Tuesday, February 26, 2002

Should size matter when it comes to teaching an aerobics class? A San Francisco woman, who eats healthy and works out 6 times a week, is suing Jazzercise for weight bias. Jennifer Portnick believes her application to teach Jazzercise Lite (a low-impact class for those who need less-strenuous activity) was refused based on her weight. At 5'8", 240lbs. was outside the image that Jazzercise apparently wants to present.

``Jazzercise sells fitness,'' a Jazzercise director wrote Portnik. ``Consequently, a Jazzercise applicant must have a higher muscle-fat ratio and look leaner than the public. People must believe Jazzercise will help them improve, not just maintain their level of fitness.''

thoughts on this?
posted by stephanie on 2/26/2002 12:21:11 PM




I dont know if this is common knowledge or not, but I thought I'd share it for anyone who might not know...

If you are taking a multi-vitamin, you might want to try taking it at night before bed with a small bit of orange juice. Why? Well for one thing, some vitamins in supplements degrade when in contact with daily foods or activities. i.e. Vitamin C is highly sensitive and will be 'negated' by things like caffine, sunlight, etc (practically anything you encounter during a normal day). Taking at night ensures that the most that can be absorbed will be over the hours that you sleep. Second, drinking orange juice with your vitamin will help your body breakdown and better absorb certain nutrients. Citric acid helps our body tremendously in the absorbtion of iron and the juice (or v8, grapefruit, lemonade, etc) makes for a pleasant way to get the often smelly horsepills down. Incidentally, if you eat anything high in iron (like spinach, etc) sprinkling a bit of lemon juice helps in the same way and is pretty tasty.

Like I said, I dont know if this is common knowledge, but my mom in law passed it on a few years ago and I had no idea.....hope its helpful..
posted by stephanie on 2/26/2002 09:21:24 AM

Monday, February 25, 2002

Annnnd, I'm an idiot. Once again, I apologize. I would just go to Blogger and erase my post to save the shame, but I'm too lazy.

Stephanie is PREGNANT. Yes. I got you confused. Duh. I'm tired.

Yes, yes.
posted by Say-Say on 2/25/2002 10:40:02 PM




Hey, Stephanie, sorry if this is kind of a silly question, but are you pregnant, or post-partum, or are you trying to have a baby?

Just trying to figure out where you are. And if you're nursing, sometimes it is close to impossible to lose any weight (without sacrificing good milk for the baby) until you're done nursing.
posted by Say-Say on 2/25/2002 10:38:17 PM




How much do I want this? The Method - Baby & Mom Pre-Natal Yoga looks pretty good, especially since I've been dying to do yoga or pilates (and the latter is not good for expectant mothers). Oh, and who knew there was a Buns of Steel for pregnant women? I'm adding both to my wishlist....

Up until yesterday, I had stopped counting my Weight Watchers points completely, and I really think I've paid the price for it. When I found out i was pregnant I was weighing in at my goal weight, so I was feeling pretty good - though the lady who wieghed me sort of tsk-tsked about the prospect of me gaining all the weight I'd just lost back and though I had gained 4 pounds in the month prior which put me at my WW goal weight but not at my personal best weight. (I purposefully chose the weight at the high end of my range rather than what I had in mind so that I could reach goal, and stop paying, sooner - though of course you can keep losing weight as long as you stay in the program).

At my first appointment I had gained 2 pounds from the goal wieght; my second, I actually lost a pound; this last appointment I gained a whopping 7 pounds! The nurse thought that their scale needed servicing (how about I 'service' it with a good swift kick?) since another lady had also 'gained' quite a bit of weight very quickly, and I certainly hope it did, because that means I gained 8 pounds in my first trimester! There isnt a whole lot of growth that goes on during that time so much of what I gained is, I fear, non-baby weight. The nurse I saw says I'm fine, though she doesnt advise gaining that much every month since the total weight gain is usually between 25-30lbs.

I have more than a sneaking feeling that the gain is due to several things: First, the Points Factor. While I cant go to WW meetings until 6 weeks after the birth, I can still track my points by upping my range to the range advised for nursing mothers'. I've been eating good things mind you, but when you arent tracking it, you can get ahead of yourself....

The other thing is, in that month between my first and second appointments I hadnt been working out. At all. Well, I went about twice to the gym in that time but other than that, and a half-hearted attempt at weights at home, I really didnt do squat. That has, I know, a lot to do with the gain.

The only other issue I had trouble with wasnt really a problem till you consider the other two factored in. A while back I purchased What to Expect When You're Expecting, What to Eat When Your Expecting, and the companion journal; the journal has a section where you track your "Daily Dozen" every day, every week. In case you aren't familiar with the "Daily Dozen", it goes something like this: every day you need to eat so much of 12 different types of foods, i.e. 4 servings of protien, 2 of vitamin C, 3 green leafy/yellow veggies etc. Its not a ton of food, not really, like WW you really have to learn a different way of eating - things like combining servings (1 cup of minute maid w/calcium counts both as one cup of milk and 2 servings of vitamin C) so you arent eating the whole pantry every day. Now that I've settled into a 'groove' its been a lot easier to manage my eating.

Its still going to be work though...Starting yesterday though, I began working out again more seriously. This is not to say we werent going to the gym before, but not regularly. I've been making a slow change though, reducing my cardio time to 30 minutes every other day and varying the workout depending on how i feel (yesterday I went for a walk around the neighborhood) rather than scrapping it entirely. I'm also adding weights back into the program....

wow. i didnt mean to write so much!
posted by stephanie on 2/25/2002 03:36:51 PM

Sunday, February 24, 2002

Okay, ladies. Do I ever have any good news? No. But, a HUGE congratulations down there below me!! I love hearing news of new babies. Yay.

I suck. I refuse to weigh myself because I know it will be bad news. But, I have chopped down my portions a little bit. I'm feeling that chug-chug-chugging coming back. I SWEAR I will reach my 3 time goal of MMA (moving my ass) this week. I will, I will. And I will also chart my food intake this week. If I don't, someone's going to have to come over here with a dolly thing and wheel my porky butt to a fat farm. I mean it.
posted by Say-Say on 2/24/2002 10:35:54 PM