Here’s some info on the panelists:

Personal trainer and strength coach Joe Dowdell is one of the most highly sought-after fitness experts in the world. Over the past 17 years, Dowdell has earned many of the top certifications in the varied disciplines that constitute fitness-biomechanics, physiology and so on – and his ability to articulate that knowledge has made him a regular expert contributor to national publications as diverse as Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Allure, Muscle & Fitness and FITNESS, on whose advisory board he serves. Joe is also founder and co-owner of Peak Performance. 

Alycea Ungaro is one of the most recognized and influential Pilates teachers today and is the owner of New York City’s top studio, Real Pilates. In addition to her Pilates experience, Ungaro is a licensed physical therapist, a nutritional consultant and a certified perinatal specialist. She has been featured in The New York Times, Time, Vogue and Marie Claire and is a member of the FITNESS advisory board. Ungaro has also been featured on CBS, ABC, the TV Guide Channel, NY1 and many other broadcast outlets. 

I felt like this panel was more about training methodology than facts and fibs. Please note, that training is different from movement. Taking a class or going to the gym to keep yourself moving is great, but training is about setting goals and planning a regimen. There is nothing wrong with taking classes at a gym just to keep you moving, especially if you enjoy those classes, but if you decide to train, the tips below can really help.

I was trying to jot down as many takeaways as possible during this panel discussion, which made my notes a bit messy.

I think the best way to sort it out is with bullets. Below are my takeaways.

• It’s important that the exercises you are doing match the muscular demands of the sport for which you are training.
• It takes about 3-4 weeks for your body to learn a new pattern or routine. If you are working different muscles every time you work out in completely different ways, then your body is always trying to learn something new. Try doing the same moves and working on doing them correctly before you move on.
• When you are training, keep a log, get proof of results.
• Set goals.
• All training adaptations come after the workout. If you are repeatedly working out everyday, your body has no time to recover. You are continuously breaking it down.
• Use the cool down to bring your body from sympathetic (fight or flight) to parasympathetic (resting metabolic levels) as quickly as possible.
• Limber is not necessarily better.
• Injury takes place when you go into a range of motion and you don’t have the strength and stability in that joint that’s being stretched.
• Need to stabilize in order to mobilize.
• Sweating is pretty genetic for people. Just because you sweat more doesn’t mean you are working harder.
• Most important thing in reaching and maintaining a lean body, is diet, sleep and then training.
• Hormones are a BIG factor in women not maintaining their goals.

Hope some of these bullets were helpful!

Overall, it’s great. Anyone familiar with P90x, Week 3 includes Dreya Rolls, jump squats, jump lunges and other plyometric-/core synergistics-like moves. I feel like this routine helps maintain my metabolism high throughout the day. I’m ravenous.

The routine goes by very quickly but you think you will die . . . the entire 20 minutes. You won’t, I promise. The warm-up is quite dynamic and very different from Week 1 and 2 and you immediately start with bear crawls and the worst exercise in the circuit . . . DUCK WALKS.

The cardio portion feels like strength and the abs portion feels like cardio. It is what it is. Jillian Michael’s is the queen of combining different muscle groups in one exercise. It’s worth it, check out my abs.

I’m happy, and this with a bunch of slacking days! Imagine if I was doing it as planned!

Their marketing materials say:

This dry shampoo helps to instantly remove excess oil and buildup without water. For anyone who wants to prolong their blow dry styled hair. Safe for color-treated and processed hair.

Benefits:

• Instantly removes excess oil.
• Makes hair appear fuller.
• Aids in keeping your color from fading.

From Left to Right: Juno DeMelo @junodemelo, Tanya Zuckerbrot @F_Factor, and Keri Gans @KeriGans

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This is the information that was in our program about the guest panelists:

Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD, is the creator of the popular F-Factor Diet, the only dietitian-created program for weigh-loss and optimal health that is based on fiber-rich nutrition. The F-Factor Diet evolved from Zuckerbrot’s years of working with patients to help lower cholesterol or control diabetes. She found that all of her patients improved their clinical conditions and lost weight without hunger by following a lifestyle diet that was rich in dietary fiber. Zuckerbrot’s second book, The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear the F-Factor Way-with Fiber is forthcoming.

Keri Gans is a registered dietician, a spokesperson and a media personality with a private practice in New York City. She is the author of The Small Change Diet, a past spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and a past president of the New York State Dietetic Association. Gans spends the majority of her time conducting individual nutrition counseling, public speaking, writing, and consulting.

—–

Keri and Tanya spoke freely about myths and facts related to some of the popular diets out there while Juno moderated the conversation.

There was a lot of discussion regarding the fear of carbs and how the trend occurred. The consensus was that the “anti-carb” trend came after the Atkins diet popularity.

