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HIIT Workouts Are the Perfect Workout for Busy Moms

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You’re a Mom. You’re up early. You’re to bed late. And all the hours in between are filled with the multitude of duties required to, well, keep your kids alive and help them thrive.

By now I’m sure you’ve heard a ton about HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts. This type of workout is trending right now because a lot of research has come out to support the effectiveness of this type of training. They’re short duration, high intensity, get in-get out type of workouts. Perfect for busy Moms.

Definition of HIIT – bursts of high-intensity work followed by active recovery (rest).

Definition of high intensity – 85 – 95% maximum effort. Think about when you workout and you’re pushing as hard as you can push, these workouts as that you work just below that effort.

Definition of active recovery – move your feet, it’s as simple as that.

The workout involves 20-60 seconds of “just below” maximum (or maximum) effort (8-9 on the Rate of Perceived Exertion, RPE, chart below) and then 20-60 seconds of active recovery, RPE of 4 (depending on your workout). Why-oh-why would you want to do that?! Simple. These workouts take no longer than 30 minutes, but you create a calorie burn lasts HOURS. And hours. And hours.

Let’s break it down. Your low and slow workouts, meaning low intensity, slow pace and what I call now slow metabolic burn workouts are longer in duration and take up more of your time. You burn calories WHILE your workout. Once you’re done working out, you’re done burning extra calories.

HIIT workouts are high intensity and fast-paced. Once you finish your HIIT workout, you can burn extra calories for hours (some studies report increased metabolic rate for up to 18 hours after you finish working out).

More calories burned = increased ability to lose the weight you may be trying to lose.

Okay, okay…there are some pros and cons to this workout that I better tell you about.

First the cons:

  1. It is difficult to push yourself to maximum. Some people just cannot get there and for these workouts to be at all effective, maximum effort needs to be achieved.
  2. There is an increased risk of injury with this type of workout, so find someone who knows what they’re doing and work with them.
  3. Some days, it’s psychologically very difficult to amp yourself up for the workout, so you may decide to skip it.
  4. Sometimes after a HIIT workout you have a major dip in energy about an hour after you’re done. So, if you need to go to work after, you may not be as productive as you or your boss would like.

Now the pros:

  1. I’ve already discussed the increased calorie burn AFTER you’ve finished working out, but it bears repeating. The entire point of these workouts is the increased calorie burn. You get more burn with less time working out.
  2. Short duration. Moms are busy. Moms are so very busy, but if we scrounge, most of us can find 20 minutes in our day.
  3. Many individuals see improvements in their fitness level quicker with HIIT workouts. When individuals see improvements it often motivates them to continue with the workouts and not “fall off the fitness wagon”.
  4. Some people can pump themselves up easier for a 20 minute workout vs a 60 minute. If you’re that type of person, this type of workout will speak to you.

Listen, I know life is busy. Moms, well we have a ton of stuff to do every single day. But your fitness is also important. So, while you’re busy trying to fit 36 hours of work into a 24 hour day, maybe a quick HIIT workout is just what you’re looking for. Maybe it’ll help make working out a little less daunting and a lot more effective!

CLICK HERE to try one of my FAVORITE HIIT workouts! 

You in? Good. Off you go!

Your Mind is an Asshole, Your Body a Gift – Why Do We Constantly Mix That Up?!

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Listen, I’m not saying your mind is always an asshole, but when it comes to what it says and thinks about your body? Most time…it’s an abusive asshole. Your mind controls how you feel about your body, what you think about your body and often these thoughts result in your overall feeling of shittiness towards yourself and sadly, more often than not it leads to body-loathing. 

We constantly hear about the power of our thoughts. We hear that our mind and our thoughts control our path, our destiny, and ultimately the energy we put out into this world (thank you, Oprah, and “The Secret”). And hey, I totally agree. There’s great power in our minds, our thoughts, our energy. What I need you to understand is that your mind can be a total cow and a completely abusive entity breaking you down, telling you you’re not good enough and guiding you towards your own self-destruction. 

