Hooping hits the mainstream!

Hooping - my first love when it comes to fitness. I could wax on and on about how I first discovered hooping (a knitting friend put me on to it) but really it's kind of boring. Not hooping, hooping is not boring! It's fun, it's addicting, and the whole family can do it! Seriously a fitness thing that everyone can do together? Yeah, I was all over that! The first thing I did? I went to Home Depot and I bought all the things. Wait let me expand on that, I bought all the things needed to make my own hoops. Why? Because I am cheap, and crafty, and I knew I could make enough hoops for my entire family for the same price as a hoop bought offline. Now these first hoops they were nothing fancy at all, but they worked. We all fell in love with hooping but we were all struggling with learning to be well more coordinated and do some tricks. Hooping has tricks? Damn right!

You know what happens when you are like a skateboarder and you watch youtube videos to learn a new trick? First thing you do is grab your board, hit the skate park and try. And fall flat on your ass too I betchya. Same thing with hooping tricks, except instead of falling on my ass I whacked myself in the back of the head over, and over, and over and . . . well you get the drift. I wanted to learn more, do more and there were no local classes, no local teachers, nothing. What does a hoopy girl do then when she can't find what she is looking for? Simple, she goes and gets herself certified to be a teacher of course!

I logged on to Hoopnotica and searched for teacher trainings, lo and behold one was coming to Seattle. I signed up, paid my fees, and waited. My teacher was the ever amazing and beautiful Pamela Crawford. I got to learn not only how advance in my hoop skills but also how to help others find themselves in the hoop.

Since becoming a certified instructor I've taught several classes, and continued with my education. I am currently certified in HoopnoticaDance in all 4 levels and level 1 of HoopFit. Admittedly since last summer I really have not done much with my hooping venture. Mostly because I live in a small town and it's been very hard going to get the hoop craze started out here. I'll admit after 2 years of trying I really just became discouraged and so I let it fall to the wayside.

Monday, however, Hoopnotica was featured on GMA <-- click link to see the video (we have also been on Kathie Lee & Hooda and Ellen and various other daytime TV shows) which has really brought hooping and Hoopnotica in the limelight. I am hopeful that with this latest influx of interest that hooping will gain some attention here in my neck of the woods and I will be at the forefront helping others to find joy and happiness with exercise, to laugh like a kid, to enjoy fitness, to find themselves in the hoop!

PS if you live in or around Olympia, Tacoma, Bremerton, Silverdale, Lacey WA and you are interested in taking a class or you run/operate a dance studio, gym etc and would like to have me teach classes in your facility just drop me a line at jenncoulter at gmail dot com :-)

Take two!

After evaluating my calender I decided tonight would be my 2nd carb nite, this ensures that my next 2 carb nites fall directly after a personal training session with my coach. She has a way of killing me and we will be targeting an area I need to build up, my delts. This makes those days perfect for carbing up on and then follow up the day after with a heavy legs session!

My 1st carb nite was disappointing as I said and I started it too early during the day. This time I have taken a different strategy. To help finish glycogen depleting I did HIITs yesterday and today. Honestly I haven't felt depleted even during the reorientation phase so I almost feel like I haven't "earned" a carb nite, getting over that feeling fast though ;) I am about to head back out to the gym for a heavy shoulder workout, DLB style. That's Dana Linn Bailey for those that don't know, and she is pretty much one of my biggest physqiue hero's. So my workout will look like this -
warm up 2x15 push press
3x12 face pulls, super heavy
3x10-12 rev pec dec
drop set DB lat raise - 3 sets of 20-20-20 starting with light weight and working up
3x10-12 1-1-2 front raise

post workout will be a protein shake and banana before I hop into the tanning bed while I wait for the husband to finish his workout.

Now begins carb nite!!
1- decaf latte with whip and a lemon poppyseed muffin top
2- dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic toast, and cheesecake for dessert
3- pint of B&J ice cream
4- choc covered pretzels before hitting the sack

There will be protein in there too, I just haven't decided what my protein source(s) will be, probably chicken breast since it's easy lol

Oh and remember yesterday's post about the kids eating what I eat? Here's an example of how I make my meal plans work with them. I made pulled pork for dinner. Now since I am doing CNS I could have the pork and some sort of fat (I opted for cheddar cheese). To make this kid friendly I made theirs into pork, cheddar, apple slices paninis with a side of green beans and extra apple slices.

New Year's Resolutions

We all make them right? And the #1 resolution again this year is to lose weight. There are as many ways to lose weight as there are people in this world, shakes, pills, sprinkles, shots, prepackaged "food", food deliveries, point systems . . . and they all promise the same thing. Quick results. And hey who doesn't want quick results right? But what happens after the diet? When the pills are causing you issues, the sprinkles are causing unpleasant leakage, the shots are starving you, the prepackaged food is not enjoyable, the points no longer keeping the lbs at bay. People give up or find a new extreme quick fix. Or say they DO have fantastic results, they hit their goal weight so now what? They go back to the habits that got them in the position to need to diet in the first place, and thus starts (or continues) the yo-yo dieting lifestyle. Yes I do think yo yo dieting is a lifestyle, it's a choice made to take the quick easy way out only to return to your old habits without ever actually changing anything. And every year, every yo yo sends the scale climbing up to a higher weight than before the diet began.

So this year instead of resolving to lose weight, perhaps resolve to change your lifestyle! Start small and make 1 or 2 changes weekly. Ditch the soda for water and try to drink 2-4 liters per day. That one simple change can make a huge difference not only on how you feel but on how much you weigh! I recently had a client with a 12 cola a day habit, in her first two weeks on a meal plan from me and giving up the soda she dropped 10 lbs! Now those results are not typical, but it does show how much extra weight drinking soda can cause you to hold on to.



I personally don't do new year's resolutions as I tend to fail at keeping them. Instead I set new year's goals. My goals change each year and this year is no different. I like setting goals for myself, it gives me something to strive for and helps keep me focused and on track. I am also very specific about my goals and I think that also makes a huge difference. Try this, instead of saying "I want to lose weight" say "I will eat whole foods and exercise 3-4 times per week"





Now be ready to be bombarded with several posts about my current contest prep plan. I am trying something different this prep but I am open to changing this plan if I see I am having any negative results from it. I am planning to track every single day, what I am eating, how I am feeling, my activities etc. It will probably be pretty boring, or not. I will also be documenting my clients progress using this plan as well.

What is a [fiz-eek] geek you ask?

Lets see [fiz-eek] is the phonic spelling for physique, and I am very focused on creating a gorgeous physique, for me, for you, for everyone! Geek? Well that's pretty explanatory I would think. I am constantly geeking out on things like Doctor Who, The Guild, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, The Big bang Theory and such for entertainment but my more serious side likes to read about the science behind different dieting methods and training protocols. I like to know how things work and why they work. Sometimes I jam so much information in my brain that I end up having a weekly dump. No not a poop kind of dump! A brain dump, where it feels like everything I need to know or just learned about just falls right out. Mean while I tend to hold on to the most useless (and sometimes nerdy) trivia. Really, why do I know Britney Spears birthday? That is one fact of trivia that could go with the next brain dump, for real.

What can you expect to find here? EVERYTHING! Posts about my training, my contest prep (currently in prep), my food, clients food, recipes, a lot of doctor who because frankly I am obsessed, probably some knitting nonsense and anything else that flits across my little brain.

Are you a gym rat like me? It takes a lot of work to build and maintain my physique but I must say I kind of wish I was like Captain Hammer and just naturally looked awesome, but alas no. I will just have to wear my superhero cape and smash my workouts :)