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The Will Power for Fitness
I just don’t have the will power is a commonly heard phrase in fitness. Whether it’s a client, a fitness newbie, or someone who just explains why they refuse to even try getting fit.
Long ago, when we finished writing our book, FIT FOR COMBAT, my fitness co-author JD and I started cataloging what makes fitness, figure and bodybuilding competitors different from everyone else. Will power was at the top of the list. Will Power leads to self-discipline. When you want something badly enough, you will for it. In fitness, it’s no different. When you have the will for something, you CREATE the discipline to get what you want. If you want to be leaner, if you want to get into better shape, if you want to compete, or if you just want to be more active and feel more fit, will power is the doorway that leads you into manifestation of that goal.
It makes sense that self-discipline and will power would play a role in being able to stick to the diet and training program required to get into competition shape. We initially thought it would be the real difference between those who succeed in mastering their bodies and everyone else. As we studied what self-discipline really is, we realized that we had fallen into a common trap that social scientists call fundamental attribution error.
Every person has a reservoir of will power to draw on, like a will power battery, but the amount in that reservoir is not fixed at a set level. Research, by Professor Roy Baumeister at Florida State University, shows that our will power battery can be depleted by repeated acts of self control and decision making. Newer research by professors at the University of Chicago shows that our reservoir of will power is affected by whether we think there is a set amount of it or that it is unlimited.
The classic experiment by Baumeister, which has been replicated in hundreds of variations, asked student test subjects to eat radishes while being tempted with a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Baumeister then asked the students to solve an impossible puzzle. The students did not know the puzzle was impossible to solve.
The real purpose of the experiment was to see how long the students who had to overcome the temptation of the cookies would work at solving the puzzle when compared to students who sat down, ate some cookies and then worked on the puzzle and a control group who just worked on the puzzle with no cookies or radishes involved. The results show that the students who had to overcome the cookie temptation gave up on the puzzle quickly. Their battery of will power and resolve was depleted by fighting the temptation to eat the cookies. The students who had to overcome the cookie temptation, used up their reservoir of will power, their reservoir of resolve, and gave up on the puzzle in less than half the time of the other two groups and made far fewer attempts to solve the puzzle. Baumister calls this effect ego depletion. The experiment shows that when we use will power for one thing, overcoming the temptation of a cookie, it drains a little of that energy from the battery making it harder to exercise the will in totally unrelated things like trying to solve a puzzle.
Baumeister showed the energy depletion of decision making in an experiment where students, prior to working on the impossible puzzle, were either forced to make a decision about a task or were assigned a task. The students who had to make the decision gave up on the puzzle faster and made fewer attempts to solve than the students who just carried out an assignment.
So, in fitness, we note that a general 9-5 lifestyle tends to lead to the attitude that “I just don’t have time” or “By the time I get home at night, I don’t want to eat a chicken breast and salad. I just want a quick snack, a TV and a bed.”
In our fitness data research, JD and I found that most people have a lot of power. However, most people’s will power is just all used up with the demands of their jobs, running a household and raising two young girls. Every act of will power, every decision, drains the battery a little bit more, but the battery is not fixed, it is rechargeable and we can have more will power if we want it, just by thinking we have it.
The point being that, Yes, You Do have the Will Power! You are just in need of a budget of your will power! It’s about management of your energy resources, and not about your lack of energy. For fitness, you do have the energy, yet, you have been lacking knowledge. Gaining more fitness knowledge, working out to gain awareness of your body, and learning to listen to your body’s language in terms of what to feed it to stimulate energy is the only real way to go. You can stop blaming your will power for your fitness disasters or your state of health and wellness. The key I have found as a mother, is that fit moms have just learned how to start managing the will power better.
When JD and I first thought will power was the difference between the physique competitors and everyone else, we were making a fundamental attribution error, an error that is endemic among humans. Fundamental attribution error is when we use a psychological or personality based explanation for a behavior instead of the situational explanation. We were too focused on the personality trait of will power and thought that the competitors must have larger reservoirs of mental energy—a bigger battery. When we went back and studied Baumeister in depth, we found a better, situational, explanation for the seemingly large reservoirs of will power of the competitors.
Fitness, figure and bodybuilding competitors are cooler toters, especially when preparing for a contest. Their meals are planned and timed and they carry them around with them. They know what they are going to eat and when they are going to eat it. It is all scheduled and becomes a routine. When something becomes a routine it no longer involves a decision. When it is no longer a decision, it does not require any mental energy.
The physique competitors did not have a larger battery of will power than everyone else, they just used less will power by making many decisions about eating a routine. It was easier for them to stick to the diet because the decisions that take mental energy were removed. The situation, the eating plan to get into contest shape, makes them just appear to have more will power.
When we started looking at the lives of successful physique competitors they nearly all had a structured daily or weekly routine. The diet and training demands precision, the only way to be that precise is with a pre-determined structure. Once the structure and routine is set, there were fewer decisions to be made leaving more in battery to handle temptations as the cropped up.
Most fit moms have figured out the secret. Women tend to be better planners, but that’s not limited to women only, just happens to be a general statistic. What I see in fitness and in the general population of fitness enthusiasts is that fitness minded individuals plan what they’ll eat and make it a routine. With those decisions removed, people are then expending less will power and found that they had more energy. Most of these fitness people and fit moms have ready-made forms of protein around their house, in their car and at their office. JD and I found that common possessions among the successful fitness enthusiasts included powdered whey protein, shaker bottles, water gallons, tuna packs, and pre-cooked skinless/boneless chicken, among the most common possessions. Even if routine is disrupted, there is always an automatic back-up that did not require a decision, like an apple and a can of tuna or a ready to drink protein shake. And of course, every one of them owns some kind of fat-loss grill for their chicken and fish
Removing will-power draining decisions is one way women figure competitors maintain their diet, another is the actual nutritional content of the diet.
A lot of people never even try to get into their best shape because they think they don’t have the will power to do it. They make the fundamental attribution error and think the competitors have more will power than they do. As the research shows, if you don’t think you have very much will power, then you will not have much will power.
The only true act of will power was taking the time up front to set the schedule and routine. After repeating the routine it becomes automatic. Women figure competitors don’t have a larger reservoir of will power than everyone else, they just expend less of it by having a structured routine and fuel their brain with ketones from fat.