Your body is a thing of beauty. It’s phenomenal. It performs miracles every freakin’ day. The fact that you wake up, breathe, have a heartbeat, smile, frown, cry, laugh, talk and move throughout your day is an incredible gift. But, do we acknowledge it’s greatness? Do we consider every day we get to get up, move, survive, thrive a gift? No…we’re too busy being told by our mind that we’re too lumpy, bumpy, chubby, boney, skinny, ugly, wrinkly and all the other crap our mind throws our way.

And yes, the media and society we live in have a lot to do with what our mind is incessantly berating us with. But, perhaps we need to find a way to stop our mind from controlling the greatness that is our body, that is our strength, that is who we truly are. Perhaps we need to start celebrating the glory of the miracle we live in and stop telling us that it’s not good enough.

Here’s the thing…you gotta stop talking smack about your body. What’s it ever done to you? I mean sure…we get injured, we get sick, and things happen to our body that we don’t particularly enjoy (hello peeing when I sneeze), but it houses my mind, my soul and where the heck would I be without this thing? I’d be a big blobby blob slithering around on the ground. 

It’s time to tell your mind to stop being so mean. It’s time to stop the negative self-talk reel that you have going round and round and round in your mind. And yes, I know that’s easier said than done, but don’t you think it’s time to at least start to try? The first step is simply “noticing what you notice”. This is one of the very first exercises we have you do in our Screw the Scale program. We simply ask that you start noticing when your mind starts talking smack about yourself or your body. What triggered it? What did your mind say? How did you react? How did you feel? Why did you respond the way you did? Just start noticing what you notice.

From there, after you start to see a pattern, change the thought. Try…just try…to put something positive in there instead of the negative crap you’ve been telling yourself for years. You won’t be able to do this all the time…the mind is a bully and will constantly try to bring you down…but take control and repeat positivity. You’ll win eventually. 

After you win a few times against your bully of a mind, your mind may actually start to change. It might actually acknowledge some strength, some endurance, some gifts your body has given you. Let those thoughts enter and embrace the warmth that comes along with it. Let your body absorb the kindness and nourish it as its never been nourished before.

It’s time to flip the switch and love your body. It’s time to tell your mind to bugger off and allow it to change and adapt and love something it’s been told to hate for a long, long time. 

Good luck, Mamas…go on…get out there and start noticing what you notice. If you need me, I’m here. All you need to do is ask for some help and I’ll be the first one shouting kindness at you and your body. 

 

Hey Fitness Industry – Take Your Pills, Your Wraps, Your Chemicals and Stuff It!

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I am beautiful.
I am strong.
I am powerful.
I am deserving of all the good things, including health, wealth, abundance and joy.

I am all of those things, but why is it that I used to cringe every time I reminded myself to say them out loud?

If I asked you to say those four sentences above, could you? Could you stand tall, in front of a group of people and say those words? Can you accept them, honor them, and speak them out loud and not feel like an imposter? 

Our bodies define our self-worth. Well, if you look at my beloved fitness industry, that’s what they sell you. The fit, slim and trim people are joyful, happy, empowered. The overweight, underfit and weigh-scale challenged women are unhappy, miserable, lacking in confidence. This is the “truth” among the media you read, you watch and you listen to. 

Well, I’m freakin’ sick of it. I’m sick of you getting down on yourself because the scale read a number you didn’t want to see. I’m tired of watching you crumble and stumble because you don’t fit the “fitness mold”. Frig…I don’t fit the fitness mold. But here I am…telling you right now:

I am beautiful.
I am strong.
I am powerful.
I am deserving of all the good things, including health, wealth, abundance and joy.

And you know what? It took me all 39 years of my life to be able to say those words out loud. It took responding to the industry I love so much and standing up to it and shouting “NO…you don’t define me. The scale doesn’t define me. I get to define my worth, my love, my passion, my value to this world. Me. Not you. Not the scale. Not the fitness industry telling me every corner I turn where I’ve gone wrong”.

