Week One from Flab to Abs

Week One after my Half Ironman went great. I bumped up my intensity and dropped my volume and I can already see my flab turning to abs. This past week I did 2 strength workouts (taken directly from my book) , 2 metabolic workouts (also taken directly from my book) and 1 interval session on the treadmill along with eating what I have in my book as the Base Phase Nutrition Rules which basically means eating "clean" 90% of the time. I did have 4 splurges including Mexican food one night complete with chips and Guac(my fav!) and a Corona.

This week I managed to lose 2 pounds of fat and a pound of water while starting to put some of the muscle I may have lost back on. On my way back to my Fit Female Body! Let me tell you- The programs and philosophies in my book absolutely work and I am real world proof! I know they work but it always amazes me how when I switch gears from doing high volume endurance training to strength training and metabolic workouts how quickly my body responds.

If you have been spinning your wheels or doing hours and hours of cardio - STOP! Get my book this week and switch gears and get your fit female body! You'll feel better within a week and already start to see your body transform.

**** SPECIAL BONUS
Buy The Female Body Breakthrough by going to www.orderthefemalebodybreakthroughtoday.com on Thursday, November 12th and collect your FREE GIFTS! You will get a poster with The Fit Female Credo mailed to you along with Video Coaching with Rachel Cosgrove for the first 3 months of your journey to get you started and after buying the book on the 12th Rachel will share her #1 Secret to get you started along with 5 Fitness, Nutrition and Mindset related E-books to give you even more support on your journey.

IMPORTANT- The FREE GIFTS are only available if you buy the book from Amazon on November 12th.

A few women at our gym "wasting" squat racks...

This is an average day in our gym. Women lifting and all looking good doing it! This is how all gyms should be with women feeling uninimidated, totally comfortable and transforming their bodies feeling confident and empowered.....

"Waste a Squat Rack"

A few weeks ago I did a seminar at one of Thomas Plummer's events, The Rockstar Personal Development event he put on in Chicago. I was speaking to a room full of gym owners and I spoke about what women will be looking for in a gym over the next year and how there will be a shift. I pointed out that over the last year I have been asked by magazine's such as Women's Health and Shape to provide information on how to help women to feel less intimidated in the gym. I was also offered two offers for my book on strength training for women and I recently contributed to a book that will be out next year with the Editor in Chief of Women's Health on how to Look Better Naked- all of these programs and what I get asked for have all been on a trend of women finally "getting" the benefits of lifting weights, "real" weights.

Most gyms still have a Women's Only Section of chrome dumbbells and a butt blaster or inner/outer thigh machine and do not have any area where women can lift "real" weights and not feel intimidated or uncomfortable. My suggestion to these gyms was to make a corner of their gym a "functional" weight training area where there is a rack, a pulley machine, dumbbells and a bench that women would feel comfortable using for many of these programs that are hitting newsstands and book shelves.

One of the male gym owners in the audience blurted out- "You want us to WASTE A SQUAT RACK...." I think I had fire come out of my ears and know that the look on my face probably wasn't too happy. I said, "Excuse me?" "Waste a Squat Rack on women?"

Pretty soon I had every woman in the room, whether they had ever even used a squat rack or not...passionately defending their squat rack and that WE WOMEN NEED A SQUAT RACK and It is not a waste!

Anyway, it was a pretty good exclamation point to my point that most gym owners don't give their female members what they need to change their bodies and as women are catching on that strength training is necessary for them we will be looking for gyms that give us more than chrome dumbbells and a pink butt blaster machine.

6 Weeks to Attack the Fat

One week ago yesterday I completed my 4th Half Ironman Triathlon. In addition to 4 Half Ironman's I have completed one full Ironman in 2007. My tales of my Ironman are documented in Chapter 3 of my book, The Female Body Breakthrough, which will be out next week.

If you have been following my blog or read any of my articles you know that in my research and also in THE RESEARCH, I have found that as I train for these longer distance events and add more and more volume of steady state aerobic training my body changes and not the way I want it to. I don't lose weight and I don't fit in a smaller size in fact my weight and size usually stay about the same, despite a high training volume, but my appearance is different. I lose my abs and don't have the definition I am used to seeing and overall end up feeling a bit "soft" by the time of the event. THE RESEARCH also shows this to be true that using higher intensity, lower volume is the answer for fat loss.

