I could have a total hippie moment and tell you that Yoga relieves my stress, allows me to extend my flexibility, and makes me feel like I’m strengthening muscles I didn’t even know I had. Instead… I think I’ll have my hippie moment anyway.

I remember when I first started. I discovered FitTV on my cable, and caught an episode of Namaste Yoga. It’s a half hour episode of a woman with a soothing voice guiding you through Yoga positions, and three young and fit women displaying the positions and the transitions moving you from one pose to the next. I took my sweet time watching the show to see how the positions looked… and accepting the fact that I might look and feel like a complete fool for not looking as graceful as the women on the show.

Then I realized – I’m in my own house, by myself… why couldn’t I look a complete fool for a little while? Why not just give it a shot? Yoga has all these supposed benefits, why not indulge and see for myself?

I’ve got to tell you, I battled with this back in August. Now, it’s December. Not only did I finally develop theability to touch my toes, but I’ve uncovered flexibility I couldn’t imagine before. I’ve developed an appreciation for my body, what it’s capable of, and realized how connected my methods of self-care really are. Yoga helps me physically and emotionally. My emotional well-being allows me to stay focused in my quest to be a healthier eater. Eating better prepares me physically for how Yoga can better my body.

Okay, that was my hippie moment. All of that is to say, yes.. you may feel silly in the beginning… but you start feeling accomplished. You start feeling challenged. And if you take on the challenge, the accomplishments are that much more rewarding.

If you’re even the least bit intrigued, here is an episode of Namaste Yoga for you to preview. I’ll be adding the episodes to the video archives, so keep your eyes peeled.

Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Yoga: Head To Knee
2. How To Spot – And Start To Give Up – Processed Foods
3. Yoga: Firebird

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: workout tips, Yoga

Realistically, I feel like both have served their purposes very well at different stages in my life, and I don’t mind sharing what each did for me, and when.

When I first started working out, I’d go in the evenings. I know I’ve written about this before, but my beginning steps into working out were rough ones. Very rough ones. I could work out for a good hour, but man, I’d only burn half of one dish! I ate so poorly that even though I was putting in at least 12 hours a week at the gym, I didn’t see the results that my efforts deserved. However… the ability to resolve a day’s worth of stress on the chest press machine? I valued that! That client who drove me up the wall without a way down? Oh yeah, I took that anger out on the seated leg press machine. Those looming deadlines that I knew were coming and dreaded? I ran from ‘em on the treadmill. Oh yeaaaaaah.

Working out in the evenings means you have motivation to go harder in your workout. You can think of every mess up that you made – “Indulged in that Taco Bell Diet, did we? Oh no, you need to suffer for that!” or maybe “You know you didn’t need that latte this morning! Take that! Take that!” – and use that as a reason to push yourself beyond your original breaking points.

…even though you shouldn’t be messing up.

When I left my gym, I dropped all of the equipment and just walked. I’d hit the path around the lake and just go around and around and around for a good 45 minutes. It was the rule in my house – directly after dinner, I’d head out. Some nights it’d feel so good outside that I couldn’t wait to get out there, and I’d feel refreshed and relaxed upon my return home. The perfect way to calmly wind down a long day, it absolutely was.

When I realized that I was slimming down pretty quickly, I started stepping my game up. I did strength training exercises like stretches and yoga, various at-home exercises in the mornings. At night, I’d hit the dusty trail around the lake. That worked out wonderfully for me, because I had everything that I needed to workout at home at my disposal. Made it easy, made it free. No excuses.

Now, I get up in the mornings and I hit the cardio first. Why? Because all day, I’m gonna be thinking about how I kicked my own behind on the treadmill, and I’m going to use that as a reason to refuse to allow a cheeto to get in my way! Not only that, but it gives me a safe and healthy way to wake up without going on about my day half-awake.

I’m slowly bringing back my two-a-days – doing cardio and my basic daily routine in the morning, and more cardio coupled with yoga and strength training at night. For me, this is how I alleviate my stresses, motivate myself to behave better throughout the day, and give myself an opportunity to both wake up fully before engaging in my day and wear myself out before bedtime.

