SOHI Fitness

New Year’s Weight Loss Resolution Redux

Megan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:42:25 +0000

This is a guest post by Jennifer Walter.

Two years ago I found myself closing in on my mid 30s with an extra 30 pounds around my waist. New Year’s was approaching and at the stroke of midnight I was going to change all the things about myself I wasn’t happy with through this magical thing called the New Year’s Resolution.

I was going to lose weight. I was the heaviest I’d ever been, woefully out of shape, miserable, yet unable to summon the motivation to do anything about it. I decided that maybe getting a trainer would jump-start me into action and signed up with Megan at SOHI Fitness.

Fast forward two years later…

As of a few months ago I was doing great. I lost 30 pounds and was in the best shape of my life. Then, I fell off the wagon. Slowly at first and then with a loud splat. As I began my recommitment to fitness in the New Year, I thought back to what made me successful the last two years and how I managed to get past the hardest part – getting started.

“I’ll Start Tomorrow” is Not an Action Plan

I was forever dubbing tomorrow, “The Day I’m Going to Start Working Out.” I must have spent nearly a year pretending this was my plan, only to come up with various excuses each day why tomorrow or next week would really be a much better time to get started. My advice: as soon as you find an exercise program that looks appealing, call and sign up. Or, make a firm plan to meet a friend at the gym.

I caught myself trying to fall back into old habits recently. I came back into town after the holidays and thought, “Maybe I should wait a week before working out. I’ll get back into my routine and get in shape before I start training…” The excuse fountain was on and they were pouring out. I recognized this behavior and stopped.

My first week back in town and I was sweating with Megan at SOHI.

My Fear of Looking Silly Exercising is Sillier than How I Look Exercising

In the past, I procrastinated signing up with a trainer or for a group exercise class because I felt like I should get in shape first. I’m not sure how to explain that twisted logic other than I was afraid of looking silly. Megan says she actually hears this frequently as a personal trainer so the upside is I’m not the only nutty one out there. I probably do look silly when I work out. But, one day I contemplated what crosses my mind when I see an out of shape or overweight person exercising, and I realized it was, “Good for them. I really should be doing that myself.”

No, I Don’t Deserve a Cupcake Because I Worked Out Today

This is one of my personal favorite forms of self sabotage – the junk food reward. I am not saying, “Don’t reward yourself.” I was born a cupcake eater and always will be. I’m just saying, “Don’t reward yourself every time you work out.” This lesson seems pretty self evident, but it’s amazing how many little things you will justify eating throughout the day once you start exercising. Sometimes I’m like a shady accountant doing taxes and looking for loopholes – “I can write this off, and this off, and this off.” Only I’m doing it with calories. At some point, all those ‘little’ calories add up and cancel out the hard work.

If the Button on Your Pants is No Longer Straining, Stick with the Training

Even when I’m working out religiously and eating sensibly I have a really heard time getting the number on the scale to go down quickly. When I first set out to change my habits and get into shape this frustrated me to no end and made me fairly depressed on weigh-in days. In the past, I always considered the scale the sole metrics by which to gauge results.

If I hadn’t been working with a trainer who drilled it into my head not to focus only on the scale, I would have given up. Megan redirected my attention to things that were equally good ways to judge progress. Pants that I hadn’t been able to get past my too ample behind were now up around my waist. Not only that, I no longer lived with the anxiety that my poor button, always under so much stress, was going to suddenly and violently abandon its post, shooting off my waist band and putting the eye out of some innocent bystander.

Always Live in Fear of Your Former Self

One thing I have learned the hard way, especially over the past few months, is that my evil, vanilla milkshake loving, couch sitting, “I’ll be good tomorrow” nemesis still lives on inside me and always will. Even when I get into really good shape, and from the outside it looks like I’ve defeated her and she’s long gone, I know now that she’s still there…lurking…waiting for me to take one too many days off from training so she can reassert herself.

I remember after a few months of working out and eating well I felt so much better physically and mentally. I clearly remember saying to myself, “I will NEVER get so out of shape and heavy again.” This morning, as I was gasping for air during one of my first “back on the wagon” workouts, I had the exact same conversation with myself. A couple of months of skipping workouts, followed by a 2 week business trip and 2 weeks of gorging myself during the holidays with family, and there I was in a very similar state as two years ago.

It’s been a depressing lesson, and I’ve learned it the hard way, but I think it’s an important one to carry around with you. If you are successful you will feel like a changed person, you will look like a changed person, but if you are not committed to sustaining that change, to maintaining a routine, the slide backwards to where you started can be fast and furious.

When Exercising Indoors, HIIT To The Rescue

Megan — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:34:14 +0000

This is a guest post by Dr. Ron Fritzke.

While it isn’t true for the country as a whole, cold winter weather forces a lot of us who don’t live in the Sunbelt to stay indoors. For runners, cyclists, hikers, and swimmers this can be a real challenge. Few fitness buffs prefer sweating in the living room to taking a bike ride around a lake or a hike through the woods.

