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Posted on January 22, 2012 by admin
It’s time, Moms! To finally get the body that you want! This week we start. Make sure you take your measurements, weigh yourself and take some pictures if you’d like. You can send them to me at larysa@larysadidio.com or even post them on FB. We’re here to cheer each other on so you can get honest with no judgements! Here are Mom On Fire! Christina’s Measurements:
Weight: 252.6
Waist- 45
Hips- 46
Thigh- 28
Calf- 17.25
Arm- 17.25
PROGRAM
I believe in 6 separate meals a day and boosting your metabolism throughout the day with foods that naturally do this, keeping your blood sugar stable, exercising and boosting your muscle to increase your resting metabolism. All this needs to be done gradually so that you enjoy permanent weight loss and you don’t rebel. So here we go!
DIET
Each week I’ll tackle a different meal. This week we’re starting with breakfast. You can continue to eat whatever you normally eat throughout the day but breakfast must be the following:
*As soon as you wake up drink a glass of water
*You can have either green tea (1 T of honey is ok with it) or coffee (2% milk or less, no more than 1 T of sugar…Stevia, agave and honey are ok…no artificial sweetners)
*Choose one of the following. If it’s not on here…don’t eat it for breakfast!
A. Whey protein shake
1 scoop of Whey protein (found at GNC or Whole Foods or natural food store), 8 oz of skim, soy, almond, rice or coconut milk, 3/4 of frozen or fresh fruit, 1 t of peanut butter if you’d like or 1t of flax seeds, ice
B. 0% or 1% Greek yogurt with 1T of bran cereal (Fiber 1, grape nuts, etc)
C. 3/4 cup cereal (you know the healthy kinds!), 1/2 cup 1% or skim milk, 1/2 cup berries or fruit
D. 2 hard boiled eggs (just the whites if you can), 1 slice wheat toast (very little butter or jelly if you’d like) and 1/2 cup of fruit
WORKOUT
Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
15 minutes of cardio (treadmill walking or light jogging, cardio class like kickboxing, zumba, etc or elliptical). You should be panting lightly but not dying.
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday:
10 minutes of cardio + strength routine (I’ll be posting the strength routine tomorrow)
So there ya go! Let me know if you have any questions. And feel free to search the blogs on my site for fun and helpful tips!
Yours in health and buffness!
xoxo
Larysa
Posted on January 21, 2012 by admin
This is Christina’s first blog. Do you feel like this? Let me help you as I help Christina take charge of her life and her body! Follow along week to week as I change her program and diet. First thing to do is take a “before” picture and your weight and measurements. Measurement sites are: chest (around your nipples, waist (around the thinnest part or middle), hips, thighs (around the upper thigh), calfs (around the middle of the muscle) and arms (around the biggest part of your bicep). Pull the measuring tape but not too tight. Send me your pic and measurements and why you are ready to change your life forever (this is part of accountability and will help you). I keep all info private and won’t release unless you want me to. Send them to: larysa@larysadidio.com. Or you can post on my Larysa Fit Club Facebook page. Come join us and get to body that you have wanted and be a “Mom On Fire!”
xoxo
Larysa
From Christina:
2012 will be MY year!!!!! I have never been thin, I always used the excuse that I have a large frame.I always hid my weight well because I was tall & I had that big frame. I have been on the diet YO YO basically forever. In 2008 I had surgery & started to see a real difficulty losing my mid section ( that is where the surgery was ). I then became complacent with the way things were… until recently. I took some pictures of myself as “BEFORE” pictures. They were just for me so I was in undies & a sports bra! WELL…the next night I was on facebook & decided to change my profile picture & as I was moving the pointer to my picture of choice…I I don’t know what i did but one of my before pictures started to load as my profile picture. OMG..I wanted to die!!!! After a few explicit phrases & a mad rush to delete it from my profile ,I changed my profile picture! I then realized, that if I was THAT EMBARRASSED about people seeing the picture then it was time to make a change! So here I am, knowing I HAVE to admit I need help to get my self on track to get where I want to be!!!!