For me, my workout is my time for peace. I focus my thoughts. I relax. I prepare. I sort myself out mentally. It’s my time away from business, from responsibility, from drama. It’s the few moments of the day when I can truly focus on bettering myself. Some of us will need that kind of focus in the mornings before we embark on a difficult day, and some of us will need that to regroup ourselves so that we can get a restful sleep. As long as I’m still putting that effort into myself, it doesn’t matter if I do it during the 25th hour of the day.. I’m still getting it in, and I’m taking care of me.

So in short (these are never really short, are they?), I see the benefits to doing each option individually, as well as just buckling down and trying to do both. What about you? When do you get your workout on, and why? How does it work out for you?

Work It Out In The Morning, Or At Night? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. CBS Sunday Morning Hilariously Covers The US Pole Championships
2. Saturday Night Live Pokes Fun At High Fructose Corn Syrup
3. Weekend WTF: The 98,824 Calorie Taco Night & The 71,000 Calorie Lasagna

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercise, fitness, workout tips

I started this one doing 10 of them back to back in three different sets. Give it a shot! Great for the booty, too!

The Reverse Crunch is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Building A Home Workout Routine: Reverse Crunches
2. Building A Home Workout Routine: Hip Extensions
3. Black Women, Our Bodies & Perceptions of Beauty: The Booty

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Abs, Booty, exercises, Legs, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips

Give the “Lotus Link” a shot!

Yoga: Lotus Link is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Yoga: Half Moon
2. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga
3. Yoga: Riding The Wind

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips, Yoga

Q: Hey girl, I love your blog and I subscribed to get them by email b/c I have an office job for 9 hours a day.  I was wondering if you could do a post with exercises that can be performed at the desk in the office during breaks or anytime. I am thinking you could use a water bottle, a towel, and your chair.

I love this question. Really, I do.

As a single parent, I was pretty limited in my resources as far as quality workout time. Sure, there’s a gym in my apartment complex that I could take my little one to, but there’s always that time frame in the year where everyone is in the gym. Having people trip over or run into her stroller… wasn’t working for me. My answer to this was simple: formulate a workout plan that I can execute at home, and if it didn’t require me to purchase any products, that’s even better. I’d imagine the limitations are similar at the office, with the added issue of limiting the amount of sweating going on. I was extremely successful using this kind of workout, so hopefully my little bit of insight can help.

I’ve written a little about this before, three of the ways that I really took advantage of what I had at home to get fit. However, in the spirit of this week’s “Ten More Minutes” challenge, how’s about I give you ten new exercises to get into right at your desk or in your office. Pack a lunch, close your office door, use ten minutes to get in these exercises and the other 20 (or 50, whatever you’ve got) to enjoy your lunch!

• Triceps: Dumbbell Kickbacks (uses a water bottle)
• Dumbbell Bicep Curl (uses a water bottle)
• Good Mornings (uses a broomstick or tall umbrella or a tightly-pulled towel)
• Steam Engines
• 8 Count Lunge and Squat
• The Superman
• Seated Calf Raise
• Vertical Jumping Jacks
• Standing Oblique Twists

Pick a couple to do each day and if you couple them with proper stretches afterwards, that’s a great way to make use of your ten minutes!

Q&A Wednesday: Doing It At The Desk is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Q&A Wednesday: What Do I Need For An At-Home Gym?
2. Q&A Wednesday: Creating Your Weight Training Routine
3. Q&A Wednesday: Share Your Experiences With Video Game Fitness!

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, saving money, workout at the office, workout tips

I kind of had to develop a split personality, and beat myself at my own game. It sounds like I need psychiatric help, but it’s true in a sense. I needed to identify my own excuses, and start shattering them along the way so that I could begin to see my healthier self. I had to acknowledge, personally, that I was afraid to venture out into the world of working out because I was afraid to face the struggle that comes with it. I won’t lie.. I was also afraid to disappoint myself those weeks when the scale doesn’t move. To avoid the disappointment, I simply wouldn’t bother.

How awful does that sound?

I know not every woman will be able to identify with that, but I know some will. And even if that doesn’t define you, it may define someone you know. It’s important for you to understand this kind of mentality – not saying that it will always apply, but the self-defeating attitude that so many of us carry when it comes to weight loss and overall personal health? The difficulty of incorporating a routine in our lives that we might’ve never saw growing up? We might not’ve ever saw our friends partake? I had ONE friend in all my four years of college that worked out. It felt silly… why it might’ve felt silly? That’s a topic for another post, if you ask me.