Although I am in great physical shape, and am able to swim a mile, bike 56 miles and run a half marathon all in one 6 hour workout, for all of the training I have been doing my body doesn't look it's best. Again, I am the same weight and size and probably look the same in clothes covered up but won't be caught training in a half top for a few weeks.

I always start training for these long distance events and for some reason think- "This time it will be different, I will really keep lifting heavy and watch what I eat and will be able to keep my abs throughout the whole training and will do a Half Ironman looking like a Figure Competitor." I know many of you have similar thoughts because I get emails all the time- "How can I train for a marathon and lose body fat crossing the finish line looking defined?" I actually did an interview on this very subject a while back- Click here to read. And in that interview I state- "My ultimate goal is to cross the finish line of a triathlon looking like a fitness competitor and be able to maintain it but I don't know if it is possible. I am still working on that one..."

But, once again as my training progressed for this Half Ironman my abs got softer and I could not keep my definition no matter how hard I tried. It is probably a hint that the majority of people who cross the finish line of an endurance event have a softer appearance, even if they are thin they usually don't look defined.

So as for my "Ultimate Goal" I have realized that it just may not be possible especially when training for Half Ironman and Ironman distance. Training for a Half Ironman and training to look like a "Fit Female" are two totally different and opposite goals. To get the look of a Fit Female, as I discuss in my book, you want you have to challenge your body and keep it from adapting with intense exercise, on the other hand to complete an endurance event your goal is for your body to adapt to the workouts so that you can complete the mileage at a steady state but adapting means you burn less and less calories.

The key for me is to periodize my year and my training so that after completing a Half Ironman, which for me was totally worth it to have the satisfaction of completing the event and being a part of contributing to the Challenged Athletes Foundation so my niece can participate in sports and be a part of what they have to offer, I have a 6 week Attack the Fat Phase.

Now it is time to switch gears and bump up my intensity and drop my volume and get the definition I am used to having back and Attack the Fat. The plan is 6 weeks of two metabolic workouts and three strength workouts along with eating healthy, NO steady state cardio. I did this same plan of attack after my last triathlon and within 6 weeks was back to the way I like to look.

This is the exact same plan that is laid out in my book, The Female Body Breakthrough, which has 16 weeks of strength and metabolic workouts. This is also the exact type of plan we recommend for the members of our gym who most of them perform 1-2 strength workouts a week and 1-2 metabolic workouts and their bodies transform to look the way they want in 6-12 weeks.

You can also be on your way to reaching your ultimate goal and the good news is that you do not need to do hours and hours of steady state aerobic training to have the body you want, in fact it could work against you. Give me 2-4 hours a week.

I'll be blogging on my progress every Monday for the next 6 weeks as my body transforms back to the defined, strong Fit Female "look" I prefer. This is the same Fit Female look I discuss in my book. Get my book next week, start following the programs and join me on your own Fit Female Transformation. I'll try to get some pics up for you.

"Sport makes you whole."

Bob Babbitt in his speech at the start of my race this weekend said,

"I believe that sport makes you whole."

I never really thought about it but it is so true. If I didn't have sports, fitness, athletics, a way to move my body and do something or achieve something I would feel incomplete. This organization that I was racing to raise money for, Challenged Athletes Foundation, gives people who have had sports taken away from them by having no legs or missing an arm or being paraplegic or quadriplegic or in my niece's case having cerebral palsy and not being able to participate in sport or fitness as most people do, the very thing that makes many of us whole.

This organization gets these individuals what they need to compete and to be an athlete. It was amazing to see these challenged athletes pushing their limits with sport and getting the feeling of achieving something. Many of them had bikes especially made for their disability, in the swim they had a partner either that they held their feet or that helped them to swim and a number of them have running legs which are prosthetic legs to run on. There were also two 8 year old boys who were double amputee, with no legs who did the kids swim and their dads grabbed them when they finished seeing their son for the first time accomplish a sport- it was so emotional.

I was with a guy on the bike most of the way who had one arm and this was his first triathlon and he was having a blast and so excited to be a part of it. He did the mile swim, the 56 mile ride and the half marathon. Imagine riding a bike with one arm. I know it seems like, with one arm you could do it but your balance and everything has to be off. He was kicking my butt though.