For the most part, the discussion on carbs centered around portion control. It’s important to note that all carbs are not created equal (ie. vegetable vs. cake). Both are carbs, yet one is better than the other. Keri Gans explained, “there is nothing wrong with bread . . . what it comes down to, is how much bread and what’s on the bread.” The sandwich is NOT THE DEVIL, but the hero deluxe is.

This reminded me of a conversation I was having with my boyfriend after having Subway’s for lunch. I had a 6″ sub on wheat bread – tuna, no cheese, lots of veggies. He had the Italian BMT on that Herb and Cheese bread. Curiosity got the best of us and we googled the amount of calories in his sandwich. His bread vs. my bread, a 40-calorie difference and a difference of 180mg of sodium. This was just the bread.

So why do we need carbs anyway?

ENERGY

Carbs are your body’s primary source of energy. Carbs aren’t the fat culprit, TOO many carbs is the problem. Eating beyond what your body can store as glycogen is what gets stored into fat. Your body needs “energy” for a variety of functions. Some are voluntary, like walking, running, talking, typing, etc. and others are involuntary, like the beating of your heart, breathing, and maintaining homeostasis.

Tanya used a nice analogy to explain all of this: “Think of your body as a car. If you are going to drive cross-country, you would fill up your car with gasoline. What happens if you over fill it? The gas spills over.”

Too many carbs spills over to your hips, butt, and tummy as fat.

Moving on to Cleanses . . . 

Overall consensus on this topic was that cleanses are unnecessary. Our body cleanses naturally everyday – ie. bowel movements and urine.

Can a cleanse really help you lose weight and do they detox your body?

No clinical studies support that cleanses can produce weight loss. Most juice cleanses contain no protein and other cleanses lack important nutrients. Lack of protein means loss in muscle mass and a decrease in metabolism.

If done correctly, it may be a springboard for healthier eating habits.

Correct way to “cleanse”: Do the cleanse and once you are done, begin introducing only healthier foods to your diet.

Incorrect way of “cleansing”: Drink juice for an entire week and once you are done, return back to your regular unhealthy eating habits. What’s the point?

Why torture yourself if the results aren’t even sustainable?

Coffee discussion . . . 

1. Coffee lowers the risk of Alzheimer’s, basal cell carcinoma, and depression.
2. Do not exceed whats recommended . . .three cups a day for a woman.
3. A cup before a work out . . .does provide some burst of energy.
4. Shun coffee if you are trying to get pregnant and if you are pregnant (no more than a cup of day).

Hope my takeaways from the seminar gave you a little insight on what the experts think. The coffee discussion was a big hit – received a loud roar from the crowd. I guess us bloggers love our coffee and laptops.

XOXO, Stay fit, Stay healthy!

First off, after thanking god, I need to thank every single person and brand who was involved in making this event possible. I felt so privileged to have been invited that I had NO IDEA what to expect.

• I was prepared with my laptop to take notes and learn something new.
• My phone was fully charged to take part in the tweeting and instagraming.
• I pumped myself up to remain social and make eye contact BUT . . .

I was so not prepared for ALL of the GIFTS bestowed on us.

Someone told me it’s called swag. I . . . HAD . . . NO . . .  IDEA.

Enough about me and my lack of pop culture references.

I woke up late and arrived super late. Well, I arrived after the opening remarks. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and I haven’t had the opportunity to slow down so when the alarm went off, I snoozed like ten times. Oops.

The weather sucked and my hair was responding to it badly, so I wore my extensions and a hat and ran down to the city like the late little Puerto Rican stereotype I was representing.

Yes, I wore one of my new Dick’s Sporting Goods shirts.

When I arrived, I walked in through the wrong door and thought I missed EVERYTHING but someone redirected me and I finally walked into fitness blogger heaven.

When you arrived, they give you a name tag, you fill out a liability form and we were told that we had to visit every sponsor table to get a sticker before we could get a bag of goodies. The guy at the door was like, “what’s your name” and I gave it to him and he said “oh yes, we have it . . .we have a nice box for you” as he pointed at the Reebok box and yet, I STILL DIDN’T GET that those sneakers were mine.

As I had already missed part of the first panel discussion, I took the time to gather my sweaty and disheveled self together and start hitting up the sponsor tables. I went to Reebok first and learned all about their new sneaks. They let you try them on, walk around with them, take pictures and they even interviewed you to ask what you liked most. I AM SURE I WILL MAKE IT TO A COMMERCIAL!  hee hee. (jk)

They gave me socks and I was thrilled! I really am easy to please people. I think it’s because I don’t expect things. OOH *NEW* SOCKS!

On I went to some of the other tables and I made it an effort to speak to each person and learn about the products displayed. If you have ever worked in marketing or at a trade show, you would know to truly appreciate and listen to the people on the other end of the table. Don’t just take their free stuff and leave. They worked very hard to learn about their product or service to explain it to YOU. Sorry folks, but I had to share that piece of knowledge with you. 