Posted on January 18, 2012 by admin
Paula Deen’s got Type 2 Diabetes. Don’t know about you guys but this comes as a huge shocker! I was feeling pretty lost but felt reassured when she explained on the Today show yesterday morning that she believes that stress and genetics may have played a part. Haha can’t believe she played that card! The woman made famous for deep frying everything but the kitchen sink cannot think that we buy into her PR scripted and rehearsed shpeel?! Truth is though….I love the lady! I made her apple pie for Thanksgiving and threatened to stab anyone with my dessert fork who came within feet of the leftovers. And ya gotta love her….who has the chutzpah to actually suggest sandwiching a burger and fried egg between 2 donuts?! It’s a riot! Except maybe for the healthcare companies who have shelled out a whopping $96 billion last year on Diabetes. Which, as you know, trickles down to me and you. But, as we all know moderation is the key to healthy and happy living. So if you can take most of her recipes with a grain of salt (and only a grain) and use the others for pure entertainment you’ll find some wildly yummy and funny ways to giggle on a dreary NYC day. Here is a link to some of her best from a blog that a hysterical writer has created entitled, “Paula Deen Is Trying To Kill Us!” (how freaking funny is that?!)
http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/04/paula-deen-is-trying-to-kill-u.html
The blog includes the following winner recipes! I invite you to share any that I have missed.
-Lady’s Brunch Burger: Egg and hamburger sandwiched between 2 doughnuts
-Deep Fried Butter Balls: Butter and cream cheese, well, deep fried
-Velveeta Fudge: Chocolate fudge made out of cheese that may with stand the next world war, Velveeta
-Butter, Mayo, Cheez Whiz spread: Because each ingredient alone isn’t fattening enough
-Bacon wrapped Mac and cheese: Mac and cheese wasn’t palatable so she added bacon and deep fried it
Wishing Paula much love and luck with her new, healthy eating plan and exercise regime to go along. We’ll miss her crazy recipes and I’m sure Alka Seltzer will miss the customers 
Xoxo
L
Posted on January 18, 2012 by admin
Dad On Fire: Week #2
Check in this week had “Dad On Fire!” Mike down 9 lbs! Working out 15 minutes a day! He’s so psyched that he also lost an inch around his waist. I changed his schedule slightly to boost his muscle a bit. The schedule is as follows:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 20 minutes on the treadmill
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: 15 minutes on the treadmill and 3 circuits of strength training
Sunday: Off
The workout routine is below. Circuit these exercises (do 1 set of 10 reps of each, rest, then repeat twice more)
-Chair squats
-Pushups (see if you can do them with your legs straight)
-Sumo Squat Steps (sumo squat then drag your right leg in; step your right leg out and sumo squat then drag your left leg in)
-One Arm Rows (pick like a 10-15 lb weight or use a jar of veggies or container of tomato sauce…pull elbow in and up close to body, back flat; lower and repeat)
-Reverse dips (on couch or chair)
-Crunches
-Crunches with one knee in (10 reps on each side)
-Crunches with both knees in
Don’t forget the stretches from last week!!
His diet’s looking great and he’s packing on some muscle and losing water water weight. He was just getting used to the diet so I kept much the same and just reminded him to keep drinking 2-3 glasses of green tea a day.
Xoxo!
Larysa
Posted on January 13, 2012 by admin
From Mike!
As with everything motivation is first and foremost the main ingredient. In the past most of my failures have been through taking on to many things at once and not being able to finish or follow through an any of them because of the overwhelming amount of new work i heaped on myself. Generally, when I chose to do one thing and stick to it I don’t have much of a problem. This is the approach I am taking with getting back into shape. I have no other major projects going on and I will try to keep it that way.
Obviously, the first workout is the hardest and it is important not to get discouraged by it. The second and third get easier and that is precisely why you have a slave driving trainer to kick you in your ass and make the 4th one in week two harder again. Then 5 and 6 go easier and boom it’s ass kicking time again. As I said, I am seriously dedicating myself to getting this done, so I have also asked the Terminatrix (my new name for Larysa) to ramp stuff up by my third workout of the week as well if I felt I could handle it without ill effects. I feel it is important to listen to your body and not your mind. Your mind can tell you to deal with pain that sometimes is to much or sometimes your mind can tell you you are dying when you haven’t done much. This is why I wait and see how my body feels the next day after a work out and I then know if I can step it up a little or not.
Food wise the Terminatrix’s diet has been fine. I still get to eat meat which to me is key and I get to keep one cup of coffee in the morning which is also sweet. I have added stuff to my diet that I should have added years ago like more fruits and more veggies so in that sense it is great. I am eating more often but in much smaller portions. Sure, there is stuff that I love that is gone from my diet but you have to make certain sacrifices if you want to see results. The protein shake is fine, I thought it would be nasty as hell but with the strawberry flavor and adding a half cup of berries it winds up tasting a bit like an egg cream when beaten up in a blender (for those of you who remember egg creams). Dinner is good since I get my protein in any form I like as long as it’s not deep fried and I eat the veggies first to get them out of the way, though a nice splash of pepper and a bit of mustard can make most anything palatable for me.
