Review: Jillian Michaels Maximize Your Life tour

Yesterday was FITNESS SPONTANEITY DAY at our house. Woke up feeling restless; an hour later we were off on a family hike in the woods in Kettle Moraine State Park about an hour from our house…SO refreshing. Then we made the random last-minute decision to go to the Jillian Michaels show at the Pabst Theater; no regrets there, either. Jillian was GREAT.

GETTING GREAT SEATS AT THE LAST MINUTE

Protip: I spent most of my teenage/college years working in various theater ticket offices…if you aren’t aware, many times there are great seats released the day of show that the box office had been holding back for possible VIPs. And this is why we decided to go yesterday; I had looked for tickets twice before and come up with crappy, overpriced seats, which I will. not. do. Two hours before the show, we landed in the center of the floor in row P, at a great price. BAM. Done.

INFORMATIVE, INSPIRING, VERY FUNNY…NOT SO FAMILY FRIENDLY

Nutrition, Exercise, Motivation and…Tequila

The other reason we went is that my son – who is 7 years old – REALLY wanted to see Jillian. When your kid comes to you and says he finds someone inspiring and wants to see them – especially when you’ve spent the past 7 years trying to get that kid to eat a fruit or a vegetable – you pretty much say YES.

We’ve watched more than enough Biggest Loser at our house to know that Jillian swears like a sailor. I had hoped she would tone it down for the show knowing that there would be kids in the audience but mmmmmmyeah not so much. Not at all. Goddamn it, Bastards, the F bomb and all…she was ALL IN. I have some proclivity for swearing myself, so I understand, and am OK with it. But it’s not for everyone.

Also (sorry for the sucky I-phone picture) yes that IS a bottle of Patron by Jillian’s feet. I found it interesting that she was offering tequila shots while talking about how to prolong your life…definitely a show meant more for women out with their girls than for fitness-obsessed Moms and their fitness-obsessed little boys.

Still, my son was laughing during this show HARDER THAN I HAVE EVER HEARD HIM LAUGH IN HIS LIFE. Like to the point that women around us were getting annoyed (which I don’t get, BTW. WTF, aren’t we all here to have fun?). Totally. Cracked. Him. Up. Between the kid hearing about nutrition from a master and the laughter – worth every penny.

“I’VE MADE A LOT OF MONEY SHARING THIS SECRET…WAIT FOR IT…EAT LESS AND MOVE MORE”

Bwahaha! So freaking true. Jillian encouraged everyone to stop spending money learning this lesson…and then we all went out to the lobby and trampled each other to buy our $40 t-shirts and videos and hats and mugs and…yeah. We’re never going to stop spending money learning this lesson are we. We know it. We just need constant reminders to DO IT.

EAT CLEAN OR DIE

We buy mostly organics at our house, and have read enough to understand how crucial it is to avoid antibiotics and hormones and nitrites/nitrates in our meat. And even my son is already aware of reading labels and avoiding hugh-fructose corn syrup, trans fats etcetera. But lest anyone waver, Jillian drove these points home brilliantly with photos of appallingly obese corn-fed cattle – and the steaks that came from them – and bloated farmed salmon.

She shared her lists of the Dirty Dozen – produce to ALWAYS buy organic – the Clean 15 – OK to eat conventional – and things to ALWAYS avoid in your food. (This, of course, is extremely effective bait to get us to her website and encourage us to join her paid online community. Not a bad thing to consider if you need more external motivation. I used to subscribe and there are a wealth of useful exercise circuits and recipes in addition to the community features.)

MOVE YOUR ASS AND MOVE IT FAST

Jillian is, of course, a huge advocate for HIIT – high intensity interval training. And I tell you, when I used to actually do the super high intensity circuits in her Making the Cut book, I was in better shape than I ever have been in my life. Even better than when I was running before the ankle injury (*sigh*). As soon as I am healed I am getting back on the HIIT (and of course running) wagon. Right now I am just going to move my ass as fast as I can without hurting myself. Still, I was glad she acknowledged that HIIT isn’t for everyone, and that people should do what they enjoy…just FASTER, maintaining a heart rate of 85% of your max as much as possible during your workouts.

