Monday Post of Random

Do you see this? This is me, watching Packer football last night, in a room sans guys.
All by myself, hubby at work, boys tucked in bed, TLC totally available to me, and yet here I am watching Packers V. Vikings.
It's Brett Favre at Lambeau Field.
It's the guy you see on the screen with the long hair who plays for the Pack and totally rocks.
(but I don't know his name--I'm not that into football)

Anyways, I didn't watch the whole game so I went to ESPN.com after to see the final score.

28-24. Go Green and Gold!

Enough of that.

Jon, my 7 yr old, made this arrangement and asked me if I'd take a pic and put on it my blog.
Now doesn't that just make you smile? He cracks me up.

I'm sitting here after just having a much-needed date with this:

...so I had this idea that I, a personal trainer who's never personal trained (YET...yeah....don't ask), should maybe throw out a tip for all you exercise fanatics out there. And those of you who aren't might just be inspired by this random fact:

it's about your EPOC. And you, after you exercise, have it.

EPOC stands for excess postexercise oxygen consumption but that's not important.... (NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training p189)

Basically, what you want to know is that your body's metabolism is elevated after exercise and continues to be elevated for some time....how long the metabolism is running quicker for is the question EPOC answers.

Research shows that higher intensity training and splitting your work-out into multiple sessions have the greatest effect on EPOC (so you keep burning those calories faster for longer. Elevated metabolism, people! Can I get an amen?!)

SOOOO if what you're looking for is greater calorie burn, go for "giving it your all" as much as you can during the workout session and divide your workout into multiple sessions instead of one longer, moderate bout of exercise (think 30 minute jog--great for your heart but not as effective for increasing your metabolism)

The Plan? Do a 15-20 minute session in the morning (or just 10 min if you're a beginner...it's a start!) and then repeat at lunchtime or later in the evening. Crank up that treadmill to go a speed that is really challenging and throw in some high speed spurts for as long as you can go.

And mix it up. When your body gets used to your same ol'/same ol' training, it will stop giving you the results you're looking for. Tricky, huh? So change it up and try circuit training moves or something.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Really, it's about being able to consume more chocolate more times while your metabolism keeps melting it away. At least that's how I define EPOC.