For More Fit Tips and Great Articles on how to stay in shape, go to the Fit Tips Blog at NitasWorld.com
The Fitness Illusion Syndrome
There is a species of gym-goer that must be addressed, and this article is meant for exactly that person. Is that person you? Are you a mom who has tried to be fit mom, a man who has tried the fitness workout of the week in your muscle mag, or that chick that diets and cardios herself like crazy to be the ultimate fit chick?
For years and years you have been told by many fitness articles, hot fit workout pictures, instructional workout videos, and so on, not to be that gal/guy who will work out hard, but not smart. You are taught to grind out workouts, but never really made to understand a pragmatic approach to your personal fitness to make any progress. The saving grace of that gal/guy is that she/he does workout hard and keeps at it. Being that gal prevents people from ballooning up to a bloated version of no energy, saving us from our own DNA, yet, it does not teach us how to be optimal with even less work than the “that gal/guy approach.”
The gyms of the world are not only filled with that gal/guy, the gyms of our world, especially in American fitness culture, they are filled with the blood and money-sucking fitness vampires whose biggest concern is customer retention rather than your best and most practical approach to fitness. Their advice is more of a strategy most often delivered with the intention of giving you the most impractical approach to fitness advancement, so that you will be chasing your tail and ever-spending as you chase your quest for the better physique. On top of it, society is telling us women, “Hey, if you’re too muscular, you’re too manly.” Hence, “that gal” syndrome ensues.
That girl says “I don’t want to get too muscular.” The key word being “too.”
What that girl (which describes 90% of the women who own gym memberships) doesn’t realize is that muscle burns fat, and you won’t gain it doing 2 hours of cardio every day. I’ll return to this point and complete it shortly, but keep it in mind and read on.
First off, when you go to a gym, the sales people are not trainers, and the trainers are salespeople. Remember that. Most especially in corporate fitness facilities, you will see this business model because it is the foundation and driving force of fitness industry revenues in a gym. Gyms are businesses, and the people who run them have to do good business to keep up with the competition.
Now I’m not saying you should view corporate gyms with a paranoid perspective of conspiracy, but what I am saying is that it is important to learn to think for yourself when it comes to advancement of your own personal fitness. It is important as fitness consumers to stay informed on not only the latest or oldest tried and true technologies, but it is just as important to improve with what TRULY works for each of us individually. Everyone is different, but yes, there are some rules of thumb for everyone in fitness that are universal. As well, you will notice that those universal fitness truths are contrary to a lot of the workouts that we are instructed to do in the “business” of fitness.
Again, fitness industry business moguls are not the enemy. They are what they are. We need to be responsible fitness consumers and practitioners and actually learn what works for us and work smarter to get there. For instance, men, there is more to life than that pompous trainer who insults you during workouts happens to state. Ladies, no, there is no such thing as a woman being “gross” or “masculine” because she has muscle.
In fact, when women see me in a fitted dress, they all compliment the way I look. No woman likes having cellulite or flabby arms. Women love backless clothes and pretty dresses, but we loathe back rolls and bra roll fat hanging over.
We want to be fit moms, fit chicks, fit hotties. We all want something like this. It’s inviting, energizing and we live a fuller, more expressed life in a fit state. We have the energy to.
When you have a leaner physique (yes, with muscle) you do not struggle with these things. Muscle on women is good, “too much” muscle is unattractive, but yes, again I’ll say it, muscle on women is good.
There is a great response to that girl. “If you ever get leaner than you want, or more muscular than you want, that is an easy problem to solve. Eat more fat and carbs, cut back on the training a bit.”
The “I don’t want to get too muscular” line is a psychological defense mechanism to justify training and dieting half-assed. It is a method of self sabotage- an excuse to fail and a reason to do it the way that the magazines and fitness DVD’s instruct us to. For whatever reason, we are afraid of thinking for ourselves and taking the alternative routes to test what is best for us.
That girl likes working out. She enjoys going to the gym. She would like to look like a fitness model or just a lot better than she appears now, but she is not sure how to do it or even if she can do it. So, she constructs an internal monologue, “I want to be in-shape, in better shape than most women, but I don’t want to get too muscular.”
The fear is not in becoming too muscular, the fear is aimed from and at a disappointment in herself. But, if she makes it okay to fail, if she makes okay to not achieve her goals, then she will not be disappointed in herself. Sound twisted? It is, and it’s confusing. It’s so bamboozling that we just give up altogether whereupon we can escape back to our so, so health with the reasoning that justifies it. On top of that, we can feel better doing it like our co-workers who bring bagels to work and drink beer after work. We can get “comfortable” again, sitting in the bowels of mediocrity and non-compelling drive that requires us to think more. After it is said and heard enough times, it becomes true.
To overcome the psychological self sabotage, you must be honest. I looked at pictures of the top fitness models when I was a chubby girl, and I had to be honest with myself at some point. I was capable of being that fit, but I was just not willing to do what it took to achieve it. That admission of my fitness mindset freed me to achieve a lesser goal, and I then could realize, “Ok, I am being mediocre about my health. I feel like crap, and I am actually willing to half-ass it here, not think for myself, and just sit with my own lame energy.”
Once I admitted it, my journey began. I was actually thinking for myself right then, rather than being a rat following the scent of cheese only to find out it was a foam object set in a trap. Our lack of thought allows us to live in illusions and maintain a level of complacency that will never allow us to be progressive in our health and fitness. We continue relying on the masses (which are driven by philosophies that will have us chasing our tail), and we do the 2 hours of cardio a day and a bunch of aerobics classes, and then we are dumbfounded at our lack of progress, so we eat more, and eventually, we work out less, and ultimately we get worse.
The root of this psychological defense mechanism is the fear of failure. Because we are often afraid to fail, we set an incredibly high standard, determine it cannot be reached, come up with excuses it cannot be reached and don’t even try. The only way to change this is to think for ourselves. Try learning to adapt to your own individual fitness needs by measuring your body’s response to certain workouts. If you want to get more fit, live longer and play with your grandkids in the park without breaking a hip, the key to your best fitness is in thinking for yourself. Study, Do, Observe your body’s response, and Progress accordingly.