I drink wine. I eat chocolate. I hate leg days. I have cellulite. I have stretch marks and I have belly fat. I like Baileys in my coffee. I also love salad. I workout at least 6 times a week. I can get up and run a 10k no problem. I honest to GOD love burpees. And I empower 1000s women to love themselves no matter what.

I’m taking a stand against the industry I work in. I’m standing against your “bikini-body-ready” messaging. I’m standing against all the companies out there trying to shrink me, make me weigh less, make me FREAKIN’ HUNGRY AND EAT chemicals. I stand up against you. I stand beautifully tall and proud against you. You can take your pills, your wraps, your smoothies, your artificial food and you can stuff it. 

I eat healthy because it makes me feel good. I choose salad because, no, I don’t always want salad (I RARELY want salad) but it’s healthy and it’s good for me and my body likes to feel good. I like to feel good. I workout because it relieves my stress, my worry, my anxiety. I choose to empower women because it is what I’m meant to do. 

No, I won’t swallow your pills. I won’t define myself, my worth, my success based on the scale. I won’t succumb to your incredible marketing tactics that make me feel less than because I don’t have a six-pack and will, most likely, never have one. No. I will not buy into your marketing strategies any longer. And, I’m going to open the eyes of all the women in my life to their power and the potential their bodies hold.

It’s taken me 39 years to get to this point. And, I’m a confident woman. I’m educated. I love fitness with all I am and it is just recently that I’ve decided that I’m enough the way I am. I want to be healthy. I want to be strong. Not because I want to look good in a bikini…I want these things because I want to feel good, I want to have energy at the end of the day and I want to be healthy and fit. For my quality of life…no other reason.

I beg of you, if you’re reading this and this resonates with you, please know fitness and nutrition can be an incredible tool in your life. But, we need to change the end goal of fitness and nutrition programming. The end goal is health, self-love, acceptance and celebration of your body. It is NOT losing pounds, fitting into size 2 or getting “bikini-body ready”. 

If you’re interested…I can help you. I so desperately want to help you. Do I want you to buy my program, Screw the Scale? Yes, of course, I do. It’s freakin’ amazing and it will change your life and how you look at fitness. BUT…if I can get you to simply look at fitness as a tool to help you love yourself and you don’t buy my program? I’m A-OK with that. Just…go…get active. For you. For your body. To honor the gift you were given. I want you to step off the friggin’ scale, bash it with a sledgehammer and get to work on YOU.  

Embrace yourself. Love your body. Celebrate all you do. Every day. That’s the power of fitness that I want you to experience. It’s something you do for you and no other reason than health and your quality of life.  

I am beautiful.
I am strong.
I am powerful.
I am deserving of all the good things, including health, wealth, abundance and joy.

If you’re interested in my program, CLICK HERE to learn more about Screw the Scale. If you’re not…that’s fine…just please…stop listening to my industry tell you you’re not enough. You are. You may just need to do a bit of work to get to a place of accepting it. 

 

 

Screw the Scale is the New Screw Skinny

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Earlier in 2017, I created a program called “Screw Skinny“. This 8-week in-person program offered through Hot Mama Health & Fitness combines fitness education, workouts and self-love exercises. The goal? Help women learn to love their bodies through fitness and what we call “Love Yourself More” exercises. We’ve recently finished the first 8-week session and to say feedback has been incredible is an understatement. It went far beyond my wildest expectations. 

We first launched a trailer video for Screw Skinny that involved interviews with women talking about stepping off the scale, not defining their worth by numbers and, literally, taking sledgehammers to their scale. I must say the day of filming this video was one of the most powerful days I’ve experienced in my life and I am so grateful to everyone who was involved in that very first day of bringing my vision of Screw Skinny to life.

That day of filming culminated in a 9-minute Screw Skinny video. I hope you take the time to watch it because the women in it are PHENOMENAL and have a lot of good things to say. 

