Making the Cut

I give the ax to the book, Making the Cut: The 30 Day Diet and Fitness Plan to a Stronger, Sexier You, by Jillian Michaels.  While she might be a gifted trainer and a beloved reality tv show personality on Biggest Loser, she is no author.  Besides this book being costly (at $24.95), I thought it was overly-ambitious, lacked necessary details in key areas, and inflexible.

First, I understand it is a 30 day plan, and it is supposed to be intense.  I am accustomed to working out 5 days a week and have been doing so for a number of years now.  I’m not exactly a slouch when it comes to exercise know-how or terminology, and yet I still found myself in over my head.  During the first work-out, I think I strained my hip flexor attempting to perform this multi-stepped move. 

So besides the fitness, the meals were also really hard to follow.  The idea is don’t deviate AT ALL from the meal set-up.  Again I understand it is a 30 day program.  One of the few things I did like about this book was the test inside that gauges your sensitivity to carbs and weak points in your diet.  You are then given one of three tracks based on your answers.  I did learn what meal compositions might be best for me and was an area that I have tried to incorporate in my general nutrition.  Now the meal lay-out was much more complex.  Again, a strict meal plan was provided, yet it was up to the user to determine how much of everything equated to the caloric recommendation without providing the calorie breakdown for each item in the recipe.  Also, some of the meals called for eating canned salmon.  For real, I would rather starve than consume canned salmon.  For me, I have really studied food, calories, and servings, so I have a pretty good idea of what is a comparable meat or fish that I might like, but if someone is not that well-versed, I feel like it is going to be disastrous.  On a side note, if anyone is looking for a good calorie guide, Calorie King makes a pocket book that is AWESOME.  It gives you nutritional information on basic food groups as well as popular eating establishments.

While, the book claims to be for the “intermediate exerciser” and not the beginner, I really found it to be lacking and much harder to follow.  I would have rather saved the $25.00 and put it toward a personal training session.  If you still think that this might be the book for you, I would at least recommend purchasing it used or discounted on amazon.com. 

The Nonrunner’s Marathon Guide For Women

Looking for a little inspiration during these brisk winter days, may I recommend training for a marathon?  If any of you are like me, I personally LOATHE running.  I secretly feel like a hamster in a hamster wheel as I get down on the treadmill.  I mean seriously, we spend an hour running and yet we end up at the very same place we started.  It doesn’t seem super sensible to me, but like many of you, I still do it!  Last year I decided to train for a half-marathon.  I decided that perhaps training like a runner would morph me into one of those super-psyched running types who just beam when talking about running and carry around a pair of running shoes in the event the spirit moves them to break into a full trot.  Well…..it didn’t exactly happen for me.  In fact, I still see it as a necessary evil, but I did accomplish goals and ran further than I ever thought I could run, and felt really good about being able to eat whatever I wanted to for the sake of “training”.  

 One of the tools I used to get me motivated was the book, The Nonrunner’s Marathon Guide For Women.  The author, Dawn Dais, is brilliantly cynical and wonderfully witty.  Throughout the book, she offers journal entries that had me laughing out loud.  She is just a regular gal, allergic to exercise, like many of us, who provides the average person with the do’s and don’ts of preparing for a marathon (or half marathon).  Even if you do not see a marathon in the future, check out the book for a few good laughs and some exercise motivation.