Be well, Be You, BE PHENOMENAL.
-Nita Lee Marquez
Fitness Empowerment Author
Miss National Fitness
IFBB Pro Fitness Athlete
Proud Mother of Three
A Fit Mom to Follow- meet Melissa Hale-Naulin
After the birth of my daughter, with the proper nutrition and a consistent weight training/cardio routine, I sucessfully lost 75 pounds (40 from pregnancy, plus an additional 35 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight) and 20% body fat. I am not only a fit mom, but I am also aspiring to become a licensed nutritionist, and I’m even helping transform my family’s fitness habits. We are a fit family!
Fit Mom Melissa Hale-Naulin
I am in the best shape of my life at 37 years old. I’ve proven to myself that it doesn’t matter how old you are, if you have had children, or if you don’t have model perfect genes. With hard work and clean eating you can absolutely attain the physique you have always dreamed of and bring your health and quality of life to a whole new level!
This journey hasn’t been easy for me with a baby and husband to take care of, a household to keep in order, and running my own skin care business. It has been difficult at times to keep a consistent workout schedule, as well as spending countless hours in the kitchen, planning and cooking meals for my family.
Our health is very important to me and, above all, I want to set a good example for my daughter. My fitness transformation has been a wonderful experience even with all the challenges, and I offer many thanks to the support from my husband for that. My husband is also an amazing father! He has always been there when mommy needed to squeeze in a workout, or stay late for clients at work. On top of all of this, he has gotten into the fitness lifestyle with me. He himself has also benefited from a cleaned up diet full of veggies, lean protein and complex carbs, losing 25 pounds in 5 months!
My incredible fitness trainer, Jamo Nezzar of Jamcore Training, has been the core of my fit physique success. He is a constant source of workout inspiration, exercise and nutrition guidance, fitness knowledge and overall fitness motivation. He has helped me in so many ways to become more powerful, not just in fitness, but also in other areas of my life. Through getting more fit, I gained more power in my life in all aspects. I have discovered a strength in myself that I never knew existed, and I attribute that to the habits and determination that I retained throughout my fitness journey. Because of the advancement I found in my fitness lifestyle, I feel strong and confident, and I look forward to each and every workout with my trainer as well as my solo workouts.
I want to continue the fitness lifestyle forever! Thank you Jamo, for changing my life in such a positive way. You are more than a fitness coach. I am thankful for your impact on my lifestyle choices for being more fit, setting goals, and learning to develop the habits and determination to reach them.
On December 3, 2011, I reached my ultimate fitness goal, competing in my first NPC Bikini competition! It was an unbelievable experience, sharing the stage with some incredibly fit women.
My goals for 2012 are to continue to condition my physique and possible do another show in May. I would also love to earn a degree in nutrition and to help others change their body and their health through better food choices. Cooking and collecting recipes has become a hobby of mine! I love transforming unhealthy, fat-laden recipes into clean, delicious meals that fuel your energy and keep your metabolism running at it’s peak. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring and tasteless! Here I will share quick & easy recipes to support a fit lifestyle, as well as training (based on my own experience) and motivational tips. Thanks 
Please join me and Nita Marquez in the Fitness Empowerment Movement on the following links on Facebook:
My Favorite Facebook Group: America’s Hottest Fit Moms
Fit Moms, Runners, Cardio Does Not Work!
Bodybuilders don’t run, and nor do obese people. But I’m not a bodybuilder, or an obese person. I’m a fitness chick, a fit mom, and a fitness personality. My goals are obviously different from a bodybuilder’s goals, and definitely, I have a different lifestyle choice than a person whose main goals involve constant fulfillment of my taste-bud compulsions.
At this stage in my life, my goal is always to become truly fit and achieve prime longevity. As one point in my career as a fitness competitor, I was running a lot and lifting weights with an extremely high carb, high protein diet, and only then I was starting to resemble a bodybuilder. People who didn’t know better thought I was one.
But you know what kind of fit physique athletes have a lot of muscle, and are really lean, with Olympic level stamina and power? Women’s Fitness competitors.
They run. They run a lot. They do weekly sprints, middle-distance, plyometrics anything that will get their heart to the bursting point.
And if these women can carry body-toned muscle around, while running and with the power and stamina to do our fitness routines—well they are worth at least probing into the minds of. Where I learned about my own fitness interval training from was from my ex-husband, who was basically my trainer before I met my trainer of 13 years, Tim Sparkes, at Die Hard Gym in Arizona. My ex-husband was a former track and football star in high school and college.
What I learned from my ex-husband is that I was doing my running all wrong. First of all, I jogged, and I did so very lazily. I loathed the cardio work, so I dragged myself through it. It didn’t matter that I was a fit mom, a fit chick, or a fitness athlete in training. I was thinking about my cardio conditioning the wrong way, as most of us do for the first few years of our fitness quests.
Just about every fitness center has some serious runners as members. These “fitness” people log 20 to 40 miles a week and are in great cardio vascular condition—but most of them look remarkably average. They do not have much muscle and many of them are skinny fat. Sure they have strong hearts, but some of them store more body fat and subcutaneous water than the person who is walking into a gym for the first time. These runners are not in poor health, but their shape is generally not of the optimal fitness aesthetic grade considering the fitness workload they are undergoing. I believe in running, I do. I also like working out smarter, and distance running for fitness is definitely the harder path, if you’re trying to look better and even feel better.
The best explanation for this phenomena may be controversial, but the facts are right in front of us. Cardiovascular exercise DOES NOT WORK to lose body fat long term, period!!
Why is this? Let’s take a hypothetical individual: Female, 30 years old, 145 pounds, sedentary. She decides she wants to be fit and “get toned” (keep in mind, everyone has a different idea of this word, so it’s subjective). So she takes up running on the treadmill for an hour a day 5 days/week. Nothing else in her life changes, her diet and lifestyle remain the same. In the first week she loses 5 pounds. If she maintained her consistency 5 days a week, would she lose 250 pounds this year? Of course not, and why is this?
Firstly cardiovascular activity is very efficient at chewing up muscle tissue, the steps are as follows:
1. Conversion from fast twitch muscle fiber to slow twitch muscle fiber, by
acquiring mitochondria and relinquishing contractile protein. Smaller fiber, less
RMR.