 

But, an interesting thing happened after I launched the video. I started getting feedback that I was “skinny-shaming” or “skinny-bashing”. And, while yes, good marketing and programs are supposed to start conversations (which is exactly why I named the program Screw Skinny), I’m also open to conversations and feedback. I truly do listen to people (probably to a fault at this point) who reach out and connect with me. Well, as long as it’s done in a respectful and non-assholey, non-trolly way (know what I mean?!). 

Let me be the first to say that I stand by the name “Screw Skinny“. I won’t be removing or editing the video we did, nor will I be changing the graphics on any social media posts we’ve previously posted. I also won’t apologize for a name that I truly believe in. I will, however, listen openly to feedback and consider opinions, options and suggestions. And yes, I have decided to change the name of our Screw Skinny program to Screw the Scale for our ONLINE program. 

Why? Because I get it. I understand. And, I appreciate people taking the time to respectfully reach out to me and have an open and honest dialogue with me. 

So, what really made me change the name? While I do stand by “Screw Skinny” and I do love the conversations I’ve had with others, the ENTIRE POINT of the name is to stop giving words like “skinny” so much power, it’s really more about stepping off the scale. So, why even bring the word into it. 

Why? Because…again…it start conversations and it allows us to have a platform to talk about loving our bodies no matter what. Skinny, fat (yeah, I said it), fit, unfit, wiggly, jiggly, lean, cut…whatever the heck word you choose…I want to take the power away from descriptive and ridiculous words. BUT…I am one person with one small soap box. So, I’ve accepted the fact that I can continue to have conversations with people using different words.

Screw the scale, not screw skinny. 

Will it be as impactful? Yeah…friggin’ rights it will. Screw the Scale is just as catchy and I won’t be told that I’m skinny-shaming anyone.

Here’s what actually got me to change the name. I had a woman message me and ask me to reconsider the name. I asked her why and that I think the name started conversations. She agreed. She liked what I was doing. But, she asked me to consider how a knobby-kneed 14-year old would regard the messaging “Screw Skinny”. Is she going to take the time to watch the video and really understand the purpose, or is she going to just see the graphic and think “My body is skinny, so screw me”? 

Yikes.

Now that…that didn’t sit well. As I battle for women to love themselves. To accept one another and love one another NO MATTER WHAT. As I try to change the way women look at their bodies and at fitness, that comment stuck with me. I would never, ever in my entire life want someone to be made to feel less than because of a campaign I’m spearheading. I had to sit with it for awhile. I had to ponder and think. But, my gut, my heart, my head all begged me to change the name. So, I have. 

I want to empower and inspire and motivate all women, teens and young girls to appreciate and love the vessel they have that takes them through their lives. No matter what the scale says, they have strength, power and beauty within their body. So, “skinny” has nothing to do with it. 

I want to have conversations with women about loving and honouring their bodies and I do realize the power and influence I have, so I need to ensure the influence I’m putting out sits well within my own self and is a positive one for all women.

While I want women to step outside their comfort zones and actually talk about their powerful bodies I cannot do it if I have this little niggle in my heart. Knowing that I may affect a young girl in a negative way, that my words could impact someone in the exact opposite of my goal, well now…that’s something to really think about, isn’t it?  

There’s really only one way I can continue with this full-on battle against negative self-talk and body-loathing. I must change the words I use. Words have so much power and it’s an uphill battle to convince most women (not all, I know this) that they’re so much more than their stupid morning weigh-ins.  

I’m certain I will be throwing out my body-loving sword for years and decades to come, but I’m here and I’m committed to the good fight. I so desperately want you to stop and assess the power and strength of your body. But, it’s about stepping off the scale, not putting down the shape of a body. So y’all…Screw the Scale is the new Screw Skinny. 

Same program. Same goals: stop, reflect and love the strength and power you have in your body.Different name. 

You’re more than you give yourself credit for. Your body is beautiful and it does amazing things for you every single day of your life. It’s time to learn that, remember that and love yourself. You are not a number. You are strength and power. 

Screw the scale.