V8 has a new smoothie line that tastes delicious. It’s not too sweet or thick. It’s like half smoothie/half juice. No grainy after taste either. I tasted the mango flavor and it was pretty delicious.

Oakley Shades has new line of women’s sunglasses that were displayed for us.

We also got to try them on and see how they feel. The girl at the table was talking to me and I asked her if I could try them on, etc. Listen to this . . .she says, “sure, tell me which ones you like and they are yours!” I was like “huh, REALLY?” I have never owned a pair of Oakley Shades in my life and feel so super grateful to the company for giving it to us. I can’t wait to try them on when it gets sunny in New York. For now, here’s a pic of my choice.

Then, there was Birkenstock. The line there was so long ALL day. I felt really bad for the two ladies working the booth. They were ROCKSTARS and never complained even while eating standing up and sneaking in sips of water in between “clients.” They were super helpful. I got the opportunity to meet with Shelley Glasgow who was so polite.

Myself and my new blogger friend, Sheryl Yvette ie. Bitch Cakes, sat down with Shelley together and she was so attentive to our varied requests. I don’t want to bore you with all the details but Ms. Glasgow offered to mail us our new Birkenstock’s when she gets back to the office. I’m getting the ones below but in cockatoo. They look nothing like the bird, just a clever color name.

On that same line, I also met Ms. New York America, who became my bff of the afternoon. You can follow our ongoing Twitter chatter if you are interested.

I felt so lucky to have met two beautiful down to earth ladies while on line! Made the wait that much more fun. Looking forward to future encounters.

What else, What else . . .oh yes . . .I MET Mia Hamm.

Please excuse our hair people, we were working hard and that room had some crazy humidity going on. It was nice to see Mia stuck around the entire day with us. I thought I had missed her after missing the opening ceremonies.

She signed a mini soccer ball for the man.  THANKS MIA.

Pure Protein and Fiber One gave me all these nice goodies that I will try to review on the blog. I believe the Pure Protein folks mentioned I was going to get a sample pack mailed to me as well for a giveaway, so look out for that in the future. Fiber One’s chocolate chip bars are delicious and they deserve a future post as well.

I met Samantha Pepi from New Media Strategies and she was so sweet and once again, I was super grateful to her for inviting me to the event. Sam, if you are reading this. I am the girl who wouldn’t stop saying thank you. lol. She was the go-to person for all the bloggers before the event. And they gave me a Yoga mat which is much-needed since the other one lives in my trunk for when I do personal training.

Yikes, I had no idea this post would be this long BUT California Raisins has these delicious yummy yogurt treats and I also got to talking with the VICHY table on skin care.

My plan is to follow-up this post with some of the information I learned on the panels, over the next couple of days AND then I will start reviewing some of the cool stuff I received.

By the way, if you didn’t realize. I GOT LOTS OF STUFF and the bag of SWAG has even more. Including those super hot pink Reebok low-zigs in my size.  Can’t wait to use them TONIGHT as I sub a Zumba class.

This deserves a “Wepa, Wepa, Wepa.”

Hasta luego chicas!

This sounds like a blast. I can just imagine the man and I listening to it as we run and dodging Zombies together. As I recently mentioned, I have an awesome imagination. I can only imagine my heart rate going 10x harder than a regular run just because there are Zombies involved!

Zombies, Run! is an iPhone app that provides audio of a “zombie apocalypse” while you run. Beyond that, it’s a game. Check out the video below:

The storyline goes like this . . .you are a runner whose mission is to rebuild your base by collecting critical supplies and avoiding the zombies. You receive orders and messages from the base as your run. The app allows you to customize your own playlist and the missions are about 30 minutes long. As you run, you collect ammo and supplies and when you get home you can assign them to the different parts of your base. There are about 30 different missions currently in the game so you won’t get bored very quickly. There are also plans for building a multi-player feature. How fun would that be?

Zombies, Run! also records the distance, time, pace, and calories burned of all your runs so you don’t need to run two apps simultaneously.

It’s genius. Wish I came up with it myself.

For more information, visit https://www.zombiesrungame.com/

I started funfitchic.net as a way to share my ideas on fitness routines, review a few classes and dvds, and share my life. However, it’s only a piece of my life. Sometimes I’d like to write more, but I always think about my blog’s topic and genre. It’s really narrow and going off on tangents can take me far off the beaten path.

So, I guest blog on Danfredo Rivera or Adventure of Modern Mom to explore other blog topics.

Regardless, I thought, “just this once wouldn’t hurt anyone AND it may help you understand ME a little more.”

Image Source

1. I eat something sweet everyday. I don’t care either. I work hard and I feel I deserve it. Chocolate chip cookies are the number one weakness. They are not junk food in my book.