2. Excessive Cortisol released in response to the damage to the fiber as a result of the exercise. Cortisol acts as a natural analgesic, but severely hampers protein synthesis and muscle repair. It also damages the immune system, and ultimately will contribute to all of our deaths – so I’m not sure why anyone would do anything that would accelerate this process.
3. It has been shown that high volume cardiovascular exercise can completely deplete satellite cells in muscle fiber, which means no new fiber can grow or existing fiber be repaired, and as we age, we have a natural propensity to lose muscle as well as bone density. Muscle helps our metabolism and enhances bone density.
4. Growth Hormone levels decline with high volume cardiovascular exercise, which also hampers the repair process. Low growth hormone also accelerates aging.
5. To sum it up, you can’t train all day, and you can’t stop eating, but you can always build a bit more muscle, so quit the cardio and concentrate on the weight lifting.
Secondly, after all these details about how cardio fitness training eats up muscle, you must know that the first week of ANY fitness program, and likely the first month even, you will lose weight with rapid results. That’s water weight dropping off because you are actually getting off of your butt. That’s not the “weight” you are losing, it’s the water. You are not really getting more fit, but your body is filtering out a bit so that it can set a better foundation for you to start getting fit.
Your weight-loss will look more like 8-12 pounds monthly if you’re doing it right and if you expect it to stay off. If you’re an athlete or you’re training for an athletic event, your body requires more training than average, and more extreme dieting than average, but that’s not average for a person who is just trying to lose weight and just starting to get fit.
That was a very strong argument for not doing cardio. But I need to be able to keep up with kids, work, training clients, caring for my household, and still having stamina in the gym. Cardio conditioning is a must for me. Plus, I need strength and power.
The solution was to train like a professional female fitness athlete—specifically, one that always wins the fitness routine portion of the contest. And what does the fitness athlete woman do? Sprints.
For women who run, but they want a great physique:
With high-intensity interval training you “sprint” on any cardio exercise for short bursts that go for less than two minutes, and then you slow to moderate, and sometimes even low-intensity pace for a short burst. You want to go high intensity to kick your heart rate way up, and then you drop the intensity to less your body rest, while not giving your heart rate enough time to drop out beneath a fat-burning zone. If you do this for short bursts of time, you don’t give your heart rate a chance to drop severely, and therein, you are able to keep your body burning fat, burning calories, and staying hard at work, even though you won’t feel like you’re working hard while your body recovers during your lower-paced durations.
Like cardio, this too can strengthen your heart, and keep you from feeling sluggish. On the other hand, in comparison to cardio, interval training burns fat for longer periods of time. You will burn fat for up to 13 hours post-workout with intervals, whereas with cardio at a constant moderate rate will only burn fat efficiently for up to 2 hours post workout. So, why would you spend more time and burn less fat, much less want to gamble the possibility of kicking out cortisol? This is why many fitness professionals who know what they are doing will not recommend long dull high, low or medium-intensity periods of cardio.
The best way to gain cardio conditioning and maintain muscle is to do what all fat-burning physique athletes does—sprints.
As sprinting becomes the core of your cardio conditioning program and distance running becomes the ‘functional’ training, so you do it for form, awareness, and monitoring. It’s a means for measurement when needed, but it’s not necessary for the actual progress.
When I started doing sprints in the morning for my cardio, my strength gains in the gym accelerated a little bit and I started to get leaner without really trying, and my husband noticed an extreme difference in how my body was responsive to my diet and weight training. My lines and cuts in my muscles showed up and they never had before I started sprinting. My workouts were more exhilarating and I could produce more within them because my fitness level and stamina was increased through sprinting.
Now I was able to get more in my fitness routines, I could run with my daughter in her stroller for better bursts so I wasn’t gasping for air. I was stronger than I would ever need to be on the fitness stage or in the gym. I had burst speed and explosiveness and I had the stamina and endurance to keep up with any of the guys at the gym.
So, I am not advising the novice to average fitness person to sprint, but I am encouraging those of you who run– just try this for 6 weeks and see how rapidly and extremely your fitness levels, your energy, your stamina, and your physique changes. See how lean you get and watch a sculpted physique appear that you never knew you had.
As for the fitness enthusiast who is new to the world of fitness and fit physique training, try intervals, we have more blogs on the Fat Burning Workouts categories to your left here in the blog at nitasworld.com. Check it out. Be well, Be You, BE PHENOMENAL! You are worth the work!
-Nita Lee Marquez
America’s Hottest Fit Mom ™
Fitness Empowerment Author
Miss National Fitness
Proud Mother of Three
Get in Shape Fit Moms Burn Fat!
Fit Moms looking to burn calories, burn fat, and get leaner, listen up. Cardio is cardio because, yes, it's generally good for strengthening your heart, and if you have medical conditions that prohibit you from high intensity workouts, exercise of all types should take place more safely through caution so as to fit those needs for a low to moderate intensity. Test your limits, fit moms, but be aware of your body.
Speak to your physician to see if you're as fit of a mom as you think. Note your body's current limitations, they may not stay where they are in terms of your fitness level, because with time and consistent exercise you will adapt. However, whatever fit mom's limits are at this time, pay heed. Don't over-do it fit mamas! Moderation and consistency is key until you grow into your capacity to challenge yourself with intensity. But eventually, sooner than later no doubt, you will want and need to challenge yourself with some intensity. Cardio alone will not do the trick when it comes to burning calories effectively, much less burning fat.
Cardio, is not the be all end all to losing weight, despite the common misconception most fit moms, and people in general seem to have. Keep in mind I am not shunning cardio, but I am simply telling people that if you are working hard already, mom or not, you lift or do various other activities, you want to burn fat specifically. If you are trying to burn fat specifically, there is a more intense, effective, time-efficient and fat-burning workout than cardio. As I said, Cardio is not the Be-all End-all!
When I am training fit moms, or anyone other types of clients who are working to get into their most fit condition, we are hitting the track, the treadmill, and a lot of fit moms step or do the eliptical. They are either warming up on the scene or doing high-intensity interval training. While I have encouraged people to do intervals when they are wanting to gain lean muscle and break down fat at the same time, I also suggest people start small and build up.