THE MENTAL PART: HOW TO STOP GETTING IN YOUR OWN WAY

Sadly, at this point in the show there was an intermission and I had to get my son home. So the holy grail I was looking for was not to be found this night.

For me, the holy grail is self esteem…how to get some and KEEP IT even when I can’t run. Oddly, running seemed to be a remedy in this area. And now that I can run for the time being I’m struggling with the old self-directed negativity again…putting myself down and, exactly as Jillian puts it, getting in my own way.

Anyone see the end of the show, or have any words of wisdom to share in this area?

Peace.

Spaight

How touching Bruce Springsteen’s ass changed my life

Thought I’d republish this story today on Spaight Talk from a 2009 Posterous blog, in honor of that site shutting down today. (Buh-bye, Posterous…it was real. Sort of.) This could also be titled, How Changing My Outlook On Life Enabled Me To Touch Bruce Springsteen’s Ass. Or, if I wanted to get all new-agey on you, I could call it something about the Power of Possibility. It’s real, man. BELIEVE. Case in point…

AH, TO BE 16.

It all goes back to when I was 16, grounded, and my Dad snuck me out of the house against my Mom’s wishes to go to the Springsteen Born In the U.S.A. show at Alpine Valley. I remember standing on the hill in my *super hot* aqua tube top, white shorts and jean jacket, getting chills up my spine listening to the harmonica wail through the acoustic version of No Surrender. (Or maybe it was just my outfit that was giving me chills; it had nothing on the pink cowboy boots, white Coca-Cola brand jeans and yellow tank top that I wore to the Grateful Dead show, but that’s a different story altogether and one that shall never be told…at least not in its entirety. But I digress.)

ASKING, “WHAT IF…?”

Fast forward from 1984 to 2002, several states of residence, a slightly better wardrobe, including, ironically, a better Gap 1968 jean jacket. I’m in my mid-30s and after being called “the gypsy” by my family for a decade or so, have come back home to the Milwaukee area to “settle down.”

It is the post-September-11 Rising Tour, and Bruce is coming to Milwaukee. On a whim, I decide to stop by the Bradley Center ticket office and see if I can get two tickets to pay my Dad back for that long-ago magical night. I figure we’re going to end up in the nosebleeds, if I can get tickets at all, and I don’t care. I just want my Dad to know how much I appreciate what he did.

MIRACLES HAPPEN.

So, I’m sitting in the lobby waiting for the ticket office to open, and a guy, turns out his name is Bill, comes walking in with a clipboard.

Bill: “You here for Springsteen?”

Me: “Um, yeah.”

Bill: “YOU’RE NUMBER ONE.”

Me: “Um, thanks, but, huh? I don’t even have tickets. What the hell are you talking about?”

Bill tells me that he is a fellow fan organizing the line of fans into the order they will enter the show. Meaning if I can scrounge up two general admission tickets, my Dad and I will be front row, dead center. So, being resourceful, I do. And, we are. And it’s absolutely MIND BLOWING. The heartbreaking City of Ruins is like prayer, and Bruce breathes new life into every person present. The newspaper comes and does a story about how my Dad, an 80-year-old fan, is the first guy in the show, and due payback has been achieved in glorious fashion.

BELIEVE.

Sometimes, you just have to believe in possibility, even if it is against all odds. Sometimes, good things just happen to good people for putting themselves out there.

What are the odds that I would show up at the last minute like that, and end up front row center? Pretty damn slim. But it happened, and it happened because I took a chance that it might be possible.

OH YEAH…BRUCE’S ASS.

Wait, though. You’re wondering about the ass part, and where that comes in, right?

The Milwaukee epiphany leads me to a Bruce show in Miami, where Bruce does a duet of Because the Night with Bono and where I meet my friend Mike from Boston, who accompanies me to a show in Columbus, Ohio, where we get so close to the stage that I get to hold Bruce’s hand during “Mary’s Place” and, yes, cannot resist the very unlady-like urge to touch his ass, just because it’s right there in front of me.