Having realized my self-defeating attitude, I had to start slaughtering my excuses as they came. Can’t go to the gym? Fine. I’ll do a p90x workout, or other work out at home. I don’t have to “get dressed.” I don’t have to “look-presentable-even-though-I’m-going-somewhere-to-go-get-sweaty.” I don’t have to waste time in the commute. I can get just as good of a workout in the comfort of my own home.

That’s the purpose behind this series. I’m hoping to post videos from the web that showcase awesome techniques for working out at home without a single machine, barbell, or bendy band thingy. I don’t have them, and I do pretty well. Besides, this is a recession and jobs are here today, gone tomorrow, unfortunately. We want to focus on the ability to be healthy without having to purchase something.

In short, the Home Workout Routine is the excuse killer. If you make it as easy as possible for you to jump into, there’s nothing stopping you from doing so! Enjoy the series!

The Importance of Building A Home Workout Routine is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Building A Home Workout Routine: Hip Extensions
2. Building a Home Workout Routine: Jump Rope!
3. Building a Home Workout Routine: Trunk Rotations

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, fat loss, mentality, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips

So, my little one and I spent a good amount of time at home. Sad that I couldn’t use the gym equipment – and unwilling to spend money (in a recession, no less) on my own – I had to come up with an effective manner of getting in my exercise. My desire to not spend money on getting fit had only a little to do with the fact that I’m cheap (painfully cheap.) It had much more to do with the fact that I needed to know that the effort I was putting forth wouldn’t be dependent upon how much money I could spend to get it. I needed to know that my business could fail, I could go broke and poor and be homeless living with a friend and that I’d still be able to maintain my health on my own. That I could innovate ways to get it done, and that I was devoted enough to my cause to continue to innovate.

After enough reading and research, I got it. Meet… my dumbell.

Oh, and I’m serious. Two gallon jugs that I could control how many cups are in them? Yes.

Look at it this way – a gallon of water weighs approximately 8lbs. There are 16 cups in a gallon of water. In theory, each cup weighs half a pound. If I pour 10 cups of water in each jug, I have two five pound weights at home to use. Simple as that. Obviously, you might not want that water sloshing around back and forth (if you did, you’d simply have an effective homemade Shake Weight) so feel free to use smaller containers, so long as you can maintain a good grip on it.

I also built a routine around calisthenics. Calisthenics are, in few words, exercises that consist of a series of movements that basically use the body’s weight against itself in order to build muscle. Think squats, push ups, jumping jacks, lunges. While you may not be able to increase the amount of weight (and actually hope that it decreases), you can increase the number of exercises you do and use different variations of the same exercise.

For example – I went from regular lunges to walking lunges. Yowzers. I went from squats to plié squats to frog hops. Double yowzers. I went from doing my push-ups against a wall to doing them with my feet on the floor and hands on a chair to finally doing them on the floor. See? It’s all about time, patience and progress.You’ll know when it starts to feel too easy, and you’ll want more.. or different.. or more challenging.

My last method of infusing my in-house day with exercise? Tabatas.

[begin superhero music]

Tabatas are a four minute long method of interval training. 20 seconds of going as hard as you can, followed by 10 seconds of rest. A cycle repeated with 4 different exercises – totaling 2 minutes – and then your entire 2 minute routine repeated twice. This is great for early morning just-woke-up activity, or “Dang, I missed the gym, let me at least get in a little something” night time activity.

So, for example, on leg day – I’d do those hammer curls with my jug as hard and fast as I could (while trying to maintain my form) for 20 seconds, then rest for ten seconds. Then, I’d switch to my walking lunges for 20 seconds, then rest for ten seconds. Then I’d hit my leg swings for 20 seconds, then rest for ten seconds. Then? Tricep dips for 20 seconds, then rest. Finally, I’d repeat the entire sequence… feeling like I got beat down in the end.

Between tabatas, calisthenics and my gallon jug dumbbells, I was able to get my exercise in at home when I couldn’t get to the gym with the little one. Hopefully, they’ll give you a few options in how to expand your at-home workout, too.

Three Great Ways To Exercise At Home is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Great Hair or Great Body? Straight Hair and Working Out
2. 5 Things You Should Know About Becoming A Great Cook
3. Q&A Wednesday: Exercise Won’t Make You Thin?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, saving money, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips

I’d like to offer up five big reasons why you might be hitting a brick wall with your weight loss.

