Cleanse FAIL

Ok, peeps, let's talk about "cleanses." Here's one that I've seen going around the Pinterest world. The picture is of some super skinny chick and the caption reads: 

Honey and cinnamon + hot water = cleanse. Every morning, on an empty stomach, and every night before bed.

The pin goes on to say that you mix 1 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp of cinnamon in a cup of water and drink it every morning and every night. 

Now I'm definitely NOT a fan of the bloating and the blocking and the backing up that a digestive system can do. I've had digestive issues for years and was finally told that I have a deficiency of hydrochloric acid and a viral intention in my large intestine. Basically my digestive tract hates me and doesn't like to pass things through my body so I'm always open to trying new things to help. Thus why I tried this.

Let's be honest, cleanses are supposed to help things move, help you "be regular," and feel better. I drank this as fast as I could because it looked and tasted terrible (cinnamon without enough sugar smells fine but tastes awful) and for the next 4 hours I couldn't eat or drink anything because I thought I was going to hurl my guts.

Again, cleanses are supposed to clean you out NOT keep you from putting anything else in. Maybe the girl in this picture really does drink this every morning and every night and that's why she's so skinny: she can't eat anything because her stomach is in knots. I spent the next few hours laying on the couch, staying close to a bathroom and not making any sudden moves. The "cleanse" tasted bad enough going down, I didn't want to taste it coming back up.

So here's my final judgement: DON'T DO IT!!! Unless you're already sick and you need something that will make you throw up in order to feel better, just leave this one be. There are plenty of other way to get your system cleaned out. For example, there is Metamucil, Activia yogurt, running, and (to be used sparingly) cleanse pills and magnesium citrate. And make sure you're drinking enough water. Your colon can't process and clean out without water. If you're having serious problems with it, go see a doctor. But don't let them take out your gallbladder unless they can prove that it's the problem. For reals. They tried to take mine out "just to see if that would help." ….yeah because I'm ok with people removing a perfectly functioning organ for the sake of experimentation... But that's a story for a different time.

Intro to Inclines

I decided to try out this little beauty at the gym today. The caption on the pin just read "Treadmill Workout!" and I love me some treadmill work outs.

Before starting this one I noticed that the speed never got above 4 mph so it's good for someone who prefers walking to running. I also noticed (and gave props to whoever created this) that their time intervals and their calculations on how much to change the speed and incline during each portion of the workout were all perfect to lead straight into the next segment. (I had a class in college where they taught us how to create surveys and they said never EVER have a question asking -for example- how often do  you eat ice cream and the answers being like this: 1-3x per week, 3-5x per week, 5-7x per week. If you eat ice cream 3 times a week then you would want to circle to answers. Anyway, it's made me notice when people note intervals incorrectly and this pin, instead of going from 0-5 min, goes 0:00 to 4:59 min and therefore notes the intervals correctly. Ok, my nerd self is shutting up now.)

This workout moves at a nice pace, it's not too intense, but I did start to sweat a little by the end. They say that the first 20 minutes of your workout is when you are burning sugar and carbs and the after that you're burning fat. I would recommend this treadmill workout for those who are just starting to get back in the gym and haven't done a lot of interval training or walking on an incline. For more seasoned gym-goers, I would suggest using this as a warm up before weight training.

The all-knowing treadmill told me that this pin takes you a distance of 1.34 miles and I burned 147 calories. I tend to like it when I get a better caloric output than 1 calorie to every .01 miles. (I personally believe that most treadmills are not exact and the calories are more of a ballpark rather than precisely what you burned. This is also based on my weight so if you weigh more, you will have burned more than I did using this pin.)

Overall, was I sore afterwards? Not really. Was it a nice break from running? Yes. 

Pinterest Win or Fail: WIN

Fat-Burning Run

I wanted to start off my posts with a Pinterest workout that I LOVE. It took me a while to be able to do the whole thing at the suggested incline but it is a great run. What I love about this is that it burns calories*, you run about 1.85 miles, you SWEAT, and it only takes 20 minutes. 

Set Incline to 2

For a long time I would go to the gym and I would run 3-5 miles on a treadmill and I would get on the elliptical or the stair master for a while and it really didn't feel like it was doing anything. I would spend 1.5 - 2 hours in the gym almost every day and it wasn't showing with how my clothes fit or with the scale. Frustrating!!! Then  started reading about interval training and how that is more effective for weight and fat loss than just running forever. I found this treadmill work out on Pinterest and I never went back to the endless hours on the treadmill. 

To start doing this run, I wanted to see if it was something I could actually do. So I tried the whole thing full out: speed, time, and incline just like it calls for. I made it about half way and I couldn't keep up. There are other ways to ease into it, but I decided the best way for me was the incline. Running on a flat plain is so much easier than running on an incline. So I started going as far as I could on the 2.0 incline and then, when my brain and body were telling me to stop, I'd keep everything the same but go down to a 1.0 or .5 incline. Gradually, I was able to go further and further at the full incline and now I can do the whole thing.

I do this run at least 2, sometimes 3, times every week. I do still run an occasional 5k or 10k on a treadmill (just to switch things up and see if I can do it) and this has made me faster, increased my endurance, AND it's made a difference in the fit of my clothes and on the scale. :-)

*The number of calories you burn depends on each person's individual size. For me, this burns about 190 calories.