Sport makes you whole really means a lot more after seeing all of these people be a part of sports and athletics when something as simple as jump roping at school with the other kids may have never been an option for them. It also makes me appreciate being able to participate in an event like this and that I am able to do a Half Ironman and can do whatever I want physically. It reminds me not to take advantage of that or take advantage of the feeling of being able to do a sport and accomplish something physically.

Thank you for the amazing, inspiring event CAF! I was honored to be a part of it and look forward to it next year.

Doing it for the experience....

This weekend I am participating in an event that I am so excited about the experience and being a part of something so special. It is the first time that I am going in to a race without a set time I want to hit. I haven't been totally Type A about my training like I usually am. I am really just looking forward to going and being a part of the event and being inspired by the others participating.

This morning I took my bike out for a 10 mile spin to make sure it's ready to go and spin my legs out a bit and the whole ride all I could think about was how honored I am that I can go and do this race which is a Half Ironman (1 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a half marathon) event among other's who are passionate about making a difference for someone and that it really doesn't matter what my time is as long as I give it 100% and bring everything I have.

You see this race is a fundraiser for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. I have raised money for the foundation and in honor of my niece who is 7 years old and has cerebral palsy. She will be able to take advantage of what the Challenged Athletes Foundation offers and be a part of the experience. This makes this race especially special to me.

It is really a different amazing feeling to truly be going to the race to enjoy the day and be a part of the experience. I am looking forward to it! Stay tuned for my recap next week...

If you want to make a last minute donation go to my website at-http://sdtc09.kintera.org/rachel

Awesome stuff on Body Image- A Revolution!

Did you see this story or hear about this picture of Lizzie Miller? It is so awesome what it has created- women who have realized that they they have to stop body bashing. In my book, The Female Body Breakthrough....coming out very soon....one of the Fit Female Credo's is to Stop Body Bashing and Celebrate your Strengths! I love this article which goes right along with the message I am trying to get out.

Seeing this story and what Glamour magazine is doing with it is awesome!

They are starting a revolution to finally end all of the negative dialogue going on in women's heads.

When I started writing my book over a year ago it was originally supposed to be a book about strength training for women but as I got into the book and interviewing my clients and other women I realized it wasn't about strength training at all. Strength training was just the form of exercise that is most effective to help women to change the way they feel about their bodies, think about their bodies and treat their bodies. My book went from being a book about strength training to a complete mindset, nutrition and training overhaul for women.

We currently run Skinny Jeans Challenges at our gym. The big key to this is that these aren't skinny jeans the style which the average woman doesn't fit in or look good in, and I don't even like the word "skinny." But these are YOUR Skinny Jeans. Every woman has a pair of "Skinny Jeans" in her closet, for some these might be size 6, others size 12 or 14 and of course a pair of Fat Jeans. I don't care what size YOUR skinny jeans are but when you are in them- you feel like a million bucks!

The interesting thing is that the average woman is a size 12-14. Yet, many of the fancy designer clothing brands max out at their biggest size being a 10, maybe a 12. Hopefully this revolution will have an affect on these clothing designers to start making clothes for real women with curves. Having a strong, toned butt is a very good thing!

For most people their skinny jeans will not be and will never be a size 2 or a size 4 realistically without starving themselves or doing some crazy fast...I know for me my skinny jeans are a size 8. When I am creeping up into my 10's I know I need to tighten things up. But I do not beat myself up to get into a size 4 because that is the ideal. Plus I feel great in my size 8 Skinny Jeans- I am fit, I am strong and I can actually eat and don't have to be consumed by workouts or counting calories or grams of food!

I have had clients go from a size 22 to a size 16 and feel sexier than ever and their confidence in themselves skyrocketed! They were so excited to be able to go shopping and not go to the Plus size section. THAT is what it is all about- feel confident and sexy in your own skin and finding the right type of exercise and nutrition to help you to feel that way in YOUR skinny Jeans no matter what size they are.

In my book I call them Thermometer Jeans. They tell you if you are hot or not. I am hoping we can rename them to be our thermometer jeans instead of calling them "skinny" jeans once my book comes out. The key is to keep your thermometer jeans close by, wear them once a week and make sure you are still HOT in your thermometer jeans. When you start to stuff them back in your closet and pull out the baggy clothes you know you need to get back to your workouts and fueling your body with healthy food.

Stop the body bashing once and for all and thank you to Lizzie Miller and Glamour Magazine for opening our eyes that we can feel confident, sexy and good about ourselves even if we aren't a size zero.