The Cheese Cake Diet - Lose 10lbs in Two Weeks!

We have a giggle around the office every time we see an ad promising significant (read: ridiculous) weight loss. And there are lots of those promises to go around... Lose 10lbs in 4 days! Drop 30lbs in 12 days! I often wonder why there are so many of these ads, and why people are so easily persuaded that such dramatic weight loss is 1) possible, 2) safe and 3) sustainable.

Then I remember my own rather infamous "Cheese Cake Diet".

When I was 14, I went to live with my older sister for a summer. I was really excited to be living in the big city with a "proper job" at the restaurant my sister managed. I was a hostess. For 5 hours a day in the heart of Toronto's financial district, I seated lunch guests, served meals and cleared tables. I loved it.

But surrounded by all of those slim, tall adults, I felt like a plump country bumpkin. In fact, I was the height I am now, 5 foot 5 inches tall, and a very healthy 120lbs. There was no Google way back then, and I had never heard of Body Mass Index (BMI). So I couldn't possibly know that I had a healthy teen BMI of 20. I suppose even back then, I wanted to be fabulous!

So I started my own diet plan. It consisted of one cup of black coffee and a slice of cheese cake. That's it. That's all. Every day for two weeks, I arrived at work, guzzled the coffee then slowly savored my slice of salvation over the course of my shift. Then I made increasingly suspicious excuses why I didn't want dinner. And low and behold - it worked! I lost 10lbs in just 14 days!!!! On day 15, I fainted and fell down two flights of stairs. That was the end of that "diet".

The point is, our body needs fuel. Good quality, well portioned fuel - especially in our 40s when things really start to change. But one thing doesn't change: the need for good information, not misleading and misguided promises. A wise person would start by calculating their Basal Metabolic Rate - the base rate of calories you burn just living. I wasn't wise. I was a teenager.

Without exercise, my BMR at 14 was about 1,975 calories. Add all the summer activities like swimming and bike riding and my overall calorie burn per day was probably close to 2,500 calories a day. A cup of black coffee has about 10 calories. A single, medium-sized slice of cheese cake has about 550 calories for a total of 560 calories a day IN and 2,500 calories a day OUT. No wonder I lost weight quickly. And no wonder I fell down a couple flights of stairs.

It should come as a relief that I've learned a thing or two about nutrition and the symbiotic relationship between diet and exercise. I now eat very well and come to think of it, I haven't had a slice of cheese cake since.

But... I KNOW I'm not the only one with a crazy diet story. So fess up and share the wealth... shoot me a quick comment and tell me your dumbest, funniest diet story. Did you know how many calories in and out? Did you pick a food and just eat one thing? (Lord have mercy on the friends of Cabbage Diet practitioners.) The weirder the better. And, as a bonus, I'll give a wee prize (a mypypeline.com workout video) to some of the best / silliest "promise headlines" Eg. I lost 30lbs just eating pimentos, and you can too!!!!!!!

Tell me everything. I promise... you have nothing to lose. FITFABFORTY

Yoga for people who don't like yoga classes

I don't like yoga classes. There I said it.

I have done "hot classes" (nearly passed out), done large regular classes (too pungent for my incredibly sensitive olfactory system) and done regular small classes (often carpeted rooms, making the air quality dodgy). In addition to this, I detest scented candles and scented body oils which are often de rigueur in the yoga world.

But the reality is yoga will keep us forty-somethings fabulous. Here's why. As we age, everything about us slows down, from our ability to recover from an injury to our ability to burn fat. And as we spend more and more time at a desk, all of our postural stability and balance goes to hell in a Pottery Barn hand basket. All that hunching over is bad for us. (Go figure.)

Yoga helps build lean muscle mass in the large muscle groups that power our everyday activities and strengthens small muscles groups, many of which are stabilizer muscles. Improved muscle mass gives us better posture and stability and this helps us maintain an injury-free body. Better posture helps us look better (younger) in our clothes. And the increased oxygen that is supplied to our bodies through yoga's breathing practices, helps boost our metabolism and generates a healthy glow.

