Page 34 of Big Girls Do It Stronger

Chapter 19

If the #WilderWay Works, Why Do We Need the 2.0?

When I announced I was working on a 2.0 for my program I immediately got questions from people asking why my program needed any changes if it already worked so well. To be totally honest, after a year and a half of carb cycling and wogging, I just wanted to mix things up and see what my body’s response would be. I was so happily surprised with the changes I experienced that I thought it was important for me to share these things with you.

First, Istillhad issues with carbs and my hunger when I was working out harder. I’ve learned that carbs DO make me want to eat more frequently. I’m listening to my body and allowing myself to EAT MORE CARBS! Hallelujah!

Second, I really liked the idea of alternating carb days and fats days based on the intensity of my workouts. I liked the extra energy I got from the carbs on my harder workout days. Why not just use that day to fully enjoy my carbs and let them give me extra energy for lifting, rowing, pushing, and pulling? I also found I felt more satisfied, and my body felt better. Then, on the days I was focusing on fats I would do core work, or just a lighter workout ... and gosh, that felt good, too!

Now, do I think everyone will have the same response to this alternating pattern? Probably not, but I think it’s great to keep your body guessing while separating fuels. In my beta testing, we found that inches lost and shape toning really seemed to improve with these adjustments. Muscle built up more quickly, and we all just felt so much stronger.

A huge plus for these changes was that it made meal planning and grocery shopping so much easier, since we knew from week to week exactly how much of everything we needed. For us, it really simplified our food intake—typically, we would take all of our favorite meals for Black Plate days and for White Plate days and put them in a rotation. We also found that we didn’t get sick of things as easily because when you’re going a day or two without either fats or carbs you get excited about having them again.

The other strange thing is that we started trying new foods to replace or tweak things we usually enjoyed. For example, none of my family was ever really into sweet potatoes; maybe one or two of the kids would eat them. Once we began our revised White Plate days, I tried different ways to bring in those healthy carbs. Sweet potatoes sliders, sweet potato waffles, sweet potato pizza—these all became dishes my family asked for.

It was the same with avocados. Even six months ago, none of my family liked avocado, and most of my family would stick out a tongue if I even suggested guacamole. I needed to get more of those healthy fats in, so I started sneaking avocado into salads, wraps, and even shakes! Guess what? Now, my family is asking for avocado all the time.

I’ve also become more creative with plain yogurt and cottage cheese; I can’t believe how many things I’ve adjusted for us just by using plain Greek yogurt. Yes, it does take a bit more time and prep, but it’s been cheaper and it’s so much healthier for us.

Try and become a bit adventurous yourselves. And, yes, I’ve got a few of our favorite 2.0 recipes for you later in this book, so don’t worry. I just want to encourage you to try and tweak the things you like the most. Maybe you’ve always LOVED making zucchini bread—well, guess what? You still can! There’s almost nothing you can’t make healthier with a few modifications. If you need some ideas just get on Pinterest and put in “low carb, no sugar _________”, and something will pop up to inspire you. Even Grandma’s famous jelly cookies!

My favorite way to look for new recipes, or ways to modify recipes, is to go to Pinterest. I know people get hangry because I don’t share more recipes but, honestly, most of my recipes are simple things, old family favorites that I modify, or things I find on Pinterest while browsing for ideas. You can do this, too. Even if you can’t find something exactly like what you’ve made before, you should be able to find some ideas for something as tasty, or even better! I promise!

Now for the physical changes.

I am going to be totally and completely honest with you and say that adding strength training to my fitness regimen was just me trying to get more bang from my exercise time. Could I get the same sort of fat burning and strengthening workout inlesstime? Ladies, I have to be totally honest: I just don’t have an hour or more to spend running or in the gym every day. I really wish I did, but I don’t. Maybe once all of the kids are in school, or when I don’t have a hundred animals, or when life isn’t so busy and Jack and I are living a life of leisure. Who am I kidding? That’s never going to happen for us. I wish it would, but we just have too much on our plates to devote a lot of time to working out.

And anyway, whoreallywants to spend that much time working out when there are so many other amazing things to do? So, I really wanted to try some high intensity options to see if I could get similar or even better results in less time. My goal was half an hour—30 minutes, or about 2% of your day. Come on, everyone can manage that, right? I also wanted to use minimal equipment.

I don’t have time to even drive to the gym—and I’m not judging those who do, or those wholiketo go to the gym—I just know it doesn’t work for me. I have a hard enough time getting to the grocery store to feed us all.

So, this new compact and challenging workout routine REALLY worked well for me. On White Plate days we typically go a bit longer with our workout—maybe up to 45 minutes—but for Black Plate days we really try and stick with a quick and dirty 30-minute workout, and we try to push as hard as we can in those 30 minutes.

Often I’ll start with a one-mile sprint and then do some high intensity metcons to really get things burning. What’s a metcon? A metcon is just METabolic CONditioning, a staple of crossfit training. You repeat the same two to three exercises in a series of rounds. Often we do as many rounds as we can in the last 5 or 6 of those 30 minutes. You’d be surprised how many squats, jumping jacks, pushups, or burpees you can do in that time.

We also try to increase our speed and get more rounds into that time. The other awesome benefit of training this way was that we saw our running speeds improve as well as increased toning and fat burning. This also REALLY works well for the colder times of the year when a three-mile run just doesn’t sound very appealing in the -20 degree temps we can get in northern Michigan.

I also like to mix up some of our workouts to include other fun things that we enjoy. Nanny Karri and I like to do power yoga on occasion, and I even did a tap workout with my daughter. By offering flexibility and options to your workout, you will remain excited and interested in challenging your body in different ways. There are so many things you can do to get your heart rate up and move your body.

Dr. K recently told me that most people are in poor health because they lose motivation and give up. Maybe many of them are just bored? Try to keep challenging yourself! Push yourself. Give yourself a reason to keep going and trying new things!

Our family has recently set some group running goals. We really want to do a Disney run, and my husband decided he wants to run a full Marathon. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all saying you have to run a marathon, but you can certainly try to increase your running distance or speed. Maybe you might want to try a new sport—one of the ladies in my Facebook group just joined an adult soccer team. How fun does that sound? I am sure you can find something that not only increase your strength and improves your health, but also brings more joy into your life, too.

Here are a few more of my exercise ideas that you might want to try:

Aerobics

Ballet or other dance classes

Baseball

Basketball

Biking

Bowling

Boxing