2. I live like a college student. I have to make a true effort to do adult things like cook a meal, do the dishes, laundry, and put my things away. I’d rather lay on the sofa.

3. When I don’t workout, I have a PANG of guilt followed by the thought that I will wake up morbidly obese the next day. Hey, I know its irrational BUT it does run through my mind. Don’t hate me for it.

4. I hate telling people no. I will overbook myself on weekends just because I don’t want to disappoint my friends. People, I don’t like being busy. I am going to start saying no more and you are going to deal with it. Ok? Thanks!

5. In high school, I didn’t eat. I wouldn’t call it anorexia (denial? sure.) because I don’t want to but there was a time when I JUST DIDN’T eat. I was like 100 pounds and it wasn’t cute.

6. A lot of people think I don’t want kids. The truth is, I want lots. I actually love children very much but I am realistic about my life and my constraints right now. If one day, I could be a stay at home mom, I would. DONE.

7. I am terrified of being a sick person. I try hard to be healthy because there are many ailments that run in my family and I want to dodge them all.

8. I want to be an active senior. Old and Youthful.

9. I hate pork and beef. I’m not even that big of a rice and beans fan either. Yes, I am Puerto Rican. Perhaps its all the salchichas I ate as a kid. I don’t know.

10. I wish I related more to my family. We get along and truly love each other, but we really don’t have the same interests or do the same things. Movies and writing, perhaps?

11. I really didn’t want to grow up. When I was 11, I would CRY thinking that 13 was so close. Boobs and boys were terrifying. I am 29, and I still feel the same way (fear of boobs and boys included . . . lol).

12. I love toys and I played with them far into age 16 or even way longer than that. I still love toys. I LOVE Barbie dolls. I can still play “make-believe” with my nieces and it doesn’t take much effort.

13. I have the best, most vivid dreams. It’s always been that way and still is. They rock. My imagination is awesome EXCEPT when it gets into some scary, deep, nightmarish scenarios.

14. I am TERRIFIED of the dark. My eyes can’t adjust to darkness at all. I cannot navigate through my own home when the lights are out. I know everyone can’t REALLY see in the dark but I CAN’T THINK in the dark. Like, I don’t even know what’s right in front of me once the lights are out. This translates to evenings as well. I don’t like the dark (period) and hate walking alone at night. So please don’t come up with this grand idea that I am going to meet you somewhere at night because I won’t, unless I am with back-up.

15. However, I love being alone. I can become a hermit rather quickly without realizing, because I actually enjoy it. A lot of things are much more fun for me when done alone, like shopping, strolling through NYC, and lunch outdoors by the Hudson River.

I don’t want to give too much away but the agenda is jam-packed. I am pumped. We’ll be tweeting throughout the day using the hashtag #fitblognyc . . . make sure to follow along…. Wednesday.

I’ll be on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr connecting with the other bloggers and sharing my takeaways. On that note, did you know that I was on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr AND Pinterest. NOW YOU KNOW!

I’m sure the conference will help me produce a bunch of new content for everyone. I will make sure to take TONS of pictures.

On that note, today is not a good day in my healthy life. I’m feeling sore and achy and I haven’t worked out in TWO days. I hate it when my body is telling me to slow down. However, I am trying my hardest to “listen” and I am headed to bed early tonight.

Hugs and Kisses.

I absolutely love this store. The prices are reasonable, especially off the clearance rack, and the clothing is always neatly displayed. I have a serious problem with the disheveled look and I won’t shop at a store that can’t keep things orderly (exception: stores with super sales).

Check out some of my new workout gear:

• “Everyday I’m Hustlin” shirt – Nike Drifit brand. They also have a “I Work Out” t-shirt.
• “She’s a Fighter” shirt – From the Under Armour’s Power in Pink collection.
• Striped shirt and sweater – Reebok.

For the former Picnik users, I stitched this image together on my phone using the PhotoGrid app. 

Have a great Sunday.

Image Source

My boyfriend and I have decided to try running together. Last spring/summer, I started the Couch to 5k program all by myself and completed my first 5k. Then, I started working out like a maniac and got achilles tendonitis.

I did not run all Fall or Winter. The weather was gorgeous many days and perfect for running but I remained indoors in fear of my foot falling off (that’s how achilles tendonitis feels).

Well, recently, a very good friend of mine completed her first 5k and inspired me to give it another shot. I spoke to the man and he thought it may be a cool idea for him to give it a try as well! I just downloaded the Couch to 5k app on my phone and we are ready to go. I think this may be a fun way to spend time together and work on our personal goals. We both work from home a lot and get bogged down by the minutia. A running lunch break might just be EXACTLY what we need.

I can’t wait to update you on our success and on what happens with my foot. I don’t really want to take meds every time I run so if its super painful again and the inserts don’t work, I will just have to hang up my running shoes.

No fear, I will give it 100% until I can’t anymore.