Starting off slowly in any exercise program is always heavily advised so as to issue protection from injuries. When you do a high-intensity interval training workout, however, you must have already gotten to a point where you have the ability to go hardcore, and you want to break through a threshold or fat-barrier.
Look fit moms, chasing kids is definitely cardio at times, and sometimes even anaerobic, but know that your greatest strength physically is going to come from true intensity, so work your way up. You are worth the work, and the fat-burning information and fitness instruction is available to you. If you’re looking for strength, go hardcore, but if you’re just looking to lose fat and burn some calories, this is the story… start off slowly, but start doing intervals immediately. Condition your body to the process of changing intensities. If you can’t go really hardcore, then stick to the machines like the stepmill or the bike or even the elliptical.
As you are the catalyst to fatburning in just getting off the couch and doing something at all, you obviously have a work ethic with
which to reach your goals, and you know that you can and will go as hard and long as you need to in order to reach that goal. With
high-intensity interval training you can go for less time, more intensity (in spurts) and stay consistent in your body’s abilities
to use fat for fuel, which is what everyone wants.
With high-intensity interval training you “sprint” on any cardio exercise for short bursts that go for less than two minutes, and
then you slow to moderate, and sometimes even low-intensity pace for a short burst. You want to go high intensity to kick your heart
rate way up, and then you drop the intensity to less your body rest, while not giving your heart rate enough time to drop out beneath a fat-burning zone. If you do this for short bursts of time, you don’t give your heart rate a chance to drop severely, and therein,
you are able to keep your body burning fat, burning calories, and staying hard at work, even though you won’t feel like you’re working hard while your body recovers during your lower-paced durations.
Like cardio, this too can strengthen your heart, and keep you from feeling sluggish, which moms who are fit or not can all totally understand. We need the energy to do all that we have to for our kids to keep them moving, motivated and constantly evolving. We can obtain the right energy levels from proper hydration and interval training.
On another note beyond what has to do with energy increase, in comparison to cardio, interval training burns fat for longer periods of time. You will burn fat for up to 13 hours post-workout with intervals, whereas with cardio at a constant moderate rate will only burn fat efficiently for up to 2 hours post workout. So, why would you spend more time and burn less fat, much less want to gamble the possibility of kicking out cortisol? This is why many fitness professionals who know what they are doing will not recommend long dull high, low or medium-intensity periods of cardio.
True fitness professionals understand and push the many benefits of interval training workouts over cardio. From energy gains to fat loss, and from high calorie burns to lower impact on joints, intervals are the supreme workout when weighed against cardio. An added benefit for us fit moms: intervals will target cellulite better than cardio ever could!
Work safe, start slowly when needed, but work smart and work your way up into higher intensity levels. Challenge yourself, Be Phenomenal Fit Moms & Friends, You are Worth the Work!
Healthy is the new Skinny & Strong is the new Sexy! We’re up Fit Moms!
To all of America’s Hottest Fit Moms: What a delight I find today in celebrating our culture’s fashion industry magazine Glamour for it’s PHENOMENAL layout of the beautiful Lizzie Miller, a 20-year-old healthy, beautiful, real and believe it or not, FIT woman. See all fit moms realize that fitness is a lifestyle, not a dress size, and Hot Fit Moms are Hot because they actually like themselves! The Fittest Moms in the world are the ones who work to stay active to produce for their family and set good examples, not necessarily working to fit into that size 6 dress for the high school reunion. Fitness is a set of choices that yields an energy produced by nothing else in this world. The fit mom energy is beautiful and hot because it is Vivacious and confident. The hot fit mom reads, and she reads to her kids, and she loves her family more than she loves the mirror, and yea, she’s pretty easy on the eyes too! 
fit moms celebrate being real and enjoying life by making fit choices!! www.nitasworld.com
There is nothing in the world more beautiful and radiant and powerful than a woman who works out and stays active AND she’s a fit mom who cares for family first and above everything. As a fit mom, you have the physical capacity to keep up with your kids and live a long life that assures you will run around after those grand-babies with vigor yourself! Fit Moms are women with confidence, not just cardio endurance
There is a lot to be said for Glamour for being so authentic and for featuring this astonishing reality of what beauty stands for. I believe honestly that fitness in general is an industry that tends to push the envelope of vanity just as much as the fashion industry does. No doubt, you get what you sign up for, but being mothers who love fitness doesn’t mean we have to be consumed by what a panel of judges would think of us at all times. Sure, when I compete, I compete to win, so I want to hit that stage looking my best. That was for a competition, and I always felt like it would be lame to get that caught up in the illusion all year round. The reality is that the stages of competitions are meant for us to present the best illusion of our own best physique. You hold that perfection for about two hours though. The rest of the year, I wanted to be fit still, but I didn’t want to spend every ounce of my good energy struggling to fit into that mold that people put me into because of how I looked on stage. I wanted to live fit but I wanted to put my family first. After all, that was why I got into the sport of fitness to begin with.
It’s still important to work out even when we are not training for fitness competitions, but at the same time, the sacrifice of fitness does not have to be at my children’s expense. As well, th fitness lifestyle of today’s fit moms do not have to entail sacrificing time away from our family. Sure, it’s nice to make my time at the gym a time to pay attention to myself, but I can also spend my fitness-devoted time with my kiddos if I want to!
It’s important to us as mothers to keep our children integrated into the routine of our fitness lifestyle. They learn by what we do in their presence, not just what we say to teach them. Why not make some of our fitness time For instance, instead of cardio at the gym all the time, I would go to the track and the children would run around and play while I did my run. When their father and I were still married, we all went to the gym and the track together, and made family time out of my workouts when I was training for a competition.
My trainer would let the kids work out at his gym too, and we always had a blast with that. It’s great because the children are absolutely inundated with fitness lifestyle choices that our family has lived out over the years.
America's Hottest Fit Mom Fit Kids
Another great option is hiking. Fit Moms have Fit Kids, right? My kids and I love hiking almost every weekend. When we lived in Arizona, we hiked Squaw Peak, and here in California, it’s Runyon Canyon or Fryman Canyon. I love doing Fit Moms Phenomenal Fitness Boot Camps at Fryman. It’s no joke out there, it’s still a challenge in the way I train the fit moms, but at the same time, we can take the kids with us.