Life, my friends, is right there in front of you. Are you going to grab it?

Seven lessons from training for a marathon and getting injured

Imma just put this right here for later.

NOT FUNNY, UNIVERSE. NOT FUNNY.

Evidently the universe, which is usually quite good to me, thought it would be comical to have me run through all sorts of winter darkness and ice and grossness, and then, on the VERY FIRST gorgeous warm sunny day of Spring, tell me that I have a stress fracture in my calcaneous (heel bone). Pending MRI confirmation on Monday/Tuesday, but we’re 99% sure. Frustrating…check. Sad…oh yeah, big time. Not at all amusing…at least not yet.

I feel asinine even posting this, less than two weeks after Boston. Believe me, I am *fully* cognizant of the fact that there are people much, much more gravely injured than I. I particularly think about the dancer who lost her foot in the bombings, who has vowed to run next year’s marathon. Unbelievable resilience.

I just feel that the best way to process/deal with this at this point is to think about what I’ve learned in the *process* of training and getting injured, partially to comfort myself, in lieu of ice cream, and partially in hopes that it might help someone else at some point. There’s a lot I would do differently, knowing what I know now.

1. SCREW “SKINNY.” GET STRONG.

The fitness and beauty industries overall conspire in many ways to focus on our aspirations to be skinny, and much less so on our desire to KICK ASS AND TAKE NAMES. We owe it to ourselves to know better than that.

Through the first 10 weeks of my training this year, I was very focused on limiting my daily calories to drop some lbs. before the marathon. Yes, valid goal. Yes, I dropped 13 lbs and am at a healthier, happier weight. Yes, I feel less gross (except for this whole sitting-on-my-ass-all-Spring-now thing). BUT. Little did I know that somewhere along the way, while obsessing over tracking every calorie, I was developing a slight Vitamin D deficiency, even though I was taking a 1,000 IU Vitamin D supplement every day along with a multivitamin.

2. FOOD IS NOT THE ENEMY. HALLEFREAKINGLUJAH.

With the help of this experience and nutritionist-to-the-stars and rockstar runner and triathlete Amy Friese, from Fearless Nutrition, I’ve learned that food is FUEL, not something to be feared.

Wait. What?! I’ve spent my whole life trying to learn to eat LESS. The experience of NEEDING to eat MORE to fuel training and a LOT of it…*mind completely blown*.

3. DRINK YOUR MILK.

The thing about Vitamin D? It needs FAT to get absorbed. So if you’re using skim milk to stay skinny and think you are getting enough Vitamin D in your body, to ensure you can absorb calcium and keep your bones strong, you *might* be wrong. I’ll never know if my outcome would have been any different if I was enjoying a couple of glasses of 1%-2% (chocolate!) milk every day, but it’s entirely possible. In hindsight, I wish I had gotten my vitamin levels checked BEFORE I started training; I’d also suggest that to anyone training for something like a marathon…especially when you are rapidly heading over the hill like me. ;) There are of course other ways to get calcium and Vitamin D for those who can’t do dairy…the milk thing works for me, not for everyone. I recommend it if you can.

4. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. THEN LISTEN HARDER.

For newbie runners like me (or for anyone I suppose), it’s hard sometimes to know when you are running through a little “ordinary” pain and when it’s time to STOP and get it checked out. We train ourselves to just keep running, and that can mean not listening well to the signs of an injury. Denial, as they say, is not just a river…

A stress fracture is weird in that the pain comes and goes, so it can trick you into thinking that you’re OK. My foot started hurting about 6 weeks ago. At first, I could get about 6 miles into a run before it would hurt. Then 3 or 4. Then 1. Then…crap…it hurts all the time. I’d better go to a doctor. I wish with all my heart that I had gotten checked when it first started hurting, instead of doing two 20-mile runs with a stress fracture. I’d be in a very different place right now that it’s FINALLY SPRING.