I feel good. I am happy with my first week’s results and am moving on to week two of Dad On Fire…Below you can see my “before” pic and after “Week 1″. Mike
Posted on January 12, 2012 by admin
Making headlines this week is Georgia’s new controversial campaign to help end childhood obesity in their state- which ranks #2 in pediatric obesity (2nd to Mississippi). The campaign is a $25 million, 5 year effort to shock families into recognizing and acting on the severe problem (which is a major understatement). It launched this week with disturbing posters around Atlanta of obese kids asking questions like, “Mom, why am I fat?” Many are outraged by the posters calling them “horrifying” and “majorly disturbing”. Rodney Lyn of Georgia State University’s Institute
of Public Health claims, “This campaign is more negative than positive and the ads can hurt the very market they’re targeting. We know that stigmatization leads to lower self-esteem, potential depression. We know that kids will engage in physical activity less because they
feel like they’re going to be embarrassed.”
Wake up and smell the Skinny Latte Mr. Lyn! It’s a major stigma for kids to be fat! These kids are already depressed, embarrassed and hitting rock bottom. The most immediate
consequence of being overweight as perceived by the children themselves is social
discrimination. Remember how you felt being picked last for the kickball team? Magnify it
by like a million. And I can tell you from over 20 years of experience in working with obese
kids that they are screaming for help. The whole point of the ad campaign is to reach the
only target audience that can help these kids…their parents! Most parents of these
children are: 1. In denial that their kids are fat 2. Have no idea how being obese is
affecting their kids psychologically.
As for #1, most of these parents are overweight themselves and in denial about their own
weight. Statistically, if one parent is obese a child has a 25-50% chance of being fat, if
both parents are overweight the number jumps to a staggering 75%! Chalk it up to genetics
but I have yet to see a child obese from eating too many carrot sticks. Realization is the
first step in helping these parents and quite frankly, the pamphlets in pediatrician’s offices on normal bodyfat percentages and weight in children are doing bubkas. These
parents need a good shaking and these ads are accomplishing just that.
In regard to #2, this is not necessarily a parent’s fault (although as a parent myself I’d
have to have my head buried under some boulder to not realize my son or daughter was depressed or hurting). Children are so embarrassed by being ridiculed and harassed at school and out in society that they hide it…internally and physically hide their bodies. Most kids that I work with are home schooled because they were so badly teased because of their weight that they couldn’t face going to school. The ad campaign succeeds in making a parent put him/herself in their kids’ shoes and to actually feel the ostracism that their kids feel. Tell a parent that her kid will develop Diabetes by age 20 and you’ll be met with a blank stare…tell that same parent that their child is hiding in the bathroom crying because kids just called her a “fat pig” and see how fast it hits home. Which is what it needs to do. In my experience, this is the catalyst that causes parents to finally make permanent changes in unhealthy habits and lifestyle.
According to Linda Matzigkeit, vice president of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, “It has to be harsh. If it’s not, nobody’s going to listen. Parents are in denial. Nearly 1 million Georgia kids are overweight or obese. This is a medical crisis, and I say if you don’t believe me, come visit our hospital and see the kids we are now taking care of — that more and more have Type 2 diabetes, have hypertension, need knee replacements — and it’s breaking our heart to see these adult-type diseases in the children that we serve.”
Absolutely, 100% agreed. Overweight kids aren’t offended by these posters…it’s what they’re thinking in their heads everyday, all day. And to the parents who are offended…good. Mission accomplished. Apparently they’ve had their eyes closed to the 1 million kids walking around their state suffering on a daily basis. Now it’s time to really help these kids.
Posted on January 8, 2012 by admin
Hi! I believe in making changes to your diet week to week as opposed to giving you a diet to follow, cold turkey, off the bat. When you make small changes, it ensures that you change not only your habits but your entirely lifestyle. It takes away the rebellion aspect of dieting and is the most successful way to diet. So here we go!
Mike has been writing down his food and he likes to eat lots of high fat meat (like a lot of you guys), beer, fattening condiments and fruits, vegetables and complex grain are almost totally absent. He does drink lots of water and has started drinking green to so that’s a big plus! I believe in a moderate fat diet, filled with lots of protein (I’m definitely a carnivore), fruits and veggies with whole grain carbs. I also believe in eating every 3 hours to keep your metabolism moving! Mike chose to ditch alcohol altogether but on this program you can have 3 glasses of wine or 3 beers a week. So plan them out!!