The point is that fitness is EMPOWERING! It does not have to be a habit formed for pressure of society’s view of what you should look like. I mean, just look at Lizzie Miller’s smile in the picture above. That glow, that laughter, THAT IS THE ESSENCE OF FITNESS. That’s what we are really striving for. Fitness is the delight of energy and loving yourself, and yes, that makes you a bad-ass in my opinion It’s just about loving your body! If you love your body, care for it in the most fitness-oriented ways, but if you love yourself, maintain balance. You are WORTH THE WORK!!
I would love to hear from women, whether you’re a fit mom or a not a mom at all, please comment and share your thoughts on this blog, on the Glamour photo shoot of the Lovely Lizzie Miller! Remember to sign up for your free newsletter!
Nitasworld.com is the official website of America’s Hottest Fit Mom, the brand that means FITNESS EMPOWERMENT FOR EVERYONE!
Diabetes Awareness 2011: AMERICA’S HOTTEST FIT MOM’S TIPS for laying off the sugar
America’s Hottest Fit Mom(TM) is the brand trusted for Fitness Empowerment for Everyone! As the brand’s creator, a lot of people would not think that I struggle with diabetes. Few people are aware that I am a fit mom who has a little boy who is diabetic.
America's Hottest Fit Mom Nita Marquez, with Fitness Kids Bricia, Baby boy Quinn, Acacia at Harley Davidson photo shoot
Baby Quinn Marquez, son of Fit Mom Fitness Empowerment Author, Nita Marquez with sisters, Fitness Kids, Bricia & Acacia Marquez
When my son was born in 2002, they had to remove his pancreas, consequently leaving our little boy diabetic at the tender age of only 8 days. JDRF has been a wonderful resource for us, and so has Phoenix Children’s Hospital and UCLA when it comes to junior diabetes. As we had many diet adjustments that needed to be made in our family, the good news was that since I was a fitness competitor and a fitness personal trainer and nutritionist, I was well-versed in health and nutrition. Learning how to care for a diabetic child however was still a curve ball for me as a mother, no matter how educated I was in fitness and nutrition.
Fitness Empowerment for Everyone! Fit Moms have Fit Kids! www.nitasworld.com
It didn’t run in my family, so diabetes was something new for me as a fitness personality, and of course with my little baby boy, I was extra nervous. Over the years however, we as a fitness oriented family have really become educated and experienced with the medications and regimens and dieting balances of having a diabetic in our life, especially with him being the youngest of three children. My daughters, each along with their father and I were immediately educated on the facts about dieting (carbohydrate and protein ratios) realities and how insulin needed to be administered and how blood sugar needed to be checked regularly in order to keep my son healthy. As I always tell my children about all aspects of our life and the learning curves within it, it’s always an adventure! So it had been with my boy, and he is a healthy nine-year-old now who is at the top of every subject from school to sports. He does capoeira and gymnastics and he just loves to dance! Overall, diabetes has become a regular part of our daily life, and we live with it just fine. We’re as normal as it gets for any family, and fitness is still at the center of it all.
America's Hottest Fit Mom Kids Bricia, Acacia & Quinn Marquez. Children of fit mom Nita Marquez, Fitness Empowerment Author
This is yet another reason why I started America’s Hottest Fit Mom. I know there are other mothers out there who care about the fitness of their whole family, but they may have a health challenge in the family or one may arise, so it’s important as a fit mom to not just keep ourselves fit, but also to learn how fitness can either prevent or help us manage health challenges that may arise, whether it’s our children, our parents, grandparents, or our spouses we have to care for. Fitness is not just about going to the gym and dieting to look good, it’s a lifestyle, and in this day and age of video games, the internet, and processed foods, we as fit moms have to be that much more on top of our health and education and lifestyle game when it comes to our families, so we can raise our children to be prepared and fit to live long and strong. I’m really hoping that more mothers who are fitness oriented will send in stories and ideas and tips (click HERE to join America’s Hottest Fit Moms Group on Facebook), so we can help one another. Fitness for mothers is important, but fitness for our families is everything!
Today, as a way of bringing more awareness to diabetes for a November diabetes awareness call, I wanted to give everyone a few tips we use with my boy here at home that helps the whole family stay supportive to him, and also helps us all get more healthy every day too.
When we grocery shop, we read the labels together. Here’s why:
- We have to know what the amount of carbohydrates in each food is.
The amount of carbohydrates my son should be having per meal is not more 24 grams at one sitting, as the amount of carbohydrates raises his blood sugar levels. It’s important to watch the carbohydrate ratio in each serving because diabetes is instituted by a body’s incapability to manufacture the amounts of insulin required to balance out blood sugar levels per the amount of carbohydrates that are being consumed. For my son, we try to keep his blood sugar levels between 80 and 150 (and 150 is on a high end, 120 blood sugar is better, but 150 would be at the high end of a “safe” zone for my son’s particular case).
- We can tell which foods have corn syrup (all corn syrup is bad for you, no matter what you hear)
- We can talk about which foods have hydrogenated oils (hydrogenated oils are very unnatural and have been proven to eventually cause heart problems as they clog arteries over consistent consumption for long periods of time)
- We can see which foods have protein
We try to keep a high protein diet intake to help counter the processing of the carbohydrates and avoid sugar crashes. When protein is balanced with carbohydrates, it can have a positive impact on the way carbohydrates are used within the body (as they are also taken into the glycogen stores of the muscles).
Hydration vs. Dehydration can mean Life or Death: Top 10 REASONS TO HYDRATE
Even if you’re not a fitness enthusiast, a fit mom, or even fitness curious, this article is a must read, as it will change your life forever should you heed it’s advice, and your life will be longer as well if you follow this one rule. This article will give you power in all aspects of your health and wellness. Read on to hear not only facts, research, and fitness tips, but you must read this because it could literally save your life, or someone close to you. While this is a blog specific to America’s Hottest Fit Moms(tm), fitness enthusiasts and the fitness curious, I do not limit the material to diet and exercise. There are sometimes life or death matters that will affect how you live forever as well as how long that life is. Today’s topic could have literally saved someone’s life at an event I attended yesterday.