The moral of the story: be smarter than me. If something hurts, GO TO THE FREAKING DOCTOR. If it turns out to be nothing, that’s a bonus.

5. RELATED, ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE/THERAPIES SOMETIMES AREN’T ENOUGH.

Even once I admitted to myself that I am injured, I didn’t go to a “traditional” doctor / orthopedist right away as I should have, in hindsight. I went to a (terrific) physical therapist. I went to an orthotics-guy-acupuncturist. I finally went to the orthopedist seeking clearance to race and peace of mind. I really didn’t think he was going to find anything. HA. HAHAHA. BWAHAHAHAHA *cries*.

Seriously, stress fractures are sneaky little bastards. Don’t be fooled.

6. PEOPLE ARE GENERALLY AWESOME.

Everyone knows the community of runners is amaziballs and my experience during marathon training was no exception. There were people like Anne who offered to be there for support and early morning winter complaints. Like Deb, who offered to chat about nutrition and share her experience. Like Tracey from PowerUp Fitness, who whooped my ass (in a good way) in bootcamps and training sessions and was generally *beyond* awesome. And like COUNTLESS others who offered support and encouragement. Thank. You. All of you.

There were also more than 20 people who donated to Racers Against Childhood Cancer in sponsorship of my run. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

7.”EVERY SETBACK IS A SET FOR AN EVEN BIGGER COMEBACK.” ~THE ROCK

OK. So here’s the deal. I’ve cried a LOT yesterday and today. And while I can’t guarantee I won’t continue feeling a little sad over the next several weeks while I am sidelined (the absence of endorphins is a BITCH, yo) and watching people run by my window, what I can promise is that I am going to do everything I possibly can to stay motivated and strong and do what I can physically do during this period (which I don’t really know yet.) Yoga. Recumbent bike *woooohoooo (sarcasm)* Upper body weights. CORE. And I’m drinking my milk, and not obsessing over every single calorie…just eating healthy and trying like hell to not let food be my source of comfort…which is a real challenge for me at the moment.

So that, hopefully, 6-8 weeks from now, I can start running again, and maybe, just maybe, if people smarter than me say it’s semi-reasonable, build back up in time for a fall marathon.

‘Cause that Kelly Clarkson, you know, she may not *seem* like the sharpest knife in the drawer…but that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” shit? That’s the real deal.

So, while I can’t that Racers Against Childhood Cancer race shirt right now, it’s hanging where I can see it every single day. And know that someday I’m going to cross a marathon finish line in it, and it’s going to be EVEN. BETTER.

If you’ve dealt with a running injury, what advice would you add? And how do I not go crazy?

Running for RACC Fund: Racers Against Childhood Cancer

When I started running last May, it was for a higher purpose: childhood cancer. This cause still calls to me and pushes me forward, which is why I recently joined the great team of people who run for Racers Against Childhood Cancer. This group was founded here in Milwaukee in 2007 by a couple, Cole Braun and his wife Jenny, who have been working together to raise money for childhood cancer research since 1984. {Bravo!} Cole knows from his extensive personal racing experience that many athletes are motivated by something *beyond themselves*, and has put that to work in the fight against pediatric cancer.

Racers Against Childhood Cancer logo

Supporting THREE childhood cancer causes.

THREE CHILDHOOD CANCER CAUSES WRAPPED IN ONE.

One of the many things I love about RACC is that the funds raised go to support *three* wonderful pediatric cancer causes: Cure Search, MACC Fund, and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Cure Search for Children’s Cancer funds and supports research, and provides information and resources to those affected by this dreadful disease. MACC Fund is dedicated to funding research on childhood cancer and related blood disorders; its goal is to be cured out of existence. {Gooooooo MACC Fund!} And Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin is known for state-of-the-art research.

IF YOU, TOO, ARE CALLED BY THIS CAUSE, I NEED YOUR HELP.