1. You’re eating too much after you workout. This was something I REALLY had to remind myself about, and became a better woman for it. Working out doesn’t give me carte blanche to eat how I want. It shouldn’t be looked at that way when I’m trying to lose weight. Working out doesn’t provide me with a “cushion” to fall back on if I overeat. It’s considered a known fact that people come out of a workout session sweaty and starving. What am I eating to replenish? Am I stopping by McDonalds drive thru, or do I have some grapes or a slice of cantaloupe waiting for me at home?
2. Are you a little too indulgent when it comes to the good stuff? So, you’ve finally done it. You’ve got a workout routine, you’ve slowed down on the junk food, and you’re only buying healthy/organic/[insert other fitness buzz word]. But wait? Have you merely replaced one vice for another? It may be organic, but that doesn’t mean that the caloric value is better. It especially doesn’t mean that just because the caloric value is smaller, that it’s ok to have 3 or 4 servings. If the “healthy” peanut butter is 20 calories less than the “regular peanut butter,” that doesn’t mean you should have more than you were originally getting! It might even mean you should start shooting for less.. since sometimes (especially with nuts) the more organic versions have the original fat values in tact, and can sometimes have more fat grams in them. To make matters worse, if that organic version has more sodium in it, it’s that much more likely to cause you to maintain water weight (which is usually a result of a high-sodium diet.) Talk about tripping yourself up.
3. You’re not drinking enough water. Here’s a neat little tidbit I picked up in my reading. The body burns fat whenever your internal temperature is increased. The more water you drink, the more able your body is to heat up. Remember, water is a conductor of heat and electricity – it makes it easier for heat to pass through it, thus making it easier for your body to heat up to do what it needs to do. Do you drink enough before your workout? Better yet, do you drink it afterwards? To tie in with the first point, if you’re drinking too many calories, you might be counteracting your body’s ability to burn calories… since you keep drinking so many!
4. You’re not hitting the potty enough. Where’s the fiber? For every meal that you take in, you should be releasing just that much. That’s right. Considering now that you know that, how far behind are you falling? Even more so, how much do you estimate you have stuck inside of your system? I know people who get such a small amount of fiber in their daily diet, they may not hit the potty at ALL in one given day. Trust me when I tell you, if your plate weighs 2lbs when you sit it down to eat, rest assured that you are adding at least a pound and some change to your weight. Add the fiber, already!
5. You’re doing better than you thought. Here’s another neat little tidbit I’ve picked up in my reading. Muscle weighs as much as [if not more than] fat. Yes, yes, this is true. You might’ve picked up just as many pounds in muscle as you might’ve lost in fat. This is a good thing, though! Why? “According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns.” See how that works? So yeah, you might’ve gained a pound of muscle, but when you get your eating habits back together.. you will absolutely reap the rewards of having it!

I won’t lie – I’m facing this right now. I’ve been stepping up my calisthenics routine at home, and while I’ve lost a total of 12 inches between my upper/lower waist, hips, and thighs… I’ve only lost 12 lbs. 12! It’s hard to not let it get me down, which is why I focus heavily on what I look like, and not what I weigh. I suppose I need to re-read what I wrote about being a slave to the scale, eh?

How about it? How did you manage to fight your plateau? How did it affect you? Let’s hear it!

What other reasons are there why we might hit a brick wall?

Did I Just Plateau? Why Am I Not Losing Weight? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Losing Weight and Losing Identity
2. Big Love: Dating While Losing Weight
3. Losing Weight Makes You Hate “Fat People?”

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: myths, plateaus, weight loss, workout tips

You'd never knw what this was until you saw someone use it!

Q: Erika, I don’t know when to incorporate the weights. What weight machines to use first. At what point in the weight loss do you start weights? What machines, weight exercises work for arms, legs, stomach? I have so many questions about weights, but I guess that is a good start.

I credit my current body to beginning weight training (and yoga) at an early point in the game. I’m not competition-ready yet, but happy to say that I’m getting there.

When you lose weight, there’s all these strange physical changes that we may not be prepared for – we may not even be thinking about them because we’re just so overjoyed to finally be losing. One of those changes is the “deflation effect.”

I spoke about this briefly last week, but I dealt with some serious skin issues when I first started losing without weight training. When you burn fat as quickly as I was (due to the major changes in my diet), you start to, essentially, deflate. Have you ever watched a balloon with a tiny helium leak deflate? When it’s done deflating, it’s misshapen… no longer taut like it was with all the air inside, no longer curved. Just kinda sloppy and… there.

