Courageous Joy

*8 Minutes in the Morning* by Jorge Cruise

I first heard about this book on SHS - and I was skeptical. {g} I tend to avoid "fad diets", "fad workout programs" (and "fad curriculums", "fad parenting books" for that matter).

I kept hearing about the book and so I put it on my PaperBack Swap wish list. I got it months ago and Jamin read it. {bg} I finally read it a few weeks ago.

The basic premise of the book is that the most effecitve way to lose weight is to add some strength training to your routine. This builds muscle. Muscle burns energy and speeds up your metablolism. Jorge gives you two moves to do for 6 mornings of the week. The warm up, moves and then warm downs take 8 minutes. He insists you do it in the a.m. as the "evidence" shows that this sort of weight thing will raise your metabolism for 15 hours...you get the benefit throughout the day. Each day has you working on 2 different body parts. I like having different moves the same area...in other words there are 3 or 4 moves for abdominals and not JUST CRUNCHES. I can't remember if I shared Tuesday's revelation. When told to lift until my shoulder blades were off the floor,I decided my problem is NOT weak abs but abnormally long shoulder blades. That's the gist of the weight things. He does have a section on power walking but I've not done that because I'm riding my bike instead.

There is also a section on food. He had a lot of good information on Omegas. He tells you to eat the Omega oils (Olive, flax, safflower) with each meal....We did add that because we read that info elsewhere too. He says to eat only ONE fruit a day - I think that's hoey. He says you must eat three meals a day - I also think that is hoey. He allows for a lot of foods that we no longer eat (pork, crab, shrimp). Really, I decided that my focus is on health and that I like the changes we made in our diet. I also decided there was no reason to throw out my thin within principles...so I didn't. I didn't follow the food portion of the program.

You are guaranteed to loose 2 lbs a week if you follow the program. I only added the moves in and kept eating the way I do and fasting the way I do (totally seperate from weight loss but connected with eating patterns). The only big change I see is the moves. I lost 3 lbs the first week. I lost 1 lb last week. Today I tried to order a swim suit from Lands End (another story) and so had to measure myself. I remembered that I was supposed to be measuring and weighing each week and hadn't. I compared.... Here's my stats...and the men can just skip right on to the next entry. BTW I've considered starting another blog for posts on healthy eating and weight/exercise like Kelly and Jen...but shoot...I don't think I have time. There's are SOOOO cute...I'm tempted. I decided for the time being ya'all can just delete entries on organic food, exercise etc if you don't want to read them. LOL

2 weeks:

down 4 lbs, lost .5" in bust (NOT needed nor tried for LOL); lost 1.25 in wasit; lost .5 in thing, lost .25 in calf and lost TWO inches in the hips.....it's a start.