Imagine, being a parent that has to tell your little son or daughter that he or she has cancer, if he or she is even old enough to talk. I can’t. I can’t even imagine. Yet, 46 kids will be given this news today.

My goal is to raise at *least* $1,000 – and my *dream* is to raise $2,620 – in the six weeks remaining before I run the Wisconsin Marathon for Team RACC on May 4…just under six weeks from now. Truly, ANY amount of help that you can give, $5, $20, $26 (dollar a mile, yo) or more, will be appreciated from the bottom of my heart, and will be used well by these tremendous causes. We got almost 20% of the way to my base goal the first day, which seriously made me verklempt – you guys are just amazing.

WHERE DO I GO TO CONTRIBUTE?

If you are able to help, please do so on my RACC fundraising page.

OH YEAH, RUNNING.

As for the running, I’m 275 training miles into this marathon program in the past 12 weeks, including an 18-miler this past Saturday. And I’ve got 168 training miles to go before the big 26.2. I’m feeling relatively good about it and as long as my tweaky right ankle holds out for another 6 weeks, I’ll be crossing that finish line with a big grin on my face, and a HUGE smile in my heart because of your support. Truly…I think of you, my amazing supporters, when I run. You keep me going, big time.

Love. Spaight

Marathon training: halfway! and my new team

Photo credit: Mike Baird

There’s a lot to be learned from marathon training, or any other endurance training. I think it makes you more optimistic. And more persistent. More of a believer, because you have to be, to get out day after day and get the miles in.

I’m nine weeks into training, and frankly I’m still feeling a bit…stunned. I ran 37 miles last week (WTF!?!) and while I felt great after my Saturday long run, the next day after yoga class my legs just…stopped. Laying around, eating and feeling my legs throb seemed like a good time to reflect on the first half of training, what I’m learning, what’s driving me, what anyone might take away.

KEEPING YOURSELF HONEST

When I jumped into this in January, I presumed I’d be doing it for a dual purpose: 1) to keep myself honest and disciplined through the winter and 2) to raise funds for a childhood cancer charity. Not necessarily in that order.

As it turns out, it has been great for keeping me honest; crappy winter weather and all, I haven’t missed a single run/workout in the past nine weeks. Many days, I’ve doubled up. I’ve run 187 miles since January 1 and dropped just over 10 pounds – through a combination of the running and nutritional obsessiveness – and yes, I’m damn proud of that. Yet as I’m about to cross the threshold this week between merely crazy-hard and completely batshit (15 miles? At ONCE? Say what?), that just doesn’t seem like enough of a REASON to start running 15, 16, 18, 20 miles at a time. It should, perhaps, but it doesn’t. There has to be more to it.

TELL ME, ARE YOU JUST GETTING BY?

Last year at this time, I couldn’t run a mile without stopping. I sure as hell couldn’t run 5 or 10 or 13 miles. I’ve been “just getting by” for a long, LONG time. There’s a line in the P!nk song “Try” that gets me every time – “When you’re out there doin’ what you’re doin’, tell me, are you just getting by?”

My answer, now? NO. HELL NO. I am NOT just getting by. I am PUSHING. More. Better. Faster. Stronger. Every. Single. Day.

It stupefies me, to be thinking “Sweet, I *only* need to run 10 miles today?” This is SO ridiculously far outside anything I’ve ever pushed myself to do before, that it is absolutely SHATTERING long-held negative perceptions of myself. Not only is it making me more optimistic, it is, in fact, making me BELIEVE THAT I CAN. Maybe – just MAYBE – even that I’m GOOD ENOUGH. *Maybe.*

Life is short, friends. And pushing yourself, in whatever way you wish, feels a hell of a lot better than just getting by. Whether you are an athlete or not, I would say to you: are you just getting by? Think about it. How might you stretch yourself a bit more?

FINDING A HIGHER PURPOSE

I’ll spare you the details of how frustrating it has been the past couple of months, trying to find a childhood cancer cause, or a child, to represent this year. Tenuous relationships, state law, the IRS, politics and PR…all got in the way. Three strikes later, I really thought about giving up, and *just* running for me. But it still felt…hollow. Then, I remembered the perfect answer.