When thinking about fitness, most women (and men) think of the way they look, or they think fitness is all about working out and dieting. Yes, certainly there is merit to all ideas of fitness that women and men concede to. What many fitness enthusiasts do not realize is that there is one necessary component to fitness that matters in women’s health and wellness that is neither diet or exercise. Hydration is the heart of any fitness program. Water detoxes, replenishes, cleans our insides making them efficient for digestion and continued energy for working out, even if you’re just walking. There is no substitute for the importance of water. Water is fundamental to your life, at all times. Today, I had two conversations with fitness clients about the importance of hydration for ALL of life’s functionality, from our physical to even our psychological efficiency. In making such a statement about dehydration, I have noted some cases below that are real scenarios that I have actually been witness to that prove the statement to be inpenetrably true. Yes, while water is an absolute necessity in your fitness goals, I also wanted to address the absolute need for complete hydration as it pertains to your other bodily functions, longevity, digestion, energy levels, and so on.
Cases in point:
1. Injured Muscles: For me, as an IFBB Pro Fitness Athlete I have had only one injury and it was a few years into my athletic career. When preparing to go on stage to perform my fitness routine, I was severely dehydrated, as many athletes tend to be, which is normal for the day of the event. You see, we athletes in the competitive physique world often have to dyhydrate in an effort to get our cuts in our bodies to show up on the stage. The lighting tends to smooth out your look, and back then, well, the more cut you were, the higher you were scored in your physique round. The overall judgement on our presentation for the fitness shows was contingent to your body round combined with the fitness routine’s athleticism (flexibility, explosiveness, endurance, entertainment).
Fitness Competitor America's Hottest Fit Mom Nita Marquez
I always came in really lean, but at one particular show I had gotten so dehydrated and because I wanted to come on stage looking exceptionally ripped. I dehydrated to look more ripped than usual to a physical point of appearance that we call “dry” in the competitive fitness world, I actually ripped my calve muscle on my right leg, and when I collapsed (just twenty minutes before the fitness show was set to raise curtain), I was then attended to by paramedics. The diagnosis was that severe dehydration had impacted my muscles to the point that my calve literally just ripped during a step. Had I not been so dehydrated, I would have succeeded in my career without any injuries, as this was my only time of ever getting hurt in all these years of being a competitive fitness athlete.
2. Digestion and Gastrointestinal Health Dangers: Another extreme case comes to mind from my industry (bodybuilding and fitness), but I want to share that one with you last, as I wrote this blog today knowing that someone literally died from dehydration, but first, let me give you a normal scenario regarding someone I know who is not in the fitness industry.
My aunt went to the doctor recently, as she was having extreme conditions of pain due to gastrointestinal issues. The cause: dehydration. She drinks nothing but coffee and diet soda all day. She could not recount the last time that she had more than one or two cups of water (if any) throughout the day. The doctors said that her conditions were “extreme” because she had likely been dehydrated for months. Thus, it’s fair to conclude that you are having an extremely negative impact on your body’s ability to digest. Other results of dehydration and insufficient digestion are lowered metabolism, toxic buildup (which to more issues in other areas of the body), and sleeplessness.
3. Muscle-cramps: There are a lot of people who I know that don’t work out like a “fit mom” or like an extreme athlete. Some people just don’t exercise much. In such cases, even dehydration with minimal activity have caused major issues like back and muscle spasms, and extreme foot cramps.
4. Halitosis: EEW! Bad breath’s number one cause is ongoing dehydration. If you don’t mind offending everyone with bad breath, be my guest. If you’re not drinking enough water, it causes the worst odor inside your mouth, and the longer you go, the farther your bad breath will travel. Yes, dehydration causes stinky breath. If you don’t want to drink water, if bad breath doesn’t offend you, well, then go ahead and pass gas in a crowded room and fog it up. When you have a conversation with bad breath, that’s basically what you’re doing.
5. Energy Levels: My neighbor recently started getting into drinking more water. He went out and bought four stainless steel BPA-free water bottles to refill every day, and at the tender age of only 28, he said that he has never had more energy in his life, than since he started drinking four liters of water every day. He goes to a place that sells reverse osmosis water, alkaline water, and mineralized structured water. Water has literally given him a better quality of life. He now has more energy to go for bike rides occasionally (on a bike that’s really expensive and used to just sit on his patio and collect dust!). His work ethic has revved up, according to him, too, and he feels more creative with his art as well. That’s a great testimonial.
I have another male client that said the same thing when he started training with me recently. He said that not only did he feel weight coming off, but he also felt very energetic. He said he literally crapped the toxins out for about two weeks after increasing his water intake and starting to work out. After that, he noticed a major rush to his energy throughout the days and especially at work. Again, water cannot be disputed as increasing energy and quality of life.
6. Cellulite: Taking in more water can help release toxins and clean out garbage that is stored in the fat cells that comprise your cellulite. More water equals less cellulite.
7. Skin: You can literally anti-age because water increases the retention of youth through maintaining certain functionality in your body that shows up on your skin.
More water = Less wrinkles
8. Fatloss: Your body is will be less likely to hold toxins, slow metabolism, and store fat with increased water intake.
9. Headaches: There have only been two times in my life that I have ever had a headache. Once was during a case I suffered of Viral Meningitis. The second time was when I was dehydrated because I had gotten sick from a flu. Even for a week after I overcame the flu bug and was able to go back to the office (I worked at a marketing firm), I had a horrible headache because my body had gotten so dehydrated during the spell of illness.
10. The extreme case- Death: A man who was competing in a bodybuilding show here in Los Angeles yesterday died of a heart attack, and doctors attributed his heart failure to severe dehydration. Sadly, I would agree that there are a lot of things that could have contributed to this man’s heart failure, but the reality was that the dehydration was the hair that pulled the trigger.
Dehydration can kill you, literally. While there is no doubt you can get away with drinking only sodas and juices for many years, eventually, the lack of water wears on your system. Or, if you are not in perfect health already, then not drinking enough water can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, so to speak. Your health, wellness, vibrance, fitness, metabolism, appearance, and your life literally depends on consistent water intake.
I recommend at least 1/2 gallon a day for women to start, but eventually, 1 gallon should be your regular intake ladies. Women’s fitness has come so far, and we can look so much more intensely fit than we used to be able to because of technologies and updated information about fitness and exercise and diet (especially on a higher protein diet, a woman’s body looks so much better).
