A NEW YEAR . . . A NEW YOU!!!

January always represents the beginning of a new competitive season, its time to set your new goals and avoid some past mistakes! January is the month for new beginnings! If you have "fallen off the wagon" during the holiday season, you are not alone. A new competitor came to see me the other day. She has never competed and proceeded to tell me that her husband offered her chocolate on Christmas Eve and she told him she could not have any as she is competing in April!

I almost fell off my chair with laughter! Can you imagine? Well, the good news is I told her to call her hubby and tell him to bring on the chocolate for New Years and even Valentines Day. I think I am her new best friend! The point to this story is that we all go over board on the diet issue and we end up burning ourselves out along the way!

Chocolate every now and then is not going to hurt you-in fact, it will help you! Self-deprivation is the fastest way to sabotage your competitive year. So if you need to tighten up a little, try cleaning up your current diet during the month of January. Have a full "reward" day on weekends and try to eat "healthy" during the week. Eating "healthy" does not mean "dieting". Make sure you eat when you are hungry and that you fuel your body with the earth-derived foods that it needs-(meats, vegetables, fruits) Water is also a powerful asset to your eating habits! Drink plenty of it!

Having your occasional sweets will also come in handy at this time as you start to organize your year-long events. January is also a time for assessing your cardiovascular needs. With all the hundreds of girls I have trained for shows, it is my opinion that the girls who do well are the girls who stick to a steady cardio plan all year long. As every competitor has a different body type, your duration of time needed for cardio will vary. However, here are some basics on typical cardio regimens for typical competitors: If you are preparing for a show in April or May, and you need to tighten up, I advise that you commence on a cardiovascular plan 4 days per week for 45 minutes during the month of January.

Once February rolls around, it will be time to take a look at your current plan and then re-assess. Any trainer who tells you that you need to be a certain weight or body fat percentage by show time is wrong. If you have never competed, then you have no idea what you are going to look like at 12% or 13% body fat-you may look healthier at 16% and still look great onstage. Therefore, avoid those folks in the gym who claim to know what the perfect body fat percentage is! Its simply does not work that way! Avoid the gimmicks of "week long" or "two week long diets" as well. Girls, they don't work! They aren't healthy and the quick weight you lose will always come back! I promise! I am often asked about fat burners and gals ask me which ones they should take. My answer is "a consistent cardiovascular regimen all season long"…there is your fat burner, now go take it!!!

Another helpful hint for the month of January would be to do 30 pushups before bedtime three times per week. Get your body in the mode for this exercise and you won't feel so rusty once its time to put together your routine! If you haven't done so already, enroll in yoga, not once, twice but three times per week. Yes, its that important! Learning how your core muscles work will give you the advantage in the routine round, especially if you are not a gymnast or dancer. Yoga, Pilates as well as the Reebok Core board will give you the core strength needed to master some cool moves onstage! As always, please email me with any specific questions you may have in preparing for your next Fitness America event.

Cathy Savage