I could not be happier and more proud to share that this year I will be running for Racers Against Childhood Cancer.

Founded in 2007 right here in the Milwaukee area, RACC is a team of runners, riders and triathletes that uses their passion and competitive spirit to raise awareness and money for research and the fight to defeat childhood cancer. The funds raised go to THREE wonderful causes: Cure Search, MACC Fund, and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

46 children are told that they have cancer every day. And children’s cancer kills more kids than all other diseases combined. I hope you will join me in this fight; I will share my fundraising page in the days to come.

Not hollow any more.

These next 250+ training miles, and the 26.2, 60 days from now, are for the kids.

Fun times on the teevee with the fitness bands

Last week, the new(ish) Wisconsin Tonight show on WTMJ4 had me come on to talk about fitness tracker bands – Nike + FuelBand, FitBit, Jawbone UP and Body Media. Too. Much. Fun. The anchors, Mike Jacobs and Carole Meekins, were incredibly nice, and the few times I’ve been in the newsroom, I always really love it.

I’ve done a (butt)load of research on these fitness trackers at this point, and have talked to a bunch of people who use them. There was only so much we could talk about in this 3-minute segment; so, for anyone considering which one to buy, there’s also a quick take below the pros/cons/position of each as I see it.


Fitness Bands segment on Wisconsin Tonight from Sue Spaight on Vimeo.

Many thanks to producer extraordinaire – and wonderful friend – Rachael Glaszcz for making this segment happen. -xo

Pros, Cons, Position of Each …

BodyMedia
As I said in the show, BodyMedia is the one to get if you are SERIOUS about truly, accurately analyzing what’s going on in your body and dropping a ton of weight. The armband has a bluetooth sync option and unlike some of the others, it has both iPhone and Android apps. Downsides? The armband thing, and a monthly software subscription fee. Probably worth it, though, IMHO.

Nike + FuelBand
FuelBand is basically the opposite end of the spectrum, and it’s what I ended up choosing. It’s a great pick if you want something super simple and just want to track your movement and get a cool little visual display/reminder throughout the day to get off your butt. It syncs very easily to the iPhone app. Downsides? Limited functionality/data (wasn’t an issue for me); no Android app and no plans to have one (also not an issue for me); older, more battery-sucking Bluetooth technology (definitely an issue). And, as I recently discovered, a bug that, if you leave it plugged in at midnight, will totally bork your data for the next day; according to their website, Nike is working on a fix for that. 

FitBit
I think of FitBit as the “friendly” one. For example, it has a little flower that grows as you move throughout the day. (Hey, whatever lights a fire under your arse.) It’s got the full range of functionality, beyond movement tracking and into nutrition tracking (or syncing with MyFitnessPal) and sleep tracking, etc. It syncs wirelessly, including Android. In addition to the current version that fits in your pocket or on your pants, FitBit is launching the Flex band this Spring which is already getting stellar reviews like this one from David Pogue in the New York Times. 

Downsides? I have talked to a number of people who have had issues with the current model, the One, getting too sweaty and shutting down; FitBit even has a warning on their website to not wear it next to your skin. As a runner, that would be a real issue for me; I wouldn’t want to worry about it and would wait for the Flex.

Jawbone UP
UP is the one many techies talk most about. The design is cool, and it gives you all the bells and whistles/all kinds of data to wallow in. Evidently it has about a 10-day battery life, which (as someone who is really sick of charging the FuelBand every damn day) is pretty sweet. Downsides? There’s no visual display, so if you want to see your progress during the day you need to plug the UP into your iPhone to sync it, and then check the app for your data. In a word: Meh. For some people, that’s fine. For me, I want to be able to see it at a quick glance while I’m out doing my run, lunchtime mall walk or whatever.

I hope that helps! Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions as you ponder which one to try.

Spaight

1 2 3 … 18  Scroll to top