For men, I recommend 1-2 gallons daily, depending on your size and your fitness goals. At minimum though, any man should be taking in a gallon of water daily.
As for how to take it in, many people do what I do, which is to always have a BPA-free gallon jug of water filled and on my person at all times. Other suggestions for maintaining a healthy water intake for overall life fitness and wellness are that you can carry around a 1-liter BPA-free container filled with water and continue to refill it with alkaline or reverse osmosis water throughout the day, at least 3 times. That’s what I do when I cannot carry my big jug, but either way, water is a life source, and not having it can be death. Please fit moms, know that this is a heartfelt push for life from America’s Hottest Fit Mom products and services. All the products and services and fitness knowledge in the world helps nothing when you are not taking in enough water. Mothers, impact yourself, your children and your whole life by hydrating highly. Be well, Be you, BE PHENOMENAL!
No More Cellulite!
There is one obvious fact I have found over the past 21 years of learning to live fit, and that is that no matter what, cellulite is part of nature. Can you filter the appearance of cellulite off of your body though? Yes, you can literally get rid of cellulite. The thing that causes cellulite to bunch up and give that ugly cottage-cheese pocketed look to our skin is that there is subcutaneous water and toxins stored up in that pocket which give it that gross puckered look that we all loathe to see in that overhead light in the mirror.
Cellulite is the dimpled orange-peel-like appearance of skin that has weakened connective tissue that stores toxic/fat/subcutaneous water in pockets just under the skin. Unfortunately, yes, cellulite is genetic, but fortunately, it can be dispelled. There are four different solutions that, when combined, have helped me to avoid the appearance of cellulite even after having children.
When you don’t hydrate enough, your body holds onto that much more water to be sure that it maintains proper hydration storage in the event that you don’t take in enough water again for an extended length of time. So, the answer to that is to drink more water. If you’re only drinking a couple of glasses per day, then increase it to 3/4 gallon. I’m 4’10 and I take in one to two gallons daily. I don’t hold excess water when I’m doing this, and no one thinks I have cellulite. Well, when I’m not drinking enough water, I notice it creeping back up on my upper outer thighs. Since my mother has it really badly, I’m a prime candidate. In other words, the way your connective tissue aligns with your muscle with your skin and overall elasticity wherein the toxins and water and fat can be stored, well, that’s just genetic. So drinking enough water can help you evolve your body, but note that once it’s gone, you still have to hydrate, because your appearance of cellulite may go, but your body’s propensity toward holding it will still be there. So hydrate consistently and ongoingly to eliminate cellulite from appearance.
Couple dehydration with excessive salt intake, such as that taken in from soups, canned foods, frozen processed foods, fast food, and all sauces & dressings. Well, salt will cause water retention to. Excessive sodium occurs in just about everyone’s diet in America. We love our processed junk, the stuff with salt added, and we just can’t leave the dressing and sauce alone! Sodium can be avoided, though. There are a lot of dry rub seasonings, as well as Himalayan salt, which can help you bring down and minimize your sodium intake & lessen your water retention, which will reduce cellulite buildup in those cellulite-concentrated areas of your body.
On top of that, once your body is in a really toxic state, if you give it more toxins, those will target the cellulite-prone areas of a woman’s body. For women, cellulite buildup is generally in the thighs, the backs of the legs and butt, and sometimes, in the stomach. So, hydrate, take in less sodium, and do your best to clean up the food intake. I’m not saying you have to be perfect, but take baby steps in eliminating daily intakes of crap like processed boxed or frozen foods. Stay away from canned foods and fast foods, and if you’re going to cheat, just do it once a week. The less toxic intake, the less your body has a chance to store.
Finally, the fourth step to avoiding cellulite on your legs, butt, thighs and stomach is to work out! Circulation causes the bloodflow needed to cause the toxins and excess water to dissipate and eventually, with consistency, those toxins, fats, and water excesses, will filter their way out of your body. As your fat pockets can not go, the garbage that’s in them can be forced out of the body to eliminate the nasty gauged look of cellulite. Love yourself, You are Worth the Work! BE PHENOMENAL!! 
Weight Training Tones!
I was speaking with a woman at the gym today who is an attorney (obviously a very sedentary job), she genuinely loves to take care of herself, and I found it interesting that she was a very avid workout enthusiast. I mean, where does an attorney find the time!? It’s just like being a mom, THE RESPONSIBILITIES NEVER SLOW DOWN The point is, she was someone so busy, I thought it would be a very impressive blog because she had a wonderful energy and she looked great, and in working out, isn’t that what we’re all after?
Being a mother, we have to manage our time effectively as well as our choices as to how we spend that time, because we have other lives which are completely reliant on our efficiency with our time. What I thought was interesting about Sandy, the attorney, was that, like I said, she is BUSY! Yet, she still makes time to work out and feel and look great. How does she do it?
At one time she was a runner. At another time she got into kickboxing and MMA training. The reality: NONE OF THESE METHODS OF FITNESS WORKED WELL FOR HER and they took up a lot of time. “When I started weight training, I immediately noticed my arms were getting tone, and MY BUTT! Wow!” I loved hearing that because women are always saying “I don’t want to use weights because I just don’t want to look bulky.” The reality: there is nothing more effective on your body’s toning ability than weight training. If done correctly, with the right form and technique, weight training is SAFER, MORE TONING, AND MORE FATBURNING IN THE LONG RUN THAN CARDIO. (see more at nitasfitnessdirectives.com)
Even more beneficial, you don’t have to weight train for 2 hours a day to get results. 30 minutes three times a week is a good start, and for mothers, this a manageable time structure and a good ongoing method of training. We spend 30 minutes three times a week watching tv or doing something else that’s mindless and unfulfilling and ineffective for ourselves. If motherhood is about time management, weight training is the perfect answer to create a fitness regimen through.
Reality: Weight training tones more than anything else, it helps strengthen our bone density (osteoporosis occurs in many women with age- weight training can help!), it is a great way to burn fat, you can do it and see results in just 1.5 hours weekly.
Conclusion: Weight training doesn’t have to bulk you up…
Weight training tones your body! 
