eating after 8pm
• No desserts
• You must go to bed by midnight

The diet is so popular that it's near impossible to find a banana at the grocery store. In fact, this is what is happening economic wise with bananas in Japan (from Time.com):

Over the past 4 months, demand has driven Dole Japan to increase its banana imports by upward of 25%, and even then supplies could not keep pace with demand. "In a way this is an emergency," explains Hiromi Ohtaki of Dole Japan. "We've been importing bananas from the Philippines for the past 40 years, but this is the first time something like this happened to us, and we find it very difficult to cope."

In 2007, Japan imported 970,000 tons of bananas, and this year because of one diet fad, people are eating the country out of bananas. I find it mind boggling that a diet craze can affect an entire industry like this, and create a shortage in the grocery stores all just because people want to get skinny.

And what makes the banana so magical since this fruit has some of the highest sugar content of all fruits? In fact, many diets in the US, say to avoid the banana because of the high sugar. It almost seems that you could replace the banana with any other fruit and get the same results? Any nutritionists in the blog house got insight?

Now, I'm not just harping on the Japanese because here in the US we too can move entire industries to their knees just because of a manic desire to skinnify. The crazy conspiracy theorist in me sometimes even wonders if these fads are planted so that certain industries and businesses can become rich because they know the general consumer public can be so easily swayed and manipulated when it comes to weight loss.

And we're all guilty of buying into diet fads to some degree especially come New Year's resolution time of year which, hello, is a little over 2 months away. Yes folks, prime dieting season is almost here. So, what diet trend you think will be hot come this January?

Can a body shaper really make you look 20lbs slimmer instantly?

Yesterday, I enjoyed a Sunday sleep-in and lingered in bed for awhile whilst enjoying the warmth of my cuddly Calvin Klein comforter. As I channel surfed, I stumbled upon this informercial for the Kymaro Body Shaper. I was reminded how asanine infomercials can get.

I was flabbergasted when a 3D computer generated model skinnified about a dozen sizes before our very eyes as the words "Look Up To 20lbs Thinner instantly" flashed across the screen. Oh like that is so real! If that statement were true, Kymaro be using a real woman not an avatar from The Sims: Diet & Beauty Edition. I found a YouTube of the commercial so you can see it too. Fast forward to the 25 second point.

Can you believe that the real life model they used to demo the Kymaro looked like the size of the Gossip Girls with not one hint of bulge anywhere, nada, zilch, zero bulges. I mean come on, are you kidding me? But then, I had to re-group and remember that this Kymaro is one of those "As Seen on TV' kind of products which means it's eventually going to be an eBay or garage sale item because some poor soul got suckered caught up into buying the dream.

The only saving grace in this Kymaro pitch was that they did include real women with some very believable bulge issues. I myself could totally relate to the lady in pink with the muffin top over the jeans. If the Jeanie would grant me 3 wishes, I'd love to get rid of the muffin top pronto of course after feeding the starving children.

For a moment, the Kymaro was looking pretty good to me because at times I get frustrated with the fact that as tiny as my hips are, my waist is not in that 10" difference zone that designers like to design to. I'm in the 5-6" range which is more a boy cut which is just fine but I'll be honest in that there are times where I wish I had a tad more of an hourglass shape so I can have a Zeta Jones look in a cute knit dress.

Thankfully though, I have enough super hero powers to not succumb to the kryptonite power of the weight loss infomercial although it is really tempting sometimes. One time I got totally sucked into this program by America's #1 Love Expert. I did learn a thing or two :) Have you ever gotten sucked into an infomercial and bought the product? Were you happy or disappointed with your purchase?

Flashback: Remember When Jane Fonda Did Aerobics Videos?

Boomers and Gen Xers, remember way back when Jane Fonda did those aerobics videos in the 80's? Her videos were so popular.

Watching this video clip reminiscing over all the really cheesy workout clothes had me laughing on the floor like the leopard print leotard, leg warmers, and who could forget the terry cloth head band to hold back the big White Snake video rocker chick hair. Aqua Net made a mint back then!

I'm so happy we got practical with the pony tail look.

(video 1min 27sec)

Internet Giggles: Naming Your Baby

No doubt, someone will do this for real. I'd like to name my next pet cat Flickr...lol!

Your Reaction: What if you found out your trainer, instuctor, or medical professional had an eating disorder?

Word to the wise is that when it comes to your health you should always involve trained, certified professionals or "partners in prosperity" as I call them because good health is wealth.

However, if you are on a journey to lose weight and improve your eating, how would you react if you found out that your trainer, your aerobics instructor, your nutritionist, or your doctor had an eating disorder like bulimia, binge eating, or orthorexia? Just because someone is a certified trainer or medical professional for a living does not immune them from having health issues themselves.

Years ago, I had a trainer who I'll call Perky because that perfectly describes this woman. She was this vivacious 28-year-old with arms like Jillian Michaels who equally kicked my ass and helped me get in the best shape of my life. In particular, she helped me improve my posture greatly as I am a major slumper.

In the first 6 months, I was seeing Perky 4 times a week and we became friends as we also had much in common outside of the gym. Perky had a wicked sense of humor, and she'd have me in stitches when my thighs were throbbing from her across room lunges. We'd go out to lunch, go shop, go dancing, and hang out in cafes. And then one day, the truth came out.

Quote on our bodies

You could win an hour of Stephanie's blog consulting time

Just a friendly reminder for you lifestyle bloggers that you still have a chance to enter to win an hour of my blog consulting time.

In an effort to drive people happy, and spread some abundance, I'm donating one hour of my blog consulting time to one lucky recipient as a random act of kindness. You have until 12 midnight PST tonight. I will announce the winner on Friday.

Here's all the details to enter!

Open Letter to Fitness and Health Brands Pitching to Bloggers

On average, I get pitched 4-5 times a week, from some PR rep for a “large fitness or health” brand wanting me to blog about their fabulous {insert product name}. Having worked on both the corporate and agency side of marketing/PR/advertising myself for 12 years, I can tell you that at least 80% of these pitches I get frankly suck.

I know, yes, yes, that is not a nice PC thing to say. But truly, the majority of pitches I get are really awful or completely miss the mark, and surprisingly many of these pitches are coming from high priced PR firms representing very well known brands you’d think would know better, but apparently not.

But, I’m not here to complain about the bad pitches, nope, I want to help you big brands do a better job at pitching us fit bloggers because I can only see more pitches coming my way and coming the way of the fit blogosphere.

MizFit, and I talk constantly about the pitches we get because most often it’s the same brands. So, MizFit and I decided to do a joint open letter where MizFit would speak more from a trainer’s perspective and master of the fit blogger comments, and I would echo sentiments from the marketing/business perspective. So here we go:

Quote on understanding