Going on a two hour bike ride in the summer is an excellent way to stay fit…but hammering out two hours of riding on an indoor bike trainer in the house is beyond the limits of just about any sane person.

I’ve ridden a four hour indoor ride while trying to distract myself by watching a football game on the TV…and received a Certificate of Insanity from my wife upon completion. I don’t recommend it.

How I Rediscovered Intervals

Megan’s already done an excellent job of emphasizing the benefits of high intensity interval training (HIIT) on the SOHI fitness site. Let me add a bit of my personal experience to reiterate the value of the ‘hard-easy-hard’ approach.

Way back in 1984 I ended my competitive running career at the US Olympic Trials marathon. Needless to say, keeping fit and maintaining my weight wasn’t too much of a challenge when running over 100 miles a week. But things slowly changed when I tooled back the effort.

Although I was still running five milers and even ten milers, my body weight slowly inched upward. It wasn’t until my kids got old enough to start competing that I rediscovered ‘intervals’.

I assigned some pretty painful hill repeats for their workouts and, in order to appease my conscience, I ran beside them.

That’s when I discovered how valuable high intensity training can be for weight loss. Over the course of the next month or so my weight started going down. And it made sense…I’d noticed that I would start sweating spontaneously throughout the evening after a series of hill repeats, and my heart rate would remain elevated ten to fifteen beats per minute over my normal resting rate up until I went to bed.

And that’s part of the magic of high intensity workouts; you get benefits long after the huffing and puffing is over.

Quality Over Quantity With HIIT

Without further ado, let’s get on with laying out a few high intensity interval workouts for when you’re trapped indoors. My indoor workouts are done on a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine, but the same principles can be applied to a variety of exercise equipment.

A Pyramid Workout-

Ten minutes easy pedaling.

One minute hard pedaling, followed by one minute easy pedaling.

Two minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Three minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Four minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Five minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Four minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Three minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Two minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

One minute hard pedaling.

Ten minutes easy pedaling.

That’s pretty strenuous workout, tempered by how hard you push yourself on the ‘hard’ efforts.

A Descending Ladder Workout-

Ten minutes easy pedaling.

Six minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Five minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Four minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Three minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

Two minutes hard pedaling, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.

One minute hard pedaling.

Ten minutes easy pedaling.

A Short, Hard Workout-

Ten minutes easy pedaling.

Ten minutes, alternating very hard ten second bursts with ten seconds easy.

Ten minutes easy pedaling.

Needless to say, when doing any exercise (particularly this type of high intensity workout), you’d better clear it with your physician.

So Maximize Your Efforts Doing HIIT

I’ve given you a few examples of high intensity workout, two of which are pretty strenuous, and one which can hurt quite a bit…but isn’t very long. The truth of the matter is that you can fabricate all sorts of different workouts using this approach of ‘hard-easy-hard’.

Perhaps it’s time for you to jump into this type of fitness technique…you have nothing to lose except some indoor exercise boredom, or maybe a few pounds of body fat.

About the author: Dr. Ron Fritzke is a chiropractor in Northern California, maintaining his private practice as well as serving on the sports medicine team at the College of the Siskiyous. A converted runner, he now spends his time staying fit on one of his four bikes…on the roads, over forest trails, and even in his living room on his indoor bike trainer.

Something for Santa

Megan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:48:33 +0000

This is a guest post by Kristina Hoy of Icing and Crumbs

In between drills we swap “hello’s” and “how are you’s“.
After each sprint we offer a smile.
Squeezing out crunches, we begin a conversation…
And while sitting in the early evening’s darkness under a tall palm tree, we share stories and recipes…

I LOVE Boot Camp. I love that for sixty minutes, twice a week, I am pushed to my limits. I love that no matter how hard I’m trying, a (friendly) bark from my trainer can make me try even more. And I love that in amidst all of that, I’ve made some wonderful friends.

When thinking of a special snack we could make for Santa on Christmas Eve, I thought of these cookies -BIG, chewy, crunchy, oaty, chocolatey – the recipe for which was shared with me by a friend at Boot Camp, and after creating them several times in our kitchen, we have our own version:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
You need:
1 cup of butter, softened
3/4 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of water
1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
2 cups of oats
1 cup of dark chocolate chips
1 cup of white chocolate chips

You do:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees F). Mix the butter, sugars, vanilla, baking soda, salt and water. Mix in the flour until the mixture is evenly combined. Stir through the oats and chocolate chips. Drop generous spoonfuls of mixture onto a prepared baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the cookies have started to turn brown but still have spots of goo visible. (Do not over-bake.) Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

These cookies are absolutely delicious! They taste best when just out of the oven (although I’m sure Santa won’t mind if they are a little cooler when he gets there!). This recipe is very easy and is perfect for the kids to help with – they can measure and mix the dry ingredients and help drop big spoons of it onto the tray. Another great thing about this recipe is that it makes a lot of cookies, but because the mixture contains no eggs, it can be kept in the fridge for quite a while and just used whenever you need it, so cookies can be baked fresh in just a few minutes.