It’s the same with weight loss…. only, a balloon has a finite point where it has to stop deflating. Your body may not. When you begin burning fat, your skin conforms to… more fat. Fat that has had holes burned in it because it’s melting away doesn’t have shape. And, I’m sorry to say, neither will you. The skin will just hang there. Chillin’. There used to be stuff there, but there isn’t anymore. And while the skin can and does rebound, it takes a while and requires lots of patience. Building muscle gives you something for the skin to conform to during that rebounding process.

Like I’ve said before… I can remember a particular day when I was doing that downward-facing dog position in yoga, opened my eyes to find that the skin from my thighs was literally hanging forward, and came down because I was mortified! I had never noticed that before, and needed to learn – quickly – how to deal with it. If I had to give a piece of advice to anyone, it’d be to start lifting early.

Lifting gives your skin something to conform to. It’s no longer simply a round shape, there will be muscular definition. There will be bends and curves. New possibilities, new opportunities. I had “thick thighs” and a “big booty,” but I resented the gut that came with both. My arms… I don’t even remember my arms. That should tell you something. With muscle definition, when the fat faded from my body I could make sure that there were big ginormous thigh muscles, properly defined muscles in my lower back and upper thigh for my booty as well as working my obliques so that I had a shapely waist.

Just in case you were wondering what your obliques are... develop them properly and you'll have great curves!

I was a cardio freak at first, but I learned about the gym equipment from my gym’s trainer (who also happened to be the owner.) He offered me two free hours so that he could show me how to work all of the equipment and help me develop my own plan for rebuilding. I’d eventually leave that gym and focus on calisthenics, only to return again and go heavier on the lifting (for competition purposes)… and leave again after collecting the gym equipment I needed to work out at home.

I have to tell you, that if you’re in a gym environment, there should be someone there willing to walk you through the equipment, and I mean employees. Not some person who thinks they’re SuperLifter who wants to lord over you. Besides, not everyone who uses the machines uses them properly. I can’t give you a rundown of every piece of equipment because every gym contains different stuff (I could easily run down every piece of equipment in MY old gym and still not explain anything in yours), but I can give you tips as a newbie for getting acquainted with your environment and feeling more at home in your gym.

1) Pay close attention to your surroundings – each time you visit the gym, watch how people use the equipment. Don’t watch one person use the shoulder press. Watch several different people use it. Some people will grab it differently from others. Watch several people use the decline machine. It’s versatile – you can do a bajillion (!) different core exercises there, and always can learn something new.

2) Try what you see, keep what you like, discard what you don’t – when you see people trying moves that are new to you, if you like them, keep ‘em! If they give you that nice burn, then go with ‘em. If they cause sharp pain or you can’t get the form right (a good way you’ll know you’re doing it wrong because it won’t feel like a natural bodily motion, and execution will actually cause pain), then set them aside as something you might want to observe a little more.

3) Write down the names of the pieces of equipment you’re interested in (they’re usually on the equipment themselves) and search for the equipment names on youtube – There are tons of videos on youtube about gym equipment and how to get great use of different pieces in the gym. Take advantage – they’ve already done most of the leg work for you!

4) Be annoying and ask questions – I know I’m opening myself up for jokes here, but I believe in annoying the hell out of people ans asking questions if it betters my understanding and my well-being in the end. I’m not saying interrupt someone in the middle of their workout (there is nothing more rude than that) but bug the gym personnel! That’s what they’re there for! Surely, they’re not there to just stand around and look good.

5) Lastly, if you are still hitting brick walls, do what I did (even though you may have to pitch in a few dollars for it) and get a training session to educate yourself on how to best use the equipment. Find out which pieces will help you achieve what you want with your body, which pieces will inflame previous injuries and which pieces will build muscles for you in places where you may not want it. The last thing you want to do is hurt yourself, or choose a machine that won’t further you in your goals.

A Q&A Wednesday from a few weeks ago might also be useful, here – Creating A Weight Training Routine – and there’s also the exercises section of the site to give you moves you can use in your workout routine, so be sure to check those out.

Anyone else have tips they’d like to share? Let’s hear it!