Here’s his program for this week:
Breakfast: 7am
Water
Coffee with milk
3 fried egg whites, 1 slice cheese, 1 piece of Rye bread, 1/4-1/2 Cup broccoli or asparagus
Snack: 10am
Choose 1: piece of fruit and handful of nuts (almonds or cashews) or piece of fruit and 1 part skim string cheese
Lunch: 1:00
Open faced sandwich on whole wheat bread with lite mayo, mustard or lite Russian dressing. 4-5 slices of turkey, lettuce and tomato. Water or seltzer. Green tea (with 1T honey if you’d like)
Snack: 4:00
Whey protein shake (1 scoop of Whey protein powder, 8 oz skim or 1%, almond or coconut milk, 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1 T peanut butter or almond butter)
Dinner: 6:30
(no white flour…so no pasta, bread or pizza)
8 oz of protein (prepared any way except deep fried–you can sautee in a little butter or olive oil), 1 Cup of Veggies (steamed or boiled…you can add 1 t of butter if you’d like or a little grated 2% cheddar cheese), 1 Cup of grain or potato (rice, brown rice, potato, sweet potato, quinoa, cous cous….you can add a little butter or olive oil). Water or seltzer.
After dinner:
If you’re thinking you need a little something after dinner decaf coffee or tea with 1 T of honey is great. If you need something sweet, 1 serving size of pudding (snack packs rock)
Please write me with any questions! Below is a picture of Mike’s food shopping for the week. Totally a workout carrying this home!! Lol.
Good luck!!
xoxo
L
Posted on January 8, 2012 by admin
Hey you guys!! For all of you following along I’m hoping that you took your measurements and are keeping them in a safe place. This is Mike’s workout for Week 1. It’s a beginner’s workout. I’ll be increasing the intensity and duration of the workouts week to week. I’ll post the schedules every Sunday night. Here’s this week’s workout:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday:
Treadmill 15 minutes at an RPE of 6 (RPE means a rating of perceived exertion. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the hardest, he needs to exercise at a 6)
You guys can walk/jog outside for the same amount of time or do the elliptical on Level 1 for the same time. Should be equivalent to about a mile.
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday:
Treadmill for 10 minutes and strength workout. Do this as a circuit (meaning you do each exercise once and quickly move to the next with minimal rest). After you do the whole circuit, rest for about 3 minutes then perform the whole circuit twice more for a total of 3 circuits. After you finish the circuits, move on to the stretch.
1. Step Ups (step one leg up to every other step keeping chest high)….1o on each leg
2. Modified Push Ups (on floor, above the knees, hands slightly wider than chest, feet off the floor, butt in alignment with body)….10 reps
3. Sumo Squats (legs slightly wider than hip distance apart, toes facing out, sit your butt back)….10 reps
4. Reverse dips (sit on chair, place hands next to hips, lower body toward floor until elbows are at 90 degrees, straighten and repeat)….10 reps
5. Crunches (chin up and look toward ceiling)….10 reps
6. Crunches with knee in (keep one knee toward your chest and crunch up and down, repeat other leg)….10 reps each side
STRETCH (hold each for 15-20 seconds)
7. Hip Flexor….lying on your back extend one leg out and bring opposite knee to chest..repeat other leg
8. Upper Back….lying on back reach arms up past head and stretch
9. Inner Thigh.…sit with legs straight and apart and reach forward
10. Butterfly….sit with soles of feet together and knees out to side and reach forward
11. Psoas….on your knees place one foot forward with knee bent in front of you and other knee on the floor behind you..lean forward with chest up
12. Chest….stand in a doorway and place your hands and forearms on the frame, elbows slightly lower than shoulders and lean forward from chest
The sequence is below in pictures. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!
xoxo
Larysa
Posted on January 6, 2012 by admin
So you wanna be a buff dad?! Splendid!! We’re so psyched you’re joining us!
The first step Mike and I did was take his “before” pictures. Here’s a link to a fun blog I wrote about taking the right pictures, before we get you buff. http://www.larysafit.com/blog/uncategorized/how-to-take-the-right-before-picture/. In addition, you need to take your measurements. Here are Mike’s:
1/4/12
Wt-266.6
Chest-45
Abs-47
Quads-27
Arms-14.5
Should-51.5
Forearms-12.5
Calfs-15
We’re going to be weighing Mike every Wednesday in the morning. Pick a day and time that you want to weigh yourself weekly. You can write it down in a journal, or if you have an iPhone, iPad or Droid download the TargetWeight app. It’s awesome at keeping a record and graphing your weight. Lol yes there’s an app that graphs your weight! When you take your measurements take them around the “belly” of the muscle. For example, for your calfs it’s the part that sticks out the most. For your stomach, take it around where your belly button is. Pull firmly but not too tight. Keep a record of your measurements because we’ll take them again in 4 weeks!