P.S. For another special Christmas Eve activity, you could sit with the kids and
track Santa’s progress around the globe
… another great idea shared with me by a fellow Boot Camp friend!

CLICK HERE to track Santa.

“From home to home, and heart to heart,

from one place to another,

The warmth and joy of Christmas,

brings us closer to each other.”

(Emily Matthews)

SOHI & Soup

Megan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:57:41 +0000

This is a guest post by Kristina Hoy of Icing & Crumbs

Twice a week I go to SOHI Boot Camp.
Twice a week I work out on the beach.
Twice a week I come home exhausted and sore from battling the friction of the sand while lugging a heavy weighted sack on my shoulders.

Boot Camp is tough. It’s hot and sweaty.

It’s fast-paced and high-impact.
It’s running, jumping, squatting, shuffling, sliding, skipping and swinging… on the beach.
It makes your heart race.
It makes you breathe hard.
It leaves you grazed.
And covered in sand…

So twice a week I am thankful that I was organised enough to have made a quick and nutritious meal ready to eat after these tough sessions:

Sweet Potato Soup

You need:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 brown onion, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1⁄2 teaspoon of ginger (optional) 1 kg (2.2 lbs) orange sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
1 L (4 cups) of salt-reduced chicken stock

You do:
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes, or until it is soft, but not coloured. Add the curry powder and ginger and cook for 30 seconds. Add the sweet potato and chicken stock and stir. Cover and simmer over a low heat until the sweet potato has softened (about 40 minutes). Blend until smooth.

This soup is very easy to make and freezes well, so can be made in advance for those busy nights when there is no time to prepare a meal. The recipe above serves 6.

“Eat. Learn. Live.”

Black SOHI Sale!

Megan — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:22:46 +0000

Today through Nov. 27 get 1/2 off all boot camps for 2 or 3 times a week for 6 weeks ONLY. Just click on the link to our Boot Camp page and purchase on PayPal. Print your receipt and redeem at any time.

Burn Fat and Get Shapely Butt and Legs With This High-Intensity Interval Stair Workout

Megan — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:38:21 +0000

Hell on Wheels by Fu Manchu

Why SOHI Boot Camp?

Megan — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 08:07:50 +0000

For all those who are new to SOHI! We want to tell you a little about our boot camps.

At SOHI, we expect your body to change in our classes. In as little as two weeks you should see results in weight loss, inches lost, improved cardio and strength gains. We have proven results of people losing 20-30 pounds in 12 weeks! You will burn 800-900 calories per class doing sports drills and using various equipment, while at the same time having fun.

We also know that your eating is a huge part of your results, as we give you an eating plan to follow, not a calorie restriction. We are here to help you get faster, stronger, leaner, and maybe even a little meaner .

We also do not believe in making our boot camp classes HUGE. Our trainers want your experience to be personalized and focused on you and your form, so we limit our class size.

Pearl City Boot Camp Class Begins June 14th!

Megan — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:04:28 +0000

Always wanted to try a SOHI boot camp, but wanted something closer to home? We will now be having boot camp classes in Pearl City beginning June 14th. They will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays 6pm-7pm with Stephanie. Contact us for location and sign-up.

Info for PLAYHawaii Customers, TRX Boot Camp, and Water Enhancers

Megan — Wed, 18 May 2011 07:08:57 +0000

Walking Dead Kettlebell Workout

Megan — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:32:24 +0000

The following is a pyramid workout and the exercises are done as 6 reps, then 12 reps, then 18 reps, then 12, then back to 6. For example, I did all 4 exercises doing 6 reps on each, then repeated all 4 doing 12 reps each, then 18, etc. There is no rest between sets and you will need 2 kettlebells or dumbbells for this exercise.

For the first exercise begin in the squat position with kettlebells positioned between your feet. Kick your feet back so you are in the plank position with one hand on each kettlebell and legs together. Without pause, split your legs apart and return them back together. Then hop into a squat position with your kettlebells still on the ground. You then jump squat holding both kettlebells. Repeat until you complete your reps.

Kettlebell upright row – have one kettlebell in front of you while in a squat position. With one arm pull the kettlebell towards your chin with your elbow to the sky while standing upright. Return to the squat position and alternate hands again pulling the kettlebell towards your chin in the same manner. Alternate until you complete the number of reps.

Sideways squat thrusts – alternating one on each side. With hands on the ground, slightly twist your torso and squat thrust to one side. Return to center and jump up then squat thrust to the opposite side. Repeat until you complete the number of reps.

Reverse kettlebell lunge – holding one kettlebell overhead with both hands, step back into a lunge. Alternate your feet until you complete the reps. Be sure to keep your knee behind your toe in this exercise.

Thunder Kiss ‘65 by White Zombie