*Our online version of Screw the Scale in launching May 4th…stay tuned!*

When Sledgehammers Meet Scales, Magic Happens

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How can I possibly capture the emotional moments of women unleashing their strength and power in writing? It’s daunting and overwhelming, but I’m going to try to give justice to the energy and love that was felt during the Hot Mama Scale Bash Celebrations. 

It was last summer that I woke at 3am with the idea of creating a program where I combined fitness, fitness education and self-love exercises to help women learn to accept and love their bodies as they are. I landed on finally calling the “self-love” exercises “Love Yourself More” and they’re an integral part of our 8-week Screw the Scale (previously Screw Skinny) program. It is the combination of fitness and Love Yourself More exercises that make this program completely different than anything you’ve ever tried before.

I also thought it would be ridiculously amazing to offer an event where women could take back their power from the scale by bashing it with a sledgehammer. I wanted to give women the opportunity to smash (literally) a piece of equipment that has more often than not created heartache, self-loathing and body image despair. So, I created our Scale Bash Celebrations where we literally take a sledgehammer to scales and unleash the power we have within ourselves.

I saw a void in the fitness industry and I wanted to create a new, ground-breaking, self-loving fitness program. A lot of people workout to look better, fit into their jeans or lose a designated amount of weight. And, unfortunately, we’re heading into a season where we’re about to be inundated with getting “bikini-body ready”. That kills me. Every time. I needed to change that. 

Think about it: does the fitness program you’re currently on remind you to love your body? I’d hazard a guess that for the most part, that’s not the focus.

So, what about the work that has to go into accepting your body the way it is? Sure, let’s get fit and healthy, but perhaps we, in the fitness industry, also need to provide tools to help you learn to accept your body in its healthy form. That may not look like what the media images show us. That may look jiggly, wiggly, skinny, boney, muscley, not muscley, dimply or sleek. Health and fitness can come in all shapes, sizes, curves and glory. We need to start embracing and loving all silhouettes.

Why are we not teaching that? We were missing the point. 

But not any longer.

When sledgehammers meet scales, magic happens and programs like Screw the Scale can help us move past the numbers and towards self and body-love. The good news? I’m not alone on this mission, I have a band of women teaching this right along with me. 

About 100 women participated in our 8-week Screw the Scale program and I wish I could explain to you how humbling it is to hear how a program that came from my heart has impacted so many women. When I get pulled aside and told that this program helped you become a more patient, more energized, more loving Mother or that you can finally look in a mirror and love yourself, please know I am so grateful for your words. Your words are why I do what I do. Your words constantly inspire me to do more, give more.

Knowing that you’re taking the time for fitness and putting your health and self-love on your priority list is a beautiful thing. Learning that you’re happier, healthier and teaching your kids about the importance of fitness and body acceptance, well, that’s everything to me. So, thank you.

It’s beyond humbling. It’s beyond stunning. It’s beyond all my far-fetched dreams and expectations. 

So, How did the events go? Well…there were sledgehammers, scales, workouts, cheering, laughing, crying. There were so many emotions and so much love at each of the three events, I left feeling breathless, inspired and humbled. 

The energy of women bashing scales is phenomenal. Powerful. Beautiful. Even in the smaller groups, the energy put through the sledgehammer into the scale was exciting and…riveting. It went beyond the physical smashing and many women had a serious cry sesh shortly after. If we can help women step off the scale and learn that they’re so much more than that stupid number, I will celebrate and #dancedammit for the rest of my days. 

Trust me when I tell you that you’re worth it. You have strength. You have power. You are not defined by the numbers on your scale. I will help you raise your sledgehammer to your scale and bash it with the beauty and strength you have inside of you. Screw the scale, Mamas…you’re so much more than a number. 

 

Wanna know the coolest part? Me and my Hot Mamas…well…we’re going to continue pushing you to love yourself. This program will be offered at a franchise near you, just check in with them! And, if you don’t have a Hot Mama franchise near you (you should buy one), our online Screw the Scale program will be launching on May 4, 2017. So, keep watching for the magic…it’s coming.