Lots of good reasons to do yoga. Just no yoga classes for moi.

So I sought out alternatives to yoga classes like a yoga DVD or an online yoga video that I can play in the privacy of my own home. And a yoga instructor who isn't all airy-fairy. I don't do "free-your-mind-at-the-top-of-the-mountain" stuff. Jana Webb's Intermediate Yoga did the trick.

Jana Webb gets limber in her online yoga video, Intermediate Yoga.















Doing yoga at home is very different from being in a class. I was able to control my environment and mitigate any offensive smells or allergens. As a result, I was actually able to perform the focused breathing required for each movement. This was quite a coup for me. I'm a shallow breather as a result of life long respiratory problems and just opening my lungs with deep breathing is a very intense experience for me.

Jana is a great guide. She gives you very clear instruction and gently takes you through what I would consider a fairly challenging routine. To do this yoga video, you need some prior experience and you should be somewhat fit. Jana performs some movements with a block or a strap but you don't have to have any equipment other than a yoga mat. If you are interested in Beginner Yoga, Jana has that covered too.

Jana's intermediate yoga video is a challenging workout that leaves you feeling taller, stronger and more stable. I downloaded it to my laptop, hooked my laptop to my TV, and then did the routine in my living room. I did this because I travel, and instead of having to lug around a DVD or hunt around a hotel for a yoga class, I can just watch it on my laptop or upload it to my video iPod. I'm so darn hip.

And, yes, Jana is FABulous! Luminous and lithe, I give Jana Webb a 5-star rating and her Intermediate Yoga a 4 our of 5 stars.

*****

The 6 Minute Abs Workout Video That Started It All

When I choose this handle for my blog, I had literally hundreds of ideas. For example, there is ample evidence about the benefits of performing core training exercises to enhance posture, balance and stability in mid-life. I wanted to write about this. But I kept stalling. Why would that be? Am I lazy? Of course not.

But I guess I was waiting for the most inspired moment, the complete 60 minute core workout, and the some kind of planetary alignment. I was waiting for perfection. Now I know that in fitness, there is only progress, never perfection. Some times you just have to start. So here goes:

Core strength is an absolutely relevant topic to me and anyone else that works seated at a desk all day long. Our spine rolls out, our abdominals are not engaged to support our posture and as a result our entire core weakens. A weak core opens us up to injuries of all kinds. Deep core strength and the resulting stability prevents injury and gives you better posture. And that will keep you fabulous in - yes, I'm going to say it - middle life.

In an effort to just damn well do it, I choose Tracey Mallett's 6 Minute Quick Cardio Abs Blast. It is actually 6 minutes. That's the first thing. So quick and so zippy that after I was done, I thought, "It's over?" Not that it wasn't challenging enough. It was. Tracey herself does the most challenging execution of the exercises but there are modifications so if you're a newbie, you'll have a good place to start.


Although the core excercises themselves are challenging, I can't underscore enough how easy this video was to do. I played in on my computer screen in my office at work, and had a colleague join me. As Tracey guides you through a series of modified crunch work, she keeps it light and fun. I did this workout in loose work clothes, and although my heart rate did go up, I did not sweat. It was a nice mid-afternoon break that I will do again at home.

You will get a flatter tummy over time with this video. However, more importantly to me, mypypeline.com expert trainer James Greenwood confirms that this is well-executed functional core training that will help improve stability, balance and posture. Finally, it's affordable at $1.99 to rental it for 24-hours and $3.00 to buy the download. And you can try a 24-hour rental by using coupon code D98D6CA at cart.

Getting all of that out of a six minute workout video is impressive and I rate this video FIVES STARS out of five. You can check out Tracey's other videos too. This is a perfect video to get started, and getting started is real progress. FITFABFORTY