Q&A Wednesday: When Should I Start Lifting Weights? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Why I Lift Weights
2. How To Spot – And Start To Give Up – Processed Foods
3. Q&A Wednesday: Creating Your Weight Training Routine

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fitness, gym, gym equipment, workout tips

I know, I know. For some reason, it seems like you can never escape booty talk.

“I need to do something with this booty.”

Not even just her hips, but her thighs - that's hard work!

“My booty is perfect – I don’t want exercise to ruin that.”

Listen for long enough, and you’ll eventually hear “I need to get off my booty and do something.”

No matter what, this topic always comes up. And while I can’t help but be tickled, I’m also a little saddened by it.

More often now, I wind up having fitness-based conversations with people who “knew” me before and “know” me now, only because they’re trying to poke and prod at my understanding of what I want for myself. Much like the people who insisted that I “should be trying to get a man” instead of focusing on myself, I get people who want to talk to me about my booty.

Let me explain – I had a “giant booty.” I mean, giant. I was a size 28 – I didn’t have much choice except to have… a “giant booty.” And while in some circles a booty that large is “just wrong,” in other circles a “giant booty” is something similar to carrying a pot of gold on your back down the street. Everyone’s looking, wondering if you’ve got more in yours than they’ve got in theirs, if yours is better than theirs, wondering if they can get what you’ve got. And depending upon who you’re talking to, it might be worth just as much AS a pot of gold, for crying out loud. I’m sure you know what circles I made sure I stayed in, then – the ones that made me feel better about me and my,well.. giant booty.

As a woman, my weight is supposed to concentrate closer to my hips and thighs – it’s supposed to help protect our reproductive system. The extra fat keeps your eggs and various other goodies warm. (This is where the notion that “women with larger hips are better child birthers” or whatever comes from.) And while I cannot completely share the history of every bloodline in existence and how their bodies adapted to their environments… I can certainly share mine.

As a woman of color, I was blessed with being predisposed to a curvaceous, well-built figure. Meaning, if I treat my body right, the curves have no choice but to come. As my ancestors come from a place where countless generations built their muscle in certain places to help their bodies do what they needed to do to tend to their villages, my bloodline adapted – full hips and an ample busom to help me deliver and care for my children; strong calf, booty and thigh muscles; powerful neck and shoulder muscles. As a woman, I was built to be… well, built. Well built, to be exact.

And in a society where everyone makes money off of making life easier, I have to go out of my way to maintain that… build. I don’t have to work as hard as my ancestors in order to accomplish basic daily tasks.

January, '10

Somewhere along the line, any “giant booty” became acceptable. And as women, I often wonder if we ignored the fact that our frames were increasing because we were getting compliments on our derrierres. I mean, we were still getting complimented – we must be doing something right, right?

Let me mention a few important things that have to be a part of any resolution to be healthier:

First, just as being skinny is not an indicator of good health, neither is being or having fat. There’s no way around that – there is very little in the way of physical appearance that can gauge a person’s health. While we can talk about anorexics and the “super obese” as exceptions, the vast majority of us don’t fall on either end of the spectrum – we sit closer to the middle. So no, “getting a bigger booty” doesn’t mean “you’re doing something right.” It means you’re doing something, but “right?” I can’t call it.

Secondly, again – we have to stop basing our judgments of ourselves on what other people say or think. Thinking that I don’t have to “do anything” because other people like “how I am” is just an excuse to not consciously think about “how I am.” Almost like it’s putting the responsibility of “thinking about me” onto other people. Can I really trust other people to think about me in a way that’s best for me? If I could, I might’ve never been so overweight in the first place. Ownership. Gotta take it.

I had a lot of thinking to do. When I think about myself, am I happy with what I have? Regardless of your weight, I hope you are. You are you, and you should be happy regardless of what you have. But take it a step further – am I healthy? If not, am I willing to risk “what I have” to claim my health?

Lastly, and this is most important – our bodies are complex. With as many muscle groups as there are… you think you can’t build and rebuild and rebuild what you’ve got? You can do just about anything with your body if you commit to it AND commit to you.

Let me talk about my booty for a minute. When I started losing weight, the very first thing I lost WAS in my gut and booty region. I was so happy about the gut that I didn’t recognize that my booty was slipping away. Not until I started weight lifting that I realized it was deflated! Gone. Vanished. The case of the disappearing booty. I was gonna have to hire a PI and put out an APB for it.