You’ll be keeping a food log which is really the only way to keep honest and achieve your goals. It’s about accountability. So you can write them down, put them under “memo” in your blackberry or email them to yourself. You can also download the “My Fitness Pal” app for the iPhone and Droid. It rocks. I like keeping my journal where I can see it. Even on your calendar!
Post your “before” pictures on FB or send them to me at larysa@larysadidio.com and I’ll keep them under lock and key until your “after” pics. Or you can keep them in your iPhone with a crazy ass password that no one will ever guess . But sharing helps everyone else doing the program! Follow us to keep up with the program!
www.facebook.com/LarysaFitClub
www.facebook.com/michael.hnatyshyn
www.twitter.com/LarysaFit
www.twitter.com/MichaelHnatyshy
See Mike’s intro video on my hosting site by clicking this link!
http://resultswiki.com/1137/thelab-7-dad-on-fire-mikes-measurements/
Send me any questions that you have. I’m so pumped to be your trainer!
Yours in health and buffness xoxo,
Larysa
Mike’s “before” picture!
Posted on January 6, 2012 by admin
I have been a HUGE follower of the Zone diet for years. I’m one of those fitness experts who has followed much of Dr. Barry Sears’ advice like a Hari Krishnah disciple marching the streets of NY banging on my tambourine (as I measure my snacks to make sure that they are in proper 40-30-30 ratio). I have reactive hypoglycemia which means my body produces lots of insulin when I eat too much sugar or simple carbs. The Zone Diet, a diet that promotes the proper balance of protein, carbohydrate and fat is perfect for me, and I have found, it is for most people. It makes sense. Avoid processed carbs which have a high glycemic index (your body runs through them), add monounsaturated fat, avoid artificial sweeteners (they boost your insulin) and include high quality protein in every meal. My clients, and thousand of people in the US have been extremely successful in using Dr. Sears’ program. So you can imagine my delight when I was asked to review The Zone’s new program, The Zone Fast Weight Loss!
The packages arrived in a huge box and I ripped them open like it was Christmas! What I found was a package full of processed, white flour products like bagels, flat breads, pretzels and cookies. Surely they had mistakenly sent the wrong food to me? Nope, the package label was right. “Eat the food you love and not feel hungry.” But wait! The food I have grown to love not only because it has kept me fit and trim, but because I knew how good it was for my body was now replaced with a glutinous, processed, and chemical laden substitute. I felt cheated. Like catching my husband with a buxom, red head only this red head came in the form of “popular food” that I’d been scoffing at for years. The exact “popular” food that has US healthcare spending $96 billion on Diabetes a year. Disappointment prevailed. Like the time I found out that Dr. Weil (another one of my gurus), who had been preaching to only consume the liquid form of Omega 3 (which, if you’ve ever tried, is less than palatable), was selling the pill form in huge quantities. Scoundrels! Ok one may call it adapting to the times, but come on! We, the people, look to our gurus and our experts to hold steady to their beliefs and programs that they have most effusively screamed to the world and we have responded, faithfully. Especially in times of chaos…that chaos being 30% of the US being overweight or fat.
So hears the skinny (haha pardon the pun) on the program. Dr. Sears added whey protein (which I love) to foods that are normally crappy for you and your health, to slow the absorption of them into your system. Which works! And if you’re going to consume pretzels and bagels in large quantities, this is the way to go. I’m not particularly thrilled that he added sucralose (Splenda) to his food to make it taste sweeter and better. Sucralose is chlorinated sugar molecules. Aside from being a chemical with many side affects, It still boosts your blood sugar and as a side note….chlorine consumption has been linked in some studies, to bladder cancer. I would have preferred that he use a more natural sweetener like Stevia or agave. But, again, if one desires to continue with a program that would include processed food, this would be the best one to choose.
I continue to be a devout ORIGINAL Zone follower and can’t praise The Zone Delivery food and program enough. The food is yummy, high quality and great for dieters and those wanting to just get healthy. I’m bummed that Dr. Sears “sold out” in his new program, but, like a jaded lover watching over her beau, I will continue to see the good in him and his program….and keep one eye open.
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