Spring Cleaning: An Adventure in Detoxing-Day 2

Day Two - Saturday, May 31

I slept great, and wake up to try my new detox. I have 2 glasses of water, one with lemon, and a cup of herbal tea. I take my herbal supplements. I eat a piece of room temperature fruit, and get some quinoa cooking. 30 minutes later, I have a bowl of quinoa with a teaspoon of butter/olive oil mixed together, and a little sea salt. Yummy and nourishing! This is so much better!

Take Roddy to Grandma's, come home and get my veggies ready for lunch and dinner. Take more herbal supplements, and make myself a glass of cucumber/carrot/celery juice to have while I wait. Delicious! Eat lunch, and pack up my veggies and a thermos of iced herbal tea to take over to Bill & Mike's.

Dinnertime - been over at Bill & Mike's all day working on the carousel, hard manual labor and I'm soaked from the rain, covered in mud & axle grease. Everyone's starving, they order Power Pizza, chicken wings, and beer. I have my veggies and herbal tea - surprisingly, I am OK with this. Everyone feels bad for me, but I am fine! I think aliens have zapped my brain. I call it a night around 10:30, have some hot herbal tea and off to bed. Again, who is this person? A baby-free night with no beer?? I feel strangely calm & satisfied, but a little worried for my sanity.

(So far so good!)

Spring Cleaning: An Adventure in Detoxing-Day 1

Day One, Friday May 30 (As written by Jenny)

OK. Here we go. I started the day with no coffee, but had some herbal tea and a cup of green tea with stevia, plus lots of water with lemon. Took the first of my herbal cleansing supplements. Had a major upset stomach, and a headache. But I soldiered on. Had my antioxidant green powder mixed with water for breakfast - ecch. Still hungry, watch my son chow down on scrambled eggs & strawberries! Put some chamomile "sun tea" out on the porch to start brewing.

Roddy's naptime - time to make my "free soup", which is a pureed concoction of green vegetables plus herbs & spices to taste but no salt. You can drink the "free soup" throughout the day. It smells good cooking but isn't as tasty going down. Lunchtime, time to juice. Make a glass of beet/carrot/cucumber/beet greens juice in my new juicer. This is pretty good! Take my enzyme tablets and another dose of herbal cleanser.

Now it's Roddy's lunchtime - he gets mac n' cheese, french fries & avocado. I drink another antioxidant green drink. Oh this stuff is gross. My head is pounding, and I'm feeling overwhelmed and a little emotional. Call husband, who tells me I sound terrible and that he wants to talk about my detox plans when he gets home from work. I drink some more "free soup" and have another glass of iced chamomile tea. Does nothing to make me feel better.

Roddy & I walk to the park to play, but by the time we get home I have a blistering headache. Time to get dinner ready. I make the boys ravioli with turkey meatballs & marinara, and get my veggies ready for dinner. I have my supplements and my pureed veggies, tastes pretty good but I still feel miserable. Jay tells me he thinks I need to do a different detox, and I agree. I decide to do Dr. Haas' Detox Diet (which Kim gave me, thank you Kim!), and after Roddy goes to bed I eat three turkey meatballs & feel instantly better! Aahhh, nourishment!

(The "Kim" she refers to is Kimberly Rush-Lynch of Cultivating Health, who will be the main presenter of our "Spring Cleaning" workshop)

Spring Cleaning: An Adventure in Detoxing

It is time for Spring Cleaning! The "Spring Cleaning: An Adventure in Detoxing" will follow my client, Jenny, as she goes through her detoxing experience. Jenny, a mother of an energetic 18 month-old son, has been working out with me since February and has been making remarkable progress towards her fitness goals. Please come back each day this week to see how Jenny is doing with her detox experience.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Jenny!!

Spring Cleaning for Health

The Hot Mama Fitness Studio and Cultivating Health are sponsoring a workshop entitled "Spring Cleaning for Health". If you have ever been interested in cleanses or detoxes, this is a perfect workshop for you. For more information and to register, please see the Hot Mama Fitness Studio website.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Loser Mom's First Workout

Today was Devra and Sarah's first real workout. They made it through with flying colors! We did our workout on the deck at City Fitness Gym because it was so beatiful today!!

We started off with plank and superman to strengthen the core. Then we moved on to ball squats, pushups, rows with the TRX and stepups (for cardio). I like to put one to two minutes intervals of cardio into workouts to make sure that clients are burning calories through the duration of the workout by keeping their heart rates elevated. We ended with some core work on the BOSU and stretching.

Check out more about the first workout on their blog: Loser Moms.

Hiking-A Wonderful Workout Alternative

If you are looking for ways to add fun and exciting activities to your workout regime, try going hiking. The DC area has wonderful opportunities near by for hiking. This past Saturday, I went to my favorite local hiking place: The Catoctin Mountains, which are located only an hour outside of DC.

Hiking is a great test of your cardiovascular (and muscular) endurance. You need good core strength to balance as you walk on logs and rocks to cross streams. (Or to keep you up right on rocky paths) You can also build muscular strength by climbing rocks.

You can even go hiking right in DC in Rock Creek Park. Or just take a nice walk on your neighborhood trails. You don't have to choose between doing cardiovascular workouts or strength workouts during you walk either. You can do strength building exercises along the way. For example, you can do dips and push-ups on park benches. You can do squats every time you pass a fire hydrant. Bring your resistance band along and you can do rows using light poles. The possibilies are endless!

Don't forget to bring lots of water and to stretch before and after.

So grab a friend, get outside and get fit!

Two New Hot Mamas!

I am working with two new Hot Mamas this week, Devra and Sarah. Both are mothers that are looking to get back into shape.

I met with them for the first time on Thursday, May 22 at City Fitness Gym in Cleveland Park to conduct a fitness assessment. This is the first step in any personal training relationship. The fitness assessment starts off with us discussing each of their individual health histories (both are very healthy) and their long- and short-term fitness goals.

Then we moved on the the actual physical assessments which include:
A posture assessment on the treadmill
An over head squat (another posture assessment)
The pushup test
The situp test
Flexibility tests
The step test (for cardiovascular endurance)
and anatomical site measurements.

Everything went very well and they were still smiling when they left.

We are going to meet twice a week from now on. Check back to see how these Hot Mamas are doing and what they are doing to acheive their fitness goals!

You can also follow their progress and cheer them on at their blog: Loser Moms.