So.. I had to do something. I mean, some serious body mapping. I had too much fat in my thighs to have an actual curve to my booty at the point where it met my thigh. I had a spare tire that was hiding the slope from my back to my booty. I needed to actually build a booty of muscle… which meant no more crease between my booty and my thigh, causing those saddle bags. I had work to do.

Since I was already burning the fat, I needed to work on rebuilding. Booty and thigh exercises on deck. And please believe, the squats are necessary. It is absolutely possible to rebuild yourself a fit booty – one that sits high, curves just right, and doesn’t cause skin to fold and protrude at the hips. If the fat was going to melt away, it needed something to conform to, in my mind. So, off I went muscle building. It’s working well for me.

All of this is to say… I need to make sure that I don’t cling to someone else’s perception of what I “should” look like, especially when that perception would bind me to an unhealthy lifestyle. I need to not believe that I can’t rebuild something like a booty in a much healthier way than cornbread and sweet potato pie. I need to resolve to be comfortable with who I am, and understand that wanting something else for my body doesn’t mean that I believe something is wrong with who I am. And lastly… a fit booty is a thousand times better than a booty I got through unhealthy means.. ’cause I worked for it, earned it and deserved it.

Who else out there is working on their fit booty? Let’s hear it!

(You might also want to check out my post on belly fat!)

How To Build A Fit Booty is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Black Women, Our Bodies & Perceptions of Beauty: The Booty
2. Q&A Wednesday: Does Sex Really Make Your Booty Big[ger]?
3. Victoria’s Secret Models, Runway Walking and Booty Paint

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 57 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blackness, Booty, mentality, weight loss, workout tips

A part of my OWN home workout includes skipping rope, and it’s been working wonders for me. I have a nice cheap jump rope that I got back from the dollar general, LOL, so I don’t use the cool rope this gentleman has in his video. Some days, I don’t use the rope at all, and I “mock jump rope” throughout the morning. Give yourself a good five minutes with this exercise, and after a few weeks you’ll definitely start feeling some changes in your body!

Building a Home Workout Routine: Jump Rope! is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Importance of Building A Home Workout Routine
2. Building A Home Workout Routine: Reverse Crunches
3. Building a Home Workout Routine: Trunk Rotations

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cardio, exercises, fat loss, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips

I didn’t even know what a “core” was, and I told him such. I had this awkward look on my face like, “This might be a stupid question, but.. what is a core?” He grabbed my hand and said, “There are no stupid questions in my house!” As he went on to say that the core is the entire batch of muscles that controls our midsections, I promptly told him, “Oh, I don’t have any abs. I mean, come on – I have to grab the top of the car in order to lift myself out of it.”

He laughed so hard at me, I felt like getting mad, LOL.

“We all have abs, Erika. Sure, we might have different levels of strength, but we all have them.”

I felt like telling him a giant “Whatever,” but I didn’t. Instead, I just listened as he offered up tons of exercises and tips for me to try to help “get some abs.” Here is one of those exercises. Hopefully, they’ll help you as much as they’ve helped me.

There you have it – a nice, challenging, simple method for working out your core. You don’t have to do a thousand of ‘em, you don’t have to do a hundred, either. Going from zero to 20 is challenging enough. Try whatever you can, and when they start feeling too easy, let natural progression tell you to try doing more. Be happy, be healthy, be good!

Building A Home Workout Routine: Reverse Crunches is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Building A Home Workout Routine: Hip Extensions
2. Building a Home Workout Routine: Trunk Rotations
3. The Importance of Building A Home Workout Routine

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Abs, exercises, fat loss, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips

I know that my biggest thing was getting over how silly I felt I might look trying to workout at home. As a friend said, “Some people need to go to a gym to feel as though they’ve accomplished anything.” I can’t necessarily say that this was how I felt, but I know that whatever it was was costing me my health in the process, and I needed to get it together!

The first of our exercises is something that will help with stretches as much as they will help with the booty area (yes, we will be giving the booty extra special attention!) as well as the upper thighs. Check out this hip extensions clip brought to us by the folks at expertvillage.com!

Building A Home Workout Routine: Hip Extensions is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Importance of Building A Home Workout Routine
2. Building a Home Workout Routine: Trunk Rotations
3. Building A Home Workout Routine: Reverse Crunches

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Abs, Booty, exercises, fat loss, Legs, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips